#note vivian is her middle name not first

[matchamilkislover]

In The Darkest Corners, 3.

pairing: vi x fem!oc (y/n with a name)

warnings: mature themes, MINORS BEWARE, suggested violence, just general arcane-ness.

word count: 1,880

synopsis: after somehow successfully breaking back out of stillwater prison, olive still has a long ways to go with prisoner 516.

author’s note: originally published january 2023.

don’t forget to read parts 1 and 2 first!!

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ

"Holy fucking shit."

Olive still couldn't believe they had done that. She'd done a lot of ballsy shit in the past year, but breaking into a prison and then breaking a prisoner out of said prison definitely took the cake.

"What? Never pulled a prison break before? Shocker," 516 retorted smugly. Olive rolled her eyes as she followed her towards the lanes, keeping up pace as best she could.

"You know, I still don't know your name," Olive remarked. "I can't just call you 516." As she spoke, she had a near miss with a pipe that apparently wanted her foot.

"Oh, you can call me anything you want," she replied with a devilish smirk. "But if you really want to know, my name is Vi." With a look back at Olive, Vi took one step forward off a ledge and dropped into an abyss of undercity. Olive stumbled to a stop, dumbstruck, unsure of whether to blindly follow or chalk it up to 'Vi' being crazy and call it a day. Except she couldn't do that - not if she didn't want to go back to square one.

Ugh.

Walking up to the ledge her companion had just stepped off of, Olive looked down and felt a wave of dizziness hit instantly. She had built up some skills over the last year, but this — this was damn near foolish. Regardless, today was apparently a day of firsts, and Olive wasn't about to lose it at the first drop.

She had to admit, the feeling she got when she let herself drop off of the high story roof was nothing short of exhilarating. She quickly tumbled onto the next level and raced after Vi, who was already quite a ways ahead of her. Olive refused to acknowledge her already aching muscles as she raced after the former prisoner, swinging across gaps and leaping off from story to story. After what felt like both forever and no time at all, they arrived at their destination.

The middle of the lanes.

Olive watched Vi breathe it in, staring at the smoke and neon lights littering the desolate streets like she had been waiting for this for forever. She watched her, entranced, until she realized what she was doing and shook it off. She can't afford to notice how attractive Vi was, not with what she would need to do, and especially because of her asshole persona — but she was undeniably attractive. Never mind that. Olive was pulled out of her thinking haze by Vi signaling Olive to follow her. Obliging, she jogged up to be next to her.

"Where are we going?" Olive asked, having to keep her fast pace to stay in step with the taller woman.

"Somewhere we can get a good start." Vi replied, looking back at her. "That is, if you can keep up." Olive rolled her eyes and muttered an insult under her breath, exaggerating the sway of her hips as she continued on with Vi. An awkward silence descended upon them and, desperate to at least not be completely miserable during this whole escapade, Olive spoke up.

"So, what does Vi stand for anyway? Vivian? Victoria? Vienna? Viola? Victor? Violence? Vi-"

"Violet." Vi cut her off abruptly. "It stands for Violet. But nobody's called me that since-...well, not for a long time. So don't get any ideas about it."

"Whatever you say, Vi-o-let," Olive replied cheekily, accentuating each syllable. Her breath was suddenly knocked out of her lungs when Vi grabbed her by the front of her shirt and roughly shoved her against a wall.

"I said, you don't get to call me that," she growled through gritted teeth, her face suddenly hardened and stony. "Got it?"

"Got it," Olive squeaked, taking a haggard breath when Vi decided she was appeased and let her go. "Do we have some sort of problem? If you keep grabbing me like that my shirt won't last the rest of the day." She glared at Vi from the side of her eyes, starting to regret whatever possessed her to break the brute out in the first place.

"No problem," Vi replied. "I just don't want you getting any ideas about us being 'friends' or anything. We're both only here to get what we want. No more, no less. Got it?"

Olive paused for a moment, caught off guard. "Got it. No friends."

The pair continued through the lanes until Vi came to a sudden stop in front of what looked like a particularly revolting food stand. The creature running the stand broke a huge, toothy smile when he noticed Vi walking up — did they seriously know each other? When she really thought about it, Olive wasn't all that surprised, but she still had a slight aversion to the smell wafting from the stand.

"Jericho, buddy! How's it been down here?" Vi exclaimed, a smile Olive hadn't seen before suddenly spreading across her face. Jericho replied with a series of grunts and gestured for them to sit down. Vi sat down instantly, Olive...apprehensively. She watched as 'Jericho' turned and started filling a bowl, seeing that when he set it in front of Vi that it was full of what looked like giant blue slug type creatures. Olive's lip curled up instinctively in disgust and had to hold back a gag. She watched as Vi gorged herself on the food, wondering how someone can eat something like that and still look hot. Impressive.

"I'm sorry, but are you going to question him or not?" Olive leaned over to whisper to Vi.

"No." Vi replied swiftly.

"But isn't that why we're here?" Olive asked, her voice rising slightly with urgency and confusion.

"We're here cause I'm hungry," Vi replied before stuffing her mouth again. "Oh, Jericho, this is better than I even remembered." She said in almost a moan as she finished off her bowl. Jericho grunted again and took the bowl, sliding a piece of paper towards Vi under one of his giant fingers in return. Vi shot Olive a knowing smirk and stood up without waiting for the other to follow.

"Where are we going now?" Olive asked as she and Vi traveled further through the undercity. Without a word, Vi flashed her the scrap of paper Jericho had given her. Olive's heart skipped a beat when she saw the symbol etched on it.

"The brothel??" Olive whispered harshly as she stepped in front of Vi and brought the both of them to a halt. "We can't. I-I won't do it, not if I don't need to."

"Shit, Olive, what the fuck are you doing?" Vi exclaimed, furrowing her brows. "Unless you don't want my or anyone else's help, we haven't exactly got another option. Just follow my lead and you'll be fine."

"You don't underst-" Olive cut herself off and took a breath. Not wanting to reveal too much about herself to someone like Vi, she continued. "Fine. But we need to be in and out."

"Whatever you need..." Vi replied sarcastically.

The two of them continued in silence until they arrived in front of the shambled building, which now seemed even more looming to Olive. Vi strode in confidently, which left Olive to linger behind until she forced herself to go in. The smell of smoke and sex filled her nostrils the way it had done so many times, and she felt like even the walls could see her.

"What information could I get from these people anyways? How?" She quietly wondered out loud to Vi, who slowed to face her.

"If you want people to talk to you, you have to convince them that you have what they want," Vi replied with a smirk.

"And what do I have?"

Vi circled around her, looking her up and down. "You're hot, cupcake." She suddenly moved in closer, forcing Olive against the wall and raising one hand to block her right next to her face. "All you have to do is choose — man, or woman?" Her eyes were dark with an intoxicating look, staring so deeply into Olive that she felt like she might melt.

"Right. Got it," Olive said breathlessly, still unable to tear her eyes away from Vi's. The taller pulled away slowly and smirked before she continued down the barely lit hallway. Olive straightened up and tried to swing her hips alluringly as she followed. At the end of the hallway, they came upon a door that Vi knocked on twice. When it opened, it revealed a small elfish woman that Olive often wished she didn't recognize.

"Vi," the woman said, gasping and putting down her teacup. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

"Hello, Babette," Vi replied as she slowly entered the room. Olive truly started to question her own decision making abilities as she followed.

"And Miss Whitlock," she continued with a hint of surprise in her voice, taking a long drag of her cigarette. "I do hope you've come by to tell me you've had a change of heart...you'd be so popular with the patrons." Babette raised her eyebrows as she looked at Olive expectantly.

"Sorry, but no, Babette," Olive sputtered nervously, avoiding Vi's suspecting gaze.

"Oh come now," the small woman continued. "Think about the earnings you would bring in. You'd just have to let yourself go a little bit."

"I said no, Babette." Olive stood awkwardly for a moment before turning around and walking out of the room, the silence booming in her ears. If she was going to be stuck in the brothel until Vi finished up business, she might as well try and do what she said.

Shit, was she going to hate this.

She strutted through the hall until she found a rather lovely looking woman in a fox mask.

"Hello," she said in what she hoped was a seductive voice. "I'm Amryn, love. What's your name?"

—

Vi sauntered down the hall with a new air of confidence. She knew who to find and where to find them — but first, she had to find Olive. A few doors down, she could hear her silky voice floating out of a room, along with someone else's. Approaching closer, she saw just who she was looking for, but not in the way she expected. Olive was draped across a chaise longue with one hand up, playing with a strand of hair. She had a sultry smile on her face, and was now listening to a woman in a fox mask talk about something or other. Not that Vi was listening — she was distracted watching Olive's suddenly intoxicating features. Shaking herself out of it, she stood fully in the doorway and leaned on the frame, crossing her arms casually.

"I hate to interrupt this lovely conversation, but I'm afraid we've got to go, Cupcake."

[lucytf2-irl]

some other fun facts about vixy in my hc of her!!

- vixy is half-deer/half-fox. fox from her dad’s side, deer from her mom’s.

- vixy has two older siblings. they are also technically her half siblings—they all have the same dad but different moms. she’s also the only one out of their family that’s multi-species

- she has an oldest brother name viktor, and another older sister named vanya. vanya is a mechanic that lives on corneria. viktor is a soldier turned mercenary who was stationed on katina but found his way to macbeth.

- vixy has. dead mom trauma. the wound doesn’t hurt all that much anymore. sometimes it just hits her and she has to be by herself for a little bit

- as soon as she could, when she was 18, she filed a petition to change her last name to her mom’s. she hated the association she had with her dad and his last name. he just thought she did it for “business” reasons, or that she was doing it so that people didn’t think she was getting things handed to her. she has a really complex relationship with her dad.

- her middle name is andromeda. victoria andromeda reinard

- she was always a born performer. from a young age, she would sing for people at her dad’s meetings or investors. she took music lessons as a little girl. she’s played a lot of different instruments, but she always finds herself coming back to the guitar and baritone ukulele.

- she grew up on katina, but she and her sister convinced her dad to let her enroll in the CCTA. the CCTA is where she attended high school. she never went back to katina after that

- vixy and james were never actually friends in high school. they always saw the other around, they were in some classes together, but they just had wildly different friend circles that never really overlapped. but she always liked him. she found him to be genuine and real in a school full of phonies

- vixy shared a class with beltino and lived near vivian (hare). beltino had a knack for sound mixing and being bass guitarist, and vivian loved playing the piano. they always joked that they would start a band if the CCTA and college went south, with vixy as their lead singer/guitarist and primary lyricist. their band name flitted between “Vixy Rei and the Prions” and “Vixy Rei and the Living Dolls”

- she would frequently pretend to take notes while she was actually songwriting. she would sometimes get in trouble during class for doing this. luckily no teacher was ever cruel enough to read it outloud to the class.

- vixy’s family was family friends of andross. so the two have known each other for a very long time. one of her first jobs was working as an intern in his lab. he really mentored her. they both viewed the other as family.

- vixy and james met again when they were 19 and 20 respectively. they were both in their second year of college. they met by complete chance again. in andross’ lab, of all places.

- an idea that vixy’s had ever since she was a litte girl (that she was able to bring to fruition eventually!) was finding a way to purify the air on venom or at least making the very hostile environment more livable. she was always enraptured by the air footage of venom, the big temples and ruins—and she’s always wanted for scientists or historians to be able to set up colonies on venom and be able to do field research. the venomian air purification project put her in a lot of very dangerous situations. people wanted that patent from her so they could profit off it.

- vixy wanted to name fox fionnbharr/finbarr. it was her maternal grandfather’s name. and if she was born a boy, its what she’s always wanted her name to be. she and james concede by letting it be his middle name. james finbarr mccloud jr.

- after her time in the CDAS was really beginning to wear down on her psyche, she was considering going back to school to get her certifications to be a teacher. but she wanted to teach little kids. or, she’d find a job as a pianist for the art school, the CMSA/cornerian magnet school of the arts

- sometimes, if she’s out in public, someone will recognize her from her “local cornerian band” days. she always finds it funny when a teenager would be the one to recognize her for it.

i have. so mant things to say about her

[antlersofthevoid]

Before The Dawn; Chapter 1, Expansion

V was found shortly after Tessa turned Nine.

Accompanying her parents to the local dump, she had noticed a mostly still living worker, badly damaged but desperately attempting to hold on, and very excitedly requested they attempt to repair her.

Tessa insisted she could do most of the work herself, but her father helped her with the more delicate processes, helping guide the tools in his daughter's hands while replacing the screws in the abandoned worker's back plating.

J watched with a burning sense of curiosity and interest, as they both stepped back to allow the newly brought-in worker to power back on.

She wobbled a bit. The poor worker looked terrified, staring up at her new human masters in fear, then to J, in her pristine dress and neatly kept pigtails.

She took a deep breath, and sighed.

The company had designed their drones with a secondary way of communication, a way of keeping silent when humans had priority in speaking, allowing them to pass on information or commands without making as much as the hum of a servo.

Where am I? What's happening?

J gave the trembling worker a look of reassurance.

You've been..

She considered her words carefully.

..Re-homed. These are your new masters, i'm-

V's optics widened.

Re-homed? Oh, no, no! Malachi will be very upset when he finds me missing! I must be returned immediately!

J cocked her head to the side.

She could hear Tessa and James discussing something, but she focused more on the conversation that she and V held on their own frequency.

Malachi?...Your old master?

V nodded.

Yes! He was…

She looked around.

The size of that girl there! Soft blonde hair and bright blue eyes- and I must get back to him! If his parents find out he lost me they-

J shook her head.

..I don't think they'll be too upset.

V finally looked down at her hands, the rips and stains on the velvety red dress they had found her in, her gaze drifting to the tools surrounding her.

J could see the emotions cycling through her processors. Confusion. Recollection, anger, sadness, and then acceptance.

She finally looked back up to J, a hint of sadness in her voice.

….Is this….is this a good home, then..?

J nodded.

Warm sleeping quarters, weekly maintenance and system checks, and the finest oil you'll ever drink.

She smiled as Tessa approached the newest drone again, sitting down on the floor in front of her, offering her a clean dress and already beginning to tie ribbons into her hair.

Home..?

V smiled up at Tessa as J nodded.

…home.

_-_-_-_-_-_

Surprisingly, it was Tessa's mother who took a liking to V, and was even given the choice of naming her, by Tessa.

Vivian.

A name that suited her, similar to how Tessa had affectionately designated J as "Jamie", even though they were usually addressed as the single letter that identified them on their arms.

Maybe it was how V listened to orders. How she nodded with excitement and followed Louisa with loyalty around the manor, listening to her rambles, taking notes for her, and carrying items. How she sat without protesting in the den while Tessa's mother hummed and worked to sew up old dolls and dresses, how she'd sit and untangle the yarn when the box got tossed around.

She became much more skilled at the tasks that required finer detail when she got her glasses. Realizing that V's internal optics had been damaged beyond repair, she was given a pair at first to simply test, then, to keep, when she managed to pick up every needle that had fallen from Lousia's sewing box.

Being collared was the highest honor that could have been given. While the more rebellious workers saw it as derogation- being seen as a pet, something to claim and boss around, those in J and V's place saw it as acceptance. The leather fit snugly around their necks, a silver tag sitting in the middle with the Elliott family's crest engraved, a sign that they were important.

They were loved.

To V and J [and Tessa, at least], it felt like acceptance.

It felt like officially being seen as a part of the family.

N's introduction was nothing glamorous, unfortunately. A simple butler discarded when his original owner, a sweet, elderly man, passed away in his sleep.

N had been heartbroken, and J could see it in his demeanor when he followed her through the manor- he remembered. He was mourning. J knew, Tessa knew, and it took nearly a month of constant reassurance that Tessa wasn't going anywhere anytime soon- that she was still young and had her life ahead of her, for him to calm down and grow attached to their caretaker. J felt sorry for him. She tried to mourn with him, wondering how it would feel to lose the human they were created to serve- wondering if she would live her battery life to see Tessa-

…she never let herself think much farther than that.

If he'd had a tail when Tessa placed the collar around his neck, J knew it would have been wagging wildly. For the first time since he had arrived, N expressed genuine excitement and happiness- love. Eventually after his "promotion" she began to let N sleep beside her when she guarded Tessa at night, even if he somehow always fell asleep and ended up curled up at the foot of Tessa's blankets [which was J's spot, but she didn't mind to share.] It felt nice to have someone else around.

Niko, was the name he'd been given. He liked it.

Cyn and Grimm were found at the same time, coming from the same family. They were siblings, owned by a wealthy family, somehow more snobby than the Elliots could ever be. They were used for show. Kept clean and tidy and then flaunted around on leashes and pedestals, used by the humans to compete and see who could make their workers look the fanciest: treated like show dogs, never shown any true love, only seen as an object to dress up.

They were discarded after an incident involving another contestant.

Cyn wasn't afraid to tell their story, she seemed rather proud of it.

There was another worker involved, dressed in fancy red ribbons and bows, she had insulted Grimm and attempted to rip up his attire [which was absolutely devastating to him, as she'd managed to rip his favorite jacket in half]. Cyn wasn't having any of it, and while she skimmed over most of the gruesome details, it was clear that the other drone was damaged worse than Cyn had been.

Cyn still had a working processor. Red ribbons didn't.

They had been labeled as aggressive and haphazardly discarded, Cyn could no longer hold her head up high to display her status- she wobbled when she walked and often had to have support, using her hand to guide her head when making gestures or moving herself around quickly.

And Grimm was there for her.

J wasn't sure about him. He was quiet- reserved, normally keeping to himself or hiding behind Cyn, holding onto his sister's hand when she walked and shying away whenever V or N tried to talk to him. He kept his thoughts hidden behind his curtain of curly black hair, no matter how much Tessa tried to brush it out of his face. J let him be when she could, save from the occasional passed on order or question, to which he would give a simple nod or a head shake, a "yes ma'am" or "no ma'am".

And for the longest while, it was just them in Tessa's circle. Collared, loved, and pampered. The pile at the end of Tessa's bed grew, with J being the one consistently keeping watch, no longer just over Tessa herself, but over her siblings, knowing how much they meant to tessa- and herself. She had been there from the start. She was the one designed to protect, to keep Tessa company, to guard her, to keep her happy. No matter how many other drones came or went, that would always be her purpose, and she would fulfill that purpose until her last moment.

No matter what.

[ncisfranchise-source]

It’s almost hard to believe, but the NCISverse reaches quite the milestone with the April 15 episode of the mothership, and to celebrate that, Entertainment Tonight put together NCISverse: The First 1,000.

The special both looks back at the very beginnings of NCIS—introduced as a two-parter on JAG—as well as the spinoffs that already exist, and ahead to the 1,000th episode itself and the two new shows still to come (the prequel Origins and the not-yet-titled Tony and Ziva series set in Europe). NCIS is currently in its 21st season and Hawai’i its third. Sydney is coming back for a second. Los Angeles aired 14 seasons, while New Orleans ended after seven.

Below, we’ve rounded up all the fun reveals from the special.

Cast’s Most Shocking Moments

Over the years and across the shows, there have been some unbelievable moments, from deaths to big relationship steps to major returns. And just like fans, the stars have the ones that surprised them the most.

Both Sean Murray (McGee) and Brian Dietzen (Dr. Palmer) name Kate’s (Sasha Alexander) death at the end of Season 2. “No one saw it coming—except if you go back and you look at the actual footage, you see Michael Weatherly [flinch] before she gets shot because he knows a burst of blood is about to hit his face,” Dietzen adds.

CBS

Rocky Carroll (Vance) says his character’s wife being killed off, while Noah Mills (Jesse) points to Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) getting her arm broken in the Hawai’i Season 2 finale.

For Diona Reasonover (Kasie), hers is probably the same as many fans’: Ziva’s (Cote de Pablo) return in the Season 16 finale after she’d been presumed dead. “They didn’t tell me. I found out with America, and boy was I surprised,” Reasonover recalls. “I literally pulled the script up on my phone and was like, ‘That’s not supposed to happen.’”

Mark Harmon Made It All Possible

ET‘s Kevin Frazier, who hosts the special notes, “None of it would have been possible without the distinguished service of this man, who seemed to know right from the start just where the series was going.”

Gary Cole, whose Parker has taken as team leader following Harmon’s Gibbs retiring to Alaska, says, “He’s the reason the show got on the air, pure and simple. Solid movie career going. He was a go-to series lead actor.”

Weatherly (Tony) recalls the first thing Harmon said to him: “‘You eat lunch with the crew.’ And it wasn’t a question.”

In a 2003 interview, shown during the special, Harmon said, “This show will work as a team or go down as a team, and that’s how I’ve always looked at it.” (We’ve seen how true that is over the years with the various cast changes.)

NCIS‘ Early Days, Starting With JAG

Weatherly notes that he did over 300 episodes of the mothership (he’ll be returning in the upcoming Paramount+ spinoff about Tony and Ziva) and what stuck with him from his first day on set. “In the middle of my first paragraph, [creator] Don Bellisario walked onto the set and said, ‘What are you doing, modeling? Don’t just stand there. Surprise me! Entertain me!’ and I just changed my simple thing, which was I didn’t care who found me entertaining. I just entertained myself, and I’ve been doing that ever since.”

Two JAG Season 8 episodes introduced the characters of Gibbs, Tony, Ducky (the late David McCallum), and Abby (Pauley Perrette), who would go on to be part of NCIS. They were joined by Robyn Lively as Vivian Blackadder, who didn’t make it to NCIS—and is the role that Jennifer Aniston had been considered for. (Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, Andrew McCarthy, and Patrick Swayze‘s names were all brought up to possibly play Gibbs.)

Harmon reveals that his character almost had a different name. “I read Leroy Jethro Gibbs and I said, ‘Wow, I like that name.’ Then for a brief second when I’d decided I really liked the idea and the project, the name changed. All of a sudden it was Bob Johnson or something like that,” he shares. “I just went, ‘What? No, it’s gotta be Leroy Jethro Gibbs,’ and the creator said, ‘No, you can’t play a guy named Leroy Jethro Gibbs.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ Then it went back, so I was happy about that.”

Originally, NCIS was pitched as Law & Order in the navy, half case and half courtroom, according to Frazier. But the investigation part tested best with audiences, who were also impressed with Harmon.

“Because it was two episodes of JAG, it wasn’t really a proper pilot,” says Weatherly. “And even when we started airing, they called it Navy NCIS, which is Navy Naval Criminal Investigative Service. You can’t make that up.”

Remembering David McCallum

NCIS Season 21 paid tribute to McCallum and his character with its second episode, which saw a surprise return from Weatherly, reprising his role as Tony. “That was a very emotional day, seeing everybody,” Weatherly says. “Not a dry eye on that set.”

According to Carroll, “David McCallum was 70 years old when the series started, 21 years ago. And the story goes he told his wife, ‘I’m 70 years old. What if this show goes seven years? That’s a long time.’ And he ended up being with the show for 20 seasons.”

What’s to Come in Episode 1,000, Prequel Origins & Tiva Spinoff

First of all, the good thing about the ever-growing franchise is that characters from shows that ended could easily come back; LA‘s LL COOL J is currently recurring in Hawai’i Season 3. Eric Christian Olsen (Deeks on LA) does point out in the special, “I’ve always said that Marty Deeks ain’t dead. I think there’s plenty of room for these characters to come back.” And Harmon acknowledges that he’s asked “a lot” about returning.

Harmon is returning to the franchise, in a way—as narrator and executive producer on the prequel Origins, following Gibbs beginning in 1991 as he starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks.

“I think seeing Gibbs coming up as a young guy is going to be fantastic,” says Murray. Weatherly suggests, “maybe Mark Harmon can play Gibbs’ father.”

As for the Tony and Ziva spinoff coming to Paramount+, they’ve been raising their daughter, Tali, together. When Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, try to figure out who is after them, and maybe even learn to trust each other again so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after.

“Cote de Pablo and I are also getting ready. Moving to Budapest for the summer of 2024, and it is Tony and Ziva now trying to raise their tween daughter and save the world. What could go wrong?” Weatherly asks. “We’re incredibly happy to be making something for the streaming platform because it gives you a little bit more latitude and shooting overseas.”

But first, there’s the 1,000th episode of the franchise, NCIS‘ “A Thousand Yards,” NCIS comes under attack by a mysterious enemy from the past. Also, Vance tries to mend fences with his estranged son by explaining why, despite the ongoing dangers of his job, he still chooses to stay at NCIS.

“All of NCIS is suddenly put under attack, so now you get to see NCIS: Hawai’i, NCIS: LA, NCIS: Sydney coming in to help,” teases Katrina Law (Knight). We already know Lachey and LA‘s Daniela Ruah (Kensi) are guest starring.

[nightsidewrestling]

D.U.D.E Bios: Viola Nye / Vi Lucifarian (2021)

The Family Pride Vi Lucifarian

Same pic as Vi has not changed at all

The first of the seven sins, the always proud Vi isn't the sharpest woman in the world, but she knows enough to destroy anyone, including teams and stables by using the power of pride. Once she knows you're proud of yourself, she'll manipulate you into an egotistical monstrous version of your former self.

"Rise and shine, cupcake"

Name

Full Legal Name: Viola Dorothea Nye (Née Lum)

First Name: Viola

Meaning: Means 'Violet' in Latin

Pronunciation: vi-O-la

Origin: English, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak

Middle Name: Dorothea

Meaning: Feminine form of the Late Greek 'Dorotheos' which meant 'Gift of God' from Greek 'Doron' meaning 'Gift' and 'Theos' meaning 'God'

Pronunciation: door-o-THEE-a

Origin: German, Dutch, English, Late Greek

Surnae: Nye (Née Lum)

Meaning: Originally indicated a person who lived near a river, from Middle English 'Atten eye' meaning 'At the river' (Lum: From the name of towns in England called 'Lamb', probably from Old English 'Lum' 'Pool')

Pronunciation: NIE (LUH-mb)

Origin: English (English)

Alias: The Family Pride, Vi Lucifarian

Reason: Vi is the eldest of the seven and is her father's 'pride and joy'

Nicknames: Vi

Titles: Miss, Mrs, Ma'am

Characteristics

Age: 42

Gender: Female. She/Her pronouns

Race: Human

Nationality: British

Ethnicity: White

Birth Date: September 5th 1979

Symbols: Horeshoes, The Colour Purple

Sexuality: Straight

Religion: Christian

Native Language: English

Spoken Languages: English, French, Spanish

Relationship Status: Married

Astrological Sign: Virgo

Theme Song: 'You Don't Own Me' - Lesley Gore (1999-2012), 'Little Lion Man' - Tonight Alive, Dave Petrovic (2012-)

Voice Actor: Rosamund Pike

Geographical Characteristics

Birthplace: Blackpool, Lancashire, England

Current Location: Unknown

Hometown: Brigg, Lancashire, England

Appearance

Height: 5'6" / 167 cm

Weight: 150 lbs / 68 kg

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Brown

Hair Dye: All exceptthe sides is dyed purple

Body Hair: N/A

Facial Hair: N/A

Tattoos: (As of Jan 2021) 10

Piercings: Ear Lobes (Double, Both)

Scars: None

Health and Fitness

Allergies: None

Alcoholic, Smoker, Drug User: Social Drinker

Illnesses/Disorders: ADHD

Medications: None

Any Specific Diet: Vegetarian

Relationships

Allies: (As of Jan 2021) Damien Lucifarian, Billie Lucifarian, Geia Lucifarian, Honey Lucifarian, Eli Lucifarian, Sara Lucifarian, Yeray Marino, Flo Marino, Bano Marino, Judi Marino, Rino Marino, Nat Marino, Mac Marino, Ros Marino, Zac Marino, 'Monster' Mike, Sakurako, Ash Thunder

Enemies: (As of Jan 2021) Kirby Kingston, Eddie Kingston, The Rhydderch Clan

Friends: Bienvenida Marino. Pelageya Winter, Honey Di Napoli, Elinor Herbert, Saraid Grady-Sullivan Giselle Herbert

Colleagues: The AEW locker rooms / Too many to list

Rivals: Evil Uno, Rey Fénix, Adam Page, Chris Jericho, Britt Baker

Closest Confidant: Quentin Nye

Mentor: Damian Lum

Significant Other: Quentin Nye (43, Husband)

Previous Partners: None of note

Parents: Damian Lum (62, Father), Marion Kay (63, Mother)

Parents-In-Law: Hari Nye (63, Father-In-Law), Zarina Nye (64, Mother-In-Law, Née Das)

Siblings: Ulysses May (39, Half-Brother), Wanda Ott (36, Half-Sister, Née Lum), Tristan Lum (33, Half-Brother), Xavia Aaron (30, Half-Sister), Sullivan Lum (27, Half-Brother), Yasmine Lum (24, Half-Sister), Roger Lum (21, Half-Brother), Zella Lum (18, Half-Sister), Astor Bush-Kay (39, Half-Brother), Zoe Case (36, Half-Sister, Née Bush-Kay), York Bush-Kay (33, Half-Brother), Xanthia Abbey (30, Half-Sister, Née Bush-Kay), Wystan Bush-Kay (27, Half-Brother), Vivian Bush-Kay (24, Half-Sister), Ulric Bush-Kay (21, Half-Brother), Twila Bush-Kay (18, Half-Sister)

Siblings-In-Law: Raabi'a Keo (40, Quentin’s Sister, Née Nye), Dara Keo (41, Raabi'a’s Husband), Sixte Nye (37, Quentin’s Brother), Eun-Yeong Nye (38, Sixte’s Wife, Née Yun), Tri Gim (34, Quentin’s Sister, Née Nye), Gyeong Gim (35, Tri’s Husband), Uno Nye (31, Quentin’s Brother), Hyeon-Ju Nye (32, Uno’s Wife, Née Mun), Winona Nye (28, Quentin’s Sister), Xystos Nye (25, Quentin’s Brother), Amita Nye (22, Quentin’s Sister), Bragi Nye (19, Quentin’s Sister), Kestrel May (40, Ulysses’ Wife, Née Coy), Heath Ott (37, Wanda’s Husband), Gardenia Lum (34, Tristan’s Wife, Née Day), Titus Aaron (31, Xavia's Husband), Symphony Bush-Kay (40, Astor’s Wife, Née Clay), Ryland Case (37, Zoe’s Husband), Primrose Bush-Kay (34, York’s Wife, Née Cobb), Odin Abbey (31, Xanthia's Husband)

Nieces & Nephews: Kolab Keo (20, Niece), Makara Keo (17, Nephew), Pich Keo (14, Niece), Sok Keo (11, Nephew), Yeong-Hui Nye (17, Niece), U-Jin Nye (14, Nephew) Chae-Won Nye (11, Niece), Byeong-Ho Gim (14, Nephew), Ji-Hye Gim (11, Niece), Earl May (19, Nephew), Jane May (16, Niece), Flint May (13, Nephew), Imogen May (10, Niece), Magnolia Ott (16, Niece), Laurence Ott (13, Nephew), Naomi Ott (10, Niece), Daisy Lum (13, Niece), Vance Lum (10, Nephew), Orinda Bush-Kay (19, Granddaughter), Noble Bush-Kay (16, Grandson), Montana Bush-Kay (13, Granddaughter), Lyric Bush-Kay (10, Grandson), Kyrie Case (16, Granddaughter), Justice Case (13, Grandson), Ivy Case (10, Granddaughter), Huxley Bush-Kay (13, Grandson), Gray Bush-Kay (10, Granddaughter)

Children: Adam Nye (22, Son), Paulette Nye (19, Daughter), Benjamin Nye (16, Son), Olivia Nye (13, Daughter), Charles Nye (10, Son)

Children-In-Law: None

Grandkids: None

Great Grandkids: None

Wrestling

Billed From: The Underworld

Trainer: The C.R.C Wrestling School, Damien Lucifarian

Managers: Damien Lucifarian

Wrestlers Managed: None

Debut: 1999

Debut Match: Aisling Rhydderch VS Vi Lucifarian. Vi won by pinfall

Retired: N/A

Retirement Match: N/A

Wrestling Style: Trickster

Stables: The Lucifarians (1999-)

Teams: Post

Regular Moves: Over The Shoulder Arm Drag, Forearm Smash, Leg Sweep, Chokehold STO, Keylock, Diving Somersault Evasion, Beheader (Neck Wrench), Lineage Ender (Standing Moonsault Double Knee Drop), Lion’s Den (Crucifix Pin), Family Pride (Leg Trap Sunset Flip Power Bomb)

Finishers: Wish For This (Shooting Star Knee Drop), Flowing DDT, DDT

Refers To Fans As: The Prideful, The Prideful Ones, The Vain, The Vainglorious Ones

Extras

Backstory: Viola is all too proud of her achievements in the ring and in her life, but as the saying goes 'Pride comes before the fall’, and given how prideful she is, everyone expects her to have the worst downfall of the Lucifarians. She met and married her husband, Quentin Nye, at eighteen and had her first of her five kids at twenty. Both she and her dad are from Blackpool, England and her dad brought her up to get back up after every fight.

Trivia: Nothing of note so far

[pineappled-e]

here's my best go at a translation for you!

everything with italicized and in brackets are notes from me, since you can't really do footnotes on a tumblr post, lol. hopefully this can help in an archival sense and for your understanding!!

———

--CLIPPING 1:

Festival TV noël (Christmas)

Friday 25 December

Lancelot du Lac

For the first time, television is drawing on the most unknown treasure of French literature: the tales of the Round Table. The legend of Lancelot du Lac was born at the same time, from the Provencal light and the Welsh mists. Later, Chrétien de Troye fixed [as in: set as, changed to, solidified as, etc.] the story as « Le Chevalier à la charrette » [“The Knight of the Cart”]. Today, after ten years of waiting, Claude Santelli brings to the screen this story of a great love upset.

He used the setting of Morbihan, where fantasy is still closely intertwined with everyday life. It was the same in the Middle Ages, says Santelli, “who put imagination on the same level as intelligence.” A love story, "Lancelot du Lac" is also a story of an initiation. The knight, before reaching happiness. must overcome a thousand trials. “Lancelot” has us live in a time where the fairytale was not a refuge from the real world, but the wonderful extension of this world, a world in which action is really the sister of dreams.

IMAGES 1 "The queen Guenièvere [Guinevere] (Marie-Christine Barrault) and the seneschal [Keu, aka Kay] (Jean-Pierre Bernard)” 2 "Guenièvere [Guinevere] : From the first meeting, Lancelot asked her to always hold [it really says “hold it” but I’m not sure precisely what they’re referring to here. Possibly herself or her love?] for her knight." 3 "With the fairy Saraide (Mariannick Revillon) who is raised like him, Lancelot is back to his childhood. She is his counselor and conscience."

--CLIPPING 2:

LANCELOT DU LAC

Inspired by the stories of the Round Table

Lancelot….Gerard Falconetti Queen Guinevere….Marie-Christine Barrault Queen Helene….Arlette Tephany King Ban….Jean Chevrier The Chaplain ........ Jean Bouvier Guillaume [this is basically William or Wilhelm; I don’t remember exactly who it corresponds to as I haven’t read Lancelot in a long while now]….Paul Rieger Vivian….Anne Saint-Mor Saraide [The fairy mentioned in the previous clipping; again, I don’t remember her English name]….Mariannik Revillon Gawain [or one of his many other name forms]…. Jacques Weber King Arthur….Tony Taffin The seneschal Kay….Jean-Pierre Bernard Yvain….Patrick Verde Laudine .......... Agathe Natanson Bedivere [/Bevidere, whatever suits your fancy]….Renee Faure The messenger….Françoise Beliard Lancelot’s squires….Alain Faures et Philippe Noel The Lord of Nohant…Jacques Lalande Belinant [or Celinant]….Gabriel Jabbor The Lady of Nohant Marcella de Saint-Amant Peasant….Marcel Peres Peasant. . . . May Chartrette The lookout….Armand Meffre The blind man….Jean Lanier A lord….Xavier Renoult A lady....Andree Champeaux Little Florée….Valerie Stroh The Temptress….Regine Motte The Fisher King….Robert Favart Lady Brisane [/Briane/Brisanie/etc]….Paule Noelle Helene/Helen….Muriel Baptist The hermit….Gerard Denicot Bohor….Frederic Sakiss The enemy….the voice of Sacha PITOEFF et Resident participation of Saint-Nicolas-du-Pelem, Faouet and Dinan

THE TIME AND PLACE

During the 12th century, in Britanny.

THE THEME [as in, the basic idea of the show. effectively a plot blurb]

The epic of Lancelot du Lac, knight of the Round Table who, for the love of his lady [implied: Queen Guinevere], accomplishes extraordinary feats.

A grand love story, it is not without resemblance to that of “Tristan and Iseult”, although it is regrettable that the name of Lancelot does not reach the same dramatic intensity as that of Tristan, divided between duty and love.

THE CHARACTERS

A whole series of novels is blooming around the deeds of the knights of Arthur who have gone in search of the Holy Grail. Not of the “Breton cycle” (of the Celtic culture), the character of Lancelot was taken up by Chretien de Troye at the end of the 12th century (“Lancelot or the Knight of the cart”, 1170) and changed in the 13th by the monks who added mystical elements. Much later, Lord Alfred Tennyson ("Les Idylles du roi", 1859-1895) and then Jean Cocteau (c Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde >, 1937), among others, adapted the story. The synthesis of Claude Santelli, who unified the fantastical, courteous, and Christian aspects, was filmed largely in natural settings, on the high places of Breton art, along deserted beaches bordered by heath.

ADAPTATED, WRITTEN AND REALIZED, BY CLAUDE SANTELLI Director of Photography, Andre Lecreuvre Original music of Georges Delerue Costumes by Rosine Delamare Set by Jean Thomen Equestrian and combat counselor, Jean Galtat

The character of Lancelot embodies the ideal type of valiant and faithful knight, and has his love. He better represents the Breton chivalry than his successor Perceval, another hero to the pure heart who conquered the Holy Grail. Passionately in love with his lady, Lancelot accomplishes many feats. His unfailing love compels him to be near her, more by the echo of her deeds than by her real presence. This is how he reconciles love and joy.

IF YOU MISSED THE DEBUT [as in, first episode]

While the wife of King Ban de Benoic mourns her husband, who has seen his castle in flames, the mysterious Lady of the Lake, Viviane, looks to their child. She draws him under her mother’s eyes, in her house, under the waters. Viviane formerly sorcered Merlin the enchanter and he dared to tell her secrets. Viviane, in the past, bewitched Merlin the enchanter and stole his secrets. It was he who, out of love, built this palace under water. In Viviane's castle, the child, "the beautiful one", grows up... [this is where the article cuts off]

News pages about "Lancelot du Lac" 1970 (I wish I knew French...)

[thatesqcrush]

The Auction, Pt. 2

Bryan Kneef x Reader. CW: discussion of sex work, "being bidded on/purchased" touching of reader - but its consensual, vaginal fingering, language. WC: 2K.

You met with the brains of the organization for a long time. Her name was Cordelia and according to her, you were “a perfect candidate” as she eyed you up and down.

“How does this work? Is this safe? ” You asked, crossing your arms and narrowing your eyes. “How much of a cut do I get? And don't bullshit me.”

“Ah, I’ve always appreciated a woman who gets down to brass tacks.” Cordelia replied. “The cut is 50/50, off the books. We’ll screen your sexual health, of course. While those results are pending, we’ll vet you - make sure you’re of sanity and have no criminal background. This is all done behind closed doors - no one in your immediate life would be the wiser. If that’s all clear, we will arrange the date for the auction. In the meantime, we like to invest in our ladies once they’re cleared - meaning we’ll make arrangements for hair, makeup, clothes, and the like.”

You swallowed hard. “I can assure you, I’m clean. I haven’t had many partners prior.”

Cordelia nodded. “Well, then we have nothing to worry about.”

**

Your test results came and you received a clean bill of health. The next step was to be primped and polished. Naturally you were middle of the road - some days you could be really girly and other days, not. You weren’t tethered to any one style. But it had been awhile since you were ever able to relax, so when you were sent to a spa for a day of treatment, you jumped at the chance.

After, it was onto shopping.

You felt like Vivian from Pretty Woman as salespersons brought you dress after dress while you got your hair and makeup done. The request from Cordelia was ‘sexy, not slutty.’

You settled on a red hot mini dress with a v-neckline and center ruching for added dimension. Finishing the look was a pair of simple heels that showed off your toned gams and a pair of jeweled hoop earrings. You hardly recognized yourself in your reflection in the floor to ceiling mirror in the store. ‘This is one night; you’re playing a role.’ You told yourself. You figured if you repeated it enough times, you’d believe it.

An unmarked car came to collect you once you were done, driving you straight to the location where the auction was taking place.

You knew there would be other women there from Bonnie. What you didn’t realize was that you’d be going very last. Your nerves were starting to fry and your stomach was twisted in knots. You sipped water through a straw so as to not ruin your lipstick. Finally, there was a rap on the door and Cordelia poked her head in.

“Darling, it’s your time to shine. Now go earn your worth.”

**

You could hear raucous laughter, cheering and applause from behind where you stood. The music pounded and you could feel it in your bones.

Finally, the door opened - it was pitch black on the other side, save a spotlight. You said a quick prayer, even though you weren’t very religious as you stepped into the light.

Once there, the light adjusted to a more dim version and you were able to focus your vision on the crowd before you. Music played quietly in the background before a woman began to speak - someone who sounded very much like Cordelia.

What she says next and what is said after, is all blur. Bids begin to roll in and it’s in that moment you realized you were nothing more than a hooker, using your body as a means to an end. Humiliation flowed through you - you didn’t feel like you - you didn’t feel as good as you thought. Instead your worth was measured in bank rolls.

You scanned the room, men of all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds were there, waving their black AmEx cards like they were charging a steak dinner. And that’s how you felt - you were a lamb being slaughtered.

The gavel banged and you heard Cordelia exclaim, “Sold! To Mr. Bryan Kneef for two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

You whipped your head at Cordelia. Had you heard her correctly? Two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars? The fact that you got to keep half made your head spin.

“And that concludes tonight’s auction. Winners may come to collect their prizes in the back.”

Cordelia wrapped her arm around your waist and began to whisk you away when you heard someone thank ‘Mr. Kneef for his payment.’ You turned to see who he was and in the dimmed light you saw it was ‘Mr. Mysterious.’

And you damn near passed out.

**

You sat in the room you were originally in. There was one security camera in place and Cordelia advised that winners liked to meet first before any further advances were to come.

Your leg bounced as you drank your water again. You felt as if you were there for hours but realistically it was mere moments.

The door opened and Mr. Mysteri—Kneef walked in. You smiled nervously at him and extended your arm. “Hi. Bryan, right?”

Bryan didn’t reply. Instead he gave you an intense, smoldering look. His cologne wafted over you, warm and woodsy causing your skin to goosebump.

You brought your arm back and clutched your hands behind your back. Bryan took another step towards you, as if he were trying to get a closer look at his purchase.

“Take off your clothes.” Bryan requested quietly. You opened your mouth to say something but the look in response along with a perfectly arched brow caused you to snap your mouth shut. “I want to see what I bought.”

You reached around, undoing the zipper - thankful it was along the side and not along your back.

You slid the dress off, strap by strap. You hadn’t worn a bra - just a nude thong which wasn’t even fancy - simple and basic, meant more for avoiding lines than anything else. The dress pooled at your feet and you stepped out of it. You moved to kick off your heels when Bryan interrupted you.

“Leave them on.”

You nodded and stood up, anxiously awaiting the next move.

Bryan removed his jacket and folded it neatly, hanging it over a chair. He began to roll up the sleeves of his dress shirt, showing off his muscular forearms with thick, meaty veins.

You looked up and saw the small security camera and realized this private show wasn’t so private. The sound of a finger snap brought you back to the present and you whipped your head towards Bryan. Your heart began to race and you wondered if you should just bolt. You tried to mentally measure the distance between you and the door.

Bryan approached you. His gaze softened, as if he were sorry for what he was about to say. “I’m going to touch you now. At any point if you want me to stop, I will. Consent is very important to me.”

“It is to me too.” You replied, meeting his gaze. After a beat, you continued. “You can touch me.”

His warm touch began rather innocently, along your arm up to along your shoulder. As he walked around you, he kept touching and feeling. His hand got to your ass and he let out a deep rumble as he squeezed the fat of your flesh.

Bryan walked around you. When he came around to the front of you, he cupped one breast with his hand, feeling the weight against his palm. You did your best to remain stoic, ignoring the bolt of pleasure that had shot down to your core. That changed when he firmly twisted your nipple, as you let out a moan as he did so. That earned another arched brow from him, as if taking mental notes.

He rounded you again, and you felt him close the small gap that remained. You felt his cock, hard, pressed against the small of your back. His fingers gently traced your arm and then brought it up, so it was around his neck. He ran his hand back down along your side, and you trembled under his touch. You were certain your heart was beating outside of your chest. When he got to the side of your ribs, he splayed out his hand, so his palm was against you. Slowly, his hand made way down to the apex of your legs.

“Open.” He rumbled in your ear quietly and you followed his instructions. Your breath hitched as his hand cupped your mound. Bryan’s fingers then moved to stroke you softly, teasing your clit and then moving back to stroke your folds. Your pussy grew wet, your breath became more labored as he continued his ministrations. You bit your bottom lip as he slowly but surely worked you to orgasm. Just when you thought you weren’t going to be able to take anymore, Bryan sunk a thick finger inside your soaked pussy. Your pussy clenched around his finger tightly and you let out a wrecked moan in response.

“You’re so wet and we haven’t even started.” Bryan murmured. His beard against your cheek added another layer of sensation. There was no resistance when Bryan sunk another thick finger and began to pump them in and out of you. The sound of wet filled the room and your legs felt wobbly as you gripped around Bryan’s neck harder. Your other hand found his free hand and you brought it up to your breast, encouraging him.

“I’m so close.” You panted. “Oh fuck!”

“Come for me like a good girl.” Bryan growled as he rubbed your clit with the fat pad of his thumb. He used his other hand to pinch your nipple again and you arched against him, coming so hard that you drew his fingers further in.

“That’s it, that’s it.” Bryan praised. “Oh sweetheart we’re going to have so much fun.” He slid his fingers out of you and you whimpered at the loss.

Bryan spun you around to face him. You were a mess as you watched him admire his wet fingers in the light. Bryan brought them to you and you took his fingers into your mouth, cleaning them of your juices and then imitating as to what you could do with your mouth.

Bryan gave you a salacious smile as he withdrew his fingers. He traced them along your cheek, leaving a wet trail to your mouth where he rubbed your bottom lip.

“I definitely got my money’s worth with you.” Bryan replied. “Go home, get some sleep. I’ll have arrangements made so we can have even more fun.”

You watched as he walked away, grabbing his suit jacket and exiting without so much as a second glance. You stayed frozen in place for another five minutes or so, until you realized you could redress and go home.

The car ride home left you with more questions than answers and more horny than ever. Your battery operated boyfriend ran through its battery as you replayed the evening over and over as you were too wired to sleep from the earlier events.

Eventually you did, with Bryan’s name still on your lips.

TBC.

Tags: @mgarner1227 @madpanda75 @tropes-and-tales @beccabarba @dreamlover31 @dreamlover31 @prurientpuddlejumper @sass-and-suspenders @youreverycolor @neely1177 @witches-unruly-heart @mrsrafaelbarba @skittle479 @greeneyedblondie44 @mommakat32 @teamsladsandgents @detective-giggles @garturbo @zoeykaytesmom @ottosuricato @zoeykaytesmom @bananas-pajamas @law-nerd105

@storiesofsvu @pieceofshittytitty @i-justreally-like-cats-okay @whatisthislife28 @jazzyjoi @rampantmuses @rachelxwayne @qvid-pro-qvo @madamsnape921 @averyhotchner @alwaysachorusgirl @amelia-song-pond @tintinxtintin @wanniiieeee @blueberryt @crowfootwrites @emandems10 @berniesilvas @whoamelinda @its-just-me-chey @resparza @chunex @chasingeverybreakingwave @itsjustmyfantasyroom @bisexual-dreamer02

[emeriethevalkyriegirl]

Nesta Archeron (Harry Potter AU)- Chapter 9 (It Shall Be...)

Summary: The first years have come forth to receive their houses. They represent not only their strengths but their personalities.

The first years passed through two double doors that were as tall as a skyscraper tower. When they made it inside, the room looked like a cafeteria but more elegant. The light in the room was caused by a bunch of candles that were floating in mid air. To make it more suitable, the ceiling had been replaced with a night sky with millions of stars.

“There’s still a ceiling.” Emerie pointed out as Nesta’s left. “It’s just been bewitched to make it look like a night sky.”

“Oh, no wonder I can still see parts of the ceiling.” Nora replied.

The first years stopped when they noticed a strange hat. It was dark brown and wrinkly, like it’s been used for decades. Nesta leaned over to Emerie and whispered, “Is that the sorting hat?” she asked as Emerie shrugged. “I think so.”

“Wait right here please.” Viviane said as the children waited just before the first step. “Before we began, my husband would like to say a few words.”

Nesta looked at Nora with confusion. “Husband?” Nora nodded. “Kallias. High Lord of the Winter Court. His age was never confirmed but they say he’s one of the oldest high lords in history.”

A middle aged man stood up from a seat behind the table from the stairs. He was wearing glasses, a wizard robe, and a wizard hat. “I would like to state a few ground rules. First years please note, that the dark forest is strictly prohibited to all students.” Kallias stated as the students were left to wonder what it was. “Also, Professor Beron has asked me to remind you that the third floor is also prohibited.” Nesta noticed that Kallias was directing his attention behind the students. Nesta turned back to see another middle aged man. He was wearing a dark shirt with dark brown pants and he looked at the students with a horrifying glare. What made him more terrifying was the cat that was next to his legs. Nesta kept a small note in her mind to stay away from Eris’s father.

Kallias sat back down in his seat and let his wife continue. “When I call your name, you will come forth and sit on the stool. I will placed the hat upon your head and the hat will sort you into your houses.” Viviane looked on a scroll of paper and called out the first name.

“Emerie Stone!” Emerie’s heart skipped a beat. She knew a lot of things. How to bathe a newborn dragon. How to look for a unicorn in the dead of night. How to make the perfect green tea. But she was not prepared for her name to be called first.

Emerie walked up to the stool and sat on it. Viviane placed the hat on her head and the hat had begun to speak. “Alright then, my first victim.”

“What?”

“I know exactly where to put you. Ravenclaw!” Emerie smiled and sighed as the other Ravenclaws cheered for her. Emerie got off the stool and sat down with the other Ravenclaws.

“Morrigan Fallout!” Morrigan smirked and sat on the stool. The hat didn’t even have to be on her head to know her house. “Gryffindor!” The Gryffindors cheered as Gwyn whispered to Nesta, “There’s not a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn’t in Gryffindor.”

“Nora Bonnette.” Nora gulped and made her way to the stool. After she sat down, the sorting hat was on her head and it had begun to speak. “Let’s see....let’s see...I know, Slytherin!” The Slytherins cheered as Nora made her way to the Slytherin table.

“Gwyneth Bedara!” Gwyn shook on the inside as she made her way to the stool. The hat was placed on her head, its voice making her flinch. “Ha! Another twin. I know just where to put you. Hufflepuff!” Most of the Hufflepuffs cheered but Cerridwen and Nuala were the loudest. Gwyn blushed and made her way to the Hufflepuffs.

“Catrin Bedara!” Catrin nodded and made her way to the stool. The sorting hat was placed on her head. “You must be the other twin. Correct?” The hat asked a question. Catrin tried not to nod. “Yes, I am.”

“Then have it be, Hufflepuff!” Catrin sighed in relief, grateful that she and Gwyn won’t have to be separated.

“Nesta Archeron!” Nesta gasped. She almost forget that she had a name. Nesta made her way to the stool and sat down. The sorting hat didn’t waste time on introductions. “Ah, I see...a fellow Archeron. Your father was fond of cats you know.” Nesta had nearly forgotten about the ball of fluff that was sitting in her lap. Nesta smiled a little. “I guess he was.”

“Now then, where shall I put you child.?” he asked as Nesta trembling, thinking of the horrible thought that the hat would put her in Gryffindor. “Not Gryffindor. Anywhere but Gryffindor.”

No Gryffindor? Too bad. Then it shall be...SLYTHERIN!”

Lucky was startled by the outburst but Nesta held her close. After she made her way to the other Slytherins, Nora hugged her wrapping her arms around her neck. “I’m so glad you and I are in Slytherin together.”

“Me too.” Nesta replied as Lucky meowed and purred against Nora’s lap. Lily the toad leaped onto the cat’s back and hugged her as well.

The young Slytherins chuckled, happy to see their pets getting along. Sure her other friends were in the other houses, but at least none of them were in Gryffindor.

[lady-literature]

for us to collide (part 4)

anyway who actually expected me to end this thing in 4 chapters lol

rip me ig

Read on Ao3 | part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 (final) | deleted scene

After the not-so-impromptu interrogation courtesy of her friends (because there was no way they hadn’t planned that, it was too coordinated) Robin doesn’t stop by for two weeks.

Which is… fine. Marinette is plenty busy anyways. The extra time she has free now that she isn’t entertaining a bratty vigilante, goes to more productive uses of her time. Like watching bad horror movies with her friends and jeering at the horrible acting and special effects.

(Red Hood stops by in the middle of watching Grizzly Rage and proceeds to rant for twenty minutes about ‘shitty, unrealistic blood splatters’. Marinette has long since passed the point of being worried about it.)

So, yeah. She doesn’t see Robin.

But Damian, oddly enough, seeks her out.

It’s early, and there isn’t anyone else in the studio right now which means Marinette has her music blasting and she’s humming along as she hand paints silk for Clara’s dress. It’s loud and she’s in her zone, so it’s only by Tikki warning her that she realizes someone entered her sanctuary.

Her eyebrows raise when she sees who it is.

“Uh, bonjour Damian," she greets confusedly, reaching over to lower the volume on her speakers. "I hadn’t expected to see you here. Is there something you need?”

He stops before her workstation, only slightly bigger than the ones the rest of her staff use due to the sheer amount of open commissions she normally has. She has an actual office on this floor, but Chloé uses it more than she does. Marinette likes the open space and being around her designers more than she likes the privacy.

His eyes catch on the two bouquets of flowers she’s yet to take home, neither of which have even begun to wilt—and likely won’t. (She’ll have to take them home soon before people start asking questions.)

“I was called here by Father, but he’s currently indisposed. I’ve been told to wait.”

She waits a moment for him to continue, and when he doesn’t, she asks, “So you came to visit me?”

“Yours is the only tolerable presence to be found.” His lips purse, and he crosses his arms. “And that includes that imbecile Drake who is no doubt still in his office like the pitiful insomniac he is.”

Her tongue is already halfway around a joke about excuses—she didn’t befriend Felix for nothing, okay? She knows how people like Damian work—when she realizes what he just said.

“Wait. Tim’s been here all night?”

Damian snorts. “He certainly didn’t return to the manor.”

She’s out of her seat in an instant, frowning and muttering up a storm as she rummages through the storage cubes pushed up against the far wall. She has a blanket, pillow and plain cotton shirt in her hands before Damian registers that she even moved.

“I’m going to kill your brother,” she says simply. “Would you like to come with?”

She’s gotten closer to Tim since working in Wayne Tower. He’s a notorious recluse and rarely leaves his office when he’s in the building, but Marinette makes it a point to visit him during lunch and before she leaves for the night.

He isn’t one of her Waynes, but he is a Wayne and her Waynes love and care for him so there’s not much of a difference really. She does like to think they might be something close to friends at this point though. And if the way Tim comes down to visit whenever he ventures out of his office means something, she might even be right.

Another thing that should be noted, is that Marinette is very much a ‘ride or die’ kind of person when it comes to the people she cares about. She will ruthlessly bully her loved ones into taking better care of themselves on threat of death because she is the semi-hypocritical mom friend and damn proud of it.

Damian looks her up and down, eyes lingering on the items in her hands and the determined set to her jaw and says, “Of course.” Then he’s plucking her things from her hands, offering her his arm and saying, “Shall we?”

Marinette laughs as she loops her arm with his. “We shall.”

***

She spends ten minutes scolding Tim before wrangling him onto the couch in his office and wrapping him up in the blanket so tightly he’d need to be an escape artist to get out of it. He tries to struggle anyway, but Marinette has too much practice at this and he doesn’t stand a chance in hell.

Damian stands at her shoulder and smirks the entire time, eyes dancing with amusement as she forces the CEO of Wayne Enterprises to take a fucking nap. Then, she’s treated to the sound of his surprised laughter as she begins switching out all of Tim’s regular coffee for magic-decaf—not that Damian knows it’s magic.

(By the devilish smirk playing at his lips, she’s starting to think that maybe Damian really is just as sadistic as Duke and Jason say he is.)

***

Damian starts dropping by more often after that (read: starts dropping by at all). Not that Marinette minds. She quite likes his company, actually.

He normally stops by first thing in the morning when Marinette is the only one in the workshop, walking in like he owns the place. For the first couple days, he asks about Ladybug and the rest of Paris’ Court, claiming that he’s curious about them.

She answers them, but only as far as she’d answer them for any reporter and is careful not to give away any sensitive information not known to the public. He gets a bit frustrated at one point, complaining that she must know more, but she stays stubbornly silent about it and, sometimes, steers the conversation deftly to the Great Bat and his Flock instead.

He eventually stops asking about the Parisian superheroes and instead their morning conversations turn to a thousand random things. Complaints and anecdotes and a silly back and forth between the two.

Marinette’s never been much of a morning person but having Damian there to keep her company is… nice.

She almost finds herself looking forward to mornings now.

***

When her Waynes learn that she’s started a food kitchen and makes a habit of spending her weekend there, they immediately insist on joining her, despite her protests.

“You guys really don’t have to do this,” she says even though the three of them are already in their aprons and Cass is eyeing the boucher, Vivian, and her collection of knives with glittering interest.

Duke grins at her, “We know, M. But we want to.”

Jason finally turns back to her from where he’s been staring at the kitchen with something just shy of awe on his face. “You’re downright incredible, you know that?” he waves a hand out at the seating area, and then at the people in the kitchen assembling the healthiest and cost-efficient meals she and Felix could find after days spent researching. “I would’ve killed for something like this when I was on the streets.”

“It’s not just me who’s got this up and running-” she tries protesting but then Fiona, the woman Marinette actually put in charge of this place, is at her side and all but shoving the four of them into stations.

Marinette ends up by the pastries, like always, and she can see Jason making sandwiches. Duke's been roped into making eggs and bean casseroles and Cass, by some grace, actually ended up by Vivian and is having a blast cutting up all the meats as fast as she can.

They don’t stop until lunch, all four of them helping prepare meals for the upcoming week in bulk. After, they all go out for ice cream by the pier and Jason smears chocolate on her nose and Duke carries her around on his back when she complains about being tired.

Cass takes pictures of it all and later, Marinette gets them all printed out.

It ends up being a really good day.

***

The buzz from the charity gala and all the press regarding her and Damian’s non-existent relationship had calmed down weeks ago. There was still the odd article about Marinette being seen with her odd assortment of Waynes and the newspapers still called her ridiculous names when they got a picture, but it was about as close to normal as she gets.

The quiet lulled her into a false sense of security.

Ice Prince and Sweetheart Finally Seen on Date: Fairy Tale Romance or Publicity Stunt?

The ‘date’ in question was a coffee and lunch run for her designers and also Tim (because kwami knew he'd work through lunch if allowed).

Damian normally didn’t stay past Lilliane arriving in the morning (the poor dear was chronically late and always the last to arrive) but he hadn’t shown up until after she came that day and overcompensated by hours—which she hadn't minded. He kept to the fringes of her workspace and didn't distract her, instead focusing on his own thing. She wasn’t quite sure what he was up to, but she knew he was switching between his computer and sketchpad every so often.

(She's pretty sure he was hiding from Dick for some reason. He’s the only Wayne brother who doesn’t visit her at work, seeing as they have their bi-weekly gymnastic sessions; recently, with the addition of Mar’i, who still calls her ‘twin’ and whom Marinette still adores.)

And then lunch had rolled around, and it was Marinette’s turn to go out so she brought Damian with since he was still there.

They were out together for forty-five minutes. Tops.

“Why me?” she whines into the surface of her desk.

Damian, the asshole, just laughs at her and she can’t even be mad about it because he’s only just started laughing around her and not hiding behind so many of his walls. He laughs and Marinette knows it's precious so instead of shooting him the glower he deserves, she finds herself having to hide the smile slowly creeping on her face.

***

They’re splashed across the papers again less than a week later, only this time she has her Waynes there too.

Marinette's wearing her bright red sundress and she's somehow convinced Damian to wear a jacket with elaborate crowns and snowflakes embroidered up the sides. Because, as Chloé says: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

They see the camera this time and the photo splashed across the page the next day is of Marinette laughing with Jason’s arm slung across her shoulders as both he and Damian flip off the camera. Meanwhile, Duke and Cass stand just far enough in frame to capture their expressions of pain and amusement respectively.

(Marinette makes a mental note to order apology gift baskets for the PR department.)

There are a lot of headlines the next day about Marinette’s ‘harem of Waynes’ and how she’s a ‘horrible influence on such bright children’. She spends about ten minutes trying to decide whether she should be horrified or laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it and eventually decides on both.

Adrien, the little shit, sees the headline and immediately prints it out to hang in her kitchen.

It reappears every time she tries to take it down.

***

Gotham does not smile upon daytime heroes.

Not to say that Gotham really smiles on anyone, but it’s especially vicious to those that think they’re owed anything. She’s heard the way Gothamites talk about Superman and The Flash—it’s not exactly what one would call adoring.

But Ladybug's been a daytime hero her entire career and it is not difficult to see that there's something distinctly different about the way daytime heroes and Gotham’s vigilantes operate.

Something more vicious, maybe; something more restrained.

Without the light of day and without the people’s eyes watching them at every moment, the Gotham Bats have become something else entirely.

Signal, their Daytime Protector, is especially strange.

A bat who's meta, straddling the line between day and night. The Day Patrol, trained by the night.

Sometimes, when she and Signal talk about heroing, there is such an odd type of disconnect that it throws her. Nothing horrible or major, but little things she’s sure she wouldn’t notice if she wasn’t so intimately familiar with it all herself.

They don’t always talk about heroing though. After two months, Ladybug is proud to say she seems to be worming her way past his outer shell nicely. He tried so hard to keep his distance from her, but Ladybug’s always liked a challenge, and it isn’t long before she has him relaxing around her. 

Well, for a definition of relax anyway. He's still a bat after all.

But then, it’s pretty easy to get past Signal’s barriers when she’s already had practice breaking through the more stubborn bats like Robin and, to an extent, Hood. Not that Signal, or any of the bats, know that.

Which, speaking of the bats, isn’t it a bit weird she’s only met three spread across two of her alter egos? As Ladybug, she’d expect to be hounded by a few of them but the only one she’s met is Signal. She can’t decide if it’s because he’s the only one that operates in the daylight, or if they just don’t want to spook her into running or something.

Either way, they’re going to start giving her a complex. She’s heard so much about the rest of the Batfamily, and not one of them even wants to meet her? Either her?

(Maybe Marinette should ask Robin and Hood what’s up with that? The way they talk about how nosy Red Robin is, she’s surprised he didn’t drop by months ago and- is it weird that she’s offended by vigilantes not prying into her private life?

…Probably.)

***

Marinette blinks, stopping dead in her tracks.

Damian's on her fainting couch, sketchpad in his lap as he waits for her.

“Why are you wearing a beanie?” she blurts out instead of greeting him like a normal person. "You never wear beanies."

Luckily, Damian scowls at her question rather than at her. It’s a subtle but very important difference.

“Sorry,” she apologizes anyway, putting her bag down. “I haven't had coffee yet.”

He hums, then nods to her desk where she finds a steaming to-go mug. Her face lights up and she quickly snatches it, breathing deeply the lovely aroma. “You’re a godsend.”

That brings a quirk to his lips, closer to a smirk than a smile, but progress nonetheless.

After a moment, where she sips at her overly sugary monstrosity—just the way she likes it, when had Damian even noticed that?—and he continues sketching she asks again. “Okay but, I actually am kinda curious. What’s up with the hat?”

He sighs heavily, closing his pad. “It’s… better than the alternative.”

Marinette snorts. “Alternative to what? A top hat?” But instead of snapping back like she expects, he just continues to frown. Immediately, her lips turn down into a concerned frown. “Is there something wrong?”

“Yes,” he grounds out and Marinette puts her coffee down. She’s just about to open her mouth and say something else when he reaches up and rips the beanie off his head.

For the second time in less than five minutes, she stops dead.

Marinette opens her mouth. Closes it. Blinks, but the scene doesn't change.

His hair is still blue.

Damian Wayne's hair is blue.

Damian Wayne’s hair is vibrantly electric blue.

Her hand shoots up to cover her mouth as she tries to stifle her giggles.

Damian’s scowl deepens. He moves to shove his ridiculous beanie back on his head but her hand snaps out before he can.

“No! No, I’m sorry I just-” she giggles again. “You looked so upset by it and you took me by surprise. I like it!”

He glares up at her, still sat on the fainting couch so it’s her who has the height advantage for once.

“Don’t patronize me.”

She rolls her eyes, the hand that wasn’t settled on his arm reaching up to touch the bright strands. It's slow enough that he can stop her, but he, surprisingly, makes no move to.

His hair is a lot softer than she expects it to be. But she supposes he didn’t use that gel stuff today, planning on keeping his hair under a hat the whole time.

“It looks good on you,” she says softly.

He snorts disbelievingly and she smacks his shoulder lightly. “It’s true! I swear you could look good in any color.” She clicks her tongue longingly. “I wish I had your skin tone. I’m too pale to wear pastels like I want.”

He wrinkles his nose at her. “Pastels?”

“Oh you hush,” she quips, finally pulling her hand from his hair. “Anyway, if you don’t like it, why’d you dye it blue in the first place?”

“I… lost a wager with Todd.”

She laughs, starting to move around and get ready for the day. She doesn’t have any meetings scheduled, which means she gets the whole day to create. She’s pretty excited about it.

“I should’ve guessed it was Jason’s doing.”

Damian shrugs, settling back into the cushions. He drapes himself across them in a way that’s effortlessly elegant and like he’s ready to be photographed for a magazine cover or something. Must all her friends be so pretty? It’s playing hell on her self-esteem.

“But blue is your favorite color, right? So there’s that at least.”

Damian hums. “Todd had threatened to dye it pink or some other equally garish color.”

“Hey!” she exclaims in mock outrage. “What’s wrong with pink? I’ve been wanting to dye my hair pink for ages.”

“Nothing. It’s just simply not a color I appreciate.” He makes a face. “Like orange.”

Marinette huffs, but there’s a smile on her lips. It's quiet for a moment, for long enough that she thinks the conversation's been dropped. But then-

“Why don’t you?”

“Huh?”

“Why haven’t you dyed your hair?” he repeats. “Your friends—Couffaine and… Kubdel? They both have colored hair.”

Marinette shrugs. “I dunno. Never got around to it I guess. I suppose I could do it now. Dye mine in solidarity,” she jokes. “Oh! We could match even! Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“I thought you wanted pink?”

“Well, yeah. But blue is nice too. Besides,” she smiles wryly over her shoulder, “you just said pink was ‘garish’.”

Damian frowns slightly, shaking his head, “On me, perhaps. But I think you’d look very fetching in pink.”

“Oh,” Marinette pauses, feeling her face grow warm at the sudden compliment. “Well- Uh, pink it is, then.”

***

(Damian watches the blush rise on her cheeks as she turns away to try and hide it. Yes, he can’t help but think, fetching in pink, indeed.)

***

Luka insists on being the one to dye her hair, citing that he’s the one who had dibs all these years, but Alix and Jason both all but demand to be there too.

Her bathroom is not big enough for all four of them to sit in.

Not a single one of them cares.

Cass and Duke ask for progress pics along with Uncle Jay, and all her Parisian friends cycle through standing at the bathroom door to see how it's going.

The constant stream of people looking at her makes her feel not unlike an animal at a zoo. (When she wryly tells this to Alix, all she gets is her friend cackling on the ground.)

But, after all the bleaching and conditioning and waiting, she stares into the mirror with soft pink hair the color of bubblegum and thinks, yeah, it was worth it.

She thinks it again when Damian walks in the next day and almost trips over his own feet.

(She’s also wearing her Robin themed sundress, complete with hood, matching boots and personal touches not found on the mass-produced version—but Marinette doesn’t know why that would be relevant.)

Her favorite reaction to her new hair color though is, by far, Mar’i’s.

Marinette doesn’t see the young Grayson until a week later when she’s invited to the monthly family dinner Alfred insists all the Waynes attend—which includes her now, apparently (she tries not to show how pleased she is by that).

She arrived with Damian, who was kind enough to pick Tim and her up from work, and Mar’i takes one look at Damian and her standing next to one another before she starts babbling excitedly about Lilo and Stitch and Angel. A character who is—apparently—Stitch’s girlfriend and the complimentary pink to his blue.

Marinette is momentarily surprised, but Mar’i’s enthusiasm is contagious and it isn’t long before the rest of the Waynes are teasingly calling them Angel and Stitch. Marinette thinks it’s all very funny and adorable.

Damian, on the other hand, most certainly does not and threatens everyone who calls him that ‘ridiculous nickname’ with graphic depictions of bodily harm.

‘Angel’, oddly enough, sticks for Marinette. She finds she kind of likes it.

***

Later, Damian asks her about nicknames.

Well, he calls them ‘asinine titles’ and doesn’t so much ask as demand she explain why she allows anyone to call her by them seeing as she has a ‘perfectly serviceable name,’ in his opinion.

Ignoring the fact that she’s heard Dick call him multiple nicknames he hadn’t protested to, she says, “Well, I guess it’s that everyone uses Marinette. A nickname is something… special. A little more personal, I guess. And, I dunno. My parents named me Marinette, but it’s nice to share something between other people. And it shows they care.”

Damian looks confused after she’s done, but also thoughtful. He doesn’t say anything to that and Marinette doesn’t really expect anything to come of it.

She's proven wrong when, a week later, Damian calls her Starling instead of Marinette.

(And the transition from Dupain-Cheng to Marinette had been enough to make her beam—this is just ridiculous.)

***

When Robin disappears a second time, Marinette doesn’t get the chance to notice his absence on her own. He’s only stopped showing up four days ago—which is longer than normal, but not unheard of—when she hears unfamiliar voices on her balcony.

Looking out, she finds three semi-familiar individuals clustered around the plate of treats she leaves out for Robin and Hood.

Nightwing and Red Robin are both stuffing their faces full of the fruit tarts she had made while Spoiler glares at them and seems to be cursing the fact that her mask covers her mouth the same way Hood always does when she makes those raspberry scones he likes.

The scene is… odd. For many reasons but most pressingly that their arrival has come out of nowhere.

“Well,” Nightwing explains when she asks, “We wanted to visit ages ago, but baby bird threatened to stab us all if we tried.”

“He’s very… particular about you,” Red Robin tacks on while Spoiler nods sagely like she hasn’t crafted some strange straw monstrosity just so she can drink tea while still wearing her mask. Red Robin has one too, but his for the aesthetic rather than out of necessity.

Marinette stares at the three of them. “That… does not explain why you are here now.”

“Robin can’t stop us now, obviously,” Red Robin says casually, like he hasn't just kicked her heart into high gear with a few words.

“What? Why?” she demands, trying very hard not to sound panicked. “Is he okay? Was he hurt?”

Red Robin blinks, going quiet in that way Hood and Robin do when they’re judging her just a bit. She hates this family.

“No, he’s… fine.”

“B’s just benched him for the time being,” Nightwing helpfully supplies, amusement flickering at the edges of his lips. “He’s a little too… conspicuous at the moment.”

Marinette’s shoulders relax even as her brows furrow. Conspicuous? What in the world is that supposed to mean?

“Does that mean he won’t be coming around for a while?” she asks before she can think better of it.

The three vigilantes in front of her share a look before Spoiler says, “Probably. But the gremlin’s never been one to sit still so who knows?” she smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners as she leans toward Marinette conspiratorially. “But don’t worry. We can keep you company in the meantime!”

“We’re much better company than the demon anyway. Certainly less insulting.”

“Oh, he’s not that bad. He’s an ass, for sure, but you can tell when he means it and when he’s just stumbling over himself.” Marinette smiles fondly, “For someone so dignified, he trips over his tongue quite often.”

Now the vigilantes are really staring at her. She’s starting to feel pretty uncomfortable about it all when Nightwing beams at her, jumping up from his seat to sweep her into a hug. It startles her, but she doesn’t push him away, instead laughing at the sudden affection.

“Oh you really are perfect!” he exclaims, setting her down and still grinning like an absolute lunatic.

She’s smiling, because Nightwing’s joy is infectious, but she's even more confused than before. And then, before she can ask what he means, Red Robin’s wrist computer lights up—and damn, isn’t that cool? Marinette wonders if Tikki could do something like that for the Ladybug suit—and the three are moving to swing back out into the night.

She waves them off and they all promise to visit again.

Marinette shakes her head before going back inside with the empty pastry plate and four empty mugs.

***

Damian knows of Marinette’s friends of course. It'd take more effort not to when she talks about them every chance she gets and tells him all the wild stories about their escapades and misadventures.

(They also all came up in the background check he ran on her when they first met.)

Most of her friends are exceedingly normal oddly enough. Well, they’re all mildly famous and the leaders of their various fields, but they’re just civilians.

The only exceptions being, Bourgeois, Agreste, and Graham de Vanily.

Bourgeois is a former hero like Marinette, only she doesn't seem to still be in contact with the Parisian Court. All the articles he could find spoke about how Queen Bee was deemed unfit for her mantle and later replaced by the new bee hero, Ambrosia. Agreste was caught up in the scandal of his father being Hawkmoth, but he was found innocent and ignorant of his father's crimes (something Damian made sure to confirm). He now works at and is being groomed to own the bakery Marinette's parents run, seeing as their daughter has little interest to do it herself.

And finally, Graham de Vanily, Agreste's cousin, has a history of causing trouble wherever he goes. Nothing villainous, and rarely even malicious, but there's something about him that makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Not everything is as it seems with the Graham de Vanily heir.

Besides those three outliers, Marinette's friends seem to be untouched by the vigilante life. Which means he thinks they must be utterly boring.

Only, when her friends start coming around to visit and drag her out for lunch or some other random outing, Damian keeps finding himself baffled by each of them.

They act strangely and with a dangerous air none of them should possess, except for Tsurugi. The questions they ask him are strange and the jokes they make have no sense. He's been warned about how he better treat Marinette so many times, he's started to lose count. (Which is ridiculous. He treats her just fine and would never intentionally harm her. What are they trying to insinuate?)

But, by far, his most memorable encounter is with Lahiffe. A veritable wolf in sheep's clothing.

Marinette is excitedly babbling about her newest idea for her summer collection, pressed up against him on the chaise and practically shoving her sketches in his face as she demands his critique and thoughts.

Her hands are waving every which way and, on more than one occasion, he has to quickly lean back so she doesn't hit him in the face.

He’s focusing on what she’s saying so much—because she has a habit of forgetting things if she doesn’t write them down and needs someone to remind her of the ideas she had at a later time—that he doesn’t even realize Lahiffe is there until he clears his throat.

Marinette jumps, almost elbowing him in the stomach. “Nino!” she shouts, springing up and flinging herself at the other man who catches her like this is something she does often.

“Heya, Nettie.”

“Wait- what are you doing here? You’re not-” she jolts back to look at Lahiffe’s amused expression. “Oh kwami, is it time already? Shit. I wasn’t paying attention. I’m so sorry! I have to give this one thing to Publishing but then I promise we can go, okay? Like, just five minutes!”

She's already moving before she finishes speaking, sweeping up papers and rearranging files and putting things away with all the swiftness and agility of a speedster. Damian watches her go about her routine, occasionally handing her something she’s dropped or pointing out a thing she’s missed, weaving around her chaos with practiced ease.

Then she’s sweeping out of the office with a distracted “be right back!” and he’s alone with Lahiffe.

The second Marinette leaves, the man’s attention swings onto him with a strange weight. For a long moment, he doesn’t say anything and Damian’s hackles raise with every passing second.

He doesn’t snap at him though, because he’s one of Marinette’s friends. Insulting him would only serve to make her upset and that’s something Damian's been trying to avoid causing as of late.

“Man,” Lahiffe says at last. “Alix wasn’t kidding about the whole besotted thing, huh?”

Damian rears back, straightening up to his full height. “I beg your pardon?”

Lahiffe laughs and waves his hand about like that’s supposed to mean something. “Ah, no need to be embarrassed about it, dude. You’re far from the first of us to fall for her charms.”

“What.”

“Yeah, we've all been there. I think over half of the Paris crew crushed on her at some point, including myself. None of us are into her like that anymore, so as long as you treat her right, you got nothing to worry about."

“I’m not- I'm not interested in Marinette,” Damian tries to protest but Lahiffe just calmly steamrolls over him.

“Nah. Everyone loves Nettie. It’s universal law or something. First, there was me and Adrien, then Luka—who she actually liked back for a while there but are now practically siblings. Chloé liked her in collége, but she hadn’t really come to terms with that at the time. Alix might’ve, but she’s pretty grey-ace and fluctuates on the romance points, so who knows.

“Oh! And Nath. He also snagged a date with her, but he was an Akuma at the time so I’m not technically sure that it counts. And he’s with Marc now anyway. Thinking of adopting a kid, last I heard. Anyway- my point was: everyone loves Nettie. And don’t bother trying to fight it, because it only makes her pull of gravity worse.”

Lahiffe then claps him on the shoulder like their talk amiable and not the most confusing speech Damian’s ever heard.

And then he doesn’t even get to say anything to that because Marinette is sprinting back through the door, grabbing her jacket and bag, telling him goodbye, and dragging Lahiffe out to who knows where.

Damian stands there longer than he cares to admit trying to make the world make sense again.

***

A week and a half after she learned Robin was benched, Damian catches her staring off into space as she doodles tiny robins in the margins of her sketchbook.

He gives her an odd look when she scrambles to hide them, blushing hotly and babbling about how she’s “Just fine! Nothing to worry about! I’m just, maybe, perhaps, a little worried for a friend even though I shouldn’t be, because his family says he’s just fine and-”

He looks contemplative when he leaves that day, but he didn’t ask about her outburst, so she extends the same courtesy to him.

***

That night, Robin returns.

“What,” she says around the laughter threatening to bubble out of her throat, “are you wearing?”

Robin scowls from behind the full cowl he has on that she’s pretty sure belongs to Red Robin. It makes him look a whole ten years older and she can’t get over how ridiculous he looks. If he keeps doing stupid things with his face while wearing that monstrosity, she is definitely going to laugh at him.

“What are you wearing?” he shoots back petulantly.

She blinks in confusion, then realizes she’s still wearing her Red Hood inspired jacket right now. Tan colored fake leather with fuzzy, red inner lining, done with all the same pockets, buttons, and zippers Red Hood has on his own jacket. It looks almost exactly like the jacket she fixed for him all that time ago, except she's also added a soft, crimson hood and his own personal bat symbol stitched across her shoulder blades.

As far as things she's designed goes, this is one of her simpler ones. It's nothing like the elaborate creations she makes for the Ambrosia or Ryuko themed items.

But Red Hood was a simple kind of person, and she likes that it’s reflected in her work.

Robin doesn't seem to agree if the poorly concealed disdain on his face means anything.

“What?” she asks teasingly, “You jealous?”

He scoffs and looks off to the side. “Of course not. I simply do not understand why you’d want anything to do with that simpleton. Especially not when I know you have clothing articles referencing far superior individuals.”

She snorts good-naturedly, "What 'individuals'? You mean you?"

The way he raises his nose self importantly is answer enough, and she can't stop herself from rolling his eyes. "Well, it's certainly a start. But I'm not the only one."

"Oh, yeah? And who else is marvelous enough to stand on the same level as you?"

"Multimouse."

Her mouth goes dry, and she can tell Robin is pointedly not looking at her.

“Come inside,” she blurts in lieu of all the things she really wants to say—which are mostly just embarrassing variations of I missed you. “I can, uh, make us tea. If you want.”

It's the first time she’s ever invited him inside and she can see the small bit of shock on his face—well, what she can see of it anyway—before he schools it.

“Yes,” he says in a tone of voice that implies it was his idea in the first place. “That sounds… good.”

She steps aside, allowing him to pass her by into the flat. Only instead of just walking past her, he stops halfway through the doorway and stares at her. She’s about to ask what’s wrong when he reaches out with his hand to gently grab a lock of her hair.

“Pink suits you, by the way.”

She quirks her lips, “Yeah? You don’t think it’s… too much?”

The corners of his mouth turn down, “Absolutely not. You look…” he trails off, mouth flattening into a line and dropping his hand.

She blinks at the odd behavior. “Nice?” she offers tentatively.

He nods, but it’s a little jerky and strange. But before she can ask about it, he’s already turning to enter her flat like he owns the place, remarking about her choices of tea and if she’s finally acquired an ‘adequate teapot’.

She shakes off the moment and goes in to follow him before he wrecks her kitchen in his careless search for tea supplies.

***

MinnieMouse: COME GET YALL JUICE

and by juice i mean me

I still do not have an american license

JaneAustenStanAccount: what do we get out of it?

MinnieMouse: ???

the pleasure of my company??

also youre literally the one that invited me to watch megamind

JaneAustenStanAccount: and??

daisyduke: shut up jay

we all know youre soft for M stop tryin to play tough

MinnieMouse: this is why duke is my favorite

he’s a living callout post

swanlake: :(

MinnieMouse: second favorite

im so sorry cass ily

swanlake: :)

daisyduke: i aint even mad

JaneAustenStanAccount: I AM

guys wtf

MinnieMouse: you brought this on yourself

maybe you should be nicer to me

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

daisyduke: ‘get fucked jason’ -marinette 2k20

btw im omw for you now

MinnieMouse: thnx ur the best

also im bringing scones as movie snack

daisyduke: noice

swanlake: !!!

JaneAustenStanAccount: FUCK YEAH!!!

MinnieMouse: you dont get any Jay

JaneAustenStanAccount: >:(

i hate it here

***

Marinette doesn’t know a lot about Robin’s past, which she assumes is by design. Secret identities don’t lead well to handing out details and concrete information about one’s personal life.

But, she thinks, one would have to be blind, deaf, and dumb to not see that whatever facsimile of a childhood Robin had was about eight different levels of fucked up.

It’s in the vague allusions to ‘training’ and the scorn filled way he says the word ‘mother’. It’s in the not-quite-confusion—because whatever family he has is better now, at least—of Marinette telling him about her own parents. About the happy memories she’s shared with them, of learning to bake bread and croissants and macaroons under the loving guidance of her father and practicing delicate designs and frosting techniques with her mother.

So, yeah. She knows he’s kind of messed up and definitely checks off the childhood trauma box that’s apparently one of the requirements for being her friend.

So when Robin suddenly decides to go against everything she’s learned about him up until this point and actually share something about himself—and when that thing he shares just so happens to be a story from his childhood—well… Marinette wouldn’t say she’s prepared, but she’s not- prepared.

He’s in her kitchen, because Marinette has learned her lesson about bleeding vigilantes on her couch, and she’s pretty sure he could’ve gone back to the Cave for this, but he came here for whatever reason. (Was closer, he said. Marinette doesn’t know if she believes him.)

She’s cleaning the knife wound on his arm, and she has his cape laid out across her island. There’s a hole in it she plans on sewing back up after she finishes sewing the hole in her reckless vigilante back up.

“You need to be more careful,” she scolds. “You’re lucky this didn’t nick something important.”

“It's hardly the worst wound I’ve ever acquired,” he tells her in a tone of voice that he probably thinks is reasonable. “At seven years old I had to dig a bullet out of my side in the middle of a Himilayan snowstorm while still making it back to base with time to spare after having successfully assassinated a Russian ambassador.”

Marinette pauses where she’s smoothing the gauze onto his bicep. Her eyes flick up to his, and she sees the exact moment he seems to realize what he just told her. He’s gone utterly still beneath her hands, with terror or worry or the effort it takes not to bolt out the window immediately, she doesn’t know.

“That’s horrifying,” she tells him as she finishes securing the obnoxiously bright bandage, “Never tell me that story again.”

She then drops a kiss onto his bicep, subtly imbuing it with enough luck that it will keep off any infection—the wound was filthy when he came in, seriously, was he in a sewer?—and pats his cheek warmly before moving to clean up all her supplies.

She feels his eyes on her the rest of the night, but every time she turns to him, she can’t tell what he’s thinking. All she knows is that he seems… softer, in a way.

***

Three days after Marinette’s unexpected look into Robin’s past, she finds a box on her desk. It’s a jewelry box, and the only reason she doesn’t immediately freak out is the fact that it lacks any of the miracle box markings.

Still, she opens it hesitantly, and inside, she finds a necklace. A completely normal, non-magical necklace that’s simple and pretty and very much shaped like a tiny toy mouse.

There is no note.

***

(Lahiffe was right.

The Earth spins around the sun. The sky is blue.

Everyone loves Marinette.)

***

The necklace is obviously supposed to be a reference to her Multimouse days, but that doesn’t exactly narrow down who could have left it for her.

Or well, it does, but all the people it narrows down to don’t make any sense.

Multimouse is a badly kept secret, but it’s still a secret. Most people outside Paris don’t know about her and the people in Paris didn’t exactly recognize her off the street either.

Her Court knows, obviously, and so do the Waynes and the bats. But her Court wouldn’t leave her mouse themed gifts, they tend toward ladybugs or their own animal motif as a gift (the amount of cat and bee themed items she owns is ludicrous).

Which leaves the Waynes and the bats.

But her Waynes wouldn’t leave the gift on her desk, and they certainly wouldn’t forget to put a note, so Duke, Jason, and Cass are out.

She must stand there thinking about it too long, because then Jeremy's walking in, just as bright and early as ever.

He sees her holding the box and his face turns a strange mix of curious and outraged. “Is it your birthday? I swear, Boss if you didn't tell us it was your birthday-”

“No, Jeremy,” she says, amused despite her confusion. “That’s not for a while yet. I found this when I walked in,” she shakes the box slightly for emphasis, “but there wasn’t a note.”

“Oh.” A smile slowly spreads across Jeremy’s face. “Oh?” he purrs, waggling his eyebrows at her. “Does the boss have a secret admirer?”

Marinette blinks and- what?

“What? No. I can’t- That doesn’t-” she splutters but Jeremy just laughs and walks over to his station to start setting up for the day, leaving Marinette to her breakdown.

Because this can’t have been left by a secret admirer. That’s just crazy.

There are exactly two people who could’ve left this for her and neither of them would be an admirer of any kind. And she wouldn’t want them to be anyway because that would be stupid and ridiculous and weird.

She doesn’t like Robin or Damian like that…

Right?

***

(It’s impossible not to love her, he realizes, mostly by accident.

She loves, wholeheartedly and unafraid and so much more than Damian had ever thought one person could. She loves with a ferocity and passion no person deserves or can match.

And Damian, foolishly, loves and wishes to be loved by her anyway.)

***

There are roses on her desk the next day, potted and still healthy.

The day after that, there’s a box of expensive chocolates. Like, the kind only Adrien, Felix, and Chloé buy without a second thought. The gossip has spread far enough that all of her designers know about the gifts and probably-admirer.

On the fourth day, there is a box full of high-quality pencils and a new sketchbook, one with nice thick drafting paper, but small enough to fit in her favored bag. Her name is embossed across the front, along with her personal motif of delicate apple blossoms.

On the fifth day, she shows up to find there is only a drawing, which should point to it being Damian, but drawing-her is holding a robin in her cupped palms which cannot be a coincidence. Drawing-her also looks serene and beautiful with her mouth curved slightly and her eyes gentle and soft and Marinette is as touched by the image as she is frustrated by it.

There are hair sticks on the sixth, and delicate pins shaped like flowers on the seventh. Another stunning drawing of her on the eighth, a bottle of wine older than Master Fu on the ninth, the softest cashmere blanket on the tenth, a basket of sweet floral lotions, a glass statue of a bird in flight—she gets so many gifts, Marinette has to stop keeping count.

It’s somewhere around day six that her designers must’ve ratted on her to either Felix or Chloé because it’s not long after that, that all of her friends learn about the gifts and start being terrifically unhelpful about the whole situation.

They each try to give her advice, which would be sweet if it wasn’t all equally terrible and conflicting.

They’re also placing bets on who they think her admirer is, Damian or Robin. They’re trying to be discreet about it—which means they’re failing miserably.

Marinette, admittedly, never expected any different from them.

***

Marinette begins watching Damian in the mornings with a newfound interest.

The gifts are always there before she arrives, which means they're also there before Damian arrives, so she’s in a prime position to catch his reaction.

Or, she would be, if he ever reacted. He barely glances at them and never says anything unless the gift is particularly obnoxious, like the giant stuffed mouse she found sitting in her chair last week. (It was almost as big as she was. Adrien, Nino, and Alix had ended up on the floor from laughing so hard when they’d seen it.)

Damian almost never comments on the gift she received that day, but whenever she uses or wears something that her mysterious admirer had gotten for her, he makes sure to compliment her. Which would be  very suspicious except that Robin does the same thing.

It’s just- they’re both so frustratingly silent about it all! Marinette is this close to just grabbing one or both of them by the shoulders and just shaking until they tell the truth.

It’s driving her insane! Before the necklace appeared on her desk, she didn’t even know that she liked Robin and Damian.

And now she’s overanalyzing their nonreactions. She hates it.

It feels too much like she’s back in collège, trying to sort out her feelings for Adrien and Chat. (Who ended up being the same person—which was just very inconsiderate of him, really. The least he could do is let her angst have meaning dammit!)

And- ugh. What if she doesn't even like either of them? What if her mind is just making her think she does because the idea of them liking her was presented? What then? Or what about the fact that the two boys are also ridiculously similar when she thinks about it. What if she only likes one and is just projecting her feelings onto the other because her mind associates the two?

Oh, she doesn’t like that thought. That thought makes her feel upset and like she wants to cry into a tub of ice cream.

Nino happily indulges her and doesn't even complain when she eats her way through his stash of mint chip as she dramatically complains about stupidly confusing boys.

Honestly, she may as well be back in lycée.

***

(What Marinette does not realize in the midst of all her careful analysis of his reactions, is that it’s not the gifts he’s focused on.

When she wears the necklace and hair sticks, she misses the way his eyes linger on the slope of her neck. As she cares for her roses, she doesn’t notice the way he follows the easy nimbleness of her fingers. She uses her sketchbook and eats the expensive chocolates and doesn’t pay attention to the way he steals glances at her lips. She doesn't see the way his hands twitch when she ventures just near enough to touch.

(She exists next to him, in any form or light, and he is captivated by her very presence.)

Marinette looks, but it is in all the wrong places.)

***

Strangely enough, it’s Signal who helps her with her internal crisis—completely unintentionally and in a very roundabout way—but he helps all the same.

He’s taken an… interest, she supposes, in her magic. One that is entirely his own and has very little to do with that Bat from what she can tell.

His abilities and hers stem from different origins, but she would be lying if she said his weren’t oddly complementary to her own. His precognition abilities stemming from his photokinesis has been useful on more than one occasion regarding the experimental spell matrices she, Tikki, and Nooroo have been testing out.

The magic is normally invisible to people without a Miraculous, but Signal seems to have little trouble seeing what she’s doing, even if he can’t interact with it the way she can.

(There is also the fact that she seems… more when he is around. Days that he spends watching her do her work go by faster and smoother than when he is away. Her magic is easier, and her mind spins with ideas and creations faster.

It’s an odd phenomenon and Ladybug is looking into it.)

There has been more than one occasion where Signal had warned her of the matrix’s imminent collapse with enough time for her to prepare herself for its blowback.

The version she’s working on today is their fifth iteration. It’s supposed to pull the miasma out of the building, filter it through her and Tikki’s own magical energy, before flowing back into the brickwork. Marinette had thought of the idea while talking with Nooroo.

If she can get it to work, it will shift the misfortune into good luck and order and release it back into the environment. Then she’ll only need to cleanse strategic portions of the city in a lattice network, and the creative and destructive energies will mix from there, balancing themselves without much input from her at all.

Of course, that’s only if she can actually get it to work. It’s been almost a month and this is the fifth version and it’s already collapsed on her three times in the last hour. Signal must see the frustration on her face and has taken to trying to distract her with small talk.

She’s very thankful for it, actually. If he wasn’t doing that, she would probably start screaming right here and now, on this random rooftop in the residential district. Which would just be very startling and embarrassing for everyone involved, so. You know. Glad she doesn’t have to do that.

Eventually, she asks him, apropos of nothing, “You’re a detective right?”

He pauses, and blinks at her, likely trying to follow the train of thought that led her to that question. She assumes he did not find it because when he speaks, he still sounds confused.

“Yes? I guess that’s technically what I am.”

“So you’re good at figuring out who’s behind a crime?”

Signal only looks more confused. “Yeah? But Ladybug, what-”

“Great, so. Hypothetically, if you had two suspects for a—well it’s not a crime. A… thing? Situation. How would you figure out which one of them is actually behind the… situation?”

Signal’s lips quirk, just a bit despite his confusion. “I think I’m gonna need a little more to go on than just ‘a situation,’ LB.”

Ladybug purses her lips and stares down at the light weaving intricate patterns in the space between her palms. Slowly, carefully, she tells him, “There are items being left where a person can find them. But the identity of the person leaving them and their intentions are unknown.”

“Are the items dangerous?” he asks worriedly.

Ladybug shakes her head. “No. They're more like gifts.”

“Are the gifts unwanted or creepy? Unsettling? Threatening?”

Another head shake. “Just confusing and… thoughtful.”

“Someone is leaving you thoughtful gifts and you're worried about that… why?” Signal asks, slowly and disbelievingly. 

“It’s because I- wait! I’m not the person!” she panics, causing the magic to spark dangerously in her hands but she barely notices. “The person doesn’t even exist. It was a hypothetical question!”

Signal stares at her. She can’t see his eyes or the top half of his face, but she just knows he’s raising his eyebrow judgingly at her.

“Stop that!” she snaps. “Stop being perceptive! I have enough perceptive people in my life so knock it off!”

Signal laughs like the horrible person he is. “But don’t you need me to be perceptive? That’s like, a requirement to be a detective.”

“Stop it,” she says again, mulishly and very childish.

And isn’t that an odd thought to have? Ladybug being childish.

How novel. Ladybug has never once been childish. She can’t afford to be, because when she is behind the mask, she is all the most important parts of herself. She is the Grand Guardian, is the one who must be in control at all times because she has an entire team to keep safe and alive.

Behind the mask, she’s all of her greatest responsibilities.

But here, in Gotham and with Signal, she is none of those things to him. She is simply another hero, that is his age and very much like him in ways so few are. Ladybug, in the moments she spends with Signal, is probably the closest she has ever been to carefree while in the mask.

It’s as comforting a thought as it is terrifying.

Signal raises his hands in surrender, but his lips are still quirked in amusement. 

Ladybug regrets starting this conversation.

She regrets it even more when, five minutes later, Signal manages to pull the rest of the story from her… along with a name.

She realizes her mistake a second too late to stop herself, and then all she can do is watch.

She watches, with ever-growing horror, as Signal slowly puts the pieces together. She watches, as her whole secret identity starts unraveling around her for the first time ever. She watches, stricken, as Signal opens his mouth to speak.

And then she grabs both sides of his head and Orders him to sleep.

***

The second Marinette bespells him, she regrets it.

She was panicking, okay? And Marinette panicking is very different from Ladybug panicking and truly, she creates messes just by existing.

Nooroo flies out of his hiding place to make distressed noises at the now unconscious Signal with her, which is… actually kinda soothing, if not exactly helpful.

At least she knows she’s not the only one upset right now.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” Nooroo frets, flitting around her head with agitated wings. Hers aren’t much better, if she’s being honest. “What are we going to do, Guardian? He knows who you are! This is bad.”

Marinette worries her thumb between her teeth, shifting her weight from foot to foot. With a thought, she's back in her civvies and Tikki is perched on her shoulder, blinking at the scene she’s suddenly a part of.

“Well,” Tikki says, sounding far too calm for the situation. “This isn’t ideal.”

The laugh that escapes Marinette is on the edge of hysterical. “You think?”

“It’s not ideal,” Tikki repeats firmly, “But neither is it a disaster.”

Nooroo lands on her other shoulder as she kneels down beside Signal to rearrange his limbs to not be so uncomfortable. “But he's unpredictable!” he argues, curling into the side of her neck like she will hide him from the world. “We don’t know what he’ll do with this information!”

Tikki hums thoughtfully. “Then we will have to ask. There are far worse people we could have been revealed to. We're lucky it was a friend rather than foe.”

“You think so?” Marinette asks softly, voice barely louder than a whisper.

She knows the Bat’s flock are good people. Many of them are her friends, or people she hopes to call friends soon.

But she doesn't know if these people Marinette calls friends could be Ladybug’s allies.

The bats hoard secrets like black holes, and perhaps they would keep hers just as well, but they could just as easily use it against her. Batman barely tolerates her presence, she can tell by the way Signal talks sometimes, and it is no small stretch of the imagination that he would use this to try and kick her out of Gotham.

Marinette cannot, as a Guardian, leave Gotham.

But more importantly, she doesn’t want to leave Gotham. It’s… her home now. Her friends are here. Her family is here. Robin and Hood and the other bats are here. Damian and all her Waynes are here.

Leaving Gotham would not only make her sick and jittery at the imbalance, but it would break her heart.

If, when Signal tells Batman, he reacts poorly, there is so much that Marinette is set up to lose. And that terrifies her.

Some of that thought process must show on her face—or perhaps Nooroo has just picked up on the turmoil in her chest—because the two Kwami are pressed on either side of her face, nuzzling and hugging as much of her as they can reach.

“We’ll make it through this, Marinette,” Tikki says firmly, no room for argument. “Don’t worry so much. Both of you. Everything will turn out just fine, you’ll see.”

***

@bluesimani @how-to-fuction-properly @chocolatecatstheron @mystery-5-5 @nickristus-dreamer @mochegato @thenillabean @animegirlweeb @novaloptr @darkdaysandfakesmiles @optimistically-pessimistic0524 @clumsy-owl-4178 @g-arya @undecisioned @smolplantmum @blackmagicforever @i-wanna-be-a-ninja @wannajointhecrabcult @paintedhope7 @redscarlet95 @roselynfey @ira-sairain @lozzybowe @tumbling-down-hills-and-stuff @2confused-2doanything @pepelachanel @too0bsessedformyowngood @miraculouspenta @itsmeevie01 @corabeth11 @jalaluvsu

[athys-obelia]

summary: the non dysfunctional!imperial family au hcs no one asked for 😳👉👈

character/s: anastacius de alger obelia, claude de alger obelia, athanasia de alger obelia, jennette de alger obelia

here's part 2 :)

let’s set our stage, shall we?

first of all claude n anastacius’ dad is dead coz we don’t like him at all ew

so ana is the emperor, and claude is his heir presumptive (aka he’s got the strongest claim to the throne rn, but this can be changed by the birth of someone who has a stronger one - ie, anastacius’ child who would be the heir apparent) also bc “i know my mom and i gave u lots of childhood trauma that you prlly won’t be recovering from because therapists aren’t a thing here but here’s a crown you might get to make it better”

claude’s in a position where after the birth of ana’s kid/direct descendant, he’s gonna be given a duchy that athy should inherit after him while still retaining the title of prince

but after hearing of diana’s pregnancy, ana tells her and claude he doesn’t really plan on having children and wants to make their future kid his successor

he basically reserves a spot for their child in the directory and rather than announcing anything publically, anastacius names her athanasia after the sex is confirmed

then this mf obviously pulls a clown move and gets penelope pregnant and complicates things, ultimately naming her jennette, finding the name fitting - ‘god is gracious’

and really, what could be more evidence of god’s grace than the child he’s now fathering, when he thought his legacy would be ending with him?

anyways!!!

so since athy and jennette are born near the beginning of ana’s reign, both claude and anastacius are wayyy too busy trying to bring back the empire from the literal brink of bankruptcy and a possible war to really spend time w their kids

it’s alright, though!! lily is hired as athy’s nanny, while jennette gets kiel’s mom as hers

they all still live together, though obviously the main palace is for ana + jennette while claude + athy are in a separate one

this 'separate one’ is ruby palace after ana dismisses the concubines and he definitely 100% did this on purpose, and whenever he’s summoning claude he’s such a shit about it and goes about it the way you’d summon a deadass concubine

on a separate note, it’s surprisingly claude who visits athy first - he’s seen her here and there with lily but hasn’t ever had the chance to spend time w her. but now it’s almost been a year since athy’s birth (or diana’s death), her first birthday is fast approaching, and he is drunk

lily is a reallyyyy light sleeper and enters the nursery upon hearing someone inside

she doesn’t expect to see the prince standing above his daughter’s crib, a strand of her golden hair between his fingers as he just…stares at her

she approaches quietly, curtsying in greeting - he’s too absorbed to notice, and after a few minutes of silence lilian tells him, “babies can get lonely too, your highness.”

he glances at her then, confused. “how?” he really can’t understand how this girl, who can’t even speak yet comprehend something like loneliness

“princess athanasia is very responsive to her surroundings, much more than children her age usually are,” lily says, “and i like to believe children are able to tell when their parents are with them.”

he scoffs - what a foolish thought. still, claude sits by her bedside, and before he can register it, he’s taken over by sleep

the next night, claude makes his way towards the nursery and stiffly asks if athy could sleep beside him for the night - it’s fairly late, but lilian allows it

he’s gone to the main palace too early the next morning for athy to be awake, but she spent about two minutes tops worrying about the strange surroundings, saw the shiny chandelier and fancy bed and decided yes, she doesn’t mind this kidnapping

this becomes somewhat of a regular occurrence soon enough, and sometime that week she wakes up in the middle of the night with her nose pressed into something soft and literally falls off the huge ass bed at the realisation that this something soft is actually her papa’s hair (you just know that hair smells great i mean uh-)

this mans wakes up and peeks at her on the ground, reaches out to grab her from the front of her nightdress (he swears it’s exactly how he’s seen lilian do it) and plops her back onto the bed

she backs up OBVIOUSLY, you don’t just wake up with a random ass man in your bed and just vibe together?? lee jihye is dying but he glares at her for disturbing his sleep and athy pulls her act together in 0.000001 secs as claude pulls her closer and goes back to sleep

as athy grows, claude starts allowing her to visit his office during the day until it becomes a sort of ritual - he’d have tea and milk prepared and she’d come, sitting somewhere completing a puzzle or sum while he works

mans nearly tears down the entire imperial palace the day she doesn’t show up until he finds her in the garden, teaching jettie the 'proper’ way to hold a teacup during tea parties while lilian and roger’s wife, vivian, watch

athy emotionally blackmails asks him to join the tea party, so half an hour later, anastacius finds his brother sitting on the grass with a plastic teacup that athy’s filling with hot water as she lectures him to learn to fix his posture from lily so he can sit like a “proper dignified lady”

so in the beginning, jennette actually ends up spending more time with claude than her dad. though one day, the brothers are in the audience hall when athy runs in with felix running after her telling her not to run (there’s a shit ton of guards surrounding anastacius so felix has orders to be with princess athanasia when claude is with ana)

anastacius is used to this sight, and watches, smirking at his brother’s subtle smile as athy offers him this wonky looking flower crown - claude accepts it wordlessly, and ana wants to slap his ass to sanity, who wouldn’t thank their kid when they do adorable things like this??

but then they hear another voice, and in comes jennette with vivian not too far behind her. now jettie has a much cleaner looking crown in her hand, but she glances at her father’s elaborate and beautiful crown all embedded with gems and glittering and then at the one she’s fashioned out of daisies

she's always thought she was much like her uncle - jennette was so fascinated by the plain daises, they weren’t flashy but caught her eye all the same - while athy was shiny and bold like her dad

but now she’s second guessing her choice, how could she make such a simple crown for her dad, the emperor??

claude sighs from beside anastacius and literally picks off his brother’s crown before tossing it towards a very tired felix

athy urges jennette forward, and with a bright red covering her entire face she offers the crown. jennette glances at her uncle for comfort before muttering, “for papa”

anastacius.exe has crashed

this blushly, embarrassed, and apparently talented at flower crowns kid was his?

long story short he forgets to breathe or react and jettie thinks he hates the crown and hates her and won’t ever like to see her again so she starts getting teary

claude pushes his brother’s head down before athy can be convicted for murder

ana 100% almost faints when her tiny chubby fingers delicately place the crown in place, he’ll never admit it but he closed his eyes and almost hugged her instinctively as she shyly adjusted some of his bangs around the new headpiece, muttering, “papa pretty”

jennette rushes back to her sister, who’s glaring daggers at the emperor

anastacius tries to smile to calm jennette a bit and maybe look nice enough for his niece to not kill him in his sleep

right well kiel becomes the royal playmate for both the princesses - athy has her classes with him since she’s advanced and honestly they’ll be going back forth with infodumps one minute and he’s teaching her to make paper airplanes the next

(she writes notes on the paper airplanes the next time she’s in claude’s office and flies them towards him, stuff like, 'does uncle cius also snore loudly like papa?’ and he gets seriously offended like a pissbaby)

jennette first met kiel when he was visiting his mom - vivian had to leave for a bit and she taught him a bunch of flower names and their meanings in the meantime - he makes sure to research a new flower every time he visits her, and brings her a bouquet of said flowers she always knows them but never says anything coz she doesn’t wanna hurt his feelings and he gets so excited as he tells her about their meanings it’s so cute

speaking of jennette - claude and ana may seem worlds apart but they’re at the same level of emotionally constipated

ana watches his brother and niece interact and he craves that, an unconditional, timeless love that can’t possibly be tainted by ulterior motives or the like, but he just doesn’t know how to approach little jettie

it seems easy enough - she’s a smiley, sweet girl and theoretically would be friendly if he is to approach her

but gods he’s just so ashamed - such a sweet babe grew without either of her parents and he doesn’t have an excuse because holy hell, even claude is close to athy

he’s being served food in his chambers when he asks the maid about jennette, and she tells him how among her first words was 'love’ and the brunette would just stroll the palace pointing at people and declare “love you” and watch their face light up

thats so CUTE OMFG

his jaw is touching the floor when he’s told that his daughter knows the names of every worker within the palaces

at this point he’s honestly questioning whether this child is his at all

he’s absolutely horrified at the realisation that this maid, who doesn’t even work in jennette’s part of the palace, knows more about her than he does - hell, he hadn’t even asked vivian to keep him updated on her growth, what right does he have to stick himself into her life now?

now, the maid quietly suggests starting with something small like inviting jennette to tea and

of course he goes about it the wrong way??

poor jettie thinks she’s being tested by the ruthless emperor on her etiquette and spends the entire day practicing with claude after athy guilted him into it

she’s so nervous in front of her dad that he honestly feels even guiltier, and anastacius hurries to grab her hands in his to calm their tremble as she reaches to serve him tea

she apologises lmao and he’s just so flustered himself that he orders for her to sit down and instructs her through a few deep breaths

as she calms down, ana serves her the tea before asking whether girls her age even drink tea

she says no and you can literally hear the crickets

he slides the cup he’s poured for her over to his side before gesturing towards the deserts (it was claude’s daughter-luring pro tip) on her side

“you look like you read a lot,” ana says, before asking whether she’s been reading anything interesting lately

“i don’t, actually,” she tells him shyly

anastacius laughs at how of all things his hate for books is what she got from him - and only when jennette chuckles does he realise that he said that out loud

he lets her go around her bedtime, feeling rather… energized? he doesn’t know how to explain it, but it’s a good feeling

he’s busy again the next day, but has an aide send her flowers - the same ones she had put in her flower crown for him

yes lucas is still sleeping in the palace, yes athy still finds him

so athy sees the flowers from uncle cius and is enraged, literally walks up to her uncle and demands he leave jennette alone if he’s only gonna break her heart by neglecting her

and so we have fifteen minutes of the emperor of obelia stuttering as he explains himself to this seven year old

smfh his cluelessness reminds her of her own dad and she takes pity on ana’s suffering soul

the next morning, to give him a chance to redeem himself, athy asks all four of them to have breakfast together - they accept the invitation, and despite an awkward start, the meal seems to be going well

peace is not written in this family’s fate however, and this is where the first coughing up blood thing happens

ohhhh the palace staff almost gets massacred that day

athy’s limp body is moved to jennette’s room since it’s the closest - lily bursts into tears at the very sight of her princess, jennette refuses to eat or drink until her sister can, felix hears his heart break, claude is barely holding himself together

ana is livid - who dares poison a member of his family? what has he even done to earn the privilege of calling these girls his family, when he can’t protect them, at the very least?

claude absolutely refuses to leave her room and finishes all his work right outside her door, lest she wake up in pain again

anastacius can’t keep his own anxiety about jennette at bay, insisting she sleep with him as long as claude stays with athanasia - he can tell she’s drained, and she ends up sharing some of her worries late at night. he soothes both her worries and her cries, letting her curl up into him despite it being a rather uncomfortable position

the family is thrown into chaos again once they realise it was never poison, but athy’s own magic that caused this

aka when chibi lucas drops by and voodoos her back to 100%, everyone legit starts worshipping the ground he walks on - he saved their precious princess!!

ana insists on making him athy’s royal playmate after hearing she isn’t fully healed yet

what does this give us? well, a very very early lucas vs kiel

since they’ve both got the title of royal playmate, they constantly argue on whether being the future duke alpheus is a better title than the future royal magician

the girls are always dragged into this - athy always takes kiel’s side to avenge blackie, and jennette likes kiel too, but the young magician sir saved her sister!!

so.

when vivian passes away due to an illness, it’s like roger is an entirely different person

jennette + kiel + athy all help with the funeral preparations since she was a mother/aunt to them all

felix seems to be paying extra attention to kiel

it isn’t long after this that roger decides to send him to arlanta for his studies, leaving behind two disillusioned princesses

athy spends her time viciously studying to stay ahead of arlanta’s curriculum, while jennette takes an interest in cooking

(athy tries and fails spectacularly; lucas laughs at her and jettie accidentally serves him his favourite food too salty to be edible)

a/n: this would be the first of the two parts, so stay on the lookout, hope y'all enjoyed n have a great day <3

edit: part 2

[vivithefolle]

Hi Vivi, can you share some thoughts on the "Hermione deserves to be/should have married to XYZ because she is way too good for Ron" mentality of this fandom??

I’m gonna copy-paste a Quora answer of mine, because recycling is important!

Claiming that Ron is “out of Hermione’s league” is a statement rooted in sexism, classism and probably a bunch of other -isms.

It might seem like I’m just throwing buzz-words around but let me explain.

First off, the sexism.

Oh, the sexism.

As I’ve pointed it out in yet another one of my answers  (I’m so sorry for drowning you all in a plethora of links), Ron is very much a female-coded male character.

Ron is emotional, wears his heart on his sleeve, has anxieties and inadequacies, walks off in order to cool down, has a temper, puts other people before his needs, and pretty much adopts Harry when he rescues him in the second book. He’s the Heart of the Trio: he doesn’t rely on sole logic, he can believe something without proof, he is sensitive and thus is the easiest to hurt emotionally.

Whether you call it a “beta male”, a “wuss”, “defying gender roles” or a “soft boy” is your own business, but the core of it is that Ron doesn’t meet the standards for people’s vision of a “desirable” masculine figure.

The little things Ron quietly performs in the books - when he helps Harry into his pyjamas in Chamber of Secrets because Harry’s arm is bloop; when he’s worrying about Hermione’s whereabouts in Prisoner of Azkaban; when he helps Harry unwind after his visions in Goblet of Fire; when he puts food onto Harry’s plate and wakes him up from his nightmares in Order of the Phoenix; when he beams that Hermione was “perfect, obviously” when she passes her Apparition test - all those caring gestures don’t seem like much, but if you bother to think about it, they paint an enormous picture.

Who gets Hermione to stop overworking while making her feel good about her accomplishments? Who comforts Harry from his nightmares and cares for him in the dead of the night, when nobody is awake? Who makes sure his friends are healthy and happy? Who wards off the dark and depressing thoughts, be it with his fists or a joke?

It’s Ron.

When you think about it, “traditional masculinity” in Harry Potter is as much frowned upon as “traditional feminity” is - which sometimes bites Rowling in the butt when you remember how she obviously seems to consider that Hermione and Ginny are the only desirable kind of girls.

Vernon Dursley? The entrepreneur “king of the household” prejudiced suburbian middle-class Dad? Fits in the usual tropes of traditional masculinity.

Dudley Dursley? The typical “boys will be boys” spoiled middle-class only child who’s the apple of his parents’ eyes and even takes up boxing, as if he wasn’t traditionally masculine enough.

Draco Malfoy? See Dudley, but toss in “upper-class posh aristocrat bully who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty so he has henchmen do it for him because he’s too rich for this sh-t”, would remind you of a few Christian Greys or Gatsbys.

Dolores Umbridge? Oh no, cat pictures, decorative plates, talks to teens as if they’re babies and PINK, SO MUCH PINK!!! So disgustingly feminine!!

Rowling very much frowns upon traditional gender roles - with Molly Weasley being an exception because Rowling feels very strongly about being a mother, and relates to Molly a lot.

Right - so, being a beautiful mess of paradoxes and contradictions (a “soft boi” who also punches bullies in the face, a fussy mother-hen who swears like a sailor, a tall athlete with badass scars on his arms who’s nurturing and sweet; in short, a wonderfully human character), Ron is obviously going to be a polarizing character. You painfully relate to him and get defensive when he’s criticized, you feel his characterization hits a bit too close to home so you hate him, or you disregard him completely because you can’t see anything “special” about him…

Now, onto another very, very sexist point that is often made.

People say that Hermione “deserves better” than Ron, often claiming that they “aren’t intellectual equals”, then citing Harry (who is mistaken as being some sort of slumbering genius but honestly, the kid is really a bit daft) or Draco (since apparently, being rich must equal to being intelligent) or, god forbid, Snape (because he’s a teacher and teachers are meant to be clever).

Soooo, I could go the loooooong way and pull out all the receipts that prove that none of these characters are perfectly intellectually matched to Hermione…

Or I could go the long way and simply give you this: this obsession with finding an “intellectual equal” for Hermione reflects the mentality of “women are not allowed to be better at something than their husband”.

Yep.

A woman has to be all-around pretty good at everything, whereas a man has to be the absolute best in his area of greatest competence (surely better than any puny female!) with a help-meet there to compensate for his weaknesses. People are very, very uncomfortable when Ron and Hermione reverse this dynamic. Hermione is extremely intelligent and dedicated to intellectual pursuits, but is complete pants at things like self-care and people skills. Ron is bright enough to keep up with her and strong in her areas of weakness.

Even if Ron was as dumb as a sack of rocks (he’s not), his other virtues are more than enough to “justify” Hermione loving him. (Because she needs an excuse?) But no. A woman has to be with a man who outdoes her in her area of greatest strength. - credit to @lytefoot

People don’t want Hermione to be with a man who’s her “equal.” They want her to be with a man who can be The Man so she can know the contentment of being The Woman.

But, with this sexist line of thought, how do we justify how Ron is supposed to be such a bad match for Hermione? Because if it was just about mere sexism, Romione would surely be more popular. Imagine! Ron happily raising the children, being a house-husband and proud of it, while Hermione is out there fighting for justice in the wizarding world! What a power-couple, defying norms and gender roles and not being the least bit conscious of it, prime OTP material for sure! So why do people still want Hermione to put Harry, Draco, or god forbid², Snape in Ron’s place? Is this an irrational hatred of redheads? An Harmionian’s delirious wet dream? A failure to separate the actors from their characters?

It’s all this and, quite frankly, something more: the inherent classism that comes with Ron’s status as an explicitly working-class coded character.

I know, I know, “Vivian! Calm down with the buzzwords, you’re starting to sound like an online pretend-feminist magazine!”

Or “Come on, people who don’t ship Ron and Hermione together aren’t all sexist or classist!”

Of course, of course! I know that! I’m not implying that!

But some of the “reasons” why they claim that Ron and Hermione can’t work - are extremely classist in nature, that’s just it!

Come on, think about it! What are the Number Ones arguments people always pull against Ron? Or the most common Ron-bashing tropes (look at fanfics and watch the number of stories that use at least one of those)?

Ron is stupid/mediocre

Ron is lazy/useless

Ron resents his wife’s hard work/success

Ron is a homophobe

Ron is a drunkard

Ron (the big prude who at 16 had never kissed a girl and sees a first kiss as the prelude to a wedding) is massively oversexed and cheats on Hermione with anything that moves

Not only do these “reasons” completely ignore ALL OF RON’S CHARACTERIZATION - except for the “lazy” bit but come off it, all teenagers are lazy and Hermione’s the exception to the rule - but it matches perfectly with the negative stereotypes associated with working-class white men in fiction.

It’s also very funny to note how many (assumedly middle-class or financially secure) fans look down on Ron for being “whiny” or “greedy” when he expresses the desire to have money of his own, or blame his parents for “not knowing when to stop” or “being irresponsible”, or even look down on them for being “too proud to accept help”!! Also how shocked people are when Ron dares to stand up for himself when Hermione or Harry act badly towards him. How dare this country boy not listen to the wisdom of his social “betters”?

So, obviously, because our Heroine can’t go with a Nasty, Mediocre Working-Class Man, she must be paired off with someone of Proper Status: say, a Hero that was raised in a middle-class home and might be a bit psychologically damaged but it’s nothing all those gold coins in his vault can’t fix; or this Rich Posh Aristocrat who actively rooted for her death, he’s a little bit eccentric and has some exotic pet-names to call you, but I’m sure you’ll learn to love him and will unearth the gold coins in his bank account… I mean, the heart of gold that lies within the surface; oh, why not a Way Too Big An Age Difference Teacher if you’re looking for a “cultured man” who has zero things in common with you; we can also bring Convenient Plot Device Famous Rich Foreign Athlete if you want some diversity and you don’t feel original!

But we can’t - oh, we mustn’t let her be with this Terrible Working-Class Boy! His brothers are fine, they have money, they have jobs, so they’re obviously Not As Mediocre. But let our precious Hermione be with this Just-Got-Out-Of-School hooligan? She can’t possibly be in love with him! You’ll see darling, you’ll get bored eventually! He’s too mediocre for you, you deserve a man who outclasses you - I mean, who can provide for you! You’re a fragile little flower who scars people for life when she’s not happy with them, what makes you think that this boy can possibly handle you even though he’s done so for the past seven years?

You wanted it, you got it.

People are shallow, have misconceptions about Ron’s character that they are unwilling to correct or use classist and sexist arguments to try to make it so that either Ron is the Devil himself / Hermione is a higher kind of being that can only orgasm if sufficiently “intellectually stimulated” / what-have-you.

[manananggal]

Written for the 13_Cases Prompt on the Trese Discord server by seductivevenus. Theme: Déjà vu + College. It's written in taglish and i’m too lazy to tanslate rn so... hehe. kinda follows the headcanon (?) from the fic Mumoo, Mumoo, Paano Ka Ginawa? that Alex went back to college to finish her degree. (naol! char graduating na din naman aqu)

..

Back when Lily was in second grade, she was seated to a girl named Alex.

Which, in her seven-year-old mind, sounded pretty cool. In a classroom full of Maries, and Annas, and Jennys, a girl having a boy’s name is unheard of. Her own name is pretty common too. She didn’t dislike it per se, but Alex (especially for a girl!) sounds waay cooler than Lily, so…

Alex was new to their school. She is fair-skinned, with shoulder-length hair with the darkest shade Lily has ever seen. She finds herself stealing glances at her new seatmate, her hair being a source of wonder for Lily.

The girl with a boy’s name is quiet. She doesn’t speak unless she’s called for recitation – she never raises her hand, but she knows the answer each time Teacher Evelyn calls her. Alex doesn’t speak until she’s spoken to and sometimes, she wouldn’t even answer then. Her being quiet is okay with Lily, though. Their house in Damka is noisy enough for her. Even their classroom is noisy enough for her.

The other kids, however, didn’t like Alex’s silence very much.

“Yabang naman neto,” Jen-Jen says, arms crossed as she walks back to her seat in the first row. Alex declined Jen-Jen Cruz’s invitation to play in their house afterschool . “Kala mo naman maganda,” She added, her upper lip curling in distaste.

Alex's demeanor didn’t change at all as she continued to eat her corned beef pandesal in silence.

Lily was confused, and maybe even slightly jealous. Jen-Jen was nice enough to her, but she was never invited to join them – not even for recess. Or even when they’re let out in the playground for PE. When she’d approach their group, Nicole, one of Jen-Jen’s friends, would say, “Puno na kami eh,”

“Alex, ‘bat ayaw mo sumama?” Lily asked, turning slightly to face her seatmate.

“Para saan? Marami naman sila dun,” It was the most Alex had said to her.

“Diba mas masaya kung madami? Classmate kami nung grade one. Mabait yun si Jen-Jen. Saka… maganda yung mga Barbie niya,”

“Kung mabait siya, bakit hindi ka nila sinasali pag nag-lalaro kayo?”

Others might assume Alex’s question as some sort of comeback, but even Lily’s young mind could understand the logic...? Sincerity...? of her words. Lily fell quiet as she chewed on her Square Lemon cheesecake.

Whispers started to spread that Alex is mean, and that she’s maarte for someone studying in a public school. After all, there must be something wrong with the quiet girl who turned down the chance to be friends with Jenny Cruz.

But when Lily’s too frustrated from having to squint at their teacher’s too-small handwriting on the black board (Kung sino man ang naka-isip ng alphabetical arrangement sa upuan, ang panget niya!), Alex would slide her own notebook closer to Lily, letting the other girl look from her notes. Alex’s writing is nice, especially for a second grader. A lot nicer than Lily’s Ate Camille, who’s already in grade six. The letters stay between the lines, and the pages of Alex’s notebook are clear of smudged eraser marks.

That day when Lily lost her Hi Catty pencil case, Alex lent her a spare pencil (newly sharpened, eraser on the other end intact, and without chew marks!). Lily looks up and gives her seatmate a grateful, teary smile. Alex gives her a smaller smile in return before resuming writing in her notebook. (Lily hoped that using the same pencil will make her own handwriting neater. It didn’t, but that doesn’t matter.)

When she opens her lunch box and sees that she’s having hotdog for recess for the third time that week, Alex offers to give her some of her baon. Lily took a single pandesal, and she swears she could hear the angels in heaven sing after she took a bite.

They’d sit together under the huge mango tree in the middle of the playground. Alex taught her to say “Tabi-tabi po,” before sitting. When it’s time to go back inside the classrooms, Alex would place a single, unopened chocnut in the base of the tree. Lily looked back once, and she could swear she saw a tiny person with skin as brown as tree-bark waving at them. She blinked, and the person was gone. She asked Alex if she saw it too, but all Lily got was a small smile.

Lily liked to think they were friends. Maybe even best friends. Which is why it hurt when one day, Teacher Vivian announced that Alex won’t be attending school anymore. She wondered if it’s anything she did. Maybe she annoyed Alex by being too chatty, or by eating her favorite corned beef pandesal one time too many. She didn’t think to ask for Alex’s telephone number – they didn’t even have a telephone at home. Besides, Aling Remy who owns the store in front of their house charges five pesos for five minutes. Her mom prepares her meals, and her dad picks her up from school, so there’s no need to ask for money.

Their class seating arrangement was changed, students were moved around, and Lily finds herself sitting next to a boy named Patrick who watches the same anime she’s seen and tells the same jokes she heard from yesterday’s Ang TV episode. As weeks turn into months, and months turn into years, Lily moved from using pencils to ballpens and intermediate papers and formal theme books, the girl with a boy’s name slowly faded from her memory.

Years later, when she enrolled back in college after taking LOA for a few years, Lily finds herself sitting in the back. It was the first day of classes, and she’s starting to regret taking the 9:00 am – 10:30 slot for Managerial Accounting, but the professor is highly sought after, and students are said to be lucky to be in his class. A girl wearing a long, black coat takes the seat next to hers.

Lily steals a glance at the person sitting next to her. The girl is staring straight ahead, her mouth set straight as she focused on what their Prof is saying. Her bangs (or is it a bang - singular?) looks cool, and while the long trench coat is way too hot for the Manila weather, the girl seems to rock it. She seems to disappear after class, and so Lily spent the next few weeks sitting next to someone who’s name she doesn’t know.

But that’s just college.

There’s something familiar about the girl, however, but Lily can’t place where she saw this girl before. Surely, someone with that distinct style would stand out. That’s the least of her worries, however, since Sir Lara had announced that there’s a quiz and she seemed to lose her only working pen.

“Shuta naman ‘bat ngayon pa…” Lily groans, as quiet as she can as she rummages through her bag for anything. She doesn’t really know anyone in this class. Within her circle of friends, she’s the only one who took this early slot to accommodate her work schedule. Being an irregular student, and an older student at that, she’s hesitant to approach these younger kids. 

She'll take this quiz with a crayon if she has to.

A flash of movement caught her eye, and she looked up to see her seatmate handing her a pen. “You can use this,” The girl offers. 

Her voice is a little deeper, but it suited her perfectly, completing the Queen of the Underworld vibe she has going on for her.

There’s something very familiar with the moment Lily finds herself in. It made her feel as if she’s forgetting a piece of a puzzle. But she could solve that for another day. Right now, the quiz is her priority.

“Mars, thank you!” She says, taking a relieved sigh.

Sir Lara started going around the room, reminding them to take one seat apart from their classmates before he hands down the answer sheets one by one. Lily was just thankful that she was able to study for this quiz last night.

When the bell rang signaling the end of that day’s class, she all but shoved her things inside her bag to be able to catch up with the other girl.

“Ate girl, yung ball pen mo!” Lily calls out.

The girl was already out in the hallway. Lily wondered just how many pockets her coat has, since she didn’t think she ever saw this girl carry a bag. “Uy, thank you ha.” She says, fishing the pen from her pocket.

“Wala ‘yon.” She regards Lily with a small smile. There is something that’s really, really familiar with the way her mouth quirks upwards.

“Teh, kung ‘di mo ‘ko pinahiram ligwak si watsung sa quiz. Ano palang name mo ulit? Ako si Lily,” She smiles, holding her hand out.

“My name is Trese,”

Wait… Lily heard that name before…

“Alexandra Trese.” The girl who introduced herself as Alexandra took Lily’s  hand and shook it.

“Wait, teh, parang kilala kita…”

“It’s been years, hasn’t it, Lily?”

[antlersofthevoid]

Before The Dawn - Chapter 1

V was found shortly after Tessa turned Nine.

Accompanying her parents to the local dump, she had noticed a mostly still living worker, badly damaged but desperately attempting to hold on, and very excitedly requested they attempt to repair her.

Tessa insisted she could do most of the work herself, but her father helped her with the more delicate processes, helping guide the tools in his daughter's hands while replacing the screws in the abandoned worker's back plating.

J watched with a burning sense of curiosity and interest, as they both stepped back to allow the newly brought-in worker to power back on.

She wobbled a bit. The poor worker looked terrified, staring up at her new human masters in fear, then to J, in her pristine dress and neatly kept pigtails.

She took a deep breath, and sighed.

The company had designed their drones with a secondary way of communication, a way of keeping silent when humans had priority in speaking, allowing them to pass on information or commands without making as much as the hum of a servo.

Where am I? What's happening?

J gave the trembling worker a look of reassurance.

You've been..

She considered her words carefully.

..Re-homed. These are your new masters, i'm-

V's optics widened.

Re-homed? Oh, no, no! Malachi will be very upset when he finds me missing! I must be returned immediately!

J cocked her head to the side. 

She could hear Tessa and James discussing something, but she focused more on the conversation that she and V held on their own frequency.

Malachi?...Your old master?

V nodded.

Yes! He was… 

She looked around.

The size of that girl there! Soft blonde hair and bright blue eyes- and I must get back to him! If his parents find out he lost me they-

J shook her head.

..I don't think they'll be too upset.

V finally looked down at her hands, the rips and stains on the velvety red dress they had found her in, her gaze drifting to the tools surrounding her.

J could see the emotions cycling through her processors. Confusion. Recollection, anger, sadness, and then acceptance.

She finally looked back up to J, a hint of sadness in her voice.

..Is this….is this a good home, then..?

J nodded.

Warm sleeping quarters, weekly maintenance and system checks, and the finest oil you'll ever drink.

She smiled as Tessa approached the newest drone again, sitting down on the floor in front of her, offering her a clean dress and already beginning to tie ribbons into her hair.

Home..?

V smiled up at Tessa as J nodded.

…home.

           _-_-_-_-_-_

Surprisingly, it was Tessa's mother who took a liking to V, and was even given the choice of naming her, by Tessa.

Vivian.

A name that suited her, similar to how Tessa had affectionately designated J as "Jamie", even though they were usually addressed as the single letter that identified them on their arms.

Maybe it was how V listened to orders. How she nodded with excitement and followed Louisa with loyalty around the manor, listening to her rambles, taking notes for her, and carrying items. How she sat without protesting in the den while Tessa's mother hummed and worked to sew up old dolls and dresses, how she'd sit and untangle the yarn when the box got tossed around. 

She became much more skilled at the tasks that required finer detail when she got her glasses. Realizing that V's internal optics had been damaged beyond repair, she was given a pair at first to simply test, then, to keep, when she managed to pick up every needle that had fallen from Lousia's sewing box.

Being collared was the highest honor that could have been given. While the more rebellious workers saw it as derogation- being seen as a pet, something to claim and boss around, those in J and V's place saw it as acceptance. The leather fit snugly around their necks, a silver tag sitting in the middle with the Elliott family's crest engraved, a sign that they were important.

They were loved.

To V and J [and Tessa, at least], it felt like acceptance. 

It felt like officially being seen as a part of the family.

N's introduction was nothing glamorous, unfortunately. A simple butler discarded when his original owner, a sweet, elderly man, passed away in his sleep. 

N had been heartbroken, and J could see it in his demeanor when he followed her through the manor- he remembered. He was mourning. J knew, Tessa knew, and it took nearly a month of constant reassurance that Tessa wasn't going anywhere anytime soon- that she was still young and had her life ahead of her, for him to calm down and grow attached to their caretaker. J felt sorry for him. She tried to mourn with him, wondering how it would feel to lose the human they were created to serve- wondering if she would live her battery life to see Tessa-

…she never let herself think much farther than that.

If he'd had a tail when Tessa placed the collar around his neck, J knew it would have been wagging wildly. For the first time since he had arrived, N expressed genuine excitement and happiness- love. Eventually after his "promotion" she began to let N sleep beside her when she guarded Tessa at night, even if he somehow always fell asleep and ended up curled up at the foot of Tessa's blankets [which was J's spot, but she didn't mind to share.] It felt nice to have someone else around.

Niko, was the name he'd been given. He liked it.

Cyn and Grimm were found at the same time, coming from the same family. They were siblings, owned by a wealthy family, somehow more snobby than the Elliots could ever be.They were used for show. Kept clean and tidy and then flaunted around on leashes and pedestals, used by the humans to compete and see who could make their workers look the fanciest: treated like show dogs, never shown any true love, only seen as an object to dress up.

They were discarded after an incident involving another contestant.

Cyn wasn't afraid to tell their story, she seemed rather proud of it.

There was another worker involved, dressed in fancy red ribbons and bows, she had insulted Grimm and attempted to rip up his attire [which was absolutely devastating to him, as she'd managed to rip his favorite jacket in half]. Cyn wasn't having any of it, and while she skimmed over most of the gruesome details, it was clear that the other drone was damaged worse than Cyn had been. 

Cyn still had a working processor. Red ribbons didn't.

They had been labeled as aggressive and haphazardly discarded, Cyn could no longer hold her head up high to display her status- she wobbled when she walked and often had to have support, using her hand to guide her head when making gestures or moving herself around quickly.

And Grimm was there for her. 

J wasn't sure about him. He was quiet- reserved, normally keeping to himself or hiding behind Cyn, holding onto his sister's hand when she walked and shying away whenever V or N tried to talk to him. He kept his thoughts hidden behind his curtain of curly black hair, no matter how much Tessa tried to brush it out of his face. J let him be when she could, save from the occasional passed on order or question, to which he would give a simple nod or a head shake, a "yes ma'am" or "no ma'am".

And for the longest while, it was just them in Tessa's circle. Collared, loved, and pampered. The pile at the end of Tessa's bed grew, with J being the one consistently keeping watch, no longer just over Tessa herself, but over her siblings, knowing how much they meant to tessa- and herself. She had been there from the start. She was the one designed to protect, to keep Tessa company, to guard her, to keep her happy. No matter how many other drones came or went, that would always be her purpose, and she would fulfill that purpose until her last moment. 

No matter what.

[inkedstarlight]

Bittersweet: Chapter Nine

Summary: Cassian and Nesta finally meet. Officially, this time. Let the romance commence. Notes: Read it here on AO3! Warnings: very brief/non-explicit mention of sexual assault Bittersweet Masterlist

“Earth to Nesta?”

Nesta snapped from her trance to see Emerie waving a hand in front of her face.

“You’ve been cleaning the same spot for a good ten minutes,” Emerie gestured to where Nesta was scrubbing the counter with a towel. It was squeaky clean.

Nesta let go of the towel and cleared her throat. “My bad.”

Emerie pulled out the chair on the other side of the counter and sat down. It was eleven in the evening on a Monday, and they had just closed. The only other person in Rita’s was Lucien, and he was doing dishes in the back.

“You’ve been acting weird for the past two weeks,” Emerie stated blatantly. Her stare was unwavering. “And you’ve lost at least ten pounds.”

The incidence with Tomas happened two weeks ago. Nesta was doing a pretty good job of moving on with her life all things considered. She felt like shit, but she hadn’t missed a single shift at work. That had to count for something.

But she should’ve known Emerie would notice. She was like a fucking hawk, that girl. She saw everything.

When Nesta didn’t say anything, Emerie shrugged and got up from the stool. “At least try a little harder,” she said, referring to the coworkers’ challenge to get the most tips. She shot Nesta a sad look. “Thesan is beating you. Thesan.”

Nesta mustered a laugh. Thesan wasn’t great with customers, that was common knowledge. Neither Emerie nor Nesta were people persons, but they knew how to turn it on for customers. Thesan, on the other hand, didn’t make much of an effort. It wasn’t that he was intentionally rude, the guy was just quiet in nature. In fact, he was quite a sweetheart.

Which was why it was quite entertaining to watch Thesan and Helion interact. Where Thesan was an introvert, Helion was loud as hell. Not to mention it was clear that Thesan was crushing on him. But unfortunately, Helion flirted with every living, breathing thing and was thus completely oblivious. During Nesta’s first week at Rita’s, Emerie had spilled all the tea about their coworkers. Thesan was head over heels in love with Helion, Helion had never been in a monogamous relationship, and Viviane… well, Viviane had her own little love story. A complicated one at that.

His name was Kallias. They grew up together, from scheming little kids to rebellious teenagers to young adults. Best friends since they could remember.

Because Emerie grew up in the same small town as them, she knew everything. They all went to school together. She knew that Kallias had been in love with Viviane since freshman year of high school. She knew that Viviane felt the same way, but she would never admit it thanks to the hell she was put through during her childhood. Nesta didn’t know the specifics, and she never asked.

It also didn’t help that Viviane was in a relationship with someone else. They’d been together for almost two years. Emerie thought Viviane deserved better, that he wasn’t a very good person.

Anyway, Kallias visited Rita’s nearly every weekend after his shift at the fire station to grab a drink and more importantly, see Viviane.

Nesta thought it was ridiculous. She’d told Emerie as much when she’d brought Nesta up to date on their coworkers’ lives. Why wouldn’t they just admit they loved each other and get on with it already? It was pretty fucking simple; they were just making it complicated for themselves. Emerie wholeheartedly agreed and the pair then went on an hour long rant on the idiocy of romantic relationships.

And if she was being honest, Nesta didn’t care much about these people. Sure, they were respectable but they were a temporary fixture in her life. Once she secured a job in her career field, she was going to leave them all behind.

“We should get a drink sometime. Outside of work,” Emerie clarified with a look of disgust. “I’m sick of it here.”

Nesta knew that was a lie based on the relationship Emerie had with Rita and her wife. But she didn’t say that.

“Maybe,” Nesta responded distractedly, desperate to think of an excuse. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Emerie; no, Nesta liked her coworker. She just couldn’t muster the energy to go out with friends or socialize like that. “I’m pretty busy right now though.”

Emerie narrowed her eyes and scrutinized her.

“Stop analyzing me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Emerie sighed and receded. She hesitated before saying quietly, “Is… is this the part when I ask if you’re okay and we get all deep and explore a new level of our friendship?”

Nesta slowly met her friend’s gaze. They stared at one another for several moments.

Then, they burst out laughing.

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

The next morning, Nesta was brewing her third cup of coffee when Elain padded into the kitchen.

“Good morning,” Elain yawned as a greeting. She wore bunny slippers and an oversized hoodie. Elain only had one evening class on Tuesdays, so today was her only day - save for the weekend - to sleep in.

“Hey, kiddo.”

“How long have you been up?”

Nesta glanced at the clock. It was nine-thirty. She’d woken up at six after a sleepless night of tossing and turning.

But she simply shrugged instead. “Not long.”

Nesta poured the coffee into her mug, sitting back down at the counter. She watched as Elain bustled around the kitchen, scrambling eggs and slicing fruit. The morning light spilled through the dusty kitchen sink window, bars of sunshine reflecting off the tiled floors. Iroh basked in the sunspots, his black fur glistening as his chartreuse eyes blinked closed.

Elain and Nesta hadn’t spent much time together in the past couple weeks. It was Nesta’s doing, of course. She was actively avoiding her sister and everyone else. After Elain had tried to talk to Nesta after the whole thing with Tomas, she stopped asking Nesta if she was okay. Nesta assumed that Elain realized she wasn’t going to get an answer, that there wasn't really a point in trying.

But Gods, Nesta fucking missed her. And even though she wanted nothing more than to retreat to her bedroom as she sat there in the kitchen, she didn’t move from the chair.

You need them as much as they need you, her father’s voice echoed in her head.

Guilt stabbed at her chest.

“How’re classes going?” Nesta asked quietly. Elain looked at her over her shoulder with a surprised yet pleasant smile.

“Great! I’m so grateful to be at such a great college, but…” Elain bit her lip, hesitating. “My bio lab is going to be the death of me."

“You know you’re allowed to complain, right?”

Elain just gave her a smile. “Yeah, I know. It's just, considering where I was a year ago, I couldn't be happier to finally be enrolled in such a prestigious program. Even if that means the classes are brutal."

I wish I was like you. I take everything for granted.

“And have you made any friends?”

Elain had started school at Pryth U months ago and yet Nesta had no idea if she even had friends yet.

Selfish bitch.

A fond smile broke out on Elain’s face. “Yes, I have this really great group of friends: Lucien, Ressina, and Varian. It's just the four of us, but we've gotten really close.”

Nesta asked Elain more questions before excusing herself back to her room, claiming she was going to try to write today, to which Elain squealed and wished her luck.

Nesta hadn't written since their dad died. Prior to his death, she would write nearly every day. She'd been working on a novel for years. The plot had came to her in middle school, and it just grew from there. She'd never told anyone about it. Everyone knows how fucking hard it is to get your writing published, much less get high ratings. Nesta wasn't even sure if she was going to finish it. This was the longest she'd gone without writing or editing it. And she had a feeling that she wouldn't ever go back to it.

Dread filled her stomach as she thought of that prospect. What the fuck was she doing with her life?

Nesta’s phone buzzed, and she fished it out of her back pocket.

 Incoming call from Feyre Archeron.

It kept buzzing, Nesta merely stared at her sister's name on her screen. She couldn't think of a single reason why Feyre would be calling. But she pressed "Accept" before it could go to voicemail.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

Silence.

“Uh, what’s up?” Nesta asked. She collapsed onto her unmade bed. Iroh scampered past the door and jumped on the bed with her. He didn't waste a minute curling himself around her head.

"I was calling to see… maybe, I don’t know… uh, would you want to come to dinner tonight?”

I was not expecting that. And Nesta was about 95% sure this was Elain’s doing.

“Why?”

“I want you there," Feyre told her as if it were obvious.

“Why?” Nesta asked again. She hadn't seen Feyre since Thanksgiving despite her sister living just on the outskirts of the city.

That had been weeks ago.

“It's complicated," Feyre responded quietly. She seemed to pause before finding the words. "I've been so worried about Cassian, we all have. He'd never been deployed for that long - five months. It was scary. I guess I took that out on you. I don't know why..."

She drifted off. Nesta held her breath.

"I'm sure Elain told you, but he's home now. I've been more myself since he returned, and I want you to come to dinner. I… miss you.”

She rubbed her temple. “I don’t know, Feyre.”

I don't know if I can pretend to be okay for an entire night. I don't know if you even fucking want me there or if you just feel obligated. I don't know if I can be in the same room as your douchebag boyfriend. I don't know if I can be surrounded by your friends, most of whom seem to dislike me. I don't know if I can behave like a normal fucking person.

I don't know.

“Please?” The plea was soft, quiet. It was like she was almost desperate. But for what?

Nesta looked out the window where a blue jay - their dad's favorite bird - was perched on a bare tree branch. The leaves had long ago fallen, leaving the world naked and vulnerable. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

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

Feyre embraced her with an awkward hug when Nesta and Elain walked into the house. Nesta patted her on the back lightly, uncomfortable with the physical touch. Luckily, no one else seemed incline to embrace her. Rhys actually seemed to make sure he was as far away as possible.

Elain, on the other hand, gave everyone a hug. Mor gave a laugh as she squeezed Elain back, Aurra watching them with a smile. Interestingly enough, when Elain greeted Azriel with a hug, his tanned cheeks glowed red. It was almost imperceptible, but Nesta noticed.

Feyre took a step back to assess her. Nesta could see the judgement in her sister's eyes as she took in Nesta's noticeably thinner body. Luckily, however, she wasn't given the chance to comment on it when Elain piped up, "Where's Cassian? Nesta still hasn't met him yet."

"He's running a bit late," Rhys answered, glancing down at his phone. "Should be here in about ten minutes."

Everyone began to make their way into the dining room and Nesta followed. However, she was quickly tugged to the side when Amren swooped in out of nowhere and basically dragged Nesta into the privacy of the hallway. She stopped, crossed her arms over her chest, and glared at Nesta.

“Where have you been?” Amren demanded.

"What do you mean?" Nesta asked, playing dumb.

She hadn't spoken to Amren in a long time, even though they had each others' numbers. Even though Amren had repeatedly texted her, asking to get coffee or go for a walk or something else of the sorts. All of which went unanswered.

Amren rolled her eyes, and Nesta was convinced they went to the back of her head for a good minute. "Don't play dumb with me, Nesta."

“I don’t know, working?"

"Is that a question?" Amren rose a deadly brow.

Nesta huffed and mirrored Amren's angry stance. "Why are you interrogating me?"

“Because you've been radio silent for weeks. I had to ask Elain if you were still fucking alive," Amren explained. Then, she leaned in close like she didn't want anyone to hear. "I was worried about you, you bitch."

Nesta let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, okay? I've been busy. I do want to hang out, it's just that..." she trailed off.

"What? It's just that what?"

Nesta stared at the floor, unable to form words.

"Nesta, are you okay?" Amren asked, her voice softer.

Just tell her. Fucking tell her.

I was almost raped.

Just the thought was enough to make Nesta want to puke. She couldn't, it was too much and she wouldn't even be able to fucking say it and it's her fault, all her fault.

She breathed in through her nose and looked back up at Amren. She shot her the most fake smile she'd ever given. "I'm good. Seriously, I just got busy. It won't happen again."

Nesta saw the skepticism in Amren's eyes. But she conceded with a small sigh. "Well, don't do it again, okay? I seriously thought you were fucking murdered or some shit."

Nesta just nodded. Amren looked at her once more before gesturing with her chin back to the dining room. Nesta followed her.

When they rounded the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Because sitting next to Feyre was the man who had tried to break into her apartment.

“Nesta!" Feyre exclaimed, calling her over from where she sat. "This is Cassian. Cassian, this is my sister, Nesta.”

Nesta simply stared at him like a deer in headlights and he stared at her, his lips parted in surprise. He was wearing a grey sweater, his long hair hanging down, no longer in a bun like it was the last time. He tucked it behind one ear.

"Are you stalking me or something?" Nesta said incredulously.

"I could ask you the same," Cassian retorted cheekily.

Feyre looked between them, a confused expression written on her face. "Do you guys know each other or something?"

"Something like that," Nesta mumbled.

Everyone's eyes were on them as they waited for an answer.

"Well as everyone knows, I live in the same building as Nesta and Elain," Cassian explained, waving a hand to the two sisters. "The other night, I got stupid drunk with a friend. He drove me back to my place and me, drunk off my fucking ass, tried to get into their apartment thinking it was mine."

The entire room erupted into laughter, Rhys choking on his food and Azriel looking up as if reasoning with the Gods.

"So when Nesta opened the door," Cassian continued, "she nearly beat me to death with a baseball bat."

Another round of laughter.

"Overreact much?"

Everyone's eyes flew to where Nesta sat. They seemed shocked. Nesta was too.

She didn't know why she said it, why she let it bother her. He was just so fucking frustrating, even his mere presence.

Cassian stuck his tongue out at her.

Feyre interrupted, her jaw agape. "You guys are acting like children."

Nesta got quiet after that. The conversation continued, thankfully taking the attention off her. As everyone laughed and conversed, Cassian looked over at her. His smile disappeared when he met Nesta's gaze. She just stared back at him, lips in a thin line. He seemed to try to gauge her reaction carefully, but her face was blank.

And so the night went on. Nesta didn't say another word after what happened. She avoided eye contact with Cassian. Avoided conversation with everyone.

It was half past eight when they all began clearing their dishes. Mor, Aurra, Azriel, and Cassian were all gathered in the kitchen cleaning up. Feyre and Rhys had excused themselves. It was just Nesta and Elain who remained in the dining room.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Nesta leaned over to whisper to Elain.

Elain nodded. "We'll head out right after, yeah?" She must've noticed the exhaustion in Nesta's face.

Nesta agreed, excusing herself from the table.

She walked down the hallway, peeking through every door to find the bathroom. She was about to push through a door on the left that was slightly cracked open when she heard voices coming from within.

“I’m worried about him. He’s not the same.” It was Feyre.

“He never is when he comes home, Feyre," Rhys said dejectedly. "It’s happened before. Cass just needs time.”

Cass.

Nesta tiptoed closer to the door, just enough for her to listen.

“No, what he needs is to see someone!”

“I’ve tried. He doesn’t want to go.”

“Try harder, Rhys!” Feyre cried, her tone frustrated.

“We can’t just force him to go, okay?”

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Do you even notice how lost your own fucking brother is? Do you even care?!”

Silence.

“Rhysand, I’m sorry. Gods, I’m so sorry. I know you care. More than anyone. I just… I don’t want to lose him.”

She heard them both breathing deeply.

“C’mere,” Rhys murmured. Nesta heard Feyre's footsteps as she presumably walked toward him.

“We’ll figure it out, okay?”

“Together.”

“Always, Feyre darling.”

They got quiet, probably embracing each other. Nesta crept away from their bedroom door and into the bathroom before they could find her.

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

Elain and Nesta had just unlocked their apartment door when Nesta groaned. “Oh, shit, I forgot my wallet in the car." She fished around in her bag to make sure it wasn't in there. "I’ll be right back.”

"I'll leave the door unlocked," Elain called behind her as Nesta made her way to the elevator.

She stepped between the doors, hitting the button for the parking garage. Gods, she just wanted to go to sleep. The night had been exhausting.

After a minute or so, she was approaching her car. She unlocked her door and grabbed her wallet that was in the middle console when a pair of headlights flashed past her, a car pulling into the spot next to her.

Before panic could set in, Nesta recognized who was driver the car through the window.

Cassian.

His car turned off and he emerged from the driver's door just a moment later. He looked over where Nesta was clutching her wallet to her chest staring at him. He gave her a tight-lipped smile before turning away and walking towards the elevator. Nesta had no choice to follow.

She walked just a few feet behind him as they made their way to the elevator.

"I'm sorry," Cassian told her, his voice sincere. He cast a concerned glance her way. "For embarrassing you at dinner. And if I scared you that night."

"You didn't embarrass me," Nesta snapped at him. "You were just being annoying as hell."

His entire body seemed to relax at her insult. Cassian tried to hide his smirk but failed. "I'm glad to see you're still your normal, hotheaded self. You got me worried at dinner with your stoic behavior."

Now she really glared at him. "Don't talk like you know me. You don't."

"Oh, sweetheart," he teased. "I think we're more similar than you think."

She scoffed. "I think that hubris of yours will be your downfall."

"You know, it's quite sexy when you use literary devices to insult me," he joked.

Nesta froze.

Was he coming onto her? Chills ran down her spine when she thought of the last time a man expressed interest in her.

It's not the same, she tried to convince yourself. He's not Tomas.

Cassian must've expected a heated response to his comment because he looked surprised when Nesta simply stared straight ahead. She seemed to be in a world of her own, oblivious to everything around her. Any trace of anger was gone, replaced by a cool indifference.

Cassian's face fell. "Nesta, I didn't mean to - "

He was cut off as the elevator door dinged opened and Nesta swiftly walked out.

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

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[atiny-piratequeen]

Against the Tide: Sixth Voyage (Ch.6)

Pairing : Eventual Poly Ot8

Genre: Heavy Angst, Eventual Smut and Fluff mixed in

Rating: 18+

Tags: DemonPirate!Au, Supernatural, Eventual Poly Relationship, Violence, Blood, Elemental Powers, Past and Modern Day AU, Mythical Creatures, Character Death

Chapter Specific Tags:  Graphic Violence and Blood, Domestic Verbal Abuse, Panic/Anxiety Attacks, Character Death

Chapter WC: 16.2k

A/N: There could be tags added later, especially if there’s something I write that potentially triggers my readers. The last thing I want is for that to happen, so please don’t hesitate to give me feedback if there’s something I write here you’d like me to tag.

**A/N: The diologue used in this chapter may hit close to home as far as the domestic verbal abuse mentioned in the tags. Please take care reading, and keep in mind if any of you are experiencing this in your personal lives, this is not how a healthy relationship should be and you should drop your s/o like a sack of potatoes, everytiny. Know your worth, nobody should be treating you with anything other than respect, okay? Okay. Love you. Take care. 

Taglist moved to the bottom of the work. If you’d like to be added to the taglist for this or my other works, feel free to fill out the form here after reading the full post.

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She looked down at her hands, clutching the sobbing child close to her chest before she looked past the boy, frowning as she gazed upon the beautiful woman who birthed him, still and cold. Her husband clutched her cold hand, tears rolling down his face as he shook.

The midwife backed away slowly, feeling anxious at the way the child’s father hadn’t spared him a glance.

“Sir-”

“Get out. Take that murderous leech, and get OUT!” His voice was booming, and the child startled in her arms, his lip wobbling before he broke down crying. She quickly covered his head  in the blanket, rushing away as his father turned bloodshot, angry eyes upon both of them.

She fled, her sandaled feet splashing against the cobblestone of the town as the rain fell around them, the humid August air making the child even more upset.

She ran until she stopped at an inn, slipping in through the back as she made her way through the halls, gently shushed the child as she tapped her knuckles at a particularly worn door. There was a shuffle in a curse before a disgruntled man answered, peering at her through his one usable eye.

“Ah, Loralei, what brings you-”

“Edward, we need refuge.”

“...We?”

Loralei pulled her lip between her teeth and held the bundle out, revealing the small child. He looked up with small, curious eyes at Edward before sending him a wide smile.

Immediately, Loralei was turned around as Edward tried to push her back out into the hall. The woman planted her feet down, refusing to move as she pivoted and fixed Edward with a hard stare.

“Now, you know better than that, Eddie!”

“No, no. Absolutely not, the caravan can't support another damn mouth to feed, you know this!. Why did you come back with the bastard, anyway? You were only supposed to help her bear him! Take him back to his parents!”

“He’s not a bastard...they were married. And his mom passed in labor. I fear if I left him behind, he’d be dead by morning with the look in his father’s eyes.” she looked down at the child and looked back up at Edward.

“The poor thing...it's not his fault. We have a mother in our party anyway, no? I can ask Rae if she wouldn’t mind feeding the poor boy until he’s old enough to eat other food. Just..please, Eddie. He has no one else in the world.” Loralei looked close to begging and Edward sighed, stepping aside for her to enter his room.

“You know Rae won’t say no. She lost her own not too long ago, she’ll raise him like he’s hers, anyway. Does the lad at least have a name?” He inquired, peering down at the curious way the child looked around, babbling slightly.

“No...I’m sure we’ll come up with something later. For now, shall we sleep? I am...exhausted.”

Edward hummed and motioned to his bed.

“Sleep, then. I have to tell the others.”

-Age 7-

The sound of an old, out of tune shanty filled his ears as he made his way through the port, eyes darting left and right. Everyone was much bigger than him, and he felt his heart leap in his throat as he wove in and out of the crowd, his satchel tight against his side.

A bump here, a brush there.

A hasty apology, a ducked head.

When he slipped out of the docks, he disappeared into the crowd, making his way just to the outskirts of town before he stopped, whistling a small tune.

He waited until he heard the sound of footsteps approaching, smiling up as a middle aged man neared him, an eyepatch over his left eye.

“Show me what you got, child.” He waved a hand and the boy looked left and right before grabbing the man’s hand and pulling him a bit into the thicket so they wouldn’t be seen.

“Good, you took note of your past mistake. Remember to never go through your spoils out in the open. Never know who could be watching. So-” the boy opened his satchel, dumping everything he had pickpocketed onto the forest floor.

Together, he and the man sifted through the stolen goods. From gold coins, to fancy engraved hand mirrors, to bracelets and watches. With every documented piece of loot, the child bounced eagerly. Once the man put down the last watch, he chuckled, ruffling the child’s hair.

“Good job, Mingi.”

Mingi smiled wide, his eyes turning into crescents as the man began to tuck the objects back into the satchel just as quickly as he had taken them out.

"Thank you, Eddie! Do you think Ma will be happy if I give her the blue bracelet?" He inquired as Eddie led him out of the thicket and into town from a different entrance, one near the inn their caravan had set up for the evening.

"Rae? She'll probably have my ass again for sending you by yourself, but that's how you learn. You've learned how to steal rather fast for someone so young." He praised.

Mingi beamed, practically skipping behind him as they made their way to the rooms they were staying in.

This was his whole world. Traveling with his family, stealing to get by while the adults either did the same or did odd jobs here and there for money. Was it honorable? Probably not, but honor wasn't something that concerned him. What mattered was his family.

Lorelai taught him how to craft, teaching him to make clothes from whatever cloth scraps he could manage to get his hands on. Hell, even his trusty satchel he used to keep his treasure in from snatches was something he and her made together over the course of a month.

His fingers were covered in little punctures from the needle afterwards, but the strong sense of pride and happiness he felt when he held it, something he made all on his own, made it worthwhile.

Edward taught him to steal. To make a simple brush look like an accident, when really he had stolen from some unsuspecting sap. "The rich look down on us, spit in our direction. Why shouldn't we relieve them of some of their worldly possessions?" The old man had told him roughly one day. It was dangerous work, and was the reason he lost an eye all those years ago, long before Mingi was born, but the child would be lying if he said he didn't see the foul mouthed and rugged man as a role model.

Rae taught him to have a tender heart and live life like it was precious. She was the closest to a mother he would ever know, and she regarded him as such, often scolding him for getting in scuffles during failed picks and cautioning him to not let his stealing cost him his life.

He was young, but Mingi lived every day surrounded by those who loved him. Every day was a new adventure and he woke up every morning just happy to be alive.

Until years later, when he met her.

Bella Rose.

That's when the childlike wonder and joy in his life fell apart at the seams.

-Age 13-

"Did you get lost again?"

Mingi looked down as the small girl across from him crossed her arms. She puffed her cheeks out, stomping her foot as he shuffled, ashamed.

"I told you to meet me at the bakery with some money before noon so I could have some of their tarts fresh! What time is it?" For someone a year younger than him, the tone she always took with him left him cowering slightly. He checked the (stolen) watch on his wrist and sighed lightly.

"It's almost 2…"

"Exactly! All the desserts are gone!" She huffed, stomping into his space. Mingi sighed and shuffled uncomfortably.

"I...I got lost...I'm sorry, Bella."

Her eyes narrowed at him before she sat back, crossing her arms as she tilted her head, a smile pulling at her lips. Mingi's heart sank.

"I guess I should've taken the money first, then. After all, you got lost because you can't read, right? You're a big kid but you're so stupid you can't even read signs!" She teased him before she held her hand out.

Mingi bit the inside of his cheek, feeling the insult rattle around his head before he startled when she snapped her fingers.

"Well? Why are you zoning out? Give me the money! I'm going to the candy store instead!" She bossed. Mingi pursed his lips.

"Why? I got this money from working. Eddie told me not to give it away easily." He shook his head and Bella arched a brow.

"Because you're my boyfriend. You already made me wait forever and miss my treats. So hand it over!" She waved her hand impatiently and Mingi sighed, pulling out his wallet.

Satisfied, Bella took the coins and turned on her heel, bouncing away with Mingi dejectedly following.

Bella Rossellini, or Bella Rose, was a new edition to their caravan's band of thieves. Her mother had charmed one of the men in their party and after many nights arguing with Edward, the two of them had been allowed to join.

Bella and her mother Vivian were the only ones who knew how to read and write, something Bella's mother used to her advantage when it came to them coming to larger towns, such as this one.  

It, however, meant the caravan had to rely on the two, which left Bella and her mother with a firm superiority complex that cast a shadow over their once warm and welcome group.

Bella had latched onto Mingi the moment she arrived, deeming him suitable as a plaything for her amusement while her mother worked, especially since he was the only one in her age range and none of the adults would stand for her bratty nature. Honestly, it was no wonder where she got her nature from, with all the snide comments Vivian would send the other members of the group. It didn't take long for Bella to copycat, tearing him down with words and making him feel insecurities he didn't even know he had before.

"Hey Mingi, read this for me? Oh wait, you can't~"

"Mingi, you have to be nice to me, you're ugly and the only person that will like you is me, anyway!"

"You like me, right? Then give me that bracelet!"

Mingi wasn't even sure if he did "like" Bella as a friend, let alone a girlfriend, but she was adamant in dictating his feelings for him-something he noticed she also learned from her mother.

He watched her rush forward into the candy shop, looking up at the looming building with shaking hands before he swallowed thickly and stepped inside, sticking close to her.

There were...signs, everywhere. He couldn't recognize any of the candies, so he stayed close to Bella, holding the back of her dress with a shaking hand. She turned to him before swatting his hand away.

"You're gonna wrinkle my dress!" She scolded before she grabbed a bag, scooping some soft-looking candy into it. Mingi looked at them before looking at her bag.

"What are those? Can I try?" He tentatively asked. She snorted.

"Read the sign, Mingi. If you can read any of them, I'll buy you whatever you want."

Mingi deflated, looking at the sign.

None of it made sense.

Sighing, Mingi lowered his gaze, deciding to quietly follow behind Bella as she proudly added more candy to her bag. He didn't even have to ask to know she wouldn't be sharing with him, even if it was his own money that bought it.

He secretly missed the days before Vivian and Bella Rose joined them.

The days when reading wasn't everything and no one cared if you knew what a stupid sign said or not.

The days when Rae would pet the top of his head and call him handsome and his heart would swell in his chest, instead of smiling weakly, feeling like she was only saying it because he was like a son to her and what good mother wouldn't call her child beautiful or handsome?

When Eddie would go out and help him pick their targets and take time to praise him instead of constantly arguing with Vivian and the not-so-subtle way she tried to take control of the group's every move.

Instead, the two brought a stormcloud with them that defiantly clung to the family, following their every move.

-Age 18-

Mingi was many things.

Funny-with the way he could effortlessly bring up the energy levels in a room, breaking the tension that loomed over their caravan as Vivian continued her power struggle with an old, yet still defiant Eddie.

Fast-as he had become their best pickpocket, able to steal from even their most skilled members (for practice, of course), his tall statue and swift hands being the reason they were able to sleep comfortably most nights, in finer inns with better clothes on their backs.

Caring-never too engrossed in his stealing that he didn't take time to help the older members of their caravan with their errands and odd jobs between picks.

Unfortunately, Mingi was also easily manipulated. Not by just anyone, but by the one who had spent years conditioning him into believing he would never amount to anything.

Not without her.

So when Mingi walked in one evening, finding Bella in the arms of another man, and declared right there (after a rather...violent exchange of words and fists) that he was done with her for good, the other members of his family only sighed and shook their heads as they saw her latched onto his side days later.

This was her routine. She had become a master at it.

Break him down to his very core, leave him a raw and broken mess, and then pull him in with honey sweet words laced with poison, infecting him, killing him slowly. She'd convinced him she was the only one who had the antidote.

"Oh, c'mon Mingi. It's not like you're satisfying me. I'm a woman with needs. Calm down. It was just a quick romp and nothing more. You know I love you."

Poison. Then honey, but it's always so bitter. Honestly, he wondered if it was honey at all, or rather, molasses laced with cyanide.

"Mingi~ You're not mad at me still, are you? C'mon, I said I was sorry. Get over yourself."

Venomous words to rile him up, make him angry, make him realize he should leave, he didn't have to take this! Followed immediately by-

"What? You gonna leave me? What will you do? Not like you'll amount to anything without me. Illiterate and ugly, only I would put up with you."

Every day he drowns. Poison making his chest tighten, his breath shorten. It stings, it burns, his eyes, his nose, his mouth.

And then he's on the floor, coughing and wheezing, gasping for breath as his heart pounds rapidly in his ears. Bella sees him like this, when the kiss and caress of anxiety and panic overwhelm him. When he reaches out to her, voice raspy as he asks her to do something , help him, hold him, she rolls her eyes.

"Are you seriously crying? You are a man, aren't you? Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic."

Mingi sinks like a stone time and time again, rising and falling before he pulls himself back up, dusts himself off, and rearranges his emotional mask.

He lost himself a long time ago.

- Age 19-

"This is gonna be the best heist ever~!"

"Woman, are you mad? Firstly, we're doing just fine without any of this heist business. Secondly, that's a goddamn pirate ship."

Bella ignored Eddie as she wrapped her arms around Mingi's shoulders. The man sighed, shaking his head as he held his little sister.

Over the past year, Rea had miraculously managed to have another infant, a beautiful wide eyed girl named Gracie.

Gracie gave him some form of solace from Bella's bullshit, and playing with the innocent child had often been an escape for him when things had gotten rough with Bella.

Hell, he hadn't even had any form of attack in a long time because of her little smile.

He passed Gracie over to Rea and turned to Bella, eyes narrowed.

"I'm not sneaking onto a fucking pirate ship. We can make do with what we've been doing."

Bella's eyes narrowed.

"The famous Utopia crew is in the port and this is a once in a lifetime chance. Who knows what they have on there!"

"Guns. And knives. And swords. And if the rumors are true, demons! My baby isn't going anywhere near that damn ship!" Rea barked, rocking Gracie. Bella sent her a venomous smile before musing under her breath.

"Hm. Maybe they've got some real men aboard."

It was a casual jab, but it made Mingi's shoulders slump, all the same.

Satisfied, she ran her hand over his head and whispered into his ear.

"Meet me on the docks at 10."

Mingi kissed Gracie on the forehead extra tenderly before he left that night. Something told him Bella was finally gonna be the end of him with this one.

-xXx-

He knew this was a bad idea. Especially when she sent him an expectant look as they both stood a few boats away from the ship in question. It had beautiful engravings on the hull that Mingi could tell was expensive even in the poor light from the crescent moon.

“Well? Go out there! I’ll keep watch!” She whispered. He sent her a look.

“Are you mad? You want me to go in there by myself?!”

She shushed him, sending him a disapproving look at the way he snapped at her.

“Yes! Are you not the man? The thief? Pull your balls out of your purse and go in there!” She spat. Mingi opened his mouth to protest before she narrowed her eyes at him. He sighed in defeat and looked back towards the boat.

“Are they at least...gone…?”

“Of course they are. This is a port town, they’re probably off to get drunk and fuck women or something. Now go, go!” She pushed him forward, ignoring the way he stumbled. Mingi swallowed thickly, looking up at the boat before clenching his fists.

God, this was so stupid.

Mingi bit his lip and hustled up the small wooden plank bridge that connected the docked ship to the port. He looked around, careful to listen for any footsteps or voices.

When he noticed there were none, he continued deeper, biting his lip as he slipped below the deck, moving quickly.

He had never been on a ship before, but even he felt this was more than a little unorthodox. One of the rooms looked like it was taken right out of the garden of Eden, with plants decorating nearly every expanse of it.

What caught his attention was the aroma, a soft and sweet scent that filled his nose and made him feel oddly...at ease.

He shook his head, realizing he was wasting time. He closed the door to the plant-filled room, making his way down a bit deeper. He passed the kitchen along the way, deciding to take a few shining pots and knives. The craftsmanship on the kitchen knives was unlike anything he had ever seen, and he was sure he could find a few chefs that would pay top dollar for them.

Mingi wrapped them up in some cloth and tucked them away in his satchel, quickly working his way through the ship.

He gained more confidence, realizing Bella had at least scouted the ship correctly. He tucked everything from daggers, to gems, to food he figured the others back at the inn would enjoy into his bag until it was full. The chocolate-haired man patted the leather bag lightly before he looked around again, moving to head back above the deck so he could sneak out.

The tall man stopped when he heard the wood creak above him. He froze, eyes wide as he swallowed down the panic bubbling in his chest. He counted the footsteps.

Sounds like two people.

They were talking above him, and he adjusted the strap to his satchel, tucking it under his long coat as he waited, counting their footsteps and trying to figure out what direction they were going in.

There was conversation and Mingi pressed himself into the shadows as the steps headed towards the stairs separating the upper and lower deck.

He held his breath as a man came into view.

He was blonde, his posture perfect as he walked by, somehow missing Mingi's form crouched in the shadows. There was no sign of the person he was talking to, but Mingi wasn't one to wait around to see where they went.

When he was sure the man was down the hall a good distance away, he snuck out of his hiding spot, his heart in his lungs as he tiptoed away.

C r e a k…

His eyes widened and he heard the footsteps behind him stop abruptly.

"I knew it."

Mingi didn't even wait, breaking into a full sprint as he rushed up the stairs, the footsteps closing in on him at an almost... inhuman speed.

He all but threw himself out into the humid night air, fully prepared to jump into the bay to escape.

Before he had time to entertain that thought, he stepped on a patch of ice, slipping almost instantly before crashing to the deck.

He groaned in pain, and in seconds, the tip of two blades were at either side of his neck like a pair of scissors, one step away from making his head roll. The blonde had a foot on his chest, his lip curled as he leered down at him.

The intensity in his eyes kept Mingi from focusing too much on the fact that one of the blades was made out of what looked to be...ice??

"P-please, don't kill me, I didn't even want to be here."

"And yet, here you are. Aboard our ship, looting around like you belong here." His eyes narrowed, his grip on the hilt of both weapons firm.

"I should kill you before he comes. He always manages to find a way to pick up strays when we're in port, but I doubt you'll be any use, you thieving rat."

Mingi's brows pinched up.

Ah...though he hypothetically deserved it for being aboard their ship and stealing, he had to admit, that comment probably hurt more than the blade against his throat.

"P-please...I'll give everything back, I didn't want to be here, she made me. I just...I just wanna feed my family, please let me go. I just wanna go home and be with my infant sister." He pleaded, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed anxiously.

The blonde's steel eyes lightened for the briefest moments, before the look was masked as he cursed in another language Mingi couldn't identify.

"Hwa, let him up."

The blonde sighed as the sound of another voice and footsteps approached. He sent Mingi a 'be still' look before taking his foot off of his chest, holding up the crystalline ice sword.

Before the thief's very eyes, it disappeared in a swirl of gentle snow as he put the other sword in the hilt.

The brunette felt his lips part in surprise. Holy shit, the rumors were true? They really were demons...

He didn't have enough time to ask any questions before a small brunette man knelt down in his space, yanking his hair back as he looked at him in interest.

"What are you doing aboard my ship?"

Mingi felt his heart stutter. The man was smaller than him, with delicate features to his face and a voice a vastly different pitch from Mingi's own, but there was an underlying look in his eye, strength in his grip that kept him from trying his luck.

"I-I was forced to...my girlfriend t-told me to steal from you while you were away. Please...please, I never steal from ships, I swear I'll never touch this port again, just-"

"I get it."

Mingi snapped his lips shut as the man reviewed him. His eyes drifted down to Mingi's satchel, tilting his head.

"Open it. Show me what you stole."

Flushed from fear and embarrassment, Mingi scrambled to dump all of the items onto the deck, his hands shaking. The man kept a firm grip in his hair and the blonde hadn't moved from his spot, gripping the hilt to his sword should Mingi make any sudden movements.

"Knives, food, even some coins from the crew's quarters, hm? You must be fast, we were only away for half an hour. Wooyoung wouldn't have appreciated the knives he made Yeosang being stolen, though. I'd hate to see him upset when he worked so hard to make them." The small brunette hummed, picking up a knife and holding it under Mingi's chin, tilting his head up as the tip of the blade kissed the underside of his jaw.

"I like to think I'm a fair captain, a reasonable person, so I'll let you go without slitting your throat for sneaking aboard my ship and stealing from my crew. But, if I see you anywhere near my boat again, you'll wish the only thing I did was slit your throat. I don't take kindly to people messing with my family, my crew, understand, thief?" He warned him.

Mingi would have nodded, had he not have had a kitchen knife pressed against his throat, so instead he made a small, trembling sound of confirmation that he understood.

The captain nodded, satisfied before he let Mingi's hair go and lowered the knife.

"Glad we could come to an agreement. Now, get the hell off of my ship."

Mingi stood and nearly tripped over himself as he rushed off of the boat, gripping the strap to his satchel so tight his knuckles were nearly white.

He stormed past Bella, who was conversing with a port hand, clearly flirting. She noticed his form and looked towards the Utopia, eyes wide when she saw the blonde and brunette watching Mingi's every move. She bolted after the tall thief, not wanting to be left alone on the docks with the two pirates now back aboard their ship.

-x-

"That was out of character for you, mon putois. Even I was taken by surprise."

"I don't appreciate people stealing from my family, Hwa. Now let's take this stuff back and put it where it belongs."

Seonghwa watched Hongjoong walk away and hummed slightly.

It seemed even now after all their time together, his captain had more sides to show him.

The blonde sent one last look over at the fleeing thief and what he imagined was the previously mentioned "girlfriend" before he turned and followed Hongjoong.

-x-

"So you failed?"

"Bella, get away from me."

Bella blinked in surprise at Mingi's harsh tone, watching as he snatched his belongings up from their shared room in the inn.

"Hey, watch your tone. It's not my fault you got caught."

The man's brow twitched as he spun on his heel, fixing her with a hard stare.

"It's not? I could've fucking died, Bella Rose. But you're not worried about that, are you? You're worried about sleeping with someone else, again. After you sent me on a suicide mission on a fucking pirate ship. You were supposed to be keeping watch for me so I would know if they were back, maybe even distract them, but instead you're batting your lashes at other men and it nearly got me killed!" He barked. She flinched at his tone before she narrowed her eyes. Mingi noticed and scoffed.

"What? Gonna call me useless? Ugly? Unwanted? Stupid? Fine, I may be all of those things, but I'd rather be them than fucking dead. My life has been nothing but a downward spiral since I met you as a child and it’s finally got me at the end of my rope. I'm done. Don't even try to sweet talk me back. I've had enough. I'm fed up with you and all of this bullshit. With a girlfriend like you, I'd rather date the enemy. We're done. I'm done." He pulled his knapsack over his shoulders and sent her a leer before he stormed out.

He'd be sleeping in Rea's room tonight, holding Gracie close to his chest.

-x-

Mingi was a man of his word.

He didn't look in the direction of the docks, in fact, he made sure to stress to the other members of his caravan that they should leave the port as soon as possible. He also ignored every attempt at a conversation Bella Rose attempted to make with him.

He was more than a foot taller than her, so he simply kept his head up as she tried to shadow him, switching from trying to sweet talk him back, to throwing around passive aggressive jabs here and there.

It...hurt, but Mingi stuck to his word and said nothing to her. They would be leaving the port in a day or so once preparations were done and finally- finally - they all agreed to leave Vivian and Bella behind.

The caravan was a family, and you don’t put family in life threatening danger. Ever.

“What are you gonna do? Leave us here?!” Vivian barked. Eddie let out a puff of a laugh before shaking his finger at her.

“Find someone else to leech off of, woman. You and the demon you call a daughter. You have shown time and time again that neither of you care for anyone but yourselves, and we’ve had it. We almost lost one of our own because of you. No more. Leave.”

Mingi ignored the scowl that Bella sent him, instead opting to rock Gracie in his arms and turn his back on her.

For the first time in half a decade, he felt free again.

-x-

“Mother, I don’t want to do this…”

“Shut up, Bella. Your games are the reason we no longer have our meal tickets. So go up there and grab something useful! Here,” Vivian pushed the familiar form of Mingi’s coat into Bella’s hands before pointing to the port.

“Go out there, steal something useful, and I might consider forgiving your stupidity, child.” She spat, shooing Bella along.

The girl frowned before she pursed her lips, looking up at a ship much smaller than the Utopia. She clenched her fists, squaring her shoulders.

“If he can do it, I can too.” She huffed, storming up to the docks.

-x-

When Vivian heard the sound of footsteps speeding towards her, she looked up, eyes wide as she watched Bella rush past her, fruit and meat falling out of her arms as she was chased by angered pirates.

The woman jolted and looked around before she grabbed a barrel, shoving it over at the pursuing men. They barked out curses as the women ran, with some firing wildly in their direction.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Vivian screamed, darting to the left as a bullet whizzed past her head, just barely missing hitting her daughter in the side. The bullet went through Mingi’s coat, leaving a bullet hole that was soon accompanied by a matching one in the sleeve and near her leg.

The two disappeared into the crowd, with Bella clutching her bleeding arm as Vivian pulled her along.

“All you got were fruits? All that for some fruits?!” Vivian hissed as she pushed her teenage daughter into a dark alley so they could both catch their breath. Bella sent her a sharp look, watching as her blood soaked into some of Mingi’s brown coat.

“That’s all they had that I could get my hands on before they caught me! I’m bleeding, can we focus on that?!” She spat. Her mother narrowed her eyes at her before she ripped the bottom end of her dress, tying it tight around her daughter’s arm to slow the bleeding.

“It’s a graze, calm down. Give the boy back that damn coat, though. It’ll be too obvious if you go walking around with bullet holes and blood stains. If they’re still looking for the culprit, let’s hope they fix on him, not us. Now move, we can’t stay here.” she made Bella take the jacket of, tucking it under her arm before hurrying her along.

-x-

Mingi’s brow twitched in annoyance as he looked down at his jacket. Bella had knocked on the door to Rea’s room at some wee hour of the morning, looking more than a little frazzled as she all but shoved the jacket into his arms before rushing away.

So here he was the next morning, annoyance settled in his brow as he walked with it tossed over his shoulder, looking for places in the market that sold leather patches. He couldn’t do much for the stains, but he could at least sew the areas closed.

Part of him wanted to find her and ask her what the fuck she had gotten into that lead to her getting shot at, but he caught himself.

It was none of his concern. He’d buy the leather patches and fix his jacket and move on. Whatever she did in this town had nothing to do with him anymore.

Mingi thanked the leatherworker in the market and turned to leave, humming a tune in his head, oblivious to the group of men a few stations down, pointing in his direction, eyeing the telltale bullet holes in the jacket tossed over his shoulder.

“Looks like we have our thief, boys.”

-x-

Seonghwa smiled as Wooyoung pressed his cheek against his, hugging the back of the ex prince’s neck tight as he piggybacked him through the market.

“We should get something yummy. Yeosangie won’t know.” He beamed, swinging his feet. Seonghwa leaned back and kissed the tip of his nose lightly.

“You know he would. Yeosang has a dog like nose, he’ll smell the sugar on your lips before you can even think of hiding it, Woo.”

Wooyoung pouted and pressed a small kiss to Seonghwa’s lips before he put his chin on his shoulder.

“Do you have to be right about everything?”

“Preferably, yes.”

Before the small man could say anything, there was a commotion a few feet from them, with the thief from a few days ago in hysterics, blood all over his face as some pirates dragged his bound form through the market.

“Let me go! No! You can’t l-leave her like that. Gracie!” He screamed, crying out when one of them elbowed him sharply in the face, splitting his lip. He continued flailing regardless, looking up as they hauled him past Seonghwa and Wooyoung.

“You...you said you would let me go...why..? Why did you kill them…? WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST KILL ME WHY WOULD YOU TAKE THEM?!” He barked before he was pistol whipped by one of the men restaining him before they shoved their way past the two. Seonghwa’s lips parted in surprise before he looked at where they came from, noticing the familiar form of the girl from the docks, not so subtly watching the scene unfold as she stood beside another woman.

“Hwa? What’s wrong? Do you know him?” Wooyoung’s voice caught his attention and Seonghwa turned his gaze to him before his grey eyes flickered back to the tall thief’s form.

‘Don’t intervene. Don’t intervene, Seonghwa. Don’t-’

“Woo, get down. We need to go to Hongjoong, now.”

-x-

Mingi shook as blood ran down his face, confusion shining in his eyes as he looked up at the captain aboard the ship.

He was not the same as the man before. Hell, this wasn’t the same ship, either.

His heart pounded in his throat as the burly man tilted his head, lifting his head with the tip of his blunderbuss pistol.

“Well, well. Look what we found. Thought you could steal from us, huh?” he growled. Mingi swallowed thickly.

“I...I didn’t. I stole from the Utopia. ”

The men around him laughed loudly as the captain knelt down into his face, his lip curling up.

“Oh? So those bullet holes in your jacket are from someone else?”

Mingi’s eyes dropped. It all made sense now, her strange behaviour, the frantic way she pushed his jacket into his hands.

Bella Rose.

Mingi shook his head, his bangs falling into his eyes as the weight of it hit him.

Images of Rea’s still form holding a crying and defenseless Gracie. Eddie slumped over a poker table. Loralei’s head tilted back, still in the rocking chair as the knitting needles she used to make Gracie’s clothes lay dropped on the floor, soaked with blood.

There was...so much blood.

“Just...please don’t kill my sister. She’s just a baby.” He whispered as he watched the pirates around him prepare some heavy ropes. He was going to die tonight, that was without question, but he could still use his last breaths to try and save Gracie.

“Aye, lad, what are we, monsters?” The captain chuckled loudly.

“She’ll be left right there. I’m sure someone will come along and help her, yes?”

Mingi’s head snapped up, rage flooding into his feline eyes.

“Don’t! She’s just a baby, please! Take her somewhere safe!”

He hardly cried out as the captain slammed his foot down on his thigh, biting back the sound in lieu of staring defiantly up at his soon to be murderer.

“I owe ya nothing, rat. I’d be more concerned with yourself than the baby. Now, get em ready, we’re gonna keelhaul ya!”

Mingi closed his eyes as a black bag was roughly put over his head. His arms were grabbed roughly, and he put up no resistance as they tied his wrists and ankles together in a thick rope. Tears slipped down his cheeks as he whispered to whatever deity that would listen to please save Gracie. If anything, just please save the child.

Someone, some divine power out there had to hear him.

“Good evening, lads.”

The hands binding his hands and feet together paused and there was a commotion he couldn’t see behind the darkness of the bag.

“An’ who the hell are you?”

“Captain Kim Hongjoong of the Utopia. You are the captain, I presume?”

There was a sound of a scoff before the click of a gun’s safety.

“Aye. And I don’t like how you and your crew just strolled onto my ship. Are ya asking for a death wish? Because I’ll be more than happy to oblige after I deal with this thief.”

“Actually, no. I was here with a business proposition. I want to buy him from you.”

Mingi blinked. 

Buy?

“I’m sorry?” The other captain seemed just as confused by Hongjoong, but the small captain only approached them, keeping a friendly smile and his hands up so the other pirates didn’t perceive him as a threat.  

Seonghwa and the other demons stayed behind while Hongjoong spoke, keeping their stances lax as they watched on, ready to step in if they needed to.

“He stole from my ship as well. So hear me out, you let me take em off your hands, I give you some gold, we both win. What do you say?” Hongjoong inquired. The other captain narrowed his eyes at him until Hongjoong tossed him over a bag containing several dozen gold and silver pieces. The captain looked them over, taking a few and biting them for authenticity before he perked.

“Well, it seems you’re serious. If that’s the case, you can have em. We’ve already seemed to break his spirit by killing the lad’s family. Good luck getting him to shut up before ya kill em.” He laughed loudly, motioning for his men to untie Mingi.

Hongjoong’s jaw clenched, though he kept his disarming smile in place.

He looked down at Mingi’s bloodied face and knelt down to his eye level, ignoring the way Mingi flinched.

“Keep your voice down. Just blink once for no, twice for yes. Did you steal from this ship?”

A blink.

“Your family...did they steal from this ship?”

Another.

“Are they...did they kill them?”

One blink, followed by a tear, and another.

Hongjoong inhaled sharply and nodded, tapping his shoulder.

“Get up. You’re coming with me.” He pulled Mingi up, nodding at Yunho and Seonghwa to take his arms. The two taller pirates hefted Mingi’s weakened body up before Hongjoong turned to follow, a shadow looming over his face as he didn’t spare the boat or it’s pirates a second glance.

As he passed Wooyoung, Yeosang, and San, they noticed the dark shadow cast over his face from his bangs and the scales shimmering just under his collar as he clenched his teeth. The trio exchanged a look before following behind their captain.

-x-

Mingi limped as he led the pirates back to the inn, ignoring the concerned looks he got from other people as he made a beeline to Rae’s room.

Immediately, the smell of copper filled his nose. He nearly collapsed, noticing there was no sound in the room. Yunho stepped in after him, surveying the room before he noticed the small baby Mingi rushed to pick up, shaking as he gently wiped her cheeks.

“Gracie….Gracie, please…”

Yunho carefully neared her and crouched down, sending Mingi a small understanding nod before he reached for her.

“I’m a doctor. I’m going to help.” he promised. Mingi looked warily at him before he handed the child over. Yunho grabbed her small wrist, feeling for a pulse before he sighed in relief.

“She’s alive.”

He held his hand out, a small flower appearing in his palm. He tilted it and Mingi watched a small droplet of nectar fall from the petals, landing on the child’s lips.

A beat of silence passed before Gracie began crying, stirring as she kicked her feet uncomfortably.

Mingi’s eyes grew as he grabbed his sister, hugging her close to his chest as he looked at the doctor, shaking.

“What did you do?”

Yunho wiggled a finger and stood.

“Nevermind that. It’s a long story. Come, we should...we should go. There’s nothing else I can do here.” He muttered, reviewing the dead bodies in the room. Gracie was the sole survivor of the ordeal.

Mingi stood and rocked his sister, looking back at Hongjoong as he stood in the doorway, an unreadable look in his eyes as he looked at Gracie’s crying form, protectively wrapped up in Mingi’s arms.

“What...what are you going to do with me now?” Mingi inquired. Hongjoong looked back up at him before he shook his head.

“I’m letting you go. Seonghwa called me because he saw you in the market and heard the commotion. I didn’t…’buy’ you to punish you for stealing from us. I keep my word, and I said I wouldn’t touch you. I have no intention of taking anything else from you.” Hongjoong nodded. Mingi’s eyes watered as he stared at the small man.

“Why...why are you doing this? Why are you letting me go? You are a pirate, yes?”

Hongjoong’s face soured before he turned away from Mingi.

“Yes. But I’m not the same as them.” he gritted out. Mingi looked down at Gracie’s smiling face as she latched onto his finger, smiling weakly.

“I...I can’t take care of her. I can’t provide a stable life for her…” He muttered, stopping Hongjoong in his tracks when he moved to leave. Seonghwa glanced between them before he hummed.

“There is a church in town, mon ami. If you take her there, they will care for her.” He informed him, his tone surprisingly gentle. Mingi nodded, kissing the top of Gracie’s head.

“After that...can you take me aboard your ship? I have...I have nothing left. My whole family...she’s all that’s left.” He whispered as he bundled her up. The men exchanged a look before they all turned to Hongjoong. He didn’t turn back around, but he stuck his hands in his pockets.

“What about the woman that was on the docks with you that night you snuck aboard?”

Mingi’s eyes narrowed.

“She snuck aboard the other ship. Stole from them in my clothes and didn’t do so much as warn me of what she did before she gave them back to me. Had...had I have known...I wouldn’t have taken my jacket out. They wouldn’t have known I had it, they...they wouldn’t have followed me here…”

“Yunho, help the lad and the lass clean up and then bring him to the ship. Seonghwa, when they get back, I want you to take everyone under the deck. That’s an order. I suggest you all stay put there until I get back.”

Seonghwa frowned before he ran a hand though his blonde hair.

“Understood, mon putois. Come, we have to go.” He ushered the other men away before sparring Hongjoong a passing glance.

He’d seen that expression of pure rage on many people before, but usually never Hongjoong.

There would be much more blood shed tonight.

-x-

Yunho tended to Mingi’s wounds in his room, his normally cheery face pulled into a firm frown as he washed out the excess blood from Mingi’s hair before checking his scalp for gashes.

“Are you sure you want to come along with us? Shouldn’t you stay with her?”

“I’m a petty thief alone in the world...I can’t raise a child on my own. She’ll only be unhappy if I care for her. I don’t need to be around to do any more damage to her life than I already have.”

Yunho frowned before he waved his hand, making a large flower blossom from the table, the stem stretching upwards before it unfurled, each of its petals glowing a strong blue color. Yunho used the light to see better, humming lightly.

“You don’t need stitches. That’s good. Just keep putting this ointment on it, and it won’t get infected.” He instructed, moving the illuminated bloom away from Mingi. The man followed the motion, pursing his lips in interest as he reached for the flower.

Yunho watched him run his fingers over it, smiling softly at the way Mingi’s shoulders relaxed.

“By the way, what is your name? We’ve been through a lot these past few hours, but I don’t think we’ve exchanged pleasantries. My name is Jeong Yunho.” He introduced quietly. Mingi looked back at him before he lowered his hand from the flower.

“Mingi.”

“Just Mingi?”

“I don’t...I don’t have a last name.”

Yunho nodded and stood, putting a hand on Mingi’s shoulder.

“No worries. C’mon, I’ll take you to the crew’s quarters. Yeosang will probably bring food down-”

The kind doctor stopped short as the sound of sudden, heavy rainfall came from outside. He blinked in surprise as the boat began to sway uneasily, his brows pinching up. Mingi frowned as well, looking at Yunho as he stood abruptly.

“Captain, what the hell are you up to…”he mused before the side of the boat creaked once more, swaying in uneasy waters. Yunho ran over to the door, watching as Seonghwa rushed to the stairs to the deck. He cast Yunho a glance, worry etched on his face.

“He told us to stay below deck but...I-”

“It’s okay, Hwa. Let’s go.”

Seonghwa let out a small relieved sigh, nodding.

“Thank you, mon chiot. Let’s go.” He paused when he looked at Mingi, just slightly behind Yunho.

“I understand your curiosity, but you may want to stay.” he warned him. Mingi bit the inside of his lip slightly.

“Can...I see, anyway?”

Seonghwa fixed him with a stare before he looked towards the stairs to the deck as the Utopia creaked in protest. He nodded and rushed off to the deck with his partners, plus Mingi and a few members of the crew that were curious.

As soon as they got to the deck, they noticed the heavy rainfall pouring down around them in sheets, almost to a painful degree. They looked towards the sky, noticing the lack of clouds.

“S-Seonghwa, look.” Yeosang stammered, watching as a the form of a woman was chased through the port, nearly slipping from the heavy rain. Behind her, were shadow-like tendrils, slamming against the wood of the port, destroying more and more as they swung wildly.

“J-Joong?” San uttered, noticing their captain stalking behind her. Mingi perked when he realized the fleeing woman was Bella Rose. She ran past several boats on the docks that swayed uneasily from the chaotic water and rain. Right as she rushed past the boat that belonged to the pirate crew that killed Mingi’s family and orphaned Gracie, Hongjoong threw his hand to the left, a gust of wind picking her up and dumping her unceremoniously onto the deck.

The captain and crew shouted in confusion at the strange happenings while Hongjoong stopped his walking, standing before the ship. His own crew watched on in surprise as he lifted his head, beautiful shimmering scales covering half of his neck and face as he stared at the ship.

One of his normally electric blue eyes was a jade green color as he watched the sailors rush about the boat in confusion, three tendrils of powerful energy swirling around his form like tentacles from an angered octopus.

Water, darkness, wind.

‘They deserve it.’

Hongjoong grit his teeth and raised his hand, the water around the ship growing more and more violent before it all but snatched the ship away from port. He lifted his hand, watching as the ship lifted higher and higher. Hongjoong let out a beastly sound, his hand trembling as the crew screamed.

‘A child is an orphan now because of them.’

Hongjoong took his free hand, clamping it down over his raised ones, like the jaws of a fanged beast.

A dragon emerged from the seawater, its body consisting entirely of the ocean it was risen from, with confused fish swimming about the murky water. The dragon tore through the middle of the boat, snapping watery jaws closed.

The boat was instantly broken into two pieces before the pieces were tipped inward. They all watched as the sailors slipped into the center of the broken pieces before Hongjoong’s mix matched eyes narrowed.

'Do it.'

The dragon snapped it’s jaws shut once more, swallowing Bella Rose and the sailors into its watery body before Hongjoong lowered his hands sharply, watching as the dragon took all of them underwater.

He stayed on the dock, those three tendrils swirling around him as he watched bubbles surface in the water before everything went still.

The rain stopped, the last bubble popped, and the only sound on the docks was the sound of boots against creaking wood as Hongjoong made his way back to the Utopia .

His scales disappeared and his eyes both returned to normal.

"Mon putois…? Are you alright?" Seonghwa started, the hesitancy in his voice making the other crew members on the deck even more on edge.

Seonghwa rarely hesitated.

Hongjoong looked at him and the others as he boarded his ship before his eyes rolled back and he promptly passed out onto his own deck.

"Putois!/Hongjoong!/Captain!"

Mingi stayed back as everyone made a dash to pick up the fallen captain.

-x-

Mingi didn’t see hind end or tail end of the Captain for days after the incident. Yunho tended to him every day, and Mingi found himself befriending the humble doctor rather easily. It actually surprised him how welcome the crew made him feel, despite the fact that he’d stolen from them before.

“How is the captain?”

After the third day of not hearing from Hongjoong, Mingi finally chanced the question with Yunho one morning after being checked up to see if he was healing nicely. The older brunette pursed his lips before he hummed.

“Seonghwa says he’s been out cold since that night. I’ve never seen him like that. He’s been angry, but in our year of sailing together, I’ve never seen him so enraged.”

Mingi nodded slightly.

Yunho had sat down and told him everything there was to know about their demonic powers, which was interesting, to say the least. Mingi was sure he didn’t fully understand what any of it meant, but he wasn’t too worried.

As long as he could be useful to the men that saved his life and avenged his family, that was all that mattered now.

Mingi looked over the bookshelf Yunho had in his room, gazing at the small plants that littered the wood of the shelves.

“You’ve read all of these before?” He inquired, running his fingers over an orange one. Yunho perked, closing the top to one of his salves before he nodded, smiling.

“I adore reading. Most of these books are medical, but I have some short story books and poetry books, if you’d like to read them sometime.” Yunho beamed. Mingi tensed.

“N...No, I think I’m alright.” He quickly shook his head and looked away.

That’s right. None of them know he’s illiterate.

Before Yunho could question his behavior, there was a frantic pounding on the door before Wooyoung burst in with San in tow, startling them.

“He’s awake!” the youngest informed them. The four rushed up to the upper deck where Hongjoong was standing, looking tired despite the fact that he was out for a few days.

“Joongie!” Hongjoong stumbled when Woo all but flung himself at him. The captain stumbled before smiling tiredly at Wooyoung, kissing him gently when the man broke into panicked chatter.

Mingi stayed back, surveying him.

His eyes were normal instead of the mix matched glowing blue and green. The scales that adorned his face and neck were long gone. Aside from the tired way his eyes stayed half lidded, he looked...normal, no sign of the beast they'd all laid eyes on the other night in the rain.

Hongjoong turned to him when he noticed his gaze, scratching his head.

"I...I don't remember what happened the other night when I split from you all. I should uh, work on my temper. Normally I have a pretty firm handle on myself." He ran a hand through his chestnut colored hair before he turned to Mingi. The younger man startled at the sudden attention on him and stood straighter when Hongjoong approached him.

"I seemed to have caused a lot of damage and I'm sorry for whatever it was you saw. I should formally introduce myself. I'm Captain Kim Hongjoong, and this is my ship, the Utopia. Regardless of how you joined, from here on out, as a member of my crew, you're family." He held a hand out and Mingi blinked in surprise before he quickly shook his hand, surprised by the tender tone the captain took with him.

"C'mon, I'll show you a bit of your duties now that you're in our crew." San caught his attention before motioning for him to follow.

Mingi cast one last glance at his tired and disoriented captain before following San.

-x-

"You don't remember anything?"

"N...no. I just recall being awash with anger and then everything was. Dark. And then I woke up in bed."

Yunho pursed his lips, looking at his notes. Hongjoong still remained the outlier when it came to their transformations and behaviors. The doctor had yet to get to the bottom of it, but the way his "demonic" side talked to him still left him rather perplexed.

In fact, he was the only one to his knowledge that could still hear the voice of his demonic side occasionally, praising his flora and his medical work.

Hongjoong took the doctor's silence as concern and rubbed the back of his head.

"I'll work on my temper. I don't mean to concern you so much." He muttered, looking ashamed. Yunho waved his hands.

"No, no! It's okay...I'm just trying to understand so I can help next time, y'know? Just in case you lose control." He told him honestly. He didn't want to bring up the voices yet, so he kept that detail to himself.

"Don't worry about it right now. Let's get you some food with Yeosang. You've been unconscious for a few days, you must be famished." He nudged his captain lightly, smiling at the way the small man flushed as his stomach growled at the prospect of food.

"Ah, you're right. Let's go." Hongjoong cheerfully lead the way as Yunho closed his notes, following close behind.

-2 Months Later-

"Good job today, Mingi. Having you around is such a big help."

Mingi flushed as he looked up at the boatswain, Sana as she approached him. He sent her a kind smile, moving to put his shirt back on out of respect. Sana laughed lightly and waved a hand at him.

“No need, lad. You ain’t got nothing I haven’t already seen before. I’ve been on this ship for years. No amount of nudity phases me anymore.” She reassured him before clapping him on the back when he stood to his full height.

“I know it’s weird being surrounded by mostly women, but relax a bit. We’re not gonna bite ya, handsome.” She nudged him playfully and Mingi shifted, a small anxious feeling bubbling in his chest.

There was the honey...so...where was the venom?

“Ah, right, since you’re such a big help, do you mind running me an errand before you get ready for dinner?” She inquired. He tilted his head and she passed him a piece of paper torn from a book she used to write down orders for the cargo.

“Take this to Seonghwa or Hongjoong and see if they approve of these numbers. Ask them if they want me to add something for the next shipment when we get to port. Write down what they have to add for me, would ya?” She smiled and passed him a pen before waving.

"I gotta go check on some of the lads below the deck and the livestock in the hold." She left before he could stop her, panic settling in his chest.

Write…?

The walk to the captain's quarters was a long one and Mingi was ready to bolt by time he stopped in front of the door.

This...was a bad idea…

Mingi knocked lightly and waited, smiling and waving when Hongjoong greeted him. He waved back and beckoned him in.

Seonghwa was already inside, steel eyes scanning the papers in front of him. He had hardly spared either of them a glance when they entered, but he waved all the same. Hongjoong chuckled and moved to sit down beside him, motioning for Mingi to come closer to them.

"What brings you here, Mingi?"

"Sana asked me to give this to you. She wanted you to uh...write down what you'd like to add so I could take it back to her." He lied stiffly, hoping they didn't question it. Hongjoong hummed and nodded.

"Ah, just read the list out, I can tell you the numbers from there."

Mingi tensed.

"Ah- it's better if you look it over, y-yes?" Mingi would be lying if he said his hands weren't shaking. His heart began to pound loudly in his ears as both Hongjoong and Seonghwa fixed him with curious looks.

"Is...is there something wrong?" Hongjoong inquired, his head cocked to the left. Mingi bit his lip, eyes on the floor as he shifted from foot to foot.

"I...can'treadit." He muttered quickly. Both pirates squinted and Mingi could swear his heart was gonna leap out of his chest as he closed his eyes, ashamed.

"I...I can't read...or write. I'm illiterate."

Admitting it aloud to two people he admired really hurt him a lot more than he expected it to. Seonghwa lowered his pen before he sent Hongjoong a glance. The captain didn’t miss a beat.

"That's okay."

Mingi blinked in surprise and lifted his head.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's alright. We wouldn't have put you in such an uncomfortable situation if we knew. Here, pass the list to me, Mingi." Hongjoong reached for the paper, his warm fingers gently brushing against Mingi's as he took the sheet, scanning it with his eyes.

Mingi watched him, waited for a snide comment, something casually backhanded about his intelligence. In his mind, he could hear Bella laughing, a haunting sound.

'You cant even finish a simple task like this? Fucking useless idiot.'

"Here we go."

Mingi's head snapped up as Hongjoong passed the paper with the added changes back to him. He took it in a slightly shaking hand before Seonghwa's voice cut in.

"If I may, mon ami, if you have any interest in learning how to read and write, we'd be more than happy to help." He offered. Mingi stared at him before he looked at Hongjoong, who looked just as ready to volunteer as his first mate.

"But...you're all so busy, I couldn't…"

"It's just an option. None of us mind. We're not here to judge you or make fun of you. We support each other here. If you want to learn, we can teach you."

Mingi stared at them for much longer than he intended to before he swallowed thickly and nodded. He turned on his heel quickly before bolting to the door.

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind." He uttered quickly before closing it and pressing his back to the door.

He couldn't calm his rapidly beating heart that night.

-2 Days Later-

Mingi was pleasantly surprised to find that no one had made fun of or even teased him for his illiteracy. Sana apologized for sending him to do something that made him uncomfortable, but he only ducked his head and waved it off.

"You didn't know. It's really fine."

After that, it was the same as usual. Honey, sweet, sugary nectar. No sign of venom or poison. Nothing bitter.

They gave him a sense of comfort and ease he hadn't fully felt in a while.

Honestly, it terrified him. He wasn't used to letting his emotional guard down since Bella showed up.

Tentatively, like a timid butterfly, he took whatever sweetness he gave them, stored it away just in case they suddenly changed their demeanor. Cherished their kind words, but a nihilistic side of him made him think.

They say these nice things now. It’s only a matter of time until they turn on you like Bella did, right Mingi?

As he was lost in his thoughts, Yeosang walked past him, his sandy bangs bobbing in a manner that reminded him of floppy dog ears.  Mingi noticed a book tucked under the boy's arm as he cheerfully darted by, humming about desserts. He stopped abruptly, eyes lighting up when he noticed the absentminded sailor staring off into space. He startled Mingi by popping into his personal space.

"Oh! Mingi! Come, come! I need your help" He grabbed Mingi's wrist and pulled him down into the galley, smiling wide. Mingi blinked in surprise.

"Um...with what?"

"Yunho's birthday is next month and I wanna make him some desserts. Do you mind helping me?"he inquired. Mingi frowned slightly, looking at his book.

"Um...I can't read anything, if that's what you mean…"

Yeosang blinked before he shook his head.

"Oh, no no. It's alright! This is just for me to write new recipes down! I just need you to try what I make and let me know if you like it!" He beamed before showing Mingi the beautifully written words inside.

He didn't understand a word of what was said, but he could tell excellent penmanship when he saw it.

He expected nothing less of a prince.

"If...if that’s what you want and I can be helpful…" Mingi nodded and sat down, watching as Yeosang perked and eagerly started grabbing some items.

As he began, he noticed the smaller man still talking.

"This package is where I keep my sugar, Mingi. It's the one with the small painted cat. San got bored one day and I just refill this pack when we run low. The sugar will always be in there."

"This jar is vanilla extract. It's kinda expensive on its own but Yunho's been real helpful with growing whatever we need for food. Hongjoong helps with keeping things watered properly, too."

"Ah, this potted plant over here is my little orange tree, would you like some orange juice? I can ask Seonghwa to bring us some ice, it’s a little tart if you drink it as is-"

"Why are...why are you telling me these things? I can't read the recipes you have." Mingi's low tone caught Yeosang off guard. The ex prince paused before he looked towards his little tree.

"....so? So what if you can't? A lot of these recipes, I learned by watching. Memorizing. I'm telling you what they look like and what is what because I hope you'll come to my galley sometimes and cook with me. It's nice to have extra hands besides my illusions. I promise, you're much better company, too. And I can teach you if you ever did want to learn. It's no problem at all, I used to help some of my caretakers back in the palace learn to read and write." Yeosang took a knife to some oranges, a fond look on his face.

"Yeah but...those were children, right? It's embarrassing to be an adult and not know…" Mingi sighed, moving from his seat to help Yeosang. The older pirate hummed thoughtfully, grabbing a tall glass and squeezing one half of an orange into it.

"Mmm. Not necessarily. The oldest person I helped teach to read was an older woman named Annabelle. She was in her forties. She ended up becoming a consultant. Anything is possible if you try, you know?" He nudged Mingi and sent him a warm smile.

"It's okay to ask for help if you really want to. This is the best place to do it, to be honest. Sneaking aboard this ship was the best thing that happened to me since Shiber came into my life. I've never been so comfortable and free in my life. I'm sure you may feel the same soon enough once you fully settle in. Here," Yeosang passed the glass to him, grinning as Mingi took a sip without hesitation.

His face lit up as he looked at the glass and Yeosang beamed proudly, turning back to his stove as Mingi made small sounds of happiness as he drank the juice.

"Good, right? I'm proud of my little orange tree. I mostly grew it all by myself~ Now, sit down and gimme a sec, the first batch of mini pies are going to be ready soon!"

Mingi settled back in his chair, cradling the glass of orange juice as he watched Yeosang (and occasionally a doppelganger created from his powers) fly around the galley.

He lifted the glass to his lips, a small smile on his face.

Of course the cute cook gave him sweet nectar. He'd sip at it cautiously, timid butterfly wings opening with every lap of sugar.

-x-

"Okay, hit it Yeo."

"Got it, Captain."

No matter how many times Mingi saw it, it amazed him.

Hongjoong's crew probably consisted of the cleanest people he'd ever met and the reason for them all being at the peak example of health was because of the captain's powers.

Or, rather, his shared powers.

They had Woo raise walls in the hold to separate the crew from the cargo and livestock temporarily and Hongjoong would summon water to rain down on them, showering them in clean water warmed by the plumes of fire Yeosang kept floating above their heads.

They served their purpose, illuminating and warming them.

From there, it was self explanatory. San always made sure to stock up on as many scented soaps Seonghwa would allow aboard ("I told you, lilac is an awful scent." "Okay, what about rose?" "...rose smells nice.") for them to share.

They all stayed clean and Hongjoong cheerfully informed him of that being a big factor in why their human crew members didn’t fall ill often, and none of them suffered from any of the usual sea illnesses that typically plagued sailors.

In every sense of the word, they were thriving.

Mingi thanked his hard working captain and cook for yet another warm shower and got to washing the dirt and grime of the day off of himself.

It took him a while to get comfortable with washing in front of others, especially since the female pirates showered with him, but a few playful jabs here and there, and the small observation that no one really...cared about who had what where or how attractive the nude person next to them was.

Really, it was just a matter of who got to share the vanilla scented soap before Wooyoung got his hands on it, and who would help wash someone’s back.

Mingi noticed San sitting on one of the buckets in the corner of the room, washing his hair as he stared at himself in the mirror, perplexed. The taller man made his way over to him before he knelt down, gently touching San’s bare shoulder. The man startled before he tilted his head up to look at Mingi, immediately masking the look that was previously on his face.

Mingi knew that motion well.

“Is something wrong, San?”

San looked at the mirror out of the corner of his eye before he shook his head.

“No.”

“San. You’re lying.”

San pursed his lips before he ran a hand through his dark hair.

“It’s...weird. I’ve always had these body image issues and sometimes when I think I’ve gotten over it, it comes back and I feel really...self conscious.” He hummed before he looked at his reflection.

“I’m happy. Don’t get me wrong. But learning to love myself is something I’m still learning to do. I didn’t come from the best of places, certainly didn’t have the best of families, but I...I don’t want to let what I went through define me. It gets hard sometimes.” He exhaled and tilted his head back, humming as the gentle showering water ran down his face.

Mingi didn’t take his eyes off of him.

San was...breathtaking, to say the least. Mingi never would have thought someone like him would have similar thoughts about his own body. Granted, Mingi’s was a result of Bella’s constant torment, it was strange to see someone else struggling with the same insecurities.

At least, one of them.

“But, I have Wooyoung and the others to set me straight when I start getting in my own head.”

Mingi watched as San looked back at his reflection, his damp bangs clinging to his forehead as he stared himself in the eyes.

“Unlearning something like that takes...a very long time. But I don’t think it’s impossible. I can be my own worst enemy when it comes to healing, especially when I get too pessimistic and think this will never change. Nowadays, Hongjoong or someone will give me a good scolding and knock some sense into me, so I think I’ll be fine in due time.” San sent him a smile before he perked.

“Ah, you listened to me complain so come, let me wash your back, Mingi.” He waved Mingi over, changing the subject cheerfully as he did just that.

Mingi closed his eyes as San began to chatter about something he and Wooyoung had discovered. His mind rolled around all that San had said to him before he opened his eyes, swallowing lightly.

‘I don’t want to let what I’ve been through define me.’

Neither did Mingi.

-x-

“Please teach me...how to read. And write.”

Yeosang nearly dropped the roast he was setting on the table in front of the higher ranking pirates as Mingi approached them. He bowed deep, his eyes to the floor and his hands planted on his thighs as he stared at the floor.

“Please.” He repeated when the five of them didn’t respond immediately.

Hongjoong smiled and reached over to lift Mingi’s head, sending him a look that made the tall man’s heart stutter.

“We’d love to. You can start tomorrow, meet me in my quarters bright and early, Seonghwa and I will run you through the basics.” He promised before he let Mingi’s chin go.

Mingi nodded and quickly retreated to his usual table, blushing as Sana ruffled his hair.

“There ya go, lad. I’m proud of ya.”

Mingi blushed beet red and dug into his food quietly, casting glances at the higher rank table every now and then.

-x-

Over the course of the next month, the boys kept their word, pulling Mingi away from his duties as a sailor in order to teach him how to read and write. It...was frustrating for the young man, but he found himself unwinding and trusting the men more and more when he realized how many times they would reassure him whenever he made a mistake.

Today, days before Yunho’s birthday, he was struggling once more, the pen in his hand shaking as he stared at the blank sheet of paper.

He wanted to try and write the kind doctor a birthday note. Nothing too difficult, just a simple ‘Happy Birthday Yunho!’ to give to him after delivering Yeosang’s tiny mixed berry tart. Both men had settled on making Yunho a berry tart and making something called a baklava for Seonghwa a week or so later for his birthday.

Mingi wasn’t quite sure what it was, but Yeosang looked ecstatic to make it for Seonghwa, so he would help when the time came.

After the third failed attempt at writing the note, Mingi sighed and caught Seonghwa’s attention. The ex prince was sitting across from him, having picked up the tutoring duties for the day.

“Mm? What’s wrong?”

"I don't think I remember how to do it like you said.I forgot how to write his name. I...I'm sorry, I'm wasting your time." He bit his lip so hard it hurt, the claws of anxiety dragging down his throat.

He fucked up. He’s always fucking up, always always always-

Seonghwa set his pen down, fixing Mingi with a look, his lips pulled down. He reached over, ignoring the way Mingi flinched at first before he set his hand on the top of his head, ruffling his chocolate colored hair.

"You're not wasting my time. I offered to help. Just like Yeosang and the others. So let me." He spoke gently, watching Mingi before he stood and closed the distance between the two, pulling the shaking man into a warm embrace. Mingi tensed at first and Seonghwa ran his hand over his head, rocking him slightly.

“It’s alright if you need to redo it. Yunho won’t mind. You’re already doing so well, just go easy on yourself. It’s okay to fail from time to time. Take a moment and just breathe for me first. I’m here. I got you.”

Mingi shook, the feeling of someone being there for him through the attack catching him off guard. He clutched Seonghwa’s clothes, all but crushing him against his chest, shaking and crying, muttering hasty apologies under his breath. Seonghwa only cooed, petting him.

“You’re alright. It’s alright.”

Mingi went through the motions, and thirty minutes later, he pulled away, blushing profusely at the undoubtedly raw look on his face. Seonghwa smiled in understanding and wiped his eyes and then nose with a handkerchief he had tucked away in his breast pocket. When Mingi sent him a curious look, he flushed slightly.

“Old princely habits die hard.” He explained before ruffling Mingi’s soft hair.

“Feel better? Want to try again?” He inquired. Mingi looked down at the paper before grabbing a fresh sheet of paper chewing on his lip as he picked his pen back up.

Seonghwa smiled and took his hand off of his head, placing his elbow on the table as he stared at Mingi.

"Have faith in yourself. You're an incredibly fast learner. Probably much faster than myself, given the circumstances. Now, try again, and if you need me to help, I can. We have all evening until Yeosang finishes dinner, I've told San to take over my First Mate duties for today and Hongjoong will be checking up on us in a few hours."

Mingi's cheeks flushed for a moment before he nodded, focused on the page as he began to write, his hand trembling much less than before.

-x-

“Happy Birthday!”

Yunho jolted as Wooyoung burst into his room, smiling wide as he and the other higher ranked pirates shuffled into his room. The smell of plants flooded into the hall as Yeosang held out the mixed berry tart, grinning wide.

“Here, Mingi helped me perfect it. Happy birthday, puppy.” He cooed, standing on his tip toes to press a kiss to Yunho’s nose. Yunho beamed and looked past them to Mingi, who was timidly at the back, hands trembling as he held onto an envelope. Yunho set Yeosang’s tart on his table before making his way to Mingi, tilting his head.

“Do you have something for me?” He inquired. Mingi looked up at the man, and initially his kneejerk reaction was to shake his head and say no. A warm hand from Hongjoong on the small of his back and a reassuring, calloused hand rubbing his shoulder from San made him stay firm.

“H-Happy birthday, Yunho.” He muttered, handing the envelope over. Yunho smiled and opened it, eyes scanning the paper.

‘Happy Birthday,

Thank you for helping me out so much. Because of you and the others, I feel comfortable and safe and I have a chance to learn something that I never knew I could enjoy...so...happy birthday. I hope you enjoy the tart, Yeosang was happy to make it for you.

-Mingi’

Yunho looked up, brows raised in surprise. Wooyoung and Seonghwa peeked over his shoulder, proud smiles on their faces as their doctor looked at their newest member.

“You wrote this for me?”

“It..took a few tries, but everyone helped me.” He muttered. His handwriting was atrocious, but San had checked it for him to make sure he didn’t misspell anything. Hongjoong and Seonghwa helped him with the words while Wooyoung and Yeosang assisted him with sounding the words out.  

Yunho engulfed him in a hug and Mingi nearly fell over from the force of it.

“I love it. Thank you.” He beamed, sending Mingi a wide smile when he pulled away. Mingi flushed and nodded slightly, his heart hammering in his chest as the men dispersed to let Yunho eat his birthday tart in peace.

-x-

“Sweet and sour, I had orange juice in the morning~”

Hongjoong paused as he walked through the ship, hearing a slightly out of tune melody coming from the boatswain’s room. He tilted his head, walking a bit closer.

“I had a sweet and sour orange juice in the morning~”

He peeked his head in, smiling gently when he saw Mingi studying. Sana had offered to relieve him of his duties for a bit while he learned to read and write, but he was adamant on pulling his own weight as a sailor while also studying. If he was here, he must have finished his duties at lightning speed.

Hongjoong was impressed. None of the members of his crew were lazy, but Mingi went above and beyond to be helpful, even surpassing the work ethnic of some of Hongjoong’s older crew members.

“I had an orange juice on an empty stomach. It was cold, orange juice, I washed my face and had an orange juice~” Mingi hummed, squinting at the page before pausing, his lips pursed.

“Ah...I don’t know this word…”

Hongjoong stepped in, smiling when Mingi startled before the taller man relaxed. The captain took a seat beside him and looked at the word, a small smile coming to his face.

“It’s adoration. Y’know, when something makes you feel a deep sense of love or respect for it? You can also say you adore it. Like your orange juice.” He chuckled, laughing when Mingi’s face flushed.

“You heard me-”

“It’s cute. Maybe your last name should be Song. Song Mingi.” Hongjoong joked. Mingi stared at him, biting the inside of his cheek as he watched Hongjoong look over the notes he was taking. Mingi had gotten good at reading in the past two months, surprisingly quickly for someone who didn’t know anything at all before coming aboard.

The crew praised him for his work and helped him along the way in their own subtle ways.

Yeosang asking him to read off a recipe, San showing him the maps he and Woo worked on, asking Mingi to name locations they had drew on the sepia colored paper, Wooyoung reading stories to him in the crew’s quarters on their off time, Seonghwa helping him with his penmanship, Yunho opening up his room to Mingi at any hour to study amongst the sweet aromatic plants to keep his anxieties down when he got frustrated, and Hongjoong coming to him with written inquires about the cargo that was usually reserved for the boatswain to answer.

“You said you had an empty stomach, right? Hold tight, I’ll grab you a snack and some fresh orange juice.” Hongjoong set his paper down and stood to leave, sending Mingi a warm smile.

“Hey, I’m proud of you.”

Mingi’s face ignited as Hongjoong left the room, the familiar sound of Mingi’s orange juice song leaving his lips as he went down the hall. Mingi put his hand over his heart and looked down at his paper at the word Hongjoong helped him define.

Adoration.

-x-

“There must be some mistake.”

“Nope. None. Either yes, or no. It’s your choice.”

Mingi stared at Hongjoong as the man stood before him with Sana at his side. He looked between both of them, brows pinched up.

“You...you want me to be the boatswain?”

Sana nodded, smiling as she handed the notebook she used to keep all of the cargo records in. Mingi took it with shaking hands before looking to Hongjoong. The small captain ran a hand through his sandy mullet and grinned at him.

“You don’t have to take my offer, but if you do, just know we’ll be with you through it.”

“You’re promoting me to boatswain. And turning me into a demon?”

“Again, if you want.”

Mingi swallowed thickly, holding the cargo records close to his chest.

“Can I...Can I think about it?” He inquired. Hongjoong nodded, patting his shoulder as he moved to walk around him.

“Of course. Remember, there’s no pressure. Sana is giving you her position after talking with some of the other crew members and myself and we all agree you’re one of the most hard working people aboard this ship. They’d happily follow your orders, if you choose to take the position, and I’m offering you my powers for the same reason, honestly. You’ve fit right in with us here and I would love to have you around for a long time. With or without immortality. The choice is yours, Mingi.” Hongjoong reassured him before he turned to catch up with Seonghwa as he exited their shared quarters. The blonde looked over his shoulder and sent Mingi a kind smile before the two of them set off to do the day’s duties.

“Aye, lad. Take the offer if you want. You look just as lovestruck with them as the captain usually looks when he ends up sharing his powers anyway.” Sana nudged him and he looked at her, stammering wildly. She sent him a small smile before she ran a hand through her chopped hair.

“Never a dull moment, I’ll tell you that.” She laughed before leaving him to his own devices.

Mingi pondered the offer for days. Sending anxious glances in their direction every now and then to see if they were looking at him any differently for not jumping on the chance. None of them were and it made his heart flutter how patient they were with him.

From a butterfly, to a humming bird, erratically beating wings fluttering as he enjoyed his favorite nectar.

Their smiles, their laughs, their voices.

Warmth, sugary, welcoming.

Sometimes Mingi would remember her in the midst of his healing, her venom trying to taint his newfound delight, but then they would snap him back into focus without even realizing what they do to him.

He remembered that word Hongjoong taught him to write. Adoration.

The love, the respect. Mingi felt all of it with his whole chest. Overflowing love. An abundance of respect. Balance. Euphoria.

Freedom.

Even now, he was slouched over in the boatswain’s room, drooling slightly over his notes as a warm hand ran through his hair. The smell of vanilla told him it was Yeosang, humming some kind of lullaby to him as he scratched his scalp.

Mingi pressed closer to the feeling. For once, he could accept the love being put before him and not worry about if it would come back to hurt him.

A week or so removed from the offer, Mingi stood before Hongjoong, the full moon high in the sky holding his hand out.

“I’ll do it.”

Hongjoong looked at him, glancing at the moon before looking at him.

“Really? Okay, just give me a minute to get the others. The moon is full and you’ll transform tonight. It can get hectic.” Hongjoong shuffled away, gathering the other demons on the deck before sending their human crew to safety. The small brunette exhaled, looking back at Mingi as he anxiously shifted from foot to foot.

Hongjoong held his hand out before pulling a beautifully engraved knife out, making a decent sized cut across his palm before he fixed his gaze on Mingi.

“Are you sure? This is the last chance.”

“Just...promise me you won’t ditch me. It’ll be kind of...bad to be alone for eternity.” Mingi muttered, extending his hand farther. Hongjoong picked up on his tone and hummed, brushing his thumb over Mingi’s knuckles before turning his palm upwards.

“I swear it. I would never leave my crew behind. Immortal or not. We’re in this together, for life. Or, rather, for eternity.” He gently cut Mingi’s palm, apologizing for the pain before he laced their fingers together, pressing their palms flat against one another. Mingi felt a pulse rush through him before the sound of the ocean filled his ears.

Water swirled at his feet as he looked towards the moon, his breath coming in short bursts. Hongjoong watched him carefully.

‘We’re bound, Captain. I won’t settle for less.’

In an instant, the water swirling around his feet changed to wind, and Mingi let out a pained sound as he heard whispers flooding his ears.

Horrible, horrible things. Cries of terror from his family, Bella’s voice. Something akin to his own, taunting him, belittling him.

The wind picked up around him, knocking Hongjoong back as Mingi held his head, tears streaming down his face as a horn sprouted from his head. On his right cheek was a mark resembling a cloud, swirled and beautiful as it shone brightly. The horn atop his head was layered, curving upwards. It twinkled like a crystal opal stone, the rainbow colors in it refracting in the light of the moon.

Mingi swayed, clutching his head harder as he argued with the demonic voice in his head.

“Stop, I don’t want to see them like that, it’s not my fault, its not my fault!”

Hongjoong cursed and moved to get near him once more, but the tall boatswain’s eyes snapped open, focusing on Hongjoong. He shook his head, stepping away as the wind whipped wildly around them, making the Utopia creak in protest, spinning every which way as the sails flapped aggressively from the strain.

Hongjoong pressed his fingers to the boat, using the darkness of everyone’s shadows to grab onto Mingi tight, gritting his teeth.

“Mingi, don’t listen to it. It’s only trying to hurt you and take control. Fight it!”

“I killed them, it’s my fault. It’s all my fault. She was right.” Mingi laughed hysterically, thrashing in the shadows as blades of wind whipped past them, his cheek mark glowing the same brilliant opal color as his horn.

One of the blades flew at Hongjoong as he tried to keep a hold on Mingi, and the captain’s eye’s grew. San grabbed him by the collar, all but snatching him out of his position and tossing him out of the way.

“We need a plan, Joong.” He muttered, watching as Seoghwa and Yunho rushed Mingi to try and slow him.

Mingi startled and spread his arms, snapping them back closed and slapping as he sent a small, concentrated blast at the two.

“Don’t touch me!”

Seonghwa’s ice falcata shattered as he was knocked back, and it was only because of Yeosang summoning two foxes to catch the men that they didn’t crash into the masts. Wooyoung rolled his shoulders, looking back at Hongjoong as he stood.

“Think of something, Cap.” He told him firmly before he took a deep breath and screamed, sending blades of metal hurtling through the night air towards Mingi. The two went back and forth, with Seonghwa hanging back to analyze his movements as Yeosang, Wooyoung, Yunho, and even San tried to get through to the demon.

Inside his head, Mingi screamed at himself to stop, unable to control his body as he was forced to watch on. The whispers floating past him tore at his body, and he fell to his knees, helpless as he watched on.

Above him, the demon version of himself hummed, red hair standing out as he pulled Mingi’s head back, shaking his head.

“I get stuck with the crybaby, hm? When I get my hands on that narcissist lizard, he’ll pay for forcing me to be stuck with the useless one. Now submit to me. It’s not like you’re good for much else, anyway. Give in.”

Mingi let out a ghoulish scream, the wind rapid and vicious as the boat rocked uneasily, barrels and crates shifting around the deck, flying full force into the demons as they tried to calm Mingi.

“Captain, the ship is going to capsize at this rate! We have to stop him, he can’t control himself!” Wooyoung cried, holding on to the main mast as the wood began to splinter. Yunho noticed and reluctantly pulled away from the fight, wrapping thick vines around it to keep it from snapping apart. The Utopia creaked weakly in protest, the wind whipping around wildly as Mingi stood in the center of the deck, his eyes glowing as the  horn protruding from his head grew brighter.

So beautiful, so angry, so raw.

“I can down him in one shot. Give me the word. I won’t seriously injure him, but maybe if I can gash him somewhere, he’ll slow down” Seonghwa grunted, his falcata glinting in the light of the full moon. Mingi snarled, holding his head as the razor-sharp winds whipped past him, hurling San into Yeosang when he tried to get near him. The two crashed into a crate, stunned as Mingi neared them, his eyes a deep purple. Seonghwa grit his teeth and moved to pull his falcata free when Hongjoong shook his head, putting his hand on top of Seonghwa’s, pushing the curved sword away as he walked past him.

“Putois?”

“Get the others out of the way for the time being.” Hongjoong instructed before grabbing Mingi around the midsection, snatching him away from San and Yeosang’s prone forms before tossing him to the far end of the deck. Mingi flailed, landing on his feet when the shadows let him go before turning his head back to Hongjoong.

“Mingi, focus on me. You can control it.” Hongjoong urged. Mingi shook his head, laughing as more tears spilled from his eyes.

“You should have killed me, Hongjoong. You should have killed me for stealing. They died because of me. Gracie is an orphan because I fucked up. All I am, all I’ll ever be is a fuck up!” He barked, rushing towards Hongjoong, blades of wind cutting into the captain as Mingi closed the distance. Hongjoong closed his eyes, listening to the approaching footsteps on the dock.

He took a calming exhale before his eyes snapped open just as Mingi reached for his throat, electric blues staring down dark violets.

“It’s not going down like this.” He grabbed Mingi’s wrist and snatched him to the left, tossing him over his head, slamming him none too gently onto the deck below. Mingi coughed, the breath knocked out of his lungs as Hongjoong stepped on his chest.

“This isn’t you. This isn’t the Mingi we know.”

Mingi grabbed his foot and snarled.

“You don’t know a damn thing about me, Captain Kim Hongjoong.”

Hongjoong bounced back as a blade of wind sliced into his cheek before a gust pushed him farther away. Mingi rolled to his feet, huffing like a caged animal.

“You don’t know anything! Nothing!”

Hongjoong wiped his cheek, smearing blood on his face as he stared Mingi down. Water and darkness swirling around his body.

“I know the Mingi that was eager to save his sister, even if it meant being keelhauled without a fight. The Mingi that joined my crew to make up for a mistake that wasn’t his own. The Mingi that brings energy and happiness to my crew, sings about orange juice, studies until the wee hours of morning. I know that Mingi. And you are not him.”

With every word, the tendrils latched onto Mingi, restricting his arms, his legs, wrapping tight around his throat as Hongjoong approached him slowly. Mingi thrashed, clearly fighting off his newfound inner demon as the wind shakily fluctuated between small gusts to push Hongjoong away, and wild, unstable mini tornadoes to pin Utopia in the ocean.  

Eventually, there was a small breakthrough, the tone in Mingi’s voice frightened.

“I can be useful, I don’t want to be alone-”

“You’re not alone. I’m right here.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just...I…”

“I know, Mingi. I know, and we’re here, forever, right? Take my hand.”

The crew stayed as still as possible as their Captain approached the raging wind demon across from him. Mingi attempted to take a step back, defensive, but Hongjoong ignored him-and the blood from the gashes caused from the uncontrollable magic. Mingi stared at him, chest heaving as his eyes slowly stopped glowing.

“I’m...I’m scared.”

“You don’t have to be anymore.”

Trembling, Mingi took his captain’s hand, and promptly collapsed.

The wind calmed, and Hongjoong lowered the water and shadows binding Mingi to catch him, his whole body slumped as he looked up tiredly at his quickly approaching boyfriends.

“We did it.” He muttered tiredly before he slumped against Seonghwa, the strain taking its toll on him. The blonde huffed out a small laugh before he looked at both men, nodding.

“Yes, you certainly did.”

-x-

“You bought a book today?”

“Mhm.”

Mingi opened his knapsack, placing a book in the middle of Wooyoung and San’s table in their shared room in the inn. The two had invited the others into their room for some card games to celebrate another successful voyage and Mingi was eager to show them all the books he and Seonghwa had gotten him from the market.

“Ah, this one’s about butterflies? Can I see?”

“Is this a journal? Are you going to write down more notes? You’re such a hard worker, Gi!”

Mingi smiled as Yeosang and Wooyoung looked over his books. They were simple, but it was something to read, and that was already more than enough for him. Hongjoong smiled and propped his cheek up in his hand, watching the boys chatter.

“I’m glad you’re more comfortable, Mingi.” He mused. Mingi nodded and reached into the bottom of his bag, handing over a letter. Hongjoong blinked in surprise, as did the other men.

“You wrote a letter? When did you do that? I don’t remember you asking for help.” Seonghwa muttered, lips parted. Mingi scratched the back of his head, looking away.

“I wrote it on my own.” He admitted.

Immediately, the five men huddled behind Hongjoong to read the messy letter in surprise.

‘To my crew,

I know I say thank you every day, but again, thank you for everything you do for me. Your patience, your kindness, it all helped me grow past the broken man I was before.

I know..I still have my moments, and my days may not always be as bright as I want, but you all help me be the best version of myself, and that’s something I can never thank you enough for.

Thank you for teaching me to not let my trauma control my life.

Thank you for helping me understand that what was done and said to me by Bella Rose was not what I deserved.

Thank you for teaching me the meaning of ‘adoration’, because I’ve never felt it so strongly until I came here.

Thank you for helping me be the best version of myself again

Love, Song Mingi.’

------------Taglist Below-----

@kimnamshiks​ @angel0taiyo​ @atiny-dazzlinglight​ @phasephoenix​ @eversionic​ @san--shine​ @prettyjoongs​ @unatempesta-dipensieri​ @lonely10vely​ @yunhosblackgf​ @not-majestic-bluenicorn​ @moonmin-miya​ @girlcarma​ @kpopthingzsblog​ @delphinium3000​ @deathbykpopboys​ @just-a-starfruit​ @mireyth​ @skmoonchild​

[15-dogs]

plan two |c.w.|

pairing: charlie weasley x ofc (adrian arrowman)

summary: this is an excerpt from my fanfiction on ao3, plan two (which is linked here)! it follows adrian and charlie who are best friends working together on the dragon reserve. everything is fine until adrian starts to dream about charlie !!

warnings: light swearing, semi-nudity after cut

guide: none

word count: 1649

Adrian exited the International Travel Department in the Ministry, unbearably exhausted from her travel. She adjusted her skirt to keep herself distracted from the pain of waiting. It had been about two years since she had seen her best friend Charlie Weasley. Things got messy after the war which made them unable to see each other face to face. They kept in touch through letters but with Adrian’s travelling schedule as an advertising agent and Charlie’s strict duties as a dragonologist both parties had no time to see one another. It seemed strange that, in all of her years working in advertisement for magical creatures, Adrian had never gotten the chance to do advertisement for the reserve Charlie worked on. But never mind that, it was finally happening. Adrian would be able to see her best friend again.

Adrian’s eyes scanned the crowd of people, looking for Charlie who claimed that he would be meeting her there. As soon as she began to worry that he had forgotten about her, a pair of shockingly strong arms wrapped around her midsection. They gave her a tight squeeze as they lifted her in the air. She squealed loudly which drew the attention of other people in the area. Adrian recognized the scarred and mangled arms of her best friend and instantly relaxed, letting out a hearty laugh. He released her so she turned around to justify her assumption.

“Hey, twat!” Adrian whispered as she smacked Charlie’s head. Charlie rubbed the spot on his head and chuckled.

The pair stared at each other, wide grins plastered on their faces. It took no more than a few seconds before they enveloped one another in a tight hug. Adrian gasped for air between a happy sob while Charlie held her closer. The two pulled away after what felt like an eternity, Adrian quickly wiping her face of the few escaped tears on her cheeks.

“Merlin, I’ve missed you so much,” Adrian sighed. Her eyes raked his body over. “You got so strong! And, Merlin, your hair! Your mum is going to kill you.” Adrian grabbed his hair in a fistful, ogling the length. Charlie laughed as he carefully removed her entangled hands.

“She’s already seen it and I assure you it’s not as bad as Bill’s,” he joked. Charlie eyed her attire, noticing how much she’d changed from the last time he’d seen her. “And you look so...distinguished.” Adrian rolled her eyes.

“I know, I know. I look like a right git. But I have to dress like this now that I got promoted,” Adrian added with a sly grin. Charlie’s jaw dropped at her comment.

“You’re joking,” he said. Adrian shook her head with an excited smile. “That’s amazing news! My best friend got promoted!” Charlie shouted as if he were trying to reach the entire Ministry. Adrian fought off a laugh as she shushed him.

“Shut your mouth! People are staring!” Adrian whispered jokingly. Charlie calmed down but still kept a malicious grin on his face.

“But seriously Adrian-”

“Oh,” she interrupted meekly. “I actually ask people at work to address me by my middle name. A lot of the girls at work didn’t take me seriously for having a boys’ name so I go by Charlotte. For future reference.” Charlie’s smile fell slightly which broke Adrian’s heart a little. He noticed her frown and immediately returned to his excited demeanor, raising Adrian’s spirits.

“Right. Well, I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks,” Adrian replied, looking at him through lowered lashes. She looked down at her briefcase by her feet, snatching it up before eyeing Charlie with a sigh. “So? Are we ready to go?”

“Let’s do it,” Charlie said as he wrapped an arm around Adrian. Before she knew it, the two were apparating away to Charlie’s house.

Adrian arrived in his foyer alongside him. While she admired the quaint cabin, Charlie made his way to the kitchen. He had set a teapot on the stove earlier and left it on while he was gone. Adrian, alarmed, noted to never tell Molly about Charlie’s idiocracy. Adrian took a seat on the couch, pushing a few (hopefully) clean shirts aside.

“Here,” Charlie said as he offered a cup to her.

They drank in silence for a bit. Although they had kept in touch, it was still difficult to transfer from paper to real life.

“So,” Charlie finally started. “Because you’re going by Charlotte, can I call you Cherry again?” Adrian began choking on her tea.

“You arse!” she cried, kicking him in the shin. “No, you absolutely cannot call me Cherry again. Besides, I’m only going by Charlotte at work― you can still call me Adrian.”

“I think I’ll stick to Cherry, thanks,” Charlie teased, causing Adrian to kick him again. The pair dissolved into laughter and there was something so sweet and sentimental about it.

“I can’t believe I went by Cherry when I was little,” the girl sighed. “What a stupid name.”

“I can’t believe you don’t hex me into oblivion whenever I bring it up.”

“Remind me to do that next time.”

“Not a chance,” he said, smiling.

Adrian took a final sip of her tea before standing up. “I should get going. I need to find the main office to get the keys to my cabin.”

“Keys to your cabin?” Charlie stood up, meeting her eyes. His gaze immediately fell to the ground with a sheepish laugh. “I have to admit, I thought you’d be staying with me. Or, at least, you’d be staying with me for a few months until you get your own place. Sure as hell would make up for the last two years of not seeing each other.”

Adrian was torn. All of her bags were at her new cabin but she admittedly wanted to spend more time with Charlie. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to spend the night,” she finally said.

“Fantastic!” he cheered. “I already have the guest bedroom set up for you.” Before Adrian could stop him, Charlie was already on his way upstairs to drop off her briefcase and make final touches on her room. Adrian laughed to herself at his insistence while she slipped off of her heels.

“Hey, Charlie?” Adrian called up to him, coming to a realization as the night neared an end.

“Yes?” Charlie leaned his head over the railing to eye his best friend.

“I don’t have any of my things. I sent my stuff to my new place.”

“I actually spoke with Vivian― lovely lady, works as a receptionist― and asked her to send your things to my place.”

“Oh,” Adrian sighed appreciatively. She was shocked at how much he’d prepared for her arrival, seeing as he hadn’t been prepared for a single thing in his life. “Where’s the bathroom, Charlie? I think I’m going to get ready for bed.”

“It’s up here on the right.” Charlie pointed towards the door before disappearing into her room.

“Toss that bag with the ugly floral design out please!” Just as she asked, the bag flew out of the room.

Adrian stalked up the stairs, snatching the bag outside her door. She turned to her right and froze at the sight of two identical doors. From the living room Adrian could only see one door so she couldn’t figure out which one was the bathroom. She took a guess and entered the first door, arriving in what could only be Charlie’s room. She scoffed at his bachelor style life, carefully navigating her way through the mess of clothes. Adrian shrugged and began to change― she could go to the bathroom to brush her teeth in a minute. 

Adrian unzipped her skirt and removed her blouse before rifling through the bag to find a nightgown. She looked up from her bag for a moment to see pictures that she hadn’t noticed before lining the room. She walked towards the first frame to examine the photo. Pictured were Charlie and his family posing together in their backyard. 

The frame next to that had a photo of Charlie standing in front of what had to be his first dragon. Adrian chuckled at how small and timid he looked. 

The third frame held a photo of Adrian, Charlie, and his siblings. The boys (excluding Bill) eyed Adrian warily. She and Charlie had babysat the lot of them and they had grown quite fond of her growing up; some more than others. Adrian’s arms were wrapped around Ginny, who was grasping onto the older girl’s arms. 

The last frame contained a photo of solely her and Charlie. Adrian remembered that day. The pair stood side by side with acceptance letters for their respective careers. Adrian was going in as an assistant and Charlie a trainee.

Adrian was disrupted from her happy memory by the sound of a lusted breath and a door slam. Adrian whipped her head around to see the door just shut. Charlie had seen her. “Merlin, I’m sorry!” Charlie called from the other side of the door.

“No, no, this is my fault! I got lost!” Adrian replied as she hurriedly changed into the silk nightgown she pulled out.

“Are you decent? Can I come in now?”

Adrian hurried to the door while saying, “Yes!”

She reached to open the door as did Charlie. She opened the door before he did and his hand fell against her waist. Adrian jumped back at his touch and began to blush.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I’m...I’m going to go to bed now. Night, Charlie.” Charlie sputtered but couldn’t say a word. After a few seconds, Adrian pushed past him to go to her room.

Adrian was so caught up in the strangeness of the situation that she didn’t even realize that she left her bag and her clothes in his room. She simply fell onto her bed, hoping she could forget about it.