#one wrong turn and we’d go flying down like two hundred feet

[winterf4iryy]

guys switzerland is unreal… how does the earth just look like this

[swtki]

Nothing - C. D

Pairing: Cedric Diggory x fem! Reader

Summary: Fears arise when Y/N wants to tell Cedric how many people she’s been with.

Warnings: mentions of sex, angst, swearing, not virgin reader.

A/N: yes this is based off of my feelings and Y/N is me but also this ones for my high body count bitches <3 ur sexy luv u xx.

He was perfect, absolutely flawless. The Golden Boy of Hogwarts stood tall and lean in his quiditch uniform, talking to some mates. I watched from the stone archway as I didn’t want to interrupt the conversation, not that he would have minded much. Cedric was always happy to see me, he loved dropping everything if it meant I was beside him.

His conversation ended once he spotted me and his face lit up in a smile. He did a small jog over to my place on the stone pillar, he immediately pulled me into a warm hug; which despite it being September and warm outside, I accepted with open arms. The scent of his cologne filled my head, replacing the world around me.

“Hey,” he lifted his head and kissed the top of mine, “I feel like I haven’t seen you in months.”. I smiled, he was in love with me and we both knew it.

“You just saw me like two hours ago.” I laugh and pull away. Six months of seeing each other and our relationship was exciting and we longed to see each other constantly. As we walked, our hands linked together, it was natural for us.

“You know,” Cedric said as we tossed our books onto the plush grass, “Christmas break is coming up.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” I reply, shrugging my shoulders. “You’ll go home, I stay here as per usual?”

“Actually, I’ve convinced my Dad to go visit some relatives in America, so I’ll be here.” He noticed my confused expression. “I just want to spend this year with you, since you never go home and your owl isn’t the best at flying to a location.” I laughed, he wqs right; my owl was a poor bastard.

“I see...are you sure you won’t miss home? Theres not going to be anyone here - I mean except the handfull of other Hufflepuffs that stay. Its awfully boring.” I watched his face soften, leaning in closer to me.

“Thats exactly why I wan’t to stay.” The air outside was cold, but his warm body made it bearable. “You’ve never spent the night with me - sleeping in my bed, I mean. I dunno, just kind of thought you might like a sleep over in the prefects dorm.”.

“Oh.” I looked back down at my feet, avoiding his eyes. He was right, we’d never been in the others room, never mind going to sleep in it. I knew he would never expect me to have sex with him, he genuinely just wanted to see me - to hold me for just one night.

“I know we haven’t ever...y’know, so I of course don’t think this is my lucky chance or anything. Although, if it were I would love it - because you know it would be my first time-“ he quickly shut up when he realized I had gone stiff. There it was, the truth that he could tell me and I couldn’t tell him; He was a virgin, I was far from it.

“I need to um...I need to think about it. Okay, Ced? Don’t think you’ve said anything wrong, I’m just afraid that I might.” Kissing him on the cheek, I stood and walked towards the library. “Fuck.” slithered out of my mouth as I made my harsh steps.

The library was dim, candlelight and sounds of quills filling it. I spotted my closest friend, Mae, and thumped myself down into the wooden chair next to her.

“If you’ve come to arrange Hogsmeade plans I’m afraid Professor-“

“Cedric’s a virgin.” I said quietly, she relaxed and looked sympathetically at me.

“Haven’t we known that?”

“Well...yes, but he confirmed it. He wants me to spend the night with him.”

“And you don’t want to?” there was a hint of amusement in her voice.

“No!” I whispered, “Of course I do. Everytime I see him in that quidditch jersey I wanna give him a proper shag.”

“He is absolutley fit, who wouldn’t?” I glared at her. “So, whats the problem then?”

I huffed and rolled my eyes to the back of my head. “I haven’t told him how many I’ve had. He thinks I’m as pure as can be.” Maes face fell along side my own.

“Honestly, Y/N? Cedric loves you so I don’t think it will be too much of an issue, if it is then he’s not worth it. Besides its not like over three, yeah?” I quickly lost eye contact with her. “Oh.”

“Over five, to be honest.” I shamefully admit.

“Listen, whatever number it is won’t matter to him. He cares about you, not how many lads you’ve shagged.” Mae stood and collected her belongings, “I’ve gotta run, I’ll see you at dinner in a few.” We waved goodbye to each other.

The next Saturday soon approached, and most of the young witches and wizards departed in its place. Mae had gone home for the holidays, offering me her long distanced support for the talk I needed to have with Cedric. I desperately wanted to avoid it, telling him could ruin everything I’d come to love.

I softly knocked on the smooth wooden door, listening to the shuffle behind it. Cedric opened it and ushered me in, taking my jacket off as soon as I was. His room was warm, rather small yet clean as could be. It could only fit his twin bed, a dresser, and a desk, all the necessities.

“Would you like to borrow one of my sweaters? I don’t want you to be cold or anything?” He said nervously.

“Oh, I’m alright, this is one of your sweaters actually” I pulled at the hem of my top, we both gave a soft laugh. “Its sort of strange,” I looked around the space, “being in your room, I mean. Nice, welcome of course, yet its still a strange feeling.”

“Theres not much option for seating, so I’ll let you have your choice.” I smiled and studied the chair, it was old and wooden.

“I’ll take the bed, I suppose.” I sat down on top of the yellowish orange quilt and he made himself comfortable on the chair. “Cedric, I need to talk to you about something.” His smile turned to a worried expression. “Do you want to be physical with me? I of course want you more than anything, but I know you’re a virgin so I want to wait for you to be ready. I want you to trust me, and I don’t know. If you don’t want to be intimate yet then we can leave this discussion til then, its not pressing.” I looked down at the floor, feeling the bed dip next to me as he sat. He took my hand into his, tilting his head down so he could look me in the eye.

“Y/N, of course I do. Nothing you tell me is going to change how much I love you, nothing. Please, don’t feel like you must hide yourself from me.” His eyes were gentle, his voice smooth as honey.

“I’m not exactly first in line for the chastity competition, well - actually, I’m probably not even tenth. Its not in the hundreds or anything like that, but there are a number of lads who have seen me in compromising positions. I don’t have anything, but if you want to hold off on being intimate I completely understand.” He brought his hand to my cheek, bringing my face to look at his. He kissed me gently and squeezed my left hand.

“Like I said, nothing is going to change how much I love you. I don’t care if its three or three million, you know it will never be the same with them as it will be with me, because I love you, and you’re the woman I’ve been waiting to give my virginity to.” he wrapped his warm arms around me, pulling me into his chest. “I love you, Y/N”

“I love you. Would it be a bad time to ask if you have a johnny tonight, just for future reference of course.” we both smiled, the room being filled with a mixture of love and warmth.

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[ncssian]

A Favor: Part Twenty-Eight

Nessian Modern AU

Masterlist

a/n: the beginning of the end :,) if u made it this far i think ur cool

***

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Lana asks.

Nesta closes her eyes, letting the picture swirl and take shape in her mind.

This time last year, she would have imagined nothing. Nothing but a desk in a busy law office, and maybe a nice apartment if she was lucky. That would be it. But now she sees…

“Somewhere with good food and good music,” she muses. “Maybe a sea breeze.” The sun-faded buildings of Portofino fade into the foreground of her imagination. “There are lots of people with me,” she hears the sound of children shrieking and Cassian’s rumbling laughter, “but it’s okay, because I love every one of them.” Her eyes open. “Is that a good answer?”

A near invisible smile tugs at the corners of Lana’s lips. “You tell me, Nesta. Do you like what you see?”

“It’s a little too cinematic if you ask me,” Nesta says nonchalantly, picking up her bag from the ground, “but I suppose all dreams are that way.”

“It’s a good dream,” Lana says. “A worthy dream, and one you deserve to chase.”

Nesta shrugs lightly, not too worried about the burden of the future for once. “Maybe I will.”

“In that case, congratulations on completing your final therapy session,” Lana says, setting her notebook aside. “You’ve made some amazing progress this year.”

Nesta gives her therapist her signature what’s-wrong-with-you look. “I’m going on vacation, not firing you for good. I’ll see you again in two months.”

“Two months can be enough to lose all your progress, if you forget everything you went through to get here.”

Nesta isn’t stupid. She knows that she isn’t suddenly desperate to make babies or be maid of honor at her sisters’ weddings or some bullshit. She knows that the image she just dreamed up, with Cassian and kids and her unburdened heart, is likely more than five years away. If it happens at all, it could be ten, even twenty years of hard work away.

She’s not nearly finished growing yet. “I’ll see you in two months, Lana,” she repeats.

Lana smiles at her fully this time. “Enjoy your summer, Nesta.”

***

The air is different in the Smokies.

Nesta rolls the truck windows down so she can inhale it, relish it. Wind whips her hair every which way as they drive down the winding freeway cutting through the lush mountains, and something about the look on her face makes Cassian chuckle and press down on the accelerator.

Nesta watches the red needle on the speedometer cross ninety, then one hundred. She can barely feel the June heat with how fast they’re going.

In the end, it was Feyre and Elain that reached out and invited her to the Tennessee summer home. Cassian had made it obvious that he wouldn’t push her to go if she didn’t want to, and at first she really didn’t want to. But Feyre had looked so hopeful when she asked Nesta to come with them, and even Elain had revealed a glimmer of eagerness that Nesta would say yes.

So against all odds, she agreed to go.

Exchanging one mountain home for another isn’t much of a getaway, but Nesta can’t help but be excited. Even with the unhappy memories of her childhood, she loves these hills more than any other.

The pure exhilaration of being back in Tennessee overcomes her at some point during the drive, knocking her out in the passenger seat where she sits. In her drowsy state, she distantly hears the windows being rolled up, before feeling Cassian’s hand guide her head to rest against the glass. The rest of the drive is warm and sunny, enough to lull her into a deep sleep.

The next thing Nesta’s aware of is the crunch of gravel and the feeling of the truck tires slowing to a stop. Fingers brush against her heated cheek, and then Cassian is murmuring at her to wake up.

Blinking her eyes open, Nesta twists around to see their destination.

For a moment, she thinks she’s still dreaming.

“Welcome to Holly House,” Cassian says with a grin. The house in question is quaint and sprawling at the same time, the way most upper class Southerners like their houses. The whole thing gleams with a fresh coat of white paint under the afternoon sun, complemented by a sky blue wraparound porch. Colonial style windows and proud columns decorating the facade of the building makes it look like the setting of a fairy tale.

Beyond it, Nesta can see cherry blossoms. Pink, fluttering cherry blossoms that fly off their branches and swirl through the air, some of them disappearing into the thick woods behind the house. Woods that Nesta has walked countless times before.

“The rest of the guys won’t get here until tomorrow afternoon,” Cassian is saying to her, “so we have the whole place to our—”

Nesta isn’t listening anymore. She unbuckles her seatbelt and shoves open the truck door, hobbling outside on unsteady feet to make sure she isn’t hallucinating things. But no, this is…

“Cherrywood,” she breathes, eyes wide in disbelief.

Cassian gets out of the truck, coming up beside Nesta to slip his hand into her shorts pocket. “What’s wrong? You okay?”

“This is Rhysand’s summer home?” Nesta points at the house. “This place?”

Cassian looks around at the building grounds in confusion. “Has been for the last two decades, yeah.”

It’s been eleven years since she last stepped foot on these grounds.

With wonderment in her voice, she utters to Cassian, “I’ve been here before.”

At his puzzled look, she explains, “I lived just on the other side of those woods.” She points to the trees. “There’s an old cracked road that hasn’t been maintained since it was first paved, and you can follow it straight to the poor side of town. Whenever I wanted to get away, I would come down that road and trek through the woods, and I’d end up here. I stopped coming because…” she trails off.

Because she got caught that one time.

Cassian seems to realize it at the same moment as her. His hand slips out of her pocket. “You…”

Nesta remembers a tall boy with shocked eyes and shaggy hair, and she shakes her head slowly in forceful denial. It can’t be true. It’s too much of a coincidence.

But he points at her, then her feet. “You—with the size six Converse,” he sputters. “It was you.”

Before Nesta can confirm or deny it, he grabs her by the wrist and starts tugging her along, up the porch stairs and inside the house.

Even with Rhysand and Feyre’s renovations, it looks undeniably the same as all those years ago. The living room is to her right and the farmhouse style kitchen and dining area is to the left, though she speeds by it all as Cassian pulls her farther inside the house, to the closet beneath the curving stairs.

He lets go of her hand to search the small closet, muttering, “I know they were here somewhere.” But the closet looks like it was stripped empty for renovations, with only bolts in the walls indicating that shoe racks used to hang there.

Cassian turns and heads for the stairs, and Nesta blindly follows him. She also wants to go upstairs, wants to see if the bay window looking out onto the garden has stayed the same.

Like he read her mind, he leads her straight to the room she used to spend hours reading in. It’s smaller than all the other bedrooms in the house, but it’s always been her favorite because of the view.

As Cassian keeps looking for whatever it is he’s looking for, upturning boxes and checking beneath furniture, Nesta drifts toward the bay window. She looks from the cherry blossom trees outside, to the full-sized bed, to Cassian, and a weight drops even heavier in her gut. She has to reach out and grip the edge of the dresser for support.

Finally, Cassian pops out of the closet victorious. In his hand are a pair of ragged shoes that Nesta hasn’t worn in a long, long time.

He comes over and drops them with a thud at her feet.

“Whose room is this?” she asks with a rough voice, still staring down at the shoes.

“Mine,” he answers simply.

“Oh.” She met him before. She met him before.

When Nesta dares to look up and meet Cassian’s eyes, what she finds there nearly robs her of breath: wonder, astonishment, and unwavering fealty. He breaks into sudden wholehearted laughter, which dazes her even more.

“What’s so funny?” she demands.

Cassian gets out between laughs, “What was it Rhysand said about Feyre? When they found out they were close to crossing paths when they were younger?”

Nesta’s earth-tilting shock slowly slips away, replaced by a stern look. “Don’t say it.”

He pretends to remember. “I think it was fate.” A wicked smirk pulls at his lips at Nesta’s resigned sigh. “But I have another word for it, too.”

“Don’t say that, either.” She pleadingly holds up her hands, only for Cassian to snatch one out of the air and intertwine his fingers with hers.

“Soulmate,” he says quietly, now less amused.

Nesta swallows thickly, not having any words for him. All she knows is that he is never going to let her live this down.

“Imagine if we’d gone to the same high school,” Cassian says to her later that afternoon as they lounge in his old room. “Fuck, I could’ve saved myself so much time with all those random girls.” They’ve been swapping childhood stories for the past hour, as if they might find more instances in their history of a red string tying them together.

Nesta doesn’t need coincidences or fateful run-ins to know that a string has always been wrapped around her ring finger, pulling her to Colorado and to that cabin. But for Cassian’s sake, she’ll gladly amuse him. “I would have been a freshman while you were a senior,” she says matter-of-factly. “It never could have happened.”

He hums in thought, head propped up in his hand, elbow propped up against the bay window seat. “Maybe if you were older. You would have been the smart, quiet girl, and I’d have been the player jock, and as soon as we locked eyes in math class, I’d be head over heels in love with you.”

Nesta cackles from where she sits in the window seat above him. “Now you’re just writing fanfiction.”

Cassian grins up at her but doesn’t send a rebuttal her way. The conversation falls into a lull, until Nesta has to reach out and ask, “What are you thinking?”

His smile turns a little sad. “That I wish we weren’t doing this right before I leave for another country.”

Right. That’s what’s been hanging over them the entire trip to Tennessee: that as soon as they get back to Colorado, Cassian is going to be on a plane to Milan.

Getting Keith O’Connell to quit—how exactly Cassian went about accomplishing it, he still won’t tell Nesta—left Rhysand at square one with his search for a team leader for his overseas venture.

When Cassian brought up the idea of taking the job to Nesta, he sounded like he hoped she would shoot him down, talk him out of it. He both wanted to go and was reluctant to leave, like his very soul was glued to his home and he didn’t want to unstick himself.

So Nesta, being his home, had to do the unsticking for him. She nearly accepted the year-long Milan position herself for Cassian’s sake, and it took weeks of coaxing and convincing to put him at ease about the whole thing.

“But we promised to go together for the first time,” he kept saying.

“We’ll still go together one day, and it’ll still be our first time there with each other,” she reassured him.

Eventually, he relented to her and Rhysand’s pressures with a single condition. “I’ll do six months. Not a year.”

Only Nesta knows deep down how much Cassian needs this opportunity. Though Cassian must know it a little bit too, because he wouldn’t have taken the job if he didn’t.

Nesta might have needed him in order to come out of her shell, but now he needs to get away from her in order to find his own shell. Something he can call his own, unburdened by his loyalties to the people he loves. So he can find who he wants to be for himself, without always being attached to her hip.

Rising to her feet, Nesta raises her arms in the air in a full body stretch. Her back and legs ache with being curled up in that window seat for so long without movement.

Dropping her arms, she holds out a hand to Cassian still sitting on the floor. “Come on,” she urges him. “Let’s go outside. I haven’t seen a Smoky sunset in years.”

“But it’s not evening yet,” he argues while taking her hand.

Outside, they explore the garden that leads into the woods while waiting for the sun to slink down the sky. Cherry blossoms ride the summer breeze wherever it takes them, resulting in Cassian sniffling and scratching at his neck as they walk hand in hand.

“Rhysand wanted to take these trees down and replace them with a flower garden for Elain,” he tells Nesta as they walk. His sinuses sound clogged, but he’s refused to go back inside until he’s explained every inch of the land to Nesta. “I convinced him not to because it would ruin the view from my bedroom window. Didn’t I make the right choice?” He throws a grin in her direction.

Nesta’s swallow is tight at that grin. “The view from your room was always my favorite part about the entire place. So yes, you did good.”

His eyes widen at that tidbit of information, and she can almost see him tucking it away as more Soulmate Evidence.

They stroll through the woods for a while, and Nesta points out the path she would take to get to Cherrywood—she still insists on calling it Cherrywood, even when Cassian argues that the house’s original name has been around since the sixties.

“Show me the rest of the way?” Cassian asks her, face lit up in boyish hope. “Show me where you ran away to that day I found you.”

Nesta almost expects the memory of the rundown apartment complex she grew up in to feel like being shoved into sludge: dirty, cold, and slimy. Instead, she finds she has no problem with looking back at her old home, no matter how many ugly memories she holds from there.

However, the dappled sunlight streaming in through the trees overhead has turned from yellow to dark gold, and she shakes her head in apology to Cassian. “Another day,” she promises him. “It’s almost sunset.”

They walk back to the house, rounding it until they reach the front. At the bottom of the hill that the house is perched on stands a pier that leads all the way out to the lake. Green mountains frame the lake from both sides, creating the perfect cradle for the sun to sink into.

They go all the way out to the edge of the pier, as if they’re trying to get as close to the sunset as physically possible. Dragonflies lazily swoop by as the lake is gradually painted in a hundred different colors.

Once there’s more darkness than light in the sky, Cassian nudges Nesta with one of the arms he has around her. “Look.” He points.

Along the shoreline of the lake, little dots of light have lit up to welcome the evening, their blinking glow so small that Nesta almost doesn’t catch it. Fireflies.

Nesta watches the insects flit in and out of the long grasses of the lake shore, getting tangled in the weeds and wildflowers. In that moment, she remembers something Cassian once confessed to her not long after his birthday.

I want to see more beautiful places with you.

Nesta ticks this beautiful place off the long list in her head—the first place out of many that she plans to see with Cassian.

More beautiful than the scene before her is the man in her arms. The man who was kind enough to understand a woman who barely understood herself, and to be her friend when she had none. The man who is extending his kindness right now by not having made any breaking-and-entering jokes about Nesta so far, though she’s sure he’ll pull them out eventually.

Discovering that she once found Cassian, just to let him slip by running away from him, only to find him again over a decade later—it comforts the tiny part of her that’s loath to say goodbye to him in two weeks.

Like Cassian is thinking the same thing, he murmurs into the dark, “I can’t wait to come back to you.”

Nesta huffs in amusement. “You haven’t even left yet.”

“I know.” After a moment, he adds in a low voice that not even the fireflies can hear, “Thank you for convincing me to go.”

She reaches up to squeeze his bicep. “Always.” And then she adds what she really wants him to hear: “Don’t come back until you find what you’re looking for.”

“I better find it quick then,” he jokes. Still, he nods in promise against the side of her head.

The only sound after that is the chirp of cicadas and the occasional lap of water meeting the pier beams. Nesta and Cassian stay outside in the June heat long after the sky turns ink blue.

***

a/n: next chapter is just some ic bullshit so take all ur bittersweet sentimentality here and go

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[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

Hello! Not the promised angst, but I needed to cheer myself up today, so here’s some cuteness, a touch of emotional hurt, and a soft ending.

(CW for discussion of drunken shenanigans, after the fact, extremely mild.)

--

The moment Crowley woke up, he knew something was wrong.

Even with his eyes closed – the room smelled too dusty, the air too dry. The pillows were too soft, the sheets nowhere near Egyptian cotton, and he was burrowed under a blanket that was thicker and heavier than anything he owned. It was comfortable, but it was wrong.

There was also someone moving nearby, footsteps treading softly near the bed.

Old instincts activated, bringing him from drowsy to alert in less than a second, without changing his posture in any way. Let the intruder think he still slept. He pictured the layout of his room, the distance to the door, the exact spot of the fancy lamp on his bedside table. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it should buy time. He’d need to roll over, it was behind him, and from the sound of it the intruder was…inside…the wall?

Pressing his face into the pillow, Crowley slowly cracked open one eye.

The wall was much farther away than he remembered, and the room much brighter, and filled with bookshelves, and…

“For Ssssssomeone’s sake, Angel,” he groaned, sitting up. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

Aziraphale turned from where he was sliding books onto a shelf, blinking innocently. “I’m terribly sorry, did I wake you?”

“Obviously.” He glared around the room, which seemed identical to the rest of the shop, apart from the presence of the bed, and beside the door a wash table with pitcher, bowl, and pile of black towels below a small mirror. Everything else was floor-to-ceiling shelves, filled with spines of bright leather, faded cloth, and even a few paperbacks. The tartan curtains in the windows were identical to those hanging from the four corners of the bed.

“Well, I didn’t mean to. Just tidying up a bit while you rested.”

“Hng.” Crowley abruptly realized those were not towels on the wash table, but a pile of neatly folded clothing. A quick – if hopefully unnoticed – search under the covers revealed he wasn’t wearing much. “What, mmmmh, what happened last night?”

“Last night?” Aziraphale sounded genuinely confused.

“Don’t—” He struggled to remember through the sleep-colored haze. “We went to the Ritz. Celebrating. Then came back here for some wine and…”

“Ah.” The angel set the rest of his books down and crossed the hardwood floor. He’d taken his shoes off, presumably to be quieter, but Crowley could still hear every pad of tartan-socked feet, every creak of old boards. “Yes, we had…quite a lot of wine. I dare say we’d earned it, after the day we’d had, but your mood went from celebratory to rather daring, to, I suppose…downright scandalous.”

“Ngk.” Crowley clutched at the mattress where Aziraphale couldn’t see, and kept his jaw locked and face neutral. He was sure he could have hidden is reaction completely, had he been wearing his blessed glasses. Still didn’t know where those had ended up.

“Oh, yes.” Aziraphale sat on the edge of the bed, almost close enough to touch. “Somewhere around midnight you suddenly leapt to your feet and staggered across the floor, declaring you were…well…you wanted to do something you’d never done before, something you’d never have been allowed while we were still on our old sides.”

“Oh, no.” There was no hiding it now. Crowley’s hand shot out to cover his eyes. “Oh, no, no, Aziraphale…I…”

“It was all quite garbled and slurred,” the angel continued, “but I think it had something to do with teaching the Bentley to fly?”

“!”

Peeking over his hand, he caught a glimpse of Aziraphale’s shining eyes and amused smile. And, yes, now that he thought of it, he distinctly remembered his elaborate plan to miracle the engine and…

“Nnnnrrrrrg, tell me I didn’t crash into anything.”

“Now, really! I was hardly going to let you leave in that state.” Aziraphale quickly stood up, tugging the blankets smooth again. “No, I dragged you up here so that I could lock you in until you agreed to sober up and be sensible again.”

“Oh. Oh. Good.” There was no hiding his red face now. He lowered his hand and tried to subtly pull the blankets a little higher up his bare chest.

“You didn’t seem to think so at the time. Called me a self-righteous jailer, among other less-savory terms. I was worried you’d break the window and escape that way.”

A quick glance revealed that he hadn’t done that, at least. “Aziraphale, I – I—”

“I came in an hour later.” Now his eyebrow arched, an expression Crowley rarely saw. “You had removed most of your clothing and dropped yourself on the floor next to the bed. Claimed you were looking for the bathtub.”

That was it. Crowley was going to discorporate from sheer embarrassment. A perfect ending to their attempted defection. Hell wouldn’t even kill him for this, just make him retell the story over and over for their amusement…

“Actually…” He looked up again to find that Aziraphale’s face had gone serious. “Considering, well, what I’d seen that day…I didn’t find it very funny at all. So I helped you into the bed and told you to stay here until you’d recovered. And you. Ah.” He fidgeted, twisting the ring on his finger. “You asked me to join you. Because…because the forces of Hell were still after you. And nothing would stop them.”

“Nnnnnnnnh.” Crowley dropped back onto the bed, pulling blankets to his chin and turning his back on Aziraphale. He remembered, far too clearly, the two demons barging into his flat – Hastur suddenly appearing in his Bentley, which was more his home than anywhere else – a thousand intrusions of voices and faces over radio and television, whenever he least expected it – the ground rumbling as Satan himself approached—

Aziraphale continued, voice very soft. “You seemed…confused, but truly afraid.”

“Did…did you…?” Even turned away, he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

“No. I thought it would be, ah, inappropriate considering your…state. But…I did promise to stay in the room and watch over you until you woke.”

Somehow, knowing that made Crowley relax, just a little. “And…you were here all night?”

“All night? My dear fellow, that was three days ago. But, yes, I’ve been here the whole time. You talk in your sleep, you know. In dead languages. It was quite amusing.”

“Mmmmmnnnnnnrrrrrgk,” Crowley managed. Then, much softer, “Thanks.”

“It was my pleasure.” The sound of his fingers brushing the fabric of the blanket seemed too loud in the quiet room. “Are you…ah…you may sleep longer, if you wish?” He sounded uncertain.

Crowley shrugged.

“Perhaps I should give you privacy—”

“No.” He bit his lip. Stupid demon.

“Oh. Well. Would you like me to go back to what I was doing? I’ll try to be quieter this time.”

“No.” Stop that. “F’you want.”

“I see.”

A short pause, then the blankets stirred, the mattress sank under the new weight.

And then, pressed up against his back, a glorious warmth, a soft curve of stomach. Aziraphale’s arm draped across him, loose but secure, pulling him a little closer. Protecting him.

“This?”

“Yes.” Relax wasn’t the word for it; Crowley felt himself melt against his angel, a hundred creeping unnamed fears that were always with him suddenly dissolving into a warm glow.

“You rest, then. I’ll be right here.”

“Mmmmh.” He closed his eyes, the better to take in the sensations, the brush of breath on his neck, gentle pressure of fingers, the velvet softness of Aziraphale’s waistcoat.

“Oh. Um. There was one other thing. When I put you in bed you, ah…you tried to kiss me.”

Crowley’s eyes flew open.

“I…I said…you could try again when you were awake. Ah. If you still wanted—”

Quick as only a snake could be – if he were any slower, he’d have time to talk himself out of it – Crowley twisted around and pressed his lips into Aziraphale’s cheek. Then he spun back, lips still tingling, entire body ready to burst into flames from sheer embarrassment.

Aziraphale chuckled. “Sweet dreams, my dearest.” And gently kissed Crowley’s shoulder blade.

“Nnnnnnnk.” He managed to find Aziraphale’s hand and clasp it, weaving their fingers together. “Good night, Angel.”

[all-my-love-for-harry]

Puppy love.

summary: Harry finally makes his lover’s wishes come true when they adopt a dog together.

word count: 2.2k

based on this request:

“please could you write a cute domestic puppy piece? Maybe just lazy day / taking their pup for a walk 🥺 and maybe y/n is pregnant and the puppy is super protective”

a/n: send me more ideas pls, i’m in a writing mood but idk what to write haha

you can find the rest of my masterlist here.

*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･:

Usually when people decide to adopt a dog, they’re always secretly looking for a puppy, thinking it’d be easier to handle rather than an older dog. It was quite sad, to be honest. There were dozens, if not hundreds of animals looking for a home, waiting to be adopted and it wasn’t fair people ignored big dogs with the excuse that they could be aggressive. Well, at least it to Y/N, it wasn’t fair. A dog was something she’s been wanting for a while. And was also the one thing Harry has been unable to give her. Tight schedules, interviews, traveling and touring were a few reasons why they haven’t adopted a pet, leaving it as the only desire Y/N had that Harry was yet to fulfill.

But today was the day. Y/N has finally convinced Harry and they were on their way to the shelter, ready to meet as many dogs as they could with the hope of finding the one. She wasn’t looking for anything in specific, telling herself she’d go with an open mind.

“We can take one, love.” Harry remained her when they went out of the car, intertwining their fingers as they walked inside of the building. He knew the moment they walked in, his girlfriend would be bawling her eyes out because she can’t take every single one of the dogs home with them.

“This is the best day of my life.” She whispered in excitement and Harry chuckled at the way her eyes light up.

“Oh, evening. What can I do for you?” A middle aged woman spoke from behind her desk, offering them a friendly smile while pushing her glasses.

“We’re here to—”

“We’d like to adopt.” Y/N interrupted him, squeezing his hand.

The woman’s smile grew bigger as she stood up from her chair, taking a set of keys from her desk. “Alright. Follow me, please.” She gestured the door that was a couple of steps from where they were standing and started walking, Harry and Y/N just behind her. “Are you looking for anything specific?”

“No. We, uh, we’d like to look around for a bit, if that’s okay.” Harry said.

“That’s fine, you can take your time.” She smiled at them then opened the door, revealing dozens of dogs in every color and every size. The animals started barking and jumping in their places. Y/N’s eyes filled with instant tears when she saw they had them in cages.

She sniffed and Harry looked down at her, concerned. He furrowed his eyebrows then squeezed her hand, trying to soothe her. “Thank you.” He said to the woman before passing through her and entered the room. For a moment he felt slightly overwhelmed for all the barking and noise the dogs were making, but he quickly recovered when Y/N let go of his hand to kneel in front of a Pomeranian. “He’s cute.”

“His name is Barry, oh my god.” She practically squealed as she read the little card that was attached to the dog’s cage. “Harryyy.” Y/N practically dragged the words, too excited to care.

“He arrived last month.” The woman commented from behind.

“Hi, baby. What a good boy”

Harry started to walk around the room, observing a few dogs himself. He was obviously going to let her pick their new pet, being okay with whatever she desired. But look around wouldn’t hurt either. They spent a little time apart, but Harry was still able to hear Y/N’s squeals as well as his name being called at least a hundred times whenever she knelt in front of another dog.

He smiled as small Chihuahua started barking at him. The little fella was so small it could easily fit on Harry’s big hand, and he knew his baby would love it so he called for her.

“You like this one?” She asked, smiling at the dog. “Her name’s Pippa. Oh my god, who picks their names? I’m gonna cry.”

“A few volunteers like to name them. They come a few times a week.”

Y/N nodded at the woman, returning her vision at Harry. “What do you say?”

“I don’t know. You choose, baby.” He smiled sweetly at her.

“Okay. Come see this one, I was just with him when you called me.” She took his hand in hers and pulled from him gently. Harry let her lead him to whatever part of the room she previously was and his eyes winded when he saw a beautiful Siberian husky laying on the floor.

The dog itself looked majestic in his opinion. It was a big ball of fur with a pair of beautiful, crystal blue eyes that were looking directly at him. “His name’s Thor. He’s so adorable, isn’t he?”

“Ah, I see you found Thor. Poor thing’s been looking for a home for quite some time now. A few people come by and see him but never adopt him.”

“Why wouldn’t someone want him?”

“Big dogs aren’t always practical, Sir.”

Harry pouted unconsciously. “I know he’s large, but look at him.” His girlfriend made puppy eyes at him, and he could tell she was trying to hold it together after hearing no one wanted to adopt Thor.

“He’s perfect.” He turned to the woman. “We’d like to take him with us, please.”

“You don’t want to discuss it first?”

“No need. He’s the one.” The green eyed man said confidently.

//

Thor might look like a whole ass wolf, but in reality he was the biggest softie you’d ever met in your life. In the ride back home, Y/N sat in the back of the car with him, and the dog immediately put his head on her lap, its tail never stopped moving as she scratched its ears. Being almost 2ft, Thor occupied pretty much the whole backseat, leaving Y/N squeezed by the window, not that she minded.

“How are we feeling, uh?” Harry asked after a while.

“He’s perfect. Do you think we have everything we need at home for him? I want him to be comfortable.”

Yesterday they had gone on a trip to the store to buy everything they thought they might need to welcome their new pet into their home. Two bowls for water and food, a couple of collars and leashes to take him out, every toy the store had available and a bed.

The only thing they were lacking was dog food, but it was because they didn’t know which dog they’d take from the shelter and didn’t want to buy the wrong one.

“We can make a quick stop at the store for food, it’s on the way home.”

Y/N smiled, sighing happily while leaning down to hug Thor. She got lost on all its fur, nuzzling him gently. She had read stories about how dogs from shelters often tended to act aggressively at first, as they probably had a bad life before, but she was glad Thor wasn’t like that.

//

“Thor, come right here!”

The large dog ran outside the house and towards Y/N, thinking he was being summoned to play in the backyard, but was met with its owner standing next to a massive whole in the ground, where Y/N’s freshly planted daisies were supposed to be.

“Jesus Christ, look at you!” She exclaimed. Thor’s white fur was now brown because of all of the dirt he played with. “Daddy gave you a shower yesterday.”

At hearing the word ‘daddy’, Thor started jumping around while barking happily, starting to run around in look for Harry. Suddenly, Y/N wasn’t mad at him anymore for destroying her garden, instead, her heart melted at how adorable he was.

Yeah, Thor could dig a hole in the ground whenever he wanted and he could send all her flowers flying if that’s what made him happy.

//

Today but six months ago, Harry and Y/N were on their way to the nearest shelter to finally adopt a pet together, not knowing Thor would be entering their life with its chaotic personality and its big heart, changing their life forever. Having a dog together definitely made the couple closer and stronger, as Thor basically became their child.

They celebrated with a day out. The couple took Thor to the dog park, playing with him for hours. The big husky loved to chase Harry around until the both of them were in the ground, the dog lapping his face happily. Sometimes Thor forgets its size and acted like a baby, practically begging Harry to lift him and carry him around.

There were several pictures the next day of them at the park, and the fans were collapsing over the content of Harry with Thor. Y/N thought one specific picture of the three of them walking down the street and back to their car looked so cute that she had to post it with the caption ‘six’, again making everyone die out of love.

//

One of the things Harry did first thing in the morning was go for a run. Now, before he used to go alone, as he always let Y/N sleep a little longer, but now he had an exercise buddy to take in as many runs he wanted. They were usually out for an hour or so, and when they were back, Thor always went straight to his water bowl first then to his bed to take a nap. However, after he hydrated, he went straight upstairs to the master bedroom.

Harry followed him upstairs, seeing with a smile how the dog jumped on the bed and cuddled with Y/N. Thor was a cuddler, it was no secret, so he going with her wasn’t a surprise for Harry. It was only when Harry sat down beside them and Thor started whining that the man grew confused. Thor put its head on top of Y/N’s stomach, looking at Harry.

“What’s wrong, mate?” He asked as he extended his arm to scratch the dog’s head.

Y/N started moving, fluttering her eyes open and smiling softly when her vision caught her favorite boys there. “Morning.”

“Morning, precious.” Harry smiled. “Just came back from out run.”

“Have you showered yet?” He shocks his head. “Then go, I’ll start breakfast.” She leaned towards him to kiss his check before standing up. “How do you feel about banana pancakes?”

“Sounds delicious.”

Y/N walked out of the room with Thor right behind her. Harry shrugged off Thor’s previously odd behavior and went to take a shower. After he was done, he went downstairs and to the kitchen where he found his girlfriend flipping some pancakes with Thor laying closely by her feet.

Thor’s odd behavior continued for a few days, always wanting to be as close as possible to Y/N and nearly panicking whenever she left his sight. He’d lay by her feet or on her lap if she was on the couch, and he’d follow her around like her personal bodyguard if she was on the move.

At first it was quite adorable, but then Thor started whining whenever Harry wanted to come closer, not allowing him to cuddle with Y/N.

In the seventh day, Y/N started to feel sick, she’d wake up and throw up first thing in the morning. They thought it was just something she ate, thinking it would go away in a few days. But then she started to throw up more and more and Harry started panicking, so they went to the doctor.

“We’ll run a few tests to find out what’s wrong, including a pregnancy one.”

“P-pregnancy?” Harry shuttered.

“I’m not pregnant, doctor.” Y/N assured.

“We might as well be sure.”

The results arrived in just half an hour, but it surely felt like an eternity. Harry couldn’t stop thinking about the pregnancy test. He’d be lying if he said a part of him was excited to know whether he has created a new life with the love of his life or not, but he didn’t want to get his hopes too high. And the other part of him was terrified of the possibility of Y/N being pregnant.

When they were finally back with the doctor, Harry held Y/N’s hand and squeezed it tightly. She looked at him and he gave her a smile, assuring her that no matter what the results said, they’d be fine.

“Congratulations, you’ll be parents.” The doctor lifted her head from the papers, offering the both of them a gentle smile. “You’re three months pregnant, what explains the morning sickness you’ve been experiencing.”

Harry sat there in shock, the fact that he was actually going to be a father finally hitting him. “I’m gonna be a dad.” He whispered. His head snapped up, his eyes looking for Y/N’s. “You’re gonna be a mum.”

Y/n choked a sob, standing from her place at the same time as Harry and hugged him tightly. He pulled her closer to his chest as he kissed the top of her head, a few tears rolling down from his eyes.

“I guess I’m having your baby, eh?” Now it was Harry’s turn to choke a sob, barely able to speak due all the emotions he was feeling right now.

//

“Can you believe Thor knew first?” Harry said when they were finally inside of their car again, ready to drive back home.

“What do you mean?”

“Dogs can tell if a woman is pregnant.” He said. “And that would explain why he behaved like he did.”

“Like what?”

“He panicked whenever you weren’t in the room, always followed you around. He even waited for you outside of the bathroom!”

“He just loves me more than he loves you.” She joked.

“Yeah, but he will love our baby even more.”

Our baby.

Didn’t sound that bad, didn’t it?

[topazy]

The fierce and broken

1.08

Masterlist

“Anya, look! Over there.”

You glanced at a fire in the distance. Oh, great. Burning alive would probably be better than whatever Anya had planned for you. You didn’t understand why she hadn’t just killed you? Was she toying with you? Anya stood up, “a signal fire.”

“Reapers.”

Anya glared at you before turning to face Tristan. “Let them know we see it. I'll send my fastest rider to warm the commander.”

“Is the boy dead?” Anya asked the masked grounder.

He nodded. No, no, no. Finn couldn’t be dead. How could you have let them kill him? You should have done more. He was your friend and he trusted you to have his back. You fought back tears not wanting to give the grounders the satisfaction of seeing your pain.

“Good,” she looked down at you. “Kill the girl, then catch up.”

The moment Anya turned her back you tried to run away, but the masked grounder yanked on your chains.

______

The first thing you saw when you awoke a two headed horse. You said nothing, pretending to still be unconscious. Try and live a little longer. The horse suddenly came to a halt at a hilltop, where the grounder surprisingly let you down gently.

You took a few steps back, prepared to run when a rustling noise from behind caught your attention. Tears of happiness threatened to spill from your eyes when Finn appeared from behind some trees. You ran over and hugged him, “Finn. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I don't understand how...”

“Lincoln saved my life. He killed one of his own people to do it.”

You turned to see the masked grounder remove his mask, it was Lincoln. “That signal fire? That was you?”

He nodded, “we needed a distraction.”

“And I’d say it worked.”

Lincoln looked at Finn before shaking his head, “not well enough.”

You and Finn turned to see another signal fire in the distance. Finn looked worried, “what does it mean?”

“It means Anya knows Alba is not dead,” Lincoln turned away and started to walk towards the tree lines. “We need to hurry. Let's hope they follow the horse.”

“Where are we going?” You asked.

“Somewhere they won’t follow.”

You bit down on your bottom lip, as Lincoln lead you towards some caves. “where does this lead to?”

“Everywhere. There's a tunnel to your camp. If we make it through, we should get there before Tristan.” Just as you reached the tunnels arrows started to fly pass you. “Go. Go!”

______

Once I’m the Reaper tunnels, Lincoln lit a small fire to make a torch and told us we needed to keep moving. I noticed him limping slightly, it was hard to notice in the dim light but I eventually saw the arrow sticking out of his side.

You interrupted Finn and Lincoln’s conversation about reapers to offer Lincoln some help. “I should clean that before it gets infected.”

Lincoln shrugged at your offer, “I've fought battles with worse wounds than this.”

“We're not in a battle right now,” you pointed out.

“Yes, we are.”

You looked at him curiously for a moment, watching as he pushed the arrow out of his side. “Why are you helping us?”

“This can't just be about Octavia,” Finn added

“You don’t need to tell us,” you shook your head. “Give me your knife, I’m going to heat the blade. You might want something to bite down on.”

Lincoln scoffed. “You people are so soft. If you don't learn to be more,” he let out a whine of pain as you pressed the blade against his skin to stop the bleeding. “What my people are doing to yours is wrong.”

You gave Lincoln a minute to rest before he insisted on walking again. Finn studied the grounder reading a map. “Wait. If you never were down here, how'd you map it?”

“Spoils of war.”

Finn shook his head still confused by Lincoln’s comment, but you understood it straight away. He had taken it off a dead body. You put a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from letting out a noise of disgust when you saw trailers piles of bodies. Finn put his arm in front of you, “did you hear that?”

You shook your head, and waited. Then you heard it, shouting in the distance.

“What is that?” You asked in a whisper.

“Reapers.” Lincoln handed a book and knife to Finn, “make sure Octavia gets them.” The shouting was getting louder, meaning the reapers were getting closer. “I'm gonna lead them away. Wait until they follow me, then run.”

You frowned, “I’d they catch you they will kill you.”

Finn spoke with Lincoln briefly before he went off. You and Finn ran as far as you could until a reaper found you. The reaper shoved you to the ground and held a knife up to Finn’s throat. Oh shit. Finn reached for a rock and bashed the reaper of the head with it. A look of horror washed over his face when the realisation of what he did sunk in.

Grounder, reaper, sky crew. It didn’t matter. All of them were human.

You rushed over to Finn and pressed your hands to his face, trying to get his attention away from the dead body by his feet. “Don’t look at him, look at me!” Finn slowly looked at you. “I know how it feels, I slit Caliban's throat to try and save myself, save you, get back to camp and warn them.” You suddenly felt your own tears threatening to spill. “We need to keep going okay?”

You stop by a stream where Finn begins to wash the reaper blood of his hands, while you did your best to clean your face of dried blood, dirt, and sweat the best you could. You did this in silence until Finn cleared his throat. “Do you think I should have fought for her?”

“Finn, don’t.”

“Clarke, I love her.” He stopped washing his hands and sat on the ground. “I’m in love with her.”

You could sense his hesitation, “but?”

“I love Raven and...”

“You broke her heart,” you sighed. “Finn this isn’t any of my business, please don’t drag me into this. We need to focus on getting back.”

“Yeah, your right.” He stood up again, and offered you a hand to your feet. “I just want to say one more thing, thank you.”

You looked at him puzzled, “what for?”

“Coming on this adventure with me,” he said with a chuckle. “Al you would have tried to save that grounder's life even if I wasn’t at risk. You have been there for Octavia, Raven, hell you even look out for Murphy. And if I wasn’t for you I’m sure I would be dead.”

“Lincoln would have saved you.”

Finn raised his eyebrows at you, “I don’t know if he would have fought so hard for just me.”

You opened your mouth to argue that he was wrong when a loud explosion came from the direction of the camp. “We need to go now.”

______

“Alba and Finn! They're back!”

Bellamy, Miller, and Octavia rushed to the gates when they saw you entering the camp. “Is everyone okay? We heard an explosion. What happened?”

Bellamy clenched his jaw, “Murphy happened.”

You noticed the bruising that was around Bellamy’s neck. Murphy...you couldn’t dwell on what your friend might have done. Jasper ran over to the small group, “Thank God! Where have you been? Where's Monty?”

“Monty’s gone?” You asked, shocked.

“We need to leave, now.” Finn said cutting in, “All of us do. There's an army of grounders, unlike anything we've ever seen, coming for us right now. We need to pack what we can and run.”

“Like hell we do!” Bellamy snapped. “We knew this was coming.”

“Not like this,” you said stepping forward. “Believe me when I say we aren’t strong enough to fight them off, if it wasn’t for Lincoln we would be dead. I don’t know what your decision is, but you better make it fast.”

Octavia turned from her brother to face you, “you saw Lincoln?”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “He killed one of his own to save us.”

“You expect us to trust a grounder?” Bellamy scoffed. “This is our home now. We built this from nothing with our bare hands! Our dead are buried behind that wall in this ground! Our ground! The grounders think they can take that away. They think that because we came from the sky, we don't belong here. But they're yet to realize one very important fact. We are on the ground now, and that means we are grounders!”

A few delinquents began chanting with Bellamy while Finn gave Octavia the gifts from Lincoln. Clarke walked over and added her input as well, while you looked around the camp for Raven.

Just as you opened your mouth to ask if anybody had seen her, you noticed her. “Raven!” You screamed running towards her, “Raven!”

You heard Bellamy saying that Murphy shot her. Finn caught Raven before she fell to the ground, “get her into the drop-ship!”

_______

You clenched your teeth as Raven squeezed your hand painfully tight as Clarke cauterised the gunshot wound.

Finn was pacing back and forth, “how did Murphy even get a gun?”

“Long story.”

“We got lucky.” Raven smiled. “If Murphy hit the fuel tank instead of me, we'd all be dead.”

You frowned not finding the joke funny. Raven had become a good friend to you, and truthfully you’d be lost without her.

“Wait, there's rocket fuel down there? Enough to build a bomb?” Clarke asked.

You eyes Clarke suspiciously, you had a pretty good idea of what she was thinking. Raven tried to sit up, “enough to build hundreds of bombs... if we had any gunpowder left.”

“What about the reapers?” Bellamy asked, changing the subject. “Maybe they'll help us. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?”

You share a look with Finn before shaking your head, “they won’t help, trust me.”

Finn stepped back, “can Raven walk or not?”

“No.” Clarke answered, “we will need to carry her.”

“The hell you will.” Raven tried to get off the table, “I'm good to go.”

“Hey, your not going anywhere.” Raven pulled at a face at you, “the bullet is still inside you. Until we take it out you can’t go anywhere, it’s not safe.”

You felt guilty, but you were determined to keep Raven safe. You listened to Finn and Bellamy bicker between themselves before you had enough. “Will guys stop it?” They both turned to stare at you. “The grounders are coming now, if we are going to leave it needs to be now. Finn I need you to help me find a stretcher.”______

Bellamy started to lead the delinquents into the forest with Clarke, and Finn standing beside him at the front. Octavia was on lookout, you had a brief reunion with your friend before you left camp. Octavia hugged you and filled you in on what Murphy had done. Sighing you glanced down at Raven, who looked pissed. She wasn’t happy about being carried on a stretcher.

Suddenly everybody came to a halt, something was wrong. “Everybody get back to camp now!”

The delinquents quickly turned around and headed back to the camp, as the gunners went back to their posts as you helped Raven get back inside the drop-ship.

You helped her sit down, “are you okay?”

“I am,” she nodded. “I’m glad you are back...I was so worried when you and Finn never came back.”

You crouched down to Raven’s level when she started to cry. “I’m not going to lie it was rough, but me and Finn are fine. And you will be too, soon as this is all over Clarke will fix you up.”

Raven shook her head, you for the feeling something else had happened. “That’s not it...I got...I don’t even know what I was thinking. When you guys were gone I slept with Bellamy.” You stared at her wide-eyed not knowing what to say. “You guys were almost being killed while I was-”

“It doesn’t matter,” you cut her off. “What happened before doesn’t matter, we need to focus on surviving tonight.”

Raven opened her mouth to reply when Finn, Clarke, and Bellamy entered the drop-ship. “We've got twenty five rifles with twenty rounds each, give or take. Roughly five hundred rounds of ammo. While you two were gone, we made some improvements. Thanks to Raven, the gully is mined.”

You watched as Raven shifted awkwardly, you wondered if she had any feelings for the leader of the camp. “Partly minded, thanks to Murphy.”

“Still, it's the main route in.” Bellamy pointed out. “If the grounders use it, we'll know. She also built grenades.”

Clarke frowned, “it’s not many.”

Raven flung her head back, “again. Thank you Murphy.”

Bellamy clenched his jaw, looking even more pissed than before. “We'll make them count. If the grounders make it through the front gate, guns and grenades should force them back.”

“Then what?” You asked.

“Them we close the door and pray,” Raven said softly.

While you half heartedly listened to the others talking you tried to think what you could do. Hearing Raven say how she had no gun powder gave you an idea. “What if we don't use a bomb, what if we blast off instead?”

Raven smiled at you. “Draw them in close, then fire the rockets. A ring of fire. I like your thinking Al.”

“Will it work?” Finn asked, obviously not convinced.

“If we give Raven enough time it will.”

______

You, Clarke and Finn were underneath the dropship, looking for its ignition system when you heard Raven calling out. “Somethings wrong, we need to go back.”

You quickly claimed back towards her, you walked towards her worried. “Raven what’s wrong?”

“I can’t feel my legs.”

You shared a knowing glance with Clarke.

“Okay let me check you again,” Clarke said helping Raven turn over. “Al can you give me a hand.”

After Clarke checked Raven over you discovered she was bleeding internally. The bullet was lodged somewhere in her spine. Finn had left to go find coagulant stuff that the Grounders use, while Jasper revealed he could split a wire and had come in to lend a hand.

You and Clarke had decided that one of you needed to stay with Raven. “You should stay Al,” Clarke said in a low voice. “She needs you more than me, besides I’m going to go check how things are going. Call me if you need anything.”

You nodded in agreement, “okay, be safe out there.” You turned and walked back towards Raven and Jasper. “Tell me again how this is going to work?”

Raven rolled her eyes at your question. “Told you five times already. Current flows to the electromagnet. That opens the poppet valve. Rockets fire.”

You fought the lump in the back of your throat, you knew Raven didn’t have long left. If the grounders weren’t attacking she would maybe have a chance, but without the time or correct equipment she didn’t have a good chance. You just prayed and hoped Finn found what he needed, because you needed Raven to live.

“Clarke! I need Clarke!” You yelled as Raven started to become unconscious. “Please don’t die on me,” you sobbed. “You are a fighter Reyes, don’t let go.”

You stood up, “Jasper keep wiring. I’m going to see what’s going on.” You stepped outside the drop-ship and ran towards Finn the moment you saw him, “you got what we need?”

He nodded, and handed you the medicine before picking up a gun. The grounders had breached the wall. You ran alongside Clarke back into the drop-ship, you rushed towards Raven and injected her with the coagulant, and prayed it was enough.

Hearing a loud screaming noise you turned to see Anya had joined you in the drop-ship. Clarke glanced at you before yelling, “Jasper now!”

You saw Jasper hitting the button, but it didn’t work. Anya suddenly jumped towards you with two blades in hand when Miller, along with some others, stopped her. “Stop wait!” You yelled when you saw Miller was about to kill her, “you can’t do this. We aren’t grounders, we don’t do this.”

Just as you finished talking Jasper hit the button again, and this time it worked. You tried your best not to think about Octavia, Finn, and Bellamy who weren’t inside with you. A few moments after the ship landed again Clarke opened the doors to reveal the devastation outside.

“Aren’t you coming?” Clarke asked looking back at you.

“No, I’m going to stay with Raven.” Kneeling down to Raven’s level you sighed, “you done it Reyes, you saved us all.”

She remained completely still, you started to blink tears away. She wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be dead. You stood up hearing a commotion coming from outside.

You grabbed a spare blade that was lying around and stepped in front of your unconscious friend protectively. The room was quickly filled with a thick red smoke that made it hard to breath.

You fell to the ground gasping as men in hazmat suits walked towards you.

[buckyjamess-archive]

thinking about being close to bucky (and flirting? 👀) and going a a dangerous mission or something with the prompt 13 from list number 2 👀

☆ December writing month ☆

Okay well damn, this turned in a 1k+ drabble, the fuck :')

13. "You're cute when you're all worried

The mission went right, you two working together, like always. The dream team like Sam had said once but even the dream team gets ambushed from all possible sides and need to find shelter, the first cabin in sight and getting snowed in overnight. 

Just peachy. 

Cold and dusty, disgusting even. Bucky managed to start a fire by using old books while you dusted off the blanket the best you could. 

Bucky watches the flames dance around, little sparks dying as they fly up. His mind wanders to Steve, to Nat, to Sam, hoping they'd be alright out there. Hoping they find shelter themself or managed to get out safe. 

You're safe, thank God you're safe. 

"What are you doing?" 

You're voice, one he learned to love so dearly, snaps Bucky out of his thoughts

"Thinkin'." 

He looks up at your figure, standing a few feet away from him, the checkered blanket thrown around you. 

"Well, easy tiger, we don't want you to hurt those two brain cells." Bucky snorts at your comment, his gaze lingering on you longer than just a friend would do. “You’re cute when you’re all worried.”

Flirtationship is what Sam had called it if Bucky recalls correctly. Honestly, he had to look it up himself on the internet, too afraid to ask you. And for the first time he believed something Sam had said to him. Flirting back and forth, mean or kind, cheeky or not and though bucky's flirting wasn't top notch, you made it all easier, more natural.

The prettiest thing he's ever seen when Steve introduced him to the group without the suits. The only one to not pry in his business, leaving him alone when he needed it-- understanding and caring, funny and sweet. Even like this, wrapped up in a dusty blanket, hair a mess from running a hand through it and the tired expression on his face, you still were the prettiest thing he's ever laid eyes upon.

"You don't always have to say something back." Bucky smiles that big smile, corners of his lips nearly touching his ears, nose wrinkling. 

"Yeah," you sigh "but what's the fun in that?" 

"You need to get some sleep." Bucky states as a matter of fact and twists his body, eyeing the ugly green couch behind him "seems like we're stuck in here." 

"You're my dad now-- Well, technically you could be my dad, hell grandad even," you begin and he knows exactly where you're going

"That joke gets old real quick." 

"You're over a hundred years old." You grin. 

His eyes stay on you as you walk towards the couch and sit down on it. Rather aggressively patting it to get rid of the dust which earns a chuckle from Bucky 

"You need help with that?" 

You raise your brows and look over your shoulder where you meet his eyes "oh yes super soldier, beat these cushions to death." 

God, he wants to kiss you right now. Hold you close to keep each other warm. 

"You could use some sleep to buck." you say, sincere but he shrugs it off.

"You go first, I can wait." 

"The couch is big enough for both," you mumble "won't be the first time we'd sleep in the same bed-- or couch." 

It wouldn't. the two of you found yourself all cuddled up in a cheap motel bed after a long mission. All cuddled up in each other's bed when nightmares haunted you during long nights. All cuddled up after a movie night-

Yeah, definitely friends.

And so Bucky finds himself on the couch. Laying on his side, back pressed against the back, head resting on one of the pillows, arm stretched where your head lays and the light from the fire defining your side profile as you lay in you back, both tucked underneath the blanket. 

He's lost in another world. Lost in the conversation about everything and nothing at all, joking around, talks about the past. He's lost in the way your smile would reach your eyes at a fond memory or the way your laugh would make his heart grow ten times its size. 

"A ladies man?" You chuckle " and you want me to believe that?" 

"Yeah, a total ladies man before the war." 

"What about Steve?" You ask curiously 

"All the ladies. All the time." 

You chuckle again but it dies as quick as it came. The air is thick with comfortable silence. Your eyes glued to the ceiling as you casually play with the fingers of his metal hand, an action so simple but something so..you, something so familiar. 

He can hear the gears in your mind going miles per hour, the perfect time to play your game

"Easy tiger, don't want to hurt those two brain cells." 

for the first time you don't react to him, no remarks or making fun of him-- nothing and he wonders what he did wrong.

His stomach drops and his heart skips a beat when turn your head aside, noses barely touching. 

"So where's your game now?" You ask, voice barely above whisper 

Bucky knits his brows together in confusion "What?" 

"You're not being a real ladies man-- I've never seen you flirt with a pretty lady at a bar or something." 

"I do but she never notices it." 

your eyes stay locked on each other and you're sure you're both able to hear each other's heartbeat. 

'Maybe' bucky thinks 'maybe this situation all could lead to something else.' 

He searches your eyes for a sign to tell him to stop but there isn't any and without any further hesitation your lips meet in a long awaited, passionate, sweet and breathtaking kiss. And Bucky can feel your smile against his lips before you pull away to catch your breath.

"This girls pretty stupid for not noticing then."  

"Pretty stupid." Bucky chuckles 

Going in for another kiss, Bucky pulls you closer to his side, holding you like he's afraid you'll walk out any moment. Holding you like he dreamt of for so long.

[mythandlaur]

whatever the cost whether it works out or not i’ll follow you, i’ll follow you with my heart

OC-tober Day 1 - Journey Prompt list by oc-growth-and-development

Fandom: Warframe Canon Characters: Spoiler Character (Cephalon Fragments) Original Characters: Istha Merreth Warnings: None

Notes: Soooo, I’m doing this! Not sure how consistent I’ll be, but I at least want to throw out some short things for it. And no, this isn’t going in any main tags and I’m not mentioning the blog because hahahaha...haha...h a haha...

-

Things had never been terribly easy for them, it’s true--but their circumstances had only weighed harder on them in recent years, as the Orokin Empire’s growing stranglehold on the system and the clan’s deserted location made it harder and harder to keep people fed on their own. All they really had going for them was their steel and their freedom, and, though she did not wish to say it, she harbored doubts that the golden bastards wouldn’t come for both of those things sooner rather than later. The Orokin couldn’t stand anyone not under their control.

But that was a problem for the future. The current problem was supplies, which mostly came from other settlements on other planets. And, while they could occasionally pay passage on ships with “mercenary” work, it was harder to get into the heart of Orokin territory in such a way.

Which was why Istha is currently sitting in a shipping container in the cargo bay of a dingy Grineer mercantile transport vessel.

The Grineer were often chosen as ferries for goods within the empire, as they were less likely to sell said goods than the Corpus--and, for the purposes of herself and her companion, they were much easier to infiltrate. Not that she’d ever personally done it before, but he apparently had some experience with it, and she was willing to trust him on this.

What she wasn’t willing to trust him on was how long they were intended to stay in the damn boxes. Istha lets out a long sigh and tries not for the first time to shift into a more comfortable position; her feet hit the wall while her head hits the inside corner and she groans in growing frustration. It’s impossible to tell how much time has passed, but she’s starting to lose her patience, and kicks one of the metal crate walls as best she can, letting out a satisfying clang. She hopes that will serve as enough of an indication to her partner that she wants out.

There’s a long silence, and then a muffled, matching clang from somewhere nearby. Istha decides to take this as an affirmative and begins to push her lid open. The Grineer weren’t always the best at handling their cargo, and so her own crate had wound up on its side (luckily for both her and the Grineer who’d set down the box, as most fragile cargo could not brace its feet and arms into the walls and wait for a safe moment to crawl to the newly-reoriented ground).

It doesn’t take long for Istha to force the crate open, and she crawls out on her hands and knees into the cargo bay proper. The cargo bay isn’t much brighter than the inside of the crate, but in the emergency lighting, she can make out the glint of a crimson blade sticking out of the top of a crate in the next row, and she grins.

Yeah, she figured he was starting to go insane, too.

He hadn’t gotten as lucky as her with his crate’s orientation, so she watches as he laboriously pries the lid open and pushes it back so it’s barely balancing on one of the crate’s walls. The sword is thrown over the edge so he doesn’t impale himself on it, before he lifts himself over the edge as well, balancing awkwardly on his stomach and trying to get his hands to reach the ground. Istha covers her mouth to try and hide her snickering, but this quickly dissolves into full-on laughter as he loses his balance and tumbles onto the ground in an awkward somersault, ending up on his back.

It takes Istha several seconds to calm down enough to speak. “I am forever grateful that you chose to train me.”

He drags himself into a sitting position, glaring at her with a sort of muffled growl that just makes her burst out laughing again, doubling over on herself. Blood and bone, she thunks to herself, I was trapped in there too long.

“If you’re finished.”

Istha snorts, but slowly manages to pull herself together and sit up properly, though she still throws a smirk in his direction. “I liked the landing. Is it a new technique?”

“You know me, the notorious blade in a box.” He huffs a sigh, but she catches a quiet chuckle following it. “You all right?”

“Pretty much.” Istha stretches her arms over her head. “How do you do this?”

“Usually, about the same way we did it this time. Except once or twice when I went on these trips I was smaller.”

Istha wraps her arms around herself as the chill of the cargo bay hits her. At least the air is somewhat less recycled, but the ambient temperature makes her question just how much steel the Grineer actually put between the cargo bay and the ravenous void of space. “How far do you think we are?”

He shrugs. “We had an early stop, that was probably the Phobos station, and we should’ve translated once already. Maybe Europa?”

Istha winces, but looks away quickly to try and hide it. It’s not a big portion of the trip, but she already feels like she’s missed so much. She’d never seen a ship void translate before. “So a while yet to Uranus, then.”

“Yes. What’s wrong.” She can feel his piercing gaze on her and hunches her shoulders. Damn it, was she that obvious? “Body language,” he adds, again as if reading her mind. “You’re defensive. Lacking confidence.”

Istha scrunches her face up in frustration and makes a conscious effort to open up her posture towards him. Confident, but not stupid. You hold your chest high, but never, ever forget that it’s a target.

“...I’ve never been off-planet before,” Istha admits. She’d learned a long time ago that it was useless to lie to him; he was much too good at reading the little twitches and quirks of others. It was part of what made him as capable a warrior as he was--he could read his opponents like a book without even thinking about it, while she was often more...single-minded. “Mama told me that we used to move around a lot more. Pack everyone up on a ship and hop to another planet.”

“You know I can’t remember the last time we did that, either.” Right, she often forgets that he’s not really that old--not much older than her. “But I know that was when there were less of us, and there was more of the system out there.”

“Golden bastards,” she grumbles, and he nods in understanding. The Orokin had gotten a reputation for destroying most everything they touched, not that anyone would say it within earshot of a Dax. “Do you really think these trips will be enough?”

“For now, they have to be.” His tone is grim and brokers no argument. “What troubles you.”

Istha sticks out her tongue in his direction. Stubborn as a mule, all the better to match with her. “You’re not going to be dissuaded, are you.”

He smiles. “No.”

“Couldn’t we go up top? Smash a few heads, look out the window?”

“Let’s see, there’s about...a hundred Grineer on this ship, and two of us.” He tilts his head and raises an eyebrow knowingly. “We shouldn’t, not with those numbers. Wouldn’t want them to feel too bad about themselves.”

Istha barks a laugh, but it’s short-lived. “Seriously. We could handle them.”

“We could. But the Grineer like their manual ships, no fancy Orokin navigational system or what-have-you. Can’t risk the pilot dying.”

“Don’t you know how to pilot?”

His eyelids lower. “Istha. I wouldn’t be caught dead flying this kind of bucket.”

“Well...” She shrugs. “I could probably figure it out.”

“Don’t. For the sake of all that is still good in this system, don’t try to figure it out.”

Istha grins, languidly leaning forward so her chin rests on her hands. “Have a little faith in me, friend~”

“Absolutely not.”

“Are you worried I’d put you to shame?”

“I’m worried that I would be caught dead in this bucket.”

Istha lets the sly act dropp, shifting so her cheek rests on one palm. “Really, though. I don’t want to go my whole life without seeing the stars from here, you know?”

He presses his lips together into a thin line, and glances off to where one of the far walls of the cargo bay should be. Her eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline.

“...We’d have to wait,” he cautions. “Can’t risk springing something like that too early.”

“But you want to.”

“I may want to put some Grineer in their place. That’s all.”

He folds his arms, ostensibly shutting her down, but Istha’s eyes crinkle in amusement as he continues to stare into the distance--she knows she’s going to get exactly what she wants, and she’s not even going to have to drag him along behind her. He knows it, too, judging by the faint turn to his lips he tries to tamp down.

If waiting is his only condition, she’s willing to go along with it, just as long as she gets out of the cargo bay. Really, she doesn’t mind the waiting now that she’s out of that crate and with him, even if they sit in silence for most of it.

She’ll pass the journey entertained by the mental images of the surprised looks on the Grineer’s faces when they realize what they’ve done, and that’s quite enough for her.

And she isn’t actually going to try and pilot the ship.

...Probably.

[kookie-doughs]

Y/N L/N AND THE HALFBLOODS

Percy Jackson X Reader

-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.

CHAPTER 12: Hello Poodle

We were pretty miserable that night.

We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.

We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Percy took the spot beside me and was laying on my lap. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.

"Go ahead and sleep," I told them. "I'll wake you guys if there's trouble."

He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad."

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?" Percy hissed.

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."

He glared at him. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.

"Tell me about the search," I said.

Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.

"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."

"And you want to be a searcher."

"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—"

"Oh, right, sorry."

Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."

"Hang on—the first?"

Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."

"Not once in two thousand years?"

"No."

"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"

"None."

"But you still want to go," Percy said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"

"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."

I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?

"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"

"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."

"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me...." His voice faltered.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"

Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—"

"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."

"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."

"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."

I shook my head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"

"Asking about me," he said.

"Maybe if you haven't steered, we could've found out."

"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...." He looked at us like he was hoping for answers, but neither of us had have any.

"Maybe... Had--- the big guy isn't actually that bad."

"I haven't been straight with you," Percy told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back Y/N's parents and my mother."

Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"

"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."

Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth and Y/N. I'm not as brave as you and Y/N. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."

"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."

Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."

"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."

Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. He turned to me, "How about I take first watch, huh? You two get some sleep."

I nodded and turned to Percy who wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and he turned away. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep. He was sleeping.

"You're still awake?"

"Barely. I call the next shift okay?"

Grover nodded so I slept.

Believe in them.

Where is this coming from?

Water is our enemy, air is our demise, the darkness shall be our ally and the land should be haven. You should befriend Hades. We need someone on our side. We've already angered Poseidon and Zeus.

Why'd have to be him? He seem like the reason we're in this quest.

Trust your allies.

I was woken up. It was still dark and I could see Grover was droopy. Percy held my hand tight as he was trembling in his sleep.

When Grover saw me awake he just passed out on where he was sitting.

"Percy," I called him trying to keep quiet not to wake up the others. "Wake up." I slowly shook him.

His eyes shot open and looked at me in fear.

"Y/N..."

"Are you okay?"

"Nightmare..." He whimpered snuggling closer.

"Want to tell me about it?"

"Well... I was in a pit and someone was talking to me I think. I saw your parents' last moments... And my mom's then... I saw you drowning... desperately trying to save yourself. The voice told me to help them rise. I couldn't do anything..."

It is not us. I dare not hurt our hero.

"It's okay. Percy, don't worry. You should continue sleeping. Come on, I'm on watch."

He looked at me in hesitation and slept while I ran my hand on his hair.

~

"Well, good morning to you Peabody." I greeted Annabeth.

"Weren't you the first watch?"

"Grover went first watch. I went to sleep with Percy."

She turned to look at Percy who was asleep holding my hand. "Isn't it weird that he's so attached?" She grimaced.

"Well, to be fair. I feel like I have to stay with him no matter what. Like my subconscious telling me, don't leave him and stay. I'm not sure about his case though."

"Where's Grover?"

"I don't know he said he's going to look around. I'll look for him. Stay with Percy without killing him will you?"

"Eh, I'll try." She smiled.

"Good enough for me." As gentle as I could I remove his hand from mine and stood up to look for Grover.

It didn't take me long to find Grover who was sitting in the middle of no where in front of a pink poodle.

"Uh, whatcha got there?"

"He's our ride west." He looked at me. "His name is Gladiola."

"Uhm... hello." The dog looked at me then barked. "Well, let's bring him to Annabeth then."

Annabeth was as confused as I was when I found Grover. She greeted it hello reluctantly.

I shrugged at her as a response.

Grover sat cross-legged on a blanket with the dog on his lap.

I walked up to Annabeth and laughed, "I have no idea."

Percy stirred awake and sat up.

"Good morning." I smiled.

"The zombie lives." Annabeth tossed him a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.

Percy eyed Grover confusedly and back at me and Annabeth.

The poodle yapped at Percy suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."

Percy blinked. "Are you... talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

He stared at Annabeth and I, as if we were kidding.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," He said. "Forget it."

"Percy," I said. "I said hello to the poodle. Annabeth said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled.

He said hello to the poodle.

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course," I said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus," Percy said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I saw last night. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."

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Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @the-natureofme @booknerd-3000

[smolthealmighty]

Spinaraki Week Level 2 Day 1: Chase

Give Myself To You

When Spinner had the idea to visit his hometown and show off his old hideaways to Tomura, he thought it would be romantic. He could turn these sad places where he went to cry into secluded havens where he could spend some quality alone time with the love of his life, and do something he's wanted to do since their third date. He was not expecting a neon orange pickup truck to interrupt the date by hurtling towards them at high speed.

In which Spinner's old bullies want to run him over with their truck, Tomura wants to beat the shit out of them for daring to try, and Spinner just wants to pop the question.

~~~~~

This was not how this date was supposed go. Spinner just wanted to show his boyfriend around his hometown, give him a tour of all the isolated spots he would hide away in before he eventually shut himself up inside the Iguchi house. It was gonna be a nice romantic getaway, where the places he associated with some of his worst memories could be re-contextualized as he turned them into secluded little havens where he could woo his boyfriend –and eventually propose to him– in peace.

There they were, sitting together at the edge of the forest that semi-surrounded the town, watching the sun start to set over the hilly meadow that lay below them. Tomura was fully relaxed for once, leaning heavily on his boyfriend as he reminisced about the utter disaster that was the one time they tried to go clubbing, while Spinner was mustering up his courage and fidgeting with the rings in his jacket’s pocket. Just as he turned to face Tomura and was about to start the speech he had been revising in his mind since –admittedly– their third date, he saw the unmistakable neon orange pickup truck that belonged to Spinner’s worst nightmares, Nōtarin, Iyaga, and Rase, speeding in the background. And the truck was gunning straight for them!

“Oh no.”

“Hm, what do you mean ‘oh no’?” asked Tomura, who also uttered an “oh no” once Spinner pointed towards the truck that was now only a hundred meters away. With reflexes that were still etched into his bones after years of dealing with the trio, Spinner clutched his boyfriend close and launched the both of them down the hill in a barrel roll, barely missing the thick tires of the truck as it blew past them.

“What the hell was that shit?” yelled Tomura, as Spinner shot up, grabbed his hand, and lead them towards one of the few trees that dotted the meadow.

“Those are the assholes I told you about, the ones who always went after me. One of them must’ve seen me and recognized me, and now they’re picking back up from where we last left off!”

“You last left off with them trying to turn you into roadkill?!”

As they ducked into the hollow, a chorus of brash voices with heavy country accents boomed across the meadow.

“Shuichi, you purse designer’s wet dream! Why don’t you let us mount your lizard head to the wall like the hunting trophy you are!”

“Nōtarin, I saw someone with him, hey gecko geek, do you mind if we mount your friend too?”

“Damn Iyaga, keep it in your pants. Though to be fair, compared to talon-hands you’d probably be a better fit!”

At this point Tomura was already struggling against Spinner to march out of the hollow and wreak vengeance. “C’mon Spinner, I’ll mount their heads on our base’s wall!”

“Would you just gimme a sec to cool down a bit?!” Tomura relented and stopped squirming, letting Spinner hold him as he tried to stop trembling.

“Ugh, I swear, they always know how to get under my skin. And I really thought I’d be over them by now.”

Tomura turned to face Spinner and squeezed him back, taking his boyfriend’s scaly beak and pressing it into his scarred neck. “You’ll be alright. You’re just a little stuck, I’m right here if you need a push you know.”

Spinner sighed as he nuzzled the curve of Tomura’s shoulder. “I know I’m not the pinnacle of dating material but damn, people can have different tastes.”

Tomura snorted, “Oh please, as if those hillbilly bitches know anything about ‘good taste’. If your loyalty and empathy for empty husks like me aren’t enough to prove ‘em wrong, then you having the muscles to be able to wield a giant ‘fuck you’ sword should’ve done the job. The fact they can’t see any of that just shows that their IQ scores are all in the negatives.”

Looking up and seeing Tomura’s self-assured smile, the smile graced his face whenever he was so sure that he was right, knowing that he truly believed that his boyfriend was really all that, melted Spinner’s heart into a puddle of goo.

“Marry me.”

Maybe melted it a little too much.

“Huh?”

Realizing what just came out of his mouth, Spinner blushed violently and tried to start some damage control. “Uh shoot I mean um-”

“Hey Nōtarin, let’s ram into that tree! I think I hear them over there!”

Hearing that brought Spinner back to his senses, and he dragged Tomura out of the hollow, Nōtarin swerving just enough to only nick one of the headlights off the truck before resuming the chase.

“Son of a bitch, I had it all planned out and I messed it up!”

“Had what planned out?” asked Tomura, still in a whirl from what he was pretty sure he heard Spinner blurt just seconds ago.

“You know what, it’s fine, I’ll just do it on the fly. Follow me!”

They booked it across the meadow, Spinner weaving them around the hidden hills and valleys camouflaged beneath the waist-high grass. The truck kept slowly gaining on them, but the constant bangs and thumps of the truck bouncing against the uneven ground and the arguing between the driver and his passengers betrayed how little the tormentors knew about the terrain.

“Dammit, stay still you lizard-fuck!”

“Nah, let him keep running. Makes the chase more exciting!”

“Maybe if you’d gotten your driver’s license, you’d actually be able to hit him Nōtarin!”

“Fuck off Rase!”

Jumping over a particularly thick mud puddle, Spinner finally began the speech that had been previously interrupted.

“I’m sure you already know that I fell for you pretty fast-”

“Understatement of the year, but I’m not one to talk.”

The neon orange paint was splattered with mud, with the new coat of brown getting bigger as the wheels spun, sluggishly making its way through the puddle.

Spinner laughed breathlessly as he continued, “-yeah, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able put how much the love you gave me in return means to me into words. I couldn’t do it even if the ocean was made of ink and the earth was paper, it just wouldn’t be enough.”

“Shuichi…”

“And, well, since I can’t use words, I thought I’d show my devotion with some kind of gift, but I don’t really have much to give you except myself. Still, I’ll give that to you for the rest of my life if you want it.”

By this point they had stopped just a few feet in front of a moss-covered boulder, one that blended in with the green grass and was in the direct pathway of the truck that continued driving towards them at top speed.

Ignoring the oncoming truck, Spinner took Tomura’s other hand into his own, and softly asked, “Tomura, will you marry me?”

The truck hit the rock, skyrocketing up and over the couple. The screams of the driver and his passengers fell on deaf ears as Tomura gazed into bright, cherry-petal eyes and answered the proposal:

“You’re more than enough for me, you’re more than I could ever dream of asking for. Of course I’ll marry you.”

Not even a moment after he accepted, a loud crash echoed across the meadow as the truck collided with the ground, flipping over as it did so. The bullies were quick to exit the wreck and make their way towards the still lovestruck duo to attack them. It was a farce from the start, the newly established fiancés barely paying them any attention as they began to brawl.

“Look at you all smiley and shit,” said Tomura as he kicked Rase across the field.

“Why wouldn’t I be all smiles? I’m gonna get to marry to the love of my life! You should see your face right now, looks like your smile’s gonna split your face in two with how big it is!” exclaimed Spinner, dodging Nōtarin’s sluggish punches with ease.

“Touché, fiancé. I bet you’ve already got a plan for everything that comes next, you gooey romantic.”

“Well, I was thinking we could have a small ceremony, just us and the league. Nothing too fancy, we’d just do the vows, ring exchange, ‘I do’s’, and sealing it with a kiss, all within fifteen minutes tops. That way we can splurge on the reception, the best music-” Nōtarin screamed as his arm was sliced by Spinner’s hunting knife.

“-the most delicious food and drinks-” Nōtarin gurgled as the knife ran through his neck.

“-and a cake so big that’ll make everyone sick. We’d just have to grab someone to officiate the thing and make it official.”

“We can get Giran to do it, he��s got just enough connections that he could make it happen.” Iyaga howled as his chest caved in.

“And for the honeymoon, I was thinking about taking a joyride on the coastline. We could stock up the van and make stops at all the beaches, and maybe get rid of a few heroes along the way if we’re up for it.”

“That sounds good to me, I’m certainly looking forward to having some fun alone time to ourselves!” Tomura cried happily, as Rase joined Iyaga in the pile of dust that lay at his feet.

~

By the time they came down from the high of the fight, the sun was dipping below the tree line, Tomura and Spinner sprawled out next to each other on the bloodstained earth.

“Ah shit,” said Tomura, “I just realized that there goes my future date idea of murdering your hometown bullies.”

Spinner chuckled at his fiancé’s annoyed tone, “That’s okay, we only murdered a couple of them. Next time we can take down the town leaders who encouraged everything, make a day out of it.”

“Hmm, alright, but I’m planning it. It’s only fair.”

Satisfied, Spinner let out a sigh before suddenly sitting up. “Oh right, I gotcha these,” he said as he pulled the rings out of his pocket.

“It’s just a pair of those plastic rings from the arcade we went to a while back, but I figure we’re not gonna wear these for too long because they’re just engagement rings. We can rob a jewelry store together to pick out the wedding rings.”

“Sounds perfect,” said Tomura, as they each took turns slipping the rings onto each other’s fingers. Taking a second to let the presence of a ring on his finger sink in, Tomura smiled and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful that Re-Destro only snapped off my first three fingers.”

“Well, that’s one way to say you’re happy to be engaged,” Spinner joked.

“Hm. Then I’ll say it more romantically, just for you.” This time, it was Tomura who took Spinner’s hands into his own as he spoke his piece:

“Shuichi, you are one thing in this world that I could never hate, and the only person I will ever promise myself to. I’ll do whatever it takes to give you the life you want to live. I love you, and I’ll continue to love you until the stars grow cold, and even after that.”

If that speech hadn’t already swept Spinner off his feet, then the deep kiss Tomura initiated sent his heart skyward with how much it fluttered. When they both came down to earth, they went about flipping the thoroughly beat-up truck right side up, and as the last rays of sunlight disappeared beneath the horizon, the newly engaged couple drove off into the ink and lavender sky.

[chilling-seavey]

Passchendaele WW2 Extension - Malta & the Mediterranean 

Mum,

Malta is much warmer than England, especially this time of year, but the air combat is even worse than that of the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe aren’t giving us an easy fight. It had been a calm few months but we’re losing men by the hundreds out here, all trying to protect the commonwealth in North Africa, and so Richie and I (and the rest of the Spitfire squadrons) have been stationed out here on this tiny island. Who knew such a small, beautiful place could be home to so much destruction? The Germans bomb the island often, so they have kept us living on one of the aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. The water is so blue, Mum. It’s almost serine. You would love it here.

It’s almost calm on the sea when there’s quiet but there’s not quiet for long. Being positioned so close to the front lines and right on the border of Italy is frightening and Richie and I say our prayers every morning and every night. Can’t be too safe. One torpedo to this massive ship and we’d be gone in less than an hour. I think about you and Evy and Dad every waking minute. My heart aches for you but at the same time, you’re almost the only thing keeping me alive.

I love you.

Your son,

Charlie

June 1, 1942

“Dawn? Flying off at dawn!? Bloody hell. Can’t even let us have a good lunch? Were barely out of bed for God’s sakes!”

Charlie only laughed at his best friend’s slight panic in his voice as they navigated their way through the thin corridors of the aircraft carrier and up towards the main deck. Richard struggled to button up his uniform, grumbling more under his breath and nearly tripping over his own feet in his distraction. Charlie stopped and turned, making his best friend crash right into him but he smacked his hands away and buttoned up his uniform for him.

“Thanks.” Richard sighed lightly.

“We’re just going to check out the island today.” Charlie said as they continued towards the deck, more to assure the both of them rather than just his obviously frazzled friend.

“Gosh, Charlie, I’m so hungry.” Richard grumbled as they emerged out onto the large flatbed deck that was lined with Spitfires and bustling with crew and pilots and officers alike.

“It’s just your nervous stomach, Rich.” Charlie answered, pausing to thank one of the crew as they were handed their parachutes and helmets and made their way towards their usual plane. “You’re usually not this nervous to take off, what’s wrong with you?”

“I dunno. I feel weird. Maybe it’s because we’re on a ship and not land.”

“Sea legs or air legs, what’s the difference?” Charlie teased.  

“About eleven-thousand-metres off a ninety-five-meter piece of deck.” Richard grumbled as they approached the plane.

The boys pulled their packs on and then their helmets before climbing up onto the wing and getting settled in the cockpit with the assistance of a few crew to make sure everything was settled and working well. The officers were walking the length of the deck and shouting orders and reminders to the pilots as they got ready to take off.

“We are surrounded by the enemy, gentlemen! That means absolutely no speaking while in the air in case they intercept our radio…you do not want to give away the location of yourself or your fellow fighters.”

Richard strapped his helmet on under his chin and pulled his goggles over his eyes with Charlie doing the same in the seat in front of him. The crew helped Charlie set the propellor going and the engine sputtered loudly to life, smoke billowing from the front as it got warmed up.

“Straight flight to Malta and should be an easy landing at Luqa. You’ll be stationed there for a few weeks now, fighting out of the land base.”

“How are we supposed to take off from this ship?” Richard whispered sharply to Charlie.

“With a hell ton of praying.” Charlie answered as the crew shut the cockpit, trapping them inside the glass.

“Oh God, oh dear God, we’re gonna drown.” Richard whimpered. “Charlie! Where’s the eject button again? Oh, forget it, the water pressure will trap us in here anyway and we’ll suffocate and – oh my God, how do they expect us to take off?! Huh?! There is barely twenty metres of runway and then nothing but water-”

“Holy shit, Richard Zachary Besson, get a grip.” Charlie snapped, carefully taxing the plane after the row of others to prepare for takeoff. “We just accelerate faster. Quite faster.”

Richard bit his bottom lip nervously, two hands on the joystick in front of him until his knuckles were turning white in his gloves, and his eyes flicked to the small photograph taped to the side of his dashboard. A photograph of the painting hanging in his bedroom, the perfectly painted planet of Saturn being an immediate reminder of his father and he tried to let the familiarity calm him.

Charlie flicked a few switches above him as they were next in line, “Ready, Richie?”

“I suppose so, Charlie.”

The boys each pushed the plane forward, the deck below them streaking past faster and faster and faster and Richard had to force himself not to close his eyes as they approached the edge of the carrier and they pulled up together. The plane dipped down slightly as a natural reaction to the ship suddenly disappearing out from below them but right away, they were propelling right into the morning sky.

They both let out a relieved exhale as they were back in the comfortable space of the open air. The men followed one of the officers flying at the head of the pack towards the island, the Spitfires flying in a steady row in perfect silence. It was calm and nearly peaceful, with the blue Mediterranean waving gently only a few dozen metres below them and the perfectly white clouds blocking the glare from the rising sun above them. The couldn’t talk but the boys sat together in their plane on their straight course to Malta, on high alert for any incoming enemy. But they made a safe flight and started their decent as the island emerged through the clouds in the distance.

The rocky coast of Malta claimed their attention as they searched for the RAF Air Base over the side of the cliffs, carefully navigating their plane over the edge. The runway came into sight and a few of the planes in front of them started landing. Charlie prepped for landing themselves.

“Uh, Charlie-”

Richard’s sudden volume took him by a momentary surprise, but Charlie didn’t even have a chance to ask what he was calling him about before the runway exploded with the impact of a bomb. A huge cloud of dust and soil spewed up into the sky in a haze, quickly followed by a second, then a third, and both boys looked up to see the sky swarming with at least seventy-five German Luftwaffe above them like insects.

“Oh shit!” Charles gaped, pulling them out of their predictable straight-line course and back up over the cliffs to avoid being an easy target. A few of their fellow RAF planes were bombed down, crashing into the ocean or to the island in flames and the island was mercilessly bombed for yet another uncountable time.

“How are we supposed to land?” Richard asked loudly over the noise. “We don’t have enough fuel to fly back to the fleet!”

“We took off from a ship, now we’re having to land between bomb craters.” Charlie answered. “Keep an eye out.”

“Bleeding Christ.” Richard swore, glancing back up to the sky and all around them to make sure they weren’t being targeted.

Charlie scanned the surrounding area for a reasonably safe place to land and when he spotted one, he dived them right down towards the rough terrain. Richard literally clutched onto the plane as bombs spewed rubble into the air so terribly close to them, he was sure they were going to be hit, but with a bit of a bumpy landing, Charlie got them on the ground just as the enemy took off into the sky again.

“Good timing, bastards.” Richard grumbled as they carefully taxied the best they could towards the main base.

“Holy shit, I’m sweating.” Charlie panted, turning off the plane as the RAF Maltese ground crew rushed over to check them out, make sure they were alright, and to tend to the plane. A few more Spitfires landed around them as well, each pilot a bit shaken as they all climbed out onto the flat ground and headed into the building for food.

Richard pulled off his helmet and pushed a hand through his hair as he grumbled, “All this before breakfast.”

Taglist: @randomlimelightxxx​ @hopinglimelight​ @jonahlovescoffee​ @hiya-its-amber​ @chanelwonders​

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Guardian of creatures; AU!Queen x oc female x reader Chap. 2

*Author’s note*

Here we are guys, the second chapter of my latest Hallowqueen series. Now this one is longer than the first part so buckle up. I wanna start off by saying I'm NOT an expert dancer, especially jazz dancing so I hope you all who are dancers either by interest or profession forgive me for my improper naming of certain dance moves, I REALLY tried my best to research the types of jazz moves, if I get something wrong PLEASE TELL ME.

Also warnings for this cause the second half gets pretty graphic for blood, real life fae myths, violence, descriptive death scene.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@simonedk

@queensdivas

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@dancingcoolcat

@queen-paladin

@queendeakyy

@geek-and-proud

@klausidiot

@kinole009x

_______________________________________________________________

Chapter 2,

The rescue

Friday.  The day that everyone looks forward to when work can finally take a rest and people can enjoy a good weekend off with family and friends.  Friday nights especially seem to be the most busiest nights for any big or small businesses.  And as usual your boss insisted that you go back to the BEWITCHED club because you still ‘haven’t delivered the goods’ according to him.

Even after explaining to him that you didn’t want to seem suspicious to the owners or any of the employees, he didn’t care.  He just wanted the dirt on the club and he needed it by Monday or else you were fired.  Not wanting to disappoint him, you agreed and this time you made sure to hide your camera in your bag but hide it within some other stuff like tissues, gum, handwipes, etc.

Once again as night fell, the club was already starting to pile up, if not even be bigger than it was when you went on Tuesday. You even noticed how more people were dressed up in dancing clothes than the usual club-like clothes.

Security lets you in like he did before and you hear the band playing nothing but loud jazz music.  You also see that the dance floor is more lively than it was the last time you came. Almost a hundred couples were cuttin up a rug on the dance floor, flying and leaping, tapping their feet onto the hardwood floor or lifting their partners in the air.

“So you came back.” A soft voice said behind you. When you turned to your right there stood the blonde Siren singer.  His blue eyes staring straight into your soul as he teased you again, “Couldn’t get enough of us the first time?”

“I—I was just……” he softly chuckled and said.

“No worries love. I’m sure Serafina told you that I don’t bite that hard. Unless you want me to.” He cheekily gave you a wink and a smirk as he took a drag of his cigarette.  You felt your face heat up as he turned and blew out the smoke from his lips.

“Why aren’t you up on stage performing?” you asked him.

“Sadly love tonight is not my night. Friday nights are reserved for the Dance competition. Though honestly I don’t know why we hold one, John and Serafina win every time. No matter who’s the best.” He said as he took a sip of a drink he now stole off one of the waiters who passed by with a tray of champagne.

“A dance competition?”

“Oh yeah. John especially loves to show off his skills on the dance floor. And when he dances with her…..” he let out a low whistle. “Maybe that’s why she hasn’t fallen for me. Prefers a dancer to a singer.”

“Do you really like Serafina? Like in a romantic sort of way?” you ask him, remembering back to how he looked at the female owner of the club compared to the other women he seduced with his song the first time you came.

Before he could answer, the music stopped and everyone started applauding as Brian now came up onto the stage.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. First we’d like to give thanks to the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers band for traveling here from Detroit to be a part of our contest tonight.” You and the crowd applauded as the spotlight came onto a band that sat in the back of the stage.  11 men stood up and waved to the crowd before sitting back down in their seats. “Now the theme for this week’s competition is Jazz. Whether street Jazz dance or how it’s done with the twist of Broadway, Jazz is the game tonight. Anything outside of it shown in your routine is terminated. Good luck and may the best partners win. First up we have Flora and Sir Tom.”

The crowd applauded and soon a dainty young woman with a child-like face and short bobby blonde hair along with a man who had a fairly good looking appearance of brown hair and blue eyes came on the dance floor first and took their positions.  The band soon began to play their first song and they began their routine.

You’ll admit they were pretty good keeping in time with the rhythm of the music and they lit up the stage, for the first act of course.

“C’mon, let me buy you a drink. This will take a while.” The Blonde Siren tells you as he touches your arm.

“Why do you say that?” you say.

“No offense to them, but Flora is a full on diva. She tries to make her routines last about as long as the night stands.” You both walk over to the bar and sit down as he continues, “Just last month she tried to make their tango routine last about 30 minutes.”

30 minutes!? Damn how anyone could dance that long without falling flat on their face was beyond you.

“Oi Maz! Two cocktails over here!” the singer called out.

“And how would you like it sir? Snorted up your nose drip by drip or poured straight up your ass!?” a brown skinned female with long flowing hair sneered at the singer.  He smirked at her and said.

“Ahh Maz you never change.” She glared at the singer before turning to make the cocktails.

“Well that was rude. You should tell Serafina that she spoke to you like that.”

“Ahh Maz is like that with everyone.” He brushed it off nonchalantly.

“Then why does she work here?”

“Let’s just say she owes us one.” He said as our drinks finally came. “Thank you lovie.” He sung out to Maz.

“Screw you!”

“Here? Now? Just kidding, I know you’re still sore from last night.” He teased her as he picked up his cocktail and took a sip of it. She stomped away and went back to work.

“That was uhh—pardon me for saying this but—inappropriate. On what you just said to her.”

“Oh believe me that’s about as nice as we get with each other. You never wanna see Maz and I really go at it. Hell even I don’t like it when we go at each other. John and Serafina never forgave us for that.” You both hear the crowd cheer and you saw that Tom and Flora had finished their routine.

“Wow, that’s a record. Guess John and Serafina told her to keep it short.” The Siren said as he took another drag of his cigarette.

More people danced their routines and they were all pretty good. You’ve always secretly admired a good dancer and you wished you could move half as good as any professional dancer, but sadly you couldn’t.  You’ve always described your dancing as having ‘2 left feet’.

Brian came up to the stage after the last couple came up to dance and he said into the microphone.

“And now, to end our competition we have John and Serafina Deacon. And singing a song that they composed for their routine, we have rising Jazz singer Aerin.” Aerin? You had never heard of a name like that before, was he from Europe or something? Cause that was clearly not an American name.

As the crowd applauded, a young and attractive African American man came up (god you were beginning to wonder just how all these people were inhumanly beautiful!) he wore a beautiful three piece grey suit as well as sported a matching fedora hat.

It was then Serafina came up onto the stage wearing a beautiful burgundy red flapper dress and like an actress on stage, she acted like she was wandering around the stage lost and confused.  That was until this Aerin fellow came up to her and presented her with a lamp of some sorts.

Play video

She took it from him and admired it curiously as he stepped away back to his spot on the stage.  Serafina rubbed the prop and soon with a flash of lights and an explosion of smoke on the stage, the band soon exploded into an upbeat tune that timed with the beat of the special effects.  You then see on stage a man roughly around the same age as Serafina, maybe even a bit older.

Again like every other man in this place he was attractive to the eye with short brown hair.  He wore a black satin shirt with what almost looked like diamonds stitched all over the shirt, giving it a starry-like quality.  A few of the top buttons were undone, exposing a bit of his upper chest, white satin pants and white platform shoes.

He turned to Serafina with passionate eyes and a soft grin but she turned away from him with her arms crossed.  It was then Aerin began to sing as he snapped his fingers slowly and the cello began to play a single note.

As Aerin sung his song, you couldn’t take your eyes off of John and Serafina play out their little act.  John slowly walked towards Serafina to the beat of the cello before coming up right behind her, snapping his fingers along with Aerin.

He looked her up and down but not like a lion eyeing his prey, it was like a husband admiring his wife.  With love and admiration, not with lust or desire.  The two of them did an in-sync tap dance with their right feet but Serafina quickly glared up at John before pushing him away from her.

*Aerin*

Well, Mr. Rochester had his double dose Romeo had his Juliet But, my dear, you’re in luck

'Cause up your sleeves You got a lover that never fails You got some power in your personal Some heavy ammunition in your camp You got some punch, pizazz, yahoo and how All you gotta do is say my name And I'll say

Madam Serafina What will your pleasure be? Let me take your order Jot it down You ain't never had a lover like me No no no

The band began to pick up with the Cello player and John quickly got in front of Serafina and took her hands in his and the two did a jazz dance together, tapping their feet or John dancing around Serafina.  Every now and then Serafina would try to get away from John.

Life is your restaurant And I'm your maître d' C'mon whisper what it is you want You ain't never had a lover like me

Yes ma’am, we pride ourselves on service You're the boss, the Queen, the goddess Say what you wish, it's yours! True dish, how about a little more baklava?

The two of then danced to a two beat as they scaled down the stairs to the dance floor and John pulled Serafina close to his chest stroking her cheek before removing the flapper headdress from her head.  The two of them began to do the Turkey trot, his hand every now and then brushing some strands out of her face, or maybe just to feel the touch of her skin as his ‘Loving master’.

Have some of column A Try all of column B I'm in the mood to help you love You ain't never had a lover like me

        The two of them then began to do a little dance duel off.  John first did a fast paced tap dance routine for the first line.  Serafina then did a tap routine of her own, adding a twirl and wave of her arms before turning back to John.

        He then did a triple spin before taking Serafina’s hand, spinning her right towards him before giving her a quick dip.  

Can your boys do this? Can your men do that? Can your brothers pull this out their little hat? Can your daddy go, poof!

You then see Serafina break her ‘hard to get’ façade as she finally let lose and her and John danced together.  The Blonde Siren wasn’t kidding, seeing the two of them dance together it was—ethereal.

It was like seeing two puzzles fit together, two birds dancing in the sky.  It was like they were made for each other.  The two then began to Charleston around each other, dancing rapidly as they refused to break eye contact with each other till John took her hand and brought her close to him him before spinning her around.

So don't ya sit there slack-jawed, buggy-eyed I'm here to answer all your midday prayers You got me bona fide and certified You got a lover for your charge d'affaires I got a powerful urge to love you now So whatcha wish? I really wanna know You got a list that's three miles long, no doubt Well, all you gotta do is love me so oh oh

He spun her faster and faster and faster almost to the point where you swear she had vanished.  What even amazed you was that she was actually being lowered down to the ground while still spinning at a rapid speed before coming right back up again.

Soon their dancing exploded as they danced with passion and grace. Jazz squaring, the Charleston with jazz hands, or this one move with their arms and feet. Their arms made a flossing like motion while they stepped backwards twice before quickly racing up the stairs back to the stage.

John spun Serafina into his arms and she gave him a kiss on the cheek.  His face lit up as a grin spread across his face.

Madam Serafina, have a wish or two or three I'm on the job, as your Casanova You ain't never had a lover, never had a lover You ain't never had a lover, never had a lover You ain't never (never)

Had (had) a

Lover like me You ain't never had a lover like me

With a point of his hand, another special effect of smoke blew up the stage and they both disappeared.

The crowd went berserk. John and Serafina soon came back on stage, hands joined with each other as they took their bows and the crowd continued to cheer.  The two lovers acknowledged and clapped for the band as well as for Aerin, who also took a bow.

“Our lovely and reigning championship couple John and Serafina Deacon everyone.” Brian said into the microphone.  After clapping and letting out a few whistles you turned to the Blonde Siren and said.

“You were right they were amazing!”

“I prefer masterful.” He said. “But you’re right. They were good. Like I told you, two partners meant for one another.” His eyes seemed to stare at the two of them in a daze-like trance. “You’ll never find anyone more worthy of each other in any books or film.”

Wow.  He must really love Serafina if he was willing to let her fall in love with someone else.  He was willing to put aside his own feelings for her just so that she could be with John.

“It must’ve been hard, to let her go like that.”

“I’m sorry?” he asked confused.

“My question earlier. You never answered it. You must really love her, but yet you were willing to let her go so that she could be with the one she really loves.”

He looked at you confused before he let out a snicker. That snicker soon developed into a chuckle which then turned into a boisterous laugh.

He was laughing? Why was he laughing? Was he in denial or something? I mean it you hear it does make people act a certain way, right?

“Oh that’s rich! Me in love with Serafina!” his laughter slowly died down but when he saw your face he continued, “Oh wait you were serious?” he scoffed softly, “Look I know I may come across as a flirt, especially towards the ladies, but not even I can break the spell that John and Serafina have with each other. Their loyalty and love has been with them since childhood. They were lovers long before I even met them.”

“You mean they were childhood sweethearts?”

“Yeah if you wanna go that way of saying it.” Aww that’s so sweet. You could tell that John and Serafina had something extra special about each other.

You may not know about the connection it takes between dance partners but you knew that it takes knowing someone a really, really, really, really long time to form a bond and make any time you see a couple like them together, feel like there’s magic surrounding them.

“Well done as always John and Serafina.” The Siren spoke as he raised his glass to them.  You see the young couple coming towards you and John says.

“Thanks mate.” He then turns to you and says, “I could be mistaken but aren’t you the new person that came to our club on Tuesday?”

“Yes. Yes sir I am. (Y/n) (l/n). You and Serafina were amazing up there tonight.” You say as you extend your hand out.

“Thank you.” he takes your hands and the two of you shake in introduction. “John Deacon. Financer and co-owner of the BEWITCHED jazz club. And also lucky husband to this beautiful woman right here.”

“You honey-bear you’re too kind.” Serafina blushed.  She then turned to you and said, “Hope our friend here hasn’t scared you like he did the first time you came here.”

“Oh Serafina love, you wound me so.” The Blonde Siren said as he placed his hand over his heart. “You know I know my limits when mingling with the guests.”

“Of course you do hound dog.” John muttered.

“Stuck up prick.” The Siren snapped back.

“Prima donna.” John snapped back.

“Posh flamingo!”

“Alright now boys settle down, settle down!” Serafina broke the two of them apart before they went at it. “You both know the law here. No fighting in front of the guests.” She scolded them.

“Sorry love.” They both chorused out like children who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  She turned back towards you.

“Come on honey, why not come outside with me to get some air? And you two behave yourselves. I better not see another mess.”

“Yes ma’am.” The two men said as Serafina guides you outside.

You both exit out the backway and now stand in an alleyway. The cold spring night air dancing around you as you rub your arms to keep warm.

“Oh I’m sorry sweetie, do you want to go back inside?” Serafina asks concerned.

“No I’m fine. Just—had to get used to it after being inside is all.”

“Sorry. I like to come out here after John and I perform a routine. It just gets so hot after doing a full on jazz routine.”

“I’ll bet. Especially with the practical effects you guys used in your routine.”

“Practical effects?” she questioned softly with a tilt of her head.

“The smoke and the sparks of light.”

“Oh yes that! Sorry honey we never really called them that before. Or at least I never did. I just call them smoke bombs and flashy lights. As you can see I’m not really technologically advanced.” She admitted the last part shyly.

“Yeah you have always been a bit slow to technology Serafina.” A male voice soon spoke up.  You both turn around to see a hidden figure standing in the shadows.

Slowly walking out from the darkness was a tall and handsome man. He roughly looked to be around his early to mid 30’s, had strange yet fitting long white hair and……wait were his eyes golden? Like a honey-colored gold? You didn’t know anyone could have golden eyes before.

But you notice the look on Serafina’s face and you saw nothing but pure anger on her face.  Her brows furrowed and a sneer appeared across her lips.

“What is it you want Jarod?”

“Be calm dear I don’t mean any harm but umm…..” that’s when Jarod turned his eye to you. “Who’s your friend back there?”

“They are none of your concern! Now move along!” Serafina snapped as she stood protectively in front of you.  Why was she being so rude to him? All he wanted was to know my name. “Listen to me honey, I need you to go back inside and find either John or Brian. Do not leave their side till I come back and find you, okay?” she whispers to you urgently as she looks back at you.

“Oh well now that’s just rude.” Jarod cooed.  Wow—his voice was……so soothing, and rich (it could’ve also been the accent, you didn’t know but you also strangely didn’t care). Like the honey color of his eyes. “And I thought you were said to be the supreme hostess?”

“Not to your kind! Now I won’t ask again Jarod. Get. Out!”

“Wait.” You suddenly say. “I—I don’t want him to leave.” You find yourself saying.  Serafina’s eyes widened at your decree.

“Sweetheart you can’t be serious.”

“She is Serafina. And what your guests want, they get.” Jarod said with a smug grin. “Come here child.” He says to you and you find yourself walking straight towards them.

“No!” Serafina cries out but Jarod lifts his hand and she goes flying backwards against the wall and falls lifelessly on the ground.

You were unaware of what happened because all you kept thinking about were Jarod’s eyes and his voice.  You finally stand face to face, well more like face to chest with him as he looms over you about a foot.  He takes your chin between his fingers and whispers.

“Exquisite.” God his breath—it smelled so sweet. Like honeysuckles. “What’s your name my dear?” you were about to open your mouth to answer when a voice enters your mind.

‘Don’t tell him! Don’t tell him your name! If you do it’ll bind you to him forever! Please for Merlin’s sake honey don’t give him your name!’ Serafina? How was her voice speaking to you.

“Going shy on me now hmm? Maybe a little bit of courage will help loosen those delicate lips.” He cups your face with his soft, gentle hands. Your eyes staring straight into the other’s, his nose slightly grazing over yours as his lips tease against yours.

Electricity is shooting up your spine as you get the urge and lift yourself up on your tiptoes to kiss this handsome angel of a man. His strong arms pull you closer to him as a deep, resonating moan escapes his throat making your legs feel like jell-o.

When you separate from each other you finally give out your name in a soulless whisper.

“(Y/n).” he lets out an orgasmic gasp as he says.

“What a lovely name. Come with me my love.” And soon your vision turns black as you feel two arms lift you up and the last thing you hear are screams of your name.

Your vision is blurry for the next little while, but what you can make out is darkness, screams of horror and pain, and hundreds if not thousands of people with pointed ears and sharp fangs hissing at you.

The smell—it smelled like…..rotting flesh, why did it smell so bad here? Where were you? You then find yourself being shoved straight down onto some sort of chair.  The voices around you chanting out some sort of foreign language till suddenly a loud bang was heard and all went quiet.

Slowly lifting your head maybe an inch from where your head rested, you could see through whatever light there was coming down in his cave-like structure a tall female figure walking towards you.  You could make out that she wore some sort of black and green clothing and a crown of spikes stood across her head, like antlers on a deer.

Proud and regal.

But soon your vision went back to black.

*3rd Person POV*

Play video as you read below

Walking towards the mortal was none other than Queen Titania of the Faeries.  Now faeries are not as they are in your fairytale books, they are dark creatures. Like mermaids, they are in touch with all things of the supernatural and mysterious.

While beautiful and handsome compared to any human being there is one rule you must always remember; Never, ever under any circumstance give a fae your name.  If you do, it binds a contract to your very soul and you will forever be possessed by them forever.  Faes, especially the Dark faes of Titania’s clan are incapable of showing and expressing real love.

They view whatever or whomever they love as possessions and are only really out for themselves.  Draining the life force of anyone, especially humans of their essences, or using them as a way to give birth to future faelings.

“Mother.” Jarod said as he stood beside his prey.

“My son.” Titania spoke in a commanding yet soft voice. She then turned towards her son’s recent catch and said as her eyes soon became lustful, “And just who is this you brought with you?”

“They’re mine mother! They spoke their name to me!” Jarod hissed possessively.

“Shut up!” she snarled as she slapped her son across the face. “You know of my law when it comes to fresh prey!” in her hand appeared a small dagger, “While it is our law for a human to be bound to the one they speak their name to, my law is to enact—prima nocta.” She then stabs the dagger into (y/n)’s left shoulder.

Not too deep to cause excruciating pain, but deep enough for the mortal’s blood to start pouring out.  Queen Tatiana slowly moved her dagger down (y/n)’s arm right down to their wrist.  The Queen watched with pleasure as their face softly clenched up in pain and admired the red human blood seeping out from her dagger.

She took back her dagger and made it disappear as she now sat down upon the young mortal’s lap.  She stroked (y/n)’s cheek gingerly and whispered.

“Just…….a little taste.” She slowly began to lower herself down towards (Y/n)’s shoulder to get her first taste of fresh human blood after 1000 years.

When suddenly a crack was soon heard from above. Titania, her son Jarod and all the other faes looked up.  The ceiling cracked even more before finally a portion of it caved in and water soon rained down upon them.  Titania, her son and the faes all backed up as now standing before them were Brian May, Roger, John and Serafina Deacon.

Roger was now in his true Nokk form, his fangs bared and gills extended outward as he let out an animalistic roar.  Brian was in full Elvish silver armor as he withdrew two long swords his eyes glaring pure hatred, meanwhile John and Serafina stood each of their hands glowing either purple or red respectively.

All four of them protectively guarded their human friend as Serafina snarled.

“You dare come near them again!” Titania smirked wickedly at them.

“You four are fools to think you could come into my kingdom and win. But no matter, my babies have longed for a fight. And they will enjoy tearing you four apart.” She then banged her staff once on the ground and that’s when a female fae came flying straight towards Brian.

Her fangs exposed and claws growing outward as she flew towards the Elf Lord.  But she was stopped as Roger pounced on her and forced his hand (which now turned to water) down her throat.

Drowning her alive while still on land.

Even after she was dead, he ripped her throat apart just to show those faes that they meant business.  He then roared out again as blood dripped from his fangs.

Soon over 50 faes flew right towards them.  John and Serafina fired out with their magic, shooing some of them away, but the others managed to get past.  Ten female faes went over to Roger, attacking him with bites and scratches, Brian fought off against 15 male and female faes, while John and Serafina tag-teamed against the remained dozen.

The battle was brief and short as Roger found himself being over powered by the brutality of the female faes as they dragged him down to the bottom of the caves.

Brian tried as best as he could but one large and strong fae managed to actually break his swords in two and to add salt to the open wound, he actually broke the Elven lord’s dominant arm.

John and Serafina unfortunately weren’t doing any better. Even after shifting into a lion and lioness hoping that animal force could overpower these faes, they too were soon overpowered and were forced to roll down the ramp of the throne and forced to be pinned.  Queen Titania watched with disinterest as her foes were now defeated and she could now once again claim her prize.

But something would once again stop her, however it was the one thing that faes, along with every mythical creature fears.

Bursting out from the back of the caves was a loud hiss and a flash of scales.  Screams of terror were heard from the faes in the back as they all tried to flee, unfortunately some of them ended getting caught in the coils of something big.

When Titania turned glaring with pure hatred at just what was causing the delay now, her hatred soon turned to horror.  Quickly slithering up towards her was a half human-snake creature.  With one single hiss and launch at her, Titania crawled away in fear.

The faes around the throne also tried to flee, but as the creature wrapped itself around the throne, the faes who were trapped (one of them being Jarod) were forced to stay put as they were being suffocated between the stone rock and the pure muscle of the coils pressing down on them.

Slithering down to finally reveal himself was Freddie, the last of the Nagas.  As mentioned before, all creatures especially the faeries fear the Naga.  They can’t even stand to look a Naga in the eye less they fall under their spell and become their next meal.

For you see Nagas are the only beings in the world, as well as dragons, who cannot be affected by any type of magic.  Which is why the faeries fear them so much.  Anything that cannot be put under their spell, is a threat and a frightened fae is a weak fae.

As Freddie’s coils wrapped around the throne with about five of Titania’s people including her son were shown before the rest of the faeries, he let out a angry hiss.

“HEED MY WORDS fae scum! The human belongsss…..to USSSS!!!!” His eyes filled with nothing but pure hatred and protectiveness.  He made sure to show his many rows of teeth before the fae Queen to ensure she took his warning to heart.

Frightened and refusing to look upon the last Naga, Titania took off flying and the faes that had John and Serafina pinned also backed down and took off flying.

Freddie let out a hiss as his forked tongue poked out and he looked down to John and Serafina.

“You dears alright?” phasing back into their human forms again with blood stained across their faces from the faes claws.

“We’ll live. But (Y/n)……” John said as he gestured towards the human.  Freddie looked down at the small human with concerned eyes.

“Freddie, they told Jarod their name. What if…….”

“It’ll be alright Serafina dear. While it is true fae law states that if someone speaks their name, they are bound to the fae for eternity. However, should the fae be killed then the contract is no longer in effect. They are free of him.”

“Thank Paracelsus.” Serafina sighed with relief. The faint groans came out of (Y/n)’s mouth as their eyes began to open up once again.

Freddie’s head just stood a few feet above them and he looked down at them with soft reassuring eyes.

“It’s alright my darling. Just sssleeeep.” He cooed down at them before lowering himself down to them and picked them up.  The remaining faes now couldn’t even look at their former prey/plaything cause now they have been touched by the Naga.

“Now clear out, all of you!” John fired a purple bolt of lightning straight at the wall and soon the faes all took off fleeing deeper into the darkness.

“That’ll hold them for a while.” Brian groaned as Serafina was now healing his broken arm.  After that she quickly repaired his swords and that’s when he asked.

“Where’s Roger?”

“Don’t you worry about our Nokk friend.” Freddie told the Elven lord.  “There happened to be a small stream of water that our friend used to finish off his faes. He’ll meet us back home since the stream connects to a river outside.”

“He’s right, Roger can take care of himself. Right now we gotta get (Y/n) healed up and make sure Jarod’s spell is off their soul permanently.” John said.  He extended his hand to Serafina who now joined hands with John.  The two of them joined their other hands together and placed their foreheads against each other.

Focusing their magic, they soon disappeared out of the dark cave before the faes could change their minds and return to finish the job.

[cutegirlmayra]

I saw that you probably aren’t doing fanfiction right now because of shutdown, but, if you are, I kind of have an idea, it’s sort of sad and based off of Shrek Forever After, but with a bit of Black Knight. After having an argument with Tails, he finds himself accidentally saying that he doesn’t need him and that he was better off without before them, after that, Sonic ends up in a world where his own friends don’t recognize him and he has to gain back their friendship.

(found here: (x) Please support the artist!)

Even if it’s not Black Knight AU, I thought the picture worked lol And yes, during shutdown, I don’t take anymore prompts BUT we’re out of shutdown now so here we go!

Oh, Shrek. You’ll live forever.

Prompt:

It wasn’t long before Tails flew over, dodging the smoke from the destroyed robots all piled like debris from the previous battle.

Sonic had launched quite a fearsome and fierce spindash that did a massive ping-pong effect throughout all of Eggman’s lone army.

They were sure the army was headed towards the city, and Sonic bolted ahead of his team to take of things while they worried and fretted over the defenses and other ‘boring’ lectures of planning that Sonic didn’t want to stick around for.

He dusted himself off as Tails landed by his side, his eyes showing the concern and annoyance in them.

“Soooniicc! You said we’d work together!” Tails protested, but Sonic just rolled his eyes, seeing the young fox boy bundled his fists together by his face and show his obvious disapproval of Sonic’s more... fast method... of stopping Eggman.

“What is everyone so upset about? I beat the army, and barely dropped a sweat!” he mimed gliding his finger down his arm and then flicking the imaginary ‘sweat’ into Tails’s face who flinched at and wrinkled his nose at the gesture.

“That’s not the point... you always rush off without us. We’re a team!” he hopped a little forward, trying to grab Sonic’s attention at the truth to his words, but Sonic just waved it off and kicked a sparking robot’s hand, who was reaching from the pile up towards the sky, twitching before Sonic knocked it out and it ripped from the pile and started sparking off in rolling dark humor...

Sonic smirked as Tails looked horrified at the image and then shook his head, “You’re too stubborn...”

Sonic’s head whipped up, looking strangely offended at that as he turned to Tails and stomped towards him, making the poor boy walk backwards and shocked to see his friend so aggressive all of a sudden.

“Stubborn? Stubborn!? I used to take down hundreds upon thousands of robots long before you all tagged along! And what now, huh!? You’re all the stubborn ones! I could have cleared through these zones to Eggman’s base, took down his stock of mechanical tyranny, ripped up his notebook schemes, and been back before you guys called out ‘Break!’.” he flung his arms about, and the strange behavior made Tails cower back slightly, on the verge of tears. However, Sonic was so lost in his frustration at feeling held back by his friends, that he kept going without even realizing the damage he was causing to his friendship... “Without you guys, I’d be saving countless lives, planets, and the sort without having to worry about saying, ‘What’s the plan, Tails’!?”

When he finally came to and looked to Tails, his wildly flinging hands slowly came down and so did the flame of his aggravation.

“Tails...” His eyes softened, seeing how frightened and hurt Tails appeared.

He had withdraw down and against the pile of scrap metal, his bottom lip quivering, and one hand held up over his face.

He rubbed the rolled up part of his glove over his now wetted nose as he held in his tears, getting up from leaning against the pile and bringing his tails up to his hands as though to hold them like a child would his security blanket. “We don’t mean to slow you down, Sonic... we just want to help... and we want to be apart of your adventures too.” He sniffled and took off, holding his hands over his eyes as to not let Sonic see how much his words affected him.

Sonic immediately regretted what he said, holding out his hand to him, “Wait... buddy...” his hand slowly came down and he turned around angry again, kicking more robots and spin-slashing into some on the ground, “Augh! What’s wrong with me!? I would never say that!” he slammed his foot against a particularly hard object, and jumped back in the pain. “Yee-ouch! Ow, ow, ow!” he held his foot in a comical, pogo-stick way before looking down at the strange, darkly colored orb object he had hit...

His eyes narrowed on it in curiosity, and then looked around. Tails was already flying back and crying to the others, no doubt being comforted after telling them all Sonic had said.

His face dropped again, as though not wanting to deal with that and feeling guilty over his outburst.

He was always a hothead, but tried to hide that as best he could from his friends. He was going crazy just sitting around talking all the time, and his jittery, antsy feet made him quick to the fuse...

Luckily, his love for his friends was more powerful than that... most of the time.

He sighed and dug through the rubble, deciding it best to go this journey alone, and pick up the strange, orbish ball.

“What do we have here?” it was about an inch smaller than Sonic’s head, but still rather large in his grasp. He moved it around, looking at it’s curves and seeing that it had rings of different colors around it’s glistening shades of black, purple, green, and pink. “A new Eggman toy? Ohhh~ Shiny!” he tried to cheer himself up, but looked back over his shoulder to see Amy and Knuckles, not looking happy, waddling through the debris of Eggman robots.

He pouted, “Uh oh... IIIIIII~ Really don’t want to deal with this.” he looked around for an escape route, and found one as he ducked his head and hid among the tin carcasses of Eggman’s army.

Burrowing as was his specialty of being a hedgehog, he heard Amy and Knuckles calling out in their search for him, and stuck his head out from a gap of two overlapping robots.

He peeked back and smiled, then brought out the orb before a sparking robot’s upper-half snapped some of its wires loose and it’s arm draped over him.

“Ah! Bad touch, bad touch!” he pushed through the gap as best he could and tried to kick the arm off of him... but what he didn’t see... was that the sparks smacked against the orb... and made it glow.

“Soooniicc!” Knuckles’s and Amy’s voices rang over his desperate attempts to get the sparking dead robot off of his stuck leg, and panicked when he saw Amy look over and point towards him. “There he is!”

“Wha? Grr..!!! Sooonic!” Knuckles’s immediate glare, followed by him hunching down and stomping over to his location made him freak out even more.

“Eee..!” His mouth stretched back to reveal he was getting caught, but finally put the orb over his head and cried out, “Being me would be so much easier if I wasn’t stuck with you!” he was talking about the robot, but the orb burst like a bomb into a swirl of techno-colors.

Sonic felt himself falling slowly through the gleaming black as his hands whipped out to try and ‘swim’ or pull himself upward.

“W-what’s..? What’s going on!?”

It replayed some of Sonic’s words around him, showing him through another set of eyes... blurry with tears.

“Tails...” his expression changed, his hands stopped fighting the pull downwards... almost like Alice falling through the rabbit hole.

“I don’t need you telling me what to do!” Sonic’s voice shouted through the muffled orb.

“I... I didn’t mean it like that, Amy...” He felt himself sinking a little faster, hearing his words from days passed.

“Stop saying I care so much! I only care if I’m having fun doing it!” another image of him looking snarky and confident.

“Man... Do I really sound that annoyingly arrogant?” Sonic’s head kept swishing back and forth at all the images and the words began to echo in a cacophony of incoherent statements as Sonic tried to plug his ears and his feet kicked the air. “No... Nooo... Nooo!!!” he cried out as he fell faster and faster into the dark.

“Hey, hey mister, are you alright?”

Sonic blinked his eyes, mumbling as though coming too from a nightmare.

Tails was looking over him, watching him stir.

“Uhhh...” He leaned up, having a hand on his face, “Sorry about earlier, buddy... I really let you have it, huh?” after thinking he was electrocuted and possibly passed out, he shook his head and started getting up, apologizing. “You know I couldn’t do half the amazing things I do without a little bit of your own style thrown in there, right?” he gave him a thumbs up, but weakly so, still coming too and hunched over from the trauma. “H-hey? Where’s Eggman’s robots?”

“Huh?” Tails leaned back up, “Buddy? Look, mister... You’re Sonic The Hedgehog. You don’t have any ‘buddies’.” he put his hands to his hips, “Anyway, you beat down Eggman again, so I guess this means your out of here and on to the next thing. I won’t bother you too much, just wanted to make sure you were okay, but it looks like you were napping.” He turned behind him, waving to a crowd that had formed around the city. “Heeey! He’s okay!” Tails waved to them, calling out.

They all looked relieved and cheered, before dispersing rather quickly back into the city.

“H-huh?” Sonic looked confused, but Tails just turned around and nodded to him.

“Okay, I know how you roll, so I’ll take off now and simply say, Take care!” he took off without another word, waving slightly to him as though he was a stranger...

“W-wait, Tails! I said I was sorry, don’t pull this on me! Come on, bud!” Sonic reached out to him, racing after him as Tails looked weirded out by him following him.

He looked under him and made a face, “Umm...”

“We can sort this out! We’ve gotten through way worse than a little outburst.” Sonic shrugged, but Tails still seemed weary of him.

“L-look, you may have hit your head pretty hard against those robots, but I don’t know you. No one really does, but we all know you’re Sonic! Legendary and lone hero! You sure do clean up those baddies real fast though, see you at a distance!” he waved him off again and took off even faster.

Seeing how desperately Tails wanted to get away from him, Sonic slowed down and looked extremely broken, as though not able to quite function under this odd predicument.

“What’s... going on?” he looked at his hand, “Tails wouldn’t play around like this... he loves spending time with me.” He flexed out his hand, the one that had blown up with the supposed ‘explosion’ but saw no sign of blast... not even ash on his pristine white glove.

“...Amy.” He looked around and saw her heading back with the crowd, “Amy!” he dashed towards her, “What’s going on with Tails? Is he really that mad at me?”

“H-huh?” She looked taken-aback that he was there, and immediately started flipping out in silence, fangirling and putting her hands up to her face as though she had just ran into a celebrity. She pulled out her phone and posed, “Could you sign this?” the photo came out of the phone and she clicked a button for a pen to also drop like a plug from inside it.

“W-what?” He sweatdropped, pulling away from her slowly and looking her in the eyes, searching for an answer. “Amy... it’s me... Come on, not you too!” he flopped his arms out towards her, “Amy! Stop it! This is going too far!”

She withdrew her phone-pen and photo. “O-oh, right, sorry! I know you like to be the lone, mysterious Sonic The Hedgehog who doesn’t need any help! I’ll go now! But... I love you!” she waved and ran by him, hurrying away as other girls stopped her and offered money for the photo but she guarded it by summoning her hammer, making--or rather--forcing her way through the crowd that came at her.

“It’s mine! All mine! Get your own!” 

Others started taking photos of Sonic as a response.

The flashes overwhelmed him, making his mind spin as he turned around to try and find more familiar faces... but they were all strangers... every... one of... them...

“No.” he gripped his head, “No, no... Knuckles... Knuckles!!” he sped so fast through the people that some girls had to hold their dresses or long skirts down from his wind blast.

Upon reaching Angel Island, Sonic panted and gripped his chest, “Knuckles, it’s awful!” he held up the Chaos Emerald he had before the blast... teleporting once safely away from the city...

“HEEEY!” Knuckles woke up from his nap, then seeing the emerald, rubbed his eyes in disbelief and angrily looked to his pedestal. Sure enough, one Chaos Emerald was missing...

In absolute hostile rage, he lowered his head, gritting his teeth.

He slowly turned his flaming eyes towards Sonic, getting up and twitching his fists into pounding against the ground, as though a racer, like a bull, readying to charge off into the fray...

“Everyone’s acting like I’m some kind of lone ranger, it’s creeping me ou-FFPH!” he was slammed into by Knuckles’s head ramming into his stomach.

Getting taken off-guard, Sonic rolled back and jammed his back into a tree, spiking it with his two angled spikes at the force. He was briefly knocked out, but coming back, he rose his head and shook it, blinking his eyes and then struggling to get out from the tree. It was clear he looked like a turtle stuck on his shell, trying to get up and kick his feet out to do so, but his back quills were too deeply embedded in the tree.

‘Geez,’ he worriedly thought to himself, ‘Knuckles, even at his worst, wouldn’t hit that hard knowing it was me.’ He looked back as Knuckles slammed another fist into the side of the tree, barely missing Sonic as he held the Chaos Emerald in up in his other hand.

“Now you listen here, blue punk.” He spat out as his head got dangerously close to Sonic’s, “I already have to deal with that no-good bat girl and that deranged, psychotic Eggface! I don’t need another so-called ‘hero’ thinking he can just walk up to MY ISLAND and take what he sees fit!” he cracked his two-spikes on his glove out from the tree’s now tilted bark. “Hmph, now get off my island! I don’t like your kind around here... Always parading your victories, running off after the praise and never caring about anyone else but yourself! Your kind make me sick!”

He walked briskly back to his shrine, but freaked out when the Master Emerald was gone, “AH! MY EMERALD!” he dropped the Chaos Emerald and gripped his head, then panicked and picked it back up, turning to Sonic. “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY PRECIOUS EMERALD?”

Throughout the day, Sonic had to regain their trust, and even convince Eggman that he knew Sonic...

Eggman knew him as his life-long, hated adversary but...

“I hardly actually know you. You hate water? Does that... like... count?” He shrugged from his eggmobile. “Wait, wait! Are you..? Are you saying you at last wish to join forces and be friends!?” He pulled out a party blower and horn, releasing fireworks but Sonic shook his head.

“I...” He looked to Tails, Knuckles, and Amy... who he had kinda dragged along this wild ride...

They looked at him like he was strange and this was all odd, and it hurt his heart to see it.

He fell to his knees, “I... I don’t know how I got any of you as friends... and I know I don’t say it enough but... I’m so grateful I have you.” He hit the ground.

Eggman looked a little confused too, shifting his eyes, “Umm... What?”

He didn’t understand the jibber-jabber so he just took a canon to fire at him from below his Eggmobile.

Sonic didn’t even bother to dodge... but as the black canon fired... the black, purple, green, and pink lights within it made it look strangely familiar...

Amy summoned her hammer and hit the canon up into the air, “You leave Sonic alone!” she stated, as he looked up to her, already to weak in his emotions to do anything else.

“Grr... he may be a bratt, but he’s a lonely bratt, regardless!” Knuckles punched his fists together, standing up beside Amy and getting ready for a brawl. “So butt out of his business! Nah, do me one better, butt out of everyone’s business! Especially my own!” he must have been referring to the world and his own Master Emerald crisis...

“And I-!” Tails stood forward, but looking to Sonic, it almost seemed like he didn’t know what to say.

Sonic looked away, not expecting this Tails to say anything.

“...I think he needs us.” Tails nodded with a soft, sad smile, then turned back to Eggman with all the force a young child would have in wanting to defeat evil and tyranny. “You’re a bully! I’ll show you what Sonic inspires! In all of us!”

The three were about to fight, but the ‘canon-ball’ came flying down and bonked Sonic on the head.

When he came too, he was surrounded by Tails, Knuckles, and Amy... all were leaning over him, trying to wake him up.

“Sonic! Sonic, wake up!”

“H-huh?” He opened his eyes, not sure what was going on again, but saw the heap of robots and then looked to see his friends, grabbing their shoulders.

“You know me!?”

They all seemed worried, “Well, of course we know you!” Amy laughed, “Silly! We were worried when we saw the blast! Tails said you two had a fight...”

“Well, he fought.” Tails looked away, a little sheepishly.

“Nevermind that, tell me, you punk!” Knuckles gripped Sonic up and held him up to his face, “What gives you the right to shout in people’s faces, huh!? Show a little more respect for those who actually care about your safety and success, alriiighhttt!?!!?” Sonic wasn’t even phased by Knuckles’s scolding, he was too wrapped up in the joy of figuring out these guys were his actual friends.

“I LOVE YOU GUYS!” Sonic threw his hands up and Knuckles set him down gently, creeped out by his bold and... strangely out-of-character declaration.

“Uhhh....” Knuckles moved away from him, letting him slightly go but keeping his fists on him for good measure. “That blast hit your head too hard or somethin’?”

“Oh my!” Amy quickly jumped up and put her hand to his forehead, “Sonic! That nasty blast really did knock you out pretty badly, didn’t it?”

“Amy!” He gripped her and Knuckles into a hug, “You’re all the best!” he laughed, and they all looked a little odd being under his arms like this...

“Tails..!” He looked to Tails, then quieted down and approached him in a calm manner. Tails was still acting shy...

“I’m so sorry, Tails.” His eyelids dropped and he came very humbly over to him. “You were my first real friend, and I didn’t understand how much your friendship changed my life... you put up with me a lot, heh... and for that, I’ll forever be grateful to you, buddy. Honestly... I know I don’t speak my heart very much but...” He raised a hand slowly to him, before letting it flop on the little fox’s head, who giggled at the ruffling it gave his fur. “You’re the bestest friend a guy could ever ask for... I wouldn’t be the hero I am today without you.”

Tails held his hand on his head and looked cutely up to him.

He jumped into him and they hugged, as Amy and Knuckles also looked thrilled that the two made-up, and Amy placed her hands together and by the side of her cheek, leaning towards it.

“Aww, brotherly love!” She cheered, admiringly, but Knuckles just rolled his eyes as if justifying this weird behavior of Sonic’s wasn’t the right way to act about it.

“Alright, so he hit his head and now he’s soft... is that really a good thing?”

“W-we should probably get your head looked at, Sonic.” Tails pulled away slightly as Sonic went to rub his head in embarrassment, but flinched from the pain and the others immediately flocked him to check out further injuries.

“Don’t move! And I know that sounds like a death sentence, but just remain still!” Knuckles argued.

“I’ve got bandages!” Amy quickly began to wrap his head as Tails helped him to sit and pulled out some water.

“Here, you must feel really awful after that short-fuse... Maybe even lightheaded too, just relax for a second, okay? We’ll have you better in no time!”

Amazed by the kindness he never really saw beforehand, he rubbed his wetted nose and glossy eyes against his glove as Tails once did, and allowed his friends to take care of him...

His... true friends.

He would never wish to part from them again.

And from here on out, he never seemed to have an issue holding in his temper either!

[alison-anonymous]

flawsome bandits pt. 4 ♡ sonic

Flawsome Revelations

Part 4! Thank you so much for all of the support guys, it literally supercharges me to write more! I love all of you and let me know what you think. Feel free to try and guess what mystery is lying in between these pages ;) Love you! 

Warnings - this is the car chase scene, so very minor violence and tons of fluff

♡♡♡

Early the next morning, our favorite trio were flying down Siskiyou County Line, just on the border of California. Fueled on coffee, stale donuts, and lemon poppyseed muffins, they were ready to seize the day (mostly). Tom once again sat behind the steering wheel with Sonic sitting shotgun (though there was barely any point since he turned around to face Y/n so often) and Y/n situated in the middle of the backseat. 

And still… no seat belts. Because who needs seat belts when you’re flying down a county line going sixty miles per hour? Not these people, I tell you. 

“So, what’s on your guys’ bucket lists?” Sonic asked out of curiosity. “Me?” Y/n asked, and Sonic nodded excitedly.

“Yeah, everyone has a bucket list, right?” Tom nodded as a verification, but still tilted his head to the side in thought, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to look at the blue hedgehog.

“Well, yeah, but I mean, you’re the one leaving earth. Y/n and I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.” Sonic chuckled mischievously next to him. 

“Oh, don’t be so sure! Your best friend is a magnet for danger,” Sonic taunted smugly. Y/n chuckled softly from the backseat. Her father, however, wasn’t quite that amused.

“Oh, so you’re anointing yourself as the bestie?” Sonic hummed in response. “A little presumptuous, but…” Sonic and Y/n both furrowed their brows in confusion, staring at Tom as he refocused on the road before him. “Look, I like you, but we’re not best friends. And frankly, I don’t think you and Y/n are best friend material either.”

“Wait, what?” Y/n scoffed, leaning in on the console and staring daggers at her father. “I think I have the right to say who is and isn’t my friend, and I already claimed Sonic as my best friend so-”

“Your loss,” Sonic finished for her. The two smiled smugly at one another and exchanged a proud high five. Tom chuckled at the defeat, but was secretly just glad that his daughter finally found someone other than her parents to be her friend. Sure, she had spent time with Crazy Carl and was able to hold decently long conversations with others, but other people her age were just… a little judgemental. Even though Sonic may be a chaotic, energetic, potentially dangerous hedgehog, at least he gave Y/n someone to confide in.

“So, getting back to the topic of bucket lists…” Sonic trailed off, eyeing the two humans to signify that he wanted them to start talking. Y/n sighed, looking out the window as they passed by a patch of giant oak trees.

“If I were to give you everything on my bucket list, we’d be here for a very long time,” she laughed. “But if you ever come back to earth, we can go over it sometime.” Sonic’s eyes bugged out in excitement.

“I am holding you up to that promise,” he smiled before turning back to Tom. “And you?” Tom breathed deeply, running the ideas through his head. 

“Alright, I guess there is one thing,” Sonic and Y/n waited for him to continue as he paused for dramatic effect. “In Green Hills, I’ve always felt more like a babysitter than a cop, you know? So I want a chance to prove myself, under real, heavy pressure. Me, Y/n, and Maddie are going to move to San Francisco and I’m going to become a street cop. And, I don’t know, see if I have what it takes.” He finally looked back down at Sonic only to see his features contorted to one of what looked like a mix of disgust, shock, and betrayal. Y/n’s simply morphed into one of sadness as the idea of leaving was once again brought to the table.

“W-what?” Tom asked, Sonic’s face making him uncomfortable. “Why is your face doing that?”

“You’re leaving Green Hills?” Sonic asked them, his tone having an added sharpness that neither of them had heard before. “Did you know about this?” Sonic turned to Y/n, his jaw clenched and eyes wide. Y/n’s e/c eyes filled with sadness as she looked down to the floor in guilt, giving him all the answers he needed. Tom breathed out heavily.

“Okay-”

“B-b-but why? Why would you want to leave Green Hills?” 

“I don’t!” Y/n protested, but Tom sent her a stern look to keep quiet. She looked back down at the floor again, only making Sonic more ticked off.

“This may come as a shock to you, but Green Hills is a very small town,” Tom explained. 

“It is not small,” Sonic scoffed. “There are hundreds of people.” “That’s a small town, dude!”

“It’s a perfect town and the people need you! Both of you!” Sonic turned to Y/n, who was doing everything within her power to not cry. “I’ve seen the way that the people talk to you. They may think that you’re different, but there’s only one you. When Crazy Carl needed help setting up his traps for me, he asked for you. When that fat lady from the bakery needed someone to drive to the mills for extra flour, she called you. And as for you-” He turned back to Tom, leaving an awestruck Y/n, but was interrupted by the man.

“Please, all that they have me do is clean out gutters and jump start their cars in the winter. And they may call Y/n for those things too, but they could call anyone!” Tom rolled his eyes. Y/n’s gaze softened as she tried to process in her mind everything that was happening. 

“Sure they could call anyone, but they don’t. But they call you guys.” Sonic laid his final card on the table. Tom pursed his lips, not really being able to find another viable excuse for himself. Sonic turned to Y/n only to see her with her eyes already fixed on him, tears glittering just behind her e/c orbs. In the heat of the moment, none of them had noticed the Robotnik-style drone barrelling towards them down the road. It was only when the device shot a typhoon straight through the window, narrowly missing Y/n’s head by an inch, and embedded itself into the dashboard that they all noticed. Y/n let out a glass shattering scream as she ended up slamming against the side of the backseat, in momentary shock from the near death experience. Tom let out a gasp as the vehicle began to sputter, swerving along the road as the drone began to try and reel the truck in. Sonic, however, was still locked inside their heated debate as he stood up on the seat and stared down at Tom.

“You know what? I was wrong, you’re not the Donut Lord at all. You’re more like the Jerk Lord!” Sonic sneered, his anger getting the better of him. Because of Tom’s inability to control the erratic movements of the truck, Y/n kept getting tossed around in the backseat like leftovers getting shoved into the back of the fridge. 

“Can you not see the typhoon literally stuck in our dash?” Tom cried out in annoyance. The drone increased its velocity, causing the truck to go slamming into the fenders on the side of the road. Y/n yelped as she got tossed to the opposite side of the truck while Sonic got thrown out the window.

“Sonic!” She screamed, fear filling her veins as she quickly shoved her head out the window to check on her friend. Luckily, he was alright, clinging onto the hood of the car for dear life. But something was… off. 

“I was forced from my home. Your home is perfect and you’re leaving it. Why would you do that?” Sonic cried out, his body becoming full of electric blue bolts of energy. His eyes began to burn a luminescent blue as he stared at Tom, his emotions causing the adrenaline to soar above normal levels. Y/n watched with wide eyes as the electricity cast a blue shadow across her face. 

“S-Sonic, you’re… glowing!” She stuttered. He quickly looked down and gasped.

“No, no, not again!” Tom quickly slammed on the brakes after giving him a slight warning, but Sonic’s grip wasn’t tight enough as he came flying off the hood, straight over the car.

“Sonic!” Y/n’s voice got lost in the wind as Sonic curled up into an electric ball of energy, and slammed underneath the tire of the Robotnik drone. She watched in pure awe, half of her body hanging out of the truck by now, as the drone went airborne. Her mouth fell open as Sonic disappeared behind it just as the drone crashed into the pavement. Tom quickly made a sharp U-turn, practically tossing Y/n out the window in the process as they quickly made their way back. Before the truck even slowed down to a stop, Y/n kicked the door open and raced out towards the drone, ignoring her father's yells to get back in the truck. 

"Sonic!" She screamed, trying to calm her panicking mind. Her footfalls skidded to a stop as she finally found Sonic lying on the ground. "Sonic?" She gently touched the side of his face, a move that startled him awake. He let out a slight groan, clutching his head as she quickly helped him up. 

"I guess I had a bonus life," he joked. Y/n let out a laugh, even though there were still tears in her eyes. Sonic gave her a reassuring smile and gently squeezed her hand. It was only then that he realized the damage had caused and let out a joyful whoop. "Oh my god, are you guys seeing this? I took that thing out!" The hedgehog jumped up onto his feet and began doing the floss in order to express his excitement, making Y/n laugh beside him. Even Tom chuckled from his position behind the wheel.

"How are you not dead?" He called.

"I have no idea!" Sonic cheered, doing a bunch of exotic spins.

"Emergency Vial Removal initiated." Sonic and Y/n froze. His emerald eyes met hers in confusion, and the two slowly turned to face the destroyed drone. 

"Did that thing just-"

"Yeah, it just spoke…" Y/n nodded, lifting herself onto her feet and slowly approaching the drone with caution. As she began to grow closer, a little divider suddenly opened between the mechanics of the drone, revealing a small metal box. She tilted her head to the side in confusion. Sonic was by her side in seconds doing the same thing. 

"What is that?" He asked. Y/n shrugged, but for some reason she felt a compulsion to take it. Like it was meant for her. Hesitantly, she began to inch her hand towards the box, glancing around the other mechanics skeptically in case there were any defense agencies waiting to strike. Fortunately, there were none. She quickly snatched the box out of the divider and turned so that Sonic could see it too. 

"Fancy," he breathed. "Open it!"

"What if it's a bomb?" Y/n asked uncertainty, eyeing her friend. He sent her a knowing smirk, placing his hands on his hips.

"When was the last time someone put a bomb in a metal box?" 

"Fair," Y/n sighed. She hooked her thumb underneath the opening, and her breath hitched with the anticipation. Counting down from three internally, once she finally reached zero, she flicked the box open. 

They gasped in horror.

♡♡♡

"Oh gross!" Sonic scrunched up his nose as he held up one of the glass vials. "It looks like piss!" 

"I don't think it is," Y/n shook her head, holding up the other one to the light. There were two little vials with corks sitting snugly inside the box. One was the shade of, well, urine, and the other one was an ice blue. As they were inspecting the flasks, Y/n noticed the white labels on the bottom of the vials. Her mouth dropped open. 

"What? This doesn't make any sense..." The one she held had one big word listed: Y/n, her name. The words "Emergency Reversal" were listed in a much smaller font beneath it. She turned to look at Sonic's and saw that it was the exact same thing, only it was Sonic's name on the top. The two stared at each other with wide, confused eyes.

“What does emergency reversal mean?” Sonic asked. You could practically hear Dr. Robotnik flipping out as he watched the two begin to start remembering on his screen. One of his main jobs had been to make sure that those vials never got lost, and what did he manage to do? The one failure in his life and this was it? 

Y/n opened her mouth to speak when a loud whirring sound suddenly came from the crashed drone. She slowly set the vials back down in the box and watched with worried eyes. Sonic must have had another one of his feelings as his heart began to pound in panic, his first instinct being to get Y/n as far away from this thing as possible.

“We gotta get out of here!” Without any warning, he swiftly scooped Y/n up into his arms (with the box still snugly held in her hands) and sped off back to the truck. He gently set Y/n back into the backseat just as Tom was picking up speed back down the road. Her face turned bright red with his carefulness and the fact that he had picked her up bridal style in order to protect her. She shook her head, blinking her e/c eyes rapidly in an attempt to shake the butterflies going insane in her stomach. Sonic got settled back into the passenger seat and they both turned to look out the rear view window. They had turned just in time to see what looked like a miniature version of the drone pop out from it’s underside and make its way after the truck like a starved and love deprived child. 

“I think that drone just had a baby,” Sonic voiced his thoughts, green eyes wide. As Y/n’s eyes followed the baby drone’s advancements carefully, a very faint sound suddenly invaded her ears. She stiffened, looking around the inside of the truck in confusion. Tom was focused on trying to control the vehicle while Sonic was keeping an intense eye on the enemy, calculating what his next move would be in order to save them. As she looked around, she began to notice that it seemed like the noise wasn’t any random noise, it was a song. No words, just vocalizing.

High and low, then high and low again. Short and mystical, but it was there. “Do you guys hear that?” She asked, furrowing her brows.

“Hear what?” Tom looked confused. 

“I don’t hear anything,” Sonic responded, keeping his eyes trailed on the baby drone as it lifted its top to reveal some sort of shooter. It spat out what looked like a heavy metal plate with bright red lasers littering its surface. You would have thought it might have just skidded across the pavement, but it seemed to have a mind of its own as it made its way at a steadily increasing speed towards the truck.

“Look out!” Y/n yelled, hugging the metal box to her chest. At the sudden closeness, she realized just as Tom swerved the vehicle that the singing was coming from the box. Sonic climbed into the backseat with her and slid out into the bed, giving her a reassuring smile when she quickly reached for his arm, fear in her eyes.

“What are you doing?” She asked, her hair blowing into her face. 

“I’ll be fine,” he told her, looking back at the drone. 

“Where’s he going?” Tom called back. Sonic grit his teeth in slight resentment.

“Just drive the car, I’ll handle this,” he jumped over the tailgate, making sure to hook his arm over the edge so he didn’t fall off. “And if I don’t make it, just ditch me. You seem to be good at that.”

Sonic watched with close eyes as the drone spat out three more of the disks, jumping off the tailgate at just the right time so he landed on two of them. Y/n stuck her head out the window once again and could do nothing but watch in amazement as he skated towards the drone on the things that it was trying to use to kill him. Her eyes widened as he smirked, expertly flipping off of the plates while grabbing one in the process and landing on top of the drone, looking straight into the camera. 

“Hey everyone and welcome back to my live stream! Today I’m showing you how to destroy robots. Step one!” And he stuck the plate onto the camera, causing it to instantly malfunction. He sped back into the truck, landing safely on Y/n’s legs as she climbed back into the truck.

He. Was. Amazing.

“That was incredible!” She cheered with him as they watched the drone, shorting out, practically commit suicide by swerving to the side and dying. Even Tom was grinning as he looked back to see Sonic’s job well done. Unfortunately, it was very short lived as yet another drone came racing out of the other one’s side. Only this one looked like an extension of one of the tires with an added bonus of a camera and some personality traits. 

“This guy really needs a hobby,” Y/n groaned, slamming her head against the seat in annoyance. As the drone came nearer to them, she suddenly got an idea. “Dad, can you do me a favor?” Tom quickly unbuckled and switched spots with Sonic, telling him to keep the car going straight. No, it probably was not the best idea to let a hedgehog drive, but Y/n was twice the size of him and needed someone to hold onto her and make sure she didn’t go falling out of the vehicle. 

She quickly kicked open the door and grabbed Tom’s old baseball bat that he had kept sitting on the floor of the backseat. Her veins were pumping with adrenaline as she carefully climbed halfway out of the car, hooking her foot into the tiny slot where people could put their stuff but never do of the truck. The wind caused her hair to go flying around her face as she tightened her grip on the bat, making sure that Tom had a good arm wrapped around her waist and the other tightly holding onto her leg. 

The drone neared the car once more, protruding spikes in an attempt to pop their tires. A surge of anger went through her as she grit her teeth, swinging in for the kill only to miss. 

“What the fuck, get over here you little piece of trash!” She growled. For once, Tom didn’t say anything about her language. Probably because he was thinking the same thing. Sonic suddenly swerved the truck to the right, glancing over at Y/n worriedly. 

“Quick suggestion, try rolling yourself up into a ball and smashing it with your body,” he attempted to try and lighten the mood. Tom let out a yelp as he swerved again, nearly sending Y/n out the door. She gritted her teeth and attempted to swing again.

“Where’d you learn how to drive?” Tom yelled angrily. 

“From this manual, it’s happening right now!” Sonic yelled back excitedly. Y/n went in for another strike, letting out a frustrated groan as she accidentally hit the gas cap instead of her intended target. Was it just her, or was the drone looking smugly at her? It didn’t even have a face, but the feeling… the feeling was there. That asshole.

“Bring it in closer!” She called. 

“What?”

“Hit the brakes!” Tom yelled. It took him a couple tries, but once he found it and slammed it on, it sent both the drone and Y/n slamming into the side door. She let out a slight groan in pain, but refocused on the advantage and swung as hard as she could, letting out all of the pent up anger and frustration she had been keeping in for years on the little robot. It let out a small whine, struggling to keep upright, and then finally crumbled onto the road. A small smile grew onto her face as she let out a whoop, Tom reeling his daughter back into the car and giving her a tight hug. 

“You are never doing that again,” he told her, overjoyed that she was safe. 

The joy ride wasn’t over yet, however, for as soon as the trio had finally gotten back into their regular positions and settled down, yet another drone came floating by Sonic’s open window.

“Aww,” he cooed at the tiny little drone the size of a horsefly. “This one is cute, let’s keep ‘em.” The second he finished his sentence, he instantly regretted it. Y/n let out a shriek as it began the slow process of cutting off the roof of the car with what appeared to be very small, but very dangerous lasers. Smoke and flames began to slide over the windshield as it made its way around.

“Come on!” Tom cried in annoyance.

“Seriously man, take up knitting or something!” Y/n groaned, batting at it as it came to her side. Finally, the entire roof was taken off, flying past the truck bed and landing somewhere that would probably get someone else in a car accident. All three let out a scream from the impact. 

“You’ve got car insurance, right?” Sonic asked worriedly. To make matters even worse, and because Robotnik has nothing better to do with his free time, another helicopter robot came flying into view. This time, Sonic was able to catch it. Y/n leaned in closer behind him as she watched him inspect it.

“Buzz off,” he scoffed, detaching the wings from the tiny body. The second that the two were separated, the body began to emit a rapid ticking sound. 

“Uh oh,” Y/n’s heart stopped. “Beeping isn’t good.”

“What? Beeping is never good, get it away!” Tom cried out, alarms ringing off in his brain. There were already wanted signs of his and his daughter’s faces all over town, the last next thing he needed was to have the two kids in his care wind up dead on the side of the road. Sonic made many attempts to shake the thing off, but they were all futile. It seemed like the bot had some sort of imbedding device as it stuck onto his glove like velcro.

“I can’t get it off!” He cried out, even Y/n trying to help him take it off. Tom quickly pulled over off the side of the road. The second they were near the woods, Sonic flew out of the car, trying every position he could think of to try and get it off. Finally, he stopped, looking around in confusion.

“Did I get it?” He asked, standing with the bot glued to his furry blue forehead.

“No,” Y/n jumped out of the car and ran over to him, followed by her father. She used a tissue to remove it from his head and threw it as far as she could, but it remained stuck to her hand. Her breathing became rapid as she struggled to shake it off, Tom grabbing her hand and holding it still so Sonic could peel it off. In a matter of very stressful seconds, he was finally able to take it off, setting it down on a rock. Y/n breathed a sigh of relief next to him.

“Haha! Nailed it!” Sonic cried out, holding his hand up for a high five. A sigh of relief escaped from her lips as she held up her hand for him, the two standing a bit too close than they should have been to the rock.

The ticking finally came to a stop and the bomb exploded, taking Y/n and Sonic with it. The world went black for the two as they crashed into the ground. 

The only sound to be heard was Tom’s frantic screaming. 

♡ a.a.

[af-answers]

Four Times Artemis Tried to Convince Holly to go to Mars with him and the One Time he Didn’t

The First Time | The Second Time | The Third Time | The Fourth Time

The Time He Didn’t

Holly arrived at the private airstrip in Italy two weeks later. She’d had to call in two and a half favors to get authorization to go topside without divulging why, but the mountain views alone made it worth the hassle.

The mountain-hedged valley belonged to Giovanni Zito, who’d become a close confidante of the younger Artemis. He was one of the few Artemis had told about the self-winding rocket project, though Holly suspected this was so he could have access to the valley. In an odd turn of events, the launch pad was built not on the landing strip, but in a copse of hot springs in a craggy outcropping to the west.

Fifty meters away and twenty meters up on the strange launch pad, Artemis’s ship gleamed in the noonday sun. As she approached, the polished titanium alloys gleamed in a way Holly could only describe as optimistic. The name of the ship was embossed on the cone in sans-serif script: Ingniculus ex Decorum. She smirked to stem the tears pricking her eyes. Artemis was being sentimental. She never thought she’d see the day.

A couple humans she didn’t recognize circled the spacecraft, squinting through the glare and marking on clipboards. She hovered above the craft, still shielded, until they cleared the hatch, then flew through.

She heard Artemis before she saw him.

“I appreciate your concern signor,” she heard Artemis say from the bridge, “but I’m confident in my calculations.”

“As am I, il mio giovane amico.” Zito’s accent was accentuated by the speaker phone. “But you’re not running a test, you’re risking your life. I’d like it to be as slight a risk as possible. And don’t worry, the engineers have signed multiple NDAs. If any scrap of their future research resembles your magnum opus in any way, they’ll be paying for it from jail cells for the rest of their lives.”

Holly dropped to the ground and took off her helmet as she walked down the narrow galley path. She looked up and around the cylindrical compartment: this would be Artemis’s home for the next five years. It could have been her home, too. She snorted softly and shook her head.

“I appreciate your loyalty, Giovanni,” Artemis chuckled. “Though if this technology succeeds, I plan to make the blueprints open source. I suppose as long as they’re here, I can consider their opinions.”

“For once, I hope I am wrong and there is no need for concern.”

Holly knocked on the ovular doorframe.

“Ah,” Artemis said from the captain’s chair, his back to her. “I have a guest. I’ll see you in five years, my friend.”

“Call before then, you son of a jackal!”

Now he laughed. “Of course, ciao.”

As soon as the call ended, the doors behind Holly slid shut. Artemis turned the captain’s chair to face her. His blue eyes sparked with a rare energy, a kiddish glee he never showed in his actual boyhood. Her eyes widened when she noticed his space suit. It looked almost exactly like a padded, fire retardant LEP containment suit, except light blue and grey instead of green and brown. For some reason, the connection made her chest clench.

“Commodore! Thank you for coming.” He pivoted the co-pilot’s seat toward her. “It means a lot. Please,” he motioned to the chair.

Holly flitted over, not trusting her legs not to shake. “To be honest, I almost didn’t,” she said. “You were so hellbent on my coming along, I thought you might commit an encore kidnapping.”

To his credit, Artemis recognized the joke. “As tempting as that is, I couldn’t handle twelve hours of angry fairy, not to mention sixty months.”

“Damn right.” She hoped he didn’t hear her throat constrict on the last word. To be honest, she did have doubts about staying behind. She’d actually packed a bag before coming to the surface, just in case she decided to go after all. In the end, she’d forced herself to leave it behind.

“Who else is in the farewell party?” she asked before she fell too far down the rabbit hole of doubt.

“Besides Zito’s surprise inspectors? No one. Butler is talking with Juliet at the moment, but I wasn’t allowed in on the call as it might blow her cover somehow.”

“What is she doing?”

“Not a clue.”

A pause.

“So— no family, then?” she asked.

He shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. “No, there never would have been. Mother will be livid, of course— this will be the third time I’ve left without warning, and will be my longest departure to date. I left them all digital messages, though, and a way to call me in space, solar flares willing. Speaking of—“ he leaned behind him and plucked what looked like a high tech monocle from the dash. It was, in all actuality, a tiny screen held in front of the eye by a wire attached to an ear piece.

“It can also interface with other mobile devices,” he explained, “but only the monocle’s receptors can pick up on this ship’s signal.”

She accepted it, cradling the hardware in her lap. It would fit her perfectly, she could tell. He made this specifically for her, which he wouldn’t have done if he’d believed she was coming with him. Even though she’d rejected his offer, he still wanted to share this adventure with her. Why did her decision, which was so obvious in the beginning, feel like a betrayal now?

“I’m sorry.” The words cut through Holly’s fog of thought. She looked up at him, confused.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, “for making this separation harder on you than it should be. I never should have been so insistent. I was so consumed with how much I needed you— still need you. You’ve always been the best of me.” He laid his head back against the head rest, staring up at the ceiling. “But I made your decision all about me, and I’m sorry.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “Haven needs you. And though they don’t know it, humanity needs fairies like you, too. To put myself over the needs of the many shows I haven’t grown as much as I thought.”

She pursed her lips. Though he was haughty and smug, Artemis was one of the most humble humans she’d ever met. He was always the first to admit his shortcomings, and he constantly worked to change them. Sure he was a pain, but he was also her best friend, and rightfully so.

“I wanted to go,” she admitted. When he squinted at her, she clarified. “With you, to Mars. Going to another planet isn’t something I’d thought about before, but if you were going to space it seemed natural I’d be going, too. We’re part of each other, Artemis,” she gestured between them. “Two sides of the same coin. Even though you don’t have my eye anymore, that hasn’t changed. And that’s part of the reason I can’t go. The two of us, sharing close quarters for so long? We’d either kill each other, or—” she took a deep, steadying breath. “I told you once I couldn’t do without you.”

Mention of that strange chapter of their friendship made Artemis go very still, and she wondered off-handedly if he was holding his breath.

“And I haven’t had to do without you, for years. We haven’t been apart longer than a month since…” she bit her lip. Thinking about the six months he had been dead still hurt. “But though we’re stronger together, we don’t need each other. You’ve always had that spark of decency, even before I came along.”

He grinned. “So you approve of the ship’s name?”

She shrugged. “It seems a bit self aggrandizing.”

“That wasn’t my intention, it was supposed to be a dedication to—“

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her coy smile cutting him off.

“You’re joking,” he realized, his frustration deflating.

“Yes, and I love the name.”

His gaze dropped to the communicator in her hands. “Now I hope more than ever those are functional.”

“What’s this?” She tilted her head. “Artemis Fowl isn’t sure of his programming abilities?”

He rewarded her with a classic vampiric grin. “It won’t happen again.”

Setting the monocle on the armrest of the co-pilot’s chair, she flew over and pulled him into a hug.

His grin shrank to a warm, genuine, one as he carefully returned the embrace. Not that he was afraid of hurting her, but as a full-fledged human adult, hugging tiny fairies presented a unique challenge. “I’m going to miss you, Holly,” he said, hooking his chin over her shoulder.

Hot tears stung her eyes when he used her name, and she curled her arms tighter around his neck, threading her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. “I’ll miss you too, Mud Boy.”

A few minutes later, the baffled engineers informed Artemis the ship was sound and ready to fly, to the best of their knowledge. Artemis had smirked at the phrase. He and Butler shook the strangers’ hands before boarding the ship for the final time (for two and a half years). As the two entered, a shielded Holly disembarked, grazing her friends’ elbows as she passed them. They all smiled knowing smiles as the hatch hissed shut.

Holly hovered a few feet away from the two engineers, all necks craned back to watch the launch.

Artemis had designed the tall launching platform to artificially compress a geyser beneath the ship to a meticulously timed breaking point. When the countdown on the inside of her visor reached zero, a column of water erupted from the pad, catapulting the ship into the air much like the hot air pushed a shuttle pod up a chute. One of the engineers yelped, realizing until very recently he’d been standing on all that pressurized power.

Holly waited with bated breath as the water flew hundreds of meters up before being reclaimed by gravity, waiting to see if the ship would succumb to the same fate. The craft, now but a speck in the cerulean sky, wavered for a few tense moments as gravity fought for dominance. Finally, the engine took over and the ship darted at a shocking speed up into the atmosphere.

When Artemis finally called her she was still at the launch site, lounging in a hot spring with her suit thrown over a tree branch overhead.

“I’m not even gone two hours and you’re already on vacation, commodore?” he asked. Though she’d been careful not to engage the “visual” half of the audio-visual headset, he could still hear and thus deduce where she was.

“Not even gone two hours and you’re already checking in, mud boy?” she teased.

“To be honest, I thought you would have called me an hour ago,” he said. “It was a highly unorthodox launch, Holly. The first of its kind. I thought you would, at the very least, be anxious to know we escaped Earth’s orbit unharmed.” She didn’t have to see him to know he was pouting. And he didn’t have to know she’d been monitoring every news site on or under the earth for reports of mysterious explosions in the upper atmosphere. True, she could have gotten the news straight from the horse, but she was curious how long it would take him to call her.

She shook her head with a smile. She had spoken too soon when she said she would miss him, and presumed too much when she thought even parsecs could keep Artemis Fowl and Holly Short apart.

After their chat, she received an image file. The first was a photo of Artemis and Butler in zero gravity, which she promptly saved to her home server. The second was a picture of a second self-winding spacecraft, this one named The Commodore. It came with a note. Under an address in Switzerland, Artemis had written, “In case you change your mind.”

Holly grinned.

[jinmukangwrites]

I don't know if this is from a movie but "You fight like my sister." "I've fought your sister, that is a compliment." With Time and Warriors

"Now remember, there's only three chests. With the mirror it should be a piece of cake," Time says, leaning towards Warrior so one else can listen to their conversation.

Warrior turns the mirror over in his hand and turns to give Time a lifted eyebrow. "Y'know, I just never took you up to be a swindler, old man."

Time smirks and shrugs. "When your a kid with a mission to save the world, you have to get some easy money somehow."

"Just like how when you're a group of traveling heroes across era's, you have to get lots of money somehow."

"Exactly," Time says, "now, c'mon, the champion says that one chest will have three hundred rupees and the other two will have a single rupee. The one you're looking for I'm told is gold."

"Yeah, but, I think when the champion told us about this game he didn't think we'd cheat the man out of business."

Time simply waves his hand like he's brushing off a particularly annoying fly. "What he doesn't know won't kill him."

The duo walk up to the front steps of a particular wooden home near the edge of Lurelin Village. Warrior can't read the language painted above the wide open door of the home, but the images of gold rupees painted on either side of the sign is hint enough that if one is lucky enough, they'll walk out richer than what they came in. Or, in Time and Warrior's case, if they're simply bastard and tricky enough. Luck has nothing to do with the purple hued mirror in Warrior's hand.

"Welcome!" A man calls from a small table set in front of three chests pushed back against the back wall, three tarps hang behind each chest promising riches. "Here to place your bets?"

"Indeed my good man, 50 from each of us. We're playing to win," Time says, placing an assortment of differently colored rupees down on the table in front of the man.

The man smirks and picks up the rupees, counting them each with nimble fingers. "Living on the edge, huh? I'll go set up. No peeking while I'm fiddling with the chests, got it?"

Both Warrior and Time are escorted outside the building for just a few moments, when they're invited back in, the man is wearing a smug look on his face, clearly thinking he's already won.

"Take all the time you need to choose a chest to open. Look, listen, smell... taste 'em if you think it'll help."

Time walks up to the chests and Warrior conveniently places himself on the other side of Time, lifting his scarf ever so slightly to inconspicuously swipe the mirror across his eye. A flicker of gold catches his eye and he smiles. "I think we should try the left one?"

Time hums. "I trust your judgement," he says as he walks forward, taking care to look a little hesitant as he bends down to open the chest. A shit-eating grin appeared on his face as he opens the chest and pulls out a shining, golden rupee.

The man almost chokes on his own spit from behind him and Warrior has to try very hard not to laugh. What they're doing is... wrong... but it's also so goddess damned amusing to see the old man get this way. Plus, they do need the money.

"Where did that... What did you... How did you score a prize like that?! Can you introduce me to Lady luck? You gonna keep going right? Or do you admit defeat?"

And oh, they do not admit defeat. They place another hundred, and then a hundred more, and with every win the man gets increasingly more and more outraged by the sheer impossible luck these two random gamblers have. The final straw, it seems, is when the duo of heros are up three thousand rupees in wind.

Warrior flashes the mirror across his eye, and he sees only green. He frowns. He sees how it is.

"You know," be says slowly, "I don't think... any of them have a golden rupee, old man."

Time barely has time to reply before the man, Cloyne they've learned his name was, jumps up from his spot at the table, flipping it over with a yell. "How?!" He screeches.

He strides forward and grabs Warrior and Time by the scruffs of their tunics drags them outside. Warrior is about to complain about the money they're owed but the man growls a simple "stay there" and he disappears back into the shop. He emerges a second later. "This is double or nothing," he says, "and, only you can play."

He points at Time.

Shit. He's on to them.

Warrior clears his throat, deciding to quit while they're ahead. "I- I don't know, maybe we should-"

"I'll do it," Time says, fire in his eye, and Warrior almost smacks the palm of his hand onto his own face.

They're walked back into the building and Warrior nervously folds his arms across his chest as Time strolls forward towards the chests. He places a hand in his chin and finally walks towards the center chest. He hums, then turns quickly towards the right most chest and opens it, finding a miraculous golden rupee inside.

Warrior does not hold back his chear as Cloyne's jaw drops. Warrior is so ecstatic that he rushes forward and embraces Time in a one armed embrace, earning a surprised chuckle from the older hero.

Then, something clunks.

The mirror.

Warrior pales as he freezes and watches the mirror skid towards the shoe of the flabbergasted Cloyne, bumping harmlessly against the sole. Time verbally sucks in a breath as Cloyne bends down and picks the mirror up.

He looks through it, and somehow against all odds it's pointed towards the chests. His tanned face instantly redens.

"YOU CHEATERS! I KNEW IT!"

Warrior scrambles towards the man and quickly snatches the priceless item out from the rampaging man's hands. He fumbles with it in his hands, and he turns to see Time already booking it out of the shop.

That's their queue to leave, isn't it?

He almost trips on his own feet sprinting out of the shop, the man yelling behind them. For a second, Warrior thinks they'll get away but then they are physically stopped by a rather large Zora in a suit of armor.

A guard from Hyrule castle. Wild's mentioned that young men and women of all kinds were training at the castle and we're being sent across Hyrule to protect the outlying villages and towns.

Hoh boy.

The Zora looks down at the two heroes, and man isn't that a weird sight. Someone looking down on Time and Warrior. They're both usually the ones looking down.

"What's going-" the Zora starts, but is quickly inturrupted by Cloyne as he runs up behind them.

"These two baffoons are cheaters! They've been gambling with magic mirror!"

Warrior does what Warrior does best. He goes dramatic when he panics.

"A magic mirror!?" He demands, turning towards Time with the most offended and shocked face he can muster. "You gave me a magic mirror?!"

The guard lifts a finger to say something but Warrior plows on.

"Guard! He gave me!! A magic! Mirror! Guard, arrest him!"

"You dare impugn my honor?" Time butts I'm angrily, placing a hand on his chest like the mere thought was a physical blow. With his other hand, he points at Warrior. The poor guard can simply watch with a helplessly confused agape mouth as a crowd begins to form. "He's the one who was cheating! He tricked this poor man and took all of his money! Arrest him!"

"Oh now I'm the thief?!"

"Take a look in the mirror, pal!"

"Take that back or I'll-" Warrior stuffs the mirror into his pouch and grasps onto his sword. "En garde!"

The crowd gasps.

Time pulls his own sword. "En garde yourself!"

Warrior lunges forward and strikes a blow that Time easily blocks. The crowd rushes to get out of the way as Warrior and Time fight, exchanging half assed blows and child level insults.

"I will gift you the honor of a quick and painless death!"

"Well, any last words?"

"I will cut you to ribbons."

They hit their swords together a few more times until they've worked themselves further from the gaping crowd of poor villagers.

"You mincing, fencing, twit," Time grunts.

"Ah, you fight like my sister!" Warrior retorts.

"I've... Fought your sister! That's a complement!"

Swords clash.

"Not the face... Not the face..."

"Heathen!"

"Braggart!"

One, two, three blows more and finally Time and Warrior are a considerable distance from the group. They share a look and finally, Time strikes his sword in such a way that has Warrior's weapon flying out of his hand and landing with the blade partly buried in the dirt. Warrior falls dramatically backwards

The crowd, surprisingly, claps. It seems, in the world they grew up in, many events entertain them.

Time bends down and helps Warrior to his feet. "You've been a lovely audience," Warrior says, bowing and grabbing his sword. Time takes a bow as well.

"But we really must be going!" Time says, and then they both turn and book it.

The spluttering yelling from Cloyne follows just a second later, but the two "heroes" are already heading out of town.

They run into Wild later, the boy was waiting for them tapping his foot in the forest, an accusing eyebrow raised, but when Time and Warrior shows him the loot he simply smirked and says that he's been trying to find a way to cheat that game for months.