#maybe I need to go back to using growls and screams like my ancestors

[theinfinitetrial]

I think I've used too many words in my life.

Lately its happening more and more often that I say or read a word, think about what it actually means and notice that it has lost all meaning to me.

Like sure I know what a hammer is but what is a hammer really? Something you hammer with? what is hammering? what does being a hammer mean for an object? at what point does something stop being a hammer? what is "hammer"? what do the letters h, a, m and r arranged in the order h-a-m-m-e-r create? a word? yes! probably? a glyph? maybe? a drawing? what does it represent if anything?

Then I zone back into reality with the sentence "I have a hammer" right in front of me and when when i try to read it my brain returns nothing at all. Sometimes it even refuses to acknowledge the above mentioned words existence and the page might as well just say "I have a ######"

Maybe I need to stop using words until this gets better.

[drchenquill]

Foliè - Chapter 24 (End)

Not so alone

As soon as these two words reached my ears, I was unstoppable. My eyes blazed and without even flinching, I pushed the man to the ground with my might. With a loud scream, his stupid face hit the wooden floor, splintering with the force. I felt my rage flowing through my blood like a river in a storm. The windows shattered, shards of glass flew through the hall and whirled around me like a beast waiting for its master to finally give the order to attack.

“You puny human. Do you dare to ignore my wishes?” I growled in an inhuman voice that seemed to come from all directions like the wind. The lady who had led him to us fell to her knees and began to pray to whatever god she thought would help.

“Tell me, mortal, who do you have before you?” I asked the man, who was slowly rising to his feet. His cloth had fallen from his mouth. Splinters of wood dug into his old skin. He managed to sit up on his knees. He didn't dare look at me, so I asked again, “Who do you have in front of you?” I punctuated my question with a shard of glass that narrowly missed his cheek.

“Please, forgive me, I was blind and didn't recognize you,” he pleaded. How simple people were. All I had to do was use a little force and make my eyes glow and everyone suddenly knew who I was again.

“Say my name. Scream it, because that will be the last thing you will say before I send you to your ancestors,” I threatened him. Now the tears rolled down. How pathetic.

“Little mouse.” came Cain's soft voice as he tried to step closer, which was almost impossible because of the flying glass shards. “We need him, he knows where the girl is. Killing him wouldn't be ideal.”

True.

With a disappointed sigh, I calmed the wind and let the shards of glass fall to the ground. Cain was unfortunately right. The pathetic man was important, at least until we had the girl. After that, I couldn't guarantee his safety.

“Bring. Her. To. Me.” I growled and within seconds, the man stumbled to his feet and shouted, ”Bring the prisoner here! Now!” His voice was shrill and frightened and I felt it send a slight shudder through me. I forgot how good it felt to be seen as a deity, yet I had to control myself. Maybe I'd kill him afterwards.

Loud cursing and more voices rang out as two men emerged from the back door, a wildly wriggling, cursing and spitting young woman under their arms. I exhaled with relief when I saw that she was not injured.

“There she is, master. The murderess, just as you ordered,” the man said in a shaky voice. The two men didn't bother to be gentle as they threw the girl at my feet. She seemed fine, no wounds, no scars, I didn't smell any blood either. Cain rushed ahead and helped her to her feet. The first words out of her mouth were, “Took your time, huh? Had a little coffee on the way over?” she said, but I could hear her voice shaking. “I was beginning to think you'd forgotten I existed.” “After you left so quickly, I figured you'd want us to forget about you,” Cain said. “Why the hell did you even come back here?” The girl looked down and whispered, “I didn't know where else to go.”

“Forgive my curiosity, master” the man suddenly spoke. Tilting my head, I looked at him curiously. “What is this girl to you that you wasted your precious time to come and get her?” This question was unexpected. What was she to me? I turned to her. Our eyes met quickly. She didn't look away, her hazel colored eyes didn't hesitate to meet my piercing gaze. But I didn't see any anger, or even hatred. I was sure that after all that, she felt at least a tinge towards me, but all I saw was a look that resembled a frightened animal expecting to be kicked for some reason. As if she expected me to hate her.

I turned to the man. “She's a puzzle piece that showed me who I really was."

Confusion was evident on their faces, but that was understandable, humans rarely understood the words of deities. But then my gaze wandered to her. Her astonished eyes were wide. I saw something flare up, something that made me feel warm.

I cleared my throat briefly. “Well then.” I started again when I realized that we had been here long enough. I wanted to go home, retreat to my temple and finally be able to breathe. “This will be my last appearance. I, Lyssa, deity of madness, will retire. My poison will no longer taint you, my rage will no longer haunt you. You will forget me and my deeds. Do we understand each other?” He fell to his knees in front of me: ”Yes! You are so gracious, master. We will never forget.”

“Spread the word, make sure all of humanity knows: Lyssa no longer exists.”

I felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted. My steps are gentler as I walk through the forest: my destination, my temple, my resting place, my refuge. Unfortunately, I had luggage with me.

“You never told us your name?” Cain asked the sullen girl who stuck to my side, but without touching me. As if she was looking for closeness but was afraid to ask for it.

“I don't have to.” she hissed at him. Cain laughed. “You hiss like a kitten, but unfortunately you're not as cute as one.” he commented and stepped to my other side. His big warm hand wrapped around mine as he leaned towards me and asked, “What do you think, little mouse, what shall we call her? How about 'runt'?” He was the only one laughing at his joke, but he didn't seem to mind. I glanced at the girl. She was indeed shorter than the two of us.

“I have a name! It's Lydia!”

She threw her arms around mine as she said, annoyed, “I wouldn't open my mouth so wide if I were you! I was in your head, I needed to see your disgusting thoughts.”

For the first time since I'd known him, Cain turned as red as a ripe tomato as he began to indignantly defend himself. In the midst of this loud back and forth, I stood, calm, smirking. Suddenly, I no longer felt the longing of my temple, for my home stood at my sides, squabbling like two toddlers. My home was warm, my home was them.

Apparently I wasn't so alone after all.

~~~~

Chapter 23.

Foliè tag list: @theink-stainedfolk, @frostedlemonwriter, @leahnardo-da-veggie, @rivenantiqnerd,

@thecomfywriter, @fablesandfragments

Thank you for reading and joining me on this little adventure. I hope you had just as much as I had!

[l-r-christian]

Title: 'Tied to one' part four

Summary: The siblings had learned that a witch had rewrote their soul strings mean while Mikael had went after Freya and Y/N as Hayley's misdeeds are undone. Would the siblings forgive her? Or lose Elijah forever?

Warnings: Angst like a lot of it, Angry Mikaelsons. Loss of a unborn child, Violence, Y/N being a badass

A/N: I noted that I kinda made this part every long too. So it makes me wonder do guys like it when I do long parts when doing series? Let me know ☺

Elijah and Klaus kept Hayley close as they walked though the Ninth ward and they couldn't help but notice it was quite. Then they heard screaming and smelled burning of wood and they went to see what was happening with the witches as they hadn't done a trial in so long.

"They are doing a witch trial." Rebekah whispered as they watched witches dragging out another witch that crying and Hayley knew who the witch as she was the one that did the spell that rewrote the soul string.

"Please, don't do this! Please, I beg of the Ancestors! I don't want to die!" The witch shouted as they tied the sobbing witch to a stake. And Elijah held Hayley back from rushing forward to try and save the witch.

"Hayley, we not stop this. Davina is Regent and we agreed to not enter witches affairs."

"Regent, her rights?"

"Annilse for rewriting soul strings and going against the Ancestors. Your punishment is death as you have brought danger to all Nine covens. Your last words?" Davina asked holding up a torch of fire as the witch swallowed her sobs and decided if she was going down she was taking Hayley with her.

"Yes, my Regent. Hayley Marshall, Queen and Alpha of Crescent wolf pack had me do the spell for her own personal gain! The Original soulmate is a witch!" The witch cried out shocking the witches and they whispered among themselves as Elijah let Hayley go. A heartbreak settled over the siblings as Hayley looked at them teary eyed the sound of a burning witch echoed out and the thought of this witch dying because of Hayley hit the siblings with guilt at slowly crawled up their backs.

"She is lying."

"Hayley, we have lived long enough to know that one on their death bed has no reason to lie. Once we find our mother you will explain yourself." Elijah said rather coldly walking pass the female hybrid as the others glared at her following Elijah.

At the Abattoir Freya was helping Y/N with spell to find out what was wrong with her soul strings as both were getting along. Freya found the young witch adorable believe she was a good fit for Finn as they bonded over her possible niece or nephew that Y/N carried.

"It seems my soul string to Finn is pure but it is also saying the other four."

"Impossible, Hayley is their soulmate." Freya said frowning looking over Y/N's shoulder looking at the paper seeing the names of her siblings written our elegantly.

"I knew something was wrong but this magic is to much for me to reverse." Y/N said as Freya smiled taking her hand.

"Don't worry I'll fix it for you, dear Y/N."

"NIKLAUS! Come out a face, you mistake of a man!" Y/N and Freya heard Mikael yell as the witches looked at one another before headed out to the catwalk seeing the vampire standing there. Mikael looked up seeing the witches smirking at them which made Y/N shiver at his dark look.

"Ah my traitorous daughter and the tainted soulmate. Niklaus left you both unprotected."

"I am not a traitor for protecting my siblings from you father. I don't need Nik to protect us." Freya said glaring at her father as Y/N swallowed watching Freya use her magic against Mikael. It was a bloody fight with Freya drawing the most blood from Mikael as Y/N watched Freya fall feeling drained.

"Y/N run!" Freya shouted as the witch didn't need to be told twice and took off running with Mikael close behind. Y/N yelped feeling Mikael grab her by the neck and the witch stabbed his side fighting back as much as she could.

"So the abomination is having another child? How much would it kill him to lose you both?" Mikael said having pinned Y/N to the floor as her heart raced unable to speak as the vampire had his hand around her thoat. Panic and fear filled Y/N feeling Mikael's hand on her abdomen making her struggle to get free when pain shot though her as she let out a pain fill scream and Freya trying to make her way to them both.

"Shame to lose something so lovely."

"Shame....you'll....be enslaved.....monster." Y/N coughed up blood and before Mikael could kill her. The witch smashed a small bottle against the vampire's head and said a quick spell under her breath as Mikael fell over unconscious then rolled over whimpering curling into herself trying to stop the bleeding.

"I can't believe you!" Rebekah growled angrily as they entered the Abattoir unable to find Esther and Hayley was about to apologize again but Elijah stopped her seeing Freya up on the catwalk hurt. The scent of blood hit their noses as Elijah bit into his wrist to heal Freya.

"Y/N......father.....witch room." Freya rasped out before letting Elijah heal her while both Finn and Klaus rushed to the room seeing the two. Mikael was still unconscious as Y/N was curled in a ball crying and Finn went went to his soulmate while Klaus went to Mikael.

"Darling, shhhhh I'm here here now."

"I'm sorry.....I tried." Y/N whimpered burying her face in Finn's neck as both him and Klaus couldn't hear the second heartbeat and realized what she meant.

"Get her clean up brother. I'll take care of this."

A moments later with everyone cleaned up and Freya explained what happened and what she heard. Y/N had her abdomen wrapped with bandage and dressed in one of Finn's shirts as she walked into the den and the rest of Mikaelson was taken back seeing her with a fire in her gorgeous eyes when she walked in.

Mikael stood growling angry at the witch that got of him and surprised to see his second oldest following behind her then moved to attacked the witch to try to use her to get out before anyone could stop him.

"Kneel!" Y/N commanded glaring at the vampire as right away Mikael fell onto one knee shocking the others. Y/N stood in front of Mikael with fiery eyes as to the siblings it was the look of a Queen and to Klaus this was the woman he could see hisself waging a war for.....his true Queen.

"What have you done, witch?"

"My grandmother's old command spell. It only works on vampires and as long as I have this mark," Y/N raised her hand showing what looked like a tattoo of a chain attached to a moon as the same mark was on Mikael's hand, "you cannot hurt me and follow every order I give."

"My my spoken like a true Queen there, love." Klaus says smirking walking behind her placing his hands on her shoulders leaning close to her ear looking at Mikael with a glint in his blue eyes. Klaus was enjoying this a little too much as the others stood by watching.

"Now what does the Queen wish to do?"

"Tell him the truth about the baby." Y/N's words made Klaus smirk darkly looking at Mikael before letting Finn help her sit down and now Mikael was confused as Finn fuzzed over the small witch.

"Well dear father, the baby belonged to Finn here. As it appears that real soulmates are able to have children with vampires." Klaus said still smirking as Mikael look at an angry Finn with a apologetic look on his face as Elijah stepped behind their father snapping his neck letting the body fall.

"He'll come in handy to find mother. Now Hayley what poor dear Annilse said before her death." Klaus said looking at the female hybrid as Freya and Y/N looked confused.

"What is going on?"

"Hayley here had a witch rewrite our soul strings because she wanted Elijah." Kol said as the witches looked at Hayley who looked away ashamed and Y/N stood up teary eyed.

"You took everything from me just so you could have something that wasn't yours?"

"I loved Elijah away before you did! I deserved him no......" Hayley was cut off by Y/N slapping her shocking everyone. Hot tears fell freely down Y/N's face as she glared at Hayley who was holding her cheek. The soul strings that connected the witch to the siblings sparked with color was stronger this time but died out.

"I lost my baby! Finn lost a chance to be a father all because of you! You took everything away from them all because you weren't happy! And I hope you fucking burn." Y/N said leaving the den with Finn following after to comfort her.

"You got an innocent witch killed and my brother lost his child because you loved Elijah? How dare you, Hayley." Freya said walking out to check on Y/N leaving the female hybrid with the other four Mikaelsons. Elijah couldn't look at Hayley as his heart ached and blamed hisself for it all even though it really wasn't his fault and Rebekah covered her mouth as her own tears wetting her cheeks as Kol sat next to her comforting her.

"I'm sorry, if I know this would hap...."

"You wouldn't have done it? If you truly loved Elijah, you would have let him happy like he had done when you married Jackson." Klaus said watching Elijah leave then followed after because he knew guilt was eating away at his brother. Both Rebekah and Kol left also leaving Hayley alone as Mikael wike having heard everything.

"I may be a monster but I wouldn't have never hurt any of my children the way you have hurt Elijah."

Elijah stood in the doorway seeing Y/N laying in bed and swallowing his fear the Original walked inside and sat on the edge of the bed his back to her. Elijah was unable to look at her as his guilt ate away at him. The vampire jumped feeling the witch grab his hand and looked seeing that she laced their fingers together.

"Please don't blame yourself."

"I'm sorry.... I can't help it. I keep wondering if I had just kept my distance from her....to wait for you. Maybe you wouldn't be hurting." Elijah said voice cracking from unshed tears as Y/N rolled onto her back shifting to hold Elijah feeling tears hit her shoulder making her heart break hearing Elijah cry silently into her neck.

"Shhh Eli, I don't blame you." Y/N whispered rubbing his back seeing Finn standing in the doorway and watched him walk in. Finn placed a hand on his brother's back as he sat on the bed while Finn was taken back to when they were children how Elijah looked up to his big brother being comforted by the older Mikaelson when Mikael got to rough with the boy. Both Y/N and Finn calmed Elijah easing his blame away while Freya sat with Davina to undo the spell Hayley had done.

"I can't believe Hayley would do such a thing." Rebekah said huddled in Kol's arms as he was comforting his baby sister still angry that Hayley would do such a thing more so the price of the spell cost an innocent witch's life and Finn's unborn child all because the woman loved Elijah.

"The guilt Elijah will be carrying will crush him." Kol said softly feeling the bed dip with Klaus's weight as their older brother lay a comforting arm over the both.

"Both Finn and Y/N are easing his guilt away."

Morning sunlight shined into the bedroom waking Elijah feeling a body on him making him freeze then relaxed catching Y/N's scent as realized that Hayley wasn't in the bed. Y/N woke yawned and Finn woke also leaning over kissing the witch's head then ruffled Elijah's hair making the noble vampire smile at the familiarly.

"Morning boys." Y/N muttered sitting up with Elijah's help and she frowned feeling the knots in her hair realizing she hadn't wrapped her hair.

"Shower darling, Elijah will help you with your hair." Finn says helping her out of help bed as the sound of everyone moving around reached them. Elijah felt a twinge of familiarly as he did Y/N's hiar helping her put it up into two buns then Elijah helped her get dressed seeing her flinching due to her wound.

"Elijah." Hayley croaked out as the vampire paused seeing the hybrid in Y/N's doorway, Hayley looked a bit like a mess her eyes red and puffy from crying. Elijah looked away from Hayley, his heart squeezing in pain but felt Y/N rub his hand with her thumb.

"I'm going to see Freya and Davina." Y/N said softly leaving the room glaring at Hayley as she passed the hybrid. Hayley moved towards Elijah only for the Original to step back from her and pain flashed in Hayley's eyes looking up at Elijah.

"Elijah....I'm sorry....I didn't....."

"You didn't think this would happen? Hayley, you know more than anyone that all magic comes with a price " Elijah tells Hayley looking at her and Hayley saw the heart break on Elijah's face.

"I....just didn't think this was the price....Elijah, I just wanted you back."

"I'm sorry Hayley....I can't." Elijah says walking pass her not even looking at the woman as fresh tears fell down her face.

"So how do we undo the spell? Also why didn't affect Finn's soul string with Y/N?" Kol asked as everyone was in the room while the three witches stood by a bowl.

"Finn was dead when you met her so the spell couldn't undo their soul string as for undoing the spell. We need your blood then Y/N here to say the spell to unwritten it." Davina explained as everyone did as told then watched the ash gray strings burst with color. The siblings looked at Y/N as everything came back to them.

Rebekah was the first to move hugging Y/N who hugged back as Kol came up behind her hugging them both. Kol buried his face in her neck taking in the witch's scent. Once everyone settled down, they focus on looking for Esther. Mikael had his arms crossed watching his children working out what to do more so how Klaus wanted to make sure that the girls wouldn't get hurt.

"Can I help?" Hayley asked getting the sibling's attention before Klaus allowed her to join as Elijah was cold to her while talking about how to stop Esther. Hayley watched from outside of the gate as the siblings made sure that Y/N and Freya was going to be safe.

"I will be with them. I'll watch over them." Mikael said as the siblings looked at him then left with Hayley. In the den Y/N was writing out a spell in her grimoire as Mikael stood by as Freya stopped watching him.

"I wanted to apologize even though there is no way to undo what I have don. But I was told by Esther that you were the bast....Niklaus's soulmate but I am slowly learning that my anger is driving my children away." Mikael tells Y/N as she looked up at the older vampire seeing he was sincere.

"Thank you, Mikael." Y/N said softly as the vampire sat next to her and Freya smiled walking in with tea and the three enjoyed the quiet. There was a crash and Y/N didn't have to use her command seal as Mikael was quick to protect the witches. It was undead hybrids that Klaus had killed back in Mystic Falls as Y/N and Freya set up spells to help Mikael. When the siblings came home to see Mikael dragging dead bodies as Y/N and Freya was burning the bodies.

"What happen?!"

"Our mother sent your dead hybrids to kill us well more like father."

"You survived Mikael." Esther said glaring at her husband as Mikael glared back as the siblings saw how their father hid Y/N behind him.

"And you almost killed my children's soulmate."

"Since when did you care for the little wench?" Esther said glaring at Y/N believing the little witch stole Finn from her. Mikael growled ready to kill the Original witch when she suddenly fell and Klaus stood smirking.

"Enough of that. Shall we get mother's coffin Elijah?"

"We shall Niklaus." Elijah said smirking seeing the dagger in Esther's back. After placing Esther in a coffin and Freya placed many spells on it so it could never open they placed the coffin behind a brick wall and sealed it up.

"Shall we have a ball? I believe we deserve to celebrate." Klaus said smirking as his siblings chuckled agreeing with him before setting in the den feeling oddly comfortable around Mikael as they planned a ball.

[rere-the-writer]

Can, I have a one-shot where Mother Nature(Elizabeth Reaser) brings Henrik back to life after a month the Mikealsons become Vampires.

To become the first, and only one of his kind a hybrid of a hellhound, and witch. He is a guardian of the supernatural world, and it's his duty to make sure the supernatural world remains a secret to the mortal world by Mother Nature.

So, Henrik realizes he can't back to his family because they will react negatively to his resurrection.

Henrik travels around the world for a thousand years during his duty becoming a legend, and myth to the supernatural world.

So, Mother Nature sends Henrik to New Orleans to take a break from his duty, and relax from serving her faithfully for a thousand years.

Knowing, his family is in New Orleans.

The Mikealsons call him Henrik but his full name is Y/n Henrik Mikealson.

Let's go boys!

Warnings: Fluff, death, Reader being protective big brother, Mikaelsons being protective

A/N: I had too much fun writing this and I think I would do more Mikaelson sibling reader fics. I had so so many ideas for this I apologize for taking so long on this

It was cruel and heartbreaking with the hand you got as you told your younger twin brother that he and Klaus shouldn't see the wolves. But Henrik wanted to as he always loved being around Klaus as he was closest to Kol, Klaus and Rebekah while you were closer to Elijah.

You were the oldest twin of 20 minutes, you were more responsible while Henrik was care free. You were worried so you followed after always taking care of your younger twin as you always looked after Henrik.

"Isn't this great Y/N!?" Henrik said looking in awe of the city as you drove though New Orleans as you got a much needed break. Harbingers of death was what you and Henrik became when Mother Nature brought you both back finding it unfair with how young you both were when you both died.

Over a thousand years you both served Mother Nature faithfully while Henrik wanted to find your siblings. You had to remind him that they might not take it well that you both are alive.

"Yes now Henrik try to stay out of trouble."

"I always do bro." Henrik tells you as you raised an eyebrow at him.

"Really? Because I swear there is Hellhound/witch that always have to save his twin Banshee brother because he gets hisself into danger."

"Okay okay I get." Henrik laughed as you drove smiling glad that Henrik was happy after one mission was a little rough on him. Then again being kidnapped by witches that tried to drain his magic you didn't think Henrik would bounce back so quickly.

"So many supernatural creatures."

"Yeah....careful the witches will be our biggest problem." You say pulling up to a townhouse you both would be staying in during your little get away.

It took a only a day for Henrik to get into some form of trouble as you both went out to get a few drinks. You were keeping an eye on Henrik as he played pool while you sat at the bar flirting with a vampire named Josh.

"So you always dressed like you are from the 20s?" Josh asked lightly teasing you making you laugh.

"I fell in love with the style." You tell him with a smirk when your ears picked up Henrik's whistle. You and Henrik made up single's to give one another if the other was in danger most of yours was whistle base.

"I need to go." You say rushing out the door leaving behind a confused Josh who followed after you. You found Henrik in an alley about to be bitten by a vampire when you tore his heart out.

"What hell?!"

"Hello gents, I'm Y/N and you have made the mistake of attacking my baby brother."

"Hey! I am not a baby." Henrik said from behind you as your eye glowed red looking at the vampires as they attacked you. The last vampire dropped dead as you stood cleaning your hands with a handkerchief then looked at Henrik.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks bro." Henrik says as you made sure he was alright before taking him home. It didn't take long for word to get out about dead vampires missing hearts and nearly burnt.

"Niklaus, I swear your paranoia is going to get you killed." Elijah said watching the hybrid paced as the others came in annoyed that Klaus had called them while they were busy.

"There is a new threat."

"We don't know that for sure. All we know is the vampires had clearly attacked something stronger."

"Yes and that something is a threat to this family." Klaus tells Elijah who rolled his eyes as the others agreed that Klaus was being paranoid. While they had heard of what happened to the vampires, Elijah was more worried about witches as they were chatting than something big was coming with help of the Ancestors.

"Wouldn't said threat come after us by now?"

"Do not mock me, Rebekah." Klaus growled looking at his siblings as the others still just brushed it off as him be paranoid and focused on the witches.

You walked though the autumn festival watching Henrik closely as he ran ahead looking at all of the stalls. You kept an ear out listening as you didn't trust none of the witches and the vampires were getting on your bad list for attacking Henrik the other night.

Elijah stopped walking when a familiar scent reached his nose one he hadn't smelled in centuries and looked stopping as he felt the air leave him. Elijah felt his eyes water when he saw both you and Henrik and couldn't help but felt like the witches was pulling some kind of trick.

Elijah noted you both hadn't really aged a day and planned to go the witches for answers as he couldn't believe that his baby brothers were alive. Elijah was snapped out of his thoughts when Hayley grabbed his hand.

"Elijah, you okay?" Hayley asked as Elijah looked back finding you and Henrik gone as if you both weren't there in the first place.

"Yes."

You panted having grabbing Henrik when you saw Elijah that he noticed you both which you were quick to grab Henrik to run.

"Why can't we see Elijah? You and he was so close."

"Henrik, I already told you why. They think we are dead and to show up like 'Hello, we are your long dead siblings.' is a bad idea."

"But..."

"Henrik no." You told your brother trying to ignore the pain on Henrik's face and you sighed looking at him. You gave him a soft smile pulling him in a hug feeling Henrik hug back.

"You know I love you right? I just want to keep you safe."

"I know....love you too brother."

That night was chilly as you and Henrik had dinner then headed for bed when you woke to a scream and quickly headed for Henrik's room.

"Fuck." You growled seeing the bed empty then quickly headed to find your brother. You heard another scream and ran killed the vampire that almost touched Henrik.

"Henrik?" You panted kneeling next to him looking seeing a dead body then focused by on Henrik.

"Y/N....where ar....."

"And you said my paranoia was unfounded Elijah." Henrik was cut off by Klaus and you muttered fuck under your breath looking seeing Klaus and Elijah standing there. It happened in a blur making Henrik call out your name when Klaus had attacked you grabbing you by your thoat.

"Who are you?" Klaus growled lowly as your eyes flashed red growling back throwing Klaus back then placed yourself between Henrik and Elijah.

"Don't touch him."

"Y/N....it's okay."

"No Henrik it is not. You saw an omen and not we have to explain to them how we are alive." You tell Henrik as both Elijah and Klaus sucked in breath surprised.

Your older brothers had mixed feelings see you and Henrik alive but all they knew was that their baby brothers were alive. You sighed running your fingers though your hair as Elijah caught a glimpse of the family Crest tattoo on your wrist.

"What did you see Hen?"

"Dad....he tried to kill me. Dad was saying became a monster and was blaming Nik." Henrik tells you making you freeze as you knew of Mikael's need to kill their children thanks to Mother Nature as she made sure that you two stayed out of Mikael's line of slight.

"Y/N?" Elijah whispered his hand on your shoulder as Klaus picked up Henrik see how he was only out dressed in pajamas. You looked up at your older brother seeing his mocha eyes soft filled with worry.

"I can't believe this! Not are our brothers are alive but Mikael as well?!" Rebekah shouted pacing as Elijah was treating the wounds on Henrik's feet while you groaned already annoyed.

"It seems the Ancestors made a deal with our homicidal father." Klaus says pouring a drink as Freya was doing a locater spell to find Mikael.

"I just wanted a vacation not this." You huffed as Henrik frowned looking at you as Hayley came walking in carrying Hope with Jackson close behind.

"What is this I hear that Mikael is alive?"

"Hayley meet our baby brothers Henrik and Y/N." Klaus says ignoring her question as Henrik smiled at her while you had your head back giving her a two finger wave.

"Klaus answer my question!"

"Yes. Not like you could do anything." You said getting Hayley's attention as she passed Hope to Rebekah her eyes flashing.

"I am a hybrid stronger than you witch."

"Hellhound stronger than hybrid." You say not bothered still annoyed as Klaus smirked sipping his drink as Elijah sighed. Hayley huffed sitting down as everyone made a plan to take out Mikael.

After the Mikael mess that leaded to an Esther mess you all headed back to the Abattoir to relax. Henrik sat with Rebekah and Kol telling a story of one of your missions you both went on.

"Yeah Y/N came in and like took out 20 vampires."

"Hen it was only 10." You said eyes closed laying on the couch head in Elijah's lap feeling him run his fingers though your hair much like when you were younger.

"Y/N is being humble about it." Henrik said smiling making you huff as Elijah chuckled still running his fingers through your hair lulling you to sleep.

"Maybe I should take on our baby brother to see if he really is that strong."

"Bring it Nik. I'll beat your ass." You mumbled eyes feeling heavy as Klaus laughed lightly as Elijah smiled gently moving his fingers slower. Henrik yawned feeling tired seeing you fall asleep.

"How about a movie now that everything is calm?"

"Go ahead Freya." Elijah says softly as everyone settled in getting comfortable. The family was together again, finally whole again as Elijah looked to Klaus both silently promised to be sure they wouldn't lose the youngest Mikaelsons again.

[it-was-all-a-beautiful-dream]

Opposites Attract (Paul Lahote x Reader) Chapter 3

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Warnings: Swearing

Word Count” 2.1k

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-Your POV-

They were running at a speed that seemed impossible, their size alone, impossible. The shear beauty of the animal, breath taking. This wasn’t the first time you’d dreamt of giant wolves. They visited your dreams frequently, leaving you with all sorts of un answered questions, leaving you the next day, searching “What does seeing giant wolves in your dreams mean?” Yup, you were that kinda girl. You thought there was an answer for everything, and there probably was, but you weren’t going to find the answer on google search. 

You don’t know how long you’d been in the car for. All you knew was you were in pain, then it seemed to ease and a sense of comfort washed over you. Your head felt as if it were floating, snuggled into something warm and soft. A pillow perhaps? You didn’t open your eyes to check, the pain in your abdomen and now across your whole body blinding, you’d woken a few times with a jolt, and then you passed out again. 

The next time you woke up you weren’t moving at all, which you were grateful for, the pain mixed with the motion of a moving vehicle didn’t do anything for your stomach, travel sickness was the bane of your life. Instead you found yourself in a room, the blinds drawn closed, the door shut, your body, in different clothes. A mens t-shirt? When did you get changed? Where were you? You looked around in a daze, sitting up slightly from the comfort of the pale yellow duvet set. Wooden log walls, photo frames scattered on every surface, subtle lighting and a wall lined with books, the smell of home cooking wafting through from the kitchen. You were in Emily and Sam’s guest room, how did you know this? Well for one all of the frames had pictures of the happy couple in, two, you’d stayed over once before, back when you’d been caught in a freak storm with Leah while on the beach. You vaguely remembered the place. You didn’t come over often, what with Leah and Sams history, that and as much as you liked Paul, sometimes you’d be nervous to bump into him. Paul! Speaking of Paul, you groaned and flopped back into the fluffy bed sheets. Paul was at the hotel when the pain started… where was he now? Did he drive with you back home? 

You were about to get up when Leah came bounding through the door. “Oh good I thought I could hear you awake in here.” She grinned at you. “You look like you’re feeling much better!” You pat the space beside you and Leah climbed in snuggling up to your side. 

“So, on a scale of one to ten how bad was it.” The big ‘It’ being how bad was the show in front of your long term crush. Leah shrugged as she looked at you. 

“Nothing was baddd… everyone was just worried about you, you seemed to be in some serious pain, hence why we thought it best to cut the trip short, it’s probably better that were home, it was early hours when we got here so Sam said we could just crash at his.” You raised your eye at you best friend. She was being awfully calm about the whole situation. She said Sams name in a sentence and didn’t get herself worked up. You looked down at yourself. 

“And the clothes? Or lack there of….” That’s when Leah grinned. You didn’t like the way she was looking at you. You inhaled the scent that was on the shirt. Sandel wood and aftershave, a hint of sea salt probably from the misty air outside. 

“That’s Pauls t-shirt Y/N” Your eyes went wide and you knew you were blushing.. did that mean he had undressed you. Leah noticed the panic in your eyes.

“Before you get worked up he just leant the t-shirt knowing you’d be uncomfortable in your dress, I changed you.” You audibly gave a sigh of relief, not knowing how you’d react if the guy you’d been in love with since second grade had finally seen you in your underwear. “He stayed in here with you last night you know, to make sure you were okay. He wouldn’t leave.” Leah was now proper up on one arm looking at you. You didn’t know what to make of it. You didn’t think Paul had even known you existed… You were taken from your train of thought when something started dinging. The mobile on the bedside table started beeping as texts came through one by one. Oh god, you hoped Leah hadn’t told your parents about your episode at the hotel, the last thing you needed was for them to worry. However, you realised when you picked it up, it wasn’t your phone. 

The screensaver was a picture of the guys from the res, all goofing around, it looked like it had actually been taken in Emilys kitchen. It had to be one of the guys. You realised it was Paul’s after remembering what Leah had said about him staying for some of the night. He must have forgotten it when he left. You didn’t mean to see the message but it automatically came up on screen when you tilted the Iphone in your hand.

“Such a shame we had to cancel our date last night handsome, still on for tonight?” There were a bunch of emojis next to the text, the purple devil, aubergine, water droplets. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out whoever this girl was motives were. At first you were embarrassed, to the point where your mouth was kinda slack and Leah was asking you what was wrong. Then you were pissed. 

“He’s such a dick, honestly. I don’t know why this makes him a dick, i’m just so mad. I know I’m not the prettiest, or the funniest, or most talented or anything but jesus christ I wish he would just notice me for once instead of these girls who will put out at the drop of a freakin hat!” Leah had taken the phone from you to see what you were talking about. She groaned and then noticed your whole body was shaking, in a flash she was at the door calling for Sam and the others. All you could see was red. Your vision totally blank, the covers under your hands balled up in your fists tight, your body shaking, heating up. Somewhere in the background you could hear someone shouting at you to calm down, but this time you couldn’t. You heard the sound of ripping and then all of a sudden the world around you changed. For one, everything in the room seemed to get smaller, or maybe you got bigger? You were still angry and started lashing out, only to be tackled by something from the side, leading you to smash through the wall of the wooden house. You still didn’t understand what was happening, until you heard them in your head. 

“Y/N CALM DOWN! We know this is scary but you need to calm down.” It was Sams voice. In your head. Or maybe, the voice was coming from the 8ft black wolf hovering over you. You didn’t scream, you didn’t even seem scared, and it’s because you realised, you were a wolf too. 

-Paul’s POV-

Y/N was safe, sleeping soundly in the room next door, or so Paul thought. It wasn’t until he heard the shouting that he knew something was wrong. Leah called for help and before he knew what had happened there was a bang and Sam was tackling a wolf on the ground outside the house. 

A white wolf. Small, slim, bright, with a single grey patch of fur around an eye. Paul shifted instantly, realising the unknown wolf in front of him was in fact his imprint. He let out a low growl to Sam, even though he was the Alpha, Paul didn’t like the fact he’d just tackled his girl. He looked her over, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth almost comically, all the while Y/N stood staring and the grey wolf now in front of her, he could hear through the bond that she’d just imprinted, feel it too. Now she knew. 

-Your POV-

“Hold the fuck up.” You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Part of you couldn’t tell if you were in a dream or had just gone plain crazy. The other part of you knew that everything was real but you just couldn’t process the information quick enough. “So you’re telling me, that our ancestors were these shapeshifters and the gene was passed down to us to allow us to shift into giant wolves and hunt down vampires. You know, Vampires, ‘I want to suck you blood’, creepy pale strong immortal beings with no soul? And werewolves, I mean, Shifters..” It was insane. 

“Anddd to top it off, the man i’ve had a crush on since 2nd grade is my imprint, the person I’m supposed to be with for the rest of my life?” You glared at Paul who had the audacity to wink in your direction. Looking around you noticed the other faces, all amused at your outburst. Okay, so this wasn’t a joke, it was some sick reality you were now a part of. You hadn’t looked in Leah’s direction yet, pissed that your best friend had kept such a massive secret from you. Obviously you knew it wasn’t her fault, she wasn’t aloud to tell you the tribes secret, they didn’t know that you would be another female shifter, apparently your kind were rare. It still stung a little. 

“What really sucks thought Y/N, is that you’re gonna have to cut you beautiful hair short, our human hair mimics the length of our wolf hair, hence why each of us one by one cut it all off.” Quil sat back and shrugged and Paul growled lowly, not lowly enough for heightened hearing. 

“Why now. Why. I-I have school and I have things I want to do with my life.. I can’t be a shifter..” Reality had started to sink in and you found it difficult to breath. It felt like everyone in the room was staring at you and it didn’t help that you could also hear what everyone was basically saying. Your chair was pushed back with a screech, falling over and hitting the wooden floor. 

“I-I need to get out of here, I need a minute..” You were out the door in a flash, Leah and the boys running after you. Somewhere in the distance you could make out Sam telling Paul to calm down and then heard what sounded like wolves shifting but you’d already made it to the tree line, being able to run faster than you’d imagined still in your human form. 

The air was colder the higher up you got. You didn’t know how long you’d been running for but it had been a couple of hours before you finally stopped. In the middle of nowhere, high up in the mountains you let out a scream, one that sent flocks of birds fleeing from trees, the notes of your anguish scattering in the breeze. Everything would be changing now, life as you once knew it was gone. Part of yourself would never be yours again, having to follow a pack system. Another part of you was giddy at the thought that the man you’d been in love with your whole life turned out to be the one destined for you all along, it only took shifting into a wolf for you both to realise just how compatible you were.

You’d been alone with your thoughts long enough when you heard a twig snap in the distance. The hairs on your arms stood up and your heart started beating rapidly, turning, you calmed when you noticed a familiar figure walk out into the open. 

“Paul.” You could feel the bond running through your veins, seeing him helped you breath better and the physical need and urge to be in his arms was too strong. Like he sensed it too, he was over to you in a flash, taking you in his arms, your body pressed against his, his nose buried in your hair breathing in your scent, like he was saving it to memory. 

“Y/N, it’s all going to be okay, I promise, nothing bad will ever happen to you while i’m around, I know it seems scary now, but it won’t be like this forever. You’re already so strong, and I’m lucky that fate paired me with you.”

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Yoooo. I hope you liked this chapter, I’ve had some writers block recently, just trying to keep going. I’m still not sure what direction I’m taking this fic, I do know however that this is set at the beginning of eclipse! So watch out for some vampire action!

TagList:

@mariasblogsworld

@rosella26

@punkfrogz

@jjpogueprincess

If you want to be added to this tag list please let me know, sorry if I missed anyone off! <3 Please re-blog/like/follow <3

[athenamikaelson]

I'm wildin with this one rn. It's okay if you don't want to write it! Klaus Mikaelson x reader who can't get hurt (if that makes sense??) The Mikaelsons get kidnapped, reader comes for them and gets stabbed pretty badly but they just go "I mean that's fair." and keep going and later at night they're all just trying to process and Klaus spends the night with them asking a million questions?

Klaus Mikaelson x Reader

Request- I'm wildin with this one rn. It's okay if you don't want to write it! Klaus Mikaelson x reader who can't get hurt (if that makes sense??) The Mikaelsons get kidnapped, reader comes for them and gets stabbed pretty badly but they just go "I mean that's fair." and keep going and later at night they're all just trying to process and Klaus spends the night with them asking a million questions?

 Warnings- Kol being a dumbass, swearing, blood.

Word Count- 1,342

Walking into the witch’s quarter I’m surrounded by tombstones and mausoleums. Looking at my phone again to see if Nik had responded to any of my texts or call. Nothing. Great.

Not that Nik, or any of the other Mikaleon’s would answer giving the fact that the witches had something to do with their disappearance. 

When I had first realized they were all missing I had tried calling all of them, even Kol who doesn’t even know how to use his phone. That’s how desperate I was. When I couldn’t find where they went I did a location spell that led me here. As Nik says, “Dead or alive witches are a pain in my ass.” He would always look at me after he said it though and tell me I was an exception. Not that I always believed him though. I know I’m a pain in his ass. But for some reason he still loves me. That really doesn’t help my god complex.

Walking through the rows of graves I try to close in my hearing to notice anything out of the ordinary. I am in a graveyard so that doesn’t really help. I continue walking for what feels like hours, when in reality it’s probably been like 5 minutes. Goddamn I hate exercise, Nik is lucky I like him. 

“To our ancestors we pray, please take this sacrifice and give us the strength to defeat our enemies!” I hear coming around the corner of an old grave which must’ve been over 100 years old. I peak around the grave, which just touching it gives me the creeps. Not to my surprise I see a group of maybe 7 witches surrounding an altar. Fucking extremists. Why can’t they find a different hobby other than sacrificial murders? What did catch me by surprise though was the whole of the Mikaelson gang chained up against the walls. Jesus Christ that’s impressive. I mean chaining up ALL of the Mikealson clan. That takes some balls. 

“You know darling, if you’d just unchain me now I’ll consider not ripping your spine out and strangling you.” Kol’s voice broke the silence. I visually roll my eyes. Classic Kol.

The witch who seems to be around mid 50’s, the eldest of the group I presume, walks up to Kol and puts what appears to be a necklace with a ruby like gem on the end, in Kol’s face. 

“As long as I have this gem darling, you and your bastard family aren’t going anywhere.” The witch mockingly says. Which earns a growl and pulling his chains from Kol. 

“This is ridiculous, you psychotic witches. Unchain us now or I swear to-” Nik yells at the witch. 

“You’ll what? What will you do Niklaus. You’ll yell? Pull on those chains? Tell me, what will the bastard child do?” That bitch snarckingly says. Oh I know that bitch didn’t just say what I thought she said. Ok I’m killing this bitch. I can’t take on 7 witches by myself though. I need my man. I just need to get that damn necklace from that old bag. Shouldn’t be hard enough. 

I walk behind the columns to the other side where Nik and his family are chained up. 

“Hey babe.” I whisper to Nik. Nik whips his head around and his eyes visibly widen when he notices me so I just send him a big smile. 

“Y/N? What the bloody hell-” Nik is about to question me before I press my finger to stop him from talking and press my other finger to my lips to signal to him to shut up. 

“I’m saving the day.” I smile as I walk out of the shadows to the old witch. Múltiple, “Y/N?”’s come from the Mikaelsons while just a laugh comes from Kol.

Oh shit I didn’t bring a weapon. I look around quickly before I see Bekah kick a large metal poker at me. Picking it up and sending her a smile I walk up behind the bitchy witch. 

“I know you didn’t call my boyfriend a bastard, you whore.” Before she can fully turn around I whip the poker at her and hit her in the face, knocking her down. Which unfortunately gets the attention of the other witches. I quickly rip the necklace of her neck and freeze. 

“Fuck. What do I do with this?” 

“Break it love. Bloody hell do I have to do everything?” 

“Shut it Kol, also.. thanks.” I throw the necklace on the ground and stomp my foot on it, breaking it into pieces. 

In a second all the Mikaelsons rip off their chains. The younger witches all freeze, scared expressions on their faces. Ha. I’m about to turn and hug Nik who starts to walk my way before I feel something hit my stomach. I feel a sudden pain and my shirt starts to dampen. I reach my hand down and pull it back to see it covered in blood. I look up to see Nik looking at my stomach before he looks at me, frozen. 

“Well I guess that’s fair.” Everything goes black.

I woke up surrounded by darkness. I try to get my eyes to relax to my surroundings but nothing happens. My mind is foggy until I remember the blood. I reach down to see that I’m in one of Nik’s shirts. I pull it up to look at my stomach, which is covered in dried blood. But no wounds. I throw my legs over the bed and walk towards the door. Light bombards my eyes as I peer down the hallway. I can hear voices coming from the dining hall as I make my way down there.

Nik and his family are all sitting in different areas drinking red liquids. Which doesn’t take a genius to figure out what that was.

“Hello Mikaelsons, I LIVED!” I make myself present to the vamps. Elijah and Nik both stand up and look at me worriedly, while Rebekah sat there with a questionable look and Kol was sitting smirking in the corner. 

“Y/n, you must still be tired and sore. I believe it would be best if you went back to sleep.” Elijah tried to reason with me as he started to walk towards me. I quickly stopped him with a raise of my hand. 

“Eli I’m fine. I am doing good. Walking and shit, you know. I’m feeling fire.” I walk past Eli and sit down next to Bekah which gets me a smile thrown at me and a disapproving look from Elijah as he comes to sit down back in his seat. Nik just stands in the same spot looking me over. His eyes held longer on my stomach where my wound was. 

“Y/n, come with me please.” Nik starts to walk upstairs before I can object.

When I make it up to our shared bedroom I barely have a second before Nik’s arms wrap around me surrounding me in a hug. 

“You scared me.” His eyes come to meet mine, I nearly break down when I see tears breaching the edges of his eyes.

“Hey, I’m fine now baby. I’m ok.” I reach up to brush away the tears threatening to fall onto his cheeks. 

“When I saw you fall to the floor I thought my world would end right there.” I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss his nose.

“You really think you can get rid of me that quickly?” A hurt look crosses NIk’s face after I say that. 

“How could you even joke like that? I mean you alway make these jokes after bad things happen? God you’re so much like Kol. And the thing you said when you got stabbed! Most people would scream or cry. You just made a sarcastic comment.”

“I don’t know man. I’m built differently I guess.” I quickly press a kiss to his lips which he quickly returns before I pull away. Confusion crosses his face. 

‘Don’t. Ever. Tell. Me. I’m like Kol.”

[miss-kittys-magical-library]

Seven Devils

(Vladek x Fem!Reader)

Warnings: sexual teasing, mention of bodily harm, murder and blood GIF found on @merry-melody

A/N: Not even a serious injury can tame your sexual desire for Vladek, even as the devil closes in. For @emelieislasheehan

Part One: The Drumming Song  and Part Three:  Shake It Out

You came up from the bar with a plate full of food provided by the barman. Something about him unsettled you. He felt desperately out of place, and why was a bartender living in a hotel? You caught fleeting fear on his face when Petra, the rather demure officer with obvious alcoholism, mentioned how easily Bianca was identified. The young clerk was found headless a few days earlier, and you prayed that she wasn't part of Vladek’s sacrifices.

You blinded yourself by staring at the brilliance of the snow. Endless miles and piles of it. You thought about Vladek wandering the frozen tundra in that anorak and steampunk goggles so desperate to make the visions go away. You knew about the other murders.

Petra was the only one convinced it was ritual. A shaman connected to the massacres a few weeks back. But everyone claimed she was just a woman who needed to listen to the men.

How lucky for your love. Maybe this would be over and you could escape home to Oslo. Back to his mouth and hands that blanketed you like the snow.

A wave of nausea overtook you. That churning acid in the base of your stomach. The bile rose in your throat and a pain spread in your chest. It settled in a searing pain under your ribs. You cried out as it took your breath away, tears streaming down your cheeks. Your sobs echoed off the walls of your room. Reaching for the phone, you dialed the only number you knew besides Vladek’s.

“Where is he?” you begged the motherly voice on the other end. “Freya, hvor er han?!” you all but screamed into the phone. The fear and agony causing you to lash out at her.

Freya filled you in briefly. You heard her breath catch, the way it was labored. Vladek had told you something was in her, advancing through her nerves and muscles. It was breaking her down. Your voice softened when you realized her death was inevitable. You would be there as quickly as possible.

When you arrived, you followed Freya into the garage. She gestured, eyes melancholic and frustrated to a loft. He was pale, she stated, and stubborn beyond Hel. If there was anything to be done to keep him still, to let Fortitude burn to the ground, she was willing to listen.

You rolled your eyes, “at this point maybe sex might work? He always mentions that my body is intrusive to what the gods have called him to do.”

“Then do what you need to!” she called as you began my ascent to Vladek. “Just please be gentle. If those stitches tear, he'll be worse off than he is now.” You waved her off.

You made your way to the bed where Vladek laid. His hand protected the bandages on his stomach. A flash of pain passed between you both when you sat down beside him. You winced and clenched your teeth.

Your fingers brushed the sweat drenched curls from his forehead, but he made no move to look at you. His gaze seemed far away and unfocused, like he was asleep with his eyes opened. He mumbled something, a chant or incantation, under his breath in a language even you didn't speak.

“Min kjærlighet, what did you do to yourself? Huh? If you die, Hela will not let me follow.”

“Good,” he struggled to inhale. His turn in your direction was labored. “Your life is with the living. You are so beautiful, y/n. You hurt my eyes, and even now you are stirring things in me that prove why a shaman’s life should be virginal. Celibate.”

“What a way to my heart. I am so attractive that you should've stayed a virgin. I have said this to you several times, my entire life has been promised to you, Vladek. Arranged by blood when we were born. How can you break a blood oath? With self sacrifice? Cutting your penis off? Murdering innocent girls who talk too much?”

He laughed and choked on a cough. The sound was humorless and terrifying at the same time. “I didn't kill Bianca. I liked her. She was smart. Believed those scientists, that facility and that they unleashed something no one can control.”

“Except you. I have a pain like I've never felt in my body. I knew you had been shot. If we weren't meant to do this together, what is this for?” You showed him the blood on your fingers from his injury marked on your skin. “Why am I bound to you? I was a skeptic, I've lived a long time away from our people. We have been here only a few weeks, and I'm terrified. That sheriff scares me. He's not right.”

You laid your hand on his chest. It made senseless zig zags down to the wound. You touched it momentarily before zig zagging again over the rest of his bare stomach and teased the hair that ran from it underneath. You let your hand momentarily squeeze the bulge under the covers and sat back.

“You are also beautiful, Vladek. I should pluck out my eyes so that I cannot see it. Hmm?” You raised your eyebrows, eyes widened. “I really don't care. Your lips and skin, there's not much more color to them than the frozen tundra outside. It's so hard for me not to kiss you senseless.”

You bent forward and melted your mouth into his. You caught him off guard with your tongue as it dove deep inside of him. Searched for nothing but a fight from his own tongue. It held its ground against yours while he held the back of your head.

Fingers snared by your hair, he tightened his grip and pulled your head away roughly. You huffed and stood. You unzipped your layers and stepped out of them until you were naked at Vladek's bedside. You got on your knees beside him and placed his hands on your breasts and squeezed.

“I'll make you forget what haunts you here. Freya was right, let's watch it go down in flames. Your ancestors’ failures are not your own.”

Vladek’s ragged breath caught in his throat as he laughed. A cough ravaged him first before he spoke. “You are like the mistletoe Loki set on Baldur, small and deadly. We will be the death of one another.”

You climbed atop of his covered legs and knelt on your haunches. A smile crept along the corners of his mouth but didn't reach his eyes, and broke your heart. Still you held your chin up in defiance while removing the blankets and his boxers to expose his nudity to the cold air.

Vladek didn't object as you crawled up his body and hovered over him. His growing erection inches from where it strained to enter. You swelled and held his cock in your grasp before lowering yourself enough to tease him with your slit.

“How do you know I am mistletoe and not more?” you questioned.

Your body dips and hips undulates on the head of his cock. You rocked faster knowing you were slick with want, but Vladek found strength and lifted you straight. In one swift motion he slid his fingers inside of you and pumped a few times. They hooked and worked in and out of it sex. His middle finger finding your clit, circled it wildly. You moaned and bucked, a bit wild while crying out that you loved him.

Just then Vladek squeezed your face like a vice with his hand. A flame burned in his eyes while he stared up at you. “Sølvtunge tispe,” he growled in your native tongue. Silver tongued, bitch. “Du er demonen som har min kjærlighet.” You are the demon who has my love.

“Vladek, it's me. Jeg lover. Look at you, what this has done to you. vær så snill. Let's leave.” You dug your nails into his forearm and begged.

“It will never end, but for us now it does. For the greater good is worth more than a patriarchal blood oath. Leave like you promised and never come back. I will find you in the next life.”

Broken and angry you stood and dressed. You wouldn't see Vladek for another week or so, your last time. He was breath-taking and determined, but lost to you. He would not stop and would not come back from his next steps. The rituals and drugs and Fortitude.

All you could do was kiss him goodbye for now.

tag: @neuroticpuppy @a-ghoulish-tale @magic-multicolored-miracle @elliethesuperfruitlover @frogs--are--bitches @messengeronthemoon @nightmonsters @forenschik @vonkimmeren @maerenee930 @super-unpredictable98 @bisexualnathanyoung @clumsyramen @firstpersonnarrator @rob-private @falloutby @duck-noises @070188

[skellebonez]

Smoke, Flasks, and Unfinished Tasks: Chapter 7

AO3 Link!

Chapter 1 Link!, Chapter 2 Link!, Chapter 3 Link!, Chapter 4 Link!, Chapter 5 Link! Chapter 6 Link!

Summary: We return to the world outside the Calabash and someone regrets their life choices.

Warnings: Mild accidental self inflicted violence, after effects of the smoke from the last chapter.

Author’s note: A bit shorter than I intended since I was unhappy with how the additions to this chapter flowed and I rewrote them entirely, there are no spoilers for the special (I had removed or edited them into something unrelated) but there will be some allusions to it in the coming chapters.

Chapter 7: Real Feeling Illusion

Mei let out a yell of surprise as she felt cold metal settle into her hands, something that should be familiar but felt brand new despite that.

Her eyes snapped open to green, green and more green, every shade surrounding her as she stared into the gazes of her ancestors. The same judgemental gazes that she had already faced once before.

"Wh-what?"

The only thing that answered her were the glowers and whispers of the dragons above her, sneering, chastising, questioning.

“This has already happened... I’ve already done this...”

----------

"Monkey King!?"

Red Son gasped, eyes opening to a sight he wished to never see again.

"Come to take me? Find me?"

His breathing quickened, shaking his head as he took a step back.

"I will not let that simian abomination triumph again!"

This couldn't be happening again, it had to be a trick of the Calabash. Red Son had to believe it was as he watched his father scream over the screens showing MK and his friends coming closer and heard the whispers of the White Bone Spirit on the wind.

----------

"Hey, kid? You paying attention?"

The voice calling him made MK's blood run cold as his eyes snapped open, a far too familiar derelict dojo greeting his vision. And one very familiar, amused, dark furred monkey.

"No..." MK breathed quietly, holding his staff tighter. "No no, this isn't possible. It can't do this can it?"

"What's wrong?" Macaque asked, spinning a training staff in his hand with an easy friendly smile, practiced he now knew. Practiced to trick him, trap him, get what he wants out of him. It went softer, faker, kinder, and it hurt. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

----------

The air within the Bull Family's current abode was tense, Wukong's words weighing it down heavily. No one dared do more than breathe until the Demon Bull King or Princess Iron Fan reacted first.

While Iron Fan's face had fallen into disbelief and some form of concern, DBK's face was nearly unreadable. Eyes closed, arms crossed, the most emotion showing was the faintest furrowing of his brow.

"Darling?" PIF said softly, running her hand down his face in a soft display of affection that felt odd to watch for the group on the ground.

"I will assist you," DBK offered suddenly, turning to his wife with a soft rumble. "What wi-"

"I am helping," she answered instantaneously, features hardening as she turned back toward Wukong and the rest of the group.

"I should have assumed as much," DBK chuckled out, smiling softly for a split second before his features hardened once again. "I know my son, if you cannot find him then he is either hiding himself and his-" he growled deeply, spitting out the next word like poison. "-friends on purpose, which I doubt he could do for long with you searching of all people, or someone has made the mistake of angering the wrong family."

"Unfortunately we have no reason to assume it is anything but the later now," Wukong said, tone noticeably more relaxed but still more even and businesslike than normal. "This is what we know so far..."

Pigsy breathed out a sigh of relief, albeit the smallest possible any living being could manage, as Wukong began to explain to Red Son's parents in great detail exactly what they had done and what they had learned so far. There was something... off about it, however.

DBK was too calm. Almost... solemnly so. Now, normally he wouldn't be surprised if Iron Fan had been around to keep him calm, but she was hardly doing anything but sitting on his shoulder and talking to him in a hushed voice. Pigsy didn't know him all that well but every single time he had interacted with him, and from some stories from Wukong's younger days, he had always had a temper that put Red Son's fiery one to shame.

"Pigsy?" Tang said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder for a moment before frowning and squeezing it gently. "What's on your mind?"

"Somethin' ain't right here," he said with a shake of his head. "Somethin' really ain't right. Wukong can tell too, look at his tail. It's all puffed up on the back. Those two are hiding somethin' from us.” He turned to Sandy, who silently nodded in agreement.

Tang hummed softly, his grip on the pig demon’s shoulder tightening past gentle reassurance to a grounding firmness. “I trust your judgement, Pigsy. Let’s hope we can trust Wukong’s too, ok?”

Pigsy nodded himself, reaching up to grasp the scholar’s hand in a firm grip as they watched on from the sidelines still, waiting for anything to happen now. They didn’t have to wait too much longer before a gust of wind rushed past them and lifted PIF of her husband’s shoulder, setting her on the ground to the side of the two men.

“I will see what I can do with the equipment Red Son has left behind,” she said firmly, standing tall and looking all the more like a leader to an army than anything else at the moment. “While the Bull Clones will not likely be of any help, he left enough that should at least prove somewhat useful for a more delicate mission.” She frowned for a moment, looking up at her husband. “And... tell them. It might help.”

DBK startled, looking down at his wife with wide eyes. Now that was a look Pigsy had never seen on his face before. “Are you sure?”

“You and I both know that is the sole reason we need to find our son,” she said, frown deepening for just a moment before she wiped all expression from her face and allowed the wind to carry her off deeper into their hideout.

Now everyone was just confused, looking at the hulking demon lord as he scowled and ran a hand down his face. He turned to look at the group, taking them all in before focusing on Wukong again with a growl deep in his throat. “I had hoped we could convince him to return of his own accord and you would not find out about this,” he said with a deeper growl, scowling down at the Monkey King before sighing and seeming to relax ever so slightly. “But now... it has been so long I am doubting that is even possible now.”

“What are you talking about?” Wukong asked with a raised brow, fur bristling more noticeable as he tensed. “We knew you had been trying to get him to come back to your side.”

“Do you know why he left?” DBK continued, scowling even deeper than before. “Did you ever wonder why he chose to go to you?”

“...No,” Wukong admitted after a while, dropping his arms down to his sides. “I wanted to say that yeah we did, and no that doesn’t matter, but he’s never exactly been open about what made him come to Flower Fruit Mountain that day. Why?” He narrowed his gaze, watching the larger demon closely. “Wait... wait, you don’t mean-”

“Oh yes,” DBK said flatly, the sound of his teeth gritting together reverberating through the room and making everyone wince. “Ever since the Lunar New Year festival, Wukong. And it backfired spectacularly.”

----------

“Let!” Thunk. “Me!” Thunk, a cough. “OUT!” Thunk. “AGH!” Crack. “FUCK!”

Jin let out a screech of pain as he felt something in his hand give way, a knuckle or maybe a full finger bone. It didn’t matter either way, in only a few seconds it had fixed itself just as painfully as it had broken and left him with a fully intact hand for the third time.

“You’re one sick fox lady, you know that?” He yelled into the air, scowling even more as he changed tactics to attempting to kick himself out of containment. Trapped in what appeared to be the same little room he had left Yin in when he last saw him.

He may have the appearance of the Monkey King at the moment, and it may have given him access to some of his powers because of that, but physically he knew he was still Jin. The Gold Horned Demon. Not Sun Wukong, The Handsome Monkey King and The Great Sage Equal to Heaven. The Calabash itself knew this, could only go so far in the illusion, and not having breakable bones was apparently outside of the abilities of his and his brother’s device. Though he knew he was not actually being hurt, physically, everything that happened here was an illusion.

A very real feeling illusion. Unlike... unlike what could be happening to Yin...

At the thoughts of his brother in possible peril, Jin sighed, stopping his assault on the door to sit down on the makeshift cot they had been relegated to. He felt his tail (still a new and odd sensation to know he had one that moved of its own accord) drop down beside him, looking as deflated as he felt.

What if Princess Jade Face was hurting Yin? What if she had already hurt him? Was she using the new smoke on him as well or the sleeping smoke? His mind rushed through thought after thought of what she could do to hurt his brother while he wasn’t there to protect him... not that he had been doing a good job of it in the first place, all this being his fault in the first place.

He coughed again, throat aching from the after effects on whatever the new smoke was. His eyes burned and his head swam in lightheaded weightlessness. He wondered if it was supposed to hurt like this or if it was the combination of smokes, wondered if the trio trapped alongside him was feeling this or none or even worse. He wondered if they were safe.

“Safe?” He asked himself with a scowl. “Don’t tell me you’re actually giving a damn about those three outside of surviving yourself, me.”

He didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to wonder what that meant. The only people he worried about were his brother first and then himself. And he would get the hell out of here, broken hands or legs or not.

[crystalgirl259]

The Flame and the Dragon Chapter 28

Chapter 28: The Letter

Blood smeared the knuckles when they made contact with the thick wood of the thickest tree trunk. The Sorcerer hissed and hollered as he banged his hands furiously against the tree. His entire body shook with rage at the evidence his newest spy brought him. He waited too long. He pulled himself away from the free and covered his face with his hand. Now it was only a matter of time before Kai gave into Cole's seduction. He banged the tree again, then composed himself and pulled the hood of his cloak over his raven hair.

He watched the cut of his hand swell and bubble until perfectly healed skin was revealed.

He waited too long. The second he suspected the teen had Occulti blood he should have acted! His growl morphed into a roar.

"Damn to the depths of my lust and pride!" He bellowed. He had known he had taken a heavy gamble when he decided to change his strategy, but it was too difficult to resist such a tempting specimen, especially since if his seduction proved a success it would devastate the Dragon Lord more than a thousand of the most vicious monsters. Now, his miscalculation had caused him a major setback. It was worse when it became clear exactly who this mysterious specimen was.

It had been easy to ignore the first instance as merely a single occurrence.

It wasn't uncommon for humans to discover untapped abilities in traumatic or near-death situations. Many people held biological connections to magical ancestors. The religions might have changed, but the blood certainly didn't, he himself was proof of that. Still, many lines had become so thinned by mundane human blood any inherited power could only be tapped through stress or shock and usually only once. But the skills used to defeat his monsters and the premonitions were too much to be a coincidence.

That Occulti whore was dead and she continued to be a thorn in his side.

A wicked smile curled across his lips as he approached the road. The raven sat immobile like a statue on his shoulder awaiting instructions. It didn't matter now. She failed then and she will fail now.

"I'm running out of time, and I'll be damned if I let some Occulti whore destroy over one hundred years of patience and hard work!" He thundered and looked to the crow. It shot up and waited for orders. "Watch them, if they do anything together, inform me immediately; I don't have much time to carry out the next stage of my plan." He commanded. The crow bowed its head and flapped away into the night. The Sorcerer's grin widened as he chuckled then burst out laughing when he came to the main road.

He turned around taking one last look at the castle in the distance.

"Enjoy your concubine while it lasts, prince." He smirked recalling the conversations his spies had recorded. Episodes of the life the boy had forsaken to appease the dragon's wishes. Memories of a high-ranking man who fancied him. Of the childhood instances experienced in Ignacia. Of the siblings he had sacrificed himself for, who were no doubt still terrified for their brother's safety. He may have feelings for the dragon, but Kai was like any other human when it came to sacrificing.

As the Sorcerer walked along the forgotten path, he noticed a cold stream still flowing and an evil idea formed in his mind.

He dunked his hands into the freezing liquid and used his magic to create a small ball of water.

"Enough talking, time for some screaming." He cackled as he blew into the bubble turning it into an ice ball. He then shook the ball violently before throwing it into the air. He smirked as it broke apart and a grey, shimmering mist blew through the wind towards the castle. That should buy him some time...

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

Nya hollered and roared in rage as she slamming the door to her house shut. It screamed in protest as it suffered the force of his anger. The only thing the village idiots were good for was gossip and apparently, Morro's dismissal of Kai's fate had spread faster than an infectious plague. So much now even other towns were mocking them. No matter where she went to who she begged to help her, she was simply laughed at. One of them even suggested she join her brothers and started to believe in children's stories.

A frustrated hand ripped at Nya's raven bangs.

The only one who seemed remotely worried was the librarian, Dr. Saunders, but he was just one old man. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't go wandering through the dark forest, let alone take on a dragon-hybrid monster. She stormed into the kitchen, her angry steps echoing loudly in the empty room. Nya growled and started grabbing whatever her furious mind thought she would need and stuffed them into a bag she already had set up on the kitchen table.

If no one will help her, she would find that castle and get him back herself.

She stuffed the bag with food, maps, and anything else. She strapped it tight and threw it over her shoulders, donned her thickest coat to keep out the freezing winter air, her cloak, and her heaviest boots. Once she was secure, she turned to the staircase.

"Lloyd, I spoke with Mrs. Grumbmiller, you're gonna stay with her until I get back, is that alright?" She called loudly. Her words echoed through the house, and she braced herself for her younger brother's protests. Instead, she found only silence and she started to panic. She quickly realizing Lloyd hadn't run downstairs when she came inside. He didn't come crying and begging to know if anyone would help them like he had done every time she came home over the last two months.

When their previous attempts had failed.

After two months of trying, Nya and Lloyd returned home only to discover the town was debating what to do with their house and shop now that they were gone. It was only because of Nya's fury that the town would act so irresponsibly. Nya refused to leave their home unattended. Despite Lloyd's protest, Nya left him behind to protect the shop under Mrs. Grumbmiller's care during the lonely nights. Panic started to rush through Nya's entire being.

She bolted from the stairs, checking each room on the ground floor, painstakingly for her younger brother.

When her search failed she thundered up the old steps. Her eyes scanned every room, meticulously for any sign of the young boy. Nya's eyes widened when she entered her own room. Lloyd had been known to sleep there some nights when his worry became too much. Again she found it all empty, even missing a few things. The realization made her sick as she bolted upstairs, heading straight towards Lloyd's bedroom. She panicked and threw the door open but her heart sank into her stomach.

The room was empty, but dressers were left open, empty of clothes.

Her thick winter cloak was missing from the hanger as well as Lloyd's thickest pair of boots. The only evidence that the boy had been there at all was a note left on the bed. She grabbed it with haste and read it as fast as she could. Her eyes bulged with horror and fear as she read over each word, filled with tears.

Nya,

If you're reading this then I'm already gone. I'm sorry I didn't wait until you came back but no one is going to help us, I know that now. I can't leave our big brother to suffer in that horrible place. He's only there to protect me, so I've decided I'm going to go back to that castle, and no matter what I must do I will free our big brother. No matter what. I've already taken more than enough remedy so I won't choke, so don't worry about me.

Please don't come after me, Nya.

I know you and what you're planning. You'll try and switch places with Kai and I can't let that happen. That dumb duke is right about one thing, you two have sacrificed everything for me, now it's my turn to help you.

I love you, Ny-Ny.

Nya screamed and cursed, crushing the little note in her hand, cursing her baby brother's foolishness. Her hands clenched the window as she looked outside. Though Winter was fading quickly, new frost still encased the ground. Winter was still dangerous and it was the most hazardous time of year for someone with Lloyd's condition. She could also swear that those dark clouds rolling in were the signs of an incoming blizzard. A bad one at that.

Snow was already falling and getting heavier with every passing second.

She screeched as she tied on her boots and hopped down the hall, before finally falling over and stormed out the front door. If Lloyd died, she was going to murder him. As soon as she was ready, Nya bolted down the street and towards the woods for any sign of Lloyd as she vanished into the night. She was in such as rush that she didn't notice or hearing the hammer of footsteps approaching the now-empty home. The snow-covered any evidence of her footprints within seconds, masking her trail in the process.

Seconds after Nya left, Morro and Bansha arrived with Noble's collection wagon.

"Nya! Lloyd! Kai!" Morro hollered as he shoved the door to the dark house open, not even bothering with chivalry as Bansha stepped inside behind him. As soon as they entered, they saw that the house was vacant of light and life. The lamps had burnt out, the doors were locked, and no sound echoed through the rooms.

"Where are they? I thought Nya would be back by now!" The duke screeched like an angry owl.

"They're not here, Morro." She quirked, not wishing to be on the wrong side of the Duke's anger.

"This is ridiculous! How long do they plan on being gone? It's been four months!" He bellowed throughout the house. He hissed in a furious rage when no one answered him.

"Morro, you don't think... maybe..." Bansha trailed off nervously. She nervously rubbed her arms and flinched and looked at the floor when Morro's heated glare turned to her.

"If you are going to say what I think you're going to say, I don't want to hear it! There is no such thing as dragons or castles or any of this nonsense! It was a lie! A trick of their little minds!"

"But Morro, think of it!" She protested. "Kai's been gone for almost four months, and ever since his disappearance Nya has been going around town and asking anyone to help her, and Lloyd's been doing the same thing, swearing on their lives that he's been kidnapped and taken hostage by this dragon; they've even gone so far as to seek help from other towns! Why would they keep this story of a 'dragon' kidnapping Kai going if it wasn't true? What if Kai really was kidnapped?"

Morro glared at the girl and opened his mouth to protest but found he could not.

Instead, he stormed back through the door scowling.

"Alright, say this 'dragon' does exist and their story is true? Why would Kai stay with such a monstrosity?" He chuckled darkly.

"Well as you said, Morro, he would do anything to protect his family correct? Maybe, he was forced?" She suggested.

"Excuse me, duke." A smooth voice interrupted Morro as he was about to scream again. The two of them turned around and saw a tall man dressed in vibrant red and purple colors that made him glow in the darkness of the storm approached them. His hood shadowed his face and eyes and only pale streaks of black hair were visible.

"Forgive my forward intrusion, but I'm afraid I couldn't help but overhearing your plight, the plight of your town, and I think I may know what has befallen this unfortunate family." He said with the best fake saddest look he could muster. The pair exchanged equal bewildered glances until Morro's gaze hardened and he returned his glare to the man.

"And who are you?"

"My name of no importance to one of such caliber as yourself, sir." He bowed respectfully. Morro soaked the flattery up like a sponge, but Bansha shivered, catching the sinister smile crossing the man's face.

"Know only that I wish to aid you, I have traveled much in my lifetime, seeking wisdom and the destruction of injustice; if this creature is who I fear we must act quickly or I fear this boy, your fiancé's fate, may already be sealed."

"What are you talking about? What will happen to my Kai?" Morro demanded.

"My entire life, my lady, has been devoted to the destruction of a terrible beast who is responsible for the downfall of my ancestors." The man began. "A hundred years ago they ruled these lands until they were brutally betrayed by this creature, as punishment he was cursed to become a dragon and since then I have hunted him down in hopes of avenging my family's senseless destruction and it seems I have finally found him." He spoke with the passion of a tragic hero but remained focused on their reactions.

He could see they were both skeptical but there was fear evident in their eyes.

Fear that he knew was the perfect fuel for creating an angry mob or a rebellion or an army to obey one's will if it would promise the return of their safety.

"What does your personal crusade have to do with my fiancé?" Morro demanded again as Bansha's hands found his arm and squeezed it tightly, shivering at the frightening presence the man radiated.

"As I said, sir, the dragon is a monster." He spat. "He seeks an end to his curse, and unfortunately, that freedom includes the seduction of a beautiful and talented mortal, and apparently he's settled for this boy you've fallen for, so just you watch; he will descend his destruction on the entire town if given the chance!" The man spoke, emphasizing the destruction of the town and the word seduction.

"No!" Morro screamed and thrashed in fury and rage. "Kill him! Destroy him! Slice off his head!"

"Calm yourself, my lord." The stranger soothed in a sophisticated voice that commanded obedience. "There is still time to save the boy and his family, but I need your help, yours and this town's if you are willing to help me?" He asked as his eyes were soft and his voice pleading. "My only request is that you let me kill the monster, all I ask is to avenge my family, your land shall be yours once more and whatever riches are in the castle, I'm wealthy enough that I do not need such trivial things, all I seek is to avenge my family."

"Of course," Morro announced, throwing his cloak over his shoulder and howling in his delight. "We must get to the town hall immediately! Bansha, go and gather my council, tell them to rally the people, we have to rescue my fiancé!" He ordered, leaving no room for argument. Bansha shivered and nodded mutely, before rushing down the street desperate to get away from the man.

"By the way, who should I say you are when I explain you to the city?" The duke turned to the man as he hauled after his maid. He was shocked, however, to find the man had vanished into thin air. The only difference to before was the thundering of the incoming snowstorm clouds...

[37-children-of-the-dreams]

Chapter #34: Bad (Blood) Batch

Crosshair got to meet Bo-Katan and now it's Korkie's turn to meet the Bad Batch. Also, IDK on how to strikethrough a title text. Sorry.

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

The next planet looked dense and populated. It wasn't dense like Corusant, but it was populated enough that they know there were bounties abound. The wait time for a hangar wasn't as bad as the last one. It gave enough time for Korkie to work his Force visions and they had an adequate hangar to stay at.

When Korkie got up from the visions, Crosshair and Fennec were checking their weapons. Crosshair saw the rifle might need a new scope and knew they do not have another scope around.

"There's a huge bounty here," Korkie said as they kept checking. "It's locally known and the prizes they say are big."

"How big are we talking?" Fennec asked. She checked enough that her rifle was ready to end a small battalion.

"Big enough to buy an entire army."

"We don't need an army," Crosshair said. "But I would like a few upgrades."

"We should have taken some of the rifles from the basement," Korkie lamented.

"No. I'm not making your former aunt go insane and try to annihilate us because we took some of your ancestors' weapons."

"Well, they were still his," Fennec pointed out. "I mean, he had the rights to take them before Bo-Katan kicked him out."

Crosshair rolled his eyes as he went to open the ship's entrance. He would have liked some of the blasters Korkie showed him during their practice, but he felt the eyes of a thousand Kryzes judging him for possibly firing their blasters wrong. He looked at the picture of Korkie's late grandfather during the practice and thought Adonai Kryze's spirit was shaking his head thinking that his only grandchild would marry what might be an adequate sniper on his deceased mind.

Korkie went to his side and walked out the hangar with him. Fennec was still behind them. She was starting to prefer being behind of her two teachers because in her point of view, they always start the best drama and she had backstage passes for life. Korkie was pointing out the best cantinas and bar to find other bounties if there were too many bounty hunters going after the same bounty. Crosshair was not budging on bailing about the best prize.

"Then that one," Korkie said.

He pointed at the most rundown cantina they had ever seen. And they've been on Tatooine. The cantina at Mos Eisley was still presentable compared to this. There were no windows, the doors were broken, and there were a ton of drunkards hovering.

Crosshair said nothing as they entered the cantina. Suddenly, it was all eyes on them. Fennec smirked at the sight because they were dressed like everyone else. Well, Korkie had brought his family sword, but it was not enough to set off a bar fight. Maybe it was Crosshair? He was wearing his armor to cantina, but he did add Kryze blue to it when Korkie was asleep to look more like a Mandalorian and not a clone trooper.

Korkie was the one who found the manager of the cantina. He asked about the bounty and got a shrug. Korkie backed off and Crosshair got to the manager's neck. The poor manager was scared to see Korkie whisper something in Crosshair's ear.

"Okay!" he screamed.

He took out a fob and threw it to them. Korkie caught it and \waved it to Fennec who laughed at the antics. She knew they weren't really saying anything threatening to the manager. She was beginning to pick up some Mando'a and she knew Korkie was actually talking about making a good dinner for them.

Crosshair dropped the manager as his fiancee and apprentice walked away with the fob. The rest of the cantina got out of their way. They saw the 360 Korkie did and were not wanting to fight someone who might just smile at their deaths.

"So," Korkie said as they walked around the city. "What do we want for dinner?

"Korkie," Fennec sighed. "Please stop being a mother porg. You make the best dinners."

"No," Crosshair countered. "Please act like a mother porg. You need practice when we might have Sarad."

Korkie scoffed. Ever since the two talked about having a daughter, Crosshair agreed that Sarad was a beautiful name for a young girl. He also wanted their future daughter to be a sniper like him because it might be safer for her to not be connected with the Force. Korkie was sadden by his opinion, but he did agree. Even if Sarad wasn't a Force Seer like Korkie, the Empire was never going to let another Force user live. He rather have a normal child than put one in danger because of who they were to the Force.

"Please stop talking about your future child," Fennec said. "You're not even married yet!"

"Well, Fennec," Korkie said. "It's better to talk about a family now because then we don't have to worry about whether or not your having a niece."

Fennec gave up. She was young herself, but why do Mandalorian have to talk about marriage and family when they're so young? Was it because of the constant state of fighting for their lives, or was it because they're open about having a huge family.

The three were walking about when they stall another set of food stall. Fennec's stomach betrayed her and growled. Korkie and Crosshair looked at her like they were becoming her new set of parents.

"I may be a bit hungry," Fennec admitted. "But we should have food at the ship."

"It's an hour away," Korkie said. "Come on Fennec. Let's have some snacks."

Korkie led Fennec over to the stalls. Fennec was not a picky person, but the options were so numerous and she didn't want to buy too much food. Yet, they smelt so good. Korkie told her they had enough money to provide her a small feast. So Fennec started picking all the ones that smelled divine.

Crosshair smiled as they picked snacks by the smell. It reminded him how Hunter always knew what they should get from the stalls during their missions. Wrecker was never picky himself, but he also didn't want to break the budget. Tech was always to busy reading up on the snacks. So it was between Hunter and Crosshair to give them the cheapest and best snacks. When Echo entered the Bad Batch, it became a three person duty to provide the snacks.

Crosshair was beginning to beg whatever god or deity that controlled life that he'd be with his brothers once again. He knew he ran away from them because he was mad at Hunter, but Crosshair wasn't fair to the rest of his brothers. He was always Tech's older vod even if he never said it out loud. Wrecker and him did butt heads, but they always had each other's backs. Even Echo grew on him. Which was a surprise because he thought he'd always hate regs, but there were some who actually made him feel normal.

Crosshair walked to them, but stopped. He looked beyond Fennec and Korkie's eye spots and saw Echo. Crosshair wanted to punch a deity now because it felt way to coincidental to just see one of the Bad Batch here when he wished for it. The Echo lookalike looked at his direction and gasped. Then he left.

Crosshair ran after him and left Korkie and Fennec bewildered by the action. Korkie had the fob and he was sure they weren't near a target. Fennec grabbed Korkie and the two ran after Crosshair.

"Echo!" Crosshair cried.

Yet, no one looked up. The place was too busy, and with too many people. Korkie got to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What was that?" Korkie gasped.

"I thought I saw Echo," Crosshair said.

"Well, if they're here, then we'll find them."

"If they're here, then we could look at the hangars near by."

"You know there's a ton go hangar here, right?" Fennec asked.

"I'm not running again from them. I need to apologize."

Fennec looked at Korkie and smiled to the former duke's confusion. He was a good influence to Crosshair because to Fennec, he got to know the huge difference between their families. Korkie was born to a family who hated Jedis and want nothing with members who would be Jedis. Crosshair had his brother who never cared about his defects and saw him as their brother.

And Crosshair wants his brothers back.

"Then, let's walk," Korkie said.

They left the place and walked to the nearest hangar. It didn't take long for them to see a hangar station. Suddenly, a bunch of people got in front of them. The leader was laughing at the three.

"I heard you have the last fob," the leader said.

"We do," Crosshair answered. "But you're not taking it."

"I will."

"And why?" Fennec asked. "I've known a ton of mercenaries, but you're not even important for me to remember."

The leader lost it and attacked them. Korkie took out his sword as Fennec and Crosshair opened fire at the gang. There must have been almost thirty people. Many of them didn't look like they belong to just one group, they were just attacking Korkie, Crosshair and Fennec for the fob. They must have come late because they didn't see them at the rundown cantina.

Korkie was slashing down and slitting throats left and right to protect the fob. Fennec shot down any that came behind Korkie as Crosshair aimed at the leader who was fleeing the scene. They were backed to a corner and the gang was still coming at them.

Then, all kriffing hell broke lose. Wrecker jumped from above them and a vibro-knife from Hunter was launched at a face. Crosshair laughed at the sight of his brothers. He wasn't going insane, a deity really did listen to his wish. Tech and Echo were in front of the gang and launched a flash grenade went off. The Bad Batch, Korkie, and Fennec closed their eyes.

"Get them out of here, Crosshair," Hunter ordered. "We'll cover for you."

"Sorry, but no," Crosshair said. "Korkie's clingy."

"And what about Fennec?" Wrecker asked.

"I have a rifle if you forgot," Fennec said.

Hunter groaned as they attacked the gang. By the time the last man ran away they were done. Hunter looked at Crosshair and took out his hand.

"I know how much you hate hugging," Hunter said. "So this is my best 'I'm sorry for making you run away' shake."

Crosshair smiled and surprised Hunter. He did hug his older vod to the shock of the entire Bad Batch and his companions.

"And I apologize for being the worst brother you have," Crosshair said as he let go. "I know I had all the right to leave, but it still wasn't right to leave my other brothers."

"Who are you?" Wrecker asked. "Where's the real Crosshair?"

"I can scan!" Tech said.

"Please don't scan and I have a reason for changing," Crosshair said.

He presented Fennec and Korkie.

"Duke Korkie?" Echo said.

"You know me?" Korkie asked.

"Well, I used to work with Commander Cody. He met Duchess Satine before. I'm sorry for your lost."

"It's fine. Also, I'm not a duke anymore."

The Bad Batch looked at Crosshair who smirked.

"Any chance you have some food?" Crosshair asked. "Korkie can cook. Real good."

"No?" Hunter said. "You know what we always had to eat."

"Then dinner's on me."

The Bad Batch didn't understand what was going on, but they followed the trio. Then they got the memo once Crosshair took Korkie's hand when they got to the hangar.

"Um, Fennec," Tech whispered. "I know we're not close, but are those two?"

"Yes," Fennec answered.

Wrecker dropped his mouth as Crosshair opened the door and let Korkie kiss him on the cheek. The former duke went to work as the Bad Batch waited outside with Fennec bringing in seats. Well, Korkie's storage boxes, but it's what they had.

"When?" Wrecker asked. "And how?"

"Did you ever heard about a Mandalorian bounty?" Crosshair asked.

"No," Echo said. "You did not."

"Oh I did."

"You fell for a bounty?" Hunter screamed.

"And royalty at best?" Tech asked.

"He was very persuasive," Crosshair laughed. "He became the best thing in my life after everything that happened between us."

"So why is he not royalty anymore?" Echo asked. "I mean, Duchess Satine may have died, but Korkie is her heir."

"Well, he got kicked out of House Kryze."

"HOW?" They all screamed.

"Well I'm marrying him," Korkie replied.

He had dinner ready. A huge pot of soup and some meat. He placed them in the center of the Bad Batch and Fennec gave them a dish plate.

"You've got to kidding us," Wrecker said. "HIM? CROSSHAIR?"

"Yes, brother-in-law," Korkie smiled. "Though, it's more like he's marrying me. My side of the family is drama upon drama."

"And ours is not?" Hunter asked.

"Well, you've only worked with the Jedi. I'm the secret son of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Duchess Satine Kryze."

Korkie has never been asked so many questions in rapid fire response before. But, he's not mad. They were his future-in-laws.

[blissfulalchemist]

A Chance for Faith Ch. 5

Finally got Chapter 5 finished! You can read it here below the cut or on

Ao3!

Important timeline note: This happens days after the attempted arrest.

@risenlucifer​ @fromathelastoveritaserum​ @jacobs-pup​ @onshammad​

“Ancient men were killers. They were tenacious. They were strong. Now what are we? Passive. Lazy. Weak,” Chance snorted hearing the sound of the biggest brother of the Seed family preach with his wispy, gritty voice. Chance was squatted in some bushes, Physocarpus malvaceus or mallow ninebark he was pretty sure, watching the operation outside of the armory bunker between his cover’s red brown leaves. Chance had been studying this spot for the last two days trying to work out how the place worked, more than enough time to gather what he needed, though one could never be too sure. He figured that the more he knew the quicker he would be able to take this bunker, and hopefully the whole Seed family, down. Today, though, was the day he would finally find the opportunity to enact his plan. Simple and fast; get in, place as many explosives as he could, get out, and watch the show. 

“Culture and technology hasn't improved us, it has brought us to our knees!” Chance stifled his laughter at the words being spouted in the recording, “If our ancestors could see us now, they would be ashamed. They would be sickened and they would be angry. We have forgotten where we came from. We have forgotten who we are.”

Chance rolled his eyes bringing up his binoculars in an attempt to make out details on the door, “Just because you couldn’t figure out a flip phone doesn’t mean technology is evil, old man,” Chance whispered to himself, chuckling. The door was big, metal, and appearing to need a key card to get in, impenetrable. It just needs one big explosive, that should get the job done I’m sure. 

Chance swept the area once more confirming his game plan to get through step one. He repeated the steps mentally, checking his bag loaded with all the explosives he found over the last few days. He just had to sneak past the guards, place a few remote explosives, and then use the rest of the explosives to get the party going. Once this place was out of commission taking down the rest of Eden’s Gate would be a piece of cake. What about Pratt?, Chance paused looking past the bag, What if he’s in there?, his conscience prodded. 

He shook his head, a fair point but if this plan went as it should then Chance would be down in the bunker enough time to look for him. Besides who would be stupid enough to put prisoners with a bunch of weapons. What if Pratt got out by some miracle? Then he’d have full access to weapons and have the ability to pull a Rambo. Chance rolled his eyes at the thought. He had to save him now, to at the very least prevent Pratt from having a story like that to tell at the bars when this was all over. Pratt’s going to be fine. There’s nothing to worry about.

Chance took a deep breath making his way out of the bush as quietly as possible. He kept his eyes on the guards moving in front of him. They were close to being only a thousand feet from him. Chance’s heart started to race as his eyes moved around for an exit, he just had to stick to the plan. Just make an arc around the area and then-. Snap.

Chance froze, his heart beating rapidly, mouth going dry. The soft click of a gun just behind Chance had him putting his hands up, closing his eyes tightly. Well there goes that plan. “Now keep low,” Chance nodded slowly at the instructions given to him, his chest burning from the breath he held in, “turn around slowly and walk back to the road,” the voice was young and male, even with the lack of gruffness that seemed too common among the men here. Except Pretty Boy, but he doesn’t count as much of a man. 

Chance squinted his eyes open as he turned around hoping to get a look at who was holding a gun to his head. It didn’t work as Chance could hear the mystery man move so he was behind Chance the entire time as he started to face the road. Chance let his breath go and walked, doing as he was told, his legs starting to burn beneath him. “Hey, you grabbed my bag right?” Chance whispered to the guy behind him, “It's kind of important you know.”

Some of the taller plants around him tickled the underside of Chance’s arms, “Oh. No I didn’t. Yeah, just let-,” his tone became light and friendlier before he must have remembered what he was doing, “Hey, you shut up. I figure out what we should have with us, I’m the one with the gun.” There was a hesitancy in his footsteps as Chance continued to walk awkwardly, he was contemplating on going back for the bag or not. Chance heard him walk away quickly managing to return just as fast. The small clink of an enamel keychain against the cheap zipper was the only confirmation that it was his bag. The barrel of the gun tapped Chance’s head, the metal cold, “Hey I didn’t tell you to stop walking.” Chance looked at the ground not realizing he had stopped walking.

Chance started up again, “Thanks for grabbing my bag.” His legs were starting to shake, they were tired, “Can I at least stand at this point? My legs are killing me.” 

There was a few seconds of silence from his potential captor, “Yeah I think it should be fine now.” Chance let out a relieved sigh, “But slowly and face the road the entire time.”

“Yes sir,” Chance let out a low groan as he stood. His legs were sore but they no longer screamed at him, for now. From this vantage point he could see that the road was faster approaching now with the use of his full stride. “Are you taking me to Jacob?” There was no response, “Trench Coat?” Still no response came, “Joseph? Maybe Faith? She’s kinda pretty don’t you think?” Chance heard the small sound of someone trying to hold back their laughter, “Are you taking me to any of them?” Chance was met with silence once more, too foreboding for his liking. 

What is this guy’s plan?, Chance couldn’t help but wonder. As the two of them neared the edge of the road Chance could just make out a brown truck hidden within the trees. “Get in the truck,” Chance was ordered. Chance didn’t hesitate to get into the truck, settling himself quickly so that he could finally get a look at the person calling all the shots. They were about Chance’s height, wearing a red ski mask and the black and white camo, same as what was on the guards outside the armory. Chance recounted in his head all the people he had seen, he couldn’t place where this guy could have come from. Seeing how this situation was playing out so far, Chance doubted he was actually a part of the people that were trained by Jacob. Chance watched as he saw him place his backpack in the bed of the truck.

Chance flinched at the sound it made, hoping that nothing got dislodged. It’s not like Chance was the most adept at packing explosives. Realizing he had his hands up still, Chance placed them on his thighs shaking out his shoulders and arms. He watched intently as his charge made their way around the truck. They got in slamming the door pointing, what Chance could now see was a simple handgun, “Don’t try anything stupid,” he warned, deepening his voice, starting the truck. His head was swiveling as he pulled out of the hiding space. 

It was silent as they made their way down the road putting distance between them and the armoury. Chance started to shift at the amount of silence, trying to prevent the dam of questions from pouring out. Or he just wanted out of this truck. Maybe if he just tucked and rolled he could make it mostly unharmed and-, “What the hell were you doing out there, civilian?” Chance flinched at the sudden outburst from the driver, “You could have blown our cover! I mean, my cover.” His voice became more muffled as the ski masked shifted and moved out of place, a small growl of annoyance ended his turn to speak.

Chance looked to him in disbelief, “Are you kidding me? I was trying to take down the biggest threat. And I had a really solid plan until you showed up. So now it’s ruined,” Chance argued. “Thanks for that.”

The driver nodded towards the bed of the truck an eyebrow raised, “A solid plan?” Chance nodded scoffing, “Blowing the place up? That was your plan?”

Chance crossed his arms giving a small eye roll, “Yeah and it was going to work.”

The captor’s dark eyes went wide, “Are you-,” the mask must have gotten caught in his mouth, laboring his breathing. “Hold on,” he quickly pulled off the ski mask tossing it to the side taking a deep inhale, “Fuck I hate wearing that thing.” Chance was taken aback when he finally came face to face with who took hold of him. Chance had assumed he was young but not teenager young. There was no way this guy could be more than twenty years old. His hair was long, black, and straight even in its current braids. His skin a brown showing some wear from the lack of sunlight he was used to getting if the small sliver of visible tan lines were any indication. His narrowed onyx eyes framed by a furrowed brow were currently staring Chance down, “Back to the point: Are you stupid? Or do you just have a fucking death wish?” 

Chance’s eyes widened as he took offense to this kid’s words, “No.” Chance scoffed at the notion kicking his leg out slightly, “I’m doing the smart thing here. Jacob does all the training, meaning he has access to most of the Project’s weaponry. Taking him out fast and hard is the best thing to do here.” Chance gave him a smug smile.

It was sound logic, no one could argue against it, “You are stupid.” Chance opened his mouth to protest, “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but don’t you think if it was that easy we wouldn’t have done that by now?” Chance’s smile vanished, the kid placed an elbow on the window’s edge rubbing his temple, “Okay I’ll play along, maybe I’m wrong. How long have you been scoping out that bunker?”

“Long enough,” he retorted, suddenly feeling a little self conscious of his answers.

 “So less than a week,” Chance stayed silent seeing the frustration grow on his driver’s face. “You really didn’t think this through,” the young man stated. He let out a long sigh, “Did you at least see any confirmation that the weapons were being taken there?” Chance tried to look back on the last two days, his response time must have been too long, “So I’m gonna take that as a no. What about Deputy Pratt? What if he was in there and you decided to blow up the place? Or all the other innocents down there, were you really going to just let them die?”

Chance flinched at the detail he had managed to overlook, turning his eyes away from the know it all. “Hey I would have figured it out,” Chance yelled, “I’m good at improvising. Thinking on the fly.”

 “Improvising,” he let his eyes leave the road to look at Chance with an open mouth shaking his head, “Wow. You’re not stupid. You’re stupid stupid.” All this guy seemed to be doing was make Chance feel worse, which meant that he was telling the truth. “You can’t just improvise with Jacob Seed. That man has everything thought of. Even the best laid plans we’ve had have failed. Look you’re better off waiting on the fabled Deputy to help save us all from this.”

“Fabled Deputy?” Chance looked at him curious. Did my name seriously get around that fast? 

“Yeah,” he smiled looking at the road in awe, “There was this deputy that got away after the arrest. Seems the Seeds got a vendetta for him,” That was a bit of an understatement, “I heard this guy took out like twenty guys on his own with his bare hands.” Well that was an exaggeration, Chance hadn’t even seen that many members in the four days since the arrest, waking in Dutch’s bunker. “Eli says we can’t rely on one man to take them down though, but he’s gonna be a great help with his skills and knowledge.”

Chance swallowed nodding along to what the kid had to say, tuning out the rest of his repeated tall tales. If these were the stories they got up here in the middle of the mountains then the rest of the county was going to be severely disappointed in who their hero actually was. A twenty-five year old ex-alcoholic that liked to dance the line of death, despite being terrified of coming back to a place he never wanted to see again, with the muscle mass and combat expertise of a child. Some hero he was. 

“Tell me what you’ve heard about him,” his driver wondered, “You had to have heard something.”

Chance cleared his throat, “I heard he fails to live up to the hype.” Chance rubbed his clamming palms against his jeans, “He’s just some guy that everyone chose to be their martyr. All so they could finally be brave enough to take these leaders out themselves.”

Chance was given a sideways glance, “And I thought Tammy was cynical? You might have her beat.” Chance didn’t want to ruin the kid’s fantasy, but maybe if he knew who Chance was he could take him to Eli. Chance opened his mouth to speak before the local started talking, “I’d take you to Eli but he’s not the biggest fan of outsiders.” Well looks like I’m zero to two today, “Though I can tell him about you and maybe he can give you a test.”

Chance’s eyes went wide, “You have to pass a test in order to even have a chance of meeting him?” Chance shook his head, This is proving to be harder than I thought.

“Well you can never be too careful up here,” his voice became hallow and far away, “Another reason why it’s stupid to go after Jacob is because he’s got this method with his training, it makes people into sleeper agents.” 

“Sleeper agents? Like what happens in, Return of the Joker?”

“Maybe...Is that movie,” his brow knitted together trying to piece it together.

Chance waved him off, “Doesn’t matter too much. But in it the Joker puts a chip in one of the Robins to take over his body at a later date,” Chance explained.

“Huh,” the young man thought for a second, “I know Jacob’s smart but I don’t think he’d be using that kind of technology.” His voice trailed off before lighting up again, “Hey! Maybe that’s what you can do! You can try and figure out how he’s doing it!”

That sounded like an easy enough thing to Chance. He just had to either infiltrate into the ranks or spend days watching some place trying to figure it out. “You think Eli would meet me if I did that?”

The driver opened his mouth before closing it hearing the static of the radio come on, “Wheat- Wheaty, come in,” the voice was deep, definitely an older man. Chance looked to his driver and to the radio, Wheaty, unique name.

He grabbed the receiver, “Go for Wheaty.”

“Just got a description of the Deputy,” Chance’s eyes went wide, “Need you to be on the lookout for him.” Wheaty nodded waiting for the voice to make its way through the static, “The guy’s young with a mess of curly brown hair. Green eyes,” Wheaty paused his nodding quickly glancing at Chance. 

“Sounds pretty generic to me Eli,” he said into the radio, his eyes starting to narrow as he watched Chance in his peripheral.

“Well apparently this guy also has tattoos on his hands,” Chance quickly crossed his arms hiding his hands under his armpits. “Chemical formula stuff. Though no one knows of what or can even remember what they are. Unique enough detail for you?”

Wheaty turned to face the now shy deputy, “Yeah that’s unique alright. What do you want me to do with him if I see him?”

“Bring him here, sooner we get him here the better. Less chance that Jacob’s gotten to him,” Eli instructed as Wheaty hit his hand on the steering wheel, letting out a small curse. “Got that, kid?”

He let out a sigh, “Loud and clear. I’ll let you know if I see anything.” Wheaty pulled the truck over, placing the receiver back in it’s holder. He took a breath as Chance shied away from him, ready to jump out of the truck if needed. This isn’t going to be good, “Are you fucking kidding me?! You’re the deputy everyone’s been talking about? The one that’s supposed to be some big hero?”

“Tales of my escapades may have been a bit exaggerated,” Chance said softly, giving him an embarrassed smile, shrugging.

He groaned, “You’re telling me,” Wheaty threw his head back on the seat letting out a long breath, “I’m a little disappointed don’t get me wrong, but now we’re at an impasse.”

Chance tilted his head, “What do you mean? You heard him, you have to take me to him right away.”

“Yeah, but not like this,” Wheaty faced him, hands clasped pointing to Chance, “Look I’m sure you’re capable and will be our famed hero,” his arms moved as if he was showing off some muscle before they fell back to his side slowly, “just, not now. Look how easily I found you? You were ready to blow up a bunker that didn’t even have the weapons in them.” Chance looked down to the stitching of the seat, his plan was a failure from the start. He really didn’t have a clue of what he was doing, what he got thrown into. Chance ran his nail along the thread, “You were going to get yourself killed and we can’t have that.” He shook his head, “If I was Eli I’d send you back out to the Valley or to the Hebane. Give you some time to get your bearings. Have you walk a bit more before you start flying. It’s what he had me do before I became a full fledged member of the Wolves Den.”

Chance shrugged, biting his inner lip, “Eli made it sound like too big a risk if I was left out here too long,” Chance argued, “Just- Just let him meet me and then he can decide what he wants to do with me.” His voice was on the precipice of begging, which annoyed Chance. He just wanted to do the right thing and do it right. Show that maybe, just maybe he wasn’t such a disappointment after all.

Wheaty shook his head, “No.” Chance looked him in the eye, “I am aware of how big a risk I’m taking right now, but you’re just not ready.” Chance glared at him, placing his hand on the handle of the door, “And trust me that’s not a bad thing Dep. None of us were ready for this. You’re far from alone in that department. We just have to be smart about this and if I’ve learned anything from Eli, the smart thing to do here is to have you in the Valley with John. He’s not dumb by any means but he’s the least bright of the brothers.” Chance let out a sigh, “Heard he’s also a little more unstable since you rolled in.”

“You think I’ll be able to take him down?” Chance asked not getting his hopes up too high.

“Yeah,” Wheaty nodded, “I know you can.” Wheaty placed a reassuring hand on Chance’s shoulder, “And don’t worry I’ll be a radio call away! I’ll try and help you out the best I can up here, along with trying to make it down there every now and then.” He held up a hand for a high five smiling, “You can do this. Just get a little more comfortable with the whole situation and how you want to handle it. Then,” he pointed between the two of them, “you and me, we’ll take down that Jarhead of a brother. What do ya say?”

If Chance was being lectured by someone younger than himself, it was obvious he really hadn't been ready to take down Jacob, just yet. Chance ran a hand down his face before slapping his hand against Wheaty’s, “I say you’re right.” The two brought their clasped hands down for a proper handshake, “Call me Chance by the way. Don’t like being called Deputy.”

Wheaty smiled, “Got yourself a deal Chance. Now come on let’s get you down these mountains.” Wheaty pulled a U-turn south turning the radio to his own personal station. It wasn’t long before both young men were air guitaring to the riffs and lamenting on what defined rock music. Which band was better, who was more over played, or how each area has a certain era of rock that dominates what gets played. It was fun and normal, like they had always been friends. For the near two hour ride it took to get to the outskirts of Fall’s End Chance felt like himself again. Chance was wishing that the ride would last longer, but like all good things in Chance’s life, it had to come to an end. Chance pulled his bag out of the truck bed looking at Wheaty one last time, “Seriously, you need anything Chance, and I mean anything you give me a call.”

Chance gave him a smirk, “Same to you. Thanks Wheaty.” Chance rubbed the back of his neck, “You know you might have saved my life back there,” he admitted.

“Hey,” he put the truck in drive, “Now you just owe me.” He gave a laugh waving to his new friend, “Till next time!”

Chance waved back as the truck disappeared back to the mountains, “Till next time,” he whispered before turning in a circle looking for the path he had to take.

[lauwrite1225]

Broken Crown || Finan x OC || Chapter 07.

Summary :  Since the day he has been enslaved, Finan never thought that he would have to face his origins. But when an old friend made her arrival to Wessex, the Irishman is forced to deal with his past.

Other chapters

English isn’t my first language, if you see any mistakes, tell me :)

Warning : Mention of death and some angst

07 || TRUTH

It was early in the morning that the fives warriors left Coccham. Ailis was still sleepy when she mounted her horse, the heat of her cloak around her shoulders tempting her to fall asleep. But she resisted, keeping her back straight and letting her hips follow the horse’s rhythm.

Uhtred was at the head of the group, leading them to Aeglesburgh. They would stop here to meet the Lady Aethelflead and ask her to provide them a boat. Ailis liked the idea of making a stop to another city just for a night. She didn’t travel much. In fact, it was the first time she was out of Ulaid. Now that she was accompanied by Uhtred’s and his men, she found much more pleasant to ride all day.

Most of the time, they would talk about their past travels and battles. But despite the good humor, Ailis couldn’t help but think about the conversation she had with Finan the last night they spent at Coccham. She knew he hadn’t still said the truth to Uhtred, but she didn’t want to push him. So, she simply glared at him time to time during the day or when they were all around the fire. But Finan would only avoid her eyes.

The fifth day of their travel, Osferth became very curious about Ireland. He wanted to know how it looked like.

“Well, it’s green and it’s raining half the year.” She said, shrugging.

“That’s not so different from here, then.” Commented Sihtric, behind her.

“Is there great cities?” Asked Osferth. Ailis looked up to the cloudy sky.

“Such as Winchester? Only Navan Fort.” She licked her lips slightly while remembering all she learnt about the city. She had understood Osferth was quite curious when it came to learn more about faraway lands. “The city is built on a hilltop from where we can see for miles. It’s an old city with still vestiges of our ancient’s gods. It is said that the Goddess Macha founded it.” She told him with a small smile.

Even if she believed in God, she had always been fascinated by the beliefs of her ancestors. And it seemed that Osferth was intrigued as well.

“The city is pleasant in time of peace. There’s the biggest market of the Kingdom and festivities are regularly organized.” She sighed, remembering the good days she passed to run through Navan Fort’s street.

“Do you miss it?” Asked the former monk with a little smile, like he could perfectly imagine how was the city.

“I miss my youth, Osferth, when I had the time to appreciate this city.” She lightly laughed.

“But it’s your home. You must miss it.” Her gaze stayed fixed to Osferth’s one, but she wasn’t looking at him. Could she still call Navan Fort her home? It was the place where she belonged, where peoples needed her. But was it still home since Finan’s banishment? Since Conall was King? Since her father was dead? She blinked several times before forcing a smile on her lips.

“You are right. I miss it.”

Their discussion ended here, Osferth's horse swerved causing him to squeal and Sihtric to laugh. As he tried to lead his mount back on the road, Ailis felt Finan's eyes on her. He was in front of her and was watching her above his shoulder, a knowing expression on his face. She had no doubt he listened to their conversation. 

She shook her head and leaned back on her mare to catch her flask and drink a large gulp. When she straightened up, Finan wasn't looking at her anymore, Sihtric stopped laughing and Osferth's horse was aligned with hers again. 

That day, they stopped an hour before dawn. They made their camp in a clearing, not too far from the road. Nights were still fresh despite the heat coming with the spring, so Ailis started to collect wood for the fire. She knew Finan was doing the same thing, and even if they didn’t take the same direction, after a while they met.

“You don’t miss Ulaid that much, don’t you?” She frowned, not expecting him to understand so easily her mixed feelings. She sighed, leaning down to pick a branch.

“It’s complicated. But it’s where I belonged.” She looked up to him. He relied his shoulder on a trunk as he frowned, not convince by her words.

“Maybe, but is it where you want to be?” Ailis got up, glaring at him.

“It’s where is my duty, Finan.” She answered.

“Duty isn’t the only thing.”

For a moment they stared at each other, trying to judge what were each other’s limits. They didn’t mean to cross the way, but the tension build by Finan’s secret was leading them there. She sighed, turning her back to him and picking another branched.

“How can I expect you to understand?” She growled.

Finan remained silent a moment, knowing what she meant behind her words. He was never the one to follow his duty. His future, he wanted to build it by himself. His blood wouldn’t dictate him who and what he should be.

“I never wanted to be King.” He grumbled.

“Conall never wanted either, but he kept following his duty anyway.” She fumed, suddenly stepping towards him.

“But that’s not me.” He argued, making a step too.

“And the bastard that you say you are to your friends isn’t you either!” She shouted.

She almost instantly held her breath when the last words left her mouth, knowing she spoke to loud. She waited for him to add something. But he said nothing, his jaw twitching as he still held the wood in his arms. He looked down and left her, walking back to the camp.

Ailis sighed, she didn’t mean to be so hard with him. She felt her heart squeeze, feeling guilty. She turned around when she heard a branch cracked on the floor. Osferth was leaving the tree he was hiding behind before freezing when he stepped on the branch. An embarrassed expression was painted on his face as he met Ailis’ eyes. She chewed her inner jaw, wondering if the young warrior heard them.

“S… Sorry.” He stammered his gaze desperately trying to avoid hers.

She stared at him, pretty sure Osferth heard them. But how much did he hear? “You heard us?”

Osferth opened his mouth, searching his words. Ailis loudly exhaled, he heard too much. The former monk started to play nervously with his hands, a question was burning his lips.

“Is it true?” He managed to ask.

Ailis ran her hand behind her neck. “I can’t tell for him Osferth.”

The answer was obvious and Osferth simply nodded before leaving her. She waited a moment before going back to the camp. When she arrived, Finan was lightening the fire, Sihtric next to him was skinning a rabbit he killed. She joined them and put down the wood, forming a pile. She bit her lips, hoping that the Dane would walk away just enough time for her to tell Finan what happened. But he didn’t.

The whole evening, she tried to have a moment with him and when finally, Finan was alone keeping the fire while the others were sleeping, Uhtred joined him before she even had the time to stood up.

 …

  Finan looked back when he heard footsteps approaching him. He easily recognized his Lord and so, he let his eyes get lost in the fire. Uhtred sat next to him, stretching out his hands toward the flame to warmed them. After a moment of silent, filled with the crackling of the campfire, the Dane spoke up.

“Osferth heard you having an argument with Ailis.” Finan’s eyes widened, not expecting such a thing. He loudly swallowed already knowing the direction of the discussion. “She said you aren’t a bastard. Why?”

“Because I am not. I am a perfect legitimate son.” He admitted, his eyes stuck on the flames in front of him.

“Then who are you?” Uhtred’s voice was cold. He couldn’t tell if it was because of mistrust or just deception. He took a moment to answer, enjoying the last second before he had to let himself drown in this old life that he tried so hard to forget.

“I used to be Prince Finan of Ulaid.” He said, turning his head to his Lord. Uhtred’s eyes widened, not expecting such a truth. “The actual King, Conall, he is my little brother.”

Finan sighed as he watched the fire once again. Uhtred was silent, one that meant he was waiting to learn more. He bit the inside of his cheek, memories appearing in his mind.

“I was married to a princess from another kingdom and had two sons. I had lands too, that I inherited from my father. I’ve never been bastard who lost his freedom after a lost battle.” He confessed.

“How did it happen?”

“One day, my brother came back to the castle with a woman, his wife. We fell in love and decided to run down south.” Finan stopped to speak as Moira’s face appeared in his mind. Time blurred it, but he still could feel the warmth of her smile. “But my brother found us.”

He could still hear the screams and footsteps of the guards in the alehouse where they had hidden. The door who had opened in crash as he had pushed Moira behind him. The anger he saw in Conall’s eyes was still making him shiver. He couldn’t remember all the fight he had against him. All he remembered was the feel of the blade cutting his forehead when Moira pushed him before the weapon stopped in the middle of her abdomen.

Finan let out a long shaky sigh. Uhtred’s hand came on his shoulder, squeezing it softly. Memories faded allowing him to speak again. “She died trying to protect me from Conall. He blamed me for her death and enslaved me to punish me.”

Uhtred’s fingers pressed his shoulder a little more before leaving it. The half-Dane knew the weight of the loss of a lover, more than most of them. And somehow, Finan appreciated that he could finally share that pain with him.

“I am sorry.” He said looking back to the flames too. After a while, he spoke again. “And Ailis ? Who is she for you ?”

“She really is a childhood friend. We grew up together in the castle. We used to be close.” Uhtred silently nodded. He threw a branch in the fire, a new question burning his lips.

“Why didn’t you tell us the truth?” Uhtred asked.

Finan frowned, playing nervously with his hands. “Because since the day your brother saved us, this life was over for me. I pledge my sword to you and who I was before couldn’t less matter.”

“I see.” Uhtred laid in the grass, his hands behind his head. “Should I call you Lord now?” He asked, trying to light the mood. Finan chuckled a little. “You should get some sleep. I’ll take my turn.” Uhtred told him .

Finan nodded, standing up. He walked back to his improvised bed, his heart still heavy with the memories.

“You told him?” Ailis’ voice made him jump. He turned around to face her. Her arms were crossed against her chest to protect herself from the cold night. 

“I did.” He answered. His throat was tight. She made a step towards him, looking down to her boots and hiding her sorry expression.

“I tried to warn you. I crossed Osferth when you left.” 

“It's... It's okay.” She looked up to him. His voice was shaking and his wet eyes were glistening under the moon light. 

“Finan...” She whispered.

And Finan cracked. All the tears he held back for years, even during his lonely late nights, streamed down his face. All the pain, the guilt and the anger he kept for himself were suddenly too heavy for him. A sob escaped his mouth as Ailis took him in her arms. He let all his emotions escaped from his body, not caring to be seen. She knew truth and it made it impossible for him to hide this from her. And somehow, it felt like a relief.

She rubbed his back and ran her fingers in his thick dark hair, comforting him silently. She held him close as he tucked his face in the hollow of her neck. Finan sobbed until he fell asleep, his head resting on her thigh while she was sitting against a trunk. It wasn’t a comfortable position, but she didn’t have the heart to push him away. So, even if her back would hurt for the next day of ride, she let him rest, wiping the reminding of tears on his appeased face.

When they left the clear in the morning, Sihtric and Osferth were unusually silent. Ailis suspected Uhtred telling them about his discussion with Finan and the warriors must have many questions. But they didn’t ask any of them, even if it was obvious on their faces, they were dying to do it. Finan barely said a word too, his gaze lost in the landscape.

They finally reach Aegelsburg walls in the middle of the afternoon. The city wasn’t as big as Winchester but certainly as animated. But Ailis didn’t have the time to enjoy it, a man entering the stables as they were alleviating their horses of theirs saddles. It was a tall and thin men who seemed delighted to see Uhtred and his warriors.

“Lord Uhtred, Lady Aethelflead has been warned of your arrival. She’ll wait for you in the throne room.” He announced, his eyes travelling from Uhtred to Ailis. She lifted her head a little, filling his gaze detail her.

“Thank you Aldhelm.” Replied Uhtred, a strange smile on his face. He turned to Finan, Sihtric and Osferth. “I let you with the horses.” Then he shifted to Ailis, moving his head to incite her to follow him.

They walked through the city at a quick pace. Aldhelm and Uhtred took that time to discuss Mercian matters that she didn’t really listen too, her attention being caught by the population around. But sometimes, she could still feel the Mercian eyes on her. She couldn’t tell if it was mistrust or curiosity, but either way, she ignored it.

They finally entered the throne room where a woman was already there, whom Ailis deduced being Aethelflead. She wasn’t as tall as Ailis, but her stature made her taller than she actually was. She was a great beauty with brown hair and pale skin. She offered a warming smile to Uhtred.

“Lord Uhtred.”

“Lady Aethelflead.” He answered on a soft tone.

Ailis narrowed her eyes, feeling the closeness of the two in their way to look at each other. There were more than formalities, she was sure of it. Aethelflead’s eyes fell on her, and as Aldhelm before, she studied her.

“Lord Uhtred, you may introduce the Lady accompanying you.” She said, not removing her gaze from her.

“This is Lady Ailis.” He introduced her, leading his hand towards her.

“Lady Ailis.” Aethelflead repeated, like saying it could give more information about her guest.

“I am from Ulaid, Lady, sent by my King to meet your brother, the King of Wessex.” Ailis explained, making a step in Aethelflead’s direction and holding her hands behind her back.

“In what purpose?” She raised her eyebrows.

“To negotiate an alliance and protect my Kingdom from the Danes.”

Aethelflead frowned and looked to Uhtred. He put his hands on his belt and sighed before beginning his explanation.

“Edward proposed a marriage between his son and one of the princesses of Ulaid, creating an alliance between our two Kingdoms and letting him the possibility to negotiate a peace between Danes and Ulaid.” She lightly nodded, understanding the strategy of her brother. She briefly turned to Aldhelm. He tilted his head a little before she looked back to Ailis and Uhtred.

“Great. But what are you doing here?” She asked.

“Edward sent me to represent me there. But, to cross the sea we need a ship.”

“A mercian ship?” She smiled.

“We’ll take the sea from a Mercian port.” Added Uhtred, a similar smile spreading on his lips.

Aethelflead clasped her hands and took a deep breath.  

“Aldhelm, send a messenger to Chester. One of our ships has to be prepared with a crew before their arrival.” The man lowered his head before leaving the room. “I am sorry I have you leave you, I have matters to do. But will you join us for dinner?” Her voice was more hesitant on her last words.

“Of course, Lady.” He confirmed.

Aethelflead smiled at both of them, taking a little more time to meet Uhtred’s gaze, before leaving the room. Uhtred let out a long sighed, crossing his arms against his chest. That’s when Ailis noticed the subtle redness on his cheeks. The Half-Dane cleared his throat before turning to her.

“Finan told me.” She pinched her lips, waiting for his next sentence. “I’d like to know what will happen to him, if he comes with us.”

Ailis’ eyes left Uhtred’s ones, fixing an inexistent point behind him. “His brother will be pissed. Furious.” She could notice him frowning. Finan was like a brother to him, he cared for him, as much as her. “But Finan is under your protection. And he’ll be under mine too.”

She looked back to Uhtred to see him briefly smile. Both of them knew it wasn’t a good idea that Finan follow them to Ulaid, but they both knew he was too loyal to Uhtred to be left behind. On these words, they left the throne room to join the others and finally rest a little.

 A/N : Honestly i didn’t really like that chapter at first lol. But thanks to @othermoony and her advices I appreciated it more! I am sorry for the long time without update, but with exams I forgot to write for this... Next chapter, they’ll may finally arrive in Ulaid hheheh

Tag :  @geekandbooknerd @sihtric @queen-manning @naihqh @kelly-fasel @cloudjuumpers @limenal @amyyreblogss​ and @queerbroceliande

[hailbop1701]

STAR!!!

Thank you @dreamers-wonderland! This was a lot of fun to back through and talk about! 😅 (Still no beta for this part. I left it as it was when I posted it. )

Only The Beginning Chapter 1: Old Friends

(Writers Commentary) 

The air was freezing and you had been running for a solid hour. Groaning you looked down at your stomach, moving your hand you hissed when it came away soaked in blood. “Damnit,” you growled frustratedly. 

“Can’t run away you fucking bitch!” a voice cried out angrily from behind you. Rolling your eyes you placed your hand back on the gunshot wound in hopes to keep as much blood in your body as possible. The sound of footsteps was getting louder behind you making you sigh heavily, 

“I’m bleeding too much,” you muttered in annoyance. Glancing over your shoulder you quickly duck behind a dumpster. The footsteps slow and come to a jog as they pass your hiding spot. Gritting your teeth you pull the knife from your boot and crept up behind the merc. Steadying your frantic breathing you lunged, plunging the knife into the man’s neck. The merc didn’t make a sound as he crumpled to the ground. Yanking the knife out of the merc’s neck you wiped it clean on the guy’s jacket, 

“Don’t fucking move!” a voice screamed from behind you, huffing a breath you gripped the knife tighter. “Get up and slowly turn around!” the voice screamed again. 

“Okay do you not want me to move or do you want me to get up and turn around?” you asked sassily. The man (You decided) growled, “Get the fuck up. Slowly with your hands where I can see em’ “ 

I wanted the reader in this story to be a bit more out there. She mouths off more and gets into a lot more trouble. Here you can tell she is getting rather fed up with constantly being on the run or “taking care of” mercenaries. She’s constantly feeling guilty for the lives she’s taking and does her best in finding other ways. 

Rolling your eyes you eased the knife back into your boot and lifted your bloody hands into the air. Groaning you slowly rose to your feet and turned to face the paid mercenary aiming a gun at you. “What the hell are you?” he whispered, hands shaking, a flash of pity coursed through you. Taking a deep breath you looked the man dead in the eyes, “Leave the city and never come back. Final warning,” you offered, voice a deadly calm. 

The man shifted nervously, “They’ll kill me,” he hissed eyes darting around as if the UAC was going to jump out and say “Boo!” 

I really wanted to make the UAC a ghost story a company to be feared.  John and the Reader being on the run from them for so long and still being alive is practically unheard of. So they sort of become legends in certain circles. 

You grimaced, “I’ll kill you if you give a reason too, run and get a new line of work,” you ground out starting to feel dizzy from blood loss. The mercenary slowly began to lower his gun, “What are you?” he asked again. 

As he lowered his gun you placed your hand on the bullet wound again, “Honey you don’t wanna know,” you grumbled keeping your hands where the twitchy man could see them, you didn’t need any more holes. 

The merc holstered his weapon, “ They want you, really bad. That guy...Kennex too.” he said eyeing you as you opened up a manhole. Wrinkling your nose at the intense smell of piss, shit, and death. Grunting in pain you lifted the dead man, dragging him toward the manhole. “Yeah they’re persistent this time around,” you muttered finally after dumping the body. The distant splash and grinding of the manhole cover was the only sound between you and the merc. Nudging the cover back into place with the toe of your boot you saw that the merc drifted to your side curiously, 

I actually played around with the idea of having this merc be the ancestor of one of the bridge crew of the Enterprise. Who knows I might still do it.  I kinda left him descriptionless just in case I wanted to use him later. I’m still unsure of who he really is. 

“What are you going to do?” he asked, brows furrowed. “Well, for starters get this mess fixed and maybe take a nap,” you joked lightly moving in the direction of the wall. “I mean with the UAC!” 

Glancing over your shoulder you grin, “I’m going to be a pain in their ass until they leave me and Kennex the hell alone!” 

The reader will go pretty great lengths into protecting her people. Her team, Sam, Duke, and especially John. If you read the epilogue in “To Hell And Back” you would have seen that they spent a whole year running away from the UAC together. A lot of bonding could happen in that time. Though not the kind of bonding you would have liked 😏

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

John unlocked his front door with a quiet sigh, they were no closer to catching the bastard who had been kidnapping and killing young women. He had stopped two weeks ago and the trail is starting to go cold. John kicked his door shut, balancing beer and take out in his hands; he breathed the air and froze. 

Dropping the bags onto a side table John pulled his gun and entered his living room. A shadow sat against the large windows, curled into themselves. “Not exactly how I wanted to see you again but I didn’t have many options,” 

John choked, “(Y/N)?” 

He knew it was her but I think he really didn’t want to believe it. He’s still pretty heartbroken from when they separated and she never called or wrote. Didn’t visit or say anything after he lost his leg.  That’s how I imagined Anna got to him so easily at first. He was still raw and she was the perfect distraction. I’m not gonna beat around the bush so I am going to confirm that John does indeed like the reader a great deal (More than friends) but he hides it not wanting to ruin their friendship. 

You grunted in pain as you pushed yourself off of the ground, “You’ve been shot. Why aren’t you healing?” John asked, holstering his weapon. You rolled your eyes fondly, 

“The bullet is still lodged in there, I can get it out by myself,” you mumbled and hissed in pain. John gave you a look, “You know you don’t have to be shot to see me,” 

You snorted and sat down heavily on a chair, “It’s been five years John, I figured that you would want me to keep my distance,” 

John pressed his lips into a thin line, “I was mad, I only heard from you by the occasional postcards you’ve sent,” he grumbled from across the room. Digging through a series of drawers John looked up at your silence. 

“It’s a really long story,” you sighed shifting in your chair; John grunted pulling a black zip-up bag and a flashlight from the depths of the drawer he was searching through. He crossed the room in quick strides, “You’ll have plenty of time to tell me,” he whispered crouching in front of you. 

Oh he’s still mad but the way I imagined it was that he’s really good at keeping his emotions in check. John is very bottled up and eventually, he will have to unload and it won’t be pretty when he does. 

You huffed a laugh, “Yeah I’m going to be out for a day or two,” John smirked putting the lit flashlight between his teeth, he grabbed a pair of surgical scissors from the black bag. Cutting your shirt open John wiped away the blood with a clean towel, “Why are you in the city (Y/N)?” he asked, his real question is ‘Why were you shot in my city and where is the body?’ 

Clenching your jaw you breathed deeply as John dug around for the bullet stuck in your abdomen. “I’m helping an old friend,” you said cryptically, hands clutching onto the chair’s arms. The metal creaked and groaned under your grip, John raised an eyebrow. 

“(Y/N) what’s going on?”

You took a shaky breath, “The UAC found you and put a rather large bounty on your head,” 

John froze for a millisecond before cursing under his breath, you yelped when he pulled the slug from your abdomen. Dropping it into a glass he quickly placed gauze on the bleeding, healing wound. Panting you dropped your head back, “How many?” his voice was quiet and his eyes practically glowed in the dark. 

You looked away from them, “Four, I convinced the fifth one to find a new line of work,” 

For those of you curious the bounty is million each. The reader and John are full of C24 and if at all possible the UAC wants them brought in alive well at least one of them brought in alive anyway. 

John watched you carefully for a moment; his hand found yours and pried them from the warped remains of the chair. “There are more coming, huh?” he asked quietly. You glanced down at him again, 

“It’s my fault,” sitting up you shook off John’s hands, he sat back on his heels giving you room to breathe. Jumping out of the chair you began to pace back and forth like a caged animal. 

“I found all of them, John. The ARK’s, and I blew them to hell. They-they killed my team and left Hunter in a wheelchair!” You screamed, grabbing the chair and throwing it across the room with a loud crash. John didn’t move or flinch, he simply got to his feet and watched you sadness in his eyes. “It’s my fault, I should have just left them alone,” 

The reader has been on her own for quite some time (five years). She is full of anger and anxiety and is constantly looking over her shoulder. Being in the same place for so long will put her on edge and John will be the only one to keep her calm. He has a talent for it. She constantly blames herself for her actions in destroying the ARKS and she holds a lot of weight on her shoulders. 

 At some point, after I finish the series I was thinking about doing a small series of one-shots/Drabbles to give you happy readers a view into what had happened and adventures that were cut out. Deleted scenes if you will.  

“They were going to find me again eventually (Y/N). It’s not your fault and you know it, and it wasn’t your fault when your team died. Hunter didn’t blame you for the chair either!” John said, keeping his voice calm. He slowly stepped toward you as if moving any more quickly he would scare you off. Tears cascaded down your face, the long sleepless nights, the fighting and, the weight of the world finally catching up to you. 

Quickly turning away you grabbed your discarded coat from the floor and moved away to the open window you came through. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have-” you mumbled moving to your escape inhumanly fast. John was behind you in a second. 

In this story I’m going to definitely be showing the reader and John all superhuman at certain points. They have to be REALLY careful though so they don’t get caught. There will be eyes everywhere and not all of them are the UAC. 

Wrapping his arms around you, he easily held you in place. “Stop. Take a breath,” he ordered softly. The anxiety within you calmed some at his proximity; taking a deep breath you let it out. John loosened his grip some, trusting you not to bolt for the open window. He moved so he could look you in the eyes, 

“You’re running on fumes (Y/N) I can tell. When was the last time you slept or ate?” you avoided his gaze not answering. John hummed not surprised, “You’re going to sleep and in the morning we’re going to figure out how to get the UAC to fuck off,” 

You huffed out a humorless laugh, “John I’ve been dealing with the UAC for almost six years. They won’t stop until they get what they want,” 

“What do they want? Like you said the ARK’s are gone…” he trailed off when your expression became stormy. 

“They want C24. And the only two people left with it are you and me, they’ll kill one of us and capture the other,” you whispered and John was quiet thinking over his words carefully. 

“We made a promise, remember?” He asked with a small smile raising his pinky finger. You couldn’t help but snort, raising your finger you curled it around his. 

The pinky promise thing! I actually came up with that after dreaming about it and I thought it was damn cute and you would never expect it from a guy like John. I think he softens just a bit when the reader is around and sometimes that scares him. It’s sort of like an inside joke between him and the reader. 

“We made a lot of promises John and I broke a lot of them,” you sighed looking at your best friend.

“We did and you had no choice,” he fired back tone forgiving. You scowled annoyed at being forgiven so easily. “Stop being so nice, you’re freaking me out.” 

Yeah, they bicker and banter a lot. They will tease each other obscenely! “Hey, bitch,” “Shut the fuck up asshole,” that type thing. It sounds so mean to an outsider but to them, it's pure affection.  

John nudged you almost playfully, “We promised to look out for one another and you need to ease yourself back into society,” 

You groaned, stomping your feet like a child. Fingers still hooked together John pulled you into a hug, “Stop being an infant and listen,” 

“Stop being an infant and listen,” you mocked and stuck out your tongue. John rolled his eyes and smiled at how easy it was to fall back on routine. 

*Side eyes* Infant...get it? Eh? Anyone? 

“We’ll stop every merc that will come for us and show the UAC that we don’t fuck around,” 

You pulled back a little, eyebrows disappearing into your hairline, “That is the dumbest plan-” 

“It’s brilliant,” he shushed you as he led you into his bedroom. “It’s really bad like we could die or become human pincushions bad,”  you muttered with a shake of your head. 

“I’m not sleeping with you either,” you joked, yelping when John threw a spare t-shirt and sweatpants at your head. “Go take a shower, ass,” 

Walking toward what you assumed was the restroom you shot John a cheeky grin. After you closed the bathroom door John let out a sigh, looking out the window at the falling rain John couldn’t help have a knot in his stomach. Something bad is going to happen and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was going to happen to you. John grabbed a spare blanket and pillow from the bed jaw set. 

Depositing the pillow and blanket onto his new bed John stripped out of his clothes before dropping onto the couch. Getting into a comfortable position he secured his gun under his pillow; sleep being the furthest to his mind he let his thoughts wander. 

He thought about your postcards and your mission. You had been keeping the UAC busy, so busy that until only recently that they had left him alone. He hadn’t exactly been hiding, he’s been making a lot of noise. Causing a stir, maybe in hopes that you would contact him, even if it were to tell him to shut the fuck up. The ARK’s are gone, and the UAC is crumbling into nothing, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll stop or not sell their secrets to someone else so they can swoop in for the kill. 

Postcards don’t really count...especially when they just say a single word on them. The reader and John have a codeword system. So when she would write “Whiskey” on a postcard it means that she’s okay and alive. If she wrote “Tequila” then it would have meant that she’s in trouble. And I’m sort of sure y'all caught on what “Siberia'' means. If you don’t know it means ‘I need to disappear again,’ 

Like I said earlier one-shots and drabbles. It will be a thing...eventually. 

“It’s only the beginning,” he whispered, the truth of the words made him want to shudder. John took a deep breath and listened, the sound of the shower running and you humming softly filled him with warmth. Enough for him to relax and drift off to sleep with the hopes of you still being there in the morning. 

What I had in mind for my lovely sequel was to combine the gritty, horror, and the cracky banter of Doom and Almost Human. So there will be cracky moments, there will be horrific moments, and there will be tension filled moments. The reader and John will get closer and more domestic in this story. Chapter 4 is already up and I’m already outlining number five! 

SO much is going to happen and I’m practically dying here trying to keep it all to myself. 

But like John said “It’s Only The Beginning,” so stay tuned! 

-H ❤🖖

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Everything:

@thottiewithashotgun

@lauraaan182

@writerdee1701

@stileslover13-blog

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[bluezey]

Inside Onward - Drive Crazy

This is a long one, but a fun one,  Speaking of fun, now we’re getting into the good stuff in the emotions story.  And if you think this chapter is hard to follow, first I apologize my writing sucks at best, and second, just you wait...

Ps, I didn’t bother to proofread this one that much, so expect half the emotions to get the wrong pronouns.  I got to stop imagining Riley’s emotions when they’re supposed to be Ian’s emotions

Disgust was at the controls while Fear was looking over Disgust’s shoulder.  Fear had one hand on Disgust’s shoulder and his eyes on the screen. Onscreen, Ian was knelt down by a gas pump, filling the small gas can with ten dollars worth of gasoline.

“Easy, easy,” Fear directed Disgust cautiously.  “It’s only a small amount of gas, we can’t lose a drop.”

Disgust rolled his big emerald eyes.  “I know, Fear.”

Fear closed his mouth and stepped back.  He watched Disgust’s firm hands at the controls, but Ian’s hands appeared trembling. Is it cold outside?  Is that social anxiety glitch happening again?  Fear couldn’t help it as he stepped forward. “We don’t want to spill any on Ian.”

“I get it!” Disgust snapped, just as the pump stopped at the ten dollar cut off.  “You’re scared!  But guess what?  I’m not!”

Joy immediately stepped between the two to break them up.  “Hey, uh, has anyone seen Barley?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“Oh no, Barley.”  Fear looked down at his watch, over ten minutes has passed since Barley scurried off to the gas station bathroom.  “Where could he be?”

“He is about this tiny,” Sadness thought aloud, thinking about unfortunate outcomes.  “Maybe he fell in?”

“Good,” Anger said bluntly.

Fear froze when he heard that familiar little squeak of a pixie biker’s voice.  He then shivered when he hear the little peep of Barley’s voice following.  “Oh no, that’s worse than a toilet.”

Ian quickly finished up at the gas pump before he leaned out from behind it, still hiding for his own good. “Oh no,” Ian whispered, worried for their own good.

The pixie duster biker looked like the leader of the gang, which was the worst part of the gang Barley could tick off.  “Who are you calling whimsical?” the leader snapped.  “You have a lot of nerve!”

“Pixies used to fly around spreading delight,” Barley explained.  “That’s a good thing.”

“Sprites can’t fly,” the leader argued.

“Not anymore,” Barley replied, “because your wings no longer work.”

The leader finished her sugary snack and angrily tossed the wrapper aside.  “You calling me lazy?”

“No, not you,” Barley corrected.  “Your ancestors.”

That wrong choice of words pushed the biker sprite close to the edge.  “What did you say about my ancestors??”

Barley backed away, realizing that he didn’t say that right at all.  “I wouldn’t say lazy…”

“RED ALERT!!” Fear dove onto the console.

With gas can and snacks under his arm and Dad’s leash in his free hand, Ian flew over to where they were standing outside the mini mart.  Ian scooped Barley up in his free hand, too terrified to realize that he was carrying and shaking his big-little-brother like a rag doll. “Sorry!  I’m sorry!  He’s sorry too!” Ian spoke quickly.  “Who needs wings?  You got those cool bikes.”

Barley was finally held close enough to Ian that he could tug on Ian’s shirt collar.  “I was just talking about history,” he pouted quietly, feeling that was quite a rude reaction.

Anger growled, stepping in. “That’s it.  I’m taking over.”  Fear gasped, but couldn’t stop Anger as he slammed his fist down on the console, lighting it up an angry red.

“Barley,” Ian argued at his little-big-brother, “I’m trying to take care of you and dad, and you are not helping.”  Ian shoved his brother into his shirt pocket and yanked on the leash.  “Dad, come on!”

Crash!

Ian tensed up and turned. Behind him was their disguised dad climbing to his feet after getting pulled into the line of pink motorcycles, which are now slanted and fallen onto the concrete.  Ian was frozen with his eyes wide, all he could hear was the rapid pace of his heart beat and the fury of pixies banging on the mini mart door like an aggravated hive of hornets.

Anger slowly released his hands from the console, the emotions all wide eyed like deer in headlights. “That’s not good.”

“Hey!”  The lead biker pointed straight up at Ian, completely enraged. “You’re dead!” she shouted, her threat magnified by one of her brutes shattering a beer bottle for a makeshift weapon.

Fear leaped for the controls and shoved Anger out of the way at the same time.  Ian bolted straight out of there as fast as his long, slender legs could carry him, his brother and a gas can, all while tugging his leashed father behind him.  “We’re dead! We’re dead!  We’re dead!  We’re dead!” Ian chanted in a panic.

“We’re dead!  We’re dead!  We’re dead!  We’re dead!” Fear’s fingers were flying over the console, getting Ian to the van as quick as possible.  Ian reached the passenger side door, then quickly moved to the back of the van when Fear realized in his panic that the van isn’t going anywhere without gas.

Barley managed to hop onto the door handle in that split second Ian’s hand was on the door. “Don’t worry.  They won’t be able to lift those bikes.”

The emotions sighed in relief.

The sudden roar of motorcycle engines revved in the near distance.  “Oh, they are strong,” Barley gasped in shock.

The emotions gasped in fear. “I hate it when he’s wrong!” Fear screamed to the heavens before scrambling at the controls again.

“We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!  We’re gonna die!” Ian repeated as he emptied the gas into the van as quick as he could.  He took a quick second to look over his shoulder, seeing how close the pixies were to them.

“The van’s locked!” Barley called out over the chaos, trying to push the van handle down with his currently little weight.

“What??” the emotions gasped.

“Where are the keys?” Ian raced to the passenger door to see the keys dangling in the ignition of the locked van.  Ian looked over his shoulder, his fear intensifying as he caught sight of the bikers beginning to pull out of the gas station.

Fear pulled his hands back and paced back and forth at the console.  “We’re gonna die!  We’re gonna die!  We’re gonna die!”

Barley noticed the passenger side window cracked open, by just an inch, but thankfully he was just small enough at the moment to squeeze through.  He used all his might to jump up and grab the edge of the glass.  “I got this!” he said as he pulled himself through the window and flopped down by the door lock.

“Yay, Barley!” Joy cheered.

“He needs to unlock the door,” Sadness pointed out.

“Here they come,” Disgust pointed to the screen at the bikers down the road and approaching fast.

“Come on, Barley!” Ian called out through the window at his little-big-brother.

With all his might, Barley pulled on the lock until it finally loosened.  Barley was thrown back by his might, landing on the passenger seat, before he got up and hopped into the driver’s seat.

In a quick motion, Ian shoved dad, the gas can and the snacks into the back, sat down in the passenger seat, and slammed the door shut.  “Now go!  Go! Go! Go!”

“Why aren’t we moving?” Fear shouted.  He then noticed Barley in the driver’s seat, blatantly too small to drive his van. Fear backed away, not liking where this is going.  “No. No. No, no, no, no.”

“Oh no,” Ian whispered. “No, no, no, no, no.”

“You’re gonna have to!” Barley exclaimed.

“I can’t have to!  I mean, we can’t do this!” Fear shouted in panic.

“Move over!” Anger punched Fear in the side, knocking him over and clearing Fear of the console.

Fear fell flat on the floor before scrambling to his knees.  He clung to the console, watching Ian climb into the driver’s seat.  “We can’t do this!” he exclaimed in fright.

“We have to!” Joy exclaimed back, just as worried for Ian.

“We got no choice!” Disgust snapped, in more fact that sarcasm.

Anger was attempting to type in a command when Fear began pressing some buttons of his own. Instead of Ian reaching for the keys, Ian reached for the seat belt and buckled up.  Anger eyed the screen, upset that his command was ignored.  “Hey, what the?”

“You’re too angry to drive!” Fear yelled as he climbed to his feet.

“Last thing Ian needs is to be scared!” Anger shouted, pointing his thick finger into Fear’s face.

Fear was hyperventilating, he could feel those trembling chills creep up his spine.  But, with his focus on Ian, he tried to push through and push Anger’s hand away from his nose.  “Ian needs to be safe!  He’s behind the wheel of a rickety tin tank with irate pixies chasing him!”

“We have no time for this!” Anger snapped.

“You’re right!” Fear screamed.  Followed by silence, with Anger fuming but surprised Fear admitted he’s right, and Fear realizing that Ian does need Anger.  But, he needs Fear too.  Trying to calm his voice, Fear looked to Anger.  “You focus on driving, I’ll focus on keeping Ian safe.”  Anger glared, but nodded.  With Fear standing alert at his side, Anger began to input controls.

Ian shoved the key into the ignition, he turned it a few times, but the engine shuddered, trying and failing to roll over.  “Why won’t it start?”

“There’s a sweet spot,” Barley explained as he climbed onto the shoulder of the driver’s seat.  “Not in the middle, not quite at the end.”

Anger watched as Anger tried the same combination of buttons and dials, even similar ones.  Fear could hear that engine sputter and strain, but to him it felt like the engine refused to listen to Ian.  Why does everything have to go wrong?  “Come on… come on…” Anger growled, getting agitated.  The pixies were growing ever closer, and appeared to be just feet away from the van now.  In a panic, Fear input a similar combination of commands in tandem with Anger.

Ian pressed his cheek against the steering wheel and squeezed his eyes tight.  “Come on, Guinevere!” he almost begged as he desperately turned that key once more.

Guinevere struggled with all her might, before revving a braying growl as she came to life.

“It worked?” Fear asked in quiet shock.

“It worked!” Joy jumped with joy.

“Put it in ‘O’ for ‘Onward!’” Barley told Ian.

Anger glared at the ‘O’ covering the ‘D’ on the gear shift.  “Gargamon’s Tail, do I want to hate him,” he growled as he input the commands.

Ian put Guinevere in drive, slammed his foot on the gas pedal, and peeled out onto the onramp. The emotions cheered, proud of their Ian and encoruaging Fear and Anger.  Their celebration was cut very short as the driver’s side window erupted into a shatter of glass.  Fear shrieked as he grabbed levers, turned dials and pressed buttons.

“Drive!  Drive!” Barley shouted, as Ian sped up to get away from the pixies, who were now on Guinevere’s tail.

Fear trembled as he saw the onramp end, merging onto the highway.  “Ohhhh, no,” he whimpered.

“You’re going to have to merge,” Barley told Ian.  Ian looked over his shoulder at the oncoming semi.

Fear’s eyes grew wide as he loudly whimpered, “We can’t merge in front of that!”  Anger pressed a few buttons, and Guinevere began to merge. Acting fast, Fear quickly pressed a few buttons, and Guinevere jerked back out of traffic.

“I drive!” Anger snapped.

“I keep him safe!” Fear snapped back, in more fright than rage.

“No,” Sadness sniffled.

Joy sighed, “No, Fear.”

“Back off,” Disgust groaned. “Let Anger drive.”

Fear knew he had to listen to the others, but his own thoughts were louder.  Anger tried to input his commands again, but Fear countered with his.

Ian tried to merge again, but psyched himself out and pulled Guinevere back onto the quickly ending onramp. “I can’t!”

“Yes, you can!” Barley told Ian.

Anger tried again, Fear tried to hesitate, but quickly countered again.

“I’m not ready!” Ian shouted.

“You’ll never be ready!” Barley shouted back, in some strange defiant way of encouragement. “Merge!”

Fear was in the middle of countering again when he heard Barley.  He stopped, he looked at Anger.  He’ll never be ready.  Fear will never be ready.  Fear will never be ready for when Ian finally drives, when Ian is behind a wheel of a dangerous machine.  But, everyone does.  There’s no fighting it.  Second guessing himself, Fear held up his hands and backed away, letting Anger take control.

Cutting it close, between a semi’s grille and a guardrail, Guinevere successfully merged into traffic, all thanks to Ian.

Fear exhaled in relief, followed by catching his breath.  It wasn’t long before a loud bang and a reckless tilt of Guinevere caused Fear to tense up and squeak in fear.  

Guinevere rocked back onto her four wheels, and Barley climbed into the open passenger side window. “Hey!  Don’t hit Guinny!” he shouted angrily at the bikers.

“Barley!” Ian scooped his little-big-brother into his hand and perched him back onto his shoulder.

“Phew,” Fear gasped.

Barley caught sight of the traffic ahead causing their lane to slow.  However, the lane next to them was still going fast.  “Get around em.”

“They’re not letting me in,” Ian replied.

“Signal,” Barley told Ian.

Ian blindly brushed his hand on the side of the steering wheel, but only felt frayed wires where a signal shift should be.  “You don’t have a signaler!”

“What car doesn’t have a signaler?” Disgust scoffed.

“This is bad,” Fear panicked.  “How do we signal without a signaler?”

“Hold your left arm straight out the window,” Barley informed Ian.

Fear paused for a second. “Oh.”  He then pulled the left lever in front of him.

Ian held his left hand straight out the wide open driver’s side window.  Just as he was merging into the next lane, he felt something slap against his wrist and wrap tightly.  Ian turned to see a thick metal chain wrapped around his wrist.

“Oh no!” Sadness gasped.

“Who has one of those!” Joy exclaimed in disbelief.

“It’s a biker gang, Joy!” Disgust replied to Joy.

Ian was attempting to grab at the chain with his free hand, but quickly pulled it back onto the steering wheel to readjust.  As Fear kept attempting to help Ian free his wrist, he caught sight of Barley climbing across Ian’s outstretched arm.  “What in Feldar’s name is he doing?” he asked in shock.

“Get back here!” Ian called out to Barley.

“Just keep driving!” Barley shouted back over the wind outside the window.

“You heard him,” Anger said as he kept focus on driving.

“But he’s in danger!” Fear exclaimed in panic.

“We got this!” Anger snapped.

“Uh, guys?” Disgust pointed to the vitals on the console.  “Ian’s arm is straining.”

Ian looked out the window to see a bunch of pixie bikers controlling one bike while two hold onto the other end of the chain.  They merged one lane over, stretching the chain out, holding it and Ian’s arm out in front of an oncoming semi.

“We don’t got this!!” Ian screamed, clinging to Anger.

“Barley!” Ian cried out in fear.

Barley gave a hard punch to nudge that last link loose, unraveling the chain from Ian’s arm. Fear quickly pushed the left lever forward, pulling Ian’s arm back inside where it belongs.

“The mountains are north!” Barley pointed to an interstate exit sign up ahead.  “You have to get all the way over!”

Fear saw a small enough gap in traffic, he pressed a few buttons, causing Ian to quickly jolt Guinevere into the next lane.  The quick and abrupt jostle of the car caused the blinded and dazed Dad to fall over onto Ian, blocking his view as the disguised half dangled out the driver’s side window.  “Not now, dad!” Fear shouted as he got Ian to shove Dad back into the back of the van. Catching his breath, Fear glanced over to see if it’s safe to merge over again.  Instead of a clear escape, there was a bunch of furious pixies on a pink motorcycle to Guinevere’s left.  Giving a loud yell, a flurry of pixies leaped off the bike and through the window.

Fear kept shaking his head, trying to see through the barrage of pixies crawling over the screen and blocking Ian’s sight.  “What’s happening?  What’s happening?  I can’t see anything but pink, leather and sparkles!”

Disgust checked on the vitals.  “No, they’re hurting Ian!  We have to stop them!”

“How?  We can barely see the road!” Fear shrieked.

“Something! Anything!  They’re scratching up his face!”  Frustrated, Disgust pushed Fear away and took over at the controls.

“No!!” Fear shoved Disgust aside, trying to gain control.

Joy saw Fear fight for control and exclaimed, “Good idea!  Everybody help Ian!  He needs us!” Joy and Sadness squeezed into the crowd at the console and began inputting commands.

Barley was busy fighting off a lone pixie on the passenger seat, all the while calling out to his brother, struggling at the wheel.  “Ian, stay focused!”

“I can’t!” Ian cried out, barely able to maintain his lane through all the chaos blocking his vision and attacking his face.

“Joy, what are you doing?” Fear called out when he caught sight of the yellow emotion.  “Ian doesn’t need to be happy now!”

“I’m trying to help!” Joy called back.

“Keep focused or we’re all dead!” Barley shouted, a little choked through the pixie strangling his neck with the buckle of a seat belt.

Ian had no hope of focusing. Not with a handful of pixies crawling all over his face, scratching and biting and pulling and punching.

Fear attempted with the other emotions to try any combination of buttons and dials on the console they can think of, but couldn’t focus through all the chaos going on.

Barley managed to choke out through his struggling, “Just… stay cool!”

Fear immediately stopped what he was doing and stood up straight.  “Stay cool… stay cool!” Fear bolted across the floor to the shelves with the idea bulbs.  He picked one from a shelf, ran back to the console and shoved it into the idea bulb holder.

Ian turned his attention to the air conditioner on the dash.  Struggling through the chaos, he reached for the controls, turning the vents on. A cold, strong blast of air blew through Guinevere, forcefully blowing the pixies off of Ian and out the window.

Barley cheered as his opponent went flying out the window as well.  “Way to go, Guinevere!”  Losing his grip to the wind, Barley went flying out the window.  Within a split second, Ian leaned out the window and gripped tiny Barley tight in his hand.

“Phew!” Fear sighed as he peeled himself off the console.

“Is it over?” Sadness asked.

As Ian pulled tiny Barley back inside, Barley pointed to an exit sign passing them by.  “We’re not gonna make it!”

“Oh, yes we are!” Anger proclaimed as he took control.

“I want this to end!!” Fear pleaded as he took over alongside Anger.

With his left arm stretched out the window, Ian merged over the remaining lanes of traffic and onto the exit ramp, barreling through a bunch of highway barrels along the way. Once the screaming and panic died down, all that remained was awkward silence.  “Is it safe?” Fear asked.

“Dad, are you okay?” Ian called out to the back of Guinevere, looking into the rear view mirror to see Dad in his disguise, trying to flail back up onto his feet through all the jostling and jolting in the van.

Barley laughed to himself as he stood on Ian’s shoulder.  “He’s fine. All thanks to the driving skills of Sir Ian Lightfoot.”

Disgust smirked. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but big bro’s right.”

“We did it!  Ian’s a driver!” Joy cheered, hugging Joy and Disgust together into his glowing yellow arms.

“Don’t touch me,” Anger growled.

Sadness looked over at Fear, who was nervously smiling at the screen.  “Nice job with the idea, Fear.”

Fear glanced over at Sadness, blushing a bit of purple across his cheeks.  “Oh, heh.  You saw that.”  Fear immediately snapped his attention back to the screen when he heard a loud slap ring loudly through Headquarters.  “What the heck was that?”

Disgust pointed at the vitals display on the console.  “Uh, why is Ian suddenly feeling sharp pain?”

“Are the pixies back?” Fear took control as the emotions gathered at the console.

“What’s going on?” Ian asked in complete confusion and surprise.  He tried to keep his hands on the wheel and his focus on the road, but between the stinging pain in his cheek, and Barley’s arm suddenly growing back to its normal size, he had no clue what was happening.

Barley’s head shot back to regular size as he exclaimed, “I think the spell is wearing off!”  Barley’s body plumped back to his normal size, shoving Ian down into the driver’s seat.

“Ew!  We’re trapped under his butt!” Disgust shrieked as Anger took over.

“Get off my face!” Ian struggled to stay on the road while attempting to shove Barley off of him. With Barley fully resized back to normal, he climbed back into the passenger seat as Ian pushed himself back up into the driver’s seat.

Joy suddenly noticed something glowing in the rear view mirror.  “Ooh, pretty lights.”

Fear tensed.  “I hear sirens.”

Sadness sighed.  “That’s not good…”

Ian looked over his shoulder to verify the worst case scenario.  “Shantar’s Talon!  Cops!”

“Pull over!” Barley suggested.

“I don’t have a license,” Ian worried.

“My wallet’s still tiny!” Barley declared in shock.

Guinevere pulled over as Fear began to pace the floor.  “What are we going to do?  How are we going to explain?”

“Maybe they’ll believe us if we say we were chased by pixies,” Joy thought aloud.  “Or maybe if they had a magnifying glass, they can still validate Barley’s license.”

“Yeah, Joy,” Disgust added sourly. “And unicorns would fly out of our butts.”

“We need a plan or we’re going to jail!” Anger snapped.

Fear groaned, rubbing his sore temples.  “This night can’t get any worse…”

Sadness pointed to the screen and stated, “Dad just walked out of the van.”

“What??” the other emotions exclaimed.

Ian and Barley were hiding in their seats and watching in silent shock as Dad was stumbling out of the back of the van, in full disguise.  The two cops got out of the vehicle and approached him, believing him to be an actual person.  While the cops were distracted, Ian and Barley crept out of Guinevere through the driver’s side door and hid in front of the van, with nothing but the headlights illuminating their panicked faces as they were knelt down in the dirt.

“They’re gonna take dad,” Ian whispered in complete disbelief and horror.

“Oh no, they’re gonna take dad,” Sadness cried.

“They better not take our dad,” Anger snarled.

“What are we gonna do?” Fear yelped.

“Oh, I got it.” Barley explained to Ian as he drew the plans in the dirt.  “A disguise spell.  It’s a special spell where you can disguise yourself as anyone you want.”

“That’s perfect!” Joy cheered.

“That’s not!” Fear shot back, trembling as he remembered what happened when Ian failed at the growth spell.

“What if I mess it up again?” Ian asked.

“The decree says ‘To disguise yourself is a lie, so you must tell the truth to get by,” Barley explained. “As long as you don’t tell a lie, the spell will be fine.”

“What?” Anger snapped, completely irritated by such a confusing statement.

“How do we not lie?” Fear asked, squeezing his sides.

“Oh, let Disgust do it!” Joy pointed to Disgust. “She’s the best at lying.”

Disgust was touching up his hair with a few strokes of his comb.  “Yeah, I am.  But if that staff gives Ian one more splinter, I’m done.”

“Okay,” Fear said, still unsure about this, “but there’s still one more problem.”

“Who are we gonna be?” Ian asked Barley.

“They’re cops, right? Then why not disguise ourselves as Officer Bronco?”  Barley quietly passed the wizard staff to Ian.  “Just wave the staff in front of yourself and say ‘Illusio Facadis.’”

“Uhm, okay,” Ian whispered as he took the staff.

“Oh, and I want to be the front,” Barley added.

“The front?”  Disgust nearly gagged at the thought of Ian’s face being near Barley’s butt again.  He immediately pressed a button while holding his hand over his mouth.

“No way,” Ian replied. “I’ll do the talking.”  Before Barley could respond, Ian was already waving the staff in front of himself and whispered, “Illusio Facadis.”  Ian and Barley were enveloped in a bright aura of magic that quickly dissipated.  Ian looked down at his hands, now wrapped around a thin veil of magic that gave an illusion of Colt Bronco’s hands.  In front of him, he could barely make out a thin veil of magic that hid him and Barley, now bent down behind Ian as the “back,” in a realistic vision of Officer Bronco.

Meanwhile, Headquarters was glistening from the console out, covered in magic.  The only ones not encased in the glow were the emotions themselves.  “Ooh, sparkly.”

“We get it, Joy.  You like pretty things,” Disgust said before putting his hands on the controls.  “Now let’s go save dad.”

The first few steps were pretty stumbly, making Fear question if this was going to work.  But, just as the two brothers appeared from around the van, they got the hang of it.  Ian cleared his throat.  “What seems to be the problem off-… police folk?”

Ian spoke clearly, but inside Headquarters, the emotions could clearly hear Ian, along with the echo of Bronco speaking simultaneously.  “Ooh, neat,” Joy cooed.

Anger nodded.  “That is pretty cool.”

The disguise had the cops fooled, as the cyclops one asked, “Bronco?  You were in that van?”

“Affirmative,” Ian replied, as Bronco, “and we- I will take full responsibility of that person you have there, so you can release him over to me.”

“Bronco,” the faun cop asked, “I thought you were working the other side of town tonight.”

“I changed my mind,” the Bronco disguised Ian replied.

Suddenly, a loud buzzer rang through Headquarters, and some of the magic faded from the corner of the Headquarter’s ceiling.  “Huh? What happened?” Joy asked.

“Look, Ian’s ear.” Sadness pointed to the corner of the screen.  On the edge of Ian’s vision, the emotions could see where there used to be Colt’s ear, there was now Ian’s ear.

Fear shrieked and quickly keyed in a few button on the console, causing Ian to jerk his head to the side to hide his ear.  Disgust grunted in frustration as he tried to pretend to be Colt again.

“Something wrong?” the cyclops cop asked, now shining her flashlight on what she assumed was Bronco.

“Just a little neck cramp,” Ian replied… then quickly hid his now exposed hand behind his back.

Fear watched the magic fade from one wall of Headquarters.  “No!  It’s not working!”

“This is impossible!” Disgust snapped.  “How am I supposed to lie without lying?”

Barley whispered to Ian, “Try answering a question with a question.”

“Seriously?” Disgust said, eyeing Barley oddly.

“Anyone else got any ideas?” Anger asked, frustrated at this whole fiasco.

“Bronco,” the cyclops cop asked, “what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Ian asked.  “What is… any of us doing here?”

The faun cop’s eyes grew wide.  “Wow... I never thought about it like that.”

Joy smirked at Disgust. “See, Barley gets it right once in a while.”

“With all due respect, you didn’t answer my question,” the cyclops cop responded, not easily fooled like her partner.

Disgust threw his hands in the air.  “That’s it. I’m done.  Someone else be Bronco.”

“Let me try!” Joy took over at the console.

“We were just running some driver’s education drills with… Ian,” Ian replied, then after a short beat, gave a wavering smile.

The emotions were looking around Headquarters, neither hearing a buzzer nor seeing the magic around them fade further.  “Huh? That worked?” Anger asked.

“I’m just as surprised as you are.” Fear shrugged.

“Ian?”  The faun cop looked over at Dad, in his full disguise, sitting on the hood of the cop car.  “Oh, is that Laurel’s kid?”

“Ian… is Lauren’s kid,” Ian replied.

“Nice one, Joy,” Sadness commented.

The cyclops cop turned to the Bronco disguised Ian.  “Your kid was swerving all over the road.”

“Yeah, well,” Ian said, “that guy’s not all there today.”

“Yeah,” the cyclops cops thought aloud, “he does seem a little off.”  She then began approaching the Bronco vision, becoming further suspicious. “You seem a little off yourself.”

Joy pulled his hands off the console.  “I got… I got nothing.”  He looked to the other emotions.  “Does anyone have something?”

“No,” Sadness replied.

“Nuh uh,” Disgust shrugged.

“My mind’s a total blank,” Anger said.

As the emotions huddled together, debating how to respond, Fear backed away, squeezing himself tight, as he could feel every single second pass by, too much time passing by.  He looked up at the screen as he bumped into the console, all he could see was the blinding light from the cyclops cop’s flashlight.  Acting fast, Fear grabbed at the controls.

“Well, if I’m gonna be honest,” Ian began to confess as Bronco, “I’m not truly great at these kinds of situations, and I’m starting to freak out a little bit, and I don’t know what to say, and my hands are sweaty, and I feel like a total weirdo…” The more Ian spoke, the more his nerves became undone, until…

“Fear!” Anger snapped, noticing the purple memories pouring into short term.  “What do you think you’re doing?  We’re trying to not make Ian act suspicious!”

“But too much time was passing,” Fear panicked as he explained, “and I was trying not to make Ian lie, so I tried the truth, and-“

“Hold on, hold on,” the cyclops cop interrupted.  “I know exactly what’s going on here?”

Fear froze.  “She does?”

“Uh, you do?” Ian asked.

The cyclops cop paused a moment before replying, “It’s not easy being a new parent.  My girlfriend’s daughter’s got me pulling my hair out, okay?” she said with a smile.

Ian returned a nervous, albeit calm, smile.  “Oh, uh, yeah.”

Anger had his mouth agape as he looked at the screen.  “Huh.” Joy gave Fear a pat on the back, making Fear chuckle nervously.

“Okay, we can let him go,” the cyclops cop said.

Ian immediately grabbed Dad and shoved him back into the back of Guinevere.  “Thanks very much, officers.  You two keep working hard, or hardly working,” Ian laughed, attempting Colt’s trademark braying laughter.

Barley smiled up at Ian and whispered, “Now that’s a good Colt.”

“Yes.  Yes it was,” Fear chuckled to Joy at the controls.

“I don’t blame you, Bronco,” the faun commented.  “That Lightfoot kid is a handful.”

“I have to disagree with you there,” Ian replied.  “I think Ian is a standup citizen.”

“Not him,” the faun said. “The older one.”

Ian’s face fell.  “What?”

Joy’s face fell.  “What?”

“He’s kind of a screw up,” the faun admitted.  “You can’t say that you don’t agree.”

“Uh, I don’t,” Ian replied.

Joy jumped as he felt the area of floor next to her lose its magic glow as the fateful buzzer rang throughout Headquarters.  Joy was both shocked and confused.  “What?”

Barley saw Colt’s front leg turn back into Ian’s leg.  “What?” he whispered to himself.  Ian looked over his shoulder at Barley’s reaction.

Acting fast, Fear shoved Joy away from the console and quickly took over.

“Well, uh, okay,” Ian stammered, while trying to back out of there and into the van as quickly as possible. “I gotta go.  Gotta get Ian home.”  Buzz. Ian’s other arm was exposed.  “I mean, I’m late for work.”  Buzz.  Colt’s back half disappeared.  Barley and Ian climbed into the driver’s side door, each excuse Ian gave causing the spell to fade further and further until the spell and disguise finally broke, just as they got in the van.  Barley grabbed the wheel and took off, Ian climbed into the passenger seat.

Once Ian was finally safe, Fear turned to Joy.  Joy was standing out in the open, with the other emotions staring at her.  Joy looked just as confused as everyone else.

“Joy?” Fear asked in shock. “You lied?”

“No,” Joy replied in surprise.  “I didn’t lie, I swear.”

“Oh, come on,” Anger snarled.  “We heard the buzzer.  You saw the spell fail.”

“But I didn’t lie,” Joy defended himself.  “I love Barley.  He’s our older brother.”

“But, the spell,” Fear began.

Disgust interrupted, “Fear’s right.  The spell failed.  You lied. It’s just that simple.”

“What?  No!” Joy was beginning to act like he was protecting himself, trying to clear his name.

Even Sadness was showing doubt.  “Joy?”

“Sadness, you know me,” Joy assured Sadness.  “I love Barley.  I mean, genuinely love Barley.  You guys love him too, but you just tolerate him.  I actually like the embarrassing, stupid things he does.  They’re so innocent and charming.  He’s like a kid.  Well, kid at heart.  He’s way too big to be a kid.  And…” Joy noticed Fear, looking over in silence, mouth agape.  “Fear?”  Joy and the other emotions looked where Fear was staring.  Their eyes grew wide and their mouths dropped.

Family Island was up and running.

The emotions raced to the window, as if getting closer to the island would prove they were just seeing things.  But it only proved how real this was.

“Ian?”  Fear couldn’t believe he was going to ask this.  “Ian lied?”

Joy shook his head.  “No.  No, that can’t be right.  Barley is Ian’s big brother.  M-maybe something’s wrong with the core memory.”  Joy raced over to the core memory holder.  He was just about to open it when something forcefully held him back.

“No!” Fear exclaimed. “The core memories are the most important memories that make Ian, Ian.  They are safe inside the core memory holder at all times.  Right?”

Joy nodded.  “Right.  Right. How silly of me.”

Fear was going to continue his rant, until he realized how quiet it was.  Or, according to the screen, quiet inside Guinevere.  “Barley!  We gotta get back to the console!  Everyone! All hands on deck!  We gotta fix this!”

The emotions all immediately ran to the console.  Except for Anger, who took a moment to glare suspiciously at the core memory holder safely nestled in the floor before heading back to work.

[alexandermanes]

halloween week, day two - the hunt

hi! welcome to day two of my halloween week fic! This one is a werevolf au, tw for blood, graphic descriptions of gore and werewolf transformation

IT BELMANES CENTRIC OK BC I ALWAYS WRITE MALEX

summary: the pod squad is a wolf squad and jesse manes hunts them down 

ao3

The moon was set high in the sky as six pairs of legs galloped on the sterile sandy soil in Roswell, New Mexico; soft thick fur dancing in the wind. Usually people steered clear from the desert once the sun had set. Tonight was a full moon which always meant agonizing metamorphosis, bones cracking, nails and fur growing, eyes glowing, teeth piercing through flesh; blood, so much blood. With every full moon came the reminder of their curse, but it also brought a foreign sense of freedom, such as running through the desert as a wolf, something so primal and common amongst various animals, something that ordinary human beings could never experience it.  

Freedom wasn’t something Michael, Isobel and Max ever experienced since their conception; the lack of freedom was passed down from generation to generation. The curse was bearable, despite excruciating, but it had its perks, though the witch that cursed their bloodline could have never predicted that once their ancestors set foot in a supposedly uninhabited “new” land they’d be persecuted by men. Not just any men, men from the same bloodline. Man who they came to know as Manes men. Maybe the witch had predicted their fate after all, an addition to their misery. With each generation of their family the tale of their curse became more and more unclear, trapped in a fog set by time, the story’s veracity crumbled; instead of a single myth there were many and each family knew a tale that diverged slightly or enormously from the original one. However, the witch’s name or her family’s name were unknown, the only common denominators in all versions of the story of the family’s curse.      

For years the Manes have hunted them and for years they traveled through the country, hiding and never staying in one place for too long yet here they were, back in Roswell after all this time. The Manes were relentless, always somehow one or two steps behind, breathing down their necks even if indirectly, they were powerful people, hunters nonetheless. And hunters, like beasts, were drawn to the smell of shed blood. Though their families vowed to never harm a hair in a human’s head the target in their heads never seemed to waver, not to the Manes.

Soon, it would be dawn, and they would morph into their human form again, and the cycle would repeat itself for other five days until the full moon would transitioned to a quarter moon. Feeling the soothing approach of dawn, Isobel directed her pack, her brothers to the nearest cave, a cave they strategically left clothes and blankets in for once they were back to being bipeds again.

“So, what’s the plan, Iz?”, Michael asked as he put on his shirt, his back to his siblings, as they had their backs turned to him too. The bare minimum of privacy.

“Survive the week, move the next”  

Once the rustling of clothes ceases silence settled, an indication they were all decent, Michael looked at his siblings, something dark settled in his features

“Y’know, this would all be done with if we got rid of them”

“All of them?”, Isobel asked pointedly, her tone imbued in annoyance

“Well-“

“Well, all of them except your precious Alex, that is”

“He is not like them”, Michael remarked wearily and slightly offended on Alex’s behalf

“They are all the same. They are all monsters”

“Izzy-“

“Michael, please. I get it, okay? You’re in love”, her brother chocked on air as if her words were some kind of revelation, “doesn’t automatically undo all the things his family did to ours”

Michael and Isobel were tied by blood, but not like her and Max, Michael was her cousin but in every way that counted he was her brother and despite being a thick-skulled, one-track minded asshole sometimes, he was and forever would be her brother. Even if he fell for a Manes man, the same men that-

No, she was not going there.

“Let’s go have breakfast”, she offered and both brothers nodded, acquiescing silently

-

   Sunlight streamed through The Crashdown’s window’s, soft and feather-like warmth enveloped the siblings. The diner was mostly empty given the fact that it was early in the morning, before seven o’clock. They were greeted by a smiling and antennae-wearing Liz Ortecho, who seemed genuinely glad to see them after so many years, and it had Max blushing just by being the receiving end of her smile.

After ordering their morning coffee and skimming through the pages on their menu, finally they ordered their breakfast food.

“It’s good to be back”, Max sighed into his coffee

“Is it though?”, Isobel muttered under her breath, still analyzing the menu, her light brown wig looking a bit more like her actual hair

“Okay, Izzy. I’d get the morning crank, if it was all that this”, Max zig-zagged his finger in her direction, looking suspicious under his baseball cap, “was about. Which it ain’t, so talk to us, Izzy”, he looked at her with his puppy hazel eyes earnestly and all her irritation melted away and grew subsequently like a cart on a rollercoaster ride.

“Fine”, she squinted her light green eyes and glared at her brothers, “I’m tired of running”, she says matter-of-factly, “if they want to come for us I say let them try to take the first swing”

“Wait”, Max says at the same time Michael chokes on his omelet

“Isobel are you sure this isn’t about -“

“Don’t”, she interrupts him menacingly, green eyes sparkling with rage and something else entirely “don’t start, Max”

“Isobel”, he tries again

“Please”, she pleads a bit too loudly earning a concerned and quizzical look from Liz and Arturo

“Okay”, her brother relents, “but we still need to talk about this”, his voice is soft but his eyes are stern, nothing short of determination, “we’ve let you call the shots, wherever you pointed to we just followed behind. Now though, staying here? With the Manes around, in their hometown? We at least need to talk about it”

Michael and Isobel nod in acquisition knowing this problem will resurface sooner rather than later.

-

               In the afternoon, Isobel and her brothers plopped down and huddled together on the small sofa inside the Bunker beneath the Sanders Auto, ready to discuss what they’d postponed for too long.

“So”, Max started, “why are we here?”

“Uh, we can’t exactly go outside and walk around like actual p-“

“Enough with the games, Isobel”, uttered wearily

“Fine”, she shouted, she adjusted her posture, back straight, predatorily so, like a snake about to lunge at its prey

“I meant what I said when I told you I was tired of running”, Isobel explained more calmly, “So I said fuck it. We can start over here and if they try anything, well”, her unfinished sentence hung threateningly in the air.

After a couple of seconds, Michael spoke: “Then what?”

“You said it yourself, Michael”, her reply is devoid of any emotion except determination

“What? We kill them?”, disbelief embedded in his query

“You were right”, she turned her body towards her brother, assessing him with her piercing gaze, “This went on for far too long and I’m done with fleeing from a place to another, never settling down for more than a couple of months then moving across the country. I mean don’t you want more from life?”

“Listen, I’m all for killing the Jesse Manes and his minions. But don’t you think we need a plan? We can’t go in bearing our canines and growling, it’s gonna get us killed”

“Since when do you plan for anything, Michael?”

“Since it comes as a matter of life and death, Isobel!”, he screams, scrambling to his feet

The youngest fits the eldest, Max, a worried glance, prompting him to chime in, to say anything about their sister’s all but suicidal plan if you could call that a plan really. Max suddenly looks at both his feet and exhales deeply and turns to Isobel, his voice barely above a whisper:

“This is about Noah, isn’t it?”

Immediately, her eyes fill with tears at the mention of her ex-fiancé, she turns away and starts pacing, meanwhile Michael and Max stare at her, the first wide-eyed and mouth slightly agape, the other unfazed.

“Iz-“

“No, Michael. You don’t get to say anything!”, she points her wavering finger to him as tears pour out of her very soul, “You get to be happy, you get to be have the person you love because that person can protect you. I don’t”

In truth, Isobel loved Noah, she really did, though it might not have been the constant butterflies and fire in her belly like she imagined romantic love to be. In all her years, the constant moving and fear that permeated her life, no partner ever stood by her side like Noah did, not that she had had many, she never needed to, she had Noah, and he was loyal and understanding of her wishes, until he wasn’t. Not that blame fell upon him for their failed relationship, but neither did it fall on her: it wasn’t her fault. Eventually the lack of stability conjoined with lack of explanation as to why they had to move at all took a toll on their relationship and it came to bitter end. And Isobel, always fierce and defying, couldn’t find it in her to confess her secret to her, at the time, partner, because it meant risking the lives of everyone she loved. And it’s not like she had any friends, she had none, haven’t been able to keep people that aren’t related by blood to her.

Hopeless, Isobel lived her everyday trying to convince herself she wasn’t meant to find any happiness in this lifetime. Despite knowing not to risk the lives of her family, she yearned for something and as that struggle grew tenfold, she faltered and here they were. She tried to find happiness in anything else in her life but without Noah, her life seemed ever bleaker than before and something inside her cracked, like a clock’s engine giving out and suddenly she was unable function properly. Thus, she decided to drag her brothers back to Roswell in a moment of weakness.

“It’s not fair”, she croaks, “This curse, it took everything from us”

“Not the curse”, Michael corrected her gently and squeezed her shoulder tenderly, “The Manes”

“What’s the difference at this point?”, she sniffled, and fit her head on the crook of Michael’s neck, burying her woeful face

Max finally stands and trudges towards his siblings and puts his hands on the shoulder that’s not embraced by Michael

“Iz, you can’t. I know you miss him, but if you see him again you might break and he can’t know”, Max explained

“I just need to see him again, please”, she sobbed desperately

Max just looked at Michael, desperation creeping, he was out of ideas, and as for his brother, he just shrugged jerkily, already feeling desperate himself.

-

As dusk approached, and the colors of the sky grew colder and darker, the three sibling where once again in the middle of the sterile soil of New Mexico, which stretched out to the horizon and all around them, which meant they were away from humans, from their peering gaze and fragile bodies. Good, she thought, face stained with tears.

They stood there in their underwear in a circle, waiting for the moment the sun excused itself to give the moon space to make an appearance in the sky.

“Iz”, Michael tried meekly, “we’re gonna figure this out, okay?”

Isobel smiled at him weakly, as if mustering a smile was the most difficult task ever, and took his hand. Her brother, for all his confidence and snark he was one soft man.

Max took her other hand and declared it was almost time. Soon enough, they started to feel the effects of their transformation, the vibration beneath their skin, their molecules rearranging themselves, the hum in their ears growing louder. If only it was just vibrating into a wolf. If only. Their bones moved as if they had a life of their own, which in nights of full moons they did, it was a kind of pain you had no words for, their organs squished between their bone structure as their whole body shifted to a new form. The cracking and moving made an awful noise especially with their heightened senses. They fell to the ground, body accommodating their four-legged body. They’d scream if they could, but only whimpers come out. Blood streamed out of their ears, eyes and noses, and once their teeth sharpened and pierced their gums, blood poured out of their mouths as well. The hairs on their body grew, itching, long and thick as they became fur. Though the pain was excruciating, they stood in their wolf bodies for the sheer power of magic that coursed through them.

Fully transformed, they shook their bodies like a dog dripping with water would, shaking the after-effects of the metamorphosis. They assed each other, making sure they were okay. Isobel went in front of them, pearly white fur bouncing under the moonlight, her eyes emerald green, and Max followed behind, velvety black fur and honey eyes and finally Michael, golden fur and golden eyes, queued behind. They didn’t explore by themselves tonight, nor did they run free, they simply strolled aimlessly. Wandering. They roamed through the desert for what it felt like hours.

Something in the distance caught their enhanced hearing: a car, and it was speeding closer and closer, instead of running and hiding in the nearest cave they stood still. Something, instinct if you must label it, told them this was no ordinary vehicle filled with curious tourists or bored and unruly teens; this was deliberate, not an accident. So they braced themselves for the fight, knowing full well it was Jesse Manes and whoever planned to exterminate them specifically. Yes, them, their family, because even when they kept their noses clean, keeping a strict non-human (as food) for diet, the Manes were still relentless, with the exception of one Alex Manes who was disgustingly head-over-heels in love with Michael.

So they stood still, predatory stance and unyielding focus, and waited. A couple of minutes later, small spheres of yellow gleamed in the darkness of nightfall. They grew bigger and bigger until the trio saw them for what they were: headlights. A black SUV, menacingly approached them rapidly until it stopped about seven feet away from them. Out of it jumped, expectedly, Jesse Manes and someone else, someone who looked awfully similar to Alex but wasn’t. In their hands they wielded glistening silver guns which were probably loaded with silver bullets. How convenient. Arms steadily pointed at them, the siblings would have to prepare an attack that’d be quick and unexpected. No one moved, not even by inch, time seemed to have stilled and the air was as thick as their wolf fur, it was harder to breathe.

Then, something different filled the air. And of course, Michael smelled him before he saw him, his siblings who followed closely behind. The wolves’ laser-focus wavered, ears moving in a way that allowed them to pick out the sound of another car more efficiently. Noticing the distraction that took over the wolves, Jesse Manes looked at the other man questioningly who shrugged equally confused until the other SUV was parked behind Jesse’s. And out of it climbed none other than Alex Manes who without second thought shot who they realized now was his brother sided with Jesse. The shot was aimed at his knee, and he fell to the ground with a shout. Jesse had barely any time to react when a bullet pierced his chest, a clean shot to his heart and as he fell to the ground kneeling and before him stood a man, as tall as Max, maybe taller, dark hair and dark eyes, strong clenched jaw. His smelled like sweat and something incredibly sweet. He was the most beautiful thing Isobel had ever set eyes on. The clink of metal being hit brought Isobel out of her daze and she snapped her attention to her brothers seemingly unharmed. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw movement, she braced for an attack momentarily only to realize it was Alex, moving closer to them.

“Is he dead?”, Alex breathed out

“Yeah”, the other man whispered, his voice made Isobel shiver

“Can you take Flint to the hospital? I can take it from now, Greg”, Alex came closer to him and patted his shoulder, “Thanks for helping. You didn’t have to do that”, he pointed to their father’s lifeless body

“It’s fine, Alex. I should’ve protected you from him sooner”, Greg replied

Alex nodded in thanks and as Greg moved to assist Flint, who resisted the help accusing them of treason, he spared a glance to Isobel whose heart thumped so fast she thought she might have a heart attack. Then he turned back, hauled Flint up and sat him on the passenger’s seat then jogged to the driver’s seat. He drove away and took a piece of Isobel’s mind and her with him.

“It’s over guys”, Alex announced, “He is dead, and you’re safe now. My brother and I will handle Flint but we won’t let him close to you. I’ll protect you from now on”

Michael, the sap, galloped towards him, and wrapped his body around him, and rubs himself onto him like a house cat, leaning his very wolf weight on him and earning a startled laughter from his boyfriend, Alex, tumbled a bit but did not fall. Alex, who a moment before shot his own brother to keep them safe and now was gushing over Michael’s domesticated feline behavior. And Isobel knows she should feel guilty for judging her brother’s boyfriend so harshly, she should also feel relieved for being set free from the Jesse Manes’ claws. Except she feels confusion and longing directed at a man she’d just met.

She hoped she could introduce herself properly to Alex’s brother and she desperately hoped her feelings would be reciprocated.  And the very least,  possible she hoped she’d see him again.

[writingforfunsblog]

Ahoy Mermaids Pt 3

Steve Harrington x Reader 

Summary: Steve is a fearsome pirate captain, and Y/N is a mermaid that got a little too close to his ship. 

I woke up frustrated, I needed my energy back so I could get the fuck out of here. I needed more food, and more sea water if I was ever going to be able to transform my legs again. I started screeching, wanting to get the guppy's attention. But it was not him that came running, but instead the Captain. He looked frazzled; his eyes wild. “What the fuck was that?” he stared at me. I glared back at him, making low growling noises. I didn’t want to see his stupid face; I wanted my guppy. “What? You not happy to see me?” he chuckled and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. “Why are you screaming? Are you hurt?” if I didn’t know better, I would have guessed he was worried about me. I stared at him, my mouth in a sneer. “You want to see Dustin, right? You guys are all buddy, buddy right?” he said, almost sounding angry. I didn’t want to further his anger, fearing what he would do. So, I said nothing, and looked down the at water, slowly flicking my tail. “What?” Is there something wrong with the water?” he came closer, looking down into the water, he made a disgusted face. “That’s nasty, I got to change that” He came a little closer, and kneeled next to the bath. “I have to get you out if you want me to change the water, are you okay if I pick you up?” he asked, his voice now gentle.

I looked at him, my eyes widened, but I nodded and braced myself to be lifted. He dipped one arm into the rancid water and looped it under my tail and one behind my back. With a huff he lifted me out of the water and carried me over to his bed, where he laid me down gently. He smiled charmingly at me, and I started at him, confused. Why was he being kind all of a sudden, I thought I was a prisoner, he didn’t care about my well-being. I assumed it was because he just didn’t want ‘damaged goods’ and didn’t give it much further thought.  

He called some other crew members, some I recognized from that day that I was captured. They all helped carry the bath above deck, and soon it was brought back down, and slowly filled back up with fresh sea water, bucket by bucket. Each crew member stopped to look me over with wonder, all of them seemed the age of guppy’s, which I found strange for a pirate crew. Captain was there the whole time, standing dutifully beside me. Every once in a while, looking down at me with a smile.

Once the bath was filled, the Captain ordered everyone back to work, and then helped me back into the tub. The water felt amazing, and I happily sunk into it. “Is the water okay?” he asked, dunking his own hand in the water. Of course, he found it cold but to me, it was just the right temperature. I made happy chirping noises and grinned at him, he grinned back and stood up. “I’m going to get some fish and then check your shoulder, okay?” he nodded and then left the room.  

I let the water soak into my skin, and I smiled to myself. He was being very kind now, I hoped he was enamored with me, like many people are with mermaids, and if that was true. Surely, he would release me, and I could go back home.  

The door swung open again, he was carrying a plate with a dead fish on it, along with a medical kit. He smiled when he saw me and hurriedly sat down next to me, he opened the medical kit and looked my shoulder over. It had finally sealed shut enough to stop the bleeding, but Steve still wrapped it up after applying the medicine. “Is it okay?” he asked and I nodded. He then held up the fish “are you hungry?” I nodded again. He looked hesitant for a moment, before reaching behind me and untying my bounds. I looked at him, shocked. He was really untying me? Sure, he didn’t know I could walk, but still! “I’m trusting you” he said seriously, and handed me the plate. I gingerly took it, still staring at him. He gave me one last smile, and got up to leave. The lock clicking behind him.

I ate the fish in 3 bites and I stretched my arms, they had gotten stiff being stuck behind my back and it felt amazing to finally lift them above my head. A smile spread to my face, getting out was going to be easy now. With a few days more rest, I would be able to transform. Wait by the door until someone came in, take them out then jump over the rail back to sea. Easy.

I wasn’t alone for long before the Captain returned. He seemed excited to see me, grabbing a pillow from his bed, and setting it on the floor next to the tub, where he sat. “Can I ask you some questions?” he asked, looking at me with curiosity.  

I cocked my head, looking at him with an equal look of curiosity. But I nodded my head anyways “Ok, so I’ll ask yes or no question” I nodded again. He looked beyond excited “okay first question, do you have a name?” I rolled my eyes and nodded. He at least looked embarrassed “oh r-right, of course you do. Dumb question. Next, do you know how to write?” he asked. I shook my head, of course I could write, but not in the human language he was expecting. He nodded to himself “so wait, you can understand me, but you can’t talk?”  

I cocked my head and stared at him, deciding what I wanted to answer. “I can talk” I said softly. I swear his eyes were about to pop out of his head.  

“You can talk!?” he shouted.  

“Of course, I can talk” I answered.

He ran a hand threw his hear and shook his head “wow, okay, uh well if you can talk then what’s your name?”

“What’s your name?” I replied instead of answering him.  

He looked surprised “uh, Steve. I’m Steve Harrington”  

I nodded “Steve” I repeated. He perked up, and a blush spread across his face and he looked down. “Steve” I repeated again, lowering my voice. He started squirming and a smirk spread across my face as I reveled in what I was doing to him.  

“Right, right. Steve, so uh what’s your name?”

I leaned in closer to him, my face inches from his. “Rachel” I whispered.  

“(Y/N)” he whispered back and I smiled, leaning back into my tub.  

“Yes, I am called Y/N”  

“It’s uh, it’s beautiful” he mumbled, running a hand through his hair. “Really nice” He was cute when he was flustered, it was a nice change from his cocky arrogance. Though that was attractive in its own way. “Sooo, do you have any other tricks I should know about?”  

I stared at him and smirked “none that you need to know about, no”  

“I don’t suppose if I threatened you, you’d tell me all your little tricks”

“Fraid not Captain, mermaids are known to be able to tolerate a lot” I giggled, but Steve looked worried.  

“Hey uh, I know I stabbed you and stuff, but that was in self-defense. You were going to eat me, but now that you’re not a threat, I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to let anyone hurt you” he said earnestly.  

I was shocked, I had not expected him to be so kind. “Sorry that was weird” he was bright red by now, and he stood up quickly. “I’ll uh talk to you later” he mumbled and rushed out of the room. I smiled to myself, now allowing a blush to spread across my face. He could be adorable when he was flustered, and I hoped to see more of it soon. If things kept going like this, I could maybe even get him to let me go. Not having to go to the trouble of escaping myself.  

I was left alone for the rest of the day after that, and despite how much I denied it, I was waiting for Steve’s return. He came as the sun was setting, along with the guppy. “Dustin!” I cheered, splashing my arms in the water happily.  

“Oh shit, you can talk!” he gawked at me as I smiled at him.

“Ah yeah, forgot to tell you” I lolled my head to the side.

He crouched down next to me “fascinating, do you speak English with other mermaids? Or did you learn purely to talk to humans? Do you know other languages? How-”  

“Dustin, one question at a time dude” Steve cut him off.

“Sorry” he mumbled before looking at me with an expecting gaze.

“Yes, mermaids in this area primarily speak English, my ancestors learned long ago to more easily lure humans into the water. Not all mermaids speak English, just like humans, they usually speak the native language. And no, I don’t know any other languages.”  

Dustin's eyes widened “then what was with all the chirping and screaming, why didn’t you just talk to us from the beginning?”

I shrugged “I like to keep humans on their toes, besides, it’s pretty common knowledge that mermaids speak human language. How else do you think we lure humans into the water?”  

“I-don’t mermaids have like a magic song that forces people into the water?” Steve raised an eyebrow.  

I gave him an exasperated look “if we did, don’t you think I would have used it by now. It’s true we have beautiful singing voices, but we just sing regular old human songs. Humans are usually foolish enough to fall for our looks and song” 

Dustin looked up at the man “dude, we should be writing this down! We could sell this info!” he turned back to me “what else don’t humans know?”

I scoffed “nothing else you need to know about”  

“Come on, I need this knowledge! I’m on a curiosity voyage” Dustin whined. I almost found it adorable.  

“Sorry guppy, that’s all for today. Maybe I’ll tell you something tomorrow” I thought about using knowledge as leverage, but I wasn’t sure they wanted to know that bad. And the only thing I really wanted to be free, which I knew wasn’t happening.  

“Come on! Please! We won’t sell it, but can I write it in my journal?” the guppy pleaded, his mouth in a pout. I only shook my head and sunk further into the tub. Dustin hung his head and shuffled out of the room, closing the door behind him. 

Steve sat on his bed, looking at me. “why are you even telling us this? Aren’t mermaids supposed to be secretive and stuff?”  

I cocked my head, staring at him while he shifted uncomfortably. I finally shrugged and looked out the small window “I’m going to die anyways, I don’t really care anymore, and it makes the guppy happy”  

“You’re not going to die; you’re just going to-”

I whipped my head towards him, my eyes ablaze with fury “I’m just going to live in a tank for humans to ogle at for the rest of my life” I snapped “I’d rather die”

Steve swallowed sharply “I-that won’t”

“What do you think is going to happen to me once you sell me? That I’ll be happy away from my home? I’m going to be nothing more than some rich assholes goldfish, and that’s if I’m lucky. If you sell me too a man who knows what he’ll do to me, I-”

Steve shot up “no!” he roughly ran a hand through his hair “that-that won’t happen! They’ll treat you well, treat you like a goddess-”

I scoffed “you’re delusional if you think that’s what's going to happen”

“You don’t know that! They aren’t all awful” he tried to defend.  

I shook my head “what? Like you? I’m in a small tub I can’t swim in, and I’m being fed dead fish. This is no way to live Steve”

He stared at me “I-it’s only temporary”  

“Yes, you’re only transporting ‘goods’, I’m nothing more than a quick buck”  

“No, you’re not! I’m doing the best I can, where do you want me to put you? You can have my bed if you want, and if you want live fish, I’ll give you live fish”

“I WANT TO GO HOME!” I screeched, heaving with pure rage. Steve stared at me; shock written on his face.  

In that moment, I couldn’t bare to be here a second longer. I was still not at full strength, but anger fueled me. I screamed as my tail split, Steve just watched me, a look of horror and disgust on his face. I stood up shakily, before bolting to the door. Dustin had forgotten to lock it, and I yanked it open, intending to run up the stairs. But something wrapped around my waist, I kicked my feeble legs out and thrashed against him, baring my teeth at him “let me go!” I screamed.  

“No!” He yelled back, he kicked the door shut with his foot and threw me onto his bed, pinning me down. He was averting my gaze, but held my steady. The adrenaline was quickly waning and my tail started to form again. Steve got off me and looked at me with bewilderment. “How-how can you do that?” he breathed out.  

I huffed and turned so I didn’t have to look at him. “Y/N...have you always been able to do that?” he questioned, sitting down on the edge of the bed. I didn’t answer, he didn’t deserve an answer. “I-why haven’t you attacked me in my sleep?”  

I looked at him then, it was a fair question. Why not just kill him and leave? “It’s painful” I whispered. Tear formed in my eyes, from exhaustion and frustration.  

“I-yeah, it didn’t look very pleasant” he laughed nervously.  

“Please let me go” I whimpered, tear now falling. Steve looked conflicted, no sign of the cocky asshole that he was only a few days ago.  

“I don’t want to” he whispered, putting his head in his hands. “You’re worth too much”  

I halfheartedly rolled my eyes “yeah, I'm sure you’re going to get a pretty penny for me”  

“That’s not what I-ugh never mind” he stood up, walking to the door “you can sleep in my bed tonight, I’ll find somewhere else” then he left. Leaving me alone to wallow on my own. I didn’t have the energy to transform again, and while I knew my tail would dry out overnight, Steve’s bed sure was comfy. And with all this wasted energy, I quickly found myself drifting off to sleep.