#my last words activating my jukebox mind

[thev01dd]

and now thinking of regency aus etc i just got assaulted with an idea (and idk if anyone has already done this or not)

prince Steve being betrothed to princess Nancy since he was 11 or 12 years old, but they only start interacting in person when he's 15 and he falls head over heels for her, since he already had this whole idea of being a better King than his father (and a better father than his father), being faithful, having a lot of kids and loving his Queen until he died.

and then a few days before their marriage at the ripe age of 16 ('cause you know, they had to marry as quick as possible for kingdoms to stay in peace or some shit) Princess Nancy gets drunk and calls him bullshit, calls their relationship bullshit and it breaks Steve heart since it wasn't bullshit to him, he really loved her, but after that he has no desire to go forward with the marriage since he wasn't willing to marry someone who didn't love him back

so with his heart broken and the clothes on his back he runs away, he grabs a horse from the royal stable and fucking books it, doesn't care where he is going, doesn't pay attention to were he's going, he just wants to get far away from the castle, from the kingdom and from the life that maybe wasn't completely his own.

and along the way he meets the kids and Eddie (and maybe Eddie could be a creature? a witch? or maybe just some guy that turns Steve's world upsidedown and shows him what real love is 😔)

[bradshawsweetheart]

Good Vibrations | Jake Seresin x Reader |

SUMMARY: Making a bet with Jake Seresin never involved low stakes. This time, after losing to your boyfriend, his "winnings" included you testing out a new sex toy he picked up — not only in public, but in a last minute decision of in the presence of both strangers and your friends. Surely you could be discreet. This would be a cakewalk... Right? WORD COUNT: ~3.08K WARNINGS: THIS BLOG IS 18+ SO JUST ASSUME ANYTHING GOES. MINORS DNI. Swearing, alcohol mention (no one is drunk but worth mentioning), smut, softdom Jake, voyeurism, exhibitionism, edging, oral (f receiving), fingering, praise kink, dumbification (affectionate), Jake being a smug bastard. A/N: I wrote this for this request I received a while back! I hope you enjoy!

“A bet is a bet, darlin’. I don’t make the rules.” Jake smirked. You tried your best to convince him to save his little game for another time, but he wasn’t budging. At all.

“Yeah, a bet we made before agreeing to go to the bowling alley with Bob and Phoenix. And actually, yes, you did make the rules.” You whined as you gripped his hand tighter, forcing a smile on your face as the two of you approached the small table that the pilot and WSO were waiting at.

After a few rounds passed, Bob and Natasha were absolutely destroying you in duos. 

“I thought you were good at this game, Bagman?” Natasha quipped tauntingly after Bob rolled yet another perfect strike. He now had a turkey when neither of you had gotten anything better than a spare during the entire game. You were getting absolutely creamed; it was embarrassing. Yet somehow, contrary to any kind of normalcy, neither of you seemed to care. “You talk a lot of game for someone who’s losing by an embarrassing amount already.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re lucky my mind is elsewhere tonight or else you’d both be going home cryin’ to mama.” Jake chuckled before he dug a couple of shiny quarters from his pocket and bounced over to the jukebox. How he managed to be so cocky while actively losing was beyond you – any other time, he would be sore about it for two weeks minimum. Natasha raised a brow at you, amused, and you returned a playful eyeroll.

“I’ve never known you to focus on anything other than winning, so I’m calling bullshit.” Bob scoffed before offering a lopsided smile to meet your sheepish gaze. 

You watched Jake curiously as he seemed to be intently searching for a specific song, and not long after, The Beach Boys’s Good Vibrations started to bump throughout the half-empty, neon-lit bowling alley. Your face fell when he swaggered back to the table with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. You thought that maybe he had forgotten about your arrangement until you felt the cool metal of the tiny remote being lightly dragged up your bare thigh under the table when he sat back down. You shuddered before sending him a warning glare. Natasha expertly sent her ball down the lane, and as soon as it collided with the pins, a powerful vibration from inside your underwear sent electricity through your core. You lurched forward and a guttural groan flew from your mouth before you could stop it. Bob whipped his head around to face you, concern evident on his face.

I’m pickin’ up good vibrations

She’s giving me excitations

“Are you alright?” Bob asked, reaching a comforting hand toward you. 

Jake quickly wrapped an arm around you and pulled you, along with your stool, closer to his side. His touch was the only one you would know when you were turned on, and he was not about to let another man put his hands on you while you were already teetering on the edge of euphoria. You began to scramble for a response as Jake upped the strength of the vibrations by one level.

“Y-Yeah, I’m okay. Just – just bummed for you that it wasn’t a strike. Phoenix, your form was per… perfect.” You stammered; your knuckles turned white as you tightened your grip on the edge of your chair. Jake shoved a fistful of nachos in his mouth to hide his smirk, which earned a suspicious look from Bob.

“Ugh, I know. I got the next one, though.” Natasha chirped at your compliment with a confident wink before turning on her heel to retrieve the ball to roll for a spare. 

Jake brought his hand to rest on your bare thigh and began rubbing circles on your skin with his calloused thumb. The combination of the vibrations and just this simple contact from his hand was giving you goosebumps. You adjusted your position on the uncomfortably hard plastic of your chair.

“You okay, sugar?” Jake asked innocently. You shot daggers at him. The corner of his lips quirked upward.

When I look in her eyes

She goes with me to a blossom world

“Just peachy.” You replied curtly, exhaling slowly through your nose. 

His pinky slowly trailed further up your thigh until it was brushing along the edge of your skirt, his middle and ring fingers teasingly pushing up and down between the plush of your thighs. You pressed your legs tighter together to halt his cruel teasing as he smugly watched your eyebrows furrow. You tried to keep your breathing even as you watched Bob and Natasha, who were thankfully too lost in their climb to victory to notice what a menace Jake was being.

I don’t know where but she sends me there

(Oh, my-my, what a sensation)

“You’re up,” Bob nodded to Jake. Jake was quick to pull away from you as he popped up and strode over to take position. He kept one hand in his pocket as he eyed the lane and readjusted his aim a couple of times. “One-handed in a way that you couldn’t care less. What, d’you give up already?” Bob teased. Despite him being on the opposite team, you loved when Bob would start to smack-talk after a few beers. He really came out of his shell whenever it was time for a little friendly competition.

“This is how a real pro operates, kiddo. Take notes.” Jake responded without breaking his focused gaze on the pins.

“Yeah, let’s see how far that gets you.” 

And with that, Jake took his shot and rolled a perfect strike; and in doing so, he upped the vibration strength in his pocket the moment the ball collided with the pins yet again. A higher pitched moan left you and you did your absolute best to disguise it as a celebratory cheer. You were relieved when it seemed to pay off. Bob’s jaw was slack as he marveled at Jake’s shot.

“That’s how the adults play, Baby On Board,” Jake chided as he made his way back to his seat next to you. Bob rolled his shoulders back with a grimace as he muttered to himself. 

Gotta keep those lovin' good vibrations a-happenin' with her

“You’re up, chickadee.” He grinned at you, subtly adjusting his jeans to conceal his growing erection as he watched your face. Your eyelids were struggling to remain open as the sensations took hold over you. The mischievous glint in his eye was as prominent as it ever could be. You narrowed your eyes at him as you stood, a little unsteady on your feet as the vibrations against your increasingly dripping core remained constant. You pick up your ball from the rack and move to take position. Your senses were overwhelmed as the consequence of Jake’s winnings kept at your clit; everything was suddenly too loud, the entire joint smelled overwhelmingly like beer and fried food, and now you were squinting against the pink and blue of the neon that was reflecting off the recently waxed wood. You took a deep breath and aimed your ball before sending it flying down the lane. You thought that now that you were front and center, with everyone’s eyes on you, you would be safe from Jake’s antics. You thought wrong.

(Ahhhhh!)

Your ball sped toward the pins and collided, successfully knocking them all down and earning yourself a perfect strike – your first of the night. 

Good, good, good, good vibrations

The biggest grin found its place on your face and just as you jumped up to celebrate, you fell to your knees with a high pitched whine as Jake upped the intensity by several levels. Bob flew out of his chair to kneel beside you, placing his hand on your arm as you trembled, your head bowed to the floor. Jake’s skin burned as he watched Bob’s hand on your skin, but he let it slide. This was his doing, after all. Jake stood from his chair and was behind you immediately as he turned the toy off with the remote in his pocket. You bit your lip to conceal your pathetic whimper at the sudden loss of stimulation.

“Are you okay? What happened?” Natasha questioned in a rush as she dropped her knees to the floor beside you.

Good, good, good, good vibrations

“I’m okay,” you reassured them, exhaling slowly and keeping your voice steady. You couldn’t do this much longer. The desperation for relief was overwhelming you. “It’s just really hot in here. I think I just need to splash some water on my face.” Natasha glanced down at her jacket – she was freezing, even with the alcohol in her system – but she nodded nonetheless.

“Do you want me to go with you?” She offered, standing slowly and steadying you against her elbow as she pulled you up with her. She searched your face with genuine concern. It kind of made you want to elbow Jake in the ribs for making your friends think there was something seriously wrong with your health at the moment. You flicked your eyes back over your shoulder to meet Jake’s — you could tell he was struggling to keep a straight face at this point. His lips quirked as he watched you, bringing a firm hand to rest at the small of your back and teasingly rubbing underneath your shirt with his thumb. Your breath hitched. You shook your head rapidly at Natasha’s offer and waved her off, offering an appreciative smile. Jake’s features were only half-apologetic as he pulled you against him and leaned down to give a chaste kiss to your forehead. You playfully sighed in annoyance at him. You agreed to his terms when you made the bet. You just didn’t think he would be so remorseless in his use of the new toy in public. 

Bob shifted anxiously on his feet as he observed you, subtly bopping his head to You Dropped A Bomb On Me by The Gap Band that was now playing on the jukebox. You bopped your head in time with him with a small smile and watched him visibly relax.

“It’s just hot in here. I’ll be much better when I come back.” You reassured them again as the trio watched cautiously. Jake’s eyebrow quirked as you passed him. He knew what your plan entailed and he wasn’t too thrilled about it.

You hurried to the bathroom, quickly locking yourself into one of the stalls and leaned back against the cool metal of the door. You bit your lip to keep yourself quiet as you dipped your hand into your underwear, desperate for relief and suppressing a moan when your fingers ghosted over your sensitive clit. You didn’t even bother to check if the bathroom was empty – frankly, you were too on edge to care. After a few minutes, Jake excused himself to go check on you. He looked both ways before practically flinging himself into the women’s restroom and closing the door behind him hastily.

“What’s got you so worked up, baby?” Jake drawled after making sure it was just the two of you in the room. You whimpered at him quietly. He took a moment — finally alone — to adjust his pants more openly and palm over his hardening cock. He took notice of your feet under the stall door and imagined the way you were positioned. He pictured your brows knit, bottom lip between your teeth as you ran your fingers through your folds and desperately grinding down onto your hand for relief. He was painfully hard just at the thought of it. Jake locked the bathroom door behind him — whoever might have needed to come in here could wait. 

At the click of the lock, you were out of the stall and on him in a flash, desperately pulling him against you and attaching your lips to his. He grinned into the kiss as your lips moved feverishly together. He secured one hand against the back of your neck and his other on your hip as he walked you backward until your ass was hitting the counter. You sighed into his mouth, running your hands down the front of his torso and pushing your hands under his shirt. His skin was hot to the touch and you wanted nothing more than for it to be against yours. You gently raked your nails down his abdomen and pulled his hips closer to yours by his belt loops. He hummed. “You’re breaking the rules.”

“Don’t care,” You took his bottom lip between your teeth and tugged gently, whimpering when he lifted you enough to position you on the very edge of the sink. “Need you.”

“Need me, huh?” Jake teased, leaving your swollen, kiss-bitten lips and attaching his own to that sweet spot under your ear. He pushed your legs further apart with his knee before slotting his thigh between yours. “You wanna be a good girl and hike up your skirt for me?”

You whined pathetically at his words as you pulled at your skirt and ground your heat onto his thick, denim-clad thigh. He continued to leave a trail of hot, opened-mouth kisses down your neck and chest before yanking your top down to attach his lips to your already-peaked nipple. He took his hand from the back of your neck to knead at your other breast, pinching your nipple between his index and middle fingers. You sucked in a sharp breath and threw your head back with a moan, grinding down onto him a bit harder. He grinned against your skin as he quickly flicked over your nipple with his tongue before switching to the other.

“I got you, pretty girl,” Jake cooed, snaking the hand that was firmly secured against your hip to the apex of your thighs. He moaned lowly at the feeling of your wetness-soaked underwear, slowly rubbing small circles over the fabric. It wasn’t enough. You whimpered, grinding into his hand and digging your nails into his biceps. “So wet for me. You been thinking about me touching you all night with that vibrator against your cunt?” You could do nothing but nod weakly, your head resting back against the bathroom mirror. “Use your words, darlin’.”

“Yes sir,” You mewled. 

“Good girl,” Jake grunted, flicking your nipple with his tongue once more before releasing it with a pop! He dropped to his knees and pulled your panties to the side, wasting no time in spreading you with his fingers and licking a thick stripe upward before plunging his tongue into your weeping hole. “Weren’t exactly trying to hide how good I was making you feel, were you, baby?”

“Oh, my fucking –” You jolted. Jake attached his lips to your clit, alternating between licking and sucking as he brought his middle finger to push into you slowly, gliding in and out of you with ease. Your fingers wound into his blond tresses and you eagerly tugged at his scalp, earning a pleased, guttural groan from somewhere deep in Jake’s sternum. You were already so close after being practically edged all night long.

He pulled your thighs over his shoulders before pushing his ring finger into you now, curling his digits upward against that spongy spot in your walls and pumping them into you at a steady pace. You let out a long, high pitched whine as he hit the perfect spot over and over and over and over. He moaned and relished in the feeling of your heat clenching snugly around his digits. Your brain turned into mush – you heard his voice but couldn’t make out what he was saying. “I – I’m – Jake, I can’t –”

“You sound so pretty when you moan for me, baby,” He smirked against your skin as he watched your fucked-out expression. Your eyes screwed shut with your eyebrows sloped and your mouth agape – it always drove him crazy. “What, can’t take any more? Forgot how to use your words now?” You could do nothing but cry out and nod rapidly against the mirror. “My poor baby. Taking my mouth and fingers like such a good girl.” He hummed against your clit and you choked out a sob, tears streaking your cheeks now and desperately grasping his hair. You were so, so close, teetering on the edge and waiting for him to push you over like he always does… Then, suddenly, he withdrew from you completely. Your eyes flew open, wild, and searched his smug face while he lazily kissed your inner thighs.

“What are you –”

“You broke the rules.” He stated simply, pulling your skirt back down over your thighs and smoothing it over with his calloused fingertips.

“What?” You exhaled incredulously, blinking at him, chest heaving. He rose to his feet and kissed your collarbones as he readjusted your shirt over your breasts before wiping his chin.

“You broke the rules,” Jake repeated. His eyes were dark with want yet held an incredibly amused glint. “No touching yourself.” Your jaw fell slack as you searched his features for the hint of a joke – there was none.

“Jake –” You began to protest – to plead.

“Come on, baby,” He grinned, pulling you down from the counter and spinning your hips to stand in front of him to face the mirror. You could still do nothing but blink dumbly at his reflection. He brought his hot lips down to where neck meets shoulder as he ground his hard cock against your ass. You whimpered, reaching for him behind you. He stepped out of reach and grabbed your hand instead, interlocking your fingers. He adjusted himself by tucking his solid length into the waistband of his jeans. “We have a game to get back to.”

You couldn’t believe this was happening.

“You’re finished when we get back to your place.” You hissed at Jake lowly through gritted teeth as he unlocked the door and pulled you back into the bowling alley with him. He ignored the glances you two were getting from a few lingering patrons as he strode back toward Bob and Natasha. The music was loud, but maybe not loud enough to conceal what was happening behind the locked door from anyone within ten feet of it.

“Not if I finish you first,” He challenged with a grin. He fished the remote from his pocket and dangled it in front of your face. “If you can even make it that long.”

[jusvibbbin]

One Locker Down

Kenickie Murdoch x Reader

//Grease popped up in my playlist yesterday and my childhood crush reignited itself

Senior year was going okay. Your grades were stellar, your standing in debate club was unchallenged and your personal best was improving every time you swam. But you were missing one pivotal thing to be considered the ‘complete senior.’ A relationship. You became embarrassed simply at the thought. You were cute and nice, just a bit awkward. Your social skills couldn’t hold a candle to those of Patty Simcox or the Pink Ladies. You usually preferred to keep to yourself but as senior year drew closer, you longed for more than what you had. On the first day of school you considered your options as you walked.

Are there even any options? Can you think of one person outside of your activities that even knows your name?

You were a bit discouraged walking into school as you found your way towards your locker. With your mind lost in thought, you had no time to react before bumping into none other than Kenickie Murdoch. He turned towards you directly, mouth open to begin sending a barrage of insults your way before he saw you. His mouth hung open a moment and then shut quickly. You stood there like a deer in the headlights, still waiting for the attack that was never to come. Kenickie bent down and picked up your books as you brought yourself out of your state of shock.

“I am so sorry!” You said bending down to help him, only to bonk heads with him instead. Kenickie rubbed his head and pulled off his sunglasses.

“Jesus, babe! Are you trying to send me to the hospital?”

You felt yourself blushing at what he called you and you quickly shook your head ‘no.’ Kenickie handed you your books and you went around to the locker right next to his. 

“What’s your name?” Kenickie asked suddenly. 

You stuttered out your name and he grinned at you.

“I like it,” he said smoothly. He looked like he had more to say until someone down the hall shouted for him. He gave you a wink and strolled down the hallway. You felt your heart beat wildly in your chest until you realized what had happened.

Ohhhh no. Not him. Not Kenickie. He’s a playboy, a greaser, not to mention he’s trouble incarnate. 

But it was too late. You had it bad.

--

You didn’t see Kenickie until a week later. You were at your locker packing up for the day and when you closed the door, he was leaning against his locker. You stifled a scream and put a hand to your chest. Kenickie smirked at you.

“What’s the matter? Did I scare you?” he asked, pushing himself off the wall to face you.

“Just surprised me is all,” you tried to answer confidently, but it came out very unsure. Kenickie backed you into your locker and put his left hand next to your head, blocking you in on one side. You bit your bottom lip and stared up at him.

“How is it that I never noticed you before?” Kenickie eyed you up and down. “You’re hot stuff.” You thought you might die right then and there.

Kenickie thinks I’m hot? Is he feeling alright?

“Thank you,” you said shyly, keenly aware of how close he was to you and only wanting him to get closer. 

Suddenly Kenickie moved away from the lockers and started walking away, calling back to you, “See you around gorgeous!”

You resisted the urge to dance your soul right out of your body and you headed the opposite way.

--

Kenickie’s POV:

“Kenickie who is that?” Sonny gestured to (Y/N) standing at their locker.

“Yeah, we’ve seen you talkin’ to em a whole bunch lately,” Putzie added.

Kenickie rolled his eyes and looked at the other T-Birds. 

“What are you knuckleheads doing spying on me, huh?” He started to comb his hair, slick with grease, back.

“We just wanted to know what the plan was, boss,” Doody piped up. Kenickie looked at him confused.

“Plan?”

“With the nerd! We were thinking you could leave em a note inviting them on a date, tell em to wear something real flashy, and then they show up and you ain’t there!” Doody exclaimed. At this, the T-Birds erupted into laughter, hooting and howling like animals. Kenickie shut them up with a quick smack to the back of their heads.

“Enough clownin’,” he said, putting an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

“Come on Nickie, it’ll be funny!” Sonny begged.

Kenickie thought about it for a moment or two before saying, “Gimme some paper.”

--

Your POV:

You stood at your locker, feeling flustered. You had found a note from Kenickie. You read it over again just to be sure. It said:

“Dollface, you’re lookin’ extra good today. I was thinking maybe you and me could meet up tonight. Wear something to show off your assets. See you at Frosty Palace, seven o’clock. -KM”

You didn’t know what to think. Sure Kenickie had been nice to you lately, but the T-Birds were known for pulling stunts to hurt people’s feelings. You thought about what you wanted to do the rest of the school day, through swim practice and on your walk home from school. 

Kenickie is probably just doing it to be mean. But he did say all those nice things to me… Then again it might’ve been a trick to ensure I’d come. But why go through all the effort just to stand me up? To make me look silly? 

You walked into your house, waving to your mother as you went upstairs. You laid on your bed and yelled frustrated, into your pillow. You stayed there for a few moments before you heard your door creak open. You sat up as you mother walked in and sat on your bed.

“What’s going on?” Your mother asked, running her hand through your hair.

“I like this boy, and he asked me out tonight but I don’t know if he’s just going to ditch me,” you sighed. Your mother looked thoughtfully for a moment as you waited patiently for her sage wisdom.

“I think you should go. What does it matter if he stands you up? Go because you want to. If he’s there, great and if not, you can find someone else to spend time with. You are a beautiful, smart and kind person. You can get anyone you want so show that boy that you don’t need him, but you’re willing to give him a chance.” 

You smiled and nodded at your mother and she helped you pick out a cute, but fairly modest, outfit for tonight. Then she helped you do your hair and by the time you were done, you looked great.

Kenickie, I hope you’re gonna be there. Cause I am gonna knock your socks off.

--

At six fifty your mother dropped you off just down the street from the Frosty Palace. You thanked her for everything and started walking. You hoped against hope that this wasn’t a trick. Your mother’s words had touched you, but you knew what you wanted, and you wanted him.

As you approached Frosty’s you scanned the parking lot, but saw no sign of him and your heart dropped into your stomach. You crossed the street and looked inside, but you still didn’t see him. You rounded the corner, intent on sitting on the bench so no one could see your tears, and there he was. Kenickie freaking Murdoch. He was leaning against the building, smoking a cigarette and as you walked up, he looked over at you.

“Whoa, look at you,” Kenickie smiled at you. “You look… amazing.”

You grinned at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him inside before he could even finish his cigarette. After a night of drinking milkshakes, eating burgers and playing songs on the jukebox, Kenickie drove you home. Once you got to your house, Kenickie parked and turned off the car.

“I had a lot of fun Nickie,” you said sweetly.

“Yeah, me too,” he said scooting closer towards you.

You leaned up and kissed his cheek. As you started to lean away, Kenickie caught your chin with his hand and kissed you hard on the lips. You kissed him back with intensity and wrapped your arms around his neck. His hands grabbed your waist, sliding them under your shirt and rubbing small circles into your skin. You squeaked in surprise and Kenickie took the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. You were enjoying the moment so much you could barely tear yourself away from him when he tried to lay you down.

“Kenickie,” you mumbled as he kissed your neck.

“Mhm?”

“I don’t think I’m ready for that yet,” you said gently as you pushed yourself back a bit. Kenickie begrudgingly pulled away, giving you one last kiss.

“Whenever you’re ready babe, I’ll be here,” he said, winking at you. You giggled and hugged him. He held you close, his hand running through a section of your hair. 

“See you next Friday?” You asked.

“You know it,” Kenickie smirked as you got out of the car. You waved goodbye to him and watched him speed down the road.

Oh yeah. I got it bad.

Part Two

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

The Thrilling Saga of Connie paying real life money for the Worst Sonic TV Show

Let’s begin with the simple fact that me and my sister, @birdsareblooming​ “Cori”, have both been hyperfixating on Sonic the Hedgehog since last March. During this hyperfixation, I was on Sonic Wiki to copy-paste song lyrics onto my stolen mp3s, and I called my sister in and pointed at the template at the bottom. 

“What is this Sonic Underground thing?” I asked. “It has one shit billion songs.” 

So we clicked on the page to read about it, and each sentence we read was a punch in the gut and this quickly became the funniest thing we’d ever read. Highlights include:

It looks like this:

“Sonic[...] is known to be a prince” 

Sonic has two siblings who actually have good characterization but their names are literally just Sonia and Manic. Like. Sonic split into two names. jesus christ 

Also Sonic and his siblings all share a voice actor. honestly Jaleel White does his best with it but 

“The three siblings possess enchanted medallions that transform not only into musical instruments, but also into weapons.”

“Some fans consider Sonia to be a clone of Amy Rose, minus the attraction Amy feels for Sonic.” YEAH I SURE HOPE IT DOES

“Manic is the most often captured of the siblings” himbo king 

Knuckles shows up, and for the first, like, two sentences his description is very similar to the game, and then you get immediately pulverized by “He has a pet Dinosaur called Chomps.”

Literally so many sentences on Sonic Wiki are lowkey salty about this show. The page features lines such as “Sonic Underground bears little relation to the often complex Sonic universe (including previous animated series, as well as Sonic comics and games), and shares only three established characters” and “many of the characters in the Freedom Fighter group that were in Sonic the Hedgehog are completely left out (including Tails).”

“The show met with mostly negative reviews.”

*checks air dates* It only lasted two goddamn months

So after seeing this we thought it was the funniest thing and we showed our older sister, @patema-introverted​ “North.” To our surprise, our at the time “knew nothing about this sonic bullshit” sister recognized the show. Turns out she’d seen trailers for it as a child and that was her sole exposure to Sonic canon. 

We were in quarantine at the time, so we ended up finding it on YouTube and binge-watching it all together as a sibling bonding activity. It was just as hilarious as we thought it would be- some stuff was legitimately good, like the sibling dialogue for instance, but good lord were the character designs ugly, the plot all over the place, and pretty much every song, um, not great. Also there was one episode that we skipped because it got, um, I think “stereotypical” is the nicest word I can use here. 

But the point is, we had a jolly good time watching it, and afterwards we binged all the other Sonic shows and bonded as a family. 

After quarantine, North and I go back to college. My roommate gets groceries at Walmart, while I get them elsewhere, so while she and North collect food I wander the DVD aisle to look at the cool movies and also dumpster-dive in the bargain bin for Cats (2019). I am also short as fuck, so the top shelf of movies I cannot see, I can only read the labels. 

So one day I was browsing the DVDs, and glancing over at the labels for the top shelf. I read over the final one before the shelves end. 

And then I stop, do a double take, and have a heart attack, because there is a label that reads “SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74″

I immediately climb the shelf but there aren’t any DVDs atop the shelf. However, the label is still there. I excitedly tell my sister and roommates, freak out with them a bit, and then give myself a mission statement:

I will buy the $4 Sonic Underground DVD from Walmart

I did not want it as a gift, I did not want to find it online. I wanted to walk into a store, pick up the Worst Sonic Show on DVD, walk it straight to the checkout, and in front of the cashier and God, pay for it with my own money. I did not care if it was the whole series or two episodes; I needed to do this for my own serotonin.

We would go to Walmart about once a week. Every time, I would go to the DVD aisle, and go right to the end of the shelves. I would stare at the label SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74 and empty space above it and wonder who the fuck was buying this other than me. I would occasionally ask employees if they had any copies in storage. I would build a shrine to Manic in my room. Okay, no I didn’t, but only because my RA would have murdered me. 

Christmas break comes, and we have to go home. We have a nice Christmas, and Cori and I infodump at each other about how we would make Sonic Underground a good show (note: we’re both galaxy braining) and also play Bendy and the Ink Machine. Fun times. 

When we finally get back to College, it’s late January- long story short we have a very long winter break. My roommate who gets food at Walmart got food without us the first week cause she showed up first, so we take her out to Walmart the first time in the year of our lord 2021 on January 29. 

I wander the Valentine’s aisle, immediately grabbing a sequin puppy. I go to the DVDs and see Animaniacs Season One, also grab that. 

And then.

There it is.

The Holy Grail. 

Above the label SONIC UNDERGROUND $3.74, is one DVD left. 

Already I am losing my mind. It’s roughly seven hours of episodes- I couldn’t find an episode list, but I think that’s half the show, for $4! And the cover is amazing. 

That’s a png of Sonic from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) with a medallion badly photoshopped over it. The medallion is too small. 

Manic is shoved into the corner. He doesn’t have his medallion at all. 

Sonia isn’t even pictured on the front cover, probably because they realized she was the worst designed of the bunch. I’m not ragging on her though, because she’s still one of the better designed characters of the show. Those background characters make me cry 

So you bet your ass I finally paid my hard-earned $4 for this shit. Upon getting home, I discovered that there was even wilder shit with this DVD than I thought. 

For starters: the bonus features listed are as follows:

Original Concept Art - did not expect that these character designs were the final draft

Storyboard-to-screen - did not expect they bothered to storyboard this 

Music Video Jukebox - that’s cute, they thought we liked the music 

Interviews with original screenwriter & executive producer - I fully expect the only questions to be “why.” 

On the left of this list are screenshots from the show, where people can finally see Sonia, who we Know™ is a girl because she is pink and has hair and also an actual body shape instead of just circles like her brothers. 

But wait... what’s that in the lefthand corner? 

That looks like some kind of robot. But it’s not a robot from Sonic Underground! That didn’t appear once. Why is it here? 

The mystery continues upon opening the DVD case: inside are advertisements for other collections, including other Sonic DVDs: two volumes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) and the final episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog “SatAM” (1993)

First of all, the first volume of AOSTH has the exact same PNG of Sonic as the Underground Volume 1. Not even trying to hide it. But second... the second volume of AOSTH also has this robot on its cover. 

And THIS ROBOT IS ALSO DECORATING THE THIRD DISC IN THE SET?

So you may be asking, who is this robot? Is it from AOSTH or Underground?

IT’S FROM FUCKING SATAM. The one show that doesn’t have it decorating the DVD covers.

Also, not only is it from SatAM, it only appears in one fucking episode. Not a major character! AND IT HAS A DIFFERENT DESIGN ON THE PROMO ART, WITH HAIR AND FANGS.

Why is it showing up everywhere? What is going on? 

I have not yet had the opportunity to watch this glorious piece of animation, but I am so glad at the confusion I have felt upon receiving it. 

But before I go, I must share with you the best part of this DVD purchase. And it was flipping to the back, scanning the details, and discovering the exact runtime of the episode collection. 

Guys, gals, and enby pals, friends and enemies, Nintendo and Sega, the first Volume of Sonic Underground has a runtime of...

420 MINUTES.

Maybe I’m wrong and this IS the best Sonic show. 

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Hi moosh! Could I have sfw letters APW for dante, vergil, nero, and V? Thank you!

So this is my first piece for devil may cry, I hope it turned out well I'm still ify on it, especially with V's and a part of Vergil but I hope you guys like it anyway!

Dante 

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Dante is a pretty chill guy, but he really doesn’t get out that much besides to go do a job, out to get drinks and to gamble (losing most of his last payment from Morrison in the process and getting absolutely screamed at by both you and Lady) at the local bar, and to get a Strawberry Sundae at Fredi’s, most of these activities he loves for you to tag along with him (some partially to make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble *cough cough* like losing most of his fucking money *cough*) especially hunting if you can hold yourself in a fight, he gets a kick out of watching you kick demon ass and finds it really hot so expect a lot of flirty banter that’s filled with terrible puns and other dorky eye rolling one liners. This lovable fucking dork.

However most of your time spent together is in the office, which you can find the two of you laying on the couch watching the old busted television watching old movies or listening to the old busted jukebox that has been playing the same sixteen songs for the last thirty years (Dante stop abusing your shit) or just telling each other shitty stories the both of you have heard from one another countless of times, but somehow when he tells it again it somehow feels just as enjoyable as the first with somehow a different twist to it and when you tell it he always that charismatic talent that Dante just has this big heart throbbing grin on his face as he listens and it just makes your words sometimes stop that even he has to tell you to keep going, or just cooking together (and by together, I mean you doing 99% of the work because this man is forever banned anywhere near a oven anymore) because yeah sure pizzas 24/7 is fun and all but if there’s one thing (besides watching you kick demon ass) that he loves to watch you do it’s cooking and not only does he get to watch you excitedly dash from one part of the kitchen looking for ingredients and get a little messy along the way, he also gets something to eat out of it too in the end. 

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Embarrassment to show his absolute adoration for you in public? No way! Dante is all about that PDA, unless you’re uncomfortable with it then he’ll respectfully lay off...but sometimes he finds it really hard when you’re just super cute when talking to the crew about a job, it's just something about that look of thrill in your eye that always grabs his attention. But if you’re down with it, let the lap sitting, quick heated kisses, bad suggestive pick up lines, and questionable touches commence! 

Dante is the number one choice for a feel better boost, if you’re feeling unsure and doubtful of your abilities be prepared to see this man recite everything fucking cool, smart, and badass thing he’s ever seen you do, so it’s a given Dante absolutely loves bragging about you to people. As he’s sharing tales of your badassery, there’s a glint of pure love in his eyes as he looks back to you and watches as your doubts begin to slowly fade away to the back of your mind, and of course if this is a recurring issue you might find even the rest of giving you compliments from time to time, even from Vergil (which almost gave you a heart attack from the shock hearing that from the eldest son of Sparda) 

Kisses from Dante are never shy, when he wants to show affection to you he’s never shy about it. Kisses from him are always the type that shoots butterflies to your stomach and makes you feel dizzy afterwards, his favorite to pull over you are when you’re in the middle of working on paperwork (his fucking bills) and surprising you with them because always without fail you get drag away from your work and go to cuddle on the couch, bills to be forgotten (and he wonders why his electric shuts off all the time) The crew immediately learns quickly that Dante really doesn’t have any shame, but reactions vary when they stumble upon it with Trish and Morrison are the two not to really give a shit to be bothered by it, Lady, Vergil, and Nero just roll their eyes at it before going back to do their own thing, Nico lets the: “get a room love birds” and other types of teasing lines and whistles fly every chance she gets, Lucia either embarrassed and covering her eyes or scolding the both of you for being that ‘personal’ out in the open like that, and Patty asks really uncomfortable questions. Dante for the most part gets a kick out of all of it!

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

I think it's very clear that he mimics actions he sees in movies (just look at how he fucking uses Cerberus for example) and so lots of what he does romantically is stuff he's seen in romance films he remembers watching with his mother and brother when he was younger or films that when he really has nothing better to do and Patty brings (all with titles he can never pronounce) to the office on a lazy afternoon and that's the reason why his view of romance is so cliche. When asked jokingly about it, he'll give a shrug and answer with the fact that the love between his parents, forbidden lovers, is a cliche trope itself and from the very few memories he has of his mother and father together he definitely remembers how sappy they were together, so sappy that it might've carried over into their kids (Vergil you don't escape this, just you wait) 

 So that being said, with the heart shaped chocolates, the roses to start every date with, several dates under candle light on the roof of the shop under a full moon, no matter how cliche it may be the confident wide eye grin on his face during them will never fail to make your heart skip a beat. 

Vergil 

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Vergil of course really likes to take every opportunity to train whenever he can so that he can be sure he's able protect those he cares for, so he really likes when you take the time to spare with him so not only he can stay in top shape for whatever danger that may come in the future but also so that you can do the same that he doesn't feel like it's all up to him to protect you when he is assured you can protect yourself, this keeps his mind from wandering to dark power lusting places.

On free days that there's no jobs in sight and there's not a focus on training, Vergil of course likes to read in his book. Flipping through the pages of his old precious childhood possession he feels himself at ease and even more so if the two of you are laid up together in bed in the privacy of your shared room, your head laid softly on his chest with his hand in your hair subconsciously combing through it as he reads Blake's words aloud to you in a quiet voice as if the words were only meant for you to hear.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Listen, all the Sparda men are romantic in their own way to the core, I like to think it’s in their genes and this is Vergil we’re talking about, this man is an absolute traditional romantic with absolutely no PDA. I mean come on, again this is Vergil we're talking about this is to be expected the son of Sparda prefers to keep his romantic life absolutely private between the two of you. To be honest it takes only the closest people in the two of your lives to realize that the two of you are even together, so basically only those who are at Devil May Cry frequently. The tale tell is that out of everyone you end up being on the end of Vergil's...Vergilness the least bit, sure there are moments but at least you haven't been stabbed by Yamato or had any summoned swords shot at you like everyone in the office has been at least once (although this also applies to Kyrie but I see her never really doing anything that would really bother him) and he also gives to rare non sarcastic compliments, which blows Dante's mind every time it occurs. 

Vergil doesn't brag about you, he compliments, and true hearted compliments from Vergil are rare, but when they happen you always know he 100% means it especially if he does it in front of others. This is the only form of PDA he feels comfortable with doing, and usually they're about how you did in fights or a super rare version: that he's proud of you. 

Again Vergil believes all romantic acts should be savory in the privacy between each other, so it's obvious that he doesn't like kissing in public. However, if you were to hypothetically I don't know...give him a peck on the cheek or go even more scandalous the lips while he's at phone duty in the office while Dante and the others are around the pool table and sitting area or in Nico's van while waiting to drive off with the crew to whatever next job, his cheeks might turn into a interesting shade of pink. 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

It takes patience to be in a relationship with Vergil, in the beginning he'll be closed off and won't share what he's thinking (but it says a lot with how much he does trust and care for you to be in a commitment with you) but as time goes on he'll slowly start to open up more and more as he lets himself accept the human in him to love you, and at this point he'll start to share things that are very close and dear to him. 

He has very fond memories of watching old black and white romance films with his mother and Dante, who only would watch them because the moment they would end he would immediately beg him to train with him, but with him falling down to hell and being corrupted since he was only nineteen to him he remembers memories of when he and Dante were kids more clearly than his brother can since to him they don't feel as they happened a long ago so he remembers watching these films from long ago in very great detail. So of course the moment he can find some of these films with the help from a hesitant Nero (still getting used to the whole dad ripping arm off thing and all) to find and order those they could find online. From the very moment he has the old tapes in his hands do they become as precious as you, Yamato, his amulet, and his book (as well as a little bit of Nero but it takes him a while to come to terms with it) so with this being something very emotionally important to him, and after very long pandering about it, he asks you to watch these films with him (he also considered asking Dante but figured since he didn't practically like the these films as children that he wouldn't want to to watch them now, absolutely no idea about the cliched dork he is now because of these types of films) The entire time you find yourself struggling to pay attention to the actual film instead you find yourself drawn to the deep nostalgic look in your lover's eyes as he's glued to the screen. For a while you're not even sure if he's actually watching the black and white picture either with how he eyes seem to be playing out scenes of the past and this is the first time you've ever seen this much emotion on his face at once. You end up holding a tight securing grip on his hand throughout the rest of the film, one normally he wouldn't hold for as long but you find his fingers subconsciously rubbing against yours from time to time. Once the nostalgic movie night ends the two of you don't say much to each other, which Vergil appreciates since how much emotional significance that it had on him and with the feeling that he's glad he got to spend it with you. 

Nero

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

He likes killing demons with you, it's in his blood. Just seeing you in action will without fail boost confidence in him and makes him want to show off for you, which ends with him getting hurt and scolded by you many times but he wouldn't have it any other way. 

Well, he really finds himself doing a lot doing jobs with Nico on the road as of late so except a lot of quality time together on jobs and in the van. When the two of you aren't out kicking demon ass expect a ton of sitting around in the van watching whatever happens to come in on Nico's very small and very shitty portable tv, this is when you learn your boyfriend has actually a lot of a surprising amount of trivia on shows that hadn't been in production in decades but are shown as frequent reruns on low quality channels that coincidently air in Fortuna's limited broadcast range. 

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

I feel like during the time around dmc 4, Nero at that point was absolutely super embarrassed with the idea of PDA, not even getting started with his insecurities about his arm, but I feel about now after his experience with dating Kyrie for a few years he gotten use to it a little bit. However that doesn't mean he won't get entirely red faced by teasing comments from Dante or Nico even if he was just looking at you for a few seconds longer than he should've.

Fuck yeah he brags about you to others. You're a badass, and he absolutely loves that. During a fight he'll gladly give you a cocky Nero way of approval by saying that even he should try and catch up before flashing you a smug ass grin before revving up Red Queen and jumping into the next hoard of demons.

Again Nero gets embarrassed easily, however unlike his father he's not totally against it but it depends on whose exactly around. For example if it's Lady or Trish, hell even Morrison he's perfectly comfortable with giving you a kiss hello/goodbye or wrapping his arms around you just for the hell of it because he knows that they're chill and won't make a big deal out of it. But if it's anyone else...he feels not so much about it. Dante and Nico tease the hell out of him for days, Patty asks very uncomfortable person questions, Lucia gets really easily flustered about it, and Vergil and Kyrie for personal reasons would just rather not prefer to do anything around them. But every time you are the one to initiate any sort of affection, he'll immediately rub/scratch at his nose with a very dumb founded flustered look on his face. 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Nero is actually a good cook and absolutely loves cooking things for you and that is usually what happens for most dates, no matter how complicated the recipe he just seems to have a natural talent for it. So when it comes not only dates but to holidays as well, it's really funny to see the youngest relative of Sparda cooking away to serve the rest of the company on Christmas day when everyone knows damn well that neither his father or uncle has any clue how to work a kitchen and this is a fact that he holds proudly over his head. 

V 

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Well being Vergil's human half, I still say most things still somewhat apply to him but a little bit differently. V's not really the best partner to spar with for starters (the most I see him doing is letting you train with his familiars) but I feel that he still completely understands the reason why Vergil would desperately want that, but he has a little bit more in himself to have faith in you to know you can more than able to handle yourself with your abilities. 

Like with Vergil, V absolutely loves to read with you. It puts a nice warm feeling in his chest when the two of you are alone and with you in his arms as he reads to you as you both sit against Shadow and Griffon nesting nicely in your lap, all together like a nice small family. 

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

V, unlike Vergil, is torn between PDA. Like Vergil, he really does appreciate the privacy of time spent together behind closed doors but also he really does like the feeling of people seeing the two of you together as a couple, it brings out a heavy sense of pride and stroking his ego. 

V doesn't feel need to brag, he's proud of you and if you're with him you should know that by now, but if you're in need of some encouragement he always knows what right thing he's proud of you to pick you tight back up again. 

Kisses from V are never shy, will he do it often in front of others? Occasionally, but never frequent. When he does though they're always sudden and full of spark, you swear his lips are like an instant kill switch to your brain because once you realize that he's kissed you it's already hit you and most of the time you hear whistles and teases from Griffon (and sometimes Nico if she's around) that bring you back earth to (Name). 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Vergil's nightmares plague him a lot, I mean he's literally contracted to them. So expect a lot of countless of nights of him waking up in cold sweat and doing his best to keep his sobs down as the image of Nelo Angelo is burnt into his mind. He would rather not talk about it, but he really does appreciate feeling you holding him through the after shocks. Tracing his tattoos or gently combing your fingers through his hair will slowly calm him down enough to at least lay back down with you and hesitantly fall back asleep knowing you're there to fight off the plagues of his mind at a moments notice.

[ladyeliot]

Your legacy is my nightmare [½]  Re-written

Avengers: Age of Ultron / Post Civil War

Pairing: Avengers/Tony Stark x Avenger!Reader

Summary: Your past was marked by Tony Stark, ever since a Stark Industries bomb hit that restaurant when you were 10 years old, during an attack on Novi Grad, the capital of Sokovia. From that moment on, the rage for revenge took hold of you, but things didn’t turn out the way you expected.

Warnings: Angst. Trauma. Deaths. Violence.

Word count: 5378

A/N:  Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

Reader Powers: Psionic Force Projection. Psionic force fields that she can manipulate in various ways. 

When you were five years old you discovered that there was a completely different world inside that magic box. A world that seemed far away from the small town you lived in, a world that could capture your attention, that made you laugh, that grabbed you, and that you dreamed of living in in the future. It was then that American sitcoms became your world.

Your childhood in Novi Grad, the capital of Sokovia, was like that of any other child, totally happy. You were an only child, you were born and raised in a hard-working and extremely loving family, your parents loved you and you loved them, because all they wanted was to make you happy. Your birth took place on a sunny morning in June, creating the tradition that every birthday you went out to do something special, something out of the ordinary routine of everyday life. On your sixth birthday your parents took you to the amusement park, discovering that you weren’t too fond of Ferris wheels. During your eighth birthday your parents opted to take you to a football match, which you enjoyed quite a lot. On your ninth birthday, the three of you took a little trip to the mountains, discovering that you were completely allergic to wasp stings, but on your tenth birthday, everything changed.

For several weeks you had been pestering your mother to go to the new restaurant that had opened in the city centre. Remember that you were madly in love with American sitcoms from the 1950s, which were constantly on reruns on Sokovia television, so you couldn’t have been luckier when you found out that they had opened an American-style restaurant in the city centre. Your mother used to make excuses for not going, but not because she didn’t want to, but because she wanted to wait until your tenth birthday to go and have lunch with the three of you as a family, and that’s how it happened. The morning of your tenth birthday, Novi Grad dawned bright and shiny, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, and the sun was shining. It was Saturday, so there was neither school nor any job that would prevent you from spending the day apart. Your face changed to excitement when you discovered a note along with a special breakfast, informing you of a surprise lunch at Fred’s, the American-style restaurant. At the time you thought you were the luckiest girl in the universe, and that nothing and no one was going to change your mind, but things never work out the way you expect them to.

At around 13:15 you were seated at a table, and you yourself had decided which table you preferred, opting for the one right next to the large window, where you could watch the crowds passing by on the street. While your father informed the waitress about the menu you were going to have, you played with the bottle of ketchup while looking out of the window, on Saturdays the centre was usually crowded and that put you in a good mood. A Jukebox harmonised the atmosphere with typical songs of that decade, you had no idea what the song was, but you knew that you had heard it before in some sitcom. You were delighted, you seemed to be part of one of those comic scenes that made you laugh night after night, however something outside caught your attention, making you drop the bottle of ketchup from your hands. The scene was strange, people were no longer walking, running, no longer laughing, shouting, but you barely had time to utter “Mum…” before a bomb smashed through the large window.

Trauma. An inconsistent word that has so many negative connotations for the person who suffers from it. You never thought that a life filled with numerous catastrophic experiences could ever find the meaning of the word ‘Peace’ again, yet there you were, searching for it. The placid singing of the water crashing against the stones of the riverbed was the best melody you could wake up to every morning. After so many years you had found a place away from civilisation, far from the terror of humanity. A hut in the middle of the green and brown fields of Wakanda, a place where nothing and no one could disturb you. You could say, you could barely remember the time when you were at peace with yourself, maybe your childhood, but there was nothing left of that. However, the harmony around you, together with the humility of country life had given you back all the strength you needed to be able to go on with your life.

But now the question is how you came to Wakanda and why. It had been almost a year since a terrifying experience in the maximum security prison for humans with superpowers, also known as the Raft, prevented you from ever finding inner peace again. During the indeterminate period of time you were held in that underwater facility, the guards did terrible things to your brain. Fear for your powers caused them to take the initiative in using brain torture methods, the only way they discovered that was effective in overriding them. It left scars on you that would last a lifetime, if you made it out of there alive, which you came to believe would be impossible.

The next question is how you came to find yourself in that situation, but we’d better go back to the beginning, when that bomb hit that American-style restaurant in your hometown of Novi Grad. The darkness came moments after the projectile pierced the glass of that building and found its way into the ruins inside, creating a gaping hole underground. The loss of time and space came upon you, when you opened your eyes there was nothing, it was all darkness, yet a red, flickering light was just a few centimetres from your face. You could not move, your limbs were confined by the debris, you could only see the light that slightly illuminated the small air chamber in which you found yourself. You saw that metallic object in front of you, which had written on its side words that were engraved in your memory forever 'Stark Industries’.

It was a long period in which tears silently flowed from your eyes, it was indescribable the way fear clung to your body, with a small hope of being found that flickered on and off with that red light. You hardly knew what that light meant, that it really was a 'lucky break’ for you, at least that’s what all the news said when you were rescued two days later. Eventually you discovered that the bomb must have exploded, that like your parents and all the other members of the local, you must have died.

Your life after that did not improve, but you found them, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Your similar experiences during the bombing of Sokovia brought you together, they had also lost their parents and now you were three orphans who were confined from house to house waiting to come of age and flee the place.  The country of Sokovia became a war zone, with US troops frequently invading the streets, causing protests by the locals to intensify. During your youth you were a very active part of them, along with the twins, especially those against 'Stark Industries’. What those experiences generated was that the hatred you had hidden for Stark resurfaced again. The three of you wanted to purge your nation of foreign conflicts, so you met a division fighting for the same thing called HYDRA. You joined together, hoping to change the world, hoping to seek peace and freedom again, but that is not what happened. That group had very different ideas, ideas that you three were obviously not a part of, yet your innocence played a trick on you. Stucker, the leader of the division, offered you power, an outlet in the fight against violence, and you accepted, exposing yourselves to a series of physical experiments, called the 'Miracles’ programme. The programme consisted of exposing your bodies to radiation emitted through a sceptre that you had no idea what it was. Thirty-two people participated in the experiment, only you three remained alive. This caused a series of supernatural powers to develop in each of you. In your case, the psionic force took control of your body.

At this point HYDRA had got what it wanted, three superhumans to fight the Avengers, including Iron Man, aka Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries. It was impossible to admit that this was too juicy an incentive for you to pass up. The Avengers travelled to Sokovia with the intention of stealing the sceptre that gave you your powers. It was then, at the age of 25, after fifteen years of waiting for that moment, that you came face to face with the creator of the bomb that killed your parents, in that HYDRA operations centre in Sokovia. For the first time you could look him in the eye.

“Hey, J, a quick infrared scanner to the room,” he said in the middle of that wide ship, he had shed the suit, which was now operating on its own.

“The column to your left, I detected a human presence, with radiation levels off the charts,” the suit spoke up, discovering your position.

There was no point in staying hidden, it was the opposite of what you wanted, you wanted him to see you, to have the courage to look you in the eye, to not know who you were and let him know. Tony turned quickly towards that column that the inner voice of his suit had informed him about and bumped into you. The moment came. The brown of his iris projected towards you, he looked terribly harmless, he raised his left hand and Iron Man’s limb covered his own, projecting the palm of his hand towards your body. A smirk of arrogance amplified on your mouth.

“I mean you no harm,” his voice came out fast.

“So late,” you whispered without wiping away the smile, as you slowly raised your palms, creating a psionic field in a circular shape.

Just as Iron Man’s limb had attached itself to yours, the entire suit suddenly encircled your body. At that very moment you projected the psionic field towards him, starting a fierce battle in the middle of that ship. A battle that lasted no more than ten minutes due to your lack of ability to control, manipulate and project your powers. But that would be the first of many times you were to encounter him, that first encounter left you with a thirst for vengeance that would eventually fade, but at that moment it was impossible for you to know.

Things evolved over time, from HYDRA you came to ULTRON, who immersed you in his power, told you he was coming to save the world, but also to wipe out the Avengers, trapping you again in his intentions, believing his were the same as yours. Baron Von Strucker was killed shortly after by Ultron, now it was just the four of you, Ultron, the Maximoff twins and you.

At Salvage Yard, on the African Coast, was the second encounter. Your little group had headed out to meet Ulysses Klaue, an international criminal and underground black market arms dealer, to obtain the world’s most durable material, vibranium, however the Avengers also showed up, making the encounter more interesting. Thor, Captain America and Iron Man stood before the four of you in the middle of a gorge of corridors inside that container ship. There was Iron Man again, covering the body of Tony Stark inside.

“Are you comfortable?” Pietro turned his gaze to a set of missiles that were located on the lower deck. “Like the old times?

"This was never my life,” Iron Man replied, his voice neutral.

“Of course not,” you interjected, stepping to Pietro’s side. “He’s just the enforcer, isn’t he?”

“You can still walk away from this,” Captain America interjected, offering a nostalgic gesture from under his helmet.

“Oh, we’ll do it,” you said with marked indifference. “When the time comes.”

“I know you have suffered,” Captain America commented, eliciting a broad smile from you.

“You know that…” you whispered with a grin, lowering your gaze to your hands where psionic force was slowly concentrating through your fingers. “I really don’t care if you know.”

“It’s about me,” Tony’s stiff voice hit the mark.

“Bingo,” you said wryly just as a wide psionic field formed between your hands offering the signal for the battle to begin.

Disproportionate beams of light slammed into your pupils, energy bursting from each of you, causing the others to stand on guard and find their opponent to carry out their actions. Ultron’s minions moved to counterattack, while you scattered without a specific destination. You had had weeks of training to be able to face the new encounter you all knew was coming, and you could feel your control over your powers becoming more extended, but to do so you had to have your full attention focused on your actions.

The clash between you and Iron Man sent you off course, into a maze of dark corridors and passageways that were only illuminated by the energy coming out of that armour. Your psionic strength kept at bay the radiation that poured from the palm of his gauntlets and the monorail on his chest, causing it to bounce hard off the iron blocks of the walls.

“I’m not who you think I am,” Tony Stark’s voice came through the armour.

“Very subtle when you hide behind a mask,” your words caused the mask that covered Tony’s face to be exposed.

You stared into his eyes, feeling the energy burning inside you, feeling it building up in your hands, so you raised the palm of your hands without holding back, letting all that power come out and collide with the stealth lightning that Tony Stark let out of the palm of his hands. As if the two segments of energy were fighting a battle of their own they connected. With each draw of energy, exhaustion began to wash over you, knowing that you couldn’t last much longer than a couple of minutes in that situation. The clash caused sparks to reach each of the four sides of that corridor, denting the iron, melting it, but neither of you noticed.

At the third minute you pulled your hands away and threw yourself to one side so that its beam would not hit your body. Almost out of breath you dropped to the ground holding your palms up, Tony stopped the repulsor bolts of his gauntlets and turned his gaze upon you, but just as he took a step to approach you, a sharp, screeching noise caused you to change the destination of your gaze. What your eyes saw caused a nightmare to cling to your memory, the ceiling began to collapse, your exhaustion prevented you from creating a psionic field, your body became unresponsive and your mind locked. Your only institute was to close your eyes as tightly as you could, not knowing what was going to happen, but at that very moment when you heard how everything started to collapse, arms caught your body clutching it against a rigid chest and pulled you out.

So it was that once again a new failure was added to the list of your interventions. When you opened your eyes your body was lying prostrate in a corner of the main ship’s nave, where it had all started, but where there was no one left. The consumption of energy you had expended had left you without a shred of power within you. You looked up, your eyes a representation of the terror that had just reminded you of that moment, barely able to keep your breathing calm, and barely able to keep the words in your mouth when you saw Tony Stark’s face in front of yours again, before he looked away and walked away.

That was a turning point, for the next time you met Tony Stark face to face, you were on the same side. After the battle at Salvage Yard, the four of you, Ultron, the twins and you travelled to Seoul where Ultron’s true intentions were revealed. Ultron intended to create a genocide of humanity as a whole, he intended to create an enhanced body to dispose of his own. This horrified the three of you, causing you to flee from his power, causing Ultron’s wrath to prevail, creating a conflict in Seoul, in which the Avengers appeared. But the important thing in that was that the three of you joined the Avengers to save what had been your city, the place where you were born, Novi Grad.

You knew of Ultron’s plans for humanity, his intention was to create a device that would lift the city of Novi Grad into the sky, then drop it to Earth in a meteoric impact. On the way back to Sokovia, the place where it all began, a host of inexplicable feelings came to you, anger, shame, humiliation, hypocrisy… all related to your actions. Silence was present over the three of you, no conversations except those present to plan actions upon your arrival.

“Ultron knows we’re coming. Odds are we’ll be riding into heavy fire, and that’s what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn’t. So our priority is getting them out, ” the words coming from Steve made you nod, keeping your eyes averted. “All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that’s not going to happen today.” You felt Tony’s eyes on you, you looked up to confirm it, but this meeting of glances made you uncomfortable, changing your position. “But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron’s been building. We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us.” He paused. “Ultron thinks we’re monsters and we’re what’s wrong with the world. This isn’t just about beating him. It’s about whether he’s right.“

Those last words crashed into you, you had been asking yourself the same question for weeks, you also needed to have an answer to it. So that’s how the end of the beginning began. You could never imagine what it would be like to see hundreds of people running through those streets again, the streets where you had grown up, where you had fought for your ideals and where you were now saving all those people so that the events you had experienced would never happen again. Each of you had a specific area, your mission was to guide the population to the safe side, protecting them from Ultron’s minions. Everything seemed to be going as assured, however time ran out, the ground began to crack, creating cracks, splitting the earth, causing an area of the city to rise into the air.

The terror of the scene brought you back to your childhood, you leaned against a building keeping your breathing as calm as possible and looked around you, the horror was present again, the screams of the people made a dent inside you, you closed your eyelids as tight as possible and put your hands to your head trying to erase that sound from your mind. Your back was slowly sliding down the wall until you were sitting completely on the ruins of the building.

“Hey!” Steve’s voice sounded close to you. “Are you okay?” his question barely got an answer from you, you felt his hand resting on your shoulder. “Hey, look at me. Are you okay?” you opened your eyes again and with a terrified look on your face you nodded, looking for the strength to face it. “I need you, those people need you, I know this is crazy, I know you’re terrified, but so are they.” You looked around you contemplating the massacre. “You can help them, they are your people.”

Again, Steve’s words gave you the courage you needed to find the calm within yourself, stand up and do everything you could to stop those robots that Ultron had built and turned into his allies. You knew what your mission was, you had a mission now and you couldn’t let it paralyse you.

“Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed… walk it off.”

The population was congregated in a specific point of the city, there was no solution to evict them if that part of the city did not come down and land again, until a ship, the Helicarrier, appeared between the clouds to create a solution to one of your problems, the eviction of the population. Now all that was left to do was to get that piece of land back in place.

“Avengers, time to work for a living,” Tony announced over the intercom. While the population was getting to safety in the boats, you as a whole had gathered at the church in Novi Grad, where Ultron had located the core, or rather the button, with which he would bring the city down, destroying all of humanity.

“What’s the plan?” you asked, confused by the situation.

“This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose,” Tony replied pointing to the vibranium contraption in the centre of the shattered dome.

In front of you hundreds of robots captained by Ultron approached without stopping their pace. You sucked air into your lungs, awaiting the arrival of one of the most crucial moments of your existence, perhaps the most crucial, for in a few hours you could possibly be extinct along with humanity.

“This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me,” Ultron also had his plan and that was. “How could you possibly hope to stop me?”

“Well, like the old man said,” Tony looked at each of you. “Together.”

The battle for survival began. You thought the previous battles you had fought were the ones that could change the course of your destiny, the ones where you had faced Tony Stark, but you couldn’t have been more wrong, that was nothing compared to what you were going through right now. Each of you was part of that team, your energy was renewed every time you used it because you were fighting for a reason, the strength in you shone through. You were all a team and you were getting through this together. One by one Ultron’s robots fell, until there were none left standing, but it wasn’t over.

“We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I’ll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you,” Steve asked just after the last robot was down.

“The core-” began Tony after he had bared his face, but you barely let him finish his words.

“I’ll protect it,” you said firmly, giving a slight nod to yourself, “it’s my job.”

Tony connected his eyes with yours offering you a slight nod, just before he covered his face again and flew away. “I’ll stay with you,” added Wanda to whom you offered a faint smile before everyone disappeared from the scene and Pietro was ordered to return to you once everyone was in the boats. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, only a few straggling robots were presenting themselves to you with the intention of overthrowing your mission, but something happened. You felt your friend’s body collapse right behind you, you turned your head and saw Wanda’s face distorted, your eyes widened in confusion as she began to utter a scream that made your eardrums ring. She fell to her knees, causing her powers to spiral out of control in the crash, destroying every element in her path, so you had to create a force field around yourself in the hope that you would be unaffected. Your thoughts began to connect, trying to find an answer to his attitude, and you found it. Pietro.

You both walked through the streets, but she scattered within minutes Wanda disappeared in search of Ultron, leaving you there, but there was no one left to fight with, or fight for. It was at the very moment you questioned the functionality of your existence that Novi Grad plummeted thousands of feet into the air, offering you the answer to your question. Your eyes closed but you were no longer afraid, on the contrary, you had been able to find peace, everything came to an end in the same place where it all began. But as if someone had been watching over you, you felt arms holding your body and slowing down the frantic rhythm of the plummeting fall. You opened your eyes and found yourself being held by Iron Man’s armour.

“ I got you,” he said flying in the opposite direction, managing to dodge the ruins of that city. “Now Thor!”

A new turning point that changed the course of your actions and your destiny lay before you. Despite your best efforts, nearly 120 lives were lost during the Battle of Sokovia, including that of Pietro Maximoff. It was a before and after, symbolising the power of war and what could be its fatal consequences. For you it was a judgement, a learning experience, feeling guilty for much of what had happened, for helping HYDRA, for helping Ultron, to elaborate his actions. Your guilt led you to rethink your future, the course of new events led you and Wanda to a new country. You arrived in the United States, welcoming the New Avengers Facility as a new home. Offering you a roof to sleep under, training for your powers and a new family, though you didn’t feel that way at first.

You spent many hours in search of solitude, at the end of that green esplanade, when the tall oak trees were beginning to remind you of home. It was one afternoon in the first week, when you were still adjusting to it all, and you found yourself reading, leaning against a tree trunk.

“Hiding?” Tony’s voice pulled you out of your reading. “Oh, Sylvia Plath, great,” you looked at him, but offered no response, so he opted to sit awkwardly right in front of you on the grass. “Listen, we haven’t had much time… you know,” he took off his sunglasses and shrugged. “I’ve been looking through the files and … I know what happened to you… with your parents.”

“You know,” you said with a raised eyebrow, putting the book aside. “Do you also know what happened to the other thousands of people or do you only have a file on me and a file on Wanda and Pietro?”

The confidence in your voice was at odds with the insecurity Tony was showing, so when you saw him turn his head to the right side as he crumpled his face you opted to do what you had been thinking about for the last few days, call it a day.

“Listen. I’ve spent many years imagining what it would be like when I had you in front of me,” you began to say calmly, keeping your gaze fixed on your fingers as Tony watched you with his head cocked to one side, listening to you intently. “In what I was going to tell you, in the way I would let you know the pain I felt inside, because to me you were to blame for everything bad that had happened to me,” you paused, took a breath and thought about what you were going to say next. “But the moment I had you in front of me I didn’t say anything I had planned to say, I let my anger and pain guide me, and it didn’t do any good. The same thing happened the second time, and the third time it was pointless because there was something much more important to fight for.”

“I…” Tony interjected.

“Please, let me finish,” you cut him off, causing Tony to nod and turn his attention back to you. Sadness clouded his features. “So now I have you in front of me again I just want you to know that I have realised that…” you paused causing Tony to make a slight gesture of approaching you, but when you started to speak again he stopped. “I have no intention of you bearing my ghosts, but I need you to know that I spent two days under the rubble waiting for Stark to kill me,” your voice cracked, and Tony’s eyes reddened. “Watching your name light up on the side of that missile every time that flashing red light illuminated the darkness, hearing that beeping sound that I still can’t erase from my mind, terrified that my breathing would cause that bomb to detonate because my limbs could barely move.”

For the first time you raised your face to meet wide open brown eyes, reddened and unable to hold your gaze for long. Tony’s face was pale during those moments, his body was no longer upright and he was nervously running his hand over his lips.

“With that said, it only remains for me to let you know that I will not let the hatred and vengeance of a ten year old consume me,” you looked back down at your hands, allowing Tony’s eyes to fall on you again. “I’ve seen the power that resentment brings with it, I don’t want that for myself,” you connected your gazes. “Then I suppose I must forgive you in order to move forward.”

Silence. Silence flooded the room leaving heavy breaths in the air that symbolised the tension of the situation you were both experiencing for the first time right now. There was no right answer to everything you had said, it was clear to you that Tony didn’t know how to act at that moment. You sat cross-legged on the damp grass, watching him, seeing how he couldn’t hold your gaze since you had explained that you saw his name reflected in that missile. Yet he fought against it and focused his brown eyes on yours.

“I promise you…” he began stiffly, but again you cut him off.

“Tony, don’t promise me anything,” your voice was soft, as if you were talking to a small child.  "Please.“

After your denial of his action, he only nodded. He merely nodded as he intertwined his fingers and began to fidget restlessly with his left leg.

"Then I don’t know what you want,” his tone offered an enormous insecurity marked by nervousness.

“That’s the point. I don’t want anything, Tony,” you said without fidgeting.

“All right,” he nodded confusedly, rising quickly but awkwardly from the grass in an attempt to get away from the situation. “So… I hope it’s all to your liking.”

With that said, he turned his back on you and left the same way he had come. Leaving you under the shade of that oak tree with Sylvia Plath.

Now, too much had happened since then, much of it was why you found yourself in Wakanda trying to juxtapose all that had happened, but what you didn’t know was that on that placid morning when you went for a walk along the banks of that small riverbed, Shuri and T'Challa would come to inform you that he was there and that he had asked to speak with you.

Taglist Open (DM)

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[itsuki-minamy]

WONDERFUL SCHOOL DAYS: MY PRECIOUS RED

CHAPTER 3: SUMMER

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: skyflyinginaction

* Gakuen K (List of Chapters) * Projects & Chapters

"Maybe he knew of your ability."

Totsuka said that one day after the athletic festival. It was a few days after she changed her clothes.

Kusanagi stopped polishing the glass and Yata's eyes widened and he looked at her.

Bar "HOMRA".

An elegant interior. Looking at one of them, at the vintage jukebox, he takes a breath and doubt Totsuka.

"Eh?!"

"You were talking to King, right? Maybe, I think there is no question."

"That's right?!"

"Yes. I haven't been able to find out everything. That's why..."

Totsuka looked at Kusanagi with a serious look.

"Well, I want to experiment. Kusanagi-san."

"Do it outside."

Totsuka laughed saying "Okay.".

"Kusanagi-san? Won't you see?"

"I have to tend the store. I'm just waiting for the results report."

"Well then everyone, a big place where we don't bother anyone, oh let's go to the riverbank where we played baseball last time."

Everyone takes control and immediately stands up. Also, she was a bit surprised.

Oh, that? Will they all come? Is it my personal cause?

When she wondered and looked at everyone, Yata looked back, "Hey."

"What are you doing? Come on."

"Yata-kun, will you come too? Is it about my ability?"

"Eh?"

Yata grimaced, bowed his head and said, "What are you talking about?"

"Is it because of your ability?"

"Eh? But…"

"Does that mean it's a red club problem?"

"…!"

Involuntarily, her eyes rounded. At the same time, Kusanagi laughed in the background.

Looking back, Kusanagi laughed and shook her hand, saying "Go quickly."

"Don't keep your teammates waiting."

Companions… Those words warmed her heart.

She raised her forehead and followed Yata.

It is enough to walk slowly from the bar "HOMRA". A riverbank where weeds could grow as much as they wanted, except for a small grassy baseball field.

In terms of time, the boys were quiet, perhaps after getting home, with only a few people walking their dogs.

"Now…"

Totsuka looked around his against the setting sun.

He then he said, "So, let's review first.", and he raised his index finger.

"One. When she touched King's flames, she didn't have the ability to manipulate them. She was able to resist Homura's flames, right?"

They all looked at her. She shook her head vertically.

"Yes. It's not hot to touch the flames that everyone creates. But I can't put out the flames. I've been told this several times and I've tried."

Really, many times. She was afraid that other abilities would be activated, so it was a bit dangerous.

When she said that, Totsuka smiled, "That's enough.".

"There are strong and weak abilities, but once you've completed the rite of passage, activating the abilities isn't really that difficult. It seems that some people have a hard time controlling flames. You can probably think that you don't have the ability itself."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. But actually, Konohana-san created a great column of fire in the courtyard. The fire was Yata's flame. That's the second. And the third, it happened even at the athletic festival."

"Eh…?"

Sports festival, but…?

"That's…"

"Finally, that flame that burned the red club's diadem. That wasn't just because of Yata. Yata, you felt that way too, didn't you?"

Everyone's eyes focused on Yata.

Yata made a slightly complicated expression and shook his head.

"That happened right after she called Yata. She didn't realize that her ability had been activated because Yata pounced on the enemy at the right time, right?"

"Yes, not at all."

When she answered him, Totsuka smiled.

"So is. She acted on the flame twice, even though she didn't have the ability to manipulate it. So, I thought. What is the conclusion I came to?"

Totsuka cut his words off there and raised his index finger again.

And he pushed her hand fully towards her.

"Konohana-san."

"Yes."

A small flame ignited on his index finger.

A small flame that was very appropriate to say "light" was like the flame of a candle.

"Please be aware of this flame."

"Eh? Take it into account?"

"Yes. It 'enlarges', 'burns' and is 'strong'. Anyway, let this flame grow. Please think about it."

What does the flame grow?

As they told him, she put her hands together and looked at the flame.

"Increase in size. Make it big?"

She coughed, but nothing happened.

It means, before that, if everyone's eyes were worried, if she looked at him too much, she alone would be worried about it... no, she wouldn't worry about it.

When she thought about it, Suoh, who was sitting alone on the bench, stood up and relaxed in front of her.

The moment she raised her face, his big hand blocked her view.

"Eh? Ah..."

"Don't watch it. Focus on it."

A low voice commanded in her ear.

She took a breath and her eyes widened.

"Do you remember how Totsuka makes the flame? That's what you saw earlier. Remember it. Draw it in your heart."

She closed her eyes as directed, and she remembered that little flame.

"If you can do that, think about it. Imagine it. Light the flame. Can you do it?"

A small flame came to her mind. It was as modest as a candle flame, and quiet.

She tries to make it big strongly. Violently, beautifully. Redder, brighter, and burning.

Like Suoh, was worthy enough to tremble.

Like Yata, flashed so hard she yearned for him.

"Mmm!"

At that moment, there was a scream.

"You can do it."

She hears Suoh's satisfied voice.

At the same time, his hands moved away from her eyes.

"Ah!"

She turned her gaze to Totsuka and took a deep breath.

The flame, which was as small as that of a candle, was now a glow that burned the heavens.

Big, strong, intense and beautiful. A burning flame that glowed red.

Homura's flame like a blazing fire.

"I don't have the power to create a flame like that. Everyone knows it, right?"

Looking delightedly at the pillar of fire, Totsuka smiled.

"This is because Konohana-san made my flame bigger. In other words…"

Totsuka looked around looking at the flames.

"Your ability is the second, the 'amplification'."

"What is the second for Homura?"

Kusanagi put iced tea in front of her and looked at Totsuka.

Since then…

Probably because it was a great column of fire. The people who witnessed the flames rushed forward one after another, and they hurriedly left on the spot. They divided into small groups so that they did not stand out and returned to HOMRA by different routes.

She saw that everyone in the red club at that time, withdrew and moved gently. She was shocked.

She still had a bad idea about that area. If Yata had not retired with her, she was sure that she would have been left alone.

He gently pointed to her right wrist.

He was unscrupulous, but a lot of fun at times like that.

She wondered like Yata, that he's not good with girls, he spoke to her normally and got her out of there.

"Yes. I think the first one is 'superhuman strength'. That's why I broke the grip strength meter."

Totsuka smiled as he made ice cream.

Looking at Totsuka, Kusanagi frowned, "Hmm."

"No. Maybe it's just one? Maybe you're just 'amplifying' your own strength."

Kusanagi's words involuntarily stopped her hand from reaching for the stainless steel cup.

Oh, it's true. There is such a possibility, right?

When she saw Totsuka, he looked up and put his finger on his chin.

"Well, I think it's a different thing. Well, I absolutely can't say."

"Because it's different?"

"That is correct. There are two reasons."

Totsuka held up two fingers.

"One is the difference in the activation conditions."

"Activation conditions?"

"Yes. When the 'amplification' was activated, there was a strong emotion in Konohana-san. She was afraid of Munakata and she cared about Yata. Did you activate it all of a sudden even if you didn't think of anything when you broke the grip strength meter?"

"Uh, surely."

"The other is that there is too much range in 'superhuman strength'."

"Too much range?"

Um, what did that mean?

"I think it's great to break the grip strength meter. You can also break the recording board. I can't do it. But obviously, destroying half the school building or sandwiching the cobblestones in the courtyard is a different level, is it? Don't you think?"

"Of course."

"I thought the former was the activation of the 'superhuman strength' ability. The latter may be the result of 'amplifying' the 'superhuman strength' ability."

"…!"

She widened her eyes at the unexpected words.

"Amplified", "superhuman strength"?"

"That's…"

"It is possible that touching a knife or pinching a stone pavement is another ability, but your body was glowing. But when only "superhuman strength" is activated, "superhuman strength" and "amplification" can be activated together, so I think that there is such a difference in how skills appear."

"I see."

Kusanagi thought that too.

"I think I realized that at the athletic festival. With your power, even I, who only have weak power, can create a column of fire that causes confusion."

She wondered if it was okay for her to be there.

"Konohana-san."

"Yeah... I feel like it's a bit crazy. Your abilities are beyond the person's ability. It's definitely very dangerous because you can't control it right now."

Things that exceed the person's capacity and cause the ability to flee.

Those words surprised her.

It was the same even if there was no talented person around. She revealed another ability of oneself by multiplying it without permission. So what happened at the previous school was an accident.

She realized the danger again and her body trembled.

"Konohana-san."

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

The moment she hugged tightly, Totsuka called out to her carefully.

He lifted her face as if were turned away and tried to reassure her. Totsuka smiled softly, "Okay. Don't tremble."

"Because I am here…"

"……"

"Hey, Yata?"

Totsuka looked back over his shoulder.

Yata, who was sitting in a chair near the couch, noticed and looked at Totsuka, and then looked at her.

"I was telling Konohana-san that we're not afraid of her being here. Yata, you think so too, right?"

"Of course."

Without hesitation, Yata had no problem answering.

"It should be OK."

And his hot eyes went straight through her

"Absolutely, I will protect you."

++++++++++

It was sudden.

"Ha! Kamamoto-kun, summer version!"

The moment she entered the classroom, she was caught by Kukuri, who had been waiting for her, and she was dragged in front of a handsome boy she had never seen.

Brown leather. A soft, lustrous and bright blonde. His eyes, which were melancholy and with slightly sunken corners, were a beautiful sepia color. His nose was smooth, sweet, and well-shaped.

Slim, standout style. The strong confidence, generously exposed collarbone, slim but powerful shoulders and upper arms were very nice.

Who was he?

Before her who was stunned and stiff, Kukuri and Shiro got together and showed his beauty and that line.

She opened her mouth and looked at the handsome boy.

"Kamamoto-kun?! Huh? Hey, really?"

Wait! Because yesterday he was big and now he was normal?

"No matter how much, overnight..."

"Well, I've lost my appetite for the heat since noon yesterday. So when I woke up in the morning…"

(No, no, no, you don't convince me! You can't do it, Kamamoto-kun! It's strange that you lose half your weight in just one night!), she thought.

"Well, what happened to the hairstyle? Kamamoto-kun, you had very short hair."

"Grows fast in summer."

Well again, while it was weird the fact that grew more than 4 inches overnight for that reason, it was absolutely amusing.

"This is the first time for Kuro and Konohana-san. That is amazing."

"Eh? Oh, that's right. Yatogami-kun..."

"But this is already a kind of summer tradition. When Kamamoto loses weight, it means that summer has come."

At Shiro and Kukuri's slow words, she instinctively looked at Yatogami.

No, how about ditching such a great change with "summer tradition"?

Well, ghosts and ghost stories are a summer tradition, and that sentiment may not be wrong.

It means, wasn't everyone worried about it? She was very anxious.

"Hm, Kamamoto-kun. Is your body okay? Aren't you sick?"

"I'm constitutional. It's okay. I don't feel bad; I'm just losing my appetite."

(If this happens even if he can't eat for a day, Kamamoto-kun will disappear if the days when he has no appetite continue.), she thought.

"If so, that's fine, but I'm a little worried."

"Haha, it's fine."

"You won't do anything, right?"

Just in case, she suddenly turned her gaze to Yata, who was sitting by the window.

Yata, who was looking at her with a frustrated appearance, for some reason clicked his tongue at her and turned away from her when he realized that she was looking at him.

"I wonder what I did."

She waved her hand and turned to Kukuri, who left the classroom and involuntarily partied alone.

Yata had been in a bad mood since this morning so he didn't like this, and after all, he could talk about it all day.

Even now, as soon as class ended, he left the classroom with Kamamoto... Should she go home alone? Should she wait as usual?

However, she had no guarantee that Yata would return (on the contrary, he may have already gone), but she stood up with her bag.

With a soft sigh, she left the classroom.

It was a bit strange because they came home together every day.

(What's really going on? Have I done something?), she thought.

If so, it would be difficult to go to HOMRA. She wondered if she should go straight back to the women's dorm today. Or should she go to the library for the final exam?

At that moment when she was wondering and walking alone...

"Konohana-san."

A low, sweet, and very familiar voice echoed down the hall.

She opened her eyes and looked back quickly.

"Can you give me some of your time?"

"Munakata-senpai..."

A pale and refreshing shirt. Light blue bracelet. A shiny and dull saber.

The director of the blue club, Reisi Munakata himself was there, followed by Fushimi and another person behind him.

"I was about to visit the classroom, but I'm glad I didn't get it wrong."

"......"

With a soft smile, but feeling the endless fear, she took a step back.

Then, Fushimi, who saw her, clicked his tongue at her and sighed.

"Hey. I don't know what the red club are telling you..."

"Fushimi-kun."

Munakata stopped Fushimi's words on the way.

And when she looked at him again, he smiled.

"I just want to talk."

She couldn't believe it and shook her head.

"I'm in a hurry, I must go.", she said lying and backed away further.

"Don't say that. I really want to talk. I just want to know what you know about your abilities. That's it. I want to know to handle it quickly when something happens. This is not to put you in danger, much less average students. I promise that I won't force you to do anything."

"......"

"Oh, yeah. What I did was out of order. I should have apologized for it first."

When she quietly returned, Munakata coughed as if he had just realized it and then leaned in slightly.

Naturally, without any ill intention.

She didn't expect him to do that, so she opened her mouth and looked at Munakata in a daze.

"Eh?"

"On the first day of move-in, I apologize for the high pressure attitude in the yard. I'm sorry I told you that you should surrender, as you protected the students in general."

"......"

"I apologize for the fact that Fushimi ran to you at a later date. He acted after thinking about school and you, but as a result, I have given you unnecessary fear. We are so sorry."

Munakatai leaned in even more.

His action was sincere. Suddenly, the fear she felt was relieved.

"Munakata-senpai..."

"If you're busy, let's start over another day. So please let me know."

Perhaps she had an excessive sense of weakness in her initial attitude?

Later when Fushimi spoke to her, she fell, so she thought she was scared.

At that moment, the words were certainly bad, but Fushimi didn't say anything bad. He was only saying the right thing.

Even now. Munakata also said only the right thing.

"Yeah... I feel like it's a bit crazy. Your abilities are beyond the person's ability. It's definitely very dangerous because you can't control it right now."

The words Totsuka said when she elucidated her abilities in that river.

(That's right. My ability is very dangerous.), she thought.

She believed that she definitely should know the school to protect the students.

It was definitely not a mistake.

That's how it is. Not that she wasn't afraid, but she wouldn't run away. She knows, preventable accidents can be harmful.

Taking a deep breath, she took a deep breath and slowly parted her lips.

Suddenly…

"Saya!"

"Ah!"

The window in the adjoining corridor opened with a loud noise.

The moment she rolled her eyes, Yata jumped up and grabbed her hand.

At the same time, he threw her towards him with considerable force.

"Huh? What? Yata-kun?"

But where had he come from? Why was he there?

She was stunned when she started running, as he dragged her away.

"No, Yata-kun!"

"Don't talk! Run!"

"Well, wait! They haven't done anything..."

"Shut up! Run quietly!"

(Huh? Well, wait! They haven't really done anything. I mean, did they just apologize?), she thought.

Lying as she was, she ran down the hall, down the stairs and into the entrance.

Yata finally stopped in front of the shoebox and looked back.

"Come after me... it seems like..."

"Yata-kun..."

"That's it! You're not handling it properly! They don't know what to do!"

"Actually no..."

They were just apologizing to her.

Oh, but she was so happy that he had come for her.

It was warm and happy that someone cared for her and protected her.

She shouldn't be happy. She wondered if she didn't have that qualification... she shouldn't hurt him and make him protect her. Well, she hurt people in her previous school. But the danger of the same thing happening was quite possible, as Munakata said. She was sorry she had escaped from Munakata.

"No, Yata-kun, have you come back...?"

"What? Aren't you going home?"

"Eh? But shortly after class ended..."

"Anna-sensei called me, right? She told me to come after school."

"Ah…"

By the way, she hears him were told that.

"Kamamoto-kun? About that Yata-kun, did you just go to the staff room?"

"Yes."

"So what about Kamamoto-kun?"

As if he had just noticed her words, Yata looked behind her.

"No, leave it."

"Eh? Where? I mean, Yata-kun, where did you come from?"

"As I left the staff room and back to the classroom, I saw you with the blue club."

"ERh?"

It was that?

She looks at Yata confused.

Then, Yata heard that she meets Munakata in the hallway as she left the classroom, and he ran from the staff room to where they were.

When she thought about it, Yata was the one confused this time.

"You did that?"

"That?"

What's that? Did he jump out the window, and he came straight into the hall by jumping out the window?

Wait! The staff lounge and the hall she was in are on the second floor, right?

However, her question seemed unfamiliar to Yata, and he shook his head asking, "What is that?"

"Why…"

"It's parkour. I'm remembering it right now."

"What is parkour?"

"Well, it's a kind of sport. The purpose is' to reach the destination efficiently without interrupting any movement anywhere", Kusanagi-san said."

Was that explanation exactly what he heard from Kusanagi?

"Is it difficult to explain...? Well, it's like flying, running, climbing, balancing and using it effectively to make paths that are not paths."

"Do you want to make a path that is not a path?"

What was that? It sounded interesting.

"So you jump out the window?"

"Yes. Even if you jump off the second floor, you can make a revolution on landing to kill the impact of the landing, and if you think about the angle and kick the wall, you can get to the second floor window as soon as possible. That is my form."

(So ​​literally, you didn't doubt it, you just ran for me? In a place that was a path? To protect me?), she thought.

As a result, Munakata was not trying to hurt her, so it became an excessive defense.

Her face suddenly turned red.

Still, she was happy. She was sorry for Munakata.

But that didn't matter. She was simply impressed. Yata hurried to make his way, for her.

It would be a lie if she said she didn't like that.

"Ah…!"

(Oh, I'm dying of happiness! Yata-kun! I'm so happy I don't know what to do!), she thought.

Perhaps Yata remembered his embarrassment when he turned bright red, blushing and suddenly looking away from her.

And when he rubbed his face roughly, he coughed in embarrassment.

"I'm going home."

++++++++++

A clear blue sky that was high enough to get through.

The clouds were white enough to clump together, the sun was still shining, and the ocean! It was the sea! The great blue sea! Reflecting light on the surface of the water.

Looking at the beautiful mother of life, she was scared because she felt like a tiny person and almost forgot her abilities.

Oh, she couldn't play. Clarifying and controlling her abilities was an urgent task.

But the sea! It was the sea!

Before the end of the term, Kusanagi said: "The guy who got the red dot is excluded from HOMRA. If everyone does the best they can and does not take extra lessons, I will take them to the sea."

The red club was strong when there was a reward! There were no supplementary lessons for everyone. How, even Suoh?

He was talking about "I'll take you to the sea." So she thought it was a day trip, but Kusanagi seemed to be coming to a guest house he knew, so they decided to camp out at sea early in the summer vacation.

When Kukuri heard the story, she was worried, "Will you be okay? You're the only girl.". When she first heard that she would stay, she was a bit surprised.

However, Kusanagi knew about that and said that she had taken her room separately, and everyone was paying careful attention from the planning stage.

As a result, she was excited and happy today.

"That bastard Kamamoto..."

Chitose clicked his tongue when he saw Kamamoto being hit by a reverse wave and flying off.

However, Kamamoto was not the only one who stood out.

"……"

When he frowned, he looked at the white waves that were crashing.

Yata, who usually controls skateboards freely, seemed to be good at surfing, catching waves, and riding horses.

Seeing that figure, several women made a squeaky voice for a while and wondered, "Is it good, right?" "Yes. Good. Let's talk to him."

That... was not very interesting.

That in her way, she didn't care, but it was truly amazing.

"Saya-chan?"

Kusanagi, who had approached her before she was aware, looked at her face in a mischievous way.

"Eh? Ah! Yes?"

"Youth."

"Eh…?"

"Hm, do you want to split a watermelon?"

Kusanagi offered her a blindfold and said, "Saya-chan, let's do it."

"Eh, I?"

"Girls do it while wobbling, it's cute."

When she looked around, Chitose and Dewa were excited.

She thought for a moment, tightened the blindfold and got up.

"So, are you prepared to be defeated by my power?"

Maybe she didn't think so much, they all had a terrifying look at his words.

"It would be nice if the watermelon also kept its shape... Sorry if I squash it. It can be like a small piece of meat and a blood clot. I still can't control it."

They have probably figured it out. They all fluttered like a chill.

"Hey, smash..."

"Now, a piece of meat..."

"Ah... Saya-chan. Maybe you should be guided by the voice?"

"I think that would be better too. Even with a bamboo stick, if my ability was activated, the watermelon could be turned into fine powder. I don't think it's that difficult to turn a watermelon into fine powder."

When she said that, Kusanagi put a blindfold on her.

"And I think the seaside guesthouse is the best setting for a suspense drama. I'm sure accidents can easily happen."

"Well Saya-chan. Are you in a bad mood?"

"Eh? Isn't that the case?"

When she smiled, Kusanagi laughed palely.

"I am scared..."

++++++++++

"It is night."

Totsuka sat upright with a flashlight in one hand.

A great big room where everyone but her sleeps. After that the futon was well placed and they enjoyed throwing pillows.

Sitting on the messy futon, everyone looks at Totsuka with a mysterious look.

"So, let's start a hundred stories."

The lights were off. An impressive sound rang out.

He lit a candle and the story began.

"This is a story from the Taisho era."

(I don't know. After this, I'll have to sleep alone.), she thought.

Actually, she wasn't very good with ghosts and ghost stories.

While she tried not to imagine too much, she listened to Totsuka's story, regretting it.

"Well that's the end."

Totsuka blew out the candles.

The room went dark and he shrugged.

But soon, he turned on the flashlight and Totsuka laughed.

"How was it? Yata."

"Hehehehe, it's fine! No, not at all!"

Yata's voice had a volume setting that's a bit strange. The intonation was strange too. She snapped her eyes open and looked back to her side.

Maybe Yata was also not good with these kinds of stories?

"Oh. I'll do my best this year. Yata."

"I can afford!"

"Because of that, there were a lot of 'uh', right?"

Totsuka laughed and lit a candle.

And when he said, "So next time...", he clicks the flashlight off.

At that moment, her hand was clenched tightly and she was in awe.

(Kya, kyaaaah!), she screams internally.

When she hurriedly looked to her side with a shock that her heart was about to leap out of her mouth, Yata, who turned pale, was holding her hand.

But perhaps unconsciously, the line of sight did not move from Totsuka. He kept looking at him like he was paralyzed.

"......"

His hands trembled slightly, but they were hot and powerful.

He was always nice, but maybe he couldn't help it, he was squeezing her hand so hard it hurt.

She bit her lip and closed her eyes.

She was no longer afraid. That was another emotion.

She would enjoy quietly. Just for her, this time.

And how many times have she been through a scary story? Totsuka suddenly coughed, "Eh? Can you hear me?"

"You can't hold a hand like that!"

"Oh, no, I'm not trying to scare you. Is someone sleeping, snoring?" He said tilting his head.

When everyone spoke, he could hear it for sure.

They all looked at them in amazement.

"Eh? This is…"

"Hm. Maybe…"

Kusanagi stood up silently and clicked on the lights.

The room lit up. For a moment, she looked his narrowed eyes.

"Oh, after all..."

"King... Don't make history a lullaby."

Kusanagi and Totsuka sighed.

Suoh, he was sleeping peacefully with an innocent face like a child.

"Eh? Wasn't that scary? Yata didn't give up either."

"I don't think that's the case. Yata did his best because Saya-chan was there."

Kusanagi looked at her as he said it.

Then he cut the words unnaturally, staring at her hand for a second, two seconds, three seconds.

It seems like he wasn't the only one wondering about it, and they all turned their heads from her and looked at her one after another. Of course, Yata too.

"Uh, aaaaaaaaah!"

At that moment, Yata, who finally noticed that he was squeezing her hand, turned his face bright red and screamed, raising both hands.

"Gyaaaaaaaaah!"

"Oh, he screams more today."

Kusanagi laughed.

When she looked at Kusanagi with a bit of disappointment, Kusanagi looked at her and laughed jokingly.

"Konohana-san, second round, shall we?"

"Second round?"

Kamamoto bowed his head.

"Is night yet to come? There is a cave behind this guesthouse."

Kusanagi smiled and looked at Yata, who turned pale.

"Try your luck, let's do it."

++++++++++

The sound of the waves coming and going. A chorus that was always played.

Unlike the day, the sea lit by the silver moon was surprisingly quiet and mysterious.

The boundary between the sky, the sea and the darkness of night that covered the world was warm, and if you take it easy, you will be absorbed.

"This cave is actually quite a famous psychic place. If there is an accident around here, the corpse will surely flow here due to the tidal flow."

She couldn't understand why he was saying that, but Totsuka seemed to have fun saying it.

"They're not just humans. Big cats, birds, whatever. That's why there's always a soul hanging around here."

"That's why I left 'something' in the back of the cave during the day, so I'd like you to get it in pairs."

"A couple? Won't it take time?"

"Okay. It's not deep. If you rush when it's bright, it's less than five minutes round trip."

Kusanagi laughed looking at them.

However, Yata had a haunted face. Well, so does she.

He may have noticed. Kusanagi smiled and slapped her on the shoulder.

"That?!"

"Yata-chan, I'll forgive you if you cry. If you don't go, why don't you cry?"

"Who will cry?! Okay! This is over here!"

Yata yelled at Kusanagi's bad words.

Oh, he was distraught, but now he seemed to be fired up.

"Homura, group together quickly."

"Saya-chan."

At the same time that Kusanagi said that, Chitose came running with a smile towards her.

"Eh?"

"Oh! Hey! Chitose-san!"

"They're loud! Is it fun with guys? I like that."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Chitose!"

They all parted and spread their hands evenly.

"Eh?!"

"Oh, that..."

"Well that's the way it is."

Kusanagi shrugged and laughed at her surprised eyes.

"Yes, Saya-chan, you must choose, who should be the knight that ventures with you?"

"Eh? But…"

"Guys! Even if you are not chosen, don't hold a grudge!"

Everyone happily responded to Kusanagi's words. Was that really good?

Well, if that was the case...

Along with Kusanagi, she saw Yata, who was fed up with what he didn't like.

"Well then... Yata-kun..."

"Eh?"

Yata looked at her as if he was surprised by her words.

At the same time, the boos that came out from everyone were out of control.

"Eh?! Why am I not a candidate?!"

"Well, you weren't there because she didn't pick the guys who ran."

Kusanagi laughed and patted her on the head.

"I said don't be resentful! Well, that's too many to be a pair!"

At those words, everyone scattered as they said "Tsk."

She looked around and at Kusanagi.

"Hm, was that wrong?"

"What happen?"

"Well, should I have chosen from among the candidates?"

"No. As I said before, there was no such condition."

Kusanagi shook his head and patted her head again.

"This is your night; you can choose your companion. If you think it's Yata-chan, it's fine."

Involuntarily, she looked back at Yata.

The moment their eyes met, Yata turned bright red and turned around as if he was in a hurry.

(Wow…), she thought.

At that moment, she felt so embarrassed that she turned around to hide her cheeks from him.

"Then I'll go first!"

It seemed that the combination had been decided, and Chitose and Dewa waved their hands and entered the cave.

After waiting a while talking about it, two people soon came out.

When they handed what they were holding to Kusanagi, Kusanagi said, "Hmm. Okay."

They were both so light that when he asked, "How was it?", they replied, "It wasn't a big deal. Actually, it's just a normal dark cave."

She was afraid of it.

"I found it useless."

"What? Seriously, it's just a cave with nothing."

(That's why I'm scared of that dark empty cave!), she thought.

She was not afraid of a well-kept, artificially lit cave. But in that case it would no longer be a cave.

However, it seemed that she (and one other person) were the only ones who thought so, and everyone was able to clear the task without problems. Some people even said it was boring.

And finally it was her turn and Yata's.

"Yes, please go."

Yata didn't cry, so she couldn't help it, and he reluctantly walked into the cave while he was kicked out by everyone who smiled.

The flashlight also slightly illuminated her feet. A step forward is a state of darkness.

Only the sound of calm waves and the sound of dripping somewhere resounded.

(Ah! I don't like it! Let's go!), she thought.

"Ah, Yata-kun…"

If she called him in vain, Yata would shake his back.

"......"

"What's wrong?! Don't call me when I have no use!"

"Uh..."

Yes, it was useless.

She just called him, but she couldn't say: "Because I'm afraid, hold my hand.". It was embarrassing!

She wanted to be able to say that kind of thing without calling on the phone.

"Come and see, Yata-kun.". Hmm, she really couldn't do that.

However, her prince was extremely insensitive in that area, and in the end he never took her by the hands, and while she trembled, she walked slowly as she looked around her.

As Kusanagi said, they soon reached the innermost part of the cave.

When she circled the lantern light, she saw a bright red object on a large stone.

When she looked and got closer, she found a bright red marble.

"It is this?"

"That's how it is."

For the moment, she looked around again, confirmed that there was nothing else like that, and he answered yes, and Yata squeezed one of the marbles and it swelled again.

"Then I'm going home!"

"Ah! Wait! No, Yata-kun!"

It was then that she reached out as she was caught by a slippery stone.

Suddenly, the lantern light went out.

"Eh…?"

Suddenly, the field of vision turned black. Even Yata's appearance, who should have been next to her, seemed vague.

"Why?"

She could hear Yata clicking the switch on the flashlight.

That was…

"Ah…"

"Gah!"

Obviously, a voice other than theirs was in the immediate vicinity.

Horror rushed through her back in amazement.

"Ah…"

There was a scream.

No. To be precise, she tried to avoid it. But faster than that, his hot hands tightened on her.

"Let's go out!"

At the same time, Yata's voice echoed. Just as she was, he pulled her tight.

"Ah!"

She wondered how many times Yata pulled her like that and ran.

At times like this, Yata never let go of her, will happen what have to happen.

She already knew. That was why she was no longer afraid.

Yet her heart was beating.

She was excited by the warmth of the hand, the grip and pulling force.

She couldn't see him at the moment, but the reliability of his back running forward had helped her many times.

Although he wasn't good with ghosts, no matter how rushed or scared he was, he couldn't escape on his own. He did not abandon her.

Yata's "shielding" is a reliable practice. He would never betray her.

"Oh, we go out."

"If you run, it's a very short distance. In the blink of an eye, you'll be in the moonlight."

Totsuka was waiting and greeted them with a smile.

"Did you run? Oh, you brought the marbles correctly. Great."

Totsuka received them while Yata was out of breath.

"Well, more than that, a flashlight..."

"Eh?"

"Maybe the battery is dead, it's gone..."

"Huh? It's weird. I just changed the batteries yesterday... Yes. Okay. Then take this flashlight. Replace the batteries again and give it to the last group."

To that end, Yata shook his head.

Totsuka opened his eyes asking, "What?", but he seemed to understand everything when he saw Yata holding a marble in his right hand and holding her hand in his left hand. He reacted and hit Yata's shoulder.

"Wow, I see. Okay. Hey. If the next group can get through, they'll pick up the lantern you dropped."

"Understood."

Kamamoto, who was about to enter, waved as he smiled.

"But they brought the marbles, so the Yata-Saya couple made it too."

"This year's Yata-chan will do his best. Besides, now you can walk hand in hand with a girl in a cave. You have grown up."

As he smiled, Kusanagi patted Yata's head.

"And you are still connected."

Yata reddened his face and released her hand.

"Ah!"

"That's..."

"One step up the stairs from an adult~"

"Oh, that's not why!"

"Well, you guys has been together almost since the first semester, so I'll get used to anything. Do your best in this condition, Yata-chan. That's right. It's not enough to get excited about the backstory next summer."

"Yes, I will be very careful!"

Yata said that to Kusanagi, who smiled.

As he listened to him, she suddenly lowered her eyes to her right hand.

The wind took away the heat she felt.

She wishes the cave was a little longer.

She hated scary things, but if that cave was a little longer.

Then she was enjoying a happy moment that was a bit longer and could forget about everything.

She was able to hold hands with Yata.

[cadiacore]

balancing on breaking branches | chapter 2

☾ A/N: I know i said i was going to take a break but i will after this chapter. I hope y’all like it! please leave feedback bc validation fuels my motivation :)

☾ Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!reader x Quentin Beck

☾ WC: 1.6k+

☾ Warning(s): swearing, mentions of alcohol, angst, very minimal violence, (let me know if i missed something)

Y/N walked up to the river. She saw her reflection through the water and sighed deeply. Her hair was a bit frizzy, and her mascara had worn off. Y/N shoved her hand into her back pocket and dug out her phone. She squatted down and ran the light over the water but like before; she saw nothing. She huffed and turned off the flashlight on her phone, stuffing it back into her pocket.

“Oh, Hey! Y/N!” Quentin smiled. Y/N quickly stood and faced him, giving him a small smile. “You still looking for what’s making the pulse?” He questioned, his eyebrow rising slightly.

“Hey, Quentin. And I am, but unfortunately, there’s still nothing.” She shrugged and pushed her hands in her jacket pockets. She twirled the hotel room keys between her fingers as she spoke.

“Well, do you want to go ahead and go get drinks?” He jabbed his thumb in the direction of a bar sign.  “I mean we’re already out and together,” He added, putting his hands back into his pants pockets.

“Yeah, might as well.” She lets out a small chuckle.

Quentin and Y/N walked alongside each other, both taking in the environment. Once they arrive, Quentin opened the door for her, and she walked in. Y/N looked around before taking a seat in one of the booths near the window. The bar wasn’t too crowded but enough for it to be semi-loud. A karaoke machine sat in the corner next to the jukebox that only had 80’s Italian rock music. A young, dark brown-haired woman walks up to them with a pen and a pad of paper, her name tag reading,

Carina. Beautiful name...

“Ciao! Cosa posso offrirvi due?” Carina smiled. Y/N looked over to Quentin, who just blinked. Y/N giggled,

“She asked what you wanted.”

“Oh, well, I’ll have a beer then,” Quentin chuckled, smiling at the waitress. He ran a hand through his dark hair and shifted in his seat.

“Ciao! Potrebbe avere una birra e io vorrei una root beer, per favore?”

Carina nodded and scribbled down their order, walking away.

“I didn’t know you spoke Italian.” He said while leaning back against the seat. Y/N shrugged and waved her hand dismissively,

“My teacher thought it would be good for me to be bilingual, so she taught me different languages. So far, it’s helped me a ton when I travel.” Y/N sat crisscrossed in her seat, resting her hands on her lap. She could hear the summer wind outside, shifting the leaves on the trees outside and the soft music playing under everyone’s voices. As Quentin moved again, a flash of gold on his ring finger caught her eye,

“You’re married?” She asked, and Quentin’s expression shifted. From what was a smile turned to a frown. He looked down at the gold band and began twirling it.

“Was married. My family died from an attack by an Elemental.” His voice somber. Y/N’s face softened and rested a hand on his.

“I’m sorry for your loss. I know it’s hard losing family.” She pulled her hand away as the waitress came back with their drinks.

“Ecco I tuoi drinks.” Carina said, placing the drinks in front of them, “Vuole qualcos'altro?” (would you like anything else?) Quentin looked over at Y/N and gave her a questioning look.

“She said, would you like anything else.”

Quentin shook his head, and so did Y/N. Carina nodded and walked away. Y/N turned back to Quentin, smiling.

“So, what’s it like on your earth?”

_______

Y/N slowly opened her eyes. The birds chirping, and the sun shined through the balcony window. She yawned while stretching her arms upward. Her phone began to ring, and she lazily reached for it, pushing the accept button.

“Hello?” Her voice is hoarse as she rubbed her eyes.

“Hi, did you see anything last night when you went again to the river?” Fury asked bluntly. Y/N sighed and shook her head,

“No, I didn’t. I don’t know what could be making that pulse unless I physically got into the water.” She ran her fingers through her hair, kicking off the blanket. “And before you say it, I can’t go in the middle of the day.” She added quickly.

Fury grumbled and sighed, “Fine. Just keep looking. It’s getting stronger by the minute so maybe stay in that area.” He huffed and hung up. Y/N groaned as she slid her phone back onto the nightstand.

I chose to do this. Just get up. Get some coffee and you’ll be fine. ______

Y/N sat on a bench near the river and looked around. Two kids ran past her, giggling away as the dad tried to catch up with them. She smiled to herself, remembering her dad chasing her dad around like that. Y/N quickly shook the memory out of her mind and looked in a different direction. Then she spotted Peter. He had just walked out of what looked like a gift shop with a small bag in his hand. She wanted to talk to him and she was going to but MJ walked up to him. So she looked away to spare herself from the jealousy.

Let it go. He likes MJ so just get over it.

Her thoughts raced as she tipped the coffee cup lid to her lips. Just as she finished her coffee, the ground began to shake. Y/N stood quickly when she heard screams coming from a street down.

As she ran toward the screams, she pushed the button on her bracelet. Activating her suit in seconds. She launched herself in the air while dodging some people. One of those people being Peter. She could have sworn that she heard Flash screech as she flew past. That made her chuckle. Y/N turned her focus back on the situation and saw that Quentin had just arrived.

“Take the left and I’ll take the right!” She shouted over the loud roars the creature was making. It’s liquid fist colliding into a building. Cracks began to form alongside the tower. Just when she thought it was going to fall over. It didn’t. Something or someone was trying to hold it up. Peter. Y/N thought.

Quentin flew to the right and Y/N flew to the left. Her repulsors charged up and she fired over and over. The elemental was getting angry and it began swinging its arms rapidly, almost colliding with Y/N a couple of times. But the last blow sent her into a downward spiral. She slammed into the tower with so much force, Peter’s grip on the tower faltered and the tower began to fall. Peter quickly jumped out of the tower and onto the nearest roof. Y/N tried to crawl away but the tower fell on her.

A strangled scream from Y/N made Peter act quickly. Peter swung his way to Y/N and began pushing rocks and rubble to the side.

“Y/N!” Peter cried out, his hands shaking. “Y/N! Are you okay!?” He finally saw a glimpse of red armor and quickly pushed the rubble away.

Y/N groaned in pain as the rock was removed from her leg. She could hear Peter’s voice but could barely make it out. “Peter?” She whimpered, trying to move her leg. Peter pulled her out and held her close to him. Y/N retracted her suit and groaned, grabbing at her leg.

“Thank god, you are okay!” He hugs her tightly and sighed in relief. “I was so scared.” Peter’s is filled with concern and he doesn’t let go of her for a few long seconds. She hugged him back and sighed.

“I’m okay, Pete.” Y/N reassured him and rubbed his back. “It’s okay.” She pulled away and winced at the white pain that shot up her leg.

“You’re hurt though.” He said, looking for blood.

“I’m fine. I might have just fractured it. It’s okay.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. Y/N tried to sit up but hissed as pain shot through her calf.

Quentin lands beside them. “You alright?” He asked, worry filling each of his words.

Y/N nodded and looked around. Her heart sank when she saw all the destruction. She looked up at Quentin again. “Did you get it?” Y/N asked. Quentin nodded and held out his hand for her to take. She took his hand and he helped her balance.

“I have a bunker set up with supplies if you want me to take you to it to get fixed up?” He asked gently, taking most of her weight as Peter helps by wrapping her other arm around his shoulders. Y/N nodded and Quentin picked her up bridal style. Peter’s hand squeezed her arm lightly and he smiled.

“Text me, okay?” Peter asked, concern heavy in his words. Y/N gave him a small nod as Quentin carried her to a black car. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked up at him through the fishbowl that was on his head.

“I thought you would fly me there?” She asked curiously.

“My power needs to recharge so I think the car would be best.” He said tiredly. She nodded and winced as he moved his arm to open the door. Y/N furrowed her eyebrows and leaned her head against the leather seat. Her eyes began to droop. It felt like all her energy was sucked out of her but she fought to keep her eyes open.

“You can sleep, you know?” Quentin said softly. Y/N groaned but gave in and closed her eyes, letting herself drift to sleep.

_______

{Taglists under the cut!} 

B.O.B.B. taglist: @icyhollands @slutforjjmaybank @hotel-colson @ineedabifriend @mranthonyedwardstark @bluegirlusa1 

All Taglist: @ariistotles @preciouspparkers @deans-daffodils @hollandharrison​ @fineline-stateofmind706​ @chloecreatesfictions​ 

Peter Parker Taglist: @halfblood-princess-505​ @the-crazy-fanfictionist​ @trueherosneverdie 

[grantcontrol]

Swarm Keeper ◈ solo

Timing: Sunday Afternoon (March 28, 2021) Location: The Silver Bullet >>> some cabin in the woods Summary: White Crest’s resident exterminator, Anton Grant of Bug Busters Pest Control Solutions, is having a drink at The Silver Bullet when he gets a call regarding a job at a cabin in the woods. When he gets there, however, he finds out that it's not just a regular pest problem. Fortunately, he has a jar of peanut butter in the van. Don’t ask. Content: Insect references, terrible pop culture references, rambling 

“Freaking children, am I right?” Anton Grant groaned before taking a swig of his drink. It’s only been a couple of weeks since he first arrived in White Crest, taking over his late grandfather’s pest control business and making sure the old man’s affairs were in order, and yet, the exterminator’s already a regular at The Silver Bullet, sharing drinks with fellow hunters both old and new, mostly old. He turned to the older hunter beside him, chuckling, “That’s why I’m never having kids, man. I’ve got a business and my grandpa’s old dog. That’s all I’ll ever need.”

The move was also surprisingly easier than he expected it to be. Of course it helped that Anton didn’t have that many possessions to bring into this new life of his, more out of financial restraints than choice, so he didn’t have that many problems transitioning. Still, even as the familiar tunes of ABBA played throughout the establishment from the jukebox in the corner, he just couldn’t take the time to relish in the peace, choosing instead to make a big deal out of nothing. 

“What I don’t need, though, is the disrespect of this place.” He turned to the wall near the back, lined with the mounted heads of slain supernatural creatures, a host of hunter trophies. “You’ve got all these great catches, yeah, sure, but where did they place my catch, my trophy? Near the toilet! Of all places, man! The audacity!” 

“Well, to be fair, it was just a damn mandible. Not even a full one. Just a piece.” The old hunter laughed, shaking his head, as he downed his own glass. “This is exactly what I’m talking about, Grant. Did you know that the last owner of this fine establishment, we only knew him as Sarge? Some 64-year-old bastard with a peg leg because a giant-ass werewolf mistook it for a drumstick? Just chomped that leg off like it was Thanksgiving.”

As the older man continued to ramble on about Sarge and his werewolf rival, throwing in a few complaints about younger folk being too whiney and less active, Anton couldn’t help but be a little skeptical. It wasn’t just about Sarge being real or not, too. From the sounds of things, that werewolf was too big to be real as well. Then again, what does Anton know? He’s an exterminator, a pest hunter, not a dog catcher.

Fortunately for him, his phone rang just in time, saving him from the old man’s rambling. Not that the old man noticed, as he just continued sharing more stories about the good old days. At that, Anton simply shrugged and took the call, dark brown eyes on the chatty old hunter as the voice on the other line gave him an address. “You’ve got a job, old man. Said they’ll wait at their cabin for you but they’ve already made arrangements for another place to stay while you do your thing. You good for it, right?” Good for it? Of course Anton’s good for it. There was no other choice.

“Hey, listen, I’ve gotta go.” Anton quickly pocketed his cheap phone before grabbing his drink and finishing it in one go. He turned to the old hunter who was still talking, patted him on the shoulder, and then gave the skeptical bartender a nod. “Put it on my tab! You know where I live. You’ve got scary friends. It’ll be fine.” Anton slithered out of his seat without even looking back at the two once he had said his goodbyes, making a beeline for the exit, but not before stubbing his toe on the leg of a chair, iron or maybe even iron plated because screw the fae, right? “Gods damn it, guys.” He groaned, wincing in pain, not really stopping, while the bartender and the old hunter laughed at his bad fortune.

Outside, he skipped towards his white van, still wincing whenever the victimized foot accidentally made contact with the ground, though it didn’t take him long to jump in the driver’s seat, stab the key in its hole, and get the hell out of there. The Silver Bullet was always intentionally hard to find, thanks to the discreteness of the patrons themselves, especially towards the unwelcomed folks, which made Anton’s first visit a hilarious combination of getting lost for hours and almost getting beaten up because he forgot to tell them he was a hunter as well. When he did, though, and proudly mentioning his choice of prey, he was laughed at, welcomed inside, and even treated to a free drink. Hunters can be just as weird, man.

You know what else was weird? The cabin in the woods, his destination. On the surface, it looked just like any other cabin in the woods, everything was made of wood and lumber, but something about it felt strange and eerie to the exterminator. The couple, a lumberjack that looked extremely boring as hell and his much younger, more attractive wife, were waiting for him outside, where the discussion took place faster than that old hunter could get to the point of his story. 

“So, how long has this been going on?” Anton squinted, arms crossed, as he looked at the boring lumberjack and tried his best to keep his dark brown eyes from wandering to his hot wife. “Just a couple of days. Not sure what it is, but we thought you guys might.” He replied in the most boring tone possible. Before Anton could shoo them away so he can begin his work, the wife suddenly added something very important to the conversation at the very last minute. ���Hopefully you get this pest out of here within the week. I’d rather not come back to milk spoiling really fast again and my underwear disappearing and reappearing all over the place.” Almost immediately, one word exploded in Anton’s mind: Fuck. 

Once the weird couple was gone, their pick-up truck driving away to some motel where they would spend the next few days, the exterminator went back to his van, stocked with a wide array of pest control weapons and equipment, and opened the rear door to start rummaging through the most appropriate of things to deal with the damned mind-boggling unwanted guests: his favorite spear, with its blade made of iron, and a jar of cheap peanut butter. Heaving a deep sigh, Anton squinted back at the cabin, mocking himself with a dry tone. “Who you gonna call? Bug Busters. Yay.”

[END]

[americasmarauders]

Delicate-- Jason Todd.

author’s note: this is definelty not my best work, but this has been sitting on my docs for a while and I can’t make it any better. Sooooo, here is a song fic with yours truly jason. 

masterlist

#

The dive bar on the east side of Gotham was his most favorite place. It was perfect. Crowded, but not too much so he could still go unnoticed by most. Cheap, but not too cheap, that way he knew the drinks were legal and not contraband. Clean, but not too clean to give off an air of pretentiousness that most bars on the central part of the city gave him.

           Jason would go there all the time. Before patrols, so he could listen to the shady crowd that attended the bar and pick up some clues on some shady activities he could destroy. Those were the days he sat on the back, and carefully observed the movements that adorned the bar on those late afternoons. Those were the days he did not drink.

           After patrols, he would sit at the bar, most of the times only without his helmet and armor. He would order scotch, neat, no ice, and would quietly drink as he observed the bartender. The bar was always mostly empty by the time he got there, so she was always tidying it up the place, cleaning cups and tables, washing the floor. She looked like she didn’t mind him being there, and Jason thought it to be the truth. She looked like she didn’t belong at a dive bar at the ends of Gotham city, at the prime of her life, cleaning messes that drunk thugs left behind. But, alas, she was, and Jason wanted to know why.

           He slammed his glass on the counter. She flinched behind him, dropping the mop she was holding. They were the only people in the bar.

          “Can I help you?” she asked politely. She had seen a lot inside her bar, and she concluded that politeness was always the best course of action. It would never make you target. She directed herself towards the other side of Jason. She grabbed the bottle of scotch he enjoyed—he had been there so many times, it was natural to pick on his habits. She poured him another glass and stared at him.

          “Why do you work here?” he mustered up the courage to say. He had been wondering about it for a while, but he never had actually said something to her, too afraid to get attached.

          “Excuse me?” she said as she put aside the bottle of scotch. His favorite bottle.

          “You look like someone who shouldn’t be working at a… place like this,” he motioned to the bar around him.

          “Are you implying that I’m weak?” she narrowed her eyes at him, looking over her shoulder.

          “No, I’m saying that you look like someone who should have gone out of Crime Alley,” he took a sip of his drink.

          She chuckled and turned to him. She picked up a rag and poured a bit of vodka on it and started to clean the counter. “This is my parents bar, I’m helping them keep the lights on,” she explained.

          He picked up his wallet and put the money on the counter. “That’s very noble of you,” Jason said. He got up and started to walk to the door, careful not to dirty up the floor she had just cleaned.

          She eyes the money. He had left considerably more than he should have. “Wait, you paid more than you should.”

          He rested his hand on the doorknob and for the first time that night, he looked into her eyes. “Keep it,” he smiled.

          She smiled back at him. “Thank you,” she said. He smiled in return and left.

 #

 #

“Don’t you think it’s weird?”

           “What?”

           “The pettiness of life,” she said, cleaning the cup Jason had just emptied. “It is so fickle, isn’t it? You try and try but, in the end, you don’t have control over it. You are forever in the hands of fate”

           Jason felt her words hit close to his heart, so much that he wondered if she could read minds. He soon discarded this idea, it was possible, but highly unlikely. “Yeah, weird,” he said awkwardly.

           His eyes wandered off to the rest of the bar as the last costumer of the day approached her to pay his due. All the booths had emptied out, as the night turned into day slowly, Jason being the last one out. His eyes landed on the old jukebox on the far corner of the bar. He had noticed it was there but never truly saw it until that moment. It shone on the dark, like a beacon asking for him to come near. He got up from his seat, walking slowly towards the juke box.

           She took notice of his actions, as she closed the door and all of its locks. She smiled; the jukebox had that effect sometimes. She rested the keys on top of the counter of the bar and walked towards the stunned Jason—even though later he would deny wholeheartedly he was not stunned, nor perplexed.

           “My Father used to play me these songs all the time when I was a little kid,” she said leaning against the jukebox. “But there was one that was my absolute favorite,” she put on a quarter and pressed a few buttons, “I used to play it on repeat. I know that if my Father hears it, he will break this jukebox just out of spite,” she chuckled. The song started to play, and she closed her eyes and started to hum.

           Jason smiled. “Would you like to dance?” he said, making her open her eyes in surprise.

           “Now?”

           “Yes, now,” he caught her hand in his and guided her to the melody of the song.

           She smiled coyly, trying to hide it. Jason felt a bubble of satisfaction and happiness burst inside of him. If only his younger self could see him now, he would have received a huge kick in the shin for being so soft and silly around a girl. To hell with his younger self, he died for a reason.

           They swayed to the harmony of the soft song. Jason couldn’t contain the dumb smile he had on his face; this woman was special, and he knew all too well. She took a deep breath and rested her head on Jason’s chest, sending flutters all over his body. “I may not know a lot about you, but I trust you Jason,” she said softly.

           “I—thank you,” he whispered.

           “And when you’re ready to tell me all about you, I’ll be here,” she completed, fluttering her eyes close.

           “It’s…delicate,” he explained himself.

           “It’s okay,” she looked up at him. She reached for his cheek and planted a sweet kiss on it. She released herself from his embrace as the song came to a close. “I need to close the bar. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said with a bright smile on her face.

#

#

He needed somewhere to crash. Somewhere close. He felt the hurt of his wounds increase, as his uniform grew wetter with his blood. His eyesight was getting blurrier, and he probably shouldn’t be driving his bike.

           Text, he should send a text to let her know. Yes, stop the bike and send the text. He looked over his shoulder, no one was actively following him. He needed to stop and send her a text. He stopped. ‘Meet me in the back’. Now, drive. Only a few more blocks.

# 

#

Her phone lighted up next to the cash register. She stopped cleaning the last of the glasses. She had just closed the bar.

           ‘Meet me in the back’, it read. Her bones chilled. Unknown number. She put her phone on her back pocket and grabbed the baseball bat she kept under the bar just in case. She quietly made her way towards the back door, while three hastily and hesitant knocks echoed through the pantry.

           Criminals wouldn’t sound hesitant while knocking the door, would they? No, they would bang the door until it fell off. But that was Gotham, she couldn’t let her guard down. She kept the bat firm in her hand while she opened the door with the other.

           Jason was struggling to keep himself straight before her, his face fighting to not cringe in pain. He looked up at her, and she immediately dropped the bat and ushered him inside, not mentioning that he was wearing a red bat symbol on his chest and that she had never seen his eyes in that shade of blue before.

           “What happened?” she asked, worried.

           “I might have been slightly stabbed,” he said, trying to mask his pain. “This might not be the first time this has happened either.”

           “Okay,” she said while frantically looking for her first aid kit. He laid on the floor, and she prayed she had scrubbed it enough to not give him an infection. “Please hang on,” she pleaded.

           “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, suppressing every ounce of him that made him want to grunt in pain.

           She had found the first aid kit. Now onto the vodka. And a needle. She kept a needle somewhere. She left the pantry and quickly came back with a bottle of pure vodka and a needle in her other hand.

           “What are you going to do with that vodka?” Jason said already knowing the answer.

           She opened the lid and poured it on the needle. She then proceeded to rip of Jason’s armor. As soon as the cut was revealed, she poured the drink onto it. Jason Screamed in pain. ���YOU COULD HAVE WARNED” he said in pain.

           She took a swig at the bottle, drinking a considerable part of the drink. “If I did you would have tensed and prevented me from doing.”

          She closed the bottle and opened the first aid kit. Was there a thread in there she could use to close his wound? She should have put it there. She took out bags of gauze and cotton to find the closed package of surgical thread she had once bought in case she hurt herself. Hospitals were a luxury to her, and she couldn’t afford that. Thank God she never needed it. Now, she was sewing closed her… It was too delicate to say what Jason was to her. But he couldn’t get out of her head. In her dreams, when she closed her eyes, he was everywhere.

          She looped the thread into the needle and started to sew. “I’m sorry you’re in pain, but I promise to make it quick. I took a course once of first aid and I was the best student in it.”

          “Are you serious?”

           “About the course? Yes,” she deliberately chose not to say that she almost dropped out of the course because she was constantly fainting. He wouldn’t trust her to do this, and she was well into the sewing and she hadn’t felt lightheaded once. It must have been the adrenaline. Or the large amount of vodka she had just ingested.

           “I’m sorry about this,” Jason said. “I couldn’t go anywhere else,” he hid the fact that he could go to somewhere else, only he didn’t want to hear an earful of Bruce Wayne’s trademarked bullshit, so he chose to go to her bar.

           “It’s okay, Jason, really. But you do have some explaining to do, I’m afraid.”

           He looked at his injury and saw that she was almost finished closing it shut. “I know,” he whispered.

           “Because, I—” she took a deep breath. “I can’t get you out of my head, Jason. You are everywhere, and I can’t help but wonder if you…” she gulped before continuing, “if you ever dream of me the way I dream of you.”

           He looked stunned at her. “There. Finished,” she covered the injury with some gauze and medical tape and closed her first aid kit. She quickly glanced over Jason, “I know that it’s delicate, but I hope that it’s cool that I said all of that,” with that she left the small pantry.

           He had to pull himself together. This was it, wasn’t it? He had done it. HE had gotten attached. And maybe it didn’t feel so bad after all. Jason had this imagery in his head that the moment he had created a bond with her, the world would end in flames and crowbars all over again. It definitely didn’t end in flames or crowbars, but maybe it did end in stab wounds and intense pain caused by vodka in his open flesh.

           He sat up straight. Breathe in. Out now. He owed her more than half-assed ‘I know’s and the possibility of a heart attack in the middle of the night because of enigmatic texts.

#

#

“Before you say anything back,” Jason leaned at the frame of the open pantry door, his right hand over the recently shut wound. “you need to know that maybe this ain’t for the best.”

           She breathed, almost in mockery. “What?”

           “My reputation’s never been worse, so you can’t like me for any fantasy you have created in your head,” he said. Jason walked to her, and grabbed her hands, his still a bit tainted in red. His hands were calloused, but it was perfect. “You must like me for me.”

           Her breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t utter a word, so she just nodded.

           “We can’t make any promises, baby,” his hands found her cheek and she had never felt a softer touch, “but you can make me a drink. And I’ll tell you everything.”

#

#

#

#

final note: here is a link to my jason playlist. enjoy.

[leah-halliwell92]

Crush

Summary: It’s 5th year, Professor Flitwick had the idea, in tandem with Madam Sprout, to do something different for that year’s Valentine’s Day. Something extra aside than just a ball. Professor Burbagge had suggested a karaoke list for the students and teachers alike. When the announcement was made that it would be a thing, one Katherine Tanner thought it was the most detestable idea she’d ever heard.  Pairing: Sev x OC 

Saturday...finally. The weekend, time to rest and get ready for another week of school work and lessons. But also a set timer for the Valentine’s Day ball that would surely be happening at the end of the week. 

Katherine made her way to where Severus, her best friend since first year and secret crush, was sitting at the Slytherin table a few minutes before morning announcements were said. 

“Good morning Severus,” she said with a kind grin as she sat down next to him. 

“Morning,” he said with a small kind grin, “Sleep well?”

“Better than I have all week you?” She asked.

“About same...until I remembered what this coming weekend will bring about,” he said with a sneer.

She nodded half heartedly at this. She wasn’t opposed to the ins and outs of the general idea of what happens on the day. And didn’t think the Valentine’s day was a bad idea...especially if it gave her the chance to ask out who she had in mind. 

Sadly for her though, two professors were about to dig her grave. 

“Good morning students!” Professor Dumbledore said jovially, “As you all know this upcoming weekend is the Saint Valentine’s Day ball, please remember that  semi-formal attire is expected from all participating. Two of your professors have decided on adding activities to the already set festivities. Professors Flitwick, Sprout and Burbbage please.”

The three teachers stood giving the Headmaster their thanks and announced that instead of magical band coming to play for them, karaoke shall be the music entertainment supplied additional to the magical jukebox that will be provided. 

Despite the pureblood Slytherin’s reactions to the idea, most of the school seemed to like the idea of something new to try that wasn’t part of the norm. 

Katherine could practically hear Lily Evans squealing in delight at this and could have groaned as she saw a small smile appear on Sev’s face as he turned to look at her. Katherine felt her heart drop to her stomach at that but shook her head and focused on not tearing up. She’s had quick developing crush on Sev since the beginning of third year, she’d hoped he'd see her in the same light. Despite knowing he seemed to only have eyes for Evans. 

She came to some when she saw breakfast appear on their plates and table. 

Severus spoke at her as she focused on eating her her breakfast. 

She caught a word here and there but remained deep in thought. She thought of the constellations and their names, she thought of what hand movements belong with what spell. Anything to keep from thinking about the elephant in the room. 

“Kate?” She came to as Severus called her a worried look on his face. 

“Yes?” She said quietly. 

“Are you alright?” He asked worriedly, “You seemed far away.”

“It’s nothing,” she said with a shaky grin, “I’m fine.”

With that she took one last drink of her pumpkin juice before rushing out without another explanation. 

Despite being in another house, Kate had found comfort under the wing of the head of Gryffindor Professor McGonnagall. It hadn't taken long for her to convince the professor of who was picking on Severus. She had argued that a school is a space for learning and exploring. And while the slytherin stereotype did not afford them much of anything regarding a neutral standing, the very idea of being bullied for being in Slytherin the moment they are sorted as first years is as traumatizing as it is abusive. 

Needless to say the professor found this brave and found it a valid reason to be more involved with students from other houses if need be. It wasn't until the end of their third year that some students had come to her with complaints of being jinxed from nowhere and laughing that follows it. The professor had taken matters into her own hands when the headmaster wouldn’t do anything. Give came to shove and the professor discovered something that led to not only James Potter but his entire crew being put in detention after Pettigrew ratted them out. Rumor had it around school that Mr. Potter the elder was non too pleased to find his son had stolen, or “borrowed” as Kate was sure James had put it, his heirloom invisibility cloak. 

“Miss Tanner?” Professor McGonnagall said as she walked into her office to find Kate sitting on the chair opposite the teacher’s desk. 

Kate looked at her and gave her a small smile.

“Oh dear,” the older woman said tenderly.

With a wave of her wand the professor cleared the desk before transfiguring it into a small round table and asking a house elf to bring tea and all the fixings with some biscuits. 

“You my dear will have to tell him,” the teacher said after taking her seat opposite Kate. 

Kate nodded and said, “I wanted to be cliche and do it at the ball.”

Minerva grinned softly in understanding and said, “Your young still lass. This is just a passing fancy...it’ll pass.”

“I want to say I understand, I want to agree.” Kate said sadly, “But...it feels like all I've known is slipping away. I’ve known him since first year ma’am. And for four years I've been his friend and in that time he’s somehow managed to have me following him around like a lovesick pup.”

Minerva felt for the young lass and wanted to give her comfort, but sometimes heartbreak is inevitable. 

“There is high possibility he’ll unwittingly break Professor,” Kate said feeling like she’s about to cry, “But I’m sick and tired of having him there but not. I’m tired of almost telling him only to have him stare at Lily Evans like she walk on water. I understand she’s one of your ma’am, but she acts like she deserves all she’s getting and more for knowing and achieving the same things I have in the same amount of time.”

Minerva let the girl talk, it wasn’t too often that she got this side of the mirror between students who have similar if not equal achievements in school.

“The only reason she’s getting more notoriety and roses and rainbows thrown her way is because she’s a riotous lion who can do no wrong,” Kate raged tears of pain and anger running down her face and she went on, “What they don’t see is that she is cold, self-centered, attention seeking, dismissive and vindictive. Especially if she doesn't get what she wants how she wants in the manner of which she wants it.”

This was and wasn’t news to Minerva. Ever since discovering the ins and outs of what had been the torrent of attacks by the so called Marauders. Not only that, she’d taken the precautionary measure to do a little digging on Mr. Snape. The discoveries she made may as well be the very thing to aid magical children muggleborn or not so they do not grow in such environments...Dumbledore or not.

“To Sev, she is on this unbeatable pedestal that no one can reach no matter what,” she said with a defeated sniff, “So much so that he cannot see that her love for him is that of a sibling’s. Or worse, that she will discard him as soon as he shows his supposed true Slytherin colors and fall pray to the dark arts as they think he will. Have they ever thought that without studying them, grey areas would’ve never been found? Or that some would be too dangerous for the general public? I’ve learned that magic is never truly dark or light...its the intent and emotion that judge how a witch or wizard use their magic.”

Minerva stared at Kate in awe at what she’d said and how she’d said it. She could see the truth in Kate’s words, she also knew that the young woman is right. Without those willing to study the dark arts, understanding would not be gathered. After all this is how cures or antidotes are created, this is how one understands what a spell or jinx does. 

“What will you do?” Minerva asked the silently crying girl.

“I’ll sing him a song,” Kate said with a small smile, “And probably go with Reg and Remus. I’m not shooting for a happy ending ma’am...I know that is impossible.”

~Time Skip~

The weekend after that went by slowly for Kate, Severus tried to get her to talk to him to tell him what was bothering her all the while getting looks from both Remus and Regulus. 

Severus did not understand what these looks meant nor how they had anything to do with Kate. This drove him to ask Lily and Alice what was wrong with his second best friend. 

Lily said that it was most likely Kate’s time of the month and didn’t go any deeper into it bar from opening the conversation to something else. While Alice pulled him aside before going into dinner Sunday evening.

“Have you ever thought that Kay may like you?” She asked gently in a hushed tone.

The look on his face told her in no uncertain terms that no he had not. 

“What makes you say that? She’s my best friend,” He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Only second to Lily though,” Alice said trying to see where it is fell in relation to her friend. 

Alice had known of Kate’s crush for Sev for a while now, had even spoken to her at length of it. She never thought Sev would be so blind to Kate’s attentions to block out the very idea that she could be better for him than Lily. 

“It’s different with Lily,” he said emphatically, “She gorgeous, smart, talented and–”

“And everything Kat is,” Regulus finished for him. 

Regulus Black while young, has seen more than he’ll ever care to admit. Affording him the knowledge necessary to garner what he wants, like a true slytherin. In this case, he just wanted the one he saw as his sister to be happy with his house brother. Sev may not see how Lily uses his natural gift in Potions but the tight knit group of friends do. 

Severus glared at Regulus. He knew Kate was good...just not like his Lily. 

Regulus rolled his eyes at him practically hearing the thought and pulled him to their table to wait for dinner. 

“So I’m not good enough,” Kate said from a hidden alcove.

Alice’s gaze softened as she approached. 

“I’m not...” Kate stopped and breathed deeply swallowing her tears, “I’m not pretty enough, smart enough or talented enough to garner his attention. Is that it? Alice is that really it? That I’m not enough.”

Regulus stepped out having settled Severus in their spot Remus not too far behind him. 

The boys shared a look hating how Severus was breaking down their friend bit by bit and didn't even seem to not only know it but care. 

Alice pulled Kate into a hug and said, “We don’t have to have dinner here tonight Kay, let’s go to the kitchens a pick something from there yea?”

“I have to stay with him,” Regulus said nodding in the direction of the great hall, “Someone’s gotta keep an eye on him.”

Remus nodded mutely and watched Alice practically drag Kate away from the hall.

“Do you think he’ll ever piece everything together?” Remus asked. 

“He’s too far gone over Evans to see his own bloody feet as he walks when it comes to her so no,” Reg said anger clear in his voice as he answered, “To him Kat is a good friend a second best friend...But as Alice has said, only second to Evans.”

“Ever since James has been in detention and all he’s done to Sev over the years came out, she’s been acting as if Sev’s just popped up from wherever she though he was,” Remus said with a hum. 

“Like he realized that Slytherins are pure evil and all bad,” Regulus said with a scoff, “What you lions don’t seem to realize is that good or evil, us snakes stick together and help each other out when we can instead of breaking each other for being different. Not to mention he’s acting like she hung the moon and stars affording her a love sick pup that would do anything for her.”

Remus nodded at that knowing that there is truth behind the words. 

“We should head back before we’re missed,” Regulus said. 

“I’ll keep you included on the ins and outs of Lily,” Remus said weakly. 

“No need,” Regulus said with a sad grin, “There’s nothing to be done with the information that would end in a favorable manner for either party. Sev wouldn’t believe it if the information was proof that Evans is the worst form of hellcat and the back lash would probably be against Kat. For things she’s never been or felt in relation to Evans.”

“Kay’s never been envious or jealous of Lily,” Remus said, “What annoys her is that she’s not getting the same or equal treatment for her achievements as Lily.”

Regulus walked away with a nod over his shoulder at Remus. 

In the kitchens, Alice held a sobbing Kate as the information sunk in. 

“What am I supposed to do Alice?” She asked as she calmed, “I can’t keep going on like this.”

“I agree, but none of the boys our year seem to know their heads from their dicks,” Alice said nonchalantly. 

This caused both girls to laugh and for Katherine to say, “Except for Frank?”

Alice blushed at this making her break into a fit of giggles. 

The duo spent a while there just enjoying their time together and talking before it was time for them to go back to their respective houses. 

The week went on cold when it came to her relationship with Severus. Kate managed to get herself together enough to pretend she wasn't hurting and approached him as she usually did only to have him get pulled away by Lily. Remus and Alice both said she was hoping, or “hoping”, Severus would ask her to the ball.

Kate rolled her eyes at that and continued on with her week as usual despite Remus telling her that Sev had been trying to talk to her...Lily apparently had good, or rather bad, timing. 

She wanted to believe that she really did. But all Severus had done and said when it came to Lily Evans told her otherwise. 

It was the day before Valentines Day, and the ball, meaning last minute shopping, tissues, chocolate, and spelling her preferred crying spot after the whole event that is Valentine’s Day. 

She’d woken up that morning semi-hopeful that it would be tolerable at the very least. Sadly that would not be the case...

As soon as she stepped into the great hall for breakfast, owls and folded notes were flying from one end of the hall to the other. She saw a few girls crying either in happiness or heart break, she saw cheering as well as shy blushing declarations and worst of all the kissy and affectionate couples celebrating their love. She spotted Severus and was about to join him when Lily stood from her table and pulled him to sit next to her. 

Kate sat at the end of her house’s table closest to the great hall’s doors ready to bolt if the occasion called for hoping to not receive anything, yet a small part of her did. She ‘read’ the book she’d brought with her staring at the card she’d made for Sev as if giving it to him was no longer an option. She tucked it between the pages and read on as if nothing was happening. She forced herself to eat and go over the lyrics of the song that she’d chosen earlier that week. 

She snuck a peek at him and saw the look he was gracing Lily with. Such devotion and love, it ate at her. A tear fell on the page she’d been reading. She knew this would happen, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt all the same. 

The day seemed to drag on as lessons were half given due to the buzz that seemed to have pretty much everyone feeling alive through out the castle. Severus looked like he would approach her on a couple of occasions but all Evans had to do is walk by and it was like someone had obliviated her from his mind. Since afternoon classes were canceled for the ball, this gave Kate time to go over her lyrics in more detail than she had that morning. 

Kate went over her plan for the ball was to go in sing her piece and leave. There was no point in prolonging the agony. And being her mother’s daughter, she’d wear black. She always looked beautiful in black, or so people had informed her. Plus, when one has the opportunity to be extra you don’t pass it up. 

~Time Skip~

Kate remained close to Minerva once inside the great hall. To her great relief, the hall itself had been tastefully decorated. The golden hue brought in with the warmth of the seemed to pop with he red sashes that horizontally lined the walls and the hearts that took over half of the amount of normally floating candles. All in all, the combination of hearts and candles made the hall look warm, inviting and romantic. 

“I was in charge of decorating this year,” Professor McGonnagall said with a satisfied grin, “The plans Professor Dumbledore had are not for human eyes.”

“Oh?” Kate said with a small smile.

“The red was too much even for my eyes,” she said with a chuckle. 

Kate breathed a laugh and shook her head. 

She didn’t know when it was that the singing would start, she was coming the minutes hoping that she didn’t bolt before hand. It’s been close to two hours now, night had fallen and all this may or may have anything to do with the fact of how Severus did and didn’t react to her when he saw her at the great hall’s entrance. 

“Did he really do and say what I heard?” The professor asked her quietly as she kept an eye on the crowd. 

“He did,” Kate said her voice small, “He saw me and it was like he was seeing me for the first time. He looked at me and it was...it was so tender and sweet. He’d said I looked beautiful.”

Minerva saw the small smile on Kate’s face and would have shaken her head at how star struck she looked; but let her continue.

“He’d said I looked beautiful, he then took my hand and kissed it like a proper gentleman,” Kate swooned as she saw him dance with Lily a dreamy look on his face, “We were talking before he said ‘look at how beautiful’, I thought I was referring to me but then I turned to see Evans looking resplendent in her dress. He then turned to me and said that he was escorting ‘the most beautiful lass he’d ever had the honour of laying his eyes on’.”

Minerva put a supportive hand on her shoulder and was about to say something when...

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Professor Dumbledore called out jovially, “I’m here to announce the first group to sing either in groups, duets or solos.”

Kate draws a breath and was ready to bolt when...

“Don’t worry lass,” Minerva said, “I’m here as are your friends. There is no shame in leaving if it becomes too much.”

Kate nodded as she heard her name called out.

She spotted Severus’ look of astonishment at this along with his searching gaze. She deliberately kept to herself not wanting to lose her footing at seeing him. 

“The groups will go first followed by the duet,” Professor Dumbledore said, “For the first wave. Everyone find your places and your partners. The first will be called in fifteen minutes.”

The music was returned to its original volume and couples went back to dancing. Kate sighed and focused on her breathing, there is no point in getting overtly nervous before she got on stage. 

Minerva hid a grin as she saw Remus approach them. 

“Kat?” he said a soft blush on her cheeks. 

Kate looked at Remus eyes wide, “Yes?”

“Would you like to dance?” He asked a soft grin on his handsome face. 

She nodded and took Remus’ hand where he led them to a corner of the dance floor. 

Together they danced and for once Kate felt ok. Not something huge but ok, enough to at least do what she’s set out to do and finally move on from this crush. A few minutes before the first set was due up, Reg to her for a spin doing  all he could to make her laugh and distract her not only from the obvious elephant in the room but also baring her soul in front of the entire, almost entire, school body. 

When the time came for the first group, she’d been impressed with how they sang “Light My Fire” by The Doors. She could see their respective dates swoon and one nearly faint causing her to laugh in delight. Kate while not into super public or overstated displays of affection, could see the appeal of your significant other do such a thing. It looked nice to see that he was happy with her...it had to feel nice from her end too.

The following was a duet, this one was even bolder that what she had planned. This duet was singing to each other via Elvis. Kate felt tears building as magic seemed to radiate from the stage from the heartfelt words the couple was singing to each other. 

Kate was surrounded by her friends when all too soon her name was called for her to sing her set.

She met supportive grins and smiles from her friends as she went wait for the person ahead of her to finish up. She caught Professor McGonnagall’s eyes and reassuring grin making her feel a little bit better. Her gaze shifted over the hall looking for the object of her affection and her heart broke as she spotted them in the middle of the floor leisurely kissing to the soft swing of Elvis. 

‘Can’t help falling in love with you indeed,’ she thought her head spinning at the realization that Evans like always...had won. 

With this in mind she swallowed her tears and put on her big girl bra and got on stage when called. She ignored the surprised look on Severus’ face as the music started and she began to sing. 

I got a girl crush Hate to admit it but I got a heart rush Ain't slowing down I got it real bad Want everything she has That smile and that midnight laugh She's giving you now

Kate focused on the lull of the song, pretending the hall was empty but her and a darkened room. 

I want to taste her lips Yeah, 'cause they taste like you I want to drown myself In a bottle of her perfume I want her long blonde hair I want her magic touch Yeah, 'cause maybe then You'd want me just as much I got a girl crush I got a girl crush

Kate changed a look and saw Sev’s astounded expression. Whether they are at what she’s singing, to whom, or the meaning behind the song she didn’t know. It was...bittersweet to know that she did indeed still have somewhat of an effect on him. 

I don't get no sleep I don't get no peace Thinking about her Under your bed sheets The way that she's whispering The way that she's pulling you in Lord knows I've tried, I can't get her off my mind

I want to taste her lips Yeah, 'cause they taste like you I want to drown myself In a bottle of her perfume I want her long blonde hair I want her magic touch Yeah, 'cause maybe then You'd want me just as much I got a girl crush I got a girl crush Hate to admit it but I got a heart rush It ain't slowing down

Kate drew a final breath as the last chords of the song echoed through the hall before being engulfed in a sea of applause. She smiled at her crowd and bowed before getting off stage. 

Once off, she was met with a nearly frantic Severus.

“Why,” he said clearly not knowing how to feel, “Why didn’t you say something? Anything!?” 

Kate looked over his shoulder and saw a smirking Lily.

“Because I’m only second best to Lily Evans,” Kate said simply, “Tell her she won.”

//00//00//00//

A/N: Like and reblog if you liked the first part!! Let me know if you want to be tagged.

Tag List: @disneymarina @hoefordarkness @thebeautyofdisorder @lets-talk-about-claes-baby @toooftenobsessed @smailaway @lady-sigyn, @therealcountdracula1931 @lokiisbrucebanner @197863451 @always-severus-stan @miranak @nanasoo @thehallowsden @the-life-and-times-of-a-nerd​

[fanfiction4thesoul]

At the Bar

Pairing: Roger Taylor x Reader

Word Count: ~2.6

Warnings: slight violence (really small); fluff; hurt/comfort

Summary: Alpha/Beta/Omega au. You get some unwanted attention during one of Roger’s shows.

A/N: PLEASE READ. This is an a/b/o au as it says in the description. If it’s not your cup of tea, then go ahead and skip it, I won’t be offended :P. If you’ve never heard of it and want to give it a whirl, go for it! My friend insists I must spread that a/b/o love throughout all the fandoms, so here’s my contribution. Thank you for any comments/likes/reblogs. And feel free to ask any questions! Enjoy.

You watched as Roger played his drums up on stage, nodding along to the beat. Freddie was dancing around as much as the stage allowed while Brian and John tried to stay out of his way. They sounded really good tonight and the crowd was especially active, making their performance even better.

The bar smelled of sweaty dancing bodies, alcohol, and the mixture of mostly beta and alpha scents. You were one of the few omegas at the bar tonight. Roger was a bit worried leaving you to play his set, but you reassured him you would be fine. There were always rowdy alphas around, but most of them knew respect. Roger still caught your eye multiple times while he was playing, not so casually checking up on you. His protectiveness made you roll your eyes but caused your affection to grow. To ease his mind, you made sure to stay close to the bar and away from the crowd. And it never hurt to be careful.

When the last notes of Keep Yourself Alive rang out, you cheered with the rest of the crowd. Roger looked elated from behind his kit and you couldn’t help but smile. Now that he started devoting more of his time to the band, you noticed he seemed more happy and free.

The band left the stage as Freddie bade them all a good night, and you waited for Rog to appear. It didn’t take long for his long blonde locks to come into view. His eyes were bright as he gave you a big smile that you easily returned.

“You did great tonight, Rog. One of your best,” you said as you wrapped your arms around his neck.

His hands found your hips and brought you close, giving you a quick kiss. “Thanks, love. We were really jammin’ yeah?”

Just as you were about to respond, Brian yelled out, “Rog! You need to take down your kit!”

Roger rolled his eyes fondly, making you smile even more. “Wankers,” he mumbled. “I’ll be back, love. Will you be okay for a little bit longer?”

“Go, Rog. I’ll be fine,” you reassured him, gently pushing him away. He gave you one last peck before heading back towards the stage. Sighing to yourself, you watched him go. You distracted yourself with some people watching while you waited. The crowd was still dancing to the jukebox in the corner without a care in the world. Even though it was going on 2 in the morning, everyone still seemed raring to go. You silently hoped Roger wouldn’t want to stay. All you really wanted to do was head home and go to sleep. You were so lost in your thoughts, you didn’t notice someone approach you.

“He your alpha?”

The sudden voice behind you startled you. Turning around quickly, you took a step back when you immediately smelled the alpha’s scent. He was a man, probably slightly older than you and extremely tall. He towered over you. And the smirk on his face was predatory. Being hit on wasn’t unusual if you didn’t have Roger on your arm. Even if he wasn’t, most still backed off if they knew you were taken. You hoped he didn’t want to cause trouble.

His close proximity was obviously meant to intimidate you. Though your instincts told you to back away and cower, you stayed where you were, looked him in the eye and said, “Yes, he is. What’s it to you?” 

The alpha’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but his smirk only widened, giving you a queasy feeling. “Oh, you’re a feisty one. That why he hasn’t marked you? I bet he can’t handle an omega like you.”

You bristled and felt your face turn red. “Fuck off, would you? Take your bigotry and shove it up your ass.” Turning to leave, you intended to find one of the boys. But as soon as your back was to the alpha, his hand shot out, grabbing your arm tightly. You cried out in surprise, but his low growl quickly silenced you. The noise made you freeze as it reverberated through you. He quickly turned you around, not loosening his grip. The smirk was gone off his face, replaced by an ugly sneer.

“Don’t think you can just walk away from me, omega. We weren’t done talking.” His voice was low but harsh. You opened your mouth, intending to shout out, but the alpha’s hand was quick to cover it. His eyes were hard as he said, “Nuh-uh. No sounds, omega.” He was bringing out the command in his voice and you whimpered, unsure what to do.

Panic started to set in. Your instincts were taking over, but they were conflicted. An alpha was giving you an order, but he wasn’t your alpha. You tried looking around to the people near you, but they either didn’t notice what was going on or didn’t care. 

“Hey, asshole! Let her go!”

Roger’s voice rang out through the noise of the crowd, cutting through your panic like a knife. Your alpha was here. He would make sure you were safe.

“Relax man. I just wanted to see if she wanted to take a real alpha for a ride.” He said, switching back to his cocky attitude. 

Roger growled behind you and you desperately wanted to turn around to see him. But you stayed in place, not wanting to draw attention to yourself. Not seeing him didn’t stop you from smelling his anger through the stench of the alpha in front of you. 

“She’s mine. Back off,” Roger commanded. A shiver ran through you at his tone. If it was directed at you, you were sure you wouldn’t be able to resist the command.

You closed your eyes as you waited, praying the alpha would take the warning and leave. After a long, tense moment, the alpha pushed you away and your eyes shot open. Roger was quick to catch you in his arms as you stumbled, pulling you flush against his chest. You heard the alpha mumble something about you being too much trouble anyway before you were distracted by Roger. 

He turned you around, scent changing quickly from anger to worry as he carefully looked over your face. “Love, are you alright? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

You looked down at your arm where he grabbed you, noticing the red mark his hand left behind. It throbbed slightly and you were sure it would bruise. When Roger followed your gaze, his eyes turned hard and he growled again. “I’ll kill him.”

“No! Rog, please.” His face softened again as you spoke. Now that your instincts were coming down from their hyperaware state, you felt exhaustion creeping in. “Can we… can we just go home? Please?” You asked meekly as a shiver went through you. 

You felt so stupid for getting worked up - barely anything happened - but you were rattled and the omega inside you just wanted to be reassured. Roger caught on immediately and agreed, though you still saw his eyes track back to where the alpha disappeared.

He was quick to pull you out back to the van. Brian was already there waiting. You saw him tense as you neared, picking up on your distress and Roger’s left over anger. Roger helped you into the backseat without a word and got in the passenger's seat.

Thankfully, Brian didn’t say anything on the drive back to your flat. When you pulled up, Roger didn’t even bother unloading anything. He opened his door before the van even stopped rolling and pulled you out of the back seat as gently as possible. 

He tugged you close as he lead you inside and didn’t stop until you reached your shared bedroom. His blank face and continued silence made you nervous. But his actions remained soft and careful. Tugging on your dress, he slowly helped you out of it. He sat you on the edge of the bed and took your heels off, kissing each ankle delicately as he went. The more time he took, the more anxious you became. You just needed him to hold you. But you knew that by taking care of you, he was calming down his anger. So you stayed quiet.

Instructing you to stay where you were, he disappeared out the room only to come back with your makeup wipes. You let him gently remove your makeup. He gave you tender kisses where he carefully cleaned your face. When he deemed you done, he started rummaging through your drawer. He pulled out your favorite sleepwear and helped you pull them on.

You climbed into bed, Roger right behind you after he stripped down to his boxers. Once he was situated at the headboard, he guided you onto his lap so you were cradled against him. Finally, you rested your head right against the juncture of his neck where his scent was strongest. You sighed immediately at the calm that washed over you. Nosing at the spot, you scented him slightly and you felt his rumble of approval. You got lost in the haze of his sweet scent and let your instincts take over.

Roger’s hand that wasn’t holding you against him carded through your hair, playing with the strands. He sat there, slowly letting the tension from earlier ease away as you scented him. He couldn’t help but think what would have happened if he didn’t get to you in time. When he saw the other alpha gripping you so tightly, holding you too close, he snapped. He would have pummeled the guy if he hadn’t been holding you. But his first priority was making sure you were safe, not to show his strength. 

That didn’t stop his anger from simmering when he saw the mark on your arm. Or thinking about all the people who didn’t help you. Were people really so oblivious that they didn’t notice your distress? Or did they willfully ignore it? Either way, it made him mad. It was the 1970’s for God’s sake! That shit might have flown a few decades ago, but now omegas had rights. Some people just didn’t want to see that, though. Like that asshole. 

Alphas like him were the reason Roger worried so much about you. Most were changing with the times, but there’d always be those that thought they could take whatever they wanted. 

It took everything in him to ignore the urge to find the guy and kill him. It was your distressed scent that stopped him. He needed to make sure you were okay and comfort you. That didn’t mean he wasn’t brooding. The alpha still hurt you; he still marked what wasn’t his. 

His grip on you tightened. 

But she’s not mine either. 

Almost in defiance of his thoughts, he brought you closer so he could scent you back. He needed to make sure everyone knew you were taken. But it still wasn’t a mark.

So long as you didn’t bear his mark, you belonged to nobody in the eyes of society. 

Giving you a mark would show an extremely high level of commitment. You hadn’t really discussed marking, but the more Roger thought on it, the more he liked the idea. He felt terrible that it took the events of tonight to realize that. But the thought of anyone else touching you, marking you, claiming you had his alpha ready to fight.

He needed you to be his.

“(Y/N),” Roger’s voice cut through your haze, pulling you back to the present. “Love, I need to bring you back.” Slowly, you blinked your eyes open. His hot breath was against your neck and you could smell your combined scents permeate the air. You hummed, shaking away the pleasant daze. Pulling back, you met Roger’s eyes. “You with me, love?”

“Yeah,” you cleared your throat, “yeah I’m good.” You were still tired, but your head was clearing up and you were feeling so much better. 

“Love, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there earlier tonight. I’m sorry you got hurt.” Roger said, regret tainting his voice.

Your heart clenched at his worry. “You don’t have to apologize for anything, Rog. Does it suck? Yeah. But it doesn’t happen often. And you got to me before it got worse.”

“But you shouldn’t have to resign yourself to assholes trying to take advantage of you because of your designation!” He sounded so exasperated.

“That’s just the way it is.”

“It doesn’t have to be, though.”

You paused. “What do you mean?” He hesitated, eyes darting away from your face. “Hey,” you said, putting a hand on his cheek to bring his attention back to you. “Tell me what’s on your mind.” 

“You wouldn’t… well you wouldn’t have to worry about other alphas if.. if I marked you.”

Oh. That was a thought. A mark would make any alpha steer clear of you, lest they incur the wrath of your alpha. But a mark also shows intent to bond. Did Roger really want to bond with you? You searched his eyes for any hint that he was joking, but all you found was sincerity. Sincerity, and uncertainty.

You realized you hadn’t said anything yet. “Would you, ya know, want that with me, Rog?”

“Do I think we’re ready to bond? No.”

His answer was so quick. Your heart sunk.

“No! (Y/N), let me finish,” he panicked. “I don’t think we’re ready to bond. Not yet. But I want that with you. Eventually. You’re my future, (Y/N). So why don’t we let everyone else know?”

“Oh, Rog,” You couldn’t quite find the words you wanted to say. 

“I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything. I know it took awhile for us to start dating, and you only moved in a few months ago, so I understand if you think it might be too fast. And it’s not just my alpha instincts pushing me. I mean, of course I want you as an alpha, but not just like that I mean. But the thought of anything happening to you or someone else marking makes me so unbearable upset, and-”

“Rog, stop,” you cut off his heated rambling before he got too carried away. He quickly shut up, looking at you questioningly. You thumbed over his cheek, trying to calm him down a little bit. “I want you to mark me… okay? I love you.”

He positively beamed, making you smile as well. Grabbing your hand on his face, he guided your hand so he could kiss your palm. “I… had another idea as well…” he mumbled. His eyes quickly darted to yours before returning back to your hands. You waited a moment. “I was thinking… that is, if you wanted… you could mark me too?” 

Once the words processed in your brain, you made a quick shout of surprise before tackling him in a hug. You laughed incredulously before pulling back to give him a long kiss. “You’d really want to carry my mark?” you asked, still not believing what he said.

His mouth turned up. “I know it’s an uncommon practice, but we’re anything but conventional. You’re my omega, (Y/N), but you’re also my equal. I’d be so damn proud to wear your mark.”

You felt your eyes watering a bit and you willed yourself not to cry. Leave it to Roger to make you all emotional. You nodded, not quite trusting your voice at the moment. He smiled wide, bringing you back in for a kiss. He broke away just barely to whisper against your lips, “You don’t know how happy you make me.”

He brought you back to his lips and you hummed in content. With his scent swirling around you, tinged with nothing but happiness and love, you thought you had a pretty good idea.

~~~

Part 2

[athenagc94]

Gust and Piper - Beginnings Pt. 3

Part 3 of my story with Gust and my builder Piper.  Please enjoy! I’m also posting the story here on AO3!

You can read the first two parts here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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

The air was muggy when Gust ventured out that evening.  Smothering.  This is why Gust hated the summer.  Everything was so damp.  His clean button up was already sticking to his back as he made his way down to the lower part of town.  He grimaced and tugged uncomfortably at his collar.  The air conditioner at the Round Table was broken the last time he was there.  Hopefully, Django had commissioned one of the builders to fix it.  He couldn’t imagine how unbearably hot it would be without it.

Music and laughter poured through the open windows of the Round Table as he approached.  A sizable crowd was already milling about inside.  He checked his watch.  It was only seven and things were this rowdy.  He stifled a small groan.  The struggles he endured for his sister.  He braced himself as he pushed through the doors and into the fray.

He saw Albert seated at the large table in the center of the room.  People surrounded him from all sides and they all seemed to be talking at him at once.  Gust grimaced.  His desire to go home was growing and he’d just arrived.  Albert looked up from his drink as Gust approached them and a wide smile broke out across his face.  “Gust,” he exclaimed as he slipped out of his seat, “you finally made it.”

“You said the party started at seven,” he mumbled, “and it’s seven.”  Albert slung his arm across his shoulders and pulled him close.  He recognized the distinct flush in his cheeks and smelled the alcohol on his breath.  Albert had already tucked a few drinks away at this point.  Perfect.

“I’m just glad you made it.”  His eye fell to the neatly wrapped present in Gust’s hand.  “Did you get me another gift?  I’m already wearing the new bow tie you got me.”  He gestured to the floral printed fabric around his neck.  “I think Sonia is feeling it.”  

Gust rolled his eyes and handed him the gift.  “This is from Ginger.  She wasn’t able to make it this evening.”  Albert regarded the gift fondly.  “She wanted me to wish you a happy birthday in her stead.”

“That sister of yours is really something.  She knows how to make a man’s birthday special.”  The muscles in Gust’s jaw tightened.  He knew Albert was a bit of a womanizer.  He’d accepted this about him years ago.  Albert went through women like tissues.  He was fickle and harmless.  Still, Ginger was his sister and he felt the protective older brother in him kick into gear.

“Weren’t you just saying something about Sonia?”

Albert’s eyes brightened.  “Yes, yes, I think she’s finally warming up to me.  I might make a move this evening.”  Gust relaxed.  Good.  He didn’t want to have that awkward conversation, not yet.  “By the way, did you want a drink?”

Gust glanced at his watch.  Five minutes past seven, only another fifty-five minutes to go before he could go home.  “Sure,” he sighed, “it’ll be on me.  Duvos punch, right?”  Albert didn’t respond and Gust turned back to him.  He was looking at Sonia, who waved him back over to the table.  A sultry smile played on her lips and he watched Albert melt.  Gust shook his head.  “I’ll be back.”  He didn’t wait for a response as he made his way to the bar.

He ordered his drinks, his fingers drummed along the bar top as he waited.  A distinct laugh cut through the chatter and noise in the bar and Gust looked up.  Across the room, Remington and Piper twirled to the music coming from the jukebox.  Their steps were clumsy and off beat, but they appeared to be having fun.  Gust cradled his cheek in the palm of his hand as he watched them.  Piper’s hair was thrown up in her usual top knot and she was still wearing those god awful coveralls.  Gust was sweating just looking at her, but the heat didn’t seem to bother her.

Django cleared his throat behind him.  He slid the drinks across the bar and Gust collected them.  “Thanks.” He stepped away from the bar and headed back towards Albert.  The dark haired man in question was currently huddled in a one on one with Sonia off to the side.  The longer they spoke, the closer the pair got.  Gust immediately backtracked, both glasses still in hand.  Nope.  He was not dealing with that this evening. 

He nabbed a spot near the end of the bar, away from the bustle of the crowd.  He traced the lines in the woodwork as he nursed his drink.  The party continued around him.  Laughter, merriment, dancing, it should have been contagious, but the longer Gust sat sipping his drink the more alone he felt.  No warm welcomes.  No one approached him for a conversation.  It was like he was witnessing the party through glass, but no one saw him on the other side.  He swallowed the bitter taste that was forming in his mouth with another gulp of alcohol.

“Hey Gust.”

He glanced over his shoulder as Piper slid into the seat next to him.  “When did you get here?”  She wore a kind smile as she waved Django over.  “And why are you sitting all alone?  You should be with Albert.”

“Albert is too busy wooing Sonia in the corner,” Gust said around the rim of his glass, “I’d rather not get in the middle of that.”  Piper glanced over at the pair in question. Sonia giggled as Albert’s finger danced up her arm.  If possible, they’d gotten even closer.

“That man and his women,” she shook her head at them, “and just the other day he was asking me to get him a copy of Journey to East for Ginger.”

Gust nearly spat out his drink.  “He what?!?”

Piper slapped a hand over her mouth.  “Oops, I don’t think I was supposed to say anything,” she chuckled, “I forget you two are related sometimes, you’re nothing alike.”  Gust scoffed.  Oh, they were a lot more alike than people gave them credit for.  Ginger was a force to reckon with when she was in a bad mood.  It made his usual temperament look amicable by comparison.  “But I’m sorry about that.  I guess I should have asked you about it first.”

“Whatever,” he took another sip of his drink, “I’ll just tell her the book actually came from you.”

“Oh, don’t do that,” Piper pouted at him, “I just managed to get my hand on a copy.  It was Albert who wanted to get her something.  I just helped, that’s all.”  Gust rolled his eyes.  Just like she’d helped his father gather the materials for his competition.  She just loved helping people, didn’t she?  “I don’t want to get involved.”

“Well, you should have thought about that when you gave him the book.”

“Probably,” she brushed off his sharp tone with a shrug, “but he asked for my help and I helped him.  Next time, I’ll be sure to consult you before I do it.  Don’t want to hook up your best friend and sister without your consent.”  She shot him a teasing wink.  Gust tried to hide the surprise on his face with a sneer, but her attention had shifted.

The Civil Corps brats congregated on the other side of the restaurant. Remington and Arlo were still swaying with the music, drinks in hand.  Arlo chatted quietly with Nora, who appeared to hang on his every word.  Whereas Remington chatted idly with Aadit. On the outskirts of the group, Sam was practicing her balancing act on one of the bar stools while Phyllis looked on with mild concern.  The smile fell from Piper’s face   “I think that’s my cue.  I should head back over to them before Sam gets herself kicked out, again.” She chuckled and gathered her drink.  “Did you want to join us?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen you dance.”

Gust sniffed and glanced down at his watch.  Eight o’clock.  Finally.  “And you won’t.”  He polished off the rest of his drink and pushed it away.  The Duvos punch sat untouched on the bar.  He grimaced.  What a waste of gols.  “I’m actually heading out.”

Piper looked taken aback.  “Already?” She furrowed her brow at him.  “But the party just started?”

“I’m a busy man, Piper,” Gust slid out of his seat, “I spend my time on the tasks I actually need to do.  I don’t have time for such frivolous activities.  I have more important things to worry about.”  His shirt was still clinging uncomfortably to his back.  

Piper arched an eyebrow at him.  She looked like she wanted to say something, but she spared him whatever lecture she had in store. A small, albeit amused, smile slid back across her face.  “Well then, good luck with your important tasks.”  She offered him a small wave.  “But if you change your mind and decide to have some fun, you know where to find us.”  And with that, she headed back towards the jukebox.  He watched her tug Sam off the bar stool with a shake of her head.

Gust clucked his tongue and pushed out of the restaurant and into the quiet streets.  He shoved his hands into his pockets and headed towards Central Plaza.  The night air was thick and damp and he found it hard to catch his breath, but he kept walking.  He was on edge.  He knew this would happen if he went to the party for longer than five minutes.  Albert would get distracted by a skirt and he’d be left to his own devices.  It's how these events always panned out for him.  He could be alone in the comfort of his own home.

He paused at the foot of the Wishing Tree.  He remembered the stories his mother used to tell him about the Wishing Tree when he was a kid.  If you stood under its magic leaves, you could make a wish, and if the tree liked you it would come true.  They were juvenile and overly simplistic tales.  Even as a child, he’d rolled his eyes at the prospect.  Still, as he stood there staring up at the canopy of leaves, he found himself closing his eyes.

He didn’t make a wish.  That would be childish.  He just hoped.  He hoped that he could escape the monotony.  The longer he stayed in Portia, the more apparent it came that he didn’t belong.  This was no longer his home, it hadn’t been for a while.  He’d come back to support his family and he planned on making good on that, but one day, he hoped to leave and return to Atara.  He’d chase his dream again.  One day.

↢↢↢↣↣↣

“Welcome back.”  Gust hummed in response as he brushed past Albert’s desk.  He’d just finished his birthday lunch with his family.  Ginger had insisted they have lunch together.  You don’t turn 28 everyday. What a silly justification.  He had told her such.  She told him he was boring.  It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that.  She then gave him one of her well-rehearsed pouts.  So, naturally,  they compromised and had lunch as a family.

It was bland and uneventful, as all their family meals were.  His father and Mint were too engrossed in a conversation on Portia’s infrastructure to pay him any mind, which was the norm these days. Ginger gave Gust and Russo another update on Journey to the East.  Gust feigned mild interest and spent the rest of the meal staring at his plate and holding his tongue.

“Did you have fun?”

Gust gave him a sour look.  “What do you think?”

“Fair point.”  Albert threw up his hands in defeat and turned back to his work.  Gust busied himself with gathering some new drafting paper.  He had a few ideas bouncing around in his head that he wanted to get down on paper before they disappeared.  “By the way, Piper stopped by while you were out.”

“Did she?”  Gust tucked a few rolls of paper under his arm. She’d probably stopped by to deliver another round of materials for South Block.  That girl was on top of her game.  They were weeks ahead of schedule and she played a major role in that.  Still, she was able to work on side commissions for the rest of the town.  He was beginning to think his father was just throwing random projects at her, so the rest of them had time to catch up with her demand.  “What did she want?”

“She dropped off a birthday present for you.”

Gust paused.  A birthday present.  For him?  He’d never mentioned his birthday to her.  “And how did she know when it was?”  He glared evenly at Albert, who was making a point of looking anywhere but him.

“I may or may not have mentioned it at my party last week.”

Gust sighed.  He wondered if that was before or after he made out with Sonia, then he remembered that he didn’t care.  “I don’t need a pity gift from her,” he scoffed, “she didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Piper tries to give everyone a present on their birthday,”  Gust could hear him roll his eyes.  “So stop being a brat and come grab it before I eat it myself.”  He gestured to the small parcel on his desk.  Gust instantly recognized it.  A take out box from the Round Table.  He huffed and crossed the room, drafting paper forgotten, and took it.  “Smells like she did her research.”

Gust clucked his tongue and made his way back up the stairs.  A small note was taped to the top of the box.  He recognized the A&G stationary.  She must have written it here.

Gust

Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn’t be there to say it in person, but I’m a busy gal and ore isn’t going to mine itself (because someone just HAD to have aluminum for their South Block designs.  Yes.  I’m glaring at you right now, deal with it.) Anyway, try to make the most of your special day! I know Ginger was excited to spend it with you.  You don’t strike me as a big party guy, but if you want to celebrate, you know where to find me!

Piper

P.S. Ginger also told me you didn’t like ice cream. Who doesn’t like ice cream, you monster?!? But hopefully, this tickles your fancy instead.

Gust snorted and flipped open the lid of the container.  A slice of Django’s famous apple pie was placed neatly in the box with a fork.  The familiar scent of apples and cinnamon lingered in the air.  A small birthday candle had been unceremoniously stuffed in the crust.  Gust smiled.  That annoying giddy feeling was back.  He wanted to hate the feeling, but a part of him had grown to like it, which he’d dwell on later.

He speared the tip of the pie with his fork and stuffed it in the mouth.  The buttery crust melted on his tongue.  He hummed contentedly, a warm fuzziness swelling in his chest.  Apple pie always reminded him of his mother.  It was her specialty when he was growing up.  It was one of the few desserts he actually liked.  Piper did do her research.  He turned his attention back to his drafting table, fork still poking out between his lips.

He’d received only four gifts today.  His father had left him a new set of paints on the kitchen table this morning with a hastily scrawled note wishing him a good birthday.  Practical. Gust had been complaining about the fraying edge of his old umbrella, so Albert had a new one commissioned for him.  Practical.  His sister had given him a handmade necklace made of shells.  Very her and he’d certainly wear it.  And now Piper.  Her gift wasn’t extravagant.  Her gift wasn’t useful, but it provided him with something that the others hadn’t.  A fond memory and a genuine smile.

[ragnarachael]

jukebox hero (stars in his eyes) — burnin’ for you

Pairing: Stephen Strange x ER Nurse!Reader

Word Count: 3,119

Series Summary: The five times you caught Stephen singing as he did work around the hospital and the one time he caught you.

Chapter Summary: You finally figure out what your feelings are for Stephen and Stephen realizes he needs to be more forward about his feelings.

Warnings: kinda... heated in the beginning? like,,, it’s a daydream sequence but almost smutty? i’m not sorry tbh

track one track two track three track four (you are here) track five

MASTERLIST !  FEEDBACK !

The edge of the counter was starting to bite into your back, but you could care less as you felt Stephen’s lips against yours as you both held your bodies closer to each other almost as if you needed to huddle together for heat.

His hands were still respectfully at your waist while yours were located on his bare chest through his dark colored dress shirt.

“For christ’s sake, Stephen,” you huffed out once Stephen finally broke away from you to start pressing kisses to your jaw. “Touch me.”

It was almost like he was just waiting for your permission once his hands happily dug themselves into your back pockets and knead at handfuls of your ass in both hands.

Between Stephen’s lips that were now trailing their way down to suck and nip at the skin of your neck and his hands that were now starting to roam over your body, you were slowly turning into putty.

“S-Stephen,” you heaved in a soft high pitched whine thanks to another gentle bite to your pulse point, “we shouldn’t do this in here.”

You jumped closer—if it were even possible—into his touch when you felt a hand slip just under the hem of your shirt as he ignored your huffing.

You never thought it’d feel this intense with Stephen.

However, it wasn’t until Claire woke you up from your daydream by slamming a bottle of water on the counter of the nurses station.

Such a kind way to be woken up by friends.

“What the hell was that for?” You grumbled, pulling yourself from your makeshift pillow: your jacket (which you rested your crossed arms on top of).

Claire smiled smugly as she sat down next to you at the nurse’s station, her makeshift vending machine lunch in front of her.

“I just finished talking with Christine—”

You immediately cut her off with a groan, holding up your hand as you started to push yourself away from the desktop and grab your folded up jacket. “Nope. No. I don’t deserve a Temple Interrogation.”

“What? I didn’t even say anything yet!”

“I know that look you have on your face, Claire.” You let out a laugh from her look of sudden disbelief before pulling your jacket on over your scrubs, shuddering from the cold interior your jacket had.

“What look on my face?”

“I’m heading to the vending machine!” You announced over your shoulder as you started to leave the small nurses station, waving at a few other colleagues that were walking around the wing you were at before you were alone, walking down the hall.

Your head was still swimming with the residue from your dream.

It was a dream, yeah, but it just.... Felt so real.

Frankly, it made you feel a little crazy inside.

You had been having dreams revolving around Stephen since the almost kiss in the break room from a week ago now, from variations of dates to... to whatever the hell the dream you were having today was.

Okay it was it was a sexual engagement of some kind.

Sexual engagement of some kind that you wanted. Craved, perhaps. Since you were dreaming about it while on your technical lunch break at work.

Ever since you almost kissed Stephen Strange, it seemed to shock you so much that you couldn’t get him out of your mind.

You had to reassure yourself daily that it was a normal thing, to dream of your colleagues like that.

Right?

Okay. So maybe you don’t know what was morally right and what was wrong anymore.

You and Stephen haven’t seen each other in a week. It wasn’t due to Billy or anyone else you two worked with, work just started picking up for the two of you. You were scheduled more late night to morning shifts, and Stephen was getting let on to do more surgeries.

It did make you sad, weirdly. Not hearing Stephen humming his "song of the day", maybe make a little joke about it to get you to laugh.

Is this what crushing on people as an adult was like?

“I sound like a lovesick puppy already,” you mumbled aloud to yourself as you sidestepped around more of your co-workers, already patting both your jacket and scrubs pockets for your wallet.

It didn't take you too long to realize that you couldn’t even feel your wallet.

You took in a deep breath, mentally counting down to ten as you continued your trek to the machines regardless, hearing something—someone—singing.

Blue Öyster Cult’s Burnin’ For You in specifics.

Your heart definitely sped up, knowing exactly who it was in that moment. It even made you speed walk a little faster.

The next part was all a little blur. A few fellow ER Nurses came out of the break room that was close to the vending machines, rushing down the hall which resulted you in moving quickly to get out of their way.

That caused you to run into Stephen.

Literally.

Your hands landed on his biceps—which were impressive for a neurosurgeon doing residency—and you started to laugh out of the nervousness that you held for the situation.

Stephen was holding the small Snickers bar between his teeth as he chuckled with you.

“Hey, Y/N,” Stephen said, speaking around both the candy bar and his laughter as you started to actually regain your balance. After you were standing on your own, Stephen pulled the candy bar from his teeth to chew the bite he had. You craned your neck to look up at him with a smile.

“Hi, uh,” you started before quickly pulling away from his body, your hands already itching to rest back on his biceps. “Hi.”

He smiled back in return, swallowing his bite of Snicker before speaking.

“Are you about to go on break?”

“Technically, I’m already on it,” you reasoned casually, the both of you quickly moving closer to the wall as another doctor made his way down the hall.

Suddenly, the two of you were closer than before, since you could feel his body heat.

You could have sworn he was looking at your lips while you were talking.

“Lunch?”

Now it was your turn to scan his face as a brow rose in amusement.

“You’re eating a Snickers bar while you were singing Blue Öyster Cult, don’t you think lunch is out of the question?” You teased, crossing your arms over your chest. Stephen snorted and rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Lunch is always on my mind, L/N."

In the middle of a probably suggestive conversation during lunch, you got called to the ER.

As much as you love your job, time was always your enemy.

You huffed as you tapped around on your phone screen before getting up from your seat. “I’ll have to pay you back for lunch later, I’ve gotta dash—”

“Don’t worry about it! You’re fine,” Stephen said quickly as he stood up from his chair at the same time.

“Are you sure? I can dig up my wallet from my locker once I’m done in the OR, Stephen.”

“I’m positive,” he reassured, quickly grabbing your jacket and holding it out for you to put your arms in. “Trust me.”

You eyed him nervously before huffing, shoving your arms into the jacket as careful as you could before turning around to face Stephen with a smile.

The both of you leaned in almost as if you were about to share a kiss goodbye before Stephen stopped himself short, letting out an awkward laugh and squeezing you into a tight hug.

“Uh, good luck in there.”

“Thanks, Stephen. Don’t have too much fun without me, yeah?”

“I’ll try not to.”

You both stayed in that awkward hug for a moment before you pulled away, giving a smile and thumbs up before you rushed out of the cafeteria.

God, if this is how the rest of your interactions with Stephen were going to be, you may just combust.

You could always bite the bullet and tell him about how you’d very much like to try kissing him once or twice. Maybe a few times for good measure.

But that could wait. How long? Who knows. You don’t, that’s for certain.

Eventually you got to the right operating room you were needed in and started to wash your hands quickly to start operating with the rest of the ER team.

It was another car accident again that was thankfully not as detrimental as the last had been, which eased your anxiety immensely once you really got to work in the end. All the damages were minor apart from a few deep cuts and something lodged into another body part, but those were a breeze.

Thankfully.

It only took two hours before you were back at the sinks in the OR cleaning your hands for the third time in a row, chatting with a colleague, Jenna, as you moved from the sink to go run your hands under the air dryer.

“So, you and Stephen?”

“Me and Stephen?” You questioned back, raising a brow. “What do you mean?”

“What? Are you two not a thing?”

You froze halfway on your path to the air dryer, still trying to process the question.

You. Stephen. A thing.

God, you wish.

“I-I mean..”

“Your body language together scream “shut up and kiss me,” you know? It’s adorable, but some of us just want to shove you two somewhere so you can figure it out,” Jenna continued, still scrubbing her hands. Innocently, she looked over at you as you stayed still, trying to understand what the hell she was saying. “What? Was it something I said?”

That snapped you out of your thoughts before you moved quickly to the air dryer. “No. It’s not.. Not you, uh..”

You cleared your throat before you pressed the button to finally activate the dryer, running your hands through the stream of air quickly before moving away from the machine to shake your hands out.

“We’re not anything, I don’t think. Not really,” you replied eventually, speaking over the dryer.

Jenna seemed a little saddened by your reply, but you didn’t seem to notice as you tried your best to say goodbye to her kindly as you grabbed your jacket you had hung on a hook close by, getting back out onto the floor with your flurry of emotions following close behind.

Once you were back in your safety of the nurses station, you came to the conclusion that Jenna's conversation she was trying to have with you was the reason why you were subconsciously starting to avoid Stephen.

It's not like it wasn’t really all that hard, to be honest. He was probably on the other side of the hospital for all you knew.

You couldn't pinpoint why Jenna's words shook you so much. Maybe you were just overthinking it? If Stephen liked you back, you would know, wouldn't you? You don't need a colleague telling you that information.

You let out an irritated sigh from your seat behind the nurses station, letting your head fall into your hands.

You liked Stephen Strange. Like, liked liked.

Like as in: you'd happily get shoved into a broom closet and be forced to work out your differences like those stories you found one time after a night out with Claire and Christine.

Maybe that's why you're all shook up. It was the realization period. You knew it was coming. Hell, you really even planned on it, but you'd thought it would be at your apartment and not during work hours where Stephen could easily find you at any time.

You made sure the rest of your shift was filled with you being as busy as you could physically handle. From taking care of patients on the floor, to issuing medications when you were supposed to, to actually filing the paperwork you'd been avoiding, and even doing some out-patient paperwork that wasn't close to being due yet. Anything to let yourself have no freetime to sit and have your mind wander again.

Christine, who was taking over your shift, literally pulled you away from the desk around nine. Around 10:30, you were finally getting your things from your locker when you heard it again.

It being Stephen Strange and his singing.

Part of you wanted to get back out onto the hospital floors and insist on taking someone's shift just to avoid Stephen—which shocked you more than your realization period—while the other part of you just wanted to act normal.

Acting normal didn't sound too hard.

It felt like you were on auto pilot as you navigated through the locker room with ease, Stephen's singing only getting progressively louder before he had stopped, most likely hearing your footsteps as you stopped right in front of your locker, quickly twisting the small lock knob before it clicked open.

You heard Stephen call out your name and couldn't help but stop everything you were doing just so you could feel the way your heart soared when he said it.

"Yeah?"

"I thought you got off at eleven?"

You held back a snort as you carefully grabbed your bag from the top shelf of the locker, quickly grabbing your extra jacket you left in there on your last shift. "No, thank god. I thought you got off earlier?"

"I was supposed to be out of here at eight," Stephen said as he grunted from his side of the locker room before a zipping noise was heard. "I stayed back once I heard about the most recent ER patient."

You rose a brow as you scanned your locker one last time before shutting it carefully and spinning the lock's knob and tugging on the small handle to be sure it was locked before speaking. "Which one? We had a few today."

"The uh, car accident?"

"The one I was called into?" You asked slowly, carefully unzipping the compartment of your bag that held your car keys. There was a moment of silence before you saw Stephen's head pop out past the edge of lockers you were just behind.

"Yeah, that one. I was just worried—"

You cut Stephen off with a soft laugh, waving your hand that held your extra jacket. "I'm fine after the last time. Don't worry about it."

Stephen seemed a little skeptical about your reply before letting out a soft sigh and nodding in agreement, popping his head back behind the lockers. It was a matter of moments before you had your car keys in hand and heard Stephen's locker shut before he was insistent on walking you out into the parking garage to where you parked your car.

"So am I allowed to pay you back for lunch today?" You asked suddenly once the two of you were in sync with your steps, not even phased by the echo the parking garage caused. Stephen let out a dramatic sigh, walking ahead of you for a moment before turning to face you. "Easy, Drama Queen, you'll trip on your own feet if you keep walking backwards like that."

"First of all, no, I won't. And second of all, I told you that you don't need to pay me back."

"What if I'm insisting on paying you back?"

"Then I'm insisting you don't pay me back, Y/N," Stephen said simply, letting out a laugh as he buried his hands into his jacket pockets. You couldn't help but notice how his cheeks had a bit more color on them due to the rapid temperature change. You were quick to let out a sigh back in response before you were caught staring.

"You're so hard to work with, you know that?"

Stephen snorted before he finally turned to walk next to you like a normal human being, the both of you continuing to crack jokes as you finally made it to your car, slight awkward tension between the two of you due to the sudden silence that fell over the conversation.

"Why Burnin' For You?" You asked suddenly as you looked up at Stephen once you shoved the key into the handle's keyhole.

"What?"

"What made you chose to sing Blue Öyster Cult today?" You easily reiterated.

Stephen leaned against your car gently, letting out a soft hum as he seemed to be thinking about his reply.

"Well, uh.. there's this woman I.. like, I guess."

To say that your heart was in your throat right this instance would be an understatement.

You cleared your throat casually (you hoped), and leaned your side against the driver’s side door to be on the same level as him.

“Really?” You pressed, your voice hopefully not wavering in any way possible. Stephen didn’t seem to notice as he nodded, his eyes seeming to scan over your face.

“Really. She’s... She’s great. She gets my jokes—”

“You mean your stupid music jokes? I don’t think anyone gets those,” you teased smoothly. Even when you felt like your heart was being smashed on the pavement you could still make a joke.

Speaking of your heart, it twisted even more in pain as Stephen laughed fondly, nodding once more as he looked around the parking garage.

“I’ll have you know that she does. She’s brilliant at what she does. Both in and out of her field. I like to think that we’re on the same level intellectually.”

You let out an encouraging hum and nod to let him keep going, letting your hands start to fidget with the rest of the keys on your keychain to keep your mind off of the impending doom you felt coming up on you.

Stephen must have noticed some kind of change in your body language, since he eventually stopped talking about the mystery woman, and start asking questions about your day and how your time in the OR was.

Eventually, after answering his questions as enthusiastic as you could in the moment, you found yourself in your car. Finally driving out of the parking garage after saying your final goodbyes to Stephen. Your eyes were a bit misty by the time you had made your way out of the garage for sure.

Once your car was out of sight, Stephen let out a harsh sigh and let his hands rub both sides of his face. He had a huge inkling that he messed up his shot with you today. Big time. And now he’s going to try and find a way to fix it.

Stephen Strange was many, many things. Including a lovesick idiot who may just take your never ending song requests just so you could realize his feelings for you.

[avaantares]

FFVII:REMAKE - A Review

So I beat the game two weeks ago and started writing down my thoughts while they were fresh in my mind, but I didn’t post anything then because my one IRL friend who is also playing it hadn’t finished it yet and I didn’t want to risk posting anything spoiler-y. But the extra time has allowed me to play through the game again on Hard difficulty, which has allowed me to reconsider and elaborate on some of my thoughts. And frankly at this point I just need to dump my Very Big Opinions somewhere, so... here ya go.

I discuss visuals, gameplay, character and story below. I’ve tried to keep spoilers minimal up front, though obviously if you want to go into the game totally cold, don’t read this. All major spoilers are clearly tagged. All of it is below a cut to spare your dash.

Also, there are pretty pictures, because why not?

First, my background with this franchise: I played through the original FFVII multiple times; I’ve watched and rewatched Advent Children and Last Order, played Crisis Core, gave up on Dirge of Cerberus despite my deep love for Vincent Valentine (sorry, VV, but your game was just a mess), and lamented that Before Crisis wasn’t available in my country. I even played (and own!) Ehrgeiz, the obscure fighting game that featured the main cast. (Still bitter that they didn’t keep Miki Shinichirou as the voice of Sephiroth. He’s one of my faves.)

^ Ehrgeiz, a mediocre fighting game that forever endeared itself to me by including Turks!Vincent Valentine as a playable character. 💖

In short, I’ve been waiting for this game for DECADES.

So. Here we go. My thoughts on Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE.

The good:

The character models are very pretty. With individual pores, threads and scuffs visible, they’re so detailed that it’s almost impossible to reconcile them with the mouthless sprites from the original game – even more so than Advent Children (and dear goodness, that was over a decade ago now, wasn’t it?). Still, they’ve kept the costume details and absurd proportions largely intact (Barret’s fists are literally larger than Tifa’s entire head, yet somehow it works visually), so it’s not too much of a departure from the familiar.

They’ve kept the aesthetic. I was afraid the game would try to update the iconic world of Midgar, but by and large, it’s full of visually-arresting designs that preserve the gritty-industrial look and feel of the original.

Japanese version is included. BLESS YOU, Square Enix, for including the Japanese voices and character animations. Not only is it impossible for me to hear Cloud in anything other than Sakurai Takahiro’s voice, but the Japanese script is a bit nicer to the characters. I’m not really keen on the English dub… but more on that below.

They fixed the spelling of Aerith’s name. This may seem like a minor point, but considering it’s been 20 years and I’m still bitter that Devil May Cry still hasn’t corrected “Nelo Angelo,” it’s a small victory.

Improved combat. Admittedly, I wasn’t sold on the new combat system at first, but after playing through the game twice, I’ve come to really like it. It has a few rough edges and can get chaotic in some battles, but it does a decent job of blending the feel of an action game with turn-based strategy. The fact that you can switch to a more traditional turn-based system if you prefer is also nice. (I haven’t tried Classic mode yet, though.)

Weapon customization. The Skill Points system allows you to upgrade your loadout instead of acquiring new gear. The tutorial was somewhat lacking (I didn’t quite figure out the multiple-core-unlock thing right away), but I appreciated the ability to add materia slots or stat buffs rather than just cycling through a dozen swords that Cloud apparently keeps in his back pocket.

Background dialogue management. On the whole, the conversations as you run through town enhance the story without slogging down the gameplay; you don’t have to stop and talk to every single resident, because snatches of their conversation reach you (and your on-screen chatlog) as you pass. You can stop and listen for more detail if you want, or you can just keep moving. The extra worldbuilding is really nice.

The music. The orchestrated versions of the original themes are excellent (and some of those music cues gave me goosebumps… Did I spend way too many hours immersed in the original game? Probably). I can take or leave some of the collectible jukebox tunes, but the background music in general is good. (But did I earn that Disc Jockey trophy? Yes, yes I did.)

Supporting character development. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge actually have characters! And personalities! Clichéd ones, admittedly, but it’s an improvement over the original game killing them all off within the first few minutes. The game also does justice to the Turks, and actually surprised me with how much depth of character it gave Reno and Rude in particular (perhaps setting them up for a mini redemption arc so players forgive them for dropping a plate on tens of thousands of slum residents?). Their moments of concern for each other and (brief) crises of conscience made them more than the stock villains they were in the original game, more in line with their temporarily good-aligned characters in Advent Children. Tseng, likewise, was on point. However, I do have to qualify all this with one irate question: Where the heck is Elena?! Seems like the female characters are always getting left out… /sigh/

Improved plot devices. REMAKE cleans up some of the more questionable and outdated content from the original. As you likely already know from the demo, the new game somewhat exonerates the protagonists by having Shinra blow up their own mako reactor to turn public opinion against AVALANCHE (possibly because someone finally realized that it’s hard to sympathize with characters who are willing to melt down an entire reactor and kill a bunch of innocent civilians). AVALANCHE are still eco-terrorists, but they’re… terrorists with a conscience? I dunno, at least they feel bad when people die now… Likewise, the weird and uncomfortable Honey Bee Inn segment of the original game has been reborn as an amazing dance extravaganza. Less voyeurism/prostitution, more Vegas floor show (complete with minigame choreography) and makeover. The whole Don Corneo scenario is still hella creepy, but frankly, there’s nothing that can fix that.

Series references. Fans of the original will appreciate all the inside jokes and direct references to the original game and other franchise entries: One-off comments about Chocobo racing; a broken console in Wall Market that shoots at you; a framed picture of the original 32-bit Seventh Heaven; ads for Banora apple juice; side mentions of characters and plot devices from spinoff games; PHS communication… The game definitely pays tribute to its history. They even recreate the original loading screen and several of Cloud’s iconic poses/animations throughout the game:

The neutral:

Recycled gags. Look, I know Advent Children was the ultimate evolution of FFVII for a while, and admittedly, it did some things very well. The running gag with Rude’s sunglasses and the victory fanfare being used as a ringtone are some of the best moments in the film, in part because they were so unexpected. But as much as I enjoyed the repeated nods to AC in this game, they felt a little desperate, like there were no new jokes to insert so they had to double down on the ones they’d used the last time this franchise had a renaissance. (See Rude’s broken sunglasses, below.) And fitting into the series as a whole, it feels a little weird. Why is Rude’s ringtone the same as the clones’ from Advent Children? Does Barret really need to sing the victory fanfare over and over when he defeats an enemy? Is there supposed to be some history behind that song that was left out of the worldbuilding? It just feels too meta.

Arbitrary localization of names. I don’t really grasp why it was necessary to rename so many items and characters for the English market. Some changes make sense for localization (e.g. Whack-a-Box certainly works better for an American audience than Crash Box), but others seem arbitrary, like changing Aniyan Kunyan to Andrea Rhodea or Mugi to Oates (a play on the meaning of his name in Japanese, but... does it matter?). And then… well, I don’t want to spoil A Major Plot Element, but there’s another thing that changes names from one English word (in the Japanese track) to a different English word. Why? No idea. It doesn’t affect gameplay, and it’s not really a problem, but listening to the Japanese track, I found it jarring to have the subtitles contradict what I was hearing.

Underutilized characters. While the whole gamut of original FFVII characters make appearances, several of them aren’t used to full effect, or aren’t used at all to advance the story. Rufus Shinra’s bossfight is a decent challenge, but while his character was vital to both the original FFVII and Advent Children, his presence in this game is little more than a cameo. His fight could be cut or swapped out with any other boss, and it would have zero effect on the plot. Similarly, while Hojo is a key player in the full story (which this game doesn’t cover, since it’s only a fraction of the original timeline), he’s largely wasted here, except as a means of extending play time by making you wander through corridors and fight a bunch of monsters for “research.” (I have no idea what his motivation is; you’d think he’d be more interested in recapturing Aerith or Cloud, but instead he just... opens an elevator and lets them leave? after they beat up some midbosses.) Reeve Tuesti actually has a solid presence in this game, but since he’s ONLY ever active as himself, there’s no explanation for the random Cait Sith cameo in one scene (players new to the franchise probably have no idea why a random cartoon cat showed up for a few seconds and was never mentioned again). Obviously the plot arcs have to change when the game is covering only a few days’ time in a much longer story, and the major players need to be introduced at some point if they’re going to feature in later games in the series, but from a narrative standpoint, there are an awful lot of superfluous characters doing things for no reason in this installment.

The bad:

THE PADDING. Dear goodness, there is so much padding to make this a standalone game instead of just the first chapter of a longer adventure. I got really, really sick of running literally from one end of the map to the other on side quests – and that’s me, an avowed trophy hunter who spends hours scouring dark corners for collectible items in other games, saying that. So much of this game felt like time fill that didn’t really advance the story. It’s also full of unnecessary new characters with improbable Squeenix hair, like Roche the super-annoying motorcycle SOLDIER (below), or Leslie, Don Corneo’s doorman who somehow merits his own backstory and side quest. (Though in fairness, every FFVII sequel has added superfluous characters, with Crisis Core possibly being the worst offender.) But it just felt really drawn-out and bloated for a game of this generation. If this game had been as compact and tightly-written as the other games I typically play, it probably only would have taken me 15 hours to beat instead of 50. (I don’t actually know how many hours I spent on it the first time through, as I didn’t check the play clock before restarting on Hard difficulty. I do know it took me over 110 hours total to complete the game on both modes, though much of the second run was spent dying repeatedly on a handful of nasty fights. Hard mode removes items and MP replenishment, and if you run out of MP at any point during a chapter, you’re going to die. A lot.)

The pacing. Related to the above... the Midgar portion of the original game was just the setup for a larger story. It wasn’t meant to have its own complete dramatic arc so much as to introduce you to the world and the major players. Consequently, there are some really odd beats in this story, as well as a total lack of urgency in your mission. There are no natural places to slot in the side quests and minigames, so they’re shoehorned awkwardly between plot sequences. “Quick, our friend is in mortal peril and needs our help!” "Okay, cool, we’ll go rescue her after we spend ten hours running around town doing random errands for townspeople and playing games with the local kids.” Uh... what?

The graphics just aren’t as good as they should be. While the character models are gorgeous, there are a lot of low-res background textures and weird polygons that don’t quite match up with other components. Most egregious are the Shinra logos, which frequently get close-ups as part of the fixed camera work and, frankly, look like lossy JPEGs. (See image below, screencapped from a PS4 Pro. Those jagged edges on the logo are present throughout the entire game.) There are weird clipping errors and artifacted images and reflective surfaces that don’t reflect, making the game look more like something from the PS3 era than a 4K late-gen PS4 game. (And it’s not that we don’t have the technology: Uncharted 4 was released back in 2016, and the rendering of its vast world was twice as pretty. Devil May Cry 5, released in early 2019, has far more realistic textures and object interaction. Granted, those are different types of games with fewer NPCs to render, but I feel like there’s no excuse for a game this big to look this mediocre.)

The HUD could be better. The lower-corners concept is okay, though it took me a while to train my eyes to travel between both sides of the screen and track the fight action. But for a long time, I didn’t even notice the commands in the upper left corner of the screen, and after playing through the game twice I still have no idea what they say because I couldn’t focus on the tiny text long enough to read them while trying not to die in combat. (I just looked it up; apparently they’re combat control shortcuts? Huh, that would have been useful to know.) It wasn’t until my second time through that I realized there even WERE separate controls on screen during the motorcycle minigames; I had resorted to panicked button mashing to figure it out the first time through because there was no tutorial (you’re just dropped into the action) and, having ignored the small text for the previous hundred combats, I had no reason to look for on-screen instructions there. Not that it would have helped, since on many backgrounds the text in the upper left is really difficult to read (see below). It’s worth noting that I have better than 20/20 vision and played this game on a large TV screen and still had trouble reading some things; on a smaller TV, or for someone with less acute vision (like my sister, who is blind in one eye), I think even the basic menu controls would be difficult to see. While you can resize the font for subtitles, my cursory glance through the menu did not uncover an option to increase the size of the HUD. 

Inter-fight menu mechanics. Specifically, the inability to save (or save loadout settings) between fights in a multi-part sequence. There are several back-to-back fights in which it is necessary to switch characters or change gear between bosses. The game treats them as one continuous fight, though it does allows you to access the equipment menu by holding square during key cutscenes. Which is good, if you only have one of a particular materia or accessory that you need to switch between characters, and in most cases when you die the game lets you restart just before your current fight instead of restarting the whole sequence -- also good, since some multi-stage bosses can easily take 20-30 minutes to beat, and if several of those are strung together in sequence, you’re in for a long play session to get past them. But since it’s treated as one fight, you can’t save between bosses (more than once, I had to leave my PS4 running in Rest Mode overnight and just hoped we didn’t have a power glitch), and if you happen to get killed and need to restart the fight, your loadouts reset. Which means if you’re, say, fighting the end boss on Hard difficulty and get killed in the first two minutes -- which happened to me a lot -- by the time you restart the fight, sit through the unskippable cutscene, access the menu and rearrange all the materia and accessories you need, you’re spending five or six minutes gearing up for two minutes of play, and then doing that over and over again every time you die. It gets really old.

The English dub script. *deep breath* Okay, look, I know I can be a bit elitist about translations, but I really do not like the English adaptation of this game. It makes Cloud come across as less socially-awkward and far more of a deliberate jerk, Aerith is mouthy and even swears (which is not accurate to her original character), and it downplays some of the symbolism that’s more obvious in the Japanese script. One quick example: When Aerith gives Cloud a flower, she says (in Japanese), “In the language of flowers, this means ‘reunion.’” It’s subbed/dubbed in English, “Lovers used to give these when they were reunited.” That’s a subtle difference, but since the concept of “reunion” is a freakin’ huge part of the FFVII plot, and since Sephiroth was on screen literally seconds before that line is delivered, my brain automatically went, “OMG REUNION!!!” while I’m guessing people listening in English only picked up on the romantic subtext. It’s a pretty minor thing, and of course translation is always a complex balancing act between literal meaning and local market understanding, but the English version just seemed to me to have a different vibe overall. (Unfortunately, the English subtitles are the same as the dub, so unless you can understand the Japanese audio you’re kind of stuck with that dialogue.)

-

-

[WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT]

-

- …And my #1 complaint about Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE is…

…it’s not actually a remake.

Sure, the game starts out the same way and covers a lot of the same events, but fundamentally, it’s a sequel, not a retelling. It’s evident from Cloud’s future-oriented visions throughout the game that something else is going on, and the ending MAKES NO SENSE if you don’t already know the story. Heck, even the rest of the game doesn’t really make sense if you don’t know the story -- Sephiroth’s presence is never explained; Zack isn’t even introduced, just shows up randomly at the end; Cloud’s flashbacks of Tifa and her dead father in Nibelheim are left as a complete mystery (and since she evidently remembers the burning of her town, judging by her dialogue outside Aerith’s house, why doesn’t she even react when Sephiroth shows up?).

The core elements of the plot – the Feelers (Whispers) preserving a specific fate; the three entities from the future (whose weapon types just happen to correspond to certain named characters) defending their timeline; the return of post-Advent Children Sephiroth (the only time we’ve seen him in human form with one black wing), who has inhabited the Lifestream since his death and promised that he would never truly disappear, who in the end appeals to Cloud directly for an alliance rather than attempting to control him, because he knows now that Cloud is strong enough to defy the Reunion instinct; the change in the outcome of story events in which Biggs (and, unconfirmed as to which timeline he’s actually in, but quite possibly Zack) now survives his intended death -- all point toward Sephiroth trying to manipulate destiny into an alternate outcome in which he is victorious, and using this naive version of Cloud to facilitate it. That means this game is taking place in an alternate or splinter universe, created at some point after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, and possibly even after the events of Advent Children.

All of that is fine from an overall continuing-story perspective – it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, like the fact that Aerith might survive now that Cloud has seen prescient flashes of her death (among other events), and there are opportunities for more story twists and changes from what players might expect. But touting this as a remake of the original game has the potential to confuse players who are new to the franchise. FFVII was groundbreaking back in 1997, and it defined JRPGs for an entire generation of Western gamers. But that was more than two decades ago, and a lot of current gamers weren’t even born then, so while they’ve probably heard of the classic game, they aren’t necessarily steeped in its lore. FFVII:R relies heavily on prior knowledge of the series to carry its twist ending, so it largely fails as a standalone game.

Also, speaking as a longtime fan of the franchise… I honestly found the ending rather lackluster. It was a twist, of sorts, but not the sort of shocking, mind-bending revelation that made the first game so iconic. Granted, it’s hard to follow an act like revealing that your protagonist’s entire identity is a lie, not to mention killing off one of your main characters a third of the way into the story! But when the surprise ending is just, Surprise! We’re going to change things up a bit this time around so you aren’t entirely sure what’s coming! Also, here’s a gratuitous Sephiroth fight because everyone expects that, even though it doesn’t serve the main story at all nor resolve any conflicts previously established within this game! it smacks of Different for the sake of Being Different, not for the sake of a really amazing storyline they’re hiding up their sleeve. It’s a bit of a let-down, and I find that I... just... don’t really care that much. Which, for someone who’s been a fan of the series for nearly a quarter of a century, means there’s a Big Freaking Problem somewhere. If you’re not keeping the attention of your die-hard fans, how do you hope to build a fanbase of players new to the franchise?

Given the pacing and story issues inherent in this game, I’m not convinced that the following game(s) in the franchise are going to be structured any better. Considering the amount of pure side-quest padding they did in Midgar, I have no idea how they’ll maintain that same tone on something the scale of the World Map portion of the original game, unless they just completely eliminate things like Fort Condor and the submarine and the spaceship side quests. I have a feeling the Gold Saucer is going to be reduced to a Jessie flashback, a Chocobo race (probably to win a key item), and a battle arena run like the coliseum in Wall Market in this game. If they include all the story elements and side characters from the original, this series is going to be a dozen games long.

Still, on the whole this game was enjoyable, and I’m glad I played it. It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but they haven’t completely killed off my interest, so I’ll probably continue with the series whenever the next game comes out. Though I’m not really sure if the higher-priced edition I pre-ordered was worth the extra money, so I may wait and see how the next game is shaping up before deciding which version to get...

But if they don’t give me a really pretty (playable) Vincent Valentine in the next installment, I may riot. I do have priorities.

[buns-with-a-book]

Holding

Because nothing is more wholesome than hand holding. 

Fandom: Devil May Cry Characters: Vergil/OC, V/OC, Platonic Dante/OC Tags: @nimnox​ @furyeclipse​ @synchronmurmurs​

Summary: Two times Cassandra held Vergil’s hands and the time he holds hers. 

“And get outta here, you fuckin’ bampot!” Cassandra snarled, slicing at the last of the demons. What responded to her was a raspy death rattle, the demon collapsing before her. Cassandra let Astra snap out of existence, panting and smiling as what lay before her were smears of demon blood. Her patrols around Red Grave City had made her see more demonic activity, something that she told Dante. She voiced concern that something big was going to happen soon, if demonic activity was starting to pick up.

A raspy breath caught her attention. It didn’t sound demonic, no, it sounded so very human. She whipped around.

“Hey! If you’re hurt, better make yourself known!” She called, following the wheezing breath. The sound led her to a man, covered by a tattered brown cloak. That raspy low breathing worried her. She knelt down, still a small distance away from him. The man glanced to her, she noticed a familiar pair of strikingly familiar blue eyes hiding under the cloak.

“Go away.” The man growled, an attempt to intimidate. Cassandra looked to his hands.

“You’re hurt.”

“I will be fine.”

“Please, let me help.” She held out her hands. The man stared at them, she could see him debate with himself without even looking at his eyes.

“Very well, if you’re going to be persistent about it.” There was a tinge of bitterness in his voice, as if he regarded her more of a nuisance he had to deal with in the moment that would not last. It was something she was used to.

“Just hold out your hands, I’ll handle the rest.” She said, moving closer to him. The stranger, hesitantly, held out his hands. She noticed the fingerless gloves but said nothing about removing them. Some people had gloves for reasons, like Dante, and she worked around them to give her healing just fine. Now, with a closer look at his face, she realized the extent of his state. His body was cracked, as if inches away from falling apart. Her thumbs carefully grazed exposed skin, her eyes fluttering closed. A faint aura swirled at their connected hands, the Crest doing it’s work. She frowned a little at the resistance her magic met, as if his state was a result of something far more devastating that she could ever fathom.

“It hurts.” His dry voice broke her out of her thoughts.

“Healing always hurts.” Cassandra replied simply. “That means it’s working.” She ignored the dismissive snort she received from him. After a few minutes, she pulled back her hands. “I wish I could do more, but I’m afraid there’s only so much I can do for you.” She couldn’t describe his state, a sense of brokenness that reached deep into his soul. He stood up.

“I will take my leave.” He whispered. She quickly got up.

“Wait!” He stopped. “Can I have your name?” A quiet fell between them. “I’m Cassandra, by the way.” He glanced back to her from under the hood of his cloak.

“I have to go.” Cassandra frowned at his curt words.

“Very well. Take care, stranger. Red Grave City is hardly safe at night.” She nodded, watching him walk away. Something about him told her that they would meet again.

---

“V, just sit down for a moment.” Cassandra huffed, easing him to a gnarled portion of tree.

“I can-”

“Don’t ‘I cannot rest’ me, mister.” Her grip tightened on the black-clad poet. “You’re crumbling apart before my very eyes. If you want to have a hope of getting to Urizen before Dante or Nero do, then you need to be as strong as possible.” Her gaze moved down to his hands. Her heart ached seeing the state of them, crumbling and turning to dust before her eyes. V had so little time left...she pushed the thought out of her head.  She closed her eyes, letting the familiar healing power of the Crest of Saint Julia move through her hands into V’s. A familiar sensation met her, of a soul so broken it hurt her as well. She wasn’t sure if it was from the foul pulsations of the Qliphoth tree hindering the effectiveness of her Crest or how far deep the slow decay of V’s very body was.

V took back his hands, taking hers instead. She looked up, the Crest fading.

“Cassandra.” V began, voice soft. “Save your strength. If you expend your energy trying to heal me, you will not have what is needed to stop Urizen.”

“Neither will you.” She retorted before immediately regretting it. She had spent the past month fighting demons in an uprooted Red Grave City, saving those who could be saved, giving the final rites to those that didn’t make it, all of it with V. And now, seeing him crumble away into dust, like the very dust that came from Qliphoth roots when the pulsating tumor, the storage of all that blood, burst and deprived them of their life…her mind was in a tumultuous state of protectiveness and anxiety. She looked to V, seeing his gaze was still on their entwined hands.

“I must admit...when all of this is done, will you still think fondly of me?” She blinked in confusion.

“Why do you ask that?”

“I…” His grip tightened on her hands. “I am not who I seem, Cassandra.”

“Then who are you, really?” His eyes seemed distant.

“When we defeat Urizen, I will tell you everything. I promise.” He said, slowly getting up. Cassandra quickly got up, Astra snapping back into existence.

“You keep saying that. It better be worth it, Mr. Poetry.” V chuckled a little.

“Dante’s rubbed off on you.”

“The moment he figures out how to get his mouth around Gaelic, everyone in Devil May Cry is doomed. He wants to know all the swears.” Cassandra chuckled, feeling her spirit lift a little.

“Well, I suppose you cannot let that happen, can you?”

“Oh no. I’m only gonna teach him how to embarrass himself.” She paused. “Provided he doesn’t embarrass himself by mispronouncing what I taught him.”

“I pray I see that myself one day.” V chuckled at the thought. “But, for now, we have wasted enough time. We must press on.” Cassandra let out a sigh.

“Deeper into the vampiric hell tree we go.” She hoped all of this was worth it.

--- Cassandra hummed softly into the air, listening to the jukebox. It had been six months since Dante and Vergil disappeared, to the Underworld to end the Qliphoth tree at its roots according to Nero. He got a new arm from the whole ordeal, which was good. She figured. It was still weird.

But life still went on, even without the brothers around. As of the hour, Lady and Trish were busy on missions of their own, leaving her to man the fort that was the shop. She had spent the first few solo mannings cleaning up the shop to make it far more presentable for anybody coming into the front door. As weeks passed into months, Cassandra found herself missing the two brothers. Dante, of course, was the man she had adopted as the big brother she never had. As for Vergil, the enigmatic elder brother to Dante, she wondered how much of him was V and how much was Vergil himself. She closed her eyes, remembering the first time she met him. It wasn’t him as V, she knew that. Those smoldering ice blue eyes, she had seen them before. She had met him before the Qliphoth tree burst from the ground, crumbling apart as he hid from the demons that she slew.

Just like when he was V.

Cassandra looked to the pictures on the desk. The portrait of the woman she had come to know as Dante’s mother remained, her painted gaze staring back at her. Next to the portrait was a picture of the crew; her, Dante, Lady, Trish, and Nero. Cassandra smiled at the sight, taken well before the tree uprooted the city. Nero still had his demonic arm, a strange sight at the time but she hardly questioned anyone Dante trusted. She looked to the newspaper that was laid upon her desk, detailing the reconstruction efforts the city was going through to recover from the demonic attack. She folded up the newspaper and set it aside, just as the jukebox stopped it’s track. She sighed and got up, walking over to pick a new song. She heard the door open.

“Devil May Cr-” She stood up, turning to greet whoever came in, but stopped in her tracks. Dante grinned widely as he entered, as if nothing had changed, with Vergil silently trailing behind her.

“Cass!” He said cheerfully. She just stood there, half expecting the two to just disappear. “What, did you miss my mug that bad?”

“Dante you fucking loon!” She snapped. “Making your sister worry like that for six months, you’re gonna regret the demons not kicking your ass sooner!” She stormed over. Before Dante could stop her, she hooked her arms around the twins, holding them close. “I fucking missed you, you crazy son of a bitch.” Dante grinned, ruffling her hair.

“Cass, I couldn’t understand half of what you were saying.”

“Oh, piss off.” She squeezed the two. “Just wait until Lady and Trish return. They’re steamed you gave the deed to the place to Morrison.” She looked at the two. “Fuck, you’re covered in demon gore.” Dante rubbed the back of his neck.

“We...we kinda just came back from the Underworld.” He said, his voice a little sheepish. Cassandra let out a sigh and stepped back.

“Get your ass in the shower Dante. Me and the girls have been keeping the place running with paying the bills.” Dante perked up at the idea of hot water and promptly went upstairs. She looked to Vergil, who was still. His eyes were closed, as if he was remembering something. “Vergil?”

“I have not heard you that mad since you fought Urizen in the depths of the tree.” He said. Cassandra could hear a hint of pain at the memory. She knew she had screamed curses and swears at Urizen, mostly for uprooting the tree and making her life hell for the month it stood.

“I can only imagine how unintelligible I was in the moment. I slip back into my native Gaelic when I’m pissed, according to Dante.”

“Certainly not angry enough to do so in the moment.” Vergil nodded.

“There’s two showers. One downstairs and one upstairs, if you need it.” She looked up and down Vergil. He certainly wasn’t as gore covered as Dante was (the rush of emotions made her ignore that to finally hug him again) but there were certainly splatters of demon blood on him. Even after the offer, he remained still.

“Cassandra. Do you remember what I asked you, in the depths of the Qliphoth tree?” She blinked, confused at his question.

“I...hm…” She thought about it. “If I recall correctly, you asked if I would still be fond of you after everything that’s happened.” He nodded. “Well.” She clapped her hands together. “Your actions, however unintentional, harmed not only Dante and Nero, but thrust Lady and Trish into harm’s way, as well as myself.” Vergil remained stoic, watching her carefully. “However, you also tried to mitigate the damage onto the populace of Red Grave City from the tree’s hunger as V.” She paused.

“If you are just going to throw my failures at me, I will take my leave.”

“Hold on. There’s a point I’m getting to here.” She said. “Obviously, Dante thinks there’s some good in you, because I doubt he would’ve come here so casually with you in tow.” She took his hands, staring at them. “Neither does Nero, so willing to throw himself from the van to pursue you. And you stand here, so he holds something akin to fondness.” She glanced up at Vergil, still giving her a cold look, as if waiting for her to finally make her point. “I’m going to give you a chance Vergil. Dante has, Nero has, so I shall as well.” Her hand carefully slipped into Vergil’s, grip loose to let him pull away as he wished. “On one condition.”

“What.”

“Spar with me.” Cassandra could feel his hand twitch and smiled knowingly. “Not now. Sparring you in the state you’re in, it won’t be worth it.” She pulled back her hand. “Rest, regain your strength, Vergil. After that, then we’ll begin.” There was a simmering fire in his blue eyes, as if she prodded something deep within him. Perhaps, as the older brother, being challenged like this was not something he took in stride, especially when he was told to wait beforehand.

Whatever he had to say died in his throat as Dante strode out of the shower. Cassandra was silently thankful he had enough sense to have pants on.

“Cass, you are a lifesaver.” He said cheerfully.

“Don’t thank me Dante. Thank Trish and Lady, provided they don’t skewer you for being gone for so long.” Cassandra pulled away from Vergil as he spoke, leaving him there. “You want pizza? I haven’t ordered pizza since you left. I’ll pay.”

“YES!” He did a fistbump. “I missed pizza so much.” Cassandra laughed at his enthusiasm for pizza. As he walked back down the stairs, getting into a conversation with Vergil to urge him to clean up, Cassandra relished the sense of familiarity that came with him. After she ordered the pizzas for Dante to chow down on, splurging just a little just for his return, she went to the jukebox to play one of Dante’s favorite songs.

And nothing sounded better than that song wafting through the warm air of Devil May Cry.