#my dad either starved me or shoved food I hated down my throat
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f1inl3ey · 1 month ago
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Healing my inner child by eating whatever I want whenever I want
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griffintail · 4 years ago
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I love all the parental stuff you write, it’s all so amazing!! And I may have been thinkin about it a lot while at work, and I originally wrote this idea/prompt thing down on some receipt paper, but anyway!!
Y’know how Dream manipulated Tommy during Exile? Well, how would Dream react if a similar thing happened to his own child? If his child had been taken from him somehow, and is made to believe that no one loved or cared about them, that they had to behave a certain way if they wanted any smidge of affection, etc.? Like the kid, when Dream’s gotten them back that is, is obviously touch starved and sleep deprived and so many other things, but they don’t mention any of it because they’d been explicitly told doing so wasn’t allowed?
About how many pieces would Dream’s heart shatter into? I must know.
-Signed Angsty Anon from a Fast Food Joint🍔🍟
That’s a mood, I have an actual notebook I have at work to write work stuff...I write more in it about my prompts than my work stuff. I hope it’s to your satisfaction!
Little Terror
Pairings: Parental Dream x F! Reader
Part 2
WARNINGS! : TOXIC RELATIONSHIP, IMPLIED ABUSED, MANIPULATION, BLOOD, IMPLIED VIOLENCE
DO NOT READ IF THESE MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE AND/OR CAUSE A TRIGGER!
       (Y/N) was Dream’s kid. Dream didn’t have to worry, that’s what he told himself.
        When she wanted to go with that…boy…he knew she’d beat the shit out of him if he got out of line. He taught her how to do that. She assured him though, there would be no need for that. They were in love and they’d be ok.
        He should have listened to his fucking instincts. He knew he should have.
        He found out by accident what was going on.
        Dream trusted his little girl, she’d be ok, she was strong…but she was still his little girl and George and Sapnap were about to break Dream’s neck if they heard one more time how Dream was worried.
        So.
        The three of them went to where the pair had moved out. Dream remembered letting his little princess move away.
        “I’ll be fine daddy.” She gave her sweet laugh as she slung her inventory bag on her shoulder. “Trent’s a good guy.”
        “I just wish you’d let me meet the boy.” Dream huffed, his mask on top of his head.
        “He lives so far away; I don’t want to force him to come all the way here and you need to keep everyone in check.” She grinned, a sparkle in her eye. “I’ll write, I promise. I know if I don’t Uncle George will cry.”
        Dream laughed quietly as he nodded. “Yeah, he would. Just, be careful out there, alright sweetheart?”
        (Y/N) put a hand on her sword. “I’m not the little terror for nothing.”
        It had been so sudden but she wanted to be close to this boy she had started dating. She hadn’t written though as of late and he had begun to worry when for a few months, it just didn’t come. That’s what sent them out with Eret in charge.
        “Come on, she’ll be fine.” Sapnap nudged him, hands in his pockets. “She’s your little terror.”
        Dream smiled lightly behind his mask. “Yeah. We’ll see there’s nothing…I just worry and I have been missing her.”
        Three-day travel on foot, they made it to the village where (Y/N) said this guy lived on the outskirts of. It wasn’t hard to find the larger house outside the village and they came up, Dream knocking on the door. It took a moment but the door opened, (Y/N) looking at him, but…it didn’t look like his little girl. Her eyes were dull, with no spark to them as bags were collected under them. She had no smile on her face either but everything looked perfect and trim about her.
        Her eyes went wide seeing Dream’s eyes as his mask was on the side of his face, sputtering.
        “You…I—You don’t trust me?” She questioned.
        Thousands of alarm bells were going off in his head and a thousand more went off after her words.
        “What? Of course, I do (Y/N).” He gave her a light smile. “I just missed my princess, so did Sapnap and George.” He motioned to the men behind him. “So, we came to surprise you, surprise.”
        She didn’t hold any sort of excitement in her eyes. Trent’s words echoed in her head as she watched the man in front of her.
        If he really loved you, he’d trust you to be ok with me. Right? Because I love you and I trust you.
        “I…I think it’s best if you guys leave.” She muttered.
        Dream stood there as Sapnap and George were looking at each other in shock.
        “Why? We came out here to see—” As he spoke Dream reach a hand over to put it on her shoulder but she flinched back from him and all movement and thought stopped.
        She flinched from him. Why would she flinch from him?
        Dream had seen men flinch from him before; Tommy, Wilbur, most of the L’Manberg people did after the war. But that was because he hurt them…
        “What happened?” Dream asked carefully.
        “I-I-I don’t-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She sputtered, her mind running rapidly.
        She couldn’t tell him, that was the number one rule!
        “(Y/N), it’s me. Dream, dad. I’m here.” He spoke carefully. “What, happened?”
        “What’s going on here?” Dream heard from behind him and (Y/N) shrank back behind the door slightly.
        Dream didn’t not like the picture he was making and the tall, lanky man appearing did not help matters. The man was slightly taller than Dream but Dream slipped on his mask as he was anything but intimidated.
        “You Trent?” Dreamed asked, stepping forward.
        Trent looked to (Y/N) and then back to the man coming towards him.
        “Yeah, what’s it to you?”
        “I’m her father and I want to know what the hell you’ve been doing with her?”
        Sapnap stood a few steps behind Dream as George stood by the door.
        “I have no idea what you’re talking—”
        Dream simply shoved the man and he fell over. The masked man stood over him, his hands on his hips.
        “What, did you do, to my little girl?”
        Trent tried to kick Dream’s leg but Dream was quick to react, sidestepping his foot and instead stepping on the other man’s chest and putting his sword point to his throat.
        “(Y/N).” Dream looked over at her, lifting his mask up enough to smile at her. “Go get your stuff, George will help you.”
        She hesitated by the door as George stepped towards her carefully.
        “Come on kid,” George said quietly to her and she nodded slowly.
        She walked inside, Dream sliding his mask on as he grinned sinisterly behind it as he tilted his head as he looked at the man under his foot.
        “Now, why don’t we have a little chat?” Dream laughed.
        George was very careful not to make too fast of movements after seeing her flinch at Dream. He helped her pack the few things she had; George was concerned as he felt like she had less than what she actually left with. As he gathered everything up, he also saw how little she had in the way of personal belonging, such as pictures. The most significate thing he didn’t see was her old mask and that concerned him greatly. The color-blind man was worried about what Dream would do.
        The pair came out, George carrying her bags to see Dream without his mask on, his hands in his hoodie pockets as Sapnap smirked next to him with no Trent in sight. George could spot the small bit of blood under the cuff of Dream’s sleeve. There was no blood on his weapons, so it was safe to assume he had used his actual hands and the other man was probably alive but he was never going to be the same.
        “Hey sweetheart, let’s go home.” Dream smiled gently as he nodded his head.
        Her hands twitched but she walked beside the three of her family members. Dream was on her right as George was on her left and Sapnap behind the group. The group of them walked in silence towards the Dream SMP land. As night started to drop, Sapnap and George made camp, and Dream and (Y/N) sat by the campfire.
        When the two other men were going for firewood, Dream looked as (Y/N), who was playing with the end of her shirt.
        “I don’t know what he did.” Dream said and she jumped slightly, making him frown deeply. “And you don’t have to tell me right away, but I’m here sweetheart. I’m never going to leave you alone again.”
        She hugged herself as she looked around at their surroundings, expecting Trent to come out of anywhere.
        “I’m not supposed to talk about it.” She whispered. “But did you come because you loved me?”
        “Of course, I did.” He assured her and she hugged herself tighter. “Can I hug you, kiddo?”
        “I-I-I-” She stuttered.
        He carefully scooted over and first put a hand on her shoulder. She stiffened and Dream waited before he pulled her into a hug. With the hug, her entire body relaxed, having missed such a loving feeling. She started to sob and he pulled her into his lap and hugged her as tight as he could.
        His little girl, she was so broken. He didn’t know how that lanky, bitch boy managed to break her but he did. Dream ran a hand through her hair as he rocked the both of them as his heart was broken seeing his little girl like this.
        “It’s ok princess, I’ll make all this right.” He muttered. “I’m so sorry this happened, I’ll make it right.”
        He hated himself. He should have gone with her the first day she left. He should have done anything! He had to make this right now and he’d do everything in his power to bring her back. To make everything right.
 ....
        George and Sapnap came back seeing Dream holding a now sleeping (Y/N) as close as he could. Their friend looked so heartbroken as he held her.
        “I should have killed him.” Dream said. “No one else will ever get away with doing this to her. Are we clear?”
        The two other men shared a look before nodding to Dream.
        “Crystal.”
        Dream wouldn’t let this happen again and it was going to be a long time till he managed to fix his mistake.
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what-is-your-plan-today · 4 years ago
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Stark Spangled Forever
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A Very Rogers Christmas.
Part 1- The Best Things In Life Are Tree.
Summary: It’s that time of year again and the Rogers family prepare to go and pick their Christmas tree. But when Emmy calls with a bit of bad news, it puts a little downer on the whole thing for Katie and Steve decides to call in reinforcements to pull off the best Christmas Heist he can…
Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark
A/N: So here we go, Part 1 of my Stark Spangled 2020 Christmas special- A Very Rogers Christmas.  This one was written for for @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ and @sagechanoafterdark​ ‘s Winter/Holiday Challenge. My prompt- Finding the PERFECT Tree.
It feels like AGES since I wrote for my babies so I hope you enjoy this little three parter. Part 2 posting next Friday, and part 3 on Christmas Eve.
SSF Masterlist //  WIYPT Masterlist 
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"Daddy, I found something else I want to ask Santa for, for Christmas." Rori bounced into the study and Steve closed his eyes on the papers he was trying to grade and sighed.
"I bet you have." He mumbled before he glanced up at his daughter and couldn't help but smile at her as she skipped over to him, her long pony tail swinging behind her "What is it, Princess?" "A capybara." she said, scrambling up onto his lap. "A what?" Steve frowned. "A capybara. Look!" she turned the tablet she was holding towards him to show him a picture of the brown animal "They're like huge guinea pigs. I saw one at the zoo with Uncle Buck yesterday and when I said I wanted one he told me to tell you that I was gonna ask Santa." "Course he did." Steve sighed, mentally cursing his asshole best friend. "You know, Rori, don't think Santa can get you one of those." "Why not?" "It’s too big." He attempted “There’s nowhere for us to keep it.” "Our garden is huge!" Rori blinked at him. "And when Emmy and Petey move into the Tower he can live in the cabin." Trust her to be as damned smart as her mother. "They're wild animals honey." Steve shook his head as he tried attempt number two. "But they live in a zoo." Rori looked up at him, her face full of eager excitement “That’s not the wild.” "Yeah but that’s different." Steve reasoned patiently. "They're not like dogs or cats or regular guinea pigs. They need very special care.” "Oh." Rori looked down a little, her shoulders slumping and Steve sighed.
Fuck you, Bucky.
"Okay. Never mind." She clicked off the screen of her tablet and turned towards Steve, looking up at him with those damned green eyes. "Do you think he could get me a kitty instead?"
No, just say no… "Maybe."
Way to go, Rogers. Rori's eyes lit up and Steve inwardly groaned. It was a well-known fact in their house that whenever Dad said maybe, it meant yes. Fuck.
“I love you Daddy!” she beamed, reaching up to press a kiss to his bearded cheek before she hopped off his lap and skipped towards the door “Oh, me and momma are going to make gingerbread men for tomorrow so we can have them when we decorate the tree.”
“Can’t wait baby.” He smiled
“Are you gonna be working tomorrow afternoon?” she asked a little shyly and he shook his head.
“No, I promise.”  He assured her. “All day tomorrow is family day.”
She gave him another huge smile, one that truly warmed his entire being as it made her look even more like his wife, and then headed out of the room, her feet pattering on the tiles of the hallway as she skipped back into the other part of the house. Steve exhaled and looked back down at the paper, groaning as he realised he’d lost his place. He’d been home early that afternoon hoping for more peace and quiet than he got in his office at the University to concentrate on getting through all these and for the most it had worked, until Jamie and Rori had arrived home from school full of it as usual. Katie had kept them out of his way for the most but the realisation that Christmas was well on the way had hit the eldest two and whipped them up into a fever.
Not that Steve particularly cared. He adored this time of year. It was Katie’s holiday and from the day after Thanksgiving the Christmas period started in full throttle in the Rogers household, and they’d picked tomorrow, 2 weeks before the schools broke up, to go and pick the trees for their lounge and hallway. He was a little disappointed that it hadn’t snowed yet, there had been a good covering the previous year but, still it was set to be a cold and dry day so they could still get bundled up and have their hot chocolate and snacks as usual.
He rubbed at his eyes and focussed, reading through the paper in front of him on the ‘Strategy, Diplomacy and politics of Axis and Allied forces in WW2’, wishing to God he was marking something on the course he was actually employed to teach now- Fine Arts- but all those had been done and graded last week. This was the module of History that he taught, because as the Uni said- he was a living, breathing expert.
Aparently.
An hour or so later he finished red-penning the final six paged essay, with a proud smile as that one had been particularly good and he quickly checked it over once more, making sure he’d captured all the notes on the electronic copy and queued it up to send on Monday, just like Katie had shown him how to, so that each student had the hard copy and soft copy back. He stood up, stretched, turned off his laptop and headed through to the main area of the house, the smell of baking and cooking hitting his nostrils as he went.
He walked into the kitchen to find Rori kneeling on one of the tall stools over the island-slash-breakfast bar, her hands and face smeared in pink icing as she decorated a gingerbread man, her little tongue poking out of the side of her mouth in concentration. Katie was stood supervising Harry who was also covered in frosting, this one bright green. Flossie sat in the highchair opposite, banging a spoon on the tray occasionally letting out a yell or babble of something incoherent. As soon as she saw Steve she gave a huge grin and her shouts became louder and he smiled.
“Hi Floss-Floss!” he beamed, crossing to drop a kiss to her head before he looked across at Katie “Where’s Jamie?”
“Upstairs in his room.” Katie gave a little sigh “He said, and I quote, ‘I’m ten now, far too old to decorate gingerbread, mom.’ I could have cried there and then Steve.” She finished with a pout.
Steve gave her a sympathetic smile, the fact her eldest baby boy was growing up was something he knew she hated “Yeah, I bet he won’t be too old to eat them, though.” He appeased and she smiled.
“That’s what I said.” Rori gave a dramatic roll of her eyes and Steve chuckled.
“You finished Grading?” Katie asked as she gently guided Harry’s hand over the cookie shaped like a Christmas tree.
“Yeah, all done. Sorry it took so long.”
“It’s okay.” She looked up at him, smiling “Your dinner is in the oven. I already ate with the kids. Sorry, I was starving.”
“I didn’t expect you to wait.”  Steve walked over the room and dropped a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks, Sweetheart.”
He made his way over to the Aga stove and opened the door, giving a little groan when he saw she’d done his favourite, a Mac and Cheese bake laced with chicken, chorizo and broccoli. He turned to look at her and didn’t miss the flicker of a smile on her face as she knew what he was thinking, before he pulled out the plate giving a yell as it burnt his fingers, dropping it onto the side with a clatter.
“Careful daddy, hot!” Harry turned to face him, and Katie burst out laughing.
“Yeah, thanks Son.” Steve tried not to roll his eyes as he sucked his thumb. Grabbing a tea-towel he gripped the plate, found some cutlery and sat down at the table to the side of the kitchen, tucking in.
“I finished all mine, Momma.” Rori grinned, placing the tube of squeezy frosting down on the side. Steve watched as Katie moved to look over Rori’s shoulder.
“Good job sweetie.” She smiled, “Creative, I’ve never seen a pink cat before.”
Steve paused and looked at Rori as she grinned “I know they’re not really pink, and my kitty won’t be, but it can have a pink collar.”
At that he winced and hastily shoved another forkful of food into his mouth, praying that the conversation stopped there.
Katie sighed “Rori we’ve been over this, you can’t have a cat.”
“Daddy said I could.”
Shit.
Katie’s eyes shot to Steve and he gave her his best innocent look, but from the way her features grew stern he knew he was utterly busted and he swallowed the food in his mouth which turned to cement in his throat.
“No, that’s not what I said.” Steve shook his head.
“You said maybe.” Rori shrugged “Same thing.”
“We getting a kitty?” Harry asked, looking at Katie.
“No.” she shook her head.
“But I asked Daddy if Santa would bring me one and he said maybe.” Rori looked at Katie.
“Well Daddy is wrong.” She glared at Steve and he visibly shrank in his seat. Katie’s green eyes narrowed before they turned back to Rori. “Santa can’t bring live animals. It’s in the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The Christmas Rules” Katie said quickly “No live animals. It’s not fair on them. They don’t like the sleigh.”
“But…”
“No buts Rori.” Katie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose “I’m sorry honey, but it’s not gonna happen.”
Rori pouted a little but she knew when she was beat and glanced down at the cookies on the tray before she looked up, grinning smugly. “I’ll just ask Uncle Bucky to get me one. He got me Dory.”
“Oh for the love of…” Katie spluttered “Uncle Bucky won’t get you one either.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ll tell him not to.” Katie looked at her “We have Stark. No more animals.”
Rori folded her arms and at that point Steve stepped in, sensing an impending tantrum.
“Aurora.” He said sternly and she turned her head to face him as he pointed his fork at her. “Enough.”
She glared at him before she sighed and looked at Katie “Can I get down now please?”
Katie obliged and pulled her stool out a little allowing Rori to hop down. “Stay right there little miss.”
“Why?” Rori frowned as Katie headed to the sink, coming back with a cloth. With a groan, Rori held out her hands so Katie could wipe them clean, along with the little smear of icing on her face “20 minutes and then its bath time. We’re up early in the morning.”
“Ooh, yeah!” Rori bounced excitedly “To pick our trees. Hey, can I get one for my room?”
Katie hesitated before she shrugged “You know, I saw some in the shop that already have the lights on and they change colour. We’ll get a big one for the lounge and hallway like normal and I’ll get you a special one. And you get to keep it for next year and the year after.”
Rori pondered this for a moment before she shook her head “I want a real one from the farm.”
Katie groaned, and threw her hands out to the side “Fine, just, go and watch TV or something in the Play Room.”
“I watch TV too please, Momma?” Harry asked and Katie nodded, cleaning him up too before she lifted him down off the stool. He toddled after Rori, yelling for her to wait and as soon as they were gone Katie rounded on Steve.
“Honey, I…” he began and winced as she exploded on him.
“Seriously? A damned cat?”
“She caught me unawares.”
“She always catches you unawares!” Katie scoffed “After six, almost seven years I’d have thought you’d be used it by now.”
“I only said-“
“And as usual I’m left to be the bad guy.” Katie ranted, shaking her head as she moved to turn Flossie’s chair so she was facing the table. “You’re an asshole.”
“This is technically Bucky’s fault.”
“Oh, no, Steven Grant Rogers! Don’t you are try and blame this one on Buck.” She hissed.
“But he took her to the zoo and told her to ask for a capybara!” Steve practically whined “When I said no she asked for a cat, the maybe just slipped out.” Katie paused, her arms folded, face furious and Steve peered up at her giving her a little smile “Don’t be mad, come on baby. I didn’t mean it.”
“You’re still an asshole.” She grumbled, before she crossed to the fridge and pulled out the wine. “And for that you can deal with bedtime. I’m going for a bath.”
“Sure, not a problem.” Steve nodded, swallowing more of his food. Katie poured herself a large glass before she moved to put the bottle back and then changed her mind. With the bottle in one hand, full glass in the other she made for the door. “I love you.” Steve shot as she passed him, and despite her annoyed demeanour, the slight smile that played on her face told him he wasn’t in too much trouble.  
****
All kids were bathed and in bed little over an hour later. The youngest three settled down to sleep, Jamie instructed he had an hour of TV or reading time before lights off.
“Ok Dad.” He nodded, running his hand through his hair as he tidied up his games console a little, Stark curled up on the bed.
“I’ll be in to check.” Steve looked at him, and Jamie rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I got it. You can trust me.”
“I know.” Steve gave a chuckle “Night son.” He crossed the room to drop a kiss to his head and Jamie pushed him away.
“Gerroff, I’m ten.”
“Yeah, well, you’re still my kid so…” Steve grumbled, and Jamie burst into laughter as the pair of them began to play fight, Jamie digging Steve in the ribs with a well-aimed jab. “Ouch! “ Steve stood up, rubbing at his side, that had hurt a little too much for his liking. “Nice shot.”
“Bucky said I had a good right hook.”
Steve rolled his eyes “I don’t wanna know how he even found that out.”
“He has a punch bag in the garage.” Jamie shrugged as he flopped down onto his bed. “Like yours. He was teaching me to swing.”
“I could teach you that.” Steve replied, a little petulantly.
“Will you?”
“No. You’re ten.” He shot back and Jamie let out a groan of frustration, before Steve chuckled “Ok, I’ll teach you a little IF you promise not to use it anywhere but on the punch bag.”
“But what if I need to use it?”
“Well, that’s different.” Steve pondered, before he shook his head. “But you’re far too young to be getting into situations like that.”
“Uncle Buck said you were fighting people form the age of six. And getting your ass kicked.”
“Well, you do as I say…”
“Not as I do, yeah I got it.” Jamie grinned and Steve arched an eyebrow before he made his way to the door. He paused and turned back to look at his son, not for the first time taking in how damned tall and broad he was for his age. He pointed to Stark “Don’t let your mother catch him on the bed.”
“You know she says the same thing about you.” Jamie looked at him and Steve chuckled.
“I do, but let’s just pretend I don’t okay?”
“Okay, night dad. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Steve smiled, closing the door behind him.
He made his way back downstairs and into the lounge, and paused as he saw Katie talking into the laptop, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Don’t worry about it.” She said softly, and he could tell she was fighting to keep her face straight as Emmy’s voice came from the other side.
“I’m just gutted we can’t get home to come with you guys for the tree.”
“What’s going on?” Steve frowned as he sat next to Katie on the sofa, looking at Emmy and Peter as they both waved to him on the screen “Hey Kids.”
“The UK has been caught up in a huge snow storm.” Katie turned to him. “Their flight has been cancelled.”
“Bummer.” Steve’s frown deepened “Is there nothing from another airport?”
“Not in London.” Emmy shook her head “And the roads are that bad, even if we managed somewhere else…”
“Don’t wanna risk driving Mr R.” Pete shrugged and Steve had to give it to him, that was a sensible move.
“Wise decision.” Steve bit his lip, before he turned to Katie “Can we not get The Stark jet over? You guys should have used that anyway, not gone commercial.”
The irony of his statement didn’t pass him by, as there’d been a time when he had hated using a private jet as he felt it was ostentatious, but he’d fast learned to live with it as it was less hassle and a damned sight comfier and quicker too.
“I told you we didn’t want to.” Emmy shot back and Peter hastily cut in to prevent an argument.
“Already tried Happy before we called. He can’t get in any airfield be it private or other. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Katie shook her head “If you need anything just call. Have you got a place to stay?”
“Yeah, The Savoy found us another room.” Emmy shrugged before she grimaced “I’m gonna have to put it on my credit card though.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Katie shook her head “Just do what you gotta do, we’ll sort the bill out. Do you need us to wire you some cash or-“
“No, we’ve got enough between us for that.” Pete smiled “Just the hotel. We could get somewhere cheaper if that’s-“
“If it’s that bad out there you can stay where you are.” Steve shook his head. “Don’t worry about the money kids, it’s not important.”
“Just call us if you need anything.” Katie added.
“Thanks Mom. Look, we’re gonna go try and get something to eat and then sleep” Emmy sighed “It’s past 1 am now.”
“Sure, call us tomorrow okay, keep us updated.” Steve instructed and Emmy nodded.
“Will do. Love you both.”
“And you.” Katie smiled “Stay safe, and look after each other.”
“Got it.” Emmy grinned and with that she blew them both a kiss as Peter waved and the screen went blank.
Katie bit her lip before she tapped at the keyboard of her laptop “I’m going to send her some money, just in case. I know she has plenty in her savings, but…”
Steve nodded “Good idea. Those are for a rainy day, not a snowy one.”
Katie gave a small smile as she logged into the banking, and hesitated before she transferred a few thousand over to Emmy and closed the laptop, running her hands over her face. Steve saw her shouldes shake and he gave a sigh, pulling her to him.
“Hey, come on. They’re safe. In the poshest hotel known to man.” He pressed a kiss to her head “No doubt thinking this is some kind of huge romantic adventure. Snowed in, in London, with a mini-bar, room service.”
At that thought he grimaced, as his mind took him to a very dark place about just exactly what the spider kid would be doing to his daughter in said hotel room but he shook himself out of it as Katie spoke, sniffling a little.
“I know it’s just, well we started this tradition with Emmy that first Christmas she lived with us.” Her voice cracked “We went with Tony, Pep and Nat remember?”
“I could I forget.” Steve chuckled, his hands rubbing Katie’s back “You were almost five months pregnant and had that jumper on with a huge Christmas pudding on the front.”
“I’ve still got that.” Her voice was muffled as her face pressed into his Henley.
“And Pepper was going mad when Tony bought that nine foot tree for their lounge.”
“Ours wasn’t much smaller.” Katie laughed, leaning back to wipe her eyes. “You had to trim the top off.”
Steve chuckled, his hands cupping her face “A few days after that we found out bump was blue. Hello Jamie.”
“God it seems so long ago.”
“It was.” Steve smiled pressing a kiss to her lips. “11 years.”
“Yeah.” Katie looked at him “We’ve been through a lot since then.”
Steve nodded, as he wiped her face with his thumbs “And a lot worse than this. I know it’s disappointing, kitten, and I’m gutted as well, but it can’t be helped. We’ll still have a good time and we can go out with Emmy and Peter when they get back, nice meal and a few drinks somewhere instead, just the four of us. Start a new tradition now she’s all grown up.”
“Yeah suppose.” Katie sighed “I mean when they moved out in the New Year, they might not wanna come with us to get a tree anymore.”
“Like that’s gonna happen.” Steve snorted “She’ll simply be getting one for her own place. You know she loves Christmas as much as you. All the kids do. Because you make it so special.”
“It isn’t all down to me.” She smiled “You help.”
“It’s definitely your speciality.” Steve shook his head “You do the baking, the carols, the cooking…suss the decorations out.”
“Yeah, but you hang them. And you’re the one that started leaving Santa footprints by the hearth.”
“Okay so it’s a team effort.” Steve shrugged, dropping another kiss to her lips. “It always is when the kids are concerned.” He pulled back a little and nodded to her glass “You want another?”
“I wasn’t going to but yeah, now I do.”
Steve chuckled “I’ll go get us a drink, you find us something suitably Christmassy to watch.”
He stood, pressing his lips to the crown of Katie’s head before he wandered into the kitchen. As he closed the door behind him he pulled out his phone. He’d had an idea, but hadn’t wanted to mention it to Katie just in case it didn’t work…but if it did, well, he was going to reunite his family for their tradition and earn himself major husband points.
Win win situation.
“Hey punk.” Bucky drawled as he picked up.“What’s crackalackin?”
“God you talk some shit.” Steve rolled his eyes and Bucky laughed
“Sorry, we were watching Madagascar.”
“Yeah, I know where it’s from. I got five kids, remember. Six if I count you.”
“Well you could argue Diva Doll counts for two so you really have seven.”
“Yeah, speaking of which, I got a bone to pick with you about her and a damned capybara.” Steve narrowed his eyes as he spoke and there was a pause before Bucky burst out laughing. “Yeah, laugh it up, jerk. That got me in some major shit before.”
“You didn’t say yes?”
“No of course I didn’t.” Steve sighed “But she sideswiped me asking for a damned cat and I said maybe, so…”
“You fucking moron.”
“Whatever, listen, that’s not why I’m calling anyway.” Steve sighed, his voice growing serious. “I need a favour, Buck.”
“I’m listening.” Bucky replied, before Steve explained the predicament and possible solution. When he finished there was a pause and Bucky let out a long whistle. “Man, that’s…”
“I know, I know.” Steve sighed “But I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate. Katie’s heartbroken Emmy can’t get home.”
“Well, we can’t have the second most important woman in my life upset now can we?” Bucky replied “Leave it with me.”
“Cheers buddy.”
“You’ll owe me a life time of favours if I can pull this off.”
“We’ll call it quits for you almost getting me couched.”
“Not my fault you can’t say no to your likkle Princessa.” Bucky responded and Steve snorted.
“You’ve met her, right?”
There as another pause and Bucky laughed “Point taken.”
“Not a word to Katie.” Steve instructed “Just in case you can’t do it.”
“You seriously doubt me after all this time?” Bucky sighed “That hurts Stevie.”
“You know what else will hurt?” Steve shot back “My foot up your ass.”
“You want me to do this or not?” Bucky scoffed “Because threatening me aint gonna make me wanna do you any favours.”
“No but not wanting to see my wife upset is.”
“You fight dirty, Steven.” Bucky’s voice was low and Steve could imagine the narrowed eyes he was pulling as he spoke. “Okay, I’ll call Sam now. Leave it with me.”
“Thanks Buck.”
Steve cut the call and stuffed his phone back in his pocket, running a hand over his beard. Buck was right, it was a big ask and ridiculously over the top but, well, nothing was too much for him where his family was concerned. And after everything they’d been through this year what with Flossie’s horrific birth and Katie’s post-partum depression, his amazingly brave and gorgeous wife deserved the damned world. With a sigh he yanked open the fridge as he pulled out Katie’s wine and a beer for him, simply hoping that it worked.
**** “You good?” Steve asked as Jamie hopped into the back of the Q7, taking his place on the rear row of seats.
“Yup.” Jamie grinned “I prefer it back here, Rori can’t bug me.”
“Wanna bet?” Rori turned her head and peered at him from her place in the middle of the second row and Steve shot her a look.
“Enough. I hear one sound outta you that’s annoying him, we’re coming straight home.” He said sternly. Rori eyed him shrewdly, as if weighing up whether he was serious or not and he raised his eyebrows, challenging her.
“Ok Daddy.” She shrugged, turning back round. Steve shot Jamie a wink as turned and collapsed Flossie’s little stroller. He slotted it down the side of Jamie’s seat before he shut the trunk and then quickly inspected the roof rack. Satisfied he looked up just as Katie came out of the house, Flossie on her hip, Harry jumping down the steps in front of her. He headed over to his dad and peeked up, Steve giving a laugh as his little woollen hat slipped down over his eyes.
“Come here, buddy.” He said, swinging him into his arms. The little boy gave a giggle as Steve pulled his hat straight so he could see.
“Thanks Daddy!” he smiled and Steve pressed a kiss to his rosy cheek.
“No problem. You ready to get a tree?”
He nodded “Big one!” he threw his arms out wide and Steve nodded seriously.
“The biggest.”
Ten minutes or so later they were sailing out of Brooklyn in the winter morning sun, heading for the tree farm some forty or so minutes away. True to her word, Rori was behaving and chatting to Harry, Jamie was quiet in the back doing something on his tablet and Katie was gently humming to something on the radio. Steve’s hand reached over for hers and he entwined their fingers, gently bringing her arm across his body, pressing a kiss to her wrist.
The journey pass uneventfully and as Steve announced they had arrived the kids all gave a cheer. He parked the car up and then the disembarking began along with issued orders for Jamie and Rori to stay where they were as they sorted the youngest two.
“I think I’ll just carry Floss.” Katie glanced around. “Pushing her stroller is gonna be a pain. I’ll put her in the carrier.”
“You sure?” Steve asked “I would say I’d do it but…”
“You’re gonna be carrying trees, yeah I know.” Katie waved him away. “Its fine, she’s not heavy. Besides, she’ll be too big to do this with next year.”
Steve smiled at her wistful tone, and between them they had Flossie strapped to Katie’s back in no time, having become experts at it over the years. Katie glanced over her shoulder as Flossie gave her a hug grin, before she peeked around and started to gabble animatedly.
“Ready?” Steve looked around and held the hand that wasn’t containing the saw out, Rori taking it as Katie took Harry’s, Jamie falling into step at her other side next to Steve who strategically placed himself between his eldest son and Rori to avoid any potential arguments between the two siblings.
“Want me to take that Dad?” Jamie asked, nodding to the saw. Steve hesitated then shrugged, it had the safety cover on so he handed it over, Jamie slinging it over his shoulder proudly, stepping in front of them a little and Harry wriggled his hand free of Katie’s and ran forward to take Jamie’s. Jamie smiled down at him and Steve shared a glance with Katie as she smiled at him, slipping her hand into his. The family made their way to the entrance and as they approached the various little trade stands, one of which was selling various hot drinks and baked snacks. Katie took a deep breath and smiled, the warming scents of spices, cinnamon and pine hitting her nostrils.
“Smells exactly the same.” She beamed and then frowned as Steve was looking around, blatantly not listening to her as he was busy studying something to their right.
“Hey!” she tugged on his hand and he glanced down at her.
“Sorry, honey.” He diverted his attention “Just saw someone I know.”
“Oh, from work?” she asked.
“Not exactly.” He nodded in the direction he had been looking and Katie spun at the same time Rori let out a shriek.
“Emmy!” she yelled, wrenching her hand free of Steve’s and bolting towards her sister as she strode towards them alongside Peter, Bucky and Sam.
“I don’t-how?” Katie was struggling for words at the sheer emotion of seeing her eldest daughter, who should still be stranded in England, sweeping Rori into hug. “Steve? What?”
“You got Bucky and Sam to thank.” He said gently, as she spun between them all, before she strode forward meeting Emmy halfway and throwing her arms around her.
“Hey mom!” Emmy smiled, before she pulled back and gently waggled Flossie’s hand. “Hi Floss!”
“How did you get here?” Katie sniffed, wiping her eyes, chuckling before she gave Pete a hug.
“Quinjet.” Emmy grinned “It was awesome. Hey Dad!”
“Hey, sweetheart.” Steve swept her up into a huge hug, picking her up slightly off the ground kissing her head. “Nice to have you home.”
“Hold up, a Quinjet?” Katie looked at Emmy, then to Bucky who shrugged.
“Yeah well Steve rang me last night begging for my help…” he began, putting on a whiney voice “Please Buck, I can’t do this without you Buck, you know the usual.” Steve rolled his eyes as Bucky sniggered. “So, me and Birdbrain set off on a daring rescue mission.”
“Yeah, we totally used and abused Fury’s equipment.” Sam chuckled, as he pressed a kiss to Katie’s cheek as he gave her a hug. “He’s gonna be pissed when he finds out.”
“Oh, screw him!” Katie gave a laugh as she turned to Bucky, wrapping her arms round him. “Thank you so much!”
“Anything for you darlin’” he beamed before she stepped back and spun to face Steve, reaching up and grabbing his face. With a smile she pulled him down to meet her in a long, deep kiss.
“Thank you.” She whispered against his lips, and he beamed at her, his nose brushing hers. “I love you, so much.”
“Love you too.” He smiled, before he drew himself up, a little embarrassed at their PDA in front of his two friends and the kids. “Right, who’s ready to go tree picking?”
“We’ll leave you to it.” Bucky smirked as various excited shouts rang out around them. “I’ve got stuff to do with Jen and Sam’s…ahhhh, crap.” The smile on his face turned into a grimace and Steve spun round to see a familiar figure in a trench coat and eyepatch stood by a black SUV watching from a distance.
“Son of a-” Steve snorted, shaking his head as Fury started walking towards of them. “He still knows everything.”
“You have no idea. “Sam muttered.
“Oh, trust me, we do.” Katie grinned as Fury stopped in front of them.
“Someone wanna tell me why one of my jets was in London this morning?” Fury looked at Bucky, then to Sam, then to Peter, all three of them giving him an innocent look.
“Well, there was a thing.” Bucky shrugged “Emergency.”
“Emergency.” Fury dead panned “So nothing to do with a certain Miss Rogers and Mr Parker being stuck in London in snow storm?”
“How do you know this stuff?” Bucky looked at him.
“I told you Barnes, you wanna get one up on me you gotta keep both eyes open.” He levelled him with a look. “Happy called me in a flap to see if I could action a pick up and I told him I wasn’t running a damned Uber service. And then one of them went missing so I put two and two together and looks like I came up with four” He paused and shrugged, smirking a little “Plus, you forgot to wipe the mission log.”
“Damned it Tin Man!” Sam shoved Bucky “You dick, I told you!”
As the two men began to squabble Fury raised his eyebrows and turned to Steve and then Katie, a small smile flickered across his face “Nova, Cap. Long-time no see.”
“Hi Nick.” Steve smiled, reaching out and shaking his hand.
Fury jerked his head as Katie shook his hand, his eyes roving over each of their kids in turn. “I’ll say. You’ve been busy I see.”
Katie gave a huff “One way of putting it.”
Nick arched an eyebrow before he sighed and turned to Bucky and Sam who were still bickering. “Imma let this one slide.” He spoke loudly, the two men instantly turning to face him. “But only because it’s the holidays and I’m in a good mood.”
“You know technically Stark Industries owns half those jets. Tony paid for and designed a lot of the tech on them after all.” Katie quipped and Nick looked at her, before he let out a laugh.
“You’re more like your brother than you’ll ever care to admit” he shook his head as she snorted, pointing at her.
“Worse people to be like.” She smiled fondly, and Fury gave one last scoff before he turned to Sam and Bucky.
“I’ll see you two later. Now, imma go get me some churros then split.” He looked back at them all “Merry Christmas.”
As they all waved him off, watching the curious glances he attracted as he strode towards the hot food stand and then Harry tugged on Steve’s sleeve, causing him to turn his attention from Fury to the little boy.
“Daddy, who’s the pirate?” Harry asked.
There was a pause before Katie burst out laughing, Steve following suite as they both shared a knowing glance, remembering Tony’s fond little nickname for their one time director.
The Goth Pirate.
“He’s an old friend of mine and your momma’s “Steve explained before he glanced up, not surprised to find that once more Fury had disappeared from sight. “We haven’t seen him in a while. And I doubt we will again for a long time.”
There were more hugs shared and after another final thank you to Sam and Bucky, Katie demanding they come over later for drinks, the four remaining adults and four kids all headed into the farm and the chaos began as they began to scout for their perfect trees.
“So we need two large ones.” Katie spoke, “And one for Emmy and Pete in the Cabin and a smaller one for Rori’s room.” she paused “Jamie, did you want one for your room too?”
“Nah, it’s okay.” He shook his head “Thanks though.”
“So four over all.” Steve nodded. “Okay gang, let’s find us some trees.”
They decided to get Rori’s first as it would be smaller and easier to carry once they’d picked it. They set about walking down the various aisles, and before long the jokes started flowing and they were getting worse and worse with time.
“What would you get if you ate the Christmas decorations?” Pete asked and Jamie looked at him, arching a brow. “Tinselitis.”
“Oh God.” Emmy snorted “That’s as bad as one of dad’s”
“Which reminds me.” Steve said, a smirk on his face, “Did you guys hear the forecast for Christmas eve? They’re predicting rain, deer…”
Katie and Emmy both let out a groan as Jamie and Peter howled with laughter.
“What do you call an elf that runs away from Santa’s workshop?” Jamie asked and Steve paused before he shrugged.
“No idea.”
“A rebel without a Clause…”
Katie, Steve, Emmy and Pete burst out laughing as Pete held out his hand to hi-five him. Jamie grinned.
“That’s a good one buddy.” Steve chuckled. “Where did you hear that?”
“Moo text me before.” He smiled “She said her and Auntie Pep had been googling them to put in their cards this year.”
“Like Father like daughter.” Katie smiled to herself, a little nostalgically as a memory of her brother crashed over her and Steve pulled her a little closer, his hand tightening on hers as he dropped a kiss to her head.
After half an hour or so of scouting and plenty of excited shouts and laughter, Rori paused in front of a tree that was the same height as her and she gave a gasp.
“Daddy, that one.” She pointed.
“You sure?” he cocked his head to one side. The tree was leaning to one side, the branches completely uneven, sticking out at all angles and the top was bent. “It’s a bit-”
“It’s perfect.” Rori insisted.
“Okay Princess, whatever you say.”  He looked at Katie as she smiled, her hand dropping to the back of Rori’s head. “Jamie, you got the saw?”
“Yup.” Jamie nodded, passing it over and they all watched as Steve gripped the trunk of the small tree with one hand a little higher up and began to cut it towards the bottom. He could have easily snapped the trunk with his bare hands but he played the part and in four strong swipes it pulled free with a little crack and Rori gave a shriek and clapped her hands.
“I love it!”
Once the safety cover was back on the saw they continued their search, walking towards the slightly bigger trees they spotted and Katie paused in front of a large, Norwegian spruce and reached out, gently crushing one of the needles between her fingers. She took a sniff and stepped back, nodding.
“That one.”
“I still can’t believe you pick them with the smell.” Steve shook his head.
“It’s not all the smell.” She protested “There’s a lot to consider. The height, width and spacing of the branches…this one’s just right for the corner in the lounge. And that one two down will do for the hallway.”
Steve chuckled, knowing better than to argue. “Positive?”
Katie nodded and once more Jamie passed him the saw. This time they all stepped back as Steve crouched down on the ground, expertly cutting the trunk and just the right place. As he took the final swipe, the tree pitched over to a loud shout of “Timberrrrr” from Jamie and Peter and it landed with a thud.
Harry gave a loud cackle and clapped, Flossie shrieking too as Steve then moved two down and repeated the action with a slightly smaller one that would sit in the entrance lounge directly in front of the photo of the pair of them at their wedding, so it would be the first thing anyone saw as they walked into the house.
Emmy strode past the tree to one that was behind it and then nodded to Pete “I think this one will do. I kinda like the way it fans out at the bottom.”
“Sure, Em.” He smiled “Mr R?”
“Oh, here.” Steve handed him the saw and watched as Pete cut his and Emmy’s first Christmas tree down, his arm round Katie’s waist, lips softly kissing Flossie’s cheek as the baby grinned. He arched an eyebrow as Emmy pressed a kiss to Pete’s lips, giving a soft huff as Katie dug him in the ribs, shooting him a warning glance which he returned with an innocent one of his own.
“Well, that was easy.” Emmy commented “It took us 2 hours last year.”
“They need to be right.” Katie shrugged simply, Steve and Emmy exchanging a look before Steve watched as Pete hoisted his tree easily onto his shoulder. It still surprised Steve how strong Peter was, even though it shouldn’t, he knew he was enhanced after all.
“I’ll take Rori’s, Dad.” Jamie stepped forwards, puffing his chest out a little, picking the smaller tree up easily and placing it on his shoulder, in an identical manner to Pete. Steve actively fought the urge to laugh as Jamie began to walk besides Peter and Emmy, clearly proud as punch at being able to help before he turned to Katie.
“Don’t say it.”
Katie laughed “Oh I’m gonna.” she smirked “If he was any more like you I’d be convinced he was a clone.”
Steve snorted as he bent down and easily lifted their two trees onto his shoulders, before they followed a little slower due to Harry being with them. Steve maneuvered around the other tree pickers as they went, his boot clad feet traipsing on the damp of the ground as they made their way back towards the main entrance and joined Pete, Emmy and Jamie at the place ready to pay. As the various helpers, all dressed in little Elf outfits bustled around to wrap their trees and strap them to the roof of the Audi, Katie was suddenly struck with a little problem.
“Hang on.” she turned to Emmy as she thanked the man who’d been dealing with and handed over the cash. “How are you two gonna get home if Bucky and Sam left?”
At that Pete gave a little grin and pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, “Mr Wilson let me borrow his Chevvy.”
“Yeah they went home on Buck’s bike.” Emmy shrugged and at that Steve let out a huge laugh.
“What?” Katie asked.
“Sorry, I’m just picturing those two riding pillion.” He snorted “I give it five minutes before Sam ended up tells Buck to let him off on account of him driving his Ducatti like a maniac.”
“You’ve no room to talk.” Katie scoffed and Steve looked at her with mock outrage.
“Mom?” Jamie asked and Katie turned to him “Can we get a drink now please?”
“Sure, come on.” She smiled and they headed over to the stall. She purchased a hot cider each for her, Steve, Emmy and Pete before hot chocolate for each of the kids along with a selection of donuts, churros and Stollen as Steve took Flossie back to the car so they could pop her in the stroller. They made their way over to one of the benches by the side and sat down and Steve returned, parking Flossie besides them before he handed her a piece of a donut and slipped his arm round Katie, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“You have a good time?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She beamed, before she glanced over at the other side of the bench. Jamie was settled to Emmy’s left, talking to her about school, as she nodded along whilst Rori was perched on Peter’s knee as she animatedly told him about how she was going to decorate her tree in unicorn colours. Harry meanwhile sat in between both Pete and Emmy, his little frame chewing on a donut as he grinned at his parents who smiled back. Katie turned to look a Steve again, leaning up to kiss him softly “It’s been perfect, thank you for making sure we were all together.”
“Well it wouldn’t be a Rogers Christmas otherwise would it?” he smiled, kissing her again.
“Get a room.” Emmy grumbled and Steve turned to her as she smirked, shoving a piece of donut in her mouth.
“Watch it young lady.” Steve pointed at her.                      
“Daddy.” Rori asked “Can I go with Pete in their car to Target? I need decorations for my Princess Tree.”
Steve hesitated for a while and Pete hastily cut in “It’s no bother Mr Rogers.”
“Yeah we need some for ours.” Emmy nodded.”So we’re going anyway.”
“I come too?” Harry asked hopefully and Emmy shrugged
“If Momma and Daddy say it’s ok, course you can, squirt.”
Steve looked at Katie who shrugged “Fine by me. Sure you can manage them?”
Emmy rolled her eyes “They’re no bother.” She then turned to Jamie “You wanna come too?”
“Hell no.” he said hastily, peering round at Rori before he shook his head “I’m going home for some peace and quiet.”
Both Steve and Katie let out a loud laugh, as Katie shook her head “Oh Jamie.”
“What?” he frowned.
“Nothing pal.” Steve smiled, reaching for his cider. “Nothing at all.”
#ssholidaychallenge #sageandsweater
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wiypt-writes · 4 years ago
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Stark Spangled Forever
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A Very Rogers Christmas Part 1- The Best Things In Life Are Tree
Summary: It’s that time of year again and the Rogers family prepare to go and pick their Christmas tree. But when Emmy calls with a bit of bad news, it puts a little downer on the whole thing for Katie and Steve decides to call in reinforcements to pull off the best Christmas Heist he can…
Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark
A/N: So here we go, Part 1 of my Stark Spangled 2020 Christmas special- A Very Rogers Christmas.  This one was written for For @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ and @sagechanoafterdark ‘s Winter/Holiday Challenge.
Prompt- Finding the PERFECT Tree.
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"Daddy, I found something else I want to ask Santa for, for Christmas." Rori bounced into the study and Steve closed his eyes on the papers he was trying to grade and sighed. "I bet you have." He mumbled before he glanced up at his daughter and couldn't help but smile at her as she skipped over to him, her long pony tail swinging behind her "What is it, Princess?" "A capybara." she said, scrambling up onto his lap. "A what?" Steve frowned. "A capybara. Look!" she turned the tablet she was holding towards him to show him a picture of the brown animal "They're like huge guinea pigs. I saw one at the zoo with Uncle Buck yesterday and when I said I wanted one he told me to tell you that I was gonna ask Santa." "Course he did." Steve sighed, mentally cursing his asshole best friend. "You know, Rori, don't think Santa can get you one of those." "Why not?" "It’s too big." He attempted “There’s nowhere for us to keep it.” "Our garden is huge!" Rori blinked at him. "And when Emmy and Petey move into the Tower he can live in the cabin." Trust her to be as damned smart as her mother. "They're wild animals honey." Steve shook his head as he tried attempt number two. "But they live in a zoo." Rori looked up at him, her face full of eager excitement “That’s not the wild.” "Yeah but that’s different." Steve reasoned patiently. "They're not like dogs or cats or regular guinea pigs. They need very special care.” "Oh." Rori looked down a little, her shoulders slumping and Steve sighed.
Fuck you, Bucky.
"Okay. Never mind." She clicked off the screen of her tablet and turned towards Steve, looking up at him with those damned green eyes. "Do you think he could get me a kitty instead?"
No, just say no… "Maybe."
Way to go, Rogers. Rori's eyes lit up and Steve inwardly groaned. It was a well-known fact in their house that whenever Dad said maybe, it meant yes. Fuck.
“I love you Daddy!” she beamed, reaching up to press a kiss to his bearded cheek before she hopped off his lap and skipped towards the door “Oh, me and momma are going to make gingerbread men for tomorrow so we can have them when we decorate the tree.”
“Can’t wait baby.” He smiled
“Are you gonna be working tomorrow afternoon?” she asked a little shyly and he shook his head.
“No, I promise.”  He assured her. “All day tomorrow is family day.”
She gave him another huge smile, one that truly warmed his entire being as it made her look even more like his wife, and then headed out of the room, her feet pattering on the tiles of the hallway as she skipped back into the other part of the house. Steve exhaled and looked back down at the paper, groaning as he realised he’d lost his place. He’d been home early that afternoon hoping for more peace and quiet than he got in his office at the University to concentrate on getting through all these and for the most it had worked, until Jamie and Rori had arrived home from school full of it as usual. Katie had kept them out of his way for the most but the realisation that Christmas was well on the way had hit the eldest two and whipped them up into a fever.
Not that Steve particularly cared. He adored this time of year. It was Katie’s holiday and from the day after Thanksgiving the Christmas period started in full throttle in the Rogers household, and they’d picked tomorrow, 2 weeks before the schools broke up, to go and pick the trees for their lounge and hallway. He was a little disappointed that it hadn’t snowed yet, there had been a good covering the previous year but, still it was set to be a cold and dry day so they could still get bundled up and have their hot chocolate and snacks as usual.
He rubbed at his eyes and focussed, reading through the paper in front of him on the ‘Strategy, Diplomacy and politics of Axis and Allied forces in WW2’, wishing to God he was marking something on the course he was actually employed to teach now- Fine Arts- but all those had been done and graded last week. This was the module of History that he taught, because as the Uni said- he was a living, breathing expert.
Aparently.
An hour or so later he finished red-penning the final six paged essay, with a proud smile as that one had been particularly good and he quickly checked it over once more, making sure he’d captured all the notes on the electronic copy and queued it up to send on Monday, just like Katie had shown him how to, so that each student had the hard copy and soft copy back. He stood up, stretched, turned off his laptop and headed through to the main area of the house, the smell of baking and cooking hitting his nostrils as he went.
He walked into the kitchen to find Rori kneeling on one of the tall stools over the island-slash-breakfast bar, her hands and face smeared in pink icing as she decorated a gingerbread man, her little tongue poking out of the side of her mouth in concentration. Katie was stood supervising Harry who was also covered in frosting, this one bright green. Flossie sat in the highchair opposite, banging a spoon on the tray occasionally letting out a yell or babble of something incoherent. As soon as she saw Steve she gave a huge grin and her shouts became louder and he smiled.
“Hi Floss-Floss!” he beamed, crossing to drop a kiss to her head before he looked across at Katie “Where’s Jamie?”
“Upstairs in his room.” Katie gave a little sigh “He said, and I quote, ‘I’m ten now, far too old to decorate gingerbread, mom.’ I could have cried there and then Steve.” She finished with a pout.
Steve gave her a sympathetic smile, the fact her eldest baby boy was growing up was something he knew she hated “Yeah, I bet he won’t be too old to eat them, though.” He appeased and she smiled.
“That’s what I said.” Rori gave a dramatic roll of her eyes and Steve chuckled.
“You finished Grading?” Katie asked as she gently guided Harry’s hand over the cookie shaped like a Christmas tree.
“Yeah, all done. Sorry it took so long.”
“It’s okay.” She looked up at him, smiling “Your dinner is in the oven. I already ate with the kids. Sorry, I was starving.”
“I didn’t expect you to wait.”  Steve walked over the room and dropped a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks, Sweetheart.”
He made his way over to the Aga stove and opened the door, giving a little groan when he saw she’d done his favourite, a Mac and Cheese bake laced with chicken, chorizo and broccoli. He turned to look at her and didn’t miss the flicker of a smile on her face as she knew what he was thinking, before he pulled out the plate giving a yell as it burnt his fingers, dropping it onto the side with a clatter.
“Careful daddy, hot!” Harry turned to face him, and Katie burst out laughing.
“Yeah, thanks Son.” Steve tried not to roll his eyes as he sucked his thumb. Grabbing a tea-towel he gripped the plate, found some cutlery and sat down at the table to the side of the kitchen, tucking in.
“I finished all mine, Momma.” Rori grinned, placing the tube of squeezy frosting down on the side. Steve watched as Katie moved to look over Rori’s shoulder.
“Good job sweetie.” She smiled, “Creative, I’ve never seen a pink cat before.”
Steve paused and looked at Rori as she grinned “I know they’re not really pink, and my kitty won’t be, but it can have a pink collar.”
At that he winced and hastily shoved another forkful of food into his mouth, praying that the conversation stopped there.
Katie sighed “Rori we’ve been over this, you can’t have a cat.”
“Daddy said I could.”
Shit.
Katie’s eyes shot to Steve and he gave her his best innocent look, but from the way her features grew stern he knew he was utterly busted and he swallowed the food in his mouth which turned to cement in his throat.
“No, that’s not what I said.” Steve shook his head.
“You said maybe.” Rori shrugged “Same thing.”
“We getting a kitty?” Harry asked, looking at Katie.
“No.” she shook her head.
“But I asked Daddy if Santa would bring me one and he said maybe.” Rori looked at Katie.
“Well Daddy is wrong.” She glared at Steve and he visibly shrank in his seat. Katie’s green eyes narrowed before they turned back to Rori. “Santa can’t bring live animals. It’s in the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The Christmas Rules” Katie said quickly “No live animals. It’s not fair on them. They don’t like the sleigh.”
“But…”
“No buts Rori.” Katie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose “I’m sorry honey, but it’s not gonna happen.”
Rori pouted a little but she knew when she was beat and glanced down at the cookies on the tray before she looked up, grinning smugly. “I’ll just ask Uncle Bucky to get me one. He got me Dory.”
“Oh for the love of…” Katie spluttered “Uncle Bucky won’t get you one either.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ll tell him not to.” Katie looked at her “We have Stark. No more animals.”
Rori folded her arms and at that point Steve stepped in, sensing an impending tantrum.
“Aurora.” He said sternly and she turned her head to face him as he pointed his fork at her. “Enough.”
She glared at him before she sighed and looked at Katie “Can I get down now please?”
Katie obliged and pulled her stool out a little allowing Rori to hop down. “Stay right there little miss.”
“Why?” Rori frowned as Katie headed to the sink, coming back with a cloth. With a groan, Rori held out her hands so Katie could wipe them clean, along with the little smear of icing on her face “20 minutes and then its bath time. We’re up early in the morning.”
“Ooh, yeah!” Rori bounced excitedly “To pick our trees. Hey, can I get one for my room?”
Katie hesitated before she shrugged “You know, I saw some in the shop that already have the lights on and they change colour. We’ll get a big one for the lounge and hallway like normal and I’ll get you a special one. And you get to keep it for next year and the year after.”
Rori pondered this for a moment before she shook her head “I want a real one from the farm.”
Katie groaned, and threw her hands out to the side “Fine, just, go and watch TV or something in the Play Room.”
“I watch TV too please, Momma?” Harry asked and Katie nodded, cleaning him up too before she lifted him down off the stool. He toddled after Rori, yelling for her to wait and as soon as they were gone Katie rounded on Steve.
“Honey, I…” he began and winced as she exploded on him.
“Seriously? A damned cat?”
“She caught me unawares.”
“She always catches you unawares!” Katie scoffed “After six, almost seven years I’d have thought you’d be used it by now.”
“I only said-“
“And as usual I’m left to be the bad guy.” Katie ranted, shaking her head as she moved to turn Flossie’s chair so she was facing the table. “You’re an asshole.”
“This is technically Bucky’s fault.”
“Oh, no, Steven Grant Rogers! Don’t you are try and blame this one on Buck.” She hissed.
“But he took her to the zoo and told her to ask for a capybara!” Steve practically whined “When I said no she asked for a cat, the maybe just slipped out.” Katie paused, her arms folded, face furious and Steve peered up at her giving her a little smile “Don’t be mad, come on baby. I didn’t mean it.”
“You’re still an asshole.” She grumbled, before she crossed to the fridge and pulled out the wine. “And for that you can deal with bedtime. I’m going for a bath.”
“Sure, not a problem.” Steve nodded, swallowing more of his food. Katie poured herself a large glass before she moved to put the bottle back and then changed her mind. With the bottle in one hand, full glass in the other she made for the door. “I love you.” Steve shot as she passed him, and despite her annoyed demeanour, the slight smile that played on her face told him he wasn’t in too much trouble.  
****
All kids were bathed and in bed little over an hour later. The youngest three settled down to sleep, Jamie instructed he had an hour of TV or reading time before lights off.
“Ok Dad.” He nodded, running his hand through his hair as he tidied up his games console a little, Stark curled up on the bed.
“I’ll be in to check.” Steve looked at him, and Jamie rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I got it. You can trust me.”
“I know.” Steve gave a chuckle “Night son.” He crossed the room to drop a kiss to his head and Jamie pushed him away.
“Gerroff, I’m ten.”
“Yeah, well, you’re still my kid so…” Steve grumbled, and Jamie burst into laughter as the pair of them began to play fight, Jamie digging Steve in the ribs with a well-aimed jab. “Ouch! “ Steve stood up, rubbing at his side, that had hurt a little too much for his liking. “Nice shot.”
“Bucky said I had a good right hook.”
Steve rolled his eyes “I don’t wanna know how he even found that out.”
“He has a punch bag in the garage.” Jamie shrugged as he flopped down onto his bed. “Like yours. He was teaching me to swing.”
“I could teach you that.” Steve replied, a little petulantly.
“Will you?”
“No. You’re ten.” He shot back and Jamie let out a groan of frustration, before Steve chuckled “Ok, I’ll teach you a little IF you promise not to use it anywhere but on the punch bag.”
“But what if I need to use it?”
“Well, that’s different.” Steve pondered, before he shook his head. “But you’re far too young to be getting into situations like that.”
“Uncle Buck said you were fighting people form the age of six. And getting your ass kicked.”
“Well, you do as I say…”
“Not as I do, yeah I got it.” Jamie grinned and Steve arched an eyebrow before he made his way to the door. He paused and turned back to look at his son, not for the first time taking in how damned tall and broad he was for his age. He pointed to Stark “Don’t let your mother catch him on the bed.”
“You know she says the same thing about you.” Jamie looked at him and Steve chuckled.
“I do, but let’s just pretend I don’t okay?”
“Okay, night dad. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Steve smiled, closing the door behind him.
He made his way back downstairs and into the lounge, and paused as he saw Katie talking into the laptop, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Don’t worry about it.” She said softly, and he could tell she was fighting to keep her face straight as Emmy’s voice came from the other side.
“I’m just gutted we can’t get home to come with you guys for the tree.”
“What’s going on?” Steve frowned as he sat next to Katie on the sofa, looking at Emmy and Peter as they both waved to him on the screen “Hey Kids.”
“The UK has been caught up in a huge snow storm.” Katie turned to him. “Their flight has been cancelled.”
“Bummer.” Steve’s frown deepened “Is there nothing from another airport?”
“Not in London.” Emmy shook her head “And the roads are that bad, even if we managed somewhere else…”
“Don’t wanna risk driving Mr R.” Pete shrugged and Steve had to give it to him, that was a sensible move.
“Wise decision.” Steve bit his lip, before he turned to Katie “Can we not get The Stark jet over? You guys should have used that anyway, not gone commercial.”
The irony of his statement didn’t pass him by, as there’d been a time when he had hated using a private jet as he felt it was ostentatious, but he’d fast learned to live with it as it was less hassle and a damned sight comfier and quicker too.
“I told you we didn’t want to.” Emmy shot back and Peter hastily cut in to prevent an argument.
“Already tried Happy before we called. He can’t get in any airfield be it private or other. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Katie shook her head “If you need anything just call. Have you got a place to stay?”
“Yeah, The Savoy found us another room.” Emmy shrugged before she grimaced “I’m gonna have to put it on my credit card though.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Katie shook her head “Just do what you gotta do, we’ll sort the bill out. Do you need us to wire you some cash or-“
“No, we’ve got enough between us for that.” Pete smiled “Just the hotel. We could get somewhere cheaper if that’s-“
“If it’s that bad out there you can stay where you are.” Steve shook his head. “Don’t worry about the money kids, it’s not important.”
“Just call us if you need anything.” Katie added.
“Thanks Mom. Look, we’re gonna go try and get something to eat and then sleep” Emmy sighed “It’s past 1 am now.”
“Sure, call us tomorrow okay, keep us updated.” Steve instructed and Emmy nodded.
“Will do. Love you both.”
“And you.” Katie smiled “Stay safe, and look after each other.”
“Got it.” Emmy grinned and with that she blew them both a kiss as Peter waved and the screen went blank.
Katie bit her lip before she tapped at the keyboard of her laptop “I’m going to send her some money, just in case. I know she has plenty in her savings, but…”
Steve nodded “Good idea. Those are for a rainy day, not a snowy one.”
Katie gave a small smile as she logged into the banking, and hesitated before she transferred a few thousand over to Emmy and closed the laptop, running her hands over her face. Steve saw her shouldes shake and he gave a sigh, pulling her to him.
“Hey, come on. They’re safe. In the poshest hotel known to man.” He pressed a kiss to her head “No doubt thinking this is some kind of huge romantic adventure. Snowed in, in London, with a mini-bar, room service.”
At that thought he grimaced, as his mind took him to a very dark place about just exactly what the spider kid would be doing to his daughter in said hotel room but he shook himself out of it as Katie spoke, sniffling a little.
“I know it’s just, well we started this tradition with Emmy that first Christmas she lived with us.” Her voice cracked “We went with Tony, Pep and Nat remember?”
“I could I forget.” Steve chuckled, his hands rubbing Katie’s back “You were almost five months pregnant and had that jumper on with a huge Christmas pudding on the front.”
“I’ve still got that.” Her voice was muffled as her face pressed into his Henley.
“And Pepper was going mad when Tony bought that nine foot tree for their lounge.”
“Ours wasn’t much smaller.” Katie laughed, leaning back to wipe her eyes. “You had to trim the top off.”
Steve chuckled, his hands cupping her face “A few days after that we found out bump was blue. Hello Jamie.”
“God it seems so long ago.”
“It was.” Steve smiled pressing a kiss to her lips. “11 years.”
“Yeah.” Katie looked at him “We’ve been through a lot since then.”
Steve nodded, as he wiped her face with his thumbs “And a lot worse than this. I know it’s disappointing, kitten, and I’m gutted as well, but it can’t be helped. We’ll still have a good time and we can go out with Emmy and Peter when they get back, nice meal and a few drinks somewhere instead, just the four of us. Start a new tradition now she’s all grown up.”
“Yeah suppose.” Katie sighed “I mean when they moved out in the New Year, they might not wanna come with us to get a tree anymore.”
“Like that’s gonna happen.” Steve snorted “She’ll simply be getting one for her own place. You know she loves Christmas as much as you. All the kids do. Because you make it so special.”
“It isn’t all down to me.” She smiled “You help.”
“It’s definitely your speciality.” Steve shook his head “You do the baking, the carols, the cooking…suss the decorations out.”
“Yeah, but you hang them. And you’re the one that started leaving Santa footprints by the hearth.”
“Okay so it’s a team effort.” Steve shrugged, dropping another kiss to her lips. “It always is when the kids are concerned.” He pulled back a little and nodded to her glass “You want another?”
“I wasn’t going to but yeah, now I do.”
Steve chuckled “I’ll go get us a drink, you find us something suitably Christmassy to watch.”
He stood, pressing his lips to the crown of Katie’s head before he wandered into the kitchen. As he closed the door behind him he pulled out his phone. He’d had an idea, but hadn’t wanted to mention it to Katie just in case it didn’t work…but if it did, well, he was going to reunite his family for their tradition and earn himself major husband points.
Win win situation.
“Hey punk.” Bucky drawled as he picked up.“What’s crackalackin?”
“God you talk some shit.” Steve rolled his eyes and Bucky laughed
“Sorry, we were watching Madagascar.”
“Yeah, I know where it’s from. I got five kids, remember. Six if I count you.”
“Well you could argue Diva Doll counts for two so you really have seven.”
“Yeah, speaking of which, I got a bone to pick with you about her and a damned capybara.” Steve narrowed his eyes as he spoke and there was a pause before Bucky burst out laughing. “Yeah, laugh it up, jerk. That got me in some major shit before.”
“You didn’t say yes?”
“No of course I didn’t.” Steve sighed “But she sideswiped me asking for a damned cat and I said maybe, so…”
“You fucking moron.”
“Whatever, listen, that’s not why I’m calling anyway.” Steve sighed, his voice growing serious. “I need a favour, Buck.”
“I’m listening.” Bucky replied, before Steve explained the predicament and possible solution. When he finished there was a pause and Bucky let out a long whistle. “Man, that’s…”
“I know, I know.” Steve sighed “But I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate. Katie’s heartbroken Emmy can’t get home.”
“Well, we can’t have the second most important woman in my life upset now can we?” Bucky replied “Leave it with me.”
“Cheers buddy.”
“You’ll owe me a life time of favours if I can pull this off.”
“We’ll call it quits for you almost getting me couched.”
“Not my fault you can’t say no to your likkle Princessa.” Bucky responded and Steve snorted.
“You’ve met her, right?”
There as another pause and Bucky laughed “Point taken.”
“Not a word to Katie.” Steve instructed “Just in case you can’t do it.”
“You seriously doubt me after all this time?” Bucky sighed “That hurts Stevie.”
“You know what else will hurt?” Steve shot back “My foot up your ass.”
“You want me to do this or not?” Bucky scoffed “Because threatening me aint gonna make me wanna do you any favours.”
“No but not wanting to see my wife upset is.”
“You fight dirty, Steven.” Bucky’s voice was low and Steve could imagine the narrowed eyes he was pulling as he spoke. “Okay, I’ll call Sam now. Leave it with me.”
“Thanks Buck.”
Steve cut the call and stuffed his phone back in his pocket, running a hand over his beard. Buck was right, it was a big ask and ridiculously over the top but, well, nothing was too much for him where his family was concerned. And after everything they’d been through this year what with Flossie’s horrific birth and Katie’s post-partum depression, his amazingly brave and gorgeous wife deserved the damned world. With a sigh he yanked open the fridge as he pulled out Katie’s wine and a beer for him, simply hoping that it worked.
**** “You good?” Steve asked as Jamie hopped into the back of the Q7, taking his place on the rear row of seats.
“Yup.” Jamie grinned “I prefer it back here, Rori can’t bug me.”
“Wanna bet?” Rori turned her head and peered at him from her place in the middle of the second row and Steve shot her a look.
“Enough. I hear one sound outta you that’s annoying him, we’re coming straight home.” He said sternly. Rori eyed him shrewdly, as if weighing up whether he was serious or not and he raised his eyebrows, challenging her.
“Ok Daddy.” She shrugged, turning back round. Steve shot Jamie a wink as turned and collapsed Flossie’s little stroller. He slotted it down the side of Jamie’s seat before he shut the trunk and then quickly inspected the roof rack. Satisfied he looked up just as Katie came out of the house, Flossie on her hip, Harry jumping down the steps in front of her. He headed over to his dad and peeked up, Steve giving a laugh as his little woollen hat slipped down over his eyes.
“Come here, buddy.” He said, swinging him into his arms. The little boy gave a giggle as Steve pulled his hat straight so he could see.
“Thanks Daddy!” he smiled and Steve pressed a kiss to his rosy cheek.
“No problem. You ready to get a tree?”
He nodded “Big one!” he threw his arms out wide and Steve nodded seriously.
“The biggest.”
Ten minutes or so later they were sailing out of Brooklyn in the winter morning sun, heading for the tree farm some forty or so minutes away. True to her word, Rori was behaving and chatting to Harry, Jamie was quiet in the back doing something on his tablet and Katie was gently humming to something on the radio. Steve’s hand reached over for hers and he entwined their fingers, gently bringing her arm across his body, pressing a kiss to her wrist.
The journey pass uneventfully and as Steve announced they had arrived the kids all gave a cheer. He parked the car up and then the disembarking began along with issued orders for Jamie and Rori to stay where they were as they sorted the youngest two.
“I think I’ll just carry Floss.” Katie glanced around. “Pushing her stroller is gonna be a pain. I’ll put her in the carrier.”
“You sure?” Steve asked “I would say I’d do it but…”
“You’re gonna be carrying trees, yeah I know.” Katie waved him away. “Its fine, she’s not heavy. Besides, she’ll be too big to do this with next year.”
Steve smiled at her wistful tone, and between them they had Flossie strapped to Katie’s back in no time, having become experts at it over the years. Katie glanced over her shoulder as Flossie gave her a hug grin, before she peeked around and started to gabble animatedly.
“Ready?” Steve looked around and held the hand that wasn’t containing the saw out, Rori taking it as Katie took Harry’s, Jamie falling into step at her other side next to Steve who strategically placed himself between his eldest son and Rori to avoid any potential arguments between the two siblings.
“Want me to take that Dad?” Jamie asked, nodding to the saw. Steve hesitated then shrugged, it had the safety cover on so he handed it over, Jamie slinging it over his shoulder proudly, stepping in front of them a little and Harry wriggled his hand free of Katie’s and ran forward to take Jamie’s. Jamie smiled down at him and Steve shared a glance with Katie as she smiled at him, slipping her hand into his. The family made their way to the entrance and as they approached the various little trade stands, one of which was selling various hot drinks and baked snacks. Katie took a deep breath and smiled, the warming scents of spices, cinnamon and pine hitting her nostrils.
“Smells exactly the same.” She beamed and then frowned as Steve was looking around, blatantly not listening to her as he was busy studying something to their right.
“Hey!” she tugged on his hand and he glanced down at her.
“Sorry, honey.” He diverted his attention “Just saw someone I know.”
“Oh, from work?” she asked.
“Not exactly.” He nodded in the direction he had been looking and Katie spun at the same time Rori let out a shriek.
“Emmy!” she yelled, wrenching her hand free of Steve’s and bolting towards her sister as she strode towards them alongside Peter, Bucky and Sam.
“I don’t-how?” Katie was struggling for words at the sheer emotion of seeing her eldest daughter, who should still be stranded in England, sweeping Rori into hug. “Steve? What?”
“You got Bucky and Sam to thank.” He said gently, as she spun between them all, before she strode forward meeting Emmy halfway and throwing her arms around her.
“Hey mom!” Emmy smiled, before she pulled back and gently waggled Flossie’s hand. “Hi Floss!”
“How did you get here?” Katie sniffed, wiping her eyes, chuckling before she gave Pete a hug.
“Quinjet.” Emmy grinned “It was awesome. Hey Dad!”
“Hey, sweetheart.” Steve swept her up into a huge hug, picking her up slightly off the ground kissing her head. “Nice to have you home.”
“Hold up, a Quinjet?” Katie looked at Emmy, then to Bucky who shrugged.
“Yeah well Steve rang me last night begging for my help…” he began, putting on a whiney voice “Please Buck, I can’t do this without you Buck, you know the usual.” Steve rolled his eyes as Bucky sniggered. “So, me and Birdbrain set off on a daring rescue mission.”
“Yeah, we totally used and abused Fury’s equipment.” Sam chuckled, as he pressed a kiss to Katie’s cheek as he gave her a hug. “He’s gonna be pissed when he finds out.”
“Oh, screw him!” Katie gave a laugh as she turned to Bucky, wrapping her arms round him. “Thank you so much!”
“Anything for you darlin’” he beamed before she stepped back and spun to face Steve, reaching up and grabbing his face. With a smile she pulled him down to meet her in a long, deep kiss.
“Thank you.” She whispered against his lips, and he beamed at her, his nose brushing hers. “I love you, so much.”
“Love you too.” He smiled, before he drew himself up, a little embarrassed at their PDA in front of his two friends and the kids. “Right, who’s ready to go tree picking?”
“We’ll leave you to it.” Bucky smirked as various excited shouts rang out around them. “I’ve got stuff to do with Jen and Sam’s…ahhhh, crap.” The smile on his face turned into a grimace and Steve spun round to see a familiar figure in a trench coat and eyepatch stood by a black SUV watching from a distance.
“Son of a-” Steve snorted, shaking his head as Fury started walking towards of them. “He still knows everything.”
“You have no idea. “Sam muttered.
“Oh, trust me, we do.” Katie grinned as Fury stopped in front of them.
“Someone wanna tell me why one of my jets was in London this morning?” Fury looked at Bucky, then to Sam, then to Peter, all three of them giving him an innocent look.
“Well, there was a thing.” Bucky shrugged “Emergency.”
“Emergency.” Fury dead panned “So nothing to do with a certain Miss Rogers and Mr Parker being stuck in London in snow storm?”
“How do you know this stuff?” Bucky looked at him.
“I told you Barnes, you wanna get one up on me you gotta keep both eyes open.” He levelled him with a look. “Happy called me in a flap to see if I could action a pick up and I told him I wasn’t running a damned Uber service. And then one of them went missing so I put two and two together and looks like I came up with four” He paused and shrugged, smirking a little “Plus, you forgot to wipe the mission log.”
“Damned it Tin Man!” Sam shoved Bucky “You dick, I told you!”
As the two men began to squabble Fury raised his eyebrows and turned to Steve and then Katie, a small smile flickered across his face “Nova, Cap. Long-time no see.”
“Hi Nick.” Steve smiled, reaching out and shaking his hand.
Fury jerked his head as Katie shook his hand, his eyes roving over each of their kids in turn. “I’ll say. You’ve been busy I see.”
Katie gave a huff “One way of putting it.”
Nick arched an eyebrow before he sighed and turned to Bucky and Sam who were still bickering. “Imma let this one slide.” He spoke loudly, the two men instantly turning to face him. “But only because it’s the holidays and I’m in a good mood.”
“You know technically Stark Industries owns half those jets. Tony paid for and designed a lot of the tech on them after all.” Katie quipped and Nick looked at her, before he let out a laugh.
“You’re more like your brother than you’ll ever care to admit” he shook his head as she snorted, pointing at her.
“Worse people to be like.” She smiled fondly, and Fury gave one last scoff before he turned to Sam and Bucky.
“I’ll see you two later. Now, imma go get me some churros then split.” He looked back at them all “Merry Christmas.”
As they all waved him off, watching the curious glances he attracted as he strode towards the hot food stand and then Harry tugged on Steve’s sleeve, causing him to turn his attention from Fury to the little boy.
“Daddy, who’s the pirate?” Harry asked.
There was a pause before Katie burst out laughing, Steve following suite as they both shared a knowing glance, remembering Tony’s fond little nickname for their one time director.
The Goth Pirate.
“He’s an old friend of mine and your momma’s “Steve explained before he glanced up, not surprised to find that once more Fury had disappeared from sight. “We haven’t seen him in a while. And I doubt we will again for a long time.”
There were more hugs shared and after another final thank you to Sam and Bucky, Katie demanding they come over later for drinks, the four remaining adults and four kids all headed into the farm and the chaos began as they began to scout for their perfect trees.
“So we need two large ones.” Katie spoke, “And one for Emmy and Pete in the Cabin and a smaller one for Rori’s room.” she paused “Jamie, did you want one for your room too?”
“Nah, it’s okay.” He shook his head “Thanks though.”
“So four over all.” Steve nodded. “Okay gang, let’s find us some trees.”
They decided to get Rori’s first as it would be smaller and easier to carry once they’d picked it. They set about walking down the various aisles, and before long the jokes started flowing and they were getting worse and worse with time.
“What would you get if you ate the Christmas decorations?” Pete asked and Jamie looked at him, arching a brow. “Tinselitis.”
“Oh God.” Emmy snorted “That’s as bad as one of dad’s”
“Which reminds me.” Steve said, a smirk on his face, “Did you guys hear the forecast for Christmas eve? They’re predicting rain, deer…”
Katie and Emmy both let out a groan as Jamie and Peter howled with laughter.
“What do you call an elf that runs away from Santa’s workshop?” Jamie asked and Steve paused before he shrugged.
“No idea.”
“A rebel without a Clause…”
Katie, Steve, Emmy and Pete burst out laughing as Pete held out his hand to hi-five him. Jamie grinned.
“That’s a good one buddy.” Steve chuckled. “Where did you hear that?”
“Moo text me before.” He smiled “She said her and Auntie Pep had been googling them to put in their cards this year.”
“Like Father like daughter.” Katie smiled to herself, a little nostalgically as a memory of her brother crashed over her and Steve pulled her a little closer, his hand tightening on hers as he dropped a kiss to her head.
After half an hour or so of scouting and plenty of excited shouts and laughter, Rori paused in front of a tree that was the same height as her and she gave a gasp.
“Daddy, that one.” She pointed.
“You sure?” he cocked his head to one side. The tree was leaning to one side, the branches completely uneven, sticking out at all angles and the top was bent. “It’s a bit-”
“It’s perfect.” Rori insisted.
“Okay Princess, whatever you say.”  He looked at Katie as she smiled, her hand dropping to the back of Rori’s head. “Jamie, you got the saw?”
“Yup.” Jamie nodded, passing it over and they all watched as Steve gripped the trunk of the small tree with one hand a little higher up and began to cut it towards the bottom. He could have easily snapped the trunk with his bare hands but he played the part and in four strong swipes it pulled free with a little crack and Rori gave a shriek and clapped her hands.
“I love it!”
Once the safety cover was back on the saw they continued their search, walking towards the slightly bigger trees they spotted and Katie paused in front of a large, Norwegian spruce and reached out, gently crushing one of the needles between her fingers. She took a sniff and stepped back, nodding.
“That one.”
“I still can’t believe you pick them with the smell.” Steve shook his head.
“It’s not all the smell.” She protested “There’s a lot to consider. The height, width and spacing of the branches…this one’s just right for the corner in the lounge. And that one two down will do for the hallway.”
Steve chuckled, knowing better than to argue. “Positive?”
Katie nodded and once more Jamie passed him the saw. This time they all stepped back as Steve crouched down on the ground, expertly cutting the trunk and just the right place. As he took the final swipe, the tree pitched over to a loud shout of “Timberrrrr” from Jamie and Peter and it landed with a thud.
Harry gave a loud cackle and clapped, Flossie shrieking too as Steve then moved two down and repeated the action with a slightly smaller one that would sit in the entrance lounge directly in front of the photo of the pair of them at their wedding, so it would be the first thing anyone saw as they walked into the house.
Emmy strode past the tree to one that was behind it and then nodded to Pete “I think this one will do. I kinda like the way it fans out at the bottom.”
“Sure, Em.” He smiled “Mr R?”
“Oh, here.” Steve handed him the saw and watched as Pete cut his and Emmy’s first Christmas tree down, his arm round Katie’s waist, lips softly kissing Flossie’s cheek as the baby grinned. He arched an eyebrow as Emmy pressed a kiss to Pete’s lips, giving a soft huff as Katie dug him in the ribs, shooting him a warning glance which he returned with an innocent one of his own.
“Well, that was easy.” Emmy commented “It took us 2 hours last year.”
“They need to be right.” Katie shrugged simply, Steve and Emmy exchanging a look before Steve watched as Pete hoisted his tree easily onto his shoulder. It still surprised Steve how strong Peter was, even though it shouldn’t, he knew he was enhanced after all.
“I’ll take Rori’s, Dad.” Jamie stepped forwards, puffing his chest out a little, picking the smaller tree up easily and placing it on his shoulder, in an identical manner to Pete. Steve actively fought the urge to laugh as Jamie began to walk besides Peter and Emmy, clearly proud as punch at being able to help before he turned to Katie.
“Don’t say it.”
Katie laughed “Oh I’m gonna.” she smirked “If he was any more like you I’d be convinced he was a clone.”
Steve snorted as he bent down and easily lifted their two trees onto his shoulders, before they followed a little slower due to Harry being with them. Steve maneuvered around the other tree pickers as they went, his boot clad feet traipsing on the damp of the ground as they made their way back towards the main entrance and joined Pete, Emmy and Jamie at the place ready to pay. As the various helpers, all dressed in little Elf outfits bustled around to wrap their trees and strap them to the roof of the Audi, Katie was suddenly struck with a little problem.
“Hang on.” she turned to Emmy as she thanked the man who’d been dealing with and handed over the cash. “How are you two gonna get home if Bucky and Sam left?”
At that Pete gave a little grin and pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, “Mr Wilson let me borrow his Chevvy.”
“Yeah they went home on Buck’s bike.” Emmy shrugged and at that Steve let out a huge laugh.
“What?” Katie asked.
“Sorry, I’m just picturing those two riding pillion.” He snorted “I give it five minutes before Sam ended up tells Buck to let him off on account of him driving his Ducatti like a maniac.”
“You’ve no room to talk.” Katie scoffed and Steve looked at her with mock outrage.
“Mom?” Jamie asked and Katie turned to him “Can we get a drink now please?”
“Sure, come on.” She smiled and they headed over to the stall. She purchased a hot cider each for her, Steve, Emmy and Pete before hot chocolate for each of the kids along with a selection of donuts, churros and Stollen as Steve took Flossie back to the car so they could pop her in the stroller. They made their way over to one of the benches by the side and sat down and Steve returned, parking Flossie besides them before he handed her a piece of a donut and slipped his arm round Katie, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“You have a good time?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She beamed, before she glanced over at the other side of the bench. Jamie was settled to Emmy’s left, talking to her about school, as she nodded along whilst Rori was perched on Peter’s knee as she animatedly told him about how she was going to decorate her tree in unicorn colours. Harry meanwhile sat in between both Pete and Emmy, his little frame chewing on a donut as he grinned at his parents who smiled back. Katie turned to look a Steve again, leaning up to kiss him softly “It’s been perfect, thank you for making sure we were all together.”
“Well it wouldn’t be a Rogers Christmas otherwise would it?” he smiled, kissing her again.
“Get a room.” Emmy grumbled and Steve turned to her as she smirked, shoving a piece of donut in her mouth.
“Watch it young lady.” Steve pointed at her.                      
“Daddy.” Rori asked “Can I go with Pete in their car to Target? I need decorations for my Princess Tree.”
Steve hesitated for a while and Pete hastily cut in “It’s no bother Mr Rogers.”
“Yeah we need some for ours.” Emmy nodded.”So we’re going anyway.”
“I come too?” Harry asked hopefully and Emmy shrugged
“If Momma and Daddy say it’s ok, course you can, squirt.”
Steve looked at Katie who shrugged “Fine by me. Sure you can manage them?”
Emmy rolled her eyes “They’re no bother.” She then turned to Jamie “You wanna come too?”
“Hell no.” he said hastily, peering round at Rori before he shook his head “I’m going home for some peace and quiet.”
Both Steve and Katie let out a loud laugh, as Katie shook her head “Oh Jamie.”
“What?” he frowned.
“Nothing pal.” Steve smiled, reaching for his cider. “Nothing at all.”
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emmy-writes-sometimes · 4 years ago
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Strep
You go to visit your brother, Tom, in the states, but you get sick and beg him not to tell your parents.
-
          “Are you sure you feel well enough to go?” Your dad asked you as you shakily made your way over to where your bags were sitting. You were about go visit your oldest brother, Tom, for the whole of summer break, but the past day you hadn’t been feeling well. You were sure it was the bad Indian food you’d had the night before, but you weren’t letting anything stop you. It had been four months since you’d seen him and he’d surprised you with a ticket without even asking your parents first. There was no way you were going to give it up.
           “Yes, Dad, I’ll be fine,” you said, “it’s probably just the food from last night.” He sighed.
           “Alright, then, load the car up.” You loaded your suitcases, bags, and backpack into the car for your dad to take you to the airport, only for a second barging into your only younger brother’s room to make him tell you goodbye. The others were gone on some weekend trip, so you’d said goodbye to them two days before and they’d tried to convince you that your plane was going to crash over the ocean, so it was better that you didn’t see them again.
           You said goodbye to your mom and your dad started driving you, letting you out at the closest terminal to yours. It wasn’t the first time you’d flown, you were basically an expert at it, even though it was the first time you’d actually been alone. Usually you had one of the boys with you if not your parents, so you were watching things a little more than usual. But you printed your boarding pass, checked your luggage in, went through security, got some food, and FaceTimed Tom.
           “Are you almost on?” He asked when he saw you’d already downed most of the tea you’d gotten.
           “Yeah, we board in a few minutes. It says I get in at nine tonight.”
           “Alright. I’ll be there, then, I’ll park and meet you at the baggage. Fly safe. I love you.”
           “I love you too.” His face disappeared when you shut your phone off. You didn’t hate flying, but you hated taking off, and turned your music up as loud as it would go. Thankfully your flight got in so late that it was pretty empty and you could pick a seat of your own. You made sure not to look at the map, since it only freaked you out that you were going over the ocean for such a long time, and you bought WiFi to watch a few movies.
           You started to feel sick again, but you were going through a storm and you were getting tossed all over the place, so that was probably it. You just opened the blanket you brought, noticing how cold the air on the plane had gotten, and reclined your seat as much as you could to sleep a little. And you were out for most of the rest of the flight – you let yourself look at the map when you felt the plane going down and realized you were about to land in Atlanta.
           “There she is!” You heard Tom’s familiar voice and tugged out your headphones, walking over to him and hugging him tightly. “How’s my favorite sister?”
           “Tired,” you responded honestly. He laughed.
           “Well, we’ll get your bags, I want to take you to get food, and then you can get settled in.” You nodded, looking at the screen that told you your flight was next for baggage. It would still be a few minutes, though, so you let yourself catch up with Tom and throw away all of your trash. You finally got your bags and he led you out to where he’d made Harrison keep the car waiting.
           “It’s about time!” Harrison called out, getting out of the car to help with your bags. He attacked you with a hug first and then playfully pushed you back away. “Hungry?”
           “Please,” you responded with a laugh as you got in the back seat. Tom shut the trunk of the car and let it settle before getting back in the front. “I missed you guys. I missed American soil.” Tom laughed as Harrison tried to pull away from the curb before the airport police would get pissed off at him.
           “How was flying by yourself?” Tom asked, looking behind you. You heard the GPS say something about a restaurant.
           “Not bad. Definitely easier than with Paddy and the twins.” He grinned.
           “Anything is better than flying with them. They have to go to the bathroom every ten minutes, all three of them.” Tom adjusted the hat on his head and turned back, letting you watch as Harrison drove through downtown. There wasn’t any traffic and they pulled into some drive-thru, ordering a shit ton of food, and passed it back for you to hold.
           “How much food do you get here?”
           “Are you surprised?” Tom asked as he handed you the third Styrofoam box. You rolled your eyes and tried not to gag. You didn’t know why, because the food smelled good, and you were starving because all you’d had was half a bag of goldfish you got from the airport so they were stale.
           You ate with the boys, more than you thought you would, showered off the airport smell, and went to bed. Tom didn’t have to go film for another three weeks, so you had some quality time with him for a few days. You’d decided to go to Six Flags the next day since it wouldn’t be as crowded on a weekday, so you woke up only a few hours after going to sleep. You felt drained, but a cup of coffee fixed it. You’d never had issues adjusting to new time zones, but this one had thrown you for a bit of a loop.
           “You good?” Tom asked you as you plopped down on the bar stool, head on your elbow.
           “Yeah, just tired,” you responded. He looked you up and down, sighing.
           “Are you sure you want to go?”
           “Dad asked me the same thing. I’m fine, Tommy.” Your nickname for him always made him smile and now was no different. He gave you some of his breakfast and the two of you ate while you waited for Harrison, and then you all headed out to go to the park.
           “It’s so hot,” you complained later as the Atlanta sun beat down on you. Tom could tell you were a little overheated, but he took the bag you were wearing from you and exchanged it with the giant water he got. Your throat was sore, it had been since you woke up, but you didn’t think much of it. You never did. Your body could just hate the fact that you were halfway around the world. You tried not to think about it as you and the boys wandered around the park for most of the day, but it got progressively worse until you could feel a clicking in your throat whenever you swallowed. But you were probably fine, so you ignored it.
           “I’m taking a nap!” Harrison called that night as you finally got back to the car. All three of you were sunburned and exhausted, especially because you’d consumed so many sugary snacks that by the time you got back to the car all of the sugar had left you crashing. You tried not to fall asleep, and Tom made sure to hit a curb on your side to wake you up.
           “Come on,” he said, shoving you after he pulled into the driveway to the house he was renting. You woke up and got out of the car, taking off your makeup and going to bed as soon as you could.
           You woke up the next morning feeling ten times worse than the night before. Your throat felt like it was on fire, but you could barely fucking swallow when you tried to drink some water. You looked over at Tom, who was still asleep. The house only had two bedrooms and Tom wasn’t about to make you sleep on the couch but he wasn’t going to either, so unless he decided to bring a real girl over you were sleeping in his bed as far away from him as you could. Your entire body ached and the last thing you wanted to do was go back to sleep, so you did.
           “Wake up!” About two hours later, at ten AM, you felt Tom pushing you back onto your side of the bed.
           “What?” You asked in a hoarse voice.
           “You sound like a smoker,” he responded.
           “I feel awful.”
           “Come on, I’ll make you something to drink,” he encouraged, pulling the covers off the both of you. You followed him anyway, and as soon as you started walking to the kitchen your head started throbbing. But you sat down at the kitchen counter and he started to make you some of your favorite tea. You wondered why he kept it around if you weren’t there – he always said he hated sweet teas, but your favorite was peach.
           “Thanks,” you said a few minutes later as he was handing it to you in a Spider-Man mug. He’d made sure not to make the water too hot so you wouldn’t die drinking it. It felt good coating your throat, but as soon as it left, you felt awful again.
           “I don’t have a thermometer,” he said as he walked over to you, putting his palm to your forehead. “You’re burning up.”
           “I feel like shit,” you complained. “I need a shower.”
           “Go take one. We can just relax today, okay?” You nodded and went to go take another shower. Your clothes were sticking to your skin from sweating, and you felt so bad that you changed the sheets on the bed. You came back out and Tom had ordered food, but the idea made you sick to your stomach.
           “Come get a waffle before I destroy them all,” a tired Harrison said as he was about to pour syrup all over the box full of waffles.
           “I’m good,” you said, taking a spot in the corner of the couch between the boys. You drank a second round of tea, but it wasn’t helping much. You could see your mom’s contact name on Tom’s phone and snatched it away from him.
           “I’m just going to call her and tell her you’re sick!”
           “And then she’ll come here or she’ll make me come home! I’m fine, Tommy, please?” You didn’t give him his phone back until he agreed not to tell your mom, and when he said he wouldn’t say anything you gave it back to him.
           “Your germs are all over it!” He said, wiping it off on his t-shirt. “If you’re not better by this afternoon, I’m taking you to an urgent care.”
           “Fine,” you agreed, “just don’t tell Mom. I’m fine.”
           “You’re lying, but okay.” He let it go, though, and even though Harrison went to run some errands the two of you stayed on the couch. You laid on opposite ends of the couch, your feet touching, like you were known to do at home. Even though you were right in the middle, you were Tom’s favorite and it was no secret. You and Paddy were roped into being together most of the time, so when you got to spend time with Tom you were always excited because he was Spider-Man, he was the coolest older brother ever, and you were always so excited to see what he was doing and hang out with him.
           “Feeling any better?” He asked you, poking your leg that was wedged between his and the couch a few hours later. You shook your head. He’d all but babied you for most of the day, and for the last few hours you’d been sleeping through episodes of New Girl.
           “No,” you replied. Tom sighed and sat up, so you did the same. You knew what he was going to say and you didn’t want to hear it.
           “Then I’m gonna call some place to take you, okay?”
           “No,” you begged him. “I’ll be fine.”
           “You’re sick and I don’t know how to help you. We’re taking you as soon as Harrison gets back. Go get some clothes on.” You did as he told you to do, not wanting to take the chance of your parents finding out, and pulled on some clothes. Harrison was back soon and handed the car keys off to Tom, who called an urgent care.
           You found out an hour later after about a million swab tests that you had strep. You groaned, looking over at Tom, and he just rubbed your back as they told you they were giving you some steroids. The nurse left you and you just looked at Tom. You were never sick, ever, and you had never even had to get tested for anything.
           “You’re fine,” Tom said with a sigh. “And you’re expensive. You do realize I don’t have insurance in this country?”
           “I’m sorry.” He just laughed at you.
           “I’m kidding. I don’t, but… It’s fine. I’m just glad I can take care of you. I’ll be outside.” You nodded and he pat your back again before taking his wallet out. The nurse gave you some steroids and let you go, but not before warning you that you were still contagious for a full day.
           “I’ll get you some ice cream if you’ll sit here for a few minutes,” Tom offered as he pulled into the Target parking lot. You nodded and he handed you a phone charger, leaving the car on for you while he went inside. He was back in a few minutes with your favorite ice cream, Americone Dream, and some other snacks that wouldn’t irritate your throat too much.
           You got back and got some of the ice cream out – you’d told Tom you would sleep on the couch, it was fine, and he’d tried to make it as comfortable for you as he could. He even bought you another expansion pack for the Sims without you even asking. It somehow got out in the family group chat, the one without your parents, that you were sick. Paddy and Harry were absolutely awful to you about it, but Sam, ever the sweet one, sent you a few private messages and carried on a few games of 8 Ball in iMessage because he felt bad for you.
           “I am officially not contagious anymore!” You said the next afternoon after the boys came in from where they’d been out by the pool. “So you can come within six feet of me.”
           “As if!” Harrison said, laughing a little bit. You loved him, but man he was mean sometimes.
           “Oh, fuck off!” Tom said, pushing him up the stairs to the bedrooms. Tom came back a little bit later to make some snacks and actually sat down beside you. “You look a lot better.”
           “I don’t feel a lot better,” you admitted. “I can’t sleep and my throat hurts and all I can keep down is tea and ice cream.” He sighed and threw an arm around you.
           “Come here.” He hugged you tightly and you hugged him back. You didn’t know how long you were there for, but you were almost asleep by the time that your parents called.
           “Oh, no,” you groaned.
           “Just stay quiet, I got it,” he responded. You leaned your face into his arm, shutting your eyes. “Hey, Dad!” Tom said loudly.
           “Hey, how are the two of you? Do anything fun yet?”
           “We’re good!” You said. Your throat felt scratchy and you hoped he couldn’t hear it, and Tom sighed before going on.
           “We went to Six Flags yesterday and it was super cool, today we just stayed inside mostly. Y/n got me on some new ice cream and it’s really nice,” he said. Usually he liked to walk around when he was on the phone, but now he was just staying with you.
           “That’s lovely,” your mother said. “The boys miss you, Y/n.”
           “Oh, no they don’t,” you replied, rolling your eyes. Even though all of you got along, you still had to pretend you didn’t. Just for street credit. Tom put his finger to his lips, shaking his head at you to shut up. So you did.
           “We’re actually about to go out, there’s a bar here that does quizzes and we were gonna go to the Disney one. So we’ll talk to you later?” All of you said goodbye and he hung up, putting the phone down on the coffee table.
           “Are you leaving?” You asked him. He laughed.
           “Don’t look so concerned. I’m not leaving you just because you have strep throat,” he promised. He put his arm back around you and kept playing his video game, letting you sleep a little bit before making fun of you some more for sleeping on him.
           A/N: I hope this was fluffy enough for you! As much as I love Tom and would love to cuff him for myself, I feel like he’s a great brother too! 
Taglist (if you’d like to be on it send me a message/ask!): @an-adventureland, @firstangeldragonranch, @ssebstann, @winterreader-nowwriter
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cupidmarwani-archive · 5 years ago
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Dinner Date (Jowen)
Summary: When Owen said he wanted TK to have dinner with the person he’s been seeing, this isn’t exactly what he expected. (Judd/Owen, background TK/Carlos)
WC: ~1.3k
TK sets the table in companionable silence, at ease for once. It’s okay that his dad is seeing someone, especially because Carlos is there beside him setting glasses of water on the table. No wine and no beer, even though Carlos enjoys both and TK knows his father would love to open a bottle of red for this awkward little “meet-the-family double-date” thing that they’re doing. Sure, it’s nice to know that Owen and Carlos get along, and he’s excited for the warm risotto and tender meat, but there’s a part of him that worries about his father finding someone new. What if they hate him, like his dad’s most recent ex-girlfriend from New York? Or worse, like him too much, like his father’s second wife?
“Breathe,” Carlos reminds him, wrapping an arm around him gently and kissing his temple. It’s something small. But it helps. “You’re okay. I’m sure his new girlfriend will love you.”
“That’s not reassuring,” he mumbles as Owen looks up at the two of them.
He’s dressed nicer than usual. A button down, dark jeans. He spent almost two hours on his hair. He must really like the girl he’s seeing, and TK swears he’s happy for him. It isn’t that he doesn’t want his father to be happy, he’s just afraid. When it comes to women, he just doesn’t really have good judgement when it comes to pretty faces.
When the doorbell rings, Owen asks TK to get it. He takes Carlos’ hand and brings him forward too, just so he has something to hold onto. If it turns out the girl sucks, he still has Carlos and the 126. With a deep breath, he opens the door.
For about five seconds, TK just stares at Judd. His hair is combed flat, his clothes actually nice, and his arms full. In one hand, a full arranged bouquet with lillies and other small flowers and whatever else goes into those things. In the other, a pink bakery box with a clear window to a chocolate cake, his favorite. It’s too much at once. Judd opens his mouth.
TK slams the door in his face.
“TK-” Carlos starts.
“What the fuck, dad?”
“Open the door please,” Owen sighs. “Don’t make him stand out there.”
It’s Carlos who opens the door and apologizes, takes the cake from Judd to set on the counter while Owen gets a vase, kissing Judd’s cheek as he accepts the flowers. It isn’t right. TK thinks he might be dreaming, or hallucinating, or something. This doesn’t make sense and he’s barely able to breathe until Carlos helps him sit down and hands him water. He even asks if TK needs his inhaler. If only this was something so simple as asthma and not a meltdown because his dad is seeing someone.
And it’s not like Judd is a bad person; he’s kind and loving and a teddy bear, and he would never hurt either of them. If he thinks hard enough, he’s seen the way Judd looks at his father. He’s a good man. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s dating Owen, didn’t tell TK, and decided that just showing up was a good idea. And his dad hid this from him too, because he knows that TK would be upset by it. They conspired to keep this from him.
Owen serves four plates at the table and smiles at the flowers Judd brought. Carlos holds TK’s hand under the table and shoots him this look like he knows he’s desperate to run fast and far, avoid the pain that rushes through him in a reminder of what it’s been like in the past, even if he knows Judd is a good person and he knows his father loves him.
“This is really good, sir, thank you,” Carlos says a couple bites into the meal.
Everyone else is quiet. 
Judd looks at Owen and Owen looks at Carlos and Carlos looks at TK and TK looks at his food, willing it all to disappear so he can pretend this isn’t actually happening. He eventually gets out that he thought Judd was married to Grace, which earns a sharp rebuke from his father and Judd’s shoulders going tense and angry, like when he shoved TK that one time after the grain silo. 
The next attempt at conversation is Carlos again, mentioning that TK has started a little garden in his backyard that they both tend to on their off days. When Judd asks TK what they’re growing, that’s the last straw.
“I’m not hungry,” he announces, even though he’s practically starving and he’s always loved his father’s risotto and his mouth waters at the thought of the cake Judd brought. “I’m going to bed.”
“TK-”
He stands up, still holding Carlos’ hand, and looks at him. Asking if he’s going to come with or stay. This is what he does instead of looking at the hurt on his father’s face or the worry on Judd’s. If he does, it’ll be about them, and he’ll feel too guilty to be angry.
“Tyler, please sit down.”
The use of his first name actually makes him flinch, as well as reinforcing his decision to leave. His father knows better than to call him that, especially now when they’re with someone he’s seeing, someone TK is seeing- it hurts worse than getting shot, and that had felt pretty shit.
“Fuck you,” he says, staring at his father. “And fuck you,” he adds for Judd, before storming off toward his room.
Behind him, Carlos murmurs an apology and his chair scrapes across the hardwood flooring. His footsteps are quick until he catches up. Then they’re slow, like the hands that cup his shoulders to stop him before he can lock himself somewhere private and safe. It isn’t like he’s going to do something stupid, he just can’t deal with this.
“Take a deep breath,” Carlos says to him. His voice is far too calm. “It’s okay. Do you wanna talk about what just happened?”
“I want him out of my house.”
From downstairs, his dad calls again. “TK, can we please talk about this?”
He doesn’t want to push this to the wayside, but he’s also angry, and TK knows he has a tendency to say things he doesn’t mean when he gets angry. He looks to Carlos and knows what his boyfriend thinks he should do, so he reluctantly heads back down the stairs to where they’re waiting. Judd’s eyes are red and a little puffy, and his father’s rubbing his back.
“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner,” Owen says first. “I didn’t want you to know until we were sure it was serious, but maybe it would have been better to warn you.”
Judd clears his throat and wipes his face briefly. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to- trying to be something I’m not, TK. I love you, kid, and I get that this is weird, but it’s not like I’m movin’ in, or I’m gonna suddenly be your dad.”
Carlos’ face is unreadable. No comfort and no anger, nothing for TK to use to figure out how to navigate this without upsetting him, a response leftover from tiptoeing around Alex all the time. As soon as he realizes that’s what he’s doing, he looks back at the lukewarm plate in front of him. 
“I know this is hard for you, especially because I haven’t dated in a long time. But nothing is going to change, you hear me?”
His dad reaches across the table to squeeze TK’s hand. 
“Nothing is changing. I’m still your dad, and I love you more than anything, and just because I’m seeing someone doesn’t mean that you’re not my priority. If you need time, that’s okay, but I’m not going anywhere, and neither is Judd, alright?”
The best TK can manage is a nod. 
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w-k-smith · 4 years ago
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Once again, tumblr has hidden the version of this post that has links. (Clearly, weird fan fic where ghosts eat candy bars is just *too radical* for this website.) This story is also available on AO3, under the username w_k_smith.
Chapter Two is here of “Don’t Go to the Netherworld!”
In this chapter, Beetlejuice and Lydia make their way through Saturn, but are waylaid by Zagnuts, a boy band, and all the obstacles the desert otherworld has to offer.
Chapter One: “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” (6/19/20) Chapter Two: “Worm Welcome” (07/03/20) Chapter Three: “Ghost to Ghost” (upcoming) Chapter Four: “To Beetle or not to Beetle?” (upcoming)
Warning:  This story contains depictions of, references to, and discussion of  topics like suicide, untimely death, abuse, and body horror - you know,  like the musical does (though this probably has more). Know your  boundaries, and stay safe.
New chapter under keep reading!
“I don’t understand,” Lydia said, as they crossed from the midnight  of the administrative area, toward the hot afternoon of Saturn, through  the twilight in between. “What’s Saturn? Are we going to the  planet…somehow?”
“Nope. Totally unrelated, and don’t ask me who  named it. Saturn is the part of the Netherworld that acts as a trap for  ghosts who get out of line, like if you try to leave the house you’re  haunting, or jump the line in processing like someone I could mention.  Going through processing would only take a couple steps, but Saturn is  an anti-shortcut from the feverish nightmares of M.C. Escher. It’s a  giant desert, and it’s full of sandworms. Those are snake monsters that  eat ghosts. Foreshadowing?” he muttered to himself.
“This is so weird,” Lydia muttered. “I love it.”
She didn’t seem like she was being sarcastic. Maybe hanging around her wasn’t going to be too terrible.
Unfortunately, he saw trouble ahead.
“Keep your head down,” he whispered to Lydia. “Look dead. Deader than that. And don’t sneeze! Dead people never sneeze!”
“What?”
“Hello, Beetlejuice,”  said five tenor voices in unison. A cluster of expressionless young  white men was drifting through the shadows toward him and Lydia. The  boys had died in their late teens and very early twenties, long enough  ago that two of them sported frosted tips. They were dressed just  differently enough to be distinguishable from one another, in dated  pants and t-shirts with no personality.
“Hey, Boy Inferno,” he grunted.
“What are you doing out here?” they asked. They all floated six inches off the ground, in a formation reminiscent of migrating ducks.
He rolled his eyes. “Just running an errand for Juno. Miss Argentina find that living intruder yet?”
“Not that we’ve heard. Who’s your friend?”
“New  hire. Juno wants her on border patrol. Her name’s Lydia, and she’s  boring. Kids these days, you know, they think eyeliner and TikTok counts  as personality. But them’s the rules: if you add to the work, you have  to help out.”
“Do you want to hear the introduction song, Lydia?”
Geez, they didn’t back off easy. “Save that for people who’ve committed genocide or worse.”
“We were talking to Lydia.”
At his elbow, Lydia scratched the end of her nose. Boy Inferno caught the gesture, and as one, cocked their heads.
“What did you die of…?” they asked her.
“Um,  I don’t want to talk about it,” Lydia said, which was the wrong thing.  All newlydeads ever wanted to do was blather on about how they’d bitten  it.
“OK, you got me!” He stepped between Lydia and the boys. “This  isn’t an approved mission to Saturn. We were actually trying to, ah,  hide out from Juno for a while. She is in a mood today, I tell ya. Just  impossible. She wants me to take a statement from all the recently  deceased who were in line when the alarm went off, and then pinch each  of them really, really hard to see if they still have nerve endings. I’d  rather swallow my own toenails. Remember that time Juno made me swallow  my own toenails? You were there for that, weren’t you? So be a  hive-minded pal and help me stay on the DL. This one already threatened to tattle if I didn’t show her my good hiding spot.” He jerked his head at Lydia.
Boy Inferno blinked.
“Alright, then,” they said, and each voice sounded suspicious. But they drifted back toward the administrative area.
Lydia stared as they went. “Who are those guys?”
“Boy  Inferno is a dead boy band. They didn’t have enough brains or  personality to be individuals when they were a living boy band, and when  their tour bus crashed, the situation got worse.”
“Yikes. And speaking of yikes, what were you saying about sandworms? Are they going to eat us?”
He  waggled one hand back and forth, and started walking. “Eh. It’s  probably OK. You’re alive, so they’ll leave you alone. I’m half-ghost,  half-demon, which confuses them more than anything. We’ll be fine if we  don’t run into a sandworm that’s pissed off or starving.” They were  crossing into Saturn proper. The terrain changed from dark gravel to  rolling sand dunes dotted with twisted rock formations. Wooden doors  hovered here and there, from three feet off the ground to 20 stories  high. There was the light and warmth of a yellow sun, but if you turned  in every direction, you would never see a sun or any other stars in the  royal blue sky.
“Huh. Now I kind of want to meet a sandworm...” Lydia said, looking around like one was going to pop out from behind a dune.
“Yup. That’s definitely foreshadowing.”
“So…what’s it like? Being half-demon? How does that, um, happen?”
He  waved his hands to turn them into sock puppets – one red and bearing a  vague resemblance to Juno, the other a grey blob and as good a  representation as he’d ever had of his father. “Hello, children!” he  said in a screechy voice. “Let’s talk about the occult birds and bees.  When a demon woman tolerates a living human male very much…”
She shoved him. “I know that, gross! I’m ace, but not completely ignorant. I just wondered if you were ever alive.”
He  put his hands back to normal. “Uh-huh. I was alive. Looooong time ago,  though. Long enough that we didn’t pay much attention to what year it  was, and only bathed twice a lifetime, and drank beer instead of water.  Hm. Or maybe that was all just me. Anyway, Juno only had me to see what  would happen if you mixed demon magic with ghost abilities. Turns out,  you get yours truly. She hated the result, and I never got any little  siblings to chase around. But it’s fine with the just the two of us; my  mom has this sweet thing she says to me every day: ‘I wish you had never  been born.’ I think it’s a Swedish pet name.”
“How did you die?” Lydia asked.
“I asked a bunch of annoying questions that weren’t any of my business and someone stabbed me.”
“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “How far is it, anyway?” she asked, shading her eyes. “I don’t see anything…”
“Distance doesn’t really work like that here, and we could move way, way faster if we were both dead. But it’s pretty damn far.”
She sighed.
*
He  had to give Lydia Deetz this: she was a trooper. She was wearing a  dress, and boots that were very much not made for walking, but she kept  moving, eyes forward, not a single complaint. When her stomach growled  like an angry guard dog, she held her head high and acted like she  didn’t notice.
“OK, time for a break!” he said.
“No!” she said. “We have to keep going.”
“If  you keep going like this, you’re going to collapse, and then you’ll  die, and a sandworm will eat you, and that’s my whole day gone. Sit  down.”
“I don’t need to.”
She was going to give him grey  hairs, she really was. He shook one hand like he was shooing a fly, and  she stumbled backwards until she sat on the closest rock.
Lydia’s eyes bugged. “What am I – what are you –?”
“You’ve never been possessed before?”
She stood back up. He waved his hand again, and she sat.
“No, keep it up,” he said. “This is fun.”
He flicked his fingers, and her expression brightened.
“Beetlejuice, you’re my role model!” she said, in a tone much more chipper than any that had ever come out of her mouth, he was sure. He released her.
Lydia’s face soured like old milk mixed with lemon juice, and she made the fingers-down-the-throat gesture. “I’ll sit for five minutes. Don’t do that again.”
“I  always knew I’d make a great babysitter!” He settled on the other side  of the rock. He folded his hands over his stomach, figuring he’d take a  nap if she stayed quiet.
She didn’t. “My mom would love all this,”  Lydia said. “Her favorite holiday was Halloween. We’d make our own  haunted houses in the garage – but in the summer, when no one in the  neighborhood was expecting it. She liked the weird stuff in the world.  Or – she likes the weird stuff in the world. She doesn’t just avoid it, like most people do. Like my dad does. I think she’ll like you, even.”
He  wanted to make a face at the idea of a well-adjusted person liking him  (though it was a nice feeling, deep in his black heart), but Lydia  couldn’t see him, so it would be wasted effort.
She was quiet for a while, and he thought he was free to drift off to sleep.
“Um…do you have any food?” she asked.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handful of Zagnuts. He tossed the kid two. “Here ya go.”
“Why so many Zagnuts?” Lydia asked. “They’re good, but I didn’t think people ate these anymore.”
“It’s the only candy in the vending machines in the Netherworld.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because everything around here is at a baseline of low-grade crappiness. Haven’t you noticed?”
“Are  you really supposed to spend eternity here when you die?” she asked, in  a muffled way that told him she’d bitten off half a candy bar at once.  “It seems like it should either be a whole lot better or a whole lot  worse.”
“You aren’t supposed to spend eternity here; that’s the  point,” he said. He popped a Zagnut into his mouth, and swallowed it  wrapper and all. “You have to move on, eventually.”
“To what?”
“Do I look like a priest? Or a philosopher? Or a TV psychic?”
“The  last one, a little. A bad one. The kind who gets tricked by reporters  to help contact their dead kid, but it turns out the kid is really alive  and just in the next booth over in the Denny’s.”
“Touché. The  point is, nobody around here knows. You hang around the administrative  area until you’re ready to go into the miserable nothingness of the  Abyss, and then you swirl around in the Abyss until…I dunno, something  else happens. Maybe you just stay in the Abyss forever. I don’t plan on  finding out anytime soon.”
“Is that where my mom is?”
“Yup.  If she didn’t come running when you first came through the door, she’s  definitely gone through security. Don’t worry, though. You poke your  head into the Abyss and shout her name a few times, and she’ll come  right out.”
He lied easily. He always had.
“I’m just  surprised she hasn’t tried to contact us,” Lydia said. “I guess she must  be confused, because we moved and everything. My dad dragged me out to  Connecticut, away from New York and all our friends and family, to work  on this stupid gated community project he has in mind. And he took my  annoying life coach with us. She’s friendly and positive,  and keeps trying to make me fill out a star chart. I don’t know why he  thinks she’s helping me. It’s not like there aren’t actual therapists in  Connecticut. I don’t get it.”
He chewed another Zagnut for a  beat, waiting to see if she was making a joke. Then he broke the news.  “Your dad is boinking the life coach.”
“What?!” she said. She whirled around the rock to sit right next to him. “How can you know that?”
“Um, because I’m an adult with a brain.” He grabbed the top of his head and lifted his skull to show his grey matter.
“He isn’t…Dad’s not…” She slumped. “He’s totally sleeping with her.”
“Totally,” he agreed.
“How could he do that? Mom’s only been dead a few months. Well…when he sees Mom – if he just talks to her again – he’ll understand what an ass he’s been.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, non-committedly.
“How much farther do we have?” she asked.
“Long enough to aaaaaaalmost make you give up and collapse in despair.”
She groaned.
For  a second, he thought her groan was superhumanly long and loud, and he  prepared to be impressed. Then he noticed the ground was shaking.
“Looks like it’s our unlucky day!” he said. “Run!”
They  both got to their feet, and made it about five steps before the sand  exploded to their left. A sandworm rose from the earth, its  black-and-white stripes blurring into grey. At the peak of its jump, its  inner head came out of its mouth, eyes glaring, jaw snapping.
It dove back down toward them.
He  dodged one way, and Lydia dodged the other. The spray of sand blocked  out everything, and when it all cleared, the sandworm had risen from the  ground again, undulating in and out of the dunes. Lydia stood in place,  looking all around. But it was hard to know where to run when you were  being attacked by a sandworm.
The sandworm’s chomping heads came out of the ground an arm’s length from Lydia. She yelled, and punched it in the closest eye.
The  heads hissed and thrashed, knocking Lydia down. The sandworm dove down,  and the sand around them whirled and roiled, until he felt like he was  standing in boiling dirt.
When the sandworm rose again, it  accidentally scooped up Lydia. She showed a little more survival  instinct than she had before, and clung to the sandworm’s back.
“Knock it off!”  he heard her say. She nudged the sandworm with her left boot, and the  sandworm turned to the right. But it had had enough of its passenger,  and whipped its body to throw Lydia like a beanbag.
She shrieked as she fell through the air. He stretched his legs, about 20 feet, and caught her.
As  he dragged her back to the ground, he braced himself for another attack  by the sandworm. Maybe if he transformed into something big and scary,  showed some lionfish spines or extra limbs, the worm would leave them  alone. Getting swallowed would be no good. Not only did he usually try  to avoid getting eaten, but sandworms’ digested prey just wound up back in processing…after a wait of at least a decade or so.
The  sandworm jumped over their heads, dove into the ground, and kept going.  Its writhing body upset every dune it plowed through, but it didn’t  double back.
He wasn’t going to look a gift worm in the mouth.
“And don’t come back!” he yelled. “G’on, git! Git!”
Lydia jumped out of his arms. “That was awesome! I thought I was going to die, but it was awesome.”
He  was more tired than he’d been in a while. He was tired like Juno had  been screaming at him for hours. Also, there was a lot of sand in his  shoes. “You did OK But why the hell did you try to punch it in the  face?”
She didn’t look ashamed in the slightest. “I thought it  would be like avoiding a shark attack. That’s what the Discovery guy  said during Shark Week: punch the shark hard in the eye so it leaves you alone.”
“Since when has punching something made it leave you alone?” he asked. “That has never worked when I’ve tried it with people.”
“Because then the shark – or the sandworm – thinks you’re too much of a threat and it ignores you. I made it go away, didn’t I?’
“I  seriously doubt you’re what made it leave, Karate Kid. If a sandworm  had its multiple hearts set on eating us, it would take more than your  mechanical bull riding skills to dissuade it. I don’t know – I’m not so  sure it was all that interested in us.”
“If it wasn’t going for us, why did it come over here?”
“I said I don’t know! I’m not a sandworm scientist.”
“Your hair is changing color,” she said, pointing at his head.
“Can you blame me? I’m pretty pissed off right now.”
She brightened. “It changes color with your mood?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I touch it?”
He  grunted, and tilted his head. She patted some strands on the right side  of his head, which were dark green at the tips, but probably working  their way to red. The cocoon the caterpillar had made behind his ear  popped open, and a death’s-head hawkmoth shot into the air and planted  itself on Lydia’s nose.
“Augh!” she yelped, and fell right on her ass. He doubled over laughing while she tried to get back up with dignity.
“You’ve taken things too far this time, Beetlejuice!”
Once, just once, he’d like to go 48 hours without hearing those words shouted at him.
He turned to see Miss Argentina stomping up a sand dune, clipboard in hand, sash askew, which meant she was really really really upset.
“What have I done this time?” he asked, resigned.
“What have you done this  time?” Miss Argentina pointed at Lydia. “Let’s start with child  endangerment! And the fact that your disappearance has about given Juno  apoplexy.”
“Ah, she loves me.”
“No! She just knows  that if she hasn’t heard from you in twelve hours, it means you’re up to  something! And that means the rest of us suffer! I’m just glad she gave  me clearance to go to Saturn to look for your sorry, sagging ass, so at  least I was able shoo a sandworm away from some newlydeads. I have a  sneaking suspicion you bear some responsibility for that, too?”
“OK,  that is both not fair and completely true,” he said. “And I’ll have you  know I’m doing a good deed. I’m guiding this one around the  Netherworld.” He jerked his head at Lydia.
“And why, in the name of all that is sacred, would you consider that a good idea?”
“Um…”  He faltered. He may have been able to fudge a few details with Lydia,  but Miss Argentina had been around long enough to know how the Abyss  worked.
“Newlydeads…” Lydia said. “That must have been what attracted the sandworm. It wasn’t coming for us after all.”
“Why  did you drag newlydeads with you?” he asked, happy to change the  subject. “What, did you need help shouting at me? Anger backup singers?”
“Of  course not.” Miss Argentina frowned. “But – that’s a good idea.” She  clicked her pen, and scribbled on her clipboard. “I am actually writing  that down. If Boy Inferno is free…”
“Excuse me!” came a woman’s voice from the bottom on the dune. “I’m so sorry – could you wait just a minute?”
“It’s very hard to walk on sand!” came a sexy, nasal male voice from the same direction.
“These  newlydeads have a problem, you see,” said Miss Argentina, her voice  icy. But something was wrong – she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was  fixed on Lydia. “Apparently, a living person used their Handbook without  permission.”
Lydia became interested in the horizon. “Huh. That’s weird.”
Miss Argentina jabbed a finger in Lydia’s face. “Oh, don’t even try that on me, living girl. I am not in the mood today.”
“Whoof! We made it.” The newlydead couple crested the dune…and he was smitten.
The  woman was white, a pretty blonde, in a green wrap dress and  suburban-mom-at-the-nice-grocery-store boots. Her companion was a  beautiful Desi man, with light brown skin and a lock of black hair  hanging over his forehead that he immediately wanted to run his fingers through.
“Oooooh…” he said. “Hello, sexy…”
Lydia looked at him with a scientific expression. “Which one?”
“The  Trader Joe’s guardian angels over here. Not that Miss A isn’t pretty  easy on the eyes herself, but she’s a friend of Ellen, know what I mean?  A patron of U-Haul. An adopter of shelter cats. Wrong tree, is what I’m  saying. But she loves me platonically.”
“She doesn’t,” Miss Argentina said.
The couple pushed past him and bent over Lydia.
“Oh, thank goodness!” the woman said.
“Lydia!” said the man. “I’m so glad we found you. We were worried sick!”
“Adam, Barbara?” Lydia said. “What…what are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to go to the Netherworld.”
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jimlingss · 5 years ago
Note
Request for one of my favorite writers~ An apocalypse au with any member of your choice that you think would fit the best! Maybe the mc needs to make a choice to either save the person they love or an important person they hate (up to you really!). A story about the end of the world is always a great medium for angst haha
↳ The Crumbling World of You and I
1.9k words || 99% Angst, 1% Fluff || Apocalypse!AU || Park Jimin
Warning: Mention of suicide
It’s better to pretend that you’re dead. 
Even if you’re not, the game of imitation is the only means of survival. Try not to not be seen by others. Try not to breathe too loudly. Try to not eat too much. Try not to make too much noise. Sometimes you’d like to think that you’d be better off being actually dead. The contemplation of ending this misery is appealing on dark nights cowering in the shadows with your stomach gurgling from starvation. But your stubbornness won’t let you. You’ve made it this far — while there’s no end in sight, all your efforts and every sacrifice would be a waste if you took a bullet to your head. Not yet, at least. You can’t die just yet. You can’t die until you see him die. “There’s no food, but I found this.” He tosses you a box that you catch instinctively. It’s torn and muddy, but you find three bandages inside that your pocket with a hum. “We might starve again tonight.” Your boots are silent against the floor and you grasp your knife tightly as you round the corner, peeking over the counter. When you find nothing there, you release your held breath. “We could head to the forest. Kill a bird.” “They’ll see the smoke from the fire. It’s too risky to go back.” You turn on your heel. “So you think staying in the city is any better, Jimin? Who’s fucking fault is it anyways that they’re looking for us?! I told you that I didn’t trust them, but you didn’t listen.” “What’s done is done.” “We could’ve died.” “Well we didn’t,” he counters. “I’m sorry to say that. So what do you want to do?” There’s a drawn silence and your teeth grits. “There’s a preschool down the street I saw on our way here. There might be something there. If not, we can camp out there. It looked relatively untouched.” Jimin follows closely behind you. “Nothing’s untouched.” “Yeah, well it’s our fucking best bet, so shut your mouth.” The two of you leave through the backdoor of the pharmacy, quiet and slinking down behind fences and bushes. You’re not afraid of the dead as you are of the living. Those that pillage and steal, who serve their self-interest and would happily hold a gun to your skull and enjoy hearing your screams as they’d rip your limbs from your sockets and cook them for you to eat.  There’s a lot of sick fucks left in this world. Those that were sane have turned crazy. That includes you. After so many years of chaos and destruction, your thoughts have turned to dark places. Especially when you have to look at Jimin. And those places have taken permanent residences in your mind. You’re huddled down, about to run over to the next car to shield yourself from the light, but Jimin extends his arm. He holds you back. “What the hell do you think—” “Shush.” He puts a finger to his mouth. Jimin grabs a pebble by his foot and chucks it in the opposite direction. A zombie you didn’t see cranes his neck around and begins to lurch towards the noise. The boy nods to you, and you swallow hard, continuing. It’s not difficult to get down the block, and you take a moment to look at the graffiti on the walls, the last messages of people begging for help. Cars have been abandoned, windows broken, ivy and moss beginning to grow all over the walls. The city is decaying, but it’s not a new sight to you. The pink walls of the preschool have turned into a muddy shade, playground abandoned and filled with the ghost of children. You don’t dwell, easily prying open the barricaded door. The hallway is dark, but with the little light coming in, you’re able to notice the school pictures framed in a row on the wall. They’re of kids gathered together in front of the school before the war, three to five year olds with pink, cherub cheeks and mischievous smiles, grinning and unaware. They’re probably all dead. Jimin notices that you’re staring at the photographs and hesitates. “Are you okay?” “I’m fine,” you answer sharply, turning away. He nods. “I’ll check the staff room then.” You enter a classroom nearby, making sure to throw another pebble that you have in your pocket to the center of the room. When nothing comes crawling out, you take a sigh of relief. The windows are covered with planks, desks fallen over, papers sprawled all over the ground. Contrastingly, the white board has scribbles of flowers and happy faces. The drawings are sloppy to show the inexperience of holding markers.  You walk to the teacher’s desk as you slot your knife onto your belt, shifting to open the drawers. They’re empty, except for a small pair of scissors that you keep in your hands. But as you open the bottom drawer, you find a wooden frame. It’s another picture. This time of a woman and her child — a four year old that reminds you of someone. Someone with rounded eyes and lopsided lips, that held your hand with their small fingers. It’s been a year, but it still hurts like a bitch. You release a staggering exhale, feeling your eyes sting before you put the photo face down where it belongs and close the drawer as if noting happened. There’s the sound of footsteps that follow, but it doesn’t put you on alert. It’s familiar and constant. Jimin appears with a can in his hand. “It’s beans. Past the expiration, but still looks good.” It remains quiet and he reads the expression on your face. “What’s wrong?” “There’s a lot of fucking shit wrong.” You brush past him, but he grabs your wrist. “Well then tell me. We’re a team.” As if his touch burns, you shove his hands off of you. “Let me make this perfectly clear with you, we’re not a fucking team.” “Then what are we?” “I don’t fucking know. It doesn’t even fucking matter, alright? We just so happen to be together.” You step closer to him. “But believe me, the chance I get, I’ll leave you behind. Don’t think for a second that I have your back and that I’ll protect you, Jimin. You’re on your own.” “Is this because of your sister?” Your blood runs cold. “Don’t fucking talk about her.” “You know I didn’t mean to.” He moves to face you again. “I didn’t mean…” “I told you not to fucking talk about it! What don’t you understand?!” You grab the collar of his jacket, shaking him with your trembling fists. Jimin puts his hands over yours, searching your expression desperately and he whispers— “I’m sorry, Y/N.” “Well sorry doesn’t bring her back, does it?!” you scream until blood curdles at the back of your throat. You punch his chest hard with your fists, like beating a dead horse. “You let her die. You left my sister to die. A fucking four year old. I told you to watch her and you knew she couldn’t run with her fucked leg and you left her behind! You cold — hearted — bastard.”  You’re hyperventilating, jaw clenched, knuckles turned white. The fucked world didn’t harden you. It taught you how to savour your anger and sadness, and use it to find the will to live.  “You killed her.” There’s thumping. Growling. Broken feet sprinting. You let Jimin go, stumbling back. One of them comes through the door, maggots on its face, eyes bulging, thrashing at him. Jimin turns around and with his body weight, stabs his knife through its skull. But he’s unable to pull the dull blade back out. It’s stuck in the crevices and he’s shoved down as its arms try to maul his own face.  Jimin kicks it back. “Y/N!” You cup your ears, close your eyes, curl up in the corner. Please. If there’s a god out there — you pray for the first time in a long time — let him die. Jimin grabs a ruler on the ground, right in fingertips’ reach and he slams it at the zombie’s skull, hard enough that it’s stick through. The creature shrieks horrifically, and he takes the chance to tackle it down, getting a grip on the handle of his knife again. He pulls out and stabs once more, blood splattering all over his clothes like it’s just paint.  But another creature follows the noise and comes through the door — the size of a small child sprinting in bloodlust. Jimin’s still on the ground, vulnerable as he finishes off the other. And he’s brought the floor again by the child turned dead, his knife once again stuck in the other one’s brain.  He scrambles, tries to push it off as it crawls up his body. But the zombie’s nails have sunk itself into his jacket. “Y/N!” Jimin screams. And then it’s silent. The zombie stops shrieking. Blood sprays across his cheeks. His eyes are blinded, catching the sunlight that bleeds through the wooden planks of the window and reflects against the scissor’s blades. With both hands, you stab through the back of the child’s skull, again and again. It rolls off of him and you continue to spear the small scissors at its head. Ramming it until your arms are aching. Until the blade feels dull. Piercing until the bones and brain tissue feels like minced meat. “Where’s mom and dad?” — “I want to go home.” — “Y/N, I’m scared. I don’t want to die.” It was your fault. It was your fault. It was your fault.  She was only four years old. She only had you. She was your own family left. And yet, you left her behind — you dared to entrust her to a stranger. She thought you were going to save her and she waited. She waited for you to come back, but you didn’t.  You were the one to leave her behind. Jimin gets up, watching sobs break through your frame. You can hear the child’s shrieks, your sister’s, and you try to kill it. Try to get it to be quiet. Try to make it return to its grave. “Stop. Y/N.” You scream through gritted teeth, only shocked out of it when you feel arms wrap around your body. The bloodied scissors are taken from your grasp and you collapse next to the corpse. Jimin quickly embraces you, something he usually wouldn’t have the audacity to do, but he’s still a warm body that feels nice against your dirty skin. “Why can’t you just die?” The real question is why you can’t let Jimin die. “I’m sorry,” Jimin murmurs. The two of you are bloody and disgusting, but you’ve gotten used to the iron scent. It’s comforting. It means that you killed it, and that you’ve lived. “I hate you,” you tell him, having never felt hatred so deep in your stomach before. “So much.” “I know,” he tries to comfort you and it’s a futile attempt. “When the time comes, I’ll let you kill me.” But despite his promise, you know you wouldn’t feel better even after his death. Maybe Jimin knows that too. No amount of retribution can make you feel better, can make it easier to sleep at night. You can’t let him die. You only have each other now.
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lavenderhyrdrangea · 4 years ago
Text
Blind
Hey! This is a chapter from my fallout 3 long fic.  If you prefer to read it over on Ao3 click here.  If not then enjoy!
 At the age of twelve, Viola was convinced  that the concept of The Vault was irony personified..bunkerfied? From the point of design the vault was sterile and colorless—meant  to prioritize  order--but it cradled thousands in its womb, away from the dangers of the outside world. Her father joked that they needed  the rigid structure  since it served as a  proper protection. Had it been made of  hay or sticks they would’ve crumbled. Plus, he pointed out that she was at the cusp between childhood and adolescence where everything safe seemed plain and boring. At least she  had the vault baseball games every Friday if she  ever felt starved for excitement. Now those were a welcome bursts of color. Nothing could beat two co-op teams running, sliding and shouting across the field, claiming bases.Not even that one freaky Friday when an imposter snatched up and replaced Amata could.
They waited in the girl’s locker room, preparing for the game. Viola tested the swing of  the steel bat between her palms.
“Wood’s better,” she murmured to herself.
Even a total newbie would’ve rolled their eyes at that bright observation but the quiet had to be filled somehow. Between swats, She snuck sidelong glances towards Amata who sat on a bench, baseball clutched in hand and eyes peering at it.
Finally Viola cracked, “You’re suppose to throw it.”
Reluctantly, Amata let go of her fascination with the ball. The room with all its rickety, gray lockers suddenly existed and she’d been  plopped there.
“It would help if I had a target. Any suggestions?” She asked behind a paper-thin smile.
With her bat now slung over her shoulder and leg stretched to  rest  her foot on the bench, Viola pointed.
“Good question! The right question actually. Follow me. Let me know if you get lost.” She cleared her throat. “ One hour into the future. We’re in uniform and the doors to both locker rooms are open. Mr. Botch is standing in the center of the atrium. You know putting the teams together and pouring out  rules and stuff then he asks the BIG question. Who  pitches and who bats? Who does it first anyway. Some greasy  moron with a dumb little accent goes, ‘Yo teach I think I can handle the throwing.’ You grip the ball harder and think, Oh yeah? And-”
Her bat dropped with thunk as she sprang into a  windup position.
She raised her leg, using her knee to lead the way, drove into a turn and sent the imaginary ball flying.  Adrenaline switched on, she dashed crosswise to fill the role of the ‘victim’. She pressed her fingers together and tapped them to her lips and spread them with an obnoxious pop.
“How’s that for right in the kisser?”
Amata flashed a genuine smirk now. Elation eased its way into the room. She seemed to take a step away from her previous contemplations. “You know he’ll just tear after us. Or try. Mr. Botch is fast.” She crossed her eyes and shook her head side to side. “ ‘You’re done for, Nosebleed.’ ”
“Oh, that’ll be great. He’ll run his mouth something fierce like he always does.”Viola said, settling onto the floor. “How do you think Paul deals with it?”
“ Are you kidding? He gobbles up everything that bully says. He’s not bothered.  Now if we’re talking about Wally...”
Viola was ready to list the many reasons why she felt not one iota of sorrow for Wally when an unbidden yet hilarious thought crossed her mind.
“Imagine if the world hated us and Butch was our friend?”
This earned her a nose crinkle.
“Not funny,” Amata groaned.
Viola, puffed chest and squared shoulders, drawled in Butch fashion, “ ‘What’s the matter with you? Daddy’s making you play ball like everyone else? Or can’t you take one of my jokes? You big baby.’ “
Amata shook her head. “I can’t believe he calls what he does jokes.”
Viola watched how Amata alternated from pressing her palms  together to wringing her hands. Her sanguine nature  was beginning to fade, acquiescing  to  her hidden thoughts.
Viola covered one of Amata’s wrist with a reassuring hand. “I mean it, you know? A busted lip is the least he deserves.”
“Sometimes I wish I could solve all my problems by just hitting them.” She shifted uncomfortably under Viola’s questioning eye. “Sorry, for sounding like freaking lunkhead.”
“Who or whatever this problem is must be wearing you thin.”
On the spot, she peeped, “ You peek at the  things your dad has on his private terminal every once in a while, right?”
“Whatever isn’t behind an administrator’s password.” Viola couldn’t begin to go over the number of times she goofed  around with some of her dad’s files.  Most of them were the Vault residents’ boring and if she was being honest, invasive, medical information. “Why?” Then it hit her. She rolled her eyes. “So you went to your dad’s super secret room and went through his stuff. Seriously, Amata? It happens to the best of us.”
“That not it.” Amata took a deep breath, bracing herself. Even still she faltered when she said, “ I found baseball scores.” Before Viola could cudgel her way through the rest of the conversation with her trusty club, Sarcasm, Amata  babbled on. “I thought they were the normal ones from our games but these were... copies? Duplicates? No, that’s not right. The first time I looked at them they were the same and the second--Amata sighed. “Ms. Armstrong. Her thing with cards: cups, swords, and moons or whatever. You remember, don’t you?”
Amata’s explanation for what the heck that had to do with anything was delivered on shaky breath. The way she told it these scoreboard duplicates—shadowboards she aptly called them—elaborated on the usual stats to form estimations of  people’s personalities. Amata noted  that they followed Ms. Armstrong’s tarot model.  She’d draw up a number of cards, place them side by side, and read them to read you. She’d see  a cup card  and a sword card say it meant all you’ve ever fought would go pouring down a drain.  In the same way a stat like multiple home runs would be taken into consideration alongside a players day to day antics, so the conclusion that, perhaps, they enjoyed  taking things head on or that they were one and done type of person or that they were overachievers could be made.  
Much of  what she said seemed to be hastily patched together hodgepodge but it  meshed just enough to  take off running in Viola’s mind.
“What’s it all for exactly? Ms. Armstrong does it because she wants to ‘get’ people.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know.”
Amata became scarce the following weeks. Whatever  spaces  in-between where they would talk  was often obscured by her aloof attitude. All their conversations made Viola felt like they were speaking to each other through a tiny hole in the wall. To add to everything,  her own newfound  curiosity about what was on that terminal lead her down paths made out of paranoia. She’d go back and forth with herself. In one minute she didn’t care if the Overseer kept tabs on them. It wasn’t any different than a manager watching over an employee. Dad made sure Jonas was doing his due diligence all the time. Then, in the next, the objections would spring out. Jonas to some extent knew what dad was doing.  Amata’s uneasiness made the situation out like the Overseer’s “notes” were supposed to be a secret. Secrets weren’t always bad. An Overseer’s kept secrets however spelled trouble.
“Hey.” A grating voice called, causing her to snap to attention.”Nosebleed. I’m talking here.”
Right. Deloria. Cafeteria. Trying to pilfer her food.
“Gimme your mash,” he demanded.
“Get your own instead of trying to mooch off me.”
“Don’t give me lip. Fork them over.”
Viola sighed and shoved the bowl his way.  She couldn’t muster the appetite to finish the by then cold meal anyway or the tic for tac energy to deal with his antics.
He gave the surrendered food a suspicious look over.  “I swear if you spat in this I’m going to sock you one good.”
“I would’ve done it in front of you. What’s with the funny talk?”
“A loser like you wouldn’t understand.” He shoveled  spoonfuls of mash down his gullet. “Where’s your girlfriend?” he sneered, white chunks clinging to the corner of this mouth.
“More like where’s yours. Having another fight I see. Tell me, who started it? You or Wally?”
He gritted his teeth.  No doubt he thought that would make her flinch back in fear but with his cheeks  full and puffed up with food, he looked like a baby throwing a tantrum. Fitting. “ You're lucky the rest of the outfit isn’t here. We’d clobber you.”
“Awwwww, you guys made up then?” She smirked.
For a split second, Butch’s fist clenched then slackened.
“Nothing but trouble and not the good kind either. You and that stick in the mud. Can’t believe I got to apologize or whatever.”
“Apologize?” Viola narrowed his eyes. “What did you do this time? And got to? Tell me who’s making you apologize so I can give them a hug.”
“Who do you think?” He angled his head towards the cafeteria doorway where Officer Gomez and Officer  Hannon stood. “Dogs ma calls ‘em. The Overseer has them stuck to me over some prank. I saw Amata hanging out with out  with Old Lady Palmer. I figured since he likes hanging with old people that she’d want to fit in. Two Words: Flour bomb.”
How did he get his hands on flour to do that?
Butch grumbled on about how she went and got her father. The Overseer was livid. Butch’s punishment was to apologize to Amata everyday for two weeks and  work under Grandma Palmer for the same amount of time.
He whispered. “I still win though. Your little friend dropped something.”
Suspicion needled away at her nerves.  She glanced at security.  This was either another prank that would land them both in trouble or something that would make her want to kick his teeth in.
He grinned, all teeth, as he yanked something out from  inside his vault suit pocket.  It left her dumbfounded when  she spotted a jagged piece of paper with scribbles in his palm.  Officer Gomez seemed to watch them intently now. Butch nudged  at her shoulder with his  open hand. She  shook it.
“So, I guess you’re apologizing to me too, huh? Probably just doing it because you’re in trouble.” She said in a level tone.
Butch mumbled under his breath at the notion of an  apology to her as Viola ‘wiped her eyes’.     In the tiniest  and most familiar scribbles the paper read, “Deathclaw.”
“Password?” She mouthed.
His helpful shrug prompted her  to believe  that this wasn’t the best way to communicate. There were napkins around to write on but no pen or pencil. What to do?  The ketchup packets in the condiment bin called to her.  Better than nothing. In poor, tomatoey scrawl she made another attempt.
Password?
Idk. Maybe important.
You know, how?
Butch ripped five napkins from the dispenser.
Secret codes are always important.
Amata’s writing.
Hah! I’m right. It’s important.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, he was right. Amata was messing around with the Overseer’s terminal and she might not have been sharing the entire truth with her. The Shadowboards had more to them, something pivotal. She needed the info. So she bargained him for it-- His codes for her mash.
Bad deal.
Will get you out of trouble.
Who? You? Amata? No you won’t.
Officer Hannon threw a sweat inducing glare their way. Definitely wasn’t a fan of them using up vault supplies. Propping her arm up like they were arm wrestling, she leaned in for clearer conversation and less waste.  
“Come on, You’re no good with computers.” She whispered.
He gripped her hand.
“Oh, like you are?”
“Better than you.”
Arm already shaking with the force, she tried shoving his hand down.
“I’ll bet.”
“What’s stopping me from running off with this code right now? I’m trying to be nice even though you don’t deserve it.  Repay the favor.”
“I’m nothing but nice so long as I get what I want, Nosebleed.”
He overtook her but  as  what little patience she had sifted between her fingers she regained  strength, bringing them to a  stalemate.
“Just let me have it.” She hissed.
“You think that I’m just some radroach that takes off running when you stomp your feet but you’ll wake up  eventually.  The Butchman is the toughest in the vault.  Either I help or no dice.”
He didn’t sound the same as  he  had seconds prior.  His voice had grown deep and edged with annoyance  and a wisenheimer touch. Familiar and foreign.
“Fine.”
4 notes · View notes
honeyjimsfics · 7 years ago
Text
Deep End
Another installment for Danny and Dash, this one taking place after “A Little Further.”  This is by far the most I’ve written.  Lots of Dash still being a powervers and being very convincing.  Also, I’m exhausted.
Danny let out a grateful sigh as he leaned against his locker.  “I mean, it’s just nice, ya know?  Getting in some quite time with the family gone?”
Tucker smiled, “I can believe that.  Another Ghost-Con, huh?”
He shrugged, “I guess.  This time in Wisconsin.  It’s just a get together of weird ghost fans, both the local and far out variety.  Mom and dad usually go just to try to sell their inventions and get more recognition in the ghost hunting community.”
“There’s a community?”  
“I guess.  Either way, it gets them out of the house for a few days.  Plus, Jazz decided to finally have a sleepover with her friends at their place.  Something about ‘enjoying my youth while I still can.’  Eh, I mostly think she’s just doing it so she has something to write about in her college essays.  So now I get a whole night to myself!”
“Huh, so anything planned for tonight?” Tucker asked.
“Not much, might just veg out, get a couple hours in on DOOMED, maybe order in some food from-”  
“Hey Fenturd!”
Oh no.  Danny’s face winced as he heard the voice.  He knew who it belonged to.  The same guy that turned his knees to pudding.  The same guy who’s face he couldn’t get out his head for a whole week after their last hallway encounter.  The same guy he couldn’t believe that he’d been messing and kissing around with.  He turned around to see Dash Baxter making a path towards him wearing his usual red letterman jacket and jeans.  Danny gulped.  Please don’t do anything weird in front of Tucker.  Come on Dash, don’t be that cruel.  “H-hey Dash,” he replied apprehensively.
“Aw why the long face?  Can’t I see my favorite dork every once and a while?” he asked as he heavily patted Danny’s shoulder.
“Heh heh, yeah...”  Danny said avoiding eye contact.  Jeez, he’s just touching my shoulder, why the hell am I getting warm?
“Now don’t get your panties in a bunch Fenton,” he teased.  “I’m just here to return your sister’s book, she left it at my place when she tutored me last week.”
Danny looked down towards Dash’s hands, there was indeed an algebra book in his grip.  Oh thank god.  “O-oh!  I’ll make sure Jazz gets this back.”
The book immediately fell from Dash’s hands to the floor, slamming to the ground with an emphatic thud.  “Oops, my bad Fenton.  Hahahaha!”  As Dash sidestepped from Danny, he grabbed Tucker’s hat and brought it down on his face.  “Good to see you too Tucker.  Heh!”  Dash then left down the hallway, high-fiving a nearby jock who managed to capture their whole encounter.
Tucker angrily rearranged his hat, “God, what a jerk.  Can’t you just zap him or something?  Just once?”
“No Tucker,” he replied as he picked up the book.  “No ghost powers on humans.  Not even Dash.”  Danny then noticed a bit of paper was sticking out from the algebra book, clearly a scrap from a notebook or something.  Opening the book he realized it was a note.
It was from Dash.
Lamppost at 3:30 sharp.  Don’t be late!
He wants me to meet him after school?  Why?  What?  What??
“What’s that Danny?”
Tucker’s voice brought him out of his thoughts.  “Eh-what?  Oh, uh, just some equations my sister had him do,” he said, closing the book.
“Oh, hah, what, did he get most of them wrong?”
“Ha, yeah.  L-like half of them.”
“Man, your sister has her work cut out for her,” Tucker said as they both began to make their way to class.
“Yup, heh.”  Me too...
The rest of the school day seemed to flutter by in a breeze, Danny being mostly preoccupied by his thoughts of Dash.  What could he even want from me?  Danny quickly turned red and shook his head.  Ugh, besides that.  I mean, there is no way I’m doing anything in front of the school!  Outside!  That’s just, I mean, he would never ask that, right?  As the school bell rang its final bell, Danny gathered his things and headed to the school’s library.  Sigh, might as well catch up on the homework, it’s only 2:30, I got some time.  As he entered the library he quickly settled in a nearby desk, pulling out several papers and books and tried to focus as much as he could at the non-Dash related problems at hand.  Several pencil scribbles and page flips later, he stared in confusion at one particular passage.  Confusingly trying to decipher what the author’s symbolism could be, he glanced at the clock on the wall.  What?!  It’s 3:38?  Shit!  Shoving all his belongings back into his bag he rushed to the front of the school and out to the front steps.  Bursting through the doors he gasped for air.  Scanning the air, he hoped to see no sign of a red letterman jacket.  
He had no such luck.
Danny saw Dash quietly leaning against the lamppost, arms crossed as he stared out towards the street.  Oddly enough, he wasn’t wearing his usual red jacket.  A duffle bag laid at his feet, with one of the sleeves of his jacket peeking though the zipper.  With out the sleeves to cover him up, Dash looked bigger, his arms no longer confined beneath a thick fabric.  Danny let the thought pass and trudged up to the lamppost.  “Uh, hey Dash.”
Dash stared straight ahead.  “You’re late.”
Danny’s stomach dropped, “S-sorry.  I was doing homework in the library and lost track of time.”  He hoped his excuse was reasonable enough.
Dash looked down at him for a moment, his brows furrowed in a knot.  He grimaced, “Whatever Fenton.”  He picked up his duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder.  “Come on,” he said behind him as he started to walk away.
Danny just stood there.   “Huh?”
Dash turned around, “What, you need me to hold you’re hand?  Come on already Fenton.”
“But where are we going?”
“My truck, where else?  Come on, I gotta throw my stuff into the back, hate lugging this stuff around,” he said as he shifted the duffle along his shoulders.  “I’m starving, so hurry it up.”
“Uh, ok,” he said, shuffling along side Dash.  Where the hell is this going?  Starving?  Wait, does that mean...  Oh jeez.  The two walked in relative silence as they made their way to the school’s parking lot.  Few cars were around, save for a couple staff cars huddled in a far corner.  Dash’s car seemed to be the only’s student car in the lot. Reaching the truck, Dash clicked open the driver side door, moving the seat aside to shove his duffle bag behind it.  Danny stood silently in front of the hood.  “Umm...”
“Ya know, the doors are open now.  You can go inside,” he said not bothering to look at Danny as he moved his duffle around.
“Oh.  Uh, ok.”  Danny opened the car door and hoisted himself inside.  The truck’s interior was relatively plain and clean, except for the papers and food wrappers scattered on the floor.  Everything else seemed made it seem like a car fresh from the factor except for the little plastic football glued to the dashboard.  Dash hopped into the car and slammed the door shut.  He looked at Danny and said nothing.
Danny swallowed the saliva in his throat, “Um, what are we doing here?”
“What do you think we’re doing, Fenton?” Dash replied, his voice thick with intent.  He swung his arm over the passenger side headrest.  
Danny reddend, “O-oh.  Uh, um...Ok.”  Well, at least you’re sitting down this time.  And it’s sorta private...   Danny reached down and started to unzip his pants.
Dash burst out laughing, “Jeez Fenton!  What, didn’t get enough of my mouth last week?  Man, you should see your face!  Priceless.”
“I-wh-what?” Danny stuttered.
“Relax.  I ain’t gonna have you for lunch again.  Well, at least not here.  Pretty sure I pushed my luck to the limit last week.  Surprised no one caught us with you being so loud.”
“I wasn’t being loud!”
Dash side glanced at him, “Sure you weren’t.  Besides, I told ya I was gonna share with you, right?  So I was thinking of more of a...home meal?”  His smile widened.
“Wha...What?!  You mean your house!?”
“No dork, I mean your house.  My parents are home all the time unless it’s for one of my games.  And the hallway has its charms, sure.  But being able to fuck around with you in your own bed?  Make sure that every time you sleep in it you can’t stop thinking about what you did?  Oh, yeah, definitely your bed.”
The thought of Dash being under his covers, his bed filled with Dash’s scent burned him from the inside out.   “N-no way!  My parents are h-home all the time, just like yours!  What makes you think they wouldn’t notice?”
Dash just let out quite sigh.  “Fenton, I know you’re parents are gone for the weekend.”
Shit.  “H-how did you-”
“Your sister, remember?  She’s been tutoring me and during one of her insanely hard equations, she off handedly told me her parents were gone for the week for something about a weirdo convention and her one chance to regain her youth, or blah blah blah.  Look, either way, your sister isn’t home.  Your parents aren't home.  You’ve got a house all to yourself.”
Darn it Jazz!  “That doesn’t mean I want you to come over!”
The jock let out a groan.  “Really Fenton?  This argument, again?  How many times do we have to do this?  How many times do we have to make out in the hallways?  How many times do I have to experience you sticking your tongue down my throat first and swinging your little arms my neck?  How many times do I have to have your cock down my throat and you clearly pushing my head down to the frigging base?”  
Danny shut his eyes.  You don’t have to describe it like that...
Dash cupped Danny’s cheek with his hand.  It was rough and warm.  “You want me.  Just as badly as I’ve been wanting you.”
“Dash, you, you want me?”  Is he really saying these words?
The jock let his hand drop and sighed.  “It’s been a long freaking week Fenton and I have been dying to kiss you and push you up against the lockers again.  But we were pretty wild last time.  Figure a couple of days to get your breath would be good.  Gotta say, I’m pretty pent up.  Pretty sure you are to.  Seen the way you’ve been fidgeting in the hallways every time you see me.”
“Well, what do you expect?  It’s not like I can act calm around you anymore.”
“Ha, exactly!  I can’t either!  I just keep wanting more and more with you and I know for damn sure you do to.  That’s why you have a golden opportunity here Fenton.  So what do you say?  Want an after school snack?” Dash smirked.
Danny winced.  Ugh, he’s so awful.  But...Is it that bad to really just admit that I really having sex with him?  He looked towards Dash, his eyebrows were raised as if he already knew the answer.  To just let go and admit I want this jock of an asshole...ugh.  I can’t believe myself.  Danny let out a long sigh and looked out his window.  “I guess some...food wouldn’t be too bad right now.”  God, I really shouldn’t have said that, that was way too cheese-
Dash suddenly clasped Danny’s head in his hands and turned him towards himself.  His lips met Danny’s in a rough grind before pulling apart an inch or two.  “God, I’m so freaking hard right now, you have no idea,” he said in a low growl.  He then returned back to the driver seat and took in a calming breath.  With a twist of his keys, the engine coughed to life.  “Alright then, food at Fenton’s,” he laughed.
Danny coughed, “Um, ok.”
“Oh and Fenton?”  Dash’s voice was soft and quiet.
“Y-yeah?”
He smiled, “Put on your seatbelt loser.  I’m not getting ticket because you’re busy daydreaming about my cock.”
Danny’s face reddened as he scoffed.  He clicked the belt into place, “Jerk,” he said with a chuckle.  Dash just laughed again as they drove out of the parking lot.  
A few red lights later the arrived at Danny’s house, the red bricked building looking as obvious as ever with the ops center jutting out from the top.  Dash parked along the side of the street and turned his car off with a click of his keys.  “Man Fenton, your house still as crazy looking as ever,” Dash commented as he stepped out his truck.  
“Yeah yeah, I’ve heard it all before Dash,” Danny quipped as he grabbed his pack and started towards the front door.  He fumbled with his keys for a moment before opening it.   “It’s not much but this is the living roommph!” 
Wasting no time, Dash quickly shut the door behind them and immediately started kissing Danny.  Darting his tongue inside Danny’s mouth, Dash let out a quiet growl as he stepped closer to him, closing the distance between the two to only a few inches.  
Jeez, he sure is in a frigging hurry!  Breaking the kiss, Danny caught his breath.  “Can’t, can’t you slow it down for once?”
“Like I said.  Long week.  Where’s your room?”
“Ahh, it’s um, upstairs.”
“Well then, lead on Fenton.”  Dash eased his grip on Danny’s arms and instead let his hand form a solid hold on Danny’s hand.  
Danny blushed, “Gah, um...”
“God, you are so easy.  Knew this would get you all flustered.  You like that classic shit, huh?  Well, I’ll hold on to your hand and you lead me to your room, how’s that?”
Danny just looked away, “S-shut up.  Come on, it’s this way.”  The jock snickered quietly as the two headed up the stairs.  Danny couldn’t help the stray thought invade his mind.  His hands are really warm.  I mean, I’ve felt them before but this is...nice.  Lord, I’m pathetic.  Dash almost reading his mind gave his palm a light squeeze.  Letting the need to let out a small squeal pass, Danny lead the way to his room’s door.  “Uh, welcome to my room, I guess.”  
Pushing open the door, Dash quietly stepped inside and took in the scene.  A few space posters littered Danny’s wall, beneath which was a simple wire frame bed with a trunk at the foot of it.  A mostly cleared desk was off to the side and despite a few clothing items scattered along the floor the room was clean.  “Not bad, Fenton.  Plain and simple.  Like you.”  
Ignoring the obvious jab, Danny turned around the close the door behind them. “Yeah, thanks for the compliment Dash.  Didn’t think you could be so nice.”  As Danny turned his attention back to Dash, the jock somehow managed to already get on top of his bed without making a single noise.   
He was stretched out on his bed, filling most the space with his large body.  His head leaned against Danny’s pillows which were propped up against the steel bars of the frame.  He let out a sigh as his hand started to grope his cock through his jeans.  Dash lazily glanced towards Danny as he stretched and wriggled into a comfortable position.   “Well, what are you waiting for?  Come and get it.”
Danny gulped.  Seeing Dash taking up so much space on his bed, it made the jock seem so much bigger than he actually is.  The way he laid on his sheets his black shirt had already risen up a bit revealing a light blond treasure trail that disappeared beneath his denim.  Ok, that is way too much for me.  He looks like straight out of some porno or something.  Danny tentatively walked to the side of the bed, considering what he should do first.   Biting his lip and hoping he made the right decision, he let his hand graze and feel Dash’s stomach, each of the jock’s wispy hairs soft the touch.  Dash’s breath came out low and slow as he stared lustfully towards Danny.  I don’t think I’ve ever actually felt him like this before.  Usually my hands are wrapped around his neck holding on for dear life or pressed up against the lockers, I never get a chance to feel what he feels like.  He’s so smooth... ��
“For fuck’s sake Fenton, how the hell are your hands so goddamn soft?  Like silk, man,” Dash said through gritted teeth.  The young man let Danny feel his stomach a bit more before becoming a bit impatient.  “That all you gonna do, Fenton?”
“Um... I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”  Really, I hadn’t.  
“Ya know, I think you can get a better feel if you were more like this.”  The jock grabbed Danny by the waist and threw him over himself.  Suddenly, Danny was straddling the young man, his hands on his pecs and Dash’s on his ass.  “See?  You can feel a lot more like this.  Just like I can,” he said as his began to fondle his butt.
Holy crap, I’m on top of Dash Baxter.  He’s in my bed.  He’s grabbing my ass.  How the hell are any of these sentences true?  “Y-yeah, you’re right,” he said absentmindedly.
“Well, come on.  Keep it up.  Feels nice you groping me like this.  Finally getting some in return.”  
Danny’s breath was heavy, he could barely think straight with the well toned jock beneath him.  Get a grip Danny!  Just calm down and go with it.   Steeling his nerves, he did his best to even his voice.  “Dash, can I, um, take off your shirt?”
“Pssh, don’t have to ask me twice.  Go ahead.  Undress me, Fenton.”  Dash’s last words were a mix between a dare and an order.  Danny followed suit.  Gripping the black fabric Danny lifted the young man’s shirt over his head and tossed it to the side revealing a well toned body.  A few years of football and training and some added fine genetics had left Dash’s body in prime condition.  His pecs were full and smooth and his shoulders were well defined, like he was chiseled out of marble.  His nipples were two delicious looking pieces of flesh, both hard from excitement.  Such definition had given him a strong V shape, as if his entire body was an arrow leading straight to his dick.  There was hardly any hair on him save for his fine trail of hair coming from his crotch.  Dash smiled, “Like what you see, Fenton?”
Danny could hardly speak, it was as if his mind was a dial tone at this point.  He simply nodded his head.  He let his hands continue to roam Dash’s chest, feeling every curve and mound.  His fingers brushed up against the jock’s nipples more than once, eliciting a few winces and inhales from Dash.  “Watch it Fenton, you’re gonna get more than you bargained for if you keep that up.”  
Like I’m not already over in my head at this point.   Danny took it as a challenge as he bravely pinched Dash’s nipples, giving each one a gentle twist.  Dash let out a low groan as he shut his eyes and threw his head back.  
“You fucker...” he said with a low growl.  “It’s your turn Fenton.”  Deviously, Dash grabbed the back of Danny’s shirt and hoisted it over his head, pulling him through and tossing the shirt across the room.  
Embarrassed, Danny covered himself with his arms.  “Dash!  Ask first or something!”
“Haha, what?  This is what gets you embarrassed?  You’ve done far worse.  Hell, I’ve done far worse.”
“It’s not that!  It’s just, I’m not as impressive as you,” Danny admitted.  You’re like a Roman solider or something, as if you didn’t already know.
The young man shrugged.  “No you’re not.  Doesn’t mean you aren’t still cute to me.”  Dash propped himself up so Danny was straddling his lap.
Dash reddend at his words.  Cute, really Dash?
“Wow, didn’t think your whole body turns red when you’re embarrassed.  Now that’s cute,” he said as he played with Danny’s butt again.  
“You are the absolute worst,” Danny spat as he wriggled from Dash’s gropes.
“Yeah yeah, I know.  Now come on, you’ve seen me shirtless.  Let me see what I’m working with.”  Danny sighed.  Reluctantly, he let his arms rest at his sides.  Dash let out a small whistle, “Fucking hell Fenton, looking good.  Small, sure, but damn are you smooth.  And sexy.”  Dash let his large hands roam Danny’s chest.  His hands alone almost spanning the whole width.  
Sexy, really?  God, why does his voice have to drop so low when he talks like this, it’s too much.  “You’re just saying that...”
“Am I now?  Would I just say that if I didn’t want to do this?”  Leaning forward and pushing Danny back a bit, Dash took Danny’s nipple into his mouth, flicking it and kissing it in a hungry attack.  
Fuck that feels so weird!  It’s like each lick is going all over my body!  “Dash!  Please, slow it down a bit!  It’s too much!  Ahh!”  Feeling warm and lightheaded, Danny kept on letting out moans with every lick and every twist.  The heat of Dash’s breath kept Danny completely on edge as he let out a warm breath on his nipple before giving it a soft bite.  The slight twinges of pain sending signals straight to his cock saying I want more.
“Heh, told you were gonna get some.”  Letting his hand drift to Danny’s crotch, Dash began to grope him through his denim, teasing and feeling the length of his cock.  “Looks like you’re enjoying yourself, huh?”
“Unf, I g-guess you could say that.”  Damn it, his hands feel just as good as last time.  
“Well, can’t let you have all the fun now.”  Reading Danny from his clutches, Dash laid back down on the bed, settling his head on the frame as Danny straddled him once again.  The young man smirked as he unzipped his fly and let his crotch finally meet air.  
Oh fuck.  
HIs cock was securely in place in a white jockstrap, practically bulging from beneath the fabric.  While not entirely hard like Danny, he was clearly at half mast, causing his package to look particularly hefty.  Everything about it seem in proportion, albeit slightly big.  His balls alone seemed like there were barely contained by the underwear.  “It’s my turn Fenton.”
Jeez, does everything on him have to be big? It’s like he has a softball stuffed in there!  Danny could feel his heart race as Dash gazed at him, his eyes telling him what to do.  “You want me to uh, touch you?”  Danny struggled to make sure his voice didn’t crack.
“Yeah, Fenton.  I want you to touch me.  I want you to feel me in your hands.”  Dash’s voice came out soft and commanding, like an enchantment.  
Danny could only obey.  “O-ok.”  Laying himself down between Dash’s thighs, Danny was only inches away from Dash’s crotch.  Ok, ok, calm down you got this.  Dash did this to you and it felt great.  So how hard could it be?  Gulping nervously, began by letting his hands glide up the jock’s thighs.  Dash responded in a deep sigh as he closed his eyes.  So far so good.  Grazing his fingers up to the young man’s crotch, he let his thumbs brush up just behind Dash’s balls.  
“Unf, fuck Fenton.  Knew your hands would feel good there.  Keep on going.”
Hey, maybe I’m not so bad at this.  Feeling encouraged, Danny crept closer to Dash’s cock and groped it with his hands.  He could feel the heat emanating from it and the pure heft of it in his palm, it made Danny whimper with lust.  
Dash just let out a quick huff and smiled, “Fucking finally.  Like that feel, Fenton?”
Danny nodded diligently as he placed a small kiss on the cock just before giving it a slight lick.  While the fabric of the jockstrap was rough against his tongue, he could not deny the excitement building up in his chest.  Millions of thoughts were running through he mind at that moment but only one seemed to stand out among them.  
I really want to see his cock.
Giving in to his lust, Danny pulled aside the jockstrap freeing the cock beneath.  While the same length as his own, it was easily twice as thick with a pair of balls to match.  The head was a nice light pink color and it already had a small drop of pre coming at the tip.  Let his thirst overwhelm him, Danny pressed his face along the length of Dash’s cock, breathing in Dash’s scent and letting his tongue lap at his balls. 
“Holy fuck, Fenton!  Didn’t realize how fucking hungry you were.”  Dash then placed his hand on Danny’s head, his fingers running through his hair.  “Though this isn’t a bad look on you, I gotta say.”
That feels...oddly nice.  Comforting, even.  Relishing the moment, Danny moved his attention from the jock’s balls to his dick.  Brushing his lips along the length, Dash tensed from his touch.  He then trailed his tongue from one side to the other, lapping up the precome that was already leaking from earlier.  It coated his mouth with a slightly salty film, but it only made him want more.  Dash was now fully erect, his cock laying stiffly along his stomach.  Gripping it slightly, Danny began to stroke the young man, his other hand gently playing with his balls.  Dash moaned in response, grinding his hips in time with Danny’s strokes.    Seeing him feeling so good, it feels...rewarding somehow?  Like, I want him to feel good.  I want to know that I’m the one who makes him feel like this.  Is this what he felt last time?  After a few more strokes, Danny began to lick at the head of Dash’s cock, squeezing out a few more drops of precome in the process.  Taking a deep breath and steeling his nerves, Danny took the head into his mouth, guiding it as best he could with his tongue.
“Fuck that’s warm.  Feels real nice, Fenton.  Real nice.”  Dash’s body seemed to completely relax in Danny’s hands, as he settled into the bed more.  
Only taking in a few inches, Danny began to bob up and down, savoring the taste of the young jock as he let his hand make up the rest of the work.  God, does he have to be so freaking thick?  My jaw already is getting sore and it’s only been a few minutes!  Letting it pop out of his mouth for a second, Danny focused on the base, letting his tongue trial a circle following the hairs gracing it.  “Dash...” Danny moaned as he began to touch himself though his pants.   
“Yeah, you like that don’t ya?  The taste of my cock in your mouth, the scent of my crotch?”  Dash’s voice was filled with smugness.  
Danny helplessly nodded his head.  Has me in the palm of his hands, literally.  I don’t think I mind that anymore now.  Taking the cock back into his mouth, continued his motion from earlier, only now trying to take a little more each time.  The furthest it seemed he could take was three inches into his mouth.  
“Come on, Fenton.  I know you can take more than that.  What, need a little encouragement?”  Dash then tightened his grip on Danny’s hair and thrusted forward, jamming his cock down his throat.  He held him firmly in place for a few seconds.  
Danny slapped Dash’s leg repeatedly.  Air damnit!  I need air!  Finally releasing him, Danny gasped and gulped for his breath.  “D-damnit Dash...” 
“Hah!  Need a break already, Fenton?  I was able to deep throat you just fine last time.  What, my cock too big or your skills too weak?  Which is itmmmph!”
Silencing his insults, Danny quickly kissed him causing Dash to taste his own precome which still coated Danny’s mouth.  “You’re such an asshole” he said through gritted teeth.  
Dash smiled, “Heh, yeah I am.  Now how are you gonna shut me up?” he dared.
Accepting the challenge, Danny shimmied the rest his body up to Dash’s chest, resting his legs on either side.  Saying nothing he unzipped his pants and took his cock out from his underwear and presented it squarely in front of his face.  With this, you jerk.
Dash smiled deviously, “That’ll work.”  Greedily, Dash took the cock into his mouth, eagerly slurping it down his mouth.  
The sensations ran all over Danny’s body, his entire being feeling like static.  With every movement of Dash’s head, he could feel himself getting closer and closer to the edge.  God, it feels just like last time.  So warm and inviting.  I just wanna go deeper and deeper.  Steeling himself and closing his eyes, he gripped the head frame of his bed and began thrusting into Dash’s mouth.   A muffled “Fuck yeah” escaped from Dash’s mouth before being replaced by more slurping noises.  Dash began to stroke himself as his mouth continued to get fucked by Danny, pre dripping down the side of his cock.  Holding onto the back of Dash’s head, Danny upped his speed, thrusting faster and faster.  Beads of sweat began to fall from his forehead as his body trembled and ached for release.  Barely opening his eyes, he glanced down towards Dash.  His face was flushed with lust as he saw him hungrily take in his cock.  The sight was too much.   “Dash, I’m gonna!  Fuck!”  He let the word hand in the air as he thrusted one last time down Dash’s throat, unloading his come.  He held Dash’s face close to his crotch as felt his cock spasm, once, twice, then finally letting go as the final white rope spurt and filled the young man’s mouth.  “Dash...” he moaned weakly.
Gulping down the cum in one go Dash licked his lips.  “We ain’t done yet, Fenton.  I’m fucking close and you are not missing one drop.  So get back down there,” he commanded.
Still hazy from the release, Danny obeyed and brought himself back to Dash’s cock.  Opening his mouth, he panted as he waited for Dash’s release.
“Here we go, Fenton!  Take it all in fucker!”  Gripping Danny’s head, Dash brought his open mouth right over his cock.  Suddenly, thick white ropes of cum shot from it, spattering Danny’s cheek.  Quickly maneuvering, Danny took the cock into his mouth and it was then thoroughly coated in white.  Pulling him down, Dash thrusted a few times into him, each time another shot of cum.  Danny gulped down what he could before releasing Dash’s cock from his mouth.  He cursed, “Fucking hell, Fenton.”
Exhausted, Danny rested his head in Dash’s lap for a moment.  He looked up at Dash to see him totally lost in bliss.  Huh, not bad for a first time.  Pulling himself together, he brought himself back up to Dash’s face, pausing only for a moment before kissing him.  It seemed to break the young man from his stupor as he laughed.  
“Looks like you missed some.”  He then licked away the shot of cum still on Danny’s face and gave him a small kiss.  “So, what do you say?  You still hungry?”
Danny just laughed as he settled into Dash’s chest, cuddling closer towards him.  He’s still an asshole.  “No, I’m full thanks.  Also, can we drop this metaphor now?  It’s been stupid for awhile.”
Wrapping his arm around Danny’s slight frame, he brought him closer.  “Oh a cuddler, huh?  Figures.  And sure, no more food innuendos.”
“What, what’s wrong with this?”
“Nothing.  Nothing at all,” the young man replied.
Danny scoffed as he nuzzled his face into Dash’s neck, “Well alright then.”  Maybe this isn’t so bad.  Maybe this will be just fine.  The two closed their eyes and shared a moment of exhausted bliss.  Which was then immediately broken. 
“Danny my boy!  We’re home!” Jack’s voice yelled.
Danny’s eyes bursted open.  Shit!  The hell are they doing here so early?!
Dash’s whole body tensed, “Fenton, what the hell.”
“Ghost convention was bust, had to leave early.  Just a bunch of fake ghost researchers in jumpsuits.  But hey, look at this new gadget we made on the way back!”  The voice boomed from below but stomping footsteps up the stairs didn’t make it seem it was staying down there.
Dash was in panic, “Fuck!  Fenton, what are we gonna do?!”
Well, we’re half naked in my bed, our cocks are still out, and I’m pretty sure there’s nothing we can do...except...  Swearing a thousands curses in his head, Danny calmly took Dash’s face in his hands.  “Don’t make a sound.”
“Wait, what?”
Danny immediately turned the both of them invisible the second his dad threw the door open.  “Danny!  Huh, he’s not here.  Eh, maybe he’s at Tucker’s.  Jeez, kid needs to clean up in here.  His shirts are just on the floor and it reeks of sweat.  Told him to keep tidy while we were gone.  Ah well.”  Jack then left the room with a slam of the door.   
The two of them kept as quiet as they could as they heard a few pairs of footsteps fall further and further away, presumably into the basement.  Letting their breath go, Danny dropped the invisibility cloaking the both of them.  “That was a close one, huh?”  he said trying to calm the mood.
“Fenton.  Why couldn’t your dad see us?” Dash’s voice was quiet and controlled.
“Um...”
“Fenton, your dad isn’t blind, I know that for sure.  So why couldn’t he see us.”
“Uh...”
“FENTON.”  Dash’s eyes were livid.  
 Well, fuck.  This is gonna be fun. 
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sweater-vest-reid · 7 years ago
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All You Need is Love: Chapter Ten “Dear Prudence”
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A Love Story Told by The Fab Four / Inspired by “Across the Universe”
Spencer Reid: a genius, hardworking, dedicated FBI profiler. Persephone “Percy” Jacobson: a passionate, brilliant, ambitious FBI specialist, and the newest member of the BAU. Spencer doesn’t believe in soulmates. Persephone doesn’t believe in happy endings. Told nonlinearly, watch as time, each other, and The Beatles, proves them wrong.
Chapter List
~~~~~
A/N: Hey guys! Happy tenth chapter! Here’s a little more angst for you! Also, regarding the last section: in my story, instead of Spencer’s mom living with him, he got her an apartment to live in near them. Hope you all enjoy!
Listen here
~~~~~ Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out to play
{2012} It was early in the morning. Too early to be awake according to Spencer. But for Percy, it was an entirely different story. 
Her body begged her to sleep. She needed to rest. But she couldn’t sleep. She wouldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she saw him. In her dreams, she was back in that house with that wretched man. She could still feel his hands as they gripped her arms, leaving behind bruises that still hurt to touch. Over and over again her mind replayed that moment his knife entered her leg and ran down her thigh. She couldn’t escape it. 
Spencer awoke to find Percy sitting on the edge of the bed. She didn’t move or make a noise, she just sat there, looking out the window toward the moonlight. 
“Hey,” he groaned, attempting to open his eyes, “What’s wrong? Is it your leg?”
“No, no. I’m fine Spence. Please go back to sleep.” She replied. 
Spencer didn’t reply, he just sat next to her, rubbing circles on her back.
“Have you slept yet?” he asked.
She shook her head. 
“Sweetheart, please try to sleep. You’ll feel better. I promise.” Spencer said sweetly.
“How long do they last Spencer?” Percy asked, her voice full of pain. 
Spencer got out of bed, now kneeling on the floor in front of her, “How long does what last Percy?”
“After Tobias….how long before you didn’t see him in your dreams?”
“It took a while, honestly. Sometimes I still see him,” Spencer said. He felt awful for giving her such bad news, but he knew that lying to her would be worse.
Percy just looked at the ground. Spencer could tell she was close to passing out from exhaustion. He had a sneaking suspicion she hadn’t slept the night before as well.
“He’s dead. Remember that.” He said.
“He doesn’t feel dead” Percy whispered.
“He is. Morgan shot him. I saw it. He can’t hurt you anymore. Just please, get some rest.” Spencer comforted. 
Percy nodded. Spencer helped move her injured leg on to the bed. He climbed in next to her, his arms wrapped around her. 
“Goodnight Percy” he whispered. He looked down at her, expecting a reply. But she was already asleep.
Dear Prudence open up your eyes Dear Prudence see the sunny skies The wind is low the birds will sing That you are part of everything Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?
{2015} Percy arrived home, disappointed again. The night seemed to be playing out the way it always did nowadays. Spencer and Percy returned home, and Spencer spent the rest of his night at his desk. He was already there, only minutes since they had returned home. His chessboard was out in front of him, his hands rearranging the pieces faster than Percy’s mind could track them.  
Ever since Gideon died, this had been their reality. Spencer barely spoke, not to Percy, not to anyone. He showed no emotion. But Percy knew. Unlike the rest of the team, Percy could tell just by looking at Spencer’s face that when no one was looking, he would cry.
Percy knew he needed time. After all, it had only been a few days. But she knew what Spencer was doing wasn’t healthy. He wasn’t sleeping, so Percy spent the nights alone in bed. Spencer did not join her until the early hours of the morning. Spencer wouldn’t be eating if it wasn’t for Percy practically shoving food down his throat. 
She walked over to his desk, two cups of hot chocolate in her hands. She set down the cups, letting the mugs clank down on the desk. Spencer looked up at her, giving her a weak smile before going back to the chessboard. 
Percy was not about to give up. She pulled up a chair across from him.
“You know, when I was younger,” she began, “My dad signed me up for a chess club. He thought I would be good at it. So, once a week after school, I played chess with the other kids. Turns out, I suck a chess. I hated it. No matter how hard I tried, I could never remember how each piece moved, or how to win even. But I still went every week.”
She looked at Spencer, hoping for some reaction. But alas, nothing. But Percy knew he was listening. She could tell because while she told her story, his movements slowed. Percy leaned forward on the desk, one final trick up her sleeve. 
“Let me play”
“Huh?” Spencer mumbled. 
“Let me play chess with you” She demanded.
“But you just said you don’t know how to play,” Spencer said, his eyes still glued to the board.
“Well, teach me then.” 
“But you hate chess,” Spencer said, confusion leaking into his voice.
“You’re right. I hate chess. But I love you”
Spencer froze. His head still hung down, but his hands stopped moving. Percy could tell he was close to tears. 
“I know you’re hurting. Gideon was like a father to you. Believe me, I understand what it’s like to lose someone like that,” Percy said, grabbing one of his hands, “If chess is what makes this all hurt less, then that’s okay. But just know you don’t have to go through this alone. Please, Spencer, let me play chess with you”
They sat in silence, tears threatening to erupt. Spencer took a deep breath, squeezing Percy’s hand a little tighter. Finally, his head rose. Looking into Percy’s eyes, he really smiled for the first time in days.
“Alright,” he said. Wiping his eyes, he grabbed a chess piece, holding it up in front of Percy. 
“Do you know what this is?” he asked.
“Honestly, I have no clue.” She replied. 
“Really? Come on, what’s your best guess?”
“Um… a pepper grinder?” Percy joked.
Spencer laughed. Percy’s heart melted. It had been awhile since she’d heard that sound. She was glad it was back. 
“This is the king. It’s your job to protect him.”
Dear Prudence let me see you smile Dear Prudence like a little child The clouds will be a daisy chain So let me see you smile again Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile?
{2017, 13x01 “Wheels Up”} They just laid there, together, for the first time in weeks. They both had longed for this moment, wishing to be back in each other’s arms. Finally, the moment had arrived, and they couldn’t be happier. 
They were, however, exhausted. The past 48 hours had been taxing for both of them. Finding Spencer’s mom, the car accident, losing Stephen, saving Prentiss, and finally killing scratch. They both deserved a long rest, and with the next six weeks off, they planned on doing nothing but that. 
However, sleep was going to have to wait. Percy hit her head during the car crash, resulting in a concussion. On doctor’s orders, Percy had to stay awake for a period of time to make sure she didn’t have any major brain injuries. Once they arrived home, she still had 6 hours to go. 
She begged Spencer to get some rest. After all, the past months had been especially traumatic for him. But he refused. Knowing he was going to see her again was the only thing that allowed him to survive, and he wasn’t about to waste any more time apart from her. So, he promised her that he wouldn’t sleep until she could. 
Their first agenda: food. They were starving. Neither of them had eaten anything since a few days prior. But Percy hadn’t gone grocery shopping in a while, so they opted for take-out instead. Besides, it’s not like either of them really wanted to cook. So, they ate their dinner in bed. In between bites, they stole kisses from each other. They didn’t say much. They didn’t need too. 
Percy didn’t know how she was going to help Spencer. They’d been through bad things before, and they found a way to help each other. But nothing like this. Percy had never seen him like this before.
When they’d arrived home, Percy called dibs on the first shower. When she got out, she caught Spencer wandering around the apartment. She stayed silent, opting to observe him before she interrupted his trance. 
He was wandering around, tracing his hands over objects scattered around the room. It was like it was his first time being in the space like he was discovering his own home for the first time. It broke Percy’s heart.
“Hey Spence,” She called, “Shower’s all yours” 
“Thanks,” He replied, kissing the top of her head as he passed. 
Percy waited until she heard the shower run before she started crying. They were tears of happiness. She couldn’t believe Spencer was home. And soon, he’d return to the BAU, and everything would be like it was.
But they were also tears of sadness because Percy knew it would never be the same again. Spencer was changed. She could see it when he was in the room with Cat. And she could feel it when she had to pull his hands off Cat’s neck. Prison had scarred him. She could tell he was afraid. She knew his perfect world had shattered and now he could see the ugly world that was hiding there the whole time. 
She heard the shower turn off, and quickly wiped her tears away. Spencer had been through enough, the last thing he needed was to see her cry. 
Percy had less than an hour left when they started their third episode of Doctor Who. Their takeout was long gone, so they now sipped cups of tea.
With one hand, Percy held an ice pack up to her aching head, and with the other, she held on to Spencer. Their fingers fidgeted with each other’s. Percy looked down at their hands, but she realized something was missing. 
“I knew I was forgetting something,” Percy said, sneaking out of bed. She dropped her ice pack, and it bounced off the bed, landing on the floor with a loud thump.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Spencer said, laughing at her quick exit.
Percy returned to the bedroom and climbed back in bed. She grabbed his hand, sliding his silver ring back on to his finger. Spencer smiled wide, pulling Percy in for a deep, long kiss. 
“I missed you so much” he whispered.
“I missed you so fucking badly” Percy replied. 
They leaned in for one more kiss as Percy’s phone began to vibrate. Her torture was over, and they could finally sleep. 
Their heads landed on their pillows, both seconds away from a deep sleep.
“I love you Spencer” Percy mumbled, her words slurring with exhaustion. 
“I love you Persephone” he replied, pulling her in a little tighter.
And finally, they went to sleep.
Look around, look around
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rasberryvirgo · 5 years ago
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Dear Dad:
I’m sorry you have to lose two children this way. I know this is selfish of me and I’m sorry but I really just want relief. Every day is fading into one and staying hurts too much, please understand that it just hurt too much. I know parents tend to blame themselves but it really wasn’t your fault, there’s nothing you could’ve done. You supported me and you were there for me when I was angry or upset. I’ll cherish the drives we went for just getting groceries or whatever, playing music and you begging me to sing for you. I’m sorry you never really got to hear me sing, but there are clips in my phone of originals and they’re terrible but you can listen if you want. I really do love you and I’m sorry.
Dear mom:
It wasn’t your fault either. I’m sure you meant well. I know you and dad were just looking after my health and you never meant to hurt me, and I swear it didn’t hurt that bad, it’s definitely not the reason I left. Please don’t blame yourself. I know me and you have gone through similar things and I’m sorry I couldn’t be as strong as you. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you first, it was just too embarrassing, too hard. You were the best mother you could be, especially considering you were trying to stray from the example you were raised by. I love you.
Dear (Ms.) Lisa:
You taught me to break out of my shell a little bit. I don’t know if you knew it but I looked to you as a bad-ass role model, someone who’s strong personality I was envious of. Not taking no for an answer, not putting up with bullshit. Thank you. I love you.
Dear Keith:
I didn’t hate you. Not enough to kill myself because of you. I don’t want you to blame yourself either.
Dear Siblings (all of you, Tristan, Ethan, Priscilla, Julie, Nick):
You guys are all wonderful. Each of you have your specific things that I love. Priscilla with her attention to detail and resilience, Julie with her strength and determination, Nick with his goofiness and ability to crack anyone up, Tristan with his good heart and willingness to try, Ethan with his own little personality and sass. All of you meant so much to me and I love you guys.
Dear Foster:
You are the best boyfriend. I love you so much. I will always always love you. You taught me what safe felt like, you held me when I needed it, you gave me respect and care and love. You were thoughtful and careful. You were mindful of my boundaries and made sure you were always within them. You loved me for me, all of me, imperfections and all. You were there for me to talk to when I needed it. I was so comfortable with you. For that I will always be greatful. I don’t want you to pine though. I realize me leaving like this is hard. I want you to be happy and live a full life. I want you to find someone you love who loves you just as much as I do, even more, if that’s possible. Tell your mom thank you for everything, tell Charlie I love her, tell Shane he seemed cool and tell your dad I’m sorry I never got to meet him. Pet kira for me. Cuddle Portman one last time for me. I love you I love you I love you.
Dear Teresa Thomas:
Thanks for making me feel secondary. Thanks for blaming me when you found out I had been sexually assaulted, thanks for telling me I’d be in trouble if I told anyone. Incase you couldn’t tell, those thank you’s are sarcastic. I don’t want to blame you for my death because that would be really fucked up of me and I’m not trying to be on the same level of fucked up you are. So take care of yourself.
Dear Danny Thomas:
You. You took my innocence when I was only 6 years old. You pinned my arm to that couch and shoved your tongue down my throat while the rest of the family was right outside, moving things back and forth to the truck the day we were moving out of the house. I never forgot that. I never forgot when you tried to do it again in the deer stand when I had to go hunting with you. I never forgot when you felt my chest when I was 9 as you sat behind me and I drove the four wheeler. I was a child. I’m sorry but I hate you. I hate what you did to me and I hope you feel guilty for that. Again, I won’t blame you solely for my death because that would be fucked up. But just know, in my eyes, you’re a monster. I hope no one lets their children go near you again.
To Everyone else:
I was lonely. Check on all your friends or people who sit with you or people you used to be friends with but arent anymore. Ask them to hangout. Or at least don’t make plans infront of them and then not invite them. If you’re on a team at school, please check on your teammates. You may not like them but they may not like themselves more. Everyone says “I’m depressed” or “I had a breakdown” and a lot of times they’re joking. Please don’t do that, it invalidates when people are actually reaching out for help. I wasn’t perfect, by any means. I was annoying and rude and judgemental when I had absolutely no right to be. Please don’t be like I was.
As for legal stuff:
I’d like to be buried. I know funerals are expensive and stuff so it doesn’t have to be big. I don’t really have a will because I don’t have kids or anything, but give my stuffed animals to Foster (the ones on my bed are the ones I slept with but if he wants any others he can have them) Donate my clothes or sell them and donate the money, preferably to women’s shelters or any organization that helps sexual assault victims. Anything else I don’t mind what you do with.
A few secrets I feel like sharing:
I’m bisexual
I tried starving myself and cutting. Neither really worked.
I wanted to move somewhere far away and live life secluded and calmly. It saddens me I never got to do that.
I really, really, really, really hated myself. I just needed a break.
And on that note, good bye all. I love animals and music and I try to see the best in people. I love cheesy pick up lines and indie music and chocolate and Italian food. I love dance even though I suck at it and I love singing. I love the stars and open fields of grass and I love feeling like I’m the only person in the world. Please let all that be what you remember me by.
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w-k-smith · 4 years ago
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Chapter Two is here of “Don’t Go to the Netherworld!”
In this chapter, Beetlejuice and Lydia make their way through Saturn, but are waylaid by Zagnuts, a boy band, and all the obstacles the desert otherworld has to offer.
Chapter One: “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” (6/19/20) Chapter Two: “Worm Welcome” (07/03/20) Chapter Three: “Ghost to Ghost” (upcoming) Chapter Four: “To Beetle or not to Beetle?” (upcoming)
Warning:  This story contains depictions of, references to, and discussion of  topics like suicide, untimely death, abuse, and body horror - you know,  like the musical does (though this probably has more). Know your  boundaries, and stay safe.
New chapter under keep reading!
“I don’t understand,” Lydia said, as they crossed from the midnight of the administrative area, toward the hot afternoon of Saturn, through the twilight in between. “What’s Saturn? Are we going to the planet…somehow?”
“Nope. Totally unrelated, and don’t ask me who named it. Saturn is the part of the Netherworld that acts as a trap for ghosts who get out of line, like if you try to leave the house you’re haunting, or jump the line in processing like someone I could mention. Going through processing would only take a couple steps, but Saturn is an anti-shortcut from the feverish nightmares of M.C. Escher. It’s a giant desert, and it’s full of sandworms. Those are snake monsters that eat ghosts. Foreshadowing?” he muttered to himself.
“This is so weird,” Lydia muttered. “I love it.”
She didn’t seem like she was being sarcastic. Maybe hanging around her wasn’t going to be too terrible.
Unfortunately, he saw trouble ahead.
“Keep your head down,” he whispered to Lydia. “Look dead. Deader than that. And don’t sneeze! Dead people never sneeze!”
“What?”
“Hello, Beetlejuice,” said five tenor voices in unison. A cluster of expressionless young white men was drifting through the shadows toward him and Lydia. The boys had died in their late teens and very early twenties, long enough ago that two of them sported frosted tips. They were dressed just differently enough to be distinguishable from one another, in dated pants and t-shirts with no personality.
“Hey, Boy Inferno,” he grunted.
“What are you doing out here?” they asked. They all floated six inches off the ground, in a formation reminiscent of migrating ducks.
He rolled his eyes. “Just running an errand for Juno. Miss Argentina find that living intruder yet?”
“Not that we’ve heard. Who’s your friend?”
“New hire. Juno wants her on border patrol. Her name’s Lydia, and she’s boring. Kids these days, you know, they think eyeliner and TikTok counts as personality. But them’s the rules: if you add to the work, you have to help out.”
“Do you want to hear the introduction song, Lydia?”
Geez, they didn’t back off easy. “Save that for people who’ve committed genocide or worse.”
“We were talking to Lydia.”
At his elbow, Lydia scratched the end of her nose. Boy Inferno caught the gesture, and as one, cocked their heads.
“What did you die of…?” they asked her.
“Um, I don’t want to talk about it,” Lydia said, which was the wrong thing. All newlydeads ever wanted to do was blather on about how they’d bitten it.
“OK, you got me!” He stepped between Lydia and the boys. “This isn’t an approved mission to Saturn. We were actually trying to, ah, hide out from Juno for a while. She is in a mood today, I tell ya. Just impossible. She wants me to take a statement from all the recently deceased who were in line when the alarm went off, and then pinch each of them really, really hard to see if they still have nerve endings. I’d rather swallow my own toenails. Remember that time Juno made me swallow my own toenails? You were there for that, weren’t you? So be a hive-minded pal and help me stay on the DL. This one already threatened to tattle if I didn’t show her my good hiding spot.” He jerked his head at Lydia.
Boy Inferno blinked.
“Alright, then,” they said, and each voice sounded suspicious. But they drifted back toward the administrative area.
Lydia stared as they went. “Who are those guys?”
“Boy Inferno is a dead boy band. They didn’t have enough brains or personality to be individuals when they were a living boy band, and when their tour bus crashed, the situation got worse.”
“Yikes. And speaking of yikes, what were you saying about sandworms? Are they going to eat us?”
He waggled one hand back and forth, and started walking. “Eh. It’s probably OK. You’re alive, so they’ll leave you alone. I’m half-ghost, half-demon, which confuses them more than anything. We’ll be fine if we don’t run into a sandworm that’s pissed off or starving.” They were crossing into Saturn proper. The terrain changed from dark gravel to rolling sand dunes dotted with twisted rock formations. Wooden doors hovered here and there, from three feet off the ground to 20 stories high. There was the light and warmth of a yellow sun, but if you turned in every direction, you would never see a sun or any other stars in the royal blue sky.
“Huh. Now I kind of want to meet a sandworm...” Lydia said, looking around like one was going to pop out from behind a dune.
“Yup. That’s definitely foreshadowing.”
“So…what’s it like? Being half-demon? How does that, um, happen?”
He waved his hands to turn them into sock puppets – one red and bearing a vague resemblance to Juno, the other a grey blob and as good a representation as he’d ever had of his father. “Hello, children!” he said in a screechy voice. “Let’s talk about the occult birds and bees. When a demon woman tolerates a living human male very much…”
She shoved him. “I know that, gross! I’m ace, but not completely ignorant. I just wondered if you were ever alive.”
He put his hands back to normal. “Uh-huh. I was alive. Looooong time ago, though. Long enough that we didn’t pay much attention to what year it was, and only bathed twice a lifetime, and drank beer instead of water. Hm. Or maybe that was all just me. Anyway, Juno only had me to see what would happen if you mixed demon magic with ghost abilities. Turns out, you get yours truly. She hated the result, and I never got any little siblings to chase around. But it’s fine with the just the two of us; my mom has this sweet thing she says to me every day: ‘I wish you had never been born.’ I think it’s a Swedish pet name.”
“How did you die?” Lydia asked.
“I asked a bunch of annoying questions that weren’t any of my business and someone stabbed me.”
“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “How far is it, anyway?” she asked, shading her eyes. “I don’t see anything…”
“Distance doesn’t really work like that here, and we could move way, way faster if we were both dead. But it’s pretty damn far.”
She sighed.
*
He had to give Lydia Deetz this: she was a trooper. She was wearing a dress, and boots that were very much not made for walking, but she kept moving, eyes forward, not a single complaint. When her stomach growled like an angry guard dog, she held her head high and acted like she didn’t notice.
“OK, time for a break!” he said.
“No!” she said. “We have to keep going.”
“If you keep going like this, you’re going to collapse, and then you’ll die, and a sandworm will eat you, and that’s my whole day gone. Sit down.”
“I don’t need to.”
She was going to give him grey hairs, she really was. He shook one hand like he was shooing a fly, and she stumbled backwards until she sat on the closest rock.
Lydia’s eyes bugged. “What am I – what are you –?”
“You’ve never been possessed before?”
She stood back up. He waved his hand again, and she sat.
“No, keep it up,” he said. “This is fun.”
He flicked his fingers, and her expression brightened.
“Beetlejuice, you’re my role model!” she said, in a tone much more chipper than any that had ever come out of her mouth, he was sure. He released her.
Lydia’s face soured like old milk mixed with lemon juice, and she made the fingers-down-the-throat gesture. “I’ll sit for five minutes. Don’t do that again.”
“I always knew I’d make a great babysitter!” He settled on the other side of the rock. He folded his hands over his stomach, figuring he’d take a nap if she stayed quiet.
She didn’t. “My mom would love all this,” Lydia said. “Her favorite holiday was Halloween. We’d make our own haunted houses in the garage – but in the summer, when no one in the neighborhood was expecting it. She liked the weird stuff in the world. Or – she likes the weird stuff in the world. She doesn’t just avoid it, like most people do. Like my dad does. I think she’ll like you, even.”
He wanted to make a face at the idea of a well-adjusted person liking him (though it was a nice feeling, deep in his black heart), but Lydia couldn’t see him, so it would be wasted effort.
She was quiet for a while, and he thought he was free to drift off to sleep.
“Um…do you have any food?” she asked.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handful of Zagnuts. He tossed the kid two. “Here ya go.”
“Why so many Zagnuts?” Lydia asked. “They’re good, but I didn’t think people ate these anymore.”
“It’s the only candy in the vending machines in the Netherworld.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because everything around here is at a baseline of low-grade crappiness. Haven’t you noticed?”
“Are you really supposed to spend eternity here when you die?” she asked, in a muffled way that told him she’d bitten off half a candy bar at once. “It seems like it should either be a whole lot better or a whole lot worse.”
“You aren’t supposed to spend eternity here; that’s the point,” he said. He popped a Zagnut into his mouth, and swallowed it wrapper and all. “You have to move on, eventually.”
“To what?”
“Do I look like a priest? Or a philosopher? Or a TV psychic?”
“The last one, a little. A bad one. The kind who gets tricked by reporters to help contact their dead kid, but it turns out the kid is really alive and just in the next booth over in the Denny’s.”
“Touché. The point is, nobody around here knows. You hang around the administrative area until you’re ready to go into the miserable nothingness of the Abyss, and then you swirl around in the Abyss until…I dunno, something else happens. Maybe you just stay in the Abyss forever. I don’t plan on finding out anytime soon.”
“Is that where my mom is?”
“Yup. If she didn’t come running when you first came through the door, she’s definitely gone through security. Don’t worry, though. You poke your head into the Abyss and shout her name a few times, and she’ll come right out.”
He lied easily. He always had.
“I’m just surprised she hasn’t tried to contact us,” Lydia said. “I guess she must be confused, because we moved and everything. My dad dragged me out to Connecticut, away from New York and all our friends and family, to work on this stupid gated community project he has in mind. And he took my annoying life coach with us. She’s friendly and positive, and keeps trying to make me fill out a star chart. I don’t know why he thinks she’s helping me. It’s not like there aren’t actual therapists in Connecticut. I don’t get it.”
He chewed another Zagnut for a beat, waiting to see if she was making a joke. Then he broke the news. “Your dad is boinking the life coach.”
“What?!” she said. She whirled around the rock to sit right next to him. “How can you know that?”
“Um, because I’m an adult with a brain.” He grabbed the top of his head and lifted his skull to show his grey matter.
“He isn’t…Dad’s not…” She slumped. “He’s totally sleeping with her.”
“Totally,” he agreed.
“How could he do that? Mom’s only been dead a few months. Well…when he sees Mom – if he just talks to her again – he’ll understand what an ass he’s been.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, non-committedly.
“How much farther do we have?” she asked.
“Long enough to aaaaaaalmost make you give up and collapse in despair.”
She groaned.
For a second, he thought her groan was superhumanly long and loud, and he prepared to be impressed. Then he noticed the ground was shaking.
“Looks like it’s our unlucky day!” he said. “Run!”
They both got to their feet, and made it about five steps before the sand exploded to their left. A sandworm rose from the earth, its black-and-white stripes blurring into grey. At the peak of its jump, its inner head came out of its mouth, eyes glaring, jaw snapping.
It dove back down toward them.
He dodged one way, and Lydia dodged the other. The spray of sand blocked out everything, and when it all cleared, the sandworm had risen from the ground again, undulating in and out of the dunes. Lydia stood in place, looking all around. But it was hard to know where to run when you were being attacked by a sandworm.
The sandworm’s chomping heads came out of the ground an arm’s length from Lydia. She yelled, and punched it in the closest eye.
The heads hissed and thrashed, knocking Lydia down. The sandworm dove down, and the sand around them whirled and roiled, until he felt like he was standing in boiling dirt.
When the sandworm rose again, it accidentally scooped up Lydia. She showed a little more survival instinct than she had before, and clung to the sandworm’s back.
“Knock it off!” he heard her say. She nudged the sandworm with her left boot, and the sandworm turned to the right. But it had had enough of its passenger, and whipped its body to throw Lydia like a beanbag.
She shrieked as she fell through the air. He stretched his legs, about 20 feet, and caught her.
As he dragged her back to the ground, he braced himself for another attack by the sandworm. Maybe if he transformed into something big and scary, showed some lionfish spines or extra limbs, the worm would leave them alone. Getting swallowed would be no good. Not only did he usually try to avoid getting eaten, but sandworms’ digested prey just wound up back in processing…after a wait of at least a decade or so.
The sandworm jumped over their heads, dove into the ground, and kept going. Its writhing body upset every dune it plowed through, but it didn’t double back.
He wasn’t going to look a gift worm in the mouth.
“And don’t come back!” he yelled. “G’on, git! Git!”
Lydia jumped out of his arms. “That was awesome! I thought I was going to die, but it was awesome.”
He was more tired than he’d been in a while. He was tired like Juno had been screaming at him for hours. Also, there was a lot of sand in his shoes. “You did OK But why the hell did you try to punch it in the face?”
She didn’t look ashamed in the slightest. “I thought it would be like avoiding a shark attack. That’s what the Discovery guy said during Shark Week: punch the shark hard in the eye so it leaves you alone.”
“Since when has punching something made it leave you alone?” he asked. “That has never worked when I’ve tried it with people.”
“Because then the shark – or the sandworm – thinks you’re too much of a threat and it ignores you. I made it go away, didn’t I?’
“I seriously doubt you’re what made it leave, Karate Kid. If a sandworm had its multiple hearts set on eating us, it would take more than your mechanical bull riding skills to dissuade it. I don’t know – I’m not so sure it was all that interested in us.”
“If it wasn’t going for us, why did it come over here?”
“I said I don’t know! I’m not a sandworm scientist.”
“Your hair is changing color,” she said, pointing at his head.
“Can you blame me? I’m pretty pissed off right now.”
She brightened. “It changes color with your mood?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I touch it?”
He grunted, and tilted his head. She patted some strands on the right side of his head, which were dark green at the tips, but probably working their way to red. The cocoon the caterpillar had made behind his ear popped open, and a death’s-head hawkmoth shot into the air and planted itself on Lydia’s nose.
“Augh!” she yelped, and fell right on her ass. He doubled over laughing while she tried to get back up with dignity.
“You’ve taken things too far this time, Beetlejuice!”
Once, just once, he’d like to go 48 hours without hearing those words shouted at him.
He turned to see Miss Argentina stomping up a sand dune, clipboard in hand, sash askew, which meant she was really really really upset.
“What have I done this time?” he asked, resigned.
“What have you done this time?” Miss Argentina pointed at Lydia. “Let’s start with child endangerment! And the fact that your disappearance has about given Juno apoplexy.”
“Ah, she loves me.”
“No! She just knows that if she hasn’t heard from you in twelve hours, it means you’re up to something! And that means the rest of us suffer! I’m just glad she gave me clearance to go to Saturn to look for your sorry, sagging ass, so at least I was able shoo a sandworm away from some newlydeads. I have a sneaking suspicion you bear some responsibility for that, too?”
“OK, that is both not fair and completely true,” he said. “And I’ll have you know I’m doing a good deed. I’m guiding this one around the Netherworld.” He jerked his head at Lydia.
“And why, in the name of all that is sacred, would you consider that a good idea?”
“Um…” He faltered. He may have been able to fudge a few details with Lydia, but Miss Argentina had been around long enough to know how the Abyss worked.
“Newlydeads…” Lydia said. “That must have been what attracted the sandworm. It wasn’t coming for us after all.”
“Why did you drag newlydeads with you?” he asked, happy to change the subject. “What, did you need help shouting at me? Anger backup singers?”
“Of course not.” Miss Argentina frowned. “But – that’s a good idea.” She clicked her pen, and scribbled on her clipboard. “I am actually writing that down. If Boy Inferno is free…”
“Excuse me!” came a woman’s voice from the bottom on the dune. “I’m so sorry – could you wait just a minute?”
“It’s very hard to walk on sand!” came a sexy, nasal male voice from the same direction.
“These newlydeads have a problem, you see,” said Miss Argentina, her voice icy. But something was wrong – she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was fixed on Lydia. “Apparently, a living person used their Handbook without permission.”
Lydia became interested in the horizon. “Huh. That’s weird.”
Miss Argentina jabbed a finger in Lydia’s face. “Oh, don’t even try that on me, living girl. I am not in the mood today.”
“Whoof! We made it.” The newlydead couple crested the dune…and he was smitten.
The woman was white, a pretty blonde, in a green wrap dress and suburban-mom-at-the-nice-grocery-store boots. Her companion was a beautiful Desi man, with light brown skin and a lock of black hair hanging over his forehead that he immediately wanted to run his fingers through.
“Oooooh…” he said. “Hello, sexy…”
Lydia looked at him with a scientific expression. “Which one?”
“The Trader Joe’s guardian angels over here. Not that Miss A isn’t pretty easy on the eyes herself, but she’s a friend of Ellen, know what I mean? A patron of U-Haul. An adopter of shelter cats. Wrong tree, is what I’m saying. But she loves me platonically.”
“She doesn’t,” Miss Argentina said.
The couple pushed past him and bent over Lydia.
“Oh, thank goodness!” the woman said.
“Lydia!” said the man. “I’m so glad we found you. We were worried sick!”
“Adam, Barbara?” Lydia said. “What…what are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to go to the Netherworld.”
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