#oh buddy you are hurtling toward an ending and it's going to be so so bad.)

[notbecauseofvictories]

you know, faulkner, there was a memorable moment when mason was monologuing smugly about how well and how cleverly he'd taken over the faith, steered the parish towards his desired ends. he believed he'd won, or at least that he could outpace anything that wanted to swallow him whole. look where that got him.

[knottedhearts]

Chratt: C.S & M.S

The triplets were in the middle of their latest chaotic attempt at a “Deaf, Blind, and Mute” cooking challenge. Nick had duct tape firmly across his mouth, glaring at both of his brothers with wide, exaggerated expressions; Matt was blindfolded and waving his arms around like he was trying to land a plane; and Chris had noise-canceling headphones on, which were blasting music so loud he couldn’t hear a word anyone was saying.

Their mission? Make a cake together. The reality? A total disaster.

“Alright, Matt,” Chris said, slipping behind him to “help” guide his hands toward the mixing bowl. He placed his hands over Matt’s, practically hugging him from behind, guiding the spoon through the batter with what could only be described as way too much enthusiasm. "Let me show you how it’s done,” he said, grinning.

“Chris, I swear if you don’t back up—” Matt started, but then remembered Chris couldn’t hear him. Chris just kept on grinning, oblivious, leaning even closer and dramatically stirring the bowl like he was giving a professional cooking demo. Nick was off to the side, flailing his arms, clearly trying to signal something, but with the duct tape over his mouth, he couldn’t exactly chime in.

Chris turned to look at Nick, smirking and shrugging. “Aw, poor Nick,” he taunted. “Got something to say, buddy? Or are you too…speechless?”

Nick, whose eyes could not have rolled harder, just flipped Chris off, causing Matt to snort with laughter.

“Oh, look, Matt,” Chris said, still blissfully unaware of anything Matt was saying, “our brother’s so emotional right now. Must be jealous of our bond.”

Meanwhile, Matt was trying to wrestle the whisk out of Chris’s grip, muttering, “Chris, if you don’t back up, this whisk is going straight across the kitchen.”

Chris, oblivious as ever, leaned in even closer, guiding Matt’s hand with dramatic flair and winking at the camera. "See, Matt, this is how you properly stir. Smooth, circular motions—kinda like I’m serenading you in the kitchen."

“Oh my god,” Matt groaned, but he was trying not to laugh. Nick, catching Matt’s exasperated expression, started clapping his hands silently, cheering him on, which only egged Matt on further.

Finally, Matt had enough. With a smirk, he yanked the whisk from Chris’s grip and flung it blindly, sending it hurtling across the kitchen—and straight into Chris’s shoulder.

“OW!” Chris yelped, yanking his headphones down and staring at Matt, who was now laughing so hard he could barely stand up. Nick, still mute, was doubled over, gasping with laughter behind the duct tape. He gave Matt a huge thumbs-up, his eyes gleaming with approval.

“Oh, so now you wanna communicate?” Chris muttered, rubbing his shoulder and glaring at Matt, though he was trying not to laugh. “I thought we were having a moment here.”

“Oh, we were having a moment, alright,” Matt said, finally calming down enough to catch his breath, though he was still grinning. “It just ended in me finally getting some personal space!”

Chris snickered, leaning in to ruffle Matt’s hair. "Fine, fine. Guess we can call it a blind date gone wrong.”

Nick ripped the duct tape off his mouth, wincing but laughing. “Please, for the love of all things holy, get this man a real date!”

The three of them collapsed into laughter, the kitchen a complete mess.

As the laughter died down, Nick, who was still catching his breath, looked around at the mess they'd made in the kitchen. He shook his head, chuckling, and said, "You know, all we’re missing here is a Yankee Candle, and Chris and Matt are ready for a full-on date night.”

Chris’s face lit up with that classic mischievous grin. “Exactly, Nick! You get it. Matt and I are just… meant to be.” He put an arm around Matt’s shoulders, pulling him in close, causing Matt to roll his eyes, but he played along for the video, leaning his head on Chris’s shoulder with an exaggerated sigh.

"Alright, Chris," Matt said, winking at the camera, “guess you finally wore me down. I’m all yours… for the next three minutes.”

Nick groaned, reaching over and smacking Chris on the shoulder. “God, I think I’m gonna be sick. Enough with the romance, please.”

“Oh, what’s the matter, Nick?” Chris laughed, throwing a playful punch back at him. “Jealous you’re not in on this action?”

Nick scoffed and grabbed a spoon, tapping it against Chris’s shoulder with a deadpan face. "Jealous? Nah. Just trying to save Matt from whatever cursed energy you’re throwing his way.”

Matt laughed, playing along "Oh, so Nick’s a hero now? All I remember is you over there silently judging us and cheering on my suffering!”

Nick shrugged, completely unbothered, before leaning in close to the camera. “Let’s be real, the people are here for this content.” He gestured between Chris and Matt. “If the internet doesn’t go wild over this, I don’t know what they will.”

Chris’s eyes sparkled with another idea. “Oh, don’t worry, we’re not done yet.” He grabbed the blindfold, motioning for Matt to put it back on. “We’re getting back into character, people.”

With a smirk, Matt slipped the blindfold over his eyes again, adding, “Alright, alright. Just for the fans.”

Nick handed the duct tape back to Chris, pointing to his own mouth and giving a theatrical sigh as Chris placed the tape back on. He took it one step further, pulling out a chef’s hat and putting it on his head, striking a ridiculous pose and pretending to be their “silent chef.”

Chris put his headphones back on, looking between Matt and Nick like he was ready to cause even more chaos. He slipped behind Matt once again, guiding his hands back toward the mixing bowl. “Alright, my blindfolded prince, let’s get back to where we left off.”

Matt snorted, rolling his eyes under the blindfold. “Whatever you say, chef. Let’s make some magic.”

Nick raised an eyebrow at Chris, smirking as he picked up a handful of flour. Without missing a beat, he tapped Chris on the shoulder, distracting him for just a second—then WHAM, he slapped a cloud of flour right into Chris’s face.

Chris yelped, stumbling back and pulling off his headphones, face covered in flour as he wiped his eyes. “NICK!” He lunged at Nick, who was now doubled over in silent laughter, the tape over his mouth bouncing with every laugh.

The two brothers started fake wrestling, laughing and grabbing at each other’s shoulders in a ridiculous display of floury chaos. Meanwhile, Matt just stood there with his hands up, like, “I’m blindfolded and not involved in this.”

Finally, Matt, still wearing the blindfold, called out with an exaggerated sigh, “You two done yet? I’d hate to interrupt true love.”

Nick and Chris paused, looked at each other, and then burst into laughter. Chris wiped the flour off his face and pulled Matt in for a big, messy group hug. “Alright, alright, truce… for now.”

The three of them turned to the camera, flour-covered, laughing, and absolutely chaotic. Nick peeled the tape off his mouth one last time and held up the spoon. "Alright, guys, this video went way off course, but if you’re still here, get yourself a Yankee Candle and enjoy the romance between these two idiots. I think we’re done.”

With that, the three burst into more laughter, calling it the best recording they’d had in ages.

[jays-supersonic-dynamo]

A Little Brother (Of Sorts)

“Perks of being an older sibling number one: being taller than your little brother. For now.”

just two short kings u.u

part of the 2022 ninbingo event ( @ninjago-bingo )

prompt used: small / also on ao3 here

-

-

Jay was fiddling with the training dummies again (for the thousandth time) when he caught a flash of blonde and black out of the corner of his eye.

He smirks inwardly and crouches down, pouncing at just the right moment and managing to catch a one Lloyd Garmadon in the act of… uh…

“What’re you doing, kid? Trying to sabotage my dummies again?”

“I’m not a kid!” Lloyd bristles, squirming in Jay’s grasp. “And I wasn’t doing anything!”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m eleven! And I don’t need to tell you anything!”

Jay snickers, and raises him higher. “Buddy, you’re not even a teenager yet! You’re a little itty baby—“

“Noo!!”

“—Teeny, tiny infant. And you’re what, four six? Four five? Three seven? Two foot?”

“No! No! No! And I’ll be even taller than you someday—“

“But right now you’re suuuper tiny, so small I could pick you up, and—“ Jay manages to dip Lloyd and pull him up again in a neat arc, even though the kid was super heavy, what were they feeding him, “PUNT YOU LIKE A FOOTBALL! INTO THE STRATOSPHERE!”

Lloyd squeals and grabs onto Jay for purchase as he’s swung. As Jay slows down, he schools his expression into a pout. “I — I’ll bite you!” He says, baring his razor-sharp teeth.

Never has Jay been more glad he was turned into a whole-ass snakeman that one time. He smiles, revealing his own (slightly less impressive) fangs. “And what if I bite you back?”

The kid’s red eyes narrow for a moment, carefully analyzing something. Then he throws himself forward, as if he were going to bite Jay’s arm off, his whole arm off, First Master he needed his arm—

The Blue Ninja yelps and releases him at once. Lloyd expertly lands on his feet, sticks his tongue out at the older, and scrambles away, back to the Bounty’s main cabin.

“I’ll get you next time, Garmadon!“ Jay shouts after him, shaking his fist. No he does not feel like a scorned Saturday morning cartoon villain, what were you talking about?

Next time, he’ll have to do a better job of catching Lloyd off guard. He wants to make it a Next Time, he’s discovered. Jay wants to embrace not being the shortest a little longer.

/ / /

Walking back from the comic book shop, a place that truly exemplified Lloyd’s happy childhood memories, was a bummer.

This whole thing was a bummer!

Sure, Jay’s never been more happy to be in the right body again, and he knows the rest of the guys feel the same (Zane no longer glitching, Cole no longer complaining, Kai no longer over-over-compensating) but it doesn’t feel fair.

Because Lloyd isn’t. He isn’t happy, he isn’t relieved, and he won’t be for a long, long time now. He had to make a tough decision, a sacrifice. He might have to make more. He might lose more. He’s lost so much already. He’s so young. He was so young.

The Final Battle is so much more close, hurtling towards them at frighteningly breakneck speeds.

It’s all coming to an end.

Jay shivers. First Master, was this a happy train of thought.

He slows his pace a little, so he was walking in time with Lloyd, now. His (once oversized) gi now fits him better, places where he once cuffed them to fit are now at his knees and elbows. His red eyes were downturned, and hidden behind blonde locks that were even more overgrown now, starting to curl slightly.

“Jeez Lloyd,” Jay tries, reaching to ruffle the kid’s hair lightly. “I didn’t know you were going for the teen bedhead that soon. You make me feel—“ Old, he doesn’t say. He shouldn’t. “I feel like I need to be telling you to get a haircut already! Like I’m a geezer now!”

It doesn’t land. But Lloyd turns his attention to Jay, and his eyes squint with the barest hints of a happy expression, and Jay feels a rush again. Distracting. He can be a distraction.

“And, oh—“ He flumps over dramatically, stumbling a bit to keep pace. “Now I’m the shortest ninja again. Seriously, Lloyd? Why’d your dad have to be like, ten foot fourteen—“

“Eleven foot two.” Lloyd quietly corrects, because he actually paid attention in Zane’s math lessons.

“I reveled in being taller than someone! And now you’ve—“ Not taken, something else? “You’ve made it impossible for me to live that dream. Ever again.”

“‘M sorry, Jay.” He mumbles, but oh, victory upon victories, Jay can now catch a smile. A small one, but a smile. “But… I’m taller than Kai now?”

And Jay does a double take. He snatches a look over to the Red Ninja behind them (who helpfully cocks an eyebrow at Jay’s antics) and then back at Lloyd. “Holy shit. Lloyd, I think you might be right!” Jay laughs, and he lets himself get louder, more animated. “And you’re taller than your older brother too, just like Nya! This is so funny. Imagine, being shorter than both of your younger siblings—“

“I can hear you, Walker!” Kai shouts from behind them.

Jay shoots him a smug look. “What’s wrong, Kai? Afraid to be down on my level?”

Kai fumes back, preparing a retort when—

Lloyd laughs. It’s small and still dampened but goddamnit, it’s a laugh.

Kai catches it too. Without missing a beat, he goes back to bickering with Jay.

Anything for their little brother.

[nicknellie]

Anonymous requested: Alex gets hurt and ends up breaking his arm, and Willie takes care of him. It really gets Alex down because he can’t drum and feels like he let the band down and he can’t use drumming to help with his anxiety and he feels useless because he can’t do much himself. Willie helps him with stuff he can’t do and tries to help him use other ways to cope with his anxiety. Lots of overprotective and soft caring Willie.

Snap

Alex had known it was a bad idea from the very beginning. Maybe it was the glint in Reggie’s eye, or the mischievous way Luke was biting his lip as he grinned, or the way they introduced the idea with, “You’re probably going to say no,” that had tipped him off. The point was, Alex had known that it was the worst plan his bandmates had ever come up with right from the get-go.

What he didn’t know was why he agreed to go through with it.

“You’re probably going to say no,” Luke had said when he and Reggie had entered the studio that morning. Alex had been trying to set up his drum kit, but looked up as they came in. He was immediately wary of the grin on Luke’s face. “But at least hear us out.”

“I’m worried,” Alex told them, glancing between each of them.

Luke waved a dismissive hand. “You’re always worried. Listen, it’s a great idea, I promise.”

“And,” Reggie added, “we’ve already got everything set up so it’ll be a total bummer if you say no now.”

Alex frowned. “What is it?” he asked warily.

“Just come with us, bro, I swear it’s awesome!”

Luke’s enthusiasm was hard to say no to, so Alex sighed and reluctantly stood to follow them out of the studio. He didn’t like the way his friends kept giggling at each other, then glancing back at him, and giggling even more. He didn’t like how this was a spontaneous adventure that he hadn’t had any time to prepare for. He didn’t like how he had no idea what the boys were planning.

But that didn’t stop him from following them.

They walked for a while, Luke and Reggie a few steps ahead of Alex, muttering conspiratorially between themselves. Eventually, they came to the top of a hill from which Alex could see the beach in one direction and the city in the other. Luke and Reggie stood side by side, then slid apart from each other in a grand reveal, announcing, “Ta-da!”

They moved apart to uncover a shopping trolley. A rusty, grimy shopping trolley that was missing a front wheel and looked as if it wouldn’t even be safe to push around a supermarket - somehow, Alex doubted that was what Luke and Reggie wanted to use it for in any case.

“Where did you get that?” Alex asked, eyeing the trolley.

“Washed up on the beach by my house,” Reggie said excitedly. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“You could say that,” Alex muttered. “You two seriously pushed it all the way up this hill?”

“Yep,” Luke said brightly, popping the ‘p’. “It took, like, three hours because the missing wheel kept making it turn and roll back down. We got it here though!”

He and Reggie high-fived.

“Uh-huh.” Alex had a dreadful sense in his stomach that he knew exactly where this was going. “And, uh... why did you want to show it to me?”

Luke grinned. He pointed to the trolley and said, “You’re gonna get in and we’re going to push you down the hill.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on!” Luke whined. “It’ll be fun!”

“I’m not concerned about it being fun, I’m concerned about it being dangerous!”

Luke scoffed and Reggie made a ‘pfffft’ sound. He slapped the side of the trolley. “This thing is perfectly safe! It’s sturdy - it survived being in the sea, remember?”

“It didn’t survive, it’s missing a wheel, which is the very thing that makes it dangerous,” Alex countered. “I’m not getting in that death-trap.”

“What if either Reggie or I go first?” Luke suggested. “You’ll see it’s safe, we can push it back up the hill, and you can have your turn.”

Alex shook his head. “You just said it took three hours to get this up here, I’m not waiting that long just to meet my certain doom.”

“There’s no doom,” Luke said.

“Alex, please,” Reggie said, breaking out the puppy-dog eyes. Alex felt his defences weaken.

And then Luke had to go and join in. BAM! Double puppy-dog eyes, both of his bandmates silently begging him to do that one simple task that would make them happy.

He sighed begrudgingly. “Fine. But if I die, you need to make sure my drum kit goes to someone who will appreciate it.”

“Gotcha,” Luke said, grinning from ear to ear. He slapped Alex’s shoulder. “Thanks, buddy.”

Against his better judgement and his choice, Alex steeled himself and clambered into the trolley. He felt the metal groan against his body weight, the cold rust digging into his bottom and back. It was probably staining his favourite pink hoodie, he thought with a grimace.

“Did you bring a helmet?” he asked, a nervous hitch in his voice. Now that he was in the trolley the hill looked a whole lot steeper.

Luke and Reggie laughed, readying themselves on either side of the trolley. Reggie said, “No. You won’t need one - we told you, it’s totally safe.”

“Are you ready?” Luke asked.

“Will it even matter if I say no?” Alex deadpanned.

“No. Okay, Reg, let’s do this. Three, two, one, go!”

Luke and Reggie, both clutching the trolley, took a great running start across the hill. As they gained momentum, Alex began feeling less and less steady and secure. He gripped the bars of the trolley for dear life; his eyes were open as they neared the edge, but only because it was an “I don’t want to look but I can’t not look” situation. As they drew ever closer to the drop, Alex felt the need to eject himself from the trolley but couldn’t make himself move.

And all of a sudden he was hurtling down the side of the hill, the trolley swerving unpredictably beneath him, running smoothly for a moment but then shooting off to the left or right with sharp turns that flipped Alex’s stomach. He collided with rocks, roots, and tree stumps that sent him and the trolley flying through the air for just a second before they landed without grace and sped down the hill once more.

Alex saw the main hazard long before he reached it but by that point it was about three minutes too late to do anything about it. As he gathered yet more speed, he found that he was headed directly towards a high barbed-wire fence. His mouth opened to scream but no noise came out.

Alex and the trolley smacked into the fence. In what Alex could only assume had looked like a spectacular acrobatic display, he was launched from the trolley and pinwheeled through the air, arms and legs star-fished around him. He landed in a heap on the other side of the fence, awkwardly jarring his arm on an unfortunately placed rock and then, because luck was not on his side, landed with the rest of his body weight on it.

Snap.

That didn’t sound good.

It didn’t feel good either. Immediately, Alex was aware that he couldn’t feel his right arm - the only sensation was a faint buzzing in it as if he had pins and needles.

He sat himself up, using his other hand for leverage, and looked at his arm. It was... not the shape an arm was supposed to be.

He had known this was a bad idea.

*

Six hours later, most of which had been spent in a hospital with a frantic Luke and an inconsolable Reggie, Alex had made his way to Willie’s place. The two of them were on the couch, Alex laying with his head on Willie’s lap and his face buried in Willie’s t-shirt, Willie gently carding his fingers through Alex’s hair. Alex’s right arm was wrapped in a pink plaster cast and hoisted up against his chest with a sling.

“This sucks,” he mumbled into the fabric of Willie’s shirt for what had to be the twentieth time that day.

Willie sighed. “I know, hotdog. Broken bones are never fun. But it’s only six weeks, right?”

“Six to eight,” Alex groaned. “That’s six to eight weeks where I can do pretty much nothing.”

“Hey,” Willie said gently. “Don’t give up so easily, it’s only been a few hours. I’ve broken a ton of bones skateboarding, and I know a whole bunch of fun things we can do while you’re all bandaged up.”

Alex harrumphed. “I can’t drum. So no band.”

“No playing with the band. That doesn’t mean you can’t hang out with them or go to rehearsals.”

“Great,” Alex said sarcastically. “That’s one really fun and exciting thing I can do - watch my friends have fun without me.”

“Stop it,” Willie said, voice a little firmer. Alex stopped. “They won’t be having fun without you because you’ll be there. A broken arm doesn’t stop you being their friend.”

Alex muttered to himself, “It’s stops me being useful.”

“What did you say?” Willie prompted.

Alex sighed haggardly and sat up, shuffling around to face Willie. “I said it stops me being useful. To them, to the band. I’ve let them down! We had three gigs lined up next week and now we don’t have a drummer so those will all be off. And what really sucks is that all of those gigs had managers and record execs coming to watch them, now they’re not going to see us. It’s my fault!”

Willie took his hand, the one that wasn’t strapped up to his chest with the sling. Alex felt him thread their fingers together and told himself to breathe. Breathe and look into Willie’s eyes. Calm.

“It’s not your fault, Alex,” Willie said, and as always whatever he said immediately made sense in Alex’s mind. Of course it wasn’t his fault - why would it be? “It’s nobody’s fault. The guys pressured you into getting in, you did, Julie wasn’t there to tell you all how stupid you were being, and I wasn’t there to at least offer you my helmet. We’re all a little to blame, but it’s not anybody’s fault, least of all yours.”

“I’m still letting them down,” Alex said quietly, struggling to maintain eye contact.

Willie shook his head. “You know that isn’t true. You’re Julie and the Phantoms - none of you have the ability to be disappointed in each other or let each other down. You’re like one person; if one of you is down, you all are.”

Alex was unconvinced, and it must have shown on his face because Willie sighed and continued.

“Remember last year when Reggie tried to fix his amp in the rain, got electrocuted, and then couldn’t play that school dance? So instead of getting mad at him you all took turns staying by his bedside, fetching him whatever he needed, keeping an eye on him, even helping him to the toilet and stuff like that?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “That was different. He could have died.”

“You could have died today,” Willie pointed out. Alex shuddered at the thought. “But okay. What about when Julie had a throat infection? You all started learning sign language to try and communicate with her. Sure, you all remembered that she could still hear you and that she could just write down what she wanted to say, but you were willing to learn a new language for her.”

“That’s still different!” Alex protested. He tried to throw his arms up in the air in frustration, but one was tied to his chest, so his left arm just flopped pathetically by itself.

“Why?”

“Because it’s Julie. We’d do anything for her.”

Willie fixed him with a glare full of love, unnerving and endearing at the same time.

“And they would all do anything for you too,” he said. “You know that. Tell me you know that, Alex.”

Alex swallowed thickly. “I know that,” he admitted quietly.

“And I would too,” Willie added, still gazing at Alex. “We’ve got this, hotdog.”

Finally, Alex felt the barest beginnings of a smile creeping onto his face. He squeezed Willie’s hand.

“We’ve got this.”

*

It was all well and good saying “we’ve got this” but the actual “getting this” part was easier said than done. It hadn’t been a day and Alex had already caved.

It had started that morning. He had woken up and been hyper aware of the cast on his arm. He could feel it like a hand clasped around his forearm, a sensation that couldn’t be shaken off or rubbed away. It had made his head tingle and he couldn’t seem to focus on much of anything.

When he’d gone downstairs, his father had tried to clap him genially on the shoulder, but being touched had felt like being suffocated. Alex hadn’t said anything, just tried to shrink away.

Then, inevitably and despite the nice greeting he had attempted to give, his father had launched into a spiel about why it was so awful that Alex had chosen to have a pink cast. It had sent his mind reeling, made his legs numb, and started his eyes watering.

So he had been feeling stressed. He had needed to get out of the house so he had gone on a walk - the nice breeze and the warm summer sun had been helpful, but there were so many noises outside. Birds chirped, bees buzzed, car horns honked, people laughed, footsteps echoed, leaves crunched, wind whistled, dogs barked, and every other noise the outside world created seemed stuck on an endless, repetitive, painful loop that attacked Alex’s ears and brain.

He could feel his anxiety beginning to spike. If one more thing touched him (in the metaphorical or literal sense) he was sure he would break.

He got a text from Willie: Going to be late but will bring a fun surprise!

Snap.

The floodgates opened and Alex began to cry. All he wanted was for things to be normal - he wanted his arm out of the cast, he wanted to drum with his band, and he wanted to see his boyfriend right now like they had planned.

So he did something stupid. He went to the Molinas’ house, let himself into the studio as he and the other boys regularly did, sat himself down beside his drum kit, slipped his cast-covered arm from the sling and began to drum.

It wasn’t the easy release it always was. It just hurt even more. Alex should have expected it; using a broken arm to whack a drum didn’t sound fun when put bluntly. But usually drumming helped so much, usually it made the tight feeling in Alex’s mind loosen. Not today.

Still, he kept drumming, because now it almost felt like he couldn’t stop.

It hurt.

He didn’t know how long he’d been there when the doors to the studio opened and Julie popped her head in. “Alex?”

Finally he let his arms fall to his sides, knackered and aching. His right arm was throbbing and there were tears running down his cheeks.

“Hey,” Julie said gently, hurrying towards him. She held her hand out, an offering for him to take it, but Alex shook his head and she withdrew it.

“Alex,” she continued. “I need you to put your broken arm back in the sling. Here, give me your drumsticks.”

He did as she said, grateful for order and instruction. He handed her his sticks, then winced as he manoeuvred his arm back into its sling.

“Is there anything you want me to do?” Julie asked softly.

Alex shrugged. How was he supposed to know?

Julie made the decision for him. “I’ll see if I can get hold of Willie.”

As she left the studio, Alex couldn’t help but laugh. Of course that would help and of course Julie knew that.

It wasn’t five minutes before Willie pushed the doors to the studio open and skated inside in one smooth move that Alex might have found impressive another time. He propped his board up against the wall and headed straight in Alex’s direction, crouching down beside him.

Alex fumbled to take Willie’s hand.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” Willie said quietly. “Julie said you were drumming?”

Alex nodded.

Willie huffed an affectionate laugh. “That was a dumb thing to do.”

Alex felt a smile tug at his lips. “I know,” he croaked. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” Willie said soothingly. “I know how hard this is for your. But, when your anxiety spikes we’re going to have to find other things to do in the meantime. Drumming isn’t going to do you any good.”

Alex nodded again. “I know. It hurt.”

“Do you want to head up to the hospital?” Willie asked, gently touching Alex’s broken arm where it was safely in its sling. He was probably imagining it, but Alex could have sworn that the pain went away when Willie touched it. “Make sure you’ve not done any more damage?”

“I think it’s fine,” Alex told him. Willie looked up at him, disbelieving. “I didn’t go hard, I’m not that stupid.”

“Okay then. I believe you. I’ve got something planned, but is there anything you want to do first? Or do you still need a little time to calm down?”

Alex squeezed his hand. “Can we just... I don’t know. Can you just sit with me for a while?”

Willie smiled and Alex felt his heart burst. “Of course, hotdog. Whatever you need.”

They moved to the couch and cuddled up together. Willie positioned himself so that he could easily press gentle kisses to Alex’s forehead - Alex didn’t know whether Willie had done that for his own enjoyment or for Alex’s, but he didn’t mind either way. Just having Willie there, holding him, supporting him, made him feel a whole lot better than he had before.

*

Alex hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but he found himself yawning as he woke up. He tried to stretch his arms, then remembered one of them was bound to his chest, and awkwardly let the one arm that had moved fall to his side. He heard Willie giggle and turned to face him where he was cuddled practically beneath Alex.

“Tired, sleeping beauty?” Willie teased, brushing hair out of Alex’s face.

Alex felt his face flush. “I’m not sleeping beauty,” he said. “I’m not any princess.”

“You got that right,” Willie said, pointing to a wet patch on his own shirt. “Princesses don’t drool on their boyfriend’s shirts.”

Alex rolled his eyes and laughed a little, pushing himself into a sitting position. Willie sat up too, and pressed a quick kiss to Alex’s cheek.

“Right,” Willie said, pulling Alex to his feet. “Ready to do what I had planned?”

“Okay,” Alex said, grinning.

Willie tugged on his arm and led him out of the studio. They walked together for a while, Willie talking his ear off about this and that and everything in between. Alex was grateful for Willie all the time, but especially in times like this - times when Alex was struggling for words and wasn’t feeling quite up to talking at all, and Willie would simply know when he felt like that and do all the talking for him.

Eventually, Willie came to a stop so sudden that Alex walked straight into him. Willie laughed and clutched Alex’s hand, pointing to the building they’d stopped outside.

It was a museum, one that Willie had taken Alex to many a time before. Alex knew how much Willie loved this place - the way his face lit up when he talked about all the different exhibits was endearing and downright beautiful. Alex didn’t ‘get’ art himself, but he would never pass up an opportunity to visit the gallery with Willie.

“What are we doing here?” he asked.

Willie shrugged. “I was brainstorming ways to help you combat your anxiety while drumming isn’t an option, and I remembered that they just opened a new temporary feature here. It’s all about noise being its own form of art and they’ve added an area where you can make your own.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Your own noise or art?”

“The point is that it’s both,” Willie explained, leading him inside. “And I think the way they’ve designed it could be a very effective stress-reliever. Come on.”

Willie led him through all the exhibits, wending his way through the bustling crowds with ease. He didn’t stop to talk about all the paintings and sculptures like he usually would, so Alex’s curiosity was piqued.

Willie pulled him into a room. Which was really all it was - just a room. It was relatively large with a plain white ceiling, floor, and walls (except for one which was entirely glass and showed the bright spring sunshine outside). Alex looked around for some instruction of what to do; Willie had said the exhibit was all about noise, but there was literally nothing in the room that could be used to make a sound.

“So... what do we do?” Alex asked.

Willie grinned. “You make your own noise.”

And then he screamed.

It was a long, loud, sustained note and when Willie finally finished he was grinning from ear to ear, looking absolutely exhilarated. Alex (impressed that Willie had held the note so long and now weirdly curious about his lung capacity) stared at him, dumb-founded.

“This is really what we’re supposed to do?” he asked sceptically.

Willie nodded vigorously. “Yeah, man, and it’s awesome! You just... let go! Shout all your worries away. Now you try!”

Alex nervously let out a weak little, “Ahhhhh.”

Willie laughed loudly and took hold of Alex’s shoulders. “Come on, bro, you’ve got to put some effort in. Come on, like this, ready?”

He screamed again.

Alex screamed back.

And for god knows how long, the two of them stayed together, screaming into each other’s faces, competing to see who could scream longest and loudest, and Alex hardly noticed that his worries were dissipating as he let himself be confident and have fun with Willie. The minutes ticked by into hours and they only stopped screaming when they were totally out of breath.

Willie blew his hair out of his face, eyes shining hopefully. “Feels good, right?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, pulling him into an awkward one-armed hug. “It does.”

*

Alex spent the night at Willie’s, not feeling up to going home. When they woke up to Alex’s alarm the next morning, Alex felt Willie shuffle into his side, head on Alex’s shoulder, clearly not wanting to get up.

“It’s, like, five o’clock in the morning,” Willie grumbled, throwing an arm across Alex’s midriff. “I want to stay in bed.”

“We’ve hit snooze a dozen times and it’s nearly eleven a.m.,” Alex returned, smiling fondly. “I’m very sorry but it’s time to get up.”

Willie sighed and rolled himself out of bed, grumbling about Alex interrupting his dream. Alex just laughed and sat up too, automatically looking for his own wardrobe and then remembering he was at Willie’s and had nothing to wear.

“I should have headed home and grabbed some clean clothes,” he thought out loud. A moment later he was struck in the back of the head by one of Willie’s t-shirts and a pair of trousers.

“Put those on,” Willie said as he pulled on a tricolour jumper. “I’m pretty sure they’ll fit.”

Alex picked up the clothes (a tie-dye crop-top and a pair of acid wash ripped jeans) and began his attempt at getting dressed. There were many things Alex had found that were hard to do one-armed, but putting clothes on was the biggest challenge, bordering on impossible. How was he supposed to get his arm through the hole if he wasn’t supposed to use his arm?

He heard Willie giggle somewhere in front of him and was glad that the shirt jammed over his head covered up his blush.

“Need any help, hotdog?” Willie teased.

“No, no, I’ve got this,” Alex lied. He shimmied a little, trying to get the shirt to fall down over his face.

There was another quiet little chuckle, and a moment later Alex felt Willie’s cold hands on his skin as he gently maneuvered Alex’s arms and head to go through the right holes. When the shirt finally was on properly and Alex’s eyes were uncovered again, he was greeted with the lovely sight of Willie smiling down at him affectionately, eyes bright and smile wide.

Willie finished helping Alex dress, ignoring Alex’s insistence that he really could do it by himself (”I think you’ve just proved that you can’t, hotdog.”) and the two of them left the house. Willie told Alex that he had planned another something to take Alex’s mind off the cast, this time down at the beach; Alex had no idea what it could be, but didn’t find himself stressing out at the thought of not knowing.

It was strange, but it made sense. After all, having Willie there to help him over the past few days had made Alex’s life a whole lot easier. Having Willie in his life at all made it that much more enjoyable. With Willie, Alex felt safe and able to trust himself and his boyfriend. He felt free, even though he was trapped by the cast.

He was certain that whatever Willie had thought up would help him get through the pain and the anxiety, and he couldn’t wait.

[fangirl-creates]

2 Weeks - An MvA One Shot

(Wrote this back in October but I figured I’d post it since I don’t have any problems with it—Likes and Reblogs are appreciated!!)

She thought the whole thing had been just a bad dream, but when she woke up back in that cold dark cell, she realized it was still reality. She couldn’t understand how all of this had happened so fast—one minute she was about to get married to the love of her life, the next minute she was growing 50 feet tall, tranquilized, and sent to a Government Facility without her consent. But that wasn’t the worst part...there were monsters here. And she was considered one of them. There was no way she would be put in the same category as those...things. She wouldn’t stand for it.

About 2 more hours past and the front wall of her cell opened up, making her eyes squint to the bright fluorescent lights. A booming voice came from outside—“Rise and Shine, little lady! Time for you to go socialize with your prison mates!”

Susan recognized that voice all too well; The General. She stood up and finally saw him more clearly, a pleading look in her eyes. “Do I have to..?”

Monger let out a sigh. “If you’re gonna stay here, you should at least get to know your fellow monsters. Might be good for you all...”

“But I’m not a M—”

Monger put a hand up. “I don’t want to hear it. Now let’s get a move on..”

****

Susan was brought back into that same room, the one with the ‘open space’ and bright lights on the ceiling. The Monsters weren’t there, thankfully, so she had some time to relax. But when they eventually did show up, she wouldn’t have that feeling anymore. She slowly walked over to her table—the one that had been modified so it was the same size as her. She sat at the chair, closing her eyes as she took a moment to breathe.

The sound of a metal door opening made her flinch, but she kept her eyes closed regardless. She heard footsteps on the ground—their footsteps. She heard their voices, which ironically was the only thing ‘human’ about them.

“Ah there she is,” The Cockroach was heard, his British voice was still polite as ever, but that didn’t mean she didn’t mind his gross cockroach head and bulging bug eyes.

“Is she trying to mediate or something?” The fish man was next. He was the one she didn’t like that much. His tone wasn’t very...nice.

“Maybe she’s sleeping!” Next was the blob. He didn’t seem to know what was going on. Or maybe he did? She didn’t want to ask.

“Well, we should give her some space. This is her second day after all.” The Cockroach told them.

Susan quietly sighed with relief. She wanted them to stay away from her...or her fear would kick in again.

She heard them move to the table that was a few feet away from her rather large one. They were playing cards, their voices slowly faded into muffled whispers as she zoned out.

After a while, Susan fell asleep, one of her arms supporting her head while the other dangled from the table. B.O.B watched with curiosity as he slowly made his way up one of the table legs.

“I wouldn’t do that, buddy.” Link whispered.

“I just wanna say hello!” B.O.B replied as he got up to the top. He and Susan were only a few feet apart now. He slowly made his way to her face and gently tapped her cheek. “Helloooo?”

Susan stirred, fatigue quickly kicking in as she slowly opened her eyes. When she saw who was in front of her, she jolted awake, her entire body flinching as the chair moved a bit. She quickly made sure there wasn’t eye contact between the two. But this made B.O.B a little upset.

“It’s ok!” He smiled. “I don’t bite.”

“You could at least look at him, jeez…” Link scoffed. Susan’s behavior towards them all was expected, but that didn’t make him any less offended by it.

Susan took a deep breath and slowly turned her head to face B.O.B. She realized he was like a pile of silly puddy compared to her. So if she wasn’t this size, it would have been a lot more terrifying. But she realized quickly that she was a bit more intimidating in this state. She looked down at him, not bothering to force a smile just yet. “Hi…”

This made B.O.B smile, his face beaming. “So you said your name was Susan, right? No Monster name yet?”

“That’s right.” Maybe the General hadn’t told them about her ‘Mandatory name change’ yet. Perhaps that was a good thing.

“Huh. What’s your story, Susan?” He asked.

“My...Story?”

“Like how did you become a Monster?”

“O-Oh...right.” What else did she have left to lose? They’d probably be the only ones who would understand anyway. “Well, I was at my wedding. And I went out to get some air, then my fiancé came out to see me~”

“Gross.” Link rolled his eyes, earning an elbow nudge from Dr. Cockroach.

Susan ignored him. “And then I was alone for a bit...then...a meteor came down and...crashed onto me.”

Dr. Cockroach suddenly sat up, looking up at her. “Did you say a meteor? As in...from space?” He sounded surprised.

“Yeah…I guess something inside it did this to me…”

“Fascinating.” He took out a little notepad and wrote that down. “It’s a miracle that you even survived such a thing!”

“Pfff—big deal. I bet if a meteor hit me, I’d survive too.” Link put his feet on the table, leaning back.

Dr. Cockroach raised a brow. “I don’t think you understand the pain a gigantic space rock hurtling towards Earth would cause you, my friend.”

“Well she survived!” He gestured towards Susan. “I bet I would.”

“Mhmm..”

“Hey, Doc don’t underestimate me!”

“I never said I did.”

Susan just stared at them. They clearly had some history together, not that she bothered to ask.

A giant roar suddenly made Susan stand up in fear, her giant seat falling down.

“Not this again…” Link scoffed, yelling up to her. “It’s just Insecto! He’s not gonna hurt you, lady!”

Susan wasn’t convinced. Insectosaurus was the only one that was bigger than her—and she was 50 feet tall now! But when she noticed how annoyed Link was by her action, she managed to relax just a little. They had feelings, they weren’t human, but they had feelings.

Link leaped from his chair and made his way to the giant bug, soothing him with a voice a parent would use for a child. This seemed to calm the bug down, and Susan as well.

****

Normally Susan was asleep in her nice soft bed, but not today—not anymore. The Bed that would flip out of the wall was not very comfortable. Susan hugged her arms, sniffling as her cheeks were stained with tears. She didn’t know how many times she was going to cry herself to sleep, but no one she knew was with her. Her parents and Derek probably thought she was dead...or going to die. And even though that wasn’t the case, she was still miserable without them.

Dr. Cockroach could hear her sobs, his sympathetic side kicked in, and he pressed a little key pad, calling Monger to his cell.

Monger eventually made his way there. “Yes, Dr.?”

“Sir, would it be alright if I checked on Susan? She doesn’t seem so good.”

“That’s what I’m for.”

“Please..? I know what it’s like for her…”

Monger pondered at that for a second. “No tricks? No escape plans you need her for?”

“Honest.”

Monger gave him a stare for a second, then a nod as he led him to Susan’s cell, closing the door behind them.

Susan wiped her eyes, not turning around, her back to whoever was there.

“Are you alright, my dear?” He asked gently.

Susan didn’t respond, hugging her legs close to her.

Doc scurried up the wall and onto the bed, settling on the pillow. Her face—or rather, the top of her head was right across from him. He sat criss-crossed on the pillow, his hands together in his lap. He took a deep breath before speaking, his antennas going down. “Listen, I understand how hard all of this is for you. You’re completely cut off from the outside world, you have to stay in this prison and you’re unable to go out and see the ones you love.”

Muffled sobs were heard in response to that.

“B-But!! If you learn to appreciate what you do have—A Bed, Food, Shelter, Frie—” He cut himself off. “You’ll come to understand that...this place isn’t so terrible.”

Susan sniffled, turning to face him as she laid on her stomach. Her big watery eyes were fixated on the Doctor. It was at this moment she didn’t feel disgusted by his presence.

“Oh, my dear...look at you.” He frowned. “Here here, dry those tears.” He took off his lab coat, handing it to her. “It’s clean, I promise.” He reassured her.

She sniffed, taking the coat which was very tiny between her fingers. “T-Thanks…” She smiled, wiping her eyes with it. “Oh...I got it all wet..” She frowned, putting it down next to him. “Sorry…”

“Not to worry! I might as well go casual today.” He gestured to his dark grey turtleneck, making Susan chuckle lightly.

“Hey…” She frowned a bit. “I’m sorry if I’ve been...a little rude to you all. Behind all the looks, you’re all just people to and not just—”

“Monsters?”

Susan bit her lip. “I know I know...I feel like a horrible person…”

“It’s alright, my dear.” He placed a hand on her finger. “It makes complete sense knowing where you came from. Just make sure you tell Link how you feel. He might have been a tad offended by your words.” He cringed.

“Yeahhhh...I’ll do what I can.”

He smiled. “Well, I should let you get your rest now.” He began to leave.

“Wait! You’re a...scientist, right??”

“Yes…?”

“Do you think...you could help me? Maybe you could find a way to shrink me back to normal!”

“Oh dear...that is a tall order…”

“Oh…” Susan frowned.

“But that doesn't mean I won’t TRY!!” A maniacal laugh followed that statement. “I’d love to help you out! If Monger doesn’t try to put an end to our plan.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. And, Doc..?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks...for the talk…” She smiled at him.

“Anytime, Susan.” He nodded, leaving.

Susan laid back on the bed, now on her back. Sure, she wanted her old life more than anything. But if it didn’t work out, maybe she could learn to like this place.

[omgrachwrites]

Tell a Tale of You and Me - Chapter Three

Pairing: Sirius Black x Reader

Summary: You knew that  making a bet with Sirius Black was like making a deal with the devil  but you just couldn’t help yourself. You had never been a heavenly  woman.

Warnings: fluff, pining, slight denial of feelings, Sirius being adorable

Words: 2205

A/N: Hope you guys enjoy this part, please let me know what you think and let me whether you want to be tagged! I love you guys so much! xxx

Chapter Three

Sirius huffed as he looked for his favourite jumper, it was the one that was lined with fake fur on the inside, and it was the warmest item of clothing the he owned and the weather outside told him that he would need it today. He threw the rest of his clothes that he hadn’t bothered to unpack from his suitcase and he still couldn’t find it. Grumbling swear words beneath his breath, he picked up another that would do nothing to protect himself against the cold weather and he threw it over his head.

The dormitory door opened with a bang, startling Sirius which caused him to get stuck in his own jumper, “Sirius,” a girl’s voice called out, it sounded angry. Sirius fought to free himself, and when he had, he found himself face to face with Lily. Her arms were folded and she was looking at him with narrowed eyes, her eyes were like two orbs of blazing green fire.

“What are you up to? Y/N told me that you were going to be helping her with her Quidditch performance which I’m happy about. But, since when have you done something nice for someone else and not expected anything in return?”

Sirius smirked, his handsome features enhancing as he did so, “oh, come on Lily!” he slung an arm around her shoulder which she immediately pushed off, “she’s my friend, and I know just how important this whole thing is to her. And, besides, I’d be extremely proud if she managed to kick Slytherin’s arse.”

His words did nothing to quell the angry look on Lily’s face, “yeah, well she’s my best friend, so you’re going to be on your best behaviour, otherwise…. I’ll hex you,” she threatened, pulling out her wand to show him that she meant business, “I’ve seen the way that you’ve been looking at her lately.”

Sirius chuckled, he admired the love that Lily had for Y/N but he didn’t know what Lily was talking about, he hadn’t been looking at Y/N any differently, “I’ll be good ma’am,” he gave a lazy salute as he shoved his broomstick beneath his arm, “c’mon. Let’s go,” he smiled and the two of them walked down the stone spiral staircase and into the common room.

Y/N was waiting for him by the portrait hole, her broomstick tucked underneath her arm.

“Have any of you guys seen my jumper, the green one?” he asked, Remus and James shook their heads and shrugged in response. Whereas, Peter smirked and looked over at Y/N.

Sirius’ grey eyes followed suit, it was the first time today that he’d actually looked at her. Her hair was loose against her shoulders; Sirius thought that it looked really pretty. Sirius also noticed that she was wearing a green jumper and she was smirking, “you’re wearing it, aren’t you Y/N?” he grinned and the pretty girl nodded.

“Okay, you caught me,” she said sarcastically, “it’s just so warm and comfy, it was really your fault for leaving it on the back of the armchair,” she sighed, “I suppose that you’ll be wanting it back now?”

“Oh, not at all, it looks so much better on you,” he winked, “and it brings out your eyes so perfectly Y/N,” he moved a strand of hair away from her face, so that he could see her eyes better. He cleared his throat and moved away from her when he realised what he was doing, in front of everyone, “come on, let’s get down to breakfast,” he smiled at her, his eyes crinkling and they both climbed out of the portrait hole.

“Breakfast? Are you mad?” Y/N scoffed with a giggle, we can’t eat and then ride brooms, it wouldn’t be pretty.”

Sirius pouted his belly rumbling as he did so. No breakfast? That was pretty much the worst news that he’d heard all year, “you know I get pretty cranky without my food.”

Y/N smiled at him, her eyes gleaming, “well, you know how much I love breakfast food too, but I’m sure that we can both survive without it.”

Sirius grumbled, feeling annoyed as they walked right past the Great Hall, away from all those amazing smells, “you’re lucky you’re cute, Y/L/N,” he chuckled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“You know Sirius; I really wish that I could say the same thing about you.”

Sirius gasped dramatically as he clutched his heart in mock heart, “you wound me so, pretty one.”

Y/N giggled and a comfortable silence fell over them as they crossed the cold grounds to reach the paddock where they were going to be training. It was like someone had cast a spell, for when they reached the paddock, Y/N almost immediately shied away from him, losing her usual snarky attitude. She glanced at him, before looking ahead into the dark trees that held a multitude of dangerous and magical creatures.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” Sirius frowned as he brushed his hand up against hers.

“I’m fine, it’s just,” she hesitated and sighed, “what if I make a fool of myself? What if I can’t do it?”

Sirius chewed his lip; she needed to have more confidence in herself because Sirius had confidence in her, “listen to me, Y/N. I want you to be proud of yourself, because I am, I’m proud of you. I want you to believe that you’re good enough, because you are,” he cleared his throat and ruffled his hair, chuckling nervously as Y/N beamed.

“Thank you Sirius, you’re actually really sweet when no one else is around. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” she giggled, “so where do we start?” she asked and Sirius smiled at her, they had better start with the basics.

“Summon your broom and mount it.”

Y/N narrowed her eyes at him and folded her arms, an expression of impatience flitted across her face, “that’s beginner’s stuff; I can do that, no problem.”

“Prove it,” he shot back with a smirk on his face, he knew that she couldn’t resist showing off.

“Fine,” she sighed before she summoned her broom and mounted it perfectly.

“Well done,” he smirked, causing Y/N to glare at him before he reached into his robes and pulled a little white ball from his pocket, “I thought that we could enchant this and use it as a snitch. Remus gave it to me; it’s called a ping pong ball. Apparently, muggles use it to play some sort of drinking game,” he smiled, the foreign word rolling off his tongue.

The ball was extremely light weight and he tapped it with his wand, muttering an enchantment to make it hover. It took off through the trees which caused Y/N to hurtle after it, her hair streaming out behind her. Sirius smiled and got on his own broom, hovering above the forest as he watched her.

She wasn’t particularly fast but that was to be expected, she hadn’t played in five years. All she needed to do was to admit how free she felt while she was flying, once she’d admitted that then she’d be able to play Quidditch in front of the whole school.

Y/N zoomed back over with the ping pong ball after a little while, her eyes were narrowed and Sirius could see challenge and determination glistening in them. Sirius gave her some tips that would help boost her confidence before he re enchanted the ball. This time, he made it go towards the castle, making it more of a challenge for Y/N. Y/N climbed up towards the cloudy grey sky until she was just a speck in the distance. The young man chuckled as she swerved and performed an impressive loop to avoid an oncoming turret.

They practised until the early afternoon and when Y/N was too tired to carry on, she beamed as she ran up towards him and she threw her arms around him, knocking the wind out of him. Sirius recovered quickly, chuckling as he lifted her off the grass, spinning her around in a circle.

“Thank you so much,” she giggled, her voice was muffled against the material of his jumper.

“You’re welcome,” he shot her a boyish grin as he set her back down on the ground, “I was thinking, it would be a smart idea if we were study buddies. James is great, but he distracts me too much. I would really like to be within a chance of graduating this year,” he was telling the truth; he really did want to graduate. But, he also wanted to spend more time with Y/N, she had become more fun over the summer, it seemed.

“Fine,” Y/N agreed which surprised Sirius, “I suppose that I do owe you one, don’t I?”

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

The rain battered the library windows, thunder cracked and lightning struck which caused you to jump every now and then. You sighed as you left scarlet ink splotches all over the rough surface of your parchment. You were working on your Defence against the Dark Arts essay; Sirius was late for your study session. You had been fool enough to believe that he actually wanted to get serious. People like him could never be serious; it wasn’t one of their capabilities.

Moments later, the boy in question came walking into the library, his wet shoes squeaking on the stone floor. You glanced up and forced back peals of laughter as you saw that he was dripping wet. Water droplets splashed from the ends of his long hair, he still looked so good. Your eyes followed the drops of water as they slid down his neck and disappeared beneath his collar. The muddy footprints that he left in his wake were enough to give Filch a heart attack.

“I’m really sorry that I’m late, sweets,” he shot you a dimpled smile, “the boys and I were setting up another one of our amazing pranks,” he chuckled and he conjured a bouquet of flowers from the end of his wand, “for you,” he offered them to you.

You looked at the beautiful flowers and then back at him, you supposed that this worked on every other girl but it wasn’t going to work on you. You had more self-respect for yourself, “I have hay fever,” you lied, “and I don’t care that you’re late, as long as you weren’t with a girl, we have a deal remember?” it was true, to you it didn’t make much of a difference whether he was there or not.

Sirius smirked, his grey eyes were soft, “are you sure that you have hay fever?”

You rolled your eyes and all but snatched the flowers from him. At your touch, they transformed into a hoard of multi-coloured butterflies, one of them kissed your nose before they fluttered out of the window. It really was beautiful magic. Sirius threw himself into the chair next to you and smirked proudly.

“I bet you do that with all the girls,” you scoffed and Sirius�� smirk widened as he rested his chin on his hand, gazing at you.

“Now that is just very untrue. And, hey, even if I did do that trick with other girls, it wouldn’t matter because you’re not like other girls, are you?”

You flushed at his words, unsure whether to take it as a compliment or not, “just get down to work; we’re going to study the theory of the patronus charm. Next time, we’ll be doing the practical side of it.”

Sirius smiled and nodded, pulling the parchment towards him, “did you really not care that I was late?” he pouted.

You shook your head, not looking up from your parchment, “nope, it makes no difference to me whether you were here or not.”

“You suck, Y/L/N.”

“You wish,” you looked up at the good looking boy and winked which caused him to flush a bright scarlet colour and he shut up after that. That was the trick with Sirius; you had to beat him at his own game.

There was silence for a good ten minutes, the only sounds were quills scratching on the parchment and birds were singing just outside the window, it was obvious that the skies were clearing up. You felt a poke on your arm and you knew that it was obviously Sirius; you sighed and ignored the annoying Gryffindor next to you. A couple more minutes went by and you felt another poke. Every couple of minutes he poked you, until you couldn’t take it anymore, maybe he didn’t want to study but you did, you wanted to graduate.

“Would you stop poking me? Merlin, you’re so bloody annoying!” Sirius chuckled at your angry reaction.

“I was just going to say, next time we should study in the boathouse. I don’t like being under the beady eye of Madam Pince.”

“We can, if you’re good from here on out,” you giggled.

“I’ll always be good for you, Y/N,” he winked.

You rolled your eyes with a smile as you got back to writing your essay, hoping that he would do the same. However, out of the corner of your eye you could see him looking at you for a moment, you wished that he would look away.

---------------------- 

@approved-by-dentists​ @thefuturelawyer​ @a-miserable-hufflepunk​ @firelordmillie​ @seriouslysiriuss​ @sleep-i-ness​ @play-morezeppelin​ @pregnant-piggy​ @

[alfredosauce50]

What makes me human [Cyberpunk! America x reader 10]

Wordcount: 5,809 Rating: T for strong language and mild violence “Can’t you see that none of this is real? You’re living in the past, dumbass! It’s all a dream! If you don’t wake up soon, you’ll regret it!” Chapter synopsis: Half-dead, Allen falls into a strange realm of existence. It's nothing he's seen before, but it feels awfully familiar. He soon learns he's stuck in the past, and it's all in his head. He'll do whatever it takes to wake up and save Alfred from his demise he once played a part in. The reader is referred to as she/her.

Songs to listen to while you read (in order as found in playlist): 2049, Ghost in the shell - Original mix, Something about us, Cloudy day, L, The voice in my head. I have indented song titles throughout the chapter so you can change accordingly. Starting now:

2049, Ghost in the Shell - Original mix

“His condition is stable. He’s in a coma, but he’s gonna be fine.”

“A coma? For how long?”

Where were the voices coming from? Was there one person or two people speaking? He couldn’t tell. But his interest quickly changed to another subject.

Am I dead?  

With whatever brain activity he had left, that question was the only thing he heard repeating in his head like a broken record. 

He couldn’t see anything, let alone feel anything as he drifted into an abyss of nothingness. In fact, it was so empty, he couldn’t even say it was darkness he was engulfed in. Just nothingness. Was this what people experienced before walking over to the other side? Or was he going to be stuck here forever? Allen couldn’t tell. Not when there was no concept of time in this strange realm of existence, anyway. 

His eyes shot open. It took a few moments for his vision to adjust, but he came to realize he was sitting in his car. Huh. Was that all a dream? Whatever it was, it had escaped his mind so seamlessly, he couldn’t remember anything. Leaning forward to peer out the window, he was greeted with an onslaught of neon lights. Neon signs, holograms, and posters surrounded him from all angles and heights. At least that told him he wasn’t far from home. Turning to the front, he attached his hands to the wheel. Now, to get back. 

If he drove around for a few minutes, he’d surely pinpoint his location relative to Arthur’s auto shop. Revving up the engine, he heard it purr to life. As a small grin stretched over his lips, he pulled out of the cul-de-sac to move to the main street. “I missed you too.” He murmured, never letting his gaze stray from the road. Eventually, he made it to a familiar intersection. Before he could pass through it, he stopped and found himself staring at what looked like a police chase coming to an end. 

A helicopter hovered over a car stopped in the center. Over the fierce thumping of its blades, he heard a grungy voice barking out orders through a loudspeaker. He couldn’t make out what it was, but it didn’t look like they were followed. Not when the occupants in the vehicle were immediately shot upon stepping out–collapsing to the ground after a rain of machine gunfire blew them apart. 

“Jesus Christ…” He mumbled under a frown. “Poor bastards.” 

After they all dropped like flies, the helicopter took off in another direction. And just like that, they were gone. 

The police in Twilight city were ruthless as always. Quick to action, and yet, just as dismissive. But it wasn’t his business. So long as he played his cards right, he wouldn’t have to deal with them. Making a right turn, he breathed out a sigh as he made a detour. He never liked using alleyways. There was no saying if he’d run into a couple of weirdos in places like these. Speaking of weirdos, there was a couple of men huddling around a corner.  It piqued his curiosity to see them so interested in whatever it was they surrounded. Or more accurately put, who they surrounded. A girl. Slowing to a stop behind a tall bundle of crates, he leaned over to the right to get a better look. She was shaking in her boots, and her lips were trembling as she struggled to respond to the questions thrown at her. And how old was she anyway? 10? 11?

“That doesn’t look good.” Allen narrowed his eyes.

He climbed out of his car.  

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his bomber jacket, he approached the group slowly. But when one of the men took a hold of her shoulder, adrenaline surged through his veins and he burst into a sprint. When he got close enough, he grabbed said man’s shoulder before throwing his fist back. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Punching him square in the face, he sent him hurtling towards the ground. 

Immediately, his cronies responded by pouncing on the newcomer for giving one of their buddies a black eye. After a few minutes of violent tousling, he managed to beat them all into submission. 

Leaving them groaning and wincing in the dirt, he gave his hand a rough shake. Phew. He hadn’t had a good fight in ages. Giving his bottom lip a light tap to find a small blotch of red on his fingertip. And he won against three people too,  escaping with only a busted lip. Before he could gloat about it, he glanced around to find the girl. Where did she go? 

Assuming she ran away, he shrugged and moved back to his car. If she wasn’t here, then he wouldn’t be obliged to help her any more than that. But upon nearing his vehicle, he spotted a small pair of feet poking out from the back. Then, they proceeded to shuffle back to become completely concealed. Breathing out a chuckle at that, he rested his hands on his hips. 

“I can see you.” 

No response. 

“You can come out now.” Making his way around the trunk, the child buried her face into her knees upon realizing she had been discovered. A light frown downturned his features at the sight of her shaking like a leaf. “Man, am I that scary?” He murmured, lowering himself to his knees. “Hey, kid. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I was just passing by. I promise I won’t do anything.” 

She kept her face hidden, but her trembling seemed to calm. 

“Well, if you’re not gonna say anything, I’ll be on my way. Just make sure to move out of the way so I don’t run you over.” Standing up on his feet, he turned his back to her. Before his fingers could do so little as graze over the car handles, a faint voice piped up. 

“Wait!” 

Allen grinned and spun on his heel. “Yes?”

She stood up slowly, but kept her head low to avoid his gaze. Without removing her hands from her pants, which she was clenching at, she opened her mouth again. “Could you maybe… Tell me where the train station is? I got kinda lost.” The way she spoke was soft, breathless even, and more so than Allen’s who just beat up a bunch of no-good-doers. 

“The train station?” The redhead questioned. Not that he didn’t know where it was. In fact, it was only a few blocks down, but he had to think twice about sending a ten-year-old off to wander the streets around here. The same streets a police shootout just took place, and the same streets where she was approached by a couple of hooligans. “How about I drop you off? I’m not in a hurry. I dunno if you wanna walk around by yourself after what happened.” 

He said it before, and he’d say it again. This city was an absolute shithole. 

“R-really? But I’m not sure…” The enthusiasm faded as quickly as she lit up. “I don’t know you.” 

“And I don’t know you either.” Allen hummed. “So you’re just as dangerous to me as I am to you. Sound fair?” 

The girl furrowed her brows. 

“That doesn’t make sense. You’re way older than me.”

“Oh yeah? I’m only eighteen though. Lemme guess, ten? Twelve?”

“Thirteen.” She answered, relaxing just a touch at the sound of his age. At first glance, one would have assumed he was in his early twenties, but she was relieved to know she was wrong. “Are you still in high school?”

The man blinked. Was she warming up already? “Nope. I finished nearly a year ago. But that doesn’t mean I sit around all day with nothing to do.” He opened the car door to the driver’s seat. “You’re lucky I was out and about to get your ass out of trouble. So what do you say we keep it that way?” 

The ride there didn’t take long, much to Allen’s surprise. By the time his GPS revealed that they had arrived, he had slowed down near the curb in front of one of the tallest skyscrapers in Twilight city. Sliding the window down, he poked his head out to give his surroundings a gander. The blinding lights of the liveliest commercial center forced him to squint, but he could still tell this was the city center. And that only meant the residential lots were a little further down. 

“You sure this is the right address? There’s nothing but malls and stuff around here.” He shouted over the bustle of people crossing the streets and pounding of music. 

“No, this it the right place. I live right there in that building!” Climbing over to the side, she pointed at Matsumoto Optics. 

Exchanging glances with the said building, then the girl, he gave his head a light shake. “What do you mean, you live right there? Nobody–” He paused, feeling dread settle in his stomach. “Wait a sec. What was your name again, kid?”

“(F/N) Matsumoto. My dad actually owns the whole plaza.” 

He paled. 

“Holy shit.”

Why did it feel like a gun was pointing at him?

Because there was one. 

Whipping his head to the window next to him, he found himself staring straight down the barrel of a gun. While his heart broke out into a pounding frenzy, he came to notice that his whole car was surrounded by men in suits. Bringing out every kind of shootable weapon that existed, his blood ran cold at the sound of more than twenty firearms cocking at once. From every angle there was, he was aimed at by something. “Fuck.” 

“Put your hands where I can see them!” One of the men demanded.

Allen threw his arms up. “Alright, alright!”

Glass shattered. A hand shot through the broken window and hit him in the back of the neck, hard. “Gh-!” It knocked him out immediately. Then, his unconscious body was dragged out of the car with next to no grace.

So much for following orders. 

When he finally came to, all he knew was the throbbing pain in his neck, and the rope burns around his arms and wrists. Since they were tightly bound together, he could only blink away the fuzz in his vision. This day had to be the longest yet. All he remembered was waking up in his car completely disoriented, then saving a middle-schooler from a bunch of creeps. Where was this place? An office of some sort? How did he wind up here again? All he could do was speculate as he continued to kneel on the carpeted ground. 

“My daughter told me you saved her from a group of ruffians.” A low voice began, forcing him to look up. My daughter? Did that mean he was Matsumoto? The Takahiro Matsumoto? The most powerful person on the planet? The person whose name he heard every minute of the day from slogans? His suspicions were confirmed when he found himself gawking at a beast of a man, who stood a little over six feet with a long gray beard. 

Wait a minute, this guy was old? And this… Built? “If she hadn’t, you wouldn’t have woken up.” 

Allen tensed. 

“… Right. Well, I’m sorry for whatever I did. I didn’t know she was… A Matsumoto.” He breathed. “If I did, I would’ve let her ride the train herself. Didn’t think putting her in my car warranted a death sentence.” 

“But you are alive, boy. And she is too, thanks to you.” The older man graciously responded, giving his head a firm pat. Then, he lowered his gaze to meet the other’s eyes. “I see an unwavering sense of justice from you. There were three men you had to fend off to keep her safe, and you only managed to let them hit you once.”

“…”

“You have talent.” 

“… Thanks.”

“If you haven’t noticed already, I want to recruit you.” 

The redhead had to do a double-take. Were his ears playing tricks on him, or did he actually say– 

“You wanna… Hire me?” 

Matsumoto nodded. “Like I just said. You have the skills to be a bodyguard, and we are in urgent need of one.” An ominous light glinted in his dark eyes as he opened his mouth again. “Did you ever wonder why there was a job opening?”

Allen gave a nervous laugh. On second thoughts, maybe laying low in Arthur’s auto shop was the better option. “Thanks, but no thanks. I was just lucky today, and I’m not a pro. I think you’re better off hiring somebody else–” 

The other hardened his stare at him. “We have an elaborate training program to prepare you for your duties. I see no reason for you to reject.” With a swift flick of his wrist, he beckoned over a few men who had been standing on the sidelines. “These gentlemen weren’t half as good as you when they began. Now, they are the best any secret service has to offer. Their combat skills are impeccable, and their instincts refined to perfection.” 

When he sensed he had fallen right into a trap, he wasn’t wrong. 

“I wouldn’t imagine it to be hard for them to locate anybody residing in this city. Even your friend, Arthur, the British mechanic.” 

Seeing that Allen was now at loss for words, he smiled. 

“I believe it would be in your best interest to work for me, Jekyll.”

That same day he was recruited, his induction took place. And boy, was it a lot. By the time they had finished, night had fallen. Fortunately, he could treat himself to a hot dinner in the dining court before retiring to his room. He couldn’t say being given his own condo was unexpected, but when he stepped inside to become completely immersed in luxury, he was faced with a rude awakening. Up here where the air stretched thin over the blinking lights of Twilight city, he was reminded how out of place he was.

All his life, he was at the bottom. He grew up a street rat before he was taken in by a kind mechanic. And he taught him everything he knew. Never did he imagine he would ever be this high up in the clouds, working in a high-ranking position under a man comparable to God. And the longer he lingered on this reality, thrusted to him without his say, the hotter his eyes felt. There was no saying if he could go home again.

And that meant he wouldn’t be seeing Arthur anytime soon.

The next morning, he woke up the groggiest he’d ever felt in his life. Squinting at the window that happened to take up his whole wall, he was graced with a hot orange sunrise. It cast a pinkish haze over everything in his sight like a filter, but he was far too exhausted to appreciate the scenery. He checked his phone. 6:23 AM. Twenty missed calls and twelve text messages. Crap. He’d call him later. He needed to figure himself out first.

Giving his face a cold splash of water, he rubbed his eyes clean. Lifting his head to the mirror, he found himself staring at his reflection, which of course, stared right back. Did he always look this young? He snorted. What was he thinking? Of course he did. He was only eighteen, after all. Sliding himself in a dress shirt and pants, he finished off the look by throwing on a black blazer. Then, he gave his appearance a hard stare. “… Nope. This looks stupid.” Leaving the bathroom in a white tank and bomber jacket, he ventured out into empty morning halls to find the elevator.

Once he made it to the third floor, he began his journey to the training dojo. The walls were a beige white, the floors a polished wood, and there were shoji screens everywhere. He was washed over with a strange sense of déjà vu. But considering this was his first time here, that couldn’t be the right phrase. Jamais vu was more like it. He was here with the impression he’d never been before, but he somehow knew that was a lie.

And it was a gut feeling so strong, it was kind of eerie.

He couldn’t understand why he was feeling this way. And not being the thinking type, he chose to brush it off. He had enough to worry about already, so the last thing he wanted was to overthink a foreign environment. Maybe some exercise could clear his head— and that was exactly what he’d be doing today. His rigorous training program.

Entering a spacious room, he stepped inside to feel his shoes sink into soft tatami mats.

“Don’t even think about taking another step in here with those shoes on, Jekyll.”

A very rigorous training program.

***

Something about us, L

It had only been a few days since arriving here at Arthur’s, but you were slowly regaining your strength. With every new morning, you awakened with more energy than the last. Perhaps the small light of hope of seeing Allen do the same was what urged you to become an early riser. But like yesterday, and the day before, that hope was shattered at the sight of him unconscious in bed. He didn’t even move an inch.

Nearing his side, you lowered yourself to your knees and reached out to his cheek. Talking to him while he slept had become routine to you. You’d tell him about your day, everything you did, and all your conversations you ever had. If not, you’d reminisce the past so he wouldn’t feel left out. He never interrupted, and let you run off on tangents until you were sick of talking. “I really hope you wake up soon, Allen. I feel like… I’m talking to myself here.” Your voice was soft with a heart-wrenching kind of sadness, but you refused to linger on it.

After all, how could you expect him to wake so soon? You knew how strong he was, but it would be selfish to want something impossible. So you forced yourself to leave the room, figuring you would feel better if you focused on something else. Little did you know, someone had been lurking in the halls during your visit.

Alfred had his back pressed up to the wall outside while you dropped by, and he heard everything. And not even from just this morning. Everything you ever told Allen, he listened in on too. 

He knew better than to infringe on your privacy, and hear things that were better off left unheard. But he kept finding himself hiding outside in the hall, doing it again and again—even Arthur had caught wind of it. 

He heard footsteps clunking against the metal floor, but he never bothered to turn to it. Usually, Arthur would’ve kept on walking. But not today he didn’t. “If you like her so much, you should just tell her.” He’d murmur. 

Alfred whipped his head to him with his eyes widened ever so slightly. But he visibly eased seeing it was just him. And rather than denying his claims, he tore his gaze away. “I can’t.” His brows were furrowed for creases to form between them. Arthur was almost taken aback, having never seen him so frustrated. 

“Why not?” The Brit responded, resting his back against the wall beside the man. “It’s painful seeing you loiter out here all day. I’d say I felt sorry for you, but you’ve been eavesdropping on her for a while.” At the sound of that, the other’s cheeks flushed red. So his guess was right on the mark, after all. “She’s coming out right now. Might wanna make a run for it while you still can.” 

“Guys?” Another voice joined, forcing the two men to spin around. 

The mechanic bit back a snort. “Too late. I’ll be in the garage.” He whispered. Shooting you a brief smile, he turned on his heels to leave. “You two have fun now. I have lots of work to do today.” With that said, he disappeared to do exactly that, but not without a few chuckles under his breath. For the many years he knew the guy, he never found anything he wasn’t good at. There was nothing he couldn’t do. Looking over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of Alfred with a hand on his neck, laughing nervously. 

That perfect track record was finally ending, it seemed. 

At least he wouldn’t have to watch him fumble around with his feelings for long. You and Alfred were planning to leave in a few days to God knows where, to do God knows what. Frankly speaking, he didn’t know what you were doing, hanging around such a shady guy like him. That was right. You two arrived with your bodyguard Allen, who was half-dead then, and barely clinging to life now. What the hell happened? Wouldn’t your father be concerned?

Maybe he’d ask Allen himself, if he’d awaken anytime soon, that was. For now, he’d stay on the sidelines and help Alfred repair his missing Mantis blades as he’d requested. He was restless without them, frequently interrupting his work with, “Are you done yet?” until he finished for the day. Arthur narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue, shutting the garage door behind him. Whatever you two had planned, he couldn’t imagine it to be legal. 

***

Cloudy day

A few months had gone by, and he was finally getting settled in his new workplace. But there was no saying when he’d ever be forgiven for it. Not that he could even explain himself. What was he even supposed to say? I saved a girl from a bunch of creeps and put her in my car to take her home but she wasn’t just any girl and turned out to be the daughter of Matsumoto himself and now I’m being threatened to work for them because they know where you live. That surely wouldn’t fly. Especially when he went through all that just to be a glorified babysitter. 

He just knew Arthur was buried up to the neck with work, now that he was alone. Breathing out a sigh at the thought, he rolled his head to the said girl sitting by a cherry wood coffee table, whose nose was buried in a book. 

“You ever get bored reading stuff all day?” He began, stretching his arms across the backrest of the couch. 

She shrugged. “Sometimes. But I have to study, otherwise I’ll fall behind.” 

Allen nodded, stretching his lips into a flat line. “Fair enough. Well, I did just graduate high school, so if you need any help with… Math or whatever, just let me know.” Surely, seventh-grade level wouldn’t be too difficult for him.

“Mm… Thanks, but I don’t think you can help me with what I’m doing. This is like… College level stuff.” You gave him a sheepish smile, to where he gawked at you in response. 

“Wow, you a genius or something?” 

“I don’t think I am.” 

“You’re just being humble, kid. It’s fine to be proud of yourself, ya know. ‘Specially now, cuz it gets kinda annoying when adults do it.” Allen grinned, hopping up from his spot to give her hair a ruffle. She could only hang her head to hide the embarrassed pout on her lips. Fortunately, their height difference let her do so. 

“Thanks, I guess…” It was only when he pulled his hand away did she look up again. In her line of vision was a chest of drawers, and she reached out to point towards it. “Also, could you mind checking if my USB’s in there? I think I left it in one of the drawers yesterday.” 

The redhead spun around. “Sure, no prob.” 

Pulling out one of the compartments, he rummaged around random bits and bobs until he caught sight of said USB. Besides the connecter, the storage disk was fairly long and flat. This thing could’ve stored hundreds of terabytes of data if it could. That translated to hundreds of computers’ worth of information. Picking it up, he held it in his fingers to give it a brief study. Before he called over to you with his lips separated ajar, he found himself entranced by it. 

But what was so interesting about something as common as a storage disk? For some reason, the small object in his hand resonated with him. It was… So familiar. As if he’d seen something like this before. Or perhaps, it reminded him of something he forgot about. Problem was, he didn’t know what. And it was a gut feeling so strong, he couldn’t seem to shake it off. 

The voice in my head

That night, he was called to his superior’s office for a security briefing. Appearing through the tall double door, he walked in with his hands in his pockets. Situated deep in the room, and just by the window overlooking the blinking lights of the city, was his desk, and the man Matsumoto himself. His chair spun around to reveal a bearded man well into his seventies with a light scowl on his face. “I expect you to wear the uniform suitable for these occasions, Jekyll.” 

Allen blinked before rubbing his neck. “Right, sorry. Forgot.” In all honesty, he considered showing up in a black tie and all, but it wasn’t the most comfortable fit in the world. “So, what’dya call me in for?”

The other clasped his hands together and gave him a firm stare. “Even in my company, you have moments of… Stepping out of line. Breaches of discipline.” He gestured to his attire, letting it do the speaking. “I may overlook some inconsistencies in exchange for your services, but there is one rule you must not break under any circumstances.” 

Silence fell in the room so you could hear a pin drop. It gave Allen some room to think–to guess what his superior was going to warn him about. A secret basement that locked up human guinea pigs he wasn’t supposed to stumble into, perhaps? But that was ridiculous. So he stayed quiet, prepared to listen intently to the man. Surely, his guess was far from reality. 

“There is a… Basement a few floors beneath the lobby.” 

Allen froze. He’d heard this before. 

Otherwise, how else could he guess that he’d say this? 

“I keep my most prized possessions in there. Personal vehicles and upgrades. Nothing goes in and out undetected. So don’t even think about stepping inside.” He couldn’t believe a word he said, as calm and convincing his tone was. 

Allen had an idea why. 

He sensed something was off the minute he came here. It was all so obvious–the familiarity of the dojo halls, the USB, and even his face in the mirror. He’d seen it all before. Previously, he’d brushed it all off. But he couldn’t deny it any longer now that he had this conversation, a conversation he already had. So if his intuition was right, that meant he could guess what was actually in the basement. And there were no fancy sports cars to speak of. 

He gritted his teeth as his tanned complexion began to pale. Then, his stomach began to churn. 

“… Are you unwell?” 

He lifted his head and shook it. “Nah. Just lost in thought.” 

“You may lose yourself in the emptiness in your head as much as you desire, but not in my presence. If you don’t have any questions, you are dismissed.” 

“Yessir.” 

Turning on the spot to leave, a deep frown downturned his features now that he wasn’t facing him anymore. Something was terribly wrong. And he was about to confirm it. A couple of hours later when the whole building fell quiet, he snuck down to the basement floor through the elevator. And while he ran through the pitch-black halls to the door in the end, he couldn’t get this thought out of his mind. He’d definitely done this before, too. 

Swinging the door open, he was greeted with a familiar stench of death. But he didn’t have time to gag. Running to the two pods, he never bothered turning on his night vision. He trusted his body and his muscle memories to guide the way. And it was the right call, because he found himself standing by the pods in no time. Lifting up one of the hatches to find a mummified corpse, he stared with an unreadable expression. 

He wasn’t even surprised. And that was really telling, considering he would’ve vomited at the sight. But this only solidified his suspicions. This wasn’t new.

Nothing was. 

Turning to the other pod, he fiddled around the latches for a minute or so before giving in. This one couldn’t be opened, not without proper authorization. Okay, this was new. He didn’t remember this pod being locked. So he jabbed his fingers into a couple of buttons, unable to resist his curiosity. He couldn’t leave any stones unturned. Thankfully, his rapid button smashing eventually did do something to reveal what was inside. 

The glass that was previously fogged up cleared. 

Inside lay a man. A blonde. His skin was flawless in save for the outlines of removable plates. He was a cybernetically enhanced individual, but not one he wasn’t already acquainted with. 

“We put him to sleep for fifty years…” 

“By the time he gained his consciousness, we turned him into a killing machine.”

 “Even to this day, he remains my greatest creation.“

Fragments of his memory began to play in his head. All until he could remember the name of the sleeping figure. It was Alfred. And he had yet to wake up to go on a killing rampage, or in other words, the first time they’d ever meet.

Allen eventually retreated back to his condo. The first thing he did was go to the bathroom and splash cold water to his face. If he wanted to figure out what the hell was going on, he needed to clear his convoluted mind first. Either he was a psychic or stuck in another reality. But he wasn’t bright enough to be a psychic. And interdimensional travel wasn’t invented. Yet. So what could it be?

While he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his wet fingers, his train of thought was interrupted by a voice. And it sounded just like his, but deeper. 

Glancing up to the source, he found himself staring at his own reflection in his mirror. But he came to realize it wasn’t him–rather, it was an older version of him. They had the same face, eye color, and hair, but the person who glared back at him had sharper features, and a more defined jawline. Unbeknownst to him, it was the subconscious of his present self.

“What the hell are you doing?” He hissed.

Slamming his hands against the mirror, the loud bang caused Allen to jump. “Can’t you see that none of this is real? You’re living in the past, dumbass! It’s all a dream! If you don’t wake up soon, you’ll regret it!” 

Allen dug his hands through his hair, and before he could even question him, panic overwhelmed his system. Not that he needed to, because everything he was just told made perfect sense. “W-Wake up? But… But how?”

“What do you think genius? You have to die!” The other screamed. “If you don’t wake up soon, Alfred and (F/N) are gonna get away with the chip! You can’t let him put it in his head! The Soulkiller will destroy him!” 

Fuck. 

He felt himself tense up in all reality as more memories flowed back to him. That was right. He was in a coma after being stabbed by a katana. He remembered how desperate he was as he fought to stay awake, all so he could warn Alfred he was falling into a trap. But he failed, and wound up in another realm of reality. His dreams. And if he didn’t wake up soon, there was going to be hell to pay. 

Shoving his hand into his jacket, he pulled out a gun. 

Then, he exchanged wary glances with his subconscious, who nodded at him. 

He cocked it. “If you’re wrong… And I die in real life…” It wasn’t like he had anything to threaten him with, though. “Let’s hope I don’t.” Sliding the gun into his mouth, he screwed his eyes shut. Then, he pulled the trigger.

Shooting up with a loud gasp, he finally awakened from the longest trauma-induced sleep he’d ever had. Almost immediately, he heard somebody else let out a scream of genuine fear. “Ah–!” By the foot of the bed he was laying in was Arthur, and he’d fallen right out of his chair. “Jesus fucking Christ! If I’d known you’d wake up like that, I would’ve sat further away!”

Standing back onto his feet, he was never fast enough to stop Allen from sliding himself off the bed. “Hey– watch it! You can’t move right away!” 

“How did I get here?” 

Arthur stepped back as his friend loomed over him. “Well–I’m not sure how you fell into a coma, but it was Alfred and (F/N) who brought you in.” 

Thank god.  “And where are they now?”

The other shrugged with a look of defeat. “I don’t know, honestly. All I know is they’re doing something dangerous. Alfred wouldn’t leave before I helped him install a new set of mantis blades.” 

“Fuck!” He hissed, feeling his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. Bile was even rising in his throat as he reflected on the possibility that Alfred was already dead. “I was too late. I was too fucking late.” Shaking his head as heat accumulated behind his eyes, he paused for a moment, letting hot tears of frustration run down his face. Then, he gripped Arthur’s shoulders when he was hit with an epiphany. With the slim chance they only left recently, he still had time. 

“How long have they been gone for?”

The blonde pondered for a moment, but the concern in his eyes never faded. “Only a week, give or take. Why? What’s wrong?” 

Before Allen could breathe out a sigh of relief, he was gripped with a panic-inducing sense of urgency. “That means I can still save him!” If he remembered correctly, the Soulkiller virus needed at least two weeks before the damage became permanent. So if he could somehow find you both in seven days, he could save Alfred. “No questions. I’ll explain in the car! We have to find them as soon as possible!” 

He would’ve been dead if it weren’t for him. 

So in return for saving his life, he’d do anything to save his too. 

[ninjakitty15]

Chapter 22: Deader is Better (Loki x OFC Pairing)

It was exactly one day before the greatest holiday of all time, and not just because I was the most powerful I'd ever be that year. The streets were packed with people, every parking lot was booked solid, every parking space even, residents were even renting out some of their spaces for pocket money. Loki and I helped out Zari with her little store in exchange for letting us crash at her place, Loki was both surprised and delighted by how accepting people were of him even after asking if he was who he was. I explained to him that while the country as a whole has a longass way before it can be completely progressive and welcoming, Salem, being one of the first historical places here that destroyed itself in fear and intolerance, was probably the first to turn that around. It went from burning, hanging, crushing, and torturing people that were considered different and therefore dangerous to welcoming the different and weird as one of their own. No one even cared he took over New York, what they saw was an alien army attacking the city and a god that brought a bunch of heroes together to stop them.

"If Asgard were still around, I wish it had a city like this, celebrating magic and welcoming the weird as you'd say," mused Loki.

"Isn't there a realm entirely like that? Where the Light Elves live?"

"Look at you, trying to learn my culture," he teased. "It was where my mother learned magic and passed it onto me, yes. But we didn't go there often enough for me to call it another home. Most of the time, if we went anywhere it was to beat the natives into submission thanks entirely to Thor."

"For all the advancements your people had on us, the technology, the magic, the fuckton more years in a lifespan, you're not that far off in some idealogies from us. Rarely does peaceful methods end a dispute between peoples. Oh sure, there's been tons of times we tried that, it rarely works in our favor though. Peaceful rallies or marches are usually ended with police brutality they claim is the right way even when they're throwing tear gas grenades at unarmed civilians, tazing random protesters they later claim as dangerous, or just blasting them with high pressured firemen hoses. It always ends badly, with injuries, false claims, and injustice. I'd seriously love to meet Odin just to tell him he ain't special."

Loki smiled at this and kissing the top of my head. "I shouldn't be proud of you despising him like I did, but I am anyway. I am glad you met my mother in some form though, I had a feeling she'd like you."

"She told me to trust you and that in doing so, you'd stay with me as no one else besides Thor if even that, has trusted you since you came here indefinitely. A lonely existence that is, everyone keeping you at arms length. I can understand that, outside of Salem, skin color alone is an excuse not to trust someone, people see someone that looks like they're past their expiration date like me and they go running. Hell, even hair color or skin ink can keep you from getting jobs here, we're still an extremely regressive country. Not worth saving anytime soon."

"Then why bother?"

"Because unfortunately I'm one of the idiots inhabiting it with no way to some place better."

"I asked Thor why he fought so hard to protect this speck of a planet once, don't recall him giving me a good answer but yours shall suffice, if nothing else, because you're part of it."

"Whoa, hold your eight legged horses, you really don't need to do that...at all. Just find a way out of here if we can't at least save this city, the Avengers can handle this planet and if they can't...well at least they tried right? We don't need to get involved when neither of us signed any kind of hero contract like they did."

"You sure?"

"I'm not just sure...I'm HIV positive."

"You'd have to be alive to contract that disease and I'm not quite sure it would transmit to something already dead."

I opened my mouth to retaliate but something else stayed my tongue for a moment, something felt wrong, unnatural even. "Listen...do you smell that?" I asked curiously. Loki didn't get a chance to answer as a great surge of necro-power struck me full force and I was sent flying back several feet away, breaking several trees of the park we were enjoying till then along the way before my back slammed against a particularly thick one and I stopped flying. A dull pain exploded from my chest mere inches from where the stone was protecting my important bits and cool black blood lightly dripped from my lips. I looked down at where the pain came from and blinked in surprise.

"Oh look I've been impaled," I mused before breaking off the branch sticking out of my body and stepped away from the tree behind me. I looked for the source of the power surge and glared as I spotted the culprit walking toward us.

"Are you hurt?" asked Loki warily.

"Just a flesh wound," I assured him, gathering power from behind into my arms and fists. "You might wanna sit this one out though."

"No no, let him try," the attacker taunted as he got closer to us.

"I knew I smelled something rotten in the wind," I muttered. "What is it this time? First the heart, now the brain rotting away, would make sense if it was you that sold us all out."

The man before us glowered at me then flashed rotting, blackened teeth, while for the most part he looked alive, he was essentially rotting from the inside out. "You aren't the only one with a stone organ, my head will remain just as much as your heart does till I rip that out of you."

I arched an eyebrow. "Lemme guess, one of your Hydra buddies was a brain surgeon or so he claims. They all think themselves doctors of something that organization, not one medical degree posted when I was with them though, kinda makes you wonder."

"They don't need doctors for corpses," he snapped.

"You sure you're not braindead? Cuz I'm sure coroners and morticians both require a medical degree to be licensed with the job."

"Have a few run-ins with those folks have you?" he sneered. "You know the best part about you was at the very least being a warm body at the end of the day, now you don't even have that."

I snorted at his attempt to insult me. "Oh hun, the best part of you ran down your mother's legs. You gonna bark all day, you little bitch, or are you gonna bite?"

He held his hands to his head and another ball of smoke and lightning came hurtling at us but this time it was aiming for Loki at breathtaking speed, he was essentially pulling an Azula on me thinking I'd either let Loki get hit or take it myself but I saw his Azula and raised him a Dumbledore, telling my guiding spirits to yank him away from the path of the ball as I wouldn't be fast enough to help myself. I waved my hand toward Loki and he was suddenly swept aside and away from the direct battle ahead. Loki scrambled to his feet, a dagger in each hand and returning to his battle armor swiftly, glancing at me in shock. I mouthed a sorry to him before focusing all my attention to the rotten necromancer in front of me.

"Targeting what's mine isn't your best move when you really don't need to give me more motives to decapitate you than you already have," I warned.

"I know he's your weakness though. I want to see just how weak he really makes you," he sneered. "If what doesn't kill you makes you strong, what about when you're already dead."

"You're well on your way to finding that out yourself, hun. I can help answer that for you though." I thrust out a hand and black lightning flew from my fingertips. My rival managed to shield some of it with his own magic but as he wasn't a demi god the impact of that much power still sent him flying back. I didn't wait for him to get up though as I charged at him with a ball of power around each fist.

He rolled away right before I could punch in his head and destroy the stone inside it and got to his feet as I stood up, charging at me as I straightened up so we were suddenly toe to toe trying to kill each other. For a solid few minutes it was just dodging and exchanging blows and balls of energy before he decided to get sneaky and tried to slash me with his ceremonial dagger hidden in his boot. I dodged it just enough to not actually cut me but it did do some damage to my hoodie which had me glaring at him as I loved my hoodies. From there, it was throwing either each other, balls of power, or punches at each other with him occasionally trying to throw power at Loki who quickly learned to keep an eye on his attacks as much as I was without interfering, this wasn't his fight anymore. The ground around us was starting to look barren and dead from the effects of our powers used against one another, the grass brittle and brown. We both paused for a moment, both battered and frustrated neither of us were getting the upper hand with what we were doing.

"Why won't you stay down?!" he demanded.

I scoffed. "What is dead can never die. What's your dilemma here? What did Hydra even offer you to make you switch sides?"

"A chance to be something greater than this, the other necromancer, to be a demigod."

"And how's that working out for you?" I asked in bemusement. "They aren't higher powers, they're hired powers, there's a difference. There's no cutting corners on that one, ask nicely or die trying. How did you know where to find me? On the plane?"

"I had a spook tail you, not all the spirits are on your side you know."

"The good ones are, the rest are usually locked or exorcised so kudos on finding one of the select few willing to help a brother out."

He narrowed his eyes at me, collecting powers as he did. "If I'm not given what I want, then I'll have to take it myself just like I did with the other necromancers that went against me."

"And that's why no matter where that stone is surgically implanted in you, you will never be one of us, going against your own kind for something you'll never get." I lowered one hand to the ground and reached into the earth with just death magic alone, calling for something very specific as I waited for him to make the first move this time. "Especially not from me."

"And what makes you so special?" he demanded.

"Come here and find out." He lunged forward, taking the bait and I dropped to one knee at the last second, dodging his power-fist at the same time a rotted hand burst from the ground with my own dagger I snatched up and sliced into my enemy's rotted guts. He stumbled back, his free hand going to his stomach as he was weakened but not done for, the stone keeping him barely alive inside him. "Almost seems pointless since you're already decaying inside."

He looked at the wound I gave him from my dagger and glared at me as it was already speeding up the process. "You little cunt."

"Let me guess, you're gonna kill me, right? Join the line of people with empty threats they never finish."

Black lightning danced around his head and down to his body, staving off the spreading death from reaching his neck but not healing the blade wound either. "Should I rip out your soul first or your stone?"

"You say that like you've actually gotten the upper hand in this fight but who here has the unhealed wound and who here has survived worse?" I retorted.

He sneered at me with his rotten teeth and lunged forward once more but being the slimy little bastard he was, pulled his dagger apart so there were actually two identical ones and threw one at my leg while making a bee line around me with the other dagger at Loki. I gritted my teeth as the dagger hit its mark in my thigh and not wasting time even to take it out of me, threw a power ball at him from behind so he couldn't dodge it and sent him off his course to my lover. I then took out the dagger in my leg and limped over to the bastard despite the agony burning through the entire limb. I didn't wait for him to get up and kicked him hard in the head right where I guessed the stone was before aiming for the wound I gave him with my blade. "Silly asshat, kicks are for ribs." His snapped under my leather boots. He tried to throw the other knife he still had at Loki but I caught it this time and dissolved the twin dagger like I did the one in my leg. I grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up, and slamming into another park tree while holding him in place.

"You really wanna know why you can't kill me after all this time?" I challenged.

"You don't scare me, Nell," he choked out.

I recalled what the Wiccan seer had told me and let go of everything holding me back. "I can fix that. You can't kill a Horsemen." A different kind of power rippled throughout my body, not necromancy, but something stronger, eternal and deadly and incomparable. The entire arm and hand holding him up was skeletal as was half my face and that's when fear started to leak into his. He fought and wiggled in my grasp, trying to pry my bones off his neck but my finger bones just dug in deeper while he kicked at me. I raised my free hand, also all bones, and went for his head, aiming for the stone still managing to keep him alive when his throat was slowly being punctured and torn. And then the world seemed to pause, everything went silent and still, everything was frozen even including most of me as I couldn't seem to reach the stone in his head but was poised to grab it out of his forehead. And then something else happened, something that only happened to me when something very specific was coming. I got what Peter Parker would call the "the Peter tingle" and chills ran up and down my body despite the whole lack of nerves and feelings thing I had being a skeleton.

[rvmmm21]

. you know who i am? .

k, so i didn’t mean for this to get so out of hand. also, my first time writing in present tense? idk how to feel about it, but i guess it’s different. it felt so different writing for like actual humans lol. my first ‘normal’ fic, this is!

please for the sake of this making sense can we all pretend jennie, joy and irene are around the same age? also look who had fun with brand names. moi.

anyways this is [badgirl/bully!joohyun ‘persuading’ clumsy freshman!seungwan to be her assignment buddy] 

...

University culture is grating.

It’s overwhelming and it suffocates her. She has no time to prepare herself for the apparent runway the halls have become, what with the stupid-rich kids treating every day like it’s a fashion show; Seungwan can barely blink from one person to the next without being smacked across the face with fur coats from Chanel, Louis Vuitton sunglasses hidden under Prada nylon bucket hats and Off-White tracksuits tucked into Balenciaga socks. She hadn’t considered a future in law enforcement, but had she done so, anyone who tucked their trousers into their socks mid-calf would find themselves behind bars with the rest of the criminal scum. End of.

Just as she dusts her hands of that smug little sentiment, Seungwan finds herself with a face full of hair, and an even bigger nose full of what smells like laundry detergent. She lets out an embarrassing squeal, and the girl turns round to face her. A ghost of a scowl brushes across her face before she fixes her with an indiscernible gaze.

That scowl is an awful colour on a face as pretty as yours, she impulsively thinks.

Seungwan knows no more about the history of art and the intricacies of sculpture than the average Joe, but she’s sure Michelangelo missed the mark with David. She inwardly laughs at the thought of the man dedicating his entire being to crafting his flimsy idea of ‘perfection’ when she’d just bumped into it; the real thing. Of course, if that was defined by forming new constellations from faded freckles on flawless skin, or vantablack tresses framing sharp features like a painting, then yes; she was, by very definition, ‘the perfect (wo)man’. Easily outdoing anyone within a 50-metre radius.

Heck, make that 500.

The girl glares intimidation and Seungwan manages to save herself the humiliation of drooling in front of the white-hot beauty and her friends with a quick gulp, already feeling crimson seeping into her cheeks.

Perfect; now that she’s watched whatever new potential friendship this was blow up in her face, all she has to do is avoid her at all costs from here on out.

She mouths a haphazard apology and zooms past before anything can come of it, keeping her head down even after she’s well out of sight. Seulgi, Seulgi, Seulgi, save me, she brisk walks and begs all the way to class.

~~~~~~~~~~

A small commotion rings through the lecture hall of keyboard clicks and lethargic shuffles, calling to attention the girl who’s just spilt her drink down her front, now frantically digging around in her backpack for anything she can use to soak it up. A few jeering giggles are stifled, meanwhile students close by donate tissues and sympathetic looks. They are gratefully accepted with rapid-fire bows and machine-gun stuttered apologies.

“That freshman’s just ruined her rep, huh?” Jennie chuckles, “blindly walking into people… can’t even keep liquid in the cup. Give her a dog collar and a sign and she’s good to go.”

“Eh, I thought it was cute.”

Jennie’s retort comes quick.

“Sooyoung, you think anything in a skirt is cute.”

“What,” the girl says, ignoring the implication, “Haetnimie doesn’t wear skirts. And she’s not even wearing one right now. Plus, I didn’t say ‘she’s cute’, I said ‘it’s cute’. Learn the difference, idiot… it’s not like I wanna have at her or anything…”

Jennie shoots her an incredulous look and Sooyoung relents the banter. They both turn their attention to the girl sitting next to them, completely un-present in the moment. Sooyoung notices who she’s looking at and leans in to nudge her.

“Joohyun,” she whispers, poking her in the ribs when it’s obvious their friend is well on her way to signing a contract with NASA with how apparently well accustomed to space she is, “what do you think of her? Or are you still mad she walked into you?”

“Nah, forget it,” Jennie waves her off before she’s even had a chance to respond, “she’s not interested. I had to literally pay her money to go on a stupid double date with me in high school. I washed five cars for her to not even hold his hand once during the movie.”

Instead of participating, Joohyun sighs, casting the girl in question a seemingly uninterested stare. Unbothered eyes take in the sight she’s presented with: frustrated brows knitted together under a wispy caramel fringe and a blot of taro milk tea the size of Canada staining her baby blue jumper.

“I want her.”

The words are so simple her friends almost miss them entirely.

Sooyoung and Jennie battle for first place in an impromptu competition of ‘who’s-the-most-shocked’.

“You’re joking! Yah, you’re so annoying seriously, now?! You couldn’t have ‘wanted’ Min-seok in year nine?! I paid good, hard cash for that stupid boy!”

Joohyun looks at her, smug as a cat.

“I did it for you, Jennie. I didn’t even remember his name was Min-ho.”

“Min-seok.”

“Yeah, right.”

Sooyoung, wide-eyed and on the verge of passing out, grabs Joohyun by the shoulders, ignoring the glare she receives for it. “Joohyun, seriously? You’re serious. You want her like want her? Or want her like you wanted that cookbook after that trial week of Food Tech during summer break?”

Joohyun regards her, absolutely blasé. “I don’t follow recipes.”

“Exactly. Are you play-”

Sooyoung’s statement dies down with the rest of the class as the lecturer walks in. Furious clicking, hurricane scribbles and flipping pages are all that remain as the lesson kicks off, Jennie and Sooyoung casually scrolling through Instagram while the professor speaks. Joohyun leans forward, elbows on desk and chin resting on interlocked fingers. Her full attention is on the poor girl on the other side of the hall, intermittently peeling the cold, damp fabric away from her body, face flushed and avoiding all eye contact. Joohyun snickers at how uncomfortable it must be to have to sit through class in a wet jumper, how awkward and squeamish she looks.

Strawberry-tinted lips curl into the faintest smirk.

Hello cutie.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Yah! Kang Seul-Gi!” Seungwan calls out to chocolate-swirly space buns and baggy gym clothes hurtling towards her from across campus grounds, “where the heck were you?!”

“Sorry sorry! Overslept!”

“What!? Your class starts at noon! … and this is like… day 1!”

The girl looks like she’s barely had the chance to screw her head on the right way as she joins Seungwan on the steps of the university entrance.

Seungwan’s sweating buckets; physically and metaphorically, both from the waves of humidity and her all-exclusive one-idiot circus show this morning in class. That little muck up makes it to the tippy top of the endless list of embarrassing things Seungwan has stored in her long-term memory.

“You okay?”

Seungwan palms rosy cheeks as she takes another mouthful of her rainbow sherbet cone.

“You wouldn’t believe what happened to me.”

Seulgi chortles as her best friend recounts her ordeal, trying to subdue the sea of smart alec remarks bubbling under her skin.

“So that was great, too. And now I’m a laughing stock. A meme. They’re probably editing my stupid face as I speak…”

Seulgi reverts back to the first incident. Of course she would.

“Sooo… not like in the dramas then?”

Seungwan hangs her head, “not at all… she looked like she wanted to kill me.”

Seulgi lets out a snort before prodding her with more curious questions. The cogs in Seungwan’s brain churn and stutter as she tries to filter as many redundant adjectives as possible, only using ones she deems absolutely necessary to describe the most beautifully terrifying girl she’s ever seen.

Just then, as if Seungwan had meant to conjure hell itself, the three girls make an appearance from round the corner, chatting amongst themselves and taking Seungwan and Seulgi by surprise. The latter glances down where steely fingers are squeezing her wrist, as if that’d activate some magical cloak of invisibility. Seungwan’s as good as swallowed her tongue, shakily motioning to the girl in the middle of the black velvet storm with her eyes and a few nose twitches.

“H-her…” she stutters, finally getting her brain into gear after they leave, “… her.”

Innocent eyes double in size at the realisation.

“Wha-wait no, her?! You bumped into… her?! Her, Bae Joohyun leader of killer senior pack Bae Joohyun?”

Seungwan’s heart only thumps faster at the panic in Seulgi’s voice, but her words still mean nothing. The other girl swipes the dangling question marks off the top of her friend’s clueless head.

“Yo Wan-ah, you have to lay low. I mean why would you even – oh geez wow you really messed up. Can’t you look where you’re – I can’t even begin to – why would you – oh my gosh!”

Seulgi’s disjointed sentences allow enlightenment to trickle in and Seungwan slaps a hand over her forehead, mortified.

Oh god no. That’s the Bae Joohyun?

She’d heard the rumours. Many, rumours. Bae Joohyun who makes her juniors cry. Bae Joohyun; precious daughter of the most elusive mafia gang leader in all of Korea. Bae Joohyun; ice queen senior, sole roost-ruler of Hanyang University and the biggest bully you’ll ever meet.

Positively preposterous, empty claims with no evidence whatsoever to back them up… she hopes.

“Pft yeah okay she’s… mean, but she’s not like… jesus or anything she can’t… like… part the Red Sea or, turn water into vodka I don’t know,” Seungwan tries and fails at consoling herself, receiving nothing but an apologetic pat on the back from the girl beside her.

“Yeah well… she’s not the messiah but everyone treats her like it. And for the sake of your own neck, you’d better start too. Watch out, Wan-ah.”

Seungwan hadn’t paid any mind to those wet-eared freshmen whom she’d overheard during orientation gossiping about Joohyun and her charming little posse; but perhaps she should have.

She gulps, too afraid to think of anything else.

~~~~~~~~~~

Seungwan often fantasizes at work. There has to be some way to pass the time, after all.

Deep down she’s a sucker for romance, she knows it far too well; she envisions herself ten years down the line, letting whoever she has on the other end of the phone know that she’ll be home soon, that work has just been extra grueling today, and that she cannot wait to give them a cuddle. She’ll stir the dinner pot while she tells them stories, pausing in between to remind her lover how beautiful they are. Perhaps one day, the honour will be hers, to see her soulmate walking down the aisle.

But as the tinkling of the doorbell rings through her café, Seungwan files those cloudy fantasies for later and greets her first customers with a smile.

She hasn’t been sleeping very well, worrying her mind with ridiculous thoughts and impossible scenarios. All involving Joohyun as a tick-tocky alligator and herself as none other than Captain ‘I’m-actually-innocent-why-are-you-still-trying-to-eat-me’ Hook.

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s five minutes to closing time. Seungwan suppresses the yawn in her chest and blinks away the moisture in her eyes. Just zero to sixty, five times in your head. You got this, Seungwan. Gosh, there’s no one in the café and hardly anyone outside. She briefly contemplates closing early.

“Small iced Americano.”

“Coming r – aii!! Ai…!”

Seungwan’s adrenaline spikes so high she could serve it ice cold in a coffee cup right now. Caught completely off guard, she begins stammering nonsense behind the till, crinkling the leather of her dark brown work apron and then using the hem of her polo shirt to wring clammy palms none the drier. All the while her customer stands there, brow quirked and card held out between slender fingers. Her expression, although slightly amused, threatens her to take her money, or else.

Before she can open her mouth, a buttery voice snaps her out of her trance.

“Hello, Seung – wan… hey, don’t we have Korean Literature together?”

Seungwan tries not to spontaneously combust on the job as she instinctively slaps a hand over her name tag. It’s useless though, it is now known. Known to her, of all people. The notorious Bae Joohyun; dressed in Acne jeans and an over-sized midnight Balenciaga cardigan, she looks like any other young, caffeine-dependent university student. But Seungwan knows a lot better.

Oh god save me… what the hell is she doing here!? This has to be a set up. She’s here for me. I’m going to die tonight. Mummy, daddy I love you.

“J-J-Juh…”

She can’t say it. All the years of schooling; learning the alphabet and how to enunciate your words drain out through the holes in her ears. She gawks dumbly, moving her head in what could be considered to be a nod.

“Ah, I thought I recognised you,” she doesn’t even bother trying to sound surprised, “I’m Joohyun.”

Don’t I know.

All Seungwan can do is nod again, hating herself for even breathing right now.

Joohyun clicks her tongue and fiddles with the card in her hand, impatient, “soooo… is this Americano free, or…?”

Yes, yes it’s free, please just take it and go! I’ll upgrade it to an extra-large if you want, on me! If it means I’m spared for the rest of my student life, take it all! Jesus, how did you even find me?!

“Ah, yes. Sorry! Uh, yes that’ll be um two fif – two… two thirty.”

There’s a shaky exchange of a debit card and a forgotten peace treaty iced Americano before Seungwan takes an unconscious shuffle back from the register, eyes glued to the smudge on the toe of her right sneaker, unable to meet Joohyun’s piercing gaze for too long.

“Thank you, Seungwan.”

The way she lingers on the ‘S’ whispers shivers down the girl’s spine. She glances up at the worst possible time, too, nearly jumping out of her mismatched Muji socks when she sees Joohyun’s hibiscus-tinted lips bloom into a coy smirk.

“I’ll see you around.”

And with what a shivering Seungwan could’ve sworn was a terrible attempt at a wink, Joohyun is gone. Clutching at her chest, she tries to slow her accelerated heartrate, praying she doesn’t need heart surgery after what she’s just been through.

Seulgi’s so hearing about this.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Daebak,” Sooyoung scoffs, side-eyeing Joohyun as she twiddles her pen.

“What else did you say?” Jennie presses, taking a sip of her chai latte.

Joohyun merely hums, disclosing no further details of her little cafe incident. She misses Jennie’s disbelieving grin when the walking, talking definition of awkward bumbles into the lecture hall, just on time, armful of texts and messy cinnamon locks matted to her face.

Sooyoung can’t resist a jest. “Joohyun, look. It’s idiocy on legs.”

Joohyun bites back a snort as her eyes follow the girl stumbling and murmuring apologies all the way to her seat. She slumps into the chair with burning cheeks, brushing her hair back with her fingers and fiddling with her gingerbread fringe. Too cute, Joohyun thinks, gritting her teeth.

It happens about mid-way in the class. The mention of pair work triggers the uniform eye-roll, groan and grumble combo, more so from the seniors, who sure as hell don’t want to be paired with icky, snot-nosed first-years who can barely lift their spoons to their mouths. The grumbling evaporates when it is stated that, although compulsory, it is not a fixed-paired assignment.

Seungwan breathes a sigh of relief along with a few others, content to set up camp in the aisles of the library, perfectly undisturbed. But she suddenly feels paler than chalk; flashbacks of heeled boots, midnight cardigans and heart surgery flooding into her veins once more when she catches a pair of stealthy pupils regarding her from across the room. A deceptively sweet smile sparkling on those dreaded lips, breath-taking and utterly petrifying all at once. Even from the other side of a bloody lecture theatre, Bae Joohyun has Seungwan sweating bullets and unconsciously fidgeting at her collar to release steam no one else can see.

About a minute away from hurling herself out the nearest window, Seungwan diverts her attention to her notebook at the last second. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Seungwan stabs her chopstick into the egg yolk, watching it dribble all over her rice. She’s jealous of her own best friend who doesn’t have to live every waking hour with a red sniper laser dot on her back.

Should’ve majored in art too, goddamnit, she curses, poking her lunch in a dazed stupor.

“Wan-ah!”

She scoffs at the familiarity, but Seulgi’s crescent moon grin makes Seungwan momentarily forget.

~~~~~~~~~~

The black cursive of Han Kang’s literature stares up at her as she tries to digest what she’s reading, but she swears her brain allocates the worst times for that sneaky Bae Joohyun to pop up like an unwanted advertisement. Seems like now, she’s going to have to sit through an entire trilogy.

Despite the crippling dread, Seungwan can’t help but wonder. They’re so silly, but she wonders them anyway. She feels free to let her mind wander in the safety of the university library.

Bae Joohyun; Seungwan’s mind is unchanged; she’s the most beautiful girl she’s laid eyes on. It’s a unique kind of beauty; mysteriously edgy, knife-like and femme fatale. The grin Joohyun gave her in class this morning, she knows she should be running from it, but it doesn’t stop the fact that it’s been playing in her head on repeat ever since.

Seungwan unintentionally imagines what it would be like to kiss that sunset-infused smirk right off her face.

Too bad she’s a mean one, she sighs.

She doesn’t get much further with the actual task at hand when her blood-pressure plummets; she watches leader of the killer senior pack, Bae Joohyun, artlessly sit down in the chair next to her. It’s like the world stops spinning for the second it takes their eyes to meet, and Seungwan quivers in her seat, thoughts of literature fleeing out the back of her brain.

Trying to be polite, she gives her a courteous nod and returns to her reading. But Joohyun just sits there, staring, peppering her body with smoking bullet holes – it frightens her in the weirdest way. She can’t help the tiny bubble of… excitement? At the fact that Hanyang’s notorious Bae Joohyun is sitting next to her. Probably to get close enough to kill her, of course, but she’d count her blessings, no matter how terrifying. The thread finally snaps, and Seungwan is able to channel her inner stone statue no more, wordlessly excusing herself and stumbling to the bathroom.

It’s empty and silent; exactly what she needs. She flicks some cool water over the burning in her cheeks and dabs at the heat welled in the corners of her eyes.

But just as she’s about to leave, Joohyun’s standing in the doorway; cloaked in all her intimidating aura and eclipsing her only exit.

“Bathroom break so soon?” Joohyun’s voice drips into her ears like melted honey as she observes a wry smile crawl onto her face, “we’ve barely gotten started. Let’s get back to work… partner.”

It’s kicking in only now what Joohyun is saying. And it takes everything Seungwan has to formulate a pathetic response.

“Oh right, a-about that,” she nervously chuckles, averting her gaze and scratching the back of her neck, ��uh, I-I was just um… I don’t wanna drag anyone down with – you know because you’re a senior and all – was m-maybe thinking –”

She doesn’t get very far when Joohyun begins advancing, walking towards her with such sure, dominating strides Seungwan has no choice but to back away, the piercing squeaks of Adidas sneakers easily drowning out the clicking of Louboutin heeled boots. Joohyun sports that coy smirk the whole time she’s cornering poor Seungwan, further and further back, until…

A tiny yelp is torn from her as her back hits the wall. Seungwan strains up to meet her eyes, 5 inch boots are a very useful intimidation tool. Her heart feels about as fragile as sugar glass, and she thinks it would do her good to invest in those styrofoam packing peanuts and a roll of caution tape.  

Joohyun observes the little caramel-haired mouse girl she’s caught; pressed against the cool, beige tile, both hands out in front of her, quivering like a jello pile. She quickly notes the way the top of Seungwan’s head just about grazes the bottom of the wall-mounted paper towel dispenser, and it stretches her grin even further. She looks irresistible, those doe eyes the colour of warm cocoa. Who knew she had a thing for sweet faces, well-intentions and weak-hearts?

Realising her hands aren’t doing anything to keep the other girl at bay, Seungwan drops them like a tonne of bricks - she’s never felt so small and helpless in her life. The rich scent of vanilla and mint tickles her nose; Joohyun’s too close, and she really needs those fragile stickers to go over the thumping in her chest. But she also wants to nuzzle in closer to that intoxicating shampoo smell.

“P-please… I-I didn’t mean to…”

Her voice sounds so tiny and fragile, it tugs on Joohyun’s heartstrings.

“You know who I am?” she demands in somewhat of a growl, caging the smaller girl in with both arms pressed on either side of her head, causing her to gasp out, “you’ve heard?”

Seungwan shrinks a little more, petunias searing onto her milky cheeks at the proximity, but terror-stricken nonetheless. It’s burning, and it’s too much.

A small ‘mm’ and a teary nod is all she can offer.

Joohyun shoots her a challenging smirk, a kaleidoscope of obsidian pebbles flicker in her darkened eyes as she brings a single finger under the girl’s chin, tilting her so she’s forced to look up.

“And you still think you have a choice?”

Seungwan wishes she could rear up at the challenge, hammer some humility into that smug attitude in front of her; put Bae Joohyun in her place. But who is she to change the way the world works? Girls like Joohyun toy with what they want, and get what they toy with; the natural order of things Seungwan has no hope of re-routing. Her resolve, her dignity and everything she’s built up in her 20 years on earth crumbles at her feet; she doesn’t bother picking up the pieces.

With that, she looks up at the girl who still has her locked in with her eyes alone, and meekly shakes her head.

Seungwan can finally breathe when Joohyun detaches herself from the wall and runs both hands down the front of her blouse. She hears a chuckle and before she knows it, there’s an arm around her waist, moving them in tandem.

She doesn’t see the triumphant smile etched into Joohyun’s rosebud lips, like she’s swallowed a coat hanger. All she knows is that they’re now bound by this assignment, and that Joohyun is leaving with exactly what she came for.

Seungwan hides a shy grin of her own.

[knightofthecourt]

Love Bites - Chapter 2

Belatrice Gray was a TA at Belgrave University, working hard to stay on top of her marking and trying not to flunk her own studies, when a night out with her bff Randall and his roommates, changed everything.  

Hamish Duke x OC fiction with fluff, romance and angst. OC description has been left out to allow for reader personalisation!

“Haim?” Lillth reached out, placing a hand on Hamish’s shoulder. He was crouched next to Bela’s phone, in the same position he’d been in when he called Lillith to ask her to meet him outside.

He looked up at his friends. They were gathered around him, concern etched across their faces. 

“You heard it, didn’t you?” Hamish’s voice was quiet as he looked back down at the phone in front of him. 

Randall nodded. “The ringing, when we were in the club?”

“I should have known - should have come to check on her. She was out here, alone. I didn’t...”

Lilith shot Randall an uneasy look. Hamish was the Knight’s fearless leader, he was always decisive and assertive, the first to lead them into battle or come up with a game plan. She’d never seen him like this before. He looked so lost. 

“Hamish, buddy?” Jack said slowly, “You blaming yourself isn’t going to help anyone.” 

Hamish stared at the phone a moment longer and then moved his gaze to the object sitting a few inches away from it. As much as it pained him to admit it, Jack was right. 

He picked up the small shiny item and then pocketed Bela’s phone and straightened up. 

“Can you track this?” He held the grey plastic button out to Alyssa. 

She took it from him. “Yes - I just need a few things for the spell.” 

“Ok,” Hamish nodded. “Jack, get Alyssa to the Den, we’ve got supplies there. Lilith, Randall, we’re splitting up. We can cover more ground as wolves. The first one to find anything calls the others.”

They all nodded, falling back into the familiar routine of search and rescue. 

As Jack and Alyssa took off in the direction of the Den, Randall placed his hand on Hamish’s arm. 

“Don’t worry,” he said, past the lump in his throat. “We’ll find her.”  

Hamish squeezed Randall’s hand and offered him a weak smile. “Of course we will,” he said, ignoring the gnawing pit in his stomach. 

- - - - -

“You’re sure this is the place?” 

After 40 minutes of attempting to track Bela’s scent and coming up empty, Jack had called Hamish with a location. Now the two of them were standing under a shroud of trees with Alyssa, watching the entrance to a derelict building on the edge of Belgrave’s campus. 

Alyssa showed him the bowl in her hand. A small stick balanced in water with the button tied to it was pressed against the edge, as if pulled by an invisible hand in the direction of the front door. 

Jack sighed. “Why does this campus have so many creepy buildings? It’s like they’re asking for students to get kidnapped by evil magic practitioners from secret cults.” 

“We don’t know that this person is part of The Order.” Alyssa said, her voice low. “Maybe it’s a magic tourist.” 

Hamish ignored their comments as he scanned the area around them. 

“Right,” he said, focusing his gaze on the entrance. “You guys go round the back, I'll take the front. When we find Bela I'll create a distraction while you get her out.” 

“We don’t know how many are in there,” Jack shook his head “Shouldn’t we hold on until the others get here?”

“Randall and Lillith are on their way but we can’t wait, we don’t know what they’re doing to Bela.” 

Jack opened his mouth as if to disagree and then thought better of it when Hamish glared at him. He took Alyssa’s hand and they headed towards the side of the building, leaving Hamish alone. 

Hamish took a deep breath and walked straight through the front door. 

- - - - -

His footsteps were silent as he moved slowly down the hallway, muffled by the thick layer of dust covering the floor. In the weak light filtering in through the grime-smeared windows from streetlights outside, Hamish could make out further passageways and doors branching off into the darkness. 

Before it had been abandoned, the location must have been used as a storage facility for the University at some point. Mouldy cardboard boxes and forgotten paper files lined the rooms Hamish passed, but he didn’t stop to explore them as he pushed deeper into the heart of the building, drawn towards a faint orange glow.

As he crept closer to the end of the hallway a cavernous room emerged up ahead. The space had been cleared, office desks and chairs pushed against one wall. In the center of the room, starkly lit by the uncovered bulb hanging above, was a metal operating table.

Hamish felt his pulse stutter as he saw Bela’s form strapped to the table. She wasn’t moving. 

Terror flooded his mind. He took a deep breath, struggling for control as Tundra’s growls filled his head. Suddenly, a door on the far side of the room opened and someone walked in. 

Hamish recognised him immediately. 

Tanner leaned over the table, examining Bela, and then gave the restraints a sharp tug. 

“I was wondering when you’d show up.” He said, without turning. “Don’t worry, I took care of your friends. They won’t be bothering us.” 

Hamish stepped out of the shadows and into the room, keeping his eyes on Bela. 

“What did you do to them?” He asked. Even to his own ears, his voice sounded strained.  

“They’re ok, for now.” Tanner walked around the table to face Hamish, placing Bela between the two of them. He lifted his right hand and steel glinted in the light. “Just in case you get any ideas.” 

Hamish hesitated when he saw the knife hovering above Bela. “So, The Order is sending Acolytes to murder students now?” 

Tanner’s smile set his teeth on edge. “Oh,” he said, “is this the part where I tell you my motivation?” 

When Hamish didn’t answer he clicked his tongue impatiently. “Fine. This one is just bait. I admit it’s a bit of a waste to kill her, but worth it to get the real prize.” 

Hamish watched as Tanner lowered his arm slightly, the knife hovering just inches away from Bela’s abdomen. 

“The Knights?” 

“Yes. The Knights.” Tanner’s face twisted with disgust. “The great champions. Monsters hiding in our ranks, poisoning The Order from the inside.” 

“We’re part of The Order.” Hamish growled. 

“A mistake,” Tanner’s eyes darkened. “One I’m going to fix. I’ll be a hero.”  

Hamish’s heart stopped as Tanner plunged the knife downwards. He barely had time to inhale the scent of blood before the change ripped through him, his panicked thoughts giving way to Tundra as the wolf took control. 

Tanner watched the man before him transforming. He ran the blade across his palm a second time, sending another rush of blood spattering across the metal table below.

“Mutatis,” he bellowed. In an instant his body stiffened. He doubled over, his spine snapping forward at an unnatural angle as it lengthened and warped. His skin split, thick, dark hair erupting all over and his hands spasmed as his fingernails lengthened into claws.

Tundra turned to face Tanner and found himself staring into the jaws of a hulking black wolf. 

- - - - - 

Bela was snapped back to consciousness by a sickening pain in her legs. She blinked, groggily, as a large dark shape was yanked off her and sent hurtling into a nearby wall. The deafening crunch of plaster and glass sent bells pealing through her temple - she felt like her skull was about to split open. 

As her vision cleared and the room swung into focus she realised with a start that she didn’t recognise the bare, water-stained ceiling above her. What the hell was going on?

The last thing she remembered was being at the club with her friends, she was supposed to meet Hamish outside but that guy… Tanner, was it? He asked her to help with his car. 

Maybe there had been some sort of accident. Was she in hospital? She tried to sit up and groaned as her movement was met with another sharp ripple of pain through her thighs. She went to run her hands over them and realised that she couldn’t move her arms. She was stuck.  

Before she could gather the energy to yell out her vision was taken up by Hamish’s concerned face. 

“Bela? Thank God.” He looked on the verge of tears. 

“Urgh,” Bela croaked, finally finding her voice. “Am I dead?” 

“No, you’re very much alive.” The corner of his lips quirked up.  

“Haim, I can’t move. My legs-” 

“Oh. Wait a second.” He disappeared from view. 

Bela heard ripping sounds, like fabric tearing, and the pressure around her forearms and legs released. She sighed in relief and lifted her hands to feel for damage. As far as she could tell, she was still in one piece, which was a small mercy. 

“Careful,” Hamish reappeared at her side as she sat up and gingerly pulled her legs over the edge of the table.

“What the..?”  Bela’s eyes widened as she took in her surroundings.

“Hamish, where are we? What was that big black thing?” As she turned towards him her voice rose a few octaves. “Where are your clothes? Is that… is that blood? Are you ok?”

Hamish looked down at his blood spattered chest and then back up at Bela, a frown wrinkling his brow. 

“I’m not hurt. I can explain everything, I promise.” 

“Start talking.” Bela pushed herself up onto her feet and then fell backwards against the table. She gasped as white hot agony shot through her legs, turning them to jelly.

Hamish grabbed her waist and lifted her gently onto the table again. As Bela squirmed out of his grasp she caught the look of hurt that crossed his face. He stepped back and raised his arms, palms outstretched towards her. 

“You’re safe.” Hamish bowed his head. “I’m going to explain, we just need to get out of here first, please-”

He broke off as a loud bang echoed off the walls, spinning towards the door on the far side of the room as Jack and Alyssa strode through it.

Bela saw his shoulders relax as he recognised his friends. 

He met them half way, gratefully accepting the jacket Jack handed to him. “Are you guys ok?” 

Alyssa nodded, “Yeah, it was just a holding spell.”

Bela frowned. Spell? 

“Hey, are you ok Bela?” Alyssa started towards her but stopped when Hamish blocked her path. She gave him a funny look.

“Jesus Haim, chill.” Jack pulled Alyssa back towards him. “Where’s Tanner?”

Hamish pointed to a large opening by the door behind them. “I put him through that wall.” 

Jack disappeared into the hallways and then emerged a moment later, shaking his head. “He’s gone.” 

Hamish growled under his breath. “I should have ripped his fucking head off.” 

“Get in line.” Jack huffed. “I can’t believe that idiot was behind this. He barely even made it in to The Order in the first place.”

Alyssa glanced between the two of them. “You put him through a wall Hamish, how did he walk away from that?” 

“He used a transformation incantation.” Hamish’s voice was low but anger punctuated every syllable. 

“What?” Alyssa’s head snapped up. “That’s way above his skill level. What did he turn into?” 

“A wolf.” 

“A werewolf?” Jack’s brow furrowed. “I thought that was impossible?” 

“Not quite a werewolf -” Hamish ran his fingers through his hair, shaking out some of the dried blood,“- but big enough to give Tundra a run for his money.” 

“Do I have a concussion, or did you just say werewolf?” The three of them turned towards Bela and stared, as if they had just remembered she was in the room. 

“Both, probably.” Jack shrugged. “I mean, I’m not a Doctor.” 

Hamish glared at him. 

Bela pushed herself up from the table. “Don’t.” She said, holding up a hand when Hamish made a disapproving noise and moved towards her. She bit down on her lip as her legs throbbed in protest. 

She was exhausted, and furious. She’d woken up scared and in pain, strapped to a table in a creepy room with a very naked, blood-covered Hamish. Now they were talking about spells and incantations and werewolves. Enough was enough. 

“Explain. Now.” 

The three of them looked at her, mouths open. 

“Ok.” She rounded on Hamish. “Start talking, Haim. What the hell happened to me? Was that thing Tanner? What did he do to me? What did you do to him? Why are you talking about spells? Where are-”

Hamish caught her as a cloud of white powder enveloped her head. 

“Was that really necessary.” He hissed at Alyssa as he scooped Bela’s unconscious form up into his arms. 

“You can’t have a secret society if it’s not a secret, Hamish” 

“Fine,” He nodded. “Whatever. Let’s get her back to the Den.” 

“What about Tanner?” Jack frowned. 

“I’ll take care of him later.” Hamish said, his words more of a threat than a promise.

[thanksjro]

Spotlight: Orion Pax - Because Hasbro was Getting Antsy About Their Golden Boy Having Faffed Off into Space

Oho, you thought we were done with Optimus Prime, did you?

You fools.

This is Transformers- we’re legally obligated to have Optimus Prime in some form or fashion running around at all times. This is just Hasbro catching up.

Fun fact: this was published on December 12th, 2012!

Our issue opens up with Orion Pax strapped to the top of a shuttle that’s careening towards a city.

But that’s the hook, so we won’t get to see what that’s all about just yet. No, first we’ve got to see just what all led to this point.

Earlier in the day, Orion Pax got refitted with a hot new bod, courtesy of Wheeljack, and now he’s showing off his new look to historical constant Rung and Kaput, who are here to assist in acclimation.

This is Kaput’s first appearance in the comics, but it’s not his first entry into the IDW continuity. He was introduced in the  Last Stand of the Wreckers prose story Bullets, where he diagnosed Ironfist with dead, in so many words. Kaput’s here currently because he specializes in sparks, and he’s going to make sure that Orion’s doesn’t explode in his chest thanks to the frame change. No word on whether the wheel was something he came into the world with or a modification.

But enough medical nonsense, let’s see the star of the show.

That’s not how reflections work!

Orion’s first point of contention is the fact that his lucky faceplate is missing. Wheeljack replaced it with a proper face, because that’s the new hotness right now. I guess when you’re a race of space robots who can change their bodies the way humans change their clothes, fashion is a lot more work. I wonder if faces out out of vogue in the present- there’s a lot of guys without one on the Lost Light.

Rung offers Orion some reading materials to help him cope with the sudden change, but it isn’t necessary. Orion fully intends to switch back to his old bod after his mission is over.

If you couldn’t tell by this point, this whole “frame change” thing is a plot contrivance to explain away some of the design clashing between comics set during this time period.

This is Zeta.  

Yes, really, they’re the same guy. I don’t think Senator Shockwave would have had him modified for Matrix carrying if he’d known how tacky he was going to be about it.

Zeta Prime seems to think that haute couture is exploding a Galapagos turtle and then strapping the smoking remains to your back.

Zeta leads Orion over to where Nightbeat’s waiting with a slideshow he spent hours on. Nightbeat, at the time of this story, is a hostage negotiator, and today his mission, as well as Orion’s, is to retrieve our beloved Ratchet from a Decepticon terrorist cell hiding somewhere in the Rust Spot. The Rust Spot’s some heavy duty danger, hence the reformat for Orion.

They’ll also be bringing on Alpha Trion, #1 Rust Spot navigator, philosopher, polymath, polyglot, historian, and all-around grandpa.

His beard gets a D+, however.

Note the quotation marks on “he” here; it looks like even Roberts was sick of the Furmanism that is “genderless robots that all appear to be male”. We’ll get more into that sticky situation later on. What I want to focus on right now is our artist for the issue, Steve Kurth.

Kurth is from Wisconsin, and doesn’t have a ton of pencil credits to his name in the Transformers franchise. He mostly does work for Marvel, and while it appears his art blog hasn’t been updated in a few years, the publishing company still has a tag for him. He’s done the Avengers, if that’s your thing.

Anyway, so nobody knows who’s in the back.

I gotta say, Alpha Trion, you got some brass fucking balls to insinuate that the cops forgot to put the hostage tradeoff in the trailer, in front of said cops.

The fellas transform and roll out, Orion pulling the trailer because anything else would be blasphemy, as Alpha Trion guides them to the meet up point. As they drive, the old man regales the young whippersnappers with his tales of friendship and adventure alongside Metroplex the Titan. They were, like, best friends. Seriously.

Storytime gets interrupted however, as our heroes are attacked from beyond the mists.

You know, when I was a kid, my mom had a car that looked exactly like Nightbeat here, paint job and all.

Alpha Trion got so wrapped up in blathering away, he forgot to mention that they were in Slicer territory, and might want to be on the lookout. Thanks, Alpha, way to be a pal.

Nightbeat refers to the creatures as “throwbacks”, something that’s never elaborated on, but I’m going to guess it means something along the lines of being primitive, or perhaps animalistic.

Holy fucking shit, that’s terrifying.

These awful things start swarming Orion, Nightbeat, and Alpha Trion, who all start punching and shooting with wild abandon, making short work of the mass. Orion gets a few paper cuts for his troubles, but they’re all more or less alright.

The trailer can’t say quite the same though; the door’s popped off, and the contents have either escaped or never existed in the first place.

Schrodinger wept.

Alpha Trion pulls the prisoner out of the fog… and then so does Nightbeat.

It’s a two-for-one sale at the Hostage Emporium.

Rack and Ruin haven’t really done anything to warrant being worth a whole entire Ratchet, so Orion decides to have a little chat and see what’s up.

Oh, that’s what Nightbeat meant by Ruin being the ugly one.

Orion’s chat reveals these two chumps to be even bigger losers than they first appeared to be- their only talent seems to be instantaneous conversion, which involves shutting off all the safety protocols for one’s transformation cog for a faster switch.

Orion switches trains of thought, asking about the Decepticon cause and its whole deal. This is a bit after the events of the heist, so the rhetoric has become a bit more violent by this time, and he wants to know what the hell happened.

But there’s no time for philosophic musing, because that’s when the Decepticons show up. Thundercracker escorts our group to the hideout to meet Bludgeon, and the exchange is made, albeit with a pro bono thrown in.

Well, shit.

This was why the Decepticons wanted to meet in the Rust Spot; because they knew only Alpha Trion would be able to guide the cops to the tradeoff point. But what are they going to do with robot grandpa? Why, use him to find Metroplex, of course!

There’s a rumor that Titans have the capabilities to create space bridges inside them- we as the reader know this to be true thanks to the 2012 MTMTE Annual, but let’s not tell Bludgeon about all that, yes?

Orion, please, this is hardly the time.

Luckily for Alpha Trion, Orion stuffed some guns into the bottom of the trailer, as is made apparent when he starts throwing them to his buddies. Why he and Nightbeat weren’t carrying any weapons on their person isn’t addressed, but at least the idea here is kind of cool.

Alpha Trion  easily escapes his bonds, because a noose isn’t really worth much to a species that doesn’t breathe and can literally survive not having a head.

We are just laying it on THICK today, aren’t we?

Rack and Ruin lead the other not-Decepticons into the tunnels towards safety- not sure how exactly, considering they’ve got their sensory deprivation helmets back on- as Orion Pax is dogpiled into submission.

Bludgeon might need a hobby. Might I suggest jigsaw puzzles?

Orion’s about to hit the loop that was created by the first page of this issue, so he tries to stall for time to think of a way out of all this. He halfway succeeds, in that he gets a little more time, but doesn’t come up with anything. Down on the ground, all his friends watch the shuttle shoot into the sky, probably wondering what all that’s about.

Bludgeon was aiming for this shuttle to hit a populated area, but it would appear that he’s an idiot and overshot by a wide margin. Cool beans.

Ah wait, we still have another three pages of story to this.

Hey, y’all remember Hoist’s tragic backstory, where he wandered the Rust Spot alone until he almost died of exhaustion?

Yeah, that was Orion’s fault.

The Fault of Our Star, if you will.

(I’ve never read anything written by John Green, what the hell am I doing?)

Because he just bounced off the underside of Hoist’s shuttlecraft, Orion’s hurtling towards the downtown section of Iacon, which is absolutely a populated area and exactly what Bludgeon was going for. Orion’s going to have to think fast if he’s going to get out of this one. Good thing Rack and Ruin told him their super secret transformation technique.

Thinking quickly, Orion transforms into a truck, breaks his bonds, somehow manages to not fly off the side of the shuttle due to wind pressure, transforms back to root mode, shuts off the autopilot, slams into a wide open field just outside of town, and survives well enough to be more concerned about Wheeljack being mad he scuffed up his new body than his own safety. Good on you, Orion! You saved the day!

To celebrate, he takes an old hubcap or something and shoves it over his face, because I guess only he gets to know how he’s feeling.

Don’t look at me like that, it’s not my fault the story just kind of ends here.

[self-proclaimed-chaotic-good]

Survivors of Unfair Choices (14) | FirstOrder!Poe Dameron x Reader

Words: 1615

Warning: SW-verse typical violence, minor swearing

-

You were knelt down, telling BB-9 the plan to watch over the Falcon and send the signal to the Resistance as soon as the shields were down. Once that was settled, you joined the others in the cockpit.

“So, how are we getting in?” you asked.

Han glanced at you. “Their shields have a fractional refresh rate. Keeps anything traveling slower than lightspeed from getting through.”

You narrowed your eyes. “So what you’re telling me is-”

“We’re going to make our landing approach at lightspeed?” Finn exclaimed in disbelief.

Chewie let out a guttural answer and nodded. You cursed under your breath as you gripped onto the back of Han’s seat.

“Alright, Chewie, get ready!” Han shouted.

Chewie lets out a groan, telling him he was ready. Han studied the panel indicators closely before shouting at Chewie. They both hit the switches, causing the ship to jerk. Suddenly, the ship was thrusted into lightspeed, breaking through the shield and into the planet’s atmosphere, flying a hundred feet above snowy, rocky ground and heading towards a thick forest.

“I’m pulling up!”

“I don’t think we can make it,” you warned, bracing for impact. BB-9 squealed in agreement, taking out a small mechanical arm to anchor themself down.

The Falcon proceeded to plow through the trees, alarms blaring as the ship tried to rise, breaking through branches. Why do you always end up in a crashing situation? Chewie groaned, wanting to go higher and avoid the trees.

“If I go any higher, they’ll see us!” Han shouted, his face twisted in concentration as he steered, lowering the Falcon again.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’m gonna take a break from flying after this,” you said, lowering your head as the ship neared a clearing. BB-9’s head swiveled up at you, scandalized. “I know, buddy.”

You inhaled sharply and gripped harder on the chair as the ship hurtled out of the forest, the layers of snow slowing down the impact until it stopped, half buried. You exhaled slowly before kneeling down next to BB-9. They let out a series of beeps, agreeing to take a break from flying as well.

-

You donned a comfy dark blue parka, a blaster kept in a holster as you walked with the boys out through the snowscape. You heard a noise and signalled for the others to duck into cover as walkers passed by.

Finn peaked his head around the base structure and pointed. “The flooding tunnels are over that ridge. We'll get in that way,” he said.

You nodded, looking over at Chewie who was adjusting the strap of a black duffel bag filled with explosives. “Be careful with that,” you warned. He groaned, as if to say ‘Tell me something I don’t know’.

“What was your job when you were based here?” Han asked Finn.

“Sanitation,” Finn said, looking around.

Your eyes widened, your head whipping towards Han and watched as his features flickered to anger. 

“Sanitation?” Han said incredulously, “Then how do you know how to disable the shields?”

“I don’t. I’m only here to get Rey.”

“Oh, Kriff,” you muttered, stepping away before Han bursts.You didn’t know the details of his previous position, but you knew enough that he didn’t have a high enough rank to know the details of the system unless he heard talk around their canteen. With all this in mind, you weren’t expecting Finn to admit knowing nothing so blatantly.  

Han grabbed him by the collar. “People are counting on us! The galaxy is counting on us-!”

Finn held his hands up. “Solo, we'll figure it out! We'll use the Force!”

You scoffed. “That’s not how the Force works!” you and Han said at the same time, followed by Chewie’s groan about how cold it is. Han rolled his eyes at his friend.

“Has your flyboy told you anything?” Han asked you.

You rubbed your temples. “Since they’ve changed the access codes for the workstation frequently, he wouldn’t have any of the updated codes. He said high ranking officers would have them, though, like Phasma,” you said.

“Of course!” Finn said, pointing a finger at you, “And I know where to find her. Come on!”

You sighed. You wanted to ask how he was going to get it from the captain, but that would mean standing out in the cold forever. The three of you had no choice but to follow him in. In the distance, you could see a laser syphon, sucking in the energy of a nearby sun. You don’t have much time.

While Han grew wary of Finn’s capabilities, getting into the base had been smooth sailing so far with all things considered. Finn had navigated the group to a transport compartment, waiting until a stormtrooper came around to do their routine patrols. All four of you readied your weapons as the door slid open.

“Hey!” the stormtrooper shouted as he fumbled for his blaster. Chewie was the quicker draw, shooting him with his Bowcaster and sending him flying down the corridor.

You winced, hoping that it hadn’t made too much noise. You rushed over with Chewie and helped him drag the body away while Han and Finn scanned the area. Once the body was safely hidden, Chewie gave you a fist bump before the two of you joined them.

“The longer we're here, less luck we're going to have. The shields?” Han asked you and Finn.

“I know where Phasma is around this time. Follow me,” Finn said.

Finn led the group through the corridors, dodging small patrols until he found a hallway. He held up a finger and pointed there before gesturing towards Chewie. The Wookie nodded, walking forwards and waited until he saw the signature chromatic armor before stunning the captain.

Finn instructed Chewie to drag her down a narrow corridor as she came to. Chewie’s arms remained locked around her, subduing her as Finn held a blaster up. As the captain assessed her situation quietly, you double checked the area before standing next to Finn.

“Remember me?” Finn asked his former captain.

“FN-2187,” Captain Phasma said, sounding less than impressed.

“Not anymore. The name's Finn, and I'm in charge,” he pointed at himself before waving the blaster at her excitedly, “I'm in charge now, Phasma. I'm in charge.”

Han placed a hand on his shoulder. “Bring it down. Bring it down,” he advised.

Finn nodded before addressing the captain with a stern look. “Follow me.”

Phasma was led to the nearest workstation, all four blasters aimed at her. She stood in front of the controls, knowing what you wanted her to do, but she wanted you to say it.

“Lower the shields,” you said, using your blaster to point at the workstation before pointing at her again.

When she didn’t move, Finn said restlessly, “You want me to blast that bucket off your head? Lower the shields.”

“You’re making a big mistake,” Phasma warned.

“Do it,” Finn said, followed by Chewie’s guttural threat.

Phasma pushed a few buttons, glancing around her every now and again. “I told Ren that you should be watched more closely,” she said, “Having you in sanitation wasn’t enough, but he wanted to see what you would do. What he saw was disappointing.”

“You’re still talking and not disabling the shields?” Finn asked, raising his blaster.

You frowned. Why would Kylo Ren show any interest in Finn in particular? Finn told you that he doesn’t know his own origins, that the stormtrooper program was all he knew. There must be something that the First Order knew that caused them to react like this when he defected. Poe had said that there had been stormtroopers that tried to leave and the First Order would try to sweep it under the rug and replace them. Even an entire company had left and Finn had, apparently, never heard of it.

The workstation beeped, "SHIELDS DISABLE INITIATE".flashing on the screen.

“Solo, if this works, we're not going to have a lot of time to find Rey,” Finn said, turning to Han.

“Don't worry kid, we won't leave here without her,” Han assured him. 

There was another beep, followed by “SHIELDS DISABLED"” on the screen. You let out a sigh. That was one part of your task done. While you had no doubt that Rey could handle herself, the planet was about to blow up and the timer had started its countdown the moment the shields were disabled.

“You can't be so stupid as to think this will be easy. My troops will storm this block and kill you all,” Phasma spat.

“I disagree. What do we do with her?” Finn said, tilting his head towards her.

Han thought for a moment. “Is there a garbage chute? Trash compactor?”

Finn smirked. “Yeah, there is…”

Before Chewie could chuck the captain down the shute, you held out a hand to stop him. Chewie let out a groan in question before you told him to wait.

“You said Kylo Ren had been keeping an eye on Finn,” you said quickly, holding a blaster under her chin, “What did that mean?”

“Did I say that?” Phasma asked.

“Tell me! What did you mean by that? What do you know?” You pressed.

Phasma let out a chuckle. “If you’re lucky, maybe Kylo Ren will tell you himself.”

You pushed her away, gesturing for Chewie to proceed. Chewie let out another groan and did so, hearing a satisfying crash in the chute.

“What was that about?” Finn asked.

You shook your head. “Something’s not right…”

“We need to find your friend, quickly,” Han interrupted.

The two of you nodded and you set off to search the base.

-

Taglist: @megzdoodle @psychoticobsession @thescarletknight2014 @marrypuffsstuff @theoralpha @daniellajocelyn @badwolf-212 @gleigh42 @ella-solei @roserrys @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @juliaguliaa

[nasty-b]

Should have left it to rot - A Hawks x Reader Fanfic

Warnings: Creepy Crawlings, Manipulation, Blackmail, 

Right on. This could not go any worse if you fucking tried, right? All in all, the entire fucking day had been an absolute disaster. It was so bad. So.. disappointing. Starting with the fact that you got fired like a loser for something you had not even had any control over. It sucked majorly. Especially because not only did you have no control over the event, it was also not even in your jurisdiction. Not your job. End of story. Your superior should have become the person they nailed down but instead you got to play scapegoat.

It was proper stupid. But even ranting a bit around like this did nothing for your mood as you were making your way back home, the box with the stuff from your desk clamped under your arm. It’s not like paying rent was easy enough, even with this job paying you barely enough for the necessities. Now you got to stress over being put out on the street. Your landlord was enough of an asshole to put you out right now if he found out you got fired.

That man was as thick in the head as he was fat. And he was fat. Nothing against people who were on the heavier side but him being obese had nothing to do with- ok you need to calm down. Right now you were just letting your emotions insult anyone inside your head to let out the stress and anger of the situation. Is it beginning to rain? “Shit..” You wiped your h/c hair out of your face and picked up the pace. If you got hit by a storm now you were going to fucking implode. And after imploding you’d explode and probably take half the neighborhood with you.

That was a metaphor. You did not have the power to actually do that. Sometimes you wished you had it though. Just to have something. Sure, you had a quirk, but it was totally useless. You could just dislocate and relocate your bones without abstaining any damage and you could only do it with your arms or your legs. It also hurt like fucking hell, even if you did not catch any damage. You hated pain more than anything.

A lot of people do not enjoy pain. Hard surprise. Wow. Fucking shit it was raining. The drops were coming in hard and fast now and you weren’t even close to home. You’re not running in this weather. You’re gonna fucking slip and then get hit by a car or something.. this week was bad enough to make you feel like you were going through bad luck on purpose. Maybe you were. Maybe someone had cursed the shit out of you for existing. Not that much of a surprise.

Would not be.. much of.. a surprise..? Your step slowed down and cast down towards the small.. red ball of fluff sitting there in the middle of the road. Oh shit- it’s a bird. Poor thing must have hit a tree or something.. You glance up at the darkening sky. Yeah. Must have. Except for when you hear a soft chirp and glance down only to see the fluff moving. Wings stretching weakly and making you jump. Ok yeah no- not a fucking bird. It’s a hawk. A fully grown hawk. Jesus those claws looked mean-

It’s crooked wing also looked kind of unfortunately mean. Yikes there. The poor thing would likely not be flying anywhere anytime soon. That was a death sign for any bird. Broken wing. You should leave it- Law of nature and all. Except for where you were in the middle of the city and this was not exactly.. the most nature rich place. Oh god it’s coming towards you. Limping on it’s gangly legs. “Ahh, hold on- no- bad bird. Don’t come over hereEEK!” Saying this was embarrassing was an understatement.

The thing just hopped vaguely into your direction and you almost dropped your box and landed on your ass because you decided the smartest move was to jump hectically backwards as if the devil was about to bite you in the tit. Take a chill pill y/n. Maybe two. Hakuna your tatas. Think of funny internet pictures. It’s hard to do that with the bird still pathetically trying to communicate. Communicate?

It was kind of squawking at you but, well, obviously you understood none of that. You were no bird person. You did not speak chirp. Unfortunately. That would have been a great quirk to have instead of.. dislocating your limbs as many times as you wanted. You could have been a hero with that kind of quirk. Your own quirk just made you able to use your arms as meat nunchucks. Which. Sounded really fucking stupid oh my god- The image won’t leave your head but you’re forced to concentrate on the bird when it hopped onto your shoe.

First instinct is to scream and kick it. Second instinct is to not move at all. You were wearing short pants and you do not want the thing to peck at your legs. “Jesus christ- I’m so fucking dead. Please don’t hurt me-“ Just in case that thing spoke human, you were very willing to beg a bird to not bite you. But now that it was sitting on your shoe, looking at you. Something did poke at your subconscious. Which would be..

Normal hawks were not red. They might be brown.. with a red tint. But red? This poor animal looked like someone dropped it into a paint bucket. Probably what happened. Maybe that explained the broken wing. “Aw.. Was someone mean to you?” Maybe some kids pulled the poor creature out of a tree or something. “Uh..” It just sat there. Giving you the beady, sad look that only a bird could give someone. It pulled on your heart strings. Badly.

“Wanna.. come with me? For now?” The weather was bad. You were not going anywhere far today. But there was a vet on the way that would be able to set the wing.. at a cost of an arm and a leg. The thought makes you wheeze softly. The bird presses against your leg and you just kind of. Ah hell..

It takes the effort of two hours and most of your savings to get the bird to your shitty apartment. By now all sanity had left you, carrying the box with your stuff and the bird inside. They gave it a little muzzle cap. To ensure you did not get bit or clawed to shit while you waited until the weather cleared up enough to bring it to the nearest wildlife center.

By now you’re drenched. Severely. It was gross and made you shiver and ugh. Back to the loss of your sanity though, because right now you’re ranting to the damn bird about the week you have been having. Currently at the point where you got fired. “-and you’d think they fire the person responsible. Do they get fired? No. I get the shit put on me while I wasn’t even in said department when the whole thing crashed! Fucking bastards I tell you. Proper melts.”

It was oddly therapeutic. Talking to this red bird. Which, by the way, was not dyed. Apparently this had to be it’s normal colors. The vet had been confused but had shut up about it once you paid him. He just wished you well and ushered you out the door as if you were garbage. To be fair, you looked like it. You looked like the girl from the ring while she was climbing out of the well by now. Your hair’s a mess.

Any makeup you had on was runny and your clothes stuck to your body, making you feel oddly naked. “Hold on-“ You put the box down and immediately shimmy out of your clothes. “I suppose I oughta give you some new place to nest for now too, I don’t want you catching a .. cold..” While you had been undressing your gaze fell back onto the bird. Who was.. pointedly not looking at you? It was even shoving it’s head into the box. What the hell?

“Uh.. Buddy?” Was it throwing up in there? Please no. You shuffle over. “Hey, Leggie,” A nickname born out of the length the birds legs had. “If you throw up onto my shit, please, aim at something that is easily wiped down.” But of course you get no response. It does not even answer you. Rude little shit. “Fine.” You conceded.. after making sure the bird was not hurtling out some dead mouse or something. “Hide.. or whatever..”

Taking a shower was overrated after just getting fired so you get into a hoodie and some panties, some comfy socks to fight the cold, tiled floor and then got to moving stuff around. Once you emptied the box of the stuff inside, you filled it with towels and one pillowcase to create a weird sort of nest. Putting the bird back inside. You’re so glad it does not scratch you either. Oddly docile the little thing.. “Ok so.” You clap your hands.

“Welcome to your .. new nest. For now. We’ll be roomates until I have the time-“ and mood “-to get you to the nearest wildlife center.” You needed motivation for such a travel. The nearest one was five hours away with public transportation. You had no drivers license. Well, you used to have one but you lost it because you .. mhh.. you don’t actually remember why you lost it. It never mattered that much so you never bothered taking care of reclaiming it. It wasn’t like you had any money for gas and maintenance anyway.

It ended with you just walking everywhere or taking the subway if it came push to shove. You’re losing track of what you were doing but once you refocused.. you just sighed and hung your head. You were talking to a fucking bird. Wow. And they told you romance was dead. “I’m.. yeah.. let me just..” You turned away and shuffled to your fridge to pull out some raw steak you wanted to make for dinner today. You were not hungry anyway.. not anymore. So, you cut the thing up and just put it all in a bowl before walking back.

It leaves you with the danger of unhooking the muzzle and losing your eyes. Ahh that was bad.. Very bad. You pout a little and just.. carefully pulled it off. Holding the bowl over and putting it into the box, quickly retracting your hand and then lifting the box to put it in the bathroom. You had no bathtub but a shower, which is why the bird box went in there. You closed the glass door and watched the bird stare at you.

“Stop.. judging me.” It felt like it was. It was an ugly feeling to have such an elegant and majestic animal judge you. It sucked majorly. The bird tilted it’s head and just turned it’s head on the meat. Fine. Starve then you little rat.. It was late. You were tired. You got the little thing a bowl of water before you forgot and then you closed the bathroom door. Leaving the weak light on to make sure it found it’s food and it’s water. Time to sleep.

You can watch the bird choke down food tomorrow. No more today. Too late.. Did birds overeat? Naw right? Hawks were like.. eh- they hunted for themselves, surely they knew when they had enough or something. Yeah. Sounded more reasonable. You move to your bed and drop onto it. Taking your two room apartment in one more time before closing your eyes and just .. letting sleep claim you.

For some reason, sleep does not wanna claim you at first. A blood red hawk dancing around in the back of your mind.  That was weird, right? Red hawk. Hawks were brown, usually.. Unless.. did animals have quirks? Nah.. You’re putting too much thought into it. Finally. You drift off.

Only to wake up 6 hours later by a loud crash. You screech in panic and fall out of your bag, kicking and punching the covers off of you and scrambling backwards in reply. Jesus fucking christ what the hell? The noise continued. Clearly, coming out of your lovely apartment. This is hell. You’re in a horror movie. Any moment the monster will come around the corner and kill you.. does it? No. It doesn’t. You need to act before that monster does though.. Very likely a burglar but your imagination is running away with you. Where the fuck is your phone- you left it in the kitchen to charge. Fucking shit.

You grab the nearest thing, which would a polo stick. You don’t polo. You just found the damn thing in a trashcan once and thought it looked cool. Someone had clearly customize the thing and thus it was covered in painted on sunflowers on very dark wood.. They’re very tiny sunflowers. Very tiny. That stick is also not extremely sturdy, being as thin as it was, but you had nothing else and to get to the kitchen for a knife you might already get attacked. Be brave y/n. You do not wanna be brave. Yet, here you go-

With shaky steps, slowly but surely, you make your way to the door. There is still rustling and shuffling, which ensured that it was not right in front of your room. Mhhh carefully you peer around the corner and notice two things. 1. The light in the bathroom was on. 2. The door was open. And suddenly, the idea that came to you very quietly when you were about to sleep came back to kick you in the ass.. But you had been a fucking idiot about it. Because what if, what if.. that hawk was not a hawk. But someone with a hawk quirk. And you brought a stranger into your home and.. undressed in front of them.

Might explain why it looked away from her when you did and did not want to eat the raw fucking meat that had been given to it. God, if this was some kid discovering their quirk you’d be in so much shit. But how did the vet overlook that?? The vet. The vet should have fucking told you what was going on- bastard had probably kept quiet to avoid the drama. Once this is over you’re suing, but the current issue at hand, you dodge the terror of some stranger in your home and straighten out. If this was some kid, their arm was broken. You need to act.

So, gathering all your bravado you stalk over to the door and.. carefully peek inside the room. First thing you notice, this aint no fucking kid and second thing is that there was still an alarming amount of red in your bathroom. Two giant wings were flapping weakly in there and the blonde man that they belonged to was sitting in your shower. Crowded into this tiny bathroom and just looking.. a little bit dazed? He swung from left to right, yikes. Somehow he felt familiar. “E-Excuse me?” Polo stick, firm in your hand. “Are you alright?” The wing that had been broken was still angel awkwardly but by now the bandages had torn. This is bad.

At your voice the man turned his head and blinked owlishly at you. And, oh my god? You knew he looked familiar. You remember this man because his face is on a billboard three or two blocks away to advertise some cologne. You watched an interview with him just four days ago. Hawks. Number 2 Hero. Holy Hell. Hawks was sitting in your bathroom. Uh. Naked? Your eyes try to focus on his face but can’t help check his back out. Muscles alore. The man was short but packed to the sky. God. This was like, out of an fanfiction or something. This happened in fiction. Not real life. “Ah- let me get you some clothes!” Barely you snap out of your dumb stupor and run off to your room to get the biggest shirt and shorts you got- then you run to the kitchen to get a knife to cut two misshaped holed into the back of it.

Maybe those were too small.. But you rushed back only to find the blonde trying to wobble to his legs. The raw meat’s on the ground. Man, guilt coming in hard. You fed the number 2 hero raw meat. Raw.. meat. “Here, come on- uh- you need some pants at least!” He’s clearly out of it. But he’s sobering up quick because when you spoke to him he just held out a hand, to where you handed him the clothes and he started shuffling into them. His wings spread as much as they can, at least the healthy one, crowding you easily out of your own bathroom. Anxiety has your ass so hard you forgot to turn around but when you get a wing in your face you flee to your kitchen and just, shakily start making yourself some tea.

For two. Water enough for two.. he looked like he could need some tea once he got out of your dumb bathroom.. God his poor wing. What happened to it? Why would anyone do this- You knew Hawks, his quirk fierce wings was great but last time you checked, he could not turn into a hawk. But suddenly, there was a hawk Hawks. Which would imply that another quirk user did this to him, right? Oh god.. He saw you undress.. Well, at least he was a gentleman about it.. You’re nervous. Kind of scared of having made yourself look like a total fucking idiot.. you ranted to this man, your idol kind of, about losing your job. The blonde probably thought you were a huge loser.. You were a huge loser. You felt like one.

“Ehhh..” The voice has you snap your head around, almost burning yourself on the hot water you were trying to pour. The man was standing there with a sleepy look and just watched the two mugs on your counter. “..Nh.. Yeah.. Yeah thanks.” He sounds like he’s half asleep. Just moving to your kitchen table and managing to sit down on it, wincing as his broken wing avoided the chair. You wince in sympathy. “I’ll.. I’ll get dressed in a bit and then.. I’ll call you an uber to the hospital. Yeah?” Hawks doesn’t answer. He looked ready to fall asleep at the table. He needs help.. Fucking- Of course he needs help. You finish the making the tea and put some sugar in to help him stay awake before you trot over and put his cup down. “Here. It’s orange. I hope it’s fine.”

Still not much reaction. He just grunted and grabbed the mug to start blowing on it to cool it down. You realize that the shirt you gave him had died. The two holes you put in there had become one huge hole. Guess they were too small after all. Whatever. You’re sure the hospital had better options. Better had better options. Forget your tea, you’re getting dressed, snatching your phone from the counter and speed walking to your room. Find an uber, call them, pay them with the little fucking amount of money you had left which would ensure you’d have nothing to eat for the rest of the month and get Hawks to the hospital.

It takes you five minutes. When you get back the man was staring out the window. He’s looking more awake. That’s good. “Ok!” Your voice had him snap his head around and squint. God, anxiety in your ass. “The uber will be here in a bit, I picked one with a really big care for your wings- Uh,” He’s just staring. “L-Let’s go?” You pump your fist shakily into the air but it just makes you feel dumb. At least he listens, because he gets up and just waits for you to move to the side before walking past you. He’s angry. You can see he’s angry because his face looked angry. His fists were clenched and you’re unsure if it was you or the situation pissing him off.. You’d let him go alone but someone needed to be there to pay the uber driver. Yeah.. You’re praying they take card. You forgot to ask.

All the way down the stairs and then waiting for the uber is nervous hell. The man is super silent and just staring straight ahead as you stood next to him. You wanna go home. Which would be right behind you but you need to pay this shit stain of a driver who was now, five minutes late- Oh is that him? You walk a bit forward and wave the car, which slows down and stops in front of them. The man sitting inside was staring at you two with wide eyes and a pale complexion. Yeah, see who you made wait. Hawks just got into the back, taking in the whole seating. That’s fine. You shuffle to the front and hold up your card. “U-Uh.. do you take card?..”

The stranger just nodded and you can see how uncomfortable he is. He’s feeling like you were right now, which was kind of nice to have that company in a way. Shared pain and all.. You tell him where to and quietly pay. Unfortunately, or fortunately, unsure yet, fate has other plans. When you step back from the car and are about to give the hand sign to go, Hawks slapped his hand onto the other mans shoulder driving the car. “She’s coming with us. I’ll pay for her later.” His voice is hoarse and leaves no room to negotiate. God. What is this. Is he going to sue you for trying to feed him raw meat and locking him into your bathroom..? Hhhgh.. The drive just stared at you helplessly as Hawks fingers dug into his shoulders. No choice then, eh?

You carefully get into the front seat and just .. put on your seatbelt. You’re so fucking scared- but you’re thankful he paid for this? Because. You had nothing left. You were in the red now. That shit cost fifty bucks or something like it- Why did it cost fifty bucks? The hospital was five blocks away or something like it. Right? You’re unsure. Anyway.. “Get his contact info.” Hawks voice made you flinch and you just nodded like a servant or something before pulling out your phone. “P-Please drive, just tell me your info.” Right. Neither of you wanted to be in the company of the angry hero. It just was too much pressure. So, the drive starts and the man manages to give you his info while Hawks was brooding behind you two. This was so stressful. Your veins feel like they’re about to explode.

The next twenty minutes are just as bad and when you get there and Hawks just left you two in the car to get into the hospital without saying anything further. You and the dude just sit there. “Am.. I supposed to wait too?” He sounds confused and worried and you understand. “I.. I don’t know..” You fold your hands into your lap and just watched the hospital. Tensing when you spotted that hawks was coming back with two frantic nurses and a doctor on his ass. He poked his head out and made an impatient motion for you to follow. Carefully you glance around and point at yourself and got an eye roll and a nod in return. Shut the door.

“Good luck..” You groan at the driver and hurry out of the car, thanking him and then jogging over there. Hawks was already on his way back in. Why was this happening to you? You were trying to help- why was he so angry at you? .. Raw meat, shower.. ranting and undressing in front of him might have something to do with it. Damn it.. It’s like, four am or something. You’re only awake because of the adrenaline going through you. You’re in some dirty, stained clothes because you did not pay attention what you were wearing and now that you were a bit calmer you realized you gave Hawks your puppy shirt. The .. the fucking glitter puppy shirt. Ok. He’s going to hate you, he probably already does. This was a disaster.

It’s been an hour and you were forced to sit in the waiting room. Just.. staring ahead and biting your lower lip. You had no friends to call to tell them about this and you and your parents hated each other.. Mostly because they were both heroes and had been so disappointed to have a daughter with a worthless quirk. So disappointed they up and fucking disowned you. Assholes. Whatever. “Miss y/n?” Your head jerks up. Oh no. A male nurse waved you over with a bright, happy smile. “We’re happy to announce that Hawks is stable, you must be so relieved.” Relieved? “Uh, Uh yeah.. Yeah of course I am..” You carefully got up and walked over to the man as he led you down the hallway to the patient rooms.

“We will be right with you bringing you two something to snack on until breakfast. So please just take a seat for now.” What was going on? This was weird, right? You were freaked out. “Thanks..” You muttered and then watched him as he left. Something tells you that you should just leave.. But .. this was the number 2 hero. You can’t just.. ignore him telling you to come along? Especially if he was going to sue the life out of you or anything. Lessen your sentence or whatever. So, you carefully open the door and walk inside. Staring at the blonde man in the bed. He was sitting and reading the newspapers with a focused stare but when he spotted you he gave you a warm smile and waved you over. “Ahh. The savior of the hour.” What?

This was a turnaround. A real 180 degrees one. The anger the other man had expelled earlier seemed gone. “Got that contact info I asked of you, chickadee?” Right. You pull your phone out of your pocket and stumble over to show it to him. His expression warms even more as he gave you a happy grin. “Nice. Great job.” It’s so much different now. Maybe he had just been in immense pain? “Come on, don’t look so scared, I’m not gonna eat you or anything. Sit down, they told me we’re getting some snacks in a bit.” Right, you were told too. This was just freaking you out even further. But what were you going to do?

So, you sit down and give a nervous smile. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.-“ Then you bow and start to apologize. “And I’m sorry about locking you into my bathroom- and feeding you raw meat and-“ It never ends. You end up babbling at him frantically for over five minutes as you tried to convey the emotions of how fucking sorry you were about treating him like, well, a fucking bird. He just grinned at you the whole time and only when you were done speaking did he reply to you. “Ah, well. Yeah that was weird but it’s water under the bridge. It was kinda nice to not have to fight for survival against dogs and cats trying to eat yours truly. That was a thing I got to play around with three hours before you found me.” He makes a face. “You can imagine a broken wing makes that a tad annoying.”

Oh yeah. You finally relax into the chair you’ve been sitting in. “Oh my god.. I’m so glad you’re not suing me.” You groan into the air and just started to giggle all that nervousness out of you. It had been bubbling around in there and finally it was out. God damn it.. “Nah, wouldn’t dream it of.” He leaned back as much as he could in the bed and just continued to read the papers with a soft humm. Which brought in a comfortable, somewhat awkward silence. Right, you had questions still. “Uh, by the way. Now that I’m no longer getting sued or whatever-“ He raises an eyebrow. “Why am I here? Just to like, spend you some company?”

Hawks tilted his head from side to side. “Mhh.. I oughta repay you for your service, now don’t I?” Which, did not exactly enlighten you in whatever the hell he meant. Your smile tightened a little. “Aw, that’s not necessary- I’m just really happy you’re ok.” The door opens at that time and you saw the male nurse bringing a tablet with some bread and stuff. It was not much. But it was some snacks and you could use some nutrition. With all the adrenaline leaving your body you felt kind of faint from all the stress. The male smiled at you two sitting there, Hawks half sitting. “Here you go, you two lovebirds.” Uh. “I’m sorry you have to eat together in a hospital but I’m sure you can have a proper date once you’re out!” Double uh?

He put the tablet down on the bed, on Hawks legs. Who just grinned sharply and side eyed you. “Definitely. Thanks for the food.” You blinked at him with an open mouth. This just, got really uncomfortable? What. The male nurse was already out the door, winking at you as if you were about to get proposed or whatever. What kind of inside joke was this. Joke. Right. Had to be a joke. You laugh nervously. “Haha, wow. He acted like we’re a couple. Crazy!” Hawks had just pulled the tablet closer and was currently busy putting some jam on bread. He’s frowning at the quality of the hospital food. His bread’s crumbling like a bitch. “Is it? I’m hurt.” He deadpans, looking around to see what else was at his disposal. “Am I not up to your standart?” It sounded so serious. You wanna laugh but the look he gives you makes it die in your throat and begin to rot in there.

“We.. Uhm.. What?” Deer in headlights. Right there. Suddenly you felt like you were sitting in a trap that was about to cut your legs off. “Come on, you could do worse.” He smiled warmly and took a bite out of his bread before murring. “This is disgusting.. and at the very least some kind of health violation..” He blerghs before putting the food back down. “I’ll take you somewhere nicer once I’m out, yeah?” What’s going on. You’re having a fever dream. Probably on the floor having a seizure and all of this was not happening. “Y/n. You’re zoning out.” Hawks was still looking at you. You stare back. “Like.. a romantic date..?” It just slips out but the fact that it did made him perk up and smile a bit wider. “Finally, you’re catching on, chickadee.” Is this a dream come true or a nightmare.

“Did.. did you tell the nurses we’re dating already?” There’s no way he would, right? “I mean, obviously.” How wrong you were. “We basically already are.” The blonde picked the bread up again and frowned at it. He’s probably really hungry from having eaten nothing but maybe.. nibbled some raw meat or whatever. “You saving me was like a wake up call. You really did me dirty, y/n. Not once did anyone leave that kind of impression. Also, come on, number 2. I think I’m repeating myself when I say you could do worse. Or more like, you would do worse. Who’d beat me? Endeavor surely is not on that list, believe me.” Your head is spinning. Endeavor? What? Who— How??

“I- I’m..” What? Flattered? You felt like saying no was rude even though it was in your right to refuse this.. advancement. “I’m.. not interested.. I mean- this is kind of rushed, right?” Of course you were interested. Like many women, Hawks was an idol in any form. He was attractive and smart and always there to help and like many, you had been part of some fan forums. He just grinned at you when you were done speaking. “Aw.. Well, that’s fine. I’m up for a game of tag.” Which is not the response one should have to being rejected. A game of tag? “I’m..” You’re out of words. What are you supposed to be telling him? This was fucking out of whack. Suddenly you’d rather be in the car with the dude that you paid than in this room.

“No thanks?” The stupor that had a grip on you was not letting go. You’re too dumbfounded to really just, argue. You’re too nervous to lose your shit on the man. You’re just staring at his smiling face, that was just trying to make you want to calm down and be safe. Instead, it made you uncomfortable. The man shook a bit as if he was holding in laughter before taking a huge bite of his bread. Chewing thoughtfully and then swallowing. Tilting his head to the side. “Hah. That’s cute.” He’s not taking you seriously. “I.. should probably go. But-“ You want to wish him a good recovery but it felt off now. You get up and bow to him before making your way to the door. “You sure that move is in your best interest?” You blink and turn around.

“What?” He’s bandaged up and his one wing was in a cast and somehow he still intimidated you with a weird, predatory smile. “No money, bet you got no insurance..” Right. How would someone like her pay for insurance.. “At this rate you’re ending up on the street. Would fucking suck if somehow your landlord caught wind of that, eh?” Oh what. “I’ll.. stop- you’re really freaking me out. I’m telling-“ “Who?” He cut you off. He just leaned back a little and grinned wider. “Who are you going to tell that would believe you over me?” He points at himself. “Come on, chickadee. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Don’t you want a comfy life? Doting partner? You can’t do any better than this.” You’re going crazy. You’re going stir crazy. That’s the only explanation.

“You.. I.. do not- Why are you doing this?” Your eyes are tearing up and it seems to make something snap a little in him, because he winces and his expression softens. “Ah- No, hold up don’t cry- Come on-“ He actually got up, dragging the IV drip after himself as he made his way over to him. His left leg was bandaged up and in a cast too- she’s confused how that break happened. Did the vet just overlook it? “Don’t you get this? Can’t you see the raw opportunity in front of you? This is like, a golden ticket into a better life. No one else would slap this down. Literally, people would kill to be in your shoes right now. You should be happy!” He gently takes your hands into his hands and leaned a bit in. “I know I am.”

You weren’t happy. Not at all. You were scared, your idol was blackmailing you with becoming homeless. No one would believe you, some random chick that had no friends and a family that hated her and there was no getting away. You’re not smart enough to come up with some detailed strategy to get out of this. “I wanna go home.” You whimper quietly as he leaned his forehead against yours. Only getting a soft, happy sigh in return. “Don’t worry, little chickadee.. I’ll have some people bring your stuff to my place. I got enough room for us two. You’ll love it. Do you like pools? I got one-“ His talking is getting muffled as ringing took over your ears. He was trying to make this sound so much better but it does not change anything. Somehow you felt like this was the end of your life, or, at the very least, the start of something awful. Maybe it’d be beautiful if you gave it a chance in the future but right now? Right now you were scared. A lot. Looking at his eyes you felt like there was no escape. Maybe there really wasn’t.

[superblizzardfire]

Roller Coaster (Bruce/Clint)

Written for Writer’s Month 2020 Day 12: Meet Cute

TW: Graphic vomit

(AO3 Link)

‘It’ll be fun,’ Tony insisted for the third time since they’d joined the line.

Bruce fixed him with a cynical stare. ‘It’s literally called the Doom Coaster, Tony.’ As if it wasn’t sad enough to be a forty-year-old guy at an amusement park, now he had to endure a roller coaster full of screaming kids.

‘You’ll love it. Best ride in the park.’ Tony smirked. ‘Unless you’re too chicken?’

Bruce rolled his eyes. ‘I already said I’ll do it. But this is the last ride I’m going on, okay?’

He pouted. ‘Fine.’

When they reached the front of the line, Tony hurried to bag the front seat. Before Bruce could join him, a red-haired woman pushed in front and nabbed the space beside him. ‘You snooze, you lose!’ she chirped, then smiled at Tony. ‘Hi.’

Tony looked guiltily at Bruce.

‘It’s fine,’ he said, ‘I’ll sit further down.’ By now most of the seats were taken, but he found one at the very back. ‘Mind if I go here?’

A man in a black hoodie with short, sandy hair shrugged back at him. ‘Sure.’

When the safety bar came down, Bruce felt a sudden surge of panic. ‘Have you been on this before?’

‘Nah. I’m not really a fan of coasters. My friend Nat grabbed a seat at the front because she’s an adrenaline freak, but I prefer it back here. Hey, are you gonna be okay? You look a little pale.’

The coaster jolted to life, rattling up the steep slope. It seemed to take forever. When Bruce finally dared to look down, he saw tiny people on the ground… and an enormous drop ahead.

‘Oh, fuck me,’ he muttered.

Then they were hurtling towards the ground, the wind whistling in their ears. The other riders screamed joyfully. Even his new friend whooped as they dove into a tunnel, then emerged into the bright sunlight. ‘Pretty fun, right?’

Bruce suddenly wished he hadn’t eaten so much cheap fair food earlier. ‘I forgot I hate roller coasters,’ he grunted.

‘It’ll be okay. What’s your name?’

‘Bruce.’ They were climbing again and so was his anxiety. He gritted his teeth.

‘I’m Clint. I don’t really like them either but they’re perfectly safe and – uh oh.’

Bruce heard Tony laughing maniacally in front of them. Then he saw the loop-de-loops ahead. There were too many to count. ‘Shit...’

‘Nice knowing ya, Bruce,’ said Clint.

The coaster lurched forwards, gathering speed every second. The seat shook so hard Bruce was sure he’d fall out. As the front passengers began the loop ahead of them, he shut his eyes tight and waited for it to be over.

Light and dark flashed as they spun, faster and faster. The safety bar rattled alarmingly and Bruce realised this was it, he was going to fall out and die and splatter on the ground far below...

Then it was over, the sudden rush of gravity pressing him down into his seat.

Clint laughed. ‘Uh, buddy?’

At some point, Bruce had grabbed Clint’s hand. He was now clutching it so tightly his fingers were turning purple. ‘Sorry.’ He let go quickly, his face burning as they trundled back into the station. In fact, his whole body felt uncomfortably hot...

‘See, that wasn’t so bad was it?’ Clint’s voice sounded far away. ‘Bruce?’

‘Oh god I need a bag, I need a – ‘ Bruce scrabbled at the safety bar but it wouldn’t budge. In the next second his quavering stomach gave out and he violently threw up on himself. Hot vomit splattered down his jeans and a good amount of it ended up on Clint. It smelled like cotton candy and cheap hotdogs. ‘Shit, I’m so sorry...’

‘Hey, my bother Barney throws up on me all the time, it’s fine.’ Clint wiped his face on his sleeve and leaned away, grimacing at the stench. ‘I’ll let you off ‘cause you’re cute.’

Bruce squinted up at him, eyes watering. ‘Cute?’ he croaked.

The safety bars came up and everyone got out. Bruce shakily clambered off, blushing furiously as warmth slid down his legs.

When Tony saw him, he burst out laughing. ‘Oh god, Bruce I’m so sorry but – Jesus, it wasn’t that bad!’ The red-haired woman smirked beside him - Nat, presumably.

Bruce sighed. ‘I’m going to go find a bathroom.’ And then he was going home. Damn Tony and his stupid ideas.

‘There’s some near the entrance, I’ll show you.’ Clint fell into step beside him. Even now, with wind-ruffled hair and sick smeared down his hoodie, he looked…

Damn, he looked handsome.

‘It was nice having a near-death experience with you, man. Anytime you need a vomit buddy, just give me a call. No questions asked.’

Bruce laughed shyly. ‘I think I’d need your number for that.’

‘You want it?’ Clint raised an eyebrow.

Perhaps the day wasn’t ruined after all. ‘Well, I don’t just throw up on just anyone.’

He snorted. ‘I’m honoured. Really. But seriously, buy you a drink sometime?’

Bruce smiled. ‘Sure.’

As they passed the food stalls, Clint grinned. ‘Hey, how about a hotdog?’

Bruce just groaned and covered his mouth.

[pietrotheavenger]

learn to love

chapter 4 - perfect start

summary: steve and y/n don’t get along. now, they have to.

pairings: au!steve rogers x fem!reader

warnings: swearing, mentions of death

a/n: i just need a sugar daddy... so badly... princess polly if you’re reading this, please sponsor me

series masterlist

steve’s family had money. there was no other way to put it. in new york, he was a decently successful artist and lived comfortably, but in boston, he was disgustingly rich. y/n gaped at the beautiful and gigantic house that sat at the end of a long driveway. neatly trimmed hedges lined the sides and she could even see a proper garden in the distance. in front of the house was a fountain acting as a roundabout with several expensive cars parked nearby.

“you have a whole ass fountain in front of your house,” she deadpanned.

“yes,” he nodded his head.

“okay. glad we’re on the same page.”

when he got close to the other cars, he simply put the jeep in park, and turned it off. “alright, let’s grab our bags and head in?” he was looking straight into her soul with his insanely blue and intense eyes. his head was tilted to the side, like a puppy, with his lips slightly pouted.

she swallowed, hard. she was starting to feel nervous. “let’s do this.”

he grabbed her hand from her lap and gave it a squeeze. “remember, it all starts here, my lovely girlfriend.” he gave her a genuine smile and it made her heart flutter.

“laying it on thick, now, my beautiful boyfriend?” she pulled her hand away and averted her gaze to take her seatbelt off. she propped the door open as she awaited a response. she looked back at him.

“hey,” he said softly as he grabbed her hand again. he pressed a kiss to her knuckle, “anything to convince my parents,” he grinned cheekily.

“you are a tool, steven grant rogers,” she rolled her eyes, stepping out of the car.

he insisted on carrying her bag into the house, despite her protests.

“i am able bodied enough to carry my own bag in!”

“sweetheart, we used to go to the gym together. you can’t bench for shit.”

“what am i benching, steve? what am i benching? give me the goddamn bag.”

“let me be chivalrous. my family knows that i treat a dame like a queen.”

“dame? god, the air in massachusetts be hitting differently.”

“shut up.”

and with that they had arrived at the front door of the house. he simply swung it open and walked in. the foyer of the house was beautiful. the first thing her eyes settled on was the massive grand staircase. the cherry wood banister curved upwards to the second story. the floor was all marble and expensive looking paintings adorned the walls, as well as a family portrait above the entry table to the right. steve had the goofiest smile, and was dressed in a royal blue sweater. she grinned to herself as she examined the portrait for a moment before turning her attention back to the rest of the house. looking straight into the back of the house, she could see a glass door that led to a patio.

”hello?” he called out. his voice echoed around the house. jazz music floated from somewhere inside the house. she tightened her grip on her purse as they ventured further in. he dropped the bags at the base of the stairs before grabbing her hand. he laced their fingers together as they continued forward. the jazz music grew louder as they ventured deeper into the house. she sidestepped closer to him. she felt more secure when she was closer to him. his house was intimidating. he noticed, and his chest bloomed as he inconspicuously pulled her closer to him.

the house opened up into a large space. there was a living room to their right and a beautiful kitchen to the left. humming along to the music was a blonde woman in the kitchen. she was cutting vegetables. she wore a red apron with small white polka dots. her hair was clipped away from her face with a brown baratte. on one of the couches in the living room, were two lumps under blankets. she could just see the headphones that one of them was wearing while the other ate from a bowl of chips and watched the tv at a low volume. y/n shivered. the ac made the house very cold. she was used to her broken ac sputtering cold air out once every ten minutes as she suffered in the heat. “you good, baby?” steve raised an eyebrow in question. she nodded.

just then, the woman in the kitchen looked up. her face split into one that mirrored his. “stevie!” she exclaimed. she maneuvered around the island and gave him a hug. he dropped y/n’s hand to hug her back.

“hi, ma,” he sighed, squeezing her.

a chorus of “steve!” was heard from the couch as two more bounded over. y/n guessed that girl was sophia and the boy was sawyer. steve was right about sawyer looking eerily like him, aside from his curly hair. when he pulled away from his mom, he was attacked by his siblings. y/n took that moment to introduce herself to his mom.

“hi, mrs. rogers, i’m y/n. it’s so nice to finally meet you,” she smiled politely. inside her head, she was panicking. were they supposed to hug? shake hands?

his mom pulled her in for a brief but warm hug. “oh, you’re steve’s girlfriend!”

“yes, i am,” she laughed.

by then, sophia and sawyer had finished their siege on steve. the older boy had his arm around the younger one and the girl stood with a hand on her hip as she slapped steve’s bicep with a quite a bit of strength. he laughed it off.

“y/n, this is sophia and sawyer, and that’s my mom,” he pointed to his mother.

“hey sophia, hi sawyer. it’s great to meet you guys! steve’s told me a lot about his family,” y/n put on her best ‘girl-next-door,’ ‘perfect-daughter,’ and ‘nice-customer-service-rep,’ voice as she spoke.

“we can’t say the same! steve’s hardly said a peep about his girlfriend,” mrs. rogers crossed her arms over her chest and looked at steve pointedly.

“c’mon ma, i didn’t wanna jinx things,” he replied. he pushed sawyer. “where’s your girlfriend?”

the younger brother rolled his eyes and scoffed, “fuck off!”

“language,” steve and his mom chimed at the same time.

“that’s so funny,” y/n began. he reached for her hand and pulled her closer to him. he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and placed her hand on his chest and held it there. “you have such a sailors mouth and here you are, bossing your little brother around,” she continued teasing him as he pulled her into his arms.

“exactly!” sawyer gasped exasperatedly. “mom never believes me when i say you swear.”

“because i don’t!” steve responded, in the same tone. he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

steve is really laying it on thick, y/n thought.

“you do!” sawyer yelled back.

“alright, buddy-” steve began but was cut off.

“god, can you guys shut up! steve’s been home for two minutes and you’re back on your bullshit!” sophia groaned. she flicked her ponytail over her shoulder.

“language!” steve, sawyer, and mrs. rogers called at the same time.

“there’s no winning with this family,” sophia looked y/n in the eye as she spoke. steve, sophia, and sawyer all had the same blue sparkling eyes. they didn’t get it from their mother. she had stormy grey eyes. but they did get their beautiful blond hair color from her.

“steve, your dad and simon are out in the back. why don’t you take y/n out to meet them?” mrs. rogers offered.

“you down, babe?” he looked down at her.

“always down for anything,” she responded, patting his chest and pulling away. his arm dropped from her shoulders. he picked her hand up and tucked it into his pocket. “you’re so weird,” she laughed.

“it’s so nice to see stevie all loved up,” his mom looked warmly at her eldest son. “now, go. i’m already sick of your fighting,” she ruffled sawyer’s curls.

“let’s go, darling,” steve sang as he pulled her towards the sliding glass door.

they walked out onto the patio and y/n sucked in a breath at the sight of his backyard. there was a basketball hoop just to the left of the patio on an approximately 35 by 35 square of concrete. further off, there was a swimming pool with a lounge area to the right. beyond that, was just grass. she thought she saw a soccer goal but she wasn’t sure. out by the pool, steve’s dad and simon chased the dog around. the dog gleefully barked.

“remember, babe, the dog is rosie, not sophia,” steve said to her, quietly.

“noted,” she whispered back.

with their hands still woven together, they got off the patio and approached the pool. steve swung their hands back in forth. she suppressed a school-girl-like giggle.

“hi, dad!” steve waved. simon and their dad turned at the same time.

“steve!” simon yelled as he hurtled himself toward steve. the dog began barking louder and mr. rogers walked over more calmly than his son just had.

simon threw himself onto his older brother. he was less muscular than steve, but still had a lean figure. his eyes were a kaleidoscope of colors, a mix of blues and greens and browns. his hair was dark brown and just as curly as sawyer’s. “WE’RE BACK IN BUSINESS, MOTHERFUCKERS!” simon yelled to the sky.

“language!” mr. rogers chided.

“hi, mr. rogers, i’m y/n. it’s a pleasure to meet you,” she extended her hand to him.

he shook her hand and smiled as he said, “call me joe!” his blue eyes glittered in the sunlight. that’s where they got it from. his hair was dark brown and curly, speckled with grey hairs. “it’s great meeting you, too.”

“dad!” steve exclaimed, pulling him into the hug.

she laughed to herself, letting the scene unfold in front of her.

steve then introduced his brother and father to y/n before his mother called them all in. “why don’t you two get settled in? freshen up and then come down for lunch.”

so that's what they did. steve grabbed the bags from where he has dropped them and led her up the stairs to his room. his room itself was pretty simple. a whole wall was covered with shelves. the shelves were overflowing with various books, plants, and knickknacks. his bed was shoved up in a corner, made with grey bedding. a huge window took up another wall. in the corner of the room, y/n spotted a guitar. a bureau, a bedside table, and a desk completed his room.

“i didn’t know you could read,” she mused, picking up a book. she ran her fingers over the cover.

he rolled his eyes. “you’re a piece of shit.”

“and you’re an asshole,” she countered. right when she thought he was being sweet, he goes and says that. she should’ve known better. a leopard can’t change its spots. she was naive for thinking that he could ever be affectionate towards her.

she kicked her shoes off before pulling her pants off and getting into bed. she pulled the covers up. “wake me up when you’re done in the bathroom,” she grumbled, closing her eyes.

“why are you acting like that?” he sighed, spreading his arms out. he could feel the irritation rolling off of her in waves.

her eyes flew open. “acting like what?”

“a whiny little bitch!”

she sat up, rather abruptly. steve flinched, but she didn’t notice. “bitch, i’ll kill you. leave me alone for twenty fucking minutes or i’ll lose my shit. you’re getting on my nerves,” she growled before turning over in bed and snuggling into the covers.

he scratched the back of his head. they were off to a perfect start.

infinity tags:

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learn to love tags:

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[bluesfortheredj]

As you watch your husband race up and down the aisle of the toy shop with your toddler inside a tiny car, you had to wonder who really wanted to come here more; him or your little one. Ben notices your slightly bemused expression and shoots you a wink as they both come hurtling towards you, stopping inches from your feet as you prepare yourself for impact by shutting your eyes tightly.

“As if we’d run mummy over, huh?!” Ben grins.

“Beep beep!” your boy calls out from knee height, “beep beep muuuuummy!”

“Sorry darling!” you apologise as you step out of the way, “be careful you two!”

You smile as you watch them skid down the rest of the aisle and you move on to the next one to try and focus on the actual task at hand, which was birthday presents for your boy, not Ben. He loved cars so the one Ben was currently pushing him around in was definitely going to have to come home with you at some point, and Lego of course was a massive obsession, so that was also a must.

Your eyes scan over the many sets of bricks that lay side by side on the shelves; so many of them tightly packed in that it was almost as if they’d burst out at you. There was so much choice, it’d be impossible to choose something for a toddler who changed their mind about what they liked every five seconds. You spot a racing car set and grab it off the shelf just as Ben appears at the far end of the aisle, then quickly throw it into the basket you were dragging behind you.

“There she is!” Ben says.

“Go daddy! Gooooooo!” you little one squeals.

Suddenly Ben pushes off with one foot and races towards you as your little one screeches with delight in the car, and you begin to laugh as you walk quickly away from them before they can catch up to you.

“Faster daddy faster!”

“We’re coming to get you mummy!” Ben calls out as he runs a little bit faster, being careful not to topple the car over.

“No!” you cal back with a laugh, “you can’t catch me!”

You turn the corner at the end of the aisle and bump straight into a member of staff.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry,” you apologise, “I’m being chased by two unruly characters… Wouldn’t know a good place to hide would you?”

“Haha don’t worry,” they chuckle, “there’s a couple of Wendy houses in the next aisle, just make sure you shut the windows on them and you should be hidden!”

“Thank you so much,” you grin, then rush off down to the Wendy houses.

“Excuse me,” Ben smiles as he narrowly misses the same member of staff you’d just gone into, “don’t suppose you’ve seen-”

“My mummy!” your little one chimes in.

“Yes… His mummy,” Ben laughs, “how would you describe her, mate?”

“Soft and squishy and really very nice and she makes me and daddy laugh a lot. And she’s the prettiest,” your son says seriously, and you can’t help but giggle from your hiding place.

“The absolute prettiest,” Ben adds.

“Well, she may be down there,” the sales assistant says, pointing towards the where you’re hiding, “I’d check all the houses if I were you...”

“Come on daddy!” your boy says as he jumps out of the car and tugs on Ben’s hand.

You watch them through a gap in the plastic window as they go to each house and open up the door with expectant faces, only to be disappointed each time you’re not there, and you cover your mouth with your hand as you try not to let out a sound to give away your whereabouts. It was too cute how your little one was dragging Ben from house to house, and Ben had such a tight grip on his hand; he was so protective over him and it made your heart swell with love.

“Last one, buddy, do you think she’s in here?” Ben asks as they walk towards you.

“Yeeeessss!”

He then swings the door open and jumps inside, immediately burying his face in your chest as he wraps his tiny arms around you as far as he possibly can.

“Found her!” he mumbles into your t-shirt as Ben crawls inside as well.

“Well done mate!” Ben smiles, “now can I give mummy a hug?”

“No she’s mine.”

“Sorry babe,” you laugh as you rock from side to side with your little one.

“Okay, fine, if you need me I’ll be over at McDonald’s getting a nice tasty happy meal...” Ben shrugs, then climbs out of the small house.

“I’m coming too!” your boy gasps, letting go of you and rushing out to join his dad.

“That was a cheap trick, Ben,” you laugh as you squeeze through the tiny door and straighten yourself up.

“Worked though, didn’t it? And it means I can do this,” he slides his hands around your waist and pulls you against his muscular frame tightly as his head falls naturally into the crook of your neck as if it were made for him.

“Mummy, daddy, I’m hungry,” a little voice says from next to your legs.

“Come on then, monster!” Ben smiles as he reluctantly lets go of you, “let’s get a head start on mummy.”

Ben scoops the boy up into his arms and the little one reaches out for his neck, resting his soft cheek against his father’s, and you melt at the sight as they begin to walk out of the shop, giving you an opportunity to buy the presents and hide them in the car before joining them.

“Where have you been mummy?” your boy asks as he dips a chicken nugget into the pot of ketchup in front of him.

“I was getting daddy a present,” you smile as you sit opposite them and Ben pushes your meal over to you.

“What did you get him?!” your little one gasps.

You fumble around in your handbag with one hand as you push chips into your mouth with the other, then raise your eyebrows and wink when you get a hold of the small item. The two of them watch intently as you bring your balled up hand out of the bag and place your fist down on the table, then open it to reveal a small toy car. Both sets of eyes light up as they watch you pull it back then let go, and it races across the table.

“And! I got you one as well, so you and daddy can race them,” you grin, placing a second one down on the table.

“Daddy, can we play in the garden when we get home?”

“And race these cars? Of course!” Ben nods enthusaistically.

Dad!Ben FLUFFFFFFFFF

@peachllobotomy @lv7867 @aynsleywalker @wolfgirlxslytherin @pink-lemo @painthatiusedto @n3shama @itisjustmethistime