#my personal ships are completely obvious as they have nearly a playlist of their own

[cortexifansquint]

                        matching pairings & annotations under the cut!

                                             Youtube (x) Spotify ( x)

Buffy / Cordelia / Willow

*  Cloud 69 // Lowell

I'm like dynamite / need a cheerleader / let me throw you down / while I look at her / I'm like "Oh my god / I think I need a girlfriend"

*  Crazy // Au Revoir Simone

you knew me, wanna love to lose and to lose again / seems we're either giving up or giving in / but, uh, you girls, you drive me crazy

Willow / Tara

* There’s a Girl // The Ditty Bops

there's a girl that you might know / she's a friend at least I tell you so / but it might surprise you to find / there's something going on behind the door

* Horizon // Luna Blake 

you tower over me / you are sky and I am sea 

* Truthfully // Lisa Loeb

truthfully, I really can't explain / I'm floating, I'm smiling again 

* Room // Palehound 

she comes over / growing like a clover / in my room / in my room

* Sugar in a Pie //  Erin McKeown

love me sweet like a sugar in a pie / kiss me deep with a dreamy little sigh

Faith / Buffy

* Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover // Sophie B. Hawkins 

that old dog has chained you up, alright / give you everything you need to live inside a twisted cage / sleep beside an empty rage / I had a dream I was your hero

* Hologram // Katie Herzig

I'm gonna let you down / gonna toss you around / gonna make you want everything you haven't found / I'm gonna hold your hand / then ask you to stand / ten feet away

* Buy her Candy

she's a famous / she's the best / I cannot lay / my heart to rest / she is selfish / she is kind / no one can say / she is mine

* Nights with you // MO

I'll take you out tonight / leave it all at home / don't care about your boyfriend waking up alone

* Portions for Foxes// Rilo Kiley

'cause you're just damage control, for a walking corpse like me, like you (S6 Fuffy edition)

* Last 2nd Chance // Vaughan Penn 

this is the last second chance I’ll ever need / this is the last time you’ll hear sorry from me

Buffy / Cordelia-

* More like you // Hazel English

I could waste all of my time / thinking up ways to catch your eye / and I tried but it just didn’t feel right / and besides I'm just trying to get by

* She // Dodie 

and I'll be okay admiring from afar / cause even when she's next to me / we could not be more far apart  (late S1 - mid S2 coffy, either pov)

* Can’t / Naaz 

in my mind / I can be what we choose / but in life / we can't stand in those shoes

* Midway // Bad Bad Hats 

the shadows you were casting nearly swallowed the night /  but god, I could have kissed you (I imagine this as the night Cordelia drops Buffy home in Helpless or sometime in mid-late S3)

* Touch //  Shura 

I wanna touch you but I'm too late / I wanna touch you but there's history / I can't believe that it's been three years / now when I see you, it's so bittersweet  (if either had showed up in L.A or Sunnydale after Buffy was resurrected)

Tara / Buffy

* If I Could // Sophie Zelmani 

If I could help you with /  this part of life you've got to live /  you could load your weight on me

* Our Eyes // Lucy Rose 

I'm alive / I feel it now / I never knew I'll find it on you / out of line we got ourselves / in a look, wait we are not fine / wait, you are not mine 

* Wire // Alessi Ark 

I'm tired of walking this wire / it keeps me awake for heaven sake / I was made for this girl / I feel lonely / my friends don't seem to know me / like i thought they did

Willow / Cordelia

* Upper West Side // King Princess

I can't stop judging every thing you do / but I can't get enough of you

* Then If I’m Weird I Want to Share // Tender Forever

people told me / that you're too sexy / you're too sexy for me / but actually I just don't care / I think it's bullshit everywhere

Buffy / Willow

* Loners // Maddie Ross

one night alone in the bookstacks / summer to make all the kids sad / next fall we're back in the corner / nice girls love kissing the loners

* Ray of Sunshine // Go Sailor 

yellow hair, fiery stare / nothing's right, 'cause she's not here tonight 

* Explosion // Zolita 

it's a mindless love affair / one hot mess of bleach blonde hair / I could kiss her but your lips taste better / you could kiss him but my words are sweeter

* Sweet Moon // Sundarta 

when the world is big and I’m alone / I call you and I am home

Faith / Tara

* Will You Be My Girlfriend // Alanis Morissette 

I guess I fall and you stay intact is that right? I guess you hear me and won't attack me, is that right? guess I reach out and you reach back, is that right?

* Not gonna Get Us // T.at.u 

soon there will be laughter and voices / beyond the clouds over the mountains / we'll run away on roads that are empty / lights from the airfield shining upon you (teenage runaway mehane)

* Love you Anyway // Jil Nisson & Marlene

I know what you've been getting / coz I sure got it too / don't, don't you forget it / the damage they do

* Walk The Line // Halsey

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine / I keep my eyes wide open all the time / I keep the ends out for the tie that binds / because you're mine, I walk the line

Willow / Amy

* Wherever We Are // Human Life

after the day we're chasing the sun / farther away the faster we run / feet on the ground our head in the stars / finding the sound wherever we are

* When We’re High // LP 

let’s swallow the moon and the stars / let’s wallow just right where we are

Amy / Faith

* Whiskey & Black Leather // Sapphic Lasers

some they want a girl next door / but that ain't what I'm looking for / I first saw your lips across the room / red like a blood moon

* Her Lover // Ally & Stevie 

she is like a cat in the dark / and then she is the darkness

* High Enough // K Flay 

don’t try to give me cold water / I don’t wanna sober up / all I see are tomorrows / oh, the stars were made for us

Cordelia / Anya

*  Only a Girl // Gia

soft touch, warm skin / nothing like my ex-man / slowly falling, I don't want my next man

* I Don’t Do Boys // Elektra 

I don't do boys, I just do girls / just do girls with style and class / I don't do boys, I just do girls / just do girls with kissable ass

Fuffy / Radison

* One More // Elliphant 

stay with me tonight / we can count the street lights / stay with me alright let's bring it all back to life (bad girls & smashed shennanigans)

Dark Willow / Anyanka + Darla / Drusilla + Lilah / Cordelia (Jasmine possessed version)

* Glory & Gore // Lorde

delicate in every way but one, / God knows we like archaic kinds of fun / chance is the only game I play with / baby, we let our battles choose us 

“ Your Lips are Red // St. Vincent

this city's red / this city's red from riding us into the ground / this city's black / this city's black from all the ashes in downtown

Willow / Anya

* Wishful Thinking // The Ditty Bops 

when the cold and lonely hours put your heart to the test / maybe I'll be the one that you like best (S7 Rosekins)

* The Happy Song // Kate Miccuci 

'cause isn't it nice to have the friends that you do? / and isn't it nice that the sky is so blue? / and isn't it nice to say "I love you"? (the cheery & matter -of-factly style of this song reminds me of anya)

Faith / Willow

* So-Called Str8 Grrrl // Gina Young

I think you want me / you know you want me / so why do you talk shit about me

* She’s so Lovely // The Butchies 

she's a rocker dressed like a killer / she's got lips like wine not sugar 

* Sum of your parts // Mary Lambert

I didn't know I was a phoenix till I learned how to speak / even with ashes in my mouth I was still born to breath / I wonder are you like me

* All I Want is To Be Your Girl // Holly Miranda

Well there's ghosts in the night and ghosts in my mind / and if we quit changing we'll be left behind / but I won't take another chance of screwing it up / so I stay where I am / but all I want is to be your girl

Buffy / Satsu

* Cliff’s Edge // Hayley Kiyoko

you turn me on / you lead me on / you got me on / a cliff's edge (satsu’s pov)

* One Night // Charlie XCX 

you are somethin’ special / twenty carats, solid gold / what we had was precious / but I had to let you go

Cordelia / Lilah

* Short Skirt, Long Jacket // Larkin Poe

I want a girl with a mind like a diamond / I want a girl who knows what's best I want a girl with shoes that cut / and eyes that burn like cigarettes

Fuffy + Willow / Kennedy

* We Might be Dead by Tomorrow // Soko

give me all your love / ‘cause for all we know / we might be dead by tomorrow

Kendra / Buffy

* Eleventeen // Kimya Dawson

you may feel strange, well, you are an angel / stuck in tight pants stuck at a high school dance / stuck doing people things not knowing you have wings

* Supergirl // Anna Naklab

you can see in her eyes / that no one is her chain / she's my girl / my supergirl

Cordelia / Faith

* Can I Say Baby // GIRLI 

can I say baby? / I don't wanna be soppy / but I like your style / think you're kinda cool / I'm sort of into you

* Rebel Girl // Bikini Kill 

rebel girl rebel girl / I think I want to take you home / I want to try on your clothes

* Flowers and Rope // Princess Nokia

voices in my head, monsters under my bed / I'm alone again, I lost all my friends / wanna play pretend? hope this never ends

Fred / Faith

* Whiskey // Nicole Reynolds

you accept that i talk too much / i accept that you talk too little / but it's fine / i like a good riddle

In the Margins // Ani Difranco

you are a rare bird / the kind i wouldn't even mind / writing in the margins of my books

Willow / Kennedy

* Pretty Girl // Hayley Kiyoko 

I can tell you’re real smart / world class piece of art / I can see you in the dark / all we have to do is start

* Let it Go // Allie Moss 

darlin' you see / the fear in me / and how I'd finally be / if I were willing to let it go

Buffy / Anne

* Annonymous Club //  Courtney Barnett 

let's start an anonymous club / I'll make us name badges with question marks

* Hideaway // IVY 

under stars and satellites / a thousand miles / from where we've been

Willow/Fred + Buffy/Tara

* I Was Made for Sunny Days // The Weepies

I was made for sunny days / and I was made for you

Faith / Kennedy

* Crimson and Clover //  Joan Jett & the Blackhearts 

ah, now I don't hardly know her / but I think I can love her

“ Honey // Kehlani

I like my girls just like I like my honey; sweet / a little selfish

Cordelia / Fred

* Genius // The Murmurs

she's kinda weird / she's kinda freaky / but I don't know / I think she's a genius

* There she goes // Sixpence None the Richer 

there she goes / there she goes again / racing through my brain / and I just can't contain / this feeling that remains

[edupunkn00b]

Happily Ever After Chapter 9: Ships at a Distance

[AO3] - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 -  Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Next Series: Objections

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." - Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

Remus' playlist for the party is on Spotify.

---

Logan closed his book and looked out at the snow-covered yard. After a few minutes, he stood and replaced the just-finished novel on the shelf and ran his fingers over the spines of the other books next to it, not really certain of what he was looking to read next. He took a step back and gazed across the bookcases in front of him. The books on the bottom shelf a few feet over drew his attention. He realized that one was out of order.

He walked over and crouched down, pulling out his copy of Remus' old programming book. His brow furrowed slightly, wondering why it was out of place. He paused for a moment, staring at the words on the cover before thumbing through the pages, remembering that he hadn't yet finished the dense technical text. Logan had been fascinated by the material. The book was filled with patterns for rendering games with detailed new "universes" that followed cohesive but unique physical laws. Logan had been completely out of his depth with portions of the material, but he'd enjoyed it - for more than just the obvious reasons. He was about to return the book to its proper spot when he noticed writing on the title page. Frowning, he flipped open the cover of the book all the way and read what had been written.

Lo, You are my Universe.                ♡ Remus  

Logan half-sat and half-fell to the floor with a small thud. He stared at the words on the page, tears starting to form in his eyes, breath catching in his throat. Shaking, he closed the book and held it between his palms, bringing it up and resting his forehead against the spine. "Oh, my god, Remus ... "

He thought about the day of the bonfire last Fall when, after spending a roller coaster of a day together, Remus had asked to kiss him. He remembered the look on Remus' face after he'd backed away. After he'd shaken his head no. When he'd wanted to say yes. Logan dropped the book and it landed in his lap.

Logan had very nearly said yes.

Logan fell into his memories. He recalled his happiest moments over the past two years. Every single one was when he had been with his sons ... or with Remus. Many were when they were all together. Logan smiled as he thought about how, outside of Janus and Roman, Remus was the only adult he'd ever met who didn't try to shut down Patton's excitability within the first hour of meeting him. He could see that Remus had earned Remy's trust and respect, a hard-won gift. With a sharp pang in his chest, he thought about that dark time when Remus was the only person on the planet who could make Virgil crack a smile.

Logan also thought about all the nights the two of them had spent watching old Star Trek and Doctor Who episodes, laughing at the lousy effects and mimicking everyone's catch phrases. He thought about Remus' outrageous innuendos and his biting humor. He thought about the way Remus flipped his hair, and his strong hands, and the way his eyes had sparkled in the light of the bonfire. He thought about how Remus had been the rock he could cling to during the storms of Virgil's treatment ... and, frankly, his own.

And he thought about the sheer terror he'd felt when he feared that Remus had been seriously injured by the fire mishap, and the bone-deep relief when he saw that Remus would be fine.

"Oh my god," he whispered. Logan squeezed his eyes shut. "But, how can I lo- I'm not - ," Logan covered his face with his hands. His shoulders sank with a shuddering sigh.

"But I can't be."

Logan swallowed against the lump in his throat and pulled out his phone. He texted Janus, "𝙲𝚊𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛?"

...

Janus had stood at Logan's front door for several minutes with no response to the multiple times he had rung the bell. He knew Logan was expecting him. He could see Logan's car in the driveway, so there was no question of whether he was home. Finally, Janus tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. "Logan?," he called out. Janus cautiously poked his head through the doorway, breathing deeply against his worry about his friend's unusual behavior.

"I'm in here, Janus," Logan's voice was flat but he didn't sound injured. Janus blew out a slow breath when he turned the corner into the dining area, where Logan sat, staring at his lap. Logan's hair was a wild crown, and, from where he stood, Janus could see some smudges on his glasses. A half-filled mug sat in front of him and his pajamas were wrinkled. It was 11:30 in the morning and Logan Sanders was ... unkempt. Janus swallowed back a comment and quietly set the usual bag from Downpour on the table, pulling up a chair to sit across from his best friend.

"Where is everyone?," Janus asked at last.

Logan looked up, mouth open slightly, looking a little surprised at the sudden question. He blinked as though trying to remember. "Remy's out with Emile ... researching apartments near the school." Logan's eyes focused and his voice grew just a bit stronger as he continued. "They plan to meet us at the party tonight. Remy was going to drop off Virgil and Patton at your house on the way to Emile's."

"So what are you doing here?," Janus left eyebrow slightly raised. Logan looked down at his hands in his lap. "Hiding out?" Logan pressed his lips together and didn't speak. Asked and answered, Janus thought.

Logan looked across the table and peered into Janus' eyes for a moment. He looked back down at his lap, jaw muscles working as he ground his teeth. Finally, "How did you know?," he asked quietly.

Janus frowned a bit at the ambiguous question. He had some idea of what Logan likely meant, but he wanted to be sure. "How did I know what, Lo?," he said gently.

Logan looked up at his closest friend. They had been friends nearly their entire adult lives but there were still a few things they didn't talk about. He sucked in a deep breath and asked quickly before he could reconsider, "How did you know you were gay?"

Janus was momentarily stunned by the question. That was not what Janus had expected him to say. He steepled his fingers together in front of him as looked at Logan carefully. He tilted his head a bit, finally saying, "Are you asking about me?," he paused for a moment, softening his tone even further. "Or are you asking about you?"

Logan squinted and twisted his mouth while he sat with Janus' question. Janus waited.

Wordlessly, Logan pulled out the book he'd been gripping under the table and placed it in front of them. Janus' confused furrow erased once he read the author's name. "So that's who the copy was really for," he muttered under his breath. Janus started silently counting months. "Lo ...," Janus sought out Logan's eyes. "How long have you felt this way?"

Logan delicately tapped Remus' name on the cover of the book, tracing the letters. He looked up and met Janus' eyes.

"I - I've really fucked up, Jan."

Janus placed a hand over Logan's. "I'm listening."

...

Logan sat nearly motionlessly and told Janus the entire story, including everything from the day of the bonfire. He told him how he had rejected Remus and how he'd just let him leave without talking about it, without even offering to drive him back across the lake. Logan told Janus how he'd avoided being alone with Remus ever since - and how he suspected that Remus was probably doing the same.

He told him how he'd found an inscription from Remus in the book and that he was ashamed to realize he wasn't even certain when he must have written it.

He even told Janus about his nightmare about Remus and Kelly from last year. "My very, very first thought, though, when I woke, " he paused, and it was clear to Janus that this was difficult for Logan to admit to himself, let alone say aloud. Logan swallowed, knowing the only way out of this was through it. "When I first woke ... I did not feel as though Remus had supplanted me in some idyllic picture of a happy marriage." Logan paused, swallowing, squeezing his eyes shut. "I felt replaced by Kelly in that vision."

Logan stopped talking but Janus could see by the tightness in his jaw and his stick-straight posture that there was something else he needed to say. Logan gripped his own hands on the tabletop, staring at his knuckles. "I ... feel something for Remus that I have never felt for anyone else." Janus raised his eyebrows a bit at the emphasis Logan put on the word "anyone," but he didn't interrupt. "How can something like this even be possible?

Logan finishes his tale, looks up and sees Janus ... smiling?

"Are you ... laughing at me?"

"No, Lo, I'm not laughing at you." Janus leaned back in his chair, palms pressed together. "So you've finally noticed that Remus is a very attractive man." Logan looked up at the tone in Janus' voice. "Yes, of course I've noticed, as well." Janus looked meaningfully at Logan. "I did choose to marry his nearly identical twin." Logan blushed a bit as he realized he'd never really considered that Remus and Roman shared the same features and physique. They were both so different to him. "I digress. So you're feeling an attraction to Remus. It's perfectly normal." Janus struggled to keep a sarcastic tone out of his voice. "In fact," he said, waving a hand to gesture toward Logan's bookshelves, "I'm quite confident you have a copy of a book by that title that you might find helpful ... " Logan seemed to shrink in his seat a bit and Janus softened his voice. "Lo, you can be attracted to both men and women. It's almost as though it's all ... a spectrum?," Janus spread his hands in an opening up gesture, just the hint of a rainbow shape.

Logan remained silent in his seat. Janus finally opened the bag from Downpour, sliding a cup across the table to Logan. Janus sipped at his own coffee for a few minutes, eyes trained on him.

There was still one more issue to address.

Janus put down his cup and folded his hands in front of him. "I once told you that you get one free lesson in How Not to Be a Dick 101." Logan looked up, eyes locked on Janus' face. That got his attention, Janus thought. "Consider this one to be from the 200 series." Janus pierced Logan with his eyes and took a deep breath. "Your inability to be honest with yourself about how you're feeling is hurting a very dear man." Logan pulled off his glasses and squeezed his eyes closed, pressing his fingers against his brow, slouching in his seat. "Ultimately, it doesn't actually matter how you choose to describe who you are. What matters is how you choose to treat the people you care about." Janus looked carefully at Logan. "Do you care for Remus?"

"More than I ever thought could be possible." Janus was again a little surprised by his response. Logan pressed his lips together, replacing his glasses and looking down at his palms, tracing the scars on his left hand, remembering the heat of Remus' hand gripped in his own. "Jan, I think ... " Logan swallowed against the lump in his throat, chest tightening. "Jan ... I love him." He looked up at Janus with tears in his eyes. Logan slowly shook his head from side to side. "What am I going to do?"

Janus smiled. "You're going to go get your Prince, that's what you're going to do."

Logan let out a choked laugh. "A bit fairy tale, don't you think?"

Smiling, Janus shook his head and put his hands over Logan's. "It's exactly like a fairy tale. Up you get and into a shower." Janus said as he stood and pulled Logan to his feet. "It's time to get you ready for the ball."

...

Logan was standing on the upper deck of the ship, helping direct guests, when he saw Remy and Emile walking up the gangway. Music from the dance floor below wafted through the air. He smiled as they approached him. Logan thought Emile looked nervous. Emile kept reaching into his pocket, fiddling with what Logan guessed was a fidget cube, and looking around the ship's deck as though he was looking for someone.

"Hello, Mr. Sanders," Emile said, his voice a little more strained than typical. "It's good to see you, sir. How are you doing this evening?"

"I'm doing very well, thank you, Emile. How are you?" Logan's smile grew as they fell into their familiar rhythm. Remy and Emile had been dating for over three years. Despite that, Emile had never really dropped his slightly formal speech pattern when speaking with Logan, and it was most noticeable when he seemed anxious. When Logan had mentioned his observation to Remy once last year, Remy had laughed and hugged his dad, saying that's what made Emile fit in so well with the family.

"Relieved that my fellowship came through," Emile admitted.

Logan smiled at the young man, resisting the temptation to point out that he appeared to have grown taller just since the summer so as not to embarrass him further. "It is so nice to see you again. It has been quite a while." Logan noticed Emile's eyes scanning the upper deck of the ship again. "Janus and Roman are below deck on the dance floor, if that is who you are looking for," Logan added.

Remy squeezed Emile's hand. "Babe, I need to help out for a while. Can I meet you on the dance floor in about fifteen minutes?" Emile's eyes widened a bit and he looked thoughtful, but nodded and kissed Remy's cheek.

"Of course," Emile murmured. "I'll see you then." Logan narrowed his eyes slightly. Did Emile look relieved? As soon as Remy was out of sight, Emile grabbed Logan's arm and whispered, "May I speak with you, Mr. Sanders, before I need to get back to Rem?"

Logan's shoulders tightened for a brief moment until he registered the grin that had broken out over Emile's face. Looking around them and appearing satisfied that they were actually alone, Emile held a finger to his lips and reached into the pocket he'd been fidgeting with earlier. Logan couldn't help the tiny surprised squeak that escaped when he saw the small square box in Emile's hand.

"I wanted to tell you first, Mr. Sanders, that I'm going to ask Remy to marry me tonight."

...

The deck below had been decorated like a grand ballroom. The focal point of the room was the dance floor, already crowded with dancers, and the raised DJ platform, where Virgil held a headset to his ear with one hand and flipped through the upcoming track list with another. This would be the first time Logan would actually be able to see Virgil mix sound. In all the shows he'd been to before, the sound booth was tucked away in the back of the theatre, hidden from view. And most of that sound work had been merely following queues.

Looking around the rest of the room, Logan saw that all around the edges were nearly a dozen small banquet tables, draped in the light yellow tablecloths Logan and Janus had struggled to fit into the back of Roman's car. The tables were draped with red tulle bunting, with a centerpiece on each. What appeared to be thousands of tealights twinkled everywhere Logan's eyes landed.

Remus' voice sounded near Logan's ear. "Pretty amazing, isn't it?," Logan whipped his head around in surprise. He hadn't noticed Remus' approach. Remus looked around the room, gesturing at the finery. "Roman had one of his set designer friends bring in a little crew to help set this all up."

Logan's voice failed as he opened his mouth to agree. He nodded instead, adjusting his glasses and looking closely at Remus. Gone was the usual battered leather jacket and tight jeans. Instead, Remus wore a black tuxedo similar to the one Logan was wearing, except with a black waistcoat trimmed in the same green as his hair and a matching bow tie. The tie, however, was undone, draped over Remus' neck, framing the open collar of his shirt, where Remus had left the top three buttons undone. Logan swallowed dryly.

Starships started to play. One benefit of a playlist from 2012 was that even Logan knew the song - and he knew it had more than its fair share of explicit lyrics. Logan peered at Remus, who feigned an innocent look. Logan caught Virgil's eye and gestured, waving a hand across his throat in a "cut it" signal at the same time Roman jumped up and down calling out "Turn it up!", dancing with a group of his theatre friends. Remus and Virgil both shrugged, then Virgil pulled over the keyboard for his sound kit and tugged on his monitoring headset. Logan watched, listening to the song. "I'm a blow off my money and don't give two ~~~~, oh-oh," Virgil looked up at Logan and gave him thumbs up before returning his attention to the music, ready for the next line.

Logan smiled, returning the thumbs-up. He looked around and realized Remus was no longer standing near him. He gazed across the dance floor but couldn't spot him in the press of bodies. Logan stood at the edge of the dance floor and listened to the music for a bit before he turned around and finally noticed Remus off in a corner. Remus was surrounded by Patton and most of the younger guests, animatedly waving his arms around while pointing to some feature of the ship, apparently miming an explosion. His antics had captured the attention of the little group and they appeared to be thoroughly distracted from the potentially explicit lyrics. Remus noticed that Logan was watching them, winked, then returned his attention to Patton and the others.

When the next song started - and it had become clear that Virgil would be able to reliably slip reverse through any swear words, Remus made his way back to where Logan was standing. They looked out over the dance floor.

Remus gently elbowed Logan's side, sounding mockingly shocked: "Janus is dancing to this one? He seems entirely too .. suave to dance to LMFAO. I haven't seen him dance to actual club music since ...," Remus trailed off, whether to calculate the years or something else.

"He is surprisingly free-spirited when placed in the proper environment." Logan said, watching Janus and Roman dance together. "And he would do anything to make Roman smile."

Remus smiled sadly, swaying a bit to the music. Finally, he leaned closer to Logan, and opened his mouth to speak. Logan, still watching Janus and Roman, spoke first. "You know, they very nearly didn't get married back then."

"No, I ... I actually didn't know that." Logan glanced at Remus in surprise, then quickly looked away to prevent himself from staring. "Cold feet?," Remus asked.

Logan nodded, "He was absolutely terrified. Afraid of one day just losing his love, afraid of falling out of love with him, afraid of infidelity ... truly and utterly afraid of everything that could go wrong."

"They're so happy now that it's hard to imagine." Remus is a little shaken at the thought of how close his brother and Janus came to not making it. If even they struggled ... He pushed the thought away. "I'm glad my brother was able to convince Janus to go for it."

Logan turned to face Remus completely, shaking his head. "You misunderstand. Janus was not at all reluctant to get married. Roman was."

The moment the words left his mouth, Some Nights started to play and the dance floor erupted in singing. At the center, they could see Roman had leapt up onto a chair, leading and singing along. After the introduction, he jumped down and Logan could see that his friends from the cabaret spread throughout the crowd, clapping and stomping and encouraging other guests to join in. Logan thought it looked nearly choreographed - and knowing Roman, it very well may have been. He wouldn't put it past him to find a way to sneak a look at the playlist before the party. Logan and Remus watched the spectacle and even sang along to the parts they knew.

Janus and Roman danced and sang together, drawing close to one another for the slower moments in the song. Janus spotted Remy in the crowd slowly swaying with Emile, as the lyrics rang out, "  ... and when I look into my nephew's eyes, man you won't believe the most amazing things that can come from some most terrible lies ... "

Roman watched Janus closely, seeing a few tears spill. He brushed his fingers against Janus' cheek, smiling and gently drying the tears away. "Oh, Sweetheart ... " He looked into Janus' eyes and saw something that made his smile grow. "You really are ready, aren't you?" Janus grinned and spun Roman around in response.

Pulling him close again, and as the music and singing grew louder, Roman murmured in Janus' ear, "You're going to be a great dad."

...

The music played on.

As the last bars of Titanium ended, a very familiar synth rhythm and pounding piano notes began. Logan looked at Remus, laughing. "This song is from 1983."

"Yeah," Remus shrugged as he watched his brother excitedly recognize the opening bars. "But it's Ro Bro's favorite." He nodded at the dance floor which had erupted in small groups dancing and singing. "It seems like a popular choice." Suddenly, Logan and Remus were surrounded by Remy, Emile, and Patton and pulled into the crowd.

"We're not going to let you just stand there all night!," Patton shouted, laughing. "Come and dance!" The group danced together for several songs, playfully grouping together, shifting, and turning to dance with other friends in the crowd. From time to time, Logan and Remus found themselves face to face, broken off from the rest of the group.

As the music continued, Remus looked up and caught Virgil's eye, who sent him a little two-fingered salute. Remus saluted back and listened as the music shifted to a low, deep rhythm. Rhianna's voice emerged from the speakers, wrapping the dancers in sound.

... I know you've been hurt by some else, I can tell by the way you carry yourself 

Their eyes met and Logan could feel a flush running up his neck and face. The music was thrumming a deep bass through their bodies.

 ... If you let me, here's what I'll do, I'll take care of you. I've loved and I've lost ...

As the lyrics swirled over them, Logan watched as Remus' expression fell, eyes turning glossy. Remus looked just as he did the night of the bonfire. Loved and lost ... am I too late?, Logan thought as a lump grew in his throat.

At that moment, the crowd shifted and another group slipped between Logan and Remus. Someone Logan recognized from QLaw - Pedro? he wondered automatically - took the opportunity to start dancing with Remus. Logan edged away from the crowd, watching them dance. Remus turned to try and catch Logan's eye, who pressed a smile onto his face and waved at Remus in a "go on, have fun," motion. Remus, expression inscrutable, swallowed back a response and faced his new dance partner again.

 ... I've asked about you and they've told me things ...

As the song played, Logan tried not to stare at the pair. Instead, he methodically shifted his gaze from watching Remy and Emile, and Janus and Roman dancing, Virgil at the sound board, and Patton, who had resumed exploring the room with a little collection of kids around his age. Only then would he allow himself a quick look back to Remus and Pedro. Once, Logan looked over and saw that Remus had been watching him, as well. Logan quickly looked away and moved further from the dance floor.

... If you let me, here's what I'll do, I'll take care of you. I've loved and I've lost

Remus leaned in closer to Pedro, "I need to go check on my friend." He flashed a quick, small smile. "Thanks for the dance." Pedro watched him edge through the crowd for a moment, shrugged and turned to dance with someone else.

Remus scanned the room, looking for Logan, as the music shifted again. His eyes passed over Virgil, who gestured with his chin toward the staircase to the upper deck, where he caught a glimpse of Logan's retreat. Virgil mouthed, "GO!," at Remus, who quickly followed after Logan.

...

"Well, hello there. Come here often?," Remus had finally caught sight of Logan on the starboard side of the ship, leaning on the railing, looking at the water below. He waggled his eyebrows exaggeratedly, poking fun at the overused line. He made a show of sliding along the deck, easing closer to him, giving Logan plenty of time to step away, or turn around, or leave again ..., an awful voice in Remus' head intoned. Logan turned to watch Remus approach. A small smile spread on his face and he didn't move from his spot.

Logan chuckled a bit and then took in a deep breath. "I just needed some air."

Remus nodded as though he accepted Logan's response. He then turned around and leaned his back against the railing, his gaze moving along the length of the ship. A bright smile suddenly spread on his face as he nudged Logan with his elbow. "Don't look now," Remus said in a low voice, "And of course by that I mean, quick, turn around and look right now ..." Logan knit his brows together and turned to follow Remus' gaze toward the other end of the ship. Logan turned in just enough time to see Emile on one knee, handing something small to Remy, who quickly pulled him in for a tight hug. "I think you're about to be a father-in-law, Lo."

Face split in a huge grin, Logan chuckled, whispering back to Remus, "Just wait ..." At that moment Remy pulled away from the hug and reached into his pocket to pull out a similarly-sized box. Remus turned to Logan, eyes dancing. "How did you -," he started to ask.

"Remy told me last month that he was planning on asking Emile to marry him tonight," Logan spoke softly, not trusting how far their voices would carry. "And, about an hour ago, Emile told me that he'd planned to do the same."

"Keeper of keys and secrets, at Hogwarts, I see."

Logan shrugged happily and the two fell back into silence, hearing the music from below. Logan pulled off his glasses to polish the lenses and then replaced them, while Remus tried to concentrate on the slow shifting of the deck, listening to the water gently lapping at the side of the ship.

Suddenly Logan spoke, turning to face him. "I found the inscription you wrote in your book." Remus held his breath and he bit at the inside of his cheek. Logan swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "I am so very sorry, Remus. I - " He licked his lips and looked down at his feet. Remus felt his stomach sink as his mind finished Logan's sentence for him. I am sorry but you must know that I just do not feel that way about you ...

Gathering his courage, Logan reached out and cupped Remus' cheek, consciously mirroring that wonderful, awful night. He held Remus' eyes in his own, afraid if he didn't, he would never actually say this. "I treated you horribly that night all because I was afraid to admit - " Remus' eyes had widened when Logan's fingers touched his face and now were bright and tear-filled. "I was too hung up to be able to admit that ... I ... have developed feelings for you, as well." Logan lowered his hand and closed his eyes, bowing his head, ashamed of everything he'd put this man through. "I am so, so sorry. I ... I ... it appears that I have acknowledged my feelings too late and have squandered this opportunity with you." Logan swallowed hard and squared his shoulders. "I also recognize this apology is likely in no way commensurate with the pain I have caused you. I know I do not have the right to ask, but I hope that you can forgive me someday."

Logan turned to walk away as the music faded between songs.

Remus stood in stunned silence for a few moments until he heard quiet guitar music wafting up from the dance floor below decks. He quickly stepped forward, reaching for Logan's hand, and smiled. "May I have this dance?"

Logan looked at him in surprise but nodded. Remus pulled Logan into his arms, swaying slowly to the beat of the song. Part-way through the first verse, Remus started to sing, his voice a little rough with tears.

  And just like them old stars I see that you've come so far To be right where you are How old is your soul?

A tiny sob escaped Logan's lips and he tucked his head in the crook of Remus' neck to hide his face. Remus kept one arm around Logan's waist, and brought his other hand to the back of Logan's head, gently carding fingers through his hair, swaying to the music.

  Well, I won't give up on us Even if the skies get rough I'm giving you all my love I'm still looking up

  And when you're needing your space To do some navigating I'll be here patiently waiting To see what you find

Logan raised his head to face Remus. "I don't yet have all of this figured out. Are you certain ... " His voice trailed, unsure what he was asking of him.

Still dancing, Remus looked into Logan's eyes. "Lo, my whole life everyone's said that all I needed was to meet the right person and ... grow up. Soften my sharp edges." He smiled, fingers brushing Logan's hair from his face. Logan shuddered briefly, overwhelmed, but then leaned in to his hand, closing his eyes. Remus' smile grew. "But I call bullshit." Logan's eyes snapped open at his words. "I'm standing here with the right person here in my arms and all I want to do is fight harder. Love hasn't made me soft. It's made me tougher." Remus paused. "Love has given me someone to fight for."

At the bridge of the song, Remus suddenly spun Logan in a twirl and continued singing along.

 And in the end, you're still my friend, at least we did intend For us to work, we didn't break, we didn't burn We had to learn, how to bend without the world caving in I had to learn what I got, and what I'm not And who I am

 I won't give up on us Even if the skies get rough I'm giving you all my love I'm still looking up

Logan was now grinning, both at the suddenness of the twirl, which he now reversed so he could twirl Remus, and with hope for what lay ahead for the two of them together.

 Well, I won't give up on us God knows I'm tough enough We got a lot to learn God knows we're worth it (And we're worth it)

As the music slowed again, they each drew the other nearer to close the distance between them.

 I won't give up on us Even if the skies get rough I'm giving you all my love I'm still looking up

They stilled as the song ended, but didn't move away from each other's arms. Logan's eyes met his. "Remus, I - " his voice broke. Remus nodded slowly in encouragement, gently placing one hand on the side of Logan's neck, tracing his jaw with a thumb. Logan swallowed and tried again. "Remus ... I believe I love you."

A watery smile slowly spread across Remus' features. "Oh, Lo," he whispered as if he feared to speak any louder lest he break some spell. He brushed his fingers against Logan's cheek. Holding his breath for a few seconds, at last he asked, "Lo, my love, may I kiss you?" Logan grinned and nodded, thrilled to have a second chance to answer the way he really wanted. He brought both hands to Remus' face and joined him in a long, soft kiss.

After a few minutes, footsteps approached and Patton's voice suddenly sounded from behind Remus, "Hey, Remus ... Have you seen Dad around?"

Remus turned toward Patton, revealing a blushing Logan, one hand still cupping Remus' cheek. "Pat -," Logan began. Patton's stared for a moment and then his face bloomed in a wide smile.

"Well it's about time!" He turned with a little wave, dashing back to the lower deck and shouted in the direction of the staircase. "Oh, Vir-gil ... " he called out is a sing-song taunt. "You owe me ten bucks!"

Logan couldn't decide if he should die or cry or laugh. Remus smiled, again running a hand through Logan's hair. He grinned a little wider as he realized that he couldn't keep his hands away from those dark locks.

Logan opened his mouth, brows knit in confusion. "Wait just one moment," Logan bit hit lip in thought. He took a breath, pointing toward where Patton had stood. "Did Patton just say 'it's about time!' ?" Remus nodded, suppressing a chuckle, green eyes dancing. Logan took another breath, shaking his head slightly. "Did everyone know but me?"

Remus can't control his laughter. He nodded, fingers still entwined in Logan's hair, murmuring, "Pretty much, Lo."

He took a moment to process this. "I should ... I should probably get back down there," Logan said at last.

"Oh, Lo-Lo," Remus practically growled, pulling Logan closer, hands gently dragging down from his neck to his back. "Please don't go ... not yet." Remus smiled down at Logan with love laced with promise ... and heat.

Logan flushed and smiled as he met Remus' eyes. He then knew with complete certainty that he was right where he needed to be. His eyes matched the heat in Remus' as he whispered, "Where were we, then, Love?"

Closing his eyes, Logan leaned forward to kiss his Prince.

Epilogue:       

After giving Logan and Remus a bit of privacy for a few songs, Patton finally managed to convince the new couple to come back down to the dance floor and join the rest of the party. They danced together all night.

But wait - the music is still playing ...

Logan and Remus swayed together on the dance floor as the opening notes to the last song of the night warbled through the air. Logan closed his eyes for a moment, a look of peace falling over his features as he breathed in deeply. He looked up at Remus, murmuring, "This is my favorite song," then rested his head again on Remus' shoulder.

Remus smiled and hummed, "I know. Virgil told me." He could feel Logan chuckle in response against his neck. They danced together, listening to the first verses of the song. Remus thought about the winding path that had led them to that moment, Logan in his arms, a deep contentment washing over them both. A thought suddenly bubbles to the surface of his mind.

"There's something I'm still wondering about," Remus murmured into Logan's hair.

"Hmmm...," Logan hummed in response. "What is that?"

"How did you get a copy of my book? It's been out of print for five years."

"Oh, right." Logan blushed and tucked his head back into the crook of Remus' neck.

Soft laughter rumbled in Remus' chest. "That's not an answer, Lo."

He sighed, looking up at Remus with ... Was that embarrassment? "I asked Roman to help me obtain a copy of your book," Logan admitted at last. "He happened to have an extra."

Remus looked over to where Roman and Janus were slowly dancing together and smiled. " 'Extra' plus 'Roman' in the same sentence, that checks out," Remus laughed, shaking his head. "It's funny he didn't mention that to me."

"That ... is likely because I told him it was a surprise for Remy and asked him not to bring it up."

Remus hummed, accepting his answer for the moment. "But wait - how did you know ... Did you Google me? I don't remember telling you about that book. It's kind of niche and ..."

"And you would never bring it up yourself because your hyper-sexualized flamboyancy and braggadocios are sometimes just an act? And beneath it you're actually quite humble?" Logan interjected, grinning up at him. Remus was shocked into momentary silence, staring down into his eyes.

Logan leaned in and gently kissed the surprised expression from Remus' face, replacing it with a soft smile. "You're not the only one who can see inside the man he loves more clearly than his love sees himself."

[atiny-piratequeen]

Character Analysis: Park Seonghwa, the 'Frozen Prince'

Name: Park Seonghwa

Languages: Sabir, English, Portugese, French, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Korean (Modern Day) Japanese (Modern Day), Mandarin (Modern Day), Thai (Modern Day), Italian (Modern Day)

Crew Position: First Mate, Tactician

Powers: Cryokinesis/Ice Powers (Inherited from Greco-Roman God, Boreas)

Compass Position + Arrowpoint Stone: Eastern Facing located on his right wrist , Blue Celestite 

Eye Color: Gray (Natural)/ Snow White (Demonic Form)

Hair Color: Blonde (Natural)/ Jet Black (Demonic Form)

Likes: Reading, Seafood, Making Flower Crowns (He’ll never admit it without a fight), Training, Horseback Riding

Dislikes: Lazy People, Cowardice, Fruitless Gossip

Prince Park Seonghwa. 

A man rumored amongst townsfolk to be blessed by the gods. Unusual blonde hair, stunning gray eyes, it has been a long time since the kingdom has seen such a capable leader. 

A foreigner, brought to the Mediterranean kingdom by marriage, he spent the entirety of his childhood learning to be the model prince. The prince’s posture is perfect, he never dodged his studies, he could tame the wildest mare, to everyone, he was the obvious choice for the kingdom’s king. 

Something...more than a few people are opposed to. 

First Mate Park Seonghwa

No longer a prince, but still just as elegant, Seonghwa has yet to lose any of his old habits during his time out at sea. Being the first person to join the crew once Hongjoong became captain and the first person to be turned immortal, Seonghwa worked hard to prove himself and continues to be one of the most reliable members of the crew. 

Seonghwa may be a little stiff when it comes to meeting new people, but being so close to a certain ‘Kind Pirate King’ has opened his mind-and heart-to meeting new people and the prospect of second chances. 

-Mythology-

As one of the four wind gods of the seasons in Greco-Roman mythology, Boreas is the purple-winged god of the North Winds and Winter alike. In some depictions, instead of his wings being purple, he has white wings with purple attire fluttering behind him. 

His parents are Astraeus and Eos. Astraeus is often said to be the father of two notable sets of sons; the Astra Planeta, five sons representing the stars. The other set of sons are the Anemoi, the four wind gods, with Boreas representing the frigid North Wind.

Boreas’ wife, Oreithyia, (the princess of Athens, as her father was King Erekhtheus) was swept away by him one day as she played in a riverside meadow, with companions (remember, folks. Don’t sweep away your crush and basically kidnap them. That’s not cool.)

Older tellings would depict Boreas residing in Thrace, an area described as the lands around the north of Thessaly. In those depictions, Boreas lived either in a mountain’s cave, or in a beautiful palace, with his home said to be upon the Balkan Mountains (or Haemus Mons).

Oreithyia would become the immortal wife of Boreas and bear him four children; Zetes and Calais (their sons), Chione and Cleopatra (their daughters). (Also, no, this Cleopatra isn’t that Cleopatra). All of their offspring have their own tales about them, and Chione is even regarded as the goddess of snow. 

Boreas’ tales are not as widely told, compared to other gods and goddesses, but he has been mentioned in some of Homer’s tales (specifically in Achilles’ tale), as well as being included in Aesop’s Fables, in a contest between himself and sun god Helios.

-Power Applications/Demon Transformation-

When Seonghwa completely reverts into his demon form, his hair will go from whatever color it currently is to an inky black color, with his gray eyes lightening to an almost pure white color. Elongated ruby-colored marks will appear over his eyes, with the one over his left eye being slightly longer than his right. The same elongated ruby-colored marking will stretch over his lips to form an elongated smile, though I assure you, if you make this form come out, the last thing he’ll be doing is smiling. 

Having been bestowed Boreas’ power, Seonghwa can create ice and snow at will and his prefered method of combat is to dual wield his falcatas, one being the rune-engraved one he took from his kingdom and the other being an ice one he forms at will. 

Seonghwa has mastered his power, using it in small applications here and there for domestic things aboard the ship such as keeping food items cold to prolong their life while out at sea and also using his powers to slow opponents in combat. Since his powers are a part of him, no amount of cold will affect him negatively. 

In fact, if he was in the tundra or somewhere equally as cold, his powers would only be heightened.

Despite his proficiency with his falcatas, as well as any other form of blade, Seonghwa is more than capable to fight hand and hand, and will use his ice powers to freeze body parts of opponents he touches. 

-Character Song Breakdown-

All of the main boys have a song assigned to them in the AtT playlist to go alongside their origin chapters. Seonghwa’s character song is Friction by Imagine Dragons.

I’ll only go through some verses and talk a bit about their connections I put to the chapter. If you haven’t read Chapter Two of Against the Tide, I suggest you do that first, as the song breakdown includes some major spoilers.

‘Get down with the victim

We both know you need them

You're stuck in the middle

Of all irrelevance

And your heart is beating

'Cause you know that you gotta

Get out of the middle

And rise to the top now’

Seonghwa’s accomplishments overshadow that of his older brother, Zafer’s. The bloodborne prince is lazy and very much inadequate, but believes it is his birthright to be crowned prince regardless. Feeling victimized and finally feeling the weight of his adequacy, Zafer decides to rise out of his mediocrity, unfortunately at the expense of everything. 

‘You can't fight the friction

So ease it off

Can't take the pressure

So ease it off

Don't tell me to be strong

Ease it off

You can't fight the friction

So ease it off’

Zafer runs from his problems and finds the easy way out of things, while Seonghwa tackles his problems, no matter how difficult, head on. Though these lyrics can be directed towards Zafer and his avoidance of responsibility and desire to ‘ease’ his responsibilities off onto someone else, the delivery in-song fits perfectly well with scenes where there is physical conflict. Whenever I envision this song, I definitely imagine Seonghwa fighting with his falcata in-hand. The power, the intensity, all of it kept in every graceful and deadly swing of his blade. 

‘Oh why can't you let go

Like a bird in the snow

This is no place to build your home’

In the middle of Seonghwa’s transformation, he reveals his true fears, how he doesn’t need to trust in anyone, how him opening up and trusting someone (his brother) got the closest person to him (Queen Dahlia, his mother) killed. 

The Boreas-infused version of Seonghwa nearly takes complete hold of him, had it not have been for Hongjoong breaking the ice-literally. 

Once he’s calmed down, defeated his demonic self and taken control, Seonghwa is much more open to trusting others, though he still often takes the longest to warm up (ha) to newer members of the crew. 

-Character Blurb-

Seonghwa gently wove various tropical flowers into one another, a small, peaceful look on his face as he held up the tiny ring, jolting when he looked past the hole to find Hongjoong staring curiously at him. He startled, all but throwing the ring of flowers behind him as he stared at Hongjoong with wide eyes. 

“P-Putois-”

“What was that?” 

Seonghwa’s eyes narrowed as he moved to hide the ring with his body as Hongjoong tried to peek onto the bed. 

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying.” 

Hongjoong dove onto the bed, laughing merrily as Seonghwa tried to scramble and snatch the ring out of view. The captain wrapped a shadow around his wrists, yanking them back before he grabbed the ring, blinking in wonder at the simple, elegant item. 

“It’s a ring of flowers. Why are you hiding this?” The smaller man mused, sitting half way in Seonghwa’s lap. Seonghwa went beet red, clearing his throat as he took the ring, hesitantly putting it around his wrist as he looked away, huffing. 

“Petite peste-” He muttered before he sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. 

“It’s...embarrassing. It reminds me of my mother. We would make them together…” He trailed off, biting his lip.

Hongjoong looked at the flower before he smiled, wrapping his legs around Seonghwa’s waist, holding his hand out as an assortment of blossoms grew from his palm. Seonghwa’s lips parted in surprise as Hongjoong held his hand out. 

“Show me how to make them, then. We can make them together.” He offered. Seonghwa blinked in surprise before he chuckled and nodded, kissing his head lightly. 

“Oui, mon putois. Pay attention, okay?” He moved Hongjoong out of his lap and showed him step by step, all with a small smile on his face. 

-M.List-

[itslight-ishred]

Valentine’s Day Dance

Okay, so I’m a couple hours late on this, but I made it through all the distractions to finally bring you my first completed fic in over a year! This is my gift to @mlm-benvolio​ for the RvB Valentine’s Day gift exchange and first time posting one of my works to Tumblr. Enjoy. (will fix formatting if needed) @rvbgiftexchange Ship(s): Grimmons w/background Docnut and Locoboose and mentioned Tuckington 1,800+ words    "Dude, if you don't ask him out, I'm not talking to you ever again."        The lanky red-head gave out a sharp, fake gasp at those words, closing his locker and holding the non-robotic hand to his chest and faking a hurt expression. "You wouldn't. Who else would I talk to?"        "Wouldn't I?" This led to a full two minute stare-down between them both before a taller boy came by and picked up his older brother, squeezing him tight.     "Tucker! I just asked Loco to the Valentine's dance!"        "Okay, if Caboose can ask Loco, you can totally ask Dex," Lavernius gasped out, struggling to get out of his adopted brother's tight grasp. "Seriously, though, what's taking you so long? We all know you like him. Well, except maybe Dex himself."    

   Slinging his bag onto his shoulder, Richard just thought this over a bit as the three headed for the student parking lot. Passing through the commons, they noticed Franklin hugging Frank tight, but not nearly as tight as Michael had done to his brother. The blond noticed them and quickly broke the hug, dragging his boyfriend over to them. Before he could even say a word, Richard stopped him.    "He just asked you out to the dance?"        "Yes!! Has Dex asked you yet? Cause then we could go suit shopping together!" As usual, his younger brother was way too excited about these things than anyone had a right to be, but Franklin had always loved dressing up and going to parties.         "Dude, you don't need to go out and buy a whole suit for this. Not like it's prom," Lavernius told the junior. "Just pick something nice you already have. And can someone please tell Rich here that there's no way Dex would turn him down?"        Franklin's head perked up at that, looking his older brother dead in the eyes. "Rich, if he doesn't say yes, he's an idiot and in denial. He's been over for dinner more this year than the last three combined."        "I rest my case. Now c'mon, I've got a baby who's probably driving my dad up the walls."        Once out in the parking lot, Richard looked around for Dexter's old beater that was in this horrible, bright orange with the doors painted an even brighter yellow. Apparently having sensed his rising anxiety, F.I.L.S.S. started playing music from his relaxation playlist through the headphones around his neck that were connected to his prosthetic arm. "Thanks," he muttered to the AI before speaking up to get his younger brother's attention, giving the keys an underhand toss. "I'm gonna go find Dex. I'll be home in time to make dinner, promise." All of the other teens smiled at him as he jogged off, going up and down the rows to hopefully beat Dexter to his own car.        Thankfully he'd made it just a couple minutes before the shorter senior came over, drinking a soda that he'd gotten from one of the vending machines. "Oh, hey, man. Not goin' home yet?"        "Told Franklin I'd be back to start dinner. Wanted to hang out with you a bit." Dex raised an eyebrow at this but just shrugged, unlocking the car and getting in. It didn't take long for Richard to realize they weren't going to the middle school to pick up Kai. "Uhh. . . ."        "Relax, she's spending the weekend with some friends at a sleepover since our parents are out of town."        "So you're staying home alone? All weekend?"        "Yep."    Somehow this felt like the perfect opportunity to finally suck it up and ask him. No Kai around to spy on them, and nothing embarrassing to try explaining to their adopted parents. So far, so good. When they got to the Grifs' house, both teens kicked off their shoes and put their backpacks by the door, Richard setting up Halo 12 while Dexter went to the kitchen to grab some drinks and some chips. He made sure the red head was getting a thing of carrot juice, while he grabbed another soda for himself. "So, what's up? Normally you give me a heads up before showing up at my car."     "Eh, just didn't wanna hear Franklin talk my ear off about matching suits with Frank or whatever. Also hoping to avoid having Tucker call me to complain how stupid it is that he can't invite Wash to the dance. Pretty likely he'd also complain about Caboose not shutting up about asking Loco out."     "Are those two actually dating or . . . . ?"     "Dunno. But they're definitely going to the dance together." They sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to play a couple practice games of capture the flag before deciding whether or not they wanted to do an online match. "So, uh, are you going with anyone? If at all?"     "Maybe? No one's asked yet, and I'm not sure anyone would really wanna go with me. You going?"     Richard just shrugged before recoiling a bit at a sudden, sharp pain in his arm. "Ow! F.I.L.S.S.!"     "My apologies. I must have hit a wrong nerve trying to move the fingers."     The taller teen glared down at his metallic arm for a second, going back to their game and attempting to continue the conversation. "Been thinking about it. Had sort of an idea who to ask. Besides, Sarge'd want me to go to keep an eye on Franklin anyway."     "Good ol' Sarge."     Feeling the AI in control of his arm in the back of his head and ready to send more shocks up his arm, Richard took a deep breath. "Do you wanna go to the dance? With . . . . me? Maybe? You don't have to, y'know, but if you want, it'd be nice. But you don't have to!"     "Dick?"     "Yeah?"     "Course, dumbass. Who else would I go with?"     About an hour later, the lanky teen found himself back home and in-between on steps in cooking dinner, Franklin bouncing in place as he sat on the counter, watching impatiently. "So?"     "So what?"     "Did you ask him?"     "Did Rich ask who what?" Sarge asked, coming into the kitchen to see what his boys were talking about.     "Richard asked Dexter to the dance this Valentine's Day," F.I.L.S.S. spoke up for the boy, knowing he was too nervous from earlier still to hold any sort of conversation.     "Bout dang time, son. You been fawnin' over him for the last four years now. How late's the dance s'posed ta go?"     "11:30 the latest," the blond teen answered back, their dad just nodding, knowing he could trust them both to not stay out too late.     Later that night, Franklin had texted Lavernius the good news, and the two proceeded to gush over this new development together, the older of the two saying he was afraid they wouldn't ask each other out until well after they graduated in a few months. The next few days were then spent with both of them trying to pick out a classy outfit to the dance, Lavernius saying he'd probably have to take Dexter shopping if the man had any hope of looking decent. So by the time the dance was there, their entire group showed up dressed in black slacks(minus Franklin who was in white with Frank), and they all had their own solid-color button-ups.     Loco and Michael tried splitting their time between the dance floor and eating snacks, while Franklin couldn't sit down from sheer excitement. Richard was too awkward to even attempt dancing, so he was glad to hang back and have some snacks with Dexter, making sure the shorter male didn't get the shirt or pants Lavernius had bought too messy. Speaking of which, he hadn't seen the darker skinned teen since getting into the main hall. This wasn't going to end well. . . .     "So, probably brought this up sooner, but why did you ask me here? I mean, we're not dating or whatever Loco and Caboose are."     "And you call me the dumbass. . . . I kinda thought it'd be obvious? I asked you out to the Valentine's Day dance. Should be pretty self-explanatory."     Dexter nodded a bit, eating a few more bites of his snacks. "True. But I wanna hear you say it."     Now Richard's face was starting to turn a similar shade of red as his hair, if just a shade darker. It wasn't a nearly full-body blush like Wash was known to get from time-to-time, but it did make his freckles blend together a bit. Just as she had last week, F.I.L.S.S. threatened to shock him again if he didn't speak up soon. Her personality had been really weird since Thanksgiving, he'd have to talk to Dr. Church about that.     "I- I like you, okay? I missed you a lot after you had to leave, and then you came back and I thought things'd be like when we were kids again, but it wasn't, and it still isn't, which I think is okay, y'know? We still bicker a lot sometimes, but it's not like when we were little. And you're always there for me when I need it, and you didn't hate me when you found out about me being a boy. Still can't believe you outed me in bio, though. I know, it was an accident. But you're my best friend, and I don't think I would've wanted to ask anyone else to come with me." Taking a deep breath, he started calming down a bit. "Honestly, it was probably a good thing you had to leave cause I think even when we were kids I had a crush on you. And I don't think I could've sorted that out on my own if you were still living with us."     "Huh. Good to know. I like you a lot, too. Thought about you the whole time I was gone. I mean, hard not to, considering you're why I was able to get my skin grafts. So even though you weren't around, you kinda were?" Side-eyeing the other, Dexter noticed the blush had gotten darker "So . . . are we dating now?"    "I think so? If you want to, anyway."     "Cool, guess I can finally do this," the heavier teen said, more of to himself, before leaning over and kissing his now-boyfriend, able to feel the heat radiate off his face from how flushed he was. It was at that moment that a bright flash got their attention, making them look up and see the overhead balcony where one Lavernius Tucker Church stood with his phone out, cheering in triumph.     "Finally! I've waited four years for this!" he cheered before running off to find his younger brother for safety.     "Wha- Tucker, no, I wanna dance with Loco more!" the younger boy tried telling him, as he tried climbing up his back and onto his shoulders. Lavernius just reassured him it'd just be for a little bit, to protect him from Dexter.     "Okay, Tucker's officially the group dumbass now."

[moved-to-moothebloo]

Sorry you're home sick RTA! How about Greenflame for the ship ask?

Thank you dude! Sorry it took me a while to get to this, but here and I got it now! Thanks for your patience.

1. How do much do I ship it?: Never heard of it/ Notp / Dislike / used to ship / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / IS IT CANON YET?

2. What non sexual activities do they like to do together?

Training, going to see movies, sometimes playing video games, fighting among side each other in battle and saving people together, racing each other with their elemental dragons, or just talking to each other.

3. Who does chores around the house?

Lloyd is often more busy then Kai so he has to finish the chores more often.

4.Who’s the better cook?

Kai. But only because he secretly watches youtube videos on how to cook before he does, he refuses to admit it though. No matter how much Lloyd can see through his bluff.

5. Who’s the funniest drunk?

Even if Lloyd did drink, he still wouldn’t get nearly as loopy as Kai does.

It might have to do with the time he got sprayed with Venomari venom, but Kai can get very out of touch with reality and do a lot of stupid yet hilarious stuff. Lloyd does everything he can to make sure he doesn’t get seriously hurt, but sometimes isn’t also afraid to film him when he’s doing something particularly hilarious to show to the others.

6. Do they have kids?

I could definitely imagine them adopting a kid when they both get older, but since Kai didn’t have parents for most of his life growing up, and Lloyd had a lot of issues with his father, I would imagine both of them would be very unsure of how to parent.

Lloyd would play the roll of the over enthusiastic happy-go-lucky parent, who really doesn’t want to be a bad father and goes out of his way to make sure he isn’t even remotely similar to how his father once was.

Kai would be the “cool dad,” letting the kid stay up a little bit past bedtime, try to act cool in front of the kids friends, and be a lot more chill than Lloyd. Mostly because he doesn’t really know if he’s doing things right, but if he acts confident about it then it can’t be that bad. (Which is basically his mindset for everything.)

Both of them I would imagine being very protective. Lloyd more than Kai in just common life, but Kai would most certainly turn into a paranoid wreck if their kid is ever put in a situation where she could be really hurt, like if the kid was training to go on missions or things like that.

(Sorry this turned much longer then I thought it would, I know the question was just “would they have kids” but I absolutely love this idea so much I had to expand on it a little bit at least.)

7. Do they have any traditions?

I’m not really sure. I could imagine the two of them doing something on the day Lloyd defeated the Overlord (sort of) since the two of them were quite a big focus during that time. Idk.

8. What do they fight about?

Oh boy here we go.

Obviously they would have simple little arguments sometimes like most couples do, but I think there would be one really big problem they would really get emotional with.

I know this is sort of behavior for Kai is only sort of hinted at in canon, but I imagine Kai would be very loyal and protective of Lloyd, to the point of making himself think he matters less than him, and put his own well-being and even his life on the line to make sure Lloyd’s safe. Lloyd of coarse doesn’t want him to do that and have Kai possibly get too hurt trying to help him, but Kai is just too terrified of the thought of loosing Lloyd to listen to him.

I’m not super sure how Kai would break out of that mindset, that could probably be for a fanfic all on it’s own, but I have faith they’d be okay.

9. What would they do if they found their paring tag on tumblr? (If they have one)

Well they’re not real so they never would, but I think if they don’t find the hateful stuff, Kai would absolutely love all the fanart, fics, and other stuff people have made and would totally show any new kind of things he finds to Lloyd, which would just make him blush and feel a little shy.

10.Who cried at the end of Marley and me?

Out of the two of them, Lloyd would probably cry the most while Kai would act like it doesn’t get to him but would be crying himself to sleep that night.

11.Who always wins at Mario kart?

Lloyd. Kai could get close but he always makes a wrong turn somewhere that would completely mess him up. Also Lloyd can be downright evil with turtle shells.

(Lil extra headcannon: I would imagine on game night where everyone is playing Mario Kart together, Kai would always focus on helping Lloyd win without letting Lloyd even know.)

12.One thing I like about this ship?

Greenflame has almost all my favorite ship tropes put into it, and reminds me a lot of a bunch of other otps I ship. I know a lot of what I like about the ship involves a lot of projecting things that aren’t entirely there, but …it’s shipping. It’s kind of part of the bargain.

13.One thing I don’t like about the ship?

Ignoring the obvious elephanti in the room, the only thing I don’t like about it is it competes with another ship I like equally as much as greenflame is greenstorm. To this day I still can’t choose which one I like more.

14.The song I would say fits them?

Ho ho man, I don’t think I could choose just one. I listen to a lot of soundtrack pieces that remind me of them, heck I could probably make a whole playlist, but if I had to pick and choose, I would narrow it down to these two songs:

Do it for Her - After everything I’ve just said, this should be quite self explanatory. Just switch the genders and pronouns and I could personally imagine Kai singing this about Lloyd to… I’m not sure who but you get my point.

Your Silver Garden - Okay I admit, this is mostly a greenflame song for me because of my Magica AU so it’s probably really weird coming from an outsider, but gosh darn this song is just so beautiful and reminds me so much of those two that I couldn’t not mention it.

15. Another headcanon about the paring? (Free space)

Lloyd and Kai hold hands almost all the time. Mostly when they’re out in public areas, on missions, or by themselves. It’s a big comfort for both of them.

Send meee a ship

[ghost-chance]

Blocked : Hair

Ghost is gone. Cold's gone. There's supposed to be no one else in the Thomas-Chance house now except for Donnie...but the gruesome discovery in the parlor makes him worry he's not alone, but trapped with a sick killer.

         Hey there, Ladies and Gents! Ghost here with a special announcement. "Blocked" now has an official playlist! You can find it on Spotify by way of the link here; in between chapters of the story, you can get your fix by listening to music related to this crack-tastic story, and you can also find other story-related playlists on the same profile. Hope to see y'all soon, and hope y'all're havin' a great March!      

                 The official "Blocked" playlist on Spotify    

                    Hair

It came out of nowhere. At least, Donnie felt, he was sure he never saw it coming. Something in the small house in the suburbs was different and he wasn't sure what it was, or what it meant. All he knew for certain were a few seemingly unrelated things.

Fact: Cold left for his manufacturing job early, intent on getting his taxes done beforehand. Fact: Ghost endured a repetitive headache-bordering-on-migraine every single day for the last two-and-a-half weeks which no medication or rest improved. Fact: Ghost stormed out without fanfare that morning, hair bound into a single meticulously woven braid, with only a rather cantankerous note stating "I'll be back later, don't blow anything up." Finally, the final fact: there was a stranger in the house—a very heavyset stranger with short, wavy brown hair cut neatly just above her shoulders—a stranger who reeked of some overly expensive salon chemicals and putrid cigar smoke and seemed intent on raiding Ghost's tea stash.

Worried, confused, and increasingly alarmed, Donnie edged nearer to the kitchen in hopes of catching a glimpse of the stranger's face. As she snatched the whistling tea kettle off the stove and poured boiling water over her choice teabag—by the scent of it, an expensive brand of oolong Ghost saved for special occasions and major SHTF moments—the mutant crept past the kitchen to the living room. It hadn't escaped his notice that the stranger brought something with her, a familiar bottle of fine Scotch whisky. Fresh and unopened, the bottle waited on the kitchen counter still cluttered from Cold's rushed pre-work lunch-making.

In the dark, silent parlor, Ghost's cellphone waited helpfully on the scuffed coffee table amidst Missouri Conservationist magazines and junk-mail, probably forgotten…and it wasn't alone. Something sat beside it—something small and dark, wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. The bag drew Donnie, an ominous prickle creeping along the tender scales at the back of his neck. Repeatedly glancing back to the kitchen and the stranger savoring his host's fanciest tea, he reached out for the bag. His lungs refused to cooperate as he carefully untied the fastened handles, unwrapping the contents slowly so as to avoid detection.

Ghost sighed wearily, staring down into the Celadon hued tea filling her favorite teacup. Normally she saved the Revolution Blackberry Jasmine Oolong—and the vintage china cup decked with blooming herbs—for special occasions or moments when she was in dire need of a mental vacation, but after that afternoon, she absolutely needed the moment. After all, no matter how psychotic her father became in public, the commercials lie—spouting "Calgon, take me away!" never accomplished anything more than earning her strange looks.

Her father…as if it could ever be anything else. This time, he hadn't thrown any punches or toddler-tantrums…instead he proceeded to make some really off-color remarks about the young man who waited their table—a rather attractive black gentleman with unusual bright blue eyes. Normally, even her father wouldn't bat an eye over the server but the blue eyes completely disabled his brain-to-mouth filter and tore him away from shooting scowls at the lesbian couple a table away.

Ghost shook her head, scowling down at the memory. Honestly, there was enough unrest in the country as it was without her father being a bigoted cad. Sane and civilized men didn't bitch in public about someone's eyes being 'freakier than a rug-munching ninny,' much less at full volume. Years before, he wouldn't have said anything like it either…alas, ever since the knock on his noggin, her father was increasingly prone to bigotry, judgmental behavior, and thoughtless, cringe-worthy rants. Fortunately, Ghost's parents raised her correctly before her father became a cad…and because of that, she excused herself to the ladies' on the way out, sought out the server then the lesbian couple, apologized for her father's off-color remarks, and personally paid for the ladies' meals and added to the meager tip the elder left for his own meal…all that, and they hadn't even heard him.

Now, frustrated and stinking of her father's cheap cigars but finally free of the weight on her shoulders, she stood in her small, cluttered kitchen, hopeful for at least a short break from reality—just a few minutes to commune with her tea and become more human again before she wound up biting some poor sucker's head off! Apparently, someone up there found this want completely unreasonable and interfered: a blood-curdling shriek rang out in the supposedly empty parlor. She nearly dropped the tea cup in her hurry to arm herself for what she nightmare might find.

The bag lay open, the macabre trophy inside half-spilled onto the table. Paralyzed with fear and dread, Donnie cowered in the corner, too afraid to even take his eyes off of it. Without warning the stranger appeared in the doorway, bespectacled blue-green eyes wild, one hand clutching a lit lighter and the other a can of bug spray. Primed to fry the supposed home invader with her improvised flamethrower, she froze in the doorway and searched the parlor to no avail. The moment she registered Donnie and followed his gaze to the bag on the table, everything became clear.

"What the flyin' fuck, Donnie?" she spouted in a surprisingly familiar voice and accent. "Ya had me thinkin' someone was gettin' murdered!" Hazel eyes fixed on her, their owner forcing a noisy swallow and glancing around frantically for something he could use as a weapon.

"Who are you?!" he demanded shrilly. "What've you done with Ghost?! Why do you have her hair?!" The woman blinked in surprise, tilted her head in confusion, then, clearly coming to the conclusion that he was serious, she set down her cargo and strode over to the table. Without a single word, she gathered her hair into a stumpy bundle with one hand and held the severed foot-and-a-half braid up to her neck with the other, visibly waiting for him to connect the dots. Sure enough, blinking and staring, he did just that. "Wha…Ghost? That's you? What—what happened?"

"Nothin' out'a the ordinary," Ghost explained with a shrug and passed him a folded up sheet of paper from the bag the braid came out of. "I've got really thick hair—when it gets too long, I get headaches from it, so when I had a headache for a week straight I knew it was time to get it all lopped off again." Donnie looked over the paper in silent bemusement. "Here," Ghost smirked tossing the braid into his lap. "Have a dead animal." To her disappointment, he didn't even notice much less jump and squeal.

"Locks…of Love?" he read aloud slowly then met her eyes. "You grow your hair out...so you can donate it?"

"Every time," she admitted awkwardly, embarrassed by the discussion. She wasn't normally one to toot her own horn—she believed when you tell others of your good deeds, it lessens the impact of that good deed. Donnie, however, wanted answers, and there was no point in hiding what was obvious. "They make wigs for kids who lose their hair from cancer, an' what they can't use, they sell to raise money for donation. I'm lazy 'bout getting' my hair cut, an' it's not like that hair's doin' any good goin' in the rubbish, right?"

It had absolutely nothing to do with losing relatives to cancer, nothing to do with Uncle Bob's ongoing losing battle with cancer, and even more nothing to do with a certain childhood classmate who died of leukemia. No, it had nothing to do with any of those sob-stories, or at least, so she told herself. After all, she couldn't focus on the reason behind the habit—the reason she continually grew out her hair, struggled and fought to keep it long and healthy, cursed it in one moment and coddled it the next, all to hack it all off and pay postage to have it shipped away. She couldn't focus on the painful truths or she'd go mad from hurt. How could she appreciate a well-executed side-braid while recalling the bald heads of those she lost to cancer? Denial wasn't a healthy reaction to anything, but it certainly could improve one's sense of humor.

"I…guess not," Donnie mumbled, wincing as he finally noticed the braid draped over one crossed thigh. His snout a little crinkled from awkward disgust, he lifted the braid to pass it back to her only to startle. In visible disbelief he hefted the braided length calculating its weight. "Holy heck—this thing must weigh two-point-fifty-seven pounds!"

"Try three," Ghost countered with a shrug, pretending she wasn't inwardly girly-squealing over his nerdy proclamation. Damn, that turtle was tempting. "Stylist weighed it. I have stupid-thick hair. Used to be worse, too—used to be I had to have my hair thinned out regularly. Now I'm gettin' old an' it's gettin' thinner but the weight's still enough to give me headaches. Just leave the rodent on the table, I'll mail it later."

Without another backward glance, she strode back into the kitchen; sure enough, another pair of feet softly padded after her, bringing a dorky grin to her face. No, she reminded herself firmly, no touchie! He's taken and so're you! She tried to physically shake off the unwelcome thoughts—and urges, unfortunately—and as so often before, wound up reaching for the only thing that made sense in those moments.

Donnie watched silently as Ghost drained the last of her tea, rinsed her cup, and cracked open the brand new bottle of Scotch to pour herself a couple fingers' worth. Although the change startled him, he was glad for it—in moments like this, savoring her whisky with an almost serene smile that was out of place on her face, she looked so much like Amber it hurt. At least with her hair short she couldn't keep it braided…at least without the braids, she might not resemble Amber so closely and it mightn't hurt so much to see her.

Monday morning—the most irritating of all weekdays, and for Donnie, the day he had to endure the most bitching from Cold about having to work. Honestly, the mutant thought with tight lips, he'd love to be able to work—to contribute to this odd little family who let him stay with them without question. Unfortunately, the pickings were slim…it was either do home repairs for the blind elderly lady next door and risk getting seen by the rest of the neighborhood or assist Ghost with their online sales. At least with him managing the card sales she could somewhat focus on her novel…and getting him home. So far, neither was getting anywhere.

An ominous creaking noise echoed down the dark hallway; a bolt of white and ginger followed—Woozle taking off like a bat out of hell with panic in his copper orange eyes. "Lil' Trai'er," a sleep-graveled voice reprimanded the spastic feline then paused for a loud yawn. "Keep pushin' it, yer stanky ass's due fer a bath." Out of the corner of his eye, Donnie caught sight of something out of his worst nightmares.

Donnie's startled yelp drew a dirty glare from Ghost—a glare that seemed unusually poisonous peeking through the sleep-mussed hair sticking out in every direction. "Short hair don't care," she grumbled at the frozen mutant and shuffled over to the coffee pot. "Suck it."

     WORDS:  

So're - So are

Trai'er - sleep-slurred 'Traitor'

Yer stanky ass's due fer a bath! - Your smelly ass is due for a bath! Yes, we bathe our cats a few times yearly - they're both indoor-only but they're incredibly lazy about grooming and Woozle gets dandruff if he's not regularly conditioned. They're both due for a dip but we're waiting for warmer weather...currently we've hit the middle of the Spring rainy season and we're too busy drowning to bathe the butts.

     Notes       

So. Let's just get this out of the way: Yes, I ended up hacking off almost all my hair recently because it was heavy enough to give me headaches again ALREADY. I endured a constant headache that lasted over a week - actually about a week-and-a-half - and decided the haircut just couldn’t wait any longer. Usually I have it in two braids when it get it cut off - last time they were both over a foot long - but this time it was about a foot in a single braid. For those not accustomed to long hair, dual-braids tend to be longer than single braids, sometimes almost twice as long, because they’re thinner. For that reason, while the single braid was only about a foot long, in twin braids, my hair was past my waist...and it was HEAVY.

Also, yes, the home-invasion bit IS fiction imitating reality...we actually live in an apartment complex and keeping firearms in the home wouldn't be safe. Therefore, anytime I start feeling like someone unwelcome has made it inside I go lighter-and-aerosol to torch their asses. Fortunately it's usually just Woozle being a creeper. ;D

[some-cookie-crumbz]

We Are Stars

Title: We Are Stars Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Keidge Summary: Request for Pidge and Keith doing a little bit of dancing. Ended up a little sappier than I intended. Heavily inspired by this song: [link] Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more. AN: Second fill for some requests I received. Will post the others soon, due to me still working on them.

She had done it again.

Pidge was normally a workaholic who focused more on her projects than maintaining her sense of personal care. It was something that he could relate and admire about her; within certain parameters, anyway. He had once watched her spend four days straight, running on nothing but these awful alien drinks that could only be described as Red Bull and Monster having some unholy love-child abomination together, to assist with some heavy repairs to an allied ship after a confrontation with a Galra fleet. It was obvious that her passion for technology and ability to learn about the most foreign of alien mechanisms was an asset to not only herself and their team, but the universe as a whole. Her being someone that would dedicate herself so fully to her work was another perk, revealing her under played attribute of reliability.

But there were points when she really did go a little overboard.

He had found her two other times passed out from one too many all-nighters working on new defenses for the castle or upgrades for the Lions and the like. The first time he’d found her like that, she had gotten defensive and confrontational immediately, escalating so that they were bickering with one another pretty aggressively. It had occurred only a short time after they had joined Team Voltron, before either of them had an understanding of the other, and shortly after Pidge had nearly left to go looking for her family. After having a bit of time to cool down and some bartering on Keith’s part, Hunk agreed to play mediator and got an answer as to what was up with her.

She’d been trying to stay distracted because her Dad’s birthday was a few days away.

Keith had sympathized immediately. Years after the fact, there were still days that he ached for his own Dad; the holidays and birthdays being significantly painful. Much like Pidge, he found things to keep himself distracted. He did, however, have someone he could trust and talk to when the feelings were too hard for him to bear alone in Shiro. And for Pidge? Well, if he had to reason a guess, he figured that Matt had probably been that person for her before Kerberos. The way she talked about her brother and father made it clear how much she loved and admired them. And with what little he knew about her time at the Garrison, she’d been more focused on her mission and goals than making any long standing friendships. She got on well enough with Lance and Hunk, but neither of them could offer up much information that she had willingly shared with them, and Pidge herself had been too preoccupied to pay attention whenever either of them had tried to share with her.

So Keith had sought her out and, very bluntly, told her that he had an idea of what she was going through and that he was there if she wanted to talk.

At first she’d seemed ready to reprimand him for his words, judging by how her mouth had curled halfway up in a defiant snarl, but the corner of her lips twitched in hesitation. She instead whipped around, shifting with the blueprints she’d been looking over with more gusto than necessary, and barked at him to leave her alone and stop wasting her time. He had yielded at that point, but two days later when Samuel Holt’s birthday was, he went and checked on her anyway. She was at her desk, body wound so tight he wondered how she hadn’t snapped in two, putting together some kind of small, round electronic device.

“Go. Away,” She had said, her tone flat and final and short.

“What are you working on?” Keith asked abruptly, walking over and leaning his hip against her work station, pointedly ignoring her words. Her hands halted briefly in their frenzied work of twisting the device this way or that, trying to get the two pieces to snap together, and she lifted her head to glare at him. The heavy bags under her eyes killed the effect she was going got a bit, but he opted not to call attention to it. He instead indicated the device with a dip of his head and calmly repeated, “What are you working on?”

Her eyes shifted from him to the device and then the blueprints before her, brows knit together in a mix of bemusement and frustration. He could practically hear the gears in his mind twisting and turning, trying to determine what angle he was coming at her from exactly. Slowly her gaze moved back to him and she held the device up so he could get a better look. “Well, I’m intending for it to be a sort of short-circuiting device,” She said calmly.

He nodded and hummed, pulling a spare chair over and sliding to sit a bit closer to her. “Wouldn’t that have bad repercussions for our team if we were too close when it went off?” He quizzed.

She rolled her eyes and her lips kicked up in a small smirk. “I’m not an amateur, you know. What I’m trying to do is key it up so that it can tell the difference between us and the enemy. It’ll be able to read our electrical signals and determine that we shouldn’t be effected and specifically target any device without a matching wavelength,” She said calmly. He watched as she grabbed a small screwdriver and began take the outer shell off of one, pointing and explaining how the mechanisms inside functioned. He understood a decent amount of what she was saying, but it wasn’t really why he’d asked.

The more she spoke, the more the tension in her body gradually relaxed, the spark in her eye kicking back up.

The next time she got in a funk like that had been the anniversary of when the Kerberos mission failure was announced. Keith himself understood the bitterness and anger bubbling inside her – he himself still struggled with the feelings that deceit left in him, even though he knew Shiro was alive and well – and once again took it upon himself to offer his assistance in the form of a distraction. They had just finished up a battle to free a Galra-controlled planet and the Lions were all pretty rough off. Hunk had sprained an ankle on the mission – an injury he insisted didn’t warrant a trip to the healing pods – and he had volunteered to help Pidge with the repairs in Hunk’s stead. Having someone to work with and help teach seemed to be a good way to get her mind off of things. Keith was well-versed in the basics of repairs and self-taught himself a bit in the way of mechanics, but Pidge was on a whole other level and learning some of her tricks was beneficial for him and seemed to be a stress relief for her.

This time, however, he had no idea what had set her off or how to distract her.

They were taking a small break from battle to focus on recruiting more planets into the Voltron Alliance, coasting in the stars from planet to planet on the outskirts of galaxies where the Galra had yet to take complete control. There was no need for battle – only an occasional air show with the Lions to prove who they were – nor were there any repairs needed, as she, Coran and Hunk had taken care of all that before they started recruiting in the first place. Furthermore, they were running low on spare parts and components for her to tinker around with, so the most she could really do was blueprints and rough drafts.

Keith knew she was going to need a distraction of some sort; so, with a hard swallow of his pride, he asked Lance for a favor.

Despite not being able to do much else, Pidge was still at her desk in the hanger, scratching away at some graphing paper as if her life depended on it. She shifted a bit when the doors opened but seemed unconcerned with someone coming in. “Hey,” He said quietly as he approached, one hand shoved in his jacket pocket and palming the device Lance had agreed to lend him.

She let out a small grunt of acknowledgement, setting her pencil down to grab an eraser. He watched as she erased a line that she had drawn connecting two pillar-like objects and brush away the little bits left behind. “Did you need something?” She asked, her tone a mix of curt and tired that he never thought possible. Whatever was plaguing her mind was really getting to her.

“Nothing I need but there is something I want,” He said calmly, pulling out the small device. He tapped the small center button, put in the unlock code and skimmed through the little iPod for the playlist he’d cobbled together over the last three days of research. While he and Lance had very different tastes in music, there had luckily been a few songs that Keith was fond of or knew well enough to get a one-hour playlist going.

Pidge slowly turned her chair to face him fully as he set the little device down on the corner her desk, the soft acoustic chords of The Only Exception by Paramore starting up from the small speaker. “What are you-?” She was cut off by his taking a step back and offering her one of his hands.

“Dance with me,” He said, holding a breath after the words left his mouth. This was a complete gamble for him; after all, he had no idea if something like this would be to Pidge’s liking or if she might read what this really was. They’d had many conversations about various things but dancing and musical taste were not subjects they had ever touched on. On top of that, dancing was something he’d always considered to be intimate and, well, incredibly romantic. He only hoped that she wouldn’t read this as a confession – as he wasn’t ready or sure how to approach that topic – and laugh him right out of the hanger.

Indigo locked with bronze for a full minute before the weight of her hand settled in his. “I’m warning you now that I’m not very good. Most of my dancing background is being led on my dad’s feet in the kitchen and ballet classes when I was in grade school,” She warned him, her tone just a bit softer than before.

“I’m choosing to read the ballet lessons to mean you can at least match a beat,” He teased lightly as he guided her to the empty space between she and Hunk’s respective work spaces. It was a comfortable enough space that they could move with relative freedom without the risk of bumping or knocking anything over. She laughed slightly at his comment and settled to matching her steps with his, glancing down briefly at their feet.

The first few songs went by easily enough, all being softer and slower songs that are easier to sway to. For the most part, Pidge was still tense and uneasy, but a bit more fluid than she had been perched up on her chair. When they were greeted by the severe mood whiplash of The Macarena pumping out the speaker, though, she let out a few let snorts, clearly struggling to keep back her laughter. He grinned a bit and stepped back to perfectly follow the dance instructs of the song, which only made her laugh even more. “Where did you learn that?” She chortled, reaching up with one hand to wipe at her eye lightly.

“My baby-sitter used to teach me goofy dances when I was really young because my Dad thought it was cute,” He said lightly. He swallowed down the painful sting the little bit of nostalgia left in him and beamed when Pidge started trying to imitate the steps. “It’s really easy if you just listen to the beat and the steps. Here, let me help you.”

He slid behind her and tried to help guide her, the two of them working like an odd, poorly coordinated puppet show, but they were laughing the whole time. The next song was another peppier, upbeat jam that Keith didn’t recognize, but Pidge seems to be as she started humming along. He twirled her around with a bit of a flourish and the two started up a terrible mockery of a tango. The next song was some song from Grease that led to Pidge teaching him how to do the hand-jive dance from the film. That was followed up by a sandwich of Pop by N’Sync in between two Backstreet Boys songs; Larger than Life and The Call, respectively, and they dissolve into less of actually dancing and more tripping over each other’s feet while doing intentionally terrible karaoke. Those three were followed by Angry White Boy Polka by Weird Al Yankovich, which felt like the cherry on top.

Pidge’s mood seemed to dip slightly when I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons came on, which seemed odd to him. It was another song that was a bit more boisterous and energetic, with a pleasant enough sound to it. She started to pull back from him but he nudged her closer. “Something’s bothering you. Tell me what it is,”

She grimaced and let out a long, drawn out groan in response, her gaze darting to various other points in the hanger.

“Pidge,” He said more sternly, one hand moving to catch her chin and force her to look at him, “I’m not a mind reader. Tell me what’s bothering you.”

She stared at him for a moment before she moved closer to him. She shifted up to her tip-toes, resting her chin on his shoulder and tilting her head a bit, the ends of her hair teasing along his cheek. The hand that had been on his opposite shoulder had slid to wrap around his neck, her fingers fidgeting with the back collar of his shirt a bit, while the other had slithered to wrap around his side and rest that hand on the middle of his. “My mom,” She said softly, voice coming out small and strained, only audible due to the small delay as the iPod shuffled to the next song.

He leaned his own head against hers, his cheek pressing into her temple and a small sliver of her ear, and hummed softly. “You miss her,” He said quietly, slowly beginning to sway them to the gentle tempo of the song.

“I just… It would have been her and Dad’s wedding anniversary today. And he’s not there to be with her to celebrate. Hell, she’s all alone on Earth thinking that we’re all probably dead,” She choked out, her last statement coming out as a borderline hysterical laugh. She tilted her head and pressed her face into the crook of his neck, a faint blush tinting his cheeks. “I know I did the right thing in what I did… Know that it’s better I stay here as a Paladin so I can find Matt and Dad… But it still hurts to know how much she must be suffering.”

He hummed quietly and wrapped his arms more snuggly around her, shifting so that her feet are resting atop his as they swayed to and fro with the song. “Maybe we can talk to Allura about jumping to Earth sometime just so you guys can tell your families you’re alive,” He suggested. She hummed noncommittally in response. He gently stroked one hand along her back in slow, small circles that he hoped she took comfort in. “And, I know it’s probably not worth much, but I’m glad you’re here.” She sniffled quietly and pressed more into, her holds on him tightening ever so slightly, and he felt a small smile turn up his lips as they drifted to the slow beat of the song.

I see nothing worse, than to sail this universe without you.

[jynxeddraca]

I’m going to talk about Valerian for a bit

And fair warning, spoilers ahead

So as I mentioned the other day I got to go watch Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets with my uncle.  Again.  Movie was gorgeous to look at, story line really needed work.  It started off really well too.  They had a nicely paced prologue that wasn’t too long, not too short that didn’t include a lot of unnecessary talking and showed more than they told.  So far so good.  Second prologue kinda threw me but caught my interest, I didn’t care for the Avatar like aliens (seriously, if James Cameron didn’t have some sort of influence on nearly naked, glowing, oddly colored, alien whose tits you almost see the entire time she’s on screen I’ll be legitimately surprised).

I mentioned in my previous post about Valerian that I have issues about the romance of the movie.  Now, apparently it is based off a French graphic novel called ‘Valerian and Laureline’ and I’m going to assume in the novel they get together.  However, I honestly thought they were supposed to be siblings from the trailers so the romance 1000% threw me for a loop.  Not only was it out of the blue in the movie but it was heavily forced.  Neither of them seem strongly interested in the other and Laureline makes a quip about how he has commitment issues and pulls up his ‘playlist’ (which apparently is about women he wants in the sack or has already had in the sack?) to his great embarrassment.

Dude asks her to marry him within the next five minutes and she shuts him down because a)they’re on a mission and b) he has issues (she tells him so but I only watched it the once so I forgot exactly what was said).  The way they shot this disrupted the flow of the movie and came completely out of left field.  And he pushes the issue throughout the movie even though she tells him ‘no’ in no uncertain terms and gives a damn good reason as to why she isn’t interested.

Now, I would like to point out that they are Federal Agents, he has the rank of Major (and looks like he’s 12) while she is a Sergeant.  He is essentially her commanding officer.  I can tell you right here and now that the military strongly frowns on COs trying to get in the pants of those they are in command of.  Not to mention the HR issues and lawsuit probabilities that this kind of harassment would bring.  I was honestly waiting for Laureline to punch Valerian the entire time because that seemed like something her character would do.  It doesn’t happen much to my dismay.

Also, they leave their first mission and basically leave the people helping them to die?  I think?  They never go back and let us know the other military people are not dead.

Speaking of, Valerian really has no redeeming features in this movie and is inconsistent as a character.  He tries to pull a ���protocols are law’ bullshit thing near the end but ignores that he had killed a business owner in Pleasure Alley and kidnapped an illegal immigrant forced to be a sex slave entertainer after promising to fast lane her to get legal/Citizenship status and who dies because she fell down a trash cute.  Pretty sure that isn’t protocol.  In that same scene Laureline mentions that she hates protocol and my first thought was ‘why are you in the military if you hate protocol?’.  At least was more consistent about that than Valerian because she does her own thing throughout the movie, Valerian doesn’t.  He’s just kinda all over the place.  And then for someone who is ‘in love’ with his partner he has no problem flirting with an illegal immigrant forced to be a sex slave entertainer while his partner is in mortal danger.  Who later creates an international incident by killing the emperor of one of the alien species.  Which he was trying NOT to do when he kidnapped requested the help of Rhianna’s character.

Speaking of Rhianna’s character (Whose name is Bubble, and is a total sweetheart).  She is probably the most fleshed out of the other characters and is the most consistent personality wise to her character.  She is also one of only 2 Black people I recall seeing in the entire movie (at least that got names, I didn’t pay that much attention to the background characters).  Both of them die.  One is murdered because he knows too much about the back story and Bubble dies falling down a trash chute with no obvious injuries. 

After fighting aliens. 

And helping the main characters escape from being murdered in a very bloody fashion. 

Seriously though, they do not give any reason why she dies (and then crumbles into dust after dropping love advice on Valerian?).  See, she’s not impaled, she isn’t acting like she’s poisoned, she wasn’t hurt two seconds ago in the fight, she doesn’t say anything is broken (considering her normal form is slightly transparent blue goo in a vaguely humanoid shape that wouldn’t even make sense anyways) she literally dies with no explanation at all while both Valerian and Laureline are completely and totally unhurt after their fall.  No reason.  I was so mad.

Moving on.  There are so many things wrong with this movie and one of the things that kinda threw me because it was shoe-horned into the movie badly was that apparently the Princess from the 2nd prologue bit was possessing/inside Valerian the entire time?  And they never hint at this in the movie?  Except once right before they reveal it? 

Then we see the glowing, African-inspired, grey-white, mostly naked aliens again.  They apparently survived the entire planet being blown to fucking bits by locking themselves in a very damaged space ship.  Then, THEN, it is revealed in the so many years of being trapped in this space capsule thing they learned things.  Specifically I recall them saying they learned mathematics, philosophy, history of other worlds, and space age mechanics but I may be missing something (only watched it once, do forgive) to the point of being able to recreate their home world in an alternate dimension (which granted while this was actually shown to be possible earlier in the movie I think you would need more than 30 years to learn how to do this). 

Like they actually state that they learned these things on a busted all to hell military space capsule fragment after living on a utopia where apparently they didn’t know these things.  Eventually they land on Alpha (the big city of a thousand planets) and live out of sight and steal shit for an amount of time (don’t recall if they even ever said) that ends up being 30 total years after their home world is blown up.

Also, the reason I said African-inspired aliens is because the Queen is wearing this:

Which kinda looks like this:

According to Google this is from the Maasai people from Kenya.  I recognized it pretty much immediately when I saw it though I couldn’t recall anything more than ‘I’m 95% certain that is from somewhere in Africa’. 

I didn’t think anything about this correlation until earlier today when I actually started to think about what this is implying.  These aliens (the Mül people, which sounds like ‘mule’ to me) lived in a utopia by the sea and never fought with each other but also didn’t have advanced math, philosophy, and what ever else they learned on their space ship prison (though they had cities, we saw those) but also had zero contact with the outside world to the point that no one had any idea they existed.  Then I remembered that the King literally says to Valerian that they spent 30 years homeless and learned to move pass their anger at those that annihilated their home world and forgive them.

Let me rephrase that:

They are an alien race, at the least visually based off the Maasai people of Kenya, Africa.

They were the victims of complete and utter genocide

The entire incident was swept under the rug to the point no one has any idea they ever existed ever because everything about them was literally deleted from the massive data-banks on Alpha to cover up the commander’s massive fucking error so he wouldn’t, and I quote, “Embarrass the human race” and to keep them from going into a recession that we couldn’t get back from.  Because what’s one planet really worth when you’re fighting a war?

They have been living at the edge of society and stealing shit in Alpha so they can recreate their home world which they do, though it is now located in an alternate dimension, away from everyone, floating through space in a beat up space capsule.

Maybe I’m reading way too much into this.  Maybe I’m seeing something that’s not there.  But I don’t like it.  It’s very close to ‘hey, they forgave us for annihilating them and they learned some cool shit so everything is okay’.  They don’t even really let on if the people responsible are punished.  Hell they leave one big loose end in that regard and that’s the head of the human race grants the acting commander full access to the bad guy’s files and some key files are still classified above the bad guy’s pay grade.  So this is a massive cover up possibly on all levels that will probably never fully come to light and I imagine everyone that helped try to bring it to life is going to get killed off to keep it a secret.  There is no happy ending here.

One more thing that kinda bothers me:  These people lost everything.  Their homes, their children, their families, their way of life.  But they’re not mad, they’re not angry, they’re not seeking to have the people who destroyed everything to come to justice or at least acknowledge their crimes.  They forgave them.  They forgave mass genocide and the destruction of their planet.

I can’t get passed that.  It’s not realistic that in 30 years that an entire species can experience and forgive people destroying everything they hold dear up to and including their planet.  Especially when it comes to light that the bad guy was 100% aware that the planet he was about to destroy in order to win a fight was populated and had nothing to do with the fight.

[iputaspxllonyou]

“  Went down to Tin Pan Alley See what was going on Things was too hot down there Couldn't stay very long.”

      -- Tin Pan Alley, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Author's Note: Well, I was talking Klonnie with @irresistible-revolution​ one of these times and I was listening to some blues music at the time, and really, all this started from the flash of a slow dancing scene in my head. And then I was looking for something to do with a bunch of excess energy and listening to a blues playlist yet again, and here this is. I'm gonna preface this by saying second person point of view isn't for everyone. And I don't often write in it. But this is how it demanded to be written, so this is the way it came out.

The songs quoted and a few others that helped inspire this mess:

Tin Pan Alley – Stevie Ray Vaughan

My Time After While – Buddy Guy

What Kind of Woman is This? – Buddy Guy

Rock Me Baby – BB King

Pride and Joy – Stevie Ray Vaughan

I Came Up Hard – Buddy Guy

Never Gonna Change – Buddy Guy

Out in the Woods – Buddy Guy

You've come a long way to make this journey. This pilgrimage, one might say.

You haven't been a vampire for long. A year, year and a half maybe, the months seem to draw together at this time. You have to re-learn time again when you are dead and unborn. It still passes, you just don't always pass with it.

But you have made it, you think, in a timely enough fashion. He should still be here, the one you've come to see. The one you've heard about. He who is Klaus Mikaelson. Once Original vampire, now Original hybrid. His name travels farther than his face does. You are only from the west coast of the United States, but through your efforts have only met two vampires that can actually say what a Klaus Mikaelson looks like.

To their credit, his features do not sound very distinguishable. Tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, handsome, smiling mouth and silver tongue. Unless he is speaking, he might be difficult to pick out in an otherwise diverse crowd.

And insofar, that is true. You are in New Orleans. You were told this bar is one he frequents, and in fact, he's probably in attendance tonight. You just don't know where.

It's only been a year, year and a half, since you turned. And yet it still feels like you're learning, learning, learning, still learning. Your super senses are young and dumb and sometimes you listen too hard and give yourself a headache, or look too hard and go cross-eyed. You can't tell the difference between smelling another vampire and just smelling another vampire on somebody else. The one who made you is a terrible teacher, but you don't know that yet. You won't know that for another six months. It isn't his fault, he's not a very old vampire himself. One of those new age, black leather and greasy hair God complex types. You try not to spend much time with him.

You know enough that there are vampires in the bar. Also witches and humans, and something else you can't quite put your finger on but that just seems to be New Orleans. Oh you can't help that, we're all mad here.

No one has their fangs out though. It's all low conversation, indolent flirtation and loud bursts of laughter. The clinking of glasses in hands and on top of the bar. Old dark wood that's swollen with moisture and age but glazed to hide the years. Cigarette smoke near the door and clusters of people to generate it.

There must be a band playing at some point. But for the time being, the only music comes from a Wurlitzer 1015 against the wall. With its neon lights and lazy bubbles, it's electric blues guitar and crooning voice,

" Tin Pan Alley's the roughest place I've ever been. All the people down there livin' for their whiskey, wine and gin."

You wonder if this is somebody's idea of a joke. Such a plain place and the Original hybrid, Klaus Mikaelson, is supposed to be here? And how will you know exactly if he is? Surely, the man doesn't walk around in full hybrid form; whatever that might be. Would it do any good to ask for him directly? That might send the wrong signal. He is king here. He is king everywhere, with the power to kill all creatures and never be touched by death himself. To not only be one of the Old Ones as you've heard him called, but also deathless. Has he always been here, you wonder? He has been here before you, and he'll still be here after you. The world of vampires is one of violence, you are young, but you hold no illusions of reaching a thousand years yourself. The first hundred years are the hardest.

Maybe he'll look different. Maybe he's that guy that just walked in. Or maybe he's in the bathroom. Maybe he's the guy nursing a watered down drink to your extreme left. Or maybe he's feeding out back. Or maybe he's even less obvious.

Like that nervous looking dark haired guy (kid? Does anybody know when Klaus was turned? Was he turned? Maybe you should ask if you meet him) talking to the smiling dark-skinned man next to him. Or maybe that's Klaus. A convenient way to hide himself in public, claim to be blond haired and blue eyed when he's really brown eyed and brown skinned. He looks like he's used to being in charge. Self-assured. Easy, confident smile. Busy hands and animated conversation. Extremely good-looking, and just as charming. You can tell by the collection of females gathering around him. He doesn't go long without getting a smile or a small chorus of laughs. You try to focus your hearing for the drop of the hybrid's name. It happens, but it's nothing definitive. Unless Klaus is the kind of guy to talk about himself in the third person at length.

So that one is a maybe.

Then there's this couple in what isn't exactly a dance floor, it's just open space where there are no tables and no stools. Buddy Guy going on about how it's his time after awhile isn't exactly the kind of music you dance to. But, they aren't exactly dancing to it either. More like the lazy sway, not quite rotation, of their own little private world. The woman is short, the man only has one hand at the small of her back, but really, one hand is all he needs to hold onto her. The other hand has what probably used to be a chilled beer in it. Every once and a while he drinks from it, but not once does he take his eyes off the girl. His girl.

This could be Klaus. He's blond haired and blue eyed. But there was no mention in the legend and tales told to you about a woman. Not in the way that this is his woman. She could just be someone he met tonight. She could just be a ship passing in the night. But even with your young, dumb senses, you know it's more than that. Passing ships don't look at each other like that. Don't dock together with such ease and intimacy without fear of collision, damage and destruction. To ultimately break apart and sink because the hull couldn't protect the heart.

" Only you would try to sweet talk me to a song about an unfaithful woman and a mistreated man."

" Well it's not my woman that's unfaithful, love. Mine treats me pretty well. And it's our time, not just mine."

They belong to each other.

This slip of a girl in a modest black dress, that he won't let out of his sight, can't stop touching, you can't see her face. But she must be pretty. She must be kind. She must be something special for a man to look at her like that. What you can see certainly doesn't hurt. Warm, brown skin. Long, shapely legs. The nice curve of her backside. Slender arms that are locked around the man's neck. Dark brown curls that spill over her shoulders. The rest of her is hidden, nearly enveloped by him. You think it might be safer to focus on his looks instead. Just in case he is Klaus. His reputation doesn't paint him as a man who would tolerate another's lingering gaze for long. You didn't come all this way to meet him and then die a violent death because you were curious.

So this contender fits the description, he must be some sort of charming to have such a pretty girl on his arm. Just as enamored with him as he is with her, for she hasn't turned her head once either. Part of you wants to listen in, to see if she calls him by name. But such an intrusion seems unforgivable. Even enemy threats are delivered here with a certain formality and the illusion of sympathy. Southern hospitality and all that.

The man's clothing doesn't clear anything up though. Black jeans, black boots and a white long-sleeved shirt that almost looks a size too small. The few buttons at the top have no hope of ever meeting the holes they were sewn no for. God only knows why he bothers with the sleeves. They're rolled up. But who the hell could blame him with how hot and muggy it is here in Louisiana? No wonder they call it the Bible Belt, the South must be a prerequisite for hell. If you don't like the heat here, you better get right before you get any lower.

The only really distinguishing things about his appearance are his height, his build and the multitude of necklaces around his neck. You can't help but wonder if he is one of the witches you sense.

They are stationary long after the song is over, if they were ever really listening to begin with. Wrapped up in the orbit of each other, they don't even break to return to the bar. Their hands are joined, fingers interlocked as the tall blond leads the way. The crowd that is building parts for them. What must be an empty beer bottle now gets casually tossed into a big gray garbage can at the complete other end of the bar. Over the heads of patrons, over your head, and the two working bartenders to land with a loud clicking and the rustling of the black plastic bag. A small round of applause breaks out. A few more humorous souls hold up napkins with the number ten written on them. Except the dark-skinned man you saw earlier. His napkin has a 9.5 on it and he's shaking his head in faux disappointment.

The petite woman is amused, but her boyfriend only snorts and beckons a bartender over. " Round of drinks on me, mate."

Another, louder round of applause follows. This time with cheering.

" Except for that bloke down there. The smartass with the 9.5 on his napkin. He gets half of whatever he's drinking."

Now it's the other guy's turn to look offended and snort. His arms raise in a "dude, seriously?" gesture. You think this one might be Klaus after all. Who would not buy Klaus Mikaelson a drink? Even if he did criticize something you did. You tense, unsure if violence is about to break out. You've seen hearts ripped out, heads taken off and necks snapped for far less.

But it doesn't come to that at all. In fact, the tall blond, with a surprisingly powerful voice, just points at his critic. " You can have the rest of your bloody drink when I have the rest of my points." Then he sort of gestures towards the dark-haired male that's been at his side. " Or you can kill Josh and take all of his."

The dark-haired male, so named Josh, laughs a bit nervously and tries to play up the fact that it is a joke. Even your young, dumb senses can suss out his underlying fear. " Hah. Ha. Yoooooou. You're such a kidder." When the dark-skinned male does turn to look at him in contemplation though, Josh jumps and looks between them. " He—He was kidding. You don't want this drink. There was a strawberry in it, and I already ate it. It's all ice and seeds—"

Both of them laugh at this Josh' thinly veiled panic.

You're convinced now. One of these men must be Klaus.

Everyone is amused by the exchange except for the petite woman still attached to the blond male's arm. Her lovely pink lips purse and she tugs on his arm to get his full attention. " Nicholas-" she begins in her chiding tone.

" Nicholas," he mocks right back, cutting her off. " That's what you sound like."

Immediately, her mouth shuts and she makes a soft noise of exasperation. Then proceeds to release his hand so she can poke him in the side. Or at least she tries to. He must have seen that response coming because his arm is quick block such an assault. Now he's the one with the chiding tone and stern finger in her direction. " 'ey. None of that."

" That's what I thought." She takes it about as seriously as he does. The hand that she had been using to prod him, instead wraps around his bicep and she leans up to take a kiss he readily gives. Then it has to move up to his chest to push him back when he chases her lips to get another. She intends to leave him, but only to go to the ladies' room. Her laughter is full of the silly, happy, seemingly eternal love found in 80s movies and doo wop songs.

His love is not of that decade, maybe not even that era. But it's there all the same. " Yeah, that's right," he taunts as he turns his body to follow her departure. " You better run, witch."

" You better watch your back."

" I'd much rather watch yours."

And he isn't the least bit subtle about the way he does just that.

You think of a clever solution to your problem in the meantime. Perhaps you can find out in a round about way who here is Klaus Mikaelson. You'll just ask the bartender. Surely, if he frequents this place, then they must know him.

You strategically place yourself near enough to both men you think Klaus might be, and flag yourself down a cheap beer. Then you casually, or what you hope is casually, ask if the hybrid has been around lately.

The blond male to your left lets out a sigh that is a thousand years weary and perhaps a bit disgusted. " What's he done this time?"

" What doesn't he do?" The accusation comes from your right. The man with the 9.5 napkin. " He's always meddling in something."

" Oh, sod off," snaps the blond in that powerful voice of his. Only it's accompanied by another one of his accurate tosses. It isn't thick glass this time, though, only ice. Which his antagonize (you think, probably his good friend) fails to block. " Who asked you Marcel?"

" Hey, hey!" The bad thing about being pelted with ice, is even if it doesn't hit it's exact target—if it hits you at all in fact—you still get wet. And cold. And stay that way until you dry. " A grown-ass man throwin' ice at folks for no good reason. Now that's a damn shame. When Bonnie gets back, I'm telling."

" You're gonna keep your bloody mouth shut," threatens. . . Nicholas? You think that's what his girlfriend, Bonnie, called him. " Before I find something bigger to throw at you."

" So, not Bonnie?"

There's the abrupt, harsh sound of wood grinding against wood when Nicholas stands up. Men, vampires, werewolves, hybrids, only move like that when they're about to get into a fight. You think he might forgo the whole 'finding of something bigger' and just plain throw Marcel. Not that he's worried. He's quite pleased with himself for causing such a reaction.

He's even more pleased when Bonnie returns and automatically catches hold of Nicholas' arm. " Whoa, what are you doing? Why are you going to beat up Marcel? What did he do to you?"

" Marcel," the charming, dark-skinned male stresses his own name and his own innocence. " Didn't do anything. I was just being helpful and friendly to a tourist."

Unwilling to separate himself from his small girlfriend, Nicholas only snorts and pulls her around behind him to take his seat instead. He claims the one at her side, but it's the side closest to Marcel. Possessive. " Don't let that man lie to you, love. He started it."

" You started it," snaps Marcel with the same efficiency Nicholas displayed earlier. " You always start it. Listen," and suddenly the attention is back on you again. Marcel bumps your arm to draw you back into the conversation, then gestures to Bonnie. " Tell the lovely lady why you're visiting. Tell her what Klaus did this time and she'll punish him for it."

You don't know how to handle this. Caught between not two Klauses, but still people more powerful and familiar with each other than you. You decide to just be honest and maybe settle for clearing up your confusion in case one of them does actually kill you. " I just came to see Klaus, but I'm not exactly sure who he is."

And in the moment after you speak, the bar goes dead silent.

Everyone is staring at you.

It feels like when you were in elementary school and you were called to the board to answer a question everyone knew you couldn't answer.

All these super senses of yours do you no favors as you become more and more hyper aware of all the eyes drilling into you. Are you about to be torn apart? Is your ignorance about to be your undoing?

You just barely keep from flinching with someone speaks. Bonnie. The petite girlfriend who now has her arms locked around Nicholas' shoulders so she is not body blocked out of the conversation but also does not agitate his jealousy. " Raise your hand, Klaus."

Nicholas raises the hand without the beer in it.

And he is the only one who does so.

Wait, what?

" But. . ." You're even more confused now. Is this a joke? Is this what they do to people who come looking for the Original hybrid? Distract and disorient their prey before they murder and feed? " I heard her call you Nicholas."

The bar erupts into the loudest round of laughter yet. You are undead and yet you flush down to your neck, feeling very much the butt of a local joke. Have you come all this way just to be made to look stupid?

Nichol—Klaus might put you out of your misery though. He is no longer entertained by your out-of-town-ness. He says a few words lowly in a language you don't understand. But your instincts understand the language he says them in is old. Older than you certainly. You don't know if that's a good sign or a bad one. " You went to public school, didn't you, mate?"

" That is so rude." Bonnie sighs and covers his mouth with one of her hands. " I'm sorry about him. I just can't take him anywhere." Just as quickly as she put her hand there, she removes it with a little squeak. She shakes that hand and you can smell a hint of blood in the air. After she makes checks over her wound, the small woman clicks her tongue and swats him with that same hand. " Keep your fangs to yourself, Niklaus!"

" That's right. NI-KLAUS," emphasizes the hybrid. You'd say he was sulking if his expression wasn't mostly blocked by taking Bonnie's hand to his mouth to collect her blood and soothe the nick he gave her. " Not Nicholas. Your American school system is rubbish and so is your bloody hearing."

You at least have to concede the second point.

" Now that you've found me, mate, what is it you want with me?" He's looking for a fight and you know it. You've offended him. You've pissed off Klaus Mikaelson. The exact thing you didn't want to do and you've taken exactly all night to do it.

In your haste to remedy the situation, save your neck and appease him all at once, you drop to your knee. He is the Vampire (or is it Hybrid?) King of New Orleans, and that's what people do in front of the Queen of England. You figure it's the same thing. Same level of respect. You have to do something. Say something. Words are coming out and you don't immediately realize it is you that is babbling like that, but now you can't stop. " Nothing, sire, I don't want any problems, I just haven't been a vampire long—only a year, really—and I heard about you, and you exist and—and it's like being human and meeting Superman."

Except your move alarms him, and before your knee actually makes contact with the hardwood floor, he's grabbed you by the arm. You can't process his speed. And his strength leaves no room for argument. " Get off the floor, mate, it's filthy down there."

" Oh God," groans Marcel from somewhere behind you. " Superman? Superman? Have you actually seen a Superman movie before? A comic book? Hell, a t-shirt! Any of them? Even the bad ones? I don't think you have because of the thing you just said."

Even Bonnie, who seems the most patient of all, has dropped her head down onto the hybrid's shoulder. " Noooooo, you didn't just say that. You don't know what you've done."

The mood is inverted. Klaus is now the one that is highly entertained while everyone else is sour. You think this is good. Except for the part where he silences his girlfriend with a few fingers over her lips. " Pay no attention to the complaints of my subjects."

You're about to say something, hopefully the right thing. But in another reversal, Bonnie attempts to bite his hand. For the second time that night, she is too slow.

" Oi." His hand draws away from her human teeth and captures her jaw. Though he only turns his head to address her, you know she has his full attention despite what he said. " Behave yourself," he says in a voice just for her. " Daddy's talking."

This time she does bite him. You don't need super senses to know it's just because he allows it. He probably likes it seeing as he hasn't let go. She has to hit his hand away. " Give me money for the jukebox, I want to pick another song."

" So what're you telling me for?" He huffs and gestures towards her. " You have my wallet. You have literally have all of my money at your disposal. Pick several songs. Pick all of them. Hell, pick the whole bloody machine, we'll take it home with us. I'll just carry it out. Man of Steel, and what not."

" Dammit." Bonnie looks at you, and all at once, you see why this slip of a girl is his significant other. Those green eyes of hers flash irritation and you have the sudden image of yourself on fire. It's there and gone, but you could swear you smell smoke. " Look what you did. He's gonna talk like that for a week now! You're just visiting, the rest of us have to live here with him."

Evidently that's all the backsass Klaus intends to have from her. He makes a lazy swipe at her skirt—you've seen him move faster, much faster, even with alcohol in his system—to send her on her way. " Off with you, witch. Onto your music and such before I change my mind."

Her hands swat at the air as she doesn't put much effort into keeping him from her legs. You wonder if it's always like that when a vampire gets together with a witch. Or a werewolf with a witch. Or just a Klaus with a Bonnie. You wonder if you have a chance at something like that yourself in your meager years, nevermind a thousand.

" You've come a long way just to meet me, mate, and I'm very flattered, I have to say. I'm willing to entertain any questions you might have, and you are free to share this information with your friends back home. It has been quite some time since I spent any significant amount of time in sunny California. You are also welcome to explore my city and experience all it has to offer. . ." It sounds like the end of a sentence, but it's hanging. You're left hanging with it while he gazes thoughtfully at his now empty glass. " But do not mistake my kindness for weakness. If you have been sent against me or my family, not only will I kill you, and the one who turned you, but I will extinguish both your bloodlines. Vampire and human. I will kill everything you've ever loved and hated, so not one trace of you is left on this earth. I will make you a legend myself. One that will be quietly spoken of the next time such a foolish plan is suggested by anyone. You'll have a story, one way or the other."

I live out in the woods. People, I got wolves' blood in my veins.

I live way out in the woods. People, you know, I've got wolves' blood in my veins.

Well, you know, the crocodiles and the foxes and the grizzles,

They all know me by name.

Then it isn't just Buddy Guy singing. Then he says your name. Your full name.

And only now do you realize that you have not given him your name to address you as such. You never told him where you came from.

You can't hear the drums anymore because your heartbeat is much louder in your ears.

Well, when I was a little boy,

I used to crawl around in the grass with rattlesnakes.

Now I'm a full grown man.

Alligators is my associates.

Let me explains this. . .

When you feel the bar's eyes upon you again, it's not because they are entertained. It is not because they are sour or curious. It is because they are also Klaus Mikaelson. Because they look at you with the eyes of predators. You are in danger of being torn apart. Marcel is no longer smiling. And perhaps, the most disturbing of all, the nervous Josh has the same look. He might routinely fear Klaus and Marcel, but he does not fear you. You should fear him. You should fear all of them. You would never make it to the door.

I still live way out in the woods.

People, you know I ain't afraid of nothin'.

Klaus says your name again. Your full name. It makes you want to get back on your knees.

He wants to be sure that you understand.

And you do.

You understand the Original hybrid.

You've seen the half that is Niklaus. Who is playful and easy-going. Who has friends and family. A crown and a city. A witch and a woman. All that must have been won hard and must be loved hard after the fact.

And now you see the half that is Klaus Mikaelson. Who is willing to take just as much away from you, and anyone else he needs to in the name of preserving it.

If you come into my woods,

You just might lose your tail.