#oh and when my teacher was passing back the tests more jump more started blasting in my earbuds so thats why i made this drawing.

[lotus-lamps]

in the moment it was deeply traumatizing but in hindsight (and by hindsight i mean like five minutes later) this was probably one of the funniest things i ever experienced

[kimpossibly]

[001] BEING THE YOUNGEST IN THE STUDY GROUP (nbc community headcanons)

Because I am talking about a big group, I made a little color-coded list so there should be no confusion as to who is speaking! Also, this is set about halfway through season one, so that explains the timeline.

Reader = Purple Jeff = Blue Britta = Orange Annie = Yellow Abed = Green Troy = Red Shirley = Pink

pairing: fem!reader x platonic!community warnings: none

The choice to go to community college hadn't exactly been an ideal one

You had accidentally filled out all your actual college applications wrong and didn't realize they never went through until all the application dates had passed.

So, weighing your options, you decided that Greendale was your best option.

By then you had to enroll in all the leftover classes that still had spots open

You had taken French all throughout high school and barely retained a word of it. You'd hoped to jump into some French classes for an easy A, but all of the French classes had already filled up.

The solution? Spanish 101.

You showed up to the first day of class determined to make the best of the awful hand you had been dealt.

And surprise, surprise! Spanish was nothing like French.

The teacher was a little kooky and he severely overestimated how much work his students could do before the next class.

Before you knew it, you were drowning in work that you didn't know how to do and suddenly your grade started to drop.

When your next door neighbor took a liking to blasting loud music while you were trying to study, you decided to head to one of the study rooms to try and be productive.

But when you got there, you found the table was already full of people.

"Oh! My bad, sorry-"

You tried to leave, but, due to your immense surprise, one of the girls at the table recognized you.

"Hey, wait - aren't you in our Spanish class?"

Before you could confirm, someone answered for you.

"Yeah. She sits in the third row and color codes all her notes."

You looked at him in confusion.

"I'm Abed."

And then another woman in the room smiled at you.

"You color code your notes?"

You nodded and took them out to show her, but a douchey looking guy in a leather jacket scoffed.

"The only people who color code notes are horse girls and psychopaths."

Four years of going to public school has made you immune to assholes...and excellent at shutting them down.

So you slapped down your color coded notes and took the chair beside him.

"I bet this psychopath's color coded notes can teach you more Spanish in five minutes than an entire semester of whatever blow-off class you're taking."

And again, to your surprise, he almost looked impressed.

"I'm Jeff Winger."

"Y/n L/n."

And just like that, you were in.

You met with the group every day after class to work on the Spanish homework and study for upcoming tests and quizzes

But, to be honest, you guys weren't always great at staying on task.

"Okay, um... yo nací en mil novecientos noventa y dos."

"Hang on, that can't be right. You just said you were born in 1992."

"No, that's right."

"Y/n, that would make you seventeen."

"...Yeah?"

Needless to say, they kinda lost it.

"You're even younger than me! Wait, I'm not the youngest anymore? Ha! Suck it, Y/n!"

"I started school a year early and I have a late birthday! I don't know what the big deal is."

"No big deal, I just didn't know that there was a child in our midst."

"I am not a child."

"Aw, look at them pouting! They're so little and adorable."

Thus began your long journey of trying to prove to your friends that you were not a child.

Your first step? Changing up your look.

And boy did you turn some heads when you walked into the study room in a leather jacket and thick eyeliner

"Okay Wednesday Addams, give us our Y/n back and no one gets hurt."

"Jeff, I'm trying to prove a point."

"Is the point that you lost a bet with the cosmetology class?"

So...yeah. That didn't go as well as you were hoping.

Even so, they stuck by you through all of your erratic, split second decisions that you made without really considering the consequences

Like when you walked into the first day of second semester with bangs you had cut yourself over the break.

Surprisingly, Abed seemed to be the one most enthusiastic about them.

“It’s likely that we’ve just began a new season, so one of the main characters changed up their look to provide a jumping off point and to keep viewers interested.”

Silence followed…

“I like them.”

“Aw, thanks Abed!”

But, obviously, you endured some teasing—mostly from Jeff.

“Okay, remind me not to let Mia Wallace near a pair of scissors ever again.”

“Did you just Google ‘female characters with bangs’ and use the first one on the list?”

"…No.” (Jeff said as he slyly put his phone back in his pocket.)

The group became like a family to you, but sometimes you missed your family

Especially when they called and said that they couldn't make it to Family Day. You had had the sneaking suspicion that they were disappointed that you ended up at Greendale, but this seemed to confirm it.

You did your best not to let on how upset you were by brushing it off when you were asked.

"Y/n, how worried should I be about interacting with your parents on a scale of Helicopter Mom to Cougar?"

"Actually, my parents aren't coming to Family Day."

"Oh no, why not?"

"They were just busy. It's fine, I saw them a couple weeks ago. No big deal."

Family day approached and you were actually feeling pretty okay about the situation. Acting like you didn't care had actually made you not care, which you thought at the time was a good thing.

But as you sat in the quad and watched everyone walk around with their relatives, talking and touring, you realized just how upset you really were.

So you left.

You found yourself hunched over your Spanish textbook in the empty study room reading the same sentence over and over and mindlessly writing unhelpful notes that you'd never actually study.

You weren't sure how long you'd been there before you noticed someone looking over your shoulder.

"That's odd, these Spanish notes are in black and white."

"I wasn't in the mood to color code. Plus Abed stole all my pens to make mini lightsabers."

Jeff sat next to you, taking your textbook and notebook and placing them on the other side of the table.

"Look, I know that I spend a lot of time trying to act like I'm older than I am, but I'm still a kid. Know how I know? Because I miss my mom and dad. I was always a little afraid to leave home, so when I had to come here for school, I had to admit that I felt a little relieved to be only an hour away from where I grew up. I felt safer knowing my parents would only be a short car ride away. But now it just feels like they might as well be on the other side of the country. I know they're disappointed I didn't go to an Ivy League or get to go out of state for college, but I wish they'd just get over it and accept it. I have. Why can't they?"

Jeff never considered himself particularly good at the advice thing. Sure, he could talk until hell froze over and manipulate anyone into doing his bidding, but he could never figure out how to make sad people be less sad. You may have been young, but you weren't naive - he knew that.

He saw you now like a younger sibling rather than a jury member or someone he was trying to con. So he decided to speak accordingly.

"People are stupid. Parents are stupid. Greendale may not be Ivy League, but it's something. You could've blown off college and stayed at home where it's safe, but you didn't. You cared enough to pack your stuff, drive sixty minutes away, rob an entire Office Depot, and enroll in the last classes they had available. You did all that because you care. And if they can't see that, then that's on them. I may not know a whole lot about warm, fuzzy, familial relationships, but I do know this: you have a family here at Greendale. A weird, messed up, occasionally problematic family. So screw Family Day. We're a study group. And I wouldn't trade that for the world."

You hadn't expected to tear up, but you did anyway. You said nothing and hugged Jeff, who reluctantly returned it.

"I'll steal your pens back from Abed."

"Thanks."

The rest of the year progressed smoothly. Sure, you guys had your ups and downs of course, but you always found yourselves back in the group study room after class

But that, you supposed, was what a family did.

Author's Note: Can you tell I'm obsessed with Community??? Ugh this was so fun to write, I genuinely love the headcanon format because it's how my brain just functions, so this was really good for me to write to get out of my head for a bit. It's also funny bc this is how it is with my friend group, all of which are in college except for me, so it was fun to draw from some real life experiences. I hope you guys had a lovely week and I hope this makes you smile! Much love 💗🖤

[tothemeadow]

Kyo con-noncon teacher/student roleplay pls? 👉👈

😜😜😜

‘getting A’s and D’s’ / Rengoku K. x Reader

warnings: NSFW, noncon (roleplaying), handjobs, oral sex, facial

words: 1,769

-

Being a teacher is long, exhausting work. There are lessons to be written, homework to be given, exams to be graded. And while Kyojuro loves his job – he wouldn’t give it up for anything else in the world – there are times when all he wants to do is sit back and relax. It’s this very thought of returning home, returning to you, that keeps him going.

Soon enough, he’s pulling up in the driveway, putting his SUV in park. You should be home by now, probably doing something to pass the time (Kyojuro really hopes you’re cooking because he loves it when you cook). A smile comes to his face as he picks up his satchel and flings the car door open, nearly jumping out of the car and sprinting to the front door in his near fit of desperation.

Now, Kyojuro has never been a quiet man. Granted, he experienced an accident as a kid that left him with partial hear loss, so that doesn’t help, but he usually just wants you to know that he’s home as soon as possible. So yeah, it might be cliché that he yells “honey, I’m home!” as soon as he walks in through the front door, but he doesn’t care. If he’s really lucky, you’ll pop around the corner and run straight into his arms.

However, now is not one of those days. In fact, the house is surprisingly quiet. Usually, he’d hear you clanging away in the kitchen, or music blasting away from the stereo in the living room, but there’s nothing. Complete static silence. It’s unnerving, to say the least. Kyojuro saw your car in the driveway, so you’re clearly home, but where are you?

With a sigh, Kyojuro shucks his loafers off and stalks down the carpeted hallway, his footsteps somewhat muffled between the carpet and his socks. He draws closer to his office, already dreading the amount of papers he has to grade; frankly, he’d choose to have no papers or exams whatsoever, but the school requires at least something. True, his students are among the people he holds most dear, and he hated taking exams and the like when he was in school himself, but it can’t be helped. If he wants to keep his job, he has to play by the rules.

Upon swinging the door to his office open, however, Kyojuro comes to a complete stop, jaw dropping and muscles tensing. There you are, his beloved spouse, sitting in his office chair, legs crossed. What really catches his attention, though, is the school uniform you’re wearing, tartan, tie, all that fun stuff. You absentmindedly chew on a pencil, an almost perplexed look on your attractive features. You drop the pencil as soon as Kyojuro appears, a bright smile blooming on your face.

“Mr. Rengoku!” you chirp. “I was hoping to catch you after class…”

Oh, god. The way you say “Mr. Rengoku” has Kyojuro’s blood boiling, and it’s all in the best way possible.

Clearing his throat, Kyojuro tugs at the knot of his tie, loosening it and giving him ample room to breathe possibly. “Uh, uh…” he stammers, unsure of where he’s supposed to go with this. The button up shirt you wear is just a smidge too tight, clinging to your body and leaving little to the imagination.

“Listen,” you say, slowing drawing yourself to a stand, “about that last test we had… I know I failed it, but I really need to pass this class. You understand, right?” Stepping closer to him, you cock your head, a soft smile spreading across your lips.

A single whiff tells Kyojuro that something spicy sticks to your skin, all too tempting and delicious at once. He stands there dumbly, feet rooted to the spot as you get even closer to him. Your chest just barely brushes against his, your warm breath fanning across his face. Kyojuro’s breath quickens, the blood pumping through his veins heading south, leaving his cock throbbing in his slacks. The look in your eyes is too much, too sultry.

It makes him want to eat you alive.

“Then…” Kyojuro starts, but then he pauses, licks his lips. “Then maybe you should have studied more.”

Your lips twitch at that. “Awww, but Mr. Rengoku, can’t we find some solution? Anything? I really need that passing grade…” Reaching up, you place your hands on his biceps, give them a tight squeeze. “My, my, Mr. Rengoku, I always figured you worked out, but I never knew you were this hard,” you coo, tone innocent.

Like a flipping of the switch, your simple touch is enough to shift Kyojuro into this little “game” you’ve set up. It’s not the first time the two of you have engaged in roleplay, but it’s usually a planned occasion, not something spontaneous. Either way, Kyojuro is drawn to the way your hands run over his chest, lightly yank on his tie. Setting his jaw, he drops his briefcase, hands reaching up and taking hold of your wrists.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he says, voice low, gravelly. He doesn’t miss the way you shiver.

“Am I not allowed to appreciate my teacher?” you shoot back. “Besides… We can make some sort of deal, can’t we?”

Kyojuro scoffs at that. “And what did you have in mind, exactly?”

“Well…” Instead of finishing, you force him closer, spinning him around and pushing him towards his desk. He grunts as the backs of his thighs hit the dark wood, but you keep going; dropping to your knees, you send him a mischievous smile. “I thought that maybe… I do you a favor and you do me one in return?”

No, it shouldn’t be like this. He shouldn’t be so affected by one of his own students. It’s hard to miss the way that his cock strains against the fabric of his slacks, but he’s smarter than this. It’s protocol, for fuck’s sake!

“Come on, sit,” you urge, pushing on his hips until he has no other choice than to plant his ass onto the surface of the desk.

Murmuring your name, Kyojuro grips at the ledge, the tick in his jaw twitching. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” he mutters. “I shouldn’t be doing this. This could cost me my job.”

Pouting up at him, you shake your head. “You only get in trouble if you get caught, sir.”

Oh, fuck. The mere name has Kyojuro’s cock kicking in his pants, a fat bead of precum soaking the front of his boxers. Still, he has to retain control in this situation.

“Don’t be stupid,” he hisses. “I refuse to waste away my life over something like this.”

“Oh, come on,” you tell him. “Just give me a passing grade and we’ll forget all about this, okay? Unless…”

Kyojuro swallows thickly. “Unless what?”

You flash him a knowing smirk. “Unless you like it.” With a giggle, you reach up, gripping onto his belt and pulling it loose.

“Hey,” Kyojuro snaps, hands shooting out and grabbing yours. “What did I just tell you?”

“Don’t be a fun sponge, Mr. Rengoku! Or should I say sir?” Leaning forward, you nuzzle your cheek against the tent in his pants, another giggle slipping through your lips. “Don’t act like you don’t like it. In fact-“ Pulling away, you rip your hands away from his grasp, opting to pop open his button and yank down his zipper. “-you want me to continue. If you didn’t, then you wouldn’t be this hard.”

“No, don’t – ahh,” Kyojuro pants. A grunt slips from his mouth as you pull his cock out, hand stroking the heated flesh.

“Look at you,” you purr, fluttering your eyelashes enticingly. “I’ve barely done a thing and yet you’re so wet.”

“You’re not playing this fair.” Kyojuro groans, then, the sound rumbling in his chest as your hand picks up in a steady rhythm. “Fuck…”

“I’m just helping you, sir. A favor for a favor, hmm?” You hum as your thumb digs into his slit, picking up another drop of precum and smearing it over the head. “And I’ll be completely honest with you, sir… I’ve fantasized about you during class. You’re just so big, and I really wondered what it’d be like to be bent over your desk…”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Kyojuro moans.

“I always knew your cock would be so pretty,” you continue to gush, your hand picking up its movement. “I bet you taste like candy.”

“Stop, stop, don’t- Hnngh, shit!”

Kyojuro groans as your lips wrap around his cock, your tongue darting across his cockhead. His eyes nearly roll towards the back of his skull as you sink down, cheeks hollowing; the head of his cock easily slips down your throat, your nose bumping against his pubic bone. You swallow around him, the moan you release making your throat vibrate. Kyojuro’s blunt nails dig into the surface of his desk, a choked-out noise breaking from the depths of his chest.

This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real-

Kyojuro has to remind himself that this isn’t a real student he’s interacting with, but fuck if the implied danger of it makes his cock harder than what it should be. Arousal and heat swirl around his lower abdomen, squeeze his insides in a merciless hold. The wet heat of your mouth is too much, the lewd sounds emitting from your mouth echoing in the room. Moaning around him, you lift a hand, slipping it into his boxers and cupping his balls.

“God, yes, yes, just like that,” he pants, all caution thrown to the wind. “Fuck, baby, so good-“

His impending orgasm is approaching – and fast. He’s not sure if you can just tell by his desperate noises or the way his balls tighten, but you redouble your efforts, hollowing your cheeks so fucking hard that it almost hurts. He’s gonna cum down your throat, make you swallow each and every goddamned drop like it’s your last fucking meal-

But then you pull away. Your hand wraps around his cock, the schlick, schlick, schlick filling his ears and spurring him on even more. It’s like you know it was coming, for you close your eyes and open your mouth just in time. Kyojuro moans, low and raspy; thick, hot ropes of cum splash over your face, leaving such a sinful image for Kyojuro to burn into his memory. He’s a heavily panting mess as you carefully crack your eyes open, a devilish smile spreading across your features.

“On the desk – now,” Kyojuro grits. “I’m going to fuck you until you can’t walk.”

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

P S Y C H (ch.4)

We’re getting to the good parts my beloveds. Enjoyyy

Previous // Next

“UA is known for its ‘freestyle’ education system.” Aizawa began “That applies to us teachers too. Soft ball throwing, the standing long jump, the 50 meter dash, endurance running, grip strength, side-to-side stepping. Upper body training. This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It’s not rational.

The class stood in shocked silence. [Name] who had read Aizawa’s mind before he began his rant, started sweating anxiously. He had a massively powerful quirk but still lacked confidence in himself. He could not just decide to show off for the class and unlock the full capabilities of his quirk. He was someone motivated by spite and emotions. And it could’ve been his proximity to the successor of OFA but the only emotion he felt in the moment was anxiety. 

[Name] had gone so far off the deep end getting lost in his own thoughts that the sound of Aizawa calling his name made him realize he had zoned out for what felt like a few minutes and hadn’t had enough time to talk himself out of the corner he’d been backed into. “[L.Name]. How far could you throw in middle school?”

“50 meters I think”

“Great. Now try it with your quirk. Do whatever you need to. Just don’t leave the circle. Give it all you’ve got”

‘HA! I could throw 67 meters in middle school. This shitty extra only beat me on the practical exam because he focused on saving the other extras while I took down villains. His achievements don’t matter.’

[Name]’ eyes glowed gold immediately grabbing the attention of a few of his classmates, especially a certain blond and green haired duo. [name] began tossing the ball up in the air and catching it, wondering if he was gonna just levitate the ball from a standing position. It would be an awesome feat to just make it seem like the ball was doing the work. But then he decided he was gonna keep his classmates on their toes. He widened his stance, left foot in front of the right kind of like a baseball player up to bat, took a deep breath and lightly flicked his wrist. 

“It’s important for us to know our limits.” Aizawa said as he turned the device he was holding up for the class to see ‘That’s the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you’ll be”

“Wow this is awesome” “800 METERS???” “He flicked his wrist like he was skipping rocks!!??” 

[Name] took pleasure in his classmates' shock. He could of course feel insulted at the implication he would be weak and useless. But their awe not only stroked his ego but eased his anxiety of constantly being one step behind everyone else. He had huge shoes to fill, being one of God’s chosen. 

“Awesome.. You say? You’re hoping to become heroes after three years??! And you think it’ll be all fun and games?”

A pin dropped.

“Right. The one with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged HOPELESS and will be expelled.”

‘Aizawa uh…’ 

“Where the fuck is that voice coming from” [Name] whispered to himself as he whipped around

“Your fates are in our hands” the homeroom teacher continued with a manic look on his face “Welcome. This is… The Hero Course at U.A High!”

‘I’m a little scared’ [Name] thought ‘But loving the drama’

“The lowest score will be expelled,” a student said “It’s only the first day! I mean even if it weren’t that’s totally unfair!!”

“Natural disasters… Highway pileups, rampaging villains, calamity is always right around the corner. I’d say Japan is full of unfair things. Heroes are the ones who correct all that unfairness. If you were hoping to spend your evenings hanging out at McDonald’s... I'm Sorry to tell you that for the next three years U.A will run you through the ringer”

“I think he reached his word limit for today”

“That’s plus Ultra. Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it”

“Nope I was wrong he’s still going.”

[Name] did not feel motivated by Aizawa’s speech. He knew there was no way with the way his class reacted to his softball pitch that he would be in last place, so he wasn’t exactly worried about being expelled, but instead he was trying to think of a way to avoid doing too much exercise. Fear of failure vs a deep hate of exercise round one was about to begin. THe exercise? Running.

When it was his turn [Name] made his eyes glow as he focused his telekinesis in his feet, making them lighter just as he picked his feet up. Sort of like another girl in his class. People can call him a copycat all they want but he considered learning from others’ failures and successes a necessary skill for all heroes in training. 

He pretty much did the same thing for all the tests, using his kinetic blasts for more force when necessary like the standing long jump. The slide stepping event was in his opinion lame and unnecessary so he actually got a pretty average score for that one. His grip without using his quirk was 60kg but when using his quirk he crushed the device easily.

When it came time to the throwing event [Name] paid close attention to his classmates. He was the one to beat and so, he felt less like some creep and more like… an opponent scouting out the competition. There were three people he decided were dangerous should they develop their quirks more aggressively. The ash blond who (bakugou he reminded his inner monologue) who scored 705.2 using his explosion quirk, the cute brunette with the gravity quirk and the man of the hour, Izuku Midoriya.

When Midoriya first threw the ball he scored a measly 46 meters and froze in shock. Apparently that’s when he realized who exactly their homeroom teacher was. [Name] might’ve done a little… digging but it still isn’t like he knew who “The Erasure Hero: Eraser Head” was. Said underground hero seemed in [Name]’s terms “smart enough” and immediately made a connection between Midoriya and All Might but failed to grasp just how deep the connection grew. Through a little tough love Aizawa had the OFA successor draw out the limits of his quirk without serious injury, shocking everyone, including All Might and Aizawa himself. 

“!!!”

“Oh no please no fighting someone please stop this” [name] sarcastically drawled as Bakugou launched himself at Midoriya.”What the hell? Explain yourself DEKU!”

“Wahh”

‘?’

[Name]’s fun was spoiled as Aizawa quickly restrained Bakugou. “What is this??” “It’s a capture weapon made of carbon fibers and a special alloy wire. Stop using your quirk already.. I’m getting dry eye over here”

“Okay I think I like this teacher” [Name] though aloud

“Shota Aizawa!”

‘A voiceover???’

“He can nullify the quirk of anyone he looks at! But the effect wears off if he blinks” 

“What a waste of time” Aizawa continued “Prepare for the next event.”

When the events were over everyone gathered to see their ranking. [Name] tried to subtly wipe his sweat in order to keep up the air of his achievements being effortless. Unfortunately he was also mouth breathing so sweat or no sweat everyone knew he was at least a little winded.

“Moving along. Time for the results. Our total scores simply reflect your performance in each of the events. Explaining the process would be a waste of time, so all you get are the final rankings”

‘He’s totally gonna be my favorite teacher. If anything bad happens to him I will kill everyone and then myself’[Name] thought to himself a little too honestly

“Also I was lying about expelling someone”

“?????”

“That was a rational deception meant to bring out the best in all of you”

“Well of course it was a lie” Ponytail said confidently “Didn’t take much to figure that out”

Aizawa, who didn’t want to admit that it wasn’t a TOTAL lie, just excused himself and gave Midoriya a pass to the nurse to heal his finger. [Name] unconcerned for the green haired boy went to take a look at his ranking to find out he was once again first among the students who took the general admittance exams and third out of the total class

‘It was totally the sidestep thing wasn’t it’ he thought to himself before trailing after Aizawa to ask him an important question. He noticed All Might and Aizawa talking and stayed a couple steps behind knowing that he could stay out of sight, keep an eye on Aizawa and eavesdrop using his telepathy. Once they were finished [Name] appeared behind Aizawa and gave All might a polite greeting, shocking the two pros

“[L.Name] go home”

“Just a moment sir I had a question for you. The telepath said before looking at All Might. The giant hero didn’t get the memo “Privately”

“Ah! Yes. I must be on my way. Good day Aizawa! [L.Name]-kun”

“What is it?”

“I noticed that some teachers had… favorites”

“And you think you’re mine?”

“No but I think you’ll be my favorite so I was hoping to get a little ahead of the curve. I was wondering if you could teach me some hand to hand that I could incorporate into my quirk”

“Incorporate?”

“I’m telekinetic amongst other things and I can’t just rely on throwing random objects at an opponent, so I want to reinforce my blows with kinetic energy, that way they pack a bigger punch”

“...I’ll let you know [L.Name]. Go home”

“Thank you sir”

“Yeah”

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 3: Mistake - How Sleeping Ghosts Lie

Danny had to get a little creative when it came to creature comforts, considering how hectic his half-life was. But that’s lead to him having some... less than human habits. Though really, when it’s common for your blankets and pillows to get set on fire, blown up, frozen, brought to life, or otherwise destroyed. It only made sense to just say ‘fuck it’ and use your own tail instead.

To say Danny was tired would be an understatement. An uhn-dr-steit-muhnt.

So he’d seriously like to sleep right now. But no. Instead he has class. With Mr. Lancer. The hardest of hard asses on him about the whole ‘pay attention’ thing. Which fine, okay, guys heart was in a superb place; but seriously, he needs sleep waaaaaaay more than Gregorian poetry and the Dadaism art movement he keeps going on tangents about for some reason.

Maybe he found a new interest to fixate on? Oh whatever.

Anyway, Danny needs sleep and he’d like to get it right now thank you very much. And he was exhausted enough to sleep right through Mr. Lancer snapping at him to wake up, kinda a nice bonus right now; bad sign for his health though. Regardless, sleepy time.

Over half the class sigh at the unmistakable sound of one Danny Fenton’s head hitting his desk. Including Mr. Lancer, who puts down the whiteboard marker and glances over his shoulder purely to make sure he was about to snap at the right student; Daniel had a pranking streak a mile long after all and had gotten other students to pretend to be asleep purely to embarrass whatever teacher blamed him without checking only to turn around and see a smug smirk across the boy’s face.

Lancer isn’t surprised in the slightest to see Daniel’s face smushed against the desk, arms positioned over his head awkwardly; boy’s going to get a kink like that, “Daniel, please try to pay attention and wake up”, tossing one of the markers near the floor by him; even the slightest sound or movement out of the unusual always woke him up with a snap. It was almost concerning actually.

Furrowing his brow when all that happens is one of Daniel’s arms flopping off his head and dangling off the edge of the desk. A couple of the teens also furrowing their brows or quirking them, some even snickering. Kwan actually kicks his feet, causing them to sick out sideways towards the window oddly; but still not waking the other teen. Star goes from giggling to actually looking genuinely concerned, sticking up her hand, “uh Mr. Lancer? Maybe we should let him sleep for once”.

Jesse leans back, snorting, “yeah, he’d say that he’s ‘dead to the world’”. Mr. Lancer just sighs in the slacker's direction, Jesse was a more genuine problem child; she just didn’t care at all, unlike Daniel. Though he guesses if Daniel is really that tired he can let this slip for once. This is still going on the test though.

Five minutes go by with the class going on effectively like normal; every one more than a little pleased by the fact that Danny doesn’t snore. Sure the desk was definitely covered in drool, but that was only annoying for the janitor.... or who ever poor freshman who doesn’t know any better and sits there. Everyone made a point to remember where that boy sat and promptly never sat in that desk. Considering the tendencies for questionable stains and the fact that it can to bloody well life before, everyone’s agreed that’s a wise decision. Last year one of the freshmen even got bit by meat, or something, stuck under it.

And combining that with the desk's occupant having a tendency to constantly disappear, most people paid at least some attention to him/the desk. Even if it was only out of curiosity or paranoia. Didn’t help that in classes where the teachers had totally given up any pretence of controlling the boy he had a free pass to just leave without any warning or asking. Which sure, lead to less disruptions and Danny not looking like a stressed-out chihuahua. But it also led to the boy seemingly literally disappearing. One minute he’s there, the next gone; everyone pretty sure no one actually saw him leave. Though someone did catch him crawling out the window once.

Kwan especially had a tendency of keeping a general eye on Danny’s desk in English class, considering he always seemed to be seated directly across from the strange teen. Which yes, had given him the ability to use the excuse ‘Danny’s desk ate it’ in all seriousness and actually be believed. It had also given him the unforgettable experience of being right next to a randomly exploding desk once though. So he thinks things might be evened out.

Regardless, he keeps an eye on that desk... and literally anything Danny laid next to it. Nothing today though, which was hopefully a positive sign.

Or did he bring stuff? Kwan honestly can’t remember. Eh might as well check. He’d rather not have another ‘ecto-pistol in the bag and accidentally pointed at his head but thankfully just blasted apart the ceiling when it accidentally went off’ incident. Waiting till Mr. Lancer looks back to the board yet again to write more shit no one cares about except the nerds, to glance to the side and back forwards.

Yup. No bag. Good. But then he pauses and squints at the whiteboard, because yeah no definitely no bag but was something not right? He thinks something was not right. Ah Zone, this better not be another ‘living desk’ moment. Risking another quick glance, which only makes him even more confused. Because the desk was fine. Danny was... not? He was still asleep that’s for sure, but Kwan’s pretty sure Danny has two legs and two feet, and neither were that thick.

Needless to say Kwan immediately snaps his head back towards Danny, no longer giving half a damn if Mr. Lancer notices or not. Looks down and proceeds to blatantly stare, eyes wide and mouth popping open a little. What.... what the.... what the fuck??? No seriously, what??? Kwan’s eyes move a little, following the motion of the tail? As it does a little lazy swish across the ground and slightly in the air. A bit of it is even curled under Danny’s head like a pillow, man it’s long.

Kwan shakes his head a little and slowly inches his shoe over and gives it -him?- a little poke. Attempting to confirm if this is real. Glancing at the sleeping teens face as Danny shifts slightly and the tail? -seriously, what the ever-loving fuck???- moves slightly out of the way.

Alright. Real it is.

Kwan blinks, just to make extra sure he hasn’t gone insane or started hallucinating out of extreme poetry-induced boredom. Opening his mouth more and blurting out, “Fenton... what the fuck man”.

Mr. Lancer sighs, speaking towards the whiteboard, “language, Mr. Ishiama”, turning to actually face one of the ‘prized’ -more like idolised- football stars, and seeing the teen paying absolutely zero attention; instead he’s staring dumbfounded at Daniel. Which... isn’t promising. Unsurprisingly, like whenever some kind of Daniel-related disturbance happened, the entire class turns to look to the teen at Kwan’s words. Mr. Lancer, of course, does the same, but he likes to think his reasons were more positive.

Lancer drops the marker he was holding to the ground, turning around fully to face the class with raised eyebrows, “Lord Of The Flies!”. It doesn’t take anything more than that to get the rest of the class going. Some even getting up or falling out of their chairs.

“Holy Shit Fenton”.

“Uh, should we wake him?”.

“Okay seriously, that can’t be normal? Right? RIGHT?”.

“His does have that weird ecto-contamination though?”.

“Oh my... it’s actually kinda... cute?”.

“Ecto-contamination my ass, he doesn’t have legs”.

“Hahaha hahah ha he looks like a Naga”.

“Shut up nerd”.

“I wonder if he even knows?”.

“I mean, this has to be a ghostly ecto thing?”.

“How the shit wouldn’t he?”.

“How do you think, moron. Maybe this just happens when he sleeps?”.

“I bet his freak parents are to blame. Probably some experiment gone wrong”.

“HA. That would track”.

“Maybe a ghost pranked him and stole his legs?”.

“That’s stupid”.

“Wonder of he could, like, hold stuff with it”.

“I’ll show you stupid”.

At that point Lancer has to step forward to stop the minor brawl that’s starting, “enough, Wuthering Heights, no fighting in class”, pushing Lily and Emily apart; who scowl at each other. Looking to Daniel, at this point basically everyone is standing up and around Daniel’s desk; unabashedly staring at or poking the occasionally swishing wiggling tail. Some was curled around his waist, some of it on the floor, some underneath his head, and the tip was just flicking in the air. There’s honestly no point in even trying to get class back on track. Reaching out to grab and shake the teen's shoulder, hopefully he’s not passed out enough to ignore that.

Half the class either gapes, jumps back, or laughs when, on the fourth slightly aggressive shake, Danny one arm judo flips or something Mr. Lancer over him and into the wall. The tail completely uncurling and waving lazily on the floor.

“HOLY SHIT!”.

“Damn Danny. Okay then”.

“Well, that just happened”.

“Oh man. Hahahaha. That was awesome”.

“Fenton? How the?”.

Mr. Lancer rights himself with little effort, slightly used to this after years in ‘the most haunted city in the world’. That, and Daniel’s chucked him across a room once before to get him out of the way of some debris. Daniel however, jerks to be sitting upright, the tail? lashes violently into one of the desk legs sending the entire desk flipping onto its side; with Daniel included.

Danny rubs the side of his head while yawning and pushing himself up with one arm, “what the Zone guys?”, and then looks around at all the teens just... staring at him. “Uhhhhh. I didn’t, like, blow something up again, did I?”.

Kwan blinks at him, “Fenton man, how can you not know why we’re all looking at you like you just walked off the set for the fucking Exorcist”.

Star seemingly takes a bit of pity on their strangest classmate, “Danny hon, your tail’s showing”, sounding weirdly unfazed by all this. But the entire class facepalms when the boy blushes and moves to cover his crotch of all things.

Though Mr. Lancer can understand the boy’s reasoning, considering he lost his pants so often as a freshman that Lancer literally bought Daniel a belt and kept a spare for him on hand at all times.

But Danny moving to do that gets him to finally, finally, notice shit is supremely not normal. He screws up his eyebrows, actually mutters, “well that don’t seem right, considering the circumstances”, and looks down.

No one says anything for a bit while Danny blinks down at the tail, everyone watching it swish around lazily. Danny looks back up to everyone, and only has this to say for himself, “uhhhhhh”.

Kwan flops back down into his desk and laughs, “man, is that seriously all you’re gonna give us? You sprouted a ghost tail in the middle of class!”.

“Yeah!”.

“You don’t even seem surprised. Figures”.

“So... your parents fucked you up.... again”.

“Language”.

“Oh come on! This has to be a prank”.

“You’ve got to say more than that”.

“You know what? Fuck this shit. I don’t even want to know”.

“Pussy”.

“Fuck off”.

“Language, Todd”.

“Can you even walk right now?”.

“How? No really. How?”.

“Of course can’t walk, he doesn’t have legs. You need those to walk, moron. It’s a basic requirement actually”.

Lancer sighs, pushing a few students away from Daniel before looking to the teen, “are you alright, Daniel? Do you... need to go to the nurse for... this”, and gestures at the tail; attempting not to seemed freaked out.

Danny immediately shakes his head and waves his hands back and forth; easily sitting up on the tail like this is nothing new, “no! No! I’m fine! All good!”.

Mr. Lancer just sighs as nearly the entire class shouts, “BULLSHIT!”, and do some variation of staring or pointing at the boy’s tail. Which, while being reasonable reactions, isn’t allowed on school grounds.

Danny laughs awkwardly, glancing back at the tail and back up, “heh”, the tail coiling up under and behind him some. That just encourages more questions though.

“Oh! So you can actually control it”.

“How’s it attached to your nerves and stuff though?”.

“Oh Zone, another nerd alert?”.

“It’s reasonable! This is illogical!”.

“Objection!”.

“What?”.

“Nothing. I just really wanted to say that”.

“Why’d you even form it?”.

“Oh! Oh! If you can do this then can we?!?! Is this just an contamination thing?”.

“Okay point. What’s the use of this thing and especially while sleeping?”.

“Oh mi god yas girl! I would look so cute with a ghost tail!”.

“Oh I know girl!”.

“Right!”.

“Oh someone gag me”.

“Sure”.

“Someone other than you”.

“What’s it feel like?”.

Daniel mutters to the side, “whelp. I fucked up. Nice going Fenton”. But Mr. Lancer’s pretty sure he’s the only one that even heard that as the students pretty well start bickering with each other or asking Daniel questions without actually paying him any mind or just staring at the tail. Which is frankly, rude. But it does give Lancer a chance to ask, in a much quieter tone, “are you sure you’re alright?”. Daniel nods at him immediately and gives a small, confident though shaky, smile. Lancer nods right back before standing up, if he didn’t have to question Daniel’s oddness then it was honestly better not to question it at all.

Mr. Lancer stands up and looks around at the other teens, “alright everyone, now I know there’s no point in picking back up where we left off, but everyone at the very least sit back down for the last few minutes”, sighing to himself when only the ‘good’ students do as asked, “if you give him some space he might, might, actually answer something”; that gets everyone sitting down real quick.

Mr. Lancer walks back to his own desk and practically collapses into his chair, watching Daniel very awkwardly right his desk and pull himself up back into his seat. Lancer wants to know why he hasn’t changed back to, you know, legs. Or if he even can. He should probably call the Fenton’s honestly. But, Catcher In The Rye, he so doesn’t want to. Really doesn’t want to. But if he can’t have legs, then he was going to have to. But if he asks then everyone will bombard the boy again. They were staring at him enough as it was and that... tail wasn’t exactly hiding his discomfort. Considering how it was all coiled up over itself in the boy’s seat.

Danny looks around, leans back, and then slams his head into his desk, grumbling, “y’all aren’t gonna leave me alone unless I explain this, are you?”.

“Are you kidding Fenton? No”.

“Hahaha, obviously”.

“Oh come on, why wouldn’t you want to brag about this?“.

“Maybe because this is freaky and he’s a freak?”.

“Rechenbache, that’s enough”.

Danny sighs into the desk top before sitting back up right and letting the tail uncoil. Grumbling, “ugh. Why couldn’t I just have stayed in bed?”, shaking his head and looking at the class, “okay this-”, sticking his hand out a bit, the class watching the tip of the tail move to lay in his open palm, “-is normal for me”, shrugging awkwardly, “kinda common thing while asleep”, grumbling almost aggressively, “which I’m now realising was a major mistake to get into the habit of”.

Star blinks at him before giggling, “so you just sleep with a ghost tail? Why? Is kinda cute though”, a couple less stuck up girls nod and glance at each other; nodding more. That just makes Danny blush and mutter incoherently.

Larry sticks his arms out to the side, “that still doesn’t answer the ‘how’?”.

“Yeah!”.

“Is that all you know how to say?”.

“Heck that doesn’t even answer the why!”.

“Uh, yeah? Yeah it does. Fenton was asleep”.

“That’s not what I mean, dumbass”.

“Language”.

“I second the ‘why’. Why sleep with that?”.

“And honestly dude? You constantly sleep in class. How did you not think this was gonna happen if it’s so routine”.

Danny scowls and rolls his eyes, “oh can it”, sighing, “and ‘cause it’s comfy alright? Geez. My sleeping routines are none of y’alls business”.

Kwan sticks up a finger, “uh, actually you kinda make it our business by sleeping in class”.

“Fuck off”.

“Daniel”.

Danny rolls his eyes at Mr. Lancer before addressing the class again, “and it’s just ‘cause of my ecto. You know my shit’s weird, stop being surprised when it proves it’s weird”.

Kwan sputters at that, “man, full-on ghost body parts and disappearing legs is beyond weird”.

Danny shrugs, not even attempting to deny that fact, “portable pillow and blankets that can’t be blown up. Plus, it helps me shed excess ecto. Y’all just shed your smaller amounts through your skin, lame”.

“Huh, that actually makes sense”.

“Still weird you even do that man”.

“Wow. Being ecto-absorbent seems like a real pain”.

“So breathing, but for ecto”. That one earns a couple laughs, including from Danny.

“Guess living in the ecto house that would make sense”.

“Honestly man? I would say you should just wear those hideous anti-ecto jumpsuits”, practically everyone cringes, “but, y’ know, hideous”.

“Capital ‘H’ Hideous”.

“Zone! I’d rather a freaking tail over those suits too”.

“Are we all still ignoring that this shouldn’t be possible and is still illogical?”.

“Shut up, Larry. Nobody loves you”.

“Thing looks long enough you really could, like, pull it up and use it as a pillow”.

“That’s literally what Fenton-dude was doing”.

“Shut up, I wasn’t the one staring at him while he sleeps”.

Brittney perks up, “do you sleep like a cat? You know, all curled up?”, tilting her head, “it was all curled under you just a bit ago”. That earns more blushing from Danny, making quite a few girls giggle and effectively confirming that yes, yes he did. Danny just mutters, “it’s comfy”, again. Which only results in even more giggles.

Danny looks up at the sound of the bell, flops his tail to the ground, and the entire class just watch in awe as the tail solidifies and splits into regular ol’ jean-covered legs and red/white sneakers. Half the class muttering ‘woah’, while he just gets up and very obviously makes a beeline for the door. Lancer’s just glad he can walk. Danny pointing at the class without actually looking at anyone or slowing down, “maybe don’t go telling everyone about this yeah?”.

Needless to say, everyone told everyone. Though Mr. Lancer told the other teachers that the strange new rumour surrounding Daniel was yet another practical joke. Which, with Daniel, was absolutely believable. And one thing no one does, is tell the Fenton’s. Which is all Danny had honestly hoped for.

End.

[rohad93]

Moonlit Masquerade: ch 5

It started on Monday morning.

Amity got to school early so she could have some peace and quiet away from her siblings and classmates to study for an upcoming test in her abominations class. The twins had been especially chaotic all weekend while their parents had been out of town for business, blasting music and just being a general nuisance, though not directly to her. 

Of which they informed their children with a simple note on the counter when they had discovered when they had come home from school on Friday afternoon. No goodbyes or anything.

Nothing unusual about that though. 

At least Edric and Emira hadn’t bothered her much, while their parents were away the twins took the opportunity to play; which suited her fine. 

She’d spent most of Friday evening trying to decipher Luz’s sudden… touchiness. Not that she was complaining. She didn’t think it was a human thing, Luz had always been physical with her affections but Friday just seemed extra.

Or she was just seeing what she wanted to see. The thought caused her to frown. Every time Luz got close she sent her into a spiral. All she could think about was how kind and amazing she was and how much she wanted to be near her, which caused the inevitable panic as so many emotions flooded her at once. Ones she wasn’t well equipped to manage, apparently. 

This was ridiculous, she could be completely calm and the second Luz’s stupidly cute face and smile popped into view, it felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest as it slammed against her ribcage. 

Somehow, someway, she needed to get a handle on this, Luz probably already thought she was a spaz after she had fled from her Friday and tossed her entire lunch tray across the cafeteria, splattering a few students when Luz just set a hand on her shoulder. 

She sighed and shook her head. The fact that no one, much less Luz, had caught on to her strange behavior was the one silver lining here she supposed.

The idea of trying to tell Luz how she felt made her feel like she had swamp-flu; nauseous, clammy, and fevered. Her fear of being rejected by the object of her affections was still alive and well, a shadow on her heart. 

Trying to ask her to grom had been a disaster in and of itself. 

Though it did have the unintended perk of getting Luz to dance with her anyway, even if it wasn’t exactly the circumstances Amity had hoped for. She’d never admit it, but when she had crafted her gromposal she had envisioned something a little more… romantic. Her cheeks flushed pink at the thought. 

Partly embarrassment and part disappointment for having allowed herself to believe for one minute that such a thing had been possible.

Yes, Luz had technically gone to grom with her, she loved every moment of their dance and taking down Grometheus together, and she would always hold that memory fondly in her heart, even if it was tainted with the bitter disappointment she felt at the words Luz had said after saying she would go to grom with her.

‘That’s what friends do.’ 

Something in her twinged at the memory just as it had when those words had passed Luz’s lips.

Luz had taken pity on her and her cowardice at not being able to just hand that little slip of paper over to the one person she wanted to see it more than anything.

She shut her eyes tightly, clutching her books to her chest at the ache there. With another sigh, she pushed the thoughts aside as she walked down the hall to her locker.  

There were no students around at this time of morning and the halls were quiet as she walked up to it, already beginning to open her bag as she stopped in front of the locker. 

Before she could reach out to tickle the creature into opening its mouth, it opened, promptly spitting something out at her.

She shrieked, holding up her hands to ward off the projectile.

Whatever it was bounced off her harmlessly and fell to the floor. 

Blinking, Amity lowered her arms to look at the bouquet of Blood-Blossoms at her feet. 

“Huh?” she said aloud to the empty hallway before reaching down to pick them up. 

The large, bell-shaped flowers with bright yellow centers and petals the color of, well, blood, were beautiful. 

Why had someone put these in her locker? Blood-Blossoms were expensive and traditionally only given with romantic intentions.

She turned the bouquet around in her hands before noticing a small slip of paper tucked between the stems. She pulled it free and unfolded it. Her face heating up as she read the words written in a gentle sloping hand.

‘Amity, 

These flowers could never be as beautiful as you, but I hope you like them anyway,

Your Secret Admirer.’ 

A little heart dotted the ‘i’ in her name.

Her flush spread to the tips of her ears in a wash of crimson

She folded the paper and looked back at the flowers, reaching out a careful hand to run her fingers over them.

The petals were soft and smooth under her finger tips as she examined them. She took a tentative sniff. A deep, sweet, floral scent filled her senses.

She couldn’t help the soft smile that had worked its way onto her face as she gazed at them.

At the far end of the hall, a pair of dark brown eyes peeked around the corner, out from under a hood.

Luz grinned stupidly to herself before quickly dashing down an adjacent hall, feeling giddy and cheeks pink at the thought of the look on Amity’s face as she examined the flowers fondly. 

That was more than worth having to get to school at an ungodly hour to ensure she made it before Amity, who was notorious for arriving even before their teachers at times. 

Also the snails she would need to pay Eda back by making potion deliveries all of Saturday, as well as her mentor’s subsequent teasing when she had told her what she needed the money for. Despite that she had handed it over readily. 

Her heart fluttered in her chest.

So totally worth it!

That night Amity put the flowers in a vase on her desk, admiring their beauty as she worked on her homework, the note was slipped into one of her desk drawers. 

Even if she was completely enamored with Luz, it was still flattering that someone went through the trouble for her and they were beautiful.

“Hey, Mittens.” Amity tensed up, whipping around to see her sister leaning against the door frame, but not her brother.

“What?” Amity asked, exasperated already.

“Good evening to you too,” Emira chuckled as she walked into the room and immediately noticed the new addition to her sister’s desk. 

“Oh, those are pretty, someone gave you Blood-Blossoms?” Emira turned to look at her with a cocked brow. “Who's that brave?” she asked teasingly.

Amity rolled her eyes but relented, one twin wasn’t usually too bad, it was when her brother and sister were together and feeding off each other that they could become unbearable. 

Also, they were twins, but there was a certain bond she and Emira shared being sisters, there were things she could, on a rare occasion,share with her sister that she just couldn't share with Ed.

“I don’t know.” she shrugged. “They were in my locker this morning, from a secret admirer.” She watched Emira reach out and touch the petals with gentle fingers, admiring their beauty. 

“Oh, mysterious, wonder who has the hots for you…” Emira grinned as Amity’s cheeks reddened. Her little sister always was so easy to fluster. 

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter,” she grunted, turning back to the papers sitting in front of her. 

“Aw, you're no fun, why not?” Emira pressed, poking her sister in the arm. Amity violently swatted at the offending appendage with a growl, making Em grin.

“I don’t have time for that sort of thing and I’m not interested in anyone like that,” she huffed and Emira chuckled, making Amity look up at her with narrowed eyes.

“Come on, Mittens; we both know that’s not true.” She smiled knowingly and Amity felt herself seize up at the words. She had to be bluffing, there was no way Emira knew.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She frowned and Emira rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, cocking a hip as she stared down at her little sister with a knowing look.

“Hey, it’s okay, I get it; those dark brown eyes and round ears are pretty cute.” She grinned as Amity burned red at her words. 

With a twirl of her finger, a pink spell circle appeared and her door slammed closed as she jumped up.

“Does Ed know too, who are you going to tell, what are you planning?!” she all but snarled and the amused smile on her sister’s face fell away. 

A wave of guilt washed over the older girl that Amity’s first reaction to her revealing that she knew about her crush on Luz was panic and fear did not make her feel great, not that she could blame Amity.  

She and Edric had been a little much there for a while. They both agreed that the diary incident and the danger Amity had faced afterward because of them had been over the line and they needed to do better.

They loved to give their straight-laced little sister a hard time, but they did love her and never meant to really hurt her, physical or otherwise. 

“Hey, hey, relax, Amity.” Emira held up her hands and Amity paused at the use of her name. “Ed doesn’t know.” she rolled her eyes. Her brother could be a dork at the best of times and occasionally as oblivious as Luz. “I’m not going to tell anyone,” she promised. Amity slowly relaxed, all her tight muscles going slack.

“You’re really not going to tell anyone, not even Ed?” she asked with suspicion still lingering. 

“Nope, keep it just between sisters.” she smiled, walking over to the door. “You could do much worse, Luz is pretty fun, not to mention cute.” She winked at her sister over her shoulder before leaving just as quickly as she had come. 

Amity huffed to herself before turning back to her desk and trying to focus on her work. 

Now all she could think about were warm brown eyes and that bright smile.

~ ~

Tuesday Amity had class with Luz, and she both adored and hated it in equal measure.

Well, maybe 80/20 with adored eeking out the win by a hair

On the one hand, working with Luz and her antics was fun, doing silly impressions of their abominations professor, passing her notes with cute doodles and making wonky abominations from her messed up abomination slurry never failed to make her giggle like a schoolgirl…

Which she supposed, she technically was. 

On the other hand Luz distracted her. A lot.

When she was around it was a task to get anything done with her smiling at her like that, or nudging her with her elbow to show her something every few minutes. 

She sighed as she walked into class, surprised to see Luz already at their normally shared table.

She was flipping through the book Amity had given her last week with rapt interest and jotting notes into one of her notebooks.

She smiled, glad that Luz was actually using it, she had been nervous that she had only accepted it to be polite, but she had her face buried in the yellowed pages, eyes scanning the words with rapt attention that was rare for her.

She didn't even notice Amity walk up to the table or set her books down before sliding into the seat beside her.

“Hey, Luz,” she called, making the human jump, head whipping to face her in surprise.

“Oh! Amity, hey!” She rested a cheek on her fist and forced a grin, hoping the witch couldn’t tell how nervous she was. 

‘Remember what Willow said, be patient, play it cool…’

“Are you ready for the test?” Amity asked as casually as she was able while she arranged her notes on the table.  

“Test?” Luz blinked. 

Amity turned to her and could see the confusion slowly morphing to panic on her crush’s face. 

“Oh, crud, I forgot about the test!” she hissed. Slapping her hands against the sides of her face and squishing her cheeks in a panic. Luz’s panic shouldn’t have been funny but her face, smooshed between her hands, was too cute for Amity to resist the quiet chuckle that escaped under her breath, Luz caught it though.

“It’s not funny, I completely forgot to study this weekend, I’m gonna fail…,” she groaned, dropping her face onto the book's open pages with a thump. 

“No, you’re right, I’m sorry. What were you doing all weekend?” she asked.

“ Um…,” Luz hummed from her face down position as she thought about how she, Gus and Willow had spent most of Friday night and Saturday brainstorming things she could do or give to Amity to win her over and Sunday she’d had to help Eda collect potion ingredients in the woods. “Errands with Eda…” she settled on, looking up at the gold eyes peering down on her, which was partially true.

“I guess it couldn’t be helped then,” she sighed, sliding her notes to the middle of the table between them. “We still have some time before class starts, we can cram,” she offered, looking back at Luz, who was smiling at her in a way that made her stomach do a somersault. She forced away the heat that she could feel crawling up her face.

“Thanks, Amity.” 

The witch nodded jerkily, staring down at her notes and suddenly feeling bold, scooted her chair closer to Luz. Just so they could both better study her notes of course.

‘Play it cool… play it cool!’ Luz chanted in her head as she tried to focus on Amity’s class notes. 

Amity seemed totally unperturbed, but diving into class work, she was in her element and totally oblivious to Luz’s internal struggle.  

This was going to be harder than Luz thought.

[yamithediaperdork]

Harry potter and the set of trigger words part 1 (..harry potter...duh.)

A odd fact not known to many, as it turned out your normal run of the mill wizard was actually quite easier to put under trance and implant key words even with only a basic knowledge of hypnotism.  This would be a fact Harry discovered to his delight having gotten interested in it over the course of a summer and trying it out for fun on the train ride to Hogwarts. Of course with him using it on his friend the triggers were just harmless ones, like every time Ron would hear a five sharp knocks on a door he'd bark like a dog, Or Hermione becoming a stereotype ditz if she was offered bubble gum till the flavor ran out. He also quickly removed said trigger once they got to the school and erased the memory of the act of them ever being in place. However, encouraged by the success of his little experiment, Harry would slowly work his way up with more and more amusing/twisted triggers on students he wasn't all that fond of till he came up with the perfect set for one blond haired prat: Draco Malfoy. Getting the blond twat monkey alone to work his mojo hadn't of been easy, but once it was done and Harry had removed the memory of the triggers even being place, it was time to sit back and have some fun.  Still Harry tried to at least be semi fair about it, and promised himself to only use his new found powers if Draco was being a true and utter pain in the backside. which, again, this was Draco we were talking about, only took all of a day from the planting.

"ugh, did somebody cut the cheese?" Draco asked, walking into the dinning area and moving pass Harry, Ron and Hermione. He paused and then leaned down, taking a over the top sniff of Ron and then held his nose. "oh guess not, it's just a weasley!" He said and laughed, prompting his two loyal thugs to laugh with him even if the dim look on their faces meant they didn't get the joke. "really? reduced to making fart jokes Draco?" Hermione asked and rolled her eyes, moving in a bit closer to Ron and then wrinkling her own nose. the red head had skipped a shower after practice that day and well, did smell a bit ripe. "Ha! See? even you think he stinks!" Draco crowed and hooted with laughter. "You know Draco, it's not nice to tease others. Ron will smell fine once he gets a shower in but YOU'LL always just be a 'dirty boy'" Harry said, sipping some pumpkin juice and smirking. "Really? thats the best..you..got..?" Draco scoffed back but suddenly he felt weird and found himself starting to pop a squat. "ah..what are you doing?" Crab asked. Draco went to answer with his mouth, but a blast of ass gas from his rear handled the reply for him and then as his thugs looked on in disbelief and Hermione and Ron and Harry looked on with amusement, the back of Draco's jeans started to puff out as a horrid stench filled the area. "Is he crapping himself?" Ron asked, laughing and pinching his nose shut. "N-No! I'm not a stinky baby pants pooper!" Draco whined and then even as he was clearly fighting himself, he popped his thumb into his mouth and started to suckle on it as he kept destroying the seat of his pants. "I guess Draco's jealous of Ron's stink and wants to top it~ 'Isn't that right baby Draco?'" Harry asked. Hermione was moving back to the other side of the table where the air was a little fresher but had to turn and watch in amusement as now only did the teary eyed blond nod his head up and down, helpless to refuse the command but he also lisped around his thumb making drool run down. "Yesh 'arry. Ous wight." Draco whimpered and as he finished with the back of his pants, he closed his eyes and relaxed his bladder soaking the front. "Gah watch it!" Ron cried up, jumping up on the table before the smelly puddle the blond was making could reach him. Crab and Goyle had like wise stepped back away from Draco in part to avoid the puddle and the smell and to avoid being seen as besties with the pants pooping dork. Harry had been about to unleash his next command but instead decided to call off the torment for the moment as a certain raven haired potions master was storming towards Draco and did NOT look pleased. "Head's up stinky boy, your uncles coming." Harry advised and leaned back, casually munching on a slice of pie. 'dinner and a show..never a dull moment at Hogwarts.' he thought. Sadly it wasn't much of a show as Snape just wordlessly took Draco by the ear and led him off, taking the time to turn around and use a spell to clean up the mess the blond had left behind. "heh, I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation." Ron mused. "Which the smell coming off of him flies wouldn't look out of place either." Hermione giggled, and that set them all off laughing.

it wasn't till they were in the relative quiet of the dorm room (a glare from Snape had sent the few slytherin's who had been sitting in the common room scampering off) That Snape finally spoke up to the blushing and ashamed Draco. "I thought you were done with this childish behavior after we had that talk during the summer young man." Snape said. "I..I wasn't doing it on purpose! Someone muse of cursed me or something!" Draco whined pathetically. this couldn't of been worse for the blond, his body just betraying him like that after that summer while Uncle Snape had been visiting he'd caught Draco purposely soiling himself and bouncing in it! "Considering you've been with your friends all day and no one took out a wand in the dinning room, I think that's highly unlikely." Snape said dryly. "Do you remember what I told you before?" Draco started to full on bawl and rub at his eyes, which combined with his soiled garments made him look like a over sized toddler. "T-That if you caught me messing m-myself like a little boy again y-you'd dress me to fit the role.." Draco sobbed. "Please! I'm telling you, it wasn't on purpose! give me anther chance!!" "It's against my better judgement to do so..but I also don't wanna be the uncle of the only nappy lad waddling around the school. there will be NO more chances though young man, do I make myself clear?" Snape asked. If Draco hadn't of already let all of his wee out in the dinning room, he would of soaked his pants here at the tone of his uncles voice and hiccuped and nodded. "Oh for heavens sake.." Snape sighed and waved his wand, a oversized green soother popping into Draco's mouth and the poor lad found himself forced to suckle on it. he couldn't even seem to tug it out of his mouth and whimpered and pointed at it, looking at his Uncle. "It'll come out once you get cleaned up. and after you're clean, strait to bed. no supper for pants pooper's." Snape said and then walked over, leaving the confused and ashamed boy the less then pleasant task of cleaning up. 'I just know Potters behind this somehow..' Draco thought and due to the heavy load in his seat, he was forced to waddle to the bathroom to clean up. the only saving grace of everything was that Draco was so tiny downstairs his uncle had never been able to notice that despite how ashamed and humiliated he was, Draco was rock hard.

word of Draco's accident spread like wild fire though the school and even though the teachers tried to encourage a forgive and forget policy Draco had simply made too many enemies in the school and was forced to endure multiple taunts, and worse, well meaning teachers calling him up to their desks several times a class and asking if he needed to use the rest room. the consent teasing had a effect of making Draco keep his fat mouth shut for a change and true to his earlier self promise Harry left him alone, though lord knows he longed to test the rumor he'd heard that Snape was prepared to put Draco back in nappies should he have anther accident.

At dinner that evening Harry noticed that Draco was sitting alone, other students had bunched in together as close as possible just to avoid being near him 'in case he went off' again. Feeling a tiny bit of guilt Harry, after clearing it with Ron and Hermione, got up to go and invite the poor git to sit with them. Draco was munching slowly on a piece of bread, resting his head on a fist and staring off with a million mile stare when Harry got his attention. "Hey Draco, I wa-" Harry started but was cut off as Draco yelped and jumped, snapped out of his daze. this got more laughs from the other students and Draco fumed and blushed as he glared at harry. "What do YOU want?" he huffed. "I was wondering if you wanted to come over and sit with me and my friends..you look a little lonely." Harry said, forcing down the urge to make Draco disgrace himself. the blond HAD had a rough day after all. "Do you really think I've sunk THAT low I'll take your pity just like that potter?" Draco huffed and leaned forward. "I don't know how, but I know for a FACT that somehow you were behind what happened yesterday. So thank you, fuck you." and Draco tossed the rest of the bread in his hand at Harry's head. "BYE!" eye twitching Harry clenched a fist and for a second thought of taking a swing at the brat, but again cooler heads prevailed because to be honest, Draco had EVERY right to be pissed with Harry and was on the nose. Still, he couldn't just let that go away totally unpunished and snorted. "Fine whatever. 'Why don't you just sit her and sulk while you suck on your thumb!'" Harry said and turned to leave, knowing even without the laughter that started up that Draco had just started to nurse on his thumb like a pouty toddler. the thumb sucking command would only last for 5 minutes but it was enough to get even more laughter directed Draco's way and a look of disdain from Snape. by the time he was able to free his thumb for his needy mouth Draco would have a extra nick name to go with Potty pants Malfoy: Sucky baby Draco.

with what happened in the dining room proving to Draco for sure that Harry had SOME form of a hold over him, he had planned to go over all the books and scrolls available in the common room to try and figure it out. He was willing to pull a all nighter if that's what it took. However the other slytherin's had other plans. "oi, isn't it past little thumb suckers bed time? it's going on 7:30 after all." Crab asked, blocking his path to the book shelf and smirking. "Bugger off, you know I can keep later hours." Draco said and and went to move around him. "you know.." Pansy said in her smug voice. "I heard that if widdle Draco her makes anther mess in his undies, it's back to nappies for the wholllle year~" Draco gulped and paled a little, noting how Goyle was coming up behind him now and back stepped away for his clearly ex thugs and friends. "I..I mean..G-guys c-come on.." Draco whimpered, realizing just how out classed he was in a physical fight have like a doofus having forgot his wand in his room. "So it IS true!" Pansy said and let out a shrill laugh. "I think you should just get it over with BABY Draco. Snape's coming back any time now and can see you in all your smelly glory again." Crab chuckled. "I..Uh..I don't even have to.." Draco mewed and held up his hands. "oh, you need help  disgracing yourself? All you had to do was ask." Goyle said and unleashed a powerful gut punch that sent spit flying out of Draco's mouth and sank him down to his knees holding his gut, looking up at a sneering Goyle who added. "what are friends for?" the fear had been working his bladder like crazy and Draco had had maybe one too many drinks of milk at dinner because the force of the blow had his poor bladder unleash and for the second in for the second night in a row, he started to flood his pants. "Hahahaha the baby is wetting himself!" Pansy laughed then turned to see Snape standing there. "Professor! you're just in time! Draco wet himself! are you gonna put him in nappies now?" Draco was sniffling and tears welling up in his eyes as he turned to look at his uncle, who strolled over with a look of anger on his face and taking out his wand. "U-Uncle Snape Please I-" Draco started, but then Goyle, Pansy and Crab suddenly turned upside down and were floating in the air, "How utterly stupid do you three believe me to be to think that you could fool me like that?" Snape asked in a quiet voice full of rage. "even if I hadn't of been standing there and seen the last little bit of that, you really think I wouldn't of found the bruise?" he added and started to move his wand up and down shaking the three bullies and making them knock together before dropping them in a heap on the ground. "W-We're sorry!" Yelped Goyle, who was the first to scrabble to his feet. "Won't happen again!" Crab added getting up. "Totally hands off!" Pansy finished and got to her feet. "Oh no, you'll be hands on. If ANYONE else threatens Draco with physical violence, or worse..carries it out, it'll be YOU three I blame and come after. so it's in your best interest to make he stays relatively safe. That said, a little verbal humiliation will do him good, but Hand.Off. Do I make myself clear or do you need anther demonstration?" the three got the point and scrambled off and as Snape went to turn to Draco he got the soaked and smelly boy glomping his waist and whimpering out thanks, getting snot on him. "thank you thank you thank you!" '...I'm getting soft in my old age.' Snape thought dryly and ruffled the boys hair and then lead the way to the bathrooms to get him cleaned up.

[basine]

Red and Purple (Taiyuu OCT Round 2)

@taiyuu-oct Oh boy... was this a fun one to write! CW: Burning, Scars, death of close friend. CW is listed in the story, so please feel free to read until then! After randomly being brought to the training ground by Wolfsboon and Aurora, Mei knew that there was a challenge coming up. She saw Ryujin standing there with her four dragons larger than Mei had ever seen them. In the entrance exam, Mei had fought Lux to obtain a small flag, but Lux was much smaller than they are now. Mei couldn’t help but get excited because this was going to be her first test. Not just a test for the teachers but for the other students as well. It was a one on one fight, with a dragon of one’s choice. Mei saw others go for Seafoam, Lux, and Jade. Jade was probably the most terrifying to Mei. The way that Jade held themselves made Mei always very cautious of them. However, Mei stared down the one dragon that no one seemed to have gone over to yet; Firecracker. Firecracker was known for being a little brash and known for being a little more aggressive. Mei thought that it would be an interesting test of her skill to go against a dragon that seemed to be more on the aggressive side.

Mei pointed to Firecracker and saw a little bit of fire come through their nose. Mei knew this was going to be a tough challenge for her. She had things to prove being new to the academy. She wasn’t the only new student, but she wanted to shine above the rest if she could. There was also the point of trying to prove something to Kirai Nahito, that she wasn’t weak and she could win a battle by herself. She grinned as she went to her starting place across the dirt stained city. While she was waiting for the command to start, Mei did a little bit of stretching, making sure to stay loose. It was one of the things that she learned very quickly here at the hero academy. Stay loose so that after training and or fighting you don’t end up with too sore of a body the next day.

The starting sound was issued and Mei started full sprint towards the dragon. She knew that Firecracker being brash and aggressive would do the same thing. As both of them charged toward each other Mei prepared a yellow card to potentially stun Firecracker so she could get around them. As the two grew closer and closer, Mei felt that presence in her head. Akuma was there with her. She wasn’t alone in this fight even if she was the only student on the battlefield.

As the two were mere yards from each other Mei tossed her yellow card toward Firecracker to blind them for a few seconds. The card struck true and Firecracker reeled back shaking their head. Mei sprinted around the back of Firecracker and grabbed two blue cards. She threw them at Firecrackers feet to try and freeze them in place. Both landed in the spot Mei wanted them to and Mei breathed a sigh of relief.

“Maybe this challenge isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” Mei thought to herself.

Before the next thought could even cross her mind, Firecracker unleashed a breath of flame and immediately melted the ice holding their feet to the ground. Mei taken aback by this new development didn’t see the tail that was whipping around to hit her. It nailed Mei in the side and threw her a bit away. As Mei fell to the floor she tried to regain her breath. That hit really did a number on her, and it was only the first one.

Mei stood up, morale not shaken, and charged at Firecracker once again. This time she had a purple card in hand and was ready to bounce. As she quickly approached Firecracker she threw down the card and leaped. The trampoline-like surface that formed bounced Mei high into the air. Mei pulled two more cards, both yellow, and threw them at Firecracker and she backflipped over the dragon. Both the cards once again struck true and might last a little longer than the previous time, since there were now two cards. Mei in quick succession threw four ice cards at the dragon's feet hoping that the extra cards may be able to withstand the fire blast that was about to come once again. However the dragon flames were much more potent this time and once again melted the ice.

“I do not think that is going to work again, Mei. It seems that Firecrackers breath is way too hot for our ice to be effective.” Akuma warned.

Mei knowing that Akuma was right decided to sprint away from Firecracker trying to get the dragon to follow her. She didn’t have a plan at this point, but hopefully she would think of one. She ducked around the corner as she heard the dragon start to head in her direction. All she needed to do was subdue the dragon, so that it couldn’t cause any more chaos. Mei started to focus on all her possible options with the cards she had remaining. There wasn’t anything she could do with ice because Firecracker could just melt it away. She could attempt to stun and bounce Firecracker away, but that wouldn’t subdue the dragon. Time was running short as the sound of a dragon's breath got closer and closer.

Mei decided to act on instinct this time and flew out from the corner trying to surprise Firecracker with a gold card. She dug her heels in the dirt to drift around the corner allowing the card to have some extra spin on it, maybe catching Firecracker off guard. Mei chucked the card with all of her might at Firecracker and it spun. It was exactly on the trajectory that Mei thought it would be. It would land right behind Firecrackers head and stun him giving Mei enough time to hide. However, Firecracker saw the card coming and smacked it to the floor with his claw.

“Can’t keep using the same tricks on me! I am so much smarter than you give me credit for. You are going to need to try even harder to beat me.” Firecracker mocked.

Mei felt the rage start to boil her blood. She would not be mocked by a dragon about her capabilities as a hero. Mei without thinking let Akuma take over her body and started sprinting full force at Firecracker. Firecracker raised his paw to swat at Mei but her dexterity and speed allowed her to dodge out of the way. Mei zoomed around the dragon trying to confuse it, and maybe get it a little bit off balance. Jumping, doging, and stealthy making her way around the dragon seemed to work until her mind wandered off for just a second. He mind went to the girl that she actually started to like. Her name she couldn’t remember at that moment, but she knew she was real and Mei was trying to impress her. Unfortunately the opposite happened when Mei got flustered and tripped over her own shoes. Mei fell to the ground like a sack of bricks and looked up to see what Firecrackers next move would be. Mei guessed a claw to the chest but it looked like he hadn't spotted her at this point. As Mei went to stand up, she was blindsided by a swinging tail that burned with heat. Mei felt her skin burn a tiny bit as she was flung through the wall of a nearby building. As she was tumbling from the hit, she heard a large explosion happen just to the side of her.

Mei felt her body giving up on her. She felt weak. Her arms were so sore but also stung with pain from the hot scales that Firecracker had from his two fire blasts earlier. Mei felt her back ache and pop as she tried to move. She collapsed in pain, grunting and letting out a very muffled scream. She went to reach for her cards but only felt three left in her hand. She glanced down realizing that the explosion earlier was her cards being scattered across the battlefield. She had three left, one purple and two red.

Mei sighed. This was it. She wouldn’t pass this challenge. She would fail and make a fool of herself in front of everyone. She already probably got docked points for letting her powers slip out of control when she lost her cards. She could have endangered other people if they were around.

“Can I really be a hero? I… I don’t even know how to hold onto my cards when I get hit. What sort of hero loses control of their powers that easily… I-I can’t protect those who I love, I end up killing them…”.

(CW: Burns and Scars and death of close friend) Tears are running down Mei’s cheek as she remembers her best friend. The one that she killed because she didn’t understand how her powers worked or how potent they could be under the right circumstances. Her mind starts to project quick images of the house that her best friend lived in, burning in flames. Mei remembers trying to run into the house and being pulled back by other heroes as she tried to save her best friend. The pain she felt, knowing that it was all because she picked the wrong card. It was a red instead of a purple card causing the floor to catch on fire. Kimiko…

Mei looked down at her hands. If you looked closely through that dark navy skin, you could see the scars from when Mei reached into the flames to try and save her. Ever since that point, Mei couldn’t feel anything with her hands. The cards, her clothes, the bark of trees, even the dirt beneath her, all felt the same. The tears running down her cheeks she could feel, but when she lost Kimiko, it is almost like she lost a part of herself. The only time Mei had ever felt anything was when she held hands with Zuruko Kayaki, her new best friend. Kayaki! That was who she thought about before when she tripped. When they held that card together, for the first time in 3 years, Mei felt something with her hand. She could feel Kiko’s hand in hers. Just at the mere thought of that, gave Mei hope. She had to keep fighting, she couldn’t lose. She had to prove to Kirai that she could win, even when she drew a bad hand. She has to keep fighting to make sure she can feel again. She needs to keep fighting… for Kimiko.

Mei pushed herself off the wall. Her body screamed in pain but Mei kept fighting it. She had to. She walked out of the building bruised and sore but stood there and looked at Firecracker. Mei summoned all the strength and forced herself to sprint as fast as she could away from Firecracker. Her legs ached and were in enormous pain as she ran. At one point her right leg gave out and she stumbled but never stopped moving.

After putting some distance between her and Firecracker, Mei took out her last three cards. One purple, two red. Mei focused her energy on the purple card as she threw it to the ground creating a small 1x1 cube of purple bouncy material. Then she held both of the red cards in her hand. Instead of throwing them she held onto them. She crumpled them allowing the cards to activate, dousing her hands in fire. She plunged them into the purple cube she had infront of her. The flames tickled her upper arm where she could feel the heat blazing. She had one chance to subdue the dragon and she wasn’t going to waste it.

Working with her teachers, she learned that her bounce card doesn’t use momentum to activate it, instead it uses energy. Mei learned about this in primary school that fire is hot because of the chemical reaction that happens. It creates thermal energy. This energy is what Mei would use to power the cube.  As Firecracker drew closer, Mei picked up the cube, hands still burning and threw it. She tossed it like she did when she played left field in softball. She summoned all the energy she had and the cube soared. It hit Firecracker right in the chest. For a moment, Mei thought she had failed, that her untested theory would cost her.

Then, the cube expended all the energy it had contained within it and transferred it over to Firecracker. The dragon looked perplexed when it happened. Firecracker suddenly was thrown thousands and thousands of feet away outside the arena. The threat was gone. Mei had gotten rid of the dragon.

Mei looked down at her clenched fists still burning with red flame. As she stared, she thought about the house again. The house that burned. The friend that she killed. Mei shrugged it off. It was her fault, but it is in the past. Did she love Kimiko yes, but it’s time to move on. What is done, is done. There are more people to save.

“Imagine all the people I can save when I’m really a hero. I can’t save everyone and that is ok.”

Mei held her head as high as she could. Her thoughts drifted from Kimiko to Kayaki. Mei smiled. What she would give to be with her right now, eating rice and enjoying each other's company.

That was the last thing Mei thought of before she passed out.

[ofnoras]

               『 candice patton. twenty-nine. cis woman. she/her. 』 oh heavens, is that NORA BARLOW from FAIR LANE i see roaming around mapleview ? minnie may’s always calling them -CIRCUMSPECT & -OBSTINATE. i happen to think they’re not that bad ! they’re a pretty cool PET STORE OWNER and every time i’ve seen them, they’ve always been +PROTECTIVE & +AMIABLE. i hope i see them around again ! 

hello friends ! my name is elle and i’m super excited to be here !! i’ve been eyeing this rp for a while with bones of an idea and once i saw thia’s connection after my zoom class today, i began to piece the puzzle together ! there’s still more i wish to explore about nora’s backstory and personality, but for right now, this is what i’ve got !

BASICS.

full name: nora june barlow.

birth date: april 10th.

zodiac: taurus.

age: twenty nine.

gender: cis woman.

pronouns: she/her.

sexual/romantic orientation: heterosexual.

current residence: fair lane, mapleview, north carolina.

living conditions: with boyfriend, adrien ryerson.

occupation: owner of pet store, happy tails.

languages spoken: english.

BACKGROUND.

birth place: york, pennsylvania.

education level: college graduate with a bachelors in business administration.

father: franklin barlow.

mother: marian barlow, deceased.

siblings: older brother and younger sister.

birth order: middle child.

children: one on the way !

relationship status: engaged to adrien ryerson.

pets: three year old tortoiseshell cat named lady.

PHYSICAL.

faceclaim: candice patton.

eye color: brown.

hair color: brunette.

glasses/contacts?: wears reading glasses.

dominant hand: left.

height: 5′6″

build: slim.

tattoos: none.

piercings: both ears pierced ( previous belly button ring that closed up ).

allergies: peanuts.

EXTRA.

+ traits: protective, amiable, optimistic ( tries to be, at least ).

- traits: circumspect, obstinate, impatient.

hobbies: knitting, reading, driving aimlessly around town with the radio blasting.

likes: cold weather, animals, pastel colors, making friends.

dislikes: being alone, talking too much about herself, a messy room.

alignment: neutral good.

BIOGRAPHY.

was born on april 10th, 1991 to franklin and marian barlow, their second child and first daughter. grew up in york, pennsylvania until she was eleven and her parents decided to move to mapleview due to being closer to other relatives. though she now lives on fair lane, she used to live on sycamore way up until she moved out. her father was a dentist and her mother a teacher, two paths she never wanted to follow, despite their encouragement. as a family, they were never incredibly close -- her father had quite the temper and three years after moving to mapleview, her mother had an affair. it was the talk of the town and nora, nor her siblings, could escape the gossip. her parents soon divorced and life was never the same after that.

more than anything, nora and her siblings fought. the divorce split them onto sides and their clashing personalities never had peace between them for too long. her brother was too much like her father and her sister never had a nice thing to say. still, when it came to others, nora protected them fiercely and when push came to shove, she always had their back, even if the feeling wasn’t mutual.

as a child, in an environment that made it seem like there was a side to choose, nora chose her father. it was good that she had, as she and her siblings spent their weekdays with him in his two bedroom apartment. the constant bickering and fighting grew worse as they got older, many arguments turning physical or ending up with something broken. nora always tried to be the mediator, but nothing could ever calm anyone down once they’d been riled up. instead, she filled her high school years with clubs and as many friends as she could, keeping herself out of the apartment, always busy.

nora was sixteen when her mother passed away. tragic car accident. the two hadn’t spoken in nearly a year and at first, nora was numb. she was grateful for it, especially when the guilt came next and it never left. her siblings hated how emotionless she was with their mother’s passing, at the funeral, in the days after. it wasn’t that she hadn’t cared, but that everything hit her a week later, once she was alone in her bedroom. there are many reasons nora hates being alone with her thoughts, but her mother’s death was the start of that. it’s also one of the contributors to why she prefers to keep busy.

she distanced herself from her siblings and her father, never quite being as open with them as she once was. nora took a part time job at her dad’s office, working there for a few years until she graduated. with the inheritance from her mother and scholarships, nora was able to leave mapleview for college. she wanted a fresh start and in her mind, she never planned to return to mapleview. nora went to college out west and majored in business administration with the hopes of starting her own business in... whatever made her happy. meanwhile her father’s business closed and he was forced to retire.

after graduating, she planned to follow where business opportunities would take her. all that crumbled when she got a phone call that her father was in the hospital. he’d had a heart attack and nora was terrified that if she lost her dad, the overwhelming guilt she’d felt with her mother would come back. out of her own selfish reasons, she returned to mapleview. her father recovered with surgery, but was never quite the same. his health was declining and doctors were able to determine he had early onset alzheimer's. nora made it her responsibility to come home and take care of her dad, getting a job at the local pet shop while she did. the money she’d been saving up went to a day nurse for her father. he was family, after all.

years passed. when she was twenty four, she met adrien. his charming personality was evident from their first conversation and while it didn’t take much for nora to be smitten with him, she definitely made him work for it. soon after, they started dating, and they’ve been together ever since. with adrien’s job and the both of them being focused on their careers, a future was something far off in the distance. marriage, kids... they’d briefly spoken about it, but left the conversation for down the road. it was never a question that she wanted to be with adrien, but the idea of a family scared her. she wasn’t sure if she’d be a good mom and the unknown was something she didn’t know she could come to terms with. that was, until she got really sick one morning and decided to take a pregnancy test. the positive terrified her at first, knowing they had wanted to wait and that there was no way they were ready... but seeing adrien’s response and thinking about the future definitely got her excited. now her pinterest is full of “nursery ideas” and “first time mom tips”.

it was a year after she met adrien that she became the owner of her own pet store. the place was local, owned by an elderly woman that treated nora like the loving mother she’d always wanted. they both bonded over the years and when she decided she’d be retiring to florida with her husband, she wanted nora to have the business. even as assistant manager, nora couldn’t possibly accept... but then the deed was being put in her name and she jumped at the opportunity. a local place that sells pet supplies and occasionally takes in surrendered pets to care for/find loving homes for.

and that all brings us up to present time ! nora has been pregnant nearly a month at this point, owns and works in her own pet store ( which will have a name soon enough ), and just really loves being back in mapleview. she missed it, she really did. she’s excited for this new path and what the future will bring her for the first time in... well, for the first time ever, really. 

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS.

old family friends/neighbors from when she lived on sycamore way.

cousins/relatives that her family originally moved to town for.

perhaps bad tension with the family of the man her mother had an affair with?

exes/childhood friends that drifted apart/competition rivals in school.

someone who has been best friends with nora since she first moved to mapleview.

moms who nora has been bothering about future mom stuff/pregnancy stuff.

frequent customers of her store/people who had adopted animals that keep nora updated ( please, she always Begs for this when people adopt out ).

i’m honestly down for anything !!

if u read all of that ... phew ... idk why u did but THANK U ! i know it’s long ... i’m sorry ... but if you like this, i’ll message you to plot ! i do have discord so if you’d prefer that, let me know, i just don’t have it up right now so i’ll need to know if you wanna switch to that !

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Dragon Dancer Chapter 5: Blood Rage

The sun was only hours from rising but I hadn’t slept at all. No matter what I did, I couldn’t contact anyone outside the college. 

Nono explained that Johann had taken well to me. He wasn’t normally a talker. She wasn’t sure that we would get along. She was happy we did.

She encouraged me to log into social media and find some more friends that way. After she dropped me off I got into my comfortable pajamas and set up an account. The longest terms and conditions page I’d ever seen appeared as soon as I did. There was also a complete rules page written by a Mr. Manstein of the Disciplinary committee.

Once I got by that, I added a photo. “Hey, I’m new here. Kinda nervous. Please don’t be weird.” I typed into the blurb box under my name.

Within minutes, I had more followers than I could count and had to block my direct messages because they wouldn’t stop. I had so many friend requests I had to block those too.

I went back to my text messages and the string of messages that were marked as not sent. I could feel myself getting upset. I started to suspect this was no accident.

I soon got a text message from Caesar Gattuso. “Nice to see you’ve found our social media page! Don’t worry about the rules too much. I can vouch for any mistakes. So you like ballet? I’d like to invite you to our Dancing Society here at the Student Council. You’ll fit in well there.”

It was tempting but all I could think about was contacting my family. “Why can’t I contact Robbie?”

“The people at the foster home? Well, according to our records, you're sixteen, technically, a minor, and that makes you a ward of the College.”

“WHAT?!” I both typed and yelled out loud.

“It was in the paperwork you signed when you enrolled. You didn’t read it? That’s unfortunate. You’re restricted outside access until your 18th birthday.”

“This sucks!”

“Only until you settle in. Which you will. Don’t worry. In the meantime, why not get to know some of the people online?”

I put the phone away, furious. They couldn’t do this!

The next morning, I rehearsed in the mirror what I was going to say. Robbie and Mom were my family. It didn’t matter that I was here and that they thought I was special. That was my family! My phone buzzed. It was Nono. “I’m downstairs.” She wrote.

“I hope you slept well? Ate breakfast?” She grinned at me with a confidence I did not share.

“Yes.” I said, trying to sound upbeat. “You?”

Nono appraised my effort. “Good attitude. At least better than Ricardo when he first got here.”

“Ricardo?” She started to walk and I followed her.

“Yes, my last recruit was this close to rejecting our offer for a full scholarship before he even set foot on campus. After a night like yesterday, I was worried you’d be the same way.” She gazed down at me with a teasing and mischievous glint in her eye.

“No way! I just want to be able to talk to Robbie and Mom. It’s not right that I can’t say anything to the people who raised me. They’re probably worried sick!”

“Ah… that. Hmm.” She gave a resigned shrug. “Well, we can discuss that after you’ve taken the exam. If you fail, you’ll be sent back to the foster home anyway.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“I…” I stammered, "I don't want to be sent home… I just… Alright." I wondered if that was a threat. “Johann said not to worry about the test."

“Oh, he said that?” Her eyebrows raised. “He does have a good eye.”

“So, I’m okay then?”

“Hm… Well, I’m not sure about you, but he correctly guessed that Ricardo was going to pass. Take that however you want.”

She led me to another brick building that looked more like a church with a clock on its facade and a weather vane on top of a tall steeple. Young people from every walk of life filed into the open double doors.. Nono led me to a man in a brown pinstripe suit and a cane topped with a large jewel. “Mr. Manstein, I’m here to register my recruit for the E3.”

I smiled and waved at him, but he ignored me. He barely acknowledged Nono, pressing an ink stamp onto a small paper card without looking up and handing it to her.

Giving the card to me, she said. “Alright, here you are.” She pointed. “Walk straight down that hallway and give this card to the attendant.”

‘Cassel E3 admission approval’ was written on the card. The same was the school logo. “You’re not coming?” I asked, looking up.

“Oh no, this is something you’ll have to do on your own. I’ll be waiting for you outside.” She turned and walked back out the door.

Unsure of myself, I glanced at the other students. I observed how the attendant, an older lady with dark narrow eyes and a severe expression, curtly cut off any greetings or questions. She directed the students to sit quietly and wait for the exam to begin. I handed her the card and entered without a word.

Desks were arranged in neat rows. There were no seating arrangements so I picked one next to the windows. A girl approached me. She looked my age with long dark hair and eyes. “Hey, I’m Rebecca, do you know what we’re supposed to do?”

I shook my head. “No, sorry. This school is weird okay. I… I knew that going in.”

She gives me a sad nod and takes a seat next to mine.

The attendant walked in and put a piece of blank white paper on everyone’s desk as well as a sharp pencil. Then she walked out. The door clicked locked.

I looked at the paper. It was blank on both sides. “Okay…”

All around me, confusion rippled through the room. I looked over at Rebecca who had also turned her paper over. “No questions?” She looked at me for confirmation.

Sudden loud music blasted from speakers in the ceiling, startling me. In an instant the classroom was in an uproar.

“Hey turn that off? How are we supposed to take a test with this noise?” Someone shouted.

“Are there no questions? Where’s the professor?” asked one of the boys, clearly outraged.

One student tried to open the door. He banged on it. “Hey! What is this?”

My eyes turned to the girl who had approached me before. She was not standing or shouting. Instead, she was hunched over the paper, scribbling furiously. Her eyes didn’t lift from the page. I got up to go look at her work.

It was just swirling lines. She, however, was sweating with concentration.

In the front of the classroom, a boy jumped up from his seat and yelled. “I got it! I got it! I got it!” He too began to take his paper and write, his face wreathed in an ecstatic smile.

That boy banging on the door stopped, grabbed his paper from the desk and started scribbling on it while lying on the floor.

Feeling lost, I called out. “Can someone please tell me what I’m supposed to do?”

No one looked at me. The music blared on. I was the only one not writing. I could feel myself getting upset, the frustration and sorrow rising in my chest. I was going to fail. They were going to send me home. I watched everyone, feeling lost and small and alone.

This moment, these feelings. Something about them took me back to the last time I stood in a classroom just like this one, only I was much smaller. It was time for a roll call. The teacher called a name, but it wasn’t my name. My whole life I was only Jane Doe, the girl with a missing mom.  At home, I was Babydoll, until they could find my real parents.

The school didn’t accept those names and the name I wanted wasn’t acceptable either. The teacher called the name I had no choice to accept. Even though she looked straight at me, I still don’t answer. I could see her getting frustrated, waiting for me to acknowledge it.

Instead, I told her what my name really was. Everyone in the classroom laughed, even the teacher.

That pain of rejection haunted me now. The name that I wanted when I was little was on the tip of my tongue. I but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t remember it.

I went to my desk and sat, staring at the paper. One by one, tears fell, dotting the blank white sheet. I was going to fail. I was going to go back home.

The music ended. The students looked around like they were waking up from a dream. The attendant collected the students drawings and placed them in a black box. She still wasn’t taking questions, shepherding confused students out of the room with firm authority. I was resting my head on my arms, looking out the window.

“You. Out.” The attendant grabbed my paper from under my arms and put it in the box.

I was too despondent to argue.

When Nono saw me coming out of the building with the other students, tears still drying on my cheeks, her confidence turned to worry. “What happened?” She asked softly.

“I couldn’t write anything.” I said miserably. “I’m sorry, Nono.”

For the first time, Nono appeared uncertain. “Nothing at all?” She realized she was speechless and quickly tried to comfort me. “Well, we’ll see what the analysis says when it comes back. The E3 is a tough test. Why don’t you go lay down? You look exhausted.”

She took me back to my apartment. I laid in bed and I didn’t get up for the rest of the day.

By the evening, I desperately wanted to talk to Robbie and Mom. I know Nono wanted to be my friend but I missed them. The memory of my first awful days at school made that longing all the more intense.

At midnight, I bundled up for the cold and checked out the window pane of the dorm’s front door, checking to make sure no one was out there. A light snow dusted the ground but there were no prints. I left my building, heading for Cassell’s front gates, threading my way through the campus buildings as fast as I could.

A scattering of people stood next to buildings and in intersections. They were all in Navy blue uniforms and carrying weapons. “Security?” I wondered aloud.

“Hey! Who goes there?” A young voice growled. Someone had walked around the corner and spotted me!

“Miss Important? Sneaking out already?” The campus cop lifted his hat, revealing Isaac's crimson eyes. Seeing how upset I was, his smile vanished. “What’s wrong?”

“I want to talk to my family! But I can’t do it here! Can you get me on the other side of the gate?” I whispered, desperately hoping he’d say yes.

Much to my relief, he nodded. I didn’t like that it was him, but I didn’t have much of a choice. “Let’s go inside the Library.”

The Library was one of the biggest buildings on campus. The hexagonal building soared seven stories, ending on a flat roof that served as a veranda. Isaac punched in a security code and the door unlocked. The lobby lit up as we entered but kept the bookcases in a dark cavernous space.

"Wait here." He let me sit on one of the cloth couches, before going off, further inside the building. When he returned, it was with a cup of hot tea. “Care to tell me what’s going on?”

“I just want to talk to my family...” Tears rolled down my face. "If I'd known I'd be cut off… I don't think I would have…" Sobs overtook speech. His light touch on my arm stilled them.

“The opportunity to come here is only once, Important... If you refuse or break the rules, that’s it… forever. They can even make you forget everything you saw and everyone you meet here. Are you sure you want that?” He asked me quietly.

I shivered and sniffled, hanging my head, gathering my coat about myself.

He was pleased I didn’t say yes. “I didn’t take you as a quitter. You're just a little overwhelmed. That's normal.”

“Well, I failed my exam so… It doesn’t matter.” I said, my voice hoarse.

“What?” He whispered.

The shock in his voice was gratifying. Like Johann, he must have believed in me. “I said I failed. I failed the E3. I was supposed to draw something but. I just sat at my desk and cried. Okay?” I lowered my head.

“That’s impossible. I don’t believe it.” He shook his head. Then, after a moment’s consideration, he added. “There’s a place where I can test you. It’s technically not allowed but… if you really want to see your family again, I can make that happen if you let me.” As he spoke, he kept his eyes on me, watching my reaction.

“You’d… do that for me?” I asked, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Why?”

“Because you’re Miss Important.” He huffed a laugh, “No questions asked, no strings attached. Watching you grow your abilities will be a reward in itself. You don’t know it yet, but you’re here because you have a very strong dragon bloodline and that comes with special talents beyond dancing.”

“But what if there was a mistake…?”

"If it wasn't true, you wouldn't be here! That's a fact!" He was still trying to convince me so I gave in. Maybe he could get me out of here and I could bail without facing Nono’s disappointment.

“Now, here in this library, in one of the empty conference rooms, there’s something called a Nibelungen gate. You don’t know what that means but, basically, it’s a tear in the fabric of this reality. I’ve been using it as a door to the outside."

"I can see my family?" I asked. My eagerness to get away overruled my desire to ask questions.

He gave a kind laugh. "If you come with me, I can show you. But you have to come with me. The gate won’t take you to where you want to go otherwise.”

He stood and helped me up. "Thank you. This means a lot." I said to him.

He sighed. "If those professors fail you, then they’re idiots.”

I followed him into one of the empty rooms. It was too dark to see but he didn't turn on a light. He reached into his uniform jacket pocket. I watched as he pulled out a small star shaped object and held it up to a painted landscape hanging on the wall. A brilliant purple matrix lit up like a laser and a sudden rumble rattled the room. What appeared to be a dark star erupted into a pulsating fountain.

“The rift will only remain for a short time. We have to go now.” He held out his hand to me and I took it. Together, we walked through.

Blackness descended like a cloth in every direction. The world around me turned dark and cold. I lost sight of Isaac. I couldn’t even see my own hand. When the world returned, the library was replaced by a high curving stone ceiling. The paneled room turned to stone walls and a stone floor. His bodyguard friends were here, but without their uniforms. They dressed in Japanese style clothing. “This is a training area.” Isaac explained. “We can go all-out here. Not worry about destroying anything or hurting anyone with our abilities.”

He let go of my hand and approached the the group. They nodded approvingly while he said something in Japanese I didn’t understand.

“Cassell relies on simulations and tests to train students, but they don’t work for everyone.” He said to me.

“Why are they here?” I asked, eying the other men warily.

“They’re here to help.” Isaac was shrugging off his uniform jacket and undoing the cuffs on his shirt. “You’re a hybrid. There are things you can do that no one else can. You just need help to express it.” He took a glass flask from one of his friends and handed it to me. “...drink this.”

I leaned away. “Again with the mystery cocktails?”

He tried to stifle a laugh but gave in when the other guys chuckled. “I tell you truthfully, you’re easily the most charming woman I’ve ever met.” He sobered. “You want to pass, don’t you? This will bring out of you what you need to see. Once you experience it, there will be no more questions about whether or not you belong here.”

I chewed my lip. “Have you taken it?”

He nodded once. “I wouldn’t ask you to take it, if I hadn’t.”

I took the glass. “And… After this I can go home?”

“Yes. I promise.”

The liquid inside was black and thick. I unscrewed the top. I forced myself to swallow against the bitter taste. It slid down my throat, burning my insides, blurring my vision.

Someone said, “Get ready. This is the first time we’ve been up against an S-Class hybrid. Anything could happen.”

My heart began racing out of control. My lungs strained to keep up. Someone was speaking to me and the voice in my ears was intolerable! I lashed out with my fist and I hit him. I couldn’t stop hitting him.

Strong hands grappled me. I kicked and screamed. Unable to move, I squeezed my eyes shut against a growing pressure in my head.

That was when I saw the vision for the first time: I was surrounded by a vast sea of stars and flying toward me was a beam of light streaming like a comet out of the dark. I reached for it. My eyes snapped open.

The rod of light was in my hand, longer than I was tall and sharpened at both ends. It hissed like an angry serpent. The person holding that hand stumbled back at its fearsome appearance.  I flung it at him, dropping him in an instant. It reappeared in my hand. I turned and plunged it through the body of the man holding my other side. 

I backed away, eyes wild. I was being surrounded. They were going to attack me. A mad energy drove me. I wanted to kill all of them. Panting, I raised the weapon above my head. I spoke the word that I’d wanted to remember, the word I knew when I was young.

I called it by my name.

My doppleganger appeared next to me, a spear in her hand as well, and together, we painted the walls with their blood.

When the frenzy subsided, I stood still in the middle of the room, gasping for air, in shock. It felt like my body was shaking itself apart, I was so fatigued.

I turned to look for Isaac and felt someone push me from behind.  I couldn't breathe anymore through the intense pain. I turned to see one of the men I had injured stumbling away, clutching at a deep wound in his side. He held a long bloody knife.

My shadow clone dove to my rescue, mouth open in an enraged silent scream. Her spear struck my attacker and he leaned over, propped up by the bright shaft through his back.

I wouldn’t remember falling to the floor, but I would remember the spear in my last victim disappearing. The man’s body landed in a twisted heap on the ground next to me, his sightless eyes staring into mine.

Isaac’s voice sounded far away, muffled, like he was talking through a tightly closed window.  He told me not to look as he cradled me to his chest, my blood soaking us both.

His hand pressed against my back and I began to choke, gasping for air. My wound began stitching shut. As it did, I could sense the life draining out of him.  When I pushed away to see what was happening, he held me still with my face in his shirt.

“It’s not your fault. It’s mine.” His voice was hoarse in my ear. He coughed. “We have to get you back.”

My bones felt itchy. My skin burned. When I looked at my hand, a dark rash was appearing on my wrist.

He picked me up, staggering through the puddles of blood to a strange mark on the wall. It was a circle, cut through by geometric shapes and strange writing. He held the blood-smeared medallion up to it with one shaking hand and the rift reopened. When we reappeared in the library conference room, he collapsed, dropping me with him.

I pushed him upright as I tried to stand but he didn't have the strength to get up. His eyes were flickering from red to yellow to red and he was groaning and clutching at his head. “I’m sorry. Run. Get away from here.” He said, his voice sounding in a low growl.

I was dizzy, having trouble forming a coherent thought. I knew I needed to get help. People were hurt. I hurt them.

He grunted in pain, curling in on himself.  His flesh crawled under his clothes. My feet pushed under me and I turned and ran in sheer primordial terror. I had just shut the door to the conference room when I heard him let out a howling scream.  Claws crashed through the wood.

I ran.  I stumbled. I fell. I screamed. A beast with a human face and animal fangs overshot me in its pounce. It skidded around to attack again, leaving gouges in the floor. I recognized that face as Isaac’s, but the eyes were no longer his. They were glowing and empty. A serpent’s tongue flicked from his mouth, veins popped from his bulging muscles as he pawed the ground.

I got to my feet to run again. The creature that had been Isaac leaped, claws extended, fangs bared. I threw out my hands in a desperate attempt to protect myself and that spear of light flashed from them. It shot right through him. His body fell to the floor with a heavy thud. The glowing eyes darkened.

I turned to stagger towards the entrance and someone grabbed hold of me. It was Johann. He unsheathed his sword and held it against my throat,  golden eyes intent. I clung to him in recognition, even as he glared at me. “Johann… help...”

The world tilted. The ground rushed up to meet me. He held onto me, laying down his sword. He then pressed a syringe into my arm, saying. “Hope it's not too late for you.”

Chapter 4

Chapter 6

Back to the Beginning

[rogueariadne]

To Have A Villain’s Quirk

TWO: SAY SOMETHING

Constant talking, yelling, people crowding the halls, bumping into the maroon-haired girl. It was so loud. She just wanted it to be quiet- she quickly shook that thought from her head. She couldn't let her emotions take her over. She just needed to get to class and get the day over with. Kaida took a few deep breaths as she heard the bell ring, weaving her way through the dispersing crowd. It was going to be a long day.

    She could hear the laughter throughout the day, hearing the condescending tones of the people around her.

    "Wow, that class has two quirkless kids. What are the odds?"

    If only they knew.. if only they knew.

    Kaida found her seat relatively quick, behind the boy with the green hair. The one she'd sometimes talk to during projects. He was so nice, and he was quirkless. The one who was always picked on by everyone else. She wasn't as picked on, given she'd glare at anyone who tried to come near her. She rested her cheek on her hand, staring out the window as class progressed, hardly tuning in.

    "Sooo, as third year students, it's time to think about it your futures and what you want to do with your lives. I could pass out your career aptitude test, but why bother? We all know you all want to go into the hero course, right?" Kaida's ears perked at the sudden cheering over the teachers words. It only made her sigh, glancing around the room.

   "Yes, yes. You all got some very impressive quirks, but no power usage allowed in school. Get a hold of yourselves." The cheering slowly died down and the young girl, rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the sky.

    "Hey, teach, don't lump me in with these bunch of losers." Her violet eyes swiveled to the ash blond boy near the front. Bully. She could feel his smirk all the way to where she sat. "I'm the real deal but these guys will be lucking to be a sidekick to some busted D-lister. Ha!" He laughed, making Kaida clench her fist. What an asshole. She could hear everyone getting worked back up.

    "You think you're better than us, Katsuki?" One kid shouted, making Bakugo shot up from his seat, his quirk activating.

    "Let's go! I'll take you all on!"

    "Huh. You've got an impressive test result. Maybe you'll get into UA High." The teacher inputted, and Kaida flinched. Was he really going for the same school? Of course he was. It's the best in the country.

    "He's gonna try for the national school?"

    "That school has a point two percent acceptance rate."

     "It's impossible to get into." Student after student joined in, and it only made the girl feel worse. She could even see the boy in front of her shaking.

    "That's exactly why it's the only place worthy of me!" Why did he feel the need to stand atop his desk? "I aced all the mock tests, I'm the only one at this school who stands a chance of getting in. I'll end up more popular than All Might himself, and I'll be the richest hero of all time! The people all across the world will know who I am and it all starts with UA High!" The hot head seemed to shout at the top of his lungs; Hiyama saw everyone getting annoyed with his dumb monologuing. And Kaida wanted to believe that she at least stood a chance, too.

    "Oh yeah, Midoriya, Hiyama, don't you two want to go to UA as well?"

    Shit.

    The class erupted into laughter as the two classmates jumped in surprise at their names being mentioned, both faces growing red from embarrassment. So, green hair wanted to get in, too. Even though he was quirkless. That was admirable. But she believed the teacher made a mistake mentioning it.

    "Midoriya and Hiyama? You're kidding right?"

    "There is no way you're both getting into the hero course without a quirk!" They called out. Kaida clenched her teeth, refraining from letting her eyes show her true nature. She could hear Midoriya stuttering out his defense.

    "U-uh, actually, they got rid of that rule. We could be the first ones.." He felt the need to include her? Instead of just saying him? She was touched, but she didn't want to be called out any longer. She caught Bakugo leaving his seat and going towards Midoriya, his hand sparking. Lucky for her, she noticed in time and quickly scooted her chair to the side. He slammed his hand down atop the poor boys desk, blasting it to pieces. Midoriya fell to the floor, Kaida flinching as he dropped beside her. She wanted to reach her hand out and help him, but Bakugo had slammed his hand on her desk too, not blowing it up, but it still startled her.

    "AARRGH! Listen up, Deku! And you too, Red! You're even worse than these damn rejects, you quirkless wannabes! You really think they'll let someone like you in when they can have me?!"

    "Huh?! No way, you got it all wrong, really! I'm not trying to compete against you. You gotta believe me! It's just that I wanted to be a hero since I was little. I may not have a quirk but can still try my hardest, can't I?" Midoriya rambled on, Kaida just staring at the two. Should she speak? She never really defended herself or spoke out against anyone, what could she do?

    "You'll never be able to hang with the best of the best, you'll die in the exams, both of you, defenseless Izuku. The schools already crappy. You guys really want to embarrass it more by failing so hard." Bakugo continued to rant on, and really, she had heard enough. Kaida jolted up from her seat, glaring the boy down with violet eyes, feeling them threaten to change.

    "You really are an egotistical, narcissistic asshole, aren't you?" She started, and Bakugo lifted his hand.

    "What did you say, Red?!"

    "You heard me. You won't be laughing when we get in and pass you so easily. Remember, you won't be the only one with an amazing quirk. There will be ones that are way better than you could ever be." She growled out, fists clenched. She found herself standing in front of him, back facing the class. She was actually standing her ground for once.

    "You damn brat! I outta-!" He started to swing his hand, but she wasn't going to let him this time. She caught his wrist, looking down before back up at him, her eyes black with the faint glow of red pupils.

    "Do what?" She asked lowly. The demon tails threatened to pin him against the wall but she wouldn't let it. Katsuki and Midoriya stared at the girl, the room deathly quiet as she released his wrist and moving to help the green eyed boy up, eyes back to their violet hue.

    "You okay?" She asked softly, squeezing his hand as she pulled him up. He gave a slight nod, a thankful but timid smile gracing his expression. She heard Bakugo click his tongue as he returned to his seat, the teacher finally clearing his throat and pulling the unwanted attention off of the two.

                                 *

    After class, having moved seats so Midoriya could have hers, Kaida stretched back in the chair as she listened to the students chatter away. She could faintly hear Midoriya mumbling to himself about the fight this morning. She smiled a little. Maybe it could do her some good to make some friends. That being said, she stood up to make her way over to him, hesitant as she saw Bakugo approach him and take the notebook from the boys hands. Why was she hesitant now? She didn't have a problem standing up to him early.

    "I don't know what you think you're doing, Deku, but we're not done." He started.

    "What you got? His diary?"

    "Uh..." She could see he was physically uncomfortable with the interaction and wanted to intervene but the look on his face seemed to look like he was going to say something back.

    "Huh?! Don't tell me you're taking notes on how to be a hero?!"       "That's so pathetic!"

    "Haha, he's delusional." They laughed and laughed over something so important to him. They were also bullies.. she gritted her teeth but her feet wouldn't move.

    "Uh... Really funny guys. Just give it back." Kaida flinched as the notebook in hand exploded. She could see Bakugo show him the notebook before tossing it out the window beside her, making the young boy freak out. Finally, she moved.

    "Hey! What the hell is your deal?!" She shouted, making her way to them before his two lackys stood in front of her, blocking her way to the red eyed boy. Bakugo just glared at her, seemingly addressing the both of them, but mostly Midoriya.

    "Hum. Most first string heroes show potential early on. People look at them and just know they are destined for greatness. When I'm the only student from this garbage junior high to get into UA, people will start talking about me like that. They'll realize I'm legit, the next big thing. That's my ego talking but I just know know I'm good." He smirked at the two of them, like he happened to forget what had happened early.

    "Really? Because the way you act, you're nothing more than a soon-to-be villain." Kaida glared at them, hard. Bakugo was unfazed, clicking his tongue again.

    "From the look of your eyes earlier, looks like you are, Red. Not me." That hurt. And he could see it on her face as he turned back to Midoriya, resting his half-quirk-activated hand on Midoriyas shoulder. "Here's a word or advice, nerd. Don't even think of applying. Or else."

    Kaida looked down as the boys and Bakugo began to leave, hearing Midoriya start stuttering. The two boys laughed.

    "That's just sad. I thought you would have at least some fight in you."

     "He finally gets it. He'll never be a hero. Better to find out now then later, I guess."

    "You know, if you really want to be a hero that badly, there's actually another way. Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building." Bakugo said, looking back at them with a big smug grin as he walked out the door, only stopping as Midoriya turned to him with a more confident look on his face. Only to be deflated by Bakugo's glare. Kaida couldn't believe how long she waited to say something.

    "Hey, Midoriya? Do you.. wanna walk out together?"

[phantomgirl15]

We Aren’t Just Clones

Okay! Request done for @dp-marvel94! This was so much fun to write and I took a take on the clones that I never thought I would touch. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! Hoping to have it posted on my AO3 account later which can be found in my description if you would rather read this request on there.

Words: 5,686

Dani looked out the window and sighed, her teacher droning on about how when writing proper essays there were introductions and paragraphs and conclusions that needed to be used correctly. He talked about how sentence structure was an important part of how the essay was written. She didn't care. It was eighth grade, and she already knew that she had much more important things to think about than if her sentence said: "a" as opposed to "the". There were better things to think about, like Outerspace.

She felt a shiver run up her spine as she looked out the window, a small blue wisp passing through her line of vision for a moment as her hand shot into the air, faster than it ever had. The teacher gave Dani the usual dirty look before asking what lame excuse was going to be given this time.

"Uhh... well, you see, I need to... feed my brother..?"

"Feed. Your brother."

Dani gave the teacher an awkward smile as she saw the glare of disapproval.

"Miss Fenton, I had your brother, Danny, right? I highly doubt you need to feed him, he seemed to be capable while I had him."

"Well, yes, but you didn't let me finish. I need to feed my brother's dog."

Dani wriggled in her seat, the cold running up her spine again, the ghost getting closer to her with each passing moment. She wanted out of that class more than anything.

"Go. I expect to see you after classes are done today for your detention."

"Yes, Sir!"

Dani dashed out of the room, her belongings going with her. She shoved her hand into her backpack while sprinting through the hallways, grabbing a thermos and strapping it to her belt as she felt a cold pass over her whole body and her black and white suit covered most of her skin. She began levitating off the ground and was able to blast through the halls, phasing through the wall and ending up in the sky outside the building, a cry of relief coming from her throat.

Dani flew in the direction that her ghost sense was pointing her in. She saw two figures in the distance and sped herself up, hands now plastered to her sides from the wind. She slowed down as she saw the two ghosts, one of them being her brother, Danny, who automatically turned his head to face her and gave her a look of shock as he realized she was there.

"Oh no..."

Danny looked to see his little sister as he felt her core getting closer to him. She sheepishly grinned at him and he groaned, his hands already full with whatever ghost was looking back at him. He saw the pale skin coming closer to him, large muscles bulging beneath the grey epidermis. He saw the large scar traveling all the way around the head, and the black cuffs around the wrists. Danny tried to get the ghost to talk, calling out to what he assumed was a "him" from how low the ghost's voice was while mumbling under its breath lightly.

"So do you want to tell me why you're not wearing a shirt? Or shoes? Cause without either of those I can't give you any service!"

Danny felt his sister pull up next to him, the ghost looking around in fear as Danny threw a rope made from his ecto-energy around it and tied it to a light post.

"Are you going to say anything?"

The ghost stared at Danny in silence, fear filling its eyes. Danny threw his hands up in frustration, a loud groan coming from him as he floated upwards a bit, giving up and knowing he had time until that ghost started talking.

"Fine, Do YOU have anything to say for yourself?"

Danny turned to Dani and saw her blushing green as he angrily looked to her. She stuttered out that she wanted to help him and get out of class for a little bit.

"Why aren't you in school?! What made you think I needed your help with a ghost who's less of a threat than the Box Ghost?!"

"I didn't like my class and I didn't..."

"You didn't what?"

Danny turned his body away from her, her eyes drifting towards the left as she tried to explain herself to Danny. He almost wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

"You need to stay in school! You're almost done with eighth grade and still have a chance to accomplish your goals. You still have a chance to do what I'll never be able to do."

Danny turned his top half towards her, letting his lower half turn a moment later, his voice stern as he looked at her with disapproval. Dani tried to explain herself, but Danny wouldn't have it.

"Danielle Jamie Fenton, go back to school now. I don't need your help with this ghost and you still have a chance to go to college. You still have a chance to get good grades in high school and pass the standardized tests, both of which I failed at. I have no chances."

"But, Danny it's boring and I don't need to be in class the material is too easy and..."

"You have to go back. Jeez, Dani, you're just a stupid clone and supposed to do what you're told!"

Danny instantly regretted what he had said to his sister, watching her eyes widen as she floated above the ground. She sniffled for a moment before Danny wrapped his arms around her and apologized. He felt his own self-hatred dissipating as he tried to comfort her after what he had said.

"Dani, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it, I promise. You're not just a clone, I just don't want you to feel the same way I do about failing. You're a smart girl, I promise you aren't my clone, I didn't mean it. You're not just a clo..."

"Daniel. Fenton. Clone?"

Danny and Dani both jumped and looked to the ghost who had questioned who was in front of it. Danny gave it a questioning look and let go of Dani, reaching an arm out as Dani rushed past him and floated closer to the ghost, her face even with the ghost's face. Danny sighed and quickly made himself even with Dani, floating just in front of the giant ghost that made Danny think of the monster from the classic movie and novel.

"Yeah, my name is Danny. We did say clone. Was that something important to you?"

"I clone of Daniel. Fenton."

"Are you... Are you sure?"

Danny was taken aback as he saw this monstrosity and it said that it was his clone. He now knew for sure that the ghost was a guy.

"Father said find Phantom. Father mean. Father scary."

Danny exchanged glances with Dani, an uneasy feeling in both of their stomachs as they realized what was happening. Dani floated up to him and forced the rope Danny had used to hold him to the pole to disintegrate and let the ghost go.

"Come on. You wanna come and stay with us?"

"Can have home?"

"Yeah, C'mon Frankenstein. You need a good home, just like us. You won't have to be afraid of your new dad. Unless you're afraid of fudge."

"You sure?"

Danny didn't even say anything, just motioned for the other two versions of him to follow him back to his home, waiting to see what his family would say when he tried to explain what had happened.

. . .

"Another clone?"

Their mom questioned as Danny and Dani stood in front of the giant ghost that Danny had nicknamed Frankenstein. Dani flinched and bit her lip as Maddie rubbed at the bridge of her nose. Danny rubbed at his neck with his left hand like usual.

"You know the spare room is a mess right now. You should have given me a heads up so I could fix that. He'll have to stay in the ops center tonight. You two are welcome to join him if he needs comfort. I'll try to get the room clean after tonight so he can have his own room."

"Thanks, mom!"

The kids ran up to the ops center while Maddie stood in the kitchen sighing, knowing that the spare room on the second floor needed to be cleaned and began walking up to the room and seeing all of the old ghost hunting weapons that Danny and Dani were uncomfortable with, even after coming out about their ghostly alter egos.

. . .

So, Frankenstein, what's Vlad doing?"

"Fath... Vlad mean. Vlad cruel. Vlad hurt brothers. Vlad focus on Perfect Son. Vlad disappointed in us."

"Us? Who's us?"

Dani sat herself up on one of the desks in the upper lab area, her phone in her hand as she ordered pizza for the three of them. She gave a questioning look to the large ghost as Danny opened the blinds, sunlight streaming into the open floor layout. He was only able to freeze as he saw Frankenstein walk over to the window waving.

"What are you doing...?"

"Hi, brother!"

Danny and Dani exchanged looks as they saw another ghost flying towards the window, what looked like a sheet draped around the body. The heard Frankenstein clapping and prancing with joy, his mohawk bouncing slightly as he hopped around.

"Put in an order for another pizza, I have a feeling we're gonna be here a while."

Danny whispered to Dani and she quickly nodded, what they assumed was the next clone phasing through the window and hovering just above the floor. Dani looked at him and half-smiled.

"Hellooooooooo."

"Uhhh... Hi?"

Danny waved once, flicking his hand through the air, confusion filling his mind as he waited for something more than a hello. He sat motionless for a moment, before being almost barrelled over by the larger clone rushing past him, grabbing the small little ghost in a sheet and wrapping him between large biceps and the chest area. The sheet had fallen, and the other two saw the small, black, top half of a skeleton.

"Brother! You here!"

"Faaaaatheeerrrrr saaaaiid to fiiiind the Phaaaaantoooommm."

"That's us. Is your dad Plasmius?"

Dani asked, and both ghosts nodded violently, their heads looking like they were about to fall off from how quickly they were being shaken.

"Great... that guy is a real pain in the neck. What has he been doing this time?"

"Experiments have been done on us repeatedly. They've caused the last one to be unstable, all except for Father's "perfect son" that he says will be completed soon. But that was days ago."

Danny stopped the ghost by holding his hand up. He heard the words being held out too long to make them sound more like how the ghosts from Halloween speak and would say any words. He grabbed his phone and called Jazz on it for a moment. The skeleton looked at him, nervous about why Danny had stopped him in the middle of explaining.

"Uh huh... okay. Thanks, Jazz."

Danny hung up and took a deep breath.

"Jazz is gonna teach both of you how to properly speak. Whether that be without elongating words or create proper sentences. She's gonna make it so that we can understand all of you. If you could try to speak so I can understand, I want to know what else is happening."

The skeleton nervously let himself float downwards and lean up against the window, what appeared to be a spine curving with the floor so the clone appeared to be seated. Dani walked over and tried to comfort him, but the ghost saw the hands coming towards him and was filled with fear so that Dani had to pull away. Obviously, Vlad had done more experiments on what Danny was thinking of calling Skelly than he had done on Frankenstein.

A knock on the front door interrupted the eerie silence in the ops center and Danny told Dani to grab the pizza from the front door. He stood with the other two, who were really comforting each other with what Danny figured was a strong trust from the fact that they were technically siblings. He kneeled in front of Skelly and put a hand on his knee.

"Hey, man. I know you're scared. I know this seems to be like PTSD cause of what Vlad did to you, but I want you to know that you're welcome here, that you're me and Dani's brothers, and that Jazz can give you therapy sessions to make the memories with Vlad a little easier to process."

The skeleton and giant looked at Danny and slightly nodded, Danny, knowing that it was the same thing he would have done so that he didn't look weak. He smirked, thinking that maybe they were related. He stood back up, hearing Dani walking back into the ops center. He looked at her and smiled, but it quickly fell as he saw the look of concern on her face.

The pizza was in one hand, and a slight green glow was found in the other. Danny walked up to her hand and saw what looked like a small pixie sized version of him lying passed out in her hand.

"That brother two!"

"Like, brother number two, or another brother?"

"Uhhhh..."

The giant pressed his pointer finger to his chin, trying to figure out what it meant. Danny pressed his hand against his face, pinching the bridge of his nose as his hand lowered.

"Work with me, Frankie. How many more clones, are there? Skelly?"

"Just one after this one. But it's the "perfect son". This brother is the last one of us. Of the mistakes."

Dani firmly stated that they were not mistakes. That they were people, with their own minds, just like her and Danny, and he agreed.

"You help brother? Brother melty."

"Wha...?"

"He is unstable from the experiments. Even more unstable when he's full size rather than minuscule. Please, can you stabilize him? Can you save him?"

Danny motioned to the door, and the others followed him, hoping to find a cure for the instability. The lab was a disaster, the little clone still passed out and not responding, one eye missing and the consistency of the epidermis proving to be gelatinous. Danny scanned the lab trying to if any experiment would prove useful.

He heard a call from Skelly from across the room.

"Will this do anything? It's labeled to be a stabilizing fluid."

Danny grabbed the vial and saw that it was the same liquid as what he spritzed Dani with. He handed it back to Skelly and nodded grimly. The ghost grabbed the needle and watched his hand shaking slightly, tapping the bubbles from the vial before inserting it into his brother's arm.

He was not one that was fond of needles, but he was less fond of losing his brother. He watched as the fluid was injected slowly, a thick liquid making it look even more disgusting to a non-medical professional. He looked at Danny and saw a nod of approval.

Frankenstein and Skelly watched their last misfit brother and watched as his body melted between Dani's fingers and fell to a puddle on the floor. Screams of terror echoed around the room, Jazz running down the stairs thinking that she had been hearing screams of a traumatic experience, which was true.

"Danny! What happened."

"Wait for it..."

Danny held up his finger, shushing Jazz as she walked into his hand, nobody's eyes leaving the puddle on the ground. Skelly and Frankie cried in front of the puddle, the green goop showing reflections of the tearful eyes.

A moment passed in pure silence before the puddle began to ripple across the surface. The clones stopped crying and watched the little ghost suddenly zip out of the puddle, his energy glowing brighter than it ever had as he zoomed in circles around the room. Danny and Dani fist-bumped as they saw the expected results.

The little zippy ghost floated over to the others, talking fast and higher-pitched from his smaller size, thanking them for saving him.

"You guys don't quite understand, I cannot thank you enough for saving me I thought I was done for! You must be Danny, and you must be Dani, and you must be Danny and Dani's sister Jazz, and you guys are awesome and are we all related in some way? Do I get to call you bro and sis?"

"Woah woah woah. Slow down little jibber-jay."

Jazz held her hands up and offered to shake the little guy's hands, Danny snickering and calling the little guy Tiny. The ghost suddenly had a bright flash of light around him and was full size. Danny took a double-take and his jaw fell open, entertaining the two other clones, Tiny laughing slightly, the only difference being that he was a mirror of Danny, his hair parted to the left rather than the right, being left-handed rather than right-handed, his smile lopsided on the right as opposed to the left, and had two right feet rather than two left. His laugh was also slightly deeper than Danny's, the voice coming out smooth and happy rather than Danny's constant voice cracks and anxious tone.

"You guys okay?"

Tiny hovered a bit off the floor, leaning back on the air. He laughed a bit more, his personality was the opposite of Danny's. His calm composure made him understand why this clone was experimented on the most out of all three brothers. Danny saw that he was trying to play cool even though he was having traumatic memories even worse than his brothers'.

He looked like he was happy, however, to be in a safe environment. He looked like he could get used to it easily, and Danny knew he now had three new brothers as opposed to what was going to be two, which was supposed to be one. He sighed and made sure to mentally note that they would need to produce "adoption papers" to make the three feel welcome, even though they had nowhere else to go and his family was already going to be welcoming them with open arms.

"So... ummm... what about the "perfect son" that Father kept talking about?"

Tiny tried waving his hand in front of Danny's eyes, getting chuckles that relieved his anxiety from his brothers, and a small "what?" from Danny. Dani telling Jazz that they would be back upstairs for the therapy when they were ready. Jazz nodded and walked to the stairs, wishing her five siblings luck.

"Well, you guys need to not call him "Father" that's weird. We call him Plasmius. Or Vlad. Or Fruit-Loop. Whatever fits your style. And, you'll have to tell me about the "perfect son". I don't know about that."

"Oh."

Tiny lowered himself, his happy-go-lucky spirit weakening for a moment. Skelly dipped his head, and Frankie tried to look anywhere else to avoid eye contact.

They began to explain;

"The perfect son is the clone of you that Vlad takes the most pride in. He tried to make another you, supposedly for love, but we assume he wanted an obedient son that he could use as a sidekick. He ordered us, we felt no love. He ended up destroying more clones than just us. We were three of the five who didn't fall apart instantly. Dani was one, we were three, the perfect son is the last one.

He is perfect, at least in Vlad's eyes. He is supposedly half-ghost, Vlad had been a stalker and found your mid-morph DNA, and tried to make the clone stabile. And he succeeded. That clone is functioning, but he does not have his own mind, at least, he doesn't get control over what he gets to do. He might as well not be alive at all, because Vlad won't let him live.

We thought we would be able to love him, to hang out with him into the late hours. But we didn't. Nobody - Nothing - was allowed to be anywhere near the "perfect son". We don't even know if he has a name now. If he does, it would be Daniel. Unlike us. We were unnamed the whole time. The nicknames Danny has provided us are as close as we're gonna get to names."

The eerie sound of their voices all in unison gave Danny chills, his mind racing to try and decide what was going to happen to Vlad next. This was child abuse, this was malevolent action, and it sounded like he was berating the undead, or, half-dead beings. The concept of cloning him was already criminal. But who would take a large group of teenage ghosts seriously?

Dani had placed her hands over her mouths, the horror of what was happening to their last brother scarring her and worrying her brothers. All five of them were scared for their last brother's safety. Danny finally put his fist down.

"We're gonna save that last ghost. Daniel, you said? We're gonna go save him."

"Aaaare... Aaaaaare yoooooou suuuuurrre?"

"He's not easy to work with. Vlad's probably been poisoning his mind so he thinks he's better with Vlad than to come and live with us."

"You save brother?"

Danny looked them over, making a plan, the boys and Dani gathering in a circle to help their sort of biological brother.

"This is what we're gonna do..."

. . .

Tiny busted the lock open to Vlad's lab, Skelly and Frankie not too far behind him as he rushed in, faster than anyone could ever imagine a little pixie sized ghost moving, his body returning to full size once he was in the room and waiting for Vlad to see that they were there. They didn't see the old man, only their brother sitting in the usual tube he had been created inside of. The three ghosts gasped in shock, Danny and Dani trailing behind them and having their mouths drop, seeing the young teen captive in what he considered his room in Vlad's mansion.

"Oh my god... He thinks this is how people are supposed to live..."

Dani couldn't pull her hand away from her mouth as she saw where she had been created, how she had felt before Danny had rescued her. She saw her shattered tube, the one Danny had broken out of when she let him go. The three clones they had just met flew to their brother and began to bang on the glass, trying to wake him up from what appeared to be sleep.

The young boy opened his eyes, his vision being blurry as he tried to see who was tapping the glass. He saw Frankie first, the giant waving frantically and smiling. Daniel blinked a few times and saw a skeleton that was only a top half was floating at about shoulder height and was breathing a sigh of relief. Daniel started to ask, "who are you," and Tiny flew up to him and grinned, the lopsided grin making Daniel feel safe.

"We're here to get you away from the fruit loop."

"But... But I can't go. Everything I know is here. What will I do without Father?"

Frankie smashed the glass, his hands easily breaking the thin layer, Skelly pressing the button to release his wrists.

"You come home. With us."

"You... you would want me to come home with you?"

Tiny leaning an elbow on his shoulder, Skelly wrapping an arm around him, Frankie picking them all up.

"We wouldn't be a family without you."

Danny and Dani were keeping watch, the four clone siblings all crying tears of joy from seeing each other and all being able to have a safe home. They finally got Frankie to set them down, making sure to keep quiet and sneak out of the house properly. Daniel shook hands with Danny and Dani, knowing that they were going to be taking him and his three brothers in.

"I'm surprised we didn't see Vlad."

"Don't worry about it, Daniel. Our dad will make sure you guys cant get hurt."

"Thank you."

Daniel looked over at Danny while they were flying back to FentonWorks, The six of them nervous about what Jack and Maddie would say in the morning. He looked to see everyone smiling and then asked a simple question.

"Can I be called Danny, too?"

Danny glared at him for a moment, only glancing at him before looking forward again.

"Okay, okay... fine. Not Danny. How about Dan?"

Danny's eyes widened and he quickly told the clone no, his mind wondering if maybe all six of them needed trauma therapy from Jazz, rather than just the four that were the recent clones. He briefly told the clone why that couldn't be his name. They saw FentonWorks coming into view and Danny laughed as he saw the pizza in the ops center.

Dani sat and talked with the four other clones, while Danny went to his room, saying he had a special project to work.

"You guys are pretty cool. You're just like me! Except Danny gave you guys nicknames."

"Yeah. Danny funny."

Frankie sat on the floor, leaning against a wall. Skelly floated around the light in the ceiling for a moment before deciding that he was going to lay back in the air. Tiny paced, his curiosity making it hard for him to sit still. Daniel smiled at the other clones.

"I can't believe you guys wanted to be with me. I was horrid to you."

"Cause of Plasmius. Dude, we were experimented on. Unstable, controlled, told that we're worthless. But Danny said it himself. We're all people. And I guess that's good enough for the Fentons. They're letting us stay with them."

"It's okay, really. Tiny, Skelly, Frankie, Daniel, you're welcome here. But it's late. Get some sleep and you'll meet Mom and Dad tomorrow. They'll love you."

The lights were all turned off except for the one in Danny's room.

. . .

Dani walked into Danny's room and woke him up off his desk, a puddle forming on his desktop between his arms.

"They're waiting downstairs. What do you have up your sleeve this time?"

"You'll see."

Danny grinned, grabbing stuff from the printer in his room as Dani shrugged and walked towards the stairway leading to the kitchen and seating area in FentonWorks. He saw his four new siblings sitting at the kitchen table, feeling love and affection from his parents, the whole story from the night before already told to them. Danny knew the dark circles underneath his eyes proved how much effort he had put into this project.

The clones looked in his direction as they heard his footsteps from across the room.

"Hey, Frankenstein."

Danny held out a paper to him, smiling widely the whole time.

"I think I say this for all of us, but we're glad to have you in the family, Adam."

"Adam...? Where get name Adam?"

"Heh, I remembered when we read that book about the monster you made me think of, he said he was like Adam from the bible and that he should have been called Adam. I thought it fit you."

"Thank you, Danny."

Danny smiled at his new brother, hearing his first proper sentence, knowing that Jazz must have started working with him.

"No problem, bro. Skelly? You next? C'mon over here."

Danny handed Skelly the adoption papers he had come up with, revealing his new name.

"Remy. I like it. It rolls off the tongue. Remy. Remy Remy Remy. Thank you, Danny! You gave me a place to be a person."

"You showed you had guts last night. You've earned a real name and a real place to live. Welcome home."

Danny turned and grabbed the next paper off the ledge to the stairs where he had set them. He read the name on it and smirked to himself, glad that he could do something for the clones who deserved so much better. He didn't know how long Vlad had been torturing them, and now, two of them couldn't lose their smiles. He hoped the other two would feel the same way.

"Tiny. You're the paper I just picked up."

"You got me a paper, too?"

He took the paper and looked at it, his hands shaking as he saw the name.

"Link."

"You made me think of the little video game elf. Happy, small, energetic, fun. I got a lot of entertainment out of that game. I'm sure you'll be a hundred times more entertaining, but I felt this name fit you."

The ghost shrunk down to pixie size in an instant, Danny already seeing the tear stream down his face before his face was too small to see.

"Thank you. I... I love it."

"Anytime, my dude. Just don't let Dad mistake you for a fly."

Danny grabbed the last paper and turned back to the last clone, who had been holding his head down, thinking that he would be kicked out.

"You think I forgot about you? Daniel, come here and see this paper. It has your name on it."

Danny held the paper out with two hands, his clone moving slowly, so far his face not matching the smiles of his brothers. Danny called his name and then he looked up.

"Oh. Okay, okay."

"You're welcome here."

"Thanks. My name is... Niel?"

"Yeah. The other Daniel in my class in fourth grade said to call him Niel cause I was already Danny. I thought of you, cause there can only be one original me, but that doesn't mean we can't be similar or brothers. I ended up being good friends with him until he moved away from here. You're not gonna leave me, too. Are you?"

"I could never. Thank you for your acceptance."

"You're just another me. How could I not want you around?"

Danny laughed as he finally got a smile out of Niel. Link, Adam, and Remy were smiling just as wide, Dani and Jazz giving him Kudos for what he did for the guys.

"They're not just clones, They're family."

Danny felt a family hug around him, the clones thanking him repeatedly. Danny only grinned and hugged them back. Remy floated upwards, asking when they would be able to start school, and Jack and Maddie exchanged nervous glances with each other as they realized they couldn't send their ghostly children to public school. Link and Adam began chattering about how much fun learning would be.

. . .

"Welcome to the new Fenton School for Ghost kids!"

"A school, just for ghosts?"

Remy and Link exchanged glances, as the Fentons opened a brand new school just for them. They saw a couple of other ghosts at the school and smiled, watching Adam try to make friends, Jazz having taught him how to speak a bit better.

"The Fentons opened this school just cause of us. I didn't think they really cared."

Link waved as Danny, Dani, and Niel walked to Casper since they all had human portions they could use to go to public schools. The three of them were all annoying each other like real siblings rather than the original and two clones.

"From what I hear, this is gonna be permanent, even though Mom and Dad are trying to find a way to make us look right and have human portions."

"Really? I didn't think they would even consider trying to find anything past the bottom of my ribcage! They're really trying to make us at least semi-normal and partially human?"

"Yeah. And last I knew, they were headed in the right direction. But they like ghosts now. So this school is gonna be open either way."

"Oh neat! Hey, are those my pants?"

Link started to walk towards the front door and the steps leading to the new ghost school, half buzzing his lips as he rolled his eyes and slung his backpack over one shoulder to try and look cool.

"Remy, you can't even wear pants. Are you gonna come with me to make friends or worry about the pants you can't even wear?"

"I'm coming!"

He rushed after his brother, hearing Adam trying to flirt with one of the girls that now went to the school when he passed him.

"I wonder how Niel is doing?"

. . .

Niel looked to his left and saw Dani, and then to his right and saw Danny. He watched Dani wave and walk into the Junior High that was just a couple blocks before Casper High.

"Thanks for letting me come to school with you guys. I know it's only been a couple of weeks since you welcomed me into the family but I can't thank you enough..."

"Just don't embarrass yourself too much and you'll be fine. Most kids leave us alone now that they're too busy with ghost attacks."

Danny threw his books in his locker and waved to his two friends from down the hall.

"Good luck man, you'll be fine."

Niel saw his new locker next to Danny's, the thought of class making him nervous as he figured out where his first class would be, then his second. He thought of how his brothers were doing at the ghost school, their excitement being just as much as his was that morning. He stood in front of the door to his first class, his palms getting sweaty as he tried to get there without being early or late or on time;

Link and Remy stood in front of the door to their first class, Adam towering behind there. The look of the door making them nervous to see who else was in their class. They pressed themselves towards the door, whispering as they tried to look cool when the door swung open;

. . .

"Here we go."

Four smiles entered the classrooms on the first day that ghosts were allowed at school. Because just as Danny had told them, they weren't clones. They were their own people. They were family.

[writing-essence]

Switch Flipped - Sweet Pea

Chapter Two: Sober

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Andrews!Reader, Reggie Mantle x Andrews!Reader

Warnings: Riverdale being wack 🤷🏻‍♀️ also language

Summary: After your dad was shot by the black hood, Archie has gone off the deep end, little did you expect yourself to question your northside loyalties

Author’s Note: Slow burn with Sweet Pea. Slight relationship with Reggie. There’s lots more Sweet Pea in this one, I swear. Let me know if you want to be tagged! -Milla

Word Count: 2,608 (oops?)

A few days had passed since the night of the rumble. Archie made an official apology video per Weatherbee's request and disbanded the red circle. Fred Andrews was relieved his fiery son blew out the flame. It wasn't easily spotted on the surface, but you could tell Archie still harbored hot coals in the pit of his stomach. This was most apparent by his grumbling about a certain Nick St. Clair over the blasts of his punching bag.

Reggie had time to cool down as well. The boy would never fail to jump at the chance to show off his athletism and masculinity in the name of dawning school spirit, so it wasn't a shock when he walked out your door that night. The next morning school had been suspiciously quiet due to the hushed details of Dilton Doiley's "mugging." When Reggie walked to your locker ready to lament his actions and announce the fall of the red circle, you didn't give him a chance. The scratches littering his face, the star of the show being a split lip, was enough to bury yourself back into the warmth of his chest. The gesture continued until the grating pitch of the bell rang through the halls bringing you back to the reality of linoleum floors. For a moment you thought the madness was over. It hadn't even started.

Currently, you were sitting in your room studying for a math test you knew was hopeless. Watching the tree outside your window sway in the harsh November breeze, you were surprising thankful your stress would be coming from the angles of triangles and not a circle tonight. The sun was beginning to set causing an orange tinge to flood your room. Basking in the momentary warmth, you decided to call Reggie for geometry advice. Maybe not actual advice, mostly reassurance you couldn't possibly do worse than he had in the same class the year before.

One ring

Two rings

Three rings

Four rings

Reggie always answered his phone, especially after what happened with Jason. He would never admit it, but he would sometimes panic if you didn't answer in the first three rings, even if he had dropped you off at home within the same hour. It took time for fear of losing people to trickle away. So why wasn't he answering? It could either be a sign of progress or a sign of something you couldn’t bear to think.  Hoping for the former you continued to struggle through the practice test your teacher had given you. A few hours had passed, and once again you were graced with four rings and no Reggie. Fighting the nervous jolt in your stomach, you texted Midge instead who you were convinced could anyone off a ledge. Her comforting words lulled you to sleep.

 A rude awakening prompted by none other than Alice Cooper, would answer why Reggie's trend of silence continued. An extravagant, to Riverdale standard, party. With jingle-jangle supplied by your supposedly out of business boyfriend. Your chest tightened as your lungs grew three times their size trying to catch up with your frantic breathing. Slowly you backed away from the cracked window at the side of the Cooper house you crouched behind while snooping. Bushes hugged your shins as you ran back to your yard. The next time you saw Reggie, it was over.

Not only had he been continuously lying about his possession of jingle-jangle but he did something you never thought him capable of. You built it in your mind Reggie was better than them than Jason, Chuck, or any other bulldog who wrote the worth of women on lists. He wasn't perfect by any means but not once did you think he would ever cheat. Archie tried his best to comfort you the days following the break. You knew he was there at the party and knew about Reggie and Josie. You didn't know whether you wanted to curse him out for not telling you or hug him for attempting to protect his little sister's heart.

Business at Pop’s had been slow since the first incident with the Black Hood.  Understandably so, a place that once emulated comfort through neon lights now had an ever presence of darkness. The counter in front of you glowed after being wiped clean for the countless time this afternoon. The cycle of texting Midge and cleaning suddenly broke by the chime of the door and laughter of boisterous teens. Glancing up from your phone your eyes trailed to the rambunctious rebels sporting serpents on their backs.  Hopefully, this encounter would be less dramatic than the last. You grabbed your notepad and headed toward the booth.

"I'm telling you guys the milkshakes are crazy good!"

"Ya know Topaz I'm not sure I trust any milkshake Jones introduced you to."

"Get over yourself Swe-"

"Hi, can I take your order?" You interrupted. Sitting before you was a petite girl sporting pink hair, and two uneasily familiar male faces. Your eyes widened as you examined the two boys sitting on the other side of the booth. The two serpents seemed to notice your saucer-sized eyes and realization seemingly struck them in the chest.

"Uh, guys?" The girl waved her hand in front of their frozen faces, "what's with the staring contest?"

"You're the northsider with the shit for brains brother," the statement came out more like a question from the taller serpent. You sucked in a breath and squeezed your pen tighter, the word, 'unfortunately,' escaped your lips during the exhale. "You know he ruined our drag race today-"

"Wait," the girl cut him off, the corners of her mouth curling up, "you're Archie's sister? Y/N right?" She finished as you turned to her. Your eyebrows furrowed. How would she know that? She seemed to be a mind reader when she continued, "Jughead mentioned you, I'm his friend Toni."

You had practically grown up with Jughead due to his friendship with Archie. He had grown to be one of your most trusted confidants especially during your party girl phase brought on by Reggie. You were forever grateful for Jughead's myriad of cover-ups, saving you weeks of being grounded to your room. You considered it retribution for the time he managed to spill an entire milkshake in your hair when he attempted a magician career during seventh grade. While the chocolate scent could have been worse, it quickly turned to spoiled milk even after the fourth washing. His affinity for being quick with words almost made up for that catastrophe. 

"Good to know he hasn't forgotten about me, not like I've known him since he had that dorky headgear," you jested at the girl sitting to your right.

"No way really?" For the first time, you saw a smile creep onto the larger boy's face. He elbowed his friend in the excitement of the humiliation of young Jughead Jones. Deciding not to ruin whatever reputation Jughead was building for himself on the south side you simply shrugged letting your smile twist into a smirk.

"So what can I get for you guys?" 

Minutes passed as you returned with their burgers and shakes. They politely thank you and returned to their conversation. For serpents, they weren't as intimidating as you suspected. They acted like regular teens, not thugs as many made them out to be. While they looked rougher around the edges in leather and ripped jeans, they were just goofy kids. Throughout the evening you stole glances at the wild crew, catching snippets of their amusing antics.

"Fangs if you blow one more straw wrapper in my hair I swear-"

"Chill out Toni-"

"Oh, I'll show you who needs to chill out-"

Needless to say that dispute ended with twenty wrappers covering Toni's side of the booth and a splatter of milkshake on his face. A chuckle slipped past your lips. You coughed in an attempt to cover up your eavesdropping, but the milkshake free boy wasn't fooled as he looked to your hunched form over the register. You avoided his gaze long enough for him to lose interest and turned back to his arguing friends. Once they had calmed, you decided it was a good time to ask if they were ready for the check. Closing was approaching quickly, and you weren't a fan of riding home alone in the dark.

"We can clean it up," Toni hurried. Your eyes scanned the disaster zone. Straw wrappers, ketchup drips, and milkshake splatters littered the once sparkling table. "Sorry," she smiled sheepishly then glared to the shorter boy who you assumed was Fangs.

"Don't worry about it," you shook your head returning the smile. After momentary consideration you sighed, "look I know my brother won't apologize for any trouble he's caused, I guess this is me saying sorry. I can clean it up its no problem. Afterall it is my job."

"I wouldn't say it's your job to clean up your brother's messes," the taller serpent responded crossing his arms.

"That's not what I meant," your smile faltered. 

You rang the trio up at the front after bussing their table. After a hushed argument about who should pay or how easy they could divide the bill into thirds, they decided on the classic game of rock, paper, scissors.  Fangs' rock lost to the other two's paper. Not before pining for a rematch he gave in, including a commendable tip. You tucked the money in the register and grabbed your washcloth and spray bottle, ready to charge the Mt. Everest of messes. Still wiping down the table you had noticed the group's failure to leave, they were staring back at you while whispering. Toni shrugged, Fangs tried to fist bump the giant next to him just to be met with a smack on the head from Toni. 

"Do you need a ride?" the tallest ask asked.

"Excuse me?" All you could do was blink as you stopped cleaning. Had you heard him right? Was he talking to you? Of course, he was talking to you; he was staring right at you.

"That's your bike out there right?" He pointed out the door's glass window to the bright yellow metal of your bike. You nodded. "It's getting late, and Jones is a serpent now. He talked about you like family, we take care of our own,” he shrugged with his hands in his jacket pockets.

Your eyes involuntarily squinted at his generous offer.  From squinting, they shifted between each serpent as if to decipher a secret code. From the sincere looks on the teen's faces, you decided they harbored no ill will. Your choices seemed slim, either bike home alone in the dark with the Black Hood lurking in the shadows or catch a ride from Jughead's mysterious serpent friend. Even if they looked genuine, you had to establish some form of protection in case of a disaster. You walked toward the group stopping in front of the boy who had asked you the question.

"Promise this isn't your master plan to murder me in Fox Forrest?" You held up your pinky to his chest. The boy's dark eyebrows nearly raised themselves off his forehead staring at your gesture. His eyes switched to look at his friends on either side.

"You're serious?" he asked incredulously, a laugh peaking through his inflection. Toni and Fangs had amused looks pointed towards their friend.

"Deadly," you answered unwaveringly back. He shook his head in defeat as his pinky hooked around yours. "I'll be out after I finish with your guys' table," you made your way back to the damp milkshake covered towel. An uncontrollable smile played upon your face. You had managed to get a Southside Serpent to agree to a pinky promise and lived to tell the tale; Midge wouldn't believe it.

After you finished cleaning and put away your supplies, you grabbed your jacket from under the front counter and headed out. The three teens were still there laughing about something Fangs had said. The poor boy had a bewildered look on his face asking what the big joke was. You grabbed your bike from the rack tucked by the front steps and wheeled it towards your temporary carpool buddy. He kindly tucked your bike in the back of his light green truck. You could tell it had been a fair amount of years since its last paint job. There were chips, scratches, a few dents here and there. You wouldn't have described it as run down, but well loved. 

"Um, thanks for the ride," you broke the minutes of silence since you both sat down.

"Don't worry about it," he dismissed.

You took in your surroundings. It wasn't messy like you would expect a vehicle of a teenage boy to be. The knob on the out of date radio had been knocked off, and the seats squeaked if you moved an inch. They squeaked a lot as you fidgeted in your place not knowing whether to look out the window, at the inside of the car, or towards the boy next to you. You decided on the last option. His eyes were transfixed on the road you assumed he traveled down the night of the rumble. A few rings decorated his hands that were draped lazily on the steering wheel. He had soft features which contrasted with his jet black hair. At this moment he didn't ooze an ounce of intimidation even with a snake dancing across his neck. The snake which was the symbol of a gang. A gang that your closest childhood friend got himself wrapped into.

"You good princess?" He glanced at your prying eyes.

"Uh yeah," you started caught off guard, "how's Jughead?"

"A tool," he deadpanned. You smiled at his look of distaste for your "quirky" friend.

"Yeah, you know he probably thinks the thing about you," you let out a light laugh. "Jughead's a lot sometimes, but he means well."

"Sure he does princess," he responded. Your nose scrunched up at the nickname. 

"I have a name you know," you insisted even going as far to point at the name tag on your uniform. Then you realized something. Toni had introduced herself, and you caught Fang's name from the straw wrapper war, but the name of who was sitting next to you was still a mystery.  "Speaking of which you're giving me a ride home, and I still have no idea what your name is"

"Quite the scandal for you huh northsider?" He taunted with a smile. You rolled your eyes crossing your arms sinking deeper in the stiff seat. "It's Sweet Pea."

"You're serious?" A breath of air puffed out of your chest. He had to be messing with you. You watched his face contort with a mischievous glint.

"Deadly," he smirked, repeating your words from Pop's.

"Right, well this is me," you said as he pulled up past the Cooper's to your smaller house. After unbuckling, you hopped down to the pavement and grabbed the door to close it, looking up at Sweet Pea.

"Need help with your bike?" He asked. You nodded mumbling a quick 'thanks.' He pulled your bike out the back, passing you the handlebars. After a more formal thank you, you started your up the walkway locking your bike up at the side of the house in the bushes. Before walking up to the porch, you turned back to Sweet Pea who was leaning against the side of his truck.

"See you around, princess," he concluded, a look of victory strewn across his face. You shook your head at the hopeless nickname but smiled nonetheless. 

"Night, Sweet Pea."

Tags:

@the-original-penguin

@6trash6queen6

@star-mum

@andyl394

@yougottalovefandoms

[turnupswritessometimes]

Lavender Eyes - Glimmerdora - Ch4

Title: Lavender Eyes

Chapter: 4

Word Count: 4078

Summary: Adora’s on the football tem. Glimmer’s in band. They think they can’t stand each other, until a series of accidents forces them to open up to each other.

Note: This is also available on Archive of Our Own and it’s probably best to follow it there, as I remember to update it more. I would post a link, but then tumblr wouldn’t include it in search results.

Adora had tried to come in without making a noise. She had pulled the door to slowly behind her so that it only just caught on the latch, slipping her trainers off with her toes so that she could pad upstairs without making a sound. Both Catra and Adora had long since figured out how to get around the house without making a noise.

She wasn't quiet enough.

"Adora? Is that you?"

That sent an alarm bell through her. Beatrix only had such sharp ears when she was on edge. Otherwise, it was easy to sneak around her.

"Uh, yeah." Adora started down the hall to find Beatrix sat at the dining room table, a salad in front of her for dinner.

"I thought you were out with Catra." Her tone was light and conversational, but she was probing.

She hadn't said that. She had said she was going around Lonnie's.

So Catra was out too. And had assumed Adora would cover for her. For a moment, she considered getting her own back for the night of the game.

She couldn't do that.

"Yeah, I didn't feel too good, so I came home. She's met up with a few of the girls from the team." Taken out of context, the first part wasn't a lie.

"Oh, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Beatrix was up in the next moment, a hand against Adora's forehead. "Have you taken painkillers? Do you want me to make a hot water bottle up for you?"

"I'm okay now," Adora said quickly. She was backstepping and wondering why she wanted to avoid those hands. They were cold, but the house was cold. Everything was cold here. "I was just going to get some work done."

"You're not doing work if you don't feel well." Beatrix was taking her wrist, pulling her into the living room and sitting her on the sofa. Adora remained limp. She had tried to resist this mollycoddling before and knew that Beatrix's fingers could close like a bony shackle and hold her fast. "Though Catra should have come home with you."

"I didn't want to drag her home."

"It's your responsibility to take care of her, Adora." Beatrix was pulling the stray hair away from Adora's face. "She's not like you, she'll get into all sorts of trouble."

"We're the same age." Adora tried to keep her tone gentle. They were approaching thin ice and she didn't want to fall through to the freezing cold waters underneath. "Catra can handle herself."

There was a sharp yank on her ponytail before she could even gasp. There were the eyes again - eyes like a demon - inches from her face.

"Will you say that when she ends up passed out on the street? In the hospital? Dead?" her foster-mother snarled. The pain of her nails in her hair made Adora's eyes water. "The two of you think you can go around and do anything and neither of you think of what might happen to you? Neither of you think of me! I slave away to make you both large, healthy dinners every night and then both of you turn around and spit in my face! Going out and eating elsewhere and leaving me on my own! Selfish!"

Adora was finally released, her head jerking forward so hard it almost hit her knees. She couldn't catch her breath for a moment, especially not with Beatrix's shadow looming over her. Waiting for a response.

"I'll make something," Adora managed to gasp out. "And I'll have dinner with you. I'm sorry."

"Oh, Adora." There were those hands again - gentle now. Like when she used to soothe her from nightmares. "That's all I ask."

Adora shoved a frozen pizza in the oven and tapped her feet on the bottom of the kitchen stool as she waited for it. She listened to her foster mother talk endlessly about her day and nodded in all the right parts.

She got the pizza out, managed to rattle off the parts of school that would be approved of. Test scores and coursework and praise given by her teachers. How well training was going.

Nothing about Glimmer.

Glimmer's house had been warm. She only realised when she opened the oven and was greeted by a blast of warm air. Their house had been warm and Glimmer had warm hands. They wouldn't have to bundle up in multiple socks and jumpers and shiver all the way through winter because it wasn't cold enough to justify the central heating.

She wondered what dinner there would have been like. Sat around the table with Glimmers glamorous mother. Probably not a homemade stew or soup. Probably the kind of pre-made party food that was advertised around Christmas. Tiger prawns and mini quiches. It would probably be loud. Probably involved Bow and Glimmer teasing each other relentlessly and Glimmer's mum joining in.

The thought out her off her pizza. She managed to make up an upcoming Spanish test and slunk upstairs.

Adora had every intention to finally study. She pulled out her books and sat down on her bed to read them.

The next thing she knew was Catra's voice in her ear and her shoulder being shaken.

"Catra!" she jerked away, raising a hand to her face to protect herself.

Catra pulled it down. "Sssh! Don't want to wake the sleeping dragon."

"Did you climb through my window?" Adora hissed.

"Yeah? You're right above the garage. I do it all the time."

"I'm sleeping in here Catra."

"And I've never woken you."

"That's creepy."

Catra shrugged. It was the movement that sent the smell to Adora's nose.

"Have you been smoking?"

"I'm not telling you that."

"Why not? We tell each other everything."

"Because you'll tell Beatrix."

"I won't. Promise."

Catra sighed and Adora saw her roll her eyes in the dark. She caught the smell again. Stronger this time.

"Lonnie has this friend, Rogelio, he brought a joint."

"A joint?!"

"Oh, relax. There was only enough for like, two drags each."

"It smells like more."

"Well, weed smells." Catra shoved some of the books out of the way, plopping herself onto Adora's bed. "She covered for you, by the way."

"What?"

"Lonnie covered for you. Beatrix phoned her, no idea how she got her number, but she covered for you."

"I covered for you too."

"So where were you?"

"With a friend."

"All your friends are my friends, Adora."

Something about the way she said it made it sting.

"Not these ones."

"Who?" Catra waited for a response, then leant back. “No, wait – I know. That Bow kid.”

“What are you talking about?” Adora forced a laugh that wasn’t convincing.

“You mentioned them the other day – didn’t even know they were on your radar.” Catra grinned and her teeth flashed like fangs in the moonlight. “God, Beatrix will be pissed if she found out you were hanging out with a fag and a dyke.”

"Shut up, Catra."

"They're just so - nothing like you at all. Like everything that people hate about sjws all rolled into one."

"I said shut up!" Adora snapped.

Catra paused. She looked at her, toying with her bottom lip with her teeth. The motion made Adora's stomach jump.

"Just remember, Adora, they're not the ones who have your back on the field."

And with that, Catra slinked from her room. Adora glared after her, then through a punch into her pillow. She wasn't even sure why she was so angry.

She hated Catra when she was like this. She hated her foster mother when she was like this.

But she hated herself most of all.

*

Glimmer didn't act like nothing had happened. The team always carried on as usual, but not Glimmer.

No she had to run to Adora in the middle of the hallway, keychain on her bag jingling loudly enough to attract everyone around that's attention.

"Are you feeling any better?" She asked.

People were looking. Lonnie slammed her locker closed, turning dark eyes onto Adora.

"You can't do this," Adora said. "Not here."

"Be your friend?" Glimmer smiled, but it dropped at the expression on Adora's face.

"The team-"

"Can't know that we're friends," Glimmer finished. Her eyes hardened and her jaw set.  "Fine. Will I be giving you a lift home today, sir knight?"

"Glimmer," Adora wasn't even saying her name, it just came out as she exhaled.

"Find your own ride, Adora." Glimmer pushed past her, pulling her oversized cardigan around her.

 She opened her mouth – even though she had no idea what she was going to say. She ended up just staring after Glimmer as she stopped and greeted Bow. She still had a face like thunder and the two of them glanced back at her. Adora turned her back, pushing hair away from her face and waiting for Lonnie to catch up with her.

“What’s that about?” Lonnie asked.

Adora wasn’t good at lying. “Nothing.”

“Yeah, didn’t seem like nothing.” Lonnie crossed her arms, shifting her weight as she looked after Glimmer. “Didn’t she hug you at the game the other day?”

“What? No!”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t forget that hair anywhere,” Lonnie said. She scoffed, and raised her voice as they walked past. “I mean, honestly, pink hair with a red uniform? And they call me a fashion disaster.”

Adora couldn’t help it, she glanced back. Just in time to see Glimmer’s face crumple as she turned away, facing Bow. Her eyes caught on the hairs sticking up at the nape of her neck – they were undyed. What would Glimmer look like with brown hair? She didn’t want to know. That would be too boring. Too normal.

Too much like her.

“I think it’s-“

“You hugged her at the match.”

“Did someone knock you over, or something?”

“What are you bitches talking about?” Catra’s arms hooked around Adora and Lonnie’s necks and she looked at both of them. There was a strong smell around her that Adora tried to ignore.

“Just wondering why Adora’s so pally with pinky.” It seemed as though Lonnie was leaning into Catra’s touch, smiling up at her.

“I’m not,” Adora snapped. She caught herself. “I’m – I’m not, okay?”

“And yet you keep getting into her junkyard bait of a car.” Catra had the smile that she wore when she was getting other people into trouble.

Adora ducked out from under her arm. “Get fucked, Catra.”

She felt like the teen in a movie with a secret that made them touchy – shit, she was a teenager with a secret that made her touchy. She didn’t want to talk about Glimmer. Talking about Glimmer would make it real. It would force her to acknowledge things. Things that were changing. She wouldn’t be able to have the football team and Glimmer and Bow. There was always going to be a choice from day one. And she knew the choice. The choice that was safe and –

Straight.

The longer she stayed with Glimmer and Bow the more she was wrapped up in believing that it would be okay. That she would be able to come out one day. That was a dangerous thought. Bow and Glimmer were the dangerous choice.

But they were also the happy choice.

She wasn’t surprised that she couldn’t find Glimmer after training. That her car was already gone from the parking lot. Adora deserved that. She deserved to be completely ignored and never spoken to again.

The surprise was that Bow was leaning against her cruiser, his phone in his hand. A rose gold charm hung from it. A tiny heart and a tiny arrow.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

Bow looked up then and spoke completely casually. “Waiting for you.”

“Come to drag me across the coals?”

“For a lift, actually.”

“What?”

“Oh, right – manners.” Bow cleared his throat, drawing his shoulders back and puffing his chest up. “Adora, may I please have a lift in your, might I say, beautiful car?” He paused a moment, then stroked the top of it. “I must say, you have chosen a spiffing colour, my dear lady.”

Adora found herself laughing – against every feeling she had in the last twenty four hours, she was laughing.

“Just get in, you dork.”

Bow did, flashing her a very shiny grin and climbing up into the passengers seat. She tossed her bags into the back and settled herself behind the wheel.

“So, you really didn’t come to give me a bullocking?” she asked, reversing out of the parking space.

“You mean about the whole ‘we can only be friends in secret’ thing?”

“Mm.”

“I can’t blame you. I wouldn’t have the guts to stand up to the football team either. Those girls are mean.”

“Are you saying I’m a coward?” She swung onto the main road with more force than she should have.

“I would never. Like I said, you girls are mean.” Bow gave a dramatic shiver. “I would imply it, though.”

“I’m not a coward.”

“Oh no?”

“No.”

"And yet you couldn't stand up for Glimmer..." Bow tapped his fingers on the dashboard.

"What did you want me to say? That - that I like her hair?" Adora's hands were shakin and she gripped the steering wheel tighter. "That it's cute and fluffy like a cloud and she looks like some kind of angel? Yeah, no. That's not - that's-"

"Pretty, gay, Adora."

"Oh, says the guy who is gay."

"I know it when I see it."

"I'm not." Adora gave a huff-laugh. It sounded panicky. "I'm not gay."

"No, of course not." For a moment Bow sounded genuine, then he smiled. "But if you were, you'd be into Glimmer."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to," Bow paused. "How long have you known?"

Adora sighed. Her key was swaying from where it was lodged in the car and it was distracting.

"A while. Since I realised the perks of playing football."

Bow nodded. He stared out the window for a moment, then fixed dark eyes on Adora.

"Park round the back of my house. We need to talk."

"That doesn't sound ominous."

"Oh, that was the aim." Bow still sounded cheery, and it put Adora's teeth on edge. But she still did as she was asked, following Bow’s rather awful instructions around to Glimmer’s neighbourhood. He really did live just down the road from her. And Bow’s house had a white picket fence – because of course it did. That was how perfect a neighbourhood he came from. Adora parked and leant back in the car, wondering what she was supposed to see.

“Give it a moment, they’re always out at this time,” Bow said, checking his watch. He continued to tap at the dashboard and Adora continued to watch. There was a horrible twisted feeling in her stomach.

Then the back door of Bow’s house opened and, through the fence, Adora could see two men coming out from the house. One had his arm around the other’s shoulder’s and they were both laughing about something.

“Those are my dads,” Bow said.

Adora heard herself give a sharp sigh. “I’m not against – I’m not homophobic. I don’t have a problem with-“

“That’s not what I was thinking.” Bow leant back, watching the pair sit at the garden table with a couple of ciders, still looking at each other like the other one was a rare treasure. “I was thinking that someone you know wouldn’t approve if they knew?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay.” Bow had one hand on the door handle. “I guess I’ll see you at school?”

He had one foot out of the car when Adora said it – she wasn’t sure why.  She wasn’t sure why she trusted Bow with this.

“My mom.”

Bow slid back into the car, without a word.

“I mean, my foster mom. She – being gay, that’s not – it doesn’t fit with her image of the perfect daughter. And I am. At least, I was. But now I’m – I’m hanging out with people she despises and not – not studying and I’m not what she wants me to be.”

Bow stayed staring at her for a long time, but she didn’t look at him. She kept her eyes focused on Bow’s dads. They were talking, leaning towards each other. Looking at each other like the other was perfect.

“My dads didn’t get it,” Bow finally said. “Ironic, right? But I just thought they wouldn’t understand the whole trans thing. For years I was terrified to tell them – I was going by Bow for ages before – before Glimmer helped me get the courage up to – to tell them who I really was. And they were…fine. They loved me no matter what.”

“That’s great, Bow.” Adora’s voice cracked. “I’m really glad that it’s worked out for you.”

“What I’m saying is – you probably have nothing to worry about. Whatever she wants you to be, she’ll love you anyway.”

Adora was smiling, but it was forced, fixed and nostalgic.

“I don’t think so. She’s not-“

“You never know. People surprise you.”

“No. No, you don’t know what she’s like.” She could still feel the ache on the back of her head. She took a long breath out. “Do me a favour and not tell Glimmer any of this?”

“Oh, of course not. As long as you don’t tell her that she was the kick I needed to come out to my parents.”

“Sure thing.”

Bow climbed out of the car, but kept a hand on the roof as he leant to see in.

“I did tell Glimmer I wouldn’t say anything,” he said. “But for the record, if you were gay, there’s a strong chance she’d be into you.”

“Yeah, right.”

Bow shrugged and closed the car door. He unlatched the gate and gave a final wave to Adora. She hadn’t moved. Her brain was struggling to process any of this conversation. Any of what she’d just admitted.  She just stared ahead of her, feeling like a blown fuse and only blinked herself back to reality when Bow waved before going into the gate.

Then she drove home.

Glimmer stubbornly ignored her the next day. Adora noticed that her voice was a little too loud and her laugh just a little too long. She was being punished she knew. There had been a test of her loyalties and she had failed. But why was that a fail? A fail implied she had gotten it wrong.

Did she want to get it right?

The thought was enough to almost send her stumbling in practice again. She was feeling things more now – the thud of the ground under her feet and the bash of the ball against her skin. If she didn’t know better, she would assume that Catra was actually trying to hurt her.

Bow was outside her car again when she had finished getting changed. She felt completely exhausted, and didn’t acknowledge him as she climbed in to the driver’s side.

“So, your mom hates the gays.”

“Pink hair too.”

“And what’s your opinion of pink hair, Adora?”

“Get fucked.” But she was smiling despite herself. Then she sighed. “I want to still hang out with you and Glimmer. I really do, it’s just-“

“The football team.”

“Would you stop finishing my sentences?”

“It’s a gift,” Bow said. “It comes right down to what it did a few weeks ago, doesn’t it? The team.”

“They’re my friends. My family.”

“And they hate that you aren’t like them. That you might want to hang out with the freaks and the weirdos.”

“You aren’t freaks, or weirdos.” Adora beeped the person in front of her. They were driving too slow for her liking and she was running out of patience. “You’re great fun and you’re happy and I enjoy your company.”

“Then what does it matter what Catra thinks?”

“It’s easy for you. You’ve clearly never cared what anyone thinks.”

“Oh, I used to.” Bow rolled down the window, resting his elbow on it. “But then I decided it was much more fun to annoy everyone by just existing.”

“And that takes guts. More guts than I have.”

“Really, Adora?” Bow was smiling when he looked at her. “You can fearlessly charge into seven foot giants, but you can’t stand up for yourself?”

“That’s different. That’s…”

“Easy?”

“How do you do that?”

“I’m good with people.”

Adora laughed. Which made Bow laugh. She turned up the radio and let him dance along to the songs because she was done being serious for one day. Done thinking in general.

She drove home, turning the radio off and instead trying desperately to remember the Disney songs that Glimmer always used to sing. She didn't have any cds in the car, but now she wished she did.

Catra was on the end of her bed, still in her track shorts and t-shirt with sweat stains down it.

"You're disgusting," Adora dumped her bag at the door. Normally she would sit on the bed, but something made her pause. "Go take a shower."

"Hey Adora," Catra smiled. "Not with your little friends today?"

"I dropped Bow off at his house.”

“Glitter’s still not speaking to you?” Catra examined her nails, tapping her foot.

“It’s Glimmer.”

“Yet, she left glitter in your car.”

“Are you here for any reason, Catra?”

Catra stood, taking her time as she stalked over to Adora. She swayed her hips and Adora forced her eyes away from the movement, swallowing heavily. She felt her cheeks warm and hated that.

“I just wanted to know,” Catra said. “Why this all came about.”

“What do you mean?”

“You hate me now.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Don’t you?” Catra shook her head. “You don’t hang out with us anymore. You don’t speak to us anymore.”

“Because you all act like bitches for no reason!” Adora said. Her voice broke. “What the hell did Bow do to you that made you hate him? What the hell did Glimmer do?”

“Right now they’re taking my best friend away!”

“Don’t be so childish! Just because they’re not you, Catra.”

“They’re not you either, Adora.” Catra’s lip quirked into a snarl and she was close to Adora. Close enough to smell the sweat still on her skin. “They’re nothing like you.”

“Maybe they’re not,” Adora said. “But at least they’re not bitches.”

Catra’s eyes narrowed. It looked as though she was bearing her teeth at Adora. She pushed past her, hard enough to nudge her back into the corridor, without saying a word.

Adora regretted it instantly. She hadn’t meant to take it that far. Hadn’t meant to be so cutting. She hadn’t meant to ignite that hatred in Catra’s arms. But it had just scared her. It had scared her because they were something like Adora. They were the something like Adora that she wanted to be.

It felt as though they had crossed a threshold of no return. Even if she went back to hanging out with the football team – even if she tried to make everything go back to normal, it couldn’t.

And she wasn’t sure she wanted it to. Now she had taken that first step, she didn’t want to go back to normal. To biting her tongue and turning a blind eye. To hiding in the closet. To pretending that Glimmer wasn’t her friend.

Glimmer was her friend and she was clever and happy and –

Beautiful.

Adora had called her beautiful and she had meant it. She didn’t want to cut Glimmer out of her life. She wanted to be her friend. To be friends. To be happy.

But Glimmer didn’t forgive easily and that was something that Adora knew all too well.  No, it would take something else – something big to show her that Adora had changed her mind. That she had changed it and meant it.

She sat down at her desk and put her head in her hands. Her stomach was still in knots about Catra, but Catra was Catra and she moved on easily. Catra blew hot and cold like a cat without the arguments. Glimmer – Glimmer was what she focused on.

It might just have been the first time she had come home from school and hadn’t done work. Instead, she wracked her brains for some grand gesture, thinking back on all the conversations her, Bow and Glimmer had.

Then it came to her and she smiled.

Adora had a plan.

[manymessyfandoms]

Prompt idea for u. Maybe like Tony and Peter switch bodies for a day because of some enemy spell and chaos ensues. I love your irondad writings! They’re so good!

This was more fun to write than I had anticipated akjdkjdskjdf, I HOPE YOU ENJOY (((: 

(ao3 link here)

TONY

“You alright, kid?” Tony asked Peter. They had just finished taking down a couple wack-jobs with some toys from outer space when one of the guys they missed blasted them with something Tony didn’t know a few seconds before Peter webbed him up.

“Y-yeah. I think so. What was that?”

Tony ignored the weird fuzzy sensation starting at his toes and climbing up to his head. “It was probably nothing. You feel okay? All in one piece?” Tony gave Peter a once over, making sure he wasn’t missing any vital body parts.

“I’m good,” Peter replied. Tony almost missed the slight shaking of his body. 

It was the next morning when Tony had the realization that something was incredibly wrong. 

“Peter, you need to be up for school!” Tony groaned and rolled over before shooting up. That was May’s voice. But what was she-

He was not at the tower. He was at the Parker residence. More specifically, Peter Parker’s room. 

“What the hell?” he said before yelping because, yeah, that was definitely not his voice. He shakily got out of bed and creeped to the mirror, hiding his eyes behind his hands as if that could stop him from seeing what he knew he would.

“Shit,” Tony mumbled as he saw the teenager’s face staring back at him. 

“Peter,” May said as she walked into the room, “I’ve got to go to work. There are some pancakes downstairs for you.”

Tony stared at himself in the mirror for a few seconds before replying. “Yeah, thanks, May.”

She scrunched her eyebrows. “Alright. See you after school.” Tony didn’t reply.

He needed to find Peter.

PETER

Peter woke up feeling weird. There was no other way to say it. Before he even opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong. 

The sound of a door opening had him jumping up. Peter barely held back his gaping looks as he glanced around a room that certainly wasn’t his. “Tony, Peter’s here,” Pepper Potts said. “He’s acting really weird too.”

“W- what?” Peter stuttered and he slapped a hand over his mouth when he heard his voice. 

Pepper eyed him suspiciously. “What is going on?”

“Nothing!” Peter yelled in Tony’s voice. “Y- you said Peter’s here? Peter Parker is here right now? You saw Peter? Parker?”

“What is going on right now?”

“N- nothing, I just have to go talk to him. Right now. I’ve got to- uh, go talk to that kid. That little… rascal.” Peter got up and walked over to Pepper. “I’ll talk to you later… darling?” And with that, Peter fled the room. 

“FRIDAY, where’s Peter?” he asked, his voice shaking slightly. 

“Mr. Parker is currently in the living room, where Ms. Pott’s told him to wait for you.”

“Great.” Peter immediately made his way there.

“Oh, good. There I am. Thought I lost myself for awhile there,” Peter saw himself say. “Calm down, kid. It’s me, Tony. I think there’s been a little mix up.”

Peter gaped at Tony. “‘A little mix up’?” he practically yelled. “I- I’m looking at myself right now! You’re me! This is-” Peter bent over as he tried to stave off the growing panic in his gut. 

Peter saw his face roll his eyes, and okay now he knew why Tony got so irritated with him when he did that. “Calm down, Pete. We’ll figure this out. FRIDAY, call Bruce. Tell him it’s an emergency.”

“Will do, Mr. Parker.”

Tony sighed and scratched at his face. “This is so weird.”

“You think?” Peter asked still taking deep breaths. “I- I can’t be you! I have a science test tomorrow!” Tony raised his eyebrows at him. “A big science test,” he grumbled. 

“You think you’re worried? I can pass those tests for you, kid. I have meetings with important people. You can’t handle being Tony Stark.”

Peter blanched. “Well, excuse me, Mr. Big Shot. This isn’t my fault!”

“Yeah, I know that-”

Just then, the elevator doors opened and Bruce Banner walked into the room and walked up to Peter. “What’s going on, Tony? Some kind of emergency?”

Peter froze. “Um, well, you see Mr. Banner, it’s just-”

“Kid,” Tony interrupted Peter’s nervous ramblings, “just be quiet. Let the adults talk now.”

“Right, sorry, Mr. Stark.”

Bruce was whipping his head between the two of them. “I’m sorry, what’s going on exactly?”

Tony had an irritated expression on Peter’s face. “It seems that me and underoo’s had a little switcheroo.” 

Bruce looked stunned. “Tony?” he asked, looking at Peter’s body.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s me, in the flesh. Well, not really in the flesh.”

Bruce’s eyes were still wide. “W- what happened?”

“It was crazy, Mr. Banner,” Peter intervened. “Like, there were a couple people with all this weird alien stuff and then they blasted us, right? They blasted us, but nothing happened. Well, we thought nothing happened, but obviously something did because I woke up this morning to Ms. Potts walking in the room telling me Peter Parker was waiting downstairs, and I’m Peter Parker.”

Tony had his eyes closed and was shaking his head slightly. “Please tell me I don’t sound like that on the rare occasions I’m thrown off enough to ramble.”

Bruce looked like he was holding back a laugh. “Okay, why don’t we start with some tests, yeah? Try to figure out what’s going on.”

Tony pointed at Bruce and said, “You better help us fix this, Banner,” before walking off towards the lab.

“So weird,” Bruce muttered before following him.

It took all day of tests before they had answers. 

“Well,” Bruce said, “I think I’ve mostly figured this out. Surprisingly, it wasn’t very complicated. Simple, but as you can see, highly effective.”

“Lay it on me, doc,” Tony said and Peter just chewed his nails for a second before Tony slapped his hands away. “Don’t ruin my nails, kid. I don’t want to have nasty fingers when I get my body back.”

“Sorry, Tony,” Peter rushed out and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Bruce glanced between them, amused. “Right. Well, let’s begin.” 

After a half hour of Bruce trying his best to explain the situation, Peter realized what he was saying. “So we’re stuck like this? For how long?” he asked with a slight tremor in his voice. 

“Maybe two days, tops. Don’t worry, though. You will go back to normal.”

“Don’t look so anguished, kid,” Tony said. “At least you get to be a handsome billionaire. Which by the way, it’s criminal that people don’t compliment me more. I look damn good.”

“Moving on,” Bruce said before Peter could snap back. “I think you guys should just roll with this until it wears off. No use in worrying everyone. Tony, just call May and tell her you’re staying the night at here. We’ll just take this one day at a time.”

Peter nervously glanced at Tony. “One day at a time. Then it’ll be over, and things will be back to normal.”

“Right. Normal.”

TONY

Tony felt ridiculous. He was walking into a damn high school with a JanSport backpack hanging off his shoulder. He couldn’t believe the kid actually convinced him to go to school and take his stupid test for him. 

“Hey, Peter!” a kid that Tony recognized as Ned walked up to him. “You still coming over after school?”

“I- ” Tony flinched when a nearby locker slammed. That was another thing. Tony wasn’t used to Peter’s enhanced abilities. “I can’t. Super important stuff with Tony today.”

Ned squinted a little. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah. Everything’s… coolio.” Ned’s head cocked so Tony continued. “I’ve got to get to class. Got that test. Bye, Ned.”

Tony was one of the first ones in class. The only other people were a girl and a guys, both sitting on opposite ends of the classroom. Not even the teacher was there yet.

“Hey, Penis Parker!” Tony yawned, not even realizing that that was directed towards him. “Parker!” Then a wad a paper his the back of his head, and he startled. 

“You talking to me, kid?”

The guy looked irritated. “Who you calling a kid, Penis?” He got up and into Tony’s face. “You know I can do a lot more than shove you around, Parker. My mom’s a boxer. I know how to fight for real.”

Tony was too busy registering that this punk had been picking on his kid that he didn’t even realize that the other girl in the room walked up behind him. 

“Sit down, Flash. No one wants to hear it.”

“Shut up, Michelle. Maybe Parker here needs to be taught a lesson, and not a science one.”

Tony would’ve laughed at Flash’s poor attempt at a burn if he hadn’t been so angry that Peter had to put up with this everyday. 

Before anything else could happen, the class startled filing in quickly, just as the bell rang, and the teacher entered and started passing out the tests.

Tony was the first one to finish. It was too easy, really, and the look on that Flash kid’s face when Tony finished first was almost too good.

“Parker!” Flash yelled after class. “Think it’s about time for that lesson, don’t you think?” And then he punched Tony in the face. 

Tony was so taken aback that he didn’t even think to dodge it. After the punch was landed, he was angry. Very angry. 

“Asshole,” he said before shoving him, hard. Harder than he intended, but Peter’s abilities were harder to control than he’d thought, and Flash went sprawling, gasping for breath. Unfortunately, he landed right at the principal’s feet.

“Mr. Parker! My office, now.”

Peter was going to be so mad at Tony.

PETER

Peter was really planning on laying low, just hanging around the tower until things went back to normal, but Tony Stark didn’t just hang around. There was always someone looking for him.

It started with Pepper, who was still weary of him. “So, how was Peter? He alright?”

“Huh?” Peter asked before understanding. “Oh, yeah! No, he’s great. Everything’s fine.”

“Okay. I just know how you worry about him.”

“I- I do?” Pepper looked at him confused. “I mean, of course I do! Don’t want him ruining the Stark brand, you know?”

Pepper scoffed. “You and I both know it’s more than that. I still haven’t forgotten what you said the other day.”

“What I… said?”

“Tony, what is going on with you?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Nothing, I’m just… tired.” He forced a smile. 

“Alright, just go take a nap or something,” she said before walking out of the room, leaving Peter wondering what Tony had told her. 

After Pepper, it was goddamn Steve Rogers. Captain America. 

“Tony, I have a question for you.”

“What’s up?” Peter squeaked in a distinctly not-Tony-Stark voice. He cleared his throat. “I mean, what can I do for you?”

“It’s just, it’s kind of stupid, really. I just know how hard you worked for Peter’s birthday, and Bucky’s is coming up, so I was just wondering if you could help me.” He must’ve taken Peter’s silence as rejection. “I know, we’re all old and birthday’s are stupid, it’s just been a rough year, and I thought maybe a party could be fun.” 

“Y- yeah,” Peter stuttered. “Yeah, I’m good at that. Like when I planned Peter’s party.” Peter thought back to one of the best days in his entire life. It was the most elaborate and amazing birthday’s of his life. Tony had insisted that everyone had planned it.

“Man, that was a good party. You nailed it, and it took you, what? Month’s to plan? We don’t have to go that big. Just a little something to make the day special.”

To say Peter was touched was an understatement. “Yes, of course. I’ll help you out sometime this week.”

Steve grinned widely. “Thanks, Stark.” And then he left. 

The last of Peter’s Tony Stark duties was… a bit of a mess.

“Mr. Stark, you have a conference call in five minutes.”

Peter opened his eyes from where he was napping on the couch. “Conference call? With who?”

“The president.”

“What?” Peter choked on his own breath. “The president? She’s needs to talk to me?”

FRIDAY paused. “Yes, it’s been planned for quite awhile now.”

“Why didn’t Tony tell me this?” Peter mumbled before standing up and running to get dressed. He couldn’t exactly let Tony blow off the president. 

When the call came in, Peter froze for a second before accepting the call. 

“Hey there, Ms. President. I mean-”

“Tony Stark,” she interrupted. “I’m glad I was able to get ahold of you. I was worried we’d miss each other again.”

“Yeah, it’s a good-”

“Peter Parker is entering the building,” FRIDAY’s voice rang out, and Peter’s blood rushed out of his face. 

“Um, Ms. President, can you give me just a second?” She gave the slightest of nods. “Oh, great! Just a sec.”

He ran down the hall, moving slower than he was used to, before he ran into Tony. 

“Peter, I’ve got to tell you-”

“I’m talking to the president, Mr. Stark!”

Tony’s jaw dropped. “I’m sorry, did you just say you’re talking to the president? Why are you talking to Jane?”

“To Ja- Mr. Stark, you didn’t tell me you had a conference call with her!”

Tony sighed a little. “I guess I forgot. Oh man, did she seem mad? I bet she was. I guess it’s a good day not to be me.”

Peter slapped his arm. “Help me!”

“Okay!” Tony said. “Sheesh. Alright, I’ll come in the room and be your intern or whatever. Just follow my lead.”

And Peter did. He followed his lead, and only messed up a couple times. To say he was relieved when the call ended was an understatement. 

“I’m going to give you stress ulcers, Mr. Stark. I’m sorry in advance.”

Tony laughed. “I should apologize too. I kind of got you detention for two weeks.”

“You what?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were being bullied, Pete? I could’ve helped you.”

Peter gaped. “Can we go back to the part where you got me detention? May’s going to kill me.”

“Peter. Why didn’t you tell me about Flash?”

Peter’s face burned. “It’s- it’s not a big deal. He never really does anything.”

“I know he shoved you around. Punched me in the face today. Would’ve been even more pissed if he didn’t have such a lousy right hook.”

“He punched you?”

“Yeah, so that means he punched you. Kid, you can tell me about this stuff. I, you know, care and shit.”

Peter laughed. “Yeah, Tony, I know you care and shit. You planned my birthday party. If that doesn’t show you care, then I don’t know what will.”

Tony grimaced. “Rogers?” Peter nodded. “Damn. Who else ruined my reputation today?”

Peter hesitated, thinking back to his conversation with Pepper. “What did you say to Pepper?”

“Huh?”

“It’s just- I was talking to her and she said you cared about me, and that she hasn’t forgotten what you said the other day.”

Peter knew his own face, and he knew that Tony was contemplating something. “You know… you know I care about you, Pete, right? And I don’t know how it came up, probably started with something about my shitty dad or something, and I mentioned something about wanting to be better for you.”

Peter smiled a little, his heart growing warm. “You are, Tony. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

Tony grinned back and patted his shoulder. “Well I can tell you where you wouldn’t be without me. Detention.”

Peter laughed. “I am so mad at you for that.”

“I’m only kind of sorry. Flash shouldn’t bother you now.” Peter just laughed again.

When he woke up the next morning as himself, he felt relief flood his body. Tony walked downstairs, smiling wide. 

“There he is! Peter Parker as Peter Parker. Isn’t that amazing.”

Peter smiled and pulled him into a hug. He hesitated for only a second before wrapping his arms around him back. 

Peter felt better than he had in awhile, and he thought maybe being Tony Stark for a day wasn’t that bad. 

Not bad at all. 

[mikotyzini]

What Defines Us - Ch. 24

We’ve reached the halfway point of the story!

Link on ff.net!

If anyone wanted to see the phrase ‘helicopter parent’ in action, they could come over and experience the combined helicopterness of Yang, Blake, and Weiss.  It was incredible!  The loud whomp whomp whomp of spinning blades filled the air, following Ruby wherever she went - into the garage, into the kitchen, even in the bathroom she could hear it!  Well, not really because it wasn’t a real sound, but it was practically a sound by now!

Blake and/or Yang hardly left her side and, if they did, she could still feel one of them watching her closely.  Or trying to not closely watch her closely.  Like maybe she wouldn’t notice them pretending to read or watch a movie while keeping an eye on her instead.  And maybe she wouldn’t notice how they kind of stalked her around the house.  

The forever-stalking was extra creepy at night with Blake’s glowy cat eyes.  Once or twice, Ruby made the mistake of glancing down the hallway on her way to bed and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw glowing eyes in the distance.  They either belonged to Blake or a ghost, but she was too scared to find out which!  

On top of the Glue Crew (Ruby’s new nickname for Yang and Blake since they stuck to her like glue), Weiss was sending nearly constant messages asking how Ruby was doing.  Seriously, Weiss checked in at least once every hour, sometimes twice every hour.  

Not that Ruby minded the extra attention from Weiss...it was nice that they were thinking about each other so often!  Maybe Weiss was primarily worried about Ruby’s health and wellbeing, but Ruby could pretend that that was the same thing...she was great at pretending things.

But seriously, she’d had the equivalent of a bad headache!  And then she might’ve passed out or whatever, and they might’ve had to use the little laser on her again - but come on!  A pack of ice and pat on the back probably would’ve had her up and running in no time.  Nope!  She had to go to the hospital and that meant more tests and medicine and yadda yadda.  The doctors used big words that she didn’t understand, so she spent most of her time nodding even though she had no idea what they were talking about.  Why couldn’t they just call her brain a brain?  Why were there different names for simple things?

Now she was perfectly fine, but everyone was treating her like she might explode at any minute.  Apparently, she’d earned a new nickname - Ticking Time Bomb Ruby.  

Why wasn’t she in charge of her own nicknames?  She was way better at coming up with them than Yang.

On the slightly-really horrible side, after talking to the doctor Yang had banned Ruby from any and all physical activity for the next few days.  Which sucked!  But it was just a precaution to make sure her brain shrank a bit before she worked it up again.  Who would’ve thought people would wish for her brain to shrink?  Certainly not her grade school teachers…

Barred from physical activity, forced to get a decent amount of sleep every night, and given another pill bottle to add to her tower.  This one would be a cinch - no side effects, only a handful of pills, no problem!  She could take them all at once!  But that was highly not recommended.  

There was good news in the midst of the crummy news though!  

Unlike before - when Ruby had to twiddle her thumbs when she wasn’t allowed to train - now she had a friend to talk to!  Thankfully, Weiss seemed more than happy to chat whenever Ruby wanted, so her days of mandatory rest would pass quickly.  And, as soon as the time was up, she was going to beg Blake to practice with her again.  After going on one hunt, she wanted to go on more.  A somewhat-suspect brain wasn’t enough to stop her!

Glancing at the time, Ruby tossed her scroll on the bed and headed out of her room so she could catch Blake and Yang before they left for the night.  Once in the hallway, she walked to the kitchen.  Walked.

Walking was soooo slowwww.  It was such a waste of time!  If she moved faster, she’d get to the kitchen faster and have more time to do other things!  But Yang had specifically banned Ruby from using her semblance and had even set a speed limit in the house - anything more than a walk and Ruby had to organize all of Yang’s shoes, which was not something she ever wanted to do.  

So she was walking everywhere.  And they didn’t need a bigger house because this one was already way too freaking big.  

When she finally made it to the kitchen (about a decade later), she found Blake and Yang putting away the dishes from dinner.  Well, Blake was putting away dishes while Yang held onto her and whispered into her ear, making her laugh about something.

“The doctors didn’t permanently attach your hand to Blake, did they?” Ruby joked, drawing their attention her way.

“Why yes they did,” Yang replied with a grin, refusing to remove her hand from Blake’s side.  When Blake tried to move away, Yang clasped onto a handful of her shirt to keep her in place.  “They said it was medically necessary for my survival.  And ya know what?  I’ve never felt better.”  

Ruby rolled her eyes at Yang’s overjoyed smile.  Her sister was impossible to tease, as usual.  No matter what Ruby said, Yang could always turn it around and make it some sort of weird compliment.  

But something was up with them.  They’d been extra fond of each other recently...and that was saying something since they were normally extra fond of each other.

“What’s up with you two?” Ruby asked after Yang stole a kiss while Blake wasn’t paying attention, making her ears twitch in surprise.

“What do you mean?” Blake asked, her cheeks blushing a soft red.

“You're like...extra lovey-dovey with each other.”

“I’m not allowed to love my girlfriend?” Yang asked, sharing a warm smile with Blake.

Shaking her head, Ruby decided that she probably didn’t want to know what was up with them.  For all she knew, they were celebrating some sort of anniversary that should not be shared with siblings or any other family members.  No thanks.  Her ears didn’t need to bleed today!  Then they’d probably rush her back to the hospital, and they’d have to start this whole thing all over again.

“How are you feeling?”  Somehow, Blake managed to peel her attention away from Yang just long enough to ask Ruby that question.

“Good as new!”  Flashing two thumbs up, Ruby grinned.  “I feel like I could run a whole marathon and not get tired!”

“That’s great!  Cuz I’ve been meaning to organize my shoes forever.”  

Ruby stuck her tongue out at her sister when Yang laughed.

“I’m not gonna run around!  But I feel fine,” Ruby added before glancing at the clock over the stove.  “Shouldn’t you be leaving soon?  I thought the concert was in an hour!”

“It is.  And yes, we should be,” Blake answered before giving Yang a playful shove towards their room.

Tonight was the night of the Achievemen concert Weiss gave Yang tickets to.  Thankfully, Blake had convinced Yang not to blast the albums on repeat all day long - something about how Blake didn’t want Yang to ‘wear out’ the songs before they heard the live versions.  And there may have been a more violent threat whispered right after that, but it had been too low for Ruby to hear.  It made Yang more than willing to agree though!

“This is gonna be the best night ever,” Yang said with a smile.  “Just me, Blake, and backstage passes to meet the Achievemen.  We’ll be close enough to see them sweat!  Isn’t that awesome??”

The look on Blake’s face said that that was not at all awesome, but she nodded anyway.  

When Yang got excited like this, her mood was impossible to dampen.  A fire hose wouldn’t even be enough to calm her down.  Ruby would love to try that out though, just in case.  But it probably wouldn’t work, and then Yang would be mad that Ruby sprayed her with a fire hose.

“We even get to meet them after the show!  Gonna get some autographs for sure,” Yang continued happily.  “Next time you’ve gotta come, Ruby.  You’d have a -”

The sentence abruptly cut off as Yang’s smile fell.

“Oh shoot!  We need someone to watch Ruby if we’re gonna be gone!” Yang said, turning to Blake with an expression of concern.

“Yangggg, come on - I don’t need a babysitter!” Ruby whined.  “I can take care of myself!”

“Uh huh...and what’re you gonna do if your brain tries to explode itself again?” Yang retorted.  

“I’m pretty sure that won’t happen!”

“How sure?”

“I’m not a doctor!” Ruby replied, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.  

Following the conversation, Blake tapped her fingers thoughtfully against the countertop before intervening.

“I’m sure Weiss would be willing to come over,” she suggested.  Ruby’s eyes widened at the idea - which was genius.  Leave it to Blake to figure out the best solution ever.

“That’d be pretty cool if Weiss came over!” Ruby quipped, her happy endorsement making Yang smirk.

“Oh really?  What was all that whining for then?”

Furrowing her brow, Ruby nodded her head as if she was seriously pondering her sister’s words.  “I’ve reconsidered that, and...I think it would be a good idea to have someone here.  Just in case.”

When Blake shook her head and Yang laughed, Ruby couldn’t help but smile.

“Ok, short stack.”  Yang reached out and tried to rustle Ruby’s hair, but Ruby successfully dodged out of the way.  “Why don’t you see if Weiss can come over now?”

Grinning at the question, she almost used her semblance to blast to her room to retrieve her scroll.  But she didn’t.  She walked quickly.  Which was still so freaking slow.  At this pace, the concert would be over by the time she reached her room, and then she’d never get to see Weiss.

It took a gazillion steps to get out of the kitchen and another quadrillion to make it down the hall, but she eventually made it to her room.  Grabbing her scroll off the bed, she typed out a quick message.

‘Blake and Yang won’t leave for the concert unless someone is here to watch me.  Can you come over?’

She only waited a few seconds for Weiss’ response to arrive - a very succinct ‘On my way.’  Weiss always had such concise answers.  Even her messages were tidy - it was cute!  

Er, it was...interesting.  Which apparently meant the same thing as cute these days.

Beaming at what had unexpectedly become an awesome evening, Ruby decided to keep the scroll with her so that she wouldn’t have to cross Remnant to get it again.  After another full day of walking, she flounced into the living room and caught her sister and Blake at the end of a kiss.  

“She’s on her way!” Ruby announced, but her presence did nothing to put space between them.  

Jeez...what happened to the days when they’d separate a little bit?  Not that she cared - they were in love and happy.  It was just weird to remember that there was actually a time when they’d acted completely different around her.  

A lot had changed since then.  

Ending the kiss and playing with Blake’s hair, Yang smirked and rolled her eyes at Ruby’s news.  “Of course she’ll drop everything to get here right away...” she muttered.

“But someone will be here to watch Ruby,” Blake replied, taking Yang’s hand and pulling her towards their bedroom.  “So now we can get ready to leave.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone is excited to see the Achievemen!” Yang called out, allowing Blake to pull her down the hallway.  Ruby laughed at the idea that anyone but Yang liked that band, but she couldn’t hear Blake’s muffled response.  She could imagine it though!  It was probably something super clever and witty like ‘ha, you wish’ or ‘yeah, right’ or…

There was a reason why Blake was the witty one and not Ruby.  She sucked at being witty under pressure!

Since it would take another year or two to walk to her room and back, Ruby hopped up onto the kitchen counter and waited for Weiss to get there.  Because Weiss was coming over!  Ruby had planned on spending her alone time in the workshop, but this was way better!

Even though they’d been in near constant communication via scroll, Ruby hadn’t seen Weiss since the hospital.  That was only a couple of days ago, but it felt like they’d been apart forever.  Sending messages was nice, but it was nothing compared to hanging out in person!  A message didn’t have Weiss’ voice or her eyes...that would be really weird if they did though.  Oh!  They could video message!  Although Ruby had to wonder if Weiss would be ok doing that.  It wouldn’t be an option when Weiss was at work or doing something important, but maybe at other times?

Waiting for the time to pass, Ruby swung her feet and traced her fingers along the scar on her wrist.  It had been a long time since her arm really hurt.  Sometimes there was a slight achiness in it when she overused it, but even that was disappearing with time.  The scar would never disappear though, which was fine with her.  It gave her something to remember the injury by since she didn’t have the actual memories of it.  Plus, scars were supposedly attractive, right?  She’d heard Yang say something about that once...and she definitely agreed when thinking about the small scar that ran across Weiss’ eye.

Amongst all the interesting things Ruby had ever learned, one of the most interesting was how interesting Weiss was!  She was basically...all thought-consuming.  For the longest time, Ruby had had such a one track mind - it was training, training, training, and nothing else.  Then bam!  Weiss walked into their life, and suddenly she was all Ruby could think about.

Ok, Weiss hadn’t walked in with a bam.  The door hadn’t made any sort of noise.  And maybe it was more appropriate to say that Ruby now had a two-track mind.  One track was reserved for training and becoming a huntress, but the other was exclusively for Weiss.  Because Weiss was very, very...interesting.

Hearing Blake and Yang’s voices carrying out of the hall, Ruby looked up from her wrist.  The two were dressed for a night on the town, as Yang liked to call it.  Walking into the living room, they rummaged through the hallway closet for whatever shoes they were going to wear to the concert.

“Jeez Ruby - waiting for someone?” Yang teased while indiscriminately tossing several miscellaneous shoes out of the closet.

“It takes forever to walk anywhere!” Ruby complained, kicking her feet in exasperation.  

“It only feels like forever because you’re used to moving twice as fast as regular people do,” Blake commented with an amused expression.  Somehow, she’d already found her shoes and put them on when Ruby hadn’t noticed.

“Welcome to how the rest of the world feels!” Yang added with a cheeky grin.

“It sucks,” Ruby moped from the countertop.  “You’re all so slow.”

Chuckling at the response, Blake walked over to the front door and opened it - revealing Weiss just stepping up onto the front porch.  Not at all surprised that she hadn’t been able to knock, Weiss merely looked at Blake and shook her head in admiration.

“Hey Weiss,” Blake said with a sly smile as Ruby let out an ‘eep!’ and jumped down from the counter to greet their guest.

“Weiss!” she called out, meeting Weiss right inside the front door and pulling her into a quick hug.  “I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Yes, we’re all very fortunate you could make it,” Blake added with a grin while handing Yang the second shoe she’d been searching for.

“Aha!” Yang exclaimed as she took it and slid it onto her foot.  After checking her pockets and bag for the tickets, she gave Blake a thumbs up.  “Now I’m ready!”

“Guess we can finally leave,” Blake teased, taking Yang’s hand and heading towards the door.  “Getting you there on time will be an achievemen-t of its own.”

When Ruby groaned, Yang laughed and pulled Blake close to place a kiss between her ears.

“Have I mentioned that I love you today?  Because I totally love you,” Yang remarked with a big grin before finally acknowledging Weiss’ presence.  Her smile fell a bit, but she cleared her throat and spoke first.

“Uh, thanks for the tickets, Weiss,” she said, lifting her hand in a loose fist and making a motion like she wanted Weiss to bump it with her own.  Weiss didn’t understand the gesture at first, but eventually caught on and lightly tapped her knuckles against Yang’s.

“You’re welcome,” she replied, managing a small smile of her own as Yang stepped outside with Blake.

“Oh yes, thank you for encouraging this unhealthy obsession,” Blake teased.

“Just wait, Blake.  By the end of the night, you’ll be begging me for their albums.”

“Yes, so that I can burn them.”  

Chuckling, Yang suddenly stopped and turned back to the house, pointing a finger towards Ruby and then Weiss.

“And you two - don’t do anything Blake and I wouldn’t do.”

“There are actually things you won’t do?” Ruby joked.  

After making a face at Ruby, Yang pulled the door shut with a “Be back later!”

Left alone in the house, but still able to hear the two girls talking outside, Weiss turned and smiled at Ruby.  Ruby’s excitement immediately shot through the ceiling - because Weiss was here!  They got to spend the night together!  Or like, maybe not the night, but at least until the concert ended.

“How are you feeling?” Weiss asked first.  About an hour had passed since she’d asked that question, so it was exactly what Ruby expected.

“Perfectly peachy!” she replied with a big grin.  “Absolutely amazing!  Fantastically fantastic!  Extra uh...excellent!”

Weiss pursed her lips at the slew of words.

“I’ve been asking that too much, haven’t I,” she said, her clear blue eyes saying that she already knew the answer to that question.

“Nope!  Well, yeah, a lot, but I totally don’t mind!”  Using her best ‘totally not minding’ face, Ruby successfully erased the concern from Weiss’.

“Well, how about I ask you a different question then?” Weiss asked with a hint of a smile that had Ruby hanging onto every word.  “What would you like to do now?”

“Something Yang and Blake wouldn’t do!” Ruby immediately answered, throwing her hands up in the air in excitement.  “So...clean, maybe?”

The joke made Weiss laugh - and Ruby really liked it when Weiss laughed.  There was something so rewarding in seeing light blue eyes sparkle with joy and, for a brief moment, catching a glimpse of a different person - the cheerful, less poised version of Weiss peeking through every expression of true happiness.   

If only there were a way to get Weiss to laugh more...then maybe that other version of her could stick around longer...

Oh!  Ruby happened to know an extra-awesome and super-effective way to make someone to laugh oodles.  Duh, why hadn’t she thought about this before?  It was only something Yang did to Ruby all the time.

“I have an idea.”

“Really?  What is it?”

Weiss’ willingness to hear the idea was super adorable, but Ruby didn’t need to say it out loud. Instead,  she raised her hands and wiggled her fingers in the universal ‘I’m gonna tickle you’ gesture.  Eyes instantly widening in recognition, Weiss took several steps away.

“Ruby…” Weiss’ voice was low with warning while she inched towards the living room.  “Don’t you dare.”

When Ruby grinned and stepped forward, Weiss took another step back to match.  But Weiss was backing into the living room, where there was very little opportunity to escape.  The furniture would work perfectly in Ruby’s favor - allowing her to pen the girl in.  And if she could get Weiss to the sofa, she would win.  Ruby knew all of this from personal experience - on the losing side of things, of course.

Frozen in a draw, each of them waited for the other to make the first move.  It was just like sparing!  One of them had to move first, and the other would try to react in time.

Grinning at the comparison, Ruby decided to make the first move.  She faked a step forward and to the left, which Weiss instantly reacted to, but Ruby was expecting that reaction.  Planting her foot on the ground and quickly pivoting the other direction, she just barely managed to reach out and wrap her arms around Weiss before she slipped out of reach.  Spinning around, Weiss tried to escape backwards, but all she managed to do was drag Ruby right along with her as they both collapsed awkwardly onto the sofa - which played right into Ruby’s advantage.  

As soon as they hit the soft cushions, Ruby unwrapped her arms from around Weiss’ waist and tickled Weiss’ rib cage - by far the most ticklish spot for most people.

And, interestingly enough, Weiss was ‘most people.’  She let out the most adorable squeal Ruby had ever heard while struggling to get away from the tickling fingers.

“Ruby!  You -!”

When Weiss’ words dissolved into uncontrollable laughter, Ruby grinned and continued the relentless onslaught of tickles.  Weiss looked so happy right now, even as she squirmed and tried to free herself.  But there was no way she was getting away from Ruby - Ruby was the tickle master-in-training!  Or more of an apprentice.

Wiggling her fingers in between Weiss’ ribs, Ruby laughed as she dodged a flailing arm that almost whacked her in the head.  She should’ve tickled Weiss way earlier!

“Alright!  You -!” Weiss gasped before a few more giggles escaped.  “R-Ruby you win!”

Hearing the magic word, Ruby immediately stopped and grinned down at Weiss, satisfied with the victory.

“God, Ruby - you...dolt,” Weiss huffed, trying to regain her breath while a soft red colored her cheeks.  “You’re...trying to kill me…”

Even though Weiss was pretending to be annoyed, she was still smiling.

Weiss was really pretty when she smiled - a real smile and not those guarded ones she normally used.  Like, she was really, really pretty.  And when she was lightly panting through slightly parted lips, staring up at Ruby with intent blue eyes that seemed to see right through her, with the two of them intertwined on the sofa...it almost felt like Ruby could - or she should - lean down, closing the small gap between them and -

Coughing into her hand to clear that sudden thought from her mind, Ruby refocused on Weiss.  On Weiss’ eyes, not her lips.

“Death by tickles, huh?” Ruby asked, sitting up in order to put some space between them and bury the random craving she’d just had.

“It’s possible,” Weiss replied with a serious expression as she sat up, too.

“Nuh uh -”

“Yes ‘huh,’ it’s happened before.”

Giggling, Ruby patted Weiss on the shoulder.  “I’m not falling for that one!”

“Want to look it up?”  

A smirk accompanied the question - marking it as a challenge.  Ruby’s resolve wavered at the look.  If Weiss was willing to look it up, maybe she was right.  Or...maybe she was bluffing and hoped Ruby wouldn’t catch her.  But that would be tricky.  Was Weiss tricky?

Staring at Weiss for what felt like forever, Ruby searched icy blue eyes that were much warmer than their color implied.  There had to be a hint in there somewhere...something that gave away whether or not Weiss was bluffing…

When Ruby narrowed her eyes, Weiss playfully narrowed hers in turn.  

If Weiss was lying, what would give it away?  Would it be in her eyes?  Would they slightly squint or change color?  Would her pupils be a little bigger than usual, or would she have the tiniest hint of a smile?

Suddenly stumbling over the answer, Ruby beamed in delight.  There was one.  Weiss had a tell!

“Ok,” Ruby replied, sitting nice and straight on the sofa cushion.  “Let’s look it up then.”

Weiss was good.  Very composed.  She hardly flinched at Ruby’s words, but when Ruby reached for Weiss’ scroll to put this matter to rest, a hand shot out to stop her.

“Wait.”  

Ruby beamed at the single word, ready to accept her tiny triumph while Weiss looked baffled at how her bluff had been called.

“Alright, you got me.  How did you know?”

“You have a tell, Weiss!” Ruby exclaimed, more excited about finding that than about being right.  But her words only made Weiss blink in confusion.

“A...tell?”

“Yeah!  A tell - like something you do when you’re lying!  I just figured it out!”

“What??” Weiss asked in shock.  “I do not have a tell.”

“You totally do!”

“Then what is it?”

Sensing the trap and successfully hopping over it instead of falling into it, Ruby shook her head - sending her hair flying all over the place.

“No way - I’m not telling you!  Then you’ll just stop doing it!”

“But...you have to tell me!”

“Why?” she asked, laughing at Weiss’ miffed expression.

“Because!  I...you...you just should!”

“That’s super not convincing!” Ruby replied gleefully.  “But maybe you can persuade me to part with my secrets?”  When Ruby playfully batted her eyes, Weiss looked more shocked than anything else.

“How?”

“I dunno.  What’s something really awesome that I might want?”  

When the question made Weiss blush and turn away, Ruby’s cheeks warmed up too.  Had Weiss just thought about what Ruby had just thought about?  Or something completely different?  Something better?

What had Weiss just thought??

“I’m not sure…” Weiss mumbled before turning back to Ruby - the moment of indecision already gone and replaced by a more assured persona.  “One million chocolate chip cookies.”

Ruby burst into giggles at the offer.  Because yes, that was amazing and yes, that was something she’d want, but also because Weiss looked so serious about it!  Like this was some business deal and she’d literally hand over a million cookies in exchange for the information.

But Ruby couldn’t be bought so easily!  Well, maybe normally she could, but not this time!

“Noooo thank you!”

The reply made Weiss’ mouth fall open in surprise.

“You’re turning down a million cookies,” she stated in disbelief while Ruby nodded, pleased with her random thread of self-control.

“Yup!  I think this information is much more valuable than that.  Plus, I don’t think I could eat them all before they went bad!”

Maybe she could, but that was an awful lot of cookies.  What would that even look like?  Would they fill her room?  The whole house?  The neighborhood would probably smell like heaven!  How much milk would she need to eat that many cookies?  They’d have to get their own cow!  She’d name him Herman.  Wait - did boy cows make milk?

While Ruby contemplated the logistics of receiving one million cookies, Weiss tapped one finger against her knee, furrowed her brow, and bit her lip in the most adorable display of concentration as she tried to figure out how to pry the information from Ruby.

“What do you want…?”  

The question wasn’t directed at Ruby - it was more like Weiss said it to herself while trying to find the answer in Ruby’s eyes.  

What did Ruby want?  She wanted a lot of things!  But knowing when Weiss was trying to lie would probably be super valuable.  Maybe she’d be willing to exchange the information for…

Instantly blushing when her brain jumped to something she would absolutely give up the secret for, Ruby averted her eyes and blew a puff of air through her lips.  

Why was that her answer?  Why was she thinking about that so much right now?  Hopefully Weiss’ superpowers didn’t include mind reading.  Otherwise Ruby was in for a world of first-class embarrassment right...about…

Now.

When Weiss’ finger kept tapping her knee and nothing else happened, Ruby grinned and wrapped her arms around her legs.

“I can’t think of anything!” she remarked.  It was a fib.  A big, fat one.  There was one thing she couldn’t stop thinking of right now, but there was no way she could ask for that!  No, she’d just keep the information safe and sound for now.

“Nothing?”

“Nope!  Plus, I like knowing something about you that no one else does.  Even you!”  

That last part was the truth.  Knowing this information made Ruby special, and she really, really liked the idea that she was special - at least, she wanted to be special when it came to Weiss.

Tilting her head to one side, Weiss stared at Ruby for a long time.  Obviously, she hadn’t expected Ruby to be so difficult to crack.  Which was probably smart thinking - it wasn’t every day Ruby found the resolve to turn down a million cookies!  She’d probably take that deal ninety-nine times out of a hundred.  Weiss was just unlucky tonight.

“But maybe I’ll tell you one day!” Ruby added with a grin.  Weiss stared for a few more seconds before smiling and shaking her head.

“You’re obviously feeling better.”

“Yup!  I’m great!”

“Good.  Because I really don’t want to take you to the hospital again.”

“And you’re telling the truth!” Ruby added playfully, making Weiss’ eyes narrow in thought once more.

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

“You think I’d turn down a million cookies and then just hand this priceless knowledge out for nothing??  No way!”  Shaking her head, Ruby added, “They’d have to offer me something better!”

“Such as…?”

“Uh, such as…”  Racking her brain, she tried to come up with anything that could possibly be better.  It was really hard!  Weiss had nailed that offer even if Ruby hadn’t accepted it.

“Yang would have to shave her head!” Ruby said before laughing at how funny it would be to see her sister with no hair.  “Oh!  Or, Blake would have to let me take Gambol Shroud apart and tinker with him for an entire - three days!”

That last one was quite enticing, too!  

Chuckling lightly, Weiss shook her head.

“So never.”

“Basically.  It’s cookies or bust.”

Satisfied with that answer, Weiss nodded and leaned against the sofa.  Ruby collapsed backwards too, grinning all the while.  Being around Weiss was always really fun and...easy.  It was kind of weird because they hadn’t known each other that long, but they were already pretty comfortable around one another!  Maybe they hadn’t known each other for years like some friends did, but that didn’t matter, right?  As long as they had a good time together, they could be great friends!

This ‘making friends’ thing was easier than she’d thought.  It probably helped that Weiss already knew Yang, but Ruby would take all the help she could get.

With their shoulders barely touching, Ruby waited for a few seconds in silence before deciding that she needed to say something.  She was the host, after all!  It was important to keep guests entertained and not bore them to death.  And it was possible to bore someone to death - look it up!

“So we did what I wanted to do...now what do you wanna do?” she asked, shifting in her seat to look at Weiss.

“I thought I was supposed to watch you.”

“You’re just going to sit there and look at me?”

Smiling, Weiss shrugged at the question.  “Sure, that wouldn’t bother me one bit.  But is there anything else you’d like to do?”

That was a great question.  What did Ruby want to do?  There were so many choices!  The world was their oyster!  Except that they probably shouldn’t leave the house, and Ruby wasn’t allowed to do anything more physical than shuffle her feet across the floor.  

The world was their slightly-restricted oyster!

There were still lots of great options though.  They could go for a walk around the house - that would take them into next century.  Or they could go into the garage and work on something  - maybe Weiss would want to work on a project with Ruby?  That’d be cool!  Or they could hide Yang’s shoes outside.  Or...

“Oh!” Ruby exclaimed when an idea popped into her head.  “I know!  We can practice my hand-eye coordination!  Can you use your glyph-things to throw stuff at me?  Do they work like that?”

When Ruby hopped off the sofa, Weiss’s eyes followed her.

“Yes...but throw what ‘stuff’ at you?”  

“Um…” Unsure about an answer, Ruby glanced around.  What was small and a good projectile?  

Leaving the sofa behind, she walked into the kitchen and started opening drawers in search of something to use.  “Aha!” she remarked in success, pulling a handful of silverware out of the drawer and turning back to Weiss.  “How ‘bout these?”

Looking from the silverware to Ruby and back again, Weiss’ expression was one of pure incredulity.

“Let me get this straight...Yang made you invite me over to make sure you don’t end up back in the hospital, but you want me to shoot knives at you and hope you can catch them before they impale you?”

“Yeah!”

Smiling, Weiss shook her head.  “No...I’m not going to do that.”

Her balloon of excitement deflating, Ruby dropped the silverware onto the table as Weiss stood and joined her in the kitchen.  Moving with an air of determination, Weiss methodically searched through the drawers herself before pulling open the fridge and rummaging around inside.  A few seconds later, she emerged with a bag of grapes in hand.

“I would be willing to throw these at you though,” she said with a pleased grin.

See?  This was why Weiss was so much smarter than Ruby.

“Yes!”

Pumping one fist in victory, Ruby slowly and carefully made her way back to the living room and stood in front of the television.  Ok, that was a lie.  She kind of, sort of ran-hopped.  But Yang wasn’t around to say whether or not it was too fast.  A speed limit was useless unless there was a cop around to hand out tickets!

That didn’t mean Ruby was dumb enough to use her semblance though.  One runaway petal and she’d be as good as caught red-handed.

With Ruby in place, Weiss took a seat on the sofa and set the bag of grapes on the cushion beside her (the coffee table had yet to be replaced after its unfortunate accident).  Carefully plucking one grape out of the bag, she held it up for Ruby to see.

“Are you ready?”

Rubbing her hands together, Ruby nodded and focused on the small, green orb between Weiss’ fingers.  Nodding in return, Weiss tossed the grape towards Ruby in a slow, meandering arc.  

Ruby was about to complain that that was way too easy - then a white/blue glyph appeared out of nowhere.  The instant the grape hit the glyph’s surface, it shot off at a completely different angle and nailed Ruby in the side like a friendly version of a mini rocket.

“Wow!” she exclaimed, watching the grape roll away from her before turning back to Weiss.  “That was super fast!”

“Did you think I’d take it easy on you?”

Stunned by the response, Ruby looked at the grape on the floor before grinning at Weiss.  There was a playful sparkle in Weiss’ eyes that suggested Ruby should’ve known better than to expect such an easy game.

Well, she knew better now!

“Ok,” she said, bending her knees and raising her hands in preparation.  “I’m really ready this time.  No more drops!”

Nodding, Weiss held another grape up so Ruby could see.  This time Ruby made sure to focus all her attention on the tiny orb - every single bit of focus she had in her entire body.  

In not-really slow motion, Weiss drew her hand back and let it fly.

Determined to catch this one, Ruby pinpointed the grape in the air and figured out its trajectory - but the game didn’t stop there.  At the first glimpse of white, she locked onto the glyph as it appeared and determined the angle it was pointing in relation to the grape.  As soon as the two met, Ruby shot her hand out to where she anticipated the grape would go and closed her fingers around the squishy object.

“Aha!” she cried out in success, holding up the grape in victory.  

“Good job,” Weiss congratulated her with a smile.

“Yes!” Ruby exclaimed, hopping with joy.  “Blake’s gotta watch out - she’s not the only ninja anymore!  Ruby Rose is the sneakiest of sneaky in this house now!”  

Ruby waved her hands around like a ninja - making karate chops in the air - before a small object bounced off her side.  Looking around in surprise and finding another grape rolling away, she turned back to the sofa and found Weiss trying to stifle her laughter.

“Looks like you missed one, Miss Ninja.”

Playfully narrowing her eyes, Ruby popped the grape into her mouth and raised her hands at the ready.

“Oh, you think you’re soooo good at throwing grapes and stuff?” she teased.  “Bring it on!”

“You’re not ready for this.”

“I totally am!  You’re not ready for this!”

When Weiss arched one brow at the lame comeback, Ruby shook her head.

“Or something more witty than that!  Just - let’s see what you’ve got!”

Waving her hands around like the world’s most skilled goalkeeper, Ruby watched Weiss prepare for the next round of this battle between two equally matched foes.  Equally matched, as in one of them was not better than the other.

Maybe Ruby should be concerned by the handful of grapes Weiss was holding in one hand...but she wasn’t!  She was slick as a ninja!  Quick as a cat!  More Blake references!

Squeaking in surprise when Weiss threw not one but two grapes in the air, Ruby watched as two glyphs pointing in different directions successfully pelted both grapes into her on opposite sides.

Ok, so Weiss was pretty good at this.  

“Lucky shot!” Ruby called out before ducking as a grape whizzed over her head. 

She managed to catch one out of the next three grapes thrown her way, but the moment she paused to say “Aha!” two more ricocheted off of her back.  Her back!  Tossing the grape at Weiss - who deftly dodged out of the way - Ruby yelped while trying to catch two more, but they flew into her instead.

If this was a competition, Weiss was winning.  It wasn’t even close.  But it was still equally matched.

Ruby was going to catch the next one, but then the glyph rotated at the last second and sent the grape spinning off of her shoulder.  And the next grape stuck to the glyph for a half second longer than expected, the white patterns swirling together before firing the grape like a shot out of a cannon.

Every time Ruby squealed when a grape hit her, Weiss laughed.  And every time Weiss laughed, Ruby couldn’t help but laugh too.  

Laughing made it a lot harder to focus on the flying missiles, but she started having more success after the first dozen or so grapes.  Whenever she managed to catch one, she’d throw it at Weiss - only for it to fly right back at twice the speed.  

She was losing the battle and the war, but it didn’t matter when she was having so much fun.  

“Ok!” she finally called out, raising her hands in surrender (which only exposed her ribs for Weiss to hit with two last-second grapes).  “Ok, I give up!  You win!”

Slowly lowering her hands, Ruby beamed when she saw Weiss’ twinkling eyes and amused smile.

“So you’ve had enough?”

Ruby smiled when she saw the tease in Weiss’ eyes.  

Most of the time, Weiss was calm and collected.  But right now, she was...playful.  It was like she’d briefly let go of whatever plagued her and allowed herself to be happy and free.  

Playful, happy Weiss was now one of Ruby’s favorite things…

Looking at the floor littered with grapes, Ruby bent down to collect a handful for herself.

“Hey, it’s not that easy!” she replied while standing up with her ammunition.  “Why don’t you try?  Teach me your ways, oh wise one.”  

Ever a good sport, Weiss nodded and stood from the sofa.  Crouching slightly, she raised both hands like Ruby had just been doing.  After taking a brief moment to appreciate Weiss’ super cute expression of concentration, Ruby looked down at the grapes in her hand.

She didn’t have super cool glyphs like Weiss did.  She had her speed, but that wasn’t helpful in this situation - not that she was allowed to use her semblance anyway.  But what she lacked in awesome glyphs, she made up for in ingenuity! 

She could throw just one grape, but that wouldn’t be a challenge.  Two would also be pretty easy…

Fortunately, she had the element of surprise on her side - because she had a doozy of a plan!

Picking up a solitary grape, Ruby held it in her left hand and swung her arm back like she was going to throw it.  But, at the same moment she let that grape fly, she shot her other hand forward and threw the entire fistful of grapes at Weiss at once.  

It was brilliantly executed.

As was the glyph Weiss formed in front of her to capture all of the grapes in midair.  

Catching the flash of a smirk on Weiss’ lips, Ruby instinctively covered her head and turned as the grapes pelted into her - every single one of them bouncing off of her before falling to the floor.  

Only when the barrage ended did Ruby lower her hands and start giggling - looking over to the sofa to find Weiss laughing too.  And laughing Weiss was just...the best.

“How did you know I was gonna do that??” Ruby asked through her giggles, only for Weiss to smile and shrug.

“It seemed like something you would do.”

“Uh oh.”

“What?” Weiss asked, her expression quickly turning to one of concern.

“You know me too well,” Ruby concluded with a grin.  Relaxing, Weiss returned the grin with a smile - another one of those amazing smiles that reached her eyes and made them shine with joy.  

Ruby loved seeing that - she loved it when Weiss smiled so freely.  She loved it when Weiss relaxed and had fun.  And she loved being able to bring out this side of Weiss, if only for a few seconds at a time.

Ruby would’ve shared that smile forever, but Weiss eventually broke eye contact and looked at the mess of grapes on the floor.  As she did so, her walls slid back into place, and the carefree version of Weiss slipped away.

It was a fast change, and it left Ruby with a strange feeling of loss - but she wasn’t discouraged.  If Weiss was still here, there was nothing to be discouraged about.  

“Oh!  I have an idea!” Ruby said as a plan popped into her mind.  Runn - walking quickly to the fridge, she pulled out a carton before rushing back to the living room and pressing it into Weiss’ hands.  

“What’s way more awesome than grapes?” she asked, grinning at her genius idea.

Looking down at the carton in her hands, Weiss then looked at Ruby in disbelief.

“You can’t be serious -”

“Deadly serious!  Come on - it’ll be fun!”  Pressing her palms together, Ruby begged with her eyes - using the best set of puppy dog eyes she had.

After briefly biting her lip, Weiss fought back a smile while pulling two eggs from the carton and setting the rest on the floor by her feet.  Holding one of the fragile items up in the air, she gave Ruby a playfully serious expression that did little to mask her enjoyment of the situation.

“You’d better catch these.”

Taking the words as acceptance of the idea, Ruby giggled in delight while hopping over to her spot in front of the TV.

Honestly, she didn’t care if she caught the eggs or not.  All that mattered right now was that the happy version of Weiss was back.