#not having a good day today so here are some doodles of Death's Assistant

[skeletoninthemelonland]

Graveleaper sketches

[mikauzoran]

Lady Noir/Adrienette: Save Yourself (I’ll Help You): Chapter Two

Read it on AO3: Save Yourself (I’ll Help You): Chapter Two: Self-Help

At some point three years prior, before Adrien became cognizant of his crush on Marinette, he had surreptitiously begun to pay close attention to her. These years of reconnaissance allowed him to quickly pick up on the fact that something was up with his charming friend that Monday at school.

She was fidgety and distracted, obviously preoccupied by something.

Alya and some of the other girls noted her particularly odd behavior, but, when asked what was wrong, Marinette politely waved away their concerns and made excuses.

Adrien let it go that first day. He knew she had a lot on her plate with all of her extracurricular responsibilities. Marinette was rivaled only by Ladybug in her jam-packed schedule and need of multitasking.

When she was noticeably agitated the second day in a row, Adrien caught her as they were packing up to move classrooms, resting a hand on her forearm and giving her a confidence-inspiring smile.

“Hey. You’ve seemed really stressed out the past two days. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know. Even if you just need to vent, I’m here for you, okay?”

She blinked, blushed, and looked away, smiling weakly. “Thanks, Adrien. I really appreciate the offer. I’m okay, though.”

His own smile faltered slightly because she obviously was not okay, but…if she didn’t want to confide in him, it wasn’t like he could force her.

He nodded, turned up the wattage on his grin, and removed his hand from her forearm. “Well…let me know if you ever change your mind.”

She nodded, returned the smile with one even more fake than his own, and quickly finished packing her books, hurrying out the door as fast as she could without appearing to be fleeing.

On the third day of watching the woman he loved in obvious distress, Adrien could no longer stand by and do nothing.

He packed up quickly and waited for her outside the locker room after school, and when she came out with Alya, he flagged her down, asking if she were headed home.

“May I walk you there?” he inquired, shooting Alya a quick, meaningful look.

Alya promptly remembered that she’d forgotten a notebook she needed back in her locker, literally pushing Marinette towards Adrien as she beat a hasty retreat.

Quick of reflexes, Adrien deftly stopped Marinette’s fall and helped her get steady on her feet.

“I’m going to kill Alya,” she seethed, straightening her jarred purse and backpack as they nearly slipped off her shoulders.

“Forgive her,” Adrien chuckled. “She and Nino have this scheme about setting us up with each other so that the four of us can double date. Goodness knows I need all the help I can get to make you fall for me. Alya is doing God’s work.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, glaring petulantly at her friend’s retreating back as Alya disappeared into the locker room. “Goodness also knows that I don’t need help falling flat on my face, so I think I can do without Alya shoving me.”

“Fair,” Adrien allowed, holding out a hand. “May I carry something?”

Marinette shook her head, hugging her sketchpad closer to her chest reflexively. “No, thanks. I’ve got it,” she assured, starting to head for home.

In the back of her mind, she worried about coming off as rude, but the last thing she needed was for Adrien to carry her books and somehow see the endless doodles she’d been doing of Chat Noir all week as she fretted ceaselessly about him.

Slightly dejected, Adrien slipped his hands into his pockets and followed after her, regretting her brisk pace, fearing it wouldn’t give them much time to talk.

“So…” He cleared his throat as they made their way down the school steps.

She looked back at him and nearly tripped to her death.

Luckily, he caught her by the arms, keeping her from nosediving into the concrete.

Unfortunately, her books and notebooks went flying as she flailed in the seconds before he steadied her.

Once he was sure she wasn’t going to fall, Adrien bent down to gather up her things, only to be stopped as she gasped, “Don’t look!” and rushed to retrieve them herself.

“Sorry,” she added when she came to her senses. “Just…private stuff. I don’t…” She paused to take a deep breath and blow it out slowly. “Sorry I’m being such a spazz today. I have a lot on my mind.”

“Is it anything I could help with?” he offered, holding out a hand to assist her back to her feet.

She shook her head, getting up on her own. “I’ll be fine. Thank you, though.”

He bit the inside of his cheek, debating whether or not to let it go.

“…I’m really worried about you,” he confessed after a moment, unable to hold it in.

She stopped mid-step, turning to face him with a puzzled expression. “…You are?”

“Yeah,” he replied in a hushed tone. “Seriously worried. You’ve been really off all week. I’m not trying to force you to talk to me if you don’t feel comfortable doing so, but…I just want you to be okay, and I don’t think you are, and I’m feeling kind of helpless, so…”

He almost felt bad for forcing her hand, but it was getting to the point where he was worried about Marinette getting akumatized, and that was no good for anyone because how was he supposed to fight against the girl he adored if worst came to worst?

He couldn’t…so he crossed his fingers and hoped he’d be forgiven for being slightly manipulative.

“I’m concerned about getting akumatized over worrying about you,” he told her with a grimace.

Her eyes flew wide in alarm before fluttering rapidly in a series of astonished blinks.

“And, if that happens, I’m scared my akumatized self will come after you because you’re technically the source of my negative emotions, and then you’ll be caught up in things,” he elaborated, “and I really don’t want that. The last thing I want to do is add to your stress, so…”

He worried his bottom lip between his teeth and gave her a pleading look. “Sorry, but…isn’t there anything I can do to help? I’m not asking you to talk to me about your problems, but if there were some way I could feel like I wasn’t so powerless to help you…”

He watched as her surprise crumpled up like a note passed during class into a troubled, thoughtful expression.

“…Sorry for being such a pain. I don’t want to cause problems,” he added earnestly, dropping the act and retreating one step at a time. “Sorry. Forget I said anything, but if you do want to talk, know that I’m always here for you.”

He turned to go, but she caught him, fingers wrapping around his forearm, gripping, holding him in place.

“…Wait,” she called softly, a weary resignation in her voice.

He arched an eyebrow questioningly and waited for her to continue.

She sighed and tipped her head, motioning for him to come with her. “Walk with me a bit?”

“Sure,” he easily agreed and followed as she led him across the street and then past her house to the park next door.

They completed one lap around the square, Marinette deep in thought the whole time. Then, she went and took a seat on one of the park benches, and he sat beside her, waiting patiently for her to give some kind of cue.

She inhaled deeply and, gazing down intently at her shoes all the while, finally spoke. “So…there’s this guy.”

Adrien stiffened, his heart screeching to a halt as his mind called up helpful memories of all the times Ladybug had told him about her mystery boy.

Why was there always some other guy? Adrien wondered bitterly but then mentally slapped himself because of course there were guys in the lives of smart, talented, beautiful women like Marinette and Ladybug.

“A friend,” Marinette clarified. “A really close friend, and I’m worried sick about him,” she sighed heavily, shaking her head, at a loss as to what to do.

Adrien relaxed slightly at the friendship label but didn’t let his guard down as she continued.

“He’s having some trouble with mental health and his family relationships, and I think he’s really depressed.” She looked up from her feet to meet Adrien’s gaze, and it hurt his heart to see the glistening tears blurring her vision. “I’m scared, Adrien, and I feel really useless because there’s nothing I can do to help him.

“It’s complicated,” she explained softly, looking away as if it would hide her guilt as shame turned her cheeks pink. “I can’t be there for him the way a friend should, so…I guess I’m feeling for him what you’re feeling for me. I’ve been agonizing over this since Saturday night, and I don’t know what to do. I know that there’s nothing to do. I just wish I could make it all okay for him.”

She lifted her head once more as she vehemently informed, “Adrien, he’s one of the sweetest, best people I know, and he deserves better than what he’s stuck with. I wish there was something I could do so that he wouldn’t have to struggle so much. He shouldn’t have to.”

Adrien nodded, tentatively reaching out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You’re such a good friend, Marinette. I wish someone would worry about me like that,” he chuckled, but the manufactured mirth didn’t quite make it into his voice. “He’s really lucky. It sounds like you care about your friend a lot.”

She smiled wretchedly, giving a sad little nod as she admitted, “I love him.”

It felt like getting hit with an icy blast of winter air or walking outside without a coat, shocking his system.

His hand froze on her arm.

It took a minute for him to form words, and, when he did, they came out stilted and awkward, betraying his distraction. “Oh. Wow. Uh… That’s… He’s really lucky.”

Marinette tipped her head to the side, frowning in concern. “Is everything all right, Adrien?”

“Sorry.” He forced a smile, cheeks stinging as he blushed. “Ignore me. I was just a little surprised because I think this is the first I’ve heard about you having your eye on someone. I mean, it’s only natural that you would, but…”

His hand went up reflexively to rub at the back of his neck, and he shook his head, trying to clear away his muddled thoughts. He was supposed to be helping her feel better, not having a pity party for himself.

“Sorry,” he repeated softly, sheepishly. “I’m just kind of flustered…and more than a little bit jealous,” he added honestly.

Marinette’s mouth dropped open, and she leaned in to stare at him in shock. “W-Wait. What? Like…what?”

“I thought I was pretty obvious,” Adrien laughed openly at himself, hoping to keep the atmosphere light so that she wouldn’t see his heart breaking. “You really didn’t know I have feelings for you?”

Slowly, she began to shake her head from side to side, speechless in her astonishment as she tried to determine whether or not she was dreaming this entire scenario up.

“Marinette,” he chuckled more genuinely, his voice warm and affectionate. “You’re amazing. Any guy who didn’t fall in love with you would have to be a total idiot.”

She gripped the bench seat to keep herself from tipping over and falling flat in the dirt.

Her head was spinning. How could this be happening? Adrien loved her?

Impossible.

And yet…he was looking at her with such a fond, soft expression in his eyes. It was just like the looks Chat Noir often gave Ladybug, so… Maybe it was real.

Her lips parted to respond, to confess her own feelings, but Adrien cut her off.

His eyes widened in alarm, and he gave a start, jolting back and putting up his hands in defence. “…Oh, but, I mean, I totally support you! With this guy. If he’s the one you love…. I support you,” he rushed to assure.

Marinette blinked, mentally reeling from the whiplash.

Did he love her or not? She wasn’t entirely sure now, if he weren’t willing to fight for her. His affections couldn’t be that strong if he was okay with giving up so easily.

“More than anything, I’m your friend, so I don’t want my feelings for you to get in the way of that or make things weird between us,” he explained, desperate for her to understand. “So, if you have to pretend that I never said anything, that’s totally fine. I support you. Whatever makes you happy is the most important thing.”

She had to pause to consider before responding. Her thoughts were so twisted up like a ball of writhing serpents battling to consume one another.

“Thank you, Adrien. That’s so sweet, and it’s seriously not a problem,” she promised, reaching out and placing a hand on his forearm. “We’re fine. Everything’s fine…. Honestly, there’s nothing for you to support. Things aren’t going to work between me and my friend, so…thank you, but nothing’s going to happen between us.”

Adrien’s eyebrows gradually pulled together into a V of concern. “Is it…because of his mental health situation?”

Marinette recoiled, staring at him in stupefaction. “What? No! No, of course not! Nothing like that. He’s amazing, and I’d be more than willing to stay by his side and support him through his struggles. He’s worth putting in the hard work for.”

Adrien’s stomach stopped clenching, and a faint hope welled up in his chest. If things weren’t going to work out between Marinette and this other guy, maybe Adrien still had a chance. Maybe she could see past Adrien’s struggles and still care for him too.

“So…what exactly is the problem, if you don’t mind me asking?” he pressed gently, chewing nervously at the inside of his lip.

She looked away, frowning down at her knees. “It’s…complicated.”

Adrien arched an eyebrow. “Is he gay?”

It was the only reason Adrien could come up with why a guy wouldn’t want to overcome all obstacles to be with Marinette.

Marinette chuckled softly, shaking her head. “No. He’s bi, so…”

She looked back up at him, scrutinizing his face, evaluating his trustworthiness. “…I’m going to tell you a secret.”

He scooted in closer, nodding that he was ready. “I won’t tell a soul.”

She glanced around, scanning the area to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard before she lowered her voice, whispering, “It’s Chat Noir.”

Adrien blinked slowly, uncomprehendingly. The words meant nothing to him.

Seeing his confusion, Marinette elaborated, her cheeks turning cherry blossom pink as she confessed, “My friend, the guy I’m in love with…it’s Chat Noir.”

Adrien’s brain crashed, and it took him a good ten seconds to reboot.

His initial inclination was to laugh hysterically because finally his love was requited, and he couldn’t have asked for a better romantic partner than Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

His mind next trotted off to construct a detailed plan of all the ways he was going to make her happy and spoil her rotten.

It then occurred to him that he needed to tell her his identity, but then he decided to table that idea because Ladybug would be furious, and he wasn’t sure how Marinette would react.

He also wasn’t so sure that this was the best time to reveal his identity because Marinette was convinced that things wouldn’t work between them. She was also currently upset…because of him.

“You’ve been worried all week because of Chat Noir?” Adrien breathed as his brain came back online.

She nodded meekly. “I…Yes. He’s having a rough time, and I’m worried that there’s nothing I can do to help him. I’m not doing a very good job as his friend.”

Adrien rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around Marinette and pulling her into a fierce hug.

“You’re doing amazing,” he whispered into her hair, wishing he could express how much it meant to him, knowing that her skylight door was always open when he needed a safe space to escape from his life.

He may not have confided in her before about how bad things were because he was afraid of burdening her and scaring her away, but all the times when she’d allowed him to hang out on her balcony or in her room, all the times she and her parents had strong-armed him into making dinner and eating with them once they’d found out he ate alone most meals, all the times she’d saved pastries for him and Plagg…

Chat Noir might not have let Marinette see how dark it was inside of his mind, but she’d always been there to help right when he needed her. She’d gotten him through many tough times, even if she’d never known it.

He pulled back to look her intently in the eyes. “Marinette, I’ve seen you two together before, and Chat Noir is crazy about you. Trust me. I can tell. If you love him and he loves you, why can’t you two be together?”

“Adrien, he’s a superhero,” Marinette snorted, rolling her eyes as if the problem were obvious.

“So?” he scoffed right back. “You don’t think you’re good enough for a superhero or something? Marinette, Chat Noir is the one not good enough for you. Stop being humble and date him already.”

“I’m not being humble,” she returned saucily. “I’m being practical. I can’t date a guy whose identity I don’t know.”

“Then let him reveal his identity to you,” Adrien suggested matter-of-factly. “You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be.”

“I am not,” she protested, crossing her arms indignantly. “It’s too dangerous for me to know his identity.”

“How so?” he argued. “All you have to do is just not tell anyone that you know. Don’t get caught kissing Chat Noir, and no one will be the wiser. No one’s going to think twice if you start dating his civilian self.”

She pursed her lips, trying not to see his point. “What if I get caught up in an akuma attack and get brainwashed into revealing his secrets?”

“Chat Noir has been mind-controlled countless times, and he hasn’t given away his secret identity yet,” Adrien continued to stack solid argument on top of solid argument. “If you don’t tell anyone you know who Chat Noir is, Papillon won’t know to come after you. You’re perfectly safe so long as you keep your mouth shut. I think you can manage that, Marinette.”

“What if there’s a truth-telling akuma?” she tried in one last-ditch attempt.

He frowned at her in mildly annoyed disappointment. “Has there ever been a truth-telling akuma? In the past three and a half years?”

She averted her gaze, her lip pushing forward into a pout.

“No. No, there has not,” he answered his own question triumphantly. “See? I’m not going to say it’s perfectly safe for him to reveal himself to you, but the risk is small enough that I feel comfortable with you taking it. Don’t you think he would be worth it?”

“Of course he would be worth it,” she replied in a small, tired whisper. “It’s just…it’s complicated, Adrien.”

“It’s really not as complicated as you’re making it,” he sighed, gently cupping her cheek and tipping her head up to make her look at him. “Marinette, you’re a wonderful person, and you deserve happiness and love. Why won’t you let yourself have this?”

Her lips slowly moved into a self-deprecating smile, and she shook her head sadly. “I’m afraid that I really am a masochist who doesn’t allow herself to have nice things.”

It was like a foggy pane of glass shattered between them at her words, and Adrien flashed back to Ladybug sitting on the roof of Sainte Chapelle saying the same thing Saturday night.

He couldn’t breathe.

“What…did you say?” he choked as the pieces slid together: Ladybug’s insistence that Chat go to Marinette when Ladybug couldn’t be there for him herself. Marinette’s claims that things were complicated between herself and Chat Noir.

She shook her head again. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

His Lady, his Princess…the same person? Could he be so lucky?

Her brow pinched into a frown as she registered his expression. “Why are you grinning like that?”

“Because I love you,” he chuckled giddily, rendering her utterly speechless.

She found that she literally couldn’t remember how to make her mouth, brain, and vocal cords work in concert to form any kind of reply, so she just sat there, parting and closing her lips like a drowning fish.

“Hey,” he called softly, slipping his hand into hers. “I really need to talk to you. It’s important,” he emphasized. “Could we please head to your house so we can talk undisturbed?”

She tried to speak, but it came out sounding like a collection of gibberish syllables, so, instead, she nodded and got to her feet, leading him back to her house and up the stairs to her room.

He had to let go of her hand in order to file up the narrow staircase, and, by the time they reached the attic, Marinette’s brain was once again semi-functional.

She took a seat on her chaise longue and motioned for him to sit anywhere he liked, urging, “Make yourself comfortable.”

“I’m good standing, thanks,” he assured. “I’m actually feeling kind of jittery, so…do you mind if I pace?”

“Uh…go right ahead,” she encouraged, watching as he did indeed start to walk back and forth across her carpet. “…You said that you needed to talk to me?”

He took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh, “Yeah. Yeah. I did. I do. I…”

He bit his lip, rubbing at the back of his neck as he tried to get his harried thoughts in order. “I’m not sure you want to know, but I feel like I have to tell you. You’re not going to be happy, but this isn’t something I can keep from you.”

He stopped and turned to face her. “Honestly, I’ve kind of been in a dark place lately, Marinette.”

Her eyes rounded, pupils dilating in fear for yet another one of the most precious boys in her life going through a hard time.

“I’ve been feeling pretty down,” he confessed. “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to bother anyone or make them worry.”

“Adrien, we’re your friends,” she scolded, fighting back a whirlwind of emotions.

Hurt that he hadn’t trusted her, frustration that he thought so little of himself and how much he meant to them.

“Worrying about one another and supporting each other is what friends do,” she stressed, hands going to her hips. “When you need help or just someone to listen to you vent, you come to us. We will always be there for you.”

His lips quirked into a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry. I know. I just…have self-esteem issues. But I’m coming to you now, so…better late than never?”

Her expression softened, and she pushed herself up, going to him and wrapping him in a loose hug. “Oh, Adrien…you idiot.”

He rested his head against hers, muttering, “I was also afraid to talk to you about it because I was worried about ruining my chances with you. I know I wouldn’t want to deal with me and all of my insecurities and hang-ups. I couldn’t imagine someone as epic as you picking someone like me when you could do so much better.”

“Adrien,” she cooed, pulling back to meet his gaze with an abundance of sympathy and affection. “Don’t…say things like that. There are so many amazing things about you.”

“That’s what Plagg said too,” he chuckled softly.

She blinked, her brain not registering. “Plagg?”

He nodded. “Saturday…I told Ladybug about how lost and alone I’d been feeling, and she told me to come talk to you…so here I am.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped as she struggled to make sense of what she was hearing.

Saturday night, Ladybug had talked to Chat Noir, not Adrien, so…

Her lungs seized, cutting off her breath.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered like a chastened child waiting to be struck. “I know you didn’t want to reveal identities and that’s why you sent me to Marinette instead of trying to help as Ladybug, but…I think the cat’s out of the bag, My Lady.”

To her credit, Marinette did not faint. She would have liked to because, if she were unconscious, she wouldn’t have to deal with reality right away, but she remained in full control of her faculties and, thus, had to attend to the matter at hand in real time.

“I need to sit down,” she announced, heading back over to the chaise to compose herself.

Adrien followed nervously, taking a seat beside her without infringing upon her personal space. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

She waved away his words, shaking her head. “No. No. It’s fine. I…This is my fault. I knew you could potentially figure out my identity every time I had Chat Noir over to watch movies or play video games. I knew I was taking a risk.”

She turned to look him in the eye. “If I had the chance to do it all over, I wouldn’t change anything.”

“Oh,” he whispered, dazed as she leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek, smiling softly.

“I don’t regret anything except not being able to be there for you more,” she added, making his heart swell. “But now we have to sit down and figure out what to do about this catastrophe now that we’re here.”

He arched an eyebrow, echoing, “Catastrophe?”

She nodded. “I mean…you know my identity. We’re in grave danger, Chaton.”

Deep furrows gradually dug their way across his brow. “Are we actually, though?”

She blinked, taken aback.

“Is this really the end-of-the-world scenario you think it is?” he pressed. “Like what I was saying earlier, if we don’t advertise that we know, why should Papillon target Marinette and Adrien more than any other Parisian?”

Marinette opened her mouth to argue her point but then closed it again when she realized that she didn’t have any good rebuttals to make.

“That’s why I’m always so careful when I come over here as Chat Noir. I don’t let myself get spotted coming and going so that I don’t tip anyone off to the fact that you’re important to me and could be used against me,” he explained, scooting in a little closer on the chaise. “If no one knows we know, how are we in danger?”

She pursed her lips and thought hard, trying to come up with a way to refute his logic. “…But what if there’s a truth-telling akuma?” she inquired weakly, knowing the feeble argument wouldn’t hold water.

He cupped her cheek in his hand and swore, “I would literally die before I betrayed you.”

Her heart cracked open at the very thought, and tears started to stream down her face.

“You die too much already,” she whispered, looping her arms around his neck. “I don’t want you to die…. I love you.”

He didn’t protest as she leaned in and pressed a butterfly’s wing beat of a kiss to his lips.

“Okay,” he chuckled, resting his forehead against hers. “No dying. We’ll figure something else out, but it’s going to be okay, Marinette. No matter what, we’ll get through this together.”

“Promise?” she hummed, a gentle smile lifting the corners of her lips.

“Promise,” he affirmed, inching forward to steal a more substantial kiss.

When they broke apart, there was a question in his eyes. “…Me being Adrien doesn’t change the way you feel about me, does it? You said you loved Chat Noir, but…”

A scarlet flare lit up her cheeks and spread across the bridge of her nose as she finally confessed, “You know the mystery boy I’ve been pining after since we were thirteen?”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Yeeeees?”

“His name is Adrien Agreste,” she giggled.

He burst out laughing. “You have horrible taste in men.”

She slapped him playfully on the arm. “You have horrible self-esteem. That’s the real problem here. I only fall for the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful guys. I have impeccable taste.”

“…You really think so?” he sought to verify, amazed that such a thing could be true, that such a woman could want him.

She nodded, gaze earnest. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Adrien. We’re going to have to work on changing that.”

“Is this a team effort thing now?” he hummed, delighted by the prospect.

“Absolutely,” she confirmed…but then the air of teasing left her. “…I’ve been really worried about you since Saturday. If there’s anything—anything—I can do for you, please let me know. …What do you think I could do to help?”

He chewed thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek for a moment before answering. “…I don’t know, really. You’ve done so much already for me as Chat Noir just by giving me a warm, safe, place to go when I need to escape. I feel bad asking for more.”

“Don’t,” she urged. “It really is fine, Adrien. Earlier, you said that you wanted me to be okay, didn’t you? That’s how I feel about you too, so don’t ever feel bad for asking.”

Slowly, he began to nod as comprehension dawned upon him. “…Oh….”

She gave him an encouraging smile and squeezed his hand. “Yeah.”

Blushing, he looked down at their joined hands. “Okay. Well…I’ll have to let you know as I think of things, but…I don’t know if there’s a whole lot you can do. I think a lot of being mentally healthy starts and ends with me, so…I think I have to do most of the work myself.”

“But you can still let me know if there’s anything I can do to support you,” she reminded.

He nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. …I will. I think mostly I just need someone to talk to about things.”

“You can talk to me whenever you need to,” she assured. “I mean, I hardly sleep, so you can call or text whenever.”

He frowned at this. “I think maybe we need to reevaluate your self-care behaviors while we’re at it. I’ve always known that Marinette had a crazy hectic schedule full of stress and deadlines, but now that I know you’re juggling a side gig as a superhero on top of everything you do as Marinette, I’m kind of worried.”

She averted her gaze, sticking her lip out in a pout. “I liked it better when we were focusing on you.”

“I’ll bet you did,” he snickered. “Just know that this is a two-way street. I’m here for you too, Marinette.”

She dropped the pout and looked up at him with a soft smile. “Thanks…. I think you should talk to Nino about how you’ve been feeling lately. Maybe Alya too, if you feel comfortable talking to her, but definitely Nino. He’s going to freak.”

Adrien winced. “Yeah…. Yeah, I know. I just don’t want—”

“—Don’t you dare mention being a burden or bothering him,” she warned. “Nino would be insulted. He loves you literally as much as he loves his brother, if not, more.”

“Yeah,” Adrien sighed, sufficiently cowed. “I’ve just been too scared to say anything.”

She hesitated before continuing, “And…you know…maybe we could go see a therapist?”

He raised an eyebrow in surprise at the suggestion. “A therapist?”

She nodded tentatively. “I know I’m awesome, but I’m only seventeen, Adrien. There are a lot of things that I’m completely clueless about. I’ve looked into psychology a little bit to help me deal with akuma victims, but I’m not an expert. I was just thinking that maybe talking to a counselor would be helpful. Maybe they’ll think of things that could help that we would never come up with on our own.”

“That’s true,” he allowed, considering the idea.

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I just know that there are a lot of times where I think, ‘Man, I wish I had an adult to help me out with this’. Most of the time I’m completely on my own—besides you and the others and Tikki, I mean…. I was just thinking that this is maybe one time where we don’t have to go it alone. Maybe an adult can help.”

“I’ll think about it,” he granted. “It would be hard to see a doctor without my father finding out, and he isn’t going to like this, but…it’s a good idea,” he agreed.

“Good,” she sighed in relief, leaning into a languid, exploratory kiss that Adrien was more than happy to return.

They broke apart a few minutes later with a contented hum and stared dreamily into each other’s eyes.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Adrien, and he gave a start.

“Stupid question,” he announced hesitantly.

“No such thing,” she assured, wrapping her arms around him more snugly.

“Are we dating now?” he warily inquired. “Sorry. Do I need to ask you out still? I mean, I assume we’re on the same page because we both said that we loved one another, and we’ve been kissing, so one would think that we’re dating, but I just wanted to make sure because I’ve never done this before, and I’m—”

“—Adrien?” she cut him off gently.

He tipped his head to the side. “Yes?”

“Will you go out with me?” she asked so that there would be no doubt in his mind as to what she wanted.

“Yes,” he responded breathlessly, and the joy in his eyes made her heart melt.

“Good,” she chuckled. “For our first date, would you want to have movie night tonight? We could snuggle on the couch and make cookies together.”

He surprised her by saying no.

“That can’t be our first date,” he whined. “It’s not romantic enough. I’ve had our first date planned for years, Princess. There have to be rose petals and candles and mood music. We’re supposed to eat at this amazing restaurant and take ballroom dancing lessons and then have a rooftop picnic as we watch the stars and snuggle. We can’t have a night in as our first date,” he argued.

She stared at him with a deadpan expression, debating whether it would be damaging to their nascent relationship for her to face-palm.

“My boyfriend is a high-maintenance dork,” she sighed.

“Hey,” he pouted, and she could almost see his ears and tail drooping despite the fact that he wasn’t transformed.

“All right,” she relented. “If we don’t call it a date, would you like to hang out and snuggle and watch movies and bake cookies?”

“Definitely,” he easily approved but then thought to add softly, in a slightly hurt tone, “I’m not silly, you know, for wanting my first date with the woman I love to be everything I’ve ever dreamed it would be.”

“No,” she agreed, reaching up to stroke his hair lovingly. “I’m sorry. You’re not. You deserve to have the first date of your dreams. I shouldn’t have scoffed, even if it is a bit more…” She searched for the word, came up with “over the top”, and decided against voicing it. “…more than I had in mind,” she ended conciliatorily.

“I love you, and I want you to have nice things,” she assured, earning herself an affectionate nuzzle from him.

“Thanks,” he whispered. “That means a lot to me.”

She then did something she knew she would later regret as a show of her love for him: “You can plan our first date,” she offered. “Whatever you want it to be. Go wild.”

The way his eyes lit up at her giving him free rein confirmed her fears…yet, the pure joy in his expression made her think that, if a crazy rom-com-cliché-filled date was the price of his happiness, it was well worth it.

The End

[n0irrrr]

reiss mental asylum / ＳＰＥＣＩＡＬ♡ＶＡＬＥＮＴＩＮＥ

【 shingeki no kyojin / mental asylum – alternative universe, modern setting 】 『male!yandere!various x male!prettyboy!reader』 summary: Finally! You have been given an opportunity to work at Reiss Mental Asylum- your job hunting hasn’t been great, so to hear you got an opportunity made you excited. At the beginning everything seems normal- but without noticing, some people began to get obsessed with you. warnings/tags: DARK/HEAVY THEMES. Non-consensual themes; sexual assault, touching, drug use, rape attempt. Home invasion, yanderes, obsessive behavior, murder, blood, explicit content, sexual thoughts. masterlist

ＳＰＥＣＩＡＬ♡ＶＡＬＥＮＴＩＮＥ

i ｌｏｖｅ　ｙｏｕ.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Good morning!" [Name] greeted excitedly, waving at everyone in the halls. Smiling, the assistant had a couple of red boxes in his arms. He was heading to his office to arrange his stuff— he had a little surprise for everyone today.

Arriving to his —or rather Zeke and his— office, the boy dropped the boxes on the desk. He had prepared everything one day before, and even baked in the late night. [Name] was always lively and excited in festive days— just like today was Valentine's day! Good thing there was a simple activity at the asylum— patients could receive and give gifts between them.

He had baked home-made chocolates, bought lollipops, have wrote letter for his patients and workers... He was pretty excited. His first gift was a bag with chocolates and a letter for his neighbor Porco, before he left for work. Surprisingly, the blond had too a gift for [Name]: a gift-card and a... obvious home-made chocolate. The amateur molding gave it away, but it didn’t make it less cute and sweet.

It was very special to [Name], because Porco’s behavior usually wasn’t like this. He knew from his friends that the blond wasn't that very gift-giving, much less a touchy-caring person, but that didn't mean he didn't treasure his friends.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

[Name] tries to close the door of his apartment at fast as he can, but his hands full of stuff doesn't let him, making it fall all over the floor. He puts and lets out a groan before locking the door and kneeling to take them. He's going to arrive late, so he tries his best to collect everything fast. He's occupied with it that he doesn't notice his neighbor leaving his apartment and looks at him with a blush on his face. The blond approaches [Name] and kneels to help him, making the [hair color] haired notice him finally.

"Porco!" [Name] excitedly speaks, "good thing I see you before leaving! I I have your—"

But before [Name] could finish, Porco handed rather harshly a box with chocolates on it, along with a gift card as he avert his gaze with a clear crimson on his face. [Name] takes it surprised, not expecting it. "Here." He just says, standing up with [Name]'s stuff on his arms, still not looking at him.

[Name] stares dumbfounded for a moment, before waking up from his daze and stand up too. He looks carefully at the gift— so that's what was Porco doing last night? The apartment's walls weren't sound proof, so [Name] could clearly hear Porco's loud swearing in the late night, same time he was baking. [Name] smiles with a blush decorating his face, "thank you, Porco! I really appreciate it."

"J-Just, don't talk about it!" With his free hand he covers his mouth in embarrassment. If anybody in the office heard about it, he would be bullied about it until his death, and with his pride present, he wouldn't want that at all.

The gentle male chuckles, before remembering the gift he has for his neighbor. Between all of his things, he finds a small red box with a letter tape on it, with the front reading "Porco" with a small heart on it. He hands it to him with a blush, glad that Porco takes it as he hands him his stuff. "Don't open it right now! Open it when you are at work so you can eat chocolate!" He laughs like a child, music to the blonde's ears.

"You are so cheesy," He coughs, hiding his shyness. He ruffles [Name]'s head, messing his hair as he speaks, "thanks."

Both of them leave the building together, but seeing all of the stuff [Name]'s is carrying, Porco doesn't mind dropping [Name] off.

"Good luck and uh... have a nice day at work."

"You too, and thanks for dropping me off!" [Name] says, opening the car's door to leave. But before he can exit the car, Porco takes his wrist wordlessly and gently pulls him. [Name] feels something warm on his forehead, and before he can realize what is happening Porco moves away, refusing to see him. [Name] can see Porco's face is all red, along with his own.

[Name] is not brave with this sort of things, but seeing Porco, of all people, do that, he didn't see why not. He peeks his cheek, surprising the blonde. The assistant smiles at him, and before he leaves he says, "don't forget to eat my chocolates!"

Let's just say Porco's mind is full of this moment repeating so much times he forgets where he is actually going.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Arranging his stuff with a smile, the assistant began to remind himself about his schedule. To not to being carrying everything, the best he could do right now was take his worker’s gifts. After all, before going to sessions there was a small free time in the cafeteria. Looking at the clock, he was just in time to go. Not wanting to waste any minute, he took each bag and boxes full of chocolates along with his letters and left hurriedly, carefully not dropping anything in his way.

Fortunately for him, he's greeted by Mike, who seems to have waited for him with a coffee cup in his hand. But as soon as he sees [Name] with his stuff, he approaches him. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Mike! Uhm—"

"Take this." He hands him the coffee to take all of the boxes and little bags. It's not much to Mike, as he is much taller than the assistant. [Name] says that he doesn't need to do that, but the blonde doesn't listen to him at all and begins to walk ahead, in which [Name] with a defeated sigh, follows.

[Name] takes a sip from the coffee, but his eyes widened at the wonderful taste of it, "this isn't coffee!" He smiles, enjoying the taste of hot chocolate in his mouth, "thank you, Mike! It's so good..." The blonde just smiles, enjoying [Name]'s chatter. He looked rather cute today— [Name] wear a heart clip on his hair, revealing his cute face more today. And he also smelled like sweet strawberries and chocolate, which was a good plus.

"Ah!" [Name] remembers, "wait a moment, please." Mike raises a brow, stopping in a not busy hallway. There are no much workers passing trough, so they are not disturbing anyone. [Name] looks trough the boxes, carefully not slipping any chocolate, until he finds the one he's looking for— a box with Mike's name on the letter. "This one is for you! I can take care of it until we get to to the cafeteria." He holds it with care, smiling at him.

The taller man just chuckles by [Name]'s childish behavior, and he can't stop himself from stopping him and kiss his temples. [Name] instantly blushes, but as soon as Mike finishes, he gets on his tip toes and kiss the blonde's cheek in return. It's sweet and cute to the taller man, and he can't help but be vocal about his thoughts, "cute." [Name]'s answer was a blush, as he hided behind Mike's, feeling shy. They returned to their walk to the cafeteria.

As they arrive, [Name] helps Mike placing the boxes on the table to let his rest. He hands him his gift and also a hear-shaped lollipop, gaining a laugh from the taller man. Levi, seeing the rather irritating interaction, narrowed his eyes as he saw all of [Name]'s stuff on the table. If he guessed right, a faint smell of chocolate was present. And seeing the rather... adorable hair-clip the assistant was wearing give it right away something valentine's thing was going on with him.

"This is chocolate?" The ravenette asked, taking their attention. [Name] nodded excitedly, already trying to find Levi's gift, placing his cup on the table. The ravenette noted the cup wasn't his— he narrowed his eyes at Mike, who only grinned slightly. So that’s why you left, you fucking tree. As he crossed his arms, [Name] joyfully handed him his gift, in which Levi took, inspecting it. "A letter?" Just as he was opening the letter, a loud irritating voice was heard approaching.

"Oh my!!! Are these gifts??? CHOCOLATE?!" Hanji grinned, looking at the gifts. [Name] immediately handed hers, and the woman took it harshly from his hands. "You are so adorable!!!" She pinched [Name]'s cheeks, making his eyes teary.

"Hanji!" [Name] tried to protest, but it went to deaf ears. It hurt, but thankfully Mike took Hanji's chocolates and shoved them into her mouth, silencing her and changing her attention to eating. The poor assistant rubbed his cheeks, thanking Mike by the help.

Levi, irritated by how Hanji was, opened the letter nevertheless. It was decorated with stickers and cute doodles, and it was pretty short. It made the ravenette remember the love cheesy letters he got from high school— just like the girls back then would try to have and do cute things with stickers, cute band-aids, small handwriting. He didn't particularly like receiving this type of letters, but getting them by [Name] was greatly different.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡ 𝒕𝒐: 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒊 ♡

𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆! 𝒊 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒊 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆! ♡(ŐωŐ人)

𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎: [𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒆] (✿╹◡╹)

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

He just stared blankly at the words, not sure of what to say about it. It seemed this was the first things he got from the assistant —the person that sooner or later would be his—, so he had to treasure it. Folding the letter back to it's past form, he put it in his pocket secretly. This feeling... was so troublesome.

"Oh! Where's Zeke? I haven't seen him." [Name] asks, instantly changing Levi's mood.

"Don't know." The ravenette answers, not interested to talk about four-eyes #2. Of course, Hanji can catch the change of mood, and as she already knows the actual situation revolving around little [Name], she decides to have some fun.

"You have a gift for him too? Oh my, he sure loves you, doesn't he?!" She grinned, secretly watching Levi's and Mike's reaction. They look rather annoyed, but they know what's she doing— but even if they try to hide it form her, it's impossible. "If I didn't know better, seems you love him already..." She chuckles, looking at the now nervous assistant.

[Name] blushes, trying to explain himself, "o-of course not! Mr. Jäeger is my boss!"

"Uhuhuhu, and? Doesn't mean anything!"

"Hanji!!!"

"Enough. You both are being annoying." The ravenette interferes, shoving more chocolates into Hanji's mouth. She instantly shuts up, content with the little fun she had.

"Wfy don't shu dfo that to [Name]???" Hanji tries to talks with her mouth full of chocolates, trying to grin at him. His' jaw clenches, being caught. He doesn't answer and shoves more against Hanji's protests.

"There are more gifts. For who?" Mike interjects, interested by the amount of bags there are. He can guess to who [Name] will give them.

"To my patients!" He answers with a smile. [Name] cared about his patients dearly, so a gift for them today wasn't even out of the picture. If a person knows you care, there's surely more trust, even if it's a little thing. And [Name] doesn't want the trust just for work purposes, but for them feeling that they can count on him.

Levi immediately speaks, not liking the idea himself. “Erwin won’t like that.”

The assistant scratches his cheek, a little upset, ”I know... but anything a good talk can’t do! I may convince him.” For some strange reason, workers were refrained to gift things to their patients. But even so, [Name] had thought any precaution on his gifts, carefully wrapped the chocolates in non-harming stuff that the patients could use against him or them.

Mike laughs, “you will.” He knows this small person has Erwin around his finger, even if he doesn’t know. Or rather, everyone is, including himself. A 'good luck!!!' from Hanji was heard, along with a small see you later from Mike.

"But first I have to find Zeke!" Seeing as his friends had their gifts, he took the two remaining boxes and excused himself. But just after he left the cafeteria, someone followed him, grabbing his shoulder and pinning him against a wall. It was Levi, who was looking at him with his usual frown— was he mad?! "L-Levi?" [Name] tried to speak, but was silenced by a gentle caring touch on his cheek. It surprised him greatly— the ravenette wasn't touchy by any means, let alone showing his feelings. There was a silence, until Levi handed a letter and a chocolate to [Name]. Taking in it with a small thank you, the ravenette spoke while still caressing his gentle face with a soft look on his dark eyes that [Name] never saw before,

"See you around, air-head," and then, he left without saying anything else.

[Name] stood there with a blush, before blinking and leaving hurriedly with the small but great interaction in his mind.

  ♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"Zeke!" The blond could hear from afar, turning his attention behind him. As he realized the gentle voice of his assistant, he sighed in relief. It was boring as hell to keep on watching patients in the gardens— totally a waste on time. But just hearing his favorite person in the world just changed his whole mood. His assistant approaches him, and he can't deny he looks so cute with that heart clip. The blonde coughs, controlling himself.

"[Name], good morning." He noticed the box on [Name]'s hands, "hmn? what's that? a love confession?"

"N-No! It's just a gift from valentines day!" He blushed, handing it to Zeke, "It's chocolate! I made them myself, hehe."

"Is that so," he arched his brow, impressed. It seemed [Name] could fill the role of a mother just right. Caring, adorable looks, and baking chocolate? That was just enough. Zeke took the box, already opening to eat the chocolates— they were, as he expected, good. They were molded in a heart shape, which was rather cute. "They are good, as expected."

"I'm glad!" [Name] chuckled, relieved. He was rather worried some of his workers, if not all, were not that sugar-lovers. But as far so good, it seemed.

"Here," he took a chocolate and gave it to [Name], who at first didn't want to take it. The blond, not receiving a no for an answer, shoved it to the assistant's mouth. The assistant had no much choice and just ate it. Zeke couldn't stop watching him, though. Why was this person so cute? So adorable? He just wanted to keep him, like a doll.

Without much thought, the doctor shoved the other side of [Name]'s hair out of his face, taking his attention. [Name] looks at him, and the blond can note how long his eyelashes are— how his prying eyes look at him. Zeke lets his thoughts know, "you are so adorable." [Name]'s face went red, unexpecting such comment.

"Um—! ThankyouIhavetogo!" And just like that the assistant flied, with Zeke's gaze following him until he disappears. He smirks, still eating chocolate.

"So adorable..."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"Come in," [Name] heard, controlling his nerves as he opened the door. He instantly met with blues eyes, making him gulp. He liked Erwin, but he couldn't deny the dominant aura that surrounded him. After all, he was the boss from this place, so his authority was high. But the plus was that he was nice to [Name], even if he did something wrong. "[Name], good morning. What brings you here?" He stopped his current actions and pay full attention to his favorite worker.

"Good morning!" The assistant approached him, leaving the box on his desk, "it's a gift! For valentine's day and all..." The blonde chuckles at such cute packing— it was neat and simple, but not less adorable. He too was reminded of his love-gifts back in high school.

"Thank you, [Name]," He smiles at the assistant with his breathtaking smile— oof, he is so handsome! [Name] blushes at such smile, averting the other's gaze on him with a shy expression. Thanks to him turning his head to his side, the blonde can notice the heart clip on his hair and how it shoves the left side of his hair, exposing his face more. "Your clip is nice." He complimented, gaining another shy thank you!  from the assistant, with more blush this time.

"And, uhm..." The [hair color] haired begins, rubbing his hands together behind him. He knows he will receive a no, but he has to try. Maybe he could be more benevolent... "I wanted to ask if, I, uhm..."

"Yes, [Name]?"

"If I could gift my patients chocolates...?"

There was an instant answer that Erwin didn't have to think about, "no."

"N-No? B-But I—"

"[Name]..." The blond slowly stood up, towering [Name]. The assistant didn't feel particularly intimidated, but more like dominated. But that wasn't going to let [Name] lose— just the thought of making his patients happy filled him with determination.

Approaching the blonde, the assistant tried to look as cute as possible, “please, Erwin?” [Name] was doing puppy eyes, doing the exact same thing he did before— grabbing Erwin’s hands close to his chest. The blond let out a long sigh, trying to control himself. This was just a punishment. [Name] knew what was he doing— it was too obvious.

Nevertheless, Erwin didn't give in, or rather, tried to. “It’s dangerous, and not allowed.”

“Pretty please!” Now his hands were begin pressed against [Name]’s face, as he blinked repeatedly with his long eyelashes.

“It’s still a no, [Name].”

“But—” he sighed, “it should be something good for them for once, Erwin...”

The blonde’s face darkened as he heard his name, clenching his jaw. Was it even possible that only hearing his name being called by [Name] made him lost control? By such a simple word? It didn’t help at all the assistant looked this adorable. So appetizing.

He sighed in defeated, “alright. I will allow it."

[Name] blinks a couple of times, but then smiles, “thank you!” He tip toes to peck Erwin’s cheek, and as he felt disappointment, he couldn’t stop his laughter at such cute and cheesy moment. The blond didn’t want to ruin the trust— even if his insides were screaming at him to take him and devour him, he ignores it. "Thank you very much, Erwin!"

"Just don't get yourself hurt, okay? Keep your distance, the guards will be just outside the room."

"Of course! Don't forget to eat your chocolate!" And with a last smile for him, the cute assistant left in a hurry, clearly happy. The blonde just chuckled by himself, amused by him. He sat down again, looking at the box. He took the letter and opened it— it was a pink paper with hearts around it and bunny doodles.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆. 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒆!

𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆!

𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒚, 𝑬𝒓𝒘𝒊𝒏!

𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎: [𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒆] (人･㉨･)♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Such a cutie."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

”Hello, Armin,” [Name]’s calm and kind voice makes Armin smiles dreamily, already waiting for him. It's a lucky thing they can have a calendar —or rather the ones with good behavior—, because he had [Name]'s gift ready.

The assistant sat down, grabbing the small bag and handed it to Armin, "this is for you!" The blonde takes it immediately, smiling widely as he inspects it like a child.

"Thank you..." He blushed, but as he tries to say something else, he shuts his mouth. [Name] notices, and tries to make him talk.

"Is something you want to tell me?" He pries, looking expectantly at the blond. He's silent, but nods to himself. Armin hands him a letter— its folded but at the front can be read "for my love". [Name] unfolds it, revealing a drawing of the ocean. It seems it's colored with pencils, and on the white sky can be read:

"Thank you for staying with me. I really love you.

One day we'll go to the ocean together, when the two of us get out of here.

I love you, Dr. [Name]."

[Name] smiled, trying to hide his sadness at such request. He promised himself Armin would see it— but not anytime soon. Folding it, he put it in his pocket with care, "thank you very much, Armin. Your drawings never cease to amaze me!" The blond blushed by the compliment, tightening his grip on his gift.

"Well, I shall go," seeing Armin's sad expression hurt [Name]'s heart, and he tried to make him feel better, "don't wear such face— I always return, don't I? Next time you could tell me if you liked my chocolates or not." The blond fought against his sadness, but nodded nevertheless. [Name] patted his head, looking softly at him before leaving.

Armin hugs the gift, not wanting to ruin it. "I love you..."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"Pretty boy! What brings you here?" Jean grins devilish, seeing the assistant enter the room. Thank god— being trapped in this place could be a nightmare. But hey, nothing that a pretty doctor can't do. His favorite doctor, or at least to tease.

"Hi, Jean," [Name] chuckles, familiarized with such comments, "today's Valentines day. Did you receive or give anything?"

The patient's face changed drastically to a blushed one, surprising [Name]. "Of course not!" He sounded rather offended, "why would I?!"

"Hmn? Why is that?" [Name] tried to pry, grinning. It was fun to tease the other— it reminded him of the relationship of his old friends. And also it wasn't always that he could tease him.

"W-Well, I don't have anything for you either! That sounds just so dumb, so stop asking." He averted his gaze with a faint blush on his face, clenching his teeth. He crossed his arms.

The assistant laughs, amazed by such weird reaction. "Well, I do have something for you!" He took the small bag, putting it on the desk, trying to see Jean's reaction to it.

"Uh?" Jean blinks, seeing the gift. It's pretty simple, but it doesn't feel less nice. He seems to notice his own behavior, shaking his head, "whatever."

Seeing as Jean wasn't taking it or anything, that was a signal to [Name] to leave. It wasn't a bad thing, as he didn't mind. With a smile, [Name] stands up, "well, I shall be going then." He began to leave, but Jean's voice stops him from doing so.

"W-Wait," he speaks. [Name] turns, being met with a messily folded paper on his side of the table. The assistant is surprised, he didn't expect a gift from him, particularly. He opens it, revealing a drawing of him. It puts a big smile on his face, "thank you very much, Jean!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He tries to sound uninterested, not looking at the assistant still. [Name] can see crimson on his face, chuckling. He leaves, waving at Jean.

Just as the assistant leaves there's silence. Jean sighs, closing his eyes.

"What the hell is happening to me..."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"Finally you came back!" A loud voice is heard just when [Name] enters the room. It seemed he was being expected, seeing the reaction.

"Hello Connie!" [Name] waves, happy to see him again, "as today's Valentines day, have you got anything?"

His face changes instantly. He puts and crosses his arms, "no, but I don't care anyways!" He tried to hide his disappointment. After all, how the great him couldn't have received anything? That was stupid!

[Name] raises his brows, "is that so?" he smiles, "that's good— I can be first then."

Connie looks at him in suspicion but surprise, seeing the assistant leave a bag with chocolates in front of him. That makes him smile widely, returning to his usual self, "of course! You couldn't resist giving my amazing self something, could you?" He took the bag, eating the chocolates already. They were fantastic— he couldn't stop eating them!

[Name] laughs, happy by the sight.

The patient coughs, a small faint blush on his face, "I got you something." He hands him a letter, which [Name] takes with surprise. He thought Connie wouldn't give him anything, but he was wrong.

Right away the handwriting is not... great, but that doesn't mean it's bad. And also, there was a doodle of two people— an arrow pointed at them, one read "Connie" pointing at him with a crow., and "[Name]" with a smaller crown too.

"You should feel proud the amazing Connie has given you this!!!

Anyways, here's a drawing of fantastic me and well, good you:"

It's... interesting, that's for sure. "Thank you, Connie. It's... really nice of you." He smiled, trying to hold his laughter. Connie grins widely, happy by the compliment.

"Of course, of course."

"Well, I'll take my leave." He can see Connie's frown, "hey— I will be back sooner nor later, okay? No rush."

It seems Connie thinks on what to say, but speaks nevertheless, "...Sure."

[Name] leaves, waving at the boy.

Connie returns on eating chocolates, mumbling to himself.

"I should ask for more."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"Good morning!" The assistant spoke happily, spotting Bert's already blushing mess. "Have you got anything?"

The brunette just looks down and shakes his head, still blushing. He's gripping something between his hands, but [Name] can't see clearly what it is.

"Well, I'm happy I'm your first!" He chuckles, taking the gift and leaving it on the table. Bertolt face lighten ups instantly, looking happier now. [Name] wanted to make him smile— it reminded him a smile from a child. It was adorable. "Hope they are good! I think they are... presentable? hehe,"

"I-I'm sure they are good!" The brunette spoke loudly, but fell silent as he noticed his outburst. [Name] grins, happy by the reaction.

"It's okay, Bertolt! If they are not good you don't have to eat them, okay?" He tilts his head, seeing the taller male nod.

There's silence, but [Name] hears his soft voice speaking after a minute, "I-I have something for you..." Bertolt puts on the table a folded letter. [Name] takes it, opening it. By his surprise, there's a red flattened flower on it besides the good handwriting:

"You are the beautiful person I've ever seen.

I like you a lot. Hope you like me back."

[Name] can't help but smile widely, "thank you, Bertolt. I really like you, okay?" He kiss his nose, making the taller male blush immediately. But he doesn't stay still— surprisingly, he kisses [Name]'s temples with his eyes closed. [Name] chuckles, feeling the other pulling apart. "Let's see when we can go to the gardens again."

"I-I hope soon!"

The assistant stands up, his gentle smile not disappearing. "I will see you later, Bertolt." And then he leaves, leaving the brunette alone again.

"So beautiful..."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"But isn't it 'angel'?"

"Hello, Reiner," [Name] is more than prepare any of what the blond has to say, "I'm guessing you know what today is, isn't?"

"Of course, and I have the perfect gift for you, doctor."

"Is that so?" [Name] smiles, the blond nods. He's handing him a paper, but as [Name] tries to take it, Reiner takes his wrist and pull him over for a heated kiss. The assistant instantly blushes, trying to get away but the other's grip is hard. The blonde smiles trough the forced kiss, letting go of [Name] suddenly, making him drop on his butt on the floor, "R-Reiner! What was that?!" He asked, trying to keep his voice down to not get the guards in. His whole face was red— he didn't expect something like that at all, but coming for Reiner it was, in some way.

"What? It's just a gift. And also, you haven't read my letter."

[Name], still blushing, stood up slowly. He unfolded the paper, and by just looking at it he blushed even more.

"Want to fuck?"

"T-This..." He couldn't even speak. His gaze fell on the blonde, who only winked in return. "You sure are crude, Reiner."

"I prefer the term upfront. Why dance around it when you can just say it?"

"A-Anyways," [Name] cleared his throat, showing the bag with chocolates, "this is my gift."

The blond looks at it interested, not expecting a gift. Never in the time he has receive something— but even if this wasn't what he really wanted, it felt different.

"A love confession?" He laughed, taking it.

"Of course not! Romantic relationship between worker and patients are forbidden!" He blushed, covering his mouth as he remembered what just happened. "I-I have to go! Hope you like the chocolates!" He didn't give time for the other to answer, leaving in a hurry. Reiner laughs at his embarrassment, eating the chocolates.

"He could be a great wife."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

"Good morning, Mr. Jäger." [Name] soft voice is heard, a small smile present on his face. He doesn't receive an answer, just a hard gaze on him. [Name] didn't know a pair of eyes could be so intimidating. He sat down, "as today is Valentine's day, have you received anything?" He tried to strike a conversation, but that wasn't on Eren's liking.

He crossed his arms, "stop trying. It's ridiculous." He narrows his eyes, still. [Name] sighs, but doesn't feel bad— it's just how it is.

"Well, I have some chocolates for you." He puts the bag on the table, "I hope they are not too bad."

"I don't want them."

"That's okay. But I can't take them back with me, so you can do whatever you want with them once I leave." [Name] keeps his smile with a gentle look on his face. The brunette hates it— why is he smiling like that?

Seeing as Eren wouldn't speak or share anything, [Name] left. But not without saying a see you later and waving at him.

He waited until [Name] left to look at the bag. As it was transparent, he could see a folded letter inside. He opened it, taking the paper with his name on it, and opened it. It didn't have that much stickers and doodles, but there were one bear and one frog sticker, along with plants doodles. The brunette arched his brow, unimpressed by the childish drawings. The writing was pretty short,

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕, 𝑴𝒓. 𝑱ä𝒆𝒈𝒆𝒓. 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒔, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕.

𝑰 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆.

𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒚!

𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎: [𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒆].

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Eren just looks at the letter, not taking his eyes off of it. It's... annoying how this doctor just doesn't quit— was he that stupid? Hmn, maybe Armin was right...

The brunette folded it again, this time taking the heart-shaped chocolates and eating them.

"We'll see."

♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡♡~♡

[Name] closes the door behind him with a heavy sigh. It felt like a long day— going to place to place. He just has to take his stuff and leave, but a sight in front of him stops him— there were roses on his desk! He approaches it, instantly smelling the flower's scent. There were four cards on them, he took them and read them:

"You smell good."

"For the cutest assistant in this place."

"You can bake good chocolates but not lunch, air head?"

"Your clumsiness is adorable."

[Name] chuckles at each personality, knowing who they were. Hugging his bucket, smelling it.

What a busy day.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

[mystical-flute]

Phoenix

Written for @techno-sorcerer in the summer mini exchange on Discord!

In the aftermath of Gozaburo’s death, Seto Kaiba works to build Kaiba Corp up from the ashes.

Seto Kaiba stared at the stacks of files in front of him. Kaiba Corp was his now, Gozaboro nothing more than a hole in the conference room window, temporarily boarded up with plywood.

He couldn't quite believe he'd actually won. He knew, of course, that all of this had been nothing more than a giant game of chess, but at the end of the day, Gozaburo Kaiba had been a ruthless, two-timing,  snake. The fact that he had taken care of himself was a very, very small weight off of Seto's shoulders. After all, there had been no guarantee that Gozaburo would ever have stayed true to his word and allowed he and Mokuba to stay.

 The heaviest burden would be rebuilding Kaiba Corp from the ground up. The documents he'd read on Gozaburo's military interests were making his stomach churn. They'd been given to him by an assistant, who had taken him deep into Kaiba Corp's underbelly once the Big Five had left of the building.

 The assistant had been crying in relief when he'd confirmed things were changing.

 Seto gave her a raise and made her his personal assistant for her cooperation and the semblance of a heart she had.

 She'd cried harder then.

 Seto let out a sigh, pulling one of the files to him and beginning to read.

 October 25th, Egypt

 Nesbit's new bomb was the envy of the battle today. The group we're working with killed 30 rebels today. A victory for one of my top men. Nesbit it pleased, and I gave him a hefty bonus for his ingenuity. The group was so pleased that they've requested more. Next week, we plan to begin testing on –

 Seto couldn't keep reading, throwing the file to the ground in disgust. Rebels or not, 30 people were dead, and he knew thousands more he hadn’t even read about yet. His stomach lurched at the thought of some of them being children. Or parents, leaving children alone without parents.

 This couldn't go on.

 Slamming a hand on the desk, he rose to his feet, pressing the button for his assistant.

 "Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"

 "Summon the press. I want them here in an hour… and those files you gave me? Burn them. And then burn the ashes. The new era of Kaiba Corp starts now."

 The lights were blinding, but he remained firm as he stood at the podium, looking at the eager reporters with disdain.

 "Today is the dawn of a new day for Kaiba Corporation. No longer will we be a company that associates with criminals and death. Today, I am pleased to announce that Kaiba Corporation will become a company on the forefront of technology, and that technology will be…" he flourished his hand, and Mokuba and his assistant pulled the sheet back from the table next to him, the 3D model of his holographic technology and Kaiba Land revealed. "Gaming technology."

 He could hear the shock in the room as the reporters began to murmur, cameras flashing once again.

 "Kaiba Corporation is determined to rebrand itself as a company that brings joy to people, not fear. I am positive that I will be able to lead this change with the same amount of determination that Gozaburo did before me," he concluded. There, he had to play the poor orphan card for sympathy after all. "You all will, of course, be invited to the next press conference, when I reveal my holographic projectors. Thank you all for your time."

 Seto stepped back and bowed respectfully to the reporters, before turning to Mokuba and leading him from the room.

 "Did you mean all that stuff you said, Seto?" Mokuba asked.

 "Of course I did, Mokuba. You'll see, soon Kaiba Corp will bring joy to kid's faces, instead of fear," he replied, giving him a ghost of a smile. "And I promise, nothing bad will happen to us again."

 "You mean, even Hobson won't hurt us anymore?"

 Seto's fists clenched at the mention of the mutant-looking butler his stepfather had employed, and the things that had been done to him under his eye.

 Hobson had been fired forty-five minutes after Gozaburo's death.

 "Yes. Especially Hobson," he confirmed, squeezing Mokuba's shoulder with affection.

 "But… what am I gonna do for tutoring?"

 Seto paused at the question, brow furrowing. He'd fired anyone associated with Gozaburo Kaiba that hadn't willingly joined his side, and that had included the tutors that Mokuba had been learning under.

 And then he remembered his assistant eagerly chattering away about her son's school. He was Mokuba's age… and freedom was all Seto had wanted for he and his brother…

 "Mokuba, how would you like to go to school? A real school?"

 His brother's eyes told him all he needed to know, and immediately, he found himself researching the best schools in Domino, making sure they had very little in terms of problematic staff members or students, and while he was enrolling Mokuba, he enrolled himself too. Yes, he was a teenage genius, and had completed his studies at the age of 14, but he had a sick satisfaction of knowing this would be something that would make Gozaburo spin in his grave, so why not?

 And so, he found himself sitting in the back of a classroom, toward the end of a lesson. It was a dry math lesson, with equations and formulas he'd been able to solve when he was twelve, but at least there was no one whacking a stick in front of him if he found himself doodling numbers for what he wanted Kaiba Corp's first line of gaming tech to be. He was so engrossed in this that he didn't realize the lesson had ended until someone tapped his shoulder.

 He lifted his eyes just enough to see a short, spiky-haired teen standing in front of him.

 "Um, I'm sorry to interrupt, but school is over for the day. You seemed so engrossed in what you were doing and I didn't want you to miss your ride so – "

 "Thank you," he said briskly, pushing his work into the bag at his side and rising to his feet. Giving the other student a curt nod, he turned and started making his way to the door, when he heard the other's eager footsteps behind him.

 "Sorry again but I just wanted to let you know that I saw your press conference the other day, about making Kaiba Corp a gaming company and I'm – I'm really excited to see what you have to offer! My grandpa runs a card shop and so I've been into games and stuff my whole life! And what you had next to you at the conference seems really cool!"

 His brow quirked in curiosity at the shorter teen. "A card shop? Like for Duel Monsters?"

 "Yeah!"

 A small smirk formed on his face. "Well then… I'll be sure that your grandfather's shop is one of the first to get any technology that we develop." Yes, it was a small, presumably independent shop that would hardly make a blip in their sales, but it was a stepping stone.

 "Okay! That sounds awesome! I have to go meet my grandpa now but maybe we can talk more tomorrow?"

 He had no inclination to do that, but he nodded slightly in agreement, turning away as he saw the Kaiba Corp car pulling up.

 "Did you have a good first day, Mr. Kaiba?" he assistant asked with a polite smile, though her eyes were hiding something more.

 "It was uneventful," he said with a shrug. "What did I miss?"

 "Maximillion Pegasus called. He wants to speak with you about arranging a partnership with Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp!" she said with a wide smile.

 Kaiba allowed a brief moment of shock to pass on his face before he spoke. "Call him back and tell him my schedule. I would like to meet with him as soon as possible," he said, looking out the window and smirking.

What was a terrible idea now, Gozaburo?

 Just like the mythical phoenix, Kaiba Corp would rise from the ashes of its shameful past.

[allthatwehear]

it’s time for another blog post

Grief this season has been like,

laying on my floor and time is passing - I often don’t know how much time, but after a little while I become self-conscious of what I’m doing/the nothingness I’m doing, and I get angry at myself and wonder if anyone else just lays on their floor & wastes time.

(I talked to my sister the other day & told her that I watch the clouds pass, and she said she did it too -- “wait you do that too??”)

it’s been like, listening to a lot of music at night because it’s loud outside my house (actually quite noisy neighbors) and they irritate me & I lose my patience. and the music helps bring me to a different state of mind, because i need to stop ruminating on certain things/be brought to a new headspace. it’s been me dodging rooms when people walk in. physically gathering my things & looking like some antisocial jerk & running to my room, closing the door when I’m having phonecalls, even getting pissy with unexpected visits & when people take up my space. 

it’s been like, when people are speaking to me, i find I’ve been dissociating (don’t normally do this) and I’m nod my head routinely “yeah” so they think that i am listening, but truthfully my head is so full of strain & mush that not a lot is getting through. I can’t take a whole lot of information at once, and I can only take so much information about you, unfortunately. if people are just talking at me, and not with me, I am having a hard time.

even time itself, is a freakin’ blur - i had a close friend admit to me the other day, that they were sad i hadn’t visited their house (outside of school) during the three plus years I’d known them. & how on earth was I supposed to describe that for me, time is such a blur and I lost track of how much actually went by, and always intended to visit but I didn’t have the thoughts to make it happen? time is such a blur... and motivation. augh that motivation is a bitch.

it’s been drastically dropping people, communication-wise; people who I was previously making a set-goal to see on a regular basis (usual girl-dates), to new friendships I was fostering & then suddenly I disappear - though they are great people and great for me. I spoke to a close one of these people, on the phone (unheard of for me), and he so kindly asked what I needed of him. It all sort of rushed out, but I ended up explaining that I needed people not to be offended with me if I disappear for weeks sometimes, or just can’t answer that right now, or am able to talk on the phone one week but am not feeling up to it the next. if i have periods where I don’t want to go out. that legitimately, my needs and what I feel I can handle changes from minute to minute, sometimes. I had the strength & motivation to call my own sister & that took a lot, & when she didn’t pick up, I wasn’t ready to talk when she called back. I explained that I just sort of have to do things at whatever pace it comes at, but a lot of people will take that offensively or that I don’t love them -- and I totally get it. because who wants a friend who is so unreliable? who is there one moment, but gone the next? well unfortunately - that is just who I am at the moment. & he told me he’d never be upset for those tumultuous, unpredictable needs. and I said, “that’s what I need”. 

grief has been someone asking me if I’m going to look for jobs, since I just recently discovered I lost mine (that I intended to return to this month), and me thinking right back that I don’t even know what I’m going to do to get through the next day -- or going to do the next few hours. I’ve let go, currently, of quite a few things I was working really hard for: a cool leadership position at a young adult youth group I got, the youth group itself, my faith, itself... 

sometimes I feel like I’m going to melt through the floor. I feel my body & its weight and I think I’ll just sink; i’ll just sink. with every normal expectation people ask of me -- the “what did you do today’s?” and “what’re your summer plans?” to “what jobs do you want?”. they don’t realize that I crawl to bed at the sound, the overwhelm of those things. that they are asking almost impossible tasks of me, as I mourn the death of my second sibling, and their upcoming birthday (the 23rd, mind you). what I crave is something strange - but it’s actually a person to hold me, like, spoon me like a baby, because psychologically I feel like nothing can get me in that place and their body is essentially a “shield” from all evil -- or they’re “squeezing” all the “bad” out of me and replacing it with safety. because in my grieving head, I am 22 years-old, and that means I may have 60+ more years of traumatic, life-altering, heartbreaking, shattering events & sometimes I don’t know how to not let that just crumble & kill me inside. that I have all these years left - open, vulnerable, to be hit with suffering. 

grief, is unexplainable, though I like to try. I like to try because I want it to be understandable. because if people don’t understand grief they won’t understand how to support those grieving; because, inevitably, we’re all going to grieve something, it’s going to happen to all of us. 

I heard something -- to go back to time -- about grief the other day. it was by Dr. Zoe Donaldson, and she spoke in this profound TedTalk that I had to share with my mom, to my sister, to my instagram. “Hear this”, I thought. She said, so truthfully, “We have a tendency to talk about grief in terms of time. We say things like “time heals all wounds”, or “they are just moving through the stages of grief”, but I think this fails to give credit where credit is due. And that’s because time isn’t doing anything. Time is passing; and while it’s passing, your brain is working really hard to heal itself.”

“You brain has to take all of the moments of joy from that [lost] relationship --- everything that was good about it -- and it has to separate it just enough from the pain of the loss until you can get to the point of describing it as bittersweet. And this is crucial. You need to do this to move on, and reengage with a meaningful life.” 

“Despite the fact that we tend to conflate grief and depression, they’re actually different things. If you give someone who is grieving antidepressants, it won’t do anything to alleviate the core symptoms of grief. When we talk about those core symptoms of grief, we use terms that talk about the heart. We talk about a broken heart, a hole in our heart, words that give us a sense of yearning for that individual. And yearning, quite frankly, is not part of depression.” 

Yearning. Time passing. All of this struck such an intimate cord in my heart - because this was true. We are yearning for those people, that person. I yearn for the dimple on Caroline’s cheek and to watch Miyazaki with her while she doodles on the whiteboard perched on her lap. I yearn to hold Juge’s hands again, in the hospital room, and listen to that chipper, rising-high-pitched laugh of theirs to well-up the room.

Time passing. All I want, some days, is for this obnoxious life to be over with. For the time to pass -- because sometimes I actually want it to go away. Other days the desire for time to pass is for the deep, gut-wrenching emotions to pass - I utter “just get through another day”. In a sense we’re waiting for the “grief” to pass - though it won’t, but maybe it’s a hope.

ENDING????????

Do I include the job part??

here is a big grief thing I am experiencing, as a slight side-note, but I think significant to what’s going on in my life. significant to mention, because it was significant/heartbreaking enough, to me. I lost my job that was really important to me. I went through heartbreak while I was there. I persevered & pushed the management until I was a busser/server’s assistant, a job ordinarily readily offered to men - yet I had to jump through two interviews with two manager’s & demand pants. I went through the death of my second sibling there, & received an outpouring of love. I met some UW basketball celebrities & pushed myself til the point of almost crying in the back multiple times. I ate some really good desserts. And I made some very sweet, very humorous friends. and it became quickly like a family, a fish family, and I lost a little fish family of mine. I won’t forget the sunsets glistening in the water when I worked in the summer evenings, or the sports shows on as i swept the bar-floors riddled with fish n’ chips. it was a place I felt so comfortable in, after so much discomfort, & to have it ripped has been gruesome. a thing with grief is, once you have become accustomed & happy in a place, those places suddenly mean a whole lot more then usual. they mean that you don’t have to be thrown off with surprises; you know the ins & outs, they are yours now & you can breathe easy. well I lost one of those places. and I am upset and grief-ridden in another way. 

so friends - don’t forget, grieving doesn’t always occur after you’ve lost a physical being. it can also happen when you’ve lost that space where you perched outside your window in the apartment room with your morning coffee; your favorite first house after college, the tastes of a beloved restaurant, moving away from a family home, a pet’s caress, and more. don’t forget the “little” big things. and remember you can essentially grieve for it all - because inevitably change is a part of life, thus grieving those changes should be a part of life, too. 

I hope you give yourself space to remember the people/places/things you love, & talk about them constantly with your beloveds so they never go away from memory. I’d love to hear about them sometime. tell me about what you’ve lost - and recount the love/memories you gained before they were gone. 

END??

Draft

Grief has been like -- 

sometimes i am laying on my floor for actual hours, and I can’t do much more but watch the clouds pass. And i get angry at myself for doing that/feeling that, and I wonder if anyone else just lays on their floor & wastes time.

it’s been like -

putting headphones in at night because I need a different noise to lull me into a different state of mind. it’s been messages from people I was once making a firm habit to be talking to - or meet - & staring as their needs pile up & I quickly lose my will to continue connecting. because there come too many messages. and i get overwhelmed, and i just shut down.

even phone calls to my sister in Colorado - have narrowed & grown seldom. however for this, Maddie validates me by admitting “it’s a terrible month Sarah, and i kind of just had to cut off for a bit”. these words i understand like breath in my lungs.

it’s been people asking me if i’m looking for jobs and me even wondering what I can do to get through the next day - or the next few hours; what’s going to benefit me enough to bring me some sort of rest. it’s been letting go of several feats I conquered, interviews i had, and a church position I was in the past, proud to attain.

now it’s me letting go of the church, and sometimes meditating, or learning sanskrit. it’s been me /not/ doing things. not. doing. anything. it feels like any day now i’m going to melt through the floor.

sometimes I feel like a solid wall that nothing will get through. sometimes all, actually, constantly, all I crave is a human body behind me holding, tightly. to squeeze all the past & future attacks right out of me. deflect them. because i fear the other 60+ years of life i have still to live, because that just means 60+ possible more years of horror and hurt. and yes, i suppose that could be a form of ptsd. 60+ years of pain I may experience as a young 22 year old.

Fleetwood Mac speaks to me. my language has gotten coarser. and I’m starting to fear that the people who knew me back then, surrounded in school, won’t recognize me/will give me backlash for the changes that are happening inside.

[calliope-hesiod]

Ad Congregandum || Kleos feat Howl

Hades attempts to summon Cassandra and Persephone. Callie learns things that were hidden. Howl assists.

TW: blood, murder/suicide flashbacks and mentions, violence, death threats

For further reading on this subject, check out previous Callie/Hades threads, Callie’s Nightmare, and the Journey to Hell Saga w Helle

@trip-downtheriverstyx & @oh-heartlessman

HADES:

It was twilight when Hades arrived, alone, at the front step of Howl’s house. Tonight was gonna be cooler than it had been. He felt the air beginning to thin and cool on his quiet walk here, while his eyes watched the sun dip low ahead. It was a perfect night for a walk like this-- for camping, for a bonfire, for watching the sunset. Or for summoning ghosts. He had a trail of ‘em anyway on his heel. They knew his plan. Ever since he’d decided on it, they’d sidled up to him to try and schmooze their way into his good graces. There was this one loser, something-something Thompson, who kept promising Hades all kinds of things if Hades summoned him back from the dead and fit him with a nice new body. I own stock. I got a wife you can borrow. I know people-- they can help make that case disappear, he’d whisper. And then another ghost would blow in like a wind and try to make a better bargain. But only one ghost was gonna come back from the dead tonight and she was no ghost at all. Sephy was alive-- her body walked and breathed, wherever it was. He was just gonna make two halves a whole again. Him, Howl Pendragon, and Calliope Hesiod. Belle was still at home. She refused to come. But Hades didn’t care. Or so he said to himself and to the ghosts who jeered that he was gonna lose his girlfriend over this. And if she broke up with him-- so be it. Hades could swallow the lump in his throat at the thought, if it meant that Seph would be back and safe again. So here he was, a parade of the dead behind him, knocking on a sorcerer’s door. It swung open, revealing Howl with his piercing eyes, backlit by the amber lights of his home. Hades raised his eyebrows at the sorcerer, his new partner in crime now that Belle had given up the role. And he smiled. Just a little, just enough. Because Howl understood. Howl wanted Seph back too. “Callie here yet?” He asked as he stepped inside.

HOWL:

Callie Harper was indeed here, sitting at Howl’s dining table, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, as if she were trying to take up as little space as possible. Or, perhaps, more accurately, given the way she pursed her lips as her eyes darted over the dirty plates and the piles of paper, trying to touch as little as possible. Either way, Howl did not mind. He had his way of living and he was fond of it. He had offered Callie a cuppa and as he was making it, she chatted with Calcifer.

“You know what I am, don’t you?” Callie had said, leaning towards the fireplace.

“You know, I was gonna say the same to you.”

To this, Callie had giggled.

Howl made tea and Howl thought of another giggling girl who spoke to Calcifer by the fireplace. Though Seph had been pale and small and slipped into the shadows, eyes bright like gems, voice soft. Calliope, bless her heart, was tall and shining and had eyes dark and intense, voice loud and when she spoke, sometimes, Howl heard the voices of generations before him.

(Howl did his reading, he knew what she was).

“Here you go, darling,” said Howl, as the teacup glided over to Callie. She took it in her hands and nodded once, before turning back to Calcifer, who was showing her his favorite spread in this month’s National Geographic.

There was a knock at the door.

“She is,” said Howl, with a dip of his head, holding the door open to usher Hades in. “Please, have a seat. We’ll need to get started right as the sun goes down.”

Callie looked up at Hades, lifting her hand in a small wave.

“You have what I asked you to bring, I presume?” said Howl, holding his hand out so that his spell book nestled right into it. He flipped through the pages. “A personal item of hers that means a lot.

The memory, I can take from you. One with feeling.”

He had taken Persephone’s feelings for Hades on two separate occasions. The thought made his mouth draw into a thin line, but he said nothing.

“From Miss Harper--Hesiod--sorry, what is the preferred?”

“Uh. Just Callie. Please.”

“Right, from Miss Callie--”

“Callie.”

“Well, from Callie--well, that’s tricky. I do not know if it has a reagent name. For you see, you’re a rare little thing, Callie. You too, Hades, might I add.” He flicked his eyes over the both of them. They were young, the two of them, and yet in each, the stories of hundreds before them weighed on their shoulders. “We will take the--shades, I suppose, of this creature you’re trying to find. We will need both the elements of that spirit, as well as--” His voice faltered here, and he glanced at Calcifer. “As more physical elements for the body.”

He stroked his chin, facing the fire for a moment.

“I must offer you two the standard legality warning, though I am aware that both of you are familiar with deep, intricate magic, and are no strangers to the horrors that go along with it,.” He turned around, eyes glittering in the flames. “There is a chance this could go horribly wrong. I am quite confident that that chance is slim to none--but, it exists.”

The corner of his mouth twitched up some. Callie nodded solemnly.

“Excellent,” said Howl. “Now Hades, if you will---” He pulled out his wand. “Once more with feeling, yes?” He chuckled. “It won’t hurt a bit, just close your eyes and remember.”

HADES:

Yes, he’d brought the item in question-- a book of poetry by Anne Sexton. Seph had scribbled all in it, little lines herself off to the margins along with doodles of flowers and swirls and eyes. Seph liked to draw eyes, big disembodied eyes, eyes with slits for pupils or eyes with long eyelashes. In this book, she’d drawn an eye in the bottom of every page and if you flipped through the pages quick enough, the eye blinked at you. You got the feeling the book was looking back.

Hades had not opened this book or flipped through it though since Seph died. In fact, it had been on her bed, exactly where she’d left it-- one corner of a page turned over to mark where she’d stopped her reread last time. When he wandered into her room, it had been the easiest thing to grab. And he’d wanted to slip in and slip out as fast as possible and disturb as little as possible. He did not belong in there.

Hades offered the book to Howl now and then glanced down at the wand that he had pointed at him. He swallowed and gave a curt nod.

Just like with the book, Hades planned to slip into the memory only for as long as it took for Howl to take it. And then he’d slip out again before he began crying. He wasn’t going to cry here or today.

Today he was going to bring Seph back.

So Hades closed his eyes and fished back into the part of him he’d locked up, just like Seph’s room. He found Seph’s face there. His lip twitched as he remembered her smile and the particular blue of her eyes. He pictured her in her garden-- Belle’s garden-- on the day that Hades had come back from Yubaba’s Inn. He’d walked up the path and her head had turned at the sound of his shoes scuffing on the stone. She’d whispered his name before flying toward him, flinging her arms around his neck. She rubbed dirt against his neck and his hair and Hades had just squeezed her tight and twirled her around, their laughter and their tears sounded like silver bells in the air-- you couldn’t tell which was which.

He existed in that memory, felt it curl its fingers around his heart. His eyes began to sting. And that was when he snapped his eyes open and wrenched himself away from that moment. He buried it back into its graveyard.

“Did you get it?” he said brusquely. He didn’t want to do it again. “Can we move on now?”

HOWL:

The memory was soft and it was silver and Howl did not even need to raise his wand, for after it wrapped itself around Hades (as if in a hug, an embrace), it slipped over to Howl, circling around his hand. All he had to do was curl it into his palm and coax it into the little vial.

“It has been done,” said Howl, simply.

Little Calliope was watching them all, dark eyes wide. He used the term little loosely, for she was a tall girl, tall and stately and there was nothing little about her stance or her magic. It was her age he referred to mostly. Just freshly nineteen, she had an idealistic view of the world to rival that of Miss LaBouff, which Melaenis had procured at the Masquerade.

Howl turned to her after he had corked his vial.

“Should I close my eyes and think or--”

“Essentially, yes,” said Howl, “but you are going to have to concentrate very hard. Just of the spirit--the girl, Cassandra, whatever her name was. Only what you remember of your visions and dreams. You have to make sure not to make up traits or eliminate anything.”

Callie’s face was serious and she nodded.

“Alright. Begin.”

Callie closed her eyes and instantly, Howl started to see the bits and pieces come together in front of him.

It was a pale figure, spectral-like, the memory of a memory. A tall woman with long pale hair and eerie blue eyes--who looked a bit like Hades, if Hades was a woman. The image in front of him was delicate, as if it were made of dust, as if it could be blown away with a particularly strong exhale.

Howl felt a chill down his spine as he looked at those pale blue eyes, but then pushed it away, grabbing his wand to coral the reagent towards the hearth. It offered no resistance, was simply coaxed forward, like dead leaves in the wind.

Calcifer shifted over and with his wand, Howl drew a summoning rune around the hearth, so that the figure was in the centre. He sprinkled the contents of Hades’s memory around the spectre, and then lifted his hand so that a bowl of his pre-mixed Summoning Special (™)--complete with searching glances, desperate feelings, a nice collection of lost things waiting to be found, among other reagents--glided over. He added it generously.

“Now the book, Mr. Acheron,” he said, holding his hand out. “It won’t come to harm; I must simply procure her essence.”

HADES:

With the memory taking from him (though Hades still had the original tucked in the back of his heart, which no one could steal from him), he felt stripped bare, part of him exposed, fragile, raw. It reminded him of Yubaba. All this, dealing with sorcery, brought up those days and nights that Hades tried to keep buried for the sake of his own-- focus. But now they woke up and Hades felt his gut curdle with distrust at the sorcerer for no other reason than he was a sorcerer. And he didn’t want to give Howl the book. He wanted to hold on tighter. Find a corner, draw his legs up-- flip through the pages and watch Sephy’s eyes blink at him. These things were cushy emotions that had no place here, and Hades knew that, so he did his best to just shove them aside. He knew that Howl wanted to see Seph too. This was about her, not him. He looked at Callie though before he gave her the book. He didn’t know why. Instinct pulled his eyes to her, that same magnetic feeling in his gut. And when he looked at her, that feeling grew. Not deja vu, but nostalgia. She met his eyes and somehow that helped relax his shoulders and get rid of all those round, soft emotions. He looked back at Howl and extended the book to him. When it left his fingers, he folded his arms to his chest, feeling all at once emptier. But he kept his eyes on it: the book.  He watched the essence get pulled into the air. His own heart raced. How could Seph be encapsulated in something so flimsy, like mist or smoke? How could she fit into a bottle? How could she get carried around in a pocket, like a perfume? How would it be enough to find Persephone’s body and draw her here? There had to be more of her, he thought to himself. There has to be more to all of us. Hades kept these questions to himself. His lips were pressed in a thin light and when the procurement was done, he swallowed and looked at the flickering hearth. When he talked to Howl about this, they’d gone over the steps. First, the ingredients, then they’d draw a cage for Cassandra’s body, a portal rune or-- or something. And because she was still a dead thing, though she’d stolen a live body, they’d do it in salt and candlelight.   Hades would light the candles. Howl’s apprentice had scurried forth while Howl procured Seph’s essence. She was on her knees now, fixing her lines of salt so they were neat and smooth. She pushed a few grains into place with the tip of her silver wand, then looked up at Howl. “Is this okay?” she said. When Howl said yes, Hades knew it was his turn. Again. Once again he looked at Callie. He could already feel the blister-burns on his fingertips, which would erupt as soon as he sparked that long-sleeping flame he no longer trusted. And what if he couldn’t push through the pain long enough, what if he couldn’t light these candles-- he looked at her and blinked and saw that same, dark-skinned woman from their dreams and his instinct was to reach out for her, to hold her hand. That wasn’t Hades. Hades wanted Belle here. Instead he swallowed again. “Can you-- can you help me?” he managed to bite the words out, though he looked down at the salt-rune and ticked his jaw after. His chest burned, though out of fear or shame or something else, Hades couldn’t place.

CALLIE:

It was like watching a story book, except right before she turned the page, Callie knew what was going to happen. She saw the rune before Howl drew it, saw Kiki scurrying down the stairs before she did.

So when Hades turned to her, she knew what he was going to say before he did.

“Of course,” she said.

Howl paid them no attention and was instructing Kiki, pointing out the intricacies in the rune and how just a stray line would mean something completely different. Callie was curious, almost wanted to listen in, but she turned back to Hades.

And she knew what to do.

She knew what to do not just in that usual way of her, but because she felt like she had done it before, had stood with a pale figure whose fire was not burning as bright as usual, whose fire left burns, left scars. She saw a forest, her outstretched hand which was darker than her own skin, but still had the same long fingers.

She saw a pale hand and her fingers linked through it.

“Give me your hand,” she said, and she knew it would hurt her instead of him, because it had hurt her once before, but then it had been the kind of hurt that she wanted, that she craved that burn. “It won’t hurt you.”

When his fingers would have blistered, hers did instead, the hand that was tucked behind her back, hiding. Her face was stoic, though she could feel her heart beating a little faster with each flicker of the candles.

Howl, done with instructing his apprentice, turned back to them.

“Ah, excellent, I see you’re already holding hands--that’s the next step, come, link around the fireplace.” He held his hand out to Callie and she took it and faced forward.

The flames of the candles grew strong, higher, flickering in a wind that wasn’t there, but never going out. Calcifer himself, the fire demon (Callie knew that), started to burn brighter, taller, bending as if a storm were going to knock him over, but never quite did.

Only the ghostly apparition remained still

There was a light in the middle of the rune--it had been small at first, so that Callie thought it just might be a trick of light, but it grew and grew, like a tear in the world in front of her, grew so that it encompassed the pale figure of the woman, the entire rune. The light was white and it was blinding and Callie started to hear that wind that was blowing the candles, blowing Calcifer, and Calcifer grew to the height of the ceiling, his flames hot, but just hot enough not to be burning and the wind was loud and howling, her hair blowing now and--

Then it was quiet.

It was still.

And in the middle of the hearth was a pale girl with dark hair and Howl dropped Callie’s hand at once.

HADES:

Callie’s hand slipped into his and he was in the forest again too. His body was slighter, though still tall and slim. He remembered all this and he remembered his own fire too-- how warm it could be, not a thing of destruction, but a bringer of light. Once, he’d never doubted it. Calliope had shown him from the beginning that this fire was a beautiful thing.

He raised his other hand and the flames flickered to life on his finger tips, like bluebird feathers. And it was soft in his hands. There was no searing pain. He lit the candles one by one and then let the fire fade back into his veins as quickly as they appeared.

He squeezed Callie’s hand and looked at her. “You okay?” he asked her without even thinking about it, because he had asked her that question time and time again and she always-- smiled at him and nodded, just like she did now.

He was about to slip his hand away (felt a strange flash of guilt-- thinking of Belle again, feeling guilty that for a second he’d forgotten) but Howl turned to them both and told him not to. Hades swallowed the guilt back. He kept hold of Belle though and once again wished that she was here. More than ever, right now. He wanted to go apologize. Maybe he still had time if he called her, if he asked her, if he said please…

No, there was no time.

He linked hands with Kiki, who linked hands with Howl, who linked the circle back to Callie. The fire grew and Hades felt it start burning in his own chest-- so bright and sudden and fierce that he opened his lips like he was going to shout, feeling like the fire might escape from inside him. He grasped Callie’s hand tighter, the fire reflected in his blue eyes--

Ladybird, Ladybird, he thought to himself. He heard it in his mother’s voice. He heard it in Persephone’s.

Then the light cleared and she was there.

Hades also dropped their hands, feeling like he’d just run straight into a wall. He choked back a sound at the sight of her. He took a step toward the rune, forgetting about everything but his sister--

Persephone’s body stepped forward faster and spat right in his face.

“You got a sorcerer to summon me?” she hissed. Those light eyes of her were harder than they’d ever been. She didn’t look like Seph at all anymore, her face twisted, her dark hair still ragged and choppy. She wore short black shorts, hugging her waistline. Black boots. Seph would not wear those shorts, those boots.

Hades turned his face away, wiping his thumb over the glob of spit on his cheek. When he looked back at her, he’d turned his expression to stone too.

“That’s right, bitch,” he hissed at her. “You’re going to tell us everything we want to hear. And then I’m going to tear you out of Persephone’s body you stole.”

“And let it rot?” Cassandra sneered. She looked at Howl. “Or are you gonna let him have it to play with? I know how fond you were of it, Howl Pendragon. A shame you never did more than k--” Her words stopped.

She was looking at Callie.

Hades’ brow creased. Cassie’s face-- Sephy’s face--crumpled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. For a moment it was like Seph was back, all her softness and her love. “You found her. How did you find her?” she whispered. She tried to step closer but the air thickened like glass to keep her in the circle. “L-let me out. Calliope, it’s me.”

CALLIE:

Everything happened very quickly.

The girl in the circle looked like Hades’ dead sister. Callie knew how she looked like, because Callie had seen her in dreams. Hades dropped her hand, as did Howl, and Hades and the girl in the hearth--Cassandra--started to argue and before Callie could even process the words, Cassandra flicked her eyes (or were they Persephone’s eyes?) to her and Callie felt her knees buckle--

There was a forest and it was dark and there were hands reaching out to her, actual hands and arms, not the branches of trees, but rotting human flesh, bones that were decaying--

And she was running, running, running faster than she’d ever had in her life, her heart pounding in her throat, choking her, she couldn’t breathe because she just had to get there, before--

Before who? Before who?

There was a knife, already stained in blood. She took it in her hand, fingers curling around it, and she plunged it into her own heart.

Callie almost fell to the ground, but Howl swooped in and caught her, trying to steady her to her feet.

She thought about kissing a pale girl with even paler hair--thought about kissing Hades, but not Hades, not Hades but Cassandra.

She thought about running away. Being so sure that they wouldn’t be found, so sure--even though, that was stupid because of course they would be found, because the person looking for them was--

There was a block, a block, the page wouldn’t turn, she could not go further back.

“I’m not your Calliope,” she said and her voice was shaking, her hands trembling. “She--she killed herself. Because--someone killed you.”

HADES:

Callie collapsed out of nowhere. She sucked in a breath like someone was choking her, the noise grating the room, and then her knees buckled. Howl darted for her, barely catching her in time. Cassandra cried softly on the inside of the trap, her hand pressed to the invisible wall keeping her in. She cried, tears dribbling, and smiled. There was one beat between Callie’s gasped words where everything was still except for Cal’s own flickering flame.Then: “What did you do?” Hades said sharply. He glared at Cassie. Whatever just happened to Callie, it was Cassandra’s fault. She’d done something to her, even from within that bubble, where Persephone’s powers of empathy could not penetrate. “Nothing,” she said anyway. She giggled, wiping the back of her index finger with her cheek. “It wasn’t me. It was Calliope, my Calliope.” “She’s not yours--” “She is,” said Cassie, her voice trembling. “She’s the reason I came back. I came back for you, Calliope,” pled the ghost to Callie’s shaking body. Her eyes grew wide as milk saucers. “Look what I did for us. I told you I’d never leave you, I’d never l-let them separate us--” “Them?” Hades sneered again. This was all-- nonsense. Though there were parts of his brain that felt itchy, like he was experiencing deja vu the more that Cassandra talked. He thought of the other woman he kept seeing in flashes: dark skin, dark eyes. Somehow he knew the shape of her body and the lilt of her laugh. He remembered running through a forest with her. He remembered kissing her. He remembered crying in her arms. “Yes-- them,” Cassie spat out the word. “You want to know the answers to your questions, Hades? Just ask Urania Hesiod, not me.” Seph’s face once again twisted, her mouth pulled in a snarl. “She was the one who murdered me and ripped me from the earth, who put me down in that wretched hole where I didn’t belong-- find her, ask her, and then when you do--” the smile was back “-- burn her alive.”

CALLIE:

“No,” said Callie, her voice rising, on the edge of defensive. She sank onto the workbench right behind her, grasping the edge of it, trying to ground herself in the current scene, the current moment in time, lest she get swept away in this story that Cassie was giving her.

There was a forest and it was dark and there was blood…

There was a girl and she was pale and her kiss was like fire--hot and warm and light--

“Urania is a good person,” said Callie, gripping the bench as tight as she could, the wood scraping against her palms. Howl stood next to her, a hand on her shoulder, but his eyes were on the figure in the fireplace.

There was the forest, her knees on the ground, scraped by the leaves and twigs and dirt, her chest tight from running, from running to, from running from. It was dark and there were hands outstretched and there--

There was the girl’s body, tainted with dark red blood. Callie’s arms wrapped around it, her arms darker than they were in the present, but her arms, nonetheless. She cried out, she knew who did this, she knew it was--

“It can’t be, it can’t be,” repeated Callie.

All she had to do was turn her head.

There was Urania, younger, but it was Urania, standing a distance aways, looking at Callie, at Cassandra, a bloody knife in her hand.

You did this to me, she remembered saying--remembered Calliope saying.

She knew how the rest of it went. She lunged forward. She grabbed the knife. She plunged it in her own chest--to be with Cassandra, forever.

“She killed herself,” said Callie and now her voice was steadier. The room was clearly in front of her. There was a fireplace and a bench, a demon crackling, an apprentice cowering, reagents in jars on shelves, papers everywhere. She was here and not in a forest and she was herself and not a memory. She looked at Cassandra, then flicked her eyes to Hades. “The old Calliope. I’m not her--you’d have to find her back where you came from,” she said.

Urania, Urania, Urania…

“There must be some misunderstanding,” she said, standing up. “Urania would not kill someone unless there was a reason.”

HADES:

Urania Hesiod.

When Hades heard the name, at first he felt nothing. Then Callie rose her voice and the shadows rose around Hades too-- the room dropping out. The vision engulfed him. Hades saw her then, the missing piece of the puzzle all this time, how she had emerged from the trees and gripped a knife meant for him. No, her. Who Hades had once been.

Callie argued, Callie denied, Callie sounded like she wanted to cry but it was Hades who felt a new burning in his chest and his stomach. His fire seared, but this, this cut. His eyes got a faraway look in them-- unfocused, pupils fully dilated-- and then he looked down at his own hand and saw the blood from years and years ago.

Urania Hesiod had stabbed him once. Urania had wanted him to die. Because--

“A reason?” Cassandra hissed now, practically shrieked it the way that Seph’s voice rose. It shattered Hades’ own trance, bringing his eyes to her. He couldn’t remember the last time his sister had sounded like that.

“You want a reason? How about I loved you? I love you with all-- all my heart. All we wanted to do was be together,” said Cassandra. And now she was crying, the tears rolling down her cheeks. She stepped to the edge of the circle again, pressing her hand against the invisible wall. She did not look away from Callie.

“The Order wouldn’t let us. Th-those silly rules,” she continued. “But I--I loved you anyway, I-- I was go-going to take you a-away-- oh, Calliope, I know you love me too. We’re destined. P-please.”

All the tears, the stuttering-- part of Hades wanted to break the circle and hold her. It wasn’t Seph though, he knew that. And so he got angry. He shoved down those weak parts of him and curled his lip. “You’re delusional. Aren’t you listening, she died. She’s not Callie.”

“But I came back for her--”

“You wasted your time!” snarled Hades. The fire on the candles jumped in the air. “You killed my sister for nothing!”

Cassie didn’t say anything to that. Instead, she looked at him with those big blue eyes, her lip trembling, her head shaking. And then she slowly sank to her knees and wept.

CALLIE:

Cassandra was weeping in front of them. Callie felt like it was her fault, that she was the one who had messed up and caused all of this bad stuff to happen. She should’ve followed the rules. She should’ve listened to Urania and then she would still be alive and Cassandra would still be alive and--

If Cassandra and the old Calliope were still alive, Hades and Callie wouldn’t be here right now. Maybe they would--well, Callie would, she didn’t know how the passing of Hades’s powers went. They’d all be alive, all four of them--and Hades’s sister. Maybe they wouldn’t know each other. Maybe Callie would be in Greece, training under the old Calliope. Maybe Hades would still be in Manchester and Persephone still alive, and Cassandra off, somewhere, wherever she was from--Ireland, a voice whispered.

They just had to follow the rules and--

She thought of Kiara and her heart started pounding so hard that she thought she might throw up.

“Hades.” And it was Howl’s voice and Callie watched as he walked in front of the hearth to face Hades. “The next step is yours,” he said. “Though I do have reagents to help, if you would like.” He flicked his eyes towards Callie, who straightened her back and sat up a little more. “And, of course, your presence will help.”

“Yeah. Yes. Okay. Hang on.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, then stood up, walking over towards Hades, looking him straight in the eye. “Okay. Ready?”

HADES:

Cassandra looked up again, her crying cutting off with a strangled choking noise coming from her throat. Her red eyes stared into Hades. “Y-you aren’t going to-- it won’t work.” The words burst from her small frame, rough and wet. To Hades-- they sounded, almost, like a plea. Cassandra could try to look tough but she forgot that it was Persephone’s face she wore. Sephy could never hide what she felt; she never tried. And Hades could read even her most thoughtful, quiet expressions and know exactly what was beating in her tender heart. And so Cassie’s desperation, it made him feel stronger, for once. He would be triumphant. He could bring her back. “You can’t,” tried Cassie anyway. She was still on her knees. “She gave up this body, Hades, there are rules.” “I make the bloody rules,” sneered Hades at her. A weak laugh tumbled from Cassie’s mouth. “No, you don’t. None of us do.” “I don’t care--” he snatched Seph’s book back and tossed it in the circle. Cassie jumped back from it like it was already on fire. The book opened, flipping to one of Seph’s favourite poems. “Stop.” Cassie’s voice trembled. The flames stretched higher in the candles. The lights behind in the kitchen flickered. “Stop,” she tried again. Hades was not listening to her. He had death at his fingertips and he was inviting it into the room. Ghosts crawled forth. Each and every shadow grew long, then longer, as a chill swept through the room, turning everything to ice. Only Hades could hear the murmurs, the whispers, the soft, ghoulish laughter. Well, him and Cassie, and he got a sick pleasure watching the colour drain from her face as they circled her like sharks. “I’m in her body, she can’t come back!” Cassie tried again. She stepped to the edge of her cage, as close as she could get. “You don’t know what you’re doing! If you give me your powers though, if you-- if I can be the ambassador, I’ll show you how to save her--” “I’m never listening to you again,” said Hades and he reached out his hand to Callie. “Callie.” “No! Don’t-- don’t, she’s mine!” Hades opened up his other palm and a flame burst to life there. The lights flickered faster, on and off, on and off until they shut off completely and then it was just the blue fire in the dark, and Hades’ voice: “I summon Persephone Acheron from the Underworld.” The flames jumped. “I summon Persephone Acheron from the Underworld.” The pages were flipping, a wind blasting through the room, coming from nowhere. “I summon Persephone Acheron from the Underworld!” Then the fire snuffed out and all was quiet and dark. Only Cassandra’s breath, ragged and short, filled the space. Another second spilled into two-- and then Cassie began to chuckle. “Goodness,” she spoke. “For a moment there, I was scared it was going to work.” The lights flicked back on and it was like nothing had happened at all. The circle remained unbroken, but the book was shut and there Cassie stood, with her bullshit smirk and the tears dried on her pale cheeks. The candles were burned out, just a tail of smoke rising from their charred wicks. Hades reacted without thinking. He lunged at her, kicking the salt loose and destroying the circle. His hand curled around Cassie’s throat and he pushed her back against a wall. “What did you do?” he sneered. “Why didn’t it work, she should be able to possess you--” Cassie gasped, clawing at Hades’ hand, wheezing-- it was the sound of a choked laugh. “Told--you--so!”

CALLIE:

She knew it was not going to work the second he tried it.

It flashed in front of her eyes, a few moments ahead, just as she touched his hand. She saw everything before it happened. Cassandra’s choked laughter, Hades’ hand wrapped around her neck (Callie could feel the place where his fingers had tightened around her own neck and for a moment too, she felt like she could not breathe), the salt flying everywhere--and then moments later it happened, Cassandra against a wall, the flames in the hearth arching high, Howl sweeping up the salt back into a circle just by glancing at it and walking towards Hades.

Howl had a hand outstretched. Howl was yelling. Callie could not hear him, but she knew what he was saying.

You cannot let her loose, we have to keep her restrained…

All Callie could hear was a low chuckle in a dark forest from a voice that used to read out loud to her from The Illiad and The Odyssey, who instructed her in dance and harp. It was warped and it was low and it sent chills down her spine, but there was no doubt about to whom it belonged.

Urania Hesiod.

“Callie,” said Howl, and she blinked and he was standing right next to her, head ducked down a bit to meet her eyes. “Are you alright?”

She blinked, once, twice. Howl stared back at her, his eyes like blue glass.

“I need to find Urania,” she said. “I need to talk to her--I…”

What did she need to do? She didn’t know. What did they need to do? She closed her eyes and tried to focus, but all she saw was blood and dangling limbs and the silver of a dagger and all she heard was a low, low chuckle through the rustling of forest leaves.

HOWL:

Around Calliope, reagents of fear and betrayal and panic started to swarm. Howl stood up, then reached to put a hand on her shoulder.

“Come,” he said, softly. “Kiki and you and I will go to Hatter’s and get some hot chocolate, while Mr. Acheron here finishes what he needs to. He no longer requires you.”

Howl did not know whether this was true or not, but he stared Hades down, before glancing at the burns on Callie’s hands.

“It’s his own path now, darling,” he said, turning back to Callie. “Ours leads to hot cocoa and scones.”

[bluegreenamber]

The Mirror (3/4)

((AN: Heyyy here's the next chapter. Now if only I could find my motivation again... So yeah, sorry for the wait. It's been crazy busy lately, and updating just completely slipped my mind. Anyways! Hope the content will somewhat make up for it. Enjoy!)) I first met her at the library. It had taken an embarrassingly long time to realize that maybe there was a record of what had happened to the four boys that had previously lived in our house that might explain why some of them were still around… in a way. And that I might just find the record in the library and research those things. When I saw her among the shelves, I felt my whole body react. My face flushed with blood, my limbs froze in place, my eyes widened, and my breath halted in my throat. She was beautiful, perfection in its simplest form. I barely had time to compose myself before she looked straight at me, smiled brightly, and strode over. She introduced herself as Aisling and had to write it down for the spelling because it sounded like “ash-ling.” I smiled as I watched her write it, trying to keep my face from completely revealing every thought and feeling that crossed my mind. I hope it worked; otherwise, she would practically see me thinking, “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” She asked me why I was here today, and I told her. Apparently, she was volunteering here and would be happy to assist me find my records. Just my luck. As we weaved through aisles of bookshelves, she decided to strike up conversation and started talking about the origins of her name. It was Irish, meant “dream” or “vision,” and was actually a genre of poetry. She personally was named after a character in a movie I had never heard of. She promised to show me one day, and I decided our friendship was off to a good start. No thanks to me or my awkward stammering I'm sure. She knew the library really well, so we found the record in… well, record time. We sat at one of the wooden tables with the files, and I started reading over them intently while she helped where she could. There was some… rather interesting stuff. Our house had last belonged to four boys: Edd, Tom, Matt, and Tord. They had formed their bond from a mutual love of art, comedy, and adventures. They went on many such adventures and often documented them through doodles and comics, many examples of which were within the records. But it was those adventures that led to their untimely demise. All four of them died young on the same day. Their bodies were found at home together, and almost all of the autopsy reports were unreadably marked over. So that was a dead end. Most of what I found was pretty useless. Since their deaths had been rather recent, the file was fairly empty. The only other thing that I saw that could possibly have been of any value was the obituaries cut out of a newspaper. They listed the usual things: age, occupation, date and location of death, birth date, accomplishments, family, etc. But what really caught my attention was the things that weren't mentioned. Many vital parts such as cause of death and what happened with the funeral just weren't there. That basically matched up the information marked out from the autopsy reports. I found that very intriguing. When I deemed the files thoroughly searched, Aisling and I returned everything to their proper places. There was yet another awkward moment as neither of us seemed to know what to say or do next. Finally, something came to mind. “So when do you get off?” I asked. Her face lit up in happy surprise. “At three. Which is in…” She checked her phone. “About half an hour.” I grinned. “Do you maybe wanna grab a bite to eat then?” She returned the smile. “Thought you'd never ask.” If I wasn't blushing before, I definitely was now. “Great! I'll just be hanging around in here. Meet me here?” She nodded. We stood there, looking into each other's eyes, for a beat too long, then broke apart. The grin still danced across my face and continued to do so for the next half hour as I browsed the shelves. I couldn't stop checking my phone every ten seconds. Finally, it was three. I had been loitering in our meeting spot for a good five minutes already. And just on time, she appeared, strolling from around a shelf. Another smile dimpled her cheeks as she spotted me. “So where are we going?” she asked as we walked out of the library together. I had been planning my response for a while now. “It's a surprise,” I replied vaguely. Her grin widened. “Excellent.” I was practically floating when I got home that night. Aisling and I had had a wonderful time at this cute little cafe I had taken her to, most of the evening consisting of us talking about everything and bursting into laughter. I had walked her to her house nearby and then nearly skipped the rest of the way home. I'm sure my family would have caught on to my mood immediately and been all over me about it… had they not been occupied by a news story on the TV. There had been a murder of one of the local students. Ben Jameson. He had been a year younger than me, and I could barely remember seeing him briefly in the hallway of my school. He had been on the tall side with dirty blond hair and blue-green eye; everyone considered him very attractive. He had been on the school Junior Varsity basketball team and in the BETA club. The epitome of one of the well-rounded, scholarship-to-a-local-college-just-waiting-to-happen popular kids. Not my crowd. And apparently, he had been stabbed with sharp pieces of glass. Part of the broken mirror in his room to be exact. There had been obvious signs of a struggle but no fingerprints or any other traces left by the murderer. Just a bunch of smashed mirrors. That rung a bell in my head, and I retreated to my room. I searched through the pictures on my phone, and sure enough, there were confirmations to my suspicions. One of the titles that had been written on my brother’s wall that one night was “The Mirror.” So this was almost certainly connected to the four boys. Matt and Tord were left. But I still didn't have enough information on them to figure out who it was or what was happening. Or, more importantly, what they wanted. Maybe it was time to do some more research… The next few days consisted much of the same thing. I went down to the library to research and usually ended up going out with Aisling afterwards. When I got home, there was a new murder story on the news. It was strange. The victims weren't really related or similar. It varied immensely, from old to young, from rich to poor, from ugly to stunningly attractive, from living in one area to living in a place across the county. Any gender, any age, any place, any time, any one. The words “serial killer” were being thrown around a lot lately. This same thing went on for days. After six of them, I thought it was going to continue. But the killer had the misfortune to pick our house as their next target. I was making myself a midnight snack in the kitchen, the microwave the only sound in the sleeping house. Until I heard a hissing next to me. I turned and nearly jumped two feet in the air. Towering over me was what could only be described as some kind of vampiric monster. The guy was easily seven feet tall with flaming red hair under an army cap. He wore black robes over his whitewashed skin. His eyes glowed red as his hair, and one of his arms consisted only of bones as bleached white as his skin. He snarled at me, baring his glistening fangs. I backed up against the counter, snack already forgotten. “Who are you?” I could barely hide the tremor in my voice. “Matt,” he hissed. Okay, that was good. It was willing to talk to me. Maybe I could work something out. “Alright, Matt. What do you want?” I was sure my skin was almost as blanched as his. “To kill you.” Okay, that was not so good. I trembled slightly. “Why?” He leaned in closer, and I had nowhere to retreat. “You're not my type,” he sneered. I doubted humor or reason would work, but it was worth a shot. “How do you know that? We’ve barely even met.” From his expression, I was right in my guess that my words would have no effect. “I can take just one look at you and tell.” I was definitely not comfortable with the proximity. “That's kind of shallow, isn't it?” I tried to keep a joking tone, but I think my fear overrode it. He hissed in disagreement with my words. I was certain he was going to attack when my saving grace came in the form of the microwave going off. He turned slightly, and that temporary distraction was all it took. I sprinted down the hallway and into my room, slamming and locking the door behind me. I could hear him moving, snarling and even breaking mirrors out there. I held my breath in anticipation as I listened for the end, my heart racing in terror. I thought for sure that I'd hear a bang or a rip as Matt attacked my door and removed my last barrier any second now, but it never came. Instead, the door beside mine opened, and my older brother sleepily wandered out. I could hear his half-awake voice through the thin wood. “What is that noise? What's going on?” My breath caught in my throat as I heard another hiss. My brother gasped, and I made the split-second decision to grab the nearest weapon and open my door. I immediately spotted Matt hovering over my terrified brother, who was surrounded by mirror shards on the floor. “Get away from him!” I shouted and threw the shoe in my hand. It bounced off Matt, and the creature didn't even seem to notice. His gaze was fixed on my cowering brother, and it had stopped hissing. Something felt off. I stood there, ready to jump into action but waiting. Matt leaned down over him, but it didn't seem as threatening somehow. I could barely hear the words that came out from between Matt’s fangs from my spot down the hallway. “You're perfect,” he said, almost longingly. Then, to our surprise, he closed the distance between the two of them and planted a soft, short kiss on my brother’s lips. We were stunned into silence. Neither of us moved as he retreated towards my brother’s room. Almost in a trance, we finally wandered over to the open door and watched as Matt walked towards the mirror in the room. He gave us one last toothy grin and stepped into the mirror, disappearing into it as if he had never been here in the first place. I had a feeling he wouldn't be coming back. My brother and I didn't say anything to each other as I went back to my room. In fact, we never talked about the incident. It was the second time he had saved my life from a monster, and we pretended it never happened. As usual, the picture of the four boys greeted me from my bedside table. I stared at it for a good while, still dazed, until I finally fell asleep. Matt was grinning up at me, his smile bright and charming and a mirror gripped in the hand that was sassily resting on his hip.

[dralentines-day]

Gift #26, @thedrarryaddiction

It’s gonna take more than a 12-step program to cure THIS Drarry addiction after taking a look at this very special gift. Enjoy, @thedrarryaddiction !

Our gifter says:

“Hey babe. Hope your Valentine's is going well. Remember that all of the chocolate will be on sale tomorrow and please take full advantage of that. Also, please enjoy this fic I wrote for you, I hope you find it very soothing xxxxxxx”

Home County - Harry is an architect and the reluctant part-owner of his own firm. Malfoy works at The Ministry but doesn’t actually have a proper job title even though what he does sounds like it’s pretty important. It would be hard not to become friends, probably, when they have to deal with the truly terrible weather, and Harry’s irrational hatred of his assistant, and building thirty whole houses from the ground up in a wet field outside of London. 10k.

Tags: no smut.  

JANUARY

Harry had put squishy chairs in his office for a bloody reason. At the time it had only been because he’d thought they’d looked nice, and because they had gone with the green 'good-luck-in-your-new-office' rug Luna had woven him to go over the dark floorboards. Now, though, he liked the way that people would sit down and just...  sink into them, deeply and inescapably. Then get this look on their face, as though they knew how embarrassing it was going to be when they had to try and climb their way out of the soft yellow cushions at the end of the meeting. Harry loved that look. He dreamt about that look. And Harry didn’t think he was a particularly vindictive person, but if Cho insisted that he had to have a bloody office then he was damn well going to make it as inconvenient as possible for everyone involved.

Back when he’d first started working, (before he’d gotten cocky and decided starting his own firm would be in any way a not-stressful and good idea) he’d been shoved in with a load of other trainee architects. They’d had this big warehouse space with about thirty desks, and it had been loud and messy and everyone had got on each other’s nerves half the time, but he missed it fiercely, when he went into his own office and there was nobody in there to talk to or share their biscuits with him. Granted, his current office was a nice room. Spacious and light, with high vaulted ceilings and a pale wood drafting table set into a track so that he could follow the sun as it moved across the floor, spilling in through the half-moon windows. It was just-- missing some people, that was all.

So when Harry kicked the door open one day, with a heavy stack of paper balanced in his arms, and saw Malfoy sitting there, all rigid and proper, he wanted to punch a wall or something. Malfoy was… sitting in the chair wrong, somehow, the bastard. Harry didn’t know how he’d managed it, exactly, possibly some sort of firming charm, but he’d perched himself right on the very edge, back straight and ankles crossed primly. He looked the way Harry had always tried to look in school when a professor turned around from the board and he wanted it to seem like he’d been paying attention. Malfoy’s hands were folded carefully in his lap and he was watching Harry with a blank gaze, as if he was already incredibly bored by the proceedings. Harry let himself feel disappointed for a second. He had genuinely been looking forward to watching Malfoy wrangle himself out of the chair’s clutches. He’d even imagined it a bit, the way Malfoy would get all embarrassed and flustered, it was one of the reasons he’d even agreed to this meeting in the first place.

“Do you want tea?” Harry asked, dropping the paper on his desk with a loud bang. A couple of sheets flitted slowly onto the floor and he ignored them. Malfoy watched for a moment with a bewildered look on his face, then, visibly collecting himself, he stood up and attempted to shake Harry’s hand. Harry looked at one of his horrible, heavy, silver rings and deliberated. He didn’t really shake people’s hands anymore, which everyone always told him was a weird thing not to do. But he’d sort of given it up after all the stuff that happened in the aftermath of the war, after a thousand people a day wanted to press their palms against his. He figured he may as well indulge Malfoy this small luxury, though. Malfoy seemed like the type of person who would be very comforted by formalities. Malfoy looked like the type of person who liked forms. And questionnaires.

“No, thank you,” Malfoy told him, in a cool voice. “I was given a water by your assistant.” Harry wrinkled his nose. The assistant. Hired by Cho, also called Harry, number one cause of strife in Harry’s daily life. He tried not to think about the other Harry if he could at all help it.

“Great,” he said, and took a couple of books off his own chair so that he could sit down. He balanced them precariously on a small patch of available desk surface, right on the corner. Malfoy watched this process closely but chose not to comment.

“I was under the impression I’d be meeting with both you and your partner,” Malfoy said, sounding so formal. Like he’d never even met Harry before.

“Cho’s on site today,” Harry told him apologetically. He was actually sorry about that, because if Cho were here then she could do all the talking and Harry would be able to do what he normally did; sit mostly in silence and nod at all the right moments. Possibly doodle a bit. “So it’s just me, I’m afraid.”

“Alright,” Malfoy said, and pursed his lips. Harry got the feeling that Malfoy didn’t think it was alright, actually, but was holding his anger back for the sake of an easy life. Harry took a moment to appreciate that, because he really wasn’t in the mood for an argument, least of all with Malfoy. “I’m here on behalf of the Ministry,” Malfoy said, apparently done with niceties, as he reached down into a smart briefcase propped up against the leg of the chair.

And before Harry could even fucking think he was saying “I didn’t think they let--”

He cut off abruptly and put a hand over his mouth, almost in slow motion, and it probably would have looked comical. If it had been in literally any other situation. Harry, just for second, considered punching himself in the face to save Malfoy the trouble, but Malfoy only raised a pale eyebrow slowly. It was a bit fascinating, actually. Harry hadn’t met many people who could raise only a single eyebrow at one time. He wondered if rich people were just… taught that sort of stuff from birth. Malfoy didn’t even look flustered.

“What an incredibly rude thing to start to say,” he said.

“Fuck,” Harry replied, “I’m so sorry. I have no fucking filter sometimes.”

Malfoy lifted the corner of his mouth in a dim approximation of a smile. “I get the feeling you don’t do too many meetings.”

“Fuck,” Harry agreed, resting his forehead for a moment on the pile of crisp paper. It crunched underneath his skin. “I don’t even know why I fucking said that. I already knew you worked at the Ministry.”

To his eternal surprise, Malfoy waved it off. “It’s alright,” he said, “Well. It’s not, but I get it a lot. They let Death Eaters work at the Ministry? You should have been put in Azkaban. Etcetera, etcetera. It’s lovely, I truly love it.”

Harry grimaced, feeling guilty now about the way he’d just wanted Malfoy to be embarrassed, not twenty seconds ago. “Do you want another water?” he offered, and Malfoy honest-to-god snorted.

“What?” he asked, “An apology water?”

“Yes,” Harry replied, smiling now, “You can have two, if you want. One for now and one for the road.”

Malfoy rolled his eyes. “Potter, it’s fine, you said something without thinking. I actually planned for that, I’ll have you know, and I’m relieved we got it over with so early in the meeting. Now I won’t be anticipating it the entire time.”

Malfoy looked nice, Harry noticed, rather abruptly. He wasn’t wearing those heavy Ministry robes, but a plain black set with a short cape. His long hair was plaited neatly and hung over his shoulder. He should have looked like his father, with all that going on, but he didn’t. Harry had expected- he’d expected Malfoy. Malfoy the way he’d been back in school. Slicked back hair, sneery face, posh voice. He still had the voice, and his face was still pinched and pointy, but he looked- different somehow, softer. He had grey eyes. Harry hadn’t-- he’d forgotten about that.

“Alright,” he said, and shook himself a bit. “Alright,” he repeated, and started rifling through the numerous objects on his desk. After a while it became apparent his notebook was missing. “Harry!” he shouted, and Malfoy looked startled for a second, probably thought Harry had taken leave of his senses, until other Harry popped his head around the door.

“Mr. Potter?” he asked, innocently. Harry narrowed his eyes.

“Did you take my notebook?” he asked. Other Harry shook his head. He’d tied his long hair back into a massive ponytail and it thumped against the wood of the doorframe.

“No?” he replied, “Have you checked your drawer?”

Harry cut his eyes over to Malfoy, who was staring out of the window, apparently uninterested. Harry tried to check his drawer as surreptitiously as possible. “Yes,” he grumbled, “It’s not in here.”

Other Harry sighed. “Can I come in?” he asked, and then did anyway. He ducked down to look on the bottom row of Harry’s bookshelf, right beside the cushion he always sat in to-- Ah. Other Harry plucked the blue notebook off the shelf and threw it over. “Anything else?” he sighed, “I have to go and pick up your things from the printer. What do you want for lunch? Sushi?”

“Please leave me alone,” Harry said, shooing him away, “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

“You’re very rude to your assistant,” Malfoy told him, once said assistant was out of the room.

“Do you have an assistant?” Harry asked, “Because I feel like if you had an assistant then you would understand how terrible assistants are.”

“He seemed quite nice,” Malfoy pointed out, “How long would it have taken you to find that notebook by yourself?”

“He tries to make me go to galas,” Harry said, shuddering, “He once booked me a suit fitting and told me it was a client meeting so I’d go. He hates me.”

Malfoy blinked, then smiled a little, “It’s not his fault he works for you.”

Harry screwed up his nose and opened his notebook. Then licked the end of his ballpoint. “Should we talk about what you’re here for?” he asked, before glancing over his desk for a moment. The cup of tea he’d put there twenty minutes ago had vanished somewhere. “Did you see my tea?” he asked Malfoy, lifting up a transparent set square.

“No,” Malfoy told him, and tried to hand him a thick blue file. Harry took it after a second, reluctantly giving up the hunt. “This is a contract, obviously you don’t sign it today. You’ll look over it with Chang and your lawyers. I’m just here to talk to you about the project we’re starting.”

“Right,” Harry said dubiously, and abandoned the folder on a pile of architectural digests. “I know how contracts work, Malfoy.”

Malfoy ignored him and produced another, smaller file. This time in bright red. He passed it to Harry, who opened it and flicked through. It was a site survey. A couple of still photos of a large patch of countryside, soil samples, a reading of the magical levels in the surrounding area. “What’s this for?” Harry asked, “Is the Ministry-- is this an office thing? Are you relocating?”

“No,” Malfoy said, as though he was talking to a child, and straightened the cuff of his shirt, “We’re very much not doing that. I’m sure you know how many houses were damaged during the war.”

“Well, yeah,” Harry said. A lot of their business came from that, actually. People wanting their houses repaired by people who knew what they were doing. People who wanted new houses. People who’d looked on the damage as a potential opportunity to get that kitchen they’d always dreamed of. It was sad, though, Harry thought, when he had to look around houses with spell damage and tell the owners it would have to be gutted. When he went into bedrooms with umbrella spells for a roof, when he had to tell families the prices and they’d sometimes cry. He didn’t like it much. The Death Eaters had really done a number on a lot of fucking people.

“The Ministry are proposing a housing scheme, modelled on Muggle housing estates, in order to give people houses whose own were damaged during the war,” Malfoy said, after a slight pause. He looked down at his own red file. “That’s it,” he said, when Harry didn’t say anything.

“Housing estates are--”

“I know,” Malfoy interrupted, and made a face, “I personally am of the mind that we should be paying to repair houses instead of building new ones. Some of those damaged are ancestral homes. However, it has been made very clear to me that the cost of repairs is far more than the cost of building new homes, so here we all are.”

“Right,” Harry said slowly. A wizarding housing estate. Fucking hell. He and Cho had never done anything even remotely like this. The biggest project they’d ever carried out had been a wizarding pool complex in Stratford. Maybe the housing estate could have a pool. Harry perked up at the idea. “Where are you wanting to build?” he asked, and Malfoy leaned forward until he could flick to a page in Harry’s folder. A satellite map, a bright yellow outline showing the plot of land.

“We’ve been negotiating for quite some time with the Muggle government,” he explained, “Which is partly why this has taken so long to come to fruition. We’ve settled on this site, in Kent. It’s very nice, I’ve been there myself.” He smiled, properly, for the first time. “I think it’s a shame that we can’t repair homes, but we can make the new ones as good as possible. So that people will like living there.”

Harry frowned. “No offense,” he said, “But why didn’t you pick a more established firm?” He didn’t really know that he had to ask though.

“No offense,” Malfoy echoed, “But it was mostly because it’s you.”

Harry scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Yeah,” he said, “Of course, yeah.” Cho was going to love this. It filled her with glee every time someone came in and wanted the chosen one to build them a house. Harry had got used to it by now, mostly, but it was still weird and he still didn’t like it very much.

Malfoy sighed, “As much as it pains me to say this,” he started, “I can assure you we wouldn’t have hired a firm we didn’t believe could deliver.” Harry thought for a second. There might have been a compliment in there somewhere, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Okay,” he said, “I can’t say for definite, but I think Cho will probably want to go for this. It’s way beyond the scale of anything we’ve done before, I should probably say that.”

Malfoy nodded thoughtfully. “Shall we talk about the process?”

“Um,” Harry said, “I mean, I can’t do specifics obviously. But Cho and I will have to see the site before we do anything else. We need to talk about what specs you want the houses to have, if you want them all the same size, stuff like that. How many are you looking for?”

“Thirty,” Malfoy said, easy as anything. “No less than thirty,” he amended.

“Fuck,” Harry said, succinctly.

“You shouldn’t swear in business meetings,” Malfoy told him, then sighed. “What if I’d had to take minutes?”

“Thirty houses,” Harry said, ignoring him, “Thirty. Thirty houses.” He didn’t know if Cho was going to murder him or throw him a party. They’d been talking about hiring a few more junior architects but now they would definitely fucking have to. He didn’t want to ask about the budget. He really, really didn’t. He wondered if he could call Cho and make her do it.

“Yes,” Malfoy said calmly, “Do you want to talk about the budget?”

Harry sat back in his seat and looked at the ceiling for a minute. It was very dark blue, almost midnight. He usually found it soothing, when he was lying on the floor and trying to think of a way to make three rooms fit into a space the size of a shipping container. It wasn’t quite doing the trick now, though.

“Yeah,” he said, and groaned, “I suppose we’d better.”

“Three million galleons,” Malfoy said coolly, and Harry stared at him for a few seconds, mostly in disbelief.

“I--” he started, “I thought you said this was supposed to be on the cheap.”

“That number was on the lower end of the scale,” Malfoy said, “But if you feel as though you can make it happen for less than by all means do so.”

“I need to talk to Cho,” Harry said, breathing hard, “She’s way better at this than me. She probably would have just like, nodded at you. And I’m over here having a bloody panic attack. Three fucking million, for thirty houses. Where is the Ministry getting all this money?”

“You’re not having a panic attack,” Malfoy informed him. And then paused delicately, as though what he was about to say was particularly distasteful. “And it’s mostly what they confiscated in reparations after the war.”

And then Harry wanted to die, because Malfoy was as good as saying that it used to be his money. He wanted to sink into the floorboards and never look anyone in the face again. Harry blamed other Harry for this. He wasn’t sure how but it was definitely his fault. Or Cho’s. Or the both of them.

MARCH

It was pouring with rain. The hard, driving kind that soaked through clothes in about ten seconds and wasn’t even nice to look at since it made everything grey and dull and faded. The air smelled like wet earth and cut grass, brought in on the strong breeze blowing through their makeshift shelter. Harry was sat in a rickety camping chair that had creaked ominously when he’d sat down, thinking about how soon they could get a permanent office set up on the site. One with walls. And a floor. He stared at the ground beneath his feet, a pink worm was squirming near the toe of his steel-capped boot. His knee was getting steadily wetter and wetter from a small leak in the plastic roof.

“Harry?” Cho said, tapping her pencil against his neck. “You’re getting rained on.” Harry moved his knee out of the way and sighed. He hated days like this, where you were lucky if you could fit in a few hours of work around the downpours. He watched assistant Harry talking on his phone just outside the shelter, a golden umbrella charm sheltering him. Harry couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“How long do you think this will last?” Malfoy asked, from across the table. He had both hands wrapped around a steaming cup of tea, and he was peering at the clouds on the horizon. Harry yawned and caught his elbow on the sheet of thick plywood that made up the surface of the table. The junior architects had built it the other day using some scrap wood they’d found in the store room of their office building. It wobbled dangerously on the uneven floor.

Cho looked up from where she was scribbling notes onto a piece of slightly damp paper. They’d put up wards to stop rain blowing into their workspace, but they weren’t very sturdy. Harry kept having to apply drying charms to all the plans. “I’m not sure,” she said, “I think it’s just a shower, it’s been doing this all day.” She was wearing a black roll-neck and a pair of black trousers turned up at the cuff. Her wellington boots were resting on an upturned blue crate that had held a kettle and a couple of boxes of tea. Malfoy made a noise and opened his briefcase. The same one he’d had last time, monogrammed with his initials and lined with dark green fabric. He got out a book and started flipping through the pages.  

“Have you overseen many projects like this?” Harry asked him, bored out of his fucking mind with nothing to do except wait.

Malfoy glanced up and then gestured to himself, eyebrows raised. Harry snorted and then nodded. “Um,” Malfoy said, resting his book carefully in a dry spot on the table, “Not one of this size, no.”

“What do you usually do?” Harry asked. He knew Malfoy worked at the Ministry, it had been all over the papers when he’d been hired three years ago, he just didn’t know what his bloody job was. The papers hadn’t been able to find out either, Malfoy hadn’t been given an official title.

“Oh,” he said, and then sniffed. “I’m part of a team that oversees where the reparations money goes to. So some of it’s on healthcare, some of it goes to direct payments for people affected. And some of it ends up on public works like this. All the repairs done in Hogwarts came from that money.”

“Did you help with that?” Cho asked, and Harry stared at her. Malfoy had been in fucking community service when Hogwarts was being rebuilt. He remembered the sentencing, he’d been there.

“No,” Malfoy said, and huffed out a wry laugh, “That was before I joined.”

“Do you like it?” Harry asked. Malfoy thought for a second, his brows knitting and his forehead wrinkling a bit. Harry thought he was definitely going to say no. Nobody had to think for that long about whether they liked their job or not if they actually liked it.

Malfoy didn’t, though, he said “Yes,” in that posh, stern voice of his, sounding totally sincere, “It’s not what I ever thought I’d be doing, but I like it.”

“That’s good,” Harry said, and meant it. Malfoy raised his eyebrows but he didn’t comment.

Harry had spent quite a bit of time with Malfoy in the past few months, even if all of it had been spent talking about the houses. Preparing and arguing and holding meeting after fucking never-ending meeting with the most boring Ministry people imaginable. Malfoy was hardworking, serious, but he seemed to like Harry, and even when he was visibly stressed he never got angry or raised his voice. Which Harry was definitely guilty of. Malfoy was just-- calm, never flustered, never rushed. Once or twice Harry had had to do the thing where he put his head in between his knees, when someone demanded an extra bedroom be put in, or that the garden double in size. Malfoy had barely batted an eyelid, just made some strong tea and stood back while Cho patted Harry on the back and laughed only a little. Malfoy was nicer than he’d been in school, while Cho had just been getting steadily less indulgent of Harry’s issues. Which, he supposed, was probably fair enough.

The rain started easing off and other Harry came inside, his phone tucked up between his ear and his neck and a scrap of paper in his hands. “--won’t want to do that,” he said, and Harry fucking knew it was going to be about him.

“Nude photoshoot,” other Harry said, “Yes or no.”

The three junior architects that had been working quietly on the other side of the shelter looked up. One of them started laughing and the other two shushed her. Cho snorted and Harry elbowed her in the side. “Is that a joke?” he asked.

“No,” was the reply, “Witch Weekly are bringing out a not-safe-for-work edition and they want to interview you about the housing project.”

“What,” Harry said, but he didn’t think anyone was listening. Cho had started properly laughing now, and even Malfoy had the beginnings of a smirk. “I don’t even know where to start with that.”

“What?” other Harry said, into the phone, “I’m bloody well asking him right fucking now. It’ll be tasteful, apparently,” he said, rolling his eyes.

Harry took a deep breath but couldn’t think of anything to say. “You should do it,” said Leah, from across the room, looking up from a drainage plan. Harry regretted ever learning the junior architect’s names, if this is how they were repaying him for it. “It’ll get a lot of buzz for the project.”

“The project doesn’t need buzz,” Harry sighed.

“I know,” said Leah, “I just think it would be funny.”

“You’re fired,” Harry told her, but she just laughed and went back to her work. Harry blinked. He did have firing authority. He wouldn’t ever actually fire someone, obviously, but it was nice to be able to scare people who were suggesting nude photoshoots. He turned to his assistant. “You’re fired,” he tried.

Other Harry rolled his eyes, again, and went back outside. “He’s not going to do it,” he said into the phone, “I only asked because I owed you a favour.”

Cho stood up and stretched, Harry heard her shoulders crack and he winced in sympathy. “Shall we go?” she asked, gesturing to the light rain, “I think this might be as good as it’s going to get for a while.

They left the other architects sitting in the dry and ventured out by themselves, over a small rise and down into the flat ground that would make up the housing estate. There were white lines spray painted onto the grass in the outline of the floor plans, markers stuck in the ground indicating where windows and doors were going to go. Cho led them to the nearest house and stepped inside.

“So this is the front hallway,” she said to Malfoy, who just nodded silently. He looked utterly miserable, dressed in his customary black robes and a pair of heavy boots with laces up past his ankle. He’d done an umbrella charm but he couldn’t do much about the wind, and it was whipping strands of hair out of his plait and into his eyes. Harry had tied his hair back that morning into a very sturdy bun, and then made Hermione put a couple of pins in it when he’d gone over for breakfast. He wondered for a second if Malfoy knew about hairpins, and if Harry should tell him or not.

After a while they made their way back to the shelter, damp and shivering with cold. Malfoy had seemed to like the layout, he hadn’t said much but he’d nodded a lot when Harry had talked about how much sunlight all the rooms would get.

“I’m going to get out of here,” Cho said, shaking her ponytail out and prodding Harry into doing a drying spell on it. “My girlfriends are waiting. Gin’s back from Holyhead for a few nights so we’re going out.”

Harry leant against the side of the table and folded his arms. “Have fun, I might stay for a bit,” he said, “Order some food or something. I want to look at the hallways one more time, I think we might be able to get away with making them a bit wider.”

Cho kissed him on the cheek, before apparating away in a haze of lavender and amber perfume. Harry had just kicked other Harry out of his seat when Malfoy came to sit next to him, swinging himself up onto the table and steadying himself with a nervous laugh when it threatened to topple. “Did she say girlfriends?” he asked curiously, “As in, girlfriends plural?”

Harry tilted his head. “Yeah,” he replied. “As in, Luna, Gin, and Cho. They all live together. They’re--” he cut off and wriggled his shoulders. “You know.”

“I don’t,” Malfoy told him, expectantly.

“In love,” Harry sighed, “With each other.” It was really sweet and really cloying, and he was so happy for them but they made him a bit sad sometimes. There were three of them, and they’d all found each other. And he was still by himself a lot, when Hermione and Ron were busy with child number one.

“Oh,” Malfoy said, carefully, “That’s nice, I suppose.”

“It’s brilliant,” Harry said, and he really did mean it. “Did you know Gin plays for the Harpies?”

“I think everyone knows that,” Malfoy said gently, as if he were afraid Harry was going to burst into tears or something. “She’s very good.”

Harry hummed in agreement. “Do you want to order Chinese?” he asked, after almost no deliberation. Malfoy laughed.

“Yes,” he said, “I suppose so. Are we eating it here?” Harry looked around them. It was darker now, still raining outside. And Leah or one of the other two had lit the lamps hanging from the roof so that the whole place was bathed in a pleasant golden glow. Other Harry had his face buried in his laptop, and he kept checking his watch as though he was waiting to be sent home. Malfoy shifted a little closer, seemingly without meaning to. He’d been close to begin with, but now Harry could feel the heat radiating from his body, could smell leather and clean shampoo.

“Yeah,” Harry said, and Malfoy smiled. “I’ve still got a couple of drawings to do, if that’s okay.”

*

“So where are you living now?” Malfoy asked, after carefully swallowing a mouthful of spring roll. They were the last ones here, it was late in the evening and Harry was trying not to get sweet and sour sauce on any of their plans.

“Um,” he said through some noodles, and then dropped them back onto his plate. Malfoy made a face and Harry ignored him. “In London?” he said.

“Yes,” Malfoy said patiently, “But where? Wizarding district?”

“No,” Harry said. Grimmauld Place was probably as far as fucking possible from being a Wizarding street.

“Oh,” Malfoy said, and pointed his chopsticks in Harry’s general direction, “You’re living in the Black house.”

“Grimmauld Place,” Harry corrected him, “How did you know that?”

“I’m very smart,” Malfoy informed him, and then licked a bit of grease off his thumb. Harry averted his eyes. “Also I only just remembered that I already knew.”

“Oh,” Harry said, “I guess Andromeda told you?�� He’d known, for a while, that Malfoy saw Teddy quite a bit, but they’d never run into each other and Harry hadn’t ever particularly wanted to change that. Andromeda never talked about Malfoy, never really brought him up, and Harry never asked questions. For a little while he’d wondered whether or not Teddy should even be allowed to see Malfoy, but he had been firmly overruled by Andromeda on that point.

Malfoy hummed in agreement. “I’ve been there, you know,” he said.

Harry blinked for a few moments in surprise. “No,” he said, “I didn’t know that.” It made sense though, now that he thought about it. Malfoy’s mother had probably taken him.

“I don’t remember it,” said Malfoy, “Other than how dark it was.” He’d taken his cloak off and loosened his tie. And sprawling over a conjured armchair he looked rumpled and soft and relaxed. Harry thought he should always look like that.

“It’s changed a lot,” Harry told him, “It was the first house I ever did any work on.”

“Really?” Malfoy asked, raising his eyebrows. “I don’t know why, but I expected you to sell it.”

“Yeah,” Harry sighed, “I did think about that, but I decided it would be better to just… I don’t know, change it.” It was practically unrecognisable now, actually. Open windows at the back of the house leading into the fecund garden, that fucking portrait finally gone, light and bright and airy. It felt more like home than any place Harry had ever lived, even that one year after the war he’d spent at The Burrow while he’d been working out what to do with his life. Crawling into bed with Hermione and Ron after a nightmare, skirting around Ginny when she came back from Wales and the Harpies, a year of Molly and Arthur laughing in the hallways. He’d needed that, then, but he was happy having something of his own, now.

Malfoy nodded slowly, let his head fall against the high back of the chair, rested his plate in his lap. “I think this is going to be good,” he said, gesturing at the plastic roof and the haphazard furniture, at the dark sky, at Harry. “I honestly do.”

MAY

Malfoy in a green hard hat. It was a sight Harry never expected to fucking see, and it was brilliant. He thought about taking a photo and then realised he’d left his phone in the office. Also there was the fact that Malfoy would probably murder him. It was a nice day, fresh and blue, the breeze cool and sweet-smelling.

“Afternoon” Malfoy said, striding over from the apparition point. “How was last night?”

Harry grimaced. Last night had been babysitting night. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, and Malfoy laughed.

“So it went exceedingly well, I take it.”

“Did you know kids were so messy?” Harry asked, “Like-- he kept trying to draw everywhere.”

“You know I’ve looked after him before,” Malfoy said, with a look on his face like he thought Harry was being ridiculous and was trying hard not to say anything about it.

“Yeah,” Harry muttered, “I know. He just- ruined a perfectly good lighting plan, that’s all.”

Malfoy rubbed at his face for a few seconds. “What did you do?” he asked.

“Um,” Harry said, feeling oddly guilty all of a sudden. “I wasn’t sure what to do. I sent him to his room but I don’t know if that was right or not.”

Malfoy bumped his shoulder. “Did you shout at him? I did once and then felt so awful about it. But he’d gone onto the balcony and was sticking his little hand out and I was fucking terrified.”

“He goes everywhere,” Harry said sadly, “Once I caught him with his arm literally inside the toilet. But-- no, I didn’t shout. I try not to shout.”

“I’ve seen you shout,” Malfoy said, surprised.

“Yeah but--” Harry paused, “Not at Ted, though. I wouldn’t shout at Ted.”

“He’s the worst child on the entire planet,” Malfoy said, but he was smiling.

“I love him to death,” Harry said sincerely, “I was so shit at being mean to him. After about five minutes I went upstairs to check on him and he somehow managed to persuade me to read him a fucking story.”

“Does he have his own room in your house?” Malfoy asked, with a faintly surprised air.

“Yeah,” Harry said, “I live in a big house though.” He didn’t want to make Malfoy feel bad about it, since he knew that when Teddy stayed at Malfoy’s place he slept in the guest room. Malfoy only had a small apartment, apparently, although Harry had never seen it. Harry probably didn’t even need to give Teddy his own room. Except that he’d remembered what it was like to be jealous of Dudley’s, when he had been growing up, and he wanted Ted to have his own space in Harry’s home.

“I just--” Malfoy said, and cut off. “I was thinking about making the guest bedroom into a room for him. But I don’t know how Andromeda would take that. I only have him a few times a month.”

“That’s like, more than I do,” Harry said. He was busy all the fucking time, lately. And it was difficult to look after a toddler and also run his own business. “I mean. I can’t have him more at the moment. Hopefully during the summer.”

Malfoy hummed in agreement. “Is he back at Andromeda’s tonight, then?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, “And I’ve made myself a promise not to work this eve. I have no idea what I’ll do. The world is my oyster.”

Malfoy blinked at him. “You’re so odd,” he said, and then blushed a little when Harry smiled. Which was weird. “Shall we go look at the machines?” he said hurriedly, “I’ve never seen them up close before.”

They’d broken ground about a week previously, and so far had actually refrained from fucking anything up. It was going well. He and Cho were on site almost daily, supervising and doing work on other projects, with a continued rota of baby architects reporting to them about what was happening back at the office.

“Careful,” Malfoy said, grabbing onto Harry’s arm after they’d been walking for a few minutes. They were almost up to the site now, surrounded by the outlines of houses and men in hard hats and uniforms. “Hello,” he cooed, bending down to look in the cropped grass. Harry had never heard anything like it.

Curled up beside a dandelion stalk was a tiny grass snake, pretty and brown, with little black spots and beady eyes. “Hey,” Harry said, in parseltongue. Malfoy swore softly and took a step back.

“Hello,” said the snake, stiffly. It sounded terrified. Harry would be, and he was surprised it hadn’t been stepped on yet. “How are you?” it asked.

“I’m alright,” Harry said, and he was already kind of in love with the little thing. “Are you alright? You seem a bit scared.”

“You can still do that?” Malfoy asked, wide eyed. When the snake had started talking he’d bent close again to hear, even though he couldn’t understand. “I didn’t know you could still do that.”

Harry nodded at him, and the snake said “No, I’m perfectly well.” It sounded as though it was lying.

“Do you want me to move you somewhere?” Harry asked it, and the snake bobbed its head, like it was considering. It wasn’t making eye contact, but Harry didn’t think snakes really did eye contact the way humans did.

“No, thank you,” it said, “I wouldn’t want to cause you any inconvenience.”

Harry laughed, and loved the way that Malfoy smiled at that even though he didn’t know what was going on. “I think I’ll have to insist,” he said, “I don’t want to scare you or anything, but I think this place is about to be dug up.”

“Oh,” said the snake, “I don’t know what that means.”

“I’m going to pick you up,” Harry told it, “Is that okay?”

The snake weaved its little head, and then said “Alright. Yes, alright.” Harry cupped his hand so that it could slither on, and then lifted it slowly, taking care not to jostle it.

“Should I put it in my pocket?” he asked Malfoy, who was getting right up close and smiling at it. “I don’t want to drop it. Should I ask if it wants to go in my pocket?”

Malfoy made a face. “Do you think snakes know what pockets are?” he asked, “I don’t think it would understand. Does it have a name?”

“Do you want to go in my pocket?” Harry asked, “What’s your name?”

“Brown Branch,” said the snake, sounding pleased and proud, “And yes.”

“Can I touch it?” Malfoy asked, as Harry deposited the snake in the front pocket of his shirt, “Or would that be weird?”

“I’ll ask it when I set it free again,” Harry laughed, and started making his way for higher, safer ground, Malfoy keeping pace beside him. “It said it’s name was… I don’t know, it’s not really properly translatable. Brown Branch.”

“Probably because it looks like a branch,” Malfoy said seriously.

“Yes,” Harry agreed, trying not to laugh. They walked past the office tent on their way up the hill, a couple of people were smoking outside and they waved.

“Harry!” other Harry called, from the doorway. “What are you doing? Can I go home?”

“Yeah,” Harry called back, lifting his hand, “I’m transporting a snake! 

“Okay! Have fun!” other Harry told him, over the noise of the diggers, and Harry just knew he was rolling his eyes.

“I was wondering,” Malfoy said, hesitantly, once they had reached the nearby treeline and Harry was trying to extract the snake from his pocket with minimum fuss, “If you wanted to go for-- to dinner. Tonight.”

“Oh,” Harry said, taking his fingers away from the warm scales for a second, trying to concentrate. They went for dinner all the time, and Malfoy never sounded formal and nervous when he asked. This was- different. “Like--”

“A date,” Malfoy interrupted hastily, “I thought you might want to. You don’t have to. I mean, obviously you don’t have to. It goes without saying that you don’t have to,” he continued, in a big rush. He blushed faintly and looked away, his fingers twitching and his face impassive and cool. Harry wanted to mess him up.

“Yeah,” he said, and watched Malfoy turn back around with this incredulous look in his eyes, as though he’d never in a million fucking years expected Harry to agree. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Are you sure?” he said, slowly, and Harry burst out laughing. “Only that it’s quite unprofessional. I was going to wait until we’d finished working together, but you were just adorable about a snake and I gave in.”

“I wouldn’t have said yes if I wasn’t sure, Malfoy,” he said, breathless with it. His stomach felt melty and warm. Malfoy smiled, the tiniest upturn at the corners of his mouth, and it made Harry want to touch him and never stop. “I’m sure,” he repeated, and Malfoy’s smile fucking bloomed, until it was wide and happy and gorgeous and lit up his eyes, and it was ridiculous how much Harry wanted to see him smile like that every moment of his life. Utterly fucking ridiculous. Out of fucking nowhere.

*

“Merlin,” Malfoy said, when he stepped into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place and saw the skylight, the windows at the back, the polished concrete counters. Harry felt his face go hot, and then smiled when Malfoy ran his hand over one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table with a muted noise of appreciation. “It looks nothing like it did.”

“I thought you didn’t remember it,” Harry said, swinging himself up onto the counter next to his bottles of liquor. He reached behind himself to get some cups out of the cabinet. “Do you want a drink?”

“What do you have?” Malfoy asked absently, one fingertip against Harry’s KitchenAid, poking at it suspiciously. “What the fuck is this?”

“Um,” Harry hummed, searching through the mostly empty bottles that he kept forgetting to replace. “I have like… vermouth? It’s unopened, I don’t know what it is. Also, a coffee slash orange liqueur. Sounds horrible, can’t remember ever having it.”

“You put vermouth in martinis,” Malfoy told him, “Have you got any vodka?”

“No,” Harry snorted, “Not since I was about eighteen, mate.”

“I suppose I’ll have a neat vermouth then,” Malfoy said, “Just to see what it’s going to be like more than anything else.”

“Oh,” Harry said, splashing a bit on his finger as he poured it, “That’s a stand mixer. For making cakes and stuff?” He nodded towards the KitchenAid.

“You make cakes?” Malfoy asked, “Potter, you’re full of surprises.”

“Everyone makes cakes,” Harry said, extending the glass towards him. Malfoy took it from his hands and leant back against the dishwasher with one palm resting on the countertop. “That’s not like, a weird hobby to have. If I’d have said oh, that’s for mixing glue when I make my model trains, it would have warranted surprise.”

“You make model trains?” Malfoy asked, wrinkling his nose, “That actually makes me significantly less attracted to you.”

Harry felt himself flush, and looked into his drink as he said, “No-- I-- I mean, it was just an example.”

“I can’t tell if you’re lying or not,” Malfoy said, then took a sip of his drink and made a face.

“I swear to you, I do not make model trains. I don’t make any type of model other than the ones for work,” Harry said seriously, watching as Malfoy took another three sips in quick succession. “Do you like that?” he asked.

“What, the drink? No, it’s horrid,” Malfoy said, raising the glass to his lips again, smiling.

“I see,” Harry said, although he wasn’t sure he did. He never really ate or drank anything he didn’t like the taste of, and always got confused when other people did.

“So you like living here,” said Malfoy, and it wasn’t really a proper question.

“Yeah,” Harry told him. “I really do. You know Hermione and Ron live about a ten-minute walk away?”

Malfoy laughed. “That explains so much,” he said. “What’s the maximum distance you’d ever actually live from them?”

Harry thought he might be joking but considered it anyway. “I don’t think I could live anywhere where it took me more than an hour to get from door to door.”

“Oh,” Malfoy said, sounding surprised. “That’s actually a full twenty minutes more than I was expecting.”

“Do you like where you live?” Harry asked. He didn’t want to seem insensitive, but it seemed like it would be rude not to ask. He remembered when the Manor had been destroyed after the war, its contents stripped and sold off, or burned. He had no idea what Malfoy must have felt, knowing the place he’d grown up was gone. He wondered if Malfoy missed it. He wondered if Malfoy was glad. Harry thought that the house he’d grown up in could disappear off the face of the earth and he wouldn’t feel a single fucking thing. He wondered if Malfoy was sad about seeing Grimmauld Place, sad about how he’d never have an opportunity to make his old home a better place.

“Yes,” Malfoy said, and didn’t volunteer any more information, just swirled the clear liquid around in his glass. He looked upset, and Harry didn’t know what to say to make it better.

“I heard you lived with Parkinson after the… war,” Harry ventured.

Malfoy glanced up and smiled slowly. “Yes,” he admitted, “I think it’s probably fair to say she’s the worst roommate I’ve ever had. She never cleaned. There was a mouldy mug on our counter for about seven months that I didn’t do anything about because I kept hoping she’d move it. It was like she couldn’t even see it.”

“I lived with Ron and Hermione,” Harry told him, “While I was in uni. And then we moved here for a bit before they got their own place.”

“Ten minutes away,” Malfoy laughed. He looked like something Harry had dreamt up, in that moment, bathed in soft light with his mouth wide open. He looked happier than Harry had ever seen him, just because of this. Just because he was teasing Harry in his kitchen, a little tipsy from the wine they’d had at dinner, hair coming loose from his fucking plait; the one Harry wanted to get his hands in, to shake out.

“Exactly,” Harry said, because his mind had gone a bit blank and he couldn’t get it together enough to come up with something more intelligent.

Malfoy looked at him, then. Hard. And Harry had known, obviously, where this was going to end up, but now was the first time he’d actually felt it, could almost touch it. Malfoy set his glass down on the counter with a quiet knock, then took a few hesitant steps forward before pausing beside the fridge, worrying his fingers against the torn corner of a strip of photobooth pictures. He brushed his fingertips over Hermione and Ron’s smiling faces and avoided eye contact.

“I had a very nice time,” he started, his voice low, and it seemed like he was leading up to something but Harry honestly couldn’t give a shit, when Malfoy was close enough to reel in by his sleeve. He felt so impatient, like a child, like he did when he’d drunk too much coffee, like he wanted to eat everything in sight, like he was vibrating. Malfoy’s eyes went wide, and he huffed in surprise when he was pulled over. Then again when he found himself firmly situated between Harry’s parted knees. Harry ran a hand through his hair, once, and watched Malfoy watch him.

“I don’t think I can listen to a speech right now,” he confessed, touching the collar of Malfoy’s shirt. It was coarse and warm and Harry wanted it off.

“There wasn’t going to be a speech,” Malfoy argued, and then shivered when Harry lightly grazed the skin on his neck.

“You were about to tell me how much you like me,” Harry said, leaning in close. Malfoy blinked, and Harry had never been any fucking good at this sort of thing but somehow he’d managed to make Malfoy look like he was about to keel over. It was honestly a miracle.

“Fuck off,” Malfoy scoffed, but it was as good as an admission when his voice sounded like that. Rough and shaken. Malfoy put his hands on Harry’s waist firmly, as if he was about to make a very important point. “Seriously--” he started, but didn’t get much further before Harry was kissing him.

Malfoy immediately gave it up, which Harry thought was fucking wonderful. Tipping his head back so that Harry could lean over him, opening his mouth and sliding their tongues together a little. He backed off and bit Harry’s bottom lip, their noses bumping together, his breath hot against Harry’s mouth. He tasted like that awful alcohol but Harry was finding it very difficult to care; when he got to put his palm on Malfoy’s shoulder and kiss his cheekbones and his temples. He touched his fingertips to the soft skin just below Malfoy’s ear, at the hinge of his jaw, and just kept them there for a bit while Malfoy pressed a burst of heated kisses against his lips.

He pulled away and stared at Malfoy’s slick bottom lip while he caught his breath. Malfoy breathed in once, twice, deeply, then got his hand back on Harry’s neck and guided him in, kissing the corner of his mouth. Harry’s skin felt as though it was a couple of sizes too small, and his heart was beating hard in his chest. He smiled against Malfoy’s mouth and couldn’t stop, and Malfoy had to tilt his head away to stare at him.

“Stop smiling,” he said sternly, trying to frown. Harry laughed, he couldn’t help it. “I can’t kiss you if you’re smiling like that,” Malfoy pointed out, “Unless you want me to just… lick your teeth a bit.” Harry snorted. “Exactly,” Malfoy agreed, and poked Harry in the neck, “I’m finding the idea even less appealing than you are.”

Harry curled his hands into Malfoy’s hair, it was soft and a little bit damp at the nape of his neck. He caught sight of Malfoy’s ears, red and flushed, and then he had to kiss one of them. Malfoy sighed impatiently, and Harry got the feeling he was being indulged. He nosed against Malfoy’s hair and felt the way he had when the war was finally over, like something heavy and horrible in his chest had seeped out and fucked off. Or as though his entire future had suddenly loosened, like it was opening, spreading itself out in front of his feet.

DECEMBER

The kitchen smelled like new pine and fresh varnish and cold air, and the hot chocolate with marshmallows that Ron and Hermione weren’t even drinking.

“Why on earth did you even let her bring crayons?” Hermione demanded, as Ron tried to wrangle their squirming daughter. She was on the floor, halfway through a gorgeous portrait of a flower, done in royal purple crayon on the white wall next to the fridge.

“I have no idea,” Ron said, panicked, as Harry laughed and laughed.

“I can just paint over it,” he said, “Actually, maybe the new owners will want to keep it. She has a real talent.”

“I know you’re being facetious,” Hermione said, throwing crayons into a canvas tote bag while Rose looked on, despondent, “But I’m sorry anyway.”

“Kids are so gross,” Ron said fondly, kissing the top of Rose’s head.

“Can I draw?” Rose asked, and Hermione sighed for a very long time.

“Your dad didn’t bring paper,” she said, “And even though Harry seems very happy to let you draw on the walls here, I’m worried that you’d think you were allowed to do it at home.”

“I can draw at home,” Rose told her, seriously, squiggling in Ron’s lap. “Crayons,” she then said.

“Yes,” Hermione said patiently, “But not on the walls. You shouldn’t draw on walls unless someone specifically asks you too.”

“Rose,” Ron said, shaking his head, “Do you know what ‘specifically’ means?”

“This is fascinating,” Harry whispered, “It’s like watching a nature program.” Rose extended one hand out to him and he touched it interestedly. She was vaguely sticky, as usual. “Is that a normal kid thing?” he asked, “Like, are they just always sticky?”

“Yeah,” Ron replied, hauling himself up with a grunt, “Pretty much.”

“I’ve got some plans she can draw on,” Harry offered, “If you’re really set against the wall idea.”

Hermione leant against him for a second, a warm weight at his side. “Yes please,” she said gratefully, holding Rose’s hand when she tried to make a break for the next room. “Harry’s getting you some paper,” she said, “And when he does you should draw on that and not on the floorboards.

“Okay,” Rose said, flopping onto the floor before unconcernedly rooting through the tote bag for her purple crayon.

“Merlin,” Ron said, finally taking a sip of his hot chocolate while Harry unrolled a couple of old plans and set them out on the floor, face side down, “This is amazing. I swear you didn’t used to be so good at making hot chocolate.”

“Remember in the forest,” Hermione said, “I can’t remember where we were, but that time you added boiling water to cocoa powder with nothing else? Horrible, I’ll never forget it.”

“I was a shitty cook at seventeen,” Harry said, rolling his eyes, “Are we ever going to let it go? You were shitty as well, as far as I remember.”

“I can’t cook,” Ron said, as if he wasn’t stating the fucking obvious. Hermione patted him on the arm as she sat down at the breakfast bar.

“You know I’m categorically opposed to breakfast bars,” she said, stroking her hand over the clean wood, “But this isn’t actually that bad.”

“Oh thank you,” Harry said, “Another glowing endorsement from Hermione Granger.”

“Granger-Weasley,” Ron sighed, “Although at this point I don’t know why I bother correcting you.”

“These houses are genuinely lovely,” she said, “You’ve done a brilliant job.”

Harry had never gotten past the stage of feeling incredibly fucking proud of himself when Hermione told him he was good at something. “Thanks,” he said, “It’s worked out well, I think.”

“When can people move in?” Ron asked, looking at the mostly bare walls and the windows still with their coating of protective plastic on the surface.

“Less than a month,” Harry replied, “Probably in time for Christmas, actually.”

“Oh that’s so sweet,” Ron said, “New houses for Christmas. You’re going to make me cry, mate.”

Harry smiled, until he heard Draco from upstairs. “Harry you absolute fucking wanker, come and look at this,” he said, in a tone that Harry could only really describe as a screech.

Hermione raised her eyebrows and Harry shrugged. “Gotta go,” he said, swinging himself down from one of the bar stools, “The love of my life is calling.”

Ron thumped his head against the counter surface. “Fuck me,” he said, muffled by his large coat. “This is so weird.”

Harry grinned as Hermione elbowed Ron square in the ribcage. “Yeah,” he said, “I’m actually so embarrassed by myself.”

“Is this what Hermione and I were like?” Ron asked, “Because if we were then you should have just hexed us.”

“We weren’t ever like this,” Hermione replied, but she was smiling, “It’s sickening. I think I would have known if we were being sickening.”

“Harry,” Draco shouted again, “Are you fucking ignoring me? I’m going to come downstairs and shout at you in a second. I don’t give a shit if there’s a child in the house.”

Ron started laughing against the table. “You’d better go,” he said, “Your lover awaits.”

“Ugh,” Harry replied, “Why would you even say that to me.”

“Have you seen this?” Draco demanded, once Harry had climbed the two sets of stairs up to the small turret room. “These windows are fucking tiny. This wasn’t on the plans. I’m sure you would never do anything so overtly ridiculous. The builders must have fucked up.” He sounded incredibly panicked, and Harry found it very hard not to find it incredibly funny

Harry narrowed his eyes. “Was that a compliment?” he asked, not really expecting an answer. Draco was half right though, the windows were shrunken down to the size of Quaffles; little portholes looking out over the house on the opposite side of the road.

“No,” Draco snapped, “When I compliment you, you’ll bloody well know about it.”

Harry sighed, “Here,” he said, and waved his wand in a perfect figure eight, watching as the windows cycled through about ten different configurations before settling on huge curved circles. The room flooded with light.

“Oh,” Draco said, mollified, “I didn’t know about those. Did I sign off on those?”

“Yes,” Harry told him, finally deeming it safe to go and stand beside him, now Draco had deflated a bit. “You were a bit stressed towards the end there,” he said, “So I can forgive you for forgetting about a couple of things.”

Draco sniffed the air suspiciously. “Is that hot chocolate? Did you make hot chocolate for the Granger-Weasleys and not for me?”

“No,” Harry lied, and wrapped his arm around Draco’s waist, until he gave in and sagged against the side of Harry’s body. Harry liked the way Draco went soft when he was touching him.

They looked out of the window for a bit, at the house directly in front of them. Dark red brick and bay windows and a green roof. They looked old. Harry had thought it might be comforting, wizards were soothed by old things. Draco sighed against him. “They’re great,” he said, “I’d love to say I knew you could do it, but there were definitely some moments when I had my doubts.”

Harry was silent for a few seconds. “We could live here,” he suggested quietly, and Draco made a gagging noise and stepped away from him.

“For fuck’s sake,” he said, “You had to ruin a perfectly good moment, didn’t you?” He bent over at the waist and started fake retching.

“Alright,” Harry said mildly, “Tell me what you really think, why don’t you.”

“I think you’re a prat,” Draco told him, laughing a little bit, “And not that I don’t love these homes, because I do, but I’m a fucking Malfoy, Harry.”

“Yeah,” Harry said, “I actually managed to forget that for a second there, but thanks for doing such a good job of reminding me.”

“Listen,” Draco said, straightening his back and holding Harry firmly by the shoulders. His eyes looked very serious. “I’m a Malfoy. There are two places a Malfoy will live. Their ancestral home, or the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in the city of London.” He paused for a bit and then said, “Well, and Paris, but my parents live there and you know how I feel about that.”

Harry did. Draco had told him. At considerable length. “Okay,” Harry said.

“Okay what?” Draco asked suspiciously, “Are you going to break up with me because I said I want to live in Kensington forever? I suppose if it were a deal breaker I could stand Islington, in a pinch.”

“I meant okay let’s build an ancestral home,” Harry told him, “Not a big one though, because I don’t think I could live in a massive house. And we’ll have to keep Grimmauld Place for the weekdays when we’re working.”

Draco sat down on the floor, and Harry blinked at him for a second. “Are you okay?” he asked, when Draco moaned and thumped back hard against the dusty floorboards, closing his eyes.

“No,” Draco said weakly, and Harry sat down next to him, cross legged.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“I seriously think we should get married,” Draco said, grimly, sounding not at all happy about the prospect. “I don’t think I’m ever going to manage to find someone else as good as you.”

Harry watched him for a bit, his serious mouth, his straight nose, his high cheekbones. He was so nice. And Harry thought it was entirely possible he’d never be able to find anyone better than Draco. “Alright,” he replied, and Draco collapsed with relief, letting out a long sigh.

“I thought you were going to say no,” he breathed, wriggling across the floor until he had his head in Harry’s lap. Harry had never liked anyone more.

“I offered to build you a stately home,” Harry reminded him, “I think that might have been a giveaway that I’m pretty committed?”

“Merlin,” Draco said, “I suppose it should have been. You know it better not be anything modern, I won’t live anywhere that doesn’t have a lot of mahogany and a very stuffy library.”

“I’m sure we can compromise,” Harry told him.

Draco bit the inside seam of his trousers. “Would you like a blowjob?” he offered.

“Um,” Harry said, looking up at a scuffling noise in the door. Hermione was staring, wide eyed in the hallway. He smiled, “Not right now babe, one of the Granger-Weasleys is watching.”

Draco groaned and sat up, smoothing his hair down hastily. “Of course they fucking are,” he said, and caught sight of Hermione, “Of course she fucking is.”

“We’re getting married,” Harry told her, grinning, “We just decided right now.”

“I was listening for most of that exchange,” she admitted, “Which is terrible, I know. Congratulations. I love you so much. I think I actually might cry.”

“Oh please don’t,” Draco sighed, “I know it’s a terrible tragedy that we’re both off the market, but there’s no need for waterworks.”

“Oh my god,” she laughed, “Harry what are you doing?”

Harry gripped Draco’s hand very tightly. “I know,” he said, “I absolutely hear all of your concerns. But also I’m in love, so there’s really not much I can do about the whole situation apart from… wait it out, I guess. I’m really sorry.”

“Wait it out,” Draco scoffed, his palm suddenly sweaty, “I’m very stubborn, Potter. I’m going to make a point not to change my mind about you.”

“Brilliant,” Harry said, and he had never meant anything more, “Amazing. I look forward to it.”

Want to see more? Check the “dralentine’s day” tag or head over to dralentines-day.tumblr.com!

Happy Dralentine’s Day!

[starryeyedkara]

New Realizations →

Kara was thankful her daily tasks were continuing to research and write up that article she’d started working on. Once she had gotten her massive piles of evidence down to a small, decent, normal sized one she’d gotten to work. It wasn’t too difficult and she was glad for that because her mind was definitely not on if the CEO of the recycle plant was stealing money. It was on porcelain skin, ivory eyes and those fingers that even just thinking about had shivers running through her body.

She still couldn’t get over that Lena was also a decent cook, maybe just at pasta but hey, Kara would never turn down pasta. But it was safe to say her entire morning had been spent daydreaming about Lena Luthor, she was pretty sure she’d even doodled a heart with her initials in it at one point, which was quick to go to the shredder before anyone could have the chance to see it.

Kara Danvers had a crush. A big one.

She didn’t think anyone could blame her though! Lena was perfect. Well, at least how she carried and expressed herself to the world was perfect. Only snapping out of her little day dream, though it was almost more like a vision of sorts considering she could almost actually feel Lena’s fingers against her back once more as a very panicked looking Eve zipped past where she’d been sitting.

She still didn’t have a damn chair. So, she’d borrowed James’. Nothing wrong with borrowing.

“Uh, Eve...Can I...What’s going on?”

As the small spunky woman all but smacked straight into her on her way bounding back down the hallway Kara could already guess what was going on. And as Eve started talking a million miles a minute about the printer being jammed and Miss. Grant already being in a mood because her new green smoothie cleanse wasn’t as green as it was supposed to be. Kara was glad that her assumptions were correct.

“Okay, breathe. Don’t worry. I’ll get the juice, you get the printer. Remember you just have to smack the side three times and then give a small kick to the front. Okay? And don’t hit it more or less than three times or else...Well, the last time there was a small ink explosion and...Actually you don’t....Nevermind. I’ve got this, you’ve got that. Deal?”

Shaking her head a little she smiled as Eve bounded off back towards the printers, hearing her repeating three times over and over again. She might not have gotten to be one all the time, but for the small moments she did get to be a mentor to someone, it was pretty awesome.

Grabbing her jacket she had just finished sliding it on as she waited for the elevator when suddenly the doors opened and -though they had walked into her- Kara was quick to gently grab the poor man that was nearly toppling over from the impact.

"Oh my gosh are you...That's a lot of flowers. Here let me help," she was almost positive if this poor man had to hold this stunning batch of blue roses and white lilies, any longer his arms were going to fall off, and she didn't miss the shocked and very confused look on his face as she took the flowers with ease, but that initial reaction was quickly replaced with relief. 

Carrying them over to the front desk she smiled softly at their delicate scent, gently brushing her fingers over some of the pedals to straighten them out.

"Thanks, you don't know how difficult it was to get those suckers past the front doormen, not to mention finding a way to carry everything else I need."

Noting the typical little electric machine the drop off drivers always had she smiled softly, waving her hand gently. "Oh don't worry about it. Plus getting to see such a stunning arrangement definitely brightened my day. Um, who are they for? If they are for Miss Grant I can sign for them, I was her assistant for two-"

"Uh they are for a Danvers, Kara Danvers"

"Oh! That's me...Oh..." glancing back at the flowers Kara wanted to roll her eyes. Typical. Tell her not to do something and Lena does the thing, but goes way overboard. And sending them to CatCo again?

"Well this is a little awkward, but hey I can still sign for them" she chuckled, pushing up her glasses before using the small stylist to sign for the flowers. Looking them over once more as he went through the rest of his checklist she noticed something was missing, there didn't seem to be a sneaky card hidden anywhere in them this time.

"Um, was there anything else with them? Usually she sends a card of some sort, or an invisible ink message I'd need a black light for or something"

"Yes, I had to remove it at the door when the rather intimidating doorman thought I was sneaking stuff in but it's somewhere....Here we go!"

Taking the card she smiled brightly, as embarrassed as she was that Lena had sent yet another extravagant bouquet, she couldn't lie and say she wasn't internally squealing. "Perfect, thank you! Have a wonderful rest of your day,"

"You as well Miss Danvers, tell your wife not to make such heavy choices next time!"

Even though she had snorted a little at the idea of Lena being her wife and people thinking she was her wife, it sort of made sense, she figured the only people who got these kinds of elaborate bouquets were wives with significant others in the dog house. The thought still had her blushing and she really hoped everyone around them didn't hear that as well, but judging by the way Katrina behind the secretary desk was very clearly trying to hold in her chuckles Kara knew she hadn't gotten so lucky.

"I told her to stop sending them."

"Uh uh,"

"I did!

"Right, well they always say the quiet ones are trouble and whatever you are doing is clearly working,"

Pretty sure her eyebrows were up to her hair line in that moment Kara gently cleared her throat. "Right...I mean not right..I..Can you just please have them moved? I need to run to grab something for Miss Grant,"

"Of course Kara, or should I say Mrs. Luthor"

"Oh har har," Rolling her eyes she spun around on her heel, quickly making a b-line for the elevator.

*** It wasn't until she was standing in line for Miss. Grant's smoothie that Kara remembered she still had Lena's card. The slight hesitation she felt about opening it in public was quickly dissolved by the still school girl giddiness she had been feeling all morning, that still hadn't gone away.

Carefully pulling out the little card and placing it against the envelope she noticed the line moving slightly, which was when she went to take a few small steps forward at the exact same moment her gaze fell on the words.

'I like the sounds you make when you come. -L'

Literally walking into the person in front of her, and causing them to bump into the one in front of them and a small domino effect followed Kara knew her face and probably her neck was a bright shade of red.

"I...I'm sorry...I'll um, I'll buy everyone's orders," she was quick to squeak out, which seemed to be good enough as she noticed the death glares instantly disappear. Glancing back at the card she shook her head as she placed it back in the envelope, then into the pocket inside her jacket and then quickly doing up the zipper to said pocket.

Of course she would send that. She could picture the smirk on Lena's face as she wrote it. Shaking her head Kara took a moment to gently blow her freeze breath on to her hands before placing them against her cheeks and the words marriage material were definitely not the first thing on her mind anymore. Sinful thoughts and over sixty dollars later Kara was finally making her way back to CatCo, already planning to send Lena a wide arrangement of emojis. Most of them flustered and eye roll faces.

***

"Ah, thank god it's you. Miss. Teschmacher over there doesn't seem to know the difference between a green smothie and a green tea. I'm still waiting to see what you saw in her Kara, she is definitely no replacement for you, but at least she doesn't have as tacky of outfits."

Even with the backhanded compliment Kara smiled gently."I miss you too, Miss Grant,"

"While you are here Kara, I do have a task for you."

"Miss Grant I'm not your..."

"Tell that gentleman in the suit that this is not a Calvin Klein runaway and he can take those tight buns straight out of my building"

"I don't know if I'll say it like that.."

"Just go,"

** Quickly making her way out of Cat's office Kara straightened out her glasses as she finally caught up to the man, who did look like he could have stepped off a runaway. "Hi, is there something or someone I can help you find? The rules are kind of strict here when it comes to signing in and letting people know what department you are meant to be in."

"Kara Danvers?"

"I...Yes?"

Furrowing her brows as he said nothing else but held a rather thick looking brown envelope out to her she hesitantly took it. 

"Um, what is it?"

"Don't know Ma'am. Specific instructions to make sure you were the one to get it"

"It wouldn't happen to be from a Luthor would it?"

"I can't disclose that information, sign here please."

"I..Right, okay.." signing her name again Kara gave him a small wave and smile as he went to leave before looking back down at the envelope. Curiously feeling the edges of it she was greatly confused only to have it click. What was the one thing Lena would be sending to her in such a hush hush but yet not at all way considering it was at her place of work? The contract.

***

All but stumbling through the doors to her apartment Kara set the bouquet down with her previous one before finally tearing open the secret envelope. It had been the most frustrating thought knowing she had it with her all day but couldn't open it. She refused to open it at work, something she'd also have to apply to opening any future cards she got from Lena.

But the moment she went to pull the pages out was when the sound of too many sirens hit her ears and she instantly sighed. 

"Seriously? C'mon National City give me one break today"

*** Armed robbers arrested? Check.

Change into comfy pajamas? Check.

Pizza? Double check.

Now she could read it, the one thing she had been so curious about but also rather frightened to finally face. Pulling her knees up to her chest Kara delicately set the pages against them. She decided before letting her thoughts take over she was going to read it through once, stay completely open minded and then after that first read through was when she'd start really picking it apart.

Of course key words stuck out and Kara felt her stomach tightening with a curious spark, or dropping and instantly filling with worry.

Grabbing her notebook she took a few deep breaths, telling herself to stay open minded before she started her second read through, this time writing down words she either needed to look up, or things she needed to ask about. The list to look up was definitely a lot longer than her questions and after she had it written she took a small break to focus on her pizzas before moving to her room and settling in bed with her laptop.

"Okay...Here we go,"

Of course the first thing she searched was the generic dominant and submissive relationships, at least wanting to feel like she wasn't completely lost. It seemed basic enough and actually quite informative as she found articles and even some videos of healthy relationships being discussed.

So far, so good.

Now, the difficult part. Glancing at her list of things she needed to look up she had to admit, she did feel slightly embarrassed at how long it was. She was sure this would have been a lot easier to think about and maybe even accept if she had some sexual experience but she started simple and worked on terms first, those weren't too hard to understand.

Once she had moved on to the limits lists, well that was a whole different ball park. Typing in the first one and squinting a little at the screen as it loaded Kara instantly grew wide eyed at the images that appeared.

"Uh...nope. Definitely not,"

She'd made little comments and x's or checks next to the things she was either completely taking out of consideration, and the things she wasn't totally turned off by.

But, a few things did keep playing in her mind. She didn't like that Lena would literally have complete control over her. She didn't like that just because she signed a contract meant that Lena could spontaneously put her into sexual situations, especially with the images she had looked up earlier flashing through her mind.

However, what had happened after dinner was spontaneous but she wasn't sure if that really counted, after all Lena didn't touch her she wasn't using any of these objects on her. Rubbing her eyes under her glasses she took them off and set them on her night stand. This really wasn't helping things and her mind was still racing with curiosity and as much as she didn't want to admit it, there was a small part of her that was uncomfortable.

Pushing her notes and the contract carefully aside she sighed, tapping her fingers gently against her keyboard before deciding on the next thing she wanted to look up.

Why does one want to be a dominant?

As much as she knew Lena was going to keep secrets, after all Kara literally knew nothing about her, she was still curious to see if she could try to understand her. But there was no denying that she was a hundred times more nervous to face Lena again, especially after this.

[elliotthezubat]

DEATH CITY DAYS CHAPTER 91

from plays, to hero exams, jailbreak jobs and major storms.

 Arthur: *knocks on Tamaki's door*

tamaki: it's open.

Arthur: *enters* "Hello..." *sits next to her on the bed*

tamaki: whats up?

Arthur: "..." *drops his head on her lap* "Please don't leave me for the Sun God."

tamaki: ./////. *holds him* im not.

Arthur: *nods* "Thank you...I just wanted to see." *hug*

tamaki:....*hug* i love you, you know.

Arthur: "I love you, too..." *sniff*

tamaki:....*kiss*

Arthur: "Mmm..." *kiss, pats her hand*

-elsewhere-

lana: thanks for picking me up, guys.

rowena: it's no trouble. ^^

Poe: ^^ "How was your day?"

lana: went pretty well. had to clean vomit today, so _thats_ there. -_-;

rowena: yikes.

Poe: -~- "Awful. Some guests had too much to drink?"

lana: you could say that.

Poe: "Hmph. How irresponsible. Well, we can focus on a good hearty meal."

lana: cheers to that.

Poe: "Maybe a good bowl of soup, or a delicious plate of grilled chicken with lemon, or..."

lenore: sunflower seeds.

rowena: ^^;

Poe: "Oh, they serve those at this restaurant, too! Such a wide selection when catering to so many different customers."

-elsewhere-

Inka: *asleep in her bedroom* "Zzz..."

{Inka: "Okay, you all know what to do?"}

{panda: yeah, we know. *his skin is charred*}

{Sancho: "Just give me a second." *his arm is missing, his left side blown out*}

{Inka: *stares...* "...What the hell..."}

{panda: why'd ya let us die, huh?}

{Inka: "..." *frowns* "You knew how this was. You know what I wanted. Not my fault you couldn't keep up--"}

{???: because you're a selfish coward.}

{Inka: *her eyes shift, forming the shape when activating her Adora* "You think so, huh?" *turns* "Say it to my face..."}

{inka?: *a corpse like inka stares back* selfish, little bitch.}

{Inka: "?!!! ...Who the hell are you?" *she backs up--bumping into Panda and Sancho, feeling their burnt skin* }

{inka?: isnt this what you want? to be so close to death like this?}

{Inka: "..." *smiles, but nervously* "Y-Yeah, it is...It's great!"}

{inka?: *right in her face* then why are you so nervous?}

{-the other inka is rotting at an alarming rate...-}

{Inka: *stares, still smiling, but feeling tears fall* "C-Cool, right?" *she wipes her face* "...?!!" *those aren't tears--it's blood*}

{other inka: *touches the original's face, before unhinging her jaw to swallow her head whole*}

{Inka: *screams, feeling Panda and Sancho holding her, as she is swallowed--*}

sasori: INKA!

Inka: *screams, bolting up-right in bed* *pants, looking at Sasori* "Wh-What..."

sasori: you were shaking....

Inka: "...I-I'm fine...Just a dream..." *wipes her brow, covered in sweat* "Th-That's all...What are you doing here?"

sasori: we have the same room, remember?

Inka: "...Right...I woke you, then?"

sasori: i wasnt even asleep.

Inka: "...Oh...Trouble sleeping?"

sasori:....maybe.

Inka: "..." *hug*

sasori: !!!!! i-inka?

Inka: "...Okay, good, you're not some ghost or something..." >\\\> *pat pat* "Sorry to bother you."

sasori:....7///7; *awkward pat* i-it's fine...just glad you're fine.

Inka: "...Thanks...bodyguard. Um...Could you...um..."

sasori:...*lets go* s-sorry.... 7///////7;;;

-morning-

Kid: *kitten yawn*

stocking: *already getting changed, trying to pick out an outfit* hmmmm

Kid: "Something for teaching? Or a meeting?"

stocking: should i do an office lady style? or should i go with a pantsuit?

Kid: "Maybe pantsuit for a change?"

stocking: sounds good. i'll even wear glasses to go with~ ^^

Kid: "Excellent." ^^

-elsewhere-

erina: zzzzz

Allison: *peeks in*

Jordan: "Zzzz..."

erina: *hugging him*

Allison: "..." -\\\u\\\- *carefully closes the door*

Jordan: *holds her, small murmur*

erina: *yaaawn* morning, jo.

Jordan: ^^ "Mornin'...Sleep okay?"

erina: yeah...thanks for last night. i-i know it wasnt much but, im glad you were there.

Jordan: "Hey, if you need anything, I want to help..." *soft pat of her hand*

erina: *hugs*

Jordan: ^\\\^ *pat pat*

-elsewhere-

Vulcan: *sets down breakfast* "Eat up."

yu: thanks for the meal!

lisa: *nom*

nozomi: thanks, vulcan.

Vulcan: "Any time! There's plenty more if you want it..." *sets down his art pad, doodling some shapes on it*

nozomi: what are you working on?

Vulcan: "You know how firefighters have those oxygen masks? I wanted to shrink the size of those while using lighter but denser materials without obstructing vision--and to, frankly, make them look more badass..." *he has drawings of dragons, demons, birds...*

nozomi: *points to one, a bird* that one looks nice.

Vulcan: "You like it? When I get the prototype ready, maybe you can try it out."

nozomi: i'd like that. ^^

Vulcan: "Cool...I think I'll have my work cut out for me--the Commander has me designing a ton of stuff for this trip..."

nozomi: how about one that's a turtle? OvO

Vulcan: "Aw, yeah!" *starts drawing*

-elsewhere-

Hyde: "Dude, a fight's happening in the hall!"

mahiru: wait seriously?!

Hyde: "Anya flipped a fool! You got to see it!"

mahiru: *looks outside*

Anya: *holding someone down* "WATCH YOUR HANDS NEXT TIME, OR YOU'LL LOSE THEM!"

mahiru: *glances*

Mineta: *pinned to the ground* Q____Q

mahiru: *walks away*

Hyde: *snaps pics*

Mineta: D: "HELP ME!"

ao:....*glances at a dust chute* he should be small enough to fit...

Anya: "Doing it!" *tosses him*

Mineta: "AAAAH--" *crashes into the chute*

-elsewhere-

Magaki: *looking at various contact lenses* "..."

clerk: see anything to your liking? ^^

Magaki: "What would look normal and assist with UV protection?"

clerk: hmm, let's see here.

Magaki: "I'll try the blue ones."

clerk: ah, and the sclerae color?

Magaki: "Normal?"

clerk: would you like white? or a different color?

Magaki: "...White."

clerk: alright then. *showing a few displays* what suits your fancy? ^^

Magaki: "..." *points to one on the left* "Let's try this one."

-elsewhere-

Tanizaki: "Yes...Yes, I understand. We'll call with any information...I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. Goodbye." *hangs up* "..." *sighs*

-knock knock knock-

Tanizaki: "Coming..." *looks through the peephole*

frances: *waves, holding a wagon full of flowers?*

Tanizaki: "???" *opens the door* "Hey!"

frances: hello~ i come bearing gifts~! *hands him a flower in a pot*

Tanizaki: "Neat--thanks! Dropping them off around the building?"

frances: indeed~ ^^ thought i'd bring some cheerful little blossoms to the building and its tenants~ ^^

Tanizaki: "Not a bad plan. You try the restaurant downstairs?"

frances: indeed i have~

atsushi: (she's even left flowers in all the agency apartments...) *sweatdrop*

Tanizaki: ^_^;;;; "Well, thank you."

frances: do take care of them now, and water them regularly. and do talk to them too.

Tanizaki: " 'Talk'? It helps them?"

frances: indeed~ ^^

kirako: i've heard about that.

atsushi: yeah, lucy does that too. ^////^

Tanizaki: "Huh...Um...Hi, little plant?"

-no comment...-

Tanizaki: "..." ^^; "Welcome...to our office?"

-elsewhere-

Steinbeck: *holding up a doll* "Want to play?"

lavinia: *staaaaare*

emily:... ^^; not very talkative, is she?

Steinbeck: "Well, a lot of kids have their own pace." *shakes the doll--and it talks--*

Doll: "I want to play!"

lavinia:....*sticks the doll in her mouth by its head*

Steinbeck: ^^; "See? She likes it!"

emily: ^^;;;;;;

Doll: *muffled* "I love you."

-CHOMP-

emily: ._________________.

lavinia: *chewing on the doll's head*

Steinbeck: TwT;;;

-elsewhere-

Shotaro: "Bandages off!"

mana: amazing how not even being all wrapped up stopped you from doing good deeds. thats determination right there.

Shotaro: "Yep!"

{Shotaro: *stamping paperwork for someone...with the stamp held between his teeth*}

{Shotaro: *walking dogs--while being pulled in a wheelchair* "MUSH! MUSH!"}

{Shotaro: *wrapped in bandages, stuffed into a pharaoh casket*}

nea: i'm both impressed and alarmed.

Shotaro: OwO "...Still not sure why they needed that last one..."

-elsewhere-

leroux: *walking in the hall*

Hirotsu: *adjusting his collar* *nods to Leroux*

leroux: afternoon, sir.

Hirotsu: *nods* "Afternoon. Could I ask you for some information?"

leroux: about what, per say?

Hirotsu: "You're involved in theatre, correct?"

leroux: why indeed. a stagehand in youth, and theatre aficionado, as it were. ^^

Hirotsu: "Ah, good--someone to speak with. I do miss going to shows. The last one was abysmal--the person playing Ophelia couldn't act her way out of a paper bag."

leroux: *LIGHTBULB* why dont we host a production here? *shiny eyes*

Hirotsu: "...Oh, thank God, someone finally recommends it! Yes, please, do! Which plays do you know?"

leroux: which ones DONT i know?! OvO

Hirotsu: "Excellent...but given the quality of, um...potential actors here..."

*Motojiro is talking to a lemon, Kafka is screaming into a pillow, Walter is asleep*

Hirotsu: "Perhaps a simpler play would be the best course of action."

leroux: hmmmm...i'll see what we can come up with!

Hirotsu: *nods* "Thank you."

-elsewhere-

Konro: "Fireworks, huh?"

fang-hua: yes. it's actually how i also discovered my ability, when my brother jin decided to light one in the house. i managed to hold the flame in place.

Konro: "Oh, no...Was anyone hurt?"

fang-hua: thankfully no. mom tells me grandpa had the abilities too.

Konro: "But not your mother, so it skipped a generation?"

fang-hua: most likely.

Konro: "How goes business for your family without you there?"

fang-hua: it goes pretty well. we get to bring in shipments to the harbor cities too.

Konro: "By ship?"

fang-hua: by ship, by wagon.

Tsukiyo: "Attach sparklers to the wagon wheels?"

fang-hua: no. *sweatdrop*

Tsukiyo: -3- "Boo."

Konro: ^^; "How are the language lessons going?"

fang-hua: they seem to be coming along well.

Tsukiyo: "What're you teaching them? Just enough to get around town?"

fang-hua: yeah. im also teaching them cultural customs and history.

Tsukiyo: "...Think you'll find out about the first fire demons?"

fang-hua: it's likely...

Tsukiyo: "Hope so..."

-elsewhere-

Spirit: *packing*

izumi: need help, dad?

Spirit: "Sure! Some of the beach stuff can go in the luggage."

izumi: ok!

*Looks like towels, sunscreen...seems to be something in the pocket of the swim trunks*

izumi:....*packing*

Spirit: "Just be careful with some of it--don't want anything getting lost."

-elsewhere-

tensei: *rolling on in*

Iida: "Brother..."

tensei: hey tenya. *smiles*

Iida: *weak smile*

tensei: pretty cool wheels, huh?

Iida: "Heh...Going to customize them?"

tensei: i think so. what do you think about silver with blue stripes?

Iida: "Th-That'd be great..."

tensei:...it's gonna be ok.

Iida: "..." *hug*

tensei: *hug*

Iida: *sniff, pat pat*

-elsewhere-

Todoroki: *sets out ice tea*

ochako: looks good.

Todoroki: "Thanks..." *looks at his watch* "Should be here soon..."

ochako: *looks around*

Izuku: "Hey!" *waves*

momo: hello.

ochako: hey guys.

tsuyu: *wave*

Todoroki: "Welcome. I ordered tea to start."

momo: thanks.

ochako: ^^

Izuku: *pulls out a chair for Tsuyu*

tsuyu: *sits down*

Izuku: "I've been wanting to try this place--looks peaceful..." *glances at the menu*

ochako: so how was the exams for you?

tsuyu: my stomach still feels weird.

ochako: yikes.

Izuku: "...Maybe some ginger ale?"

tsuyu: good call.

-elsewhere-

Patty: "Pass it to me! Pass it!"

riley: HA! *toss*

Patty: *catches* "Yay!"

*The toy laughs when tossed*

julie: *laughs*

Patty: "Catch, Jules!" *tosses softly*

-nice catch-

julie: i did it!

Lord Death Toy: "You did it--yay!"

-elsewhere-

Jun: "Okay, let's see them."

takuto: *holds up his drawing of his family*

mitsuba: DAWWWW SO CUTE!

Jun: "Great work!"

takuto: ^u^

Jun: *pat pat* "Let's hang it up..."

hyakuya:......

Jun: "Um...Hyakuya, up for getting us some snacks for lunch?"

hyakuya: oh yeah, sure.

Jun: "Thanks. Maybe celery with peanut butter?"

hyakuya: sounds good.

Jun: "And I'll get this posted..." *puts the drawing up on the fridge*

-it's of takuto, jun, yumikage, tsurugi...and shifumi-

Jun: "..." *sad smile*

hyakuya: .....

Jun: *hugs Takuto*

-elsewhere-

kirako:......!!! we need oranges.

Kyoka: "??? What?" *looks*

kirako: also do we have peanut butter?

Kyoka: "...I'll check." *goes to the cupboard* "Yes to peanut butter, not to oranges. I can pick some up."

kirako: thank you.

Kyoka: *nods* "I'll be back shortly." *exits*

-later-

Kyoka: *sets down the oranges and peanut butter* "...Soooooo..."

kirako: Q~Q you're such a good person kyoukaaaaaa *hugs her and sobs*

Kyoka: "...I...know?" *pat pat* "How are you?"

kirako: hungwy Q3Q

Kyoka: "...How about we peel oranges?"

-elsewhere-

Kafka: "...A play. Of all the things we need, right now...a play?"

leroux: yes.

Kafka: "..." *sighs, lowers his head* "Send me a budget projection report, I'll review it...What play?"

leroux: i...havent decided yet. ^^; there's so many to choose from! romeo and juliet, hamlet, the scottish play, sleeping beauty, cinderella, snow white, so many to choose from! >3<

Kafka: -_-; "Why do people insist on calling it 'The Scottish Play'..."

hans: we're back with groceries!

etta: ^^

Kafka: "... ... ..."

{Kafka: *haired swept back, in princely attire with a cape*}

{etta: my prince~<3}

{Kafka: *smiles* "Princess..." *sweeps her off her feet*}

{etta: *leans in*}

{Kafka: *smiles, closes his eyes, leans...*}

leroux: KAFKA? are you paying attention? *waves hand in front of him* HELLO? <friend?> Hellooooo?

Kafka: -3- "Mm...Mm...Mmm..."

leroux:....*sigh* <well damn.> .....girls, your assistance a moment?

etta: oh, hey roro.

hans: whats up?

leroux: i've been more-or-less commissioned for a play showing here! but im having trouble deciding which production to host.

Walter: *walks by* "Oh, neat!" *walks in* "Which plays are you looking at?"

wilhelm: *pokes his head in*

Jakob: "??? A play? It's not some mushy lovey stuff, is it?" *looking through Hans's grocery bag*

leroux: im trying to decide, but im having trouble. AH! MY MUSE! I BEG OF YOUR ASSISTANCE IN THIS DIRE TIME!

Walter: "...We could just put them on a dartboard and let fate decide."

Jakob: *tosses cinnamon rolls to Wilhelm*

wilhelm: awesome!

hans: you can have these later.

wilhelm: =3=#

Kafka: "Mmm~ ..." *opens his eyes* "... !!!!" .\\\\\.

hans: *hands them both apples* you can have these for now.

Jakob: -_- "Fine. It's sweet at least."

leroux: *lightbulb* I GOT IT! THANK YOU CHRISTINE, MY ANGEL! TTwTT

wilhelm: ?? whats up with him?

Walter: "??? What did Christine show you?"

leroux: the apple! i've made my decision! our showing shall be snow white!

Walter: "...Neat!"

wilhelm: =3= is there gonna be smooching?

Jakob: >~<

leroux: of course, it is the most pivitol scene after all.

wilhelm: eww gros-

etta: *shoves the apple into wilhelm's mouth* sounds wonderful, roro!

Kafka: .\\\\\\\.

wilhelm: DX

Jakob: ._.;

leroux: im kind of nervous too, this is the first time i've ever done any directing. _should_ i be directing or should i leave the task to someone more experienced?

hans: breathe in.

leroux: *INHALES*

hans: and out.

leroux: *exhale* merci.

hans: we can host auditions this weekend.

Jakob: "??? What, some goofy outfit and a fake beard?"

-elsewhere-

Giriko: "How's your sister holding up?"

kirika: doing better i think. classes have been helping her too.

Giriko: "Sounds like good news...Any hint she remembers more?"

kirika: not sure, but she's remembering bits and pieces.

Giriko: *nods* "Preacher keeping an eye on her?"

kirika: yeah. 7.7

Giriko: "...Need me to 'talk' to him?" *cracks his knuckles*

kirika: as much as i'd like to, i'm gonna have to decline for oriko's sake. no clue what she sees in him...

Giriko: "..." *opens his mouth to say something, stops...* "...Yeah."

-elsewhere-

Child: *crying* "I-I want to go home..."

guruna: oh child. this _is_ your home now. *smile*

Child: "No, it isn't! I want my daddy! Give him back!"

guruna:....your papa's in a better place now. and he's happy. and he'd want you to be happy here too. all your brothers and sisters are happy.

Child: "They aren't my brothers and sisters!" *collapses, covering their face, sobbing*

guruna:....child....are we going to have to punish you? *sickening smile*

Child: *tossing on the floor* "I want to go home!"

seraphim: *picks them up* i'll handle this one......*takes one of her feathers.....and burns the child's wrist*

Child: "AAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

-SLAP-

Child: *knocked down*

seraphim: stop squirming.

Child: "..." *their eyes look deadened*

seraphim: this is what happens to children who misbehave~

Child: "..." *stays lying on the floor*

seraphim: you can stay there on the ground until you learn your lesson....

sasori:......*walks away*

Child: "..." *curls up into the fetal position*

-elsewhere-

mono: *asleep*

*From outside her room, it smells like someone is cooking...*

mono: ?? *looks outside*

*Looks like Assi is cooking something in a skillet*

mono: ?? whats that?

Assi: "?!!! O-Oh, Mono...I-I was heating up some pizza bagels..."

mono: oh. *sits down*

Assi: *sets out two plates, then the bagels* "Sleep okay?" *smiles*

mono: yeah.

Assi: *sets down the bagel--it's...heart-shaped?*

mono: .... 7///7;

Assi: ^\\\^; "This house has some great cookie cutters..." *sits down*

mono: ........

Assi: "..." *awkward nom* >\\\\>

mono:.....i guess...

Assi: "??? ...So...How is it?"

mono: hmm? i-it's good. thanks.

Assi: ^\\\^ "You're welcome."

mono: hmm...

Assi: "...You, um, have something on your cheek." *hands a napkin*

mono: *wipes* t-thanks. =//=;

Assi: ^^ "I get excited for pizza stuff, too."

-elsewhere-

Benimaru: *sits down, holding his head*

kirei: *hug*

Benimaru: "...Thank you."

-elsewhere-

marie: *putting up posters*

Sid: *hangs another one*

sayaka: looks good!

nygus: thanks. mind helping out, this is so much work, its killing me.

sayaka: not a problem at all!

Sid: "..." Q_Q " 'Killing'?"

nygus: s-sorry, slip of the tongue.

Sid: "Y-Yeah, right--Death Child speak..."

sayaka: ^^ so what do you need help with?

Sid: "Well, you can pass out flyers, ask local businesses to put up the posters."

sayaka: *salutes* you got it, mr barrett!

Sid: *salute* "Thanks...If you run out, come back to pick up more."

sayaka: if all else fails, i can make my own flyers!

-elsewhere-

yana:........*stuffing a dead squirrel* .....

Ivan: "How's it coming along?"

yana:....<ok, i guess.> ......(i wonder.....why did i pick up this hobby to begin with?......its just trying to make something dead seem living, even though there's no life to it......perhaps by occupying myself with something so trivial.....im trying to make _myself_ feel alive.....) *sigh*

Ivan: "..." <It looks lifelike.>

yana:...<i guess so.> (doesnt mean it's _alive_.)

Ivan: <You're quite good at it--very creative with the pose...>

yana: hmm....

-elsewhere-

Arthur: *holds up two images against each other--a photo of Qingdao, and a drawing of Avalon*

tamaki: what are you doing?

Arthur: "I think...I know what caused the Great Disaster. It was...King Arthur's Holy Sword!"

shinra: i dont think that's what it was.

tamaki:......*excalibur face* i wouldnt be surprised if it were, though.

Arthur: "See? Tamaki supports my hypothesis. Why can't you be more supportive?"

shinra: *sweatdrop*

Arthur: *points to the images* "See? Similar designs. King Arthur likely ventured forth to this location, did something with the Holy Sword, caused a fire, then we get Flame Humans. All we need is the Lady of the Lake to restore balance."

-elsewhere-

Master: *sets out rice crispy treats shaped like bunnies*

mio: easter stuff already?

ao: it's april.

Meme: "When it's that cute, I'm not complaining!"

mio: oh. my brain was still in february.

Master: *nods* "I wanted some new menu items for the spring."

tsugumi: hmmm. *thinking*

Master: "Tsugumi?"

tsugumi: *idea* how about omurice chicks?

Master: "Huh. Yeah, I can add those."

-elsewhere-

Gin: "So, you're auditioning?"

higuchi: yeah. i auditioned once for the very snow white role in middle school....i ended up being the bottom half of the horse.

Gin: "..." *small laugh* "I-I'm sorry..."

higuchi: this is my chance to make up for past mistakes! *determined*

Gin: "Yes! ...Who do you think will be Charming in this play?"

higuchi: not sure.

Gin: "...Well, I look forward to the play. And I will not be jealous of whoever plays Charming. At all."

Walter: "Hi! I'm here to audition for--"

*SNITK*

Walter: QwQ;;;

higuchi: gin, easy.

Gin: *holding a kunai* "..." *exhale*

-elsewhere-

madoka: *nuzzle* ^///^

Rin: ^\\\^ *puts an arm around her*

madoka: *tail pet* hehe ^^

Rin: .\\\\. "heh..."

madoka: fluffy. ^^

Rin: "Yes, it is...Is it okay?"

madoka: *nod* it's kinda cute, actually.

Rin: .\\\\. "Really~?"

madoka: ^^ *cheek smooch*

Rin: *soft shudder* "Th-Thanks..." *holds her hand*

-elsewhere-

tamaki: *checking her horoscope*

Iris: "Anything interesting?"

tamaki: hmmmm, 'your dreams will take you on a fantastic journey'... huh.

Iris: "Usually they say something a little more, I don't know, tangible?"

tamaki: *looks again*

Iris: "Hmm...The one for Shinra mentions 'Something is coming up.' I wonder what that means."

-elsewhere-

Motojiro: "I got the chemicals for the theater fog and magic explosions!"

hans: thank you, just be careful that the kids dont get into it.

Motojiro: "Right! After all, dry ice requires keeping the hands free from the CO2--" *opens the box* "..." OwO; "...Where did it go?"

ayako: got it right here!

Motojiro: *loud exhale* "Thank goodness..." *puts on gloves* "Hand it here..."

-elsewhere-

Hirotsu: *seated* "Okay, next auditioning for the role of the Queen..."

kouyou: hello~ ^^

Hirotsu: "Ah, Kouyou, welcome. Do you need another copy of the script, or are you ready?"

kouyou: i'm ready. ^^

etta: miss kouyou does have a queenly nature to her, huh?

leo: i'm certain she'd be perfect for the role.

katya: what about the witch?

leo: ._.;

Hirotsu: "Traditionally the Queen also plays the Witch."

kouyou: =3=

pushkin:....*meekly raises his hand* i can handle the witch maybe?

katya: *manly tears* you are such a goddamn trooper.

Hirotsu: "That'll be up for auditions..." *hands him the script*

pushkin: *SALUTES*

Hirotsu: "Um..." *half-hearted salute* "That leaves auditioning for Charming and Snow White..."

tachihara:.... (ok, this could be my chance! even if it is a play! it's something!)

-elsewhere-

Yumi: *making flower crowns with Shiori*

shiori: ^u^

Yumi: "I'm sure your father and siblings will love these..."

shiori: piddy! [translation; pretty!]

Yumi: "Yes, they are pretty!" *adjusts the one for Kid* "Just have to make this one a little more even on the sides..."

-elsewhere-

Stein: *finds a photo on his desk* "???" *picks it up*

-it's a picture of stein, spirit, kami, marie, nygus, sid, and yumi when they were students-

Stein: "Hmm...Haven't seen this in a bit."

valentine: old class photo?

Stein: *nods* "We all looked different..."

-elsewhere-

Relan: *reviewing a medical book*

komori: [learning medical training?]

Relan: *nods* "Just more first aid for now...I felt next to useless in the last attack, that many people injured..."

komori: ....

Relan: "...Sorry. Need to stop my self-pity. It's just...Shinra injured, that person he found still in the hospital..."

komori: [its understandable]

Relan: *nods* "It's going to be more difficult with fewer people here--down one nun, one hero, one...whatever Arthur is."

komori: ^^;

Relan: "At least Victor knows some science--hope he or someone in command knows medicine."

-elsewhere-

Asura: *shivers*

mikan:...the moon looks lovely tonight, doesnt it?

Asura: "..." *looks up* "...I suppose..."

mikan:...*nuzzle* u///u

Asura: =\\\= *wraps his arms--and scarves--gently in embrace*

mikan: hehe ^^

Asura: "...The moonlight reveals so much..."

mikan: *hug*

Asura: *strokes her head*

-elsewhere-

Hirotsu: "Okay, auditions turned out well...What do you think of the candidates?"

leroux: looks to be quite promising.

etta: this is my first time being an acting coach. im so excited~

Hirotsu: "Good...Should also consider any understudies needed. Miss Hoffman, interested?"

etta: ^u^

Hirotsu: "Let's see..." *checks off the list* "And the dwarves are learning their lines?"

leroux: madame leo is helping them now.

Jakob: "Will the real apple be poisoned?"

leroux: no.

wilhelm: =3= well _that's_ lame.

Jakob: "Are there sword fights?"

leroux: well... ^^;

Hirotsu: "There's, um...dancing?" ^^;

Jakob: "...That is awful, old man."

wilhelm: =3=

Hirotsu: *stabbed* Q_Q

hans: *CHOP* behave you two.

wilhelm: Q~Q

Jakob: "WAH!" T~T

leroux: ^^;;;

Walter: "??? Kafka, you okay, buddy?"

Kafka: *curled up in a ball* "I am the lowly pillbug..." T~T

etta: *pap pap* its ok, kiddos, we can play sword fight later, ok?

wilhelm: YAAAY!

Jakob: QwQ

hans: use the foam swords!

Jakob: >_> "Fine..."

leroux: ^^.....kafka?

Kafka: *still curled up* <What?>

leroux: erm... *in german* <is something mattering?>

Kafka: <I-I'm fine! It's just...um...The expenses! Yes, this play is too, um, expensive...> *looks away...spots Etta* >\\\\>

leroux:..... 7v7 suuuure it is.

Kafka: "?!!!" *small roach hiss*

leroux: xwo;;;;;;

Kafka: >\\\\~\\\\< <Don't say a word...>

-elsewhere-

Magaki: "...I can't see a reflection, so I don't know how they look."

tsubaki: they look lovely. ^^

Magaki: "...O-Okay. That should be good enough. Thank you. Maybe people will not stare so much..."

-elsewhere-

Kyoka: "She has been...well, odd."

atsushi: yeah...

Kyoka: "Is this normal? I mean, she seems healthy..."

atsushi: probably pregnancy stuff.

Kyoka: "Hmm...Weird." *shrugs* "Just keep an eye on her."

-elsewhere-

Chuuya: "How are preparations?"

pushkin: lot's of painting. *phew*

katya: *hammering*

Chuuya: "...Well, don't huff it."

katya: hmm hmm.....

-there seem to be faded war scars on her body-

Chuuya: "..." *looking at the scars*

katya:...<what?>

Chuuya: *looks at Pushkin* "...What was..."

-he's already back to work-

Chuuya: "...Hmph." *sets up props*

-elsewhere-

Akitaru: "How's packing going?"

shinra: pretty good. vulcan said he was making some masks for us.

Akitaru: "Oh? Halloween's not for a while..."

tamaki: he means gas masks.

shinra: yeah that.

-elsewhere-

sonia: zzzzzz

-in her dream, she appears to be walking up the stairs of a large crystaline palace-

sonia: ??

-eventually, she finds a door with an odd symbol on it and opens it to a white room-

sonia: hello? *enters*

-when she reaches the center, the floor shatters and she falls-

sonia: AH!

-when she lands, she is in a field of wildflowers, unharmed. she looks up to see a strange girl with white eyes with red crosses in them looking at her-

sonia: *blinks*

girl: hiya!

sonia: huh?

girl: *staaaaaare*

sonia:...what?

girl: ....oh! are you that person's daughter?

sonia: who are you-

-mew-

sonia: *she wakes up* nnhuh?

mito: *nuzzles and purrs*

sonia:... *pet pet* good kitty.... (that girl....who was she?)

*The door opens a crack*

sonia: papa?

Chuuya: *peeks in* "You okay?"

sonia: y-yeah...*yaaawn*

Chuuya: "...It's time to get up. Are you feeling okay?"

sonia: yes, papa. *rubs her eyes*

Chuuya: "...Did you sleep okay?"

sonia: *nod nod*

Chuuya: *nods* "Okay. Wash up--I'm setting out breakfast."

sonia: i will.

-elsewhere-

sero: Q____Q

mina: TTwTT write back to us from the camp, ok?

Izuku: O_O "Well...I mean, nothing is official yet. Maybe you did pass--"

sero: i really hope you jinxed it.

Denki: *grabs Izuku by the shoulders* "THAT'S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY! WE FLUNKED THE PRACTICAL! AND IT'S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY WHEN YOU FREAKING PASSED!!!" *violently shaking Izuku*

Izuku: *stammering, vibrating* "I aM SOrrY!!!"

jirou: calm down, kaminari, the teacher's gonna be here soon.

Denki: "DON'T SAY THAT! IT'LL BE ANOTHER JINX--"

Aizawa: *sits up from the back row in a sleeping bag* "Jinx what?"

mina:....how long has he been there?

Aizawa: "Around the part where Kaminari was shaking Midoriya like a snow globe."

Izuku: Q_Q "...Why didn't I see him..."

Aizawa: *yawns*

-everyone takes their seats-

Aizawa: *unzips, hangs the sleeping bag on the coat hook* "Okay. So, some of you failed the exam. Therefore..."

sero: TT_TT damn you mineta.

Mineta: D:<

Aizawa: "You're going on the camping trip."

everyone: WAIT WHAT?!

eijiro: b-but-but the practical exam-

Aizawa: "You all passed the written exam, but Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, Sato, and Mineta failed the practical exam."

sero: what about me?!

Aizawa: "You also failed."

sero: TT~TT

mina: *pats his back* im sorry you had to be put through that, sero.

tsuyu: *pap pap*

Mineta: "What about me? I lost, too." Q_Q

tsuyu: *tosses him into the trash bin*

Mineta: *muffled shouts*

Aizawa: "But the practical wasn't pass-fail: it was specifically designed around your strengths and weaknesses, with tasks and teachers best suited to where you need to strategize how to win. After all, against those teachers at full strength, you didn't stand a chance anyway."

ojiro: so then, when you said you were going to crush us-

Aizawa: "A ploy to motivate you. After all, what kind of monster would deny students from going on a _training_ trip?"

sero: ._.;

mina: ._.;

eijiro: ._.;

Aizawa: "Call it a rational deception."

Iida: *making a Ffffffffffffffff-- face*

Aizawa: "Those who 'failed' will have special supplemental lessons. Enjoy."

-elsewhere-

Walter: *looking at the cast list* *whistles*

higuchi: I GOT IT! >u<

Gin: "Congratulations!"

higuchi: ^^

Jakob: "Look, Wilhelm!"

wilhelm: cool!

Jakob: "Even the shorty!"

katya: *grabs them both by the head* you want to say that to my face you little shits?

wilhelm: OxO;

Jakob: Q~Q *crosses his legs*

leo: katyusha, please dont fight with the children.

katya:...*grumble* fine then. i'll let them off.....for now.

wilhelm: QvQ thank you mrs leo!

leo: ^^;

Jakob: Q_Q *runs for the bathroom*

-elsewhere-

Kid: *ties Shiori's shoes*

shiori: thankie.

Kid: *smiles* "You're welcome! Ready to go?"

shiori: *nod nod*

Kid: *picks her up*

shiori: ^u^

Kid: "Let's walk to the door!"

shiori: *waddling along*

Kid: "Great walking."

shiori: *falls on her butt* uh-oh

Kid: "Uh-oh. Ready to get up?" *offers his hands*

shiori: ah.

-elsewhere-

io: *crying because her jumper is stuck on a cupboard knob*

saki: *filming* did you get stuck, sweetie? ^^;

Tool: "Need some help, Io?"

io: Q~Q UUU! UUU!

saki: oh, come here sweetie. *helps her out* there you go.

io: >^<

saki: *forehead kiss* you're ok, sweetie. wave bye to the camera.

io: *tiny wave* bai bai....

Tool: ^^ "D'aw..."

-elsewhere-

Bakugo: "..." *pokes the hamster ball*

sybil: O^O

itsuka: ^^

Bakugo: "Tiny critter..."

itsuka: they are pretty tiny. but chacha here's been putting on the pounds. isnt dat right? *tummy poke*

chacha: *squeek* >3<

itsuka: hehe ^^

Bakugo: "What've you fed them?"

itsuka: the usual hamster food, but chacha needs to share with her siblings.

chacha: >3<

Bakugo: *intense stare at Chacha* "Maybe more exercise..."

itsuka: good call.

-elsewhere-

Vulcan: "Okay, they're all set." *hands a gas-mask helmet to Shinra*

shinra: *puts it on* well? how does it look?

iris: really cool!

maki: super punk rock!

Relan: *nod nod*

Akitaru: "Rock on!"

shinra: ^u^ d'awww, shucks guys.

Vulcan: "Tamaki, Nozomi..." *hands them theirs*

tamaki: so cute!

nozomi: ^^ a very nice theme as always, vulcan.

Vulcan: ^^ "Thanks! Going to put the finishing touches on the last ones before you all head out."

-elsewhere-

hagakure: here we are~!

Ojiro: "Okay, so..." *looking over his list* "Shoes, tent, fishing pole..."

jirou: i'll need to get a new duffle bag too.

Ojiro: "Okay, so..." *looking over his list* "Shoes, tent, fishing pole..."

jirou: i'll need to get a new duffle bag too.

ochako: i finally saved up enough for a new sleeping bag. ^^

Ojiro: "Good work!"

eijiro: so meet back here at 3?

tsuyu: sounds good.

Izuku: "Okay! I'll find a first aid kit..."

-and so-

-someone in a hoodie is walking into the mall-

Izuku: *looking through shop windows* "!!! Oh, wow! The new Crimson Riot action figure! I'll have to tell Eijiro..."

???: hey, you're izuku midoriya, right?

Izuku: "???" *turns* "Y-Yeah?" ("I guess he saw me at the Tournament...losing...")

???: *puts and arm around his shoulders* you're the one who got wrecked at the tournament, right? then that hero killer business in hosu, you're just all over the place!

Izuku: "Uummm..." *nervous smile* "Y-You sure know your stuff, huh?"

???: still...i cant help but wonder.....*he puts his hand around izuku's neck, save for one finger* just how did you get this far?.....is it fate? or something else.....it's been bothering me ever since the USJ incident.....

-tomura grins at him-

tomura: why dont we have a little chat?

Izuku: "!!!!" ("Tomura...Shigaraki?!")

-elsewhere-

mina: *modeling sneakers* pretty slick, eh?

Iida: "But will they wear out too quickly?"

mina: i've had sneakers that have lasted for years, i think they should be fine by the time camp star- *GAAASP* OH MY GOSH LOOK AT THESE! *shiny eyes*

Iida: "...And the price?"

mina: just within my budget~ ^^

-they were a pair of lisa frank sneakers-

Iida: "...A hike on the mountains will rip those apart in a day."

mina: _these_ babies are going into my collection. >3<

Iida: "Fine, but you need something durable..." *holds up plain black hiking boots*

-elsewhere-

ochako: *now with her new sleeping bag* ^^ *looks out over the crowd below* (lots of people. well i got the main goal complete, so, why not play 'lets spot my classmates'?) *looks around*

*Looks like Sero and Eijiro are stepping into a sporting goods shop*

ochako: (they seem to be doing well.....i wonder if tape can be used to catch fish?)

*Momo is pointing to different duffle bags*

ochako: *smiles and glances* ??

*Looks to be someone in a hoodie with...Izuku?*

ochako: (who is that?......deku's face...) ........ (something's wrong here.....) *she starts heading over to where they are*

tomura: y'know, i really hate everything in this world....but the hero killer is really pissing me off the most right now....

Izuku: "??? W-Wasn't he working for you?"

tomura: you'd think, but that's just not how it is. even after a few months, everyone's still talking about him, and ignoring us, ignoring _me_. he can talk big all he damn pleases, but in the end, he's just destroying what he hates, so how does that make us any different?

Izuku: "...U-Understanding?"

tomura: what?

Izuku: "I...don't accept what either of you have done, the Hero Killer or you...But...I can understand the Hero Killer's reasons, not yours..."

tomura: oh do you?

Izuku: "...For him and for me...we follow ideals inspired by All Might...The Hero Killer even saved me, so even if he's destructive, and even if his methods are wrong, I know he's not just doing this for fun: he's trying to live by some ideal."

tomura: *his face is expressionless, but his eyes have a look of pure, utter hatred*

Izuku: "!!!"

tomura: i get it now...hehehe....i see why he pisses me off so much....and why you irritate me so badly....*wide grin* it's aaaaaall be cause of all might....hehehehehehe, it's soooo obvious! the reason these people go about living, smiling without any trouble, is because of all might and that stupid smiling face, acting like there's no one he can't save. *grips izuku's throat tighter*

Izuku: *coughs, struggling to move--*

ochako: hey deku...

tomura: ???

Izuku: "!!!"

ochako: friend of yours?

Izuku: "...Y-Yeah...It's fine..."

tomura: well, i should be going....best not follow me....*gets up and begins walking away*

Izuku: *coughs, inhaling deeply*

ochako: hey, are you alright, deku?

Izuku: "Sh-Shigaraki!"

tomura: ...

ochako: !!!!

Izuku: "Wh-What does All for One want?!"

tomura: ...._that's_ not what you should worry about.....what you _should_ be worried about is when we meet again....because that's when you'll die....*he vanishes into the crowd*

Izuku: *tries to walk forward--but still struggling to breathe*

-ochako ended up contacting mall security and the mall had to be closed down for the time. izuku and ochako also were taken in to be asked questions-

Izuku: "..."

officer: i see, thank you for your time, mr midoriya, you're mother will be here shortly.

Izuku: *nods* "I wish I could've stopped him..."

officer: you did what you could.

Izuku: "..." *nods*

-outside, ochako was sitting on a bench-

ochako: ....

???: "Ochaco!"

ochako: dad! *she hugs him*

Mr. Uraraka: *hug* "I was so worried! Are you okay?"

ochako: y-yeah. i'm alright. (physically at least)...

Mr. Uraraka: "You could've been hurt...Come on, let's get you home..."

ochako: ok, just waiting on my friend first.

-mrs midoriya is sitting across, weeping-

Izuku: *exits from the interrogation room*

inko: my baby!! *she hugs him* oh thank goodness you're ok! you're poor mama's heart can't take it. *she's crying*

ochako: how did it go, deku?

Izuku: "I-I'm okay, Mom...I'm sorry..." *looks at Ochaco* "I don't know...They asked me a lot of questions..."

ochako: well, we're alive, so that's good news.

Izuku: "..." *nods*

ochako: *smile* well, we should probably get home now... see you later? *offers fist bump*

Izuku: *weak smile, bump*

-later-

ochako: *laying in bed*

mrs uraraka: *opens the door a bit* you need anything, sweetie?

ochako: im good.

mrs uraraka: well, let us know if you need something, ok?

ochako: i will.

Mr. Uraraka: "..."

mrs uraraka:....*hug* she's a brave girl...

Mr. Uraraka: *nods, hugs her* "Our hero..."

-morning-

Kurogiri: "..."

banshee: he actually did that? talk about a ballzy move.

himiko: *peeeeks in* OwO~?

Kurogiri: "Reckless, but I think it stirred fear in enough heroes, so, it evens out..."

mr compress: and how is mr shigaraki now?

Kurogiri: "He's focusing on the next step to take."

-in a small bar somewhere in europe-

???: *sips*

bartender: <dont you three have anything else better to do?>

???: <when a job comes by, yes>

bartender: *looks at the two other men seated across from the blonde one*

???: *smiles, waves* <Hello!>

blonde man: *holds the bartender's arm* <if you arent too busy, mr bartender, maybe we could spend time together later~?> <3

???: *sighs* <Please don't flirt with people you don't know.>

blonde man: *pouts* <you're so meeeeean, dumas.>

Dumas: <No, practical.> *tugs the Blonde by his cheek*

blonde man: <ah~!> >///T

-someone enters-

mailman: <telegram for a mr cervantes?>

Cervantes: <I am Mr. Cervantes!>

mailman: <telegram for you, sir.>

-it seems to have an odd symbol on it, like a golden ribbon?-

bartender: (who sends telegrams anymore?)

Cervantes: "..." *grins* <WORK!>

-it reads; salutations, mr cervantes. i hope this message reaches you without too much trouble. you see, i have a job for you and your companions. you may meet with me at the prince hotel at your earliest convenience and we shall discuss the details further there. cordially, TS.-

blonde man: <oh joy!> ^u^

Dumas: *sighs, pulls out a wallet*

Cervantes: <Happy times!> *puts his foot on the chair* <Onward, to adventure!>

-elsewhere-

Allison: "You're looking happy."

erina: really? i hadnt noticed.

Allison: "Heh--most people don't." *nudge*

erina: ^^;

Allison: "You going to see him after work?"

erina: yeah.

-elsewhere-

Arthur: <--which then led to new trade opportunities, including the export of electronics and food.> *closes his Chinese textbook*

shinra: wow.

fang-hua: very good, arthur. ^^

Arthur: <Thank you.>

Victor: *thumbing through pages, trying to keep up* O~O

tamaki: *whispers* was that mandarin or cantonese?

shinra: *shrug*

Arthur: "Have you finalized the itinerary with the Commanders, teacher?"

fang-hua: yes.

Arthur: *nods* "Very good." *pulls out a sword* "Point me in the direction." *points East*

fang-hua: ^^;

-elsewhere-

Honda: "--big beautiful scenery! Strong people! Fast waters! GO FORTH, AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GREAT DISASTER! I-- ...Could you lean down a bit--I can't reach your shoulders, Takeru."

takeru: um y-yessir...

Honda: *pats his shoulders* "MAKE US PROUD, MY BOY!" *warrior cry*

takeru: *strained warrior cry*

hito: *sweatdrop*

Honda: "Where was I...Oh, right! Souvenir shopping! Get something for everyone in the Brigade! Don't skimp!" *hands him money*

-elsewhere-

Hirotsu: "Okay, let's see the costumes..."

higuchi: *modeling her dress*

maggie: wow!

Hirotsu: "Excellent. How is it?"

-she wore a wig with a brown, yellow, and red colored patchwork dress-

Hirotsu: "Most certainly our Snow White...Let's see the others..."

-kouyou is in quite the elegant gown, the kids are in cute little costumes as well-

Hirotsu: "That leaves Charming..." *looks around* "Where is he?"

Tachihara: *behind the curtain* "...Um...I feel kind of goofy."

katya: come on out here, y'coward.

Tachihara: *grumbles...* stumbles out slightly in tights and a princely jacket* .\\\. *he doesn't have the nose bandage on*

Gin: "...Who the heck is this guy?"

Tachihara: D:<

higuchi: *snickering*

katya: holy shit....he's seriously average looking.

Tachihara: Q_Q "I'm not _that_ average..."

george: ouch.

Hirotsu: "Costume rehearsal begins in five minutes. Take your places..."

-elsewhere-

-elsewhere

Master: *puts up the posters*

nygus:...those are…

-sayaka made doge posters that read 'very festival' 'much spring' 'wow'-

sayaka: ^^

Master: "...Creative."

nygus: that's a polite way of putting it. *sweatdrop*

Master: "Gives me an idea for other menu items..."

-elsewhere-

Fyodor: *whistling*

-silence-

Fyodor: "Hmm hmm hmm..." *taps his knuckle on the wall*

-...-

Fyodor: "..." *stretches* <Dull.>

-elsewhere-

Cervantes: *humming, walking along a fence*

Dumas: -_-

blonde man: *humming* ~^^

Cervantes: <Dumas, check the GPS~>

Dumas: *looking at a map*

Cervantes: <I said the GPS~>

Dumas: <A printed map is just as reliable...>

blonde man: <i wonder if our benefactor is good looking..>

Dumas: <They probably have to wear a mask so you don't see their horrible features.>

blonde man: =3= <so gloomy as always.>

Cervantes: <And GPS would be more up to date-->

blonde man: <there it is~!>

Dumas: <I mapped this myself. I am the resourceful, responsible one here.> *turns--and walks into a wall* <...>

Cervantes: <...Please pick up Dumas and bring him in~> *walks on in*

Dumas: "..." X_X *falls back*

-in one area, and individual with long white hair is reading to themselves-

Cervantes: <HELLO! WE ARE HERE TO ANSWER A SUMMONS!>

???: hm? <you are cervantes, are you not?>

Cervantes: <Yes! I received your message!>

???: <please, do have a seat. care for some apple slices?> ^^

blonde man: *shiny eyes* <so lovely...>

???: fufufu, <why thank you~>

Dumas: X_X *collapsed on the couch* <Gather the horses, my knights--we will storm the castle...>

???: ?? <is your friend alright?>

blonde man: <he'll be fine momentarily~>

Cervantes: <Just a minor head injury...> *slaps Dumas's face*

Dumas: Q_Q

Cervantes: <See~?>

???: <well, glad to see he isnt dead. now, onto the job. you see, an associate of mine has been wrongfully imprisoned in death city.> *they hand him a folder*

Cervantes: *opens, reads the file, passes the photo to the Blonde Man*

blonde man: *examines* ovo; <um...this is...erm....>

-the photo is of fyodor-

Dumas: *holding his head* <Ugh...> *looks at the photo* <...Oh, yeah, that's a reassuring smile...> *cringes*

???: <so you'll do it? i'll make sure you are handsomely rewarded for your trouble.>

Cervantes: *looks over maps and reports* "..." *smiles widely* <Yes! We accept!>

blonde man: <it shouldnt be a problem, with my ability, freeing him will be a snap~!>>

Dumas: *sighs* <Escaping a prison? I thought it would be a challenge...>

???: <thank you kindly, gentlemen. i will make sure you do not regret it~>

-elsewhere-

Iida: "And then one approaches a classmate."

tensei: seriously?

Iida: *nods* "No sign where he went. It was the same who attacked USJ."

tensei: ....

Iida: "Let me pull it up..." *his laptop is frozen* *sighs* "So much for dependable tech..."

tensei: let me try something.

Iida: "???" *hands him the laptop*

-after a while, it seemed to be fixed-

Iida: "Oh, thank you! That was impressive."

-elsewhere-

Poe: *curled up under a blanket, reading*

karl: zzzzz

Poe: *pets Karl, stroking his back*

karl: =w=

Poe: ^w^ *returns to reading, jotting some notes*

-elsewhere-

Damon: "Then teacher gave us a quiz for chemistry."

soul: how was that?

becky: i got an 89.

Damon: "84?"

soul: great job you two. ^^ *double head pat*

becky: =,=;

Damon: ^^; "I wanted to do better..."

becky: want me to tutor you?

Damon: *nod* "Yes, please!"

becky: ^^

Damon: *takes out his quiz* "I got Number 5 wrong."

-elsewhere-

Dumas: *checking off items on the list* "We're still short on flash bombs..."

blonde man: <i can secure more for us~>

Dumas: <Do it. And we'll also need-->

Cervantes: *snores*

Dumas: "..." *poke poke*

Cervantes: "Zzz..."

Dumas: "..." -_-

-elsewhere-

Lucy: *looks out the window* "...What the heck is he doing?"

atsushi: hmm? *looks*

Dazai: *on all fours, sifting through something in the grass*

atsushi: *watching*

Dazai: "..." *looks surprised, starts pulling on something in the grass*

Lucy: "Did he lose something?"

Dazai: *tugging on what looks like a weed*

atsushi: i better check on him to make sure he isnt hurting himself. *heads outside*

Lucy: "Good thinking..." *follows*

Dazai: *grunting, tugging* "Come on...Get loose!"

atsushi: hey dazai, what're you doing exactly?

Dazai: "Ah, I dropped a quarter while walking back--*GRUNT*--and then I saw this weed--*GROAN*--that won't come loose..." *the 'weed' looks...metallic?*

atsushi: ??? (odasaku, you have any idea what the heck that is?)

odasaku: your guess is as good as mine.

Lucy: "...?!! Wait! I think that's the phone--"

Dazai: *PULLS--and the 'weed' snakes up the grass, to the building--and pulls wires off the wall*

atsushi: ._.;;; um.....

naomi: DAZAI! D8<

Kunikida: "THE INTERNET JUST WENT OUT!"

Tanizaki: "I had an important call!"

Dazai: "..." *points at Lucy, shoves the weed into her hands*

Lucy: "..." -_-#####

naomi: where do you think _you're_ going, mr? ^^# *she has a rope*

Dazai: OwO;; "...See, I already tried rope before, and it's too painful for proper suic--"

Tanizaki: "Grab him!"

Kunikida: "DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!"

-one nice boat later-

atsushi: .____.

Tanizaki: *finishes the sign, puts it around Dazai's neck* " 'Do not pull wires you don't recognize.'"

Lucy: *snaps a pic*

Dazai: *tied to a tree by his feet and hands* QwQ

kirako: *covers aya and kenji's eyes*

Lucy: *typing* " 'The majestic jackass, soaring over the crowd...'"

atsushi: ._. (he seems to be enjoying this predicament....) *sweatdrop*

Dazai: QwQ "...See, ropes are not good for suicide, but when it comes to S and--"

yosano: NOT. IN FRONT. OF THE CHILDREN.

kirako:...*awkward cough*

Dazai: QwQ "..." *nod nod* "I've learned my lesson. I'm sorry for interrupting your phone calls and downloads. May I come down now~?"

naomi: wait up there for a while.

-elsewhere-

Benimaru: *sets down tea*

kirei: ^^

kabuki: thanks for inviting us, commander.

Benimaru: *nods* "You're welcome. I thought it best before Kohana departed for her mission."

fang-hua: ^^; you didnt have to go to all the trouble, commander-

Tsukiyo: *gobbling snacks*

Benimaru: "It was no trouble. It was the least we could do." *pours her tea*

fang-hua: well, thank you. ^^

Benimaru: *nods* "I have full confidence in you. Keep an eye on the other brigades and report."

fang-hua: *nods*

kirei: *hands her a charm* this will bring you luck.

fang-hua: thank you!

Tsukiyo: *mouth full* "Wow, so pretty!"

-elsewhere-

Shotaro: *hands Mana mail* "It keeps coming in for you..."

mana: wow.

Shotaro: "Feeling more healed since your fight?"

mana: i think so.

nea: well, arent  _you_ miss popular?

Shotaro: ^^ "I mean, she did advance far in the competition." *holds up his phone* "Although this one fan site is kind of rude..."

nea: let me see that!

mana: hah?

*The fan site seems to have rude remarks in the comments section, as well as photos of Mana walking around town*

mana: what the hell?

nea: kepuri, find their IP address.

Kepuri: "On it!" *takes Shotaro's phone, taps a few keys* "...Um...It's about 12 feet from us..." *looks down the hall*

mana: *SLAMS THE DOOR OPEN*

Emine: *on his laptop* "..."

-nice boat-

mana: *brushing off her hands*

Shotaro: "...Wow...That's gonna need a whole bucket of bandages..."

-elsewhere-

Steinbeck: "--and that's the family tree!"

twain: wowzers.

oscar: quite a family, johnny-boy.

ebie: cool!

Steinbeck: "Well, we're extended. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of everyone when you have a big family."

emily: i could imagine.

Steinbeck: "How about you--extended family?"

emily: not that i'm familiar with.

Steinbeck: "Aunts or uncles?"

emily: probably, but i havent spoken with them much.

twain: i just have my aunt polly.

oscar: didnt miss porter have an aunt polly, as well?

Hemingway: "Think so..." *flipping through photos*

oscar: *glances*

*Looks like photos of Cuba, with a younger Hemingway in them*

oscar: where was that, ernie?

Hemingway: "Havana, during a fishing trip."

oscar: oooh.

Hemingway: "Work took me to a lot of places."

ebie: *listening* OwO

Hemingway: "Spain, France, Rwanda, Congo--lots of reports to file." *shows a photo of him--wrestling a lion*

emily: (is this man even real?)

-elsewhere-

Hirotsu: "Hmm...The stage looks sound. How are acoustics?"

naoya: *strumming guitar* *thumbs up*

Hirotsu: "Ah, yes, good. Now, onto seating for the audien--"

Kafka: "OW!" *holding his thumb, dropping a hammer*

naoya: ?? you alright?

Walter: *vacuuming*

Kafka: "THESE BLASTED--" *sound drowned out by vacuuming* "--SEATS WON'T MAKE THEMSELVES, SO I--" *more vacuuming* "--HAVE TO FIX THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE SUCH PIECES OF--" *more vacuuming* "--THAT NO--" *more vacuuming--* "--ING PERSON WOULD EVER BE CAUGHT DEAD IN!"

-elsewhere-

blonde man: <so how much farther to the airport?>

Dumas: <My map says another 17 miles-->

Cervantes: *points at a sign* <The sign says 1 mile the other way.>

Dumas: -_-#

blonde man: <maybe i should try and get us a lift?>

Dumas: <If you insist--we have enough money...>

blonde man: *stripping by the side of the road*

Dumas: <WHAT THE DEVIL ARE YOU DOING?!>

blonde man: *coy pose*

Cervantes: <No, no--this is all wrong!>

Dumas: <Thank you!>

Cervantes: *imitates a pose* <Like this!>

Dumas: ._. "..." *facepalm*

driver: <what the hell?> *pulls over*

blonde man: <would you pwease give us a ride~?>

Cervantes: *smiles* <See? It worked!>

Dumas: <How do you even know the driver will agree?>

driver: <what the hell is going on here?>

Cervantes: <We request transport to the airport, my friend!>

driver: um...o.....k?

Cervantes: *smug smile at Dumas*

Dumas: >_> <This proves nothing...Just get in the vehicle...AND PUT ON YOUR CLOTHES!>

-elsewhere-

Anya: *putting on a kimono*

tsugumi: trying on outfits for the spring festival?

Anya: *nods* "Not sure about the color."

tsugumi: it looks nice, a different change of pace. ^^

Anya: "Thanks...Which color will wear?"

ao: isnt blue your image color?

Anya: "I guess that would work..."

-elsewhere-

naomi: that's one fancy hat, lucy.

Lucy: ^^; "Thanks...I picked the flowers myself in time for the season..."

sylvia: i-it's really pretty, miss montgomery.

Lucy: "..." *clears her throat* "Well, I could make one...if anyone wanted that kind of thing..."

sylvia: a-are you sure? i dont know if i would make a-a hat like that look good, y-your hair is a lot p-prettier than mine...

Lucy: "Then consider it an opportunity to try something to make your hair look better."

sylvia: ....

naomi: maybe we could braid it?

Lucy: "Oh, that'd be great!"

sylvia: .~.

naomi: we're gonna need to wash it and brush it out really good, first.

sylvia: b-but what about m-my ability?

naomi: i dont think your hair will cause any trouble.

Lucy: "Even if it did, 'Medusa,' some hair salon gloves would keep our hands safe enough."

-25 minutes later-

naomi: ._.; how does she _get_ it this tangled?

sylvia: Q~Q

Lucy: "..." *small grunt, grabs a headband, puts it around her own head, stretches* "Leave it to me: if I could style Howard's hair, then I can style hers!"

naomi: good luck.

sylvia: Q~~~Q

Lucy: "Now, just stand still, and if it hurts, please tell me."

sylvia: o-okaaaay....

-elsewhere-

Kafka: *looking over musical sheets* "...You have to be kidding."

leroux: ??

Kafka: "This score, it's just--BLECH!" *starts scribbling*

leroux: *peeek*

*Looks like Kafka is changing some instructions*

Kafka: "There! You need to be *quiet* in this part, not crescendo!"

leroux: hmm, hmm, i see.

Kafka: "Jeez, who is even handling music in this play?"

-elsewhere-

karl: *stares at mr shephard*

Mr. Shephard: *puts down his book* "Oh...Hello, um, Karl."

karl: o^o

Poe: "Karl? Karl, where are you?"

karl: *chitter*

Poe: *walks in* "There you are--EEP! M-M-Mr. Shephard..."

Mr. Shephard: "Edgar." *nods*

Poe: .______.

karl: *nudge*

Poe: "I AM HERE WITH A QUESTION!"

Mr. Shephard: " 'Kay?"

Poe: "I...want your blessing!"

Mr. Shephard: "...Um...I'm not a priest or anything, but--" *makes the sign of the cross* "Amen?"

karl: *facepaw*

Poe: .___. "...Maybe I need to be clearer..." *opens the box, shows the ring*

Mr. Shephard: "Oh, that's pretty. Is it for Lana?"

Poe: "I-I-I-I want to marry her. W-Will you give us your blessing?"

Mr. Shephard: "... ... ..." *sets down the book*

karl: ovo

Poe: *whimper, but stands his ground*

Mr. Shephard: "...Do you love her?"

Poe: "With all my heart!"

Mr. Shephard: "Will you protect her? Against anyone who would do her harm?"

Poe: "Yes!" *inhales deeply*

Mr. Shephard: "..." *sighs* "Then I leave it to her to decide."

Poe: *loud exhale* *hug*

Mr. Shephard: ._.

Poe: *SQUEE!* "I have to go ask her!" *runs outside--then runs back inside, slamming the door, panting* "...It's so bright."

-elsewhere-

Mephisto: *clears his throat* "How are you?"

stocking: doing well, workwise.

Mephisto: "Good. I had some high compliments from staff and students~"

stocking: oh?

Mephisto: *nods* "On time, prepared for lessons, managing classrooms discussions..." *pulls up a web page* "I had this designed for just such an occasion." *the site is called 'GradeMyTeach.DC'*

stocking: oh cool.

Mephisto: "You're ranking better than Neuhaus--low bar, I know--but your score is going up...Just avoid the hate online."

stocking: i know. is triple A still being a pain in the A?

Mephisto: *Excalibur face* *points to his face* "Does this answer your question?"

stocking: good point.

felisia: *snicker* nice one.

Mephisto: *sighs, resumes his usual face* *pats Felisia's stomach*

felisia: only a month away now...

Mephisto: ^w^ "Glorious~" *nuzzle*

-elsewhere-

atsushi: *helping dazai down from the tree* easy now.

Dazai: TwT "Thank you, kind sir..."

atsushi: i figured you'd been punished enough, today...

Dazai: "I just wanted to see where it was going--and we have enough other spy risks..."

atsushi: .....

Dazai: "I didn't want someone trying to spy on Kirako...And, you know, too much time on the Internet isn't good for anyone."

atsushi:....did you want to get something to eat?

Dazai: "...Sure. Rice sounds good."

atsushi: yeah, i could go for some chazuke right now...

-and so-

Dazai: *claps his hands* "Thank you for this meal!"

atsushi: *nom* =w=~ *tiger chuff*....*ahem* 737;......so...anything else on your mind, dazai?

Dazai: "...The usual. Scared to death of fatherhood. Want to find the rest of the Rats. Have a rash."

atsushi: did you get ointment from yosano?

Dazai: "I tried--but I got...tied up." OwO

atsushi: maybe i could ask?

Dazai: "Thank you..." *looks at him* "...Huh." *looks at him back and forth*

atsushi: ?? whats up?

Dazai: "...What happened to that scrawny kid Kunikida and I picked up at the canal?"

atsushi: *points to himself* ?

Dazai: *nod nod* "You've bulked up a bit."

atsushi: i guess i have gotten some more muscle...and i think i might be a centimeter taller?

Dazai: "See? A better diet and exercise helps!"

-elsewhere-

sonia: *putting a rock into the garden with something written on it*

Chuuya: *watching*

-the rock reads 'mama'-

Chuuya: *rubs his eyes*

sonia: *she looks up at him* did you want to put down a rock, papa?

Chuuya: "Um...Yes..."

katya: what're you two up to?

Chuuya: "Just writing..." *putting something on a stone* *looks like he's writing "Rain"*

katya: this some kind of memorial garden?

Chuuya: "Yes..." *sets down the stone, takes another*

katya: i see....

Chuuya: *writing "Oda"* "..." *sets it down*

sonia: did you want to put one down?

katya: nah, there wouldnt be enough room to write all the names down...

Chuuya: "..." *nods*

-elsewhere-

tamaki: any idea where we're gonna be staying, other than in fang-hua's hometown?

Arthur: "I think visiting Takeru's farm in Qingdao."

tamaki: wonder what that will be like.

shinra: i think a lot different from most farms, i'd think.

Arthur: "Like dragon tooth farms?"

shinra: um....i guess?

Arthur: "Then we shall raise the small warrior babies born from their teeth."

shinra + tamaki: *sweatdrop*

Arthur: "I'll name them Agenor, Guinevere, Phoenix, and Tamaki Jr."

-elsewhere-

Giriko: *wiping something off his shirt* "Poor thing..."

anna: bwah?

Giriko: ^^; "It's fine, little lady." *light nose tap*

anna: =3=

Giriko: *hug*

anna: ^o^

Giriko: "Heh heh..." *wipes her face carefully*

-elsewhere-

Patty: "Sis, Kid's doing that thing again."

liz: oh boy.

Kid: "N-Nothing. What makes you think anything happened?" *there's crayon on the wall*

liz: ^^;

Patty: "Um, most kids crayon the walls--it's part of growing up! You could frame it!"

Kid: "..." Q_Q "Do we have extra frames?"

-elsewhere-

Cervantes: *snores*

blonde man: *reading*

Dumas: *looking out the window* <So dull...>

blonde man: *fidget fidget*

Dumas: <Sit still. Can't you be still?>

blonde man: <too antsy....i wonder if i can join the mile high club>

Dumas: *tugs his ear* <No.>

blonde man: ah! <owieee~>

Dumas: <Contain yourself. Order another drink if you have to...> *looking through his book on poisons*

blonde man: *peeeeek*

Dumas: -_-# <...Yes? I am looking at poisons.>

blonde man: <is it interesting?>

Dumas: <A bit. Did you know there are some poisons you can ingest in small portions to build up resistance?>

blonde man: <oh? i didnt know that.>

Dumas: <Yes...Just takes time...>

blonde man: hmmm....

Dumas: *jots something down* <Yes, just a few more milliters would do it...>

blonde man: *looks around*

Cervantes: *sleep talk* <Curse you, you vile waste of grain grinding...>

blonde man: *fidgeting in his seat*

Cervantes: <BRING ME MY LANCE!> *swings an arm, just missing the Man*

blonde man: ah! >3< <miguel, be careful!>

Cervantes: *yawns, stretches* <Have we landed this giant metal bird yet?>

blonde man: <not yet...> *examines english language guide*

Dumas: <How is language studying coming along?>

blonde man: good.

Dumas: <Oh? Why don't you try asking the flight attendant for something.>

blonde man: ma'am?

Flight Attendant: "Yes? May I help you?"

blonde man: where do i sign for the mile high club~? ^^

Flight Attendant: "...Sir, that is prohibited on flights. And technically it wouldn't be a mile above the ground." -^-

Dumas: *covering his face* <How mortifying...>

blonde man: T3T oh poo.

Flight Attendant: "Now, unless you had anything else to say, I'll take your trash..."

Dumas: "He wouldn't fit in your trash bag."

Flight Attendant: "..." *giggles*

blonde man: <mean> =3=

Dumas: *small smile*

-elsewhere-

Takehisa: *flipping through a military academy yearbook*

maki: looking at old photos?

Takehisa: *nods* *there's a photo of a younger Takehisa with other cadets--he doesn't have his glasses on* "I couldn't see a thing."

maki: hmm.

Takehisa: *points to a photo of Maki*

maki: man, i was a small-fry back then.

Takehisa: "Yes, not as tall as now. Have you spoken with anyone from the division recently?"

maki: not recently.

Takehisa: "Neither have I...And your father?"

maki: what _about_ him?

Takehisa: "..." *nods* "Sorry."

maki:...*sigh* it's fine.

Takehisa: "...Coffee?"

maki: sure.

-elsewhere-

Bakugo: "FEET OFF THE TABLE!"

mina: yessir!

-they're playing games on bakugou's gamecube-

Eijiro: "Ease up, man--Mina had socks on--OH, YOU JERK!" *tapping on the controller* "No, no, no!"

Bakugo: "IT'S ABOUT POLITENESS!" *leaning while moving the controller*

sero: ooooh oh snap!

mina: nyehehehe~

Eijiro: "You won't be so high and mighty when I--"

*Eijiro loses*

Eijiro: Q_Q

Bakugo: "..."

mina: aw yeah! team acid tape wins again!

sero: up top!

-high five-

Eijiro: "Dang it! Well, Team Shrapnel will be victorious next time!"

Bakugo: "...You no longer get to pick names."

sero: i dunno, 'shrapnel' sounds kinda badass.

mina: it does

Eijiro: ^w^ "See? It's the combination of explosions and rocks--"

Bakugo: "No."

Eijiro: "...You're jealous you didn't think of it first, aren't you--"

Bakugo: *his controller blows up in his hand* -n-###

sero:....guess we have to make another trip to the game-in-box, huh?

Bakugo: "EIJIRO IS BUYING IT!"

Eijiro: "Wow, harsh!"

mina: yeah, baku, no need to be so mean. -3-

sero: at least he's using his name, and not some insulting nickname, eh?

Bakugo: "DON'T SASS ME, SCOTCH TAPE!"

-elsewhere-

stocking: i'm home.

Kid: "Welcome back." *smiles*

stocking: *huuuug* *whisper* can we go to bed? i wanted to try some new costumes out~

Kid: .\\\\. "O-Oh? Sure..."

stocking: *smirks and drags him to their room by his collar*

Kid: *follows, blushing* "Oh, wow..."

stocking: i thought we could try a little role-playing. some school year nostalgia~ *whispers* i even got us some uniforms~

Kid: "Oh, Stocking, yes..." *lightly brushes his hand along her wrist*

stocking: hehe~ *closes the door*

Kid: "Shall we change?"

-and so-

stocking: *in a uniform, bent over the bed, shaking her rear a bit*

Kid: *in his own uniform* "Well, well, have you been a bad girl?"

stocking: yes. could you tutor me in sex ed~?

Kid: "I don't know..." *rests a hand on her lower back* "I am a hard tutor."

stocking: i would like that~

Kid: "Would you now~?" *rubs her lower back carefully* "Because I think I have to give you an incentive to learn..." *soft pat on her bottom*

stocking: ah~

Kid: "After all, a little stimulation goes a long way..." *his hand passes down over her skirt to her leg, stroking*

stocking: ahhh~<3 T///=

Kid: *leans, his chin on her shoulder, whispering in her ear* "And I like to get close and personal with my tutoring~" *soft kisses along her ear, as his hand slides slowly up her leg*

stocking: nngh~ kid~

Kid: "I love you...but you need to learn a lesson." *small quick spank*

stocking: ah~!

Kid: "I bet that's something not told in the classroom..." *looks down at her uniform* "Oh, that outfit complements you so well..." *his hand brushes above her breasts*

stocking: *soft moan*

Kid: "So after talking and stimulating your partner, you want to check..." *his lower hand brushes against her underwear*

stocking: ah!

Kid: "Oh, too fast?"

stocking: *shaking her rear a bit at him* f-feels good...

Kid: "Oh~?" *spank spank spank*

stocking: *she moans in time with each smack, her legs quivering*

Kid: "Too much of a work-out? Maybe you need some more exercise..." *positions himself behind her, as he rubs against her and cups her breasts over the uniform*

stocking: ahhh, that feels so good...

Kid: *rubs her breasts, lifting the sweater from her stomach, as his hardness is against her* "Oh, Stocking, this takes me back..." *kisses the back of her neck*

stocking: nnnm~ damn, you're so hard already...

Kid: "Can you blame me, my delicious honor roll..." *he reaches down, his fingers sliding up to her* "You're getting wet..."

stocking: ahh, oh god kid, your fingers feel amazing!

Kid: *smiles* "You've given me plenty of practice..." *rubs along her slit* "Tell me how much you want it."

stocking: i want you so fucking bad, baby. i even wore my striped undies for you~

Kid: *lifts her skirt* "Oh, God, Stocking--I'm going to cum so hard in you." *tugs on her panties*

stocking: *panting and blushing* please, please fuck me.

Kid: *loosens his tie* "Beg for it..." *he rubs himself along her lips before guiding himself into her*

stocking: please baby, i need it in me so hard. please. *shaking her rear*

Kid: *smiles* "Then let's start..." *thrust*

stocking: AHH~<3

Kid: "I want to make you feel so good that you can't even stand..." *spanks her, before continuing*

-later-

Kid: *still wearing the tie, and not much else* "Ahh..."

stocking: *panting, laying next to him, cum still dripping out of her and decorating her chest* ahh....that....was....incredible....

Kid: *smiles* "Yes, you were..." *reaches for the drawer, and pulls something out* *it's a box...* "Pocky?" *puts one between his lips*

stocking: yes please~ *nom* ^///^~<3<3<3

Kid: *smooch* ^\\\3\\\^

stocking: hehehe~<3 so cute~

Kid: *smiles* "So are you...We go together so well..." *rubs a hand over her stomach*

stocking: *smiles* i love you.

Kid: "I love you, too..." *cheek smooch*

stocking: hehehe~

Kid: *hug* "...Forgive the corniness, but I think we gave a new meaning to 'cram school.'"

stocking:....*snerk* *laughing* oh my god, kiddo.

Kid: ^\\\^; "Sorry..." *nuzzle*

-morning-

airport intercom: now arriving at death city airport.

Dumas: *stretches* <Finally.>

Cervantes: *holding up a tiny bottle of liquor* "..." <I AM A GIANT NOW!>

blonde man: *yaaaawn*

Dumas: <Focus. Once we leave here, we go to the safe house...>

blonde man: *streeeetch* <do we have a plan?>

Dumas: <Yes, but we'll need to observe the patterns at the prison.>

clerk: passports.

blonde man: *shows his; Marquis De Sade*

Dumas: *his passport: Alexandre Dumas*

Cervantes: *his passport: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra*

clerk: carry on, then.

Cervantes: *smiles* "Thank you!"

marquis: ^u^

Dumas: *follows* "Let's find the taxi stand..."

-elsewhere-

frances: *watering flowers* ^u^~♫

Kyoka: *walking down the stairs*

frances: hello miss kyouka, lovely day, isnt it~?

Kyoka: "Yes, I suppose so. How are your plants?"

frances: quite well. ^^ .....*smiles* i think something interesting will happen very soon.

Kyoka: "Oh?"

frances: *humming to herself*

Kyoka: "...Hmm...I'm going to run an errand."

frances: you do that now, dearie~...........................*talking to her flowers again* now, what else do you have to tell me, my pretty little babies?

-elsewhere-

Kid: *smiles, setting out files*

homura: you seem to be in a good mood today, kid.

Kid: "Sometimes there are some small pleasures..." =\\\\=

homura: *sweatdrop* i..see...

Kid: *ahem* "In any case, I was reviewing the next mission assignments."

homura: and?

Kid: "Some activity following incidents in Qingdao, Salt Lake..."

homura: hmm.

Kid: "Any preferences?"

-elsewhere-

Sakuya: "..." *facepalm*

Belkia: *stuck in the crawl space* "..."

otogiri: *pulling him out*

Belkia: "Ow ow ow--" *pops out* "Pfew! Thank you!" *all scrunched up*

-elsewhere-

Gin: "How's line memorization?"

higuchi: pretty good.

Gin: "Will you be ready?" *looking at the set*

higuchi: i hope so...

Gin: "I guess just keep calm and practice...If the others can do it..."

higuchi: y-yeah....

Gin: "..." *pat pat* "Need advice?"

higuchi: just excited, and not exactly looking forward to the kiss. 7-7;

Gin: "That makes two of us...Hmph. It is just pretend, so I guess get through it."

higuchi: and you get to kick tachihara's ass later if you want. ^^

Gin: "Always." *takes her hand*

higuchi: ^^ *smooch*

Gin: =/////=

-elsewhere-

Rin: "Now, tap the egg lightly against the bowl, inside." *demonstrates* "Now you."

momo sakura: *tap tap* like this?

Rin: "A little harder--just until a tiny crack forms on the shell."

momo sakura: what if shell bits get into the bowl?

Rin: "That's why we start with a tiny crack, so we don't have a bit fall in. Plus, after one tiny crack, the shell should mostly stay together. And I always got a handy spoon here to pluck out the shell!"

-elsewhere-

Dumas: "Here's our new temporary residence..."

marquis: oooh, i like it!

Cervantes: *ringing the doorbell* "Such pleasant music!"

marquis: *plomph onto his bed* silk sheets~ =w=

Dumas: *eyeroll, opens the fridge, dropping in some frozen dinners* "Let's review the map--"

Cervantes: *already asleep on the couch*

Dumas: "..."

marquis: *naked and rolling in his sheets* =w=~<3

Dumas: "STOP THAT!"

marquis: =3=

Cervantes: *wakes up* "...We need to plan."

Dumas: "Good--"

Cervantes: "First, a bubble bath and a toy boat!"

Dumas: "..." *goes back to mapping*

-elsewhere-

Rino: *opens the door* "I'm home."

*it's empty inside*

Rino: "..." *sighs, drops her bag, goes to her room* "Hey, Seymour."

seymour: 030

Rino: *opens the fish food container next to a note, drops in flakes*

-working late tonight, be home at 10 ~ mom-

Rino: "Of freaking course..." *taps her phone to put on some music*

-text message-

Rino: -_-; *reads the message*

ryuuko: [you get home safe?]

Rino: "???" [yeah]

ryuuko: [glad to know.]

Rino: "..." [thanks] *walks to the kitchen, opens the fridge, takes out some chicken* [going to make dinner and get to bed]

ryuuko: [you need anything?]

Rino: "..." [nah. i'll be back at the 5th early tomorrow before i head off to school] "..." [could i ask one favor?]

ryuuko: [what is it?]

Rino: "..." [would mikami mind if i played with her pet rabbit?]

ryuuko: [if you're interested. she's having a sleepover this weekend.]

Rino: "... ... ..." *looks at the calendar...Mom's at work [i'll check my schedule, but i should be able to come]

ryuuko: [ok]

-nighttime-

Chuuya: *playing with Mito*

mito: *purr*

Chuuya: *happy sigh* "Enjoying this, kitty?"

mito: *mewl*

Chuuya: "That's good...Sonia, you washing up?"

sonia: yes, papa.

Chuuya: "Okay--it's a few more minutes before bedtime."

sonia: ok....can you read me a story?

Chuuya: "Sure! Any you had in mind?"

sonia: do you know any grandma used to tell you?

Chuuya: "How about...'The Ant and the Grasshopper'?"

sonia: *nods, holding her teddy close*

Chuuya: "Well, one summer, a day like any other, there was a grasshopper, without a care in the world..."

[*The grasshopper looks like Dazai*

Grass!Dazai: *bouncing along* "I haven't a care in the world!" ^w^

Narrator!Chuuya: "This grasshopper was so full of himself--I mean, itself--that it almost knocked over an anthill--"

Ant!Gin: "Watch it!"

Ant!Motojiro: "Hey!"

Ant!Chuuya: "Pay attention, you jerk!"

ant!higuchi: DX>

ant!akutagawa: *monotone* ah.

Grass!Dazai: "Oh, I didn't see you there. On account of how short you all are."

Ant!Chuuya: "..."

Grass!Dazai: "You're real tiny!"

Ant!Chuuya: "..."

Grass!Dazai: "Like, microscopic!"

Ant!Chuuya: "...If this was not a children's story, we would all be swarming you right now and eat you alive--"

Narrator!Chuuya: "*AHEM*"

*Grass!Dazai and Ant!Chuuya look to the left*

Ant!Chuuya + Grass!Dazai: ^\\\\^; "S-Sorry..."

Grass!Dazai: *ahem* "So, why all the hard work? It's summer! We can hop, jump, and play!"

Ant!Chuuya: "Some of us are busy toiling to get enough food before winter--"

Grass!Dazai: "Ah, phooey! That's, like, years away!"

Ant!Motojiro: "4 months, 4 days, 12 minutes, 37 seconds, give or take."

Ant!Gin: "Hmph. Come winter, we'll be warm and well-fed. Best to prepare early than regret it later--"

Grass!Dazai: *rolling up a blade of grass, holding it to the sun until it catches a flame, puffs*

Ant!Gin: "...I thought this was a kids' story."

Narrator!Chuuya: "I think the conceit is broken on that--let's just skip to winter."

*The ants run inside*

Grass!Dazai: "??? Where did everyone--"

Narrator!Chuuya: "The snow came."

*Snow falls all at once, putting out Grass!Dazai's smoking blade*

Grass!Dazai: ._. "..." *shivers* "D-Dang, that was quick...I better get some shelter and food--" *looks* "...Um...Where did all the grain go?"

Narrator!Chuuya: "Meanwhile, the ants were warm and--"

sonia: zzzzzz

Chuuya: "..." *smiles* "Well, better then get to the sad ending..." *forehead kiss*

sonia: =w=

-elsewhere...-

Prison Guard: *closes their locker*

marquis: hello~

Prison Guard: "???" *turns*

marquis: *blows a kiss......there is a soft sweet smell*

Prison Guard: *sniff* "..." *goofy smile, collapses asleep*

marquis: *unbuttons guard's shirt* i'll be taking this now, sweetie~

-one clothing change later-

Dumas: *adjusting sleeves* "Too big..."

Cervantes: "Off to the galley!"

marquis: i'll handle the cameras~

Dumas: "Proceed." *points* "We go left, then right, upstairs three floors, down the hall, around the corner--"

Cervantes: "Why not a direct approach?"

Dumas: "...What, through walls--"

Cervantes: "If you insist~"

Dumas: "NO."

-elsewhere in the prison-

Fyodor: "...Well, this is lonesome."

-some noise can be heard some ways down the hall-

Fyodor: "???"

*The lights go out down the hall, with one light left on in Fyodor's cell*

Fyodor: "???"

-footsteps-

Fyodor: "..."

Guard #2: "Here is it, Princess~"

Cervantes: ^^; "Why, thank you~"

Dumas: *wearing night-vision goggles, dragging an unconscious guard with keys on their belt*

Guard #2: "Don't I get a thank you kiss? I did bring you back to your throne room to reunite with your father~"

Fyodor: "...Well, this is bizarre."

marquis: OvO

Dumas: *looks* *points* "I found the target."

*Dumas is pointing at the wrong cell*

marquis: *turns dumas around*

Dumas: "..." *points* "I found the target."

Cervantes: ^^; "My friend, please give the brave knight their kiss while I speak to the galley-man we must free."

marquis: ok~ *smoooches the guard....with tongue*

Guard #2: *moaning* "Oh, Princess~"

Fyodor: "... ... ...What the hell?"

Cervantes: *waves* "Hello, galley-man! We're here to free you from your unfair imprisonment! Why, look at these surroundings! They didn't even let you have a cellmate--"

Fyodor: "I killed previous cellmates."

Cervantes: OwO;;;;

Dumas: *sighs* "Ignore them, Prisoner. They are weirdos."

Fyodor: "Well, at least I can speak to someone rational--"

Dumas: "Put this on." *he's holding an iron torture device* "It goes around your head."

Fyodor: "... ... ..." *looks around* "Is it too late to call for more guards?"

???: "You're freeing him?"

Cervantes: *spins around, points at ??? in the other cell* "Yes!"

Grimoire: "..." *sets down his book* "He is dangerous."

Cervantes: *raises a finger in the air* "We never turn down a job upon taking it!"

Dumas: "And we can handle someone like him. Right, Marquis--"

marquis: *on the floor, making out with the guard*

Dumas: "...Right, Cervantes?"

Cervantes: "Or die trying!"

Fyodor: "That can be arranged."

Dumas: "..." *shudders* "J-Just...Come on..." *unlocks the door*

Grimoire: "Fools..." *turns back to his book*

Cervantes: "Lead the way, Dumas!"

Dumas: "In a second..." *fire his gun at the last light bulb, completely darkening the entire room* "Follow me."

marquis: *following* ^////^~ hehe

Cervantes: "Sorry!" *puts on night-vision goggles* "Which way, Dumas?"

Fyodor: "How can he even see? Those goggles can't be enough..."

Cervantes: "Dumas is empowered by the dark. Our little night owl..."

Dumas: -\\\\- "Shut up. This way--" *SLAM, CRUNCH* "..."

Cervantes: "...You ran into the wall, didn't--"

Dumas: "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!"

Fyodor: "...Help? Guards?"

marquis: shhhhh. >3<;;

Dumas: *angry whispering* "You 'shhh'! Go back to humping the wall!"

marquis: T3T meanie.

Cervantes: "Now, now, no need to fight! We are a trio destined for greatness! We have a task to complete! Now let's bring our victim to safety--"

*step step step step*

Dumas: "...He's running away."

marquis: ._.;

Cervantes: QwQ "Well, that's disappointing. Shibusawa will be unhappy with us--"

Fyodor: "...Shibusawa?"

Cervantes: "YES! Shibusawa asked us to--"

Fyodor: *walks ahead of them* "Let's go."

Cervantes: OwO "...But I had a speech ready--"

Dumas: *drags him along*

marquis: *following*

Fyodor: "First, we gather my belongings. Then we leave."

Cervantes: "Splendid! What are we picking up? A keepsake from your beloved?"

Fyodor: "First, we gather my belongings. Then we leave."

Cervantes: "Splendid! What are we picking up? A keepsake from your beloved?"

Dumas: "Riches left by your benefactor, hidden in the walls?"

marquis: some #######

Dumas: .___________________.

Cervantes: "Marquis, no. It's pronounced--"

Fyodor: "There."

-inside the box is a set of clothes, a cloak, a phone, a knife, and an unshanka-

Cervantes: "Ah! Your uniform! It suits you--"

Fyodor: "..." *death glare*

Cervantes: .w.;;;; "...Right. We'll leave you to it. Come along--"

Fyodor: *unbuttons his shirt*

marquis: OvO

Fyodor: "...A little privacy?"

marquis: T3T

Dumas: "Come along..." *drags Marquis* "...Cervantes, this man seems more...axe-crazy than I expected."

Cervantes: "Nonsense! He's friendly! He'll be our new special friend."

marquis: i like him, he's cute.

Dumas: "No, _we're_ special. He's...creepy. Not even creepy cute. Just creepy."

marquis: =3= you're too paranoid, alex

Dumas: "I am not--who told you that? Was it Cervantes?"

Cervantes: *whistles innocently*

Fyodor: *picks up his phone*…*scrolls down, dials a name marked "порождать"*

yana: <yo>

Fyodor: <Change of plans.>

yana: <bossman? whats up?>

Fyodor: <Someone wants me to pay a visit.>

yana: <in jail?>

Fyodor: <Hmmm, not quite. They want to take me out for a bit.>

yana: <and what are we to do then?>

Fyodor: <Await my instructions.>

yana: <ok. do you want to say hi to the others or->

Fyodor: <No. I'll let you know when to tell them.>

yana: <ok>

Fyodor: "..." <Problem?>

yana: <no...>

Fyodor: <Good. More reports will come to you as necessary. Keep the radio on.>

-elsewhere-

Kid: *shifts under blankets*

stocking: zzzz

Kid: *hug*

stocking: mmmm =w=

Kid: *smooch*

-morning-

atsushi: zzzzz

*tap tap*

atsushi: nnhnn...hmm? *yaaaawn* huzzah?

*Something on the window*

atsushi: ?? *goes to check. it's still the early hours of the morning, and the sun is just starting to rise*

*sitting on the tree branch near the window is Lucy*

Lucy: *waves*

atsushi: *rubs eyes* morning-...wait, how did you get up there?

Lucy: "I climbed."

atsushi: i kind of figured. i just wasnt expecting it. ^^;

Lucy: "I used to do this a lot! Now, get over here..." *pats a seat next to her on the branch*

atsushi: um.... oh boy, how do i get over there?

Lucy: "You're the tiger here."

atsushi: um....ok...*steps back...runs forward and jumps* HUP!

-nice grab onto the branch-

atsushi: *legs dangling* ._. little help?

Lucy: -n-; *pulls him up by his arms then lifting him by one of his legs* "UMPH!" *

atsushi: woah!

Lucy: "There..." *pats his bottom* "Now sit."

atsushi: *sitting down* this is nice.....

Lucy: *nods* "I wanted to see the sunrise...and with someone..." *rests her head on his shoulder*

atsushi: ./////////////.

Lucy: *interlocks her fingers with his*

atsushi: *holding her hand and smiles*

Lucy: *soft sigh, smiles* "You know I love you, right?"

atsushi: i-i love you too... *leans in*

Lucy: .\\\. *gulp* >\\\<

-kiss-

Lucy: *smooch* "Mmm~" "..."

atsushi: ./////.

Lucy: *smiles, blushing* "That was really good..." *leans closer*

atsushi: u/////u

ranpo: ooooi, lovebirds! you gonna make a nest or what?

atsushi: ACK! *falls back, bringing lucy with him as they fall into a bush*

Lucy: *groans, struggling to get up*

ranpo: dat got your attention, huh?

atsushi: you ok lucy? *coughs up leaves*

Lucy: *groans* "N-No...I think I bust my bottom..."

atsushi: oh no...

Lucy: *frowns at Atsushi* -n-

atsushi: did i at least break your fall? ^^;

Lucy: "Yeah..." *looks at him* "Are you hurt?"

atsushi: a bit scratched up, but i've had worse...

ranpo: when you get outta there, head to the meeting room, kay?

Lucy: *grumbles* *holds onto Atsushi*

-and so-

atsushi: so what's going on?

kirako:....*looks at fukuzawa*

Fukuzawa: "Dostoyevsky has escaped."

atsushi: ??!!

aya: what?!

yosano: are you serious?!

Kunikida: "...It appears th-that someone infiltrated and pretended to be guards..."

atsushi: the rats?

Kunikida: "One prisoner tried to identify them, and the description doesn't match any Rats we have encountered."

ranpo: then again, we havent met every one of the rats thus far.

Kunikida: "We'll be reviewing the descriptions against known criminals..."

-there is a flower on the windowsill...-

-in frances' office-

frances: *listening to the flower*

*There's a sound coming from the flower*

Flower?: "--and interview the guards, too."

frances: hmmm..... *on the phone* this is quite the curious predicament, ma'am.

agatha: indeed it is. for now, just monitor the situation. don not intervene just yet.

frances: understood. till next time~ *hangs up* ..... hmmm....

*Voice in the flower*: "Two of you will visit the prison to speak with guards. I think it would be best for Kunikida to stay here..."

flower voice 2: understood, sir.

Kunikida: "..."

yosano: ....*pats his back*

Kunikida: *nods* "We'll be researching here..."

-elsewhere-

Fyodor: *blindfolded*

marquis: are we there yet?

Dumas: "A bit further...I told you the Iron Mask would've been better. He's probably following us even blindfolded."

marquis: hmmm...

Fyodor: "I assure you, I see nothing." *looks at Cervantes* "...What are wearing?"

Cervantes: "Cologne!"

Fyodor: "..." *sniffs* "...Awful."

marquis: so why dont you tell us about yourself~?

Fyodor: "What do you want to know?"

marquis: what are your companions like?

Fyodor: "Loyal…..Mostly."

Cervantes: "As leader of this trio, it is not loyalty so much as--" *pose* "FRIENDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSHIP!"

Dumas: -_-;

marquis: any special someone in your life~?

Fyodor: "...There are people with whom I am intimate."

marquis: do tell~

Fyodor: "What's in it for me, lovely?"

marquis: hehehe~ oh you flirter, you~ ^///^

Dumas: "Stop that." *pulls Marquis away* "We're here."

marquis: =3=

Dumas: "Now, how to let them know we're here--"

Cervantes: "WE'RE HERE!"

marquis: *looks out the window*

-there seems to be a large house in the middle of the desert, surrounded by large hills. it almost looks like a large cabin-

Dumas: "...Yeah, that's conspicuous."

Cervantes: "Ring the doorbell!"

Dumas: "Why would a place out here have--"

Cervantes: *suddenly has a doorbell*

*RIIIIING*

marquis: hellooooo?

-a servant answers-

servant: welcome.

Dumas: "Um, yes, we have completed a mission for your employer..."

Cervantes: *waves* "Hi, Sancho!"

Dumas: -_-; "Not every person you meet is 'Sancho.'"

servant: thank you, sirs. my employer first has some business to take care of in europe before coming here to the states.

Dumas: "Wait--they're not even here? Then how do we do this transaction--"

servant: *hands them a briefcase*

Dumas: "..." *puts an ear to it* "...It's not ticking."

marquis: ^^

Cervantes: "So we have to say goodbye to our new friend?"

Fyodor: "I was not your friend."

marquis: so mean. =3=

Fyodor: *looks at the servant* "So, one prison to another..."

servant: do you wish to invite your subordinates to the establishment?

Fyodor: "...Hmm...Interesting proposal. You'll forgive me if I am suspect."

servant: shall i give you a tour, sir?

Fyodor: "..." *follows*

-there's a living room area with a TV, a kitchen and dining area, a game room, a study, and several bedrooms-

Fyodor: "Large."

servant: you can take any of the bedrooms you'd like.

Fyodor: "I don't have much with me."

servant: *nods and exits*

Fyodor: *sits on the bed, looks at the phone*…..*dials*

Fyodor: "..."

*The phone clicks, connecting*

yana: yo.

Fyodor: "I am at the safehouse."

yana: want me to put you on speaker to talk to everyone?

Fyodor: "Yes."

yana: ok..... OI! everyone get on in here! fedya's on the phone!

zoey: master??

lydia: ???

barkova: owo

Gogol: *sets down his tea*

Ivan: QwQ *inches to the phone*

Fyodor: "I am no longer in the prison."

lydia: so we've heard in the news.

elizaveta: yay!

Fyodor: "I will have updates soon--but you must prepare for a move."

yana: to a new location?

Fyodor: "Yes. Just wait until our host gives me more information."

lydia: your host?

Fyodor: "Yes. I am someone's guest."

Ivan: "..."

lydia: who's?

Fyodor: "I'll tell you more soon, but they'll be an...interesting ally."

yana: hmm...

Ivan: OwO "...WE MISS YOU!"

zoey: i want to see you again, master! i want our baby to see you when it's born!

Fyodor: "...I will see you soon."

zoey: *moan~*

Ivan: >-< "MASTER! WE'LL BE REUNITED!"

Fyodor: "..." *makes a noise* "Whoops--reception--"

lydia: <calm down, vanya, take a breath..> -A-; *sweatdrop*

Ivan: *hyperventilating*

lydia: <inhale, vanya, inhale!>

Ivan: *takes a paper bag, inhales*

lydia: *pats his back*

zoey: pheh....

Fyodor: "I got to go--until then. Yana, may I speak with you..."

yana: sure thing.....do ya'll mind?

Gogol: ^w^ "Let's depart, everyone..." *pushing them out*

yana:...............<what did you want to say?>

Fyodor: <The move will be difficult getting out of the city: keep them in line.>

yana: <noted.>

Fyodor: <Good. Don't disappoint.>

-elsewhere-

erina: *waking up*

Allison: *looking at the news* "..."

erina: *yaaawn* mornin'

Allison: "!!!" *puts down her phone* "...Morning."

erina: *streeeetch* bacon....

Allison: ^^; "Coming up..."

-phone rings-

erina: *answers* m'hello?

???: "Erina."

erina: *her stomach drops, and her eyes widen in horror*

???: "I hope you did not think I forgot you."

Allison: "Erina...Who is it?"

erina: *she's shaking, unable to speak* ah...

???: "I'm sure you heard the news already: I'm free."

erina:....

Fyodor: "I'll see you soon."

erina: *she drops the phone.....and falls to her knees*

Allison: "!!! Erina! Erina!"

Fyodor: "..." *smiles*

erina: ah...ah.......*she screams at the top of her lungs in horror, shaking violently*

Allison: "Erina!" *grabs her, holding her*

erina: *hysterically sobbing*

Allison: "..." *keeps holding onto her, strokes her back*

erina: oh god, he's going to come after me! he's going to hurt me!

Allison: *grabs the phone, hangs it up* "Erina...Look at me."

erina: *her eyes look dead, pupils shrunk*

Allison: "..." *gulps* "W-We're not going to let that happen. I'm not going to let him hurt you."

erina:...i cant leave the apartment...

Allison: "...You have to...This is not your prison, this is your home. And...I don't know, we can call the police..."

erina: how can they help me after i-....*urk* *shaking*

Allison: "...I don't know..." *hugs, cries*

erina:.....i feel sick....

Allison: *nods* "L-Let's get you some water..."

-elsewhere-

Kunikida: *sitting in front of tea* "..."

naomi: ....

Kunikida: *tries to pick up the cup--misses* "..."

naomi: *pat pat*

Kunikida: "...This is not ideal."

naomi: .....

Kunikida: "No one stopped him, again. And he's going to get people killed, again."

yosano: we're going to find him and stop him.

Kunikida: "..." *nods* "Right."

-elsewhere-

Chuuya: *freezes*

katya: *malicious giggling* ohhhh im gonna kill hiiiim.... OOOOHHHHH IM GONNA KIIIILLL HIIIIIIM NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

pushkin: 0-0;;;;;;

Gin: "Easy there..."

hirotsu: ._. she's certainly....erm... enthusiastic.

Gin: "Yes...I suggest directing her energies towards something effective." *pulls out a sword* "This would work..."

Akutagawa: "..." T_T ("She's still worried for me...")

leo: katyusha, do you want to use the punching bag?

katya: it'll do.....for now....

Tachihara: "Yo, all--"

Gin: "Speaking of punching bags."

katya: *pulls out a knife* C8<

higuchi: not yet, katya.

Tachihara: O_o "..." *slowly backs away*

katya: move it, <shitbag>.

Tachihara: *takes off running* "WHYYYYYYYYY?!!!" >____<

-elsewhere-

Fitzgerald: "..." *sets down the newspaper*

alcott: oh dear heavens....

Fitzgerald: "Get Eckleburg on this. Track surveillance."

alcott: right away, sir.

Fitzgerald: *looking through files*

-elsewhere-

ango:...DAMN.

Taneda: "I think this calls for additional support."

ango: hmm....

Taneda: "Go through the files, arrange a meeting."

ango: understood.

Taneda: *sighs* "What a mess...Some prison."

ango: *making a call*

*The line is connecting...*

???: "Hello?"

ango: this is ango sakaguchi, with the death city special abilities department. your group has summons to the city ASAP.

???: *sigh* "Very well. I'll make the call."

-elsewhere-

Yumi: *hands Shiori* "We'll be working until around 2."

kirika: kay.

stocking: *nod*

Yumi: "Thank you." *waves to Shiori*

shiori: baba...

Yumi: *weak smile, as she leaves*

kirika:...be safe mom.

Yumi: "..." *nods* "I will. Thank you."

-elsewhere-

Dumas: *counting the dollars*

marquis: so what now?

Dumas: "Onto the next task, including dividing up the money--"

Cervantes: *holding binoculars, looking around* "Hmm...Not a bad setting..."

marquis: *pokes head out*

Dumas: "...No--"

Cervantes: "A lovely new home, with chandeliers!"

Dumas: "I said--"

marquis: we can bring your doggy. ^^

Dumas: "... ... ..." >_> "...Backyard?"

marquis: ^^

Cervantes: ^w^ "Even can build our own cave for you~"

Dumas: "...Hmph. Call a real estate agent."

Cervantes: *victory pose*

-elsewhere-

Yumi: *reviewing maps* "There are multiple exit points." *taps one part of the map* "Here we had reports of lights going out, as well as mass hallucinations."

homura: hmm...

Yumi: "By the time reports came in of the hallucinations, we found border agents at the northwest sector also under the influence. At this time, we cannot confirm whether it was madness, black blood..."

nygus: have we checked the cameras?

Yumi: "Many were disabled in the prison itself. We do have some footage from around the city..."

nygus: lets review that.

Yumi: *taps onto a tablet, pulling up the footage*

homura: ....

*The footage shows three people bringing along what looks like Fyodor*

*One of them starts pointing wildly at skull-shaped decorations on the buildings*

*One of them starts walking off in the wrong direction*

homura: *sweatdrop*

*The one who looks like Fyodor claps his hands, as if trying to get their attention*

nygus: ...

Yumi: "Wait, where did the third one go?"

*the third was out of view of the camera*

*The one looking like Fyodor just stands...tilts his head*

*The one who got lost starts yelling and pointing*

*The other grabs the one off-camera, pulling him along*

homura: hmm....

Yumi: "That's where our footage ends."

nygus: it doesnt help much...

Yumi: "No. Forensics is searching that spot to find any evidence that could identify the trio."

-elsewhere-

*Rain starts falling*

izumi: *walking along with an umbrella* ^^

rowena: hello, miss albarn.

izumi: hey ro. ^^

Magaki: *nods*

alice: hello....

izumi: heading anywhere?

Magaki: "I was going to the bakery--was asked to pick up bread for the, um, house."

izumi: sounds good.

rowena: ^^ edgar asked me to pick some supplies up for him as well.

Magaki: "??? Ink?"

rowena: *she nods*

Magaki: "Ah. Does he enjoy sweets? Maybe pick one up for him."

-elsewhere-

Shotaro: *hangs up a teru teru bozu*

setsuna: ^^

Shotaro: "How's yours coming along, Em--"

Emine: *holds up one looking like it's been hanged*

mana: ._.

mono: _that's_ totally not disturbing at all.

lin-kimpur:... ^^ creative.

Emine: "Thank you." *hangs it up*

Shotaro: "Let's make more!" *draws out a face like Mana's*

-elsewhere-

sonia: *looking out the window*

Motojiro: "--then the light shines through like a prism*

bessy: oooh, neat.

Motojiro: "Then the worms will come out of the ground--"

sonia: ...

Motojiro: "What can you all tell me about the process of how rain is made? Sonia?"

sonia: .........

naoya: *whispers* maaaybe not the best subject to bring up with her.

Motojiro: OwO;;; "...How about we listen to the frogs croaking--MAKING NOISE! Making noise..."

tom: yay!

naoya: you could call it a....ribbeting, experience.

ayako: you did not just say that.

-some of the kids laugh. sonia says nothing-

Motojiro: OwO;;; "..." (*INTERNAL SCREAMING* "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PARENT!!!")

leo: miss sonia? did you want to go for a walk?

sonia:.....ok...

Motojiro: QWQ "..."

-elsewhere-

Arthur: *meditating...under the pounding rain*

shinra: he's gonna get a cold.

Relan: "I mean, have you ever seen him have a cold?"

Vulcan: "Must be mind over matter."

shinra: mind?

Vulcan: "...Touche. I don't know, maybe Arthur is a robot--"

Viktor: OwO *picks up a screwdriver*

shinra: nah, he'd be short-circuiting if that were the case.

karin: that is also true.

Vulcan: "Could always waterproof things...Hmm...Maybe a submersible...but fire-powered...and with torpedoes with shark faces on them..." *mutter mutter mutter*

karin: *sweatdrop*

lisa: ^^;

Arthur: *eyes break open* "I got it!" *jumps up*

nozomi: oh?

Arthur: *lifts a rock* "The key!" *holding up...a key to the front door?*

shinra: what an epiphany.

Arthur: "The key is what is needed to unlock the secrets!"

Vulcan: "..." *shudders* "A-Already been there..."

shinra: ....

-elsewhere-

Rino: *looking around* "So...What's the plan?"

mikami: looking for snacks for the party.

Rino: "What does everyone like?" *grabs some gummy worms*

mikami: from what the others tell me, usual party snacks consist of popcorn and chips, right?

Rino: "True, but can't hurt to have something sweet..." *grabs some soda*

ryuuko: *gets some hi-chews* these are really good.

Rino: *small smile* "Good choice...Any cooking?"

mikami: shrimp?

Rino: "That could be good..." -_-; "Unless Hibana cheaps out."

mikami: isnt shrimp always a party food?

Rino: ._.; "...I mean, if you have the cash."

mikami: sorry, im still trying to get used to how other people do things like this. ^^; i know a bit about it i think...at least i hope so.

Rino: "Jeez, don't tell me you haven't had 'commoners' food' or something." *holds up instant ramen*

mikami: o-o-of course i have! i-i didnt mean anything rude a-at all....

ryuuko: easy mikami, easy.

Rino: ._.; "I hit a nerve?"

mikami: n-no, i-i-it's fine... *wipes her eyes*

Rino: ._.;;;; "...Sorry."

mikami: it's alright. i-im not mad at you.

Rino: "...How about I show you a recipe for a simple cheesecake?"

mikami: o-ok.

-elsewhere-

Shima: ^^; "Maybe I could help. I read about the prison break, and I know a bit about those kinds of thing--"

izumo: *GLARE*

Shima: OwO;;; "...Ah, come on--I'm just trying to help. After all, we're all classmates and teammates again, right?"

izumo: that depends....

Shima: "Depends on what?"

konekomaru: after what you did, it broke a lot of our trust for you. and if you really are being truthful, you're going to have to do a lot of work to earn that trust back.

Shima: "Oh, totally. That's why I'm here! First, help solve this prison break. Second, pay for some meals for you all. Third, take out Izumo--"

izumo: *GLARE*

seiya: *glare*

Shima: ^^;;; "I can skip the last one." *opens a book, showing some arrays*

-elsewhere-

Kid: "We're back."

lord death: hello~!

kirika: yo.

Kid: "Hello, Shiori!"

shiori: kid!

kirika: how was it?

Kid: *picks Shiori up* *sighs* "I haven't heard any progress. I don't think it's good for prison staff..."

-elsewhere-

Ivan: *folding clothes into luggage* ^w^

lydia: <so we're moving base then?>

Ivan: <Because Master asked~>

Gogol: <Likely to keep an eye on us.>

yana: we'll have to take unused underground maintenance tunnels out to avoid public eye...

Gogol: "AKA the sewer."

yana: <pretty much>

Gogol: >_< "That stinks. Literally."

lydia: =_=; grow up.

Gogol: <It's not sanitary...> *grabs soap*

-elsewhere-

Dumas: *looking at furniture*

marquis: hmmm.....i wanna go on a date.

Dumas: "We still want to be low-key, and you haven't met many people here yet."

marquis: but i get wonwy Q3Q

Dumas: *sighs* "Promise you won't out us?"

marquis: i woooont! im not stupid. *pouty face*

Dumas: "And be quiet bringing any date home."

marquis: okaaaay.

Dumas: "Good luck finding someone--even this city seems limited on options."

marquis: you never knooow~

Dumas: *eyeroll, looks at table coasters*

-elsewhere-

Dabi: *flipping through posts on his phone*

fang: *chewing on a washcloth*

Dabi: *grumbles, looks*

fang: da-

Dabi: "???"

fang: da-bi! ^o^

himiko: OuO

Dabi: "..." *groans*

fang: dabi! dabi! ^u^

Dabi: "Ugh...Why are you repeating that?"

himiko: you're his daddy! ^u^

Dabi: =_=; "Super..."

tomura: ....

Dabi: *looks at Tomura* "What up?"

tomura: *slinks back into his room*

Dabi: "...What's with him? Is he hard-up for attention?"

-elsewhere-

Gopher: "Hmph..." *looks up at the clouds* "Was hoping for clearer skies..."

kotone: ....

Gopher: "Could fly or go to the park..." *sad sigh* *looks at Kotone* "...Want to make something to eat with me?"

kotone: ok, brother.

Gopher: *smiles* "Cupcakes? With frosting?"

kotone: yes

Gopher: >w< "Okay!" *puts on an apron*

-elsewhere-

Free: "We're home!" *Milia is in a poncho and rain boots...Free is just in his shirt and pants, soaked*

milia: hi mama!

eruka: welcome back! ^^

???: is this our little granddaughter? she's such a sweetie! ^^

Free: ._.; *turns*

-eruka's parents are there-

sephy: heya, kiddo.

milia: um...hi?

Free: ^^; "Didn't know you were stopping by..."

kerona: we thought we'd come visit due to the lovely weather~ ^^

Free: "Greeeeeeeat..." *shakes the rain off himself*

kerona: we even brought some treats from the witch world along~

milia: *shiny eyes*

Free: "Guess you can have one for now..."

milia: yay!

eruka: it's been a while since i had food from home. *stomach growls*

Free: ^^; "I guess we're all sharing for a bit--" *reaches for one*

Free: *picks up what looks like a cross between an orange and an apple, only it's got green and purple stripes*

eruka: ooh. *picks up another one* *nom* tangy. ^^

Free: "Milia, try this--" *holds up what looks like a dip container--only it's bubbling, neon, and...did it just blink?*

milia: *nom* =w= yum!

Free: "Thank you for trying something new." ^w^

-elsewhere-

Tool: "How's your arm holding up?"

mana: a bit sore, but fine.

Tool: *nods* "That's good...The streets are saying this isn't going to stop for a bit--and may flood the road."

mana: hmm.

Tool: "I think it's best to put some towels down around the door edges--" *opens the curtains, looks outside* o_O;;;

*Shotaro is now a dolphin, swimming outside*

-elsewhere-

kyouko: *helping put up sandbags by the edge of the canal*

Rin: "Got another one..." *picks it up*

nygus: thanks again for helping out here today.

kyouko: not a problem, ma'am.

Sid: "The nearby houses are evacuated. Where did this storm come from?"

homura: it could be an incident by a rogue witch.

Sid: "Maybe...Homura, call up some meisters, see which souls they detect. I'll get some other divisions to check on other sources--demons, quirks, abilities..."

homura: understood.

Sid: *texts* [can you patrol for certain rain-based or water-based quirks in the area? potential source of current downpour]

Aizawa: *asleep next to his phone* "Zzzz..."

yuuji: oi, get up. *nudge*

present mic: i got dis.....HEYYYYYYYYYYYY AIZAWA!!!

yuuji: >~Q ow.

Aizawa: =_______= *grabs Present Mic by the throat*

present mic: GRK-

Aizawa: "What."

present mic: text message for you.

Aizawa: *looks* "..." *sighs* "I'll get my poncho...Come along."

-elsewhere-

Charon: *shivers* "Stupid rain..."

kagu-tsuchi: it should pass soon enough.

Charon: "Not soon enough. I'm freezing." *he's standing with no shirt*

kagu-tsuchi: *sweatdrop* you're the one walking around without a shirt on.

Charon: "??? How could you--"

kagu-tsuchi: your heat signature was different from usual.

Charon: "Hmph. Fine." *puts on a shirt* "It's still unbearable. Rain requires adjusting any techniques in combat."

-elsewhere-

*There's a child jumping around in the rain, giggling*

shop owner: hey kid, you shouldnt be out here alone, it's dangerous.

???: "???" *smiles, slightly creepy* "But it's fun! Whee!" *plops down, rolling in the puddle*

shop owner: where the heck are your parents?

???: -___-; "Shut up! I'm here because I want to be!" *kicks up water*

shop owner: woah!

???: >n< "I don't need any, any more!" *stamps their feet--and more rain pours down, flooding into the shop*

shop owner: h-hey! hey!!

???: "I get to do what I want! Because I can do THIS!" *splashes water at the window, shattering it*

shop owner: !!!!!

Sid: "Hey!"

???: "???" *turns* "..." ._.; "What the heck are you supposed to be?"

homura: *grabs their shoulder* disciplinary committee.

-one spanking later-

???: Q~Q "You mean ugly jerk!" >n<

*The rain stops falling...*

nygus: so they were the source, then....

homura: *looking up an ID for the kid*

*Looks to be a runaway from the Slums, missing since the disaster there*

homura: you're from the slums, right?

???: "I don't have to tell you anything--you're not my mom!"

nygus: what's your name, sweetie?

???: "...Kai."

nygus: now, how are you able to use this ability of yours, kai? is it a quirk?

Kai: "Dunno...It started happening last week after I...ran."

homura: so you recently discovered your ability, then?

Kai: *frowns at Homura* -n- "Yeah."

nygus: where's your family, kai? in the slums still?

Kai: "...I don't know. After the fire, I couldn't find them...No one came for me anyway, so that's fine."

nygus:.....tell you what, you can stay with us for a while until we get this squared away, alright?

Kai: "Why would you do that for me, Miss Mummy?"

nygus: someone has to make sure you're safe, so that your power isnt used to cause harm to others.

Kai: -n- "I didn't harm anyone..."

*The shop is still flooded*

shop owner: does my insurance cover this?

Sid: "I'm going to guess yes, but I'll check with the Academy--they are taking responsibility for this kid."

shop owner: thank you, mr barrett.

Sid: *nods* "Now, let's dump this brat into a warm bath, get them cleaned up--"

Kai: >_< "MY NAME ISN'T 'BRAT'!"

-elsewhere-

Joker: "Huh. Rain stopped."

scarlet: weather's odd like that, i guess.

Joker: "Hmm..." *picks up a cigarette box--it's soggy* "...Oh, damn it."

-elsewhere-

Walter: "Almost ready to put this show on stage, Leroux?"

leroux: just about~ ^u^

Hirotsu: "It's shaping up very well. The costumes in particular."

-elsewhere-

Kid: *smiles, looking at the rainbow outside*

shiori: woooow!

Kid: "It's so big and colorful! We can see red, orange, and--what else, Shiori?"

shiori: bloo?

Kid: "Yes! The rainbow contains the seven main colors, including indigo."

shiori: indigo?

Kid: "A kind of dark blue..." *Excalibur face* "There should be _eight_ rainbow colors..."

shiori: how about brown?

Kid: "Hmm...Well, that could give us an eighth color, but then it wouldn't be a rainbow but a rain-_brown_." *smiles*

shiori: *giggle*

Kid: ^w^ "Ha ha...The rainbow comes after even the worst rain, kind of a sign of hope."

-elsewhere-

Todoroki: *passing a finger along rain droplets on the window*

fuyumi: quite a storm, huh?

Todoroki: "No kidding. It wasn't reported at all, so I'm glad it's done."

-elsewhere-

[toomanylovesongs]

The Ol Questionnaire

I haven't done one of these since high school, so I figured why not! 1. Would you have sex with the last person you text messaged? Ha, yeah I totally would. 
2. You talked to an ex today, correct? Does an instagram comment exchange count? If so, yes. 
3. Have you taken someones virginity? A million years ago. 
4. Is trust a big issue for you? One of the biggest! I don't trust many folks. 
5. Did you hang out with the person you like recently? It's been over a week or so, she's been out of town. 
6. What are you excited for? Hm, well soon I'm interviewing to be manager of a different location of the coffee business I work for. Going to see pals play tunes in their wicked band the night after tomorrow. 
7. What happened tonight? I came home from work and passseeddd out. Then ordered pizza, watched Masters of Sex, and doodled. It was pretty pleasant. 
8. Do you think it’s disgusting when girls get really wasted? ...no? Just be careful! So many "disgusting" humans who take advantage of intoxicated femme. 
9. Is confidence cute? V sexy. 
10. What is the last beverage you had? Currently drinking What The Huck by Fernie Brewing Co 
11. How many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust? Hm. There's a handful. I'm related to most of them. 
12. Do you own a pair of skinny jeans? Yes, don't wear them super often though. Whenever I do my boss is like WHAT THE HECK?! 
13. What are you gonna do Saturday night? Seeing pals at the Palomino! 
14. What are you going to spend money on next? Realistically, food. 
15. Are you going out with the last person you kissed? Yeah. Although she was taking some space. Soooo it's to be seen what happens with that. 
16. Do you think you’ll change in the next 3 months? Probably! might be a general manager of a new shop soon opposed to an assistant manager, so that will be a huge change if it happens. 
17. Who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything? One of my best pals Chelsea. Or my boss Jade. 
18. The last time you felt broken? Ha. Often. A few days ago? The depression had been a bit of a roller-coaster as of late. 
19. Have you had sex today? ...does it count if it's with myself? 
20. Are you starting to realize anything? Yeah. Making strides with mental health, trying to get that puppy in check. 
21. Are you in a good mood? I suppose so, yeah. Drinking a beer, listening to tunes, life's pretty alright right now. 
22. Would you ever want to swim with sharks? Ha! No way. I'm a chicken. I used to get scared of sharks being in public pools when I was younger. So no. (Such a real fear (Not)) 
23. Are your eyes the same color as your dad’s?
No, mine are pretty wild. Green with orange around the pupil. 24. What do you want right this second? CLARITY. I hate this relationship limbo. 
25. What would you say if the person you love/like kissed another girl/boy? Well it would depend on how I found out. If they were honest then I'd say, "Okay, what do you want to do from here?" 
26. Is your current hair color your natural hair color? Yep! Hair's a virgin 
27. Would you be able to date someone who doesn’t make you laugh? I have before, and I definitely don't want to again. 
28. What was the last thing that made you laugh? My cat being an adorable goof. 
29. Do you really, truly miss someone right now? Yep yep. Damn longing. 
30. Does everyone deserve a second chance? For most part, yes. 
31. Honestly, do you hate the last boy you were talking to? Nope! He's a sweet bean and we laugh a lot. 
32. Does the person you have feelings for right now, know you do? Ohhhh she sure does. 
33. Are you one of those people who never drinks soda? Nope, my parents used to call me the "nonstop pop girl" when I was a kid. My cavities can attest to that. 
34. Listening to? "Push+Pull" by July Talk 
35. Do you ever write in pencil anymore? Not super often. I was drawing in pencil earlier tonight for the first time in a long time. 
36. Do you know where the last person you kissed is? General idea, not a specific idea. 
37. Do you believe in love at first sight? Nah, I'm one of those "learn to love" kind of humans. Definitely lust at first sight though. 
38. Who did you last call? GMC City to deal with car stuff. 
39. Who was the last person you danced with? Me and my coworkers dance all the time 
40. Why did you kiss the last person you kissed? THE FEELS 
41. When was the last time you ate a cupcake? A few days ago, there were some at work. 
42. Did you hug/kiss one of your parents today? Negative. 
43. Ever embarrass yourself in front of a crush? That's my life story! 
44. Do you tan in the nude? I mostly just tan while I'm out and about in the world, which I am not usually nude for. 
45. If you could, would you take back your last kiss? Not even a little bit. 
46. Did you talk to someone until you fell asleep last night? Nah, listened to tunes until I fell asleep. 
47. Who was the last person to call you? My dad. 
48. Do you sing in the shower? Usually. 
49. Do you dance in the car? If I'm not freezing, yes! 
50. Ever used a bow and arrow? I have! I wanted to Legolas when I was a kiddo. 
51. Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer? About a month ago. 
52. Do you think musicals are cheesy? They can be. I like them about 50% of the time. 
53. Is Christmas stressful? Yeah, I just don't do it anymore. 
54. Ever eat a pierogi? Yissssssss 
55. Favorite type of fruit pie? Hm. I don't really like fruit pies to be honest. Mostly like Pumpkin Pie. 
56. Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid? Ha. Cowgirl, inventor, be a bad ass in the men in black (my grade two career day costume), artist, many things. 
57. Do you believe in ghosts? Yessss 
58. Ever have a Deja-vu feeling? Almost daily. 
59. Take a vitamin daily? No, I sometimes take Vitamin D but I usually forget. 
60. Wear slippers? I have none! 
61. Wear a bath robe? Not super often. Pretty rare. 
62. What do you wear to bed? Usually a shirt and underwear. 
63. First concert? Danny Hooper at the Community Hall in Grove dale, AB haha. Big concert - Nazareth. 
64. Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart? Targettttt. Rip target. 
65. Nike or Adidas? Not super applicable to me! 
66. Cheetos Or Fritos? Cheetos 
67. Peanuts or Sunflower seeds? Depends if on a road trip or not. Road trip = spits! 
68. Favorite Taylor Swift song? Ha. I'm not a T Swift fan 
69. Ever take dance lessons? Um, does high school gym class count? 
70. Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing? Something creative. 
71. Can you curl your tongue? Yes 
72. Ever won a spelling bee? I've never participated in one! 
73. Have you ever cried because you were so happy? Hm. Almost. 
74. What is your favorite book? I'm a sucker for anything by Bukowski, even though he wasn't a very swell human 
75. Do you study better with or without music? With 
76. Regularly burn incense? No! Although incense would be nice. 
77. Ever been in love? Yeah. It'll be the death of me. 
78. Who would you like to see in concert? Hm. I've been lucky enough to see some of my favs already! Looking forward to Chad Vangaalen in January, then possibly Bahamas in March. 
79. What was the last concert you saw? If local shows count, my pals band Yvette 
80. Hot tea or cold tea? Hot hot 
81. Tea or coffee? Coffee forever 
82. Favorite type of cookie? Chocolate chunk dipped in milk 
83. Can you swim well? No, I took lessons when I was a kid but haven't been in water much since my eyes got really bad. 
84. Can you hold your breath without holding your nose? Yes. 
85. Are you patient? APPARENTLY. 
86. DJ or band, at a wedding? Band! 
87. Ever won a contest? My dad and I (really it was just my dad, but I picked the ticket) won second place in a dream home lottery when I was a kid, which gave us a Canyon Truck. We never won anything so it was pretty shocking. 
88. Ever have plastic surgery? No 
89. Which are better black or green olives? Neither. 
90. Opinions on sex before marriage? Not a fan of marriage. Be safe and consensual with whatever sec you engage in! 
91. Best room for a fireplace? Uhm. Living room? 
92. Do you want to get married? Soooo doubtful

[gallerique-blog]

Gallerique

Fine Art Schools - Finding Your Niche

However, now fine-arts additional forms include, photography, film, contemporary-art, and print-making. In certain institutes-of-learning however, the expression fine-arts is associated-exclusively with visual-art forms.

Fine Art Paintings

The makeup of a good art painting is the thing that catches the viewer's eye and defines the artwork.The word "fine" does not so much denote-the-quality of this art-work in-question, but the purity-of-the-discipline. The definition-tends into exclude-all different visual-art-forms that can or may be stated to be considered to be craft-work or applied-art such as fabrics.

The visual-arts has-been termed as a more-inclusive and descriptive-phrase for current-art-practice. He common instruments used in Fine art paintings and paintings include graphite-pencils, pens, ink, inked brushes, wax color-pencils, crayons, chalk, charcoals, pastels, stylus, and markers. There are various sub categories of drawing and paintings,they including cartooning, Some drawing and painting methods and approaches such as, doodling.

Contemporary Art

Contemporary-art is an art in which the concept/concepts or idea/ideas which are involved in the art-work take the precedence over traditional-aesthetic and material-concerns. The inception-of-the-term "contemporary art" from the 1960's known to a very strict and well focused-practice of thought based-art that often defied the traditional visual-criteria which is connected with the visual-arts in its presentation-as-text. Contemporary art can be regarded as art that has been produced in the present-period in time.

Fine Art Paintings Suggestions

After painting, selecting the attention for your painting can at times be your biggest challenge. Before starting your painting, obtaining a workable-idea is essential and it'll assist you on your creative-endeavor. Whether you are working with oils, oil, tempera or watercolor paints, the following ideas may be the start of a great art painting.

Balanced-Abstract

You may produce an abstract fine art painting permitting liberty of-expression and makeup. You can incorporate geometric-shapes, bright-colors and defined-lines in your art, these are all considered to be the characteristics of an abstract-art. You can opt to create your painting some what representational or entirely free-form, based only on the color, mild or even motion.

You can decide to utilize geometric or organic-shapes. Remember to keep a sense of balance in your painting. If the painting feels looks unbalanced, you are able to bring it together-more by using repeated-colors, shapes or lines.

Landscape along with the Rule-of-Thirds

A landscape is an easy-subject since it will not move or change greatly.A landscape is a period tested-subject to get a painting. It is possible to sit outside on your-porch and sketch the landscape around you before you start painting. Once happy with the landscape, then you may then start by sketching it on your paper or canvas.

Always think about the makeup and the rule of 3rds when creating your own painting. The principle of 3rds suggests that dividing your composition to a grid of 9 equal-rectangles and placing the major-elements of the landscape, like the trees, mountain tops and buildings, at points at which the grid-intersects.

Is unscrupulous contest killing fine-art printmaking? Or has it killed it already, the movement we are seeing today being the tail wagging after the mind has been severed? Either way, we're seeing the disappearance of the fine-art print as we understand it. It is being accosted on all sides with an insidious digital-copy company which has illicitly co-opted the terminology of printmaking and made it its own.

The electronic revolution has given rise to two noteworthy novelties which affect printmaking. Let's start with the good news. Computers, smart image-creation/modification applications and high-quality inkjet printers also have enabled artists to create original digital pictures and publish them with amazing quality on various substrates. These "digital prints," didn't enter to the generally-accepted definition of original fine-art prints elaborated from the French National Committee on Engraving in 1964, because they didn't exist at the moment, but now they have a valid claim to being contemplated fine-art prints.

That 1964 definition stipulated:

Proofs either in black and white or in color, drawn from among many plates, both conceived and implemented entirely by hand by the exact same artist, regardless of the procedure used, together with the exception of all mechanical or photomechanical procedures, shall be considered first engravings, prints or lithographs. Only prints meeting with such qualifications have the right to be designated First Prints.

The down side of the electronic phenomenon is that exact same technology is being used by unscrupulous dealers to create high-definition reproductions of current artwork and commercialize them as "fine-art prints." A number of the operators are knowingly violating the canons of the centuries-old fine-art-print tradition. Others are simply ignorant. It's difficult to tell which is which. Whatever the case, there is no excuse either for ignoring the convention or For knowingly breaking it.

Neither Moralizing Nor Nostalgia

This insistence upon respect for printmaking customs is vapid moralizing nor luddite nostalgia. Over over 500 decades of proud history the expression "fine-art print" has acquired the status of a trademark for artist-made serial-original works of art. What these works of art comprise might be up for discussion, but what they certainly do not include are artwork reproductions, regardless of the degree of sophistication of these replicating methods used.

What is at stake here are the livelihoods of tens of thousands of contemporary fine-art printmakers whose valuable, exclusive handmade first prints-whether made with etching instruments or computers-are being undercut by traders who, in a classical example of dishonest, disloyal competition, refer to their inkjet duplicates as "giclee prints" or more brazenly, "limited-edition giclee prints." As though the techniques and language of fine-art printmaking weren't arcane enough already to the often-ingenuous art-buying public, along come electronic sharp operators to confuse them with the deliberate usurpation of printmaking's traditional vocabulary. They'd have us believe that this is only trade. It is, I submit, simple larceny.

This is not to say that there's not a legitimate market in the market for inkjet or other types of art reproductions. No one in her right mind would maintain that. It is just that those reproductions aren't fine-art prints, any more than the offset artwork poster is. While it's definitely printed, it's barely a "print." To affirm otherwise in order to commercialize digital reproductions at fine-art costs is fraudulent and should be treated as such in the marketplace, the press and the courts of lawenforcement.

The Issue of Big-Bucks Vested Interests

The matter is further complicated by the dollar fiscal interests in play. Each of the giant inkjet printer businesses have discovered the potential of the giclee marketplace and therefore are fomenting it with a vengeance. They make billions selling not just the large-format inkjet printers used in creating art reproductions, but also the inks and papers. They manage to remain mostly above the fray, but as their communications generally to refer to their printers' usefulness in terms of "graphic art" and "photographic" applications.

I wish to share with you an anecdote which will provide you a good notion of the kind of clout the fine-art printmaking community is up against. Two summers ago a giant computer company (like a quarter of a million workers worldwide) flew a few 60 American art-and-design-world opinion leaders into a charming European capital to stay in a five-star resort and trailer their new-model large-format inkjet printers. The "preview" consisted of an intensive three-day class in the mill including the most intimate technical particulars of their new printers, and hands on exercise sessions. The day workshops have been accompanied by a string of tasty meals and excursions in the evenings. The visit to the mill was followed up by an all-expense-paid weekend in the Arles Photography Festival in France.

This midsize producer spared no cost to convert these imaging view leaders to its own new advanced large-format inkjet printers (and also remember the inks and papers) for use in all sorts of design, industrial and art applications. What, in fact, is the main use to which these printers have been put, concerning volume use? You guessed it, fine-art reproductions. Though from the vast majority they are not marketed as "reproductions" or even "posters" but as "fine-art prints."

A Simple Experiment Confirms that the Trend

How severe is it? I recently did a very simple experiment to gauge the amount of the printmaking death-watch-beetle phenomenon, an experiment that you may repeat yourself if you're inclined. On Saturday, July 5, 2008 I did a Google search for the expression "fine-art prints." I had to wade through 15 websites offering "fine art prints and images" and "giclee prints" before encountering on page two of the search a website (ObsessionArt.com) devoted to signed limited-edition photographs, but I needed to trudge on to the 42nd entrance on page five to come across a hand-pulled fine-art print (Maria Arango's original woodcuts).

Following Maria's job I had to slog through four more pages of reproductions described as "prints" before finding another real printmaker, Laszlo Bagi, a screen-print artist. He appeared in the bottom of page nine of the Google search results for "fine art prints," 97th on the list. I needed to continue on to page 11 to obtain the upcoming sellers of genuine fine-art prints, Santa Fe Editions.

In all, my Google search turned up two purveyors of genuine fine-art Prints out of the initial 100+ results. That is less than 2\%. Another 98+percent are misrepresenting the lithographic, inkjet and offset reproductions they are selling as "fine art prints" Considering this preponderance of deceptive competition, it's no wonder print buyers and possible print buyers are perplexed. Given this state of affairs, how is an honest printmaker supposed to make a living?

What To Do?

How might the worldwide fine-art printmaking community battle this onslaught? Clearly it has to begin by recognizing the facts of this situation and opening a discussion on the subject. Meanwhile, it happens to me that they could start with a worldwide program to educate both potential and actual art buyers-as to what's a real fine-art print. They might also put some strain on the search motors, that are, in all probability, unknowing collaborators in the online print-fraud operations. Why is it that Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines index artwork posters and giclee reproductions beneath the search phrase "fine art prints?" It would appear to be quite a simple matter for them to lure vendors to exhibit honest descriptions of the wares, under penalty of being banned.

Within the previous ten decades, the Charleston Fine Art Dealers' Association (CFADA) has increased from just a few founding members to 13 member galleries which helped alter Charleston's art marketplace. Determined by standards of professionalism, CFADA member galleries represent a diversity of fine art and talent that this fine balance of tradition and history together with contemporary and modern pieces produces a special art scene in Charleston. New and modern rub shoulders with the traditional; the appreciation of background allows for development and growth in a new direction. CFADA will celebrate its 10th anniversary this November with the Charleston Fine Art Annual.

Charleston has had a long-lasting love affair with the arts. As early as 1708, the earliest documented professional artist in the USA, Henrietta Johnston, arrived in Charleston. As a widow, she supported her family by creating pastel portrait commissions. William Aiken Walker was a Charleston born performer and in the early 20th century, Charlestonian Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, who analyzed all around the world, became well know for her etched and pastel scenes.

By 1915-40, the Charleston Renaissance period was emphasized by the work of Verner, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith and Anna Heyward Living room furniture Taylor as well as long visits by nationally notable artists such as Edward Hopper, Alfred Hutty and Childe Hassam.

These artists have something in common; they painted the historical town, Southern life or its inhabitants. The subject matter still brings new talent to Charleston. It is safe to say that many local artists began painting because their creative spirits were truly motivated by their surroundings.

The Charleston artwork market offers the past, current and future listed in works of art featuring excellent works of Charleston Renaissance and 21st century paintings from hundreds of local, national and global artists in addition to abstract and modern art. Prominent art collectors traveling to Charleston to locate artistic gems and local art fans are keenly supporting the visual arts' of the area.

Today, Charleston is considered by arts' groups to be one of the top 10 arts' destinations in the nation. Over the previous 10 decades, CFADA continues to be at the forefront of their art industry in Charleston and its member galleries actively promoted the new Renaissance movement that began altering Charleston's art world in the mid-nineties. They have contributed to Charleston's ranking by raising professional standards, bringing in fresh talent, leading to local art programs and by introducing the best works and art events to the city.

The collaboration of CFADA member galleries together with the community is surely important. Each gallery affirms a significant cause and CFADA as a team raises money for local high schools' art programs and scholarships. CFADA artists have contributed a tremendous amount of resources and time to Charleston's new generation of musicians. Many teach regular workshops for young pupils and provide private lessons.

CFADA is credited with bringing some of the best works of esteemed artists to Charleston. 1 such notable exhibit was the groundbreaking exhibit coordinated by Ella Richardson Fine Art revealing picture works by Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir at 2005. Ann Long Fine Art introduced an exhibition titled Maestros: Charles Cecil, Daniel Graves, Ben Long, and Jeffrey Mims at November 2008 in honor of four master painters who have been teaching classical painting techniques for over thirty decades.