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probably-haven · 3 years ago

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Hello!! After seeing what you wrote about xiaoven fics I went to see what things you usually write and omg, your archon Venti headcanons????? I am absolutely in love. So if it isn't annoying, could you talk about xiaoven or Venti or Xiao or whatever ship or character you like? I don't care what you are going to say, I just want to know more about your thoughts ^^

I- is this... bestie, this is essentially a free ramble pass- kerujsgheskdfug. Trust me when I say that in no way is this, and in no way will it ever be annoying in the slightest- i literally- lets just say rambling off thoughts is kind of my specialty, especially when provided a topic to branch off of because otherwise I'm just- really indecisive about it so- iujskdh yeah- 100% definitely down to talk about Venti, Xiao, and/or Xiaoven XD. Also, yes- it may have been awhile since i last posted one(cuz again, indecisive about which direction to take part 5), but the Archon War Era Venti headcanons are still without a doubt my favorite posts I've made. It's just such an interesting topic with such endless potential that so few people actually think about or consider or even realize is there, so i always just get really psyched whenever i see someone interact with them lol.

.... this ended up being a bit of a mess: warning in advance

Anyway! onto the actual content!

- You see the thing about Xiaoven is that there's a lot of different ways that it could end up working out, and just personally my favorite way of portraying Xiaoven in my mind is as an unlabeled relationship because if anyone in genshin would give off that vibe its these two. And a number of other reasons.

- Firstly, I heavily headcanon Venti as being an aroace polyplatonic or perhaps heavily demiromantic. However, regardless of this I just don't think that Venti is really the kind of person to worry about how he should label his feelings, thinking it's silly to try to put them in one box or the other, especially with feelings and emotions being as fluid as they are in general. Plus it fits his whole God of Freedom vibe. I just- dont think he's the biggest fan of labels or social categorization in general.

- And secondly on the hand of Xiao... his defense mechanisms are very much ingrained in his personality. It's probably hard enough for him to not go into fight or flight(the answer is fight) at the slightest affection at first, at the slightest feeling of vulnerability. Even further down the line, with his fierce dedication to Liyue, I cant help but get the vibe that the moment he recognized that he was falling for Venti he would begin avoiding him, not only to avoid distraction from his duty, but to avoid corrupting him or losing him in general like he has with like basically every other person he gets close with(even believing that the cycle had repeated once more when he first heard of Morax's death)... now imagine Venti tryna slap a label on their relationship and tell me Xiao would have a positive reaction.

- The thing with Xiaoven.... honestly, i feel like theres more ways that it can go wrong than it can go right, but if they do manage to make their relationship work out, it's just simply beautiful in all terms of the word.

- Lets talk about killing. - During the Archon War, both were forced to kill a large number of people and gods alike- Venti out of a need to remain alive to protect Mondstadt, it's freedom, and the nameless bard's legacy by extent- and Xiao out of servitude to the god that was once his master

..... actually- break here- ive talked a lot about Venti on this blog but I havent actually spoken about Xiao all that much- so i should probably do that a bit first... do note though that my characterization of Xiao is pretty flexible actually- this is just- the possible characterization of him that i tend to favor as being the most- uh- "realistically complex"

Theres a line I saw this one time in a certain story: "He is a trained weapon. That's what he is, was, and always will be. You cannot change that so stop trying." And i just- think its a really interesting concept- that applies pretty well to Xiao now that i actually think about it. - the concept behind it is this: After spending more than a vast majority of his life killing or otherwise in battle, it's become a part of who he is, a normalcy that after centuries and centuries would be near impossible to get rid of or reverse, and even if it was possible, with his karmic debt constantly eating away at him its unlikely he has enough time left for that to happen. - it sounds like a cruel thing to say about him- but in context it's actually pretty layered and i think about it a lot. It's not as much a "he's a killer lol, that his whole personality" its more of a "The centuries of trauma he experienced have conditioned him into a constantly alert and battle ready mindset while also shaping his dehumanizing inferior-in-worth-but-superior-in-capability view of himself that would have likely been necessary to get through those time, and at this point he's been under that conditioning for long enough that it's essentially ingrained itself in his personality."

- the main idea is- it's a part of who he is, that needs to be accepted as who he is because its not something that he can just up and change. It's not all he is of course but his constant battle mode, as though always waiting to be ambushed or to be granted a new target to eradicate.

a couple character story quotes:

-"His past of service under the evil god had rid Xiao of his innocence and gentleness. All that remained within him was the means to kill and the weight of his sins. The only way he could be of service to mortals was in combat." -"Xiao does not feel any hatred. Having lived for over two thousand years, no single karmic debt constitutes anything more than a fleeting memory. No grudge can last a thousand years; nor is any debt so great that it cannot be paid off in this time. Xiao has spent many long years alone. But his battles have never been in vain." -"where did Xiao have to return to? He was merely leaving the battlefield." -"since Xiao wages a constant war against dark forces powerful enough to devour Liyue in its entirety, any bystanders who witness him in the heat of battle are likely to end up as collateral damage." -"The war he fights can never be won, and will never come to an end." -"Because ultimately, the one with whom Xiao wrestles is himself."

i feel like at some point this very nearly did consume his whole personality, almost turning him into nothing more than a being of slaughter under Morax's control, devoid of any "humanity" at all, consumed and corrupted by his karmic debt like his fellow yakshas before him. - until he experienced a moment of clarity- a song in the wind, the peaceful melody of a dihua flute. - and pulled back from the border of something he wouldnt have been able to return from, there a was a shift in his mind- a concept grown unfamiliar enough with time that it took him a great time to identify what it was; a curiosity. Something that there was no place for on the battlefield, something that by all means should have been completely useless to Xiao, and yet he held onto that curiosity, slowly regaining over time, a sense of who he was and who he could choose to be with each song that the wind chose to carry towards him every once in a blue moon.

and eventually that curiousity turned to longing. Longing "for a day to come when he will wear the mask and dance — not to conquer demons, but to the tune of that flute amid a sea of flowers"

...... uh- heh- if you couldn’t tell already i have a tendency to make my characterizations/analyses of characters more serious that i probably should.

to summarize: Xiao is constantly toeing the line between his ingrained nature and his humanity- almost as though still trying to decide how much of that humanity he deserves to have, how much he is allowed to have, and how much is safe to have.

^looking back after writing this, i think the best way to explain it is that this is the view that i keep in mind/the lense that i tend to most enjoy looking through and refering back to while examining and/or analyzing his character, actions, story, lines, and overall personality.

idk- i kinda got off track but i just think its a really interesting interpretation to think about because it has some really interesting implications ig- it’s not the full extent of how i view him of course, but i kinda got ahead of myself and its long enough as is so ill just elaborate as i go- Lol i actually have in progress playlists for both him and venti and just- vibes- i could ramble about the playlists alone for hours explaining everything... It’s probably a problem- uh- ill keep going now lol.

anyways! stepping off the angst path for a brief break! Brought to you by their lines in the snow: both waiting for it to get thick enough, Venti for the purpose of a snowball fight and Xiao for the purpose of a tasty and nutritious breakfast.

but its actually something of note that Xiao doesnt actually need to eat so anything he does eat is usually out of obligation or enjoyment- so like.... snow.... like i dont blame him, but of all things- an adeptus who refuses to eat basically anything but almond tofu looks at the freezing-cold-floor-water that yeeted itself from above and decided at some point- damn- that seems more edible than basically ever single actually edible thing ever.... im gonna eat it- like- im glad if eating snow makes him happy but- at the same time...

He probably convinces Venti to eat snow too though and Venti wouldnt even resist I mean he’s wind and has probably consumed worse things in his time so- 2 anemo cryptids with glowing tattoos sitting in Dragonspine monching snow in the dead of night is an amusing thought to me.

- kay, now back to more serious-toned thoughts

One of the things about the ship that i really like is the different contradicting parallels between them:

A lot of how i view Xiao’s character is someone formed largely by the things he cant control and who was forced to accept that accepted that and learned to thrive in it as much as he can. Venti on the other hand is surrounded by things he cant control and is ever adapting to control as much as he can while embracing whatever he cant as being part of the unpredictability of the world, seeing beauty in it.

both of them have lost people and do what they do to honor their memory: Xiao continues to do what the Yakshas once did And Venti chooses to do what his friend couldn’t

Xiao’s power coming from himself and Venti’s from others And both seem to appear to use their power for their own gain while truly helping others behind the scenes

both have killed a lot of people during the archon war Xiao views it as another necessary event out of his control and Venti would likely view it as a tragedy he chose to enact himself

and this is where we meet out balance

Xiao- contrary to how i think a lot of people view him as thinking of himself as a monster- seems canonically to have accepted this as part of his duty, as long as those he killed are not mortals. I dont think he enjoys it no- but someone has to do it and he’s just accepted that its a part of his duty Venti on the other hand-

See the beauty of the ship- as someone with an angst-centric mind- is this- these are two of the most traumatized mfers in the game

Xiao is by far the one who needs the most help and who can serve to benefit most from the ship- but he is nowhere near self aware enough to recognize that there’s anything wrong or unhealthy about his mindset in the slightest-

whereas you have the contrast with Venti who sorted through most of his trauma with the nameless bard alone during the archon war and while the result appears more healthy- is still really not- but he’s not self aware of that either because i mean- who’s going to tell him? nobody even knows.

however- venti is aware enough to notice flaws in Xiao’s mindset and “Venti” enough to want to help them through it-

Xiao- while not aware enough to recognize the flaws in Venti’s mindset, can recognize where it contrasts with his own, and is blunt enough to point it out- and then it’s out there to be mulled over-

they’re so similar and yet so different and a feel just conversing between the two of them, being in each others precense, just being exposed to two mindsets that are so very different could do both of them a whole lot of good.

GEEE THAT BIT OF RAMBLING HAD LITTLE TO NO DIRECTION AT ALL- LET ME-- LET ME MAKE THIS START MAKING SENSE- WITH... DYNAMICS OR SOMETHING

I don’t think Xiao needs to sleep really- and i dont think that sleeping would do anything except make him uneasy at first- he’d probably just get nightmares after all he’s been through- but with Venti he would soon learn that it doesn’t have to be that way, lulled into the first peaceful sleep he’s had in... as long as he can remember.

anywho back to not making sense cuz im fickle and i think most questions about ships are best displayed through character interactions so like- a possible exchange thats cliche but cliches exist for a reason

Xiao: Why do you try so hard to help me, it isn’t easy. I know that much Venti, with the most adoring expression: Because you’re worth it, obviously Xiao: But surely there are others more deserving of- Venti: No Xiao, everyone is just as deserving as the next person, you included Xiao: Then why me above others? Venti: ehe, cuz ur my warrior of course [O//////O oh shit, hes right] Xiao: My contract is with Morax alone [gay panic but in broody yaksha]

it’s kinda difficult cuz neither of them really address their feelings. I mean Venti does but he does it very indirectly and its rare that he ever does it with like- genuine directness- even spilling his backstory was in the form of a song- and told in the third person- so a lot of their interactions would often have some deeper meaning, especially with Venti being the bard he is.

I come up with a lot of- errant thoughts about Xiaoven- but this is making me realize that a true analysis of their ship is rather difficult because it just encompasses so many dynamics so its hard to settle on just one and not go rambling about who knows what bouncing from one end of the ship to the other- Because you truly can and thats the beauty of it

within one moment you can be having a heartfelt conversation about the archon war the impact of lost friends and times past, and the next moment Venti is trying to forcefeed Xiao an apple while Xiao screams about disrespecting the adepti and its just- so lovely

so while they have picnics with nothing but apples, dandelion wine, and almond tofu they can sit down and talk about the dreams Xiao once devoured, and the dandelion wine and apple cider that the first Ragnvindir invented from the plants that never could have grown in Old Mond. The foods that tasted of familiarity, or of the grilled ticker fish Pervases always used to eat, foods that tasted of friends and frankly family that had since passed, glaze lilies and cecilias and qingxin flowers scattered in the surroundings and woven into Xiao’s neat braids and Venti’s now messy ones, rebraided by the steady and inexperienced hands of one unused to gentle action.

and then of course Venti steals Xiao’s tofu once the mood becomes too grim and replaces it with a bottle of wine that Xiao refers to as “vile poison,” a remark that fatally wounds Venti as he collapses on the floor, proclaiming how he can only be healed by a Yaksha’s kiss. Xiao ignores this of course and simply takes back his tofu with a slight smile on his face, but as Venti persists he soundlessly places a kiss on his own palm before intertwining their fingers and pulling him back up from where he was dramatically sprawled on the floor, grumbling about how such action was “unbecoming of an archon.” A sign of affection only Xiao would ever know about. But Venti is literally wind and I hc his senses work differently anyways so he definitely knows- plus Xiao’s face is red as the blood of his enemies and the way he is pointedly not looking at Venti at all really speaks volumes anyways.

-Venti playing epic battle music whenever Xiao goes into fights in what looks like a ridiculously extra performance to anyone else but is actually doing wonders to keep Xiao’s karma at bay

-Venti preaches the practice of “kissing wounds better” and Xiao is unfamiliar with this medical treatment but views it as unnecessary regardless because adepti have accelerated healing, doesn’t mean he’s going to stop him though.

-Messages whispered on the wind

-Venti’s 1000 year sleep- an accident, not a fun time for the yaksha, and not a fun time for Venti once he woke up. Venti is actually more afraid of restful sleep than Xiao is, hence the sleeping in trees thing, but when Xiao is there, he can sleep restfully with faith that Xiao wont let another millennia slip through his fingertips.

- Xiao tends to make excuses when doing things that aren’t necessary to his duty, like in his birthday voice line “Have this, it’s a butterfly i made from leaves... Okay. Take it. It’s an adepti amulet -- it staves off evil” because at the current point in his progress it helps him to feel like he’s allowed to do these things. Not wanting to put him off from progress, Venti never comments on his excuse but never fails to whisper a quick reminder of how proud he is of how far Xiao had come.

- Xiao’s karma saddens Venti greatly- not only because of how it effects Xiao but also because its a reminder that as much as Venti tries to honor the memory of those he’s killed, there will always be those who resent him for it, and when he took the option of living away from them, he truly can’t blame them. - And when he gets too wrapped up in thoughts, whether around this topic or similar ones or otherwise, eventually, he’ll hear the sound of a flute on the wind. It’s not divine by any means, but as his own wind connects him to the source, he gets the sentiment all the same. “What impact does one individual’s remaining wrath have on the present. You have done much to help the living in the present” the unspoken idea that Xiao has included himself in that statement, because now, with Venti’s help he’s beginning to learn just how to experience living for himself.

- Venti’s form and Xiao’s mask are off limit topics though because if either mentions it the other will counter with the opposite and the mood will turn immediately bitter at the idea that both know that what they’re doing is destructive but neither are willing to change

- Venti who has different tells for negative feelings than most people because as much as he likes to pretend it is- this form isnt his, and Xiao who is able to identify those

- many fanfics and headcanons have Venti recognizing when Xiao is uncomfortable and getting him out of those situations. I see that and I love it but i raise you: - Venti taking Xiao to Mondstadt, careful that he doesn’t get to the point that he’s uncomfortable. And nothing goes wrong exactly, but Xiao notices the the way Venti’s cape is blowing in the wind, the way he’s holding his weight, barely on his feet so much as floating on the wind, connected with the ground only for the sake of appearance, all the while he looks just as happy go lucky as ever. And without a word, he grabs his hand and teleports them both out of Mondstadt. - turns out it was just a slight thing that reminded him of the archon war (cuz i will die on the hill of him having more tragic backstory than just Decarabian), and he of course gives a sincere if not flustered thanks to Xiao, because he’s really not used to people noticing.

- Venti trying to vent sneakily through fictional stories and Xiao is just like “Didn’t that basically happen to you” and Venti is just like “<_< shit”

- Venti once said affectionally that he wished he had met Xiao sooner and Xiao immediately and seriously shot it down by saying “If you had, I would have been forced to kill you” and both of them now stay up at night wondering who would have won that fight, not sure which result would have hurt more. (because honestly I have no idea who would win in that fight and that terrifies me- I like to think it would have been one of those legends that end with “and the fight persists to this day” or something along those lines)

- “How long have you been together?” “Adepti have no need for-” “1000+ years T^T how dare you deny our love” “O///O our...? ...useless”

- its disney- let me explain- i have this- i have this headcanon inspired by watching too many animatics- - so venti has a human form that isnt his- which he would have had to get used to moving in- and he’s a bard- - uh- anyway- as a third degree black belt in mixed martial arts, i can speak as an authority on this(not really an authority since i havent gone since quarantine but lets pretend). We have a thing referred to as the big three(most things do), and those things are martial arts, gymnastics, and dance. The idea is that they reflect really well off of each other and the best in any one category are good in all three. Timing, balance, form, discipline, technique, hand-eye coordination, grace, ease of motion, they all play a part- anyway-

- Venti taking Xiao’s prowess in martial arts and acrobatics and teaching him how to dance, and as someone who’s extremely skilled in the first two, the third comes easy to him, almost naturally. And it’s delicate and beautiful and lovely and it isn’t hurting anyone. And Venti points all these things out and more and despite how much Xiao insists that he feels ridiculous he truly does enjoy it and it goes a long way towards helping him form more healthy views of himself and his worth. - Verr Goldett walked in on him once and made a joke about performing at the inn. unfortunately Venti was there and agreed on Xiao’s behalf before he could protest and- and it wasn’t as bad as Xiao thought it would be... he still wouldn’t do it again though without reason, but with good enough reasoning he could probably be convinced.

- anyways point is he likes dancing to Venti’s songs and i just think that’s really cute - just picture the idea that all the animatics you see actually have the potential to be canon- ugh

- venti tries holding something out of Xiao’s reach since he’s taller and Xiao just fucking teleports

- both need their space but when they dont, all they have to do is speak the other’s name and they’ll be there.

- and because i just had to.... love languages

- lets start with Xiao- i don’t think he’d view acts of service or quailty time as a love language tbh, and he blunt but really bad with words so affirmation is out, leaving gift giving and physical touch. However, he seems to view most material things as meaningless so- - Xiao who’s love language is in his fleeting touches, something he’s only recently grown comfortable with because of Venti, and now is giving back, which he knows he doesn’t have to do, but that he want’s to, though he’ll still continue to make excuses for each one. “you were shivering” “The inn is high up, you could have fallen..... I said what I said, you’d question an adeptus?”

- and as easy as it is to say words of affirmation for Venti- he does that for everyone- i want to say his is actually acts of service - its the acts of service that let him see just how much Xiao has progressed afterall, from teaching him to dance, to playing another song on the flute, to supplying him with the almond tofu he seems to enjoy so much. Every little thing he does helps Xiao to grow and he couldn’t be happier about that.

- of course most of my headcanons for the ship do take place latter into the relationship because- y’know the less serious unhealthy vibes allow for greater range of thought, but i do still love to think about the serious implications so i kinda hopped back and forth. So sorry about how messy it is btw, i kinda- got carried away- it kinda got some kind of structure near the end tho so- maybe it’s okay. anyway- back to... lol something, we’ll see where thought forests lead.

#genshin impact #genshin xiao #genshin venti #xiao #venti #xiaoven #genshin analysis #genshin headcanons #xiaoven headcanons #xiaoven analysis #this is a mess i really shouldnt be putting all these tags but oh well #oh wow the grammar and spelling here is truly repulsive #sorry to all my english teachers i have failed you all

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softbiker · 4 years ago

Text

Pairing: Steve x Reader, Bucky x Reader (not Stucky)

Word count: 3k

Warnings: maybe a couple curse words? I don’t remember. Lots of coffee

Summary: Steve is fond of a particular barista. Bucky has a favorite customer. Let’s see where this goes!

A/N: Somewhat inspired by real life events, this is (hopefully) going to turn into a new series! No idea where I’m going with it or how often it will update, but let’s have fun and see where it goes! As always, let me know what you think and thanks for reading <3

It’s July - early morning and already hot - and the door squeaks loudly somewhere over her shoulder as she preps a fresh batch of coffee to brew. She doesn’t look up or turn around, intent on her task, but she calls a distracted “good morning”, along with her coworkers. The humid morning air has left a sticky fog on the windows and doors, on skin and clothes, and it follows them inside, in spite of the air conditioning. She’s already regretting the long-sleeved shirt she plucked from her laundry pile, though it was the only passable shirt she could find and still be in dress code.

“Hey, you got front?” Bea, her supervisor, pipes up over the headset. Her head bobs over the open door of her bar fridge, where she’s counting milk.

With a nod, she turns back around from the brewing machine, putting on her customer service smile as she sees-

“Oh, morning, Steve,” she laughs, her smile blooming genuine. “I barely heard you come in, sorry.”

“No worries,” Steve smiles. His eyes look tired, but she knows hers are as well - it’s 6:30 in the morning and they’re already into their work day. He ducks his head, leaning a hip against the front counter. “I’m quiet, I guess.”

“What can I get for you?” she asks, tapping away at the screen to open her till. “Just the americano with stevia and almond milk?”

Steve chuckles and blushes under the dark stubble on his cheeks, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. It strains the seams of his plain white t-shirt, stretched too tight already across his broad shoulders.

“I’m predictable, huh?” his nose scrunches as he asks, and she drops her eyes back down to the screen in front of her, displaying his order as she rings it up.

“Nothing wrong with that,” she shrugs, pursing her lips in an effort to contain her smile. “Anything else for you?”

“Uh, yeah actually, can I get an iced coffee, too? With a little bit of cream?”

“Sure thing,” with a couple of swipes at the screen she’s got the order rung up. She pushes it through, prompts him to swipe his card, and glances down towards the bar, wondering where her coworkers have suddenly disappeared to.

“Well - I guess I’ll get those ready for you,” she quirks an eyebrow at him as she makes her way down towards the espresso machines, with Steve following along, separated by the counter between them. He watches, her head down, labeling a cup and pulling espresso shots, turning for a stevia packet.

“So,” he clears his throat. “How you been?”

“Oh, you know,” she shrugs. “I’m here - and it’s 6:30. And hot.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he laughs. “Tell me about it. I’m already sweating.”

“Same here!” Her face disappears as she bends down to dig in the fridge for a tetra of almond milk. “I mean, I really played myself today - wearing long sleeves. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Wow, rookie mistake,” Steve shakes his head.

She slides the americano out at the end of the bar, after adding a cardboard sleeve to protect against the scalding heat of the water. Their eyes meet over the drink, his fingers just slightly brushing hers even as she spins away and grabs the cup for his iced coffee. Conversation lulls; he clears his throat, takes a small sip of the drink and enjoys the slight burn on the tip of his tongue. She’s fast and smooth, never quite looking at him but never turning completely away from him; he’s in the corner of her vision and she’s the center of his. The cream swirls downward into the iced coffee, softening the color and the taste - though Steve has never been a fan of cold coffees, but he knows how Sam takes it.

“Here you go,” she holds out the iced coffee with a polite smile, plucking a straw from the caddy next to her and extending it in her other hand.

“Thank you-” he trips over whether or not to say her name; he wants to say it, and it’s written right there on her apron, offered on the tip of his tongue. He’d like to taste it. But the leap of familiarity scares him, as it has the last two months he’s been coming in here, and he swallows down the letters. Settles for an answering smile.

“Guess I’ll see ya tomorrow?” he half-jokes, coffees in hand, backing towards the door one step at a time. He watches her head bob as she ducks down to grab a rag out of her sanitizing bucket; she wrings it out and wipes down the counter, sparing him a lifted eyebrow, a sly sideways glance.

“Maybe-” she smirks, swiping an already clean spot on the counter before dropping her rag back in the bucket. “I might be off tomorrow.”

“Might be?” Steve’s head quirks to one side. “You don’t know?”

“Well…I asked someone to trade shifts with me so I could have the weekend off…” she sighs and crosses her arms. “But I haven’t heard back from her, so it’s probably not happening.” Her wry smile is accompanied by a one-shouldered shrug. “It’s just as well, though. This place would probably fall apart without me.”

“Oh, definitely,” he chuckles. “So I guess, maybe I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Have a good one, Steve!” she waves as he ducks out the door, bell jingling overhead at his departure. It really is hot today - her cheeks feel warm. Her whole body does, actually; but the cafe is quiet and empty now, the sun just rising over the buildings outside, and she gets a sip of water from the cup she keeps stashed under the front register.

“So how’s your man today?” Bea jokes over the headset. Looking over, she can see Bea’s mirthful expression peeking around the corner from the back of house where she’d been washing whip canisters.

“Yeah, when are you and Steve gonna go out?” Ally’s voice joins in the teasing, innocently sarcastic in her trademark way.

“Come on, guys,” she huffs, glad that neither of them is out front on the floor, where she was unable to hide her smile. “Steve is just a customer. He’s just another nice regular, that’s all.”

“Uh huh. That’s why you giggle every time we bring him up?”

“I do not!”

“Well, you just keep telling yourself that,” Bea smirks, banging through the back of house door with an armload of milk. “But you should know that store is taking bets on when he’ll finally ask you out.”

She chooses not to answer, just rolls her eyes and heads out the front door to set up the patio umbrellas. It’s July, early morning and already hot, but at least there’s a breeze out here - enough to cool the blazing in her cheeks even as she wrestles the umbrellas open to shade the outdoor tables. Her mind drifts away, to Steve’s easy smile and Steve’s breathtaking eyes, and the way he always dropped a dollar or two in the tip jar. Not to mention, the stretch of his white tees across those ridiculous shoulders.

Well, anyway. He is a nice regular. That’s why she enjoys him coming in every day, that’s all.

**********

“She there today?” Sam smirks as he eagerly plunges the straw into his iced coffee, swirling the cream into its depths. He waggles his eyebrows at Steve’s flushed cheeks while he takes the first satisfying sip.

“Yes.” Steve clears his throat, keeping his eyes down on his own drink. They’re sitting in Steve’s office - well, Steve is sitting, safely behind his desk. Sam posts himself in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his feet crossed. He watches his friend’s flustered fluttering behind the desk - Steve shuffles papers, taps on the keyboard of his computer to open his email, moves his coffee to one side of the laptop and then the other.

“Well?” Sam prompts, gleefully swirling his iced coffee, listening to the ice rattle before taking another loud slurp. “You ask her out yet? Give her your number at least?”

Steve scowls up at his buddy over his laptop screen.

“Sam you don’t get it-” he huffs. “This girl…she’s - God, she’s so beautiful, Sam. You know how many guys must hit on her every day? In a town like this?” He shakes his head. “I’d just be another asshole to her; she’d file my number away with all the other guys she’s not gonna call.”

“Whatever, dude,” Sam rolls his eyes. “That’s just an excuse for you to not take a chance on it. You just gonna keep going in there early in the morning and wasting money on coffee you used to brew at home?”

Steve doesn’t dignify that particular dig with a response, instead choosing to take a large swig from his coffee - he had to admit, she made a damn good cup. Simple as it was. But he knew, as many excuses as he made, he was addicted to more than just the espresso; her sweet smile perked him up in the mornings the way caffeine just couldn’t quite cut it.

He’d been going into the cafe at the crack of dawn for at least a month now. Sam practically begged him once to go out for an iced coffee, an early morning at the end of May, and with a sigh he’d agreed, though he complained loudly about wasting money on expensive coffee shop brews when he preferred to make his own in the coffee pot sitting three feet away from his desk.

The bell dinged over the door, the sun already streaming through the windows at the early hour, summer flushing full and bright. Familiar coffee shop sounds and smells carried across the empty cafe as he strolled in, hands in his pockets, taking in the quaint tables and mismatched chairs, an overstuffed sofa invitingly empty in one corner. Cute. He shuffled towards the counter, not really looking, till he heard a voice welcoming him in and-

She turned around from the brewing machine behind her, smiling soft and brilliant, her eyes a 6 am combination of sleepy brightness, caffeine buzzing in her own veins already.

One hit. That’s all it took to get him hooked.

*********

Her shift couldn’t have ended soon enough. The bright sun and gorgeous summer weather had her itching under her apron, aching to get outdoors in spite of the heat. Every few minutes it seemed she turned to the register to check the time, or slipped her phone from her pocket. Never quite time, never quite close enough. Until-

“Okay, if you’ll just wipe down the bar, you’re good to go,” Nat sighs as she ties her apron, looping the strings around her waist and knotting it in the front. Nat usually takes afternoon and evening shifts, so they haven’t gotten to know each other well, but there’s something about the redhead that she both likes and fears.

With a little whoop of joy, she whirls around to her bucket and grabs the rag for the last time (today at least) and wipes away the splashes of syrup, coffee, and milk that have accumulated over the course of her shift. The counter is a little sticky, but a little elbow grease dissolves the tacky syrup puddle, and with a flourish she stows her carton of coconut milk in the fridge under the counter, tosses her rag back in the bucket, and flashes a peace sign to the other baristas on the floor.

“Alright, I’m out you guys!” she calls, already tugging her apron over her head. Her tote bag hangs on a hook in the back of house, and she rolls the apron up into it before stepping over to the computer to clock out.

“Whatcha doin’ this afternoon?” Bea is off now as well, having handed off the keys to Nat, and was tucking her own apron into her backpack, her Juul sticking out of one corner of her mouth.

“Mm. It’s such a beautiful day…” she sighs. “I think I’m going to go read at that new place I like, get a cold brew, maybe sit outside.”

“Leaving this coffee shop and going to another one?” Bea laughs, taking a hit off her vape, a little cloud puffing in front of her face. She’s not supposed to have it inside the building, definitely not supposed to use it inside at least, but the current manager hasn’t quite worked up the nerve to tell her to stop, so she carries on as she pleases.

“Gotta support local business.” She swings her tote bag up on her shoulder, regretting her habit of stuffing it so full that it’s uncomfortably heavy, and then she’s on her way out the door. “See ya later!”

Besides being a proud supporter of local businesses, she’s also totally addicted to the Garage - the other café and pub she frequents whenever she gets the chance. Their cold brew? Smooth and chocolatey. Their patio? Perfectly shaded and comfortable. Their vibe? Grunge-y without being dirty, hipster without being pretentious. She’d loved it from the first moment she stepped inside on her afternoon off, looking for an iced drink and a cozy spot that wasn’t her own home. What she found? A near-perfect coffee shop with amazing sweet potato fries.

“Oh, hey welcome in!”

Well. And there’s that, too.

“Hi, Bucky - how’s it going?” she smiles at the barista and bartender behind the counter, who is currently stocking the pastry case with an assortment of mouthwatering scones. His hair is swept up in its usual bun, and his mechanic’s shirt is tucked into a pair of black jeans, the short sleeves rolled over his biceps to reveal one flesh arm bearing a full sleeve of tattoos, and one gleaming polished prosthetic.

“Oh, it’s going,” he shrugs, a little bashful. He wills his eyes back down the the pastries at hand, though it’s hard with the way she smiles, hands in the back pockets of her shorts as she approaches the counter.

“Been busy today?” she asks, giving the menu a customary glance, though she’s too far gone on their cold brew to ever order anything else.

“Not too bad, no,” he shakes his head, sliding the glass panel behind the pastry case shut and tossing paper box from the bakery in the trash bin. “Little bit of a rush earlier around lunch, but nothing like what you guys get in the mornings.”

“Oof, for your sake I hope not,” she shudders. “The morning rush is wild, you’ve got no idea.”

“Oh, I’ve got some idea, I’ve seen that drive thru line,” he smirks, leaning his elbows on the counter. Unconsciously she takes a step closer, leaning against the other side of the wood, a mere couple of feet between them.

“I’m literally triggered by the words ‘drive thru’,” she says, with an exaggerated eye twitch that makes him laugh.

“Alright, alright, I won’t bring it up again, my bad,” he raises his hands in supplication, an almost prayer, watching her nose wrinkle and rearrange the pattern of the freckles there.

“Well, anyways, can I get a cold brew, please?” she sighs, looking at him under her lashes.

“You got it,” he nods, tapping the counter. “Perfect day for it, too.” They both glance out the wide front windows of the café, where the patio furniture is arranged under a well-shaded awning strung with criss-crossed globe lights. In the midsummer afternoon, it’s a perfect place to be lazy in public, to sip a drink and read, to pretend to be the sort of person who gets to do those things in the middle of the day.

“It is,” she sighs, looking wistfully at the patio.

“You can go on and get a seat,” he lowers his voice as a couple new customers shuffle into the café. “I’ll bring it out to you.”

“Oh, you sure?” She glances around, noticing that he seems to be the only staff member here. Their shop is laughably less busy than hers, able to survive on a single barista for any length of time during the day, but she still doesn’t want to make more work for him. “I don’t mind waiting.”

“Nah, it’s no problem,” he smiles, dimpling his scruffy cheeks. “I’ll have it out in a minute.”

She’s back out the door and at her favorite table; he can see her from his place behind the bar, with her feet tucked up on the sturdy outdoor ottoman, her bag stuffed under her chair and book already cracked open in her lap. She’s not looking at the page, though - the beautiful day seems to distract her, as she lifts her face into the breeze and stretches her legs out further across the ottoman, spreading out to catch even more of the sunlight.

Wanda hip checks him as she breezes through from the kitchen, having come in through the back door.

“Your girl here today?” she teases, raising one brow suggestively. Bucky scowls at her, embarrassed and flustered and a little guilty.

“She’s not my girl, Wanda,” he corrects her. “She’s just a customer.”

“Pretty regular customer,” Wanda shrugs.

“Doesn’t mean anything. We’ve got plenty of regulars.”

“No other regulars that you look at like that.”

He doesn’t respond. Turning his back on her, he takes a straw from the condiment bar and grabs the cup of cold brew he just poured, and stalks around the counter towards the door.

Wanda stands in the kitchen door, a bin full of dirty dishes under her arm, and watches as he crosses the patio, tucking one hair behind his ear and smiling at the sweet girl with the book in her lap. The girl smiles back, squinting in the bright summer sun, and laughs at something Bucky says, while Buck ducks his head and shoves his hands in his front pockets. He lingers, lingers far longer than required for delivering a single cup of cold brew.

Yeah, sure. She’s just a regular, alright.

#steve rogers x reader #bucky x reader #steve x reader #steve x you #steve x y/n #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #steve rogers x reader fic #bucky x reader fic #steve rogers imagine #bucky barnes imagine

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aen-maggs · 4 years ago

Text

YOUR MESS IS MINE - Chapter 1

It was not a large crowd, but there was only so much space in the Southside Ballroom after the ring and the ramp was set up. Still, it was a larger crowd than I had seen in a long time. My hands were stinging and my knuckles were bloodied, but it didn't bother me. I was feeling something, even if it was for a short time. I was in one of the back stage rooms and trying to clean up. I could hear the cheers in the front room, and I closed my eyes trying to focus on that white noise. Once I let out my "little demon", I had to get her back in the box. I felt my rage slide back into that place in my brain and I gritted my teeth and looked in the mirror. That might be the start of a shiner on my left eye. Cool.

My hair had gone prematurely gray a year ago, so I had dyed it jet black. It was a mess after the match, with strands coming out at all angles from its braid. I turned the water off in the sink and I tried some relaxed breathing to help flush the adrenaline from my system. It had been an intergender match, and there was becoming more of a call for men against women lately. My opponent, Denny, had been tougher than most guys I had fought. Denny, also known as Dallas West, was a big guy at 6 foot 2 compared to my 5 foot 3. He didn't mind doing the job for me because I never pulled punches and never did anything fake. My hits were real, and I expected the same from my opponents. In the end, he was glad to put on a good show with someone he respected. Even if it had been a while since I had been in the circuit.

There was a darker side to me, and one that I was very careful with. My "little demon" craved the pain, and I was never sure what we enjoyed more. There was something special about the crunch of my fist hitting someone's face, but feeling the bumps and scrapes made me feel alive in ways I didn't most of the time. It was not something I was proud of, and in some ways I felt ashamed by it.

My long ago past had been pretty crazy, but in the last year or two, I worked to keep myself as even kilter as possible. Sure, I could be a regular woman by day. People were more likely to take me serious if I was acting stable, so I work to keep the crazy under wraps. Business attire by day, caged animal at night.

I opened my eyes feeling myself return to the fine upstanding citizen I liked to project. Grabbing a towel, I sensed I was no longer alone. Drying my hands I looked up to see a familiar face. Not that I knew the guy, but he was certainly recognizable even dressed down as he was. His glass blue eyes shined, his stark blonde hair blazed in the darkened room, and his Cheshire Cat grin was unmistakable.

"Good evening, Mr. Rhodes." I said politely with a smirk.

"And a good evening to you, Ms. Kelly. That was one hell of a match out there."

I tossed the towel down, picked up my bag and smirked at him. "I appreciate that, but Denny has a way of making people look good."

Cody shrugged. "I've seen other videos of you. There are some of your European tour around two years ago. More from five years ago when you toured the states and Mexico. It's impressive."

I shrugged. "Well, a lot of people can catch some of that stuff on YouTube. I'm just now kind of getting back in after a small hiatus. It has been a little harder to catch attention now that there are more female wrestlers getting the spotlight. It's nice that some people are seeing some stuff I've done." I stood there attempting to make it look like I wanted to walk out, but I could tell Rhodes wasn't going to move out of my way. In fact, he stepped into the room, moving closer to the lockers and leaned against them.

Running a hand across his jaw and scratching what seem to be a tiny bit of stubble on his face, he smiled at me. "Do you have any idea why am here?" he asked.

"I'm guessing it has something to do with that company you got started a while ago."

Cody grinned. "So, you have heard of us. What do you think?"

I put my bag down realizing that we were in for an actual talk. I wasn't opposed to the man. It was more of a guarded feeling I had. Too many times have I seen people that I respected in the business get picked up off an independent circuit and then molded into something they weren't. Cody Rhodes had a reputation for being different, but I didn't have the connections I once had to find out for sure.

"Well, I haven't seen a whole lot of my kind of style in your women's division. Your Japanese headliners are awesome and you have some amazing talents. But, I am a hardcore queen. Pure brawler style. I am a very much a supporter of inter gender matches and tag matches. You guys don't do that." I said with a blunt edge to my voice.

"Yeah, well, in the beginning we weren't really sure what we wanted. There were some that felt we needed to keep the inter gender matches off the shows and even others that wanted us to limit the blood when it came to the women's division. Now, with a year under our belts and the new outlook we have brought to fans, we have more people wanting those back alley bar fight matches. There is also more people wanting to see women go up against some of the men, and a lot of our guys are open to it. A couple of them you have already worked with." Cody said.

"I know who is on your roster. You don't have to give me the run down." I said a little louder than I had intended. The issue for me was there was a few people, and one in particular, I was not on good terms with. When I walked out on wrestling, I had walked out on several friends and relationships in order to get my life in order.

"Ah, well, we all have ghosts, Kit." Cody said softly and his face gave way to an expression of regret. There was a heavy silence that fell on the room, and I heard a bang from some pyro for the last match.

"Well, are you going to make it to the point of your visit?" I asked. Cody seemed to shake it off and slid a hand into his jacket. Pulling out a thick brown envelope, he said "This is not a contract. It is an offer of temporary employment to determine if we have a permanent place for you with our family. Come and work out with us, do some dark matches, make some connections. Get back into the business and let's see what happens."

He held this envelope out to me. My impulse to take it was strong, but my body didn't move. He smiled and set it down on the bench.

"I am not going to change your name. I am not going to change who you are. No one is. We want Kit Kelly - whoever she is right now, and we hope to be a part of whoever she is in the future. Where we go from here is up to you. Read it. Think on it. If you sign, I will see you in San Antonio Monday morning. We have a show coming up and some of us got in early." He turned and began walking down the hall whistling as he went.

"Jesus." I whispered to myself.

#aew fan fiction #eddie kingston #Eddie Kingston smut #Eddie Kingston fan fiction #fanfiction

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thiswasinevitableid · 4 years ago

Note

Hi!!!!!!!!!! I just saw your playlist for the indruck rockstar au so naturally I had to go and reread the whole entire thing in one go this morning and I just wanted to say how much I Love it and the way you write that whole scenario, especially with the way you incorporated the music lyrics??? (Especially since you wrote a bunch of those????) chefs kiss. I was wondering if you had ever written or planned out any of the sternclay that happened before this story took place because the way you described what we got of how they got together sounded so amazing and I would Die to hear their point of view. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much! I’m really proud of that fic, and it seems to have been one a lot of folks really enjoyed. And well, when you asked this, it got me thinking. So here’s a brief history of how Stern and Barclay got together in this universe. Heads up: it is NSFW

That didn’t go as planned.

Joseph only meant to alert The Cryptids to the fact their manager was clearly skimming off the top and downplaying offers for further connections in the business before turning every ounce of charm he could muster on Barclay. He came to fuck bigfoot, not change careers.

Now he’s packing up the second of his two suitcases, conversation with his parents still ringing in his ears. They’re not taking the fact that he’s dropping out of college to manage an up and coming, horror rock, very gay band particularly well and have tried twice to talk him out of it. Which is why he’s glad he went through all the bureaucratic steps before calling them.

He’s never been more terrified or excited in his life. He’s sure he can do this, he’s already booked them four more gigs in a logical tour path, found a better system for making their merch, and is tracking down a promising P.R lead. It’s the close quarters that scare him the most; he’s certain he could charm Barclay for an evening, could get the others to like him enough to hang around back stage once or twice. But for months on end? What if they think he’s prissy, or too perfectionistic, or too normal?

What if Barclay hates him?

------------------------------------------------------

“I must admit, I’d have thought you would have made a move on Joseph by now.” Indrid says before pulling a sweater on over his head. It gets caught on his glasses, and he flails until Barclay helps it the rest of the way down. They’re somewhere south of Madison, the van cutting a lonely path down the dark road; it’s so late, and they’re on one of those vast, distinctly midwestern stretches where there’s nothing but night sky and fields. Jake drives, tapping the wheel in time with the radio while Joseph sleeps in the passenger seat and Vincent sprawls on the far back one.

“Kinda weird to hit on your manager, right?” Barclay peers warily around the passenger seat to be double sure the manager in question isn’t listening. He isn’t, lips parted slightly and dark hair falling in his face as his sleeping body is tilted this way and that by the motion of the car.

“Not when the manager looks like that and has already broadcasted his eagerness to fuck you.”

Barclay can’t really argue that first point; Joseph walked into that sorry excuse for a dressing room looking like centerfold come to life. There’s a certain kind of fan of theirs who spends their daily life buttoned up and following the rules, and Joseph struck him as exactly that kind of self-repressing, well groomed gym bunny. They’re always the most fun fans to fuck, in his experience. Couple that with the fact Joseph was (is) hot and willing, Barclay would have happily called dibs on the van for an hour to fuck him senseless that first night. But now…

“I dunno, he hasn’t really flirted with me since we met. And even then he didn’t flirt much.”

“The lecture on Haye’s deficits did start about two seconds after he entered the room.”

“Yeah” Barclay sighs fondly at the memory, “maybe he’s just not interested now that he’s seen me offstage.”

“Or maybe you’re both acting from the same vein of professionalism. Which is not terribly punk rock.”

“I’m being myself” Barclay grumbles “that’s-”

“The most punk rock thing you can be.” Indrid finishes, nodding sagely. Then he smirks, “but that doesn’t change the fact Joseph wants to get into those leather pants of yours. Why do you think he keeps recommending the stage outfits that involve them?”

“Hey, I like that look too. It’s my idea as much as it’s his.”

“Mmmmhmm.” Indrid yawns, rests his head on Barclay’s shoulder. Then he sings in his ear “Baby you got the clothes, baby he’s got the romance, you’ve got the moves so while you’ve got the chance, you wanna get in his pants, you wanna get in his pants, you wanna-”

Barclay elbows him sideways onto the seat, making them both giggle like they’re ten and wrestling on the trampoline in his backyard.

“Enough with the prophecies, Mothman.”

“That was hardly a prophecy.” Indrid sticks his legs into Barclays laugh, “but very well. I will leave you to pine for as long as you please.”

Barclay spares another glance towards the front of the car.

“I’m not pining. I just want him to like me.”

A snore in reply, Indrid out with his arms sprawled in different directions. Barclay chuckles softly, roots around for one of their two pillows, and settles his head against the window. He doesn’t shut his eyes right away; instead he watches the lights of distant houses and stars race past, melding into the reflection of Joseph’s sleeping face.

------------------------------------

“I bought us ten more minutes, I cannot believe they didn’t warn us this was a double appearance. I’ll-” Joseph finishes shutting the van door and promptly grips it so hard it leaves an indent in his palm.

The band is in various states of rapid undress, trying to get back into their first set of outfits, and smack in the center of the tableau is Barclay, naked from the waist down.

“-I’ll be more thorough going, um, going forward. See you all backstage.”

He can’t scramble out of the vehicle fast enough, finds one of the two functioning bathrooms in the place and locks himself in without a second thought. Leans against the graffiti coated door and shoves his hand down pants, a little embarrassed at how turned on he is just from one peek at Barclay’s dick. That doesn’t stop him from picturing it as he shoves two fingers into himself and jacks off like it’s the last chance he’ll ever get. The smell of two kinds of smoke, the half dead bulb, the din of the crowd gathering in the building all make him harder; he’s so desperately horny for his bassist he’ll make himself cum in a shitty dive bathroom. The thought has him moaning, and he covers his mouth with his free hand as he cums.

With a much clearer head, he washes his hands and leaves to round up his band. It’s better this way, better for him to get off alone than put Barclay in a weird position by his manager coming onto him. That’d be weird for everyone; this way is much easier.

Ten minutes later, standing in the shadowy steps and watching The Cryptids perform, Barclay growling and sweat-soaked, giving Indrid a messy, open-mouthed kiss when the singer initiates it, he knows it won’t be easy at all.

---------------------------------------------------------

They’ve done it; Joseph helped the others successfully sign with Amnesty Records, securing them a re-release of their first album at higher quality and with wider distribution, a massive U.S tour, and more money up front than any of them have ever seen. Amnesty sees promise in them, and Barclay knows they can deliver. They celebrated for two nights solid, and now reality sets in; Indrid is locked in a hotel room, writing like he’s possessed by the ghost of several rockstars at once, Vincent and Jake are trying to find places to live now that they’re based in Atlanta, and Barclay…

Barclay is standing in a half-furnished apartment that doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to Joseph, currently hopping on and off the phone while Barclay waits for dinner to arrive. In a perfect world he would have just cooked, but given how Joseph’s been the last few weeks, he’s worried that gesture of intimacy might freak him out. The manager was in meetings all day and is still in his suit, a forty dollar one they bought in a strip mall at the edge of town. On him it looks like it cost a thousand dollars just for the slacks. The slacks Barclay is failing very hard at not staring at. Joseph isn’t even twenty-one, but he’s been working deals like a pro, and it is the hottest fucking thing Barclay has ever seen.

He tries distracting himself from his unhelpful gay thoughts via distressing images. All he comes up with is having to steal Indrid’s phone from him after the singer called his family for the first time in almost three years. Whether that was to deliver a final fuck you or toss a hail Mary of reconciliation their way, Barclay isn’t sure. All he knows is he watched Indrid’s face take a turn, old hurts smothering the spark in his eyes, and he took the phone away while someone yelled on the other end of it.

“How are your parents taking it?” Joseph looks up from the laptop on the kitchen table where he’s entering dates into a calendar.

Barclay smiles, “Good. Pretty sure they’ve told everyone in the family the good news. Alice can get a chain email out like nobody’s business. They say they love me and are proud of me and that I have to promise to still come home for Christmas every now and then.”

Joseph smiles back, open for a moment before a guard slips back up. Barclay tucks his hands in his pockets, psyching himself up. He has to do this. He has to know.

“Have I, like, made you angry or something? You’ve just been standoffish lately.”

“Working out everything for the contract has been so stressful I’m not sure anyone but the execs have seen much of me.” The answer is well-rehearsed.

“Oh.” Barclay nods, hands still in his pockets and shoulders slouched.

“And, um, and they haven’t gone away. My feelings for you.” This answer is far quieter, the other man looking up from the screen with fearful eyes.

“That’s a...bad thing? But I, uh, I, like you too. I like so fucking much.”

A little puff of laughter, “I can tell. Believe me, I can. It’s just that being your manager is different than being a random fan looking for a hook-up; I might want something you’re not ready to give, or vice versa, and if we rush into things it could fuck up everything you guys worked for. Everything we worked for.”

Barclay cautiously steps forward, “What if we took things slow? Like, really slow.”

Hope sneaks into the corners of Joseph’s eyes, “What would that look like?”

“Like we go step by step, with first dates and like, hand holding and shit. We can take as long as we want; I mean, unless you’re planning on ditching the next big thing in the music world, think we’re gonna have plenty of time to spend together.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Barclay circles the table as Joseph stands. He cups his cheek, running his thumb up his cheekbone.

“Hey.”

“Hi” Joseph’s eyes have taken on a distinctly Bambi-ish shape.

“You wanna go get dinner tomorrow?”

The other man loops his arms around his shoulders, “Absolutely.”

Their first kiss comes less than twenty four hours; they may be taking it slow, but there’s only so much two men who’ve been pining in the confines of a van for months can take. It’s soft and popcorn scented and Joseph holds his hand the entire time.

---------------------------------------------

Joseph waits in the dressing room, ears ringing from the sound system and the screaming crowd. It’s the first time The Cryptids have played any sort of true arena, and they sold out the show a week in advance.

Barclay clomps into the room in his combat boots, grinning as soon as he sees him. He’s dripping with sweat, his eyeliner is a little smudged, and even though he isn’t the lead vocalist, he has enough backing vocals that his voice is a touch raw when he speaks.

“Fuck that was fun.”

“You all did so well. I, this is going to sound corny, but I’m so proud of you.”

“Should be proud of yourself too, babe. Without you, we’d probably still be playing no-name bars in Des Moines or Fresno.”

“Managing is easy when the talent’s this good.” He runs his hands up Barclays’ fishnet-clad chest.

“Take the compliment, blue eyes.”

High on pride and the knowledge that at least a third of the crowd would commit a felony to take his place, Joseph pinches Barclay’s left nipple, “No.”

Barclay growls, grabbing his lapels and yanking him into a salty, toothy kiss. He moans in reply, drops his hands down to undo Barclay’s fly so he can grind against him, feel him getting hard through his dress pants.

“You really wanna do that here, babe? Don’t wanna make our first time all soft sheets and candlelight?” Barclay rubs the top button of Joseph’s shirt between his thumb and finger.

“Yes, I want you and I want you now”

Barclay lunges, shoving him back until his ass hits the dressing room table.

“Fine” he grunts, getting his cock out while Joseph kicks one leg free of his pants, “can’t take a compliment, gonna take something else.”

“OHmylord, fuck, fucking finally.” He thunks his head back against the mirror as Barclay sets a ferocious tempo.

“Shit, you feel even better than I thought you would, and I’ve been, fuck, thinking about it for a long fucking time. Ever since you walked into that shitty dressing room in those tight shorts and shirt with my name on it.”

“Nnhng” He spreads his legs wider at the memory.

“Oh you fucking like that, don’t you babe? That why you wanted to do this here? So I could treat you like the horny fucking fanboy you really are?”

“Yes, ohmylord, yes, yes.” He can’t feel anything but the points where they connect, can’t hear anything beyond Barclay’s growls in his ear and the slap of skin on skin.

“Fuck” Barclay pulls his hair with one hand, shoves his knee further up with the other, “shoulda known, even with that fancy suit all you wanna be is my fucking toy.” It’s a snarl, the hottest sound he’s ever heard and he drags Barclay into another kiss, amazed that he feels close to cumming already.

Knockknock.

Barclay turns his head towards the door, Joseph muffling his panting breath in his shoulder.

“Uh, who is it?”

“Mothman. The winners of that drawing are back here to meet us.”

“Shit” Joseph hisses, starting to sit up only for strong hands to trap him in place.

“Cool. Uh, gimme like” Barclay looks down to where his cock is buried into Joseph, “three minutes?”

The smile in Indrid’s voice is unmistakable, “Of course. I still need to find Vincent. See you soon.”

“Three minutes seems optimisticAH, ohgod” He holds on for dear life as Barclay fucks him with sharp, deep thrusts. A calloused hand finds his dick and Joseph bites down on a broad shoulder to keep from alerting everyone in the vicinity to his impending orgasm.

“That’s it babe, cum for me, cum on my cock in a backroom like the horny, needy thing you are.” Barclay stills his hips, hand working with slick, messy movements until Joseph cums. He doesn’t wait for him to finish all the way before slamming into him for ten of the best seconds of Stern’s life and cumming with a deep moan.

“Fucking-A that was good.”

“Good is an understatement.”

“I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you too.”

A kiss on the head as Barclay helps him onto the ground, a flurry of putting their clothes into a rough approximation of order. Then Barclay kisses him again as Joseph strokes his hair.

“Offer of soft sheets and candlelight still stands.”

Joseph holds him tighter, smiling against his neck, “I guess we know what we’re doing tomorrow night.”

----------------------------------------------------

It’s the last day of recording the tracks for “Blood on the Mirror” and the mood is bittersweet. After this, there’s one more tour and then The Cryptids go their separate ways. It was time, everyone but Indrid and Jake ready to move on to other projects, and Joseph is already on board to manage Indrid’s solo career (“I’d trust it to no one else, Joseph. I mean it”). All the same, when the final track is deemed done, everyone applauds and embraces like they’re going off to war.

He heads down to his office to finish reading over venue contracts while the band packs up, but he only gets through one before Barclay appears.

“Hey, blue eyes.”

“Hi, Bigfoot.” Joseph stands and comes to the door to kiss him, “are you already set to go home.”

“More or less” Barclay rubs his arm, his most consistent anxiety tell, “uh, there’s just one thing I gotta ask before we leave.”

Hushed voices down the hall, but no one there when Joseph looks behind him to check. When he turns back, his hands fly up to cover his mouth. Barclay is down on one knee.

“I, uh, I know this might not be the most, uh, traditional spot to do this but it feels right. I’ve just been thinking about how a huge chapter of my life is coming to a close and there’s this whole new, exciting, terrifying blank page where I have to write the next one. And I, I realized that I want you to be in that chapter with me, and the next one, and the one after that. So, uh, what I want to know is: Joseph Stern, will you marry me?”

He nods, not trusting his voice to come out with intelligible words.

“Oh thank god.” Barclay springs up, cupping his face and spinning him in a kiss. Joseph laughs as whooping cheers echo towards them. Indrid, Jake, and Vincent, are peering around the nearest corner, beaming.

“Indrid is for sure going to say I told you so the second he gets me alone” Barclay chuckles, “I was so afraid you’d say no because things will be kind of up in the air for the next few years.”

Joseph turns his face back towards him, “You’re right, they will. But I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend them with.”

#agent stern/barclay #sternclay #rockstar au #TAZ amnesty

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let-me-love-you-loki · 4 years ago

Text

Crushing Too Late

Mattie

I always loved coming with Dad and Papa to work. I knew with everything in me that one day, I was going to be just like them. That I was going to be a wrestler and people were going to say that I was the best.

For as long as I could remember, I’d wanted to be like them. I’d wanted to do everything that they did. Whenever Mom would let them, they’d pull out an old ring they’d bought and put it together on the tennis court or the back yard. Then Papa and Dad would get in it with me, tell me stories about everyone they’d wrestled in that ring as they taught me everything they knew. And what they didn’t know, Uncle Kenny, Uncle Adam, and Uncle Cody would show me. Sometimes Uncle Brandon or some of the other people who worked with my dads would train with me.

Whenever I went with them to shows, Dad and Papa always promised that I could train in the ring after it was set up. And no matter how many times I came with them, they never once broke their promise.

“You’re getting better at that,” Dad said as I ran into the corner and flipped over onto the apron, just like he did. “Now let’s see the rest of it.��

He stood next to the ropes while Papa stood outside. I looked between the two of them and grinned.

Papa got close, I kicked out and slapped the outside of my thigh as he took my shoe on the palm of his hand. “See ya!” I grunted just before I leaned between the top and middle rope and put my shoulder into Dad’s stomach.

He let out an exaggerated oof as I jumped onto the top rope, sprang off and pulled him face-down onto the mat. Then I flipped into a handstand and kicked my legs through the top and middle rope. My feet landed on the apron, I took half a second to make sure Papa was right there, and then did a moonsault. Everyone else called this the perpetual offence machine. Mom called it Dad showing off.

Papa caught me over his shoulder, but instead of falling back, he grinned at me. “Caught in a counter, Tea. What’re you going to do?”

I looked at how Papa had caught me. I honestly had no clue what to do. I’d never ever seen anyone counter Dad’s move before.

“Nyla or Shida would have driven you into the ring apron by now,” Dad said from the ropes.

Before I could think further, a voice came shouting down from the stage area. “DDT!”

“What?” I shouted back. When I looked up from Papa’s back, I thought I was going to choke. Trent and Chuck were walking down the ramp with their friend Orange Cassidy right behind them. I blushed and tried to wriggle out of Papa’s hold. Instead I kneed him in the ribs hard enough for him to drop me onto the mat at ringside.

I felt the heat burn through my face as I looked up and saw them standing there. Cassidy smiled as he offered me his hand to pull me up. “DDT would do the trick,” he said as he heaved me easily to my feet. He was in street clothes and wasn’t wearing his trademark sunglasses or jacket.

I didn’t like how my tongue got tied into knots whenever they were around. Chuck always told jokes and made me laugh. We traded bad jokes and insults about how stupid the other one was. Trent would let me sit on his back while he did pushups until either he fell over or I couldn’t stop laughing. Then he’d do pull ups while I clung to his legs. Cassidy was almost always there, usually sitting quietly in the corner watching the three of us act like idiots. But he never said much, and I never knew what to say to him.

But when he did speak, it made my heart sink into my toes and I thought I was going to be sick. He had a nice voice and really pretty eyes. I couldn’t stop staring at him, even as I felt my face go redder and redder with each passing second.

I heard Dad’s voice from the ring. “Remind me not to use that in the match tonight. I can’t have the King of Sloth Style show me up.”

Cassidy laughed and I got that sick feeling in my stomach again. It was like a straight drop on a roller coaster without a safety bar. It made me dizzy. “Dude, we both know you move too fast for me.”

“Aww, I’m sorry, Cass. Let’s have dinner first, how about that?”

Papa snorted. Trent hid his laugh behind his fist. Chuck hopped up on the ring apron. “Only if you have him home by eleven, Nick. Doesn’t do well if he misses his bedtime.”

I looked up and saw Dad grinning ear to ear. I always loved seeing him smile. It made Papa and Mom happy. Especially since there was a time when Dad didn’t smile all the way. But being with his friends, being around everyone at the show, it always brought out his easy grins. I felt myself mirror his expression. Everyone said I looked like him. Sometimes I thought that bothered Papa and, honestly, I didn’t like it all the time either.

But when it came to smiling, Dad had the best one. And I was glad I’d gotten it, too.

Matt

Nick, Chuck, and Cassidy traded snappy remarks and comebacks while Trent and I watched them like a tennis match. It wasn’t unusual. The five of us had done enough bits for Being the Elite to have a pretty solid rapport by now.

Our eldest stood in the midst of it, looking up at Nick and beaming when he smiled. The more I saw it, the easier it was to see that she was his twin. Mischievous, funny, whole-hearted, and exceptionally aware of her place in the world. Mattie had Nick’s eyes and his smile, and hair that was somewhere between mine and her mother’s.

Like them, she was also a completely open book. Oh Jesus, I’m not ready for this.

Nick

I flopped onto the mat and rolled out to sit up on the apron. Mattie was a few steps away, her face bright red. She hopped up onto the ring next to me and tucked herself beneath my arm. I gave her a squeeze and kissed the top of her head. She was fifteen, and I was afraid that the day was coming when she didn’t want to be our little girl anymore. I’d take what I could get until then.

“Dad, can I come to ringside tonight?” she asked quietly.

I grinned at her. “Sure, Tea. We’ll get you a spot in the front row.”

Our daughter grinned at me and kissed my cheek. “I’m going to go annoy Uncle Adam.” She slid onto her feet and hugged Matt around the waist.

“Yeah,” Chuck said throwing his arm around Mattie’s shoulder. “Let’s go annoy Adam.”

Cassidy and Trent fell into step with the two of them as they walked up the ramp and disappeared backstage. I watched until they were out of sight.

“God, she’s growing up so fast.”

Matt crossed his arms and glared in the direction they’d left. “Too fast. I’m not ready for this.”

“Ready for what?” I queried as I joined him at the base of the ramp. “Matt, she’s not going to get in the ring or be on TV for a while.”

My brother grunted. “I’d rather put her on TV tonight than this. Did you not see what I just saw?” When I didn’t answer, he threw his hands up. “She’s looking at Cassidy.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Matt, relax. She’s fifteen. And he’s our age. Plus… Jesus, she’s known him all her life.”

“I don’t like it.”

Mattie

“I don’t know where Uncle Adam is,” I said nervously, standing outside the locker room that was usually his. “Maybe he’s not here yet.”

“Pushups?” Trent asked, his brows raised. There was a slight smirk to his smile that made me grin.

“I’ve got some yo mama jokes you haven’t heard yet,” Chuck offered.

I looked up at him, hoping I looked very serious. “You talk about my Mom and I’ll superkick you in the teeth.”

Cassidy laughed from where he leaned against the wall. “I would pay money to see that. Actually…” He dug his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out twenty dollars. “I’ll give you this right now, Mattie, if you do it.”

“Come on, Orange. You know she’d never—”

Before Chuck could finish, I’d leaned back and delivered a superkick that Dad and Papa would be proud of. The very tip of my sneaker bopped Chuck in the chin. It was habit to slap the outside of my knee at the contact, and the noise echoed down the hallway. He staggered dramatically and plopped onto his butt on the floor. I laughed.

I lost my balance. Wobbling on my planted foot, I saw the floor come rushing up at me. An instant later, a set of arms locked around my chest. Cassidy took a moment to steady me before settling me upright.

My whole body tingled. I could feel my face burning bright red as I smiled nervously. Cassidy grinned. “That was perfect.”

I beamed beneath his praise. My heart raced in my chest. I thought I was going to faint. I couldn’t catch my breath for the life of me. He was so close, and his eyes were so pretty and brown.

“Dad’s going to get me a ringside seat tonight,” I blurted out. The moment the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to slap myself. Why did I say that?

Cassidy grinned even wider. “That’s going to be fun.”

***

Papa took me out to my seat before the show started. “Be good. And enjoy the show, Tea.”

I reached over the barrier and hugged him as tight as I could. “I love you, Papa.”

He squeezed me hard and kissed my forehead. “Love you too, sweetheart.”

After he went backstage, I watched the fans file in and take their seats. I loved the noise and the crush of people and the signs and energy. It was one of the reasons I wanted to be a wrestler.

Dad, Papa, and Uncle Kenny were starting the show against Chuck, Trent, and Cassidy. I grinned as The Elite music thundered through the arena. Dad, Papa, and Uncle Kenny came out, paper money came flying out of the cannons by the ramp. My heart thumped and thudded in my chest as they came down to the ring. I shouted and waved, jumped up and down, screamed in joy. Each time I saw them was just like the first time—exhilarating and terrifying and beautiful.

Once they were in the ring, new music started. Chuck and Trent came out, Cassidy right behind them. I always giggled when Trent and Chuck walked to the ring arm-in-arm or holding hands. They all looked so ready to fight, so determined to best my dads and Uncle Kenny. I waved at them too, screaming in happiness.

They hopped into the ring together. Cassidy crossed the mat and shrugged out of his denim jacket, tucking his sunglasses in the pocket. Instead of tossing it to the ringside table, he rolled beneath the bottom rope and handed the jacket to me. He winked, and I felt the heat tear through me. I blushed and stammered.

“Take care of that while your dad kicks my ass.”

I clutched it to my chest and tucked it against my nose to hide the way a smile split over my face.

Tag List

@mox-made-me-do-it @not-that-kinda-gurl08 @lilred91 @imagineall-the-fandoms @maelleoute @librathepheonix13 @justamess44

#crushing too late #too late tales #the too late tales #matt jackson #matt jackson fanfiction #nick jackson #nick jackson fanfiction #young bucks #young bucks fanfiction #mattie jackson #aew #aew fanfiction #matt x reader #matt x reader x nick #nick x reader

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madllamamomma · 4 years ago

Text

Journey Back to the South Part 10~

[Ok I am so sorry this is late! I am currently on vacation with my husband, then my step dad now has the virus and that really stressed me out, because I’m closer to him than my own P.O.S. father... Sooooo yeah... Life is a nightmare. Thats why I write fan fiction to escape it..... Thats healthy.... right......right?.... *crickets....* Anyways, enjoy!]

WARNING: Heavy topics about abuse and rape. NSFW.

Part 10~

“You’re important too.”~

As the crowd is continuously distracted by giving praise to the new Illuminator, Muriel is still gently forcing his way towards the front where you are standing. As he finally comes to your rescue, he is just as shocked as you are to find Shona, the sole Kokhurian in all of the Shining Steppe that claims to despise you and your people, hugging your neck and literally crying on your shoulder. Unsure what to do, your hands hover over her but you are unsure what to do with them. “Uummm…”.

“Thank you….” Shona whispers, shakiness in her voice. Just as quickly as she embraced you, she pulls away and scurries off out of the gathering tent without a second glance or thoughts. Everyone else is too focused on showering Ava with much deserved praise, no one else even noticed what had just happened.

You glance up and meet Muriel’s eyes, and he mirrors the same dumbfounded expression that's in your face. As his hand wraps around your waist to pull you close, you both stare out the tent in the direction she fled, and he mutters. “Did…..did she…. just—?”

You nod your head slowly, still completely stunned as well. “I’m…. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who witnessed it. I don’t think I would have believed what happened…… I still don’t believe it actually.”

This is… very shocking. Little did you suspect that she’d thank you let alone hug you.

Soon the crowd makes their way outside around the large fire in the middle of camp. Muriel tugs you both along with everyone else and notice Una standing in front of the fire as she speaks in Ruin. “We thank our Great Mother and Great Father for blessing us with a very fruitful year. We have had many blessings that we have shared. Many victories, and some losses. But we are strong, we will always keep going. Tonight concludes our Winter Solstice! May winter have mercy on us as we continue to honor our Great Mother and Father. May our departed visit us tonight as the spirit realm and the living realm merge tonight....” Una keeps going on, but you start to zone out slightly feeling very tired all of a sudden and you lean into your hermit. Even he looks a bit tired, lusting after a good night sleep.

As soon as the closing ceremony was completed, Muriel, Inanna and you head back to the tent and nearly collapse out of exhaustion. Lazily taking off your clothes and dress into your long shirt and taking off your pants. All the anxiousness you and Muriel had felt for Ava’s trials have all but vanished and left the want to sleep for about a full day or two. Even though the ‘celebration’ was completed, it sounds like others are still up, singing, dancing, and being merry and whatnot… Hmmm… it has to be for Ava. But they deserve to be celebrated over! They worked so hard... You groggily turn over and murmur good night to Muriel and Inanna before you gently drift off to sleep and you feel a feather light kiss on your temple and his warm arm wrap around the small of your back. For some reason you hear Una’s words repeat in your head before slipping out of consciousness.

‘May our departed visit us tonight…… as the spirit realm and the living realm merge tonight…..’

—————————

The feeling of being on all fours and fur all over my body are becoming rather familiar to me now. The dark tundra is frigid and icy and I can see my warm breath cloud in front of my face, yet it never bothers me. The moon is just barely showing any light on the dark plane. I’m alone again…. but not for very long.

I can’t help but feel such joy when I start to sense warm air rush overhead and a large ball of fire lights up the hillside. It’s her…. Rhemi… She flutters her wings over me for a moment and she makes happy little calls and I growl softly back in response. Gracefully, she brings herself down from the sky and perches herself on a nearby bolder. Once comfortable, her flames dissipate showing her dark brown and red feathers, the dark night blankets the vast tundra once again. For a moment I just gaze at her…. Even now, underneath all her magical flames she is so beautiful. She always is…

My body starts to move, and before I realize it I’m sitting next to her by the boulder. Her small beak rests on my snout, and she snuggles up against my thick fur like she always does, even in the real world. I always like how she does that. It makes me feel wanted… loved. After a while the two of us start to stare into the dark night sky, I’m unsure why, but I feel like something is bound to happen soon.

The Aurora’s lights suddenly start to dance across the sky and I can hear that deep humming once again. With bright colorful lights illuminating the tundra, I can see that we are sitting in the middle of Khamgali’s graveyard on a small hill.

One by one I can see what looks like people’s casts burst from the ground and tombstones. Bears, wolves, eagles, hawks, caribou, foxes, and many other animals crawl out. But after they come out, their bodies become physical like mine and Rhemi’s. The bright colors of the cast dissipate giving away to the various furs, feathers and other features. Thousands emerge and stretch their limbs and backs out as if they have been resting for a long time. Soon the creatures start to roam around, seemingly recognizing each other, and greet nearby animals. Some even start to wrestle, chase, or play around on the vast plane. I find myself rather dumbfounded at this sight, unable to take my eyes off the scene. It is even rather entertaining to see.

“...Muriel?..” A very deep male voice calls out from behind us nearly startling Rhemi and I—I…. I feel like I know that voice… The two of us quickly turn around. Two bears are standing side by side; one as big as I am, maybe even slightly bigger, and the other is smaller and silky, beautiful. They both have deep green eyes and have this presence to them that feels…. comforting…. warm… I feel like I know them. Like I used to see them in my dreams before when I was young…

The smaller one starts to approach me warily, apparently attempting to not scare me… She smells sweet like fresh heather and after the morning dew. It finally clicks in my head… Her presence is all too familiar and I step backwards ashamed and I hang my head down low wishing to disappear. I glance my eyes over to Rhemi, still perched on the boulder. She looks a little confused at first, but seems to understand who these bears are as she sees my face. Her ruby eyes light up, and she mutters a low chirp as her eyes glance back to the two bears in wonder.

I shake my head as my eyes shut close tightly and the feeling of dread overwhelms me, tightening my chest and my stomach feels like it's in knots. No…. please no… No, no, no…. I…. I really don’t deserve you or your comfort… all this time I thought you both….. just got rid of me… Because I was a burden… but really you were just protecting me… protecting this land… Now that I stayed here I completely understand why you did….. but for the longest time… I didn’t want to care about you… I didn’t want to even think about you…… No…. I don’t deserve your love.

Suddenly I feel the small bear lifts my head up with hers and starts to softly growl and grunt as she lovingly nuzzles my furry neck with her small silky soft snout. She’s a lot stronger than I expected and she pushes up against me, but she’s comforting non the less…. She has tears in her deep green eyes as she huddles close to me. The other larger one trots over and gently lays his head over top of mine. Why does the feeling of him there so reminiscent of when he would pat me on top of my head? I remember enjoying that when he came back after hunting or trading…. Now that I think about it, I do the same to Ida when I see her.

The two bears both are making very small sad, yet happy, gruff whimpering noises like their hearts are torn in two… I don’t want to… but I feel myself relax as they are around me. I know why you both stayed here and fought—I do now at least… but…… part of me…. wishes we all left the Steppe together—GodDamn it….. that sounds so selfish.…. But…. I wish…. I got to know you both better myself… I wish you got to know... me. Maybe… I’d be more like you two…. maybe I would be braver….. stronger…

The small bear pulls away to look me in the eyes. I can see the corner of lips curl up… she’s smiling at me… she looks… proud? “Our little cub…” She says softly, but somehow does it without moving her mouth at all. Her voice is as silky, calm, and smooth as her fur... Just like I faintly remember when she used to sing home to sleep.

“... Look how you have grown. Our boy, mo ghoul.” The large bear mutters, his voice shaky. His voice minds me of the one in my head. Very similar to my own when I speak, but just slightly different….. it’s strange to hear. “We love you, Son… we always have….”

I don’t open my mouth…. but somehow words flow out like a river before I can stop them. “..... I know….. I know you did…. I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry…” I can feel tears drop down my long nose. Just less than a minute ago, I didn’t want them to come even near me…. but… now…. I don’t want them to leave…. “I wish I was better for you both…..”

“Nothing to be sorry about, my son.” The bigger bear mutters in such a kind and warm tone. “We can never ask for a better son. We are sorry we had to leave so soon.”

The two bears huddle up to me once again. This time they are even tighter… Even though they don't have any arms, I can feel their loving embrace around me. It feels good… Like I have been craving it somehow. “We will always be here with you cub…. Always…. Even if you don’t see us.” The smaller bear says.

….I can feel that pulling once again…. Something is taking me back to my body…..

Please no!..... Why?! Why am I being pulled back now?! Whatever this is—a God? Father Sky? Or Mother Earth?.... or even me…. Please stop this!! Don’t make me leave them!!.... Not again… Please!!! I want to be with them…..just... let me stay…. just a little longer….. wait… —WAIT!

“We love you, little cub.” I can hear them both say as I fade away from this realm….

“..... I love you both too…..”

————————

You can feel as Muriel snaps his trunk up from the bedding with a gasp. For a moment he just sits there panting hard. His movements wake you from your slumber as well. But it takes you a few seconds for you to sit up and get awake. Once you feel like you can move your body, you rub your tired eyes to comfort Muriel… Those bears... they were Glenna and Artturi… his parents. Una mentioned that the solstice was the time when the spirit realm is closest to the living. You glance up towards the hole in the tent. It’s still night, the moon is hardly even out... Probably not even midnight yet.

Carefully you slide your small fingers and lace them with his and he very slowly tightens his grasp. You both sit there for a while in silence listening to the fire crackle and hiss. “...You ok?....” You very quietly ask, leaning your head against his large deltoid and look up to his very emotionally torn face. He presses his lips tightly together and he very sluggishly nods his head, but you can see the tears forming in his eyes. “.... Ya’ know….. It’s ok to miss them….” You whisper.

He opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying so hard to say what’s on his mind. “I didn't…. I didn’t care when I forgot their voices… or their faces…” He stops for a moment and he closes his eyes and furrows his brow, thinking hard. “.... I dunno…. maybe I didn’t think I did…. but… but now… I.... I just…. just…. wish……” Tears flow from his eyes and chokes on his sentence. He covers his eyes with his hands to stop them and shakes his head irritated with himself as his body starts to tremble. “.....S-... Sorry…. Rem.” He murmurs through his tears.

“Please, don’t be sorry, Mur...” Your heart breaks in two anytime you see him cry like this… but it’s to be expected after that dream. Sitting on your knees, you wrap your arms around Muirel’s shoulders from behind him and place a kiss on his temple bone. Those two bears were his parents' spirits…. ghosts?… previous casts?— Well…. whatever you want to call them, and however they got there hardly matters. The fact is that they were there to see him. Perhaps Artturi still can leap into dreams even after death?...Maybe he knows how to bring Glenna with him?...Who really knows?... You take in a large thoughtful breath and place a soft kiss on Muriel’s head again. “... It’s okay to miss them… even if you don’t remember.” You understand how it feels not to remember your parents faces either. It hurts not to know—it’s almost infuriating how much it does.

He shakes his head avoiding looking you in the eye. “.... All my life…. I didn’t… let myself… miss them..... but n-... now…. Do… do I even have the right to?.... Especially after the way I thought of them? That they just... abandoned their only son?”

“Of course you do, Love…” You tenderly guild his head down and turn him so he rests his head on your chest and pet his hair and he clutches the back of your shirt. He seems to feel soothed once he’s there and starts to calm down a bit. “….. You were too young to understand what was really happening…… no one was there to tell you tell you otherwise….. You did what you had to do to survive….. Perhaps thinking that they sent you away was a method of coping with it all… somehow to make sense of it... It’s better than not knowing anything forever… I think guessing about it most of your early life would have been worse.” He huffs a long exhale and shrugs. Your fingers brush through his dark hair pulling it out of his handsome face. “...You really shouldn't beat yourself up about it, Muriel. ”

“.... I wish I could… see—” He slightly flounders in his words, then gives up mid sentence in frustration. “—I…. I don’t know…..”

“Come here…..” You whisper, very tenderly pulling him back down to the bedding. As you rest your head back on the pillows and he buries himself into your neck and shoulder holding you tight while you both lay on your sides. You squeeze him back comfortingly, tears still slowly trickling from his eyes. “... They both were so happy to see you….” You mutter just above a whisper, pushing back his hair out of his face again.

He softly closes his eyes, melting into your touch, but doesn't appear to be convinced. “.... How can I know?.... Know for sure?..”

“They were. I know it…… So do you…. they loved you, Muri. They still do….. I… I think they’re still watching like Khamgalai….. But perhaps the Great Lights really do hold a part of their spirits….. even after a year has passed…. just like Kok… I guess we’ll never really know for sure…. But I know they are proud of you. You could tell on their faces.”

“...... I….. I wish I could have known them…..” His body starts to feel slightly warmer as he looks back into your eyes rather sheepishly. “... I wish…. they could have met… you….”

You smile back at him a little… He doesn’t know. “Well…” He lifts his head up slightly and listens to you intently. “....Before….. I woke up….. And you left…. For some reason I stayed a little longer….”

“...What?” His eyes light up and widen as you say that. “.... What…. what did they…?”

“.....They just…. Kinda hugged me—well first your mother inspecting new all over like Una did our first day here— but then they both nuzzled their faces kindly on me like they did to you….” You can feel as your cheeks glow red as you continue and Muriel still has his eyes locked onto your in astonishment. “...They asked me…. To take care of you…..”

“They….. they did?” Muriel seems to get a hold of his tears now. You scoot into your back and he follows, slightly hovering over you, resting his hand on his propped up arm... “.....and… what did you say?”

You can’t help but give a silly love stricken grin as you open your mouth to tell him the answer. “I told them I would… forever…. until I drew my last breath… and even after that…..” Your hands start to shake a bit, feeling anxious as you continue, and you grab his large hand and caress his palm with your small thumbs. “.... I will always be here by your side, Muriel. I will protect you with all my might….” His eyes seem to sparkle when you utter those words and he looks so adorably smitten. But then your brain decides to ruin the moment as overthinking takes over and you start to expel words. “Well—I know that’s not saying much… I-I’m not very strong physically compared to you—…. but you know I can kick some ass if I need too— I won’t let anyone hurt you that’s for sure! As long as I can—” Suddenly Muriel’s hand cups your right cheek and he presses his parted lips to yours, stopping your silly rant and kisses you like you're the air he needs to breathe. A little surprised muffled squeak escapes from behind your teeth, but then you start to melt into his touch and kiss him back.

As he very slowly pulls away, his forehead meets with yours with a little happy grin on his face as he strokes your bottom lip with his thumb. “.... Sometimes….. you talk too much….” He says with an amused snort.

You slightly pull away, sticking out your bottom lip, feeling a little embarrassed and you avert your gaze to the other side of the tent and sigh, “Yeaaaaah….. I know…” You do have a tendency to rant at the worst of times.

He exhales sharply through his nose and he turns your face back with his thumb and pointer. “....But I love you for it….” He sits up, holds you close and your head rests in his large shoulder as he embraces you tightly, and you kiss his neck a little. “... thanks…. for being here… and…. letting me talk… and understanding me…”

You smile wrapping your arms around his strong torso. “I always will, Muri… I love you… with all my heart.”

“... I love you too….” His whispers back in your ear very sweetly.

He returns laying on his side facing toward your direction and the two of you lay there facing one another, still entangled in each other's arms as you both drift off back to sleep.

—————With feather made of hot embers, you float back to the realm of dreams————

…….But this time Muriel isn’t there with you….

You glance down, and your feathers have faded away and you are in your normal body.

This place…. it looks familiar….. you're not sure where you’ve seen it before. But it feels like you’ve dreamt…. or maybe been there…. but a very long time ago...

—It’s night time again. The buildings look different to you compared to the ones back home. They are mostly made of wood instead of brick or stone, they are delicate looking. Tall mountain peaks are surrounded everywhere, on the very tops are powdered with snow. It looks like whatever city you’re in, lives in the heart of a valley. The sea is nowhere in sight, neither is salt in the air. You’re landlocked. It's rather pretty scenery wise, but a strong sense of foreboding seeps into your chest as you continue to roam this strange place…. Why do I know this place…. it's so pretty here… so why do I feel like I hate it?

Suddenly you stumble upon what looks like a noble’s house… a vast mansion with tall widows and ornate sculptures everywhere… It's rather lovely… almost reminds you almost of Nadia’s palace, the bright lights inside make the stained glass windows shimmer as they cast their colored light on the stone outside. As it appears to be flakes of snow are softy falling down. You peer up and twirl around, even though you hate being cold, you have always liked to watch snow as it fell from the heavens. Cupping your hands, you reach out your palms to catch them. However the white snow turns dark and looks ominous. Once it falls into your hands you then realize it’s not snow at all—It’s soot and embures falling from the sky. Your body makes an about face back to the beautiful home. The entire mansion is now engulfed in flames. You never thought that stone or marble could catch fire…. but it seems that you were wrong….

There isn’t a soul around and you look all over for someone to help put it out. But it’s dead still other than the terrible flames consuming the building. You're still all alone…. or so you think…. Out of nowhere, a lone woman with dark brownish red shoulder length hair, and very familiar looking clothing is suddenly standing in front of you about eight meters away. With her back turned away as she stares at the flames as they quickly eat away at the mansion. “...H-... Hello?” You quietly call out to her, almost afraid to utter a single word.

Eerily the mysterious woman turns her neck around very sluggishly, just enough to reveal a small part of her profile over her shoulder. The whites of her eyes are blood red and sickly looking, you can even see red veins under her eyes and mouth. You take a few steps back instinctively out of fear. I know that look all too well…. The red plague….. those are the end stages…. The visible corner of her lip curls up into a comfortable grin as she stares at you with those cold burgundy eyes that almost have no life in them.

Your feet take a few steps back in fear. “Who….. who are you?”

She still won’t turn herself all the way around to face you, but there isn’t any denying her familiar features.... Is that…. me? Your eyes squint and you tilt your head feeling just completely dumbfounded once again tonight.

Finally she opens her mouth and begins to speak over the loud roaring flames as the mansion’s riff begins to crumble away. “...... You know who…...” it’s rather creepy to hear your own voice answer you, but it sounds so weak… so tired… so strained.

“What do you want?...” You ask not sure if to run or press on.

“.... Truth….” She replies, the loud noises if the inferno dampens as she speaks, you can hear her crystal clearly.

“...Wha—What do you mean ‘truth’?” You shake your head slowly trying to comprehend this strange answer. “Where are we—?”

A loud viscous enraged scream suddenly comes from the fiery mansion making you nearly jump out of your skin. It sounds like a person has been very badly injured…. But a very icy shiver runs down your spine and shakes you to your very core. It sounds like the voice of the creature who killed Ezavior—It frightens you to hear it again so soon. “W-..... What is that?? Is there someone in there? Shouldn’t we save them??”

The wind starts to pick up her hair and flows over her face. “....You know who…..”

You feel as your mouth sneers at that preposterous answer. “What??—No I don’t! That's why I’m asking!”

“You know who it is…..” She repeats sounding almost saddened. “.... You can’t deny it….. You know they survived… You remember seeing them… don’t you?”

“What—? No!!! I don’t!!! Don’t you listen??” You start to become frustrated with all of this strangeness, and just desire answers, not more coded messages.

She shakes her head disappointedly, her grin falls and turns her back to you once more and sighs. “...You're still not ready… one day your going to need to face this…I may not be here to protect you anymore.....”

“What?— What does that even mean?”

“.....Now is not the time…. Not yet.... you should go.”

“What do you mean I’m not ready?!— WOOOH!! HEY!!” Out of nowhere an invisible force wraps around your torso and throws you backwards through an open door frame. It’s so dark inside.

She finally turns all the ways around, but the flames cast too dark of a shadow for you to see her sick face. “Go…. be with him… enjoy the time you share spending together.” She says warily.

“What do you mean?? What’s going on?! Wait just a moment!!! Why aren’t fucking answer me??”

She brings up her left hand and waves it. “I suppose you’ll see in time….” She utters lastly as the door shut in front of your face before you can dash out of it.

“Wait!!!” You scream right before the door completely slam closed. It then starts to feel farther and farther out of reach then it completely disappears into oblivion and you find you yourself running towards it. “WAIIT!!!!!”

—————

“Mmmmmmm…. W-Wait......” Your body sits straight up and you wake with a start fluttering your eyes open….. Did I just say.. something… just now? What was I even doing?

“Rem—You ok?” Muriel and Inanna quickly come to your side from the middle of the tent by the fire, both look rather worried. “—Was it another bad dream?”

You squint your eyes and look all around, slowly becoming oriented with where you exactly are. “Hmmmm? Wha-.....What now?”

Muriel brushes his knuckles against your sleepy cheek and huffs a bit grumpily. “.... Did you just have a bad dream?”

You realize that you were just dreaming and it was a strange one too. You tilt your head looking at the covers, squinting your eyes in attempts to recall it… but there is just nothing…nothing you can remember about what you just dreamt. Inanna nudges her snout under your right elbow and you start to lift your arm up to pet her still pondering hard. Your lips click, and you shake your head a little. “...I….. I don’t really know….. it was definitely a weird one….. But I…. I can’t really tell you what happened in it….” He looks at you pointedly, brow slightly furrowed, looking for any signs of fibbing. You stifle and yawn and drowsily smirk taking his wrist and place it over your cheek, cuing him to hold your face. “I told you I would talk to you. I promised, Mur. This time I really don’t remember. I would tell you if I did.”

He sighs and he slightly relaxes as you lean into his touch and he strokes your cheek with his thumb, looking more convinced. “Alright….” He leans down and kisses your forehead sweety and you do a little happy tired wiggle. “Come on, I made some breakfast for us.”

“Alrighty~” You get yourself out of bed, quickly donning your tight pants for warmth. It may be warmer from the fire in this tent, but the temperature has most definitely gotten colder since you both arrived nearly two weeks ago. As you get on your socks, you see that Muriel was kind enough to make you some fish and eggs for breakfast. And you start to boil the kettle for tea. “Whatcha think, Love? Earl grey, or cinnamon chai this morning?”

“Hmmmm….” He looks thoughtfully glancing between the tea tins, then closes his eyes. “..I like them both... But Chai always goes good with fish… I think so anyway...”

“Oooo!! That’s true. Good call, my sweet~” You say with a toothy yawn and start to prep the tea cups. While the tea steeping, you take the time to stretch like you do every morning when you can, making your spine and hips pop satisfyingly. Muriel just shakes his head with a small grin as he watches you. He may attempt to hide it, but you are pretty sure he likes to watch when you do a stretch called ‘the pigeon’, it shows off how flexible you are.

Soon all three of you start to chow down breakfast that your hermit so kindly made for you in comfortable silence. Slowly you start to wake up, the food and the chai tea slowly bring you back to life this early morning. As Muriel swallows his last piece of fish, then stares very thoughtfully into the fire, a somber expression washing over him. “.....Should be leaving soon.” He faintly breaks the silence and you stop mid bite to listen to him. “.... Gilbert says the snow will be falling any day… don’t want to get stuck…. Asra would be sad….and so will his idiot.” Muriel's face looks almost sad when he says that. You can only imagine how hard it is to leave his new found family. But you both have obligations back in Vesuvia… you with the shop and him with the forest.

You lean into his arm and snuggle up to him and he leans back. “We’ll come back next year.”

He blows out sharply through his nose and brings his tea cup to his lips. “....Yeah, I know.”

You both lapse back into silence for a moment and you think about the middle of last night during the dream in the graveyard and Muriel’s parents. He said he didn’t remember their faces or voices….. but Una has a way of tapping into distant memories. “Hey…. Muriel?”

“Hmmm?”

“Do you remember when we first met Una in the graveyard?”

He nods firmly, unsure where you're getting at. “...What of it?”

“...Well .... I was thinking… about last night…. What you said…. about your parents….”

“Oh…..” He averts his eyes over to the other side of the tent and still looks a bit ashamed for some reason. “What does that have to do with the first day we met everyone?” He asks with a raised eyebrow, curiosity now in his gaze.

You look back at your warm tea and run your pointer finger over the rim. “... Well…. before we leave… maybe…. you can ask Una…. to show you…. your par—”

“--M-Madainn mhath!” Just as you were about to finish your thought, you hear a familiar little child’s voice outside the tent. “....Cousin!..... Not Cousin!!” It’s Ida. And by the second pair of feet stepping behind her, it sounds like she isn’t alone. Inanna's tail starts to wag as she hears her little voice and quietly whimpers in excitement. Who is gonna miss Ida more when we leave? Muriel or Inanna? You smile and chuckle to yourself. “....Are you both awake?” Ida calls out again, but a little quieter in fear that she may be disturbing you two.

Muriel and you exchange surprised glances, it’s still early in the morning. You shrug and you and Muriel stand up. “....Uhhh…. H-hang on, Ida.” Muriel replies, grabbing his shirt and throwing it on while you make yourself decent. He shoots you a quick glance before opening the tent and you nod once you fasten your corset belt over your long shirt.

Once the entrance is untied and opened, Ida steps in and Inanna goes straight for her, licking her little face and she giggles adorably. “Nana!! Tha thu a ’fàileadh mar èisg!! Hee-hee!” She hasn’t been wearing her hood lately, perhaps she’s becoming more comfortable in her own skin. Not very much to your surprise, Ava comes into the tent behind her, they look a little tired, evident with the small bags under their eyes. They were probably up all night celebrating after getting the approval from the elders, but they look so happy like a five ton weight was lifted off their shoulders. It looks good on them.

“Ida…. Ava.” Muriel says stepping aside to welcome them in with a nod. “Morning.”

Ava smiles up at him with a toothy grin, this is the happiest you have even seen them other than last night. You are actually excited to see them again. The last you saw of them they were being paraded around camp the night before and you didn’t get to say good night. You lunge forward and wrap your arms around them giving them a large hug, almost startling them (but they have almost gotten used to your mannerisms). “AVA!!!! How’s my favorite Master Illuminator doing today~?” You ask cheekily, moving them slightly side-to-side in excitement.

Ava’s face quickly flushes, yet they can’t help but keep a large humble smile on their lips as you call them that. You pull away so you can watch as they communicate with their hands. “... Not a master yet, Rhemi….. but I am officially an Illuminator now… that is thanks to you and Cousin Muriel of course.”

“We were very happy to help! Right, Love?” You turn your face towards him with a giddy looking grin.

Muriel smiles over to Ava and gives a solid nod, then reaches down and pats Ida’s head and she giggles again. She turns around, grabbing his wrist and starts to inspect it. He snorts, knowing what she is looking for. “Don’t worry.” He says showing her the bracelet she made him. “... I haven’t taken it off…. I promised you I wouldn't.” Her little cheeks are painted bright pink as she lifts up her arm and shows hers as well.

Ava makes a little muffled laugh at the two of them then turns their attention back to you. “Sorry to interrupt you both this early in the morning. Didn’t want to wake you.”

“That’s alright. We were just having some breakfast.—We have some tea left if you’d like some.”

Ava politely shakes their head. “We are here on business…”

“Business?” You repeat with your head tilted slightly a little surprised.

Ava scratches their neck and looks slightly sheepish. “.... The elders are all in the gathering tent this morning. They asked me to come and get you two. They want you and Cousin to join us.”

Muriel looks rather confused, still not understanding Ava’s hand language as you start to look uneasy. Ida tugs on his large wrist to get his attention. “Momma, Papa and the other old people—” Ava shoots their sister a particular scolding look and Ida tries to recover herself. “.... I-I mean e-elders—wanna see you and Newcomer in the big tent where we eat.”

You look over towards Muriel then back to Ava. “Wait…… the elders?…. Are…. Are we in trouble, Ava??”

Ava shrugs and scratches the back of their head, honestly, not really knowing what the deal is. “Elder Evander said to try not to keep them waitin’--.” Ava gently smacks the back of their sister's head to scold them. She apparently wasn’t supposed to say that part. Ida rubs where she was struck and blows a raspberry at Ava and they just sigh irritatedly.

“Sorry…. Take your time, but they are all waiting for you two.” Ava communicates sheepishly, noticing that you aren't fully dressed with your plum colored overshirt and blue skirt.

Muriel huffs slightly grumpily, from Ava’ expression, he could tell what they were saying. “Tell them we’ll be there in a moment.”

Ava nods and opens their hand up for Ida to grab hold. She takes it and they both walk out the door and Muriel closes it so you can get dressed.

Feeling nervous, you try to get dressed quickly, but fearing the worst. “What do you think that they want us for?”

Muriel shrugs, taking off his shirt to fasten his belts to his torso. “Maybe it’s about leaving. They may want us to get going before the snow starts to fall…”

“I doubt that… If we decided to stay, I think they’d be more than overjoyed.” Muriel pauses for a moment, and hides a little smile, he won’t admit it, but you know he agrees. “Uggh….. I hate that we have no idea why they are calling for us…… You know…. I get a feeling like I used to get into trouble a lot…. Maybe that's why I am so anxious.”

Muriel stifles a chuckle sounding a bit too amused. “Why doesn't that surprise me?”

“What does that mean?? I’m a goddamn angel~” You smile fakely innocently and bat your eyelashes.

“Pffttt!!! You’re a goddamn mess is what you are.” He throws his head back and cutely laughs with a large smile. “... Come on. Let’s not make them wait anymore.” He leans down and quickly steals a kiss and it makes you feel a little more calm.

“Well if we are in trouble, at least we're in trouble together.” You say with a smile, throwing your traveling cloak over your shoulders.

You follow your hermit out the tent, through camp and to the gathering tend, trying your best to not feel so anxious about all of this. As the two of you make your way inside the gathering tent, you notice that not only are Una, Gilbert and the other elders that you expected to be there; But Ronin, Tad, Ava, and Shona are also there. They are all sitting in a semi-circle on the blankets and pillows a new feet away from the fire. Una is holding her boy baby in her arms as he sleeps away peacefully.

“Muriel! Rhemi! Madainn mhath!!” Gilbert cheerily greets with a warm hearty chuckle like he normally does. He points to the front of the semi-circle. “Come, come, come! Have a seat!”

You take Muriel’s hand, feeling him starting to get a bit anxious as well and you both take a seat. He hates being front and center of everything. “We…. we aren’t in trouble…. are we?” You warily ask sporting a nervous smile.

Una jolts and sputters at the thought, waving her hand dismissively. “Oh heavens!——No!! We just have something we would like to discuss, that's all! Something good!” She then smiles reassuringly at you. “Sorry if we worried ya!”

You exhale a long relieved sigh and relax your shoulders and lean into Muriel’s side. “Pfffew!! Ohhh!!! Thank goodness…..” You mumble under your breath and Muriel quietly snorts at you.

Gilbert chuckles a little at your apparent relief. “OH! Before I forget…” Gilbert pulls out the journal from his fur cloak. “I read it all, Rhemi. Three times, in fact. It’s fantastic. I couldn’t ask for a better representation of the stories of old and of our history. It was very well written.”

“Thank you…. Can’t take all the credit, though! I had some help from Ava of course..” You nod towards Ava and they blush a little, seemingly at this point out of habit. Gilbert smiles over to his child, their face heats up even more and scowls as if to say, ‘please don’t look at me like that!!!’

He stifles a chuckle, shaking his large shoulders as he sets the journal down next to him and looks back to you and Muriel. “Well, I’m sure you want to know why we asked you both here this morning… We have something to ask of you both….” He pauses for a moment, what you could only guess is for effect. “...Since you two have been here, you have helped in so many ways…. Muriel helped us catch fish, fixed some things here and there, learned to grow plants with Una like your mother did, you even took care of the chickens and other animals during the mornings, you spared my young little warriors cubs to help them better defend themselves. Ha!! You even did patrol a few times when no one asked—you didn’t have to do that. Any of those things… But we greatly appreciate it....” Gilbert then reaches out his hand, gesturing to you and you stiffen. “....Then you, our Newcomer! You helped preserve our history and documented it accurately…. You’ve helped revive an old tradition of the Illuminators, and help my eldest child so they could pursue their dreams of becoming a storyteller. We just can't thank you enough. We are just glad that little cub has someone like you.”

You can feel Muriel’s body start to heat up and his heart pound, but he still holds your hand and doesn't show signs of letting go. Una chuckles softly at Muriel, lifts up her head and starts to speak.“.... Berty and I know you both have plans to get married when you go back to Vesuvia….. My husband, the other elders and myself have been discussing… and we have one more request before you both leave…. Many years ago, we had a tradition called the

Gabhail Ris Ceremony.”

You tilt your head, squinting your eyes thoughtfully. “.... ‘Accept…. it’…. ceremony?” You mutter the translation slightly perplexed.

The old woman that passes out the ale every night barks a quick amused laugh. “... Sometimes words have many meanings in the language of old, little one. Sometimes they can be lost in direct translation…. gabhail ris also means ‘acceptance’.” Her voice is shaky and has age to it, like the little old woman that you make a reumatizam potion for. She’s also very sweet and cute, but rather strong for her old age...

Gilbert nod then continues on after the older woman explains. “...Yes! Many many years ago, when a Kokhurian married someone from outside of our tribe, they would conduct a little ceremony. It was a way the betrothal’s family, mostly the parents, showed their child’s betrothal acceptance into the tribe—Not just as their spouse, but as an individual of the Kokhuri. Traditionally the ceremony was conducted the day or two before the actual wedding, but we know that you two are planning on becoming wed once you're back to your home in the north… we can’t be there when that happens, but… Well…. we wanted to ask if we could at least conduct this ceremony as a sigh of our gratitude—” Gilbert pauses and drops his gaze, a somber expression washes over his usually cheery face as a thought crosses his mind. Una notices his silence, peers over and places her hand on top of Gilbert’s and squeezes it. Her touch seems to snap him out of it. His eyes glance back up and he grins back at his wife and he clears his throat before pressing on. “..... Moonlight and I know we could never replace your parents, Muriel—We would never want to either…. But we care about you like you were one our own cubs….. That day we saw you at Aunt Khamgalai’s hut, well…. it felt like you were a missing piece in our hearts.... now that you're here, it’s like you’ve never left…. ” Muriel doesn’t seem to know what to do with that statement and his face turns a little pink. But you can tell, he feels the same way. “.... We also know that Glenna and Artturi would have loved Rhemi to death. And if they were still here——well…. they would have wanted this….. So…..” Gilbert trails off and peers back to Una, they suddenly place their right hands over their hearts and half bow while still sitting on their knees and Muriel starts to stiffen at the gesture, holding his breath. “..... Una and I want to host a Gabhail Ris ceremony in your parents honor.” Gilbert lifts his head up slightly to look at the two of you. “...That is, if it is alright with you, Muriel… It’s your decision afterall.”

Muriel quietly sits there next to you and flutters his eyes. He is completely baffled by this request. Honestly so are you. As you both sit there you can’t help but think to yourself,….They want to accept…. me? An outsider as their own??..... Muriel finally looks down at you and you both have no idea what to say. He flounders for a moment trying to understand everything. “.... You both want to make Rhemi….. an honorary… Kokhurian?”

Una and Gilbert straighten their torsos back up and she rocks her baby a little, shaking her head. “Rhemi wouldn’t be just honorary, she would be part of us. It’s more like… an adoption so to speak.”

Muriel’s eyes become a bit watery and squeezes your hand tight as he looks at you again for what to say. With one quick soggy eyed smile, he nods to himself and exhales sharply through his nostrils glancing back to Una and Gilbert. “I—…..we—….” He stutters a bit, still shaken at this beautiful gesture and he takes a deep breath. “.... It would be an honor if you accepted my br- br-....” His face quickly becomes red and panicked at that word, and he scowls grumpily at himself, drapes his arm over your shoulder and proudly hugs you in front of the elders. “—R-Rhemi….” He then picks up his eyes and glances back at every elder with such gratitude. “Thank you….. both of you…. I mean all of you...” Your heart feels so fluttery and overjoyed as he utters those words. But then you smile uncontrollably at yourself a bit. Bride…. he was going to call you his bride. He still can’t say those words. Jeez, he’s too cute. Everyone’s faces light up and are so exactic and they all start to speak amongst themselves. Tad and Ronin are giddily huddled together trying not to cry sappily. They did say they loved weddings. Ava looks so happy and has this sweet looking emotion on their face as they look at you and Muriel, almost like a sense of longing. But Shona looks pointedly at her knees, she doesn’t look upset or angry like you expected. Instead she looks like she’s full of regret, she still won’t even look at you or Muriel or anyone else at all. Ava notices and places their hand on her shoulder and pats them comfortingly, but she still shrinks into herself.

Una hands the baby to her husband and takes the small bundle gently and starts to make silly faces at him, and he coos sweetly. Once her hands are free she makes a single clap, making a loud smack getting everyone’s attention once again. “Alrighty then!!! Now— there is one other thing…” The elders stop their chatting and listen to her carefully. “... Traditionally, Muriel’s siblings, usually with femine understands, would be assisting Rhemi to get ready for the ceremony….. However, Muriel doesn’t have any siblings. The other option is that a Kokhurian would volunteer to keep taking her into their care. So we need a person, of age, mind you, married or unmarried that would represent Rhemi. They will act as your Neach-Cùraim, or caregiver and will help you prepare for the ceremony, and teach you what to do.”

With a determined look in their face, Ava makes their way to stand up to volunteer. But suddenly Shona grabs their wrist before they get to their feet. The twin’s eyes meet and she tugs them back down, quickly whispering something in their ear. Ava's jolts and their face becomes rather red and they return to their seat looking complexly embarrassed hanging their head down low. Then, the tent goes dead quiet as Shona stands up to her feet. Everyone stares at her as she takes a large breath before moving her feet toward you and Muriel in front of the semi-circle. She still won't look you in the eye, keeping her gaze glued to the ground, but she suddenly places her right hand over her heart, and bows slightly, making her long braid fall off her shoulder. “... I’ll represent the Newc— I.. I mean….. Rhemi.” Ava and Gilbert’s mouths drop to the floor in utter shock and quickly exchange perplexed looks. Una eyes seem to gleam with pride as her lips sprout into a large smile, just beaming at her daughter.

Muriel’s eyes meet yours and the both of you are mirroring the same astonished expression as Gilbert and Ava. She…. wants to… help...me?... ME?! You flutter your lashes and look back to Shona with your confused big burgundy eyes. Her demeanor has completely flipped, normally incredibly confident, short, and snooty, she’s now very sheepish and humble. It is almost alarming. “You….you want to represent…. me?.... A-A Traveler?” You ask, tilting your head a little bit, not knowing if you are comprehending completely at this moment. Maybe…. is she misunderstanding?

She straightens back up and starts to play with her braid, opening and closing her mouth a few times, seeming to be struggling to form words. “I....I would be honored to represent you, Rhemi.” At last she answers. “...No one is more worthy of becoming a Kokhurian than you….I see that now……. And yes…. I would be happy if you let me…. If... If that's alright with—OOF!!”

Your body moves before you can stop yourself as you quickly stand to your feet and embrace her without a second thought. “I will be happy if you would, Shona.” Her cheeks light up a bright pink and for a moment; her face looks just like Ava’s has in the past; she continues to avert her eyes away from yours and her trunk is a little tense in your arms.

You realize that you may be making her uncomfortable and let go and awkwardly scratch the back of your head and everyone in the tent is rather quiet. Una looks to her husband and nudges with her elbow and he snaps out of the stupor. “Hmmm?—AH, Yes!!! Right, right, right!—Alrighty then!! Shona will be in charge of getting Rhemi ready! Good, good, good! That solves that problem!”

Una practically jumps to her feet, looking so completely thrilled with all of this. “Well, best be off then!! Let’s get you to my tent, eh? This ceremony won’t start itself, now will it??” Una and another woman around her age who is very heavily pregnant stands up and follows her. They then come on each side of you and loop their arms around yours and start to drag you out of the tent.

“Wait— you mean this is gonna happen now?!” Muriel interjects with a bit of alert in his voice, you both were not exactly prepared for this to happen right at this very moment.

Una turns to Muriel but keeps tugging you right along out of the large gathering tent. “Why yes, of course!!! The snow should be a-comin’ any day now! And you both said you wanted to head back north unless you plan on staying all winter here!”

“Wait— w-what’s happening now? Una?! What are we doing?” You mutter as you are being let out of the tent. Just as you turn back around to catch a glimpse of Muriel before exiting the tent, he looks a bit confused and rather uncomfortable making you feel concerned for him. “W-waits gonna happen to Muri while I’m getting ready??”

“Oh, don’t you fret ‘bout him, my dear! Gilbert, Shawn, Ronin, and probably Ava will be with him. They will be helping him get ready and keep him company while we get you all prepared.”

“Oh… wait, it’s morning, how long is this gonna take??”

“Well…. we have to bath you, do your hair, then get you dressed— we also need to get you fitted for a headdress and earring—Ohhh!! I’m so very excited! I haven’t seen one of these since I was a young girl! Glenna had a cousin that got married to a newcomer. Those two were so cute together!”

“.... So this is like a wedding?”

The pregnant woman giggles a little and speaks up. “No—Not quite. It’s more like Una said as an adoption into the tribe…. But in a way it's like a marriage to the tribe. Now don’t you fret, Muriel will be by your side. But we’ll be dressing you in traditional Kokhurian clothing during the ceremony.” You aren't sure what to expect at this point, but now that Muriel and you have agreed, there isn't any going back, so you decide to roll with it.

Ida comes running out of the tent with Inanna, both carrying a bucket of water. “Com’on, Nana!! We gotta fill the tub up in the other tent now!”

You can’t believe your ears for a moment and Ida and Inanna run toward the outside of camp. “... Did she say what I think she said?” You quickly open the entrance of the tent and see a wonderful looking sight of an extra large wooden Kokhurian sized tub. You can feel your left eyebrow slightly twitch. “..... You-... You had a tub this entire time, Una?!”

She chuckles a bit standing at your side. “Of course I do! Can’t bathe in ice water during the winter on this tundra, can we??”

For some reason you feel a little irritated at this discovery. “.... So…. your tellin’ me… I could have had an actual bath this entire time down here??” You ask, trying to hide your frustration.

Her arm drapes over your shoulder and she starts to laugh a bit more as you just stare at the tub with a rather disappointing look on your face. “Well—You should have just asked!” You can’t help but just groan semi painfully remembering how you were forced to use a bucket to wash your hair for the past couple of weeks. All you’ve been doing is dream of a nice tub to soak in. “Ha-Ha! Oh you poor sweet thing! Oi!! Don’t just stare at the damn thing! Get yourself undressed and get it!” Una says patting your shoulder as she leaves the divider.

The tub clearly has some years to it, it’s no royal tub like at Nadia’s palace. But it’s large enough to fit even the tallest Kokhurian, and it’s a sight for sore eyes. The water is steaming and you just can’t wait to get into it. You take your clothes and fold them to the side next to the divider and carefully step into the bath. The hot water feels so nice on your cool skin, you can feel your muscles unwind as you soak into it. It’s large enough that you can get your shoulders down into it. A happy sigh escapes your lips as you relax the back of your head on the side. This is so nice…… nothing can ruin my relaxation….

“Hey—” Shona's voice suddenly calls out to you behind the divider, making your eyes fly open and you shudder a bit. “... NewC—I mean, Rhemi?”

You drop yourself into the water and cover your naked body with your arms and legs….. Spoke to fucking soon….. You lift your chin up slightly so you can be heard and shyly answer. “Ye-yeah?”

“It’s me, Shona… do you mind if I come in? I have some flowers and soaps for the bath.”

“Uhhhhh…. oh??” The thought of her coming in actually makes you feel uneasy. You don’t really show your skin off to people normally. Muriel is the only one who has seen you naked… that is that you know about… But Shona did volunteer to help you after all. It may be incredibly rude if you deny her assistance. Besides….flower petals and soap would be nice. “Ummm…. o-ok I guess….. I’m naked though!”

You hear her snort a little. “Yeah I know you are, that's why I’m asking if I can come in.”

You feel a little stupid stating the obvious and you shrunk into your shoulders. “O-okay. Come in.”

She comes through the divider completely unperturbed by your nakedness. She isn’t wearing her long parka for the first time. Instead she’s wearing a pinkish-plum colored wrap around dress, with orange designs and yellow flowers embroidered on the collar. You’ve seen part of it when she pulled one arm out of her sleeve for the archery game, but you didn’t see the full dress until now. Hiding underneath the thick furs, she is rather stout and fit, but not as thick as you had thought, and she has an excellent and elegant figure.

Feeling rather embarrassed, you keep yourself covered tightly as she makes herself busy preparing the flowers amen soaps. She may not be bothered by your nude presents, but you curl into yourself trying to hide your body, hoping she doesn't think any less of you.

As she turns her attention to you noticing your tightly bounded self, she raises an eyebrow as she sprinkles the flower petals into the hot bath water and softly grins. “Please, don’t be shy, it’s just skin… All of Great Mother’s children have it one way or another.” She then sits next to the tub and places the bottles of soap and shampoos to the side on the floor. “... Kokhurians may hide our bodies under thick furs, but we are not afraid of it. Besides, we're both women.” Thhhhaat really doesn’t mean anything… You quietly snort, thinking to yourself, but you feel a little more comfortable and you unravel yourself. I guess it’s fine if she is with it. She sticks her hand into the water to swirl the petals around a bit and immediately pulls it out, her fingers a bit red. “Ssssshit!—Tha an t-uisge seo uamhasach teth!!” Her eyes finally meet yours and she looks very concerned, then realizes that your skin isn’t at all red or burning. She tilts her head and sneers out of habit. “—How… how are you sitting in that?! It’s scalding hot!”

You smile awkwardly and scratch your neck. “Yeah….. I apparently have a high tolerance to heat…. a very high tolerance...”

She flutters her eyes and her sneer falls making her face soften looking impressed. “.... You are just… full of surprises. Huh?” She grins a little more.

“Yeah…. I’m told that a lot…..” You mutter bashfully. A bit of awkward silence takes over the tent while Shona starts to wash your hair. She really is taking her time and carefully washes your locks. Her longer nails feel very relaxing as she exfoliates your scalp and you start to understand why Muriel loves it so much when you do it for him. He even asks if you’d do it for him from time to time, you never mind either.

“Let this set for a few minutes.” Shoa says while getting comfortable sitting next to the tub, her arms draped over the side.

“Oh ok….” You reply with a half forced smile and you both lapse into very uncomfortable silence once again. You kind of want to start a conversation, but you have no idea how to do that with her… You don’t really know anything about her, other than she likes archery, making clothes, and taking care of her younger siblings.

Before you open your mouth attempting to ask a vague question, she surprisingly breaks the silence. “Can I say something without sounding weird?” She utters, finally glancing briefly into yours eyes.

You grin and shrug, relieved she broke the silence instead of you. “Ummm....Yeah, sure.”

Her eyes verse vertically and she stares uncomfortably down at your naked body as she rests her cheek on her knuckles. “... You have really nice boobs.” —HUH- What?!?! You start a bit when she utters that, but she looks like she’s very sincerely complimenting you. “... They’re a lot bigger than I thought they were. And they have a really great shape.” You shrink a bit into the water feeling a bit embarrassed again. “... I… I’m sorry if that was a bit too personal—”

You shake your head and try to relax. “N-..... No… it’s fine— it’s just—Uuuggghhhh. My friend, her name is Portia… She told me that too when we went shopping for swimwear this summer. It’s actually a really nice thing for someone to say…. but It's just very shocking when someone says it outloud… I never had a sister to tell me otherwise… Or at least I don’t think I did…..’”

Shona just snickers a little and leans her head into her arm resting on the side of the tub. “No wonder my cousin is crazy about you…” Her smile then falls and she averts her eyes toward the divider looking a bit ashamed. “..... Well that and you’re…. really patient….. and kind… and…. a better person that I am…”

Your heart drops when she says that, her tone filled with such regret and pain. “You’re not a bad person, Shona… I get why you didn’t like me. I remind you of someone that hurt you and your sister. And then Ava and I were keeping a secret from you…”

“It… It still doesn't excuse myself. You were right, the other day…. you didn’t hurt me or Ava… All you’ve done is help my family...” She pauses for a moment as she starts to rinse your hair with a bucket. “Here, close your eyes.” You do it obediently and she carefully pours the water on her head making your hair cover your eyes. You shake your soppy wet air and push it back out of your eyes. Once all the shampoo is rinsed out, Shona uses her fingers to comb through your hair to make sure there aren't any tangles, “.... It’s strange…. A Traveler took my sister’s voice. But another one gave them another….. For a long time, I thought I was the death of her happiness. But we just were looking at it from the wrong angle.”

“Ya’ know….” You look at her very kindly as she returns to lean on the side of the tub. “... I never hated you for not liking me, Shona… I'm just glad you're actually speaking to me like this.”

She looks away very ashamed grabbing another bottle of nice scented conditioner and starts to pour some in her palm. “I don’t know how or why you’re…. You're so understanding, I would have punched me in the face by now. I was a real bitch to you…”

You shrug a little, thinking it over. In normal circumstances, you would have done just that now that you think about it. But you never did feel hostility when it came to the twins, especially Shona. “....Maybe it’s because I get how you felt….. I mean…. in a way… People can be awful.” Shona stops washing your hair for a moment and just listens to your words. “....I didn’t like textile merchants for a long time… I made my friend buy me new clothes for over a year.”

“What do you mean?....” She mutters.

“... A few years ago, I woke up and didn’t have any memories…. the person I was living with was my only friend and he took care of me. He taught me how to be a normal person again….. but he would always leave town for awhile and I would be sad… really sad…. This one time when he left, for some reason I decided to go to a tavern… it got late, and this…. this guy I met there offered to walk me home.” You stop for a second, fiddling with a flower petal before you start again, Shona listening intently to every word. “.... I’m not proud of it…. but I was lonely and a bit drunk. He kept complimenting me, made me feel like I was wanted…. So… we started to kiss—this is before Muriel and I really knew each other, by the way….” She nods a little and you continue. “—But then he wanted to take it further, and it…. it just didn’t feel right. When I said no, he suddenly became so angry….. he overpowered me and pinned me against my own shop door.”

A look of horror washes over Shona’s face and she nearly stumbles on her words. “.... What did you…how- how did you— what did you do?”

Thinking back, you snort a little and lightly rub your forehead. “I head-butted the shit out of him and somehow broke his nose—hurt like hell too! Then I threatened him with a spell, but it didn’t work. Luckily Muriel was there and… and he saved me. Since I woke up five years ago he had always looked out for me. I just didn’t know it until just over a year ago. Then we got to know each other more… and… well you get the idea….” You feel your cheeks heat up at the thought.

Shona looks down at her dress for a moment, her hands slightly trembling. “How… How are you ok with…. just talking about it like that? Like it was nothing?”

You sink your shoulders into the warm water and fiddle with another flower petal pondering rather hard about it. “I…. I wasn’t. Not for a long time. I tried to forget that day even happened… but then, somehow the jackass wandered in my shop. He didn’t recognize me at first… he was looking for a sleeping potion but I knew he had other intentions…. Muriel was there again. Good thing too. I may have done more than just hurt the bastard.” You look back over to Shona and she’s just trembling all over, looking so terrified for some reason, tightly gripping her dress. Eerily, you know that look on her face. Very slowly you reach out for her shoulder. “... Shona…?” She jumps at your touch, but doesn’t pull away nor is she disgusted with it. “....Those Highwaymen... You said that Ava was protecting you from them?” Shona eyes become watery like a dam about to burst. “They….. did more than beat you up… didn’t they?”

Tears overwhelm her eyes and she can longer hold them back as they roll down her face. “M-Momma and Papa don't even know. Only Ava does…. Please don’t tell any—”

Bursting your top half out of the tub, without thinking you throw your wet arms around her, unable to stop yourself. “.... It wasn’t your fault what they did, Shona.”

She is a bit shocked at the sudden embrace at first, but doesn’t pull away. “Y-Yes it was. I was the one that insisted on going near the Great Gate…. I— I even flirted with that highwayman—the leader! He posed as a merchant when we were trading…. he-... he saw all that we had. That’s why he and his gang raided our tents!! But…. They’re all dead now... Papa and the other fighters killed them. So why does it hurt so much still?”

“It doesn’t just go away, Shona. It fucking sucks what they did! It was wrong! It’s sickening!” A single tear drips down from your cheek.

“Yeah. It.. It does. I fought them off as much as I could but…. They still…” She shakes her head, unable to say it. But she doesn’t have to, you know. If she doesn’t want to talk about the details, she doesn’t have to.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about it? You’re mother especially? How has she not seen it?”

“I… I don’t know… She asked if anything happened… and I denied it—and why would she want to relive that?”

“... Why would you lie?”

She shakes her head a little, seeming unsure herself. “....I dunno….. They-they almost killed Ava. That was enough for my parents to deal with. I didn’t want to make things worse… Maybe… Maybe I thought if I didn’t talk about it… It would just go away. Like it didn’t happen. As if it was just a bad dream. I… I don’t know. It didn’t seem important.”

You hug her even tighter. “...You’re important too, Shona.”

Shona shakes uncontrollably, but she places her hands over your arms, excepting the comforting embrace. “It’s been so long…. it shouldn’t matter anymore.”

“But it bothers you still. Doesn’t it? That should be reason enough to talk to someone...... Get it off your chest. This is too much to beat. Even for you! You are very strong, all of the Kokhuri are… but you don’t have to be alone with this, Shona.”

“.... How do I even ask for help for something that happened years ago? Besides what can talking do?”

“....It's not just the talking, Shona… it's the listening part too….”

Shona leans into your arms and softly weeps, it seems like she needed to talk about this. A few minutes go by and she finally gets a hold of herself, gently pulling away from your arms. “....Thanks for listening, Rhemi…..”

“Any time....” You lean over the edge of the tub and kindly smile, then see her dress is half soaked now. “I’m sorry I got water all over you.”

She wipes her stray tears away with her forearm. “It’s… It’s fine. Th.. thank you… I.... I really don’t deserve you being so nice to me. Especially the way I treated you since we met.”

You smile a little wider, conjure your magic and wave your hand instantly drying her dress. She glances down in astonishment. You can’t help but be empathetic towards her. “... Yes you do. I knew you had a reason. Just because you disliked me didn’t mean I didn't like you. Believe it or not, I’m bad at talking about things that bother me too. So is Muri.”

She snorts a bit, at last giving a small grin again. “Cousin Muriel- I can see, but... you? You seem so open. You bearly know me and you spoke about a horrific thing that happened to you.”

“Yeah. You would think that, huh?... I think I kept a lot of secrets when I was younger. I don’t really know why I know. But I think I remember that I had to hide a lot. Especially the person who I really was…. But with Muriel. I never feel like that. I can alway be myself… I can be honest with him. And he loves me anyway. But sometimes I forget about that. He made me realize that I needed to be more truthful too.”

Shona just gives you a knowing look and smiles a bit wider. “Cousin Muriel is lucky to have someone like you, Rhemi.”

You shift your legs a little to make sure they don’t go to sleep and mirror her smile. “..Ya’ know…. you can call me ‘Rem’ for short if you like. My friends call me that.”

Shona flutters her eyes and makes a very happy sounding huff out of her mouth. “Thanks, Rem.” At last, you can call Shona your friend. It feels good. Like Ava, she seemed to be secretly lonely, even both of their energy seems to be lighter like a huge weight has been lifted.

Shona stifles a soft giggle as you start to shiver because of your cold wet hair. “I think we need to rinse your hair again, you don’t want to catch a cold.”

You tilt your head and gently close your eyes. “That’s actually a myth—”

Suddenly Keavy comes into the divider with something in her hands. “Oi, Shona! Have you seen—” Quickly you sink even deeper into the tub with a surprised squeak and tightly cover your breasts.

“—Keavy!! Privacy! Ever hear of it?!” Shona snaps looking rather grumpy and stirn again.

Poor Keavy shudders and quickly darts back behind the divider. She also doesn’t have her parka on and is wearing a wrap around dress very similar to Shona’s. “—Ooooh! I am so sorry, Rhemi! I didn’t mean too—…. Wait—Shona?! You're her neach-curaim???”

“Y-yes…” Shona‘s cheeks start to heat up very slightly, but as a matter of fact face washes over her. “.... What about it??”

“N—nothing!!! I-I…. just didn’t think… that…… Know what, n-... nevermind. I guess I’ll come back later.”

“I-It’s just you…. right, Keavy??” You whimper.

“Yeah it's just me. I promise! No one else!”

“You can come in then. B-But I’m naked.”

“Yeah…. I got that part.” She softly chuckles as she comes back behind the divider and you feel a little silly at your obvious statement. “I have the clothes you made for her, Shona. Momma just put the final touches on them.”

You whip your head to look at Shona in astonishment. “Y-You made me a parka??”

She shrugs with a hint of blush on her cheeks. “Well, I can't take all the credit. Momma and a few of the other people helped. Great-Auntie Khamagalai taught Momma how to sew very quickly and she taught me the same. And it’s custom that your new family make you a traditional parka, headdress and earrings. Since you're not getting married I’m afraid it’s not as fancy, we didn’t have as much time to prepare anyways. It was a parka I was already working on.” You look back towards Keavy and she gives you a huge smile and opens up the parka. Suddenly you feel breathless at the sight of it. It’s the same one you saw that she was working on the other day when you peeked into Shona’s tent. It’s so beautiful, she even made it short enough for you to wear. Your eyes suddenly get watery and Shona jolts. “—It really was last minute… I’m sorry if its not to your liking—”

“No! That's not it!…. I…. I love it, Shona. It’s— it's perfect.”

Keavy eyes dart between you and Shona, looking very surprised at how you both are getting along all of a sudden, not really sure what to make of it. Shona notices, then glances over to her sister a little irritation fresh on her face. “What??”

Keavy blinks a few times and shakes her head. “N-… nothing…. It's just good to see you…. look like that, Sis.”

Shona blushes a little more and plays with the end of her braid. “Whatever…. you weirdo. So are you gonna help us or just stand there staring??” She mutters as she stands to her feet.

Keavy looks rather surprised. “You…. you want me to…. to help you?”

Shona sighs, sounding a little annoyed to grab a towel passing by her. “Well you might as well make yourself useful…. right?” She utters grumpily flicking Keavy’s forehead at her older sibling-like as she passes by her. “I’ve still gonna get her the dress I had to make the other day and I still need to finish the earrings and the headdress…. Could you help her rinse her hair?”

Keavy is stunned at her sister's actions, but actually doesn't need to mind at all. A large ginger smile washes over her lips “Yeah!—I’ll be happy to help.” She carefully folds the parka back up and places it on a small stool by the dividers and picks up the small bucket and stands knees over where Shona was sitting before. Keavy seems so happy at this moment. Shawn mentioned that Keavy and her were close at one point when they were younger. He also mentioned that she never let anyone help her either when it came to her duties and took on way more than she needed to. Maybe Keavy hasn’t seen this side of her in a long time. It must feel good to be trusted to help.

Keavy helps you rinse your hair out then hold your hands as you step out of the large tub and blankets you with the towel. Once dry, Shona comes back with the dress she was talking about. It’s not a wrap around dress like theirs, she seemed to have taken another dress and sown it together to make it fit you. Her skills just amaze you, she made it look like it was purposely made that way. As you donn it over your head, it fits perfectly, and hangs off of you very well. Shona and Keavy then lead you out of the divider after you're dressed and you sit next to the fire.

“Awwww!! You look nice in mauve.” Keavy says cupping her cheeks in girlish excitement and Una comes into the tent with her newborn tightly in her arms. Una stops for a second as she sees you and a happy smile takes over her lips. “Look Momma! Oooo I am so excited! I haven't been to one of our weddings before!—Well I guess this isn’t really one. But…. it’s close enough for me! I can't wait to see Cousin’s face when he gets a load of you after we get you all ready~.”

Your cheeks light up, feeling so nervous all of a sudden. “You—You think he’ll like me dressed up?”

Una tuts at your statement and kneels down to your level and gently tilts your chin up. “Of course he will!! You are a very gorgeous girl, Rhemi! I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I’d bet ya he would think you're beautiful dressed in a potato sack!”

Shona fetches a comb and starts to brush your hair, patting your shoulder comfortingly. “You’re gonna blow his mind.” She adds while Una stands back to her feet, taking the sleeping baby to a small crib to sleep.

“Thanks… Both of you…” You say with a little happy grin.

Suddenly without any warning, Tad comes bursting into the tent, heaving heavily like he ran as fast as he could from the other side of the camp. “RHEMI!!!” He cries out with such urgency in his voice, making everyone in the tent just jump in shock.

“—YES!! What?! What’s goin’ on??? WHERE’S MURIEL?!” You half shout as your heart drops into your stomach fearing the worst.

He suddenly doubles over completely out of breath. “Wha—?..... Oh! He’s—he’s fine.” He utters exhaustively waving his hand. “Ronin,…. Gilbert,...A….Ava and…. Shawn are…. with him… Pffew—”

“Then what is going on? Spit it out, man!!” Una chims in, looking just as shocked and worried.

Tad huffs out his sentence, but only a single word at a time. “Rhemi,.....Can… Can I… Please….. Do… Your…” He takes in a large inhale attempting to slow down his breathing. “....HAIR!!!!!!”

You flutter your eyes and start to relax and slap your forehead with your palm. What the hell Tad…

To be continued…..

Again, I am so sorry this is late. These last few chapters are gonna be hella fluffy. So, be prepared! Hope you all are staying safe and staying healthy! Mother Llama loves you babies! Enjoy my hot trash!!

#the arcana #muriel fanfic #journey back to the south #madllamamomma #ava of the kokhuri #una of the kokhuri #gilbert of the kokhuri #shona of the kokhuri #ida of the kokhuri #muriel of the kokhuri #part 10~#my hot trash #for my hungry trash pandas #eat up my children #sorry its been so long #i am a terrible person

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purplesurveys · 3 years ago

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1256

surveys by taco-tuesdays

What steps would you take in order to track down a thief? Not too far, honestly. I accept things pretty easily so if I’ve processed that I’ve been robbed, I am most likely to just let it go. I’ll feel like shit, of course, but I would just let it go and scold myself for failing to be attentive.

What is something that one of your family member collects? My mom used to collect printed table napkins from different restaurants, but obivously she hasn’t been able to continue that for the past year and a half. My dad and brother used to collect magazines but both stopped a few years ago.

What would you do if you were able to have lunch with the queen? The journalist in me will probably just ask her questions about her everyday life, how she spends it, what she’s into and what she’s not into these days.

If you got to create a new flavor of ice cream, what would it be? This is a little hard considering there are a lot of small businesses out there already getting creative and quirky with ice cream flavors so it’s just hard to tell if a certain flavor has already been invented or not. One thing I haven’t seen, though, is curry. I’d buy a pint of that in an instant.

What are some questions that you would ask your favorite celebrity? His latest vlog finds. He once shared a video of this smaller content creator, so I’m guessing that’s what he likes doing in his spare time and I’m sure he would have a bunch of other just as interesting recommendations.

If you were able to set up a stand, what would you sell? Street food.

Would you like to go deep sea diving? Why or why not? Yeah. I’m always willing to try daring, not-the-safest-thing-in-the-world activities haha.

What would life be like if you lived on a cloud? The realist in me just wants to say I’d plummet straight to the ground.

What would you find at the top of a magic beanstalk? Idk, my creativity can’t be bothered to be challenged.

What is one food you would not want to have rain down from the sky? Durian. It would hurt and stink like shit.

Which animal's characteristics are similar to your own personality? I don’t really assign sets of personalities to animals.

If you were in a department store, which aisle would you check out first? I personally still go for the toys/video games section first HAHAHA

What are some of your hobbies? They include going to museums, exploring new food and restaurants, traveling to different cities and countries, and reading about history.

You've opened a store that only sells purple items - what do you sell? BTS merch hahahahah duhhhh

What is something important that you've lost, and did you ever find it? I lost a rosary that came straight from the Vatican. No, I never found it again. I feel bad about it not because it’s a religious object, but because it came from my grandma.

Have you ever moved to a new school before? If so, how did it feel? I mean, I had to change schools when I was moving up from high school to college, but I’ve never changed schools within the same chapter of my studies, like in the middle of elementary or high school. But to answer the question, it had been a very liberating and empowering experience. I hated the rules in my Catholic school and there were so many elements from that place that made me hide so much about myself. The fact that I could wear shorts and curse and attend rallies and cut class and make my own class schedules in college felt incredibly freeing and satisfying.

What would've happened if Cinderella never went to the ball? See magic beanstalk question.

If you had one day to do anything at all, what would you choose? I would drive to Tagaytay and find a cozy restaurant and eaaaaatttt awaaaayyyy.

What are a few of your favorite songs? I really really like Singularity by V, Over the Hills by Hayley Williams, and So Far Away by Agust D and Suran.

Have you ever legitimately forgotten to do homework? All the time. I never wrote down homework.

If you were a witch, what kind of a spell would you cast? On who? I don’t care about casting spells on people. I just want my cravings to show up in the snap of a finger hahaha. Can that be part of a witch’s scope of work? Kjdgfhsdfskjfhs

Do you enjoy autumn leaves or spring flowers more? Why? I wouldn’t know. I experience neither over here.

What is your favorite sport to play? What about watch? Table tennis. Favorite to watch would be either tennis or pro wrestling.

Have you ever gone on a cruise before? To where? Yeah. It was an East Asian cruise so I traveled to Shanghai, Jeju, and Fukuoka.

What would you do if you were invisible for a day? Probably go to the bigger houses in the village and see how fancy they get.

Depending on where you live, why might a day of school get canceled? Typhoon, floods. A lot of places are incredibly prone to flooding, so as long as it’s been raining super hard the chances for a class suspension will get high.

What types of transportation do you think we will see in the future? I dunno. It seems like we’re at that point where everything is in the process of being invented or perfected already.

What were some of your toys you always played with when you were little? I liked kitchen sets and anything with lots of buttons, so like toy telephones or cash registers.

If you were a movie star, what would a day in your life be like? I have no clue apart from the fact that I’m just glad I would assumedly have more than enough money to buy whatever I’m craving whenever I want hahaha.

If you invented a time machine, what year would you like to go to, and why? Realistically I wouldn’t change a thing; but if I had to answer this question I’d go back to 2016 and never ask out Gab a second time, so that the next four years wouldn’t end up being such a waste of my time.

What is your favorite holiday and why? I don’t have one. I’m not a big holiday ~celebrator.

What is something that you like to do while on vacation? Try food I’ve never tried before. The more unconventional or obscure, the better.

If you could meet any fictional character from a book, who would it be? Eh, don’t really have anyone in mind.

What are some common places that people tour when they come to your city? There’s the waterfalls in the upper part of the city – I’m just not sure if it’s still a popular spot but it certainly was when I was a kid. There’s also an art museum that I’m certain is a lot more frequented now.

What's one food that you did not enjoy as a child, but do as an adult? Curry.

How would having no electricity affect your daily routine? I wouldn’t be able to attend work, at least not for the whole day. It would also feel a lot warmer without the electric fan, which would in turn make me cranky.

If you had one wish, what would it be? A renovated room with a dedicated corner for all my merch.

Say someone gives you a magic sweater. What happens when you wear it? Idk.

If you built a new city, how would you convince people to move there? I wouldn’t.

What is one of your favorite movies? Why is it one of your favorites? Two for the Road. It has Audrey Hepburn, it’s a realistic rom-com, and the chemistry between the two leads is superb.

If you were given a certain amount of time to live, would you want to know? Yeah for sure, I would want to know in a heartbeat.

What would you do if you were able to stop time? I don’t know what I would do, but that would be a nice...opportunity, I guess? to experiment with or try out certain decisions and see how well or unwell they would work out to be. So that when time resumes, I’d know better on how to best handle a situation.

Do you think that long distance relationships would be for you? I wouldn’t actively go for it, but I’m not shutting down the possibility either.

Is there a popular social media platform that you don't have an account for? I have one for all the main ones, I think. Even Instagram, I made an account not too long ago to finally join the platform.

How old were you when you found out about Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc? I never knew the Easter Bunny was a thing until I started taking these surveys at like 14. I never really believed in Santa either, and the only figure I was super disappointed to learn that it didn’t exist was the tooth fairy.

Who is your favorite Disney Princess? Rapunzel.

Which freaks you out more - clowns or porcelain dolls? Porcelain dolls. They look more innocent, which somehow makes them creepier.

What was the last mistake that you learned from? Hm, just a minor work thing that would be too complicated to explain here.

Do you prefer "regular pencils" or mechanical ones? Why? Regular. I always break off the tips of mechanical pencils.

What is one little-known music artist you'd recommend? Andi made me listen to The Drums recently and I’ve been loving their sound so far; they would be perfect on a road trip. I’ve only listened to one album, though.

What is your favorite Pixar film? Toy Story!

Who was the last person to send you any sort of message on social media? Angela sent me a video meme.

Where were you on September 11th, 2001? I don’t know...probably already being put to bed. Either way I wasn’t fully conscious yet as I had only been 3 and living on the other side of the planet.

Name your favorite green vegetable. Broccoli, spinach, bell peppers, or asparagus. IDK I love veggies hahahaha

Could you handle a friends with benefits type of situation? Not for me. I’m not even into sex.

Do you prefer using a brush or a comb on your hair? Comb.

What's your favorite flavor of potato chips? SALTED EGG. I’m obsessed; I had like five bags this week alone.

Would you rather build a snowman or a snow fort? Why? I dunno; I’ve never tried making either.

At what age do you believe children should begin having screen time? I’m not too sure at this point, but I do know I don’t plan on being too strict with my kids. I’d let them watch stuff on an iPad from like age 3 or 4, but one thing I would change from how I was raised is putting a limit on their screen time, maybe half an hour to an hour a day.

If you had to give a speech, what would it be on? I’d be down for any topic as long as I was given ample time to research, honestly. I like public speaking.

#survey #surveys

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sstrongstyle · 5 years ago

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𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: Adam Cole x OC, mentions of Seth Rollins x OC 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: After nearly a decade of being the golden girl of WWE, Adaline Marin wants out. Their ring was no longer home, haunted by her first love and upon reaching her thirties, the face behind "Aspen Glory" wonders if the passion she once had was still ablaze. Instead, she gets sent down to NXT to join the Undisputed Era. The next three hundred and sixty-five days, all captured by cameras for the history books, become a year of revival, reinvention, and realization with her legacy at stake and a new flame from the past emerging. 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: All characters are referred to by their real life names (for the most part) 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒: I love feedback! Please send some my way! <3 Very background heavy chapter, no real fun, but more to come. If you’re interested in being added to a tag list, let me know!

CHAPTER THREE.

June 8th, 2019

Adaline couldn't believe that she didn't just agree to this, but agreed for it to be done for an entire year. It wasn't like she cared about being in management's good graces and volunteered to do it, but she somehow got hoodwinked into agreeing to a 365 special on herself. She was the last person in the world to enjoy having cameras on her when she was out of the ring and no longer Aspen Glory. Doing interviews out of character for Adaline felt like pulling teeth. She avoided Total Divas at all costs. Even appearing on stuff like Ride Along and UpUpDownDown was difficult for her.

"Just call me the modern day Undertaker," Adaline rolled her eyes, but she smiled a bit, as she sat down for the camera.

She liked her privacy as much as any other wrestler that had cameras constantly on them, but especially since fans liked to pay extra attention to her life for whatever reason. Adaline attributed it to her once long term relationship with Colby, highly publicized at several points because of whatever dirt sheet rumours and private leaks that were thrown their way. She was quiet at all times, her Wikipedia page only covering her wrestling career, as she had been as vague about her childhood as possible in the past.

Raising an eyebrow at the producer, Craig, a few feet away, Adaline wasn't sure where to begin. "I can just talk about anything?"

Anything but the few things on the "no mention" list. Most were contributed by WWE, but a lot of other things were provided by Adaline. This included her past relationship with Colby outside of kayfabe and especially anything to do with Nikki Bella.

"Start with talking about your career so far. You can name drop companies and non-contracted performers, but only because we'll be editing whatever we don't want aired, anyway."

"Right," she shifted slightly, unsurprised. "Well, I'm turning thirty-two this fall, so this will be into my sixteenth year of doing this thing."

She wasn't exactly sure why the Network executives wanted to give her a 365 special. As far as she knew, most of the episodes were focused on wrestlers overcoming serious injuries or taking the next great step in their careers. Was this what NXT was supposed to be for her?

Craig's expression remained blank, as he pushed his semi rimless glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. "You started at sixteen years old?" His eyes never left the clipboard in front of him, where she assumed was a list of prompts to ask.

"Yeah, I dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and I worked retail and other random part time jobs for two years while training and working local shows in Toronto. Bingo halls, high school gyms, random parking lots, you know," Adaline explained further, still trying to loosen up her tense shoulders. "When I turned eighteen, I dropped everything and moved to the United States because I knew I was limited, wrestling where I was wrestling. I was an illegal alien with no plan and just a few hundred dollars—the dumb indie wrestler dream."

It'd been so long since she looked back at that time in her life. Once embarrassed by her roots, Adaline felt a warm, fuzzy feeling at the pit of her stomach and couldn't ignore the swelling of pride in her heart. She'd come far.

The look on Craig's face induced Adaline to continue, so she took a deep breath. "My early work happened in Pennsylvania, where I fought my way into gyms and I mean fought. It was really hard at that time for a woman to be taken seriously. It was guys like Drew Gulak and Jon—" Although Craig said that she was allowed to name drop non-contracted performers, she was positive that uttering the former Dean Ambrose's name wasn't worth it. "—um, who helped me learn the ropes and culture in that area. Chikara's Wrestling Factory really helped me out and I did stuff for them and other places like CZW. Drew was the head trainer at the CZW at the time and was one of the first mentor figures I had."

If Adaline had to put her money on it, she would have said that Craig was bored out of his damn mind, but then again, he had the same expression on his face ever since he walked into the room. "Did you just stay in the northeast for that portion of your career?"

"I ventured a bit more west as time went by. Definitely lingered around Illinois for a while, since it's where the top independent women's promotions were at the time. Funnily enough, I ended up living in Chicago for about ten years after that." To be with her boyfriend, but she didn't mention that. "I did some time on the west coast, not as much as I wish I did, but I definitely had some fun doing stuff in California and for a split second, Mexico. Three years into working in the States and I somehow, by a miracle, land myself in the locker room of Florida Championship Wrestling."

To this day, Adaline wasn't exactly sure how she got in. The tape that she sent the developmental recruits was god-awful and her tryout promo was more than cringy. However, looking at other people in her recruitment class, it was clear that officials and scouts looked at potential over everything—how well could they be molded into the WWE standard, the ceiling of their entertainment value. She wasn't sure if she should feel flattered that they saw that in her or not or if they simply saw that she could be easily manipulated.

"It was definitely a time down there. Difficult, yes, but I learned so much." Adaline could recall nights crying into her pillow out of frustration for where her training was going and how she was treated by the other talent. Girls often claimed how hard they were judged for being models and dancers before coming to FCW, but it was just as hard being an "arrogant indie schmuck." There weren't many women from back then who could relate to the garbage that she went through.

Craig asked, "Do you think performers then had a harder time in FCW than the recruits down in the PC and NXT today?"

She paused, taking the question in. "Not a harder time, per say, but the process is much smoother now, while being more of a burden. We have the state of the art Performance Center now, compared to that warehouse we used to train in. NXT gets so much more exposure now that it's harder to reinvent yourself at your own pace." Adaline said. "In a way, because NXT is now its own brand, I would say that talent from the FCW era were much more catty in the sense of starting drama and wanting to move up to get on the road with the main roster talent. The divas division back then was a very different culture to the women's locker room here at Full Sail, which is now very welcoming. Everyone wants to help each other, not drag them down."

There was nothing Adaline wanted to do more than expose certain names, but she held herself back. The catty environment, the hazing, the drama and sabotage, was too much for her. She was just glad that she move on from there quickly, as her memories in developmental hurt her as much as they did help her.

"And after FCW?"

Adaline grinned. "Oh, come on. Everyone knows what happened after that."

For the first few years, she was afraid that the only reason she got lumped in with The Shield was because she was Colby's long term girlfriend and that they assumed he would be most comfortable with her as their valet. After all, Adaline wasn't exactly progressing as a character in FCW. She was scared of that, and only being considered as eye candy and a side item for the boys. It took years of understanding from other people and seeing the product in the eye of the executives that they truly must have seen potential in her.

And if all of the above were true anyway, then Adaline made damn sure to prove herself to be otherwise in the past few years.

"My time with The Shield was everything I could ask for and more. I'm glad I spent that portion of my career with those guys, I don't think I could have found my way around without them. We were all definitely kind of lost, but we had each other, and we were really family." She wanted to say are family, but things were different these days.

Adaline talked to Joe the most, at least up until her move to the yellow and black brand. He texted and checked up on her often while she was off TV. Jon came here and there, but things were different. She only kept up with him through Renee, since the man clearly had yet to discover how to reply to a text.

Then, there was Colby.

Things were good the first couple months after the big finale. As fine as they could be, really. They were on different brands leading up to Wrestlemania, which contributed tremendously to the smooth sailing. After the Royal Rumble, though, things got. . . weird and of course, she hadn't known it yet, but it was around the time he started seeing Becky.

"Hey, Becks, some of the girls are going back to my hotel room after the show," Adaline had tapped Becky on the shoulder after catching her outside of the trainer's room during the later hours of Elimination Chamber. "You gonna come and kick my ass in Mario Kart?"

For whatever reason, Becky's expression dropped. "Oh, uh, actually, I'm just gonna head back to mine. Call it in early, y'know?" Tripping over her words, the fluster in her voice was a tad suspicious to Adaline, but she brushed it off.

She'd proceeded with her plans with Pamela and Leah, playing video games into the early morning. Adaline didn't even think of Becky and her obvious excuse until Leah mentioned that she ran into Becky on her way back to her own room.

"It was written all over her face! Someone definitely got lucky that night," Leah mused at the makeup table, two days later at Smackdown. "Who do you think the guy is? She's definitely not one for random hookups."

Adaline knew that she wasn't owed an explanation to Colby's new love life, but she was a little disappointed that she figured it out on her own. The little things, the rumours she heard backstage, all pieced together for her to realize what was going on between the two of them. Maybe Adaline wouldn't have felt so ruffled about it if it wasn't made to be so weird and secretive. She didn't tell anyone what she found out, keeping it to herself until they announced it themselves.

"Stop making excuses for him, I know why he's late." She didn't even look up from her phone, as she waited in the passenger's seat of the group's rental car. "He's with her, right?"

This was at the tail end of The Shield's farewell era in February earlier that year. Though, Adaline was not heavily involved in the storyline as some expected her to be—the escalation to her own Wrestlemania feud had been going on and she had duties to fulfill on the Smackdown brand. She wasn't there for the buildup throughout the month on Raw, but she was able to join the reunion at Fastlane. It was the group's last match together and the group begged personnel to let her be apart of at least the final moments.

Joe and Jon simply exchanged looks with each other in response. They clearly knew about the couple and probably found out from Colby himself. While nobody said anything to Adaline about it, deep down, they all knew that nobody needed to. She knew Colby more than possibly any other person in the world and the two weren't surprised that she figured it all out.

"Right." Jon was the one who chose to break the awkward silence. "Well, he can meet us there. Let's get this show on the road, we got some beautiful people waiting to see my beautiful face at that bar." It felt a little wrong to not wait for Colby on their way to the roster's "Goodbye Shield" party at a local watering hole, but even Joe was sick of waiting and started the engine.

"We had the time of our lives in that initial run. There's just too memories that I'll cherish forever, you know. But, my memory of all time is surprising the fans at Fastlane, when I showed up to accompany the boys to the ring one last time and having that farewell embrace as the show went off air." Adaline quickly blinked back the tears, as sensitive as ever, but she didn't like showing that side of her to the camera. "I swear to god, time seemed to just completely stop for those few minutes. It was out of this world, nothing like it."

The most magical part of wrestling was the crowd, there's no denying that. On the eve of Fastlane, Adaline felt mountains of love and excitement from the fans, knowing that they were witnessing the end of an era. All four of them knew it was the end of an era, in many ways more than one. Adaline and Colby, who were always known as a collective, rather than individually, were now apart and were now moving on from each other. Mox chose to chase his dreams elsewhere, away from the three that became his family. Joe's legacy in the industry was building and building, year by year. They were no longer the people they were in 2012, having finally gotten a taste of wealth and glory after early years of struggle when the four used to share a single hotel room to save costs.

She'll always be grateful for her run with The Shield. At the beginning, she was just happy to be in a main roster storyline. She was just happy to be able to maximize her time with Colby. Beyond that, Jon and Joe became her family. Bickering over who's turn it was to drive after long house shows, getting to know Joe's kids, playing video games in the locker rooms and every hotel room, and nobody leaving the trainer's room until everybody was clear. No one got left behind.

Back then, it was like that. Now? Adaline can't help but feel like she's come to that point, without any of the three by her side for the first time in a decade.

Craig sighed a little too loudly, rolling up his sleeve and glancing at the shiny watch on his wrist. "We're running out of time. We'll touch on your time with The Authority and everything since then for our next interview day, maybe also dig a little deeper into your new alliance with Undisputed Era." Adaline tried not to breathe a sigh of relief, already worn out from the questions. "Last thing. What are your expectations going into NXT, considering all that you've gone through in sixteen years?"

A question that she didn't know the answer to.

"It's good catching up with you. You have your locker number?" Coach Bloom stood up from his chair from across the desk, extending his hand for Adaline to shake.

She nodded, taking his hand. "Yes, sir. I'll be on my way, then."

Being called into the head trainer's office was similar to the feeling of being called into the principal's office and she had more fear in her body than someone who had just arrived should have had. That was the feeling that Bloom gave off to all NXT residents, but she knew that there was always care behind his tough demeanour. He simply wanted to welcome her properly to the PC on her first official day.

Meanwhile, Serena had been sitting to the side of the two of them and she couldn't confine the grin stretching across her face. When they had shook hands, she instead pulled her old friend into a tight embrace.

"I'm so happy you're here," she whispered into her ear, not caring that Bloom was rolling his eyes at them, mumbling about something for the two women to take it outside of his office.

They had only reunited so few times since Serena signed on as a coach for the Centre a year ago and it only made the moment feel so much sweeter. At the very beginning of Adaline's career, Serena had served as such a helpful mentor figure, even going into their short lived time in the FCW women's locker room together. To have their paths intersect once again, at yet another pivotal part in Adaline's life, seemed poetic in a sense.

Adaline walked out of the office, in tow with Serena. "I guess I'll be responding to your drills again, huh?"

"And you better do it damn well," she raised an eyebrow at the younger woman. "I'm still in shock that you're here. They really didn't want you going anywhere else, huh?"

Shrugging in response, the Canadian sighed. "I'm in shock, too—considering that NXT wasn't apart of the plan." Adaline was getting tired complaining about how the wool was pulled over her eyes during her contract negotiations, but it was starting to fully settle in. Meeting the guys in Hunter's office softened the blow. It was time to shut up and accept the facts.

"People everywhere watched what you did all over the world during those two years that you were gone. You don't need this company to be a star, they need you," Serena said. "Have you maybe considered that you're here because you did all you could do on RAW and Smackdown?"

Those words echoed in Adaline's head, as she trudged into the women's locker room.

It had almost ten years since she started this journey in this company and it seemed like almost everybody that started with her had already grown tired of it. Her first road wives, April and Celeste, were long gone. Danielle decided that she was worn out and was gone. Trinity had recently taken time off and wasn't sure when she was coming back to the ring. Saraya, someone who Adaline thought would be wrestling in her sixties, was retired. Even the goddamn Bellas weren't around anymore. Ninety percent of the division from a decade ago was gone. Wasn't she exhausted, too?

She envied women like Becky and Pamela, who were still hungry for more. There were others who had just made the main roster and some down with her in NXT now, who suffered through the struggles of the indies and were still ready to claw up to the top. Adaline wondered where that drive was for her.

Every locker was labelled by ring name, some with more long-standing plates—mainstays like Io Shirai and Bianca Belair. Meanwhile, others simply had a laminated piece of paper slapped on top of the metal. These were the recruits who had yet to prove themselves, the names that Adaline couldn't recognize.

A shiny, new plate shone on the locker that sat at the corner of the room. Aspen Glory, it read, in all of its permanent lustre.

She slammed her gym bag onto the bench, the impact echoing throughout the empty room. The process felt foreign, making a locker home when Adaline spent so many years travelling to probably hundreds of different arenas and treating each space and moment as temporary. She wasn't sure where to begin, as she unlocked the door and was met with a clean, baby blue interior.

There were some basic things that she brought, like extra socks, a water bottle, and shower shoes. Adaline quickly filled the locker up with these contents and it still appeared so barren to her. What the hell else was she supposed to put in it? She shrugged, not thinking too much about it. Then, she heard the door creak open.

Somewhat hidden away from the front of the locker room, Adaline could hear a distinct voice that seemed to be talking to someone over the phone and a smile formed, hoping it was who she thought it was.

"Yeah, that sounds good for dinner. I just got into the PC, I think Cheree's already waiting for me. You know how she is, she's always early. Alright, bye, Johnny, I love you. See you."

A flash of blonde hair only confirmed Adaline's suspicions. It was Candice LeRae, who hummed the melody of a 90s pop song and chewed bubblegum, as she strolled over without noticing the other female in the room. She easily unlocked her name plated locker, which was across from Adaline's, and nearly everything spilled out from it being too full.

She groaned. "Oh, crap," Candice said, trying to chase a bottle of dry shampoo that had begun rolling across the floor, only to be met with Adaline's bemused expression.

"Hi."

"Hey," Candice replied with a grin, a little perplexed.

Almost instantaneously, they pulled each other into a hug. Knowing that she would be diving head first into the unknown, Adaline was aware that she couldn't navigate all on her own. The two Breezango idiots were too busy figuring their own things out and she couldn't voice her anxiety to her new stable mates, wanting to give off a confident face. There were only so many people that Adaline could turn to outside of them, so she gave Candice a heads up that she was now reporting to the Performance Centre.

Adaline bent down and reached out for the lavender can for her shorter friend, passing it to her. "Your shit's a mess, girl."

"Yours will be, too. Give it a month," she rolled her eyes and peeked over her shoulder at Adaline's belongings on the bench. "You're moving in today?! I honestly did not expect to see you here so soon."

"I told you that I landed a few days ago, didn't I? I've been in meetings all weekend," Adaline replied with a groan. She had only been in Orlando for such a short amount of time and the amount of work and settling she had to do was taxing. The NXT tapings hadn't even begun, yet.

Candice said, "Yeah, it doesn't really slow down for another week or so. You'll love it here, I promise." As everyone else had promised Adaline, who clearly wasn't convinced.

The blonde turned around and put the can back into its place—if it even had one, in that mess of a locker—and began rummaging through her personal possessions. Candice let a out a soft a-ha! when she found what she was looking for at the back of the space, a Minnie Mouse hairbrush. Adaline chuckled softly at the sight and turned around, closing her own locker.

"Are you off to go workout?"

"Yeah, Cheree's wanted to get some cardio in. Any more meetings today?" Candice replied.

Adaline shook her head. "No, just moving in." She gestured to her gym bag and locker.

"Well, while you're here, the taping schedule is posted up by the west wing double doors, you know, the ones to the main gym. We can check it out together. Actually, would your name even be on there?" Candice thought to herself, considering that she was one of the few people who were made aware of Adaline's presence. The taping schedule wasn't usually subject to the change unless there was an injury, but producers were known edited the cards last minute to accommodate random returns and debuts before, at least once the talent found out.

The woman in question just shrugged in response. "Beats me. It doesn't hurt to look, right?"

"Then, we can check out the travel schedule. Ooh, I hope you're coming with us to the midwest loop at the end of the month!" Candice became giddy. "We'll hit the road together, no men! I wish we got to do that more often when you were in Cali."

Adaline didn't get the opportunity to do so often, but she loved wrestling in The Golden State and especially in PWG. When she worked with them in the past, she always travelled and hung out with Candice.

"I don't think so, but probably the next one?" she shrugged.

The two began chatting more for the next few minutes, mostly about Adaline settling in and her new house. Always the lazy type, she'd been procrastinating and the boxes in her home were left untouched, despite her promising herself that she would get it all out. The small talk about something other than wrestling for once settled the restlessness in Adaline, a small distract of sorts.

It wasn't like she disliked talking about wrestling, rather it was all that seemed to be on her mind for the past while since Wrestlemania. Somehow, it was the first time Adaline really took notice of that, considering she lived, breathed, and ate wrestling for the past sixteen years of her life. A part of her felt worrisome for the sudden awareness of it, wondering it had any relation to her other career concerns.

Unfortunately, the brief, sweet wrestling-free moment was cut short when the locker room door slammed open.

Everyone knew who Shayna Baszler was, or at least, every woman in the company did. After all, the current NXT Women's Champion was probably next in line to overtake your spot in the animal kingdom. Management wanted to push her to lead the division once she would inevitably leave NXT and become a box office draw for all of the big pay-per-views and tours and media.

Some said that Shayna was one of, if not, the most intimidating women on the NXT roster and bore a vicious gaze. Even upon entering the locker room that was nearly empty, her presence demanded attention. All eyes drew to her so naturally and so quickly as they tore away from her out of fear.

"Out of my way," was all she had to say to Adaline, not even flinching at the sight of the veteran and former women's champion.

Adaline zoned out for a moment, completely baffled by the attitude that she was just given. She couldn't help but scoff, trying to process the disrespect that was being shown to her.

She narrowed her eyes at Shayna. "The hell did you just say to me?"

In between them, Candice just sighed. It seemed like that she wanted to end what was going to be an ugly dispute early, but something held her back. Adaline hoped it wasn't out of intimidation by the former mixed martial artist.

Shayna stared back at the woman in front of her. "You think you can just waltz in here and act like you got this brand on lock? They get tired of you on the main roster and Japan couldn't offer you enough money, so you come down here to fuck around?"

Adaline wanted to find out how Shayna found out that she was going to be here, but that wasn't the main concern of hers. Her jaw nearly dropped to the ground, hearing Shayna's words. Clearly, she didn't like her or some rumours already began to float around backstage. Regardless, Adaline was already on the bad side of the de facto locker room leader.

With the fury running through her body, though, she didn't give a damn.

"I'm going to say this once, so you better listen up," Shayna began, "I think you're entitled. I think that you've ridden on the coattails of your ex-boyfriend for your entire career. So, I don't like you. Plain and simple."

"You think you know me?" Adaline's voice began to rise, but Shayna held up a hand and didn't let her finish.

She said, "Maybe for you, being here is like a little vacation before someone like Ashley Flair gets injured and creative will need another spoiled brat to bury their women's division with on Smackdown. For some of us, NXT is our entire lives. Don't mess that up for us."

With that, Shayna bumped Adaline's shoulder when she walked away to the other side of the room and behind a wall to another area of lockers. All she could hear after was the stomping of boots and the slamming of a metal door open. Meanwhile, she was in complete shock of the conversation that just happened, wondering if she just imagined it.

Looking at Candice's sheepish expression, though, it confirmed that Shayna Baszler did indeed strut right up to Adaline and cussed out one of the scariest warnings that the latter had ever heard in her life.

"Honestly, she gives that talk to every new girl," Candice said in a low voice, as she ushered Adaline out of the locker room.

"You can't be serious," Adaline shot back, still worked up over what happened. It took all the will in her body to not barge right back in and swing at Shayna's smug face.

The target was now on her back and she had yet to even step into the yellow brand's ring. If she was being honest, it was definitely a wake up call to where she was now and the expectations weighing down on her shoulders. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She didn't even want to be here. Adaline wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was terrified for the first time in years.

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