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kitazura · 4 years ago

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it’s the thought that counts, tendō satori

1.6k words of fluff; gn!reader

synopsis: tendō doesn’t understand the excitement surrounding valentine’s day until he decides to celebrate it with you.

notes: i haven’t finished the manga but i’m making timeskip content :D thank u rissie (@sugas-cookie) for beta-ing mwah <3

Tendō’s come to learn that Valentine’s day brings waves of purchases made by eager youth preparing to confess their affections, frantic lovers who’d completely forgotten about the occasion, and other last-minute shoppers looking for gifts to give their loved ones. This year is no different; the orders pile up so quickly he can barely keep up with them.

He’s not complaining—not when his bills are getting paid—he just doesn’t understand why everyone lets themselves get carried away by the Valentine rush. At the root of it all, it’s blatant commercialism, another scheme by society to run your bank account dry through obligatory benevolence, so why play into it? Well, as long as it keeps him in business, he supposes he’ll keep his critiques to himself.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little cynical?” you say when he shares his thoughts, the gentle smile on your lips showing you mean no harm. “I think the idea behind Valentine’s day is charming.”

He brushes his thumb over your cheek, humming in response. “Why’s that?”

“Isn’t it sweet when someone puts time and effort into something just for you?” you gush. Tendō watches your gaze turn dreamy as your mind wanders off into the clouds. “Like making chocolates for the person you like.”

“That’s what I do for a living, darling.”

“You like all of your customers?”

“Of course; they give me money, after all.”

You laugh, swatting his arm lightly. “I guess it’s hard to romanticize something you do as work.”

You’re not wrong. At some point, it’s expected for your job to lose its magic, no matter how passionate you are about it in the beginning. Chocolate has long lost its allure to Tendō, and now he spends day in and day out pouring it into molds and hurrying to shape it before it hardens beyond salvation. It’s become a chore for him, and even just catching a whiff of a candy bar sends his brain into the stress of work mode.

“What do you think about when you make chocolate, Satori?” you ask, interrupting his thoughts.

“What an odd question,” he remarks, clicking his tongue like a fussy mother hen. “I think about what I have to do to make it look presentable, of course. And then I count down the minutes until I come home to you.” He beams, proud of his response.

But pride turns to dismay when he catches a glint of disappointment in your eyes. His expression falls as he pulls you closer. “What’s the matter?”

You shake your head. “Nothing, nothing. Would you ever make me Valentine’s day chocolates?”

He tilts his head in surprise, then kisses your forehead. “I’d make you chocolate any day; all you have to do is ask.”

You seem to drop the matter, although he swears you sigh, “It’s not the same.”

He spends the next couple of days convincing himself he’d only imagined it, but something about your tone and attitude makes it stick in his brain. Whether you’d said it or not, there was clearly something behind your first question.

He asks you about it over dinner: “Is there a reason you want Valentine-themed chocolates in particular?”

“You’ve been thinking about that?” You laugh a little, surprised. “It’s not the Valentine theme I want; just the knowledge that you’re thinking of me on that day.”

He pesters you to elaborate—he’s always thinking of you, don’t you know that?—but you dodge his questions, leaving him in the dark once more.

Since you won’t give him any answers, he’ll just look for them on his own.

He texts Ushijima that night: “Why do you buy chocolate for the one you love?”

“Because they like it,” comes the reply. It’s simple, straightforward, but it’s not what he’s looking for.

He texts Semi the same question. The response is the length of a school essay, explaining the motivations of love in depths only a poet could reach, but it’s still not enough.

At work, your question echoes in his mind: What do you think about when you make chocolate, Satori?

What was he supposed to think about aside from the process? His customers?

He looks again at the order he’s making. It’s one he expects every year—it comes a week before Valentine’s, by a man whose wife adores chocolate covered strawberries. Tendō remembers it not only because of its consistency, but also because it’s always preceded by an order by the aforementioned wife, who asks for milk chocolate filled with raspberry créme that her husband is so fond of.

He wonders why they order the same thing at the same time every year. There’s no surprise in it, so what’s the point? Had he been in the husband’s place and you in the wife’s, he’d make sure to buy you something different every year, each present more extravagant than the last. He’d make sure that you’d always have something to look forward to in your married life.

A cheery little tune takes form beneath his breath as he pictures a life with you: silver bands around your fingers, lazy mornings on your days off, walks along the Seine.

He sweeps the excess chocolate off the molds in one clean stroke, sighing dreamily. You would buy a bigger, better apartment once you’d saved up enough, or even move to a quiet little cottage in the countryside.

His thoughts wander through the clouds as he mindlessly flits from one project to the next, forgetting to count the hours until his duty for today is through.

Lately, some of Tendō’s usual customers have been dropping by to say the same thing: there’s something different about his work these days. It’s not negative; on the contrary, actually, the quality’s spiked. But he can’t figure out what he’s been doing differently for the life of him.

It weighs on his mind from the time he clocks in to when he clocks out. He’s been using the same ingredients, the same equipment, so what was it?

His answer arrives in the form of the Chocolate Strawberry man, on the very eve of Valentine’s.

The man enthusiastically shakes Satori’s hand and thanks Him for his work, his hands warm and clammy from excitement despite the biting Parisian air.

“My wife would have liked to come along as well, but she’s preoccupied with the baby,” the man explains. “She wants you to know how much she enjoys your work, though. We look forward to it every year.”

“Then why not buy it off-season, when it’s cheaper?” Tendō asks. The man looks surprised, prompting him to continue. “With all due respect, you order the same thing every year, anyway, so why wait?”

The man laughs at the sincere look of curiosity in the chocolatier’s eyes, patting him on the shoulder, like a father to his son. “Why wait until birthdays to buy a cake? Why wait until Christmas to exchange gifts and set up the tree? It’s old advice, but it’s good: it’s always the thought that counts.” With one last pat on the back and an affectionate chuckle, the man wishes Tendō a good night—“Enjoy tomorrow with your loved ones.”

The stores are packed with the usual extremely last minute rush on Valentine’s morning, and for the first time, Tendō Satori is part of that crowd.

His arms are filled with the goodies he’d woken up early to buy: heavily discounted candies in tacky packages, a cheesy card, a bouquet, an offensively pink stuffed bear, crumpled foil balloons. (He’d made chocolates for you too; those were waiting in the fridge at home.) If it was an authentic Valentine’s experience you wanted, he decided, then it was an authentic Valentine’s experience you’d get.

He’d sent you out to pick up a cake across the city just before he’d left that morning, so the apartment is still empty when he returns. He checks his watch—only half an hour at most until you’d come back. Setting the bear on the counter, he gives it a determined grin.

“Think I can set everything up in fifteen?”

He’s just barely managed tying the balloons closed when he hears the knob on the front door jiggle as you unlock it.

“I’m home!” Your shoes thud to the floor, joined by Tendō’s footsteps as he hurries to help you with the cake. You thank him when he takes it out of your hands and leads you to the dining table while you chatter away. “Boy, did you see how many people are out there? It’s like all of Paris decided to run their errands this morning. It’s a miracle I got the cake here in one piece—what’s all this?”

Tendō grins, proudly motioning to his handiwork. The bouquet sits in the center of the table, surrounded by neatly arranged dishes of your favorite foods. The plush bear sits at the head, the card and candies tucked into its paws. Balloons reading “Happy Valentine’s” are tied to your chairs, gently swaying to and fro in greeting.

“Do you like it?” he asks. “I figured you wanted to do something for Valentine’s, but all the restaurants are booked so I had to improvise—”

You cut him off with a kiss, and another, then another. “I love it! I love you and I love”—you wave at the room—“all of this.” Another kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for thinking of me, Satori.”

He laughs as you hug him, squeezing as tight as you can. He thinks back to the strawberry man’s remark, “It’s the thought that counts.” And maybe, just a little, he’s starting to understand that there’s more to Valentine’s than business.

As you prepare the cake and gush over the bear, he pats the pocket of his jacket. The pretty little velvet box would have to wait until after lunch.

postscript: heyyy <3 i stopped writing for like three months srry LMAO but im back in business baby !! if i try hard enough and school stops kicking my ass maybe i’ll start posting twice a month ahaha ... unless?

#haikyuu fluff #tendou fluff #hq fluff #tendou satori #tendou x reader #haikyuu x reader #hq x reader

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hanatiny · 4 years ago

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[8:17] The Christmas Effect

a/n: hello @atinyinwonderland~ ❄ anon here - hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it, a very merry christmas to you ♡ a/n 2 - alternate title: Of Candy Canes, Mistletoes and a Little Bit of Magic

pairing: Hongjoong, Yunho & Wooyoung x f!reader

genre: fluff

word count: 2234

warnings: just to avoid confusion - this plays a few days before christmas 😚

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"Yunho, are you sure this is a good idea...? What if she thinks it's stupid or too cliché or whatever?"

Wooyoung fidgeted, adjusting his tie again and again as he glanced over at the taller male. He felt massively overdressed in comparison, not to mention that he was, to put it mildly, freezing his ass off in the chilly hallway of the apartment building.

"Relax, Wooyoungie! She loves us, so I'm sure she'll love what we've planned for today too~!" Yunho chirped in response, pouting a little when he noticed the wind messing up his blue mop of hair.

Both men jumped in surprise, ripped out of their thoughts by a muffled thud sounding in your apartment.

They exchanged a look - should they let themselves in and go check on you to make sure you were alright?

That decision was made obsolete as the door swung open and they were greeted by the sight of their suspiciously smug-looking girlfriend leaning against the doorframe with crossed arms.

"What are you two waiting for? Get in already, you're obviously freezing." You motioned for them to step inside your warm apartment, carefully pushing the door closed behind them.

"Do tell me why you're both here at," you paused, glancing at your wall clock as you led your two boyfriends into your kitchen and sat down at the counter, "quarter past 8 in the damn morning? On a Saturday, no less?"

"Why are you awake?" Wooyoung retorted cheekily, promptly earning himself a light smack on the back of his head by his boyfriend before wincing dramatically, "Ow..."

You giggled at the male's antics, "I love you but you're not exactly a quiet person, Woo. Anyway... where's Hongjoongie?"

"Could ask you the same thing. I thought he spent the night with you...?" Yunho tilted his head inquisitively at you.

"He did, and we stayed up late as usual. But he was gone when I woke up - hence why I fell out of bed so unceremoniously."

It was then that you both noticed Wooyoung tapping away at his phone furiously, cocking his eyebrow in faux confusion.

"What are you staring holes into my head for, huh? Can I not text my best friend in peace...?" He grumbled, pulling his hand back when you tried to reach for his phone over the counter.

You pouted before rolling your eyes and moving to get up with a sigh, "Yunnie, let me know what he's hiding... I'm gonna go get dressed so I look more like a presentable girlfriend rather than a demon from hell or something."

"Will do babe, love you!" the man in question called after you and chuckled in response as you shuffled off in the direction of your bedroom, smiling at the sound of the soft taps of your feet on the wooden floor.

Once you were certain to be out of earshot, he turned to wrestle Wooyoung for his phone, successfully using his superior height to his advantage.

"Relax, I'm not actually gonna tell her. I just wanna know what Hongjoongie said."

Wooyoung huffed, complying nonetheless as Yunho opened the message their boyfriend sent and shot the younger male a look because of the contact name, as if to ask him if he was actually serious. He got a half-hearted shrug in response.

joonghyung💙: I do wonder why I put up with you sometimes....

Wooyoung: cuz you love me, duh

joonghyung💙: ..Anyway, can you bring Y/n here asap? The boys are almost done, and I can only bribe them for so long

Yunho shook his head in amusement while typing a reply into the device.

Wooyoung: gotcha, we'll be there in 20

The phone didn't buzz with another message from Hongjoong after that, Wooyoung snatching and pocketing it in a panic when he saw you emerge from your bedroom.

You paid him no mind however and approached Yunho first, reaching up to pull him into a kiss, giggling and pulling away again when he playfully nipped at your bottom lip.

"Don't start things you won't finish, Yun- wait what's this?" You interrupted yourself upon seeing something poking out of the male's jacket pocket.

"I wanted to give these to you later but," he fumbled and retrieved the small pouch from his pocket to hand it to you, "merry early christmas."

You opened the pouch, taken by curiosity, just to find a pair of candy cane shaped earrings inside. Your eyes twinkled with happiness as you put them on.

"I love them so much! Thank you~!" You moved to embrace your tall boyfriend, Wooyoung gently stopping you with a hand on your chest and spun you to face him instead.

You blinked at him and tilted your head, seeing a smirk dancing on his lips. Something rustling above your head, you glanced upwards to be met with the sight of a mistletoe before looking back at the male in front of you.

"I helped him pick them out for you," Wooyoung pushed a strand of hair out of your face to admire the accessory dangling from your ear while he explained, "don't I deserve a thank you for that, doll~?"

Before you could even formulate a coherent answer, he dipped you and pressed his lips to yours in a kiss that undeniably left you breathless when he pulled away again.

You groaned lowly, "You're so over-the-top, Woo..."

"But that's why you love me, right?"

He was met with a cheeky grin, "Maybe~"

"Maybe?!" Yunho chuckled, ignoring Wooyoung's indignant squeal and interlocking his arm with yours, nudging you gently, "Come on, we've got somewhere to be. Sannie said he had something to show you~"

You raised your eyebrow inquisitively at how secretive he was being but ignored it in favor of the pouty, shorter of the two grasping your free hand.

"You know I love you both and Hongjoongie lots, I'm just teasing...~"

Wooyoung gave a low and happy hum in response, swinging your hands together lightly as you exited your apartment together.

You giggled while you heard the soft click of your door falling shut, stealing thoughtful, hopefully subtle glances at your boyfriends as you walked between them in the direction of the company they worked at - KQ, if you hadn't mixed anything up.

You considered it somewhat of an odd thing that you hadn't met either of them any sooner, you mused, considering how close you lived to their workplace.

But then again... you didn't really go out on your own much and they usually had quite packed schedules, so the fact that they not only met you in the first place but continued to make an active effort to find time for you in their busy life as idols was as near to a real-life miracle as you'd get.

And you wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. These boys were your world, and they loved you as much as you loved them.

You were so lost in your own head that you didn't even notice where you were, only now realizing you were standing in the building's main elevator as Wooyoung snapped his fingers in front of your face a couple of times.

"Earth to Y/n...? You good, love?" You blinked incredulously at him, as if you hadn't just spaced out for a solid five minutes or so, "Yeah, I'm fine. Was just thinking."

"Careful, don't strain your pretty little head too much." Your taller boyfriend hummed in amusement, pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead before ruffling your hair lightly.

"I'm not a baby, Yunnie..." You mumbled with a huff, patting down your hair while the elevator doors slid open and you all stepped out into the hallway.

Wooyoung flicked your forehead and chuckled, "You're our baby though."

"True. Anyway, I'm gonna go find Joongie. He owes me an apology for leaving without saying anything..."

You playfully blew kisses at your two lovers before jogging off in the direction of the man in question's studio, knocking softly at the door before stepping inside.

Judging by his lack of a reaction he must've not heard you at all, certainly not a surprise considering how loud his music was blasting.

You snuck up behind Hongjoong and placed your hands on his shoulders with a grin, startling him. He jolted with a high-pitched yelp, turning his music off and saving his progress on his file before whirling around in his chair and pulling you into his lap as he glared playfully.

"You sure scared me, princess... What's the occasion? Bit late for a Halloween gag." He laughed, caressing your neck gently while silently noting the earrings you were wearing - a gift he lended Yunho money for.

You rolled your eyes at his lame joke, punching his chest mockingly. "You know what the occasion is. You were gone when I woke up... didn't even text me."

He shrugged nonchalantly, "You know how work is, precious. No rest for the wicked...~"

"I know indeed," you sighed softly, "I just hoped I'd get at least a morning with you, it's been ages since our last one."

Hongjoong's face flushed at the realization that you were right, but you were thankfully too distracted by the hushed whispers and hurried steps outside the door as Wooyoung bolted down the hallway with Yunho in tow.

"These two are gonna be the death of us all... they're probably off to find San, but I think we should follow them to make sure they're not breaking anything again."

"Agreed." You rubbed your forehead in exasperation while Hongjoong nodded at you with a smile, feeling his phone buzz faintly in his pocket. He glanced at it, moving to gently push you off of him as he got up.

You snuggled into his side with a whine as he wrapped his arm around you, leaving the studio together and heading towards the practice room.

Hongjoong blew some of his hair out of his face, "Oh right! San said what he wants you to see is a surprise, so I'll have to cover your eyes for a bit..~"

You tilted your head questioningly at your boyfriend before shaking off your suspicious feelings and letting him do as he said while he led you to your destination.

You didn’t hear door opening so you assumed someone else had opened it beforehand, soft music reaching your ears instead.

Unable to keep your curiosity in check any longer, you reached up to pry Hongjoong's hands away from your face before he did it himself, "Hongjoongie I love you but I swear, if this is-" "Ta-da~!"

On any other day, you would have gotten upset about him for both hiding something from you and interrupting you while speaking.

Today was not such a day.

As you took in the sight of the unusually dark room, you concluded that the fairy lights giving off a warm glow must've been Yunho's idea while the small prettily decorated christmas tree in the corner - with a few candy canes dangling from the branches, you noted with an amused grin, was Wooyoung’s.

A fond smile grew on Hongjoong's face when your gaze finally landed on the large table in the middle of the room and you stepped closer to it, remaining unaware of the three men now all watching you from where they stood in the doorway.

You counted a total of four chairs around the neatly arranged table, one a different color than the others, before realizing that an array of all your favorite foods was set up for you to taste and enjoy.

"You guys did all this? For me? You shouldn't have...~" You sobbed happily, racing to embrace your boyfriends.

Hongjoong blushed faintly, thankful that you weren't aware and that they were able to pull off this little scheme, "W-well... we had a little help from the others," he glanced at the table shyly, "especially Seonghwa."

"I figured as much but still..." You trailed off with a grin, "I feel a little bad because I don't have anything prepared for any of you."

Wooyoung giggled, "Your love is more than enough for us!"

"We just wanted to give something back." Yunho chimed in, followed by Hongjoong, "Yeah, you do so much more for us than you think... our sweet, precious princess whom we love dearly."

Your face flushed a bright red, unsure of what to say as you instead went ahead and gave each of your boyfriends a loving kiss before dragging them to the table to eat.

Their big and genuine smiles said it all as you sat and laughed together, a question suddenly popping into your mind, “How did you manage to get the others out of here, anyway...? They’re always around here somewhere.”

Wooyoung’s eyes lit up, mouth stuffed with food, “We bribed-” Yunho slapped a hand over the younger male’s mouth, “What Wooyoungie means to say is we convinced them to give us some alone time with you... we don’t get to have much time with just the four of us, after all.”

“Indeed,” Hongjoong nodded, “and you know, I may have also convinced our manager to give us a few additional days off for the holidays...”

“You WHAT?!”

“Yeah. Merry christmas..?” He chuckled awkwardly, looking down at his lap while playing with one of his rings.

You hummed softly in mild amusement, “Truly a christmas miracle, all of this and all of you.”

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Taglist:

@galaxteez @inkigayeo @nightqueennyx @truebluejoong @twancingyunhoe @yunhoiseyecandy

#atinytreasureexchange #ateez #ateez fluff #ateez scenario #ateez hongjoong #hongjoong #hongjoong fluff #ateez yunho #yunho #yunho fluff #ateez wooyoung #wooyoung #wooyoung fluff #poly!ateez #i need the tags to work this one time....#like really badly #praying ✊#hanatiny writes

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supernatural-jackles · 5 years ago

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The Man on the Side of the Road - Part 13

Title: The Man on the Side of the Road - Part 13

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 3,834

Warnings: High Stress Levels, Mentions of the readers shitty Mom, FLUFF, All around cuteness!

Summary: Driving down the road, going well over the speed limit. You come across a man walking in the opposite direction with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. His head cast down as he walked. Your gut instinct is telling you to check on this man, no matter what your parents told you growing up. Little did you know just how much this would change your life.

The Man on the Side of the Road - Masterlist

A/N: Three parts left after this one! I hope y’all enjoy this part! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated! Happy Reading!!

Your head was pounding. Your vision was starting to blur and everything looked the same. You felt like you had been awake for forty eight hours. Your stomach was in knots, your chest was tight. You were beyond exhausted.

Finals were going to be the absolute death of you.

You buried your face in your hands, trying your hardest to clear your eyes and make them see one thing instead of eight. You had been at this for hours and nothing was sticking. You needed to pass this final. It was the most important one and you needed a seventy five in order to advance to the class you were taking next semester. You needed to learn the next twenty definitions and the process of seven more things and you literally had no idea how you were going to pull this off.

“Knock knock,” Dean called out from behind your door. You took a deep breath, trying to compose yourself.

“Come in,” you called out, trying your hardest to sound okay. Your bedroom door opened and Dean walked in. He was wearing his new pyjama pants that Sam had sent him as an early Christmas present. They had presents scattered all over them, and quite frankly they looked cute on him.

“Hey you,” he greeted you. “Still studying?”

“More like dying,” you sighed.

“Nothing’s sticking huh?” he frowned, taking a seat at the end of your bed, giving you a bit of space.

“Nope,” you shook your head. “I am not going to pass this final at this rate. I’m stressed out, exhausted and all I want to do is sleep for ten years.”

“Don’t say that, sweetheart. You just need a break,” he suggested. “Why don’t we go make some dinner and pie. I did the groceries so we’ve got some food in the house. I can make you one of my dad’s recipes and after we can make your grandma’s homemade apple pie recipe.”

“What are we going to make for dinner?” you smiled. “Mac and cheese? Winchester surprise?”

“I was thinking I could make your favourite chicken with some mac and cheese,” he said with a smirk.

“You know I can’t resist that,” you squinted at him.

“I know. That’s why I’m making it. You gotta come out of this room and you’ve gotta eat something that’s not dried cereal or leftover beef jerky from our road trip nearly two months ago.”

“You’re making me sound like I have a problem,” you giggled.

“You do. It’s called being overworked,” he chuckled. “Kitchen. Now. Then I need you to watch a short movie with me. Give yourself a break. After that, we can kiss a little and I will help you study for however long tonight,” he declared proudly, looking at you with a sweet smile

“Okay. We’ll go with your plan, chief,” you said with a weak smile. “You win this time. You had me at kissing you.”

“Let’s go.”

The second you got to the kitchen, you felt guilty for not having your books in front of you. The worry of not passing this final was really starting to get to you. You knew Dean was right; that you needed a study break because nothing was going to stick if you kept trying to cram it in. He offered to help you later, and you prayed to god that it would stick in better.

Dean had the pasta noodles on, and the chicken already in the oven, like he was planning this all along. All that was left was to grate the cheese, and he was already halfway done. You just got to sit there, and watch him do what he did best.

“When I was little,” you started, glancing up at Dean, “my mom tried to teach me how to bake. Red velvet cookies were what I wanted to make because I saw a picture in a recipe book one day. So she found one that would work and picked out an afternoon to do so. I thought it was going to be fun. You know, spending time with my mom, just the two of us. But I accidentally dropped an egg on the floor, and of course it broke. My mom was furious with me and sent me to my room for destroying her good kitchen floor. All because the egg slipped out of my hand and fell.”

“That is terrible,” Dean frowned. “Accidents happen all the time.”

“It was,” you nodded. “She came into my room hours later with a single cookie for me to eat. It was the first time I looked at something and felt like I didn’t deserve it.”

“Why are you telling me this?” He asked, turning to face you.

“Because I feel like I don’t deserve you sometimes. Especially on days like today when I’m cranky as hell, and not so fun to be around. You’re here making sure I eat and don’t overwork myself, and I don’t deserve to have someone as great as you in my life.”

“Yeah you do,” he argued with a smile playing on his lips. “You deserve to have someone looking out for you, Y/N. You do the same for me.”

“Well, I’m glad I’ve got you,” you smiled.

“Likewise,” he smiled softly. “When I was growing up, my dad was the one who taught me how to cook. He told me it was a valuable life skill that I would need one day. I was always taught that it wasn’t just a woman’s job to cook for the family. I don’t remember a whole lot of my parents together. I was four when she died. But what I do remember is that they were happy together, and I wanted to have that one day.”

“Do you still want that?” you asked him.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’ve got you. I know my parents loved each other. Even if I remember them arguing, and such. I asked my dad about her from time to time, and he always talked about her with that same look on his face that he had when he saw her. Their love was something real. That’s what I want.”

“The real thing,” you teased. “Growing up, my dad was my best friend. He had this big office in our house that no one was allowed in but me. He had a chair in there for me, and a computer there for me to do work at one end of his desk. It was our space that my mom couldn’t enter. It was a safe place for me. His Sunday’s were spent playing golf, away from my mom. Those were supposed to be the days I spent with her but she never wanted to. She had her girlfriends over for drinks and I’d be shoved into my bedroom, away from everyone and everything. My parents never spent any time together when I was growing up. My dad travelled during the week for work. I spent Saturdays with him. The more I think about it now, I wonder why they waited until I was twelve to get divorced. They were never happy together.”

“That’s not fair to you,” he commented.

“No it’s not. It’s like some sort of arrangement for them, I think,” you agreed. “You want what your parents had, and I want anything but what my parents have. How strange is that?”

“Have you ever gotten along with your mom?” Dean questioned as he poured the cheese into the noodles. “I know Ketch said to you at the diner that night that your mom loved him more than she did you. Is that true?”

“Unfortunately yes,” you shrugged. “And for the longest time, that was so hard for me. I mean, my mom loved my boyfriend more than she loved me, and I was her daughter. God, my mom was more excited when she found out I was going out with Ketch than I was. Sure, his family is the richest, and their house is a million times bigger than this. Ketch literally doesn’t need a college degree for crying out loud. It’s not like we ever struggled with money. I mean my dad still makes amazing money and he bought this house for me so I wouldn’t have to stay with my mom while I went to school.”

“He’s got connections to everything and your mom liked that huh?”

“It made her look good. It was good for the parties and for all the people at the country clubs. It’s like he’s fucking royalty or something,” you scoffed. “My mom didn’t want me to go to college at first, actually. That’s one of the reasons why I’m so late in graduating. I fought hard to go, and she would only let me go as far as here. My dad fought for me. He knew I wanted my own life. My mom was determined. A girl like me shouldn’t have to work hard for one. The job at the hospital was hard enough work. At one point, she even told me I wasn’t smart enough to get in, which was untrue. It’s just not me. I can’t just sit somewhere and have everything done for me. I’ve never been that way, even if my mom tried to raise me that way. It wasn’t right. I think she thought that Ketch was going to turn me into someone that she’d approve of. A housewife. Someone like her.”

“I could never see you sitting back and doing nothing,” he chuckled. “You work harder than a lot of people.”

“Thanks, Dean,” you grinned. “I’m at the point where I’m trying not to care about her. I don’t answer my mom’s texts anymore. Her calls are ignored. I’m done dealing with it all. All it ever does is upset me and I’m tired of putting myself in that position. I gotta move past it all.”

“Good for you, sweetheart,” he nudged your shoulder. “You graduate in June right?”

“Maybe! If I pass this final and all my classes next semester, then yes,” you let out a dry laugh.

“You will,” he reassured you. “You’ll get home tomorrow feeling relieved that it’s over with and that you aced it. I’ll pick up some pizza and beer on the way home, and we’ll celebrate.”

“And I can pick the movie?” you asked with a wide smile.

“‘Course you can,” he winked.

You and Dean ate dinner with a constant flow of conversation. For the first time all day, you felt relaxed, and you knew that was going to do your brain some good. When you were to go back to studying, there was a good chance you were going to retain more than you could before.

Dean was the first one to finish, and he instantly started on the dishes. You couldn’t help but watch him as he worked. His muscles flexed beneath his shirt every so often. It had been a whole two months since you had slept with him that night, and the morning after. Your feelings had only grown stronger for him. You were taking it slow, enjoying the ride as you went on. Since you already lived together, you kept the sleepovers until Friday and Saturday nights. You didn’t want to rush this and ruin things. You wanted to still have that friendship between you. It was the most important thing to you.

You were slowly but surely moving past the whole, not good enough for him thing. There were still days when you felt like you weren’t good enough for him, and that was normal. Most of the time, he was the one who made you feel like you were. He was always making sure you knew that you were doing good, especially in the moments when you felt like you weren’t. There wasn’t a single doubt in your mind that you weren’t head over heels for him. This had the potential to become what his parents had. This had the potential to be something amazing.

You got up from the counter, placing your utensils in the sink and your plate on top of his. You reached for the towel, taking the first mug out of the sink, drying it off. Dean gave you a soft smile before returning back to what he was doing. Your heart began to race in your chest.

You wondered exactly what was going through his mind. If he was thinking about dinner, or anything else in specific. You wondered if he looked at you and thought the same thing you did when you looked at him. If he thought you were beautiful. If he thought he was lucky to have someone like you in his life. It was the little things.

There was a part of you that wanted to tell him that you loved him. You knew it wouldn’t be the worst thing to say, especially with how long he had been in your life. But at the same time, you were always the one who expressed how you felt first and that never worked out for you in the end. It was fear this time around. You didn’t want to push it so far only to have it crash and burn in the end. Dean was all you had at this point. You could wait. You could wait a lifetime for him. He was worth it.

“Pie time?” he chuckled, pulling the apples out of the fridge. A few weeks ago, you had decided to go apple picking one Sunday. He remembered the day you met him that you mentioned something about your grandma’s recipe needing fresh autumn apples. He thought it would be a good date idea for the two of you and it was. It was one of the memories you think about that makes you smile.

“Pie time,” you nodded.

You opened up the cupboard, grabbing your book of recipes. Dean was already pulling out everything you needed from the fridge. You stifled your laugh, knowing just how excited he was for this. Quite frankly you were too. He was like a kid when he was excited and you loved that about him.

He peeled and cut the apples while you made the pie crust. You worked side by side, bumping into one another a few times while you worked. You tried your hardest to focus on the pie in front of you, but when he stood so close, you couldn’t help but look over.

“You’re cute,” he muttered, taking a slice of apple, bringing it up to his lips.

“You’re cute,” you smiled, taking a bit of flour before flicking him. The white dust covering part of his shirt and his cheeks.

“You’re going to pay for that,” he threatened with a laugh, placing his hand in the flour before rubbing your face. “Much better.”

“Dean!” you shrieked, letting out a laugh. You smirked, inching closer to him, wiping your cheek on his shirt. He gasped, laughing in the process. “Okay, I actually have to finish this if you want to eat this tonight.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, flicking you once more before getting back to work.

You managed to get everything ready within half an hour. Dean added a lot of apples into the pie, and extra cinnamon. You smiled when he helped you with the top of the pie, patting it down with you. Your hands brushing against one anothers every so often. He took it when it was done, and put it in the oven for you. You were really looking forward to tasting it after this.

His hands made their way to your hips, backing you up to the opposite counter until you hit it. He lifted you up quickly, his body settling between your legs before his lips were on yours. His kisses started off slow and soft; chaste. Moving in a perfect sync with yours as his large hands travelled over the length of your back. You melted against him, allowing yourself to enjoy being with him like this. It was really nice to have a boyfriend that wanted to kiss you the way he did on a constant basis.

“You want to watch a movie, or a few episodes of Dr Sexy? You’re nearly caught up,” he pointed out as he placed a slice of pie on your plate. “Fuck, this pie is amazing.”

“Dr Sexy!” you stated. “Gotta see if Dr Sexy and Dr Tara get together. I’m glad you like the pie.”

“I love how into this show you are,” he let out a laugh.

“This is your fault,” you side eyed him. “I wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for you.”

“Hey, this is on you too. I had no idea you had a medical kink,” he winked.

“So do you, Winchester,” you teased. “You and I both know if I dressed as a nurse, you’d have a field day.”

“There is no denying that,” he shrugged. “You’d make such a hot nurse.”

Dean pulled it up on the tv as you sat down in your designated spot. Right next to Dean. It was one of your favourite parts of movie nights. He’d always end up playing with your hair while the movie ended, and you soaked up every second of the attention he was giving you.

“Can I ask you something?” Dean asked about halfway through the episode.

“You just did,” you turned to face him with a wide smile. “What’s up?”

“What’s the plan after you graduate?”

“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure yet,” you answered. “I have lots of options, and I think that’s what matters the most.”

“Which one sounds the best?” he questioned.

“Teacher’s college,” you breathed out. “The one my mom would hate the most.”

“For that reason?”

“That’s a bonus,” you chuckled. “But I think I could make a good career as a teacher.”

“My mom was a kindergarten teacher,” he revealed, giving you a soft smile. “I think that would be an amazing career path for you. You know I’ll support you in anything you want to do.”

“Thank you,” you smiled. “I have to apply at the end of January, so I still have time. But it’s definitely something I’ve thought about for a little while now.”

“You’re good at helping people. I’ve learned so many things from you,” he added. “You’d make an amazing teacher.”

The episode finished, and you needed to get back to studying. You couldn’t relax any longer. You needed to get these last few things down before you could go to bed. You flopped down on your bed, opening up your notebook. Dean was in not long after you with two mugs of peppermint tea. You knew that there was nowhere he’d rather be than here with you, making sure you got this material down.

It was around midnight when you packed it all up and crawled into bed. Your eyes were drooping, and words started to blend together. You studied the best you could and you felt a million times better than you did earlier. Dean helped you get down the last eighteen definitions and you had memorized the processes you needed to. You have this final in the bag.

Dean left your room to go lock up the house, something he did nightly for you. You flicked your side light off before curling into your pillow. A few moments later, you felt your bed shift, the comforter moving just a little, before the bed dipped next to you. Dean was sleeping next to you tonight.

“Gonna sleep with you tonight,” he whispered, linking his pinky with yours.

“Good,” you muttered. “Night handsome.”

“Night sweetheart,” he mumbled, reaching over to place a kiss to your forehead.

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

You walked through the front door with a smile playing on your lips. Friday were the best days. The start of the weekend. The best damn part of the week. You kicked your shoes off, heading straight for the kitchen with your bag in hand. You couldn’t wait to start the weekend off right with the man you loved.

“I’m home!” you called out.

“Hey beautiful,” a familiar voice filled your ears. Your smile only grew wider. Your eyes glanced over to the counter where he stood. The sleeves of his flannel shirt rolled up to his elbows, revealing his strong, toned forearms that drove you crazy.

“Hey sexy,” you winked at him. “How was your day?”

“Great. Bobby gave me a raise today,” he revealed. “He said I had been working really hard the last few months and it’s paying off.”

“Dean! That’s amazing,” you grinned widely, dropping your bag to the ground. You circled the counter quickly, reaching Dean in an instant. You stood on your tiptoes, your lips crashing to his, kissing him hard as you wrapped your arms around his shoulders. “I’m so proud of you!”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” he smiled, licking his bottom lip. “You’re my rock.”

“And you’re mine,” you whispered, reaching up to kiss him once more.

“How was your day, sweetheart?” he asked, tugging you in close to him.

“Good. No tears today. No parents to call. And it’s Friday,” you chuckled. “Today’s a good day.”

“How’s our baby girl?” he questioned. His right hand slipped from the small of your back to your growing bump.

“Why don’t you ask her?”

Dean kneeled down to your stomach, pressing his lips to the bump. His hand held either side of your stomach. It had to be the best thing you had seen and he did it over and over again. She already had her daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger. She was going to be a daddy’s girl for sure. This was exactly what you wanted.

“Hey baby girl,” he said softly. “You being good for your mom in there? Not kicking her insides too much?”

“Not today,” you whispered.

“I love you, peanut,” he muttered, pressing another kiss to your stomach. “And I love you, sweetheart.”

“Not as much as we love you,” you smiled.

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

You shot right up, your eyes opening widely. Your heart was pounding in your chest. You swallowed hard, realizing that it was just a dream and it was the middle of the night. Dean was still fast asleep, facing your direction.

For a moment, it actually felt real. It actually felt like you and Dean were going to end up together, and you were having a baby together. It actually looked like life was looking good for the two of you. God, the way he kissed your stomach. Ugh, and the way he kissed you. It was everything you wanted and more. It was everything you wanted with the person you loved.

“You okay?” Dean breathed out, shifting a little. He never even opened his eyes.

“Yeah,” you whispered.

“Bad dream?” He asked you, popping one eye open.

“No. Good dream. Best dream I’ve had in awhile. I’m just sad it came to an end,” you admitted.

“Dr Sexy?”

“Something better,” you rolled your eyes. “I’ll tell you some other time.”

“What if you forget?” He cocked his eyebrow with his one eye still open.

“Trust me. I will never forget this dream.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you like it? What was your favourite part? Share your thoughts with me via reblog, reply or send me an ask! Your response is what keeps me sharing stories like this!

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dinogoofy · 4 years ago

Note

I'm back darling~ this time I'd love sth for Cassie & her female bestie 😁 bc the xmas is near so Imma give u these prompts: 'I’m a grown adult. I don’t want to take a picture with Santa Claus', 'Hey, want to help me get my parents off my ass about not having a date?'. Have a good day!

Had a ton of fun with this one, hope you enjoy!!!

Cassie Cage x F! Reader

Meeting the parents- I mean, meeting Santa.

----

It was a cold, quiet morning in your apartment. You were enjoying a warm cup of coffee in the early hours, a cheezy hallmark move playing on your TV as you try to work yourself into the holiday spirit. It had been a long year. Your phone dings once, but you ignore it, too focused on who was going to marry Santa. When it kept going off you finally checked it with a sigh.

Cassie-lassy

Hey

Hey, can I ask a favor?

Stop watching Christmas movies and answer me

Cassie was your best friend, but you weren't sure if you liked where this was going.

How did you even know that?

Anyway, whats up?

My parents are throwing a Christmas party this week and are hounding my ass about a date.

And?

Do u think u could pretend to be my gf, just for a day? Just to get them to leave me alone.

You almost choked on your coffee when you read the text. Damn, hallmark movie coming true? Your heart fluttered a bit. Cassie was your best friend. You didn't have feelings for her! That was ridiculous. All she needed was a... friend-to-friend favor. Plus, her dad was super rich, they were totally going to have good food.

Sure, when?

Uh, today good?

The lack of planning was exactly what you should've expected from Cassie. You laughed and drug your hands across your face, she was so lucky that you had the day off.

Bleh, ok. Ur dad better have some good food.

U bet ur ass! Pick u up at 6.

You laughed, and slowly picked yourself off the couch. You hoped that you still had an ugly sweater somewhere in your closet.

The time flew by unfortunately fast. You were rushing to gather your things as Cassie at outside in her 1965 red stingray corvette, (with a mako body) you loved that car so much. You couldn't help but geek out everytime you see it, but alas, there was definitely no time for that today. You frantically locked your apartment as you ran down the steps.

"Sorry I'm late!" Cassie laughed as you got in the car, and that awful flutter feeling returned. Oh no. This is not happening.

"Its chill, I doubt Dad will care if we're late to his party anyway." Your eye twitched, smile still wide on your face. You liked to be on time no matter where you were going, and by the look she was giving you you knew that Cassie said that just to annoy you. You rolled your eyes at her as she took off, the rumble of the car's engine instantly calming you.

Damn. You had never seen a house that big. As Cassie rolled through the big gates you continued to gawk at the beautiful architecture.

"I knew your dad was rich but, seeing how rich he is... is..."

"I know right? He moves into a new house almost every 6 months almost. Each one is bigger then the last one." You felt light headed just imagining how it must feel to have so much money. By the time Cassie parked and the two of you walked to the big doors, you could hear people loud and clear inside the house. This was way different then the tiny little Christmas reunions you were used too.

"I might throw an arm around you and call you nicknames a bit to make it seem legit, are you ok with that? I'm already asking a lot by getting you to come with me in the first place, the last thing I want is for you to be uncomfortable." You laughed.

"Cassie it's fine, all that comes with the 'pretend girlfriend' package." She sighs in relief, knocking on the door.

"Just making sure."

The door opens after a few moments, Cassie's mother answering the door, delighted at the sight.

"Cassie you made it just in time! Your dad just got his Ninja Santa costume out of storage. You should- oh, who is this?" You shyly waved, face flushing more from the situation than the cold. You were glad you were already blushing when Cassie links her fingers through your own.

"Mom, this is my girlfriend." Her mom's face lights up, but you would be lying if you said her obvious military posture and build didn't intimidate you. You introduced yourself and shook her hand with your free hand, making sure to shake with a firm grip.

"Its great to meet you. I was wondering when Cassie was going to bring someone home." Cassie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as you awkwardly laughed. Her mom, Sonya, invited the two of you in. Your jaw almost dropped at the inside of the house.

The house was incredibly decorated. Wreaths, lights, an army of elves on the shelves, everything you could think of that spoke Christmas. A giant buffet on the right side of the room and a giant tree in the center of it all.

"Holy shit Cas," you wispered, she giggled squeezing your hand.

"I know right. They overdo it every year."

The rest party was amazing. You met many of Cassie's friends and family friends from the special forces. Kids were livey and running around the place. Even though the mansion and beautiful and intimidating, everything seemed to speak family to you. Every once in a while you would catch Cassie staring at you, but she would always wave you off, face flushing. It couldn't be an actual blush though, this was all an act, right?

"Ho ho ho, Ninja Butt-kicker Santa Claus has arrived!" A voice boomed from the center of the room. Adults laughed while children screamed with delight, booking it towards the gaint tree. Cassie sighed in embarrassment.

"I was beginning to wonder when dad would show up." You tried hard not to laugh when you dragged her to the middle of the room, catching a glimpse of her dad's "holiday spirit".

Kids hopped on his lap one by one, telling him what they want for Christmas, and (probably thanks to their parents,) each one was giving the wanted present and a fake ninja-star. You had thought every child was given a present and taken a picture, so surely he was going to "retire" for the night, right?

"Ho ho ho, Santa thinks that one, special little girl has yet to take a picture." He looked straight at Cassie and winked. She immediately recoiled.

"No. No no no. I'm a grown adult, I don't want to take a picture with Santa Claus." Everyone chuckled around the two of you. And Sonya walked over to push her into the center of the room with her dad, camera firm in her hands. Cassie sent an embarrassed look your way as she was forced to sit on Santa's lap.

"And what would you like for Christmas Cassie Cage?" Cassie looked like she wanted to melt away form her spot. Only answering because she had to.

"I don't want anything Da- Santa." Her Dad let out another Jolly, fake laugh.

"Sure you do! Santa knows everything, you know!" He hands her a small box, and winks at her.

"You know what Santa wants for Christmas? Grandkids." The crowd laughed, and your face immediately flushed a dark red, Cassie almost looking the same way. She covered her face as she hopped off her Dad's lap and speedwalked back to you without even opening the box.

The rest of the party went by so fast, and before you knew it, the two of you were walking back to her car in the cold.

"This was a ton of fun cas," She laughed, you wondered if she knew that you were still holding hands.

"Yeah, I'm glad you came with me. Sorry if my parents were a little overbearing." You shrugged, letting her know that it was fine. The silence after was unbearable. You wondered for a moment if you should ask her out. The party was nice, really nice, but it was honestly just because you were 'pretending' to be her girlfriend. You think she might've thought so too. You opened your mouth to speak, but she beat you to it.

"Hey, so, what if we made this whole... 'fake girlfriend' thing, a 'real girlfriend' thing?" You blushed, giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

"I think I'd like that." Her face lit up with a smile, squeezing your hand back. She stuck her hand in her pocket, and looked surprised for a moment, stopping in her tracks to pull out the box from earlier.

"I forgot about this thing."

"Mabye you should open it?" She let go off your hand to gingerly untie the bow, taking the lid off the box and tucking it underneath it. Her face flushed.

"It's mistletoe." Your face flushed in return. So thats what he ment. Cas started to nervously mumble something, closing the lid on the box, but you held a hand over hers before she put it away.

She instantly kissed back when you leaned in to complete the tradition. The gentle moonlight kiss becoming the only Christmas miracle you needed.

You were definitely living in a hallmark movie.

#cassie cage #mk imagine #mkx mortal kombat x #mk11 ultimate #mk x reader #mortal kombat

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quicksilversquared · 5 years ago

Text

A Christmas Liar

After Ms. Bustier mentioned the annual school charity fundraiser in class, Lila seems determined to raise funds for her own "charity", aka herself. There's no way that Marinette is going to let that fly, but how successful will she be in taking Lila down in time for the holidays?

links in the reblog

It started with a normal morning in Ms. Bustier's homeroom class.

"As you all know, it's fast approaching the holiday season, and our collège always does a fundraiser for a charity before Christmas," Ms. Bustier told the class, smiling widely. The first few cut-out paper snowflakes had appeared in the classroom window that morning, and they all knew that the collection would only grow as December went on. "So remember to remind your parents to check their emails for details soon! Our student representatives have been hard at work brainstorming what to do this year."

Marinette smiled, even as she kept drawing in her sketchbook. Jagged Stone had commissioned an outfit for his Christmas present to Penny from her, and wanted the design ready to be sent to his seamstress as soon as possible so that he could have it ready in plenty of time. He had told her not to rush, of course- "you have so much going on, and I don't want to put you behind in your studies!"- but Marinette wanted to try to get things done early.

After all, akumas could appear and eat up her free time without any notice, and so she was going to take advantage of any extra time when she could.

"Oh, a charity fundraiser?" Lila asked from the back of the room, and Marinette mentally sighed before setting her pencil down. Clearly she wasn't going to get anything done now, if she had to deal with Lila's nonsense, and her nonsense-o-meter was going wild. "That's so wonderful! Do you think that- oh, no, I suppose it would come off a little self-appreciating, never mind..."

"No, go ahead!" Ms. Bustier reassured her quickly. "What is it that you wanted to ask, Lila?"

"Well, I was wondering if maybe I could put forth one of my charities to be considered for the fundraiser's proceeds," Lila told the class, and even without turning around, Marinette could picture the way that Lila would press a hand to her chest delicately, doing her best to look bashful. Adrien's eye roll from in front of her told Marinette that her mental picture probably wasn't very far off. "But I suppose that could come off as, well..."

Ms. Bustier perked up. "Oh, how could I have forgotten that we had someone in our class who had done so much charity work before? I don't think it would come off as self-serving at all! In fact, it could add an extra connection and an element of interest to the whole thing if the school picked one of your charities. Marinette, could-"

"Student council has already settled on a charity for this year's fundraiser," Marinette said at once, not even bothering to look up. She could see exactly where this was heading, and she was going to put a stop to it. Now.

In front of her, she could see Adrien's hastily-hidden grin out of the corner of her eye.

"But this is special, Marinette," Ms. Bustier implored. "Surely they'll understand and want to support a fellow student's charity efforts! This is a pretty unique opportunity!"

"We've had multiple meetings about it, thinned our selections down, did all of the background checks and verification on our final pick, filled out all of the paperwork to submit to Mr. Damocles, and let the charity know so that we could get more information to post around," Marinette informed her, because seriously? Ms. Bustier was going to fall for it, just like that? Also, she was super glad that she had pushed for the council to make the decision early this year, because at this time the previous year, they had been working on finalizing everything still, which would have made a last-minute change like this possible. It wouldn't have been fun, or easy, but it could have been possible. "We can't change it now."

Lila let out a small sigh from the back, and Marinette turned around just in time to see her shoulders slumping. "Oh, that's really a shame, then. For a minute there, I was picturing how much good I- we could do for the children in Africa with a bit of extra funding, but I suppose if they've already picked a charity..."

Ms. Bustier glanced from Marinette to Lila. "Marinette, do you think that we could do two charities instead of one, perhaps? It would just be so nice to be able to support Lila's charity!"

Marinette was honestly going to scream.

"I'm afraid that that would make things too complicated," she said instead, politely as she could and with as little teeth-gritting as possible. "We had a couple fundraiser activities in mind- which we agreed was important, in case an akuma attack keeps people away from an in-person event- plus a couple volunteering opportunities that we wanted to offer. Plus, there would be all of the paperwork and the background checks that would have to be done to add in another charity, and that's not exactly a short process. It's a lot of work."

There was also the fact that Lila didn't have any charities, and any money they earned would- if she managed to sneak her way through their careful screening process- no doubt go straight into her own pockets.

"Oh, I could fill out paperwork so that you guys don't have to!" Lila offered eagerly. "I don't mind, it's for the kids-"

"And the email letting parents know about our fundraiser and our selected charity is already scheduled to go out today," Marinette continued, raising her voice just ever-so-slightly to drown Lila out and making a mental note to talk to Aurore to actually get that email sent over lunch. It had originally been planned for tomorrow, actually, but Marinette wasn't going to give Lila any ins. "So the deadline for any changes has passed." She pasted on her best fake smile, trying not to let any signs of a smirk through as she looked back at Lila. "It's just not possible for this year, I'm afraid. Maybe you can bring it up for consideration earlier next year."

"I suppose that's fair," Ms. Bustier agreed. She smiled over at Lila. "It's my own fault for not bringing it up earlier, it just slipped my mind. Hopefully your charities will still get plenty of support! But right now, we're going to move on to today's lesson. If everyone could please get out your notebooks, we're going to start with a quick video..."

Marinette smiled to herself as she put her sketchbook away and opened up her notebook to a fresh page. This probably wasn't the last that she would hear about Lila's so-called "charities", but at least Ms. Bustier had dropped the subject and she wouldn't be getting pressure from that angle.

Now she just had to be ready for Lila's other attempts to get her hands on charity money.

"I am so glad that you already had stuff all finalized," Adrien said in Marinette's ear as they headed for their next class. Lila was ahead of them, surrounded by several of their classmates. "I got worried for a minute there when Ms. Bustier hopped on the Lila's charity thing."

"I'm just glad that it's a school-wide thing, not just a class-wide fundraiser," Marinette admitted, glancing around to make sure that no one was going to overhear them. She had managed to get out of being blamed for deliberately denying Lila's "charity" a chance to get more money because she wasn't the only person in charge of the fundraiser, and she didn't want anyone in their class mishearing and blowing things out of proportion. Again. "I mean, it's obvious that Lila jumped on that because I'm class representative and she wanted to put me in a bad spot, but she couldn't when I'm just one of the people involved in that process."

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. I was so sure that she was going to drop it after you mentioned the background check and verification thing, though, and then she didn't. Which is...weird, honestly."

"Not really. If we tried going forward and I was the one doing the check, she would probably just say that I was making stuff up about her charity out of jealousy or spite and that was why it failed or something." Marinette had thought the same, honestly, but it became apparent pretty quickly what Lila was up to. Lila wasn't nearly as sly as she thought she was. "I'm surprised that she didn't jump on that and complain that I was just making the background check thing up because I was doubting her. Ignoring, of course, that we want to have statistics in our flyers and posters and emails about how the money is used, and how much work they get done, and their rating by a charity watchdog. That's standard."

"Which is why she wanted to do her own paperwork," Adrien added. He made a face. "I bet that she's still going to try to piggyback off of the fundraiser somehow, or at least rope people into donating some of their own money. I already heard Rose bringing it up, and Alya mentioned something to Nino about posting something on the Ladyblog."

Marinette winced. That wasn't good. She would have to forward the link to their charity watchdog site to Alya later on, maybe under the guise of providing a resource to get all sorts of charity statistics at once to put in her posting. That didn't guarantee that Alya would look at it, of course, but it was worth a try.

(Also, she could use her throwaway account to point out the charity's questionable status, and then- well, hope that other people would see her post and upvote it.)

"She's really going too far now," Adrien said after a moment, pulling Marinette out of her brainstorming of how she could keep Lila from pocketing a bunch of charity money. "I mean, she has been for a while, especially when she tried to get you expelled, but this is just the cherry on top of a heap of awful. I just don't know... I mean, she's sunk her claws in really deep now, I don't know how to fix it. I guess I should have recognized it earlier, but..."

"Well, there's no point in worrying about what we should have done earlier now," Marinette said as they went through the door for their next class, though she couldn't help but feel a bit validated, since she had wanted to stop Lila's lies ages ago. "We can brainstorm later, if you can get away for lunch. I was going to talk to Aurore then anyway."

Adrien looked puzzled for a moment, then caught on with a grin. "Aha, right, since she's on student council too. Is she the one in charge of submitting paperwork?"

"No, that was me. She's in charge of sending out the emails to families." Marinette grinned up at him. "And I bet that we can do a bit of damage control with that."

-0-0-0-0-

Aurore was all too willing to bring her lunch over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery instead of eating in the school cafeteria. After all, she told them as they headed upstairs, her lunch was leftovers and best served warm, and the cafeteria microwave was gross.

Marinette could believe that. Aurore had already floated the idea of setting up either a roll of paper towels near the microwave so that people could cover their dishes to keep the contents from exploding all over, or going the more environmentally-friendly route of having microwave plate covers instead, which could then be washed daily in the industrial dish washers that the cafeteria kitchen had. Clearly it was a Big Deal for her.

"You said you wanted to talk about the email right?" Aurore asked finally, finishing her grumbling about someone who had apparently microwaved fish and ugh, the smell was awful. "I thought it was meant to be going out tomorrow? I have a draft that's almost complete, I was just going to review it tonight to make sure that it was perfect, but do you need something changed?"

"We had a situation come up in our class this morning," Marinette told her, leading the way into their kitchen. Her mom had left out food for her and Adrien, it just had to be warmed up and assembled. "I don't know how much you've heard about the new girl in our class..."

Aurore frowned. "Lila? The one with the questionable stories?"

Adrien laughed. "Okay, so we aren't the only ones with working brains in the school, that's good to know. Yeah, her."

It didn't take long to get Aurore caught up, and predictably, she was furious at the idea of Lila trying to hijack their fundraiser funds.

"This is going to go one of two ways, I know it," she told them, pulling out her laptop and getting it set up next to her on the table. "Either this girl is going to make up a charity- name, mission, and all- or she's going to find a charity that already exists, and then she'll claim credit for it. The first one is easy enough to disprove, because no one will be able to find anything about the charity. We could just put a reminder in the email about checking charities out before donating to them, and then enter that link we've been using. But the second one...well, she could use their rating and reputation to collect money, and then- if I'm reading her character right- keep it all for herself."

They all thought about that.

"Well, if Alya posts anything on the Ladyblog, in theory any donations would have to be electronically, though a website," Marinette pointed out after a minute. "As for in-person donations, I would say that people should use checks instead of cash, but I don't know how many people use checks anymore, and besides, that's not going to stop her from cashing them if she wants."

Adrien made a choked, horrified noise in the back of his throat. "It- it won't? How do you even know that?"

"But it might deter her, since that's a traceable crime," Aurore pointed out, her eyes gleaming. She snapped her fingers. "And as for the Ladyblog- if she's capable of creating a website that looks decent, she might give Alya a link for that. So that's still a problem-"

"-unless we notice that and bring it to the attention of the police!" Adrien exclaimed, sitting up straight. He winced. "I'd hate to get Alya in trouble, but otherwise people will be thinking that they're doing something good and helping people in need when actually, they're just giving Lila spending money. And if she told them that Lila gave her the link, then she'd get off pretty fast."

Marinette nodded. Alya would probably be a thundercloud that they had gone to the police first instead of her, but she couldn't say that they hadn't warned her. She just never listened when it came to Lila.

"So we can put in a line reminding people to check charities before they donate and to make sure that any links they follow for charities go to the actual website," Aurore finished. Her fingers tapped away at her keyboard. "My older brother is a computer whiz, so I can text him and ask about things people should look for to make sure that a site is the real deal. Then I can get that typed up and sent during study hall, so it'll go out today."

Marinette could only grin. Maybe Aurore could be hotheaded at times, but there was no denying that she could really pull through. "That would be great."

Unsurprisingly, Lila sold a sob story to Alya about her charity's website being down at the moment, so she couldn't provide a link right away.

"We're working on it, of course, because this is the best time of the year to get donations and we're going to fall so far behind with every day we miss, but the entire system is down and our tech guy is having trouble," Lila told Alya, looking positively wilted. "It's so upsetting! The longer it's down, the fewer people find out about our work, and the less budget we have to work with next year."

"That's terrible!" Alya exclaimed, frowning, and Marinette exchanged an exasperated look with Adrien. "I just wish there was a way to help..."

"Maybe you could post about our school charity instead, for the time being," Marinette suggested dryly. "Since Lila's charity is on the table for next year anyway."

"But we need budget for this year!" Lila repeated, and- yep, she was gritting her teeth. The glare that she flashed Marinette left no question that she had been trying to set up some sort of fake website and the email the night before had thrown her off. Either she was trying to make a more convincing website or- more likely- she was just hoping to wait until the reminder to be careful had faded from people's minds. Or she had had to abandon the online idea entirely in favor of throwing a pity party for herself in hopes of getting cash donations with the help of their classmates, if that hadn't already been the plan all along. "If we wait for a maybe next year, we could go into debt and collapse!"

Alya was looking worried now. "Marinette, are you sure that the student council can't switch charit-"

"It's all set up. We can't change anything, Alya, we established that yesterday." Marinette spared a glance at Lila, who was clearly working to keep a poker face. "Maybe Max can help you with your website issues, he's quite good at stuff like that. We wouldn't want you missing out on donations, after all."

"Oh, I couldn't," Lila simpered, glancing towards Max as well. "We, uh- well, my tech guy is back in Italy, so they wouldn't be able to work together, and he's quite protective of the system. Plus we were in the middle of upgrades when everything crashed, so that makes everything more complicated."

"We'll figure something out, Lila," Alya promised, patting the other girl's arm. Marinette took that as her cue to leave, but she wasn't going to go far. She needed to be able to overhear, after all. "We don't want those kids in Africa to suffer, after all! We can brainstorm before class."

Adrien caught Marinette's eye as she came back to her seat. "It sounds like she's just going to go another way, but isn't about to give up."

"No, she's got the idea of getting money into her head, and she's not about to give it up." Marinette kept her voice low, so that no one would overhear. "Which means that we need to come at the problem at a different angle. Any suggestions?"

Adrien looked unexpectedly delighted at being consulted, but then he paused, clearly not coming up with any ideas. "Uh."

"My first instinct would be to try to warn Alya and Rose and whoever else is going to get sucked in, but we all know how well that would go over," Marinette said, just to fill in the space. "They would clamp down and refuse to listen."

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. But I like what you did yesterday, where you made it sound like you would have gone along if you could and suggested trying next year. Then everyone thought that you weren't fighting against her-"

"-and was actually willing to listen!" Marinette finished, smiling. It was an approach that Tikki had suggested, and she was glad that it had worked. Well, sort of. It had worked in the moment, but just- apparently- pushed the problem off for later. "Yeah, that was nice."

"Maybe we could do something similar now," Adrien suggested. "And offer to be helpful by providing that link still. Like, it doesn't need the website, right? Just the charity name."

Marinette grinned. "Right. And there's no way that she can get around not telling anyone her charity's name. And if she does...well, either it's made up, or she's going to pick a real charity and we can find the real website."

"And congratulate Lila on her site getting back up so quickly," Adrien added with a small laugh. "It's a pain to deal with her, but I'm actually curious about what she's planning on doing going forward. Like, how long can she play this game? She's going to run out of escapes soon enough."

"Yeah, I don't know..." Marinette trailed off as Alya slid into her seat, and she and Adrien exchanged one last look before he turned back to the front, greeting Nino as his best friend entered the classroom.

"Man, I can't believe what bad luck Lila has, to have her charity's website crash at a time like this," Alya said glumly, sliding into her seat. "Lila is stressed about it, of course, but she has so many other obligations for her other charity work that she can't go out and do a collection, not that it would be easy with her throat still recovering from her laryngitis surgery. She can't be out in the cold for more than ten minutes without it causing a ton of pain, which can't be fun at all."

...Naturally.

"I want to help, but if we don't have a working link to put on the Ladyblog, I just don't know..." Alya trailed off. "I mean, we could do a door-to-door, I guess, but that only ever gets fairly minimal donations. And there's so many people who set up near the Eiffel Tower, we wouldn't have a chance. But- oh!" Alya perked up as another thought hit her. "We could put posters up at school, so more people know about it and maybe help us!"

Yeah, how about no.

"That's actually against school rules," Marinette said idly, flipping through her notebook as she waited for Ms. Bustier to call for a start to class. "All posters posted in the building have to be approved by Student Council normally, so that the walls don't get too cluttered, but there's an amendment to that that say that if the school is doing a charity fundraiser, posters promoting other charities can't go up during that time. I think it's to keep the effort from getting too splintered and distracted."

Alya slumped. "Oh."

That was not actually a lie, though clearly Adrien thought it was, if the slight frown on his face was anything to go by. Marinette had picked through the guidelines to make sure that she knew every rule that she could use to turn Lila's attempts aside, and apparently the Student Council had come up with and voted to implement that particular rule at some point in the past.

"Maybe you could do a surprise collection," Marinette suggested. "As a Christmas gift to Lila." She was improvising, admittedly, but this would be a good way to keep Alya and Rose and whoever else was getting sucked in from asking Lila too much and giving her chances to control the narrative. "If you ask her what the name of her charity is, and then you can use the website that we were using on Student Council to look at charities- it has all sorts of stats that you could use, information about charities and their work. That way, you don't need to bother Lila for all that when she's so busy."

"Oh, good idea!" Alya exclaimed. She grabbed Marinette's arm. "You know, none of the rest of us has ever organized any sort of charity fundraiser before- if we put you in charge of that-"

"I'm already busy, Alya," Marinette pointed out. She wasn't about to go make a fool of herself collecting money for a charity that didn't exist, not when she had a million other things to do. "The fundraiser for the school is already going to take up all of my time. I can send you the link that we used, but that's it."

"Oh, but-"

"She already said no, Alya," Adrien cut in, so Marinette didn't have to. "Marinette was telling me about that entire process yesterday, and it sounds like a lot of work and planning to pull something off at the level the school is planning. Asking her to plan another thing on top of that for you, instead of doing it yourself- that's not fair to her."

"I just thought that it might be a good way to repair the bad blood between the two of them!" Alya objected, frowning. "Since Marinette wasn't very welcoming when Lila first arrived."

Marinette narrowly withheld a snort. Gee, I wonder why?

"But if you're busy, I guess you can wait to try to mend that bridge later," Alya added. She sighed. "We probably won't be able to raise as much money, though, since we don't have your experience."

"Mmm," Marinette managed noncommittally, ignoring the clear attempt at a guilt-trip in favor of checking her email on her phone. Alya really had been spending too much time with Lila if she was starting to act just the same. Hopefully she would cut that out after Lila's lies had been exposed and everyone realized what a manipulator she was.

Marinette's phone lit up with a text, and she didn't hesitate to open it at once.

Adrien: Remember, if you commit homicide, you won't be around to gloat when people discover the lies.

Marinette snorted in amusement.

Marinette: I'm going to gloat for a solid MONTH after she gets found out. I wasn't very welcoming? Try SHE was a bully from the start and I wasn't about to tolerate that.

In front of her, Adrien's head gave a tiny nod as he put his phone away, just in time to start class. Marinette locked her phone and put it away, resigning herself to what was probably going to be a week of poorly-concealed efforts to get her into the extra fundraising before Alya either dropped it or realized that something was up with Lila's "charity".

At least now she had Adrien on her side.

The school fundraiser was going well as they marched steadily closer towards the holidays, their online portal showing just how much money had already been raised by people going through the link that they had both sent out and posted on the school site. There was going to be a bake sale before the break too, with each family asked to donate two dozen cookies for them to sell at their booths near City Hall and (courtesy of Chloe) in the Grand Paris.

Marinette was really happy. People were being generous, and it really was a very deserving charity to receive the funds. On top of that, Adrien had asked for her help in baking his family's two dozen cookies, so they would get to hang out together.

(She was going to ignore the fact that Alya had tried to convince her to make another extra two dozen cookies because Lila "wasn't going to have time" because "all of her charity work"; that attempt had fallen flat when Marinette had just point-blank asked Alya why, exactly, Alya didn't just do that herself. At least with Adrien, he was just a novice baker and was going to be actively participating in the baking, but he just wanted help to be sure that his attempt turned out edible and it was a good excuse to hang out with one of his friends.)

And possibly best of all...well, Aurore's tech-savvy older brother had pulled through for them again.

"I was looking at the email that we had on file for Lila, and something about it just didn't seem right," Aurore told them as they sat together in a private study room in back of the library over lunch. "The domain on it, to be exact, because it was '.net' instead of, oh, I don't know, something actually related to the government. And my brother agreed, so we did a little searching."

Marinette was pretty sure that her jaw was on the ground. Next to her, Adrien wasn't doing much better. "You mean she was keeping her mom from finding out about everything school-related? I wondered how she got away with skipping so much school! And she was probably emailing as her mom, too, to confirm whatever stories she was telling."

Aurore grinned. "Exactly. So we did some digging, and found Mrs. Rossi's actual email. It's almost the same, just with a different domain. So I'm trying to think of what to send that wouldn't sound weird, because obviously we need confirmation that this is the right address so we can get Mr. Damocles to change it for the school system, but I don't want to come off as accusing or anything and have her tip Lila off accidentally."

Marinette exchanged a look with Adrien as she thought about it. "Well, we could just send the fundraiser email again with a comment about how we think that maybe her email was mis-entered before and is this one the correct one that we should be using. That's pretty straightforward and it asks for a response, and she might not even think to say anything about it to Lila."

"Ooh, I like that." Aurore typed that in at once, giving it a quick once-over to make sure that there weren't any errors and that the email had been entered correctly before sending it. "So, what else is going on in Ms. Bustier's homeroom? Anything new with the not-a-charity?"

"Alya's been confused about why our watchdog site doesn't list anything about Lila's 'charity'- she decided to go for the make-one-up route, apparently- and she's still been trying to find stuff on it just on Google, but apparently no connection has been made," Marinette told them, trying not to roll her eyes. "I know she and Rose were talking about trying to just go ahead with a collection of sorts anyway, so I forwarded an email talking about the importance of keeping track of how much money they raised, down to the last cent, in a ledger sort of thing." She couldn't hold back the grin. "Which Rose is really into. So even though they're trying to collect money for Lila still, at the end she won't be able to keep any of it because there'll be record of how much money they collected."

"Which, if we get in contact with Mrs. Rossi, we can make sure that that gets paid back in full!" Adrien exclaimed, scooping Marinette up in a hug for a long few seconds. Marinette prayed that she wouldn't turn red and make things weird. "Genius!"

"As long as Rose doesn't give that to Lila," Aurore pointed out. She raised an eyebrow at Marinette's head-shake. "No? You've already taken care of that?"

"She'll give Lila an electronic copy, but not the hard copy. I suggested that she might want to hold onto that to show what she did for future charity work. Which I still think is a good idea, even if Lila's charity is a sham. It doesn't change the fact that she was doing all of the bookkeeping."

Aurore made a face. "I am so glad that Samuel is doing our bookkeeping for the non-online donations, because that stuff is not fun. It's really fiddly, and if anything gets off..."

Marinette nodded. Things had gotten off fairly early on, and she had head Samuel- another member of Student Council- complaining about having to go through everything to figure out where his mistake was. Since then, he did regular, frequent checks so that he wouldn't have to go through absolutely everything again, just the most frequent donations. Admittedly, Rose was working with much smaller amounts of money- most people wanted more information on what they were donating to than just the name and "helping kids in Africa" if they were going to toss more than an euro or two into the collections basket- but it was still good practice.

Aurore's computer let out a ding, and she pulled up the student council email at once. "We already got a response! Mrs. Rossi says that yes, this one is correct, please keep using it and thank you for catching the error and were there any other recent emails that she might have missed. I'm going to forward this to Mr. Damocles with a message to note the change in email address, just a second- and done."

"Nice job," Marinette told her, leaning across the table to bump fists with Aurore. After a second's thought, she fist-bumped Adrien, too, so that he wouldn't feel left out. "That's one more thing off of our plates."

Their fundraiser finished right before holiday break with a silent auction, with all of the items up for purchase having been donated by parents, teachers, extended family members, community business owners, and- in the case of an array of signed CD cases and posters- Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, and several of their musician buddies, after Marinette had approached Jagged Stone with the request.

And of course, everyone was invited. Posters had been put up outside of the school and emails had been sent out, reminding everyone about the time and date and their charity, plus attaching a list of the items up for auction to get people's interest.

"My mom so wanted to make it, but work came up," Lila told several of their classmates when she arrived at the auction, looking sad. "And there were several things that she was really interested in, like the-"

"Ooh, barf, I can see what you mean," Aurore said, materializing at Marinette's side and wrinkling her nose at Lila. "That's a pretty obvious ploy to get people to buy things for her, isn't it? Or at least to pitch in some of their own money to help her, so that she won't have to pay them back."

Marinette nodded. It really was disgusting, but at least now Lila was moving off with the group towards one of the items so that they didn't have to hear her. She was steering clear of the signed Jagged Stone things, oddly enough, but maybe that would be a dead giveaway that she didn't actually know him. After all, Jagged Stone would sign anything put in front of him, so her going out of her way to buy a signed item when she was supposedly on great terms with him would be pretty strange.

"Do you think her mom actually can't make it, or Lila just assumed that she wouldn't know about the auction and didn't tell her?" Adrien asked. His arm was tucked through Marinette's, though she was pretty sure that it was just so that he wouldn't lose her in the crowd. "Is the fake email still on the list?"

Aurore nodded. "Yeah, up until this morning. I cleared it off so that there wouldn't be any confusion going forward."

"And I would place bets on Lila assuming that her mom doesn't know anything," Marinette added. "She wouldn't want to risk anyone asking her mom about her charity." She grinned and pointed as she noticed someone new stepping into the school. "And look, over there."

The other two looked. There, standing in the entryway and looking around, was Mrs. Rossi. She really didn't look much like Lila, but it was easy enough to recognize her from her official embassy photo.

(Her official embassy photo, where she wasn't listed as the actual ambassador, but just one of the embassy staff, but that- well, that was an interesting little tidbit that Marinette was going to sit on for a little bit longer.)

"Oh, she's spotted Lila," Aurore said gleefully, craning her neck to follow Mrs. Rossi as she wove through the crowds. "And- whoops, Lila sees her!"

Marinette hastily smothered a laugh. If Lila's expression was anything to go by, she definitely hadn't realized that her mom was getting emails from the school and was going to be coming. She had never seen the other girl look so pale before.

"I'd ask if I should go get some of that amazing-smelling popcorn that they're selling so that we can watch, but honestly, I kind of just want to let things take their course and find out later," Adrien said, glancing down at Marinette. "There's some pretty cool items up for auction that I want to check out."

Marinette considered that. On one hand, she wanted to watch Lila's downfall. On the other... well, she had been keeping an eye on the whole Lila fiasco for a while now, and she was kind of tired of it. It would probably be a bit awkward to watch, too, and there was no guarantee that it would happen right away, and they were too far away to hear anything besides.

...yeah, her decision was pretty well made.

"That sounds like fun," Marinette told him, before glancing over at Aurore. "What about you?"

"I might go point Mr. Damocles in her direction," Aurore commented, glancing around the crowd. "Or maybe that can wait until later, since I don't want to throw everything at Mrs. Rossi at once and disrupt the auction with an akumatization." She sent them a slightly sheepish grin. "But you know I like my gossip, so..."

Marinette had to laugh. That was so very Aurore. "All right. We'll bump into you later, then."

Aurore grinned in return, and then was off. Marinette watched her go for a moment, then let Adrien lead the way off into the crowds surrounding the tables. It was amazing to be able to sit back and relax after the past weeks of planning and making sure that everything, from the online link to the cookie sale to this, was going to go off without a hitch. They were well on track raise more money this year than they had any other year, and that was amazing.

And to think that she had had a hand in setting all of this up...well, Marinette just couldn't be prouder.

It was fun investigating all of the donations with Adrien, even though- as part of Student Council and also part of the team that had photographed and logged all of the donated items- she had seen them all before. Marinette couldn't help but peek at the bids despite herself, grinning when she saw some of the higher ones.

"This is amazing," Adrien commented once they had made the rounds and had gone to browse through the assorted refreshments available for purchase. "There were a lot of nice things donated. And people are definitely bidding plenty of money."

"Yeah, some people will spend more to win the prize than it's worth," Marinette told him. "Like with the voucher for stuff from our bakery- the top bid right now is for more than the value of the voucher. It's interesting, but I think that people see it as buying the item, and then making a donation on top. Or something, I don't know."

"That's really cool," Adrien commented, then pointed. "Oh, look, Nathalie and the Gorilla are here! They said that they might show up and do some shopping. I honestly thought that Nathalie was just saying that to be nice, because she's been sick and hasn't wanted to go out, but I guess she's been feeling better lately."

"Oh, that's good," Marinette said, before a memory made her frown. "Wait, I thought you commented on her being sick, like, three months ago. Is she still having problems?"

Adrien shrugged, but he was frowning, too. "I don't know. She had been having these weak, dizzy spells like Mom used to before she disappeared for a bit before I commented on it at school, I think. Maybe whatever treatment she was getting finally kicked in, I don't know."

Marinette frowned even deeper. Nathalie had been showing the same symptoms as Adrien's mom before she vanished? That was a really weird coincidence. And for both of them- presumably both, at least- to have those same symptoms for an extended period of time?

If Mrs. Agreste and Nathalie had been related, Marinette might have guessed that it was a genetic thing. But since they weren't- again, that was an assumption- then the chances of them both separately having the same condition...

"I cannot believe that I fell for such a manipulative, thieving, disgusting liar!"

Alya materialized at Marinette's side, clearly steaming. Rose, Mylène, and Juleka weren't far behind her. Rose looked like she was close to tears, and the other two just looked lost.

"Pardon?" Adrien asked politely, but Marinette could see the amusement glimmering in his eyes.

"Lila's been leading us all around by the nose, making up stories about her life and about her nonexistent charity- and I've missed a dozen akuma attacks because I was wandering around in the cold, trying to raise money for her! I offered to make a posting on the Ladyblog so that I could put up a link to her site to raise more money! She was probably just planning on pocketing it all!" Alya scowled deeper. "I can't believe we fell for it! And aren't you even surprised?" she demanded when neither Adrien nor Marinette reacted. "At all?"

"Are we meant to be?" Adrien asked dryly. "After Marinette's spent so long calling Lila a liar?"

Alya faltered for a moment, then scowled deeper. "You- you knew, but you didn't warn us?"

"Yes, because pointing out the obvious lies worked so well the first several dozen times I did it," Marinette said, adopting the same dry tone that Adrien had used. "And I gave you the watchdog charity link to use. I rather thought that its complete lack of anything about Lila's charity might tip you off."

Alya faltered. "Oh."

"But we still gave Lila money that was meant for charity," Rose said tearfully. Juleka pulled her to her side, trying to comfort her. "And it was a decent amount, too."

"You have your log, right?" Marinette reminded her. "If you tell Lila's mom how much Lila got for her 'charity', then I bet that she can get that money back to you and you can donate it to another charity."

Rose perked up at once, tears drying up magically. "Oh, that's right! We can still put that money to good use! I'm glad you suggested that we keep track of everything, Marinette."

"Yeah," Juleka agreed. "Lila sucks, but at least we can get the money back."

"We should go talk to Lila's mom before she leaves," Rose decided. She dug in her bag, pulling out the ledger notebook that she had been using for their charity collections. "Aha! Yes, I have the amount we gave Lila yesterday written here. C'mon, let's go make sure that Mrs. Rossi knows!"

"Well, all's well that ends well," Adrien said cheerfully as the other girls headed off. "I bet this isn't how Mrs. Rossi saw her evening going, and Lila definitely wasn't expecting any of this, but at least now the adults can figure everything out and Lila can actually see some consequences. And hopefully next semester, there'll be less drama now that she'll be restrained- or gone, if Mrs. Rossi or Mr. Damocles decides that Lila staying here wouldn't be a good idea."

"Hopefully," Marinette agreed. She grinned over at Adrien. "But that's enough worrying about Lila and her nonsense for tonight. I think we should just sit back and enjoy the evening, don't you?"

Adrien beamed back. "I couldn't agree more."

#Miraculous Ladybug #my writing #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste

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mosylufanfic · 4 years ago

Text

Holding Out for a Hero

I’m so proud of myself, I finished a 12 Days of Killervibe prompt at the last minute!

Holding Out for a Hero

Caitlin pinched the bridge of her nose, breathing out against the burn in her eyes. No matter how she juggled the numbers, they always came out red in the end.

"Dammit, Daddy," she muttered.

The bell over the door jingled, and she jerked her head up, pasting a bright retail smile on her face. "Welcome to Jack Frost Toys!" she called out, quickly minimizing the accounting software. "Are you looking for anything specific?"

Usually they weren't. Usually, they came in, wandered around a little bit, and left. If she was lucky, they bought something before they left.

But the man standing just inside the door, snow dusting his hat and shoulders, said, "Yeah, please, I'm begging you. You're my only hope."

She cocked her head and guessed, "A . . . Star Wars toy?" There wasn't any particularly hot Star Wars toy this year that she was aware of, and she followed every toy blog and website she could find.

He laughed, tugging his gloves off and shoving them in his pocket. "No, just a desperate nerd looking for a Puffy Penguin. My niece is three and she watches the show on repeat. I know Leo Lion is like the hot toy this year, but Maya knows what she wants. For her it's Puffy or nothin', and I couldn't tell if you had any from your website so I came down here just in case and please?" He widened his eyes at her. "Please."

Her heart melted. One of the best things about this store was seeing children find their new best friend. Second on that list was adults who cared enough about the children in their life that they moved heaven and earth to find, not just the latest hottest toy, but the toy that was just right.

She slid off her stool. "I've got some ZooFriends toys right over here. We're sold out of Leo, of course -" Everywhere was sold out of Leo. "But I've got Puffy in a variety of styles."

"Oh my god," he breathed, snatching a Puffy Penguin stuffie off the shelf and holding it as if it were the Holy Grail. "You've got them all. Elly and Slowpoke and Skyhigh - " He stared at the elephant, sloth, and giraffe toys lined up next to the penguins.

She smiled brightly. "Now this one says phrases from the show, but this one is a lot huggier if you ask me -"

"I'll take them both," he said, grabbing the talking Puffy. "Holy shit. Nowhere has ZooFriends anymore. How do you?"

She bit her lip. "Lucky, I guess." She stepped away and grabbed one of the plastic hand baskets printed with the store logo. "Would you like a basket?"

He took it. "Really? Because it's three in the afternoon on the first Saturday of December. A toy store should be wall-to-wall. Where is everybody?"

She turned away. "Amazon," she said. "Walmart. Websites, chain stores -" She shrugged and tried to laugh. "The plight of the modern small business owner. Is there anything else I can help you find?"

"I'll keep looking around," he said, studying the shelf. "So you're the owner?"

She nodded. "This store has been in my family for five generations."

He almost dropped the basket. "Five - Did they even have toys that long ago?"

"Oh, toys have been around as long as humans have had childhood! Did you know they've found marbles in Egyptian tombs? And dolls in archaeological digs. Toys are how children learn about the world, and how they start to decide their identities and practice interactions with others! They . . ." She trailed off, blushing. "Sorry, my major was psychology and I did my senior thesis on the role of play in early childhood development."

He held up a hand. "Hey, I'm the last person to shame anybody for nerding out. That's pretty awesome. You're in the right business."

"For right now, anyway," she murmured.

"What?"

She smiled brightly. "I don't suppose you have any more nieces or nephews that need Christmas presents?"

He studied her for a moment. "Do you have any action figures?"

"Collectible or to play with?"

"Collectible?" he said hopefully.

She led him down the aisle and to the back wall. His eyes went wide. "Oh my god, you've got Max Mercury, black series." He grabbed it off the wall. "And Brainiac? This is a great section!"

She smiled. "My dad invested in these because he was hoping to bring in the collectors."

"Well, he made good choices." He picked the Braniac from its spot and turned it over in his hands, studying it closely.

She left him to it and went back to the counter. She didn't feel like agonizing over the accounts when he was still here, so she cleaned the counter, dusted the book corner, and rearranged the ZooFriends shelf to fill in the empty spots he'd left when he took the two Puffy toys.

After half an hour, he came up to the counter with an overflowing basket, most of it action figures. With her heart singing the song of small business owners, she scanned them briskly. His purchases came out to well over two hundred dollars. It was a drop in the bucket of her costs, of course, but it was a bigger drop than most.

He handed her his credit card without a wince. When she ran it, his name popped up on her screen. She handed it back with the receipt. "Here you go, Mr. Ramon."

"Cisco," he said. "Please. Mr. Ramon is my pop."

"Cisco," she said. "I can wrap these if you want."

"Just the Puffys," he said. "The action figures are for me."

She grinned at him and selected a print of happy reindeer to wrap the stuffed animals. "Naturally."

He laughed self-consciously. "I'm not sure whether to be insulted or not. I promise I'm a grown-up man."

"Of course you are," she said, hands busily folding and taping. A really nicely grown-up man, too. She battled back her blush and hoped he hadn't noticed. "But I'll never look down on any adult who still likes toys."

"Well, sure, that's a good hundred and fifty dollars of my total."

"There's that," she acknowledged, setting aside the first perfectly wrapped box and picking up the second. "But toys are important to children's imaginations. And children grow into adults, who still need their imaginations." She nodded at the Max Mercury he held. "I don't think any of us ever really outgrow the desire to be someone's hero."

"Well," he said, "you're my hero today."

She met his eyes and felt the blush rise again. "Thank you."

He grinned and accepted the bag with the two wrapped presents inside. "And come Christmas morning, I'll be Maya's hero."

She smiled. "She's lucky to have an uncle doing his best to find her the perfect present. I'm glad you came by today."

"Yeah, well, it was coming out here or spending a hundred and seventy-five dollars on eBay and hoping like hell it made it here in time." He fiddled with his wallet. "I really don't mean to be that guy, but your website is . . ."

Her face went hot and she made a business of putting away the scissors and the tape and rolling up the rest of the wrapping paper. "Archaic?"

"I was going to say behind the times," he said tactfully. "If you had web ordering, you'd be sold out of ZooFriends and a whole bunch of other stuff."

"I know," she said. "But I really haven't had the time to get a good system set up since I took over the store. I need inventory software that integrates with ecommerce and for that I need technical skills, money, and time, and I don't have any of those."

He leaned on the counter. "You don't have to tell me, but how did it get this bad? You clearly love this place and I really don't feel like you would have let it fall behind like this if you had a choice."

She chewed her lip. "My dad died in September."

Sympathy spread over his features. Not the plastic, practiced sympathy she'd seen so often, but real compassion. "I'm sorry. Was he sick?"

"He had MS," she said. "He'd had it since I was ten, and he'd always kept on top of his medication and his therapy and everything. So - " She looked down at the perfectly clean counter and wiped it off again. "So when I was away at school and he told me he was doing fine, I believed him."

"He wasn't doing fine," Cisco guessed.

She shook her head. Tears burned in her eyes again. "It probably started small. Just little things falling through the cracks. Then the cracks got bigger, more things fell through. . . ."

He nodded. "They tend to do that."

"Mhm. Then last spring, he had an assistant manager who embezzled a lot of money - "

"What!"

"They caught him!" Caitlin assured him. "But most of the money was gone, and the stress of that just sent my dad's health into a tailspin. I'd just graduated so I moved back home to take care of him."

"And I'm gonna guess you were so wrapped up in that, you didn't even realize what was going on with the store until you took over."

She sighed. "Got it in one." She mustered up a smile. "I didn’t mean to dump that on you. It's bad now, but things will come around. They always do. The holidays are the best time of year to be a toy seller."

"Yeah," he said. "They sure are." He smiled back and gathered his purchases. "I'll tell people about this place."

"Great," she said. "Here's my card, by the way."

"Caitlin Snow," he read off the little rectangle of cardstock.

"That's me. Let me know if you have any particular collectibles you'd like me to obtain."

"Hmm?" He was looking at his phone. "Uh, yeah, if I think of any, I'll give you a shout. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," she echoed, watching him leave. The jingle of the bell over the door echoed in the toy store's emptiness.

Walking back around the building to his car, Cisco snapped a pic of the business card Caitlin Snow had given him. Then he dialed a number on his phone and wedged it between his shoulder and his ear as he pulled on his gloves. "Hey, Iris? Got a moment?"

"Hi, Cisco. Half a moment. My editor's breathing down my neck again about finding some heartwarming story to fill up Sunday space."

"Yeah, I remember you mentioning that. What would you say to a struggling fifth-generation local toy store owner who just took over the business after her dad's death, carries everything from ZooFriends stuffies to high-end collectibles, and knows toys backwards and forwards?"

Iris paused and he could practically hear the gears clicking. "Tell me more."

A week before Christmas, Cisco finally found a good excuse to drop by Jack Frost Toys again. With the name of a rare collectible action figure in his pocket, he turned into the parking lot and found it jam packed. He finally managed to wedge his little car into a space half on the gravel and climb out.

This was a good sign, right?

When he walked in the front door, the girl behind the counter wasn't Caitlin. "Welcome to Jack Frost Toys!" she called out before returning her attention to the grandma-looking lady at her counter. "We absolutely do gift certificates. How much would you like that for?"

The place was transformed. There was no other word for it.

When he'd come in the last time, it had been neat and bright and colorful, but empty and somehow sad. Now there were people in every aisle, voices ringing off the rafters. He cut down the doll aisle and almost stepped on a kid sprawled out on his belly, leafing through a colorful picture book. A little girl was staring at the Barbies as if she were deciding the fate of nations. A couple of moms were talking to each other over the Lego sets.

"It's just such a cute little place! It was getting so run-down there for awhile, but this new owner’s really spruced it up."

"I used to come here when I was Mandy's age and it always seemed like the most magical place to me. I'd forgotten all about it, honestly, but we're coming back."

Cisco smiled to himself and edged around them to the collectibles wall.

The door to the stock room opened and Caitlin came out, arms loaded down with what seemed to be flat-folded gift boxes. She stopped short when she saw Cisco. "Hi!"

"Hey," he said, smiling at her. She was wearing reindeer antlers and her hair was up in a bouncy ponytail. "You're busy."

"We are! I'm sorry, I've got to -"

"Yeah, go ahead."

She went to the front counter and stashed the gift boxes underneath. "Allegra," she said to the girl who'd greeted Cisco as he came in. "I just got off the phone with our supplier and they'll have more wrap here tomorrow. Can we hold out?"

"It'll be tight, but we should be okay."

"Great. I'll be back to cover your break in a few minutes, okay?"

"Take your time, I'm good."

Caitlin edged back around the counter and paused to check in with the moms. She considered their questions, looked around, and plucked a few sturdy wooden toys from a lower shelf. "I really like this designer for the textures they incorporate," she explained. "Babies enjoy being able to experience different kinds of material as they explore the toy, and it stimulates their brain development. Have a look at these. I'll be right here if you have any questions."

"Thanks so much."

She beamed and moved on.

Cisco watched her consult with the little Barbie lover and pick out a second book for the reader, as well as four or five other small interactions. It was like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel or Einstein doing calculations on a chalkboard. She was in her element.

She came around the end of the aisle and spotted him again. Her face lit up. "I'm so glad you came by again." She threw her arms around him.

"Uh," he said. "Hi again to you too." He gave her a quick hug back.

She pulled away, blushing. "Sorry. I - I just wanted to thank you. I know the article in the paper was your doing."

"Oh," he said. "No, that was nothing. I just called up a friend. She's the one who did the interview and that great photo - "

Iris had been savvy enough to pose Caitlin by her display of the coveted ZooFriends toys. Cisco had noticed how bare the shelf looked now.

" - and you were the one who made this shop so amazing that once people knew it was still here, they came."

"But none of it would have happened if you hadn't put it in motion. You said I was your hero that day for having the Puffys, but you’re my hero now.

“Pshaw,” he said. “Like you said, nobody grows out of that.”

“But not everybody does something. So. Thank you."

"Well, you're welcome." He looked around. "So you're doing pretty good, it looks like."

She nodded, beaming. "People started coming in after that article, and PalmerTech asked me to purchase toys in bulk for the families at their company holiday party. All my part-time workers are doing as many hours as they can, and I'll be able to pay the rent for January and February, and if it keeps going like this, I can hire somebody to revamp the inventory system for ecommerce."

She ran out of breath and panted for a moment, her eyes bright.

Cisco had to smile back at her. "That's amazing."

She nodded. "I mean, we're still competing with Walmart and Amazon, and we still took a real hit from what Jay did. So we're not out of the woods, but this - " She looked around, eyes still bright. "This is going to give us some breathing room.

"I'm really glad."

She turned her smile back on him and stole his breath. "Sorry, I'm just chattering away, and - did you come by looking for something else? Another collectible?"

"Ah - well, I was planning to ask about the limited edition Star Wars figures they're talking about for next year."

"I don't think I'm going to be able to order any of those until March, but I can definitely get your contact information."

"Oh. Okay, sure. But actually it was an excuse."

Her brows crinkled. "An excuse?"

"I really wanted to come by and see if you wanted to go get coffee or something. Sometime." He looked around. "I mean, maybe not right now because it's still December and you're slammed, which is great, but - "

"I'd like that."

His stomach filled up with warmth, like drinking an entire mug of hot chocolate. "You would?"

"Very much."

They smiled shyly at each other until Allegra called out, "Caitlin? A little help?" She had a line that stretched halfway down the doll aisle.

"Oh!" Caitlin said. "Uh, I should - "

"Yeah! Go. I'll hang around until you're free, and then I'll get your phone number."

"Okay." She gave him one last smile before rushing up to the counter and opening up a register. "I can help who's next over here! Oh, sweetheart, that's a great choice. Your best friend is going to love it."

Cisco watched her for a moment, smiling to himself, and then turned to browse the collectibles. She'd been right, he mused. The holidays really were the best time of year to be a toy seller.

FINIS

#Cisco Ramon #Caitlin Snow #killervibe #12daysofkv20 #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #fluff #toy store AU #I know December is retail hell #allow me this fluff okay #the flash

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stealinghero · 5 years ago

Note

Could you do one where Zenigata s/o is also a cop and they get injured during an investigation and he takes care of them?

Ayayayaaaaaah ^____^” This answer just flew from my hands. I love writing for Zenigata.

Something had been off from the start.

Of course it had all begun with Lupin’s classical card with an advance warning that he would be in this house on this day.

Slowly the sun had risen while Inspector Zenigata and his newly appointed colleague had begun their watch on the target house. By now it was a bit past noon and still Lupin was nowhere to be seen.

“Do you want some ramen?”

Bored, you looked to the other window where your boyfriend sat and had started to prepare a simple meal on a camping cooker.

“Sure.” You scooted closer to him and selected one of the cups he had brought with him. The cold of the early March weather had you shivering and you held out your hands in hope to keep them a bit warmer.

“Come here.” He pulled you towards himself and embraced you in a soft hug.

“You can have my coat if it gets too cold,” he murmured into your ear, pecking your cheek and continued to add water into the plastic bowls.

“It’s okay. I like it… hey, what’s that?”

You had seen something moving inside the house and now crawled back to your window to watch it more closely.

“Well, this isn’t Lupin, but it’s strange.” Zenigata had abandoned his post with the cooker, too, and took notes about the scene in front of you.

“I know one of them. It’s the Russian Mafia!”

“Why would Lupin…” he grumbled as he got that the thief just had wanted Zenigata to get on the trace of some more dire illegal actions.

“There’s a girl!”

With shock you both watched helplessly as the men on the other side of the street seemed to trade a young woman for a lot of money. She was bound and struggled to escape but hadn’t had a chance.

“I’m going in,” you stated, already on the move.

Without a word your partner followed.

“This is the police! Freeze!” You held your gun at shoulder height like you had learned it and tried to look intimidating.

The men laughed and one even came closer, before a shot was heard and a bullet missed his foot by an inch.

“Hands behind your heads and get on your knees!” Zenigata was way more intimidating than you and had those criminals at his mercy.

“Fuck you, cop.”

From the corner of your eyes you saw another accomplice moving out of the shadows. You saw the gun, knew what he was aiming for. And you just reacted.

It didn’t hurt that much. You had always imagined being shot in the abdomen was a hell of pain. But here you were, wounded by a bullet meant for Zenigata, moving like through jelly, jumping at the man who had fired the round, and taking him down with a sickening crunch of his nose.

You heard shouting behind you, someone calling your name, another shot and the world turned black.

The first thing you came to was the feeling of being touched. Slowly, sounds came to your mind, followed by the smell of Zenigata’s after shave which you had given him for Christmas.

“Don’t move.” It had to be his hand that was holding you down gently. It had been his voice, right?

“Let them go. I’m more than enough as a hostage.”

With the sharp pain in your leg and your stomach, came the sight.

You were lying on the cold floor, Zenigata crouched over you, his arms protectively around your shaking body, he was talking to someone.

“You are unimportant, old man. But your cute little partner here will catch us a nice sum. Well, if Death isn’t quicker than us.”

“Please!”

Why were you in this situation? What had happened?

“’m not cute,” you mumbled, just trying to take a bit of the fight off of your partner’s shoulders.

“It’s awake.” You heard steps coming closer, a shout from Zenigata, movement around you and a sound you identified as someone being punched in the face repeatedly.

“Stay down, old man, or I’ll shoot your precious little partner.”

Ah, slowly it made sense. You were… wait, what?! Your eyes found the Inspector and the evidence of your theory. He had been beaten and his handsome face was covered in bruises and smaller cuts.

You had protected him from being shot, had been shot yourself twice and somehow those bastards had overwhelmed the strong Inspector what finally had lead to the situation you had found yourself in now. You and him on the ground, beaten. And them looming over you as a reminder that there was a reason you never should raid a house with only two officers.

“Bro, the woman is gone!!”

A nervous young man stormed the scene and alarmed his companions about the news.

“Fuck that bitch, what about the diamond?!” his ‘bro’ retorted instantly.

“Gone!”

A gun was pointed at Zenigata.

“Well, then there’s no reason to keep those fuckers alive.”

A shot. You closed your eyes, too scared to see the man you loved die next to you.

“Keep your filthy paws off of them. It’s me you want.”

“Kill him!!” The men began to run towards someone behind you, as you felt a strong grip around your arms as your partner pulled you from the ground onto his shoulders.

“Let’s get out of here.”

A few days later you had to smile as your beloved partner knocked at the door to your hospital room.

“Someone called for a driver?”

His bruises had turned a darker shade of violet but in your eyes Zenigata was still a handsome man. With his broad smile and the big friendly eyes he was everything you ever wanted.

“I think I did,” you replied to his ask and got ready to stand up from your bed. Your shot wounds weren’t lethal but still hurt and every movement sent pain through your whole body.

“I talked to the doc and he said you can leave in a few days.” Your boyfriend was already standing next to you to help you get in the wheelchair he had bought with him.

“That would be great. I hate the food here.”

“You got a present?” Curious, he pushed the wheelchair with you inside to a desk in your room where a big gift basket stood.

“A nurse brought it in today. I haven’t had got a chance to read whom it’s from,” you admitted and reached out for the card.

“Glad you survived. I’ll take it personally if I don’t get an wedding invitation. – Lupin the 3rd”

“Wedding invitation?”

Zenigata blushed when you looked at him.

“I wanted to do it outside, but… well.”

With this he got down on one knee in front of you and held out a little box.

You could have sworn you heard Lupin laugh somewhere close.

#lupin iii #zenigata

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alindakb · 5 years ago

Text

Letters to my Parents - Monday 30 Augustus 1993 - by Alinda

Monday 30 Augustus 1993

Dear mom and dad,

I can’t believe it’s only two more nights before I go back to Hogwarts for my third year. It’s the first time since starting that I’m really looking forward to it. I just know it’s going to be a good year. Draco and I are dating and I will join the Quidditch team. I’m going to be an athlete. Who would ever think that? Dad, did you play Quidditch? I wish I knew or knew someone who could tell me. At least this last month of the summer holiday has been good. Mr and Mrs Tonks already promised me that they would chat with headmaster Dumbledore if there is a way for me to spend more of my holidays with them. Draco’s mom and they both agree it’s unhealthy for me to stay with the Dursleys for long periods of time.

This Saturday Draco and his mother met Mrs Tonks and me in Diagon Alley to do all our shopping for this school year. I wrote to Hermione and she promised to come as well. Our first stop was Quality Quidditch Supplies. Draco had told me about the new broom that came out just two weeks ago: the Firebolt. We went to go take a look and had to manoeuvre around other people to take a good look at it. It’s a beautiful broom and has an acceleration of 150 miles an hour in ten seconds. The Irish International Side is going to use them this season. I wish I was bold enough to buy myself one, but my Nimbus 2001 is a perfectly good broom. Draco begged his mother for one. I’ve never seen Draco beg like that before. He really uses all his little tricks, teary pleading eyes, promises of studying hard and buying his mother the best Christmas present ever. It didn’t work though. His mother told him he just got a new broom last year that will be just fine. Draco was a bit cranky after that. But not for long after I pulled him into a little nook and give him a proper kiss, he was smiling again after that.

We both got new robes at Madam Malkin’s, standing next to each other while she fitted us. We had to laugh about how that is where we first met and how we both got the wrong idea about who the other is. Draco’s mom made sure that I got the same quality robes as Draco, they are way better than the ones I had last year. Not itchy at all. Draco’s mom also ordered some basic clothes for me at Madam Malkin’s, and she promised to send them to Hogwarts as soon as they are finished. Draco says I’m finally going to look sharp.

Next stop was Flourish and Blotts to get our new books. Here we met up with Hermione after Draco and I had words for the first time. I found out he added an extra class to his schedule, namely Care of Magical Creatures. The idiot did it because he knew I wanted to have all my classes with him. The fact that he’s terrified of Magical Creatures makes this the worst decision he ever made, even worse than ignoring me for almost an entire year. I told him he was stupid and he threw back that he did it for me. I don’t want him to do things like that for me. I know it is because he still worries about me. I think he’s still scared that if my life isn’t perfect I’ll do something stupid. I hate myself for giving him that fear.

The manager of Flourish and Blotts wasn’t happy that he had to get two more Monster Book of Monsters for Hermione and Draco. I found out that I already have it, it was Hagrid’s birthday present for me. The manager had to put on a pair of very thick gloves and used a large, knobbly walking stick to get the books out of their cage. He was happy that he only had to catch two and not three. All three of us also bought Unfogging the future for Divination and Draco got the books he needs for Ancient Ruins. Hermione had to buy so many books and she loved them. She’s taking Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies. Draco said that was impossible, but Hermione showed us her book list from Hogwarts and the books were really on there.

Off course we also had to get all the books for our standard subjects like Intermediate Transfiguration and The Standard Book of Spells Grade Three. When we got at the Tonks home after our shopping Draco spent the first hour going through the books, looking up things he finds interesting. He’s a nerd from time to time, he just doesn’t like it when I point that out.

We went to the Apothecary to replenish our store of potions ingredients. Draco helped us to pick the perfect ones, told me off when I just pick the ones on top without inspecting them. He loved helping me, hanging over me and touching all the time. Hermione wanted to know all about my troubles during the holidays with my family and was amazed I wasn’t expelled. I told her I was too, that for a little moment I was scared I would be sent to jail for what I did. This made Draco laugh, joking that it would make the news if the Boy Who Lived would be incarcerated. After that Draco asked Hermione how France was and she told us all about the interesting wizard history there.

Hermione had gotten money from her parents to get an early birthday present and she wanted to get an owl. She loves Hedwig and is always grateful she’s allowed to use her whenever she needs to, but she would like to have an owl of her own. So we went to a magical creature shop where we bumped into Ron and Neville. Ron was there to get his rat Scabbers checked over, said Egypt hadn’t agreed with him. The witch behind the counter was busy with another wizard so we waited. Draco moved very close to me, almost hiding behind my back when we looked at all the amazing creatures in the cages. There was a pair of enormous purple toads, a gigantic tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell and poisonous orange snails. Cages filled with owls and ravens was where Hermione took off to find herself an owl, Ron on her heels, chatting to her. Neville said that Ron wants to try to start dating Hermione again. But after today, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.

Ron showed Scabbers to the witch at the counter while we looked at the owls. When he was busy a huge orange cat jumped on his head and then propelled itself, spitting madly, at Scabbers. Scabbers took off, fleeing out of the door and Ron and Neville chased after it. Hermione squealed and went to take a better look at the cat the witch had called Crookshanks. It was like she fell in love right there. Safe to say, she bought the cat and not an owl and of course that upset Ron. Ron called it a monster when they caught up with us again. And Hermione told him to shut up, said that Crookshanks was gorgeous. She was glowing and Draco and I had to suppress our laughter. Ron was replaced by a big orange cat that hates his rat.

After we did all our shopping we went to get some ice-cream at Florean Fortescue’s. Draco’s mom and Mrs Tonks went to sit at their own table, to chat and catch up. Draco is still surprised about that. He never really knew Mrs Tonks, who’s his aunt, because she was cast out of the family after she married a Muggle-born wizard. I like that somehow my little misdemeanour caused them reconnecting. Florean himself brought us our ice-creams and asked us about the coming school year. Hermione mentioned our essay about medieval witch burnings and she and Florean got into a discussion about that, giving me and Draco some time to just stare at each other and smile a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled this much before in my life. I like it.

We had dinner at the Leaky Cauldron. The five of us ate our way through five delicious courses. Draco’s mother was a bit hesitant to eat there, but Mrs Tonks promised her it was good food and that it was nice to not have to think about which fork to use. After dinner, we were all full and sleepy. Hermione her parents came to pick her up and the rest of used the floo to get back home. Draco is staying with at the moment. His father is off on some business trip and won’t notice that he’s not at home. His mother is also here at the Tonks. I think she really loves hanging out with her sister.

I must be honest, I never expected Draco’s mother to be as kind as she is. I don’t know why I thought she would be mean. Draco has a kind heart. He might like to hide it but deep down he’s the sweetest person I know. He must have gotten it from someone, and since his dad is a scary guy it’s not weird his mother is this nice. She keeps stroking her hand over Draco’s hair that is getting longer every day. It reaches his chin by now. I think it looks very good, the longer hair. I also like touching it, just like Draco’s mother.

But the main reason I wanted to write to you today is that I overheard Mr Tonks, Mrs Tonks, Nymphadora and Draco’s mother fighting. Mr Tonks said it made no sense not to tell me, that I have a right to know. But Mrs Tonks and Draco’s mother agreed that the trued would terrify me. Nymphadora said they had to stop treating me like a little kid. And Mr Tonks yelled it was for a reason why Dora had to come along to escort me to the train tomorrow, that I had the right to know that I might be in danger. Mrs Tonks yelled back that Sirius was a mad man and that there was no way he would get into Hogwarts. Dora then told them all that the ministry is no nearer to catching Black and that the man managed to escape from Azkaban, and that’s supposed to be impossible. Draco’s mother then said that Sirius wouldn’t dare to go to Hogwarts with Dumbledore there so that I would be safe. They went back and forth a little longer until they agreed that it was better I didn’t know that Sirius Black might want to kill me.

It scares me, dad, that this man might want to kill me. I don’t want to die anymore. I’m happy and I just want to have a fun year at Hogwarts with my friends and boyfriend. And why would this man want to kill me? Draco’s mother had said he used to be your friend. Well if he was a real friend he would never come after me, wouldn’t he? I wish you were here to tell me. I miss you.

Draco is hanging over my shoulder now, reading what I’ve just written down and I just want to lay in his arm for a while. I’ll write to you soon, tell you all about my new subjects and stuff.

Love you,

Harry James Potter

#letters to my parents #drarry #Harry Potter #Draco Malfoy #sirius black #narcissa malfoy #family tonks #diagon alley #hermione granger #ron weasley #first fight #AlindasStories

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pivitor · 5 years ago

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Emotional Roller-Coaster This Week

So, the last eight days have been an absolute whirlwind. Some really great things happened. Some really bad things happened. I’m kinda still reeling. I had some big firsts, and spent some time with great friends, had some real catharsis. I also fell further into depression than I have in a long, long time, and, oh yeah, got diagnosed with a chronic illness.

I need to get this all off my chest, cause I’m drowning. Join me?

Before we start, there’s two things you need to know about me. Both are things I’ve mentioned in bits and pieces on here, but here’s the full story:

1. Three months ago I had shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum (I technically tore it when I dislocated my arm in high school, and it’s been popping out on me once every other year or so ever since, but my most recent [and now final] dislocation was very bad and sent me right to the doctor). I spent about two weeks out of work, just sitting at home on the couch in a sling. The pain wasn’t great, but it was worse mentally: I put on a couple pounds and immediately started to feel terrible about myself, and being stuck at home when I wanted to be out there, doing stuff with friends or with guys or to reach a point where I can move out, felt terrible. I wasn’t in a great headspace for a long time. As of now I have about 95% of my arm function back, and am fully healed, just trying to get back the last of my range of motion and gradually increase back to my old strength threshold.

2. This one is a bit more complicated. I’ve talked a lot here about how I grew up in a cult, but I never went into further detail. Well, here we go: I was a J*hovah’s W*tness. (I’m censoring this because I don’t want this showing up in searches) It wasn’t something I would have ever chose for myself, but when you’re born into it, you’re pretty heavily indoctrinated -- I thought it was the gospel truth despite having many reasons not to. They’re a very homophobic organization, so growing up in it wrecked my self esteem. My entire childhood and time as a teenager I thought I was worthless and doomed, destined for eternal destruction. I was often suicidal. When I was about 18 or 19 the cult printed an article “clarifying” their view on homosexuality, and said they recognized that some people are just naturally attracted to the same gender and as long as they don’t act on it they’re still “acceptable” to God. It’s dangerous bullshit that makes me so angry now, but as a brainwashed, suicidal teenager, it felt like the only chance I had to live a worthwhile life, so I got baptized into the religion, which is the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life, because once you’re a baptized member of the cult, if you leave you’ll be shunned by everyone you’ve ever known. Your own parents will treat you as if you’re dead. I was very zealous for a year or two before realizing that I just couldn’t do it anymore, but it’s taken me nearly ten years to fully wake up from the indoctrination, read information from outside religions, scientists, and former members who have left. Currently I still live with my family and have to pretend to still believe (because the moment I don’t they’ll kick me out on the street), and am on the cusp of two promotions at work. As soon as those go through, I should be able to save money to move out, which I wanna do before the summer, and then I’ll be completely free.

Okay, the rollercoaster week itself:

Pre-Monday: For about a week, a week and a half before this all started, I’d been experiencing some pain in my side that was making it hard to sit up for long periods of time. This normally would’ve been a major red flag, but thanks to the shoulder surgery, I’d been having random back pains off and on recently anyway. I assumed it was related to me overcompensating for the shoulder and left it alone. Big mistake.

Monday: So one of my promotions at work involves a coaching center we’re launching. We were supposed to do our first presentation last Monday, and when my boss showed up for it, everything fell apart. It wasn’t totally my fault -- the general condition of the office itself wasn’t up to par, and the boss recognized that there wasn’t much I could do about that -- but a lot was, and I spent all week trying to fix things and get them running, and running into one major roadblock and frustration after another. We’re finally doing the presentation today, but it technically still isn’t 100% fixed. Work has been a major, major source of stress all week. I don’t think I’ll mention it again because there’s not much more to it than what I’ve listed here, but remember that it’s hanging over my head all week.

Monday night I was invited to a birthday party for a friend from my gym. Since the cult doesn’t celebrate holidays, I’d never actually been a birthday party before, complete with cake and singing happy birthday and everything. It was really nice -- even though it was truly just a bunch of guys hanging around a bar watching the Eagles, it still felt like something really special. I also spent about a half an hour in my car before I walked into the bar trying not to hyperventilate. I don’t feel guilty at all as I may have once, but I was still really worried about being seen by someone and my family finding out.

Wednesday: Tuesday was my only truly normal day of the week, and even then, we had my cousin staying with us up until Wednesday, so even then it wasn’t truly normal. We normally have church on Thursday nights (I have to attend so as not to blow my cover, but I tend to stand in the lobby and play on my phone the entire time; it’s a nice chance to catch up on my reading usually), but I had a concert on Thursday I was not going to miss, so I told my parents I was going to a different congregation on Wednesday night, but instead I went to Starbucks and caught up on Crisis on Infinite Earths. It’s...depressing that this is what I’m reduced to, but I was happy that it finally occurred to me to just...lie about it.

When I got home and took off my shirt to change into my pajamas, I noticed a patchy, red rash on my stomach, side, and back, right around the same area I’d been having pain for the last week or two. I’d absolutely never had anything like this happen before, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I crossed my fingers that it was an allergic reaction, put some cortisone cream on it, and decided to wait a couple days to see if anything changed.

Thursday: On Thursday I drove up to Philly after work, and ate a few slices at my favorite pizza place, reading comics, until it was time for the concert. It was a free show from Pkew Pkew Pkew, a band I truly, truly love, and it was one of my favorite shows of the year. Just pure joy. They played for about an hour, but were the opening act, and I don’t care for the headliner (Beach Slang), so I had originally had a few ideas about what I could do afterwards, considering that their set was over by 10 or so. I could go home (coward’s option), I could go to the Barcade. What I really wanted to do was go to a gay bar or club. I’d gone right before my surgery and had a great time, but I’d been avoiding going back (or joining a dating app or anything else) until my arm fully healed because it would very much have gotten in the way of doing anything physical. I was finally in the place where I could use my arm, but now I had that strange mysterious rash, and didn’t think it was right to do anything like that until I’d figured it out/gotten it cleared up. I don’t wanna pass anything on to anybody.

By sheer coincidence, Philly’s Emo Night ended up being this very same night (this one is held once a month), so I ended up heading over there and dancing until 2AM. I got very drunk and had a fantastic time. But there were a lot of couples. There was this girl that kept hitting on me, and then getting pissy when I didn’t reciprocate. There was this extremely hot dude in a Misfits hoodie, and early in the night we were the only two who were dancing, and he gave me a high five that he pulled into a bro hug after the song, which got me all riled up, but I couldn’t work it into anything else haha. And then this group of about four guys or so showed up, dancing all night, very affectionate, cupping each other’s faces when they talked to each other and all that. I’d seen them before and both times thought they might be gay, so I stuck close and was kinda part of their group for the night, which was really really fun. At the end of the night, one of them mentioned their girlfriend, and I reeled way more than I had any right to. I had a fantastic night. I went home feeling very alone.

Friday: Friday was my gym’s Christmas Party, which, much like Monday, was my first ever Christmas Party. I had a really fun time chatting with everyone, eating, watching one friend get drunk, try to jump up on the rings, and get dragged home by his wife. We had rowing contests and the losers had to take shots. But there was one guy there I’ve always had a crush on, a very straight, very married guy, and he was looking extremely hot and was acting extremely funny all night, and it was rough. I went home and dreamed about him all night. I woke up feeling even more alone and frustrated.

Saturday: I was pretty depressed and listless by this point. Feeling really sorry for myself despite all the fun I’d had all week. I had plans to drive up to Asbury Park for an Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties show and I just...really didn’t feel like going. But I drug myself out of bed and made myself go, because you don’t miss the gig. Before the show I wandered around Asbury, basically torturing myself. I wanted to visit a restaurant but had eaten lunch too late and wasn’t hungry. I found a gay club but still had that rash, so I didn’t wanna go in. I ended up standing on the beach, in the dark, finally having a genuine smile as I dodged the waves, but also just thinking about how sometimes Kangaroos just walk into the ocean and...never come back. I was not in a good headspace. I made myself get off the beach.

The show though...damn, that show. Dan played the second Aaron West album, Routine Maintenance, from front to back, and it’s an album about Aaron making the people in his life proud of him, about his friends giving him direction, about finding redemption through being there for his family in their darkest hour. That kind of shit is my kryptonite to begin with, but all I could think about was how all I had ever wanted in my life was to make my family proud, and how I’d never be able to do it, how someday soon they’re just...never gonna talk to me again. I cried twice during the set. And afterwards I got to hug Dan and tell him how much the album fucks me up. It was really cathartic. I felt the cloud start to lift.

Sunday: So Sunday I finally go to the doctor about this fucking rash, which hadn’t gotten any worse but had not gotten any better either. The diagnosis?

I have fucking shingles.

For those who don’t know, shingles is the chicken pox virus. After you’ve had chicken pox it never really leaves your body -- it stores itself away in your nerves. As an adult, it can reemerge as shingles, which begins as an intense pain, then advances into painful rashes on one side of your torso. Without intervention, they can continue to spread and become almost immobilizing. I’m currently on a pill I have to take three times a day for seven days, which will stop the progression of the shingles, and then it will heal up on its own, but it could take a few weeks.

Thankfully, I’m not contagious -- I can only spread the disease if someone has prolonged, direct contact with the rashes. I can be around people, but like I feared, it does rule out sex for a while. The worst part is that shingles as a disease can’t really be healed. The symptoms will go away, but I’ll be susceptible to outbreaks the rest of my life. Fortunately, the doctor made it sound pretty manageable -- the pain in my side, in that exact same spot, will always be my first symptom, so as soon as I feel that I need to get to a doctor and get back on the seven day medication to end the flare-up. It doesn’t sound like shingles flare-ups are super common either -- reading up on it, it looks like most people have, at the most, three outbreaks in their life. But, it’s still a chronic illness, and it’s one that’s very rare to emerge at this young of an age -- this is something you normally get in your fifties or sixties, not your early thirties!

Honestly, I could only laugh. Just my luck, right? I’m so frustrated. My arm’s finally reached the point where I can get back to trying to pursue guys, but nope! the shingles has to postpone it a few more weeks :/

But despite it all, the depression of the rest of the week had mostly lifted. I had processed it. I was feeling better. For a while.

Back in the spring I had joined a subreddit for former members of the cult, which is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, as it let me share my story with people who had been there and understood, and really helped clear out the last remnants of the programming from my brain. Every once in a while different gay Ex cult member will contact me on there, and I’ve struck up a few nice casual friendships. Last week a guy reached out to me on there looking for friends in the same situation as him, and I replied, and on Friday he finally replied back, and we texted each off and on Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday night, though, we got into a deeper conversation. He’s in his early twenties, and some of the stuff he was asking for advice about made it sound like he was just starting to wake up from the programming and just starting to think about leaving and being gay and everything. Eventually, as we talk more, I find out that that’s not fully the case. He’s jealous of some of the stuff I’ve done that he hasn’t -- going to Pride, going to gay bars -- but unlike me, he’s had a fair amount of sex. Like any closeted Witness, he had to drive into unfamiliar cities to do so, and it’s a strategy I’ve thought of trying but never pulled off.

I dunno, I’m so depressed. I feel like such a failure. I know having sex doesn’t make you a better person, and not having sex doesn’t intrinsically make you a failure. But I feel like this because I want it so badly, because I always have, and I could have been doing it for years, and I’ve been really forced to confront the fact that it’s my own fear that’s been getting in my way all this time. If I’d really tried I could’ve done it by now. If I really tried I probably could’ve moved out and started my new life by now -- I’d probably be dirt broke in an apartment with like eight roommates, but I could’ve done it. I don’t feel like anybody else, including this guy I was chatting with, have been judging me for this, but I’m pretty disgusted with myself, irrational as it may be. I know it’s not true, but I feel like my whole life has been a waste of time. And I’m so fucking sick of it.

So. This is everything I’ve been processing this week. I don’t really know what to do with it. I’ve gotta be patient a little while longer. Keep working on my real estate licensing test so I can make some more money. Wait for the shingles to heal up. Get on Grindr and just, fucking, fuck some dude the moment I’m cleared up.

But fuck, I’m so fucking sick of waiting.

#pivitor

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fredrickster · 5 years ago

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Obligation

A/N: This is a short story I made for a college competition.

Description: After Mitchell Sulvek, a bank franchise owner from Chicago, Illinois, loses most of what keeps him sane and alive from the court, a selfish, sickening idea springs to mind that he feels is his only way out of poverty. His son, Andrew, must take legal action to prevent his father from committing his desperate robbery from his own bank.

Chapter One: Major Losses

"Your honor, if I may?"

“Proceed.”

Mitchell's lawyer, Tom, stands up and begins to stroll around the front of the courtroom as the judge gives him a hard look. "Now. If you aren't already aware, Mr. Sulvek's possession over the bank of the ALTyler Melk franchise here in Chicago has been running as smoothly as you could imagine ever since it was built over on Eighty-Seven Street. So, as you could imagine, Clara’s attempt at terminating his role as manager of this franchise could easily be seen as irrational, your honor?"

The judge's hard stare vanishes as his face drops into an agreeing smirk. "Well, as of my own unbiased opinion, I can understand how Mrs. Harding's actions towards the termination of Mr. Sulvek’s role as manager of the ALTyler Melk & Co. franchise here in Chicago can be seen as irrational.”

Members from Clara’s side erupts in supposedly biased disagreement. Clara’s lawyer bursts out of her seat. “Objection!”

The judge pelts his words at her at an almost imitating volume. "Negative Mrs. Bloom. Please remain seated."

A few swears and curses can be heard buried under the breaths of the members from Clara’s side.

With the court session now pushing two hours, the judge comes to a conclusion. “With enough conflicting evidence from both sides. I hear by target all rights and legal custody over to Mrs. Harding. Case dismissed." The loud bang from his hammer echoes through the courtroom, diffusing shared ambivalence through the minds of those in the courtroom. Just by looking at the faces of the Harding family, you can see the euphoria and relief booming in their minds through their smug faces. On the other side, you can see the disbelief and melancholy in the minds of the Sulvek family through their drooping and defeated facial expressions.

While Clara’s side alights the courtroom with gleeful struts, Mitchell firmly swears under his breath multiple times. The divorce is officially over.

Chapter Two: Unlike Father, Unlike Son

Mitchell storms up the stairs of the apartment building to his floor, acting as if he had just been punished by his parents and sent to his room. When he arrives at his door, he pounds it open in frustration and slams it shut. Throwing his keys on the little table next to the front door, he marches into the living room and collapses onto the couch.

The judge’s words flow through his head as if he was being tormented by a bully. This reminder is enough for him to begin throwing his arms about his tiny apartment and forcefully shove the breath out of his lungs through heavy shouting.

Mitchell uncontrollably breaks several items of his through fierce, scalding anger. His bellowing screams scratch at the back of his throat, as he’s being thrown about each room of his apartment by an unknown force.

He collapses onto his bed from hyperventilation, holding his head as if he knew he was overreacting. Mitchell had never been this angry before.

A dilemma promptly appears in his mind. He lost most of his money. He was forced out of his home by Clara; he’s for sure not allowed back in, the court said. However, he didn’t lose his role as manager of the ALTyler Melk & Co. franchise here in Chicago – this is when the evil, most definitely irrational idea fully springs into his mind.

However, if he’s caught for this definite crime, he will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

You have to do it. Remember what you lost! This is the only way you’ll ever be happy again!

This devilish thought pollutes his mind. He cannot rid the power it has over him.

Mitchell feels a migraine beginning to form between his eyebrows. The pressure is enough for him to submit to his inner demons.

“That’s it!” He screams, before snatching his keys from the small table and climbing hastily back into his raincoat. After taking one hard gaze around his tiny, trashed apartment for what could be the final time, he sharply turns back and bolts through the front door, slamming it shut on his way out.

Two Days Later…

Andrew’s morning coffee was already half full, or as his father would have called it: half empty. The time was only nine forty-six and Andrew had already begun to feel a little tired, his caffeine addiction was wearing him down, and he knew he had to give it up.

Suddenly, his boss, Chief Phillips, swung open the door to his office with such an uncaring force, that Andrew gazed at him wide-eyed.

“Sorry for the sudden, unnoticed appearance Officer Sulvek, but I have an early Christmas Present for you: there’s a situation over at the ALTyler bank, possibly a robbery, and I want you to lead the charge.”

“Is this because my dad owns the bank, sir?” He asks while continuing to give him a hard gaze.

“Well… yes, but I also feel as though you should be the leader for once in a while; when was the last time you remember being the leader of anything, Officer Sulvek?”

Knowing already about accepting the role of the mission, he still ponders on the question. “Uhm, not for a while- “

“Great so today’s your lucky day.” He turns and begins to walk out of the office before turning back to face Andrew again. “I’ll meet you outside. And get a move on.”

After shutting his door just below a slam, Andrew releases a mere exhale.

Once arriving at the bank, the doors had already been sealed shut and yellow crime tape had been wrapped around the silver barricades blocking the roads.

Andrew notices a pedestrian sobbing from what he suspected to be related to the incident in the bank. “You alright ma’am? Do you know what happened in there?”

She turned her head slowly to face him. “No. All I heard were… gunshots and… someone screaming in the b-back.” She struggled to speak with the constant sniffing and wiping of tears.

From knowing that his father was supposed to be at work today, he promptly looks up among the heavy crowd of people, scanning for his father.

“And that’s when I followed everyone running out of the bank.”

He decides to look deeper and wider for his father. "Okay, ma'am. Sorry, and thank you for your time." He shoots off into the crowd of people, calling out Mitchell’s name. After yelling only a few times, Andrew comes to a haunting realization.

With all the trouble and chaos his father had only just been through, it’s highly possible that he could be the prime suspect for this incident, out of what he suspected to be retaliation and desperation.

Andrew rams through the crowd and back to his team. He speaks partially out of breath to the Chief and any other by-standing listeners. "Chief, you may not like this… but I need you to let me go in there alone.”

He pauses in shock for a few seconds as he gives him a stunned expression filled with disbelief. “You’re crazy.”

Andrew holds his hands out in front of him. “Sir, please- “

“I can’t let you go in there by yourself. They’ll kill you.”

“No they wo- “Andrew releases a sigh similar to the one he released earlier. “Listen… I believe the suspect could potentially be my father. I’m not even kidding.”

The Chief and another deputy looks at each other in disbelief and confusion. “How can you be sure of that?” The deputy asks.

“He’s supposed to be at work today and I can’t find him anywhere. I just… know it’s him, can I please… go in there alone? He trusts me. Even if he has a crew with him, he’ll tell them to lay off on me.”

The Chief drops a heavy sigh. “If you insist Officer Sulvek, proceed. But if anything even gets close to getting out of control, you call us up and we’ll send in reinforcements.”

Andrew gives a weak nod as he hurriedly marches over to the bank entrance.

Chapter Three: An Untidy Decision

Taking in his final breath of fresh air, Andrew shoves the heavy glass door to the bank open and immediately calls out to his father. With no returning voice or sound after only a few seconds, Andrew finds that he sped up as he dashes through the main lobby of the bank.

Andrew follows the wide halls within the bank, which lead down to the lower ground. Right after alighting the bottoms step, he notices a drop of red beside the dark green rug rolled out along the corridors. Andrew starts to become skeptical after finding this, and even more after noticing a couple more drops of red further down the corridor, some on the rug this time. Andrew calls out again to his father and right after hearing the sound of his echoing voice bounding between the walls, his ears perk to a sudden clamp of metal slamming against what sounds like a relating metal wall.

While scoping out the source of the sound, the same sound plays again shortly after the first one. With the air being already draining from Andrew’s lungs, he pushes his now weary body through towards the source of the sounds. Andrew runs into the room filled with metal drawers and finds his father. Squatting down in front of the back wall of metal drawers. The familiar sound of clanging metal plays again a third time and rings in Andrew’s ears, as the sound echoes through the small room and out into the corridors.

After looking around for any others and finding no one, Andrew builds up enough courage to speak up to his father.

“...Dad... Why?”

Mitchell slowly turns his head to face him. “I have no choice son. Besides... What have I got to lose anyway?”

Without a word, Andrew slides his gun out of its holster and aims it at his father’s head, standing only a few feet away. Mitchell turns head slowly again to see his only son pointing a gun towards his head.

“Son... I’m your father...”

“I know that.” Surprised to see that his father didn’t equip himself with a weapon of his own, he struggles to command him to go with him. “Now... Come with me.”

"I mean... You may as well just shoot me, Andrew. As I've said: I've got nothing to lose."

After a short silence, Mitchell continues. “Unless you want me to live the rest of my life a bum, or, in this case, in a rusty old prison cell, then I suggest you end it.” Mitchell turns and moves an inch closer to his son, now standing only a few whiskers away from his gun. “Now!” He shouts through the entire bank.

Andrew’s hands tremble. His breathing quickens, and his head spins uncontrollably on his shoulders. His weapon lowers and he begins to walk out of the room.

“I’m sorry son... but this has to be done. For my sake. Think about your family and not just yourself.”

A moment of silence passes before Andrew notices how he’s now out of the room. Andrew knows now what really has to be done. He moves to just outside of the room filled with metal drawers, and immediately lifts his gun and aims it at his father’s head a second time. The sound of the bullet popping out of his gun creates the loudest, most painfully ear-rattling sound he has ever had to handle... the popping of the bullet that pierces through his father’s skull.

THE END

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thatfanficstuff · 6 years ago

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A Marvel-ous Wrap Up

A/N: Okay, so this may be crap as I shoved like six fics into one, but here is the wrap-up for the Marvel Christmas fics I was writing before the world went sideways. It’s not edited as I wanted to get it up before we got any further from the holiday. And yes, I tell you what Tony got Reader for Christmas as I know that’s what you all really want to know.

***

Something was going on. You thought so before but now it was getting to be pretty obvious. The Avengers were up to something. The entire team there was talking and whispering that would die down the moment you entered a room. The looks they’d give each other when they thought you couldn’t see. It started shortly before Christmas and just seemed to get worse as time went by.

The first time you really noticed was the mistletoe incident. Maybe it was a bit extreme to call it an incident. You thought back. No, incident was the right word. It had been a relatively quiet morning with everyone home for once instead of out on missions. But somehow between you all having breakfast together and you reappearing in the living room an hour later after getting ready for the day, mistletoe had mysteriously blossomed.

It seemed to be everywhere but it didn’t take you long to realize that it was literally only over your head. Wherever you moved, it followed. You sucked in a breath before yelling for the dark prince of Asgard. “Loki!”

He appeared so suddenly beside you that you jumped. “Oh, look. Mistletoe.” He leaned toward you and you held up a hand in front of him.

“Yes, mistletoe.” Your voice was little more than a growl. “Would you care to explain the mistletoe since it seems to be magical?”

He widened his eyes in feigned innocence. “And you think I had something to do with it?”

“Since you are the only one that uses magic, I’m going to go with yes.”

He shrugged. “Well, it does give us an excuse doesn’t it, love?” He leaned forward again and you stepped away from him as you snapped your fingers. The mistletoe disintegrated to ash which was the intended result.

Unfortunately, you had failed to check where you were standing before torching the plant. Which had moved to hang less than an inch from a sprinkler head. White foam sprayed everything beneath, you included. You clenched your fists at your sides and closed your eyes as you slowly counted in your head.

Footsteps stormed into the room only to be followed by gasps or even the occasional giggle. Someone cleared their throat. “Um, Y/N. What happened?” Tony asked doing a piss poor job of covering the laughter in his voice.

“Loki.”

“Now you can’t blame me for this, Y/N. You’re the one that set fire to the mistletoe.” You could tell from the sound of his voice that he was moving away from you as he spoke.

“Ten seconds, Loki. Then you die. You better start running.”

You didn’t actually kill him, though you were tempted. No, you’d been more distracted by the fact everyone seemed more upset with Loki for trying to kiss you than for getting you covered with fire foam.

***

Your next big clue was at Tony’s Christmas ball. It was only a couple of days until Christmas and he was hosting a charity event to raise money for the local children’s hospital. You didn’t bring a date and spent the evening being passed from Avenger to Avenger for dance after dance. You’d just managed to get them to let you take a break when a voice bellowed your name.

You turned in the direction of the sound, eyes scanning the crowd. You were certain you knew that voice. There. Logan. He was one of your closest friends and you hadn’t seen him in ages. You ran as best you could in your heels and threw your arms around his neck. He swept you up in his arms and spun you in a circle as he laughed. “It’s nice seeing you, hot stuff. What are you doing here?”

You grinned. “I think the real question is what are you doing here? This isn’t exactly your kind of thing.” You stepped back to get a better look at him. “You do look good in a suit though, Wolverine.”

He rolled his eyes at your use of the name. “Charles sent me. I complained but he assured me I wouldn’t mind once I got here. He must have known you would be here.”

You laughed. “I would hope so. I’m the one that called with the invitation.”

“Well, that explains that then.”

Before he could say anything else, your conversation was interrupted by the sudden appearance of none other than the host himself. “Y/N,” he said and glanced at Logan over the top of his sunglasses. “And who’s your friend?”

The tone in his voice had you arching a brow and apparently it didn’t go unnoticed by Logan either. “Listen, bub, no offense but hot stuff and I were just catching up so why don’t you come back later.”

Tony blinked several times before focusing on you. “Bub? Hot stuff? Seriously, Y/N?”

“You started it, Tony. Logan this is Tony Stark. Tony this is Logan, one of my closest friends.”

“One of your friends, you say?” Tony repeated, saying friends far louder than necessary. It didn’t take much for you to see why as the rest of the team wasn’t doing a great a job of looking uninterested.

You grabbed Logan by the arm and pulled him away with you. “You guys are being weirder than usual.”

***

And then came today. Christmas Eve. The plan had been to have an early dinner together then open presents. That went out the window after Tony joined the rest of you at breakfast. He sipped at his coffee while watching the rest of you. He glanced at the time and sat up straight, coffee now forgotten before him. “Let’s open presents.”

“Now?” Natasha asked.

“Yeah. Now.” Everyone glanced around the table at each other exchanging shrugs. It didn’t really matter when you opened them, you supposed.

“Okay,” you said as you stood. “Let me go get dressed.”

Tony hopped up. “No. You don’t need to do that. It’s Christmas Eve. Stay in your pajamas.”

You frowned at him and his excessive energy before nodding slowly. “All right, Tony. Let’s open presents.”

After a flurry of wrapping paper and laughter, all the gifts were opened and your friends started carrying their gifts to their rooms. As you gathered your things together, Clint hopped to his feet and offered to help.

You smiled at the archer. “That would be great, Clint. Thank you.”

Your arms were full as you shuffled toward your room, Clint in a similar state behind you.

“What did Stark get you again?” Clint asked.

You glanced over your shoulder to find him scowling behind you. You gave him a small smile. “An mp3 player, a Stark Industries coffee mug and a pair of fuzzy socks. Just what I asked for.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” His scowl deepened.

“What’s the matter, Clint? Jealous of my fuzzy socks?” you teased.

“Cute, Y/N. It just seems very subdued for Tony that’s all.”

You shrugged as you reached your door. “Maybe he just realized that I didn’t need anything elaborate.”

“Maybe,” he agreed but the scowl didn’t leave his face.

“Why does—” Your words were cut off there as you opened your door and were attacked. No that’s not the right word. Buried? Assaulted by fluff? A mountain of fuzzy socks in an array of colors and patterns poured out of your room like water from a pitcher. You stumbled backward until you hit the wall on the other side of the hall. You dropped the pile of presents in your arms and gaped at the chaos around you.

You were stunned for a moment, beyond speech. What the actual hell?

Clint chuckled and you turned to glare at him. Instead of stopping, the chuckles turned into outright laughs. “Now, this. This is a Stark present.”

You closed your eyes with a groan. “Anthony Edward Stark,” you yelled for the billionaire as you attempted to wade through the socks.

“You should have given me a better list,” he called back from the other room. You heard him giggle and the sound of his feet running away.

“Son of a bitch.” You glanced around one more time, eyes settling on the still giggling archer. You snatched up a purple and black ball near your knee and tossed it at him. “Have some socks.

***

By mid-afternoon you had distributed socks to everyone else on the team, even Iron Man himself. The rest were in baskets piled up in your room. Except for the two pairs you had on to keep your feet warm. You leaned back in your seat as you sipped your hot chocolate, grinning behind your mug when you realized everyone else was wearing their socks as well.

You glanced out the window beside you to see big fat flakes falling from the sky. “Snow!” you exclaimed and shot up in your seat, nearly splashing yourself with hot chocolate.

“You’ve seen snow before, Y/N. Last week in fact.” Tony sounded bored which just couldn’t stand.

“This is Christmas snow, Tony. Christmas snow is magical.” You sat your mug on the table and hopped up to hurry to the elevator. When you reached it, you glanced back to find everyone just staring at you. “Well, are you guys coming or what?”

That seemed to snap them all to attention and they gathered into the elevator with you. “To the roof, Jarvis.”

The elevator was unusually quiet and you glanced around to find everyone watching you with little smiles on their faces. You suddenly felt extremely self-conscious. “What?”

They all said a variation of ‘nothing’ and turned their attention elsewhere. So weird.

Once you arrived at your destination, you ran out on the roof and tilted your head back. The flakes were huge as they fell softly. There was no breeze to speak of and the snow was settling peacefully wherever it landed. This was your favorite kind of snow. You laughed as you stuck out your tongue to catch one of the flakes and pull it into your mouth.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m telling her,” you heard Tony declare and you turned your attention in that direction. All of your teammates were now clustered around Tony having a whispered argument.

“Telling me what?” you asked after a moment. They went silent and looked at you. You lifted your brows expectantly.

Steve finally pushed Tony and he stumbled forward.

After shooting Cap a dirty look, he straightened his clothes and cleared his throat. “Okay. So it is possible that one or more members of the team might possibly have a crush on you.”

You blinked. “And?”

“And? We want to know if there is anyone on the team you like so certain arguments can quit being had throughout the tower.”

You ran a hand over your hair. “I guess he’s technically on the team.”

It didn’t escape your notice that Loki and Bucky both straightened at your words as neither were official members. Then Loki’s eyes narrowed. “You are not talking about that bug boy are you?”

“Ant-man? No, I don’t like Scott.”

“Come on, you’re killing us here, Y/N,” said when you weren’t anymore forthcoming.

Before you could explain further, a circle of sparks appeared beside you widening into a portal. You took a step back as Stephen Strange stepped through dressed in jeans and a sweater. The cape floated nearby though, obviously not wanting to be left out of the fun. Stephen’s eyes went wide as he looked at the gathered group until they found you and your smirking face. “Are you ready to go, sweetheart?”

“Sweetheart?” Tony all but choked on the word.

Stephen’s lips twitched and he rolled his eyes as his back was turned to the others. He faced them and you stepped forward to take his offered hand. “That is a common pet name for one’s girlfriend, Stark.”

He pulled you toward the large oval portal hanging in the air. As he pulled you through you looked back to your friends finding a range of emotions from shocked to amused to disappointment. You gave them all a little wave. “Bye, guys. Merry Christmas.”

Marvel-ous Tags: @spooookyscary

And cuz I know they are dying to know: @schischi and @kind-wolf

#marvel Christmas #wrap up #sorry it took so long #tony stark is a little shit

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imagine-loki · 6 years ago

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The Witch's Familiar

TITLE: The Witch’s Familiar CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 30/? AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine getting so attached to Lokitty early on that you insist on carrying him just about everywhere. RATING: T (so far) NOTES/WARNINGS: Also on AO3 Click here

You paused outside the palace and used a bit of magic to make sure your dress and shoes were free of dust from your outing. You did the same for Sif and she led you to the queen’s parlor. Sif knocked on the parlor door politely and Frigga opened it an instant later. “Hello darlings, come in!” she bid you both warmly and stepped back from the door to let you in.

“Allmother,” Sif greeted her politely and you copied the greeting. You stepped inside the parlor and saw that there was a table and chairs set up already for lunch. You joined Frigga and Sif there nervously, but soon relaxed at Frigga’s open caring manner. She really just wanted to get to know the girl Loki was courting and had invited Sif along as a buffer. She was too observant and knowing and knew you’d be nervous.

“So, did you find anything interesting in the markets?” Frigga asked after Sif told her that’s where you’d been that morning.

“I found a Yule present for Thor, finally. Thanks to Y/N,” Sif announced.

Frigga smiled at her warmly. “Great news! I know you’ve been stressing about what to get him. He can be difficult to shop for,” Frigga commiserated warmly. “That was the last of your Yule shopping too, right?” Sif nodded. Frigga turned to you. “Do they still celebrate Yule on Midgard?”

“Some do. Most celebrate a christian holiday instead now,” you tried to explain, and then had to go into more detail about Christmas for the Asgardians.

“Did you find any Yule gifts?”

You shook your head. “I… actually handmake all of my Yule presents. It’s an old tradition,” you explained a little embarrassed at the inexpensive old tradition.

Frigga looked impressed instead. “That’s a sweet tradition,” she told you instead of looking down on it. The tradition had come when you hadn’t had much money, so it was still a little embarrasing now. “It’s much more meaningful when a gift comes from the heart,” she added approvingly. “Did you find anything in our markets that striked your fancy?”

Sif laughed. “Loki threatened her with my bodily harm if she didn’t purchase something for herself,” she informed the queen, who just smiled knowingly. Of course Loki wanted to spoil you and of course he would make sure it was done if he couldn’t be there to do it himself.

“And what did you choose for my son to spoil you with?” she asked you knowingly. You raised your hand to show her the handflower and the black jewel there. Her eyes widened when she saw it. “A jewel chose you?” she asked shocked.

“So it appears. I’ve heard of the focus jewels, but they are extremely rare on Midgard, so I don’t really know much about them except that they’re a reservoir of power…” you admitted. You were surprised by how shocked the queen seemed to be that it had chosen you.

“They aren’t rare here, but they only choose the strongest mages to attach themselves to, especially a jewel like that one. I didn’t even know that they had even chosen Midgardians to attach themselves to. I’ll have the relevant texts sent to your suite so you can review them,” Frigga told you and you nodded and thanked her. That would be helpful indeed. You really didn’t know much about them.

“She also bought a gift for Loki,” Sif teased. You glared at her across the table and stuck your tongue out.

“Of course she did,” Frigga replied warmly, amused by your antics and seeming pleased by your friendship with Sif.

Before she could ask what it was, Loki teleported into the room. He looked around surprised and went to kiss Frigga’s cheek. “My apologies, Mother. I was finished with my business with Father and came to see my lady. I did not realize you ladies were having lunch,” he came over to kiss your cheek. “Enjoy your lunch, darling. I’ll see you later,” he bid you warmly and disappeared again after a quick farewell to Sif and his mother and another apology for interrupting. You smirked at the place he’d been. Silly Lokitty. You enjoyed the rest of your lunch with Frigga and Sif and were not at all surprised that it ended with tea and chocolate cake. She walked you both to the door of her parlor and thanked you for spending lunch with her.

“Do you need help finding Loki?” Sif asked you kindly. You shook your head.

“He’s in his room,” you replied She raised an eyebrow. “I can find him by my mom’s ring, that’s why he’s holding onto it.” She nodded, remembering that you’d asked about the ring at breakfast.

“Make sure you tell him you bought something for yourself. I really don’t feel like facing his wrath today,” she added before she headed to her own amusements for the rest of the afternoon. You had a feeling she was going to go beat someone up in the practice courts for the afternoon. She’d probably had enough girly activities for the day.

“I will!” You called after her and summoned the gift you’d bought for Loki and began working the spells on it as you walked. Sera fluttered ahead of you, leading your way through the palace halls so you could focus on your work. No one seemed surprised to see a mage working spells on a piece of jewelry while walking through the halls of the palace. It was nice to be able to be so open about magic in public. Sure, you could on Earth too, within reason, but magic was just such a part of everyday life here that it was a different type of acceptance and one you greatly appreciated.

You had the spell finished by the time you made it back to Loki’s suite. You walked into his sitting room and found him lounging on his couch with a book. He stood when you entered and set his book aside before he came to hug you while Sera fluttered around the pair of you making her chiming purrs. “How was your day, darling?” he asked you warmly and kissed the top of your head.

“Lunch with your mom was nice, at least it was after I got over it being intimidating as hell, especially with it being a surprise, but she’s sweet. And she served tea and chocolate cake,” you add with a bit of teasing. Loki pouted.

“I didn’t get any chocolate cake!” he whined at you. You smirked at him and held out your hand where a small plate with a piece of Frigga’s chocolate cake appeared a moment later. His eyes lit up at it and he took it from you gladly.

“From you mother,” you explained at his raised eyebrow and settled on his couch with him where he could eat his chocolate cake. You smiled at your adorable sweets-loving love as he ate his chocolate cake with all of the glee of a toddler. He gestured at you with his fork for you to continue telling him about your day while he enjoyed his cake. You smiled. “Sif and I had a good time in the markets. She found a Yule gift for Thor. Oh, and I got you something!” you added excitedly.

“Darling, you were supposed to get something for yourself,” he scolded lightly, but seemed pleased that you thought to get him something.

“I did, but I got you something too. I did have a guess on the size, but magic can fix it if it’s off,” you added as you summoned the ring you’d bought him and slid the ring on the ring finger of his right hand. “Unless you don’t like it!?” you added hesitantly with a blush. “I-I just thought you wouldn’t want to hold onto mom’s ring for long, and necklaces and bracelets aren’t really worn by men…” you trailed off, realizing you were babbling. Loki smiled and tilted your chin up so he could kiss you.

“I love it, darling. Thank you,” he told you after he’d kissed you. He quickly gave you back your mom’s ring, which you slid back onto your own hand after removing the charm from it. “So, did you buy something for yourself, or must I go scold Sif for not doing her duty?”

“Sif is safe. We found a magic shop in the market. I found this there,” you told him and showed him the jewel on the back of your hand. He took your hand to look it over.

“Impressive find indeed, darling,” he sounded truly impressed. “And it’s properly chosen you too… That’s rare for one of the jewels to choose a Midgardian,” he added distractedly.

“Your Mother said she’d be sending books up for me about the jewels. They’re really rare on Midgard, so I don’t know much about them,” you explained.

“Ah, that’s what the maids were up to,” he commented and then laughed when you went to your own sitting room and found the books on your coffee table. You picked them up, but didn’t delve into them right now, instead you vanished them to the dimensional pocket where you’d be able to summon them again when you got back to Earth and could invest time in reading them properly. Frigga wouldn’t mind you borrowing the books and you knew you’d be back to Asgard eventually. You were a citizen here…somehow. A lot had happened over the course of a few short days.

There was another feast that night and more dancing. Frigga announced during it that you, Thor, and Loki would be returning to Midgard in the morning. So you had to stay later than you wanted dancing with nobles and Thor’s idiot friends. You finally found a chance to escape with Loki and took it the second you could. “While Asgard is beautiful, I am anxious to get home. We did leave our friends with a bit of a mess with the witch hunters,” you reminded Loki as you walked arm and arm back to your suites.

“We’ll deal with those men. Fear not, darling,” Loki told you with a bit of a growl to his voice.

“I know we will, princeling,” you teased, trying to get him to lighten up from his overprotective mood.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Why the change from ‘Lokitty’?” he asked, particular about his nicknames.

“Because, silly princeling, you aren’t a cat right now,” you reminded him quite logically. “But you are a prince,” you reminded him just as logically.

“And you are incorrigible, magelet,” he teased in reply.

You raised an eyebrow. “And apparently not the only one full of new and exciting nicknames,” you added, making him laugh. He kissed you goodnight at the door between your suites. You changed for bed in a pair of his stolen pajamas, finding the tunic and soft leggings more comfortable than the stupid nightdresses that Asgardian ladies apparently preferred, even if you did have to roll up the legs. Loki didn’t mind and just wanted you comfortable. You were about to climb into bed, Sera was sleeping on the couch in the sitting room, but something felt off. It wasn’t anything you could put a name on, or put your finger to, but you had a bad feeling, so you made your way nervously through the connecting door to Loki’s sitting room and to his bedroom. You knocked hesitantly, nervous at approaching him at this hour.

“Yes?” he asked from inside and you cracked the door open, just as nervous. “Y/N? Is something wrong?” He got out of bed quickly and came over concern radiating off of him as he pulled you into a hug.

“D-do you mind if I stay here tonight?” you finally asked. “Something feels…off,” you added at his concerned expression. “I don’t know what or why, but I’d feel better not being alone,” you explained. He nodded and ushered you into the room, closing the door behind you.

“Of course, you can stay,” he told you and herded you to the bed, his arm protectively around your shoulders. “Don’t fret, love. You’re safe here with me,” he reminded you as you both climbed into the bed. He made sure you took the side furthest from the door to the room, so he could protect you. Of course he did. You intended to turn your back to be polite and just share the sleeping space and safety, but he pulled you to him so you were nestled safely against him, your head on his chest where you could listen to him purr.

“You turned back all the way Asgardian, why do you still purr?” you asked him softly as you started to doze off, safe in his arms.

He chuckled and kissed the top of your head. “Because, my darling, it soothes you and makes you happy,” he told you warmly. You realized that you shouldn’t have been surprised. “Get some rest, dearest. We return home early in the morning,”

You closed your eyes again and curled yourself more comfortably in his arms. “I love you, Lokitty,” you told him softly as his purrs were calling you to sleep.

“I love you too, little sorceress,”

#Loki #Lover #Imagine #Submitted fic #submission #the witch's familiar #nekoamamori #chapter 30

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