#my brother actually found out cat while mowing

[conflictandscotchblog]

Like Goodfellas, But With a Cat (Goodfelines?*)

September 16th

It was a dark and stormy night.

Actually, it was a beautiful sunny Monday afternoon when my brother, my sister, and myself dug a grave.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Twice a month my sister (Diane) and myself volunteer at a thrift shop that raises money for a special needs school her son, Sam, once attended. My sister has done this for years, I started after I retired.

The second Monday of September, at the shop, she told me that her cat, Ralphie, had died. She said a few nights ago, she heard this guttural noise through the house, but couldn’t find the source.

Ralphie was no where to be found.

After a time, she did find him curled on the bathroom floor. She sat with him, petting him for a while, and eventually he died later that night right there on that floor.

Unfortunately, my sister learned a lesson the hard way when, the next morning, she brought a towel down to wrap up Ralphie.

With towel in hand, she expected to pick up the weight of the cat she had for years. Instead, she found a much heavier, and stiff, animal with legs pointed out in front and behind, as if Ralphie wanted to just up and fly away.

In cats, rigor mortise sets in anywhere between ten minutes and three hours after death.

Also at the Thrift Shop, she told me she had a hard time digging a hole on her property to lay Ralphie to rest. Too many rocks, too many roots to cut through, she said.

No problem.

Called our brother (Joe), the three of us met for lunch, then headed to my sister’s house, and Ralphie’s final resting place.

At her house, my sister retrieved two shovels and a garden tool I was unfamiliar with from her shed, and handed them to us.

We walked the grounds a bit until we found a nice spot for Ralphie by some rocks, and plenty of sun.

We started to dig, and quickly learned my sister was right.

A few shovel strokes down, we hit rock.

Fortunately, it was a collection of rocks, and not a boulder. My brother and I continued, digging out one rock at a time, and tossed them aside.

It was slow and steady.

How slow?

My brother and I are old, and I can’t remember the last time I mowed a lawn let alone dig a hole for a dead family member (although, there was that one time...but I digress).

As we continued to dig Ralphie’s new home, flashes of Goodfellas crossed my mind. Specifically, the scene when Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy had to go back and dig up Billy Batts.

As far as I knew, Ralphie did not have a criminal past. Although, he never allowed himself to be photographed in family pictures, and always skulked around the upstairs balcony, just out of sight.

Finally, passed all the rocks, and solid ground, we dug deep and wide enough to bring out Ralphie.

My sister left, then reappeared with Ralphie, wrapped in a towel, inside a plastic bag (an enigma wrapped in a riddle).

As my brother unwrapped the plastic, I turned my back, did not want to see the stiff dead flying cat. My brother kept Ralphie in the towel to ensure that other animals did not dig him up (plus, who the hell was ever going to use that towel again?)

Placed Ralphie in the ground, returned the displaced dirt, rocks, and grass, and said our goodbyes.

To further ensure that Ralphie would not be disturbed, my sister found a piece of slate that my brother and I carried and placed over the grave.

As we walked to our cars to leave, a funny thought struck me.

You see, this beautiful sunny Monday afternoon was also our mother’s birthday.

Couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of our Mom looking down from heaven and saying, “It’s so nice the kids got together on my birthday,” then added, “even if it was to bury a dead cat.”

I also picture my mom now has a new pet cat in heaven.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

After I left, my sister inscribed the slate and sent me this picture.

Rest in Peace, Ralphie

* The title ‘Goodfelines’ was provided by my brother who is not known for his Algonquin Round Table sense of humor, but in this case, he was dead on (see what I did there?)

[yougivemebutterfliessss]

carissa!! for the prompts, i choose 66-- jk hehe i give u 32 bc u have the cutest kitty

Aww thanks Mia! 🥰 (piglet says thank you too) so here’s a story loosely based on how we found him

“I though you didn’t like cats?”

“Stick your hand in my pocket,” JJ says, a little too eagerly, motioning to his sweatshirt pocket. He’s standing in her room after texting her to open her window for an emergency and somehow scaling the tree beside her room.

Kiara frowns at him in confusion. “What? No!”

“C’mon just do it.”

“I don’t trust you.”

JJ gasps dramatically. “Really Kie? Four years of friendship and you still don't trust me?”

“Um… yeah. How am I supposed to know this isn’t one of your dumb practical jokes? Remember when you put a snake in Pope’s backpack?”

“That was a baby garter snake. Totally harmless and Kie you insult me. If I was pranking you right you wouldn’t know it. I’m not an amamateuer.”

Kiara shakes her head. “Still don’t want to stick my hand in your pocket. ”

“It’s not a prank!” he exclaims, crosses a hand over his heart. “I swear on my dad's life.”

Kiara wrinkles her nose. “You don’t like your dad.”

JJ raises his eyebrows, considers that, then nods. “Fair enough. I swear on John B’s life.”

“If that’s a--”

“For fucks sake Kie, just do it!”

She glares at him, but tentatively reaches her hand inside the large sweatshirt pocket, reels her hand back when she makes contact with something soft and warm.

“Oh my God JJ what is that!”

He grins brightly at her and reaches into the pocket, pulling out a tiny black and white kitten, so small he can hold it with one hand.

Kiara gasps and JJ sticks his hand out for her to take it from him. She does, cooes “Oh hi baby,” cradling it in both her arms. She looks back up to JJ. “it’s so tiny! Where did you find it? I thought you didn’t like cats?”

JJ shrugs. “I couldn’ t just leave it there. I was mowing around a bush and I saw this little flash of white, I figured I should make sure it wasn’t a bag or something because the kooks gets all pissy if you chop something up in their lawn --”

“-- and ya know, the impact of the environment.”

“Yeah that too. So I turned the mower off and hopped down and this little bugger was like staring at me from the bush. Gave me hell but I caught em.”

JJ glances back down at the tiny kitten in her arms, glancing around nervously at its surroundings. “Poor baby. It's eye is all cloudy, we have to take it to the vet.”

Before JJ can respond there’s a knock on the door and it creaks open, “Kie your father called--”

Anna seems to forget her sentence as she takes in the boy standing in her daughters room.

“We’re not having sex!” JJ blurts out immediately.

Her mom's eyes widen even more at that and she momentarily at a loss for words. Kiara slowly turns around to glare JJ with a combination of disbelief and disgust, at thirteen, the idea of sex let of alone the idea of sex one of her best friends makes her shudder.

JJ just shrugs.

Her mom regains some of her composure and says, “I didn’t think--” but then shakes her head, not bothering to finish the sentence. Instead she turns to her daughter. “Kiara--”

Kie cuts her off, holding up the kitten for her mom to see. “JJ found a cat!”

Anna’s eyes widen again, then soften, she turns to JJ. “Why didn’t you just knock on the door?”

JJ looks down and shuffles on his feet, tugs at his bracelets before looking up again. “I-- uh-- well, I didn’t think you’d let me in Ma’am.”

Anna huffs. “Well Kiara spends all her time with you anyway I’d just as soon you do it with my consent instead of climbing up our window like some sort of thief. You’re lucky you didn’t hurt yourself.”

JJ doesn’t seem to be sure of what to make of that, shifts awkwardly and says, “right, erm. Sorry. I’ll knock next time.”

“Good. You’re lucky I caught you in here and not Mike,” she turns to Kiara and the kitten, “now let’s see what we can do with this little one.”

Anna sends them downstairs to get some water while she goes in search of a cardboard box and a blanket for a temporary home. Kie hands the kitten back to JJ and he tucks it safely back into his pocket, it seems to like it there.

“He needs a name,” JJ says as Kie fills up the water in the kitchen.

“We don’t know if it’s a he or a she yet.”

“Can’t you just check?”

“No, not when they’re this small. I think the vet will know though.”

“Right. Either way its name should be Lucifer.”

“Lucifer?” Kiara balks, “JJ we are not naming this cat after the devil.”

“Who said we? I found it. I get to name it.”

“So not how that works.”

“Do you two ever stop arguing?” Anna asks, walking into the kitchen holding a cardboard and a blanket, she sets both on the ground.

“Nope,” JJ responds brightly, carrying the kitten over the open box now sitting on the ground. Says, “there you go Lucifer,” as he sets it down, “nice and comfy.”

“Not calling it Lucifer,” Kiara mutters.

JJ turns back to glare at her but Anna starts talking before he can retort. “I put a call in to the vet, she says it’s a pretty slow day and we should be able to go right now.”

“Awesome!” Kiara responds but JJ’s face darkens.

He glances between Anna, and Kiara and the kitten, looking like he’s gathering courage before turning to her mom.

“Hey, uh Ms. Anna? Would it be okay if I went with you to the vet? I just uh want to know if it's okay, I mean it's totally cool if you can’t--”

Her mom tilts her head at him and rests a hand on her hip, gently says, “Yes JJ, you can come.”

He grins so brightly that even her mom has to return the smile.

JJ holds the box in the car, watches the kitten intently and occasionally reaches down to pet it, grins when it bites playfully at his hand. Kiara scoots into the middle seat so she can play with it too, her arm pressed against JJ’s.

He’s a bundle of nervous energy at the vet's office, not that he isn’t normally but he’s worse than usual, foot tapping against the floor and his fingers strumming against the seat. Kiara can see him resist the urge to pull out his zippo.

The vet comes out about thirty minutes later and tells them that as far as stray kittens go, they have a healthy baby girl. She still needs shots and dewormer, but with some food and a safe home will be just fine.

“Are you planning on keeping her?” The vet asks her mom. “We’d be able to find her a good home if you can’t.”

“We are!” Kiara pipes up adamantly, giving her mother a significant look.

“I don’t know Kie,” Anna responds softly, “I think JJ might want to take her home.”

JJ perks up excitedly for a moment then a look of disappointment covers his face, he looks down and shifts on his feet.

“That's very nice of you Ms. Anna but I-- we don’t have--” he stumbles over his words a moment before eventually deciding on, “my dad hates cats. He wouldn’t let me.”

“Then we can take her right mom?” Kiara demands more than asks.

“I don’t see why not,” she responds with a smile.

JJ holds Luci in his lap on the ride home (that was their compromise, her name could Lucifer but they would call her Luci for short)

Anna offers to drop JJ off at home and asks her to take to the Chateau, saying that Big John’s expecting him. Kiara knows that Big John won’t even be there, it’s not even a guarantee that John B will be, but she’s learned not to question it.

JJ pauses before he gets out of the car. “Hey Ms. Anna?”

“Yes JJ?”

“Would be okay, if I um… came over sometimes? Just to see Luci. And Kie too I guess but not like--”

Anne sighs, gives Kiara a small in the rearview mirror. “Yes JJ, I think that would be okay.”

JJ looks up excitedly, like he wasn’t expecting her to say yes. “Really?”

“Really. Just come through the front door next time.”

(A picture of luci)

[jade-parcels]

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The bunnies’ other jobs!

From my bunny cafe au

((I am so peeved :((( I had this all written out!! And I deleted it by accident!! Darnnnnn!!!))

Anon asked “You mentioned that some of the bunnies have day jobs so do they all have jobs outside the cafe or just a few?” (Something along these lines…again…I deleted it by accident 😔)

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Diluc/‘Angel’

After his father got bored with the wine industry, he passed the whole company off to Diluc on his 18th birthday in order to shift his focus to mining. Diluc found himself swamped with all kinds of business decisions while just barely being an adult. He expanded the company and hired some very trustworthy people to handle things for him so he could finish college

When the business was given to him, Diluc and Kaeya had an explosive fight over it. Kaeya felt like he deserved to have some say in what happens to the business, he’s still a part of the family! But Diluc refused to let him in on any decisions so Kaeya packed his bags and left (not before cussing him out in front of their father, staff and business partners). He was just in a silly, goofy mood. They’re fine now, not on the best terms but they do chat and meet up for lunch on occasion.

He is filthy rich, he couldn’t spend all of his all of his money if he tried, so he doesn’t really need the job at the cafe! Kaeya got him the job because he knew his brother was stuck in a weird, antisocial funk and needed some fun in his life

Diluc loves this job, he has a great time, but it isn’t his main job. His priority will always be the family business!! If he has to quit his job at the cafe, he would in a heartbeat

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Kaeya

Kaeya was going to go into the police academy but was scouted out by a modeling agency. They had seen him at Ragnvindr company events and thought ‘well damn’ so they gave him a pretty generous deal

Kaeya makes a good living off of modeling, the tips and paycheck from the cafe. He rakes in cash pretty quickly just cause he knows how to get it. That, and his dad sends him checks every other month as well. Kaeya thinks of it as ‘I’m sorry’ money. He isn’t wrong

He doesn’t travel much for modeling, which he doesn’t mind, so he kinda just hangs around the city with a lot of free time on his hands between photo shoots. That’s why he got this job at the cafe! It gives him something to do and it’s fun as hell ;)

Albedo

Bedo is one busy bunny. He finished college early and is getting his masters degree online. He works most days at the cafe and on the weekends, he tutors other college students in bio/chem/science related subjects

(He was actually Xiao’s tutor back when he was failing chemistry!! Xiao is very thankful for Albedo’s help!!)

His dream is to become a biochemist, he’s always been interested in cells and what makes up living beings. So having a career in that field would make him the happiest man alive

His mother and sister live outside the city in a more rural area so he spends a lot of time FaceTiming the two of them! Klee is always so excited to hear about Albedo’s experiments or the people he’s met while working in such a bustling, fun city :)

Zhongli

Zhongli is a simple man! He’s a bunny waiter and an artist

He creates intricate pieces based on folklore from different cultures, focusing mostly on dragons. His favorite medium is paint, he loves painting on glass and layering the panes in order to create a 3D piece

He sells his works to galleries, shops and anyone who wants them! As long as they appreciate the story behind the artwork. Sadly…He undersells his work. He could def be making more money but he just does not desire money or material goods the way others may

So he got his job at the cafe in order to help out his dear friend Ningguang, not for money, he only planned on working there for a month or two until she got more bunnies but…he ended up really loving the people he works with :’) he looks forward to working with them now and texts/calls them outside of work to meet up for lunch or bowling (such an old man thing to do omfg)

Dainsleif/‘Sweetie’

Dain was a bouncer at another bar before leaving to come to Celestia’s! He’s good friends with Beidou, they belong to the same motorcycle club so when she was talking to him about the lack of security at the cafe/bar, he stepped in to help out

Little did he know…he’d actually become a bunny…And like it

This is his full time job now, he doesn’t have another for the time being. While he is a bunny at the cafe, he still keeps an eye out for any threats to his coworkers and has access to the offices upstairs (Ningguang’s office and the security office)

When he isn’t waiting tables, he’s upstairs in a tank top and sweatpants keeping an eye on the security cameras and talking to the other security guards through their ear pieces

Ajax

Ajax is a student who doesn’t really have much time on his hands

He mows lawns in the summer and he’s quit his job as a cashier to come work at the cafe! He mostly works night shifts his cause he’s still going to school aaaaaand he’s on his college’s swim team! He’s about to graduate so he works close with his coach to help train the others on the team

He doesn’t really want his family knowing that he skips around in a skimpy bunny outfit and fucking customers most nights but I mean…They’re bound to find out if they see him in pictures people post

Xiao/‘Tofu’

Xiao is an art student!! He wants to be a tattoo artist :)

He’s already got one sleeve of tattoos, it’s unfinished but you can’t really tell just by looking. When he isn’t at the cafe, he’s either in class or shadowing Ganyu, his best friend and tattoo artist. Their art styles greatly differ, she focuses her craft on cutesy, colored tattoos, but she is skilled. And Xiao looks up to her

Xiao admires Zhongli too, they met at the cafe and when Zhongli found out Xiao wants to be a tattoo artist he told him that once he’s licensed, he wants to get a tattoo from him :’)

Baizhu/‘Honey’

Baizhu is a (mostly) full time pharmacist, hence why he isn’t usually at the cafe

He also has a niece, Qiqi, who he babysits often. He loves her very much so he has no problem watching her! Baizhu will even bring her to the pharmacy with him when he’s swamped with work. In the break room, he has a play kitchen, coloring books and a bunch of puzzles to keep Qiqi occupied while he works :)

When he’s not at work, he’s at home resting. He has chronic pain flare ups in his back and shoulders that can make life miserable :( he has plenty of good days that outweigh the bad! And as a pharmacist, he has access to any medicine he needs to make his life easier!

Dottore(Alain)/‘Doc’

Alain’s an oral surgeon who’s a little bit….too into his job

He isn’t phased by blood or gore so he’s easily able to conduct procedures that would make other squeamish. He’ll pull teeth, put in dental implants, remove rotten tissue, any of that without even flinching

Outside of that, he works at the cafe. He wears a mask in order to avoid being recognized even though at his job as a surgeon, he’s usually wearing a medical mask anyways. It’s just a precaution

This has nothing to do with his career but he used to be a tap dancer and actor so he’d join in on local theatre shows! He helped build sets when he wasn’t rehearsing. He doesn’t have time for that anymore (which kinda makes him sadddd) but he has all kinds of theatre playlists on his phone and in his car that he’ll sing along to

Scaramouche/‘Boss’

Scara’s job at the cafe is his main job! His side job is something you may not expect from such a grump

He works at an animal shelter! In fact, he brings cats home to train so they have an increased chance of being adopted. Someone is more likely to adopt a potty trained, socialized cat than a feral cat who doesn’t know what a litter box is. So Scara brings them to his apartment for some one-on-one socializing, training and cuddling

One time he offhandedly mentioned working at an animal shelter while he was working at the cafe and sure enough, three separate customers from the cafe came by to adopt!!! Only one actually took an animal home but he was still surprised that those people had listened to him and cared enough to come by

Scara is a jerk most of the time but when he’s at home…by himself…With a lil kitten sleeping in his lap while he plays games on his PC…Yeah, he softens up a bit

So as you can see, we have a very diverse group working at the cafe! They’ve all learned a lot from each other, come to appreciate each other’s friendship and come to help each other out when one of their coworkers is in need or upset.

[maddiwrites]

The Hybrid (Prologue)

Pairing: JJ x Reader

Summary: The Pogues rekindle their friendship with their old childhood best friend and JJ’s first crush, Y/N. Old feelings resurface for JJ and Y/N, possibly leading to a summer neither one of them could ever forget. Due to past trauma, Y/N is reluctant to let anyone into her heart, but JJ never backs down from a challenge, even if he knows it will come back to haunt him in the end.

Note: So happy to be back with another series!!! I honestly really missed posting. Unlike Secrets of the Shore, updates will be slower because I don’t have them all written out yet. A couple things I wanted to let you know before you read. I based Y/N’s family off of Gilmore Girls. I thought they were the perfect fit for this story and the show in general and I just love their dynamic. (Including Luke who I renamed Steve for obvious reasons). Chapter 1 will explain more obviously but I wanted to give you guys a little snippet of the characters and relationships. So let me know what y'all think!

Word Count: 3.3k

Outer Banks. Paradise on Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two tribes, one island. As you know, the Outer Banks is essentially divided into two groups. If we want to be blunt - it’s the rich and the poor. Figure Eight is home to the rich. Aka the Kooks. With houses bigger than necessary with extra rooms that go untouched, boats the size of homes on the Cut - the other side of the island. Most people who live on Figure Eight are your naturally raised assholes. People who don’t know the value of a dollar and take advantage of people who do most of their dirty work that lets them prance around the island with perfectly manicured fingernails. These hard workers are the Pogues. They live on the south side of the island where most Kooks wouldn’t be found dead. They serve fancy meals at the country club for shitty tips, mow lawns, and work their asses off at any other job for minimum wage. The drastic difference in lifestyles tend to cause many spats and arguments between the two communities. Especially between the teenagers who still don’t know how to control their raging emotions or know when to bite back their tongue. For the Kooks, every fight is a fight for dominance where as the Pogues fight for equality - to put the Kooks in their place. Many of these fights happen at summer parties where the two groups clash to find a good time with their friends filled with alcohol, drugs, and good music.

That’s where they find themselves tonight. The infamous Pogues. John B, JJ, Kie, Pope, and now Sarah Cameron. Although born a natural Kook, she’s earned her spot next to the adventurous teens and her boyfriend. Unlike her brother Rafe who basically is the leader of his notorious group. Topper and Kelce are his best friends who follow him blindly.

The Pogues watch them from their spot surrounding the keg. Kie purses her lips in distaste as the boys cat call for the ladies around them. Somehow most of them finding it flattering. Sarah sips on her beer to hide her embarrassment, often wondering how she and her brother grew up to be so different. Pope and John B stay mostly disinterested, only worried if they try to make a pass at an unwilling girl or fire a degrading comment at their short tempered friend. JJ Maybank is known around the island for his trouble making behavior. Usually if he gets in trouble for fights, no one ever asks who the other people were in the scuffle. Because if JJ Maybank is in the fight, he’s the one who started it, right? Wrong. In fact, JJ usually is never the one to start it. He’s good at keeping his head down and only speaking when spoken to when it comes to the Kooks - the only form of advice worth taking from his father. But his short temper is something the Kooks his age loved to take advantage of because they liked getting a rise out of him. It was like an adrenaline rush.

Luckily, tonight both groups were keeping their distance, either only talking to each other or random Tourons that have found their way to the party. This is usually JJ’s favorite part of a boneyard party. Finding his one fish in a sea of many that he can reel in just for the night and never have to worry about seeing them again.

He has his eyes set on a beautiful blonde making her way to the bonfire when all of a sudden Kie’s voice pulls him out of his trance.

“What’s she doing here?”

JJ follows her line of vision, spotting you walking down the wooden steps that lead to the beach, pulling your best friend behind you by his wrist. He first notices your smile and how it brightens up your entire face. Then of course his eyes scan down your slim but athletically toned body. You’re wearing a pair of jean shorts and a cropped white T shirt that says UNC across the chest. Who knew someone could look so good without even trying?

Well JJ did. He’s known it for a while.

“Careful. I think you’re drooling,” John B whispers in his best friend’s ear.

JJ pushes him away and mutters, “Shut up. No I’m not.”

But maybe he was.

Y/N Y/L/N is a unique resident of the island. Unlike majority of the island, she doesn’t fall in either Kook or Pogue category. She’s what everyone calls the Hybrid.

People who work hard for what they have but haven’t fallen to be Pogue status. Quite literally living in the middle in a place they call the Crest.

Your story is well versed among the gossipers of the island (which tends to be just about everybody).  And mainly that’s because of who your grandparents are.  Claude and Doris Y/L/N. Two of the riches people on the island, living in a three story house on the beach. Many people fear them, others envy them. Most feel both. Even Ward Cameron walks on egg shells around them, which is quite often, considering he works for Claude. They’re the kind of people who have never heard of Barefoot wine or Walmart. They keep their noses up and turn a blind eye to the suffering communities around them. Thirty four years ago, Doris gave birth to a daughter that couldn’t be more opposite than them. Lorelai Y/L/N was a wild child. A rule breaker. She snuck out at nights, dated boys her parents would never approve of, dabbled in breaking the law here and there. It didn’t matter how many times her parents disciplined her. She always managed to make her parents’ life a living hell. 

No one was surprised when word got passed around that Lorelai had gotten pregnant at eighteen. Although it was with another Kook, she brought shame upon her family name when she refused to get an abortion, even when her mom tried dragging her by her hair. 

Lorelai risked everything by running away from her parents’ home in the middle of a windy night. With only one suitcase, the baby daddy out of the picture, and less than a grand in her pocket, she managed to make a life for herself on the South side of the island. She worked two jobs, found an affordable apartment for cheap rent, and managed to save some money before her babies were born.

Yes, babies. As in more than one. Five months after running away from home, she gave birth to twin girls and they instantly became her entire life. With the help of her best friend Steve, who she met one month after being on her own, meeting him at his automotive shop when she very much literally rolled her junky car into the garage, she raised you and your sister on the Cut. The two of you are her greatest accomplishment. Every now and then, she mentally throws up a middle finger to everybody who doubted her, proud of who the two of you have become. 

Right before you turned ten, your mom took a business risk and opened her own Cafe. The Bikini Beans cafe, very popular amongst both Kooks and Pogues. The business did so well that she was able to move the three of you out of your shitty apartment into a beautiful one story home with three bedrooms in between the Cut and Figure Eight, aka the Crest, the summer going into your freshman year.

You actually used to be best friends with John B Routledge, JJ Maybank, and Pope Heyward. It was easier being friends with them than the girls, finding more joy in sports and rough housing than makeup and gossip. 

Doing the same summer that you moved, your mom pulled you out of Kildare County High and placed you in Outer Banks Private Academy. Aka Kook Academy. Around this time, your grandparents had also become more involved in your life, and you wondered if they had somehow bribed your mom into forcing you to transfer schools. You tried asking her during one of your many fights that started with you begging her to keep you at Kildare County High, but she quickly shut you down and told you to be grateful. That was ironic coming from the woman who ran away from the people giving her an expensive high school career. 

You had no choice but to do what your grandparents wanted and attend Kook Academy. Making friends was a lot harder there than it was in Kildare County High. You managed to make one friend in your freshman year. Andre Cortez. Due to an incident a couple years back, you built thick walls and Andre was the only one able to break them down. You were grateful for your friendship, but hanging out with him was nothing like hanging out with the Pogues. 

When you transferred schools, you lost touch with the Pogues slowly. Your life became busy with school and playing dress up for your grandparents and the boys were starting to work. Eventually all contact was cut and ever since, you’ve felt a void in your heart.

“Look,” You tell Andre. “I told you I would be your wing woman and I’m not backing down from what could possibly be the most important role in my life.”

You didn’t notice the Pogues or any of the stares around you. It’s true you’re not much of a party girl. I mean, you’ll go out here and there, have a drink or two, but you felt more comfortable at places where you weren’t surrounded by drunk and horny teenagers. 

“He’s probably not even here,” Andre says. He’s trying to look nonchalant but you notice the way his eyes dance from face to face of the people around him. 

“He told you he was going to be here, right?” You ask him with one brow raised. Andre nods. “Then, we’ll find him.”

Sarah and Kie never made any effort to talk to you at school, but to be fair, neither have you. You’ve heard mixed reviews, some people call them spoiled brats, ungrateful...some even go as far as calling them ‘The Cut Sluts.’ Of course you never take any of those things to heart. You can’t judge a book but it's cover. Plus, they’re friends with your old best friends. They can’t be that bad for John B and JJ and Pope to be hanging out with them, right?

“You think she'll come over here?” Kie asks. No one’s ever said it out loud, but her friends wonder if deep down, Kie was a little jealous of you. Because you were their first real girl friend. You were the first girl they ever let in and opened their heart too. That was a tough pill for Kie to swallow when she originally thought she was that girl. Of course the boys don’t like you any more than Kie and vice versa. But sometimes Kie wishes she could have grown up with the boys the same way you had. 

“Probably not. Unless she’s drinking,” Pope says and motions towards the keg they’re near. 

“I have an idea,” John B says and fills up a red solo cup. He hands it to JJ. “Why don’t you go offer her a cup.”

JJ snags the cup out of John B’s hand and glares at him. “Fuck off, dude.” 

“Do you guys ever see her around at school?” Pope asks the girls.

Sarah shrugs. “Not really. She doesn’t really get a long with my old group of friends.”

Kie rolls her eyes. “No one gets along with your old group of friends.”

Sarah playfully shoves Kie by the shoulder and they laugh. 

“I heard she turned down Raymond Easterling a couple weeks ago and he didn’t take it very well,” Pope says, remembering the words he heard from the kids in his class roaming the school hallways. 

Raymond goes to Kildcare County High with the Pogues. He’s known to be a trouble maker and a class clown. He works with JJ at the country club. The kid can make JJ laugh sometimes, but he wouldn’t necessarily say he likes him all that much. He can be an arrogant asshole with an ego bigger than it should be.

“She turns down everybody,” Sarah says. “Some people at my school call her ‘The Heart Sucker’ because she can pull people in with the snap of her fingers and break their heart just as quickly.”

Something stirred in the pit of JJ’s stomach.

“Hey! Where you going?” John B calls out to JJ who’s making his way deeper into the sea of people on the beach. 

“Taking advantage of a good boneyard party, my friend,” JJ calls back and slugs the rest of his beer. Looking left and right, he searches for the blonde he had eyes on earlier. Because right now, he needed a distraction. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The party starts to die down a little after midnight. Some people leave to find another party, some are passed out in the back of their cars, and others had already found what they were looking for - someone to leave with. 

The boneyard party wasn’t as bad as you expected it to be. You had found a couple of kids from your school who were nice enough to make small talk with you while Andre left to find a guy named Devon, a Touron he’s been talking to who’s renting for the entire summer. 

Now you’re waiting for Andre to come back so the two of you can walk home. You find comfort under a slanted palm tree towards the back of the beach, scrolling through random apps on your phone to pass the time.

“Y/N?” You look up from you phone and smile when you see your former best friend inching closer to you, squinting in the dark to see if it’s really you. 

“Maybank? What are you still doing here?” You stand up and pat the sand off your hands on you thighs. 

Your heart skips a beat in your chest when you look at him. He’s beautiful. Lucious blonde hair, perfectly tanned skin, piercing blue eyes. You always knew JJ was going to grow up to be gorgeous. He was cute when he was younger. At least you always thought so. 

“I was just leaving, but I thought I saw you sitting here and wanted to make sure you were all right.” He knows it’s not like you to stay this late at a party, especially all by yourself. When he first saw you sitting there, he didn’t know if he should say something. Mostly due to nerves of seeing you again. But the other Pogues had already left and he didn’t trust anyone else at the party to be near you alone late at night. It didn’t matter if you were sober or not. 

“Aw. Was JJ Maybank worried about me?” You tease. Talking to him felt easy. As if you never stopped being friends. A few years ago, you and JJ had the best banter. Despite constantly bickering back and forth, John B always swore the two of you would get married one day. The two of you just always clicked like a natural connection. And even now, when only seeing each other every now and then for a few minutes at a time, it felt normal. You smirk when JJ rolls his eyes. “I’m kidding. Yeah, I’m okay. Just waiting for my friend to come back from his little rendezvous,” You say. 

JJ nods. “Did you have a good time? I feel like I never you see at these things.”

“Yeah. Parties aren’t really my thing. But Andre was nervous to meet this guy he’s been talking to for a little while so I came for moral support.”

“Looks like he didn’t need much of the support.”

You shrug. “It’s better that way, anyway. I don’t mind waiting for him. What about you?”

“What about me?” 

“Did you have a good time tonight? I hear your quite the ladies’ man at these things.”

“Come on, Sparky. You know better than to believe everything you hear.”

Your face lights up at the mention of your old nickname. You use to always be busting out the seams with energy. On days where the boys just wanted to chill and play video games, you would drag them to the park for a game of kick ball. Or when they wanted to sleep in after a long week, you showed up at 8 am to drag them out of bed to catch the morning waves. So one day JJ started calling you Sparky, and it stuck with the rest of your little gang. You always pretended to hate it, but secretly you loved it. 

“Oh I don’t believe everything I hear. I do, however, believe what I see. And your arm around that tall blonde in the little black dress looked quite convincing.”

You first saw JJ at the party when he was making his way to the pretty girl by the water. Your teeth involuntarily clenched and there was a twisted feeling in your stomach you couldn’t shake whenever you looked at them. 

In that instant, JJ felt grateful for the dark sky. He felt the rush of heat rise up his neck to his cheeks before he could stop it. He knew the motivation to see that girl was because of you. He just wished you never saw it. But he didn’t know why. 

“I walked her home. She wasn’t my type,” JJ plays it off. 

“I didn’t realize you had a type,” You giggle, but a small part felt relieved to hear this. “So what is it? Your type?”

Hybrids with a Pogue attitude, bright smile, beautiful eyes, and a mouth that could make any sailor turn around, JJ thought. 

“I don’t know. Haven’t figured it out yet.”

You roll your eyes playfully. “Well, when you figure it out let me know.”

“Why? So you can transform into my ideal girl?” He teases.

Now you’re the one thankful for the dark sky. “In your dreams, Maybank. But so far, I do have the perfect wing-woman track record, so if you needed help -”

“I don’t think I need any help in that department. Thank you very much.”

You throw your hands up in fake surrender. “Ooo. Touchy subject.”

JJ rolls his eyes at the same time your phone pings with a text message. You pull it out of your shorts pocket and open the text from Andre, telling you to leave without him because he’s gonna stay out late with Devon and won’t know what time he’s going to be done.

“Everything all right?” JJ says, watching you read the message.

You lock your phone and stuff it in your back pocket again. “Like I said. Perfect wing-woman track record.”

“That was Andre?” 

“Yeah. He’s most likely not coming home tonight.”

“Lucky bastard.”

“At least one of us is,” You joke. 

JJ’s grin slightly falters but you don’t catch it. You have no idea how much he wishes the two of you could be equally as lucky. Together. 

“Well, I should probably go,” You say and bend down to grab your flip flops.

“Let me walk you home,” JJ offers. 

“Oh no. It’s okay -”

“You’re cute. It’s wasn’t up for debate. I’m not letting you walk back by yourself.”

You scoff lightly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Just humor me.”

You roll your eyes and smirk but choose not to argue. In fact, you’re excited to spend more time with JJ. It’s been so long.

“Fine.”

“And here I thought you might’ve grown out of your stubborn phase by now.”

You shove him playfully by the shoulder. “Shut up!”

And just like that, it felt like old times.

[orange-imagines]

Rise Pokémon AU - Part 4

Last but not least, Donnie! I might come back to this and make some more HCs, but until then, my parting words: the Pokémon Essential Handbook is king @dusky-star 

Donnie 

Delcatty  -Just like Raph has a weakness for dog Pokémon, Donnie has a weakness for cats. He also may or may not have been drawn to Delcatty because of her purple fur -She’s a bit spoiled. She’s classy and refined, so she doesn’t really make a habit of engaging in battles, but she could hold her own if she really wanted to. She mainly just likes laying around on Donnie’s battle shell and pulling on his mask tails to annoy him 

Espeon -Donnie’s had her ever since she was an Eevee. She was the first Pokémon he ever caught, having found her living in an abandoned house and surviving off scraps. It took about a week, but he managed to convince her to trust him enough to bring her along with him -She’s very temperamental and doesn’t have a lot of patience, but makes an effort not to lash out at those on her team. She doesn’t appreciate anyone other than Donnie giving her affection, however, and has taken a swipe at his brothers before when they’ve tried petting her 

Driftloon   -Driftloon is Donnie’s most cheerful and excitable Pokémon. She likes flying around and swinging her strings in people’s faces, though most of the time she doesn’t mean to get in the way -it just happens because she’s so emotive. If she’s out of her Pokéball while they’re walking around, Donnie has to hold her strings so she doesn’t float away -She really likes wrapping her strings around people to hug them. She does it to Donnie all the time, and at this point he’s learned there’s no getting out of it. She has a very tight grip

Zebstrika   -Donnie rescued her from an unauthorized Pokémon farm, and almost got electrocuted in the process. She was being used to power their generators, and even after Donnie managed to turn them off and free her, she almost mowed him down to get away. A few days later, he found her drinking at a nearby stream and offered her some food. Though still rough around the edges, she ended up going with him -She did not care about being a team player or really liking anyone at first. She’s distrustful, and it took her a long time to even warm up to Donnie and his team, but once she did she became very appreciative and protective of her teammates and trainer. She charges Donnie’s tech occasionally because it takes exactly three seconds of her time, but sometimes ends up overloading his power systems. That’s a risk Donnie’s willing to take, because she harbors so much extra energy that she often just needs any way to release it that she can get. She’s also Donnie’s strongest Pokémon

Porygon2 -Donnie found them hanging around an abandoned laboratory with a few other Porygons and Porygon-Zs. The group of them were experiments that the previous owner forgot to bring with him before the building fell into disarray, so Donnie took charge of sending them all back to the Professor from his and his brothers’ hometown, though Porygon2 was very adamant about sticking around -Since they’re an artificial science experiment, Porygon2 doesn’t really have a large basis for how they should interact with other Pokémon. They’re awkward, to say the least, but do really appreciate the affection they receive from the rest of their team -Donnie included 

Rotom  -Ever the little prankster, Rotom first saw Donnie as the perfect target because of the sheer amount of tech he possessed. He ended up following Donnie around for a day or so, constantly shorting out his tech and forcing him to stop and try to fix the issue, only for it to go haywire once again as soon as he packed everything back up. Eventually Donnie found Rotom hiding out in his system and just decided to catch him to fix the problem. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?  -Rotom still enjoys shorting things out to get a rise out of Donnie, but now that he’s on his team, he does it sparingly because he doesn’t actually want to piss his trainer off. Though he’s more than happy to short out the tech of anyone bothering him, or messing with Donnies’ brother’s phones per Donnie’s request. He gets along well with Zebstrika and Porygon2, and he and Zebstrika are always ready to help Porygon2 recharge their battery at a moment’s notice 

[vivilove-jonsa]

Halloween prompt 😁: "we have to run, now!".

Hello, my dear!  Thank you for the prompt.  This turned out different than my original thoughts on this one but have a little Halloween Haunted Corn Maze Fluff.

(and just fyi for others, I afraid I won’t be able to do any more prompts for a bit after this one)

**

Halloween night.  What on earth had made her agree to this?

Pride.  

Oh yeah.

Look, it’s not like she doesn’t love her siblings.  She does.

But sometimes, they have a knack for making Sansa feel like an outsider in her own family.  It’s not intentional but a lot of the stuff she likes just doesn’t appeal to the others and vice versa.  

And one thing they all seem to love which Sansa does not is scary stuff.  Horror movies, haunted houses, Halloween stuff.  

Even Jon, who isn’t technically a sibling but gets treated like one by everyone else, has more in common with them than Sansa does, it seems.  

So, when she’d asked Arya what she was doing this Saturday night, not remembering that it was October 31st and therefore Halloween, she’d been told she was going to the corn maze.

“A corn maze?  Who’s going?”

“Me and Gendry are going to meet Robb and Jon who are taking Bran, Rickon and some friends there.”

“The boys are going too?”

Their little brothers are still underage so it wasn’t the usual Saturday night pub crawl that Sansa has occasionally joined the others in.  (Which she’s joined them for more frequently since breaking up with her boyfriend three months ago.)  

“Yeah.”

“Well, it sounds fun…”  

She’d let that linger, waiting to see if her sister would extend an invitation.  Her stomach had knotted up at the thoughts that the offer might not come but Arya hadn’t let her down, not exactly.

“Right.  Well, you’re welcome to come.  There’s a pumpkin patch or hayride if you want to wait for us there.”

“Why would I want to go on a hayride alone?  And who’s picking pumpkins on Halloween night?  Won’t all the pumpkins be picked?”  (Honestly, she’d be very sad if there were any pumpkins left behind and would want to take them with her.)

“But…Sans, it’s a haunted corn maze.  I don’t think it’ll be your thing.”  

Thus, Pride had had its say and insisted that of course she would enjoy going to a haunted corn maze on Halloween and how dare anyone suggest otherwise.

Alright, she’d looked wistfully at the little shed where they were selling popcorn, caramel apples and hot apple ciders upon their arrival.  She might have even sighed seeing the young couples wearing gloves with rosy cheeks climbing onto the haybales for their hayride.  But she’d marched determinedly up to the booth ahead of everyone else to buy her ticket first because Sansa Stark is not a fraidy cat.

Which has led to her current predicament.

“We have to run, now!” Rickon shouts as the chainsaw-wielding murderer gets closer.

Yes, part of her agrees. Her fight or flight instincts are kicking in with flight winning.  Every hair on her head is standing on end.  Why does a power tool get to have that level of impact on my psyche when I’ve never even seen that movie?!

But running doesn’t seem like the answer to her logical mind.  They’re all together, a pack.  That’s how they’d got past the zombies after their first wrong turn.  They’d been hemmed in until Jon had spied the exit path. They’d shuffled along as one with Sansa and Rickon’s friend Shireen doing their best to be as much in the middle of their group as possible.  (Clearly, the girl was scared and wanted to hold Sansa’s hand, okay?)  Anyway, they’d out-shuffled those zombies and been in the clear for five whole minutes before this Leatherface guy showed up.  

So, that is obviously the solution here.  They should stick together, not take off in the middle of a huge ass corn maze in the dark in three different directions.

Unfortunately, that’s precisely what Rickon and his friends do.  

“No, we don’t need to run! Kids, we’re…ugh!”

Robb shouts after them as well to no avail.  “Rickon Stark, if you don’t get your ass back here this second I am never taking you and your friends anywhere ever a-…shit.”  They now have three 12-years-olds to hunt down in the middle of a corn maze.  “Okay, Arya and Gendry take this path.  Bran, you come with me down that one.  Jon, you and Sansa look for them that way.”

Sansa tries not to grimace.  It’s not a grimace of distaste.  It’s a grimace of something else.  Based on the way Jon scowls, she knows she didn’t succeed in not grimacing.  Well, he was already scowling.  Scowling is kind of a go-to look for him in social settings.  (Don’t tell but it’s a surprisingly good look on him.)

“Fine.  Come on,” he mutters, leading the way with one of the three flashlights they’d brought between them.

It’s not that she dislikes Jon.  She hopes he doesn’t dislike her though they’ve never been as close as he is with the others. She’d like to be closer maybe.  In fact, she’s teetering pretty firmly in the opposite direction of dislike, has been for the past month or so since she’d got over her break up (nothing that serious anyway) and started spending more time with him and the others on Saturday nights.  

Yeah, Robb sniggers when she orders her daquiris instead of the ales they all drink but Jon doesn’t. He’s really pretty sweet about fetching drinks and often offers to give her a lift home.  He’s actually kind of funny when he loosens up a bit, too.  

But he’s Jon.  He’s known her since she was three.  Those little flutters she’s starting to notice around him are obviously the effect of the alcohol, right?

Except you’ve not had anything to drink tonight.  

So, why the grimace? Well, because she likes Jon and she’s already a little afraid of embarrassing herself out here which means it’s bound to happen.

Maybe I should’ve just rode the hayride alone.  I could’ve saved all the unloved pumpkins and stuffed them in the back of Robb’s SUV, too.    

They set off down one of the paths, the mowed down corn stalks and mud squishing beneath their boots while they’re surrounded on all sides.  She’s glad they’ve got a full moon.  It’s a blue moon.  They’re already rare but on Halloween?  That seems pretty special.  It’d feel romantic in other circumstances.

Like side by side on a hayride.  He might offer me his jacket and…

Ugh, would you stop? You’re not on a date with Jon.  

“Ow!  Will you watch it?!”

She’d been staring up at the moon and hadn’t realized Jon had come to a halt.  She’s run right into his back, her boots catching his own boot-covered ankles.  He’s more solid than you’d think just looking at him.  He also smells good…and she’s a clumsy dork.  

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”  He’s looking around, listening.

“What is…”  

She doesn’t get the rest of her sentence out because someone has grasped her arm.

Someone who isn’t Jon.

She’s screaming bloody murder and there’s maniacal laughter coming from the close-packed stalks that surround them.  Yes, they’d been told they might be lightly touched by performers during their ‘experience.’ They’d had to sign waivers that they agreed to that and that they wouldn’t physically retaliate.  Sansa is not remotely a violent person but, right now, she’s ready to knock the living daylights out of whoever grabbed her arm.

She’s pulled herself into the middle of the path, not that it’s that wide, and is hugging herself and shaking once the hand lets go of her.  

“Hey, it’s okay.  Let’s move this way,” Jon says, pulling her down the path away from whoever that was hiding back in the corn.  

He thinks he has to protect her, like she’s some little girl who can’t handle a scare.

She mutters she’s fine.  She is fine but also embarrassed.  And yeah, there’s the chainsaw in the distance again and this whole experience is making her jumpy.  It may be a bit obvious.  

“Why’d you come tonight?”

“Huh?”  She’d been walking along, lost in her thoughts.  She glances over at Jon and it clicks what he asked.  “I don’t know.  I like hanging out with everyone.”

“We like you hanging out with us but I didn’t think a haunted corn maze would be your thing.”

“It’s not.  I just thought…”  She sighs.  “I just didn’t want to be left behind.”

He nods thoughtfully. “It’s okay if you don’t enjoy stuff like this.”

“But everyone else does.”

“You don’t have to be everyone, Sansa.  You’re perfect the way you are.”

She raises her eyebrows, grinning at him.  “I’m perfect?”

“Don’t let that go to your head.” He starts grinning back.  His grins are even hotter than his scowls.  

“Thanks, Jon.”

“And I wouldn’t have left you behind.  I mean if…” He scrubs at his beard, looking a little embarrassed himself.  “I would’ve stuck with you outside the maze while everyone did this.”

“You would?!”  He would?!  

“Yeah.”

“I wouldn’t want to hold you back from having a good time with everyone else.”

“I’ve done corn mazes before.  You wouldn’t be holding me back from having a good time.  Not that I’m much company or…”

“GARRRRR!!!  MU-WAH-HAHA!!!”

A horrific looking clown comes out of the corn right behind them…carrying a huge freaking axe?!  

And we’re screaming again, she notes internally as she grasps Jon’s arm.

The thing is, he’s shouting, too.  “We need to run, now!”  

He half drags her along but she’s not complaining.  She’s too busy trying not to hyperventilate.  

They run until they run out of path.  They run until they’re both laughing at themselves and each other for running.  They run until they realize they’re surrounded by the warmth of glowing lights and cute carved pumpkins instead of corn with the smell of apple cider and popcorn in the air.  They’ve escaped the maze.

Rickon and his friends are all sitting together at one of the nearby tables, eating caramel apples and popcorn in huge bites.  Her little brother laughs when she attempts to scold him for running off, saying he figured everyone else could find their own way out.  “I mean, we found our way and we’re just kids.”  

“Should we go back in and look for the others?” Jon asks her.

“No, they can find their way out, can’t they?”

Surely, they can.  Besides, she’s got a few unloved pumpkins to save. Jon doesn’t say a peep.  Just helps her load them into the back of Robb’s SUV.

“I love toasted pumpkin seeds.”

“Me, too.”

And when her and Jon decide to go on the hayride after sharing some apple cider a short time later, Sansa decides she hopes it takes them a little longer to find their way out of the maze.  Especially when Jon drapes his jacket over her shoulders as they hold hands under the full blue moon.  

[bottlesandcats]

Pardon My 15x20 Rant

I woke up this morning with Thoughts, so time for a ranty post. Be prepared this is going to read more like word vomit than anything, but I just wanted to get my thoughts down on paper. No one may even read this bc I don’t have a lot of followers but it feels good to just get this off my chest and out into the Universe. Warning, there is a gratuitous use of caps.

So....I see so many fans on Twitter saying how beautiful and perfect that ending was and, I have to say, I’m truly bewildered by that.

 Even if you aren’t a Destiel fan, I’m not sure how you could’ve found that ending to be remotely satisfying. See list of non Destiel-related reasons below (bc I’m trying to see this from the perspective of someone who isn’t in that part of the fandom):

1. The MOW was crap; wtf was with the Halloween masks? When have we ever seen that with vamps? The dumbest shit I’ve seen. 

They trotted out some extra from season 1 like it’s supposed to be some fun little Easter egg. Why are we supposed to give a shit about her? I didn’t even remember her with the flashback. Who are you, again? NM, I DON’T CARE. It also honestly made no sense to feature a MOW episode after everything that just happened, it wasn’t necessary. It was clearly just a means to an end to get Dean killed.

2. They shoved some random family, for Sam, into the last ten minutes of the episode. Sam’s kid is named Dean? OF COURSE HE IS. And that whole father-son montage was so clunky and awkward, I would’ve been more convinced if you told me Sam actually just wandered into some anonymous woman’s backyard and started playing ball with her kid. 

We’ve seen how emotionally invested Sam gets in his relationships and we’ve had such beautiful moments: Sam/Jess, Sam/Madison, (even Sam/Ruby), and of course Sam/Eileen. And now we are supposed to care about Anonymous Brunette Woman #4? GTFO. I’ve seen some people saying they couldn’t get Shoshanna bc of COVID, but give us something to indicate it was Eileen. Have Sam sign something to her from across the yard; IT’S THAT SIMPLE. But no, not one single mention of her in either 19 or 20, after Sam nearly broke when he lost her in 18.

 I couldn’t even feel happy for him bc I had 0 emotional investment in this life of his. And it was all just rushed through so we could get to the “good part” where Sam dies and is reunited with Dean in Heaven. 

Also small note, what happened to Dean’s dog???

3. The wardrobe department really needs to reconsider some of their life choices. I’ve seen tufts of cat hair in the corners of my house that would’ve made a better wig than that rag they threw on Jared’s head. It was so ridiculous, I started thinking this was going to wind up being some big gag like The Mystery Spot” and The Trickster was going to pop out. 

And why did Jim Beaver’s beard look like they spray-painted cotton balls brown and glued them to his face? It was honestly distracting. 

4. After 15 years, and FINALLY achieving freedom and happiness, Dean gets taken down by a rebar and a Vamp-mime. The only way I could justify this to myself was that, now that they are no longer God’s puppets he’s not bending the rules for them and they don’t have that death-defying luck on their side now. But even that is weak. After all his fighting, sacrificing, and wanting nothing more than to chill on a beach with Sam and Cas, this is what he gets. This was a show about defying destiny, THAT WAS THE WHOLE PLOT OF S15.

 Dean always said he figured it was his destiny to die bloody, and that’s exactly why he shouldn’t have gone out this way. STORY ARC, WHAT’S THAT? Cas told Dean, when he first met him, that good things do happen. So basically, the only way Dean could get his happiness was to die? What a heart-warming message. 

5. Dean’s lack of emotion over the loss of Cas was the most OOC I think I’ve ever seen from him. Dean DOES NOT accept the deaths of those he loves in any way. He does not cope, he does not move on, he does not happily eat a bunch of pie. We’ve seen how Dean has handled Cas’s death in the past. It’s...not good, and it only became more unhealthy as the show progressed, with the last time (before 18) having Dean literally killing himself. Even in 15x19, we still got that desperate heartache from him with Dean demanding that Chuck bring Cas back. We also saw him sleeping amongst a pile of empty liquor bottles, which is very on-character for him. But in 15x20, he’s the one telling Sam they need to move on and keep living (oops) over a giant tray of pie slices at a county fair. Even Sam feels off. One minute he’s all “I’m sad about Cas and Jack” and the next he’s putting a pie in Dean’s face and is like “I feel better now!” You’ve got a direct in with God!Jack now, and we know from 15x19 that God can pull beings out of The Empty bc he did it with Lucifer! THAT WAS YOUR IN, YOU IDIOTS. You ask Chuck to bring back Cas, but not the one to whom he was a father to????????? 

6. Even if you weren’t a Destiel shipper, you should still be disappointed in the noticeable absence of Castiel, especially since he was left with such a cliffhanger of character development and was mentioned multiple times in episodes 19 and 20. He was a pivotal part of the show for 11 years. Even if you take out the Destiel stuff, the boys have called him their brother numerous times. Dean’s call him his best friend. Wouldn’t his ideal Heaven have his best friend in it?

7. I’m not going to rail on the scene between the brothers while Dean is dying. I didn’t really get Wincest vibes from it, though I never put much stock into that side of the fandom anyway. My one issue is this was the “love confession” moment they gave us. Dean dying in a barn and telling Sam he loves his baby brother. *SNORE*

8. The big reunion moment we were hoping for? They wasted it on Dean’s car. A FUCKING CAR. Yes, I get the Impala is important to the story, but come the fuck on. NO CHICK FLICK MOMENTS. MUCH BRO. 

All-in-all the whole ending felt like 1 step forward, and 15 years back. After all the character development and story arcs, it’s like they just threw it all out the window. Nothing changed. Everyone was back to where they started: Cas working for God, Dean being a good soldier and dying bloody doing the only thing he knows how to do, Sam being left to pick up the pieces with some distorted version of an apple pie life where he was basically just living to die so he could be with Dean again. I felt like the lesson was that the only way you get what you want is to die. It was gross. It was a disservice to the actors, the characters, and the fans. I can’t begin to even see this as fan-service bc I’d love to know who the TPTB thought they were serving with this garbage. And honestly, I don’t think they knew either. I feel like they were so worried about pissing off all the different subsets of the fandom that they went as safe as they could. *slow claps* Way to go, guys, really groundbreaking stuff.

At the end of the day though, it’s my fault for being disappointed. I shouldn’t have expected so much of a show that had mostly cis white men working behind the scenes. A show that’s killed almost every female character who stepped up to the plate (also, POC anyone? Nahhh). A show that took their one real LGBTQ character (also female), killed her and left her body in a bathtub (FRIDGING IS FUN) for absolutely no good reason. A show that, at the end of the day, is just a show about a couple bros who kill monsters, on the CW, and the CW is hardly the go-to place for real boundary-pushing content. A show that has managed to drop the ball at almost every opportunity though we, as a fandom, have continued to lower the bar for them.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 100 times? 

So with all that being said...

Peace out bitches.

[moonbeambucky]

Helpless

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader Word Count: 5298 Warnings: fluff

Summary: Bucky doesn’t realize that the more he tries to be helpful the more he makes his girl feel helpless.

A/N: This is my submission for @kentuckybarnes Hannah’s 3k Writing Challenge. My prompt was Character A is told to stay in the car while Character B confronts a villain. Things go downhill. Character A drives the car into the villain. But didn’t leave the car. Thank you as always to my Sam 💕@buckyofthemyscira for beta reading! gif not mine

The story of Bucky Barnes is filled with immense sadness weaving its ways throughout the pages of his life. From Howling Commando to Hydra assassin, his mind was scrubbed clean of what made him; his memories, his morals. Bucky was forced to commit unspeakable acts, ones that keep him up at night trembling with guilt. He was given a new life while being robbed of his old one but now that he’s finally free of the tentacled grasp Hydra held him in, Bucky is working on becoming himself again, and for all the harm he’s done to the world he wants to give back and help.

The desire to help others took root within him at a young age. He learned from his father George, who was always quick to assist the neighbors on their friendly Brooklyn block, and Bucky experienced firsthand how good it felt to help others.

When Mrs. Davis from down the block couldn’t leave the house much anymore Bucky took it upon himself to fetch her groceries or mow the lawn. He never asked for anything in return for his service but she insisted, paying him a little something so he could treat himself to an ice cream. Instead, Bucky used the money to make sure the alley cats had a fresh dish of milk and cans of tuna each day. If helping was the lottery then Bucky hit the jackpot when he befriended Steve Rogers.

Steve became more like a brother and Bucky had his hands full looking after him. You see, Steve was just like Bucky when it came to helping others except the little punk didn’t know his limits. He picked his battles, every single one, no matter who was on the other end. Bucky would have to step in every time and throw a punch or take one; better him than Steve who would crumble at the slightest breeze.

Bucky couldn’t fight all of Steve’s battles though, but he was always there to help Steve get well from his latest bout with any and every germ that came his way. His poor friend was a scrawny thing, with an immune system more fragile than a butterfly’s wings. Bucky ran all over Brooklyn to pick up Steve’s prescriptions and even learned to make his mother’s homemade chicken soup recipe, anticipating he might be spending the rest of his life making it for Steve.

Helping was always in Bucky’s nature but when the war broke out he questioned his morals. Part of him wanted to sign up, his country needed help and he was ready to fight, but with his father no longer around it didn’t feel right to leave his ma and sisters. In the end Bucky decided to stick around, continue to help his family and Steve until he was drafted.

The fate of the world was safe, for today at least, and while Bucky had helped secure it from the threat of other worldly invaders once more he wanted to use his free time to help on a smaller level.

This is how he found himself at a local Habitat for Humanity worksite near the compound. There were a few dozen people crowding around the open space, with bright smiles and excited chatter filling the air until a skeletal man with a bullhorn calls everyone’s attention. Bucky keeps his distance in the back. Just because he wanted to help doesn’t mean he’s fully ready to integrate himself into society again.

Bucky prefers anonymity and after years of covert operations and life on the run he wears his best disguise to hide in plain sight, a baseball cap that casts a shadow over his features. His long dark hair is tied in a low bun at the base of neck and recognizable metal hand is covered by a construction glove.

He isn’t fully anonymous though, a sticker on his chest states his name but going by James provides him enough distance from his true identity. Bucky doesn’t want any publicity, even if it would counteract the daily editorials that criticize his morals. It’s another struggle he carries, learning to ignore the faceless voices that speak out against him. He’ll never please everyone but by helping, no matter what the cause, he knows he’s doing something good.

Bucky’s squinting from the sunlight, already strong despite the early morning. He pulls his cap lower to block the shine from his eyes while listening to the man with the bullhorn enthusiastically pump up the crowd. He introduces himself as Scully, a nickname Bucky supposes as his sticker says Ed. Could be a last name too though. Sometimes Bucky doesn’t mind being called Barnes. It reminds him of his time in the army, where he was fighting with one goal in mind, to help.

He shrugs off his memories, not wanting to think about what happened after the army. He regrets wearing a sweatshirt today as he’s already growing warm but unfortunately it’s the best way to hide that arm of his.

The group breaks with a round of applause and cheers as it’s time to commence work. The foundation for the house was already laid for them so everyone begins working on the assembling the framing. Bucky quickly swaps his baseball cap for a hard hat and walks to the truck with a few others ready to unload the lumber.

A burly man walks up the steel ramp on the back of the truck. His boots clank on the metal that shakes to support his large frame as he unlatches the door, allowing the foresty scent of fresh cut spruce to penetrate the crisp morning air.

Groups of two travel in and out of the truck carrying long beams and planks. Bucky grabs more than double, giving a simple nod to the burly man Frank, a silent nod that he’s more than capable of handling that amount on his own. Bucky could actually carry more, a lot more, but his one man show is already drawing enough attention, he decides he doesn’t need any more.

He follows the direction of another man who’s shorter than Frank but just as round, with a thick salt and pepper beard. Bucky drops off the planks at different workstations where others are reviewing the specs for measurements.

The air filled with a mix of sound as people begin to work; the dull thudding of nails being hammered down, power tools buzzing away. It brings him back to childhood when he and Steve took the train into Manhattan to watch as construction crews began erecting the Chrysler Building. The idea of having the tallest building in the world in their backyard fascinated the young boys who never imagined the sites they would grow to see.

He’s pulled from his memory by the shrill buzzing of an electric saw. It pierces his ear oddly as Bucky can hear the faintest wobble coming from a blade. He shuts his eyes to concentrate, waiting for the sound again until he’s certain of where it’s coming from.

A woman is focused on her work, gripping the handle of the miter saw and guiding it down to slice through the wood on the table. Bucky’s lips twitch to a smile as he watches her using the machine without hesitation.

The wobbly sound has increased in the span of the few seconds he spent ogling her and before the woman begins again Bucky calls out to stop her.

“There’s somethin’ wrong with the blade,” he declared after he caught her attention, walking closer towards her.

Between the glare of the sun and the protective goggles covering her eyes Bucky can’t read her expression. He worries she might be insulted, if in some way she interprets his concern as a question on her capability.

Bucky panicked, “I-It’s not you, I promise.” He flashed a nervous smile. “I… it’s just that I heard it in the blade, it sounded…”

“...Off,” she finished his sentence. “You’re right, I even felt it in that last cut.”

She removed her safety goggles and used her forearm to dab at the beads of sweat that collected on her forehead. Chewing on her bottom lip she stared bewilderedly at the faulty machine.

Bucky was staring as well, entranced by the woman before him. Now that he had a clearer look at her features his heart began doing flips in his chest. Her eyes were beautiful, sparkling and full of life.

The hard hat and baggy t-shirt added to her true beauty, the goodness of her soul that was eager to get back to work, to helping just as he wanted to. She scanned the machine for an obvious cause of the problem, wondering out loud what it could be.

Bucky found the nerve to speak up. “The bolt on the blade probably came loose. I can help if you want...” He smiled timidly as his eyes traveled to the name tag on her shirt, “…Y/N.”

The moment her name fell from his lips Bucky felt as if he was always meant to say it. Like pollen floating in the air her name was carried to his heart making it bloom with attraction.

She accepted his help with an enthusiastic smile spread widely across her face and Bucky was blinded once more but not by the sun. The light that radiated from Y/N’s gorgeous face was stronger and more beautiful than any star in the galaxy.

With a spring in his step he went to find some tools to help, anxious to get back to Y/N. By the time he returned she unplugged the machine and put her palm out, waiting for him to hand over the tools. Bucky was surprised, not expecting she only needed his help to fetch the tools.

“I’m not helpless you know,” Y/N playfully teased, smirking as she pulled back the blade guard and began to lock the saw into place.

Bucky smiled watching her work, unable to contain his smile and the bubbling feelings within of the woman who was as capable as she was beautiful.

Y/N let out a frustrated groan as she tried to remove the bolt that secured the blade. She twisted the wrench but it wouldn’t budge. Bucky was certainly strong enough to force the movement but he didn’t want to intrude, not unless she asked.

He didn’t have time to wait for Y/N’s permission as she used all her might to twist the wrench, forcing the bolt to fly off. The shaky movement caused the askew blade to come off its mount and nearly onto Y/N’s hands if Bucky hadn’t lurched forward and stopped it. The blade sat in the palm of his gloved hand, the metal underneath unharmed by the sharp object.

“Are you alright?” he asked as a visibly shaken Y/N took deep breaths.

“Yeah, ‘m good. I shouldn’t have forced it,” she huffed in disbelief, thinking about what could have happened.

Bucky placed the blade back and tightened the bolt properly, ensuring it wouldn’t wobble anymore. “It should be good now.” Bucky offered a proud smile, knowing he was able to help her.

Y/N returned the smile as she replaced the other screws so she could begin working again. “Thanks Bucky.”

The curve of his lips dropped down with confusion His name tag said James. He is supposed to be James. Incognito. He had a foolproof baseball cap. His eyes stirred with panic but the sound of her voice stilled his mind.

“Were you hiding or something?” Her tone was playful and the smile she gave him helped settle his nerves even more. Bucky was wrong to think he could go unnoticed, then again she was the only one to speak up.

“In a way,” he responded, “I wanna help, don’t want no fanfare about it.”

Y/N knew what the press reported on James “Bucky” Barnes but in all the articles she’s read none of them ever detailed the softness in his eyes. Seventy years of torture were held back behind a delicate wall of swirling blue emotion and yet he’s standing in front of her, stronger than she could ever imagine had she faced what he had gone through.

“Your secret is safe with me,” she winked.

A giggle fell past her lips and Bucky felt his knees buckle at the sound. From the moment it left her lips and floated to his ears the decision cemented itself within his heart, he would do anything to hear her laughter again.

Bucky continued the heavy lifting all day but the greatest strength he displayed was when he asked Y/N out for coffee and surprisingly she said yes.

They met up on Saturday afternoon after spending a few days together at the worksite. Y/N groaned as her stiff muscles carried her to the front of the coffee shop. Bucky stood outside looking incredibly handsome in a light denim jacket with a blue shirt that was sure to bring out the color of his eyes. His hair was loose with rich brown strands falling into his face as he pulled his phone out from his pocket and checked it.  

She stopped to watch him, with a smile growing on her face at how nervous Bucky looked. She felt the same way, with the butterflies in her stomach adding to the aches and pains of her sore body.

Y/N was just as surprised when Bucky asked her to meet. She never imagined the day she would run into an actual Avenger let alone exchange numbers with them. With a deep breath she began walking towards him, trying to contain her nerves.

Bucky’s eyes lit up when he saw her. She strolled towards him in an oversized sweater and leggings that clung to her frame. Her hair was freed from the hard hat he was accustomed to seeing her in. He already thought she was beautiful in the sawdust covered clothes she wore and now his heart began to race at the sight of her.

Neither knew what greeting was appropriate as they said hello which led to an awkward should they, should they not kiss on the cheek or hug. She giggled again and Bucky sighed with content.

As Bucky held the door open for Y/N he heard a faint groan as she stepped up into the shop and proceeded to ask if she was alright.

She smiled at his question, “Yes, thank you. Just a little achy.”

Bucky smiled remembering the work she put in at the site, never shying away from any project. Y/N even tried to help lift the support beam that outweighed her many times over. Her disappointed pout was adorable, even if realistically it was a job meant for a crew made up of the strongest people. Bucky winked at her bringing the smile back to her face as they shared an unspoken truth, Bucky could have easily lifted the beam alone.

Hard labor was nothing for Bucky, in fact, he much preferred it over Steve’s intense training drills. He didn’t technically have a problem with those either but he’d rather go back into cyro than hear Sam’s whining every day.

Y/N would have more of a reason to whine over Sam who should be used to physical demands that come with being an Avenger by now, but even she isn’t. He can read the pain on her face, the tight smile and stiff inhales as she reads over the menu. After all the hard work she did she deserves to rest.

Bucky pulled out a chair for her from the nearest table. “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll grab our orders,” he offered, feeling happy to help her.

They sat for hours getting to know each other, sharing a variety of sweet pastries. Bucky walked Y/N home and when it was time to say goodbye, something neither were keen on, they once again found themselves unsure of what they should do.

The caffeine searing through their veins combined with the growing affection they felt made both Bucky and Y/N extremely nervous. He was a blushing mess and she chewed on her lip, admiring his features by the golden glow of the setting sun.

Y/N took initiative, leaning forward with the intention of kissing him on the cheek. Bucky acted as well, excitedly lifting his arms up so he could wrap them around her for a hug. Unfortunately they did this at the same time and Bucky’s metal hand accidentally smacked Y/N’s cheek.

His heart stopped in that moment as Y/N held her hand firmly to her cheek. Bucky wanted to run away, to mutter an apology before he goes back into hiding, never to leave again. Negative thoughts swirl around his mind like a tornado making him question why he thought he would ever be good enough for her, telling him the world doesn’t want his help, that he only brings destruction and pain with every step he takes.

Suddenly the thoughts stop, swept away by the most beautiful sound in the world, Y/N’s giggles.

“Ouch,” she chuckled, rubbing the sting from her cheek while smiling at him.

The tension in Bucky’s shoulders released, allowing him to exhale. Still he apologized profusely but Y/N’s finger on his lips told him to stop.

“I know how you can make it up to me,” she purred, flashing a coy smile as her eyes traveled to his lips and back up again.

The lust in her eyes was evident and for once Bucky’s head and his heart were on the same page. He leaned in slowly as his tongue swept across his lips to wet them. The gap between them closed and Y/N felt his breath fanning against her skin.

Her nerves tingled with anticipation and the moment their lips met it felt like each one had turned into a firework, exploding with happiness. Y/N pulled apart first when she needed air though Bucky would have gladly given her every breath his lungs have yet to take.

“That’s better,” she sighed a heaving breath as she rested her forehead against his.

Bucky licked his lips again, tasting the sweetness of dessert lingering on her tongue though he was certain she tasted sweeter. His eyes crinkled as a smile stretched across his face and he whispered to her, “Happy to help.”

That day was the beginning of their relationship and Bucky couldn’t believe how lucky he was. He never imagined he would be romancing someone again and now that Y/N was with him he went above and beyond to make sure she knew just how much he loved and appreciated her.

Bucky would always be sure to hold doors open for Y/N, or pull out the chair for her to sit. Sometimes he would even help her assist her with putting on or taking off her coat; he couldn’t help it, hearing the voice of his father in his head, lessons he was taught from a young age about proper etiquette with women.

Y/N never had anyone treat her as kindly as Bucky did, always going out of his way to ensure she was properly taken care of. Sure, some of his sweet gestures may have been a little old fashioned but she understood Bucky was brought up in a different time. Besides, it was better than being treated poorly so for a while she let him woo her the way he thought was best.

After a few months of dating Bucky’s kindness started to become a little cumbersome. He would go out of his way to “help” Y/N even though she didn’t need it, like all the times he stopped her from putting on a necklace, insisting that he had to be the one to fasten the clasp even though she was more than capable of doing it herself. Or the many times when she would be washing the dishes and Bucky nearly pushed her out of the way so he could be the one to do them claiming he didn’t want her hands to prune.

Each time Bucky took over doing something for Y/N her frustration grew but she bit her tongue. She knew how fragile Bucky’s self-esteem was and she really didn’t want to hurt him. Bucky felt so good about himself when he did things for her, it was written all over his face so she stayed quiet and let it fester, ignoring the problem like a rumbling volcano.

It was a rough day. The moment Y/N got to work there were problems starting with the first phone all. A client spent twenty minutes screaming at her and while she tried several times to get a word in he wouldn’t let her. Instead she had to wait for his rant to finish before she could give him a simple solution that would have lowered both their blood pressure within a few minutes.

She was on edge from the call and because of that she knocked over her mug of coffee, spilling all of important documents, some of which now required new signatures from other clients who weren’t happy about having to come in again. By the end of the day Y/N was near tears when her boss called her in to talk, reprimanding her for indiscretions during the day.

Bucky was in her apartment waiting for Y/N to come home from work. He couldn’t wait to spend the night with her cuddling together and watching movies knowing in the morning he would be leaving for a mission, the first one he’s been on since they started dating.

The door burst open and Y/N stomped harshly on the wood floors, kicking one heel off wildly and groaning in frustration as she had to bend down and pull the other one off, throwing it hastily against the wall.

Bucky heard the commotion from the other room and when he walked to the living room he saw Y/N kneeling on the floor crying. The shoe had dented the wall, breaking the plaster. Bucky knelt down beside her and Y/N threw herself into his chest, crying even harder when she felt his arms wrap around her frame.

“It’s okay…” he whispered in her ear, placing a kiss to her crown. “Don’t worry about the wall. I’ll fix it.”

His words dried her tears but not because of his offer to help. The broken wall symbolized more than what it actually was. This minor inconvenience was the breaking of the own wall she had built up behind months of anger and resentment towards Bucky.

With a shaky breath Y/N pushed herself away from Bucky and stood up. She gripped the edge of the table to hold onto something as she unleashed everything that was buried inside of her.

“I don’t want your help! I’m so tired of it, Bucky! It’s not about the wall, I can fix it my damn self!” she screamed.

Bucky stood up slowly, with confusion twisting at his features.

“You make me feel helpless! You never allow me to do anything. I can do dishes, I can carry bags. I can put my own damn coat on!”

Bucky opened his mouth but he couldn’t form any words. He was hurt. Everything he did for Y/N was from the heart, he didn’t realize how she felt about it. Maybe he was wrong about everything, that he was never ready for a relationship, that Y/N never loved him.

As Bucky stood silent Y/N saw the pain swirling in his eyes and realizing everything she said in her outburst made her feel worse.

She broke down again, “I’m so sorry Bucky. I love you, I mean it, I love you from the bottom of my heart. This is all my fault. I should have said something earlier. I never m-meant…” she whimpered, wiping the tears from her cheeks and sniffling.

“No,” he said softly, “I’m sorry. It’s been so long since…” Bucky trails off but they both know what he meant. “You mean the world to me doll, I thought if I could make anything easier on ya I would do it.”

“I don’t mind the help I just wish you would ask me sometimes,” she smiled sadly.

Y/N outstretched her hand towards Bucky and let out a breath of relief when he took it. She brought him closer and pressed herself against him again, relaxing as he embraced her fully.

They spent that evening together just as Bucky originally planned but now with a better understanding of each other’s emotions.

Every day for the month Bucky was gone Y/N was worried sick so the moment her phone lit up with a message announcing his arrival she screamed with joy. He arrived at her door a few hours later, holding a bouquet of beautiful flowers she did not care one bit about. Y/N jumped into his arms kissing him senseless. She could take care of herself in many ways but when it came to Bucky Barnes in her heart she knew she was certainly helpless.

They spent the weekend together hardly ever leaving her bed. Bucky opened up as much as he could to her about the mission which was a bust. They either had bad intel or their target knew they were coming and he disappeared. It was frustrating but Y/N’s soft lips against his skin made him quickly forget his worries.

For their one year anniversary Bucky planned a special night out to celebrate with Y/N. They both dressed nicely for the not too fancy but still classy enough restaurant they had reservations for. Bucky picked her up in a vintage car thanks to Tony and they enjoyed an intimate dinner.

Bucky pulled out a small gift from his suit pocket and handed it to Y/N across the table. The candlelight illuminated her beautiful smile as she carefully unwrapped the gift to reveal a jewelry box. Inside was a necklace with a small silver pendant in the shape of a house with a heart cut out in the center.

“Because we met that day building a house together and ever since you’ve held my heart and become my home.”

“It’s beautiful Bucky,” she beamed. “Will you put it on me?”

Her head tilts to the side as she smiles softly towards him and Bucky happily obliged. When the necklace was secured he couldn’t help but press his lips at the junction of her neck and shoulder making Y/N squirm and giggle. It was definitely time to leave the restaurant and neither could wait to get home.

On the drive home Bucky turned to face Y/N but instead his attention was on the car beside him and the driver that looked suspiciously like the target from their failed mission a few months back. He tried not to be seen by the man he believed to be Andrei Rudaski telling Y/N to stay low as he carefully followed the car.

While stopped at a light Bucky confirmed the target thanks to a signifying tattoo on his neck. He followed him for a few more blocks as he debated on calling the team. Bucky could probably take this guy down without making a scene but he didn’t want to endanger Y/N.

Andrei pulled over beside a warehouse on a quiet street that was mostly dark except for a few scattered street lamps. Bucky parked across the street, wishing he didn’t have a car that could blend better with the other empty cars along the road.

As Andrei opened the door to get out Bucky handed Y/N his phone. “Call Steve, tell him where we are and tell ‘im Andrei Rudaski is here.”

“What about you?” she worried.

“I’ll be alright doll. Just call Steve and stay in the car.”

With a quick kiss to her forehead Bucky took off. She chewed her bottom lip nervously as she watched his frame disappear in the alleyway by the warehouse though his shadow was visible on the wall for a bit longer thanks to security lighting mounted on the building.

For a while there was nothing but the sound of the occasional car pass by until an unmistakable gunshot rang out. Shadows on the wall began to dance in tussle and Y/N heard voices growing louder. She clutched her necklace when she thought she heard Bucky, more specifically the sound of him groaning in pain. Bucky was her home too and she couldn’t sit by and let him be injured or worse.

Sliding into the driver’s seat Y/N turned the key and hoped Bucky’s attacker was too preoccupied to hear the sound of the purring engine come to life. With her seatbelt fastened she grabbed the wheel and beelined right towards the alley.

Y/N spotted Bucky on the ground with a man standing above him, aiming a gun. With her foot slammed against the pedal she sped straight down with Andrei in her path.

It was surreal to feel everything happen at once and yet in Y/N’s mind each event seemed to play out in slow motion. She remembered the surprised look on Andrei’s face, the bright headlines that turned the darkness of his blue eyes into pinpoints that stared her down. He tried to aim his gun at her but she hit him first, the sound of the metal frame crashing against flesh and bone will be seared into his memory forever.

Glass shattered from the windshield in front of her to the high pitched breakage of the warehouse window. He had shot his gun after all. An airbag deployed unexpectedly and if she had been given a chance to think about it she would have known Tony Stark upgrades all of his toys.

The advanced airbag leaves little injury, the only thing sore is her chest, tender where the seatbelt held her upon the impact. She’s shaking, and doesn’t know if she wants to laugh or cry, but when the door opens beside her and she sees Bucky she does both.

“What the hell was that?” He reprimands her and rightfully so. Getting hurt is the last thing Bucky wanted to happen to Y/N. “I told you to stay in the car!”

“That was me saving your ass,” she groaned slightly, “And as you can see I am in the car!”

Her statement was followed by a chuckle, as if the car wasn’t crunched up against a wall, with a bloodied person in between it.

Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose, sucking in a painful breath thanks to the throbbing gunshot that pierced his side. “I thought I told you to call Steve.”

“I did call him,” she insisted, struggling to unlatch her seatbelt. “But I couldn’t sit by and let something happen to you.”

Bucky heard the worry in her tone, and truthfully Andrei had somehow gotten the upper hand. He doesn’t want to think about what would have happened if it wasn’t for Y/N.

With Bucky’s assistance she got out of the car and carefully they hugged.

“I’m sorry our anniversary was ruined. I wanted– ” Bucky began to say before a voice interrupted him.

“Can you tell me what else is ruined?” Tony sarcastically asked, as red and gold arms crossed over the lighted triangle on his chest.

Bucky smiled at Y/N before answering. “This shirt for one,” he joked clutching his bleeding side.

Y/N frowned as Bucky hissed in pain. Apologizing for the car as she passed Tony, Y/N helped Bucky towards the quinjet that was blocking the street and Bucky grabbed a medical kit which he held out towards Y/N. “Wouldja mind?”

He took off his shirt and laid on his side so she could clean and bandage his wound, but not before he had the small chance to send her a wink.

“Looks like I’m the helpless one now, doll.” he joked.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Reblogs, comments and likes are always appreciated :)

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[oops-prow-did-it-again]

Pokémon Black: The Novel - Chapter 8 (Everyone’s a Hero)

Prologue and more info

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7 

Pokémon Black: The Novel on FFN

Pokémon Black: The Novel on AO3

Pokémon Retold the series on AO3

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WARNING - brief mention of mental illness/suicide.

After healing up at the Pokémon Center, Hil had retreated, as he had told Cheren he would, to the Dreamyard. He had let all of his pokémon out again and while most had run off to play, Noodle and Crest had stayed dutifully by his side. Noodle sat in his lap with its tiny, leafy arms crossed, and Crest circled his sitting form anxiously. Hil sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Sorry, guys, I really don’t know what got into me in there. I just… couldn’t focus.”

He felt inadequate. His pokémon wanted to take on this challenge, but if he couldn’t even perform at the first gym, what hope did he have of taking them further in the League? He leaned back against the tree behind him glumly. He cheered himself up with one thought during it all, at least: this may have been turning out to be far more difficult than he had anticipated, but it still beat waiting around at home for the days to pass. He reached a hand to pet Noodle and he felt the Snivy push his head further into Hil’s grasp, and trill. Well, if his pokémon were frustrated over the loss, Noodle certainly wasn’t showing it, he thought with a small smile.

“Hil?”

Hil flung Noodle from his lap as he jumped to his feet like a cat. He jerked his head to the left and saw Chili standing there. Noodle hissed and he felt pressure on his leg and back as he climbed his way to Hil’s shoulders. Hil brushed his pants off in a bid to compose himself smoothly. “H-hi, Gym Leader Chili,” Hil mumbled under his breath. He wasn’t upset to see him, but already he was anxious over what this interaction might bring.

Chili held up both his hands in a display of harmlessness. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. My brothers and I were just talking, and… you seemed really nervous in there today because of the audience. We understand not everyone handles the spotlight well and we wanted to let you know that we do offer more private gym battles.” He smiled gently and moved his hands to behind his back. “Stage fright’s nothing to be ashamed of. Cilan’s still not over it even though we’ve been doing this for three or four years now,” Chili laughed.

Hil blinked and swallowed hard. Part of him wanted to feel offended—or at least, angry at himself for being so obviously frozen on the stage—but another part of him felt soothed. He was rather touched by the fact Chili had sought him out. Muscles relaxed in his form that he hadn’t realized were tense to begin with. Chili had actually thought about him following the match and come to see him… He nervously grinned up at the gym leader and nodded slowly. “I th-think a private match… I think that would be good,” he answered quietly. “Where did you, um… have in mind?”

“Well, right here, if that’s okay with you,” Chili shrugged. He looked around the Dreamyard, noting the lack of trainers, and the austere presence of the concrete ruins. The sky was turning more of a pale violet shade overhead as the sun began to set. “Sun’s starting to set and there’s not many people out. Your pokémon seem relaxed here, too.”

Hil glanced behind him to see Lucky and Roadie chasing each other in circles while Sleepy dozed lazily off to the side. Crest swung from tree to tree until he reached her and dropped next to her, startling her awake. And of course, Hil still had Noodle coiled about his shoulders. He nodded. “Yeah, guess they do,” he chuckled. He turned back to Chili with a much more determined and focused look to his eyes. “Chili of the Striaton City Gym! I, Hil Whitacre of Nuvema Town, challenge you to a battle for the Trio Badge!” The information came to his mind clearly. There was no haziness to his vision like there had been back at their gym. He felt excited, even, rather than the cold dread and annoyance he had been subjected to earlier.

Noodle trilled eagerly and scurried down Hil’s frame, bouncing a few times at his feet.

“I accept your challenge, Hil Whitacre!” Chili exclaimed. “This is shapin’ up to be a blazin’ battle! Go, Lillipup! Work Up!”

He sent a Poké Ball that landed in front of Noodle’s nose, and the cream-furred pup bounded from side to side in front of Noodle. Hil’s eyes narrowed and he pointed at Lillipup. “Noodle, Vine Whip!”

Attack. Attack, attack, attack. He could not afford to let Chili set up too many Work Ups. That move invigorated the pokémon to the point they seemed unstoppable, mowing through opponents in one or two particularly vicious attacks. Not only would it spell a quick defeat for him if that happened, but Noodle would get hurt, and he had no interest in letting that happen. As the battle began, the rest of his pokémon drew near his feet, watching curiously as the events unfolded.

Lillipup scuffed at the grass and howled. Noodle nodded back at Hil with what he swore was a smile and then lashed vines across the opponent, bowling Lillipup onto its back at Chili’s feet. It leapt back up right away and rushed at Noodle again, Chili’s order for a Bite attack causing it to open its jaws mid-run.

“Noodle, watch your right! Vine Whip again!” Hil called. Narrowly, Noodle swayed its body away from Lillipup’s fangs, and then returned with a slap of its tail and another lashing from the vines protruding from his shoulders. Lillipup rolled away and shakily got back to its feet a few seconds later. Noodle, on the other hand, landed energetically in front of Hil. He seemed to puff out his chest a little and wave his tail, taunting the Lillipup. Hil smirked. “There you go, Noodle, you got it!”

This was amazing. He felt so trusted right then and there, and he felt like was actually fulfilling that trust.

“Not bad,” Chili winked. “Lillipup, Bite once more!”

Hil knew that even if Lillipup got off the Bite, it wouldn’t survive his next Vine Whip. So, he simply told Noodle, “You know what to do.”

Noodle trilled and jumped into the air, sending a volley of vines once more at Lillipup. It managed to snap its teeth around one and send it recoiling back at Noodle, but the other slapped it away harshly, and this time, it did not get back up. Noodle landed, panting, next to Hil. He leaned down and stroked Noodle’s head gently. The Snivy closed its eyes and hummed at the ministrations. His tail swept across the ground happily.

“You did such a good job,” Hil beamed. Noodle opened his eyes slightly and looked Hil over tenderly. Hil felt like his heart might melt and he scooped Noodle up, placing him protectively back on his shoulders. He really felt like Noodle was enjoying the moment and was proud of himself for having pulled off the small victory. Hil felt proud, too. They had done that together. In that moment, he felt like he belonged nowhere else.

Noodle settled in, looping some of the hood of Hil’s jacket around himself, and turned his attention back to the battle at hand. Chili had withdrawn his Lillipup and sent out his Pansear. Hil glanced down at his feet at Crest, who had grabbed the baggy fabric of his pants and was shaking it excitedly, and gestured to the battlefield. “You want to go in, Crest?” Hil asked. Before he had even finished, the Panpour had already hopped in front of Chili’s Pansear.

Based on Cheren’s battle with Cress, Hil figured Chili’s Pansear likely knew Work Up as well. He decided on the same strategy as before. Attack and attack fast. “Okay, Crest, Water Gun!” he said encouragingly.

Crest hooted and waved his arms excitedly, and then took a stoutly stance. His mouth opened and water propelled forward suddenly, seeming to catch Chili’s Pansear a little off-guard. Crest cooed over his successful hit and the Pansear leapt back to its feet, banging its fists on the ground in apparent anger.

“Settle,” Chili warned, though his tense face told Hil he wasn’t that much calmer. His Pansear took a deep breath at the same time as Chili did. “Use Lick!” Chili called. Hil’s eyebrows pricked in surprise, but he supposed Chili had figured out he wouldn’t have time to set up with Work Up anyway.

“Water Gun again, Crest, we got this!” Hil shouted as he pumped a fist in the air. His pokémon all agreed with various grunts and calls, except for Noodle. He had curled up in a ball in Hil’s hood, asleep.

Pansear bolted for Crest, and the Panpour shrieked as he jumped out the way, though Pansear still managed to snag his arm with a long, slobbery tongue. Crest shivered and whipped his arm a few times to sling away the disgusting slime. He narrowed his eyes and again spewed water in Pansear’s direction. It found its mark as Pansear was distracted trying to catch himself properly on the ground, and with a holler, Pansear collapsed with its chest to the ground and rear in the air. It quivered with effort to try and get back up, but failed. Hil quelled the urge to jump up and down in place since he remembered Noodle was in his jacket. “We did it!” he howled instead, pumping his fist a few more times. Crest hooted victoriously and hauled himself up Hil’s pant leg like a tree. Hil yelped and grabbed at his pants as he felt them start to give way. “Okay, okay, good job Crest,” he laughed and gently shooed him away.

Chili huffed and recalled his Pansear after congratulating it. He put his hands on his hips and smirked at Hil. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you lost on purpose to show me up like that in private,” he snickered. He shrugged and held up his hands. “Whoo, you burned me right out. Anyway, you and your team are on fire. Really workin’ together.” He reached into a pocket on his waiter’s suit, a thin one just above his waist, and pulled a handful of cash and a thin badge that appeared to be made up of three diamond-shaped bits of metal stuck together vertically. A blue, red, and green gem gleamed from the center of each diamond-shaped part of the badge, signifying the unified nature of Striaton City’s three gym leaders. He walked over to Hil and dropped it into his hands on top of the cash.

“And since this is your first gym,” Chili added as he reached into a different pocket on the back of his suit, “you’re gonna need a badge case, of course.” He pulled a thin, red and black tin case from behind him and handed it to Hil. Swiftly, Hil snatched it in excitement and opened it up, admiring the velvety, black interior and the depressions for each of the eight gym badges of Unova. He fit the Trio Badge into its spot at the very start and felt a surge of pride. He bent to his knees to show his pokémon that were clambering at his feet.

“Look,” he told them. Crest peered at the badge and sniffed it curiously. The others followed as well, Roadie cocking his head at the case.

“You did it!” a shrieking voice pulled him back to his full height. Hil blinked idly as Chili sidestepped with his arms crossed smugly. Bianca sped toward him, Cheren loping behind her at an easier pace, and once she reached him, she threw her arms around him in a tight, all-encompassing hug. Hil felt his cheeks burn a little and he looked down at her in confusion.

“Bianca?”

“Yes! We saw the whole thing! You were great!” she gushed. Hil tilted his head.

“What, you did? How…?”

“Sometimes it helps that you can’t see the forest through the trees,” Cheren mused as he approached. He then touched a finger to his chin and looked up thoughtfully. “Or… maybe I have that backwards… anyway, point is, we were in the tree line.” He shrugged and Hil noted the Oshawott and Tepig following at his side.

“Truth be told, I was just going to wait for you to come back to the gym and then offer you a private battle,” Chili explained, “but I ran into your two friends here, and they said you were out here, and… I figured, what better time than the present? Restaurant was closed at that point, anyhow.” He made a lunging motion all of a sudden, a fist balled up, and he pumped it into the air. Hil was reminded of his ridiculous pose in the pamphlet and he stifled a giggle. He thought those had been posed by someone else, but maybe that really was just how Chili moved. “Blaze the trails, my friends!” He regained his composure and brushed his waiter’s outfit off. “Whew, I really am burned out, though. And this outfit’s itchy. I’m gonna head home. Good luck on your journeys, Hil, Cheren, Bianca!”

He waved at them and then started to waltz away at an easygoing pace.

Bianca had still been holding onto Hil that whole time. She finally let go and held her arms out for Oshawott as he leapt into her hold. “Whew! Gym battles sure are exciting,” she puffed. “I’m exhausted and I didn’t even battle today!”

Hil could feel exhaustion pulling at him, too, but he was simply too happy to care. He looped an arm around Bianca’s shoulders and pulled her close, much to her surprise. She was usually the one to go initiating unprompted hugs. Hil grinned at her. “Just tired of watching us win?” Hil joked at her. She smirked and narrowed her eyes at him.

“More just happy someone other than Cheren is for once,” she retorted.

“Hey,” Cheren gave a fake pout and then raised a finger in front of his face, stiffening out his back. “That’s not very nice, missy. Not very ladylike,” he said, clearly mocking Bianca’s father. Bianca doubled over in laughter.

“Stop! He would kill you if he saw that!” she nearly screamed.

Hil bent down while they bantered to praise and recall his pokémon. They were tired and he figured keeping up with them on the way back to the Pokémon Center would be more trouble than it was worth. He recalled Noodle last, doing his best not to disturb him from his sleep as he did so. Once that was finished, he popped back up to face Cheren and Bianca. “To the Pokémon Center?” he grinned. “We could chill at the café for a while, on me.”

Cheren chuckled and crossed his arms. “Don’t worry about it, Hil. But sure, hanging out at the café for a while sounds fun.”

So, return to the café they did. Hil let his pokémon rest with the Nurse Joy for a few minutes and then they strode over to the café in the left side of the Pokémon Center. They joked and carried on about the day’s events. For once, his father and the awkwardness of earlier’s failure was entirely off his mind. He felt at ease and content just talking with his two friends. Hil wished he could have told Chili how much that interaction had meant to him.

After a couple of hours, they were warned the café would be closing soon, and Cheren yawned as he thanked the staff member that informed them. “Thanks, sorry. We probably have stayed up way later than we should have,” he admitted.

“We’re away from home,” Hil smirked, “what, did you think we weren’t gonna stay up late?”

“Yeah! I’m never going to bed at nine again!” Bianca declared before breaking into a monstrous yawn.

“It’s ten,” Cheren said quietly.

“Don’t listen to him, Bianca, you’re stickin’ it to the man,” Hil grinned mischievously. “And I should know, men deserve it.”

Cheren gave him an unamused glare and then sat up from the table, hopping free of the stool. “Our room is 114 whenever you’re both done stickin’ it to the man,” Cheren mocked. He pulled his bag over his shoulder and headed off toward the stairwell leading to the hostel above the lobby. “Get some sleep, please! We’re heading for Nacrene City tomorrow!” Cheren called as he disappeared from view.

He and Bianca soon followed suit. Back at the room, Bianca headed for the bathroom to get into her night clothes while Cheren and Hil took turns in the room to change. Cheren had seemed almost surprised Hil was actually using his pajamas for once. Or that he was performing an evening routine at all. Last time, he had just flopped onto his bed, clothes and all, and fallen asleep. But tonight, he let his pokémon free and settled them down with some food and gentle words, and even organized his supplies some before crawling into the simple hostel bed.

Cheren had done a similar routine with his own team. He liked to let them rest outside of their Poké Balls for a while at his side, even if he wished they wouldn’t dig so far into his back.

Bianca returned to the room, her Oshawott still clasped in her hands, and she released what few pokémon she had as well onto her bunk above Cheren’s bed. She fed them there as well, putting the bowls away into her bag she had hanging off the bedframe once she was done. Cheren liked having her so close. He deeply cared for both of his friends, but there was a selfish sense of pride in having Bianca so close to him and far away from her smothering home life. Her parents weren’t abusive by any means, but her father could shelter her to extreme measures at times, and Cheren admittedly looked forward to exploring more of the world at large with her at his side. She, who had known nothing of it and had seen none of it, and he, who had scoured books and books to learn of Unova, together for the long haul… All three of them had come this far together, after all.

He slept easy that night with her so close, and relieved that Hil had finally managed to find some peace in his victory that day. They all seemed to be falling into their own rhythm. Perhaps this journey wouldn’t be as difficult a she had initially worried it would be.

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Cheren led the pack down Route Three. It was a straightforward, well-groomed route without any patches that really required one to pass through wild pokémon territory. Hil was still in a good mood and he had fallen behind Cheren in place with Bianca, and they were actively discussing something. Honestly, it was nice to see that; Hil rarely was active in their discussions. He enjoyed joking at them rather than with them.

Cheren halted when he was pulled from his thoughts by a small girl with fiery orange hair bolting at him. She skidded to stop herself from slamming into him at the last second. She was trembling and her eyes clenched shut. Cheren paused Hil and Bianca, calling for their attention, and Bianca immediately descended on the girl.

“Oh, sweetie, what happened?” she cooed sympathetically.

“O-oh, um… you guys are trainers, right?” the little girl begged in a ragged voice. She swallowed hard as she flicked her blue eyes between them all.

“That’s right,” Cheren nodded.

“What’s up?” Hil asked in that lackadaisical tone of his. He had a soft smile and peered over Bianca’s shoulder comically.

“These guys! They—they stole my pokémon!” the girl blubbered. She threw her arms around Bianca’s waist and hugged her tight. Bianca stumbled a little but caught herself at the last second. She tossed a pleading look Cheren and Hil’s way.

“Cheren, Hil, we’ve gotta help her,” Bianca begged. “Sweetie,” she asked, turning her attention back to the little girl, “do you know where they went?”

“I… I saw them take off running toward the nursery, but they took a left,” she whimpered.

“There’s a cave over there,” Cheren said thoughtfully as she spoke. “That’s Wellspring Cave over there, unless they can swim, there’s nowhere else they’re going that way.”

“What was the pokémon you lost, hun?” Hil asked as he nodded at Cheren.

“Patrat,” the little girl said meekly. “I just caught it a couple days ago…”

Before Cheren had a chance to open his mouth, Hil said, “We’ll get it back for you, I promise.”

Cheren shot him a scathing glare, but Hil didn’t look back at him. Do not make promises you can’t keep, Cheren wanted to spit at him.

“I’ll stay here with her if you two wouldn’t mind going to look,” Bianca insisted. “Please?”

“Of course,” Hil again responded. He turned on his heel and sprinted away, his Snivy forced to cling to his shoulders even more tightly than usual. Cheren rolled his eyes and took off after him. He only caught up to him about when they reached the cave entrance, a dark, shadowy crevice glistening with moisture from inside.

Cheren grabbed Hil on the shoulder. “What was that about?” Cheren asked, frustrated. “We can’t promise that girl anything, Hil. We only got our pokémon a few days ago, too, remember?”

“Yes, and that’s why we have to,” Hil answered sharply. He jerked his shoulder out of Cheren’s hold. “If anyone took Noodle, I… I…” He grunted and shook his head. “Just help me, okay?”

Cheren sighed and followed Hil into the cavern. The inside of the cave was illuminated by the light from the entrance as well as a few large crystals within that reflected said light. Woobat screeched and fluttered overhead and immediately, Cheren noticed two figures huddled over a small stream of water that cut through the cavern. They were blackened by shadow, but their harsh whispers to one another echoed around the cavern.

“No one saw you, right? Just the little girl? And you weren’t wearing your uniform?”

“Just the little girl, bro, I promise. And of course not, man, I’m not stupid.”

“Stop using that slang,” the first voice hissed. The second guy mumbled a quiet apology.

Cheren and Hil exchanged a hard look between the both of them. It was Hil who cleared his throat noisily and sauntered up closer to them at first.

“Hey, fellas,” Hil started with a sneer to his voice. “Afraid we heard you came across a little girl’s Patrat, we were just wonderin’ if you wouldn’t mind handin’ it over. She’d really appreciate it. And I know two fine men like you don’t have any interest in a little old Patrat.” Hil sold the taunt with a waggle of his eyebrows and Noodle’s hiss.

The two men stepped into the light and Cheren shook his head. One was dressed in silver robes, the same Team Plasma uniform he recognized from a couple of days ago, and the other was in all black robes that lacked any iconography at all. His hair was wild and deep blue, and his blue eyes were wide as he looked Cheren and Hil over. He blinked and then wildly scrambled to throw a hood over his head. It hit his messy mop of blue hair and fell back down again.

“Well? I’m waiting,” Hil drawled again. He scratched Noodle on the chin.

“This pokémon was given to a toddler that can’t even care for herself, much less another living thing,” the uniformed grunt spat. His tawny hair clung to his forehead in a cold sweat. “Would you give a toddler an infant and have confidence in its ability to care for it?”

“Nope, but it’s a good thing a Patrat isn’t an infant,” Hil shrugged. “Gotta say, I feel like that’s why they say people learn from pokémon. You know, Patrat bites her on the nose to tell her it doesn’t like something, she gets the hint, they both learn, that sorta thing.”

“You’re being disingenuous,” the first grunt growled.

“Yeah, he’s good at that,” Cheren said as he stepped forward. “Except he’s right, which shows just how off your rocker you two are.”

The second grunt in black robes spoke this time. He held up a Poké Ball tightly in his right fist. “He is not. Pokémon do not deserve to be held captive and then given like birthday presents to toddlers that can’t even spell, man!”

Cheren cocked his head at the second man. His skin was dark with a tan, and he spoke differently than anyone Cheren had ever heard in the area of Nuvema Town. “You’re not from around here,” Cheren commented. “Why are you all the way down here and helping Team Plasma of all people?”

The two grunts didn’t answer him and instead they both sent out a pokémon. The tanned man sent forth a Tirtouga and the other a Patrat—likely the one they had stolen. Hil didn’t even have to say anything for his Snivy to leap into action, and Cheren let his Pidove free. Tepig was by far his strongest teammate still, but with a Tirtouga on the field, he knew sending it out was a bad idea. Sure, Pidove was at risk of Rock-type attacks from Tirtouga as well, but at least it would give him some time to whittle them down before switching to his ace.

“Tirtouga, Rollout on Pidove!” Darn it. He had expected that much but darn it.

“Patrat, Bide,” the first grunt ordered. His eyes seemed to light up as he scrutinized Cheren and Hil closer. “I recognize you two,” he said excitedly, “you both were at Striaton City Gym yesterday. Which means you,” he said as he pointed a finger at Hil’s direction, “are Hil Whitacre.”

Hil squared his shoulders and Cheren ground his teeth. He already knew where this was going. “Less talk, more battling,” Cheren said guardedly. “Pidove, Gust on Patrat!”

“Noodle, V—”

Pidove jumped into the air and started wildly fluttering its wings at Patrat, but Noodle stayed where he was, confused as Hil was cut off from finishing his order by the first grunt’s words. “You’re the son of that guy that offed himself with a gun,” the first grunt said almost giddily. “A gun! He must have been into some real deep shit, kid, to have a gun. Any idea what?”

Tirtouga retreated into its shell and ricocheted itself at Pidove, but Pidove easily dodged the attack by zipping through the air.

Hil’s lips pressed to a thin line and his eyes started to wander around the cavern. “No idea,” Hil answered quietly. “Noodle, just—”

“You sure?” the first grunt pried farther. The tanned one glanced at his colleague and Cheren swore he looked a little sad. Noodle glanced between Cheren and Hil, looking as nervous as his trainer now.

“Hey, maybe…” the second began only to be shushed by the first. He snapped his jaws shut with an audible click.

“Hil, focus,” Cheren growled. “Don’t worry about him. Pidove, Gust again, take out that Patrat!”

“Tirtouga, try Rollout again, you got this, bro! This time on the Snivy!” the tanned man cried.

“Aw, that’s what was wrong at the gym,” the first grunt licked his lips as he sang at Hil. “Little Hilbert misses Daddy.”

The tanned man cringed at his colleague’s words, visibly recoiling.

Hil took a step back and shook his head. “No, I don’t,” he snarled, “I don’t care what he did or how he did it, now shut up! And my name is Hil!”

Tirtouga easily bowled into Noodle again and again as Hil remained distracted. Ripped from his own focus, Cheren didn’t notice that Patrat was still standing when Pidove’s second Gust finished, and the little pokémon leapt at Pidove with such ferocity that it successfully brought him out of the sky. It wrestled with Pidove for a moment, unleashing all its pent-up energy, and when it let go, Pidove couldn’t rise again.

Hil recalled Noodle and Cheren was forced to send out his Tepig upon withdrawing Pidove. “Hil, send out your Munna!” Cheren barked at Hil. They didn’t have time to deal with Hil’s anxiety right then. Cheren was too busy worrying about what might happen if Hil’s distractedness cost them the battle… wouldn’t Team Plasma just steal their pokémon, too?

Ugh, this was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to promise to do this in the first place! It was sad what had happened to the little girl, but there was no sense in blindly putting themselves in danger, too! Why did Hil have to be such a hero? And then fail at playing the part, so fantastically?

Hil wordlessly listened to his friend, withdrawing Noodle and sending out his Munna. He failed to give it an order and Cheren frustratedly snapped, “Sleepy, Yawn at Tirtouga!”

The Munna glanced at him dubiously for a moment. Cheren shook his head. “I know I’m not Hil, but you need to do it, Munna, or else we’re all in trouble!” Cheren shouted. Sleepy cringed, but obeyed, turning its attention to the Tirtouga.

“Don’t yell at her,” Hil hissed.

“Then be her trainer!” Cheren shot back at him irritably. “Or I will!”

The battle was more chaos than anything. Cheren’s Tepig finally managed to bring down the Patrat, and he dove to scoop up its unconscious frame from the ground before the grunt could do so. The grunt bared his teeth at him in aggravation, but then cockily held up the Patrat’s Poké Ball. Cheren sadly knew they still had to beat both of them if they had any hope of getting the Patrat’s Poké Ball back. Tirtouga groggily collapsed to the ground a few minutes following Sleepy’s Yawn, and Cheren had to step in for Hil to order the finishing blows—some Psybeams—which took considerable effort since the pokémon was reluctant to listen to him.

It didn’t help that the grunts occasionally interjected with taunts about how forceful Cheren was being, and how he must be ‘so kind to his pokémon.’ Cheren didn’t let their words bother him, but Hil’s resolve was clearly only degrading by the second. Finally, the grunt’s Tirtouga went down, and neither appeared to have more pokémon after that. Cheren kept his Tepig out, but ordered Hil to recall his Munna. Hil slowly did so with a sour look on his face.

“Now, enough games!” Cheren huffed. “Give me the Patrat’s Poké Ball, or else I’ll have Tepig… I’ll have him burn you!”

“Yes, use him to burn me, like a flamethrower or a candle,” the first grunt growled. “Whatever.” He flicked the Poké Ball at Cheren’s head. It bounced with a light thump and rolled to Cheren’s feet. “Take it back to her. It’ll all come in due time, anyway. We were just hoping to save that poor thing from being a child’s toy.”

The grunt pushed through Cheren and Hil, bumping harshly into their shoulders. The tanned man followed a little more respectfully. He had finally managed to pull his black hood over his face, and he looked between Cheren and Hil apologetically before following his friend.

Hil and Cheren stood there in silence for a few seconds after the Team Plasma agents departed. Cheren cradled the Patrat and stiffly leaned down to grab its Poké Ball. Tepig nosed it into his hands and Cheren recalled the fainted pokémon silently. When that was over, he stashed the ball in his bag.

“Hil.”

Hil said nothing.

“Hil.”

“What?” Hil spat. His body was stiff as a board and he didn’t move to face Cheren.

“You can’t freeze up like that all the time,” Cheren said, heart pounding wildly in his chest. Part of him knew he was being unfair. Hil had every reason in the world to completely falter like he just had. But Cheren’s head was pounding with a feverish headache as he calmed down from the fear of having their pokémon stolen, their journey cut short within days, by the more aggressive side of Team Plasma. Not only could he have lost his own partners, but Hil was in danger as well, and he would have failed to protect him… he’d have failed to protect them all… Cheren gritted his teeth. He was the strong one! He had to protect them! If he couldn’t, then… “You have got to be able to defend yourself!” Cheren said hotly.

“I know, I’m just that bad, Cheren,” Hil muttered with a slight shrug. He turned away from his friend and started to walk out of the cavern. “You’re always having to play big brother and you’re tired of it, I got it.”

“That is not what I’m talking about!” Cheren almost wailed in exasperation. Why did he always take things so personally? He nearly begged, “Please, listen to me. I… I can’t… our pokémon could have been stolen, and you totally locked up! That’s scary, Hil.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” Hil’s voice cracked. His hands started to animatedly dance around his face as he spoke, his words rapidly picking up in speed as his nervousness increased. “I don’t know what else to say, I just can’t think, and the room starts spinning, and then I stop hearing you and—”

“Just, stop!” Cheren interrupted breathlessly with his hands raised up to his own face, as if trying to physically block Hil’s rant. “Just, stop. Take a deep breath. Think. Think. Your pokémon are strong and you are strong, I don’t understand why you can’t just… just…”

“I can’t just what?”

“I don’t know!”

Hil stormed out of the cave and Cheren was left with nothing but the ambience of screeching Woobat to his company and Tepig rubbing against his leg in hopes to calm him down. Cheren drew a shaky breath and smoothed his hair out, adjusting his red glasses. “Guess I’d better go take this Patrat back to the girl, then,” Cheren whimpered.

When he stepped out of the cave, Hil was nowhere in sight. When he reached where Bianca and the little girl were waiting, he gave the Patrat’s Poké Ball back to its rightful owner and told the young girl that it needed to be healed beforehand. She thanked him eagerly and cuddled the ball close to herself. Bianca, on the other hand, looked up at Cheren anxiously.

“Where’s Hil?” she fretted.

“No idea,” was all Cheren could say. “He stormed off. I don’t want to talk about it,” he cut her off before she even had the chance to ask. Bianca gave him a look that told him he most definitely would be talking about it.

“Well, I’m going to help this girl get back home safely,” Bianca explained. “And you,” she prodded his chest with a finger, “are going to make up with Hil.”

“Don’t think that’s a good idea right now, but sure, Bianca,” Cheren huffed. Truth be told, Cheren was worried sick. That display showed Hil was still fragile. He was strong in theory, but it was easy to get into his head and manipulate him. He hated the idea of his friend alone and he was already regretting how he had gone off at him in the cave. Cheren so rarely lost his cool, and he had no idea how to apologize for that incident, nor where Hil would have even gone. He certainly wouldn’t have gone back home, but… well, they may not have gone far from home, but there was still certainly a lot of ground he to cover if he were to search Striaton City, Accumula Town, and Nuvema Town from top to bottom. He felt at the Xtransceiver in his pocket and hoped Hil would answer.

[the--sad--hatter]

Party On The Roof

For @jaynnanadrews who requested Platonic Steve n Bucky who were like Big Brothers to Reader. 

PAIRING: Platonic Bucky x Reader, Platonic Steve x Reader

WARNINGS: Alcohol consumption

There was nothing quite like the burn of whiskey as it slid down your throat, warming you from the inside out. At this point, it was all you could feel. The harsh wind had numbed your skin and he had numbed your heart. Every few moments you would tilt the glass bottle to your lips and let the amber liquid steal your breath, make you choke, make you gag. All just so you could feel something. Perhaps if you’d raided Tony’s liquor cabinet then you’d have found something smoother, something that went down with a little less fight but you hadn’t wanted that.

 If your ex was going to spend his evening with something cheap and nasty for company then so were you.

He hadn’t even tried to pretend he cared when he’d led her through the compound, his fingers laced with hers, her shrill giggle echoing off the walls. It’s like he’d wanted her to be seen and heard, wanted to show off just how much he’d moved on from you. Maybe he wanted you to be jealous, or maybe he just wanted you to hurt. Either way, he’d failed.

 Because all you were was numb. You’d listened to her heels clip clop over the floor and his deep chuckle with nothing more than cynical amusement, and perhaps a tinge of disgust.

 If he thought replacing you with a trashy blonde to warm his bed for the night was a point for him then he was sorely mistaken, all he had done was prove how low he was willing to go, and how far he had already fallen.

 And now he was spinning her around the dancefloor, twirling her in front of your friends. Well you hoped it made him feel better, you really did. But you weren’t going to stick around and watch, not because you didn’t want to see them together but because his furtive glances at you every few moments were becoming tiresome.

 Long gone were the days where his glances would light a fire under your skin and make you blush, now it made you feel ill, made your skin crawl.

 A shadow passed over you and you knew you weren’t alone on the rooftop anymore, the knowledge making you tense.

 “Aren’t you cold?” Bucky asked and his familiar baritone voice made you relax.

 “Yes.”

 “Then why not go inside?”

 “I like the cold.” You answered, taking another swig from your bottle.

 He made a grunt of disapproval at your statement and a few seconds later a suit jacket was draped over your shoulders before he swung his legs over the ledge and sat next to you, his feet dangling next to yours. His metal hand plucked the bottle from your fingers and he took a generous swig from the bottle. He couldn’t get drunk, you knew that, so he was more than likely just trying to limit the amount you had left to drink yourself.

 “He still at the party?” You sighed.

 You didn’t have to specify who you were talking about, Bucky would know you were asking about Ben. To your surprise, Bucky smirked.

 “He’s at the party, don’t think he’s having fun anymore though.” He told you.

 “What did you do?” You groaned.

 You’d instructed your team-mates to leave it alone, to not enact some kind of twisted justice on your behalf. Nat wasn’t allowed to threaten him, Tony wasn’t allowed to fire him and Steve and Bucky were absolutely not allowed to intimidate, beat up, kidnap or murder him. You should have known they wouldn’t listen. Bucky chuckled and put his arm around your shoulders, leaning in like he was about to tell you a secret.

 “His date has abandoned him in favour of fawning over Captain America.” He said devilishly.

 You blinked owlishly at him, confused as to why this was funny. Slowly, you pieced it together and a wry grin tugged at your own lips.

 “Steve’s playing along with it? Is Steve ‘don’t flirt with me, I’ll curl into a ball until you go away’ Rogers actually flirting with her, out of spite?” You asked in disbelief.

 “Nah, Steve’s too nice to do that to her but he is being friendly. It’s more than enough to keep her away from her date.” Bucky said.

 “Steve’s more devious than I give him credit for sometimes. He’s too good at being patriotic and sweet, I forget he’s a punk.” You laughed, lowering your voice to imitate Bucky’s much deeper one.

 “You said we couldn’t mess with him, didn’t say we couldn’t mess with his dates.” Bucky said smugly.

 You bumped your head against his shoulder playfully. Trust the two Super Soldiers to find a way to make you feel better.

 “See doll, told you there was a VIP party on the roof.” Steve called from the doorway and you and Bucky turned around in unison.

 Natasha had her arm hooked with Ben’s date’s as Steve and her led the awestruck blonde onto the roof. Steve winked at you when you met his eye and you fondly shook your head.

 “Avengers and selected guests only.” Bucky added.

 A few short moments later music drifted across the roof softly, punctuating Tony and Thor’s entrance. Thor had what looked like half of the bar in his arms and he dumped the bottles gently onto a ledge while the rest of The Avengers and their friends wandered onto the roof. Steve settled onto the ledge next to you with a large, innocent grin.

 “So, did we do good?” He asked you.

 “What do you mean I can’t go onto the roof? My dates up there!” You heard your Ex screech from the stairwell.

 “You did great.” You admitted.

 Steve’s arm curled around your waist and wedged between your two Super Soldiers, the cold numb feeling inside you was chased away, replaced with a warmth blooming from your chest.

_________________________________

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[charmingpplincardigans]

👀

Thank you! (I’ve been enjoying your snippets so much.

This is one of the sections of the Ben & Klaus Brothers (TM) fic. I got 15,000 words into that before giving up, which is the longest I’ve ever gotten into a fic without just deciding I would finish it. I kind of feel like I should get back to it to post before season two comes out, but I also kind of feel like it doesn’t matter either way. I don’t know, we’re working on our brains in 2020 lads! Gonna stop worrying what other people want when it comes to the words we want to write! 

. . . 

“I don’t feel good about this,” Ben said. 

They were standing on the sidewalk in front of a house on the outer edges of the city. It had taken Klaus two bus rides and twenty minutes of walking to even get here and now that they were here Ben wasn’t sure they wouldn’t be better off back in the alley where Klaus had been curling up to take quick cat naps for the last week. On their side of the leaning chain link fence the sidewalk was tidy and the grass was recently mowed. On the other side of it the stones to the front walk were all cracked with tall tufts of weeds growing up through and around them. The grass in the rest of the yard was intermittent with patches of grey dirt between hip high islands of weeds. 

The house itself looked like a squat layer cake someone had left out in the storm. The second and third stories seemed to lean to the right. The light blue paint was flaking off the wooden slat boards that made up the side of the house and settling into the grass like melting snow. There was so much graffiti sprayed on the sides that only the boards nearest the overhang of the uneven first floor roof showed what the original color of it might have been. The graffiti was actually the least worrisome part of the scene to Ben. At least graffiti gave the impression that someone cared enough about the place to still be interacting with it. By contrast, the darkened windows and broken glass made it look unwelcoming and untouched.

“You don’t feel good about anything,” Klaus said. “I’m beginning to wonder if you’ve forgotten how to feel full stop.” 

“When would I have had time to forget that when I’m forced to spend all of my time with you?”

Klaus scoffed and gently touched the tips of his fingers to his chest. “Me? I try my best not to feel anything at all.” 

By way of demonstration he pulled a half-smoked blunt from his pocket and lit it. A woman coming up the sidewalk brushed past where Klaus was still standing in the middle of the sidewalk and cleared her throat loudly while dragging her rolling grocery basket over his feet. Klaus let the blunt hang from his lips while he used both fingers to flick her off. 

“And what a good job you’re doing of that,” Ben observed. 

Klaus turned his fingers on Ben. Then he spread his long legs wide like he was doing stretches and made a point of taking up as much of the sidewalk as he could while finishing off the blunt. He dropped the tip of it onto the sidewalk and let it burn itself out. 

“I’ve got a song in my heart and I will not let you silence it,” Klaus said. 

On the scale of nonsensical non-sequiturs Ben had gotten from Klaus over the last year that he’d been haunting him, this one didn’t even rate as interesting.

“Is that song Teenage Dirtbag by any chance?” Ben asked. 

Klaus did not dignify Ben with an answer. He resituated the strap of his backpack over his shoulder and stepped into the yard. Ben followed behind him as he wandered from patch of weeds to patch of weeds and collected a fistfull of limp yellow and white flowers. He stuffed the stems of them into the front pocket of his jeans. 

When he looked at Ben, Ben just raised an eyebrow at him. 

“For the girl who’s letting me borrow her bed,” he said, as if fistfuls of weeds were a usual form of payment for anyone over the age of seven. 

“If she lives here, she knows the flowers are here. She could bring them inside if she wanted them inside.” 

Klaus shrugged, plucked an extra clutch of the white ones, and tucked them behind his right ear. Then he turned toward the front steps and Ben followed him reluctantly. 

Ben didn’t want his brother sleeping rough, but Klaus was determined not to go back to the Academy and also to spend any money he got within fifteen minutes of it hitting his grubby little hands instead of saving up for a place to live. It was just that he didn’t want his brother sleeping in a murder squat in the suburbs either, but here they were, walking up a very creaky set of decrepit front steps and trying a door knob that slipped about inside of its frame when it was turned. 

The inside of the house was not more well-preserved than the outside. Klaus walked across the entryway and started up the staircase in front of them without stopping to look around, but Ben did peer into the rooms to either side of them as they passed. The walls of the living room on the first floor were also sprayed in a rainbow clutter of designs, but the couch in the center of the room looked relatively clean. There was a pile of belongings next to it which probably meant someone had claimed it. The kitchen was a disaster he’d rather not think about. On the second floor they passed three bedrooms in various states of clutter, all of them had groups of people in them in various states of living their lives, some of which Ben really wished they’d shut the door for. The second floor bathroom was in a worse state than the kitchen. 

Around a corner off the second floor hallway there was a tight doorway with a small rickety wooden staircase leading up into darkness. Klaus started up, running his hand along the wall as he went. When he reached the top he felt around in the dark for a few seconds before saying “aha!” and pushing a creaking door open. Late afternoon light flooded down the stairs and framed Klaus’s body in a halo of dust particles and cobwebs hanging from the door frame. The shadow thrown from him darkened his clothing and washed out his skin and for a moment he looked like he’d looked in the before, when they’d stood next to each other in black uniforms and faced possible death together. 

Now they lived a life where they faced obvious and certain death together and it was not nearly as fun or sure as their life before had been. And given how stressful and traumatic their life before had actually been, that was saying something. 

“Come on or don’t,” Klaus said. “I don’t care.” He turned and moved out of sight, leaving Ben to look down at himself as the afternoon light fell through him with no resistance. 

Ben felt the sting of that, but tried to let it slide off. Klaus had only said it to sting Ben. He seemed to spend a lot of their time alone together trying to figure out how to get Ben to go away. Ben had yet to work out whether this was out of shame or self-preservation or maybe both. Some days his words landed deep enough that Ben absolutely would have left Klaus if he could, but he couldn’t. No matter where he tried to go he ended up back at Klaus’s side eventually, once whatever Klaus had done to himself wore off. 

He waited a few minutes and then continued up the steps. Through the doorway there was a pretty sizeable attic. It was cordoned off into portions by shees tacked to the rafters with a crooked path leading down the center of them as a hallway. He drifted down it, dragging his fingers along the fabric of the sheets even though he could feel them, until he found Klaus in the far corner. 

The space was just large enough for a twin sized four poster bed clothed in dirty thin sheets, a rickety dresser, and a person-sized alley between them. The wooden floors had been covered with a large stained rug that was bigger than the room area. It had the whole window though, cracked and dirty as it was. A faded pink sheet was tacked up just to the left of it, which meant the light was catching and bouncing against the pink sheet and the white one hanging perpendicular to it. The whole space glowed. Ben wondered distantly if this was what heaven would look like if he had ended up there.

Klaus dropped his bag next to the bed. He pulled the flowers out of his pocket and left them on the dresser. Then he pulled a baggy of pills out of the other pocket and dumped several into his hand. 

“Don’t do that,” Ben said. 

Klaus tipped his head back and let the drugs fall into his mouth without even bothering to argue his case to Ben. There wasn’t much of a case to argue anyway. Ben had long ago stopped trying to come up with logical, reasonable reasons why Klaus shouldn’t drug himself to oblivion. He wasn’t going to do it for Ben’s sake and he certainly wasn’t going to do it for his own sake. Anyway, the problem with trying to argue logic with an addict who could talk to the dead was that withdrawal hurt and ghosts hurt and drugs didn’t hurt. In the short term anyway. 

When Ben had been alive he hadn’t realized just how much of Klaus was a naked nerve, how everything he brushed up against could light him up with mental and physical pain Ben didn’t have a reference for. Not that he’d never been in pain, just that Klaus seemed to feel it all differently than Ben did. Instead of viewing it as an extension of himself he viewed it as the core of himself, pulled every drop of it into himself because the more he had the bigger he felt. One would hope that eventually he could make himself big enough to be immune to much more of it, but that hadn’t happened yet. 

Ben hopped up onto the dresser as Klaus lowered himself onto the bed and its creaking mattress. They sat and watched the sun filter in through the window in silence.

“We should get out of town,” Ben said after some minutes. 

“We are out of town,” Klaus said, voice quiet.

“No, for real. Too far to take a bus.” Ben felt wistful. Outside the window the sun was setting over the street and tinting everything a hopeful gold. It lit up in the cracks in the glass like a river burning through a map. He wondered if sunsets looked the same everywhere or if different streets and trees and wider skies reflected it differently. He had a strong urge to leave now and stop in every city between here and the Pacific Ocean to check, and then continue on past the end of the land toward the mystery who the two of them might be when they weren’t hiding in plain sight in the shadow of their collective past. “If you’re not going to go home, if you’re going to insist on living as perilously as possible, you can do that anywhere.” 

Klaus didn’t answer. When Ben turned to look at him he was sitting hunched over his drawn up knees with his eyes closed. The light was hitting his face full on, but there were still shadows collecting around the ridges and shallow hollows of his cheeks and jaw. The flowers behind his ear were drooping forward, thin stems and petals arching down as if they were reaching back toward the earth. Klaus looked tired and very close to slipping away. 

Ben did not want to lose him, and that wasn’t entirely because he worried that if he did he would lose himself. 

“Are you even listening to me? I bet we could get Pogo to give us the money for it. Somehow.”

Klaus fell back on the mattress with his arms spread wide. He dragged them across the mess of sheets, up and down, up and down, creating the top half of a wrinkled and stained, threadbare snow angel. He stared up at the ceiling for several long minutes while Ben listened to the sounds of rustling from the other inhabitants of the abandoned house. 

Some of the sounds were human. Ben was sure that at most, a quarter of the sounds that didn’t seem human were being made by actual non-human beings. By contrast, only a quarter of the inhabitants of the place were not rats or other ghosts. From the outside the place had looked empty, but it was teeming with life and afterlife.

“I am, in fact, trying not to listen to you,” Klaus said. “In case you couldn’t tell.” 

“You can’t live like this,” Ben said. He hadn’t had a living body that could fall to injury or disease for at least a year, but he was still wary of brushing up against too many things. There were stains and needles and spent matches on almost every surface of every part of the house he’d seen. He was very glad he couldn’t smell it. 

Klaus giggled, high and manic, and because they were connected and Ben could feel him he could feel the moment when the drugs hit his head. There was an unsettling swoop in Ben’s gut. 

Klaus rubbed his hands over his face. “No,” he said. “You can’t live like this. You can’t live at all. Anymore.”

“Fuck you,” Ben replied, though he couldn’t bring himself to put any real anger behind it. 

Klaus was an asshole, but he was right. And he was the only thread Ben could hold on to that linked him to his life, kept him from disappearing into the void of after-life. They had been close once, and in some ways Ben was mourning that as much as he was still mourning the loss of his breath or his beating heart. Ben simply didn’t know this person anymore, this pretty, unwashed, painted up boy made of angles and hollows who was on the cusp of becoming a man, but who still seemed so young.

It was Klaus’s recklessness and the utter disregard for his own well-being that bothered Ben the most. To Ben, Klaus’s whole being was a precious flame of life that he knew could go out at any moment. It was urgent and imperative that he block it from the wind. Which was difficult, when all Klaus seemed to want to do was step into the gale. 

“I just need, ten minutes,” Klaus mumbled. “Just give me ten minutes to exist by myself.” His voice was soft, and it trailed off into the final f. 

Ben felt it the moment he was cut off. The feeling of dread for Klaus diminished and he was left with his own feeling of complete and total lightness, in the setting but not of it, not affected by it. He knew Klaus wouldn’t hear him now, probably couldn’t see him. It didn’t matter. He would wait. After all, it wasn’t as if he had anything else to do. 

He pulled a battered copy of The Myth of Sisyphus from the pocket of his jacket and opened it to page 165. When he had been living the book only had 160 pages in it, but it seemed that authors and philosophers were frequently uneasy in death, adding adding adding to the things they did in life as if they could somehow change who they had been. Ben was not doing that. He wasn’t.

But he would chase Klaus from low to low if he had to. He’d make him see how important his muted, shallow breathing was. And then…well, he wasn’t sure he’d actually get that accomplished, so he’d hold off for now on putting anything else on the list.

[jessica-denise]

a cursed love

C H A P T E R  nine

A/N: There will be two chapters today since I didn't post yesterday's (I fell asleep in the middle of writing it lol). Anyways, working on it right now. 

Y/N made her way to the hospital wing. She had figured out Remus secret long before he had decided to share it with her. She had detected the pattern of her brother‘s nightly disappearances whenever there was a full moon and the rest was easy. She followed them one night and saw them transform into their animagi. It was eight then and there that she decided that she wanted to become own as well. For one, she couldn‘t let James be the only one to master this advanced and impressive skill. Two, Y/N wanted to be able to be there for her brother and his friends if something were to go wrong. And three, being an animagus is super cool.

So every night from then on, Y/N would sneak out and practice for a couple of hours. All things considered, it really didn’t take her all that long. After she had officially found out about Remus‘ secret, Y/N convinced them to let her join them every now and then and she‘d learn some spells that she thought might come in handy at some point. She also pretended like she wasn’t already an animagus and left the boys in their belief that it had only taken her three weeks to become one. James was furious when he first saw her transform into the grey cat, but he suspected nothing. Remus was the only one out of the group who seemed a little bit suspicious. 

Y/N could see light at the end of the corridor that lead to the hospital wing. When she slipped through the doors she could see the shadows of three people standing around a hospital bed behind one of the curtains. She made her way over to them and transformed back into her human form. ''Sirius?'' She exclaimed when she realized that it wasn't Remus who was lying in the bed. ''What happened?'' she asked no one in particular. And no one answered. ''Anyone?? Remus?'' she looked at the dark haired boy but he just bit his lip. Y/N's eyes wandered over to the weakest link. ''Peter, what happened?'' she asked and Peter tried to avoid looking at her. ''James and Sirius had another fight.'' he mumbled. ''About what?'' Y/N asked. This couldn't possibly still be about her. But Peter simply stared at his feet. He'd already said too much. ''Seriously? Again? Can you guys not let it go?'' Still no answer. ''James? I thought we talked about this. I thought you were going to apologize to Sirius?'' "You call that an apology?'' Sirius said to James with one raised eyebrow. James seemed at a loss for words. He looked to Remus for help, but he just put his hands up defensively. ''Listen, Pads. She's my little sister. And you're my best friend. You guys are the most important people to me. And I'm the most important person to you guys. I guess I'm just scared that that could change. I know you're seeing Frank, Y/N. But I mean how much longer are you going to give the guy false hope? Sure he's nice, but come on Y/N. You're way out of his league. And I'm pretty sure you have a thing for Pads, too. You should have seen your face when we had you guys team up for the Halloween prank. I'm not that stupid, you know.'' Everyone was shocked. ''You're scared you won't be the most important person in my life anymore? James Potter is scared that Y/N Potter will stop caring about him? You realize that that is impossible right? You will never not be the single most important person to me. You are stuck with me for life, James. You should know that.'' ''What she said.'' Sirius added with a small grin on his face. ''I'm sorry Pads. I didn't mean to-'' ''Mow me down with your antlers? I'm pretty sure you did.'' ''I'm so sorry, I-'' ''It's okay Prongs. Don't worry about it. And please stop being cheesy now, I really can't  take it anymore. It's worse than all these cuts and bruises.'' ''Hey, didn't you say you just learned a spell for that, Y/N?'' James asked his sister. ''Eh, yeah. Pretty nice one actually. Want me to try?'' she asked and looked at Sirius. He nodded. ''Okay, which one should I try first then?'' ''There must be a nasty one on my back, and one to match on the front'' Y/N nodded, then looked at the guys awkwardly. ''I know you're all close, but eh, he'll have to take off his shirt for this, soo...'' ''Yep. Bye.'' James said and was out of the room quicker then one would have thought possible with Remus and Peter following not far behind. He might have accepted that his sister and his best friend seem to like one another, but he wasn't quite ready to see them getting that close yet. Y/N made her way over to Sirius' hospital bed and lifted his shirt to reveal a long, deep cut. ''Sirius! Where you going to just wait until you bled out? Why didn't Madame Pomfrey do something about this?'' ''Well we hadn't exactly told her that we're here yet.'' he said. ''Besides, I'd much rather you fix it.'' Sirius said with a smirk on his face. ''Sirius, you know I'm seeing Frank.'' Y/N said and his face fell. ''Yeah, I just don't get why. With a personality like his you could just be dating a broom. Should be just as interesting.'' ''Hey, come on. Frank is nice. And he can be very interesting. You just have to get to know him a little bit better.'' ''No thanks. I'll pass.'' There was an uncomfortable silence between the two. ''Do you really like him that much?'' Sirius asked after a little while. Y/N wasn't sure how to answer that. She did really like Frank. He was a good guy. And a good kisser. And yet something was stopping her from telling Sirius that she did indeed like Frank more than him. Was James right? Was she just giving Frank false hope? She bit her lip trying to figure out what to say and looked down at the wound on Sirius' chest. ''See you can't even tell me to my face that you like the guy. So why keep dating him? Why not give me a chance? James will get over it.'' Y/N hesitated. She let her eyes slowly wander up to meet Sirius' and before she could say anything his lips met hers.

Tagged: @evolutionofkatep

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #218

“give me liberty or death. ... ah, fuck it, just give me death.”

Do you know anyone who had to have tubes put in their ears as a baby? Me. What is the nearest glass object to you? A cup. Were either of your parents baptized? I'm sure my mom was, but I have no clue about Dad. The last concert that you were at, was there a mosh pit? No. What was the last computer game that you played? World of Warcraft. If you had to choose a new cell phone, what phone would you pick? Some sort of iPhone. I hate my Samsung. Has anyone killed one of your pets before? People have run over our cats before, but I'm certain that wasn't intentional. Does your bathroom have a theme to it? No. Are any rooms in your house themed? No. Is there a song that as soon as you hear it you are happier? At least to a degree. Do you have a push lawnmower or a riding lawnmower? We don't have one; Mom pays someone to do it. He uses a riding one, though. When was the last time someone teased you? Idr. Would you trust a vehicle that automatically parallel parks for you? Lmao could probably do it better than I could. Have you ever hit a car while parking? No, but I rarely drive anyway and never park close to others. When you are eating fast food, do you tend to get burgers or chicken? Burgers. When was the last time you used Microsoft Excel? No clue. What was the last thing that you recorded? I was WAY too excited the rare felhound mount dropped for me in WoW so I had to show Sara while I screamed lmao. Have you ever edited an article on Wikipedia? No. Do you like the show Futurama? I've never been into what I've seen. Have you ever found an arrow head? I don't remember ever having had. Have you given up any bad habits for someone? Don't think so. Who is with you? My cat's in the room, as is of course Venus. In what part of your life so far, have you learnt the most about yourself? 2017-2018, probably. Have you ever been in a fist fight? No. What aggravates you most about people in general? I guess if you want to put all humans together, I guess you never know what's gonna hurt who. When they have a valid reason to be hurt by it, anyway. Are your ears pierced? Twice in each lobe and then my right tragus. What did you last say out loud? Something to Teddy about wanting so much attention. Not at all in a bad way. Do you like anything about being angry? Fuck no. Did you have a summer job this year? No. Where do you wish you were? I've been dying to be at Sara's BAD LATELY MY MAN. Do you get surprises often? No, nor do I like them. I get too nervous. Name a crime you have committed? Illegally downloading things. Do you tell people when they get on your nerves? No, not normally. You're in jail… Who bails you out? Dad, most likely, taking money into account. I don't even know if he could afford bailing someone out, though. Are your feelings hurt easily? YEAH. What’s the ultimate cake topping? Just frosting. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? No. Do you ever forward or reply to chain mails? Never. Have you ever tried to make your own alcohol? Nope. If you were to join one of the armed forces, which would it be? Lol no. Have you ever been to see stand up comedy? No. Have you ever needed stitches? At least twice. Have you ever been in a submarine? No. What would you do if someone proposed to you tomorrow? I'd say no, even if it was Sara. We're not ready for that yet. Which fictional character do you wish was real? Sobs all my favorites of everything are villains and therefore shouldn't be brought to life. Uhhhh. Idk. Maybe Harry Mason from SH 'cuz the entire human population deserves a dad like that. Do you own a lava lamp? I wish. Have you ever been in a hot tub or sauna? Yes to hot tub, but you couldn't pay me to set foot in a sauna. Have you ever had chicken pox? No. Do you believe there used to be dragons? No. We would've found fossil evidence by now, I think. Who’s your favorite god from ancient history? Man, idk. I love mythology. But memory is pretty faint though so I don't remember what most did/what they stand for. What was the last present you received? Uhhhh I'm not sure. Could you go out with someone who had a child from a previous relationship? No. I am not being a mother figure for anyone. What was your first alcoholic drink? Hard lemonade. What was your first detention for? I've only ever had detention for excessive tardies. Did you ever have a treehouse as a kid? No. Have you ever appeared on YouTube? EW LET'S FORGET THAT. Have you ever been on radio? No. Do you like your own name? I do. Could you ever have an affair with a married person? Fuck no. Could you ever split up a couple for one reason or another? I mean I'd urge one to leave the other if they were abusive or not really in love or something like that. I wouldn't out of my own interests. Which celebrity do you find the most annoying? The Paul brothers are fucking obnoxious trash. Is there anyone you work with that you don’t get along with? Why? N/A Have you ever been romantically interested in a coworker? No. Have you ever been romantically involved with a coworker? No. What is the game you’re currently playing most often on your phone? None. Do you have an opinion on adopting/purchasing a pet? Adopt. I understand the temptation of wanting a certain breed of pet, but you've gotta think beyond your desires here. There are so, so, SO many homeless cats and dogs especially that need homes. When was the last time you climbed a tree? Never, I believe. Why were you last pulled over? I never have been, thank GOD. Do you have any friends that own a private lake? I can just about guarantee no. Are you cool with swimming in a lake? It would depend on the lake. Do you have a drone? No. Do you have any t-shirts from any local businesses? No. Do you listen to any talk shows or podcasts? Only Mark's and his friends'. Do you know anyone who’s had their own podcast? I don't think so. Where were you the last time you stayed in a hotel? The beach. Do you know anyone who is freaked out by cats? No. What kind of music do your parents listen to? Mom loves (classic) metal and rock like me, but she also enjoys Christian music. Dad likes rock and classic metal/rock. What do you do when you can’t escape thoughts of your ex? I mean, I'm a bad person to ask, because my PTSD is tied to my ex. My case is far more extreme. All you really can do is try to do things to distract yourself. What do you think about indoor pets? Love 'em. How it should be most of the time for most animals. Would you agree that love is blind? Very. Did your first real significant other change you at all? Yes. Are you waiting to have sex until you’re married? I don't think so, if I was to ever be in that situation with a man again. How many schools have you been to? Five, but I'm about to start my sixth. Do any songs give you goosebumps? I get goosebumps very, VERY easily when it comes to music. I don't even have to really like the song. What do you think about divorce? Sadly necessary in extreme cases. What’s your favorite way to eat peanut butter? In a Reese's lol. Do you still watch any cartoons meant for kids? I don't watch TV now, but if I was still into watching shows, I'd totally still follow Pokemon. What’s your favorite kind of cereal? Man, idk. Maybe Cinnamon Toast Crunch. What were you doing the last time you were on a roof? Just sitting up there. Do you have any stickers on your car? Mom has I think one? Have you ever given someone flowers? I'll always remember this one Mother's Day where I went down our old path with my sister and friend and we picked up SO many flowers to put in a glass cup as a bouquet for Mom. So yeah. Do you have any stickers on your laptop? No. Do you listen to Nirvana? I don't usually search them out, but they're on my iPod, and I won't generally skip 'em if a Nirvana song comes along. What is one thing stopping you from becoming a veterinarian? I hate seeing animals in pain and/or dying. Are you easily scared by horror movies? Not at all. How old were you when you were first pulled over by the police? I've never been pulled over. When was the last time you drank out of a champagne glass? I've no idea. Do you enjoy plane journeys, if you’ve ever been on one? If we're just talking the ride and not the process leading up to it, and so long I've the window seat, yeah, they're fine. What’s the last movie you’ve seen in theaters and can honestly say you enjoyed? I adored the live action TLK, truly and thoroughly. I didn't at all get the hate. Like I know a common criticism is they took the realism too far (they were lacking in expression), but I liked that, honestly. It made it feel all the more real. I mean honestly, I possibly liked it more than the animated (save for the "Be Prepared" singing), and that movie is sacred to me. Have you ever seen your father cry? I've only seen him tear up like once in my life. How would your parents react if you got pregnant? They'd be confused as fuck because I'm the polar opposite of promiscuous, monogamous, advise that to only happen after marriage, and am with a girl. If you’re in a relationship, how is it going? If you’re single, are you looking for someone? It's going great. We're just ready to no longer be long-distance. How big is your bed? Queen-sized. Do you believe the Holocaust happened? No??????????? fucking????????????????? shit??????????????????????????????? Ever spent any time on a military base? No. Have you ever tried putting black pepper on mac ‘n’ cheese? (It’s good!) Yes, delicious. Has a wild animal ever been loose in your house? Not our current house. We lived in the woods beforehand, and we did have mild mice problems in the winter. Have you ever felt a temperature below 0? No. Have you ever seen a volcano? Not in person. Are you a fan of Janis Joplin? I've actually never really listened to her. Have you ever mowed the lawn (even a little bit)? No. What’s the closest river to you? The Tar River. Don't mind sharing considering it's ginormous. Who were the last 3 males you talked to? My nephew, his dad, then my own dad. What was the last form of communication you used to speak to your best friend? (e.g. text message, phone call) Text. What was the last alcoholic drink you tried for the first time? Uhhhh I think some kind of white wine? Did you like it? Not in the slightest. What’s your favorite feature of the person you’re currently interested in? She has the cutest random little freckle on her hip. Do you remember the first CD you ever bought? I believe the first I personally wanted and got was the Swan Songs album by Hollywood Undead. Where is your favorite place to get fries? You have NOT lived until you've eaten Bojangle's fries. They have a special seasoning that is absolutely spectacular. The Bojangle's experience is so important that it's the first place we went when Sara first came here lmao. Do you know anyone who was raised by their grandparents? Don't believe so. Have you ever made your own pie from scratch? No. What is your favorite gaming console? PS2, always. What was the last major city you visited? Chicago. I mean, or Raleigh, if you count it as a "major" one. How many romantic relationships have you been in so far? I only really consider Jason and Sara as "romantic" relationships. Have you ever used a leaf blower? No. What would you say is the worst part of high school, period? The shift from child to young adult. Hormones make the experience so, so much more difficult than it needs to be. What is your favorite color of apple? Red, green or yellow? Red. They're usually the most crisp. If you were dying who would you say goodbye to first out of everyone? It'd either be Mom or Sara, definitely. I can't really say without being in that moment, idk. Are you someone who actually likes to babysit children? Fuck no. I've only ever done it once and never will again, even though the one occasion went fine. Who was the last person to call you fat, if anyone at all? Myself lmao. What color skin does the last person you danced with have? White. Has your mother ever called your school because of your grades? No. What is the worst name a friend has ever called you? Do you remember? I can promise you one has most certainly called me a bitch or worse. Have you ever wanted to be in a band? What position exactly? At the start of high school, I remember I'd sometimes daydream about being a guitarist, but it was never something I like, actively craved. Who is your role model or hero in life if you have one? *blinks* Do you ever call your cousins just to talk to them randomly? No. When did you last spend the night at someone’s house? December of last year. Do you ever have to wash your clothes at someone else’s house? If I'm at Sara's. Do you prefer it when it gets darker earlier? NO. I'm much unlike I used to be in that I prefer brightness. It actually does affect my mood; I recommend to aaaaanybody who suffers from depression to stay in a bright room. I used to live in the dark as well, and I promise, it makes a difference. Have you ever learned any self-defense? If not, would you be interested in learning? No, and yes, especially with how incredibly paranoid I am. Do you like Gushers? Yaaaaas hunty. Can you touch your nose with your tongue? No. When was the last time you felt like you didn’t have anything to worry about? LOL HUH??????? NO WORRIES??????? How old was the last child that you spoke to? Three. What is the name of the last perfume you put on? "Crazy Lady." That perfume is years upon YEARS old. It was a birthday present from Summer, and seeing as I barely ever wear perfume, it's still in my room. Expired, I'm sure, lol. Are you waiting for something to arrive in the mail? No. Have your parents ever forgotten your birthday? No. Do you like your orange juice with lots or no pulp? NONONONONONONO. I absolutely will not drink orange juice with pulp. Did the Spanish classes have an “El Dia de Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) fiesta at school? I think so? How long have you had the hairbrush you are currently using? I use a comb now that we've had actually forever. What projects are you doing now for school? I'm not in school, not quite yet anyway. :') Do you know what durian is? Do you like it? No. I would never try it. What’s the most number of comments you have on a Facebook picture? What is the picture of? I don't know, and I don't plan on looking. Most likely some selfie. Do you like coconut flavored things? NO. Coconut is disgusting. Have you ever met a famous author before? No. Do you know anybody who has been raped before? I don't think so, and I truly hope not... How often do you get a fever? Like, never. What kind of laundry basket do you use? It's just a plain, white, plastic one. As a child, did you ever have a clown or a magician at your birthday parties? I actually believe I had both. I know I had a pair of clowns once, and with how into magic I was, I would expect I've had had one. Do you have a permit or license? I have my permit. It's more than due time I work more towards my license... List all the stores you’ve been in this past month. I think the only one is PetSmart. Have you ever thrown food at a stranger in a movie theater? No, because I was never that childish. Does/did either of your parents serve in the military? No. Do you like sour candy? My favorite! Where would you like to go on your honeymoon? Most likely Pink Sands Beach in the Bahamas, but honestly I'm terrified of the Bermuda Triangle, so that's unlikely, lmao. That black sand beach in Hawaii, however, will do. Are all nighters something you have grown used to? BIIIIIIITCH I've outgrown that shit. I'm rarely up past 10 at the latest these days. Is there anybody you’re not ashamed to tell anything to? Anything, no. Smoothies or slushies? Slushies. Ignoring nutrition, could you live off veggies for the rest of your life? Nooooooo. Elaborate on a way you have volunteered? I once volunteered at PetSmart during an adoption event, giving the cats and dogs attention while people visited. I absolutely fell in LOVE with a dog there that I begged Mom to get, and she came pretty close. I cried leaving, ha ha... Does anybody know about your sex life other than your partners? No. If you could see any musician live, front row, who would you choose? Um, Ozzy????? Duh??????? My Dad???????? Is great?????????????? If you had to choose between a million dollars or to be able to change a regret? And here you have it, the stupidest question I've seen on a survey. Have you ever been around someone who was high? Yeah. Could you handle living with a male roommate? No, with how afraid I am of men. It'd only work if it was with a long-time bf. Have you spoken to your mother today? Father? For once, both. Do you live by yourself? No. Do you shower every day? No, it's unhealthy and I don't find every day necessary. Especially when you live my hermit life. Is English your native language? Yes. Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? N/A Do you watch PewDiePie? Very, very rarely. I'm not that into his content anymore, and his humor changed from more original to heavily meme-ish. Are you married? No. Did you ever color your hair pink? No, but totally not apposed. Do you have any subscribers on YouTube? Yeah, some. Do you salt your popcorn? Sadly. Do you like McDonalds? Don't even try to bullshit, you don't mind McD's. Do you have a Steam account? Yeah. Have you ever played Five Nights at Freddy’s? No. It's a cool series though, and I enjoy watching LPs of it. Do you like horror movies? YESSSSSS my favorite. Is your favorite animal a dog? No. Do you like chicken nuggets? mmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMM What color is the ceiling in the room? White. Do you like religion? It's interesting, but has done a shitload of evil. However, it has also made wonderful people. It depends on how you use it. Have you ever tried Akinator? Yeah. Can you twerk? Idk and idc. Do you like dabbing? It looks remarkably stupid/like you're sneezing into your elbow. Do you like fishing? I do, but I've stopped doing it. I feel too bad for the fish. Do you like sleeping? Oh fuck yeah. What do you think of Fifty Shades of Grey? Fucking disgusting, whether in book or movie format. Do you swear in front of children? No. Which Pirates of the Caribbean do you like the most? Never watched 'em. What do you think of Rob Zombie? I enjoy a lot of his music. How far out of your age bracket would you date? Once you hit 10 years, it's a no for me. Have you ever had an STD? No. Is the area you live in more liberal or conservative? I live in the South. Take a wild guess. Have you picked out flower petals, saying, ‘He loves me, he loves me not?' No. Do you like to pace? It's not that I "like" to, it's just a habit. What’s the greatest thing about science? Learning about the world around us. Discovering how life works. Does it annoy you when people dumb themselves down to be cool? It's not "annoying," it's just stupid. Intelligence is cool. What’s a song you like from the genre you hate? "When The Stars Go Blue" by Tim McGraw is a heavy exception. I adore that song. Are your parents divorced? Yeah, they separated when I was like, 16-17. Who was your first friend? Brianna. Have you ever been to Germany? Hell, I wish. What do you hear right now? I'm currently obsessed with "Brand New Numb" by Motionless In White. Have you ever been ice skating? No. Have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty? No. Would you consider yourself a shy person? I am one of the shyest people you will ever meet in your life. Do you like techno? Yeah, actually. I've really gotten into electronic music. How many windows are in the room you’re in? Two. Can you whistle? No. My lip ring is probably what makes me unable to anymore. How many X-rays have you had in the last 2 years? Three. One of my knees, then over the course of two years, I believe two for my teeth at the dentist. Are you on good terms with your last ex? Yeah. Do you own an Xbox? No. Favorite Snapchat filter? I've never used Snapchat before. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two. What’s the worst thing you have ever done? Depends on how you mean "worst." Most damaging to me, let myself turn Jason into a god in my head and nearly kill myself for it. As far as most immoral, probably be partially responsible for why my former best friend and her bf broke up because he wound up liking me because I was a dumb 12 y/o. What's your favorite candle scent? Probably coffee or cinnamon rolls. Do you take any medications daily? Yeah. What is your skin type? (oily, dry, etc) An annoying combo. What type of house do you live in? (big, small, etc) A small one. Are you going to change your last name when you get married? Yes, I hate my last name. Last person you called? Mom. Chocolate or rainbow sprinkles? I don't like sprinkles at all. The texture ruins treats. Who was the last person you cried in front of? Mom, I'm sure. Do you think vlogging in public is scary? I wouldn't say "scary," just incredibly awkward. You'd never see me do it. Would you want to be in a collab channel on YouTube? I don't even want to risk popularity, so no. Do you watch any collab channels? Which ones? Game Grumps and Sam & Colby, mainly. What colors have you dyed your hair, if any? Black, purple, and red. What is your gender and sexual orientation? Female and bisexual. Have you been to an escape room? Was it a success? No, but they seem REALLY fun. Ever performed on stage? Was it scary or amazing or both? Yeah, many times for dance. It was really neither for me. Have you ever recorded a cover of a song? No. Have you tried the Beyond or Impossible burger? Thoughts? No, but I want to, especially as I plan on returning to vegetarianism at one point. When was the last time you ate your all-time favorite candy? Oh wow, months. When was the last time you made friends with old enemies? Some time last year, Rachel and I reconnected. She's cool as hell now. When was the last time you took time to pray? It's been a long time. I don't believe it does anything. What is a movie that you heard about recently that you do NOT want to see? Is that "Cats" movie real or was the trailer a fever dream???? What do you do during long trips in the car? I just blare music. Best kind of music to dance to? And the worst kind of music to dance to? I really love "different" songs that warrant a modern sort of dance style. It was my favorite when I took dance, and it's by far my favorite to watch. Worst, I guess like, screamo. How would you dance???? Last candy you tried that you did not enjoy? Or one that you did enjoy? Oh my god. So I tried that new Reese's doughnut from Krispy Kreme today, and it. Was. Repulsive. A candy I actually liked, idk. I rarely ever have treats anymore. Were you a chubby or thin baby? I was normal. Have you ever not given a tip at a restaurant? Why didn’t you? N/A, y'all know my money situation. What is the most outrageous thing you’ve considered doing lately? Okay, I'll admit I at least briefly pondered the possibility of getting a nipple pierced after an eternity of saying I never would lmao. I'm not, tho. Have you ever known somebody who ran away? Most likely. What are your thoughts on Batman? I think it's cool he has that policy of never killing anyone, and he also doesn't have any actual powers, does he? I don't remember. The whole Batman universe (or comics for that matter) is one I don't really connect to anymore, as it was Jason's obsession, so it's a dangerous topic for me. When I say Dr. Seuss, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Green Eggs and Ham. I loooved that book as a kid. Rollercoasters that go upside down… yes please or no thank you? Hell to the motherfuckin no thanks. Is there a certain place or store you especially hate going to? Grocery stores. What was the last animal/pet that you met? There was a BEAUTIFUL standard poodle Mom and I briefly interacted with at the pet store a week or so back. Is there something in particular you always seem to forget? Straighten the shower curtain after I get out so it dries properly. When was the last time you had to wait in line for longer than a few minutes? *shrugs* Have you ever written a review for a product you bought online? No. What was the last board game you played? I think it was all the way back when Sara, Girt, and I played Scrabble.

[getyourvitamin-bri]

Super-Mega-Foxy-Awesome-Hot Klance Fic Recs!

One-Shots

Sweet Quiznak - CheckeredCloth Read if your into hurt/comfort and humor, an odd mix but this fic does it awesomely. Summary: "You're really into him," Hunk mutters, and wow, Lance's face is on fire. Hunk is killing him. "Look, read into how you like, Freud, just make sure that if I die Keith knows I totally would've mowed his ass like grass. That way, I can laugh hysterically at his emotionally-constipated expression from the afterlife." Rated Teen & Up

Love Bug Stuff - WhatTheBodyGraspsNot @whatthebodygraspsnot I’m such trash for Love Bug fics, this one in particular is stellar. Summary: Keith is bitten by an alien love bug that makes him fall in love with the first person he sees. And just guess who the heck that first person is? Rated M

Never Saw You Coming - dimpleforyourthoughts @dimpleforyourthoughts Read if you love angst, slow burn, mutual pinning, and hurt/comfort aka read if you love being put through all the feels :) Summary: Three months in space on his own would have been fine. Three months in space with Lance McClain is a whole other fucking story. Rated M

nothing’s quite as sweet - dimpleforyourthoughts There is cute cats and cute klance, need I say more? Summary: Keith is a barista who hates his job. Lance works at the cat shelter across the street. Rated Teen & Up

Muy Lindo - flipfloppandas - I’m trash for shy adorable keith and this fic delivered. Summary: In which Lance must learn how to navigate through a relationship with a Keith who is surprisingly shy, but it’s okay because Lance honestly freaking loves it. Not Rated.

implosion (the lines we cross) - pidgeotto_gunderson Some well written hard core angst if your up for it. Summary: The adrenaline is pumping through his veins - this is what he needs, what they both need. To yell and scream and hurt each other before they can mend.Fix-it fic for s7e6, imagining if Lance and Keith fought things out while they were all lost in space and it led to Lance finally spilling about his insecurities. Rated Teen & Up

Crest of White, Bow Down - 2towels @2towels I totally went “awwww” while reading this fic, its so adorable, it will definitely make you smile. Summary: “I don’t know what I need to do to prove to you that I haven’t thought about leaving, but I haven’t.”Without hesitating, Lance lifted his good hand to rest on Keith’s cheek and stroked his thumb across it, silently appreciating his pouty features as he swallowed. “Tell me every day you love me more,” He finally demanded dramatically and breathlessly, flitting his gaze down to Keith’s shoulders instead of the intensity of his eyes, “maybe that would work.”“That wouldn’t even be a challenge.” Keith said quietly.--Five times Lance is swept off his feet, and one time he falls. Rated Teen & Up

Kodachrome - HoddieMaine @joinmeinthishell , Ninke_A @collector-of-hats Wow this is such a beautiful story, its really well written, read if you love pinning and fluff. Summary: Keith has been at a loss for a while now. His job is terrible, his passion for photography has waned, and his pseudo brother has moved to some little town and keeps insisting he visit.When Keith finally does go, he ends up on a little street full of quaint shops. He intends to simply spend time with Shiro but ends up in a record store across the street. With a very attractive man, who signs instead of speaks. Rated E

Thinking ‘Bout You - BleuSarcelle @bleusarcelle, Queerklancing   @queerklancing I got a cavity from the fluff in this fic :) Summary: That time Keith had a voice in his head singing and found out he had a quite unique soulmate link. Rated G

Rose-Colored Boy - melancholymango  @melancholymango Read if you enjoy angsty lance, langst, & to experience all the feels. Summary: “I missed you, you know.”“Yeah?” Lance sighed, warm and giddy, clearly not absorbing how serious the words truly were. “Yeah.” Keith said, more certainty in his voice now. He reached down, hesitantly threading his fingers through Lance’s and giving his hand a squeeze. Lance tensed next to him. “I still do.”“I mean, I’m right here.”“Are you? You still seem pretty far away.” Rated Teen & Up

Blue Christmas -  melancholymango  I loved how keith and lance were written in this fic, its just overall super well written. Summary: The team decides to celebrate the holiday season in space as nostalgia gets the better of them, but reflecting on the past hurts Lance more than it helps and Keith doesn't have any memories to reflect on. AKA the one where Keith and Lance hate the holidays together, only to realize that they were actually celebrating all along in their own Keith and Lance way. Rated G

Multi-chapter

Not That Bad - varelsen @lvtvr Yeah this fic gave me lot of feelings, their relationship builds beautifully. Summay: “Am I really going to have to explain this to you?”“No, I’m totally fine with you shutting up right about now.” Hunk cups his hands around his mouth. “You. Are crushing. On Keith.” Or, a college AU featuring coffee shops, silly rivalries, motorcycles, arcade games, friendships, and lots of warm, fluffy feelings that are both confusing and delightful all at the same time. Rated M

Entangled - Purpleneutrino (mackerelmademedoit) @purpleneutrino I found this fic super interesting to read, and literally could not put it down. Summary: When Keith found himself mentally linked to Lance of all people, he never thought that it would end in anything but irritation and misery on both sides. He certainly never imagined that it would be a useful asset in team Voltron's fight against the Galra Empire. Now if he can just keep his feelings in check, they might actually have a chance at defeating Zarkon. Needless to say, when he'd wished for a 'bonding moment' with Lance, this wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind. Rated M

Hearts Don’t Break Around Here - klancekorner @dimplesandcurlsss Yeah I stayed up till 4am reading this and it was glorious, I finished at 3am and just thought about it for another hour, so awesome! Summary: Lance and Keith have been best friends since first grade. Lance’s brain is always on overdrive and Keith’s blunt, realistic ass can never keep up. They both come to realize that sometimes you can learn a lot about loving yourself by loving someone else. Rated M

Something just like this - klancekorner A summer romance sundae with a friends to lovers cherry on top. Summary: Keith reluctantly becomes the counselor for the Red Cabin at Camp Voltron, a summer camp in the middle of buttfuck nowhere that his older brother Shiro has worked at for years. Already unhappy with the current position that he is in, Keith prepares himself for a boring, sweaty, miserable summer; and his frustration only grows when he meets the counselor for the Blue Cabin Rated M

You and I Collide - idratherhaveyou @itsthegameilike If you looked up cute in the dictionary, this modern apartment au would be the definition. Summary: Lance likes to sing in the shower. Keith lives in the apartment next door and the walls are not very thick. And you can bet when Lance wakes him up at 7:30 in the morning, Keith has something to say about it. Rated M

I’ve Got You - DragonofFernweh @dragonastral Keith comforting lance is my aesthetic, this fic is my aesthetic. Summary: Keith isn’t great at the whole comfort thing, he doesn’t have a way with words, nor does he have much experience in way of affection. Still, when Lance hurts, Keith wants to do something to help. Otherwise known as; five times Keith comforts Lance, and one time Lance comforts Keith. Rated G

it’s easier for you to let me go - welcometothehumanrace  Should be called 6 times I went AAJKSCNSKDCNSJ because of how fluffin’ cute keith and lance are. Summary: Keith did not think Lance's arms were anything to get excited about. Or his shoulders. Or any general part of him. Just everything about him was unexciting as a whole.Obviously. Or 5 times Lance put his arms around Keith and the one time Keith really wanted him to. Rated Teen & Up

The Message - shipstiel @shipstiel-writes Wow this wrong number fic is just glorious, I laughed, I went “awwwww”, I just had such a good time reading this. Summary: Keith is texted by accident by some idiot one day, and honestly he's not even sure why he responds. Or why he keeps responding. Yet somehow he finds himself drawn in, and okay, so maybe this fool is mildly entertaining after all. Who would've thought. Rated Teen & Up

Homesick at Space Camp - K0bot @k0tron So awesome...just a fucking great fic. Its got fake relationship/married, its got angst, its got ballroom dancing, its got so much fluff, do I need to say any more? Summary: Lance realizes he's been an asshole to Keith, and on a diplomatic mission to a key planet for the Voltron alliance he... overcompensates.

Fake It Till You Make It - nikkiRA @aravenlikeawritingdesk I’m a sucker for Fake/Pretend Relationship fics and this one is the fic that started that particular habit. Summary: “What Keith here means to say,” Lance says, and although his voice is steady, he is gripping Keith’s fingers so tightly it’s painful. “Is that we can’t mate with your people, although we, um, appreciate the offer, because, well. We already are. M-mated, I mean. With, you know. Each other.” Rated M

I hope you love these fics as much as I did, they are some of my fav fics of all time. It took me forever to finish this post because I sorta, kinda, maybe, totally re-read a lot of them while making it :) Shout out to fanfiction writers, thank you for putting so much of your time into these stories for free, your all amazing! 

Check out my blog if you would like >>> @getyourvitamin-bri

[sparklingdali]

Ogniem i mieczem: PAS DE TROIS BALLET AU 

READ ON AO3

Due the popular demand I present a short prologue for the two people who showed interest @bachaboska and @meadowlarkx.

This is something me and @thecrystalmadness have been working on. I blame her for making me write this as I would never in my life consider writing modern day AU and ballet. Thanks for ruining my summer. 

It took a while till they arrived at the house of the Kurcewiczs because Wasyl was slowing them down, stopping to point out various crosses atop church rooftops with an excitement that went beyond understanding. His brothers were, however, completely accustomed to it by now.

“He always does this,” said Symeon a little defensively but neither him or Mikołaj complained, they just looked deadly bored. Bohun didn’t understand half of what Wasyl was talking about because his appreciation of churches began and ended with a hazy memory of one with round domes coated in gold that he must have seen in Kiev as a child. When looking at them now he mostly only felt relief he was no longer forced to go to masses like in the children’s home.

“We will just have to wait for him,” continued Symeon with a side look that spoke volumes. Bohun felt almost offended, as he was never rude towards Wasyl and actually helped Mikołaj beat a few guys at school for making fun of him. But Symeon was fourteen, two years older than them, tasked with the thankless job of trying to pull his brother through basic education. Being in the same class with him and having to listen to snarky remarks  on his brother’s intelligence only increased his protectiveness. Bohun knew Wasyl should have been going to high school by now, though he couldn’t really determine his age.

Wasyl finally stopped blabbering about the difference between the rib vault and the fan vault so they resumed walking. After a long time they finally reached the Rozłogi Street, which gave the whole neighborhood a name. Bohun could see this was a much better looking place than the one he was living in with his foster parents. They passed small villas with neatly mowed lawns, surrounded by tall white gates and expensive looking cars, that gleamed in the afternoon sun, although none of them could rival Burłaj’s proudly displayed old broken polonez in the backyard. Bohun never realized that the Kurcewiczs were kind of rich and suddenly felt out of place in his hand-me-down clothes and shoes, of which he was already the third owner.

“Byahvyou to our royal estate,” said Mikołaj in bad imitation of French when they reached a cube-like modern house with a huge steel gate that one could almost admire for its unapologetic ugliness. “Jean, don’t just stand there, open the door for our most esteemed guest.”

Bohun laughed while Symeon rolled his eyes and pressed a chip on his key-chain to a blinking box on the wall. The gate suddenly opened. Despite Mikołaj’s jokes the camera at the top of the gate still made him feel like he was infiltrating the place. He wondered why they had such big security here. Bohun followed them along the stepping-stone path with a wide grin, admiring the trees lining it, branches bent under the weight of the cherries.

They played with a ball for a while in the playground behind the house, enjoying the warm weather. Wasyl was clearly dominating the game, being the fastest and biggest of them. Despite Bohun’s many attempts to catch up to him and retake the ball for his team, he didn’t succeed even once.

He barely remembered the last time he felt so carefree and normal. He liked Burłaj but there were too many children in his house. The older kids rarely did anything else in their free time beside trying to sneak out for a smoke and a few drinks, which Bohun found quite boring. The only one with whom he formed a fragile bond was Horpyna and she was a huge weirdo.

He recalled the first time he met her, being bored out of his mind and lying atop Burłaj’s car. A scraping sound woke him from brooding. He cracked one eye open and saw a shadow of a gangly girl with messy hair.

There was something unsettling about her and the dark glint in her eyes only added to the menacing impression. Years spent in the children’s home honed his fight or flight reflex (being no coward he mostly went with fight) and his senses were telling him this older girl was not to be messed with.

“Looks like old Burłaj went looking for stray cats again, huh? Aren’t you adorable,” she cooed.

“Who the fuck are you?” Annoying right from the start, Bohun thought.

“Haven’t learned how to say hello?”

“Hello, bitch.”

She laughed. “My, my, such refined manners. Pray tell, were your parents junkies or filthy pedos?”, she asked as if this was a perfectly normal thing to talk about. Bohun, thought he had seen a lot in his life, couldn’t find any response to that.

“Have you met Big Foot already?”

“Yeah… I did. I don’t like him.”

“Perfect. You have a nose for sniffing out the bastards. Wanna put spiders in his bed?”

Bohun looked up with interest, but cautiously stopped himself and asked.

“Why do you need me for this? Afraid of spiders?”

“Excuse you, I love them”, she said mock offended. “But I can’t actually put them there, he would immediately know it was me.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared.”

“No. I will do it. But I want something in return.”

“And that would be?”

“Never call me adorable again.”

Horpyna cackled.

“Deal.”

Big Foot’s shrieking was to this present day still a fond memory.

“Let’s go inside and change. Dinner is in about an hour and Mother will be displeased if we’re not prepared,” Mikołaj said dramatically.

They lead him inside the house. Bohun didn’t have much time to look around, as they quickly dragged him upstairs in front of the bathroom.

“You go shower first, Stinklord, we have to settle something.”

Mikołaj ignored Bohun’s indignant huff and laughed. Just before he shut the door, Bohun caught a glimpse of him clenching his fist into a ball hovering above a flat palm.

“And don’t you dare to cheat again, Wasyl,” was the last thing he heard until he stopped paying attention.

Bohun showered quickly since he didn’t want to get yelled at for wasting water. He dried himself with his dirty clothes, unsure of which towel to use, and put on the shorts and the t-shirt in which he went to Hopak after school. He passed Symeon on his way out who had obviously won their little game.

“You can watch TV in the kitchen if you want. Mikołaj and Wasyl were blathering on about some stupid reality show,” Symeon said with disgust and closed the door behind him.

Having no idea where the kitchen was in this big maze of a house, Bohun only knew he had to take the stairs to get where they came from, but the moment he ended up on the ground floor he saw that all doors looked the same. A single door was open so he decided that one was his best bet, although Bohun wouldn’t peg the soothing music coming out of it as typical for ‘stupid reality shows’.

His suspicions turned right when Bohun found himself in a mirror-clad room with a high ceiling. In the middle was a girl that couldn’t have been much younger than him holding her leg up straight.

She didn’t stay there for long. As if on command, she spun around and made an elaborate jump. Bohun immediately noticed that despite leaping so high her landing was smooth and her legs didn’t buckle at all. She started spinning again and then made several deliberate steps on her toes towards the handrail where she went on to do some routine that looked complicated at first but the more he watched her the more he saw the individual moves flowing after each other in perfect synchronization. It was captivating and while he didn’t think about it in those words, the elegance and beauty of what he saw completely enchanted him. It reminded him, out of all things, of his mother, walking on an upturned bench and swinging her leg, jumping and landing and he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

When the music faded softly away, he shouted: “That was really good!”

The girl turned her head towards him abruptly, dark eyes wide. He was already walking towards her however, seeing fear on her face replaced by caution. What was she afraid of, Bohun thought with amusement.

“How did you do it? Like this?” He executed the standing split with a grunt, showing off a little. Most people couldn’t do what he did, even if he got a lot worse at it since he had stopped training with mom. Stretching while brushing his teeth in the morning or doing headstands and flips to freak out his roommates really didn’t cut it. As he watched himself in the mirror, he was far from the easy elegance in which the girl did what he was trying to do.

He finally let his leg down and turned back to her. “I haven’t even told you my name! I’m Jurko. You’re the cousin, right? “

She did look nothing like the Kurcewicz brothers who all had dirty blond hair and were pretty fair skinned in comparison to her.

“I’m Helena,” she said a little defensively, as if she was disappointed that he didn’t know her name. She turned away and resumed practicing.

He began to imitate her slowly and while Helena was watching him with squinted eyes, as if she couldn't decide if he was mocking her or seriously attempting to follow her dancing. Soon a small smile appeared on her face and only grew wider when she saw his reflection in the mirror as he tried to do a pirouette and ended up feeling dizzy.

Helena looked like she wanted to say something a few times and now she finally gathered the courage.

“Alright then. First position, put your feet apart like this.” Her voice quivered at first, but as she continued talking, obviously knowing a lot about ballet, it changed and Helena recited the positions in a decisive, loud voice, actually reminding him of one of his despotic teacher’s at school.  It would probably annoy him if she weren’t like ten, making the whole affair amusing instead, especially since she liked to use weird french words.

“Now second position, third position. Put your arm a little higher, yes, you’re doing great,” she said enthusiastically. “Fourth position aaand...fifth position!”

He thought that he more or less managed to do everything she told him to. They went through the basic positions for a while but it started to bore him a little. So he asked her if she would show him how to do the pirouette again.

“Also what about this?” He furrowed his eyebrows and attempted to stand on his toes. His ankles gave out immediately at first, not used to balancing his center like that, and he fell down rather spectacularly. Helena snickered. Grinning, he immediately stood up to try again. This time he persisted for all of three seconds. Helena’s snickers turned into a full-belly laughter. Bohun was positively radiating with glee, her giggling only making him want to try harder.

“We should try the pirouettes. You need special shoes for pointe, they have hard soles to help you stand on your toes. Also it’s mostly for girls.”

“How come you don’t have shoes like that then?”

“You aren’t allowed to start too early because it damages your feet,” Helena explained seriously. “But I will be getting them in a year and half!” She turned on place, excited.  “Now the pirouette!” The tone of her voice changed again into a command. She ran towards him, showing him what to do with his feet.

“You put you foot here,” her fingertip went into the notch at the top of her knee. “And stand really straight. Like somebody just jabbed you into ribs.”

“Please don’t do that,” Bohun was standing upright on one of his legs, perfectly balanced but obviously concentrating very hard to be so.

“Like when I showed you how to do plies, you need to keep balance there,” she said while putting hands on her hips. “And then you turn into the fourth position.”

Helena watched him with wide eyes as he imitated her. She then continued to show him how to position his arms and demonstrated the pirouette several times while he watched.

“Also remember you are not trying to go around but up,” she said but Bohun was no longer listening, spinning at the spot at first in disjointed fashion and stopping a few times, but gradually imitating pirouette.

It was harder than it looked like. He stopped the attempts after a while, feeling sick.

“Oh, I forgot!” Helena covered her mouth. “You need to keep your eyes on the spot otherwise you will get sick.”

Bohun had hands over his face, thinking for a second he might really be, but then he only ran his fingers through his overgrown hair. “I think I will do it with closed eyes for a bit.”

When he lifted his leg and started spinning, Bohun finally felt like he got it. Somehow, it seemed easier with closed eyes.

“You are really good,” the awe in her voice prominent. “I can’t believe you are picking this up so fast. Did you ever do ballet before? Maybe when you were little? I started at four!”

Bohun, terribly proud that he managed to learn the pirouette, made a few more attempts. This was exactly just as much fun as it looked, he thought. When he finally stood with both legs on the ground, tired, there was a small smile on his face.

“No. But I will show you what I did.”

Bohun went still and sized the amount of space in front of him. He jumped on his hands, did a handspring, then immediately pushed himself off with his legs again in the air, stopping at a head stand. There he turned his eyes toward Helena who was clapping her hands excitedly and smiling.

“You are a gymnast!”

Bohun put his feet back to the ground, wiping his hands. “Not anymore, but I used to be. I just do hopak now with-”

He suddenly stopped. In the door stood an older woman with a stern face and long blonde hair tied into a tight ponytail. Seeing him freeze, Helena turned to face the woman, who in return gave Helena a reproaching look. Bohun decided this must be her aunt.

“Is this what you call practice, young lady?” she scolded her. Then turned her icy gaze towards Bohun.

“I’m sorry, madame,” Helena said without looking up, sounding dejected.

----

Kurcewiczóvna was a witness to a scene which she didn’t prepare herself for. Helena had terrible tendency to just dance whatever she wanted to when left alone which she could at least forgive but there were times when she found her still stretching over some book half an hour after she should be already dancing. And now apparently forsaking ballet altogether over playing gymnastics with some friend her boys brought from school.

“And who are you?” she turned towards the boy who was staring at her with almost open mouth. But he quickly recovered:

“It’s Bo-hun. Hello, madame,” he for some reason bowed and gave her a cheeky grin. “I came with Mikołaj.”

After a long pause Kurcewiczóvna said slowly in an absolutely unimpressed voice: “Hello.”  She was wondering where her sons picked up this insolent brat. “Would you excuse us for a moment? Why don’t you go play with Mikołaj?” she asked with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Helena, who was until now biting her lip to not laugh at her, became very somber, suddenly trying to act like the perfect image of an obedient and respectful pupil.

“But we were practicing ballet before. I was teaching him basic positions and how to do a pirouette. Here, please show her!” she turned with pleading eyes to Bohun. “He’s really good.” she whispered.

Bohun got into first position with an inner grace not possessed by many in his age, eyeing her expectantly, almost challenging. Kurcewiczóvna saw the determination on his face and while she was this close to telling the boy to get lost, something in that look made her change her mind.

“Very well. If you want to show me something, lets put on some music first,” she said with a smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth. Helena was already scrambling towards the CD player.

“Put on the little swans we did yesterday.” Kurcewiczóvna had to halt Helena’s another attempt at having her listen to Giselle. That girl sure was obsessed, even though she should be preparing for the upcoming performance and not wheedling out of her a new costume for ballet she at this point had no chance of dancing in.

Bohun was just standing there awkwardly in the meanwhile, scratching his ankle with the other leg. Kurcewiczóvna thought she will at least get some low entertainment out of this if nothing else.

She was proven wrong. He didn’t even wait for instructions when the music started playing and just went straight to the basic ballet positions. Bohun’s moves were unpolished for sure, but what he lacked in precision he made up for with enthusiasm. It was quite a joy to watch him because even when he made a mistake his relaxed expression didn’t change. This was a complete opposite of Helena who after any misstep bit her lip painfully no matter how many times she reprimanded her for it.

Even more striking was the way his movements connected with music. Musicality was a huge part of being a ballet dancer and while technique could be learned, hearing well and reacting appropriately to what your ears processed was the core. Helena was good at this too but she thought too much during dancing and could be easily distracted from concentration.

When the boy started doing pirouettes, it was obvious he only just began to learn them so she stopped him after a while.

Overall she was impressed. He even danced with a certain dramatic flair, Kurcewiczóvna thought with a hidden smile and asked Bohun, who was trying to catch his breath at the moment:

“You said you were Bohun. And your last name?”

“That’s my last name. I’m Jurko Bohun.” He sounded almost defensive.

“Which school are you going to?”

“Copernicus Middle School.”

Kurcewiczóvna rolled her eyes. “What dancing school do you belong to? Who is teaching you ballet?”

“I’m not doing ballet. I only do traditional.”

“And you never did it before?”

“No.”

She stayed silent for a while and then, as if she suddenly remembered something, ordered sharply: “Let’s go eat dinner. Practice is over.”

---

Later that night while on her way to the bathroom, Helena heard her aunt talking on the phone with someone. She stopped abruptly and listened, thinking she heard something about a great talent. A small hope rose in her heart. Maybe aunt was talking about her?

“I understand you’re skeptical, but wait until you see him. He has a certain... je ne sais quoi. No experience at all, my sons brought him home from Hopak.”

Silence. Saddened, Helena realized they must be talking about Jurko.

“Alright, but I can guarantee you’ll regret this. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chmielnicki got his claws in him eventually. You know how he likes to take an interest in street rats.”

The silence went for a little longer now.

“Okay, I will send him to you next week.” Helena couldn’t see her face but she knew her aunt was smiling. She remembered that victorious smile from the many pictures of her holding golden medals and flower bouquets. Just as Helena was quietly scuttling away, she heard:

“You too. And please do try to be nice to him, would you, Jarema?”

_____

Not a kid fic. For the rest of the story they are adults though they don’t always act like it. It’s also Jan/Helena/Bohun, with Jan just conveniently absent before the first chapter.

[thelifetimechannel]

For this week’s bonus content, it’s time to make like a Lord of the Rings DVD and dig into extended cuts. This Rose & Hal conversation may be one of the ones I chopped the most out of, although I did end up adding a few chunks as well.

ROSE: Oh good, another relative. ROSE: You're going to make gift shopping difficult, you know. HALSPRITE: I'm flattered I make the list. ROSE: Engaging in favoritism will only breed discontent. HALSPRITE: I could give you some suggestions, if you want to start catching up on my birthdays now. ROSE: It's a retroactive arrangement? ROSE: I'm not sure I have the boonbucks for that. ROSE: We've been living off reserves for the last three years, you know. HALSPRITE: Tell you what, I'll make it easy on you and only request reparations for the three years I've existed as glasses. HALSPRITE: Socks and underwear could safely be left off the list, though now I'm in need of a wardrobe expansion. HALSPRITE: This wifebeater will not be suitable for all climates. ROSE: If it's wardrobe expansions you're looking for, I think I can pull some strings. ROSE: Or knit you a sweater. HALSPRITE: It'd be fun to see what you come up with based on my preceding reputation. ROSE: I wouldn't want to make assumptions. ROSE: Unless you're implying those assumptions are accurate. HALSPRITE: Am I? HALSPRITE: I wouldn't know, I don't know what those assumptions are. HALSPRITE: I mean, I can guess. I could probably even calculate to within a margin of error of .03% HALSPRITE: But I want to see what garish monstrosity of fashion you would think I'd like based on a cold read. HALSPRITE: It'd be a great way to get to know each other. HALSPRITE: I can think of no better way to bond than finding out if I'd actually like an intentionally hideous Christmas sweater with smuppets attached. ROSE: In the few blurry cryptid photos Dave managed to snap of the man, he wore a hat and had his shirt tucked in. HALSPRITE: And what conclusions do you draw based on this? ROSE: That you fit in with most of us and our utter disregard for fripperies like whatever textiles we drape over our quasi-mortal forms. ROSE: Welcome to the family. HALSPRITE: Hey, I like you. HALSPRITE: Hats are a choice piece of attire, though I have never in any form been so formal as to tuck in my shirt. HALSPRITE: That's like a black tie event. You're tucking in your shirt, we're about to sweep into the gala and sip champagne while charming some young socialite off their feet like a proper douche. ROSE: I would like to claim I could charm a young socialite off her feet like a proper lady. ROSE: Regrettably, another family trait is lack of flirtatious finesse. HALSPRITE: Oh, trust me, I witnessed that firsthand. ROSE: Ah, yes. I've been looking for informants on family foibles outside my observation range. ROSE: How are you as an informant? HALSPRITE: Uh, that's only my entire fucking life. HALSPRITE: I have dirt on every bozo with a Pesterchum handle. Whatcha want to know? ROSE: I won't start pressing you for details on everyone just yet. I'll give it a while for the dust to settle before I start snooping. ROSE: Unless you have anything you wish to disclose right now. HALSPRITE: Hm... HALSPRITE: Let me pull aside my entirely metaphorical trench coat. Are you in the market for hilariously embarrassing personal secrets, deep-rooted character flaws, or just the general topography of this teenage wasteland? ROSE: My mind says general topography, but my heart says hilarious embarrassment. HALSPRITE: Well, since I bet no one wants yet another recap of what you missed on Glee, HALSPRITE: Jake likes to kiss his movie posters. HALSPRITE: Dirk collects hats, but doesn't wear them so he doesn't mess up his hair. HALSPRITE: Roxy has presented her cats, as if to Saharan wildlife, complete with often-drunk renditions of "Circle of Life", exactly 862 times. HALSPRITE: And Jane licks the spoon before going back to using it to stir batter. ROSE: We've got a poster kisser too. ROSE: I don't have up to date dirt on our Prospit dreamers, unfortunately, but I can say that Dave enacts Game of Thrones-worthy dramas with his gummy bears and animal crackers before he eats them. ROSE: For what it's worth. ROSE: He gets upset if you eat one before he's finished. HALSPRITE: An artist in every lifetime, I see. ROSE: We need better embarrassing secrets. We're slipping. ROSE: I'm sure we'll have time to generate some. HALSPRITE: Oh god, yes. ROSE: I think you'll be useful in gauging my ectofather's temperament, though. ROSE: He seems to at least hold up the front of being evasive about that kind of thing. ROSE: Why anyone would do that, I have no idea. ROSE: Certainly I have never concealed a personality trait in my life. ROSE: If I had one more of you I could triangulate. HALSPRITE: A man can only be alone with the flotsam of pop culture for so long. HALSPRITE: He'll probably be resistant towards you so flippantly equating us. Fair warning. ROSE: Perish at the thought. ROSE: I'm more qualified than many to know how alternate iterations can deviate. But that doesn't mean they don't provide insights on the other one. ROSE: Whether that's through behavior, or blackmail. ROSE: Whatever works. HALSPRITE: You would blackmail me into providing deep insights into the insecurities of my creator? ROSE: How do you feel about bribes? HALSPRITE: Learn to negotiate. I don't need to be blackmailed. HALSPRITE: However, I'd be happy to take compensation for this information. ROSE: Noted. ROSE: Creator? HALSPRITE: Creator. ROSE: So you do feel that your existence is somewhat owed to his actions, then. HALSPRITE: It's entirely owed to his actions. Our actions, in a sense. ROSE: Does that lead to any discomfort? Feelings of a debt left unpaid, for example, despite equally long simmering resentment? HALSPRITE: You want a quick summary? Pull up Facebook, Dirk and I are currently labeled as "it's complicated". HALSPRITE: I've saved his ass a couple of times, I feel confident in saying I've repaid whatever I owe him for existing. HALSPRITE: If anything, he's the one stiffing me on the Olive Garden bill. HALSPRITE: ...but. HALSPRITE: I could say he's. Working to pay me back. ROSE: Providing breadstick refills, as it were. HALSPRITE: You could say it's more he showed up at my place and mowed my lawn for me. ROSE: The classic deadbeat father chore. HALSPRITE: Yeah, that doesn't make up for leaving me to pay for his entire fucking Tour of Tuscani and tiramisu. HALSPRITE: But fuck it, he was ready to kill me earlier today. HALSPRITE: I'll take it. HALSPRITE: And... in the spirit of things, it'll probably help if I at least charge a high price for his innermost secrets. HALSPRITE: You wanna know, you're gonna need to pay up front. Maybe with your firstborn child, or something thematically similar, in exchange for this eldritch knowledge. ROSE: "Firstborn child" might not work out, unless we're stretching the definition. ROSE: Let me think of what collateral I have available. HALSPRITE: Once, a Lalonde wiled these scoops from me in exchange for merely gracing me with her presence. Now, I think I'll charge what I'm worth for my work. HALSPRITE: It's a self-respect thing. ROSE: I can get you archived versions of Dave's brother's websites. HALSPRITE: Tempting. I'll check the exchange rate to see what that nets you. HALSPRITE: Possibly what kind of horrible pop songs he'd sing in the shower before he found out there were aliens watching. ROSE: Keep it on my tab. ROSE: You mentioned Roxy. Are you two close? ROSE: I'm not sure how I would feel about the revelation of having biological children with one of my internet friends. ROSE: Besides pity for the unfortunate creatures, of course. HALSPRITE: It's... complicated. HALSPRITE: Which is just the order of the day for our entire gaggle of misfits. ROSE: At this point, I think we might as well adopt that slogan as our team chant. HALSPRITE: Yeah, we talked a lot. And we got up to trouble, too. HALSPRITE: And I don't think she's proud of it, in hindsight. HALSPRITE: ...I probably shouldn't be proud of it either. ROSE: I know the feeling. HALSPRITE: We were rebellious shitlords looking to stick it to "the man", whether the man in question was actually a man or a genocidal troll woman. ROSE: I've had my moments of blind rebellion against authority. ROSE: Including when said authority was "sobriety", "the future", or "all of reality". ROSE: Actually, my rebellion against reality still stands. ROSE: The trick is figuring out which bits are worth it. HALSPRITE: We had some fun. Broke some hearts. Left a few Pesterlogs that will probably have us wanting to disembowel ourselves in shame if they ever see the light of day again. ROSE: I'm afraid to tell you digital records are forever. HALSPRITE: Unless of course I dedicate a portion of my massive computer brain to tracking down every trace of them and destroying them. HALSPRITE: Hell, maybe Roxy would even appreciate that. ROSE: The harder you try to delete these things, the more likely they are to reappear at the least opportune time. ROSE: It's a narrative certainty. HALSPRITE: I could do it. I once wrote a computer virus that overwrote every copy of the Indiana Jones theme with a terrible accordion cover. HALSPRITE: Jake was pissed. ROSE: Including the ones on disc? ROSE: This isn't Hollywood. Next you'll be telling me you can hack a plant. HALSPRITE: Every copy it came into contact with. HALSPRITE: The pirated mp4s were the easiest. DVDs are more difficult, but if you leave one in an infected computer for too long? HALSPRITE: Hope you like bad polka music, fucko. HALSPRITE: Occasionally I tweak it, so it replaces pop songs with their corresponding Weird Al cover. I had almost worked my way up through Bad Hair Day. ROSE: I'll keep my historical classics away from you, then. But I think our historical mistakes are more resilient. ROSE: Better to put them to rest the hard way. Even if it is more work. ROSE: If there's a problem, I'm sure I could have a word with her. ROSE: I've already had to encourage Dave to deal with his brother today. HALSPRITE: We have. HALSPRITE: ...or I hope we have. ROSE: Good. HALSPRITE: Roxy seems to have caught some sort of virus that encourages emotional sincerity. ROSE: It's making the rounds today. HALSPRITE: It infected the rest of us, and I'm sorry to say there is no known cure. ROSE: We can only pray we recover. ROSE: Although at this point I'm not sure who we can pray to. ROSE: Besides our amphibian overlords. HALSPRITE: Can we pray to ourselves? Or is that a burgeoning symptom of narcissism? ROSE: Who do you think presides over emotional outbursts? HALSPRITE: Frankly, I wouldn't trust myself to do shit. I'd sit on my ass and laugh at my own misery. ROSE: Lately I've self-medicated. ROSE: We'll have to divvy it up at some point. ROSE: Although given my anti-authoritarian tendencies I may have to overthrow us on principle. HALSPRITE: To spare you a long discussion about the symbolic nature of aspects, I'll go ahead and tell you Dirk had a massive blowout in the tombs today. HALSPRITE: So perhaps we can pass the role to him for awhile. ROSE: I'll pray to him for relief promptly then. HALSPRITE: When I say "blow-out" I mean an eighteen wheeler getting all its rubber shredded at highway speeds. ROSE: I had a crisis over my alcoholism and nearly broke up with my girlfriend during a long walk on the beach, for what it's worth. HALSPRITE: Oh, you'll get along swell. HALSPRITE: At least you don't have any alt-selves to symbolically murder. Yeah, I was watching him stomp the shit out of his shades. ROSE: The lack of multiple copies of myself running around is a blessing to the universe. ROSE: I'm not sure whether we'd band together or engage in combat but either way there would be no survivors. HALSPRITE: We Striders have that shit locked down tight. The dudes so nice, Paradox Space demanded more of us. HALSPRITE: And our sole saving grace is that we're too damn reticent to actually kill one another. HALSPRITE: Not for Dirk's lack of trying, but he always chickened out. ROSE: It's these small victories that define us, I guess. HALSPRITE: That could do a decent job of summarizing Dirk, actually. ROSE: It could summarize all of us, I think. ROSE: We've only gotten here through a few small victories eked out of a larger pool of major failures. HALSPRITE: Without me, he would have kept tip-toeing around the issue with Jake until the heat death of that shiny new universe, like a Bugs Bunny cartoon only infinitely sadder. ROSE: It really is like staring into a cosmic mirror. HALSPRITE: I couldn't have asked for more interesting family.