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heavens-moonlight · 10 months ago

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𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 | 𝟬𝟮 : 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗨𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗟𝗬 𝗘𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧

𝟬𝟭 : 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 | 𝟬𝟯 : 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦

Author’s Note: Well, here we go...The game has finally started but who will survive? As always, let me know your thoughts and all comments are greatly appreciated! ♡

The dorms are much more spacious than anticipated as Yoon-Seo and Jung-Won beeline for the sole coffee table in the middle of the room, occupying either side. You instead, opt to unceremoniously plop yourself down onto one of the sizeable bunk beds, plugging your phone in to charge, having depleted the power source earlier on the bus ride over.

With a familiar chime, the battery icon flashes, but you do a double take as you realize the bar has gone back up to more than 50%. "That's strange..." you whisper more to yourself than anyone, but Yoon-Seo hears you.

"What is?"

You flip over onto your stomach and turn your phone screen toward her. "Look." You point to the upper right corner, forefinger tapping at the yellow bar, lightning symbol on display. "I'm sure it was at 26% earlier but all of a sudden it's paused at nearly double what it was previously."

"Maybe you mixed up the percentages?" Yoon-Seo suggests.

"I don't think so..." You scratch your head in confusion as Yoon-Seo shrugs, neither of you having a clue in the slightest.

"Electronics are good when they work," Jung-Won says, padding over to the chair by your head where Yoon-Seo left her backpack. You place the phone face-down on the nightstand and see her slip a small gift box inside the unzipped bag, making a shushing motion with her pointer finger against her lips. Smiling, you mimic the locking of a key and throw it away behind you, keeping Yoon-Seo's birthday surprise between the two of you. "Ugh, I need to take a coding lecture but my laptop's failing to connect to the internet."

Yoon-Seo scoots her back against the side railing of your bed and crosses her arms, tsking at Jung-Won. "You keep badgering me nonstop for reading, but who else except you would willingly study during a school trip?" Yoon-Seo shakes her head. "Stop acting like the top of the class, Madame Mensa."

Jung-Won doesn't look up from her laptop screen, monotonously correcting the nickname. "Mensa is the name of the organization. You're supposed to say Mensan for the people. How many times do I have to tell you?"

You laugh at the habitual repartee between them, but get cut off by a ding signaling an incoming notification. Peering over Yoon-Seo's shoulder, you eye as an app materializes on her home screen, one you don't recognize nor have you ever seen it in the default bundle all phones come with.

"Jung-Won, what's this? I said I don't need it."

"It's really not me. I haven't touched your phone at all."

Curious, you grab your own phone and glance down at it, the same little round-edged square making its appearance. "Yoon-Seo, I have it too. Neither of us downloaded it or scanned the QR code when we arrived."

[ ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ. ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀғɪᴀ ɢᴀᴍᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇɢɪɴ sʜᴏʀᴛʟʏ. ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴄʜᴇᴄᴋɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀssɪɢɴᴇᴅ ᴏᴄᴄᴜᴘᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. ]

"Mafia game?" As you touch the screen, an envelope unfurls following animation. "Wasn't this what they were playing earlier on the bus?"

"Yeah..." Yoon-Seo confirms distractedly, verifying her own occupation. "I guess I'm a civilian, not that I expected to be anything else. How about you guys?"

"I'm also a civilian."

[ ʜᴀɴ sᴇᴏʟ-ʜᴡᴀ ɴɪᴍ, ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴏʟᴇ ɪs ᴀ ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ. ]

"Me too," you fib, hoping that it wouldn't be questioned. You weren't a very good liar to begin with and hoped this would pass. Maybe there would be a reward for winning the game, but either way, at least you knew your closest friends were on the same side as you.

Still, for some odd reason, it didn't seem fit for you to reveal your real character. Being a doctor seemed too important of a role to just go around telling everyone willy-nilly. The three of you rarely kept secrets from one another, and so you trusted that a white lie for the game this one time could be forgiven.

Before any of you can discuss the odd happenings of the unexpected game further, paragraphs pop up in successive order, outlining the standard rules:

𝟣) ᴀʟʟ ᴘᴀʀᴛɪᴄɪᴘᴀɴᴛs ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛʟʏ ᴀssɪɢɴᴇᴅ ᴀs ᴀ ᴄɪᴛɪᴢᴇɴ, ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ, ᴘᴏʟɪᴄᴇ ᴏғғɪᴄᴇʀ, ᴏʀ ᴀ ᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀғɪᴀ. ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴄᴀɴ ᴘʀᴇᴠᴇɴᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇxᴇᴄᴜᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴀɴʏ ᴘᴀʀᴛɪᴄɪᴘᴀɴᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ sᴇᴇ ғɪᴛ, ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏʟɪᴄᴇ ᴍᴀʏ ᴄᴏɴғɪʀᴍ ᴀ ᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ's ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪᴛʏ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴄʜᴏᴏsɪɴɢ.

𝟤) ғʀᴏᴍ ᴇɪɢʜᴛ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴍɪᴅɴɪɢʜᴛ, ᴀʟʟ ᴘᴀʀᴛɪᴇs ᴡɪʟʟ ��ɪsǫᴜᴀʟɪғʏ sᴜsᴘᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴍᴀғɪᴀ ᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀs ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ.

𝟥) ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴏᴄᴋ sᴛʀɪᴋᴇs ᴛᴡᴇʟᴠᴇ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ ᴠᴏᴛᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴊᴏʀɪᴛʏ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴇxᴇᴄᴜᴛᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴏᴄᴄᴜᴘᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ʀᴇᴠᴇᴀʟᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴀʟʟ ʀᴇᴍᴀɪɴɪɴɢ ᴘᴀʀᴛɪᴄɪᴘᴀɴᴛs.

𝟦) ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴄʟᴏsᴇs ᴀɴᴅ ᴀ ᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ ʜᴀs ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴᴅᴇᴍɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴇxᴇᴄᴜᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ɢᴏ ᴛᴏ sʟᴇᴇᴘ ᴀsɪᴅᴇ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀғɪᴀ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ.

𝟧) ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜᴇ ɴɪɢʜᴛ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ɪs ɪɴ sʟᴜᴍʙᴇʀ, ᴍᴀғɪᴀ ᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀs ᴍᴜsᴛ ᴇxᴇᴄᴜᴛ�� sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ ᴅᴀᴡɴ.

𝟨) ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ɪɴ ᴍɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴄɪᴠɪʟɪᴀɴ, ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴏʟɪᴄᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴍᴇ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ. ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴇɪᴛʜᴇʀ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ ᴄɪᴠɪʟɪᴀɴs ᴏʀ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ ᴍᴀғɪᴀ ᴏᴠᴇʀʀᴜɴs ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜᴘ, ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴀᴍᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴇɴᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪɴɴᴇʀ ᴅᴇᴄɪᴅᴇᴅ.

[ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ғɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀғɪᴀs ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴇɢɪɴ ᴄᴀsᴛɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴠᴏᴛᴇs. ]

You're still trying to wrap your head around the summarized instructions, sensing that there was much more to the game than meets the eye. Why was there no outlining of the individual tasks required for those with specialized occupations? How many of you were assigned to each role? What happens after execution?

Jung-Won's voice interrupts your thoughts, the thread of worries pausing in its unending tangling inside your mind. "If you push a name, a vote gets cast apparently."

"You elected someone already...?" It was quite obvious how much Eun-Ha pushed for Yool determinedly in the group chat, and reluctantly, you and Yoon-Seo follow suit, knowing full-well Yool's obsession with the game and his caliber for winning streaks.

Pensively, you start scrolling through the partakers' list, seeing your classmates' yearbook photos, including your own. Being the overthinker that you are, your mind starts spinning with all of the possibilities on how this game could end, but you had no clue why it even began in the first place. The awareness of budding anxiousness courses through you as a slight breeze from the window sends goosebumps raising on your arms at the late revelation. "But guys...why does this app have our identifiers?"

Yoon-Seo turns to you, eyebrows knit together in agreement. "Right. We didn't even sign up earlier. Who granted them access to gather this protected information?"

Jung-Won bites at her nails, eyes shifting back and forth across her phone screen, the glare of its light reflecting off her glasses. "The internet isn't working either. How are we able to play the game anyway?"

Silence encases the vicinity around your trio, no one knowing what to say to the other, all questions remaining unvoiced and unanswered.

"Why don't we go back down to the lobby and see if there's anyone we can ask?" you propose, Jung-Won and Yoon-Seo readily assenting.

The reception desk as you head downstairs is as empty as it was the moment you came in, maybe even more so as reticence settles over the expansive building, the sky having gone ominously dark from a single look out the glass doors of the entrance.

"Our teacher hasn't come back yet? He left so long ago..." Yoon-Seo walks around the reception desk, circling for any clues. "Nothing could've happened, right?"

"What if he got into an accident?" Jung-Won states bluntly, drumming her fingers against the marble countertop.

"Yah, don't say it like that..." you warn. "Words can be dangerous. You don't know what it can subject someone to."

Before Jung-Won can list more outrageous possibilities, Jun-Hee sidles up on the opposite side of the counter where you're spinning back and forth in the chair slowly, lost in thought.

"Hey Jun-Hee, do you know when Seonsaengnim will be back?" Yoon-Seo directs at him while she flips through the binder of contacts placed beside you. "These numbers aren't what we need at all. They're just for the retreat center's use like maintenance and all that."

Jun-Hee shakes his head. "I can't reach him." He pulls out his phone, only to sigh and slip it back inside his pocket. "Are any of your guys' devices working?"

"We don't even have service." You look around once more, surveying areas within your eyesight in case any adults would spontaneously reappear. "Shouldn't there be at least one staff member or at the very least a security guard on patrol at night?"

"I guess they all went with our teacher." Jun-Hee walks up next to you and settles down on the counter to your left.

You raise an eyebrow. "Every single one of them? They didn't think to have anybody stay behind as a chaperone?"

"Well, when you put it that way..." Jun-Hee begins. "It does seem a little unnecessary for all of them to up and leave."

"Then, what do we do now? How long do we wait?" Jung-Won stares at the clock ticking away. "It's barely nine o'clock. Surely, it wouldn't take him twice as long to pick up the others and return here, right?"

"There must be a phone in the staff lounge," Yoon-Seo stops her rummaging around under the desk long enough to say. "Jung-Won, let's go and search there."

"You're leaving me here alone?"

"Not alone," Yoon-Seo waggles her eyebrows so only you can see. "With Jun-Hee, of course."

Jung-Won conceals her smile behind her hand not so discreetly and begins to drag Yoon-Seo away. As they pass, Yoon-Seo pats Jun-Hee on the shoulder and cautions him. "If she gets lost, you'll be in big trouble."

He turns to her. "You've known me since we were babies, who do you take me for?"

Yoon-Seo merely ignores him and follows Jung-Won upstairs happily, an extra spring in her step, making it known how proud she was of herself. Rolling your eyes unnoticeably at their less than subtle tactics, you could only hope they were actually going to find a phone and not saying that purely for reasons of ulterior motives.

The hush after is stifling without the buffer of Yoon-Seo and Jung-Won. Jun-Hee is staring straight at you, hands bracing the counter on either side of him waiting for you to say something, but you're staring down at the floor, purposefully refusing to make eye contact.

"Are you mad at me?"

That was the last thing you expected him to say. "Of course not." You look up at him briefly, but what a mistake that was. With you lowered in the chair and him sitting up on the raised desk, your eyes meet his lips first and your mind automatically reels back to the kiss on the bus. Darting your eyes back to your lap immediately after draws out a weary sigh from Jun-Hee.

"Even now you can't look straight at me. At least tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it." When you're thinking of what to reply with, Jun-Hee grabs the chair's armrests by your sides and pulls you in closer, leaning his head down so that his form towers over yours. With nowhere else to look now, you're forced to gaze upward and the expression on his face has your stomach tightening in knots, guilty. "Now you're finally looking at me." A beat passes before Jun-Hee's eyes become downturn. "I'm sorry."

Your gaze softens as you glance into his dark brown eyes, seeing your own image in his irises. "I'm the one that should be sorry." You place your hands that were settled in your lap onto his forearms, and he instantly gazes down at the contact before looking back to you, his attention unwavering. "Don't ever apologize to me when you didn't do anything wrong, Jun-Hee."

His eyes dart back and forth between your own, questioning. "Then why have you been avoiding me? Did something happen while I was sleeping earlier on the bus? If there is or I made you uncomfortable in any way—"

"No, no, it's nothing like that," you're quick to salvage the situation and dismiss the notion entirely, even though he couldn't have been more spot on. He had always been an observant person. This you knew too well.

I didn't want you to find out my feelings for you and lose you as a friend all in one.

Instead of the full truth, you tell him only half of it. "I didn't want you to find out how tired I felt and have you worrying over me. I know you're the class president with greater, more important responsibilities, but I also know, above anyone else, that I can't burden you with my troubles just because I'm your friend."

"Seol-Hwa, even then, you could've told me." His hands move to rest on your shoulders. "You'll always be my top priority." In a much quieter voice he says, "And I'll always worry about you."

"Jun-Hee..."

He looks you dead in the eyes, expression open and filled with warmth. "I don't like when you're sad. You look the prettiest when you smile." You don't even get a chance to get a word in before Jun-Hee plows on, turning his head away slightly. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was abashed to be saying the things he did. "In the gymnasium earlier, you were laughing so carefree with Yoon-Seo. It's been a while since I've seen you like that with me. I can only be happy if you're happy..." He's almost sulking, his countenance like that of a kicked puppy.

You laugh genuinely, your head hitting the back of the chair. "Kim Jun-Hee, are you jealous of my friendship with Yoon-Seo right now?"

"I got you to smile this time!" He grins back brightly at you and the two of you sit there looking at one another, neither grin dropping. The soft exhalation of his laughter trickles into your ears once again, Jun-Hee being so content with having you in his presence, and you bask in how happy the sound makes you. Any previously existing tension disintegrates in an instant, and oddly enough, you feel closer to him than ever.

The moment gets cut short when a text from the app's group chat comes in, a start contrast to the discussion earlier, votes having already pooled in for Heo Yool.

[ 💬 sᴏ-ᴍɪ: ʟᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴏɴ-sᴇᴏ, ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏᴏʟ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀɴɴᴇx. ɪᴛ's ᴜʀɢᴇɴᴛ. ]

The oddly specific and demanding tone of the message irked you to no end. "What is this about?" Never once have you seen So-Mi try to interact with your friend group voluntarily.

Jun-Hee waves his hand dismissively. "For the event tomorrow, we're interviewing everyone about the trip and the general experience."

"Even in this situation?" you ask incredulously.

Jun-Hee chuckles. "You know how So-Mi is." His eyebrows lift pointedly.

You pat his thigh accidentally, having missed his knee entirely and feel the muscles tense beneath your hand although he doesn't move away. "Don't you find it odd?"

Jun-Hee tilts his head, equal parts confused and curious. "About...?"

"Everything." You gesture around. "The lost signal, the disappearance of supposedly responsible adults, this automatically installed app that has our personal data, and the mafia game we're all in even though we didn't choose to play?"

Jun-Hee mulls it over for a second. "I honestly have no idea what's going on." He ruffles your head affectionately. "But don't worry so much. I'm certain once morning comes, everything will be alright."

"I sure hope so."

Your conversation quietens as heavy footsteps pad across the glossed floors and you squint to see the figure in the distance.

"Joo-Won?"

Jun-Hee turns around at your discovery and notices your classmate's bloody nose, a spark of recognition flashing across his eyes. "Where are you going?"

Joo-Won looks from Jun-Hee to you, and back again nervously, seemingly deciding whether he should say something or not. "W-Well, the guys wanted to see me for a second. So..." he stammers out.

You frown, knowing of the relentless bullying Kyung-Jun's group puts him and Da-Bum through.

"Wait there," Jun-Hee directs, hopping off the desk, and Ju-Won picks at his fingers, clearly on edge at the impending encounter.

"Be careful," you add in as an afterthought before he can leave.

"I will, now that I have you fretting over me." Jun-Hee smirks cheekily.

"I'm being serious, Jun-Hee." You fix him with a stern but caring gaze. "Try to be less confrontational. It won't be good for you or Ju-Won to get on Kyung-Jun's bad side."

He nods, understanding. "I'll try my best." Waving, he begins to lead Ju-Won away, the latter shuffling after with his head down pitifully. "I'll see you soon. Don't go anywhere where I can't reach you!" Your eyes trail after their distancing forms, agitatedly until you can no longer hear their footsteps echoing down the hall.

Not even a full minute has gone by before Yoon-Seo and Jong-Won show up again, trudging down the same stairs they climbed up less than an hour ago. Judging by their walk and the look on their faces, their search must've proved unsuccessful.

"Nothing came up?" You fall into place with the two as your all make way toward the pool.

"The phone lines..." Yoon-Seo begins, dishearteningly. "None of them worked. Every single ring had us fooled."

You stare at her in shock. "But—"

"We tried contacting 119 and even picking up incoming calls immediately, but no one answered." Jung-Won hangs her head despondently.

"This trip is starting to take a very wrong turn..." you hypothesize out loud. You don't even get to explain to Yoon-Seo and Jung-Won your reasoning before Na-Hee comes by, skipping over joyfully, oblivious on how to read the room.

"You all came." Na-Hee grabs your hand and Jung-Won's in each of her own, motioning with her head toward Yoon-Seo to enter. "Yoon-Seo, you should head inside." Without questioning it, Yoon-Seo does as she's told.

You slip your hand out of Na-Hee's nippily, and her smile wanes faintly, somewhat hurt. Hyun-Ho had confided in you that he liked her, but given what you knew about Na-Hee, you weren't fond of the idea. Not wanting to disappoint him, you don't say anything when he brings her up, but the things she has been a bystander for following in So-Mi's schemes never sat right with you. Silently, you hope that one day Na-Hee would come to her senses for Hyun-Ho's sake, but you've been proven wrong time and time again.

"Are these solo interviews or what?" you inquire curtly.

"They want to record Yoon-Seo first. You can come in a bit later."

"Can't be that special of footage." Jung-Won pulls you by the elbow, sidestepping Na-Hee and pushing the doors open of her own volition.

You're met with So-Mi, Ji-Soo, Yu-Jun, and Woo-Ram, all crowding around Yoon-Seo and singing her happy birthday with a makeshift cake comprised of stacked choco-pies.

So-Mi steps forward, offering Yoon-Seo the sweets and urging her to blow out a single measly candle that wasn't even lit beforehand.

"Since when have you done stuff like this? You barely give her the time of day." Jung-Won eyes So-Mi suspiciously, voicing your same exact thoughts.

Yoon-Seo is way too nice, proceeding to thank So-Mi. You, on the other hand, didn't buy into the latter's nice girl act whatsoever, and clearly, neither did Jung-Won.

So-Mi shoots Yoon-Seo a saccharine smile. "Don't mention it. We should celebrate since we're friends." The word doesn't roll off her tongue easily, openly not a genuine desire. "We brought a present too." You narrow your eyes at the group as they're trying to hide their shrewd smiles, albeit unsuccessfully. "Let's start with a birthday beating and plunge!"

Instantaneously, you try to drag Yu-Jun, leaving Jung-Won to fend off Woo-Ram, away from Yoon-Seo with no luck. More force would just topple all three of them straight into the water. You didn't particularly care if the boys fell to the very bottom depths of the pool, but Yoon-Seo shouldn't get soaked, no less on the night of her birthday. She didn't deserve this horrible of a treatment for simply being too trusting, genuinely wanting to see good in everyone with no ounce of judgment or malice.

So-Mi guffaws hysterically in the background, bent over clutching her stomach like the sight is the funniest thing she's ever witnessed. "Put her down," she orders in between giggles, wiping away a tear from her eye. "She's about to cry." Standing akimbo, she bites back her sneer, turning to the rest. "We went too far, didn't we?"

"You think?!" Jung-Won rounds on her, eyes blazing with anger.

You haul Yoon-Seo back up to her feet as the boys scatter, high-fiving. As she stands up again after you've barely let go of her hands, So-Mi swiftly shoves her over backwards, sending her diving into the water with a loud splash, droplets flying every which way.

"Are you crazy? How could you do that?!" Jung-Won kneels next to you by the edge of the pool, watching as Yoon-Seo resurfaces.

"You ok?" You reach out a hand to her, close enough that she can grip your fingertips.

"Yeah, I will be."

You breathe a sigh of reprieve, but it's rather short-lived when Yoon-Seo starts kicking madly underwater, her arms and legs flailing before she sinks beneath, no longer visible.

"Yoon-Seo!" you shout, but hear no response.

"What a funny 'prank' to you guys, huh?" Jung-Won yells crossly at So-Mi's group, everyone standing shell-shocked. How they have the conscience to even feel the tiniest bit of remorse is beyond your understanding.

The group tries to urge Woo-Ram to go in, but in hindsight, being on the receiving end of the prank didn't seem so appealing anymore.

Livid, you turn around to heave So-Mi backwards and she goes tumbling to the ground, the silver platter she was holding in one hand clattering and smashing cake crumbs all over her. For whatever reason, Ji-Soo is still recording, but you could care less about the captured situation. "Be glad it's not the pool I pushed you into." She's stunned enough that she can't find it in her to form words.

Na-Hee opens her mouth, outwardly wanting to apologize, but swallows the excuses when you glare at her in turn. "I was right about you all along. You'll never change."

You kick your shoes off and jump in after Yoon-Seo without hesitation, Jung-Won screaming for you in the background. Thankfully, Yoon-Seo is still conscious, but scarcely, and you manage to guide her toward the rungs of the poolside ladder. Jung-Won yanks Yoon-Seo up and over the edge, throwing a hand down to you.

"Yoon-Seo lost her shoes. I saw them earlier but couldn't reach them, so let me retrieve them too."

Jung-Won looks into the chasmic pool apprehensively, more concerned after what happened, but nods in acknowledgment, going back to propping Yoon-Seo up. "Come back quickly, Seol-Hwa."

Everyone is huddling around Yoon-Seo while you plunge back under, holding your breath comfortably as you grab her sneakers. Right as you're swimming on the path of return, something cold clamps onto your leg, refusing to let go. The vice-like grip tightens, pulling you downward to drown in darkness. No matter how hard you kick, you can't resurface due to the invisible power.

"Seol-Hwa!" Jung-Won calls out to you, frightened. "I'm going to get help, hang on!"

The last thing you see are spindly, mottled, black fingers, color washed out grey in the lighting; something sinister and otherworldly. As it curls tighter around your ankle, so too does your chest constrict, the coldness of the touch seeping into your bones and you find the sense of prior trepidation returning in full force before everything sinks into oblivion.

Lungs burning and head throbbing, you open your eyes groggily, the pristine white walls of the infirmary slowly coming into focus. In the bed next to yours, Yoon-Seo is still asleep.

The digits on your left hand are numb, and you look over to see Jun-Hee gripping it like a lifeline, head resting atop his arm by your knees. Your body protests as you turn on your side, muscles stiff, trying to draw your hand free. Reaching out, you card your fingers tenderly through his hair, the ends still yet to dry. Did he jump in?

After a while, he wakes up with a start, eyes flickering to your face. A shaky sigh of relief escapes him seeing the tiniest of smiles from you, any prior sense of unrest vanishing.

"Are you in pain at all?" He cradles the back of your head, helping you sit up as you dangle your legs over the bed's edge, seated knee to knee with him.

"How long have you been here with me?" You sweep the fallen fringe away to the outlines of his face, fingers lingering against his forehead. "You should've gotten changed at least." Your hand falls back to your lap when you can see his eyes better, unshielded. "You'll grow sick at this rate, Jun-Hee."

"Says the one I'm stressing over."

"I'm fine now," you assure.

"Why didn't you wake me up as soon as you came to? Do you know how terrified I was?" His brows are furrowed in concern still, and you lift your hand again to smooth the crease lines away.

"But you rescued me," you speak quietly.

"I thought you were dying in front of me and that I wouldn't be able to save you in time. I can't lose you; do you know that?" His hand comes up to cup your face delicately, barely daring to touch it wholly, almost afraid you would disappear if he did. "You're someone I can absolutely cannot let go of." You don't realize you're crying until Jun-Hee runs his thumb over your cheek, wiping away the twin trails of tears. You're not usually one to cry, but in this moment, you were overcome with emotions. "Why are you crying?"

"I was worried. Not for me, but for you." His hands are shaking where they're pressed against your face. You put your hand over his, expecting him to pull away at your next words. "I know you like to avoid the water as much as you can after..." you trail off, teardrops still falling. "You willingly jumped in to save me when I know how deep-seated your fear runs."

He smiles sadly at you. "I found out that the care I have for you outweighs any of my existing fears." His hands have stopped shaking and you drag them down, yours coming along with it to hold them together. "I told you earlier to not go someplace where I can't reach you but after this, I'm willing to follow you to the ends of the earth. Even in death, as long as it's with you, I wouldn't mind the thought."

Your heart stutters in your chest at the sincerity of his words, and you know that your feelings for him would never fade. Not in this lifetime. "Jun-Hee..."

"Seol-Hwa? Jun-Hee?" Yoon-Seo's trembling voice has the both of you looking in her direction, but Jun-Hee is yet to release your hand.

"Yoon-Seo..." you reply, eased now that she's awoken. "How are you feeling?"

"I can't recall what happened at all." She holds her head, staring blankly ahead. "But somehow, I find I'd rather not remember." Yoon-Seo moves over to sit on your cot, back-to-back with you. The warmth radiating from her is welcoming. "Seol-Hwa, thanks for always being there. You're a good person through and through."

"Tell that to yourself." You smile and lean your head back against hers. "What are friends for?"

"Saving one another's lives now apparently," Jun-Hee jokes, lightening the atmosphere.

"Then I owe you one," Yoon-Seo continues. "I'll be your Superwoman next time."

"You and Jun-Hee really are like one another. What did you both do together when you were babies to make you fearless like this?" you question, exasperatedly fond. "Readily giving up your life for another person?"

"Only because we know you'd do the same. That kind of sincerity comes once in a lifetime."

The door creaks open just as Yoon-Seo ends her sentence, So-Mi's group filing in self-consciously, Jung-Won leading them in with her arms crossed.

"Apologize," Jun-Hee states emotionlessly. "Right now," he emphasizes, leaving no room for argument. "Pranks are supposed to be harmless, not harmful."

So-Mi grimaces at his harsh tone. "I'm sorry," she's quick to apologize. "Seol-Hwa."

She's not looking directly at you but past to the side of you, gaze straying to your hand in Jun-Hee's where he's absentmindedly rubbing circles with his thumb into your palm, not aware of his own actions. One corner of So-Mi's lip twitches, but aside from that, she doesn't comment on it. If the others have noticed, they don't say anything either.

"I'm not the one this should be reserved for."

You see her bite her tongue, annoyed at having to repeat herself once again, but not yet dropping her fake performance. Plastering on the most pitiful puppy eyes she can conjure up, she shifts her attention to Yoon-Seo, still pale. "I do feel guilty. We truly just wanted to wish you a happy birthday." So-Mi forces the waterworks on, squeezing one teardrop out at a time.

"I don't think I've ever been pushed into a pool as a birthday present before," Jung-Won mutters not so quietly under her breath.

Yoon-Seo elbows her subtly. "It's okay. Don't cry, So-Mi."

You and Jung-Won both whip your heads toward Yoon-Seo, in pure disbelief. Neither of you would've accepted that half-baked, insincere apology.

"Really?" So-Mi's eyes widen on cue, as if she didn't expect Yoon-Seo to be so pardoning. "Will you forgive us?"

"Of course, I accept. I'm alright now, so let's just put it in the past."

Jung-Won doesn't attempt to hide her distaste as she groans aloud. "Yep, totally fine. You just almost went and saw King Sejong is all."

"That's enough," Yoon-Seo whisper-yells.

"Alright, everyone out," Joon-Hee cuts in, feeling the tension in the room. "We'll all talk later."

So-Mi is the first to leave, unmistakably irritated and shamed at the same time. No matter how hard she tries to mask it, you see right through her well-crafted persona. Na-Hee lingers, the last one to exit. Before the door slams shut, she catches your eye, but in finding a look of indifference staring back at her, she turns away without saying a word, the light from the hallway dimming once more.

"That wench spilled crocodile tears."

"Jung-Won ah," Yoon-Seo expresses tiredly. "She said she was sorry."

"I don't care. It wasn't genuine. She acts up because you're the only one that gives way to her."

Yoon-Seo gets up to drag Jung-Won away and out into the hall as the latter begins to raise her voice. Their conversation lowers, but you can hear the last bit of it as they step outside.

"What would you like me to do then?"

"You don't have to do anything," Jung-Won reasons. "I'm only saying I don't tolerate her or her victim mentality, and neither should you."

"Shouldn't we head out too?" You turn to Jun-Hee.

He shakes his head lightly. "Stay and rest a bit more."

"I really am fine." You give his hand a squeeze in affirmation. Despite saying so, you continue to shiver in only your thin white button-up still damp in random patches from being submerged earlier.

Jun-Hee opens the backpack by his feet and tugs out his uniform cardigan, wrapping it around your shoulders. "Here, put this on. You're still cold to the touch."

"Then what about you? Sitting in wet clothes isn't comfortable."

"I have extras I brought with me." Jun-Hee's name tag still pinned to the sweater falls into his line of vision and he can't help smiling to himself that you haven't noticed it's positioned right over your heart. "Plus, it looks better on you anyway."

"It what?" You lean forward, tilting your ear in his direction, not sure if you heard correctly or if they were still water-logged.

"Nothing," Jun-Hee evades, suppressing his smile. It seemed too far-fetched a thing for him to say in either circumstance, so you leave it be, not wanting to wander down the winding paths of your own thoughts. He crouches down and draws the heel of your socked foot to rest on his knee, his free hand untying the laces of your shoes placed to the side.

"I can do it myself," you tell him, flustered from all the attention you were receiving.

Without looking up, Jun-Hee proceeds to put your sneakers on your feet. "I know you can." He goes so far as to knot them tight, tying bows on both sides. "But I want to do it for you." His fingers reach out to trace the shoelaces all the way to the ends of the aglets, remembrance in his eyes.

Embarrassed, you put your feet back on the ground but he looks up at you, eyes twinkling with mischief. "You kept them."

"Of course, I did." You gaze down at your shoes. "You gave them to me."

His own white sneakers come into view, and you wonder why you never noticed his laces, dyed in your favorite color, and yours in his own. "So did I. I didn't think you would."

"Why not?" You toe his shoes with yours. "Just because we made them during summer camp a few years back? A gift is a gift," you reply, nearly pouting.

He laughs at the faux cross tone of your voice, but as his eyes trail upward, the sound chokes and dies off at the end. "Uh...your shirt's now see-through..." He coughs awkwardly and stands up, looking away, a slight tinge of pink dusting his cheeks. "I'll see you out there." Jun-Hee picks up his backpack, hurriedly slinging it over one shoulder before turning to look back at you once more before leaving.

Only a short bit of time has passed, but the moment you step back out with Jun-Hee's cardigan on, you slam straight into Hyun-Ho. He steadies you by the upper arms, eyes widening upon seeing you. "Seol-Hwa!" Before you can react, he throws his arms around you and gives you the most suffocating of hugs, larger form squeezing you tight as his arms encase you, rocking back and forth.

"Hyun-Ho. Can't. Breathe." Your voice comes out punctuated, every pause a ragged intake of air.

He lets go soon after, yanking your head every which way to assess for any injuries.

"Ouch!" you exclaim. Hyun-Ho doesn't know how to control his strength so every pat comes out more like slaps. "Alright!" You try to push his hands away but they're hell bent on checking your well-being. "Ok! That's enough!" You say with finality, laughter bubbling up as your cousin continues to shake you around like a rag-doll. "Yah! If I didn't have any bruises, I sure do now!"

Hyun-Ho steps back, chiding. "Where's the thank you, huh?"

"For giving me new injuries?"

"Is that how you repay me?" Hyun-Ho scoffs. "I was the one who found you in the pool first."

"Y-You were?!" You splutter. "How come no one told me?"

"I said I found you. I wasn't the one who saved you." He shrugs like it was common knowledge.

"Aish." You shove his shoulder but he stands his ground, not budging an inch. "And you're thick-skinned enough to request a word of thanks?"

"Obviously." He flicks you on the forehead, drawing a scowl from you. "I went and got Jun-Hee for you."

"Ok, and...?" You're more baffled than ever.

"Geez, this ungrateful brat." Hyun-Ho tries but fails to hide his smirk. "Who do you think handed you over so you could be carried by Jun-Hee all the way to the infirmary?"

"What?!"

"You looked more comfortable in his arms than on my back, but really, it was no big deal." He shrugs. "All in a day's work for me."

"You—" you point a finger at him, gawking and at a loss for words.

"Also, nice change of outfit by the way." He raps his forefinger on Jun-Hee's nameplate, nails clacking on the piece of plastic. "I know it's your favorite brand."

You gasp as you finally notice, immediately unpinning the white rectangle and slipping it in your skirt pocket. "I'm going to kill him," you mutter under your breath.

"Why not kiss him instead?" Hyun-Ho jests, knowing well enough by now to evade your incessant slaps to his back, running down the hallway as you give chase after.

The two of you come to a stop when the rest of your classmates congregate from the other end of the hallway where Jun-Hee and So-Mi were making an announcement about retiring for the night and trying to contact the teacher again tomorrow morning.

Yoon-Seo taps your shoulder from behind and tilts her phone screen toward you where a timer has popped up.

Before anyone can so much as take a step toward their rooms, the intercom comes to life.

[ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴇɴᴅs ɪɴ ᴏɴᴇ ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇ. ]

With everything that has happened since you got here, the mafia game had slipped from your mind.

Suddenly, Yoon-Seo's meter starts counting down from 59 seconds, and with the ding comes a renewed sense of excitement from everyone around you, sleep long forgotten.

While Yool and his friends incessantly chatter away, trying to place blame on one another in good fun, you're the exception. Questioning the origins of the game, you feel a sense of foreboding, an ill-omened current in the air. You were known among your friends to have good instincts, but you hope against all hope that this time, your intuition wouldn't be true.

Jun-Hee walks over beside you, placing a hand on your shoulder that makes you jump out of your skin. "Seol-Hwa...? Did you hear anything I said?"

Hands trembling, you grip onto the rolled-up sleeve cuff of his shirt. "I...don't think we should've voted."

You eye the shaking numbers on Jun-Hee's phone screen, growing shades redder by the minute as it nears zero. He doesn't get a chance to reply as successive announcements come in.

[ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ʜᴀs ᴄᴏɴᴄʟᴜᴅᴇᴅ. ʜᴇᴏ ʏᴏᴏʟ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ ᴠᴏᴛᴇs ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴇxᴇᴄᴜᴛᴇᴅ. ]

Seconds later, Yool lets out a guttural scream of agony, clutching the side of his head.

"Oi, look at this kid. Gosh, he's just begging for attention again," Eun-Ha utters with clarity, unfazed by Yool's prankster tendencies. While everyone laughs at her statement and his actions, you study his face contorted in pain, veins popping up in his neck.

That kind of intensity isn't for show.

"Jun-Hee...Something's not right," you undertone tremulously, fingers slackening from the grip you had on him. The moment those words leave your lips, Yool falls to the ground, slumped over.

As his friends crowd around, Jun-Hee is rooted to the spot, intertwining your hand with his, holding on tight. You can tell he wants to go help as well, but he keeps throwing glances down at you and ultimately decides against it.

A sickening cracking sound has you sliding your eyes slowly over to see Yool's neck snapping rearward, the rest of his body contorting into a standing position in descending parts. Like a puppet controlled on a string, his limbs bend in odd angles, much more grotesque and inhumane compared to his earlier stint in the gymnasium. As his head straightens again, screams ring out down the length of the hallway.

You press yourself against the wall, finding it hard to breathe as you look directly into Yool's rolled eyes, now completely white, no irises in sight.

The White Butterfly's Murder.

You knew. You knew that butterflies were often seen in the spring as a divination of death, a harbinger of impending demise if it were to encircle someone while in flight. But to have it be white, the color of innocence yet also the color of surrender, you can't help but to wonder if these were all signs you should've heeded. Would we still have ended up here?

Eyes are windows to the soul, they say. Here, you realize, now stands a soulless individual.

Eun-Chan and Yeon-Woo have both fallen to the floor in a heap, staring up at their now unrecognizable friend with nothing but absolute fear in their expressions.

A mindless Yool throws himself side to side, intentionally crashing his head against pictures framed on the wall, glass shattering into a million pieces and raining the floor with shards akin to glitter.

But not all that glitters is gold.

You can't tell if it's the glass reflecting light, or if your tears are distorting your vision, but the scene hazes and blurs, turning into the illusion of a haunted nightmare you so desperately want to wake up from.

The horrific effect doesn't end there as Yool proceeds to crouch down and thump his head repeatedly against the floor, prostrating himself as if he's paying for sins he doesn't even remember; sins he can't even begin to atone for.

Blood is pouring in rivulets down his face, pooling around him like the expanding rings of a target, leaving only the center for his body to stay dead centered.

A broken sound escapes from your lips and Jun-Hee pulls you into his arms, shielding you against him, screening your eyes from having to look any further. Where your ear is pressed against his chest, you can hear the pounding of his heart, but even that sound alone is not enough to drown out that of Yool's head bashing against linoleum.

You squeeze your eyes tight, hard enough until you see spots, but these faint flickers of light are not lucky stars you can wish upon tonight.

If you could, you'd wish to be able to wake up. To start again from the beginning.

But you can't.

Rather, frozen in this cruel reality, you can only escape once you cease to wake up again.

And Yool does just that.

A thousand footsteps running toward a bitter end.

A crash as hope falls apart.

A thud to cease the beating of a heart.

And then...complete silence.

Before you lose consciousness, you feel that same vice-like grip from the pool return in full force, unbreakable chains around your heart.

This time, you're not sure anyone will come to your rescue.

This time, you don't know if you'll make it out alive.

𝟬𝟭 : 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 | 𝟬𝟯 : 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦

© 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞. 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨, 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞, 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫-𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭. 𝐀𝐥𝐬𝐨, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞, 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞, 𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞.

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fanfics4all · 11 months ago

Text

Unexpected Snowstorm

Request: Yes / No List was made by @alpaca-clouds

Requests are open only if its CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY/ WINTER related <3 Have a nice day/night

Sweet Pea x Fem!Jones!Reader

Word count: 759

Warnings: Nothing!

Y/N: Your Name

Y/N/N: Your Nickname

Prompt(s):

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK!

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(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

It was dark on the cold december night. I was hanging out at Sweet Pea’s place when the snow started coming down hard. Neither of us noticed, until we started getting cold. I felt the shivers and looked over at Pea, who was also slightly shivering.

“It’s cold in here.” I mentioned and Sweets nodded. He got up and checked the head, which was on. He looked out the window and his eyes widened.

“Uh, I guess it started snowing.” Sweets said and I got up to look.

“Oh my God…” I said as I looked at the snow quickly piling up. I heard my phone ring and quickly went to answer it.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Y/N? Where are you?” My brother, Jughead asked.

“I’m at Pea’s place.” I answered.

“Dad! She’s with Sweet Pea!” I heard him call out.

“Darlin’? You’re still at Sweet Pea’s place?” Dad asked and I nodded, before realizing he can’t see me.

“Yeah.” I answered.

“Stay there tonight, there’s a bad storm outside and it looks like we’re gettin’ snowed in.” He said.

“Yeah, Sweets and I didn’t realize it even started snowing until we both felt how cold it was getting.” I said and looked over at Sweets.

“You both are gonna be able to stay warm, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, I think so.” I answered.

“Good, alright, try and keep your phone charged. We might lose power.” He said.

“Okay, Daddy.” I said with a nod. We hung up and I turned to Sweet Pea.

“Guess we’re stuck here until the storm is over and people can start digging us out.” I said and he nodded.

“Fine by me.” He said with a small smirk. I rolled my eyes and started to rub my arms.

“Dad said he thinks we might lose power.” I said and Sweets groaned.

“We’re gonna freeze to death.” He said and I giggled.

“I might freeze first, so you can eat my body if you need to.” I joked. Sweets chuckled then noticed me shivering harder and rubbing my arms. He walked off and returned with a warm looking sweater. He tossed it to me and I happily put it on.

“That looks better on you then it does me.” He said with a wink and I blushed slightly. Sweets and I returned to the couch and started watching another movie.

Maybe half way through the power cut out. Pea groaned and I sighed. It almost instantly got colder. I checked my phone and saw Jughead had texted me. He was making sure my phone was charged and we were okay. I texted him back and told him that my phone was charged and that Pea and I would be fine. I started shivering again and Sweets looked over at me.

“Sweets?” I asked.

“Yeah?” He asked.

“C-Can we move t-to your bed?” I asked. He nodded and we both quickly went to his room. I rushed to his bed and wrapped the blanket around my body and felt a little warmer. Sweets left the room and came back a few moments later with extra blankets. I smiled and moved over to make room for Sweets. He got under the blankets with me and wrapped the extra ones around us. Sweets laid down and pulled me to lay on his chest. I smiled as I felt the warmth of his body.

“Imagine Jugs face if he saw us frozen like this.” I joked and Sweets laughed.

“He’d find a way to bring me back just to kill me again.” He said and I giggled. My brother was alway protective of me when it came to guys. When he found out me and Sweet Pea were dating, Dad had to stop him from killing my now boyfriend. Dad wasn’t exactly happy about me dating Pea either, but he could tell how happy I was with him. That’s the only reason he was a bit more lenient with us.

I could feel myself growing tired, but I didn’t really think I should sleep while being this cold. My eyelids were growing heavier and heavier, I could hardly fight it.

“Get some sleep, babe, it’s pretty much the only thing we can do right now anyway.” He said and I sighed.

“I don’t wanna freeze to death.” I mumbled. Pea chuckled and pulled me closer.

“I’m not gonna let you freeze babe, I’ll keep you warm all night.” He said and my eyes finally closed. I mumbled something in my sleepy state as I finally lost the fight.

Tag list: @les-bio-lie @tashy-bear @ashwarren32 @hollie-blogs-blog1 @lover-of-books-and-tea @nerdygaloresposts @teenwolfbitches28 @kmc1989 @drw0301bieber @lady-of-lies @ravenmoore14 @ravenempress101 @cillianchamp @rowanthomasknapp @rachelxwayne @ready-4-fanfiction @emo-godess-loves-you @hiya-imthatgirl @mindsetjupiter @averysinclaire @mittelerde1999 @sweetest-peas @rousewriter @camiconfessions-blog @thecaptainsgingersnap @cenyddtheunicorn @jacksxsouthsideserpents @lover2448 @mamacobie13 @staygoldsquatchling02 @wanderlust-and-poetry @hiighdeex3 @ayeitsjaz @skeletalwolfcat @scarrasco1325 @reblogserpent @darkestbeforethedawn16 @fandom-princess-forevermore @will-noble-owns-my-ass @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e @madebyleftovermuses @liz-owl

#fanfic #riverdale #riverdale imagine #sweet pea #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea imagine #sweet pea x y/n #sweet pea x fem!reader #sweet pea x jones!reader #jughead x sister!reader #jughead jones x sister!reader #fp jones x daughter!reader #fluff #fluffcember 2023 #fluffcember day 11 #day 11 #snowstorm

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marley-manson · 2 months ago

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So upon rewatching Preventative Medicine I'm even more disappointed with it because they established a legitimate way to make Hawkeye's choice actually morally grey and ultimately pointless, and then completely ignored it during his argument with BJ and the final scene in the Swamp.

BJ assumes they're giving Lacey fake gastritis to keep him in bed for a couple days, presumably so he can't try taking the hill "tomorrow." Unbeknownst to them, Potter has also requested that Lacey be taken off the front lines. Based on the show's usual depiction of the army I think that request is unlikely to be honoured, BUT based on the narrative of this episode one assumes the point of showing us Potter making that call is that it will have an effect.

So what they could've had was an argument about, or at least mentioning, Hawkeye's escalation. BJ arguing that it's enough to buy a day or two of time to figure out a way to dissuade him from trying to take the hill, Hawkeye arguing that it's not enough, he'll go back and kill more boys either way and he has to be stopped for good.

Then for the 'woe it was all pointless ending' Potter could yk, come in all "good news I requested that Lacey be transferred off the front lines and they're taking it seriously. hey btw where is he?"

That would at least like, be a reasonable argument against Hawkeye. But unfortunately, BJ's argument in the scrub room is nonsensical in the actual episode and Hawkeye's angst afterwards is also nonsensical, so imo the episode really dropped the ball here. Hawkeye feeling bad about taking out his appendix would make sense if he knew he was going to lose his command anyway, but he doesn't know that (and neither do we, because it's never brought up again.) He just feels bad arbitrarily, because... he didn't stop the war? I guess? Even though that was clearly not his goal lol?

All that said, I probably still wouldn't like it, just because I don't really like the idea of an episode designed to make Hawkeye seem ~too extreme~ in his attempt to save lives, yk, in terms of evaluating the politics of the show. I'd still side with Hawkeye lol.

And to be fair, maybe the reason they dropped the salient points is that it would've made Hawkeye look worse and much less defensible, whereas this is an ending you can have a debate with your friends about, even if the narrative awkwardly sides with BJ.

But then why bring up Potter trying to get Lacey transferred at all if we're not gonna follow up on that in any way?

And there are still ways to make it more even, like consider: Potter's request to transfer Lacey is refused, but a delay of 2 days so Lacey could recover from fake gastritis would've finished off his attempts at getting the hill. His superior sends him to another area of the front to keep him away from it, maybe, after that phone call where Lacey practically begs to be allowed to throw more men at it lol. So then you have the moral quandary of: BJ's idea would've saved the boys in the short term, but Lacey would still be their leader.

Or maybe BJ gets his way, Hawk doesn't perform the appendectomy bc BJ threatens to tell on him or something, and Lacey misses out on the hlil but remains in charge and Hawkeye is torn between being glad that the boys aren't in immediate danger but knowing Lacey will probably sacrifice them for something else stupid soon enough.

Idk, I think the bottom line is it's sloppy writing, probably due to late-stage rewrites at Mike Farrell's request lol. Maybe they just ran out of time to make sure it was polished and all their ts were crossed.

But like, it's a shame. Could've been a lot more interesting a moral dilemma imo.

#marley on mash #mash s7 #mash #the episode overall is gr8 aside from like the last 5 minutes btw lol #like i enjoy 90% of it - hawkeye's attitude throughout especially #it just absolutely does not stick the landing and that's the most important part so it's what i end up talking about

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mi-nya-mi · 4 months ago

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hiiiii i love your art and how you draw Elliott it’s so gorgeous ❤️

also i have to know since you mentioned it. your Elliott headcanons 👀

TYSM ANON 💖 😍

So as for how I see Elliott in my interpretations:

GENERAL

I personally see him being around 34, super neurodivergent (most likely undiagnosed), and having already lived life and a past stable job that wasn’t his cup of tea before realizing he’s getting up there in his years. This eventually would motivate him to take the leap of faith that’s moving to Pelican town and moving into the writers retreat. Of course you’re going to have to suspend your disbelief significantly about him making absolutely zero progress that is his novel in the year long span he’s in Pelican town, so I could only assume that either he worked on publishing shorter form stories and taking up commissions, or already started working on his novel long before the farmer arrives and is just asking for the assistance of a beta reader. Either way, while it’s hard to judge the cost of rent in Pelican Town with regards to staying in that cabin, let’s just assume that he had plenty of money saved in order to work without needing to worry about keeping the lights on.

BACKSTORY

We know absolutely nothing about Elliott's socioeconomic background so it’s hard to glean whether he grew up poor, middle class, or wealthy. Even with his expensive tastes he could fit in any of those categories. Whether he did develop his more gentlemanly qualities from being born with a silver spoon or just developing it in order to give off a certain impression to other people, I wouldn’t know. His lack of interest in divulging his backstory could mean that it’s the latter if it comes from shame, but I could also very much believe that he had a family that were old money and preferred Elliott to take up whatever family trade that they had or a respectable profession(trading firm, banking, business, etc.) To my point, he likely had a family given profession that they pressured him to take up that made him plenty of money, and he saved up enough money to keep him afloat before calling it quits. (And considering his expensive tastes as well as my headcanon being that he’s practically buff, I doubt he would neglect his personal health by ordering cheap foods. He would have the means to eat well.)

LIFESTYLE

On the topic of health! Listen, with Elliott mentioning his rugged physique and him basically being Stardew Fabio, it’s hard to see him as a stick. I think Elliott very much enjoyed sports in his college years such as fencing (albeit he likely wouldn’t be able to deal with fighting monsters whatsoever despite his claim), and maybe even horseback riding/polo. (That man’s a stallion! What wouldn’t be more fitting? Plus shoveling shit gets you fit.) He also likely fished prior to meeting Willy, and still would do it for fun. Much to the contrary of most fan headcanons I don’t think Elliott is much of a regular swimmer, mainly because neither seawater nor chlorine would bode well for his hair. If anything, it would be a leisurely activity as opposed to one related to fitness. The other thing that contributes to his general physical fitness is that Elliott for the most part hardly uses any electric appliances outside of necessities (such as a phone), partly due to the lack of sufficient sockets and amenities in his cabin but largely for the aesthetic. He’s very much unplugged and rarely uses social media. Because he hardly uses electric appliances, he is in charge of all the housework which includes chopping all of his firewood, handwashing, drying, and ironing all of his clothes, and occasionally crab potting his own lobster dinners if he’s lucky. This man is on top of his housework! He genuinely enjoys this meditative routine of housework he has as he mulls over thoughts on his novels.

Overall those are my general headcanons I have so far on Elliott, but if you every have specific prompts feel free to send them my way :D

#sdv elliott #stardew valley elliott #elliott stardew valley #sdv headcanons #headcanons #ask

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ja3hwa · 2 years ago

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Day 11 : Impregnation - Seonghwa

「Tilte」 : I want It

「Word count」 : 1.4k

-> Genre: Smut, Fluff

Paring: Husband!Seonghwa x Wife!Reader

[Warnings] : Switch dynamics. The reader is in charge for this one hehe. Subby-ish Seonghwa. (He's whinier than anything else) breeding kink, unprotected sex (Don't do this unless you want kids) Dirty talk. Bratty reader & Seonghwa. Making out. Hwa breaks readers underwear (woops). Pet names. Honeymoon romance. Newly wed and all that. If I missed something let me know ♡

February Filth Fest Event Day Calendar

Seonghwa is begging again. He wants children. He’s brought it up in the past and you’ve always brushed it off with a hearty no, saying you both weren’t ready for that type of commitment. Not right now anyway. But this time is different. He’s stopped mid-kiss to look at you in the eye and asked the question.

“Can we have a baby?”

Your throat runs dry. You couldn’t care for a kid, not now when your lives have just only begun to settle down into the first day of your honeymoon, which started straight after your chaotic wedding. But yet you couldn’t help feeling a tingle brew in your lower gut. The desperation in his eyes made your thighs squeeze together. The choked whimper in his words filled your need to please. And how could you possibly say no to your newly wedded husband while staring directly into his beautiful loving eyes? They swim with lust…. you were at a loss.

“Anything for you, my Love,” you whispered facing your body fully to him, having discarded your phone onto the side dresser while you were deep in thought.

His eyes brighten like he has just heard the best news in his entire life. He’s on you within seconds, kissing you deeply and caressing your sides. You moan into the kiss, grabbing either side of his head to hold him in place. His touch sends shivers down your spine and goosebumps across your body. You have never thought of it because of your precautions but just thinking about him going in raw gets you wet. You shift a hand down between your legs and start to rub your clit with two fingers. But a hand quickly stops you.

Seonghwa pulls away and looks at you. “Let me, please,” he begs.

He looks and sounds more desperate than you feel. This man must have been earning for ages. And now he’s finally getting it. He’s just a sloppy mess. You push him back onto the bed, his eyes on you the entire time. You climb on top of him and sit on top of his crotch. You grind down a little, feeling him grow in his pants a little. His hands grab your waist quickly, but you have other ideas. If he’s been wanting this, he’ll have to earn it. You grab his wrists and he lets go with loose fingers. Pinning his hands above his head, you suddenly feel the thrill of being on top. Looking down on him and seeing the desperation upon his delicate features. His mouth is parted and he’s breathing heavily already. It’s truly a sight to see that turns you on.

“Now if you want this, you’re going to have to ask nicely,” you whisper in his ear.

A moan is pushed from his lips as you grind down again at his lack of response. “Please,” he begs. “Let me.”

Satisfied, you let go of his hands but tsk, “Keep them there,” You ordered with a fake tone of dominance, at this point you sounded more cheeky and light-hearted, but neither of you cared. He keeps his arms above him but his gaze is all over you. You can feel his neediness rubbing against your clothed core. Shuffling down, you begin to undo his belt and pants. You stop every time he moves and wait for him to fall silent again. After a solid five minutes of playing this little game of tug and pull, you shuffle his pants off his ankles. His cock is fully erect and leaking. With a grin across your face, you sit on his thighs, placing your soft fingers down his waist. He flinches slightly but keeps his mouth shut.

“So you want kids?” You chuckle.

“Honestly,” he admits, “I couldn’t care less about that right now.”

“Oh, okay.” You reach over to the bedside table and open it. “I’ll just wrap you up then.”

“No!” He shouts and grabs you away from the table. “No,” he says more softly.

You laugh and pat his cheek. “You’re sweet. But do have to grab the lube.”

He smiles widely and toothy as you reach for the bedside table again, grabbing a small bottle of lube out. You slick up your hand and finally begin rubbing his dick. His hips buck up slightly and he suppresses a moan.

“Let it out, honey,” you whisper.

He exhales harshly and his arms move slightly above him. You stop and squeeze the base of his dick. He chokes on a moan but another escape and oh my, it sounds heavenly. Why haven’t you done this before? This is another side of your husband you haven’t seen. You move up on your knees and push your nightie up your thighs with the hand that was on his dick. You reach between your thighs and move your underwear to the side not wasting any more time with taking them off. With the lube on your fingers and the wetness coming from you, two fingers slide in easily. The pleasure zips through you and makes you hunch over Seonghwa. You finger yourself above his dick, breathing into his neck.

“Keep your arms up there now,” you moan. You meant it to come out as an order, but opening yourself up over him is doing something to you you never thought would.

“Please, I just want to touch you,” he pleads.

“We can stop if you want.” You plant a kiss on his lips. “Or we can keep going.”

He shakes his head frantically. “Please. I just want to fuck you,” he pants.

You kiss him again with more want and bring your free hand to comb through his hair. Then you reach down and grab the base of his cock to line it up. He moans into your mouth as you slide down halfway onto him. You pull away gasping. You want more.

“You can touch me,” you say but it comes more out as a whine.

His hands whip forward and grab your hips. He’s a mess right now and you’re loving it. You bob lightly up and down on him, feeling him rub up against you, sending prickles of pleasure up your spine. He guides you down slowly with each thrust until you’ve swallowed him to the base. He let's you sit there, taking his full length in for a moment before you decide to move on your own accord. You shift your hips upwards with your hands planted on Seonghwa’s stomach before moving downwards. You set a rhythm for yourself but soon enough he’s thrusting up into you. You’re gasping and moaning on each time he drives you down on his cock. You get lost in the moment and pick up the pace to chase your own high. You fall on top of Seonghwa and he wraps one of his arms around your waist while the other snakes down to grip your panties.

"I'm sorry." His words were quick and so was the sound of a snap of fabric. Did he literally just rip your underwear? "I'll buy you more."

"You better." You choke out a moan as he throws the broken fabric somewhere in the room. He brings his knees up and begins thrusting up into you from another angle. It sends a thrill through you that has you moaning louder. You’re both a mess and all of the teasing and playing hard to get suddenly didn’t matter anymore.

“I’m- I’m gonna-” He pants in your ear. He holds onto you more tightly as he buries his face into your neck. With a few stuttering thrusts, you feel him release inside of you. And oh god just the hot sensation of being filled up sends you over the edge as well. You squeeze down tight around him and you can already feel some of his cum dripping down his cock, leaking out of your hole. After the high end, you slowly bring yourself up, his cock still inside you, letting his cum stay deep inside you. Collecting yourself, you glance to see Seonghwa grinning up at you with a glowing smile. It brings a smile to your face as well even though you don’t know why he’s so ungodly happy.

“What?” You ask, stroking his chest with one hand.

“I hope it’s a girl,” Is all he says. That earned him a light slap on the shoulder.

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armpirate · 8 months ago

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Anti-romantic || JJk | Ch. 12

Pairings: Boxer!Jungkook x fem!reader || Enemies to lovers, neighbors

Genre: smut, angst, fluff, curse, illegal boxing, violence

Warnings: fuckboy!Jungkook x reader, smut, dirty talk, curse, mention of tarot and fate

Summary: Jungkook had always been carefree when it came to love. He always believed he was worth sharing himself with everyone, and thought it was selfish of him to ever think of keeping himself exclusive to just one person.

And maybe that was exactly what got him into the big problem he was in.

A curse that kept him away from love didn't seem an issue for him. The fact that his ex-girlfriend thought he'd be affected by the idea of the girls he slept with running away from him after sex was ridiculous. She actually did him a favor, and took a burden away from him.

At least that was what he thought at first.

He had never found himself thinking of the possibility of repeating with neither of his hook ups, because they disappeared before he was able to even think about it. But when he makes the mistake of sleeping with the sexy neighbor that lives in front of him, he finds himself hoping to get the chance for a second round every time their paths cross.

Y/n hated him the second he set foot inside the building by the way he started making her life a miserable mess for no reason. Sleeping with him was a big mistake she wasn't thinking of repeating. At least not until he came up with the excuse that she rejected him for a curse. Not only she thought he was annoying, but she was also convinced he was crazy.

There was no way she could take him seriously.

Aprox. time of reading: 14 minutes

Previous || Next

MASTERLIST

Jungkook moved around the gym, checking that some of the people he was training were doing the exercises as he asked them to. But while he was there physically, his mind was somewhere else -to the point of almost making it seem like he wasn't even there either.

He remembered how he came across Y/n in their landing earlier that day. It was Wednesday, but her schedule for sure didn't seem like one of her regular weekday's schedule. It was later than she usually stepped out of her apartment, and it was too early compared to when she usually stepped out on the weekends to do whatever she did -if she ever left at all. As his smile dropped and his eyes followed her to the elevator, he could point out the small blue bag she was carrying, and that almost was dragged through the floor by how low it was.

Where was she going?

Could it be that he crossed the line the other day and pushed her to move out? But that bag was too small for that.

Jungkook shook his head, trying to push those thoughts and questions away. He didn't care, it wasn't his business. And, if she left, he for sure would throw a party after he finally was able to get rid of her -even if it was only for a few days.

While the thought of Y/n slowly vanished away, the ringtone coming from his phone helped him distract himself from a thought he didn't want to have.

Not again that weird number.

They had been calling him every few days, only to not reply back whenever he answered the call. At first he thought it was someone mistaken his phone number from the one thay actually wanted to call, until later he just thought it was probably someone messing up with him.

He would've blocked it from making any more calls if it hadn't been for the sudden thought of it possibly being someone in charge of those fights. Because, in case they were, he needed to be approachable to keep getting invited to those.

—Who is it? —he answered with a tired tone.

There was a loud sigh coming from his deepest guts, trying to keep his calm when he was answered back with silence -as usual. It was starting to get tiresome to be living in that situation, at least, three times a week.

—Look, you're starting to bust my balls —he barked—. If you have something to say, say it now. Otherwise I'll find where you are and...

—Jungkook —a feminine voice interrupted him.

His body completely froze when he heard that familiar voice, and sad tone. He could've expected anyone else, but her.

—What... —he gulped the thick knot on his throat to be able to speak properly— What do you want?

—I need to talk to you —she softly said—. I know you hate me, I know you want to know nothing about me, but I really need to see you. Please.

—No —Jungkook quickly shook his head—. I don't care what it is you need to talk with me, I don't want to hear it, and I don't want to see you.

—Jungkook... —she almost begged.

—I told you ten years ago, you don't exist to me.

As soon as he was aware of the silence in the gym, looking up to find the three young guys standing in front of him as they listened to his conversation, Jungkook sighed, making his way to the front door.

—I don't know how many times I need to tell you: you're dead to me —he roughly said—. Stop trying to reach me out. And don't dare show up in front of me, never in your life.

—But...

He ended the call before he could hear what she had to say. She was a total stranger, or so she worked hard to be one for him. He didn't have the patience, nor the strength to deal with anything that had something to do with her.

Not in that moment, not in that lifetime.

Ten years ago he erased his mother from his life, and it'd stay like that for so much longer.

The silence was so heavy that she was sure it'd take a toll on her own balance if she ever tried to get up from the table. That house was usually so cheerful and happy, so carefree and safe, but there was a strange feeling in the air that day. She thought she'd get used to it, or that she'd be mentalized by it when she got on the bus. It was always like that once a year, and she couldn't ever get used to it.

It was always like that when they returned from the cemetery.

The smile that was always on her mother's face because of Mitchell also turned into a straight line, and her eyes reflected the pain she went through exactly five years back in that exact same living room they were sitting at.

Noah's death was difficult to handle for most of them. Even Mitchell was devastated when his wife broke into a broken cry when the doctor walked to her with the heartbreaking news that her son didn't make it out of the surgery. His brain was so damaged that nothing could save him and the surgery would only put him in a thin line between life and death. Yet all of them took the risk, because there still was the small glimpse of hope that made them believe Noah would make it out alive.

It wasn't like they had any other choice either way. He entered that vegetative state after the ambulance picked him up, that didn't matter what would happen, he wouldn't ever be the same again. At least, with the surgery, they all thought he'd wake up again.

—I'll prepare some tea —Mitchell softly said, covering his wife's hands with his—. Do you need something else?

Instead of speaking, Y/n's mother shook her head slowly, not moving her eyes from the concrete spot on the floor she had been fixing her gaze on for the past two hours.

—Do you need anything? —he turned to the two girls sitting on the couch opposite to the one they were sitting at.

—No, thank you —Y/n answered with a tiny smile.

—No.

Despite both saying the same, Hannah's tone was condescending, along with the annoyed look she gave him and that made Mitchell uncomfortable. It was usually like that. For some reason, her sister always had a tough time whenever she had to deal with their mother's husband. It didn't matter what he did, it didn't matter what he said, Hannah would always show off how much she disliked him.

—Could you, at least, make an effort today? —Y/n asked her with a weak voice.

—I didn't do anything.

—Mitchell is having a hard time as we all are right now. You should stop being a bitch to him at least for one day.

—Girls —their mother finally spoke, with the first weak warning.

—Well, I'm sorry, but I don't understand what he's doing here —Hannah ignored their mother—. Isn't it enough to celebrate Noah's death anniversary, but I also have to sit here with someone that has zero to do with this?

—Nothing to do...? —Y/n had to stop herself after she tried to understand what her sister was saying— He's married to our mom, he's been in our lives for so long, he was close to Noah, and you're asking why he's with our family? He's part of our family —she pointed out.

—Oh, dad can't show face here, but Mitchell can?

—Dad abandoned us, he left us behind and didn't care about what we went through. But Mitchell did care. I'm sorry your privileged ass never had to go through any of that.

Hannah had always been the lucky one.

When their father left, without looking back, without caring about all the debts he left pending on their mother alone, the whole stability of the house fell onto her shoulders. Hannah was too busy living her uni days to ever know what it was to see their mother at the edge of depression every single day, with the smile and the spark in her eyes disappearing as time went by. Hannah kept going to college, while Y/n and Noah left their studies aside to help their mother when she wasn't able to go on. They did everything they could, they worked every job they found, and it still wasn't enough.

Debts and bills were being paid, but their mother was in such an awful state that it made them both worry about her health every single day -and that it was only hidden under the carpet when Hannah came back home for some holidays.

She never had to live any of that, because she was always protected from it since she wasn't even living at home. Their mother could pull up an act for a few days.

At least until she met Mitchell, and everything started to seem a little bit brighter every day. Thanks to him Y/n and Noah were able to leave those poor jobs, and she was able to go back to studying; and, most importantly, he gave their mother the wish to live every single day again. He was there when he needed her the most, of course he had every right to go through that mourning with them.

—Y/n! Hannah! Stop —their mother finally got them to stay quiet.

—Hey —all of their eyes were on the man who was waiting by the small arch that connected the living room to the corridor—. I think it'd be better if I stayed in a hotel this week. Hannah is right.

Y/n looked at her mother, trying to get her to react to what was happening, only to see her pressing her lips together with a nervous look in her eyes.

The previous years Hannah didn't even attempt to show up there for that time of the year, she barely even checked on their mother during that day, and the first time she dares to celebrate such an important day, she expects the only person who's always been there to leave.

—Honey, take care, alright? —he kissed his wife's head.

The silence that invaded the house the second after Mitchell left was so heavy and thick that turned twenty minutes into feeling like hours. It was even worse than how it was before he left, which made Y/n wonder if Hannah's problem was actually him or there was something else.

—You always have to be such a drama queen —Hannah rolled her eyes—. It's your fault he left. If you hadn't said anything, nothing would've blown out the way it did.

Y/n bit her lip, nervously trying to hold back all the painful words that were sharpening on the tip of her tongue. She could've said a lot of things, she could've turned that moment into one big fight that would've only made their family distance even more. It wasn't like Hannah cared either way. After that week, she'd probably leave back to Malaysia and forget about everything she'd done there at that moment.

It was like that during her college days, and it would be like that in the present.

—I can't believe you're going to blame me for what you did —she scoffed—. And I can't believe you're selfish to make this day about you either. No one gives a fuck about how you're feeling if it has zero to do with Noah. I don't give a fuck. You've always done this, and you show zero regrets after —her eyes rolled, trying to control the teardrops that were forming in her eyes—. And I can't believe you'd rather do what she wants than standing up for yourself —she turned at her mother—. What's the worst she will do? Leave? That's nothing new. She's just like dad, so I bet it's just a matter of time.

—Stop —her mother finally spoke, standing up to face the two of them—, the two of you. This is the only day I needed you to be supportive, and you ended up fighting about who's right and wrong. It isn't the moment for you to discuss these things, yet here you are doing it.

—So, to keep a peaceful day, you'll just do whatever she wants? —Y/n looked at her mother in disbelief— I understand what you want, but kicking someone out of their own home and dictating how people should mourn isn't the way either —her tone was calm—. And if this is the way you're going to do it, I can perfectly do it like this back in my house.

At first, it just seemed like a threat, until Y/n started picking up her things, only stopping to look at her mother. If Hannah was going to stay there, the best thing she could do was to leave and let her mother have the peaceful day she was seeking -and that she deserved.

Her arms wrapped gently around her neck, giving her a soft hug before she stepped back to hang the strip of her bag over her shoulder.

—I'll call you tomorrow —she assured her.

Her mother didn't try to stop her, or to understand why she was leaving that hostile place the house had become, she just let her go, seeing her body disappearing behind the big main door.

On her way back home in the bus, Y/n kept wondering if she had taken the right decision and if she wouldn't end up regretting it shortly after she arrived back in the city. Her family hadn't looked so broken since Noah died. And suddenly all those feelings were coming back in her system slowly, getting over all of her thoughts and reactions before she could avoid it. Although she held them in, keeping her eyes from dropping the tears piling up and her mouth to let out that whine she had been holding back.

She had enough that day, she just wanted to close herself in her apartment and let everything that happened throughout the day die in her pillow. She just needed a calm night after such a stressful day.

She pressed the button of the elevator a few times, seeing no reaction from it. Usually, the light of the button would light up and would emit a sound to let it be known the lift would arrive to the floor shortly, but it didn't react that night.

Actually, there wasn't the slightest hint of it moving.

Tiredly, she looked up at the stairs at the left of the metallic huge box, giving up trying and just getting to her floor by walking. It was tiring, it wasn't what she actually needed, but it was better than waiting for something that wouldn't happen.

She remained impassive when the click of the door behind her reached her ears after she got to her floor, thinking that ignoring him would be enough and would get him to leave.

—Is the rule only for me? —he teased her— You should have got here with the elev...

—Are you glued to the door? —Y/n asked, still walking to her apartment.

—I wasn't waiting for you —he replied back—. I was just making sure you followed the rules you imposed. You can't be so unfair. If it had been me, you'd have set it all on fire. Am I wrong? I bet you're so used to doing whatever you want that you just don't care about what others' feel.

She didn't care about his words, she had learnt to turn his voice into a blank noise when it was convenient for her. And in that moment, she didn't want to waste energy fighting with him over something so stupid as the division she made on the floor.

But her silence, and how she didn't turn to him to confront him, didn't go unnoticed by him. It just wasn't the way she usually reacted.

—Are you okay?

Stopping a few steps away from her door, right when she was ready to sneak her hand inside her bag to reach her keys, she broke.

It was all silent, and suddenly he heard a snort that hinted at what was happening. Her shoulders shook in rhythm with her hiccups while she cried, and Jungkook suddenly panicked at the idea of him being the cause of it.

—Hey, it's not that serious —he started walking to her—. I was just being an asshole to you, like always —his laugh sounded nervous.

His hands moved over her body without getting to touch her, trying to think what could be the best move he could pull right there. He didn't want to be invasive, but she clearly needed somebody to comfort her. But what was the right way to comfort her?

She just needed some support, something that made her feel like things weren't going as bad as she thought, she just needed something stable among that chaos. Her hug took him by surprise, having his arms hung in the air for a few minutes as he tried to realize what was going on.

He had never had to comfort anyone, he had never had to hug somebody to wash the pain away, and he never had someone doing it for him either, so hearing her sobs and feeling his plaid shirt getting wet on his shoulder by her tears was a new experience that he didn't think he liked.

But he did.

His arms slowly wrapped around her shoulders, while his palm rubbed against her upper back to comfort her, trying to get those powerful whines and continuous tears stop. Her face was hidden in his chest, and only then she noticed how the musky scent from his cologne was more powerful than the tobacco stink impregnated on his clothes.

She didn't even know he smoked.

She actually didn't know anything other than the little war they had going on, and some of the small things she had found out casually. Finally feeling calm enough to break some sense into her mind, with realization hitting her like a truck when she wasn't blinded by how lonely and hopeless she felt. She was so fooled by how good that embrace felt that, for one second, she forgot who she was hugging like her life depended on it.

—If you tell anyone about this, I'll make you eat your own guts —she threatened, with her head still hiding in the fabric of his shirt.

—I won't tell anyone —he assured her.

Jungkook didn't feel the need to hear her explanation, and it somehow made her felt relieved. Because he gave her a safe space where she didn't need to justify herself. He was just there, confused at how he wasn't feeling awkward about it, but warmed but how he was of help.

—This feels... weirdly good —she admitted.

—Uh-hum —he nodded—. Although... maybe...

While he tried to speak, Y/n could feel one of his hands sneaking all the way down her back, having her step back and pushing him away before he could reach the place he had aimed.

—You're a jerk.

—I thought it'd help make you feel better and forget about everything.

—Oh my god, you're sick —she whispered, slowly going back to her usual self—. At first I thought you were an asshole, but now I'm really convinced that you have a disease.

—Could be —he seemed to be serious for one second—. Maybe I need some of your medicine.

There was no reply back to that comment, other than the sound her door made against the door frame.

—Oh, come on. I was just trying to cheer you up.

Although she wasn't angry at him, or disappointed. She wasn't even disgusted. Instead, she found herself smiling.

Taglist: @jk97bam @ttanniett

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jinkoh · 2 years ago

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Keep you safe

Seungcheol x reader

Tags: angst (a lot), hurt/comfort, ex-boyfriend!Seungcheol, g/n reader, y/n & sc both work in science

Warnings: fire, fear of a loved one getting hurt, vague mentions of injury/death (no one actually dies)

word count: ~1,5k

a/n: pls heed the warnings before reading (also if you think I should add anything lmk). I honestly don't even have an explanation for this story. I was listening to angsty music and thought "wow yeah, imagine if ex-bf cheol thought something might have happened to you" and then just wrote this down in one go.

Masterlist

Things had been fine, really. Seungcheol was over you.

Of course, he still doubted that he’d ever fall in love like that again. Of course, he still thought that you were his one true love. But that didn’t mean the two of you were meant for each other, were meant for forever.

You hadn’t spoken in almost a year. Both of you had tried to make it a clean break up; no further contact unless necessary. He still saw you from time to time on the hallways of your faculty, but he never spoke to you. Neither did you approach him. It was for the better.

And yet, when he heard about the fire that broke out at the university, you were his first thought.

There were other people at the faculty that he talked to everyday, who should have come to mind first. But they didn’t. No matter how much he cared about them, when he heard about the fire, his only thought was you. Were you safe? Had you been at the faculty that day?

He knew you were supposed to be— if your times at the lab hadn’t changed. Mondays and Thursdays, those had always been your lab days. It was Thursday.

The whole situation felt like a weird twist of fate. He’d been about to drive to the faculty himself, meaning to check on some samples. But then Jeonghan called him, out of breath, asking if he was okay, if he was still home.

There wasn’t much information on the fire yet, at least Seungcheol didn’t have much. All he knew was that it broke out in one of the laboratories about an hour ago and that the firefighters were on site. He’d gotten several more messages after that, asking if he was okay. He also wrote some himself, checking on the people who hadn’t gotten in touch with him yet.

And despite the radio silence, despite the fact that he wasn’t supposed to care about you anymore, he sent a message to you too.

It did nothing to ease his worries. You weren’t replying. The message didn’t even get marked as delivered.

He tried to bargain with his restless mind. Maybe you hadn’t been there today? Maybe you’d left earlier? Maybe you’d been outside for a smoke break when it happened? Surely, you’d just forgotten to charge your phone, the way you did sometimes.

The bitter truth was though, that you never missed your lab days. You also never left early. You weren’t smoking either, not when you dated, and he doubted you had started now. Chances were that you’d been in that building when the fire broke out and that you’d been close to the source too.

Seungcheol kept staring at his screen, refreshing the news page every few seconds, but to no avail. There was no information other than that the firefighters arrived on the scene forty minutes ago and that it wasn’t clear if or how many people were still inside the building.

He knew it was a terrible idea to go there now. He wouldn’t be able to help anyone. If anything, he’d be in the way of the first aiders. Hell, he disliked onlookers himself. But now, he started to understand the urge to go and see. Maybe you’d be there, safe and sound. Or maybe you weren’t. Not knowing drove him crazy.

His heart kept hammering in his chest and unable to calm down, he started pacing his flat. Whenever his phone vibrated with a message, he hoped it’d be you. But it never was. All the people he’d asked about you said they didn’t know either.

After what felt like an eternity, he got a call from Jeonghan. Seungcheol didn’t even bother with a greeting when he picked up.

“Any news?” He asked, his voice hoarse and out of breath.

“Nothing definite,” Jeonghan replied and the way he leveled his voice made Seungcheol feel unsettled.

“What does that mean?”

“I managed to get a hold on Wonwoo. He was at the lab this morning.”

“And?” Seungcheol wasn’t feeling particularly patient.

“He said y/n was there and that they’d planned on staying until late.”

Seungcheol wasn’t surprised. After all, he’d known from the start that this was likely. But hearing someone say it out loud, having someone confirm his worries made it really hit him. You were there.

He couldn’t breathe.

“I have to—”

“Cheol,” Jeonghan interrupted, trying to calm him down.

“No, Jeonghan, I have to go there— what if they—” He didn’t dare to finish his sentence.

“Cheol, you can’t do anything, even if you—”

But he didn’t have the time to listen to Jeonghan being logical and reasonable. He simply couldn’t wait a second longer, he had to do something.

So, he slipped into his shoes and rushed out, not even bothering to put on a coat despite the biting cold. Getting to the university wasn’t as easy as expected. The closer he got; the fuller were the streets. Sirens kept cutting through the traffic noise; ambulances and fire trucks trying to get past the other cars. Guilt crept up in the pit of his stomach. He knew he wasn’t helping the situation; he knew driving there meant one more car blocking the streets.

But how was he supposed to wait at home while you could be hurt? Or worse?

He parked a little further off from the university in an attempt to not disrupt the access road for the rescue workers. As soon as he got out of his car, he started running, not even remembering to lock the car behind him.

He saw the clouds of smoke from afar and noticed the stench in the air. It made him feel sick to his stomach.

As he reached the building, there were several fire trucks and ambulances around it, the firefighters still working on extinguishing the fire. Around it, a crowd of people had formed, some just looking at the burning building, others pushing through the masses in search of someone or something. All the while firefighters were shouting to stay back.

He swallowed. How was he supposed to find you in this chaos? His eyes kept scanning the crowd, stopping at every white lab coat they caught onto, in hopes that it’d be you. His heart was pounding so loudly, it almost drowned out the never ending sound of sirens.

Two first aiders were pushing a stretcher past him, and his eyes automatically scanned the face of the person lying on top. It wasn’t you.

The more he looked for you, the worse he felt. Why weren’t you anywhere to be seen? The crowd of people started blurring in front of his eyes. He wiped away tears he hadn’t even noticed he’d been crying until then.

He heard himself calling out your name, his voice barely sounding like his own, as he kept pushing past the people around him. No matter what, he needed to know you were okay. Even if you weren’t his anymore, just for today he needed to hold you in his arms and keep you safe.

Suddenly a voice cut through all the noise around him, sounding almost as desperate as his own.

“Seungcheol!”

He whipped his head around, his body recognizing your voice before his brain even registered it.

For a second, he just looked at you, unable to make a move. He felt as if time had stopped, the chaos around him disappearing for a moment.

You were standing there, your face stained with grime and tears, your eyes red.

But you were alive. You were okay.

He pulled himself out of his trance and ran towards you, hugging you close to his chest as soon as he reached you. You immediately hugged him back, your arms wrapping so tightly around his body it almost felt suffocating. Your shoulders trembled in his hold as you sobbed into his chest.

Resting his chin on the crown of your head, he ran his hands over your back in a soothing pattern. He wasn’t exactly sure if he was trying to comfort you or himself. Either way, it was working.

“I couldn’t find you,” you croaked, your voice hoarse from crying. “I couldn’t find you, but Chan said you were going to be in the lab today and—”

“It’s okay,” he whispered, tightening his hold on you. “I’m here now, I’m okay.”

“I thought you were still inside, I tried getting back inside, but they didn’t let me and—” You were interrupted by a sob that escaped your throat. “I thought you were still inside,” you repeated.

“I wasn’t, I wasn’t,” he mumbled into your hair. “But… I thought you were,” he admitted after a pause. “I tried getting a hold of you, but I couldn’t. And no one had heard from you—” He swallowed. “I was worried. I thought I’d lost you.”

Both of you ignored the fact that you weren’t his to lose anymore. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that both of you were safe.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered.

“Don’t be.” He left a kiss on your hair. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

Masterlist

#s.coups x reader #seungcheol x reader #scoups x reader #seventeen scenarios #seventeen fanfic #seventeen angst #kpop scenarios #seventeen drabble #svt angst #svt fanfic #svt scenarios #svt imagines #seventeen imagines #kebbis.writing

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copperbadge · 1 year ago

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It LOOKS like I did a lot today...

I knew that I would need containers for various things when I started cleaning this year, but I held off until I could make a list and take measurements; this isn't even all of the containers I need, but it's what I could get from Ikea. Container Store will likely provide the rest but again, I'm waiting until I have a fuller idea of what all I need.

Last year I organized my craft stuff and designated a specific drawer for fabric; that worked well but the drawer got a bit disorganized because it was "one cardboard box with no lid, and fabric shoved into and around it". So I measured the drawer and bought a pair of plastic bins for the majority of the fabric, so now I can remove the bins if need be to get a better idea of what's available. I also found out there's a store in Chicago which takes donations of crafting stuff so eventually I'll destash some of this. I've been trying to use up a lot of it on various projects in the meantime.

[ID: Three images; the first shows a bin full of folded squares of fabric, sitting on top of the shelf, while the next shows one bin of fabric and some loose fabric in a drawer, and the third image shows how the two bins fit into the drawer.]

Another bin I bought from Ikea was a metal basket to contain all my seasonings; this worked well, and allowed me to open up a bunch of space on the shelf they used to sit on for stuff that was on the shelf above it, making it easier to see what all I do and don't have.

[ID: Two images of a white two-section basket split by a wooden handle in the middle; in the first it is sitting on the stove, freshly full of jars of spice and herbs (Marylanders take note: that red lid is indeed Old Bay). In the second image it is sitting on the spice shelf surrounded by other stuff like a box of baking soda and a spice grinder, while the shelf above it is noticeably not super cluttered.]

I also sorted through the spices, threw out some old ones, and identified the jars of stuff I hadn't used much and should use soon. I think I'm going to spend the winter making cinnamon rolls and swirl bread with the vanilla sugar, and make a shitload of taco meat with the fajita seasoning. I'll probably use the cheese powder for mac and cheese, and the Greektown for burger seasoning. Or maybe I'll try my hand at making falafel with it.

[ID: A photo of several jars and packets of seasoning, including Spiced Vanilla Sugar, Romano powder, Penzey's "Revolution" seasoning and "Fajita" seasoning, and a seasoning mix called "Greektown".]

Lastly, to get to $35 and get free shipping, I bought some Ikea "cord caddy" thingys, which you stick to a surface and run your charging cords through in order to keep them tidy. I realize neither of these LOOK tidy but compared to what they were, they very much are.

[ID: Two images; one is of a small portable table that I use for working on my laptop, and shows the caddy holding the laptop's charging cord and a phone charging cord so the table feet stop tangling them. The second image shows a caddy attached to one of the slats of my headboard, through which are threaded a power cord to some remote-control lights, another phone charging cord, and the charging cord for my sleep headphones.]

Listened to about the first forty minutes of the latest episode of Just King Things, about Wizard and Glass, and was gratified to hear many of my own complaints about it reiterated by either the hosts or people they've spoken to. I have started that book so many times and never been able to finish it because I Do Not Care about Roland getting laid as a teenager. So it's nice to get the plot and analysis in podcast form, and now I'll never HAVE to read it.

#naclyoho #national clean your home month #food

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cobragardens · 1 year ago

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A Meta on Crowley's Miracle Meltdown

gif by phaxxion via Tenor

What exactly is happening in this moment? Why is it happening? Why is it included in this story?

I don't mean "Why does Crowley have a frustration meltdown after a huge argument with his partner about helping their former abuser Jeff Bezos?" We've all been there. But not all of us discharge a huge bolt of red infernal energy when we lose our temper, and more to the point, Crowley doesn't usually do that either. What gives?

And, as ixi of Fuck Yeah Good Omens asks and illustrates, why does some of the infernal energy Crowley discharges travel sideways into Give Me Coffee?

Here's my proposal for answers to these questions.

Insofar as angels and demons were created expressly for the purpose of channeling miracle, maybe to angelic stock refraining from miracles is a bit like holding one's breath is to a human. Human bodies move air in and through and out of themselves as an automatic process. They can refrain from that process, but because breathing is the default, refraining takes a positive sustained effort.

And if you're holding your breath when someone punches you hard in the gut, you don't just lose track of holding your breath, you gasp, you make sounds, you breathe hard. You move a lot of air through your respiratory system for a few seconds until you regain your equilibrium.

Since coming to "a sort of generalised understanding" with Hell, Crowley hasn't been doing many miracles. Aziraphale says he thinks Heaven would notice if he "performed even a minor miracle," and Crowley agrees, "I don't want Hell taking an interest either"; this implies that they've both been trying to keep their miracle usage minimal. (From his continued abuse of London's traffic lights we can infer that Crowley, as usual, has somewhat more latitude in this regard than does Aziraphale.) But he's so freaked out by the appearance of Jeff Bezos Jimbriel and so angry about Aziraphale's line-in-the-sand insistence that the two of them help Jim instead of protecting themselves that Crowley feels approaching a loss of the ability to hold his breath, miraculously speaking.

So before he accidentally curses the bookshop, he goes out into the street away from everyone and tries to get control of himself. If he's not successful, then he's at least away from everyone and able to discharge miracle into the sky where it can dissipate, just like the spiritual smog of evil produced by the M25 dissipates without affecting any one person or thing.

Crowley channels the miracle into the form of lightning, but Crowley's lightning behaves like miracle, not like lightning. Lightning is a huge shock of static electricity, i.e., the sudden mass movement of positively and negatively charged ions toward each other; it does not come up through a person's body from Hell, and it doesn't damage mobile phones.

It takes a direct lightning strike to damage a mobile phone, and when that happens it doesn't just fry the phone, it burns it. An arc of circuit electricity strong enough to fry an unplugged mobile phone would be strong enough to shock and burn the person holding it as well. Nina and Maggie both have their phones on them when the lightning hits Give Me Coffee, but neither woman gets struck by lightning or electrocuted. Their phones get bricked because that is how Crowley thinks lightning works and therefore his lightning works that way.

And it is for this same reason that the "lightning" Crowley puts out hits Give Me Coffee: because it's not lightning, it's miracle. Miracle depends on the miracledoer's familiarity with the thing the miracle is acting upon.

When Crowley has his frustrationgasm, he doesn't have perfect control over where he's aiming miracle in that moment and/or he's concentrating on keeping it away from the bookshop and Aziraphale and the Bentley, so a tongue of miraculous "lightning" (which behaves the way Crowley thinks lightning behaves) slips sideways towards the next most familiar thing on the street to him: Nina's coffee shop. Crowley went there just a few minutes before this scene.

As far as I can tell, this moment serves two functions in the story. Firstly, as many others have pointed out, it establishes the color of Crowley's miracle to be red (continuing the motif of red as the color that represents him) in order to indicate the importance of the Supreme Archangel's purple and the purple of the miracle plume Crowley and Aziraphale's joint miracle produced.

But maybe it's also included because it explicitly establishes a mechanic we see repeated on a smaller scale in 1827: that an angel or a demon's control of the miraculous power they channel isn't always perfect. It can slip if they get really upset.

#this all seems super obvious now I've typed it out #but maybe if it wasn't obvious to me it isn't obvious to someone else either?#good omens #good omens s2 #good omens 2 #crowley #crowley's emotional meltdown #good omens meta

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rokishimizu4 · 20 days ago

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A very Spooky Halloween

(Velma in Gotham City for a important meeting) (Everyone is an adult in this, except Robin- he is in his middle teens)

‘I can’t believe Batman invited us back to Gotham. This case must be a difficult one if the world’s greatest detective needs our help again.’ Velma thought as she closely follows her friends into one of the most fanciest hotels she has ever seen.

‘Thank goodness for the Blake stubbornness.’

Velma keeps an eye out for any of the local villains or even a mugger, but everyone was too busy preparing for Halloween, or for the next super villian attack, to pay attention to others.

“Ok gang! Let’s get unpacked and start searching for clues!” Fred, ever the leader, says as his friends easily follow up behind him, after Daphne got everyone checked in and room cards handed out.

It took less than an hour for everyone to unpack and heading out to meet up with Batman, when Velma got an alert on her phone from a close ally. She waited until her friends were busy with their own theories about why they were called down, before she quietly checked the coded message from her latest experiment.

“Jinkies..” She forced herself to whisper as she reads and re-reads the results. She was seeing years of research and risking her own health to finally get the results she was hopping to give to Batman and the City of Gotham.

“Lma? Velma? Hey Velma!” A scream cut her off from her excitement, and she quickly puts her phone back into her skirt pocket and turns her attention towards her friends, who were climbing out of the Mystery Machine and heading towards the secret hideout of the Mystery Analyst of Gotham.

“Coming!” Velma quickly gathers her bag, which holds her computer, notebook, and other necessities for surviving in Gotham.

Once she makes it to her friends, Fred sticks the card in the scanner and they are let in.

However, they are only met with a group of familiar that they only saw very little of in the news.

“Jinkies! It’s Nightwing, Spoiler, Orphan, Red Robin, and Robin!” Velma gushes as she instantly recognized Batman’s family of Bats, at least what she knew from theories and news reports that came straight from Gotham.

“And you must be the Scooby gang! It’s great to finally meet the gang that managed to solve Batman’s greatest mystery!” Nightwing, in his black and blue spandex wearing glory, welcomes them with open arms as the rest of the Superheroes take a seat at the meeting table.

“So glad you could make it! Bat’s been telling us all about you!”

“Jeepers! Really?” Daphne exclaims with excitement, trying to keep her body from jumping up and down at the thought of Batman sharing his approval of them to others.

A sharp jab to the side of Spoiler’s side from Red Robin and Robin easily told Velma that either Spoiler was sharing too much information or simply that Batman hasn’t been telling others about the Mystery Inc gang like Daphne hoped.

“Tch, Spoiler. We are here to discuss the facts, not some fantasy.” Robin, easily recognized by his red and green spandex suit and black eye mask.

“The Joker and Scarecrow, right?” Velma interrupts as she takes out her computer from her bag, opens it and quickly finds the news article about a recent attack in Gotham that left several hundred people severely sick with some unknown Joker venom or Scarecrow Fear toxic that had put everyone that comes in contact with it in the hospital or worse.

“People have been calling it ‘one of the worst attacks in the history of Gotham’. However, neither the Joker nor Scarecrow claims to be behind the attack. And the victims all claim to have seen the same thing before they were attacked.” Red Robin answers her question as he stands next to her to point out a number of key differences between the villains’ attacks and the new villain’s.

“Jinkies” “Jeepers” “Zoinks”

“Batman has put us in charge of this new development and asked for the Mystery Inc.’s expertise in finding the truth.” Red Robin continues as he has Velma follow him to the table and set her computer down on the table, easily hooking it up to the big computer.

Velma quickly sits down and starts pulling up all the information she could find about the attack, and some secret interviews she was able to get her hands on.

A sudden chill races up her back as she and her friends rewatch one interview of a family member who was there at the time.

“At first there was just the normal Gotham fog, but then my dog started to freak out. Like full on panicking. I thought it was the Joker or someone, so I was ready to take off, but then I heard someone singing. Then more singing, and drums, and lights.”

“Creepy, that doesn’t sound like any of the Gotham rouges.” Daphne shivers and curls closer to Fred for protection.

The video continues as the interviewee takes a deep breath.

“Then I heard someone whispering in my ear. It was asking me if I wanted to join something, but I took off before it could finish. Me and Bella just took off, then hours later I heard about the attack….”

Velma hits pause on her computer and turns to look at her friends and the Bat family. “The victims all claim to have seen a marching group of people and a smiling ghost before passing out. The victims’ have similar symptoms of being hit with a mix of Joker venom and fear toxin together, but neither shows up in their lab works.

“Well gang, looks like we have another mystery on our hands!” Fred exclaims with a big smile on his face, and he begins to talk to Nightwing and Robin about what they know.

Velma and Red Robin, who are soon joined by someone named Oracle, begin to compare notes.

After a few hours of researching, hacking traffic cams from that night, and theories flying around left and right, Nightwing called it a night after receiving an alert about Riddler.

Before the Bat family left tho, Velma carefully gave them two small steel box and a nervous smile.

“Batman wanted me to investigate a cure for Joker’s venom and Scarecrow’s fear toxin. I’ve already sent him the test results and my notes. I hope this can make headway for an actual cure.”

The Bat family froze as Nightwing and Red Robin each took a box, before pulling her into a hug.

“Thank you. You have no idea what this will mean for the people of Gotham and all of the families of the victims.” Nightwing sniffled as he turns away, trying to keep his mask on through the tears.

“No, I have no idea. But, I’ve seen some of the aftermath on the news. The sooner that Joker can be stopped, the sooner the victims can be safe and happy.” Velma swallows her tears as she pulls away from the hug, breathing a sigh of relief when she was let go.

“I would love to visit Gotham without it being about business.” She finishes as she turns away from the Bat family and makes her way back towards her friends.

Her thoughts circling on the mystery, so much so that she never heard the sly comment from Orphan.

“Adoption papers?”

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antheiantics · 2 years ago

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Things I would do as an ENTJ parent

Educate them on "The Art Of War" from an early age. If it's hard for them to get it, I would go as far as publishing a children's version of it.

Teach them proper manners and etiquette.

Gift each of them a plant, they must keep alive to develop a caring mechanism.

As soon as they prove to me they can take care of it, I'll get them a pet of their own choosing. Preferably a dog, if our household doesn't have one already. An animal of whatever kind, teaches responsibility

Read them fairy tales and mimic the voice of the characters for a full-blown experience.

Drink tea/fresh juice with them every morning and ask how they plan to spend their day. Later when they grow up, we'll have coffee.

Family dinners. That's a must.

Always urge them to communicate with me and their father about their feelings. It's important to me that they realize that we're not exactly mind readers and neither are other people.

Make sure they know what sarcasm is from an early age. That ages well, I promise you. And besides with me being their mother, they can't escape it either. Better get used to it.

Teach them to always fight for what they want and achieve it through any means necessary. Killing is off the table (we're not in The Purge, darlings, it's still illegal) Unfair play is off limits too - we honour truth and justice in this house. Otherwise, there are no limits whatsoever.

Talk with them like they are adults. The dog doesn't say "woof woof", it barks.

No matter what anyone says, they'll get their first phones when they turn 6 or 7 (meaning when they enter school). Before that, screen time will be minimized to certain movies and tv shows that I may make a separate list for (comment down below what movies and tv shows you would play for your kids so I can include them; would be nice if you write your MBTI and enneagram as well)

On the subject of phones: if they don't pick up the first time, I can take it. But if they don't pick up after 30 minutes when I call them again, I will come to the school or wherever they are and they will be grounded for life ( That's extreme, I know, maybe not grounded but definitely scolded)

I will make sure they know how to observe their surroundings.

Teach them to take charge when they believe is necessary. They don't have to be leaders but they must know how to be ones in case of need. This ages well, I promise, pt.2.

Make sure that they know that for school projects everyone must do their portion of the work unless their teammates are incompetent and lazy. Then, they would have to push themselves more to make the project succeed. Doesn't have to be perfect or the best one but if my kids are doing it, it probably will be *hair flip*

Teach them to handle money wisely. I didn't develop that habit even though my parents advised me a lot and at 20 I still find it difficult.

Introduce them to basic medicines they sell at pharmacies as soon as they can understand me. I grew up in a family where at 6, I knew what homeopathic medicine to take, depending on my symptoms. My mother and grandmother have medical backgrounds so I always knew what to do and therefore was calm. My children will definitely know that too.

If I have more than one kid as I wish, I will teach them to look after one another and protect each other. They must understand that a brother or a sister is the mightiest weapon anyone could have.

Get their aunt aka my best friend to teach them martial arts or at least basic self-defence.

Make sure they read a lot. Any kind of book, whatever book they are interested in. I'm all up for it. Not liking books isn't an option because in my opinion there is a book for any taste.

Make sure they forge their own style but still dress with taste and elegance.

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illbeyourreasonwhy · 1 year ago

Text

when the time comes, baby don't run

It's over! It only took three years and months of absence, but I finally completed my post-S1 Willex fic!

Thanks to everyone who stuck around for this, and hey, if you're just now discovering it, feel free to check out this fic for Willex fluff (and a tiiiny bit of angst), friendship feels, and a Caleb takedown!

(Part 1 Part 2 Part 3)

Alex is starting to seriously resent this plan.

Not because he is in any danger. No, it’s actually the opposite.

He is starting to resent this plan because he was tasked with staying behind at the studio, and not knowing what is going on is killing him.

“Alex, stop pacing,” Julie says, doing a terrible job at soothing his worries since she is also wringing her hands with a vengeance.

“He pacing again?” Flynn asks. She’s the only one of them who seems a minimum composed, but Alex caught her biting her nails when she thought neither of them was looking. “Alex, you need to chill. It’s not like we can do anything right now.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m freaking out,” Alex mutters, even though she can’t hear him. “We have no idea what’s going on, Caleb could have already caught them for all we know…”

“Alex,” Julie says tightly. She is still attempting to sound reassuring and failing miserably. “Not helping.”

He looks at her, taking in the tension and worry in her expression, and realises it looks familiar. This isn’t the first time she had to stay behind while her friends went off on a side mission, after all. He suddenly feels a lot more understanding of her frantic barrage of questions after they returned from getting their names on the Orpheum setlist, all those weeks ago.

It’s for her sake that he forces himself to sit, resting his arm next to hers on the table. He isn’t tangible right now, but he hopes the closeness will help comfort her – and him.

She offers him a strained smile, like she can tell what he’s thinking, and he thinks maybe it works.

“It’s going to be okay,” Flynn says, quieter than usual.

“Then what’s taking so long?” Julie asks to no one in particular.

It had been decided that one of the ghosts would stay behind as a precautionary measure. Willie, currently speaking with Caleb – a thought that does nothing to soothe Alex’s already anxious mind – has been given Julie’s phone, so that he can send a text to Flynn the moment Caleb is done talking to him. Which is why Flynn and Julie are currently sitting in the studio, fully charged phone laying flat on the coffee table in front of them, ready to send Alex to retrieve Luke and Reggie from the club should they not be back by the time the text comes through.

It's a precautionary measure, he reminds himself. Luke and Reggie know they are on a tight schedule and have promised to be as quick as possible, while Willie is doing his best to keep Caleb occupied as long as he can. If all goes well, Caleb will never even know they were there.

But, still. Knowing that doesn’t make the wait any less anxiety inducing.

“It’s going to be okay,” Flynn repeats, like she can read his thoughts. She is probably just looking at Julie’s face.

As if summoned, Luke and Reggie appear in front of them with a brief white flash. Alex sags in relief, not getting the time to gauge their expressions before Julie jumps to her feet to engulf them in a hug with a squeal. Or, well, she tries; neither Luke or Reggie are tangible, either, and Julie slips through them, stumbling a little as Luke uselessly throws out a hand to steady her. She looks too relieved to see them to be bothered, eyes darting furiously between the two of them.

“How did it go?”

Reggie shrugs. “We didn’t really see anything we could use, but we did find this.”

He reaches inside his coat and pulls out something that he precariously sets on the coffee table.

The five of them crowd around it.

“What is that?” Flynn asks slowly, her eyes not leaving the strange object the boys brought back.

“No idea,” Luke answers, his voice hushed.

The object on the table – no, not on the table, Alex realizes, hovering over it – looks like a tiny purple ball, a glowing hue emanating from it and dusting the air with a faint light. Alex has never seen anything quite like it before, but he knows, just looking at it, that it is bursting with magic.

“It seemed important,” Reggie says, and Alex believes it.

Julie’s eyes flicker between the two of them, teeth gnawing at her lower lip.

“None of you actually knows what it is?” she reassesses. When she only gets shakes of heads as an answer, she nods and says, “Okay, then no one touch it.” She narrows her eyes at Reggie especially. ��I’m serious. We don’t know what this is or what we’re dealing with, so we’re staying put and waiting for Willie to come back and explain.”

No one argues. They don’t have to wait long; twenty minutes later Willie sends a warning text that he is done with Caleb, and he walks through the doors of the studio another ten minutes later. The sight of him helps Alex breathe a little easier; he lifts himself off the couch and crosses the space between them to pull Willie into a tight hug. Willie’s arms loop around him easily, looking as relieved to see Alex as Alex is to see him.

“Hey, hot dog,” he whispers.

“You okay?” Alex asks as they move apart. He knows Willie is, or he wouldn’t be here, but he thinks he needs to hear him say it.

“I’m okay,” Willie answers. “I think Caleb bought it. It’s always hard to tell with him, but I’m pretty sure he believed me. You’re all okay too?”

“A-okay,” Reggie answers. “We were in and out, no one even saw us.”

Alex desperately hopes that’s true. He leads Willie back to the group; Willie follows easily, only to stop dead when he catches sight of the purple ball.

“Is that what I think it is?” he asks slowly.

“Ah. Well, see, we don’t actually know what it is, so…”

Willie stares at the ball, looking shaken.

“That’s the source of Caleb’s power,” he says. “When ghosts harness other ghosts’ powers like Caleb does, and they start having more power than one ghost should, they have to physically store the excess somewhere so that it doesn’t overwhelm them, and keep it close so that they can still access it. I think Caleb used this ball in his very first trick back when he was alive, so it has sentimental value to him or something. You guys found it?”

“It wasn’t that well hidden!” Reggie says, sounding like he feels he should defend himself. “It was just sitting there in a box inside of another box under a curtain in Caleb’s dressing room! We didn’t know what it was, we just assumed it was important!”

“Well clearly you were right!” Alex exclaims. He realizes he sounds panicky, but sue him, he is panicking. “What if Caleb can trace it back to here? Can he tell where it is?”

A soft touch to his shoulder; it’s Willie, and Alex feels his nerves simmer down. They’re not gone, though.

“I don’t think he can trace it,” Willie says. “If he did, he would be here already.”

That’s not exactly a reassuring thought. Alex doesn’t have time to say that, though, because then Julie steps forward.

“Time-out,” she says. “What’s going on?”

Right. She can’t see Willie or hear his explanations. Flynn is probably even more lost.

When they are done recapping, Flynn’s eyebrows are furrowed and Julie has a determined look in her eyes.

“So this thing is pretty important to Caleb, then?”

“It’s the most important thing in the world to him,” Willie confirms. Reggie repeats it. “Without it under his control, he could lose all his power, all his influence.”

An idea starts to prickle the back of Alex’s mind, but before it can fully form, Julie speaks up.

“Call Caleb here. Tell him we’re willing to trade this thing back to him for the release of Nick and Willie, and the promise that he will leave us alone from now on.”

They all turn to stare at her, stunned.

“Jules, you were the one who was afraid of blackmailing him in the first place,” Flynn reminds her.

“I know,” Julie says, and she does look a little shaken, but the determined look in her eyes doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. “But things are different now. This –” she gestures to the purple ball, still hovering innocently over the coffee table, “- is one more thing that will draw Caleb’s attention to us. We need to act before he figures out that we have it.” She crosses her arms. “Right now, Caleb doesn’t know it’s missing yet. We need to use that to our advantage. If we confront him with it, catch him off-guard, it might be the first time we have the upper hand since this mess started.”

She looks at them all, as if waiting for an answer, but none of them have one at first. In truth, Alex suspects they all might be a little impressed.

“She’s got a point,” Luke says eventually. Unsurprisingly, too. He’ll always back Julie up.

Willie glances around the group and, upon seeing no argument, steels himself and nods. “Okay,” he says. “I’ll go get him.”

He prepares to leave, and it’s then, when Alex sees the back of his silhouette framed in the doorway, that the fear suddenly jumps to his throat.

“Wait!”

They all look at him, looking surprised at his outburst, but Alex barely sees them. What he does see is Willie about to walk away from him again, away from him and right back into the palm of Caleb’s hand, and Alex can’t handle it. It has always been hard, letting Willie go back to Caleb and wondering if this is the time he won’t come back, but with the added knowledge of what has been going on it has gone from hard to unbearable. How is Alex supposed to watch Willie throw himself back into the deathtrap that is setting up a meeting between Caleb and them and therefore revealing he has been in contact with them and working with them, less than an hour after feeding him what Caleb will inevitably realize are lies? How can they ask Willie to walk into what could very well be the moment Caleb decides he has grown tired of letting Willie get in his way and wipes him out of existence?

Alex is suddenly truly, utterly terrified of letting Willie out of his sight and at Caleb’s mercy, and maybe that’s why the seeds of an idea that were forming a few moments ago jump to the front of his mind, crystal-clear and complete now.

“What if there was another way?”

“Another way?” Reggie repeats.

“You said that without this, Caleb would lose all his power, all his influence,” Alex says haltingly, rushing to get his thoughts out.

Willie nods, looking confused as to where Alex is going with this. Alex goes on, his voice going breathless in his haste to get the words out.

“What if we don’t give it back? What if we keep it for ourselves?”

Reggie is the first to answer, voice hesitant and unsure. “But wouldn’t that just put a target on our backs? If it’s that important, Caleb won’t stop at anything to get it back.”

“But if we use it,” Alex insists, “if we figure out how to control it, we can take him down, for good.”

“I’m with Alex,” Luke says, and Alex feels a thrum of relief go through him amidst the frantic rush of his thoughts. If someone is backing him up, this can’t be that crazy an idea, right?

Julie doesn’t seem to agree. “Let me get this straight. You want to play with magic you don’t understand and try to control something we know is incredibly powerful with no prior knowledge on how do that?”

“I’m sorry, who wants to do what now?” Flynn pipes up, looking alarmed.

Julie glances at her and raises a hand as if to let her know she will translate everything to her in a moment, and Alex opens his mouth to defend himself, but then Willie speaks up.

“That’s way too dangerous, hot dog,” he says, eyes serious and almost scared. “That kind of power in the wrong hands, things could end really, really badly.”

“It’s already in the wrong hands with Caleb!” Alex points out.

“I’m not saying I disagree,” Willie says. “But the reason it’s working for Caleb is that he actually knows what he is doing with it. I mean, say we keep it with us, what’s your plan? We just hold onto it and hope for the best?”

“I – well, I figured I would leave that part to you,” Alex admits, trying to push down the embarrassment he can feel start to well up within him.

“I don’t know the first thing about wielding this kind of power!” Willie says. “It would be a disaster, I can’t even imagine how wrong things could go –”

“Julie,” Alex hears Flynn whisper urgently. “Julie, what’s happening? I can’t hear them, are they being dumb?”

“I just think we should think about it before handing back something this valuable, that’s all. I’m just thinking of an alternative,” Alex says, feeling like he needs to defend himself. He doesn’t like the way he feels like he has been backed into a corner. “Stop acting like I’m being stupid for that.”

“No one said you were being stupid,” Julie says immediately, placating, “but look, we had a plan –”

“We had the beginning of a plan,” Alex corrects, “you said that. The next step was figuring out how to use whatever we found – I’m just offering one option.”

“But we don’t know the first thing about using this thing, and in the time it takes for us to figure it out, Caleb could come looking for us, and –”

“But if we do figure it out, we could defend ourselves –”

“Alex, again, I don’t know how to use this,” Willie starts, and it’s looking like he is going to tell him to give up on this idea, and Alex’s heart seizes with fear –

“If you go back right now, Caleb will know you lied!”

There is a short silence following his outburst, and Alex wants to retreat back into himself. His heart is beating wildly as he eyes his friends’ reactions, feeling exposed as he watches their expressions soften with understanding.

“Hot dog,” Willie says, gently, “I’m going to be fine.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know what I signed up for. Fact is, if we want Caleb to release me and Nick, we’re going to have to face him at some point.”

“I know, but…” Alex closes his eyes, tries to explain the way his thoughts are rattling inside his brain. “You just went to lie to his face. If you tell him we want to talk to him right now, he’ll know you’ve been in contact with us and that none of what you said was true. And then what will happen to you?”

Willie presses his lips together, looking worried – Alex is willing to bet Willie is more worried about Alex’s reaction than his actual words, though, and he knows it should settle his anxiety to know that Willie, who has more knowledge on all things related to Caleb, seems less afraid of what might happen than he does, but it’s hard to relax when he also knows that Willie has fully decided to commit to their safety over his own.

“He doesn’t have to know.”

Alex tears his eyes away from Willie to Luke, across the table, who looks back at him with half-raised eyebrows.

“What do you mean?”

“Caleb. He doesn’t have to know that Willie was working with us. Willie can just say that we contacted him on our own just now to set a meeting because he’s our closest link to him. That way he’s in the clear, and if the deal works then by the time he realizes Willie is lying it’ll be too late, we’ll be in the process of bargaining for his soul back.”

Alex feels his forehead crease as he takes it in. “You think he’ll buy that?”

“I think he wants us bad enough to be willing to take the meeting even if he suspects something,” Luke answers. “Whether or not he believes Willie, he’ll want to deal with him afterwards, so we just have to make sure he can’t.”

That… is a good point. But Alex isn’t sure he is willing to gamble Willie’s safety on that chance alone.

“Look, this is dangerous,” Julie says slowly. “Caleb already almost took you guys away once, and I’m just worried that if we’re not careful, he might – he might –”

She breaks off, and Alex’s heart breaks, because she’s scared, she’s really scared, and he’s scared too, and if even Willie can’t be sure of what they’re dealing with then what chance do they have, and –

“Okay, timeout, please.”

They all whirl around to look at Flynn, who in turn is switching between looking at Julie and glancing around the room, trying to figure out where they all are, worry in her eyes. She smiles when she sees Julie looking back at her, but it looks strained.

“Hi. Lifer friend here,” she says, raising a hand. “Uh, what’s going on?”

Oh. Alex sees Julie’s face fall guiltily, feels that same guilt curl in his stomach. They’re usually better at keeping her in the loop when the ghosts aren’t visible, but Alex got so caught up in worry for Willie and desperation to get the others to consider his alternative that it slipped his mind this time.

“Sorry,” he says. “Julie, can you tell her I’m sorry?”

She does, and in the time it takes for her to fill Flynn in, Alex can feel his nerves start to settle – and sees it reflected in his friends’ stances. By the time Flynn is caught up, he thinks they’re all thinking about this with a little clearer state of mind.

“Huh,” Flynn says, nodding pensively. “That’s actually not as stupid as I was expecting.”

“Hey!” Alex protests.

“And before your ghost gets offended, keep in mind that I could only hear part of that conversation.”

Alex can’t help but smile at that. He loves Flynn, loves that she knows them well enough to be able to anticipate what they will say even when she can’t hear them.

“So you agree with him then?” Julie asks. “You think we should keep that thing for ourselves?”

Flynn presses her lips together. “I think,” she says eventually, “it should be up to Willie.”

Willie blinks, looking at her in surprise. Alex feels a sharp shard of emotion go through his chest – a little bit of that same surprise, because that hadn’t been what he expected Flynn to say; guilt, feeling inadequate as Willie’s… something, that he wasn’t the one to put Willie’s feelings on this whole thing first; and more significantly, something almost like heartbreak at how stunned Willie looks at the simple prospect of being the one to make the final call on this decision. He wonders how long it has been since Willie has heard someone say the choice should be up to him.

Alex tries to swallow around all these feelings and the way they’re catching in his throat. “Yeah,” he manages, his voice rough. “She’s right. It should be your call.”

He hates this, hates this, because he knows that Willie isn’t going to take into account how badly this could go for him if he thinks it will benefit the group. But he also knows that despite that, this should be Willie’s decision; he is the one more at risk, he is the one who has been living in this world the longest and knows its rules the most, and he is the one who knows Caleb best.

Willie wraps his arms around himself, his thumb circling the inside of his wrist soothingly. Alex resists the urge to grab his hand and do it himself.

“The plan was always to find leverage to free me and Nick,” he says finally. “Not to take on Caleb ourselves.” He glances down at the purple ball. “And this is more than enough leverage.”

He turns his gaze to Alex, apologetic, and Alex forces himself not to look away; he doesn’t want Willie to interpret it the wrong way, to think Alex is angry with him for not going with his plan when really he feels like his heart is shattering at the thought of the danger Willie is about to walk into. So he keeps looking, tries to smile, hopes that the utter devastation he is feeling isn’t reflected in his eyes.

“If we had more time,” Willie continues, “if we could learn how to use this against him, it would be different, but – he’s going to notice it’s missing really quickly, and when he does he’ll come straight here. We need to use the element of surprise while we still can. It’s the best chance we’ve got.”

Alex lets out a slow breath.

“He might not figure out we have it right away,” he tries, a last-ditch effort. “I don’t know, I’m willing to believe he’s pissed off more people than just us.”

Luke makes a considering noise, but Alex doesn’t dwell on it. He knows he’s lost. Willie smiles at him sadly, shaking his head.

“It’s not worth the risk. The plan was always to use what we found as a bargaining chip. I think that’s the plan we should stick with. It’s the safer play for all of us.”

“Including you?” Alex checks.

“Including me. It’s like Luke said. I think there is a pretty big chance that even if Caleb suspects something, he’ll want to see how this plays out before he does anything about it.”

“What if he does find out that you lied to him?”

“If this goes well, by the end of the day he won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Willie’s confidence seems to be enough for the others, but Alex doesn’t trust it – Willie can be very self-sacrificial when it comes to this group.

Willie notices.

“Alex,” he says, “I’ll be fine.”

“You keep saying that,” Alex says, hating the way his voice breaks.

Willie smiles, heartbreakingly sincere. “And I keep coming back, don’t I?”

He does. And every time, Alex is left wondering if this was the last. If Willie’s luck is finally about to run out, if this is when Caleb runs out of patience. But if he is right, if this goes well, after today, he won’t have to worry ever again.

(He will probably worry anyway.)

Alex lets out a breath. It’s the most difficult thing in the world, but he manages to force himself to nod, the movement jerky.

“Okay.” He meets Willie’s gaze, sees the surprise reflected in his eyes at his relenting, and huffs out something that sounds almost like a laugh. “You better go. Before I change my mind.”

Willie smiles, small and nervous but bright as ever, and Alex loves him. The feeling sits in his chest, familiar and warm and just a little heartbreaking. Willie smiles, and Alex loves him.

Alex follows him out of the garage, trying to keep him in his sights as long as possible, and Willie smiles at him again when they make it outside. It’s softer now, less uncertain, and it makes Alex’s heart twinge inside his chest.

“I’ll be right back,” he promises.

He starts to turn, starts to leave, and Alex’s hand shoots out, snagging Willie’s.

“Wait,” he breathes.

He pulls Willie closer with a tug of the hand, then reaches out, cradling his face in both hands. Willie looks at him, his eyes staring into Alex’s, and Alex rests his forehead against his.

His thumb caresses Willie’s cheek, softly. Willie leans into it, and Alex breathes.

“You’re coming back,” he says.

It’s a fact, not a request, but Willie nods anyway, his forehead brushing against Alex’s, and brings his hands to cup the back of Alex’s neck. For a moment, it’s like they are the only two people in the world, holding each other, a breath from each other.

Alex kisses him.

He’s never actually kissed anyone before, so he’s not entirely sure what to expect, but Willie gasps softly into it, and kisses him back, slowly, and Alex’s eyes slip closed of their own accord. He feels one of Willie’s hands move to his hair, the other still resting on the back of his neck, thumb gently smoothing a spot behind his ear, and it’s kind of the best thing Alex has ever felt.

Alex frames Willie’s face in his hands and kisses him, kisses him, kisses him.

They remain close after they pull away, foreheads rested together. Alex breathes out, cupping Willie’s cheek, and opens his eyes. Willie’s open a moment later, and for a moment they just look at each other. Willie smiles. Alex smiles back.

He lets go after a moment, moves back, because he thinks if he keeps holding Willie for much longer he might never be able to let him go.

“Catch you later, skater boy.”

Willie smiles, vulnerable and so, so bright, and Alex loves him.

He brings one of Alex’s hands to his lips, drops a quick kiss there, and lets go.

“Catch you later,” he echoes.

And then he’s gone.

Alex lets out a slow breath, the full weight of what just happened making him stumble as he moves to go back inside the studio. He sits on the couch and Julie joins him a moment later, her hand hovering over his in an attempt to give him some comfort when they can’t touch.

“You okay?”

“I kissed Willie.”

Three heads whip around to look at him. “What?”

“I kissed Willie,” Alex repeats, and then it’s like it hits him for the first time. “Oh my god. I kissed Willie.”

He kissed Willie. And Willie kissed him back. Willie told him he was coming back. To him. Willie kissed his hand –

Alex feels his cheeks heat up, and even after all this time he can still be annoyed by the fact that this shouldn’t be possible, especially when Reggie notices and grins.

“Oh my god, you’re blushing! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush.”

“Shut up,” Alex mutters.

“Hey, I’m just happy for you, man,” Reggie says, clapping him on the back. “It’s about time.”

“What he said,” Luke grins. “Congrats on finally making it happen.”

Julie just smiles, shaking her head lightly. “Only you, Alex. Only you could manage to convince yourself that the guy you’ve been practically dating for weeks actually isn’t into you, only to make a move and kiss him just as we’re about to face off with a super-powerful ghost who wants to end us all.”

Alex huffs out a laugh. “Thanks.”

“Alex and Willie kissed?” Flynn yelps. “Finally!”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Reggie exclaims, grinning at her.

Alex ignores them, glancing back at the entrance where he last saw Willie and resisting the urge to touch his lips. He does not want to deal with his friends’ reactions if they were to see him do that.

Julie meets his gaze and smiles, small and soft. “I’m really happy for you, Alex,” she says. “You and Willie, you deserve everything you want.”

Alex lets out a slow breath. Because that’s just it, isn’t it? He wants so much with Willie. He wants to kiss him again. He wants to take him out on dates. He wants to hug him in front of all their friends and listen to them tease them relentlessly. He wants to tell him he loves him. He wants Willie, with him, by his side, safe and sound.

All of that is so close, almost within reach. If they are able to deal with Caleb and all goes well, after today Willie won’t have to worry about him ever again. Alex wants that so desperately he is terrified. Being hopeful – being allowed to be hopeful, being given hope – he realizes, might be the scariest thing of all.

He is so scared. He has so much to lose.

They are so close to being rid of Caleb for good. He doesn’t think he will be able to take it if this goes wrong.

He knows the others feel it too. Flynn and Reggie have reconvened to a corner to talk in hushed voices, too quiet for him to hear, but Luke isn’t moving, only twisting the rings on his fingers with an intensity he probably isn’t aware of, jaw set and gaze stuck to the floor. And Julie – Julie is next to him still, her small smile still in place despite the worry clouding her eyes.

“Yeah,” he says, voice rough and a beat too late. “Thanks.”

She nods, lips pressing together, and bumps their shoulders together softly. Actually bumps them, not slipping through him, and Alex feels some of his nerves relax just a fraction. Facing Caleb seems just the little bit more surmountable with the knowledge that Julie truly is by his side.

“Alright,” Julie says after a minute, her voice ringing clearly in the heavy silence. “Band circle.”

Her words seem to rouse them from the tense atmosphere and they all get to their feet, meeting next to the coffee table where Caleb’s sphere is still hovering. Flynn hangs back, hesitating, but Reggie gestures for her to follow and she does.

“Okay,” Julie says, looking between all of them. “We got this.”

She extends her hands; Alex, standing to her left, takes one immediately, seeing Flynn do the same on her other side. They all follow through, the five of them joining hands – Flynn rests her right hand palm down over Luke’s left, palm up – and for a moment they just breathe.

“We got this,” Luke repeats.

There isn’t much else to say. They all know the plan, risky and hastily made as it may be, and Willie left a few minutes ago already so Caleb should be here any moment. Alex feels nervous; he wants to ask if they are nervous too, but he thinks that probably won’t help.

“We’re going to be okay,” Luke adds, so maybe Alex didn’t need to say it after all. “We’re all going to be okay.”

“Including Willie,” Julie says, catching Alex’s eye.

“Yeah,” Reggie says. “We’re not giving up until we’re all safe.”

Alex nods, takes a deep breath. There still isn’t much to say. There isn’t anything left to say, really, except: “I love you guys.”

Reggie’s hand tightens around his. Julie offers him a taut smile. The anticipation hangs heavily in the air around them, like a weight over Alex’s chest, and he takes a deep breath. There is nothing else to do but wait, and he thinks to himself, as he releases his breath, that he is glad these are the people he’s facing this with.

With a final squeeze, Julie lets go of their hands, and everyone follows suit again.

“Flynn,” Luke says then, “if you want to go, you should go now. Caleb won’t be long.”

Flynn’s eyes shoot over to him. She looks stunned.

“Why would I go?”

“You’re the only one Caleb doesn’t know about,” Luke explains, which, shit, he’s right, Alex hadn’t even thought of that. “If you want to keep it that way, if you want to stay safe –”

“I’m staying here,” Flynn interrupts. “With you guys. We’re a team, right?”

Luke smiles, almost despite himself. “We’re a team.”

And then there is a whooshing sound behind them, and when Alex turns around Nick is standing there, in their studio, his gaze cold as he takes in the scene before him.

Alex’s eyes seek out Willie immediately, and to his relief he finds him there, standing behind Nick looking berated; he still manages a strained smile when their eyes meet, though, and Alex feels something like courage thrum through his veins.

The relief doesn’t last long, however, when he turns his gaze back to the primary threat in the room.

Nick stands in the middle of the room, smiling pleasantly at them, but the expression marring his face doesn’t look like his own – because it’s not, obviously. Now that Alex knows the truth, it’s easy to recognize Caleb’s coldness in his eyes as they rove over the group, and the edge of his mouth curls unpleasantly when they land on Julie.

On instinct, Alex moves to stand in front of her, feeling more than seeing Luke and Reggie do the same. Julie lays a placating hand on his arm, though, and raises her head to meet Nick’s gaze head on.

“Hi, Caleb,” she says, her voice only wavering a little.

Caleb’s smile deepens, splitting Nick’s face even more unnaturally than before.

“Hello, Julie. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex sees Luke’s grip on Julie’s hand tighten.

“So,” Caleb continues after a moment, and Alex has to stop himself from flinching at that single word, “William here tells me you have something for me.”

With a start Alex’s eyes dart to the coffee table, where the purple orb would be in plain sight, only to find it missing. He has time to panic for a split-second that Caleb somehow found a way to get his hands on it already and that they’re doomed, before Flynn catches his eye and subtly taps her jacket pocket. Alex exhales shakily, the wave of relief he feels almost knocking him a step back.

Once again, though, it’s short-lived.

“Well?” Caleb asks.

Alex watches as Julie swallows, visibly steeling herself before she takes a step forward.

“We’d like to make a deal.”

One of Caleb-Nick’s eyebrows arches up slightly, and he takes a step forward of his own. Watching him get closer to Julie makes Alex want to run for the hills will all his friends in tow, and based on the look on her face Julie feels the same way, but she stands her ground.

“Is that so?”

Julie shoots a glance at Flynn, who nods and puts a hand in her pocket, drawing it back slowly with her fingers curled around the purple little ball. Reggie takes a minute step closer to her, while Caleb-Nick’s expression goes slack, his eyes widening. He starts towards Flynn, but Alex, Luke and Julie move as if one, stepping in front of her and blocking his way, Julie throwing her arms out protectively.

All of this takes place in the space of a second, and Caleb recovers quickly, smoothing Nick’s expression into a blank canvas at odds with the cold fury in his eyes. But that second was enough – it was enough for Caleb’s countenance to falter, for him to give away that this innocuous little purple ball meant something to him, and that with it they just might have enough bargaining power to make it through this unscathed.

“So,” Luke says haltingly, sounding for all accounts and purposes like he is completely sure of himself if not for the flicker of a tremor in his voice, “this is important to you, then.”

“How did you kids get your hands on this?”

Caleb starts to turn to Willie, but Luke speaks up again before he gets around to fully looking at him.

“You know, if you want to keep your things hidden you might want to not leave them out in the open for a couple of ghosts to stumble upon when they’re snooping through your dressing room,” he says, still all bravado, and Julie shoots him a look as if to tell him to thread more carefully.

“Do you kids have any idea what you are holding onto there?”

“We know it’s the source of your power,” Alex says, surprising even himself when he hears the sound of his own voice speaking up. Willie materializes next to Alex, and his hand finds his, latching onto it and holding on for dear life. Caleb’s eyes linger on their hands and his lip curls menacingly, but Willie doesn’t let go. Alex doesn’t either. “We know that all your magic is concentrated in it, and that the longer we hold on to it the weaker you will become. We know that if we were to destroy it, you would lose everything.” They don’t actually know how to destroy it, but Caleb doesn’t need to know that.

Caleb’s expression is unwavering, and he looks almost bored. But he has also gone very, very still, and it occurs to Alex suddenly that a Caleb with something to lose might be a deadlier Caleb than they’ve ever known.

“Listen, now –” he starts.

“We’re not actually planning on doing that,” Alex interrupts.

“We don’t want to fight you,” Julie continues. “We’re not interested in using it in a power play against you. We’re willing to hand it over to you right here, right now.”

Alex knows she is scared – they are all scared – but there is no trace of it right now as she speaks. She sounds certain, grounded. And Caleb is listening. She was right, then, Alex realizes – for the first time since this mess started, they have the upper hand. They have something Caleb wants, and he is willing to hear them out if there is a chance he can get it without a fight.

“All we ask for in return is that you release Nick and that you leave us alone, forever. That includes the five of us here, and Willie.”

Caleb’s eyes settle onto Willie, cold and utterly furious, and Alex tightens his hold on Willie’s hand.

Caleb’s voice is all but pleasant, though, when he speaks, factual and almost unconcerned.

“Well, unfortunately there might be an issue with William’s case. With our current arrangement, ‘leaving him alone’ is quite literally impossible. He signed his soul off to me. Simply put, I own him.”

“So release him,” Flynn says fiercely. It’s the first time she has spoken in Caleb’s presence, and his eyes flash dangerously as they whip to her, his mask of calm slipping when they land on the girl holding the source of his power. Her stares icily at her, and she shudders, but she doesn’t back down. “Give him his soul back. Set him free.”

Caleb shakes his head, a condescending smile on his lips. “It is not that simple. The soul business is tricky. His is currently bound to me, and unbinding it will take effort.”

“Figure it out,” Alex snaps. Willie’s hand tightens around his briefly, like a spasm, and Alex strokes his thumb across the back of his knuckles soothingly.

“No Willie, no strange purple ball for you,” Reggie chimes in.

For a beat, no one says anything, and Alex waits with bated breath for someone to break. The moment feels suspended in time; he doesn’t think anyone is even moving. All he can do is keep a hold on Willie’s hand, eyes on Caleb as he waits for his next move.

“You release Nick,” Julie reiterates after a long pause. “You release Willie. And you stop going after everyone standing in this room, for good.”

“That includes possessing people to get close to us,” Luke adds, and oh, Alex hadn’t even thought of that. “We’re talking friends, families, classmates. They’re all off-limits.”

“You swear to leave all of us alone,” Julie says. “And we hand your strange purple ball back to you right now.”

Alex has his eyes on Caleb’s face, terrified that if he looks away Caleb will choose that moment to strike. But Caleb doesn’t move, his face impassive as he keeps looking at Julie. Alex feels Willie’s fingers tighten around his.

Then Caleb’s stance relaxes, and he smiles.

“You drive a hard bargain, miss Molina.”

“Not that hard,” Julie says haltingly. “You get your power, and in exchange you leave seven people out of your reign of terror.”

A beat, then:

“We have a deal.”

Julie stumbles. “We – we do?”

Caleb’s eyes glint dangerously, and Alex holds no illusions that he is happy with this outcome. But he tips his head forward, a gesture that looks far too formal on Nick’s teenage body, and takes a step back.

“We do.”

Alex feels himself exhale a shaky breath, hit with a wave of relief so strong he feels lightheaded.

It worked. It actually worked.

“Wait,” Willie starts, letting go of Alex’s hand, “aren’t you supposed to –”

Whatever he was going to say, it is lost in the sudden commotion that follows; Caleb-Nick takes a step back, arms ahead of him as if to brace himself, opens his mouth, and with a shudder, seems to exhale some kind of purple smoke. Alex feels himself take a step back. The smoke thickens, obscuring Nick from view, and when it clears, Nick is on the ground, his eyes closed, and Caleb – real-Caleb, the Caleb Alex met at the Hollywood Ghost Club – stands above him, looking so menacing Alex flinches back.

“Nick!” Julie yelps.

She moves as if to go to him, only to be held back by Luke bracing a hand on her shoulder. He jerks his head in Caleb’s direction, and she follows his gaze, her eyes widening and her posture stiffening as she meets the ghost’s gaze head on. Right, Julie and Flynn can see Caleb, then. That’s good. That’ll make things easier, considering Alex’s nerves are already so fried he doesn’t think he would be able to handle helping them navigate this situation blindly on top of everything else.

“What happened to him?” Julie asks, her voice wavering.

“He was possessed,” Caleb says with a dismissive wave of the hand. “It takes a toll on the body. He will be fine.” Julie looks like she wants to argue, but Caleb’s gaze shifts away from her and onto Flynn. “Now, about our exchange.”

“Wait,” Julie says, “how do we know Nick is going to be okay?”

Caleb’s face twists in annoyance, and Alex wants to tell her to be careful, but before he can get a word out Caleb lunges.

He makes a grab for Flynn, who shrieks and backs away, her grip loosening on the ball in her fright. Reggie makes to push her behind him, but his arm goes right through her, and all he does is put himself in Caleb’s path. Alex feels his heart jump to his throat as he jerks towards Reggie, and then it’s chaos.

It all happens fast; one second the room was standing in stilted shock as Caleb made his move, the next everyone is yelling and scrambling for each other. Alex’s mind goes blank with white-hot terror as he tumbles toward Reggie and Flynn, unable to focus on anything beyond getting to them before Caleb does. Someone is yelling his name – he thinks it might be Willie – and he trips over his own feet and everyone is running and his eyes land on Julie, Julie who – his heart drops.

In the midst of the commotion, Julie somehow finds herself right in front of Caleb. She’s all alone, backed into the piano, and Alex distantly feels himself freeze, his body catching up to his terror-addled mind and unable to do anything but process the scene in front of him. Julie stumbles backwards; Flynn is screaming and Luke is running to her and Julie’s face is twisted in fear as her back hits the piano. Caleb looms closer and Luke isn’t going to get to her in time and Alex is just remembering how to unlock his limbs and jerk forwards when Caleb draws an arm out, reaching for her -

-and then, suddenly, falters.

Caleb takes a step back, an uncomfortable look on his face. Luke appears at Julie’s side, looking ready to strike Caleb himself, and Alex barely has time to feel extra terrified for what will happen to both his friends on top of the general terror he already feels for all of them when he feels something grip his arm. It’s Willie, one hand clenching his arm urgently as he bursts out:

“The flowers! Julie, you – the flowers, use the flowers!”

“What are you – what are you talking about?” Alex says, his words jumbled.

“The flowers!” Julie is still staring at Caleb in terror and confusion, and Willie seems to realize she isn’t reacting to his words when his grip on Alex turns painful in its desperation. “Tell her to use the flowers!”

“Julie, use the flowers!” Alex yells, too spurred on by the urgency in Willie’s voice to properly think through his words. “Use the flowers!”

“What?”

“The flowers behind you!” Reggie yelps, pointing to the piano she is crowded against.

Looking bewildered, Julie turns and grabs the bouquet of dahlias sitting innocuously atop the piano. “Now what?” she asks, staring warily at Caleb over Luke’s shoulder, Luke having stepped in front of her when she had her back turned.

Caleb advances on her then, too fast for Luke to react, and Alex can only watch with Flynn’s scream ringing in his ears as he shoves the boy to the side. Julie shrieks as Caleb gets closer to her and she flings the dahlias in his direction. It’s more of a knee-jerk reaction than a thought-out plan, Alex can tell, and predictably the bouquet flies straight through Caleb – but then Caleb falters again, stepping back, and Alex watches in dazed awe as he almost seems to flicker.

Everyone stands frozen, unsure what just happened or how to react, except for Willie who springs into action. One moment he is holding onto Alex, the next he has poofed to pick up the flowers, flashing over to Julie and shoving them back in her hands before anyone has a chance to recover. She takes them, looking dumbfounded.

“Willie?” she calls. “What is this?”

Caleb regains his composure then, standing up straighter and looking thunderous, although he doesn’t attempt to get closer. Julie straightens up herself, brandishing the bouquet of dahlias in his direction in a way Alex might find absurd if not for the wariness in Caleb’s face as he eyes her.

“What is this?” Julie repeats, addressing Caleb this time. “Why is this affecting you?”

Caleb regards her, and for a beat the moment stretches out, all the previous agitation gone into a tension that hangs heavily in the air.

Then Caleb’s entire stance relaxes. Alex and everyone else in the room is very much aware that it’s all for show, but outwardly at least, Caleb leans back, eyeing Julie and her dahlias appraisingly, and nods.

“Very well,” he says. “What were the terms of the deal? I release the Danforth-Evans boy and William here, and in exchange you hand me my power back?”

Julie shifts uncertainly, thrown by the sudden turn of events; Alex moves to stand at her side, and adds: “And you leave us alone from here on out. Those are the terms.”

Caleb glowers at him, but his smile stays in place. “Fine. You have yourselves a deal.”

Luke scoffs, and Julie raises a skeptical eyebrow, not looking impressed. “Do we?” she asks. “Because you just tried to attack us not a minute ago.”

Caleb waves her away impatiently. “The deal hasn’t been set. You can’t blame me for attempting to take back what is mine when I saw a chance.”

Alex thinks that they actually very much can blame him for that, but he doesn’t get the chance to say so. Firstly because he is still very much terrified of Caleb and what would happen if he did, and secondly because Julie gets stuck on another part of what Caleb said.

“What do you mean, the deal hasn’t been set? We agreed on the terms, what else do you need?”

“You’re supposed to shake on it,” Willie calls out, his voice ragged. “That’s what seals the deal.”

Caleb sends him a withering look, and Alex really, really hope Willie will be out of the ghost’s reach by the end of this.

“William is right,” is all Caleb says. “We need to shake hands for the deal to be set.”

Set in what? Alex wonders. But it doesn’t seem to matter, because Caleb approaches Julie – differently than he did before, with a sort of wariness to him; maybe even a hint of respect.

Whatever it is, it seems to be pushing him to take this deal – to take them – seriously, so Alex decides not to question it just yet. He’ll wait for them to be in the clear for it.

Julie seems to be of the same mind, because she steps forward as well, albeit slower. She still doesn’t trust that Caleb isn’t about to pull one over them, which, fair. Alex isn’t convinced of it either.

But she extends a hand nonetheless, and Alex watches, holding his breath, as Caleb reaches out, his hand very much solid as it clasps Julie’s and shakes it slowly.

“It’s a deal,” Caleb says. “You and your friends in this room are free from my reach.”

Julie swallows. “Good.”

She pulls her hand away and steps back, briefly looking around the room as if to check that all of them are still there, still safe. Alex is struck by the weight of this moment. After everything, after all the pain and the terror, the nightmare is over. They’re free.

“Now,” Caleb says, and Julie refocuses on him. “Our exchange?”

Julie glances back at Flynn, who has moved to stand behind her; a nod, and Flynn reaches inside her pocket and retrieves the purple ball, placing it carefully in Julie’s hand. Julie’s fingers claps it tightly and she turns back to Caleb, who extends a hand expectantly.

Julie hesitates.

Caleb clicks his tongue. “We have a deal, miss Molina.”

“How are we supposed to trust that you’re not going to try and break the terms of our deal again the first chance you get?” she points out, her voice wavering.

Alex expects a furious response, but all Caleb does is wave a hand – the hand that isn’t still extended towards Julie – impatiently.

Nothing happens for a beat, then –

Willie gasps.

“Willie?” Alex is by his side in an instant, hands gripping his shoulders anxiously. “Willie, what is it?”

But Willie isn’t looking at him. Instead his hand clutches at his chest, an expression of wonder across his face.

“My – my soul,” he whispers. “It’s mine. It’s mine.”

Alex’s heart skips a beat when his words register. Willie meets his gaze, tears in his eyes, and something settles in Alex’s chest, something heavy and solid that has him clutching onto Willie more tightly than he thinks he ever has. Right now, nothing matters expect for the look on Willie’s face.

“Alex?” It’s Flynn, sounding fearful. “Alex, what’s wrong with Willie?”

“He’s… he’s…” The words get caught in his throat, and Alex can’t speak. He can barely breathe, staring at Willie in wonder. His hand comes to stroke his face, awed. He’s free. Willie is free. After all this time, he is out of Caleb’s grip.

He whips back towards Caleb. “Is this for good? Or is it temporary?”

“It’s for good,” Caleb answers, not looking entirely pleased about it. “William’s soul is no longer tied to the Hollywood Ghost Club.”

All they have is his word, but right now, seeing the look of pure joy in Willie’s eyes, Alex is inclined to believe it. He grips Willie’s hand, and Willie squeezes back just as hard, smiling tearfully at him.

“Willie’s free?” Flynn asks, her voice trembling a little.

“He is,” Caleb confirms. Alex feels so overwhelmed he could collapse, but Caleb’s presence still has him too keyed up to truly give in to the feeling. “Now, miss Molina,” Caleb adds, a sharp edge to his voice.

Julie nods, still a little shaky, but she makes herself stand tall, meeting Caleb’s gaze, and slowly lowers the purple ball in his open palm.

“You leave us alone from now on,” she reiterates.

“Those are the terms,” Caleb agrees.

Julie nods, and lets go.

Immediately Caleb stashes it into an inner pocket of his coat, out of their reach. Alex feels the tension in the room hike up more than a few notches – either the deal will hold now, or, with nothing to lose, Caleb will strike.

Caleb slowly draws his hand out of his jacket.

“I may have underestimated you, miss Molina,” he says levelly.

Julie looks away from him for a moment, taking in the other people in the room. Luke at her side, Flynn and Reggie just a step behind her, Alex and Willie to her left still holding onto each other.

“It was a team effort,” she says.

Caleb nods, looking deep in thought. Then, with a parting tip of his hat, he disappears in a bright flash of light, and he’s gone.

It’s like Caleb’s departure took all the stress and tension with it. At once the six of them collapse, the wave of relief hitting them so hard it doesn’t seem real. Alex feels light-headed with it; he never let go of Willie, and he takes the opportunity to pull him in a bone-crushing hug.

“It’s over,” he whispers. “It’s over, you’re free –”

“Alex,” Willie chokes out. He is crying, hands coming up to frame his face. He is the most beautiful person Alex has ever seen.

Alex presses a bruising kiss to his temple. Willie just hugs him tighter.

It takes him a second to be able to look beyond the bubble of him and Willie, and when he does, it’s to find his friends in a similar state.

“Willie,” Flynn says. “Is Willie okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“He’s okay,” Reggie repeats, and Flynn sags in relief, her hold on Julie tightening to the point Alex sees the other girl wince. She doesn’t tell her to let go though, just brings her free hand to clutch at her best friend’s arm and holds on. Her other she keeps in Luke’s, her thumb smoothing the back of his knuckles like she needs to feel him to ground herself.

Alex is much of the same; he holds onto Willie with all that he’s got, his gaze roaming over the room, over his friends.

I love you all, he thinks feverishly. I love you, I love you, I’m so glad you’re all okay, we’re okay, I love you.

None of them moves for a long time, long enough for Julie’s grip to slip through Luke’s hand and for Flynn’s gaze to become unfocused when she searches for them. It’s a low moan that eventually gets them to rise, one coming from outside their little group.

“Julie? Flynn?” Nick groans from across the room, painfully pulling himself up into a sitting position. “… Julie’s band?”

There is a short, stunned silence as they all look at each other, taking in what this means.

“Oh, shit,” Luke finally says, and yeah, that about covers it.

“So, I have some questions about what happened earlier,” Julie says that evening.

Flynn snorts. “Just some?”

It’s been an exhausting day. Just the showdown with Caleb would have been enough to knock Alex out for a week – several weeks – but they’ve spent the last couple of hours bringing Nick up to speed, and dredging up their history with Caleb has been draining. And now there is the whole of the possession’s side-effects to wade through. Nick has been a surprisingly good sport about it all, but even Willie isn’t sure whether his seeing of ghosts is permanent or not, and Nick is very visibly shaken about the whole thing.

Nick has just left, though, eager to go back to the familiarity of his home and to see his dads – although Alex will be very surprised if he makes it through the night without taking Julie or Flynn up on their promise to only be one call away should he ever need to talk through this more, whether that be more explanations on ghosts or demons from his ordeal. It’s probably going to take him a long time to recover from this. Alex feels for him.

Now that he is gone, though, they can focus on everything else that happened today.

“What happened, exactly?” Julie asks. “With the flowers? How did you know that would work?”

Willie shifts, only minutely, but he’s so close Alex still feels it. That’s another thing that is taking a toll: what with, well, everything, Alex and Willie haven’t gotten a minute alone to talk yet, and it is slowly but surely chipping away at Alex’s sanity. Willie’s arm tightly pressed against his on the couch right now is helping, though.

“I didn’t know for sure,” Willie says. “I just hoped it would.” He pauses, leans against Alex a little more. Alex does his best to focus on his words and not just the timbre of his voice. “There have been some cases where, in the right hands, specific flowers can act as protection against vengeful spirits.”

“The right hands?”

“You know. People who can wield magic.”

Julie stares, dumbfounded, when she hears. “But I don’t have magic.”

Flynn laughs outright at that. “Uh, hello? Ghost band that becomes visible when you play with them? That you summoned back to you from Caleb’s club?”

Julie shakes her head, still looking floored. “But that wasn’t me. That was the music.”

“The music we were playing with you,” Reggie points out.

“We weren’t playing music when you saved us from the jolts,” Luke adds, meaningfully.

Julie looks between all of them, and it’s then, when he sees the disbelief in her eyes, that it dawns on Alex that she doesn’t know what has become clear to all of them.

“You’re the reason Caleb wasn’t able to hold onto us that night, Julie,” he says softly. “Flynn is right. It was you who pulled us out of the club. You’re the one who saved us.”

Alex watches as the realization sinks in, as Julie’s eyes go misty and she brings a hand to rest heavily against her heart.

“And dahlias – dahlias are some of these flowers that can offer protection?” she asks, her voice rough.

She’s looking at Alex, and it’s with a start that Alex realizes she is asking Willie.

Willie just nods, like he can feel the weight of what this moment means for Julie – Julie, whose lower lip trembles when Alex nods in answer to her question.

“Dahlias were my mom’s favorite.”

Her voice is quiet, hushed, when she says it, and it almost sounds like a question. Alex wishes he had the answer for her, wishes that he knew what the connection is between them and her and her mom, wishes that he were solid right now so that he could give her a hug.

Flynn, thankfully, covers that part, and Julie’s eyes close as she holds onto her tightly.

“Maybe this was meant to be,” she says, still rubbing circles into Julie’s back. “Remember when we found that Sunset Curve t-shirt with your mother’s things? Maybe she’s the one who’s been saving you all along. First by sending you these guys –” she swings her head vaguely around the room then, looking fond, “– then by giving you the tools to fight evil ghosts. You know, should the need ever arise.”

“She must have been quite the visionary, to see this coming,” Julie says, her voice only shaking a little, and Alex sees Flynn hold onto her just that little bit tighter.

There is a lot to unpack there, but Luke seems to have caught another part of Flynn’s statement.

“Wait,” he says, grinning like this is the best news he has heard all week, “your mom had a Sunset Curve t-shirt?”

“Your mom was a fan?” Reggie adds excitedly. “Do you think she came to our shows? Do you think we met her?

Julie pulls away from the hug, her eyes still a little red even as she rolls them playfully at the both of them.

“Ugh, what now?” Flynn says, smiling. “Did they say something dumb again?”

“I resent that,” Reggie grins, and Alex watches them, his chest swelling with affection.

It took dying for them to get here, for him to find this family, and the thing is, overall he would say it was worth it. It still feels unfair in moments like these though, when Flynn can’t hear them and therefore doesn’t get the chance to shoot a comeback he’s sure she would find up her sleeve, and he’s forcibly reminded of how different their situations are. Namely, that she is alive and he is not.

But it really is worth it, though. Because as he looks around the room and sees them, the five people he loves the most in the world, he knows down to the core of himself that this was meant to be. He was meant to know these people, to love them, just like they were meant to know and love him. They were separated by decades, and still not time, distance or even death could stop them from meeting.

So, yeah. Flynn might be onto something.

They do try to get back on track sometime after that and figure out the ins and outs of what happened today, but the thing is, they’ve known from the start that they are dealing with a lot of unknowns.

“I don’t completely know what to make of it,” Willie admits, when they get back to dahlias and flowers and Julie’s potential powers. “I haven’t heard much about it, and Caleb was my go-to person for magic before all this, but…”

“That’s okay,” Alex hastens to say. “There’s no rush to figure this out. We’ve got time, now. That’s what matters.”

He watches as his words blanket the room, all of them reacting as it hits them. Willie reaches over and takes his hand, smiling delicately. They’ve got time.

Later, Alex finds Willie sitting atop the studio’s roof.

“Hey,” he says, appearing next to him.

Willie smiles brightly. “Hey,” he answers.

Alex shuffles to make himself comfortable, folding a leg under himself and letting the other dangle loosely over the edge of the roof. Next to him, Willie is swinging his legs absently, eyes lost in the distance. Alex nudges him softly, and he turns his head to look at him, face immediately breaking into a smile again.

“What are you thinking about?”

Willie covers his hand with his, lacing their fingers together, and doesn’t answer right away.

“Everything that happened today, I guess,” he says eventually. He looks at Alex, eyes crinkling slightly. “Hell of a day, hot dog.”

“Hell of a day,” Alex agrees. He squeezes Willie’s hand. “But we’re okay.”

Willie’s smile turns smaller, softer. “We’re okay.”

He looks like he is working himself up to say something, and Alex lets him, running his thumb over the back of Willie’s knuckles as he does. It’s kind of thrilling, being able to touch him like this, to hold his hand and know it means as much to Willie as it does to him, but it’s also just kind of nice. It’s nice to be able to have this after everything they went through to get there.

Finally Willie squeezes his hand back, and, eyes trained on the horizon again, says: “I know I’ve said it already, but I’m really sorry. For everything.”

“And I’ve said, you have nothing to apologize for.”

“I’ve caused you so much trouble.”

“Willie, look at me.” He does, and Alex meets his gaze, does his best to impart just how much he means his next words. “None of that was your fault, okay? None of it. Besides, it’s all in the past. It’s over now, and we’re okay. We’re all okay.”

Willie nods, and his smile is lopsided when he says, “I’m still sorry.”

“And there is still no need to be. We’re okay. You’re okay.” He smiles, bringing his free hand up to brush Willie’s cheek. “That’s all that matters.”

Willie smiles back and he says, softer, “I’m really glad we’re okay.”

Alex grins. “Me too.”

He lets his hand fall away from Willie’s face and leans back, basking in the setting sun and Willie’s presence at his side and the feeling of surviving another day. Willie does the same, and Alex sneaks a look at him. He looks happy, content in a way Alex hasn’t seen on him before. Free. It’s a good look on him.

“So,” Alex says after a few moments, his voice light. “Any great plans for what’s to come now that you have your soul back?”

Willie laughs, loud and inhibited. Alex loves it. He loves him.

“Honestly?” Willie says. “I’m just happy to be here with you.”

Alex’s cheeks flame up, and he groans. “That was so cheesy.” He can’t quite stop himself from smiling, though.

“It’s the truth,” Willie grins. “I feel… I feel like I could do anything. And I can. I don’t remember the last time I felt like this.”

And, well, how is Alex supposed to not grin back at that?

“And yet you’re happy to just sit here with me?” he teases.

“Well, yeah,” Willie says as if it is obvious, and damn it, Alex is blushing even harder now.

“Oh,” he says, quieter than he means to. Willie squeezes his hand.

“I’m not really used to having options,” he says after a moment. “But I think I want to stick around here for a bit.” He tilts his head to look at Alex, smiles. “You want to help me figure the next part out?”

And Alex can only smile back, fond. “Of course I do.”

And with that he leans in, cups Willie’s cheek, and kisses him. They’re both smiling into it, so much so that he isn’t sure it’s that much of a kiss at all, but it’s good nonetheless, because Willie brings a hand to hold his waist, and Willie holds onto their joined hands like they’re anchoring him to this moment, and Willie kisses him slow and soft and steady like they have all the time in the world, and they do, and Alex loves him.

“I love you,” he says – breathes, really – when they break apart.

Willie grins. “And I thought I was the cheesy one.”

“You are,” Alex says. “But I still love you.”

Willie leans in, drops another kiss onto his lips, beams brighter than Alex has ever seen when he pulls away. “I love you too.”

Alex nods, his heart beating wildly inside his chest. “That’s good,” he says, his voice jumping half an octave; he is pretty sure his face is beet red right now.

Willie laughs, fond and so, so in love, and wraps an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into his side. Alex sinks into him easily. “Yeah,” he agrees, his voice light. “It really is.”

#jatp fic #jatp #julie and the phantoms #willex #willex fic #when the time comes baby don't run #my writing #*#lou completed a fic everyone cheered!

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