#or like not even put them on the shelf cause the employees just kinda miss them or think its not worth putting out yet

[jaredthebc]

Ideal date is explaining the history of Sonic toys for like half an hour instead of flirting

[therealvalkyrie]

What Could’ve Been Without the War

Pairing/setting: Jean Kirschtein x Female!Reader, modern!AU within the Walls, set after the War; canon divergent w/ modern tech

Summary: You and Jean embark on your weekly trip to the grocery store.

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: equal parts angst and fluff, idiots to idiots, mutual pining, unsatisfying ending (i’m so sorry)

AN: Surprise Jean! I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday evening and that I don’t ruin it too much with angst. This piece started out as a super fluffy drabble involving grocery store shenanigans and kinda....uh....got away from me. Ahem. It was also originally intended as a 157 follower cool prime number thank you! I think we’re up to 180-something now, but we can still count it. Big thanks yet again to the love of my life @ghostlightprincess for her edits and encouragements:) Please come let me know what you think in my DMs/askbox/comments!!  ~valkyrie

Jean opens on the third knock on his apartment door, already shrugging on a jacket. He greets you with a short “hi” and receives the kiss you plant on his cheek out of habit.

“You ready?” You’re practically bouncing on the balls of your feet, car keys jingling off of the magenta key ring looped around your finger. It’s cute, and he finds himself matching your enthusiasm with a grin of his own.

“Almost,” he replies, reaching back to his coat rack to grab a scarf. “Honestly, I still don’t understand why you’re always so excited for the grocery store.”

He looks back to catch you rolling your eyes. “I don’t understand why you’re not. A grocery store is a magical place, with all of the cheesecake and ice cream you could ever wish for!”

He chuckles and joins you in the hallway, leaning down to lock his door behind him. “Need I remind you that you’re lactose intolerant?”

“That’s what Lactaid is for, stupid. Come on!” He lets you pull him down the hall, your small gloved hand in his big one. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Croft!” you greet his elderly neighbor as you pass her open door, sticking your head in with a wide smile. “You need anything from the store? Jean and I are just on our way.”

Jean stands beside you awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with his shrewd neighbor. You haven’t let go of his hand and he can feel a blush working its way up his neck. 

“No, that’s alright, honey, I just went this morning.”

“Okay! Well, let us know if you think of anything!”

“Thank you, dear.”

“Have a good afternoon, ma’am,” Jean chips in as you wave. 

“You kids have fun.”

The next second, you’re pulling him away again and he misses the way Mrs. Croft chuckles knowingly and looks back to her knitting. 

—

“What’s next on the list?” Your voice drifts down the aisle back to him, and Jean pauses in pushing the cart to shuffle the papers in his hands. 

“Umm… AP flour, vanilla extract,” shuffle, shuffle, “brown sugar, olive oil, yeast.”

You hum in acknowledgment and he watches as you flit from shelf to shelf, gathering items in your arms. He pushes the cart up to join you.

You dump everything in haphazardly, and he sighs, leaning down to straighten it all out into categories.

“What’s next?” You’re already halfway down the rest of the aisle again, gazing up longingly at the Oreos on the top shelf.

God, she’s cute.

He joins you, reaches up to pluck a pack of Double Stuf off of the shelf, and wordlessly places it in your section of the cart, suppressing a smile of his own as you grin up at him.

“You sure know how to treat a girl right, Jean-bo.” You reach up to ruffle his mullet. 

“Don’t call me that,” he grumbles, ducking away and flushing red like a smitten schoolboy. “Next is the frozen aisle.”

—

“Was it the lasagna that she liked last time? Or the shepherd’s pie?”

“The lasagna.” He accepts three frozen dinners as you pass them over from where you’re leaning past the glass freezer door.

“Hey,” he looks up sharply at your soft call to see you staring down the aisle like you’ve seen a ghost, hand still holding the glass door open. He follows your gaze and sees him just as you say, “It’s Erwin.”

It’s not, but Jean’s heart twists all the same at the resemblance the stranger carries. Same neatly parted blonde hair, broad shoulders. But he’s shorter, still has both arms. And he’s alive. 

“It’s not, sweetheart,” he murmurs, reaching to wrap an arm around your shoulders.

“It is, look he—” you insist until the man turns and instead of the Commander’s piercing blue gaze you’re met with brown eyes that flick between you and Jean in confusion. “Oh.” Your face falls and you allow the door to close, turning into Jean’s side.

“You alright?” He tilts his head to catch your expression. It’s pure pain, mouth twitching into a frown and eyes unfocused. Your hand comes up to grip the bottom of his jacket, and after a second he can see you physically force your face back to neutral. 

“Fine,” you nod. He knows you’re faking, that it’s a survival tactic, so he lets it go for now, only steps back to let you in between his body and the cart. 

“Up you go,” he prompts you to step up, feet on the bottom shelf and hands clutching the bar. He starts to push as you ride, walking first then running down the aisle until you finally throw your head back and laugh genuinely. 

He misses the exasperated look an employee gives him as the pair of you whizz past, too preoccupied with your smile.

—

“What do you need three dozen eggs for, anyway?” you ask incredulously, nevertheless opening each carton to inspect before handing them over. 

“They’re a good source of protein,” he defends. “Plus, you always end up running out and coming to me to complain. Ran me dry last time.”

Another playful eye roll. “It’s only ‘cause I messed up my brownies! And I needed them to entice the landlord to finally fix my heater.”

“Your heater’s been broken?”

“Well, it’s not anymore. Espresso brownies work wonders, I’ll have you know.”

You’re trying to brush it off as you normally do when he worries, but the thought of you shivering and blue-lipped keeps him pushing. “How long did you not have heat for? It’s February!”

“Not the point, Jean-bo!” You poke at his cheek and twirl away towards the cheese. 

“It definitely is the point. Come to me next time and I’ll fix it.”

“And lose my deposit?” You scoff, reaching for mozzarella. “Fat chance.”

“Freeze, then.”

You grin back at him. “Why d’you think I came over so much last weekend?”

“Is that all I am to you? A hot water bottle in your time of need?” He feigns hurt, but some pride swells in his chest that he kept you warm, after all. 

“And a cute one, at that. Think fast!”

His hand flashes up to catch the mozzarella you toss deftly. 

“You wound me.”

“Eh, builds character. What’s next?”

Shuffle, shuffle. “Wine and flowers.”

—

Jean watches as you bounce in the driver’s seat, hands almost dainty on the wheel, leaning forward to stare resolutely out the windshield at the darkening road. You’re singing along to some song he doesn’t know that’s playing from the stereo.

It’s so familiar, this Saturday evening ritual with you, and it wraps Jean up like the softest blanket. He knows why you’re always so excited about grocery shopping, and it’s not the cheesecake — it’s the way this routine has centered itself in both your lives. He feels it too, the semblance of normalcy, of domesticity, that you’ve cobbled together with him in between hard weeks and harder nights.

You navigate the bends and odd intersections of his old suburban neighborhood with ease, having driven to his house maybe thousands of times since you were teens. The elementary school passes, then the vet clinic, until finally, your old black sedan pulls into his mom’s driveway alongside her silver minivan.

You shift to neutral and yank on the parking brake habitually, then turn off the car and settle back into your seat.

You’re both quiet for a moment: you staring out the window lost in thought, Jean checking the time on his phone.

“Jean?”

“Hm?”

“Do you ever regret enlisting so young?” This catches his attention, turning sharply to look at your contemplative profile.

“Never. It was the right thing to do.” He’s resolute in this conviction, always. The War had seemed to be at its worst when you’d joined up, driven by the promise of Wall Maria’s reclamation and impassioned by your comrades’ fury. It had been the only choice, in his view.

“I do, sometimes,” you admit quietly, eyes downcast to where your fingers twist in your lap. “Maybe then my head wouldn’t be so messed up,” you laugh dryly and tap your temple, then shoot him a sideways glance. “And maybe—” you cut yourself off.

“Maybe what?”

“Never mind.” You’re out of the car so fast Jean almost questions if you moved at all. It reminds him of your natural grace on the ODM gear, how you’d whoop and holler as you hurtled past him among the trees during training. He wonders for a moment when your agility turned from a source of joy to an escape mechanism, then stops himself. He knows exactly when that happened.

—

The grocery store tulips thankfully survived their ordeal in the trunk of your car, bright against Ma Kirschtein’s tile kitchen backsplash as you arrange them in her favorite vase. After a minute of fussing, you take a step back, give a nod of satisfaction, and scoop up the trimmed stems off the counter. The rest of the groceries are already put away, organized so she can reach them without trouble.

It’s as you’re stepping on the trash can pedal to open its lid that the voices from the living room catch your ear. You pause, smiling as mother and son converse.

“Have you been eating enough, Jean-bo? You look so skinny….”

“Ma, I—”

“What am I saying, of course you haven’t. You’d waste away to nothing if you were left to your own devices. I’m so glad that darling girl is there to look after you.”

“Ma, she’s not my keeper—”

“When are you two getting married, again? I could’ve sworn I wrote it down in my book, but I looked the other day and couldn’t find the date anywhere.” She sounds serious. Confused, even, not a hint of teasing in her tone. Must be an off day. A symptom of her early-onset dementia.

“Ma, we’re not even together.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve been together since high school.” She’s so convinced, so sure, and you squeeze your eyes tight against the reality that you and Jean have only ever been friends. In the adolescent insecurity of high school, in the intensity of military training, in the fucking heat of battle, all you’ve ever shared is friendship.

“Ma, I don’t think… I don’t even think she—” He pauses and your ears strain in the silence to catch his last quiet phrase. “She doesn’t think of me that way.”

You just know, you can tell, he only says it like that to ease her confusion. It’s the opposite, really, he doesn’t think of you that way. Before you can hear more sideways rejection, you toss the flower stems and make a beeline for the bathroom.

—

“What was that movie you were telling me to watch, again?” You ask around a mouthful of spaghetti with sauce fresh from the jar, covering your mouth with one hand.

The pair of you are eating shoulder-to-shoulder on the floor of your apartment two floors above Jean’s. It’s got the decidedly better view out your picture window, complete with the perfect Eastern perspective of the river that cuts through Trost and its famous bridges. It’s this, the third leg of your traditional Saturday evenings together, that makes you feel the most warm.

Jean has the manners to chew and swallow before replying. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? Connie, Sasha, and I went to see it when they visited last month—”

Your snicker cuts him off and he raises his eyebrows as you roll your eyes and take a sip of wine. “The feet movie? Sasha said it was pretentious.”

“Really? I thought she was too preoccupied with the fact that the theater sold chili fries to pay attention.” He teases back, twirling more pasta onto his fork.

“I’m telling her you said that,” you warn with a jab of your own fork in his direction.

“Snitch.”

“Hey!”

He ducks to avoid your swat to the back of his head, grinning at your pout. “No, but seriously, apart from the feet it’s a good movie.”

“Hmm. I’ll consider putting it on the roster for next week.”

You take a moment to relish the comfortable silence, looking out at the city lights as you chew thoughtfully. His thigh is heavy and warm against yours under the thick knitted blanket his mom gave you last Yule. Your belly is warm and full, your shoulders relaxed in the company of your closest friend, your lungs breathing easily.

Jean says your name quietly and you turn to see him staring pensively down at the plate in his lap. “About what you asked earlier… in the car?”

You nod, eyes wide and mouth serious.

“Sometimes… I do regret it.” He grits the words out through his teeth, like it’s difficult to force the truth into the world. “Not because I regret what we did in the War. But because sometimes I wonder,” his eyes cut to yours for a split second, “I wonder what could’ve been. Without the War.”

You don’t say anything, don’t say you understand, because you know he knows. Instead, you loop your arm into his and lean your head against his shoulder. It takes a moment, a release of breath and the fall of his chest, but eventually he closes his eyes, turns his face into your hair, and allows himself to sink into the what could’ve been. Just for now.

[lovemesomesurveys]

a foxandforest original © august 2021

When was the last time you did something that you’ve never done before? What was it? Hmm. It’s been awhile since I’ve done something out of my norm; I can’t think of something at the moment. My life is very routine.

Are there any slogans or mantras meant to motivate employees on display at your place of work? --

Has your favorite actor ever been stuck to a project you dreaded watching (e.g., stuck on a bad TV show for years)? Nah. Alexander Skarsgard does good stuff.

When you are in a group do you more often find yourself wishing people would ask you more or fewer questions? I don’t want to be asked a ton of questions or have the focus on me, but I also want to feel included, ya know? I don’t exactly want to be ignored.

Now that you are an adult, which situations make you feel most like a grown up? Which situations make you feel like you’re still a child? Ha, don’t let my age fool you into thinking I’m a “grown up.” It kinda trips me out that I’m 32 and considered an adult. I feel like I’m behind in life and stunted in some ways because of some of my experiences. I don’t know, it’s just weird. I’ve seen a quote that says something about looking for an adult and realizing you are one, ha. Anywaaay, um I guess the whole having to pay bills and try to be responsible is grown up stuff I do. As for feeling like a child, I have to be dependent on others, especially this past year, I get moody and whiney, I’m stubborn, kinda innocent-like, I still enjoy some things from my childhood like TV shows and movies... stuff like that.

Pretend you work at a bookstore. Which books are your 4 “staff picks” that will go on a shelf for customers to see? What little blurb will you write about each book as to why you chose it? So, I’ve been obsessed with the authors AJ Rivers, Willow Rose, Mary Stone, and now Elle Gray, so I’d pick a book from each of them. It’d be hard, though, because Willow and Mary have a few different series and I’ve been enjoying them all. 

When you were a child did you wish you were named something else? What sort of fantasy life did you imagine for yourself if you’d only had this other better name? Nah, I was fine with my name and don’t think I really gave it much thought. It was just my name and that was it. If you have been working remotely or have ever taken a class or participated in a project remotely, have you noticed any significant differences between remote work and in-person work? What would be your ideal working setting? Some classes I definitely did better in-person than online and others were more convenient online and worked out fine. It really depended on the subject. Like math, for instance, I could not do online. I’ve always struggled with math and needed the in-person lecture and help. I also struggled with some online courses because a lot of them were set up so everything was just due at the end and you work at your own pace, which could be nice, but I need structure and deadlines otherwise I put things off and it piles up all at the end. So yeah, it really just depends.

Are you a plant person? How do you feel about the trend of owning many, many houseplants? Not at all. 

What is something you do that makes you feel alive? Something you do that causes “flow,” or for you to lose track of time and other distractions? Haven’t felt that in a long time. I feel like a robot or like I’m on autopilot just going through each day doing the same things day in and day out. Rinse, dry, repeat.

Do you feel like you act differently among people/peers you’d like to impress? For better or worse, what are some traits of yours that tend to come out when you’re trying to seem likable? I try to be easy going and go with the flow, I guess. I keep things light. I try to keep the focus on them and less on me and not get into anything serious. 

What are three things/interests you are currently into right now? >> Guild Wars 2 (again), the show Reservation Dogs, SaltFactory videos.

What are you sick of hearing about? Hmm.

What was the last small thing that really inspired you, that jumpstarted you to create or gave you a great idea? >> Yeah, I'm still waiting for that. <<< Ha, same.

Do you travel well or poorly? Do you know anyone who always seems to get sick and very exhausted and unwell during travel? I can get irritable and moody if it’s a long trip and I do get exhausted quite easily. My health situation can make things difficult as well, especially my current situation. I really try not to make it difficult, though, and put a damper on things. I try to be easygoing and go with the flow and want the people I’m with to have a good time. I keep a lot to myself and just keep marching forward, but yeah it can definitely be hard for me. All that be said, I still like to travel. 

What are some things that you enjoy but you have no practical use for in your own life (e.g., baby clothes for a non-parent or school supplies for a non-student)? Do you still browse these items at stores? >> School supplies is definitely one, I love looking at the Back-To-School stock come August. <<< Yeah, I’m the same way. That’s the only thing I miss about being student, ha. It was so fun picking out new clothes and supplies. I felt so productive, too.

Do you wish that you had more followers on any platform? Do you even pay attention to how many likes/comments/followers you have? Nah, that stuff doesn’t matter to me.

How much joy do you derive from celebrity/political schadenfreude? Do you think there’s a point when enjoying watching successful people topple goes too far? I admit celebrity gossip and entertainment can be, well, entertaining, and it can take the focus off your own stuff for a bit, but it can also get to be ridiculous and just too much. Plus, these are real people, with real feelings, so they go through hardships and hurt, too, and I think some people forget that. The worst part is it’s being blasted all over to the world and everyone is scrutinizing and judging. I used to keep up with that kind of stuff and was really into it, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to lose interest and don’t find it as entertaining anymore.

Is there anything, such as a mantra, quote, or thought in general that you seem to tell yourself every single day - even if it's random and meaningless? No.

[bytemycupcakes]

Changeling!Pabit AU

I said I was makin a post and I don’t care that nobody seems interested in him cause I love this little puppet boy and wont stop making aus for him.

Under a cut cause l o n g e

--

-Pabit only ever remembers Boris as his caretaker

-Not unusual for a changeling, really but it’s true

-Boris always says he just found Pabit on a walk. People usually take that as a joke, but he’s being serious.

-Ya see, Pabit wandered a bit too far from the fae as an infant, and Boris almost tripped over him on a walk in the woods.

-Boris picked up this strange little faerie baby, they made eye contact, and Pabits body shifted to resemble Boris.

-Well fuck I guess Boris has a kid now. The thought of calling the local orphanage doesn’t even cross his mind, it’s really just, “Ah fuck I found a kid.. Guess I’m a dad then”

-Really the fact that Pabit seemed to latch onto and form to look like Boris didn’t help with that train of thought.

-It didn’t take long at all for it to click in Boris’ head that Pabit wasn’t human. Obviously the whole shapeshifting thing, but this child was practically FERAL.

-In a non-babyproofed home, Pabit wreaked havoc. Being a master at hiding, scuttering Boris’ walls, and getting into everything, especially things that a baby shouldn’t be touching.

-It took ages for Boris to get the house at least somewhat Pabit-proofed.

-Pabit still manages to get into shit constantly, it’s like a talent.

-Just like Child!Au, Pabit is not Pabit’s actual name, it’s a name he gained later on because of how much he mimics Boris. (Whats his actual name? No idea)

-Pabit’s gender was literally assigned. He doesn’t have typical human anatomy, being completely androgynous, and thus Boris just... -stamps Pabit with “boy” sticker-

-By the time of the habitat, Pabit id’s as masc non-binary

-Boris considers the day he found Pabit as his birthday, not actually knowing how old he was when found, he counts up from that date, thus where Pabit being 15 comes from.

-Pabit is so tall both because he is fae, and because his body mimics Boris for its aging. So he’s just.. so fucking tall.

-Pabit has a shadow form, but didn’t seem to gain one until he first saw Boris do it when he was a toddler.

-For awhile he’d just randomly shift to it, until his subconscious realized it was primarity an anger-based “transformation”

-While Boris’ shadow form is just intense anger, Pabit’s becomes almost like a rage. As his body grows to adapt most of his non-human ability (strength and some subtle basic magic) into said form.

-Depending on the source of anger, Pabit can be incredibly destructive or eerily calm but a ticking bomb.

-Even Boris gets a bit scared when Pabit shifts to the form... One too many times he’s had his house demolished from this child- Or even being injured by the rage (Nothing serious, but more damage than an 8 y/o should be able to give a grown man)

-From a very young age Pabit always showed signs of adhd/autism. Though he doesn’t technically have these conditions because he’s fae, he’s found comfort in knowing he’s not just really weird, and if people ask about it, he and Boris will just say he has ADHD and/or is autistic*

*[Lil step back: This whole au exists because I heavily project my adhd onto Pabit. And my girlfriend, who is autistic, loves the changeling trope (We even call her one fairly often). So please don’t get hateful about this]

-Boris was always pretty open about Pabit not being human, never tried to hide it from him. He grew up as the outcast and couldn’t figure out why, he’s not gonna let his son feel that same lost and broken feeling.

-Pabit tends to speak in broken sentences. He can speak in full, but feels more comfortable doing more of a Hulk speech pattern. Thus he often talks in third person, and leaves out words he deems unneeded to understand the sentence.

-He’ll fall into proper speech when ranting or infodumping, though. Speaking much more like Boris, with proper and large words.

-He stutters over bigger words a lot, and sometimes gets frustrated and just uses “dumbed down” language in its place (this is how he’ll describe it)

-Pabit has a major hyperfixation of puppetry and puppet making, and a smaller one on musical theatre/acting.

-There is Pabit, and then an actual puppet Habit. It was a gift for fathers day, and though it’s not as pretty as the irl puppet, it’s still pretty damn good for a 15 y/o with claws. Boris keeps it on a shelf in his office, it’s Pabits favorite out of all the puppets he’s made.

-Pabit will nab it and, using Boris’ desk as a stage, will just talk to Boris as “Boris”.

-Boris finds this absolutely adorable, and goes along with it. He’s made several business deals with this puppet. Usually for teeth.

-Which yes, Pabit eats. (No Pabit au is complete if he doesn’t eat teeth, fight me.)

-Pabit stims. A lot. His most common stims are kicking, bouncing, or wiggling his legs, chewing (Yes teeth eating is a stim for him, but he mostly goes for more rubbery textures), hand flapping, and full body wiggling/bouncing. He’ll also play with his hair, but it’s not as common.

-Pabit will occasionally repeat things, usually funny things he hears while giggling.

-Pabit’s hair is so stupidly thicc and curly that no stylist in town will deal with it.

-Boris has learned to cut hair, which comes in handy more often than you’d expect in a house of two very long-haired people.

-aka: Pabits hair grows so fucking fast, its ridiculous.

-His hair sticks together so much that it almost acts like one solid pillow-like mass. No hairtie can contain it. (If it’s tied back, it’s usually an actual string litterally tied around his hair)

-Pabits ears can emote, they don’t move much, but it’s noticeable. They wiggle when he gets really heccin happy.

-Pabit’s pupils alwas seem to be slitted, but at general shock (among other various things) his iris’ will slit aswell, leaving Pabit with a line in some massive sclara’s.

-Pabit has gotten very good at sewing thanks to his love of puppet making. This becomes very useful since he usually has to tailor his clothes slightly.

-In the habitat proper, Pabit is surprisingly popular with all the kids. Most notably Tim Tam and Trevor.

-He knew Trevor (And of Nat) before the habitat. He and Trevor are classmates while Nat is in the class behind them.

-Trevor didn’t really acknowledge Pabit’s existence until he bit a bully and seemed to break skin effortlessly??? hmmmmmmmm.

-Thus Trevor started theorizing, nothing in depth, but the kid was on his radar.

-Trevor was really surprised to find Pabit in the habitat, and even more surprised when Pabit told him Boris is his dad.

-The most these two ever talked before the habitat was a single “peer review” assignment, but in the habitat they start talking a lot more cause they’re the oldest kids, know eachother a bit, and both need to infodump like crazy.

-It takes a while for Trevor to get used to Pabits broken speech, but he eventually finds himself mimicing it occasionally. and Pabit will mimic him as well (adhd solidarity, boys)

-Pabit and Tim Tam can communicate non-verbally with no trouble at all. Thus this is used to wreak so much havoc on habititians since they’re both feral little goblins.

-It doesn’t help that Pabit has special access to “employees only” areas since he’s Boris’ son.

-Trevor and Pabit have gone on massive theory rants about random musicals while Nat’s in the room and she just watches these two in confused awe because of all the little details they’ll pull out to support these wild theories.

-Nat seriously has no idea how these two can just. keep. going. It’s been three hours at least let her have a snack!

-Pabit has allowed Trevor to ask so many weird questions about him because Pabit is also very curious about what exactly he is.

-Boris isn’t going to question why Trevor was poking at Pabit’s ribcage with a pen and just let boys be boys.

-Nat supplies Trevor with books on mythical beings she steals from Trencils room.

-Even with the three of them mostly working together, they cant figure out exactly what Pabit is.

-Until they’re all going over it in the boiler room one day. Where Wallus can hear them.

-YES ONCE AGAIN WALLUS IS NOT HUMAN! AGAIN, FIGHT ME.

-Did three children just lure out the frightened janitor cause they’re describing changelings and Wallus, a fae, knows about these kinda things? Yes. Yes they did.

-Wallus really never got a good look at Pabit before he took refuge in the wall, Pabit never got too involved in his work, or his talks with Boris. So Wallus isn’t too surprised that he missed it.

-It takes a bit of courage building from Wallus and Pabit litterally dragging him to Boris’ office before Wallus talks to Boris about how he aquired Pabit.

-Lots of details short: Wallus actually remembers when Pabit went missing which is pretty neat.

-Boris was almost worried he’d lose Pabit to his birth parents... Until Wallus says they didn’t really worry too much cause he was supposed to be put into someones life anyway. Was only mildly concerning since the fae couldn’t keep an eye on him.

-Pabit barely processes any of this information. Same with nearly all fae information Wallus tells him.

-Its not that he doesn’t like it or anything, he just doesn’t really care about the details. He got a name for what he is and why he acts like he does, and now he’s done. Mission complete.

[I wanna type more but my adhd is being MEAN so I’ll stop here for now. Feel free to send me asks about this au tho cause I love it]

EDIT:

-One last thing: Pabit loves the night. He adores the moon. He loves sitting on the roof past bedtime just to stare at the sky

[shhh-no-ones-home]

hollywood horror chris motionless x reader

+++++++++ Request from anon "Comfort fic, him noticing it [depression] and being there or whatever comes to your mind. just a sweet fluff thing."

It's a little different, mostly what I would want when I'm feeling super depressed and shut off so I hope you don't mind. anyway thanks for requesting, i hope you like it.

Song: the haunting by as it is

tag list: @thisplace-ishaunted @ryansitkowskiswifey @alilpunkrock @theoneandonlykymberlee +++++++++

I sat on the couch and rocked back and forth. I couldn't find it in me to get up again so I'd been staring at the blank tv screen for a while. I looked down at my phone for a second and saw Chris's name pop up. I frowned at first thought, before picking it up. He had texted me asking if I wanted to do something today. It was almost his birthday and normally we went out but I wasn't sure I wanted to. Besides this probably wouldn't be what we did for his birthday, that I actually wanted to take time for but time was ticking. I texted him back to come over and I'd get ready, begrudgingly.

I walked slowly to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I was grateful I had showered last night so all I had to do was brush my hair through. It didn't take long but by the time it was brushed out it was frizzy and I had grown to hate what I was wearing too. I sighed and walked quickly to my room, throwing on a flowy dress and my vans. I looked in the mirror again and debated whether or not I actually liked it. Then there was a knock on my door. Guess it was too late to change now. When I swung the door open Chris was standing in front of me with two movie tickets in his hand. He frowned at me for a second, lowering his hand.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

He stepped forward and wrapped me in a big hug, looking down at me.

"Don't lie to me y/n."

I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"I'm fine Chris."

He squeezed me a little tighter.

"I know your not okay, but You will be when I'm done with you. I'm gonna turn that frown upside down for sure."

I raised a brow at him as he let me go.

"And how are you gonna do that?"

He grabbed my hand.

"Well for starters If we don't leave right now we'll be late."

He had the biggest smile on his face and was practically vibrating with excitement. I laughed a little at him before grabbing my bag off the floor and following him out to his car. I squinted at him, the sun in my eyes, before asking him what we were seeing.

"Get in and I'll tell you."

I rolled my eyes and did as told. He grinned at me, handing me the tickets amd pulling out of my driveway. When I read the title my eyes got wide.

"No way! I tried to buy these weeks ago and they were sold out."

He sent me a look before turning his gaze back to the road.

"Well I got them, I knew you'd want to go. I mean it's a new horror movie, who wouldn't? And Of course we had to go together."

I actually felt kind of excited now, we'd been talking about this movie forever. When we got to the theater he took his ticket from me and got out of the car, practically dragging me across the parking lot.

"Chris you're gonna take my arm off."

He let off a little bit.

"Sorry I'm just excited, I don't wanna Miss it. Plus I wanna see the commercials, the new James bond one is supposed to be playing."

I laughed at him as he held the door open for me.

"You and James bond."

He nodded at me.

"Yes me and James bond. I love him."

We stepped up to the ticket taker and handed them over.

"Theater ten to your left."

He said with a smile. We both thanked him and started in that direction. Then Chris stopped.

"Shit, I almost forgot."

I looked at him confused before he started walking towards the concession stand.

"Chris you just said we were gonna be late."

He sent me a look like I was crazy.

"First off yes we might be and second, something must really be wrong for you not to want an icee and pretzel bites. We always get them when we go to the movies."

I shrugged.

"Just not hungry I guess."

He sent me a look.

"We both know that's bullshit."

He stepped forward and ordered. I rolled my eyes at him as the guy behind the counter handed him two icee cups. He tried to hand me one but I was hesitant, I still wasn't sure I was up for it. He at least got me out of the house.

"Come on, if you don't drink it I will."

I sent him a look.

"Suit yourself."

I stood there, tapping my hand on the counter, watching as he stuck both straws in his mouth, drinking out of both of them. He made a face and nodded.

"Not a bad flavor combo."

Then he tried to hand me mine again and I took it this time.

"Fine, but you'd better let me try that first."

He handed me his cup and I did the same thing he did, sipping out of both straws at the same time. I made a gross face before swallowing hard.

"Yeah no, you can keep that."

He laughed at me as he took our pretzel bites from one of the theater employees.

"Come on, let's go or we'll miss it."

°°°°°°°°°

When the credits started rolling Chris and I both just stared at the screen. Our fingers were tightly interlocked and I wasnt sure I could actually get up yet. It was one of the scariest movies I'd ever seen and my heart was still trying to escape my chest. No wonder it sold out. Chris looked at me slowly and took a deep breath.

"Wanna go watch a kids movie now?"

I looked at him and let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah actually but I think we could go home to do that."

He nodded and we both stood up at the same time, not letting each other's hands go. As we walked out of the theater we just kind of looked at each other.

"That was intense."

I said, shivering. He squeezed my hand.

"Definitely."

I looked up at him.

"So, what series of cartoons are we watching when we get back to my place?"

He laughed at me.

"All of them."

°°°°°°°°°°

When we walked into my house I was quick to start moving all my stuff off my couch. I was so focused on not dying during that movie it had completely slipped my mind that I probably shouldn't have offered to go back to my place. i hadn't cleaned in a while.

"Sorry for the mess."

I said as I took all my stuff back to my room. When I came back out Chris was knelt in front of my DVD shelf.

"I don't mind, you know that. Besides, with how down you seemed earlier im sure you have good reason."

He kept flipping through, pulling Brave out. He held it up.

"I don't think I've seen this one yet, wanna watch it?"

I shrugged and plopped down on the couch.

"Aw mom, it's just mah bowwww!"

I said drawn out in a terrible accent and he laughed at me.

"I'll take that as a yes."

He turned the TV on and put it into he DVD player, coming and falling on the couch next to me with the remote in his hand.

"Is it good?"

He asked, skipping through the commercials. I nodded.

"I think so."

He wiggled further into the couch, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and cuddling into me.

"So, now that we were scared shitless, and are watching something cute, how have you really been feeling?"

I looked up at him quizzically.

"What do you mean?"

He shifted.

"You looked so broken this afternoon when I picked you up. I didn't wanna pry cause I know sometimes getting you out and about makes you feel better but I kinda wanna know what was up. Now that you seem to actually be feeling better."

I frowned as he shifted next to me.

"Honestly I've been feeling a little stuck. Stuck in my own head and my own emotions. Every day is the same thing and I guess I feel better now cause you came and got me out of my rut. It was something different, something nice, no more of that groundhog day feeling."

He kissed the top of my head.

"You know I'll always be here to get you out of a rut right? You could have texted me when you first started feeling down and we could have gone and done something. ya know before it got worse."

I shrugged into him.

"Yeah but you always say that and I never follow through. You know that. I don't reach out, even when I need to most."

He ran his hand gently over my arm.

"You're right, and as long as you keep doing that, I'll keep showing up unannounced to drag you out of this house myself. if you wont make yourself feel better, i sure as hell will."

We both laughed a little.

"Thanks Chris, it really means a lot. You're the best friend I could ever even hope to ask for."

He offered me a small smile as he hit play on the movie.

"I'll always be here for you y/n, that's what best friends are for."

i hugged him into my side and he did the same.

"now, lets watch a girl turn her family into bears."

he looked down at me like i was crazy.

"im sorry, we're gonna what?"

i laughed at him.

"just watch the movie."

[etlunainmorte]

❄❄❄

***

***

❄ Three Wishes ❄

***

VI

***

" ... so, if you choose this option, it will allow you to change her language. I programmed about a hundred!" The Artisan proudly explained as she excitedly pointed at the screen.

"Why do ya wanna change her language?" Griffon questioned as he contentedly perched on top of V's bookshelf.

"It's just how it works." Nico answered as she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. Then, she looked back at V, who was still staring confusedly at the cellphone in his hand. She pointed a finger at one of the options and spoke once more. "You also have complete control over the type of voice, accent,... basically the way she speaks!"

"What does it mean?" 

The poor poet felt like he was back at the department store where he had to listen to the Sales Representative for two hours straight as the cheerful employee explained, in full, excruciating detail, how a coffee maker works. Luckily, though, he didn't have to pay anything this time around. The cellphone was a gift from Nico, herself. He honestly appreciated the gift, he just didn't expect it to be rigged in such a way. During the first month that he owned it, he found out that it has an x - ray function ( he accidentally saw Griffon's insides, to his utter horror and regret, when he experimented with its camera ), a laser option for the flashlight ( which actually made a hole through the wall in the kitchen ), an intruder alarm ( which was a recording of Nero's songs on loop ), and a very accurate tracking device of every person he knew ( the last time he checked, he found out the exact whereabouts of his brother Dante, from his frequent travels to the ice cream and pizza parlor to his nightly sojourns to the nearby club houses ).

And now, it seemed that his wonder cellphone has another hidden function, and that was to give Shadow her very own voice with the use of the state - of - the - art bell that was dangling from her red ribbon, which was cutely tied around her neck. Apparently, the said bell was a gadget made by Nico, herself, to channel a demon's thoughts and translate them into coherent words with just a push of a button from the Kitty Cat Voice app that was programmed and installed by the same woman who gave him the cellphone.

And honestly? It amazed, unnerved, and confused the hell out of the poet, who was only beginning to live a life of his own in the modern society, away from his bickering brothers and close to the woman he loved.

"Here, let me show you." Nico took the cellphone from V's hands and typed something. She, then, looked at Shadow, who was obediently sitting on her usual spot on the floor, and spoke, "Say something, girl."

V and Griffon waited in silence as they looked at Shadow, and a few moments later, the demonic feline did speak!

"Bonjour!" The familiar said in a deep and overly sensual male voice that almost made Griffon fall from the shelf. "Je m'appelle Shadow. Ravie de vous rencontrer!"

"EURGH!" Griffon howled in disgust at what Shadow just said. "What kinda erotic sound is that?!"

"Seductive French Singer." Nico answered as she proudly nodded at the cellphone in her hand. Humming in satisfaction, she scrolled through the app once more and spoke, "Hmm, let's try something else. Okay, girl! Try greetin' our Mr. poetry here."

V's eyes narrowed cautiously as he instinctively drew back a bit, feeling a little nervous and unnerved of what the familiar might say to him. With threatening and glowing red eyes, the huge black cat padded towards her master, and when she was mere inches from him, she sat and raised her head obediently. Then, she spoke.

"Kon'nichiwa, V - sama!" Shadow greeted the poet in a very small and very childish voice of a young girl that made Griffon laugh so hard. "Anata ga watashi no koe no oto ga sukidearu koto o negatte imasu!"

"What did she just say?" V, looking horrified at what his familiar just said, questioned Nico, who was laughing along with Griffon and clutching her mid - section. She was clearly making fun of his confusion, the clever woman!

"Anata wa watashi no koe no oto ga sukide wa arimasendeshita ka? Nante zankokuda, V - sama!" Shadow whined in her creepy little voice, making V even more uncomfortable. "Daikirai! DAIKIRAI!"

"Please, make it stop,..." V pleaded quietly as he bowed his head down low and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Aww, don't like Nasally Japanese Moe?" The Artisan teased. After receiving a glare from the poet as a threat, the woman laughed nervously and scratched her head. "Alright, alright! I'll put it back to its default mode."

"Which is?" The demonic bird asked, his curiosity getting the better of him as he flew towards the woman to see how she was operating the app she invented.

"Gentle English Babushcat. The voice you all heard durin' the play." Nico answered dejectedly as she made one last click on the screen before giving the cellphone back to V. "It's pretty simple, man. You open the app, no password needed, and you can select the - "

"No need."

"Okay! Okay! Just explainin',..." Nico shrugged her shoulders and shook her head on the way to the door, a defeated smile on her lips upon knowing that her precious work of art was not appreciated. "Well, then, goo - 

" ... hold yer panties! I almost forgot!"

To Griffon's utter surprise, the woman turned back and strode towards V, almost knocking the poor bird on her way, and began looking for something in her large and greasy - looking yellow bag.

"What now?" V, almost feeling annoyed, questioned her as he watched her ransack through her messy backpack.

"Ah, I'm pretty sure I put it somewhere here. I just don't know if - AH! There we go!"

"What is that?" Shadow, who now sounded like the gentle, motherly middle - aged aunt from earlier during the party, asked, her tail waving from left to right in mild curiosity at the thing on Nico's hand.

"I got lots of invites to Old Fleminger's Annual New Year's Ball." The Artisan explained. "So, I'm giving you some."

"New Year's Ball?" V took the pair of golden envelopes from Nico's hand and studied it with much curiosity. He looked up from the fancy things in his hand and raised an eyebrow in question. "And who is this Fleminger? A Demon that has to be killed?"

"Oh, no, no, no! Old Fleminger is a gentle old soul who still likes to party really hard at the age of sixty. He throws this massive, fancy annual spectacle where he expects people to dress up the way he wants them to. Just so you know, last year, when Nero and Kyrie were lucky enough to get some invites, they were made to dress up as characters from famous movies. Nero dressed up as James Bond and Kyrie dressed up as a hot Bond girl. They won King and Queen of the Ball."

"Ohoho, that sounds interesting! Yes!" Griffon declared as he joined V on the sofa, his golden eyes glistening with devilish intent. "So, uh, V, who are ya gonna dress up as? The penniless poet from Moulin - aghk!" But, even before the demonic bird could finish his sentence, Shadow's tail hastily covered his beak to stop him from speaking any further, making the poor bird muffle helplessly.

"STOP IT! YOU'RE EMBARRASSING OUR MASTER!" Shadow scolded as a loud growl escaped her throat and frightened the demonic bird. "Yes, Miss Nico, please continue."

"Oh, yeah, as I was saying," Nico went on, ignoring the conflicted look on V's already stressed features. " ... you are required to dress up to match the theme of the Ball. And it's vintage this time."

"Vintage? Like," The poet asked, some tasteless thoughts of himself indulging in such a party already plaguing his overworked mind. " ... old?"

"Yeah. Kinda like how grandma Adelaide probably used to dress up when she was still a teenager." Nico nodded as she crossed her arms and tapped her chin with her fingers. Suddenly, her eyes widened. Looking once more at V and pointing a finger at him, she said, "And don't forget to ask (Y/N) out as your date, okay? It's a requirement!"

Me,... asking her out as my date to a strange Ball?! "I'm afraid to say that I' am not certain as to - "

"Aww, come on, man!" Nico pleaded as she collapsed next to V on the sofa and grabbed his shoulders, shaking them to somehow make the man come to his senses. "We all know that ya like the girl, if it isn't too obvious enough already!"

"But,... I don't even,... like her,..." V quietly said as he tried to get the woman's hands off his shoulders.

"Yeah, 'cause Shakespeare fuckin' loves her - AGHK!" Griffon used his momentary freedom from Shadow's tail to speak but, he was abruptly grabbed by one of Shadow's huge morphed hands.

"SHUT YOUR BEAK AND LET MASTER SPEAK, OR I'LL TEAR YOUR LIMBS APART!" The feline threatened.

"Don't! Please! Squawk! I beg ya! Aghk!"

"Anyway, confess to her already!" Nico went on. "Use this Ball as a chance. Dress up nicely like someone's hip and swell grandpa and woo her!"

"Hip and,… swell? And,… woo,... (Y/N)?"

"Yeah! And while ye're at it, learn some Elvis Presley moves that ol' geriatrics love and ask her to boogie with ya on the dancefloor! Be a tiger and impress her! Do everythin' ya can to sweep her off her dainty feet!"

"I'm not sure if I can do this kind of thing,..."

"Ya can do it! Just believe in yerself!" Nico smiled and stood, patting V on the shoulder. "Okay? Ye must make her say yes as soon as ya can. The Ball is in a week."

And with those not - so - encouraging words, V was left with more questions than answers, and with more problems than solutions. First of all, Shadow can speak very well now, thanks to the wonder gadget and app that Nico created. Well, Griffon was already too much on his ears but, to actually hear his two familiars bickering for real? Second, who was this old Fleminger and how did the Artisan get some invites to his prestigious event? The invitations looked really fancy and expensive, after all.

And thirdly, how could he possibly ask her out? The trip to the mall and the cinema was one thing but,...

... Nico was expecting him to confess to her.

That, and the fact that he has to dress up vintage - style for the event and dance like this Elvis Presley that Nico was talking about ( who was Elvis Presley, anyway? ). Wouldn't he become a laughingstock, then? Would he be making a complete fool of himself, then? And if that happens, would you even accept his love? Would you laugh at him and tell him he's not worthy?

These crippling thoughts were still on V's mind when he entered his dark, cold, and lonely bedroom later that evening. With the sparkling golden invites on his hand, he made his way towards the window, sat on the chair next to it, and parted the heavy curtains. And with one simple look, he saw the window to your bedroom. The curtains were, of course, closed but, he could clearly see that your lights were still on, indicating that, at the very late ( or early ) hour of two in the morning, you were still awake. You did mention to him that you could not sleep well,...

V's eyes widened a bit when he finally saw the lights being turned off in your room.

Ah, she must be feeling sleepy now, he thought.

However, not even a minute has passed when the lights turned on again. It stayed like that for about twenty more minutes, then it went dark once more.

The poet sighed. It must be so hard for her, he thought.

And then, an idea struck his mind. He did promise that he will fulfill her three wishes. The first wish didn't work out too well because of Lancaster but, what if,...?

The man left his window and went towards his bedside table where some of his poetry books were. Then, he looked at the invites in his hand.

This,... might actually work,...

***

❄ @la-vita , @clevermentalitybeliever , @v-vic , and @birdgirl69 . ❄

***

❄❄❄

***

[nate-santos]

Exit, Persued by Bookwyrms || Nate & Skylar

Research gone wrong with @theskyeandsea

After his conversation with Remmy, Nate knew there was only one place he hadn’t turned over in his search for information. He had stopped in once or twice, but the Archive always freaked him out, so he never stayed long. Not to mention the fact that in order to buy any of their tomes, you usually had to give something important or strange in return, and Nate was terrified of finding anything they would consider proper payment. Of course this would be his last ditch effort when it came to figuring out zombie specifics, his last stop to find out if there truly was a way to live a “normal” life after the change. He paced back and forth outside the shop for close to 30 minutes before he finally entered, speed walking to the back of the store so as not to make eye contact with anyone. While his anxiety began to settle to a normal rate, Nate’s eyes scanned the shelves. “Zombies….Z….what was it Remmy called them….Draugr? Ok...Dr….” He pulled out a few volumes and began to flip through the worn pages, eyes scanning for any sort of useful information.

Bleh. Even after stopping in here once before, the Archive still gave Skylar the creeps. There was just something about the fact that it seemed like there were never any employees, that there was some weird kinda unspoken trade system in place, the general ambiance… Nope. Why wasn’t there a Barnes & Noble or something in town? Shaking her head, Skylar forced herself to focus as she glanced down the rows of shelves. Morgan had hinted that the Archive might have more supernatural texts than Skylar had initially thought, so… here she was. But, this time it wasn’t for her. Rem was going through a lot and, while she was going through her own issues, focusing on Remmy’s felt more manageable. It was productive in a way that she didn’t need to think about herself. As she walked down the shelves, Skylar rounded the corner and nearly ran into a man reading a book. Startled, she held her hands up apologetically, “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t see you, my bad.” She said, shaking her head. Glancing at the books on the shelves behind him, she saw that she was in the right section. Zombies and other undead, neat.

Nate nearly jumped ten feet in the air when the stranger ran into him, one of the books slipping from his hand and toppling down to the ground. “Oh! No I’m sorry! If I’m gonna read I should really sit down- at a table! Like a normal person.” He laughed awkwardly, kneeling down to pick up the stray book, hoping he didn’t ruin it by tossing the old thing around like a child’s toy. Ordinarily, Nate was the kind of guy who kept all of his books in pristine condition, never liking to lend them out lest the borrower fold the pages down like a heathen. “Am I in your way? Do you need help finding something? Not that I work here, I definitely don’t, but-well...I can help! Unless you want me to leave you alone. That’s fine too.” He scratched absently at his arm, the anxiety making his skin crawl. “Sorry…”

Skylar winced apologetically at the way the poor man jumped-- oh dear. She really hadn’t meant to surprise him, it was just a little tricky for her to pick up other people’s presence in quiet places like this. “No, don’t even apologize, I’m the one who spooked you.” She said, her fingers fidgeting at her side, spelling out the word sorry in ASL just out of instinct. Scooting back out of his way to let him pick up the book, Skylar glanced at the books on the shelves for a moment. “Are you sure? You really don’t need to, like you said, you don’t work here. But, um, if you have any pointers on finding books here, I’d love the help. The organization system is a little weird.” She said with a wry laugh, hoping it would make him a little more at ease. The last thing she wanted was to make someone uncomfortable when they were just trying to shop for some books.

Nate grinned through clenched teeth. Even if it wasn’t necessarily his fault, the awkward had already set in and he was gonna have to roll with it. “Yeah! Really, I uh...don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I don’t mind at all!” His eyes flicked around the store and if he was being honest, having someone else around while he did his search might not be the worst thing in the world. This place really gave him the creeps. “Yeah, I uh...I don’t know that they super have much of an organizational system.” He shrugged, holding his books tightly to his chest. “So what is it you were looking for? Was it…” Nate glanced around at the section they were in. “Undead in nature?”

“Thanks so much, really.” Skylar said warmly, a smile on her face. “I’m Skylar, by the way. Have you been here before?” She asked, curious to know if he had much experience in the Archive. The one time she’d been in here with Remmy, she hadn’t found too much in the way of information, just bits and pieces. But, now that she was a little more focused in her efforts to find something that could make sense of their situation, she had more of a mission. “Um, yes! I’m looking for stuff on zombies, actually?” She said. Hopefully that didn’t sound as weird to him as it did to her. Nope, there was nothing weird at all about just… asking about zombies. Mmmmm. Maybe she should have tried beating around the bush a bit more. Oh well, what’s done was done.

Nate felt more at ease by the second, which was saying a lot considering he was in a sketchy book store that specialized in the supernatural, looking for information on zombies alongside a complete stranger. He sucked in a deep breath and smiled, nodding to himself. “Uh, twice. But uh...not for long.” Glancing around quickly to make sure there wasn’t anyone else in earshot. “I kinda...get the creeps? Being in here?” He shrugged, his fingers gripping the edge of his books. “It’s definitely less weird if we look together though, right?” He froze, his smile locked in place. “Z-zombies? Do you know someone- I mean…” Be casual. “Is it just out of curiosity?” He passed her one of the books in his hands. “‘Cause this one, uh...looks promising.”

Hearing that someone else found the Archive just as creepy as she did made Skylar feel just a little bit more relaxed. At least she wasn’t alone in her opinions. “Trust me, I get that. It’s not a super comfortable place to just… hang out in. Which is a shame, it seems like they have a lot of good books and information here.” She said with a nod. He hadn’t said his name, but Skylar supposed that was to be expected-- not everyone was super friendly with people they just met. “For sure.” She nodded with a smile. But, when the man handed her one of the books, she balked a little bit, “Huh? You don’t need to give me your book, really. But… were you looking into them too?”

Nate smiled, his lips pulling tight over the awkward expression. He didn’t need to be this weird, they were just two strangers, looking at books on zombies in a super creepy, probably haunted book shop. He took a quick breath, trying to force himself to be more normal. “It’s fine, I uh...looked through it already.” He shrugged, turning back towards the shelf full of potential answers. Last time he’d been in here he had barely made it to this section of the store, let alone made it far enough to grab a book and peruse it. “I’m uh...Nate, by the way. And yeah, they’re uh...super interesting, right?” He smiled over his shoulder, hoping she didn’t prod too much. He reached out, pulling another worn book off the shelf, opening it carefully. Its pages were old and weathered, yellowing at the edges. Dust even seemed to pour out of it as he flipped a page, noting that there were paragraphs just...missing. “Huh...that’s weird.” Maybe it was one of those niche writing styles, like if t s eliot wrote novels on the undead.

The strained smile he offered her elicited a twinge of pity-- he just looked so uncomfortable. “Nice to meet you, Nate. And thanks, really.” Skylar said with a bright smile, hoping that it would put him a bit more at ease. “Mhm, they are.” She nodded in a non committal way. She didn’t want to sound too interested in the subject, otherwise he might ask her why she was looking and then she’d have to lie and that would… just be a whole mess. Nope! Not happening. As Nate pulled out another book, Skylar flipped through her own and frowned. What..? Whole chunks were gone, some sentences even ended mid-word. “I bet it can’t be as weird as this.” She said, gesturing to the section she’d opened to. As she pointed to a section of the book, her finger brushed against the interior of the spine-- “Ouch!” She gasped, withdrawing her hand quickly. What the heck was that?

Nate stepped over toward Skylar before freezing in his tracks. Her book looked the same as his: incomplete. Like the printer was running out of ink mid sentence, sputtering out between words. What made his freeze, however, wasn’t the weirdness of the pages, but the girl’s yelp of pain. “Are- oh man...are you ok? Paper cut?” He hoped it was merely a paper cut. He leaned forward, not noticing the pages slipping out of his own book’s binding, fluttering down to the ground. Out of the small gap where the pages used to be attached to the ancient binding came a flood of tiny, wriggling...worms?? “OH NO-” Nate dropped the book and began slapping his arms, attempting to brush off any of the things that managed to climb onto him. “What the heck?!”

Skylar looked at her hand in confusion, and saw a few tiny worms clinging to her index finger. “What are these things-- ow!” She grimaced, scraping the worms away with the edge of the book. But, more of the wriggling worms came out of the binding and attempted to latch onto her arm. She dropped her own book on the ground and began to swipe at the worms. “I don’t-- they’re biting me!” Skylar squealed, doing her best to get them away from her. Backing up, she ran into the bookshelf behind her and felt biting on the back of her neck. More?! “What are these?” She asked, looking to Nate as she tried to squish the worms that clung to her.

Nate panicked. Lord only knew what kind of diseases these things might contract, or if they were somehow venomous. He mirrored Skylar’s attempts to fling the bugs off himself, crashing backwards into another case of books, sending them toppling to the ground. In any other circumstance, Nate would have been horrified at the amount of damage he was surely doing, but at the moment all he could think about were these minuscule creatures nipping at his flesh. “I don’t- I don’t know!!” He scrambled over to the girl and tried to help her swat the things away. “Do you- you don’t think we’ll get in trouble for ruining their books, do you?” Surely his priorities were a little out of whack at the moment.

Shaking her head, Skylar replied, “At this point, ow! I think we’re fine to--” Before she could finish speaking, a man came by the shelves, a strange covered bird cage in his hand. Judging from the outfit he was wearing and the little name card on his chest, he must have been an employee? Or maybe the owner? Skylar didn’t really have time to question it. “The bookwyrms are at it again... “ The man grumbled as he fiddled with the latch on the cage with thick fingers, shaking his head. “Excuse me? Sir?” Skylar asked, but he was either not paying attention to her or simply didn’t care. Instead, he uncovered the bird cage and revealed about half a dozen flying little… Tinkerbells? “Okay, you little shits. Take care of this mess-- and I don’t mean the customers.” The man grumbled before opening the cage. Glancing over at Nate, Skylar stared at him with wide eyes. Was he seeing this too?

Nate’s stomach dropped as the figure of authority rounded the corner, a less than pleased look on his face. “I’m so sorry, sir! We didn’t mean- the books- there’s something biting us-” But the man didn’t seem to care about his rambling apology. “Sir?” He looked over at Skylar, wondering if this was just how this weird store operated, but she seemed equally as confused, still swatting at the small creatures. His eyes followed her gaze until he focused on the...things in the cage that the man was holding. Instead of a bird, the cage seemed to house a bunch of flying...fairies?? “Uh- Sir?!?’ But the man paid no mind, releasing the winged things into the store where they immediately began to swarm around whatever had come out of the books. The downside being that a lot of those little buggers were now all over Skylar and himself. “C-crap!!” Nate screamed, swatting at both the flying creatures and the biting ones. “What do we do now??”

“What the--” Skylar grimaced as the strange creatures began to fly around, grabbing at the bugs that were biting into her skin and yanking them off. They were helping, kind of, but only in the most painful of ways. “Can you call them off? Please?!” She asked the man, but he was leaning against one of the bookshelves, thumbing through a magazine, the empty birdcage sitting on the ground next to him. Ugh. Looking over at the man next to her, she blinked. Who was he again? Whatever his name was, he seemed to be having an even worse time than she was, Skylar swallowed. This was a mistake, all of this was so dumb and stupid and why was she even here in the first place? Brushing off as many of the bugs off her as she could, she felt a fairy thing tangled up in her hair, yanking at more of the worm things. “Get off, get away! I, I think we should leave. We should go.” She said, holding out a hand to guide him out of the library.

Nate scrambled away from the flying creatures who seemed to be- yep. They were eating the bugs that were crawling out of the blank book pages. He wasn’t sure what the things were, but the shop owner seemed perfectly alright with just letting them create chaos around the store and nip and Skylar and himself in their quest. He frowned down at the book he’d been reading, trying to think of the name of that lost library in the desert, the one with all the information supposedly lost to time or looters or something. The blank pages reminded him of that, and he was sad for a moment. But then a flying fairy launched itself at his head, eliciting a nice and manly yelp before he took Skylar’s hand. “Gladly!” He propelled himself forward, mumbling out another apology for all the damage they’d caused, though admittedly not as much damage as the things he’d intentionally let loose. Speeding out the shop doors, Nate nearly crashed to his knees outside. “What- the heck-” he gasped, his hands still slapping away small worms from his arms and neck.

The two of them raced out of The Archive, the strange little creatures paying no attention to them once they ran out of the store. Skylar shook her head, shaking free some of the little worms that had latched onto the back of her neck, as well as the ones tangled in her hair. “Ugh, ew, ew, ew…” She grimaced as she rid herself of the last of the worms and started to stomp on them, squishing them into the pavement. Looking up at the man next to her, she gave an awkward grimace in his direction. “Are you okay? There were a lot of them on me, did you get bit too?” She asked, still trying to figure out what this guy’s name was. She could have sworn that he had just told it to her, but… why couldn’t she remember it? What was happening?

Nate’s skin was crawling as he pawed at every inch of skin he could reach. He was sure that even a scalding shower for 24 hours straight wouldn’t be enough to make him feel clean or safe. “Yeah-not...not too much I think…” He looked up at the girl with terror in his eyes. “You don’t think they like carry disease or anything, do you?? I know- I know there’s...that one kind of insect, they bite you and they give you….lemon disease? I- I think it’s a- I dunno…” He waved his hands in front of him as he searched for the word. “You know….that bitey thing?”

Tilting her head, Skylar couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man in front of her. Between his words and his body language, it was clear that the entire incident had shaken him up. Which… for any normal person who’d just been attacked by gross worms and then by… freaking evil tinkerbells? She could hardly blame him. Reaching out, she patted his shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture-- hopefully physical contact wouldn’t make him freak out more. “Lyme disease? I think that’s something you can get from ticks in the woods? I think, I think we should be okay. Those weird bug things…” Her eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to figure out why she’d been in the bookstore to begin with, “They… which section were they in again? I’m sorry, I-- I can’t remember.”

Still feeling the ghosts of insects crawling over him but fairly certain it was in his head at this point, Nate began to calm down. He flinched a bit at the physical touch, but more so because he thought Skylar was about to swat away some book bug. He smiled awkwardly, wrapping his arms around himself as if that would create some sort of protective barrier. “Oh! Yeah! That’s what I was thinking of! Weird…” Nate’s brows wrinkled in confusion. He was sure he’d known the name of that disease. He shrugged to himself but cocked his head to the side. “You don’t remember what you were looking for?” Weird. Or was she just trying to get him to say what he was looking for? In a hushed voice, he leaned in. “Z-zombie aisle?” 

Wracking her brains, Skylar struggled to think about what she’d been looking for. But, the second the man said the words, it came back to her. Zombies. Of course. She’d been in the Archive looking for information on zombies to see if there was anything she could do to help Rem. “Yes, yes, that’s exactly what I was looking for. How didn’t I remember that…” She muttered, confused. “And, hang on. Your name-- You just told me it, didn’t you? It’s, it’s something with a N? Noah..?” She said. No, that didn’t sound right, he didn’t really look like a Noah. Her hands fidgeted at her sides, stinging slightly from the small bite marks that dotted her skin. What was going on? Was she having some kind of… weird young person stroke? Or was she going insane? Of all the things to make her question her sanity, it wasn’t the awful worms or the pixies trying to smack them, it was the fact that she couldn’t remember this guy’s name. Wow. What was her life right now?

Nate nodded, his brows crumpling low over his eyes. Panic began to set in, wondering if she had forgotten his name or what she’d been looking for because of the mysterious bugs’ bites. Or maybe it was those literal flying fairies? Who the heck knew. Maybe she was just a forgetful person. “Nate-” he smiled lightly. “But you were close!” He glanced back at the store, a shiver running through him. “I uh...don’t think I’ll be coming back here anymore but…” Turning back to Skylar, he hugged his arms around himself a bit tighter, his voice dropping. “If uh...I find anything- on the undead stuff? I can definitely share it if you like?”

“Nate.” Skylar repeated. What the heck was going on? He’d literally just told her what his name was, hadn’t he? Eyebrows coming together in confusion, she nodded. “Sorry about that. I just, I couldn’t remember. I’m not usually like this, I swear. But, um. Yeah… I’m not going to be poking around the back shelves of this place anymore.” At least, she wouldn’t be doing it without someone who knew a little bit more about this whole thing. “Um. Yes! Yeah, that’d be really helpful, thanks! Here, let me give you my phone number.” She said, fishing a piece of paper out of her pocket before writing her number down. “And… I mean-- if you notice any other weird stuff. Like, like the tinkerbell things that were in there? Let me know?” She asked, tone hopeful. She didn’t want to be too nosy, but he hadn’t reacted with complete shock when the pixie things had swarmed him. Did that mean he knew about this magic stuff too? And if he did… then did he actually know about zombies..?

Nate smiled, hoping it came off as more reassuring than it felt. Everything about this felt off, except for Skylar. She at least seemed normal. “No worries, I’m sure it’s just the uh...dust or something in there.” He nodded to himself, hoping that maybe that really could explain it. “It’d be no problem at all.” He reached out, taking her number and placing it in his wallet. “Sure thing, it’s uh...not entirely uncommon to see this kind of thing. Usually I stay as far away from it as I can, but if I see anything I’ll let ya know.” Nate wasn’t sure why she would want to find more of those things, but maybe she knew more about them than he did. “It was nice meeting you, you know...in spite of all,” he gestured vaguely to the store behind them. “That.” Dusting himself off a bit more, he was already planning the 6 hour decontamination shower he’d be having after this.

Nodding at his words, Skylar stuck her hands in the pocket of her jacket to hide the way her fingers were fidgeted nervously. This entire thing had put her on edge and she honestly just needed to go home and lie down. Maybe that would help some. “Mmm, I really appreciate that, all the same.” She said with a smile. Wincing a little, she hummed in agreement. “No, I completely get that. See you around, Nate.” Skylar waved politely before turning around and walking quickly away from the Archive. A large cup of tea, a hot shower, and anything but a book sounded great right about now. And, hopefully with a little rest, he would be less shaken too. As she walked away, she shook her head. What the heck was this town?

[haloud]

running through your veins

ao3 ----------------------

On days like this where Kyle spends five hours saving a single life, he celebrates by getting outrageously drunk and, more often than not, getting off with a random stranger in the backseat of his car. If anyone asks where he’s been, he says he’s “reminding himself he’s alive,” which—since it’s usually his mom doing the asking—earns him rolled eyes and a smack to the back of the head. But guess what, mom. He’s a grown man now, and he’s not scared of the safe sex lecture she would always gleefully use as a punishment if he got caught sneaking around with girls. Grinning against the rim of his glass, Kyle knocks back another shot of tequila.

He doesn’t usually drink at the Wild Pony, if only because DeLuca doesn’t like him; he knows she overcharges him and sticks the extra cash in a donation jar. And hey, he can’t really blame her, but the atmosphere generally isn’t so good for his party of one. Tonight, though, he can’t stop rubbing his fingers together to remind himself the gloves are off, can’t stop smelling blood. Drinking alone isn’t really so appealing, no matter how loud he turns up the music, so the Wild Pony it is

His wild night, turns out, even comes with a show. He watches for about an hour, getting increasingly wasted, as Michael Guerin successfully bilks Racist Hank out of two hundred dollars.

Part of him wants to blame the tequila for the way he blushes every time Guerin lays himself languid and slow over the pool table, giving Kyle a perfect view of his ass under soft old denim jeans, shirt riding up to show the smooth skin of his waist. DeLuca does keep some damn good tequila on the shelf, but Kyle prides himself on being man enough to—eventually—own up to the handies he traded with his roommate sophomore year at Michigan, so he’s not going to wuss out now. He props his elbows on the bar and rolls a shot glass between his hands. His type basically stops at smart, like maybe med school broke something in his brain after it rendered him incapable of even jacking off without thinking about studying. And Guerin’s definitely that, Kyle thinks, thumbing his bottom lip. Last time he broke down and drank at the Pony, he had front row seats to another occasion when Guerin took Hank for all he was worth after Hank dared him to get viciously drunk, go outside, and take his engine apart, which Guerin did, then put it back together so fast it was damn near superhuman.

So Guerin’s got one point in the brains column and a question mark under the “anatomy class” column, but is it enough to balance out the inherent negatives of hooking up with a local? When your mom is the sheriff, that can get ugly quick, and Kyle is, like, way too drunk to work out the math right now, so he just waves his hand at the non-DeLuca bartender because more tequila will definitely help him make a decision.

(Maybe Maria would like him better if he learned the names of her employees.)

(…Nahhhhhh.)

“I’m cutting you off,” DeLuca interrupts, appearing seemingly out of nowhere to shoo her bartender away.

“DeLucaaaaaaa,” Kyle whines, and he squishes his cheek against the bar which smells—Kyle sniffs—reassuringly of Pine-sol and spilled beer, and nothing at all like copper or bleach.

“Nope, nn-mm, no way, McDreamy. Your money’s not good enough to make me deal with your mama when she has to scrape you off the floor.”

At the mention of his mother, Kyle tries to snap himself up into better posture, but his biggest success is not falling backwards off the barstool. Combing his fingers through his hair, he looks around frantically and tries to just look regular drunk. DeLuca snorts out a laugh, not a real one but not a mean one either.

“She’s not here yet. But it’s only a matter of time before Guerin starts throwing punches, so. Sheriff’s son’s gotta go, or else I’m borrowing trouble.”

Kyle spins around to look out at the bar, and sure enough, he peers across the room to the pool tables, where Guerin is grinning kinda sleepy and dangerous with his hands in the air, nearly chest to chest with a red-faced Hank.

Nnnh. He doesn’t want to see any violence, bruises, bloody lips. Not tonight. He slides off the stool, grabs the bar to right himself, and wobbles as he straightens up. Hehe. Straightens. Just ‘cause his Guerin-boner went away doesn’t mean it’s not still funny.

“Valenti, what the hell are you doing.” DeLuca hisses as Kyle staggers away. He flaps his hand behind himself in a way he hopes is reassuring, because he’s totally got this.

“You guys done with the table?” He says loudly, pointedly not tripping on anything as he crosses the floor. Hank sneers at him and says something foul, but what’s he gonna do? Kyle’s got dirt on that guy, uh-huh, and he’s got a bunch of codes, but the football team bro-code shit is way past its expiration date. Hank tries to, like, loom over him as Kyle leans on a pool cue to hide his swaying back and forth, and that’s definitely annoying, but Kyle’s more concerned with the way Guerin bares his teeth and the way it’s both scary and really hot.

“Why, you lookin’ for a game? At least I know you can afford the buy in, Doc.” Guerin drawls.

“I don’t have any cash. And I don’t know how to play pool, because beer pong is the real man’s game. But here.” He fumbles his wallet out of his pocket and slaps it down on the wooden edge of the table. “I’ll open a tab if you wanna give lessons ‘stead of sleeping in a cell tonight. And making me talk to my mom when I’m wasted,” he adds mournfully, rubbing his hand over the chalky end of the cue. Even drunk, he doesn’t miss the way Guerin’s eyes flick briefly to the motion. Nice.

“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that? God damn, I come to this bar to avoid people like you; aren’t you late to get your chest waxed or some shit?” Guerin snaps, and hey, it’s none of Guerin’s business (yet) what parts of him are or aren’t waxed professionally. But guess what, Kyle’s already winning, because Guerin doesn’t even blink when Hank fucks off to do Racist Hank things somewhere else, even though that’s the fight he was spoiling for walking away.

“I mean…I can just leave if you’re not looking for easy money…and not looking to show off”

“I’d have to be as drunk as you are right now to take you up on this, and I don’t think that’s even possible for me. Buzz off, Valenti.”

“I gave you an open opportunity to try,” Kyle points to his wallet still perched between them. “C’mon, Guerin. One game. You can kick my ass like you never actually got to in high school! Call it cth—caht—catharsis.”

Nailed it.

“Fine.” Guerin ticks his jaw, runs his tongue over his teeth, and it makes Kyle all warm and tingly even as Guerin snatches the cue out of his hand. “One game. And if you can’t beat me after that, you’re gonna be losing a lot of fucking money, Valenti.”

One game turns into two, actually, and is Kyle learning anything with Guerin hot like a fever—and maybe it’s just the flush of the alcohol, but being all over him feels like burning up—moving his arms and pressed up against his back? No, not really. But it turns out Guerin’s not so bad when he shakes out his curls and laughs around the mouth of a bottle of beer like he can’t believe himself for spending time with Kyle of all people, especially a version of Kyle so uncoordinated he can barely wrap his brain around the concept of breaking, like, in general, let alone any of the trick shots Guerin is easily enticed into demonstrating with the fluid grace of a truly practiced drunk.

They aren’t buddies; even if they did see each other outside of the Pony, they wouldn’t acknowledge each other at all. Kyle doesn’t start going to the bar more frequently, either, not to seek Guerin out or for any other reason. But if every now and then he feels like some drunk company and the night ends up with Kyle’s wallet feeling light and him on his back in the bed of Guerin’s truck?

Well.

Ain’t life worth living after all?

[fullmetaldevil-blog]

Batim: Stitched Au CH. 7

Ok. I actually had this typed up awhile ago but lacked the sufficient time to actually sit and post it properly :p

summary: Benny is gone and is no where to be found. Now a determined Angel is out to find her demon accompanied by her band and loyal husband. Can they find Benny or will someone else find them whom has even bigger plans? 

I hope you all enjoy

On with the show~!

Ch. 7 Bigger Plans for the Band

Bright and early in the morning Allison and Tom piled into Tom's truck and the man broke a few speed limits to reach the studio. They had stayed up all night formulating ways to trying to track Benny down based on what Allison knew of him. The mechanic and actress had placed many phone calls waking much of the band members (and got cussed out by a few) as to perform a thorough search of the studio before the facility opened to the majority of the staff. Tom was taking full advantage of the fact that he was one of the few key holders and had informed everyone to meet at the studio 2 hours before the studio was fully open to openly search for Benny without onlookers. They had hoped that Norman, Aaron and Giovanni's plan of leaving food sitting out had paid off since Benny was known to have a large appetite.

While Tom drove like a madman down the dark road and was thankful no cops were around to pull him over (not like he would have stopped), Allison was silently praying that they would be able to find her little lost toon. Benny didn't really see much of the studio except for the area's she frequented and she had no real reason to venture beyond the animation department and the music department. She had hoped that Benny hadn't ventured further then that due to the studio's maze like infrastructure and it was a common occurrence for new staff to get lost or turned around.  She held her overcoat tightly in hopes that by the end of the day her coat would help smuggle a little friend out of that hellish place.

Tom pulled into the studio lot and was soon joined by another car. The mechanic got out to look at who was the other early arrival hoping it wasn't some random employee and he was relieved to see Norman stepping out and waving at him.

“G' mornin!” Norman hollered from his car, the man stepping out to reveal a tool belt around his waist full of tools, a loop of wire and a small backpack.

Allison looked at Norman wide eyed “What's all that?” gesturing to the belt and small tools.

Norman chuckled as he pointed to his equipment “Well normally I carry these in mah backpack, but I got 'em on mah side on that off chance we find Benny an' I can sneak 'em out with the bag. These are mah tools fer the projectors so I carry 'em all th' time.”

Upon Norman finishing his explanation Allison chuckled and held up her overcoat. “I had the same idea, I brought the coat with the idea of sneaking him out in my clothes.”

While the group lightly chatted, a few more cars pulled into the lot while 2 others came on foot. Tom, Allison and Norman turned to see Earl and Edgar arriving on foot while Leonard, Giovanni and Aaron all arrived by car.

“Huh. I didn't know you boys walked here.” Tom commented while looking at the twins whom were still trying to rub the sleep out of their eyes.

“Ay, We live just down the way from here so it's only a 15-20 minute walk.” Earl yawned while Edgar hung off his brother clearly having a hard time waking up.

Allison watching Edgar having a hard time waking up instantly made her think of Benny. At times in the morning he was slow moving, groggy and not always ready for the day. “I just hope Benny is awake and can hear us while we're looking for him. He isn't exactly a morning toon.”

Leonard flashed a huge grin “Which is why we make as much noise as we can. If were loud by either playin' music or callin' his name I'm sure he's bound to come running.” The man held up his violin to emphasize his point.

Aaron smacked Leonard on the back of the head playfully “Or to go running away, did you ever think about that numskull. Think about it, the room getting trashed was enough to scare him away, he might be edgy and run from any excessive noises.”

“I vote we check were we put all the soup cans first before we wake the dead by shouting all morning.” Giovanni added in. “He's been missing for a full day now, he has got to be hungry by now.”

“Which is why I brought this” Tom heading to his truck and came back with a huge roll of paper and laid it on the hood of his truck prompting the group to come over. “This is a map of the entire studio, even the portions that as still in development. When I was developing the first ink machine Joey had to provide us the original blueprint of the studio then we added onto to it. This is my copy of the blueprint that I'm thankful I took with me.”

The band members had gathered round and everyone stared at the pages in awe at the sheer depth that the studio had gone. None of them could have imagined that the studio was much larger then it looked.

“What's this area?” Giovanni pointed at a large circular area that was labeled ' Belly of the Beast' on the draft.

Tom looked to the spot that Giovanni had pointed to “Oh that is the 'Throne room' as Joey liked to put it. It's where he houses Bendy memorabilia with the purpose of impressing investors.”

Norman's face twisted in confusion as he eyed the area that was brought into question. He followed the only route that lead from that spot to yet another large room but the only entrance was in a corner of the room rather then a main hallway. It seemed odd. “An' what's this 'ere?” He pointed at the second smaller room that served as the only entrance to the 'throne room' gaining Tom's attention.

“Huh? Oh that's the vault.”

“I know that area!” Norman's outburst taking everyone by surprise.

“You do?” Allison spoke up looking at the projectionist confused. Her look of confusion was joined by the rest of the band whom had no clue half of the new additions of the studio existed.

“Yeah. Th' other day Joey was headin' down 'ere and I was gonna check that area first in the hopes that lil' Benny hadn't come that far down. I helped 'em down and then he was askin' me about what Bendy films mah lil sister likes. I told 'em which ones and he told me t' get them out the vault. He told me how to open it and I got the films fer 'em, then we headed back to the office and I had to go back to the music department.” Norman stared holes at the blueprint of the vault on the draft sheet. “When I was in there th' door 'ere'” he pointed to the door mark in the corner of the room. “It was blocked off by a large book shelf an' ink was around the base. I dunno what was beyond th' door but it looked odd.”

“That's where the ink for the ink machine is kept, along with 'the Ink Machine'.” Tom's voice causing the group to look at him and looks of confusion and the emphasis of the Ink Machine . “The Ink Machine not only helps make ink but it also filters and pumps ink throughout the studio like a giant heart. What we see up top is only a small piece of the real thing, that's the 'output' portion where the toons come out. It's 'heart' looks exactly like the one on the upper levels, but far bigger. The blue print for the Ink Machine is so complex it couldn't be all put on one drafting sheet plus along with whatever Joey put inside the machine.”

“So why couldn't you say something sooner? I mean about all that was going on behind the scenes with the Ink machine and Benny.” Aaron looked over at Tom with disappointment on his face.

The man's question made the mechanics shoulders slump “I didn't want to admit it, but I kinda liked the idea of a living toon. A little character who's sole purpose was to make people smile despite the stock market crash and the hardship that followed. That was the reason why I took such a ludicrous job along with the fact that it paid well. The longer I worked here and the more complex the project turned out to be, the more I realized I was in over my head and was too far in to just simply back out. Joey wouldn't let me and then my job wouldn't let me. I couldn't say anything cause Joey had threatened me.” Tom turned to look at Allison. “When I made the prototype ink machine it was only supposed to test on whether or not a object can be turned into an ink copy. The idea being that we can turn Bendy related objects into a physical replica of the toon, a 3 dimensional model if you will. That day I went to Shawn and asked to grab something from the scrap heap and he let me. I looked at the pile of Alice angel toys that were being tossed and saw one lonely Bendy plush that the eyes were accidentally mismatched and had somehow got stained yellow. I liked it on sight to be honest, something about it made me smile. It was unique. So I picked up the toy and brought it to the machine. To be honest a small part of me wished I could have kept the toy and that the process wouldn't work so I can get the toy back. Never in a million years would I have pictured that the toy was turned into a living toon somehow. After that, things got out of hand I was threatened by Joey into silence for if I said something or did something out of line he would go after my wife and have her hurt or worse.”

Allison stared at her husband in horror realizing that Tom was putting himself in harms way to protect her from someone who had no qualms about removing people by means of injury or death. That Tom had no choice but to endure threats to his loved one and carry the burden of the birth and death of the off model toon. She walked over to her cherished husband and gave him a warm comforting hug while whispering a small 'thank you'.

“So what exactly happen' when lil Benny was made?” Norman politely asked.

The mechanic smiled remembering the first day. “Well after I took one last look at the little toy and placed it inside the machine I went through the process of making sure the machine itself was ready. I threw the switch and watched the machine writhe around before a large glob of ink fell out the nozzle. At first I thought it failed and only succeeded in making some really thick ink, but when it started taking form I could only stand and watch in amazement. After a few moments a yellow colored Bendy toon was sitting in the ink and what really shocked me was when it was moving. It was alive. I couldn't help myself. I went over to look at the little new born and got to touch him for the first time, and he was so soft and sweet. A part of me was like a child, all giddy and excited at seeing their favorite character. The little toon was responding the sounds I made and my touches.” Then Tom's face turned bitter and angry. “Then Joey was shouting how the toon was off model and needed to be disposed of. I couldn't stand by and let that happen so I stood up to Joey protecting the toon who cowered behind me. We argued and while and when I was distracted Joey had grabbed an ax and struck me on the side of my head with the handle. I saw the little toon reach for me when I got hit and his reward was a slash wound across his stomach. I grabbed Joey's legs to try and keep him from going after the toon a 2nd time allowing Benny to escape. He hit me on the head again and I don't know what happened after that. The next thing I knew was I was in his office getting threatened into silence.”

The group had an overwhelming sense of pity finally learning Thomas's side of the story. The man had been lured in and used, and when the results came he got stepped on and shoveled over. A simple notion of helping to make something that made people smile got turned against him and brought him only pain.

A chuckle made the group look back at the man “Now I know that my little toon is alive, he is my responsibility. I brought him into this world and I won't let anything or anyone take him out. Though now we have a new problem on our hands rather then just finding Benny” Tom's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the blueprint laid before him.

“What is this new problem? We already have enough with tryin' to find a small toon” Giovanni roughly pointed out.

Tom turned to face the group. “Our 2nd problem is Bendy. The other day when I completed the 2nd ink machine it produced a perfectly on-model Bendy toon. He is alive just like his counterpart and is unfortunately in Joey's hands. The man forced me to come back here with threats to my livelihood if I didn't fix the machine to make a Bendy that 'acted right'. Apparently Bendy's behavior isn't like his cartoon self and according to Joey he is too much like his creator Henry. With any luck Joey didn't kill him, but considering how much he has invested in Bendy already he most likely has him hidden somewhere in the unfinished areas.”

Norman let out a sigh while pinching the bridge between his nose. “Great, now we got 2 lost chi'ren t' look fer.”

Tom gave and apologetic look to the band members “Sorry about this guys.”

“Ah, It ain't your fault Thomas.” Leonard spoke up walking up to the man. “You were doing what you were forced to and in a way it paid off. You got 2 loving cartoon characters and all we need to do now is just get them out., with this many of us it will be a snap.” The young man flashing a large grin. “Besides we're the infamous Joey Drew Studios band, the bane of Sammy's existence, the local terrors, the devil's musicians!”

“Speak for yourself. You, Edgar and Earl are the only ones that hold the title of 'the local terrors'” Aaron chided looking down at Leonard. “The rest of us on the other hand, proudly take the title of 'the Devil's musician's.”

The band all laughed and uttered various forms of agreement at the mans statement knowing that out of the entire group their youngest 3 members were the 'unholy terrors'. Words of cheers and the occasional pot shot was passed throughout the group before they settled down and looked at Tom. Giovanni looked at the rest of the members and stepped forward towards Tom and asked four words that drew all eyes to the mechanic. “Where do we start?”

“All right here's what we do.” Tom carefully folded the blueprint and ripped along the folds dividing it up amongst the group except for Norman and himself. “I want you guys to check each section of the map that I gave you and mark off any points of interest or areas where Bacon Soup cans were deposited. Most of this is reachable by elevator which I'm gonna unlock for you guys so can all go look around. I know we're all used to taking the stairs, but take the elevator. I know its sketchy as hell, but it is faster then running up and down the stairs. If you see something suspicious or think it might be Benny take note, but don't approach. I doubt Benny would deliberately harm anyone, but right now he is scared and alone, he might lash out if you just charge forward. Call out to him if you think its him. If he comes great, if not take note and keep moving we only have 2 hours.”

“'Ey guys we should move our cars so no one sees 'em.” Norman gestured to the small collection of cars in the studio main lot. “last thin' we need is Joey knowin' were 'ere.”

“See I told ya this is a stealth mission!” Leonard's voice piped up. “Instead of 'Escape the Hell Studio' it's now 'Toon Trouble: Search and Rescue.” The man flashing a wide grin at the group as he waved his hands outlining the title as if it were on the side of a theater entrance.

Aaron and Giovanni both looked at each other as to who wanted the pleasure of throttling the kid first. Tom beat them both to the punch by playfully smacking the kid on the side of the head at the same time Norman took a swing. The two musician's lamented that they couldn't get a shot, but smiles graced their faces at seeing a lighter side to their normally grumpy GENT mechanic.

“Boi this ain't time fer no games.” Norman lightly scowled. He secretly wanted to thank Leonard for at least lightening the mood since they all had a serious task on their hands.

“C'mon kid. This ain't a game, lets move the cars then find our toons.” Tom moved past Leonard whom was rubbing the spots where he was struck. Leonard briefly stuck his tongue out at the man, but immediately pulled it back in when Norman stood over him smiling before lifting him up by the back of his coat and trailed after the mechanic.

Allison, Edgar and Earl waited by the entrance as  they watched the group one by one file into their respective cars and move them towards the back side of the studio lot out of sight of the entryway. Norman had long since figured out Joey's route to the studio and made sure everyone parked on the side that the man doesn't venture past. The group was more then thankful for the projectionists habit of observing habits. Leonard made a few more jokes about it being a stealth mission and even started playing his violin in a ominous manner while humming a tune calling it his 'theme song'. Thomas saw red and chased the man all the way back to the entrance trying to throttle him with Aaron and Giovanni right behind for backup. Norman being the only one to school his temper quietly followed wishing that the 3 enraged men weren't trying to wake the dead with their curses, the loudest of all being Tom. Leonard coward behind Allison whom scolded Tom for being too loud. The man glared at Leonard and had no choice but to let it go and focus on letting everyone inside.

The dim lights of the studio lot offered little assistance as Thomas pulled out a set of keys and fiddled with the door and the lock,the building seemingly protesting the early entry. The door finally decided to cooperate after the man gave it a good solid hit and it creaked open revealing the haunting interior. Only the emergency lights were on casting long black shadows over much of the studio entrance except for the dull moonlight that shown through the door. One by one the group filed in the sounds of creaking and groaning wood being their only greeting at the doorway. The studio logo's film reels slowly turning their normal creaks and groans sounding less like their mechanics that drove them and more like the moans of a dying creature.

“Ooo Boy it's dark in here.” Leonard spoke up watching the faint outline of the Joey Drew Studio logo reels forever turning round and round.

“Brilliant observation Sherlock” Aaron groaned while nudging Leonard further into the studio so he could enter.

“Awww don't be like that Aaron ol' boy, and here I thought we might be needing these.” Leonard turned to face the group and opened his coat up revealing the internal pockets stuffed with flashlights.

“For a second I thought you were gonna flash me.” Aaron grumbled while looking at the grinning Leonard.

“We'll I am carrying flashlight's, so in a way I already did.” Leonard soon found himself scrambling away from both Giovanni and Aaron as the two men both lunged for him leaving Norman burying his face in his hands and Tom's hands twitching. The mechanic still wanting to throttle the kid for his earlier antics and now this little episode to add on to his list of reasons why to maim the kid.

“Guys! Guys. We don't have time for this.” Earl piped up shaking his groggy brother off his shoulder. “We only got 2 hours.”

“For once it seems like 2 out of the 3 brat trio is using their brains” Tom muttered making Allison chuckle.

Making sure that he wasn't going to be the target of a whooping, Leonard sheepishly passed out the collection of flashlights he carried to the group. Tom turned his down saying he and Allison already had theirs and to give the spare to the twins so they each had one. One by one the younger members looked at their portions of the map and heading towards their desired locations. The dark halls greedily devoured their lights one by one with only the small creaks and groans of floorboards as evidence of their passage leaving the older members behind. The twins volunteered to check out the new park area while Leonard volunteered to check out the new Administration section. Aaron wanted to go back to check the music department just in case Benny came back. Norman wanted to better map the locations of the Bacon soup piles left on the upper levels. Giovanni volunteered to check the toy factory on the off chance Benny hid amongst the production lines. Allison and Tom both were gonna check the animation department before moving on to the depths of the studio.

“Wait.” Giovanni spoke up before  Allison and Tom went down one of the halls the man jogging up to them. “Here take this. I wanted to give it to him, but right now you need it more.” The man held out his hand and revealed a little off model plush Bendy. The toy looked exactly like Benny just minus the stitches. The man chuckled “I found it hidden in the scrap pile, looks like Shawn made a mistake when he was half asleep and didn't want Joey to find out.”

Allison gently lifted the toy out of the mans hand and brought it to her chest hugging it tightly. She then pulled the man in for an embrace “Thank you. This means so much to me.”

Giovanni hugged the woman tightly before releasing her looking her in the eyes “Have faith, We'll find him. He will be going home.” his answer was a small squeeze back and a little 'Thank you'.

Once Giovanni both the embrace he waved slightly before resuming his trek down the foreboding halls of Joey Drew Studios leaving Tom and Allison behind. The couple nodded and turned towards the animation department to begin their search.

---------An Hour Later------------

A low rumble of a engine echoed throughout the studio lot as a Black car pulled into a parking stall with a little placard that read 'reserved for Joey Drew'. The man in question stepping out of the vehicle slowly leaning heavily on his cane while carrying a bucket of ink along with a few papers covered in messy writing and unknown symbols. He looked worse for wear as he had spent the entire night researching methods of extracting souls from bodies and converting it into ink. He practiced on a good number of small animals till he perfected the craft of the conversion. He found that for the best conversion the subject had to be living for the process. The subject needed to be within the circle and with a fresh wound for the ink to enter and consume the subject body and soul alike, a little incantation later and a ink creature is born. Since the subjects were only rodents the inky forms made were mere globs of think ink that screeched and moaned, but they were controllable. They responded to commands, but the things didn't seem to last long and fell apart shortly after creation, but then again they were only small insignificant creatures.

Joey soon learned that controlling the inky creatures came at a price, using the spells gained from the book lead to tremendous stress on his body which was already weak enough from the aftermath of Polio. His joints and muscles tightened every time he cast the various spells and at some points nearly inhibiting his ability to stand entirely. It was draining his life energy as a source of energy for the process and the ability to control the ink. He needed the ink machine. The contraption was an endless energy source and was designed for the sole purpose of making the living Ink for the form, but not the soul needed. He now had a way of giving the ink the soul it needs to truly bring the toons to life.

The director hobbled to the entrance unlocking the doors and let himself in before locking it behind himself. He needed peace and quiet before the rest of the staff started showing up. He readjusted his grip on his papers and bucket and made his way to the reception desk where his wheelchair sat. He hated using the thing, but with the amount of strain he put his body through each step felt like a knife was shredding his muscles apart and he desperately needed a break. Joey placed the bucket carefully between the foot rests next to his feet with the hopes that it wouldn't spill and slowly wheeled himself down the hall towards the ink machine. The mechanical hearts slow thumping it's only sign of life, beckoned the man to it's location. Joey sat before it listening to the rhythmic tune before laying his papers out on a nearby shelf and setting the bucket of gelatinous ink down upon the floor.

A grunt exited the man as he edged himself out of the wheelchair and clung to his cane for balance. He studied the papers on the shelf intensely before grabbing paintbrush and returned to the bucket he laid on the floor. He gingerly dipped the brush into the ink and started to paint the required circle and all it's inscriptions for the conversion at the base of the ink machine. A small chuckle escaped the mans lips. The original circle that lay within the the heart of the ink machine that gave it the ability to create the living ink and in turn make the living toons wasn't that much different then the circle used to extract a soul. One to create the illusion of life and the other to remove a life and repurpose it.

It was only a matter of minutes for the new circle to be completed beneath the ink machine and Joey stood back up on worn legs to admire his work. He had a sense of giddiness and his heart beat loudly with excitement almost in sync with the machine itself. Soon, very soon he will be able to snag his potential candidate for Bendy and perfect the toon. Now all he needed was to set up the true heart of the machine and wait for the staff to start showing up. Yeah sure the young man by the name of Leonard was one of the leading band members, but musicians come and musicians go. He could easily replace him with a new member if it meant that Bendy was no longer a soulless doll.

Joey gathered up his ink soaked brush sliding it back into the bucket and chose to slide it over to his wheelchair rather then carry it gathering up his papers along the way. Once his papers were secured he slowly eased himself back into his wheelchair and  pushed himself to the controls setting the ink machine to lower to it's heart to line up the circles needed for the ritual. He listened to the machine as it whined in protest before it conceded and slowly descended into the darkness to join it's core, a raucous laughter escaped the man as the chains creaked and groaned from the decent.

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

“Benny! Beeeeeeennnnny!!” Leonard hollered down the halls bounding with a skip in his step while he played his violin as loud as the instrument would allow. His only answer was the silence of the halls except for a small rumble that begun to emanate from further down the halls gaining the mans attention causing him to slow and listen to the sounds. “Benny?”

Leonard nearly danced down to the edge of the hall with the sound growing louder and peered around it's edge and spotted what looked like a strange elevator shaft lined with 4 massive chains and pipes creating the rumbling sound. Confused Leonard pulled out his portion of the map and saw that the part he was now in was not on his piece of the map. Great. He was lost. He looked up from the page to see a large boxy mechanism being lowered down the shaft. Allison's words played in his head of the description of the ink machine; a large box with a huge nozzle and a catch basin beneath it and the object in question just descended into the depths of the studio.

He knew he should have turned around have gone to go find Tom or one of the other members, but what if it was leading to where Benny was? He couldn't miss this chance and the machine wasn't going very fast. Leonard edged towards the shaft and set his violin down on a crate and pried open the grate knowing that by no sense of the word was what he was about to do safe, but for Benny he was willing to take that risk. Thanking his lucky stars that the chains were large and very close to the opening, he jumped to the chains grasping onto them firmly going along for the ride into the darkness.

The ride down the shaft seemed like it took forever and on occasion an opening would appear in the form of a vent or a grate that allowed a small glimpse into the new floors of the studio that were off limits to the remainder of the staff. He couldn't believe how far down the studio was now stretching to, and could only stare wide eyed at the new renovations. The man signed and carefully slid down to rest on top the ink machine itself as he peered out the occasional openings. One particularly large open came to view and he was able to better view the floor.

Leonard was an instant child clinging to the edge of the machine staring out at the large storage room area of the floor. The area was covered in parts and booths for the rumored 'Bendy-Land' that was being constructed. His mind danced at the thoughts of the finished amusement park, the roar of the roller coasters, the screams and laughter of children and the smell of all the food. By god he couldn't wait! He so wanted to take Benny to the complete park and have him play some games with him, have a cotton candy eating contest, see how many balloons it takes to make him float and so much more! First they needed to find him and get him out of the studio. Once the little guy is safely out he can freely visit him and play as much as he wants without fear of getting caught.

A giddy grin swept across his face as he happily swayed on the chains at all the possibilities when 2 figures moving by one of the booths caught his attention. It was Earl and Edgar. The redheaded twins were' inspecting' the booth by playing the game with Earl clearly winning his round of ball toss in comparison to Edgar. “Earl! Edgar!” Leonard hollered out enthusiastically waving.

The two young men spun in place searching for the source of the voice before their eyes were drawn to Leonard waving beyond a grate. The man and a large boxy mechanism that could only be assumed was the ink machine were slowly descending down a shaft beyond the grate. Abandoning their game, the two bolted to the grate grasping a hold of it's frame while looking down at the grinning violinist.

“Ey, man are ye daft?! What are ye doin' down there laddie?” Earl shouted, he couldn't believe his eyes. What on earth was Leonard doing riding the ink machine like its a horse and left alone where was it going?

“I'm going for a ride fellas, see ya later!” Leonard shouted in return, his voice's echo bounced off the walls of the shaft.

Earl and Edgar both stood at the grate peering into the void that had swallowed their friend and they could only hope for his safety. Both looking at each other wondering what they should do about the situation. Should they give up and get Tom or continue on their mission and look for Benny. The two debated amongst each other and ultimately decided to let one of the games at the booths decide for them. Both rolled up their sleeves while they shot challenges back and forth as they paced to a booth and readied their hands for victory. Each took up a rifle and started up the target practice game forgetting their search.

Leonard stared up at the small light that was his brief window to his friends with a smile. If he were to find Benny first he would so gloat about it and rub it in the twins faces, especially since they were spending their time playing games rather then looking for their friend. His giddiness gave way to awe as his mechanical ride entered a massive cavern descending to a far larger version of itself below. “Holy cow! That thing's huge!” the musician gawked at the true Ink Machine that lay at the heart of the studio.

The smaller ink machine came to a rest on top it larger counterpart clicking in place as bellows of steam exited the machine with the larger one creating such plumes from its base as well. Leonard waved the steam away from his face before taking a look around the cavern. The place looked to be a normal underground cave that had been tunneled into. The walls were lined by scaffolding and other building materials and there were even scaffolding around the base of the Ink Machine. He eased himself to the edge of the smaller ink machine and reached for the scaffold grabbing hold and pulled himself off the machine and onto the platform. He sat for a minute admiring the both the ink machine and the Ink Machine in their entirety. It was one thing to see them on Tom's blueprints, but it never puts them in perspective as to their physical size.

Leonard stood up and brushed off his bottom before he followed the scaffolding that surrounded the Ink Machine until it lead to a ladder allowing him to finally get onto the floor properly which made him briefly want to hug the floor for he missed it so much. The edges of the machine caught it eye as he watched plumes of steam exit it's sides and pipes far larger then he had ever seen descend into what he initially thought was a hole until he realized that it was a lake, a lake purely made of ink. He couldn't believe his eyes, he had always seen copious amounts of the ebony liquid throughout the studio, but never at this magnitude. He drifted towards the shore of the lake peering out at the cavern watching the sinister liquid as it greedily clawed at the edges of it earthen well and seemed to swallow all light that touched it. Leonard audibly gulped as he backed away from the edge of the earthen well back towards the base of the scaffold with something bumping into him.

A yelp escaped the man as he bumped into a small object causing him to whirl around and come face to face with a blank Bendy cutout. It seemed to be freshly made and lacked any black expect for the outline of the devil darling and seemed to be holding onto sign that was oddly blank, probably gonna say 'work hard, work happy' like the posters. Behind the strange cutout was a  door and decided to test his luck by trying the handle. To his surprise the door opened and he followed the hallway leading inside. Unbeknownst to him while he entered the machine and drifted down it's hall, an elevator next to Joey Drew's new office and the man in question wheeled himself out of the elevator and headed directly for the vault. Joey carried on with purpose as he only had a half an hour left till the staff started showing up and it took him a good 15 to 20 minutes just to make the circle on the smaller machine, but the bigger machine will take a little longer and he didn't have much time to waste.

Leonard didn't know what to make of the hallway that was surrounded by large glass tubes with ink cascading within them. Were they to showcase the functions of the ink machine?Or were they part of the ink machine? He lingered at the glass watching to fluid within before pulling his eyes away looking around before he spied a doorway at the end of the hall. He rest his hand on the doorknob turning slowly and pulled the door open slightly revealing that the room within was dark except for the faint flickering of lights. He nudged the door open further and was met by a large circular room surrounded by silver screens with various Bendy shorts playing with oddly no audio. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end at watching the shorts playing with no sounds, they are almost like ghosts dancing on a wall mocking their viewers. Leonard fully entered the room taking cautious strides taking note of the lone chair that was encased by the screens, 'chair' was a poor choice of words as it resembled more of a throne. The chains that hung from the ceiling leading to the chair didn't offer much comfort as the scene before him reminded him of some strange dungeon that was housing a beast, he could only hope this certainly wasn't the case.

“Benny? Benny are you here?” The man nervously called out. The cold atmosphere of the room was not helping his nerves.

His answer was a small soft whistle like whine drawing the mans attention to the imposing throne. Leonard edged around it fearing that the seat was occupied, but the noise he heard sounded so sad and in pain, he was willing to take that chance. He was met with a child sized figure sporting shiny boots and white gloves with a large ring driven through where the buttons would be located on each hand. The rings and a clasp around the  wrists were bound in heavy chains pulling the arms away from the body. A white bow tie sat upon the upper chest area just below the head that was floating separate from the body. The head round and black with 2 small horns and a large white face with black pie cut eyes that bore traces of ink that ran down the sides of the face, and the normally trademark grin was turned into a prominent frown. Before him sat Bendy the Dancing Demon.

“Bendy!?” Leonard shrieked upon seeing the toon.

The man was shocked by what he was looking at, it was none other then Bendy the Dancing Demon the studio's icon. He remembered Tom had said that Bendy had been made, but didn't have a clue as to the toon's whereabouts since Joey had taken him. Leonard shook his away his brief admiration of the toon since he absolutely adored the character to take a closer look at the living toon. His hands ghosted the toons arms to the clasps and the rings that bound the devils hands and arms that still dripped with small amounts of ink from the wound. Since Bendy didn't seem to be responding to Leonard's presence, the man carefully fingered the rings that were driven through the toons hands. He found the little loops that held the rings closed and undid them and slowly slid one of the rings out of Bendy's hand causing the toon to jerk awake and bared large triangular teeth growling at Leonard, his teeth mere inches from his face.

“I-I'm t-trying to help you.” Leonard stuttered out, the man was spooked at his field of vision being filled with sharp teeth.

Bendy's growling continued till he looked at his hand and realized that it was no longer bound by the ring and two holes shown through where the ring were driven through. This man was helping him. A shaky smile crossed the toons face at his rescuer and he let out a small hum of appreciation. Leonard nodded in acknowledgment and started working on freeing the toons other hand and with a slow and steady tug freed the remaining hand of the ring. Bendy wanted to cry at the removal of the rings, but felt relieved when the objects were removed.

Leonard carefully looked at Bendy's injured hands and at the ink dripping from them. “Heh, too bad you're not fabric cause then I can try and stitch you back together like how Benny was.” He pulled out a handkerchief and patted the area around the holes being careful to not touch the actual injury itself. Bendy winced from the touches of his hand, but did his best to relax as Leonard cleaned him up.

“B-Benny? Who's that?” A small voice catching Leonard's attention and he turned to see Bendy looking at him strait in the eyes.

He could have sworn the toon just spoke, but that couldn't be right. Bendy had no speaking roles in the shorts as he had no voice provider. “Did, did you just speak?” Leonard looked at Bendy with confusion all over his face, his answer was a small nod from the toon. The man chuckled and turned his attention back to the chains that bound the toon trying to undo them. “Well the answer to your question is Benny is kinda like a younger brother to ya in a weird way. He's a toon just like you except he was once a plush doll that was made to look like ya and was brought to life by the ink machine.”

“So how come yer all th' way down here?” Bendy quietly asked as Leonard grinned in triumph and loosening up the chains allowing bendy to rest his arms on the armrests of the throne. The toon breathed a sigh in relief at being able to rest his arms rather then having them suspended in the air.

“Well little Benny got scared and fled his room when someone destroyed it, so now my friends and I are trying to find him before Joey does.” as soon and Leonard's words left his mouth Bendy growled softly making Leonard tense up wide eyed at the toon.

“I hate that man.” Bendy growled through gritted edged teeth. “He did this to me.”

Leonard's shoulders drooped while he looked at the toon in pity and understanding, it was only natural for the toon's to despise the man since he has done nothing for them except cause them pain. “Well know you aren't the only one.” Leonard's voice causing Bendy to look at him. “Benny has stitches that run completely across his stomach, a wound given to him shortly after birth by Joey. That's why we are trying to get him out of here, and now that I found ya I'm gonna try an' get you out as well.”

A small smile graced Bendy's face at the thoughts of freedom and the fact that there were people actually looking for him. He thought that no one cared for him and that no one would bother, but to hear that people actually did care and were even looking for him made a warmth bloom in his heart. He leaned his head over as far as he could comfortably go and gently nuzzled Leonard letting out a soft hum. “What's yer name?”

Leonard gently lifted a hand and ran his fingers between Bendy's horns before hopping off the platform and performed a small dace before taking a bow “My names Leonard Burn!” the man looked up at Bendy flashing a huge grin. “I'm a violinist and dancer here at the studio.”

Bendy looked at the man in shock at his performance before a chuckle escaped the toon as his characteristic grin grew on his face, his pie cut eye's locked with Leonard's. “Mah names Bendy. Bendy the Dancin' Demon.”

----------Meanwhile Outside the Throne Room----------

Joey shakily stood up out of his chair to open the vault and pulled on the door just enough to fit his body and bucket between the gap before pushing against the door forcing it to completely open. Part of him hated the fact that the heart of the machine was hidden behind such heavy doors and fortification, but at the same time it was for the sole purpose of protecting his property even if at the moment it felt like the studio was fighting against him. He had no choice but to leave his wheelchair behind as for it wouldn't be able to cross the ink lake making him wonder why a bridge had not yet been built. Taking mental note to maim GENT later about the lack of access. Joey slowly and painfully waded across the ink lake with his muscles screaming with the resistance from the thick fluid, it was certainly harder to cross the stuff in comparison to water.

Upon reaching the shore at the base of the machine Joey strode to the hallway leading to the throne room were Bendy was housed with his bucket of ink and brush. Only one more circle to go.

----------Meanwhile Inside the Throne Room----------

Leonard managed to loosen up the chains that bound Bendy, but lacked proper tools to completely free the toon, but at least the toon was more comfortable in the chair. The sounds of the door opening alerted both Leonard and Bendy as to another guest and the man dove down behind the chair in hopes that he wouldn't be found.

A silvery smooth yet taunting voice floated through the air “Ah, Bendy. How are we doing this fine morning?” Joey slowly strode up to the ink demon as Bendy was not paying the man any attention, his head turned away refusing to look at the man. “Still not very chatty I see.” Joey scoffed.

The man turned away from the toon and started to dip the brush into the bucket of ink and laid it on the floor slowly tracing the outline of the chair and throne. All the while Joey slowly went around the throne laying out the circle Leonard made sure to kept opposite of him using the chair to keep out of Joey's line of sight. The musician and couldn't help but wonder about the strange patterns being drawn beneath the toon's prison. Bendy grew weary at this new outline Joey was calmly adding on and didn't like the looks of what what going on. Each time Joey slowly rounded the throne with Leonard on the opposite side, the violinist would attempt to rub out small portions of the circle causing Joey to look in confusion as to why small portions of the circle were missing. He chalked it up to being exhausted from his 'research', the man shrugged and continued to lay out more of the circle all under Bendy's concerned gaze.

Bendy watched the small spectacle before him with concern and yet at the same time amusement at watching Joey slowly going round and round the throne and with each loop the older man looking more and more exhausted with the young man slowly following and erasing or smudging the strange inscriptions that were being painted on the floor. It was almost like a scene from a cartoon except in real life. Even Leonard flashed a grin as he quietly crept past Bendy trying to undo the marks on the floor gaining a equal grin from the ink demon.

Joey rounded the throne again and stared puzzled at the portions of the circle that he could have sworn he had just painted on. He bent down looking more carefully at the lines and noted a small smear on the end of some of the gaps. The man scoffed and pulled out a small bottle and poured out its contents, the black liquid almost gelatin like splattering upon the ground just past the circle. The man uttering a few small chants before picking up his brush and bucket once more while taking a glance at Bendy with a smirk before fixing the missing portions of the circle and then started to lay out the final touches.

Bendy stared at the questionable fluid just past the circle and feared the worst from it as he could have sworn he saw small spasms and things moving within the fluid. He could only watch as Leonard slowly rounded the throne with the toon making a small whistle like whining trying to warn the man of the impending threat. His whines grew louder when he realized that the fluid was pulsing and was forming what resembled a hand and Leonard was none the wiser.

Bendy swallowed audibly and lightly struggled in his bondage trying to make more noise to gain Leonard's attention, failing he attempted whispering his name while looking at the man. “L-Leonard...Leonard”. The musician too caught up in his sabotaging the circle, he failed to notice the black material reaching for him. The man yelped when black tendrils burst out of the fluid and grabbed him. “Leonard!”

“Well, well, well, look who we have here.” a sultry voice cooed as Joey slowly rounded the throne looking at Leonard who struggled in his restraints. “Why if it isn't my little musical friend I was looking for. I take it you've already met Bendy? He isn't exactly much to look at yet, but he will be.” The man patted the demon in question on the head getting a loud growl from him and bared teeth. “As you can see” Joey slapped Bendy on the side of the face extracting a whine from the toon. “He isn't well behaved and needs to treat his creator with respect.”

“Not that I can blame him.” Leonard frowned getting Joey to turn his attention towards the man.

“What did you say?” Joey lifted a brow as he stepped away from the throne and slowly walked towards Leonard giving the man a cold stare.

Leonard wanted to cower in fear as the mans frigid Grey eyes seemed to stare into his soul, but seeing Bendy struggling to free himself spurred him to stand his ground. “I said; not that I can blame him. You make him with the machine and then you tie him up all the way down here where he should be meeting the staff and most of all the children he was meant to entertain. Do you have any idea how many people and children wish they can meet their favorite little demon?” Bendy looked at Leonard wide eyed and the mans outburst, the musician looking at him dead in the eye before returning his gaze to Joey. “But no. He is forced to stay down here when he has done nothing wrong and you're not his creator! Henry is!” Leonard spat as he struggled in his binds. He was outraged that not only had Joey harmed Benny when he was a sweet little innocent toon, but seeing Bendy's condition and treatment lit the fires of rage in him. How dare someone hurt the cartoon character he loved so much.

“You're similar.” Joey sauntered up to Leonard being mere inches from the musician.

“W-what?” Leonard croaked.

Before Leonard could react Joey grabbed him by his hair and forced the man to look at the director dead in the eyes. “You show up out of nowhere and try to tell me what I can and cannot do like you own the place. I'm Joey drew, director and owner of this studio. I own him as much as I own everything here!” the older man bellowed in his face before quieting down giving a cold smile. “Just as much as I now own you.”

Leonard looked at him confused before a sharp pain radiated from his side. Joey released his hair allowing him to look down at the source of his pain seeing a knife embedded within his side between his ribs. Joey pulled out the knife and waved his hand causing the black liquid that had Leonard bound to drip off him and he collapsed to the floor like a puppet who lost his strings. He coughed and gasped for air as Joey scoffed at him before he cleaned the blood off his knife and slid it back into his cane.

“Leonard!” Bendy screamed at the man crumbled on the ground. “Joey what did you do to him!?” the toon turned his attention to Joey baring triangular teeth and struggled harder in his chains.

“Oh I punctured his lung, nothing to worry about.” Joey smiled darkly at Bendy. “Besides I need him alive long enough for the procedure, and not put up a fuss.” The director waved his had and whispered a few chants causing the black material that had dripped off Leonard to pool around him and drag his body off to the side and away from the throne, a trail of red and black following the injured musician. Taking opportunity to finish what he had started, Joey picked up the brush and repaired the smeared sections of the circle completing the initial ritual.

“Joey please.” A voice catching the mans attention as he turned to look at Bendy whom had large tears dripping down his face as he looked desperately at Leonard and the blood collecting under him. “Please let him go. I promise I'll stay here willingly, and do whatever you want if you let him go. He's hurt and needs help. Please.” the toon sobbed and choked on his words each each word growing more desperate.

“See there is a little problem with that Bendy.” Joey walked up to him with his smile growing wider and wider. “I need him to make you complete.”

Joey turned around and removed himself from the throne and drew another circle on the floor just before the throne itself. He made a small motion and the black fluid grabbed Leonard by his arm causing the man to weakly cry out in pain and dragged him setting him atop the circle. He pulled out the “Illusion of Living” and flipped to a few pages within and chanted for the black liquid to gather around the two circles joining the two. Bendy looked up at Joey in fear as the cursed liquid encased the base of his chair and around Leonard. The director smirked and stood off to the side of the circles and cleared his throat.

“An object void of life is merely an object till animated with magic, but it's still and object with the illusion of living. I offer up the soul of the living to bring the object with the illusion of life to life!”

Upon the completion of his words the two circles glowed a blood red and the floor creaked and groaned as the ground seemed to be lurching from the energy of the circles. The room was filled with deafening rhythmic thumping of the Ink Machine itself as the device was responding to it's masters commands. Joey stood against the wall laughing maniacally as pipes descended from the ceiling as if possessed, the machine groaned as ink oozed out the pipes like blood from a wound. Leonard weakly looked up at the pipes descending above him and looked at Bendy whom was looking at him with pure terror on his face.

A small chuckle escaped Leonard as he smiled at Bendy “At least I got to finally meet you.” the man whispered before the ink pooled around him and grabbed onto him.

The black tendrils cut into the man extracting small cries as his punctured lung couldn't allow him to scream. The ink worked it's way into his body making his writhe in agony as it was slowly suffocating him. Bendy screamed and fought to free himself to help the man, but his struggles stopped when Leonard's body stilled and the ink pulled him into the puddle as if he was never there. He was gone. Bendy wailed at the loss of the man who only tried to help him, someone who came to him with the purest intentions was now gone. The toon didn't have long to mourn the loss of his would be friend and savior as the ink that had consumed the man flowed to his circle joining the patterns that encased him. His  panic rose and gave way to sheer pain as the cursed ink rose to form tendrils and each one punctured his chest. The ink that was once Leonard was being forced into his body and he felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out. Bendy's screams drowned out the sounds of the Ink Machine and Joey laughter as the man watched the ritual with glee.

Joey's laughter died down when he watched Bendy's body spasm violently causing the toons screams to cease as if he had been drowned in his own ink. The demon's ink dripped profusely as his body twitched and warped, his limbs and frame contorting to a figure that was more then twice his normal size and looked vaguely humanoid. His frame was skeletal like someone had taken a bucket of ink and poured it on a skeleton topped with a round horned head. His right hand looked like a humans with 5 fingers and no glove while his left hand retained it's tooney appearance and was far larger then his right. His body had spasm so violently that the ink that made up his right leg was bent at a awkward angle resembling a broken limb that healed wrong. The most disturbing part was the toon's face. Ink seemed to be constantly dripping over his eyes obscuring them and only the frown of his mouth was visible. The horrific form only lasted briefly before the toons body fell apart with all the excess ink falling off him in waves revealing a unconscious on model Bendy.

Before Joey approached the throne to check on the toon, he watched the excess ink that had washed off the toon pool at the base of the throne. The ink pulsed and vibrated before it was drawn back to the smaller circle where Leonard had been sacrificed. The ink bubbled and rose to form a vaguely humanoid figure. The creature was curled up and had a very prominent skeletal look and like the previous monster Joey had witnessed, this creature too had ink dripping down it's body. The creature twitched making Joey freeze in place to see what it was going to do, the man grasped his cane tightly on the off chance he had to fight. The creature slowly moved and looked down at its hands which were 4 fingered like a toon rather then 5 like a normal human being. It them began to inspect the rest of it's body slowly before curling in on itself sobbing softly.

The small click of Joey's cane drew the inky figures attention towards him and the man was horrified by what he saw. The face while clearly humanoid, lacked anything distinguishable. The mouth was a gaping maw that seemed to be frowning and there was no nose at all except for 2 small slits. The eyes were the most frightening as they were hollow sockets with small glowing yellow orbs and appeared to be crying.

“W-What did you do to me?” The creature quietly asked. All the color drained from Joey's face as he realized that the voice belonged to Leonard, the man was now some creature made of ink. He watched as the figure that was known as Leonard once again looked at his body before curling in on himself.

Joey stared at the figure. If this was indeed Leonard and he remembers what was done to him then that makes him a witness. If he's able to reach someone then he can expose him for what he did down here, he can't let that happen. Joey chanted lowly and waved his hand. The Ink Machine groaned in response and more ink oozed from it's pipes dripping onto the floor splashing loudly. Ebony Tendrils formed from the ink and wrapped around what remained of Leonard, the inky humanoid cried and screamed as it was dragged down the hall with Joey following behind. The tendrils dragged Leonard all the way out of the Ink Machine and to the ink lake at it's base pulling the tortured soul to it's surface. The shores of the lake thrashed at it's intruder, but was more then happy to consume it's offering. It greedily grabbed the poor soul and despite the man's struggles and effort it pulled him under with ease.

The surface of ink had long since quested while Joey watched with baited breath until he was dead certain the man would never see the light of day. He turned on his heel and hobbled back to the throne room in time to see the pipes of the machine slowly ascended back into the ceiling and the machines thumping died down to a quiet hum returning to it's normal operation. Joey scowled at the unconscious toon in the chair. He failed to find a compatible soul for the toon and needed to find someone else he had many candidates to choose from. Hell, he'll use everyone in the studio if he had to.

The man tucked the book back into his pocket before turning on his heel and strode out of the room turning off the light leaving only the glow of the projectors playing the cartoons on the walls who smiled sadly at the loss of one of the key band members who gave them their joyous music.

[melonkooky]

hot chocolate and strawberry tiramisu [kim taehyung]

requested

word count: 1564

genre: fluffyy (lots of blushing and cliche moments but hey, it’s cute)

author’s note: i had to look up what a “confectionery” was 😂😂. by the way i described the place itself kinda poorly

please do not copy my work. but please like and reblog it. thank you!!!!

masterlist

just a few days ago, a new confectionery opened. it was located at the center of the city of seoul. it was small but hard to miss, probably because of just how cute the building look. it was as if it was taken out of an aesthetic dictionary, if there was even such a thing. the building had a bubblegum pink exterior, a neon sign hung above the entry door, ‘y/n’s confectionery’. being a place that sat on a corner of the street, there were large windows on both sides of the door. the outside was beautiful and aesthetic, but inside was a magical world. the windows allowed plenty of natural sunlight to shine on the plethora of shelves on the left upon entering the confectionery. on each shelf, there was a different kind of sweet, no repeats. gum, cotton candy, candy, gummy snacks, chocolate, you name it. following along the candy shelves, window displays that housed the frozen delights. first it was cakes and pies, then the fudge, then the ice cream, each display contained an assortment of flavors. in the center of it all were plenty of tables to sit down and enjoy the treat you most desire. truly, this confectionery was out of this world.

a group of world-renown boys grinned excitedly as they approached y/n’s confectionery. they had been dying to try it since it’s opening day. but due to their busy schedules, they hadn’t had the time. luckily, there had finally received a break and seokjin suggested they try this sweet shop for the first time. as they approached the building, their voices became quieter. every single set of eyes widened upon entry. the building was beautiful and it wasn’t overwhelming. 

kim taehyung’s eyes roamed over every little detail they could, his eyes sparkling. he had a weird feeling in his stomach and couldn’t tell whether he was excited or anxious or something else he couldn’t quite pinpoint. he wondered away from his friends, his legs guiding him over to the shelves first. he gingerly reached up to a single jar and picked it up. their was a label on it and it was handwritten: ‘gummy bears’. he smiled at how neat the handwriting was. he put the jar back in its place and continued walking along the shelves. sighing contently with the overall feel of the place, he turned around and spotted his fellow members across the room. they had found a big enough table next to the windows. he sat down in a chair they had left for him. “taehyung, you seem...different.” namjoon commented.

taehyung shrugged, a tint of red on his cheeks. “there’s just something about this place, i don’t know how to describe it.”

“it is a nice place. whoever owns this place did a great job.” hoseok said, turning around in his seat to look around more.

taehyung looked to his right to catch sight of a young woman. she was dressed in casual attire and worn a blank apron with the shop name inscribed on the front. she was behind the displays in the back. she disappeared behind a counter for a second and popped back up with seven menus in her hand. taehyung felt his stomach twist with nervousness as the angelic being made her way over to his table. after all, it was late and they were the only customers. 

she had a sweet smile, taehyung noted. “welcome to y/n’s confectionery. would you guys like anything to drink?”

“ah well, this is out first time here.” seokjin spoke up. “do you think you could give us the rundown?” seokjin flashed a suspicious looking in taehyung’s direction, causing taehyung to smile and blush. seokjin had caught onto his developing crush on their waitress: you.

“ah, well i kinda have everything.” you replied with smile. “might i suggest a hot chocolate, since it’s been cold recently...?”

taehyung looked up at her. “the hot chocolate sounds good.”

she blushed. “it’s one of my favorites, probably because it was my grandmother’s recipe. she always made the best hot chocolate.” 

everyone else ordered and you left the table. taehyung was intrigued by you. sure the desserts and sweets that lined the shelves looked amazing but you caught his eye. you seemed just as sweet. something about you triggered the nervous butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. taehyung was knocked out of his trance by a bump on his shoulder. he turned to see jungkook with a teasing smile. “you like her.” 

“well, i just met her so-”

“no point in trying to hide it, taehyung.” yoongi spoke. “with your blushing cheeks, twinkling eyes, your box smile. not mention you were just staring at her.”

taehyung looked away from his teasing members, laughing embarrassingly. “i was not staring.”

“hmm, pretty sure you were.”

suddenly, you appeared again, a tray with seven drinks on top in your hands. you flashed a smile as all the boys thank you when you gave them their orders. “have you guys decided on what dessert you guys want?”

six of the seven nodded. “o-oh, i haven’t even looked at the menu yet.” taehyung gasped.

the members all exchanged glances. “he was busy looking at the sweets.”

taehyung quickly glanced at the menu, feeling pressure by having his new crush patiently waiting for him. the others had ordered their desserts and taehyung was having trouble finding something he wanted. “uh, i can’t decide.” he mumbled as he scratched the back of his head.

you smiled. “i get it. i do have a wide variety of things.”

“you keep saying ‘i’.” a guy (named jimin) said to you.

you blushed. “i’m the owner.”

taehyung looked up at you. “does that mean you make everything here?”

“well, maybe 90% of it.” you shrugged. you felt yourself blush when you made eye contact with this man. his box smile made your insides tingle. he seemed goofy. he caught your eye as soon as he walked into the confectionery. not to mention you felt his eyes on your has you made his hot chocolate. 

“that’s amazing.” he mumbled.

you smiled at him. everyone else seemed to notice the hearts in your eyes as you looked at taehyung. they could easily tell you two had fallen for each other. “so um,” you coughed and cleared your throat, breaking eye contact with the man of your dreams, “your order?”

“the tiramisu.” he replied. “it’s the owner’s special.”

you blushed. on your menu, you stated that tiramisu was a work of wonders. it was your favorite dessert to make and not to mention your strawberry tiramisu was your absolute favorite. it was your go-to dessert after a meal.

your hand shook slightly as you took the menu out of taehyung’s hands. you blushed again and was beginning to believe that your heart was close to a heart attack; it was beating way too fast. you were in love with this man and he was in love with you. both were oblivious.

you walked behind the displays and pulled out seven plates. you began to move around to begin making their orders. there was a lot to make but it wasn’t a challenge. as you were finishing the last plate, you realized you wouldn’t be able to carry it all to the table at once. you would have to take trips. 

sitting at the table, taehyung glanced at you. you looked deep in thought as you assembled each plate. when you finished, you met his eyes and he blushed. you looked away as soon as you looked at him. “taehyung.” taehyung heard his name and looked at namjoon. “you should go help her. this is you chance to ask her out.” he whispered to his dongsaeng.

taehyung hesitated but this was his chance. sure he had more later in the evening or he perhaps to come tomorrow. but taehyung stood up and made his way over to you. “h-hey.” he greeted.

you turned around and looked at him. “oh, hi.”

“you look like you need help.”

“it’s alright, you can go sit down.”

taehyung remained in his spot as he watched you try to pick up some of the plates. he smiled warmly at you, thinking you were making this way more difficult than it needed to me. he walked around the counter, walking passed the sign that read ‘employees only’. he stood in front of you and you looked at him. “do you want to go out with me sometime?” he asked quietly, his cheeks and ears becoming red from the sudden blood flow. his heart was about to beat out of his chest and taehyung was pretty sure his face was on fire.

your mouth hung open in surprise. you were in love with this stranger but you didn’t expect him to be in love with you. after all, you had just met him and he had just met you. as the words left his mouth, a plate almost slipped out of your hand but luckily, taehyung was there to catch it. he saw that it happened to be his strawberry tiramisu, a strawberry tiramisu with a heart draw on the top. you blushed. “i would love to go out with you.” you replied, your voice barely above a whisper. you were just so shocked, you had least expected this. 

taehyung smiled and you saw the box smile that you loved. you expected things to be slow in the beginning stages of your career upon opening your own confectioner. but what you didn’t expect was to find the love of your life so soon.

[g-w-3-d-damn]

Tricky Treats and Torture Candy (Loki’s Naughty Candy Shop)  Part 1

She stepped over the cracks in the drab concrete, application and resume in hand.  She printed it on plain white nondescript paper.  In the overcast sun, the faded gray streetlamps granted no light to the cramped shaded alley.  Disrepair and neglect crept to the storefront of the Tricky Treats candy store.

She thought, the Tricky Treats Candy Store?  When did that get there?

Her shoulders slumped.  She'd addressed her cover letter and filled out an application for the Torture Candy Sex Shop.  She'd passed the shop on several nights, spotted a Now Hiring sign, googled it, and found her way here.  A similar 'now hiring' sign hung between the brightly colored candy striped pillars of the flamboyant storefront.  In the window, a rainbow assortment of delights awaited purchase; colored spiral pops in purple and pink, orange caps atop magenta bottles, green candy canes, flowers of white icing atop violet petals dotted with tiny red berries their center, plus an oceanwave-like poof of cotton candies dyed blue and spun before a curtain of red Twizzlers all stood in stark contrast against the outside world full of ashen, cracked streets and the chipped, faded paints of the alley walls.  

A bit of her reflection in the glass showed a childlike happiness, a glitter in her eyes at the vision of sweets.  Upon seeing this reflection, she straightened her shoulders and pursed her lips as if to say Happy doesn't look right on me... Ugh, they'll probably force me to smile at this job.  She sighed to herself and entered the store to apply.  The job would not involve sales for the toys she loved, but she figured that at least if they hired her, she would not starve.

So she stepped across the threshold of flamboyancy and into the Tricky Treats Candy Shop, Home of the Trickster's Delight™.

Inside, pinatas of all sorts imaginable hung from the railing of the stairs to the loft, and along the loft railing as well.  A gilded sign and a red velvet rope across the stairs signified that the upstairs area was reserved for employees, only.  A large urn filled with decorated sticks advertized the various prices for the pinatas on display; the sticks were sold separately, and each stick did match a pinata above. Clear jars of candies assorted by color lined a rainbow wall.  A sickeningly pink frilly apron hung upon a coat rack near the door. Sunlight streamed in through the window and highlighted the stacks of Heart Shaped Boxes in various states of decorative gaudiness.  One heart shaped box laid open upon the workspace counter.

The workspace consisted of a reflective epoxy countertop which held an old-timey cash register and a large gumball machine, its globe filled with jawbreakers.  Behind this counter sat a workbench, above which sat shelves of mysterious gift-wrapped product.  An ornate four-tiered cascading chocolate fountain was anchored into the edge of the workbench.  Price tags cut in little squares in pastel colors, some underlined red to denote a sale, marked the shelf under each well-organized line of colorful products.  The products were eclectic in their design; A line of ceramic jars whose lids were replaced with white cloth were tied tight with red hemp.  Tubs and boxes were wrapped in colorful papers and tied tight with hemp or ribbon. Stacks of round, peach colored tins with gold etched in bevels joined gold boxes with red lacquered strawberries on the shelves.  White paper packages with lavender and sky blue labels sat on the shelves above a set of cabinet doors with brass handles.  The thin, babyfaced man behind the counter left this cabinet door ajar, which gave her a glimpse at the rolls of tissue paper and ribbon and wrapping supplies within.  The man snipped a bit of gaudy ribbon, neon orange with a magenta stripe down it's center.  He slipped the ribbon between his elegant pale thumb and the edge of his sharp silver scissors, and pulled.  The ribbon hissed as it slipped between the pad of this thumb and the bladed edge, and curled beautifully at the end of the scrape.  He wound this ribbon onto an equally gaudy heart shaped box before the tiny bell above the door jingled and caused him to look up at her.  She wondered why the bell failed to jingle when she first arrived.  Little did she know, he wondered the same thing.

“My apologies,” he said, “I didn't hear you come in, may I help you find something?”

“I'm... looking for a job if you know where I can find one of those,” she said.

“A jo- Oh, right, the hiring sign,” he said.

He sighed as if he wished someone else he knew would have applied for the job sooner.

“Well,” he said, “let me see your application.  You did bring one, yes?”

“Yes, but um, it was for, hey wait!” she said.

He plucked the papers out of her hand and read over them.  And as he read, his smirk grew.

“Okay dude, look, I was looking for this other place, google said it was right here, and here it isn't, but I still need a job, so-”

“I can't accept this application,” he said.

“Is it because it's for the other place?” she asked.

“What other place?” he asked.

“You know, the sex shop?” she said.

“Oh, no the sex shop is not a problem.  Why would the sex shop be a problem?” he asked.

“I mean, it's not a problem, that's the job I wanted,” she said.

“Hmm. Anyway, I'm afraid I can't accept an application without a name on it,” he said.

“Excuse me?” She said.

He turned the application around to reveal the fields for a first and last name were both blank.  The sight took her aback.  She knew she wrote her name on the application, it was the first thing she did after printing it out.

“Oh, well, I have a pen, may I have the application back and I'll scribble that information in,” she suggested.

“You know it's quite unprofessional, to give an application, resume, and cover letter, all without a name,” he chuckled.

“Quit messin' with me,” she said.

He turned around her resume and cover letter.  Where she had once printed her name in the header in large font capital letters, nothing had printed.  At the end of her cover letter, the last word was “Regards,” without a name written afterwards.  She wondered if she was dreaming, or if she'd had a seizure or stroke at an early age.

“You know, if you don't want them knowing your real name at the sex shop, you can use a fake name,” he suggested.

“Uh, I don't mind if they know my real name,” she said, “they kinda need that for tax purposes, right?”

“Not really.  Do you perhaps have a stripper name?”

“A what?”

“A stripper name.  A street name?  A … sex toy worker name?  Hell, even a tumblr username?” he asked.

“Why?”

“Because we have to put something on this application before you can turn it into the sex shop, and your real name just won't do,” he said, “So, what would you like to be called.... Miss?”

“Communication is usually my strong suit, I apologize, let me just think-”

“Miss Communication, it is, then,” Loki said.

He scribbled Miss Communication on her application.

“Uh...” she stammered.

“Mind if I call you Miss Cum, for short?” He asked.

She burst out laughing.

“Sure, that's fine, just put down whatever you think will land me the job,” she said.

She reached her hand out to him, with the intent of shaking hands.

“So Hi, I'm Miss Communication!  Apparently, I answer to Miss, or Come. What's your name?” she asked.

He took her hand and kissed her knuckles gently.

“Loki,” he said.

The magic bell tinkled frantically.  Loki looked past Miss' shoulder and squeezed her fingertips in excitement.

“And here comes our most important customer!” he whispered.

He dropped her hand, stood up straight, and brushed his hair back over his ears.  Miss turned, but saw no one in the shop.  

“Quick, hide yourself,” Loki said.

“Eh, what?” she said.  

Loki pulled her behind the counter and pressed for her to stay down.  A shadow passed over the door, and in walked a tall, broad shouldered man with long thick hair and ice blue eyes.  He greeted Loki with a thunderous voice.

“Hello again!” the man said!

“Ah, Thor! Welcome back!  How are you today?”

“I'm well!  Thank you for asking,” Thor said.

Miss peeked over the counter.  She lost the will to hide upon seeing the tan muscular man's broad smile.

“Holy shit,” she said as she popped up from behind the counter.

“Oh, hello!” Thor said.

Loki cleared his throat.

“Thor, this is Miss, Miss, Thor.  Miss, could you go run the IC inventory in the stockroom for me?” Loki said.

“Hi,” Miss said to Thor.

Under the counter, Loki pushed her away from them.

“Get lost, I have work to do,” Loki muttered.

“Uh huh,” Miss said.

Thor smiled, looked at his feet and scoffed to himself.  He looked back to the pair, locked eyes with Miss, and spoke eagerly.

“So I came by to pick up something special for my girlfriend,” he said.

Miss' jaw tightened in pained disappointment as Thor emphasized the word girlfriend, however, she retained her goofy grin.  Thor turned his attention onto Loki.

“And I just knew you'd have something amazing for me to give her,” Thor said.

“Well, I was just working on something amazing, but it's not quite done yet!” Loki said.

Loki waved his elegant hand over the gaudy heart-shaped box with the crazy magenta striped neon orange ribbon.

“Perfect! I have some time, is it a bother if I stay?  I love to watch you work,” Thor crooned.

“I vote stay,” Miss said.

Loki, blushing from the compliment, elbowed her.  He gave her a look that both silenced and comforted her.  His look was one part “you're in no trouble, but play along,” and one part “let me handle this, I've got a plan.”

“Of course it's no bother!” Loki said to Thor.

To Miss, he whispered, “keep quiet or you're fired before you even fill out the w-4.”

Loki cleared his throat and returned to work.

“Trainees,” he scoffed, “am I right?”

Loki curled another ribbon for the gaudy heart-shaped box.  He selected a cardboard insert for the box and lined it with an azure tissue paper. He side-eyed Miss as he took a gold tin with enamel cherries inlaid from the freezer.  Miss looked at Thor.  Thor beamed, concentrated on everything Loki did.  Miss turned her attention to Loki.  He removed a small red fruit, a cherry.  The neglected cherry pitter rested on a hook on a pegboard near the fountain.  He dipped the cherry, pit and all, into the fountain by the stem, and sat it upon a tiny circle of pinkish paper.  After repeating this process six more times, he reached for a shaker full of sprinkles.  Miss watched as his hand glided past the sprinkles and to what appeared to be a shaker of crushed red pepper.  He shook out an even coating of the pepper, then reached for a pippete bag, filled with a hot pink icing.  He wound the stem in spiral of this icing and wrapped these six up.  He transferred them to six out of the thirteen divots in the cardboard spacer.  He then prepared to make six more, but as Miss squinted, she noticed that whatever fruit he pulled did not look like a ripe cherry.  This fruit looked wrinkled.  As he pulled the next one, she spotted it clearly; these were carolina reapers.

Miss's eyes widened and she looked at Thor to see if he noticed.  He had the exact same studious, unchanged beaming smile on his face as when Loki first began his work.  Reapers dipped, iced, and wrapped up, six more filled the divots.  Loki pulled a special clear plastic container from the stainless steel refrigerator.  Inside, a piece that looked like an ornate corsage shone through with pearlescent violet petals and dewdrops crafted with boiled sugar glaze.  Loki uncovered the artisenal confection, scooped it into the center of the heart-shaped box.  Thor beamed.

“Beautiful,” Thor said.

“Thank you for the compliment, I am glad you enjoy it!” Loki said.

He closed up the box and sealed it with the gaudy neon ribbon.  Thor took out his wallet, handed Loki some bills, received his change and left with a polite wave to Miss.  She watched his sculpted ass as he left.  As the magic bell tinkled to denote his exit, Miss turned to Loki with her hand in the air.

“Fuck the hell yes!  Way to get my back with that mystery girlfriend, you are awesome!” she said.

“Your back?  I've been poisoning this mystery bitch for months, believe me, Miss, I am doing this all for myself,” he said.

“Wait, for clarity, you gay is good, you poisoning people is bad,” she said.

“Oh please, I never send her anything I wouldn't let him eat on accident. So no, it won't kill her, not that I haven't thought about it, but I want it to make her wish she was dead,” Loki said, “so at this point I've hit her with the hottest, foulest, nastiest flavoring I can find and she still won't fucking break up with him.”  

He slumped hopelessly against the counter and looked toward the door with longing.

“He must be absolutely incredible in the sack,” he said.

“Have you tried sending him back with, like, normal shit?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Like, normal, delicious chocolates, in a pretty box with a nice note,” she said.

“Why would I do that?” He asked.

“Because, I mean, he keeps bringing her what you send, doesn't that kinda mean she likes it?”

Loki sighed.

“You might be right.  He's a kinky bitch, I know that,” Loki said, “it's very possible she likes the suffering.”

“How do you know he's kinky?” Miss asked.

“Work here for a couple of weeks,” Loki said, “you'll understand real quick.”

“So, does that mean I got the job?” Miss asked.

“Can you start tonight?” Loki asked.

“Uh, I mean, I'm here, so, sure, I guess?” Miss asked.

“Then you're hired,” Loki said, “go put on that apron.”

She looked to the coat rack by the door, upon which the sickeningly pink frilly apron hung.  She looked back to his uniform, a striped shirt and black slacks and tie.

“I don't have to wear one if you don't,” she said.

“You're no fun,” he said.

“Look, if I'm really working here tonight, you should probably show me what I'm supposed to be doing,” she said. “Oh, you're working,” Loki said, “I was just about to take down the Now Hiring sign and lock up for the night.”

“Wait, if I'm working tonight, and you're locking up now, what am I supposed to do?”

“Training,” he said cryptically.

He walked out the door and tugged on the Now Hiring sign.  He turned the hanging Open signboard to Closed on his way back inside.  The neon open signs shut themselves off, and velvet curtains of deep violet descended over the windows to hide the treats within.

“Miss? I'll need you to stand over here, please,” Loki said.  

He gently held her by the wrist and guided her away from the workspace. The business cards on the cash register each jumped into the air and flipped, one by one.  Before the jump, each white card read “Tricky Treats Candy Shop, Home of the Trickster's Delight™!” in candyapple red ink.  After the flip, the black backside of each card contained candyapple red lettering which read “Torture Candy Sex Shop” and in much smaller letters below, “(Also the Home of the Trickster's Delight™)”.

“What the theoretical fuck,” she muttered.

“Oh dear, I'm afraid I'm not accustomed to having others in the shop for the transition,” he said, “please pardon me.”

Loki pulled her against his chest just as a squadron of sexy mannequins pranced past with boxes of gear.  She yelped as their chests collided.  He slid his hand to the small of her back and took her other hand in his.  He pushed his right toe between her feet, then kicked it out to step to the right, pushing her foot to the right in the process, causing her to step to the right along with him.

“Terribly sorry, try to keep the tip of your toes pointed towards mine, and if I push, you step back,” he said as he pushed her.

She stepped back.  A mannequin bolted behind Loki, hauling the hot, still cascading chocolate fountain.

“And if I pull you, you step forward,” he instructed.

His right foot stepped backward, so she stepped forward with her left, kept the toes of her left shoe pressed against the toe of his right. He pulled her, she stepped forward as he stepped back.  She collided against him as he stopped abruptly.  Mannequins shot by them on every side, and when he pushed her forward again his legs spread to take impossibly long steps.  She strained and reached backwards with her heels in an attempt to keep up with his wide gait.  The inner seams of their pants crossed paths and built friction between their legs as they waltzed among the chaos.  He pressed his back against the back of a bent mannequin, which lifted and swiveled to its left.  Loki swiveled to his left, kept their backsides together, and Miss twirled to the right to compensate.  The mannequin walked away and Loki swiveled again.  When Miss twirled herself into place, she felt her rump brush against the edge of the counter.

“Up,” he said.

He lifted on her waist, and she bounced up to sit on the counter.  He jumped up and straddled her lap with his knees on the countertop as a mannequin ran a swiffer broom beneath them.  She looked at him with a face full of uncertainty at the correctness of their intimate proximity.  Loki smirked.  His eyebrows darted up for a instant, as he pulled away from her face and pressed against her breastbone.

“Down,” he said.

He pushed her, and her back hit flat against the countertop, as he himself hopped down and ducked below the counter until his head sunk between her open thighs.  She could not see this, as her head hung free over the opposite edge of the counter. When she looked to the ceiling, just overhead, a metal bar containing many hangers full of lingerie swished over her.  She sat up to find Loki's smirking face still between her legs.  She pointed her finger right to the cute bridge of his pale nose.

“Not unpleasant, but not okay,” she said.

“I do hope you'll pardon the mess,” he replied, “things get a bit different in here come sundown, nothing looks the same after dark here.  Not even me.”

A lollipop tree swept over his head, over her lap, and her finger caught a clear red pop.  She caught it as it fell from the tree, before it could bonk Loki on the head.  She looked down at him.  His baby face appeared to age.  The smooth, porcelain skin grew a touch more loose and porous.  Parentheses like creases pressed themselves into the edges of his muzzle, crows feet imprinted at the corners of his intense eyes.  The kiss of age rendered him no less attractive, only different.  Miss lifted the gemlike red candy.

“Can I have this,” she asked.

He stood up, put his hands around her waist and drew her from the countertop.  He took the lollipop from her and flung her towards the entrance door, but kept hold of her hand as a line of mannequins ducked down and shuffled between them under their arms.  He lifted their hands and spun back into her arms.  While he spun, he dropped the lollipop back into a second mobile lollipop tree and withdrew a different, teddy bear shaped pop.  He unwrapped it and presented it to her.

“How about this one,” he said, “it's safer!”

“Sure,” she said.

She bit the head of the lollipop and closed her lips around its round waist.  A mannequin barreled toward the two of them.  Loki, wide eyed, silently asked for a little push.  Miss pushed him forward as she pushed herself back out of its path.  Her heel caught some unseen obstacle as she stepped back.  Loki wheeled to face her, grabbed her palm as she fell, yanked her towards him, spun her back into his arms.  She looked up at him wide eyed, and sucked down the cherry flavor from her teddy bear lolly.  The magic bell tinkled out an alarm.  The mannequin squad jumped, scrambled to their final positions.  Outside the last rays of sun disappeared behind the mountains.  The candies that were left on the shelves transformed into various adult novelties and sexy sundries.  The assorted candies in the stacked glass bowls became individually wrapped specialty condoms, energy pills, and single use lubricant packets.  Packets of Fruit Stripe Gum unwrapped themselves and reformed into striped edible underwear, as displayed on one previously nude mannequin. Packets of twizzlers unwound and tied themselves in intricate Japanese knots around a rope-bondage mannequin.  The long, twisted spiral lollies in the vase turned into pyrex wands.  Miss' wide eyed expression turned to one of concerned confusion as her teddy bear melted in her mouth to take the form of a small cherry red anal plug. As she continued to suck on this new-found pacifier, it provided the same cherry flavor.

“That one does look cute in you,” he said.

He stretched out a long, elegant finger and pressed the button on the butt of the plug.  It wobbled, then the edges of Miss' lips blurred as the vibrator whirred.  She pushed the button and it pulsed rapidly, pushed once more and it switched off.  She pulled the plug from her lips with a slurp and stared at it in suspicion.  Loki smirked at her, and each new wrinkle the sunset brought with it displayed itself upon his face.

“You seem shocked at the change,” Loki said.

“I'm just surprised that it's still cherry flavored, considering, y'know, where it usually goes,” she said.

She popped the plug back in her mouth and continued to suck on it.  Loki chuckled.

“You're going to have a lot to learn from my clientele, I can already tell.”

-------  #KristenMackWriter#@debellatis#@teck#@kingloptr#@ruleroftheworl#@adamcansuckme#@lady-loki-laufey#@godly-butt-touching#@toomanylokifeels#@timeasylum#@hailvady#@mangajuicexd#@sparkleslordofthunder

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[twdxjess]

Knight in a Leather Jacket: A Negan Story ( Chapter 4)

Summary: MAJOR FLUFF ALERT!! After a rough ending to your supply run Negan treats you with a surprise dinner.

Pairing: NeganXReader

Word count: 1,348

Previous chapters:  master list

“Is that everything?” You asked Negan as he was setting the newly found supplies on the small wood table.

“Yep, pretty much darlin’.” He smiled while plopping his masculine body on the small built in couch. “ I just gotta say this couch is actually fuckin’ comfy.” You gave Negan a half smile while putting supplies away still thinking of today’s events. “ Is everything okay (y/n)? You don’t seem like your usually “don’t fuck with me badass” self.” Negan mentioned to you.

“ I...I..umm.. that guy...” You weren't sure how to answer without crying, but before you knew it you were balling your eyes out like a baby. “ I’m sorry...can..we.. just...talk about this later?”

Negan nodded his head and embraced you in a giant bear hug. “Yeah, no problem princess.”

After unloading and sorting the supplies within the RV, you and Negan finally decided you were both hungry. So looking over your recent finds, you suggested some dinner options to Negan, “It looks like we can have beans with a side of day old picked berries or canned carrots with a side of, what looks like stale pretzels.”

“Neither," Negan held up his hand and said, "hang on, I’ll be right back..”. Negan grabbed his flashlight and exited the RV. While he was gone you were trying to think of what he was doing. Clearly, he wasn't going to go hunting for animals this late at night. Even though you didn't have a clock you assumed it was about 10 o'clock at night, which without much light can be very dangerous nowadays.  A few minutes later Negan brought back a small sachel bag from his truck, which had looked like it belonged to Indiana Jones. As Negan walked in you sarcastically said to him, “Hey Dr. Jones did you bring me that crystal skull I’ve been asking for?”

“Hey don’t make fun of the satchel... do you know how many hot fuckin’ women I’ve picked up with this thing.” Negan explained while caressing his bag. You couldn’t help but laugh at the man.“There’s that beautiful smile I’ve been missing!” Negan said with cheer. You started blushing at the handsome man’s comment.

Negan took the precious items (being noodles and a can of tomato sauce) from his bag holding them up in the air and boosted, “ How about spaghetti...It’s kinda my specialty.” 

“Wow, first eggs with bacon and now Spaghetti! You do know how to treat a lady.” You responded with some sass. 

“But wait there’s more...drum roll please..” Negan was waiting for you to start tapping on the table, you rolled your eyes at the man. But once you did he announced in a very loud voice, “with this sweet ass bottle of green apple vodka.”

“My favorite alcoholic beverage. How did you know?” You smiled at Negan going for the bottle.

“Well, when I first saw you I noticed you were sleeping with an empty bottle of this girly vodka.So I just figured it was your favorite because if I thought I was going to be eaten alive by ugly ass walkers then I would want to die with my favorite whiskey.”

You briefly interrupted his story, "remember I was just "testing" my RV's "limits" I had everything under control!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever you say doll face...anyways when we were in that mini-mart in the mall I saw this on the shelf so I said to myself what the hell let’s get drunk tonight, in honor of our victorious supply run!”

“ Awww how sweet! You know if I would have to guess it seems like you like me a little bit, Dr. Jones.” Your horrendous british accent came out and Negan started to laugh with amusement.

"Looks like you've got another accent down for the bedroom..huh (y/n)." Negan smirked at you.

"OMG Negan is all you think about is sex?" You threw a stale pretzel at him.

"Not as much as spaghetti! Let's get cookin' good lookin' !" Negan smiled at you turning around to start dinner. You thought to yourself, "It's a good thing Negan can't read my mind because if he could he wouldn't be cookin' right now."

Once dinner was over, you decided you would cleanup since Negan did all the cooking, so you grabbed all the plates and started to soak them in the sink when Negan asked out of the blue, "This is a pretty fuckin’ nice ass RV... did you find it after the world went to shit or have you had it all along?"

"It was my parents..," you paused for a moment then said, "I still remember when they dreamed about getting one of these things in order to travel across the country."

"and did they?" Negan asked sounding hopeful.

"They got about half-way, Kansas I think, but we mainly used it for family camping trips in the summer. They were good people...man, I sure do miss those days."

“ at least you have those memories, my parents didn’t take me anywhere.” Negan responded with envy in his voice.

“ Were they at least decent parents?” You asked.

“ mmmm...I guess... my dad was never around he was always working and when he was home he was sleeping or drunk. And my mom, shit, she was odd! She was always crying or bitching over something. “

“And I thought my parents were strange. How did you survive your childhood with no parental support? 'Cause I don't think I would be the same person today without them always being there for me.”

“ Let’s just say my friends...their family’s were like yours always there supporting their kid. So when it got rough I would just go over to their houses. One time I actually tried running away but then my girlfriend's dad kicked me out. So I just went back home." Negan laughed trying to ease the tension in his voice. He continued to say, "But I do recall having one bomb ass memory with my crazy ass parents. I was about 10, and my dad had gotten a bonus from work. So my parents and I went to two MLB games at two different stadiums, The Braves were playing the Phillies and then The Nationals were playing the Yankees. I guess you can say that was my road trip memory.” Negan smiled at the happy  memory he just shared with you.

You didn't want the rest of the night to go to waste so you grabbed multiple bottles of liquor and yelled, "Okay, no more reminiscing on the past, let's focus on the present and get this party started." 

After playing multiple drinking games you decided to call it quits and go to bed. "This is... fun..*hiccup* and.. all... but I should probab-baabbaa-llly...bed to head *you giggled*..I mean head to bed now." You explained to Negan trying to sound as sober as possible.

Negan laughed at your behavior and said, "Okay doll, I'll just grab my things and head to the truck."

"Wait you're actually leaving? Like going home... to your house? " You whined at his comment.

"No, I'm gonna give you your space and sleep in my truck, tonight."

"But..it's soooo scaarryyy out..there." You sounded like a 4 year old at this point, "'eff your drunken state" you thought. You then said, "It's okay you can sleep with me.." you suggested to Negan while closing in on his beautiful face. Negan smiled and said, "As much as I would love too, (y/n) I don't think you realize how fuckin' drunk you really are."

"No, no, no I'm not drunk watch this.." You stated your case by trying your best to walk in a straight line when suddenly you fell with Negan catching you before you met the floor.

"Woah girl, okay fine I'll stay but I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight. Deal." Negan commanded to you, as if he was making a deal with his employee.

"Fine," you pouted. "But for your information its much more cozier in my bed..." You winked at Negan swaying your hips down the small hallway.

Right then Negan realized just how easy it could be for a man to fall head over heels in love with you.

[deadlyflames]

Ack! I'm so sorry that this took forever @aquaburst07! Had a bit of trouble balancing school and writing. Decided to combine the two ideas into one. :) Hope you guys like. Xxx "Excuse me miss," a man in cut off shorts called to her as she rushed by him, stopping her in her tracks. "Do you think I should get the puma shirt or the panther shirt?" Pacifica failed to see how this question was relevant to her. She was only there to restock shelves, put things in their proper place and sweep the floor, according to her grandma anyway. Why did this guy need her opinion on a shirt anyway? They were both the same material, quality and price. The only difference was the animal on the front. Her eyes darted to the rack of road maps, and the six year old that was pulling out all the maps and throwing them to the ground. "Um," Pacifica floundered, looking at the shirts. It wasn't a big deal, all she needed to do was give him her opinion. "I think the puma shirt is nice." She tried to continue walking away from him, but he shuffled himself back in front of her, stopping her from taking another step. "Hm, I don't know," the man said, looking over the two choices. "I like the colours of the Panther shirt. Doesn't it look classy?" Pacifica looked at him and then back at the kid who was throwing maps everywhere. All the maps were now strewn across the ground. The kid had ran outside to catch a glimpse at all the attractions Granny Carla had placed in the outdoor exhibit. "Then you should get the Panther shirt," Pacifica suggested, unable to keep the exasperation from her voice. She really couldn't keep a customer friendly smile after dealing with stuff like this for the past few hours. This guy was probably not the worst she had to deal with today. But from kids constantly picking up merchandise and then putting it back in the wrong place to angry customers yelling at her for the prices being to high, she was getting completely overwhelmed. And it was only her first day. Even though this guy wasn't a jerk like some other people had seen that day, she really wasn't in the mood to deal with one guy's indecisiveness while there was a big mess of maps she had to clean up and resort. "Oh I don't know," the man stated as he scrutinized that two shirts. "I really like the mountains in the background with the puma shirt. Hmmmm. Puma shirt? Panther shirt?" Christ, was this guy for real? She rolled her eyes as he held the two shirts up, looking from one to the other, over and over again. Pacifica's frown deepened and she looked over the guys shoulder at the pile of maps on the floor. If Granny Carla saw that she would be pissed. Even though her Grandma probably wouldn't fire her, she would more than likely force her to do chores for neglecting her job. The sound of restrained laughter caused Pacifica turn her head for a split second. She caught sight of the cashier boy, Robbie was his name, bringing his fist up to his mouth in order to stifle his laughter. He watched her from behind the register counter, failing to hold back the amusement in his eyes. Pacifica's cheeks flared with a wild blush when she noticed him looking at her, both from embarrassment on messing up on her first day and from the fluttering in her stomach that came when he actually noticed her. Christ, she needed to get a hold of herself. She turned back to the customer with a strained smile, one that was just about ready to crack. "Well, if you like them both, why don't you get them both?" The man brought his hand up to his chin in thought, letting out a long hum. In fact the hum dragged on for so long, Pacifica was sure she was gonna snap and scream at him. That would definitely get her in trouble. "Oh, alright!" he finally relented. The man walked over to Robbie at the cash register and proceeded to check out the shirts. Pacifica could only sigh in relief when he was out the door. Pacifica avoided looking over at Robbie when she walked over to pick up the maps. Why would a kid just throw them on the ground? Is it really an entertaining thing to do? She figured they were sorted alphabetically, and did her best to fold them properly and put them back in their proper place. If Granny Carla had some sort of labelling system this would be a lot easier. "First time in retail?" Robbie's voice caught her off guard in her moment of concentration. She jolted violently at the sound of his voice and as a result, she dropped the maps that she had picked up. All of them fluttered back to the ground. She would swear that they were mocking her. Every stupid knickknack in the store was mocking her. She rubbed her arm nervously, trying to put on a friendly smile but finding it impossible to force any joy at this point in her day. "First job ever, actually," she answered quietly. Her voice barely raised above a whisper. God she felt so stupid. He probably thought she was some spoiled little rich girl who couldn't do honest work if her life depended on it. Sure, it was kinda true, but she didn't want him to think that. "Really?" he asked with obvious sarcasm. "I had no idea." Pacifica rolled her eyes and ignored the unease within her gut. So what if she had been looking like an idiot all day. It's not like she had expected things to go well on her first shift. Didn't make her feel any less inadequate though. She couldn't help the deep frown that settled on her face. God, if this was only her first job, how bad would it be for the rest of the summer? Maybe her mother was right when she said that she wouldn't be cut out for it. "Hey," Robbie continued, loosing the sardonic edge in favour of a more sympathetic tone. "Don't sweat it Goldie. You're just overthinking things." He lithely hopped over the counter, landing right beside her with a soft thump. She took a step back as the teen diligently stated picking up road maps and methodically placing them in alphabetical order on the shelf. It was as if he had done it a million times before. "That kid comes in here all the time," Robbie answered when he caught her look of astonishment from the corner of his eye. Pacifica automatically shut her gaping mouth. "Hey would you watch the register for me?" "Oh, sure," Pacifica murmured awkwardly, relaxing a bit now that most patrons were outside with all the attractions. She ducked behind the counter and leaned beside the register. "So, how long have you been working here." Robbie paused for a moment to crack a crooked grin, and Pacifica couldn't help but notice how well it suited his face. "God, I guess it's already been two years." At his own statement he gave an easygoing laugh. "Do me a favour and don't spend the rest of your teens in this place." Pacifica smiled a bit and nodded. "Okay," she said with a breath of laughter. "God knows I probably won't even make it through today." "Eh, don't be so hard on yourself," he replied flippantly, before his expression shifted into a mocking overconfident expression. "I know I may seem like the perfect employee but, believe it or not, even I make mistakes. The only one who's a natural at this is Gideon." Pacifica glanced towards the window, awkwardly angling her head so she could see the outdoor floor show Granny Carla had set up on their lawn. Gideon was currently showing off the weird rock face attraction, probably inventing some wild story about how the rock ended up with the face. His audience was clearly enraptured with what he was saying, though his cuteness probably helped with the positive response. The levity with which Robbie spoke, and his own relaxed state helped ease the tension in her high strung muscles. She smiled a bit as she felt herself relax. She placed her forearms on the countertop, leaning heavily over it as she watched Robbie diligently place all the maps in proper order, only to hear the crinkling of paper under her weight. Pacifica lifted her arms curiously, finding a small stack sheet music under her arms. The songs weren't any that she could recognize. She had never been very good at reading music, but she could get a small sense of the melody. Reading over the lyrics, she noticed a repetition in the mentioning of red hair. "Did you write this?" she asked, holding up the paper so Robbie could see what she was referring to. As soon as Robbie's head lifted and he saw the sheet music, he scrambled over to her like a madman. It almost made Pacifica giggle to see the way his eyes widened with alarm, arms failing as he ripped the paper from her hands. "Nothing!" he practically yelled. He scooped up the remaining pieces of sheet music and hurriedly stuffed it into the pockets of his jeans. "I don't know who these belong to! And they're not even songs! What's music? Ha ha ha!" Pacifica stared in astonishment at the awkwardly laughing teen, who had managed to crumple up every piece of paper and stuff them all in his pockets. That was definitely his sheet music. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," Pacifica stated, a little too happy that she was now the one who was keeping a cool head. "But I think it's neat that you write your own music." Robbie went still, his eyes becoming wide like saucers. "You do?" he asked, eyes shifting from side to side in confusion. Pacifica could only gather that he was pretty shy about his work. She offered a soft smile, nodding in response. "Gideon told me you played guitar," she stated, watching as his cheeks flushed a deep red. The bewildered embarrassment in his thin face was kinda sweet. "Do you play those songs?" He rubbed the back of his neck, his face twitching with a shy and hesitant smile. Pacifica couldn't help but find it endearing. "I don't play them in front of people I don't know to well," he mumbled. "Or my friends. Or my family. I actually just don't play them in front of people." "You don't play for anyone at all?" she asked, a little disheartened. She had been hoping to hear him play. "No, I just don't play my own songs in front of anyone," he corrected, still sheepish in his movements. "I'm in a start up band actually." "Really?" Pacifica said in awe. "Yeah, I play lead guitar. No big." His sheepish smile shifted to a cocky one. "Then again, I am the only one who actually knows how to play an instrument." Pacifica smiled, crinkling her nose with amusement. "I'd like to see your band play." "Well, you'd have to go to my friends garage for that." Robbie smiled, a bit bashful. His pale skin easily took on a pink tinge when he was embarrassed. "We're not the kind of band that does gigs. Thompson just wanted to start a band to impress girls." "Who's Thompson?" Robbie paused before he answered, debating on the best way to explain Thompson to the uniformed. "You know how the Gravity Falls public pool is closed for a few weeks?" "Yeah, some idiot drove a truck full of sheep into it," she snorted in derision. Pacifica could recall laughing out loud quite obnoxiously when she heard about it. Her father had showed her the article one morning in the den. Her laughter causing a rare smile to flicker across his face. She was happy to learn the sheep were okay after the incident, if a little startled. Robbie smirked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, that idiot was Thompson," he said. "He was also the guy who released all those chickens into the museum last year. Don't know if you heard about that one." Pacifica couldn't help the loud snort of laughter that escaped her mouth. As the feeling of mortification swelled up, she covered her face with her hand and shook her head profusely. She didn't miss the amusement in Robbie's eyes, and it made her flush even harder. She tried to brush it off by continuing with the conversation. "Why would he do something like that?" Robbie merely shrugged, "The chicken thing was a prank gone wrong. Though, he considered it a success. So, it's a matter of perspective, I guess." Pacifica lowered her hand from her pink cheeks. "And the truck full of sheep?" "That one of was a dare," he said with a shrug, as if it were a simple answer and not completely ridiculous. "He drove a truck into a pool on a dare?" she asked, aghast at the idea that someone would agree to that. Robbie laughed outright, "Of course," he replied. "Thompson takes everything as a challenge. One time I told him to be careful while climbing the water tower. And you know what he did?" Pacifica could guess pretty easily. "Fell off on purpose?" "Fell off on purpose," he confirmed, the grin on his face was full of warmth. He walked behind the counter so that he stood beside her. Pacifica's heart pounded a little harder. He leaned his forearms beside the register with and easy grin. "It's a miracle he's still alive." The blonde giggled. She didn't expect to enjoy talking to him this much, but Robbie turned out to be the easiest person to talk to in this shack. "So what kind of music do you write?" she asked curiously. Robbie's expression shifted from relaxed to pensive in the blink of an eye. "Uhh, well," he said with a slight stutter. His words flew out of his mouth without any filter. "It's not that interesting and it's honestly pretty terrible and I think I might of accidentally stolen the melody without thinking about it." Despite putting up a cool front, Robbie seemed so nervous and tightly wound whenever she brought up his music. "It's okay," she reassured him, her voice gentle and friendly. The most natural friendliness she had displayed all day. "You don't have to show me the lyrics. I was just wondering if you write pop or rock or something. Or country. Do you write country? If you do then we can't associate with each other." Robbie chuckled at the statement, and the dead serious way she said it. "No I don't write country," he said, his form a bit less tense as he ran his fingers through his black hair. "I mostly write light rock, alternative music, you know." She hummed thoughtfully, a mischievous smirk twitching at her lips. "An indie rocker huh? I figured, you look like a hipster." There was an audible gasp. Robbie placed his hand on his chest in mocking mortification. "I do not," he denied loudly. "I was nearsighted and wearing bowties before it was cool." She cocked her hip to the side and raised a sceptical eyebrow at his statement. Robbie skewered his lips in annoyance as he realized that he had just proven her point. Pacifica couldn't help the sharp laugh she let out. "Alright, laugh it up Blondie," he rolled his eyes and nudged her with his elbow. His eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of something out the window. "Oh, hey, can you close up by yourself?" The question caught her off guard, causing her to tilt her head to the side in confusion. "Huh?" "Sun down," he said with a pretty bad southern drawl. She pursed her lips at the intended impression. He nodded his head towards the window. "Time to go home and reign in the cattle." He was right. The high June sun was finally starting to set, signalling the end of the day. Pacifica hadn't noticed it until then. He smiled at the startled expression on her face, "So you can close up?" he asked. "Lock up the register and do the inventory." Pacifica hadn't had too much training in terms of inventory or anything really, but when she looked at his face, it wasn't as if she could say no. The sun had slowly descended low enough so rays of golden light poured through the gift shop windows. With his face bathed in the light of a summer sun, Robbie's pale skin seemed to overflow with colour. He wasn't gorgeous like a male model on the cover of a magazine or a movie star on the silver screen, but there was a wholesomeness in his smile that made her heart pound a little harder. Comely, was how she would describe him. Pacifica tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her lips blooming into a hesitant smile. She tried to ignore how her insides melted into a gooey mess or how her leg muscles contracted relentlessly. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Swankafied," he said with a cheesy grin, making her giggle. He hopped over the register counter, his lithe form completing the jump with minimal effort. He walked towards the exit with a confident swagger, giving her a two fingered salute as he left. "Catch you on the reverse, goldilocks." He turned back to her with a dorky smile. "I just made that up," he beamed proudly, a hearty chuckle escaping with his words. With a final wave and a breath of outside wind, he was out the door and out of sight. For a moment, Pacifica couldn't move her legs. She brought her hands up to her chest, hoping they could still her ferociously beating heart, pumping blood through her arteries at an alarming rate. "Ka-pow," she whispered. It seemed to be the only word that described what had just happened to her heart. Xxx Fun fact, the title 'catch you on the reverse' came from that time Robbie said 'catch you on the rewind'. I know the saying is 'catch you on the flip side', but honestly, I wasn't even thinking about that.

[azaraspirit]

Coffee Girl, Part II

lmao idk where im going with this i just improvise 

PII

Happy parked in a secret underground lot for special occasions just like this this. It’s perfect for avoiding the cameras. “Whoa, I never knew this existed.” Peter said in awe as they headed for the elevator.

“That’s the point.” you said, sipping your coffee. “Thanks for the drink by the way.” Peter smiled. “Don’t thank me. The employee said it was on the house.”

You rolled your eyes. “So you’re some kind of hero now?” you smirked.

“You have no idea.” he smirked back.

The three of you entered the elevator and you put in the secret code as well as placing your hand on a panel that scanned you. It glowed green and the elevator doors closed.

Peter’s eyes widened, impressed by the security but then again she was a Stark so he wasn’t that surprised.

You wrapped your arm around Peter’s shoulders. “So Pete, you ever met the other avengers?”

“Yup.”

“Damn. My dad must like you.”

He chuckled.

The door opened and you three walked into a hallway that lead to the living room and kitchen area.

“Hey it’s coffee girl!” Clint mocked.

“Shut the fuck up Barton!” you growled.

“Language.” Steve scolded.

You rolled your eyes.

“Who’s your new friend?” Bucky smirked.

“Funny. Peter knows you guys already.”

“Enjoying your fame Parker?” Bucky asked as he approached them, rubbing his head.

Peter gave him a fake laugh. “Not really. I think Stark is the famous one here.”

“Well now you are too. Already over three million views.” he said.

You groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“So you have a new nickname?” Your dad’s voice echoed.

You froze before turning around, seeing your father entering the room. “Hey, dad! Look who I met!” you said, giving Peter a hug.

“Yeah I saw. Everyone saw. They’re calling you coffee girl now?”

“Haha yeah but in my defense it was the asshole’s fault.”

Steve cleared his throat.

“Steve,” you groaned.

Your dad approached you. “I know, hun but as a Stark, they will pin this on you one way or another.”

“I know, dad. That’s exactly what I told Peter.”

Tony focused on him. “Thanks for defending my daughter but you’re in this too now. They know who you are.”

Peter shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

“Maybe he should stay with us for a few days, to make sure the paparazzi die down.” Steve suggested. “Surely another famous person will mess up by then.”

“Not a bad idea.” Tony agreed.

“But I have school, and my aunt-”

Tony rested a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be fine. Just call her and tell her what happened. I’m sure she’ll be okay. Besides I’m sure those idiot goons are looking for you.”

Peter looked at you for reassurance.

You nodded. “My dad’s right.”

He scoffed. “You hear that everyone?! She says I was right!”

“Dad,” you groaned. “Not the time for that.”

He chuckled.

“Okay, guess I’ll be having a sleepover with the avengers.”

“Yeah!” Bucky cheered.

You rolled your eyes. You swore you were the most responsible one despite being the youngest.

“I swear you are all children.” you grumbled.

“I would like to go back though to collect some things.”

“Of course! Happy will take you wherever you need to go.” Tony said.

“I’ll go with.” you added.

Peter smiled.

***

You three rode in a less discreet vehicle. Surely a limo would cause a stir in Queens.

“So Pete you live with your aunt?”

you asked as Happy drove.

He nodded. “Yeah, Aunt May. She’s the best.”

You smiled. “I’d like to meet her.”

“No!” Peter said suddenly, making you look at him confused.

Peter stuttered. “I-I mean maybe you should stay in the car so you don’t draw any attention.”

You flattened your mouth, unhappy with the idea. “But that’s no fun.”

“I know but I think it’s best.”

“Sorry Pete but I’m coming with.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine, I guess.”

You giggled.

Happy pulled up to an apartment building. “Thank Happy, we won’t be long.”

He waved them in response as you and Peter stepped out of the car. You two quickly when inside the building, not wanting to attract attention. Peter went up to the elevator but you hesitated.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was thinking maybe we should take the stairs? You know less attention that way.” you said.

“Oh right. Good idea.”

You made it to his floor without anyone seeing you two which is just what you wanted.

You sighed in relief when you entered Peter’s apartment.

“May?” Peter called.

“In here sweetie!”

“I have a friend I want you to meet.” he spoke.

You smiled at the word friend.

A woman appeared in the room and she gasped. “Peter! Is that-“

You approached her with positive energy, holding out your hand. “I’m Morgan Stark, it’s nice to meet you!”

You had to take her hand because she was too stunned to move. “H-how-“

“A long story. Peter and I are here so he can collect some things. My dad wants him to stay for a few days if that’s okay?”

“Your dad? As in Tony Stark?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

May looked over at Peter.

“It’s nothing serious, May, just you know like a sleep over. Please?”

She smiled. “I suppose.”

You two smiled and hi-fived.

Peter pecked his aunt on the cheek before skipping into his room-that’s right. The boy skipped.

You told May how you and Peter met and the situation hand. She wasn’t sure about first but once you showed her the video she totally understood.

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. That must be so frustrating.”

You shrugged. “It’s okay. I just don’t want Peter to get hurt.”

“Of course.”

Then, Peter came back with a duffleback. “Ready.”

“Peter what were you thinking standing up to that guy? He could have hurt you!”

Peter looked at you confused then you showed him your phone and it clicked. “Sorry May but he was clearly bothering Morgan. I had to say something.”

May wanted to be angry but she couldn't.

She was too damn proud. “Just be careful okay? Text me every day.”

“I will.”

You smiled, seeing them hug. Then May motioned to you. Surprised, you hugged back. “Come by for dinner next time okay, dear?”

You giggled. “Okay Miss Parker.”

She waved her hand. “Please, that makes me sound old. Call me me Aunt May.”

“Okay, Aunt May.” you laughed.

Peter gave her another cheek kiss before heading off.

“I think she likes me.” you bragged.

“Not more than me though.”

You rolled your eyes.

You two were in the hallway when you heard voices approaching. “Fuck.” you cursed because surely they would know who you were.

“Follow me.” Peter took your hand and he led into a closet. He closed the door and you realized how close you were to him, making your cheeks warm up.

It was rather dark but enough light through through the distorted glass. The voices were two men who remained the hallway, still talking.

“May be here a while.” Peter murmured

You groaned in your head. You took out your phone and quickly texted Happy of the situation so he wouldn’t worry.

Happy: You and Peter in a dark closet? Alone?

You: Oh god you sound like my dad.

Happy: just be careful kid

You: i will

“What did he say?” Peter whispered.

“Nothing worth repeating.”

You and Peter locked eyes, your chests nearly touching. Surely Peter was blushing as much as you were.

“Ever been like this before?” he asked.

“More than I care to admit.”

The men were still there, talking. You quickly grew impatient but no way you were walking out until they left. You had more than enough attention for one day.

“It’s not bad now though, I normally don’t hang out with a friend in closets.” You smiled, looking up at Peter. Even in the dark, his smile showed.

“We’re friends?”

“Of course you dummy.” You wrapped Peter into a hug, making something almost fall from the shelf but he caught it.

“You hear something?” one of the guys asked.

“Thought it came from over there.”

Your eyes widened. Fuck. You forgot you were hiding.

Peter tightened his arms around you. “Do you trust me?”

“What?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course but what-“

“You’ll thank me later.” Peter shot webbing from his web shooter up towards the ceiling and attached you to it. You were more confused than ever as it rose you up to the ceiling. Seconds later, the men opened the door.

“Sup fellas?” Peter asked, casually leaning against the wall.

“The fuck you doing in here kid?”

“Hiding from my ex. She’s kinda pissed I dumped her.”

You narrowed your eyes at him.

“Oh fuck well good luck kid.”

“Mind closing the door for me? Thanks sweetheart?”

The other guy laughed as he closed the door. “Shut up!” They both finally left.

Peter exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“The fuck was that?” you demanded. “How am I hanging from the goddamn ceiling?”

“Uum that’s kind of a long story.”

Peter helped you down and you immediately grab his wrist, exposing a familiar red looking suit.

“You’re fucking Spider-hmmm!” Peter clasped his hand on your mouth. “Shhh! No one else can know!”

Your eyes were wide as ever.

Your only friend was fucking Spider-Man.