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lolotheparagon · 2 years ago

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Helluva Boss is Hella Sexist To Both Men and Women - Part 2

In my last post about HB, I was discussing how the main female characters of HB get shunted to the sidelines/used as a vehicle for the men's character development. And its about time we started talking about the male characters as well. Cos despite how female characters being mistreated is the more pressing issues (cos female characters always have trouble being written properly for hundreds of years because the writers were incels or misogynistic women) male characters have their own stereotypes or objectification that writers fall into. Especially in regards to mlm relationships (OH, WE'LL FUCKING GET TO THAT)

But for now, lets talk about the main guys in HB:

Blitzo

I might as well go into full character analysis here cos Blitz is ultimately the protagonist of the show. Blitz is a interesting character by concept. A foul-mouthed demon with a literal devil-may-care attitude, completely unprofessional, loves his job as an assassin but also craves love and intimacy with others but struggles to due to a history of failed relationships in the past so he hides behind a mask. Hes an absolute mess of a character and I love that. Blitz is not only a good vessel for comedy but drama as well as his self-sabotaging of his relationships with his friends/co-workers can be a great character arc of him learning to trust others again and start to love himself...

HOWEVER Vivziepop just LOVES throwing angst upon angst onto this guy cos it seems that every past relationship he's had from an ex-girlfriend Verosika to his former partner/childhood friend Fizzarolli to even HIS OWN SISTER ends bitterly and it seems no one from Blitz's past even likes him or is on some amiable ground. Verosika is portrayed like an antagonistic ex, Fizzarolli condescends and humiliates him and from what we see of Barbie's view from that animatic, she comments on how he fucked up her life. So we have two women who are scorned at him (one for justifiable reasons since Blitz was an inconsiderate jerk and the other for reasons we dont know yet) and a guy who broke ties with him to be his rival. And its not like Blitz isnt remorseful because whenever Verosika talks about their relationship, you can see the look of regret on Blitz's face and he was shown to be scared whenever he encounters Fizz, like a kid scared of a bully.

Even Blitz's relationship with his adoptive daughter is fucked up, Loona constantly abuses her father when hes done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to warrant it outside of him being protective at a few moments or babying her (and by babying her I mean calling her Loonypoo or showering her with gifts and hugs). Aka what a typical parent is like. And yet he constantly bends over backwards for her and Loona hasn't even learned her lesson to stop being a bitch cos apparently the writers think women hitting men is funny. There are a few moments of them getting along, but its only for comedy. I would say the only good relationships Blitz has is with Millie and Moxxie. But even that's pushing it cos Blitz barely interacts with Millie in any meaningful way outside of co-worker banter and with Moxxie, the only meaningful scenes they share is in the Truth Seekers episode or that little scene in Seeing Stars.

Ultimately Blitz' relationships with others is why he's such a fucked up mess of a person to begin with. While he has a more stable relationship with his current friends/co-workers, the people of his past keep coming back into his life to mess with him and while he clearly regrets how he treated some, like Verosika, others like Fizz, are okay with hurting him for the evulz and thus set them up to be villainous foils. With all this baggage plus his traumatic childhood regarding his father and presumably dead mother, Blitz sounds like a great character to explore, especially with two characters who both have history with Blitz in different ways. And they barely show up.

You see, Verosika and Fizz ONLY appear in a couple episodes. Fizz appears properly (not his robot double) in the season 1 FINALE and his past with Blitzo is only expanded upon in season 2 premiere whereas Verosika had her own episode in season 1 earlier and her only other significant appearance is in the finale. Apart from that, we only get snippets of info about their relationships from Blitzo's viewpoint. WE HAVENT EVEN SEEN A FLASHBACK WITH BLITZ' BREAK UP WITH FIZZ OR VEROSIKA.

And then we come to his relationship with Stolas...and its fucking awful. That image at the top of this post? Thats what Blitz thinks of Stolas. Doesn't look like a wholesome relationship, does it? I can talk about Stolitz enough to fill a bible but to summarise: Blitz' relationship with Stolas is incredibly fucked up and whats worst, its shown so far to be one-sided. What started as a transactional sex relationship in order for Blitz to use Stolas' grimoire to enter the human world to do his job. (the ONLY METHOD HE HAS, mind you) And from what we see of Blitz' view of this relationship, he's tolerant of him at best to annoyed and angry at worst. The one scene at the end of the season 1 finale cements this when Stolas wants to comfort Blitz after the scene at Ozzies and Blitz refused to have sex with Stolas cos hes deeply hurt and embarassed after everything thats happened that night.

youtube

(btw love this video is titled Blitzo hurts stolas feelings. Like the scene of Blitz being publicly humiliated by both his ex and his rival didnt happen not 1 minute ago with Stolas just standing there not even saying anything so Blitz is clearly hurt by that but nooooo sad gay owl uwu)

Throughout the first season, Blitz treats Stolas like an abhorrent admirer with how Stolas constantly coddles or flirts with him to the nth degree and the argument shown above thats supposed to be the climax of this relationship's problems isnt even RESOLVED when the second season rolls around, the show just treats Blitzo like a tsundere slowly becoming more chill with someone whom he's force-shipped with. The writers really REALLY want you to root for Blitz to be with Stolas yet Blitz has been nothing but uncomfortable or annoyed in his presence. Look at Blitz' face on these photos on Stolas' phone. He looks bored as fuck. oH buT ItS OKAy cos BLitzo hAS a PHOTo of HIm slightly smiling AFter the two had secks so its all good.

That's not the gotcha card you think, guys. Still doesnt excuse how fucked up the relationship is

The main problem I have with Blitzo is that Vivziepop LOVES to torture this imp for drama with scorned lovers, estranged siblings, an abusive father, a presumably dead mother, an ex-best friend who's now his bully, a one-sided relationship with a powerful prince thats built on coercion and pity sex. And yet the show flits back on forth on making him this lol screw you memelord who doesnt give a fuck to a tragic, broken man who doesnt know how to love anyone and himself anymore and the show doesnt dwell hard enough into the latter. I want Blitz to get therapy already or have him actually learn from his mistakes and the show doesnt punish him for it or treat his abuse like a joke. Ive got nothing wrong with a protagonist who's an asshole but dumping all this trauma and angst onto this character who's already got issues to deal with in his current life (like stalking, his lack of respect for boundaries, saying the r slur or making fatphobic jokes) is just depressing.

Moxxie

Moxxie is by far my fave character for how level-headed and kind he is but cos the writers are so indulgent with their tropes, they've flanderised him into a soft boi malewife, infantilising him to the point he literally cant do anything without his wife picking up the slack.

My three main problems with him are: his status as a butt-monkey, his lack of agency and his co-dependency on Millie.

To start with: he's the most morally upright imp on the team so its only natural he would be the butt monkey of the team, but despite how Blitz respects him enough as an assassin, Moxxie is still ridiculed, assaulted and attacked by Blitz, Loona, Verosika, practically everyone except his wife. And while having a butt monkey for comedy is fine, the show goes out of its way to mock Moxxie for things that are so nonsensical it feels more like degradation than snarky banter. For some reason, theres a running gag where Loona and Blitz mock how fat Moxxie is...Look at him! He's thin as a pencil! WHO THE FUCK CONSIDERS THAT FAT?! And whats worse, Moxxie has internalised this by saying to Loona in the most recent episode that he lost weight, to which Loona looks up at him and ignores him. Why is this a running gag? What is the reason? It feels so cruel and pointless.

Secondly, his lack of agency. Despite Moxxie being the most intelligent of the team and his name LITERALLY MEANS "fighting spirit." he's still delegated to a damsel in distress or be given the idiot ball so other characters can have more spotlight. In the Spring Broken episode, while Blitz is distracted with Loona and Verosika, Millie and Moxxie put up the slack and carry on the mission, but Moxxie accidentally gets drunk and spends the rest of the episode being an inebriated doofus. Little moments like this are funny but there was and entire subplot in Seeing Stars where Moxxie gets roped into buying demo CDs and merchandise from every hack artist he bumps into in Hollywood and its up to Millie to take charge.

In the Exes and O's episode where we finally meet Moxxie's father and the uncomfortable reunion plus Moxxie's traumatic childhood flashback perfectly builds up to a scene where he stands up to Crimson for forcing him into marrying a dickhead shark and yet Moxxie gets struck down in one shot and wakes up being tied up at the altar. So the one chance Moxxie gets to take down his monstrous father is completely negated. Thats fucking weak.

Isnt Moxxie supposed to be a professional assassin? Have him do more badass stuff. Let him take control of a mission or a rescue. Have another scene like the Harvest Moon festival where he intimidates a villain with a DEMON-KILLING GUN. Or that scene where Blitzo and Moxxie take down a bunch of human agents in Truth Seekers. He has incredibly knowledge of weaponry and technology which are excellent skills for an assassin to have, so USE THEM. Where's this Moxxie?

This issue also ties into his relationship with his wife Millie. Even though M&M have the most stable wholesome relationship in the whole show, half the time it feels like Millie is doing the most physical work out of their relationship. Whenever Moxxie is in trouble, kidnapped, put in danger or held hostage, Millie always bursts in to save the day and that would be fine except it makes Moxxie look like some baby who cant even tie his bow without Millie there. That whole wedding crash scene in Exes and O's was all set up so Millie can burst in doing cool badass fighting and save her husband. Why couldnt Crimson lock up Millie and Blitzo too? Well, we wont be able to have our cool Millie fight scene where she murders a bunch of thugs and do a Shrek reference. It feels imbalanced calling these two a "power couple" where only ONE of them is powerful and the other is just the emotional support noodle boy. And its even worse how Millie so far hasn't been in a situation where she needs support from her husband so we dont see that much of Moxxie being a good husband outside of cute couple banter.

Basically less this and more of this

Lastly, it seems he gets hit with the angst stick too, cos the most recent episode was about his traumatic childhood with his abusive mob boss father and it turns out he isnt even dealt with or killed by Moxxie, the imps just rescue Moxxie and fuck off so Crimson can continue to be more of a problem. Yeah, that's exactly what this show needed. More traumatised men having their abuse being completely glossed over/treated as a joke so we can have our precious status quo. Except the rich white guy, he gets his happy ending.

SPEAKING OF WHICH...

Stolas

Oh god, its time we talked about this fucker.

My issue with Stolas mostly stems from two things: his treatment of the people he's supposed to care about like Blitz or Octavia and his flanderisation from a clingy rich asshole from the pilot who is in a transactional sexual relationship with a low class imp to a precious soft uwu nice guy who tries WEALLY HARWD

Vivzie clearly likes Stolas and she's been pushing for him to be a main character since the beginning, but the problem was Vivzie wants Stolas to be a well-intentioned person WHILST being a barely trying father to his teenager daughter and still being in a borderline SA relationship with a commoner.

Now I like the idea of Stolas being a complex character, theres nothing wrong with a flawed but sympathetic character (which Vivziepop is clearly trying to do). Stolas has made mistakes, he's neglected his daughter, cheated on his wife and put the only person he claims to love in his life in a transactional sexual relationship with a commoner imp, whilst treating other imps with apathy or disdain. These are all great things to unpack with Stolas, giving him the reality check he desperately needs (lets not forget he's a privleged prince of Hell and hes always been rather ignorant) so he can improve and be a better person, not just for himself, but to his daughter and to Blitz, whom he's grown to care about beyond sexual attraction.

BUT NOPE! Lets give Stolas a tragic backstory in the season 2 opener (JUST AFTER THE PREVIOUS EP TALKING ABOUT HOW STOLAS CLEARLY REALISING BLITZ DOESNT RECIPROCATE HIS FEELINGS AND THAT STOLAS MISINTERPRETED THEIR RELATIONSHIP). Lets give him an unhappy childhood, a father who doesnt care about him (yes Vivzie slap on another abusive dad to your characters as a shortcut for the audience to sympathise with them, that'll work), an unhappy marriage to an abusive woman, his relationship of Blitz is now established as a childhood friends trope (although I use the term VERY loosely as the two aren't even friends for more than a day) and instead lets depict Stolas' affair from a messy, complicated dilemma Stolas has to deal with the consequences to a triumphant act of defiance over an abusive wife. And dont get me wrong, Im totally fine with Stolas divorcing Stella, it was clear their marriage even in Stella's first appearance wasnt happy. BUT considering how that whole Circus episode was used to make the audience sympathise with Stolas EVEN MORE than the show was already doing, its overcompensating at this point.

When a show is shoving so many sad tragic scenarios into a character's backstory so the audience can buy merch feel sorry for him, thats a sign the character himself isn't very well written.

Lets also talk about Octavia, his teenager daughter who's bared witnessed to her parents declining marriage careening into divorce and while this is happening, we see Stolas making bare minimum attempts to fix his relationship with her. In Loo Land, we see Stolas taking her to a park she's clearly not interested in going to cos he's too stupid to ask about his daughter's interests and spends half the episode flirting with Blitz. After a talk with Octavia and comforts her afterwards, taking her out of the park and suggests they do something she enjoys. Now, I loved that. It really showed how Stolas can put his horniness aside to help his daughter. BUT in the next episode about them, Stolas dismisses Octavia AGAIN cos hes too focused on arguing with his ex-wife, causing Octavia to run away to the human realm. And sure Stolas is worried sick once he finds out Octavia's gone but when we get into the human realm and both him and Blitz get shoved into a sitcom studio, STOLAS JUST GOES ALONG WITH THIS WHOLE SITCOM SUBPLOT AND AGAIN FLIRTS WITH BLITZ LIKE THE PREVIOUS EPISODE OF THEM INTERACTING DIDNT HAPPEN.

With how anxious Stolas was acting throughout the first act of the episode, you would think that he wouldnt have time to deal with Blitz' sitcom shit and spend the day but NO FOR SOME REASON LOONA'S THE ONLY ONE WHO IS ACTIVELY SEARCHING FOR OCTAVIA. OCTAVIA'S OWN FUCKING FATHER IS TOO INCOMPETENT TO SEARCH FOR HER HIMSELF ALL BECAUSE OF SOME WACKY COMEDIC MISUNDERSTANDING WITH BLITZ. Oh sure, your teenage daughter's missing in the human realm but nah l'll just carry on simping for my imp bf cos HEY AT SHE'S NOT IN DANGER.

Loo Land: Stolas wants to spend a day with Octavia but ends up distracted with Blitz and learns to pay attention to his daughter and support her.

Seeing Stars: Octavia wants to spend a day with her father but Stolas dismisses her because he'd distracted with arguing with his ex-wife, causing Octavia to run off to the human realm, Stolas goes there but spends half the episode watching Blitz in a live sitcom instead of finding his daughter and yet is forgiven for being a neglectful dad.

But its okay cos Stolas and Octavia have a big hug at the end (they dont even get a chance to talk about the divorce btw since this is the first episode featuring Stolas and his family after the divorce) and despite how hurt and neglected Octavia felt by her dad, she's like "ah its no big deal the furry here told me dads fuck up but they mean well so im good now". So Stolas makes the bare minimum amount of parenting and he's forgiven for it cos he TWIES. Not trying hard enough, just trying at all. "Cos hey, at least its better than nothing!"

Vivzie, this plus the amount of abusive fathers youve already got in this show, I think you have daddy issues. You might wanna get that checked out.

So, much like with its female characters: Helluva Boss has serious problems with how it portrays men. The man with shitloads of emotional trauma and abuse is glossed over/never resolved for the sake of drama and protecting the status quo. (Blitz, Moxxie) The soft-spoken male being infantilised to the point he cant even fight his way of a paper bag with his badass hypercompetent wife to help him (Moxxie), the father who does the bare minimum amount of effort for his daughter and is forgiven for it because HE MEANS WELL (Stolas), the utterly RANCID fetishisation of mlm relationships with the endgame couple going from a toxic sexual manipulation/transactional relationship into a forbidden lovers romance (Stolitz) and the rest of the men in the show are either sex-obsessed (Chaz, Fizzarolli) or abusive (Paimon, Blitz' dad, Crimson) cos MEN AMIRIGHT?

Yeah there are a lot of perverts, coomers and abusive dads irl. Im not saying Helluva Boss isnt accurate to that fact. But these are negative stereotypes about men that shouldnt be shoved in our faces all the time. I think the only recurring male demon character so far who ISNT a chauvinistic dick, cruel or abusive is Wally Wackford. I know people pull the "oh theyre from Hell, of course they're jerks" to excuse all of this but thats fine when theyre characters youre not supposed to sympathise with like Crimson or Blitz' dad but its another thing when your supposed to sympathise with characters like Stolas but they're fucking horrible and yet the show constantly treats them like precious babus who did nothing wrong, while the characters who ARE legit sympathetic (Moxxie, Blitz) are dumped pain after pain onto them cos that makes good dramatic scenes for Youtube, not a story.

Part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/lolotheparagon/712718858369286144/helluva-boss-is-hella-sexist-to-both-men-and-women

#Youtube #helluva boss #helluva boss critical #hb stolas #stolitz sucks #stolas #hb blitzo #hb moxxie #vivziepop critical #mlm fetishization #cw fetishization

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mrsketchydude · 1 year ago

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I feel like Vash and Milly are kind of an underrated duo, and I'm hoping that in Stampede we will get to see more interactions between them (tho I think it is very plausible since we are already seeing more interactions between Meryl and Wolfwood).

Milly and Vash both read to me as characters who are very positive on the outside to the point some people forget that they are really going through it on the inside. Vash, we clearly see plain as day, mostly thanks to Mr. Woo Woo calling him out, but I feel like we don't see that as much with Milly. I still remember watching the 98 anime and just seeing how heartbroken Milly gets over Vash hurting Meryl's feelings and, ofc, over the death of Wolfwood. And she manages to push through it all, which I mean good for her I guess, but I still can't help but be like "hey are you like actually okay or do you need someone to talk to..?" ALSO the fact people underestimate Vash and Milly when they first meet them. As we all know Vash is dangerous but Milly be carrying a whole fucking gun that ways over 200 pounds apparently??? GIRL IS SWOL AS HELL WTF GODDAMN can you carry me please And she just carries that around basically 24/7??? Her arms must be bigger than my head wtf, no wonder her strap keeps breaking its prob hanging on for dear life Anyways ummmm studio orange *blinks my big ol' eyes* I saw what you did for Meryl could you ummmm *twirls hair* do the same for Milly pretty pleaseeeee? I want my big wife to get the love and appreciation she deserves please and thank youuuuuu this is poorly constructed but I just need more Milly love shes so amazing and I love my strong wife who has a smile brighter than the two suns on No Man's Land

ps can we get more vash x milly content plsssss I still think about this scene in Badlands so much for no reason sdskmdskd like I cant explain it to you im just like "oh I love them your honor, big ol dog boy/girl energy right here", pls let like the 2 other vash x milly shippers out there see this

#trigun #milly thompson #vash #trigun spoilers #trigun 98 spoilers #vash x milly I guess???#if you squint #until the end because i am desperate #I LOVE MY BIG WIFE MILLY THOMPSON #sketchy says

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castlebyersafterdark · 2 months ago

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“Look at Millie's personality and look at Finn's life? Do we honestly honestly think they click off set? Do we think she's hanging out with most of these people? I just don't think she has the same interests or things in common with her cast mates in her age group and I'm not her fan but I honestly don't hold that against her, she's her own person with her own interests and friends outside of the show. That's totally. Ok”

I don’t think anyone expects them all to be literal best friends in terms of hanging out everyday, (Finn always clicked more with the IT cast and his alt friends anyway, and he seems to be super tight with Gaten), but it is a little sad if they aren’t even friends at all, y’know? I guess everyone defines friendship differently and one person’s mere acquaintance or colleague is another person’s friend without hesitation, even if there’s no active hanging out involved.

But a wedding is a big deal, no? It’s (ideally) something that only happens once. I would go to a wedding for a friend or acquaintance who invited me, let alone someone I grew up with, someone I’ve been playing an on-screen romance with on screen since 2016 (Byler/M11 wars aside). I do think some of the magic of the final season being this huge victory lap in their lives, which presumably will be portrayed in the S5 documentary, is lost if Finn is out here openly skipping Millie’s wedding. That definitely sends a message, undeniably. Especially given the celebrity context of it all. It’s one thing to skip a random acquaintance’s wedding. It’s another thing to truly not give af if people talk about it in a celebrity context.

I know there are plenty of shows and movies where the cast doesn’t really get along or maybe even hates each other, and the final product is still good. But ST feels different, you know? They all came-of-age together…

Yeah, I sort of feel bad for playing it up as a total non issue maybe as someone who's gonna have their own wedding, don't want to be a hypocrite. So I'm lessening any bad vibes my tipsy posting is spreading - so I get it, the feeling sad over him not going to it if it was this weekend (several people said it's pretty much confirmed by spotting people or tabloids and I'll believe yall!! I get all my info from tumblr and saw no one I follow sharing wedding details so I was skeptical it actually happened, but I guess it was just that secret? Apparently?) I guess I just try to bring a realistic approach to the cast, trying to assuage (yall it took me 10+ times to try to type that and have that word not look like sausage lol) the sadness over the whole cast not being besties 4 lyfe. I know it's been this long ass decade of filming and I'm both too romantic and on the flip have to also be too much of a realist - with that long to grow close, there's also that long to develop a non-closeness with people. Maybe I'm just as interested in the film set dynamics of those with animosity as well as those who are super close. Just a neutral statement.

I guess my takeaway - is there's already so much speculative negativity over everyone constantly saying that the cast hates Noah and he never hangs out with anyone and we know it's not the case but there's probably people in the cast he's not super close to having nothing to do with what occurred online last year. And thus, I'd hate for this narrative to turn to Finn "oh he's an asshole for not going to the wedding, he hates Millie, he ruined everything now" where - I doubt he hates her, but literally maybe they have zero relationship. Or something else, but I really don't think it effects how we should view the show. We're all just very very invested in these inner workings. That's all. I don't know.

#asks #I think the other reason is there's panic in the air over him not being there as Noah's wedding date and I feeeeeel that but. Hmmm.

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thedo0zyslider · 4 months ago

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Outside The Flames - 4k Words

A fire starts in Thunderclan camp. Brambleclaw and Leafpool can do nothing but wait for their family to emerge

Tw: fire

Just a few minutes ago, a fire had started in Thunderclan territory. For the second time in his life, Firestar had to lead his clan away from flames and towards safety. Running through the smoke and embers had felt horrible the first time, when he only had one life to lose. It felt a so much worse now, when he three more to give.

They've all run towards the lake. Normally, when the camp was compromised, Firestar woukd take his clan to thd abandoned twoleg nest. Byt the risk if the fire spreading northwards was too great to riskm At least here, the water will provide some safety.

"Is this everyone!?" Firestar asks as he jumps onto a rock, looking over his cats best he can. The clan had just come to a halt behind him, some cats accidently skidding into the shallow ends of the lake in their panic. The smoke and darkness are both making it hard to see everyone, but he's counting them the best that he can. His clanmates are starting to huddle into a large lump of cats, all tending and comforting to each other the best they can. Seeing that, so far, no ones been seriously injured makes the leader feel a little bit better.

He squints against the fire light and darkness, identifying each cat as well as he's able too. Firestar runs through a lost of names in his head, trying to find all of them. Maybe they should do a roll call. Maybe Brambleclaw, who he can see weaving around the groups perimeter, is already doing that.

Leafpool's checking for injuries, Brightheart is trailing behind her. Hazeltail and Mousewhisker are huddled into one, same colored blob of fur, Mousefur is leading Longtail closer to the lakes edge. Dustpelt is fretting over Foxpaw and Icepaw, so are Spiderleg and Birchfall. Daisy and Millie have all five of the kits huddled near them-

"I think so!" Sandstorm calls up to Firestar, his mate's voice startling him. She and Graystripe are also doing their own headcounts, apparently of their own accords, circling around the edge of the group like snakes. They seem to be double checking for their leader and deputy. Brambleclaw is padding over to them now, bringing up the rear of their group, his own roll call seemingly finished. Firestar feels a sudden rush if gratitude for these cats, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep track of so many cats without them.

"Has anyone seen Jayfeather!?" Leafpool calls out next, worry for her apprentice clear. Firestar scans the crowd around her, eyes darting quickly. He does not see the gray tabby tom, nor does he hear that snappy voice answering back.

"He should be with his littermates, I saw them guiding him." Whitewing news, sniffing their air for the aforementioned cats scent. Hollyleaf's distinctive black pelt, which is so easily spotted in a crowd, is nowhere in sight. Firestar hopes the three of them are just lagging behind.

"Hollyleaf! Lionblaze!?" Brackenfur calls out, his former apprentices name being the first off his tounge. Poppyfrost sits next to her father, tail switching worriedly for her friends. Her two sisters, who had been standing nearby, move to start searching the crowd when neither warrior awnsers them. Firestar feels a spike of fear piece his heart.

"Firestar!" Brambleclaw yowls suddenly, running toward his leader. Ferncloud runs behind him, expression panicked. The leader can't help the way his gut twists upon seeing her face. Something else is clearly wrong. "We can't find Ashfur!"

Firestar swears under his breath. That's one missing warrior, and possibly two more. Plus a medicine cat. The fire rages on menacingly in the distance, and he can't help but wonder which of his clanmates might be burning under its ire. If his grandchildren are in there, suffering as he stands there.

Sandstorm runs up to him next, tail flicking wildly behind her. Graystripe has stayed with the rest of the clan, and seems to have gathered the senior warriors around him, instructing them. Good, it seems like the clan will need them tonight. "Squrrielflight's also missing!"

"Mouse dung." Firestar hisses, lookinh out towards the clan again. His eyes land on Leafpool, who has moved too far to overhear them; still checking on her clanmates despite her distress. When his eldest kit meets his gaze, Firestar beckons her over with a flick of his tail. He'll leave it to Sandstorm and Brambleclaw to fill her in, there's three more warriors he needs to find fast.

"Honeyfern! Cinderheart! Any sign of Hollyleaf and Lionblaze?" Firestar yells, jumping down from the rock he'd been perched on. He prays and prays, that while he was distracted, the three siblings have shown up. He doesn't know what he's going to so if they haven't.

It doesn't take long for the two she-cats to make their way out of the small crowd, bothing practically springing towards the distressed family. That also means it doesn't take long for the bad news to reach them either.

"They're not here!" Cinderheart wails, her ears flattening in distress. Her eyes are wide with fear, anxiety, and something else that Firestar cannot name. Something like familiarity shining in them. (He has to wonder why she looks so much like Cinderheart did back then, treating her injured clanmates as the forest burned around her and Bluestar disowned Starclan on her other side.)

"Neither is Jayfeather!" Honeyfern adds, turning to look over their clanmates again. Like she might have missed them somewhere in the chaos. The golden warrior does not find what she is looking for, and was never going too. Not tonight.

Firestar feel his heart sink down to his stomach. His daughter and her kits are missing. One of his warriors is missing, and there is a fire burning down their home. Beside him, Leafpool let's out a wail, one as powerful as grieving mother's. Brambleclaw moves to comfort her, and probably somewhat comfort himself. Though the comfort will be wasted. It's hard to feel reassured when your loved ones could be burning alive, and you can do nothing to help.

"Oh Starclan." Sandstorm mutters, pressing herself against a panicking Ferncloud. The gray queen lets out a sound of distress, or grief, and hides her face in her friend's side. Battling her own worries, Sandstorm can only offer comforting licks.

Firestar looks at the fire, and so badly wants to run into it. He wants to run into the danger and save Ashfur, save his kin. He could probably do it too, that's the worst part. He could so easily run in there and save them all, only at the cost of one life. Maybe two. Especially if three out of five of them are still together, like Whitewing said they should be. He could run in there and save them all and still be here to help his clan recover in the morning. And that is the worst part.

But he stays, and does not run into the fire. It's Sandstorm that keeps him here, her fanatic glances between the crying Ferncloud and the fire that holds her duaghter inside it. It's Leafpool and Brambleclaw, two cats usually unaffectionate with each other, staying so close as they do nothing but wait and wait for the embers to die down. It's the wail Leafpool had let out that keeps him locked in place. He cannot leave his daughter now, cannot risk his lives now, not when she is in so much distress. Squirrelflight would probably scold him for trying to save her, anyways. She always been too independent for her own good. Even if she really did need saving....

The news has spread to the rest of the clan, it seems. It feels like all of them have moved closer, as if saying that they were here. That they were worried, too. Dustpelt keeps looking over at Ferncloud, but cannot (and does not want too) leave their terrified kits. He's trusting Sandstorm, an old friend, to be there for the love of his life. All the new warriors, ones that had been apprenticed with Lionblaze and his siblings, are twitching in worry. Their friends are in that fire. Their home is burning. There is little their parents and former mentors can do to comfort them. Graystripe is keeping the clan together, but can't help but shoot worried glances at his best friend. The other warriors mutter their concern and prayers for Squirrelflight and Ashfur.

Cloudtail goes to sit beside Firestar without the leader even realizing it. His nephew leans against him, and mutters something about the fire in their old forest home. Something about how devastating it was and how many lives it took. Firestar retorts that he remembers, and hopes no one is pulling a Yellowfang this time. The laugh that gets out of Cloudtail is dry and caked with years old grief.

Sandstorm sits next to her mate at some point, and lets him birt his head in her fur. She takes Ferncloud with her. Cloudtail goes to his foster sister's side, and does not leave until they see her brother again. Brambleclaw and Leafpool go to wait just at the edge of the forest, so they will know when their loved ones are nearby. Usually, Firestar would tell them to stay bear the water, near safety. He finds that he cannot do that. Cannot deny them this.

The fire rages on around them for what feels like an eternity, and it truly is going to be a oong night.

___________________________________

Brambleclaw sits at the edge of a burning forest, waiting for his family. Leafpool paces beside him. They don't speak much, while they wait, only in passing. They have already been waiting for what feels like centuries.

"Do you think they're okay?" He asks, needing something to fill the silence. It's stretched on for too long. Heating nothing but the fire is just making him worry more.

"I hope so." Leafpool says, her voice tight with worry. She stops pacing, and sits down next to him, tail tucked over her paws. She looks into the fire, and doesn't look away from it for a long long time.

Silence falls over them once again. The clan watches them, but does not bother their deputy of medicine cat. They simply leave them to sit there. Maybe they know trying to drag them away from the fire would be a futile effort. Even Firestar lets them be.

"Squirrelflight's with them." Leafpool mews into the silence. Her eyes haven't moved from the inferno in front of them. She sounds confident, like Starclan told her that themsleves.

"How do you know that?" Brambleclaw asks, glancing towards her curious. For all they know, Squirrelflight is lost in there by herself. Or the three are still back at camp, or they're with Ashfur. Anything could be happening in there, and they wouldn't know what. It's the worst part about wanting like this.

Leafpool simply shrugs, like her awnser is the most obvious one in the world. Like even a kit could figure it out. "Where else could she be?"

"Alone, or with Ashfur." He mews, watching the fire dance over the trees for what has to be the millionth time. All of them could be separated in there, or trapped under falling trees, burning, dying-

"Or she went back for her kits." Leafpool points out, finally moving her gaze from the forest. She looks at the deputy pointedly. And....yes, that did seem like something Squirrelflight would do. Even injured and recovering like she currently is.

"That is exactly what she would do." Brambleclaw sighs. Leafpool's right, she probably is with their kits. And if not that, his mate is probably trying to make her way towards them. She most likely doesnt know Ashfur's even in there with them. "She's brave like that."

"She's stupid, that's what she is." The medicine mutters, sounding more upset than before. Leafpool looks back to the fire, her eyes themsleves seeming to burn with the same intensity it does.

Brambleclaw looks over, suprised. It was unlike Leafpool to act like this. The fire must be getting to her more than he'd thought. "Would you not run into fire to save your kin?"

"I would." She sighs, curling her tail around her tighter. The inferno crackles in front of them again, and her ears flick towards the sound anxiously. "But I'm worried for my sister."

Brambleclaw nods in understanding, remember the few times Tawnypelt, his own sister, had been in such serious danger. He rememberes how worried he had been, how he would've done anything to save her. Leafpool is closer to her sister than he is with his. What he felt back then is probably only a fraction of what she's feeling now.

"She's strong." Brambleclaw mews. He's trying to comfort Leafpool, but also himself as well. He doesn't think it's doing much for either of them, but it's better than voicing the worries running rampant in his head. "She'll be okay."

The medicine nodd at him, and the two cats go back to watching the fire roar. It seems to be calming down just a bit, but not enough for any living creature to get out. Brambleclaw has to wonder how much destruction has come to their home, how many trees have fallen over and what the hollow could look like now. He almost doesn't want to know what's been destroyed, and what still remains.

"This is a dumb question," He says, looking back over at Leafpool. Still, all this time later, her eyes have not moved from the raging forest fire. They still blaze the same way, too. "But how are you holding up?"

"How do you think I'm holding up?" Leafpool asks, sarcasm dripping from her tone. Sarcastic, another thing their medicine cat is usually not. Sometimes he thinks being a bit meaner would benefit more, when it came to certain paitents. But maybe not as mean as Jayfeather...

"Like I said, dumb question." Brambleclaw mews, jerking his thoughts away from his missing son. "I'm doing horribly." He adds, in case Leafpool was wondering. He doesn't think she was. At least it filled the silence and didn't sound like burning.

"My whole world's in the fire right now." Leafpool says honestly, the sarcasm leaving her voice as quickly as it had appeared. "I feel like my heads been sliced off."

(If her whole world sounded like more than just her sister, Brambleclaw will not question it. She had always loved their kits like they were her own, anyways...)

___________________________________

Ashfur is the first to return from the fire, not too long after they discover him missing. And not long after raindrops start to sprinkle down, either. The spotted gray warrior comes badgering out of the foliage, eyes wide and breathing panicked. Leafpool stops pacing at the forests edge, and rushes over instantly. Ferncloud and Brambleclaw are hot on her heels.

"Ashfur!" Ferncloud yells, sprinting towards her brother, and over taking Leafpool in the process. She nearly crashes into him, almost sending both of them to the ground. He's pretty sure Ferncloud could care less about that.

"Oh, Ash you're okay!" She purrs, rubbing her cheek against him. Ferncloud presses herself closer to her brother, their pelts bending together into one. The gray she-cat is grateful she still has her brother, and has not tragically lost him as well.

Ashfur smiles, and touches his nose to her ear affectionately. His voice is still sounds shaky from whatever had just happened in that fire. "I'm fine, Fern. I'm okay."

Brambleclaw runs after the gray queen and their medicine cat, coming to a halt infront of them. Leafpool is right infront of them, already checking Ashfur over for any burns.

"Ashfur!" The deputy asks, glad that at least one of their missing clanmates is okay. Though there are still four cats on his mind..."Did you see Squrrielflight? Or our kits?"

"Yes, I did," Ashfur nods, his bkue eyes wide with some kind of emotion. It looks vaguely like worry. "They were trapped behind a tree branch, but me and Squrrielflight got them out. They should be here soon."

"Oh Starclan, thank you Ashfur!" The deputy purrs, relief swamping him. Ferncloud purrs again, calling her brother a hero. Leafpool, who hadn't found any injuries on the gray tom, purrs her thanks as well. She says she couldn't be more grateful to him. Ashfur just says it was the least he could do.

As if on cue, Squrrielflight comes barreling out of the bushes. Her three kits were following right behind her, Lionblaze bringing up the front of the group. Hollyleaf, who padded right behind her brother, had her flank pressed against Jayfeather's; guiding her youngest littermate through the woods. He seemed to shaken up to say anything in protest.

"Squirrelflight!" Brambleclaw exclaimed, running towards his mate, all thoughts of Ashfur and his heroics momentarily forgotten. His mate, as well as they're kits, are alive and safe. That's all that matters for now.

"Jayfeather!" Leafpool runs over with him, immediately circling around her former apprentice. Her tail lashes with emotion behind her. "Are you okay? Are you burned anywhere?"

"I'm fine, Leafpool." Jayfeather mutters, all the usual snappies gones from his voice. If they hadn’t just run from a fire, his kin would he concerned. But instead, they just chock it up to shock. "How is the clan?"

"Everyone got out unharmed." She mews, once she's sure Jayfeather is actually unharmed like she said she is. Then, she towards his littermates with tge same worry in her gaze. "And what about you two?"

"We're both fine, Leafpool." Lionblaze says dully, glancing over his shoulder. The fire is slowly being put out, the rain coming down heavier and heavier by the minute. The clan starts moving away away from where they had take refugee by the lake, and into a more covered part of the forest. The rest of them would be smart to follow.

"Thank Starclan." Leafpool sighs, and turns to find Squirrelflight. Ashfur and Ferncloud have already run back towards the clan, leaving just the deputy and his kits remaining. And they will join their clanmates soon, but only after their father checks on them of course.

Brambleclaw ushers all three of his kits close to him, covering them all in loving licks and nuzzles. Lionblaze let's out a low purr in response, and can't help but hide his face in his father's fur. Like he is a kit once again.

"I kept them safe, like you taught me too." The golden tabby mutters, breathing in Brambleclaw's scent. There was a moment back in the fire, where he thought he'd never see his father again. Now that he is seeing him, Lionblaze doesn't even know if the cat who raised him is his father. Does he even know about the secret Squirrelflight, his own mate, had revealed? Or was he in the dark like the rest of their clanmates?

But, even if they were not kin, he'd done exactly what the dark tabby has raised him to so. He'd shoved Jayfeather out of camp, when the fire reached them, kept their little brother between him and Hollyleaf; guiding him away from the flames. He'd led the three of them after Squirrelflight, and away from danger. He had protected his littermates.

"You did splendidy." Brambleclaw muttered, proud and sincere. He gives Lionblaze and affection nuzzle, one full of so much love it's sickening, and then turns to check on his other littermates; second born still hiding in his fur.

Jayfeather makes a small face at the affection, but does not protest it much like he normally. Only finding a way out of it, and consequently out of the rain as well. "I have to go help Leafpool now." He mutters, sounding despondent. Brambleclaw decides to let it go. He had been trapped in an inferno, after all.

"Of course" He mews, and watches his son pad away, and towards their clanmates. It leaves him with just Hollyleaf and Lionblaze. And one last kit to check up on, Lionblaze no longer hiding his face. He seems to he feeling a bit better now.

"You look upset, Holly." Brambleclaw mutters, giving his daughter a concerned look. She's staring back at the fire, hef green eyes burning like Leafpool's had just minutes ago. The resemblance was uncanny. If Brambleclaw didn't know any better, he could almost believe they were mother and kit.

"I'm fine." She mews reassuringly, giving her father a tight smile. But there's still something dark hiding in her green eyes, something Brambleclaw can't identify. "Just shaken from the fire"

"Okay." Brambleclaw mews, giving her and Lionblaze one mast lick behind the ears. "Come join the clan soon yes? I'll be sending out hunting patrols soon. You two need food and rest." His two eldest mutter their agreement, and then the deputy pads back over to the rest of their clanmates. But sister and brother are bit alone for long, two more familiar cats replacing Brambleclaw almost as soon as he leaves.

"Sandstorm! Firestar!" Hollyleaf says, both her grandparents running up to her and her brother. Lionblaze says nothing, just lets the leader and her mate curl around them worriedly.

"You three are okay, aren't you?" Sandstorm asks, sniffing over them. Like Leafpool hadn't already asked, and like she wouldn't be worrying over them like a mother hen as soon as Squirrelflight's injury was accounted for.

"Yes, we're fine." Hollyleaf nods, her smile still tight. She appreciates the concern, but it is hard to accept it like she used to. Now that Hollyleaf knows that these two cats might not even be her real grandparents...

"I'm so thankful Ashfur was there to help save you." Firestar says, casting a grateful glance over his shoulder, to where the gray warrior is talking with Ferncloud and Cloudtail; his head bows as he repeats the story of their "escape."

Lionblaze stiffens upon hearing the gray warriors name. But Hollyleaf manages to keep it together despite herself. "...Yes, it really was a miracle he was there." She mews. The black she-cat doesn't know what story that mangepelt had told the clan, but she was going to go with it for now. At least until the three of them had more information on their....family history.

"Where’s Jayfeather run off too?" Her grandfather asks, scanning the crowd of cats for his youngest medicine cat. There's still worry in his eyes, worry that comes with leading cats for seasons.

"He's gone to help Leafpool." Hollyleaf tells him. She puts a comfortable tail around Lionblaze's shoulder. Her brother is being oddly silent. She can't blame him for being shaken up. Not after what her and her littermates have just learned..

"She's checking on Squirrelflight, yes?" Firestar asks, scanning the crowd yet again for his daughters. Like he is scared the dying fire had reclaimed one of them, and taken the other with her this time.

"I think so." Lionblaze muttered, his amber eyes glancing back towards the clan. He looked like he longed to join them, to rest comfortably surrounded by his denmates. He must be exhausted from the escape.

"Good." Sandstorm purrs with relief, her shoulders finally able to relax. "I was worried about her wound opening up."

"Come on," Firestar says, starting to leading his grandchildren back towards the clan. "Let's get you two out of the rain and someplace to rest." Sandstorm mutters her agreement, and nudges Hollyleaf and Lionblaze along. They follow the two older cats, pawsteps falling heavily against the ground, dragged down by the things they have learned...

While every cat had greeted the three siblings, Leafpool ushered her sister away from everyone else; needing to check her still recovering wounds, and make sure that none of them had reopened. She tells Jayfeather to go check on the kits again, make sure they're not in shock. Her apprentice just grumbles, but does what he's told.

It was lucky she did too. Though Jayfeather would want to hear what his mother had to tell his sister, she's sure he wouldn't like it. In fact, it probably the last thong he would want to find out.

"Leafpool, they know." Squirrelflight whispered, Leafpool checking over her wound, reapply whatever she needed to with whatever herbs she had.

"They can't." Her sister mewed, horrified. She stopped working unconsciously, paws frozen where they hovered over Squirrelflight's flank. It was the worst news the medicine cat could've ever received. Her sister wished she didn't have to be the one to tell it.

Then again, the only other option was Ashfur, and whatever he would do was certainly unwelcome. Especially after his murder attempt he'd tried only mere minutes ago...

"They do." She mutters, touching her muzzle to Leafpool's comfortingly. Her sister will not be able to resume her work for a few minutes, the shock rotting her paws in place. "We have to talk later."

Once Leafpool is sure she's okay, she let's her sister go, and goes to double check Hollyleaf and Lionblaze. Squirrelflight leaves reluctantly. There is so much she needs to share with her sister, so much they need to discuss. But with the clan like this, there are too many listening ears nearby, and no good chances to sneak off.

Plus, their parents, Firestar and Sandstorm, were already trotting over to see her. And she couldn't run off without them seeing her. It wouldn't be fair.

Squirrelflight buries her face into his mother's warm fur for the first time since she was an apprentice, and Sandstorm has no idea why. She thinks it's because if the fire, of being trapped within it, that had scared her so much. Squirrelflight wishes it was just that.

She wishes what had happened back in that fire could've been so simple as just a falling tree.

#ron.fic #warrior cats #warrior cats fanfic #wc fanfic #leafpool #jayfeather #hollyleaf #brambleclaw #ashfur #lionblaze #firestar #sandstorm #thunderclan

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slightlysuspect · 2 years ago

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All Out of Time

Dirk and the crew move to leave Coruscant as quickly as possible after securing the funds they needed to escape.

Dirk Correia

"Alright people put some pep in your step! I intend to be at the landing platform within the hour!" I've been frantically organizing the logistics for our escape from this planet. I've found it's significantly harder, and more expensive to find transportation when your name is shooting up the wanted list. Word about this Senator kidnapping is spreading fast, and somehow people are hearing we were involved. I don't like it, but no matter. Everything's gonna be fine, we were just leaving.

"Will you relax Dirk?" Fuentes asks. "We're gonna get there, ok?"

"No! I will not relax! We just kidnapped a Senator and blew the grid on the surface while we were at it! Time has never been more of the essence!" Sometimes I wonder why I even bother speaking. Despite my insistence to hurry, I can sense no urgency in my counterparts. Millie is still trying to narrow down her rifle collection to the top 5 because I said she couldn't bring any more. Diego is running through the hideout trying to figure out where he put his favorite leather duster, and Dawson is... wait where is Dawson? "Dawson! Where did he go?"

"He's grabbing Ahsoka." Fuentes replies.

"What? Does he even know where she is?"

"Apparently he keeps a tracker on her so he can always find her."

"That's... creepy."

"Yea that's what I thought too, but if she didn't have him looking out for her who knows what she'd get up to."

"Found it!" Diego announces from somewhere upstairs.

"Great so Diego is ready. Millie hurry up would ya?" I beg.

"It's rude to rush a lady." Millie retaliates. "How 'bout you get on Dawson's case?"

"Oh don't you worry the moment I see him I'll-" Suddenly the door bursts open, and Dawson and Ahsoka emerge. "Dawson! You know we're about to leave this hellhole, and you just vanish? C'mon get ready to go!"

Dawson looks at me defensively. "What I had to get Ahsoka didn't I? Ain't just gonna leave her here are we?" Sigh. Not anymore I guess.

"Wait where are we going?" Ahsoka asks. This girl kills me. Can't retain the smallest bit of information.

"We're leaving Coruscant." I tell her. "Are you ready to go?"

"Oh ummm, let me go get something from Dawson's room." She says, then she vanishes upstairs.

"What about you Dawson are you ready?" I ask.

"Born ready." He says with a smile. I glance over, and am somewhat shocked to find that Millie has settled on which guns she's bringing.

"Great!" I respond. "Well then let's roll!" I start striding towards the door enthusiastically when my perimeter alarm goes off, and my stomach drops. Someone's here. I have some cameras outside, and I flip the TV to show the live footage. "Oh no." It's clones. A lot of 'em. And not just any clones.

"Wait that's the 501st." Dawson announces. How did the 501st end up looking for us? Those guys are battle hardened frontline soldiers. This isn't just some security police force.

"You don't think General Skywalker is with them do you?" Diego asks. Oh no. No no no no no no nonono. That guy killed Count Dooku. What chance could we possibly have?

Why have I never stopped to experience life before? I walk over to the mirror and look at myself for a long moment. My short cut mohawk. The teardrops tattooed on my face. Those were for my brothers. We were all enslaved in the spice mines on Kessle, and they all died when we tried to escape. I was the only one who made it out. Is that why I was afraid to leave this planet? Because I knew the same thing would happen?

"Dirk?" Fuentes asks as she comes over to me. "Hey we need to go ok?"

"Yea of course Jules." Julia and Diego were born on this decrepit rock. Their parents died shortly after Diego was born. She's been practically raising that kid since she was 6 years old. I wonder if they ever saw a system other than Coruscant.

"Hey why are you calling me that?" Jules asks. She grabs my hand and says, "C'mon follow me."

I look over and see Millie with a scared look on her face. I've never actually asked her where she's from. I just know she isn't human, or from Coruscant. She's very tall and lanky with blue skin and long, dreaded white hair. I've never seen an alien quite as beautiful. Maybe I should've told her that.

Ahsoka emerges from upstairs, and I properly look at her for the first time. This poor girl is half starved with the heaviest bags I've ever seen under her eyes. I look at her robotic arm, and I can't help but wonder what it would be like to lose a limb. Maybe I've been too hard on her. "Hey Ahsoka, have you been doing okay?" I ask her.

She gives me a quizzical look. "Since when do you care?" She asks. Then she glances over at the security monitors and sees the clones closing in. "The 501st." She says, as realization dawns on her face. And then she exhibits an emotion I never thought I'd see from her: fear. The wave of terror that emanates from her shakes me to my core. What could Ahsoka possibly be afraid of?

SLAP! "Dirk snap out of it!" Fuentes yells with tears on her face. "You need to get us out of here!" Oh. She's terrified. I look and realize they all are, and I'm not helping am I.

"Ok. Yea, you're right." I say and I rub my hands to my face. "It's OK people, here's what we're gonna do." I point to a manhole cover built into the floor. "Reason we moved here? The sewer runs right under here. We're gonna slip right underneath 'em."

"Ew, gross." Diego says.

"Well then stay here and have a long conversation with General Skywalker." I retort.

"It wouldn't be a long conversation." Ahsoka interjects. I don't wanna know what that means, but it motivates Diego to jump in the sewer. While the rest of them get down there, I get some of the explosives I had lying around rigged to blow. Hopefully this whole place going up in smoke will slow them down a little bit. I light the fuze and jump down into the sewer.

"Alright everyone ok? Everyone here?" I ask.

"Well Ahsoka ran off to the left, but otherwise yes." Fuentes responds.

"Great!" I say as I take off to the right.

"Really?" Millie asks, as the crew begrudgingly follows my lead. "You don't wanna stick with Ahsoka even in this situation?"

"I can guarantee you she's gonna draw a lotta attention, and if we were with her we'd only get in her way." I respond. "She can take care of herself, and we can always find her later, right Dawson?"

"Sure." Dawson says. "But if we run into these clones we gonna have a problem."

Blaster fire starts echoing through the drainage pipes, as we quietly move away from the commotion. BOOM!

"What was that?" Diego asks.

"I blew up the safe house."

"You did what?" He asks incredulously. "I still had a bunch of cool stuff in there!"

"Will you focus on what's important right now?" His sister asks.

I start hearing movement echoing from somewhere, and it's getting louder. I stop in my tracks, trying to figure out where it's coming from.

"There they are!" I hear from behind us. "Blast 'em!"

Author's Note

Such a conundrum when you find yourself with nothing to say. What are you supposed to say then? Often times when speaking is the hardest is when it's most critical you find something to say. The weird thing about communication is that even if it sucks, it's probably still better than not communicating at all. But even recognizing this, it's still something I struggle with in practice.

#star wars #fanfic #alternate universe #original characters #ahsoka tano

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chaos-catlady · 2 years ago

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Why the bird app is trying to cancel Noah (and honorable mention: Grace)

*I’m going to preface this and say that I don’t ship any of the kids with anyone in particular, I just want them all to be happy in the end*

1- a rando byler tik-tok account made an edit (as they do) and claimed in the comment section that Noah liked it, then they deleted said video and said on Twitter that they deleted it to protect Noah (this is all what somebody told me on the bird app)

2- Fans of Finn and Millie are attacking Noah and calling him predatory, how he is horrible for “liking” the video, saying he is weird and should know better at 17 years old. Also sending him and his fans death threats

3- Every time somebody mentions he is only 17 they get attacked, even though 17 year olds are impressionable and not mature in any way. Every 17 year old I’ve ever met has made iffy decisions, is weird, and overall doesn’t care about their consequences

4- They are going on and on how he is a horrible person for past things he said, things he has apologized for and things that nobody in the cast has said they have a problem with (all things he’s said or done since 11 years old)

5- they’re absolutely preaching now Millie and Finn need to be saved because Noah is toxic and weird

Now here’s my take (and how people have reacted to it)

1- not everything said on the internet is true, just because some tik tok creator said it happened does not mean it actually happened.

Nobody wants to hear that, I’ve been told so many times how it obviously happened because the creator in question said it happened. No screenshots, no comments from Noah, etc

2- Everyone makes mistakes and questionable things at 17, they do and will their entire life. But young people especially do. I know people in their 20s that still do. Nobody becomes mature over night, but apparently everyone on Twitter has never made a mistake or been weird or done anything questionable at 17

They are mocking anyone who brings up his age, or anyones age. Nobody in the cast is over 20 years old, and they don’t understand that people don’t mature over night. And that especially applies to celebrity children because they have not had normal lives. Everyone makes mistakes or does weird shit. I was literally called a hag over this argument 💀

3- everyone is doing this in “defense” of Finn. Nobody will hear it that they don’t know Finn and Noah’s relationship behind closed doors. Nobody will hear that friendships have different boundaries then w complete strangers. Yes, Finn said that people sexualizing him makes him uncomfortable, but he was talking about the world and the fanbase. In no way did he say that it was Noah or anyone specific doing it. He’s said many times how Noah is one of his best friends.

Again, nobody will hear it. They are name calling, calling people predators, sending death threats over this point specifically, etc

4- they are calling Noah a predator because he liked a tik tok that he was in, telling him that he is sexualizing Finn when he is also in the video. In this logic he would also be sexualizing himself

They’re saying he isn’t sexualizing himself because “that’s not how it works”

These people literally do not have a grip on reality, they are throwing around serious terms that they clearly don’t know the definition for. Nobody understands why sending death threats are wrong, and why it’s not their duty to “hold him accountable for his actions”. It’s clear that Noah doesn’t give a shit (good for him honestly), and neither does anyone else in the cast care about the things that Noah says or laughs at. They probably all laugh at it together. But the teenagers on the bird app says that’s not what happens, so yk it has to be true. Honestly if you’re on of the people attacking this dude or anyone else in the cast then go outside and touch some grass, talk to someone that isn’t chronically online.

Now into Grace

The accusations that she is racist, a predator, homophobic, and obsessed with Joseph Quinn are coming back around

People are tagging her in death threats again

People are attacking anyone who disagrees with them

I also read somewhere that she was doxxed but I don’t know if that’s true; everything else I’ve actually seen people doing

Again, this is pathetic. The lack of human decency this fanbase has is literally out of this world. Idc about the ships or anything else at this point, go outside and touch some grass and realize why attacking people every time they breathe is wrong and why sending death threats is wrong.

It takes nothing to be kind and to not do these really shitty actions. Be better.

#noah schnapp #grace van dien #stranger things #finn wolfhard #milly bobby brown #byler #hellcheer #steddie #be kind #grow up #touch some grass #will byers #mike wheeler #chrissy cunningham #steve harrington #natalia dyer #nancy wheeler #eleven #twitter

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astridthevalkyrie · 4 years ago

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summer rain: chapter 1

Your days in the Training Corp aren’t too out of the ordinary. You make friends, you train hard, and you eat dinner every day.

Oh, and you’re also hellbent on getting revenge against Humanity’s Strongest Soldier.

Chapter 2

Read on FF.net or AO3.

Helloooo, beautiful people. I’m so excited about this story! This is now the official first part of the series, so it’s a prequel to the three oneshots I’ve already posted. If you haven’t read them, no worries, you can read this just fine. If you want to, just know they all have an established relationship and will reference the past, so you may possibly get spoiled.

I plan for this to have five or so chapters, so buckle up, and as always, happy reading!

You’ve been expecting more.

Maybe that’s the wrong perspective to have. It’s still the military, and it’s still your first day and sure, that’s exciting and all, but you’ve heard stories. People always describe their first day of training as absolutely terrifying, but life-changing. They say that the first day is the day all the baby-faced cadets realize they’re in over their heads. It’s an introduction to the rest of their lives. At least, that’s the case for the people who stay. If one can’t handle a verbal beating, how can they stand any chance against the titans? The first day changes everything.

This, however, isn’t life-changing. It’s not terrifying. It’s rather...dull.

To be fair, the man in front doesn’t look like he’s enjoying it either.

You’ve heard of him, of course you have. Even back within Sina, people talk. A newcomer, a gift from the walls, humanity’s savior. Recently joined the Survey Corp and yet already a lieutenant, a definite shoe-in for the next available section commander position. Apparently his origins are a bit of a mystery, but he’s either the long lost son of a rich merchant or he’s come from outside the walls themselves because it’s just impossible that any common person can possess the skills he’s rumored to have. You’re not sure you believe all of it - apparently he’s so fast that the titans can’t even see him coming? yeah, sure - and yet there’s just something about him that gives off a truly well-earned confident aura. That’s been the most exciting part so far, the chance to see him up close, to see that he’s actually real.

Still, since he began talking, Lieutenant Levi hasn’t once raised his voice. He hasn’t screamed at them all for being the weakest pieces of shit he’s ever seen. He hasn’t even told them about how they’re going to train to become snacks for the titans. It’s disappointing. You’ve been ready to stand your ground, to show you’re made of some tough stuff. That can’t happen when your trainer won’t even bother to strike fear into your heart. Where other people may be relieved, you are mourning this loss of the traditional military experience.

At the very least, he’s not the actual trainer. He started his speech with a complaint that their actual instructor was sick for the day so now he had the absolute pleasure to welcome dozens of new fucking brats to their new home and occupation. His words drip with venom and boredom - clearly, he didn’t join to do any of this. It’s beneath him. All in all, Lieutenant Levi seems rather...arrogant. Maybe it’s well-deserved. But you don’t have to like it.

As he walks up to people at random who shout out their bare identities, the lieutenant snaps out comments that seem like they’re meant to bully rather than to frighten.

“Your posture is shit.”

“Oh wow, I bet the titans will be real scared of your noodle arms.”

“And here I thought these villages would send their best and brightest. Instead they sent you.”

But you’re not one to let things get to you so easily. You have your fist balled to your chest proudly, ready to serve humanity. You’ve fought to get where you are, and now you’re really, actually standing here, with your new comrades besides you, and you couldn’t be more proud. A bright smile settles on your face. You will make the best out of this, no matter your humanity-saving trainer’s dour mood.

Unfortunately, said humanity-saving trainer takes notice of your smile, and with his gaze locked on his new target, he walks up to you, eyes narrowed in irritation.

“What’s your deal?”

You straighten your back, snap to attention, and look directly ahead as you know is appropriate. “Cadet (F/N) (L/N), sir, from Stohess District!”

His expression doesn’t throw you off, despite it looking like he’s never been so irritated in his life. You know you haven’t done anything wrong (at least not yet), so him looking that pissed off must be an internal issue, nothing to do with you. You’re not any different than any of the other cadets that have introduced themselves.

“Cadet (F/N) (L/N),” he says as though he’s testing out a brand new curse word, with just a hint of mockery in his voice. “I didn’t ask for your name or where you were from. I asked what your deal was.”

Well what in the holy hells is that supposed to mean?

Is what you want to say, but instead you simply furrow your brows and ask curly. “Sir?”

“What the fuck are you so happy about?” he clarifies, annoyance displayed clearly on his face.

Well damn, no need to be so edgy. You aren’t necessarily required to be as serious as everyone else here, and smiling isn’t a crime last time you checked. But this is obviously Lieutenant Levi’s thing, to be snarky and mean, and the sooner you answer, the sooner he’ll move on and find a new victim. “Just happy to be here, sir.”

Your smile stays right where it is.

“Oh, is that it?” He stares at you, deadpan. “You like the thought of being eaten? Does the idea just make your day? Do you fantasize about it at night? Let it lull you to sleep?”

Your smile grows a little strained.

Passion aggression is nothing new. You grew up in Stohess, you’re used to your fair share of cattiness. The lieutenant must take lessons from the tea-sipping high class ladies you’d basically grown up with, because he reminds you of them vividly. Ironic, considering you thought the military would be an escape to a life that was real and included less passive bullshit. It’s that frustration at the similarity that makes your polite mask crack.

The response slips through your lips before you can stop yourself. “No, sir, but last night I did happen to dream of a trainer that was tough enough to handle one of his subordinates smiling.”

You can be catty too.

The grounds become more silent than they already were. It’s as though everyone is suddenly holding their breath at this new confrontation, just waiting to see what the newly dubbed hope of humanity will do if someone matches his sass. The loud silence is what finally makes you just a smidge nervous - surely, they won’t kick you out on your very first day just because of a smart comment, right?

Impatient and a bit anxious, you finally allow yourself to look directly in his eyes, and you’re suddenly stricken by how grey they are. You don’t think you’ve ever met anyone with grey eyes. They’re damn gorgeous. And there’s a hint of...something in them, and to your surprise it’s not rage. He looks calculatingly gleeful, as though he’s just been waiting for someone to say something back to him. He appears cruel and delighted all at once, and the contrast of it along with the striking silver hue is more personality than you’ve ever seen in someone’s eyes before.

It’s a breathtaking sight. You move in just a millionth of a centimeter to get a closer look -

And then he moves, lightning fast, reeling back and swinging his leg around to sweep your legs from under you. With a gasp, you hit the ground hard, head ringing and vision blurring for a few seconds. Your hair, which was loose around your shoulders, flies across your face, some of it entering your mouth. From above you, grey eyes are triumphant, looking down on you as though to ask whether or not that’s tough enough for you. You’d love to answer, but your head is throbbing and you can only let out a pathetic, confused noise that causes titters to spread throughout the room.

What the hell just happened?

You move to get up, but he’s quicker, slamming his foot down on your leg and holding you right where you are. For someone with such a short stature, he looks pretty damn tall from down here. Maybe this is the sight that the titans barely get to see before he slices through them.

Everyone is watching, even if they’re not turning their hands. This is their entertainment today, and the fool has just made its move. The fool being you, of course. They’re all hungry to see how this will play out.

Your cheeks glow bright with embarrassment, but you are not going to waver. Not on the first day. This is what you wanted, right? You wanted someone who’d be a hardass, who’d strike fear in you and make this a day you’d never forget. Well, Lieutenant Levi is your wish come true.

“Please remove your foot, sir,” you muster as politely as you can, looking up at him icily.

He digs the heel of his shoe into your thigh to make a point, and maybe to see if you’ll cry out in pain. But you look him in his strange grey eyes and you only blink, a small smile returning to your face. Will he kick someone who’s already down?

The moment seems to last forever, and you briefly entertain the fantasy that time is freezing for him as much as it is for you.

And then it’s all broken - he takes his foot off and walks right by you, and the only words you’re spared after being humiliated are, “Tie your hair up, you look ridiculous.”

Thus goes your first meeting with Humanity’s Strongest Soldier.

____________________

Dinner that night is filled with chatter. It seems people have found their loyal companions pretty fast, and cliques are forming faster than a speeding bullet.

Luckily, you don’t need to worry about making friends. Besides the fact that you’re charming and perfect (according to everyone else and definitely not just you), you joined the military with your best friend from childhood. Millie Shackel is every bit the Stohess lady you are, the Rose to your Maria, the jelly to your butter. It’s amazing how much two girls can bond over a shared hate for the lack of activity happening within their stuffy town.

You gnaw at the bread on your plate, squeezing your eyes shut in pain after a particularly hard bite makes the back of your head throb. Not for the first time, you place your hand gingerly on the back of your skull, confirming that there’s no blood pouring out.

“Shouldn’t have mouthed off,” Millie quips from across the table, looking at you amusedly.

“Thanks,” you mutter bitterly, abandoning the bread for now until the soreness goes away. “Didn’t think one stupid comment was going to make him go berserk on me.”

She laughs, confirming you sound every bit as stupid as you feel. “I don’t think that classifies as berserk. That was a superior putting you in your place.”

“Suck-up,” you accuse, eyes narrowed. She only rolls her eyes, and you bring the cup of water to your lips and begin simply guzzling it down when someone claps you on the back, making you choke.

You turn to glare, still coughing up water, at two guys behind you. The one who nearly killed you is tall, with hair the color of bananas, and he’s grinning with no regrets, the shameful bastard. The other one behind him looks apologetic, red-haired with pretty green eyes. He whacks his friend on the arm. “You idiot, you nearly sent her to the infirmary!”

“Oh, come on.” The tall guy slides next to you without permission, slinging an arm around you as though you’re the closest of chums. Back in Stohess, you’d have called for his execution or some shit. “Surely the girl who talked back to Lieutenant Levi can handle some water going down the wrong way.”

Millie does not look pleased at the intruder, and looks even more grouchy when his friend sits down next to her, albeit keeping a much more respectful distance. When you finally stop coughing violently, you shove the guy’s arm away.

“A-asshole, what the hell’s your problem?”

“There’s no problem, kid.” He nudges your arm with his elbow. “I just wanted to see the balls on you. Guess it was overexaggerated.”

“Obviously,” you snap, “I just talked back, I didn’t hop over the wall and kill a titan.”

“Regardless, good job with the way you handled it. The others are talking about you.”

Millie gives you a stern look. “Hear that? Now we’re the troublemakers.”

You shrug apologetically, and decide to take another crack at eating your bread. This time, it goes down easier, with only a light sting to remind you of the lieutenant’s cruelty.

“I’m Stephen,” the redhead says with a shy smile, extending his hand. You shake it, then turn your gaze questioningly to the one next to you. He grins cockily, waiting for you to ask. You don’t.

“This is Ricky.” Stephen spoils his fun, sounding exasperated.

“I assume you two are close.” Millie wrinkles her nose distastefully. You bite back a laugh - there’s that Stohess bitchiness that you love about her.

“We met this morning,” Ricky responds, and you can’t tell if he’s joking or not.

The two of you warm up to the boys soon enough. Ricky is rather friendly when he’s not trying to steal your food thinking you won’t notice, and Stephen is downright sweet, his emerald eyes brightening when you ask him where he’s from. He goes off on a ramble about his village which is somewhere smack dab in the middle of the land within Wall Rose. Apparently their local stew is the best there is. You privately disagree; nothing quite tastes like the stew they make in the Orvud District, least of all this bland loaf of bread in your hand.

Ricky, on the other hand, is from Shiganshina, which is apparently an outer city of Wall Maria (so the two boys really had just met that morning).

“So, I’m guessing it’s the MP for you two?” Ricky says. Millie looks offended.

“That’s not right for you to assume!” She deflates a little. “But yes, it is.”

“Hey.” You shoot her a scowl. “It’s the MP for you. I don’t have any intention of hurrying back to precious Sina.”

Millie gazes at you with her we’ll talk about this later look like she has every time you’ve brought up that you have no intention of returning to fucking Stohess where nothing ever happens. Before she can say anything, Ricky ruffles your hair fondly.

“Should’ve known you were made of tougher shit than that. So what, you like playing hero?”

You shrug. “No, I just have a sob story. Dead old Dad was a Scout, and then he was titan chowder.”

Stephen looks disturbed at how bluntly you say it, and even Ricky is a bit thrown off. You chuckle at their expressions, waving a hand nonchalantly. “It’s fine, it happened a while ago. I barely remember him. But you know, what better way to connect with your dead dad than to align yourself with the people who let him die, right?”

Ricky’s mouth hangs open as Millie snorts. “You can laugh, she’s making a joke. Get used to her sense of humor, it’s always this bad.”

“I resent that.”

“So you don’t care about getting into the top ten?” Stephen asks carefully - scoping out the competition, you realize.

“Couldn’t give less of a shit,” you answer coolly, “but Millie obviously does.”

“I’ll get into the top ten, it’s not about that.” Millie says confidently, shaking her head as though it’s ridiculous to even imagine that she wouldn’t. After all, you two were raised to be perfect. “The real goal is to be first.”

Ignoring the madly ambitious look in her eyes, you focus on Stephen. “So what is it for you? The Scouts?”

He winces bashfully. “I’m...undecided.”

You laugh out loud, a bit meanly. “What, undecided like you’re going to some top university in Mitras? This is the Training Corp, Stephen, you’re not gonna get to try out a bit of everything. Just choose whether or not you wanna be shipped off to a pointless death, and then you’ve made your decision.”

Stephen frowns, shaking his head. “If it was that simple, then what would be the point of choosing?”

Who in the holy hells asked for his philosophical wisdom, that’s what you want to know. Rolling your eyes, you turn to Ricky, who is chewing on your bread, abandoned after your taste buds just wouldn’t adjust without the butter you were used to. With his mouth full, he answers easily. “Scouts.”

You nod. At least he’s sure.

____________________

“That wasn’t right,” Millie says later, right as you’re about to lie down on a scratchy-looking bed.

“What?”

“What you said to him. He can take his time deciding if he wants to. And it’s just rich, coming from you.”

Your eye twitches in irritation. “You’re just pissed because I don’t wanna take on the most boring job in the world.”

“Grow up,” Millie hisses, venom laced in her voice. “Not everything’s about your entertainment.”

Turning around, you see your best friend with arms crossed, giving you a disapproving look that reminds you of your mother. How odd. What’s that old saying about people becoming what they most hate?

“You’re gonna lecture me now too? Hit me with some philosophy, maybe?” You raise your brow, daring her to say more. “Or do you wanna knock me over again? Maybe I’ll get a concussion this time.”

Millie scoffs, sitting down on the bed she’s claimed. “You know what, it was nice. Seeing someone put you in your place like that.” Her lips quirk under your hard gaze. “Maybe he’ll teach you a thing or two about taking things seriously. Give you some actual goals to achieve.”

The only thing Lieutenant Levi will teach you is to never get distracted by something like how beautiful someone’s eyes look ever again. Even now, you can still picture him, the way he stood in front of you, startled you, threw you off. The way his eyes were filled with more duality than you’d ever expected to see in a person.

Pretending like you didn’t just fantasize about his pretty grey irises, you roll your eyes and flop down on the bed next to her’s. “He’s not gonna teach me jack shit. He’s not even our trainer.”

Millie hums, whether it’s to you or to herself you don’t know, and when you look at her again she’s closed her eyes, clearly wanting to end what was a very long day. It’s not long before you join her.

“(F/N).”

“Yeah?”

“I miss home.”

You don’t, but you keep it to yourself.

The last thing you think of before you fall asleep is how cold the lieutenant had looked when he humiliated you, and your cheeks burn angrily.

____________________

Two weeks pass by in a blur. Once training starts, there’s not much time to think about something like goals, because everyone’s goal is simply living until dinner each night. Avoid getting yelled at, attend classes, study hard, and for the love of all things holy don’t fall on your face when you’re balancing in the practice ODM gear.

It’s a rush, and you actually find yourself enjoying it. The food still tastes stale and the bed is still too hard to be comfortable, but there’s an easy routine that’s so much more than sit still and look pretty. While you’ve never been a fan of routine, this is different. There’s a purpose to this, even if everyone has different things they’re working towards. Whether they’re trying their best to show what they’re made of and get into the top ten like Millie, or pushing themselves because they get starry-eyed at the thought of saving humanity like Rashad, or simply staying out of trouble to avoid getting meal privileges taken away like Clara, everyone is working towards something, and it’s thrilling to be in the midst of it, to be a part of something meaningful.

You and Ricky are fast friends - he’s surprisingly not too insufferable and he shares your enthusiasm for not taking things so seriously. He also seems like he’s looking for a partner in crime, someone to partake in the oh-so delightful task of slacking off with. Millie is throwing herself into perfecting everything, and Stephen, while not as crazy as she is, is more nervous about losing respectability in front of their trainers and comrades. So the two of you naturally gravitate towards each other, because jeez, at least a few people here need to remember that life still exists outside of all of the training and military drama.

Today is the first time they’re letting you practice hand-to-hand combat, and while that’s obviously ridiculous since you’re training to fight titans (or just bully people, if you’re joining the MP, but Millie didn’t appreciate you voicing that out loud), it’s also a chance for you to show off a natural talent.

You’re flexible. And fairly fast too.

Sure, you’re no fighter, but back home you were put into dancing lessons since you were a wee young thing, so you have a much higher tolerance than most of these chumps. You can take a few hard punches here and there, and you’re fluid with your movements, so you’re giving as good as you get. Even combat is a dance in a certain way, it has all the same elements at any rate. Everything comes down to the placement of the feet, and every other body is an accessory that has to be utilized perfectly to do any damage.

Unfortunately, Ricky’s fought, like actually fought - fucking peasants from Maria and their street fights - and so as much as you put up a damn good fight, he eventually gets you in a hold from behind. You squirm in his grasp as he laughs, digging his fingers in your side. You try to protest, but it’s hard when he’s tickling you so hard.

“H-hey, hey!” Your giggling only gets two octaves louder when Ricky doesn’t let up. “Stop!” Ricky’s laugh mixes in with yours, until he’s lifting you off the ground. Your breathing becomes painful as you struggle against his grip, clawing at his hands. “Ricky! Let go!”

Finally, he decides to show mercy, dropping you. He regrets it pretty soon, though, because then you’re on him quickly, throwing a hard punch against his shoulder. He groans, letting out a pained, “What the hell, (F/N)?” but you’re not done. You grab the collar of his uniform, and tug it forward briefly to give yourself some momentum to shove him back as hard as you can.

Ricky stumbles on his feet, catching himself before he falls at the last second. There’s a determined expression in his eyes, not quite competitive but suddenly eager to show off.

“So, think your dainty dancing is gonna give you the advantage here?” he challenges, balling his fists in front of his chest. You do the same. “Hate to break it to you, kid, but that’s not how that works.”

“Beat me, then. Properly.” You smirk, planting your feet firmly. Let him throw the first punch, you decide. “I have to be on the ground for you to win.”

Ricky’s clever too, knowing you intend to use his size against him. He lowers his arms, extending them as though he’s going to let you take a free shot. Yeah, you’re not that stupid. You stay right where you are, raising an unimpressed brow. The two of you stare each other down, trying your best not to break into smiles.

“Hit me.”

“Hard pass.”

“Because you know your punch will be too weak?”

“How’s your shoulder, Ricky? Should be feeling fine, since my punch was so weak.”

He barks out a laugh, rolling his shoulder back experimentally. “Like getting hit by a feather.”

Okay, trash talk isn’t part of the combat training that the trainer, Instructor Grumman, has assigned. But it’s still fun, and it’s about a thousand times more preferable than actually fighting. Fighting is painful and pointless. Trash talk is entertaining and doable.

Still, you hunch your shoulders. If Ricky really won’t move, you’ll come at him with full force. Digging your heel into the ground, you give yourself a boost and run towards him with a burst of speed. His eyes widen, and his first instinct is to hold out his hands to keep you at bay. But with the close proximity and his lanky figure, it won’t be enough. You’ll have him on his back within seconds if you ram into him in one, two -

You don’t make it.

You don’t make it because you’re suddenly flung into the air. You let out a frantic shriek and bring your arms up to shield your face. The ground approaches with dizzying speed and you hit it with a sickening thud. Your hands are suddenly covered in scratches and you open your mouth to furiously ask Ricky what the fuck he was thinking and how did he even do that and did he have to throw you so high -

But when you look up, it’s cold grey eyes that meet you.

Fuck.

The glare that was supposed to be for Ricky is now aimed at him, unadulterated hate coursing through your veins. This is the first time you’ve seen him since that day. Just what in the actual fuck is his problem, and just what had you done to deserve being thrown over his shoulder and up into the sky like a fucking ragdoll? You hadn’t mouthed off this time. Hell, you didn’t even know he was there, so just what the fuck was he punishing you for?

“People who don’t take their training seriously usually end up looking up like this,” he hisses. His glare matches yours, which is ridiculous, because he’s the one who knocked you down. Why is he pissed off? “‘Course, they’re usually looking up at a titan, but we don’t have any of those on hand for me to demonstrate.”

Yeah, he’s far from a titan. Fucking shrimp.

“I was taking my training very seriously, sir,” you say with gritted teeth. “In fact, I would have defeated my opponent had you not stepped in and shot me up in the air.” Your hands would also have significantly fewer bruises.

He snorts, actually snorts, like you’ve just told a hilarious joke. “A real opponent isn’t going to let you run that mouth of yours before they come at you. You’d be dead in two fucking seconds.”

People are looking now. Everyone remembers that first day, and they all look as though their favorite stage actors have come to town to perform a show. They’re all waiting to see just what the girl who talked back to Lieutenant Levi will do now. A circus trick, perhaps? They don’t know what you’re made of - no one is going to see you crack. And definitely not because of this insufferable man.

“You don’t know that, sir.” You say it with a poisonous smile, wanting him to know that it’s not meant to be respectful. “I might just make it. Maybe I’ll even make it longer than you.”

There are hushed gasps all around you, but the lieutenant pays them no mind. He looks amused, as if you’re just a stupid little girl, an arrogant brat who somehow thinks she’s somehow stronger than him. You’re not an idiot, you know that he’s an excellent soldier who will probably make captain soon, and you’re a lowly cadet who doesn’t even know the basics yet. But once you’re trained up, once you have experience, you think you could take him on, and you could possibly win.

Lieutenant Levi leans down, crouching on his legs before leaning in. He grabs your shoulder harshly, and leans in to whisper in your ear. “I’ll be waiting, (L/N).”

You almost feel respected until he adds, “Waiting to see the day that fucking smile gets wiped off your face.”

With that, he stands up and turns. Turns to walk away. Turns as though you’re not still on the ground. Turns as though your comrades aren’t snickering around you, convinced that he just put you in your place a second time. Turns as though he didn’t just single you out for no damn reason - who even fucking asked him to watch? Who asked him to interfere in your business? Why didn’t anyone else demand his attention? You weren’t the only one goofing off. Hell, there were some people who were actually just lazing around! Where was their punishment?

Furiously, you speak before your brain can catch up.

“Why don’t you fight me, Lieutenant?” you say loudly as you get to your feet.

He stops.

Ricky, who is safely standing a few feet away now, gives you a wide-eyed look, silently asking if you’re brain damaged. But you pay him no mind, your eyes focused on the back of Lieutenant Levi’s head, probably burning a hole in him with your gaze by now. Immediately, the crowd changes sides again, hushed oohs spreading around. It’s not enthusiastic, no one actually believes you’ll triumph, but they are enthusiastic that you have the balls to try.

He turns, giving you the driest expression you’ve ever seen, and you half expect to be dismissed. To be told that you’re too weak to even think about fighting him.

Instead, his stance changes, his fists are raised, and he’s accepted your challenge.

You know you can’t win. That’s not the point. The point is to hold out. For a whole minute, at least. Half a minute. Was twenty seconds too generous?

There’s a small part of you that regrets mouthing off this time.

Lieutenant Levi doesn’t have to waste any time staring you down. He has no need to debate in his head about who should throw the first punch, and nor does he grant you the courtesy of devising a strategy in your head first. In half a second, he’s approaching you with dizzying speed, fist reeled back, about to knock you over for the second time today.

But you’re sick and tired of these fast maneuvers.

You duck down just as he closes the gap between you, and you go for his legs. He grunts in surprise as you make contact, clutching tightly. It may look pathetic. Your arms are wrapped around his thighs, which you basically just dived into. Your face is squished against his hip. Your feet have left the ground, as you’ve thrown your entire body at him. At this moment, you look absolutely ridiculous.

But it’s worth it.

The lieutenant loses his balance as his feet slip from under him. You can feel him falling down, down, down, with a gasp that is just fucking music to your ears. This is turning out better than you’ve ever hoped for. You’ve proved everyone wrong, even yourself. He’s going to hit the floor, and you’re going to win. You’ll win.

Or at least, you would have.

You’re both hurtling through the air for one glorious moment. Then, recovering from his shock in an instant, Lieutenant Levi spins the two of you in midair, and despite all your efforts and quick calculations, it’s your back that hits the floor again with a loud crack, air knocked clean out of your lungs. You gasp for breath. His knees are digging into your neck, you’re going to choke -

He takes no time to recover. He’s up and on his feet in a second, brushing the nonexistent dirt off his pants, and you’re left panting with your hand on your throat, trying to recover what little dignity you have left as laughter erupts around you. Dizziness and confusion overwhelms you, as does something else. Just a few minutes ago, you’d been looking at him hatefully. Well, you from five minutes ago had no idea what hate was. You could kill him right now, this arrogant, pompous, cruel jerk.

How dare he look so unperturbed? Like this is just a normal weekday for him?

A hand yanks you up by your hair, nails digging in your scalp painfully. You’re brought to your knees with a heaving gasp. He tugs your head up until you’re looking at him properly, and he has the nerve to smirk. It’s slight - perhaps he knows a full blown smile would look creepy on him - but it’s there, mocking you.

When he speaks, it’s just a little louder than a murmur. “I thought I told you to tie your hair up.”

Then he releases you, and your buckle over in pain. The position literally has you bowing down to him. White hot anger seeps through you. Consumes you. When he starts walking away, his every step thunders in your head, echoing a million times. He had no right.

No right at all.

It seems like Millie’s wish has come true. You have a goal now. A goal that Lieutenant Levi has so graciously given you.

You’ve decided. No matter what happens, you’re going to get revenge on Humanity’s Strongest Soldier. He’s going to fucking pay.

____________________

You’re pacing out in the field later that day, muttering under your breath, the events from earlier replaying in your head on loop. Millie’s decided to give up on getting you to come study with her, and she’s blatantly refused to participate in your little quest for revenge, citing it as “pointless and foolhardy.” Well, this whole thing is pointless and foolhardy. The Training Corp is just a way to produce more dead bodies every year. But Millie didn’t agree with your line of logic and has left you to brood on your own.

Realistically, what are your options? It’s not an easy task to take on. Humiliating a man who is now so respected and admired will be difficult when his ego soars sky high. Something heavy will be needed to bring it down. Now you have no intention of ruining him for life, nothing major or extremely dangerous. If you did have such an intent, it would’ve been rather simple, just a letter back home to your mother to spread the word of what humanity’s hero was really like. Not that she’s inclined to listen to your demands nowadays, but it’s a doable plan that would work one way or another. But you want to embarrass Lieutenant Levi the exact same way he embarrassed you. You want to knock him flat on his back, while everyone watches, and you want to stand triumphantly as he kneels down to you.

Someone listening to your thoughts right about now would think you were having a vivid sexual fantasy. You groan, slumping down against the bark of a tree. It’s going to be dark soon. You have a curfew that you’re inclined to obey. But you simply can’t go back without thinking of a plan. He deserves it. He deserves to be utterly humiliated. Punishing you is one thing. Beating you in a fight is only natural.

But holding you up by your hair like you’re one of the fucking spoils of war only to have you kneel to him - that’s sick. He’s sick, and probably perverted. You wonder if he’s always been like that, or if the glory has gone to his head. And you wonder why he’s chosen you to play this game with. Because of a smile and some cheek? That’s no excuse.

Maybe you’re just the prettiest one here, and he has a crush.

Even the cocky thought can’t distract you enough from your frustration. You can’t possibly beat him. There’s a reason he’s getting so much attention. It’s because he can fight like no other, and it’s all natural talent too. Frankly, you call bullshit, no one is just that good without any practice, but whatever, not the point right now. Who could possibly make you capable enough to beat the lieutenant in a fight? Who could possibly know all his weaknesses?

Probably only him.

Your eyes widen.

____________________

The sun shines brightly the next day. You feel the warm breeze from the open windows kissing your cheek as you run through the base. Most people passing by pay you no mind, although a few give you questioning looks. But they don’t say anything, probably figuring you’re just a lost newbie who’s inevitably going to get yelled at when you show up late for class. But they’re mistaken, you’re not lost at all. You’re running with purpose. And well, you might be late for class, but it’ll be fine, you know Stephen takes detailed notes that he’s willing to share, and even if he feels like being mean, this is much more important.

Originally, the plan was to go all the way to his office, the path pieced together from directions you’d gotten from Instructor Grumman who believed you were going to apologize (for what?). Hopefully, he won’t actually double check if you went through with it, because you have no intention of apologizing for a single damn thing. Your aim is far more sinister than that. Today is the first step of a plan that will take you a long while, but it’ll pay off eventually. You’re going to achieve your goal.

That is, if he agrees.

The universe is on your side, because you don’t even need to go all the way to his office. There he is, in the flesh, talking to a blonde man you recognize as Captain Erwin Smith and a woman who you haven’t seen before. Maybe if he hadn’t been so callous yesterday, you’d have waited until he was away from his comrades before approaching him. It’s too late to care about appearances now.

You step up to the three of them and salute, clearing your throat.

He looks at you, and his eyes harden when he sees a smile plastered on your face yet again.

“Can we help you?” Captain Erwin says gently, but there’s just the slightest edge in his tone. Clearly one is not supposed to just approach this dream team. Your bad.

You open your mouth to answer him, but Lieutenant Levi beats you to it, looking bored as he does. “She’s lost, Erwin. Classes are on the other side of the base,” he says dismissively, waving a hand like he’s swatting away a fly.

“I am not lost. Sir.” Your spine is still straightened and your fist is still balled against your heart. You’re not sacrificing it just yet, but you’re certainly sacrificing your pride here. “I have a request for you. After you pointed out my obvious flaws yesterday, I realized that if I don’t get help, I’m going to fall seriously behind.”

Captain Erwin shoots him an exasperated look, already having figured that his best friend (or whatever they are to each other) must have done something to you. Meanwhile, the woman cackles, nudging the lieutenant’s shoulder.

“She’s being proactive! You appreciate that, don’t you, Levi?”

He doesn’t answer. His attention is now exclusively on you - you nearly feel special.

“So what do you need from me, Cadet?” You ignore the way your stomach flip-flops violently from the way he stares at you, the corners of his mouth twitched upward in a light smirk. Something in him clearly enjoys the idea of you needing him for something. Something else to lord over your head, something else for him to be cocky about. “You want me to find someone to give you private lessons?”

“Close,” you say, mustering the brightest and happiest fucking expression you can, “I’d like you to give me private lessons. I want you to train me.”

The lieutenant’s eyes flash upwards.

Your hair is neatly tied up in a tight bun.

Y’all have no idea how weird it is to write “Lieutenant Levi.” I loathe it.

Also, this is my first time writing in second person. Lots of firsts here, folks.

Please review, your comments are my source of life.

#aot #attack on titan #levi x reader #snk #aot x reader #snk x reader #levi ackerman

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chickensarentcheap · 3 years ago

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Mixed stuff :)

For @tragiclyhip to cheer her up. And ‘cause there’s TJ in there and she LOVES herself some TJ

@innerpaperexpertcloud, @secretaryunpaid

Never mind how cute my husband looks, are those mixers behind him on sale?

#theimportant things #kiddinghoney #loveyoutons and tons #ineedanewmixerforthestoretho #Iwanthtatpinkone

New baby means new ink! More initials and dates to be added :)

Hub’s is away on a boys’ trip (the three oldest and Koen and him going camping, fishing, hiking, hunting, quadding, all that good shit) and it was wacky hair day at school and you know what this one had the nerve to say after my hard work?

“Daddy would have done something a lot more wacky.”

I picked that suit out. Cleans up nice, doesn’t he?

Baby Kota. Look at those cheeks!

Like Addie is Tyler’s baby, this one is mine. My first boy. I heard a saying that a mom is a son’s first true love, and a son is his mother’s last true love. This kid is so amazing. He’s beautiful and he’s thoughtful and protective and isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s right and for those who can’t stand up for themselves. He’s energetic and playful, athletic and strong, thoughtful and brave, compassionate and sensitive. The man of the house when dad is away. He’s a talented surfer and a great football and lacrosse player and is accepting of everyone. He has a heart that’s bigger than his body and he love so completely, deeply, and profoundly. He is growing so quickly and it’s so bittersweet. My baby is becoming a man right before my very eyes and it’s a hard thing to accept. He is more like his dad which every passing day. How can I not adore him when he is so much like the man that I love more than I ever thought I could possibly love someone?

Mumma loves you TJ. With everything she is and everything she has. You’re an amazing son and protector and I simply adore you. The world may not understand you at times and people in it may be cruel to you, but I love you always. As is.

Bonus baby pic. Look at those eyes!

Brookie asked for a day off of school for a mummy and me day :) First stop, our favourite tea house. Next, we’re going shopping and then for manis and pedis :D

And it was at that moment that both my heart and my ovaries exploded.

Baby Millie loved the beach. Sometimes we would just kick back and relax (and nap apparently) on the shore while daddy surfed. It was so hard leaving here and going back to Colorado. Australia quickly and easily became my home, and while we didn’t have a lot, I had a man that loved me beyond all measure and a gorgeous baby girl and a comfy little apartment that was all ours. I used to cry to my husband at night about wanting to go back; I hated Colorado and my family and all I wanted was to return to Australia and never think of the States and my mother and brothers EVER again. I know it broke his heart too; having to leave his birth place right after creating a new life for himself. And he’d promise that one day he’d make it happen; he’d get me back there and we’d never have to leave again.

And he made good on that promise.

This guy is super stoked about a mum and dad ONLY get away. Just a few days in Tasmania. And he’s also extremely hopeful that we’ll enter the ‘mile high club’. I reminded him we’ve visited that particular club more than once; we’re card carrying members. And he reminded me we hadn’t visited in that particular plane.

He makes a good point.

I casually mentioned to my love that I’ve never had sex in a car. Ten minutes later, he texts me from outside:

“I’m ready.”

Look how proud he is of his little girl. You would have thought she just caught and reeled in Jaws.

#bestdadever

Looks like Charlie brought his whole family for peanut butter sandwiches!

#lifeinAustralia

A flashback!

Hi, I’m Amelia. Daddy and mumma call me Millie. I feed on demand. Now mummy is ALWAYS tired and daddy helps out the best he can and when mum sleeps, he’s up with me making sure I get my bottles. I don’t mind them and he’s cool to hang out with, but I prefer the boob. My parents are barely ever in bed together at the same anymore. So you know what that means? They can never have sex. I think THAT’S hilarious. Because daddy is mine now, mum. ALL MINE. It also means, I’ll have no brothers or sisters and I’ll be the Queen Bee forever. I’m very proud of myself. As you can tell.

#Tyler and Esme series #Rake Kids #Esme Rake

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cynthiaandsamus · 3 years ago

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Custom Toonami Block Week 71 Rundown!

Code Geass: Lelouch establishes the Black Knights floating iceburg country complete with representatives and shit and somehow no one on the team monitoring Lelouch notices he disappears right when Zero is exiled, like yeah half of them are in Lelouch’s pocket anyway but you’d think him just yeeting himself out of the country would be difficult to hide from the oversight committee. Anyway Brittania being Brittania is going to have a political wedding with the Chinese Disturbingly Loli Empress and their literal oldest Prince, like they couldn’t even pick a slightly younger prince to make this less creepy, it’s literally the First Prince who’s like 40, I’m sure Charles has fucked more recently and they have a younger prince but no we have to really hammer home how creepy this is. So yeah now that Lelouch’s new band is under the Chinese banner, having them make peace with Brittania and sell them out would be bad so Lelouch decides to crash the celebration and… challenge Schnizel to Chess, because reasons. And both of them just proceed to completely ignore the rules of Chess for shit that’s thematically appropriate before Nina tries to stab Zero and Schnizel says he has all he needs about who Zero really is. Also Milly’s here and I feel bad for her because all of her friends are several degrees down the sanity cliff now and she’s just there trying to hold their cliché student council group together while wondering if she really will have to marry Lloyd or not because it’s been a year and they threw together this Chinese marriage in like two days so who knows anymore. Anyway Xingke crashes the wedding because of his adorable backstory with the Empress and Lelouch crashes Xingke’s crashing of the wedding by literally appearing out of nowhere which is pretty good for a guy as shitty at athletics as Lelouch and also Jeremiah is on a chair in a desert and this is important or something.

Inuyasha: So we start the Panther Deva filler arc and it’s pretty good honestly, we have an array of Captain Planet Panthers to fight with elemental powers of varying strength to give Koga, Miroku, Sango and Sesshomaru something to do so it’s not just the Inuyasha Wind Scar Power Hour and we have some good foreshadowing/fluff of Inuyasha eating steak in the modern era and fucking around with Kagome’s cat and pissing it off which is a good thematic throughline about how petty cats are and the whole thing has this sunset coloring and it’s really pretty. Anyway Kagome gets captured, you know how it goes, Koga’s pissed because Inuyasha is always letting Kagome get captured and he has a fucking point, bitch is captured more than Princess Peach at this point. But turns out the Panther Demons run behind a barrier and too bad for them Inuyasha just got a new anti-barrier sword to try out.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So Suzaku’s kind of broken, he can dispel his clones to heal himself which apparently gives him all of his energy back because he went from exhausted to just being able to re-do the clones again and start blasting Yusuke so he heals and rests indefinitely as long as one of the clones is alive that’s fucking insane. Anyway apparently despite just healing, Suzaku got his guidance system damaged by Yusuke’s first attack and his aim has been getting progressively worse so he just has to sit there with stormtrooper aim winging Yusuke now and then to torture the poor guy despite going Super Saiyan last time Yusuke only had one shot in him but now he does the whole Life Chakra deal and gives his life for one more even Super Saiyan-yer burst and Shotguns Suzaku’s clones into dust and somehow transmits energy to Keiko through the tv to protect her. It’s pretty convenient that Yusuke learned an AOE attack right before fighting someone that needs all of their clones to be killed at the same time to stay down but yeah, arc over, pretty fun, Yusuke pulled so much power out of his ass he literally dies but some spirit mouth to mouth with Kuwabara saves him with surprisingly little consequences for either of them while Hiei says he’d never drag himself down to save anyone and I’m sure that won’t come back to haunt him. Also Yusuke FINALLY tells Keiko he’s a Spirit Detective given this is like the third time she’s been held hostage by a demon she probably should’ve figured this out sooner.

Fate Zero: Caster’s sitting there talking about how Saber is his waifu and like dude Saber is EVERYONE’s waifu but apparently it’s not actually Saber he’s after but a Saberface so he’s not wrong but he’s also not right. So yeah, he orders more child murders which knowing this guy there isn’t a situation that calls for less child murders. Also Lancer’s teacher asshole dude is cheating by using two E-Tanks for his servant after being all ‘haha old magician families are just better lol’ he has to use two dudes to make his servant fight and still got rolled by Iskandar. Also Kiritgusu bombs the fuck out of his building which given this takes place in 1994 is probably in very poor taste. Also Kirei meets Kiritsugu’s battle maid and shit goes down but everyone’s like “Okay Caster’s more insane than usual so we should probably take care of that” and Gilgamesh claims he’s gonna teach Kirei about pleasure while shirtlessly drinking wine so there’s that.

Konosuba: So Dio-voice Dullahan is back and he’s pissed because Megumin keeps getting off to destroying his home. Though through a combination of luck, Darkness being a meatshield, Aqua’s absurd water/holy power and Kazuma’s dumb luck along with Megumin blowing up the henchmen, everyone plays a role in defeating him in the most ridiculous manner possible. Despite not actually getting any money from it, it’s nice to see the group come together and actually accomplish something in their own way. Makes me think maybe this series won’t just be dicking around about nothing forever, which is fun don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I could stand 52 episodes of one note character jokes with absolutely no progression.

Sailor Moon Crystal: Tuxedo Mask blows the load on the whole Silver Crystal deal to the whole town so now everybody knows about it and can keep an eye out for it. So despite Tuxedo Mask being nothing but helpful Luna assumes he still may be bad and has the power to brainwash a whole town despite his only notable skills thusfar have been standing on telephone poles like Itachi Uchiha and cheerleading. Anyway Luna takes everyone to Zordon’s Morphing Control Center under the aracade which you think would’ve come up by now and reveals she’s a moon cat which you think also would’ve come up by now. Luna’s really just been “We gotta do the thing cause I say so” this entire time. Anyway they wreck the tv broadcast and kick the King’s ass but we have a Disc One Final Boss as Queen Beryl shows up and uses her Conqueror’s Haki to knock out the other Guardians without touching them while Usagi has an existential crisis about her crush maybe being problematic. They give motivational speeches to each other, basically Usagi telling him that they both have to try harder despite feeling powerless and them immediately wilting and saying she’s hopless so he can have a turn giving her a speech and then she gets surprised when he knows she’s Sailor Moon despite literally just telling him she’s the leader and has to help everyone and shit. Anyway, you know how this goes by now, Ancient Moon Laser Beams, bad guys fall, Queen retreats and Usagi wakes up in Mamoru’s apartment ready to reenact Fifty Shades of Moon. Hey an actual fucking cliffhanger for once, that’s kinda neat.

Durarara!!: Mikado’s plan finally comes together and he meets with Ms. Yagiri while Celty confronts the girl with her head who says her name is also Celty. We get Mikado’s backstory about basically creating Reddit to make The Dollars a Stand Alone Complex, a gang that doesn’t actually exist outside of the rumors of its existence, man this kid’s been watching too much GitS. Still despite it going predictably awful with guys doing shitty things in their name by some miracle some of Mikado’s wide-eyed optimism gets through and his belief in the good of humanity makes the Dollars a gang that’s good at its core. And now they use that good to outnumber the Yagiri goons and let Mikado get away while Celty jumps off a roof on her bike and has a mental breakdown which people seem to hear for some reason. Also Seiji broke out and is using his yandere energy to hunt down Mikado.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Code Geass #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate Zero #Konosuba #Sailor Moon Crystal #Durarara!!

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victorianwestpiano · 4 years ago

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What would it be like if Colette and Holt lived in 2020 (without the virus!) but there was no Dreamland? What jobs might they have? How would they meet? How did Holt lose his arm (war? accident?). Is Colette famous? If so, for what?

Oh so many ideas, but here’s the one I’ll respond this ask ;)

Kentucky, June 2020

Holt Farrier, ex horse showman, was reading the newspaper in the morning like he always does every day. Although today, it was for him to concentrate because of his son Joe, who was playing with his new Xbox he got last Christmas.

It annoyed a bit the cowboy that Joe was so addicted with this technology with high volume and at this early hours. His daughter Milly was not different, when she was younger once in a while sat on her father’s lap and read the paper together alongside with his wife Annie. But now she prefered watching the news on her cellphone, searching science updates in the world. The worst part was the uncountable TikToks they do with their friends, now that summer began, TikTok was their only way to communicate apparently.

But in some way it didn’t surprised Holt at all that his kids were so submerged in their gadgets. Since their mother died of an illness almost an year ago, his children coped with their loss in the best way they could. In some parts, Joe dealt with Annie’s death better than Milly but it was still hurtful for both of them.

However, Holt felt he was suffering the loss the worst, he lost the love of his life while he was away on a excursion on the mountains with his friends Arav, Puck and Rongo. He felt guilty for not being there for her and for his kids. And if it was not enough, some days before Holt received the news of the death of his spouse, he had a terrible accident while he was climbing on the rock mountains. According to his friends, Holt was barely on the top, trying to reach one of the picks, but out of nowhere he slipped and fell many feet in the air. His body crashed somewhere in the rocks and woods. The last thing the cowboy remember is that he waked up in a hospital...without an arm. His left arm was gone and some days after his wife was gone too.

Holt and Annie were horse showman and woman, touring around USA doing tricks with their stallions since that was the thing they loved to do the most. Their connection with horses was one of the things that united them even more. They loved the aesthetic of old-school circuses, but nowdays people are not longer interested on circuses anymore which brought Holt many economic problems.

Now without the love of his life, without an arm and without a job, Holt’s world was no longer the world he adored, so he decided to move with his daughter and son to his childhood town and buy a small house with the few savings he had kept. It wasn’t much but it was something, they had at least a roof upon their heads, electricity, hot water and of course wifi which is very expensive. Not living in tour anymore felt weird; static like a rock and being in just one place, it was practically boring.

Holt’s friends, who came from different parts of the country and the world, tried to convince him and lend him money until he find a job, however, Holt was so proud to accept money from his friends. If he wanted money, he had to earn it and he did not want to be in debt with the people he cared.

Just in very rare ocassions he accepted his friend’s monetary help and became stubborn promising a lot of times he’ll return what he owes, even though his pals said to him is not a big deal, that he’ll pay when he can.

That’s why Holt was reading the newspaper, so he could find a decent job, although, what job would accept a handicapped guy?. The rider from Kentucky was desperated, mostly for his children.

Suddenly, a knock of the door was heard, Holt reacted to the sound and quickly lifted his head up. The cowboy looked at his son sitting on the couch, which was nearer to the door, playing with his Xbox, super concentrated.

“Joe would you get the door?” Holt asked the boy.

“I’m busy dad, I’m in the middle of a mission right now.” the kid responded.

Holt rolled his eyes and spoked again, “Joe, c’mon, or I’ll plug off that damn thing this instant” he warned out loud.

Joe turned his head to see his father and reluctantly the kid obeyed him. He paused his game and circled the couch to get to the entrance.

“It was an important mission you know?” Joe protested.

“Yeah you said that yesterday 12 o’clock PM, you’ve been playing all week boy”

Joe’s eyes widened and then he nodded embarassed, “Non taken.”

The boy headed to the door and opened it, only to find a short man, he was the same height as Joe. He was around his sixties, had white curly hair, a pair of shades on his eyes, brown shorts, black flip flops and a radiant colorful hawaiian shirt.

“Hey Max!” Joe exclaimed in surprise seeing their family friend.

“What’s up little buddy!” Max responded in glee, “Tell me, is your dad here? I have excelent news for him.” the short man said excited.

“Max!” Holt waved him from the kitchen, “Come on in and sit.”

Max Medici, a not very succesfull sales man, was best friends with Holt’s dad and him when the rider was just a lad. Holt enjoyed his company, his optimism was very contagious even when his plans not always go as he wanted. Anyway, Medici’s smile made everyone smile too, that was one of his gifts.

“What is it Gustavo? Please sit” Holt invited his friend to sit with him at the kitchen table.

Max sighed at the mention of his real name, “Please Holt, just call me Max, ok? You’ll ruin my reputation here.” he took off his sun glasses and cliped them into the collar of his shirt.

“Ok sorry,” Holt chuckled, “What are this incredible news you have for me? Oh, please don’t tell me you had another fail in your bussiness and you need cash.” Holt sat slowly, expecting the news to be bad, since, now he’s used to them “Don’t ask me money pal, I still owing you those $100 bucks from last month---”

“Can you please shut up cowboy” Max interrupted him. “Jeez, I didn’t came here to bother you, on the contrary, I came here to cheer you up, bud.” he said with a huge smile.

Holt rose an eyebrow and listened. “So, what is it?”

“Look, a friend of a friend, of a friend, of a friend of mine, said that a famous actress has a ranch here in Kentucky, and she needs a foreman to take special care of it, mostly the horses.” Max said with a trusting glance.

“Wait, wait, wait a minute. Work for a famous actress? Who?” Holt was curious and wary of proposal.

“Colette Marchant the french actress of course!” the old man made a happy gesture with his hands to encourage his friend.

The name of the woman ranged on Holt and Joe’s ears, so much so that the boy left his game and turned around to face the adults.

“You’ll work for Colette Marchant dad!?” Joe asked happily, “I love her movies, and she’s so pretty. You will work with her dad?”

“What happened? Why is Joe so excited?” Milly enetered to the living room with cellphone in hand and her curly hair combed into a bun.

“Dad is going to work for Colette Marchant, the actress!!” Joe was very happy about the news.

“Wow, really?” Milly looked curious at her father.

“Kids uhhmm, I haven’t decided this yet, I just found out. Go to your rooms and I’ll tell you later, or go outside.” Holt said to his children who obeyed him after a few minutes.

After that, Holt continued, “You want me to work as a foreman for a celebrity?” This didn’t conviced the cowboy very much,”Remember Max, I used to be a celebrity as well, I was like a superhero on top of my horses, if my friends find out that now I work as a foreman... they’ll think I fell so low.”

“Yes I know, but now things changed lad, this is a great job and the pay is very good. Look, this woman will stay in America all summer, from June to September 3rd. The rumor says she wanted to leave her home France for a couple of months and be alone, or somethng like that. She says she loves horses and needs somone efficient for the job. And don’t worry, she does speak english.”

Holt started to think massaging his chin, “And how is she, I mean, she’s bossy or calm?”

Max inhaled through his nose, “I heard she’s quite, well, spoiled but nothing that you can’t handle.”

“And where’s her ranch?”

“In Louisville, right in the north.” Max answered.

Holt’s eyes opened wide, “Louisville? But that’s too far! Mhmmm, I don’t know Max, I’ll have to think about it...” Holt was trying to considerate the offer.

“Well,” Max said a bit nervous, “in your place I won’t think it that much because... I’ve already talked about you and maybe I’ve send you refferences as well.”

Holt looked at his friend in shock, “You did what!!? How can you do that without telling me!? Are you insane!?.”

“I did it because I knew you were going to doubt and think this kind of job is below you.” Max stated strictly. “Here,” the older man took from his pocket a card with a number, “this is the phone number of her butler, if I were you I’ll call him now and accept the job.”

Holt gave a glare at Max, he couldn’t believe that his friend did all this behind his back.

“Holt c’mon, is a good payed job, surrounded by nature, taking care of horses and have your kids taking fresh air, isn’t that what you wanted?” Max stood up and left the card on the table. “Do it pal is a great opportunity.” the short man put his shades back on his face, approached the door and left.

Holt passed his only hand through his hair and looked at the card, this was all new to him he didn’t know what to do. But at the same time, working for a celebrity could be very interesting not to mention to payment, it could be higher than he can imagine. Also, the most important thing for Holt now are his children, he needed to give them a secured and stable life.

The cowboy reached for his laptop and searched about Colette Marchant, some pictures were showed on Instagram and the most recent one was a photo of her black and white, already in Kentucky sunbathing, in the backround there was her big house of her ranch.

Then Joe’s words about her resonated on Holt’s mind, She looks...pretty... I’ll give her that, he thought. He had never seen any of her movies but now he knows why a lot of people admires her or talks about her as soon as he read the reviews of her films. Then he searched for more pictures of the place, including her horses, which looked very healthy and beautiful. Holt went to the kitchen table and stared at the card with the number one more time. He made a long sigh and took it.

“I must be very crazy right now.” he said trying to grab his phone too.

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

A couple of days later and some other calls made, Holt and his kids finally flew all the way from the south of Kentucky to the north in Louisville to get the foreman cadre. In the airpor they were greeted by Sotheby, Miss Marchant’s english butler.

He gently guided them to the car, which he personally drove, and headed to Marchant’s ranch.

After 30 minutes travelling by car, they finally arrived and admired the big splenderous house. The vehicle parked in front of the property.

“Wow!” Milly and Joe said at the same time in awe looking the place through the window. “ Look at this place! I want to get in now!” the Farrier boy exclaimed opening the car door.

“Now, now lads,” Holt stoped Joe making a sign with his hand, “This is gonna be my working place, let’s go with calm.” Holt exited himself from the car and then his children followed him. He was wearing a dark blue short sleeved t-shirt, blue jeans, snikers and his lucky white cowboy hat. As soon as they were getting closer to the house, Milly took a couple of pictures of it and post them on Twitter.

Once they were on the porch, Sotheby told them to stay there, “Just wait here, Miss Marchant will talk to you in a couple of minutes, please sit.” the english butler politely offered to the Farriers.

Three minutes passed and Holt was already getting nervous, so he decided to talk to the children.

“So, how do you imagine Colette Marchant is behind the cameras?” Holt asked.

“I don’t know,” Milly answered “I heard she’s a diva, I watched her latest film Femme Fatale with my friend some months ago, she was very good in it, but...the plot sucked.”

“I see...” Holt rised his eyebrows. He remembered when he read Colette’s film reviews, some the critics said practically the same, Colette was stunning, but the direction and script by the known famous director VA Vandevere, where just ok or not very good.

Suddenly Sotheby appeared again, the Farriers rose up from porch couch and waited for the butler to speak.

All of the sudden, coming out from the door, there was a woman on her mid thirties, with almost wavy black hair, black dress, make up on her eyelids and intense blue eyes. It was her.

“Mademoiselle Marchant, this is Holt Farrier and his children, he came here for the foreman job.” Sotheby intoduced the cowboy and the actress.

Joe and Milly where in awe by looking at the elegant actress, Joe tried his best to not squeal, while Milly couldn’t contain her big grin.

Holt put his head steady and took a deep breath. “Hi, is a pleasusre to meet you,” the rider offered his hand to shake with hers.

But when Colette turned around to see clearer the man, her face showed a shocked expression. Then she started to talk.

“Uhhhmm, excuse moi but, what is this?” the french lady questioned staring at the cowboy.

Holt’s eyebrows frowned in confusion, “I’m sorry? I came here for the job Miss. that’s why I’m here.” he retreated his hand took off his white hat.

Colette’s eyes were fixed on on the man’s left side.

The cowboy noticed that and looked at where his left arm once was. Holt exhaed a quiet laugh and spoke up again. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinkin’ but don’t worry, it didn’t hurt that much.” he said trying to erase the uncomfortable topic, “and it doesn’t hurt now---”

“You don’t have...an arm monsieur.” the french celebrity was obviously dissapointed.

Milly and Joe glanced with concern at their father. They knew how hard it was for him to deal with a missing limb, it was something that made him more insecure with time. But they also knew that their dad tried to ignore it and move on, he hated when others feel pity for him.

“Well, yes Miss,” Holt started to get even more puzzled, “I mean....you didn’t know?” he looked at Sotheby who was just as confused as him.

Colette sighed impatiently “Do you think I would’ve hire a handicapped man as my foreman if I knew he was handicapped?”

“But, with all respect, I thought they had send you my refferences. My friend send them to you.” Holt explained.

“I have recived them and nothing in there mentioned a missing arm.” Miss Marchant said bluntly.

Holt started to breathe through his teeth with impotence, “Max you idiot!” he quietly muttered a bit enraged. First Max send his refferences without asking him first and he didn’t even mention the thing about his arm? The rider wanted to kill his friend at that moment.

The european lady sensed Holt’s discomfort and clasped her hands, “I’m sorry, but I cannot hire someone who is not capable.”

Holt turned his head to face the woman, breathing deeply and swallowing , “I am capable, please Miss, give me a chance.”

“You are not up to my standards, ma cherie.I cannot force a cripple to do this kind of work, because they can’t---”

That word hit Holt right in the chest, like bullet to his heart. That single word made his blood boil and encreased his anger, “I’m not... a cripple.” he said low and serious.

Colette’s eyes opened wide giving him a sarcastic shocked reaction, “Then I am not french!” she stated joking with irony, “Oh, my parents will be glad to hear it!”.

“Very funny.” Holt gave her an unamused sideway smile, “Look, if I’m going to stay in this place to be insulted, I’ll get the hell out of here. Let’s go lads.” Holt put his hat on, taking his children with him while walking away from the woman and her butler.

Colette crossed her arms, exhaled an unimpressed sigh, denying her head. She looked how the Kentucky rider was leaving the porch walking by her loan, until she spoke again.

“With that attitude of yours you are not going to get anywhere. You are too proud, cherie.”

The Farriers stoped as soon as Holt stoped, the rider bit his lip and slowly turned around. He wasn’t going to let this woman to have the last word.

“And you, princess,” the cowboy challenged, “you’re too spoiled”. His kids looked at eachother in surprise for what his father had just said.

Colette’s mouth fell open at Holt’s statement, “What an attitude.”

“What an ego.” Holt interjected again teasing her, imitating her tone and with a rised eyebrow.

“You have a problem?” Colette’s voice became demanding. She started to walk towards him.

“You’re my problem. Princess.” Holt smiled like a child.

“Do not take that tone with me. Do not disrespect me!” Colette approached the cowboy until she was just one meter from him. “And please, do not call me a ‘princess’.”

“You called me a cripple, and I call you princess. I think is pretty fair.” Holt rested his hand on his hip. “It is what you’re. You’re spoiled, believing you’re better than me, also, you like to whine when people tells you the truth. Oh, I’m sorry, did her majesty got her feelings hurt.” he teased her with a exagerated pout.

“How dare you---!” before Colette would say or do something else, the cat and dog fight was interrupted by Sotheby who ran towards the two of them.

“Miss Marchant, if I may please!” Sotheby calmed his boss, “Try to considerate this man, we have read his file, he may not have an arm, but his expirience is very good. Better than the other ones, and Miss, if I you give me your permission to say this, yesterday you said you liked his profile, that it was what you needed.”

“Don’t worry mister.” Holt stated directly to the butler. “Is not necessary to defend me, we’re going now, have a nice day. C’mon children.”

But Milly did not move, “No dad wait.” she exclaimed and turned to face Colette.

Holt and Joe stayed where they stood when Milly spoke. Her dad whispered to her, “Milly, what you doin’?”.

Milly walked towards the actress with her chin held high and honesty in her eyes, “Miss Marchant please forgive my dad, I know he can be a bit, well, stuborn.”

“I saw that.” Colette gave a glare at Milly’s father for a second. Holt rolled his eyes.

“But... he tried for months to get a job that we don’t know if he’ll ever get another opportunity like this one anytime soon. Please, give him another chance.”

The girl’s pleading moved a little the french woman, she amired how determinated she was, it reminded of herself when she was Milly’s age.

“Please Miss,” the Farrier girl’s voice suddenly became melancholic, “since...my mom died, life has been hard on us.” she turned to see her family, “It was very hard for my dad too, he lost his arm in an accident, but he’s still strong, he always was.” the girl smiled at her dad.

Holt felt overwhelmed by his daughter’s words and smiled back at her. Then he faced once more at the actress who was just moved as him. Sotheby also felt the emotions of the girl.

Miss Marchant placed a hand on her heart and showed a genuine worried expression, “Your mother died, petit? I’m so sorry...I didn’t knew.”

“It’s ok.” Milly answered.

“What was her name?” Colette asked.

“Annie.” Holt responded for his daughter, “Her name was Annie. She left us an year ago.”

“I see, and what is your name petit?” Colette asked to the girl.

“Milly”

“And yours monsieur?” the actress looked at the boy at Holt’s side.

Joe froze as the famous celebrity talked to him, “I-I’m Joe, a-a-and I’m your biggest fan.” Joe said nervous.

Colette laughed a bit at the boy’s presentation, she thought it was kind of cute. She glanced over Holt again and approached him litte by little, making him suspect on what this woman is going to do now.

“How much do you need this job?” she sternly asked at the rider, not breaking eye contact.

Holt blinked and inhaled deeply, “Honestly....very much.”

“Tres bién, I’ll give one more chance, I’m not giving it just because you are capable, we will see about that with the time. But also because this will be good to your children as well, do it for them, not just for you.”

“I am”. Holt answered firmly looking at the woman’s sapphire eyes.”My kids... are the most sacred thing I have left in this world.”

She gave him a trusting grin, “That’s the attitude I wanted. You are hired ma cherie.” she gave him her hand.

Holt looked at her elegant and white hand and gently, he took it and shaked it, sealing the deal. He glanced again at her face forming a tiny smile and feeling the softness of the lady’s hand.

“And I’m sorry if I insulted you, is just you can really push a person’s buttoms, monsieur.” Colette said not letting go the gentleman’s hand.

“I can say the same thing about you, but I’m sorry too. Thank you for givin’ me this chance, I hate to admit it but I’m forever in your debt.” Holt’s voice became quickly smooth with real remorse on his apologizing words. Then, he winked at her to give her trust.

All of the sudden, Colette’s cheeks turned pink, she was blushing. She didn’t know if the cowboy noticed, they were in summer so he could see her cheeks became hot for the heat. But Holt would never guess what was happening inside Colette’s body, because Holt’s commentary and the soft look in his eyes made her heart skip a beat.

The woman coughed and gently released her hand, she still could felt the roughness of the rider’s hand on her palm and fingers. But... somehow....she liked it.

“Tres bién! Let’s go inside, shall we?” Colette guided the Farriers to her house. Milly and Joe rushed inside the mansion, leaving Holt and Colette behind. The two giggled at the kids’ enthusiasm.

“They are very charming, monsieur.” Colette said walking alongside Holt, Sotheby was heading to the house a few meters away from them.

“Yes, they are. I’d give my life for them.” Holt turned to see the actress.

“I know they will enjoy being here, you will have good rooms to stay and later I will show my horses.”

“That sounds nice.... princess.” Holt teased her, containing his laughter.

Colette, as soon as she reached the entrance door, she turned again back to him with a warning stare, “Do not play smart with me Holt, I mean it.”

“Sorry...” he took off his hat and put it behind his back, he was smiling in a very naughty way.

“Non, you are not.” Colette crossed her arms, smiling in the same way as him.

“True.” with that Holt entered in the house. Leaving the french lady denying with her head, rolling her eyes and laughing to herself.

“Oh mon dieu, this man!” she entered to her house and closed the door behind her.

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

THE END.

@vavandeveresfan This was fun, not my best work but still fun, I hope you liked it ;)

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hogwartsfirebolt · 6 years ago

Note

Number 12 please!! For the prompt thingy x

Thank you for the prompt ❤️

Drarry + 12: Roommates AU (omg they were roommates)

This is how it goes: Ron and Hermione are together, Neville and Hannah are together, Luna and that guy Rolf are together, Ginny and Cho are together—which is just hilarious, honestly, Harry finds it simply hysterical— and now they’ve got their sharp little eye on Harry.

This is how it goes: Pansy and Anthony are together, Greg and Millie are together, Daphne and Theo are together, Blaise and that older girl are together —Draco isn’t even sure she exists, he thinks it might just be Blaise’s reflection in drag— and now they’ve got their sharp little eye on Draco.

And well, thanks, but NO thanks. Friday night drinks are already damn uncomfortable when everybody is getting cozy with their partner and Harry and Draco end up pressed together at the end of the booth, trying to pretend that their, dare I call it friendship —more like past enmity that they shoved underneath the rug when their friends suddenly befriended each other— isn’t awkward as fuuuuck. (“So, uh, you opened a bookstore. That going well?” “Yes. Heard you left the Aurors to write memoirs. That going well?” “Sure is.”) They don’t need the added stress of their friends wanting to send them on blind dates with randos.

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, but NO thanks.

This is how it goes: their friends confess they hate seeing them lonely, they hate knowing that each of them goes home at the end of the day to an empty bed, they’re 30, and are they really going to spend their sexiest years alone?

This is how it goes: Draco has just opened a bookstore and, coincidentally, Harry lives across the street from it. It’s not like they’re friends, but their friends are friends, and so Harry invites him to his flat for a drink one night after Draco closes the shop. It’s not so bad. It’s easier to talk to each other when they don’t have to yell over pub music —there’s only so many things you can talk about while Britney sings Toxic— and, actually, they sort of have a lot in common? They work with words, they love that cheap white rum they sell in corner shops, and they went through some pretty dense stuff as teenagers. And their friends are being unbearable about setting them up.

Pfft. They’re mental. I’m not lonely! I’m happy living here, and I have a cat.

I’m not lonely either! Sure, the Manor is a little big for me these days, and it takes a long floo jump to get to work every morning, but it’s not so bad.

And anyway, we don’t even need to be dating someone to not be lonely. That’s the whole point of having friends.

Definitely. And platonic roommates exist.

Roommates!!! A friend you live with. Not an empty home! Not an empty … — Malfoy. Malfoy I have an idea.

And so, there’s a contract that goes like this: they can never (underlined and circled in red) eat each other’s food, use each other’s shampoo or shaving cream —Not like you need it for that peach fuzz, Malfoy— let their one-night stands stay for breakfast, have sex in communal areas, skip the chores marked on the calendar pinned to the fridge and, especially, let their friends forget about the fact that they’re not living alone anymore.

Boy does it backfire.

Harry uses Draco’s shampoo. Draco uses Harry’s shaving cream for the two hairs on his chin. Harry eats Draco’s quail eggs. Draco eats Harry’s shakshouka. Draco begins to wear soft jumpers that belong to Harry around the house. Harry steals Draco’s shirts when he has to meet a potential agent. Each of their sex dates sometimes stay way, way past breakfast —Draco, I have to do my yoga in half an hour, tell that dude to fucking leave already— way, way past the afternoon —Harry, I swear if this girl isn’t out of the house by the time I come back from the bookshop, I will have your head.

They fight. They fight so much. It’s “I told you not to use my shampoo!” at night and “There’s no shaving cream left. Why the fuck is there no shaving cream left” in the morning. It’s “I told you I was taking this lunch to work and you ate it anyway, do you even listen to me when I talk to you?” and “I was gonna bring curry to Ron and Hermione’s, but you and your stupid fuck friend ate all of it.”

They fight everyday, it’s so exhausting, every single day — except for Mondays, that is. Mondays are sacred. On Mondays their friends visit, and Harry and Draco are the perfect flatmates, the perfect friends, they are happier than ever, guys, can you believe how happy they are? Until the others leave, of course, but by then it’s usually past midnight and does it even count as Monday anymore? Nope, I don’t think so.

This is how it goes: one morning, on the very long walk Draco takes across the street to work, he is hit by a stray curse. Yeah, I know, right? That is so weird, that there was someone throwing curses at random at 9am on a Wednesday. That is so weird, that it hit a guy who used to be a Death Eater. Such a coincidence.

He ends up in Mungo’s. They reconstruct all of his thoracic vertebrae and tell him not to leave his bed for four weeks until he adjusts, and then to start walking little by little. He might have a limp forever, they say. He might have back pain forever, they say. He might have died if he hadn’t gotten to the hospital on time, they say.

Four weeks in bed are kind of a lot, especially for someone who lives on his own and has to do everything for himself, except Draco is not such a person, and he does have someone to help him at home. And Harry takes on that role the way he does everything in his life: taking the bull by the horns. He cleans the flat and does their laundry, he cooks for Draco and spoon-feeds him, he sits next to him for hours watching the cartoons and Mexican telenovelas Draco enjoys —“How do you even like these? They all have the same plot line and Teresa is kind of a really bad person” “Excuse you? Teresa is my role model. I don’t expect a brute like you to understand”— he helps him get to the toilet —“Merlin, this is so embarrassing” “You have nothing I haven’t seen, Malfoy, get on with it”— he sponge-bathes him and dresses and undresses him. He holds his arm when he begins to walk again. He goes with him the first time he’s back to the bookstore.

He writes about him, when he has time to sit in front of his typewriter again.

He thinks about him when he goes out one night after Pansy visits them and —You’ve been helping him non-stop for five weeks. You need to go out and relax! I’ll look after him tonight— He thinks about him as he apparates to the club, as he dances with a dark haired man, as he makes out with him out back, as they kiss and Will you take me home? He thinks about him when he says no.

The thing is. The thing is, their fights are not really that serious. The thing is, sometimes their arguments end up with them doubled over laughing because of some insult Draco came up with and It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ll cook some more and I’ll pack it so you can take it to the bookstore tomorrow for lunch. The thing is, it becomes increasingly easier to behave on Mondays, and, without noticing, they’ve began to develop some other routines too. Pancake Thursday, post-Friday-night-drinks Monopoly —every time, Draco cheats every time— Sunday night Quidditch sitting in front of the TV and eating their weight in fish and chips, Draco sitting Harry down and taming his hair and choosing one of his own shirts to give to him before he meets a potential agent, a consultant, a representative of a publishing house. Harry folding one of his own jumpers after laundry day and putting it in Draco’s closet.

Harry goes back home that night having had a realization. He says goodbye to Pansy —Harry, you look as though you’ve seen a ghost— and stares at his ceiling for hours before being able to sleep.

The next morning, he makes Draco’s favorite breakfast and tries to recall when exactly he learned it was his favorite and when it became his go-to when he’s cooking in the mornings and whether those two things are related. Draco comes out of his own room in boxers and one of Harry’s t-shirts on slightly unsteady feet but refusing Harry’s arm when —No, no, I need to walk on my own or I’ll never get better— and he makes coffee for Harry and tea for himself and Harry wonders when this became routine, too, having breakfast together in each other’s clothes, that they use as pajamas.

He wonders when he started packing Draco’s lunch in the mornings; when Draco started buying his favorite brand of shaving cream so he wouldn’t run out; when they started hanging out together at night, sitting on their couch, reading, watching TV, gossiping about their friends; when he started going to the bookstore, his typewriter in his arms, to sit by Draco as they both work.

He wonders when they stopped bringing people to have sex with.

It’s at that point that he freaks out and immediately calls Laia, his fuckbuddy.

And it happens like this: it’s raining, because of course it is, and Draco throws a fit outside the bookstore, pretending to be mad about something when really, he’s just hurt Harry called Laia again.

It’s never been easy between them, has it? Of course it comes out in the middle of an argument, in the middle of the night, standing right in the middle of the street, drenched from head to toe. Of course that’s when it comes out.

Why are you acting like this?! It’s like you’re jealous or something.

Well, no shit! I’m jealous as fuck! What did you think!

Oh.

Well, honestly, it’s not like Harry didn’t know. It’s not like he wasn’t hoping this sex date would make Draco jealous or, at least, let Harry forget about the inconvenient feelings he’s found buried in his belly.

He grins, and —Are you smiling right now? Merlin help me, Merlin help me, I hate you so much, I hate you so—

Kisses in the rain are a thing of fairy tales. A thing of romcoms. In reality, they’re inconvenient, a little disgusting, hair sticking to faces and necks and water making the slide of lips uncomfortable but. But. It doesn’t even matter.

It’s never been easy between them. But it doesn’t matter.

This is how it goes: a full-sized bed is traded for a queen-sized one, Harry’s room becomes their room, Draco’s room becomes their study. Their toothbrushes sit together in one vase. Draco uses Harry’s shaving cream and Harry uses Draco’s shampoo. They cook together, they cook for each other, they cook and they dance while they cook, they cook and they stop for a kiss. Their wardrobes blend together.

And as for sex dates. They won’t be needing any of those. This is the new contract. Underlined and circled in red three times.

And so!!!! That’s how I would write this trope (which is one of my absolute FAVORITES)

SEND ME TWO TROPES AND I’LL TELL YOU HOW I’D WRITE THEM

#drarry #drarry drabble #drarry fic #draco malfoy #harry potter #mine #ask games #prompt #mywriting

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lucyreviewcy · 4 years ago

Text

Made in Chelsea - S03 E02

In this episode Spenny and Jamie decide to move in together. Hugo’s new girlfriend tries on some dresses, and Millie invites an inappropriate number of her friends into her new workplace.

I love the notion that Millie Mackintosh is an intern at Glamour magazine. Just an average, normal girl. I’m sure the other interns aren’t at all annoyed that they have to spend their days retyping data from PDFs into spreadsheets or sending out calendar invites for Quarterly Business Briefings, but Millie spends the entire day being followed by a camera crew while she languidly browses racks of designer clothes with three of her friends. How did three of her friends even get into the Glamour building? You might well ask. When the pandemic isn’t on, I work in an office, and I can’t get anyone past reception without taking them to a different building to get them an ID pass for which they have to have their picture taken and a cute little lanyard provided.

Work and jobs are occasionally alluded to in MiC but there are a few instances which are particularly jarring. I’ve written before about how MiC is essentially Jane Austen but with heels and women’s rights (some women’s rights), when Millie starts an internship, it feels a bit like if Mr Darcy said “Sorry, I can’t dance, I’ve got a 5 hour shift at Waitrose this evening.” It just doesn’t quite fit in the milieu of the show.

It does depend on the type of work involved, though. Francis has always been shown in a work environment, but he’s so preoccupied with the performance of “corporate life” that we rarely see him engaging in any actual work. Millie is a makeup artist, apparently, and we’ve seen her in previous series applying bronzer to the abs of male models. Proudlock, outside of being a professional snake in the grass, runs a T-shirt company, and who could forget Cheska’s blog or Jamie’s Candy Kittens. So it isn’t the fact that the characters work which is jarring, it’s when they claim to do work that a normal human being might do that my nose wrinkles in disapproval.

Sure, interning at a glossy magazine is something of a dream job, but “intern” suggests a couple of things. Firstly, that this is an unpaid role, secondly that Millie is the bottom of the food chain at Glamour magazine. The other “jobs” which we see are all the glamorous, lucrative, idealised jobs that characters from TV shows (scripted and unscripted) might have. Running a T shirt company, or your own “girl-about-town” blog are romantic, creative jobs. They’re aspirational, and I can’t criticise the way they’re represented on screen because I’m never likely to experience that kind of role. But as soon as Caggie breezes in to Millie’s office like it’s no big deal, the cracks in the reality of Millie’s internship begin to show. I’ve never had an office job where it was standard practice to just bring your pals into the office whenever you felt like it. So even though “intern” is a more relatable job, Millie becomes less relatable here because she seems completely unaware of the boundaries of the workplace.

The second part of this episode that I enjoyed was the growing tension between Spenny and Jamie. Watching them look round a flat gave me flashbacks to my student days, before I knew that you needed to look out for showers with bad pressure and rooms that aren’t double glazed. Preoccupied with the fact that there’s a TV in the bathroom, Jamie and Spenny will probably end up living somewhere that has damp and gets really cold in February. Those rich, rich fools.

It’s interesting to see that Spenny treats Jamie just as badly as he treats women, but because Jamie is not a woman, he finds this surprising. Until now, Jamie has thought that his gender kept him safe, but you can’t hide behind your penis forever Jamie, eventually you’ll discover that someone who is an asshole to women is every bit as capable of being an asshole to men as well. Spencer loves to make himself superior, and he’ll isolate the weakest person in a group with him and use them as a stepladder to the top of the hierarchy. In a way, it’s nice to know that Spencer’s horrible behaviour is not limited to men, but it’s frustrating that the boys only pick up on it when one of them is victimised.

#made in chelsea #tv #tv review #media studies #spencer matthews #millie mackintosh #MiC

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dweemeister · 5 years ago

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Best Documentary Short Film Nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards (2020, listed in order of appearance in the shorts package)

The Academy Awards may be finished, but I haven’t yet completed my annual tradition of reviewing all of the nominated short films for this year’s ceremony – this omnibus review will do the trick. Thankfully, the Oscars will revert back to their traditional last Sunday in February date next year (at least until 2022).

For the first time ever, I write an Oscar-nominated short film package review with a bias and – if you wish to phrase it – a conflict of interest. As a member of the Viet Film Fest 2019′s Curatorial Committee, I helped select Walk, Run, Cha-Cha for the film festival’s selection in early October. I am not at all affiliated with the production itself, but as a Viet Film Fest selection (a unanimous selection, mind you) I couldn’t help but feel proud of the film’s success.

Also, give these five films recognition for their fantastic titles.

Life Overtakes Me (2019, Sweden)

First identified in Sweden in the 1990s, Resignation Syndrome sees a psychologically traumatized child entering a catatonic state that could last for weeks, months, or years. It is considered a dissociative disorder that has only been affecting refugee children and adolescents who are going through an extended period of immigration limbo. Since Resignation Syndrome’s identification in Sweden, cases have been reported among refugee children who had been transferred from Australia – where asylum has been divisive to the nation’s politics for decades – to the now-defunct Nauru Regional Processing Centre (many refugees, hoping to be Australia-bound, are still on Nauru and statistics on how many children have Resignation Syndrome are not accessible) and in Greece. Life Overtakes Me, co-directed by Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas for Netflix, concentrates on the plight of Sweden-residing refugee children with Resignation Syndrome and their families. Many of these children in Sweden are from across Eastern Europe and the Middle East – some hail from as far as China’s Xinjiang province, home of the persecuted Uighur minority.

One doctor in the film describes the state of one child to her parents: “Your child is laying here like Snow White because everything is so terrible around her that this is a way of protection.” Life Overtakes Me, however, never adjusts its focus from explaining Resignation Syndrome. This is where it frustrates: neither the families nor their children are framed as being anything else than either the family of a child with Resignation Syndrome or a child with Resignation Syndrome. There is no discussion about the contemporary European migrant crisis, nor on the medical progress on understanding the complexities of the disorder and how to treat it. After depicting a child with Resignation Syndrome and another one, Live Overtakes Me has expended its see-it-to-believe-it aspects, becoming a tedious watch.

My rating: 6/10

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) (2018, United Kingdom)

There have been a number of nominees (and winners) in this category in the last decade that sometimes feel like a shameless plug for a non-profit providing wonderful things for an underserved group abroad. Carol Dysinger’s Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl), an A&E film, at times falls into that trap. The film documents Skateistan, a Kabul-based non-profit established in 2007 that administers a school for boys and girls (41% of the students are girls; the film will exclusively concentrate on the girls because of how contentious educating females was and is in Afghanistan), as well as the skate park attached to the school. In conjunction with their typical school subjects, skateboarding teaches the girls courage, resilience, and creativity. The film juxtaposes their beginners’ curiosity – examining closely their boards, playing with the wheels, not prepared to be balanced on a skateboard while rolling along without a teacher’s assistance – with their hardscrabble lives outside the school’s high (for safety reasons) walls.

Though these girls may not be competing in the Olympics (given that skateboarding is a new Olympic sport) anytime soon, the joy that skateboarding gives them is apparent. “I don’t want to grow up, so I can skate forever,” one girl says. If only. This is where Learning to Skateboard (If You’re a Girl) separates itself from the sports documentary/narrative film and becomes profound in a way I have not seen described by others who have seen the film. Similar to the fine and performing arts, sport is a medium of individual expressivity. An entry into ESPN’s 30 for 30 series can describe to a viewer the tactical dominance of the University of Miami’s (Florida) football team; I can also relate how the 2003-04 Arsenal (“The Invincibles”) played teams off the soccer field in becoming only the second team in English history to finish the top division’s season undefeated. But to those who are not engrossed in sport (or do not possess knowledge about the mechanics of a certain sport), it is difficult if not impossible to understand how those aforementioned teams played their games as a form of self-expression. By taking gender, a shade of politics, and Afghanistan’s history, it is easy for any viewer to see how – through skateboarding – these girls can express themselves in ways they could not anywhere else.

My rating: 8.5/10

In the Absence (2018, South Korea)

On the night before April 16, 2014, the Korean ferry ship MV Sewol departed Incheon for Jeju. The next morning, the ferry capsized and overturned. There were 172 survivors, but 301 passengers – mostly high school students who followed the captain’s orders to stay put, even as seawater started flooding the interior – and three crew members perished. The captain and other crew members disembarked during the rescue operation. Yi Seung-jun’s In the Absence documents, minute-by-minute, the actions of the disaster that sealed the fates of survivors and victims alike. Incorporating stock footage and Korean Coast Guard/government/civilian rescue diver recordings, Yi’s film portrays the desperation of the rescuers and the incompetence of those commanding them. The tragedy, from the moment that the crew recognized the danger of the situation, unfolds over several hours – enough time for a government response. Inexplicably, passengers were instructed to remain in place despite their inquires and the office of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye forbade all rescue boats from approaching the ferry until President Park herself gave orders.

Many of the documentaries – in short and feature-length – on the Sewol disaster follow the families of the deceased or the guilt among Coast Guard or civilian rescuers in not saving the victims in time. There are elements of both within In the Absence. Where Yi’s film diverges from those previous entries, however, is in its chronological precision in its first half and how seamlessly it transitions between the personal and the political (the film posits that the Sewol disaster response was a contributing factor to President Park’s removal, even though Park’s impeachment and eventual conviction had nothing to do, ostensibly, about the disaster) in the second half. From the committee hearings investigating the particulars of the government’s disaster response to the night of President Park’s removal from office, In the Absence packs an emotional wallop few documentaries of any length could achieve. One can see, etched in the faces of the victims’ parents, profound relief that someone is being held accountable for the disaster. That relief, though, is forever entangled with the fact that their loved ones are lost to the deep.

My rating: 9.5/10

NOTE: In the Absence can be viewed on YouTube as of this review’s publication.

Walk, Run, Cha-Cha (2019)

Chipaul (or just “Paul”) and Millie Cao were childhood friends in Vietnam (of Hoa descent) in the midst of wartime. During their childhood, they were enamored with American rock-and-roll and other popular music from the West – says Millie: “I love Bee Gees. And I can sing all Carpenters song [sic].” Chipaul’s family, who ran a business, saw the necessity to flee the country because of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s hardline attitudes towards political opponents – the Communist Party’s sins are too many to mention. Laura Nix’s Walk, Run, Cha-Cha, distributed by The New York Times, does not concentrate on war nor the fact that Chipaul and Millie, now married and living in Southern California after finding each other again (figuratively) through dance classes, are among the millions of Vietnamese-Americans – a community of refugees and their children and grandchildren – who have overcome cultural and linguistic barriers to make the United States their home. First and foremost, Walk, Run, Cha-Cha is a love story partially told through their passion for dancing. The film never loses sight of that.

Because this is a love story, there are those who might claim that Walk, Run, Cha-Cha is too slight a documentary short film to be taken seriously. That erases the fact the fact that when Vietnamese-American people or fictional characters are portrayed in Western cinema, they tend to be defined by a short list of tropes: the war-weary victim of war, an ineffectual gangster, or a nerd (this lumps in Southeast Asians with those of East Asian descent). Here, Chipaul and Millie are not defined by their pasts. Their dancing is not some act of overseas rebellion against the current government of Vietnam. Their family get-togethers do not ruminate over how difficult it was to sponsor Millie to become a permanent resident to the United States, but instead contain lighthearted conversations about the music they grew up listening and singing – endearingly a bit off-key – along to. Beyond the film’s requisite interviews, we see them in personal and recreational settings. Though perhaps not the strongest of the year’s nominated documentary shorts, Walk, Run, Cha-Cha flows the most poetically. Its final scene is perfection.

My rating: 8/10

NOTE: Walk, Run, Cha-Cha can be viewed on YouTube as of this review’s publication.

St. Louis Superman (2019)

Bruce Franks Jr. has spent his entire life in the greater St. Louis area. He has experienced firsthand incidents of gun violence (in general) and, following the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown’s death ignited a series of protests in Ferguson and brought to prominence the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement – formed to call attention to systemic racism (and especially police brutality and racial profiling) against black Americans. In a sort of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) for this certain context, Franks becomes a community activist in the wake of Brown’s death and is soon elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2016. This MTV-produced film directed by Sami Khan and Smriti Mundhra is St. Louis Superman is a tad conventional in its biographical approach. The demands of being a state legislator and a family man are a curious balance to strike, and Franks is obviously not fully prepared – who would be? – to manage the expectations of his newfound role as public servant, father, and community leader.

It is fascinating that St. Louis Superman elects not to dive too deeply into politics, that Franks, a Democrat, highlights gun violence in its totality rather than police brutality towards black residents. Perhaps this is a political calculation, noting that Missouri’s legislature is majority Republican as is its current Governor. The film handles the personal adjustments made between Franks’ legislative career and his personal life, but whiffs – with the exception of the rap battle against a rival candidate for his seat – on juxtaposing how being a legislator invariably affects the nature of his community activism. Where St. Louis Superman succeeds is in its respectful portrayal of Franks as a man still nursing the wounds of having witness his nine-year-old older brother’s shooting death, and how this has driven him to where he is now. Franks, citing his mental health’s deterioration after the deaths of his godson and best friend in 2018, resigned from the Missouri House of Representatives in 2019. His career is a microcosm of the political struggles of African-Americans appealing to the decency of a seemingly unreceptive numerical majority, waiting and pressing the case of equal treatment in the eyes of the law.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

From previous years: 88th Academy Awards (2016), 89th (2017), 90th (2018), and 91st (2019).

#Live Overtakes Me #Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone #In the Absence #Walk Run Cha Cha #St. Louis Superman #Kristine Samuelson #John Haptas #Carol Dysinger #Yi Seung jun #Laura Nix #Sami Khan #Smriti Mundhra #92nd Academy Awards #Oscars #31 Days of Oscar #My Movie Odyssey

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naruwitch · 5 years ago

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Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron Chapter 8: Return of the Gladiator

Dark purple energy surrounded the occupants of the chamber — four at each corner with one in the middle. The quintessence seeped slowly into his ancient form as Haggar approached.

"Sire, the beast is almost to Arus." the witch announced as the Galran Leader stood slowly to his feet.

"This quintessence gives me so much power; I could fight the Paladins myself," Zarkon sneered, clenching his fists.

"There is no need," Haggar smirked darkly, "My creature will destroy them and capture the Voltron Lions for you. Then, the most powerful weapon in the universe will be ours."

o~o

"Great job training today, everyone! We're getting the hang of Voltron," Lelouch said as he and all the others except Rai entered the main dining hall.

"Seriously, how far do you think Rivalz and I kicked the broken alien ship?" Milly asked. cheerfully, "Must have been like a mile!"

"Yeah, that'll come in handy when the Galra challenges Voltron to a soccer match!" Kallen said, rolling her eyes. The training that morning had gone on reasonably smoothly. That is until Milly convinced Rivalz to help her kick some of the wreckage from Sendak's ship. The maneuver had overbalanced Voltron, and the giant Knightmare had landed flat on its back.

"Oh, come on, Kallen!" Rivalz said, exasperated, "You're just jealous that we did something cool, and you can't handle it. We get it!" The Blue Paladin and the other student council members were still trying to get used to the new, war-hardened, moody Kallen Stadtfeld. Not to say she wasn't moody before, but to compare her outbursts to each other, the old Kallen's was like a small firecracker, while this Kallen was a stick or two of dynamite!

"Your kick did kind of ruin our balance, you two," Suzaku commented, taking his helmet off and setting it at the table, "we fell."

"I think that was partially my fault Suzaku," Shirley admitted from her seat at the table, embarrassed, "I reacted too slow."

"Everyone enough!" Lelouch said, pulling up a chair himself, "Save your energy for fighting Zarkon!"

"Hello, Paladins!" Coran chirped as he strolled into the room, a large silver platter held proudly in his hands, "How was the Voltron workout?"

"We're getting there," Suzaku said, leaning back in his chair. Suzaku then placed an arm over the top, "Are you and Allura almost done fixing the Castle so we can leave this planet?"

"Yeah, I feel like we're sitting ducks here on Arus," Kallen added.

"Just about," Coran confirmed, putting the platter on the table. "In the meantime, to get your minds off those duck seats you're worried about, I made you guys an authentic, ancient Paladin Lunch!"

At first, the Paladins were excited about an authentic meal, that is until Coran lifted the lid. What was underneath looked more like a green, gooey, bug-like creature rather than a meal? And that didn't even account for the smell.

"Coran," Shirley whined, "I just got used to that goo stuff, and now you're switching it up?!"

"This is packed with nutrients," Coran replied, still smiling proudly.

Rivalz leaned forward, taking a whiff, then gagging, "It smells disgusting!"

"I know!" Coran chirped, "That's how you know it's healthy!"

"Coran," Milly crooned, holding up some plants she managed to snitch on the way in, "We're on a planet now with fresh herbs, spices, and whatever this thing is. A tuber? Now if you'll excuse me," she grabbed Rivalz's wrist, dragging him away, "Rivalz and I are going to head back to the kitchen and spice things up."

Suzaku and Lelouch chuckled slightly, good old Madam President.

"Hey, where's Rai?" Suzaku asked, finally noticing the blonde was missing.

"He's probably checking on those prisoners we rescued from Zarkon. They'll all be waking soon in the infirmary." Coran said between bites of the… bug?

"Very well, then we will join him," Lelouch said, standing up, Suzaku quick to follow after.

They didn't get far though as a fork was thrust into Lelouch's face, "Open the hatch. Food Lion is coming in!" Coran made airplane noises as the spork hovered in front of them.

Suzaku gulped down nausea as Lelouch scowled, "No, just… no!" Before Coran could make a second attempt, the two of them slipped out of the room.

"You don't know what you're missing!"

o~o

Rai breathed deeply, profoundly trying to slow his hammering heart. He twiddled his thumbs and swallowed to calm his churning stomach. These aliens were the only connection he had to find his mother and sister. The way those prisoners looked at him, though, and what they called him: Champion. He wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing. He sincerely hoped the former. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he barely registered that the doors had opened.

"We're probably as anxious as you are," Suzaku said.

"These aliens that we saved know something about my family," Rai said, looking back at the fish-like one, "They have to!"

"We hope so too," Suzaku nodded sympathetically.

"They certainly seemed to recognize you," Lelouch said, "They called you 'Champion.' Any idea what that means?"

Rai bit his lip, his knees bouncing anxiously, "I don't know. I can't remember very much from that time. But the way those guys looked at me when we freed them... I don't know if I want to find out."

Further discussion of the topic was interrupted as one of the pods hissed, steam escaped from the device, freeing the fish-like alien from his frozen slumber. He let out a breath of icy air as he opened his eyes.

o~o

Bowls and plates full of colorful, delicious foods came sliding down the table, Rivalz quickly adding the finishing garnish to the front one. Shirley and Kallen's eyes widened, and their mouths watered.

"Well?" Milly asked expectantly.

No further encouragement was needed as the Red, and Orange Paladins swiftly dug into the food. Mouths were bulging with the delicacies. C.C. had joined the group about a minute ago and tried some herself.

"Hmm… not pizza, but not bad either."

"They like the Paladin Lunch," Allura observed as she entered the room. Coran, however, stood pouting at her side, arms crossed. He was a little peeved at the Paladins' rejection of his food.

"I don't want to talk about it." he sniffed in disdain.

"I just got the final nebulon booster working," Allura said, "We should be able to leave Planet Arus tomorrow and take the fight to Zarkon."

Before anyone could reply, however, the room was illuminated in red light as the alarm sounded in the room. The Paladins leaped to their feet, suddenly alert. C.C. got up slower, slurping up the alien spaghetti hanging from her mouth.

Allura swiped her hand in the air, the computer beeping to life. A camera from outside the Castle appeared above them. On it was the front entrance, and leaping, apparently trying to be stealthy, from the small rocks in the way was a little figure with ram-like horns and small, child-like face. The camera zoomed in closer.

"What is that?" Kallen asked.

"I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a local Arusian," Allura deduced. "He's approaching the Castle."

The Arusian native upon closer inspection had brown horns and appeared to be wearing small green pants. He was bare-chested with a brown strap over his shoulder, possibly for the small spear-knife it was carrying as he screamed like a drunk rabbit. He was running from rock to rock, peeking over them suspiciously.

"Oh!" Shirley gushed with a squeal, "He is so adorable!"

"He doesn't look too dangerous," Rivalz smirked confidently, hands on his hips.

"You never know," Kallen's eyes narrowed, her Bayard flashing to life in her hand.

"No," Allura chastised, turning towards the door, "Alteans believe in peace first. Let's go welcome them."

"Maybe we can knit him a little sweater!" Milly said as Shirley continued to gush happily.

C.C. smirked in amusement as she followed closely behind.

Kallen's brow furrowed, "I'm not taking any chances," she muttered, Bayard still tight in her grip as she ran after them.

o~o

The Castle doors opened slowly, dust and sand picking from the tension. The Arusian yelped and dived behind another rock. It wasn't too hard to find the creature as his heavy breathing gave away his position.

"Greetings," Allura said pleasantly, "We know you're there. No harm will come to you." The alien responded with a flip outward, and weapon held out at the ready.

"Aw!" Shirley cooed, absolutely smitten at how cute the alien was. If all alien species were like this, she didn't mind one bit!

"Wait!" Kallen exclaimed, stepping in front of them protectively, holding her Bayard up, though not activated, "He could be dangerous. Drop your weapon!"

"No one takes Klaizap's weapon!" the alien shot back, glaring at the Red Paladin.

"Kallen, put that away!" Allura scolded, before turning back to the Arusian, "Please, kind sir, accept my most humble apologies."

The alien blinked in surprise before he lowered his weapon, standing tall and proud. "I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village is over Gazrel Hill," he gestured to his right, "I come seeking answers as to why the Lion Goddess is angered with her followers."

"Followers?" Coran asked, confused.

"Lion Goddess?" Rivalz asked, just as perplexed.

Klaizap pointed to a small carving next to him. It was an image of a divine being in long flowing robes, holding two staffs. A large Lion's head was in place on top, encircled with a sun. "The one the ancients spoke of."

Upon seeing the image, Allura smiled, "What makes you think she's angered?" Allura asked, kindly.

"Destruction is everywhere!" Klaizap exclaimed, "In the past few suns, fire has rained from the heavens, and a giant has danced in the sky."

Rivalz leaned over to Milly and whispered loudly, "I think he's talking about Voltron."

C.C. smirked, "Well, you know any other giant robots around here?"

"I think we got that, Rivalz," Milly replied a little dryly.

"You have not angered the Lion Goddess," Allura reassured the alien.

"How can you be certain?" Klaizap asked, still uneasy.

"Because I am Allura, this is my castle," the princess said, gesturing to her castle.

Klaizap looked between the Castle, all of the humans, and Alteans. He gasped.

"Lion Goddess!" he exclaimed, bowing before the princess in great reverence.

"Oh, well, look at that!" Milly said, smirking slightly.

"Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village so that my friends and I may meet our neighbors," Allura instructed gently.

"Wait!" Kallen protested, "What about our mission to get off the planet and fight Zarkon?!"

"Part of the Paladins' mission is to spread peace and diplomacy," Allura explained shortly, "Arus has been our host for 10,000 years. These people deserve our thanks."

o~o

"So, how long were you held captive by Zarkon?" Suzaku asked the fish alien as he carefully handed him a cup of tea. All of the aliens were out of the pods now. They each were wrapped in a blanket that they found in the infirmary right next door. Even before they started talking to them, though, it was evident from the looks on their faces that they had been through unspeakable terror.

"Some for years," the alien answered, "Decades, maybe. It's hard to tell. Time becomes a blur."

"Were there any other humans imprisoned with you?" Lelouch asked, "Ones that were close to Rai when he was also a captive?"

"Yes, my mother and sister," Rai said anxiously, "their names were Erina and Sophronia."

"I never knew their names, but I certainly remember the other two Earthlings that arrived with you, Champion."

The knot in Rai's stomach tightened. There was that title again, and the same haunted look in the alien's eyes as he looked at him. "'Champion.' Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Yeah, you called himself something else too," Suzaku said, "Zephyr or something?"

"You really don't remember? Unbelievable!" the alien gasped, "You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring. You defeated an infamous Galra gladiator known as Myzax. That was the day you earned the name 'Champion.' But 'Zephyr' was what you were called before that time by the other Earthlings."

Lelouch blinked, then looked at Rai, "So 'Rai' isn't your real name either… interesting."

"Anyway, what happened? When he defeated this Myzax guy?" asked Suzaku.

"I was there when it happened, as was the younger Earthling."

"Sophie?" Rai gasped. She was in the rings too?!

"We were all prisoners, forced to fight for the entertainment of Zarkon. That day, we were sent to fight Myzax, a vile beast many thought could never be defeated. Slaughter awaited us all. This 'Sophie' was the first of us sent to fight. But fate had other plans," The alien paused, the haunted look returned to his face. The three boys waited for him to gather his thoughts, "You were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow Earthling in a rage."

Lelouch's eyes widened as he heard Suzaku gasp. Lelouch's expression became murderous as he rounded on Rai.

"You attacked your sister?! WHY?!"

Rai's eyes widened in horror. "N-No!" he gasped, trembling, "Please! That can't be true! I-I would never hurt her!"

"I was there," the alien said, "We all were."

"After Sophronia was injured, where did they take her?" asked Suzaku calmly, assuming his military demeanor. The calmer you were, the more likely a straight answer would come.

"I know not," the alien looked down solemnly.

"No!" Rai exclaimed, shaking his head and beginning to hyperventilate, "Nononono! Th-there's got to be more to the story! I-I couldn't have hurt my sister!"

Lelouch's brow furrowed in thought, "Well, that ship you were held on crash-landed on this planet. They should have prisoner longs in the database. Information."

"Okay," Rai nodded, calming down, "Let's go then!"

o~o

The Red, Blue, Yellow, and Orange Lions sat perched over the village in the distance. The Arusian community was… small, just like its people. The construction design looked similar to old huts on Earth. Quite the primitive species it would seem.

Allura, Coran, Rivalz, Kallen, Milly, and Shirley were all gathered in the town square with the rest of the village. Rivalz and Milly were passing out some cookies they made (or whatever the equivalent to cookies was for Alteans) while Shirley and Coran had scooped two of them into their arms and were hugging them tightly. Kallen and C.C. both stood awkwardly in the middle of everything.

"Rustic," the immortal commented, looking around.

"Oh, Lion Goddess," the Arusian King proclaimed, "I, King of the Arusians, formally beg your forgiveness. Please have mercy on us and accept our traditional Dance of Apology as atonement for our wrongdoings."

The king clapped his hands twice, and a small pink Arusian scurried to the middle of the square, hands up in a pose.

"Commence Dance of Apology! Hoorah!" the king commanded. The other Arusians cheered around them as a group began to play a set of drums off to the side. The dancer started moving in a strange form. It certainly didn't look like any dance they'd ever seen. She was mostly waving her hands in odd directions.

"Please," Allura said politely, "there's no need for this."

"Moontow halt!" the king ordered as the Arusian paused in a pose again, this time on one leg, "The Goddess has refused the apology. Start the sacrificial fire," an Arusian lit a pile of logs upon an altar, and the other Arusians began screaming as the king turned to face it, "We must throw ourselves in."

Kallen was about to rush over and put the fire out herself when Allura quickly stopped them. "No! No sacrifices!"

The king turned back around in relief, whether it was to continue the ritual or not be burned to a crisp, "So, we may proceed with the dance?"

"That's a better alternative," Allura nodded. The king clapped his hands, and the music started again. The Arusian, Moontow, proceeded to finish the dance. Shirley then noticed that C.C. was giggling a little bit.

"What's so funny? Are you laughing that they were about to kill themselves?!"

The witch smirked, amused, "When you've lived as long as I have, you'd also have a morbid sense of humor as well, Shirley Fenette."

Shirley looked at her like she'd just grown a second head. 'Lelouch, WHERE in the WORLD did you find THIS chick?!'

It wasn't long until Moontow stopped and bowed to them, or Allura, the rest of the village following shortly.

"Oh my," Allura murmured, feeling a little overwhelmed, "Please, please, rise. Thank you for that, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship. I accidentally put you all in danger," the Arusians gasped in horror, "It is I who should be apologizing to you. I am Princess Allura, and these are the Voltron Paladins. Although we originally came from different worlds... and have very, very, very different traditions, we wish to live alongside you as friends."

"But the mighty, robotic angel," the King protested, "has it not come to destroy us because of our immoral ways?"

Rivalz looked like he was about to say something but was silenced by Milly, who elbowed him in the ribs.

"Voltron?" Allura asked a little shocked, "No. In fact, that mighty robot is here to protect you. Let it be known that Voltron will protect every innocent being throughout the universe!"

The Arusians cheered and jumped for joy. Rivalz and Milly soon had Arusians climbing all over them. Coran was throwing and catching an Arusian in the air. C.C. and Shirley had sat down while a couple of the Arusian children began playing with their hair. Kallen tried to walk away from the crowd with an Arusian leaped up and hugged her around the middle.

"I-I don't usually hug strangers, but…" Kallen blushed a little embarrassed as she awkwardly hugged back, "Man, you are cuddly."

"Thank you," the Arusian answered in a deep, baritone voice. Kallen blinked. She wasn't expecting that to come from such a small creature.

o~o

The Galra ship in question had landed in a small lake, half of it already submerged. Suzaku lead Lelouch and Rai deep into the ruined structure through an opening in the top, Bayard in sword form. They had no idea if anything survived the crash, so couldn't be too careful. The three leaped in, using their jet packs to slow their fall. Most of it had been destroyed.

Suzaku then noticed a computer looking device, "This looks like the master control board, but there's no power."

"All we need is power?" asked Lelouch.

"Yes, from the looks of it," Rai nodded, "but something compatible with Galra tech…"

Lelouch hummed in thought, remembering the fight on this Galra ship as the prisoners were escaping… maybe.

Lelouch activated his Geass and tried to picture the same feeling from the battle as he placed his hand on the console. His hand suddenly lit up with red energy, the console blinking to life.

"What the-" Suzaku gasped, "Lelouch, what are you doing?"

"I honestly don't know. I'd tell you if I did."

"Either way, I can't believe you got this thing to work!" Rai said in awe. He then tapped the armor on his forearm, a screen appearing in front of him, "My mom and Sophie's whereabouts must be logged in here somewhere. Once I download this information, I'll find some way to decode it back at the Castle." He pressed a few more buttons, and a downloading bar appeared in red as well as a coding sequence on the larger Galran screen.

Suzaku and Lelouch jumped as the sound of a sonic boom split the air. Looking up, the two gasped in horror as a giant fireball started plummeting towards the planet.

"What the-"

"Oh, no!"

"What? What is it?" Rai asked eyes, barely moving from the screen.

"Something just entered the atmosphere," Suzaku said, "Not sure what it is but it's big, it's Galra, and it's coming right for us!"

"We need to go!" Lelouch said, about to remove his hand, only for Rai to grab it and slam it back down.

"Lelouch, don't move! I'm only fifteen percent done. I'm not going anywhere!" he said stubbornly.

Lelouch hissed out through his teeth in frustration, Suzaku looking apprehensively between the UFO and them. It was coming closer and faster from the looks of it. The download bar was barely fifty percent full.

"Rai, I'm sorry!" Suzaku shouted, grabbing the Green Paladin and rocketing upward. Lelouch quickly followed after them.

"No!" Rai shouted in protest as he struggled against the Purple Paladin, but to no avail. For such a lanky guy, Suzaku was pretty strong!

"Team Voltron, come in!" Lelouch shouted over the comlink, "We need back up!"

"Hello! Is anyone there?!" Suzaku also shouted.

o~o

The rest of the team was still with the Arusians when they heard them.

"Lelouch? Suzaku?" Allura asked, alarmed.

"Where is everyone?!" the Black Paladin asked. He sounded scared, which was an emotion he rarely showed around anyone.

"What's going on?" Kallen asked. The question was answered for them as a rumbling sound erupted in the distance. Turning around, the two women saw the fireball heading straight towards them.

"Oh, no! We got to get to our Lions!" she shouted.

The Arusians started running for an underground shelter on the other side of the village, Allura, C.C., and Coran guiding and encouraging them.

"Everyone, get inside, and stay down!" Allura said, waving them onward.

"I'm on it!" Shirley said, running past her. Allura blinked in surprise as the Orange Paladin pasted her. Only for Milly to drag her back and away from safety.

"Not you, Shirley!" she scolded as her fellow Paladin began silently crying at her botched escape attempt.

o~o

Back at the crash site, Rai continued to struggle in Suzaku's grip, protesting loudly. "No, Suzaku, let me go! My mother!" He ceased, though, as he finally spotted the ship getting dangerously close.

"Run!" Lelouch cried as the trio dashed for safety, away from the wreckage. They barely got within a few yards when the ship crashed and destroyed the rest of the debris. Everything else around it was being blown away in a fiery shock wave that was heading towards them at a terrifying speed. They probably wouldn't have made it, had the Black, Green, and Purple Lions not jumped in between the trio and the blast.

The dust and debris were swept away with the wind as the landscape calmed for the moment. The three Lions stayed protectively hunched over their Paladins. Once it was deemed safe, they stood up to full size, rumbling in concern and relief.

"The Lions just saved us!" Suzaku exclaimed, astonished.

"I didn't know they could do that!" Rai said in equal awe.

A fascinated smile graced Lelouch's lips before catching a shape out of the corner of his eye, "I think the praise will have to wait guys. Look!" he pointed at the wreckage.

As the dust cleared, a large, coffin-like black ship stood towering over them; it was even taller than the Black Lion. With a hiss, the structure's outer walls fell apart to reveal the passenger. A giant, monstrous robot blinked to life in front of them. Its eyes glowed ominously, one yellow, the other purple, and slit. It zeroed in on the three Paladins.

"Get to your Lions!" Lelouch ordered as they rushed to obey. As they ran, the monster's right arm raised in the air and began to spin like a drill, producing a giant ball of purple energy. They had barely settled in their seats ready for the incoming attack when the monster swung the ball directly at it. The three instantly jumped out of the way as the ball collided with the ground, leaving a crater.

But the robot wasn't done. With another swoop of its hand, it directed the ball towards the Green Lion's position. Rai barely got out of the way in time before it slammed into the rock formation. The ball then swung back around to its master, who then flung it at the Purple Lion hovering above. Suzaku fired his Lion's laser beam to destroy the ball, but there was little to no effect as the energy just was absorbed by the orb. Suzaku didn't have time to react as the ball hit him and Purple square in the chest. He cried out as they rolled to the ground, skidding across the landscape.

He groaned as he lifted his head, his eyes widening as the monster was charging towards him. It didn't get far though as the Alpha of the Pride, the Black Lion, lunged at the robot, locking its jaws onto its shoulder. Despite the attempt to hang on, though, the robot grabbed the Black Lion and threw it off of him.

Before the robot could attack again, a barrage of lasers bombarded it, forcing it to shield itself.

"Lay down some covering fire so they can get out of there!" Kallen shouted from the Red Lion.

"I'm on it!" Rivalz called out, providing help.

"Got it!" Milly confirmed.

The Blue and Yellow Lion began firing beams from their tails as they aided the Red Lion in covering fire for the Black, Purple, and Green Lions. Soon, the Orange Lion was seen charging in as it ran across the earth torts the Beast.

"Take this!" Shirley shouted as she charged in from behind on the ground. "Battle Lion Head-Butt!" She rammed into it, causing the robot to lose its balance and fall on its knees. This tactic was enough of a distraction for the Paladins to regroup quickly.

"Guys, are you okay down there?" Kallen asked as she looked to her teammates from above, the Lions slowly backing away from the beast.

"Still alive for now," Suzaku said as they ascended into the sky with the others.

It didn't take long for the robot to get back on its feet, glaring up at the complete pride now.

"Are the Galra behind this?" Shirley asked, grimacing nervously.

"Since when do the Galra have a giant robot too?" Rivalz exclaimed.

"They must be. Who else would it be?" Lelouch confirmed.

"I've never seen them make a weapon like this before," Rai stated, answering Lelouch's unvoiced question.

"So, uh, what's the plan? Shoot at it with everything we got? Take out its weapons? Call it names?" Rivalz asked, sounding just as scared as Shirley.

"If we want to take this monster down there is it one way to can do it," Lelouch said, the other Paladins braced themselves, as they prepared to call forth their mighty friend.

The Lions then roared out as their eyes glowed, their bodies giving off the energy of their colors. They then flew in formation to the sky as they began to form up.

"Form Voltron!" Lelouch invoked as the colors clashed in the sky.

The Lions all roared in enthusiasm as their limbs and legs contracted and extended to form each part of the giant robot. The black head and body, the red and green arms, the purple and yellow shins, and blue and orange feet. Finally, Voltron's stern and battle-ready face appeared at the top, and the juggernaut was prepared for battle.

Voltron landed on the ground as it glared at the Ro-Beast, that glared right back at it.

"Remember, we are one unit, fighting with one goal!" Lelouch shouted as they prepared themselves for the fight.

The Ro-Beast's arm spun again, generating another energy orb, readying for another round against them. Voltron himself stepped forth with the orange Lion digging in the ground as Voltron leaped forward.

The Robeast swung its arm, sending the energy orb out towards Voltron in the air, but he expertly dodged it with a quick corkscrew.

Kallen screamed a battle cry and thrust forward the controls as the Red Lion plunged ahead, locked into the robot's arm. They stood there in a stalemate before Rai cried out and flung the Green Lion towards the robot's head, knocking him back against the mountains. Team Voltron didn't give it too much time to recover as the warrior leaped into the air, intent on smashing the robot's head further into the earth of Arus. The ro-beast was barely able to raise it's arm in time to block as they made contact, metal grinding against metal. In retaliation, the ro-beast called the energy ball back to him. Voltron noticed it too late and didn't have time to dodge before it impacted them from behind.

The ro-beast brought its arm down again, ready to hit them a second time, but the team recovered quickly and activated their thrusters, zipping out from underneath it just in time.

"I thought Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe!" Kallen screamed as they dodged another attack.

"Yeah, so how's this monster kicking our butts?!" Shirley shrieked in tandem. Keeping an eye the orb for another attack, they didn't notice that the ro-beast had run up behind them until they were punched upwards almost over the mountain. They landed only a couple of Voltron footsteps from the Arusian village.

"Oh, no, the village!" Suzaku gasped.

"We have to protect those people!" Lelouch said breathlessly.

From within the village itself, Allura, Coran, C.C., and the other Arusians had taken shelter in a cave. Even from their hiding place, they could feel the tremors in the ground from the two robots fighting furiously.

The ro-beast send another orb of energy at Voltron, hitting the Defender of the Universe in the face as it tried to block. They would've crushed the village had Milly, Suzaku, Shirley, and Rivalz not wrenched on their controls. The thrusters activated, allowing them to hover mere inches from the town below, before recovering and flying back towards the beast.

"That was way too close!" Milly said. This time they flew past and behind the Ro-beast, so if they did get hit again, they would be propelled away instead of towards the village.

"We got it away from the Arusians, but we can't take him down!" Suzaku said.

Rivalz suddenly had an idea, "I got it! I'm going to power kick that orb thing!"

"No way!" Kallen shouted, "the last time we did a kick, we fell!"

"Oh, come on! Stop living in the past, Kallen!" Rivalz fired back.

As Voltron turned back around and flew off. The Robeast matched them and sent the orb at Voltron as he leaped into the air, Rivalz crying out he made Voltron aim a kick at the orb...barely missing by a few inches.

"Oh, no!" the Blue Paladin cried as the orb, smacked Voltron clean in the chest, causing him to flip and land with a loud thud on the ground.

The ro-beast charged at them at full speed as the Defender of the Universe struggled to his feet.

Lelouch grit his teeth from the inside of Black, "Rai, fire lasers now!"

"Got it! Fire!" the Green Paladin exclaimed, the arm raised to attack… only for the two wings on Voltron's back to spring forward, and magnetize themselves to the Green Lion's maw.

"Oh, whoops!" he gasped, frantically hitting some buttons on his control panel to take the shield down.

"No, Rai! I said lasers! Lasers!" Lelouch ordered just as desperately as the ro-beast made contact with the shield. They were sent flying backward again, and with another hit from the energy ball followed, knocking them back further.

"Every time we focus on the orb, we're blindsided by the monster!" Suzaku said.

"Yeah, but every time we focus on the monster, the orb hits us!" Shirley added.

"Then what do we do?!" Rivalz asked, starting to sound a little panicked.

"ORB!" Milly screamed as the orb hit the robot again, slamming them into the side of the mountains.

"Lelouch, we've got to move!" Kallen shouted through the comms.

Lelouch wasn't paying attention to Kallen, though. Instead, his eyes were closed and focusing on the ro-beast. Or rather, what he heard coming from the ro-beast. He noticed that the mace that the beast was holding was making a strange sound like it was charging up. Now that he thought back to all the continuous attacks from the monster, the orb attacks came in counts of three before the orb regrouped with the wielder.

As Lelouch was making these observations, a light flashed before Rai's eyes. He was no longer in the Green Lion, facing a monster robot, but back in Galra captivity. In an arena. Fighting for his very life… against a monster that had a weapon almost identical to this one, making the same sound.

"That sound," he muttered, before his eyes widened in realization, "I recognize this monster, from my time in Zarkon's prison! I know how to beat him!"

"Watch the pattern of the orb's attacks correct?" Lelouch asked.

"Yes! That's right!" he nodded as Voltron quickly leaped back from the mountains just as Myzax's attack hit where they had been laying only a second before.

"Everyone, listen!" Lelouch shouted, "there's a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon. Can you hear it?"

The other Paladins quickly quieted down, straining their ears to hear. Lelouch was right; there was loud drilling like sounds coming from the mace right now, as the top of the weapon was spinning around the orb.

"And every third time," Rai continued, "that orb needs to charge up. That's this monster's weakest point. We need to attack within that time frame!"

"Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?" Shirley asked, worry still prominent in her tone.

"Defense!" Suzaku answered for Lelouch, catching on to his and Rai's strategy, "Rai, bring up that shield!"

"Way ahead of ya!" he shouted as the Green Lion brought the shield and landed it directly in front of them. And not a moment too soon as the orb crashed into it a second later. The sphere crashed into it, the Paladins grunting at the impact, and ricocheted off into the air.

"One. Two more to go!" Lelouch called out.

Myzax swung his arm around, sending the orb arcing right back at Voltron, impacting the shield. It bounced off of them as they cried out. Even with the protection, the ball was doing a massive amount of damage.

"We can't take much more of this!" Milly shouted through gritted teeth.

Myzax swung his weapon again and sent the orb down at Voltron once again as Voltron stood ready.

"Last one! Everyone brace for impact!" Lelouch ordered. The orb struck the shield, this time shattering it and knocking them off their feet once more. But just as Lelouch and Rai predicted, the globe returned to the base of the weapon, the drilling sound emanating as it charged back up.

Seeing their chance, Lelouch didn't waste another second. "NOW!"

Kallen swung her hand back on the controls and thrust it forward as hard as she could. The Red Lion's head shot up, a blue laser beam erupting from its mouth. The attack hit Myzax square in the chest, sending him tumbling backward in an explosion of fire and smoke. As it cleared though, Myzax quickly got to his feet, preparing his next attack, weapon now fully charged.

"It didn't work!" Milly cried, shocked that the attack didn't seem even to dent it.

"So now what?!" Rivalz said as Voltron took another hit to the chest, shield still torn in two on either side.

As Voltron tumbled backward, Rai's mind flashed back to his arena fight again; he plunged back from an impact form the orb. He rose up slowly, panting from exhaustion, holding the sword tightly in his hands.

Wait… a sword!

"When I attacked him before, I had a sword with me!" Rai exclaimed.

"ORB! ORB!" Shirley shrieked as the orb crashed into them again, this time Voltron blocking it with the Red and Green Lion's arms.

"We can't take another shot like that!" Kallen yelled. Voltron had taken too much damage. If another attack hit them, they probably wouldn't survive, much less win!

Suzaku groaned as he struggled to sit up straight again. Suddenly, a wave of what seemed like electricity raced through his being. He gasped as the Purple Lion's purr practically vibrated the cockpit, and a small panel to the right rose up from the control board.

"Wait a second, guys! I think my Lion's telling me what to do!" he informed them as the information was practically downloaded into his brain from the Lion.

"Whatever it is, hurry up and do!" Rivalz said, "He's about to fire his third shot!"

The Paladins all gasped as Myzax swung his arm around again, firing the orb at them once again. Having escaped from the ditch they were trapped in, Voltron lifted his arms in defense just as the sphere impacted them. They flew backward and rolled, tumbling several feet before stopping.

Suzaku grunted, regaining a sense of his surroundings as he looked at the foreign port again as Myzax charged at top speed and jumped into the air. He intended to crush them into the ground with the orb still attached to the weapon.

With a battle cry, Suzaku ripped his Bayard out of its magic pocket and jammed it into the port, cranking it to the right.

Suddenly, Voltron slammed his hands together, a bright flash of blue light illuminating their surroundings, then pulling apart with a thick strand of blue energy. And he swung right into Myzax. It was so fast that Myzak didn't have any time to react. The sword positioned sturdily in the Red Lion's jaws, slashed like butter through the ro-beast, Voltron landing on his other side with one leg crouched down, sword outward.

Myzax, in a spark of static energy, collapsed to his knees, before exploding in a fiery inferno. Voltron swung his sword twice more before proudly holding it at his side in victory. The Paladins all cheered in relief. They did it! The monster was defeated.

"How did you do that, Suzaku?" Milly asked enthusiastically.

Suzaku, being the only one that wasn't cheering, sat stunned still in his seat. Finally, after two seconds of processing what he did, he pulled his Bayard free from the port.

"Whoa, heheh, thanks Purple," he smiled graciously.

Meanwhile, in the distance by the original crash site, the camera attached to the shuttle caught sight of the column of smoke over the mountains.

o~o

"NO!" Haggar shrieked as she saw what happened through her link with the camera. She then a calm, deathly tone said, "I'll make another, more powerful."

"That won't be necessary. Sendak is still alive on Arus," Zarkon began as he looked away a bit, "I've given him instructions for how to proceed."

"Can he be trusted?" Haggar asked as she knew that Sendak was loyal, but you never knew if it was a ruse for something else.

"I trained him, and he has his mission. He fights in the name of Galra. Only success or death will stop him."

o~o

"Zarkon has challenged us to rise from the mud and prove our worth," Sendak informed the one surviving Galran with him, Haxus, "We will not let him down."

"Sir, how are we going to take the Castle with just the two of us and five damaged sentries?" Haxus asked.

"By exploiting our enemy's weaknesses."

"What weaknesses?" Haxus asked, still unsure of the situation.

"The worst weakness of all: they value the lives of others," Sendak said, looking down at the Arusian village, as the populace happily went about their day. None was the wiser on what was beyond the horizon.

o~o

The Paladins, minus Lelouch, Suzaku, and Rai were gathered in the hanger as the former prisoners of Zarkon were loading up in one of the Altean pods.

"Good luck out there," Rivalz said with a small wave.

"Thank you all for everything. We never dreamed we see our families again," the fish-like alien said, bowing slightly in respect, "But you gave us hope. You gave the universe hope."

A few minutes later, the pod was flying into the sky, away from the Castle and planet Arus, escorting its precious cargo home.

o~o

Meanwhile, outside the Castle, Rai was sitting on the bridge overlooking the ocean. Two of the mice were seated on his lap, Platt and Plachu. Rai smiled and scratched Platt's head as the larger mouse squeaked at him.

"Hey Rai, there you are!" Suzaku said, running over to join him. He sat next to the Green Paladin, placing a hand on his shoulder, trying his best to show support and cheer him up, "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rai nodded, "just thinking about stuff."

"Like what?"

"About the fight… I remember why I attacked Sophie."

"Your sister?"

"Yeah, the memory of what happened came back when we were fighting the monster. Mum was being sent off with the weaker prisoners to a work camp. Meanwhile, Sophie and I were forced to fight in the Gladiator Arena. She was going to fight first, but she was scared. We all were."

(Flashback)

Sophronia trembled as sentry lowered the shield, extending the sword towards her delicate hands. Sobbing, she ran into her brother's arms.

"I don't want to go out there!" she sobbed into Rai's abdomen, "Please, big brother, don't let them take me!"

"It's going to be okay, Sophie," Rai said in an equally terrified tone. He knew that whoever went out there was going to die. If Sophronia did, she would die in minutes. He glanced between her and the sword the sentry held. He made a decision and acted before he could change his mind.

With a wild roar, he threw his sister behind him, and charged the sentry, ripping the sword from its arms. With an animalistic snarl, he turned back to her and the other aliens.

"THIS IS MY FIGHT!" he snarled, swinging the sword down on Sophie's leg, leaving a large gash as she fell to the floor with a shriek of pain. She held her leg as tears streamed down her face. He growled as he landed on top of her. "I WANT BLOOD!"

His resolve almost wavered as he looked into his sister's eyes. Terror, and betrayal plain as day on her face. His face quickly softened as he whispered, "Take care of Mum," before they dragged him away. The last thing he saw was one of the aliens kneeling to examine Sophie's wound before the gate closed.

o~o

"...that was the last time I saw her," he whispered, a tear sliding down his cheek.

"You saved her," Suzaku said, eyes wide. "You attacked her, so they'd choose you instead."

"Yeah…" Rai said, but tears continued to roll down his face, "...but the look she gave me when they dragged me out… I don't know if that's her last memory of me or not…"

Suzaku suddenly pulled Rai into a hug, "We're going to find her. And your mom. I promise."

Rai stilled for a moment before returning it, sniffling, "Thank you…"

In the distance, Lelouch observed the two, having heard the entire conversation. Now that he knew the reasons, Lelouch understood why Rai acted the way he did, as Lelouch probably would've done the same thing if that had been him and Nunnally.

Speaking of Nunnally… Lelouch looked at the ground, guilt rising in his chest. Though it wasn't entirely his fault, he'd still left Nunnally alone on Earth. No note or message for Sayoko, no clue to where he was. It had already been about a week since their blast off from Earth. He did not doubt that by now, missing person reports were being made for the other student council members. Once their faces hit the media, he had little to no doubt that their cover would be blown sky-high. And if his face were one of them, someone in the military or royal family would see it, recognize him, and make the connection.

Not to mention the Black Knights. Without him as Zero, and even Kallen, there to assist them, how long would it be before the group did something stupid and got themselves caught? Whether by either Cornelia or the police?

He clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. This was slowly turning into a nightmare.

"So," C.C. said, walking up next to him, the small blue mouse and pink mouse mounted on her shoulders, "What's the great Prince Lelouch vi Britannia going to do now?"

"Don't call me that C.C.," he almost snarled. "You know I no longer answer to that name!"

C.C. shrugged, "Still, you should answer my question."

"...Britannia still needs to be stopped," Lelouch said. "If the Galra Empire is as close to Earth as Allura says, that goal is paramount now."

"But Lelouch, if you defeat Britannia and leave it in shambles, how do you expect for them to defend themselves against an alien invasion?"

"Once the Emperor is gone, and someone with better ideals takes the throne, we can make preparations for that. But that won't happen as long as the Earth remains divided."

"So you plan to return? Alone?"

"If I have to," Lelouch nodded. "There have to be others. Perhaps even the Princess can fill my place as Paladin."

"When do we leave?" C.C. smirked.

"...Tomorrow night."

o~o

"Hey, Ohgi, still no word from Zero or Kallen?" Tamaki asked from the upper floor of the Black Knight's hideout.

"No, nothing," he shook his head in frustration. The Black Knights had not had contact with Zero for over a week. It wasn't unusual as none of them knew where their masked leader disappeared to on days they weren't doing operations. What really worried him was that Kallen had vanished into thin air as well.

"Oh, come on! We usually hear from him by now, don't we?" Tamaki complained with an exaggerated groan.

Sugiyama was flipping through the channels on the television, seeing if any news stories would warrant their attention. He was about to press the up button again when the screen glitched out. The face of the Britannian news station suddenly appeared on the screen. The reporter was standing in front of the Ashford Academy.

"We interrupt this program to bring urgent breaking news," the news anchor said. "Seven students, all registered at Ashford Academy, have been reported missing today."

As soon as 'Ashford Academy' hit Ohgi's ears, he sprang to his feet, he and the rest of the Black Knights quickly gathering around the screen. That was the school Kallen was attending.

"Don't tell me…" Minami muttered in fear.

Seven student photos appeared on the screen a moment later, each with their names written at the bottom in alphabetical order: Milly Ashford, Rivalz Cardemonde, Shirley Fenette, Suzaku Kururugi, Lelouch Lamperouge, Rai... and Kallen Stadtfeld.

"No…" Ohgi muttered in horror as Kallen's face appeared at the bottom of the list.

o~o

"The group of students was last seen around the Lake Kawaguchi area."

"Sayoko?" Nunnally asked, fear in her voice. The Japanese maid only stared at the news report in horror.

o~o

"Records show the students boarded a train to the area, and witnesses have stated they spotted the students by the lake about a week prior."

"It can't be..." Viceroy Cornelia li Britannia muttered as she and sub-Viceroy Euphemia li Britannia locked eyes with the fifth name on the screen.

o~o

"Authorities and law-enforcement urge all citizens and numbers that if they have any additional information to contact them immediately."

"Prince Lelouch!" Jeremiah Gottwald exclaimed, springing from his seat at the bar, Villetta Nu staring in disbelief at his side.

o~o

"Charles," a female voice called out from behind him.

"Yes, Marianne, I know."

"It seems there are more unusual circumstances than we thought. I still have been unable to contact C.C."

"She remains with our son, that much is certain. We find Lelouch, and we find C.C. This is of the utmost importance. Summon the soldiers. They will find them and drag C.C. back here where she belongs."

"Right away."

#Fanfiction #AU #Code Geass #voltron #lelouch lamperouge #shirley fenette #kallen kozuki #rai (lost colors)#rivalz cardemonde #milly ashford #suzaku kururugi #princess allura #coran #c.c.

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chickensarentcheap · 4 years ago

Text

Best Part of Me -Chapter 5

Warnings: none

Tagging: @innerpaperexpertcloud��, @c-a-v-a-l-r-y, @alievans007, @thunderintheshadows

“So how did you end up here?” Salena asks, as they lounge on her back deck, sipping sparkling water infused with fresh fruit and enjoying the view and the sound of the ocean. With a steady wind blowing though, the waves are impressive, perfect surfing conditions. Mac and Stanlee are asleep and curled up together in the sun while Declan is tucked tightly into the new neighbour’s side, comfortably napping with his head resting against her. “In Australia?”

Esme settles back into her chair, Addie -awake and content- laying along her arm. “My husband’s Australian.”

“But how did you end up here? You’re obviously not from Oz.”

“I’m actually a long way from home. Well, what used to be my home. I’m originally from Colorado.”

“From the snow and the mountains to this,” Salena nods towards the ocean. “That’s quite the change in scenery.”

“I’ll take this over the snow and mountains any day of the week. We used to live here. We actually met here. My husband used to live in Kimberley. We got married here, our oldest was born here. We used to live just outside of Sydney.”

Salena gently combs her fingers through Declan’s hair. “And you moved back to the States?”

“Because of work. My husband’s work. He was contracted out a lot. Constantly travelling. So we thought it would be a good idea to be closer to my family, in case I ever needed something while he was out of town. He just thought it would be a good idea to have people close by. Just in case.”

Her neighbour nods. “How did you two even meet? Colorado and Australia are pretty far apart. And on two completely different sides of the world.”

“We were working for the same company and got contracted out to the same job.” It’s a vague explanation, but it’s the truth.

“What kind of company? Sorry!” she laughs, and Declan gives a small jump but doesn’t waken. “I’m not trying to be nosy. I’m just trying to get a read on you. You’re a hard person to read. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“I may have heard it once or twice,” Esme admits. Or a dozen. A side effect of the job, she supposes. Years of pretending to be someone she wasn’t to get what she wanted ….and what others needed…out of people. Being herself had never been an option with Mark; he was too busy trying to tear her down and turn her into something and someone she wasn’t. It had taken a lot of work, and a phenomenal amount of patience, on Tyler’s part to get her to be herself -her true self- with him. In the same way she’d had to work long and hard at breaking all his walls down.

“If it’s a trust thing…”

“It’s not that. I mean it is,” Esme attempts to explain. “In a way. It’s not something that comes easily to me. The job I was in…the other people who were in it…it was complicated, and they were complicated. It’s engrained in me. Not connecting with people. Which is really sad and pathetic, I know.”

“It doesn’t sound sad or pathetic,” Salena assures her. “It sounds like someone who’s used to getting hurt.”

“That’s part of it, I guess. My ex-husband was a complete and utter dick. Abusive in every way you can imagine. When I got away from him, I swore I was done with men. That I’d never again trust one, let alone get married again. Well, I think it’s obvious that didn’t last.”

Salena laughs at that.

“It was private security,” her eyes are on the infant in her arms, a soft smile on her face as she uses a fingertip to push the thick, dark tresses off of Addie’s forehead. “What we were contracted out to do. That’s how we met. Through work.”

It’s not that simple of course; it wasn’t as innocent as two people connecting at the water cooler or making eyes at one another across a meeting room. It is much more complicated. Twisted, even. But it’s definitely not the kind of love story to be telling the neighbour the first time you meet her. Not to mention Tyler would lose his mind if he found out she was telling a total stranger the details of their old life.

“And you just sort of clicked, huh? That sounds cute. Kind of romantic, even.”

Esme laughs. “It was far from cute or romantic. Let’s just say that lust was the driving influence and leave it that. He was pretty hard to resist. He still is.”

It makes her smile; that even after six years and five kids, even the simplest of kiss or look from him can still take her breath away.

“So you ended up hooking up through work, got married, started off in Australia and ended up Colorado.”

Esme nods and sips her drink. “Then he came into some money and was able to retire and we decided to come back here. We figured it was the best place to raise our family and grow old together. Somewhere quiet and fairly secluded. Safe.”

“You guys have a hell of a spot, that’s for sure. Definitely perfect for a family. I remember when it went up for sale. I took a look at it but was way to big just for Stanny and I. Not to mention it was way out of my price range. But it’s an incredible place.”

“We love it. It’s everything we could have possibly wanted. Or even dreamed of having. I wish we’d come back sooner. It would have avoided a lot of drama and solved a lot of problems.”

“Well what’s the saying? Hindsight is twenty twenty? No sense looking back. Just keeping looking forward. Mind you, it took me a long time to practice what I preach. I didn’t make a lot of good decisions myself. With my personal life.”

Esme moves the baby to her chest; pressing a kiss to her daughter’s temple before placing a palm on the back of her head for support, then gently guiding it down to her shoulder, other hand softly patting her on her diapered bum. “Bad relationship?”

“Same as you. Bad ex-husband. Mine wasn’t abusive, but he had addiction issues. I tried for three years to help him. But you can’t help anyone that won’t help themselves. No matter how much you love them and want to save them.”

“Some people can’t be saved,” Esme reasons, and Salena nods in agreement. “I learned that the hard way. And I’m sorry you had to, too.”

“It’s nice to find someone that ‘gets it’. That knows what it’s like to live with someone like that. How it isn’t as easy to get away like most people think. Don’t they think we would if we could? Get the hell out? If it was that simple, wouldn’t we have left a long time ago?”

“I would have left the second Mark started his shit. The very first time he ever raised his hand to me. But I thought I loved him and that we were meant to be and all that other stupid shit we believe at first. I thought I could help him and change him and that everything would be great. And the worse it got, the more I thought I could help. I guess I thought it made me a failure if I just gave up and walked away. Not to mention I have a mother that put that crap in my head but that’s besides the point.”

“Are we sisters from another mister?” Salena gives a dry laugh. “Because our mothers sound one in the same.”

“I can’t believe I actually thought he was a decent person at first. I mean, looking back at it? The signs were all there that he was a dick! But I was young, and I thought him being controlling and protective was just his way of showing he loves me. I was so goddamn stupid. It’s infuriating! Especially now that I know what real love feels like.”

“And what does it feel like?”

“It’s hard to describe. You just feel it. Every time they smile at you or they do something so unexpected and sweet for you. Or when you’re feeling gross and ugly and all you have to do is look at the way they’re looking at you. Or how they make you feel like you’re the most important person in their entire world. I know that sounds like a bunch of bullshit, and I always thought it was too. Until I actually started experiencing it.”

She’s never thought about it before. All the things…big and small…that remind her every day that just how loved she is. The soft forehead kisses or the ones to the temple. The tight, strong hugs that feels as if they’re capable of solving any problem. Or how he always covers her up with a blanket if she manages a nap on the couch or outside in one of the recliners. How he’ll get up in the middle of the night even she is the feeding the baby; fetching her a snack and something to drink and then staying awake with her until Addie is ready for sleep again.

It’s all the thing you don’t realize are happening until you sit back and take stock of them. Those tender moments that you’d never expect from a big, strong, and often intimidating man.

“Well, you’re lucky,” Salena says. “Very lucky.”

“I am,” Esme smiles. “I don’t think I realize it often enough. You sort of take it for granted. That they’ll just be there doing these things.”

“Until one day they’re not.”

Esme nods. She’s already come close to that. Mere minutes from away from not having the life that she does now. Had the ending in Dhaka gone different, she would have been back in Colorado, alone, when she was expecting Millie. Her daughter would have never known her father, and none of the kids after her would even exist. And it’s a sobering thought.

“I hope I get to experience it one day,” Salena muses. “That kind of love.”

“I never thought I’d find it. I’d give up that decent men even existed. It happens when you least expect it, trust me. I did not take that job thinking I was going to meet my future husband. Or that I’d end up with five kids.”

“Are you going to make it an even half dozen?”

“Oh hell no,” Esme laughs. “We are done. We’ve closed up shop. Five is enough. And first, after the twins, we thought three was enough. Apparently, we changed our minds. Twice.”

“I don’t know what your other kiddos look like, but this guy…” she smiles down at Declan. “…is a cutie pie. I could just sit here snuggling with him all day, I swear. What a cuddle bug.”

“Well you’re more than welcome to borrow him from time to time. Because this momma needs a break some days.”

“Anytime you need that break; you just send him this way. Because he is just too freaking precious.”

“He probably needs a break too. He’s a little jealous of his baby sister. And his big sister and brothers like to torment him. They’re going to have to be careful. Because he’s going to be huge and strong and lay them all out one day.”

“He’s definitely a big boy,” Salena agrees. “But so goddamn cute. I mean, look at those eyelashes. They go on for days.”

“He gets those from daddy. All the kids have them.”

“I used to run a day care,” she says. “So I have the experience. I’m not joking when I say you can bring him here. He’d be in good hands.”

“I may just take you up on that. It’s fine when my husband’s home because he doesn’t think twice about jumping in and doing it all himself. These two alone can wear me out. Never mind when the other three aren’t in school.”

“Well think about it. I’m more than willing to tame little man off your hands when you need me to.”

“I will,” Esme promises. “Think about it.”

Salena smiles, then leans down to press a kiss to Declan’s forehead. “I do I hope I find it one day. That love you’re talking about.”

“You will,” Esme assures her. “When you’re not even looking for it.”

****

It’s four thirty by the time they arrive home; covered in sweat and grime after a long day of working hard in the sun. Ovi had fallen asleep only five minutes into the drive home; snoring lightly, head resting against his window. Now Tyler nudges him awake; gently, so as not to startle him enough to jump clear out of his skin. He’s been having sleep issues for years as well; night terrors, bouts of insomnia, easily frightened and startled if woken up too abruptly. And he raises his head from the glass, blinking several times as he tries to orientate himself with his surroundings; a frown on his face, a hand rubbing at his stick neck.

“What we talked about this morning,” Ovi begins, as he climbs out of the truck and follows Tyler around to the tailgate. “About the whole job thing.”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that anymore,” Tyler toes off his dirty work boots, dropping them into the bed of the pickup. “In fact…” he yanks his t-shirt over his head, using it to wipe the sweat from his forehead and the back of his neck. “…I thought I said we’re not talking about it again.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Ovi says in way of an apology. “Or bring up bad memories.”

“Yeah? So why’d you even bring up then? Did you think I was going to be okay with it?” There’s a gym bag with a change of clothes in the bed of the truck, and he pulls out a tank top and slips it on. Then steps out of his filthy cargos and climbs into a pair of board short. “You thought I’d say it was a good idea?”

“I thought you’d at least listen,” Ovi admits. “That you of all people would understand.”

“Understand what?” Tyler gathers up the dirty clothes, bunching then and rolling them together before heading up the driveway. “That you’re a fucking idiot for even thinking about it?”

“You thought about it once. You went into it.”

“Yeah, because I was a fucking idiot.”

“If you’d never gotten into the job, you never would have met Esme,” Ovi points out.

“She has nothing to do with this. Don’t bring her into your bullshit.”

“It kind of has everything to do with it. Without the job, there’d be no Esme. And without Esme, there’d be no kids, so…”

“Don’t use my wife and my kids as an excuse for making a shitty ass decision. Don’t use them to justify something stupid. I’m one of the lucky ones. I managed to stay alive. I managed to get the hell out and have a normal life. Or whatever normal is. Do you know how many guys actually manage that? To survive? To get out and have a wife and kids?”

Ovi shakes his head.

“Ten percent. If that. And the ones who do get married and start having kids and are still in the job? Most are divorced. Most don’t ever see their kids. Why the hell would you want that for yourself?”

“It would be a good opportunity.”

He tosses the dirty work clothes into the laundry basket that sits next to the door that leads into the house. “A good opportunity for what? Getting shot in the fucking head?”

“To prove myself.”

“What the hell does going into the job prove? Other than you’re an idiot. I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. There’s nothing to prove. You know what kind of guys go into the job? The ones who don’t have the fucking brains to do anything else. Or the ones who like to kill or get off on it. The ones who have nothing left to live for and don’t care if they catch a bullet or not. I was that guy. That’s why I did it. Because I was too much of a coward to pull the trigger myself, so I figured why not just let someone else do it.”

“And the money…”

“Fuck the money. It was never really about that. That was just a bonus if I managed to survive. You are too good for this. For the job. Way too good. And you deserve more than that. A better life. Don’t get caught up in that bullshit. Don’t end up like me; fucked in the head. You think I want to be like this? Have these issues? Have to drug myself up every day just to function? You think this is how I want to live? I can’t go back and change things. I can’t take back all the ways I hurt my wife. All the lies I told her, the promises I never kept, the times I left her when she needed me the most. I fucked up. I should have left the job after Dhaka and never went back.”

“But this time would be different,” Ovi insists. “We’d be working together. We’d be in charge.”

“And what the hell do you know about the job? Other than what you saw in Dhaka. Name one thing you know about it that didn’t come from watching me.”

“I don’t know…” Ovi shrugs, scratching at the back of his head.

“You know shit about that job. Keep it that way. It’s a horrible fucking life. Don’t do that yourself. And especially don’t do that to Chloe.”

“She thinks it’s a good idea. That it’s something I should try.”

“Then you go back to Chloe and you tell her I said she’s just as stupid as you are.”

“Where are you going?” Ovi asks, when Tyler opens the door to step inside the house. “We’re not done talking about this.”

“Yeah, we are. Or at least I am. Now I’m going inside, and I’m going to kiss my wife and spend time with my kids. Don’t bring this up again.”

And with that he disappears into the house, slamming the door behind him.

****

She’s on the back patio, pulling clean laundry from a massive wicker basket that sits on the ground beside her. Folding clothes of all sizes and neatly arranging them -according to person- on the table. And she looks up at him as he steps through the sliding door, flashing that smile that still manages to make him weak in the knees even six years later.

“Hey,” she cheerfully greets. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t home until later. How did…?”

Placing his hands on the sides of her face, he kisses her. Long, slow, and deep. Until she’s standing her tip toes and her body is leaning into his. He’d been dying to do it all day; since he conversation with his father. After he’d talked about just how lucky he was to have someone like her. Not just as his wife and the mother of his children, but as his best friend, partner, lover, and confidant. The one person in the world that knows all his deepest and darkest secrets yet never judges or condemns him for them. Who he can be himself with, even at his weakest and most vulnerable. Who knows what kind of fucked up mess he is and still sticks around, giving him chance after chance.

She gives a long sigh of approval when the moment ends, her forearms resting against his chest as she smiles up at him. “Mmmm…what was that for?”

He pushes his hands through her hair, letting them fall onto her shoulders and down her back, coming to rest on her hips. “I need a reason to kiss my wife?”

“That wasn’t your usual ‘hey, I’m home’ kind of kiss. That was something entirely different. Kiss me like that again.”

He obliges; hands tightening their grip on her and pulling her against him, her palms sliding up his chest and over his shoulders and settling at back of his neck as she eagerly returns the kiss. Giggling and pulling away when his hands slid down to her ass.

“Okay…now that’s just wrong,” she scolds. “That is taking things way too far and you know it. Why do you insist on torturing me like this?”

“Believe me, I’m torturing myself just as much.”

“If you want to call two blow jobs in one night torture….”

He grins, hands back on her hips as he presses a kiss to her forehead. “I thought I showed you how grateful I was. Twice. Or did you forget about that part? Me returning the favour?”

“Oh trust me, you don’t forget orgasms like that. And can we stop talking about this? Because you smell so good right now and you’re all sweaty and dirty and just when I think my hormones cannot get any more out of control then they are already are…” she places her hands on his chest and tries to push him away; he’s all rock solid muscle and doesn’t even budge. “…you need to step back like ten feet before I just say to hell with what the doctor said and jump you right here.”

“I probably wouldn’t stop you,” he admits, and then laughs when she reaches for the waist of his shorts. “But, it’s not a good idea.”

“You’re the worst,” she pouts dramatically and returns to the laundry.

“The absolute worst,” he agrees, and kisses her temple before journeying over to the bar fridge in the corner, taking out two bottles of water, uncapping both and handing one to her. “Where’s the kids?” he asks, as he drops into the chair across from her.

“The baby is in her crib asleep and Chloe took the rest of your feral offspring down to the water.”

“Chloe, huh?”

“What’s the matter with Chloe?? You never had a problem with her watching the kids before. I thought you liked her.”

Tyler shrugs. “I can take her or leave her.”

“Well I think Ovi would appreciate a little more enthusiasm from you. Dd you he tell you that they’ve been looking at rings?”

His eyes narrow, bottle of pressed against his lips. “What kind of rings?”

“Engagement rings. I guess they’ve been talking. About the next step.”

“He just turned twenty.”

“I know,” Esme sighs. “But they’ve been talking about it. I told him that if he’s going to ask, they should make it a long engagement. Not to rush into actually getting married. I mean, they’re already living together so they’re getting the opportunity to see what marriage is like in a sense.”

“Don’t encourage them.”

“I’m not encouraging it. If he’s going to get her a ring, he’s going to do it regardless of what either of us say. It’s not we can tell him what to do.”

Tyler scowls. “Why the hell not?”

“Because he’s twenty years old, that’s why. He’s an adult.”

“Barely.”

“Regardless, he’s is a man now and he’s going to do what he wants. And apparently what he wants is to marry her. Hopefully later, rather than sooner. We can’t stop them, Tyler. It’s going to happen whether we think it’s a bad idea or not.”

“It’s a fucking terrible idea,” he growls. “I know you like her, but…”

“It’s not that I like her or dislike her. It’s that I love Ovi like he’s my own and I just want him to be happy. And if Chloe is who makes him happy…”

“How does he even know?” Tyler challenges. “She’s like the second girl he’s ever been with for fuck sakes. How does he know there’s not someone out there that might make him even happier?”

“You were only the third guy I’d ever been with and I knew you made me happy,” she points out.

“That’s not the same thing and you know it. We were both in our thirties when we met. We were old enough to know exactly what…and who…we wanted. He’s barely out of his teens and he wants to get married? Fuck that.”

Esme smirks. “Is your problem with Chloe or marriage itself?”

“If I had a problem with marriage do you think I would have even asked you? Or stuck around for six years? And if you even think of saying something like ‘you stick around for the kids’ I will lose my shit.”

“Okay, you are getting a little too wound up. I meant it as a joke. I obviously know you haven’t stuck around just for the kids. Just like I already know this is about Chloe. Why’d you ever agree to let her move here with me if you didn’t like her?”

“Because I knew he wouldn’t come with us if I didn’t.”

“Because you want him to be happy, right?”

“Of course I do. But I also wanted him where he belongs. With us. He wasn’t ready to live away from us and you know it. He’s still not. Yet you think it’s perfectly fine that he gets married?”

“Tyler, I don’t want to fight about this.”

“I’m not…” he sighs heavily, then lowers his voice and softens his tone. “…I’m not fighting. I just think it’s bullshit. It’s way too soon and he’s nowhere near ready for that kind of thing.”

“Which…” she steps around to his side of the table, softly rubbing his shoulders before curling her arms around his neck and perching herself on his thigh. “…is why I told him if he does ask her, he needs to take the next part slow. That he doesn’t need to rush things. That he should just enjoy being engaged and planning things. And he said he would. So…” she kisses his cheek. “…why are you so wound up over this?”

“I’m not wound up.”

“This bulging vein in the side of your neck…” she runs a fingertip down it. “….says you are wound up. What’s going on? All of a sudden you have a hate on for Chloe? I thought you liked her.”

“I never said I liked her. I said I was okay with her. There’s a difference.”

“Well can you at least rein it in a bit for tonight? Because I sort of…kind of…invited them for dinner and…”

“Oh for fuck sake,” he grumbles.

“…and I thought we could cook down on the beach. Nice and casual. Relaxed. And judging by the tension in your shoulders, you could use something casual and relaxed. Are you okay? This it not all about Ovi and Chloe.”

“It’s just been a long day,” Tyler reasons. “A lot of hours out in the sun and I’m tired and sore and now I have to play nice with Ovi’s…whatever the hell she is.”

“If you play nice for me, I will play nice for you. Later. When all of the kids are asleep.”

He smirks. “Are you trying to bribe me?”

“I don’t know. Does bribery work on you?”

“You’ve used it before on me and it’s worked,” he points out. “You really do have all the power. You know exactly how to get what you want.”

“Oh baby, you don’t know the full extent of my power,” she teases, and kisses him, her fingers combing through his hair, nails digging lightly into his scalp and dragging all the way down to the nape of his neck. “Are you okay? You seem a little…I don’t know…on edge.”

“I’m fine. It was just a really long day. I’m tired, I stink…”

“I like your stink,” she nestles her face into the side of his neck. “…and it’s not a stink. It’s just how you smell when you’ve been working hard. It’s…you.”

“Fuck you’re weird.”

“But you love me.”

“Yeah,” he rubs her back. “I do. For some goddamn reason.”

“Did it go that bad today? At your dad’s? I thought you would have said something when you first got home, and I didn’t want to pressure you into talking about.”

“Things went fine. We got everything done we needed to.”

“That’s not what I’m asking, and you know it. Did you actually talk to him?”

Tyler nods.

“And? How bad is he? The dementia?”

“Well he told his nurse that I was his brother who died twenty years ago if that’s telling you anything.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” she nuzzles her nose against his neck and softly strokes the hair at the back of his head. “I know we were told it was bad, but it’s still a blow to see it for yourself.”

“I felt nothing. When I saw him. When I talked to him. I didn’t feel sad, I didn’t feel pity, I didn’t feel regret. I felt nothing.” Fuck, it sounds horrible to his own ears. Has his own mental health actually come to this? That he’s become emotionally absent? That he just has nothing left to give anyone else? Is it really possible to be that empty inside and still be alive? “How fucked up is that? How fucked up am I? That I felt nothing? What the hell is wrong with me?”

“Nothing is wrong with you, Tyler. You don’t owe him anything. Not after everything he put you through. What he put your mother through. You have nothing but pain and bad memories because of him. You’re not fucked up. You’re just…hurt.”

“I didn’t even feel that. And I thought I would. Or that I’d be angry. And I wasn’t. I just sat there. I just sat there and talked to him and that was it.”

“What did you talk about? Just regular stuff or…?”

“A whole bunch of things. Us. The kids. He seemed happy that we named the baby after my mum. That I finally did something right with my life in his eyes.”

“You’ve done a lot right and you know. Just because he can’t see those things, doesn’t mean they never happened. You know what they are. I know what they are. That’s all that matters.”

He nods in agreement.

“And you can say you feel nothing, but I know you do. I know there’s a lot of anger there. And you have every right to feel that. I just don’t want it destroying you. You don’t have to hold that in, you know. It’s okay to be pissed off. You had a shitty childhood. He made your life hell. No one will judge you for being angry.”

“I just need to go in the gym and beat the shit out of the heavy bag for half an hour and I’ll be fine.”

“Then do it,” she encourages, pecking his lips before tousling his hair and sliding off his lap. “If that’s what will make you feel better.”

“Well there’s something else that would make feel even better than that, but we can’t do that yet, so…” he stands up and lays a hand on the side of her face, kissing her softly before drawing her into his arms once more; one hand on the back of her head, the other on the small of her back. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

He drops a kiss on the top of her head and squeezes her tightly. “Everything.”

#tyler rake #tyler rake fan fiction #tyler rake fan fic #best part of me #extraction #chris hemsworth character

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