#maybe he needs that to be able to live on a boat with ed

[arsenicflame]

i think the reason izzy can be so blasé about his relationship with ed is not because hes taken to blaming a shark instead, but because hes actually already done a lot of the processing in the previous episode.

hes mourned his leg, hes had his drunk crying rants. hes gone through the five stages of grief. and then? the crew reaches out to him, offers him their support. they make him a new leg, they nominate him their new figurehead. when he stands there on the prow of the ship, leg on, letter in hand, thats his acceptance, thats his moving on.

[candlecove-weaintdeadyet]

I'm sure no one else cares but I need a moment to squee over the fic that turned me into Coveblr's new #1 Heartfelt Simp now that @drheartfeltlover is no longer hanging around (or are they? dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUN~! I kid, I kid).

Hand in Unloving Hand is, while maybe not the most realistic take on a Heartfelt/Skintaker fic (not that that hurts it in the least!), so fucking sweet and cute I can feel my teeth rotting. I love it.

And the little hc's/details that really make Heartfelt feel like a fully-realized character and part of the setting when he was originally a glorified background character? I'm sticking a straw in them and drinking them like a slushie. His little snarky remarks? Impeccable. The STRONG autism-coding? Ough, he just like me fr. And on top of that he's just a fucking mess of a man, because of course, why would he get to be mentally healthy and truly content? This is fucking Candle Cove!

Rant under the cut because I start talking about disordered eating a lot (seriously it's like 2x the length of the above squeeing) and don't have much clue what I'm going on about. Here goes:

The thing that actually strikes me interesting, and that I really dug into b/c I LOVE psychoanalyzing my blorbos, is the hints at disordered eating and what might've caused it. When I noticed the tw, I was like 'ok...where are we going with this?', and then it smacked me upside the head with THIS:

"Okay, maybe he was worse off than he thought, given he was throwing up with very little seemingly causing it. Still, he felt a little better, despite being aquainted [sic] with the feeling of what he just did."

And my ass was INTRIGUED. Why is he used to this feeling? Is this the ed mention we were warned about? If so, what's going on? And how did he arrive here?

My first guess had been that he was actively in recovery for something like bulimia, given his nonchalant response to having thrown up for pretty much no reason. If he used to habitually purge, that'd make sense, yeah? And it's not like anyone would suspect anything was up, given they live on a boat, which by definition rocks at the slightest change in waves/currents/etc it'd likely be chalked up to an unfortunate combination of big appetite+prone to seasickness.

Chapter 6 builds on this possibility, with him contemplating binging on a meal he's given, and then we find out that he's forcing himself to eat because otherwise he feels guilty? Which made me re-evaluate. It made more sense, then, that what he struggled with was most likely binge-eating disorder-and it still fits with his aside in Chapter 4 (see above quote). He's not used to the feeling of throwing up because he used to have a purging habit, he's used to it because what he's used to is eating so much he feels sick.

And with his clear autism-coding, plus the time period-equivalent he lives in and his people-pleasing tendencies, I figure it likely stems from some kind of shame over not being able to eat certain things due to issues with sensory input, or not being able to finish what he's given. So he forces himself to so people don't think there's something 'wrong' with him or get mad at him for wasting food.

Hey, maybe if the fic gets an update, we'll get an answer. Or maybe not. I don't expect an update, really, I'm sure the author has more important things to do. Unlike me /lh

I dunno, man. I'm just saying words.

[kate2kat]

I tried to fix one detail that a number of us particularly hated

The Unicorn’s Leg

“Is it just me or was the grave marker a bit off?”

The wedding has wound down now, leaving the flatness that always follows a party, even a normal one, nevermind one that took place too soon after a funeral. Fuck the captains for being in such a hurry anyway, not as if Lucius and Pete needed their permission to fuck all over the ship.

“Yeah,” Fang agrees, voice heavy, “how’s Izzy—“ his voice breaks “— how’s Izzy going to walk now?”

“Don’t!” Jim hisses at Archie, cutting off an eye roll, moving round the table to put their arms around him. “You made him such a good leg, Fang.”

Fang tries a smile, but it’s a small, sad thing and it just makes Jim even sadder. “You all helped. He still needs it.”

“That’s what I’m saying. He needs it. Fuck it, I’m going to go give it back to him.” Jim’s exhausted, in the grips of an adrenaline crash, but they won’t be able to sleep with the vision of Izzy, stuck again, unable to move, while his beautiful leg weathers on the beach, its gold paint peeling, flaking off in the sun, his cravat rotting in the rain, his ring — his precious ring that he was so secretive about — falling into the sand, lost forever.

“You’re shit at rowing. I’ll come too. Give him back his leg.”

They’re moving quietly, getting a boat over the side, when Wee John’s voice comes out of the darkness. “You leaving? You said you would. Don’t you want to wait for morning?”

Jim is suddenly even wearier. “I don’t know man. I thought I would leave. Kind of sick of it all now, you know? So I might just stay here. Maybe we won’t get killed.” Maybe they would. Maybe it wouldn’t matter even if they were. “We are going to give Izzy back his leg.”

“He can’t walk without it,” Fang adds.

“Is there space in that boat for me?”

“It’s not that small— Oh! Yeah, of course, Wee John, you should come too.”

“I just need to go get something.”

Wee John goes off below while Jim and Fang finish getting the boat into the sea. Wee John comes back on deck with Frenchie in tow, clutching his guitar.

“He never got a chance to give us another song. I thought …” He trails off.

They all clamber down into the little boat and Fang takes up the oars. It’s not far to the beach. There’s a weak light in one of the windows of the shitty little cabin. Jim hopes Ed and Stede are too busy to look out and see what they are about to do.

When they reach the grave, the others hang back, but Jim falls to their knees and starts digging away the soft sandy dirt. Fang joins them, and together they scrape the dirt away, Fang’s tears fall openly, and then Jim is weeping too. They’d been too stunned when Izzy was laid in the ground. Too outraged at cruel fate.

“Fuck, Izzy,” they pant now, “a rotting leg couldn’t kill you, how could you let a bullet do it, man? Didn’t even let me try.”

They’d thought, after the leg, and Aunty, that maybe, just maybe, they were good at this. Raised to kill, good at saving lives. Wouldn’t be such a bad life, would it?

They’re getting tired, but they can’t stop now.

“Careful,” Fang says, voice thick. “He’s just there.”

Without noticing, they’ve dug all the way down. Jim’s fingers brush the leather of Izzy’s waistcoat, where the shroud has shifted.

They look up, at Frenchie and Wee John silhouetted against the starlight. John holding Izzy’s leg, gold paint gleaming faintly; Frenchie’s hand wrapped around the neck of his guitar. Jim realises that their free hands are clasped together.

Fang reaches up. “Give it here,” he says, “so I can give it back.”

John leans down, the leg extending into the pit.

And then he straightens. “No,” he says.

“No? What the fuck, man! You knew what we came to do, give it here,” Jim hisses at him.

“No,” John repeats. “I also have something for him, and I’m not getting in that hole. And neither should he be down there. Bring him up.”

“Yes!” Frenchie’s voice is vehement. He sets his guitar on the sand and kneels down. “He shouldn’t be buried in dirt.”

Fang bends, bracing himself against the side of the hole, and slides his arms under Izzy’s body. “Is this okay, Izzy? Am I crushing you?” he whispers. He straightens, Izzy held against his chest. “I’ve got you. Shhh, I’ve got you.” He raises him high, and lays him gently on the side of the hole.

Grasping Frenchie’s hands, they scramble up after him.

Wee John is on his knees in the dirt, fingers deftly passing Izzy’s cravat around his neck. “Give me the ring,” he says, and Frenchie passes it over.

“Don’t drop it!”

“Course I won’t fucking drop it!” He threads the ring into its place and tying the knot.

“Did he ever tell you whose that was?” Frenchie asks.

“Not me,” says John.

“Me either,” says Fang. “All these years, he never said. It was just always there, he never took it off.”

He kneels too, and reaches for Izzy’s leg, sliding it into place and fastening the straps. “There you are, Izzy.” His voice breaks, and he remains where he is, hand on the golden hoof. “There you are.”

Wee John is holding something else now. A little pot. “Guys,” he says, “I thought … I dunno … maybe a little more gold paint?”

Fang nods his head vigorously. “Make him beautiful.”

John dips a finger into the pot and rubs it delicately over Izzy’s closed eyelids. The gold shines in the darkness.

Frenchie has picked up his guitar again, and he strums a chord, hums a phrase. It’s the lovely French song. Jim’s throat is too thick to force any sound out, but in their mind, they sing along, just like they did when they were all a happy family, on the deck of the Revenge and Izzy sang for them. The same deck where he defied Blackbeard and saved them all.

No one speaks for a while after Frenchie lets the wordless song fade away.

They didn’t think this through, they only knew Izzy needed his leg.

Now they say: “Guys, we’re not putting him back in the dirt.”

“Of course not,” John agrees.

“You belong at sea, Izzy,” says Fang, and picks Izzy up once more. “Let’s take you home.”

*

Izzy’s body barely makes a splash when they slide it over the side of the little boat, far out in the sea, beyond the Revenge, weighed down with a big rock from the beach.

They watch as it drifts down, ring and leg and gold face paint gleaming through the water.

Also on AO3, if you want to come yell with me there

[battyshopkeeper]

Collage riddler x male reader au

Roommate Cuddles

Edward Nashton x Male Reader

Word Count: 1242

Contains / Warnings: Confessions, Cuddles, Mentions of Anxiety, Mentions of Alcohol, Fluff, Suggestive Stuff, Omg they were roommates. 

(A/N: I’m back, have quick little fluff as a treat. Also yes I used this banner before.) 

You had a really weird roommate. That wasn't you being overly judgmental, that was just a simple observation. It could've been much worse with the entire plan of becoming roommates with a random stranger. But there was no way in hell you could pay for rent with your cashier job, and you would rather die then befriend someone at this point. So your only option was him.

One Edward Nashton, the relatively shy guy that was going to attend your collage, with the added bonus of having a job to pay the bills. It was practically perfect.

And it was rude but even when meeting him there was a part of you that hoped Edward would spend the majority of his time away. But that couldn't be further from the truth. You couldn't even judge in all honesty since you were in the same boat as him. Your antisocial behavior that was worsened by your anxiety, it all lead to staying in your shared shitty apartment then going out to enjoying the collage life. Edward was probably the only other person you talked to outside of classes or work, and just like you he was the same.

It was awkward at first, both of you hanging around the apartment only being able to start the most stilted of small talk before it died off into uncomfortable silence until one of you called it quits and went back to your room. But there was a slow change, and it started when those god awful conversation starters actually revealed what interests you both had in common. Quickly warming up to him after that, being charmed by his odd personality that you originally thought would've been a point of contention. You two clicked after that and that was all you really needed to get attached to one another.

It became a usual occurrence to hang out in the living room. At first using the excuse of studying together, but that quickly turned to times where you just enjoyed each others company. From playing games together, trying new budget foods to mixed results, or simply rambling about whatever your minds went to. And today was one of those days, with both of you lazily sitting on the couch. The entire vibe changing when you pulled out a bottle of whine, a joke gift for Edward getting a promotion, a whole 5 cents difference. It became a blurry night with both of you taking swigs from the bottle, talking about your day, mainly complaining about classes. But it didn't take long for things to take a turn.

"Yeah, I feel like I'm starved—I would have died if touch starvation was a thing." It was a lame passing comment from your buzz, you didn't even remember what started that conversation. But it lead to an odd moment as Edward stared at you nervously, struggling to speak up as he gulped down the wine. "So you uh, never cuddled anyone?" "Obviously not." There was a small pause, his eyes locked directly to yours as you felt yourself become a little nervous, maybe more from embarrassment then anything. "Wanna test it out then?" Edward suddenly asks.

You were visibly taken aback at his offer, Edward softly cursing under his breath, like he realized just how weird that was. "I mean, I'm not... against it. Guess it's good to try new thing." You reply, scratching the back of your neck with a timid smile. "You don't have to, I mean you don't have to settle with me for that." Edward gestures at himself with a forced laugh and that oddly made you feel a little defensive on his part. "Come on, Ed. Who the hell would I trust to cuddle with? I hate the majority of people." He looked away at that, becoming a flustered mess so much that he had to bite down a smile.

"So then... how do we do this?" Edward stood up as a way to start, placing the almost empty bottle to the side with a groan. You laid down with open arms, a teasing smile spreading around your face. "Come here, dude." Edward stood there for a second, with a face like he thought he was about to do something wrong. It took you calling his name again for him to finally lay on top of you, so carefully, like you were made of glass. "Relax. I can handle you." You try to soothe while gently pulling him closer. Edward furiously apologized while trying to shift into a more comfortable position. You couldn't help but let out a chuckle as Edward hesitantly laid his head against your chest before letting out a sigh when your arms wrapped around him. He was going to make a passing comment but it always died off. He couldn't even lie, this was a dream come true, feeling so close to your warmth and scent, it was enough to make Edward nuzzle his cheek against you for just a little more.

And you both stayed that way for who knows how long, losing track of time as you dozed off in each others arms. Only being woken up when bringing up something to keep your minds distracted from it's sleepiness, always dying into random ramblings.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" You playfully tease as your grip around him tightened, feeling him hug your torso with a small huff. "Pft, no." "That's a shame, I was gonna ask if you wanted to do this more." Edward paused. "... I really like this then." He said while hiding his face into the crook of your neck. "Yeah, me too." You whisper with a hand moving up to his neck, your thumb gently rubbing his cheek as you heard him let out another sigh.

"I can never imagine doing this with anyone but you." Edward confessed, his hands running down your sides. Fluttering your eyes closed, you let out a small noise as Edward kept his hands on you. You wanted to say something, ask him more but you stopped yourself, instead choosing to stay in the moment to focus on his voice and hands. And Edward kept going, whispering to you confession after confession.

"Ed, you're making me feel so many things. And I don't wanna make you regret this." You groan as he gently kissed under your jaw. "I won't regret this, I promise." He mumbled before going back to littering your neck with kisses.

"Fuck, I really really like you." You let out a lighthearted laugh, feeling him slowly stop. "I guess I kinda see you as my boyfriend sometimes."

"Do you mean it?" "Of course—" "No, like you're not joking, right?" Edward looked up at you with furrowed brows, pain lacing his face and voice. You were a little speechless, your mind blanking at how desperate he seemed. It was enough to make you sit up to tilt his head up at you.

"Eddie, who else would I want to be my boyfriend? Who else could it be but you? You're the only person I want to stick besides and I mean that." Edward couldn't stop from smiling, suddenly hiding his face in his hands, letting out a broken laugh. "Holy shit, are you crying?" You quickly go to comfort him, grabbing his wrists as he shook his head frantically. "It's the whine, These are—They're happy tears. I just thought that this could never happen." Edward laughed again before wiping his running tears. You took that as sign, leaning closer to him with a grin. "Wow, We really are walking stereotypes. Close roommates."

"Roommates for life?" He jokingly asks.

"Roommates for life." You reply.

[star-lemonade]

Summer Rain

Astro Jinjin x f!Reader

Genre: smut, a bit of angst

CW: smut

Rating: R

Word count: 3 k

A/N: Not beta-ed. Little bit more angsty than my usual stuff but with a happy end ;)

Written for @whipped-kpop-creators event

“Let’s go to the beach.”

Jinwoo’s voice cut the deafening silence between you. The tone of his voice told you that he was insecure. Of course he was. You were still surprised that he had the audacity to ask you on a date after what he did, and now he asked to take you on a vacation? In the moment where you did not say anything the silence returned, amplified by the distant traffic and the conversations other people were having around you. The plastic table in front of the convenience store was really not the best date you had had.

“The beach?”

He nodded and stabbed at his noodles. The mostly full paper bowl was his excuse to not meet your eyes.

“My uncle has a small vacation home by the sea. Let’s go there next weekend.”

The last week had been the hottest week of this year. You had barely slept at night and you felt even more pissed at Jinwoo because of it. Jumping into the cold, salty water sounded like a dream. It had been ages since you had even seen the sea. Why not get something good out of a bad situation? You could just ignore him while you were at the beach. You sighed.

“Okay.”

A small smile followed the initial shock on Jinwoo’s face. You ate the last bites of your ramen.

“Awesome!”

Jinwoo beamed at you. His barely contained delight would have been cute at any other time. You stood up. Well tried to. The shorts you were wearing did not play well with the plastic chair and you stuck uncomfortably to it. You pushed it off and it felt back to the ground clattering.

“See you then. I will leave first.”

You did not care that much about anniversaries, but this was the first one. One year. Who would have thought you and Jinwoo would still be together? He was the friend of a former school classmate. The two had met at the company that they both worked at. Jinwoo smiled a lot. That is what had pulled you in in the first place.

When you had gone out for dates he always paid. It was so consistent that it was almost annoying.

“I have money too, you know?” You had half-jokingly said one occasion outside the restaurant. No need to have a scene inside with all people watching.

“I know and you can spend that on whatever you want. I want to spend mine on buying you the food you like.”

One time you actually managed to pay before he did. At the end of a meal he went to the bathroom and you seized the opportunity. You felt very accomplished afterwards. Jinwoo was surprised, but laughed at your mischievous grin.

“Jinwoo, it's our anniversary soon. You wanna go out?”

The message stayed on your phone unanswered for a day. Usually he texted back in a few hours. You began to wonder. Had something happened? Was he okay? You tried to go about your day as usual but you found your eyes wandering to your phone. No new messages.

“Everything okay?”

Maybe it was not the best thing you could do, but you just texted him again. This time you got an answer.

“Sorry, I was really busy at work and fell into bed afterwards. Yes, we can do something for our anniversary”

For the next few weeks you did not see or hear much from him. Your friend had told you that Jinwoo had been roped into a project by one of the high ups.

“I'm worried about you. You work too much :((”

You knew that the message would not get through to him. He was obsessed.

“I could get the promotion. Just a little longer.”

You did not believe that it would be done soon but it was not worth fighting over. After all you would see him in person soon. It would be easier to talk some sense into him when you were face to face.

On your anniversary you waited in front of the restaurant. The agreed upon time came and went. You called Jinwoo, but his phone was off. He had stood you up.

Friday afternoon had arrived and you had gotten off work early to pack. The weather forecast said warm temperatures were to be expected. So you packed shorts, a swimming suit and other light clothes. Sunscreen would also be important. A sunburn was the last thing you wanted to have right now. You suspected that Jinwoo would try to make it up to you with this vacation. After your anniversary he had apologized constantly, but you still felt hurt. Indeed it seemed more like this vacation would be a crossroads. Would you stay with Jinwoo or break up. Yes, you liked him a lot but he was so absent these days.

At 6 pm the door rang and you almost dropped the sun cream. You opened the door to shorts wearing Jinwoo. His smile greeted you from the hallway.

You took your bag and followed him to the car. Jinwoo had borrowed his brother’s car. In the trunk were some white plastic bags from the supermarket.

“I bought something to eat.”

Jinwoo smiled shyly. This trip was him trying to make it up to you for sure. You knew that, but you were not sure if you could forgive him. The day of fast paced working, trying to do as much as possible in the given time had left you exhausted. The sun warmed the car and with the sunglasses covering your eyes you fell asleep in the passenger seat. It felt as if only a minute had passed, when Jinwoo gently shook you awake.

“We are here. You can sleep in the house.”

It took you a moment to really arrive in the land of consciousness. The car was parked in a dirt driveway. Green grass covered the ground in front of the house. Jinwoo had already unloaded your bags and locked the car once you got out. The sun was still up and it was warm. You had expected to be able to smell the sea, but the air only carried the scent of freshly cut grass. The car was parked in the backyard of the house that was surrounded by other houses and gardens.

The house was smaller and bigger than you had imagined. It was a two story building but the floor area was not very big. On the inside the air was cool and you had the impression that the windows had not been opened in some time. Jinwoo gave you a tour of the house. The ground floor was the kitchen, the living room and a small bathroom. A door led into the garden that was basically a terrace with a narrow strip of grass in front of it. A fence separates the garden from the neighbors property. Upstairs were two bedrooms. The room Jinwoo had chosen as your room answered the question you had had about where the sea was. You could see the blue band on the ocean behind two rows of houses.

“It’s not exactly a beach house.”

“The beach is three minutes away on foot,” Jinwoo protested. He looked out the window at the sea over your shoulder.

“Do you want to go there?”

You looked at him, then at the water in the distance. It was getting late and the sun would set soon. You were a bit hungry already but the urge to see the big puddle was stronger.

“Yes, let’s go.”

The blue sky was obscured by clouds, when you left the house. A path lead between the houses down to the beach. You saw some people in the water and lying on the beach. As you got closer the smell of deep fried food caught your nose. A few restaurants and shops lined the promenade that separated the beach from the city. You turned right and walked along the cobbled promenade. Jinwoo walked beside you, not saying anything. In the distance you could see a few boats gliding on the sparkling water. Further towards the direction you were walking in was the harbor. A lot of smaller boats and yachts waited for their owners.

“I got the promotion.”

You tensed. As a good girlfriend you should be happy for him but you only managed a forced smile. Great, now he will be gone even more. I don’t want your money Jinwoo, I want you to spend time with me.

“But I got it under a condition.”

When you did not ask what the condition was, he just continued: “I asked for reduced hours.”

You stopped in the middle of the promenade and looked at him. He stopped too. The person who walked behind you almost crashed into you and cursed.

“Look, I’m sorry.”

Jinwoo took your hands. You met his eyes for the first time today. They were still the warm brown that you remembered. It reminded you of the good times you and Jinwoo had had together. He pressed his lips into a thin line before speaking again.

“I know, I wasn’t there for you enough. Forgive me. Please”

You did not know what you should say. If it was true that he had taken steps to spend more time outside work.. Your heart skipped a beat. His thumbs ran over the back of your hands. A gesture so soft, it made your anger melt away.

“I love you.”

The words hit you like a truck. He said it like he meant it. Indeed there was no doubt in your head that he meant it.

“Jinwoo…”

You wiggled your hands free and wrapped your arms around his neck. Your lips met in a desperate kiss. All your frustration with him and loneliness was released through it. Warm rain began to fall. The drops hit the dry ground, the tiled roofs and your head. You pulled back. A drop hit your neck and you started to move. Covering your head, you took off in the direction of the nearest restaurant and Jinwoo followed behind you.

The cozy restaurant was perfect for this evening. You laughed more than you had had in some time. The weight of your unresolved problems had been lifted off you and it felt like you had your Jinwoo back.

After you ate and drank it was time to return to the house. You said goodbye to the waiter and went to the door. Jinwoo froze in the doorway.

“We should have brought an umbrella.”

He said it in a matter of fact way. You looked out into the night where rain was still going strong. The air had cooled down, but it was still warm. The sun had completely disappeared behind the horizont and the only light came from a few streetlamps. You looked at Jinwoo and said:

“It's not far, we can run home and take a warm shower.”

Jinwoo smiled at you. You took his hand and began running. Your laughter and curses were swallowed by the white noise of the rain.

At the house you saw an umbrella standing next to the door as you took off your soaked shoes. Your clothes clung to your body, making it harder to move. You wanted nothing more than to take them off. You showered first in the small bathroom. The hot water warmed you up again and you were reluctant to leave. It just felt too good. Eventually you had mercy with Jinwoo who was still waiting for his turn.

You put on your light pjs and went to the bedroom. You found blankets and pillows in the closet and changed the sheets on the bed. The fresh sheets too smelled a bit like they had been in the closet for some time, but they would have to do. You lay down under the thin blanket. With the rain the house had cooled down and you felt the need to cover yourself for the night.

Jinwoo came back from the shower wearing only his underwear. He looked fantastic. You wanted to rest your head on his sculpted chest. It had been some time since you had seen him shirtless and he looked buffer than you remembered. He had always been one who liked going to the gym, so he had always looked fit, but now his arms and chest were bigger than before. If he saw you staring, he did not comment on it.

Jinwoo slipped under the blanket next to you, but he kept his distance. Lying on his side he rested his head on his arm. He studied your face and you stared back. His lips were full and soft looking. It had been a while since you had noticed how handsome Jinwoo was. You leaned closer.

“Do you need anything right now?”

His voice was soft and so were his eyes. You could not stop thinking about his chest and arms and abs. The desire was clouding your mind.

“Can I touch you?”

An amused smile appeared on his face, but he pushed the blanket down to expose his upper body. You ran your hands over his chest and your eyes followed. The curves and planes of his muscles were slowly driving you mad. How could anyone look this good?

You looked up and met Jinwoo’s warm eyes. He smirked, not even trying to appear modest. The effect he had on you was very obvious and Jinwoo loved it.

“I missed you.”

He said it like he meant it. His hand covered your hand on his chest. You thought you could feel his heart beating under it. Yes, you had missed your Jinwoo too. You nodded and whispered: “I missed you too.”

You leaned in and he met you halfway. The kiss made your insides churn. He had always been a good kisser, that had not changed. Imagining what his tongue could do between your legs, was getting you riled up. He pulled you closer until your bellies touched and you were flush against him. You swung a leg over his hips and his hand wandered from your waist to your thigh. He was getting hard under the thin fabric of his underwear. You rocked your hips against his and Jinwoo sighed into the kiss. Looks like he missed this too.

He broke the kiss and you almost whined. With an apologetic look on his face he untangled himself from you.

“Let me get the condoms. I’ll be right back, promise.”

The good thing was you got a good look at him again. But you also had a moment to think. He came back with a bunch of packages and slipped under the blanket again.

“I was worried about you.”

He froze and looked at you. It must have startled him.

“About me?”

You nodded and pouted a little.

“Yes. You worked way too much and I was worried and sad about that. Please take care of yourself.”

Your pent up frustration made your tone almost whiny. With sincerity you added: “I love you.”

Jinwoo reached up and caressed your cheek.

“I love you too. I’m sorry.”

You kissed and he pulled you closer. Being pressed against his hard body was exactly what you needed right now. It was the assurance that he was here and with you.

Your leg was draped over his hips and he reached between your bodies to align himself with your entrance. He gently pushed in, stretching you nicely. You moaned into the kiss. Him in you was just as good as you remembered. He did not move and you savored the intimacy of the moment.

“How do you want me today?”

Jinwoo whispered in your ear and sucked on your neck for emphasis.

“I ate too much for what i want.”

He chuckled and his breath tickled your skin.

“You ate a lot. Have you been starving?”

You lightly slapped him and pouted. It wasn’t even that much.

“It tasted good.”

He nodded in agreement. You thought about what would be nice right now. Some position that was intimate but did not require much moving.

“How about like this?”

You moved away until he slipped out and turned around. With his arm around you and his front pressed against your back it felt like the perfect position for the night. Jinwoo pushed in and it was just as good as you had hoped.

He kissed your shoulders and neck as he set a slow pace. The thrusts grazed your g spot from time to time, making you moan. You held his hand to your chest with fingers intertwined. His hot breath tickled your neck. It was heartbreakingly intimate to be with him like this. You kissed his fingers and he gasped without making a sound. His trusts came faster now, it was not the slow fuck from before. But you were ready for your release.

Jinwoo untangled his hand from your grip and reached between your legs. He circled your clit in time with his thrusts. By instinct you clenched around him, wanting to shut your legs close. It limited his motion on your clit, but he did all he could. Rubbing you faster as his thrusts speed up too. You gasped and moaned, moving your hips for more. Your whole body tensed in anticipation. The steady rhythm of Jinwoo’s thrusts faltered, but they were harder now, hitting inside you just right.

“A little more, please!”

It was more a whine than understandable words, but Jinwoo groaned and struggled for more controlled movements. You did not have to worry about anyone hearing you and a moment later you also did not care, if anyone did. Jinwoo let you ride out your orgasm with his fingers still pressed against your sensitive clit. You turned your head so you could see him over your shoulder. His hair stuck to his forehead, but he looked pleased. You planted a sloppy kiss on his lips.

“I think I need another shower.”

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

Excerpt: Mika & Terran

Sharing this scene thanks to the request of @thegreatobsesso! It’s a long one so I have some under a readmore.

In rereading this I realized that one of the reasons I didn’t share this before is because I have no idea if some parts of it make sense XD. Here’s hoping.

Just a little bit of context: Mika and Terran work and both live with Zachary as assassins. Mika dislikes Terran because he killed her twin brother and she blames him for her role. Terran is keeping the fact that he didn’t kill her brother form everyone, her included. Terran and Raymond recently had an argument that ended with Raymond implying he didn’t want to see Terran again and they have yet to reconcile (this is before some scenes between the two of them that I’ve shared already).

-----------

Roasters was an odd place, with a lot of make-your-own dishes that led to a number of food atrocities. Mika was easy to find, at a table near the back. She gave me a smile when she saw me, the kind that was just a little bit forced and a little surprised. She hadn’t been sure I’d come, and she wasn’t entirely excited to see me. “Hi.”

I was still focused, but I’d almost forgotten my persona, so I recafted it as I took a step. “Hello,” I said, and wasn’t really sure how to behave—we’d never had lunch out, just the two of us, like this. “You were right, I hadn’t eaten,” I said, finally, picking up the paper menu sitting on the table. 

“I already ate,” she said, gesturing to an empty plate next to her. “But…you’re welcome.” She lifted the sleeve of her sweater, showing her arms, which were mostly healed over. Some redness remained, though. “It’s healed a lot.”

“Good,” I nodded, and she didn’t say anything else. Maybe I shouldn’t’ve come. Just by virtue of her inviting me, she held the power right now. I didn’t know how to talk to her without having the reins. 

My stomach growled, though, so I studied the menu, a maze of steps to pick from. I didn’t particularly like this set-up, I decided. Shouldn’t the restaurant tell me what was a good combination? But there were a few suggestions listed along the bottom, so I waited in a somewhat awkward silence until a waitress came over and I pointed to one of the items. But once I’d ordered, there was nothing to pretend to look at.

“So,” Mika clasped her hands together. There we go. “I’m not going to ask again, about…what happened this morning.” I nodded. Good, I’d forgotten—or ignored—how close she’d come to getting in that morning. “But…the thing is….” she sighed, looked at the table, then at me. She was nervous. “It did make me… make me think about something differently? Like the other day, you said you had to not care, right?” She looked at me again, and I nodded slowly. 

“I’ve never thought of us as similar, I guess? But this morning…” She groaned in annoyance, but not at me. It was something Raymond did, too, get frustrated over not being able to find the right words. “You’ve always been the enemy to me, I guess. And you’ve said that it was Zachary who had you do it, yes, but you were still with him—” She sighed, stared at the table for a minute.

In the silence, I spoke up. “It’s okay—I can just accept thanks for helping you and we can call it—” 

Mika shook her head. “I know you’ve been lying to me.”

I froze. Panic stirred. Okay, so she’d learned more this morning than I’d thought, shit— okay, what did she know—

“Or maybe not lying but, something?” she glanced at me, and I tried to not look nervous. “But—I can usually feel people, y’know? Or maybe you don’t—” she flicked a straw wrapper sitting on the table. “Most of the time, I can get a read on people. Can tell if they’re trustworthy or not, that kind of thing. Not enough to really get in, but just a feeling, okay?”

I nodded.

“I usually know when people are lying, because they have their guard up, even when they’re acting like they don’t.” She glanced at me without moving her head. “And okay, I get it. Nyp, like okay. Zachary does the same thing, keeping his guard up. Honestly, most people do. But most of the time, even with him, it’s subtle. I still get a feeling of them, there’s just a suppression of some kind. But with you it’s like a freaking wall.” She raised her head to watch my reaction.

And yeah, it made sense. It was the focus. Though it surprised me a bit that she’d always noticed this. Meant she hadn’t fallen for my act quite as much as I wished, but at least she didn't know anything. 

“So that’s why I didn’t trust you. And it doesn't help that every time I look at you I think about…him...but maybe I could look past it if you were being honest around me.” 

I nodded slowly. A disappointment that she knew I was lying, but my secrets were safe. “Okay, so I’ve got a wall up,” I said, trying to sound surprised but pleased—like I had no idea why I would but was happy it existed. “There a reason you wanted to tell me?”

“Yeah,” she started wringing the straw wrapper. “I always kinda thought you just didn’t trust me, like you thought I was just a kid or too inexperienced or whatever, and I didn’t care because we’re not on the same side, right? Like I thought it was about me. And you’re just like, the next Zachary, or whatever. But,” she took a deep breath. “This morning, it wasn’t a wall.” she quickly held up a hand, before I even reacted. “I didn’t like, look or anything. But you felt like a person.” 

I really should’ve focused this morning. I shouldn't have fallen asleep, shouldn’t’ve frozen in the hallway. I didn't even know if I was regretting helping her or just regretting how sloppily I had. 

“And I started to think maybe it wasn’t about me?” she raised an eyebrow.

What could I say to that?

“Like maybe the wall wasn’t for me?” Mika guessed, looking a little hopeful. What was she hoping? “You said you had to not care, right? And like, I’ve hated spending the last few years with him, but it’s been your whole life, right? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I started thinking about what that would be like and how I’ve turned off my emotions and stuff. And maybe you’re not just on Zachary’s side, and if so, maybe we don’t need to be enemies.”

I leaned back in my seat, and she waited. How could I dismantle this? Should I dismantle this? If she was just getting suspicious, yes, but she already knew I was lying. Still, there was no way I could tell her anything. What did she want from me, anyway?

“What’s your point, Mika?”

She took a deep breath. “I guess I just want to know—no. I thought I’d give you a chance? Because—I think you know, I hate living like this. And okay, I have to, yeah. But if you also have to, maybe I should give you a chance. Because if there’s any chance we’re in the same boat… then maybe we can… help each other? So, yeah. I wanted to ask you… are we?” She stared at me, her eyes wide, perhaps the only time I’d interacted with her where she hadn’t wanted to bite my head off. And goddamnit, why did they have to look so alike?

What am I supposed to do here, Raymond? Because yes, we are the same. You’re trusting me to keep her safe, keep us safe, and I thought that it was working, but maybe it wasn’t, and you left me. And she’s hurt, because you left her alone and I kept her alone, and I haven’t been helping her and you want me to help her. Before, I could say that it was worth it. Worth it because her knowing the truth would put her in just as as much danger as we already were in, and she was even less likely to listen to me than to you.

But that must not be true, because nothing about that has changed. And if that’s the only reason, I wouldn’t need it. Because you left, cut me off, and she’s fucking right, I do need someone, because you were my someone. 

I still couldn’t tell her. But she’s asking for help, and she’s asking to help, and it was much easier when she hated me because then I was lying but I wasn’t betraying her. But maybe I always had been, because weren’t we in the same boat? 

She was still watching me, and at least I knew that I was a wall to her so my inner turmoil stayed private. But still, maybe I shouldn’t be talking to you in my head. 

“It’s focus,” I said. 

She frowned. “What?”

It hadn’t exactly been an answer to the question. “The wall you said?” I explained. “It’s the spell focus. It’s a Nance spell.”

“Oh,” she looked thoughtful. “Do you always have that cast?”

It felt so wrong to admit this. I nodded.

“Why?”

I couldn’t say that. Not even a rational reason, though there were a million—I didn’t trust her enough not to tell Zachary, didn't know how she’d react, didn’t think I could explain—but physically, no answer formed. 

She shook her head to dismiss it. “Whatever. Okay, so you cast that spell and there’s a wall? And you didn’t have it cast this morning?”

I nodded again.

“Okay.” She nodded thoughtfully, then set down the straw wrapper. “That doesn’t answer the question, though.”

True. “If you’re asking if we’re on the same side, I don’t think you’d trust my answer,” I said. “And you probably shouldn’t.”

“If you un-cast, I can,” she said. “I won’t look in or anything—I don’t even think I could—but I’ll be able to tell if you’re lying.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I can do that. For the same reason—I don’t trust you enough.” I wished I could—wanted, for Raymond, for her to be trustworthy—but the truth was, I knew too little about her, or what she’d gotten involved in. And I still didn’t think she was good at lying. Either she wasn’t good at lying or she was very good and pulling an elaborate con— neither possibility made her trustworthy.

“What is your answer?”

“Yes,” I said, and for some reason it was easy to say, so easy that I wanted to say more, admit so much, grasp on to anyone I could talk to, but it didn't matter, because I was so tired of this, so tired of hiding it. Keeping my voice steady, not admitting too much. But if there was a chance this all got back to the Syndicate, or someone else, I needed the assurance that I could pretend I’d been getting her to trust me, not true disloyalty. “I also feel stuck. We could be on the same side, though I don’t think there’s anything to do about it.”

She smiled. “Thanks. Even if you’re lying—I’ve just felt alone, and if there’s a chance you have too, that’s all I need. Not much to do about it. And I know you don’t trust me completely, and I’m not sure I trust you, but maybe we could tolerate each other? We don’t have to talk or like, trust each other or anything, but—It’s exhausting, and I feel like it might be a bit better for both of us to feel like someone else in the house wasn’t against us.”

Yeah, it might. I wasn’t going to unfocus, but already, the stress of it was calming down. If she was willing to give me a chance, I should let her. I gave her a smile—tried to give her a genuine one, but with focus still up, I wasn’t sure if it was possible. 

“Good,” she said, and with that the conversation died, something having changed yet very little. My food came out a minute later, so I got to eat at least, and I found myself so hungry that I didn’t put the toasted sandwich down, taking bite after bite. And suddenly I was self conscious, despite having eaten around Mika numerous times.

Who was I supposed to be around her? I couldn’t relax, but I couldn't put on the fake persona I’d grown so accustomed to being. 

Once I’d finished the sandwich and moved on to the fries, Mika spoke up again. “Can I ask something?”

“Depends on what it is.”

She nodded, speaking slowly. “Did Raymond say anything? Before you—before he—”

I stared at my fry, tensing every part of my face, because even focusing didn’t mean I could forget about that moment. I couldn't think about it, not in front of her—even if I did have a wall, that might make it might all fall away.

I ate two fries, trying to swallow down the lump in my throat that threatened to force me to tears. Took a gulp of water. 

“I don’t remember.” 

Mika’s face fell. “Are you lying?”

Of course I was lying. That moment was etched into my memory. That moment was what I returned to. But it was also something—in a way, the thing—I couldn’t tell her.

I took a deep breath, and it sucked, because even if we weren’t letting our guards down, she’d opened up to me, she’d trusted me, and she’d offered me something that I needed and she needed, but I couldn’t.

How could I give her an answer? If she’d asked me this just yesterday it would’ve been so easy to brush her off, to give some sarcastic comment that would make her pissed. 

“You are,” she sighed. “Fine. Whatever. We can not talk about that.” She stared out the window, jaw set. 

It was unfair, though, I knew that. I couldn't tell her, but I knew it was hurting her, that she was still grieving him, and that maybe he was the only reason she was taking a chance with me. Goddamnit, Raymond.

I couldn’t lie about this, though. I couldn’t tell her his last words, partially because they hadn’t been his last, and partially because they revealed too much. But making them up was wrong. I couldn’t come up with something, couldn’t make up some meaningless last words for him. This lie may be protecting them, but that would be betrayal.

“Look,” I said, and it actually came out sounding gentle. She looked back at me. “What happened, Raymond was expecting it. He walked into that building expecting not to make it out alive—whether it was by fire or execution.” Her eyes fell to the table. “Point is, he was expecting to die. Anything he said to you, I’m sure, was far more meaningful than any last words he said to me.”

Of course, what he’d said to me had meant everything, for me, for him, for all of us— but as far as “last words” go, I was telling the truth. One thing I knew for sure was that Raymond had been ready to die, and because of that and because it was him, whatever he said to Mika was his last words. 

And thankfully, she accepted it. She even smiled. “Thank you.”

I gave her a smile, too. And even though this was new, even though I had no idea what to expect, I really hoped it would be okay. I think I needed, if I couldn't have a friend, to at least not be enemies with someone.

[jinxedpanda4life]

Criminal Investigator AU HC

I would first like to start off by saying thank you to everyone. 

I honestly did not expect the response I got to my Damirae Hospital AU HC list. 

When I first woke up and checked tumblr ~13 hours after posting I had a holy shit moment. 

I felt powerful, should I? Probably not. 

But! Since I am noticing a lack of AUs in the fandom, whether on Tumblr, AO3 or FanFiction.net, whatever AU comes to my mind I shall jot down some hcs for! 

Thank you all once again!

(Also trying format changes for easy reading)

(Also Also, I am thinking the story is less fluid but more episodic)

Let’s get started:

- So I’m thinking this is some FBI, SVU, and FBI BAU mixture or whatever. Basically all the great shows we know in love shoved together. From Bones to Criminal Minds and everything in between.

- Special Agent (Dr.) Raven Roth is a lead interrogator and is the resident psych consult. 

She’s been educated in interrogation, behavioral science, psychology, forensic pathology, and criminology. 

She has combat training (hand to hand), she carries (for her job) a gun and at all times has a knife/dagger on her person (people have stopped trying to figure out where she keeps them). 

Her father was/is crime boss T. Trigon who is currently imprisoned. 

Was born in the states but fled with her mother to Romania when she was a newborn.

When Trigon found them he killed Arella and took Raven, she was abut 9 - 10 years old.

She took her mother’s last name when she turned 18. 

Knows two languages besides English; French, Romanian, Romani (various dialects but knows multiple), Greek and Latin

On more than one occasion some goon of her father’s tries to recruit her, every time she kicks their ass. (Damian was there for the most recent (he was still green though))

Lives by herself in a decent sized apartment, has a gun safe (gun safety is important!), a cat (Nevermore), and is a regular at a 24/7 bookstore &/ cafe

Can usually be found wearing some kind of jacket, sweater, cardigan

She once helped save some kids (Melvin, Tommy & Teether) and is now their surrogate aunt, she has photos of them at her desk @ work. (Damian assumes/ed that they were her kids)

She also, when she can, hangs out and babysits them on occasion.

Raven is part of a team consisting of Dick Grayson (unit leader), Kori Anders, Garfield Logan, Jaime Reyes, and very recently Damian Wayne 

- Special Agent Damian Wayne is a lead investigator (he is still a bit fresh to the unit), translator, sniper and combat coordinator

He’s been educated in martial arts, explosives, hand to hand combat, close range combat, and combat (basically he knows how to kill you 9 ways to Sunday), also, behavioral science, computer science, criminology, linguistics and language. 

He can easily translate (into English): Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, French, Polish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, he can also learn any language you put in front of him and know the basics within a day

(Having lived in many places around the world he needed to be able to speak and understand in order to survive) (wow dramatic much?)

His father is currently the director (or deputy director, whatever floats ya boat) of the FBI.

His mother was essentially a secret agent who worked for various agencies around the globe. (deceased)

His grandfather was the leader of a, um, well to be honest, terrorist agency. (deceased)

Was sent to live with his father when he was 15 (when his mother died) and has been in the states ever since

Lives alone, he has an upscale apartment that he truthfully spends little time in, has multiple locations in the home where various weapons are stored, his place has a very cold atmosphere

Is either in proper work attire or in work out clothing, there is no in between

Tries and fails not to take work home with him

He sees a therapist (who says he should probably try investing in relationships with the people at his job)

His only “friend” (he hates calling him that, more like close acquaintance) is Jonathan Kent who was in his class at the FBI Academy, Jon works in a white collar crime department in Metropolis

The only person he actually kind of sort of doesn’t dislike is in fact Raven Roth, she’s a no bull shit person, he likes that

He may know Grayson because of how he’s Bruce’s kind of son but it does not mean he likes him

He finds Logan annoying as all hell, even if he is somewhat useful

He picked a fight with Reyes first day and regretted it (he will never admit that), he respects him

Anders is overly friendly in his opinion, kind of acts like a secretary with all that positivity and grates his nerves, he tolerates her

(Unlike last time I am not going in detail about the rest of the team, this will be brief)

- Supervisory Special Agent Dick Grayson (Unit Chief) is basically Dick Grayson with a big fancy title but all the same skills

He is also obsessed with Slade Wilson and Red X (who is Jason in this)

- Supervisory Special Agent Kori Anders is a lead investigator and is also a go to for undercover work

- Special Agent Garfield Logan is a lead interrogator, is head of the unit’s K-9 unit and kind of has a thing for Roth (which she does not reciprocate) 

- Special Agent Jaime Reyes is a tactical analyst, tech analyst and is head of the unit’s SWAT team, he does not do well with talking with people, or change

The Scarab is a computing program that Jaime created himself

STORY START:

- When Damian first joins the team there is another member, Special Agent Terra Markov, she is revealed as a sleeper agent but she aligns herself with the team and sadly is shot and killed in a fire fight

- A couple weeks after Agent Markov’s death everyone is talking about what they are doing for an upcoming holiday, Damian says probably nothing, Raven invites him to spend it with her and her “niece” and “nephews,” he declines

- About a day after the holiday Damian is home looking through case files when someone knocks on his door

-- It is Raven. He asks how she knew where he lived, she says she asked Dick, she also says that she knows how it feels to be alone and that he may be insufferable but it doesn’t mean he can’t have a friend

-- His response is saying he isn’t the kind to make friends with co workers

-- “I’m not asking to be your friend Damian, I am asking you to be his,” She reveals a small black great dane puppy “I know that other people aren’t really your thing, but having someone in your corner and waiting for you is always nice, even if it isn’t human.”

-- Damian invites her in, names the dog Titus and thanks her

-- “Just make sure no one tries to kidnap and kill you, we don’t need you to go full blown John Wick.” Damian has no idea who that is. Raven tells him it is an action movie series that he should watch. She leaves. He does watch them that night with Titus on his lap. (after having gone to the local pet supply store to get everything he needs) The action is inaccurate but he enjoyed the movies none the less, and decides that he probably would go into John Wick mode if someone hurt Titus.

- SA Roth and SA Wayne are sent to a high security federal prison to interrogate a prisoner, who refuses to speak

-- When they get into the interview room the prisoner does start to speak, but not in English and not in a language Damian is fluent in

-- Raven on the other hand immediately responds to the prisoner (shocking the prisoner and Damian) “He is speaking Romani though not the dialect of those overseas, he learned it here.” 

-- Damian is fascinated by it and they are essentially switching roles the entire time

-- They leave having successfully interviewing the prisoner, and Raven leaves behind a written list of common words in Romani so that they can possibly communicate with the prisoner better

-- As soon as they are on the plane back Damian asks her a myriad of questions from “How many languages do you know?” to “When did you learn that?” and even “Are you a spy? Sleeper agent? Part of a terrorist cell?”

-- “Not as many as you, when I was a child, if I was part of any of that you wouldn’t be asking.” The rest of the trip is spent with her teaching him Romani and even some Romanian

- Dick & Kori eventually get together and after a while they break up. Kori takes some vacation time. At the same Dick has been temporarily reassigned to another unit.

-- Chaos ensues

-- Garfield thinks he should be the interim unit chief, Jaime thinks the same, as does, you guessed it, Damian (Raven doesn’t want to she is comfortable with her role on the team)

-- In the end they are assigned an interim unit chief, SSA Jason Todd, who usually works overseas on covert op missions (not gonna lie this could easily flow into a Jayrae thing)

-- Everyone kind of falls into line, except Damian, Damian doesn’t like him for two reasons

1) He doesn’t act serious about the job 24/7

2) He has been flirting and hitting on Raven the moment he stepped into their sector 

-- Damian hates the names he gives her; “Little Bird,” “Sunshine,” “Princess,” “Rae,” (no one calls her Rae, not even Garfield, at least not after the incident) etc.

-- (Little does Damian know, Jason and Raven have worked together before and are actually friends)

-- This all comes to a head when Damian and Jason are the only ones still in the office after a tiring case.

          “You shouldn’t do that you know.”

           “Do what? All I am doing right now is contemplating where Grayson                    keeps the liquor.”

           “Call Raven all those names, she doesn’t like it.”

           “Really? Because if you haven’t noticed she hasn’t exactly asked me to                stop.”

           “She gets uncomfortable, maybe not to the extent of asking you to stop,              but she tenses up and her body language becomes slightly more                        agitated.”

          “You seem to pay a lot of attention in how she reacts to thinks baby brat.             Seems to me that you like her.”

           “Of course I like her, she is a good friend and reliable teammate.”

           “No, you like like her.”

           “That presumption is juvenile.”

           “But you don’t deny it.”

           “Tch.”

-- If anything after that conversation Jason seems to doubled his advances. Which confuses both Damian and Raven. Damian because it is inappropriate and HR will be hearing about this. Raven because she was under the assumption that she and Jason were just friends. (Jason actually does have genuine intentions but is like 60% just egging Damian on)

-- Eventually (far too long for Damian’s tastes), both Dick and Kori return. At first it is sooooooo awkward. Like mom and dad divorced have shared custody but don’t hate each other but also cannot look each other in the eye. ((Was that a mouthful? Good)) No one can really look at each other the same? Though they do have a meeting to sort it out, get everything out in the open.

- Raven’s annual kidnapping/attempt to convert her/torture comes almost exactly one year after Damian joined the team (this is his 2nd time dealing with this)

-- This time Damian is prepared. By prepared I mean Raven doesn’t even leave her apartment before she is taken to safety. 

    “Damian what is going on?”

    “Christmas came early this year that’s what.”

    “Christmas? What in gods name are you talking about.”

    “God has no dealings in this matter.”

    “You do realize you are sounding like a bad action movie? It is not even 6 am and I am in your car going somewhere, I have had little to no sleep and I am barely dressed. What is going on?” Damian hadn’t payed attention to what clothing Raven was wearing. His mind was on one goal. Find Raven, keep Raven safe. His eyes glanced off the road enough to realize she was indeed not properly dressed. Her body was merely adorned with an oversized tee-shirt, tiny barely there shorts and a pair of fluffy socks.

    “I apologize, it appears in my haste I did not leave you time to properly clothe yourself. As to why you are here, it seems your father and his people have shortened their waiting time this year from one year to a little more than ten months.” Ravens hands fisted her shirt. “This time I was prepared,” last time he was still new to everything, last time he made mistakes, this time there will be no mistakes. “Since our last encounter with your demon, so to speak, I have been setting in place precautions and safety measures to ensure Nevermore and yours’ safety. I have also been tracking the movements of his big players. If any came close I would mark it down. Multiple are entering the city at this moment. Seeing as you we taken last time I have made plans to ensure that will not happen again.” The car made a snap turn down an unfamiliar street pulling Raven from her clouded gaze.

    “So I am going to be okay this time?” Her voice was faint and restraining against hope.

    “You’re going to be okay.” His hand lightly held hers. Only to stop the shaking, they told themselves, only to make everything better. “Nevermore is with Titus at my place being watched by a friend of mine. I have already walked Grayson through everything we will not be expected at work this week, but we can work remotely.”

     “We?”

     “I’m not going to leave you. Ever.”

-- ((Sorry for the blocks of text))

-- As Raven finds out they are at one of Damian’s safe houses. The one least likely to be tied to her. It is fully stocked with food, has security cameras and if needed weapons. The only problem is that the only clothes there are Damians.

    “Thought of everything huh?”

     “I was following their pattern, I expected to have more time to acquire clothing for you.” (he was looking away and blushing, you cannot tell me he wasn’t)

-- Raven just resigns herself to wearing Damian’s clothes, yes his brain does stop working for a hot second when he sees her in only his clothes.

-- All attempts to try and retrieve codename: Gem of Scath are foiled (like some good math)

-- So many bonding moments happen. Cuddling (pure accident *rolls eyes*), eating together, inside jokes, etc. At one point Damian answers her phone (he disabled and disconnected the tracer) to one of the mob guys after them.

    “Hello?”

     “You can hide the gem but we will find her.”

     “I’m sorry, is there a jewel you are looking for? I don’t think I have and any jewels that I am coveting.”

     “We know you are with her! It is but a matter of time until we collect her.”

     “I hope you do eventually find whatever you are looking for sir, but I haven’t the slightest idea the gem you speak of. If you could give me a physical description? Is it a ruby, diamond, onyx? Is it round or more of a pear shape?”

    “...”

    “Well, I will look for it here, but I do not believe I possess what you speak of. Will you give me your number so I can call you back?” (The line cuts dead, and Raven can be seen laughing in the background, the phone was on speaker)

-- Once the team tracks down, arrests and interrogates all of the parties working for Trigon; Raven and Nevermore can go home. Though both are reluctant in their own way. Nevermore has grown attached to Titus, and Raven well Raven has feelings. Sadly, as Raven knows, feelings are dangerous to have in their line of work. 

-- Look at Dick and Kori they were together and then they fell apart and the team almost imploded.

-- What about Trigon if he finds out about Damian and how she feels towards him? What kind of danger will he be in then?

-- Like all of her feelings Raven puts them in a box and locks the box away. Not just figuratively, in her safe there is a box with: post its, torn papers, journals, etc. That box has a lock on it. Whenever she has a new feeling that she cannot ignore, like her feelings towards Special Agent Wayne, she takes out the box and writes her feelings down. They can range from a single sentence to pages worth. (Her feelings towards Damian fill a small notebook she has on hand). Once she has written all of her feelings out she places them in the box, locks said box and then places the locked box in her safe, which she then locks.

-- Is this a healthy way to cope with her feelings? Maybe not. But, it is way better than how Damian deals with his. Violence. Also art but violence comes first.

- At this point both Damian and Raven have caught the feelings (highly contagious I hear), which makes this a little awkward and a little not awkward. For one everyone but Raven knows how Damian feels towards her. He does things for her and with her that no one else gets the privilege to.

-- To list a few:

--- He brings her tea whenever he gets himself coffee or tea

--- He talks to her about what he does outside of work, even about his kind of friend definitely not enemy, Jon.

--- They socialize outside of work. Watching bad movies (some of them are not that bad), going to the park with Titus (they once got Nevermore in a leash and walked her), meeting each other before and after work to get breakfast or dinner.

--- He doesn’t glare at her

--- He allows physical contact between the two

--- He worries about her (hello he created an entire plan so that she wouldn’t get kidnapped, with contingencies and everything, garfield would be lucky to get a plan)

--- His eyes light up when she talks, or enters a room, or you know exists in his vicinity

--- He actually smiles around her (Dick caught him smiling once at Raven and he though Damian was having a stroke)

-- Even though everyone knows Damian likes Raven, very few know that Raven likes Damian back. (this only includes; Kori, Dick, Jason, Titus, Nevermore, and Melvin) She does do certain things that give herself away just like Damian.

--The list:

--- When Damian gets frustrated or angry she puts a hand on his arm, or holds his hand

--- She laughs at things he does (light chuckles, or little giggles)

--- She will talk to him about his interests and actively tries to have conversations with him about things unrelated to work.

--- She blushes when he does something unexpected (like a compliment)((Mostly she tries to hide it until he isn’t looking at her))(((Kori has caught the blush before)))

-- Luckily for them it does not take some cliche ‘One suddenly becomes in danger and the other one saves them only to be close to death and then they admit their love for one another and promise to go on a date when the other is healed’ situation. 

-- Damian actually asks Raven out after being tipped of by Jason and Dick that she may like him back. Damian finds out when they have days off at the same time and asks her while leaving work.

   “Raven, you have this weekend off correct?”

   “Yeah I do. I wasn’t planning on doing anything though. Did you have something in mind?”

    “Um, yeah, heh, I was wondering if you would do me the pleasure of going to dinner with me tomorrow.” *Awkwardly rubs back of neck*

    “Like a date or two friends going to dinner?” *Thinks she sounds harsh* “I am honestly fine with either since we are friends.” *nervous smile*

     “Like a date if that is okay with you of course.”

     “Yeah, yeah totally that is totally okay with me.” *Starts sounding like a teenage girl who only knows about 10 words, because she’s nervous*

      “Good, I’ll be by your place around 1830, if that is okay?” *nerve central, the central nervous system could never*

       “Yup that is totally fine with me.”

       “Great.”

       “Good.” The elevator opens in the knick of time.

       “See you tomorrow evening Agent Roth. Have a good night.”

        “You too, Agent Wayne, you too.”

-- When Damian does pick her up he feels like his brain is going to explode. She looks absolutely breathtaking. This is just like all the other times they’ve gone to dinner, except this restaurant is slightly fancier and they are on a date.

-- Raven feels as though all her emotions are leaking out at once, she has no idea what she is doing.

-- In the end they have a good time and decide to do it again. Damian does bring up that all of the breakfasts and dinners they regularly do could now be considered dates. Raven does not oppose that switch at all.

- Fast forward a handful of years (like 3?), Damian and Raven are moved in together (Nevermore and Titus are happy about this, they even allow the humans to adopt another pet, a cat named Alfred). Damian is now Supervisory Special Agent Wayne and is in charge of their unit. Raven has retired from field work and now works at the FBI academy and at Virginia State University. In about 6 months Damian is going to propose and Raven will say yes. Their wedding will be small but happy and full of life.

Once again I would like to thank everyone and all the support the previous post got.

Like last time if anything is disjointed, out of place or seems wrong, please go ahead and tell me. I have been working on this since the last one, but have finally had the time to finish it.

I hope the new year will bring us all some good. Possibly more head canons to come.

[isolemnlyswearpevensie]

A Moment Apart | Caspian x Reader

Warnings: Nothing

Time/Era: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Word Count: 1.7k

Summary: After Y/N gets swept to Narnia with her cousins, she meets a certain someone who piques her interest. Goodbyes are hard, but this one seems more like a “see you later.”

Request: Hi ! I just got back home and read your first Caspian one shot, and let me tell you : i LOVE your writing so much!! So im just going to request another caspian os because i love him so much ahah. Can you write something where the reader first meets him during VOTD and she has to go back on Earth then some times after he ends up in our world and meet the reader again? Take care 💕💕

A/N: Thank you so much for such a sweet compliment! If you love Caspian, saddle up because I have 4 more requests for him coming after this one. Thanks for requesting and enjoy! Please give me feedback. I was thinking of doing a part 2 for this, so tell me whatcha think about that idea! :) Also, I was listening to A Moment Apart by ODESZA when writing, so that’s sort of the vibe of this imagine~

Part 2 | masterlist | read on ao3

Being Y/N Scrubb was about as fun as it sounded. Her parents very obviously favored her little brother, Eustace, and didn’t have a care about what she did. Y/N was much older than Eustace anyway, so they weren’t exactly friends either. The only thing that was getting her through the long, boring days was the fact that two of her cousins had come to stay with them. 

Y/N’s cousins, Lucy and Edmund, were closer to Y/N’s age and much more tolerable. Instead of acting as if they were superior due to having an “immense vocabulary,” they were kind and funny. They would actually listen to Y/N and treat her like an equal. Y/N hated being treated as an inferior by an eleven-year-old. 

“How are you even related to that?” Edmund asked one afternoon. He had been the victim of Eustace’s “intellectual insults” a mere five minutes before. 

“I could ask you the same thing.”

~

“Is the water...moving?” Y/N asked, gazing at the painting next to her cousins. Eustace comes in and sits on the bed. 

“What rubbish! That’s what happens when you read-”

“Can you shut your mouth for just five seconds, please?” Y/N turns around and glares at her brother before turning back to the painting. She continues to stare, taking in every detail of the painting. The magnificent blues and greens swirled together to depict a wonderful ocean scene. The boat was just as breathtaking; it had a huge mast adorning a brightly colored sail and what looked like a dragon carved into the bow. It didn’t take long before Edmund and Eustace started fighting. 

There was something about the painting that screams adventure. Whether that be the vivid imagery or the bright colors, Y/N didn’t know, but she wished that she could be on the boat. Maybe then she could get away from Eustace and his constant chatter. 

As if by magic, water started to drip from the corner of the painting. 

“Lu? Do you see that?” Y/N asked as the trickle turned into a constant stream. The water was getting all over the carpet; Y/N couldn’t help but imagine what her mother would say. 

“Edmund! Look!” Lucy screeched, grabbing the attention of her older brother. The painting now had water streaming from every edge of its frame and the water was starting to pool. The bedroom flooded in record time and the four were pushed under. Furniture began to float around them and they had to dodge chairs in order to not get impaled. Y/N had never been the quickest swimmer, resulting in the leg of a chair clipping her arm. 

The need for air overpowered the pain of my arm so she fought to reach the top of the water. When all four of their heads surfaced, they were no longer in the small room, but in the middle of the ocean. 

“What’s happening?!” Y/N screamed at her companions. 

“Swim!!” Was Lucy’s only response. That was when Y/N noticed the huge boat coming straight for them. “Hurry!” Y/N kicked her legs as hard as she could, but the current was strong. 

“Stop!” A hand wrapped around her ankle and pulled her back. “You’re safe now! Stop swimming!’

“Edmund, it’s Caspian!” She recognized that voice to be Lucy’s. “We’re in Narnia!”

Another voice answered her. “You’re in Narnia!”

The voice was deep and strong, laced with a thick accent. It was also slightly scratchy but in the best way. Y/N had the fleeting thought that she wanted to hear it again, and again, and again. 

~

Y/N was covered in a plush towel as soon as she was brought on board. The boat deck was riddled with things and creatures, most of which couldn’t care less about her presence. She scanned the deck for any sign of her cousins; Edmund and Lucy were talking animatedly with a tall gentleman. He was wet, probably one of their rescuers, and his white shirt was clinging to his torso. The stranger’s hair was also sopping wet, pushed to the side and dripping into his eyes. 

“Edmund!” She called out desperately. He looked over and the three walk over. 

“And who might this be?” The handsome stranger asks, looking down at Y/N. He was quite a bit taller than her. Y/N couldn’t bring herself to speak; his hair had fallen to either side of his face and it created a perfect frame around his eyes. His warm, chocolate brown eyes were wrinkled at the corners due to his grin. 

“This is our other cousin, Y/N,” Edmund spoke for Y/N, an amused look on his face. 

The man takes a hold of Y/N’s hand and brings it to his lips. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my beautiful Y/N. My name is Caspian.” He kissed her knuckles and released his grip. His eyes followed the line of her arm and landed on her injury. 

“Oh, you’re bleeding,” His eyes burned into Y/N’s skin. 

She squirmed under his gaze. “Oh, uh, yeah. A chair hit me.”

“A chair? Hit you?” He crossed his arms and put his weight on one leg. This made his hip jut out slightly and his coat flair. 

The conversation Y/N and Caspian were having seemed to really amuse Lucy and Edmund. They kept sharing knowing glances at each other. Y/N wished she knew what they were thinking. 

“No matter, come with me. I’ll patch you up. We can’t have you bleeding all over my deck, now can we?” He turns on his heel and begins to walk towards the flight of stairs behind him. Y/N looks to Lucy for help. 

“Follow him,” She mouths, a grin taking up her entire face. Y/N bites the inside of her cheek and follows. 

Caspian led the Y/N into a large bedroom that was lit by a wall of windows. There were various different paintings on the walls, a full-sized wardrobe, a desk, and a door leading to a balcony. Y/N came to the conclusion that this was Caspian’s living quarters. Caspian pulled the wooden chair from the desk out and twisted it around. 

“Here, sit,” He motioned his hand towards it. Y/N laid her towel down on the seat and sat down. Her wound had left a large trail of blood down her arm and she fought the urge to wipe it with her hand. Caspian opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out disinfectant and a bandage. 

“Give me your arm,” He said, the words tumbling out of his mouth as he kneeled in front of the chair. He delicately cradled her arm in her hands and examined her cut. The skin of his hand was soft and gentle as it handled Y/N’s forearm. Taking a handkerchief out of his pocket, he tenderly cleaned the blood from her wound. 

“You are very pretty,” He almost purred. Y/N’s stomach burst into butterflies. 

“O-oh, thank you.” She stuttered in response, making him chuckle under his breath. 

He sprayed the disinfectant and Y/N’s body reacted naturally. 

“Ow! That hurt,” Y/N shrieked, pulling her arm back and almost out of his grip. 

“I know, I apologize. But it is necessary, you don’t want an infection.” Caspian pulled Y/N’s arm closer towards him and covered it in a bandage. 

“There you go, as good as new.” His hands trailed down her arm and grasped hers, bringing it to his mouth again. He kissed her knuckles twice then stood up. 

~

In the following months, Y/N and Caspian got very close. He taught her everything about Narnia and all about her cousin’s accomplishments. It was hard to believe at first, but once she saw Caspian and Edmund spar, she believed it. She loved watching Caspian spar; his face always scrunched as he focused and some of the sounds he makes. Mercy, the sounds he makes. 

“I guess this is it, then.” Y/N says, looking up into the eyes of the man she had become to love. 

“I will find you again, my love.” He said, taking a step closer to Y/N. 

“How? Cas, I probably won’t be able to come to Narnia again,” She sniffled. 

“I’ll find a way, I promise.”

Caspian leaned down and pressed a lasting kiss on Y/N’s lips. 

“Goodbye, Y/N. Until I see you again.”

~

Life was boring outside of Narnia. About a month passed since the crew had arrived back home, and none of them have really left the house. Y/N spent most of her time people watching from the window. 

“I wonder what Caspian is doing right now,” Y/N thinks out loud, talking to no one in particular. 

“Probably fighting someone or eating or something. That’s pretty much all he does,” Edmund responds. 

“That is not all he does!” 

“Oh right, he kisses you too. But you’re not there so that isn’t really an option for him.” Edmund grins wickedly and turns back to his book. 

“Ed! That’s not funny!” Y/N frowned. She hated thinking about her favorite boy being sad. Especially because of her.

“I thought it was funny,” He responded. Asshole. 

“Luce, can I go to the store with you? I can’t stand being in this house a moment longer.” Y/N stood up and looked down at the street. It was full of people going about their business. An old man sat upon a bench eating a banana. 

“I’m not sure you would really want to. You might see that boy.” That was another thing Y/N hated about being at home. The last time she went to the market with Lucy, this boy wouldn’t stop hitting on her. He was tall, blonde, and had bright blue glasses. He was conventionally attractive, but there was only one boy on Y/N’s mind. 

“Ack, you’re right. Never mind.” Looking back down at the city below, she saw a strange figure walking down the road. He was wearing a long poofy shirt and black trousers. He looked sort of like a pirate. The fact that he had long hair only added to the pirate look, as did his long boots. He reminded her of Caspian. She sighed and turned her head towards Edmund. 

“Eddie, come look at this guy. He looks exactly like Caspian.”

Edmund groaned and stood up, his only intention was to entertain his cousin. He knew that she was just trying to get over the guy, no matter how annoying it was. He looked down at the stranger and had to do a double-take. 

“Um, Y/N, don’t freak out, but I think that is Caspian.”

[stardancerluv]

Adventures Tend To Repeat

Summary: Rick and Evie are off on an adventure but this time it doesn’t go exactly how they planned.

Warning: brief mention of blood.

Note: This is for @sweater-daddiesdumbdork I hope you enjoy this! An adventure with an unexpected curse puts a hamper on things for Rick and Evie, will they be ok? We’ll see!

Thank you again for all your kind words about my writing. Hope this lives up to it! Have a great weekend! - Rachel

Rick held his breath as he eyed the silvery idol. He reached into his back pocket and took out the small pouch of sand. Slowly he wrapped his fingers around the legs of Lord Venkateswara and he brought over his hand that held the sand pouch. His heart was thudding hard but then he did he switched the two. Nothing happened. He had done it. He looked around, so swinging axes nor poison arrows flying through the air at him.

Feeling safe turned on his heal and ran as fast as his legs would carry him to Evie. She was standing guard. Earlier another treasure hunter had been close on their heels when they had left Nepal so, they could not rest. This time Indy could not help them. It was just them. He tucked Lord Venkateswara in the leather pouch that hung from his hip.

He stopped right at her. Out of breath but excitement coursing hotly in his veins! “We did it Evie, the collection will now be complete.”

“I’m so relieved. You took forever.” She smiled up a him.

He smirked. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

******

Rick wiped his brow as he held his breath. Eyeing the silvery idol reached into his back pocket, he grimaced it was in his other pocket. Biting back a sigh, he reached into his other pocket and took out the small pouch of rocks. Slowly he wrapped his fingers around the head of Lord Venkateswara and he brought over his hand that held the small rocks. His stomach churned hard but he then he switched the two. Nothing happened. He did it! He Ed Reed looked around but then he tripped. He fell with a thud, but he had not dropped the idol. Luckily no swinging axes nor poison arrows flying through the air at him.

Feeling safe turned on his heal and ran as fast as his legs would carry him to Evie. He ended up running right past her! “Come on! Let’s go!” He called, together ran to the mouth of the temple and stopped. She had standing guard. Earlier another treasure hunter or perhaps natives, they could not tell had been close on their heels. They had been following them since they had left Nepal. They could not rest and had to keep their eyes peeled. This time Indy was on his own hunt for some special relics and could not help them. It was them and the pilot. He tucked Lord Venkateswara in the leather pouch that hung from his hip and it fell straight through.

“I thought you had that fixed.” Evie’s brow furrowed. Her look of concern worried him.

“I did too.” He pressed his lips together. “At least I am out of there.”

“Yeah, but...” Her voice trailed off.

******

Evie held her breath as she looked over the brass idol. Reaching into her satchel, she took out the small pouch of sand. Gently, she wrapped his fingers around the legs of Lord Venkateswara and then she brought over his hand that held the sand pouch. Her heart was racing in her chest but then she did it, she switched the two.

But then she paused, wait a second. Rick was supposed to go in here. Why was she in here. Looking around, she was confused. She adjusted her hat. Well, at least she had done it. She hoped he had not fallen asleep. He had not been able to shrug off his tiredness since Nepal.

An arrow flew past her. She bit back the scream of worry. She began to run. Grateful she had worn her pants and boots today. She kept on running dodging arrows left and right.

Her racing heart skipped when she saw that he had slumped over and was sleeping where he stood. She dodged a final arrow and running over to him, she hoped she could wake him. Earlier their pilot had been bitten by the bug of greed and was hinting them, they had to be careful. She wished Indy had stayed by the boat. She hoped she could wake him. Carrying him was going to be no easy task. t was just her. After tucking Lord Venkateswara into her satchel she started to try and wake Rick.

“Rick, come on you have to wake up.”

*****

Rick held his breath as he eyed the silvery idol and he stopped and stood up. He was here before. A sharp realization washed over him. That little idol had cursed Evie and him, damn it. He reached into his back pocket and took out the a small rock, which confused him but he went with it. Slowly he wrapped his fingers around the legs of Lord Venkateswara and he brought over the rock. His heart was thudding hard but then he did he switched the two. An arrow flew from out pf the darkness and went through his arm, he threw his head back and screamed. It echoed and bounced off the walls of the tavern.

He dropped the idol, it fell with a hard thud onto the floor. His blood dripped the stone ground as snatching the idol off the ground and quickly slipped into his pouch. Holding the arrow, he made his way over to where Evie was standing. He let out an anguish sound.

“Rick! Oh no!”

He groaned. It broke his heart to see tears well up in Evie’s eyes. had done it.

“Evie,” He swallowed. “The idol cursed us, I don’t know but I think we’re stuck. I think we’ve done this a few times.”

“But but..what should we do?”

He took a deep breath, trying to focus despite the pain. “Maybe..maybe we should just return it but do it together. Maybe?”

“Alright. Yes! It’s not worth it.”

*****

Evie and Rick knelt by where the idol stood. Blood, was streaked his white shirt.

“Together.” He managed to say.

“Yes.”

Together, they out their hands on the idol. “Lord Venkateswara, we will leave you here. Please free us of your curse, so we shall go on and protect out son whom we love dearly and our friends.” They shared a look. “We will share of your generosity and nature of forgiveness if you free us.”

The ground shook. They remained holding onto the idol. “Rick!” She smiled. “It’s gone.”

The arrow, the blood were gone.

“It is.” “Ricked looked at the idol and bowed his head. “Thank you.”

“We will leave now.”

The ground rumbled once more and then together they ran out. It wasn’t until they were on the ship watching the water glide by the boat did they both feel like they could breath.

Evie’s warm eyes looked up at him. “I’m so glad you are ok.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you or Lord Venkateswara for that matter.”

“Still has his giving nature.”

“Yes.” He pulled Evie close then. “Perhaps now we should take a bit of a vacation, see some of our family. It’s been a while. All of this had been a little close.”

“I agree.” She agreed and nodded. A grim shadow fell over her face. But then she smiled up at him. “It will be good to see our family, its been awhile.”

Rick nodded.

A gentleman in smart clothes, one of the crew came up from below decks. He came over to where they stood. “This was delivered why the two of you ventured into the temple.”

Evie took the crisp envelop. “Thank you.” The man stood back so they could read it.”

Rick inhaled and nodded.

“Go ahead.”

Evie opened the envelop.

Rick & Evie,

Dear friends I need you,

This is urgent. There was been some looking and disgraceful activity near Machu Picch, we have to make amends and bring things back to order. When you get this, please send word and come immediately.

Indy

“We gotta go. We can’t leave him in the lurch.” Rick, grimaced.

Evie nodded. “We do. Alright. Once at the airstrip we will have to give them the new flight plans.”

On the back of the paper, she scrawled a quick note. She looked at the man, who had come up deck. “Can you send this message back to this coordinates?”

Rick rose an eyebrow. “You think he’ll be stay there?”

“Alright here too.” She quickly scrawled a second pair of locations. “And please send it here too.”

“Very well madam.” He took the note. “With pleasure.” He took the note and went below deck.

Rick pulled Evie closer. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “We will take a vacation afterward.”

[prismatica-the-strange]

Ugly Duckling | Chapter 2

Part 1 | Part 3

We were running to catch Greg and Tamara, when they opened a portal to God knows where, and jumped in, taking Henry with them.

        "No! No!" Emma shouted while David, her father, stopped her from jumping into what was only ocean now. "We have to follow them! There has to be a way!"

        "Not only do we not know where they went, but Hook stole the last bean!" Regina growled

        "I don't care!"

        "Without it, there's no way to follow"

        "There has to be," I argued. "We can't just let the, take Henry!"

        "They've taken Henry?" Gold asked as he and Belle showed up.

        "Yeah. You're the Dark One. Do something." David threatened.

        "Gold, help us." Emma all but begged.

        "There's no way." he shook his head, 'I spent a lifetime trying to cross worlds to find my son. There's no way in this world without a portal."

        "So that's it? He's gone forever?" I asked, defeated.

        "I refuse to believe that." Regina looked ready to kill.

        "What is that?" Belle looked past us, into the harbor.

        "Hook." 

~~~~~

        "What the hell are you doing here?" Emma asked as Hook stepped off his boat.

        "Helping."

        "Well, you're too late." Regina hissed.

        "Am I?" He raised an eyebrow in her direction.

        "I thought you didn't care about anyone but yourself."

        "Maybe I just needed reminding that I could."

        "Enough waiting around," Regina urged, stepping towards the Jolly Roger, "let's go."

        "Go? Where? I thought we were saving the town." Hook asked, confused.

        "We already did." David scoffed.

        "We need to get Henry." I explained, "Greg and Tamara took him through a portal."

        "Well, I offer my ship and my services to help follow them."

        "Well that's great, Hook, but how do we track them?" Regina asked.

        "Leave that to me." Gold interjected, "I can get us to where we need to go."

        "Well, let's do it." Mary Margaret gave a curt nod and we followed her onto the ship.

~~~~~

        "So, are you done trying to kill me?" Gold looked at Hook.

        "I believe so."

        "Excellent. Then you can live." He magic-ed as weird globe into his hand and pricked his finger, his blood dripped onto its surface and showed him an image.

        "Where is that? Where did they take Henry?" Regina pushed.

        "Neverland."

        Emma gave Hook the bean and he chucked it into the water. Pulling the strap of my Jessenger bag close, I gripped part of the rigging, something told me this want going to be a smooth ride.

~~~~~

        Not long after we arrived in the Never-sea, Gold fricked off on his own. Told us to stay where we were and he'd get Henry and get back.        

        It'd been almost an hour when there was a thud against the side of the ship. The ship began to rock as Snow and David tried to keep it steady.

        "What is it a shark?" Emma asked.

        "A Kraken?" David added.

        "Worse," Killian corrected, taking the helm, "Mermaids!"

        "Mermaids?!" Emma shouted.

        "Yes, and they're quite unpleasant."

        "You think? snapped as one of the mermaids hit the boat.

        "I'll try and outrun them."

        "How many of them are there?!" Emma looked over the rail and the screeching increased.

        Regina managed to catch one and throw a fireball at the water where the rest of them were, effectively scaring them off.

        As the rest of them bickered about what to do, the mermaid blew into a shell, summoning a storm. As the heroes fought, the storm got worse until Emma realized what was happening. The fighting was making the storm worse and to stop them and get their attention, she jumped off the side of the ship.

        Everyone stopped what they were doing to save her since she nearly drowned. Once she was back on the boat the storm had stopped altogether, but the Jolly Roger was too damaged to keep going. So we got it close enough to shore that it wouldn't capsize and waded our way to shore.

        Cold and wet, we clambered onto the beach, and they started going at each other... again.

        Emma gave a small speech and we were off to find Henry.

        We started a trek to a high peak where we would be able to see where Pan's camp was.

        "Jesus, it's hot." I huffed, pulling off my hoodie and tying it around my waist.

        "You alright?" Mary-Margaret asked, falling back to walk next to me.

        "Just a little floored, it's been an exciting couple of hours." I laughed.

~~~~~

        Well, the ridge turned out to be a bust since, in the past thirty years, it'd grown a bit. We backtracked a bit and made camp.

        It was when you tried to sleep on Neverland that you realized it was impossible. The thick air was filled with the sobs and cries of lost boys. Only, the adults couldn't seem to hear it. I pressed my head against the rock I was leaning against and pushed my headphones against my ears. 

        I watched Emma get up, and I gave her a questioning look.

        "Going for a quick walk," She mouthed and I nodded, leaning my head back against the rock and shutting my eyes.

        She was gone for a moment when I felt eyes on me. I glanced around and didn't see anything, then Emma stormed back into camp with a paper in her hand.

        Somewhere on the paper, there was a map that would reveal itself when Emma accepted 'who she really was.'

        She and the rest of the group worked on that while I kept an eye around the camp.

       Maybe I wandered a bit further from the group than I should have, but this was the last thing I expected.

        A sharp yelp bubbled out of my throat in surprise. It was until a few seconds after that I cried out a pained "Shit!"

        A spear was pinning me to a tree THROUGH my left shoulder, and blood was beginning to drip from where it stabbed me. A lost boy stepped out from behind a tree, a dark smirk on his lips.

        "What the actual Fuc-... Ah!" Yelling hurt worse than I thought it would. 

        The fucker started laughing, "Poor little girl! Did I hit you?"

        "Little gi- Bitch you fucking IMPALED ME!"

        "Well, that's what you get coming to Neverland." He got up in my face and before I could slap the smile off his face he grabbed the spear and pressed up.

        A scream ripped through me and I instinctively kneed him in the crotch. He let go and dropped to the ground.

        "You little bitch!" He pulled out a knife and went to stab my thigh when someone caught his arm.

        "What do you think you're doing?!" An unfamiliar voice hissed. They pulled the boy to his feet, turning their back to me as they reprimanded him. "You know Pan wants them alive!"

        "Yea but she-"

        "You wanna piss off Pan?" They, who I assumed was another Lost boy, grabbed the boy by the collar, lifting him off the ground. "Now get out of here, I'll clean up your mess."

           He threw the boy into the dirt and the shorter one scurried away.

        With an annoyed sigh, the new lost boy turned back to me. He was pale, had light blonde hair, and had a club by his side. He studied me for a moment before pressing his hand into my right shoulder.

        "This is gonna hurt." He muttered before gripping the spear and harshly pulling it out of my shoulder.

        "FUCK!" I fell into his chest and the hand that held me still wrapped around my waist.

        The moment his skin touched mine we both went rigged and goosebumps erupted across my body. The world froze.

        He was so much taller than me, I felt so small this close to him. The clunk of the spear against the ground pulled me back to reality.

        I hissed in pain as I pressed my hand to the hole in my shoulder that was now gushing blood. "Shit shit shit shit shit!" My mind was racing, tears falling from my eyes, as I tried to figure out what to do since at this rate I was gonna bleed out, and fast.

        I could barely come up with a coherent thought when I suddenly lifted into someone's arms. I looked up, wide-eyed, to see the face of the same lost boy, his hood falling back. His eyes were such a pretty shade of gray, they flickered to me.

        "What?" He snapped, and I realized I was staring.

       I looked away as it began to pour.

        He cursed and made a sharp turn, heading into a cave in a nearby cliffside. 

        He all but dropped me on the cold ground and went to make a fire, muttering about how this was going to be a while. My eyes wandered my surroundings until everything started to become fuzzy and my head started to spin. I looked down at my blood-soaked clothes and my eyelids began to feel really heavy.

        "Hey!" I felt someone shake me and I struggled to look at them. "Open your eyes damn it!"

        I groaned and went to push them away, but my arms felt like lead.

        They grabbed my face and growled, "Wake up!"

        I managed to open my eyes and met the face of the blonde lost boy, frustration filling his beautifully stormy eyes. I was light-headed and the word 'Pretty' slipped out without a second thought. His eyebrows scrunched and his hand let go of my face, moving to my injured shoulder.

        *3rd Person P.O.V.*

        He pulled his knife from its sheath and cut her sweatshirt up the middle. He watched as confusion grew in her glassy eyes, the bloodless would kill her if he didn't work fast. He peeled the sweater off her, leaving her in just her sports bra, and tore the, mostly, clean sleeve into a makeshift bandage.

        After efficiently wrapping the wound, he pulled her to rest against him as he tied the bandage off in the back. He went to move away but froze when she made a small noise and nuzzled into his neck. That when he realized the position he put himself in. It'd been a very long time since he's been this close to a girl, let alone one this cute, and half-naked.

        As carefully as he could, he took off his cloak and spread it on the ground before gently laying her on it.

        He sat across the fire from her and watched her breathing as thunder cracked over Neverland. Something inside him hurt like he was missing something he'd never noticed missing before. 

               *Bradey's P.O.V.*

        I woke up on the cold floor of the cave, the events leading up to me getting there a little fuzzy. I noticed my favorite sweatshirt torn up and bloody on the floor, and there was a shirt draped over me. I sighed and sat up, pain shooting through my left should. I winced as I pulled the shirt on, it smelled like campfire, pine, and something I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I liked it. Snatching up the remains of my hoodie, I started back for camp.

        "And where did you wander off too, love?" Hook asked as I trudged back into camp. "And what in the Hell are you wearing?"

        "Long story," I huffed, leaning against a tree to catch my breath.

        "There you are!" Mary-Margret fussed, coming over to check on me. She gasped when she saw the tattered shirt in my hands. "What happened? Where's all this blood come from?!"

        I pushed down the shoulder of the shirt I was wearing to show her the bloodied bandages, "Must've wandered into target practice," I smirked before my knees gave out.

        "Bloody Hell," Hook caught me and sat me on the ground, while Mary-Margret quickly got Regina who started healing.

        "You'll still have a scar, but you'll live," She explained and I thanked her. "How did you already not die? This wound is hours old."

        "I think one of the Lost Boys helped me." I said, "I'm not sure, the details kind of got lost on the blood loss."

        "And that's his shirt?" Hook motioned to what I was wearing.

        "I guess so. It's actually pretty comfy." I admitted.

        *3rd Person P.O.V."

        "So how was your little adventure, playing nurse?" Pan asked, appearing next to Felix, not far from camp.

        "You said you wanted them alive."

        "You're not wearing a shirt." Pan pointed out. "I want them alive for now. Don't go getting attached, Felix."

        The taller boy's eyes narrowed, "I'm not."

        "Keep it that way."

[jostenneil]

your top 5 anime couples?

ok so the funny thing is i wrote out my answer to this ask a few days ago and just as i was publishing it my internet decided to die so i lost the whole thing and got rly sad. but i’m back now and perhaps with some better answers so maybe this worked out to your benefit lol 

edward/winry (fullmetal alchemist) → this is pretty self explanatory but nonetheless, i adore the potential with these two. i think there’s a lot of subtleties to their relationship that aren’t touched upon enough in fandom, like how far their intimate understanding of each other goes, how their fears for each other manifest in the work that they do every day, etc etc. they’re a wonderful portrayal of the childhood friends to lovers trope just by way of the fact that they know each other down to a microscopic level. like i think it can’t be overstated enough just how amazing it is that a part of ed’s life is in winry’s hands and a part of her life is in his hands, and how that builds upon the foundations of their unbreakable trust in each other. i also love how their relationship is built on the fact that they’ve essentially been the heads of their households since they were kids. that burden and sense of responsibility they share in is so palpable and esp fun to explore in the post canon when they finally have time to focus on themselves and what they want to do with their work and their family in the long term, i love to think about it! 

tsumugu/chisaki (nagi no asukara) → there isn’t a lot i can write here without spoiling the events of the series itself, but to describe the basics of these two, it comes down to a sort of complicated love polygon that they’re caught in the middle of, and i love how it plays out here. chisaki has loved one of her childhood friends for her entire life, so when her feelings start to change and she develops them for tsumugu instead, she’s weighted with this intense sense of guilt that parallels to a traumatic event that occurs mid series. chisaki is someone who hates the idea of change and growing up and tsumugu as first her friend and then her potential love interest is someone who subtly tries to challenge that mindset and help her grow, all while caring very deeply for her. it’s a really nice case of push and pull, and what amplifies it even more are all of the sea associated metaphors that their relationship is entwined with. chisaki is like this tumultuous and unpredictable sea, while tsumugu is the boy in the boat who patiently weathers her storms. it’s magnificent (and on netflix)

junichi/yurika (kids on the slope) → the funniest thing to me about this manga is that unlike most ppl my greatest takeaway from it was the relationship between these two as opposed to the main focus between the homoerotic, catholically symbolized best friends (which is still impeccable), but i have my reasons! i like these two bc they depict what a mature relationship between two people, no matter how damaged, ought to look like. when they first meet, jun is charismatic, flirtatious, and daring, yurika haughty and alarmed but also intrigued. there’s a brief potential there for some magic, and then they don’t see each other again for several months. the next time they meet, all the previous facades have been shattered. he’s been disowned by his family and now lives alone, depressed and jaded by the world, and she’s growing increasingly frustrated with the impositions put upon her as a pretty girl from a rich family growing up in 60s japan. the conversations between them thereafter are very charged and challenging as they poke and prod at each other’s world views, but it’s ultimately a healthy banter that’s necessary for them to come to an understanding and move forward. jun fears hurting the people he loves and isolates himself as a result, and yurika pushes back at those walls and limited thinking bc they’ve been towering over her all her life. it’s just a beautiful exploration in balance esp since they’re a couple that has to make it on their own without their families’ support, so they need mutual understanding to survive 

marco/connie (gangsta.) → the relationship between these two is pretty complex. marco is originally a born and bred child mercenary, but at a point in time he begins to harbor some doubts about the work he does with his “friends”, and the turning point in his life becomes the death of connie’s parents at their hands. connie cries these angry, unforgiving tears and stares at him with so much hatred in that moment that it rocks him to his core, and a series of events leads to him abandoning the mercenary lifestyle and completely starting over in an effort to repay kindness to the people he’s only ever harmed. what’s interesting about these two is that connie rly holds him to this endeavor. she’s constantly skeptical of him and she doesn’t like him nor holds these great hopes for him to improve as a person. she makes no moves to help him initially when he’s mocked and jeered at for attempting to start fresh, and why should she? he ruined her life. but the interesting thing is that marco’s persistence when it comes to doing good and wholeheartedly repenting is something that begins to intrigue her, and slowly she starts to let him into her life. first as a delivery boy she greets at the door, then as maybe an acquaintance, then a friend, and somewhere along the way, a lover. it’s a really dark relationship (explored in more detail in gangsta. cursed) but i love how it’s explored and how they push each other to be better people 

taichi/arata (chihayafuru) → if you know anything of this fandom you know this is the unpopular choice, but nonetheless, my reread this past year enlightened me to it. i feel like these two really take rivals to lovers to the next level. their initial friendship as kids barely touches the surface of some of the insecurities each of them harbors, but as they grow up apart from each other there’s this simultaneous loathing and longing that manifests in each of them for the other that’s really amazing to watch unfold. there’s so many backhanded comments between them followed by bouts of remorse and self-hatred, there’s secret expressions of just how happy they feel when they’re able to play each other, the tension that exists between them as they fight not just for chihaya’s love but for the love of karuta is so so intense and devastating, and ultimately it’s a really well fleshed-out exploration between childhood friends vested with different life experiences that ultimately put them at odds with each other. the way their relationship has developed up until now in the manga is just crazy to see and i sometimes wonder if they’d be more popular had they been straight lmao 

[thoughtfullyyoungduck]

This is awkward

Summary: could u maybe do a reddie x daughter where she gets her period, but wants to hide it from richie and eddie bc they’re guys, so she steals richie’s phone and calls bev for help. but like as she goes over to bevs house (maybe they live close) richie and eddie think she’s missing or lost and they freak out? i just feel like that’s such a reddie situation lmao

warnings: period talks 

In retrospect, she really should have seen it coming. All the signs they taught you about in health class presented themselves full force, from having abdominal pain and a bloating stomach after eating a cracker, to using the bathroom more than she usually has to. 

Never the less, it remained a shock when she wakes up at five in the morning to searing throbbing in her lower abdomen that leaves her helplessly whriting. The clock strikes six am at the exact moment she groans, curling her body into a fetal position and covering her stomach with her arms.

She lays still for a while, tossing and turning in an effort to find a pose that won’t hurt, but nothing helps, and so she decides to go to the medicine cabinet and fish out medication to reduce the ache. In order to do that, she removes the heavy silk comforter off her body, and shivers as her temperature reduces from the added coldness that sticks in the room. It’s nearing summer time, so the sun is gleaming up every last detail of the room even at six o’clock, rendering the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling useless.

She gets up, and as soon as turns around to readjust the comforter out of the corner of her eye she spots a red blood stain, soaked into the covers of her one person bed. Ellie’s first instinct is, embracingly enough, to cry, the sight of blood leaving her squeamish and ready to do whatever it takes to get rid of it.

Her pain tolerance is high, but the second a blotch of blood presents itself anywhere near or on her, it needs to be removed point black.  

It clicks in her mind what this situation means and what the logical explanation is, but she’s still in a daze that allows her to calmly rip the covers of the bed an paddle downstairs to the washing area, carefully avoiding to touch the blood itself, free of any panic or discomfort, beside the continues stabbing sneers. Only after disposing of the covers in the washing machine and shutting it with a small click, she sobers up and worries.

Ellie grabs a towel of a mountain of dry-cleaned clothes that Richie was ordered to organize room by room but forgot after a last minute stand up show the night before and wraps it around her middle. The towel specifically is her favorite, colored blue with the animations of winx club printed upon it, as a child her favorite cartoon show, with her name embroider on the top thanks to her uncle Mike. A trait she copied from Richie was that she lost stuff so much that Eddie got sick of it and started writing her name on article of clothes and shoes so that if someone found it they returned it to the right person, and because at the time Mike was practicing embroidery, he sowed her name in the towel as a gift.

The edges of the towel are worn out and frayed, but the texture is soft to the touch and smells like sunscreen, in a way tied to a few of Ellie’s preferred treasured memories. It’s the only at hand though, and time is of the essence, and she wants to wants desperately to avoid any more blood spillage.

Scanning the floor while hurrying to a bathroom Ellie cautions that she stays upright and doesn’t hit her toe against the doorframe like she idioticly does time and time again. She reaches the bathroom she unlocks the door from its hinches and opens it soundlessly, her parents lost in dreamland a door over. She feels weirdly docile about the whole thing, not at all trembling or making rash decision like she foresaw whenever she thought of this moment. The bathroom door shuts behind her, and she silently awaits for any sound to emerge from Eddie and Richie’s bedroom, but none materialize, thankfully.

At that point, there’s not much she can do. The house is empty of anything remotely resembling pads, with Richie and Eddie not needing them and Ellie hadn’t required them so far either.

Having two fathers is a blessing that Ellie is magnificently proud of, and most of the time she forgets that core families usually exist of one father and a mother. Richie and Eddie fill up any void that a mom could possibly leave behind, and so she is often oblivious that her home situations isn’t ‘normal’. There is nothing that a mother adds that Richie and Eddie don’t provide her, but maybe this is the one exception.

Ellie learned about menstrual cycles and how to deal with them via sex ed in school, but at home not a word was ushered about this. Unintentional no doubt, since Richie took it upon himself to bring up as much cringe-worthy conversations to shy her away from trying anything stupid. She never brought the topic up, and it must have slipped from Richie and Eddie’s mind too.

She debates waking up Richie and Eddie to drive her to the store, but it’s too early for that, the sops opens at nine, and there honestly sounds nothing worse but rousing her fathers for something like a period.

Richie will joke, and Eddie will research the whole thing down to the smallest details to aid her with all the knowledge found on the internet, but what she would really benefit from is a girl simply explaining the whole thing to her.

The solution literally falls in her lap, as Ellie accidentally knocks over the parfum Beverly left behind last time she visited. Aunt Bev and uncle Ben live two streets away, in a giant modern home they fosters pets in, at the edge of a forest.

They reside there any time they aren’t on their boat travelling around the world, but with Beverly six months into her pregnancy, they swore to not go on any outings up to the birth of their very first child.

Both Ben and Bev work every weekday, but if Bev is home, she’ll be happy to help, Ellie is certain. She should call first, to let Bev know she was on her way and to ensure Bev won’t contact the police on her, a figure appearing out of the blue early morning might not present well. The only problem with that is that Ellie’s phone was dropped in the water of a bath, cracking the phone’s screen from the hard landing and drenching it in water, causing all the phone’s functions to give out.

Calling aunt Bev is only an option if Ellie locates a phone, and her best bet on that is her pops.

Richie obsesses over his phone, and while he says that’s not the case, Eddie humorously hid it once and it send Richie in such a frenzy he explored the whole house top to bottom and discarded any and all cabinets to locate it.

Eddie chides the overexercise usage and resorts to conking Richie over the head if he dares to divided his attention to it for over ten minutes, but it’s all in a loving way, Eddie wouldn’t ever dream of hurting Richie.

A compromise was formed, Richie promising to leave his phone unattended on the bedside table at the end of the bed, and Eddie dialing down his complaints. The phone can’t ramify it’s toxic radiation from that far, but it’s close enough that the alarm clock rouses them up if necessary.

Invading Richie and Eddie’s bedroom is a dangerous game to play at, Eddie’s hearing out of this world with precision and picking up on the smallest, barely there clamor, but assisted with a tad of luck, Ellie might be able to evade waking them. After all, she’d rather get caught sneaking in, than having to provide a valid reason she ought to shop.

------

The clock strikes eight a.m. when Richie stirs awake, the light streaming through the window in such a way it glistens directly in Richie eyes, and in order to avoid it he swivels around on his stomach. His arm covers Eddie side, snoring loudly right net to his ear. Huffing out a laugh, Richie retracts his arm to cover his eyes from the sun that maliciously demands him to wake.

Eddie sniffles, his hand lifting in search for Richie and sighing happily when his fingertips bump against Richie’s shoulder, tugging his arm back in position.

‘Too early’, he grumbles, smacking his lips to rid himself of his dry mouth and burying his head further into his pillow. Richie laughs, kissing his husbands bare shoulder and readjusting Richie’s shirt he’s wearing after.

Weekends are a synonymous with rest and sleep, but Richie starts the day bright and fresh anyway, cooking a giant breakfast with Ellie to lure Eddie out of bed under the guise of food.

It strikes Richie as odd that Ellie’s not up and about it yet, he strains to hear any movement in the house but he comes up empty.

‘Aren’t you gonna make me breakfast, babe?’ Eddie asks his lips curled in a teasing smile, accustomed to their morning routine.

‘Sure thing Eds’, Richie says gooey, slobbering a kiss on the first part of Eddie he can reach, his temple, knowing that Eddie revolts the thought of kissing without brushing teeth first.

‘Wait I was kidding come back,’ Eddie whines, outstretching his arms to stop Richie from getting up but failing.

‘You’ll be so much happier when the food’s ready, trust me. I’m going to wake our munckin up too.’

He steps away from the bed, pulling his shirt, bunched up thanks to the wild gestures he performs in his sleep, down in the meanwhile and yawns so wide his jaw protests.

His limbs feel lose and relaxed of waking up not so soon ago, and they seem to be begging Richie to crawl back under the cover and cuddle with Eddie some more, but tour life stretched itself through all the aspects of Richie’s life these past months, and he really long for some time to spend with his daughter.

As he stumbles blindly, his hand scours the miniature table, but the only thing he can find are his glasses, neatly tucked away in what must have been Eddie’s doing after Richie zonked out.

At first he thinks he missed it, but then his glasses help him see clearly, and he notices that the phone is no longer there.

‘Hey, Eds?’

The only answer he receives is a grunt, muffled by the blankets Eddie hides under.

‘Did you hide my phone again?’ Richie asks, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Eddie shakes his head without looking up, napping on.

‘Huh’, Richie responds, deciding to let Eddie wake at his own terms. He probably ditched the phone somewhere and is drawing blank on where it could be, but it’ll be found again soon. With a deflated shrugs, Richie leaves the room to wake up his daughter, excited like a kid on Christmas to rope her into mischief.

Eddie huffs, forcing the blanket of off him and screwing his eyes open, scratching at a spot on his back that insistently itched all night.

Soon, Ellie will run in with coffee, with a meticulous steady head so none of it spills, and announce that breakfast is prepared. Some of it will be burned, other things will be so delicious Eddie will look forward to it every day of the week till he eats it again. Regardless of how good the food is, the most important thing is that it’s family time, and that no interruption or distractions occur but the laughter and unprovoqued leering both Richie, Ellie and Eddie gathered throughout the week.  

Eddie smiles contently, resting his eyes a tad longer and imagining the inviting warm smell flowing up from downstairs. What he gets instead is frantic running up the stairs, loud thuds that rattle the foundation and follow each other quickly, subsequently followed by the bedroom door ricocheting of it’s hinges.

The urgency behind it spooks Eddie, who scrambles out of bed before Richie manages to utter a word.

‘Ellie’s not here.’

----

‘Thank you for helping me aunt Bev’, Ellie reinforces Bev, who brought out mint tea and joined her on the sofa to watch tv.

The movie provided background noise to the conversation they previously held, Ellie a little intimidated otherwise.

‘Any time honey you know this.’

Bev smiles brightly enough that her pearl white teeth show, her hair in a braid swiped over her shoulder, she radiates happiness to a degree Ellie has never seen.

‘I love dad and pops, I do, but you know how they get’, Ellie grimaced, his hands twisting nervously in the hem of the shirt she wormed herself in on the way here. A laugh bubbles out of Bev, already nodding her head.

‘They mean well but yes. I’m glad you confided in me.’ On instinct, Ellie dropped her hand down to pet the soft fur of Ben and Bev’s dog, a lifelong companion to them but also to her. She swiped nothing but air, Ben took the dog on a walk in the park, leaving the two girls to discuss thing among themselves. It was sad she didn’t get a chance to say hi to them, but she figures she’ll visit again later.

‘I really should get going,’ Ellie starts, her hand enclosing the plastic bag filled with supplies Bev landed her gracefully. ‘Pops and I love arranging breakfast, so I should really get home before they wake up to me not hanging around the house.’

Bev blinked innocently, surprise grazing her features. ‘Well, it is nine am, will they not be awake yet?’

‘It’s not that late yet is it?’ Bev’s phone rings loudly, startling Ellie out of her stupor. Even from her angle on the phone, she deciphers her pops names before Bev announce that it’s Richie.

‘Oops’, Ellie mutters, grimacing as the severity of the situation begins to down on her. She’s in big trouble now. Accepting the call, Bev puts in on speaker, a hand apologetically stroking Ellie’s arm conveying that yes, Bev’s sorry, but Ellie might get killed today.

‘Beverly’, Eddie distraught voice shakes through the microphone. A sinking stone weighs Ellie down, flushed with guilt, she hadn’t thought she’d be here so long, she only counted a five minute drop by.

‘Do you know where Ellie is? She’s not in her room or in the backyard either.’ In the background something smashes to the floor, in addition to cursing that sounds more like roaring, and Richie running out.

‘I really think she snatched my cellphone. Maybe she called someone to pick her up?’

Bev attempts to capture their attention goes unheard, the bickering between Eddie and Richie hardly begun.

‘I fucking told you Richie, dump the goddamn phone so much.’

‘How the fuck is that my fault? It has nothing do with that’, Richie argues frustrate, it’s obvious from the way he snapped back at Eddie he is equally as overwrought as Eddie.

‘You’re right, it’s mine. I’ve pushed her away by being to hands on. I should have given her more freedom to do what she wanted and I-‘

‘Eddie no. I honestly don’t think there’s anyone less strict as you. You remember when she was ten and she asked for two ice creams in a row and you just gave them to her because we were on a vacation?’

‘Stop dad. Pop’s right, I’m not running away for fuck sake’, Ellie yells out eventually, frustrated by the conversations taking place.

‘Ellie?’ A chair is pushed back and screeches across the floor, intending on the floor Eddie hammered on about being careful on.

‘Stay where you are, we’re on our way.’ Richie grounds out, seizing hold of his jacket and racing to the car. The connection then severs and dead silence is left in its wake.

‘Good luck with that.’

----

Though Bev, Ben, Eddie and Richie live nearby, Ellie is shocked by the fast response as the car halts not fully parked, Eddie and Richie jumping out in pajama’s.

Bev opened the door, so they waltz right on it without regarding Bev, seizing Ellie in a close knit hug both Richie and Eddie participate in.

‘Don’t you ever, ever scare us like that again. You hear me?’ Richie threatens, his words crackling with relief that his daughter is fine.

‘I’m sorry, I won’t. I honestly thought I would be back before you knew it.’

‘Why are you here in the first place?’ The family remains close, Eddie’s hand holding Ellie’s forearm loosely.

A blush shoots up her cheeks, coloring them bright red at the question. 

‘Yeah about that, Is it not enough for me to promise to never do this again?‘

[bangtan-gal]

Unseen

Hwang Hyujin x Fem!Reader gang!au powers!au Warnings: implied smut, swearing, attempted murder (kind of??), major angst i’m really sorry oops, dubious consent, excessive drinking, theres a lot of backstabbing in this, y/ns character is very questionable, dfhdohfdihfsh Word count: 10.3k once again im really sorry, this is kind of dark and sad and oopsies? And although I’m pretty sure people know this, I’m just going to put a disclaimer that this is not how I see any of these members. The characters created in this were just for the sake of the plotline. Thank you!

The hum of the bar sounded far away as you shifted the white powder into thin lines. Your friends crowded around you, swaying in excitement as they waited for you to finish your assault on the drugs. Once you did, you stepped back, allowing them to sniff it up like a bunch of dogs. Laughter and cheers broke out as someone finished first and you clapped along with them. Puppy dog stares were thrown your way as the coke completely disappeared and you pulled another bag out with a roll of your eyes. 

A smirk pulled over your lips as another round of applause consumed the place. You stepped away, letting your friends decide how they distributed the drugs. With a sigh you slid into the booth, taking a sip from your water bottle. The feeling of a thousand eyes watching you made you feel itchy, but you forced yourself to remain cool as you kept your interest on your friends’ actions. That was the biggest problem of being your father’s daughter: the constant attention, the judging, the silent whispers when you passed by. As stupid as it sounded, these people viewed you as if you were a god of some sort. It made no sense considering that you had nothing to do with the business and you never would. You had zero interest in your father’s business, but it was just the fact that your father was so respected that had people watching every little thing you do. 

And you knew what they said whenever they say you. ‘Is she really his daughter?’ ‘How could someone so smart have such a troublemaker as a child?’ ‘Does he know what she does when his back is turned?’ Your father did know what you did and whether he approved or not, he said nothing. It had been made clear ever since you were old enough to understand that the only thing you shared with your father was blood. As long as you smiled and looked pretty for the cameras, you were free to be as stupid as you wanted. And that’s exactly what you did. 

“It must suck to be compared to him all the time.”

You pretended to be surprised as you craned your neck to meet the stranger’s gaze. You’d seen him staring you down earlier and had watched with a sly smirk as he approached as carefully as he could. He tilted his head, his sandy blonde hair—obviously dyed—shifting along his forehead. He reminded you of the pretty boys you always ran into at the gala, from the expensive, but casual dress to the cold, calculating stare that burned in his eyes as he observed you. But like every other time, you decided to bite the hook he threw your way to see what he was attempting to sell. 

“A bit,” you hummed, turning away and sipping your water again. If he wanted to talk, he’d have to sit down in your eyesight. You weren’t going to give him the ego boost of turning to look up at him. You forced your smirk away as he sat down in the booth with you. “But it stopped affecting me a long time ago.”

He nodded, gaze flicking to where your friends argued over the splitting of the drugs. 

“I suppose I can’t relate to that one,” he muttered, “my parents aren’t really the kind to live up to.”

Your gaze remained cool, but the comment took you by surprise. At this point, most of the boys would be trying to convince you that both of you were in the same boat: overbearing parents, hating the rich life, miserable with their lives. Your eyes unintentionally narrowed, wondering what kind of game he was going to play at. 

Maybe he’s not playing a game. 

You brushed aside that thought. Not once in your life had you been approached by someone who didn’t have an ulterior motive. Their belief was that someone like you could get them anything. It wasn’t exactly a lie, you probably could, but their main goal was your father and little did they know that your father would never give you anything. His number one rule was that you had to get everything on your own. He built his company from the ground up, now it’s your turn. 

This boy just had a different strategy than the others. 

“I doubt you rebel to gain your father’s attention. Actually, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with him, right? This is all for your own sake.”

This time, you failed to hide your surprise. Your lips parted as you side-eyed, setting your water bottle down. He wasn’t even paying attention to you, he was just staring at the people who kept glimpsing over in your direction. You looked over at them too, eyebrows furrowing until they looked away with a sheepish gulp. You turned back to the boy, eyebrows raised.

“Got any more assumptions you’d like to make about me?” You asked. He chuckled and shook his head. 

“Well then, I suppose I should get out of your hair now,” he huffed, standing up. You watched as he sauntered away, back towards the bar. You bit your lip and then with a sigh, you stood up and hurried after him.

“Hey—look, I’m sorry about being cold, it’s not everyday a nice person approaches you in a club after you’ve just given your friends a bunch of coke. I’d like to talk a bit more…” you trailed off, uncertain of what exactly you were doing. You were never like this. “But let’s do that outside, yeah? It’s kind of loud in here.”

He grinned at you and then as corny as it was, offered you his arm. Your elbow linked with his, a sarcastic smile pulling at your lips as the two of you left the club. The cool night air was a relief as it brushed against your bare arms and you breathed it in. The crisp taste was a big step up from the disgusting smell of sweat, alcohol, and the bitter scent of drugs. The two of you walked down the sidewalk for a while, not saying anything to one another. 

“You know, if we’re being honest here: I didn’t know who you were until just a few moments ago. The people I was sitting next to were talking crap about you, but it just seemed like they didn’t know you at all and I wondered how they could be so mean to someone they didn’t even know,” he muttered, “so that’s why I talked ot you. I supposed I… felt bad I guess.”

You tilted your head, a small smile pulling on your lips. Then you ducked your head, face starting to heat up.

“Well… thanks. I guess you’ll need a proper introduction then; I’m Y/N,” you murmured, shaking his hand. 

“Hyunjin.”

The two of you kept walking. You didn’t realize it at first, but it seemed you were moving towards you apartment a few blocks away. Truth be told, you didn’t know what you were doing. This wasn’t exactly who you were: you didn’t just start making friends with outsiders, you stayed in your tight friend circle, using it as a protective shield. But you couldn’t deny that you were willing to let this guy take you to bed, for whatever reason. 

“Why do you let them treat you that way?” He asked. “The people that judge you. You’re not so bad, why let people believe that?” You stopped walking, staring at the ground in front of you. There were a few people who could see past your front of not caring, but they never asked you if you were okay truly on the inside. They never asked why. Although, you never asked yourself ‘why’ either and you weren’t sure you had an answer.

“Why?” You repeated, looking up at him. Then you shrugged. “I wish”—you coughed—“I wish I knew why.” 

Something flashed across his face, but it was too fast for you to be able to read it. He tucked his hands into his pockets, a melancholy smile on his face. 

“So, did you have any plans of dragging me out here or we just going to walk until we run into a wall?” He asked, successfully taking your mind off of your inner struggles. Then you shrugged, brushing against him. 

“Well, my apartment is right around the corner, I’m sure we could talk more there.” 

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

You lead him back to your apartment, swiftly unlocking the door and stepping into the place. You were glad you had decided to clean your place on a whim. When you turned around to ask if he wanted anything to drink, you found him directly behind you. His lips crashed against yours and you gasped into the kiss, your hands clutching at the front of his jacket. He pulled back, dark eyes searching your face.

“I hope this is what you meant when you said talk more,” he mumbled, laughing slightly. You chuckled, wrapping your legs around his waist when he hoisted you up. 

 ➻➻➻➻➻ 

Your phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. A loud groan fell from your lips as you rolled over, sleepily searching for it on the nightstand. Your fingers gripped it and you opened it, eyes blearily squinting at it. There were a bunch of texts from your friends, asking where you were. There were two texts from your mom, wishing you goodnight and you smiled at that. 

You shut off your phone and set it down, but when you tried to shut your eyes, they kept fluttering open from the light peeking past your curtains. And it didn’t help that it was freezing cold. Your arm flopped across the bed as you tried to grab your blankets, only to realize somebody else was completely burrito-ed in them. With a gasp, you sat up, pressing a hand to your head. 

“Ah, fuck,” you huffed. You didn’t even drink last night, but you must’ve been so tired because your memories were struggling to sort themselves out. He approached you, you shooed him away, but then decided against it and now he’s in your bed… stealing your blankets and completely naked. “Wow.”

You stared at him for a few seconds before deciding to just let him sleep and then you’d carefully nudge him out the door once he woke up. You pulled a sweatshirt and shorts on, stumbling on sore legs to the kitchen. It was embarrassing; your legs were all wobbly and there was a trail of clothing leading out of your bedroom. In silence, you made yourself cereal and sat down on the floor, spooning it half-mindedly into your mouth. Due to your lack of trust for people, you weren’t much of a ‘one-nightstand girl,’ but you decided to break it just because of some pretty, poetic-sounding boy? A boy with a suspicious purple, gradient tattoo of a tiger. 

“Do you always sit on the floor when you’re eating?”

Milk sloshed everywhere as your spoon accidentally dropped into the bowl. You glanced up mid-chew, staring at the boy. He was on the other side of the island, so all you saw was his bare upper-half; and it made you wonder if he had any pants on. His hair was a mess and his under eyes were puffy. 

“I didn’t have the energy to walk back to the table,” you commented. Your body shook as you stood up and the clang of you placing the bowl on the counter rang through the kitchen. 

Thankfully, he had pants on.

He shifted nervously, his gaze studying the clean, white interior. 

“I-I should probably leave,” he stuttered. You nodded slowly, watching as he looked around for his shirt.

“So was all that smooth talking last night just to get into my pants so you could go back to your buddies and brag about it?” You queried. He froze, staring at you. You crossed your arms.

“No, I—”

“That tattoo, that’s a gang symbol right? The big one that resides in the Deep City? Go you, you can go back and laugh about how stupid I must be to sleep with some guy after knowing him for ten minutes!”

He take a deep breath, eyes closing for a moment.

“I was supposed to kill you Y/N.”

For a split second, it felt like you couldn’t hear anything. Your ears started ringing and your heart just stopped. He had a million chances last night: you didn’t exactly keep a physical or mental guard up around him last night. You fell asleep in the same bed as him. Yet, you were still alive. Your mouth went dry.

“Th-then why didn’t you?” You whispered, eyes wide as you stared at nothing in particular. You couldn’t find it in you to look at him.

“Because the reasoning behind it was stupid, especially considering just how… how human you are,” he explained, “I guess it’s just the people I live around and the one’s I’ve interacted with always seem so inhumane that I forgot there’s people out there who aren’t stepping on anybody that gets in their way.” 

You could’ve died last night. 

Hyunjin approached you slowly, placing a hand on your shoulder.

“You were my mission and I couldn’t finish it,” he said, his hand slowly sliding down your arm and then letting it go. “But I fear that I may have put you in more danger than if I just killed you.”

You looked up quickly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He laughed, but it was high-pitched and shaky. 

“Chan is going to be pissed, that’s what it means. The point of killing you was sending a point to your father, but with nothing happening, he’ll continue to just go through with what he was doing.”

You watched as Hyunjin started pacing, his brow creasing and lips turning down. You were glad that you were still alive, but part of you was really starting to feel bad for him. Maybe it’d be better if he did kill you. This Chan guy must be fucking terrifying.

“What exactly is it that my father is doing?” You asked slowly in a low voice. 

“Your father has been getting in contact with gangs throughout District 9 and has been gradually cutting off the lower class from the trading cites. His business has become as successful as it has today because we gave him his start-up sum and we agreed to back him up as long as he followed the rules we set. Unfortunately by doing what he’s doing he’s broken those rules and we decided to send him a warning, which h—”

He was cut off by the obnoxious ringing of a phone. Hyunjin stiffened, pulling his cell from his pocket and staring at the device. Teeth dug into his bottom lip as he looked up at you. 

“Look Y/N, you should be dead. As far as my gang knows, you are dead, got it? I need you to stay low and not attract attention to yourself until I can think up some solution. I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.” And with that, Hyunjin answered the phone, muttered a ‘Hi Chan!’ and then raced out of your apartment. You watched him leave, heart hammering. But the fast pace of your heart wasn’t from fear—a smile was pulling over your lips as you remembered all the crap your father used to spew about building from the ground up. All these years you’d been forced to believe your father was some kind of god, but he was just as human as everyone else: a human who had gotten himself in quite a mess.

You gave yourself an hour to get ready before you slid into your car and raced towards your father’s work. Around this time he’d probably be enjoying a salad in his office, reading through the newspaper, and probably muttering to himself about what he would be doing if he wasn’t stuck in his office. Your palms grew sweaty as you pulled into a staff parking spot and made your way into the building, waving at the receptionist as you passed by to the elevator. You stared back at yourself in the doors as they closed, thinking through what you’re going to say. 

Your chin stayed high as you marched down the hallway towards your father’s office. The door was cracked open and as you peeked in, you were slightly pleased to see that you were right. You swung the door open, letting it loudly bang against the door stopper before you fully stepped into the large space. He looked up, both eyebrows raised as you strutted towards the desk, plopping yourself down in the seat. Your father chewed his salad slowly, fork hanging halfway between his mouth and the container. He set down the fork and swallowed, wiping his mouth.

“What brings you here Y/N? I thought you’d still be bed around this time, nursing a hang over,” he grumbled. You scoffed, crossing your arms and leaning back in the seat. 

“Don’t act like you know me so well; ‘cause if you did, you’d know I don’t drink,” you muttered, “and I came here to talk about business. I mean, why would I visit you in the dainty little work place if it wasn’t to talk about something work-related?” 

Your father looked more disappointed than the time you came in to tell him you crashed your new car. He didn’t prompt you as to what you came to talk about, instead he went back to eating his stupid leaves. A grinding noise filled your head as you pressed your teeth together and out of defiance, you threw your legs onto the desk. He didn’t even flinch. 

“I heard you’ve been talking to some gangs—what are you planning? Going to start some trouble?” You snapped. That caught your father’s attention, although you had to have a trained eye to notice it. He only paused his chewing for a second, one of his eyebrows ticking upwards slightly and his nostrils flaring. You bit your lip to hold back a smirk. “Are you trying to use them to get out of whatever agreement you’re stuck in? Maybe try to get info out of them?”

You paused, tilting your head, but your father refused to grace you with a reply. 

“I think it’s funny that you’re doing that, considering how you made an agreement with that one gang—Miroh—isn’t it? They’re the ones who invested in your company and they can probably topple everything you’ve created with just a bat of an eyelash, but you still have the guts to go against them? Sometimes I really have to wonder if we’re actually related,” you hummed, looking down at your nails.

“How do you know all of this?” His voice was dry as he asked the question. You looked up, feigning surprise.

“Oh so now you want to talk?”

“Y/N, tell me how you know all this? Who told you all this?” He snarled, tossing your feet off the desk. You refused to let yourself flinch, keeping your gaze cool as you stared him down. You leaned forward, elbows resting on your knees.

“Do you really want to know, father? Do you want to know how they were planning to kill me in order to get to you? And how I so willingly let one into my apartment; and not just my apartment, but my bed and well, m—”

He cut you off by pounding on his desk. “You’re lying—if they wanted you dead, you’d never see the light of day.”

“You don’t seem too upset by the idea of me getting slaughtered by one of your friends.”

You couldn’t help but smile, seeing just how ticked off your father was. It may have been childish, but getting under his skin was one of the few things that brought joy to you. 

“It’s true, but the one he sent wimped out for whatever reason. Told me to ‘lay low’ as to not attract Chan’s attention. He also told me about what you’ve been doing: so is it true? Are you drabbling with other gangs? What are you getting into; drugs, sex-trafficking, using them to kill people who get in your way? What about cutting off those who can’t pay for the luxuries you bring to this district? Why would you do that? You’ve always hosted a fair business so that everyone would have a chance to get up on their feet and survive; why decide to stop helping those in need now?” You kept firing the questions, watching as his eyes got darker and darker. He took a deep breath, eyes closing for a millisecond, before he opened them again to stare you down. 

 “At the end of the day, Y/N, this is my business and it’s my decision what I do with it. I don’t understand why you care so sud—”

“Because I’m not going to be killed because someone wants to soil your name. I don’t even owe you that much.”

Silence followed after that. It was a truly amazing sight. You had never seen your father look so stumped by something you’d said before. He’d always kept the same, blank, uncaring face on whenever you would talk. But now he sat in front of you, mouth hanging slightly open. You had more to say—a lot more actually—but feeling like you just had the last word was a pretty good feeling; so you stood up, gave your father a tight-lipped smile, and then left the office. 

 ➻➻➻➻➻   

A week later and you found yourself stuck in your parent’s home, eating a pint of ice cream all by yourself. You had been arrogant to believe you’d make your father stop was whatever he was doing with the half-assed speech you gave him. He continued with whatever business he had with a few of the gangs throughout District 9 and to keep you safe from Miroh, he demanded you come home and hide behind the tall walls and many bodyguards of this place.

“You know your father doesn’t like you eating in the living room, Miss Y/N,” Hattie, the butler, murmured as he stepped into the room. You took another large spoonful of the ice cream.

“Yeah? Well tell him I don’t like my life being threatened because of his dumbass actions.”

You didn’t even like vanilla ice cream, but it was the only sweet thing you could find in the hellhole. 

Hattie cleared his throat, “well, you are expected to be ready by six tonight for your father’s banquet. This isn’t something you can ditch.”

You opened your mouth to argue, but he tutted at you and motioned you upstairs. With a loud groan, you stood up and dragged yourself upstairs to take a shower. Nearly an hour later, you stepped out and made your way to your room. A long dress was draped across your bed, a sticky note attached to the top. It was a note from your mom, saying you looked good in black with a little smiley face. No matter how much you hated your father’s little events, you couldn’t go against your mother’s wishes. Making her happy was one thing you could properly commit yourself to. 

You took your time getting ready, not bothering to pay attention to the time. The dress highlighted your body where you needed it and the black silk did look good on you. You curled your hair at the ends and kept the makeup application light. You stared yourself down in the mirror for a few seconds, wondering how tonight would go. There would be cameras and interviews and all you had to do the whole time was keep a smile on your face and pretend like you were your father’s number one supporter. You turned as the door opened and sighed when Hattie stepped in.

“Your car is waiting,” he murmured. You grumbled a thanks and grabbed a pair of white heels and followed him downstairs to the car. Neither of your parents were there, instead there were three bodyguards seated in the car. Your expression fell as you slid into the passenger’s seat, eyeing the bulky trio in the back. 

“You guys are going to look terrible in pictures,” you grumbled. 

The ride there was painfully tense and quiet. The chauffer wished you luck as he dropped you off and you thanked him for the ride before walking into the hall. It was already almost full, businessmen and women conversing and milling through the place. You wandered through, eyes searching the place desperately for your parents. You spotted your mother quickly and hurried towards her. She smiled at you, offering you the second flute of champagne that she held. 

“Well it seems I was right, you look stunning in that dress,” she murmured, smiling at you over the glass, “of course, you always look beautiful.”

“Thanks, m—”

“Obviously you got it from me!” She flipped her hair. Then she patted you on the shoulder and slid away, smiling and welcoming the guests. You stood there, clutching the flute in your hands, watching as people moved around you. You faltered as your gaze settled on a tall and lean figure dressed in all white, with an oddly familiar mop of blonde hair. As if sensing your stare, the boy turned around, eyes widening when he saw you there. At first, you thought it was surprise, but instead, horror was painted across his face. As quickly as he could he pushed through the throng towards you.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, sounding breathless once he was in front of you. You snorted.

“This is my father’s banquet, did you just expect me to stay at home with a bowl of cereal?” You snapped. Hyunjin glanced around, his hand wrapping around your bicep.

“Ok I get that, but the problem is that you’re supposed to be lying low,” he hissed. You frowned, eyeing the sea of people, starting to question what or who Hyunjin was scared of. Then you paused, breath hitching slightly.

“What are you doing here? Where're your friends?” You whispered, unconsciously pressing closer to him. “Please don’t tell me—”

His expression said it all. You cursed under your breath, worrying where your mother was.

“Chan… still believes you’re dead,” he muttered, “but since your father hasn’t changed at all… he decided to take matters into his own hands.”

“And what exactly does that entail?” You asked. It was then that you realized Hyunjin was slowly starting to usher you through the crowd, pushing you towards the doors. “Hey, wa—” “Hyunjin!” 

The boy stiffened and you did too, head jerking up as two boys dressed in similar suits appeared. One had light brown hair while the other had black. The brown-haired one’s gaze shifted from Hyunjin to you and from just the stare, you felt dead. Part of you wished Hyunjin had killed you because the look of pure, uncontrolled rage really had you fighting the urge to pee. His gaze shifted back to the blonde.

“Why is she still alive?” 

Hyunjin awkwardly laughed, “uhhh… surprise?”

Both of their expressions showed that they were definitely not impressed by this surprise.

“That’s why nothing changed, dammit,” the black-haired one huffed, silver eyes flashing as he looked towards you. You looked down, not liking the energy either boys were giving off. Was this your execution? If it was you hoped it was quick and you prayed they didn’t chop your head off. You wanted to be buried as one piece—rest in peace, not pieces. 

“Chan, come on, I know we’ve done some really radical things in the past, but… she’s an innocent human. Why should we be dragging her into this?” Hyunjin pleaded. 

“Yeah!” You piped up, “my dad doesn’t even like me… he’d probably just continue anyway…”

You trailed off, lips pursing as the one you assumed was Chan stared you down. 

“Is everything okay over here?” One of your bodyguards walked over, expression calm as he surveyed the three. This was just getting better. Chan eyed the bodyguard, then looked around at the people around you. Some had started to watch. He cleared his throat.

“I apologize for the mess.”

The bodyguard frowned. But before you could stay around to figure out what he was planning, Hyunjin grabbed your hand and dragged you out behind him. He carelessly shoved people out his way and burst through the doors. You sprinted behind him, just barely managing to keep up with your high heels on. 

Then you just stopped running. You tried to keep going, but your body was no longer listening to you. Hyunjin turned around, face paling once he saw your face. Exhaustion started to pour into you and keeping your eyes open became a chore. Hyunjin cursed and started physically dragging you. You proved to be much heavier than he anticipated.

“Minho, come on, get the fuck out of her! You and I both know this is completely wrong,” he growled, pulling on your arms.

“Chan ordered it Hyunjin, it’s pretty simple,” your mouth moved, but the voice that came out of you was different. It was deeper and more husky. “Now not only will she die, but I fear that you won’t see another day.”

“And what will killing her do?” He snapped back, pulling more desperately on you, “her father has no regard for her. He’d grieve for maybe a day, but then go back to what he was doing.”

“You and I both know that her death is more for political reasons than anything else.”

You didn’t like talking about your death as if this wasn’t your body. 

The blonde paused and then met your stare.

“You recover pretty fast from any damage your host takes, right? But I doubt you do from any damage your actual body does.”

You wish you knew what the living fuck was going on. Hyunjin disappeared before your eyes and without your consent, your body turned around, gaze searching the area. And then you gasped and there was a sharp pain in your head. You slumped onto your knees, pressing your fingers to your temple. It felt like you had just come up for air after being underwater for a long time. Hyunjin appeared again and he scooped you up with ease, sprinting away. 

 ➻➻➻➻➻ 

“Why can’t I go back to my apartment or my father’s?” You huffed, curling tighter into the blanket as Hyunjin paced the room. He frowned at you.

“Because those are the first two places they’d look,” he grumbled.

You rolled your eyes.

“You know, I find it funny that you suddenly have decided to hide with me and ‘protect me’ once your life has also been threatened,” you griped. He stopped pacing, turning to you with a furrow of his eyebrows. His eyes glimmered and then he snorted, soft laughs following the noise. 

“‘Once my life has also been threatened’? My life was threatened the second I decided to keep your ass alive so don’t pull that shit on me. I was keeping you safe by not interacting with you anymore. How would I explain to Chan why I would be missing for a few hours every day? It’s not like I can just flat out tell him that I’m visiting the chick I was supposed to kill!” He snapped. He shook his head, pinching the bridge out his nose. “God, if I knew you would such a fucking nuisance, I would’ve snapped your neck without batting an eye.” You opened your mouth, but closed it, deciding not to poke at him any longer. You didn’t know what or who exactly he was, but the energy that vibrated off him let you know that you weren’t just playing with fire. Hyunjin’s pacing started up again and you let out a sigh, burying yourself deeper into the blanket. He hadn’t explained where you were, just saying that it would be a safe place until Chan found a different solution. According to Hyunjin, Chan was not one to waste time and was probably already had another plan of action. He said that they might try looking for you for a while, but eventually they’d lose interest and would stop. 

The place you were staying at was pretty simple. Almost everything was white: the walls, the floor, the counters, the couch, and anything that wasn’t white was a light gray. The simplicity was enough to drive you insane. The lack of excitement in the place made you feel trapped, despite it being said that white makes things seem bigger. You wanted to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.

And the only way to do that was by working willingly with Hyunjin. 

“Okay, but let’s say that Chan still demands both of our heads after he’s come up with another solution… is there a way to talk him down?” You asked, “or maybe there’s a way to get out of here soon and convince him to do something else?” Hyunjin shrugged, slouching down into the armchair. “Unfortunately, Chan’s really stubborn, even when he knows it’s not necessary. He might not try to kill you once this whole thing has blown over… but I doubt I’ll be as lucky.”

You didn’t want to feel any compassion for him—he tried to kill you just a week ago and probably could’ve cut you just seconds ago—but somehow this whole time, you’d missed just how much he was risking. He was still young now and the gang had risen up five years ago—he’d grown up with those boys and now he was losing that family… for you. He was losing his life for a complete stranger. He didn’t deserve any of it. 

“W-what’s your exact plan then?” 

“Make sure you’re safe and then I suppose I’ll leave and find somewhere else to live,” he muttered, shrugging. You shook your head. 

“You can’t just go alone—”

“Y/N, I truly do appreciate your concern, but you should be worrying for yourself. With you no longer being an option, Chan will come up with other ideas… that won’t hurt you, but I fear they’ll do something much worse... “ he trailed off, glancing at the clock on the wall. He cleared his throat. “It’s getting late, we should probably get to bed and we’ll talk more in the morning.”

You wanted to talk more, there was so many more questions that you had, but the exhaustion in his face stopped you. The two of you bid each other goodnight and then you walked to your room, carefully shutting the door behind you. You laid in bed silently for a while, trying and failing to fall asleep. You were wide awake, worry worming its way through your stomach. There was no way you were going to get any shut eye tonight. You sat up, clicking on the lamp beside your bed and then jumped.

“What the living fu—”

The light-brown haired man from before stood at the end of your bed—the own you assumed was Chan. 

“I’m not actually here in case you were wondering how I got in here,” he stated, “I’m actually just a hallucination your mind is creating instead of talking to a different voice inside your head. A member of mine has telepathy, if you’re curious.”

Your mouth opened and closed, but you found you had no words. Chan studied the place and then let out a sigh.

“It’s unfortunate you don’t know where you are or else we could hunt you down and get this over with.”

You blinked, trying to find something to say. 

“Why are you here?” You squeaked out. 

He let out another audible sigh.

“Y/N, I’m not a cruel man. Are my actions always right? No. I’ve always taken it upon myself to make sure that everyone here lives a fairly safe life and mostly behave under a stronger power. You were probably a young teen around the time that the JYP district cut us off and let us fall into a brutal world full of crime and poverty, so you probably remember that, right? I started Miroh because people should never live the way we lived and my goal was to create a power to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. 

“Your mother’s business idea offered a solution that we desperately needed. JYP cut us off because the docks were never safe, but by one simple form of transportation, they would happily start offering us goods again. So we offered them money. Now your parents are taking the money and power they have and using it so that gangs can help them rid of people that they no longer want to feed or help. I apologize that my first idea was to kill you and yes, I heard what you said earlier, but it seems you don’t know the truth about the business,” he stated. His head tilted, eyes glinting. “It is true, Y/N, that if your father was head of the company, killing you wouldn’t do a single thing. But, since it’s your mother who sits back and pulls every string and is the reason for every action that has happened in the company, your death would have worked to our advantage. Your mother was the… ‘all powerful mastermind’ while your father was just the face of the company. She was the one giving commands while pretending to be the perfect trophy wife and mother.”

“You’re lying,” you breathed out. Chan snorted. As the two of you stared at one another, you saw something that was more than a hungry predator. It was a strategist, a puppet master, that wouldn’t stop at anything to get what he wanted. It didn’t matter if that was true or not, because he already had you in his clutches. 

“Y/N, I’m here to make a deal and since I think you’re more like both your mother and your father than you think… I have a feeling you’ll accept it.”

You snorted, “you wish.”

He raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming on his lips.

“I don’t wish on shooting stars Y/N, that’s too risky for me.”

 ➻➻➻➻➻ 

  Several days passed in that apartment, just you and Hyunjin spending every single hour of the day together. The air between you two was tense, with Hyunjin becoming more stressed every day. You found him planning what he was going to do after this whole thing blew over and reading over his terribly made notes, you felt really bad for what you’d gotten him into. He didn’t seem to have much idea of what to do, except that he had to leave District 9 and just start over somewhere else. It didn’t matter how many times you asked him if he was okay; he just continued to claim that it was time for him to grow up and move on.  

 “So… you’re really going to go?” You asked, sitting down across from him. He glanced up from the stack of papers in front of him and shrugged. 

“Well, it’s either that or possible death,” he huffed. There was a joking lilt to his tone, but it wasn’t a good enough cover up. 

“Alone?” He searched your face.

“I mean… yeah. The only person I could really bring along with me is… you and I wouldn’t do that to you if it means you could live happily and safely here,” he explained, looking back down at his papers. “Plus, I doubt you’d want to come anyways.”

“I’ve complained a lot Hyunjin, but I do enjoy your company. You have a big heart and we’re all human, right? No one deserves to be alone.”

He laughed, but gave no response. Hyunjin continued to flip through the papers, writing down notes and pausing every now and then to mumble stuff under his breath. You leaned across the table, straining to see what he was looking at. 

Papers and maps of the other districts stared back at you. JYP was crossed out with big black letters spelling out “not an option.” SM district had question marks on it, YG had possibility written on it, and district V was also crossed out. 

“Why isn’t JYP an option?” You understand V—it was right next to 9 and wasn’t walled in and overly protected. Chan could storm in there anytime and easily find him.

“Chan has connections in JYP—one of our members used to live there,” he sighed, “and honestly, I’m still not comfortable with how close it is. At least there’s a whole district between here and the other capitols.” You nodded, although truth be told you didn’t know much about the other districts besides 9 and JYP. You had never been educated on the places beyond the border and had been raised to believe that this district was the best possible place for you to live. Even now you didn’t know much: you didn’t know how big the overall place was, how far away the other districts were, and if they were “known” for certain things. Hyunjin seemed to realize this quickly.

“We were both part of the generation that was raised to believe that leaving this district would do nothing for us,” he said, a melancholic and nostalgic tone taking over his voice. He seemed to zone out for a while and you wondered what he was remembering. It must’ve been childhood memories from elementary and middle school: during the time they’d been very adamant about that statement. “I guess the only difference between us was that you had to continue through highschool and I dropped out and learned from those around me.”

You nodded and stared at him, wondering if the two of you had ever been in the same school together. 

“You know that teaching wasn’t what the District 9 government wanted. JYP enforced that upon us: they were desperate to keep us in so that nobody would have any idea of leaving to go there. They were worried about over population or being overrun by ‘lesser, untrained beings.’ They were trying to brainwash us.”

“Is that another reason why JYP isn’t an option?” 

Hyunjin shrugged and continued writing down notes on the paper. You watched him, fidgeting in your seat. What would happen after all of this is over? Would you actually be safe or would you have to go with Hyunjin? “You know, I wasn’t lying when I said I’d go with you,” you stated. He didn’t look up, but you still saw the way his lips rose. You got up and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. Neither option felt safer: staying here and hoping for the best or following Hyunjin into an unknown plan. He was smart and seemed to know what he was doing, but you also had to take into consideration your other options. 

“Y/N, I’m grateful for you offer.”

You blinked, surfacing from your thoughts. Hyunjin reached over you, grabbing a glass out of the cabinet. Your body shivered as he brushed against you and the smell of a light cologne infiltrated your senses. 

“The only problem is that I’ve vowed to keep you safe and I’m not even sure if I’ll be safe beyond here,” he whispered. He didn’t move from his position—his arm rested on the counter beside you, glass in hand, chest just inches away from your back. You were total strangers and yet he cared more about your well being than both of your parents ever had. 

“You didn’t even know me,” you murmured back. 

His other hand fell on your lower waist. 

“You don’t have to know someone to know they don’t deserve to die because of their family’s actions…” he trailed off and you felt him lean closer. His warmth seeped into you. “Plus, I have to admit, I was pretty stunned by how beautiful you looked that night.”

You laughed, trying to brush it off as corny, but your body gave you away as your cheeks started to burn. 

“Really?” You mused, “are you talking about in the bar or when you had me pinned beneath you on my bed?”

Hyunjin chuckled, his chin resting on your shoulder and arms completely wrapping around your body. You turned your head slightly, meeting his dark stare. His fingers were soft as they reached up to brush across your jawline and gripped your chin. His lips hit yours and he carefully pushed against you. It was a completely different feeling from the last time, he was less persistent. It was sweet and delicate and had you feeling like you were waltzing through the sky. He pulled back, eyeing you through half-closed eyelids. A dopey grin covered his face.

“Honestly, I’ve been waiting to do that again.”

You paused and stared at him for a few seconds.

“You risked your life for me, despite me being a complete stranger,” you said softly. Hyunjin’s face changed, his lips starting to fall. “And you continue to do it… and we don’t even know each other.”

You turned around to fully face him.

“At least let me get to know you a bit so I’ll feel less guilty about everything you’re losing for me.”

A silent agreement passed between the two of you and you walked into the living room, both of you sitting down on the couch, facing one another. Hyunjin took a deep breath and then relaxed. He tilted his head, a lopsided smile taking over his face.

“Why did you join Miroh?”

He sighed, “going right in aren’t we”—he licked his lips—“I wanted a family. A real one. And when I met Chan I was offered the chance to live a life with other boys my age and grow in a close knit circle. I had friends that I could rely on for everything.”

Your lips pursed and you looked down at your lap. “And you gave that up for the sake of my life.”

“Y/N… I’ve killed innocent people before and I’ve always hated it. I guess you… were more like my chance to escape. To prove to myself that I wasn’t a completely horrible person,” he murmured. You nodded, trying and wishing you could understand the situation he was in. But despite growing up under similar conditions and probably only metres away from one another, the two of you had two completely lives. It was something you could probably never completely fathom.

“What’s your favorite color?” You asked, going light.

Hyunjin grinned. “You really like asking hard questions, don’t you? I like black and white.”

“I said the singular form,” you huffed. He shrugged and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

“Let me ask you a question.”

“Okay.”

“Would you actually come with me if I asked?” You faltered and looked away from his stare. You studied the curtains behind him and pursed your lips. You had offered to go with him, but the question was if you could. Could you leave behind this life you’d grown accustomed to? Did you technically owe it to him because this was happening because he saved your life? There wasn’t much here for you: you parents would never give you the company, you didn’t have any “real” friends, and sometimes you felt lost here. But what was to say somewhere else would be anything different? Although…

Although maybe being with someone who truly cared for you would help. Help you feel like you belong, like you have somewhere to call home. 

“I-I think it would be hard… but I think if you asked and really meant it, I would,” you whispered in reply. Hyunjin nodded and paused for a moment.

“I don’t want to be alone Y/N and I want you to come, but I’m not going to ask you to,” he stated, “I have a feeling that taking you away would do more damage.”

You didn’t want to dwell on that; you didn’t want to get caught up in some fantasy in your head and then get your heart broken. 

“Where are we?” “I can’t tell you, it could risk Chan finding us.”

“Right. Sorry,” you mumbled.

“No need to apologize,” he sighed and then glanced at the clock, “I’m going to head to the store, okay? Stay put.”

He got up and you let him leave. You had learned quickly that Hyunjin had a way of locking the door on the outside and there was no way to leave while he was gone. You let your eyes shut as you fell back against the couch, wondering what you were supposed to do. 

“Couldn’t have tried any harder than that?” You jumped, eyes flying open. Chan stood across from you, arms crossed. You opened your mouth, ready to point out that it wasn’t like you could pry the answer straight out of his head. 

“I have to say, I’m slightly concerned right now. It’s really hard to tell if you’ll continue with our agreement or if you’re going to fall for him and his carefully worded poems,” he snipped. He looked around, examining the place. “Y/N, I can tell that you’re starting to like him—actually, you already like him, but your feelings are quickly growing stronger. And I know that right now, you’re not happy with your parents lies, but you and I both know that going with my idea is a much better thought than following Hyunjin into the unknown.”

“You don’t have faith in him? He grew up with you, didn’t he? He must have inherited some of your wit and intelligence or whatever,” you snuffed, “he seems to have a good idea of what he’ll do.”

“What he’ll do without you. You going along changes plans. He’ll have to decide what is better: your safety or his life. I’ve been surprised how dedicated he’s been to you up to this point, but how do you that someday he isn’t going to wake up and realize that all this shit he’s doing for you isn’t worth it? He might just ditch you in some district you’re unfamiliar with and leave you to fend for yourself.”

You grit your teeth. “I don’t believe Hyunjin would do that.” “The only thing you know about that boy is his age, his favorite color, the taste of his lips, and how he feels inside you,” Chan hissed as he walked towards you. He crouched down in front of you. “Hyunjin was trained to survive and you aren’t weak Y/N, but he’ll realize quickly that his best chance of survival will be without you. Trust me. All of my boys have been trained to even ditch one another if it means they’ll see another sunrise.”

You blinked, leaning away from him even though he couldn’t hurt you. Your heart was starting to race. You didn’t like the position you were in.

“I’ve been inside your mind Y/N, I’ve seen your deepest desires and darkest secrets. I know you wish to belong somewhere, to feel like you have purpose in something. With this deal, I’m giving you that chance. So are you going to take it or risk everything you’ve ever known on a boy that has a million secrets that he’ll never tell?”

“I—” you cut yourself off as you heard the door click. You didn’t realize how much time had passed. “I’ll get the information you need to you by tomorrow.”

Morning came too fast. Your head was pounding as you sat up in bed. You groaned, but despite how much pressure was in your head and how sore your body was, you had to get this over with. . You left the room and made your way into the kitchen, staring at the empty wine-glasses and two wine bottles on the table. Of all the things you’d done in your life, you’d never felt this dirty. 

“One of my parents' apartments in Glow Town.”

“I can’t believe I did this just for that,” you whispered to yourself. You pulled your sweatshirt tighter around yourself, you were really fighting the urge to throw up. As you looked up, a boy appeared in front of you. The same one from that night—Minho you believed. 

“Well,” he hummed, “let’s go.”

He held out a hand and you didn’t ask a single question and just took it. Your stomach folded in on itself as you disappeared. You jumped into a new place—a fancy office. You turned around as you inspected the place and stared at Chan. He sat at the desk, spinning a pen in his hand, dark eyes concentrated on you. Sympathy burned in them. 

“Y/N I kn—”

“Can I please go shower?” You asked, your voice raspy. “I-I don’t feel the best and I think a shower would help.”

Chan frowned and glanced at Minho. Then he nodded. Minho lead you out of the office, being careful to not touch you. The place was nice: simple just like the other apartment, but it had more elegant touches. You noticed a few other boys as you passed through the halls, but none of them said anything. 

“Everything that you need is in there.” He opened a door and you mumbled a ‘thank you’ before stepping inside and closing the door behind you. You wasted no time turning on the shower and letting the steam fill up the bathroom. You stepped in and then slid onto the tile bottom, bringing your knees up to your chest. Your teeth dug into your lip and you pinched your eyes shut. 

Your cries were soft as you buried your face into your knees, body melting. It didn’t feel right to be sitting there, knowing you were safe while Hyunjin’s life was on the line. You gasped, covering your mouth and wished that you hadn’t taken the deal. You should’ve let Hyunjin leave safely. Your parents had lied to you your whole life and although your mother understood you, she barely took the time to talk to you and hangout with you. Would it have hurt that much to let them die? Hyunjin had only cared for you in the short time that you knew him. The least you owed him was a chance at freedom, but you took that away too. 

“I fucked up, I’m so sorry,” you mumbled to the air. You felt disgusting. You scrubbed your whole body down, not stopping until every inch of you was bright red. There was nothing you could do to get rid of what you did. It would hang onto you for the rest of you life. 

There was a knock on the door and someone told you to hurry up. So you gave yourself another minute to calm down and then stepped out of the shower. There was a stack of cleanly folded clothes on the counter and you quickly put them on. You brushed through your hair with your fingers and then stared at yourself in the mirror. Your eyes were red and puffy and parts of your arms were still red from your vicious scrub down. Dark circles sat under your eyes and there were teeth marks in your lip from where you angrily chewed on them. Then you bent down and searched through your jacket, finding the necklace you’d taken from Hyunjin. You stared at it and then tucked it in your pocket. 

You opened the door and found Minho waiting for you. He didn’t make any comment on the fact you’d been obviously crying. He led you back to Chan’s office, but this time he let you go in alone. You did and stood nervously in front of the table.

“Please sit.” “What are you going to do to him?” You rushed out. Chan tilted his head.

“What do you think? I’ve already sent a team out to get him,” he hummed. You swallowed and played with the end of your shirt.

“You’re really going to kill him?” 

“He went against my orders and betrayed the gang, he deserves much worse. I’m showing him mercy by doing that,” he said.

“But that’s really being thrown on my shoulders,” you deadpanned. Your hands curled into fists. This wasn’t what you wanted. You couldn’t take this.

“Y/N. you suspected what would happen, but you still gave me a location. We all have to deal with backlash throughout our lives. What you did was for the best.” He said it like it was so simple: as if someone wasn’t going to die. “Now, I put you in charge of your parent’s company. You don’t think it, especially now, but you’re a good person Y/N. You’re the perfect person to run this type of company—you want to help those in need, I saw that inside you. You just have to move on and not let this drag you down. I don’t want a repeat of this situation in the future.”

You slowly sat down in the chair, hands gripping the armrests. 

“Your parents already understand the situation. They know what happens if they resist. You’ll be announced as the new CEO in two days and in those days I expect you to go home and rest. Try to sort this out and not be such a mess that day.” He looked up at you and sighed. You probably looked like a charity case. “I don’t want you all teary-eyed up on stage. That won’t work in your favor at all. You need the general public to love you.”

“Yeah,” you huffed, “I understand.”

“Now,” he said, clapping his hands together and standing up. “I have a driver downstairs for you, so let’s get you going.”

Chan escorted you downstairs. The millions of stairs made for an awkwardly long walk. Neither one of you said a word, the only sound being your footsteps echoing loudly in the staircase. You stepped outside and you shielded your eyes from the sunlight. You were about to duck into the car when you were distracted by a commotion. A group of boys were getting out of a car. Chan tried to push you into the car, but you resisted, watching in confusion. Then you recognized Hyunjin, struggling against two of the boys. Your mouth fell open and you didn’t realize that you shouted. You stepped away from the car, watching as the three boys starting moving him towards the building entrance. Hyunjin glanced around and met your stare. For a second, you saw this look of relief in his eyes and something warm, but in a flash in disappeared. There was the startled look of realization and then the hurt and anger that followed.

“Screw you!” He snapped. You stepped back as he momentarily escaped his hold, lunging for both you and Chan. He spit on the ground, his eyes darting between the two of you. But his gaze still softened when it landed on you and you felt bad that it made you feel a bit better. Hyunjin paused and licked his lips. His voice cracked. “I really can’t fucking believe you.”

A shaky breath escaped you as the boys managed to get him under control and he was dragged away. This was your fault. You covered your mouth and quickly crawled into the car. Chan tried to bid you goodbye, but you shut the door before he could. You reached for the necklace in your pocket and stared at it as you were driven away. You pressed it to your chest.

“I won’t let myself forget you,” you murmured under your breath.

 ➻➻➻➻➻ 

A year later

  Your arms ached as you trekked through the grass. It was slightly muddy, due to the rain just hours before. The place was empty, not a single human in sight. Only gravestones with the occasional soggy bouquet of flowers in front of them. It was slightly cold, a light breeze pushing through your clothes. The sun wasn’t anywhere to be seen, leaving you with just the depressingly, dark clouds. 

You still resented Chan and hated the monthly meetings he forced you to go through, but part of you had to owe him this. Him being willing enough to have a small funeral for the boy and give him a gravestone. He hadn’t wanted to, but you had argued for this. Given it your all. 

A year had passed since that day. You still regretted everything and sometimes it became too much to bare But somehow, you forced your way through it and now you had a reason to keep going. Just a small reason, but it was good enough. 

You paused, staring at the stone for a while. It was a simple gray stone with no fancy carvings. It only held his name on it: no dates and no quote. There were no flowers or candles, just the head alone. You sighed and carefully crouched down, placing the bouquet down.

“That’s your daddy,” you whispered softly to the bundle in your arms. Tears pricked the corners of your eyes, but you smiled. You looked down at your daughter. She was awake, dark eyes staring up at you. “You should always be proud to be his daughter, Noe… he was the best person ever.”

You paused and took a second to wipe away a stray tear. 

“He would’ve made an amazing father.”

You brought her up to your chest and kissed her head. You stood up and then looked at the sky. She was your one reason to keep going. The only thing left of him that you had. You wouldn’t let yourself forget him.

And you hoped that his memory lived on with her.

ldufoehdfdlfhdofh i cried

[prongsmydeer]

Ayesha Liveblogs Class Action Park

“Gene was effectively kicked off of Wall street. So he did what anybody in this situation would do... buy up two ski resorts in Vernon, New Jersey.” That’s how I deal with all my career-related angst 

“Gene turned to his old buddy Bob Brennan, always there to find cash or investors any time Gene had a wild new idea” bdjdjjfkdbf find u a friend like Bob, I guess?

“Who we got? How about these teenage employees” oh NOOO

If your employer makes you call him Uncle maybe that’s a warning sign 

Gene giving his teen employees $100 every time he puts their lives in unparalleled danger has a similar energy as my dad giving me $5 when I was sad but 150 million times worse 

You know, if they had advertised the slide as a slide that could bite you like a shark, they might’ve been able to play off the teeth thing in their stride (in any case Slidey McBitey did not slow them down?)

“You couldn’t go down the canonball loop if you were too small, you couldn’t go down if you were too big” the Goldilocks of Dangerous Water Park Features

The way that everyone in this documentary says ‘water’ as ‘worder’ is very Jersey

I mean it absolutely doesn’t surprise me that there were no engineers involved in this but wow that’s a choice

The animations in this documentary in place of stock footage are truly on another level:

The accompanying dialogue to these images: People who Six Flags or Disney wanted nothing to do with; these guys would literally track Gene down at amusement industry conventions. You can tell these guys went and did bumps of coke and went just [unintelligentible] fuckin’ let’s just drill a slide right in the fuckin’ middle of the mountain and it’ll shoot ‘em 20 feet in the fuckin’ air--

“It was not fit for a safe ride by the average person in public” you don’t say, Bob Krauhlik, Head Lifeguard

I mean those like... bubbles for people to roll around in exist? Why couldn’t Gene have invested money in developing those in the seventies and just had people go down a very slight hill? Must EVERYTHING in this park be a deathtrap

The fact the Ball Man (presumably) survived the ride collapse, the freeway, and falling into a swamp,,, invincible

“We started sending employees off of [the airborne slide]” These guys really needed a union

“He’s gone on to lead a normal life” jhfkjhkjf the disclaimer

Honestly a built-in bidet/lota situation in a water slide doesn’t sound bad

Gene fulfilling my lifelong dream to get to lay on the baggage rollers at an airport

“The Aqua Skoot was also home to a thriving bee nest” I hope the bees were okay!!

“You’re probably concussed, and you have like a hundred and fifty people from New Jersey just being like ‘Pussy! You fuckin’ bitch!” this sounds in line with everything I know about New Jersey

“No lifeguard every blew a whistle and was like, ‘Hey stop chanting the word ‘pussy’ at this injured, bleeding person’“ I would pay money to see any lifeguard I know say that

Bob Krauhlik said: The first rule of Action Park is we don’t talk about our suppressed traumatic memories of Action Park

“Just literally imagine teenagers you know right now opening an amusement park” As someone who knows MANY teenagers this scenario sounds terrifying

“I was a good girl, so I wasn’t really involved in much of the shenanigans that took place” if u say so Faith

“I may have attended one [party]” HA I knew it 

This cattleprod story reminds me in a horrible way of a Paris Metro authority memory but long story short people will try to attack you physically if they think u cheated a $3 ticket; capitalism warps the brain

“But if we’re so bad, why don’t they just make a new town?” I’ve never heard a whiter sentence in my life

“He was a cool dude” [cut to] “I think he was a piece of shit” POETIC CINEMA

Gene annoying the state of New Jersey into relinquishing their land... incredible 

“Gene was free from the pesky state of New Jersey” is that what it says on the sign when you cross state lines into Pennsylvania 

“It might’ve attracted a more, say, working class clientele” ah the water park class divide

I don’t know what kind of mindset for just bodily-functioning all over the pool but I hope I never reach that point 

You really should need a sobriety test to operate anything motorized I think they could’ve made thousands on a Go-Kart breathalyzer

“It had a top speed of over 60 miles an hour, it was worth it” said Ed the Park Operations Manager, about driving a go-kart on the highway

“Action Park had full-on, Miami Vice-grade speed boats, where riders regularly tempted fate by treating them like bumper boats, a common action, that would send many a guest tumbling into a pond murky from leaked gas and oil, and known by employees to be infested with snakes” Somehow that sentence got worse and worse with time

The guy who literally crushed another person with his boat and then moved to the next ride: I pretend I did not do it

“He wound up getting getting ejected from the park” they said, about a person literally attempting to set other patrons on fire:

Bob the Lifeguard really speaks with way too much fondness in his voice of trying to throw carts on top of people sliding down a fibreglass and concrete slide

“On an an average day, you would have 50 to 100 people injured” the 80s were a lawless time 

“Gene Mulvihill had a vision of a place where there were no rules - something between Ayn Rand and Lord of the Flies” strike that this is the whitest sentence I’ve ever heard

HAHAHAHA I can’t believe the lawyer is now explaining Action Park with the argument that the 80s were a lawless time

“[D*nald Tr*mp] realized it was too wild, too nuts even for him” kjghkgjhkg this comment aged poorly 

The audacity of this man to blatantly exhaust everyone into submission

Kayaks did nothing to deserve being associated with electrocuting water park attendees 

Every time I think this documentary can’t get worse they introduce a new concept like The Death Zone at the Grave Pool 

“They expected to drown at the Action Park Wave Pool“ DID THEY, BOB? DID THEY REALLY?

“Nobody should ever be the second person to die in a wave pool, you know why? ‘Cause after the first person dies in a wave pool, close the fuckin’ wave pool!” Chris the Comedian has summed up this entire documentary in two sentences 

This documentary has intentionally saved the worst for last this whole interview with the family of the (first) deceased is deeply upsetting 

The Wave Pool death happened a week before the Kayak death??? THEY DIDN’T EVEN CLOSE FOR A WEEK???????

“Its time came and went” IS THERE EVER A TIME FOR A WATERPARK WHICH KILLS MULTIPLE PEOPLE 

Weird that the woman whom Gene got fired from her job and who deposed him became his friend

“Was he a villain or a victor” I think that’s a false dichotomy you can be victorious at villainy 

“The spirit of Action Park lives on today in the Fyre Festival” Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t remember Fyre Fest killing anyone

“Fyre Festival’s bullshit, man. Gene gave you everything he fuckin’ promised you” grievous injury???

There’s also something weirdly poetic about the name of the park going back and forth from Mountain Creek to Action Park and vice versa every few years 

I’m gonna leave off with this not: Not a single visible minority was interviewed for this documentary as a park attendee or employee and while that’s probably more a product of selection bias and New Jersey it’s also all the argument you need for diversity in any field. Diversity of thought and culture does not a loop-de-loop-death trap make 

[polluteme]

TW, ed + pro (my own) relapse

I tried not to slip back in to my old ways for so long. Kept telling myself I NEEDED to put weight on to be healthy and to just ignore what it looks like so I could try to feel better. People told me I looked healthier at first and I tried to believe them, I truly did. Giving your body fuel and strength so you're not passing out and all that.. that seems like it should be a good thing, right? I even got rid of my weighing scales thinking if I can't know the number then how could it bother me. I was so determined to not let this take over my mind and my days any more.

But then it just go a bit too much... I had taken away the scales and covered up the mirrors, I wore loose clothing so it didn't feel tight and remind me of my fat, but bit by bit I could just FEEL it. I feel physically heavier when I walk around or sit down, my arms and thighs and belly are like double the size and I don't even get out of my pyjamas any more or leave the house because what's the point trying to clothe and accessorise your body in attempts to look nice and to be brave enough to let people SEE it when you hate it and the way everything looks on it. I haven't even fucked my boyfriend in like 2 months so he's probably gonna leave me.

So yeah, I tried. But as it turns out, I can't live this new life. This heavy life with this repulsive body. I can't and I won't. So I had to make the change back. Getting myself back in to my weight loss routine has felt like coming home. Literally like a warm hug I can sink in to and just be immersed in safety and comfort. Unfortunately it's going to take a long long time to get me back to the size I was but to even consider the width of any part of me right now is hell so I have to.

I'm not super social cause I am an endless pit of mental health disorders but I do enjoy quietly being part of a community that understands, and I repost thinspo regularly so maybe if you relate in any way to any of that you'd like to check out my ed blog, omgshessothin - I will repost this on that blog too.

Obviously ultimately I would like all of you to be able to recover and please please don't let me make any of you worse, but maybe you're in the same boat as me of just wanting a safe space to express what you're feeling.

Please don't anyone report me, I know it can seem scary to see people struggling but in my case I assure you I am safe I just need this outlet to vent and keep me moderately sane. Thanks :)

Also I'm 25 now and haven't used Tumblr in a long time so I'm aware this text post is not standard Tumblr typing aesthetic but I've literally forgotten everything so bear with me lol, my first day back I was tryna be using emojis everywhere so I am improving!

[evermoire]

come live with me (and we can be pirates) | camden, isaac & sophia.

the lahey house was a quaint thing in the middle of a lavish neighborhood. the house directly across from it was the kind of big and pristine that made camden eye it distrustfully, parking his car as close to the laheys’ curb as he physically could, just in case that was the kind of family to rant and rave and call the cops about used cars in their affluent neighborhood. his 2013 hummer wasn’t exactly broke down, but it looked like an old station wagon, compared to some of the cars on this block.

the lahey house was in the same boat. it was a small thing, brown bricks and white trimmings, with a little american flag jutting out just above the porch light. in a startling moment of clarity, camden realized it was for him. it wasn’t a mark of pride, either; it was ed mocking him. camden didn’t know how he knew it –– could not remember his father outside of what little lori had been able to tell him, because it sounded a lot like camden had all but forbidden her from coming over unless she absolutely had to –– but he did it. 

rare rage funneled within him and he swallowed it down. what was he offended for?

battling his nerves, camden killed the engine of his car and sucked in deep, measured breaths. logically, he knew he couldn’t waste time sitting here. for one thing, if he’d been gone for eight years –– an estimate, anyway; lori told him he was twenty-six now and he’d been eighteen when he’d enlisted, details that he had never really known before –– then he owed a lot of explanation. or maybe he could get an explanation. beyond that, if he’d left his siblings and his mother with someone like ed lahey, then he needed to make sure that they were okay. siblings aside, he had a son waiting for him back home. though lori had said she was fine with babysitting jeremy, camden had also called noah over for a few hours, if only because camden was working an overnight shift and he felt bad enough about leaving lori with jeremy for that long. not because jeremy was a bad kid, but he was camden’s responsibility and that wasn’t fair of him to dump on anyone else.

but he had the feeling that isaac and sophia, the two kids he’d left behind when he went to the military, had been his responsibility, too. had camden left them in anyone’s hands, or had he left them to fend for themselves? he couldn’t figure out which choice turned his stomach more.

pushing down the bile in his throat, he got out of the car, body rigid with fear and anxiety and the terrible, familiar feeling of not knowing. every step up to the door felt like a death march, his feet too loud against the ground, his shoulders too tense. and for the first time, camden wondered if they would recognize him. lori had, but they were in love. lori had been an adult when he left, just like him. how old had his siblings been? camden had definitely filled out since he was eighteen, but would they recognize his smile? would they recognize the birthmark that always had people asking if he’d been punched in the eye? would they recognize his eyes, his mannerisms?

would he recognize anything about them?

before he could let his fears talk him out of this, camden rang the doorbell. he took two steps back from the door, hands clasped behind his back, looking every bit like the soldier he couldn’t even remember being. he tried to relax, but how could he? two kids that he couldn’t even conjure up images of, and they held his entire world in his hands.