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five-rivers · 3 years ago

Text

Danger First

Chapter 10

@pocketramblr :)

One day - and not even a whole day, because of travel time and Inko wanted Izuku home for dinner- simply wasn't enough time to master a quirk. Although he could turn Float on and off, now. So, they made plans to come back next week, and the next, up until the sports festival. Which. Wow. Really was only two weeks away.

Izuku had never realized how close to the beginning of the school year it was.

He was going to die.

"You're not going to die," said Mr. Yagi. "I'm not going to say the sports festival isn't important, because it is, it's one of the best ways to make professional connections for students, but not doing well isn't the end of the world, especially not in your first year. No one expects you to be perfectly polished."

"But," said Izuku, "I'm supposed to be the next you! I've got to stand out, right?"

Mr. Yagi looked very guilty. "I... may have given you that impression when we were first training, yes. But, since then, with all my research into the past holders... few of them were popular, flashy heroes. If you want to walk the same path as me, that's great. But you don't have to. Even I didn't really start that chapter of my life until after college."

Izuku looked down at his hands, letting silence fill the space between them as he contemplated Mr. Yagi's words. "This isn't about me manifesting One for All differently, is it?"

"What? No, no of course not, my boy. I mean, it certainly helped me come to this conclusion, I wouldn't have done so much research without it! But I certainly hope I would have come to the same conclusion eventually, even so."

"Okay..." said Izuku, still dubious.

"I mean it," protested Mr. Yagi. "Most of my work is essentially underground, you know. There's a reason the battle trial was what it was."

"H-huh? You? Underground? But you're so recognizable!"

"Am I? I firmly believe in bringing all my resources to bear in the fight against evil! Ha ha!"

His laugh devolved into a cough, and he fumbled for a handkerchief. But he recovered quickly enough.

"I guess that makes sense," said Izuku, cautiously, once he thought Mr. Yagi wasn't going to start coughing again.

"You didn't think I stayed number one by popularity alone, did you?"

"I- the formulas the Hero Commission uses to determine rankings are secret, and it only includes spotlight heroes, so when I extrapolated the hero billboard rankings, yes, I assigned a high weight to popularity. There were always some discrepancies between my predictions and the end results, but I figured I missed some events, or the commission assigned them different values…"

"That's quite impressive, my boy. But, though popularity is a factor, the HPSC does take unpublicized fights and rescues into account. Assuming you report them…"

That was the second time Mr. Yagi had mentioned not telling the commission something.

"Do you, um, do you do that a lot? Not tell the commission things, I mean."

"Eh? No, no, I try to stay up on my paperwork. I get a lot of help from Naomasa, though. Some heroes, especially independent ones, without an agency, do have trouble keeping up, sometimes."

"It's just… the other day you said something about not telling the commission about All for One."

"Ah," said Mr. Yagi. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "You're quite right. How should I put this… The HPSC knows All for One exists, and I have made them generally aware of his modern exploits. I haven't told them about his ability to give quirks, though they may know through other avenues, there are certain battles I've had with him that I haven't told them about, and they do not know about One for All."

“Why not?”

“Villains aren’t the only ones who seek power,” said Mr. Yagi. “The HPSC provides a vital service, and I think what one does matters more than why one does it, but… it is my observation that many of the people there are more concerned with personal power than doing the right thing. And positions of power and authority tend to draw in those who would abuse those things."

"Even heroics?"

"Especially heroics. The HPSC Ethics Review Board is supposed to stop that, but no system is perfect." He shook himself. "But look at me! I was trying to give you a pep talk, not saddle you with doubts about the government!"

Izuku laughed, nervously. "I mean, you've definitely distracted me from the sports festival…"

“Yes. The sports festival. Don’t worry about making a big spotlight combat debut. If you want to focus on rescue, or investigation, or the underground, I’ll support you all the way.” He paused. “You do need combat, though, because, because of-”

“All for One?”

“Yes, exactly. All for One.”

“Way to kill the mood, guys,” said Banjo.

“I think the mood was thoroughly dead already,” said Yoichi.

“Unlike your brother,” said En. “Ninth’s father.”

“Come on, it was just a little omission of information. It wasn’t even a lie!”

“It was definitely a lie. You’re so lucky that my relief about you not being a pedophile eclipsed my righteous fury regarding your mendacity.”

“You know, the fact that you’re delivering that completely deadpan gives me doubts about the fury part.”

“I’m mad at you.”

“You love me.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t be mad at you.”

“Hey, hey, wait a minute,” said Nana, making a ‘T’ shape with her hands. “Time out. Ninth’s father is All for One.”

“Yes,” said Yoichi, hanging his head, “I thought that had been established.”

“So, are we… What Toshinori is saying is completely valid, by the way… but, are we expecting this kid to fight his father? Is that a thing we’re doing?”

“Uh,” said Yoichi, “in our defense, we did think he was dead.”

“Maybe Eighth will get ‘im before Ninth has to deal with it,” suggested Banjo. “He’s got to have a better chance of that, now what with Fa Jin and all.” He paused. “But, you know what would give Ninth an even better chance, if he does have to fight his deadbeat dad-”

“He’s not a deadbeat,” interrupted Hikage.

“What?”

“Calling him a deadbeat would imply that he is neither supporting the Midoriyas financially nor regularly in contact with them. He is on both counts.”

“What?” squealed Bango.

“Did you miss his phone call with his father immediately following his return home after the USJ attack?”

“Oh,” said Yoichi, “no, I was very aware of my brother’s evil, evil voice. It’s just that these guys were too focused on scolding me to listen to anything I had to say. I still can’t believe he sent someone like that to attack his own son’s class.”

“Didn’t he, like, kill you?” asked En.

“No, my death was largely unrelated. You’ve got to remember, I was a chronically ill fugitive from the law with no money. Who told you that he killed me?”

Everyone looked at their immediate predecessor. Yoichi tracked the path back to Third, who had gone very stiff.

“What the heck, Third? You were there when I died. Why would you tell Hikage that?”

Third did not answer.

“Actually, what did he tell you, Hikage?

“Oh, it was very moving and heroic. It happened while you were saving a busload of metahuman orphans. You sacrificed yourself to let them get away from All for One. I even cried a little.”

“Is it weird that I’m now disappointed in myself for not dying like that?”

“Very,” said Nana.

“What were we talking about before this?” asked En.

“I have no idea,” said Banjo.

Izuku delayed going to class, nervous about everyone's reactions to his quirk. It wasn't that he thought they'd reject him, but more that he had no answers for the inevitable questions.

But he also didn't want to be late.

"Todoroki was so cool!" Hagakure exclaimed as he opened the classroom door. "He was all like, blam, bam, swish! And- and he checked whether or not I was there first, before attacking, which was super cool of him."

Todoroki's expression was halfway between 'statue' and 'help, I've been hit by a truck.' "Cool?"

"Very cool."

"You've grown since the first day, kero."

"Ah! Midoriya!"

All heads turned towards him. In the next second, he was hugged by several people, which was more friendly skin contact than he'd had since… ever, probably.

"Eep," he said.

"We were so worried about you," said Uraraka. "We made a group chat, after, but since you were unconscious…"

"Hm," said Monoma, "your quirk still is definitely a stockpile…"

"Monoma!" shouted Iida. "Did you join this hug just to copy quirks?"

"And what of it?"

"But speaking of quirks," said Jiro, "you can fly now? We kind of went along with it at the time, but that's kind of different from a sensory quirk."

"I know," said Izuku, "and I have no explanation."

"Maybe your quirk stockpiles danger," said Monoma, contemplatively. He rubbed his chin with one finger. "That could be why you can sense danger- you're stockpiling it. Then, when the danger gets over a certain threshold, you can release it as flight… why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Oh, nothing," drawled Kaminari. "Just that you're more thoughtful than you look, pretty boy."

"I don't want to hear that from you."

"Th-thank you, Monoma! I'll have to mention it when I go to quirk counseling next."

Which may or may not be this afternoon, depending on how Mr. Aizawa felt and- His head snapped to the door. "Mr. Aizawa's coming!"

They all rushed to their seats. The door creaked open.

"Oh my gosh, he's a mummy."

"Iida?"

"What is it, Midoriya?"

They were having a bit of a break during English while Present Mic cycled them through for short sessions with Hound Dog.

"I didn't have a chance to ask you earlier, but how's your brother?"

“He’s alright! It’s the first really major injury of his career, so he’s going to take it easy for the rest of the month, to make sure his engines heal properly. He’d prefer not to of course, but, ah, there is a silver lining.”

“That’s good,” said Izuku, encouragingly.

“I really shouldn’t be happy about it,” said Iida, rubbing the back of his neck, “but he’ll be able to come see me during the sports festival, and he probably would have been too busy if he were active.”

“I think it’s okay to be happy about good things, even if they happen because of bad things,” said Izuku. “It isn’t like we can go back and make the bad things not happen, after all…”

“That’s very true, Midoriya! What a mature way of thinking about things.”

Izuku didn’t know about that, but he was willing to take the compliment.

“Midoriya,” said Shouta, who was absolutely and unquestionably recovered enough to teach. Even if he had zoned out in the corner of the room in his sleeping bag all morning rather than trekking back to the teacher’s lounge… or teaching any of his other classes… shut up. “What are you doing at the window?”

“O-oh. Mr. Aizawa. I didn’t know you were awake?”

It was, maybe, a little unfair to single Midoriya out like that, since the entire class was standing by the window, and the way Uraraka, Sero, and Midoriya were closest to it, with Monoma a close fourth, was concerning, but Midoriya was the first one Shouta saw, and the one most likely to to cave and tell him what was going on.

“Midoriya.”

“R-right. Well, going out the door seems a little unpleasant today, so we thought we’d switch it up?”

What did that even mean?

“We were going to bring you with us, of course,” continued Midoriya.

What did that even mean?

“Out the window.”

“Um. Yes.”

“What kind of unpleasant are we talking about?”

“Battle trial unpleasant?”

Shouta groaned and hauled himself up, walking over to the door. He looked out the window and made note of all the students from other classes standing out there, circling like sharks. Great. Maybe they needed to have an assembly about respecting boundaries or whatever, especially if the people whose boundaries were being crossed were potentially traumatized.

Something to bring up at the next staff meeting he attended. Which… would probably not be soon.

Anyway.

He opened the door.

(“A mummy,” whispered someone.)

(First his kids, then these kids… he wasn’t that wrapped up.)

(Was he?)

“What are you all doing here?” he asked, voice rasping rather more than he wanted it to.

The students didn’t seem inclined to answer. Someone did mutter something about the sports festival, but it was far from the complete answer that Aizawa wanted.

“Right. Whatever. Scoping out the competition is one thing, but you are aware that class 1-A is recovering from a traumatic experience. And you’re blocking traffic. Clear off.”

The crowd slowly dispersed. Shouta sighed. He knew this would only be the first of many such incidents. He made a note to talk to Nemuri about whether or not she’d be willing to donate some of her class time to talk about public relations.

“You know,” said Nemuri, “if you actually rested, Recovery Girl would be able to heal you.”

“I know nothing of the sort,” said Shouta, glaring at his desk in the staff room. “I’m forgetting something.”

All Might walked in. “Er, young Aizawa,” he said. He paused for a painfully long, awkward moment. “Are you still meeting with young Midoriya today?”

“Crap.”

Did Izuku expect Mr. Aizawa to come to their meeting? No. The man had casts on all of his limbs. But, he hadn’t cancelled it either. So, better safe than sorry, right?

But it had been a while, now. Izuku could probably safely assume he wasn't coming after a half hour. He got up, packed his bags, and reached out for the door handle-

Only to freeze as Mr. Aizawa yanked it open and pulled Mr. Yagi into the classroom after him.

Izuku scurried back to his seat.

"Nothing physical today," croaked Mr. Aizawa. "We're going to figure out your quirk."

“O-okay,” said Izuku.

Aizawa collapsed into the seat behind the teacher's desk. “To be short, this quirk, One for All or whatever, is complete nonsense.”

“Uh,” said Mr. Yagi. “Sorry?”

“Sorry,” whispered Izuku.

“You should be. Not you, Midoriya. You’re fine.”

“Okay?”

“Right. So. You’ve got two quirks right now. Danger Sense and Float. Unless something else showed up over the weekend?”

“No, it’s, um, it is just those two right now.”

“And you’ll most likely get Smokescreen, Blackwhip, and that strength enhancement eventually. Plus two mystery quirks.”

“That is what I’ve been able to find out,” said Mr. Yagi.

“So, we have to figure out some way to get all those under a coherent umbrella that can account for the mystery quirks, and before the sports festival, so the evil immortal supervillain doesn’t notice that you have quirks just like a bunch of people he had personal beef with.”

Mr. Yagi cursed in English. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Yeah, I wonder what else you haven’t thought about. Maybe this year I can get Nezu to take my suggestion about doing hero names before the sports festival seriously. You know we’ve had people stalk students before because for some godforsaken reason we use their real names? I need a drink.”

“Ah, water?”

“No.”

“Young Aizawa, you’re a teacher…”

“A career choice I question daily. Midoriya, do you have any thoughts about how to make your quirk make sense in a way that won’t get you killed or abducted by the HPSC?”

“I- Does that happen?” despite his conversation with Mr. Yagi over the weekend, he still had generally positive thoughts about the hero commission.

“I have no idea. Wouldn’t put it past them.”

“Well, um, I was talking to Monoma earlier, and he said something about stockpiling danger, and how it might let out the stockpile as the energy necessary to levitate- which, really, would be a fascinating quirk if it did work that way- but I thought it might also work for Smokescreen and the strength enhancement? I mean, general responses to danger are fight, flight, or hide, so the strength enhancement is fight, Float is flight, and Smokescreen would be hide…”

“That might work. What about Blackwhip.”

“Yeah, that one has kind of stumped me.”

“Blackwhip sure is a problem,” agreed Mr. Aizawa.

The ghosts started laughing. “You’re a problem, Banjo,” chortled Nana.

“Come on, guys, that isn’t funny!”

"It is! It's hilarious!"

"They were just talking about All for One tracking the kid down and killing him!"

The mood sobered quickly.

"Considering that he is Ninth's father," said Hikage, "I suspect it's far too late for that."

"Yeah," said Yoichi. "But, just to be safe, and in case there are other weirdos out there, new rule: no giving him new quirks in public. Not that we can do anything about when he eventually manifests the stockpile…"

"What if he's going to die?" asked Hikage, raising his hand.

"He already got your quirk, why do you care?"

"We'd like to hear it," said Banjo, somewhat forcefully.

"Well, if he looks like he's going to die, do whatever you can to stop that from happening, I guess. But chucking a quirk he doesn't know how to use isn't always going to be the beat answer."

"Wait," said Nana. "Hold up a second. A few days ago we were talking about the potential for multiple quirk brain damage, weren't we?"

"Oh, good catch," said Yoichi. "I guess I forgot to mention it, which means Nana is the only one I'd trust babysitting my nephew in the event a quirk rewound him to elementary school age-"

"That is a suspiciously specific scenario," said En.

"-and all the rest of you are fired. You didn't even question giving him more quirks? Really?"

Hikage raised his hand. "I assumed you had discovered that Ninth had a constitution capable of handling multiple quirks, similar to yourself and your brother."

"That is true. Okay, Hikage would be another exception, but he's disqualified from babysitting for other reasons."

"That's fair."

"So we need something that can do all that, and has tentacles," said Izuku, squeezing his bottom lip in thought.

"Yeah," said Mr. Aizawa. "Honestly, even really dumb ideas would be welcome right now."

"Why are you looking at me?" asked Mr. Yagi.

"You know why."

There was only one creature Izuku could think of that could do all the things Izuku one day might be able to while maintaining room for the two mystery quirks. "Cthulhu."

Mr. Yagi looked mildly scandalized at the suggestion.

"Nah, it'd have to be something like eldritch. Cthulhu's trademarked in Japan, and that can give you aboveground types trouble."

"What is it a trademark for?" asked Mr. Yagi.

"Ask Midnight. I don't want to talk about it."

"Ah," said Mr. Yagi.

"The problem with that is that you currently have no justification to call it that. Now if you already had Smokescreen…"

The adults looked at him.

"... I don't think it's going to just show up like that," said Izuku.

"Why not?" asked Banjo, staring at En. "They practically asked you for it."

"Well, first off, I live for drama, so jot that down."

"Huh? What about me?" asked Yoichi.

"Nothing, it was just an idiom. Second…"

"...Right," said Aizawa. “For now, then, we’ll have to give it a temporary name, because it’s starting to get to the point in time where it’ll actually be illegal for you to not register it.” He shuffled his casts. “Yagi, start filling out those forms with what he can do currently. Midoriya, make sure you check him when he’s done. For now, we’ve got to come up with a name.”

“Um,” said Izuku. “Float’s the only one that’s really visible, so I could just call it Float?”

“Vetoed. You aren’t picking a name that the immortal supervillain knows.”

“He did seem to only refer to people by quirks unless he really hated them,” said Mr. Yagi. “Except his brother, who he always called ‘my foolish brother.’”

“Focus on the paperwork.”

“And he called himself by his quirk name as well,” mused Izuku. “Do you think it was a side effect? Quirks have document impact on people’s personalities-”

“Focus.”

“R-right. Um. Feather Fall? No, that’s part of a game. Flight Reflex?”

“Good enough for now,” said Aizawa. “Flight Reflex it is.”

#bnha #boku no hero academia #danger first #danger first au #fic #fanfic

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three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat · 3 years ago

Text

Charlie Weasley, Professor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31490714

“Are you sure?”

Minerva looked at Charlie. “Yes, Mr. Weasley. I’m sure. You are an excellent candidate for the position. You have obtained a mastery in Care of Magical Creatures. You work with dragons. You should be able to handle the students.”

Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess.”

A dragon roared in the distance. Minerva sighed. “I shall owl you your contract. I suggest you start putting together your lesson plan.”

A panicked look crossed Charlie’s face. “Lesson plan!?”

(“So, if the third years start with hippogriffs, then we have time to cover all the basics and a few creatures before December, right? Right!?”

“Why are you asking me, mate? I’ve never taught a class.”

“Neither have I, Daniel. Neither have I!”

“Uh, are you ok?”

“NO!”)

Charlie paced in front of the hippogriffs’ enclosure. “It’s going to be fine.” He muttered to himself. “No one is going to die, you aren’t going to get fired on the first day, get banned from the dragon preserve, and have to work at McDonald’s, whatever that is. You’ll be fine.”

“Charlie!? What’re you doing here!?”

Charlie turned to look at his brother. “It’s Professor Weasley, Mr. Weasley.”

Ron looked shocked. “You’re the Care of Magical Creatures professor?”

Charlie crossed his arms. “I’ll have you know that I am an excellent candidate for the position, especially since it was originally supposed to be Hagrid.”

“What’s wrong with Hagrid?”

“Nothing. He would have been a horrible teacher, though. He doesn’t even have a mastery in the subject. Some of the creatures are dangerous. Unicorns may look nice, but they carry around what akins to a magical spear on their head. Hippogriffs” he gestured behind him. “may not look that dangerous, but they are if you don’t pay them the right amount of respect.”

Ron paled. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Charlie looked toward where the rest of the class was waiting. “Go back and join your friends. Class is starting.”

“Yes, Professor Weasley.”

(“Well? How’d it go?”

“I’m not working at McDonald’s, so I think it went well.”

“McDonald’s? Why would you work at McDonald’s?”

“Uh, no reason, Bill.”)

Charlie pushed his mashed potatoes with the tines of his fork, shaping it into little triangle shapes on the tail. “If everyone thinks there’s a curse on the Defense position, why hasn’t anyone asked a curse breaking team to come by?”

Minerva looked at him. “I don’t know, Mr. Weasley. Did you have anybody in mind?”

Charlie grinned at his old teacher. “Bill owes me a favor.”

(“Why are we doing this?”

“Charlie called in a favor.”

“Yeah, but why are we doing this?”

“Because you technically work for me, and I’d rather my siblings get a good education for once.”

“I don’t see how that’s my problem…”)

Charlie followed Bill as he led his team through the halls. “How long is this going to take?”

“As long as it needs to.” Bill glanced back at him. “Shouldn’t you be teaching or something?”

“It’s Saturday.”

Bill sighed. “Are you just going to follow me around all day?”

“Maybe.”

“Wouldn’t you rather go see if you can find the Grim that’s supposedly hanging around?”

“There’s a Grim at Hogwarts?” Charlie narrowed his eyes. “Wait… how would you know? Is this a trick?”

Bill pointed at a gaggle of students nearby. “Your students are loud.”

“Yeah,” Charlie sighed. “They kind of are. I’ll see you later.”

(“Who’s a good doggie? You are; yes, you are!”

“Woof!”

“Come on, let’s get you a meal and a bath.”)

Bill looked up from where he was scratching runes into a stone. “When I said “Go find the Grim”, I didn’t mean “Go find the Grim, adopt it, then come back and bug me.”

Charlie glanced down at the dog at his side. “I couldn’t just leave him there! Look at him. He’s all skin and bones.”

Bill sighed. “Just… don’t let him pee on our stuff.”

“He wouldn’t do that! Would you, boy?”

The dog swished his tail and barked.

(“Professor Lupin!”

“You can call me Remus, Charlie.”

“Ok, Professor Lupin. What do you think I should name my dog?”

“Uh… Snuffles?”)

Snuffles, as he was now called, stared sadly from his position in front of the professors’ table at Remus. Remus avoided the dog’s gaze.

“Hey, Professor Lupin, could you watch Snuffles for a while for me? He likes you best, and I need to go down into Hogsmeade tomorrow.” Charlie said cheerfully.

Remus sighed. “I suppose, Charlie.”

(“Snuffles? Really?”

“You deserve it for leaving me like that.”

“You know I didn’t mean to.”

“Just… shut up and let me hug you.”)

Bill walked into the great hall, having let his team finish packing up while he delivered the news. “Well, after many days of hard work, we got the curse out, and a couple nasty compulsions. This year’s teacher will stay, if they want to, and everyone should be a bit nicer.”

A student nearby stood up and shouted, “Hey! Professor Lupin is staying!”

Snuffles wagged his tail and barked alongside the students cheering. Remus laid his head in his hands and muttered, “Oh dear.”

(“Albus? I’d like to extend my contract.”

“What made you change your mind, my boy?”

“... No reason, Headmaster.”)

Sirius looked up from his spot next to Remus and nudged him in the side. “Just like the old days, huh?”

“Just because we’re both at Hogwarts doesn’t mean we’re going to start pranking everyone again. We’re professors now.”

Sirius groaned and let his head fall against the table. “Why did I take this job again?”

“Because you wanted your godson to have a proper education in the history of his world?”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

“You made Charlie quite sad, though. He’s upset that Snuffles ran away.”

“Being a fugitive isn’t as fun as it sounds.”

(“Ok, class, who can tell me about the goblin wars?”

“...”

“Really!? It’s all Binns used to talk about!”)

Charlie looked up as Sirius banged his head against the table gently. “Why, why, why.”

Remus caught Charlie’s eye. “Don’t worry, he’s just upset that his students are idiots.”

Charlie nodded and resumed his conversation with Minerva about the ethics of using animals for transfiguration.

(“Heya, Charlie. How’s teaching going?”

“Daniel? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, no reason. Just… friendly visit.”

“I can hear the roaring. Where are they?”

“... Forbidden Forest.”)

Charlie walked into the great hall, the smell of smoke clinging to him, causing the students he passed to cover their noses.

Minerva sighed as he sat down. “Charlie, can you please not be so obvious about the task?”

Charlie patted down the ends of his singed hair. “What do you mean?”

Sirius stifled a laugh.

(“You should have seen her, Bill! It was amazing!”

“What was?”

“Fleur Delacour! She put a dragon to sleep! All by herself! You’d love her.”

“... Is that impressive?”

“Is that impressiv- Yes! It’s very impressive! She put a scared and angry mother dragon to sleep, BY HERSELF, and the real eggs weren’t damaged, and it was only bad luck her skirt caught on fire, and it was amazing, and-”)

(“Hey, Charlie, do you remember Fleur Delaco-”

“Of course! Why?”

“Well, I’m dating he-”

“WILLIAM WEASLEY, IF YOU DON’T MARRY HER, I WILL!”

“You don’t even like people, Charlie.”

“I don’t care!”)

#common sense 'verse #mb's shitty writing #charlie weasley #fleur delacour #bill weasley #minerva mcgonagall #harry potter #taglist would be in the notes if i had one

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agentmarymargaretskitz · 5 years ago

Note

Vlogger Gary, annoyance at first sight.

Happy birthday! I know I’m very badly late but I still hope you enjoy this a little!

For the rest of you, consider an AU where Zari wasn’t the only one whose timeline got changed by Heyworld.

Ao3

“John!”

Someone grabbed his am, and he spun around as Gary called his name again. The other man looked stressed out and panicked, even more so than he usually did.

“What, Gary?” he snapped. Neron and Tabitha were gone, Nate was back, and the world was safe. There was no reason for him to be this anxious.

“The timeline’s changing,” Gary babbled as everyone continued to celebrate and cheer around them. “And because of that, my timeline is changing. Rip recruited me from the future. I’m a kid right now, somewhere out in that crowd, and I’m about to disappear and I’m scared.”

It was a lot to process in a short amount of time, but John shook his head.

“You’re not gonna disappear,” he promised, grabbing Gary into a tight hug. “You’re gonna be fine, you hear? You’re going to be fine.”

“Of course, I’m fine!”

John frowned as he was pulled back from the hug. For a moment, he drew a blank on the man in front of him. Then he remembered exactly who he was. Jeffery Green, but JJ to anyone he ever met. He worked at a museum in the future and had been picked up with the Tarazi siblings when Kuasa was after their totem. An obscure mixture of brains and chaotic energy that had saved everyone’s lives time and time again, not to mention a close friend to John.

“You saved Nate, man!” JJ cheered, slapping him on the back.

John grinned, but still felt like something had been lost in all this.

~~~~

“I can’t believe you talked me into going on this with you,” John grumbled as he walked down the hallway with Behrad. “You could have gotten anyone else- Ava, Nate, JJ?”

“Dealing with the team, my sister’s ex, and refused to go as soon as I mentioned the word influencers. You’re my only available hope of sanity tonight.”

“You wanted to come to this, Behrad,” Zari reminded him from the front. “You always keep asking what the big deal with these is all about. Now I get to show you around my life and people can hear how my little brother is an awesome superhero.”

Behrad glared. “You’re not telling anyone about that.”

“Are you sure? Because people would love to-”

“I don’t want to be on display, Zari. You know this. That’s why we went on the ship-”

John tuned out the sibling bickering as the sound of muffled music grew louder. They had been fighting a lot more since Heyworld had reignited Zari’s desire to be in the spotlight. The attention and the documentary crew that had been on the ship gave her a taste for it again. She’d been off the ship more often now to film videos or attend events like this one. JJ was even struggling to keep her aboard, and he was always the one with ideas that made her want to stay on the ship.

Things had been different since Heyworld somehow. It wasn’t the attention or the documentary crew or Ava moving in and Mona leaving. Something had changed and John couldn’t figure out what it was. It felt as though someone was missing, but no one else seemed to notice it. Although Gideon did have a problem with some phantom data, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary besides the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

“And here we are,” Zari waved at two doormen. “This is going to be fun.”

The doors were opened up to the trio, who entered behind Zari. The whole room was lit up in purple and music pulsed around them. Huge banners advertising eyeshadow or something were on every wall along with a massive one from the ceiling. So many people filled the room, all standing out in some way. It nearly overwhelming just standing there without engaging.

Zari, however, was unaffected. This was her world, after all. “Come on, go mingle. I’ll find you when it’s time to go.”

“Is there a bar here?” John shouted to her over the music.

“Yeah, over there, I think.”

“Great, bye.”

John followed in the direction that Zari had gestured, squeezing through the throngs of people clustered together or dancing. When he finally got there and asked for whiskey, the bartender looked almost relieved. Probably pleased he didn’t have to make some fancy ass drink like the ones he’d seen some people with. Who the hell needed a color-changing cocktail with a glow stick in it?

“Haven’t seen you before,” someone said as he accepted the whiskey.

John turned and nearly rolled his eyes at the man taking a seat next to him. Clearly, he was one of these influencers JJ had been so desperate to avoid. He was wearing a turquoise suit over a gold shirt and had two studs piercing his right eyebrow. Behind the glasses with frames matching his suit, dark brown eyes loaded with eyeliner looked him up and down. This wasn’t just an appreciate glance, but one that seemed to be trying to profile him.

Something tugged in John’s gut, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Probably disgust of being cornered by an influencer or celebrity or whatever the hell this guy was. “First time. Came with a friend.”

“Anyone I might know?” the man pried as he accepted a glass of something that smelled like lavender and was the color of daffodils.

Now John rolled his eyes. “Zari Tarazi.”

“The Dragon Girl?” the man gasped. “Is she finally coming back into the spotlight? I’ve missed seeing her around. She always adds such class with events like this. And you said you were a friend? Lucky!”

John shrugged as he took a drink. He guessed they counted as friends. “I just came for the moral support. I take it you must be part of some circus with that suit?”

The man snickered. “Cute. I’m in the entertainment business too. I’m Gary. Maybe you’ve heard of my videos? Probably more of the spooky ones than the makeup tutorials. You know Beyond Our World? Exploring unsolved mysteries and other otherworldly events.”

“Definitely not,” John shook his head. “You cater to the conspiracy theorists, huh? Good for you.”

“Actually, the ‘Green Beans’, which my fans love to call themselves, have all kind of viewpoints when it comes to conspiracies,” Gary told him. “It’s the interest that brings people in, not their beliefs. Interest is what always brings people in to see the videos.”

“So how much in your videos is fake?” John asked. “You make up evidence to get people to believe in the things that go bump in the night, huh?”

Gary scowled at him. “How dare you, when you haven’t even seen anything I’ve-”

“I don’t need to see a thing,” John snapped, getting out of the seat and facing the man. “And you know why?”

Gary sat there, no emotion showing on his face.

“I know because I’ve seen it all. Ghosts, demons, villains raised from hell. I’ve walked in the shadows. They’re real, but no one ever believes in it. If they did, they’d all be panicking. There wouldn’t be a party. So I don’t need your content. You have nothing.”

Now Gary stood up. He had only an inch on John, but John was struggling to look him in the eyes when he noticed the hideous lime green loafers.

“I have enough,” Gary told him. “I don’t need you to bring me down. Sorry, Zari’s friend.”

He walked away into the crowd. John watched him go and finished the rest of the whiskey. The funny feeling he’d had before was back.

“Now is not the time for you to be standing around like some hapless idiot!”

John clenched his head as the words, his words echoed in his ears. Something flashed in his head. Trying to hold Neron off with magic and shouting at someone. It was Gary, except looking more like he was with the government. He looked hurt and distraught.

That wasn’t right though. He’d called JJ an idiot and the other man had taken a swing that knocked him out. They’d buried the hatchet about it and moved on. But now that…didn’t feel right at all.

“Hey,” a hand slapped him on the shoulder as Behrad came up beside him. “We’re leaving.”

“Yes,” John exhaled and turned to face the other man. “Please, get me out of here. Where’s Zari?”

Behrad pointed to where his older sister was heading for the door. “She’s got a head start.”

“Then we better catch up.”

They started off in the direction Zari was headed, unaware that they had a tail.

~~~~

“You okay, man?”

John glanced over to see JJ entering the library. As he did, he flickered for a brief second, appearing as the normal version of that Gary guy. He recoiled in confusion and JJ frowned at him.

“Definitely going to take that as a not okay. Was it that influencer party?”

“Yeah, something happened there. Picked an argument with someone. At least it was an open bar.”

“Exactly why I avoid those things,” JJ snapped his fingers at John just as Zari walked by. “Not even for you, my dearest Zari!”

“You’re worse than Behrad,” Zari stuck her tongue out as she joined them. “So you got into a fight? Spill!”

“It wasn’t a fight. I just disagreed with him peddling lies and exciting conspiracy theorists.”

JJ got a funny look on his face as Zari leaned forward. “What did he look like? Did you get his name? Real or screenname, I can clap him on CatChat.”

“It’s not worth it. I just felt funny around him.”

“Ooooo,” JJ hopped up to squat on his chair. “Was he a demon? An Encore? An alien?”

Zari smirked. “Or did you have a crush on him?”

“But monsters, Zari! Look at all the fugitives we’ve met in the past year!”

“But feelings, JJ. Even John has them.”

Thunk!

All three of them went quiet at the sound above them. John held a finger to his lips and started looking at the ceiling. JJ climbed out of his chair quietly and started examining the ceiling as well. Zari also was helping and had decided to start recording. Everything was silent, until there was a series of thumps that went across the ceiling and out the door. The trio looked at each other and then ran after the noise.

They made their way down the halls of the ship, following the sounds into Mick’s room. He wasn’t there, which was probably a good thing. John looked around the room for anything that they could use, but JJ had already found a crowbar and was prying off the cover. As soon as it fell onto the ground, John climbed on Mick’s chair and peering into the open airduct. There was nothing one way, so he turned in other direction.

He only saw the bottom of the shoe a moment before it smacked him in the face. John dropped out of the airduct and lost his footing on the chair. He felt himself crash downward and another body come tumbling out to land on him. It was gone after two seconds and JJ was helping him onto his feet while Zari screamed about a stowaway.

John stumbled out the room and saw a flash of green disappear around a corner. He hurried after it until he caught sight of a familiar lime green. When he turned the corner, John stopped to see Mick holding that influencer Gary tightly as he tried to squirm away. He must have followed them back to the Waverider from the party.

“This is all real!” Gary was screaming, his hand still flailing about with a phone in it. “I found proof of…something. If I die, tell my cats I love them!”

John strode forward and grabbed the phone away from him. “This is all fake, just like him.”

Gary glared at John. “It’s not enough to insult my work to my face, but now you do it on my videos?”

“Shut up!” Mick ordered them. “Who are you?”

“Wow, really? Maybe you two are aliens if you don’t know Beyond Our World?”

“If you’re as annoying on it as you are right now, then I’m glad I’ve never heard of it, Larry,” John smirked.

“It’s Gary! Gary Green, you asshole!”

A shrill scream came from down the hallway before Zari ran up to join the crowd. “You don’t know Gary Green?!”

Gary looked up. “Zari Tarazi?”

“Mick, you can let him go,” Zari told him. “Guys, Gary Green is one of the biggest vloggers. He does the most amazing videos for true crime and supernatural stuff, plus a few make-up ones. We did a collab once. It was awesome”

“Zari?” JJ called out. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fantastic!” Zari squealed as JJ came around the corner. “JJ, you have to see this. It’s Gary Green!”

JJ froze once he got a glimpse of the man Mick was now letting go. “Gary?”

Gary gaped up at him, his mouth opening and closing for a few moments before he finally was able to speak. “JJ?”

John turned to him. “Do you know him?”

“Nope!” JJ turned around, but Behrad had come up to join them and he ran into him. “Oh, come on!”

“What’s going on?” Behrad asked. “JJ? Zari? John?”

“He snuck on the ship,” John pointed to Gary. “He’s some celebrity or whatever.”

“I have a very successful brand and channel!” Gary pouted.

“He’s the male version of Zari,” Behrad muttered.

“I know you meant that as rude, but it’s true,” Zari nodded. “But how does he know you, JJ?”

JJ mumbled something.

“What’s that?” John asked.

“I said he’s my brother,” JJ repeated. “This is my brother, Gary.”

Everyone was silent, taking in the information. No one was really sure how to react to the new information connecting JJ to their stowaway.

Zari deciding to snap a selfie with a confused Gary was probably not the most appropriate though.

#kat cornwell #ask box #happy birthday #legends of tomorrow #constangreen #gary green #john constantine #zari tarazi #behrad tarazi #jj green #ship prompt #au #vlogger!gary

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thepurplebutterflythings · 5 years ago

Text

Like, Like - Peter Maximoff

Gif: Unknown from Tenor

Word Count: 2.5K

Pairing: Peter Maximoff x (f)Reader

Summary: Living next to Peter Maximoff was eventful.

Warnings: Makeout.

Masterlist

________________________________________________________________

Living next door to Peter Maximoff was, as you can imagine, eventful and most of the time it was constantly filled with the sound of Police Sirens coming and going, it had gotten to the point where you learn to phase it out, like a stain on a rug or a crackling radio, and when it’s gone, you notice it, and I mean a lot.

Two days and not a single siren had filled the air, I noticed it because it was normally what woke me up in the morning, my Mum and Dad noticed it because of the slight perkier attitude of the neighbours, no one admitted it but they were glad Peter hadn’t caused a problem, which saddened me slightly, Peter and I grew up on the same street, I mean we weren’t friends but we knew of each other when Stacy from two streets over tried to trip me into a muddy puddle, Peter got there first and caught me, when Peter lost his house key I let him use my bedroom window to climb over to his roof and wiggle in through the bathroom window his Mother always forgot to close.

I knew he was a Mutant and he knew I was painfully shy, too be fair both of those weren’t exactly secrets, they were badly kept ones, almost everyone knew Peter was a Mutant (his hair was what really set it off) and the fact I could never look above a person’s chin told everyone I hated social situations, but Peter was the worst at keeping his Mutation a secret, the front step of his house was worn down and he would randomly appear in places he shouldn’t be with a cocky grin and a wink, his handsome grin… okay maybe I had developed a crush on the fast mutant, and the fact I hadn’t seen him for two days was starting to Worry me, What Trouble had he gotten himself into now?

While Mum and Dad were at work I was working on a paper for class, while at University my Parents insisted I stayed at home when the phone started to ring, I frowned and walked over to it, the ID was for The Maximoff’s next door, I answered it regardless.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Y/N? It’s Peter’s Mum” Ms Maximoff told me.

“Hello, Ms Maximoff,” I said softly “Mum and Dad are out.”

“I know,” she said quickly “I was hoping you’d watch Wanda for a little while, I have to go to Work for a while.”

“What about Peter?” I asked her, part of me hoping that the burning question in my mind about where he was would be answered.

“Peter is… busy” she told me. I knew she meant committing some crime or another.

“Oh, okay” I whispered “Bring her round mine whenever, I’ll make her Dinner too.”

“Are you sure Y/N? You don’t have to.”

“No, it’s fine, I love Wanda” I insisted, it wasn’t the first time I looked after the young Maximoff girl, and I doubt it’d be the last, Wanda was a bubbly girl who always had a princess dress on over grubby jeans and a top which had a hole on the sleeve cuff, like she couldn’t settle on being a Girly girl or a tomboy so she fused them together.

“Thank you Y/N” she sounded relieved.

___________________________________________________________

Wanda brought a drawing book and crayons round with her which were scrawled over the coffee table as she focused on her picture, tongue peaking between her lips with focus, while I sat on the floor next to her writing.

“Y/N!” Wanda perked up and looked at me.

“Yes, Sweetie?”

“What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

“Writing,” I tell her “for class” she shrivelled her nose and frowned.

“That sounds boring” she concluded.

“It is” I chuckled “what are drawing?” I asked her, she grinned and lifted up her drawing, it was of two people, one with silver hair, obviously Peter, and the other with Y/H/C hair.

“You and Peter!” she told me.

“Aw, that’s nice Wanda” I congratulated her.

“Thank you!”

“Why me and Peter?” I frowned in confusion, Peter hadn’t spoken to me in ages.

“Don’t you like my brother?” she frowned

“He’s a nice person, Wanda,” I tell her honestly “I just haven’t spoken to him in a while.”

“All Peter talks about is you,” Wanda told me in her childish way, returning to the drawing “he calls you pretty and smart.”

“Does he?” I asked curiously, Wanda was too young to know not to blag about her elder brother’s private thoughts.

“Yes” she nodded, “he thinks you have lovely eyes and a pretty smile.”

“And why doesn’t he tell me this?” I smiled.

“He told Mum that you are… ‘Out of his league’” Wanda quoted, I laughed and smiled “Peter Like, likes you.”

“That surprises me,” I said quietly “he never seemed to.”

“He’s scared,” Wanda said airily as she drew little pink hearts around me and Peter in her drawing “you scare him… in a good way.” She added quickly, she placed her crayons down and looked at me “Y/N…”

“Yes, Wanda?”

“Do you like Peter?” she asked me tilting her head to the side curiously.

“Peter is a very nice person Wanda, very sweet” I nodded and smiled.

“But do you like, like Peter?” she whined. I sighed and blushed, looking at the young girl, I leant in and smiled.

“I do” I nodded, Wanda squealed with happiness “but Wanda” I said “you have to promise to not tell anyone,” I told her.

“Promise, pinkie promise” she nodded furiously offering her little finger, I smiled and wrapped mine around hers ever-so-gently. Her little finger was so small compared to mine, so delicate.

“Thank you, Wanda.”

“Y/N, why can’t Peter know?” Wanda asked me. I paused and thought.

“Because Like Liking someone is a very big deal” I explained “and I have to think about whether I should tell Peter if I Like, like him” Wanda listened intently and nodded slowly.

“Okay” she smiled before sliding the drawing next to me “You can keep it!” Wanda told me, I smiled and lifted the picture up, it was quite Endearing, Me and Peter standing in a field surrounded by flowers with pink hearts around us as we held hands. I was touched and placed the drawing into my notepad.

“Thank you, Wanda,” I tell her as I press a kiss onto her forehead.

______________________________________________________

It was about 11 at night and Mum and Dad were already asleep, however, I was engaged with a copy of The Great Gatsby.

“Hey…” a voice came through my window, I screamed a little and turned to look at the person, a smirking Peter Maximoff was crouching at my window, sniggering at my reaction. I huffed and walked over, opening the window and leaning my hands against the window seal.

“What the hell Peter?!” I hissed “it’s like you want my mum and dad walk into the room” Peter just laughed and gently moved me out the way as he climbed into my room.

“Nice P.J’s” he chuckled as he shoved his hands into his silver leather jeans and smirking.

“Peter” I sighed, folding my arms over my chest “why are you here?” I asked him, my mind was filled with so many questions. “Where have you been? What happened? Tell me!” I practically begged him to tell me what had been happening around him.

“One question at a time Y/N/N” Peter laughed as he strolled around my room, gently knocking the dream catcher I had dangling over my desk and flicking through my notepads and various books. His speedy mutation often left Peter with an easily distracted mind and a curious nature which was never satisfied, I often admired it.

“Where have you been?” I sighed, sitting on the edge of my bed, enclosing my hands together and observing Peter as he nosed around my room. He had never entered my room before, the furthest he’d gotten was the bathroom at the other end of the hall, which led to Peter’s roof.

“Out, busy, working with people” Peter shrugged.

“Was it legal?” I pondered, carefully skating around the topic of whether or not I would end up harbouring a fugitive under my bed.

“Not entirely” he confessed “but I’m good at what I do, so don’t worry” Peter leant against my door, that charming grin danced over his lips as his eyes were filled with a certain twinkle as if he had an idea which he was tempted to act upon. I felt my shoulders roll back and my eye level remained on Peter’s clunky boots.

“What would make you think I worry?” I questioned, leaning forward a little as he ran his tongue between his pearl white teeth, Peter pulled a folded piece of paper out and gradually unfolded it to reveal a child’s drawing, Wanda’s drawing of me and Peter.

“How long have you had this?” he grinned, winking at me “My the likeness is uncanny” Peter teased. I didn’t shy away, I merely smiled, confusing him.

“Wanda drew it” I informed him, the new information caused Peter’s eyes to flicker in fear for a second, his little sister drew Peter and myself surrounded by Love Hearts, he knew that she had let something slip to me “so I have lovely eyes and a pretty smile then?”

“Oh god” Peter groaned and placed the drawing down upon my desk before running his hands through his silver hair.

“How the tables have turned” I giggled a little, Peter had seen that picture and attempted to tease me about it, assuming I would have drawn that when I was a little girl, with a huge crush upon him, turns out it was the other way around, Peter had a crush on me and I knew about it.

“Let me explain,” Peter said quickly, pleading for me to listen as I smiled and shook my head.

“I like you too Peter” I whispered, my statement caught him off guard as he paused for a second and looked at me, his mouth hung open in shock as he was, for once, still, not moving, not tempting to run anywhere or to fidget, he was just there.

“Yo-you like m-me?” Peter stuttered, gesturing with a shaking hand between me and himself, I just smiled and nodded, he laughed and smiled in disbelief as he gingerly stepped over to me.

“What are you doing?” I asked him as I watched him being slow. Being slow was so unlike Peter, which startled me.

“I want to savour this moment,” he said softly, Peter had reached me and tenderly stroked my cheek, smiling at me gently as he stood over me, carefully leaning down to my level, closer to my face, our noses were just touching.

“W-why?” I frowned a little as we listened to each other’s breathing.

“You ask a lot of questions” he chuckled as he closed the distance between us.

His lips were soft and gentle, Peter Maximoff, the guy known for speed, was taking his time and kissing slow, he tenderly trailed his tongue over my bottom lip and I eagerly granted him access and wrapped my arms around his neck. Peter placed his large hands on my waist and leant closer towards me, I started to feel a slight push on me as I started to lean back into my bed, Peter clambered on top of me, taking one of my hands and linking his fingers into mine, placing It next to my head, I started to tighten my grip on his hand and trailed my other hand over him until it reached his waist, pulling him closer to him. His lips tasted sweet, like sugar, possibly from one of the many sweet he often indulged in, and the smell of Peter’s shower gel filled my nose, it was minty and strong and smelt like him, like Peter. The kiss was so addictive, something I could spend hours doing and never grow tired of, like lemonade on a summer’s day, or chestnuts over an open fire on Christmas, or a favourite novel which you could read over and over again. Peter pulled back for a second, far enough for him to admire me, smiling happily and brushing his hand through my hair, he opened his mouth to speak but before he could my door started to open, Peter looked at it and then used his speed to hide behind the open door, my Father appeared there, looking at me and smiling, completely unaware of the boy hiding behind my bedroom door, waiting for him to leave so a kiss to resume.

“Hello Dad,” I said quietly.

“Hey Pumpkin” Dad grinned “Came to wish you good night.”

“Night Daddy” I quickly jumped to my feet and moved over to the door.

Dad would come into my room if I didn’t and that would lead to Peter being caught, the troublesome boy next door hiding behind my bedroom door, my lip balm on his lips, that would lead to Peter being thrown out and the neighbours hearing my father yelling at him to ‘Stay the hell away from my daughter, you Mutant’ and the anger from Mrs Maximoff as she said my father was too old-fashioned, she’d defend her mutant kleptomaniac son till her dying breath. Dad gently pressed a kiss to my forehead and patted my hair, thankfully Peter hadn’t messed it up too much, and it only looked as if I hadn’t brushed it after a shower and not like I had been making out with the boy who snuck into my room.

“Night Pumpkin,” he said gently as he stepped away and went to find his room with Mum. When he was out of sight, I closed my door and Peter lounged against my wall, grinning at me.

“Hey Pumpkin” Peter winked at me, I laughed and playfully smacked his chest, he held his arms up in surrender before wrapping them around my waist and pushing me lightly against my door “sorry Babydoll” he smirked as he leant in to kiss me again. This time it wasn’t as slow, it was a little more heated as he pressed himself against my body and dragged his lips down to my neck and fervently trailed kisses along my collar bone.

“Peter…” I whispered.

“Yeah Baby?” he purred, reluctantly lifting his head so to look at me.

“I have class early in the morning” I sighed as he linked his hands into mine, pressing kisses onto my fingers.

“In other words ‘go away’?” he questioned.

“No,” I shook my head, “I want to keep doing this,” I lean to kiss him again, but Peter pulled away with a smile.

“Me too, but you have an early class,” Peter reminded you with a teasing kiss.

“We can meet up after I finish my classes,” I tell him “Mum and Dad never expect me home right away.”

“We can go to my basement” Peter offered “Wanda’s round her friend’s and Mum’s working late.”

“Perfect” I whispered as I kissed him one last time before Peter stepped back, biting his lip and looking at me before heading back to the window.

“Just like you” Peter winked before climbing out of the window and letting me close it behind him with the fluttering excitement in my chest from the anticipation for tomorrow.

#peter maximoff #quicksilver #X-Men #peter maximoff imagine #Peter Maximoff x reader #Quicksliver imagine #Quicksilver x reader #x-men imagine #fanfiction #imagines

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cloudninetonine · 5 years ago

Text

A Favour for a Favour (Part 2)

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: After the events of the Clash of the Avengers at the airport, Peter finds himself bored with his every day friendly neighbourhood Spider-man life. Then someone shows up who might be able to give him a little more than he wished for

A/N: Someone suggested I continue this because it would make a good series and well, who am I to refuse?

Tumblr also took the fucking chapter separation bar so it’s just lines between different points in time

Warnings: The usual bad language, still some sexual tension, slight mentions/hints of abuse (Not really but this is just in case)

“So, want to come over and work on that Lego Death Star?”

It was the end of the day at Midtown School of Science and Technology. Peter and Ned were just exiting the school perimeter, chatting to one another peacefully after an exhausting few hours of classes and enjoying each others company as per usual.

It had been about 3 months after the airport incident, fortunately for Peter, Mr Stark had let the kid keep the new suit permanently, releasing the boy back to his every day with some confusing advice and...that was it. He hadn’t heard from the man since, or from Happy either, no matter how many times Peter texted them, called them- they left him with nothing.

He was bored with everyday crime fighting, he wanted more, he needed a rush, he needed something.

Every time those kinds of thoughts rushed into his head, he thought back to (Name). He didn’t know why exactly, but one thing he did know for sure was that (Name)’s attitude screamed adventure, vigour, excitement. He told himself that was the reason why that he wanted something more and (Name) was most likely the one who would give him more, it was no other reason.

Yet, his mind also wandered to other thoughts about her. Where was she now? He was still being sent those...packages, so there was no way she was captured, right? So what was she doing?... Did she miss him? Did she, maybe...miss his scent? He missed hers, though he would never admit it, that sweet, sweet scent. God, he wished that he could smell it now-

“Peter? Are you even listening?”

Peter jumped, blinking his eyes hard and sending a smile- well more of a grimace- towards Ned. “Uh, sorry I was...thinking about the Stark Internship”

Ned’s face dropped “Does this mean you can’t come over and help me build the Lego Death Star?”

“What?- No! No, no, no, I can come over today” I need a break from Spider-man anyway “What time? Do you want me to come now-”

Freshly baked pastries: danishes, croissants, cupcakes, cake, doughnuts. The scent was so incredibly sweet, it hit him hard and when he said hard, he meant hard, like he had been punched right in the face by it, the boy had even stopped dead in his tracks.

He knew that smell but, she couldn’t be...the Accords made her a fugitive of the country and if she was here she would be arrested, she wouldn’t risk her freedom to come here, right-

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Mr Parker himself”

Peter went rigid; Ned glanced over his shoulder.

“And his friend, by the looks of it”

Peter turned slowly, watching as a casual dressed (Name) strolled past him while offering her hand towards Ned. “The name’s (Name), Ned, right?”

Ned smiled kindly towards the girl in return before taking her hand and giving it a firm shake “Yeah, that’s me, nice to meet you, although-”

Peter tried to ignore the look that his best friend sent him “Peter hasn’t told me about you”

(Name) let out a simple laugh as she threw her arm over Peter’s shoulders, tugging him closer to her own frame and patting his chest with her free hand. “Ah, well, Parker, he likes to keep little secrets here and there, you know?”

Ned nodded in agreement; Peter sent her a warning glare.

“Anyhow- I saw you two walking and I was like ‘Parker!? Is that really him!?’ and I just had to see! Say ‘hi’ if you will! And, well, now I think lunch would be appropriate for this sudden meeting, the three of us, I’ll pay, how does that sound, Parker?” (Name) shook the boy playfully, mischief dancing in her eyes as the two shared eye contact for a moment.

Peter’s lip curled “Great”

“Awesome!” Removing her arm from Peter, (Name) strolled up to Ned and they walked ahead, Peter sulking behind them with his eyes trained hard onto (Name).

“So how’d you meet Peter?”

“Oh, a great story, It was during the Stark Internship retreat in Germany, the company I interned for was invited for a conference-”

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

“Ah shit” Ned whined, glancing at his phone with a grimace “My mom’s calling, I’ve gotta go”

“Oh! Do you want me to come with you? We can work on the Lego Death Star!” Peter offered, beginning to stand from his seat, only for Ned to wave him off with a smile.

“It’s cool, you hang with (Name) and we can do it later”

(Name) smiled towards Ned “It was really nice to officially meet you, Ned”

“It was nice to meet you too, (Name), I’ll see you guys later!”

Sharing mutual farewells, Ned stood from his seat and exited the cafe, waving at them when he passed the window their booth had been seated next to before disappearing from sight in the concrete jungle. Peter’s smile dropped once his friend had disappeared while (Name)’s own smile morphed into a mischievous smirk, head coming to rest on her intertwined hands as Peter leaned forward.

“What are you doing here?!” He whispered desperately, eyes wandering all over the cafe and to the street outside “Is Captain America here too? That guy with the metal arm-”

“Pause it, Parker, I’ve only got one mouth” (Name) laughed, sending him a wink “And no, Steve and Bucky aren’t with me, they’re at a classified location”

Peter let out a hard breath and collapsed back into his seat, eyeing the girl warily “Why are you here, (Name)?”

“Ooohhh, he’s using the hero voice”

“(Name)-”

“Okay, okay” With a laugh, she sat back up and her hand dived into her jacket pocket “I’m setting up a base here, well, nearby and I was scoping out the area”

She pulled out a thick envelope and tossed it over, watching in amusement as the boy quickly snatched it before shoving it into his backpack “I also came to drop that off personally, seeing as I was here already”

“Why do you keep giving me this money?” He asked, glancing over to his bag nervously.

“Why do you think?” She sent back, giving him a look. “You saved my life, Parker, least I could do”

“You don’t have to-”

“I want to” (Name) gestured for a waitress to come over, “End of discussion”

Peter sat silently for the next few moments as (Name) ordered another drink, exchanging polite chat with the waitress before turning back to Peter with a sheepish expression.

“What? What is it?”

“Well,” She started with a laugh “You see, my new base is gonna take a while to set up and, you see, I need a place to stay while that happens, so, I was wondering…”

Peter’s eyes widened “Wait, what!? No! You can’t stay at my place!”

“Awh, come on Parker!” (Name) pouted, “It’ll only be for a short while, three months tops!”

“Three months-” The waitress appeared with (Name)’s drink, the both of them immediately silencing themselves and watching her walk away awkwardly before turning back to one another “(Name), I can’t let you stay at my home!”

“Why? Is it because of the rent? ‘Cause I can pay, you know I can-”

Peter groaned, hands flying up to hold his face. “No it’s not that- it’s just- what would I say to my aunt? ‘Hey Aunt May, this is (Name), she’s a national fugitive who I saved a few months back- Oh, hey, can she stay with us!?’”

“I can come up with something” (Name) reassured, grabbing his hands and pulling them away to look him in the eye “Come on, Parker- Parker look at me- you can trust me, as soon as it’s over, I’ll be out of your hair, I promise, you’ll never have to see me again”

“...never…?” The boy asked, his expression dropping.

“Okay, maybe not never, I’ll probably be living a few blocks away or something- just-...please?” (Name) sent him a genuine pleading look “This is probably the only place that my old-...employer, won’t look, I just need a few months”

Peter’s expression softened and he bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t do this, he shouldn’t do this, (Name) was a national criminal, hell, she was basically a worldwide criminal. If he did this, he would get in so much trouble, he could drag May into this mess if he wasn’t careful and it would all end in disaster.

This was a bad idea.

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

Fuck, this was such a bad idea.

“Hey, May?” Peter called into the apartment, pushing open the front door and allowing (Name) to trail behind him into the front room. “Are you here?”

“Yeah!” The sound of footsteps approached them and May turned the corner with her usual warm smile plastered on her face. “How was- Oh! Hello!”

(Name) recuperated the woman’s smile, though it resembled more of a wince than anything, part of the plan. The story was that (Name) had been kicked out from her abusive home a few weeks ago and was looking for a place to stay, Peter, being the sweetheart he was, had offered that they could stay with them for a while until she eventually saved enough money to get a place of her own.

It was a good idea but it had put a bad taste in his mouth. May was a bleeding heart, if she saw that someone was in trouble she would always try to help that someone out and at the moment, the two were using that to their advantage. Peter didn’t like lying to her, hell, not telling her that he was Spiderman was hard enough, but not telling her that he wanted to harbour a fugitive in their home? That was way worse than hiding any secret identity.

“Um- Hi- Hi!” (Name) stuttered, rubbing her arm awkwardly “You mu-..must be Miss-..Miss Parker! It’s- well I- um…”

Was...was she shaking?

Damn, she was good.

“Hey, it’s okay, (Name)” Peter squeezed the girl affectionately, feeling her melt under his touch and place her head on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck softly. “Sorry, May, she’s just really shy”

May smiled in understanding and nodded her head. God, why was he doing this again? “That’s okay, sweetie, why don’t you sit down, I’ll get you something to drink”

“Th- um, Thank you” (Name) whispered, plopping down on the sofa as May walked off to the kitchen, Peter following behind with a heavy weight of guilt slowly beginning to form on his shoulders.

Well, here goes nothing.

“So, who is she?” His aunt purred playfully, looking through their assortment of drinks within the refrigerator “She smells like an omega, is she your mate?”

She wiggled her eyebrows towards him and a bright blush painted itself onto his face.

“What? No! No, no no, she’s just a friend from around, her family moved here a few months ago” May let out a hum that displayed her disbelief, turning back to the fridge “May, I’m being serious!”

“I’m sure you are, Petey”

“Seriously! I- Ugh! Nevermind, I needed to ask you something important”

“Go ahead, sweetie”

“Well, you see, I was wondering-” Peter glanced back into the living room, seeing (Name) look around the place before leaning closer to his aunt to whisper “Would it be okay if (Name) stayed here for a while?”

“What?” His aunt stared at him oddly “Why?”

Peter swallowed the saliva that was bundling in his throat. May didn’t seem mad or annoyed, more confused with his request than anything and he begged the Gods that it would stay that way.

“Well, uh…” The boy gestured for his aunt to move a little further away from their guest, continuing to speak in hushed voices as they addressed one another “(Name) hasn't been around for a while and I, well, I found out today that her father kicked her out”

A look of utter horror flashed over his aunt’s face and his chest squeezed painfully.

“He did what?” May took a glance towards the girl “How could he do that?”

Oh God this was harder than he thought.

“I-I...I convinced her to stand up to him” He replied quietly, his voice close to a whimper “She told me that he was hurting her and I told her that she shouldn’t take that from him and she stood up for herself and I-”

“Peter” The older woman placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, her other pushing some stray strands of hair behind his ear “This isn’t your fault”

A little voice in the back of his head told him otherwise.

“But-”

“No buts” May argued, pushing him towards the living room to where (Name) was seated “Go and comfort her, I’ll get her a drink”

“O-Okay”

‘God, I’m so sorry, May’

Peter trudged back over towards the sofa, letting himself collapse next to the girl with an exhausted huff. (Name), once she had seen that the boy’s aunt was distracted, leaned against the boy with a similar huff.

“Come on, sour puss” She whined “Don’t pout, it’s only for a short while”

“It’s not that” (Name) looked at him dubiously, “It just doesn’t feel right lying to her like this”

“Even though you lie to her every day about your whereabouts after school and how you’re Spiderman”

The boy deflated into his seat with a noise of distress and (Name) rolled her eyes.

What was the point of hiding the other you in front of loved ones? The real you? (Name) never really understood. I mean, if you had told the people you loved that you were X, Y, Z, wouldn’t it be better for them to prepare themselves for oncoming threats?

It happened all the damn time in movies. The hero’s family, friends, lover, etc. were kept in the dark and they were kidnapped or held hostage, or some other stupid occurrence that could have been avoided if the hero had been smart and just told the truth.

It really pissed her off.

But she’d keep up with the damn act.

If that was what Peter really wanted.

“Listen” (Name) whispered into his ear, Peter’s form going rigid under her touch “How about I let you in on a little secret, Mr Spidey”

“(Name)-”

The girl hushed him softly and raked her hand through his brown locks.

God, she loved to tease the poor boy, any little touch, a slight change in tone, a little saucy word or two sent his heartbeat into a frenzy and turned the colour of his skin from that cute tan to a beautiful shade of rosy red. Oh, he was just so adorable!

With a soft giggle, she grinned against the shell of his ear “What you said wasn’t a complete lie”

Then she had pulled away, a nervous smile once again tugging at her lips as May sauntered back into the room “I hope you’re okay with orange juice, it’s all we really had”

“Th-..That’s fine! Thank you Miss Park-..Parker”

“Please, call me, May, (Name)”

“Oh, of-..of course”

“...Peter are you okay, you look a little upset?”

The boy waved off his aunt, sending her an apologetic smile, even when thoughts stormed through his head.

What did (Name) mean by that?

#peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #spiderman imagine #spiderman x reader #peter parker #spiderman #A Favour For A Favour #avengers imagine #marvel imagine

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lilacmoon83 · 5 years ago

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A Darker Curse

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 21: Fallout

The stares and whispers this morning in the bank, his bank, had been bad enough. So bad that he had sequestered himself in his office, but nothing could get him to concentrate on work. He had been all prepared for the mid-morning board meeting, but had received an e-mail from one of the leading board members that they were postponing the meeting until further notice. It was unsettling, to say the least and all because of a scathing article in the Storybrooke Mirror this morning.

Lewis Dior was not at all accustomed to being the subject of such scandal. He was a very rich man and had always had the means to buy discretion when it came to his business deals. But the tides, in a town where he owned all the leases that Mr. Gold didn't, had just turned. His money had failed to protect him this time and his daughter.

Kathryn hadn't even bothered to come to work yet, but he wasn't surprised. The article shredded her as well. So badly that he would be surprised if she dared to show her face anywhere. If he wasn't the only bank in town, he might have been worried about losing business, but fortunately, there were no other choices in this small town, with the exception of Mr. Gold and no one usually made a deal with him unless they were desperate. Still...the damage to his reputation was already considerable and he had no idea what consequences might be coming at him. And strangely, he had no idea how to handle any of it.

Under the Mayor-ship of Cora Mills, he had never even had to entertain the possibility that something like this could happen. He never thought the possibility that she could lose her office was even on the table. He had never worried about anything at all and had always enjoyed a life that only a pure elitist knew. But one article and Cora's ousting had brought it all crashing down. Needless to say, he was at a loss. He crumbled his copy of the Storybrooke Mirror up and threw it in the trash, as he stalked out of his cushy corner office that he enjoyed as CEO.

The stares from customers were unnerving to say the least and even his employees couldn't help themselves. The words in the article had effectively torn him to smithereens and he stormed out, as he made the short walk to the Court House.

The looks were worse there. These had even more disgust in them and some were even smug, like they were enjoying his fall from grace. He couldn't believe people were actually rooting for his low class, disgraceful soon to be ex-son-in-law.

"Have you seen this trash?" he hissed, as he walked into Albert Spencer's office.

"Of course I've seen it," Spencer spat irritably. Obviously he had been experiencing a morning much like his own.

"Cora would have never allowed this to see the light of day," he complained.

"You're right...which is why it's a very good thing that my Mother is no longer the Mayor," Regina said, as she now stood in the doorway with a smug smirk.

"I see you've come to gloat too, Ms. Mills," Albert spat.

"Mayor Mills...you better get used to it," she warned.

"Or what? Not even the Mayor has the authority to fire a district attorney," Spencer challenged. Regina smirked.

"You're right, but if you go to jail on human trafficking charges...I won't really need to fire you, now will I?" she cooed in response. The color drained from his face.

"You...you can't seriously be thinking of pursuing charges against us. David is an adult...he could have refused the marriage," Albert claimed.

"You could make that argument, but money exchanged hands when he married Kathryn. Trust me, a jury isn't going to see it your way. But there may be a way you can avoid prison," she replied.

"And that is?" Lewis asked with interest.

"Flip on my mother. I know you must have incriminating evidence on her dealings during her time in office. She's the one I really want to see behind bars, so if you give up the goods on her, I'm sure I can convince the Sheriff to cut a deal with you if it means he gets a bigger fish to lock away," Regina replied.

"Betraying your own mother?" Lewis asked in horror.

"She was never much of a mother," Regina retorted.

"No deal...Cora still has more power than you know. Betraying her would be suicide," Albert refuted. But Lewis looked uncertain.

"Lewis...don't do this," he warned. Regina smirked.

"Think about it. I'm a reasonable person and I'll give you a day. If you don't, I'll be sending the Sheriff your way with arrest warrants," she replied, as she walked out with a smile. That was fun. Her only regret was not bringing Snow and David with her so they could enjoy it. She decided she'd head to the diner though to tell them all about it.

~*~

Graham flipped through some of the paperwork and finished a few reports. Patrol had been quiet this morning and was allowing him to get a bit caught up. Emma would be in soon and he would let her take the afternoon patrol. As he started on the backlog of filing, three people walked into the station and he didn't recognize any of them.

"Can I help you?" Graham asked.

"Are you the Sheriff in this town?" the man asked.

"I am," Graham answered, watching as the man flashed his badge.

"I'm Detective Michael Bishop from the Portland, Oregon police department," he said introducing himself. Graham looked surprised.

"Oregon...that's a long way to come. It must be for a good reason," he said.

"It is...I'm not sure if you're aware, but you have at least one fugitive in your midst, possibly two," he replied. Graham approached him and opened the first file, as the detective handed it to him.

"Oh...Neal Cassidy, he's new in town and the son of the local pawn shop owner," Graham said, as he opened the second file and his eyes widened.

"No…" he uttered.

"No...you must be mistaken about Emma. There is no way she is involved in anything nefarious," Graham refuted.

"So sure?" the woman asked.

"And you are?" Graham asked in return.

"Detective Tia Bellum. It's well known that Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy were involved. Word has it that they even have a kid together," she replied.

"That doesn't mean that Emma helped Neal in any larceny," Graham argued.

"You seem close to this Emma Swan," she observed.

"She's my deputy, so I know she's not involved in this," he admitted.

"Be that as it may, we can't take your word for it. We need to arrest Neal Cassidy for sure and at least bring Emma in for questioning," Michael said.

"Did they really send three detectives here for two possible fugitives?" Graham questioned.

"Oh, I'm not a detective. I'm Greg Mendell and I work for the District Attorney's office in Portland. I'm here to handle the legalities of extraditing Neal Cassidy and possibly Emma Swan back to Portland," Greg clarified.

"It's in your best interest if you just take us to them if you know where they are," Michael added. Graham sighed.

"Yeah...I know where they are, but this is my town, so you'll follow my lead," he said sternly.

"Lead the way," Michael agreed.

~*~

As they entered the diner, hand in hand, all eyes were on them. It wasn't terribly unusual, as they had been attracting a lot of attention. To David, without his memories, it had been a bit unnerving. These were the same people that had always been too afraid to lift a hand to help him when he was being abused by Kathryn, but now they were taking an interest in his life? He had scoffed at that. Now with his memories returned, he knew that it wasn't truly at their fault. He knew if Granny hadn't been cursed, then she would have been in his corner. Same with Ruby and many others.

Now seeing the looks and interest in them with his memories was just funny and he felt like riling a few people up.

"Wanna make a bet?" he whispered to her.

"Depends on the stakes," she retorted.

"If I kiss you right now, I bet we get no less than three gasps, some hushed whispers and maybe even some furious texting," he joked.

"Behave…" she teased.

"Oh come on, you know how much fun it is when we wager and how much fun it is for the winner and loser for that matter," he replied. She eyed him with a sultry look, which she was sure was getting plenty of buzz from the nosy patrons in the diner.

"Baby...if you want to tie me up in bed, all you have to do is say so. I have some scarves we can use or we could always swipe a pair of handcuffs," she whispered to him, before winking and going to join their family. He grinned at her and then slid into the booth beside her, kissing her soundly. There was hushed chattering at that.

"I'm going to take you up on that," he whispered. She gave him a naughty smirk.

"You better," she agreed, as Ruby took their orders, before they turned their attention to Emma, August, Neal, and little David, who was eating tiny pieces of pancake that Emma had torn up for him and placed on his tray.

Emma had finished her pancakes and bacon, as well as fries they were all sharing and Ruby deposited another basket on the table.

"Fries for breakfast?" Snow chided them.

"I prefer to call them breakfast potatoes. They aren't fries until eleven," Emma reasoned. Snow rolled her eyes.

"No question where she got her sense of humor," she said, as she looked at her husband, who was eating fries too.

"She has a point...they are potatoes and it is still breakfast," he agreed. She pretended to roll her eyes, but her insides were melting, for they grinned at each other, same smile and thick as thieves. It was everything she had always wanted and she was screaming for joy on the inside that they finally had each other.

"Well, I don't know if I'm enjoying all the looks or scrutiny, but your article certainly made waves, honey," Snow mentioned.

"Enjoy it, Mom...some people deserve to be knocked down," August replied. David nodded in agreement.

"I agree and maybe we poked the bear, so to speak, but we know Cora. She is going to retaliate, even if we did nothing," David said.

"Dad's right...she's been trying to destroy us the moment we walked into town and the situations she forced the two of you into...all of us really...we can't let her get away with any of it," Emma said.

"Emma's right...I know revenge has never been your way, but if anyone deserves it, it's you and Mom," August added.

"Plus...everyone else deserves to be freed. I mean...I don't know Abigail, but she doesn't seem to be herself exactly," Emma mentioned. David shook his head.

"She wasn't like this...not even close. She even helped me escape George when I called off our wedding and encouraged me to find your mother, even when I thought she didn't feel the same," David said, as he looked at his wife and Snow squeezed his hand.

"She'll be horrified by what Cora has cursed her to be," he added. Snow put her head on his shoulder.

"Maybe now that the curse is unraveling, she'll start to come to her senses. I mean...you did say that she seemed more confused than angry the last time you talked to her," Snow said, as the diner door opened and Kathryn walked in, before slamming the door closed.

"Yeah...something tells me that dying fire in her just got stoked again," David replied, as the blonde stormed glared over at their table. The look on her face was one that would have made his cursed self cringe and he could still feel the fear that she used to cause in him. He hated it, but she had done some terrible things to him, even if it wasn't really her fault. She was just a vessel that Cora had been driving. She was the true abuser, but it was still hard for him to look at her, especially when she was in a full blown rage like this. She stormed towards their table and Emma plucked her son out of the highchair.

Kathryn slapped the papers down on the table.

"Did you sign them?" David asked and she gave him a furious glare.

"No, I didn't sign them and I'm not going to!" she screamed and all eyes were on them. He sighed.

"Kathryn...this is getting pathetic. Just sign the damn papers so we can both move on," he said.

"Oh, but you already have!" she shouted, as she gestured to Mary Margaret.

"You've walked out on your marriage and you're sleeping with a woman that has a son your age, but you want to talk to me about pathetic!" she snarled.

"This is between you and me. Leave Mary Margaret and her kids out of it," he said sternly.

"She's the reason for all of this!" Kathryn said, as her rage turned to the raven haired beauty that had stolen what was hers.

"Everything was fine, until you came into this town and wrecked our lives, you evil tramp!" the blonde ranted. Emma and August were ready to jump in to defend their mother, but they wouldn't have to, as David practically flew out of his seat.

"Fine?" he growled.

"FINE?" he roared.

"Nothing about our marriage was ever fine or good for that matter!" he shouted, as the entire diner was eating up the scene.

"Oh yes, poor abused David! I've heard it before. You told your entire sob story to Dr. Hopper and anyone that would listen lately," she hissed.

"Well, sign the papers and you'll never have to hear my story or from me for that matter ever again," David said in exasperation. She yelled in rage and it was truly scary, as little David started to whimper and they all stared in shock, as she kicked the highchair away. It tumbled to the floor and broke to pieces.

"Dammit David...you need to listen very carefully. I'll speak slowly so you can comprehend what I'm saying in your tiny brain," she said.

"David is not stupid and you need to leave him alone...now," Mary Margaret growled, as she stood up. She knew that Kathryn was cursed, but there was only so much she'd allow her husband to take from this woman without stepping in to defend him.

"You...you're the reason for all of this!" she cried, as she held her head like she was in agony.

"You and your bastard son! Do you know how humiliated my poor father is?!" she raved.

"Your poor father?" August asked, looking at her like she had grown four heads.

"You mean the guy that could probably fill a swimming pool five times over with money and swim in it?" he asked incredulously.

"Your father is an entitled, disgusting person that thinks he can just buy whatever he wants. Even people. Whatever humiliation he's getting is well deserved," August said coldly. Kathryn glowered at him and ripped the divorce papers to shreds.

"The only way you're getting a divorce is over my dead body," she spat, before storming out and nearly running over their newly minted Mayor. Regina watched her go and then looked at the floor.

"That's a lot of rage…" Regina said, as she saw the shredded paper.

"We're trying to remember that it's not all her, but she's making it difficult," Snow said, as her step-sister sat down.

"I hope you have another copy of those," Regina said to David. He shrugged.

"Gold says he has as many as we need, but at this rate, I'm thinking we really will have to have a Judge force her to sign," he replied.

"Or we could just break the curse already," she muttered.

"And I'd love to...but no one seems to know how, except that I'm supposed to do it," Emma said.

"And you will, honey...we don't mean to pressure you," Snow soothed. She nodded.

"I know...I'm just anxious to do it too," Emma replied.

"You will...you're strong and amazing, just like your mother," David told her, bringing a smile to her face.

The diner bell rang and Graham entered with three people trailing behind him.

"Hey...you're white as a sheet. Is everything okay?" Emma asked.

"I'm afraid not," he replied, as his eyes went to the people with him.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I'm afraid I have to arrest Neal...and ask you some questions," Graham replied. Neal sighed.

"Where are they from? Portland or Phoenix?" Neal asked.

"Portland P.D., Mr. Cassidy and you're under arrest," Detective Bishop announced. Graham turned to him.

"This is still my jurisdiction, so this is mine to do," he argued.

"And if you don't cooperate with the extradition, your department is going to be in a lot of trouble," Greg chimed in.

"Who are you people?" Snow snapped, as she stood up and David held her trembling hands.

"And you are?" Tia asked.

"I am Emma's mother," Snow answered.

"Mr. Cassidy is a wanted man and we got a tip that he was here in this town," Michael said.

"A tip? I just bet you did," David muttered in disgust.

"And your daughter is going to have to answer some questions. We have reason to believe that she was privy to some of Neal Cassidy's crimes," Tia said.

"She wasn't…" Snow hissed.

"Then you should have nothing to fear in our questioning," he replied, as Graham cuffed Neal and Emma looked at her mother.

"I've got him," Snow said, as she took her grandson from her.

"My papa...he's going to flip out," Neal said, but David put his hand up.

"We'll get him and be right there," he assured.

"Don't say anything until we get there," Snow called, as they were led out of the diner. The whole place was abuzz now, earlier with the confrontation between David and Kathryn, and now this.

"I thought Storybrooke was hard to find?" David questioned.

"It is...there's no way they got here without help," August replied.

"This has my mother written all over it," Regina growled.

"And I'm going to kill her," Snow said, as she stormed out and they hurried after her.

~*~

Cora smirked deviously, as she hung up her phone. Sidney confirmed that Neal Cassidy was just arrested.

"It seems my plan is in motion," she said, as she got up with the intention of leaving to go to the station. These were fireworks that she didn't want to miss, just as Kathryn stormed in.

"Let me guess...David continued to refuse you?" she questioned.

"He did and he has the audacity to sit there and kiss that woman in front of the whole town! He has humiliated me for the last time!" she growled. Cora smirked.

"I may have something that will lift your spirits," she said.

"I doubt anything could do that right now," Kathryn lamented.

"Even seeing Mary Margaret Swan lose her precious daughter?" Cora questioned. The blonde looked at her.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"It would appear that Emma's baby daddy has had some trouble in the past. He's a wanted man and I called in a little tip. Now there are some people here to take him back to Oregon to prosecute him for his crimes," Cora explained.

"What does that have to do with Emma?" Kathryn asked.

"Oh I'm quite certain that Emma Swan was privy to her ex-boyfriend's misdeeds, which means there is a very high chance that she is going to be extradited to Oregon as well, even if they end up not charging her. She'll have to leave Storybrooke to clear her name before the court and if I haven't lost my touch, I'm going to do my best to convince the detectives that she deserves to face the same charges as Neal Cassidy," Cora replied. Kathryn smirked.

"This is happening now?" she asked. The former Mayor nodded.

"Yes and if we don't hurry, we might miss the moment when Mary Margaret Swan has her precious baby girl ripped away from her," Cora replied. Kathryn smirked.

"I'll drive...because I'm not missing this or the opportunity to rub salt in her wounds, while I figure out how to make David pay," Kathryn said.

"Don't worry dear...I can assure you that hurting his precious Mary Margaret and her daughter will hurt him far more than you can imagine...perhaps even more than anything we can do to him directly," Cora asserted.

"Then I can't wait to witness you twist the knife in that little tramp and revel in her misery," Kathryn said, as she followed the other woman out. Revenge would still be hers and they would rue the day they decided to cross her...

#Snowing #SnowxCharming #Charming family #Emma Swan #August W. Booth #Neal Cassidy #Swanfire #Rumplestiltskin #Regina Mills #evil Cora #AU #CORA cast the curse #warning #mentions of abuse #nothing graphic #romance #adventure #family #a darker curse

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sapphicscholar · 5 years ago

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Pride Month Prompts Day 7: Underground (SuperLane)

From this Pride Month Prompts post! I’m taking the opportunity to write some short fics for a variety of pairings that I haven’t written for as much, maybe at all. They won’t be going on AO3, so I’ll be sure to tag them all with #pride month prompts so you can find them later if you want.

Day 7: Underground

Pairing: SuperLane (Kara/Lucy) - another new one! (Set after Manhunter)

Perhaps taking off the helmets had been a bad idea. Scratch that: it was definitely a bad idea. But Kara had wanted to see Alex, had wanted Alex to know that she would always come for her, even if it meant stealing DEO property, shooting down a truck owned by the U.S. government, and freeing two supposed criminals being hauled away for treason. And seeing Alex’s reaction when she realized that Lucy had switched sides for them was pretty great too.

For a while, it seemed as if everything had gone fine. J’onn and Alex took off on the bikes, Kara flew Lucy back to the base, and they both acted surprised by the news of the escape (and were genuinely surprised by the news of Lucy’s promotion).

Neither of them took into account the fact that a vehicle headed for Cadmus would likely be equipped with multiple cameras sending live feed footage back to the military.

The following morning, a heavily armed squad showed up to arrest them both, and it was only Kara’s super hearing that gave her the extra few seconds she needed to swoop Lucy up in her arms and fly them both far away from the DEO and the military officials toting guns loaded with kryptonite-laced bullets.

Within a day, they’d gone completely underground. Kara was opposed to stealing, but she’d swept through stores faster than anyone could see, throwing money onto the counter in her wake. That was how they’d acquired a stockpile of food, new clothing, wigs for going out, and two burner phones that were being saved for an emergency. She’d also grabbed a few bottles of wine for Lucy, who had only recently reconciled herself to the idea of breaking the law and was looking a bit pale as the realization that she was a now a wanted fugitive with her own father hot on her heels sunk in.

On day 5, Kara finally got up the courage to apologize. “If I hadn’t...I should’ve made sure that we stayed covered, checked for any cameras.”

“It’s Cadmus, Kara. I’m sure they were livestreaming the footage.”

“Still. I could have kept them from knowing you were the person under the other helmet.”

But Lucy shook her head, rubbing at her temples before draining the rest of her plastic cup of wine. “Long term, this is the decision I’m proud of. I’ve pushed down a lot over the years, but I don’t think even a lifetime of practice at repressing shit would have been enough to keep away the guilt if I’d sent your sister and J’onn off to be tortured at Cadmus.” She refilled her cup, frowning when the rest of the bottle only brought it up to two-thirds full. “So really, I’m the one that should be apologizing. You just pulled my head out of my ass long enough to see that I wasn’t living the kind of life I could be proud of.”

“Hey, no, I’m sure you’ve done some amazing things.”

Lucy snorted, something dark flashing across her features as her face twisted in disgust. “Like what? Break my ex’s heart because I’d rather hurt her...hurt us both, than risk a dishonorable discharge? Side with my father even as he got more and more bigoted just because every so often he’d pat me on the shoulder and tell me I made him proud? Come flying across the country to restart things with a guy only to break up with him all over again?”

“We’ve all done things we regretted. I’m pretty sure the whole world saw some of my worst choices splashed across newspapers and broadcast internationally just a few weeks ago.” She really wished wine did anything for her; it’d be nice to have something to dull the pain of the too fresh memories. “I also know a little bit about not wanting to believe that a parent could be so wrong about something, about waiting too late to realize there are two sides to every story.” She swallowed the tears that threatened to fall. “But Lucy? You’ve done a lot of things to be proud of.”

“I don’t know. Maybe. It’s hard to believe it these days.”

In a split second, Kara decided to start listing things, as many as she could think of, anything to make that look of sadness, of self-loathing disappear. “You’re a freakin’ major in the Army, which means, like, a lot of people have recognized what a badass you are. And you have grad degrees from Harvard. And you’re super great at Taboo and Charades and Pictionary. And you were willing to put everything on the line once you’d realized you’d made a mistake, which is almost better than just never making mistakes. Because you care, you cared enough to fix it.” She took a deep breath in. “Also you offer great legal advice. And those cookies you made for game night were so good; I ate half of them when you weren’t looking. And you won over Cat Grant in, like, two seconds flat, which, let me tell you, isn’t easy! And you always smell really nice, even at the end of the day, and you’ve got such great hair, like seriously great hair.”

Lucy looked over at her, some emotion swirling in her eyes that Kara didn’t recognize. “You know that the things you did while drugged don’t magically undo all the good you’ve done for the world, right?”

“Oh please, weren’t you the one saying Supergirl didn’t exactly measure up to expectations?”

Lucy ducked her head. “Might have had a bit more to do with jealousy than anything else.”

Kara’s eyebrows shot up at that. “Jealousy?” Lucy had the guy and the job and Cat’s attention. What could she have been jealous of?

“Seriously? You have superpowers, Kara. And a sister who would do anything for you, and this whole group of friends who adore you. Even when James was talking about finding apartments with me to really make things work, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of you. And, to make it all worse, I couldn’t even blame him because you’re fucking gorgeous!” With a huff of bitter laughter, Lucy pulled herself to her feet, swaying slightly—the first sign that the bottle of wine might have affected her. “I should… Night, Kara.”

---

After that night, things seemed easier between them. The guilt and apologies and bad memories had been excised, leaving room for something new to grow between them. Slowly but surely, they began opening up, sharing stories of growing up and years in school and awkward dates. Kara talked about the things she’d had the hardest time getting used to on Earth, and Lucy admitted that she hadn’t thought about how difficult it must be for aliens. She’d moved a lot as an Army brat, having to switch schools constantly, but even during the awkwardness of middle school, at least she’d always known how to speak the language, had a vague sense of what social life would be like, knew what would be taught in her classes and the kinds of clubs that would be offered.

One night, after a glass or two of wine, Lucy opened up to Kara about coming out, not that she’d had too many people in her life she’d been able to tell. Kara admitted that she hadn’t realized it was such a big deal on Earth until she’d asked Alex if she was courting her best friend Vicki and been swiftly and promptly kicked out of their shared bedroom for hours, not let back in until Eliza had demanded that Alex unlock the door for bedtime.

---

On day 18, they woke up to news that all of National City’s residents had been turned into automatons with the exception of Max Lord, who’d published statements about alien threats and how proud he was to be a human who had prepared for this, who had known from the beginning not to trust them, and Cat Grant, who’d posted a very public call for Supergirl to return from hiding and a plea that the government grant her amnesty.

“You’re going, aren’t you?” Lucy asked.

“I have to. National City...no matter what happened or how many people have decided I belong in prison, it’s still my city. They’re still the people I’ve sworn to protect.”

“Be safe.”

“I will.”

“I mean it. I”—Lucy swallowed heavily as she reached out a hand, grabbing one of Kara’s and holding it tight enough for her to feel it—“I want you to come back to me alive.”

And there it was again, that frisson of something that had been crackling between them for so many days now. Only this time Kara didn’t mumble a quick “goodnight” and speed off to her corner of the decrepit old cabin they’d moved into after the first week. Instead, she held Lucy’s gaze and raised a hand to Lucy’s face, sweeping her thumb across Lucy’s cheekbone. “I promise.”

Lucy was the one to lean forward, but Kara wasn’t sure who it was that actually started the kiss. All she knew was that there were soft, warm lips pressed against her own, and if she’d thought she wanted to date Lucy before because she smelled amazing, well, now she knew she wanted to date Lucy and for so many more reasons. But eventually, the reality of everything happening in National City, the hurried phone calls to J’onn and Alex, the continued broadcasts being sent out by Cat, all caught up to them.

“If you can find a way for me to come back within city limits, you’ll call?” Lucy gestured at their one safe burner phone left, and Kara nodded.

A few moments later, they heard the soft thud outside the door that signalled J’onn and Alex’s arrival.

“I should be fighting by your side,” Alex was already arguing as she and J’onn made their way inside.

“I won’t be able to stay focused if I’m shielding your mind.”

“I swear, if we can get into the DEO and get our hands on your prototypes, we’ll be back in an instant, okay?” Kara promised.

“Fine. In the meantime, I’m trying to see if I can’t bypass some DEO security protocols while everyone there is out of commission. I can only imagine that Non is going to want some of our prisoners back, so I’ll try to secure the system from external interference.”

While J’onn was busy talking to Alex, Lucy squeezed Kara’s hand again. “Come back, alright? We’ve got a kiss to finish.”

Kara grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

#pride month prompts #superlane #kara danvers #lucy lane #fanfic #ficlet #slight angst #supergirl

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niallismymuse · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 3

Tessa spent the days leading up to the camping trip working as hard as she possibly could. She needed to finish the projects she had already started, because if she left without completing them, a tight knot of anxiety would squeeze her chest until she couldn’t focus on anything but the work that needed to be finished. It would ruin her trip.

She ignored the roommate problem entirely; it was something to worry about after the trip, purely because she didn’t have enough time to interview applicants until she was home anyway. And even if she did, she didn’t want a practical stranger living in here when she was gone.

It had nothing to do with the still-cold silence between her and Jess. Nothing at all.

She had texted the group chat and informed them that Niall was coming. Melody had been excited, and Ryan had cheered simply for more testosterone. Lyrica had seemed excited too; apparently Niall knew how to throw down some alcohol, which was mostly what they did on this trip.

Jess hadn’t said a word.

And it was fine. Whatever. The Christmas gift would remain unopened and at her apartment, for now at least.

She kept in constant contact with Niall over text, telling him what he should bring and informing him that he would have to share a bedroom with Ryan. He seemed excited. It’s been a while since I’ve done something as spontaneous as this, one of his texts read.

This wasn’t that spontaneous – he had a couple days to prepare – but she understood what he meant. It was hard to uproot your system when it was work, and mostly just that. Sometimes at parties, she didn’t know what to do with herself, like she had forgotten how to act after hours of being on the computer.

Well, usually she drank some tequila in those situations and got over it quickly enough. Tessa loved to dance; she wondered, briefly, if Niall would dance with her at the cabin. While she hadn’t been an avid listener, she knew enough about his One Direction days; he hadn’t been much of a dancer then.

She could throw it down, though. Maybe that would be enough for the both of them.

Tessa sighed and took her headphones off, before rubbing at her tired face with her hands. She was going to work herself to death. And ever since having Niall over the other night, she felt like her work hadn’t been quality. Her mind was moving in lopsided circles, like a flat bicycle tire. Work. Niall. Work. Niall. Was this video even worth her time? Did Niall like her as a friend or did he like her like her? Did this concept make sense, and would it translate onscreen? Would Niall have a good time at the cabin?

Eventually, she had to stop and take a break from everything – the video she was working on, and her own brain. Tessa tossed her mouse aside and pushed herself up from her desk, rubbing at her temples and closing her eyes. She exhaled slowly, feeling her shoulders slump as she let all of her anxiety filter out of her. Maybe she needed to go to a yoga class, or something similar, and stretch it out.

As she was weighing the pros and cons of heading to the local gym to see if she could catch a class, her phone rang. Curious, she picked it up and bit her lip when she saw who was calling. It was her mother.

With more apprehension than she was willing to admit, Tessa accepted the call and lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Oh, so now you answer me. You’ve been avoiding me for days, and you better have a good reason for it.”

She barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Tessa loved her mom, she really did, but she was often overbearing and some people (like her husband) would even say that she has controlling tendencies. She hadn’t spoken to her since before the pictures of her and Niall had blown up on the Internet, though Maria Jenkins had tried her best to change that. She had been calling every day.

Tessa decided to go with something somewhat close to the truth. “I haven’t really felt up to talking to people, Mom.”

Her mother changed tactics immediately. “Aw, sweet girl, I can’t even imagine the stress you’ve been under, especially with what’s been in the news.” She paused, giving Tessa a chance to chime in with exactly what had been in the news, but continued when she remained silent. “But you can always talk to me, and you can always come home for a little bit. We’ll take care of you and get you right on track.”

Maria had been trying to get her back home since Tessa had left to attend college, years ago. She had never anticipated that her only child would want to leave the nest so soon, and she took any chance she could to remind Tessa that she could always come home if anything was too hard, or if she was struggling.

Privately, Tessa was pretty sure that if she agreed and went home to stay for longer than a holiday, she would never leave again. She had a sneaking suspicion that her mother would try to find a way to keep her there forever – visiting while on breaks from college had been trying, at best. She nearly became a fugitive from her mother one winter break, sneaking out of windows at night just to get out of the house.

“I’m good, Mom, thanks. I’ve just been relaxing around the apartment.”

“Good, good.” There was a weighty pause, and then when her mother spoke again, she sounded almost concerned. “That man…he’s treating you good, right? In life and about this whole paparazzi situation?”

Tessa felt her eyes nearly well up. Of course, her mom was worried about her. She loved her, after all, and vice versa. “Oh, Mom, we’re not together…but he’s a very good friend to me, yes.”

She waited to hear how ‘friends don’t kiss each other’s cheeks like that, Tessa’, but her mother merely sighed instead. “Okay, my girl. I trust you. Just…call me, okay? I miss you. And if everything gets to be too much, you can always come home, even if it’s just for a day.”

Tessa hung up a few minutes later, after chatting about some lighter topics. She felt both better and worse. Better, because her mother did truly love her. Worse, because she was a shitty daughter.

With a sigh and a shake of her head, Tessa tried to put everything out of her mind. She grabbed her purse and her wallet and walked out of her apartment. If she hurried, she could make the 3:00 yoga class, and since she was already dressed in athleisure wear, she booked it out to her car.

Tessa just needed some time to think and to absorb.

✩✩✩

Suddenly, it was New Year’s Eve, and Tessa was packed and ready to go. She was just waiting for Niall to pick her up around noon, and then they would drive up to the Big Sur Campground.

They had decided yesterday to drive up together. She was a little nervous – the drive was on the long side, and there would be nothing to do but either talk or sit in silence. What if she said something awkward? What if she accidentally revealed she had been wondering if he liked her?

Tessa used to be the type of woman that would straight up tell someone if she liked them, but she referred to those times as her college years. She hadn’t done that since junior year of college, and anyway, that method had given her Bryan, an ex, who was a fucking loser.

Besides, she just…didn’t feel like Niall liked her back. He threw off so many different signals, it spun her mind around in circles. She didn’t know how to figure him out. All she knew was that she liked him, and that they were driving to the cabin together.

Someone knocked on her door. She didn’t have any more time for internal freakouts. Tessa took a deep breath and did what she did best – repressed everything until she had time to drink some wine and sort it out. She grabbed the straps of her duffel bag and opened the door. Niall was standing there, smiling down at her. “Hey, Tess.”

He nearly took her breath away. He was dressed in dark jeans and a neat, evergreen-colored, long-sleeved shirt. His hair was flat along the top of his head, with minimal styling. His eyes were shining. Niall was, quite honestly, the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

“Hey, Niall. Are you ready to go?”

“I should be asking you that,” he replied, amused, and pushed his hands down inside his pockets. “Are ya?”

“I am.” She smiled and pushed the door open further. “I’ve got my bag and everything.”

“Here, I’ll grab it for you.” Niall paused, holding his hand out – not trying to take her bag, but offering to carry it. She obliged him and handed him the straps. He blinked and adjusted his grip, feeling the weight of her bag. There was the distinct sound of glass clinking together, and his eyebrow shot up. “Is there alcohol in this bag, Miss?”

“Absolutely, Sir, for it is almost time to get lit. It will commence upon arrival.” Tessa replied with a formal air, and Niall burst out laughing. She smiled and stepped out of her apartment, shutting the door behind her and locking it, before setting her key inside her purse.

“This camping is sounding better and better.” Niall shook his head as he grinned like a child in a candy store. He then started off and led the way out of the building, choosing to take the stairs down rather than wait for the elevator. She didn’t mind, trotting along beside and slightly behind him – she was always cautious now walking down stairs, as she had been known to fall down them as a child.

“I prefer to call it glamping, myself.”

They walked out into the bright, but chilly Los Angeles morning. Tessa was grateful for the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing, since the wind had a bite to it, but Niall hardly blinked as he unlocked his Range Rover and popped the trunk, placing her luggage inside of it. He snapped it shut and then gestured towards the passenger seat. “After you, Tess.”

She clambered inside the car, feeling distinctly, for the first time, the acute difference in their lives. Yes, she made good money, but she was positive she couldn’t afford this car. Which was fine, because she dearly loved her own car, but still.

She knew he had money; he was a major popstar, of course, she would be blind not to see it in the little things (like the beautiful watch he wore, his shoes, etc.), but Niall never bragged. He was quite humble, actually. It was only in moments like this that she remembered that he was a step firmly above her financially.

This can only be as awkward as you let it be, Tessa reminded herself, so don’t. You’re not beneath him, in any way.

So, once more, she pushed it away and buckled herself before smiling gamely at the man sitting next to her in the driver’s side. “I’m glad you’re coming, Ni.” She had never used the nickname before, but it felt right.

Niall turned to face her and reached over and patted her on the knee before resting his hand lightly there. She felt her cheeks redden and bit down on her lip, but he merely squeezed her knee and murmured, “I’m glad too.”

He pulled his hand away and started the car; the engine rumbled on with a quiet purr, but Tessa was too busy gathering herself to comment on it. Niall plugged the address to the Big Sur Campground into his GPS and then smoothly reversed out of his parking space before pulling out of the lot and into the LA traffic. And thus, their trip began.

Tessa was silent for a few minutes, as she didn’t want to distract him – the traffic could be, and currently was, quite atrocious. But after a little while, Niall glanced over at her quickly and then back at the road. “Are ya comfortable? You’re awful quiet.”

“Oh! Yes, it’s really nice in here. I just didn’t want to distract you from driving.”

Niall chuckled. “Oh, the traffic doesn’t bother me. We’ll be out of here in no time.” Indeed, his fingers were loose on the steering wheel – there were no white knuckles, which she might have had if she were driving.

“How does this not bother you?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“If you think this is bad, you should see London’s traffic. I would say it’s a bit worse.”

“Damn.” She was impressed. “This is pretty shitty, too. And it’s only 12:15!”

“Well, it could be worse. We could be driving at five in the evening.”

After that, the nervous spell she had been under was broken, and they casually talked and laughed all the way out of LA. It only took about forty minutes.

“And now, five hours until we’re at the campground.” Tessa mentioned after glancing at the GPS on his phone, and then laughed.

“Want to listen to some music along the way? You choose.” Niall told her and gestured towards the stereo.

“I…don’t really listen to much music, really.”

Niall shot her an incredulous glance. “What the fuck? What do you mean you don’t listen to much music?”

Tessa made a face and shook her head. “I don’t spend a lot of time actively listening to it, I mean. I turn on the radio when I’m in the car, but besides that…”

“No Spotify or anything?”

She looked at him quickly. “If you’re worried about it, I’ve listened to all of your music, you know.”

Niall blushed, his cheeks going ruddy. “I…I wasn’t worried about that…I just…music is such an enjoyable experience, something everyone needs to relax or have fun with.”

Tessa couldn’t help it; she reached over and pinched his red cheek, making him scowl. “My favorite song is ‘You and Me’, by the way.”

His scowl softened. “Thanks,” Niall answered softly, his cheeks turning an even darker shade of red.

She could tell he was still a little embarrassed, and she was enjoying it, but she decided to lessen his suffering. “How about you play me some of your favorite songs, then?”

He cleared his throat and then nodded his head towards his cell phone. “Pull up Spotify, and you’ll see a Playlist titled ‘X’. Shuffle that one.”

Tessa did as she was instructed, and immediately a song by Fleetwood Mac popped up. She was familiar with the general tune of it but not the words, so she merely listened. Niall, however, immediately perked up and began to sing softly along, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. She found herself entranced by his voice, by him, and couldn’t stop herself from watching him.

Niall was aware of her gaze on him; she could tell by the little smile that was lifting up the corner of his lips just slightly. But he didn’t stop singing along, and so she didn’t stop watching him, her smile appearing to match his.

Eventually, a song turned on that she knew, so Tessa belted it out as loud as she possibly could – though she was pretty sure Niall was trying to be louder, judging by his cackle of delight – and even started dancing, shimmying her shoulders and generally making a fool of herself. Niall was singing along or trying to; he was laughing so hard she wasn’t sure how he could sing, much less drive.

It was the most fun five hours she had spent in years. So fun, in fact, that she was almost disappointed when they pulled in to the campground and parked by the check-in building. Tessa ran inside and grabbed the parking pass that was provided upon arrival for guests. They were in Cabin F, the last in the first loop of cabins. As they drove down the dirt lane towards their cabin, she could see that it was actually quite secluded – there were trees surrounding it almost entirely, and it was about fifty feet away from the closest cabin.

Two other cars were already parked in the driveway, and a wave of apprehension hit Tessa right in the gut. Jess and Lyrica were already here – as were Ryan and Melody. She had figured that they would arrive before her and Niall, but seeing that they had…yes, it was apprehension she felt. About Jess, none of the others.

Jess hadn’t even spoken to her recently, not even through the group chat that they had all made to keep updated about the trip. Tessa wasn’t stupid – she had posed a direct question to Jess only once, and when that had gone unanswered, she had stopped trying. And now she was about to go on a camping trip with her.

She was going to need a lot of wine to get through this trip. Luckily, she had anticipated that, and all of the wine needed was currently in her bag, plus some.

And, yes, there were some clothes in there too.

Niall parked behind the other two vehicles, and Tessa immediately hopped out. Niall quickly followed suit, and together they took their luggage out of the back of his car. Right as they began to make their way up to the cabin, the front door flew open and Melody rushed outside, Ryan hot on her heels.

“Tessa!” Melody squealed, charging down the stairs and launching herself towards Tessa. She wrapped her in a tight hug, squealing all the while. “We’ve been waiting for you guys! Hi!” The last word was directed towards Niall, who took the whole scene in with a smile. Ryan, still up on the deck, mouthed ‘drunk’ and pointed sharply at Melody. Tessa was already well aware – she could smell the tequila on Melody’s breath.

“Wow!” Tessa replied cheerily, giving Melody a quick squeeze back. “You have had some drinks today lady, haven’t you?”

She saw as Lyrica and Jess came out onto the deck with Ryan. Lyrica waved. Jess did not.

“Well, we’ve been waiting for hoouuurrrrsss for you and Niall! And it’s 5 o’ clock, you know. The drinking hour.”

Tessa laughed. Niall had already met her friends before at that house party Lyrica had thrown back in June, but she thought it might be helpful to introduce him now. “Melody, this is Niall. Niall, this is my friend from college, Melody.” She smiled, and Melody immediately straightened up and plastered her best ‘professional’ smile on.

“It’s lovely to see you again, Melody,” Niall replied formerly, before tossing in a wink. Melody giggled, covering her mouth.

“And up there is Ryan, and well, you know Lyrica and Jess.” Tessa continued to smile, trying her best not to allow any tension to radiate through.

Lyrica started walking down the steps from the deck, and Jess followed, her hand entwined with her girlfriend’s. “Tessa, I’m so glad to see you! And you too, Niall.” Lyrica grinned and came over to hug her, Jess staying a few feet back. “We’ve missed you.”

Really? Tessa asked herself, but she hugged Lyrica back, because she loved her like a sister, and Lyrica was definitely the more mellow of the three of them, the peacemaker, and it was evident that she was trying to fill that role just now.

“Hey, Jess,” Tessa added after a moment, making eye contact with her best friend over Lyr’s shoulder.

Jess smiled and gave a little finger wave. “Hey Tessa, Niall. Nice to see you.” And there it was. There was no warmth in her voice when she said her name, no affection, nothing. But there was no coldness, either; just plain indifference, like she was an acquaintance just met instead of a best friend with over a decade of strong history.

She looked good, though. And when her eyes landed on Lyrica, they sparked with happiness. And despite their current issues, Tessa didn’t begrudge her that.

“Well, let’s get this party started! Get on in here!” Ryan charged down the front steps and took both her bag and Niall’s, grinning widely. “Niall, I hope you don’t mind man, but you and I will be bunking in the same room. Separate beds, of course. Tessa and Melody are sharing too, and obviously, our resident lovebirds have a room together too.” He gestured towards Lyr and Jess.

Tessa, of course, had already warned Niall of this, so he took it all in stride. He reached over and clapped Ryan heartily on the back. “Sounds good mate. Lead on.”

Ryan led the way inside. They entered into a living room, which had a small TV and a couch with some armchairs situated next to it. Just past the living room was the dining room table, already covered with wine and beer and all sorts of other alcoholic beverages. To the left of that room, and out of sight, was the kitchen. Two hallways led from the living room, and Ryan took the one on the left side. At the end were two doors right across from each other, and he deposited their bags outside their respective rooms. He then whirled around and clapped his hands together before rubbing them together. “Tessa, I’m assuming you brought some goodies for us?”

She smirked, and crouched down beside her bag, unzipping it in one fluid motion. Nestled inside were two bottles of wine, a bottle of tequila, and another of vodka. And beneath that, obviously, were her clothes, but no one cared about that.

Melody cheered, reached down into the bag and grabbing the wine. “Our Queen Tessa has brought us gifts!” She called and danced her way towards the dining room table down the hallway, which held all of the other alcohol that was brought.

Niall shook his head, looking both amused and delighted. “You got some good shit, Tess.” He reached down and grabbed the tequila, looking over it and turning it in his hands.

She grabbed the remaining bottle of vodka and lifted it high in the air, a queen ready to knight her warriors.

Niall looked at her steadily, waiting for her to speak.

She smiled. “It is time to get lit.”

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turtle-steverogers · 6 years ago

Text

Fugitives- Chap 4

Poor Elmer (#fugitives for all chaps)

Ship: Eventual Ralbert

Warnings: Gunshots

Albert felt his heart rate increase as he searched Race’s face, looking for any sign that he was joking. When he found nothing but a cold, hard stare, the blood rushed away from his face.

“So the only other option is to kill me, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, that’s the idea.”

Albert laughed hysterically, “Fine then, just fucking shoot me.”

Race shrugged, clicking the safety off his gun and pointing it at Albert’s forehead, “I mean, if you insist.”

Albert reeled backwards, raising his hands defensively, “Wait, don’t actually, dude. Please.”

The two men froze when they heard a key turn in the lock of the apartment door. They looked over to see Elmer enter, then let out a shout of surprise.

“Albert, what the fuck is-”

Race immediately turned towards Elmer and shot the wall next to his head, then aimed it towards his chest, “Close the fucking door and put your hands up.”

Elmer stared in horror at the bullet hole, “What the fuck, what the actual fuck-”

“Now!” Race shouted. Elmer jumped and slammed the door shut with his foot, simultaneously lifting his hands and placing them on the back of his head. From where he stood, Albert could see that he was shaking.

“Man, seriously?” Albert spoke up, causing Race to look at him, “I know that you’re supposed to be some badass gang member or some shit, but did you have to go and shoot the wall?”

Elmer was still standing in shock, looking between Race and Albert rapidly.

“Well, would you rather me shoot your friend?” Race growled, “‘Cause I can do that, too.” He cocked the gun again.

“No,” Elmer squeaked, “The wall got your point across beautifully.”

“Lovely,” Race smirked, “Do you agree, Albert?”

“Y-yeah,” Albert stuttered, “I agree.”

“Awesome!” Race said, “So, Albert’s friend, what’s your name?”

“Bro, fuck you-”

“Maybe later when I don’t have a gun pointed at your heart. Don’t fucking smart-talk me. What’s your fucking name?”

Elmer gulped, “It’s, uh, it’s Elmer. Listen man, I don’t know what your deal is, but I just forgot my laptop so-”

“Shut up, my god. You and Albert both talk way too much.”

Elmer slammed his mouth shut and Race walked towards him. He pressed the gun under his chin and leaned in to hiss in his ear, “You listening?”

Elmer nodded vigorously, “M’listening.”

“Good. Now, you’re going to leave this apartment and go back to wherever the fuck you were and pretend that you never fucking saw me or Albert, got it?”

“G-got it.”

“Perfect. Just know that if you run your mouth to anyone, I will find out and I will kill you.”

“I understand,” Elmer heaved a sigh of relief as Race lowered the gun.

“Get out,” Race spat and Elmer left quickly.

Albert stood, gaping, as Race bolted the apartment door, “There, so we won’t get rudely interrupted again,” he turned towards Albert, letting the hand holding his gun drop to his side, “Do you need to pack any extra clothes?”

“I-I guess so?” Albert threw his hands up, “Give me five fucking minutes and don’t shoot anything else.”

Race leaned against the door and crossed his arms at his chest, “I’ll be here.”

Albert went into his room and emptied his class backpack onto his bed, then dug through his drawers, haphazardly throwing various shirts into it. He swooped down and picked up an extra pair of jeans and a few discarded socks to bring as well. The weight of the situation was starting to take a toll on him and suddenly, his legs didn’t feel like they could support him. He slid to the ground, knotting his hands in his hair; the sound of Race’s gunshot rang in his ears and he had to remind himself that no one was actually hurt. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He technically got himself into this mess, but he had no idea how he was going to get out of it. To say he was fucked was an understatement.

“It’s been five minutes,” Race called from somewhere outside Albert’s door. Albert groaned and used his doorknob to haul himself up. He swung his backpack over one shoulder and took a deep breath before leaving his room.

Race had moved from his place by the door and was now perched on the arm of Albert’s couch. His gun was no longer in his hand, which made the knot of nerves that had permanently settled in Albert’s stomach unravel a bit.

“Excellent,” Race smiled, pushing off the couch and bouncing on his toes lightly, “Ready to roll?”

Albert rolled his eyes, “Imagine sounding like a white fucking dad while a gun is somewhere in your pants.”

Race laughed and opened the apartment door, nodding for Albert to walk ahead of him, “I’m surprised you’re not freaking out more.”

“Believe me,” Albert said, looking over his shoulder to glare at Race, “I’m freaking out.”

“You’re doing a damn good job at hiding it. Another good quality for Empire. Stoicism.”

“Can I punch you in the face?”

“I have a gun.”

“You’re right.”

“I know,” They didn’t say another word as they entered the stairwell and began to descend down to the main floor. When they got there, Albert could see blue and red flashing lights outside the entrance way.

“Shit. Are those police cars?” Race cursed, “I bet someone called about the gunshot.”

“That’s what happens when you shoot a fucking gun, asshole. It alarms people.”

Race bit his lip, surveying the area, “We’ll leave through the back door,” he murmured, grabbing Albert’s elbow and pulling him along behind him. Race pushed open the back door and the two of them were dumped into the alleyway behind Albert’s apartment complex.

“What street are we on?”

“167th.”

“Fuck, okay. We better get moving, we’ve got a bit of a journey.”

“Where are you taking me?” Albert asked, staying close behind Race as they exited the alley.

“The headquarters for Empire.”

“Where’s that?”

“Shut up and you’ll see,” Race said, turning down another street and heading towards a subway station. He stopped at a map and scanned it quickly before saying, “Blue line it is. You got a MetroCard?”

“Yeah,” Albert answered, pulling out his wallet and extracting his MetroCard. They paid for their ride and caught the incoming blue line. The train was completely empty, which relieved Albert more than he could say. He didn’t think he could handle the risk of anyone finding them out right now.

He and Race sat down near the train door, “How many stops ‘til ours?” Albert asked.

“Six,” Race grunted, pulling out his phone and opening Instagram.

“You have an Instagram? Aren’t you supposed to not be public with anything?”

Race didn’t look up from his phone as he answered, “No one knows it’s me. It’s a meme account. I like memes.”

Albert stared at him, mouth slightly agape, “You have a meme account? Wait, how old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two and yes I do,” Race said, chuckling at a post, “It’s actually gained a lot of traction.”

“Good for you?”

Race hummed and pulled out a pair of earbuds, ignoring Albert for the rest of the ride. As promised, they got off six stops later. Albert didn’t recognize the part of the city they were in, but Race seemed to know where they were going. They walked for another twenty minutes, then Race turned abruptly into a little alleyway near an abandoned theatre. He pushed aside a large piece of scaffolding that was leaning against the side of the building to reveal a stage door. Albert watched as he lifted his fist and knocked twice, then once, then twice again. The door swung open a few moments later and the barrel of a gun pointed out from the shadows.

“Jack, hey, it’s me,” Race said, holding up one hand in front of him, “I think I found us our guy.”

“Did you brief him?” A man’s voice sounded from the other end of the gun.

“Sorta? I mean, he knows he’s gonna die if he tries to run.”

“Perfect, bring him in,” Race nodded pulled Albert into the theatre. Inside, it was dim and smelled distinctly like cigarette smoke. From what Albert could see, there were several hallways leading to other parts of the theatre. A taller, dark haired man, who Albert assumed to be ‘Jack’, was sitting in an old desk chair by a table with several laptops on it. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Albert could make out silhouettes of other people sitting around the table, focusing on whatever task they were doing.

“Welcome to The Bowery,” Race said, holding out his arms dramatically, “Home to the Empire Gang of Manhattan.”

TAG LIST:

@bencookisagod

@we-dont-sell-papes

@suddenly-im-respecsable

@aw-jus-let-em-spook

@well-the-kids-do-too

@spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn

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@newsies-of-nyc

@andthewoildwillknow

@the-newsies-justice-for-zas-blog

#racetrack higgins #albert dasilva #ralbert #newsies #newsies fic #fugitives

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osmw1 · 6 years ago

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Poison-Wielding Fugitive Chapter 14

Okay, let’s see… Something else I can try out is Synthesize Poison, so I activate it. The same menu from Poison Condensation pops up, and upon further inspection, the same options I remember are there too. It looks like there isn’t any sort of change.

‘Hold… There is an option labeled “Create.”’

What? I double-check my options after hearing about it. I only then noticed that there was a “Create” option inside the “Synthesize” submenu. Well, let’s select it and see what’s there.

Weak Poison Weak Anesthesia

Seems like I can only make the make the two right now. Surprisingly few too. It doesn’t even look like I can make swamp toxin. I hope I’ll be able to perform when it comes to the crunch. I guess you could say I anticipate seeing myself grow. Since I’ve just changed my class, if I keep on trying new things, I should be able to do more and more.

‘For the rest of the day, let us go hunting to raise your level. After all, we have nearly finished fulfilling the request we have taken.’ “Yeah, that’s right… Even though I’ve gained as much strength as I did headaches today… No way to go but forward.”

After replying to Veno—though it might have seemed like I was talking to myself—I exited the dungeon. I walked around the pool of poison—my lifesaver in case of emergency. However, it seems like the monsters seem to have an upper edge. I didn’t see any of these yesterday, but there are quite a variety of monsters that inhabit this swamp.

I even encountered a pack of Terracotta Poison Zombie Dogs and a two-meter long venomous snake called a Khaki Snake. While camping in the water, I sniped the Zombie Dogs with my Rapid Feather Crossbow. Shooting them down turned out to be unexpectedly easy. But, were they here yesterday? These monsters? Perhaps I had not come across them. And then the Khaki Snake, maybe they’re fine with poison, so it slithered over here. But with my sword, I pierced through its head and defeated it too.

With all its might, it chomped down on me. It only hurt a little, but it was no big deal. It probably didn’t have any deadly venom. But it’s also plausible that thanks to my Poison Absorption, I healed everything but a wee bit of pain. I stopped to collect the venom of the Khaki Snake.

Perhaps what it might be is that being poisoned gave me a temporary buff. Poison Absorption, my clutch skill, is nearly frighteningly all-powerful. After the fight, I went to retrieve my bolts. A pain, but I’ve got to do my best to reuse them.

After that, I got some herbs from Veno. He taught me to grind it down to a paste and mix in some water to create medicine. Just in case I need to heal someone else than me, I’ve got it covered. And like that after my job change, I continue to unexpectedly level up without any problems.

“Blast it! You bastards! After finally making these lands livable, you have come to demand the sapling of the world tree from us?!”

Compatriots of the man from my previous dream stand before me, angrily shouting and slamming fists down on the desk in this assembly room.

“You are going to say that you need the strength of the sapling to power your weapons against the monsters, are you not? I bet you have concluded that it would be easier to steal from us than to defeat the King of Monsters.” “How you’re honestly under the impression that just by defeating that monster, you can somehow miraculously save the world… I can call it nothing but foolish.” “To minimalize your losses, you spread rumours all around the world and come stomping in our nation.” “What are you planning to do?”

They all focus their sights on the man who spoke of his dreams of reclaiming the wastelands.

“In order to protect our nation, we have no choice but to fight. To launch the first strike at the elves would incur many casualties, but it should be possible. However… with a conflict like that, the ruler of monsters would be called into action.” “… deplorable. Then we would be fighting a foolish battle.”

That voice filled with disdain was from a first-person point of view.

“I know. That’s why we have to get over this difficult hurdle with minimal sacrifices. In order to live a life without war… I know it will be a beautiful thing. And because of that, I don’t want to abandon these dreams of mine.”

The man with dreams of reclamation sympathized and his comrades nod in agreement.

“Their unreasonably demands of us proves that they’ve been driven into a corner too. Their sapling of the world tree is withering and the energy from it is dwindling, hence the excessive orders. If we hold out for a bit more, we should be able to then drag out the negotiations.”

As well, any method we choose to do things, we have to weaken trump card. The man with dreams of reclamation brandishes his sword and declares.

“From here on, no matter how unreasonable things may be or if an unnecessary war breaks out, just as long as we proceed forward with care for the people in the world, we will find a means of survival.”

He raises his sword to symbolize his determination to end the fighting, consolidating everyone to the cause.

“We have to do our best.” “Ah, you just keep doing what you’re doing. Just defend this area.” “Hmph. If you invade my territory, you will break this alliance. And if that happens, I’ll do my worst to you.” “I know. Now, so that we don’t have to lose anymore than we have already… onwards!”

The world is a complicated place. And because of that, senseless battles are fought over and over again. In that short amount of time, the mind that I have connected with understood the dizzying change of circumstances. Having strength alone won’t resolve the situation, and wars start even if you have wisdom. I might have heard a sigh of lament on how things aren’t going the way he wanted.

It’s now the third afternoon since I’ve come to this world, just after I advanced my job. I turn up at the village’s part-curio shop, part-apothecary… Arleaf’s father’s place.

“Oh, that you, Cohgray?” “Ah, yes.”

Correcting him would be a pain, so I let it slide. After taking a few requests from Arleaf’s dad, I’ve almost become a regular here. But, I mean, it’s only been three days.

“Didya go to the swamp again today? Remember to take care of your body.” “Well, I’m good at neutralizing poison…”

I brought in crystallized swamp poison that I created while I was in the swamp water today. Veno said that I could create poison with water from the swamp, so while I was out trying that out, I went gathering a few herbs.

“By the way, where is Arleaf?”

I haven’t seen her in the past three days.

“Ah, Arleaf’s gone to other villages nearby to sell medicine. She’ll be back in about… three days or so.” “Oh, is that right?”

She even goes around peddling… what a hard worker. I haven’t seen a single bad thing about her yet.

“What’s up? You interested in Arleaf? Well, she’s real friendly and she can take care of others, so she’s popular with adventurers. I’m right proud of my daughter.”

That’s for sure. She’s pretty and nice. It’d be weird if she weren’t popular. Also, quit bragging about your own daughter! There’s something annoying about that.

“That other time, you had a spat with her. Was there something wrong between the two of you?” “If I said anything, I’d be revealing her secrets and we’ll end up fighting again. Shouldn’t you ask her about it directly?” “Certainly…” “Actually, Cohgray. You come here everyday bringing those items I request. Aren’t those all pretty difficult to get for you, eh?”

For me, it’s the opposite. My suspicions on what he actually deals in this apothecary grow. From poisonous moss that will send you to the afterlife to highly addictive ingredients to be used in tobacco, all his requests are strange and worrisome.

As well, my level has gone up and so has the number of poisons I am able to create. The stuff I made during my experiment with Synthesize Poison would mesh well with all the poisonous stuff in this shop, so I brought it along. It’s an instantly-effective slow poison… Once hit by this poison, it slows down the target’s neurotransmission, causing temporary sluggishness and delayed reflexes. I could use Poison Enchantment on my crossbow arrows—err, bolts… stick them with a few of those and I’ll have an easier fight with fast-moving monsters. For some reason, this apothecary seems to deal in poisons, so I sold it to him.

And, about money… well, I’ve saved up quite a bit, I thought… but when I went to the equipment store, my eyes popped out of their sockets. An iron sword is still affordable. But anything else is in a totally different league. And furthermore, the oil for maintaining my sword is kinda pricey too. Jumping into the swamp really makes my sword rust up quick, putting me in quite the unfortunate plight of having to constantly polish it.

“And more than that, you’ve even brought some mid-grade potions. There’s no way I wouldn’t be interested.” “Well, you know, I’m learning from an acquaintance how to make them.”

After switching jobs, Veno recommended me to buy a pot, a mortar, and a pestle so that I can learn how to make potions. Though I can heal myself with poisons, I could fulfill any requests for medicines. Maybe it’s because Veno himself is a dragon poison or perhaps it’s his never-ending curiosity, but medicine is something he’s familiar with. Veno stored a whole lot of roughly-prepared potions for me, but he told me that I should refine and finalize them. With his support, I keep on producing more. Poison and potion begin the same anyway.

“Cohgray. What about the mana potions that I’ve personally requested you to get me?” “Oh, that stuff. I’ve already made some yesterday.”

I made some of the exact medicine—err, potions—that speeds up magic recovery appear right on his counter. I made it from poisonous herbs in the swamp that Arleaf didn’t pick. It was relatively easy to make for how much money it sells for. Two days ago, Arleaf’s dad showed me a way that I must make it, but it was quite the pain in the ass way to do so. When I probed into it, all I knew I had to do was to make a different concoction with the same effects. With me stuck between that and the pain in the ass method, Veno called out to me.

‘Though it is an easy process, I am a fool for not having realized sooner…’

Veno tells me that this process isn’t something that he found out by himself. I didn’t ask further, but does that mean it’s the method of someone hiding somewhere out there in the world? Or maybe it’s something like a recipe book written by an old witch who’s now in retirement. Whatever the origins may be, a complete novice like I was able to make a decent potion using the techniques I learned from back in home-ec class in school with this method. All I had to do was to grind poisonous herbs down to a paste with a mortar and pestle, boil it, reduce it, stir it, and strain it through some cloth. Well… if you were to handle it with bare hands, you’re likely to develop a rash. But since I had Poison Absorption, I was perfectly fine.

“Alrighty, then, I’ll buy it from you. Lookin’ forward to the next time too… I know you said you’re good with poison, but don’t get cocky, eh? There is stuff out there that no one can handle.” “That is something I have got see then.”

I’d also want to test out the capabilities of my Poison Absorption too. It’s important to know your limits and to stay within it, right?

“Seeing you bein’ so composed, no wonder you don’t need no buddies.” “Was that sarcastic?”

The adventurers in the plaza and the tavern all seem to be looking for more party members, but it’s hard to join an already established group. So that’s why I can’t help but to do these quests all on my own. It’s not by choice!

“You don’t have a Warrior above level 30, do ya? We’re recruiting people to defeat a Tiger Ohm.”

It feels like he’s saying that just to see if I have a party I adventure with. It’s just that… most people are higher level than me. And the ones who are low-levelled all claim to be a great class. Moreover, we’re in such a deserted village; there aren’t many people here. From what I can tell from the three days I’ve been here, all the parties seem to have a fixed lineup already.

I’ve been asking here and there to join a group… but I’m a Poison-Wielder! I can’t say tell people that. Maybe I should lie about my job. I’d be such a chicken though. “Poison-Wielder” just doesn’t sound good and plus, I’m being pursued… Because of that, I’ve been going for quests that I can complete alone, such as ones in the heart of the poisonous swamp. Besides, the swamp feels like an onsen; soaking in it takes away my fatigue.

By the way, I’m level 17 right now. I feel like I’m levelling up quite quickly. It seems like the monsters in the swamp aren’t exactly weak either. It’s a dangerous place for monsters who can’t do a thing to counteract the poison. And partly because of the miasma, adventurers in this empty village don’t go out that way much. The rare ones that do go, I haven’t met yet. That’s why there are so many plants to harvest over there with lots of monsters still alive too. Because of that… there have been rumours saying that I might be some high-level, high-rank mage or something like that.

previously: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /ch009/ /ch010/ /ch011/ /ch012/ /ch013/ /next/ (full list of translated chapters) (discussion thread) (support Average Translations)

#Poison-Wielding Fugitive #PWF #毒使いの逃亡者 #Average Translations #avgtl #osm

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imaginationintowords · 7 years ago

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Human: A Teen Wolf Fanfiction - Chapter 11

based on an original character, Sophia Tuteur.

Sophia Tuteur is Scott McCall’s cousin. They are both the same age, and she has been living with Scott and his mom since she was eight years old, since her parents are always on the road due to work. This is Sophia’s point of view to everything going on.

(Story does take place in the same timeline as the show.)

"Faster?" Scott asked in the driver seat of Derek's Camaro.

"Much faster." Stiles said in the passenger seat.

Scott pressed his foot down on the gas. We were currently being chased around town by the hunters, keeping them busy and away from Derek, who was also currently being chased.

"Scott you need to go faster!" I exclaimed from the backseat.

"If I go faster, I'll kill us." Scott stressed.

"Well if you don't go faster, they're gonna kill us!" Stiles yelled.

"Hold on. They're gone." I said my body turned towards the back window.

"We need to hurry and get to Derek before they do." I tell them.

We arrive to the iron mill just in time.

"Get in!" Stiles yelled at Derek, quickly joining me in the backseat.

As soon as Derek gets in the car, Scott drives away.

"What part of laying low don't you understand?" Scott yelled at him as we were in the clear.

"Damn it! I had him!" Derek proclaimed.

"Who, the Alpha?" Stiles asked, leaning forward.

"Yes! He was right in front of me, and the friggin' police showed up."

"Whoa, hey, they're just doing their jobs -" Stiles defended.

"Yeah, thanks to someone who decided to make me the most wanted fugitive in the entire state." Derek stated.

"Can we seriously get past that? I made a dumbass mistake. I get it." Scott said, annoyed that it was brought up again.

"Anyways, how did you find him?" I asked, getting us back on subject.

Derek hesitated in answering the question.

"Can you try to trust us for at least half a second?" Scott asked.

"He trusts me." I boosted, leaning forward also.

"Yeah well he needs to trust both of us." Stiles stressed, Derek turned his head to glare at him.

"Or just him. I'll just be back here." Stiles timidly said, sitting back down in his seat.

"Look the last time I talked to my sister, she was close to figuring something out. She found two things. The first was a guy named Harris." Derek revealed.

"Our chemistry teacher?" Stiles jumped up, interrupting him.

"Why him?" Scott asked, turning his head slightly before turning back to the road.

"I don't know yet." Derek said.

"What's the second thing?" I asked.

"Some kind of symbol." Derek explained, showing us a picture of the symbol, causing Scott to jump in his seat.

"What? You know what this is?" he asked Scott.

"I've seen it on a necklace before. Allison's necklace." He discloses.

"Well why am I not surprised." I announced, sitting back down in my seat.

The next morning Stiles, Scott and I walked into the school discussing how Scott was going to get that necklace from Allison.

"This is gonna be impossible, you know." Scott tells us.

"Why don't you ask her if you can borrow it?" Stiles suggested.

"How will he do that?" I asked, responding to the ridiculous suggestion.

"It's easy. You just say, "Hey, Allison, can I borrow your necklace to see if there's anything on it or in it that can lead me to an Alpha werewolf that I need to kill in order to get back together with you?" Scott and I stopped in our tracks baffled by Stiles' suggestion.

"Stiles, please only serious inquiries." I tell him.

"Why don't you just talk to her then?"

"She won't talk to me. Plus, what if she only takes it off in the shower, or something?" Scott says, becoming more stressed about the situation.

"That's why you ease back into it. Get back on her good side, remind her of the good times. And then you ask for the necklace." Stiles explains.

"That could work." I agreed, looking over to Scott who was daydreaming.

"You're thinking about her in the shower, aren't you?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah." Scott blushed.

"Teenage boys are gross." I stated.

"Can't we please stay on subject here. I mean it's not like you or any of us are in danger, or anything." I sarcastically say.

"She's got a point. Okay. Get the necklace, get the Alpha, get cured, get Allison. In that order. Got it?" Stiles ordered.

"Get the necklace." Scott repeated, before walking away towards his locker.

"Do you think he'll be able to do it?" Stiles asks me as we walk towards our lockers.

"I hope so. It's the only chance we got." I tell him, opening up my locker and grabbing my Chemistry book.

Stiles and I took our normal seats in class, when Scott came running in with a very panicky expression on his face.

"He knows." Scott says sitting down next to me and across from Stiles.

"What?" I asked confused about his statement.

"Jackson. He knows." He stresses.

"How?" Stiles asked.

"I have no idea."

"Did he say it out loud - the word?" Stiles asked, confusing both Scott and I.

"What word?"

"Werewolf. Did he say, 'I know you're a werewolf'?" Stiles whispered.

"No, but he implied it pretty freaking clearly." Scott stressed.

"Okay, maybe it's not as bad as it seems. I mean, he doesn't have any proof, right? And if he wanted to tell someone, who's gonna believe him anyway?" Stiles says trying to downplay the situation.

"I don't know, but I can think of a certain someone's father." I say.

"Okay, it's bad." Stiles said freaking out a bit.

"I need a cure. Right now." Scott panicked.

"It's not that easy Scott." I sadly tell him.

"Does he know about Allison's father?" Stiles inquires.

"I don't know." Scott says starting to get annoyed.

"Okay, where's Derek?"

"He's hiding, like we told him to. Why?" I asked, wondering where Stiles is getting at.

"I have another idea. It's gonna take a little time and finesse, though." Stiles mischievously said.

"You guys have that game tonight. It's quarterfinals. And you're playing first line, remember?" I remind him.

"I know, I know. I'll be there." He informs us.

"Do you have a plan to get Allison's necklace?" Stiles inquires.

"She's in my next class." Scott informs us.

"Get the necklace." Stiles tells him.

"Right." Scott agreed.

"Get the necklace." Stiles stresses one last time, before we all turned our attention to the front of the class.

Stiles and I were sat at our usual lunch table discussing random things.

"Oh. I also got the tickets for the dance." Stiles informs me.

"Cool. I'm really excited to go with you." I genuinely tell him.

"Me too." he smiled.

"Speaking of the dance, are we going to be that couple who wears matching colors?" he questions.

My stomach flipped at the mention of us being a couple.

"I mean not the whole entire outfit. Like I don't expect you to wear a pink suit."

"Damn, guess I gotta return my suit." he jokes, causing me to giggle.

Scott slumped his way over and into the seat next to mine.

"Did you get the necklace?" Stiles immediately asked.

"Not exactly." He sighed.

"What's that supposed to mean? What happened?" I pushed.

"She told me not to talk to her. At all." He said defeated.

"So she's not giving you the necklace -" Stiles carefully bega.

'She's not giving me the necklace!" Scott snapped.

"Well, did you find anything else out?" Stiles questions for more information.

"Just that I know nothing about girls, and that they're totally psychotic." Scott declares.

"Yeah, we're the problem." I sarcastically said, rolling my eyes.

"Okay, I came up with a plan "B" just in case anything like this happened." Stiles exclaims.

"What's plan "B"?" I hesitantly asked.

"Just steal the stupid thing." Stiles suggests.

"Couldn't we try at least getting to Harris?"

"My dad put him on a 24 - hour protective detail, okay? The necklace is all we got. Steal it." Stiles insists.

"Fine." Scott sighs.

"Thank-you."

"Ew he's staring at us." I say, feeling uncomfortable about Jackson's unbreakable glare.

"What's wrong?" Stiles asks, noticing the shift in Scott's behavior.

"He's talking to me. He knows I can hear him. Look at me. Talk to me. Act normal. Act like nothing's happening." Scott begins to panic, trying to stay in control.

"Say something. Talk to me." he demands.

"I can't think of anything. My mind's a complete blank." Stiles says freaking out a bit.

"Your mind is blank? You can't think of anything." Scott harshly says through gritted teeth.

"Ignore him Scott. Force his voice out. Stay calm." I instruct him.

"FYI, he's not even sitting with them anymore." Stiles informs us.

"Where the hell is he?" Scott asks.

Stiles and I began frantically looking around the room for Jackson. Based on Scott's expression, Jackson was still talking to him.

"Scott stay calm." I tell him, noticing his clenched fists around the lunch tray.

"Scott listen to me. Don't let him have the power over you. Okay?" Stiles calmly says.

Scott was trying his hardest to stay in control, but whatever Jackson was saying was really getting to him. Out of nowhere Scott snapped his lunch tray in half. The entire cafeteria turned their attention towards us. Stiles and I shared the same worried facial expression.

"Faulty lunch tray." Stiles announce to the room, "Go back to what you were doing."

"Scott, you okay?" I cautiously asked slowly placing my hand on top of his.

"I. Hate. Him." Scott seethed.

After school we all went our separate ways. I began putting things in and taking things out of my locker, when Lydia and Jackson came storming into the hall.

"Are you breaking up with me?" she exclaimed loudly for the whole hall to hear.

"Dumping, actually. I'm dumping you." Jackson arrogantly tells her.

"Dumped by the co-captain of the lacrosse team. I wonder how many minutes it'll take me to get over that. Wait, seconds, actually. Seconds!" She yells at him, before rushing off into the hall.

After gathering all the things I needed for tutoring, I headed to the restroom before going to the library.

While I was in the stalls I heard the sound of heels clicking, and the slam of a stall door. While I was washing my hands I heard the mystery girl sob out loud.

"Hello? Are you okay in there?" I asked the mystery crier.

"Who's out there?" the person asked, I recognized that voice.

"Sophia. Lydia, is that you?" I asked.

"Sophia?" She asked confused.

"Sophie. Scott's cousin." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh." she sniffled, not coming out of the stall.

"I saw what happened." I empathetically say.

"Oh great. Came in here to mock me."

"No. No, of course not." I tell her.

The sound of the stall unlocking and opening filled the empty room. I turned around to see her walking out of the stall and to the sinks.

"I'm sorry. I know that probably doesn't mean much coming from a stranger."

"You think." she scoffed, looking over at herself in the mirror, fixing her makeup.

"I'm sorry I even asked. Was just trying to be nice." I rolled my eyes at her attitude. I began to walk away from her, deciding it's best just to leaver her alone.

"No, wait." Lydia called out. I stopped and turned back around.

"Sorry. I'm just not used to people being nice for no reason." she discloses.

"Apology accepted."

"I just can't believe he did that, to me." she shakes her head.

"Yeah. He's a real dickhead."

"He is, isn't he?" she agreed.

"You're going to be alright without him, you know that right?" I tell her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She softly said.

"If anything he's the one who is going to miss out. Now you won't have someone dumbing you down."

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

"Come on Lydia, you think I don't know how smart you truly are. If I have any academic competition, it's you." I explain to her.

"You don't know what you're talking about." She says playing dumb.

"Right. If only you could see just how much potential you do have. I guess Jackson really did a number on you." Lydia stayed quiet.

"Listen I have to get to my tutoring sessions. I don't mean to attack you, I just wish you'd see how truly smart you are and own it." I tell her.

"Here's my number." I say writing down my number on a piece of paper.

"If you ever need another real friend or someone to talk to just call. Anytime." I tell her handing her the paper.

"Thanks." she mumbled, staring at the paper.

I gave her a small smile before heading out the door. I really do hope she reaches out, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I walked into the library to see the freshman I was supposed to tutor at a table. I sighed before walking over to begin the next two hours of tutoring.

After two hours of tutoring, I began to pack up my stuff to head out to the lacrosse field. As I was packing everything up, my phone buzzed. I opened up the phone to see Stiles had texted me:

Derek is at my house. We may have found out who sent Allison the text. We are going to go investigate.

It read. Before I could send a reply, another text came through:

Derek says you can't come.

I rolled my eyes.

"Stiles, you're going to miss the game." I texted back, glancing at the library's clock, 5:45, fifteen minutes til the game started.

I know. I'm going to try to get there, if I don't show up tell my dad I'm sorry.

I sighed, putting my phone in my back pocket. I grabbed all my stuff and headed towards the lacrosse game.

I spot my Aunt on the benches and I went over to join her. On my way I noticed Allison sitting with her dad and aunt. I immediately got nervous. I quickly took a seat next to my aunt.

"Everything okay?" my aunt asked as I sat down next to her.

"Uh yeah. Just tired from tutoring." I lied.

I noticed Scott and Jackson talking on the bench.

What does he want now? I rolled my eyes.

"Where's Stiles? Wasn't he actually supposed to play?" My aunt asked.

"Something came up. He said he was going to try and make it." I lied. I looked over at Sheriff Stilinski who was on his phone, no doubt trying to get a hold of his son.

"Tuteur!" I heard Coach yell. I instantly froze up. Trying my best to avoid any eye contact from any member of certain hunting family.

"Tuteur!" he yelled again.

I glanced over noticing Kate and Chris Argent scanning the crowd.

"Sophia, Coach is calling you. Go see what he wants." my aunt nudged me.

"Okay." I quietly said. I slowly made my way down the bleachers, knocking that the Argents are staring right at me.

"Scott." I whispered, looking down as I walked.

"Scott. I need you to listen to what the Argents are saying." I see him subtly nod his head, agreeing to the task.

"Took you long enough." Coach remarked as I stood right in front of him.

"What do you want?" I rolled my eyes, with my arms crossed in front of my body.

"Where's Bilinski?" he asked, annoyed.

"How should I know?"

"Aren't you two dating?" he asked.

"What? No! Biles- I mean Stiles and I are just friends." I tell him.

"Oh Okay. Well if you hear from him tell him he better have his head in a basket or dead!" he exclaimed.

"Those mean the same thing." I tested his annoyance.

"I-I-" he stuttered before blowing his whistle in my face and stomping away.

I began to walk back to my seat, when Sheriff Stilinski stopped me.

"Hey Soph, do you know where Stiles is at?"

"He said something came up and that he was going to try to make it. He wanted me to tell you how sorry he is." I sorrowfully said.

"What came up?"

"Not sure, sir. Hopefully he ends up showing."

"Yeah, hopefully. Thanks Sophia." He sighed.

As I made my way back up the bleachers, I awkwardly made eye contact with Kate and Chris Argent. I quickly looked away and uncomfortably sat back down next to my aunt.

I uncomfortably sat back down next to my aunt.

"What did Coach want?" she asked.

"He just wanted to know where 'Bilinski' was." I tell her, using air quotes around Bilinski.

I felt my phone vibrate in my coat pocket and took it out. I looked down seeing a text from Scott, I immediately opened it:

Here's what the Argents said:

Kate: "Did he say Tuteur? You don't think..."

Chris: "Are you insinuating that she's a-"

K: "Yes. That's exactly what I am saying."

C: "She's just a 15 year-old kid."

K: "Exactly. Didn't a certain guardian couple have a daughter who would be around her age."

Allison: " What are you you guys whispering about?"

K: "Hey sweetie, do you now who that Tuteur girl is?"

A: "Sophia? Yeah. She's Scott's cousin. She lives with him and his mom."

K: "Oh really. How long has she been living with them?"

A: "I think Scott said around seven, eight years. Not quite sure."

C: "Does she know Derek Hale also?"

A: "Yeah she does. Why are you guys asking all these questions? She's a good person."

C: "No reason. Just curious about who these new friends of your's are."

That's all they said. They're catching on to us."

I thickly swallowed, feeling myself getting hot from how uncomfortable I was feeling.

I decided to send Stiles a quick text, "Argents know who I am. Please tell me you guys have found answers."

The referee blew his whistle signaling the start of the game.

This is going to be a long night.

During the whole game I was anxiously wanting it to end. I could just feel Kate and Chris Argent staring at me every so often.

An hour and a half later and the ref calls the game, naming us the winners. The crowd starts making their way down the bleachers. I see from the corner of my eyes, Kate and Chris making their way slowly towards me.

"Can we go home now, please?" I asked my aunt, trying to drag her away towards the parking lot.

"We have to wait for Scott."

"He'll be fine. Stiles just got here." I tel her, pointing to the run down Jeep making its way through the parking lot.

"Please. I'm hungry and tired." I whine, spotting Kate hurrying her way towards us.

"Okay. Let's go. We'll grab some pizza on the way home. Let Scott know." she said walking towards the parking lot.

"Already done. Let's go." I said, dragging her off as quickly as possible.

Scott and Stiles abruptly barged into my room, as soon as they got there.

"What the-" I say swiveling my desk chair to look at them.

"It's Peter." Scott says, Stiles closing the door behind him.

"What's Peter?" I asked confused.

"The mysterious alpha. It's Peter Hale." Scott says, explaining the entire Peter situation.

"Are you serious?" I asked confused by all this brand new information.

"Dead serious."

"So it was Peter all along?"

"Yes!" Stiles exclaimed.

"But I thought he was so badly burnt, he was comatose?"

"Well he did some werewolf magic then, BAM! His face all healed." Stiles flailed.

"And Derek's on his side?" I asked, trying to put the pieces together in my head.

"Yes! Oh my god! Aren't you listening? Scott, talk to your cousin." Stiles frustratingly said.

"Sorry. It's just a lot to take in." I defensively said.

"He also showed me something, with his claws." Scott says.

"What did he show you?"

"The Hale fire. He wants those responsible to pay." Scott explains.

"Playing dirty." I quietly remark.

"What?"

"Peter. He's playing dirty. Trying to guilt you in." I tell him.

"So what do you think I should do? You know him better." Scott queries.

"Hardly. I was a child. But from what I can remember, even back then no one was a big Peter Hale fan." I explain to him.

"So what should I do?" he asks again.

"I don't know Scott. But what I do know is, don't trust Peter Hale."

"What about Derek?" Stiles asks, sitting on my bed.

"Derek clearly has his reasonings why he's siding with Peter. Especially if Peter is using the Hale fire as his reason for revenge." I explain to them.

"But we have another issue on our hands." I tell them, before Stiles presses on the Derek situation.

"What?" Stiles asks.

"The Argents. Kate and Chris Argent now know who I am."

"What do you mean?"

"They know I'm a Tuteur. Scott heard them talking about me. They also know I know Derek." I tell Stiles.

"How the hell do they know that?"

"Allison. She told them." Scott guiltily says.

"Kate was following Aunt Mel and I after the game. I practically ripped of Aunt Mel's arm dragging her off."

"It's only a matter of time before they put the pieces together, and figure out Scott is the beta." I continued.

"And that won't be pretty." Scott grumbled.

"But for right now they think Jackson is the beta." Scott explains.

"Ugh Jackson." Stiles moaned.

"We're going to have to keep an eye on him. Incase the Argents try anything, which they will." I tell them.

"Protect Jackson?" Stiles asked, disgusted at the idea.

"She's right. We can't let them do anything to him. No matter how much of a horrible person he is. We can't let him get hurt." Scott agreed with me.

"Not even a little?" Stiles whined.

"No. Knowing Jackson, the second he senses he's in extreme danger he'll throw Scott under the bus." I tell Stiles.

"But we all agree he's a horrible person who deserves a little suffering in his life." Stiles says.

"Yes, Stiles. Jackson is a horrible person who deserves a little suffering." I rolled my eyes agreeing with him, mostly to get him to shut up.

"Good. Just wanted to make sure we got that clear." Stiles grins.

"He'll have to get hurt some other way though. For now we watch him closely and keep the Argents away." Scott explains the plan.

"Sounds like a plan." I agree.

"A very horrible plan." Stiles mumbled.

Scott and I glared at him.

"Sorry." he quietly said.

Scott's plan was to keep an eye on Jackson, so here we were in Stiles' Jeep following Jackson around town.

"Are we really going to spend the rest of our day following Jackson around town?" Stiles whined, following Jackson's Porsche.

"For the hundredth time, yes Stiles, we are." Scott answered, getting annoyed by Stiles mood.

"I'm just saying, we've been doing this for two hours and no sign of Argent."

"Well I think you got your wish." I say, pointing to Argent's SUV racing after Jackson.

"Go Stiles!" Scott yelled.

"I'm trying! There's cars everywhere." he said swerving in and out of traffic, cars blasting their horns at us.

"Where the hell did he go?" Stiles grumbled, gripping his steering wheel. We were all leaning forward in our seats trying to find Jackson.

"How did you lose a Porsche?" Scott yells.

"I told you he went left not right!" I yelled from the backseat.

"No. I seen him go right!" Stiles yelled back.

"That wasn't him. Go back! Or pull over so I can drive!" I yell back, getting incredibly frustrated by the entire situation.

"No! I got it!" he argued, making a quick U-turn.

"Stiles, hurry! We're going to lose him. Argent is going to find him first!" Scott said, pulling at his hair.

Stiles made a fast turn behind a warehouse building.

"There he is!" Scott pointed to where Jackson was at, alongside Argent.

"There's Argent also." I say.

Stiles slams on the brakes in front of Jackson and Argent, both of them turning to face us.

"What's up?" Stiles asked out leaning towards the passenger side window.

"Is everything okay?" Scott questioned, looking between both guys, we remained in the Jeep.

"Hey, Scott. Your friend, here, was having car trouble. We're just taking a look." Argent explained.

"There's a shop right down the street. I'm sure they have a tow truck." Scott raises an eyebrow at Argent.

"Yeah. You want a ride?" Stiles asks, while I opened the backseat door, "Hey, come on, Jackson. You're way too pretty to be out here all by yourself."

Jackson slowly made his way towards the car.

"Hey, boys. Told you I knew a few things about cars." Argent said, turning Jackson's car on before getting back into his car and driving away.

"What, are you following me, now?" Jackson said annoyed, but clearly shaken up about the situation.

"Yes, you stupid freaking idiot. You almost gave away everything, right there." Scott said getting out of the car, slamming the door behind him.

"What are you talking about?" Jackson asked, dumbfounded about what was going on.

"He thinks you're the second beta." Scott said, his voice getting louder.

"What?"

"He thinks you're me!" Scott yelled, hitting the Jeep.

"Dude, my jeep." Stiles said, getting out of the driver's seat.

"I can hear your heart beating from a mile away - literally! Now he thinks that there's something wrong, and now I have to keep an eye on you so he doesn't kill you too!" Scott continued to yell at Jackson, hitting the Jeep once more. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to get out of the car.

"Okay, how about we step away from Stiles' Jeep." Stiles said trying to get Scott to step away from his car.

"This is your problem, not mine, okay? I didn't say anything, which means you're the one that's gonna get me killed. Okay, this is your fault." Jackson yelled back, also slamming his fist against the hood of the Jeep.

"Can we stop hitting my Jeep? Yo, all right, yo, guys, stop. All right?" Stiles frantically said, trying to get the two teenage boys to stop abusing his already broken down vehicle.

"When they come after you, I won't be able to protect you. I can't protect anyone." Scott said looking back at Stiles and I.

"Why are you looking at us?" Stiles asked confused how he got roped into it.

"You know, now you have to do it. Get me what I want, and I will be fine protecting myself." Jackson said poking at Scott's chest.

"No, you won't! Just trust me. All it does is make things worse." Scott pulled at his hair.

"Oh, yeah, really? You can hear anything you want and run faster than humanly possible. Sounds like a real hardship, McCall."

"Yeah, I can run really fast now - Except half the time, I'm running away from people trying to kill me! And I can hear things like - like my girlfriend telling people that she doesn't trust me anymore right before breaking up with me. I'm not lying to you! It - ruins your life." Scott stressed.

I felt bad for Scott, it really hasn't been an easy journey for him these past couple of weeks.

"It ruined your life. You had all the power in the world, and you didn't know what to do with it. You know what it's actually like? It's like you turned 16 and someone bought you a Porsche when they should have started you out with a nice little Honda. Me? I drive a Porsche." Jackson mocked, before getting into his car and driving away from us.

"He's an idiot." Stiles says out loud.

"Maybe Stiles is right, maybe he does get what he deserves." I half jokingly say, causing Scott to throw a nasty look towards me.

"I'm not saying we let it happen." I mumbled, before getting back into the Jeep.

After the Jackson incident Scott went to go return Allison's necklace back, while Stiles and I went back to his house to hang out.

Stiles and I were up in his room doing our homework in quiet for once, it was actually nice. There was a knock on his open door before his dad stepped in.

"Now this is what I like to see." His dad smiled.

"What? We're just doing our homework." Stiles asked confused about what his dad meant.

"Exactly. You guys focusing on your schoolwork. I like it. Maybe we should have Sophia move in, if that's what it takes for you to focus on school"

"Dad." Stiles whined, embarrassed by his dad's comment, his cheeks turning a slight pink.

"What?" he asked confused at his son's reaction.

"I brought you a sandwich back for dinner." Stiles said changing the subject.

"Thanks kiddo. I'm going to just be downstairs doing some work myself. If you need anything just holler." He smiled before exiting the room.

"God he's embarrassing sometimes."

"It's cute. He loves you. He wouldn't embarrass you if he didn't love you." I tell Stiles.

After a few minutes of us continuing our work, Stiles began to get up off his bed.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Downstairs."

"What for?" I questioned.

"I'm thirsty." he lied.

"You have an untouched bottle of water on your nightstand." I tell him pointing to the water bottle.

"I want soda."

"You don't keep soda here anymore. Not since your dad's health scare." I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Ugh fine Sophia! I'm going to go snoop in my dad's work files. Is that what you want to hear?" He flailed.

"Stiles leave the poor man alone. He clearly has had a long day at work, don't make it any worse."

"What? Me make it worse?" he gasped, pretending to be hurt. I raised my eyebrow at him, knowing the pale lanky boy all too well.

"Ugh fine. I promise I won't make it any worse for him." He said heading out the door.

"Any worse? That kid is going to hell." I sighed, going back to my homework, not wanting any part of whatever Stiles has planned.

It had been almost twenty minutes and Stiles was still not back, and I was done with my homework. I heard my phone ding, I picked it up and seeing it was a message from Scott:

Peter Hale just took Mom out on a date. I need you guys to stop it. He's going to hurt her.

I quickly packed my bag, when Stiles walked into the room.

"Did you get the text?" He asked.

"Yup. We better hurry." I say as we rush out of the house.

Stiles was zooming in and out of lanes trying to find Peter's car. Scott had texted him the restaurant he had told Aunt Mel he was taking her.

"So did you find anything out from your dad?" I asked trying to distract my mind from what Peter may do to my aunt.

"Actually, yes I did." He said turning onto a street.

"And?"

"All the people who have been killed, well they're all connected." he says.

"What do you mean?"

"Every single one of those people Peter has killed, all had connections to the Hale house fire. Every single one of them." He explains further.

"Wow."

"The only thing that sucks about all of this." he says, glancing over at me, "It's tearing my dad apart Soph."

"He's missing so many key points to the story, that he can't solve the case. It's taking a lot out of him." He says, feeling guilty about it.

"Hopefully if we can stop Peter, we can stop it all." I tell Stiles, not really knowing what to say.

I mean we can't tell Sheriff Stilinski about werewolves, right? At least not right now, not until we figure out what is Peter's actual motive in all of this. If we stop Peter, we can at least stop the killings.

"Wait is that them pulled over?" I asked Stiles focusing back to the task at hand.

"Yup it is." Stiles said, pulling over to the side of the road.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing ends a date better than a-" He says before bumping his car into Peter's, jolting us a little forward at impact.

"Stiles!" I yell at him.

"Come on." He says, hopping out of the car.

"What the hell?" I hear my aunt say as I get out of the Jeep.

"Stiles? Sophia?" She asks looking towards us, but the headlights causing her to squint.

"Mrs. McCall?" Stiles asks, playing up the part.

"Yes!" She yells at him.

"Wow, this is - this is just crazy. What a coincidence, huh?" Stiles says, lighting up the mood.

"Ha ha." My aunt sarcastically laughs.

I looked away from my aunt and Stiles talking to see Peter standing off to the side. This is the first time I've actually seen Peter fully healed. He made eye contact with me, smirking, knowing damn well what we were doing. I stood frozen, not knowing what exactly to do.

"I mean - I do not know what happened, we were just on our way back to your place. You guys just came out of nowhere." I hear Stiles lie, turning my attention back to them.

"Came out of nowhere! We were parked on the side of the road, Stiles." my aunt yelled, getting more frustrated than I have ever seen her.

"Maybe we should call the cops. So we can file an accident report." I say, speaking up, glancing at Peter.

"I don't think that's necessary." Peter steps in.

"Are you sure? I think I'm feeling a little whiplash." Stiles says faking a groan while holding his neck, at this point we were starting to draw a crowd.

"Whiplash? You hit us!"

"I don't know - there's something definitely wrong with my neck. What about you Soph, you okay?" He asked, turning towards me.

"Yeah. I think I feel something too." I say unemotionally, rubbing my neck also.

"Are you-ugh" My aunt groaned out loud.

"I'm so sorry Peter, but I'm just going to ride back home with these two." She said turning back to us, glaring at us.

"Are you sure? We can always continue our night."

"No I'm sure. I'm not done yelling at that one, and I want to do it without a crowd around." She says.

"Maybe we can reschedule for some other time." She tells him, making me feel a tad guilty. If she really knew what Peter was trying to do, she would thank us.

"Sure." He smiles, before heading back into his car.

"You two are in so much trouble." She said turning back towards us, walking to Stiles' Jeep.

"Me? What did I do? I wasn't the one driving?" I said, throwing Stiles under the bus.

"By being an accomplice, you're in just as much trouble also." she fake smiles, getting into the backseat.

"You just had to hit the car, didn't you." I tell Stiles as we made our way.

"Hey, it was quick thinking! It stopped her from getting bitten, now didn't it." he exclaimed, getting into the driver's seat.

The next morning we were all in Scott's room trying to find Scott's phone, after he had caught us up on his previous night's events.

"Call it again." he told us.

"Scott it's not here. I think it's time to officially claim it lost." I tell him.

"You're just going to have to get a new one." Stiles says.

"I can't afford a new one. And I can't do this alone. We have to find Derek." He stresses.

" Well, "A", you're not alone. You have us. And "B", didn't you say Derek walked into gunfire? He sounds pretty dead." Stiles says, gaining slap in the back of his head from me.

"Ow!" he exclaims, rubbing his head.

"He's not dead. The Argents have him." I tell him.

"Their plan is to use him to find the Alpha. They're not going to kill him." Scott explains.

"All right, so then just let them do what they're planning, you know? They use Derek to get Peter - problem solved." Stiles says, resulting in another slap from me.

"Ow. Stop hitting me."

"Stop saying stupid things." I retort.

"We can't. Not if Peter's going after Allison to find Derek! I can't protect her on my own. Which means we either find Derek first - just - just help me!" Scott frustratingly says, throwing stuff around his room.

"You know, you probably lost it when you two were fighting. You remember that, when he was trying to kill you, after you interrupted him trying to kill Jackson? Are you starting to see a pattern of violent behavior here?" Stiles exclaims, causing me to roll my eyes.

"He wasn't going to kill anyone. And I'm not letting him die." Scott tells Stiles again.

"Could you at least think about letting him die? For me?" Stiles says, gaining another hit.

"Shut up Stiles." I roll my eyes.

Scott suddenly stops searching his room.

"What is it?"

"My mom. She's home." He says, listening in.

"Is she okay? What's she doing?" Stiles asks.

"Crying." Scott sighs.

"It's not your fault Scott. We did what we had to do." I reassure him.

"Scott, you can't protect everyone." Stiles tells him.

"I have to." He firmly says, before grabbing his backpack.

"Come on. We don't want to be late for school." I tell Stiles grabbing his arm out of Scott's room.

Third Person POV

Lydia and Allison are at the mall after school, to search for dresses for the dance.

"What's wrong?" Lydia asks Allison as they step onto the escalator.

"Nothing's wrong, I just - I have a lot on my mind." Allison sighs.

"You could smile, at least. Ever heard of the saying, "Never frown. Someone could be falling in love with your smile"? Smile, Allison. I'm buying you a dress." Lydia nudges her a little.

"Have to admit as far as apologies go, that's more than I expected." Allison smiles.

"Excellent." Lydia grins, proud of herself.

"But not as much as I'm going to ask." Allison says.

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Lydia asks confused.

"It means you're going to cancel on whatever dumb, roided - up jock you said yes to and you're going to go with somebody else." Allison tells her.

"Who?"

"Him." Allison smirks, pointing to Stiles, causing Lydia's face to drop.

"Don't frown, Lydia. Someone could be falling in love with your smile." Allison grins, suppressing a laugh.

Lydia stomps her way over to the perfume counter where Stiles was stood keeping an eye on them.

"Stiles." Lydia grits through her teeth, Allison watching from a few feet away.

"Uh hey Lydia." Stiles nervously greets, tripping over his feet but catching himself.

"What's up?" He asks trying to sound cool.

"Listen I don't have a date to the dance and Allison suggested me asking you, so..." she forced out.

"Wait what?" Stiles asked taken back by what he just heard.

"Do you want to go to the dance with me or not?" She impatiently asks.

"Yes! Yes!-I mean sure why not." He tries to play it off.

"Great. Pick me up at 7. Don't be late." She said before walking away from the hyperactive teenage boy.

"See that wasn't so bad, now was it." Allison smirks.

"Shut up. You owe me one."

"Come on. He isn't that bad. He's cute." Allison pointed to a dancing Stiles.

"Yeah. Cute." Lydia scoffs looking at him, causing him to stop and wave at them.

"Dude Lydia just asked me out to the dance!" Stiles tells Scott on the phone, walking back to his car, after making sure Lydia and allison got to theirs.

"That's good! Now you'll be able to keep an eye on Allison at the dance, since I'm not exactly allowed in." Scott tells him.

"Told you, you should study more." Stiles says, getting into the driver seat.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'll find a way into the dance."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Not exactly sure just yet. But I'll be there." Scott says.

"Sounds like a great plan." Stiles rolls his eyes, turning the keys in the ignition.

"Listen I gotta go. My mom and Sophia just got back."

"Shit! Sophia!" Stiles gasped, eyes wide.

"What about Sophia?" Scott asked confused.

"We were supposed to go to the dance together, remember! I'm going to have to cancel on Lydia." Stiles freaks out.

"No! You can't! You have to go with Lydia, otherwise how are you going to keep an eye on Allison for me." Scott says.

"But what about Sophia, Scott. I can't do that to her. I asked her first." Stiles explains, feeling bad about the situation.

He didn't want to cancel on Lydia, he's finally getting a chance to go on a 'date' with his dream girl, but on the other hand he couldn't hurt Sophia's feelings. He just couldn't do that to her, she was his best friend, and she was so excited about it all, especially when he called it a date.

Did he have feelings for Sophia? Yeah he did, at least he thinks he did, he was still trying to work those feelings out. But lately he felt himself getting closer to her, more than just friends and he liked the feeling. He could see himself being with her, romantically. But he wasn't sure how she felt exactly, this dance was going to determine it for him. Whether he took the next step or not. Could he miss out on that opportunity for a chance with Lydia, who could care less about him.

"Stiles, Sophia will understand. If you want I can tell her for you." Scott says.

"No. No. I'll do it. She has to hear it from me." Stiles sighs.

"Thanks Stiles. Trust me Soph will completely understand." Scott reassures him.

Sophia's POV

"Ugh I can't believe we didn't find anything. The dance is tomorrow night Aunt Mel." I groaned as we walked through the front door.

We managed to spend the last 3 hours shopping around town trying to find a dress for homecoming, and didn't manage to find anything that worked.

"We'll figure something out, okay. I think I might have something hidden in my closet. Go to your room and wait for me, okay." My aunt mel told me in her most calm voice, that she normally used on patients in crisis.

"Okay." I sighed, heading upstairs to my room.

"Hey Soph!" Scott greeted, a little too cheerfully.

"Hey."

"Where did you guys go?" He asked.

"Everywhere. We went looking for a homecoming dress for me." I sigh, feeling the stress and anxiety come back to me.

"Oh. Did you find anything?" He curiously asked.

"Does it look like I did?" I sarcastically said lifting my empty bags.

"Right." Scott awkwardly said.

"Stiles is stopping by in half an hour. Thought you'd want to know." Scott softly said, suddenly feeling guilty.

"Okay cool." Before we could say anything else my aunt came walking down the hall with a dress bag in her hands.

"What's that?" Scott asked.

"Sophia's answer to her homecoming dress." My aunt smiled proudly.

"Come on, let's go see how it looks." She said pushing me into my room and closing the door.

"Here. Go try it on." She said handing me the bag.

"Okay." I reluctantly took the dress, preparing for my hopes to get crushed yet again.

The second I put the dress on I just knew it was the one. It was a beautiful maroon, off shoulder, tea length dress.

It was perfect.

I walked out of my restroom to my waiting aunt.

"Oh wow." She gazed.

"Is that a good wow?" I nervously asked.

"It's a wonderful wow. You look absolutely gorgeous. If Stiles doesn't fall in love with you in that dress, you may need to consider finding a better date." She joked.

"Thanks Aunt Mel. Seriously thank you! This dress is perfect." I hugged her.

"Where'd you get it?" I asked.

"I had bought it for a wedding, but wedding got cancelled and never got a chance to wearing it." She explained.

"Well thank goodness for that." I laughed.

"I'm going to take it off before Stiles gets here. Thanks again Aunt Mel." I tell her.

"Anytime kid." She smiled before leaving me alone to change.

As I zipped the dress back into its bag I heard a knock at my door.

"Come in." I tell them, walking to the closet to hang the dress up.

"Hey Soph." Stiles softly says.

"Hey Stiles!" I excitedly greeted.

"Can we talk?" He hesitantly asked, making eye contact with me.

His eyes were lacking the brightness they normally carried.

"Uh yeah." I said pointing towards my bed. We both sat down at the end of it.

"What's wrong?" I asked, not wanting to beat around the bush.

"It's about the dance." He said looking down and fumbling with his fingers.

"What about the dance?" I asked, my breathing starting to slowly increase.

"While I was at the mall today I ran into Allison and Lydia. And well Lydia asked if I would be her date to the dance." He said, finally looking into my eyes.

My heart dropped. I already knew where this was going.

"And you told her yes, didn't you?" I asked, biting the inside of my cheek to keep me from crying.

"I'm so sorry Sophia. I'm so very sorry. I feel like such a horrible person. I can tell her no." He said sadness in his eyes, the guilt clearly eating him up. It broke my heart even more.

I knew I had to be the bigger person and ease his mind.

"No. No. Don't do that, Stiles. It's fine. Go with Lydia. I know that's who you really want to go with." I tell him, breaking my heart a little more.

"Sophia, are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm positive. You've had a crush on Lydia since the third grade, you finally have a shot at a date with her. I don't want to be the one in the way." I assure him, trying to keep the tears from happening.

"I feel like such a horrible person. You probably already bought a dress and everything. No, I'll call Lydia and tell her-" he began to ramble.

"Stiles, stop. It's okay. Plus I had no luck in finding a dress anyway. Take it as a sign that you're meant to go with Lydia." I lied, just wanting this conversation to be over.

"Oh okay. Thanks for understand Soph." He gave me a small sad smile.

"Of course. Listen I have to take a shower, so I'll see you at school on Monday, okay?" I tell him, standing up from my bed ushering him out of my room.

"Oh okay. Bye." He said, before I softly closed the door.

As soon as I closed the door the tears began to fall. I leaned against it and let my body slide down it. My heart hurting.

I could hear Scott and Stiles talking from Scott's open door.

"So what did she say?" Scott asked.

"She said to go with Lydia." Stiles said, sounding unsure about what just happened.

"See. I told you she would understand."

"Yeah." Stiles said.

The fact that Scott knew and didn't say anything to me, broke me a little more. Of course Scott knew, he was Stiles' best friend. I just wished he would have given me some heads up. Now I just feel like a complete idiot.

I picked myself off of the floor and headed for the shower, where I could cry in peace and no one would hear me.

{later that night}

I headed downstairs with the dress in hand, where I found my aunt sitting on the couch.

"What's wrong?" She asked, noticing my down mood.

"I won't be needing this anymore." I tell her placing the dress down next to her.

"What? What happened?"

"I'm not going to the dance anymore. And I don't want to talk about it. So here's your dress back, I'm going to bed." I tell her, turning back towards the stairs.

"Soph."

"I'm tired Aunt Mel. I just want to go to bed. Thanks for all your help though. Sorry it was pointless in the end." I say, before heading back up the stairs, not wanting to discuss this any further.

{day of the dance}

I was sat on the couch in the living room while my aunt was upstairs helping Scott get ready for the dance. Was I a little bitter that I wasn't going, and Scott, who technically wan't even allowed to go, was going, maybe a little.

I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I glanced towards the stairs to see Scott in his suit, with my aunt by his side.

"Doesn't your cousin look handsome." My aunt said, pleading with her eyes to get me to agree with her.

"Yeah. Handsome." I monotonously said, forcing my attention back to the tv.

"Okay. Well I'm taking off." Scott said.

"Wait. Wait. Wait." My aunt called out, grabbing him by his arm.

"What? Mom I'm going to be late." Scott whined.

"I just got a great idea. Since you're going 'stag', how about you and Sophia go together." She suggested.

"What?" Scott and I both exclaimed.

"Yeah. How about you both go together?" she repeated, like it was the greatest idea ever.

"I'd rather stay home alone, than go to a school dance with my cousin." I tell her.

"And no offense, but I'd rather go alone, than go to the dance with my cousin." Scott said.

"See. We both don't want to go together. It's fine Aunt Mel. I'm fine staying home alone. I promise." I assure her, getting off the couch.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now both of you leave, before you're both late." I said pushing them out the door.

"Okay. Call me if you need anything okay." My aunt turned around placing a kiss on my head.

"I will. Now, leave." I said, waving them off, closing the door once they were gone.

"Finally. Home alone." I announced to myself, heading back to the couch.

Thirty minutes later, I heard the kitchen door open, assuming it was my aunt forgetting something again.

"What'd you forget this time?" I asked getting off of the couch, turning around to be greeted by someone who was definitely not my aunt.

"Peter." I whispered.

"Look at little Sophia Tuteur, all grown up. It's been what eight, nine years." He taunts.

"Something like that." I say, trying to contain my emotions.

"But that's not really right, is it?" He asks, slowly walking around the living room.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, just because it didn't appear I was all mentally there in the hospital, doesn't mean I don't remember the limited amount of guests I've had." He days picking up a picture frame of Scott, my aunt, and me.

"So what. I only went to see you two times."

I had visited Peter two times, once when I was thirteen, and the second time right after Scott got bit.

"Nice little family you've got here." He comments, putting the picture back down.

"What do you want Peter?" I asked cautious of his answer.

"You knew didn't you?"

"Knew what?" I asked confused.

"Please, you're way smarter than that Sophia. You're way smarter than all of this. You knew that somewhere deep down, you knew who was the big bad alpha running around." He says.

"Get to your point, Peter." I hissed.

"Oh there is none. But wouldn't it be nice if you were actually treated like a part of a pack. I mean we always considered you a Hale."

"We?"

"Me. Derek. Laura. Talia." My breathe got caught in my throat.

"Ah. I've hit the nerve." He said walking closer to me.

"I'm not joining you Peter, if that's what you're getting at." I tell him.

"Come on Sophia. Do you really think Scott appreciates you? Or what about that spazzy kid, Stiles is his name, right?"

"God it would be a shame if something bad happened to him tonight." He threatens.

"Don't touch him." I seethed.

"Who's going to stop me? Scott? Please we both know he's too focused on a certain Argent to look at the bigger picture." He mocked me.

"Why are you telling me this." I asked, trying to figure out a way out of this.

"I want you Sophia. I need you a part of my pack."

"Why?"

"Well if I have a Tuteur, it immediately grants me guardianship. If the Argents were real rule followers, they wouldn't dare touch me with a guardian in my pack." He explains, smirking as he took a seat on the couch, crossing one leg over the other.

"And what makes you think I would do anything to help you?" I turned around to face him.

"Because I know you would do anything to protect your friends."

"Like I said, I'm not interested in joining your pack. Looks like you'll have to find some other way to bend the rules." I glanced towards the coffee table to where my cellphone was at, I needed to call Stiles as soon as Peter left.

"Well that's a real shame Sophia." He said getting off of the couch, and grabbing my phone off the table.

"Good luck trying to warn your friends without this." He said crushing my phone in his hands and walking out the door.

Shit.

I quickly made my way to my room to grab my shoes. I ran outside the house to realize that my aunt took the car for work. My only form of transportation was my old bike. I quickly peddled fast, hoping to somehow find my friends before Peter did.

I got to the school in 15 minutes. I look around and notice Peter's car parked right outside. I jumped off my bike and ran towards the school. As soon as I walked through the doors I noticed Stiles running towards my direction.

"Stiles!" I yell catching his attention.

"Soph! What are you doing here?" He frantically said.

"It's Peter. Where's Scott?" I said, looking around.

"I don't know. I have to go find Lydia, she might be in trouble." My eyes widen.

"I'll join you." We both took off towards the back of the school, where the lacrosse field lays.

"What happened with Peter?" He asked as we ran.

"I'll tell you afterwards. Let's just fine Lydia." We make it to the lacrosse field to find Lydia and Peter.

"Lydia! Run!" Stiles yelled, as we continued to run towards them.

Peter bites her before we get to her, causing Lydia to collapse on the floor. Stiles and I rush to her aide.

"Don't kill her. Please." Stiles begs Peter.

I try to find a way around Peter to aide Lydia, but he's blocking her from our aide.

"Of course not. Just tell me how to find Derek." he tells Stiles.

"What?" Stiles gulps, scared.

"Tell me how to find Derek." Peter repeats himself, dragging a claw down Lydia's face, threatening her.

"I don't know that. How would I know that?"

"Because you're the clever one, aren't you? And because deception has a particularly acrid scent, Stiles. Tell me the truth - Or I will rip her apart." he threatens.

"Look - Look, I don't know, okay? I sw - I swear to god, I have no idea." Stiles tells him.

"Tell me!" Peter growls at him.

"Okay, okay, okay, look, I - I think he knew -" Stiles stammers.

"Knew what?"

"Derek, I think he - I think he knew he was gonna be caught." Stiles says.

"By the Argents?" Peter asks.

"Yeah."

"And?"

"When they were shot, he and Scott - I think he took Scott's Phone." Stiles continues

"Why?"

"They all have GPS now. So if he still has it and if it's still on - you can find him." Stiles explains to him.

"Then you're going to help me find him." Peter says getting up.

I immediately check Lydia's pulse, it's still there, but barely.

"No. I'm not just letting you leave her here." Stiles voice shakes.

"You don't have a choice, Stiles. You're coming with me." Peter said, wiping the blood away from his lips.

"Just kill me. Look, I don't care anymore!" Stiles yells.

"Stiles." I whisper, my voice trembling a little, he turns to me, tears in his eye, matching my own.

"Go. I'll get help. I'll make sure she's okay. Just go with him, okay?" I tell him.

"Sophia?" his voice cracks.

"Just call Jackson and have him meet me here, okay. Just go find Derek, please." I cry out.

"Okay." he agrees, getting up, leaving with Peter, not before one final look back.

"Come on Lydia. Stay with me, okay?" I tell her, taking my sweater off and trying to keep her body warm.

"Help is on it's way. Please, please don't die." I cry over her.

Sorry it took so long to get this out! This chapter is my longest one yet. The next chapter will probably be out sooner than it took to get this one out, as it won’t be nearly as long as this one is. Thanks again for being so patient though!!

Please feel free to let me know what you though of this chapter!!

Again, thanks for reading!

tagged: @reganf

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doe-clotureofyellow · 7 years ago

Text

Chapter 4–The True Evil?; Scene 2

Clôture of Yellow (VG), page 273-284

♠ Germaine ~Inside the Lucifenian Palace, "The Hall of Sounds"~

"If we're going to meet, wouldn't it be better to do this in the Hall of Mirrors?"

He may have been a former soldier, but with his low rank he had likely never set foot inside the palace before. York glanced around with a curious expression on his face.

"It's too wide," I replied, similarly restless.

I had seen this place before in the battle the other day, but surveying it all now that everything's calmed down, I was of course overwhelmed by the luxury of it. My father had been the head of the royal guard, but as the family of soldiers didn't get any special consideration and were still barred from entering the palace, I had never seen the inside of it up until now. If it hadn't been for the revolution, I'm sure I would have never seen any of this my entire life.

It had been five days since the revolutionary soldiers had occupied the palace. The disorder inside the country seemed to be starting to calm down, albeit gradually. And today, the chief members were holding a meeting to decide on cleaning up from the revolution, and the plans from then on.

Those in attendance aside from myself, York, and Minage, were several representatives of the revolutionary soldiers. Sekka and Chartette hadn't yet recovered from their wounds, so this time it was their runner-ups that were present.

Keel Freezis, the defector to Marlon, had also come. Without his support in the revolution, we wouldn't have been able to pull all this off. I nodded to him as he approached me with an attendant.

"Well well, Ms. Germaine. Truly, congratulations to you today," Keel said, smiling and lightly raising his hand. I had thought so when we first met as well, but from his appearance at least he didn't look to me like the very cunning man who managed all of the merchants.

"Thank you very much. It's thanks to you that we were able to achieve victory. Not just for supplying us with materials, but also for moving to persuade the middle class townspeople…"

"No, this victory was something that you all determined for yourselves. I only helped a little. And that was because I was already involved by then. I just thought I might as well see it through to the end. Although did end up spending a lot of money over it…Ah well, I'll just set about recovering it hereafter."

Keel grinned and then headed to sit in a chair facing me at the round table.

After a little while, the king of Elphegort also made an appearance. The irrational invasion by Lucifenia had finally ended, and he was probably breathing a sigh of relief. But, naturally Elphegort had losses, a conflict of that magnitude occurring in it. Rebuilding would likely demand several years after this--several decades, even.

And then…there was the man who was serving as facilitator for this meeting.

After making sure that all the attendees had gathered, I spoke to him.

"Well then, shall we begin, King Marlon?"

The one who sat at the head of the table was the masked man who had fought with us, Karchess. Right now he was before us with his true face as king Kyle Marlon.

When he had revealed his real identity I had already known, albeit vaguely, so I wasn't particularly surprised. But for my companions they had looked extremely flustered, like it was a bolt out of the blue. Crude-talking York suddenly started clumsily putting on airs around him, and Sekka had started to put on makeup in bed despite still being in critical condition.

"Everyone, thank you for assembling here today. First, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to everyone in the revolutionary army for their victory in the battle."

Kyle made the introductory remarks. As he himself was one of the dedicated core members of the revolution, he was a fine one to talk.

"Is it alright for you to go without wearing your mask now, Karchess?" I asked, a trifle sarcastically. Kyle looked somewhat awkward.

"I have no need to hide my true identity now. Frankly I'm prepared to be ousted from my position as king, even…but I have formal permission from Her Majesty, my mother. Although there is a condition."

"A condition?"

"I'll tell you about it later. First is regarding Lucifenia's residual military force…"

The meeting began from a report on the current state of affairs. All of Lucifenia's chief cabinet ministers and government officials had either run away, been arrested, or killed.

"The Lucifenian army led by General Ausdin left in Elphegort has also surrendered alongside the fall of the palace. They are currently being held in our prison as prisoners of war," the king of Elphegort reported.

"I am sure that they truly don't wish to keep fighting either. We request that they be handled peacefully."

"I know, Sir Minage. I myself have no desire for any chain of grudges beyond this point," responded the king--though his real feelings were likely more complicated. Many of his people (especially the women) had been slaughtered by those Lucifenian soldiers. In reality he probably would have preferred to have all his war prisoners executed, and there was a chance his country's people wouldn't agree if he didn't.

But he had held a stance of complete pacifism from the start. It looked clear to me that, in the end, he would persist in his convictions.

The mercenaries had disbanded due to the death of Gast Venom. There were apparently still some rogues rioting in the city, but they would probably be suppressed eventually by the Marlon soldiers.

At any rate it wouldn't be wrong to think that there wouldn't be any more resistance from that group.

"The next problem is, of course…"

"The remaining of the Three Heroes."

Lucifenia's charismatic and most powerful heroes, Elluka and Mariam. I had experienced firsthand their greatness, and strength, in the middle of battle. If they were to make an army out of fugitive soldiers, that might end up being a concern.

"For Elluka…I don't think there's anything to worry about there."

Unexpectedly, Keel was the one to speak up on that.

Evidently, Elluka was currently being sheltered by him. Keel hadn't told us how that ended up happening, but at any rate from the looks of her behavior it was his opinion that there wasn't likely to be any hostility from her.

Well, Elluka was banished from Lucifenia, after all. The chances of her getting involved at this point was low.

Kyle continued to speak.

"And from there, there's Mariam…"

"Is she still missing?"

Chartette had told me that Mariam escaped.

"Ah, well…Yesterday her dead body was discovered in the corner of the garden."

"…!"

"Currently, my own Marlon soldiers are temporarily serving as guards for the palace. Did you know that?"

"Yeah…"

"One of those soldiers found…her corpse, while making their rounds."

"Don't tell me she succumbed to her wounds from her fight with Chartette…"

"No…It seems her remains had a wound on her back, likely from having been stabbed with a knife or something. Chartette doesn't use knives, right?"

"I don't think so."

"Maybe she was found by someone in the revolutionary army and killed as she was fleeing the battlefield. Though that makes an unsatisfying end for her as one of the Three Heroes."

That was exactly right. Lucifenia became as big a country as it is thanks to the Three Heroes. That was something that everyone who lived in Lucifenia knew. I had felt proud of the fact that my father could add his name to that group as one of them.

Dad, Elluka, and Mariam--That the name of the Three Heroes who carved their reputations into this era would so easily vanish from center stage…it was hollow, but that was another outcome of what we had accomplished.

"Giving the finishing blow to Mariam…Has anyone stepped forward to claim such a spectacular victory?"

"No…"

"I haven't heard anything about that either."

"Oh well. Anyhow, the Lucifenian military doesn't have any strength left to resist with."

Is it the case that this revolution was our victory?...

There were points that I could be glad of wholeheartedly, but there were others that I could not. We still hadn't decided on what we would do about this country from now on.

The ideal was, of course, rule by the revolutionary army--by the people.

But…the issue was whether or not everyone participating in this meeting appreciated that or not.

"Now we should talk about what's next for the country of Lucifenia…" Kyle cut in.

It was here that he at last made clear the contents of that "condition" from earlier.

"The country of Lucifenia will henceforth be taken under the rule of the country of Marlon."

"…! You're fucking kidding me! What the hell is that supposed to mean!?"

York raised his voice and stood at Kyle's suggestion.

"Wait, York. Calm down and hear me out."

"Is this something I can listen to calmly!? We didn't fight this war for Marlon!"

He clearly wasn't listening to Kyle's attempts to pacify him, either.

Certainly, York's anger was only natural. I myself had prepared for the worst with whatever kind of conditions he was going to apply, but I couldn't have imagined him making such an abrupt and reckless proposal. However,

"York, first we'll hear him speak. We can raise any objections about it afterwards."

It was Kyle, after all. He likely had some idea up his sleeve. The idea of a "ruler" from birth, that townspeople like us probably wouldn't have thought of. I had no choice but to think so.

…Although if he said, "I gave you support because I planned to occupy Lucifenia from the get-go ♪", I was prepared to beat him up.

At my voice keeping him in check, York reluctantly sat down again.

"Hmph…well then I'll be sure to listen, won't I, to His Highness' brilliant idea!"

"--For argument's sake if the revolutionaries were to lead the country, I would like to ask you: Is there any among you who have experience in politics? …I'd wager not. You really think you can restructure an entire country organized as you are out of the peasant social class?" Kyle asked, voice quiet as though admonishing him.

There was no need to even think about it, the answer was no. Even so, York stood his ground.

"…Germaine and Minage are smart enough."

"You can't rule a country just by being smart. You have to be someone who's taken studies, and gotten experience. Nevertheless, you wouldn't want the ministers you have imprisoned right now to join your new government, would you?"

"Uh…Well, that's…"

"And Elphegort has their hands full with rebuilding their own country right now. …Don't be so cautious. I have no intention of taking over Lucifenia. I say you're under my rule, but really my country is just going to advise yours until everything's stabilized. Naturally, the new government will be run by you, the revolutionary army."

York fell silent with his arms folded, as though unable to say anything back. Taking that as a sign of his acceptance, Kyle looked around the room and asked if there were any other objections.

The final outcome was that we ended up following Kyle's proposal.

To make up for it, it was decided that York and Minage would assume important positions in the new administration. I was invited to one as well, but I declined.

"The leader of the revolution going without a reward's real unsatisfying."

York might not have been pleased, but for me, I thought that as long as Lucifenia changed, that was enough. I certainly didn't fight this war to get ahead in life.

In heaven my father would probably say that I was trying too hard to look good.

But hey, Dad. You were always like that too, weren't you?

"This is just my personal thought, but…I would like to endeavor from here on to make it so Lucifenia can eventually be free in the true sense of the word."

Kyle looked at me, expression a bit regretful. On paper at least, everyone attending this meeting right now was in the same position. They probably knew there was no point in provoking the animosity of those around them if they asked too much of them. Frankly I was happy that they wanted me in even so, but I had no intention of reconsidering my plans.

I looked at his face, and gave a short laugh.

"…Is there something funny?"

"No, it's just that you keep speaking so politely about yourself. Heh heh--you were much more masculine when you were wearing the mask."

"Eh--…Stop mocking me."

I smiled sweetly at him and he averted his eyes, as though sulking. The young Marlon King was fun to tease. I was suddenly reminded of my adoptive brother, whose whereabouts I didn't currently know. He had been unsociable, but he was my cute little brother, who was also fun to mess with.

--Yes, there was a single concern left. We hadn't found Allen yet. According to Chartette, most of the servants had escaped the palace before they could get caught by the revolutionary army, so perhaps he was among them.

The way things were now it was probably dangerous if any of the common people found out he had worked at the palace. He must have known that, so perhaps he was hiding somewhere?

In any case, all I could do was hope that he was safe for now.

"Well then, with that let's adjourn. With regard to the captured princess, Riliane…Have you gone to see her, Germaine?

"No, not yet. I just had the bandages taken off my eyes yesterday."

According to the doctor my eyes had, fortunately, healed up without any after-effects. Even now it had hardly any influence left on my vision.

"I see…Are you going to meet her later?"

"Of course. I have a mountain of things I want to say to her."

Upon hearing that, Kyle's expression seemed to cloud over.

"Germaine…Don't forget that you're a model for the ones who carried out this revolution. And don't forget what you yourself ought to do."

"…? What do you mean, of course I know that by now."

"Then that's good…Well then, onto the matter of dealing with the princess…"

"We don't need to discuss that, do we?"

Yes, it was obvious what we would do with the princess, thinking about the significance of this revolution.

"True…Well then,"

Kyle took a breath, and then declared,

"The princess' execution will be two days from now, at three in the afternoon in Milanais Square. --This will be a public execution."

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hard-satin · 7 years ago

Text

Abomination (2.04)

Masterlist

“This steak is delicious. Are you sure you grilled this?” I asked Noah as he sat down across from me at the table.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked me with a smile. I rolled my eyes at him, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

“Please we both remember the fourth of July when you burned all the hot dogs.” I laughed at him taking another bite of the steak.

“I may have taken a few cooking classes.” Noah admitted. I raised my eyebrow in surprise.

“Don’t tell Stiles.” He told me taking another drag of his beer.

“I won’t.” I swore finishing off the steak.

“Thank you.” I told him as I got up and cleared both our empty plates. I took them over to the sink and started washing them.

“Thank you for having dinner with me.” Noah smiled at me as he came over to dry the dishes.

“Not just for dinner, for everything. For letting me sleep over every weekend when I was younger. For taking me out for my birthday. For backyard barbeques. For teaching me how to drive. For taking me in. Thank you for raising me. Thank you for being the father I always wanted.” I smiled at him.

“Thank you for being the daughter I always wanted.” He smiled right back.

Once the dishes were done we went and sat together on the couch and looked through old photo albums.

“There’s almost as many pictures with Scott and I in them as there are with Stiles.” I commented as we flipped to a new page. I laughed at a picture of the three of us covered in mud smiling at the camera with various missing teeth.

“You three were inseparable.” Noah laughed at the pictures of us on our trip to the lake. There was one nice one then a series of us all pushing each other off the dock and into the water.

Noah’s phone rang as I flipped the page. He answered it. His face fell to a look of panic as he talked to whoever was on the phone.

“Where is he? He’s not hurt?” He asked the person on the other end of the phone.

“I’ll be there in fifteen.” He told them before hanging up.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as he stood up off the couch and started heading towards his room.

“Stiles.” The single word was enough. I watched as he went upstairs to change. I grabbed my jacket and waited for him by the door.

“You don’t need to come. He’s fine.” Noah reassured me grabbing his keys and heading out. I followed after him. He rounded to the driver's side and looked at me as I pulled impatiently on the locked door handle of the passenger side. He sighed in defeat before unlocking the door. I smiled at him before hopping in. I put on my seat belt as He hit the lights and flipped on the siren. We pulled out of the driveway and were soon speeding off down the street.

When we arrived at the auto shop Stiles was already sitting in the back of an ambulance. My first instinct was to run to him. My hand was on the door handle before I remembered I was mad at him.

“Stay here.” Noah told me before jogging over to Stiles. I got out of the car to hear better. I didn’t rush over to Stiles as much as I wanted to. I just stood in the rain listening to them. The rain was like bass drums in my ear as I tried to tune into Stiles and Noah's conversation.

“I told you I just walked in and I saw the jeep on top of the guy. That’s all.” Stiles told Noah, who seemed convinced. I however could hear Stiles heartbeat. He was lying.

“What’s wrong with your hand?” Noah asked. I studied Stiles hands which were shaking like leaves. Something definitely happened to him.

“Nothing. Can I just get out of here now?” Stiles asked shaking out his hands.

“Look, if there’s something you don’t think you can tell me…” Noah started.

“You think I’m lying?” Stiles asked cutting him off.

“No of course not. I’m just worried about you, and if you saw someone do this. If you’re afraid they’re going to come back and make sure they don’t say anything about it.” Noah tried to coax Stiles into opening up.

“I didn’t see anything. At all. Can I go now please?” Stiles begged.

“Sure. But not in your jeep. It’s evidence. Sorry kid.” Noah said heading over to talk to the other deputies.

“Alright can you at least make sure they wash it?” Stiles called after him, before getting up and trudging over to the cruiser with his hands in his pockets.

“You lied to him.” I told Stiles when he was about a yard away. He looked up at me in shock.

“What are you doing here?” Stiles asked studying my soaked exterior in confusion.

“I was with Noah when he got the call. Now tell me what you really saw.” I told him following him into the back of the cruiser.

“The lizard monster. He somehow paralyzed the mechanic and dropped the Jeep on top of him. I accidently touched some of the paralytic toxin and all I could do was watch.” Stiles told me solemnly.

“That’s interesting.” I mused. The monster had to have a much higher level of thinking then I originally thought if it managed to pull off what Stiles had described.

“Wait, why are you here again? You didn’t have to come along with dad. Were you worried about me?” Stiles asked sounding almost hopeful.

“Why didn’t it kill you? Did it not know you were there?” I asked ignoring his question entirely.

“No it knew I was there. It came right up to the window and hissed at me before running off.” Stiles said shuddering at the memory.

“You think it might come for you.” I realised why Stiles heart rate had soared when he was talking to his dad, much higher than the average lieing heart rate.

“The thought definitely crossed my mind.” Stiles said wringing his hands.

“I won’t let it.” I told him with conviction.

“I thought you hated me?” Stiles asked.

“I’m beyond pissed at you, I don’t hate you. Anyway it’s not about you.” I told him.

“Who then?” Stiles asked. I nodded my head outside. Stiles turned to watch his dad talk to the other officers.

“I’m going to call Scott, get a ride from him.” Stiles said getting out of the car. I rolled my eyes. I got out of the car too and ran off. I didn’t even know where I was going. I just needed to blow off steam.

I wound up at Derek's little hide out. I sat with Boyd and watched as Isaac and Erica tried again and again to attack him. They wound up on there asses every time.

“Does anyone want to try not being completely predictable?” Derek asked as he threw them down for the hundredth time. Erica jumped up and punched on Derek pulling him into a intense kiss. He actually kissed her back for a few seconds before dumping her back to the ground.

“That’s the last time you do that.” He warned her wiping his mouth.

“Why? Because I’m a beta?” She asked sitting up and rubbing her back.

“No because I have someone else in mind for you.” He told her.

“Are we done? I have about a hundred bones that need a few hours to heal.” Isaac said sitting up and rubbing out his hands. Derek walked towards him a look of sympathy on his face. He took Isaac's arm in his hands and then without warning snapped it.

I was off the step immediately. I raced across the floor and shoved Derek away from Isaac with everything I had. Derek flew across the room and collided with the abandoned train car. I glared at him as he got up. He roared at me his eyes flaming red. I roared back just as loud. Derek looked at me stunned, so did the others. I ignored them as I dropped to Isaac's side to set his arm.

I didn’t see Isaac again until just before the lacrosse game the next night. He pulled me under the bleachers where he was hiding, still being a fugitive and all.

“Hey where did you go last night?” He asked following me over to the bench.

“I had to get back before Noah. He likes to check in on me and Stiles when he has long nights.” I told him spinning my stick in my hands.

“I just wanted to say thank you. For standing up for me.” He told me. I turned to him with a smile.

“Always.” I assured him leaning in and kissing him before turning back to my stick.

“How did you do that? Stand up to Derek. I mean he’s the alpha.” Isaac asked. I hadn’t given it much thought.

“I don’t know. Maybe because he didn’t turn me he doesn’t have as much control? All I know is I saw someone hurting you and I had to stop it.” I told him with a shrug. He smiled pulling me back to him to kiss me again. We pulled apart at coach's whistle.

The game was not going well. The other team had a defenseman the size of a small building. Every player that even got close to him was knocked down.

“Come on! Is that thing even a teenager? I wanna see a birth certificate!” Coach screamed as I was knocked down. If Allison's grandfather wasn’t here I could have gotten around him but I wasn’t going to risk my life for a lacrosse game. Danny helped me over to the bench before heading back out. I watched as Stiles snuck away from the bench. I saw Allison hand him something before he took off towards the school.

“Coach can I go get some ice?” I asked looking for an excuse to follow Stiles.

“Yeah sure.” He said not really paying any attention to me.

I got up off the bench and pretended to limp towards the school. Once I was out of sight I started sprinting after Stiles. I saw him at Lydia's car before he headed into the school. I went over to see what he was talking to her about. I didn’t expect to find her crying.

“Lydia? Are you okay?” I asked, surprising even myself with how concerned I sounded.

“No.” She admitted wiping away mascara soaked tears.

“What is it?” I asked kneeling by her open car window.

“Things have been happening to me ever since the dance.” She broke down.

“It’s understandable. You were attacked.” I told her trying my best to calm her down.

“No it’s like. I’m losing track of time. I can’t remember doing things. I woke up this morning and my sheets were covered in blood because my hand had huge cuts on it. My mirror was shattered but the thing is, I can’t remember hitting it.” She was starting to shake.

“Look that’s actually pretty normal.” I tried to assure her.

“How would you know?” She asked.

“I went through the same thing.” I told her. She looked up at me.

“What?” She asked.

“Look not a lot of people know this but my dad was abusive. He would beat me and my mom every week. On the worst days I would wake up the next morning to find that I’d torn the head off one of my stuffed animals, or I’d smashed one of the little glass figurines I used to collect. I would never remember doing it. The psychiatrist said it was a coping mechanism, a way to regain control over my life.” I told her.

Lydia looked at me, almost like she was seeing me for the first time. She hit the button to unlock the doors and nodded for me to get in. I obliged.

“I used to envy you. In elementary school, when the kids would make fun of me for princess dresses. I stopped wearing them so they would leave me alone. Then I would watch kids make fun of you, for hanging out with Scott and Stiles. For dressing more like a boy then a girl. You never changed for them. I always wished I could be more like you.” Lydia confessed.

“Is that why you made my life hell?” I asked her, she nodded dropping her head. I watched her, tracing a tear that fell down her cheek with my eyes.

“Maybe we should just start over.” I suggested. She looked up at me and smiled just a little.

“I think I would like that.” She told me. I smiled at her before turning to get out of the car.

“Wait where are you going?” She asked.

“I have to get back to the game or coach will kill me.” I told her.

“Okay. When you get there tell Stiles thanks for nothing. He was supposed to come back and talk to me, but he never did.” I nodded before closing the car door and racing off towards the school. There was no way Stiles would give up on a chance to talk with Lydia. Something must have happened to him.

I started running to the school when Scott pulled up. I was confused until I saw the time on his dash. I must have been talking with Lydia a lot longer then I thought.

“Jamie? What are you still doing here?” Scott asked confused.

“Stiles is in trouble.” I told him before racing off into the school, Scott was hot on my heels.

I tuned into Stiles smell. He was in the pool I could hear splashing. Just as we reached the doors to the pool the splashing stopped. Scott and I charged in and came face to face with the Lizard monster. Our claws were out immediately. We both charged the thing. Dodging it’s talons we managed to kick it across the floor.

“You deal with him I’m going to get Stiles.” I told Scott before I dove into the pool. I was surprised to see Derek at the bottom as well. I tossed him out first before grabbing Stiles collar and swimming him back to the surface. I dragged him out of the water tapping his cheek to try to get him to open his eyes. He coughed up some water and then started sucking in air. I collapsed beside him relieved. I turned as the monster charged Scott. I quickly got to my feet, but before I could run to his aid the monster stopped. It studied itself in a shard of broken mirror. It was almost confused by it’s reflection. Then it just took off.

Stiles and Scott went off to find the bestiary. Derek and I stayed behind to take care of an unconscious Erica. It took us a few minutes to rouse her.

“Are you okay?” I asked as she sat up.

“No.” She answered sharply rubbing the back of her head.

“Well you were just attacked by a Kanima.” Derek told her lifting her to her feet.

“Wait you know what thing is?” I asked turning to Derek in bewilderment.

“I do now.” Derek said.

“We have to tell Scott and Stiles.” I told him, he gave me a disapproving look. I crossed my arms over my chest unwilling to back down.

“Fine.” Derek submitted. I smiled as I followed him outside.

“How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?” Scott asked looking at his computer screen with frustration.

“It’s called a Kanima.” Derek called out as we walked over.

“You knew the whole time?” Stiles asked.

“No. I only figured it out when it didn’t recognize it’s own reflection.” Derek told him.

“It doesn’t know what it is.” Scott said catching on.

“Or who.” Derek nodded.

“Well, what else do you know?” Stiles asked.

“Just stories. Rumors.” Derek told him.

“But it’s like us?” Scott asked.

“A shapeshifter yes, but it’s not right. It’s like a…” Derek trailed off trying to find the right word.

“An abomination.” Stiles finished for him. Derek nodded before turning to leave.

“Derek we need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents.” Scott said.

“You’d trust them?” Derek asked.

“Nobody trust anybody. That’s the problem. While we’re wondering who's on what side, there’s something scarier, meaner and stronger than all of us and it’s killing people. We still don’t know anything about it!” Scott yelled. I wanted to laugh. Scott was the one Romeo and Julieting it with Allison. He was the fool that was going to get himself killed. Derek turned away from them.

“I know one thing. When I find it, I’m going to kill it.” Derek told us. Erica followed close behind him. I hung back for a couple seconds looking between Scott and Stiles.

“Maybe things would be easier if you actually decided what side you are one Scott.” I spat at him before turning on my heel and following after Derek.

#stiles stilinski #isaac lahey #boyd #erica #scott mccall #allison agrent #gerard argent #chris argent #noah stilinski #teen wolf

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