#oh the things we have talked about with aster and the group he's part of...

[hachiibun]

Patreon requests from last week's stream!

My OC Raz for @waterfallofspace

Syd's and my FF/14 OC Aster

@indulgnc's OC + 🌱

@rachwavs's OC Rascal

@collectivelyallergic's OC Ken

If you like my drawings, and are willing and able to do so, please consider commissioning me, pledging to my Patreon, or donating through ko-fi ☕! You're not obliged to, but every bit helps to keep me living decently and I really do appreciate it!

❗ PLEASE NO REBLOGGING TO NON-KINK BLOGS ❗

[thatfreshi]

Ok so... Idea for Astorian? What if the reader was some form of Flamenco dancer? Or something of the sorts, who acts like a bard, but instead of using an instrument they dance to perform magic. Not forced at all ofcorse!! I love the way you write him, it feels like you've nailed his character!

Uhm... if you guys want a part two... yeah. Let me know LMAO

TW - general horniness, reader is threatened at dagger-point

Recommended Song: Shirt - SZA

"Yeah, I just dance and then... magic."

The way Astarion first narrowed his eyes at you when you expressed that you couldn't really do anything else, he thought it was laughable.

"So you don't really fight, you just have fun while everyone else is actually doing things?"

"No, I have to actually be good at it! That's like saying you just open doors."

"Well that would be extremely rude because these hands do much more than open doors my dear."

You rolled your eyes, and he smirked. Now, this was before the two of you even slept together, let alone become an item. Over time Astarion has come to understand just how important of an asset you are to the group, but more specifically how he can't keep his eyes off of you on the battlefield. Whenever you can, the two of you find some time alone in the city to find you the most gorgeous flowy outfits, partially because they're easier to move in, but he also loves spoiling you, especially if he benefits from the view. He likes stitching little messages into the loose pieces of fabric, anything in between love notes and threats to people who have even thought about hurting you. The most recent one reads 'If the person wearing this is dead, you're next.'

Somehow, you and your rag-tag group have ended up being tasked with a group of bandits outside of Baldur's Gate. Does it have anything to do with the tadpoles or anything else important? No, of course not, but you have a hard time not helping people in need.

When you come across the group of bandits, it's apparent that they're not going to be a problem. While you're staking out their camp, Astarion comes behind you, whispering in your ear.

"If we make quick work of this, I'm sure we could find somewhere afterwards, for the two of us."

It sends a shiver up your spine, but you laugh it off, turning to look at him.

"You think you're funny, huh? Come on, we have work to do."

"Oh trust me, I know."

Maybe you should find a new way to cast magic, because it cannot be good for him to be horny mid-fight. Then again, it never seems to be a problem, so maybe it doesn't matter? Astarion certainly is an odd specimen, but you love him anyways.

"I am begging the two of you to stop flirting on the battlefield, please."

Gale pleads, wishing the two of you could keep it in your pants for once.

"Listen, once you find someone who completes your heart like Tav completes mine, you will understand. Until then, I'd stop complaining."

You nudge him and then whisper.

"Aster, you are talking to the guy who had sex with Mystra, and then became a literal bomb to try and win her approval."

"Damnit, I always forget about that! Fine, whatever. If Mystra were here, you would be just as lustful as I am, no matter the circumstances."

Gale grumbles to himself and walks off to the others, as Karlach prepares to make the first strike. She makes the signal, and you all take your positions. Astarion always insists on staying close to you, taking you with him on the flank if he has to. No one tries to argue, because he doesn't trust anyone else to keep you safe.

"Damnit, ambush!"

One of the bandits calls out, a tiefling. Gale casts grease, making their camp light up in flames from the campfire. Karlach strikes one of the bandits from behind, knocking them into the fire, effectively killing them. You don't realize though that one of the bandits had taken a trip to the forest to relieve himself, and he comes up behind you. Suddenly, you're swallowing fear with a dagger to your throat.

"Cease fire! Or the pretty one gets it."

As soon as the others look over in concern, the man's throat has been pierced, some of the blood splattering onto your face. Astarion drinks until your attacker hits the ground, the dagger falling out of a bloodless hand. You catch sight of Shadowheart, who is in close-quarters combat with a drow, and you turn to your lover.

"Come here!"

He doesn't ask questions, and he grabs your hands, spinning you out towards the fight as you send a fire bolt the drow's way. She falls quickly. Soon enough, Lae'zel finishes off the last of them, and Shadowheart casts water across the flames, making sure nothing else is burnt down. You try to catch your breath with the rest of the group, and you realize Wyll is injured, a gash across his shoulder. Normally Halsin or Shadowheart would deal with such a wound, but it's been a long day, and you're the only one with any healing magic left in you. With a few moves of your hips, you send out a healing ward, patching him up rather quickly.

"Thank you Tav."

Astarion comes to your side immediately after, almost as if he's jealous, wrapping an arm around your waist. As the others start going through the bandits' treasure, your lover wipes the blood off of your face.

"Surprised you didn't lick it off."

"I'm sure his blood was rancid, I much prefer yours."

If someone told you a year ago that someone saying they want to drink your blood was a turn-on, you would've laughed them all the way to Waterdeep. Now, you struggle to stand properly, holding your thighs together. He keeps his hand on your face, grip a little tenser than before.

"You need to be more careful when we're out there. I know these people were practically dead already, but some people won't try to trade you off like a token."

Normally you'd roll your eyes, tell him you obviously know that, but you just nod, and his thumb creeps over to your bottom lip.

"Astarion, we can't get this thing open!"

You're interrupted by a shout from Karlach, and Astarion kisses your cheek.

"I'll finish this later I suppose. Come my love, time to loot these insolent fools."

It's as if he set up the scenario perfectly, like he wanted the two of you to be interrupted. Hopefully he keeps his word.

[infinitethree]

i'm

i

i'm

I'M LIKE YOUR TUBBO??/

INNITT!!!

i. this is a positive reaction by the way

*so many hugs*

i'm honoured!!!

oh!! by the way! you've been referred to by it/its by default, but do you have other pronouns you prefer?

oh and we can't forget the food.. how about some eggrolls andd pancakes?

Innit perks up as Asher scrambles into its arms, their paws patting excitedly at its face.

It beams, hugging them as they chitter at it. “I'm glad you're happy with that. You're here the most, and you– you really care, y'know? So…so, of course I treasure you. I'd be crazy not to.”

The question makes it hum in thought, its tail swishing back and forth. “Uhm…I've never really thought about it? I know I'm not a she, though. He is closer, but not quite right…”

It takes a moment for it to remember the other one. “Ah, right! They/them would be nice. Since…I mean, it was really ‘cause I was…I was always thought of as the bad parts of him. A monster, really. Something to cage and fear, not…a person.”

Dwelling on its pain about that is exhausting and depressing, though.

“So, uh, maybe…I guess I like they/them better than it,” Innit says, ears perking up a little. “I don’t think I’d have changed it without– I mean, it never crossed my mind. Thank you, Asher. I appreciate you a lot.”

They beam, nuzzling their face into their friend’s fur.

It actually catches them off guard when food appears, and they have to scramble to grab the plates without also dropping Asher. They laugh, proud that they managed to do it, though.

They squeak in alarm, having to let go of Asher– who scrambles onto their shoulder instead– in order to grab all of the food.

A pout forms. “That was mean! I almost dropped them all…”

They sit down to eat, and their other friends come to sit beside them. They hum happily as they enjoy the treats being given to them.

The pancakes are its favorite. Fluffy, stuffed with chocolate chips, topped with whipped cream, and gloriously sweet, it knows it will have to try and find someone who makes something similar.

They reply, “I’m really gonna enjoy walking around, too. I think…I think, as soon as we know everything is stable and I have just– the basics of having an actual body down? I want to go and explore. There are some groups that do that kind of thing, y’know? Uhm, some clubs and stuff. And there’s some jobs for it, too– people need places to live, and some people really like being super far out. There’s cavers, gatherers, and whatnot, since some stuff you have to find rather than grow.”

According to the gossip that Innit has had no choice but to hear, there are often new biomes, structures, and even loot that shows up. Supposedly, the newer something is, the more likely you are to find good stuff.

San, being a sucker, can’t help but baby their residents.

Innit would love to know how much control they have and if they tweak things based on who is finding it.

They also wonder if some of Daz’s favor will rub off on them. Maybe if they talk to the server like they wish someone had talked to them, San will love them even more than they love Daz.

“I’m really excited for the chance to do stuff like that, though. I know I said I'd live with Aster, but, I mean–”

They can't help but feel a little bitter about how he's mostly forgotten about them. Instead, his focus is on the bastard and their burgeoning romance.

No matter how much they want to burst the bubble, they also don't have the heart to do that.

And…it’s a risk, too. 

Everyone is willing to let them out because they're free in the timeline Aster and Daz are seeing, but if that certainty in their goodness goes away–

Well. All the more reason to weasel their way into an exploration team.

If they bond with someone there, maybe they won't need to rely on Daz’s circle.

And the more people who know and care about them, the less likely it is that they can be forced back into Daz’s head again, or exiled, or otherwise forced to leave Sanctuary.

Maybe, during the period where they’re gaining enough trust to be allowed to wander like they want, they can make good use of being in Daz’s head and make some friends.

Especially some powerful ones. Ones who can raise a huge stink if anything happened to them.

[vivi-mire]

PLEASEE tell me ur opinions on season 2 And its finale

season two got WACKY!!!! Like season one was pretty standard ygo, powerful cards in danger, shadow group after them, etc. but season two really went into full blast with the ALIENS. I DID NOT EXPECT THE ALIENS.

I am ELATED that they let Jaden become besties with aliens it’s so funny. Jaden is the only one who kinda knows what’s going on at any given moment but he’s not thinking too hard about it so the rest of the cast just have to survive off of his horrible lore drops. “Oh yeah I went to space and met the dolphin I created 10 years ago (that Kaiba SHOT INTO SPACE TO TEACH ALIENS HOW TO DUEL) and we’re all besties now :)!”

Chazz and Jaden have this like. Clown to Clown psychic link as the only people who see card spirits and neither of them clarify this to the others I love it. Not that saying “my ojama yellow talks to me” would win any sanity points for Chazz but at least Jaden could theoretically corroborate his story 

Also really loved the “eveyones coming to live with Jaden arc”, immediately followed by the “Jaden gets lost in the fucking woods for a week” arc. They brought the monkey back!!!!!!

Also the Zane arc. Atticus come get your bf he’s acting up.

SO. THE SOCIETY OF LIGHT. REALLY love how light is used as the “bad guy” element, it def shakes things up in a fun way. The corrupting, blinding light of destruction… Ough it’s so good. They popped off with this one.

Gotta say again tho, I really was not expecting the aliens. Having one possessing sartorius was def a twist for me, I just thought he was like that LOL. It was really touching how him and Aster had a brief main character moment in the duel before the actual main character came in to steal the thunder. Considering they brought in the winged dragon of ra for a ONE TIME GUY OF THE WEEK CHARACTER I should of expected they’d go crazy with the finale.

Speaking of that card I really enjoyed seeing Chumley and Pegasus again. In the of ygo I loved the Pegasus parts because he was a very scary threat in his debut arcs. You can tell now that he’s still a shithead, but he’s no longer like. Dangerous anymore. Was super happy to see him duel again with his toon deck. I hope we get more returning characters in the future, I’d like to see Kaiba come check up on his horrible school for once.

But yeah. Season 2 was great!!!!! Lots of aliens. I don’t know how they’re going to top that on the “thing that happens” scale but ygo never disappoints in that endeavor. There was a lot of references by the aliens of Jaden being the one with the power to do all this but like. They never really elaborated on it other than he drew a dolphin once as a kid? Idk maybe they’ll get into some of that in s3.

Favorite Hero: bubble man

Favorite alien: neo spacian glow moss

[sanddusted-wisteria]

A Builder, a Researcher, and a Rooftop, Ch. 17: Asterisms

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Also on AO3

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The builder snuggled closer into Qi’s side as they gazed up at the glittering sky from the blanket, letting out a content hum as they felt more of his warmth. Qi fidgeted a little, not quite sure how to react, but didn’t pull away. He was still new to this, clearly. He eventually settled for seeking out their hand with his pinky, slowly and carefully lacing their fingers together.

“…You ever make up any constellations?” the builder said suddenly.

“You mean…asterisms?”

“Uh. What?” They took their eyes off the stars, giving Qi a puzzled look.

“Asterisms. Groupings of stars that often look vaguely like real-life objects when we draw lines between them.”

“Yeah. That’s…a constellation.”

Qi sighed. “Why does everyone always—” He paused, took a deep breath, and began again, trying to sound a bit gentler this time. “That is a common misconception. What is colloquially known as a ‘constellation’ is, in truth, an ‘asterism’. How such a wide misconception started, I haven’t the faintest idea.”

The builder frowned. “Uh…huh.” Definitely a Qi thing to get particular about. “So then…a constellation is…?”

“A constellation is a region of space that we name by its titular asterism. The asterism usually contains the brightest stars, but that’s not enough to describe all the celestial bodies in a region.”

“Oookay…” the builder frowned. “Example?”

“Take Ursa Major.” Qi pointed up at the Great Bear, running its laps around the North Star. “The asterism is what we colloquially call the ‘Great Bear’, but the constellation is the entire region that surrounds it. That way, we have a way of describing the general place of other stars in that region that are not a part of the main asterism.”

The builder hummed, nodding as best they could while curled up right next to him. “Makes sense… But what about something like the Big Dipper? Never saw that on one of your star maps.”

“Ahhh, an insightful question.” The earlier frustration in Qi’s voice earlier had worn off, replaced with a familiar, simmering excitement. “The Big Dipper is another asterism. It’s actually a part of Ursa Major, as you can see.” He traced the familiar outline of the sky spoon with his finger. “Though asterisms don’t always have to be a smaller portion of an established constellation.”

The builder chuckled quietly. “Got it.”

Qi’s expression lightened. “Good. One less person to hold a misconception.”

Silence fell over them again.

“Uh…” the builder muttered. “What were we talking about before, again…?”

“Oh. Um…I believe you asked if I had come up with any asterisms.”

The builder snorted. “Oh yeah, right. So, have you made any asterisms, then?”

“Of course! I’ve been observing the sky ever since I was four. When you get acclimated enough to the established formations, it’s only natural to try making your own.”

“Show me the best one, then.”

Qi hummed. “The best...? Don’t believe there’s a way to qualify one as objectively best��”

“Well, which one’s your favorite?”

“My favorite…hmm…” Qi was silent for a moment before circling a region almost right over their heads. “I think it would have to be Vulpes Zerda.” His finger traced an hourglass shape with several protruding stars on some of the ends.

The builder squinted, trying their best to make out the shape. “What’s it supposed to be?”

“A fennec fox. You see the top half of the hourglass there? That’s the head and ears. The other half is the body and tail.”

The builder stared at it a little more, starting to see the shape a little better. “Aw, that’s cute,” they laughed.

“Er…I moreso delineated this one for its distinct shape and how it mirrors its namesake…”

“I mean, yeah, but fennec foxes are cute. So it’s also cute!”

Qi let out a few noises of protest, before sighing. “I suppose so…”

The builder chuckled again. “Only makes it better.”

Qi let out a noncommittal hum. “Have you tried making asterisms?”

Clearly trying to change the subject, but the builder obliged. “Uh…I‘ve tried. Could never make anything, though. The most I see are lots of triangles and dots.”

“It’s not easy,” Qi hummed. “Even the most well-defined asterisms are still very abstract representations of their namesakes.”

The builder’s brow furrowed as they stared up at the sky, trying to draw something new with their eyes. But all they could see were triangles, dots, and all the existing asterisms they knew about. “How do you do it, exactly?”

“Um…” Qi was silent. “There’s no reliable methodology, unfortunately. Sometimes I can see something, other times I can’t.”

“Hmm…” The builder focused harder, as if that would somehow help.

Finally, they gave up with a sigh. “Nope. Nothing. All I see are con—asterisms that I already know.”

“Understandable. I’m sure you’ll come up with one eventually. Sometimes all it takes is a burst of inspiration.”

“Hmm…maybe.”

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

Qi flipped through the pages of his journal, trying to find a certain couple pages from a while ago.

Finally, he found it: several partial star charts with some of the asterisms he came up with himself. He’d been making them up ever since he was little, and he had enough by now to fully remap the sky. Usually he’d only manage to delineate one at a time, but with this batch, he’d had a sudden burst of energy to come up with several at once.

He scanned the page, at the drawings and the lists of stars. The Pickhammer. The Burning Forge. The Switchboard. The Power Stone.

And in the bottom right corner, a note: Why these? Why all at once? Why all have connections to building??

Qi felt a smile lift his lips. Now he knew why.

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

A/N: WE'RE BACK!!

Welcome to Act 2! Thank you for your patience through my hiatus! I thought I could start posting again in September, but my plans kept gettin' pantsed! This act's gotten around 50% longer than when I originally planned it out…mostly because of the back half, though. This first half will be a little on the light side for most of it. Get these two dorks more acquainted with this relationship upgrade and everything.

And if you've noticed the most recent [AO3] tag to the story…yes! We've officially deviated from the canon side missions a bit. Not to worry! I saw this coming months ago (read: beta testing and datamining). I've been developing my plans largely independently of the side mission content. So while my story for Qi and the builder will be a bit different from what we'll see in the game, I still hope that it's enjoyable and interesting!

All that being said, I am very, very excited to show you what I've been working on for this act. Whether you've been here since chapter 1 or you've just found this fic, thank you, and I really do hope you look forward to what I've got in store!

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[somacruising]

Tales of the Rays: Mirrage Prison (English)

CHAPTER 5: THE DARK WOLF THAT SMOLDERS (PART 5+6)

(Part 3+4) | (Part 7+8)

I’m back with the next two parts of Tales of the Rays! In these chapters, we continue off from the last part where Yuri and friends were heading to investigate the Asgard Empire. However, Karol thought he saw Emil and stopped the whole group so they could look for him. Will they find him, or will they find someone else entirely?

Part 5 (A Quiet Road)

Velvet: …I figured he wouldn’t be here. What about over there? ……やっぱりいないわね。そっちはどう？

Yuri: Nope. Repede can’t find him either. That’s pretty rare. 駄目だな。ラピードも追えてねぇ。珍しいこともあるもんだ。

Repede: *whines* クゥ～ン……。

Yuri: Seems like Repede can’t even find his scent. つか、どうやらにおい自体が見つからねえって感じだな。

Karol: …But I really saw him. ……でもボク、本当に見たんだけどなあ。

Repede: —! Woof woof! ——！ワンワンッ！

Yuri: What's wrong, did you find him? どうした、見つけたか？

Repede: *growls* グルルルルゥ……。

Yuri: —! Get down! Something’s coming! ——！隠れろ！なんか来るぞ！

Dist: Let’s go over the plan. I’ve decided on that one after all. Bring that nexus to me immediately. 結果から申し上げましょう。やはりアレに決定しました。すぐに連れてきて下さい。

Priest: Are you sure? よろしいのですか？

Dist: It can't be helped. We don't have any other nexuses on hand that can serve as a vessel. 仕方がないでしょう。今の手持ちには、器となり得る鏡映点がいないのですから。

Priest: But does Richter... ですが、リヒター様は………。

Dist: Say “The Inferno”! I didn’t give everyone beautiful titles for people to not use them! You… use the title! 焔獄をつけなさい！私のつけた美しい二つ名を無下にするとは。あなた……すりつぶしますよ！

Priest: I-I’m sorry! Does Richter the Inferno know about this? も、申し訳ありません！焔獄のリヒター様はご存じなのですか？

Dist: He's against it. But if you think like him, progress will never be made. 奴は反対しています。ですがそんなことを言っていたら永遠に事は進みませんよ。

Priest: …Understood. We will bring the nexus as soon as possible. ……承知しました。それでは至急用意いたします。

Dist: Very good! Just make sure that angel boy doesn’t find out. それから連れてくる時には、くれぐれもあの天使の坊やに見つからないように。いいですね！

Luke: ...What is it with Dist, he’s showing up everywhere. If you see one of him, do you see one hundred of him later? ……なんだよディストの奴、どこにでも現れやがって。1匹見たら100匹いるってか？

Guy: Those are cockroaches. Though, they’re pretty much the same thing. ゴキブリかよ。まぁ、似たようなもんか。

Guy: —Anyway, it sounded like they were talking about nexuses and vessels. ——それよりもあいつ器の鏡映点がどうとか言ってたな。

Velvet: I have a bad feeling about this. So, will we do? If we want to get to the bottom of this, now’s the best time. 気分のいい話じゃなさそうね。で、どうすんの。聞き出すなら今のうちだけど。

Laphicet: But we might put the entire Imperial Capital on alert if we attack them here. でもここで襲ったら、帝都全部が警戒体制に入っちゃうかもしれないよ。

Velvet: O-oh, that’s true. そ、それもそうね。

Karol: I'm still curious about Emil, too... But it’s not a good time. Sorry for making us detour. エミルも気になるけど……。これ以上探すのは難しいよね。寄り道させちゃってごめん。

Karol: Let's get into the Capital before Dist notices us. We can't waste Rose's letter. ディストたちに気づかれる前に帝都内に入ろう。ロゼの紹介状、無駄にできないからね。

Velvet: …I never thought Phi would override me. ……まさか、フィーにいさめられるなんてね。

Raven: Y’know, Karol, boys grow up so fast. Ol’ Raven’s gonna waste away soon. カロル君といい、少年の成長ってのはあつという間だからさ。おっさんが年とっちゃうわけだわ。

Yuri: What are you talking about, old man? Aren’t you still too young to talk like that? なにおっさん通り越してじいさんみたいなこと言ってんだよ。老けこむには、まだ早いぜ？

Raven: And you’ll be just as old in no time! So take care of yourself! おっさんの老化もあっという間なの！だから大事にして！

Velvet: …Seriously, boys sure like to do whatever they want... ……本当、男の子っていつの間にか自分で色々考えて、動いて……

Velvet: …Laphi…. ……ラフィ……。

Part 6 (Imperial Capital Hy'Brasail)

Luke: You’re kidding... マジかよ……。

Guy: I’ll be damned... 驚いたな……。

Aster: Welcome, welcome! I just read Rose's letter. ようこそいらっしゃいました。ロゼさんの手紙、拝見しましたよ。

Aster: I, too, have recently moved to the capital, so I've been working closely with the Sparrowfeathers. Hee hee hee. 私も最近帝都に移動してきたもので、セキレイの羽とは持ちつ持たれつやらせてもらってます。イヒヒヒヒ。

Luke: I didn't believe it at first, but it really is the same Astor from the Merchant’s Guild in Chesedonia. Even the way he laughs is the same. 名前を聞いてまさかとは思ったけど、ケセドニアの商人のアスターじゃないか。笑いかたまで一緒だぜ。

Luke: ...But he’s acting like he doesn’t know us. ……でもこの様子だと、俺たちのことは覚えてないみたいだな。

Guy: Yeah, because he’s not a nexus. It’s the same as that Paul kid Lloyd knew. The people in this world are born from our memories. ああ、鏡映点じゃない。ロイドの知り合いのボールって子と同じ、俺たちの記憶をもとに具現化された、この世界の住人だ。

Luke: All of this is so...complicated. やっぱこういうのって……複雑だな。

Karol: H-hey... can we really trust this guy? ね、ねぇ……この人、信用して大丈夫？

Yuri: Luke, Guy, he’s fine, right? ルーク、ガイ。大丈夫なんだろ？

Luke: Oh, yeah. Astor’s a good guy. He just has a funny way of talking. あ、うん。いい人だよ。しゃべり方は怪しいけど。

Astor: So, you want to know what's going on in the palace. Thankfully, we’ve received some business from them. After all, we are about to— それで宮殿内の事情が知りたいそうですね。確かに当方、ありがたいことに、宮殿からの取引を頂いてますよ。なにしろこれから——

???: Astor, is something going on? アスター様、少々よろしいでしょうか。

Astor: Oh, just as well. I see my bodyguard has returned. Hee-hee. —Come in, come in. おや、丁度いい。私の用心棒が戻ったようですね。ヒヒヒ。——どうぞ、お入りなさい。

Raven: —!! This is— ——！！これはまたっ！！

???: Please excuse me. I’ve returned. ...Who are these people? 失礼します。ただいま戻りました。………彼らはいったい？

Astor: They were introduced to me by the Sparrowfeathers. セキレイの羽の紹介でいらっしゃったんですよ。

Astor: This is Hilda. She’s my bodyguard. She’s great at it. Hee hee hee. 彼女はヒルダ。私の用心棒をお願いしているんです。大した腕でしてね。ヒヒヒヒヒ。

Raven: I’m jealous... I’d love to have a beautiful woman like that as my bodyguard. なんちゅーうらやましい……。あんな美人が用心棒だなんて。

Raven: —How do you do, Hilda. My name’s Raven, and I’d love to get to know you better. ——よろしくヒルダさん。私の名はレイヴンどうぞお見知りおきを。

Yuri: Pervy old man… ogling her. 伸びてんぞ。鼻の下。

Hilda: …Sparrowfeathers. The one that played a role in opening the route for this new market, right? ……セキレイの羽。新たな市場の開拓」レートにもひと役買ってるっていう、あの？

Astor: Yes. Because of them, restocking has become easier. They also have many interests. Hee hee hee. Speaking of which, could you tell us what you’ve looked into? ええ。おかげで仕入れが楽になってます。そのほかにも色々な面でね。ヒヒヒ。それで、その市場の方はどうでした？

Hilda: Yes. Many merchants are currently stranded due to the clashes between the Empire and the Salvation Army. はい。帝国と救世軍との衝突の影響で足止めされた商人たちが多数出ています。

Hilda: Some of the merchants have asked the Knights of Flynn to secure new transportation routes. 新たな輸送路の安全を確保して欲しいと騎士団のフレンに願い出ている商人もいるようです。

Yuri: Flynn? Hey, you. Tell me what you know about Flynn. フレンだと？おい、あんた。フレンのことで知ってることがあったら教えてくんねえか。

Hilda: All I know is his reputation among soldiers and merchants. 知ってることって言っても、兵士や商人たちの間での評判程度よ。

Yuri: I don’t care. Anything you can tell me is fine. かまわねえ。なんでもいい。

Hilda: It’s said that, despite his high position, Flynn is kind and treats his people well. That’s why the merchants I mentioned before are asking for him by name. フレンは騎士団長という地位にもかかわらず民にも気さくで優しい。だからさっきの話の商人たちも、フレンを名指しで願い出てる。

Hilda: Of course, Flynn is also a competent knight and it’s said he’s responsible for keeping the chaos of the rebuilt empire in check. もちろん騎士としても有能再建された帝国内の混乱を抑えて指揮をとってるのも彼のようね。

Karol: No matter where he is, Flynn is always Flynn. なんか、どこにいてもフレンはフレンだね。

Yuri: …Anything else? ……他には？

Hilda: Sure… Some of the soldiers say that Flynn and General Nazar are close friends. The two of them work together often and well. そうね……。兵士たちの話だと、ナーザ将軍とは親友なんですって。二人そろうと阿件の呼吸だって話よ。

Yuri: …Heh. ……へえ。

Hilda: Not only that, but I’ve heard he’s a favorite of Princess Mercuria. She calls for him whenever he has free time. しかも皇女メルクリア様のお気に入りで、暇さえあれば呼び出されてるとか……、

Hilda: Whatever his personal relations are, he’s indispensable to the Empire. Is that enough? まあ何にしろ、今の帝国には欠かせない重要人物ってことね。もうこれくらいでいい？

Yuri: …Yeah, I’ve heard enough. ……ああ、十分だ。

Hilda: So, Astor, regarding that delivery you have for the Lotus Imperial Villa. Are you going there yourself? I can accompany you. それでアスター様。本日の芙蓉離宮への納品ですが、自ら出向くのですか？でしたら私もお供しますが。

Karol: What’s the Lotus Imperial Villa? 芙蓉離宮って？

Astor: It’s the villa where Princess Mercuria lives. I was planning on visiting. メルクリア様のいらっしゃる離宮ですよ。これから伺う予定になっておりまして。

Yuri: …Hey, take us on that job with you. ……なあ、その仕事にオレたちを連れてっちゃくれねえか。

Hilda: Why should we let you accompany us? 連れてくって、いきなりなんなの？

Yuri: What, I just want to talk to the Knight Commander for a moment. He’s in and out of that palace often, right? なに、ちょいと騎士団長様に会いたくてね。あいつ、離宮にもしょっちゅう出入りしてんだろ？

Hilda: …You people… Astor, are you all right with this? ……あんた、それはアスター様に手引きをしろってこと？

Astor: I don’t mind. Let’s cooperate with them. Rose’s letter asked us to assist them in the first place. かまいません。協力しましょう。もともとロゼさんの手紙にも、便宜を図ってくれと書いてありましたから。

Velvet: That’s kind of you. But, I doubt you’d take this risk solely to help the Sparrowfeathers. What do you gain from this? ずいぶん親切ね。セキレイの羽とどうこうだけで、負えるリスクじゃないと思うけど。何かあんたたちに得でもあるわけ？

Astor: As a matter of fact, I decided to work with you because we merchants are also concerned with the Empire’s core members. まあ実の所、今回あなた方に協力するのは、我々としても帝国中枢の動きが気になるからでしてね。

Astor: Information you gain will come back to us, even if it is through Rose. 後でロゼさんを通じてでも情報を頂くつもりでいます。

Velvet: I see. Instead, we’ll be crossing the dangerous bridge for you. That’s smart. なるほどね。手引きする代わりに、危ない橋はこっちが渡るってこと。ちゃっかりしてるわ。

Astor: I’m a merchant. I can’t do a big job without keeping an eye on the times and keeping my options open. Ehehehe. 私は商人です。時勢を見極め、いくつもの道を用意しなければ、大きな仕事はできませんからね。イヒヒヒ。

Astor: Hilda, take them with you. Have them act like servants and carry cargo into the palace. そういうわけですから、ヒルダ、彼らを荷運びの使用人として一緒に離宮へ連れていって下さい。

Hilda: Understood. You all should get ready right away. わかりました。それじゃあんたたち、すぐに準備してちょうだい。

Yuri: I’m sorry to impose, but I have to do this. I’ll make sure I bring you back some valuable information. 悪いな、無理言って。代わりといっちゃなんだが、相応の情報はつかんでくるからさ。

Hilda: …I’m just doing as my employer asks. Just don’t get any illusions about this being more than a working relationship. ……雇い主であるアスター様に従ってるだけよ。慣れあう気はないからそのつもりでいて。

(Part 3+4) | (Part 7+8)

[starlightshadowsworld]

@strangevol Your question just reminded me that I may have... Completly forgot about Zane... In this AU.

So I thought I'd answer that here with the rest of the Zane stuff 👍

Sooo Zane isn't actually part of the childhood friends squad. He met and befriended Atticus during there time at Dual Academy, didn't know each other before that. Which also extends to the group and Syrus.

(Side note: I'm kinda indifferent to Syrus soo he's not really apart of this AU, sorry to any Syrus fans. I just don't have much to say about him or care to fit him into this. He's just kinda there, he's friends with Jaden and that's really it.)

Zane is a sort of mentor to the others, keeps an eye on Alexis and by proxy her friends as a kind of promise to Atticus. Because yes he still goes missing.

After Atticus returns he become closer to the others, getting dragged to family events and even starts to consider the group as friends.

Forced socialisition = friendship 😂 apparently

Becoming the reluctant dad figure of the group as in he gives them lectures, is stricter than Aster and checks every so often that there still alive.

In fact Zane gets on the best with minus Atticus is Aster and will later realise... Through a lot of midnight talks with the others will realise that they both have feelings for each other.

Though Aster doesn't officially join Dual Academy till Jaden's in his second year and despite having the choice to go into the 3rd year he transfers into the 2nd.

Because Ra dammit Jaden someone needs to keep an eye on you. Also yes this is slow burn... Like very slow burn it is almost painful how long it takes. Like both act like a married couple and don't even see it.

Also means Zane doesn't go batshit insane and start electrocution himself from losing a dual with Aster. Both are fiercely competitive but always ensure proper dualing etiquette and respect.

Especially Zane he's a real stickler for the rules and politeness.

Season 3 is just Aster being like damnit Chazz I left you in charge for 5 minutes... Zane grab your coat the kids have gone missing, Bastion you stay here and wait. And no we aren't done talking about this, Zane grab my coat as well. What were they thinking?! Oh right they weren't... I swear once I get my hands on them...

And Zane is just silently grabbing there things, worrying about the others but determined to get them free... And than watch Aster verbally tear them apart... Should bring marshmallows 2 incase they get hungry.

They get transported in and he's just following Aster as he goes on his tirade, helping of course.

Girlboss and malewife, there I said it. Like Zanes flying the helicopter that Asters gonna jump out of.

Zane is also the voice of reason most of the time and sometimes he just gets bored of socialising and wanders off to the lighthouse without telling anyone.

Zane also joins the pro leagues and he and Aster have a scoreboard over how many times they've beaten others or each other.

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Rebirth

Chapter 1: Flowers In The Window

Summary: Steven Grant Rogers, the dumb kid who was always too stubborn to run away from a fight, was never gonna allow a bunch of no-good low-lives to hassle a dame in the street, even if it was going to lead to him getting his ass kicked. For once, however, the ass kicking has an upside as the dame in question seemed particularly grateful, a fact she displays a few days later at the Stark Expo.

But it wasn’t the only encounter that fateful night that seemed set to change his life when Dr Erskine throws him a bone, meaning Steve can finally do the one thing he’s been desperate to do for years.

Join the army.

Warnings: Bad Language words. Nothing much… Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N:  So here it is…my take on what would have gone down so to speak should Katie have been part of the CA: TFA timeline and my contribution of sorts to the CATF 10 Year Anniversary Challenge. I’ll be trying to keep this fic as accurate to the time period and the movie as possible, just like with the other SS fics.  I really hope you enjoy this, there will be some creative license because, let’s face it, what is Fan Fic other than self-indulgence?

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

SSR Masterlist // Main Masterlist

June 1943

It started just the same as any normal Friday morning for Steven Grant Rogers. He unlocked the back of the Grocery Store on the corner of Berry Street in Brooklyn, using the entrance down the alley way reserved for staff. Once inside, he grabbed his beige coloured linen apron off the hook and smiled at the items he had to work with today. Fridays were always a treat as they took the rare delivery of freshly cut flowers ready to be sold for the weekend. This week there were boxes of bright white gardenias with their waxy petals and shiny, leathery dark green leaves, bunches of bright purple heliotrope which always reminded him of one of his mother’s scarves, and plenty of white, blue and purple asters. Steve bent down to take in the strong, vibrant fragrance of the gardenias, closing his eyes. It was easy to imagine he was in some garden somewhere, or even the middle of central park…not some little shop in Williamsberg.

“Don’t be inhaling enough of that to set your asthma off!” Mr Tromley, a kindly faced, portly man in his fifties greeted, and Steve turned to look at him, smiling a little shyly.

“I won’t Mr T,” he assured him, “they’re just so darn pretty…”

“Well set yourself a few aside.” Mr Tromley smiled, “you can take them home and sketch them.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.” Steve protested, the way he always did when Mr Tromley tried to slip him something for free be it scraps of meat he couldn’t sell from the counter that would be given to dogs, bread that wasn’t as soft as it had been in the morning and would be fed to the birds, milk that was going to turn, cheese that was slightly past its best. Mr Tromley ignored all his protests though, usually threatening to sack Steve if he didn’t take it. The man knew what it was like to come from a hard background, which was part of the reason he’d taken a shine to that sickly, twenty-two year old orphan with a degree in fine arts that had come begging for a job some three years ago. He couldn’t pay him much but he could do other things to make sure he got by.

“Well if you don’t take ‘em Steve they’ll just end up withering and a-dyin’, so reckon you’d be doin’ em a kindness.” Mr Tromley shrugged “Now, my Ada has some coffee going, you want a cup before we open the doors?”

Steve glanced at the clock above the counter, more out of habit than anything as he knew full well that he arrived with an hour to go.

“Mr T that’d be swell.” He smiled.

“Okay, you get started and I’ll fetch it down.”

Steve began in the usual way, pulling some simple bouquets together, varying in size and price, ready for the busy men to pick up on their way home from work, a nice present for their dame’s for the weekend. Once the stalks and lower foliage were trimmed and stripped, he fastened and tied them in simple brown waxy paper using plain brown string. Steve always insisted on using plain wrapping as anything else would detract from the beauty of the flowers. He placed the finished bouquets into one of the green buckets of water Mr Tromley fetched from the back, before he then carefully and delicately trimmed down the remaining flowers before placing them loose in their own buckets according to type, ready for the ladies, and occasional gentleman, who had the time and desire to create their own bunches.

Impeccably organised, as ever, Steve finished his work fifteen minutes before the store was due to open. He then set about helping Mr Tromley as they arranged the buckets outside the shop window on the sidewalk, before they set up the other stalls of seasonal vegetables. There wasn’t much fruit to go by at the moment, but that was a sign of the times really. But what they did have, namely a selection of apples and oranges, they set those out ready too. Once that was done, Mr Tromley handed Steve a thick wedge of fresh bread which had been delivered that morning from the local bakery, along with some of his wife’s home-made jam which was sold from their shop. Steve took his breakfast with a mumbled thanks, averse to taking the daily handouts as ever, and Mr Tromley sighed.

“Steve, when are you going to realise that a piece of bread and jam for breakfast ain’t gonna bankrupt me?”

“I just don’t want to appear to take advantage, that’s all.” “Ah quit it.” Tromley waved his hand, shaking his head “If I didn’t want you to take advantage of it, I wouldn’t offer it would I? Now, eat that and get behind the counter.”

The morning passed much the same as they always did. A flurry of activity at opening, a steady stream of locals and regulars through to the usual peak of activity just before lunch. Like clockwork, Mr Tromley closed the doors bang on midday for an hour and Steve gathered his sketchbook along with the brown paper bag which contained his cheese and bread, and headed outside into the sun. At Mr Tromley’s instruction he selected an apple from the display and crossed the road avoiding the yellow cabs and cyclists and trams, taking up seat on the bench which sat directly opposite the shop front.  He chewed his lunch, washed it down with the tin bottle of lemonade that Mrs Tromley had filled for him earlier, and then once he had finished his apple he tossed the core over to a pigeon who instantly began pecking at it. He then untucked the pencil that was behind his ear, opened his sketchbook and resumed the detailed landscapes he was doing of the buildings surrounding the shop front. Drawing was his escape, something he did any chance he got. He dreamed one day of travelling the world, drawing all the different sights he could, but that was out of the question. Well, until he finally got into the army. With four failed attempts under his belt already, most men would have given up but not Steven Rogers. Stubborn, tenacious and plucky to a fault, he was already planning his next attempt at enlisting, this time he was going to hail from New Jersey. Well, as good a place as any.  

Steve glanced up, checking the detail of the window to the cobblers next door, and that was when he saw her, just walking down the sidewalk. She wore a red high-collared, cap sleeved tea-dress which flared out slightly from her hips and finished just below her knee. It was cinched in at the waist with a black belt, and was detailed round the hem and sleeve edges with pretty white lace. On her feet she wore a pair of simple, elegant black block heel courts with a T-bar buckle. Her hair was a silky, shiny chestnut which hung around her face in bouncy waves and she had a soft, gentle profile with high cheekbones, slightly flushed cheeks and ruby lips. She stopped outside the shop, examining the flowers with a smile, and then she looked up at the shop door and saw the CLOSED sign in the window. She can’t be from around here, Steve thought to himself, everyone in the neighbourhood knew when Tromley closed his doors and opened them, you could set your watch by it. Still, she hung around, softly picking up a gardenia and holding it to her nose, smiling to herself as she inhaled.

Steve found the innocent act breath-taking. He felt a little, well, shameful in a way, to be watching her so, intruding on what was clearly a private moment but he couldn’t help it. She was beautiful, grace personified, and he felt a little sad as she replaced the flower, gave the buckets one last look, before she continued on her way. Steve sighed, wishing to God that the shop had been open, it would have given him an excuse to maybe see her a little more closely. Perhaps talk to her. Or not as the case maybe, Bucky was always telling him how useless he was when it came to striking up conversations with ladies. But, for now, he had to settle for watching her walk away. Only he wasn’t the only one.

“Hey pretty thing…” Steve heard a voice and turned to his left where a group of men, most likely in their late teens or early twenties, had spotted her. As Steve watched he saw one of them push himself off the lamppost he’d been leaning on and cross the street towards her. The lady stopped, looking at him with her eyebrow raised. He spoke to her again, Steve couldn’t hear the conversation but a smile tugged at his lips as the lady looked the boy up and down, disdain etched all over her pretty face before she shook her head and laughed. She made to move past the kid but he reached out and grabbed her arm.

And Steve just couldn’t help himself.

“Hey!” He called, jumping up and hurrying across the street. “Let the lady go.”

“Back off, this has nothing to do with you.” The man rounded on him, looking at him before he snorted at Steve’s stature. “Besides, what you gonna do about it anyway? Runt.”

Steve took a deep breath, he was used to people looking down their noses at him, both figuratively and literally. That was part and parcel of being only five foot four inches tall. He also knew that at hundred pound give or take, he didn’t cut a formidable figure either, but he was damned if he was going to let this bully manhandle a dame in the middle of the street.

The woman wrenched her arm away from the man’s grip and glared at him, furious green eyes bored into his as she snorted and looked the guy up and down. “He’s clearly twice the gentleman you’ll ever be. Didn’t your mother ever teach you basic, good manners jack ass?”

“What did you just say?” a sudden darkness crossed the man’s face as he looked down at the woman who stood, un-yielding, clutching her purse as it hung around her shoulder.

“You heard me, well unless you’re deaf as well as ugly.” She shrugged slightly. At that Steve really couldn’t hold his face straight anymore and he felt the side of his lips curl up into a smirk. He was sure the pretty dame’s eyes flickered to his but he must have imagined it as when he stole a glance back at her she was staring straight back at the man who’d been giving her the trouble.

“Mouthy little broad you ain’t ya?” He snarled.

“Show some damned respect.” Steve shot out, and this time the man rounded on him. Steve stood stock still, his mother’s words echoing clearly in his head- you start running, they’ll never let you stop and he was aware in his peripheral that the other 2 men who’d been observing until now were starting to circle like sharks who had just had their first taste of blood.

He braced himself, ready for the inevitable fight, legs slightly apart, hands balling into fists by his side. But it was no use. He was never going to be fast enough or strong enough for one of these guys, let alone three, and as the fist connected with his face he heard a scream and a yell as he fell backwards into the display of oranges and apples which he had lovingly helped Mr T prepare before.

Steve staggered to his feet, readying himself for another hit but it didn’t come. Instead one of the guys was sent sprawling to the ground besides him, shortly followed by the other. He wheeled round to see Bucky had the one that was left standing pinned up by the collar against the brick wall to the side of the shop and Mrs T was on the door step brandishing a broom handle, a string of Italian expletives leaving her mouth.

“Get outta here!” Bucky shoved the one that he was holding harshly into the road where he narrowly avoided colliding with the side of a yellow cab. Then turns to Steve and pulls him up.

“Seriously?” Bucky groaned and Steve shook his head, dusting himself down “You pick a fight with three at once?”

“He didn’t pick a fight with any of them.” A soft voice spoke and both Steve and Bucky turned to look at the dame in the red dress who was dusting herself down as her eyes flitted from Bucky, to Steve, then back again. “He came to help me when one of those bozos was getting a little too familiar.”

“That’s Stevie, a regular Knight in shining armour.” Bucky ruffled Steve’s hair as he gave an exasperated sigh, pushing himself away from his best friend. “Especially when there’s a beautiful dame involved.”

 The lady looked at Bucky, arching an eyebrow before she looked back at Steve and he gulped slightly as for the first time he took her in properly. There was nothing else to say other than she was drop dead gorgeous. Deep green eyes that sparkled like emeralds looked back at him from a heart shaped face, nose speckled with freckles which twitched a little as she smiled revealing a row of perfectly straight, white teeth

"I guess I should thank you Stevie." She spoke, and Steve felt the heat rise in his cheeks.

"It was nothing...I just.." he stopped dead as she reached out and straightened his tie, long eyelashes blinking against his cheeks as she smoothed over his shoulders and dropped a kiss to his cheek.

"My hero"

Steve swallowed and looked at the woman as she stepped back, smiling at him.

“I err, it was…my pleasure.” Steve stuttered and the lady arched an eyebrow, a grin on her face.

“Interesting choice of words.”

“I mean, not pleasure, obviously. No one likes seeing a beautiful dame getting hassled, I mean woman, not that…” he shook his head, as Bucky nudged him. He was rambling, as per usual. “I err, I should…”he gestured to the shop as Mr and Mrs Tromley were now looking at the mess of fruit all over the floor.

“I’m sorry about that.” She turned to the shopkeepers who looked at her, Mrs Tromley waving her away.

“Not your fault, dear.”

“Can I at least buy some of the flowers?”  She asked, a little shyly. “That is what I actually wanted to do after all.”

“Of course, Steven, can you…” Mr T nodded to Steve and then his eyes fell on Bucky “James Buchanan Barnes, what are you doing here?”

“Got a week or so’s furlough, Mr T and Ma sent me for some stuff, I gotta list.” he nodded, fishing it out of his pocket.

Tromley took it from him, scanned it and then turned to walk into the shop, beckoning for Bucky to follow him. Steve’s eyes followed his friend’s broad back as Bucky paused in the doorway and stopped, turning back to the woman. Steve groaned inwardly, he knew that face, Bucky was about to turn on the charm and she was no doubt going to fall in a pool at his feet, just like most of the other girls in the neighbourhood.

“You’re not from round here, right?” Bucky asked.

“What makes you say that?” She countered with a question of her own, looking Bucky up and down as she spoke.

“Never seen you before.”

“Know all the girls in Brooklyn, do you James Buchanan Barnes?” She asked, and Bucky gave a chuckle as she repeated his name to him and winked.

“Only the pretty ones.” “Well I suppose with most men joining the army the moment, even the pretty ones can’t be choosers.”

At that Steve let out a snort of laughter as Bucky blinked in surprise. “Ouch.” He gave a little scoff and shake of his head before he turned to walk into the shop.

“He always like that?” The lady looked at Steve who took a deep breath and smiled a little.

“Yes Ma’am. And to be honest it normally works.” Steve glanced at Bucky before he looked back at the woman who was looking at him, her eyes twinkling. “Most girls just can’t seem’ta say no!”

“Well, I’ll let you into a secret.” She grinned and leaned closer to Steve. “I’m not like most girls.”

Steve swallowed again, nervously brushing a hand through his hair as she straightened up and smiled at him. “I’m Katie by the way, seems only fair you know my name seeing as I know yours.”

“I err, that’s a pretty name.” Steve smiled and then inwardly cursed himself again.

Pretty name? Really? That’s the best you can do?

“Thank you.” She giggled, and then she turned to the buckets “So errr, do you wanna make me a bouquet Steve? Something pretty for my room.”

Glad of the distraction, Steve nodded and turned to the various bunches of flowers. “I err, I noticed you were admiring the gardenias, so…” “You were watching me?” she spoke and Steve looked at her, ready to start protesting that wasn’t what he’d been doing when he spotted the glint in her eyes and he shook his head giving a sigh. She grinned “I love gardenias, lilies are my favourite but gardenias are pretty too.”

“Yeah we don’t have any lilies, unfortunately.” Steve shrugged “They were my Ma’s favourite too.”

Steve set about gathering a generous bunch of flowers as she instructed him to make it a large bouquet and then she followed him into the shop where he wrapped them in brown paper and string as Bucky was leaning against the counter, chatting to the Tromleys, Mrs Tromley laughing loudly at something he’d said.

“You are a cad, Bucky Barnes!” She looked at him, shaking her head “Isn’t it bad enough you joined the army? You’ll give your ma a heart attack one of these days.”

Bucky shrugged “It wasn’t so bad, he never caught me. Even on a bum ankle I was faster.”

“You been caught in places you shouldn’t be again Buck?” Steve looked at him and he shrugged, grinning.

“You know me, Stevie!”

“Yeah, yeah I do.” Steve rolled his eyes before he tied off the bouquet with the string and then handed it to Katie. She smiled.

“You have talented hands.” She spoke gently and Steve flushed once more, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, he’s good with them.” Bucky spoke and Steve glared at him. Katie turned to look at Bucky again, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Makes a change, in my experience most men don’t know the first thing about how to use them.”

Mrs Tromley choked a little on her coffee as she looked at the younger woman, flashing her a wink. Katie bit her lip, her mouth curling up into a small smile as she rummaged in her purse, pulling out a small leather wallet.

“How much do I owe you?”

“No charge.” Mr Tromley spoke suddenly but Katie shook her head.

“I insist, I was responsible for your display getting trashed, least I can do is pay for these.”

“Oh trust me,” Mr Tromley smiled, “seeing you put that toe-rag into them was worth it.”

“Yeah, you had some pretty vicious moves for a dame.” Bucky looked at her and she shrugged as Steve frowned.

“Wait, you…” “Don’t look so surprised.” Katie smiled “A girl should always know how to defend herself. But if I’m honest, it’s always nice to have a man do it for you.”

At that she smiled and slapped some money down on the counter, stepping back. “Keep the change in insist.”

Mr Tromley looked at her, then at the note, his mouth falling open a little.

“Thank you again Steve.” She picked up the bouquet. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“I hope so, I mean…yeah…come back soon.”

She smiled and with a final look in his direction she left, the bell ringing as the door opened and shut behind her. There was a pause until Bucky turned to Steve.

“Come back soon?” he looked at him “Really? That’s the best you could do?”

Steve groaned. “Piss off Bucky.” He shot, giving a yelp as Mrs T swatted at his head.

“Language, Steven!” She scalded, as Mr T chuckled and slid the money she’d left to Steve across the counter. Steve blinked and looked at it, before he shook his head. Mr Tromley glared at him.

“You don’t take that you’re fired.”

With a groan Steve folded the $5 note up and slid it into the pocket of his slacks. Mrs Tromley muttered something about going to check on her scones which were in the oven upstairs and Mr Tromley headed into the back, leaving Steve and Bucky alone.

“You know, that dame was practically begging for you to ask her out on a date.” Bucky picked up the paper bag containing the groceries he had come for and Steve looked at him, snorting.

“You’re joking right?” the smaller man shook his head “Dame’s like that don’t want a guy like me.” “Clueless.” Bucky shook his head “Absolutely fucking clueless.” Steve watched him head to the door, before he stopped and turned back. “Oh that reminds me. Ma’s expecting you about 6 for dinner. She’s making meatloaf and told me that if you refuse she’s gonna, and I quote.” Bucky cleared his throat and spoke in a light, airey impression of his Ma, “march round to his house and drag him outta that apartment by his ear.”

Steve rolled his eyes well naturedly. He hadn’t been to the Barnes’ for dinner for a week so he wasn’t surprised Winnie had sent Bucky with an invitation that was more of an instruction than anything. “Okay, thanks Buck.”

Bucky gave him a salute before he headed out of the store, whistling to himself. Steve took a deep breath, shook his head and turned back to his work, pushing all thoughts of the stunning young woman in the red dress out of his mind.

*****

“You just don’t know when to give up, do you?” She taunting voice of his opponent rang in Steve’s ears as he staggered to his feet. This wasn’t how he’d planned his trip to the movie theatre going, not one iota. But when the loudmouthed asshole had done nothing but show total disrespect to those fighting overseas as the infomercial was showing, his temper had gotten the better of him and once more had led to him getting into a fight. As far as Monday’s went, this one was pretty crappy.

Which of course he could never walk away from.

“I can do this all day.” Steve huffed, swinging his fist at the guy again. The jerk easily blocked Steve’s feeble punch with his arm, delivering a huge jab with his left which sent Steve sprawling straight into the side of the trashcan from which he’d picked up the lid before. As Steve lay dazed, he heard a familiar voice breaking through the fog.

“Hey! Pick on someone your own size.” Bucky yanked the guy backwards by his jacket, shoving him a little down the alleyway. The guy swung at Bucky who dodged it almost lazily, before delivering a punch of his own, placing a firm boot up the guys ass as he retreated hurriedly. Watching as he scooted away, Bucky turned to Steve who was stood with his hands on his knees, steadying himself.

“Sometimes, I think you like getting punched.”

“I had him on the ropes.” Steve replied, pressing the heel of his palm to the cut above his eyebrow, wincing a little from the various blows he’d taken.

Bucky said nothing, instead he bent down to pick up the enlistment form that had fallen from Steve’s pocket and with a sigh he glanced at it.

“How many times is this?” His eyes scanned the information and he arched an eyebrow “Oh, you’re from Paramus now? You know it’s illegal to lie on the enlistment form. And seriously, Jersey?”

Steve ignored him, and then for the first time looked up at his friend to see him stood tall in his full army uniform. Which could only mean one thing. “You get your orders?” he frowned a little.

“The one-o-seventh. Sergeant James Barnes. Shipping out for England first thing tomorrow.”

Steve sighed, great. Just what he needed to hear. “I should be going.” He shook his head dejectedly.

Bucky looked at him sympathetically before he smiled, and looked an arm round his shoulder, pulling him closer in a friendly gesture as they both began to head back down the alley towards the main road.

“Come on, man, it’s my last night! Gotta get you cleaned up.”

“Why? Where are we going?”

“The future.” Bucky handed Steve the newspaper he was holding. Steve opened it to see the ad for the World Exposition Of Tomorrow.

“Buck…” he began to protest but Bucky stopped him.

“Seriously? My last night before I ship off to bust Nazi’s and you’re already tryin’a bail?”

“No, I just…” “Stevie!” Bucky whined. “Since I got my draft last September, I’ve hardly seen you other than when I’ve been home…”

“I know, but…” “No buts, man! I mean who knows when I’m gonna see you again now I’m actually being sent into combat and not just back to Camp McCoy. You know, London is a little further afield than Wisconsin “

“I’m well aware of that.” Steve rolled his eyes.

“So come on! Let’s go, have some fun. Cut loose a little. It’ll do you good.”

Steve looked up to see Bucky’s eyes shining with mischief, his handsome face grinning at him and he rolled his eyes “Fine, but you’re buying the hotdogs.”

“What else is new?” Bucky grinned, grabbing Steve in a headlock and ruffling his hair a little.

“Jerk.” Steve said furiously, pushing him away.

*****

A couple of hours later the two of them entered the Expo, Steve taking in the sights around him. It was crazy busy, a buzz of excitement around the air and it was hardly surprising. Howard Stark, the guy at the centre of it all was somewhat of a celebrity. He’d founded his company some four years ago at the age of twenty-two, and it had grown from strength to strength, with numerous pioneering technological advances to his name. Steve would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little excited to see the latest and no doubt flamboyant invention the guy had come up with, but his mind was still on his failed Army application, the feeling of inadequacy exacerbated even more by the fact Bucky was going to be leaving him behind to serve his country, something that Steve felt he should be doing right along with his best pal.

Sensing his brooding nature, Bucky nudged him and opened his mouth no doubt to make some wise crack, but Steve shook his head.

“Buck, just don’t”

“I don’t see what the problem is.” Bucky shook his head as they wandered down the steps towards the main pavilion area “You’re about to be the last eligible man in New York.” Bucky grinned, and Steve sighed heavily. Yup, there it was. “You know, there’s three and a half million women here.”

“Well, I’d settle for just one.” Steve muttered and Bucky grinned, Steve allowing a little smile to spread across his face at his own joke.

“Good thing I took care of that.” Bucky grinned and waved to two girls, a blonde and a brunette, who stood a few feet away and Steve stopped dead as one of the girls waved back, calling out to Bucky.

Great, here we go again.

“What did you tell her about me?” Steve groaned. “Only the good stuff.” Bucky smirked as they walked towards the girls, Steve brushing his hand through his hair, making sure it was as tidy as he could.

Bucky introduced the girls as Connie and Bonnie. It was obvious from the start that Connie was the one Bucky was trying his luck with, although to be fair Bonnie might as well have been with Bucky too for all the attention she paid to Steve. As they wandered into the Pavilion, Steve stopped to purchase a bag of sweets before he followed on behind the other 3, glancing around at the various exhibits.

“Welcome to the Modern Marvels Pavilion and the World of Tomorrow.” The expo announcer spoke “A greater world. A better world.”

There was a little bit of murmuring from people in front of them as they stopped, glancing at the large stage in front of them which was currently dark, but then there was movement, music struck up and Connie grabbed Bucky’s arm in excitement.

“Oh, my God! It’s starting!” She squealed and yanked on Bucky’s hand, pulling him closer. As Steve stood behind them he saw the stage light up to reveal a row of women all dressed in black and white striped waistcoats, short jackets and top hats. One of them walked across the front of the stage, smiling as she spoke into a microphone

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Howard Stark!”

Smooth and cool as a cucumber, Howard Stark strode onto the stage, taking off his top hat, whilst he smiled, handing it to the announcer before kissing her as the crowd cheered. Howard smirked a little, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket which he used to dab at his mouth before he addressed his audience.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” at that point Steve held the small paper bag over towards Bonnie who looked at it, then him, almost scathingly as Howard continued his speech. “What if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won’t even have to touch the ground at all?”

“You know…” A vaguely familiar voice spoke and Steve looked up from where he had been examining his bag of bonbons, wondering what was wrong with them, to see the woman from the shop a few days ago, Katie stood to the side of Bonnie. She was dressed in a simple grey dress which sported a pencil style skirt, with a light blue cardigan covering her shoulders. “When a gentleman offers you a sweet and you don’t want one, there’s really no need to be such a rude bitch about it.”

Her eyes were narrowed as she gave Bonnie a scathing look. Bonnie floundered a little as Katie reached out, dipping her red nailed, manicured hand into the paper bag and taking a bonbon. In doing so, she jostled Bonnie forward a little with her elbow, and turned to the stage, popping the bonbon in her mouth, giving Steve a little wink. Steve felt his cheeks flush as Bucky turned, his attention drawn to the slight scuffle behind him. He saw Katie stood next to Steve and he grinned.

“Hey Dollface!” Katie turned her head and looked at Bucky as Steve rolled his eyes. However, just like at the shop, she payed Bucky no attention other than a flick of her eyebrow, before her eyes moved back to the stage, Steve doing the same to see that Stark was now stood by some sort of podium.

“With Stark robotic reversion technology, you’ll be able to do just that.” Howard spoke, and with that he turned to fiddle with a few switches on the podium and the car started to hover ever so slightly off the ground. Steve felt his mouth drop open in awe as in front of him Bucky let out an astonished mumble.

“Holy cow!”

But he spoke too soon, as the jets making the car hover suddenly malfunctioned and the car fell back onto the stage with a loud crash, sparks flying out round it.

Bucky turned to look at Steve, smiling as Steve’s eyebrows raised, and besides him, Katie gave a snort.

“I did say a few years, didn’t I?” Howard laughed, leaning on the bonnet of the car.

“Few years my ass.” Katie mumbled and Steve looked at her.

“What?”

“Nothing, doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “Listen, I gotta go-”

“Oh, ok.” Steve tried not to sound disappointed but Katie smiled at him softly, cutting him off.

“Meet me at the Cider cart in an hour.”

“I err…” Steve stuttered, before he frowned. “You sure, you wanna meet me?”

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t have said so.” Katie grinned. “One hour, don’t you dare be late.”

“Yeah, an hour, got it.”

Not quite able to believe his luck, Steve watched her go, smiling to himself before he glanced around and his eyes stopped on the familiar Uncle Sam poster pointing at him, with an arrow directing him to a recruitment centre. What the hell, he had nothing to lose…and an hour was plenty of time. Decision made, he followed the signs and jogged up the steps into the building, pausing to take a look around as people were milling in the carpeted hallway.

“Come on soldier!” a woman giggled at her male company, pulling him away from a mirror making him look like a soldier. Once he was gone Steve stepped in front of the mirror but he was too short to fill out the face. His shoulders slumped and then suddenly, a strong hand gripped his right and Bucky chuckled.

“You’re kind of missing the point of a double date.” He said, shaking his head as Steve stepped away, turning to face him “We’re taking the girls dancing.”

“You go ahead. I’ll catch up with you.” Steve replied, hands dropping into his pockets.

“What, you had a better offer? From Dollface?”

“Her name is Katie.”

“Oh my God I’m right!” Bucky laughed. “Good for you, Punk!”

Steve rolled his eyes and then watched as a man strode past him in an Army Uniform and when Steve looked back at Bucky, his friend’s face now sported an exasperated expression as he’d clearly realised what Steve was planning. “You’re really gonna do this again?”

“Well, it’s a fair. I’m gonna try my luck.” Steve answered with a little shrug.

“As who? Steve from Ohio? They’ll catch you. Or worse, they’ll actually take you.” Bucky’s voice was frustrated and Steve gave a little smile.

“Look, I know you don’t think I can do this, but I’m more-“

“This isn’t a back alley, Steve. It’s war!” Bucky cut him off.

“I know it’s a war. You don’t have to tell me that-“ “Why are you so keen to fight? There are so many important jobs.” “What am I gonna do? Collect scrap metal-“

“Yes!”

“-in my little red wagon?”

“Why not?”

“I’m not gonna sit in a factory, Bucky.” Steve argued, shaking his head.

“I don’t…” Bucky protested once more and Steve cut him off.

“Bucky, come on! There are men laying down their lives. I got no right to do any less than them. That’s what you don’t understand. This isn’t about me.”

“Right. Cause you got nothing to prove.” Bucky said gently and Steve took a deep breath. But before Bucky could say anything else Connie called out to him.

“Hey, Sarge! Are we going dancing?”

Bucky turned back to the girls, his arms held out to the side. “Yes, we are.” With that he turned back to Steve, shaking his head a little, his shoulders slumped in resignation. “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” He instructed as he started to walk away.

“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Steve shot back and Bucky shook his head, giving a snort.

“You’re a punk.” He walked back towards Steve and hugged him goodbye.

“Jerk” Steve said gently slapping Bucky’s back. “Be careful.”

With a pang of sadness, Steve watched his best friend walking away, not quite sure when they’d see each other again, if indeed ever. He licked his lips and then called out to Bucky once more. “Don’t win the war till I get there!”

Bucky stopped and saluted him before he strode down the steps, “Come on girls. They’re playing our song.”

With a deep breath, Steve headed into the recruitment centre, past an older gentlemen in a brown suit. He was given the usual forms to fill out, this time going with Ohio as his place of birth-thanks for that one, Buck- and he was shown to the medical examination room. After the short physical was over, he was just fastening the sleeves of his long shirt up again when a nurse walked into the room and whispered something inaudible to the doctor.

“Wait here.” The Doctor turned to him, moving to the curtain.

“Is there a problem?” Steve asked, frowning a little.

“Just wait here.” The doctor repeated his instruction before he walked out.

Steve paused for a second, glancing over his right shoulder at a sign warning against lying on enlistment forms before he glanced at the curtain, cold dread filling him. Shit, Bucky was right, they’d caught up with him. Jumping down off the bed he sat heavily in a chair and began to pull on his shoes when someone entered the cubicle. He glanced up and saw a Military Police officer looking at him and he swallowed a little nervously. But before he could say anything another man entered, the man Steve had walked past about forty minutes or so previously in the foyer, and he was clutching a file in his hands.

“Thank you.” The man spoke to the Police Officer who left, pulling the curtains closed behind him. Steve watched as the man turned to face him, his hands behind his back. “So, you want to go overseas.” The man pulled the file from behind him, opening it “Kill some Nazis.”

“Excuse me?”

“Dr. Abraham Erskine.” The man closed the folder and walked over as Steve stood up, shaking his hand “I represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve.”

“Steve Rogers” Steve nodded, noting the man’s accent as he placed the file on the medical bed and started to look through it. “Where are you from?”

“Queens. 73rd Street and Utopia Parkway. Before that, Germany.” He adjusted his glasses as he glanced at Steve “This troubles you?”

“No.” Steve replied honestly, shaking his head.

“Where are you from, Mr. Rogers?” Erskine asked, resting both his hands on the bench “Mmm? Is it New Haven? Or Paramus? Five exams in five different cities.”

“That might not be the right file.” Steve began to try and get out of whatever trouble he was in but Erskine was quick to cut him off.

“No, it’s not the exams I’m interested in. It’s the five tries.” Erskine closed the file, picking it up “But you didn’t answer my question.” He strode over and stopped in front of Steve “Do you want to kill Nazis?”

Steve glanced to the side before he looked at Erskine “Is this a test?”

“Yes.” The man replied bluntly and Steve took a deep breath, before he answered as honestly as he could.

“I don’t wanna kill anyone.” He shook his head, raising his eyes to meet Erskine’s “I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they’re from.”

“Well, there are already so many big men fighting this war. Maybe what we need now is the little guy, huh?” Erskine smiled before he turned to leave “I can offer you a chance” he said, whipping the curtains open “Only a chance.”

Steve couldn’t believe his ears. Was this Doctor guy actually telling him he’d done it, that he’d finally made it into the army? He had no idea what the Strategic Science Reserve was, or why Erskine had questioned him so, but right now he didn’t care.

“I’ll take it.” He said, hastily grabbing his belongings and following Erskine out.

“Good.” Erskine placed the file down on the desk and picked up a stamp, before replacing it and reaching for another “So where is the little guy from, actually?”

Steve smiled “Brooklyn.”

Erskine smiled back, stamped the form before closing the file and handing it to Steve. “Congratulations, soldier.”

Steve hastily opened it up and did a double take as he saw the stamp was a 1A this time, not 4f. He let out a deep breath and glanced up to thank the man, but he’d already left.

“You’ll be sent your papers and instructions shortly” Another man spoke to him, taking the file off him and handing him back the recruitment slip. Steve nodded. “Be ready, the SSR are on a schedule.”

Steve nodded, before he was shown out of the room. Still in a daze he clutched the piece of paper in his hand and wandered back to the area where he’d left Bucky before. And then he remembered Katie.

Shit.

He hastily made his way outside the building and headed back to the pavilion, weaving his way through the crowds. He found the cider cart and saw her waiting, chatting to the man behind the counter, her brown hair hanging round her shoulders, rouged lips which curled up into a smile as she spotted him approaching.

“You’re late.” Katie looked at him and Steve flushed. “I was beginning to thing you’d stood me up.”

“I wouldn’t do that, my ma taught me better.” He gave her a small smile “I was just...” he waved his enlistment paper at her and she frowned a little

“You enlisted?”

He nodded “Yup.” “Wow.” Katie blinked, “Erm, congratulations, I guess. Is that the right word?”

“It is when you’ve tried and been rejected several times already.” Steve shrugged before he snorted “Story of my life.”

“That girl before was fuckin’ rude.” Katie’s eyes narrowed and Steve blinked at the profanity coming from her mouth before she rolled her eyes. “Don’t look at me like that!���

“Like what?”

“Like the fact I swore means I’m gonna go to hell.” She snorted “If it does, then I got that particular ticket a long time ago.”

“Sorry, I was…” he took a deep breath. “For such a pretty woman you certainly…er…”

“Have a filthy mouth?” She asked and Steve snorted, shrugging as he looked away, his lips curling up into a crooked smile as he raised his eyebrows. She leaned closer to him, her lips brushing his ear as she whispered “You have no idea.”

Steve swallowed at the blatant innuendo causing her to laugh at him even more before she nudged him with her elbow “Come on soldier, what do you want to drink?”

Soldier…that was the second time in ten minutes he’d been called that, and Steve liked it much more coming from her. He watched her for a second before he realised he was staring and she jerked her head towards the stall.

“Cat got your tongue, Stevie?” She grinned and he took a deep breath. “What do you want?”

“Erm, an ale…please…hang on.” He began fishing in his pocket but Katie gently wrapped a hand around his wrist.

“No need.” She smiled, as the man behind the counter held out the ale for Steve along with a cup of cider for her. She took it with a thanks and smiled, taking a sip. “Put it on the tab, will you?”

The stall attendant snorted and nodded “Whatever you say, Katie.”

She turned away and started walking slowly over to an exhibit, Steve falling into step besides her.

“How does he know ya?” Steve asked. Katie looked at him as she swallowed a sip of her cider

“Because I work here,well, I do at the moment.” She smiled as Steve looked at her blankly “I helped organise this.” She waved her hand around.

“You work for Howard Stark?”

“In a fashion.” Katie shrugged. “Now come on, I’m not working now and I wanna see how everything looks.”

They walked around the expo grounds, taking in the sights and various attractions. Steve was surprised to find his awkwardness ebbing away with each minute he spent in Katie’s company. She was down to Earth, easy to talk to and made him feel comfortable about himself…although his good spirits might have also been due to the fact he’d finally made it into the army. His meeting with Dr Erskine had baffled him a little, all truth be told, but he’d liked the man. There was something about him that told Steve he could trust him, and Steve was normally a pretty good judge of character.

By the time they’d done pretty much a lap of the main area of the Pavillion, stopping to examine The Synthetic Man in great detail, Steve was surprised to find that he’d spent over an hour with a woman who hadn’t been seeking to lose him at the first opportunity, quite the opposite in fact. On more than one occasion he noticed men looking in her direction, then to his with puzzled expressions on their face, and he had to admit was it the other way round he’d also probably be slightly surprised to see them together. She was a good two inches taller than him, but he was used to that, she was pretty, vivacious…well out of his league all things considered. But she was good company, and he was thoroughly disappointed when they seemed to be heading back towards the place they’d started, signalling their time together was likely coming to an end.

“So, do you need to find Barnes or…” she looked at him and Steve chuckled.

“Er no, no. He’ll be busy.” Steve shrugged

“What, he just ditched you for those girls?” Katie frowned.

“No, not entirely. I ditched him, well, I went to join the army. He doesn’t approve.” Steve finished, explaining slightly.

“Approve of what?”

“Me signin’ up.

“Why not?”

“Doesn’t think I can cope.” Steve shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly a healthy kid so…”

“Well they let you in so you can’t be that bad.”

Steve wrinkled his nose and shook his head slightly. “Some doctor in there offered me a chance, what can I say? Said that there were so many big guys fighting, maybe they needed a little one.”

At that Katie stopped walking and looked at him. “Wait, it was a doctor that accepted you?”

“Yeah,” Steve frowned

“You mean one of the Medical Recruitment Officers?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Steve’s frown deepened “He was with some Scientific Division.” He looked at Katie, who was looking right back at him, her eyes wide “Wait, is there something wrong?”

“No, nothing, just surprised me a little, that’s all.” She looked around, as if she was searching for someone and Steve watched her, a little confused as she chewed her lip with an air of contemplation before she looked back at him, her green eyes locking onto his with a softness in them that made him go weak at the knees, well, weaker than normal. “Thank you for keeping me company tonight Steve, I had fun.”

“Me too.” He said earnestly. “Hey, if you want, I mean only if you want, we could maybe meet up again, you know, before I get my posting?” At that Katie’s face fell and Steve sighed, he’d blown it. She’d only asked him to accompany her round he expo out of politeness, duty even as a thank you for his intervention on the street a few weeks back, and now he’d put her on the spot. “It’s okay.” He started to back track. “I get that you’re probably busy and get asked that all the time…”

“No, it’s not that.” She shook her head “I’d love to go out with you Steve, but I leave town tomorrow. I’m needed back at, well, my other job.”

“Oh, okay.” Steve popped a shoulder up, trying to hide his disappointment. “Well, I err…good luck. With whatever that job is.”

Katie laughed. “It’s me who should be wishing you good luck, trust me.” She cocked her head before she took a deep breath. “Just remember Steve, the world needs men like you, be a shame if we lost you all in the war.”

At her compliment he felt himself once more flush, and the heat in his neck rose even more as she leaned down and pressed her lips softly to his cheek. She pulled back a little, locking her eyes onto his and he swallowed, the lump in his throat now only rivalled by the one he was starting to feel in his slacks. And then, he had no idea how it happened but her lips were suddenly pressed to his. He froze momentarily, but then he went with his instinct and mirrored her movements, his eyes fluttering closed. Her hands gently curled over his shoulder, his automatically falling to her hips, shaking a little against the fabric of her dress as the kiss deepened slightly, the warm edge of her tongue flicking at his lips. He parted his mouth a little, allowing her to curl her tongue against his, a movement that made him shudder and he was beyond disappointed when she pulled away. She smiled against his mouth, her nose bumping his slightly as his cheeks felt hotter than the sun. He knew he was blushing, furiously, having just had his first proper kiss in the middle of a huge exhibition, but Katie seemed completely nonplussed as she smiled at him.

“For luck.” She whispered, stepping back slightly, before she turned and headed away, casting a glance back over her shoulder at him, flashing him another cheeky little wink. “See you around.”

Steve floundered a little, mouth gaping as he watched her disappear into the crowd, and with a final shake of his head and a deep, steadying breath he headed for the exit.

*****

 As it turned out Steve didn’t have long to wait for his posting at all. The following day he received his papers assigning him to Camp Lehigh in New Jersey as part of his recruitment to the SSR’s “Operation Rebirth” programme, whatever that was. He assumed he’d receive more details upon arrival. It wasn’t that which surprised him the most however, it was the date upon which he was ordered to report. Wednesday. As in, tomorrow. Whilst it didn’t give him much time to prepare, it didn’t bother him too much. He had meagre belongings anyways and anything he didn’t want to take with him he packed up into smaller boxes with the help of Bucky’s teenage sister Rebecca, Buck’s dad promising to keep it safe for him until he got back.

Winnie was beside herself when Steve broke the news that he too was enlisting, but she wished him well and made him promise to write. As did the Tromleys, who both took the news even worse than Bucky’s family had. Ada having first burst into tears then hugged him so hard he thought she was going to crush him half to death, whilst Mr Tromley had shook his hand and warned him that if he didn’t come back alive, with all 4 limbs, he’d kill Steve himself.

The morning rolled round ridiculously fast and both the Tromleys and Mr and Mrs Barnes insisted on seeing him off.  Once more Ada and Winnie hugged him tightly before Mr Tromley and Mr Barnes shook his hand, the latter promising Steve he would sort out everything with his landlord, taking the key to his small apartment in the tenement building where Steve had lived in all his life. Steve felt a little pang of emotion at that point, this was the last physical tie he really had to his mother but he took a deep breath letting it go slowly. She’d been dead now for seven years and anything that remained of hers in the building was all safely stored.

No, Steve had absolutely no doubts about what he was doing. This was all he had ever wanted, to follow in his father’s footsteps and so, at six am on the 16th June 1943 Steve Rogers boarded the Army bus that arrived at the bus station to take him and a number of other recruits to New Jersey, leaving the place he’d called home for his entire life behind.

**** Chapter 2

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Rebirth

Chapter 1: Flowers In The Window

Summary: Steven Grant Rogers, the dumb kid, too stubborn to run away from a fight, was never gonna allow a bunch of no-good low-lives to hassle a dame in the street, even if it was going to lead to him getting his ass kicked. For once, however, the ass kicking has an upside as the dame in question seemed particularly grateful, a fact she displays a few days later at the Stark Expo.

But it wasn’t the only encounter that night that seemed set to change his life when Dr Erskine throws him a bone, meaning Steve can finally do the one thing he’s been desperate to do for years.

Join the army.

Warnings: Bad Language words. Nothing much… Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N:  As part of SSB’s 1st Birthday, @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ sent me and ask asking what would have gone down so to speak should Katie have been part of the CA: TFA timeline. So here it is, my take!  I’ll be trying to keep this fic as accurate to the time period and the movie as possible, just like with the other SS fics. I’ve gleamed the dates and timeline from good old google and a wonderful post that flipped up on my timeline which can be found here.

I really hope you enjoy this, there will be some creative license because, let’s face it, what is Fan Fic other than self-indulgence? I’ve been dying to write something like this for ages. All of it will be written from Steve’s point of view because…well, just because.   Huge thanks to my beta readers @southerngracela​ and @icanfeelastormbrewing​ who both found time in their hugely hectic schedules to check this over. That said, any mistakes are my own. I’ll probably spot them once posted but, whatever!

HAPPY 1 YEAR BIRTHDAY to STARK SPANGLED BANNER!!!! 

SSR Masterlist // WIYPT Masterlist 

June 1943

It started just the same as any normal Friday morning for Steven Grant Rogers. He unlocked the back of the Grocery Store on the corner of Berry Street in Brooklyn, using the entrance down the alley way reserved for staff. Once inside he grabbed his beige coloured linen apron off the hook and smiled at the items he had to work with today. Fridays, were always a treat as they took the rare delivery of freshly cut flowers ready to be sold for the weekend. This week there were boxes of bright white gardenias with their waxy petals and shiny, leathery dark green leaves, bunches of bright purple heliotrope which always reminded him of one of his mother’s scarves, and plenty of white, blue and purple asters. Steve bent down to take in the strong, vibrant fragrance of the gardenias, closing his eyes. It was easy to imagine he was in some garden somewhere, or even the middle of central park…not some little shop in Williamsberg.

“Don’t be inhaling enough of that to set your asthma off!” Mr Tromley, a kindly faced, portly man in his 50s greeted, and Steve turned to look at him, smiling a little shyly.

“I won’t Mr T.” he assured him. “They’re just so darn pretty…”

“Well set yourself a few aside.” Mr Tromley smiled “You can take them home and sketch them.”

“Oh, I couldn’t” Steve protested, the way he always did when Mr Tromley tried to slip him something for free be it scraps of meat he couldn’t sell from the counter that would be given to dogs, bread that wasn’t as soft as it had been in the morning and would be fed to the birds, milk that was going to turn, cheese that was slightly past its best. Mr Tromley ignored all his protests though, usually threatening to sack Steve if he didn’t take it. The man knew what it was like to come from a hard background, which was part of the reason he’d taken a shine to that sickly, 22 year old orphan with a degree in fine arts that had come begging for a job some 3 years ago. He couldn’t pay him much but he could do other things to make sure he got by.

“Well if you don’t take ‘em Steve they’ll just end up withering and a-dyin’, so reckon you’d be doin’ em a kindness.” Mr Tromley shrugged “Now, my Ada has some coffee going, you want a cup before we open the doors?”

Steve glanced at the clock above the counter, more out of habit than anything as he knew full well that he arrived with an hour to go.

“Mr T that’d be swell.” He smiled.

“Okay, you get started and I’ll fetch it down.”

Steve began in the usual way, pulling some simple bouquets together, varying in size and price, ready for the busy men to pick up on their way home from work, a nice present for their dame’s for the weekend. Once the stalks and lower foliage were trimmed and stripped, he fastened and tied them in simple brown waxy paper using plain brown string. Steve always insisted on using plain wrapping as anything else would detract from the beauty of the flowers. He placed the finished bouquets into one of the green buckets of water Mr Tromley fetched from the back, before he then carefully and delicately trimmed down the remaining flowers before placing them loose in their own buckets according to type, ready for the ladies, and occasional gentleman, who had the time and desire to create their own bunches.

Impeccably organised, as ever, Steve finished his work 15 minutes before the store was due to open. He then set about helping Mr Tromley as they arranged the buckets outside the shop window on the sidewalk, before they set up the other stalls of seasonal vegetables. There wasn’t much fruit to go by at the moment, but that was a sign of the times really. But what they did have, namely a selection of apples and oranges, they set those out ready too. Once that was done, Mr Tromley handed Steve a thick wedge of fresh bread which had been delivered that morning from the local bakery, along with some of his wife’s home-made jam which was sold from their shop. Steve took his breakfast with a mumbled thanks, averse to taking the daily handouts as ever, and Mr Tromley sighed.

“Steve, when are you going to realise that a piece of bread and jam for breakfast ain’t gonna bankrupt me?”

“I just don’t want to appear to take advantage, that’s all.” “Ah quit it.” Tromley waved his hand, shaking his head “If I didn’t want you to take advantage of it, I wouldn’t offer it would I? Now, eat that and get behind the counter.”

The morning passed much the same as they always did. A flurry of activity at opening, a steady stream of locals and regulars through to the usual peak of activity just before lunch. Like clockwork, Mr Tromley closed the doors bang on midday for an hour and Steve gathered his sketchbook along with the brown paper bag which contained his cheese and bread, and headed outside into the sun. At Mr Tromley’s instruction he selected an apple from the display and crossed the road avoiding the yellow cabs and cyclists and trams, taking up seat on the bench which sat directly opposite the shop front.  He chewed his lunch, washed it down with the tin bottle of lemonade that Mrs Tromley had filled for him earlier, and then once he had finished his apple he tossed the core over to a pigeon who instantly began pecking at it. He then untucked the pencil that was behind his ear, opened his sketchbook and resumed the detailed landscapes he was doing of the buildings surrounding the shop front. Drawing was his escape, something he did any chance he got. He dreamed one day of travelling the world, drawing all the different sights he could, but that was out of the question. Well, until he finally got into the army. With 4 failed attempts under his belt already, most men would have given up but not Steven Rogers. Stubborn, tenacious and plucky to a fault, he was already planning his next attempt at enlisting, this time he was going to hail from New Jersey. Well, as good a place as any.  

Steve glanced up, checking the detail of the window to the cobblers next door, and that was when he saw her, just walking down the sidewalk. She wore a red high-collared, cap sleeved tea-dress which flared out slightly from her hips and finished just below her knee. It was cinched in at the waist with a black belt, and was detailed round the hem and sleeve edges with pretty white lace. On her feet she wore a pair of simple, elegant black block heel courts with a T-bar buckle. Her hair was a silky, shiny chestnut which hung around her face in bouncy waves and she had a soft, gentle profile with high cheekbones, slightly flushed cheeks and ruby lips. She stopped outside the shop, examining the flowers with a smile, and then she looked up at the shop door and saw the CLOSED sign in the window. She can’t be from around here, Steve thought to himself, everyone in the neighbourhood knew when Tromley closed his doors and opened them, you could set your watch by it. Still, she hung around, softly picking up a gardenia and holding it to her nose, smiling to herself as she inhaled.

Steve found the innocent act breath-taking. He felt a little, well, shameful in a way, to be watching her so, intruding on what was clearly a private moment but he couldn’t help it. She was beautiful, grace personified, and he felt a little sad as she replaced the flower, gave the buckets one last look, before she continued on her way. Steve sighed, wishing to God that the shop had been open, it would have given him an excuse to maybe see her a little more closely. Perhaps talk to her. Or not as the case maybe, Bucky was always telling him how useless he was when it came to striking up conversations with ladies. But, for now, he had to settle for watching her walk away. Only he wasn’t the only one.

“Hey pretty thing…” Steve heard a voice and turned to his left where a group of men, most likely in their late teens or early twenties, had spotted her. As Steve watched he saw one of them push himself off the lamppost he’d been leaning on and cross the street towards her. The lady stopped, looking at him with her eyebrow raised. He spoke to her again, Steve couldn’t hear the conversation but a smile tugged at his lips as the lady looked the boy up and down, disdain etched all over her pretty face before she shook her head and laughed. She made to move past the kid but he reached out and grabbed her arm.

And Steve just couldn’t help himself.

“Hey…” he called, jumping up and hurrying across the street “Let the lady go.”

“Back off, this has nothing to do with you.” The man rounded on him, looking at him before he snorted at Steve’s stature. “Besides, what you gonna do about it anyway?”

Steve took a deep breath, he was used to people looking down their noses at him, both figuratively and literally. That was part and parcel of being only 5 foot 4 inches tall. He also knew that at 100lb give or take, he didn’t cut a formidable figure either, but he was damned if he was going to let this bully manhandle a dame in the middle of the street.

The woman wrenched her arm away from the man’s grip and glared at him, furious green eyes bored into his as she snorted and looked the guy up and down. “He’s clearly twice the gentleman you’ll ever be. Didn’t your mother ever teach you basic, good manners jack ass?”

“What did you just say?” a sudden darkness crossed the man’s face as he looked down at the woman who stood, un-yielding, clutching her purse as it hung around her shoulder.

“You heard me, well unless you’re deaf as well as ugly.” she shrugged slightly. At that Steve really couldn’t hold his face straight anymore and he felt the side of his lips curl up into a smirk. He was sure the pretty dame’s eyes flickered to his but he must have imagined it as when he stole a glance back at her she was staring straight back at the man who’d been giving her the trouble.

“Mouthy little broad you ain’t ya?” he snarled.

“Show some damned respect.” Steve shot out, and this time the man rounded on him. Steve stood stock still, his mother’s words echoing clearly in his head- you start running, they’ll never let you stop and he was aware in his peripheral that the other 2 men who’d been observing until now were starting to circle like sharks who had just had their first taste of blood.

He braced himself, ready for the inevitable fight, legs slightly apart, hands balling into fists by his side. But it was no use. He was never going to be fast enough or strong enough for one of these guys, let alone 3, and as the fist connected with his face he heard a scream and a yell as he fell backwards into the display of oranges and apples which he had lovingly helped Mr T prepare before.

Steve staggered to his feet, readying himself for another hit but it didn’t come. Instead one of the guys was sent sprawling to the ground besides him, shortly followed by the other. He wheeled round to see Bucky had the one that was left standing pinned up by the collar against the brick wall to the side of the shop and Mrs T was on the door step brandishing a broom handle, a string of Italian expletives leaving her mouth.

“Get outta here…” Bucky shoved the one that he was holding harshly into the road where he narrowly avoided colliding with the side of a yellow cab. Then turns to Steve and pulls him up.

“Seriously?” Bucky groaned and Steve shook his head, dusting himself down “You pick a fight with 3 at once?”

“He didn’t pick a fight with any of them.” A soft voice spoke and both Steve and Bucky turned to look at the dame in the red dress who was dusting herself down as her eyes flitted from Bucky, to Steve, then back again. “He came to help me when one of those bozos was getting a little too familiar.”

“That’s Stevie, a regular Knight in shining armour…” Bucky ruffled Steve’s hair as he gave an exasperated sigh, pushing himself away from his best friend. “Especially when there’s a beautiful dame involved.”

 The lady looked at Bucky, arching an eyebrow slightly before she looked back at Steve and he gulped slightly as for the first time he took her in properly.  She was gorgeous. Deep green eyes that sparkled like emeralds in a coal mine looked back at him from a heart shaped face, nose speckled with freckles which twitched a little as she smiled revealing a row of perfectly straight, white teeth

"I guess I should thank you Stevie." She spoke, and Steve felt the heat rise in his cheeks.

"It was nothing...I just.." he stopped dead as she reached out and straightened his tie, long eyelashes blinking against his cheeks as she smoothed over his shoulders and dropped a kiss to his cheek.

"My hero"

Steve swallowed and looked at the woman as she stepped back, smiling at him.

“I err, it was…my pleasure.” Steve stuttered and the lady arched an eyebrow, a grin on her face.

“Interesting choice of words.”

“I mean, not pleasure, obviously. No one likes seeing a beautiful dame getting hassled, I mean woman, not that…” he shook his head, as Bucky nudged him. He was rambling, as per usual. “I err, I should…”he gestured to the shop as Mr and Mrs Tromley were now looking at the mess of fruit all over the floor.

“I’m sorry about that.” She turned to the shopkeepers who looked at her, Mrs Tromley waving her away.

“Not your fault dear.”

“Can I at least buy some of the flowers?”  She asked, a little shyly “That is what I actually wanted to do after all.”

“Of course, Steven, can you…” Mr T nodded to Steve and then his eyes fell on Bucky “James Buchanan Barnes, what are you doing here?”

“Got a week or so’s furlough, Mr T and Ma sent me for some stuff, I gotta list.” he nodded, fishing it out of his pocket.

Tromley took it from him, scanned it and then turned to walk into the shop, beckoning for Bucky to follow him. Steve’s eyes followed his friend’s broad back as Bucky paused in the doorway and stopped, turning back to the woman. Steve groaned inwardly, he knew that face, Bucky was about to turn on the charm and she was no doubt going to fall in a pool at his feet, just like most of the other girls in the neighbourhood.

“You’re not from round here, right?” Bucky asked.

“What makes you say that?” she countered with a question of her own, looking Bucky up and down as she spoke.

“Never seen you before.”

“Know all the girls in Brooklyn, do you James Buchanan Barnes?” she asked, and Bucky gave a chuckle as she repeated his name to him and winked.

“Only the pretty ones.” “Well I suppose with most men joining the army the moment, even the pretty ones can’t be choosers.”

At that Steve let out a snort of laughter as Bucky blinked in surprise. “Ouch.” He gave a little scoff and shake of his head before he turned to walk into the shop.

“He always like that?” the lady looked at Steve who took a deep breath and smiled a little.

“Yes Ma’am. And to be honest it normally works.” Steve glanced at Bucky before he looked back at the woman who was looking at him, her eyes twinkling “Most girls just can’t say no!”

“Well, I’ll let you into a secret.” She grinned and leaned closer to Steve. “I’m not like most girls.”

Steve swallowed again, nervously brushing a hand through his hair as she straightened up and smiled at him. “I’m Katie by the way, seems only fair you know my name seeing as I know yours.”

“I err, that’s a pretty name.” Steve smiled and then inwardly cursed himself again. He really had no idea how to talk to dames.

“Thank you.” She giggled, and then she turned to the buckets “So errr, do you wanna make me a bouquet Steve? Something pretty for my room.”

Glad of the distraction, Steve nodded and turned to the various bunches of flowers. “I err, I noticed you were admiring the gardenias, so…” “You were watching me?” she spoke and Steve looked at her, ready to start protesting that wasn’t what he’d been doing when he spotted the glint in her eyes and he shook his head giving a sigh. She grinned “I love gardenias, lilies are my favourite but gardenias are pretty too.”

“Yeah we don’t have any lilies, unfortunately.” Steve shrugged “They were my Ma’s favourite too.”

If she noticed the use of the past tense verb when speaking about his mother she didn’t say anything, but really what would she say? They’d met literally about 5 minutes ago. Steve set about gathering a generous bunch of flowers as she instructed him to make it a large bouquet and then she followed him into the shop where he wrapped them in brown paper and string as Bucky was leaning against the counter, chatting to the Tromleys, Mrs Tromley laughing loudly at something he’d said.

“You are a cad Bucky Barnes!” she look at him, shaking her head “Isn’t it bad enough you joined the army? You’ll give your ma a heart attack one of these days.”

Bucky shrugged “It wasn’t so bad, he never caught me. Even on a bum ankle I was faster.”

“You been caught in places you shouldn’t be again Buck?” Steve looked at him and he shrugged, grinning.

“You know me Stevie…”

“Yeah, yeah I do.” Steve rolled his eyes before he tied off the bouquet with the string and then handed it to Katie. She smiled.

“You have talented hands.” She spoke gently and Steve flushed once more, rubbing the back of his hands.

“Yeah, he’s good with them.” Bucky spoke and Steve glared at him. Katie turned to look at Bucky again, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Makes a change, in my experience most men don’t know the first thing about how to use them.”

Mrs Tromley choked a little on her coffee as she looked at the younger woman, flashing her a wink. Katie bit her lip, her mouth curling up into a small smile as she rummaged in her purse, pulling out a small leather wallet.

“How much do I owe you?”

“No charge.” Mr Tromley spoke suddenly but Katie shook her head.

“I insist, I was responsible for your display getting trashed, least I can do is pay for these.”

“Oh trust me.” Mr Tromley smiled, “Seeing you put that toe-rag into them was worth it.”

“Yeah, you had some pretty vicious moves for a dame.” Bucky looked at her and she shrugged as Steve frowned.

“Wait, you…” “Don’t look so surprised.” Katie smiled “A girl should always know how to defend herself. But if I’m honest, it’s always nice to have a man do it for you.”

At that she smiled and slapped some money down on the counter, stepping back. “Keep the change in insist.”

Mr Tromley looked at her, then at the note, his mouth falling open a little.

“Thank you again Steve.” She picked up the bouquet. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“I hope so, I mean…yeah…come back soon.”

She smiled and with a final look in his direction she left, the bell ringing as the door opened and shut behind her. There was a pause until Bucky turned to Steve.

“Come back soon?” he looked at him “Really? That’s the best you could do?”

Steve groaned. “Piss off Bucky.” He shot, giving a yelp as Mrs T swatted at his head.

“Language Steven!” she scalded, as Mr T chuckled and slid the money she’d left to Steve across the counter. Steve blinked and looked at it, before he shook his head. Mr Tromley glared at him.

“You don’t take that you’re fired.”

With a groan Steve folded the $5 note up and slid it into the pocket of his slacks. Mrs Tromley muttered something about going to check on her scones which were in the oven upstairs and Mr Tromley headed into the back, leaving Steve and Bucky alone.

“You know, that dame was practically begging for you to ask her out on a date.” Bucky picked up the paper bag containing the groceries he had come for and Steve looked at him, snorting.

“You’re joking right?” the smaller man shook his head “Dame’s like that don’t want a guy like me.” “Clueless.” Bucky shook his head “Absolutely fucking clueless.” Steve watched him head to the door, before he stopped and turned back. “Oh that reminds me. Ma’s expecting you about 6 for dinner. She’s making meatloaf and told me that if you refuse she’s gonna, and I quote.” Bucky cleared his throat and spoke in a light, airey impression of his Ma “march round to his house and drag him outta that apartment by his ear.”

Steve rolled his eyes well naturedly. He hadn’t been to the Barnes’ for dinner for a week so he wasn’t surprised Winnie had sent Bucky with an invitation that was more of an instruction than anything. “Okay, thanks Buck.”

Bucky gave him a salute before he headed out of the store, whistling to himself. Steve took a deep breath, shook his head and turned back to his work, pushing all thoughts of the stunning young woman in the red dress out of his mind.

“You just don’t know when to give up, do you?” the taunting voice of his opponent rang in Steve’s ears as he staggered to his feet. This wasn’t how he’d planned his trip to the movie theatre going, not one iota. But when the loudmouthed asshole had done nothing but show total disrespect to those fighting overseas as the infomercial was showing, his temper had gotten the better of him and once more had led to him getting into a fight. As far as Monday’s went, this one was pretty crappy.

Which of course he could never walk away from.

“I can do this all day.” Steve huffed, swinging his fist at the guy again. The jerk easily blocked Steve’s feeble punch with his arm, delivering a huge jab with his left which sent Steve sprawling straight into the side of the trashcan from which he’d picked up the lid before. As Steve lay dazed, he heard a familiar voice breaking through the fog.

“Hey! Pick on someone your own size.” Bucky yanked the guy backwards by his jacket, shoving him a little down the alleyway. The guy swung at Bucky who dodged it almost lazily, before delivering a punch of his own, placing a firm boot up the guys ass as he retreated hurriedly. Watching as he scooted away, Bucky turned to Steve who was stood with his hands on his knees, steadying himself.

“Sometimes, I think you like getting punched.”

“I had him on the ropes.” Steve replied, pressing the heel of his palm to the cut above his eyebrow, wincing a little from the various blows he’d taken.

Bucky said nothing, instead he bent down to pick up the enlistment form that had fallen from Steve’s pocket and with a sigh he glanced at it.

“How many times is this?” his eyes scanned the information and he arched an eyebrow “Oh, you’re from Paramus now? You know it’s illegal to lie on the enlistment form. And seriously, Jersey?”

Steve ignored him, and then for the first time looked up at his friend to see him stood tall in his full army uniform. Which could only mean one thing. “You get your orders?” he frowned a little.

“The one-o-seventh. Sergeant James Barnes. Shipping out for England first thing tomorrow.”

Steve sighed, great. Just what he needed to hear. “I should be going.” He shook his head dejectedly.

Bucky looked at him sympathetically before he smiled, and looked an arm round his shoulder, pulling him closer in a friendly gesture as they both began to head back down the alley towards the main road.

“Come on, man, it’s my last night! Gotta get you cleaned up.”

“Why? Where are we going?”

“The future.” Bucky handed Steve the newspaper he was holding. Steve opened it to see the ad for the World Exposition Of Tomorrow.

“Buck…” he began to protest but Bucky stopped him.

“Seriously? My last night before I ship off to bust Nazi’s and you’re already tryin’a bail?”

“No, I just…” “Stevie!” Bucky whined. “Since I got my draft last September, I’ve hardly seen you other than when I’ve been home…”

“I know, but…” “No buts, man! I mean who knows when I’m gonna see you again now I’m actually being sent into combat and not just back to Camp McCoy. You know, London is a little further afield than Wisconsin “

“I’m well aware of that.” Steve rolled his eyes.

“So come on! Let’s go, have some fun. Cut loose a little. It’ll do you good.”

Steve looked up to see Bucky’s eyes shining with mischief, his handsome face grinning at him and he rolled his eyes “Fine, but you’re buying the hotdogs.”

“What else is new?” Bucky grinned, grabbing Steve in a headlock and ruffling his hair a little.

“Jerk.” Steve said furiously, pushing him away.

A couple of hours later the 2 of them entered the Expo, Steve taking in the sights around him. It was crazy busy, a buzz of excitement around the air and it was hardly surprising. Howard Stark, the guy at the centre of it all was somewhat of a celebrity. He’d founded his company some 4 years ago at the age of 22 and it had grown from strength to strength, with numerous pioneering technological advances to his name. Steve would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little excited to see the latest and no doubt flamboyant invention the guy had come up with, but his mind was still on his failed Army application, the feeling of inadequacy exacerbated even more by the fact Bucky was going to be leaving him behind to serve his country, something that Steve felt he should be doing right along with his best pal.

Sensing his brooding nature, Bucky nudged him and opened his mouth no doubt to make some wise crack, but Steve shook his head.

“Buck, just don’t”

“I don’t see what the problem is.” Bucky shook his head as they wandered down the steps towards the main pavilion area “You’re about to be the last eligible man in New York.” Bucky grinned, and Steve sighed heavily. Yup, there it was. “You know, there’s three and a half million women here.”

“Well, I’d settle for just one.” Steve muttered and Bucky grinned, Steve allowing a little smile to spread across his face at his own joke.

“Good thing I took care of that.” Bucky grinned and waved to two girls, a blonde and a brunette, who stood a few feet away and Steve stopped dead as one of the girls waved back, calling out to Bucky.

Great, here we go again.

“What did you tell her about me?” Steve groaned. “Only the good stuff.” Bucky smirked as they walked towards the girls, Steve brushing his hand through his hair, making sure it was as tidy as he could.

Bucky introduced the girls as Connie and Bonnie. It was obvious from the start that Connie was the one Bucky was trying his luck with, although to be fair Bonnie might as well have been with Bucky too for all the attention she paid to Steve. As they wandered into the Pavilion, Steve stopped to purchase a bag of sweets before he followed on behind the other 3, glancing around at the various exhibits.

“Welcome to the Modern Marvels Pavilion and the World of Tomorrow.” The expo announcer spoke “A greater world. A better world.”

There was a little bit of murmuring from people in front of them as they stopped, glancing at the large stage in front of them which was currently dark, but then there was movement, music struck up and Connie grabbed Bucky’s arm in excitement.

“Oh, my God! It’s starting!” she squealed and yanked on Bucky’s hand, pulling him closer. As Steve stood behind them he saw the stage light up to reveal a row of women all dressed in black and white striped waistcoats, short jackets and top hats. One of them walked across the front of the stage, smiling as she spoke into a microphone

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Howard Stark!”

Smooth and cool as a cucumber, Howard Stark strode onto the stage, taking off his top hat, whilst he smiled, handing it to the announcer before kissing her as the crowd cheered. Howard smirked a little, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket which he used to dab at his mouth before he addressed his audience.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” at that point Steve held the small paper bag over towards Bonnie who looked at it, then him, almost scathingly as Howard continued his speech. “What if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won’t even have to touch the ground at all?”

“You know…” a vaguely familiar voice spoke and Steve looked up from where he had been examining his bag of bonbons, wondering what was wrong with them, to see the woman from the shop a few weeks ago, Katie stood to the side of Bonnie. She was dressed in a simple grey dress which sported a pencil style skirt, with a light blue cardigan covering her shoulders. “When a gentleman offers you a sweet and you don’t want one, there’s really no need to be such a rude bitch about it.”

Her eyes were narrowed as she gave Bonnie a scathing look. Bonnie floundered a little as Katie reached out, dipping her red nailed, manicured hand into the paper bag and taking a sweet. In doing so she jostled Bonnie forward a little with her elbow, and turned to the stage, popping the bonbon in her mouth, giving Steve a little wink. Steve felt his cheeks flush a little as Bucky turned a little, his attention drawn to the slight scuffle behind him. He saw Katie stood next to Steve and he grinned.

“Hey Dollface.” Katie turned her head and looked at Bucky as Steve rolled his eyes. However, just like at the shop, she payed Bucky no attention other than a flick of her eyebrow, before her eyes flicked back to the stage, Steve doing the same to see that Stark was now stood by some sort of podium.

“With Stark robotic reversion technology, you’ll be able to do just that.” Howard spoke, and with that he turned to fiddle with a few switches on the podium and the car started to hover ever so slightly off the ground. Steve felt his mouth drop open in awe as in front of him Bucky let out an astonished mumble.

“Holy cow.”

But he spoke too soon, as the robots making the car hover suddenly malfunctioned and the car fell back onto the stage with a loud crash, sparks flying out round it.

Bucky turned to look at Steve, smiling as Steve’s eyebrows raised, and besides him, Katie gave a snort.

“I did say a few years, didn’t I?” Howard laughed, leaning on the bonnet of the car.

“Few years my ass.” Katie mumbled and Steve looked at her.

“What?”

“Nothing, doesn’t matter.” she shook her head. “Listen, I gotta go-”

“Oh, ok.” Steve tried not to sound disappointed but Katie smiled at him softly, cutting him off.

“Meet me at the Cider cart in an hour.”

“I err…” Steve stuttered, before he frowned “You sure, you wanna meet me?”

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t have said so.” Katie grinned,  “1 hour, don’t you dare be late.”

“Yeah, an hour, got it…”

Not quite able to believe his luck, Steve watched her go, smiling to himself before he glanced around and his eyes stopped on the familiar Uncle Sam poster pointing at him, with an arrow directing him to a recruitment centre. What the hell, he had nothing to lose…and an hour was plenty of time. Decision made, he followed the signs and jogged up the steps into the building, pausing to take a look around as people were milling in the carpeted hallway.

“Come on soldier!” a woman giggled at her male company, pulling him away from a mirror making him look like a soldier. Once he was gone Steve stepped in front of the mirror but he was too short to fill out the face. His shoulders slumped and then suddenly, a strong hand gripped his right and Bucky chuckled.

“You’re kind of missing the point of a double date.” He said, shaking his head as Steve stepped away, turning to face him “We’re taking the girls dancing.”

“You go ahead. I’ll catch up with you.” Steve replied, hands dropping into his pockets.

“What, you had a better offer? From Doll face?”

“Her name is Katie.”

“Oh my God I’m right!” Bucky laughed “Good for you, Punk!”

Steve rolled his eyes and then watched as a man strode past him in an Army Uniform and when Steve looked back at Bucky, his friend’s face now sported an exasperated expression as he’d clearly realised what Steve was planning. “You’re really gonna do this again?”

“Well, it’s a fair. I’m gonna try my luck.” Steve answered with a little shrug.

“As who? Steve from Ohio? They’ll catch you. Or worse, they’ll actually take you.” Bucky’s voice was frustrated and Steve gave a little smile.

“Look, I know you don’t think I can do this, but I’m more-“

“This isn’t a back alley, Steve. It’s war!” Bucky cut him off.

“I know it’s a war. You don’t have to tell me that-“ “Why are you so keen to fight? There are so many important jobs.” “What am I gonna do? Collect scrap metal-“

“Yes!”

“-in my little red wagon?”

“Why not?”

“I’m not gonna sit in a factory, Bucky.” Steve argued, shaking his head.

“I don’t…” Bucky protested once more and Steve cut him off.

“Bucky, come on! There are men laying down their lives. I got no right to do any less than them. That’s what you don’t understand. This isn’t about me.”

“Right. Cause you got nothing to prove.” Bucky said gently and Steve took a deep breath. But before Bucky could say anything else Connie called out to him.

“Hey, Sarge! Are we going dancing?”

Bucky turned back to the girls, his arms held out to the side. “Yes, we are.” With that he turned back to Steve, shaking his head a little, his shoulders slumped in resignation. “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” He instructed as he started to walk away.

“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Steve shot back and Bucky shook his head, giving a snort.

“You’re a punk.” He walked back towards Steve and hugged him goodbye.

“Jerk” Steve said gently slapping Bucky’s back. “Be careful.”

With a pang of sadness, Steve watched his best friend walking away, not quite sure when they’d see each other again, if indeed ever. He licked his lips and then called out to Bucky once more. “Don’t win the war till I get there!”

Bucky stopped and saluted him before he strode down the steps, “Come on girls. They’re playing our song.”

With a deep breath, Steve headed into the recruitment centre, past an older gentlemen in a brown suit. He was given the usual forms to fill out, this time going with Ohio as his place of birth-thanks for that one, Buck- and he was shown to the medical examination room. After the short physical was over, he was just fastening the sleeves of his long shirt up again when a nurse walked into the room and whispered something inaudible to the doctor.

“Wait here.” The Doctor turned to him, moving to the curtain.

“Is there a problem?” Steve asked, frowning a little.

“Just wait here.” The doctor repeated his instruction before he walked out.

Steve paused for a second, glancing over his right shoulder at a sign warning against lying on enlistment forms before he glanced at the curtain, cold dread filling him. Shit, Bucky was right, they’d caught up with him. Jumping down off the bed he sat heavily in a chair and began to pull on his shoes when someone entered the cubicle. He glanced up and saw a Military Police officer looking at him and he swallowed a little nervously. But before he could say anything another man entered, the man Steve had walked past about forty minutes or so previously in the foyer, and he was clutching a file in his hands.

“Thank you.” The man spoke to the Police Officer who left, pulling the curtains closed behind him. Steve watched as the man turned to face him, his hands behind his back. “So, you want to go overseas.” The man pulled the file from behind him, opening it “Kill some Nazis.”

“Excuse me?”

“Dr. Abraham Erskine.” The man closed the folder and walked over as Steve stood up, shaking his hand “I represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve.”

“Steve Rogers” Steve nodded, noting the man’s accent as he placed the file on the medical bed and started to look through it. “Where are you from?”

“Queens. 73rd Street and Utopia Parkway. Before that, Germany.” He adjusted his glasses as he glanced at Steve “This troubles you?”

“No.” Steve replied honestly, shaking his head.

“Where are you from, Mr. Rogers?” Erskine asked, resting both his hands on the bench “Mmm? Is it New Haven? Or Paramus? Five exams in five different cities.”

“That might not be the right file.” Steve began to try and get out of whatever trouble he was in but Erskine was quick to cut him off.

“No, it’s not the exams I’m interested in. It’s the five tries.” Erskine closed the file, picking it up “But you didn’t answer my question.” He strode over and stopped in front of Steve “Do you want to kill Nazis?”

Steve glanced to the side before he looked at Erskine “Is this a test?”

“Yes.” The man replied bluntly and Steve took a deep breath, before he answered as honestly as he could.

“I don’t wanna kill anyone.” He shook his head, raising his eyes to meet Erskine’s “I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they’re from.”

“Well, there are already so many big men fighting this war. Maybe what we need now is the little guy, huh?” Erskine smiled before he turned to leave “I can offer you a chance” he said, whipping the curtains open “Only a chance.”

Steve couldn’t believe his ears. Was this Doctor guy actually telling him he’d done it, that he’d finally made it into the army? He had no idea what the Strategic Science Reserve was, or why Erskine had questioned him so, but right now he didn’t care.

“I’ll take it.” He said, hastily grabbing his belongings and following Erskine out.

“Good.” Erskine placed the file down on the desk and picked up a stamp, before replacing it and reaching for another “So where is the little guy from, actually?”

Steve smiled “Brooklyn.”

Erskine smiled back, stamped the form before closing the file and handing it to Steve. “Congratulations, soldier.”

Steve hastily opened it up and did a double take as he saw the stamp was a 1A this time, not 4f. He let out a deep breath and glanced up to thank the man, but he’d already left.

“You’ll be sent your papers and instructions shortly” Another man spoke to him, taking the file off him and handing him back the recruitment slip. Steve nodded. “Be ready, the SSR are on a schedule.”

Steve nodded, before he was shown out of the room. Still in a daze he clutched the piece of paper in his hand and wandered back to the area where he’d left Bucky before. And then he remembered Katie.

Shit.

He hastily made his way outside the building and headed back to the pavilion, weaving his way through the crowds. One bonus to being small was that it made it easy to do so. He found the cider cart and saw her waiting, chatting to the man behind the counter, her brown hair hanging round her shoulders, rouged lips which curled up into a smile as she spotted him approaching.

“You’re late.” Katie looked at him and Steve flushed. “I was beginning to think you’d stood me up.”

“I wouldn’t do that, my ma taught me better.” He gave her a small smile “I was just...” he waved his enlistment paper at her and she frowned a little

“You enlisted?”

He nodded “Yup.” “Wow.” Katie blinked, “Erm, congratulations, I guess. Is that the right word?”

“It is when you’ve tried and been rejected several times already.” Steve shrugged before he snorted “Story of my life.”

“That girl before was fuckin’ rude.” Katie’s eyes narrowed and Steve blinked at the profanity coming from her mouth before she rolled her eyes “Don’t look at me like that!”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact I swore means I’m gonna go to hell.” She snorted “If it does, then I got that particular ticket a long time ago.”

“Sorry, I was…” he took a deep breath “For such a pretty woman you certainly…er…”

“Have a filthy mouth?” she asked and Steve snorted, shrugging as he looked away, his lips curling up into a crooked smile as he raised his eyebrows. She leaned closer to him, her lips brushing his ear as she whispered “You have no idea.”

Steve swallowed at the blatant innuendo causing her to laugh at him even more before she nudged him with her elbow “Come on soldier, what do you want to drink?”

Soldier…that was the second time in 10 minutes he’d been called that, and Steve liked it much more coming from her. He watched her for a second before he realised he was staring and she jerked her head towards the stall.

“Cat got your tongue Stevie?” she grinned and he took a deep breath “What do you want?”

“Erm, an ale…please…hang on.” he began fishing in his pocket but Katie gently wrapped a hand around his wrist.

“No need.” she smiled, as the man behind the counter held out the ale for Steve along with a cup of cider for her. She took it with a thanks and smiled, taking a sip. “Put it on the tab, will you?”

The stall attendant snorted and nodded “Whatever you say, Katie.”

She turned away and started walking slowly over to an exhibit, Steve falling into step besides her.

“How does he know ya?” Steve asked. Katie looked at him as she swallowed a sip of her cider

“Because I work here…well, I do at the moment.” She smiled as Steve looked at her blankly “I helped organise this.” She waved her hand around.

“You work for Howard Stark?”

“Kinda.” Katie shrugged “Now come on, I’m not working now and I wanna see how everything looks.”

They walked around the expo grounds, taking in the sights and various attractions. Steve was surprised to find his awkwardness ebbing away with each minute he spent in Katie’s company. She was down to Earth, easy to talk to and made him feel comfortable about himself…although his good spirits might have also been due to the fact he’d finally made it into the army. His meeting with Dr Erskine had baffled him a little, all truth be told, but he’d liked the man. There was something about him that told Steve he could trust him, and Steve was normally a pretty good judge of character.

By the time they’d done pretty much a lap of the main area of the Pavillion, stopping to examine The Synthetic Man in great detail, Steve was surprised to find that he’d spent over an hour with a woman who hadn’t been seeking to lose him at the first opportunity, quite the opposite in fact. On more than one occasion he noticed men looking in her direction, then to his with puzzled expressions on their face, and he had to admit was it the other way round he’d also probably be slightly surprised to see them together. She was a good 2 inches taller than him, but he was used to that, she was pretty, vivacious…well out of his league all things considered. But she was good company, and he was thoroughly disappointed when they seemed to be heading back towards the place they’d started, signalling their time together was likely coming to an end.

“So, do you need to find Barnes or…” she looked at him and Steve chuckled.

“Er no, no. He’ll be…busy.” Steve shrugged

“What he just ditched you for those girls?” Katie frowned.

“No, not entirely. I ditched him, well, I went to join the army. He doesn’t approve.” Steve finished, explaining slightly.

“Approve of what?”

“Me signin’ up.

“Why not?”

“Doesn’t think I can cope.” Steve shrugged “I wasn’t exactly a healthy kid so…”

“Well they let you in so you can’t be that bad.”

Steve wrinkled his nose and shook his head slightly “Some doctor in there offered me a chance, what can I say? Said that there were so many big guys fighting, maybe they needed a little one.”

At that Katie stopped walking and looked at him. “Wait, it was a doctor that accepted you?”

“Yeah,” Steve frowned

“You mean one of the Medical Recruitment Officers?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Steve’s frown deepened “He was with some Scientific Division” he looked at Katie, who was looking right back at him, her eyes wide “Wait, is there something wrong?”

“No, nothing…just surprised me a little, that’s all.” She looked around, as if she was searching for someone and Steve watched her, a little confused as she chewed her lip with an air of contemplation before she looked back at him, her green eyes locking onto his with a softness in them that made him go weak at the knees, well, weaker than normal “Thank you for keeping me company tonight Steve, I had fun.”

“Me too.” He said earnestly “Hey, if you want, I mean only if you want, we could maybe meet up again, you know, before I get my posting?” At that Katie’s face fell and Steve sighed, he’d blown it. She’d only asked him to accompany her round he expo out of politeness, duty even as a thank you for his intervention on the street a few weeks back, and now he’d put her on the spot. “It’s ok.” He started to back track “I get that you’re probably busy and get asked that all the time…”

“No, it’s not that.” She shook her head “I’d love to go out with you Steve, but I leave town tomorrow. I’m needed back at…well, my other job.”

“Oh, ok.” Steve popped a shoulder up, trying to hide his disappointment. “Well, I err…good luck. With whatever that job is.”

Katie laughed “It’s me who should be wishing you good luck, trust me.” She cocked her head before she took a deep breath “Just remember Steve, the world needs men like you, be a shame if we lost you all in the war.”

At her compliment he felt himself once more flush, and the heat in his neck rose even more as she leaned down and pressed her lips softly to his cheek. She pulled back a little, locking her eyes onto his and he swallowed, the lump in his throat now only rivalled by the one he was starting to feel in his slacks. And then, he had no idea how it happened but her lips were suddenly pressed to his. He froze momentarily, but then he went with his instinct and mirrored her movements, his eyes fluttering closed. Her hands gently curled over his shoulder, his automatically falling to her hips, shaking a little against the fabric of her dress as the kiss deepened slightly, the warm edge of her tongue flicking at his lips. He parted his mouth a little, allowing her to curl her tongue against his, a movement that made him shudder and he was beyond disappointed when she pulled away. She smiled against his mouth, her nose bumping his slightly as his cheeks felt hotter than the sun. He knew he was blushing, furiously, having just had his first proper kiss in the middle of a huge exhibition, but Katie seemed completely nonplussed as she smiled at him.

“For luck.” She whispered, stepping back slightly, before she turned and headed away, casting a glance back over her shoulder at him, flashing him another cheeky little wink. “See you around.”

Steve floundered a little, mouth gaping as he watched her disappear into the crowd, and with a final shake of his head and a deep, steadying breath he headed for the exit.

 As it turned out Steve didn’t have long to wait for his posting at all. The following day he received his papers assigning him to Camp Lehigh in New Jersey as part of his recruitment to the SSR’s “Operation Rebirth” programme, whatever that was. He assumed he’d receive more details upon arrival. It wasn’t that which surprised him the most however, it was the date upon which he was ordered to report. Wednesday. As in, tomorrow. Whilst it didn’t give him much time to prepare, it didn’t bother him too much. He had meagre belongings anyways and anything he didn’t want to take with him he packed up into smaller boxes with the help of Bucky’s teenage sister Rebecca, Buck’s dad promising to keep it safe for him until he got back.

Winnie was beside herself when Steve broke the news that he too was enlisting, but she wished him well and made him promise to write. As did the Tromleys, who both took the news even worse than Bucky’s family had. Ada having first burst into tears then hugged him so hard he thought she was going to crush him half to death, whilst Mr Tromley had shook his hand and warned him that if he didn’t come back alive, with all 4 limbs, he’d kill Steve himself.

The morning rolled round ridiculously fast and both the Tromleys and Mr and Mrs Barnes insisted on seeing him off.  Once more Ada and Winnie hugged him tightly before Mr Tromley and Mr Barnes shook his hand, the latter promising Steve he would sort out everything with his landlord, taking the key to his small apartment in the tenement building where Steve had lived in all his life. Steve felt a little pang of emotion at that point, this was the last physical tie he really had to his mother but he took a deep breath letting it go slowly. She’d been dead now for 7 years and anything that remained of hers in the building was all safely stored.

No, Steve had absolutely no doubts about what he was doing. This was all he had ever wanted, to follow in his father’s footsteps and so, at 6am on the 16th June 1943 Steve Rogers boarded the Army bus that arrived at the bus station to take him and a number of other recruits to New Jersey, leaving the place he’d called home for his entire life behind.

[fuzzy-melonlord]

give us the pre-relationship and general sections for pride x christian and lust x asher because we like to make you suffer :D

anon, anon make Aster suffer, anon go straight to jail. mean anon./J

it's also kinda long so it's gonna go under a cut again

alright let's start with Pride x Christian

Pre-Relationship

1. How did they first meet? - so i kinda touched on this in another answer. I feel the first met during the (currently unaired) Lust recovery arc. Asher and I have actually talked about this. but Pride goes to visit Lust almost every day to try and get them talking again. Obviously Asher can't be there all the time, but he doesn't wanna leave Lust alone. so against his better judgement he orders Christian to watch over them on the days he can't. And so they meet there

already done 2 and 3 so here's 4.

5. Did either of them try to resist their feelings? - this one is hard to work with because Christian would resist, he would flirt but Pride...wouldn't really realize he was flirting to begin with. and if Pride felt the developing feelings they might not recognized them as a crush or love straight away.

6. If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think? - So this is comin out of left field but I don't think Pride likes the term soulmate. i feel like to help with the manipulation, Adam would use words like that. The whole "make them feel important and then show them they're worthless on their own" kind of manipulation tactic. while Christian would think it's amusing. he believes in making his own path.

already done 7.

General

1. Who initiated the relationship, and how did it go? - oh gods...Pride did? I think that some stuff would have to happen first and it would be a hella slow burn but i think Pride would initiate it and Christian would admit that he's been flirting with him for fucking months.

2. Did they have an official first date? if so, what was it like? - They did, it was a legit requirement for Christian. But it wasn't anything crazy. He brought them to his apartment and cooked dinner for them and they watched a movie on his couch. Nothing big but it was...something Pride found that he liked.

3. What was their first kiss like? - It was soft, and unsure. Definitely initiate by Christian who was a perfect gentlemen. Even asking if he could kiss him. Pride was...shocked that he had asked for permission but gave it without hesitation.

4. Were they each other's first anything? - nope, Vincent and Adam had taken most of Pride's firsts. and Christian had been sort of with Amanda way back when.

5. What's their height difference? Age difference? - hmm Christian is definitely older, i'm not sure by how much but he's def older. and taller, but being taller than Pride isn't hard to do.

6. What's their relationship with each other's families? Do they share a friend group? - Imma avoid the family question just cause i am 100% uncertain about both. and legit don't have any idea about them. but they do share a friend group. Since Christian is part of the Shaw pack, and Pride has gotten really close with Lust who is mate's with the Alpha

7. Who takes the lead in social situations? - oh my gods Christian does. he might stick his foot in his mouth...all the time, but it's Christian.

8. Who gets jealous easier? - Pride, i don't think would really grasp the concept of jealousy because of his trauma with Vincent and Adam. I'm pretty sure that Christian does get pretty jealous though, since Pride probably wouldn't recognize flirting. So Christian would do the not so subtle thing of glaring or like making it know that they're together without making Pride uncomfortable.

9. Who whispers inappropriate things in the other's ear? - hmm i don't think either honestly. Pride i don't see as a very sexually charged person and Christian would respect that.

And now for Asher x Lust!

Pre-Relationship

1. How did they first meet? - They met through Milo. Lust was in a relationship with Milo and Vi for 10 years, and during that time Milo obviously introduced his mates to his pack.

2. What was their first impression of each other? - well we have it canonized that this was when Asher fell in love with them. He admired them from afar for years. he thought they were wonderful and the perfect mate for Milo even if he was envious. Lust on the other hand, thought he was very kind and they were grateful that Milo had someone like that to depend on.

3. Did any of their friends or family want them to get together? - not in the slightest. Lust was with Milo and Vi. They were obviously in love and no one thought that would change.

4. Who felt romantic feelings first? - As we've established it was 100% Asher. poor guy.

already did 5 and 6 and 7

General

i already did 1 through 6 and 8 for this one so only 2 on this one lol.

7. Who takes the lead in social situations? - depends on the type of social situation. They're both pretty good with their words so it really just depends on what the situation needs.

9. Who whispers inappropriate things in the other's ear? - 100% both of them. it is almost a game of who can fluster who more. So far, Lust is definitely in the lead.

[musicfren]

tend hearts to bloom (our folly exhumed) part 2

Everything takes time to grow. Some good things take so much longer than you could have ever thought possible, and the best things might never grow at all. All you can do is tend to your garden. Part 2 is HERE y’all. Me and @nottesilhouette have finished part two of our hyper-extended flower metaphor saga :P You can read part 1 here. Happy @felinettenovember y’all! May this post last you a lot longer than 3 days <3

Felix lives in a state of “too cool”: too cool to be friends with the kids at school, too cool to be friends with the teachers and faculty, too cold to be friends with anyone at all. So he’s the last to realize when a new trend finds its feverish way across the school in whispers and muffled laughter behind lockers. Normally, he wouldn’t care-- schoolyard trends are little more than the transient, ephemeral whims of children drifting on the winds of their judgement, but there’s something about the ink that peeks through the sleeves of Kim’s shirt that demands his attention. 

“What is that?” 

“...are you checking out my muscles, bro?” Kim is genuinely baffled, not a trace of judgement in his tone but clearly trying to slot the puzzle pieces together as to when Felix became someone who cared about brawn, either in himself or anyone else. Still, Kim is nothing if not kind, so he flexes in Felix’s direction to give him a better look. 

His sleeves ride up when he does, and Felix brushes his arm over the bulge of Kim’s forearm, which probably doesn’t help the confusion. But the ink is irresistible to Felix. It’s familiar and gorgeous, sharp clean lines on Kim’s skin, and so glossy Felix worries it might smudge. It doesn’t. 

There on Kim’s wrist, perfectly framed by his bulging veins, is a comically cute grey dumbbell, and a doodled little snapdragon curled around the handle of the weights. 

“Oh, dude, did you mean my tattoo?” Kim is clearly relieved that his perception of Felix can remain intact, and helpfully flexes a little more. This is a much more reasonable thing for someone like Felix to find attractive. “Yeah, I finally caved and got it done, I wasn’t really sure what to get, y’know? I didn’t want to show up there like an idiot with no idea what to say or ask for, but Max told me that she was really good about just listening to you talk about what you liked and working with you to get something nice done. I like Max a lot,” he shares conspiratorially. 

Felix nods, as if this makes sense, and wanders away. Show up where? Get what done? Clearly someone was drawing this on Kim. There’s no way he could’ve done it himself; it was on his right wrist and Kim is right handed, but… Felix needed to know. He just didn’t know what to ask, or whether he should ask at all. 

But Felix knows how to hold his tongue, how to say the right things and keep himself safe, so he waits three days before ending up in a partner project with Max. Not by design, he plans to insist to anyone asking. No one asks. 

They’re listing their skills to decide who’ll take which piece of the project when Felix makes his move. “And you draw, too, right?” 

“No?” Max looks flummoxed, and Felix panics immediately. 

“Oh, well… I just… you had… Kim-told-me-you-drew-a-dumbbell-for-him!” He rushes the sentence out all in one breath, and Max looks more startled at his explanation than anything else, which sends Felix spiraling even more. 

But Max just takes a moment (a way too long moment) to process, and then laughs. “Is that what Kim said? He must’ve explained poorly. Nah, he got it the same place I got this.” And then Max is unbuttoning his shirt, pulling it up enough to show off the robot brushed over his abdomen, adorned with a cheerful amaryllis where its heart would be. 

“Where… um, where did you get it?” 

“Oh, art room after school! I’m surprised you haven’t seen the line out the door yet, it reaches well past the auditorium and I know you like to practice violin there after school. So, the project?” 

Max is too focused on the work to answer anything else after that, and Felix is too afraid to try. But he does know that Alya spends ages in the art room writing up articles for her blog as she waits on Marinette. 

He doesn’t get a chance to ask Alya anything, though, because Chloe derails the rest of class bragging about the shopping bags on her bicep and thoroughly avoiding the subject of the creator. Each one of them has an orange lily stamped on it in bold color, and Felix snorts. Fitting, though he’d never say it. Beautiful hatred is the modus operandi that Chloe exists on. 

The day after that, he waits until Nino is busy getting lunch to corner her at a lunch table. 

“Cool drawing, Alya.” Compliments are good, right? Compliments help people get what they want. And Felix wants, needs to know what this is, because there’s something so familiar, important, the way they’re tagged, and he would know it if he just had one hint, the right clue to fit into this picture-- 

“Thanks! My girl’s talented, don’tcha think? I love the way she let me match Nino.” She tugs down her collar to show off headphones slashed through with a pencil, and the ball of a group of sycamore flowers dangling off the end of the eraser like a pom pom. 

Felix bluescreens. No, no, that’s wrong. That’s not what he’d glimpsed on Nino’s neck, and Alya said they matched, something is wrong.

“Why is that flower there?” 

Alya laughs. “Well, every designer’s gotta have her tag, right? She’s a real tattoo artist, tags every piece with a flower she chooses out of nowhere. No one can work out what the pattern is, even when we cross referenced traditional flower meanings, but they’re always gorgeous and fit in so well-- have you seen Juleka’s? You’d hardly even notice, it’s so punk rock.” 

Nino’s making his way back and there’s no sycamore pom pom on his pencil, just an aster on the ear of the headphones, and Felix’s mind is whirring too fast to follow but Alya is walking away and the clues are slipping away like sand between his fingers and gripping harder only makes them slip away faster and--

“That’s the wrong flower.” 

“What?” Nino startles, absolutely taken aback at this out-of-character greeting. He’s used to Felix being curt, speaking out of context, but this is beyond even Nino’s ability to nod through. 

“It should be a marigold, right? Creative, passionate, absolutely driven by your art and the things you love, that’s who you are, why is it an aster?”

“...what??”

Felix can do little more than point. “Alya: sycamore, curious, journalistic drive, asking questions and doing everything she can to know a person so she can take care of them. Max: amaryllis, determined and focused on the work he builds and proud of it when it works because he has every right to be. Kim: snapdragon, strong and gracious and so, so, so protective, because that’s who he is so why is yours an aster?!”

“He deserves to know he’s clever, even if he doesn’t feel it.” 

Felix whirls around, and Marinette is standing there clutching her bag to her chest, trembling, but glaring at him from half a foot shorter than where he stands. She’s so strong. She’s so strong, and Felix wonders if she kept marigold for herself. She deserves to, if she wanted it. 

Maybe it shows on his face, what he’s thinking, or maybe she’s just always been the kindest person he was ever dumb enough to let go, because her gaze softens, hurt and hopeful in equal, anxious measure. “You remembered.” 

“...you made it hard to forget.” The way her face crumples confirms that yep, nope, Felix is an idiot. He scrambles to fix it, take it back, get it right this time no matter who’s watching. “No, no!! Like… unforgettable.” His voice is breathy on that last word, nostalgic for a childhood they barely shared, and it’s wrong and someone’s going to make fun of it but right now just for a second he doesn’t care. 

“...oh.”

What people really do make fun of him for is the way he ends up apologizing, for hours, sobbing into her blazer and wiping tears from her cheeks, and still not walking into school with her art on his skin, and Felix doesn’t correct them. 

He was right: there’s a marigold inked over her heart like a treasure. 

There’s a butterfly inked over his, now, landing on the petals of a geranium, and they’ve talked about now. Butterflies, first of all, can live for years, so that wasn’t even true, and friendships… friendships are like flowers. They take root and they grow, and when the sun hits right their seeds will burst into petal and stem and exist, persist, against every odd and obstacle. 

She has no idea how apt that butterfly is. Felix brushes his fingers over a brooch barely visible behind his tie, and feels hope blooming in his chest for the first time in years. 

This time, he knows how fragile it is. This time, he vows, he’ll keep the sunlight on it, patch the soil around its roots with fertilizer and keep it safe. This time… he’ll love her the way she deserves to be, the way she wants to be loved, the way he knows he’s allowed to.

[infernalrevenge]

Growing A Garden In My Heart

Fandom: Choices - The Elementalists

Pairing: Atlas Ernhardt x Aster D'Yew, Atlas Ernhardt & M!MC (Vyrion Ramos)

Rating: G

Summary: Atlas' twin helps him deal with new feelings and tries to convince him that having a crush isn't so bad.

Notes: Why yes, I do believe that every ball of angst should be paired with a ray of sunshine. I just think it was cute how they navigated through school together and having a group of friends for the first time, so it might be really cute too to see how they might navigate romantic feelings and a potential relationship. They just both deserve to be happy.

----------

Ever since Atlas told Vyrion that he may have a small-sorta-maybe-kinda-small-I-dunno crush on a certain wood nymph in their friend group, it has been non-stop teasing at every opportunity. It wasn't like he wanted to tell his twin, but he was basically forced to after being annoyed into submission, and did he ever regret giving into his antics.

He and Aster had formed their own little friendship besides the one they had with the other Pend Pals, becoming study buddies and frequently meeting up during the weekends to either catch up on papers, or just catch up with each other. He found himself comfortable in her company, genuinely enjoying the time they spent together -- just the two of them -- and always looked forward to seeing her. Sometimes, they would even text each other, and the Moon-Att just couldn't help but smile with every new message he got from her.

That behavior was exactly what led to his downfall, when Vyrion caught him red-handed and threatened to steal the device to find out if he didn't fess up himself.

Atlas didn't even know when these feelings blossomed, why he started seeing the girl in a different light. He wasn't even sure if it counted as a crush at all. Was it a crush if he was just excited to see her, or happy to be talking to her? He could feel that way with his other friends (sometimes it was still strange to him that he even had friends in the first place) too, right?

But a part of him knew it was different. It wasn't like his heart raced whenever he was around Zeph, or felt like his body was on fire when Griffin would pat him on the back.

He still remembered that one time he and Aster sat next to each other while hanging out with the rest of the crew, her arm pressed against his, and it felt like a continuous explosion of fireworks went off in his body.

It was just a good thing Vyrion can keep a secret. He hadn't even told his girlfriend about it, and he just knew if Shreya did then either she would join in on the torment or everyone else in the school would know. He wasn't sure what was worse, but there was one thing he did know: Aster was not to find out.

And yet his twin was suggesting he do exactly the opposite.

"What do you mean I should tell her?" Atlas gritted, almost yelling until he realized that the walls weren't exactly enchanted for soundproofing.

"Asking her out on a date is not as bad as you think. Besides, you said you've hung out a bunch of times with just the two of you already. It's not gonna be that different," Vyrion explained, much more calmly in comparison. It was almost funny seeing how the tables had turned, with him as the level-headed one and giving advice this time.

The Moon-Att sighed, "My intentions would be different. I've never... courted a girl before. I've never courted anyone before!"

"But surely you've had crushes before. How did you used to deal with them?"

"...I didn't?"

"Didn't have crushes or didn't deal with them?"

"...both?"

"Oh."

"And it's not like I had the time to even think about those kinds of feelings. I wasn't exactly around other people besides my foster parents growing up, remember?" Atlas huffed, falling back onto his bed. He and Vyrion were supposed to be talking about their upcoming plans for the break, not his non-existent love life.

Still, sometimes he didn't even have to think hard about Aster for her to fill his thoughts. The way she just moves so gracefully without effort, the determination in her eyes from convincing her family that not all Attuned were awful to figuring out a difficult problem in class, the absolute joy on her face on their first day of class after finally being allowed to go to school. She just lit up something in him he couldn't explain, a blooming warmth would fill his chest that he had never felt before.

Those happy thoughts didn't last long, however, when he remembered the reality of the situation.

"She probably won't accept anyway. She doesn't feel that way about me," he said with a weary sigh, eyes glued to the blank ceiling.

"You don't know that," Vyrion replied simply, leaning against Atlas' headboard.

"You don't know that either."

"You're not gonna find out if you're just gonna mope about it though."

"I'll mope as much as I want to. This... This'll go away eventually."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, "It might. But if it doesn't, then what?"

Atlas stayed silent, unsure. Was it possible it wouldn't go away? Was it strange to think that maybe he didn't want it to, and he and Aster could just be together? Just thinking about telling her all of this -- that if she even had an inkling of a notion about how she made him feel -- was enough to twist his stomach into nervous knots, it felt like he was going to throw up.

Why did this feel so much more terrifying than fighting shadow monsters?

(Because he had the training to go against them, and the odds of his victory were almost always on his side. This, however, he was not prepared for at all.)

Vyrion nudged Atlas with his socked foot, making the other jerk away in disgust. "Come on, if she doesn't feel the same way, getting rejected won't be the worst thing in the world." The thought of it still stung Atlas, like a thorn pricking at his heart.

Vyrion continued with his thought, "And Aster's a sweet girl -- she'd still love to be friends with you despite it. You'd be okay with that, right?"

"Of course," he replied without even missing a beat.

"And if it does work out, then that'd be great too, wouldn't it?"

This time, a beat of silence passed between them, and Atlas could only shrug. "I... guess." He had to fight back a smile at the idea of it.

"Besides, with good looks and charms like ours, it's a slim chance that Aster hasn't already fallen for you either." The Sun-Att shoved his foot against his twin's arm again, but this time Atlas grabbed his ankle and practically threw his leg off the bed so his foot hit the ground with a sharp thud. "Ow!"

"This isn't funny."

"What, I meant it! And maybe when you do get together with her, we can go on double dates. Won't that be fun?"

"No."

"Wow, rude."

Atlas tucked his hands under his head, huffing a breath out of his nose. He supposed he could consider his twin's words -- he still wasn't sure if it was all that helpful, but it was better than getting nothing out of it. "But... I dunno, thanks anyway, I guess."

Vyrion smiled, "Anytime, twin o' mine! So, are you gonna ask her out?"

Another bout of silence, then a shrug.

"Knowing you, you'll figure it out." Vyrion patted Atlas' arm, the latter noticing a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Trust me."

As if on cue, the Sun-Att just got a text from Shreya, asking for them to meet. He bid his twin farewell for the meantime, leaving Atlas alone with his thoughts.

Was there something Vyrion knew that he didn't?

.

.

.

(Outside, the Sun-Att replied to his girlfriend's message.

Shreya 🔥❤️: Did you talk to him?

Vyrion ☀️😘: Yeah just give him some time. They'll work it out)

[katedrakeohd]

A Stolen Moment - Part 3

A The Royal Masquerade Fanfiction

Part One / Part Two

...................

Cast of Characters: (MC) Julia Aster, Kayden Vescovi, Teapot the guard, various marketplace folk.

Rated: PG

.................

Part Three : The Mariner and the Maiden

I nudge my horse to follow Kaydan as he pulls away from the line of carriages. After turning a bend in the road the sound of the carriage wheels and trotting horses fades and as I look over at Kaydan he seems to have relaxed a little.

"A change of scenery is nice." I venture, still feeling uncertain about where Kaydan is leading me.

When he looks over at me his usual stoic, unreadable expression has fallen away, and he gives me a happy smile that lights up his whole face.

"This kind of change is welcome. It feels like a lifetime since I've explored town as a free man without responsibilities."

I laugh, "You're still responsible for me, and to get us back before we're missed."

He nods, "Be that as it may, for now I don't want us to be Crown Shield or Lady Aster. Let's escape from that life and choose to be other people, if only for a short time."

As the bustling marketplace on the edge of town comes into view I feel a sense of wonder at the crowd of people and the brightly colored awnings.

"Who shall we be then?" I ask, as I look at the various people in the market for inspiration.

Kaydan looks at me for a long moment and then leads us toward a hotel next to the market. He dismounts his horse and ties it to a hitching post and then secures my horse before offering his help to get me down.

The slippery fabric of my dress causes me to slide sideways out of the saddle too quickly and with a yelp of surprise I find myself falling down on top of him. Somehow he manages to catch me in his arms, although he has to shuffle his feet a bit to not end up on the ground himself.

As he holds me tightly against his chest I can feel him start to laugh. "If I remember correctly this is the second time you've fallen into my arms."

Trying to catch my breath from the shock of falling I suddenly realize how close my lips are to his. I touch his cheek and smile, dropping my voice to a whisper, "Thankyou Kaydan, now perhaps you should put me down. People are staring."

I can feel his body stiffen momentarily, as he blushes and gently puts me down on my feet.

Fixing my skirt and then brushing my hair back over my shoulder, I try to push aside how intimate it had felt to be held in his arms so tightly. "So what were we talking about?"

Kaydan is busy putting his riding gloves in his saddle bag, and I notice he's having trouble meeting my eyes. He's so cute when he gets all flustered. Clearing his throat he straightens up and takes a quick glance around the market.

"We were going to choose new identities so we could escape court for a moment."

"Oh that's right, such a clever idea. You choose for me and then I'll choose for you." I say.

He looks at me for a few seconds, and I can only guess at what he's thinking. Finally he starts walking toward the lineup of shopping stalls and I hurry to catch up.

"I'd choose an Artist or Painter for you. As a scribe you're no stranger to holding a quill and making intricate designs on paper. I can easily imagine you as a Great Master's apprentice walking around the market looking for inspiration."

I quirk an eyebrow, "That's oddly specific, you think I'd be a good painter?"

"You're highly intelligent and are used to working independently just as a painter would. I've seen your creativity in action as you easily adapt to any situation, just like a painter might improvise with colour to make something uniquely their own creation."

I can't help but smile at his unexpected compliments. "Why thankyou kindly, I accept. Just like a painter, as a scribe I was no stranger to having my fingers stained by my medium. So you've chosen well."

He nods, offering me his arm, I smile as I tuck my hand in the crook of his elbow. As we stroll toward the market vendors together he asks, "So what's my story then? Julia the artist. Paint me a picture."

"Well let me see. You're a mariner on leave and looking for some fun before you have to go back to sea. And while you're ashore you meet a beautiful young painter in search of her next masterpiece."

"A mariner you say?"

"Yes, a mariner and a poet. Your fellow shipmates are so jealous of your prowess with words, and demand that you tell them stories every night as they lay in their bunks."

Kaydan laughs, "I'm hardly a storyteller, definitely not a poet."

I smile and give his arm a squeeze, "Oh I don't know about that. I've seen you with your fellow guardsmen, and there's no doubt they're a colorful bunch. I bet you could tell me a story about each of them."

Kaydan chuckles, blushing a bit as he lowers his voice. "None fit for a Lady's ears I'm afraid."

"I don't know Kaydan, what would you tell them about today? Is your company not worthy of inspiring a few words?"

He looks at me as if his story is written all over my face, and as his eyes linger on me I see a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. "I say that story hasn't been written yet. And if I were to put quill to paper I would surely keep this story for myself."

Between the kaleidoscope of sights and sounds of the market and the pleasure of having Kaydan at my side I feel positively giddy with excitement. But I can't resist the urge to take my 'Mariner' off of guard duty.

"Well this muse needs to stretch her legs a little. There's plenty of market to see so let's split up, and explore. Come find me later and we'll see where our story goes."

"Are you ok wandering the market alone? You know this goes against every bit of my training as a guard." He warns, looking concerned.

"Aha, well you're not a guard at the moment. You're a mariner out looking for treasures. Besides like you said I'm independent, capable and smart. And in this dress I stand out like a sail on the horizon anyway. I'm not going to run away, just keep an eye on me and I'll keep an eye out for you."

With a sigh Kaydan steps away from me, "Ok fine, we'll explore the market separately. But only for a little while."

"I promise if anything bad happens I'll scream and make a fuss, so that you can come running and be my knight in leather armor."

While Kaydan reluctantly blends into the crowd of people. I choose a parallel path of market vendors and check out the wares. Under an awning woven with a colorful design, I approach a lady wearing flowing robes. She's standing behind a display of delicate glass bottles. Some have wooden or glass stoppers and others are open to be smelled or sampled. From the mixed spicy, floral and musky aromas I can tell she's selling perfumes.

She smiles at me, "Good morrow to you M'lady, would you care to sample a new scent today?"

"Yes, that would be lovely."

"Something sweet and floral or something musky with a hint of spice?"

Being around Kaydan I'm reminded of the strong scent of musk and leather. Which works nicely on him. My own toiletries table always has rosewater and citrusy scents for me to wear thanks to my sister Annalise. Today I want something different.

"Do you have anything spicy and floral? I'm trying to draw someone's attention."

The lady smiles and picks up an empty bottle, she adds a few drops from various other bottles and then a clear liquid to dilute them. After placing the stopper she gives it a little shake and then hands me the dampened cap to sniff.

"Tell me what you think of this." She says with a grin.

Bringing the cap to my nose I'm assaulted by a heady dizzying scent of flowers and some kind of unknown spice. It makes me cough at first, but then as I catch a whiff on the breeze I inhale deeply and the scent mellows to something more pleasant.

"I like it. I'll take the whole bottle."

I hand her the cap and she secures it to the bottle and then I give her some coins from my purse. She wraps the bottle in a scrap of cloth and then hands it to me. As other people gather around me to look at her perfumes, I nod my thanks and move on.

Undoing the cap I dab some of the perfume on my neck and into my hair at the nape. I'm hoping Kaydan notices it, but I feel a knot in my stomach at the thought of Hector smelling it too. I have no interest in being matched with another strange suitor, but my duty to the Crown requires it. I tuck the bottle away in my pocket, and move along the row.

Looking across through the crowd I search for Kaydan. A catch sight of a pair of broad shoulders and a head of dark hair but he's turned away from me and I'm not sure if it's him.

I quickly pass by a group of vendors hocking various meats and roasted animals on sticks that make my stomach turn in unhappy ways. And then I come across a kindly middle aged woman sitting quietly and knitting behind her display of various handmade objects of leather and wood.

I still have a few coins left and I want to buy something for Kaydan. The objects vary from hand carved wooden chess sets, boxes of gambling dice, various leather belts and pieces of braided jewelry and a collection of small leather bound books.

I'm hoping any of these things might bring him some enjoyment, whether he played games with his fellow guards or needed replacement leather pieces for whatever. But as a lover of books myself it's those that catch my eye. I run my finger along the spine of a brown book with an embossed leather cover.

The lady smiles at me, and sets her needlework aside. "Good day to you Ma'am is there something that catches your interest?"

I smile as I pick up the book and hold it out to her, "Yes, what can you tell me about these books?"

"They're books rescued from the private library of a nobleman who had no heirs to pass them down to. The new Duke and Duchess of Valtoria had no use for them when they took over the manor and decided to renovate."

Looking down at the book in my hand, and at all the other books. I can't believe my good fortune at finding these lost treasures, but alas I only have enough coins for one. Opening the book I see it's a handwritten journal containing snippets of poetry. Apart from the first handful of pages the rest are blank.

When I had given Kaydan the book from my sister's collection, he had admitted to not owning any. With this journal he would have two, and hopefully he'll be inspired to write down his thoughts when he has time alone. I don't know how often he gets the chance to read, especially amidst the company of his fellow guards. But I want him to have something else to remember me by once my marriage to Hector takes me away from him. Thinking about Hector makes me feel uncomfortable, but I shake it off and offer to pay for the journal.

The lady smiles, holding up her hand and shaking her head. "You were kind enough to show interest in a piece of someone who was dear to me, please just take it and give it a loving home."

"Are you sure? I can offer a few coins for your trouble."

"I'm sure, pass it along to someone you love so that his words aren't forgotten."

I smile and shake the hand of the woman after she wraps the book up for me. "Thankyou so much."

With a nod she goes back to her chair and resumes her knitting.

Tucking the wrapped book under my arm I continue to the end of the market and find myself in the middle of the town square. A small crowd has gathered to listen to a trio of stringed musicians. Their lively tune has many people clapping hands or tapping their feet. A few brave souls have even paired up to dance.

I'm thoroughly engrossed in the entertainment and don't hear Kaydan approach me from behind. When he places his hand gently on my arm I gasp and stumble back into him. "Kaydan! You frightened me."

He leans down and whispers in my ear, "That's the fun part, because catching you off guard means you end up in my arms."

I grin and nudge him on the arm as he steps in next to be, "Is this the mariner talking? Be careful there Kaydan, lest your verbal innuendo earn you the same nefarious reputation as your brother Cyrus."

"Half-.."

"Sorry, half-brother."

Kaydan shakes his head looking slightly offended, "I would have to crawl on my belly in the muck in order to stoop low enough to reach his level of depravity."

"Relax I'm only playing with you. I know you're a much more honorable man than Cyrus could ever hope to be."

Continue on to the next

.....

@gardeningourmet @samihatuli @jovialyouthmusic @sirbeepsalot @dcbbw @mfackenthal @bobasheebaby @pedudley @be-still-my-aching-heart @krishu213 @ibldw-main @chaotichuman0090 @addictedtodrakefanfic

[babyitsacrime]

1, 22, 23, and 43 for the OC asks.

First off, I apologize for my absolutely atrocious grammar here and also the fact that I just can’t seem to put things into words.

Secondly I wrote this in a different app and then copy pasted so the formatting is a little whack.

1. Your first OC ever?

Oh gosh this one is a little hard to answer. I think Natalia’s my first OC that I ever fully wrote well but me and my friends used to write a lot of stories/fanfiction in middle school so I have some characters from there too that might be older than Nat. Also there’s like three different versions of Nat (Quizup, Next Gen, and the Nat I have now) , and again the one I have right now is by far the most developed/closest to a whole character.

Okay but I talk about Nat a lot so even though I’m not sure which one actually came first I’ll talk about a character I had in the Homestuck fanfiction my friends and I wrote in middle school. (before you ask, yes it’s the 100 page one I’m pretty sure) (also I’m ignoring the self inserts me n my friends made for our other stories bc those don’t count as ocs and I refuse to accept them as characters dhdksjdjs) But basically she’s a troll named Ninmah Aurora. She was heavily based off of Kanaya Maryam, the iconic Homestuck vampire fashion designer lesbian character so that was interesting. And even though I didn’t actually write that much for her she’s one of my favorite characters because I had so much fun writing her with my friends. Anyways can’t believe I just exposed myself as a Homestuck stan on main but you know what it’s fine.

22. Is there any OC of yours that people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?

Okay there’s a couple and most of them are small things so I’ll just go by character.

Natalia -

let me just start by saying this: it still baffles me why y’all think she’s cool cshdjsj. She’s kinda a dumb bitch if I’m being honest. Like, don’t get me wrong, she’s super smart and could easily outwit me and honestly any of us, but she’s also plain stupid sometimes in other ways. But like, on the other side of the coin I feel like she almost doesn’t get taken seriously sometimes? I feel like that’s a little on me for usually making jokes at her expense but while she is clueless as to how people function she’s also not plain dumb. A lot of what she says and does is well calculated and even when she does something in the spur of the moment it’s always something logical to her. Hn I don’t know if I’m explaining this right but 🤷♀️. But basically she’s not really cool but also she’s not stupid. (Okay ig being good at Quidditch is pretty cool but that’s not my point)

Also I don’t know why but some people (very few people but it’s still annoying to me) seem to think that her being bi is a huge part of her personality when it’s really not. While she is bi, not everything she does is motivated by that fact if that makes any sense. Like for example, if she’s wearing be a rainbow dress it’s not because she’s (and I quote) "team gay" it’s because she liked the damn dress. Okay I’m rambling now but all I’m saying is that it kinda annoys me when people see her being bi as a hugely defining personality trait. Also she isn’t the only character I notice this happens to.

Ishaan -

Similarly to Nat, whole he does enjoy pranking and such, he’s actually a serious person most of the time. Think of him as more of like a serious and skeptical person who also has a good sense of humor. Although I will say that he does sometimes go out of his way to make a joke sometimes, that’s only sometimes and mostly just to annoy Priya.

Lysander -

Another case of the being gay isn’t his personality. Also??? He’s not gay??? I don’t really know where that came from (like I know who mentioned it to me but I have no clue where she got that from aside from just assuming?) for the record, he is also bi and has a slight preference for girls (mostly bc he likes having an s/o shorter than him but we won’t go into that rn). *slams fists on table* jUST BECAUSE HES FUNNY DOESNT MEAN HES THE TOKEN GAY FRIEND OKAY (okay okay I’m done ranting time to continue)

I also feel like his joking nature is often seen as a sign of him not being as a lack of intellect, but that is in no way true. While he isn’t a genius or anything, he’s a little smarter than average, yet still prone to making dumb decisions because he is still a child. But with more life experience he’ll make smarter decisions while still retaining a joking demeanor.

Priya -

I’m going to keep this one short, but she isn’t as cold and cruel as I sometimes make her seem when I talk about her. I feel like this one’s mostly on me but yeah, she’s a caring person for the most part, just a little misguided and/or dramatic at times.

~I think that’s all of them but I might be wrong? Also none of those explanations make a lot of sense I’m sorry 😔~

23. Introduce an OC that has changed from what your first idea considering what the character would be like.

*drags Nat out again* Here you go.

So I mentioned earlier that there’s like three different versions of her, but in all reality they almost feel like different characters with the same name. However I will say that Next Gen Nat and the Nat I have now (I like to call it her final form bc I think I’m finally happy with her) are similar in many many aspects. But I’ll talk about this Nat because I like her the best and she’s the only Nat I actively use. She was originally intended to be a lot colder/closed off than she is. (Think a lot closer to Aster, but I think pep also had a similar thing with him.) She just ended up becoming a lot softer and a little friendlier than I intended her to be. I’m not exactly unhappy with that though, I feel like this actually added a bit more dimension to her character and it actually gave me a little more room to improve her. It was also bound to happen anyways, especially with the characters she’s friends with/will be friends with. So yeah, it’s interesting and honestly I feel like I’m happy with the changes from what I originally intended her to be.

Hm while I’m here I guess I should also talk about Taemoon.

I don’t know that his personality changed much from my original intent, but his story and intent definitely did. He started as a character that exuded a lack of hope. I don’t know if that sentence makes a lot of sense, but he was originally going to have no chance at happiness in the end. He was supposed to let all of his anger and hurt consume him, making him hell bent on revenge, which would only push him further from anything that could make him happy, but I feel like the end of his story is a lot more hopeful now. I don’t know exactly what it is, but ever since pep asked if Jae Hong could adopt him Taemoon’s life story has become something a lot less disheartening. Now I’ve given him a lot more to live for, and a lot more to make him happy. First off, instead of being alone he now has a family that he quickly grows to trust, and a group of friends with similar experiences that basically become family as well. While he is still very revenge driven, he has a lot more to his life than just that; most importantly he has people he trusts that will keep him from becoming consumed by all of his anger. But yeah, he has become a much more hopeful character as a whole and honestly. I feel like that’s what I really needed. Idk about everyone else but I feel like changing his story to the way it is now really has helped me to feel a lot better in general.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favor certain traits or looks?

Oh god it’s time to confess 😔🤙

So, as most of you have figured out, most of my ocs tend to be very attractive and very capable (and willing) to step on me. If they’re not that then they’re in the minority.

Aside from being physically attractive as a whole, I’d say that in regards to looks, the more they look like they haven’t slept in weeks and are ready to kill a man, the better. If not that, then it’s an oc that looks like I could cuddle with them for hours on end. There’s no in between.

As for traits I tend to favor, probably the most popular is a bad attitude. If you take a look at some of my most used and/or favorite characters, you’ll find that in most cases the snarkier the better. Honestly this is true of characters that aren’t even mine, I just really have a type. At the same time though, I like these characters to have a secret soft side even if it’s only for one other character they care about. On the flip side, I also like writing characters that are genuinely the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I don’t know why but I just love them so much they are truly my children.

Also. Characters that grin in the face of danger? *chefs kiss* I like characters where you question if what they’re doing is out of courage or a death wish. For this reason so many of my characters play some kind of dangerous sport or enjoy dueling, you get what I mean. This goes for both my Edgy™️ characters as well as my soft characters.

Additionally, I do have a lot of characters that are wealthy. Uh. I think that mostly speaks for itself so I’m not going to comment on it any further than this.

Also. Flowers. For some reason I go for faceclaims that eat flowers. It’s not even something I actively seek out??? Like I’ll find someone cute and I’ll be scrolling through pictures and there they are. Eating a flower. This mostly goes for my guy fcs but yeah. Idk how it happens but it just does and I’ve come to accept it.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Hanahaki disease prompt: “The lack of communication is the true cause of this mess. You know that right?” For Dreammare perhaps? Your works are so in depth and creative!

fandom: Undertale AU 

warnings: illness tw, magical illness, unhealthy thinking, hanahaki disease, tell me if I need to tag more

want more hanahaki au? Another fic here

word count: 4,984

summary: Dream doesn’t understand why people keep making a fuss about the flowers he coughs up. Honestly, he’s got it handled. Really.

also a thanks to @trashydragonartist7 for helping me edit this

Dream suspected that something was wrong when he activated his eye lights  and found himself not in the Doodlesphere with Ink and Blueberry,  but rather with Sci and the Gaster of his timeline staring down at him,  worried, from the cool metal table he realized that he was laying  down on. “Uhm… Hi Sci? It’s always nice to see you, but why am I here?”

“Ink and Blue came sprinting into my timeline, yelling at the top of their non-existent lungs for help. It caused a lot of stir - made worse by why. You were unconscious and still coughing up flowers. Nine orange, red, and pink roses in full bloom. Not just that but a half dozen red Aster, red and yellow Chrysthanthemums, purple hyacinth, Jasmine flowers and violets.” Sci responded, a worried frown appearing on his face as he stared at his friend and ally. “All of them were in full bloom, and lingered for ten minutes before fading away in the color of your magic. I’ve never seen anyone with a case of Flowering Death this bad who’s still conscious.”

“… Oh… That…” Stars damn it, he hadn’t wanted the others to find out about this. Dream squinted a little, and muttered, “I haven’t heard Hanahaki called that before, although I suppose that is an accurate description of what’s going on… Hahaha.” He smiles up at Sci and the Gaster, hoping to disarm them a little. “Besides, it’s not as if this can actually kill me, no matter how bad it gets, so… I’m fine. I know what I can do to… To deal with it in my own way.”

“I have performed the surgery to remove the flowers on a dozen monsters in the past.” The Gaster spoke up, his voice kind but firm. “If you are willing, I would do the same procedure for you. You are a dear friend of my son’s, and I am well aware of the good work that you do… Or you could confess to the person whom you care for, to see if they reciprocate your feelings. I can’t imagine there would be anyone who would reject you.”

Dream couldn’t help but laugh, clutching his sides and rocking back and forth, trying to keep himself calm. How could he possibly explain to them that he’d been in love with Nightmare all of their existence? That this was far from the first time that he’d been choking back full blooms - to the point where the cursed plants robbed him of consciousness as they left his body? Normally when that happened, he threw himself headlong into a fight with his other half, so that the other’s negative energy would kill the flowers that grew in his bones and sapped his magic. It’s worked before, and it will work again. “No… No I… The time to recover would be too long, I can’t do that. Also I… I don’t… No. I’m not going to tell the person who I… Who I love that I do. It’s…” Dream didn’t want to explain and he wasn’t going to.

“The lack of communication is the true cause of this mess. You know that right?” Sci countered, the frown on his face darkening further still. “It is your lingering romantic feelings for the person that cause your magic to manifest those flowers in an attempt to do something with the intensity of the emotions that you are feeling. I don’t know if the medication will work, given how far you’re along…”

The Gaster checked Dream over, and a soft gasp left his lips. “You… The damage done to your body from coughing up the flowers - it’s gone. I don’t… I don’t know how that’s possible.”

“I do…” Dream sighed, shaking his head a little. “I have the ability to heal those who are afflicted with Hanahaki - or… What did you call it? Flowering Death? My magic can undo the damage done to their bodies, their soul and their magic because I am the guardian of positivity. If you would please let me off of the table, I know a non-surgical method of destroying the flowers. It’s not permanent, but I recover much faster than I would if I had to go through the surgery.”

“… What non-surgical method?” Sci and the Gaster asked at the same time, their eye lights widening in shock and surprise.

“Nightmare’s magic destroys the flowering growths of hanahaki disease. Before he… Before he became what you know him of today he was… We were…” Dream looked away from the both of them, curling in on himself as he tried to pull himself together - to attempt to explain what was running through his mind. “Flowering Death, as you called it, was an uncommon, but not rare condition in the timeline that we both hail from. Nightmare could destroy the flowers, and I could heal the damage, and together we would talk to the person - monster or human - who was suffering from the condition. Either they would have enough time to confess to the one that they loved and would be able to date them happily, or overcome the heartbreak of being rejected without the complications of being rejected while having an active case can and often does cause.”

“Wait. Are you telling me that you’ve hidden the fact that you’ve got Flowering Death for who knows how fucking long, but that you go to Nightmare for help? That sadistic piece of shit who would string us all up and torture us all until our minds snap and we become his broken playthings?!” Sci hissed, equal parts horrified and furious about the lack of trust that Dream apparently had in them all, to go to Nightmare of all people for help.

“Of course he doesn’t. I text Ink that Nightmare’s shown up in an AU and I need help fighting him after I’ve found Nightmare wherever he is and just before I initiate a fight. By the time Ink and Blue - along with whoever else - shows up, I’ve been affected by his magic enough to destroy most of the active case, and by the time I’m either rescued by you all or Nightmare retreats, all of the blossoms are dead and I can heal myself later and cough up the dead flowers. I just wish that Nightmare favored a more direct attack, like he used to. That way I didn’t have to go searching for him, and the flowers don’t have a chance to bloom as much as they have.” Dream explained, doing his best to sound cheerful and sweet as he beams at them. There was no way he could confess his feelings to Nightmare - he hadn’t had the courage to do so before everything had changed for the worse and…

He knew that Nightmare was dating Dust, Killer, Hatchet, Cross, Error and Hearts - who had left the star sanses to better pastures about a decade ago and had never looked back. He wasn’t going to intrude on a happy relationship - not when he’d messed up so tremendously in the past.

“But-” Sci began, his eye lights shining with the worry that Dream could feel within his friend.

The Gaster cut him off before he could speak, his voice firm but kind, “Son, I… I think you’re a little too close to this to see other perspectives. May I speak with your friend alone for a couple of moments? There are some things that I’d like to talk to him about, and I can tell that the two of you are winding each other up.” The other’s emotive aura was calm but… There was an undercurrent of something that Dream couldn’t identify - not when he was exhausted and low on magic as he was.

Sci nodded and stomped off. “I’ve got to find Ink and Blue - I’ve gotten like three dozen text messages from both of them and the rest of the group. Everyone’s really worried about you. We want to help, just please… Let us in…”

Dream gave the other a non-committal hum. He was well aware of just how useful and helpful he was as a member of their team - that had been stated quite a lot, by all of them… But that… That chafed against him, sometimes. The happy go lucky mask that he was forced to wear all the time ached and he longed to take it off… But if he did, the positive guardian worried that he would find that there was nothing but despair, guilt and hopelessness left. He glanced curiously at the Gaster as soon as he couldn’t sense Sci anymore. “What is it that you’d like to ask me about, Doctor Gaster?”

“I have been around for a very long time. You have some of the most unique abilities of any Sans I have ever met… If you even are a Sans, and given certain things, it wouldn’t surprise me if you weren’t actually one- But that doesn’t matter. What does is the way that your magic reacted when you said the name Nightmare… He’s the one you’re in love with, isn’t he?” The Gaster murmured, his voice warm and coaxing. The other’s hands were behind his back and he seemed to be deliberately trying not to make himself look threatening.

“I… I don’t have to answer that.” Dream responded, a sense of panic filling him, much as he tries to suppress any negative emotion he feels.

“I won’t tell Sci or any of the others… But may I suggest that you inform this Nightmare after the blooms have been temporarily killed? At least so that you will be able to move on from those romantic feelings that you have for him after a definite rejection?” The Gaster suggested kindly.

Dream stared up at the other dead in the sockets. “He’s in love with several other people. All of them are in a happy, polyamorous relationship with one another… Given the mistakes that I made in the past, the idea of him actually loving me back are laughingly close to zero. He’s tried to kill or capture me more times than I can count. He’s actually captured and tortured me in the past. None of that matters. I have loved him since the first moment I was created, and it seems as if I will never stop loving him. If the flowering death is my punishment for the wrongs I have done him, and the… And the fact that I didn’t realize the… What had been…” Dream stopped talking, not wanting to reveal their past… And because the back of his non-existent throat tickled and he started to cough violently, flowers in vibrant colors spilled out between his teeth.

Once he stopped coughing and shuddering from the effort that it took to get rid of the flowers, he stared up at Gaster, his eye lights dull and shattered. “It… Does not matter, it seems. I have… Tried to stop loving Nightmare. Reminded myself of the many horrors he’s committed… The lives he’s destroyed and killed… It doesn’t matter. I love him. I always will. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find Nightmare and get him to punch me in the face…” Dream slides off of the metal table and onto his unsteady feet. With an effort of will, he creates a portal “Please don’t tell Sci or any of the others about this - I don’t want them to worry. It would be selfish of me to burden them with this… I hope that I can convince them this has just been a bad dream… Haha…”

“I… I’ll keep your secret. But I would caution you against hiding this. I know that Sci cares for you very much, and I am sure that the others do as well.” The Gaster urged, wanting to reach out to Dream but hesitating.

“Yes, I’m well aware of how helpful and useful I am to all of them.” Dream responded, smiling brightly up at Gaster, “This is a personal problem - which they’ve never noticed or helped me with before, so why should I try to force a change like that? It would be terribly selfish of me to do that. See you later, Doctor Gaster!” With that he stepped through the portal, into one of the AUs that Dream knew that Hearts frequented to get his loves’ coffee and snack orders. They occasionally talked to one another in the peaceful Slice of Life AU that the positive spirit had just entered.

~

Hearts had texted him earlier that he’d be in this AU - they occasionally chatted over tea and coffee, despite the other having switched sides due to certain… Similarities that the both of them had recognized in the other. Dream just hoped that the hadn’t missed the window of opportunity he had to talk to the other.

Thankfully, the purple-clad Sans was sitting at one of the outdoor tables at their favorite coffee shop, sipping on a drink and looking fabulous as ever. The other spotted him and waved enthusiastically, greeting him happily “Darling! It’s so good to see you… Are you alright?” The other’s smile dropped as Dream felt the other Check him.

Dream’s small smile wavered a little, glancing around for a moment as he walked up to the other’s table “I… I’m feeling a little bit under the weather, but it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.” He knew that he needed to choose his words very carefully around Hearts - who was one of the few who could see through his mask and had learned his tells when he was lying.

Hearts frowned a little, Checking him again and pressing a cool hand to the positive spirit’s forehead “You’re burning up, darling… Here, sit down and drink this. I’ll go in and buy one of their high MP items - my treat. Don’t fuss at me, I have plenty of G to spare. You definitely need it. Drink the tea - it’s prepared just the way you like, and the lemon meringue cookies are quite delightful.”

“I… Okay…” Dream responded, not having the energy to even attempt a refusal. He sat down and failed to resist the temptation to slump over the small table as he tiredly nibbled on a couple of the light, and airy cookies - eating all but one of them while drinking the english tea - which was mid-level MP and HP restorer for an adult mortal monster - within seconds. Guilt tugged at him as he reached for the last cookie. He was so hungry and exhausted… But surely, Hearts had only been offering some of his food to be polite? He fished around in his pockets as one of the servers came over, and he ordered another dozen of the cookies - the same number that he’d eaten. He could distantly sense the server’s concern and wouldn’t let the other not take his money. He was fine thank you very much.

Hearts came back, a gloriously huge, sticky and frosting-covered cinnabunny on a plate in one hand, and a large cup of something that smelled heavenly in the other. “Here you go, darling. They wouldn’t let me purchase more than one of each of these, but they should help you even out a bit… Mind telling me why you’re so low, darling? I know for a fact that Mi Rey and the others haven’t been fighting today - I’d have joined in on the fun…”

Dream sent the other a small, fake smile as he took the food and drink, murmuring a quiet “Thank… Thank you, Hearts.” His soul ached and burned as Hearts referred to Nightmare by that affectionate pet name. While most would be utterly confused as to how the other could possibly describe the lord of all darkness as a star, Dream could easily see it. The other’s radiant presence and his dry, witty humor. His fiendishly clever jokes and teasing nature… The fact that he drew everyone in, and so many orbited around him, like planets and moons around a star… Stars above only knew that Nightmare was still the center of his multiverse, and always would be. The tickle in the back of his throat and the pain in his soul began to intensify. No, please, not in public. Not in front of Hearts Dream pleaded with his treacherous body. He reached for the large mug of “Oh! I didn’t know that they sold golden flower tea…” He remarked as he took a sip of the drink.

“Hmmm… Let me guess, Ink’s been running you ragged, again.” Hearts murmured “And they do, but it’s not something that they sell often. Don’t think that I don’t see an obvious dodge in conversational topic when I see one. If you need me to kidnap you for a couple of days, just tell me! Running around with you is so much fun.”

“… It’s something like that.” Dream admitted quietly. While he didn’t like throwing blame on Ink when, for once, the protector of the AUs wasn’t to blame for this, the soulless skeleton was an easy target - particularly as Hearts didn’t care much at all for the other. “So… So how have you been?”

“I’ve been doing great actually! Night’s been doing this thing for the past couple of years where he reaches out to the survivors of the negative timelines and negotiates with them, rather than simply just terrorizing them into submission. Funnily enough, a bit of sweet talking from that lovely silver tongue of his and they quite eagerly agree to join his ranks. Of course, it doesn’t always work, or they try to stab him, and then we fight the idiots into submission, but there’s been less murder overall. So how have things been going for you, darling?” Hearts responded brightly, grinning at the smaller skeleton as he watches the other eat and drink carefully. Dream really does look awful. “I thought that you couldn’t get sick?”

“I… I can’t catch common ailments, though there is… There are… A couple of things that can affect me. Powerful curses and the like, mostly. Immortality does have its’ downsides, after all.” Dream responded “Hahaha-ghk!” He dropped the tea he’d been about to take a sip up clapping both of his hands over his mouth as he shut his jaw tight. The positive spirit began to cough and gasp raggedly, his whole body shuddering at the force of the coughs that wracked his form. Tears formed in his eyes as he continued to cough and splutter, feeling the petals tickle the back of his throat and fill the inside of his mouth. But he couldn’t let the blooms escape - as Hearts would definitely know what was going on. The force of his coughing caused Dream to fall off of the stool he’d been sitting on, and he fell hard on one side, a soft whimper of pain leaving him.

Why was everything so dark? It took Dream a couple of moments to realize that he’d turned off his eye lights. After that moment of realization, the positive spirit turns his eye lights back on, to see Hearts hovering over him, worry in the other’s aura and on his face - a circle of curious and concerned mortal onlookers moving towards him, forming a circle. “Dreamy… Dream! Hey… What was that?” Hearts asked, his eye lights tiny pinpricks as he and a dozen other people Checked him repeatedly.

“I… I did tell you I was feeling a little bit under the weather. Don’t worry though, I know just what will fix it!” Dream responded, bringing his hands away from his mouth and wincing a little as he heard the beings around him gasp - as petals from the eight different flowers that grew within his soul and body fell from them. “… I’m fine… Really…” He smiled warmly up at Hearts and the onlookers, gently nudging away their worry and fear with his aura. The strangers dispersed.

“If you’re fine, then why haven’t you tried moving?” Hearts demanded, his voice calm and aura serene - but that was likely due to Dream’s own influence.

“Uhhh…” Dream began, trying frantically to come up with some sort of answer that wasn’t a lie nor a truth “I… Haven’t tried to yet?”

“Haven’t or can’t! You’re suffering a really bad case of the Curse of the Lovelorn! You need to be in a hospital with the best healers possible while I beat the sense into whoever the fuck you’re in love with to realize how amazing and wonderful you are, Dream!” Hearts hissed, his eye lights narrowing to slits “And stop using your magic to keep me calm. I know that’s what you’re doing. It’s a sweet thought, but I have every right to be angry. Which ones of those stupid Star Sanses is it?”

“Oh, Hearts. Whoever said I was in love with one of them?” The positive spirit responded weakly as he tried to sit up, his head spinning unpleasantly as he fell back-

Into the other’s lap? Odd, Dream had been expecting more cold pavement. It was more than he deserved, this gentle warmth under his head, the light, soothing touch against his skull. But it was nice…

“What…. What do you mean by that, Dream?” Hearts asked, his voice gentle, worried and full of concern and genuine care in a way that hurt so badly to hear.

“Hahaha… I’ve loved him for… I’ve loved him for so long, Hearts. But he’s never once looked at me. And how can I blame him? ‘M so fickle… Flitting from person to person curiously, never… Never really staying in one spot… So curious and just wanting to learn and help without realizing what it can really do once I leave… And he was so… He was so lonely and so isolated. But I didn’t notice. I didn’t see… Then he took what he needed to become strong, so that the two-faced people who I couldn’t see their darkness and cruelty for wouldn’t… Wouldn’t hurt him anymore. I suppose at first I’d just assumed that he’d always be there, and the pretty, painful flowers I coughed up didn’t matter - not when he found them pretty when I offered them as gifts, despite the fact that they’d vanish before they’d wither like normal flowers do…” Dream half-explained, half-mumbled to himself, his eye lights dull and shattered. He could barely see the other above him.

“Who are you… Wait… You’re not… You…” Hearts murmured, his eye lights widening in shock and realization, before sorrow and uncertainty filled his aura “Oh… Dream…”

“But he’s happy now. With you an’ with the others. I won’t… I’m not going to… Interfere… ‘sides to knock back the flowers… All I gotta do is fight him for about a half an hour. Let him hit me with his magic… Works every time… Stars I hate it when the flowers get this bad…” The guardian of positivity managed out. He grumbled wordlessly as the other started feeding him bits of cinnabunny and sips of golden flower tea, but he accepted them, nonetheless. “These won’t make me feel better… All it will do is feed the flowers.. But I am hungry…”

“There… There has to be a better way, Dream. This… This isn’t living.” Hearts whispered, horror and sorrow in his aura.

“Hey… S’okay. I deserve this. I let him get hurt so much for so long… ‘quivelent suffering. You can’t… You can’t tell him. I don’t know how he’ll respond and I…” Dream coughed for what felt like an eternity, dozens of flowers in vivid red, yellows and pinks - mixed with the occasional white and violet bloom - left his lips. Dream exhaustedly picked through all of them, finding nine red roses, half a dozen of the chrysthanthemums and a few of the hyacinth branches, arranging them into a bouquet and using a bit of magic to pull a napkin off of the table, gently wrapping the napkin around the stems of the vivid and softly glowing magical flowers and offering it to Hearts “Here… M’ sure the others will love them… They’re really pretty. Just don’t… Don’t say where you got them.”

“Why are… Why are you giving me these?” Hearts asked, the horror and confusion in the other’s aura rising higher still - Dream needed to calm him down or Nightmare would show up soon and he wasn’t in any state to pretend to be able to fight the other. And then Nightmare would just capture him, which wouldn’t let him have enough time with the other’s magic around him to get rid of the flowers.

“They’re pretty! Flowers are often gifts for lovers and you have several! Here, I’ll make bouquets for each of them…” Dream explained cheerfully, doing his best to make arrangements for each of his lovers, picking the flowers that were whole and completely undamaged. He made another bouquet and a half. He ran out of good flowers - but after he took several more bites of food and sips of golden flower tea, Dream coughed up more flowers, and was able to finish the third, and create a fourth and fifth bouquet, the flowers all the same, but in different amounts and in slightly different color variations. “See? Now there’s one for each of them… That way they won’t be mad ‘cause you’re late home… ‘m gonna go now. You have fun with… With your loved ones…”

“And where the hell do you think that you’re going?” Hearts asked, holding Dream down now, protectiveness entering the other’s aura - as well as further horror and more confusion “And why… Why do you… The flowers are… You… I…” The other seemed to be having some difficulties trying to explain himself.

Which was odd, because Dream knew that Hearts was very good with words. “They’re pretty! Like I said. And they make people feel good. I’ve made flower crowns with them and given them to Stars Sanses or their Papyri when they’ve felt down. They cheer right up!”

“Because these flowers are made of your magic. Made out of pos-positive magic.” Hearts whispered, his eye lights shrinking down to pinpricks.

“Uh-huh! Also if they’re placed down on injuries or on a spot where someone’s been cursed, it will heal right up, or the curse will be broken with no bad repercussions. It’s nice that even if the flowers hurt me, they’re useful for others… S’ nice…” Dream murmured quietly, a small smile on his face. He felt really dizzy, and a nap sounded really nice. He kept eating the food and drinking the tea that he was being fed, despite occasionally grumbling about it “Really… There’s no need to fuss over me like this… I’ll be okay…”

“No. You… You’re not okay, Dream. Stars above, can’t you see that?” Hearts demanded, his voice cracking a little in pain and irritation.

“I’m sorry I’m upsetting you, Hearts… But I have to look on the bright side… Otherwise I’ll start crying and feeling sorry for myself, and really, I made some mistakes and this is one of the consequences of those mista-… Oh no.” Dream murmured, feeling a shift in the emotive balance around them. He attempted to get up, grumbling as Hearts was able to force him to stay still.

“What? What is it now?” Hearts asked, tears falling from the other’s eye sockets.

“Nightmare’s here.” Dream whispered, trying and failing to get out of Hearts’ grip. He waved in Nightmare’s general direction, still not able to focus enough on his surroundings to actually see more than a couple of feet around him. “Hi Nightmare… I’m making one of your boyfriends cry… You should pro’ly smack me around or something like that in ‘venge…”

“As tempting as that is, the dark glare that Hearts is giving me says that attempting to do so would make him more upset, rather than less. What have you done to yourself? And where do you find those flowers? I’ve only ever seen them in your hands - but never so many at once.” Nightmare rumbled, his voice all deep and close, concern and love for Hearts mixing with confusion and wry amusement in the other’s aura.

Dream let out a weak giggle “That’s a seeeecret, Nightmare~! I told you then and I’ll tell you again… I’m not going to tell you.”

“Dream-” Nightmare started, irritation starting to fill his emotional aura “Kindly get off of Hearts and you will tell me where you get those flowers.”

“Hmmm…” Dream hums, stirring a little as if he actually had a choice as to whether or not he could get off of Heart’s lap. The other was actually holding his soul with blue magic, pinning him in place (which was incredibly rude) “… Nope! You’ll have to grab me yourself.”

One of Nightmare’s tentacles wrapped around his waist, and he felt himself being hoisted into the air. “You are going to answer my questions, Dream. Weak as you are, you don’t have a hope of fighting against me - and given the state you’re in, I sincerely doubt that your so-called allies have any idea where you are.” The negative being wrapped a tentacle around his neck, squeezing lightly - enough to hurt a little. “Besides, it’s not as if it’s a tactical question. Where. Do you. Get. The flowers?”

“I make them…” Dream murmured, the other’s magic starting to affect him and the blooms in his soul and body. But not enough. Not before -

The tickling, burning sensation in his throat and soul returned, and the positive guardian began to cough and splutter. His arms were pinned at his side, and his neck was held tight, so he couldn’t turn his head very far as the flowers began to fall from his mouth, the vibrant, magical blooms robbing Dream of what little strength he had. The positive guardian felt the shadows at the edges of his vision consume him, and he went limp in Nightmare’s grip.

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Dreams of Our Past - Chapter 27

*flails around* The chapter is done! It’s the second longest so far and the second half was fighting me until the end. But I prevailed! Here’s the Link to AO3.

In which Gladio invites Ignis to dinner and he finds a dearly missed person because of Iris.

Featuring: Ignis' brand of awkwardness, the starscourge, the tempers of Gladio and Hiemi, Noctis being so very close to a mental breakdown and Somnus and Bahamut being dicks through history

Warning: vomiting, mentioned child murder

Gladio IV

8.5.755 ME

Insomnia, Ghetto

Kingdom of Lucis

The days since their meeting at the Black Saffron had been nerve wrecking and uneventful. It grated on him like nothing else. He had thought, after they had all finally decided – more or less, he was aware enough to admit – on a course of action, things would start to move again. They hadn't. And Gladio didn't like it. At all.

He stood near the door to the pitiful office of Camp No. 5 and watched the people mingling about. More specifically was he watching Prompto, who sat grinning like a loon on a camping bed, a laptop in his lap and... did something while a group of people watched over his shoulder. Gladio really hoped the blond didn't play some kind of game. He was supposed to search through the pictures he had taken over the last few days and upload them on a dummy account by the end of the day.

Here was to hoping the whole crazy plan was going to work. It was a shame Pelna wasn't here right now, but he had finally found the time to talk to his contacts, and had gone to get the ball rolling on that whole facial recognition thing.

It wasn't that things weren't being done, really, it was just that they were moving along so slowly.

Gladio felt like he was treading on the spot, not moving forward no matter how much he wished to. It was frustrating beyond belief.

Before he realized what he was doing, he had fished his phone out of he pocket and weighted it in his hand. It couldn't hurt to call Ignis, making sure the man didn't overwork himself like he was prone to do. Maybe he had managed to find something that would help Gladio figure out what he could be doing in this stinking mess. Not that is was very likely, but a man could hope.

The phone rang once, twice, then a click sounded and a cultured voice drifted through the speaker: “Good morning Gladio. Was there something you needed?”

“Barely morning anymore, Ignis”, the older snorted.

A non-committal hum could be heard. The former advisor could be very peculiar about his greetings. A voice sounded in the background on Ignis' side. It was decidedly feminine, even if Gladio couldn't make out any words.

“Oh no, it's perfectly alright, Miss Aster. I am talking to a friend. Thank you for your wonderful help”, Ignis said.

Gladio couldn't help the grin blooming on his face. “Should I call you later, lover boy?”

Ignis gave an undignified snort. “I am at work, Gladio”, he said, stressing the word work like that was the important part. “Miss Aster is a secretary within the Ministry for Civic Affairs and Immigration. I met her yesterday, when I was looking into how far along they are with evaluating the houses in the Immigration District for damages. Apparently there seems to be a filing issue of some sort. Miss Aster has been looking into it since it came to her attention. She says it goes against her pride to have messy paperwork.”

“Tampering?” Gladio couldn't help but ask.

“Very likely.”

“Damn.”

“Whoever did it was very careful. The papers are listed as filed, they obviously went over all the right desks, but they aren't where they should be. I have never seen this amount of misfiling in my entire life.” Ignis' obvious indignation would be funny, if the situation wasn't so serious. “Mrs. Custodela cannot help us with this. She has her hands already full trying to keep abreast with the camps she is looking over. After this, would you please call Camp 7 for me? Mrs. Custodela has found a plumber who is free and can take a look at their showers.”

Something in the pipes in the showers of Camp 7 had broken and now the water there had turned a muddy brown. It couldn't be very healthy.

“That's good. I'll do that. Anything else?”

“Make sure to note down who is using the vehicles you got provided with, and where they drove and how long it took to get there. Certain people have been making noise about rationing petrol. Records of the use of the vans you have at your disposal would go a long way to work against this”, said Ignis after a few moments of consideration.

Gladio jerked in disbelief. “Rationing petrol? That's bullshit! The oil production in Leide is still under Insomnian control.”

“I know, Gladio. Believe me, I know.”

“Fuck, this whole situation is a stinking mess”, he complained and carded a hand through his hair.

I need a shower, he thought with a grimace. Ignis didn't answer. He didn't need to. Somewhere in the hall a baby started to cry, followed shortly by a second. Gladio sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. He needed to get out of here. At least for an evening. Breath some air that didn't smell of exhaust fumes or like too many sweaty people cramped into a place too small.

“How... how is Iris doing?” Ignis sounded like he wasn't sure at all, if he should even ask.

“She's not doing worse for now”, he choked out, his stomach plummeting like it was suddenly filled with lead.

“Gladio. I am- I'm so sorry.”

That sentence sounded heavy. Full of hidden meanings and implications and Gladio didn't want to hear any of it.

“Don't you dare talk like she's dead already! Because she's still very much alive”, he snapped.

A tightly controlled intake of breath sounded over the speaker. Gladio couldn't muster the will to feel bad about it. Iris wasn't dead and she wouldn't die. He was her older brother and he would protect her, damn it!She was barely fourteen, for Bahamut's sake.

“You are right, Gladio. I apologize”, Ignis said after a maybe too long pause.

“It's alright”, he sighed and deflated.

No, it wasn't alright, not at all. But Ignis was a friend – or had been a friend once – and he didn't deserve this. Pitioss, Iris didn't deserve this most of all. Why ever were the Gods punishing her like that? It had to stop.

He cleared his throat and asked awkwardly: “I'm going back home for the night to spend some time with her. Do you want to come over for dinner? Iris would love to see you again.”

“If you are sure.”

Ignis sounded so high-strung that Gladio just knew he was feeling as awkward as he himself was.

“Don't worry. I wouldn't ask, if I wasn't.”

“Then I will gladly come. Which time would be most convenient?”

“We normally eat around six since Iris gets tired early”, Gladio shrugged.

Ignis hummed in thought. “Five thirty then.”

“Fine by me”, he answered after mentally running through his to-do list again. “Just... be gentle with her, alright?”

“Of course, Gladio”, agreed Ignis. “I need to go back to work.”

“Ah, yes. Yes, of course. I'll see you later.”

“Until later.”

The call disconnected. Gladio listened to the silence of his phone for a few seconds before he sighed and lowered it from his ear to stare at it. Social graces and impulse control. He needed to work on his temper more. But for now he had a few calls to make. First Camp 7 about that plumber and then Jared to tell him that he and Ignis would be there for dinner. He had been trying to come every evening since the earthquake happened, but he hadn't always managed it.

On his first call he managed to reach Libertus who sounded just as grouchy as he had expected the man to be. Gladio had to bite the inside of his cheek as to not snap back. Instead he managed to make his way through the conversation with all the grace of a garula in a china store. Luckily Libertus didn't seem to notice. Something about two feuding Clans in one room, he had heard Crowe and Pelna say.

His second call went a bit better. He could practically hear the retainer smile as he announced his and Ignis' presence for dinner.

Now he could go outside and see how far along Tredd and Crowe were with checking over the newest delivery. Then there would be another round of phone calls between Centres 4 through 8 to see who was lacking what and to pool their resources. After lunch he would write out new timetables for those who had volunteered for various duties around here. And he would need to find someone who had experience with the whole giving birth thing, since one of the women here looked just about ready to pop.

Dinner could have been definitely worse. It had been decidedly awkward, but between Ignis practically doting on Iris within the first few minutes of his arrival and Jared's efforts to keep the conversation flowing, it had been a very pleasant meal. Everything had been fine, Iris had been laughing and moving around more than she had in weeks and Ignis had been sharing recipes with Jared.

He should have known that this wasn't going to last. Nothing good had for a long time now.

The screaming woke Gladio in the middle of the night. It took his sleep addled brain long precious seconds to realize that they were coming from his sister's room. He practically leapt out of bed and ran into her room that thankfully was right next to his. Light spilled into the dark room and for a moment his sister's shadow seemed to froth and seethe, but Gladio ignored it in search of any attackers that he could painfully eviscerate.

No one was there. No one but Iris and him.

Her screaming stopped once she saw him.

“Gladdy”, she whimpered and reached out towards him.

The sleeves of her pyjama slid back and exposed dark splotched on her skin that hadn't been there during dinner. A thin line of blood trickled down from the corner of her mouth. It was black.

“Iris!” he cried and lunged towards her, cradling her small form carefully against his muscled chest.

“Gladdy, it hurts. It hurts so much.”

She grasped weakly at his arms, sobbing. Then she went limp, her breath coming in nothing but weak bursts that ghosted over the naked skin above his collar bone.

“No”, he breathed. Desperation roared in his chest like a wild beast and stole his breath. “No, no, no, no, no.”

What should he do? No doctor or hospital they had visited since she had first gotten sick, had been able to help. There was no one here that could help her.

Oh, by the Gods, she was going to die.

The realization hit him like a slap in the face. His little sister would die before morning came, because there was no one in this damned city that...

Gladio's breath stuttered in his chest when he remembered what the innkeeper of the Black Saffron had said about his son and the woman that had come by during the meeting, when he remembered what that prostitute had told him last week.

Without stopping to consider what a colossally stupid idea this was – he could not afford to think about it, not now when his little sister was dying – he wrapped her blanket tightly around her frail body and lifted her up in his arms. She was so light he barely noticed her weight.

Why was it getting so much worse? Why now, of all times? She had been fine! Or at last not worse than the last time he had taken her to a doctor.

He didn't even stop to get dressed in something other than his sleeping trousers or to put on some shoes, and instead ran right out of the door, into the dark streets of Insomnia. In the privacy of her bed, the prostitute had described to him how he could get to this Healer, if he ever needed to.

Sweat ran down his face and back the further he ran, his breath burned in his lungs, but he didn't dare to stop. He didn't dare to do so as he ran past buildings the earthquake had destroyed, deeper and deeper into the city, through neighbourhoods that were getting more and more run down.

Iris began to shiver, despite the warm summer night. Gladio only tightened his grip and hastened his steps.

Despite the growing lack of functioning street lamps, he could see the great, broken pillar. It rose out of the shadows like a great, stony needle as he hurried past it and then turned left into a narrow alleyway. It didn't take long to reach the other side. It was nearly pitch black now. Only a few weakly glowing lanterns showed him the way, forcing him to slow down, lest he stumble and fall. He found the staircase Viti had talked about through sheer luck. There weren't any handrails, so he had to be extra careful. He did not dare hurry since some of the metal stairs creaked ominously.

Follow the lights, Viti had said, and so he started to run again towards the nearest light he could see. It was a single lantern glowing like a lonely star at the first house on the right. It hung from the ceiling in a room that was entirely open on one side and illuminated a group of chairs, metal drawers and a long table. In a corner there was a part of the wall that looked like it could possibly be a door. He just about kicked it in.

“Hello! I need help!” he bellowed into the darkness of the house, honestly not caring who he might wake.

Not a second later hasty footsteps sounded to his left. It was a teenager, his skin paler than he had ever seen a human being be, with big blue eyes so light they looked white near the pupil. In his hand he carried a lantern, its light cast a cheerful glow on everything it touched.

The teenagers eyes grew even larger when he saw the bundle in Gladio's arms, then his eyes dropped to his feet and back up again.

“My sister needs help”, Gladio repeated, pleading.

That seemed to do the trick, as the teenager gestured towards a staircase with a hasty “Follow me!” and practically leapt up the stairs.

“Healer! Healer wake up! There's an emergency. Quick!”

Gladio followed the teen down the hallway to his right until they came to the last door. Behind it was a small room with a rickety bed, a bedside table, a stool and a chest of drawers. Another lantern, it had been hanging from a hook next to the door, was lit and the teenager motioned for Gladio to lay his sister on the bed before he vanished down the hallway again, calling for Healer.

Now here, where he could finally focus on something other than running, running, running, he noticed he was trembling like a leaf in the wind. His heart beat like a fast paced drum and his breath shuddered with each intake of air.

His gaze settled on Iris. Her skin was a pasty, unhealthy white and the dark splotches had spread up her neck and onto her cheeks. Each laboured breath sounded wet and rattled within her chest. Carefully, as to not hurt her any further, he settled her down on the lumpy mattress of the bed. The frame gave a high pitched sound as her weight was added.

From outside the room he could hear doors opening and closing, sleepy voices were asking questions and hasty steps were making their way towards them. A young man appeared in the doorway. He had clearly just woken up, his startling violet eyes squinting against the light of the lantern and his long black hair a mess that hung in his face.

When the man – he couldn't be older than 20 – saw him he froze. His eyes grew large in surprise and fear, his mouth opened and closed like he was a fish on land. Gladio glowered. If he had only come to stare, he was going to beat him within an inch of his life.

“Help her!” he bellowed.

The man jerked. His gaze fell on Iris and all expression vanished from his face. One moment he stood by the door and the next he was next to the bed, leaning over his sister and looking intently at her gaunt face.

“Casto, get me a bucket and take the bedsheets for winter out of the closet. Go to Hiemi and tell her I need some of her purging tea, and bring me a bowl of hot water and a washrag”, he said with an air that made it clear he was used to be listened to and obeyed.

Not bothering to turn around and see if the teenager was listening – which he did; he ran out of the room like the Infernian himself was after him – the young man started to gently unwrap the blanket. She had grown even paler and the black splotches covered large parts of her visible skin.

Gladio would love to ask who this guy even was and what he was doing as he released a hissing breath and started cussing quite creatively, but his voice refused to work. Each new gulp of air took more effort than the last and slowly he began to realize that everything hurt. From his muscles to his feet. Especially his feet. They felt like two big, raw lumps of meat that did nothing but hurt. He ignored it as best as he could for now.

A thin hand with long, elegant fingers was lain on Iris' forehead, golden-violet sparks danced across the digits and over her skin.

Wait, this was the famous Healer?

“For how long has she been sick?”

Gladio's tired mind barely registered the question. “What?” he managed to utter after his second attempt at articulating.

“How long, Gladio”, Healer barked.

How...? That wasn't important right now.

“Nearly two months”, he managed to say around the lump in his throat.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit. By all the sulphurous fires of Ifrit's den. By all rights, she should be dead by now.”

That made Gladio's tired brain pay attention again. “Excuse me?”

Healer shook his head and reached for the bucket a huffing and puffing Casto held out towards him, bedsheets under his other arm.

“No time for that.”

He gently sat her upright, her weight lying awkwardly in his arms, and sent a wave of softly glowing magic through her. The golden and violet light washed over her like water. Without warning her upper body jerked forward and she vomited her dinner mixed with black blood into the bucket. It stank sickeningly.

Iris took big, heaving breaths, occasionally dispelling mouthfuls of junky black sludge. After nothing new came up, Healer set the bucket down beside the bed. He didn't seem to care for the splatters that had hit the naked skin of his arms and torso. They slowly turned into wispy smoke and then vanished entirely. Her eyes fluttered feverishly without seeming to notice her surroundings.

“Yeah, that's it. Everything's alright now. In and out, in and out. Yah're doing great, Iris. Everything's gonna be alright.”

While Healer was gently coaxing his barely lucid sister into regaining her breath and Casto put a garish monstrosity of a pillow beneath her head, Gladio leaned against the wall to ease the pain in his feet and to regain some kind of equilibrium. Because this Healer knew his sister's name. Gladio knew he hadn't told him and he had known his name, too, without needing an introduction. Just who was he?

“Tata?”

All eyes turned towards the door. There stood a girl. She looked to be around seven with wild, sleep mussed red hair and honey coloured eyes that gleamed golden. She looked drowsily at them and yawned.

“Solaris? What're yah doing out of bed?” asked Healer without taking his glowing hand from Iris' forehead even once.

“It's loud”, the girl complained.

Gladio's gaze wandered from one to the other and he wondered.

Healer nodded. “Ah know, little sun, but Iris needs mah help for now. If yah can't sleep anymore, could yah go down and ask yahr mati for a big glass of water? Casto, could yah look after Astra, please? Ah don't wanna've him running 'round alone and in the dark.”

Both nodded and left the room, the girl taking the teenager's hand. Gladio stared after them. He had heard this accent before, he knew he had. If he could just place where. He felt like he was missing some very crucial things right about now. Sleep. What he needed now was sleep and for Iris to not die.

His gaze settled back on her. A flittering net of golden-violet magic covered her from head to toe. It looked more like mist than a tangible thread. How was such a thing possible? Only the royal family should be the one harbouring powerful magic in this city, even the whole continent. And now here was this Healer, whose magic prickled against his skin like a Lucis Caelum's did. It would probably be more upsetting, if he was fully awake.

“What does she have?” he asked instead of all the other questions burning on his tongue.

Healer blinked at him, as if he had forgotten that Gladio was also in the room. He made a passable impression of a bowstring drawn tight. In an obvious nervous tick, Healer tugged at his hair and wet his lips.

“She's scourge sick”, he said at last, his voice barely more than a quiet whisper.

“Scourge sick”, Gladio repeated tonelessly. “You mean the black plague, curse of the Gods, the starscourge? That kind of scourge sick?”

“Yes”, came the careful confirmation.

Gladio felt his fingers flex like they wanted to hit something, if he had just a bit more energy left. “That's a load of chocobo shit”, he rasped. “The starscourge does not reach within the Wall. Everybody knows that.”

Near glowing, violet eyes shot him a deadpan stare that felt achingly familiar. He suppressed a shudder creeping up his spine. Damn, those eyes were eerie.

“Two months ago yah said? Has she been anywhere near the old crypts at tha' time?”

The broken shield opened his mouth to instinctively deny the question, but he hesitated. “I... I don't know”, he admitted at last. He tried to remember, but his head started to feel like it was packed in wool.

“Doesn't matter anymore. It's good that yah came now, but yah were cuttin' it very close. She wouldn't 'a' made it through the night. Ah can barely believe tha' she made it this long.”

With a shuddering breath Gladio leaned more of his weight against the wall. The rough plaster dug uncomfortably into his shoulders.

Steps sounded from the hallway and shortly thereafter the girl was back, two cups in her hands. One was steaming and emanated a strong smell that made him wrinkle his nose. She gave the one with the foul smelling liquid Healer, the other one she cradled between her hands.

“Thank yah, little sun”, the young man smiled. “Now, yah remember what ah taught yah? Reach for the power resting in yahr bones. No more than a spark. Take it and guide it, it knows what it's got tah do.”

The girl's face scrunched up in concentration, in a way Gladio had seen a hundred times before, in the way Noctis had looked when he had wanted something to go exactly right. What Gladio hadn't seen before was the reddish glow of her hands.

“Not so much, little sun”, corrected Healer gently.

Solaris' brow furrowed even more and after a few seconds the glow dimmed until there was only the barest sheen of it left. It seeped into the cup and the liquid it contained, until it glowed, too.

“Very good”, praised the young man and Solaris beamed. “Would yah be a dear and give it tah Gladio over there?”

“Yes, tata”s she said dutifully and held the cup out to him, standing as far away as she could manage while doing so. She was clearly skittish around strangers.

“No, thank you”, he said while looking at the glowing cup in healthy scepticism. As long as he had no idea what it was he wouldn't drink it. He swallowed, and that made his parched throat just more noticeable.

Healer clucked his tongue in disapproval. “It's jus' water with a bit of healin' magic. Sit down and drink tha'. Yah look like yahr abou' tah keel over. 'Specially with yahr feet.”

Gladio made a face, but in the end he took the cup from the girl. The liquid in it looked like plain water hit by sunlight during noon. It was kind of fascinating, he had to admit. The little girl scampered off towards the bucket and glanced into it, curiosity clear on her face. She clamped her hands over her nose and mouth with a disgusted sound. Gladio frowned. A child as young as her shouldn't see these kind of things. Healer seemed to be of a similar mindset.

“Solaris, would yah please go and get Ardyn? And after tha' ah need yah tah do somethin' very important. Can yah do tha' for me?” Healer looked at her with serious eyes. The girl nodded, face solemn. “Yah need tah go tah the other patients and tell them tha' everything's alrigh'. They don't need tah worry.”

“Ah will, tata”, she said and carefully stepped closer to give Healer a kiss on the cheek before she left the room.

“What happens now?” asked Gladio and took a tiny sip of the mystery water, as he had dubbed it in his mind.

At once he could feel some of his exhaustion leave and the soreness of his muscles easing off just a bit. He blinked in surprise. This was a bit like the potions he knew, just far more gentle in the way the soothed things. Potions and ethers made by Lucis Caelum magic were always accompanied by an unpleasant burn.

Healer answered while he carefully, drop by drop, made Iris drink that foul smelling tea. “Now ah'll start tah heal her. The scourge has been burrowed in her body for too long for me tah heal it all at once, but ah can do it. Yah needn't worry.”

“You can really heal her? How long will it take? There is supposed to be only one person who is able to heal the starscourge, and I kind of doubt that you are the Oracle in disguise.”

The deeply buried seeds of hope started to grow into a warm feeling pooling in his stomach. Or maybe that was just the mystery water.

“Yeah, but like ah said, it'll take me some time. A week at least. Ah don't just need tah rid her of the scourge, but also repair the damage it caused and tha's the truly tricky part.”

Gladio became light headed in relief. If he hadn't been sitting on the floor already, he would certainly do so now. But he couldn't help but wonder how it was even possible. The Fleurets had been blessed by the Astrals with the power to cleanse the scourge from its victims. There were no others.

“My, my, nephew. You have all of the clinic in a right tizzy.”

A man stood in the doorway with wild reddish hair that had an odd violet sheen and golden eyes. He leaned on a cane the same way King Regis did, and Gladio didn't know why, but he found that quite disturbing. Despite the stuffy and hot air he wore a long pair of trousers and a high collared tunic with sleeves that fell down over his wrists.

“She is scourge sick”, the man stated. His eyes bore a strange glint that Gladio didn't like.

Healer nodded. “Yes”, he affirmed and motioned towards the bucket sitting at the end of the bed. “Could yah get rid of tha'? Ah made her drink some of Hiemi's purging tea, so she'll need tha' bucket 'gain soon.”

“Of course, dear nephew. But if you don't mind, I would like to see how you handle this one. It's the first time I see you treat someone afflicted with starscourge, after all. Not to worry, I'll keep myself well out of the way.”

Healer's answering shrug clearly said suit yourself.

Gladio watched as the man – who was most likely this Ardyn the little girl had gone to fetch – gathered the bucket, keeping a straight face at the sickening smell, and retreated back towards the door.

“I'm ready”, the man announced with a grin.

Healer huffed, but he turned his full attention back to Iris who now looked like she had gone back to sleep. He gently rested his free hand on her stomach, right over her navel, the other still being on her forehead, and closed his eyes, his brows furrowed in obvious concentration. For a moment there was absolute silence. Then the glittering net over his sister's body retreated, leaving the room strangely dim. Not a moment later however, Healer's whole body started to glow in a golden light. It looked like a sun was trapped under his skin.

The black lines on his skin, that Gladio had thought were tattoos, started to crack open and released a burning violet light. It looked utterly otherworldly. Suddenly Gladio could believe every story Viti had told him about Healer. That he was a fallen star or an Astral, forgotten by humanity and time. There was so much power. It made his skin prickle and the fine hairs on his arms stand on end. And it seemed like Healer himself could barely contain it, he looked like his human shell was going to shatter at any moment.

Magic pulsed in time of an invisible heart, lapping over Iris and through the air like it was water breaking on a shore. The light seeped into Iris' skin, concentrating where the black splotches marred her, and with each new wave that washed over her they grew a tiny bit smaller. A fine black mist rose and dissipated within seconds.

Gladio couldn't do anything other than stare at the spectacle in front of him, even as it made his eyes burn to look directly into the pulsing light. He didn't even look away when he heard a violent hiss from where the red haired man was watching.

An especially large wave made the air shudder, caressed his skin like the softest silk and eased the pain in his bloody feet. There were quite a few cuts and a broken toe nail. He hadn't even felt it as he had been running to get his sister the help she needed. He couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped him. The magic teased over him like a long lost friend. It made something in him that had been sleeping for a long time, suddenly sit up and pay attention. He knew the feeling of this magic, had felt it quite often when Noctis had been made to practice his elemancy, even if he had never been connected to it like a proper Shield should be...

He jerked upwards. By now the magic had turned into a bright supernova with the young man and his sister at its centre. It couldn't be.

“Noctis”, he breathed, stunned.

He stood there, frozen and having no idea what he should do. This couldn't be possible. He had searched for his prince high and low and the Crownsguard and the Kingsglaive both had searched outside of Insomnia. If Noctis was still in the city and not dead they should have heard something by now. Shouldn't they?

On the other hand there clearly were people down here. Gladio hadn't even known that this place existed, and it was part of his job to know about the city's layout. It would also explain how Healer had magic. But why hadn't he recognized him then? He knew what the prince looked like! Then again, Healer had long hair and what he had thought were tattoos covering a large part of his body, including his face. And even if it turned out that Healer wasn't Noctis – which became more and more likely the longer he thought about it – this was a place he could potentially be, because no one had ever thought to look.

Had Noctis hidden here this whole time?

Why?

As if he had been heard, Healer opened his eyes. Even in the bright light of the magic they glowed like a pair of newborn stars. Gladio had to look away. White spots danced in front of his eyes. A high pitched whine sounded from where the door was located.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the pulsing light became weaker, the pressure of powerful magic in the air grew lighter. With each new wave it retreated further and further, like the changing of the tides until it was mostly gone.

The black splotches on Iris' skin had turned into mere shadows beneath skin still pale from sickness. There was a bit of colour in her cheeks now.

Healer's hands retreated and the last of the glow died, leaving the room in a strange half light until Gladio's eyes had adjusted again. Only the black lines on Healer's skin still gave off a dim iridescence, and Gladio swore there was a new one slashing across his cheek close to the nose. It made the impression that the man's humanity was nothing but a thin veil that could be ripped away to show what really lay beneath at any time. And wasn't that disconcerting?

Reluctantly, like he needed to remind himself how to move his limbs, he stood up and carelessly let the blanket Gladio had carried Iris in, fall to the floor, before taking up the one the teenager had brought in and spread it over Iris' still sleeping form. His breath came in quick bursts and he was covered in sweat like he had just completed a taxing workout. With a quiet groan he stood up straight. Finally the shimmer beneath his skin was completely gone.

“Fuck. Ah think ah overdid it”, he mumbled barely loud enough for Gladio to hear.

“You can say that again, my dear nephew. Please warn an old man the next time you want to set off the magical equivalent to a Nifasi firebomb. It would be much appreciated. You can never be sure of the consequences otherwise”, stated the red haired man before Gladio could even think to open his mouth.

There was a caution in Healer's gaze as he nodded, that set Gladio's teeth on edge and made him want to punch something. Or someone. Preferably the guy who used a cane exactly the same way his King did but moved like a was an actor playing out a drama.

“Now, go downstairs to your wife, eat something and drink some of her truly amazing tea. You look like someone who dearly needs a break and some extra energy. I dare say, it's too early already to go back to sleep again. I will look after the girl for the time being. Do not worry, I have some experience in looking after the scourge sick and know what I'm doing”, he continued as if he hadn't seen Gladio's glower.

Which he clearly had.

Healer – who was quite possibly Noctis and Gladio wasn't really sure if he wanted him to be or not – just rolled his eyes, but he took a step towards the door before he stopped and turned towards him, a guarded look on his face.

“Come”, he mumbled. “We need tah talk, and best do it now.”

Gladio didn't say anything as he followed Healer through the still mostly dark house. To be honest, he had no idea what to say. For all the questions tumbling through his mind in a never ending whirlwind since he had first seen the young man.

He wanted to scream.

He wanted to rage.

He wanted to shake the answers out of the man leading him down dark stairs.

But he didn't. If this whole mess had taught him one thing, it was that raging at it all didn't help a thing. So he swallowed the anger hissing in his mind down and sat in the chair in the warmly lit kitchen he had been indicated to.

The kitchen was a large room that was clearly well lived in and cared for with a loving hand, if cluttered to a point where there was nearly no free space left. Despite the warm summer night there was a new fire burning in the hearth that was old enough to belong in a museum. It made the air near uncomfortable hot.

Most of the kitchen appliances looked like they belonged into the 5th century ME at least. Well, there was an electric tea kettle and a few other bibs and bobs that clearly belonged into the modern age of electricity. How could anybody live like that?

As he examined the kitchen he noticed the woman standing at the counter. She wasn't very tall with a thin face and very pale skin that contrasted heavily with her long black hair. Her big eyes were of a green that reminded him of shadowy forests outside Insomnia. The long and thin tunic she wore was of a russet colour and looked more like a nightgown to his eyes.

He knew her. It was the woman that he had met at the Black Saffron the day before yesterday. Well, three days ago by now, he supposed. What was her name again? Hiemi? Wait, so the little girl had been...

She came over towards the table with a tray in her hands upon which were three cups and a large pot that wouldn't be out of place in one of the historical romances he liked to read sometimes. Now that she stood next to Healer, who had been awkwardly hovering next to an empty chair, Gladio could see that she was a few centimetres taller than him. The woman gave Healer a chiding glance that lost its bite with the fondly exasperated tilt of her smile.

“Yah overdid it”, she stated.

“Ah know”, he murmured and gave her a chaste kiss on the mouth. “Ah'm sorry.”

“No, yah're not. Now sit down and introduce me so tha' we can have this talk b'fore we've gotta go t' work.”

And Healer did just that.

He gave her hip a gentle squeeze and sat down on the chair across from Gladio while the woman served the tea and then sat down herself. There were a few beats of awkward silence before Healer cleared his throat and introduced the woman next to him.

“Gladio, may ah introduce to yah Hiemi, Dame of this household and mah wife. Hiemi, this's Gladio.” He hesitated, as if he wasn't quite sure how to continue.

Before he could make up his mind about it, Gladio interrupted him: “What in the name of Pitioss' cursed depths were you thinking, Noctis?!”

The young man flinched, his fingers dug into the wooed tabletop until his knuckles turned white and his mouth fell open with no sound escaping him.

In the warm light of the kitchen it had become very clear to Gladio that this Healer was in fact Noctis, despite all the changes. The facial structure practically screamed Lucis Caelum. There was also the magic – magic he had never seen or heard of before – and the fact that he knew his and Iris' name.

“Where the fuck have you been? Do you know how worried your father was? Still is, to this day? Do you know how the nobles are hounding him to produce another heir? He keeps refusing out of love for you and the late Queen and you sit here, healthy and alive, and play house! The King still hopes that you're alive and well, that you're coming home one day. Do you know what your actions did to Ignis? To Iris? To me? Do you-”

By the end he had been nearly screaming, ready to lunge across the table and beat some sense into his prince. If he even deserved that title anymore. But suddenly he was frozen in place. The words tumbling out of his mouth, halted on his tongue and his muscles refused to move. It was like time around him had been halted but everywhere else it moved forward like it always did. He couldn't even blink as he looked at the two people across from him.

Noctis had grown even paler than he already was, hunching his shoulders and shrinking into himself. Hiemi, the woman he had introduced as his wife – and wasn't that a whole other can of worms – was another story. Her eyes were blazing in fury as she rose from her chair, one arm held out in his direction. Around her wrist and along her forearm danced smoky grey chains. Sparks of green and yellow jumped between the individual links.

“Don't yah dare.” She hissed, her face contorted into a sneer. “Don't yah think he knows tha'? Mah husband knows the consequences of his actions quite well, knave Gladiolus. Yah bet there's a damn good reason for it, do yah understand me?”

“Hiemi”, Noctis said in a tone that was barely more than a whisper. At once her attention was on him. “Let him go, please. It's fine.”

“It damn well isn't, and yah know it! Shield or not, friend or not, he can't jus' walk in here and treat yah like this. Healer. Noctis. It's not yahr fault. Yah couldn't 've done anything different. Not with Him watching.”

Gladio listened with growing concern. What was she talking about? Who was this Him? The way he said it he couldn't be a nice guy. Noctis made a keening noise so full of old hurt and fear and guilt that Galdio would have recoiled, if he were able. The prince pressed his face into her abdomen, his hands grasped at the cloth of her tunic and his shoulders shook as if he was crying. She didn't say anything but carded her hands through his long, tangled hair with a tender expression on her face. Gladio dearly wanted to look away, shaken to his core at the scene before him.

“Ssshhhh”, made Hiemi and continued to pet Noctis' hair until he pulled away.

The prince's eyes were thankfully dry and he didn't look quite as much as an anak caught in the headlights anymore. His wife pressed his cup of tea into his hands and he took a sip. And then another, the action calming him down further.

“Now”, she said, her tone brooking no argument, “we're all going tah sit down and talk like the adults we all are. Am ah clear?”

Here she looked sternly at Gladio who still couldn't move. He wished he could point that out to her.

“Mah life, yah need tah take off the spell first”, Noctis reminded her with an amused twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Due to her pale skin, the redness in her cheeks was very noticeable as she cancelled whatever she had done with one last warning look towards him. The chains around her forearm vanished. He carefully flexed his fingers and shifted his weight, to see if everything was back in working order, but he wisely kept his mouth shut and waited for either of the two to speak first. Their short exchange had made it clear that there was more going on than he had thought – than anyone had thought – and he wanted to know what it was.

It was Noctis who started the conversation again.

“Tha' night in tha' alleyway ah was scared shitless, Gladio, and it wasn't because of tha' old drunk with the broken bottle.”

“What in the name of Bahamut's blades happened to you?” asked Gladio and watched uncomprehending, as both of them flinched slightly.

“Please, don't say His name. Down here, He can't see me”, Noctis pleaded.

“What do you mean, down here He can't see you? Wait, the He you were referring to is-?”

Gladio swallowed down the name Bahamut, but the other two knew exactly who he meant. They nodded in unison.

“But why?”

He didn't understand this at all.

“The Bladed One's still one of the Six, one of the Astrals, but His standing, from what ah understand of what Healer told me, is more tha' of the Infernian up there”, answered Hiemi and motioned towards the ceiling.

Ignis would love this.

The sudden thought made Gladio realize that he needed to get the advisor in on this. Gladio himself was in over his head. But that was for later. Now...

“So Ba- the Bladed One is some kind of traitor, a malevolent deity? What does that have to do with why you're hiding in this dump?”

Both of them bristled at his words and Hiemi opened her mouth, clearly prepared to argue, but Noctis' hand on her shoulder held her back. She leaned backwards, still glaring at Gladio like he had insulted her personally.

“It's got everything tah do with it”, said Noctis. “Do yah know the stories of the Lucis Caelums tha' had a magic different from wha' was expected of them?”

Gladio hesitated. He tried to think of the old stories Noctis had liked to read in the archives, when he had been allowed down there, but none came to mind. It was strange, since this was the main reason he had started to like reading historical romance. Try as he might, he couldn't remember a single of those stories the young prince had liked to ramble about on occasion.

“I... cannot say I do, no”, he admitted, feeling strangely ashamed of it.

Noctis just sighed. “Tha's alrigh'. They've always ended violently, with the death of the Lucis Caelum in question, and more often than not with innocent bystanders dead. There're records of Kings killing their own children tah minimize the inevitable damage they'd cause if left tah live. Dad told me the last one left to live died when he collapsed a house on top of him, also killing the people within the building and most of the bystanders. Ah managed tah find records from the Founder's time, where King Somnus decreed in the Bladed One's name tha' every child not of black magic was Bad Faith.”

Gladio gave a quiet curse. He remembered now, the sordid stories Noctis had told and had given him a sour taste in his mouth every single time. The prince seemed to have noticed his discomfort at his retellings and had stopped them after some time. It hadn't stopped him from going into the archives, however.

All of a sudden he had a very bad feeling about this.

“Please tell me you aren't one of those cases, Noctis”, he all but begged, already knowing the answer to this.

Ruefully, the prince in hiding shook his head. “If he finds me it's only a question of time before something happens. Do yah understand? Ah can't go Up because for some reason we can't figure out, He can't find me here. As long as ah'm here nothing'll happen.”

“And what of the rest of Lucis? Should it fall into chaos, conquered by Nifelheim, because you were too much of a coward?”

Noctis pressed his lips into a thin line in displeasure. “And what would you have me do, Gladio? Wait for the dragon to kill me? I've wanted to just march up to the Citadel so many times, I've lost count. You have no idea how much it hurt to stay away from all of you.”

In his ire he was starting to lose that damn accent that had been starting to grate on Gladio.

“Stop!” thundered Hiemi before the argument could escalate any further, her presence backed up by the feeling of powerful magic. “We've been talking abou' contacting His Royal Majesty for some time now. 'Specially in the last few days. The children've been excited ever since they heard we've been considering it. Healer, ah think it's abou' time we finally did it.”

“I... yes”, he relented after a few moments of silence. “It's abou' time.”