#not sure if this is worse than the warehouse au or not.

[dailyoyo]

okay so the rough idea of this came from jokingly tossing around the concept of adult yoyo going to law school and becoming a corrupt lawyer (no i dont remember where it came from). and it somehow turned into a general joke of a terrible au where theyre all adults and none of them were ever rudies, never meeting each other and many of them ending up either miserable, worse people, or both. evil-ass au

(art by mod pseud. i hate looking at it) as previously stated yoyo becomes a lawyer. who is, like, evil on purpose. like he saw the "slimy lawyer" stereotype and was like "I WANNA DO THAT FOR REAL". if he was in ace attorney his name would be a play on perjury probably. he might be actually competent as a lawyer but he is definitely cheating non-fucking-stop

since this is based on paradox canon beat is gouji's kid. and well realistically speaking if beat never runs away he just grows up to continue the vicious cycle. but as much as i like writing cycles of abuse that kind of just makes beat Less Interesting Gouji. so for the sake of this we decided he fatally pushed gouji down the stairs as a teen and inherited teh company way too young. and grew up into a deranged rich failson who kiiiind of still has good intentions and recognizes that rokkaku group is corrupt (AND POSSIBLY STILL LITERALLY KILLING PEOPLE?), but doesn't know how to meaningfully change it so he just goofs off and does dumb shit instead. possibly at some point in time he burns the rokkaku hq down on purpose and lawyer yoyo defends him in court about it. and yoyo is trying to be chill but he hates beat for being annoying and wants to wring his neck

mew is, unfortunately, a cutesy true crime vlogger. i'm so sorry. it would be funny i think if she ended up making vids on the rokkaku arson case

corn gets the gifted kid crash and burn syndrome. he works in IT at rokkaku group and he hates it there. he fantasizes about becoming a hacktivist and leaking gov docs and shit like that but hasn't the time or resources for it. probably makes obscure open source software that does really niche shit in his free time for fun. stable enough income to have his own apartment.

gum doesn't have a permanent residence, makes use of her childhood friend status to crash on corn's couch. drifting in and out of jobs, never able to hold one for long, getting fucked up at bars and parties in her free time. might have a complex about being a "burden" to her best friend though she doesn't admit it's eating away at her.

i guess cube and combo never end up going to japan and just continue whatever they were doing in america. at least coin survives! (unless he comedically dies for some unrelated reason. struck by lightning or a falling piano)

maybe garam actually successfully becomes an entomologist. it'd be nice to give SOMEONE something actually cool here LMAO. but tbh i feel like he'd be more likely to drop out of college partway (unmedicated adhd kicking his ass.) and just vibes getting by on a retail job and doing his own thing posting really sludgy splatoon-ass music on soundcloud and posting pics online of cool bugs he saw.

i don't know why i feel this way but i think soda just slowly becomes a shut-in :(

boogie is established in paradox to like, have an apartment and a mediocre mundane job already, but she feels like one of the hardest ones to imagine wtf she's doing in her free time if she's not a rudie? (maybe it's just because i havent dedicated enough thought to her. i need to fix that though maybe in a better context than this one.) like if she's not doing graffiti and skating i feel like she'd STILL be doing stunts and shit? like idk parkour and dangerous tiktok challenges and stuff?

i HAVE NO IDEA for clutch. robs a bank and fucking dies idk man

jazz funnily enough in paradox is stated to have JUST been a regular speed skater until the death ball incident, after which she was just so done with this shit that she was like "whatever. im doing graffiti crimes now". maybe in this au shes the ONLY one whos actually a rudie

the robots probably just dont even get made.........

also almost none of these guys would even end up knowing each other, MUCH less be friends. also their names would be different bc they arent going by street names but im not giving every single one of htem legal names XD i dont even know when some of the guys i hc as trans would have transitioned in this timeline??

This evil-ass au sucks. Sorry.

i need to talk about the evil cursed-ass None Of The GGs Become Rudies au at some point i keep thinking about it. its so funny awful

[grandline-fics]

Immune To Your Charms

DESCRIPTION: Soulmates are incapable of harming the other in any way. Normally that would be a good thing but not when you're meant to be enemies.

WARNINGS: It's Doflamingo so it features mentions of killing/ injury/ general violence. Soulmate! AU

CHARACTERS: Doflamingo

WORDS: 1,649

A/N: Part of the Good For Your Soul Series. I hope you all like how this turned out as much as I did. This is my first time writing for Doflamingo so hopefully I got his personality right enough

*REQUESTS ARE OPEN*

DIRECTORY | PROMPT LIST

Chapter One (here) | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven(coming soon)

——————

Your Marine unit’s task had been a simple one, stay hidden and observe. That was it, any criminal activity was to be recorded for physical evidence and reported immediately. No interference at all. Your superior believed that this group of lowlifes were working directly under someone else, someone bigger and they were who they wanted to take down, not a bunch of easily replaced criminals. The only way to completely rid the evil and corruption of the town was to go for the root. That had been the plan and everyone had stuck to it as they had been ordered. That was until one of the newer recruits with a thirst to prove himself decided to be reckless. 

The second there was confirmation that the criminal group had a large stockade of weapons, ammunition and barrels of explosives in the nearby warehouse the idiot acted. They believed if they destroyed such a valuable haul then it would surely draw their target out from the shadows. You and the others who were more experienced of the unit drilled it into his head that it wasn’t a wise decision. Not only could a lot go wrong with potential endangerment to civilians but it was also not part of anyone’s orders. For a moment you thought he listened but as you turned in for the night you didn’t like the look you caught in the cadet’s eyes. 

It was just as well that you couldn’t sleep because it meant you were able to catch the cadet sneaking out of your encampment. Swearing under your breath you grabbed your weapon and pulled on your shoes to hurry after him. If you could get him back to camp without any harm done he could still keep his job. That had been the plan anyway but he’d managed to make use of his head start and snuck into the warehouse before you got there. You slid to a stop outside the warehouse and felt a chill run over your spine despite it being a comfortably warm night. You'd been so focused on catching up that you hadn’t noticed that there was no-one guarding the warehouse. Even for a group of low tier criminals there would be no way they would leave such precious cargo unattended. Panicked you looked towards the warehouse as the faint sound of a match being struck sounded.

In a blink the explosion boomed through the air, your body being thrown back and crashing loudly and painfully through the stacks of crates behind you. Ears ringing and vision swimming you hit the ground and tumbled until the momentum died off leaving you flat on your back and blinking through the pain and choking on the smoke and ash hanging heavily in the air. You managed to roll onto your side and shakily braced your hands onto the cold ground to push yourself up. You winced and gasped sharply at the feeling of your ribs grinding painfully, protesting any movement. Something was either cracked or broken and only now did you feel the wetness of blood against your head spreading against your cheek. 

For a moment you foolishly dared to think it could have been worse but then as you sensed people approach you knew better than to tempt fate. Of course those that had set the trap would make themselves known. One by one your sight took in the figures of those you’d been observing but then sauntering behind at a relaxed pace and amused, wild grin shaping his face was the Warlord Doflamingo. The bright flames burning what remained of the warehouse glinting against his silhouette only made him appear more menacing. In that moment you knew there was no getting out of this alive. The warehouse of weapons was his operation, if he let you live to report to your superiors it could be enough to revoke his protected status as Warlord and that wasn’t an option. 

You knew that nothing could be done. You were outmatched by him and seeing two new individuals lingering behind him told you he had more subordinates lurking. If he'd had enough time to rig the warehouse to explode then chances were he already knew about the rest of your unit too. If he didn’t know then you weren't going to be the one to give them up. Remaining on the ground you reached for your gun, glaring at Doflamingo when his laughter began to fill the space between you. His steps remained leisurely as he continued to advance towards you. Her was the grinning cat and you were the wounded bird, he could take his time and he certainly wasn’t afraid of your silly little pistol. However his smile twitched when you turned the barrel towards your own chest, not his. Now that was curious but boring. 

For the first time that night he put effort into his movements and closed the distance, his large hand closing over yours and disarming you with a simple tug. Frustrated at not even being allowed to go on your terms you glared furiously at the man in front of you. The adrenaline was wearing off and the pain was getting stronger. “I’m not going to tell you anything. Just kill me and be done with it.”

“Oh I don’t need you to tell me anything.” Doflamingo chuckled, playfully spinning the gun on his finger with one hand while this others flexed to let you see the faint glimmer of his strings. “I do need you to do something for me though. You’re going to deal with the rest of your unit and then I’ll kill you. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds awful.” You spat out at him, angered that you’d suspected right and he knew about your unit and also devastated that you couldn’t save them. You knew a small amount about Doflamingo’s abilities from talk at the Marine base but hadn’t witnessed it for yourself. It was just another sickening addition of salt on the wound that you’d be forced to kill your unit, your friends before he would be bored enough to end you with that power. “Can you at least knock me out before you control me to do it?”

Doflamingo chuckled once more, intrigued by your attitude. He'd encountered begging, desperate attempts at buying their life, defiant bluster that they’d never do as he wished, but he couldn't recall someone be so accepting of their fate but still so headstrong. For a second he considered your request but then decided no, he wanted you to be conscious for the fun. With a twitch and arch of his fingers he used his strings to make you his puppet. He rose from his crouched position in front of you and looked down in confusion to see you hadn't moved as he directed. His stretched grin lessened as he moved his hand again, a clear order for you to lift your arm into the arm but it didn’t budge. You were unaffected. 

With laboured breaths you tilted your head up to regard him silently, that fierce look never leaving your hazy, pain-filled stare. You were waiting for him to take control of your body. If he waited any longer you would pass out from your injuries. Now he was in no mood for his tormenting games. Keeping his hand by his side and hidden by the mass of pink feathers he created a new attack, one to slice your throat with enough force to take your head cleanly from your neck. 

You shivered as a sudden wisp of air sped over you and then you flinched to hear the grating of stone. Glancing back you saw the deep gouge cut into the ground behind you, a long but clean line. Unconsciously Doflamingo took a step back from you with your head turned. Something was wrong. His power wasn’t working. Just who were you? What had you done? Anger and a sudden feeling of power being tipped from him he turned sharply and sent his threads at his low ranked underlings, feeling a rush of satisfaction to see their bodies jerk in complete surrender to his Devil Fruit. Wordlessly he commanded them to advance to where the other Marines were, to kill them like you had meant to. “Wh-what are you doing?“

Doflamingo turned and watched you force the power into your heavy limbs, the force of the explosion taking their toll on you. Slowly you pushed into the ground once more to try and make yourself stand but that was the final straw for your body to handle. With a groan, you crumpled onto the ground, unconscious and completely at Doflamingo’s mercy, that was if he actually had any. As Doflamingo continued to stare at you he heard Diamante approach, his elite officer just as confused by what went wrong. “Doffy? What happened?” 

“A complication.” Doflamingo answered, trying once more to attack your defenceless form with your own pistol but the bullet whizzed by you even though his aim was perfect and struck the ground less than inch to the left of your head. He couldn’t risk someone like you being allowed to remain out in the open but deep down he couldn’t give the order to the others to kill you. He told himself that he wouldn’t do that, not until he knew exactly what your strange power was. For all he knew others out there were capable of such feats against his powers too. Until he knew the cause and how to ensure he could deal with it he wasn’t taking any chances. In the distance Doflamingo heard the sound of gunfire and yelling as his men attacked your unit. With a huff he crouched down and lifted you over his shoulder. “Come on, we're going home. Send their picture to Vergo, I want to know exactly who I’m dealing with.” 

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[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

All Things End 1

Warnings: non/dubcon, mentions of loss (death, miscarriage), and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Characters: Arvin Russell

Summary: Newly widowed, you take a job at the local grocer to make end's meet.

Part of the Backwoods AU

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

Your shoulders bangs and you falter, setting the bag of flour back on the flat. It’s been bothering you lately, mostly in the mornings. The joint burns when you raise your arm too far and there’s a knot right under your shoulder blade. You hold back a grunt and try again, heaving the heavy sack onto the shelf, a dusting puffing onto your apron.

You reach for the next but find it no easier. Before you can take the next, it’s lifted out of your grasp and easily placed on the stack. You look up at the man as he grins at you. You know him but everyone knows everyone around here. 

You might know his name but you don’t know much of Arvin Russell. He’s younger than you, much younger. You knew his father when he was still around but he died years ago. Funny how those things go.

“Let me get this” he chimes and hauls another sack onto the shelf. 

You stand straight, hands on your hips, “please, you don’t gotta… it’s my job.”

“They got a lady like you doing all this?” He asks as he tosses another like it’s nothing. Are they really that heavy or are you just getting weaker?

“Really, I can’t let you–” you grab the other end of the sack in his hands.

“I don’t mind,” he insists.

“That’s nice but my manager–”

“Ah, don’t worry about him,” he shrugs and a strand of his reddish hair droops down his forehead.

“Really, it’s fine,” you tug on the sack again.

“My mama taught me not to let a lady do the heavy lifting,” he argues.

“Well, I’m sure she meant the young pretty ones,” you wrestle away the bag and do you best not to teeter, “you’re nice but I gotta do this.”

He lingers, watching you, waiting for you to falter. You hold your breath as you ignore the fire in your shoulder. You’re embarrassed. When you were his age, it wouldn’t be a real task. He can’t understand the way the years eat away at you, though you suspect he understands some things.

“I didn’t know you worked here,” he says as he takes a can from the shelf, paying special attention to the baking powder label.

“Couple months ago…” you say vaguely.

“Mmm,” he nods and puts the can back, “I… awful what happened to your old man.”

“Yours too,” you counter and cringe, “sorry, I–”

“It’s okay, you get it,” he says, “never really goes away, does it?”

You shake your head, “not really.” 

You drop the last bag on the shelf and huff. You wipe your hands on your apron and grab the dolly handle, pumping the flat up on the wheels. Arvin steps back to the other side of the shelf to clear your path.

“Thanks,” you steer past him.

“No problem,” he hums, “have a good one.”

You keep on, turning the flat towards the warehouse doors. You push through the swinging doors and leave it with the rest for Casey to load or unload. You roll your shoulder but it only makes it worse. You whimper and kick the doors open with your foot as you go back onto the floor.

There’s no hiding since you started at the grocery store. Every face is familiar, every eyes is judging, they all know who you are, and they all look at you with pity. The whispers are often louder than that. 

‘Poor thing.’ ‘Did you hear how her husband went?’ ‘Never even had a child.’ ‘Never one that lived.’ 

Your grief makes for good gossip. You ignore their wagging tongues. You need money if you want to keep the house and what Ben left behind, isn’t enough to last. It’s the only thing left of him and you can’t let it go.

You go up to cash and take over at the till. Lynette puts her basket on the counter as she greets her in her crowlike voice. She’s the worst of them. Everyone knows she sits on her phone and makes her rounds, calling to gather intel like some mafioso.

“Did ya hear?” She beams, “Molly’s having a fifth.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” you put on a fake smile as you play minion.

“Don’t know yet if it’s a boy or a girl, though I think she’s got enough of both–” she suddenly covers her mouth, “oh, hon, I forgot, I’m so sorry–”

“Hm? What do you mean?” You hold back your agitation.

Of course it wasn’t an accident. She’s needling for something. She wants to see you crack. Life hasn’t been kind but you’re just fine with it. You’re getting on.

“It’s just… I know it’s been hard and now… Benny’s gone…”

“Ben,” you correct her, unable to restrain that ounce of distaste, “it’s life.”

“Mmm, you have my sympathies,” she places her hand over her heart as you scan a dozen can of discount tuna. She must have a pantry full of Atlantic skipjack.

You grumble as you focus on your work. She won’t get much from you but you sure she’ll make something up. She’s got too much time for her own good. Her only hobby is talking. You read out her total and accept her check, tucking it under the drawer. Only your goodbye is genuine as you’re all too happy to see the back of her.

You look over as Arvin approaches. Unlike Lynette, he takes the items from his basket and sets them on the counter. You could sing just at the simple consideration. You ask him if he wants a bag as you start scanning.

“Should just need the one,” he says, “slow day?”

“Always is around here,” you shrug, wincing at the tug in your shoulder.

“Don’t mind, it’s my day off,” he smiles, “but I hope it goes by quickly for you.”

“Eh,” you mutter as you put a can of maple beans in the paper bag. Those were Ben’s favourite, you’d make him with sausage and a bit of your blueberry chutney. “Hope you’re not spending your whole day doing errands.”

“Just this,” he says brightly. You look at him as he beams, watching you with that grin. He’s polite, his father would be proud. “How much do I owe ya?”

You give him his total and he counts out bills from his wallet. You return his change and a receipt. He tucks them away as you go to grab his bag. He’s quicker, scooping it away before you can get it.

“I got it,” he says, “you take it easy.”

“Uh, thanks, have a good day,” you stand straight and your cheek ticks as a strike of lightning runs up the back of your neck.

“Shoulder won’t get any better if you don’t,” he tuts as he struts around the end of the counter.

You furrow your brow as you watch him go. He offers a small wave before he sets his sights to the exit. You turn back to the till and grip the edge of the counter. How did he know?

[polarspaz]

Drake AU

Despite having difficulty with controlling his transformations, Tim hasn't experienced any other major difficulties with his heritage. Sure, he's got some new lizard like quirks, but nothing in his personality has significantly changed.

That's what he thinks until he encounters his first dragon.

He's summoned to a deserted warehouse by Bruce, Jason, and Damian. The three had just busted a Black Market exchange that involved magical animals and they needed his help with one particular creature.

He agrees, he doesn't mind helping, but he can't stop feeling like something bad is going to happen. The closer he gets the warehouse, the worse it gets, and by the time he's outside the building, dark, billowing plumes of smoker are wafting from the corner of his lips.

He doesn't understand what the hell is wrong with him, but all he knows is that something inside this place makes him really, really angry. Taking a deep breath, he tries his best to briskly walk in and act totally unaffected.

Damian, Bruce, and Jason are standing next to a rather large cage and gesture for him to come over. He does, until he see what exactly is nestled behind the bars. A red dragon.

white, hot rage fills his chest and Tim's never changed form so fast in his life. A bellowing roar rips from his throat as fire spills from his jaws. The dragon makes a horrid shriek and slams into the back of the cage, trying it's best to put as much distance as it can between itself and Tim.

Tim wants nothing more than break into that feeble cage and tear the frantic beast apart but he doesn't really get a chance too. Bruce throws a smoke grenade, starting Tim enough for Jason to barrel into him, pick him up like some oversized dog, and dart out the building.

It takes Tim a moment to collect himself and change back into human as Jason tries to regain his breath beside him. "We called you over here to see if you could talk to the damn thing! Not eviscerate it's guts and burn it to crisp!" Jason snaps. He trying to sound nonchalant but Tim can still hear the concern hidden in his voice.

Tim can only let out a small, nervous laugh. "Sorry Hood. Looks like Drakes and Dragons don't get along well."

((Drakes and Dragons do not mix in this AU. While dragons were somewhat big, they were more nimble than Drakes and could fly. However Drake were WAY bigger, way tougher, and way more aggressive. In fact most dragon deaths were caused by Drakes.))

[m-jelly]

jelllyyy for the request, can i get a sulky, pouty levi? 🥺🥺🥺 with slight heartwrenching angst 🥹🥹 and a happy ending 🙈🙈 any storyline and genre of your choice 🩷🩷🩷

Almost in flames

Levi x fem!reader

Modern AU, firefighter Levi, being a couple, angst, happy ending.

You have to go into the office and Levi asks you to stay with him at home for a bit longer, you tell him no because you want to get your job sorted. While working, you see on the news a warehouse in flames and you recognise Levi's truck there. You hurry to the building just as a part of it explodes.

@ladycheesington @levisbrat25 @nyxiieluna @li-anne @galactict3a @youre-ackermine @thebobaprincess @2moth-anon2 @cypidity @nbinairyn @bts-spnlvr12 @darkstarlight82 @notgoodforlife @demonic-bird

"Stay."

You pulled on your coat and gave Levi a tiny smile. "I have to go in."

He crawled across the bed to you to show he was just in boxers. "Please?"

You adored the pout Levi had for you. "I won't be long. I just have to drop in to go over a few of my book ideas, then I'll be home."

He whined. "But I need you."

You kissed him before pulling away. "I'll only be about two hours max."

"But."

You blew him a kiss. "I'll see you later."

He flopped back on the bed and whined. "You're mean."

"I am!"

The walk to work was a nice one, you had always enjoyed it and it wasn't too cold. Not many people were at work, but that was normal for editors. It seemed there were a few meetings scheduled for today, so you would be seeing a few authors today.

You met with your editor and went over a few things with them. As you talked you did think about your lover back home in bed. You felt bad for leaving Levi. Levi wasn't due in today, but he was on call. You could have stayed with him a bit longer.

When you were near the end of your meeting an assistant hurried inside the office and looked panicked. They called your name and gulped hard. "Your boyfriend is a firefighter, right?"

A cold shiver went through you, you knew something wasn't right. "Yeah, that's right."

They gripped the door a bit. "You uh...you should come see the news."

You shot to your feet and raced through the hall to the main office where the TV was on the local news. There on the TV was live breaking news of a fire at a warehouse. The fire was massive and so hot that they said the metal framing of the building was going to melt. Panic surged through you as soon as you saw the number on the truck there, it was Levi's.

You looked to your editor with tears in your eyes. "Levi's there. That's Levi's truck."

He nodded at you. "I'll drive you there. Come on."

The two of you sprinted to his car and made your way to the warehouse. While everyone was driving away from the fire, you were going towards it. As you made your way there you were trying Levi's phone, but he wasn't picking up. Every second that went by the more regret that filled your heart.

Levi's sweet and loving smile appeared in your head, which then faded into his sad pout this morning. Waking next to him every single day was a dream come true and now there was a high chance you might never be able to do that. Focusing on a small meeting at work that could have been done over a video call seemed so silly now.

Heat blasted you when you opened the door of the car. Seat consumed your body making your panic worse. The fire was hotter than anything you'd ever felt before. Tears stung your eyes as you hurried to the boundary line put up.

Erwin stood in his uniform shouting orders and then speaking into his radio. He was covered in sweat, soot and ash from the fire. It took him a few seconds to clock you. He called your name and raised his hand to stop you. "You shouldn't be here. Go home."

You gripped the barrier. "Where's Levi?"

"It's too dangerous. I need you to get back and go home."

Your vision began to blur. "Erwin, where is Levi? Where is he?"

Erwin went to speak, but a voice came through his radio. "Yeah?" He shook his head. "Are you sure?" He looked over at you. "You need to leave, now. That's an order."

You leaned closer. "Levi! Is that Levi? Levi!"

Erwin walked up to you and held your hand. "He'll be okay. I'm sorry I can't answer questions, but this fire needs to be controlled. I'm sorry."

You shook before Erwin and felt so tiny. "Mm. I understand."

"I'll give you an update in a moment." He released you and ran over to Hange, his medical.

No matter how hard you tried to stop yourself from having a panic attack, it was too difficult. You did everything you could to remain as calm as you could. You gripped the barrier causing your knuckles to go white. Your eyes scanned all the firefighters as you tried your best to find your man, but he was nowhere to be seen.

A strange noise was coming from the building, like a high-pitched whistle that was getting louder. Before you could speak to your editor a loud boom echoed. A strong force from the blast came from the building sending debris out at you and others. You were hit at such a force that you were knocked to the ground.

Darkness consumed your vision and a ringing started in your ears. Something warm trickled on your head and your skin hurt on your right arm. There was a muffled voice calling your name and trying to speak to you. As your hearing cleared and vision returned you saw a worried looking Erwin.

You sat up with his help and winced. "Levi..." You looked at the warehouse as Erwin asked for medical for you. "Levi...he...he was in there..." It was no use holding back the tears now. You sobbed hard as regret and sorrow consumed you. All you could think about was the last moments you had with Levi. You had wished you stayed behind and laid in his arms all morning.

Erwin scooped you up into his arms and ran with you to the ambulance to be attended to. There were a few burns on your right arm and debris had caused a large cut on your forehead. As you were helped your eyes never pulled away from the burning warehouse.

You sat up when you saw a firefighter coming out of the building with a fellow firefighter over their shoulder. Your stomach dropped because all you could think about was that could possibly be Levi's body. You gripped Erwin's jacket as you felt weak.

Erwin held you tightly as you sobbed. He felt for you and your pain. He hoped for you that Levi was perfectly fine. He let out a long sigh. Your screams of pain and sorrow were something Erwin had heard before when he had to tell someone their family member, or lover had died in a fire. Erwin never imagined he'd hear that from you.

Erwin flinched when he heard his radio crackle. He stepped away from you and radioed in where he was. He looked up to see the firefighter who had dropped off a fellow firefighter was now jogging over. Erwin frowned a little, looked at the uniform and noticed who it was.

He gasped in shock. "Holy shit. Levi?"

You looked up and stared. The firefighter removed their helmet to show it was the love of your life, Levi. He was covered in soot, ash, blood from someone and a little burn on his jawline, but it was tiny. Your body moved before you realised what you were doing. You sprinted over to Levi.

Levi dropped his helmet when he noticed you in the ambulance. As soon as you ran towards him he started running too. He yanked off his jacket to remove the dirt off him. Below his jacket was his perfect body covered in sweat. He tackled you into his arms and picked you up. Your sobs in his ear made his heart sting.

Levi buried his nose in the crook of your neck and inhaled deeply. He sobbed your name. "It's okay. I'm here. I right here."

"I th-thought I l-lost you."

He carried you to the ambulance and sat on the back with you on his lap. "You know me. I'm strong. Nothing can stop me."

You sniffed a lot as you tried to rub your tears away. "I'm sorry."

Levi frowned. "What are you sorry for?"

You shook a little. "For this morning. All I could think about was I made a big mistake. I should have stayed with you this morning. You're my world, Levi. I'm sorry."

Levi cradled your face in his hands. "Don't be sorry, okay? You know what I'm like, I pout a bit when I don't get you all the time." He hummed a laugh. "I'm needy for cuddles."

You giggled a bit. "So am I."

He leaned closer and kissed you. "Have you been letting this morning get to you?"

"Yeah."

He sighed your name. "I love you and this morning was me being a bit of a toddler. Please, don't regret your choice, okay?"

"Okay."

He smiled at you. "Plus, I'll always come back to you, okay? You're not getting rid of me." He kissed you over and over. "I love you."

"I love you, Levi."

He hugged you tightly. "We both need a bath."

"We do." You lightly traced patterns on his arm. "Are you hurt?"

"Just a tiny burn on my jawline, but that's nothing. You got more hurt than me. Explosions are deadly."

You lifted your head. "How did you survive that blast?"

"I found a place in the building for my colleagues and me to hide before the blast." He nodded to the ambulance. "The colleague over there just as a fucked up leg from it going through the floor."

You felt your cheeks heat up. "I should have more faith in you."

"Darling, I would have felt the same way as you if the roles were reversed." He kissed you and hummed. "We'll go home once I've run everything by Erwin, okay?"

You nodded. "Okay."

[rubyreduji]

Good to be Bad - jww & kmg

title: good to be bad pairing:  jeon wonwoo x gn!reader, kim mingyu x gn! reader genre: fluff, minor angst, descendants au (child of hades reader) warnings: mentions of violence, stealing, bullying, and canonical bad parenting w.c.: 10.2k summary: moving to auradon brings many new things, good and bad a/n: this will follow almost none of the canon descendants universe lol. if i make someone mean its for the plot i promise i dont think they’re actually like this

here's the list of everyone's parents too if you're curious

You’re sitting on top of a warehouse roof when you hear footsteps approaching.

“Are you going to apply for the proclamation?” Wonwoo always seems to know just where to find you. He takes a seat next to you on the ledge and you scoot over a bit so your thighs are touching.

“It’s just charity to make them look good. They don’t actually care about us.”

Earlier in the morning, the royal palace released a proclamation, stating the royal family are going to sponsor six villain kids and bring them over to Auradon to help ensure a “better future”. Every child on the Isle of the Lost will send in an application and the six best candidates will be chosen to move to Auradon. 

You don’t believe it though. It has to be a big set up. There’s no way the people in Auradon actually want to help, or they would have done something a long time ago. 

“It sure is a unique opportunity. To go and live on the mainland, get to attend Auradon Prep.” Wonwoo is trying so hard to come off as nonchalant, but you catch the wistful air of his tone.

“You’re going to apply,” you say. It’s not a question. “They’ll pick you for sure. You’re not like us Wonwoo, you don’t belong here.”

“None of us belong here,” Wonwoo mutters.

“Maybe…” You’re quiet for a moment before you continue. “But you’re the one who deserves to get out.”

Wonwoo doesn’t respond. You two sit in silence, staring out at the Isle. It really is an ugly sight to behold. Even in the worst of places, you can find beauty, but not on the Isle. It’s ugly on the inside and out. 

Eventually you get up and Wonwoo follows, still not saying anything. You two start to walk to your place, the unspoken agreement that Wonwoo will spend the night. The walk is far, considering you live in an underground lair on the edge of the Isle. Your father likes to be far away from people and to live underground, seeing as he is the God of the Underworld.

Your dad…well he’s not winning any Best Dad of the Year awards anytime soon, but he’s not near as bad as he could be. Sure he’s a bit negligent, treating you more as a lackey than his child, and he likes to remind you how much of a mistake you are and how you will never live up to him, but why complain when other kids have it worse.

Like Wonwoo, who’s mother is the literal most evil woman alive. She’s always been disappointed in him, seeing as he takes no interest in any villainy. That’s why Wonwoo sleeps at your place.

When you get inside the lair you and Wonwoo quietly navigate the dark rooms until you get to your bedroom. You two flop down onto your bed, squished together on the twin size mattress. You and Wonwoo have been sharing the same mattress since fourth grade, so the proximity of your bodies is normal at this point.

You’re not tired, but you know if you’re too loud your father’s going to yell at you in the morning, so you lay quietly staring up at the ceiling. You can tell Wonwoo is still awake too because you haven’t heard him taking his glasses off yet, and you know he hates sleeping with them on.

“Y/N-ah?” Wonwoo’s already soft voice is even softer as he whispers out to you.

“Woo?”

“Come to Auradon with me.”

Your breathing freezes for a moment before you gain your composure again. “I can’t.”

You and Wonwoo aren’t the same. By the time you and Wonwoo got close, you were already corrupted into the Isle’s ways. Besides Wonwoo, you have one of the most influential, evil parents on the Isle and whereas Wonwoo tries to ignore that part of him, you lean into it.

“You deserve to live a good life,” Wonwoo says. “You can’t do that here.”

“There isn’t a place for me in a world like Auradon. All they’re gonna do over there is try and ‘fix’ us so they can rub in our parents’ faces,” you say. “And all the while they try to fix us, they’ll just villainize us.”

“So we’ll just prove them wrong. I can’t live my most fulfilling life if you're not there too. So please, just think about it.” You’ve never heard Wonwoo ask for anything in his life, let alone beg.

“I…I’ll consider it.”

And consider it you did. Which is why you’re now standing at the bridge with Wonwoo, waiting to be picked up to go to Auradon. If you’re being honest you still don’t really want to go. The choice between going to Auradon with all of the prissy princesses and stuck up princes, or staying at home with your homebody dad who tries to get rid of you at every opportunity possible, was definitely a tough one. To you, it sounds like a lose-lose situation, but while you were going over the pros and cons you were hit with a tie breaker.

As much as you don’t think Auradon is for you, there’s only one reason why you even considered it to begin with. As hellish as it sounds to go to Auradon Prep, there’s one pro that outweighs everything else.

You were sure of your decision when you told Wonwoo and his whole face lit up. It’s rare to see that cute little smile spread across Wonwoo’s lips but whenever you do see it, you’re reminded why you’d do anything in the world for him.

“Well isn’t this a sight to see?” You hear someone approach the bridge before you see them, but you don’t have to turn around to identify who it is.

Jeonghan, son of Mother Gothel, is probably the only other person you trust who is not Wonwoo, and with Jeonghan you only trust him as far as you can throw him. He’s the one friend you have who you can get into mischief with. He’s manipulative and sneaky and quick witted and can talk himself out of nearly any situation he gets put in. If you and Jeonghan weren’t friends, you’d be a bit concerned with how similar you two are.

“What are you doing here Han?”

“I’m here to catch my ride to Auradon.” Jeonghan grins at you. He strolls up to you, slinging an arm around you when he gets close. “So nice of you to come see me off.”

“Yeah right, try again.”

“You're going to Auradon? You practically run this place, why would you give that all up just to be surrounded by a bunch of assholes?”

“I should be asking you the same thing,” you scoff.

“I’m going so I can wreak havoc and cause chaos. Why would I stay here when I can mooch all of the premium stuff off of the rich bitches while torturing them with my presence?” You don’t miss the way his eyes flit over to where Wonwoo is standing. “Oh I get it, your reason has more to do with lover boy and less to do with villainy.”

Jeonghan and Wonwoo are on…neutral terms, but then again, most people are with Wonwoo. People are more scared of his quiet, polite demeanor than they are of the kids who can do any actual damage. Jeonghan likes to tease you for the close nature of your relationship with the other boy though.

You’re about to retort back to Jeonghan when the next VK walks up, his always present companion slinking behind him, and anger flares up in you.

“No. No, fuck this. Living in Auradon is bad enough, but now I have to do it with him there as well?” You glare over at the boy who just walked up.

Minghao, son of the Evil Queen, just stands and stares with a disgusted look plastered on his features.

You and Minghao hate each other, and you have since kindergarten. At first it was just stupid little kid fights, and then petty middle school arguments, but as you’ve gotten older the disdain for one another hasn’t gone away. In fact it’s probably gotten worse.

His little pet, Junhui, son of Cruella de Vil, is never seen more than a few feet behind Minghao anywhere he goes. You don’t have anything against Jun per se, but by association with Minghao, he’s just another enemy.

“That’s only five, where’s the sixth VK?” Wonwoo asks.

With impeccable timing to Wonwoo’s words, the final VK strolls up. Rather than the anger you felt with Minghao, annoyance takes over that feeling. The sixth and final Villain Kid who was chosen, is Chan, son of Gaston.

You don’t have a direct reason to dislike him, other than the fact he has an affinity for getting on your last nerve. Just like his father, he loves to boost his own ego and you can’t help but puke your mouth a bit every time you hear or see it.

You wonder briefly if you still have time to back out. As much as you love Wonwoo and tolerate Jeonghan, you don’t know if they outweigh the other three companions you’ll have. You don’t have time to deliberate though, because soon the barrier is opening and a long black car is pulling up.

A man steps out from the car and greets you all. He quickly confirms your identity before ushering you all into the car. In the back it’s like a lounge area. You could combine all of the Isle and it still wouldn’t be as nice as this car.

The car takes off and soon you guys are on your way to Auradon. You’re staring out the window as you start to leave the Isle when all of a sudden a shiver runs through your body and you start to heat up. You’ve never felt so hot in your life and then you hear Chan scream. You look back at the others in the car and they all look at you terrified.

“What?”

“Your, um, your hair is on fire,” Wonwoo tells you. You reach up and touch your hair only to realize there’s flames in its places.

“Oh.” You do your best at concentrating to make it stop and soon everyone in the car starts to look calm, so you assume it went away. “Well that’s new.”

“It’s probably because of the barrier,” Jeonghan says. “You get to use magic now.”

“Woah, lemme try!” Chan shouts before Minghao smacks him on the back of his head.

“You don’t have magic parents dumbass.”

You sigh and really hope that coming to Auradon isn’t a mistake.

When the car finally pulls up to Auradon Prep, there’s a few people standing at the front. The six of you climb out of the car, taking in your surroundings. The mainland is definitely a lot…brighter, than the Isle.

You squint until your eyes adjust to the lighting. When you can finally identify what you’re looking at you wish you could go back to not seeing. Standing in front of you is the royal family. You watch the way the future king, Seokmin, flicks his eyes from you to Wonwoo to Minghao to Jun. It takes you a moment to realize what he’s doing but he’s looking at your hair. You and Minghao both have blue hair while Wonwoo has purple and Jun has white hair with black stripes. To you it’s never been anything out of the ordinary, but apparently it’s just an Isle thing.

The queen not so subtly nudges Seokmin and he stops his staring. The King smiles at you six as he approaches you.

“Welcome to Auradon! We are so happy to have you here!”

You all stare at the King, not saying anything. He comes to that realization only after he’s looked at you for too long.

“Well, I’ll leave my son here to give you the tour of Auradon Prep. We hope you enjoy your time here, and have a successful future.”

Seokmin steps up and greets you all. “Let me bring you on a tour.”

You and Wonwoo glance at each other before you follow behind the prince. He takes you through the halls, explaining everything as he does, but you’re not paying much attention. It seems the only person who really is paying attention is Wonwoo. Minghao and Jun keep whispering to each other and Chan keeps trying to touch things he shouldn’t. You and Jeonghan stray at the back of the group, bored more than anything.

It isn’t until you approach your first group of AKs that you have full attention. An unsettling feeling creeps down your spine.

“Jihoon, Joshua!” Seokmin calls to them before turning to the group. “Guys, these are my best friends, Jihoon, son of Ariel and Eric, and Joshua, son of Snow White and Ferdidnand.”

“Woah, that’s a lot of leather,” the boy named Joshua mutters. The other boy sizes the VKs up before turning back to Joshua, totally ignoring your presence.

You don’t miss the way Minghao stiffens, his eyes focused on Joshua. It never really occurred to you, but now that you’re in Auradon, you’re going to be meeting the kids of the heroes who your parents were villains to. Well that’s another thing to look forward to.

At the awkward tension in the air, Seokmin bids his friends goodbye and continues with the tour.

“Here at Auradon Prep, everyone has a dorm room. You’ll occupy these three rooms so pair up and feel free to get settled into your rooms or explore around.” With that Seokmin leaves, and you all pair off. You and Wonwoo pair off, to Jeonghan’s demise (who ends up with Chan), but you just brush him off.

As soon as you walk into the room, your nose upturns. You quickly move to shut all of the curtains. “Why is it so goddamn bright here?”

“You grew up underground, everywhere is bright for you,” Wonwoo teases. “You better get used to the light, this is our new home now.”

“As long as they don’t ship me back off to the Isle,” you mutter under your breath. Wonwoo still hears you though.

“That won’t happen, because you’re going to behave yourself. Right?” He gives you a pointed look.

“Yes, sir!” You jokingly salute at him and he rolls his eyes but accepts your answer.

“Just think Y/N, this is the start of our new lives. We’re Auradonians now, and get to go to Auradon Prep. It’s going to be amazing, I can just feel it.”

Despite the growing nerves in your gut, Wonwoo’s upbeat attitude helps soothe them down, just for now at least.

“First day of class, are you excited?” Wonwoo asks as you two get ready for the day.

“It’s just school,” you answer, shrugging noncommittally. The whole week Wonwoo’s been excited to be in Auradon. He’s been in a happy mood, happier than you've ever seen him before. Happier than you’ve ever seen anyone before (you didn’t even know people could be that positive). He even went as far as getting a new wardrobe and a haircut. He looks like a completely new person.

He looks…good.

You always thought back on the Isle that he was just quiet and reserved, but you’re starting to think that was just how he had to be to survive. He’s been more open and active, like he’s found the life inside of him.

You on the other hand, you’ve been dreading being in Auradon since you stepped foot in it. You thought you could do it for Wonwoo’s sake, and it does warm your heart to see him so lively, but you can feel your own self starting to deteriorate. That’s just while you’ve been staying in your room, now you actually have to go to classes filled with all of the Auradonians. You can already feel the snide remarks and the accusations and normally that wouldn’t bother you, but you’re worried about how it will affect Wonwoo’s mood. Back on the Isle you could protect him from anything, but here it’s a whole new playing ground.

“It’s not ‘just school’ it’s proper school now. We get to actually learn from people who want to teach! Why aren’t you more excited?”

“I just don’t want you to get your hopes up too high,” you tell him as you pull on your jacket.

“It’s going to be great Y/N, just you wait.”

You can’t do anything but hum at Wonwoo as you sling your bag over your shoulder and head towards the door. Wonwoo is quick to follow and as you two step out of the room, Minghao and Jun are doing just the same. You and Minghao tut at each other before heading off into different directions.

“Even in a new place you’re going to hold the same sentiments to Minghao?”

“Just because we’re in a new place doesn’t mean he’s a whole new Minghao. If you’re that concerned about it, you befriend him first.” Wonwoo doesn’t say anything. “Exactly.”

You walk out of the dorm area and into the classroom part of the school. There’s already a large group of kids wandering about to their classes. When they catch sight of you and Wonwoo they’re quick to give you a wide berth. You don’t pay them mind as you continue walking through the halls.

You and Wonwoo have different first blocks and you two split off, but not before you remind him to come find you at lunch. After Wonwoo leaves you start to navigate your way to your first class. When you walk in there’s already a handful of kids sitting at desks and they all stare as you walk in.

You send a hearty glare in their direction and they all quickly look away. You walk through the desk, noticing the way a couple of the students flinch away from you, before you take your seat in the back of the class.

It’s not long before the whispering starts up. You’re not stupid, you know it’s about you, but you can’t be bothered to listen. You knew it was going to happen, you know they’re not saying anything nice, so why listen to things that are just going to annoy you even more than you already are.

As you were getting up this morning you told yourself that you can’t pay mind to anyone who has something to say about you, no matter how hard they stare or sneer or whisper, you can’t do anything about it. You have to focus on being good now, be the bigger person, so you can stay here with Wonwoo.

That’s what you keep repeating to yourself as a group of guys snicker at you and a few girls start to obviously stare at your hair. It’s going to be a long day.

It’s not just the day that turns out to be long, it’s the whole week. Wonwoo seems oblivious to it all claiming “everyone just needs time to warm up” but you also have a suspicion people are either being fake nice to Wonwoo, or not giving him the same treatment as the rest of you due to his new look. Whatever the reason is, Wonwoo doesn’t seem to be aware of the comments and glares you and the other boys have been on the receiving end of. 

It’s strange, everyone seems to be scared of you, but at the same time they have no problem making under the breath comments on your upbringing. You’ve definitely been called a ‘freak’ a couple of times and one guy even tried to trip you in the cafeteria. He immediately cowered back when you raised your fist him, but still.

You’ve found a particular enemy in a boy named Seungkwan, the son of Cinderella. He makes the most comments about you and the other VKs and you think you may hate him more than Minghao. You have your third period science class with him and rather than listening to the teacher, he likes to focus his attention on you instead.

“Better watch out with this one, you don’t know what kind of potions they may brew up,” Seungkwan sneers.

“You wanna say that again?” You growl.

“What are you going to do? Light me on fire? They’ll just ship you right back to that slum you call a home. Actually, maybe you should do it. It would get rid of at least one of you vermin.”

That whole interaction happened in front of a teacher, who didn’t say anything. You’ve noticed that’s a recurring theme as well. Teachers love to look past what the Auradonians are saying, but as soon as you glare at someone, you’re the one being told off.

The issue is that Wonwoo has barely been experiencing any of this, and he’s off doing stuff during his free time. He’s found new hobbies and has been practicing his magic with Fairy Godmother and over all soaking up all of the Auradon goodness, which leaves you to spend time with Jeonghan or yourself.

You stand at your locker, wondering if maybe it would be a good thing if you got sent back to the Isle, when a giant body slams into you, shoving you into the lockers.

“Watch it, asshole,” you growl.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry! I-” The guy’s words cut off when he gets a good look at you. “You’re one of the Villain Kids.”

“And you’re a giant dumbass who can’t watch where he’s walking.”

“Oh right, I’m very sorry about that!” The guy quickly bends at the waist in a bow. When he stands, he stares at you expectantly. “So how are you enjoying Auradon?”

“I don’t remember agreeing to talk to you.” You close your locker with a loud slam. You turn to leave but the guy is in your way. “Move.”

“No, wait-”

Without meaning your hair bursts into flames as you glare at the guy. He jumps back, his reaction causing your hair to go back to normal.

“You’re…you’re the child of Hades…”

You glare up at the tall guy. “Yep. Now if you’ll very kindly move out of my fucking way.” You shove your way past him, surprised at how easily he moved despite his stature. You can’t focus on that though, rather trying to focus on just getting away from him.

“Wait, no! Come back!” The guy grabs your arm and spins you around.

You stare between his frantic face and his hand clamped around your bicep. “I would advise you to let go if you favor that hand.”

He’s quick to release you. “I’m sorry! I just…wanted to talk. I know you uh, Isle kids probably don’t wanna talk to us, but I just want to get to know you guys. This can’t be easy for you and I want to try and get to know you guys before I judge you.”

“So when you do get to know us, you’ll be free to judge?”

“No! That’s not what I meant! I just meant, ugh, that like…it’s unfair for everyone to be saying what they are when they don’t even know you. That’s all.”

“Have you ever considered that maybe we don’t want to talk to you?” With that you turn away again, this time more prepared to deck the big oaf if he touches you again.

As you walk away, he calls to your retreating back, “The name’s Mingyu by the way! Son of Hercules!”

And as much as that interests you, you continue to make your exit, filing that information away for later.

You’re not exactly sure how you ended up in this situation, but sitting across from you in your dorm is the son of Hercules. It seems after your first encounter he’s been partial to seeking you out as much as he can. You were just walking into your dorm when he bombarded you and all but forced his way into your dorm. So here you are, sitting on your bed, staring at where he sits at your desk.

“You’re here so you can what? Run back to all of your little friends and tell them all about me?”

“Oh no, I actually uh…this is kind of embarrassing, I don’t really have any friends.”

“You live in Auradon, how the hell don’t you have any friends? Aren’t you guys all about friendship and kindness and all that crap?”

“Yeah, we are, but I don’t know. Most people see me as some clumsy, annoying guy.”

“You are a clumsy, annoying guy.”

“I know that, but it’s different when they say it. I don’t know, none of them really like me that much. They don’t even pretend to like me like they do with some of the others.”

“I don’t get that. If you’re not going to like someone, don’t hide it. Honestly, it’s better they don’t fake it with you. I’d rather have a million enemies than one fake friend.”

“It’s different here,” Mingyu says. “Everyone does what it takes to get them higher on the totem pole.”

“And being fake does that? I’ve always openly hated Minghao and I’m the highest on the damn totem pole.”

“Oh no. We’re not allowed to hate anyone. Well I guess, unless it’s me.”

“Why do they even hate you? From what I can tell you’re smart, and strong, and…nice,” you force the last word out. “Sounds like everything everyone here values.”

“I may be smart, but they still think I’m stupid. I probably am sometimes. I guess when you have to be nice all the time, you need someone to be the punching bag to get all of your anger out on. I just happened to be that person.”

“Why don’t you do something about it? Your grandfather is literally Zeus. The Zeus. They should all be bowing to you, not walking all over you.”

You’re not sure why you care so much. Maybe it’s because Mingyu is the only person who hasn’t sneered at you. Maybe it’s because he knows what it’s like to get sneered at.

“What am I supposed to do? Rain lightning bolts down on them? Beat them up with my strength? I can’t do stuff like that, that’s villain stuff.” Mingyu glances over at you, like he said something wrong. Like he’s not supposed to bring up villainy around you. You barely pay attention to him though.

“Hell yeah it is! What’s wrong with a little villany? Beats being a punching bag for the rest of your life.”

“I would be hated even more than I already am,” Mingyu says.

“Villains aren’t even the bad guys. They have good views, people just get mad because they didn’t think of it first. Honestly half of the villains wouldn’t even be villains if it wasn’t for your parents! The two strongest villains on the Isle, Hades and Maleficent, wouldn’t have even become villains if they just got a goddamn invitation to begin with!” It’s something you and Wonwoo have discussed before. The coincidence of your parents path to villainy. “If you ask me, the real villains are the good guys. Real heroes don’t bully others.”

“You know you’re…not nearly as bad as the others make you out to be.”

“Yeah well, I was a lot worse on the Isle. I just know I’ll get shipped back if I do any of my normal activities, and I can’t leave Wonwoo alone here like that.”

“Wonwoo…Maleficent’s son. He’s not like the rest of you guys is he?”

“No, but he’s not like the Auradonians either. He’s probably the only good guy I know. Well I guess, you count now too. But Wonwoo’s a whole different thing. Despite who his mother is, he’s never given into any of it. He couldn’t even hurt a fly, and his conscience keeps him accounted for everything. Even that time he accidentally borrowed a pen from me and forgot to give it back.”

“You really love him, huh?”

“Of course, he’s my best friend.”

“No I mean like…happily ever after love. Romantic love. I can tell by how you talk about him. It’s the same way my mom talks about my dad.”

“You’re mom…Megara.” You decided to change the topic. You don’t want to think about your feelings for Wonwoo, especially now that it seems like he’s ignoring you.

“Yeah…she wasn’t exactly a hero to begin with either. She doesn’t talk about her time with Hades much, but sometimes she brings it up in passing.”

“He’s…something.” You roll your eyes. “Let’s change the topic now.”

“Right…so back to Wonwoo.”

“Or maybe you can just leave all together.” Mingyu grins at you but you keep your face deadpan.

“Okay! No talk about Hades or Wonwoo. Good to know.” Mingyu doesn’t say anything for a moment and you’re about to ask him to not so kindly fuck off when he speaks up again. “So do you have any hobbies?”

“...No.”

“Oh.”

“There’s not exactly a lot to do on the Isle and I doubt you’d consider stealing a hobby.”

“So there’s…nothing you like to do? What have you been doing in your free time? Haven’t you thought about trying new things?” Mingyu spitfires the questions at you, something you’ve noticed he does a lot.

“In my free time I sit in my dorm or spend time with Jeonghan. There’s nothing here I want to do. Why try new things when they all sound awful?”

“You’re pretty pessimistic, you know that?”

“Yeah I do, it’s almost like I was raised by villains.”

“Well let me show you fun things to do! I promise it will be worth your time. Meet me at the front of the school tomorrow after class!” With that Mingyu gets up and leaves. You just stare at the space he was sitting in, trying to process his words.

For some reason you find yourself in front of the school after class the next day. You’re not sure why. Curiosity? Boredom? Some kind of pity for the kid with no friends?

“Y/N! You’re here!” The big guy runs up and attempts to give you a hug but you dodge him before he can. “You won’t be disappointed!”

“I better not be, or I’ll set you on fire.”

Mingyu laughs, not understanding you’re being completely serious. “Let’s go.” He starts to lead you to another part of the school you haven’t explored yet. “I thought I could introduce you to a bunch of things that you may enjoy. Cooking, art, music, reading, sports, gaming. Stuff like that.”

“I know what all of that is, I just don’t have an interest in it.”

“Do you not have an interest in it or are you just afraid to participate in something that’s not villainous?” You don’t answer. “You can’t tell if you don’t like something if you don’t try it! You live in Auradon now, you don’t have to be evil all the time. And don’t think I’m trying to change you from who you are, I’m just trying to…expand who you could be.”

“You’re cheesy, you know that? You sound like Fairy Godmother in Goodness Class but less stuck up and more puppy-like.”

“Puppies are a good thing!”

You just roll your eyes as Mingyu guides you into a room. There’s a bunch of equipment inside and a large mirror on one of the walls. There are a few people inside, using the equipment and it takes you a few seconds to piece together that it's a fitness gym.

“Why did you bring me here?” You turn to look at Mingyu.

“Well you seem to have a lot of pent up feelings and this is a great way to get them out. You can get swole while doing it too!” Mingyu flexes his arm and you try to not show how impressed you are at the size of his bicep. Stupid Hercules kid.

“So what? You just want me to lift weights?”

“Well…more like hit things. C’mere.” Mingyu takes you over to another part of the room where there are large bags hanging from the ceiling. “Punching bags. Just put the gloves on and go at it.” He hands you a pair of large gloves.

“You know on the Isle when you punch someone you don’t wear gloves. Seems like a sissy thing to do.”

“It sounds like protecting your hands from getting hurt. Just put them on.” You do.

You think Mingyu is about to say something else but you ignore him and throw a punch at the bag. You continue to throw punch after punch, working up a sweat and getting out all of your frustrations. The bag swings all over, probably due to your demi-god strength, but you don’t stop.

You don’t stop, until you hear someone cackle behind you. You step back from the bag to turn around and see two people staring at you and Mingyu. One is the small guy you met on the first day, Jihoon maybe? And another guy.

“Look Jihoon, it’s a delinquent and the dumbass,” the new guy scoffs. “Why don’t you two get out of here before you stink up the place.”

“Don’t even bother with them Cheol, they’re probably too stupid to understand what you’re saying,” Jihoon says.

This ‘Cheol’ doesn’t seem to listen to his friend though. “You know you have no right being here. Not just in this room, but at this school, on the mainland. Go back to the Isle where vermin like you belong. And you Mingyu. I knew you were fucking pathetic but hanging around low-lifes like them? You really are the biggest fucking loser in this school aren’t you?”

“Watch your mouth.” You throw the gloves off and start to walk towards the two but you feel a strong hand on your shoulder, stopping you.

“Don’t. C’mon, let’s just go. It’s not worth it.” You glare at the pair as Mingyu practically drags you out of the room. He doesn’t say anything else after you two get out of the gym. 

“Hey,” you break the silence, “you said you were going to show me a bunch of things. What’s the next one?”

Mingyu perks up a bit at your enthusiasm and starts to guide you to a new part of the school. When you get there you realize it’s the art wing of the school. You’ve walked through it before but never stopped to look for too long.

You two walk in through the door of a room and to your surprise, Minghao and Jun are in there.

“Nope, we’re leaving,” you tell Mingyu. You try to drag him out of the room but unfortunately for you, he’s a lot stronger than you are.

“Why, what’s wrong? Aren’t those guys also from the Isle?”

“Yeah that’s the problem. Just because we’re from the same place doesn’t mean we’re friends, that’s an Auradon thing. It’s actually common to have a lot more enemies than friends on the Isle.”

“They’re your enemies?”

“Yes,” you hiss. “So let’s go before they see us.”

Mingyu finally seems to understand you and you two silently sneak out of the room. The sad look is back on Mingyu’s face. “Well that’s a two for two bust.”

You roll your eyes. “I’m supposed to be the pessimistic one, remember? There has to be more than punching things and half assed art.”

“Fine, fine. The final thing today is actually my favorite thing to do, so don’t be too harsh on it okay?”

“No promises.”

Mingyu ignores your last statement and leads you to your final destination, the kitchens. “My favorite thing to do is cook!”

You don’t have much time to protest before Mingyu is handing you an apron and getting right to work. You find that you don’t want to protest much anyways. Mingyu seems genuinely excited as he bustles around the kitchen and you may be evil, but not evil enough to kill his happiness. You do as he says and you two talk about your childhoods and yourselves as you work side by side. You find that you’re enjoying yourself, and that maybe you do like Mingyu’s company, just a little bit.

The food also comes out���really good. Better than the dining hall food and way better than anything you’d ever had on the Isle. You and Mingyu sit on the counters of the kitchen as you eat your meal and continue your conversation.

You stare at Mingyu as he goes on a story about trips to Mount Olympus and you decide he’s pretty. Objectively. He has good facial structure and tan skin and nicely styled hair.

“Mingyu,” you cut him off.

“Yes?” He stops his story to look up and stare you in the eyes.

“Uhm…thanks.”

“For what?”

“For…this? For you know,” you struggle to get the words out, you’ve never been the best at showing emotions, “for being my friend.”

Mingyu lights up at this and you think that his smile might be the prettiest thing about him.

“You and Hercules’s kid?” Jeonghan drawls and if you weren’t used to much scarier things creeping up on you, you would have jumped. 

It’s been a few weeks since you admitted to Mingyu that you guys are friends and you’ve been spending a lot more time with him lately. He just left your dorm when Jeonghan approaches you.

“What do you want Jeonghan?”

“Oh nothing. Just interesting seeing you all buddy-buddy with the big guy. Especially given your parents and the fact you yourself said you’re not gonna be making any friends here.”

“Oh shut up. Don’t act like you’re not always with that pretty boy all the time.”

“Pretty boy? You mean Josh?”

“Josh? A nickname? Really Jeonghan? And you want to try and judge me?”

“Joshua and I aren’t friends. He’s just in like all of my classes and has taken to hanging around me, not the other way around.”

“The Jeonghan I know would have told him to fuck off. You really wanna be with someone who keeps shooting glares at Minghao whenever he can?”

“I guess that makes us even, given he’s the one hanging around Rapunzel’s kid. And anyways, since when are you sticking up for Minghao? You two are sworn enemies.”

“We are, but unlike on the Isle, there are much greater enemies to worry about around here. The Auradonians have it out for all of us, no matter how ‘buddy-buddy’ we get with them,” you say. “You guys can make all the friendships you want, but in their minds, we’re still just villain scum.”

“You’re one to talk. I just saw the son of the guy your father tried to kill walk out of your dorm!”

“He’s not like them!” You argue. “He’s more like us than anything else. He listens and understands when I tell him things. He gets bullied by the kids here, and he’s one of them.”

“You have always been soft for the underdogs haven’t you,” Jeonghan says. His tone is condescending and you know he’s referring to Wonwoo.

“I’m just saying you can’t judge me when you’re doing the exact same thing. If you want to judge someone, maybe start with the people who are the actual enemy.” With that you slam your dorm door in Jeonghan’s face.

A few minutes later you hear a knock on the door and you all but growl. You storm over to the door and throw it open, expecting to see Jeonghan, but instead you see Wonwoo, his hands full of books. It really shouldn’t surprise you to see him, considering he lives here, but in all honesty you haven’t really seen him in a few days.

“Thanks Y/N, I couldn’t really open the door with my hands full.” Wonwoo walks into the room and dumps the books on his desk.

You stand at the door, staring at your best friend. You’re not sure what you’re feeling. Relief to see your best friend. Anger because you haven’t seen him in a few days. Sadness because you miss him and even though he’s right in front of you, you still miss him.

Wonwoo turns to look at you. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Uhm, uh…no,” you admit. You finally close the dorm door and trudge over to Wonwoo’s bed (it’s closer) before flopping down. “It’s like…too much has changed since coming here. I don’t see you anymore and Jeonghan and I got into a fight and everyone here sucks.”

Wonwoo slowly crawls up onto his bed as well, and draws you into his arms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry we haven’t seen much of each other lately. I’m sorry you don’t like it here. I shouldn’t have forced you to-”

“No don’t,” you tell him. “I made the choice to come here, don’t blame yourself. I just wish…I wish it wasn’t like this. That’s all.”

“I know,” Wonwoo murmurs. “How about this…you’ll have me this whole weekend to yourself. Just us hanging out. How does that sound?”

“Wonwoo I would love to, but I…kind of have plans?”

“Plans?”

“Yeah…Mingyu’s supposed to be taking me to town to go shopping? Or something like that?”

“Mingyu…that’s…Hercules’ son?”

“Yeah…we’re kind of friends? He’s like the only person here I like, but that’s only because he’s not an asshole. He kind of reminds me of you, but he’s like a total extravert.”

Wonwoo chuckles at that. “Well I’d like to meet this Mingyu who’s been keeping you company. Maybe we could all spend time together?”

You bury yourself further into Wonwoo’s arms and smile. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

You’re not sure how it’s happened but Wonwoo and Mingyu get along really well, maybe a little too much, because now your days are spent with both Mingyu and Wonwoo, to the point where you don’t get a break from them. Like three peas in a pod, or whatever Fairy Godmother said to you. You don’t mind, you’re actually happy that Mingyu and Wonwoo get along so well, but it doesn’t cover up the fact that Auradonian’s have gotten worse, and now that Wonwoo is actively hanging around you again, he’s started to become at the end of their insults as well.

You can take the insults, but it makes your blood absolutely boil hearing them thrown at the two boys. There’s been plenty of times where they have to pull you away from the AKs, saying how you can’t turn into what they want you to. You really don’t care what happens to you, as long as they leave Mingyu and Wonwoo alone, but they do care what happens to you so you have to stay at least somewhat under control.

You’ve recently realized that you’d do just about anything for Mingyu and Wonwoo and as much as that scares you, it also doesn’t. You love them and they mean the world to you and as long as it took you to admit that for Mingyu, it’s true.

Which is why you’re here, standing at the Parents’ Day event, even though your dad is back on the Isle, most likely sitting in his chair and watching TV. Mingyu asked you to be here, so you came.

You, Mingyu, and Wonwoo are standing at the edge of the set up, staring at everyone else. You watch everyone with their families, smiling and hugging and laughing. You’re rightfully uncomfortable, but you try not to show that to Mingyu.

Your eyes sweep over the crowd again when they stop on a large figure at the entrance of the garden. You take a deep breath before exhaling slowly, breaking the silence that you, Mingyu, and Wonwoo were standing in. “I didn’t know your dad would be making an appearance,” you mutter under your breath.

“Neither did I,” Mingyu responds.

Your hand automatically reaches for Wonwoo’s and he accepts, holding onto you tight. Mingyu excuses himself, telling you two not to move, before he moves to greet his parents. It looks like the three have a brief conversation before they start to make your way towards you and Wonwoo. You quickly avert your eyes so it doesn’t look like you were blatantly staring.

“Well son, let’s meet these friends of yours.” You hear Hercules’s booming voice before you see him, but it’s not long before Mingyu and his parents are standing in front of you.

Before anyone can say anything, Megara gasps. “You look…just like him.”

“Uh, Mom, Dad, this is Y/N and Wonwoo.” Mingyu shoots you an apologetic look.

“The…villain kids…” Hercules mutters.

“Nice to meet you sir,” you stick your hand out and you don’t miss the way Megara flinches a bit. Hercules wraps a large arm around his wife. You lower your hand.

“Hello Mr. Hercules, Mrs. Megara. You have raised a wonderful son. He’s been nothing but kind and accepting since we’ve met, and he’s shaped up to be a phenomenal friend,” Wonwoo says to the couple. They look less…on edge talking to Wonwoo. Maybe because he’s in an actual suit and you couldn’t be bothered to put on something nicer than a slightly wrinkled button up shirt and your nicest leather bottoms.

“Let’s meet some more of your friends, son.” Hercules claps a large hand onto Mingyu’s back and he stumbles a bit.

“Dad, I told you, I don’t have very many friends here.”

“Sure you do! Who couldn’t love this face,” Megara coos before pinching Mingyu’s cheek.

“A lot of people,” Mingyu mumbles softly so only you and Wonwoo hear.

“So Mingyu? These other friends?”

“I don’t have any other friends Dad!”

“You’re only friends are…the kids of the two worst villains of all time? No you’re lying, no son of mine would be friends with such degenerates!”

“Don’t call them that,” Mingyu growls. “Dad you’re being unfair.”

“Unfair? You’re friends with the children of Hades and Malficent.”

“So what? They are amazing people and you can’t judge them just because of where they come from. What makes them any different than Mom-”

“MINGYU!” Hercules booms. “That is no way to talk about your mother. Son, we’re very disa-”

“When are you not! Why did you even show up today? You’ve always been too busy for me and when you do pay attention to me, it’s to tell me how much I don’t live up to your expectations. Just leave already,” Mingyu spits out. “I don’t know why any of us are here, let’s go.” Mingyu roughly grabs your arm and tugs you away, Wonwoo following.

Mingyu storms all the way to the dorms before he calms down. He’s still grabbing onto your arm tightly and you gently try to pull your arm out of his grip before he realizes.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry Y/N. Did I hurt you?”

“No, I’m fine. High pain tolerance.”

You three stand in silence as Mingyu sighs. “I’m…I’m sorry about them.”

“It's not your fault,” Wonwoo is quick to assure him.

“I should have known-”

“You couldn’t have known anything. It’s fine, nothing we’re not used to,” you say softly. “Let’s just…go back to the dorm, yeah?”

It’s somber as you walk back to the dorm, and nobody says anything as you crawl into your bed, Mingyu and Wonwoo following, sandwiching you in the middle. The silence continues as you hold each other, until you eventually drift to sleep.

You’re rarely guilty about anything, but you are a bit guilty for not seeing Jeonghan in a while. He is, admittedly, your friend, and you haven’t seen much of him since Mingyu and Wonwoo have gotten close. You blame yourself, but you start to rethink that thought when you catch him all but sneaking out of Minghao and Jun’s dorm one day.

“What the hell are you doing hanging around those guys?” You confront Jeonghan. He doesn’t look surprised to see you, but his face is somber.

“Listen Y/N, this might be something you want to stay out of.” Jeonghan’s tone isn’t threatening like it normally would have been. He is giving you a warning. He pushes past you.

“Jeonghan.” At the call of his name he stops, but doesn’t turn around. “When have you ever gotten into mischief without me?”

You see Jeonghan’s shoulders rise and fall before he turns back around. “We can’t talk about it here.”

He takes you to his dorm. You sit down at his desk, noting the way their room still looks the exact way when they moved in.

“You can’t tell anyone about this. Even if you don’t approve, you can’t stop us. You have to promise me that Y/N.” Promises are a big deal on the Isle because they’re enforced. You break a promise, and you’ll get your arm broken in return.

“...I promise.”

“Minghao, Jun, Chan, and I are gonna take down the crown. We’re tired of the way we’re being treated. They promised a better future and all they’re doing is making us want to go back to the Isle, which is saying something.”

“Take down the crown…?”

“Yeah. We’ve already started a plan. We’re gonna make all of Auradon pay, and then maybe we’ll even take over the world.” Jeonghan shrugs his shoulders.

“Woah, wait, hold up. What?”

“Y/N. C’mon dude you’re like…one of the evilest people I know. Don’t you get it? We’re gonna break into the Museum of Cultural History, get Fairy Godmother’s wand, and finally do what our parents couldn’t all those years ago.”

You wonder how long the boys have been planning this. You wonder if they would have told you if you didn’t catch them before they executed the plan. Knowing Minghao, probably not. 

“We’d actually really appreciate your help if you’d like to give it. Wonwoo’s too, but I think he’s put all the villainy behind him,” Jeonghan scoffs. “Waste of potential. The son of Maleficent, and all he wants to do is read books.”

“What are you going to do when you do take down the crown?” You ignore the dig at Wonwoo, because if you don’t Jeonghan would be sporting a black eye.

“Not sure yet. If you’re worried about us hurting your precious little Wonwoo, don’t worry. No matter how much of a goody two shoes he is, he’s still one of us.”

“And everyone else in Auradon?” You think that if Jeonghan lays even a finger on Mingyu that you’ll castrate him.

“They’ll bow to us now, and do what we say. It doesn’t matter what happens to them, it will be us who have the power. So are you in or what?” Jeonghan stares back at you expectantly.

“I-” You contemplate your options.

You think about every Auradonian who’s scoffed at you and whispered behind your back. You think about the condescending remarks on teachers' tongues and the shifty looks the parents keep sending you. You think about your father who scoffed at you everytime you tried to tell him about your newest villainous act. You think about Wonwoo and Mingyu whose safety needs to be ensured.

You look back up at Jeonghan. “I’m in.” 

“Nice to have you,” Minghao drawls as you walk into the next meeting with Jeonghan. “Finally came to your senses?”

“Just figured you’d need a lot more brains to counteract your stupidity,” you retort.

“Whatever the reason is,” Jun butts in, “we’re happy you’re here. Besides Minghao, you’re the only one of us who can use magic.”

“Technically, Wonwoo ca-” Your glare cuts Jeonghan off.

“What even are all of your powers?” Chan asks you.

You give them a run down of all of your powers. Fire and smoke manipulation, like your dad. High pain tolerance and increased strength because of demi-god powers. Manipulation of souls and the dead. All the basics.

“Yeah…yeah we can work with this,” Minghao mutters. “With the plans we have…we could put them into action by the end of next week.”

“And you’re 100% in?” Jun questions you.

“Yeah…of course. We’ll make them all pay.” Pay for how they treat you. Pay for how they Wonwoo. Pay for how they treat Mingyu. Pay for all of it.

“Well then, it looks like we have a team.” And something about that excites you.

A week after your first meeting with the other VKs you guys have a solid plan of action, and you’re ready to execute it. It’s a bit strange to actually be getting along with Minghao and Jun, but you decide they’re not as bad as they used to be. Or maybe you’re just finally giving them a chance. Either way, you find that you can stand to be around them for prolonged periods of time.

They’re not the only ones that you’ve had new revelations for. Sitting in the meetings, planning to take over Auradon, you think about how you’re doing it all for Mingyu and Wonwoo. Your boys. You’d honestly go to war for them if they asked. You think you may love them, but then again you’re not exactly sure what love feels like. Nonetheless, they mean the world to you, and so you’ll do everything in your power to give them what they deserve.

You hate to admit it, but you’re also a bit excited to get back into villainy. You know it’s the morally wrong thing to do, but when have you ever cared about morally correct? You miss the thrill you get from plotting something and carrying it out. The only time you ever feel a bit bad about it is when you come home to see Mingyu and Wonwoo waiting for you in the dorm.

“Where have you been going the past few nights? I miss you.” Mingyu pulls you into a hug, resting his head on yours.

Your heart swells. “I’ve just been with Jeonghan. I feel bad for leaving him out to dry lately. You know I do have other important people in my life than just you two.”

“When has anyone ever been more important to you than me?” Wonwoo questions and well, he’s got you there.

“We are still your favorites though, right?” Mingyu looks at you with his big puppy dog eyes and you roll your eyes but inside your stomach flutters with butterflies.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” You push yourself out of Mingyu’s arms so you can start to get ready for bed. “Are you spending the night again Mingyu?”

“Can I?” He looks at you hopefully and grins wide when you nod.

You crawl into bed and Mingyu follows after, and even though Wonwoo was on his own bed, he makes the short trip over to yours so he can crawl in too. Snuggled in between both of them, you think about how there’s nowhere else you want to be. Even if you don’t have a label, you sleep peacefully knowing that everything you do, it’s for them.

You’re nervous, but only because you want things to go well. You don’t think you’re going to fail, but if you do, you just want to make sure your boys are okay. Minghao has decided that today is the day you’re going to execute the plan and then after this, everything will be over. You guys will finally be safe, and happy, and together.

The plan is to meet up at the museum where Jeonghan and Minghao will steal the wand while you, Chan, and Jun will do damage control. From there you will storm the castle and capture the royal family, before finally taking over all of Auradon. There’s a lot that could go wrong, but in turn there’s a lot that could go right which is a risk you have to take.

You quickly crawl out of bed, through the foot of the bed so you don’t have to crawl over the body on either side of you. You slip out of bed and start to pull off your pajamas to grab your clothes.

“Y/N?” The soft, sleepy voice stops you in your tracks. You don’t want to turn around, because if you do you’ll be tempted to just crawl right back into bed with your boys, but you have to do this, for them. “Y/N what are you doing? It’s late.”

“I have to go. I need to go do something right now,” you say as you continue to pull on your clothes.

“What could you possibly have to do at 3 am?” The other tempting voice in your bed sounds out. Great now they’re both awake.

“I have to go meet with Jeonghan, it’s very important and I promise I’ll tell you everything later, but just know that everything that happens has a reason. If things seem wrong, don’t freak out, it will all work out.”

“What are you talking about?” You hear shuffling in bed, meaning that most likely Wonwoo is sitting up.

“Just explain to us where you’re going, Y/N,” Mingyu says. “Why are you meeting Jeonghan at 3 am? You two have been very suspicious lately.”

“...If I tell you something, you have to promise you’ll keep it secret, okay?”

“Oh this is serious,” Wonwoo mutters.

“We promi-”

“We promise to our best ability to keep it secret,” Wonwoo cuts Mingyu off, having more experience dealing with Isle promises, “but we cannot promise our full secrecy if we deem fit to bring others in.”

That’s a good enough answer for you, and you finally turn around to face the two boys. They’re both sitting up, staring at you with half-tired looks on their faces. “The past couple weeks I’ve been meeting with Jeonghan and the other VKs. They’re planning on stealing Fairy Godmother’s wand and taking over Auradon, and I’m going to help them.”

“What!” Wonwoo roars, fully awake now. He quickly climbs out of bed to approach you. Mingyu hastily follows, a more concerned look on his face.

“Are you going to be safe? Did the others force you into this?” Mingyu, always the caretaker, rushes to make sure you’re okay.

Wonwoo, on the other hand, does not share the same sentiments. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you know how risky and stupid this is?” 

“Yes I know how stupid this is, okay, but it’s just something I have to do. I can’t give you all the details right now, but you guys just have to trust me.”

“Trust you? You’ve been off planning world domination with Minghao,” Wonwoo says.

“I know, okay, and I’m sorry and I promise we’ll talk about it later, but I really have to go.”

“What are we supposed to do? Sit around and wait while you just take over the kingdom?”

“Y/N, I don’t like this. What if you get hurt, or caught? Do you trust the others to have your back?” Mingyu asks, your safety still being his biggest concern. “Why can’t you just stay here?”

“I have to do this Gyu…I can’t keep living here like this, but I can’t go back to the Isle. Things won’t get better unless we make them better.” You grab his hand in yours and squeeze tight. “You have to understand what I mean.”

“I’m with Mingyu on this one Y/N. I don’t want you doing this without any kind of back up.”

“Then join us,” you blurt out. Both of them look like they want to say something, but the words die on their tongues. “Everyone here treats both of you like shit. Don’t you want to do something other than sit back and let them? You two both deserve the world, so let me give it to you.” You reach up and cup both of their faces one hand each.

“Wh-what about-”

“We’ll figure it out. We’ll figure everything out. But I need you both to be with me.” You recall the words Wonwoo told you long ago. “I can’t live a fulfilling life without you two in it.”

“Okay,” Mingyu breathes out. You’re a bit surprised he’s the one who responded first.

“Okay?”

“Okay. I- I love you. If this is what you choose, then I’ll follow you to the end of the earth.”

You ignore the way you feel your stomach flutter at his words. You instead face the other man standing in front of you. “Woo?”

“You trust those four?”

“I trust they’re doing what’s best for us.”

“And we’ll be free?”

“No evil parents. No royal bullies. We make the rules now.”

“And it will be us together?”

“Forever.”

Wonwoo’s eyes search your face to make sure you’re sincere, but you both know you’ve never lied to Wonwoo a day in your life. His eyes flick over to Mingyu before looking back at you. “Okay.”

Relief surges through your body and you don’t think you’ve ever felt so powerful in your life. Mingyu pulls you into a hug and you snuggle into his large chest. You feel Wonwoo wrap himself around your back, once again sandwiching you between the two men.

The others can wait a few minutes, you think as you relax in their arms. You relish in the comfort of their warm bodies pressed into yours, enjoying the calm before the storm. You’re not worried though. You’re not worried at all. You have your two boys by your side and a plan to take over the world, what else could you need?

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[yuesya]

I just read the Mechamaru short and also the other replies and well. And it just STRUCK me how Mechamaru is downright in the wrong in so many fucking ways.

Especially when you mentioned the guards. Those poor people who were guarding the Death Paintings and fingers. Mechamaru didn’t even give them a single consideration and probably even forgot they even existed, but they died horrible deaths because of Mechamaru colluding with Kenjaku.

Mechamaru accuses of Shiki having a perfect life - powerful, beautiful, perfect - and feels anger at her for the indifference when she looks at him, and yet, HE is worse than she is.

Ironically enough, despite her indifference and very much real and sincere want to resort to killing to solve her problems ALA she’s a cute little psychopath, Shiki is far more nicer to her subordinates and “people who don’t matter to the sorcerers”.

The guards. The assistants. The servants.

Because of how logical, abnormal and straightforward her way of thinking is, Shiki just… gets straight to the point. She treats her servants nicely because it’s basic decency to treat people who make everything work nicely. She makes sure her assistants are out of harm because duh, they are her assistants and can take care of other things, they don’t have to risk their lives fighting curses they cannot handle, she can handle that. Someone has committed a crime? Well easiest solution is to kill them but because of politics she will just immobilize them :/ Just let her break their limbs quickly, she had learnt from her mistake with Geto Suguru after all. They can be interrogated with only their mouth.

Anyways.

It’s just. Shiki doesn’t care about them the way she cares about Nanami or Satoru or Tsumiki or Megumi or Yuzuki.

Yet, she’s far, far more kinder to them than many other sorcerers who just see them as fodder.

Ironic. One of the most inhuman of sorcerers is kinder to them than those with human ego, isn’t it?

I think we're probably all in agreement that Mechamaru's plan in canon wasn't thought out very well. It sort of feels like he just finally, finally saw a chance to save himself, and went for it -to the point that he was tunnel-visioning quite a bit, either ignorant or uncaring or both regarding the casualties that such actions would have.

Shiki is largely uncaring about most people on the emotional level, but not the intellectual level. Which makes all the difference!

Mechamaru is indeed rather hypocritical in various ways when you look at things this way. Luckily, he's alive instead of dead in the Liyue AU, so now he gets to deal with the repercussions.

I haven't really made up my mind on details in the Liyue AU, although I think I'd like Mechamaru to have some character development in which he deals with the consequences of what his actions wrought.

In his own world, we have many civilian deaths, as well as the deaths of the warehouse guards. He also endangered his own classmates during the Goodwill event. He actively assisted and helped to hide Geto-Kenjaku and the man's faction from the jujutsu school.

In Liyue, an entire village was decimated by the four Special Grade cursed spirits that Shiki was fighting. Cursed spirits that she was only fighting because she'd been sent to search for Mechamaru.

Part of me wants to keep the transfigured monster-form a permanent state for Mechamaru. Actions have Consequences, and all that. It would also serve as an ever-present reminder that Mechamaru can't run from, in terms of what his shortsighted decisions cost him. There's also a fun parallel to hilichurls!

At the same time, there's another part of me that wants to make it so that Mechamaru can learn from the adepti. More specifically, learn to transform his shape from the illuminated beast adepti, whose original forms are animals but they themselves can take on a human form.

Because part of Mechamaru's growth in the Liyue AU would be coming to terms with what he did, but also trying to atone for it, too. To move past his mistakes, and become better.

... Anyways there are fun things to write either way, and I'd better stop here and get back to editing the next chapter for zenith of stars now haha.

[mathanlin]

Hero AU where villain!Tommy can summon illusions of someone’s worst fears.

The Angel’s reaction isn’t surprising — crying over his son’s ruined bodies as Tommy spits, “Leave me alone, or this is what’ll happen.”

It usually works.

But the Angel comes back.

“Tommy, right?”

The Angel’s voice echoes through Tommy’s hideout, a half-collapsed warehouse. Tommy scrambles to his feet, bristling. “I told you to get out the fuck out—”

“I brought groceries.”

He’s… not lying.

The hero’s arms are full of food. Blankets, too, far nicer than anything Tommy’s ever scrounged up. Surely it’s a trap.

But the Angel just sets them on the floor, inches away from where Tommy’d forced him to watch his sons bleed out.

“Here ya go, mate.”

And then he just… leaves.

It’s the opposite of everything the League’s tried. Gas bombs, stun batons, even mini seiges, all trying to force Tommy out of the only shelter he’d found.

So Tommy keeps his guard up, prepared for the worst.

And it doesn’t come.

The Angel visits frequently, always with an armful of stupid gifts.

Stuffed animals, homecooked desserts, even clothes — “My sons had to grow out of them eventually,” he laughs, as Tommy drowns in an oversized sweater.

And Tommy’s guard starts to falter.

The last straw is the Angel’s hand.

He’s sitting next to Tommy, completely at ease — a danger in itself. Relaxing, smiling, even laughing at Tommy’s snarky jokes.

And then the hero tucks a blanket around his shoulders, ruffling Tommy’s hair on the way back.

Contact.

It’s the whole reason the Angel’s in this mess. Tommy’s powers work best through touch, as many stupid heroes had learned while trying to pin him down.

But the Angel’s just humming quietly, arm still tucked around Tommy’s shoulders.

And Tommy lets himself lean in.

When he wakes up, the Angel’s gone.

Tommy refuses to let himself miss the man. He’s back with the League, obviously. Or worse, spending time with his sons. The ones Tommy’d watch die, the ones whose old clothes he’s currently warmed by.

The ones the Angel actually loves.

Right then and there, Tommy should’ve known.

The Angel would do anything for his sons, that much is clear. And that includes getting rid of the villain that’d threatened to kill them — Tommy.

But Tommy’s guard is still down when the League arrives.

With the Angel leading them.

At least, that’s what it seems like.

The Angel’s the first to arrive, fully armored & battle-ready. Tommy shoots to his feet, heart lurching as the blanket falls from his shoulders—

“Get out of here.”

The Angel yells it, eyes wild. Tommy stumbles, jerking back as the man flings out a hand. 

“Now, Tommy, *go*—”

Tommy hesitates. The League must’ve known he’d do that.

Because a whole team of heroes crashes in after the Angel.

Tommy barely makes it out.

It’s a nasty battle, one that barely leaves Tommy standing. Nightmare after nightmare leaps from his hands as the heroes try to pin him down. In the chaos, he manages to slip away, leaving the warehouse in ruins.

But the Angel catches up.

“Tommy—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Tommy shouts, whirling. Blood dribbles down his temple, and the Angel’s eyes follow it, softening in… pain? “You did this, I know you fucking did.”

“I would never,” the Angel says, taking a step closer. “Tommy, I’d never hurt you.”

He reaches out, eyes still soft. One hand lands on Tommy’s shoulder. Soft. Comforting. Anchoring.

Tommy sneers & grabs his wrist.

And lets every ounce of fear loose.

The Angel’s eyes widen, then fill with tears, breath catching.

Tommy knows what he must be seeing. His sons, broken on the street, bleeding out. His greatest fear, made real.

“No. No, no, Tommy, please—”

“This is what you get,” Tommy spits, “I *told* you—”

The Angel’s arms close around him, cradling. Gentle, though Tommy can feel him shaking like the world’s ending.

And… he’s looking right at Tommy.

Or rather, the bullet wound in his chest.

It’s an illusion. Nothing more.

But Tommy's breath still shudders out as the Angel lifts him, holding him close and shaking with sobs.

“Please, Tommy. It wasn’t me, I swear I’d never hurt you. Please stay with me, kid, c’mon.”

It doesn’t take long for the illusion to fade, though Tommy fights to keep it up — how else would he get this? The soft hold & the tears, like he’s… cared about?

That the Angel loves him like a *son?*

“Tommy?”

The illusion slides away. Tommy goes limp, his true bruises & cuts revealed. Nothing fatal. Nothing important.

But the Angel doesn’t stop cradling him. Nor does he lash out at Tommy’s attack, his lie.

No.

He just murmurs, “C’mon. Let’s get you home.”

[brasletygtz]

The secret Saturdays Infection AU something is approaching and it is not kur....

TW: The story contains somewhat questionable things so if you are sensitive I recommend you ignore this story, everything was done for the purpose of entertainment I hope you like it, I tried a lot to write this and make a couple of drawings on the subject 💖

It all begins when the saturday family finds a strange creature, said creature was captured in a documentary and that is why the Saturday family prepared their equipment on the aircraft and traveled to the place seen in Antarctica...to be specific, the same area where they found the huge cryptid that they previously assumed was Kur, the same place where the family found out that Zak was Kur... said creature looked like a huge, thin black lion, with hairy reptile legs with huge green claws... and black fur, elongated snout like that of a canine accompanied by long ears, horns the color of its claws...

Upon finding the creature, it was lying on the ground, it seemed that it had vanished, the Sabbath family noticed a strange viscosity coming out of its mouth, eyes and nose, so they carefully picked up the body to examine it in the Sabbath warehouse, inside The ship was kept in a special cooling chamber that Doc had added to the aircraft a long time ago, while they were returning home Komodo went into the cooling room...the flesh of the body tempted the reptile to eat it, and so it did... ..comodo chews a piece of meat...before trying another bite, drew Sabado enters, shooing him away saying "NO! Bad Komodo!" So the huge lizard decided to retreat, pouting in response.

Once at home, Zak noticed that Komodo was sad and sick... he thought it would be something temporary so he didn't give it much importance to help his parents and Uncle Doyle move the body of the child, which if it weren't for the cold from the cooling chamber, his body would be stinking and decomposing faster...without warning while his parents were doing studies one night, the creature stood up aggressively ready to fight, when it tried to attack Drew, Doyle pushed the creature against a wall with force but this being bit Doyle on the arm as if he wanted to tear it off...

until Zak intervened with a cortex disrupter that, in response to the nerves, his crypto powers acted... he was not sure how it was possible if after Having died and revived in his encounter with Argost, he no longer seemed to have the Kur abilities, boy was he wrong.

Zak made a connection with the creature...or rather what was left of it... He felt strange...it was more like a puppet, unlike the cryptids this being seemed to be just a shell...something empty that his powers did nothing more than manipulate the creature at will like a toy.... Zak in his mind ordered this being to sleep, to which the creature fell into lifeless sleep once again...

Drew was helping Doyle who was bleeding a lot, the wound on Doyle's arm was deep so Doc and Drew decided to intervene before he lost more blood...

1/2 hours after the event, Doc and Drew, for safety reasons, decided to tie the specimen to the operating table to avoid further incidents... It was time for dinner, Doyle was in a state of shock even with his arm bandaged from the elbow to the neck. shoulder with sweaty forehead with chills

"Wow, you don't look well...I think you should rest," Doc said, looking at Doyle with intrigue.

"Mhe... A simple bite isn't that bad... I've seen and experienced worse things when I worked for Van Rook," he said in a mocking manner, although from a distance you could see that deep down he was shocked and scared by the accident, but he wasn't. He wanted to worry his family more.

- Doyle, it's not a game of masculinity, your health is important! - Drew said, somewhat upset and worried about her brother - if you feel bad or something like that, don't want to pretend that nothing is happening... you worry me.

-....calm down little sister... Everything is fine- said the redhead, changing his mocking sarcastic expression to a somewhat understanding and tired look -if mini man didn't act on time things would be different- he looked smiling at his nephew.

-...eh...I...I...-Zak was a little unsure - I don't know what happened...my crypto powers were supposed to be gone...it doesn't make sense...

- Zak...son...maybe there were residues of kur and your emotions were so strong that they acted without prior notice - Drew said somewhat calmly, looking tenderly at Zak

- no mom....this...this more than my old crypto powers, it's something else..... It's not like before when I could communicate with the cryptids, this case was strange.... It's...it's ....I can't find the words because I really felt afraid...a fear that I haven't felt in a long time...- Zak said worriedly- that creature...has something, it's not completely lifeless... ..

-...ok ok let's put that aside and eat right? Cold food loses flavor hahaha - Doyle said jokingly.

That said, the family enjoyed dinner talking about some interesting topic of conversation with Uncle Doyle's anecdotes about his previous life working with Van Rook...making the atmosphere calm again. Except for Komodo who looked pretty bad so the Zak's parents decided to check him after finishing dinner.... On the other hand, while everyone was getting ready for bed, Doyle was brushing his teeth and noticed that there was blood on his toothbrush...

A pair of fangs were growing out of his mouth. Canines...the redhead decided not to continue thinking about it so he decided to go to bed.

On the other hand, while everyone was sleeping, a roar was heard waking up the entire family who saw how Komodo with cloudy vision was pounced on Zon while she screamed in pain and anguish at the lizard that would not let go of her neck. When they tried to separate them it was too late. Zon was bleeding rapidly... and Komodo seemed to no longer have any signs of life... whatever happened, Zak burst into tears and Fiskerton hugged him behind him... he even consoled him in the face of that event. By the time it was daylight...the family buried the 2 cryptids outside their home and placed crosses with the names of those family members who accompanied them through thick and thin.

....

well That's all for now, sorry for the bad English, I use Google Translate since English is not my native language, tomorrow I may upload the Spanish version

Thanks for watch this 💖💖💖✨

[copingmechanizm]

A little inside of Loki's thoughts the moment the Winchesters found out he's the archangel in the au where he and Sam used to be together.

Gabriel stood in the circle of holy fire in the old warehouse. He was trying very hard to avoid looking at Sam, afraid what he would find on his face. Was it hate? Disgust? Or even worse - regret? Regret of ever associating with Loki, regret of sharing many intimate moments with someone who hid being part of the group continuously manipulating him and his brother? Whatever it'll be, once they free him (if they free him, dear Dad) there's no chance Sam would ever want to talk to him again. And rightfully so. The truth was he knew this moment will happen. From the very beginning Loki knew who Sam was and what role in the apocalypse he had. And still he chose to ingnore it and take what he wanted. He thought at the moment that it's a one time thing. One night, that soon became many, many nights and days and weeks and months. He wasn't supposed to get so close to the Lucifer's vessel. He wasn't supposed to care, to engage in the big end. But it happened. And still against all odds he hoped that this moment would never come. That he would forever stay as Loki and only Loki to Sam. Because sexually engaging (because they were NOT dating) with a pagan god was immensely better that sexually engaging with an archangel, with the life Sam lived and with who he was destined to be. He tried to cut himself off of feelings, of emotions, of whatever the Winchesters were doing to stop the end of the world. But it was getting harder and harder. Ever since that spark between him and Sam lit back at their first meeting, he couldn't help but get more and more fond of this crazy inteligent, companionate giant with the biggest heart and the most beautiful soul he saw. And the hottest body. Especially that of course, he was a pagan god after all. At the time Gabriel was sure that whatever he had with Sam wouldn't change the way he thought about the apocalypse. That he'll still let it be, let it happen, hopefully ending as quickly as it can. Throwing the brothers to the TV land was his way to convince himself, more than convincing them. He had a plan in all this too and it was to stay away from intervening his brothers' fight. But while he was fluent in lying, it started to be too hard to lie to himself about not wanting to help stopping The End. And right now, standing face to face with the man who could ask him for anything and he'll receive it, Gabriel was afraid his resolve will shatter. Finally glancing at Sam's face he knew immediately that he lost. Because younger Winchester's eyes were full of betrayal and well hidden (but not for him) grief. And that's something he never wanted to see on his lover's face. Especially on Sam. He never was much of a fighter, more of a runner really. But now, he thinks he doesn't want to run anymore. Not if it's the only chance to fix whatever he had with Sam, at least a little.

[withacapitalp]

Cocaine Bear AU Pt 2

Part One

Because I am deranged okay here we go have some more. As always....blame the discord

Eddie was having a pretty shitty day. 

First he got woken up at two in the morning because his father got a tip off about a potential DEA bust and had to high tail it to their warehouse to move a shit ton of cargo. Then, their normal runner had to call out sick because of food poisoning, so Eddie had to make the drop instead. 

Now the plane he was in was about to crash. 

So, yeah, Eddie was having a pretty shitty day. 

“Please remind me why you had to try and do a barrel roll?!” Eddie shouted over the wind as he continued to toss duffle bags full of product out over the Indiana wilds. 

“I thought it would be fun!” Rick called back, still laughing his ass off even as the plane emergency lights began to blink rapidly, “You need to learn to live a little, Eddie.” 

“I’d like to live, period!” Eddie shouted back, kicking the final bag into the dark. The duffle bags were bright red with rainbow straps, impossible to miss, but innocuous enough that most people wouldn’t touch them. 

Hopefully. 

God, his dad was going to kill him if he lost this much cocaine. 

There was another bout of shaking as the plane took a mini-nose dive, and Eddie narrowly missed smacking his head against the open doorway, almost dropping his parachute as he did. 

“This is our final stop, ladies!” Rick screamed over the beeping alarms in front of him, “Thank you for flying Air Junkie!” 

Eddie rolled his eyes, strapping on the parachute and looking out into the inky black of the world below. He wasn’t exactly comfortable with heights per say. But it was a choice between jumping and potentially dying, or staying in the plane with Rick and definitely dying. 

Eddie jumped. 

It was better than any high he had ever had. Eddie was instantly awake, his heart racing at top speed as he hurtled towards the ground. He let out a primal scream, laughing deliriously as he pulled the ripcord and his stomach shot out of his ass from the force of the chute deploying. 

Damn, that hurt. 

Eddie pinched his face in agony as his hands reached up, scrambling to find the stabilizers to course correct his landing. It wasn’t exactly ideal to have the plane crash, but things could be worse. All of the cargo was safe… well, as safe as possible. Eddie would have it back in his hands in no time, and his father wouldn’t need to know about any of it until he was safely across the border. 

Hell, maybe he could even spin this in his favor. With the plane downed and Rick dead, the feds would probably think all of the drugs burned up in the fire too. Problem solved. It was all going to work out just fine. 

His hand finally grasped the stabilizer, and it promptly tore off of the cheap ass parachute he was wearing, leaving him no way to steer. 

“Oh, fuck me,” Eddie swore, throwing it down to the earth below and holding onto the cords for dear life, closing his eyes as the wind began to whip him around. There were a few wild moments of blind panic as his body was jerked around, but by the time the first trees touched the tips of his toes, Eddie was passed out cold. 

—————————

As Eddie slowly began to drift towards consciousness, a few pressing things made themselves known. 

One- He was still alive. Somehow. 

Two- He was shirtless and every single part of his body hurt. 

Three- There was something poking his cheek. 

“Dustin, stop that,” a male voice said from above Eddie’s head, and whatever was poking him stopped. Eddie kept his eyes shut, staying limp as he listened. 

“Are you sure he’s not dead?” A younger boy, presumably ‘Dustin,’ asked. 

“He has a pulse still.” The first man replied, and Eddie felt something being wrapped around one of his forearms. “I have no idea how, but he barely seems that hurt.”

“And remind me why we didn’t just call the cops?” A girl’s voice piped up from somewhere by his feet. 

Uh oh, someone used the C word, Eddie thought deliriously, pulling away from the man touching him and faking like he was just waking up. If the police somehow miraculously hadn’t already been called, then he wanted to keep it that way. 

“Holy shit!” ‘Dustin’ squawked, and when Eddie opened one eye he caught a glimpse of a curly haired nerdy-looking kid stepping away from him. 

“Jar,” the man said as if it was a reflex. Eddie opened his other eye, staring up in shock as a veritable Adonis looked back down at him with a soft smile. 

“Good morning.” He murmured, his voice soft and sweet. The man had honey brown eyes and a strong jawline, the exact kind Eddie would love to nibble on. 

“Hey guys! The dead dude’s awake!” A boy with long hair screeched at the top of his lungs, the complete antithesis of the man’s tone. The girl, a little spitfire with box braids and a look on her face, rolled her eyes, and Dustin bounced over to her side, all three staring at Eddie like he was an exhibit in a zoo. 

How many kids did this guy have?!

“Mike, he’s not-” The man cut himself off with a sigh as all three kids bolted out of the room, completely ignoring him. He raised a hand to his temple, shaking his head. “Sorry about them. They’re harmless, but they are teenagers.”

“The horror,” Eddie answered dryly, sitting up slowly and wincing as he did, looking down at his body and taking stock. He was ripped to high hell, cuts and slashes all over his chest and a pulsing pain beating alongside his heart, but he was alive, and that was enough for right now. 

“Thanks for patching me up…”

“Steve. Steve Harrington.” ‘Steve’ said, filling the gap and holding his hand out to Eddie to shake. 

“Eddie.” He replied, purposefully sidestepping the last name reply by adding a question. “Where exactly am I?”

“My house. I would’ve taken you to the hospital, but Hawkins General just went belly up due to budget cuts, and I was worried you wouldn’t make it if I had to take you all the way to Mercy.” Steve explained, stepping back and putting his hands on his hips. “You know, you’re really lucky you aren’t more hurt. What exactly were you doing?”

“Oh you know, the usual.” Eddie said evasively, trying and failing to stretch. “What’s my prognosis then, doc? ‘Cause I have things I gotta get to.”

Namely like finding all of the product that had fallen into the woods before anyone else did. 

“I’m not a- Hey! Woah! Hold up, you can’t go anywhere.” Steve snapped, pushing Eddie down as he tried to stand, mindful of the places he was bandaged up. 

“I found you hanging from a parachute in a tree. You have two broken ribs, a definite concussion, a shit ton of lacerations, and possibly a broken ankle. There’s no way I can let you just walk off.” Steve stated, looking ready to fight Eddie if he had to. 

Goddamn good samaritans and their stubborn little bleeding hearts. 

“Pretty sure you have to, otherwise it’s kidnapping.” Eddie joked, looking around the room for his shirt and shoes. Hopefully he could sweet talk his way out of his mess like he usually did, but if not, he was going to need to be able to run. 

But before either of them could argue anymore, an explosion of children burst into the room. 

Eddie couldn’t even count the number of little people who were pushing their faces close to him, poking and prodding him where they could and all yelling over each other in an effort to be heard. 

“GUYS!” Steve roared above the melee, dragging them all out by their collars. “Out!”

“But we wanna-“ One of the kids protested from the doorway. 

“Out!” Steve insisted, shoving the door shut, making sure no little fingers got caught as he did. He let his entire body fall against the door, running a hand through his hair haggardly and groaning. 

“Look, what’s so important that you can’t wait?” Steve asked, glaring at Eddie. 

About 10 million dollars worth of cocaine stashed in three fucking duffle bags somewhere in the woods, Eddie thought, biting his tongue so he didn’t accidentally say something stupid like that. 

“Stuff.” 

“Well your ‘stuff’ has gotta wait until at least tomorrow. It’s gonna get dark soon.” Steve stated, crossing his arms. 

“No can do, doc,” Eddie replied, standing up. “See? Totally fine,”

Then he tried to take a step and his injured ankle immediately gave out. He would’ve fallen flat on his ass, but there were two extremely strong, very muscular arms holding him up, and a beautiful but unimpressed face only inches from him. 

“I’m not a doctor,” Steve deadpanned, helping Eddie to sit on the edge of the bed and kneeling down to check the splint around his ankle. “I’m an EMT- or I’m studying to be one anyway.” 

“Regardless of your qualifications, Sweetheart, I gotta be on my way.” Eddie gasped, trying to ignore the pain making his stomach twist up into knots. 

“No.”

Seriously. Seriously. Of course Eddie had to be found by the single person on Earth who would not take him to the hospital, but also not just abandon him the second he could. 

“Look, Harrington, was it?” Eddie asked rhetorically, starting to get frustrated by the good guy act. “I’m not-“

“Why don’t we just go with him?” A voice behind Steve asked. 

What?!

“Erica!” Steve snapped. “We’re not going out into the woods with a complete stranger!” 

“You have something you’re looking for in the woods right?” One of the other girls asked, pointing to Eddie. He nodded and she shrugged. “You were gonna take us on a hike anyway, Steve, so let’s just go with Dead Guy.”

“My name is Eddie.” He interjected stubbornly. He wasn’t dead yet. 

“Eddie.” The girl with the red hair amended. “You’re not dead. Steve’s happy. We get to get some fresh air. Everybody wins.”

“Complete stranger.” Steve repeated, looking completely done with the situation. “We should just call the park rangers to find your stuff…”

“No!” Eddie blurted out, grabbing Steve’s arm and holding it in a death grip. 

The last thing he needed was cops. This was already enough of a clusterfuck as it was. Steve paused, looking first at the hand on his arm, then at Eddie’s frantic eyes. 

“You’re that set on going?” Steve asked. Eddie nodded tightly, and Steve sighed, gently pulling out of Eddie’s grasp and holding out his hand. “Fine. But only for a few hours. If you can’t find what you’re looking for by sunset, we’re coming back here and calling the rangers.” 

That could work. All he had to do was give Steve and these kids the slip and he was home free. 

This could work. 

This had to work. 

“Deal,” Eddie said, doom pressing down on his shoulders. 

Tag list: @thing-a-ling @maya-custodios-dionach

[snickerdoodlles]

📓 :3

:D!

@mortimerlatrice got me thinking about a KimChay Chrestomanci AU, so more of that.

the Chrestomanci series, sidenote, is an absolutely delightful fantasy series by Diana Wynne Jones. it's composed of mostly independent stories set in a universe of 12 parallel universes (called Series), each with their own string of worlds (except Series 11). generally speaking, every person has eight identical copies borne into other series than their own, but very occasionally all nine lives will be borne into one person. this nine-life enchanter has all the power of nine magical people in them and is therefore the only person powerful enough to fill the role of Chrestomanci to regulate magical use and prevent any abuse of it across the 12 series.

which cool, very fun story premise actually, but not what I care about here. I'm setting kp in one of the series that doesn't deal much with magic because I don't care about magic meet mafia, I care about Chay having nine lives and all the ways that could make things worse.

(cw: non-permanent but slightly graphic character death under the cut. ft a dash of actual character death, but that only applies to Tawan.)

Chay doesn't have all his lives when canon starts. he lost his first one the same day he and Porsche lost their parents when he fell out of his crib trying to investigate the noise. he lost his second to food poisoning, before Porsche started working for extra food money and they had to make every scrap stretch. he lost another when a debt collector hit him too hard and snapped his neck. (Porsche wasn't home for that day. Chay told him he wasn't either.)

Chay loses his fourth life in the warehouse. it actually wasn't intentional on anyone's part -- Tawan's hired meat weren't careful enough bringing him in, and Chay's luck has his head hit a curb or scrap metal at just the right (or wrong, as it were) angle to kill him instead of concuss him, and head injuries take so long to come back from. Tawan drags out the charade because he wants Porsche desperate, not angry, and Porsche is in too deep of denial to accept the possibility of Chay actually being dead not to fall for it.

Kim arrives before Chay comes back to life. it's...bad. Porsche is screaming for him to get Chay out. Kim first checks Chay's breathing. failing to find that, he frantically (but carefully!) hauls Chay upright. that's when Chay's head flops limply to the side and reveals the dried blood down the back of his neck, which Kim had already felt grabbing but refused to process.

Kim sees red.

Tawan knifes Big. Porsche's shouts break through the fog threatening to overwhelm Kim. then Tawan gets one very distraught, very angry, very murderous Kim materializing in front of him and going right for his eyes. it doesn't matter that Tawan's the one with a weapon, he could've had an armory and that couldn't have helped him. Kim is very, very, very good at fighting, and he's on a mission to hurt. but he's also missing his control, and kicks Tawan in the kidney so hard Tawan stumbles back into a pile of scrap and, in true irony, jostles it hard enough the end of steel beam falls on his head. as discovered earlier, metal and concrete are not kind to heads, and bullet proof vests certainly can't protect from that.

it's too quick and too kind, and Kim stares at him disbelievingly, half a mind to drag Tawan out and beat out the little life he's surely still clinging to, when Chay groans. Kim first thinks he hallucinated it, but then he sees Chay move and he's so relieved he was wrong that he shoves everything else out of his mind and just gets Chay out. then everything and one trailing shouty Porsche slams back into him the minute Chay's out of his arms and with the paramedics that Kim bolts to go hide in a dark corner in his apartment and fail to process any of it.

Chay misses all of this btws. He was dead, then he was back with a headache, and he loves Porsche but he needs Porsche to please shut the fuck up and get him some tylenol.

then apartment confrontation, where Kim says I'm sorry and shoves off even quicker because all he can remember are those moments when he'd been so sure Chay was properly dead. club scene goes down even worse when Kim yells at Chay for making stupid reckless choices that could get him killed, and Chay demands to know why Kim even cares, and Kim goes pale with anger that Chay doesn't care that he (only nearly, surely) died, and it's all very terrible and ends in them storming away from each other.

then comes Yok's bar.

Chay dies. Kim had taunted them into a direct fight inside instead of picking them off outside, and it should have been fine, would have been fine, had Chay not had a bit more awareness and looked over to see Kim pinned between two guys and rushed to help only to get shot by one of the goons on the other end of the bar. he bleeds out while Kim kills off the rest.

Chay comes back to a bar full of bodies and Kim (clutching) cradling him. Kim isn't crying. he isn't really doing much of anything other than clinging and staring off into nothing with a thoroughly haunted expression.

Chay blinks and tentatively lays his fingers against Kim's cheek. "Kim?"

Kim's eyes snap to him, but still don't quite see him. he stays looking blank for a few seconds that feel like hours before saying matter-of-factly, "I've snapped."

"Kim!" Chay protests, distressed.

"It's okay," Kim says, still matter-of-fact but smiling tenderly, "better to be mad with you than without."

it takes a while to convince Kim he's not insane and that Chay's really back. Chay's not certain he fully manages it. but his death also shook loose a lot of confessions Kim normally couldn't say out loud. ("why--" Chay starts, voice cracking, "why did you say 'I'm sorry' that day?" / "You were supposed to be safe," Kim replies hoarsely, mad smile slipping for tears.) there's more clutching and clinging, this time by Chay too. both of them manage to forget they're in a bar of dead bodies until Porsche and Kinn come crashing through the door.

"Chay!" Porsche yells when he first sees him.

"Chay," Porsche pleads brokenly when he sees Chay's blood soaked shirt.

"Not mine!" Chay says quickly, and would've been given away by how fast Kim's head snaps around in any other circumstance. "See?" he says, raising his shirt to show unblemished skin, "No injury."

this does a lot to reassure Porsche, but Chay can tell Kim still thinks he's a little bit insane. Chay decides that's fine for now, because dying takes a lot out of you and apparently everyone around you too and it's unfair to expect Kim to just bounce back from him bleeding out on him, he'll work on it after a shower and dinner.

I'm not writing this AU because I only really have these two vague scenes in my head, but Chay having multiple lives making his existence in the mafia hurt more than canon's calls to me, it really does.

oh, also: in the AU source material, one of the nine-lifers has one of his lives removed and stored into a ring for safekeeping. he later gives this ring to his to-be-wife as her wedding ring. I'm not sure yet how to work that into this AU because Chay's contact with magic and other magicals would be slim to none in this, but please picture how this would absolutely wreck Kim, because there's nothing Kim wants more than to safeguard Chay but as far as he's concerned, he's already failed Chay in that regard twice. 😈

[[ ask me about fics im not writing ]]

[angelmichelangelo]

brothers

chapter three

verse: human au/2k12/idw rating: t word count: 3.6k

read on ao3!

x

Mikey really does not like working with Xever. In all of his defenses, there wasn’t really a great deal of people Mikey worked with that were overly nice or fun to be around, with the exception of Angel of course, he oftentimes found himself paired up with the kinds of people that were his exact polar opposite. 

He greets him with a stiff nod of his head at the warehouse; as good as a hello or good morning than he’s ever gonna get. As they wait around outside for Hun to appear, he feels Xever’s eyes rake down his body – still dressed in Raph’s clothes from the day before, he’s sure he’s rocked up to work looking in a far worse state than he did right now. “Nice sweater,” Xever jeers, lip curling. “You going to church after this?” Mikey manages a meek, forced smile to appear at his lips. “Ha,” is all he says, fighting off the impending headache given to him from the night before. “Good one.” His phone chimes and when he looks down, there’s two new texts, one from Raph and a second one from Alopex. He’d texted Angel on his way out but it was probably going to be another long, few hours until she woke again to respond. The one from Raph simply reads, 

talk when you get home. Whilst the other one from Alopex says,

love you alongside a string of orange colored emojis trailing behind it; no doubt Raph and her had held a conversation about his whereabouts over breakfast this morning, making his stomach drop about fifty feet down. He’s back to thinking about Leo’s stupid guest bathroom again when Hun finally appears. He strolls up to them, pausing to drink in the state of Mikey’s face when he grins. “How’s your head?” He asks, jamming the keys into the door without breaking eye contact. Mikey knows if he wants something, he’s going to have to ham it up, so he smiles sultry at him, curling his lip and says with a shrug of his shoulder, “Dunno. You tell me.” Xever calls him a crude name under his breath as the pair follow their boss into the building. It wasn’t much, just a deliberate front for Hun to work out his business from without causing too much of a fuss with the authorities sniffing around. The back room housed a little makeshift greenhouse, where their boss would be tended lovingly to his crop whilst his minions ran about the city and did his dirty work. A little bit of green was far from the worst of what was to come out of Hun’s empire, and Mikey was pretty front and center to such things. His gut curls at the thought, the benzo’s from last night having slowly slunk away out of his system, there’s an itch starting to crawl beneath his skin he’s so desperate to claw at. 

“Gotta guy down on fifth,” Hun starts to explain, flicking a thumb over his phone, attention entirely on his screen rather than the two workers standing before him - this was just another Wednesday to him. “Wants a tester so give him the quart bag but nothing else. Don’t be fucking buffaloed by these assholes.” Xever nods stiffly and Mikey just hums in acknowledgement as to what they had to do. Dealing and selling was a far lot easier than having to get payments off people, he’d come to realize very quickly. More times than none he’d walked away from a job with bruised, bloody knuckles and a sick feeling in his chest that refused to go away for days on end until he reminded himself that the people he was ragging on were just as bad as Xever or Hun themselves. It didn’t stop the feeling from creeping back into his system of a night though, plaguing his subconscious like a dark shadow. “Half hour tops. I want you both back here after,” Hun says. He looks to Mikey, eyes flashing darkly. Half an hour, Mikey thinks to himself and he holds the eye contact fiercely. Then you can get what you want… for a price.

[cranberrymoons]

untitled pirate au

well. i am me, so i naturally wrote much more than 15 sentences for the winning wip weekend option. more like... 7200 words (21 pages single spaced!) and believe it or not, i actually DID do other things this weekend! but, as promised, here are the first 15 sentences (and then some) of the poll-winning pirate au :)

—

When Steve wakes up, he’s not sure where he is.

It’s dark, and it’s hot, and it’s sweaty, and it doesn’t smell very good. He’s also fairly sure he’s on a boat, if the swaying of the room is anything to go. There are barrels stacked around him too, and the room is made of paneled oak, and he’s tied to a pillar with rough-hewn rope. His shirt is ripped. He’s not wearing a belt. His hair is wilting into his eyes.

“Couldn’t you have at least taken me when I had shoes on?” he shouts, banging the heel of his foot against the age-worn floorboards, because it’s the only thing he’s able to move enough to make noise. 

No one answers.

He pulls at the ropes, but this only tightens them around his wrists, cinching them until he feels the fibers biting into his skin, and that’s not going to do anything for him other than give him a scar. He knows that much from experience, if the ring around his neck is anything to go by.

(“People will think you’re a privateer if you go around with that thing on display,” his father had said, yanking Steve’s buttons closed. “Or worse –” And here, he had glanced from side to side before lowering his voice to a threatening hiss. “– a pirate.”

No matter that Steve’s wound had barely healed at the time. No matter that tightening the collar had made it worse, made it turn into a scar in the first place. No matter that he’d only gotten it because he’d been trying to defend his father’s warehouse from thieves who’d thrown a length of rope around his neck to stop him, that he’d almost –)

He huffs out a heavy breath, letting his shoulders go limp as he tilts his head back to rest against the pillar, staring up at the ceiling. He can hear the faint scuffle of a rat somewhere deep in the corner, and the roof of his mouth is as dry as cotton, and his stomach is growling.

He is so enormously, monumentally screwed.

[mathanlin]

Hero/Hanahaki AU where vigilante!Tommy’s best friends with one of the League’s Enforcers.

Techno gives him food, warm coats, even hugs once they’re out of the League’s view. Tommy clings to his promise —“You’re like a brother to me.”

And then Techno turns on him.

“Tommy.”

Techno’s standing in the alleyway entrance, fingers white around his Enforcer’s baton. 

Tommy’s smile falters beneath his mask, arms falling from where he’d held them out (anticipating a hug).

“Please make this easy.”

Tommy’s gut goes cold even before Techno stalks forward.

“Tommy, please. I— I need this job. I’m sorry.”

Stupidly, Tommy almost forgets what he means by job. He’s always been Tommy’s friend first (...and maybe, just maybe, his brother.)

But he only looks like an Enforcer now.

Tommy stumbles back, shaking his head. “What? Techno, you— what are you—”

Techno squeezes his eyes shut, jaw tight with… grief?

Then he lunges. Tommy just *barely* dodges, crying out as the baton clips his shoulder.

And, driven by confused terror, he bolts. 

Techno chases. But this time, it’s not a friendly race, meant to escape the view of the League’s surveillance.

It’s a hunt. Tommy barely escapes, mask off so he can slap his hands over his mouth as Techno prowls nearby.

And then something prickles in his adrenaline-frozen gut.

He gags, desperately trying to stay silent.

It bubbles up anyways, pouring over his lips as he sobs in grief and terror. He can barely see it through his tears (ones he almost wishes Techno was here to wipe away).

The flower in his shaking hands, inky petals edged with crimson.

A black dahlia.

That’s all he learns, after he stumbles back to the half-collapsed warehouse he’s holed up in. A home he’d never shown to Techno — not out of mistrust, just shame.

It saves him now. 

But Tommy’s too broken with despair to care.

Techno corners him again a few days later.

But this time, it’s Tommy that begs first, hands lifted in surrender (not a request for a hug, for once.) “Techno? Please, I don't— what happened? Did I do something?”

(*Or are you just… doing your job?*)

And Techno… hesitates.

“Tommy,” he breathes, eyes shining with tears. “No, I just… I…”

Tommy swallows, daring to inch closer. His heart’s wailing for comfort, for *love,* and surely Techno wouldn’t hurt him. Not again.

Techno looks up, breath shuddering—

—and slams the baton into Tommy’s ribs.

It’s worse this time.

Tommy huddles in a storm drain, bruised chest aching with every blossom he heaves out. Petunias. Golden carnations. Hyacinths, more violet than the wicked bruise along his ribs.

And each choked-out flower and sob just makes the wound hurt worse.

The next time Techno finds him, Tommy’s done.

He’s paralyzed by exhaustion, flowers brimming beneath the mask he’d just managed to put on before Techno arrived, baton in hand.

So his words are muffled when he whispers, throat bloody, “Tec’no, please.”

“God, I’m so sorry,” Techno whispers, kneeling at his side. “It’s not… it’s not permanent, Tommy. The League won’t keep you forever.”

*But they’ll lock me up,” Tommy thinks, flinching as Techno grabs his wrist and pulls his arms away from his ruined chest. *They’ll hurt me.*

It’s a stupid, childish thought. Nothing could hurt him more than Techno has. 

At least he’s gentle when he snaps the cuffs around Tommy’s wrists.

But the agonizing coughs that bubble up Tommy’s chest are the furthest thing from soft. 

“Tommy,” he hears as he crumples.

It’s Techno’s voice, desperate and confused. It’s his hands that weave under Tommy’s shoulders as he heaves for air, head spinning with the cloying scent of blood and flowers.

And it’s Techno that cups his cheek.

And tears the mask off.

(The first thing Techno sees are the flowers, spilling out across the concrete in a vivid, brutal wave. Then, the blood, almost dull amidst the colorful petals.

Then, the pale, pain-twisted face below it.

The face of a kid.

If Techno could, he would’ve given up right there.

But the League’s already been called. Techno’s quota’s been filled, his job saved. His *family* saved.

And it’s too late to help Tommy now. 

All Techno can do is pray the League’s doctors can save him. Will *try* to save him, though they’ve never cared about injured Enforcers before, let alone *vigilantes.*

And that maybe Tommy doesn’t hate him too deeply.)

[summerwritesfics]

🌎Love I’d Never Hurt You

Pairing: Shang Tsung/Kuai Liang Length: 5261 Words Rating: Mature Warnings: Serial Killer/Detective AU, Detective!Kuai Liang, Serial Killer!Shang Tsung, Detective!Bi-Han, Murder, Graphic Description of Corpses, Stalking, Death Threats, Minor Character Death, Gun Violence, Obsession, Obsessive Behaviour, Possessive Behaviour, Blood And Gore, Bombs (Except Not Really), Pinned Down, Abduction (Sorta I guess lmao even Kuai doesn’t know for sure if that’s what’s happening to him), NSFK (Not Safe For Kuai), Shang Tsung Is Very Creepy (Honestly he came out way creepier than I was intending)

Meanwhile In Another Universe Masterlist

Notes: NGL I debated posting this or not, but honestly don’t think it’s any darker than some other stuff I’ve posted so 🤷🏻 Like upon re-reading Shang Tsung did come out way creepier than I originally intended, but I mean… he’s a serial killer so it kinda works. Also tfw you dislike the police irl but love crime fiction. :’( I think the truly shocking thing about this fic is that I wrote a detective fic without Detective Hanzo Hasashi making an appearance, like tf. Title is from “The Horror Of Our Love” by Ludo.

Kuai was almost thankful to be called out of the office.

Granted, he was going to investigate a suspected homicide, and that should not have been something he was eager to attend. He felt even worse that such a thing was definitely a welcome distraction from whatever the hell was going on with Bi-Han right now.

The case Bi-Han was currently working on had seemed to consume his very being. Every waking hour was spent obsessing over a mysterious serial killer. The murders were almost clinical, like whoever was committing the acts was performing experimental medical procedures. Things like organ transplants, but twisted, like trying to move the heart to where the stomach should be and vice versa. There were usually drugs in the victim's system that didn’t correlate to any known drug used in medicine. It was very strange and so far there had been very few clues to attach even a solid suspect or two to the case.

And Bi-Han was completely losing his mind over it.

“Brother, maybe you should take a break,” Kuai had tried to gently suggest. He’d flinched at the murderous glare Bi-Han had shot his way. “Clearing your mind may help you look at this at a different angle, and you do have other cases you haven’t even touched since-“ 

“I don’t give a shit about the other cases,” Bi-Han hissed, slamming his hands on his desk. “I care about this case, and catching this fucking bastard!” 

“But Brother-“ 

“No!” Bi-han swept his hands across his desk, sending everything on it flying off onto the floor in a loud clatter. If anyone else in the station heard it, they didn’t come to intervene. “This case is the only one that matters. And if you can’t understand why, then you can get the fuck out of my office.” 

“Bi-Han-“ 

“Get the fuck out!” 

Kuai realised he was fighting a losing battle, and left the office with his head hung low. 

It was after that he had been requested to go and attend the site of the suspected homicide, and he’d practically jumped at the chance. Honestly anything to get away from his brother for a little while. He hoped maybe when he was done and returned to the office, Bi-Han would have calmed down a bit, realised Kuai was right and they could go out for dinner or something. Kuai was kind of craving sushi at this point, and quite frankly big brother owed him a big apology for the way he treated him.

He spotted a police car pulled up outside an abandoned warehouse. This was his destination, however, it was strange that neither of the attending officers were outside waiting for him. He hit the breaks and parked up, before quickly jumping out. This area was extremely cut off from the rest of the city. Combined with the eerie silence he was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his radio, clicking the button, “This is Detective Kuai Liang Song, currently on case 759. Could I request some back up? The initial police presence has not come to brief me, and I am currently in a very isolated spot. I believe it would be unwise of me to enter the building alone.”

There was a moment of silence, before a voice on the other end replied with “Sorry Detective, the majority of officers are attending a major incident on the other side of the city at this time. It could be hours before we can get someone to your location.”

“Major incident? How come I was not informed of this?” Usually something like that would have been alerted to all emergency services.

“I can’t say I know, the alert was sent out on all police radios.”

“Is there absolutely no one free?” He tried, slowly walking towards the door of the warehouse. He peered inside, but could see nothing.

“No, unfortunately all units are busy.” Dammit. Just his luck. It still seemed strange though, usually even when there was a major incident, a few officers were kept back to deal with smaller emergencies.

He looked around, the trees and foliage surrounding the warehouse were thick, so much so he couldn’t even see the city. He could, however, make out thick plumes of smoke just above the trees. It did look like it was quite a distance from where he was. At least it seemed the incident was somewhat real, although he wasn’t completely convinced this wasn’t someone hijacking the line to prank him.

“So, what do you recommend? That I stand down until I can receive back up?” He wasn’t completely defenceless. He had a gun, but he still felt it’d be preferable to have others who could raise the alarm depending on what he found inside.

“Are you sure the team already there just hasn't heard you turn up?” The voice asked. “Maybe you should go inside and look for them?”

“I-“ That was wrong. That advice was all wrong. No one at control would ever suggest he go in there alone. That bad feeling was getting worse. “I see. I will keep you informed of my progress.”

He slipped his radio back onto his belt, but stepped away from the entrance to the warehouse. As he did, he slipped his phone out of his pocket, only to curse when he found he had no signal here.

Instead of dwelling on that, he made his way over to the police car. Now he was looking, he could see the tires had all been slashed. Shit, I was right to be on high alert. He reached for the door handle, surprised to find the car unlocked. Another bad sign. He climbed into the driver's seat, hoping maybe to use that radio instead. Only he could see the cable to it had been cut.

“Shit.”

The sound of gunshots rang out and he instinctively ducked behind the dashboard. It went on for several seconds, before coming to a halt. He stayed hidden for as long as he could, before gingerly sticking his head out. Whoever had been shooting didn’t start again, and Kuai realised the police car seemed to be completely unscathed. That’s when he looked over to his own car.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He scrambled out the police car, walking over to his own. It was littered with bullet holes, most specifically in his tires. The shots weren’t trying to kill him, just take away any method of escape he had aside from on foot.

“I recommend you come inside now, Detective,” the radio suddenly sparked into life again. “I would advise against running. I’d really rather not harm you, if possible, but I will shoot your legs if you force me to.”

Kuai plucked the radio from his belt, turning to glare at the warehouse. He couldn’t even see where this person could be.

“Who the fuck are you?” He growled eyes darting around the building hoping he’d spot a shadow or something.

“You’re going to have to come inside if you really want to know,” the voice chuckled, “then we can be introduced properly.” Kuai didn’t dare move, not until he figured out how to proceed. “I’d suggest you don’t keep me waiting, Detective. Like I said, I would really rather not hurt you.”

Kuai didn’t exactly know what choice he had at this point. He slipped his radio back onto his belt, replacing it with his gun instead. He swallowed, taking a deep breath before slowly pushing forward towards the warehouse’s entrance.

Inside was dark and dingy, and every shadow on the wall had Kuai jumping at the slightest movement and sound, even when it was something he had caused. As he entered what looked like it had once been the main storage area, he couldn’t help but think how empty it looked. That meant the two humanoid figures sitting on chairs stood out a mile.

This is a trap. It was so obvious, and yet Kuai, for reasons he couldn’t fathom, still went towards them. He held the gun up. It was clearly the two officers who’d come in before him, but they looked lifeless. He hoped to god they were just unconscious.

“Hello?” He chanced, but got no reply. “Can you hear me?”

Still no reply. Even so, he pushed on, rounding to stand in front of the officers.

Only to find their guts spilling out of their abdomens and onto the floor.

He wretched, stumbling backwards, desperately turning his face to look away from the sight in front of him. It was never easy to find dead bodies, especially in such a brutalised state as this. The officers weren’t people he was particularly close to, but they were still people he’d worked with on a nearly daily basis.

“Ah, hello there Detective.”

Kuai spun on the spot from where the voice had come from. It was the same one that had been on the radio. Standing behind him, was a man with long hair wearing a suit and his hands behind his back. Kuai didn’t take much notice of any further details though, as he aimed his gun at the stranger.

“Now, Kuai Liang, is there really any need for that?” The man asked, laughing slightly as he did and tilting his head. “And after I put in all this effort to get you here.”

“What?” That made it sound like this had all been deliberate. A coordinated effort to get Kuai, specifically, here. But Kuai had never seen this man before, and he didn’t have any current cases that felt like they fit these methods. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Shang Tsung,” the man replied, taking a few steps forward but pausing when Kuai straightened his aim slightly. “I am the one your dear elder brother is looking for.”

“You…” He didn’t finish the sentence, letting what had been said sink in instead. This man was claiming to be the serial killer of Bi-Han’s case. But… Who would just admit that? Especially to a detective? Kuai tried to steady his hands, realising they had started to shake. “If that is true, then you’ll be coming with me.”

Shang Tsung chuckled, finally moving his hands from behind his back. Revealing he was holding something. Kuai prepared to shoot, until he realised it wasn’t a gun. It was a strange silver cylinder. Kuai’s eyes flicked between the item and Shang Tsung, looking for an explanation.

“Please. Put the gun down, Kuai Liang.” Shang Tsung held up the cylinder as if to let Kuai get a good look at it. “This is a trigger to a bomb that is set up inside your brothers office.” Kuai’s mouth went dry as his eyes widened. “Put the gun down, and I won’t have to press it.”

“You’re bluffing,” Kuai hissed, squeezing the trigger of his gun. Really he wasn’t as good a shot as his brother, and wasn’t entirely sure he could shoot before Shang Tsung could press the button.

“Is that really something you're willing to risk?” That was unfair. If there really was a bomb in Bi-Han’s office, then it wouldn’t just take out his brother, but a lot of other people who had nothing to do with this case and even those with nothing to do with the police. And Kuai had no way to warn anyone.

Reluctantly, he took his finger away from the trigger, slowly bending over to put the gun on the floor.

“Kick it away,” Shang Tsung ordered, and as much as he didn’t want to, Kuai did as he was told. The gun went skidding across the floor, far out of his reach. Shang Tsung was positively glowing at this turn of events. “Good boy.”

Kuai stayed stock-still, even as Shang Tsung began to approach him. He wasn’t even sure he was actually breathing, all he could feel was his heart beating so hard in his chest it felt like it was trying to break through his ribcage. He blinked and then he found himself looking directly into the other man's eyes. Looking to his side, he saw Shang Tsung was still holding the trigger, thumb dancing over the button.

“Don’t,” Kuai begged in a whisper, feeling sick at the twisted grin that came over Shang Tsung’s face. He pressed his finger down on the button. “No!”

Jerking into action, he grabbed Shang Tsung’s wrist with one hand, the other practically wrestling the trigger from his hand. Despite it having already been pushed, it felt the only thing he could do at this point.

Except… 

When he took hold of it, he realised that despite how it looked, the trigger wasn’t metal. It was plastic. He could also feel that it was hollow inside. The more he looked at it, the more he realised it looked like some sort of fidget toy. His gaze slowly trailed up to Shang Tsung, who looked far too pleased with himself.

“It seems you were correct,” he gleefully exclaimed, “I was bluffing after all.”

The hairs on the back of Kuai’s neck stood on end. He attempted to dive forward, towards where his gun still lay on the floor, but Shang Tsung quickly grabbed him. In one swift motion, Kuai felt something knock into the back of his legs, causing him to fall backwards. Thankfully, he managed to avoid slamming his head on the floor, but then he felt a pressure on his abdomen as Shang Tsung got on top of him, pinning him down. He threw a fist, only for Shang Tsung to easily catch his wrists, and push them above his head. The floor next to him was wet, liquid soaking into his shirt, and as the metallic smell hit him, Kuai came to the horrific realisation he was lying in the officer's blood.

“Stop struggling,” Shang Tsung softly whispered, making sure he gripped both of Kuai’s wrists with one hand, while the other trailed along Kuai’s jawline. “I already said, I do not want to hurt you.”

“That’d be a lot more believable if I wasn’t lying next to the corpses of my colleagues,” Kuai hissed, squirming slightly and hoping he could knock Shang Tsung off him. Unfortunately that did not happen, and Kuai was slowly beginning to run out of steam with which to struggle.

“They were just meaningless fodder, Kuai Liang.” It was sick how someone could talk so callously about human life. “Not like you.” Kuai finally stopped trying to fight. He’d just end up wearing himself out. His head fell back slightly, and Shang Tsung lent forward, making sure he was still in Kuai’s field of view. “There we go, that’s better, isn’t it?”

“What do you want?” Kuai sobbed, trying so desperately to keep his composure. “Why are you doing this?”

“I need to talk with you, and I figured a written invite would go unanswered.” Shang Tsung’s fingers still gently laced Kuai’s face. A softness that directly clashed with the otherwise brutality of the man's actions. “I’ve been watching you for some time now.”

“What?” Kuai’s stomach twisted, his gaze fixed on Shang Tsung’s face. He looked so indifferent, like he didn’t realise or care how much that statement terrified Kuai Liang.

“Well, it started with me watching your brother, he is the detective on my case, after all, it would be stupid of me to not keep an eye on what he’s doing.” Shang Tsung’s hand reached behind Kuai’s head, undoing the tie that kept his hair up in a bun. “But I couldn’t help but find myself captivated by you.” His fingers ran through Kuai’s hair, causing Kuai to shudder under him. “My interest in him is professional. My interest in you is personal.”

“Please.” Kuai had no idea where this was going, he had no idea what he was pleading for. He just knew that he wasn’t sure he was going to make it out of this situation alive.

“Unfortunately, my fascination with the pair of you hasn’t gone unnoticed by my higher ups.” Shang Tsung kept playing with Kuai’s hair, sighing wistfully to himself as he did. “They believe my obsession with you both is impacting my work.”

“Your work?” Kuai questioned, finally noticing the quiver in his own voice. “Are you an assassin?”

Shang Tsung burst out laughing, “oh no, my dear, not an assassin. I’m a scientist. Everything I do is in the pursuit of science.”

Killing people for science? It sounded so fucking bizarre to Kuai. Then again, it would explain the strangeness of the deaths, the almost experimental nature of them. His victims were his guinea pigs.

“Regardless, they are not happy with the way my attention has been diverted.” He finally let Kuai’s hair fall between his fingers, watching in fascination. “They have decided it would be in their best interests to eliminate you both. That’s why I lured you here today. I wish to save you and your brother from their wrath, Kuai Liang.”

“Why should I believe you?” Kuai asked, flinching slightly when Shang Tsung’s fingertips once more trailed his face, specifically following the edges of the scar that ran across his eye. “You haven’t exactly given me much reason to trust your word.”

“I understand your hesitation.” To Kuai’s surprise, Shang Tsung actually released his wrists. As Shang Tsung pulled back, still sitting on Kuai’s lower abdomen, Kuai used his now free arms to prop himself up slightly. Shang Tsung’s hand disappeared into his pocket, and Kuai flinched slightly, expecting a weapon of some kind. Instead he pulled out a phone. “Here is a video of them discussing their plans to bring about your demise.”

Shang Tsung twisted the phone so Kuai could see the screen. The image looked like it was from the security camera of an office somewhere. There were three men standing inside, including Shang Tsung himself. A finger tapped the screen, and the video began to play.

“You are getting far too attached to those detectives, Shang Tsung,” one of the men said, the largest actually, towering above the others. “Your little obsession is getting in the way of your work.” He began to pace back and forth. “The elder one, I understand why you would keep an eye on, but the younger one is irrelevant to your work.”

“My surveillance on Kuai Liang is purely for personal reasons,” the Shang Tsung on the video replied. It looked like he was about to open his mouth to add something but the large man snapped back.

“I do not want to hear about your fucked up wet dreams about that brat,” the man spat, slamming his fist down on a nearby desk. “You are spending too much time on them, if you do not start to produce more results for me, I may be forced to take drastic action.” The man tilted his head. “Do you understand?”

“Clear as day,” Shang Tsung replied, bowing at the man slightly. The man just pointed to the door, and Shang Tsung sauntered out.

“You know he’s not going to stop, right?” The other man chimed up as soon as Shang Tsung was out of earshot.

“I am fully aware.” The tall man walked around the desk taking a seat. “Reiko, I have a job for you.”

“Am I to assume you wish me to make a visit to the dear detectives?” Reiko asked, and even on the zoomed out footage, Kuai could see the sadistic grin at the mere idea.

“The only way Shang Tsung is going to learn where his priorities should be is by taking away the things that distract him.” The man lent forward on the desk, linking his fingers in front of him. “As the younger one is clearly his favourite, make sure to do something extra special with him. Just to make the point clear.”

“I could decapitate him and present his preserved head as a birthday gift.” Both men burst out into laughter at that, but Kuai couldn’t help the high pitched whine that came from the back of his throat.

The video ended there, with Shang Tsung replacing the phone back into his pocket. Once more, his hand reached over to Kuai’s face to cradle it.

“You see.” He stroked Kuai’s face, and Kuai hated that he almost lent into it. “I just want to keep you and your brother safe.”

“Why?” Kuai asked, changing his position slightly, his arms starting to ache slightly from the weight of keeping himself up. “I mean. I understand why you want to save me, you have some… weird crush on me. But why Bi-Han? He’s trying to catch and stop you, wouldn’t it be more advantageous for him to be out of the picture?”

“Hm, well I’m a little hurt you think my crush on you is weird.” Shang Tsung pouted, his other hand now slowly caressing Kuai’s side. “But to answer your question, I rather enjoy the chase.” He gave a sloppy smile. “Killing really isn’t fun when there isn’t someone on your tail trying to stop you.”

So he enjoys the thrill, go figure. Shang Tsung could claim his kills were in the name of science all he liked, but at the end of the day, he was like anyone else who killed people for their own sick enjoyment. Kuai wasn’t sure if he should feel honoured or disturbed that he was apparently worthy of being more than just an experiment.

“So why lure me here and not Bi-Han?” Really, how the fuck Kuai got involved in any of this was questionable. Bi-Han had requested Kuai’s assistance a few times, but he had very little to do with the case. “If you’ve really been watching us, you’d know Bi-Han will do anything to catch you. If you’d have called him here, he’d have come running.”

“Oh, I’m very aware of that. The problem is, as you said, he would do anything to catch me.” Shang Tsung sighed and rolled his eyes. “He’d have shot me the second I attempted the bomb trick on him, let alone giving me a chance to explain my intentions.” He looked Kuai up and down. “From my observations however, he does at least seem to listen to you most of the time. It seemed most logical to get you on my side first and then attempt to contact your brother.”

Well. He supposed that was true. Kuai had lost count of how many times he was called away from something he was working on to go and try to calm Bi-Han down when his temper got the best of him. It was a joke around the station that Kuai Liang was Bi-Han’s morality pet, the only thing preventing him from becoming a serial killer himself. Kuai didn’t find that joke particularly funny however, given how uncomfortably close to the truth it was.

“So… What exactly do you suggest?” He was cautious to do anything with this man, but at the very least, it seemed Shang Tsung was genuine in his word that he did not wish to harm Kuai. Given the situation, he could have easily killed Kuai if he really wanted to by now.

“Call your brother, ask him to meet us at another location…” Shang Tsung trailed off as his eyes drifted over to the corpses beside them. “Somewhere other than here, anyway. I think we should let someone else clean this mess up.”

He’s talking like I had involvement in that. He glanced down, the one side of his suit was practically stained red from the blood that had seeped through it.

“I don’t have any signal here,” Kuai quietly informed him, hoping to god Shang Tsung wouldn’t get mad that he’d tried to call for help before coming in here.

“Well, we’ll be leaving this location anyway. You can just ring as soon as your signal returns.” Right. Kuai’s gut twisted, he should have realised that he would not be leaving this place alone. 

Finally however, Shang Tsung stood up and off him, and Kuai rolled onto his side, having not realised how uncomfortable it had been. Shang Tsung walked over to where Kuai’s gun lay discarded on the floor, bending over to pick it up.

“I hope you don’t mind if I keep hold of this, rather than returning it to you,” Shang Tsung said as he slipped the gun into his pocket. “Not that I don’t trust you or anything darling, but I think I’ve had my fill of seeing you pointing a gun at my face for one day.”

Kuai didn’t reply to that. What could he even say? He’d have much preferred to have the gun, even if he didn’t really intend to use it on Shang Tsung.

Thankfully Shang Tsung took his silence as agreement, as he walked over and held his hand out. Kuai reached for it, feeling the other man haul him to his feet. He stumbled slightly, not realising how dizzy the adrenaline had made him. He was surprised when Shang Tsung snaked an arm around his waist and let him lean his weight against him.

It also seemed this position allowed Shang Tsung the benefit of leading Kuai exactly where he wanted them to go. It wasn’t long before they were going through a backdoor in the warehouse. Back outside, Kuai saw another car parked behind the building, having been hidden from sight when he’d pulled in. Dammit, I should have looked around the outside more thoroughly. 

Disappointment in himself aside, Shang Tsung unlocked the doors, opening one and guiding Kuai to sit down in the front passenger seat. The door slammed behind him, and Kuai looked up in time to see Shang Tsung make his way around the front. Seconds later he was getting in the driver's seat, and starting the ignition.

“Keep an eye on your signal,” he instructed as he began to back out into the pathway. “As soon as you get some, tell me, and I’ll pull over.”

Kuai nodded, reaching into his pocket and keeping an intent eye on his phone. Really, focusing on that was at least grounding. If he didn’t, he had a feeling he’d be zoning out from how mentally exhausted he felt. Was he being abducted right now? He’d gone pretty willingly, yet at the same time somewhat by force. What was even happening to him right now?

He looked up briefly to find they were just joining the main road again. Glancing down he saw his signal go from nothing up to 3 bars. Typical. 

“I have signal.”

Shang Tsung made an affirmative sound, pulling the car up on the side of the road.

“There are some abandoned storage units on the other side of town, down by the river, ask him to meet us there alone by 6pm.” Shang Tsung turned on his seat as if to keep a close eye on what Kuai was doing. “Feel free to mention me, I’m sure it’ll get his attention.” Kuai sighed, because yes, that would get Bi-Han’s attention. “Oh, and put it on speaker. I want to hear his reaction.”

Kuai just sighed, pulling up Bi-Han’s contact info, hitting both the buttons to call and for it to be on speaker phone. The phone rang out. Come on Bi-Han, please answer. 

The phone clicked to life and Bi-Han’s voice called out clear as day, “what?”

“We need to talk,” Kuai started, staring straight ahead so he didn’t have to acknowledge the way Shang Tsung watched him.

“We’ve been over this. I am not giving up on this case,” Bi-Han growled on the other side. Kuai closed his eyes and grimaced. He couldn’t believe his brother was still holding onto that.

“It’s the case we need to talk about. I have a lead for you,” he said quickly, hoping it’d stop his brother going on another tirade.

There was a moment of silence, before Bi-Han questioned “what kind of lead?”

“Someone who wants to talk to you,” Kuai replied. He didn’t want to outright say he was in a car with a serial killer. Bi-Han would go completely off the rails if he did.

“What? Like a witness?” Bi-Han sounded so confused and Kuai knew that he had to tell him.

Kuai finally looked across at Shang Tsung, expression as smug as ever. But there was something else there now, a strange possessiveness in his dark eyes. Kuai had the feeling that even when everything was over, that Shang Tsung wasn’t going to just let him walk away from all this. As if to emphasise the point, Shang Tsung reached his hand forward again, wiping away a tear rolling down Kuai’s cheek, and then tucking a strand of Kuai’s hair behind his ear.

“I found your killer,” Kuai whispered, hating how wrecked his voice sounded.

“Kuai Liang,” Bi-han growled, the alarm clear in his voice. “Kuai Liang, where are you right now?”

“He hasn’t hurt me,” Kuai assured him, although was that true? Kuai ached in various places and he was sure there were some bruises forming on various parts of his body from the struggle.

“Where are you?” Bi-Han asked again, and Kuai could hear him shuffling in the background, no doubt grabbing his coat and anything else he’d need to come to Kuai’s rescue.

“He wants to meet you,” Kuai continued, once again resisting the urge to lean into Shang Tsung’s hand as he stroked him. “There’s some abandoned storage units down by the river. He wants you there by 6pm, but don’t bring anyone else.”

“Can he hear me right now?” Bi-Han was breathing heavily, and all Kuai could do was make an affirmative sound. “Listen here, you son of a bitch, if you so much as lay a finger on my brother-“

“He’s already told you that I have not hurt him,” Shang Tsung interrupted, eyes never leaving Kuai, giving an enamoured sigh as he continued to gently pat him. Kuai finally gave in, nuzzling into the hand. “I’m trying to save both of you, it’d be counter productive for me to harm either of you.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Kuai heard someone in the background asking Bi-Han what he was doing, but given there was no reply it seemed Bi-Han was laser focused on getting to the storage units.

“I’ll explain everything when we meet,” Shang Tsung calmly replied. “Like I said, I have not hurt your brother, and I would rather not if I can avoid it. Just focus on getting to the location.”

“I’m okay Bi-Han,” Kuai reaffirmed, although he’d probably sound a little more convincing if he didn’t have tears in his eyes. “We’ll explain everything when we meet you.” He smiled slightly at the phone, adding a quick “I love you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I love you too.” Bi-Han sounded miserable, but in the background Kuai could hear the sound of an engine starting. “I’ll be there, just, stay safe.”

“You too.”

And with that Bi-Han put the phone down.

Before Kuai could do anything, Shang Tsung snatched the phone from Kuai’s hand. He opened his door, carelessly throwing the phone out, before slamming it shut again. If Kuai was to guess, it was to avoid him getting anyone else involved.

“Now,” Shang Tsung sighed, reaching to turn the key, “let’s go meet big brother, shall we?”

Kuai lent back in the seat, closing his eyes and hoping to god that this was all just a bad dream.