#oh 15th was a lot of fun too. dumb guy who just wants to play sportsball and accidentally ends a war also

[hirokiyuu]

hinge sol/dys/sym w/dys as the center is sooo interesting to me bc imo sym is like. still definitely super in love with sol. i dont htink sym is ever Not in love with sol its jsut abt what he chooses to do w/it u kno. so it’s fascinating to me that theres a world where hes dating dys and its fine but also he is definitely Still Super In Love With Dys’s Partner That Isn’t His Also

[bubble-tae]

Bad Bait

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Genre: Angst/Lil Fluff/High School AU

Word Count: 2.5k

Summary: Your attempt to catfish cheaters goes awry when you get a message from a cute boy at school.

(A/N: This was meant to be a drabble response but I got a bit carried away! Thank you to @ddaengyoonmin​ for helping me edit and giving me the confidence to post and lovely @baepsaesbae​ for the request) 

reposted from old account

You didn’t mean to take it this far, I mean it only started as some dumb sleepover prank. For nearly 6 weeks, you had been pretending to be a girl from out of town online, catfishing different guys in your class to catch them cheating. You’d send screenshots to their girlfriends of them asking for nudes. It broke your heart to deliver news like this to these girls, but after a while it felt like an obligation. Everything was all fun and games until Taehyung fell into your lap. He was a senior who stumbled across your fake Instagram account when all his friends started following it. It all started innocently enough, a few likes, a couple heart eyes on some pics (that were of some pretty model), but before you knew it, he had slipped into your dms.

You had seen him around school before, hell, no one could mistake that gorgeous laugh for anyone but him. He wasn’t popular, but he seemed to be part of almost every group and club. Taehyung was in theater, played soccer, and even is the Vice President of the art club. He would have been a shoe in for Homecoming King earlier that year if it hadn’t gone to Kim Seokjin (now he was popular, and cheating on the Homecoming Queen). Taehyung was known, that was for sure, and anyone that met him had to of had the biggest crush on him. When he first messaged you that simple “hey”, you ignored it. As far as you knew he wasn’t dating anyone so there really was no need to talk to him at all, but one bored Saturday night, you figured why the hell not.

It wasn’t anything for a while, he seemed boring and just like all the other guys that found their way to your account, but things slowly picked up around a week later when he started his good morning messages. Soon he was sending you pictures with a big grin and a peace sign and asking all about you; what you like to do for fun, what job you wanted, even little things like what your favorite candy was. Through this, you got to know him too. Taehyung secretly loved to sing, he wanted to be a freelance artist, and how much he loved brownies.

“He doesn’t even know you exist.” Your best friend said from the driver seat of her car. You had both just pulled up to school, the foggy Monday air clouding up the parking lot.

“What’s it matter anyways?” you asked, pulling down the mirror to fix your hair. Your best friend cackled next to you.

“The matter is that you like him, and he likes her.” They pointed at your phone in the cup holder. You closed the mirror and rolled your eyes.

“I don’t like him.” just as you said this your phone chimed, but your friend picked it up faster than you could. They opened your phone, a picture of Taehyung taking over the screen. He was posing with a little fluffy dog, a fake pouty look on his face. Your friend read the message out mockingly.

“ ‘Baby boy cried the whole time I was getting ready, guess he doesn’t want me to go to school. Hope you are having a better morning than I am beautiful.’ Fuck, I’d cry for him to stay too if my owner looked like that.” Your friend held down the picture with their thumb, saving it as your lock screen. You leaned over and snatched it back from their hands.

“He’s just being nice!” you proclaimed.

“Yeah, sure,” your friend said, “and pigs can fly.”

“Wasn’t your mom on an airplane last week?” you joked. They hit your side as the bell rang. “Not funny.” You got out of the car and started to make your way to class, Taehyung’s morning message forgotten thanks to your first period calculus exam.

* * *

It was lunch time, and though you were desperately craving the cafeteria chicken nuggets, you knew you had to finish up some last minute notes that were due today. You headed to the library, where you found it mostly empty safe for a few studious peers. There was an empty table near the back, so you pulled out a chair and took your book out from your bag. With earbuds in, you fell into your own little world, taking notes on the 15th century Tudor period. It wasn’t long before you were interrupted by someone grazing the back side of your seat trying to reach a book on the shelf behind you. You were about to give them a dirty look when you turned around, but you were taken back by a face you had never seen this close before.

“Sorry.” Taehyung muttered with a smile, book under arm. You didn’t say anything, your mouth agape as you froze in the moment. He was prettier in person, and when he pushed his curly brown hair back and made his way to the front of the table, you swore your heart stopped beating. He pointed to the chair just across from you. “This seat taken.”

“No.” you finally croaked out, taking your earbuds out. There was no reason to be this nervous, he was just a person you told yourself. He sat down in the chair and open the book, cover facing you. The front read “1984”. He peeked over the top of the book, and that’s when you realized you were staring. Taehyung brought the book down to his lap.

“Sorry if I disrupted your flow.” he said.

“Oh no, it was kind of boring anyways.” That was sort of a lie, part of you actually enjoyed getting wrapped up in your work, but it could wait. “What are you reading?”. You knew what he was reading, in fact you read it just last month, but you felt an insatiable need to keep talking to him. His voice was different than you thought, more sultry and smooth.

“1984, I guess it’s about a society living under constant surveillance.”

“Aren’t we already?” you quipped. He laughed and blush spread across your cheeks.  

“I guess so.” he said. “It was recommended to me.”

‘Yeah, by me.’ You thought. “You going to check it out?”

“I don’t know, I’m not really much of a reader.”

“Yeah you’ve told me.” the words left your mouth before you had the chance to stop them. He put the book down, smile disappearing as he leaned back in his chair. You bit your lip, trying to think of some way out of this.

“What? Do we know each other?” he finally asked, brows furrowed down but eyes still cautious as he scanned your face more intensely.

“Freshman year. English.” you lied, hoping he wouldn’t ask what teacher you had. Your legs were bouncing under the table, and you only hoped that he didn’t notice how your body shook.

“But…” he started, trying to remember if he has ever met you. “I’ve never told you that before.”

“Must have been someone else then.” you spat out quickly, standing up and shoving your things in your bag. “Gotta run, nice chat.” He stood up too, confused from the change in the environment. You sling your bag over your shoulder, but as you start to leave you trip slightly on the leg of the table, and your phone falls to the ground. It lands screen up, and if this situation couldn’t get any worse, it turns on, displaying the picture Taehyung took that morning. He stopped in his tracks and stared down at your phone.

“Am I your lock screen?” he asked, almost disgusted. You pick your phone off the ground quickly.

“You weren’t supposed to see that.” The two of you eyed each other uncomfortably in the silent library. No one had even noticed that anything strange was going on. Taehyung looked around the library and then leaned in slightly.

“Are you stalking me?” he whispered.

“Taehyung, let me explain” you started to say before he cut you off.

“Oh my god, you’re stalking me!” he said a little louder and angrier this time. A kid at a nearby table looked up for a moment before returning to his laptop.

“Will you shut up?” you whisper shouted. “I’m not stalking you.”

“Then what the fuck is that?” he pointed to your phone. You let out a sigh and rubbed at your temples. ‘This is a fucking disaster.’ you wanted to say.  

“You sent it to me this morning, my friend put it as my lock screen as a joke.” You could tell he didn’t believe you, why would he, he had never spoken to you before, let alone sent a picture with the intent of you seeing it.

“I didn’t send you that.”

“Well, you sort of did.” you opened your phone and pulled out the messages, his text from this morning displayed on your screen.

“How did you get her messages?” he asked, taking the phone from your hands to inspect it further.

“They are my messages.” he looked back up at you still confused. There was only one way he was going to understand this. “She’s not real.” Taehyung’s face fell as he looked down at the phone again, the words hitting him slowly.

“What?” he said, not really asking.

“Taehyung…” you said, taking a step forward. He took one back.

“What’s your real name?”

“Y/N.” you answered.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Y/N?” he said, hurt dripping over ever word. He put your phone down on the table and grabbed his stuff.

“I can explain!” you tried, the people in the room watching the two of you. He turned around as he started to leave, eyes just a little bit glossy.

“Don’t talk to me, creep.” he hissed before storming out of the library, leaving you standing alone with all eyes on you.

* * *

You probably couldn’t fix it, and you didn’t really intend to, but you at least wanted to try and make it hurt less. Hurt less for him or you, that you didn’t know. There you stood at his front door, plate of brownies in hand, trying to muck up the courage to ring the doorbell. This was much harder than hiding behind your phone. Your hand lifted to the doorbell, but you heard the lock click out of place before the door opened. Taehyung was in the doorway, a displeased look on his face.

“You’ve been standing here for five minutes, I figured I’d tell you to get lost myself.” He picked at his fingernails as if he didn’t care. It stung a little, to have him suddenly be so cold to you, but you knew you deserved it.

“At least take the brownies.” you held the plate in front of them. He squinted his eyes at the brownies, then at you.

“They aren’t poisoned, are they?” he took the plate from your hands, still suspicious.

“No, but they are fudge brownies” his favorite kind. He contemplated something for a minute before opening the front door wider and stepping to one side.

“You have until I finish the brownies to explain.” you thought that maybe he was kidding, but when you both were inside, he motioned for you sit on the couch next to him as he started to stuff his face.

“I know how this looks from your end.” you began, “I didn’t intend on leading you to believe I was this other person. The account wasn’t even made for you, but kind of to catch this one guy who was cheating. One guy turned into two, and before I knew it, it kind of just became my thing.” Taehyung shoved a second brownie in his mouth and crumbs dribbled down his chin and onto his jeans, which he brushed onto the floor, some of them landing on the tops of your shoes.  

You tried to continue but Taehyung shoved a third brownie into his mouth before he finished chewing the second. “Dude, you’re going to choke.” you said to him. He stopped chewing suddenly, looking at you with cheeks full. He motioned with his hands for you to keep talking.

“Anyways,” you shook your head in disbelief. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I never meant for you to get tangled up in all this mess. I wasn’t faking anything, everything I said came from me, Y/N. If you wanna be friends or something, that’s great, but if you want to pretend I never existed, I understand.” The last part hurt to say, but you knew you would have to respect his boundaries. Taehyung finally finished chewing what was in his mouth, swallowing hard as leaned back into the couch.

“Wow,” he nodded to himself, “so you’re The Fisherman?”

“The what?”

“The one who’s been catching all the cheaters. Catfish turned into Fisherman, how about that?” he wiped some of the remaining crumbs from his pants and contemplated grabbing another brownie.

“I guess so? I didn’t know I had another identity.”

“You’re like a modern day Robin Hood.” he leaned onto his knees and getting closer to you. “I knew it.” You let out a laugh at that. Of course he didn’t know.

“So you’re not upset?” you questioned.

“Oh no, I’m fucking pissed.” he placed a hand on your knee, “but I’m also impressed.” You were taken back by his words. He saw the expression on your face and elaborated.

“You caught 6 different dudes cheating on their girlfriends and still no one knows it’s you. That takes a genius.”

“It’s actually 9.” you corrected. He threw his hands air up in the air in disbelief.

“That’s amazing!” he shouted. “I think I like you more than the girl in the screen.” His smile was lazy and genuine and his outright honesty made your face burn. He scooted just an inch closer, a little hesitantly. “So, everything we talked about was really you?” You recognized for the first time how soft his features were in person, eyes glittering with curiosity. His lips were slightly parted, and you wished to know how they felt. You blinked away the thought, almost embarrassed for having it.

“It was always me.” He laughed at your cheesy line and pinched your cheeks, pulling at them.

“You’re not wearing a mask, are you?” he joked. You pulled his hand away, keeping it in yours as it fell into your lap.

“No more surprises.”

“Don’t I get a chance to surprise you?” he asked, licking his lips and moving in closer. You felt your heart beat faster until it was in your throat, and time slowed. You cursed your sweaty palms and quivering lip, Taehyung’s eyes half closed as he was only inches from your face. You closed your eyes and waited for him to kiss you. His lips tickled against yours, so close but not yet touching, before he averted his mouth upward to plant a kiss on your nose. He pulled away with a wide smirk, and you let go of a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

“That’s not fair.” you breathed out. He pulled your hand into his lap to play with your fingers.

“I know.” he said before biting his lip and looking back up at with bashful eyes. Taehyung was a tease, but you knew that you couldn’t wait for for more of his surprises.

[viltrumitesuperboy]

From Villain to Hero (Peter Parker x Male Reader)

So. This took forever. Lack of motivation and stuff like that. Here’s a real dumb fic. Plot holes and things.

Sorry about the gif, there aren’t any good movie ones cause they all show his face. Peter’s like 17-18 in this one.

Word count: 2823

Much like your best friend Wade Wilson, you had been experimented on. As a PI, you knew how to find him, and you got a little too close. It wasn't fun and it left you both with trauma, but you bonded over your unfortunate times. He took the route of killing people and you didn't. He was kind of an antihero, and you were just trying to look out for yourself, which kind of made you one too. People normally called you the bad guy just because you were trying to survive in this capitalist society.

When you got into the whole "bad guy" business, you didn't want to hurt people and you never hurt anyone. So it was only a little bit of a shock when you had a run-in with Spider-Man.

"You could just put the money down and turn yourself in, you know?" Spider-Man suggested as he shot another web at you. "You're not directly hurting anyone, but you still affect parts of our economy."

"No can do, Spidey," you calmly replied, easily dodging the shot. "I got things to do, people to date, food to buy... and sorry about ruining our wonderful date, so you can put it under my tab. Name's (Y/N)."

You held the bag tight as you made for a quick exit. There was no signature exit because you didn't want people like Spider-Man stopping you once they realised there was a pattern. You squeezed the handle of your weapon and smashed a window. You broke the weapon in half, chucked it towards Spider-Man to distract him, and jumped out of the two-story window.

You disappeared before Spider-Man could catch you. You casually limped onto the subway car with your duffel bag, the bones in your leg definitely out of place. You could hear some of the passengers make sounds of disgust or shifting uncomfortably when you dropped into a seat to snap the bones back in place. You felt less pain, no thanks to the experiments done on you.

You went to yours and Wade's apartment. You dropped the duffel bag, then yourself through the window.

"Hey, kid. What's this?" he asked, going right past you for the duffel bag.

"Hey, I'm a legal adult. And this is our rent, food, and other expenses covered for 2 months," you replied, flipping onto your back and panting from having to climb up. "One and a half if you keep treating Spidey to food when you hang out."

"Whatever. Don't you have that other thing? You sell your bones so people can make weapons and shit?" Wade asked, inspecting the money.

"They're valuable. Not everyone's going to want to pay thousands or close to a million for a single adamantium bone," you explained. "Lower quantity means higher demand. Higher demand means higher price."

"You sound like a fucking capitalist."

"Only way to live in this world, Wade."

He nodded in agreement and tossed the bag into the corner, then grabbed your forearms to help you up.

"Someone called earlier about your PI shit. It's some HR dude who wants to make sure their interviewers aren't criminals. You know, the usual," Wade informed you. "Gave him your email."

You thanked him and grabbed your phone to check the email. You started making food for yourself and waved goodbye at him as he left to find Spider-Man.

The first time you had a civilised conversation with Spider-Man, he called Deadpool and you sat there, tied with his webs, containing your laughter. Of course Wade never mentioned you.

"Spidey, how're the wife and kids?" you asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, first of all, bold of you to assume I have a wife. Or kids. Or like girls. Second, how are yours and Deadpool's masks so expressive?"

"The eyes. Same eyes I use to look for you just to commit a crime. I also use them to check you out. You have a nice ass."

In an attempt to cover it, he quickly turned his entire body to face you. It took him a moment to recover and he spoke again, sounding flustered.

"Okay, no, stop."

"Aw, c'mon, Spidey. I thought we had something going. I mean we've had like over 10 dates already."

"That's because you committed a crime!"

"Like you've never stolen before. Also, you didn't say they weren't dates."

"They're not. And if you say your heart, I'll drop-kick you right here."

"Hey, Webs. How's- oh," Wade said as he paused once he reached the roof of the building you both were on.

"Deadpool! I got the bad guy, the villain I was telling you about, he has those adamantium weapons. And I was thinking that he was the one buying the weapons online. I found a website and stuff, I'm sure I sent it to you," Spider-Man ranted.

"Spidey-Boy. This is the friend I was telling you about."

Spider-Man stopped and stared at Wade.

"My best friend who is absolutely wonderful, definitely around your age, and has an adamantium skeleton. So Wolverine but he likes me better. He gets money from selling his bones and looks out only for himself and people he cares about. He's like my little brother. And bonus: he doesn't kill."

You offered him an apologetic shrug as Spider-Man seemed to glare at you from behind his mask. After a few silent moments, he hopped off the roof and swung away.

"That could have gone better," you mumbled, breaking the webs with a quick pull.

"Let's get you home."

Over the course of a few months, you started making money off the adamantium once you dropped the price a bit. Turns out you didn't really need to. A certain "Howard Potts" was buying most of them. You knew it was Tony Stark, and you'd probably give it to him for free if he asked (you looked up to him a lot), but you didn't mind the money. Maybe you'd tell him someday.

You only ever suited up to bother Spider-Man. If Wade helped him out, you stood to the side and yelled and jeered at the "bad guys." Wade didn't really care. Spider-Man would always scold you afterwards, but you always had a reply.

"You can't just stand to the side and do nothing!"

"I can do whatever I want. And I can totally ask you out on another date."

"We haven't even been on one."

"That's not what you said last time!"

"Shut up!"

"Not hearing a no."

And you weren't sure if he was getting more flustered or more used to your comments.

"I've been thinking about why you reject me. You dating someone?"

"No.”

"Okay, so why not try out a date with me?"

"Because you're still a vigilante. Bye, Mr. Criminal!"

He took the last bite of the food you were both eating before packing it up and standing to leave.

"Oh, come on. 15th date and you won't even give me a kiss?"

His cheeks began to turn red, and he quickly yanked his mask down. You snickered as he swung away with the plastic bag of food following his movements.

When there was a bigger threat in the city that had to include the Avengers, you finally decided to jump in. You ended up bringing two weapons and wielding them like Deadpool would his katanas. You called and told him the intersection closest to you, and he was there in minutes.

"Okay, so what are this guy's weaknesses?" you asked Spider-Man.

Iron Man tossed you an earpiece which you caught and put it your ear, listening to the others.

"As far as we know, no weaknesses," Black Widow said. "He's just really strong and really good with weapons."

"Hey, you know the story of the Greek warrior Achilles? We got an Achilles' tendon for a reason. I mean, this guy doesn't really need it anyway," you scoffed.

"Kid, shut up," Iron Man said. "You got a name?"

"I would say Crossbones but that's taken. Call me uh... Bone... Breaker?

"Cause he has adamantium bones!" Deadpool suddenly shouted into your ear.

"We know," three voices said.

You ran and jumped on a slab of cement the dude was trying to pick up, stabbing your weapons in to keep it in the ground.

"Buddy, you need a therapist if your problems are that bad."

His already angered expression seemed to get a little angrier and he swung a lamppost at you. You grabbed your weapons back as you jumped clean over it.

"Ooh, are we playing helicopter?" you gasped.

Spider-Man had joined as well to attempt to web the guy down, jumping over the pole as it swung towards him.

"This isn't very family friendly," Spider-Man quipped as he webbed the guy's arms to his body and his legs together. "That won't stop him for very long."

After a brief moment of his struggling, he broke free, and the other avengers stepped in to try and keep him down.

"Get somewhere safe! Bone-whatever, try and get something made of adamantium to keep him down. He's not strong enough to break through."

It all happened in slow motion. From the corner of your eye, you watched Hulk running towards you to fight the guy in front of you at the same time the man pulled one of those (really cool) martial arts moves and leaned onto his arms behind his head and kicked his legs. Not onto the ground, but into your chest to send you flying really high up so you had no idea where you were. There were fucking clouds up here, Jesus Christ. How strong was this guy?

At the angle he kicked you, you were moving in a parabolic direction. Once you hit the highest you could go, you looked down and knew that you wouldn't survive this fall. Everyone else was occupied and didn't know where you were, so there was no one to save you. As you neared the ground, you saw that you would land in a park where there weren't too many people. A miracle, you supposed. Some of them looked up and they started to scramble and run away. Thank god for cloudy days.

The last moments of your life was an attempt to move your weapons so they wouldn't kill you first. That would kind of suck. So they were attached to your legs with the few moments you had left. You closed your eyes and felt yourself get closer to the ground. A brief flash of pain through your entire body, then you felt nothing.

Deadpool, thank FUCK, had supplied weapons. How they were going to stop the dude without Bone Breaker, they didn't really know. But Spider-Man had the wonderful idea of making a net  with the (somehow they were rods) adamantium and connecting them with nitinol. Deadpool suggested killing the dude to avoid the trouble, and everyone gave him disapproving looks.

"Wait, Bone Breaker!" Spider-Man exclaimed.

He ran and began to swing uptown, Deadpool following after. He felt something under his arms carrying him, looking up to see Iron Man.

"Mr. Stark, do you think he's okay?" he frantically sputtered out.

"I don't know, kid. That was a hell of a fall."

Deadpool was shouting after them, doing his best to keep up. He fell behind eventually, but Peter knew he would get there quickly.

An entire park that was about 4 blocks long on each side was pretty much gone. Towards one end was the hero's body.

"Oh god, Mr. Stark. Please don't tell me he's..."

"Go check on him, I'll be right here to call for help."

Peter was let down and he sprinted towards the figure he could barely make out. Tears marred his vision and he dropped to his knees next to you. He pulled off your mask, almost breaking down when he saw your bruised face and bleeding skull.

"(Y/N). Please be okay," he blubbered. "You can't- you can't leave me, please. You're one of my only friends, please be okay."

There was no answer and he slowly lifted you under your back and your knees to lay flat on the ground. Your eyes remained closed and your chest unmoving.

"(Y/N), please. We're getting help, come on. You're gonna be okay," Peter gasped out, pulling his mask off as he hunched over you. "You have bones made out of some of the strongest stuff known to humans, how would you not survive that?"

Peter was sobbing at this point, but he heard the sound of people shouting to get back and a vehicle come up close to them. He saw "Stark Industries" printed on the side. At least his identity wouldn't be revealed through his recklessness. But desperate recklessness. He pulled the mask back on and picked your body up, carrying you into the van and placing you down.

"I don't really have ambulances so this is the best I could do," Tony said quietly. "We'll do our best to help him, Peter. I'm-"

"Wait!"

Deadpool barreled straight into the back of the van and shut the doors, motioning for the driver, Black Widow herself, to go. She rolled her eyes but obliged.

"He'll be fine. Just give him a few minutes," Deadpool panted. "Jesus, you guys need to let me come with. I was gonna say that his healing powers are amazing, could even rival mine. Trust me."

Peter yanked his mask off once more and stared into the white eyes of Deadpool's mask.

"How- How good? Like, come back to life good?" he almost whispered.

"Well his bones aren't made of the same material as mine and if he breaks them, he just pushes them back into place — really gross by the way — and then it heals in minutes. I don't think his heart has stopped before but I think if he's anything like me, he'll be okay."

Peter grabbed Deadpool around the waist and hugged him, trapping his arms and all. Tony sighed.

"Okay, no hugging the murderer. If he's right, the most we can do is make (Y/N) comfortable."

A quick drive to the Avengers Tower and a medical room later, Peter could literally hear your bones moving. Honestly it was probably going to be one of the grossest things he's heard in his life an hour from now, but it was the most beautiful sound because he knew you were healing. He occasionally lifted your back to make sure your spine was aligned, and he would push something into place if it wasn't. The doctors didn't stop him, even encouraged it because they knew Spider-Man would have the strength to do this thing.

It felt like hours, but he looked up at the clock and it was only a few minutes. Like, 10 since you were found and placed in this room. That short.

Minutes after, you thought you were physically feeling your entire body turning back on as your brain repaired itself. Your body involuntarily jolted up and your eyes snapped open.

"That felt like I just did heroin and then it wore off and then had whiskey. And I've never had either of those."

Someone suddenly hugged you from the side, and you looked to see Spider-Man.

"Did I die and go to Heaven?"

"No, you died and came right back," Spider-Man sniffled, pulling his arms away.

"Were you... crying?" you asked cautiously.

"I didn't realise that you weren't actually dead but then Deadpool told us that you heal like he does. And that whole thing made me rethink my entire life like 'that criminal (Y/N) seems to like me and he died and I kind of like him so maybe we should date when he’s alive again' kind of thing," Spider-Man said all at once.

"I'm on a hospital bed and I feel like my brain is mush," you complained. "When I'm better we'll talk more."

He pulled his mask off and put his hand holding his mask over yours with a small smile.

“I’m Peter Parker. And I’d like to ask you on a date after you feel better,” Peter said.

You reached to take yours off and noticed there was nothing there.

“They said you should be comfortable so I told them to leave and took your mask off,” Peter continued. “I’ve been setting your bones into place and whatever.”

“Isn’t that like... really gross to you though?” you grimaced.

“Not as long as I know I’m helping you. Go to sleep and then we’ll talk later.”

He slowly pushed you back down to lay on the bed and kissed your forehead. You felt your face heat up just as his began to turn a bit red, and you managed a small laugh before allowing yourself to shut your eyes.

[lostinthelightss]

literal chaos fire (ch.1)

amazing banner by @downn-in-flames​ / down-in-flames@FFT

find it elsewhere: fft | ao3 | ff.net | hpff learn more: chaos universe link to other chapters: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 link to missing moments: 5.5, 7.5, 8.5, 15.5

pairing: Lily Luna Potter / OC genre: AU, Humor, Romance rating: mature audiences

summary: 

Victoire Weasley is a masters student in infectious diseases handling a devastating break up with her girlfriend of two years. Lily Potter is a first year law student navigating a figurative minefield that is the star quarterback’s unrequited affection. Molly Weasley is pursuing her bachelors in engineering while pining over her best friend - who doesn’t seem to realize it.

Three women, three vastly different lives, all coming together with group chats, family dinners, and a whole lot of chaos.

chapter summary: 

Mollz: Attachment: 1 Image Mollz: plz see that on april 18th at 7:29pm i did indeed say that law school was going to be hard

lawyerlilz: Attachment: 1 Image lawyerlilz: you're forgetting that 2mins later you said "work hard, play harder"

SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2021

'the dopest house' (foxyroxy, freddieboy, jamesatron, moollywoobbles, rose) 5:27pm

moollywoobbles: @jamesatron, how did you get into my room? moollywoobbles: i s2g, i have a lab tomorrow moollywoobbles: i'm not doing this moollywoobbles: FINE I'LL DO IT moollywoobbles: but i will get my REVENGE!

freddieboy: why don't you ever ice me? freddieboy: i'm starting to feel left out

jamesatron: PAYBACK FOR LAST PARTY jamesatron: YOU LEFT ME IN THE BATHROOM ALONE jamesatron: I WOKE UP IN THE DARK AND THOUGHT I DIED

moollywoobbles: that was @rose, and im offended you mixed us up

rose: he was fully naked and covered in vomit, i thought he'd be better off lying on the linoleum than causing irreparable damage to our carpets

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'literal chaos fire' (lawyerlilz, Mollz, VickyBaby) 8:49pm

lawyerlilz: two weeks in and i'm already drowning in work lawyerlilz: why did you guys let me go to law school?

Mollz: i told you it was gonna be hard Mollz: but did you listen? Mollz: no

VickyBaby: you actively supported her in this

Mollz: Attachment: 1 Image Mollz: plz see that on april 18th at 7:29pm i did indeed say that law school was going to be hard

lawyerlilz: Attachment: 1 Image lawyerlilz: you're forgetting that 2mins later you said "work hard, play harder"

Mollz: and i stand by both statements

VickyBaby: why do i feel like you're currently drinking

Mollz: james managed to hide another ice in my room when i was in class today Mollz: and after that i decided that having one drink was weak Mollz: i'm a few in

lawyerlilz: it's 9pm lawyerlilz: on a wednesday

VickyBaby: weren't you just complaining about your lab tomorrow? VickyBaby: and don't you have like a bajillion classes always?

Mollz: work hard, play harder baby

VickyBaby: never call me baby again

lawyerlilz: IT'S LITERALLY YOUR NICKNAME

Mollz: DON'T WANT ME TO CALL YOU THAT, DON'T NAME YOURSELF THAT

VickyBaby: alright, alright! damn, calm down... VickyBaby: seriously though, don't you have an early morning lab

Mollz: yeah but it's just circuits Mollz: and malfoy said the basics of it all is done Mollz: i just have to do the write up

lawyerlilz: i wish we had partners for contracts lawyerlilz: thinking is hard

VickyBaby: like disease ecology is easy? VickyBaby: we're looking at ebola right now VickyBaby: did you know the r0 is too low in humans for it to spread effectively? VickyBaby: but gorilla populations are absolutely decimated by it

lawyerlilz: how does Teddy stand you?

Mollz: she puts out

VickyBaby: actually... VickyBaby: i think Teddy and i are on a break...

Mollz: WHAT?! Mollz: what does 'i think' mean? Mollz: you've been together for like 2 years Mollz: and why didn't you tell us immediately?!

lawyerlilz: molly, shut up lawyerlilz: a 2y relationship just ended, she's entitled to her alone time

VickyBaby: actually...

Mollz: WHAT NOW?! Mollz: STOP STRESSING ME OUT I HAVE CIRCUITS LAB IN THE MORNING

lawyerlilz: i thought you just had to do the write up lawyerlilz: don't make me text scorpius and tell him that you're drinking the night before class lawyerlilz: again lawyerlilz: his roommate's gonna ask to talk to me lawyerlilz: again lawyerlilz: and i'm going to have to turn him down

lawyerlilz: AGAIN Mollz: AGAIN VickyBaby: AGAIN

VickyBaby: yeah, we know VickyBaby: i don't understand how you don't find that man attractive VickyBaby: starting quarterback AND captain?

lawyerlilz: i think that mollz drinking in the middle of the week is a bigger issue than my love life lawyerlilz: especially considering it's only her first week

Mollz: i'm taking ordinary differential equations Mollz: why wouldn't i start drinking Mollz: and the big issue here is Vic's love life, not how much fun i have

VickyBaby: ... Teddy and I are taking a break VickyBaby: because she's going to America on exchange VickyBaby: she's leaving in a week

Mollz: i'll key her car Mollz: i'll get xander to hack into the school's system and fail her Mollz: i'll ruin HER ENTIRE LIFE

VickyBaby: plz don't do that

lawyerlilz: who's keeping snuggles?

VickyBaby: the cats staying with me VickyBaby: if she'd fought me on that i would've let molly's wrath free

Mollz: i'll still do it

lawyerlilz: as your cousin, i'd help lawyerlilz: as your soon-to-be-lawyer, plz don't

Mollz: james says he's in Mollz: also james is already on his way to her place Mollz: and i might be with him

VickyBaby: MOLLY, DON'T YOU DARE

lawyerlilz: i'll tell Scorp lawyerlilz: don't think i won't

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(Lily Potter, Scorpius Malfoy) 9:26pm

Lily: molly's drunk Lily: and probably doing illegal things Lily: just thought you should know

Scorpius: lilz! it's me! Scorpius: james and i were a little too tipsy so malfoy's driving the car Scorpius: :)))

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'literal chaos fire' (lawyerlilz, Mollz, VickyBaby) 9:32pm

lawyerlilz: VickyBaby she's recruited Scorp lawyerlilz: this isn't gonna end well

VickyBaby: don't worry, Teddy moved home like 2 weeks ago

lawyerlilz: so they're going to be doing illegal things lawyerlilz: AT A STRANGER'S HOUSE?!

VickyBaby: oh shit

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'old fogies' (Fred [the smart dumb one], James [the older twin], Lily [ur 15mins older], Molly [the dumb smart one], Rose [the granger], Vic [the science beb]) 9:35pm

Vic [the science beb]: @Rose [the granger] @Fred [the smart dumb one] Vic [the science beb]: WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM?

Rose [the granger]: they promised to do all the house chores until Christmas

Lily [ur 15mins older]: SO YOU GAVE THEM THE KEYS?! Lily [ur 15mins older]: THEY'RE DRUNK!

Rose [the granger]: Scorpius was 100% sober and i specifically asked them not to tell me what they needed the car for

Lily [ur 15mins older]: THEY'RE GOING TO TEDDY'S HOUSE

Rose [the granger]: i don't see the issue here

Vic [the science beb]: Teddy broke up with me to go on exchange Vic [the science beb]: also she doesn't live there anymore Vic [the science beb]: and they don't know that

Rose [the granger]: OH NO

Lily [ur 15mins older]: OH NO IS RIGHT Lily [ur 15mins older]: also, where's @Fred [the smart dumb one]

Rose [the granger]: HE'S WITH THEM

Rose [the granger]: FUCK Lily [ur 15mins older]: FUCK Vic [the blonde beb]: FUCK

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'the dopest house' (foxyroxy, freddieboy, jamesatron, moollywoobbles, rose) 9:54pm

rose: GUYS STOP rose: THAT'S THE WRONG HOUSE rose: TEDDY DOESN'T LIVE THERE ANYMORE

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(RosieBear, ScorpiStud) 9:55pm

RosieBear: i will kill you RosieBear: you cannot be serious RosieBear: babe, i will actually murder you

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(Lily Potter, Scorpius Weasley) 9:55pm

Lily: SCORP STOP Lily: IT'S NOT TEDDY'S HOUSE

10:02pm

Lily: SCORPIUS MALFOY I WILL END YOU

10:08pm

Lily: I'M NOT AN ACTUAL LAWYER YET I CAN'T DEFEND YOU

10:17pm

Lily: SCORPIUS!

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'the dopest house' (foxyroxy, freddieboy, jamesatron, moollywoobbles, rose) 10:23pm

freddieboy: hey @rose freddieboy: so bad news is freddieboy: we may have gotten caught freddieboy: the good news is freddieboy: campus cops' golf carts are terribly slow

rose: WHAT?!

freddieboy: we'll be home in 5 freddieboy: plz open the garage freddieboy: we don't know if they saw the license plate

rose: i am not going to be an accomplice

moollywoobbles: scorp wants to remind you that it looks bad on politicians if they're married to a criminal

freddieboy: and he said that he'll finally start watching Grey's with you

rose: it's open rose: and i hate you all

freddieboy: love you toooooooo

jamesatron: <3

foxyroxy: hey guys, remember when you promised you would pick me up after my night class? foxyroxy: think you could still swing by? foxyroxy: you won't even have to stop, just open the door and i'll jump in

jamesatron: FAST AND FURIOUS BABEYYY

[romefm]

what’s   poppeeeeeenguh   AURGH   !   this   was   meant   to   be   posted   a   century   and   a   half   ago   ,   but   due   to   some   ...   unforseen   (   read   :   i   was   given   a   edible   by   thou   who   shalt..   not..   be   named   ?   clearly   i   skipped   all   of   my   shakespeare   english   classes   )   circumstances   ,   it   was   delayed   .   but   i’m   here   now   to   deliver   u   this   steaming   pile   of   degenerate   fratboy   douchebag   on   this   fine   saturday   morning   (   shoutout   to   chloe   in   australia   idk   what   month   ur   in   much   less   what   time   of   day   it   is   so   bear   with   me   SKJFJKD   )   .

⋆ ╰  another  year  at  hollingsworth  ,  another  year  of  the  big  six  rivalry  .  i  hear  that  ROMAN PIERCE  is  ensuring PI KAPPA EPSILON  gets  a  solid  pledge  class  and  stays  at  the  top  of  the  ranks  .  oh  ,  you’re  not  familiar  with  HIM ?  ROME is  the  GREGG SULKIN look  alike  from  ATLANTA  ,  GEORGIA.  apart  of  PC  ‘16  ,  he  is  majoring  in  PSYCHOLOGY and  has  plans  to  PURSUE A CAREER IN THE NFL  after  undergrad  .  it  makes  sense  they  pledged  their  house  ,  their  ADEPT  &  MAGNETIC  attributes  make  them  perfect  matches  .  however  ,  their  IMPETUOUS   &  SALACIOUS  attributes  keep  their  name  alive  on  greek  rank  .  if  you  don’t  catch  them  dancing  to  MOUNT EVEREST - LABRINTH  at  a  fraternity  band  party  this  year  ,  you’ll  be  sure  to  catch  them  nursing  their  morning  hangover  at  THE PIKE HOUSE.  cheers  to  another  wild  semester !

i.

𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊 : roman gabriel pierce 

𝖆𝖌𝖊 : twenty - one

𝖉𝖔𝖇 : june 15th , 1998

𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗 / 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖘 : he / him 

𝖘𝖊𝖝𝖚𝖆𝖑 & 𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖈 𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 : bisexual , but definitely more on the low low . he’s only ever been seen publicly with girls .

𝖍𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙: 6‘1″  🤡

𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊: having graduated from the title of white man’s wh*re , he is now cordially referred to as the white man’s beefcake . he treats gym sessions like a therapy visit , clocking in at a friendly 200 lbs . like all gym rats w/o a personality , he keeps his hair short on the sides n longer on top , a la this look . he has a scar running along the inside of his right arm from when he broke it , and another that splits his left eyebrow from his eighteenth birthday 

𝖔𝖈𝖈𝖚𝖕𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 : resident waste of space , quarterback for the hollingsworth mumbles , least favorite son of the year recipient 1998 - 2019 . 

𝖍𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖔𝖜𝖓 : atlanta , georgia .

ii.

second son of hall of fame ex falcons qb , miles pierce , and entrepreneur and daughter of a famed manhattan - based art collector , amélie pierce -- rome’s future was pretty non - negotiable since day one . as soon as they could stumble around enough to pass for walking , miles had his sons enrolled in as many football programs as he legally could . 

when rome was young , he loved it . the attention , the praise he received for his quickness despite being one of the smallest kids on the field . plus , going to his father’s games and being recognized as miles pierce’s kids was also fun . soon came time for the inevitable retirement on the heel of a downward - trending career , and after that things ... changed .

suddenly , it was less praise and more demands . earlier practices , with his father making rome and his brother run drills until they were sick . suddenly , things that were previously good weren’t good enough , despite how much better his sons continued to be . 

as anyone with half a brain could guess , these pressures eventually began to take their toll . with interests in anything else repressed by his father’s insistence that football is and always will be the most important thing in life , rome began to emulate his father’s aggressive attitude , first bringing it to the field and then , more notably , to his personal life . failed relationships , fights at school , sneaking home late absolutely blitzed out of his mind -- none of the behaviors were healthy , but they were enough to take the weight of his father’s hands off of his shoulders , if only for a moment . until papa helicopter parent found out , that is . 

tw abuse : despite his sons catering to his every will , miles’ incessant anger began to worsen , and soon a lot of the verbal abuse had started to become physical , too . sure , rome knew that it was wrong , but he also thought that maybe if he’d been better in the game last night , or worked harder at practice , maybe he’d stop . 

he made varsity his freshman year of high school and took his team to the state championships , expecting his dad to finally approve of something he’d done . instead , he came home to the news that his mother was leaving -- that his parents were splitting up and that this had been a long time combing . safe to say this mama’s boy ass bitch was devastated. 

tw death : his dad only sunk deeper into his madness , but all that anyone else could see is that rome was throwing further , moving faster , and making better plays . a non - football related injury left him with a broken arm , and it was on the way home from the hospital that his father received the call that his ex - wife had taken her own life . devastated part ii , coming soon to a theater near you !

tw drugs , alcohol , general debauchery : the partying worsened . rome had entered a phase in his life where he was looking for something -- anything to completely wipe his mind of any and all thoughts . the drugs , the alcohol , it was all a coping mechanism , but it definitely wasn’t a healthy one . soon , his brother left for college thousands of miles away , and rome found out that that fifth of rum goes down a lot easier after doing a few lines beforehand . 

he chose to go to college in georgia not because he wanted to , but because his dad knew that hollingsworth was a great school for scouting attention and that rome wasn’t never too far away to yell at SKDFKJ . in his midst of an extended bender compounded by having training now twice a day everyday on top of college courses , he decided to join pike -- and he absolutely loves it . 

he chose to major in psych because he wants to understand why his dad hates him so much SKJFJKS dumb b*tch . 

also last summer he may or may not have allegedly accidentally wrapped his masterati around a telephone pole and gotten a dui . in reality , it was his brother , but roman told him to gtfo and he’d take the fall because his bro finally managed to escape his dad and rome didn’t want him to suffer the same fate . it made headlines , but his dad pulled approximately 6 billion strings to get him conditionally reinstated to the team .

spent the summer before his junior year chillin in rehab , but he relapsed shortly after . consistency is key here , kids. 

still bender - adjacent , but he’s kept it more lowkey because the nfl draft is coming in HOT . 

iii.

he really .............. kinda sux , objectively SFDKJSDFJK

he has so , so much pent up frustration and anger directed at his father and himself that it manifests in some pretty shitty behaviors . 

he’s definitely controlling ( as a consequence of having v v little control over his own life ) , and he’ll manipulate any situation he deems worthy of his effort just to assure that he isn’t in any state of vulnerability . 

i know yall get it , he vapes , but he’s definitely the kind of guy to try to keep the party running til 5 am and get pissed when people tell him that maybe he should stop .

he will provoke anyone and anything ( even inanimate objects ) if found in a self - destructive enough mood . 

has a notoriously short temper , but what kind of gym rat doesn’t .

manages to still attain a 4.0 ( and in his words , psych is easy ) , so that’s another thing that makes it difficult for him to understand that his lifestyle is ... per se ... problematique . 

10000% has sent a plethora of  u up ? texts

kinda gets a little .. hm .. sad sometimes but that’s only after everyone bails from the party n he’s left alone in a dirty ass frat house SDKFSDJK

definitely an irredeemable trash bag and pls don’t think of him any other way 

is definitely fiercely loyal to the 2.5 people who can tolerate him . 

currently in an uber ride to hell , but 10/10 hit the option so that his uber driver can’t talk to him 🤡

[hedgiwithapen]

In an attempt to add some lighter fare to the pain train this will inevitably be, I add this prompt to Dammit Hedgi day: Nora Allen II getting an introduction to a STAR Labs/Team Flash tradition: their semi-weekly-ish D&D game.

“Winn'scoming in from earth 38, so we're good to go for game tonight,”Cisco told Barry. “And the legends are covering patrols so Ray canbe there, we can finally get him off healing duty and let himactually do stuff.”“Oh thank god, we can do some realdiscussion about whatever the hell that was with the dragon egg.”Barry cheered. “You better. Metagaming aside, please.Please talk to the party about that egg.” Cisco paused. “How hasthat pun never come up, we've been playing for over a year---”Barryshrugged. “I'll let Nora know she can patrol with Sara or one ofthe Hawks tonight.”“Or she could come, if she likes.Guest player—or for as long as she's, you know, here.” Ciscooffered. “I mean, we could us another party member for when Winncan't make it, and she's not leaving any time soon.”“Who'snot leaving any time soon?” Nora asked, the telltale bits of purpleand gold lighting sparking in her wake.  “What's up? Iwasn't spyingor anything I promise but I was outside and I saw the Waverider?Which is, like, so schway,  they're all so cool I can't believe I getto finally meetthis them, I mean I met a lot of them, you know,before, but not as /them/ them, just as, you know, some of mom'sfriends who didn't really come by much? But you know, they're all socool, I mean not all of them, Heatwave was kind of the worst a littlebit didn't he once kid--”Her words were starting to blendtogether, but Barry cut her off “ yeah, they're all great, uh,Mick... isn't as bad as he used to be? I think?”“Hethreatened to burn Caitlin alive, so, low bar.” Cisco pointed out.Nora nodded, though her mouth had dropped open. “That—yeah.Low bar. Yes. Anyway, who were you talking about? White Canary?Vixen? Hawkwoman? Please let it be Canary, she's so cool.”“Uh,I think they're around for a bit,” Barry said. “Butactually...”“Do they still have DnD in the future?”Cisco asked. “Must be on, like, 15th edition by your time, orsomething, but you guys do still have it, right? We've got a gamegoing tonight, and even Ralph enjoys it, and if you wanna play,there's room at the table-- I can help you with a character, Or Iriscan, she's really good at that...”He stopped. Nora waschewing her lip, looking down. “It's, uh. 9thedition, is all. And thanks but-- no. I..” she shook her head,shifting her shoulders. “ I have a game back—home, is all, and Idon't want to get these different rules stuck in my head.  um. I'mgoing to see if Canary needs help with anything? But. Uh, have fun?Have fun. Don't try to meteor swarm a tarrasque under a baseballdiamond!”Cisco blinked. “I mean... one speedster eatsenough of the game snacks, I guess?” he offered. “That was.Weird. But she's  got a point, meteor swarming a tarrasque is aterrible idea and you should absolutely not do it at least untilyou've resolved this dragon egg thing.”“Well, I can't,anyways,” Barry shrugged, looking down the curving hallway afterhis daughter. Nora found her little refuge space, the spareroom that she'd stashed her journal in, and sat down with a heavythud.  It was dumb. She was being dumb, over a game.  It wasn'tlike-- it wasn't like--- it wasn't like seeing the way Caitlin andCisco stood together, hearing his puns and her quips that were sofamiliar they hurt. It wasn't seeing all those familiar shirts on thewrong body-- but that was silly, too, maybe, after all, they'd beenhis shirts first, it was an invite to a game. It wasn't the same oneshe'd played, the character would have been different, the story,they probably had those cool old-mold dice that no one had made inyears, so even that would have been different. But still. She justcouldn't.  Not if Lia wasn't there to remind her how manydice she got for sneak attack, humming a love song as her bard gaveinspiration.

[lysyuta]

;Truth or Dare (01)

nct dream (ft. lucas) halloween au

words — 1,907

warnings — cursing, spooky stuff (eventually)

summary — you and your friends love a good spook, but when you all download an app that seems take over your life, you all get a little more spook then you were hoping for this halloween.

a/n — this chapter is shorter than the rest of them! the rest of them are about 3k words :)

October 15th, 8:58 p.m.

You laid in your bed, using one hand to scroll through your phone while you brought the other one to your mouth, biting on one of the nails—a small habit that you had. It was 8:58 p.m. Your parents had already gone to bed, your younger brother had gone in his room, and by the gaming noises you heard, he wasn’t sleeping just yet. The lights were off, the only source of light coming from the street light across the street that was showing through your closed blinds.

Then you heard it. The sound of scratching. Maybe it’s nothing. You thought to yourself. You almost believed that, but then you kept hearing it. It wasn’t coming from your brother’s room, so where was it coming from? You were about to ignore it, thinking that it was probably just a tree branch brushing against your window, but then you heard a louder noise. It sounded like soft banging.

You gasped, getting shocked by the sudden loud noise. You clicked your phone off before putting it down on your bed, freezing when the loud noise sounded again. You almost thought that it was loud enough for the whole house to hear, but by the way your parents, nor your brother hadn’t come into your room to complain about the noise, they didn’t hear it.

You slowly stood up, tracking the source of the sound to your closed window. You could feel your heart rate speed up as you slowly walked over to it, moving the curtain out of the way so you could take a peek outside.

You almost had a heart attack when you saw a light brown-headed boy perched up on a branch of the big tree that stood against your house. When the two of you made eye contact, you sighed in relief, opening your window.

“Are you crazy? Do you—“ You didn’t get to finish your sentence before the boy spoke over you. “Yeah, yeah. Can you help me inside before you start yelling?” You rolled your eyes before grabbing his arm and helping him get inside through your window.

“Lee Donghyuck, what the hell?!” You say to your friend as soon as he gets inside safely. “Do you know how scared I was?”

“Get used to it. It’s October, you know what that means.” He smiles at you before sitting down at your desk, plugging his phone charger into your computer before plugging his phone in. “I’m gonna do whatever possible to give you the spooks.”

You found yourself rolling your eyes again. “You couldn’t scare me last halloween, so what makes you think you can scare me this time?” You asked him, walking over to your bed and sitting down.

Just then, your phone went off with a notification—loudly—beside you, causing you to jump, letting out a soft squeal. You looked up at Donghyuck, seeing him chuckle. “I don’t even have to try.” He smiles, looking at his phone.

“You know, you could always use the front door.” You tell your friend. “Where’s the fun in that?” He asks you. Lee Donghyuck loved taking risks. He loved doing things that could get him in trouble, or worse. He loved to get his adrenaline going.

Lee Donghyuck was the reason that you almost got arrested for trespassing along a cliff once, but he was also the reason that you overcame your fear of heights that same day. And running from the cops while adrenaline was pumping through your veins was a great experience for you. That was when you understood why Donghyuck was so into taking risks.

“My parents are spending the night at my aunt’s house, so I decided to come here and surprise my best friend.” Donghyuck (or Haechan, his childhood nickname) spoke, putting his phone down and looking at you. “That? Or you decided to come here since you were too scared to be by yourself at home?” You teased.

“Very funny. Do you know who I am?” He chuckled. “I’m not scared of anything.”

“Lies. You’re scared of Mark when he’s angry.”

“Okay, maybe I’m scared of one thing.”

You laughed, not too loud since you didn’t want to wake your parents. “Can you blame me? He’s super scary when he’s mad.”

October 16th, 12:34 p.m.

“I’m just saying that maybe this year we should do something fun for Halloween.” Haechan says, as he sits down at your lunch table, along with one of your other friends.

“Really? So last year at y/n’s house wasn’t fun to you?” One of your friends, Jeno speaks. You tuned into their conversation. You were already sitting at the table with another friend (Renjun) before the two of them sat down.

Haechan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because playing with a ouija board while y/n’s mom came to check up on us every five minutes was super fun.” He says, sarcastically.

“Hey, it’s not my mom’s fault that she doesn’t trust me to be alone with you idiots for too long.” You pitched into the conversation, causing your friends to giggle.

The table was filled with Haechan and Jeno suggesting ways for you all to spend your Halloween while you ate. “A haunted house is kinda—“

“Oh, here they come! Here they come!” Haechan cuts Jeno’s sentence, speaking over him as he looked to the 2 people who were walking over to your table.

It was your friends, Jaemin and Somi. They were a couple, having been dating for about a year now (with a small break in between).

Jaemin hit the back of Haechan’s head before sitting down beside him, while Somi sat beside you. “Do you really have to do that every time you see us together?” Jaemin asked his friend as he picked up his fork and started eating.

“Since you guys are dating, I have a right, as your friend, to hype you up whenever I see you two. Just think of me as your number one hype man.” Haechan explains, earning another hit from Jaemin.

“Y/n deserves a hype man too.” Somi speaks, looking at you and smiling. You smiled back at her before Haechan spoke again. “Well, when y/n finds a guy that isn’t a complete asshole, I’ll hype them up forever.” You rolled your eyes at his words. “Look, there goes an asshole right there.” The boy says, and you follow his eyes to see Lee Minho. He was a boy in your grade who you had dated a while ago, and he completely broke your heart.

You quickly kicked your best friend under the table, getting him to be quiet. “And when you find a girl that isn’t a complete bitch, I’ll make sure to tell how how much of an idiot you are.”

October 16th, 3:05 p.m.

School was finally done for the day. You wanted to go home and rest, but you had planned to go get pizza with your friends after school. You sat on a bench in front of the school, waiting for the rest of your friends to get out.

You felt someone lightly tug your hair from behind, and you turned around, being faced with your younger brother, who was laughing. “It’s not funny.” You groaned, playfully slapping his arm as he sat beside you.

“Are we still going for pizza?” He asks. “Sorry, kid. Sophomores aren’t allowed.” You joked, giggling once he rolled his eyes. “I’m a Junior!” He groans.

“Y/n stop being so mean. You know Jisung is always invited with us.” You heard Jeno’s voice as he walks in front of you, smiling at your brother. “Thank you. I’m glad you’re nicer than Y/n.” Your brother looks at you, sticking his tongue out, childishly.

Once all of your friends had gathered together, you made your way to a local pizza spot. You and a lot of people from school came here often. It was a nice place to relax and eat after school.

“So, I was thinking.” Renjun starts, placing his hands on the table. “Why don’t we do an escape room? That’ll be fun, right?”

“An escape room? No way. What’s scary about an escape room?” Jaemin says.

“How about we go to that abandoned toys r us by Jeno’s house?” Somi suggests. “I heard from someone that’s it’s really haunted there.”

“Did someone say haunted?” A voice speaks. You all look up to see Mark, another friend of yours. “You didn’t hear it from me, but y/n’s house is super haunted.”

Mark Lee was a year above you. He had a part-time job at the pizza place, which is why he was there. He had known you and Haechan since you both were little, having lived on the same street as the two of you. Mark Lee loved to tease you. It was like his job. Between him and Haechan, you got teased almost everyday.

You rolled your eyes at the boy. “It is not! Just because we did that dumb ouija board thing in there does not mean it’s haunted.” You explained. “Stop trying to scare me.”

“Oh, right. Hearing doors closing and floors creaking when no ones home certainly doesn’t mean that your house is haunted or anything.” Mark rolls his eyes right back at you.

“It’s not—“

“Wait,” Jisung starts. “You hear doors closing too? I thought it was just me.”

“Jisung don’t try to scare me either. It’s not fun—“

“I’m serious! That day you went to Haechan’s house to study and I was home alone, I was on my laptop and I heard a cupboard in the kitchen slam closed. When I went to check it out, there was no one there.” Jisung continues. “And then when I went back into my room, my laptop was closed. I didn’t close it before I left the room.”

Your jaw dropped. Was your house really haunted? Your heart rate increased as you thought more about it. Your house...the house that you sleep in every night...was haunted?

“HA! Do you see her face? She totally fell for it.” Mark laughs, high-fiving your brother before walking away to serve a table. You groaned, falling for his teasing, once again. “It’s so fun messing with Y/n.” Jisung smiles, as everyone at the table laughs.

“So I guess we’re going to that toys r us then.” Haechan says, and everyone agrees.

“It’ll be so fun!” Your brother smiles.

“No way. You’re not going.” You tell him, seeing as the smile dropped right off his face. “Why not? Mom says you have to take me with you whenever you go out with your friends!” Jisung points out.

“You can’t come with us Jisung. We’re going to have to find a way into that place, which could be dangerous. And it’ll be really scary.” You explain.

“Y/n stop babying him.” Renjun tells you. “He can handle it. He’s only a year younger than us.”

“But he—“ “But nothing. He can come with us.” Haechan speaks over you, causing you to huff.

You hated when Jisung got involved in potentially dangerous things that you did with your friends. You didn’t want him to be like you guys. Of course, you wanted him to be fearless and have courage, but there’s a difference between being fearless and being outright stupid.

You and your friends were most definitely stupid.

[izzy-b-hands]

Murder House, Part One

This is my @mtl-trick-or-treat for @enydart! I hope you like it; I had a lot of fun writing it! I also started something for your Treat prompt, so if you like this and want that one as well, just let me know and I will finish it and post it asap!

This was for the Trick prompt, asking for ‘something gross with Murderface.’ I went to something that most people find gross (though maybe not the Dethklok boys, since they see so much of it lol)-murder. But I had to give Murderface some fun and happiness too since he gets shit on so damn often, so hopefully this is gross enough!

Fic under the cut because this got long; RIP and my apologies to mobile users if the cut isn’t working on the app. I was actually going to try and fit the whole thing in one post, but found out there is a post length limit (who knew!) so I have split this into Part One and Two! I will post Part Two by the end of tomorrow at the latest (it just needs a few final touches!)

The ads for the haunted house played constantly from October 15th on . Radio, TV, even billboards plastered all over. He did his best to ignore them, even though he wanted to take a flamethrower to any billboard or screen that had the ad on it for even a second. 

The rest of the band, however, was harder to ignore. By the fifth night of the ads playing during their favorite evening TV shows, he was ready to snap listening to them comment. 

“Look at thats; you ams the most famous of us now,” Skwisgaar snickered as the ad played. 

Lights flashed and flickered on the big screen as it showed the haunted house actors depicting the murder-suicide that had sent him to his grandparents. There was even a chubby baby actor sat in the middle of the gore-’Baby Murderface looks on in horror!’ exclaimed the ad’s dramatic narrator. 

“Ams thats legal?” Toki asked, pointing at the screen. “To use your lifes like thats and makes a haunted house so...sads?” 

“Amn’ts even haunted really,” Skwisgaar replied. “Just sads. A sads house. What ams scary about thats?”

Pickles shrugged. “Well, someone sold their rights to their life story years ago. That’s scary, if you ask me. Cuz then they can do shit like this, and you’re shit outta luck to stop them. Ain’t that right, Murderface?” 

He wanted to just rage. To tell them to shut the fuck up, or he’d set fire to the living room just like he wanted to set fire to the haunted house and anyone who was involved with it. But he’d been upset constantly, since the ads had started. It felt strange, but he was almost tired of being upset and yelling about it. He just wanted to do something to get rid of it. 

“Whatever, juscht schut up about it. They were schupposed to make a cool movie out of my life,” Murderface sighed. 

Nathan chuckled. “You uh, you really thought they were gonna do that? Buying the rights to your life story; that was gonna make a really cool movie?” 

“Yeah, why the fuck not? People make movies about all kindsch of dumb schit; you can make a movie about anything basically!” Murderface spat back.

“Okay, Murderface, look--thing is, they gotta have a cool fun story, to make a cool movie. A movie about your life...that’d be pretty sad, dude,” Pickles said. “I mean, who the fuck would wanna watch that?” 

“Well, once he joins us, I mean...that’d be a cool movie,” Nathan said. 

“Yeah, but then that’s just a Dethklok movie,” Pickles replied. “And that ain’t what he wants; he wants a Murderface-only movie. But nobody’s gonna go see that, or if they did they’d like...I don’t know, cry themselves to death or something.” 

Murderface bit his tongue. They were in a rhythm now, going back and forth to talk shit about him. It was easier to try to stay quiet and ride it out. 

“Yeah, probably. Can you see it? ‘Saddest movie ever, millions cry themselves to death and stab out their own eyes’,” Nathan said. “Huh. Actually, that would be brutal as fuck. Murderface, you should call them--tell them to nix this haunted house bullshit and make the movie instead.” 

There were tears at the corner of his eyes, even though he didn’t want them there. He tried to look only at the TV, hoping no one would notice them. 

“Oh geez, look yous mades him cry now,” Skwisgaar tutted. “You eggs him on like this, when he ams already a big crysbaby, makes it worse. Ams you just a big baby Murderface? No, so knocks it off.” 

“He likes attention, that’s all he wants,” Pickles started. 

“Yeah, I says thats, like a big baby,” Skwisgaar interrupted. “Needings all this attentions.” 

 “Oh fuck you! You’ve got moviesch and booksch written about you!” Murderface protested. If anyone could talk about being an attention-needy baby, it was Skwisgaar. 

“Yeah, but I has to have them all takens down. Dids not authorize anys of thems, so they amnt’s accurate. I don’ts want them, but people makes them anyway.” Skwisgaar replied testily. “And does yous mean Toki’s book? Because that ams nots something I wanted either.” 

“Oh fuck yous, Skwisgaar,” Toki scoffed. “Yous ams just as bad. What theys calls an ‘attention whores’.” 

“Oh, and what ams yous, Mr. Gives-me-a-solo-rights-now-or-I-cries?” Skwisgaar shouted. 

It devolved from there, and he tuned it out. They’d forgotten to keep making fun of him, at least. But there was no watching the show with that much yelling over it; the cue to head in for the night. 

His boots thudded against the stone floors, and then against the wall of his room as he kicked them off and tossed them into a corner. 

“Schtupid executive asscholes. Schtupid Halloween. My life ischn’t scary, or schad, or anything--it’sch mine. How’d they like it if schomeone did that to them?” he grabbed an ancient dagger from its spot hanging on the wall and slashed in front of him. “Or better yet--Michael or Freddy or schomething could come and cut them down. Just schome creepy freak coming after them.”

He let the dagger clatter to the floor. “They’d never schee it coming...” 

And there it was. The perfect revenge, to make sure they’d never take anyone else’s life and turn it into some stupid attraction. To show them he wouldn’t take this lying down. 

Or that someone wouldn’t, at least. 

After all, Charles did have a few limits legally. He got them out of a lot of shit, but some of it was going to simply come down to being careful. There wasn’t too much work to do anyway--the website for the haunted house listed two main executives from the studio he’d sold his rights to, a team lead for the attraction itself, and if he could take out a few actors in the house too, well that was just icing on the cake at that point. 

It wasn’t a lot of murders for Charles to have to make disappear, but it was enough work if it was Murderface, famous bassist committing them. 

But a faceless, nameless boogeyman could get the job done. 

The outfit was easy to draw up, his ideas flowing like water. A little bit Michael with the black protective jumpsuit, and a touch of Freddy with the knives, all hidden in specially designed pockets so it wouldn’t look super bulky. The mask was fitting of any horror movie monster--blank and emotionless, unknowable.

Really, the mask was his masterpiece. Made of a flexible material so as to still be comfortable, with specialty coatings on the front to make it difficult for any victim to stab or shoot through it. It wouldn’t stop everything, but it would help keep him from getting outright killed. Not that he planned on giving them much of chance for that. Last, it would be painted a dark shade of blue, almost black, the color he figured would make it easiest to blend into any shadows. Only holes for the eyes and a few hidden ones near the nose--anything more felt too risky, too much of a chance to potentially be recognized. 

The bonus of being this rich was that no one would ask questions when he ordered weird shit. Hell, he commissioned random costumes for Planet Piss all the time. Charles would make sure the orders got processed as quickly as possible, and then his work could begin.

It was almost therapeutic, all of the planning and designing. It made falling asleep easier and quicker than it had been in weeks, and for the first time in awhile, he slept with a smile on his face.

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

The three days that followed were all tense excitement. Excitement for waiting for the outfit to get there, excitement to get started. With the main businessmen taken out of the equation, it would be easy to get Charles to start the legal side of things--to file lawsuits for everything from defamation to claiming he never sold his rights at all. And then the thing would be shuttered for good. 

The suit arrived first. Thick material, meant for an industrial setting, slow to stain or tear. And it fit like a glove. 

“I’ll corner thosche asscholes in their penthousches, and paint the wallsch with their gutsch!” he crowed as he finished buttoning it. It was a bit weird not wearing his shorts, but some sacrifice would be required to pull this all off. 

Now he could only hope the guys wouldn’t question the deliveries he was getting. They almost always did--for anyone. Pure morbid curiosity, or hoping it was something fun to be shared. 

So of course, they asked. 

“Uh, you quitting on us or something?” Pickles asked on the morning of the fourth day after the Plan had started, as they all dug into their breakfasts. “Going into construction?” 

“Of coursche not,” Murderface replied. “How’d you find out what it was anyway?” 

Pickles shrugged. “I smoke up with one of the gals in the mail room. She lets me look at all the mail that comes through here. Kinda fun.” 

“What the fuck, how long has she let you do that?” Nathan asked, his fork still halfway to his mouth as he stared perturbed at Pickles. 

Pickles shrugged again. “Couple years now. Why, you ordering nasty sex toys or something you don’t want me to see?” 

Nathan flushed pink, and glared down into his pancakes. “Don’t be an asshole. Just don’t want you going through all my shit.” 

“Yeah, you’re ordering nasty shit. I’m gonna watch out for your stuff more now,” Pickles grinned. 

“Juscht fire her,” Murderface said, grateful the topic was drifting away from his mail. “Then he can’t get in there anymore.” 

“Nah, he won’t,” Pickles replied. “You guys all know her--the one with those green eyes.” 

“Damn it,” Nathan huffed. “She’s nice. Always leaves a little note on my mail when she brings it to my room with a smiley face. I can’t fire her.” 

“Told ya,” Pickles smirked. “So, ya going to your shitty haunted house or something? Making a spooky costume, Scaryface?” 

“Yeah, might use it for Halloween” Murderface snorted. “But, itsch really for Planet Pissch. Got a...concept album idea going.” 

“Ams it piss?” Toki asked. 

Skwisgaar rolled his eyes as he sipped his coffee. “Whats does you think, Toki. What’s else woulds it be?” 

“Wes should does a groups costume this year,” Toki said. “Then wes can all goes to sees the sads Murderface house!” 

“I woulds be ups for thats,” Skwisgaar replied. “Gots to be somethings cool though, Toki.” 

“No, no, what the fuck, no,” Pickles protested. “Thought you Swedes were antisocial, why the hell do you wanna do a group costume?” 

Skwisgaar glared. “Because I ams Swedish, I can’ts have friends? Wes can’ts have funs with a groups costume? Ams I meant to hates fun?” 

“I just figured you wouldn’t think it was cool,” Pickles replied. “Don’t gotta be a douche bag about it.” 

“Oh fines then, I goes as the personifications of nihilism,” Skwisgaar scoffed. “Ams that an acceptable costume for mes, Pickle?” 

Murderface ate in silence as the argument grew over the group costume idea. He’d get used to even more arguments if it meant they’d forget to ask him about what he was doing. 

Still, Pickles potentially seeing his mail made him worry. When the mask showed up later that day, he made sure the mail team knew to bring it straight to his room. 

But it was Charles who knocked on his door and had the package in hand. 

“Look it over, if you want changes made we’ll send it back right away,” he said, watching as Murderface tried to open the package without letting him see too much of it. 

“Serial killer...that’s a fun costume,” Charles continued as Murderface turned away to examine the mask.

“How would you know?” Murderface asked as he felt Charles sit on the end of the bed. “Can’t see you getting dressed up for Halloween much.” 

Charles only shrugged. “So...will it work?” 

Murderface turned and stared. Did he somehow know? How the fuck could he know? 

“For your costume?” Charles asked, an eyebrow raised. 

“Oh, yeah. Perfect,” Murderface replied, relieved. And it was, exactly the way he wanted it. 

“Good,” Charles said, a small smile on his face. “Have fun putting it together. I’m sure you’ll look great.” 

After Charles had left, he pulled everything on and stood in front of the mirror near his closet. The whole picture--suit, mask, boots, a pair of black leather gloves--looked good. 

Except...

His hair ruined it. Everybody knew his hair, the fucking curly triangle. He had to hide it.

A thick winter beanie didn’t help, and the mask fit funny then. Any other hats would likely be the same result. 

“You gotta go,” he told the reflection of his curls. “We’re ugly asch schit anyway, being bald ain’t gonna make a difference.” 

He called for a klokateer from the hairdressing department, and changed back into his regular clothes while he waited for them. 

The klokateer had to have run, she was so out of breath. “Sir, you needed someone immediately. How may I assist you?” 

He pointed to his hair. “Get rid of it.” 

Her eyes were only barely visible with her hood on, but he could see them go wide. “Uhm...maybe we could just try a different style? Going straight to bald is a big change, sir.” 

“I. Want. It. Gone,” he replied. She’d run to Charles in a minute, he was sure of it. 

“Uh, we’ll need the clippers, not these,” she said, holding up a pair of shears. “Just let me go get those.” 

He sat on his bed and waited for the phone to ring. She’d have run to Charles, begging for help as to what to do without being seen as being disobedient. A moment later, his Dethphone rang loudly. 

“Murderface, I’ve got a very scared and confused young woman in here saying you want to chop off all your hair. Is this true?” Charles asked. 

“Yeah,” Murderface replied. “Why’sch that a big deal?” 

“Well, it is a very sudden image change. We’ll have to do all new publicity photos, promotions. And it is a bit random--why do you want to do this?” Charles asked. 

“Want a change, that’sch all,” Murderface sighed. “Can’t a guy want to change schit up?” 

Charles sighed. “Of course. I’ll send another hairdresser to you. This one’s a bit too shaky to do the job now.” 

Murderface tapped the ‘end call’ button, and flopped back against his pillows. The guys would hate having to take new pictures, but they’d get over it. Besides, maybe they’d have to make a sacrifice or two to help his revenge as well. 

It was a male klokateer this time, silent as he sat down a chair and propped a broom and dust pan near the door. He was silent all the way through the cut as well, but that was just fine. 

When the klokateer had cleaned the floor of his curls and left, Murderface put the outfit back on. 

It made a world of difference. Now, he looked like a proper faceless killer. 

Now, all he had to do was start killing. 

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

The next morning, he was glowing. There was no other way to put it. He was excited beyond belief to get started. Granted, he still needed to do a bit of research to figure out where each victim would be. But there were multiple social media accounts for each person, so it would be easy enough. 

The biggest worry right now was the reaction to his hair, or the lack of it. The guys did not disappoint as he joined them at the breakfast table. 

“What in the fuck dids yous do?” Skwisgaar asked, dropping his fork. “And why?” 

“I wanted to,” Murderface replied. “Felt like something different. Not bad, right?” 

“Ugggghhh,” Nathan whined. “We’re gonna have to do new promos now. I hate promo photos.” 

“Yeah, but they moved that green-eyed klokateer to the makeup team,” Pickles said. “Charles found out she was letting me in the mail room and uh...look, it was either move her or lose her. But you could talk to her more now, since she’ll be at the promos shoot.” 

Nathan smiled a very small smile. “Would be nice to say hi...” 

“Yeah, cuz you think she’s pretty. Even with the hood,” Pickles teased. 

“She is,” Nathan said. “Don’t make it weird when she’s around us, okay? We don’t wanna creep her out.” 

“Don’t worry, I won’t ruin it for ya,” Pickles replied as he shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth. “You’ll get your chance with pretty mail girl.” 

“Not ifs Murderface gets it firsts,” Toki said. “Ams almost normal lookings now.” 

They all stared at Toki, then at Murderface. 

“Huh...you do look decent. I mean, still weird to see, but I don’t know, it works somehow,” Pickles said, breaking the brief silence. 

Nathan nodded. “Still not getting her number though.” 

“I won’t even try,” Murderface replied, rolling his eyes. He could worry about getting groupies with his new look after all his work was done. Normally, he’d have been all over the idea right away, but this was different. 

“Nots going to beats my numbers,” Skwisgaar muttered. “But yous looks okay. Almost goods, even.” 

“What can I schay, I know what looksch good,” Murderface smiled. “I was right about my schorts being schexy as hell, now with thisch--I’m gonna be irresistible.” 

He shoveled his food in quick as the conversation moved on to some bullshit about Toki wanting more groupies at the end of each concert. He had more important concerns. He’d get the suit ready with all of the knives he’d set aside for the project, and figure out where to go for his first target. If he could, he’d head out for it tonight. 

As soon as he was done with his plate, he dashed back to his room and started putting them away. It was fun, with so many hidden pockets to fill. He’d never get caught without a weapon, and once he was done it would go back to its spot--no murder weapons to be left behind. 

“Perfect,” he breathed as he finished the suit and held it up in front of himself. 

“Is it?” 

Charles’ voice made him jump. He hadn’t even heard him come in. 

“How the hell...what the...you should learn how to knock!” Murderface yelled, carefully folding the suit in close to his chest, as if he could somehow prevent Charles from seeing it any further.

“Sorry,” Charles replied, a smirk on his face. 

Murderface felt sweat pooling on his face. Charles wasn’t supposed to know about this part of things. Just to know when the assholes were dead, so he could start the legal paperwork. “Uh...now you know my costume is really perfect! I’m gonna look great!” 

“You will,” Charles agreed. “Also, 4242.” 

“What does that mean?” Murderface asked. 

“The first executive you’re going to kill. The code to his penthouse door is 4242,” Charles replied matter-of-factly. 

Murderface knew his jaw was hanging open, but he couldn’t help it. How in the hell had he figured it all out?

“All the details for your orders lead to someone far away from here. Some ass in Ohio who keeps trying to scalp Dethklok tickets. If the worst happens, and they start tracking anyone down to nail for these killings, it’ll be that jerk. Not you,” Charles continued. 

“How did you--” Murderface started. 

“Does it really matter?” Charles asked. “Point is, you’re doing a good job of keeping your tracks covered--I’m just going to make sure they stay covered.” 

“How do I know you aren’t gonna fuck me over though?” Murderface asked. If there would be anyone to turn him in, he would guess Charles would be the first to do it. 

Charles looked genuinely hurt at that. “Look, I get it. I’m not fun, I don’t seem like the type to let you get away with this. Just--just know I’ve got my reasons for wanting you to be successful in this endeavor. I won’t fuck you over.” 

“What, you’ve got bodies buried out in a desert schomewhere too?” Murderface asked, snorting. 

Charles didn’t laugh. Didn’t chuckle. Didn’t move an inch. That was scary as fuck. 

“Uh, never mind. You don’t gotta anschwer that,” Murderface said quickly. 

Charles sighed. ‘Look, he leaves for the Bahamas soon. So we need to get you out to him by this time tomorrow. And to the rest fairly quickly too, if we want this thing shut down by Halloween.” 

“You...you don’t like the haunted housche either?” Murderface asked. He’d figured Charles honestly didn’t give that much of a fuck about it. 

“Of course I don’t,” Charles scoffed. “Makes you look bad, and by association, the band. You don’t deserve it, and neither do the guys. But I haven’t found a way to touch them yet legally, so this...well, it’ll be perfect.” 

Murderface was struck. Granted, he was just as concerned about the band as he was for him, but...someone gave a shit. Honestly, truly, cared. 

“I’ll let you know when the plane is ready. Get packed,” Charles instructed as he turned and headed for the door. 

“You know where they all are?” Murderface asked. “You’re schure?” 

“I wouldn’t send you if I wasn’t,” Charles replied as he left. “I’ll have an alibi for your absence, in case any of the guys notice. So just go with it, okay?” 

Murderface nodded, and rushed to pack as Charles footsteps faded down the hallway. 

In six days time, all the assholes would be dead, and everything would be good again. 

The excitement was delicious.

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

The plane ride was quick, yet not quick enough. Still, before he knew it, he was in front of the penthouse building. It wasn’t too far from Mordhaus, only about fifty miles. He’d expected to have to travel longer, but was glad he didn’t have to. 

It was a busy enough place that crowds bustled around him, and he could drift past people through the doors without anyone glancing at him. The security guard was asleep, and there was no one else in the lobby. He didn’t want to jinx it, but it almost seemed like it would be easy. 

Then again, it wasn’t like there was much to stare at. He looked like any other guy coming to stay with someone in the building, in a black tee and jeans that Charles had waiting on the plane for him. The black duffel bag that held his suit and mask looked like any other travel bag. He was just a visitor, no one to look twice at. 

It was an incredibly freeing feeling. He’d never thought he would miss being anonymous, but it was nice for a short time. 

The service elevator wasn’t even hidden; he found it down a hall just off of the lobby. On the ride up to the penthouse, he changed, his hands shaking. He stowed the bag in the small room that housed the upper level entrance to the elevator, then started down the hall to the door of the penthouse.

The design of which was gross even to him. It might have been called a penthouse, but it was technically the first two top floors--in his mind, it was bigger than a penthouse then. 

But he wasn’t there to argue exactly what this guy’s home qualified as. He punched the code into the door panel, grabbed a large kitchen knife from one pocket sheath, and started into the dark home. 

A bachelor, and it showed by the state of the penthouse. There was still a pile of coke laying on the living room table, which was just showy and ridiculous to Murderface. Erotic art covered the walls, and while he owned a few of the same pieces himself, even this was a bit of overkill. You could barely see the wall behind the art there was so much of it. 

A light shone in the darkness, probably a bedroom. He moved towards it, as quiet as he could manage. 

“Jasmine?” a raspy voice called out. “I didn’t expect you tonight, baby. I’m not gonna pay you for a surprise visit; I hope you know that. But I’ll be happy to have some company.” 

This was it. Murderface gripped the knife tight, and charged into the room. 

The executive was in a open robe and boxers, and stared in shock at Murderface. 

“What in the--” he started.

Murderface stepped forward and shoved the knife into his open mouth. It was hard to yank back out, but the choking noises were incredibly satisfying to hear as he stabbed again and again--the man’s fat gut, his chest, slashing across his arms as he back up and fell to the bed, raising them to try and defend himself. Blood was splattered across his mask, and sweat dripped down his face, but he was enjoying the exertion--which would figure. The only exercise he’d enjoy would have to be illegal. 

Finally, the executive stopped moving. His intestines were falling out of him, and blood drenched the silver silk sheets and painted the walls. It was glorious. 

“One down,” he muttered to himself. “Two and how many extras to go.” 

He checked three times for a pulse before he left. The walk out was as easy as the walk in too--he changed again in the elevator, using a rag in the bag to wipe his boots clean, and walked past the same guard who was still fast asleep. 

The air tasted sweeter outside. It was cliche, but so true. He felt good--he always talked about doing shit, but so often didn’t. It felt amazing to finally do something. 

And he was excited to do more.

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

He slept on the plane ride home, not bothering or caring to check the time. He’d get home when he’d get home, and deal with any questions from the guys if any of them were up. He hadn’t left too late, so they were likely to still be stumbling around watching TV or something. 

Sure enough, they were all squished together on a couch, seemingly half asleep. They bounced back to wakefulness once he walked in though. 

“You dog!” Pickles shouted. “We heard about her; Charles told us everything! Toki was right, the hair was the problem. Now you’re getting models!” 

He grinned as Pickles charged towards him and slapped him on the back. He kept a tight hold of his duffel bag as he was steered towards the couch. He didn’t want any of them getting curious and searching through it. This was a hell of an alibi that Charles had given him. 

“So?” Skwisgaar asked expectantly. 

“What?” Murderface asked. “The model?” 

“Yeah!” Nathan exclaimed. “How was she?”

“Uh, amazing, of course,” Murderface replied, hoping he sounded less awkward than he felt. “Juscht wild, you know how models are.” 

“Looks at him,” Skwisgaar chuckled, and gently patted his cheek. “Still all sweaty and disgustings. Goods for you!” 

Murderface just nodded and smiled. This was all good and fun (though it would be more fun if Charles also could supply him with an actual model to date) but he was still tired. And he needed to get his stuff into his room and clean it all up. 

“Look at that grin,” Nathan laughed. “God, are you finally gonna be fun? That’s awesome, if you are.” 

“Yeah!” Toki added. “Then wes all gets ladies for afters our shows, and everybody ams happy! Oh wowee, we gotta takes you out to celebrates!” 

“Yeah,” Murderface agreed as he stood from the couch. “Schome night later this week maybe. Or hey, what about Halloween? Big night out to celebrate!” 

They cheered. They’d never been this enthusiastic for one of his suggestions before. Was it the hair, the alibi and fake accomplishment, or the real confidence from the murder that he’d been missing all this time to get them to really like him? He wasn’t sure, but he knew he wasn’t ever going back to what he was before. 

“That sounds like fun, and I hate to interrupt the planning,” Charles said, suddenly in the room. They needed to put a damn bell on him. “Can I borrow Murderface for a moment though? After all, I’m sure he needs to actually get some sleep now!” 

Their happy laughter echoed down the halls as Charles gently pulled him away from the couch and to his room.

He shut and locked the door, and gestured to two plush armchairs at one wall of the massive bedroom. “Have a seat. You deserve the rest. Scotch okay?”

Murderface nodded and took in the room. It was very...Charles. Richly yet plainly decorated. All black and red, almost something out of Dracula’s castle with the velvet everywhere, yet nothing stood out about it to declare it as Charles’. The chair was comfy, if nothing else. 

He dropped his back by him as he dropped into the chair, and gratefully took the glass of scotch from Charles. 

“So...how was it?” Charles asked. 

He took a breath. “It wasch...amazing. I can’t wait for the next one.” 

He felt his cheeks flush as Charles grinned. 

“I’m glad you had fun. I figured you would, but I wanted to check in just in case. I’m proud of you for this, you know,” Charles said. “This is quite an undertaking. But you’re doing wonderfully.” 

Murderface nodded. “Thanksch.” 

The silence sat for a moment before Charles broke it. 

“You want to know why I’m so invested.” 

He nodded. “I mean...I get it. You take care of usch, and all our bullschit. But this...you’re really exschited for this.” 

Charles tossed back the scotch in his glass and smiled. “Well. I can’t tell you everything. In fact, there’s more I can’t tell you than there is that I can. But I--I had my own reasons to do this sort of violence you’re doing now. The why doesn’t matter so much anymore, not to me at least. But that’s because the people I needed dead are in the ground, rotting, and no longer a threat to me. And that is...very freeing.” 

“You feel safe,” Murderface found himself whispering, so quietly his speech impediment didn’t have a chance to start. 

Charles nodded, but his eyes were on his empty glass. “Yes. I suppose that’s the best way to describe it.” 

“Did you enjoy it?” Murderface asked. 

Charles chuckled. “I think you know the answer to that already.” 

He nodded. “Yeah. Bet you’d be out here doing these yourschelf if you could.” 

Charles sat up a bit straighter. “I mean...it would be fun. To do it again. Even just once. But I don’t want to take away from your fun.” 

“I’ll need help at the haunted housche,” Murderface replied. “I’ve got to take out the team lead, but there’ll be a bunch of actorsch we can take down too...I don’t want to be overwhelmed by anyone fighting back. You could come with, if you think you can make it.” 

Charles looked happier than he’d ever seen him before. “If you really want me to; I’d love to. I don’t get out very often anymore.” 

“It schows,” Murderface scoffed before he could catch his tongue. He looked nervously at Charles, awaiting the lecture.

Instead, Charles threw his head back and laughed. “Fuck. It does, doesn’t it? All work and no play...Yeah. I’ll come with for the haunted house. You can have fun with the second executive on your own first though.” 

“I schuppose you’ll have all the info for me about him by tomorrow?” Murderface smiled. 

“Of course,” Charles replied as they slowly stood and went to the door. He unlocked it, handed him the duffel bag, and patted Murderface’s back gently as he walked out. “Get some good sleep--you’re going to need the energy.” 

“What? Isch this guy schome sort of Olympian-executive or schomething?” he asked. 

Charles shook his head. “But you should be well-rested before these, uh, little adventures no matter what. Better form, and then you won’t tire out halfway through things.” 

Murderface nodded. “Hey...uh, thanksch. For all of thisch. I mean, I’d probably be fine on my own too, but--” 

Charles just nodded back. “I get it. Have a good night, Murderface.” 

The door clicked shut behind him as he started down the hall towards his room. He was definitely ready to sleep some more. But the morbid curiosity was gnawing at him too--what other skeletons did Charles have in his closet, and what exactly had he done to put them there?

Maybe he’d find out after Halloween night, if he could get him to join them for celebratory drinks. He hoped he would. 

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

[fmddevin]

step away from time: daein meets california.

scenario: daein realizes just how far away his parents seem nowadays. word count: 1,657 wooh !! notes: well this is a v important moment but not edited or written well so don’t read it. i had this in mind for a while, but waited until the deadline to actually write it - yay.

it seems like ages since daein’s seen his parents.

as detached as he pretend to be, he never thought he’d be the guy to say he hadn’t seen his parents in years. but really...how long had it been? he didn’t even know anymore. july. it had to have been july, that was the last time he toured to the us. it’s crazy to him, that the same people who saw him grow up every day of his childhood are seeming farther and farther away as the times he sees them through a screen begins to outnumber the times he sees him for real. it’s okay, he figures. plenty of his other idol friends haven’t seen their parents in three, four years. some even more. some don’t even have parents, and he knows that he’s granted a luxury not everyone can have.

but lately, he hasn’t been feeling so lucky. 

the truth is, he misses his mom. he misses his dad. he misses his house in florida, his room’s crumbling posters, and even that old playstation his parents would threaten to throw out whenever he got in trouble. because as dumb as he could be there, florida was always going to be home. 

he thinks his mom can tell. he doesn’t want to worry her - she’ll definitely try booking a ticket to see him - but he can’t hide everything. chuseok was just around the corner, and while all his friends are making plans with families he’s holed up in his apartment. it was only a three day week, and daein was so exhausted from concerts that by the time he managed to get there he would pass out, only to wake up and have to fly back to korea. so, as a completely terrible substitute, he spends the september holiday talking to a phone about his future schedules.

“hey - i’ve missed you. like...a lot.” english still sounds weird on his lips, when he speaks it to his parents. because it’s not the korean he’s forced himself into using everyday, and isn’t the “cool english” he’s persuaded into speaking on variety shows. it’s just...him - the same daein from all those years back, deep down.

“my baby,” his mom calls to the screen, and he almost freezes in shock. it’s been forever since she called him that. “is everything okay? do we need to come visit? you look so down….”

he’s not looking at them now, but through the corner of his eyes he sees his father inching farther into the camera.his mom’s holding the phone, bringing it closer to her face. shit. they were worried now, he had to find a way out.

“what if i-”

“oh, manager’s here. said he just pulled up. impulse stuff, you know.”

“but dae-”

click. and that’s the end of that...at least, for a little while. by the beginning of october, impulse is us bound, and though he’s not going to his home state, it’s nice to be back in america for a while. just after wrapping up filming for the today show he’s at the hotel, when his mother calls him in a frenzy.”

“hello, mom?”

“daein! oh my gosh, he picked up - honey, come to the phone, daein’s here! daein, why didn’t you tell me you’d be on tv? you’re on american tv! how - are you in america right now?”

well, maybe that’s something he should’ve mentioned. he hadn’t bothered, not wanting to get his family’s hopes up. he wouldn’t be able to visit home, and he’d rather not have his mom to urge all their family in california to pay for concert tickets just to embarrass him. he probably should’ve thought of something like this happening, but here he is, baffled as ever and holding the phone away from his mouth. looking up, he notices the rerun of their interview playing, his face plastered on the screen, almost mocking him.

“oh….right.” lame answer, daein.

“i can’t believe you didn’t tell us! there’s hardly any chances for me to see you….why didn’t you tell me? daein, i would’ve booked a flight right away. you know what? we’re going. pull up flights, honey.” he hears his dad murmur something in the background, and the familiar groan of the family computer turning on. i should buy them a new one, he thinks. it’s long overdue. but he doesn’t have time to process that because he realizes - his parents are coming.

“wait a minute, mom. what? that’s impossible, tickets already went on sale weeks ago and-”

“daein,” he hears the stern voice repeat, and in that moment he knows better than to say anything else. “we’re going. if i say i’m gonna visit my son on his tour, i’m going to see him. it could be like a little belated chuseok celebration, all three of us. remember when we celebrated together? ah, it was fun. honey, pull up the tour dates.” 

it goes on like this for another hour, until between the protests and bickering his parents have managed to book a flight for october 15, the day before the last concert. they’d meet with him in california, catch up on his free day, then go watch the concert. and as much as he’d spoke against it, daein was ecstatic. after all, he’s like a little kid deep down. he misses his mom and dad, plain and simple. he’s going to see his mom and dad - in the flesh. for real,

maybe it’s what keeps him going during the keep spinning tour, because that’s just what he’s doing. he’s on this constant upward spiral, all the performances leading up to that last one where his parents will  be in the audience, cheering him on. he’ll be happy for once, and things will be grea-

“hello?” it’s october 15th, and he’s beaming bright as he looks at his reflection in the mirror. hell, he’s even dressed up for this. his mom probably knows through all the videos that his wardrobe’s just tshirts, but he refuses to risk a lecture and see his parent’s looking so plain after so long.  so he’s got on a button-up, jeans, and converse on in the middle of october. he feels like he’s in florida again, dressing for the summer in the middle of fall. but he looks good, and all that’s been on his mind the past week was seeing his parents.

“daein?” something’s wrong. he knows it. his mom’s tone is worried, and sad, all at the same time. he can’t help but think of the worst, turning the volume up on hie phone and demanding to know what happened.

“everything’s okay, but….the doctor’s think your father had a bad asthma attack. i didn’t want to worry you about it, you know he gets these a lot, but he moves on. i don’t know why, but he’s still having trouble. they think they’re going to have to admit him for the night, which means we’ll miss our fli-”

“shit,” he hisses, his knuckles dropping to the marble counter with a thud. it’s the first time  he’s cursed in front of his parents, and he knows his mom must be lecturing him, but all he hears is static. fuck. why did it always have to be him? why’d these things only happen to his family, it seemed like? his mom’s going on and on about the procedure, but all daein can think of is that his father’s sick on the other side of the country and there’s nothing he can do about it. his mom keeps going, until she realizes there’s no response on the other end.

“baby? are you there, daein?”

he can feel the hot tears of disappointment collecting, and for once, he lets them run.

“i - i heard you, mom. tell dad i love him, and hope everything goes good, okay?”

he doesn’t want to be a burden.

“...baby, are you sure you’re okay? i can come by myself, if you want. you’re father’s just not in shape to-”

“oh yeah,” he continues, as if he can’t hear her. anything to get his mind off the disappointment, anything but this. he hasn’t felt this way in a long time, but it actually feels like he’s getting a piece of his heart ripped out. “i forgot.  i’ll send you the money for the flight and the hospital bills. just send me how much everything is okay?”

now she’s the one that’s silent, and he hates that he feels too bad to tell her it’s okay. to not feel guilty. that these things happen. but really, he’s feeling anything but understanding.

“baby...are you gonna be okay?”

“i - please, mom. i’ll talk to you later. i love you.” 

he sees one tear fall down over his phone screen. then, another one. and the third following right after. control your breathing. calm down. wipe your tears. the little bit of rationality daein has left is telling him it’s all alright, but his heaving chest and shuddered breaths are saying otherwise.

it isn’t fair. the asthma, the concert, the distance, none of it. he has to go through the last show, thanking fans and giving fake smiles while his parents wound up at the hospital hours before the concert. he doesn’t know when he’s going to see his parent’s next, and he doesn’t want to figure it out, either. because the more he thinks about it, the older they seem to become, the farther they are, the farther he is. it’s all he can think about, from mic check to the encore that shut the stadium down.

but the second he’s off stage, he’s checking the weather in korea and calling his friends to make plans for when he’s back in seoul. because if he can’t see his family, he doesn’t want to see the us at all. 

what’s the point of working so hard to move up, when you leave so much behind?

[atpeacewithme-blog1]

*November 28th, 2016

Hey. It’s been a while. Give me a minute to catch up and read what I told you last. Okay wow. Well where to start. lets see…… Well Beauty and the Beast went… well. it was odd. Two nights before opening night a mom/co-director yelled at the director in from of the whole cast and took her children out of the show. one of them was a lead role. we has to switch around role but we made it work. opening night was great but then Frank (The Beast) got horribly sick and couldn’t come in for the next show so our Gaston (Justin) stepped in as Beast, our feather duster (Pearl) stepped in as Gaston, and a tech girl stepped in as feather duster. It was rough but we made it work, that was closing night. I was in a small ensamble concert with a couple friends June 9th 2016. We sang a choral piece we did last year called can’t think of a fake song name so I am putting nothing lol. It is such a beautiful piece. I went to a shrink for the first time and got medication for my Bipolar Depression. I joined band CLASS for senior year playing Mellophone and that is exciting. I started practicing in May during my lunch and then went to all the summer lessons even though I didn’t really need to because they were doing music I wouldn’t have to do but I eventually to tested on that so I am glad I went to those. I got my senior pictures taken July 11th 2016 and most of them turned out horrible but I really wish we can still order them because come on they are my senior pictures. John took me to a fair July 13th for my birthday and I did some stuff for the first time. JULY 15TH 2016!!!! I took my drivers test and passed, went home to make sure we had everything for the dmv, went to the dmv, didn’t have everything we needed, went home to get my social #, went to dmv, went home because we didn’t have the little blue card, went to dmv, FINALLY got my license. I wore a really cute outfit that day with a cute skirt. a guy commented on my skirt as i was coming out of my car going to the fun group I am in bus for a weekend thing. It was fun, scary because one of the 2 girls (Cerena/Kirsten) were there, but fun. GOT MY CAR JULY 21ST 2016!!!! Here I said what kind of car I have. HER NAME IS GEM!!!I went to a week long trip with that same group and that was also VERY scary because both of those girls were there. some stuff did happen towards the end with them but it didn’t really matter because I did have a fun time. Sport I am in camp was too hot. we had people passing out left and right. the last day we had to take our water breaks inside because it was so bad. I could really feel a difference in myself because of the medicine that I was taking for my depression and that is great. I got out of bed more and hung out with friends and my boyfriend!!! the rest of the summer was pretty fun :) *Rrrrrriiiiiinnnngggg* now time to talk about the beginning of SENIOR YEAR. pf course my schedule was messed up it always is so lets forget about the first few days. I started off perfectly. doing ALL of my work and having an A+ in every class. on September 10th my school had there first football game and my dad let me go out with John afterwards. we parked across from the new pier in my town because the water was nice and I didn’t get home until sometime after 12 because…..well…. lets just say I did something else I never did before. ooh Marie invited me over for Rosh Hashanah and I felt so honored haha. I tell Marie every single little detail that goes on between me and John and she did the same thing to me about her and her boyfriend.Sep. 24th the sport I am in went to their first competition of the season and we won 1st place :) Since I am captain I accept the award with the “co- captains” (they are not really co-captains but idk what else to call them without giving it away. oh well.) and do the salute with them and that was so cool and fun. here lets see if I can write the salute down, this will be difficult. (1-2-3-4-1-2-step-forward-fist and arm point to sky- fist and arm point forward- armdown-look up-arm up and point like pointing to stars and drop it to the right for 5-6-7- look straight ahead- arms sharp low V- right hand salute left hand on hip, 1-2-3-4-right hand fist- arms in fists by my sides) Oct. 8th was our second competition and we got second BUT we went up 4 points, which is a huge jump!! Oct. 14th was Senior night and I felt beautiful out on that field, and yes I did ALMOST cry. Homecoming was nice, I went with Marie’s little brother and I felt beautiful again. The sport rally thing was soo much fun!!!! Oct. 23 was our next compitition because the one on the 22nd got rained out and we got i think it was 5th. we went up maybe half a point. Oct. 29th was John’s 20th birthday. I got him a picture frame with a collage of 3 photos of us. when he opened it he hid behind my shoulder and started to cry. I didn’t know what to do. I asked if he liked it and he said yes thank you so much I love it. I thought that he couldn’t be crying just because of my gift what was going on and all he said was “sorry, it;s just, my birthday is always very stressful.” I still don’t know what happened that day. but I had a great time with him and I hope he also had a great birthday. Oct. 30th was trick or treat and this was the first year i WASNT going door to door. instead I was at my friend Hunter’s house doing his haunted trail. I was the first person the the people walking through would see, I was in the asylum. sadly an hour in it started to thunderstorm. my friends were next in line to walkthrough.I was so upset because I was having an awesome time. Oct. 31st I dressed up as a Disney villain for school and that night was the halloween Parade and since I am the only sport captain I get to walk in the front all by myself!!!. I messed up a couple of times but that is because I was so nervous that I would mess up and the girls behind me would make fun of me.. which I think they did. anyway that night was still fun. My school’s first time going to a big sport’s competition was Nov. 5th and it was a long bus ride and we had to be there at like 4am.  sadly we took 6th out of 8th but we moved up a little more than a point which is the good thing. I was behind on a lot of history work because everytime I had a college visit or a guidance appointment it was during third period. luckily I have a teacher who is still letting me make up all the work im missing. Nov 5-13th we had off for a teachers convention (this is including the weekends btw) and this whole week we were in PA and I looked and my 2 top colleges Seton Hill <3 and West Chester. they were both so beautiful. both so very different. but both so beautiful. Seton Hill is still my top school. Nothing else really has happened since then. I finished my first draft of my college essay today, yesterday I applied for the community college near me, and started on the applications to the other schools I want to apply to. hopefully Ill apply soon. Tomorrow (later today(it is 3am)) starts a few new clubs I joined so I am excited for that, and I believe this year’s musical’s info is coming out either tomorrow (later today) or tuesday (tomrrow). being sport captain is so so so so much fun but very stressful because I know the 4 years do not like having a 3 year tell them what to do. I hear the whispers I am not dumb. but i am putting on my brave face and ignoring it because that is what I have to do. oh and one last thing. Justin is like in love with me and keeps flirting with me. I told him to stop many times and then he does, but then starts up again, the last time he did it was very recent and John said he is getting real tired of it so I hope Justin really does stop this time because I want to be FRIENDS with him because he is a nice kid, but that is all i can and WANT to be, friends. okay now I think you are all caught up. Till next time. Peace.

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Bound X Ch 8

On ao3 Thanks to @tearfulmelody for editing this!

The next day, Alex and Magnus were walking through the streets of Boston.

After they had gotten their asses handed to them at team combat practice to the death, Alex took Magnus out for the falafel she had promised him. Hunding snuck them out of the Hotel and they had spent some time just wandering around the town.

It felt good, being able to be so relaxed around someone. No fear, no need to put up a face. When she was living in the streets she had never been able to relax, she couldn’t afford it. Her old home wasn’t much better for obvious reasons. As pissed as she had been when she first came to Valhalla, she had grown to love that place and the friends she made there.

They wandered around aimlessly until they decided to head to Fadlan’s Falafel. As they walked in the store Alex was telling Magnus a joke, one of those that was purposely so bad it was funny. Magnus laughed at them in the way most people did: rolling his eyes at how bad it was. The difference was that most people’s laughter didn’t make her heart skip a beat like Magnus’ did.

They walked up to the counter to give their order. Amir was behind the counter, giving an old lady her change. When he saw them walking into the store he smiled at them and waved.

“Hey, guys! It’s good to see you, how have you been?”

“Great,” Magnus answered cheerfully. “Alex here owes me falafel, so we came to the best place in town.”

Amir chuckled. “You have to buy Magnus falafel? Did you lose a bet or something?”

“Nah, I’m not losing a bet to this guy. I bribed him into something.”

“That explains it. Magnus would cut off his own arm for free falafel.”

Amir and Alex laughed at that. Anyone who had ever knew Magnus knew about the boy’s near obsession with falafel. He wouldn’t have minded if it was the only thing he could eat for the rest of his life or, rather, the rest of his death.

“Hey, that’s not true!” Magnus protested. Then, as an afterthought, “Exactly how much falafel  are we talking about?”

All three of them laughed at Magnus’ joke (or at least Alex hoped it was a joke). Once they had ordered, they sat down at a table near the back. Alex kept telling her awful jokes, Magnus kept laughing at her awful jokes, and Alex kept telling even more awful jokes just to hear his laugh again. Gods, she wanted his laugh as her ringtone.

… well, not her actual ringtone, that would be creepy. But you know what she meant. She’s a girl in love, cut her some slack.

Still, there were only so many bad jokes and puns a person could hear or say in a day, and eventually their conversation moved on to different topics. Somewhere amidst all the weird stories they were sharing Alex made the grim mistake of asking Magnus about his books.

Yes, it was stupid, but could you blame her? He had a huge library in his suite and she had gotten curious. Asking him about his books was dumb enough, but then Alex was stupid enough to ask him which one was his favorite. That led to Magnus spewing out book titles for five minutes.

Alex would have complained more, but honestly… She wasn’t really paying attention to what Magnus was saying.

Yes, that might sound mean, but the only reason she wasn’t listening to the words coming out of his mouth was because she was too busy noticing everything else about him. From the random, animated gestures he made as he talked to the way his eyes twinkled and his face lightened up. She might not know anything about the books Magnus was talking about, but she loved to see him so passionate about something. Honestly she could sit here and listen to him talking about the things he loved all day.

(People walking by that saw the way the green haired teen looked at the blonde boy made a lot of them smile. A woman even sighed to herself, thinking how great it must be to be young and in love.)

“I shouldn’t have asked,” Alex muttered as Magnus said the I-don’t-know-I-stopped-counting-after-15th book title. How he remembered them all was beyond her.

“I think that's all,” Magnus finally finished. Part of Alex wanted to scream hallelujah, but another part of her was disappointed she couldn’t see Magnus fanboy anymore.

“Geez, I didn’t know you were such a bookworm, Maggie,” she sighed.

Magnus suddenly perked up, like he remembered something. “Oh, and there’s-“

“There’s more?!” Alex cut him off, a bit too loudly. A few people turned around to look at them.

“I was just going to say Harry Potter,” Magnus answered innocently. Alex was pretty sure he had only done that to mess with her. “It’s a classic.”

“Finally something I recognize. Harry Potter is a classic, even I've read that and I’m not the biggest book fan.” The books were really fun and she would be lying if she said she hadn’t pretended to be an animagus at least a dozen times.

“Say, what house are you in?” Magnus asked.

“I’m a Slytherin. It might be part of the reason I chose to dye my hair green.”

Magnus snorted. “Seriously?”

Alex nodded. “Well, it’s also one of my favorite colors. I remember I was still reading the books when I first saw the Urnes symbol and thought it looked like what Slytherin’s insignia would be like. I mean, it forms an ‘S’ and everything.”

“Huh, I never thought of that.”

Alex leaned on the table. “And let me guess, you’re a Hufflepuff?”

Magnus smiled. (Fuck me, I love that smile.) “What gave it away?”

“Probably the fact you’re a sunshiny cinnamon roll who wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

They continued the Harry Potter conversation well into desert. They were having an intense fangirling session, debating about different things, like Quiddicth, the veil Sirius Black fell in and how extremely gay the Cursed Child was.

“Like, I was so pissed at the end,” Magnus said at one point. “Their relationship was built up through the whole thing, reading the script felt like reading gay fanfiction, and yet they expect me to believe Scorpius likes Rose, who hardly appeared during the whole thing and when she did she treated him terribly!”

“I take it you have experience with gay fanfiction?” Alex asked slyly.

Magnus’ ears went red in embarrassment but he didn’t shy away from the question. “I’ve been watching ‘Yuri on Ice’ lately and the fanfiction is pretty good.”

“Isn’t that the anime about ice skating?”

Magnus went on to explain to her what happened in the show and they were having a lot of fun. Without realizing it, they had moved a lot closer.

That is, until a man that had sat down next to them muttered something about “disgusting fags”. Alex couldn’t what he looked like from where she was sitting, but judging from the look on Magnus’ face, the man’s expression must have been just as mean as his words.

If they were in Valhalla, things would have been more straightforward. She could just attack whoever said it and kill them. She had done that a couple of times when some of the oldest einherjar were disrespectful about her gender. She tried talking to them at first, but it soon became clear they only respect power. So she did the logical thing and showed them she could kick their asses if they got on her bad side.

But she couldn't do that now. They weren’t in Valhalla, so the man would be dead for good. For one thing, Alex didn’t kill people (at least not people who couldn’t come back to life) and killing him would just be messy (police, people running around screaming etc).

But she wasn’t going to let that scumbag get away with it either. Guess what asshole! Some people aren’t straight! Get over it!

If he hates gay people so much, then…

Alex picked up a piece of baklava with her fork and held it out to Magnus. “Say ‘ah’, pumpkin,” she said in her most sugary voice. She spoke loudly and, if the sound of distaste that came from the man behind her was anything to go by, that asshole heard her. The corner of her lips quirked up in a smirk.

Understanding flashed in Magnus’ eyes before he leaned forward and took the baklava from Alex’s fork. He looked straight into her eyes the whole time, as if they were playing in some sappy romance movie.

Magnus picked up another piece and held it out for Alex, his other hand cupped underneath so the syrup wouldn’t drip. He fed it to Alex, calling her ‘sweetie pie’, and his voice was so lovey dovey Alex would have cracked up under different circumstances.

It was Alex’s turn to feed Magnus. As ridiculous as this was, it was kinda fun. She got to feed and be fed by her crush and piss off an asshole. That’s a win-win in her book.

As Magnus took the piece of baklava from her fork, a big, fat drop of syrup dripped from his lips. He reached out for a napkin but Alex got a bright idea and stopped him.

“Let me get that,” she said. Instead of getting a napkin and wiping it away for him, she leaned in closer, so close she could feel Magnus’ breath, and kissed the corner of his lips to wipe away the drop of syrup. A bolt of lightning went through her at the contact and her heart beat like a drum in her chest. She did her best to remain calm and not potentially combust. She wondered if people watching her thought she was so bold and confident, doing things like this, when she was freaking out in her head.

She leaned away, licking the syrup from her lips. “Sweet,” she said and smiled at Magnus. She tried to imitate similar moments she had seen in movies. They had always been really hot and she hoped she had pulled it off or else this was going to be a bit embarrassing.

Well, Magnus seems pretty red, so I guess it worked.

There was a loud screeching sound as the man got up hastily and left the shop, leaving some bills on the table. Alex watched him as he practically ran away and she smirked.

“Take that, you soggy piece of toast,” she said triumphantly. She would have done another gesture at the man’s back, but there were children in the restaurant. Alex had a no-cursing-around-children policy.

They paid for their food and said goodbye to Amir, who assured them that what they had done was awesome.

“I managed to film it,” he told them with a smile. “I’m sending this to Sam, she’ll love it.”

Alex smiled. Her sister strongly believed all people were equal no matter what and she loved it when rude jerks were put in their place.

They left the shop after they told Amir to tell Sam hi from them. They were walking towards Public Garden, trying to find the bakery Halfborn had been talking about. They had found the shop by accident about a week ago, when Halfborn was distracting T.J in the part while Magnus, Alex and Mallory were trying to find a cake. In the end they had bought a box of cupcakes that they all ate together while singing ‘Happy Birthday’ obnoxiously loudly to T.J .

As they walked into the cozy café-bakery they were met by the sent on baking cakes and sweets. The décor was in shades of black and beige like the last time and a large display case full of cakes was next to the register. They spotted a red velvet cake in it, shaped like a heart with a red bow on it made from fondant.

Well, Halfborn wants to be romantic, Alex thought with a smirk.

“Hello, how can I help you?” the girl behind the counter asked them with a smile.

“We’d like that one,” Alex said, pointing to the cake she and Magnus had wordlessly agreed on. Magnus might be a cinnamon roll but he was also a little shit and Alex loved that.

The girl put their cake in a box with a bow on top after they told her it was a present, before handing it to Alex. “There you go, sir,” she said.

“Thanks,” Alex replied sharply. She knew the girl had no idea that she was female today and that she was just doing her job by being polite, but she was still met with the familiar annoyance of being misgendered. “But it’s she,” she corrected.

A little gasp went past the girl’s lips, her face the dictionary definition of ‘oh no, I fucked up’. “Oh my god, I’m really sorry miss,” she apologized hurriedly.

Alex nodded. “It’s okay.” Some people don’t even apologize.

They walked out of the store from the side entrance, since the shop was at the corner of the street. Two boys around their age were leaning against the wall. They were trying to pull of the whole ‘angsty edgy bad boy’ look. Alex didn’t pay them any mind as she walked past.

But then something hit her leg, something feeling suspiciously like a leg. She would have dropped the cake if it wasn’t for her einherjar reflexes. Magnus was immediately at her side, helping her get up. In any other situation, Alex would have mentally cooed at Magnus helping her like this, not because she needed his help but because he wanted to help.

Now all she could think was This fucking bitch tripped me.

“Alex, are you alright?” Magnus asked concerned.

“Yeah, are you okay dude?” one of the boys said. Alex could have been deaf and still recognize the mock sympathy dripping from his every word. “Oops, I meant girl,” he snarled. He and his friend cackled like they were so funny and Alex was contemplating murder.

Ignore them, the logical part of her said. Don’t make a scene. They don’t deserve it. There just a couple of assholes, it’s not like you haven’t been through this before. They aren’t worth getting worked up over.

She stood and refused to look at the two boys behind her. “Yes, I’m fine, Magnus. Let’s go.” Her words were sharp and icy, like a sudden snowstorm.

She moved to leave but the second of the two boys grabbed her wrist and, Alex realized with horror, groped her butt. Her heart dropped to her stomach from fear and if this had been the first time some asshole had assaulted her or grabbed her from behind she would have reacted differently. What she did now was twist her arm in a well-trained motion and break his grip. Shocked, the boy was too late to react when Alex turned around and slapped him hard across the face.

“You fucking freak!” he yelled after her, but Alex ignored him. She walked away quickly, feeling sick to her stomach.

~~~~~~~

Saying Alex was in a bad mood for the rest of the day would have been the understatement of the century.

He felt horrible. He was pissed off and angry and furious, and yeah, all those words mean the same thing but just one of them didn’t feel enough to explain what he was like right now. It felt like someone was holding his heart in an iron grip, squeezing it as if it was a grape, and Alex was fighting back. Every nerve in his body burned with the need to move, to get all this frustration out. He spent the whole day glaring at anyone and everyone and nobody got too close to him, as if there was a bright red bubble of anger around him people were afraid to go in for fear of their lives.

And Alex knew he shouldn’t be feeling like this. Those boys were just a couple of faceless assholes that didn’t matter and he shouldn’t be this angry over what they said and did. But he was and that made him even more furious.

Don’t think about it, he told himself. They aren’t worth ruining your day over. What they said doesn’t matter, your friends don’t agree with them.

Yeah, but… what if they do?

It was that crippling doubt that made Alex want to scream. He was confident in who he was, male or female. Partially at least, he had built that confidence as a shield. Some people wouldn’t accept him, some people would hurt him, and he didn’t let them change him. This is who he is, deal with it. If they didn’t then he wouldn’t deal with them.

But he didn’t want to do that now. He couldn’t bear the thought of Halfborn, Mallory, T.J, Sam, Hearthstone, Blitzen or Magnus leaving him. For the first time in a long while he felt like he belonged, like he had a home. He was happy. The thought of losing that tore him apart.

Don’t think about it, stop thinking about it.

He tried to distract himself, go about the rest of his day and act normal, but it didn’t work. When Halfborn took the cake from them he could see in the Viking’s eyes that he was expecting a joke from Alex, but nothing came. He tried pottery, since that always calmed him down, but he couldn’t do it. All the pots came out wrong; leaning too much on one side, having holes in the bottom or even collapsing. Alex threw them against the wall, hoping it would ease his anger, but it didn’t. He was curt and clipped toward Magnus when he told him his pronouns were he/him now. In combat practice, he fought horribly and died fast.

And throughout the whole day, poor Magnus was trying to help him. He brought up the incident, asking Alex if he was okay or if he wanted to talk about it, but he snapped at him and told him he didn’t want to talk about. Alex immediately felt bad afterwards.

Here you are, worrying about your friends leaving you and you’re pushing them away. Great job, idiot.

But Magnus still tried to cheer him up. He put on all the songs Alex had said he liked, he gave him those breadsticks they had at dinner because he ‘happened’ to have some and told him every punny joke in existence, even asking Jack to tell some after a point. But Alex’s mood didn’t improve. No matter what Magnus did to help, his traitorous mind said “Hey, isn’t it great having a nice friend like this? Imagine if he didn’t want to be around you anymore”.

Night didn’t come fast enough but when it did, Alex went to bed without a word to Magnus or anyone else. I just want this day to end.

~~~~~~~

In the dream, Alex was a girl.

She was in her room, but not her room in Hotel Valhalla. The room had plain white walls, with a couple of posters of pots and random mountains, the generic kind you’d find in some travel magazine. There was a bed, a desk and a wardrobe along with a green carpet. Despite her favorite colors being pink and green, there was no pink in this room. Her mortal father and his wife had banned her from anything pink.

Overall, her old room back at her father’s house was dull and cold. It wasn’t the temperature - the heating was on, so it was warm inside, despite the cool autumn weather - it was just the aura the room gave off. It lacked warmth, like no one actually lived there. Just like the rest of the house, really.

Alex was kneeled in front of her bed, her heart thumbing in her chest. She was nervous but she wanted to do this. Her father wasn’t home, it would be safe; no one would see her. Her father and stepmother had gone to some tennis tournament and they had left Alex home alone. They’d say she had a lot of homework and needed to study like the good child she was as an excuse if anyone asked why she hadn’t come. They just didn’t want her with them and their snobby friends because they thought she was an embarrassment.

Well, she didn’t mind since she didn’t want to go anyway. Anything was better than a whole afternoon around stiff rich jerks that would constantly misgender her.

She reached under the bed and pulled out a white shoe box. It said Paints, careful of leaks on it in permanent marker. It didn’t have any paints in it, the words were a precaution so the cleaning staff wouldn’t open it. They didn’t want extra work, after all.

She took off the box’s lid carefully, as if it would break if she breathed too hard. Newspapers stained with paint covered what was in the box in case anyone did open it. She hastily threw the papers aside, eager to look at what was inside.

She took the dress out. She had never owned a dress, a skirt, or anything of that sort. All her clothes were gender neutral. She had tried on more feminine clothes in dressing rooms, but she never had one that was hers.

But now she did. This was her dress and she was going to wear it. Not in a dressing room, paranoid that someone would see her and take it from her.

With her heart beating a mile a minute in her chest, she threw off her clothes. She pulled the dress over her head and didn’t look in any mirrors. She pulled open the drawer she held her pottery supplies in. In the very back, hidden inside a jar of nails from when she tried woodwork, was a little bag of hair accessories. Frilly hair bands her hair was too short for and hair clips with cute designs on them. They were some of the only feminine things she owned because they were small enough that she could hide them easily. She took one of the clips and pinned some of her hair back.

She ran to the bathroom, somehow nervous someone would see her even though there was no one other than her home. She walked in with her eyes closed. Once she was in front of the mirror – she knew the room by memory – she opened them.

She gasped. She –she looked like a girl. She looked like a girl! This was it, this was it! This was right!

She was smiling so much her cheeks hurt. Yes, yes, yes, yes! She couldn’t help a happy scream and her arms flapped around, like a fangirl that just got a singed edition of her favorite book.

She was running around the house, loving the way the skirt moved against her legs. She did stunts and rolled along the carpets, alternating between songs, one moment singing Girls just wanna have fun and the next I believe I can fly. She ran to the stairs and she was three steps down when she got an idea and run back up. She jumped on the railing and slid down, laughing like she was in some cheesy high school flick.

She landed in a mess in the carpet but she didn’t care. She lay down, laughing her head off and making angels in the fluffy material. She jumped up, still smiling brightly, to look at what she had made when she heard it.

The sound of the door opening.

A man in white tennis clothes stood at the open door. His hair was dark like Alex’s, stuck to his forehead from the rain and he held a tennis racket in one hand. Next to him stood a woman in fancy clothes, her eyes wide in shock and her mouth hanging open. The man’s expression was identical to his wife’s for a moment, before it changed to rage.

Alex felt her hearth plummet to her stomach. Her blood ran cold in her veins. It was as if she was falling from a high building; all air was pushed out of her lungs and all ability she had to think rationally was gone, replaced with an almost animalistic feeling of danger, yelling at her to flee.

No, no, no, no.

Her father moved forward, firm with anger, and Alex staggered backwards, limbs trembling in fear. Her father seemed to be growing taller, as big as a giant towering over her, and Alex was trying to shrink down to be as small as possible.

“I-I t-though you w-weren’t going to b-be home until l-later,” she stuttered out.

“Why are you wearing a dress?” her father asked as if Alex had never talked. In the silence that had fallen in the house his voice sounded like a boom of thunder.

“I-I-I… it’s… I’m not-“

“I asked you a question!” he roared and Alex took an unconscious step backwards.

It’s for a school play. I was dared to wear it. Excuses ran through her head, but she knew none of them would work. They had seen her, a girl, not the girl forced into a boy’s life that felt as wrong as walking upside down most of the time.

“I-I bought it,” she stammered out.

Her stepmother, still at the door, gasped in horror. Her father’s face was completely transformed with anger, beat red like the carpet in the kitchen. Alex backed away, afraid she would be hit.

She was, but not by fists. By words.

“I knew there was something wrong with you,” her father spat out. He was looking at her like she wrong, as if she was an annoying smudge on a paper he wanted to erase from existence. “From the moment that woman, man, whatever it was, left you here, I knew there was something simply wrong with you. I thought it was your blood, who your other parent was. Still, I took you in and raised you.”

He laughed, a cold, cruel laugh that cut Alex like a knife, like the notion of having her as a child was the most ridiculous joke he had ever heard. “I never should have,” he continued. “I should have just given you back to whatever your other parent was or left you in the street.” He moved toward her and Alex moved backwards, until her back hit the wall and she had nowhere to go.

“F-father-“ Alex started to say. What she would say she didn’t know, but she didn’t get to find out either. A white hot pain erupted from her cheek as her father slapped her. The force of it sent her falling to the ground, taking the glass flower vase next to her with her. It broke on impact, spilling water and shattered glass all over the carpet. As Alex sat up, looking at her father in horror, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, the broken glass cut her hands.

Moments earlier, she was laughing and dancing on this carpet. Now she was lying on it scared and bloodied.

Her father walked towards her, stepping on the flowers that had previously been in the vase. Alex flinched back, afraid of another hit.

“Don’t,” her father barked, “don’t ever call me father! I will not have a freak, a tranny as a son! You have twenty minutes to get your things, whatever you can carry in a backpack and leave this house. Don’t ever dare to come back here or I will call the police!”

Somehow, through the haze of her tears, Alex got her things and ran out of the door. At least the rain would wash away her tears. She ran down the front steps and-

He was in a dark, foggy place. He was in his pajamas now, not his dress, and he wasn’t as young as he had been just a moment before. He looked around, trying  to see in there was anyone here, when a figure stepped out of the fog.

Loki.

“Well, that was quite a scene,” Loki said. He had that condescending smirk on his face, like he knew something you didn’t and thought of you as an idiot because of it. Alex didn’t know why Loki was here but it couldn’t be for good.

“What do you want?” he demanded.

“Why so curt? I just wanted to know more about my son. I didn’t know that was how you got kicked out.”

Alex glared at him even harder but didn’t move. Loki was strong and he didn’t have his garrote.

“That must have hurt you a lot. I mean, he wasn’t the best father, but he was your father.” He chuckled. “Imagine what it will be like when it’s someone you love a lot.”

“What are you talking about?” Alex asked but Loki had disappeared. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he whipped around to Loki standing right behind him.

“I’m just stating the obvious, dear. Everyone has abandoned you. Your mortal parents, that girl you had a crush on about a year back. Imagine what it will be like when your friends leave you.”

The fog twisted, like soup in a pot, before it formed images.

“How will you carry on when that feisty redhead doesn’t want to be your friend anymore?” The fog twisted into Mallory, looking at her with disgust and hate before turning her back at him and walking away.

“Or what about that big, smart Viking friend of yours?” Now it was Halfborn, sneering as he punched him.

“How will you react when your friend from the Civil War turns against you?” T.J, glaring as he aimed at him with his riffle. Monster, he mouthed.

“Your sister?” Now it was Sam, looking at him like he’s a piece of trash and snarling insults at him in Arabic.

“What will you do when that Son of Frey you love hates you?” Alex felt his heart plummet to his stomach. He hadn’t realized when he had started crying. He watched through the tears as the fog twisted into Magnus. Magnus, with his kind face twisted in anger, grey eyes glaring at Alex as if to kill him. “I could never love a freak like you!” he yelled at him.

“Stop!” Alex shouted. His hands came up to cover his ears, to block out Loki’s words. It did nothing, he could still hear him. He’s lying, what he’s saying isn’t true, he’s lying…

“What will you do,” Loki continued, his words daggers stabbing Alex straight through the heart, “when everyone leaves you, child?”

~~~~

Alex woke up tangled in his blankets, cold sweat running down his body and his eyes wet with tears. Through his blurry vision he saw Magnus kneeling next to him on the bed, his grey eyes filled with worry.

“Magnus?” Alex said weakly, voice barely above a whisper. Magnus as he was right now contrasted so boldly against the Magnus Loki showed him. This Magnus, the real Magnus, didn’t have deep lines in his face from anger, he didn’t look at Alex like he was something horrible he wanted to get rid of.

“It’s okay Alex, it’s alright, everything is fine,” Magnus said in a soothing voice, like a mother talking to her child after the child had a nightmare.

The tears in Alex’s eyes welled up even more as he threw himself at Magnus, burying his face in the blonde’s night shirt and cried. What Magnus said was what made Alex realize that this was Magnus. The boy he knew, the boy he had fallen in love with, wasn’t the one Loki had showed him in the fog. They looked alike, but the Magnus in the vision was nothing more than a doppelganger. The real Magnus would never look at Alex like that.

“It’s alright, it’s okay Alex, everything is alright, it’s okay,” Magnus kept whispering, hugging Alex as he rubbed circles on his back. Alex’s entire body shook and trembled as he cried, but Magnus just held him tighter. “It was just a nightmare, it wasn’t real, you’re alright.”

Alex wasn’t sure how long it took him to calm down enough to be able to talk. Magus kept rubbing his back in this really soothing way and Alex tried to relax and forget about the nightmare but he couldn’t. ‘It wasn’t real’ Magnus said as he was trying to calm him down but it was.

“It was,” Alex said, his voice croaky from crying as he detached himself from Magnus’ shirt and looked up at him. “It-it was real.”

Alex’s father had caught him wearing a dress and he had kicked him out. It had happened, it was real. And what Loki showed him… it hadn’t happened but it could and it made Alex want to through up just thinking about it. He needed to talk, to get out of his chest, or else he knew it would gnaw at him and destroy him from the inside. He knew Loki’s tricks.

“Wha-?” Magnus started asking before Alex cut him off.

“It was my dad,” he said. “My mortal dad. It was when he found out I’m trans.”

Even in the darkness of the room Alex could see Magnus’ face going paler. “Alex, you don’t need to tell me this if you don’t want to, it’s alright-“

“I want to tell you,” Alex interrupted him. A part of him was yelling at him not to say anything. This was something he had been carrying inside him for years; telling another person about it would make him extremely vulnerable. But he knew he had to talk about it to someone or else he wouldn’t be able to move on. And if there was anyone he trusted enough to share this with it was Magnus.

“I’ve never told anyone and-and I need to get it off my chest because it’s killing me,” he continued. “Just-just please listen.”

Magnus might have nodded but Alex couldn’t tell since he had buried his face in Magnus’ chest again. Just because he had decided to go through with this didn’t mean it was easy. The way Magnus hugged him made him feel better.

“That’s what the nightmare was about,” he started after taking a deep breath. “My dad- I thought he and my stepmother would be out, something about a tennis tournament my dad was taking part in. I was home alone and- I had bought that really pretty dress in secret. I kept it hidden inside a shoe box under my bed. They weren’t meant to be home and-and I wanted to see what it would be like to dress up as a girl and look like I felt.”

Alex’s voice wavered as he went on. Magnus pulled him closer and rubbed his back more. It helped Alex keep talking without bursting into tears again.

“But- the tournament got canceled because of rain. My dad came home and he-he saw me in the dress. He started yelling, calling me very bad things and saying he should have never taken me into his house. I tried to talk to him but-but he hit me and yelled at me to leave and never come back.”

Alex might have imagined it, but Magnus’ hold on him tightened.

“I’ve kept the dress too, you know. Every time I see it I remember that day and I feel horrible but I still keep it.” He tried to laugh it off, like it was no big deal, but the laugh quickly turned into a sob. He fought to hold back the tears and keep talking. “Then-then the dream changed. Loki showed up. He said my friends probably feel the same why my mortal dad did. That sooner or later they would throw me out too.”

Alex hid his face in the fabric of Magnus’ shirt. Tears fell from his eyes again and he couldn’t hold them back. Talking about it, not just his father kicking him out but what Loki had said, hurt. It hurt so much.

“Alex, look at me,” Magnus said. His voice was firm, firmer than Alex had ever heard it before.

“They’re wrong,” Magnus said.  “Your mortal dad and Loki; they’re both wrong. We won’t leave you. Not me, not Mallory, not T.J, not Halfborn, not Sam or Blitzen or Hearthstone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a boy or a girl, you’re still Alex Fierro, the green haired badass who cut my head off once with a clay cutter, who makes punny jokes and loves pottery, who likes hiking and called me sunshiny and a cinnamon roll, who’s beautiful and amazing and one of the best people I’ve ever met. I lov-“ Magnus stopped, like he had wanted to say something else but changed his mind. “We all like you for who you are and that’s not going to change.”

Alex was left staring at Magnus, trying to process what he had just said. A smile made its way onto his face and he wiped some tears out of his eyes. What have I done to deserve such good friends?

“You’re so sappy, Magnus.”

“Maybe,” Magnus said and shrugged. From his place on his chest Alex could feel Magnus’ muscles move to make that small movement. “But if you think you’re getting rid of me and the rest of our friends anytime soon, you’re wrong.”

I can think of a lot worse things. “Guess I’ll have to deal with you,” Alex smiled.

They stayed like that, hugging each other close, for a little while longer until Magnus’ arms around Alex’s waist loosened and he moved to go back to his bed.

“Can you stay here tonight?” Alex asked, keeping Magnus’ arms around his waist.

Magnus looked surprised for a moment but he nodded. “Of course.”

~~~~~~~~~

Alex woke up somewhere comfortable and warm, like he had fallen asleep inside sunshine. This was probably the best sleep he has had in ages.

As the world came into focus around him, he realized there were arms wrapped around his waist and someone’s chest rising and falling under his head. Last night came back to him, the nightmare he had, how he had woken up crying to find Magnus looking at him worried, how he had opened up to him and told him about his father.

So I slept all night cuddling with Magnus, Alex thought. Well that’s… something…

Something that made Alex’s heart skip a beat and his insides all warm and fuzzy. There was a part of him, the part that felt like a schoolgirl with a crush around Magnus, that wanted to go scream in excitement at someone about it. But she didn’t want to move; cuddling with Magnus was way too good for him to give it up unless it was absolutely necessary.

He felt Magnus move next to him and looked up to him with a sleepy groan. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Magnus said. Damn him, he looks adorable with bed hair. “Did you sleep well?”

Alex could hear the question Magnus wanted to ask but didn’t: did you have any more nightmares?

“Yep,” Alex said cheerily and rested his head back on Magnus’ chest. “Slept like a baby. You’re really warm, you know. And comfortable. Like a big teddy bear.”

Magnus chuckled. “If I’m that comfy then you can use me as a cuddle pillow any time you want.”

Alex paused. He did a double take, taken aback by Magnus’ boldness. Did Magnus just give me permission to cuddle with him whenever I want?  

Alex gave Magnus a smile. “I’d really like that.”

Alex lay back on Magnus chest and got comfy. Magnus made no move to leave so Alex didn’t either. He hadn’t actually cuddled with someone before, but this was really nice. They stayed like that for a while, wrapped in each other’s arms under Magnus’ covers. Alex nuzzled his face into Magnus’ shirt and sighed. As sappy as it might sound, he had never felt more at peace than he felt now.

“Magnus?” Alex spoke, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between them.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for everything,” he said. “For trying to cheer me up yesterday and staying with me last night. It really helped. I’ve never been able to fall asleep again after these nightmares.”

Magnus readjusted his arms around Alex, pulling the other boy closer. His hand went up from his back to Alex’s green hair, resting there hesitantly. When Alex said nothing about it, Magnus started playing with the soft green locks. “It’s no problem,” he said. “And if you ever have a nightmare like that again you’re free to come and wake me up.”

I love this boy so much, Alex thought as he smiled at Magnus. He buried his face in the blonde boy’s shirt, not wanting Magnus to see the lovestruck look in his eyes or just how moved a simple offer to help out with his nightmares made him. People genuinely wanting to help and be by his side wasn’t something he was a accustomed to.

I can get used to it, thought.

“Thanks,” he whispered into Magnus shirt.

“It’s nothing.”

Magnus kept playing with Alex’s hair as they cuddled. This whole scene, cuddling in bed, with Alex’s head laying over Magnus’ heart and Magnus’ fingers stroking his hair, felt like it had come straight out of a romance movie. The thing that would follow in that movie, and the thing Alex really wanted to do, would be Alex leaning up and kissing Magnus.

But Alex didn’t do it. For all the teasing and hints she dropped Magnus, even almost kissing him in public to piss of a homophobe, he couldn’t bring himself to do it now. Instead, a different thought came to the shapeshifter’s mind and this one he followed through.

I wonder if Magnus is ticklish.

Alex slowly brought his hands from Magnus’ back to his front, letting them rest against the other boy’s stomach. Magnus didn’t react to that and, with a devilish smirk, Alex started tickling him.

“Wha-!” Magnus let out a surprised noise akin to a squealing seal. He gasped and curled up in a ball to protect himself from Alex’s fingers. That won’t stop me! Alex pounced on Magnus with a war cry and tickled every part of the boy’s body he could get his hands on.

“Alex! Ah ha ha ha! Sto- Stop!” Magnus yelled, or at least tried too. His words came out between fits of roaring laughter that made whatever he was saying almost impossible to understand.

Despite his protests, Alex didn’t halt his attack, tickling him with even more ferocity. He was enjoying himself way too much to stop now!

Magnus moved suddenly, pushing Alex back. He fell on his back on the bed with a surprised gasp. Alex realized with horror that he was the one getting tickled now. Magnus’ fingers danced all over his body, tickling any place they could find. Alex was shaking from the force of his laughter, cursing how ticklish he was.

“Magnus! St-stop! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!”

But Magnus didn’t listen to him. His fingers moved up Alex’s body, to his armpits.

Alex’s eyes widened. “Magnus! No! Not-not there! Stop!” If there was one place he was super ticklish (at least more than everywhere else), it was his armpits. Magnus had just found his Achilles’ heel.

Alex was kicking Magnus. He wasn’t really thinking about it, it was just something he did when he was being tickled. Yet despite how much he kicked Magnus’ legs, the other boy wouldn’t stop.

But then he did. Alex didn’t know why he suddenly stopped tickling him, but he didn’t care. He took his chance and flipped them over, hovering over Magnus and straddling his hips. “Got you,” he said before he started tickling Magnus again.

Magnus was trashing around, trying to get away from Alex’s fingers, but that was hard to do with Alex literally sitting on his hips. Magnus’ shirt rode up because of how much he was moving around and Alex smirked when he saw the exposed skin. His hands quickly moved there and Magnus was laughing even more now, since this tickled more than being tickled over his clothes.

Alex was having the time of his life. He never knew tickle fights could be this fun! He wasn’t going to stop tickling Magnus until he surrendered, until he could hardly breathe from laughing too hard.

Or that was the plan until his eyes fell on Magnus laughing face and he felt like he just caught a glimpse of heaven. (Well, technically he’s already in heaven, but whatever.) Magnus’ hair fell around his face like a golden halo, his skin flushed red. His eyes were squeezed shut and a huge smile took over most of his face. So this is what angels look like.

As Magnus caught his breath, he looked up at Alex, his chest heaving up and down as he panted. Alex was staring and he knew it, but he just couldn’t look away from those bright grey eyes. It was as if he was looking at a storm outside his window, clouds of dark and light grey mixing together as lightning flashed inside them.

Alex’s eyes trailed down, from the freckles all over Magnus’ nose to his lips. They were a pretty pink shade Alex could only wish to paint one of his pots with and they looked so soft. Before he realized how or when, Alex was leaning down. There wasn’t a single thought going through his head and he moved in a daze, like the rune binding them together was pulling him closer. Ragnarok could start right then and Alex wouldn’t notice, too caught up in Magnus.

Their faces were so close Alex could fell Magnus’ breath on his face, just a little more and their lips would meet…

“Magnus! Alex! Wake up sleepyheads, it’s morning!”

Alex was snapped back to reality by Mallory’s voice. Mallory and Halfborn were standing at the doorway of Magnus’ room, the redhead’s mouth handing open as her face flashed as red as her hair while her boyfriend was smirking at them.

You have to be kidding me.

“I-it’s not w-what i-it looks l-like!” Magnus scrambled to explain.

Alex knew exactly what it looked like. He was straddling Magnus’ hips as he was hovering over him, the sheets around them a mess, their clothes half off from the tickle fight and their faces flashed and a breath away from each other.

It looked like they had been making out.

“W-we’re s-sorry to interrupt!” Mallory yelled as she rushed to get out of the room and this embarrassing situation. She dragged Halfborn behind her, who yelled “Have fun! And use protection!” before he shut the door behind them.

Needless to say, they couldn’t go back to what they were doing. They got up to get ready for the day, and there was only one thing in Alex’s mind as he did his morning rituals.

I’m going to kill Mallory and Halfborn for ruining my chance to kiss Magnus.

~~~~~~~

Alex wasn’t sure she heard right.

She and Magnus were walking back to Magnus’ room after meeting with Annabeth and Percy. Alex was busy talking about what happened that day and she hadn’t noticed Magnus looking at his feet nervously. She only stopped talking when Magnus spoke.

“Um, Alex?” he said.

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking…” he trailed off. Alex was getting curious. She had never seen Magnus like this. He refused to meet her eyes and he was rubbing his hands against the fabric of his pants. “Would you, uh, w-would you…”

Magnus looked like he was preparing to do something really scary, like jumping of a high place or walking into a haunted house, before he blurted something out so fast Alex didn’t catch a word.

“WouldyouliketogoonadatewithmetoseeFantasticBeasts?”

“What was that, Magnus? You spoke too fast, I didn’t understand,” Alex said.

Magnus took a deep breath. He looked like he would much rather fight a giant than repeat what he said.

“Do you want to go on a date with me?” he asked.

And that’s when Alex’s mind sort-circuited. She couldn’t have heard that right. Did Magnus… did Magnus really just ask her out? This was real, right? She wasn’t dreaming it again, was she?

Alex would have liked to say he response was something smart and witty. “I thought you’d never ask” or even a simple “I’d love to” would have been much better than what she actually said.

“What?”

“I-I really like you,” Magnus said. Alex’s heart skipped a beat at his words, but Magnus wasn’t done. “And I’ve wanted to tell you for some time but I was really scared to. I-It’s fine if you don’t want to, but… would you like to go on a date with me?”

So Alex hadn’t heard wrong. Magnus had asked her out on a date! She wanted to jump up and down screaming “Yes yes yes yes!” but the part of her brain that still functioned (even if barely) recognized that was a very bad idea. She gathered up all the self control she had and answered Magnus question, though it’s needless to say what her answer was.

“Yes,” she said, and thankfully she didn’t yell that. “I’d love to go on a date with you.”

You all know what's coming next: the big date! I'd love to hear any predictions you might have about it!