#poppy and the whole door thing spooked me

[ch1zzie]

Before I go to bed, have these small speedy doodles I made after seeing the update

[smallraindrops-blog]

Made To Break

Part two.

4k

Warning: noncon/dubcon sex, yandere, talk of death. No beta. Read at your own risk.

Note: never wrote something like this before. Hope it was worth wait. Let me know if you like it! Enjoy!

Time dragged on, especially without your phone. You watched the clock, not able to pay attention to anything else.

The house felt different without the god inside. Your gut had been right the first night, he had been here the whole time.

You still regretted returning Hypnos his cloak, it was the only thing keeping you warm in the drafty house. 

You debated trying to escape but you held off. Where would you even go? There was no one else who could help. Even if Hypnos was keeping you trapped, he could be the key to getting your dad back.

Also you're pretty sure Hypnos would follow you to the end of the world and then some. 

Maybe if you just play along for now, you could show him the truth later when the spell doesn't work on you and he would be forced to admit you weren't the one he was looking for. 

"Just one more day." You told yourself. 

That's what Hypnos told you, "And when time gets close to twilight, make sure you are by his side." He said, locking his cloak in place.

You agreed, "Is there anything else I could do?"

Hypnos grinned, and tapped his lip, "How about a kiss good-bye?"

You rolled your eyes at him even though you were charmed by his cheekiness and shook your head. You knew that if you responded to his flirting, it would make the letdown worse.

"Oh well, can't blame a guy for trying." Hypnos said before he vanished before your eyes. 

You had a sinking feeling of realizing that you wouldn't have been able to outrun him.

💮

It was in the middle of night during another round of tossing and turning when you realized something wasn't right. 

There was a humming under your skin, like little jolts of energies that never stop moving. 

Maybe you couldn't fall asleep due to stress or maybe you got used to Hypnos being around. He was the god of sleep, he must have played some role in helping you rest. 

You crawled out of your bed and went to the window and stared out to the backyard. Little red poppies stood out from the blanket of snow, gently swaying in the wind. 

Magic was real and Hypnos was as well, he felt human when you touched him. His grief when he talked about his lover sounded real. And he seemed hellbent making sure not to lose you.

Is it really that impossible that you were someone in a past life, a deity even? It sounded like something out of the fantasy books you read as a child.

You pressed your forehead against the cold glass, an welcomed sensation. You didn't want to admit it. Not to yourself at all. 

But something in you has changed or is changing you just don't know what yet. 

You just hope you don't lose yourself in the process.

💮

You were in line for coffee when the thought came. It was some honey glazed  pastry you just happened to notice and thought  'Hypnos would love that especially with his sweet tooth.' 

You froze, how in the world would you know that? You don't even know if the god could or want to eat. 

You rubbed your eyes, it was the lack of sleep you told yourself.

You got to the hospital at the end of dusk, a coffee and a breakfast sandwich in hand. You took a big bite, trying to finish it before getting to the elevator.

It was early but you wanted to be here, even if Hypnos couldn't help, you wanted to at least be with your dad for what time he had left. 

You slipped the coffee, grateful for the warmth. After getting in the elevator, you tabbed your foot nervously. Even the last bite of the sandwich couldn't calm your stomach. 

You almost didn't see them when you stepped out, had you not glanced to the left you would have never seen them at all.

"Mrs. Johnson?" You asked, even in your anger at your ex, you still liked their mom. She mothered everyone and she always made sure to have your favorite cookies when you visited. She turned to face you, her blonde pixie hair was unkempt. Her red and puffy eyes widened in surprise. You tossed the coffee in the trash can as you made your way over. 

"Oh my god, Y/N?" Mrs.Johnson sniffed, "Are you here to visit?" Even her voice sounded rough.

Your heart dropped, "For my dad, I don't know if they told you but he is in a coma right now." 

"Oh honey. I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She hugged you tightly, her rose perfume was a comfortable smell in the hospital. She took your hands, her tears still flowing. You tried not to roll your eyes, of course your ex wouldn't even care enough to tell their mom, the sweetest person ever.

"Why are you here?" You asked worried for the poor woman.

"Something happened to (Ex/N), they were out partying and I don't know. Their roommate thinks they hit their head and haven't woken up since. It's the oddest thing, they couldn't even find where the brain bleed was. Or any marks." She shook her head, "it doesn't feel real."

You gasped, not able to make sense of her words. "Like they just went to sleep?" You asked, feeling like you've been dropped in ice. 

She nodded, not saying anything.

"How long ago?"

"Two days or so, late during the night." She replied, she didn't notice the dread on your face. Did Hypnos use your phone? You had a feeling he was the one who took it but there was so much going on you had forgotten about it.

"Can I see them?" You asked, you need to see with your own eyes. Surely, this had to be a coincidence.

"Of course, hon." 

💮

You had fully planned on never seeing your ex again. You kept meaning to block them but You weren't ready yet because you didn't want to admit you wasted your time.

You stared down at them, at the tubes, at the heart rate monitor. And You knew (Ex/N) was paying the price for your inability to block them. 

You didn't love them, not in a way a person should love another you think. But you cared for them and wanted them to be happy. It wasn't until the cheating started, that it got bad.

Mrs. Johnson sat down in the chair and held their child's hand. Her face showed her heartbreak and every time there was twitch, there would be a hopeful look in her eyes only for it to die when nothing happened.

It was just like your father's coma.

You closed your eyes, anger boiling inside your chest. At yourself more so than Hypnos.

How could you been so stupid?

💮

You stared outside the window. It was the first clear day in weeks and the blue skies with the fat, lazy clouds seemed so more vivid than you remember. 

Your father's heart monitor beeped steady and true. You couldn't look at him, guilt and anger was warring in your chest.

You had brought in the story Hypnos weaved for you. You didn't know how much was truth or lies. You think it was a healthy mix of both and it made it so much harder to know what really happened. 

You covered your face with your hands, trying to make sure the tears didn't come out. 

How could You get out of this? You saw some of Hypnos' powers, and you knew that it was the tip of the iceberg. 

You couldn't stop thinking about the book, the warnings that you didn't see. This was a god that had once put the world to sleep, and you couldn't see a reason why he wouldn't again if he didn't get what he wanted.

it felt more cruel that he was playing games with your life, with all their lives. It would have been kinder to just kidnap you and leave everyone else out of it. 

You looked up at the clock, just a few more hours left to go. 

You really wished you brought your bat. 

💮

Twilight was beautiful, even with the city skyline. You paced around the room, waiting for a change or for him to show up. 

You almost didn't notice, too deep in your anger.  

Your father's hand twitched, and you paused, not wanting to get your hopes up. Then his head turned to the side and you rushed to him.

"Dad! Oh my god, dad." You touched his arm gently, not wanting to spook him. His eyes opened up groggily, his head turned to you. He didn't react to seeing you but you weren't worried. 

"I will be right back, I'm getting a nurse." You rushed out, giddy with relief. 

💮

He doesn't remember you.

Your own father doesn't remember you. 

You collapsed in the chair, the doctor tried to calm you down but you couldn't hear anything over the buzzing in your ears.

You knew. You just knew this was Hypnos' doing. Your hands tighten into shaky fists on your knees. 

How fucking dare he do this. You gave him a chance and this is what he does.

Without a word, you stormed out the room.

💮

 

You don't remember getting in the car or the drive home. You knew Hypnos would be waiting for you.

He wasn't going to stop, you could feel in your bones. He would do to you in every single life you live and he won't care the cost it will take.

You slammed the car door shut, not brothing to hide your presence. You stood in the cold, uncaring how bitting the wind felt against your skin. Snow was still on the ground and little red poppies peeked through, bright against the snow. 

Your breath came out in white puffs as you stared at your home. For all you knew this would be the last time you ever see it. 

You took a deep breath, gathering what strength you had left. 

It was time to face the music. To face him.

💮

You stopped in the entryway, not wanting to get closer than you had too. You could see even in the dark that the books were gone as well as the horrible eye and words. The one thing that lit the room was a single candle on the side table.

You looked at the other walls and saw pictures of you had been taken down. Fear tightened your throat and you stepped into the living room. Your eyes darted around but there was no sign of Hypnos. 

You stepped into the living room and after a moment, you walked to your bedroom.

You whimpered when you opened the door. Everything was gone. The bed, the desk, all of it. 

You took a step backward and another without looking away from your room. 

Your heart stopped when you bumped into a warm chest. His arms wrapped around you tightly and his cheek pressed to your head.

"It's time to come home, Y/N." Hypnos said, tightening his hold to the point you couldn't breathe. Or scream as you watched the world you once knew vanished.

💮

You kicked and twisted in Hypnos' arms. "Let me go." You gasped, "I can't get air, please." 

He loosened his hold but you were too busy gulping for air to care. You pushed away from and he allowed you to, unconcerned about you escaping. 

You tried to steady yourself only to stumble, Hypnos grabbed your elbow. 

"I'm sorry I forgot it takes some getting used to." Hypnos said. "You should have seen my brother the first few times. He used to get sick all the time."

"Don't touch me." You snapped, jerking away.  You've been here before, the sound of water rushed to your ears. You turned to face him, to tear him a new one but when you saw him, you were shocked into silence.

Hypnos smiled, and pointed at his head. Two white wings had appeared out from his head and in the middle of his forehead, a single red and gold eye stared back. "So tell me Y/N, what is more surprising; the wings or the eye?"

You shook your head, "What the hell, Hypnos?" Your voice cracked. "Is this what you normally look like?" At least before he looked closer to humans, just a little odd looking. This was something else.

"Hhm, not when we first met but after the... you know, I just have these sometimes." Hypnos shrugged, his golden eyes on you. 

"How could you?" You asked and Hypnos tilted his head at the question. 

You took a step forward even though all you wanted to do was run. "I know what you did to my dad, to (Ex/N). Was it all a ruse? A game to you?"

Hypnos scowled, "I really don't appreciate hearing that name." 

You stamped your foot, "Unbelievable! Is that all you have to say?" 

"Oh no, the person who hurt someone I love is now having to suffer the consequences. How sad for them." Hypnos rolled his eyes at you. You have never wanted to choke someone more.

"His mother is suffering, just like how my dad is!" You yelled, hating how helpless you felt.

You walked closer, you knew he could grab you again but you needed him to listen. But Hypnos spoke before you.

"Your father isn't in pain, if anything I fixed it. He doesn't remember you or his wife. He will live out the rest of his days without you but you know humans are so quick to replace family." 

Hypnos sighed, "I really did try to help him for your sake, Y/N. I felt sorry for him since he and I were both familiar with this kind of pain. But he already messed up once, I couldn't trust him not to try something else." 

You were silent for minutes before you spoke. "You said you would never hurt me."

"And I haven't." Hypnos replied, he almost moved closer, wanting to comfort you.

"Liar." You spat out the word. "You have done nothing but hurt me since you showed up." 

You glared at him,"You may have not touched me but you had caused so much hurt to everyone around me."

"And what makes you think I should even care about those humans?" Hypnos hissed, he grabbed your arm but you willingly went along with his tug. Words were your weapons now. You glared up at him, mere inches between you and him.

"Because I do. That should be more than enough for you." You licked your lips, "This isn't the first time we had this fight." 

His gaze sharpen, golden and hard like a predator. "No it isn't." Hypnos agreed. 

You could tell he wanted to ask more questions, to know exactly what you started to remember. Good. 

"I had held my part, Hypnos. I agreed to come, to do whatever you needed from me." You said, "in a twisted way, yeah I guess you did help my dad even if it hurt me. And you warned me."  You closed your eyes for a moment before meeting his again.

Hypnos stayed silent, his eyes watching you.

"But none of the other stuff had to happen. Mrs.Johnson was good to me, she was the closest thing I had to a mom." You whispered. 

You didn't know how but something in the humming inside of you knew Hypnos would bend to you. His biggest weakness had always been you.

You laid a hand on his chest, "Listen to me, I'm willing to stay. I want to stay." You thought it would sound like lying but it didn't. Your heart twisted because you weren't lying and you knew it. 

Was it really that easy to walk away from your human life? 

"But I can't have you hurting people just for the sake of revenge. That is not who I am and that used to be you too." You murmured.

"Things changed Y/N." Hypnos murmured back. Just like before, he covered your hand gently. 

A faint memory rises from the depths of your soul. Of Hypnos admiring your hands, always touching or holding them. You took a breath, not yet you thought to this other side of yourself, not yet.

"Then change again, Hypnos. For me." You pleaded. 

"It's not that easy." But his tone was softer, you just had to push a little more. 

"You once put the whole world asleep because you loved me. You became softer, kinder because you loved me. This is nothing to you." You keep your tone soft, not willing to break the quiet.

His eyes, all three of them, closed in defeat. "Okay...Okay Y/N. Just answer me this, do you love them?" 

"No." You said bluntly. "They were a friend once but even though you were a jerk, I felt more with you than I ever did with them."

Hypnos nodded, the third eye opened again while his golden ones stayed close. "Good." He held a palm up, and a small dark, almost black mist formed, you could faintly see your ex and Mrs. Johnson. 

The mist swirls quickly, and it changes into a soft white cloud. "It's done. They will wake up, and they will live." The cloud faded away and Hypnos dropped his hand. 

His golden eyes opened and looked at you. 

"Thank you."  You told him. You cupped his cheek and he pressed into your hand with a sigh, his eyes closing again. "Darkness' sake, I've missed you." Hypnos said. 

You leaned into him and hugged him. After a moment, he hugged back, resting his chin on your head. Neither one of you said anything for a while, just holding on each other.

"What do you remember, Y/N?" Hypnos asked, and you shrugged. "Honestly, just small bits here and there. I remembered you like honey."

Hypnos hummed, "I do. Is that all?" 

You yawned, "No, sorry, it's mostly just me going by instinct or this feeling of deja Vu." You pressed into his chest. "I'm really sorry."

Hypnos rubbed your back slowly and you felt your body relax against his. This was so much nicer than anything you ever felt before.

"Come, let me show you where we can get some rest." Hypnos spoke, something was off about his tone.  But you followed along anyway, too tired to even think.

💮

"You said anything, right?" Hypnos asked as you wandered around the cave. There wasn't much of anything. You see baskets of pomegranates, onions and other stuff in one room as Hypnos gilded you past it, his hand on your lower back. 

Books were stacked on a desk but weren't what caught your attention. There was a bed, big and piled high with blankets and pillows. It looks like what exactly a god of sleep would want. 

"Oh wow, this is the biggest bed I've ever seen." You walked toward it, "What side do you sleep on?"

You walked around the bed, keeping one eye on the god. "The middle but you can pick whatever side you want." 

"O-oh." You stopped at the realization that of course this would be the only bed. There would be no reason for him to have a guest bed.

"You didn't respond to my question, Y/N. You agreed to do whatever I needed you to do, correct?" Hypnos said calmly as he held something in his hand. A small glass bottle. 

You walked toward him, your heart racing at the almost predatory look he gave you. 

"I. I did, yes, to get my memories back." You stopped just out of his reach. "Will that thing help?" You pointed down at the bottle

"In a way." He said and you stared at him. 

"What are you not telling me, Hypnos?" You stood your ground. "I thought we were getting past this."

"You're right. It's going to hurt, just a bit. But it will help restore you." Hypnos held it up between his fingers, inside the liquid looked like water. 

"Why do I feel like you're downplaying it?" You muttered. You took the bottle and popped open the cork. 

You sniffed but it smells sweet, almost too sweet. 

"Make sure you get every last drop, Y/N." Hypnos said, his golden eyes watching your every move.

You knew he wasn't being honest about something but you will have to deal with it later. 

"Well, bottom up." You swallow every last drop. It didn't taste bad or anything at all, not even like water. 

You felt his hands on you could do anything else. He pushed toward the bed and that when it hit you. A wave of dizziness made the room spend and he laid you down.

"Oh, I don't like this." You moaned. You didn't notice until it was too late, that he had pulled off your shirt. His hands felt too warm against your skin and you tried to push him off. 

"I know, my love." Hypnos comforted, "I wouldn't do it if I didn't need to." 

"Why?" You slurred, "I thought we were…" but you couldn't continue.  The heat and the dizziness was too much for you.

"We are. We really are. But If I don't do this now, I won't get a chance until you are older and I can't risk you dying on me."

"I wouldn't have said no." You closed your eyes.

Hypnos pressed a kiss against your forehead tenderly "Yes, you would have, my love. You would want us to have more time. This way I can make sure we will have nothing but time."

His hand slided down your pants and past your underwear. He kissed you on your mouth, and pressed down against you. 

You couldn't stop the gasps you made against his mouth as he rubbed you with his fingers. The pleasure you felt was far more intense than what you were used to.

"You even respond the same as you used to." Hypnos told you. "Blood and darkness, I could watch your face all day like this." 

You hide your face in a nearby pillow out of spite and embarrassment. "Shut up." You moaned, hips arching against his touch.

Hypnos yanked the pillow away and tossed it out of your reach. He grabbed your chin to kiss you again. You met his kiss with as much force as you could. 

"I hate you." You tried to pull away but he just pulled you back into another one. You could the heat building inside you along with the humming, the always moving energy built inside of you 

And Hypnos himself consumed you,all of you and you wanted him to. Fates help you but you did. You wanted him to make you whole. 

You moaned against his lips, tears running down your face as you arched and peaked. 

You collapsed against the bed, Hypnos pressed kisses against your neck and collarbone. 

You closed your eyes, shaking with the heat. "Hypnos, what did you give me?" You sobbed. The heat nor energy still haven't died down yet. 

"Just gimme a moment, Y/N." Hypnos pulled away from the bed, and you sobbed again. 

He came back and shushed you. His hand pulled down your pants, yanking your shoes along off them. You flushed at your nudity. 

Hypnos loomed over you and he pulled you into a kiss. You buried your hands in his white curls as the kiss deepened. His knees nudged your legs apart as he broke the kiss. 

"If I have to be nude, so do you." You tugged at his cloak. Hypnos laughed, "No, later."

His fingers worked you open and you found yourself spreading your legs more.

"You're so good, so so gorgeous. Y/N, do you know how good you look like this?" Hypnos priaised. And you somehow just flushed even more. 

His fingers left you and he crawled toward you. "Kiss me." He demanded and you obeyed, the kiss you gave him was sweet and slow. He hummed against your lips and you felt him pushed inside you. 

Your head tilt back to the bed with a gasp. You shook as the moment seem to stretch out, a endless moment of being taken.

You never felt so full and damnit, you hated how good he felt against you. The soft clothes gave you goosebumps as the brush against your bare skin. You sobbed as he moved inside you leisurely, like he had all the time in world. 

"Hypnos, please." You begged. Your fingers curled against his tunic, trying to ground yourself against the feelings.

He shushed you, "I've been waiting for you for so long." 

"I'm sorry, Hypnos." You whimpered as pleasure built back inside of you. 

"Don't be." Hypnos groaned, his hips started moving quicker. "Losing you killed me, Y/N. I never thought I would have this again."

You were lost for words and just pulled him into another kiss, hoping that it will say everything for you. 

During the kiss, his hips snapped against you quickly, fingers digging into your thighs.  

"I love you Y/N. Fuu- I love you." Hypnos murmured against you. In a whisper, "I love you, Hypnos." 

He moaned and you feel the hot wetness inside you. You trembled as you followed him. 

You stared upward and the humming had become overwhelming. This was it, you thought weakly. 

You don't remember closing your eyes.

💮

Later you wake up, Hypnos sleeping next to you and holding you tightly. He looked so much younger like this. 

You could remember everything. The people, your role as an deity, Hypnos, of loving him and he loving you in return and... and your death.

You grimaced as you rubbed your chest, you could feel the sharp burning pain. Of magic that kept from dying like a normal deity.

But now you were reborn in a way.

There was strength in you too now. A sureness you didn't have an human. You blinked at Hypnos' sleeping face. The third eye was gone but you wasn't sure what it meant exactly. You both were going to have relearn one another. 

You reached up and touched one of the wings. It twitched at your touch, and you smiled, amused. 

"I missed your smile." Hypnos said, his voice rough with sleep."I think it worked, Y/N." His golden eyes studied your face. You stared back. 

Then you reached up and flicked him on the nose. "You should've been honest from the start." You said.

"Ow! And I was, it's not like it was my fault humans won't listen." Hypnos scowled at you.

"Not that. About restoring me. I understand why you wouldn't be but you need to more honest with me from now on. Especially since I know it cost you some of your powers." You said as you pulled Hypnos closer. Tears had filled up in both of yours and Hypnos' eyes.

"Thank you. For bring me back. I felt something was missing in me since I was born but you found it. You found me." You  kissed him, chaste and sweet. 

Hypnos sobbed and held on to you tightly, his face in your neck. "It worked. It really worked." 

You kissed his head, your tears matching his. The both of you weeped with joy, with sadness and relief of having each other again.

"I'm so sorry. It was my fault. I should had gotten there sooner." Hypnos said roughly. 

"It was no one fault, we didn't know." You brush his curls to smooth him. "I don't blame you."

He nodded against your neck and you held him. 

After a few minutes, he pulled away to look at you. His hands cupped your face. You cover his hands with your own, smiling.

"I still haven't told you everything." He said softly. 

"That can wait." You murmured. "We got all the time in the world." 

"We finally do, huh?" Hypnos said, and you meet him a long, slow kiss.

It was good to be home.

[atlafan]

Boo!

a/n: alright, I think this is the last Halloween fic I’m gonna due, I had one more in me. Thank you to everyone who sent me requests. I tried to sprinkle them all into the four different fics I wrote. This one was mostly inspired by someone who asked for a scared neighbor, and someone who asked for one of them to work at a haunted house! Reblogs and feedback are always helpful! Enjoy! (not proofread)

Warnings: pining, fluff, and smut at the end

Words: 6.6K

Y/N was a scaredy cat, plain and simple. She loved Halloween, and the fun that came with it, she just hated the things that absolutely made her skin crawl like jump scares, fake blood, movies that were made with the sole purpose of scaring you, and haunted houses. Never has she once wanted to go to a haunted house in her life. She went when she was a little girl, and she ended up being one of this kids that just screamed and cried the entire time. She somehow made it through both It films, but had nightmares for weeks, so she just stays away from these things.

She was a recent graduate, just starting her master’s program, and living on her own for the first time. She loved her flat a whole lot, getting to decorate it however she wanted, and only having herself to blame if the dishes got stacked up or if the bathroom needed tidying. Another reason she loved her flat? Her very cute next door neighbor. She wasn’t sure if he was also in grad school, or was just from the area. She learned his name was Harry one day as they were both checking their mailboxes, and from there they would exchange pleasantries in the elevator or if they saw one another coming or going.

Harry was a tad mysterious in that he was quiet, but his smile always let Y/N know she wasn’t a bother. She had no idea if he was single or not. His apartment was often quiet aside from the occasional person he might bring back with them. She only ever heard muffled giggles, and the sound of his voice lowering an octave, but her bed wasn’t pressed up to the wall they shared, so she really didn’t pay much attention to it. It did make her more mindful for when she brought someone home, though, not wanting him to hear her.

Y/N always liked the little interactions she’d have with her sweet neighbor. It made living alone a little more exciting. She’d have her friends over when she could, and sometimes they got a little glimpse of Harry, and then they’d understand why Y/N couldn’t help but word vomit about him sometimes.

One day, a couple of weeks before Halloween, Harry spots her in the hall just as she’s keying into her place. He grins and comes up behind her.

“Boo!”

“Ah!” She turns around and nearly decks him. “Jesus Christ, Harry!” She clutches her hand to her chest.

“Shit, I didn’t think you’d be so jumpy, I’m sorry.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“No offense, but you’re a large man coming up behind a small woman to scare her on purpose…I think anyone would be scared.” Her face flushes with embarrassment.

“When you put it like that…yikes.” He clears his throat. “Um, I’m glad I caught you, though.”

“Oh?” She perks up a bit. He had genuinely wanted to talk with her?

“Yeah, I work seasonally at this haunted house downtown every year, it’s a lot of fun.” He takes a piece of paper out of his pocket. “I’m supposed to give out some coupons, if you bring a group of five you get a discount, see?” He hands her the coupon and she looks it over.

“You…you work at a haunted house?”

“Just seasonally as a side gig, it pays pretty well. Plus, I get to dress up as different things and scare people.” He smirks.

“Well, I can see you definitely enjoy doing that.” She chuckles slightly.

“I really am sorry about that.” He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s a charity thing, so half the proceeds goes to UNICEF…if that persuades you at all.”

“I’ll, um, I’ll see if my friends want to go, thanks.”

He smiles at her and nods.

“Well, have a good one.” He says, and continues his way down the hall and to the elevator.

Y/N goes into her flat, and sighs heavily. She was fucked, absolutely fucked. She knew her friends would be down to go, but she more so worried about needing to wear a pair of depends or not because she was sure to wet herself at a haunted house.

//

“Why didn’t you just tell him you don’t like haunted houses?” Billy asks her over coffee.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Niall says to the group. “It’s the first time the guy’s said more than a few words to her, she wasn’t going to turn it down. Isn’t that right, Pet?”

“On the nose, Ni.” She sighs. “I looked like enough of a wimp when he scared me in the hall, I didn’t want to look like a total baby by telling him they scare me. Maybe we could go and I could just putter around outside.”

“Why don’t like you like them again? They’re harmless.” Sadie says as she sips on her tea.

“I don’t like the jump scares. I wanna see everything clearly in front of me. I also feel bad for clowns.” Y/N pouts.

“Clowns?” Rob questions.

“Yeah, like, clowns are supposed to be sources of joy, and they’ve been turned into these scary monsters for no good reason.” She takes a bite of her lemon-poppy scone, and swallows. “So…I mean, I have the coupon, would you all come with me? At least he’ll know I have friends.”

“What’s his name again?” Sadie says, taking her phone out. “Harry Styles?”

“Yeah, don’t bother looking him up, he doesn’t have any social media. Or if he does it’s all super private.” Y/N says.

“Of course you’ve tried to look him up before.” Niall teases her.

“Well, he is my neighbor, I wanted to see if I was living next to a creep or not.”

“I think we should go.” Billy says. “We haven’t done anything spooky this season yet.”

“That’s because you’re all too grown to come carve pumpkins and bake cookies with me.” Y/N huffs.

“Tell you what, you roast the seeds from the pumpkins and I’ll come bake with you.” Sadie says, throwing an arm around her friend, and they both giggle.

Later that day, Y/N happens to get into the elevator at the same time as Harry, and she was excited to give him the good news.

“Hey.” She smiles at him. “Um, I talked to my friends, we’ll be at the haunted house this weekend.”

“That’s great! I’ll be there Saturday night for sure.”

“What will you be dressed as? Will you be walking around outside, or will you be inside doing the real scaring?”

“If I told you any of that it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would it? No built up suspense.” They both get off the elevator and head down the hall. “See you then.” He winks at her, and she stands by her door a moment going over the interaction in her head.

She just wanted to prepare herself as much as possible. She knew half the fun for the stuff was to actually get people scared, but there was a difference between jumping and laughing at something, and genuinely screaming to the point of tears. Would she actually survive this?

//

Saturday evening, Y/N and her friends head downtown for the haunted house. There was a lot to do outside, so they stop off for candied apples before getting their tickets. She shows her coupon to the cashier, and the group gets their discount. It was just starting to get dark outside, and there were tons of people in costume walking around outside. Some people were taking pictures with them after getting spooked, and Y/N started to feel herself getting nervous.

“Don’t worry, Y/N.” Niall throws his arms around her shoulders. “Bill and I are gonna make a little sandwich with you so you’ll be right between us to grab onto while we walk in.”

“Thanks.” She says.

“Do you see him anywhere, or do you think he’s inside?” Rob asks.

“He wouldn’t tell me when I asked, so I have no idea.” She sighs.

“Well, let’s go get in line, it’s starting to fill up.” Sadie says, and they all head to the line to get inside.

There was someone dressed up like a witch scanning the tickets, and reminds everyone it is single file as you enter the house. Everyone nods, and Y/N grips onto both Niall and Billy’s hands as they form their line.

Harry was outside at the front of the line scoping out the scene. He was taking a little fresh air break before he needed to get back into his room. He was dressed like a dirtbag with a fake chainsaw in his hand. As he scans over the crowd in line he spots Y/N. His eyes widen as he practically sees her trembling. He watches as one of the boys she’s with raises her chin with their finger and says something to her. She smiles at him, and kisses his cheek. Harry furrows his brows in disappointment, and goes back inside.

It’s dark as they all step inside, and her death grip on the boys grows stronger.

“Y/N, close your eyes if you need to, we can guide you in.” Billy says to her as he grips her shoulders.

“Yeah, don’t feel like you even need to-“

“Ahhh!!” She screams when a few ghouls pop out at them. She nearly jumps on Niall’s back from it. “I should have just stayed outside.” Her bottom lip quivers.

“We’ve got you, just keep going.” Sadie says from the rear.

It really was just the jump scares and the darkness. The rooms they were walking in weren’t that scary. Some of them have flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder, creepy music and floorboard squeaking. Harry’s room was up next. All he had to was pretend to saw into someone’s neck, and let some fake blood out. The only thing was, his room was pitch black, so no one could what was happening until he ripped the cord for the chainsaw.

He recognizes Y/N’s pitiful scream instantly. Usually he gets a kick out of it, from anyone, but when he glances over at the group, and sees her cheeks stained with tears, he feels terrible. The scene is supposed to last a little longer, but he gives a signal to the lighting crew and they make it go dark again. His room was last, so Y/N practically gasps for air once she’s back outside.

“I’m sorry if I ruined it for you all.” She sniffles and wipes her cheeks. Niall sighs and helps her clean her face up.

“You didn’t, Lovie, it’s fine.” He says to her.

“You actually did a lot better than we thought.” Rob says.

“Are your panties dry?” Billy asks.

“Well…yeah.” She giggles.

“Then you did amazing!” Sadie says. “I have to say, I’ve been to my fair share of haunted houses, and that one was fucking scary.”

“Can…can we go get some pizza or something? Maybe some hard ciders? I need a fucking drink.” She jokes, and everyone agrees. She wished she had Harry’s number so she could at least text him that she actually showed up. “Wait! I just wanna go inside and leave a note for Harry.”

Everyone waits outside as she goes back up to the ticketing register. She asks if she can leave a note for him, and the girl at the register all but squeals, and says yes.

Made it through the house, just wanted you to know. Thanks again for the coupon!! – Y/N xx

“I’ll make sure H gets it.” She smiles at Y/N.

“Thank you.” She says, and out the door she goes back to her friends.

Harry felt even more gutted when he received the note. He had been part of the reason she was crying. Why would she have gone if she really didn’t like being scared? Did she go just for him? No way, that other guy she kissed had to be her boyfriend, right?

//

For about a week Harry contemplated knocking on Y/N’s door. He even thought to slide a note underneath, just to be cute, but he chickened out. One night he was getting some studying done when he heard a loud yelp. His head turns in the direction of the sound. Did she have someone over? He’d occasionally hear the squeal of her bed, but in all honesty Harry had a feeling Y/N wasn’t exactly getting her shit rocked. Either that, or she was just one of those really quiet girls. Not a minute later does he hear a quiet tap on his front door. He gets up and pads over to it to look through his peephole. It was a shaking Y/N.

“Y/N?” He says as he unlocks and opens his door. “Are you alright?”

“N-no, I…I don’t know what happened, um, I think something short circuited, and I…I feel so stupid for saying this but I don’t know where the breaker box is.”

“Oh, Pet, you’re not stupid. Took me forever to find mine, do you want some help?”

“If you don’t mind.”

He follows her out into the hall, and into her place.

“Gave you a bit of a fright, didn’t it?” He asks softly.

“Y-yeah.”

Poor thing must have been embarrassed. She was in a pair of pajama pants and a tee shirt, clearly not wearing a bra. He thought she looked adorable, and just wanted to scoop her up, but he couldn’t. He uses his flashlight on his phone, and she involuntarily latches onto his wrist.

“I’m sorry, I’m petrified of the dark.” She tells him.

“It’s alright.” He shifts so he can hold her hand. “The breaker box should be in your pantry, that’s where mine is anyways.”

He heads her over to it, and she lets him open the door. She had a tidy flat, nothing to hide. He opens the box, looks away, flips the switch, and the lights all come back on. She lets out a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank god. I thought I was going to be without heat! Thank you, I have no idea what happened. I don’t have anything overly plugged in.”

“No problem at all.” He smiles at her. “Sometimes it happens at my place, it’s not exactly the newest building, Love.”

“Right.” She swallows and lets go of his hand. He looks in the direction of her kitchen and sees she has a couple of pumpkins on the table.

“What are you up to?”

“Oh, well, I was going to get some cookies in the oven, and then carve some pumpkins. My friends aren’t really into it, but I like it.”

“So you don’t totally hate Halloween then?”

“No, not at all! I…I’m just not a fan of the scary stuff.” She chews on her bottom lip. “Would you…would you care to join me?” It was bold. He probably had plans, or probably just didn’t want to hang out with her.

“I’d love to! Can’t remember the last time I carved a pumpkin.”

“Oh! Well, alright then.” She smiles and leads him into her kitchen. “I have those sugar cookies with the pumpkins and black cats on them. I was about to slice them up before the power went out.”

“I love those, can I help?”

“Sure.”

She preheats the oven and gets a baking sheet out with some parchment paper. She lets him slice up the roll with the black cats as she does the ones with the pumpkins, then she pops them in the oven. She grabs a couple of bowls to place on the table and he raises an eyebrow at her.

“My friends like when I roast the seeds, so we need one bowl for all the guts, and then one for when we separate them.”

“Gotcha.” They each grab one of the little carving knives and cut open the tops of the pumpkins. “Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“If you don’t like the scary stuff then why did you come to the haunted house?”

“Oh…well…I didn’t want to disappoint you. You invited me, and…well….I’ve always wanted to get to know you better, so I thought that would be a good start.”

“You have?”

“Well, yeah, I think you’re the only other young person on our floor.” She laughs. “Are you still in school?”

“Yeah, I’m in grad school.”

“Me too!” She says excitedly and starts scooping the guts out of her pumpkin. Harry does the same.

“You could have just told me, you know, I was using the coupon as an excuse to talk to you.”

“R-really?”

He nods and starts separating the seeds. She watches as his fingers work nimbly. She frightened when she hears the timer go off for the oven.

“Jesus, Y/N….I feel terrible that you’re so jumpy.”

“I think I’m just still a little worked up from the power going out.” She takes the cookies out of the oven and puts them on a cooling rack.

She comes back over and sticks her hands in the bowl of guts along with Harry’s, and they brush together. They look at each other and blush.

“Y/N, do you have a boyfriend?”

“No, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

Everything sort of happens quickly from there. Without caring about the mess, Harry cups her cheeks and pulls her into a tender kiss. He backs her up against the wall next to the fridge, and she groans into his mouth. Her messy hands tug at the collar of his shirt to pull him down more to her so she can wrap her warms around his neck. He smiles against her.

“Were you eating some of the cookie dough earlier?”

“M-maybe.” She giggles. “Why?”

“You just taste really sweet.” He leans down and sucks her bottom lip between his teeth, and lets it snap back. “I’ve wanted to do this for a while, to be honest with you. You just seem like such a nice person.”

“I’ve…I’ve wanted to kiss you too.” Her heart was beating like crazy. Her eyes glance over at the pumpkins. She really did want to carve them. “Um…would you…would you like to get the pumpkins carved? And then maybe we could watch a movie while the seeds roast?”

“I’d like that.” He steps back from her. “I got your cheeks covered in guts, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” She chuckles and grabs a paper towel, wetting it under the sink faucet. She wipes her cheeks and continues to separate the seeds with him.

Harry begins carving his pumpkin while she lets the seeds rest on some paper towels. They munch on cookies, and giggle as they make horrible designs with the pumpkins.

“Okay, hold on.” She says and grabs two little lights to put inside the pumpkins. “Aw, they look so cute.”

“How come your friends don’t like doing this? I had a great time.”

“It’s a lot of work to them.” She shrugs. “Kinda glad they’re not here, wouldn’t have needed you to rescue me.”

“Guess it all worked out for the best.” He smiles at her.

“Go get get comfy. I can make us some tea while I ge the seeds in the oven if you like.”

“That would be great, thank you.”

It was a Wednesday night, Harry had class tomorrow, but he truthfully didn’t care. He was enjoying getting to know his neighbor, and he was hoping to get to know her a bit more.

“Alright.” She sets the mugs on the coffee table and grabs the remote. “I don’t know about you, but I’d love to watch Halloweentown.”

“A classic, throw it on.”

She feels almost giddy at his willingness to humor her. She flips the TV to Disney+, and puts on the movie. Just as she’s biting into another cookie after the opening the credits, she asks him the question that had been rattling around her brain over the last week.

“So, are you going to tell me who you were dressed up as at the haunted house?”

“Oh…I was the chainsaw guy at the end…”

“Oh.” She says quietly.

“I had them end it quicker when I saw how scared you were, I felt terrible.”

“Great, so you saw me crying like a baby.” She sighs.

“Hey.” He smiles at her. “I think it’s really brave that you went through the whole house.”

“You’re just saying that.” She pouts at him.

“No, I mean it.” He lifts a hand to stroke her cheek.

“You never responded to my note.” She says, just above a whisper.

“I…I didn’t know how. I didn’t know if one of the guys you were with was you boyfriend or not, and I didn’t want to just slip a response under your door.”

Her body relaxes under his touch, and she smiles softly at him.

“The guy who willingly scares people to the point of tears was too shy to slip a note under my door?” She smirks, and he lets go of her with a scoff.

“I resent that. There’s a crazy amount of confidence you get when you dress up like someone else”

“Sort of like stage presence?”

“Yeah, sort of.” He puts his arm around her and pulls her close to him. “Be quiet and watch the movie, would you?”

She giggles but listens to him. After she pulls the seeds out of the oven to cool, they get especially cozy on the couch with him laying behind her to spoon her. It was incredibly cozy, and everything she could have hoped for with him. The kiss earlier was nice and all, but she was hoping this was the sort of guy Harry was. One to be okay with staying in and watching a classic movie with a plate of cookies close by.

//

He was reluctant to leave, giving her smooch after smooch at the door, but he didn’t want to be groggy for class, and she had class too, so it was best for them to part ways. He did, however, ask for her number so he could ask her on a proper date some time and she happily gave it to him.

Y/N told her friends about the previous night, and they were really excited for her. They couldn’t believe the two had kissed over pumpkin guts, but hey, whatever works, right?

“You should invite him to my Halloween party.” Sadie says.

“He probably has to work at that stupid haunted house.” Y/N sighs.

“You won’t know unless you ask. Besides, it’s not like that place will be open super late. He could meet up with you.”

“That’s true. What if he thinks my costume is lame? I’m only dressing up like a witch.”

“The cutest witch as that, he won’t be able to resist.” Niall winks at her and she rolls her eyes.

“Okay, I’ll text him.” Her eyes grow wide as she takes out her phone.

“What is it, Peanut?” Billy asks her.

“He texted me this morning and I missed it!” She scrambles to open the message and text him back.

Harry: morning, beautiful, I had a lot of fun last night. Can’t wait to do it again…8:09AM

Y/N: so sorry for just responding, I’m horrible at texting! I had a lot of fun last night too. Do you have plans on Halloween??...11:17AM

She sets her phone down with a sigh, taking a sip of her tea as her friends continue to chat about Sadie’s party. She sees her screen light up and she smiles.

Harry: lol no worries, I’m sure you’re a busy person. I have to work the day shift at the haunted house, don’t worry, we tone it down for the kids, but I’m free in the evening, why?

Y/N: oh, well, maybe I should have gone during the day then haha my friend Sadie’s having a party and I was wondering if you’d like to go with me? It’s okay if you don’t…

Harry: don’t be silly, I’d love to go! I’m assuming it’s a costume thing?

Y/N: great! Yeah, it’s a costume thing, but it’s not like over the top, I’m just going as a witch

Harry: bet you’ll be the cutest witch there 😉

Y/N: oh stop 😳

Harry: I mean it! I definitely have plenty of costumes, so I can pull something together. What time’s the party?

Y/N: I was hoping to get there for 9

Harry: works for me, see you then!

Y/N: see you then

“Oh my god.” She giggles to herself.

“What?” Sadie asks. “Is he gonna come with you to the party?”

“Yup?” Y/N grins. “And he thinks I’ll be the cutest witch there.”

“Oi, I literally just said the same thing to you!” Niall says.

“Yeah, but…I’m interested in him romantically so it means more.”

“Piss off.” He says with a glare and it makes her laugh. She throws her arms around her friend and kisses his cheek.

“Don’t worry, Ni, you’re still my number one man.”

“Mhm, sure.” He scoffs, and everyone else laughs.

//

Y/N never really fretted over a Halloween costume before, and she felt silly for being so nervous, but she just wanted to look…sexy? She sighs as she changes her outfit about three different times. She also wanted to be comfortable. She slides her legs into a pair of black slacks that come up just over her belly button, and had a slight flair at the bottom. She pairs it with a black lace bralette so only a sliver of her torso was showing. She curls her hair and brushes it out to look wavy, and applies some fun makeup to make her eyes pop. Last, she puts on her small witch’s hat, and waits for him. When she hears the knock on her door at ten of nine she takes a deep breath, grabs her purse, and opens it.

“Oh, Babe, you look amazing.” He says almost immediately, giving her a hug. She smiles up at him when she sees he’s dressed like a casual vampire. Donning similar black attire (slacks and a button up), along with some fake blood painted at the corners of his mouth.

“Thank you, is that what you wore today?”

“Yeah.”

“Way less scary.” She chuckles, and locks her door.

“Do you wanna wear my jacket?”

“Maybe later? I’m okay right now, but thank you.”

He nods as they step into the elevator. He casually takes her hand in his, intertwining their fingers. The walk to Sadie’s doesn’t take too long, and Y/N lets herself in when they get there. It was the usual group, plus some other friends from school and work. She introduces Harry to all of them, and get the two of them some sherbet punch.

“It’s spiked, is that alright?” She says to him.

“Yeah, thank you.” He takes the small cup from her and takes a sip.

Harry gets on with Y/N’s friends way better than she expected. It eased a lot of her anxiety because it wasn’t often she brought a guy around them so soon, but she talked about the him enough that they all already felt comfortable around him. He was also really funny, so that helped.

It was a great night all around. Y/N won a couple of round of Cards Against Humanity, and partnered up with Niall for a game of beer pong. Somewhere between midnight and one in the morning, Y/N and Harry decide to call it a night, he had worked all day after all.

“Care to come to mine for a nightcap?” He asks her as he shimmies his jacket off his shoulders and onto hers for the walk home.

Normally she wouldn’t yes so quickly, but they lived right next door to each other, and they had already gotten the first kiss out of the way, so she agrees. She was also curious to see how he had set up his place compared to hers. He leads her inside, and she stays wrapped in his coat as she goes to sit on his sofa. He comes back shortly with two glasses of red wine, only a little in each.

“Thank you.” She says as he hands her a glass. He sits down next to her, and grabs two coasters for his coffee table before setting his glass down.

“I had a lot of fun with your friends tonight. They seem like really nice people.” He sits with one leg underneath himself, and an arm slung over the back of the sofa.

“They are! I couldn’t ask for better friends, honestly.”

“Maybe you could meet mine sometime.” He blushes. “I don’t have as big of a circle as you do, but the friends I have are great.”

“I’d like that.” She smiles at before taking another small sip and setting her glass down. “I can’t believe I’ve been living next to you since June and it’s taken us this long to get to know each other.”

“Feels silly now, doesn’t it?” He reaches to tuck some hair behind her ear.

“Yeah.” She inches closer to him, and looks up at him with wide eyes. “Would you kiss me again, I really liked it last time.”

He smiles at her and leans in, pressing his lips to hers. Her eyes flutter closed as she tastes the sweet red wine pass from his lips to hers. He tugs her onto his lap to create a more comfortable position, causing his jacket to slip from her shoulders, but neither seem to care. She laces her fingers into his hair, and opens her mouth for him. He licks into her as his hands splay on her back, not wanting to be too grabby too soon. Their tongues swirl around each other, and she moans softly into him. He had the first few buttons of his shirt undone already, so it was easy enough to kiss from his jaw to his neck. He holds her close to him as she mouths at his sensitive skin. She moves to his collar bone, and bites down, sucking on him. He groans and squeezes at her back. She moves to look up at him, biting down on her bottom lip.

“Would you…like to see my bedroom?” He asks, clearly testing the waters.

“Yes.” She says, much to his surprise. She was full of surprises tonight. He pecks her lips, and lets her get off of him. He takes her hand and leads her to his bedroom. “It’s nice in here, Harry.” His bed was made, and his desk was tidy. A few clothes on the floor, but that’s much to be expected.

“Thanks, the, uh, comforter is new.”

“Looks comfy.”

“It is.” He cups her cheeks and kisses her. Her hands go to his love hands and she squeezes him.

They make their way over to the bed, and they lay down with him hovering over her. She wraps her legs around his waist while he kisses on her neck. His lips move down between the valley of her breasts, and nipping at the parts of her that were spilling out of the lace.

“This is such a sexy outfit.” He says, hot breath against her skin. She groans and pushes her hips up towards his to feel his growing bulge.

“What, um, what do you feel like doing, Harry?” She runs her hands through his hair.

“Honestly, I’d like to fuck you, but-“ She yanks his face up to hers so she can kiss him. He chuckles as he pulls away. “We can, uh, wait if you want.” He clears his throat.

“Do you want to wait? I wouldn’t mind if you fucked me.”

“Well, look at you! The girl who’s so bloody afraid of the dark and haunted house and all things spooky is up for a little shag?”

“I may be scared in the streets, but that’s not how I am in the sheets.” She grins at him and his eyes darken a little.

“Alright, then.”

He sits up and takes his shirt the rest of the way off. She gazes up at him and runs her hands up and down his stomach. He was toned, yet soft, the perfect mixture. She reaches to undo his belt, and unzip his pants. He gets them the rest of the way off, and then kneads her breasts through the bralette. She arches up into him, and moans when he sucks on her nipple through the fabric.

“Can I take this off?” He breathes.

“Please.”

She sits up a little to help him, and he tugs it off of her. His large hands cup her breasts, and he goes back to sucking on them, leaving little love bites behind. He works his mouth down her stomach, and his hands work to undo her pants. He looks up at her and she nods, lifting up her hips to help him get them off. He leaves her underwear on for now, kissing on her hips, and opening her legs up. He sucks a bruise on her inner thigh, and she gasps. He kisses her over panties before hooking his fingers into them, and dragging them down her legs. She blushes as she opens herself up for him. She had done a full body shave, and now she was regretting it because she must look like a child to him even though she was the same age as him.

“I…I’m sorry, that must look weird.” She chokes out.

“What?”

“M’like a little too smooth, don’t you think?”

Harry runs his fingers over her folds and up her pelvis.

“Listen, whether you look like this, have a full bush, or something in between, I wouldn’t really care. It’s all about comfort, right? Does being shaved like this make you more comfortable?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Okay, so, no problem, Babe.” He smiles. “It’s actually kinda cute.”

“Harry.” She whines and runs her hands down her face. “Will you get on with it?”

He nods and lays between her legs. He uses his thumbs to spread her apart, and starts by licking at her clit. She gasps as he flicks the tip across the bud, and then laps around her folds. He licks over her center, and presses circles with his thumb into her clit. He dips his tongue inside her, only for a moment, before looking up at her. He runs a fingers around her wetness before pushing it inside, and putting his mouth back on her clit. She watches him with her mouth hanging open.

“God, that feels so fucking good.” She praises him, and he moans against her in response.

He gets a second finger inside her and makes the ‘come here’ motion over and over, petting over her front wall and pushing against her g-spot. His tongue continues to work her clit, and she starts to feel her orgasm approaching.

“Oh, oh my god, oh my god, Harry, fuck, I’m gonna come, ugh, don’t stop, I’m…I’m, fuck!” She all but screams as she releases around his fingers.

He fucks her through it, removing his mouth, but still pumping her slowly with his fingers. She was unraveling for him, and he loved the sight. He retracts his fingers and cups her cheek with his other hand.

“Liked that, huh?” He smirks.

“Felt amazing.” She smiles up at him dreamily. “Do you want me to, um-“

“As much as I’d love to get those pretty lips wrapped around me, I really just wanna fuck you, is that okay?”

“Works for me.” She chuckles, and watches him reach into his side table for a condom, which makes her smile grow more.

He slips his boxers off, and her jaw drops as he rolls the condom on. She was definitely thankful he fingered her first. He gets back between her legs, and runs his tip between her folds. Her hips buck up towards him, just wanting him to put it in already.

“Want me to fuck you?” He says.

“Yeah.”

“How bad?” He says as he just presses his tip against her and then pulls it away.

“R-really bad, Harry.” She nearly begs. “Please, fuck me.”

He presses his bulbous head into her, and she moans out from the stretch. He feeds her, inch by inch, and bottoms out. Her nails dig into his forearms.

“M’gonna move.” He says and she nods.

He rocks his hips in and out of her at first, letting her adjust, and then he grabs one of her ankles to throw over his shoulder, and he drives it in deep. Her mouth falls open, but no noise comes out. No one had ever filled her up like this before. He grips the head board with one hand and continues fucking into her. She moans out, maybe a little too loudly, but it wasn’t like his neighbor was home. No wonder she could hear whoever he brought home sometimes, he really knew what he was doing. With a stroke of boldness, she slides her hand up to his neck, and grips him lightly. He looks down at her, a little shocked.

“Is this okay?” She pants.

“Yeah, do it harder.”

She groans and does as he says. He grunts and moans as he starts to hit her g-spot again. It was quite the hot sight, seeing her small hand around his thick throat. Her other hand moves to rub her clit, and he almost loses it watching her.

“Y/N, I…fuck, I don’t know how much longer I can go, I’m s-sorry.” He bites his bottom lip to try to focus on something else.

“I’m almost there, almost there! Just keep going, please!”

Her back arches as he gives her a sharp thrust and she comes around his cock. He spills into the condom not too long after and collapses on top of her. She hugs him to her chest, and runs her fingers through his now damp curls. He lifts his head to kiss her, licking into her mouth. She welcomes it, molding her tongue to his. If he wasn’t so sensitive he’d probably grow hard again. She winces as he pulls out, and he quickly goes into his bathroom to get a warm rag to clean her up.

“You don’t have to do that, I can just use the bathroom.” She says as her legs lay limp. He chuckles as he runs the rag over her.

“I know you can, but I thought I’d help out a bit.” He knees back on the bed to lay next to her. “Will you stay the night?”

“You really want me to?”

“Yeah.” He runs his fingers up and down her torso, raising goosebumps over her body. “I don’t know about you, but in about ten minutes I for sure could go again.” Her head turns to him and she scoffs. “Or…not, we could also just cuddle if you like.”

“Mm, I like the sound of that.” She rolls over onto his chest, and he kisses the top of her head.

“Did I go a little too hard?”

“Maybe, but I like it like that so it’s fine.”

“You’re full of surprises, I like you a lot.” He blurts out, and she looks up at him.

“You do?”

“Mhm.” He smiles.

“Good, because I like you too. I’m glad you’re not a proper dick and didn’t kick me out.”

“Couldn’t do that to you, Babe. In fact, tomorrow morning, I’m gonna make you a big breakfast.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, and then we’ll get cozy and eat it in bed. Have a nice lazy day…you know, if you want….”

She giggles and moves to straddle him. He grips her hips and looks up at her confused.

“You’ve sold me, I can go again.”

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch15 Poppy’s Spaceship Tour and Meeting Cooking Cat

(Warning: Poppy cries near the end.)

The pour woman was shaking all the way to the small clearing looking around her with newfound fear as she did so from the scare. But at least now they could take off and get her to a warmer place with food now....Or at least they would've if Bow hadn't grabbed her hand and jumped when Poppy flinched and yanked her hand away from the girl. The poor flesh still tender and sore from the rope suddenly yanking her up. She gave the girls an apologetic look and it occured to Hattie they couldn't teleport her together now if they couldn't hold her hands. Not to mention she was shaking and she didn't want to risk accidentally letting her go in the middle of teleportation again. So what did she usually do in these kind of situations? Go back and bother Snatcher for help of course! The purple ghost was NOT happy when the small girl yanked on his tail and told him about their situation. PECK NAB IT!! Couldn't he get one moment of peace around here?....Then again, it was rather responsible of her to come to him instead of trying something reckless with Poppy, and he didn't really want a repeat of Poppy crashlanding from space somewhere. She was VERY lucky the first time as it was. So, that's how the ghost was talked into coming over and transporting all four of them back to the ship. Wasn't anything like Poppy expected at all. Much to Poppy's still shocked state, he held the girls in one arm while grabbing her good arm in the other and asked her to close her eyes while the spell took place to keep her from freaking out anymore than she already had to which she gladly did so. Curling into him and pressing her face into the fluff around his shoulders. The movement made him stop and stare for a moment...before he cleared his throat and looked away slightly flustered. The teleporting worked as quickly as any other time he did it. Purple energy completely took over the world around them like the many times he's done this before and swallowed them all whole. He's donw this plenty of times before teleporting himself places or taking the girls home against his will when they fell asleep in his forest. But what was one more trip anyways? Especially since it'd help ease the nerves of his beloved-...beloved FRIEND. Just friend. One moment of dark black-purple later the four of them ended up inside of the kid's ship. The control room to be more precise. The controls to the ship were there as well as her Tv and the giant vault of those menacing time pieces.So imagine Poppy's surprise when she reopened her eyes and blinked at the foreign home to her. But was put back down on the ground by Snatcher again before the spook mumbles something about wanting to take a break and to not be bothered again as he gave a firm look at the girls.

"Stay HERE and do NOT bother me again unless it's actually a real emergency until I say so. I mean it."

"AH! But why?"

"Because Im the pecking adult! That's why!" Was all he said before purple energy oozed from his being like living fog and wrapped itself around him. Poppy watching in almost horror as it shrank in size until it was either too small to see or actually disppeared from the ship entirely.

Well.....That was a fast one way trip wasn't it? She was just SO so glad to be out of that nightmare forest she was happy to welcome this.....Space ship. Where was she in here anyways? Looking around she found herself sitting upon a giant pink round rug and a the rest of the floor was covered in green carpeting. Around her were all kinds of strange gadgets and gizmos she'd never seen before. Looking over she was the strangest thing. A child's toy train set and landscape. The cute little engine was making circles around some plastic mountains, a few mountains, and fake plants. WHich for some reason was on a giant metal pillar and blocked off by rope and pillars. An odd television set sat in the corner where a puppy wearing overralls was trotting across the screen. ....She blinked and looked over to her other side where another similar pillar was there but it had some kind of plush??.......Something. It was a hamburger but she didn't know what the heck that was. Beyond that was brick like walls a yellow thing sticking out of the wall, and a couple doors here and there-

"oW!"

Something poked against her foot and she looked down. Immediately a small spooked squeal came out of the woman and she scrambeld back and onto her feet as she stared down the little roomba as it continued to just sweet harmlessly past her. But the woman had never seen a robot vacum so her fear was understandable as she pointed at it.

"W-W-WHAT IS THAT CREATURE!?"

"It's ok. He's perfectly safe." Hattie smiled at Rumbi as he harmlessly swept past them towards the ramp near the far wall.

She didn't look convinced but silently watched him sweep away before looking around her more...before slowly looking behind her to the gigantic windows behind her. And. Her. Jaw. DROPPED!! As she looked out the giant windows, she could seethe darkened purple land of Snatcher's forest and A giant chunk of white which was vanessa's frozen abyss of the planet. Placing a cold hand to the cool glass and watching as it slowly ticked by and just....watched it. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of thousands of stars twinkling....The world! Her world! It was right there! Big, bold and wonderful! The round planet seemed to have an aura of it's own and glowed perfectly. The perfect gentle blue of the sea, the bright tan yellows of the desert. Many islands. The highest mountains surrounded by pure white clouds even looked as if she could reach out and grasp it almost. It was so much more peaceful and beautiful looking when she wasn't falling through space that was. A sense of being so small came over her and she let out a shaky sigh as she did so. So this was really reality huh?

"It's pretty isn't it?," Bow asked walking up next to her and smiling down at the world too and pointing at one small place on the planet. "That's Nyakuza City! I used to live there."

".....Yeah. I-I heard about the Nyakuza Kingdom," Poppy stated softly, "It was supposed to be inhabited by a whole race of cat people."

"It is!" Bow smiled brightly at her that she knew that. "Kitties are the best! They're so soft, and fluffy and really, really cute!!"

Despite herself, Poppy smiled at the cute smile the little girl had on her face. Children always had the ability to make her smile with their adorable nature and innocence. It was just to precious, turning back to the window and staring out she sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. She was really feeling .......confused? Right now. There were too many emotions going through her right now and not enough of it was ok..She didn't have a feeling of being ok. Not after what just happened. She looked back to her slightly scrapped arm. She guessed that's what she got after not listening to a ghost's warnings-

"ACHOO!" Bow flinched and looked up to Poppy who shook her head and looked back to the window sniffing.

"Bless you!"

"T-Thank you." She shivered from her body's still cold feeling. She almost forgot she was still from falling in swamp water and she had been running around all soaked for who knows how long now. She should change out of these soggy rags and warmed up before she caught a cold. So she turned around to ask where the bathroom was so she could scrub the dirt off herself- BAM!! She jumped at least a foot back smacking into the glass window and all three of them looked up towards the ramp area where the pair of swinging doors to the kitchen had been pushed open and small soft footsteps like a child's came scattering out. Another child?? She couldn't see anything past the banister. But all of that was answered when a chef hat and pointy cat ears came into view. All of that was attached to a small plump cat standing on two feet with calico patterns and orange fur.

What the WHAT?!

"COOKIE!!", both girls shouted and rushed towards the cat who giggled and held her arms open wide for the two to go skittering into her embrace as she did so. The giggling of the cat and girls filled the air as Poppy watched and then blinked at the small cat in chef wear-

"Oh how are you girls? It's been so long since I've been up here!," she cooed at the little children her size. By the voice it was easy to tell it was a lady and had a slight country accent. She smiled as she leaned back and examined the girls before her. "I thought I heard a pair of hungry little tykes scampering around hungry."

"We missed you," Bow answered honestly as she smiled at the cat with adoration.

"Did you make cookies?," Hattie asked practically sparkly eyed as she looked hopefully at her making the small cat laugh.

"Well you two haven't changed a bit. Always so sweet and hungry for sugar." She shook her head. "No. But I did make some roasted bird and mashed potatoes! Perfect for two little adventures! Now which one of you sneezed? It sounded like you caught a whopper of a cold." Both girls looked at each other for a moment, before looking behind them at Poppy who still watched silently as they all stood there, as soon as 'Cookie' saw her, the cat gasped and one paw came to cover her mouth as she caught sight of the messy grown, shivering woman in front of her. In a blink of an eye the plump cat carefully pushed past the girls and walked right up to Poppy. The red head could only blink and again feel kinda awkward seeing a giant talking talk on two legs......Wait. Was she a Nyakuza citizen? Was she one of those cat people she heard so much about? Well she didn't have much time to wonder until she stopped right in front of her and grabbed a part of her dress and pulled the material heavy and wet from dirty swamp water into her paws to examine. Sniffing at it before snorting and shaking her head, scowling up at her. She felt oddly small under the scowl of the small cat in front of her but still didn't move besides her shivering. "You look absolutely aweful! Look at this!'' She held up the material to her. "Look at your hair! You look like you went rolling around in the mud during a thunderstorm!"

She blinked stunned by the cat's bold and blunt move only responding with, "Uuuhhh....It's....Swamp water??"

"Swamp water?" She eyed the human up and down before shaking her head and dropping her dress, hands....uh..paws coming to stay on her hips. "I've seen plenty of country folk in my time for sure that don't mind to get a lil dirty, but you're the first one I've seen soaked romping through a swamp."

"It...wasn't really my intention to be soaked by gross water, but I crashlanded in some when I landed." She gave a small look to the little hat girl behind her who smiled nervously at her words. But was soon looking back to the cat when she made a small hum.

"So you landed here to? Does that mean you're another alien?"

"W-What? N-no. I'm from here I promise! I just....happen to be visiting their space ship is all," she clarified.

"Oh!" The small cat lady finally smiled at her like she had come to some brilliant conclusion. "Oh now I see. You must be one of their little friends! They have a lot you know."

"You could say t-that- ACHOO!!" Poppy turned her head to the side before sneezing again and sniffing. Her body still fairly chilly. Which didn't go unnoticed by the cat.

"Bless you! By the temperature of your dress, you must be soaked n cold right down to the fur." Her light scowl came back, "Didn't you ever think to change into a dry pair of clothes?"

"I g-guess it must've slipped my mind."

She was cut short when the small cat jumped up and grabbed her hand yanking her into a leaning over position when she pulled her back a few steps. "Well. There's no sense in you staying like this any longer than needed. You all go get cleaned up before you eat a single bite." She made a grimace looking back over Poppy's soaked self and taking in all the dirt covering her body and how tangled her hair was. "And YOU definately go bathe and get a good change of clothes." One of her paws ungrabbed Poppy to shoo the girls off towards the right side of the control room as she lead Poppy towards it-

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!

Poppy Jumped and they all snapped in the direction of the ramp leading up somewhere and the cat let go of her hands. "OH!! The oven timer. Bird's done." She looked to the girls. "Now you go show her where the bathroom is and wash up. I gotta go make sure that birdy doesn't over cook. You know how much I despise burnt food." The girls nodded and the cat smiled again before running to a small green ladder right below the vault and climbed up it, running back through the double doors with another light slam to them as Poppy blinked.

"Who..was that?"

"Hattie grabbed her still extending hand a smile on her face. "Cookie! She's like a REALLY good chef! The best in the world!" Her steps were jumpy and happy like any child making a small smile come to her face as she was lead over to a small door next to the green ladder Cookie climbed. "She visits a lot and makes a lot of food for my fridge!" She licked her lips. "Her cookies are they best! But she's been really busy with her cooking show after finally leaving Mafia Town."

"Mafia.....town?"

Hattie nodded. "I met Mustache Girl there!"...She frowned a little bit. "She's not very nice.....HEY!" Her face brightened again as she got an exciting idea. "Now I can show you how COOL my ship is!"

"But Cookie said she needs a bath." Bow leaned sideways from behind her and blinked.

"But Snatcher said to show her my ship! We're still going to the bathroom, but exploring too!" Bow rolled her eyes as Hattie tugged Poppy over towards the small blue glowing door. A small blue rug with a wave patterned on it stood before the door and to the older woman's surprise it opened automatically by itself giving her a little jump. Technology had really advanced since she was a little girl didn't it? "Come on, come on! I wanna show you the potion room!" She went through the kid sized door no problem....but Poppy had to literally lean down to look down the long mini hallway.

Bow also looked down it with a worried look. "Hattieeeeeeee!! We're gonna get in more trouble! Knock it off and lets go wash!"

"Y'know we can show her the metro room too," came the sing song voice from down the hallway and an instant Bow's expression change.

"FINE!! But then we wash our hands! I'm hungry!" She called back before also bounding down the hall and poppy lowered more to look in "......Come on Ms Poppy!"

.......She hesitated but braced herself. It couldn't get any more worse than it already was, and she doubted there was any headless statues or dangerous stuff here on a child's chip. Coming down to her knees she went to start crawling as she couldn't stand to walk through these small halls- Which ended with her doing a yelp and leaning back up onto her knees to clutch her sore wrist which throbbed out a course of pain when she put the slightest bit of pressure on, still pretty sore from the giant yank the noose gave her- Poppy shivered from remembering that encounter. One of the children called out to her again sounding impatient..and if this was indeed the direction to getting cleaned up, then she might as well not complain anymore and suck it up. That's what she always did growing up in a poor farming community. Sucking it up and being grateful for what you're given. Even if it means crawling down a hallway with only one hand, which she did. It was....Kinda embarrassing and time consuming, but a couple little children probably weren't going to judge her for having no choice but to squeeze through these blasted tunnels. As she crawled along she took in the details of the walls and especially the carpet. There was some very impressive details in the blue carpet, they were so beautiful. Some grand weaver must've put a lot of work creating these wave patterns and she briefly wondered how many pons it cost the little girl to buy and put in here. In her day it would've cost a pretty penny. It took a bit more but before she knew it. The other door opened and she was allowed to crawl on through and stand to her feet again. Shivering as a blast of cold air hit her freezing body and opening her eyes to a-.....Very strange sight.

"What IS this place?" The air was chilly, and down below was a dark blue water which could've been mistaken for water on first glance and a few things like random barrels and chests, with some furniture. A tall closet like space with the words saying Dirty Laundry Cleaner 3000, And a ladder leading up to a different doorway above them there.

"The storage room," Hattie replied before regrabbing her none hurt hand and tugging her towards the left, making her blink down as the two girls excitedly pointed towards another small door to the left. Unlike the one she just came through, this one glowed purple and had a bottle like shape on it. "I wanna show you around!" She wasn't sure what to do but didn't fight against her as she pulled her towards the door which opened with another Whoosh like noise and Hattie disappeared within it's hallway excitedly. Poppy didn't feel like arguing anymore than she already did today, and again leaned down to look down the hall. Unlike the first one, with one has a lighter blue rug with dark blue gear patterns when she looked down it. The children waving at her from the other side of the tunnel as well, excited grins still on their faces as she blinked. "Come on! Don't be a slowpoke!"

With another sigh, guess who did more slow crawling down another cramped hallway, but she'd be lying if she wasn't curious about an alien space ship. I mean who else from her time would've gotten the honor of being given a tour of a real flying space craft by a real alien no less? She was curious to see what mechanics and insides made up this thing, and besides it'd be rude to say no to someone who's offering to show you they're home so excitedly and if it meant she was going to be staying here for a little while then she might as well know where things were. By the time she got to the other side and was finally able to stand back up, she sighed at the feeling of warmer air at least. Warming up was definately on her to do list. But the almost emptiness of this room compared to all the other rooms Surprised her to say the least. This one was much more open and tidy looking with more stone walls, a couple metal pillars, and equipment you'd see inside a labratory. Right dead center of it all was another metal table thing blocked off by rope like in the control room, but this time it had a giant box of crayons sitting on it. The crayons were a simple green, blue, and red color.

"This is my potion room!," Hattie announced proudly pointing at the room itself, "But don't touch anything. Snatcher dropped one of those pink potions once and it turned him pink for days. He said we shouldn't mess with weird potions."

"Potion room?" Poppy gave the children another curious look. "Are you sure you're not a witch?"

"No. Only when I wear my brewing hat! But I don't know any magic."

.......That only confused Poppy more so why would a child have a potion room? But she again didn't get the chance to relax before Bow ran over towards the other side of the room and towards a small door like hatch on the floor, the small girl grabbing one side of hatch and pushing. Bow strained and after a few seconds a metalic screeching noise rang out as it opened, both women wincing, cringing back at the fingers on chalk bourd noise, and clapping their hands over their ears in some attempt to block out the screeching noise. Poppy was SURE the creaking, screeching noise could be heard everywhere on the planet from their place in space from how loud it was. Up, up, up the hatch went and one giant push Bow managed to push it over. With a giant metal banging sound, the hatch's round metal door SLAMMED and I do mean slammed against the floor with enough sound to be mistaken for a cannon going off. For a moment nothing happened and both Poppy and Hattie stood there still hands clamped over their ears and eyes shut closed.......before slowly reopening their eyes and after a moment of silence, uncovering their ears to the smiling curly haired girl standing there pointing at the the now open hole in the floor.

"Geez, Kid! I think you were loud enough to wake the dead all over space!......ACHOO!!" She sniffed again at the third sneeze.

Bow's smiling didn't waver, instead pointing to it. "Come on! You'll like it promise!" With another smile the tiny curly haired girl turned and jumped down the hole.

"HEY!! KID!!" Poppy ran down the small set of stairs and ran over to the hole in the floor, the fear of the child getting hurt randomly jumping into a hole taking over and immediately looking down the opening. At first she saw nothing. Nothing but a ladder leading down it and some kind of wooden circle thing....but she could definately hear giggling and someone shouting for her to come down as well. ......DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD AND UNSAFE IT IS TO CLIMB DOWN A LADDER WITH A SORE HAND?! Poppy wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the fear of just seeing Bow dive down here and the looming presence of an angry ghost made her do the crazy thing and start to decend the ladder to her uneasy feeling. Which doubled MORE when Hattie fell past her making her cry out for the child only to watch the hatted kid bounce on the round wood circle and catapult herself like a spring out of eye sight. Panic coursed through her as she went down as fast as a sore bodied woman with one good hand could and paused on the ladder when she could actually see the inside of the room. To her relief, Bow wasn't hurt at all but giggling and laying face up at the opening in a pile of weird green paper. The small girl giggled as she made a snow angel in the pile, and Hattie was luckily safe as well looking through another telescope on top of the weird gigantic pile of green paper. Poppy sighed and noticed breifly another small metal table with another small item on it. This time some kind of white dummy and pretty looking gold necklace. With a shake of her head the frazzled woman slowly climbed the last of the steps down and stood by the ladder leading back up. Looking around the room she noticed it looked at it she was on one of the town's busy streets, with plants along the wall behind the metal table, glowing eletric things she was sure only an alien would have mysterious shaped like a blue cat, and behind her by the wooden circle on a spring was a rack with newspapers of all things. .......She blinked. "What is this strange place?" She paused seeing more in color tv screens on fans hovering about and jumped as something rumbled past the window on the far side of the wall flashing yellow making her scramble back. "W-WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THAT?!"

"That's the illusion created by the monitor," Bow happily replied sitting up now and smiling around the room with a bigger grin, "Hattie said the time pieces add stuff to the rooms on the ship to help show where most are located. *sigh* It....reminds me of home...Without all the crime and bad things. I like it here."

At that little sentence Poppy paused. Before looking away with a guilty look, feeling bad over being about to scold the little girl for scaring her like that being so excited to show her home and the place that reminded her of it. Taking a second look around the weird room, she couldn't understand any of it. Were the Nyakuzian people technicalogically advanced too? Or did all this technology form as she slept? She may never know but the face of longer on the little girl's face hit home almost immediately at her. As far as Poppy knew Bow's home still existed just with 'crime and bad stuff' as she put it. Has she fled the country under a war or something? So many questions buzzed about her skull it was starting to give her a headache as she leaned into the cool metal of the ladder next to her. This was all too much too soon. And she wasn't sure how much more she could take at this pace-

"What are y'all doing down here?!" Poppy yelped and ended up accidentally hitting her forehead against the ladder. Instantly her good hand came to clamp at the sore area as she hissed and looked up above her and saw a pretty familiar orange calico face scowling down at them all, one dark orange paw holding onto the chef hat as she did so. "I thought I asked you all to go get cleaned up. I could hear all that ruckus right through the kitchen floor!"

Instantly the children had froze at the annoyed cat's voice and now sported a pair of guilty looks at one another. "We were just showing her!" Hattie's voice answered back for them.

"Well then. The next room she sees is the bathroom! Now you all get up here before I take my cooking back for Conductor to eat."

At the threat of their delicious dinner being taken away both children scrambled for the spring pad kicking up more dollar bills in their way. And Poppy watched with slight surprise as both jumped onto the spring pad one by one catapulting themselves all the way back up as Cookie leaned back to not get knocked over by the two shooting girls. ....Poppy briefly looked down to the spring pad then back up the hole.....Yeah. She was taking her chance with the ladder. The slow climb back up was agonizing but by the time she poked her head at the top she witnessed the older cat lightly scolding the girls for taking so long, but as soon as she saw the head of Poppy, Cookie turned and grabbed her good hand. Pulling with surprising strength of a small plump cat and helping her crawl the rest of the way out, sighing when she was able to climb to her knees.

"Are you alright, Pumpkin?," Cookie asked placing a paw on her shoulder before letting go quickly. "Goodness! You're colder than my home made ice cream!"

"ACHOO!!" Poppy sniffed again and looked up to the tiny cat giving a tired smile. "Y-Yeah. I guess I am a little chilly...And tired...and sore. And now that you mention food-" Her stomach gave out a rumble and she winced. She didn't even know she was hungry."

Cookie gave her a sorry look before sighing and looking back towards the watching children. "Ok you two. I think this young lady's had enough exploring for now. You two go wash your hands in the kitchen and eat your plates I placed in the fridge. I'm going to show your friend here to a room where she can get tidied up and warm." The two girls gave excited smiles at the mention of food and with an excited cheer they scampered off towards the hallway with another sigh from the cat who turned her attention back to Poppy. "I'm so sorry. They can be a little over excited sometimes."

Poppy smiled back and waved a hand. "Oh. No, no. It's ok. I should've expected that from children.....ACHOO!!''

"Well, I expect we need to get you all better before you catch a cold instead of just sneezing." Cookie gestured her up at Poppy slowly stood and made a grab to her hand- Fur suddenly bristling when the human yelped and pulled her still sore hand away from the grip of the cat....Which was immediately pulled back with a pained whimper from Poppy as Cookie frowned and held up the sore limb to her eyes. "....You're hurt."

"J-Just a few scrapes. I-I'll be fine."

"That's no excuse young lady. You should get this under some ice!"

"Yeah...That Snatcher ghost told me too."

Cookie hummed before tugging her and walking towards the small hallway with her in tow. "So I see you met this ghostly friend of theirs too."

Poppy blinked at the small cat. "Wait. You know who he is?"

"I stumbled across him a few times coming up here to visit. Hmph! He's very rude and always steals any dish I make with bacon when he's around me cooking. Quite the oddball out if ya'll ask me." The door whooshed open as soon as they were close enough and she walked on through gesturing for her to follow. "But never fear! Cooking Cat is here! I'll have you all better in no time flat. We'll just get you a change of clothing, a hot meal, and some ice then you'll be good to go!"

Poppy could feel her stomach drop a little as she bent down and proceeded to slowly crawl through the hallway after the cat. "Uh...About that. I-I don't have any clothing for myself really."

Cookie stopped mid step in the middle of the hallway before looking over her shoulder at the slowly crawling woman behind her and reached a paw up to rub to her head. "Well aren't you more forgettful than a penguin on the sun? *sigh* Alright then. I suppose I'll just have to borrow the girls' washer and dryer."

"What? Oh n-no! You don't have to go through all that trouble for me, Ma'am! It's fine."

"Nonsense! I'd be ashamed of myself if I didn't offer a hungry person like you some help and this wouldn't be the first time I helped a person get better...OH! That reminds me. You never told me ya'll's name."

"Oh..I-Im Poppy. Poppy Rooo- ACHOO!!....Rose Bloomington, Ma'am."

Cookie smiled at her. "No need to call me ma'am. Just Cookie. Cooking Cat's only mah stage name you know. Nice you meet ya." She smiled and turned to continue walking down the hallway with Poppy right behind her.

A curious question bubbling in the young lady's head and she blurted out, "So...Since you're a..cat. Does that mean you're a Nyakuzian?"

Cookie didn't stop walking or smiling but her tone shifted a little bit to the sad side. "Well, yes...But not anymore I suppose. The city became too crowded for my liking and too many crimes were comitted. Mostly theivery."

"Yes, I think Bow might've said something about that."

"Poor girl. No child should have to grow up in a place like that."

"So ....you two fled the country?"

Cookie chuckled as the door back to the storage room opened up and she walked out. "You could say that. No. I moved to Mafia town persuing my own dreams of being a master chef a long time ago. You see where ah'm from there's lots and lots of food carts and cafe's so I knew I wouldn't stand much of a chance if I just stayed, and even if I did I would've just become another small store in the piles of stores around myself." She stopped a little aways from the door just as Poppy was nearing the exit staring at the ground. "No. I never wanted to be just like the crowd. I knew I wanted more for my nine lives, so after saving as many pons as I could, I moved far away to Mafia town. I heard it was a big fishing community and they sold most of the city's fish to us. There were rumors about their leader being a chef too. So I thought it was the purrrrfect oportunity for me......I wasn't too right about that though."

Poppy was all wars by now as she slowly climbed out at last and rose to her feet. Giving Cookie a sympathetic look as the cat looked back up to her, her body shivering from the cold air again. "I-I'm....I'm so sorry. What happened if you don't mind me asking?"

Cookie chuckled again. "Don't mind a bit. The mafia hired me on bourd straight away in their kitchen....But it turns out they only did so because they wanted me to chase down all the mice they were having a problem with." Poppy made a scowl and Cookie waved her off. "I know. I was disappointed too. You see usually us cats don't have a very good reputation because of all the theives who happen to coincidentally be cats, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to become an under dog hero of cooking if that made sense. I thought I would be doing a good thing if I switched all their bad food for my good food and maybe spare a few taste buds, but I knew I was wasting my talents there." She turned and began to walk again with Poppy following politely listening interested. "Eventually I did grow tired especially after meeting the cute lil alien. And I just couldn't help myself with all the questions. Was alien food really better than ours? Was there advanced tools to better cook with? My curiousity got the better of me and before I knew it I had so rudely snuck into her bridge using some moon penguin's teleporter to get themselves to and from the moon."

"So....Does that mean Bow fled with you?" They had both reached the ladder that lead down to the storage room floor that would let anyone get to the washer and dryer to use and upon reaching it Cookie turned around and descended the ladder. Poppy slowly doing the same but with her sore arm it was still a little slower. "What happened?"

"No. Honestly I have no idea how she ended up in mafia town herself, but that's a different story. Turns out an alien's kitchen is exactly like mine. In the long run I guess I was hoping for some kind of miracle to help me out of my rut but it didn't matter. I got fired by the head boss as soon as I came back for comspiring with traitorious aliens."

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry." Poppy's foot touch the ground and she watched as the calico waved her and made her way towards the Laundry Cleaner 3000.

"No. I was sick of working for those brutes anyways."

"So...What did you do next?," she asked as she followed.

"Well....I stayed home and felt pretty bad for a long time, but then I found an ad in the newspaper for a cruise ship needing a cook! So obviously I took the chance. It was....not better than the mafia to be honest. Those seals were decent cooks but they were so accident prone and their kitchen was so dangerous. I'm almost glad the ship sank, but it just meant I was back to square one again.....I was so about to give up and go back home. Better a small cook like the rest than not being a cook at all anywhere." Her smile grew as she just waltzed right into the closet like space and turned to poppy. "That little alien is more resourceful than you might think."

"Why? What did she do?"

"Why?...She introduced me to the man....or penguin that made all my dreams come true. We met up again by chance when she was on the same cruise, talk about coincidence. She saw how unhappy I was and wanted to help. But I didn't beleive she could do anything about my situation having already had so many set backs." She made almost a happy purr as Poppy finally walked in next to her after gesturing for her to stand next to herself. "So imagine my surprise when one day Mr. DJ Grooves himself arrived on my doorstep and asked ME of all people to star in a cooking show series! He said his little star told him all about the delicious food his staff received on their vacation and my cute face was absolutely perfect for it! IT WAS A HUGE HIT!! Turns out those moon penguins LOVED all my fish recipes and tips! Next thing I knew I signed a business contract and finally saw my dream take off right before my own eyes. I'll NEVER be able to thank them all enough for making it come true."

"A...cooking show? I didn't know they made those."

"Really? I guess swamp people wouldn't have tv. Oh. Push the red button there to take us down." Her paw pointed to a red button on the inside of the machine they were in.

"A-Actually...I grew up on a farm. W-We were pretty poor." She frowned and reached over to push the button like Cookie had asked. Wobbling a little when the ground beneath them suddenly lowered and she looked up to watch as the light disappeard.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I had no idea," Cookie apologized with a paw placed gently on Poppy's arm. "You poor thing."

"Uh...N-No. It's ok.....You can't change the past." Her frown saddened even more at that.

Cookie's smile came back as she looked at her. "That's true. I can't change how said and how much I struggled then, but that don't mean we can't have a happy future."

".....Heh. Y-Y'know...Y-You're the second person to r-really....t-t-tell me that." When light came back up Cookie's smile vanished seeing the older woman starting to cry but quickly trying to stop once light hit her face." I-I'm sorry. I s-shouldn't get so emotional. I-It's just that so many big bad things have happened recently a-and I.....I-.."

She stopped when a paw grabbed her and Cookie gave her a slightly stern and determined look. "Honey, there is no reason not to cry if you feel like you want or need to cry about it. Now you go on right ahead and don't mind me. Because I'm not gonna stop someone if they need to cry out their emtions. It's unhealthy to keep that bottled up."

That's just what she needed to hear. With watery blue eyes Poppy stared at this little cat for a long silent moment before she sniffed again and finally small little tears began to drip down that face one after another and before she knew it she was on her knees sobbing harder and louder than a baby. Cookie shushing her and rubbing the poor sobbing gal's back as all the pent up emotions finally came out as she cried and cried.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!!," she wailed out to no one between chokes. Her good fist coming down to hit the floor in frustration and anger. "IT'S NOT FAIR!! IT'S NOT FAIR!! WHY DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!? I WANT TO GO H-HOME!!" She hiccuped hard and reached her arm up to wipe at her heated face. "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!! B-B-BUT I C-CAN'T B-BECAUSE EVERYTHING'S GONE!! *hic* AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!!"

"Shh. There, there. I know it must be tough not having a home. Feeling so lost and scared having no one around. But it'll be ok. You just let it all out, Sugar."

"H-How do y-you know?," she hiccuped again and looked to the cat in question with tears blurring her vision.

Cookie smiled sadly. "Because I have a little blonde girl living with me who felt the same way. Sometimes these things happen and we just need a little help." The paw came up to her shoulder as Cookie pulled a small hankerchief from her chef's pocket and offered it to her to which Poppy was rather grateful. "Feel better?" She hiccuped and nodded wiping her face with that small tissue. A little relief coming to her from letting all the emotions out. "There, there. Come on. I bet you'll feel even better after getting all this dirt off your pretty self and getting a bite to eat."

Her stomach rumbled again at the mention of food and Cookie chuckled. Slightly pushing her body upwards to help motivate the sniffing gal to her wobbly feet once again and have a look around the room once those tears were dried away. ....Oh. This must've been the bathroom they were talking about it was all very clean with sea themed things everywhere. Starfish shaped handles on the drawers, sea shell covers for the lights, towels, a sink, mirror, bottles of soap, laudry soap, and shampoo on the shelves along with the towels, bath toys, and anything and everything else a bathroom would have including what looked like an extra set of washing machines with one right open with what looked like warm water and a stepping stool in front of it. There was even another metal table like thing with a tray of fake cakes on it. But funnily no showers or a bathtub in sight. Perhaps she was supposed to use the sink to wash her face but was surprised when Cookie lead her over to the full washing machine.

"Alright. Here. I'll get you a nice herbal shampoo, those work wonders for silky, soft hair."

"I-.....B-But this is a-

"Washing machine? Oh heavens no. It was recycled into a bathtub. Something the aliens call recycling. Fascinating isn't it? Now go on. Wash up. You don't want to be filthy forever do you?"

Well......She was in really no position to argue about anything anymore was she?

[thatcanadianfangirl]

Colours  -Part 2-

Jackson Whittemore X Jen

Requested: yes

Plot: Every single soul sees in color until they lose the hope of finding a soulmate. 

Word Count: 2,949

A/N: I'm still struggling. Sorry, but here the second part to colours. I know it took forever and I'm truly sorry. Also only most of this is edited, not all of it. If you are younger than 13 please don't read my works, mature content.

part 1

 It’s been a week of hiding out in my apartment and that day had become unspeakable. Avoiding life’s reality became my new routine, even if the voice deep down inside whispered ‘Snap the fuck out of it. That’s your damn soulmate.’ I never did,  It wasn't known as logical in my anxious working brain.

I replayed every step of that day in my head over and over again. The moments of my heart having a panic attack in my rib cage. The way Jackson’s now blue eyes sparkled, vibrantly, and the way I dashed off from him and away from my favourite café. I was scared, I was overwhelmed. If I’m being honest I thought I would never find him. As the horrid thought started to settled in ,he suddenly rolls up out of fucking nowhere.

I was startled, like a spooked horse from a gunshot. 

In my mind there was nothing else I could do, I believed I was destined to level down for less. I was wrong and it happened incredibly fast, one minute I was okay with only having a soulmate. The next, I was facing my true soulmate, In my mind everything was unfolding too fast.

The anxious and eager knock on my apartment door threw me out of my strangling mind. I settled the chip bag I was devouring just seconds ago, down beside me. Grabbed a hold of the remote, pausing the Disney picture on the screen. Searching for a clearer sound of who decided to disturb my depressed peace. 

Jen don't ignore me, I left you alone for a full seven days. You know rule number three. I bribed your co-worker to cover your ass, so I better get a thanks because it wasn't easy. Also I know your in there, I could The Little Mermaid playing before you paused it. I mean where else who you be, lets be real.” Monica yelled through the door, only coming out as a loud murmur. Though I could hear every word perfectly fine.

Rule number three:

If something emotional or personal happens to the other. Leave them alone for a whole seven days, then you can act like a psycho . 

Rule number Four..

I sighed loudly rolling my eyes to the back of my head, I yanked the comfortable blanket from around me. My seven days are up and I'm not too happy about it. I’m glad Rule number three wasn't made any longer, because I don't think I’d ever go back to reality if more days were added. 

once the Seven days are up it’s time to let reality flow again, no matter the conditions. Within those days on vacation from the real world my house has turned into a disgusting hibernation cave. 

Turning off the T.V I scooted my butt of the couch and towards the door to let my crazy bestfriend inside. I pushed the door in a little bit with my body before turning the dead bulk and swinging the door open. 

I had to admit she looked different, maybe it was because I’ve always saw her in a colourless state. Or that she actually did change within the days we haven't seen each other. Her hair now a dirty blonde, almost reaching a light sandy brown. Her eyes a dull grey with  small hints of blue specks. Monica’s skin was peachy with a tinge of a tan, flawless like the rest of her. 

“Whoa” The word was shared between us. like and echo through an abandoned house. I faintly smiled at her, I didn't know what that meant. “I never thought I’d see you again.” Monica spoke defiantly sensing my confusion. 

“I know the colourless me was almost like an alter ego, a depressed alter ego that hid me under multiple layers. That Jen is a distant memory now... God I missed your ass.” I spoke understanding where she was coming from. 

We’re both captured in silence before colliding into each other’s embrace. My arms wrapping around her neck as her’s circled around my waist. I breathed in relief, god I missed her more than I would of liked to admit. We stayed into each others arms, taking this moment all in. Without her. I couldn't see a life without her, She’s my sister.

“I missed you too.” She mumbled but I heard her clearly. I started to pull away while she continued to talk. “But I knew you needed the time and space to gather yourself again. And of course rule number three.” Monica said light heartily. 

“Yeah I did and I’m ready to return to my life, clean my apartment. Go back to work and when I’m ready, I’ll find him at the cafe down the road. And Jeremy is a sweet guy all you have to do is tell him that you already have a soulmate. He’d understand.” I smiled at her, happy to have her back.

“It’s okay you can tell him for me and while you're at it tell him I’m a lesbian too.” We laughed together at her comment. Jeremy was a dork and so damn clueless, but I couldn't ask for better co-worker. 

Monica obviously chose to stay over, helping me clean up the pig’s den I’ve been currently living in for the past week. I truly don't know how I survived in this filth, it was absolutely disturbing. After taking my beats pill from the bathroom, Monica played her music an we began our cleaning marathon.

We danced and goofed around, having fun and making the most out of it. With her anything can become fun, she was that kind of person. Though through the process I heard a lot of ‘Holy shit you’re so disgusting’ or ‘I think you’re brother came to visit early’ which got boring after the first ten times she said them. 

But what can I do, I love the girl. 

waking up to a clean and quite atmosphere felt refreshing for a recovering mind. I remembered just days ago, I woke up to a loud TV playing something from the Disney Channel.  I didn't usually fall asleep watching T.V, but when I do. I’m mostly likely not feeling the best and always something Disney. 

Disney is my comfort blanket bringing me back to my childhood-self. Guarding me from the adult world that happened to be my reality. 

I tapped on my Shawn Mendes playlist from my phone for it to be heard from my Bluetooth speaker. I loved the way Shawn’s voice soothed me to a calming state that felt so unbelievable. Gathering myself in the shower today felt different, maybe it was the first time in forever I felt like my old self again. 

The cold water cascades down on my body waking up every tired muscle and cell. feeling more refreshed than I’ve felt in a very long time. It was amazing. My hands slipped all over my body, once they reached my left shoulder blade they slowed. Feeling the soulmate mark embedded into my skin, rough and texturized. I could the shape at the tips of my fingers, it’s a simple leaf. 

what’s the meaning behind it, there has to be a reason why it’s that, right? My mother and father share a poppy on their wrists. They say they know what it means, but didn't want to tell me till I found my soulmate. Now they can, but I don't think I want to know. It’s their mean I didn't want to intrude. 

I had gotten out of the shower and began to get ready for the day ahead. somewhere deep down I could feel this day is going to change my life forever. 

Pulling my olive green bootie on I said goodbye to the cat and I was out the door. Hoping that they give me enough courage to enter the café that my soulmate was employed at

To relief stress from taking controlling of my body,  leading me back to the apartment. I lost myself to my workout playlist, finding the beat and slightly dancing to it. Surprisingly it felt amazing, my spirit felt free and happy.

It wasn't long before I found myself standing in front of the beautiful café. Removing my earbuds with a quick yank I stared at the café’s big words. ‘The Black Rose’ The place I adored and happened to hold my mate hostage. 

One thought crossed my mind, why haven't we made eye contact sooner? I mean I have been going to this coffee shop since I moved here. I think I've seen him a few times before, but no eye contact. It seemed weird, almost unnaturally strange. 

“Miss are you going to go in or stare at it like you're banned from it?” A smooth and gentle voice flooded my ears. My head snapped to the source, a little boy, no older than thirteen. “Um-.” My words got caught in my throat, I must of looked deranged just staring at the sign. 

The boy smiled at me sweetly before walking forward and opening the door. Still the smile stayed as he held the glass door open for me. There was no chance for me to deny him now, especially with those brown puppy dog eyes. Brown was a gorgeous eye colour, But blue seemed to be above it. 

I looked around quickly, not catching anyone who had saw my strange staring. I return his bright smile as I walked in , “Thank you, you're such a gentlemen.”  words spilled out before any thought. “Of course, my mom taught me to be.”

I was a little amazed at his manners, because I’ve bumped into teenagers around his age before. They didn't have anything close to what he had, rude, anxious little demons. This boy a pure angel with his adorable smile and politeness. 

“Than she was doing something right.” Was my last words to the young boy, my mind no longer distracted. My mood changing from happiness to determination, it was now or never. 

This is my soulmate, nobody else's.

This is my life, nobody else's 

I walked my strong path up to the barista having one thing on my mind. I need to talk to Jackson, not even worrying, if he was working or not. 

 Melting brown eyes stared into mine, “Is Jackson here?” I asked breathless, his name just rolled off my tongue like it was the most natural thing. Amusement showed on his face. his one eyebrow lifted, as if testing me like I wasn't worthy. 

“And who are you exactly?” He asked carefully, 

“His soulmate.” With those words the guy’s head was over his shoulder immediately. “Jackson!” He hollered loudly and waited. My heart pounded hard in my chest, this was it. I’m going to see my soulmate, actually see him. 

“Yeah?” His husky voice muffled behind a door. My mind slipped out of confidence, this was a terrible idea. What was I thinking, I obviously wasn't!

“There’s someone here for you.”  

Well it’s too late to back out now. remember, now or never. 

“I’ll be a few seconds.” 

You know never seems like the better option.

The barista’s head whipped back towards me, “Tell him I headed outside, thank you.” I spoke before walking towards the door. Outside I glanced down at a broken crack in the pavement, it felt strange, in a perfect world nothing was meant to be broken, maybe bent, but never broken. It reminded me that this world was far from perfect. 

“Listen,” Jackson’s voice wavered, I turned around startled by the way it had affected me. Seeing him forcing his vibrant eyes to the ground was confusing. He took a deep breath before continuing. “Last night was a complete and utter mistake. It was only a distraction, not an attachment. Honestly it didn't help like I thought it would, but it cant happen again. I have a soulmate...” He trailed off.

It took milliseconds to put two and two together, he slept with someone else to forget me. it didn't work, but my soulmate had sex with another women. I didn't want it to hurt, but god did it ever. Like a rope wrapped it’d self around my heart and pulled until it  cut into two. It was a bloody crime. 

My throat grew to a throb as my eyes stung as tears lined my eyes. Fuck it hurt. “I know because she is me.” I choked my words out before turned my way back home. My hand clutched towards my mouth trying to stop my sobs. 

“Shit.” Jackson mumbled under he’s breath. I heard his feet charging after me, I wanted on of those unnatural cracks to open up and take me under. It was too late, Jackson hooked his hand in mine. Tingles erupted and made their way through my body. Making my mood change rapidly. He yanked me back and towards him.

My free hand made it’s way under my eyes and wiped my warm tears away. My throat’s throb no longer in tact. “Wow you're breathtaking.” His tone dreamy as I raised my eyes to his blue ones. 

I’ve never seen anything more memorizing than the shade of blue in his eyes. His perfect and sharp features, his skin having no flaws. He was perfect and couldn't be more blessed. 

“She really meant nothing, It-” 

“Stop, Jackson, I know.” I said softly. 

“God your voice sounds as if you stole it from an angel.” he said in the same tone as before. It made a giggle erupt from my chest at the way he said it. “I think you just took my breath away.” He spoke seriously as his expression was blank. 

“Jackson I think we need to start again if you want your slip up to be left behind.” I slide my hand out of his as my rational thoughts came back to me. Regretting it because I was know missing how his physical contact made me feel.

“Okay, well at least I'm on break.” He said lifting up his wrist and checking the time. “I have thirty minutes, now walk a little ways down the sideway.”  He directed. I smiled with a confused expression I started walking backwards, “And why exactly I am I doing this?” I asked him still looking into his vibrant eyes, I don't think I could ever get tired of that color. 

“You wanted to start over, so we are. You’ll come walking back, distracted my your phone or that cute dog across the street..” I whipped my head to the other side of the street when he said ‘cute dog’ and there was in fact a beautiful dog. 

It was a white German Shepard, It was almost like I was colourless again. except the colour of it’s fur happened to be brighter. I had spotted it’s light honey coloured eyes once it glanced in my direction. One beautiful creature. 

“Jen” At the sound of my name rolling off his tongue I mentally purred. I loved the way he said it. I turned towards him pulling my lips inward as I got distracted before I was meant to. “Sorry.” I laughed out. 

He rolled his eyes but nevertheless his smile remained. “anyways. you’ll get distracted and ill bump into you. Its an easy plan should go easy.” He said and at that moment I realized he was being completely serious about this. I know it wont be that hard to fall in love with Jackson cause I already adored him. 

I did exactly as told and bumped into him, my shoulder pressed against him and the sensation of sparks had me gasping. I dropped my phone that I used for my distraction, Jackson held onto my waist and skillfully rescued my phone from hitting  the cement flooring. 

A sly smile made it’s way onto his lips as he said “My bad I didn't see you there.” I wanted to laugh because this was already planned out, but I kept my act on. “It’s fine I wasn't watching where I was going.” I responded back. “A beauty like you shouldn't have to.” He spoke out. I couldn't help but feel the blush creep up my neck. 

“The names Jackson and I think I just found my Soulmate.” I giggled slightly at the way he said it. He handed me my phone back after I watched him save him number into my phone. 

“Jen,” I smiled up at him as he pulled my body closer, “Well, Jen Let me take you out for a cup of coffee.” 

I frowned and loosened  his grip on me, his face fell just slightly. Just the reaction I was wanting. “I don't do coffee.” I spoke with a vaguely disgusted face. 

“What are you talking about? The day I met you. you had a coffee with two sugars and two cream. and you have the audacity to say you don't do coffee.” He spoke in some kind of rant. I rolled my lips in to stopping my laugh, But I knew I couldn't hold it in as I raised my hand to my mouth and laughed. 

“That wasn't funny.” He said through gritted teeth playfully. He captured me into his arms and squeezed my to his chest as I continued to laugh. It felt as if we’ve know each other our whole lives instead of a few moments.

Jackson still held me in his arms as our giggles began to diminish in the air. his hold on me loosened a bit and I enjoyed the moment we were in before he had to go back into work. 

“Yes I’ll have coffee with you.”

“You didn't have to say I already knew.” 

[agent-houdini]

Nano Shock

in which TGC goes a bit differently after Whiskey was shot in the head thanks to houdini and @the-roanoke-society

Houdini looked down at the photo in her hands.

It was a Polaroid, clearly well-loved, with a woman who looked like she was given the world according to her smile.

"Can you do it?"

Ginger's voice felt distant for a moment, but she nodded. 

"Of course I can."

Whiskey was a little lost; just like her, really, lost among the different looks she took on every day. This was their now or never moment, and Houdini knew there was still good in him. Seraphim did, too.

It was a moment, but soon the Houdini that stood in front of Ginger  - blonde with green eyes and a splash of freckles - was now the spitting image of the woman in the photograph. 

There had only been a few other times she had interacted with Whiskey outside the few times at the bar, but each time, she looked different. Dark brown hair and blue eyes when they were dancing those few nights; redhead and muddy eyes when she was trying to get him to drop the cowboy idioms in one of the offices in the Distillery.

It felt... a little wrong, but necessary. (Not like Houdini hasn't been dead people before. There was just something about it, this time.)

"Let's hope this works..." Ginger nodded, opening the door, stepping in front of Houdini. Whiskey was finally stirring from the nano gel and clearly making eyes at Ginger.

"Hello gorgeous, what's your name?" he smiled, hopping off the bed. 

Ginger was about to have none of it as he pressed on, introducing himself as Jack and dropping some of the cheesiest pickup lines about making her scream his name all night.

Clearly, there was a bit of amnesia. Ginger sighed and Houdini took that as her cue from the shadows of the door to walk in.

Perhaps, this way, they'd have better luck than with a photo. It was a shame that before Eggsy and Merlin showed up, they had no idea who Harry was... this method would've probably helped him faster.

Houdini swallowed nervously as she walked up next to Ginger, a soft smile gracing her stolen features.

"Well, who's this pretty lady?" Jack asked, taking her hand and pressing a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

Houdini internally cursed the whole thing; he'd never looked at her like that before. Ginger frowned; perhaps, it needed to be said, rather than just presented in front of him like a doll.

"Jack... don't you remember?" she whispers, brows knitting together as he places his hands on her hips. It wasn't the first time she had used his first name before, though it was certainly her least favorite of them all.

"Remember what, darling? Was it a magical night of passion?" 

"No, Jack."

There's a pause; Ginger blinked, confused. Something was rolling in his head, but there wasn't enough for it to click together. She nodded her head at Houdini, while Jack looked at her, studying her face and features, a hand at her cheek.

"Jack, honey... I'm dead. The police said wrong place, wrong time."

That's when it hits him. All of it.

Memories roll in, of his beautiful wife laughing, pregnant with their child, curled up beside him in bed... He remembers the money, saddling up with Champ, the gambling... and Poppy.

His wife would not have wanted him to act this way.

She would not want him to kill so many people by siding with a maniac, taking part in a genocide...

But... how was she in front of him? Sorrow turned to rage - what kind of fuckery was Statesman fooling with?

He throws Houdini's hand from his face, disgusted and seething -

"Jack."

Ginger's voice snaps him back for half a second and Houdini takes that moment to run out the door. 

"I got two fuckin' questions for you, Ginger. Why the fuck did I just see my dead wife in front of me? And where the hell is that fuckin' butterfly guy, because he shot me in the fuckin' face --"

"Why would he do that?" Ginger asked, concerned. The call over the radio did not sound like that at all.

"Answer me, Ginger!"

Out in the hallway, Houdini tries to catch her breath as she changed into anyone, anyone but Jack's dead wife, or herself. It's a random change of hair color and eye color, settling on strawberry blonde, like Odine's hair --

"Who the fuck are you?"

Houdini shrieked, backing against the wall. Jack has her cornered and he's fuming, watching as the woman in front of him changes eye color and hair color like magic.

"You're one of them, aren't you."

Houdini settles on the image she wears when they're working together in one of the offices above. The anger is back again, seething as he pushes off the wall, cursing about 'the whole damn thing.'

Ginger pokes her head out the door and frowns. "I thought you were going --"

Houdini tries to make herself as small as she can as Jack curses, pushing her back up against the wall.

"I am going. Eggsy needs backup." Jack hissed as he stormed off, rubbing a hand over his face. He reminded himself as he got into the Silver Pony that his wife would not condone his behavior and that he cannot let his anger get the best of him. Before taking off, he tucked the polaroid of his deceased wife into the controls, but not before pressing a kiss to it.

Back inside, Ginger handed Houdini a small bottle of anti-anxiety pills.

"Thank you, Houdini. Remember to take these. I know he spooked you storming out like that..." Ginger explained, pressing the bottle into the palm of her hand. The Roanoke agent looked as white as a sheet, but for reasons other than being scared shitless. "I'll let Lillith and Seraphim know that it worked."

"Thanks, Ginger," Houdini nodded, closing her hand around the bottle.

The look in Jack's eyes would haunt her forever.

[thebaronalwayswins]

THE RED BARON: Chapter 2

WARNING: SMUT. Also, note that the main character is an OC. This is NOT Jade’s story.

Story inspired by Season 1 of AMC’s “Into the Badlands”

THE RED BARON: CHAPTER 2

“There’s a clean dress and underthings on the chair in the corner. If you need anything else, I’ll be right outside Miss.”

“Miss.” That’s the first time I’d ever been called that. The room was cool and dark, with only sunlight filtering in from the hurricane shutters between the heavy embroidered curtains. In the center under an unused chandelier was a large, brass bathtub, steaming with the scent of confederate jasmine. In the corner was a plush, velvet upholstered throne of a chair that had been delicately draped with a fresh, brand new dress and stark white underwear.

Something was wrong.

The Baron’s Cogs, despite the red banners that loomed over us, wore dusty blue. From head to toe, everything that was visible was always that ever fading color that blended into the hot Louisiana sky. The dress that graced this chair, though, was a rich plum. There must have been a mistake. Maybe the house Cog thought that the bath she was drawing was for the Baroness?

Regardless, the bath was going to get cold if I had continued to stand around pondering, so I stripped down to my dingy bra and knickers and took pause. I had never had a proper bath before. I’d heard stories of the members of the household bathing completely nude, and while that sounded terrifying, was the most exhilarating idea I had ever heard. After gently folding my things over the stool next to the tub, I swung my leg over the edge and stepped in.

“Agh!” I squeaked and drew back. It was hot! I tried again, but this time slowly dipped my feet into the large basin one at a time. I sank into the piping water all the way up to my neck, being careful to keep my cut hand and bandage out of the water. I didn’t want to tarnish this with the blood still oozing from my hand. I cautiously closed my eyes and cherished the moment as if it were my last.

A gentle knock at the door startled me out of my stupor and I watched as the door slowly peaked open and a younger woman slipped through with a large leather bag.

“Hello.” She padded over to the opposite side of the room and picked up a small wooden chair from the vanity under one of the huge windows. Gingerly placing it next to the side of the tub, she sat down and reached for the small cloth that rested on the rim. “I was told you had a cut that needed tending?”

I glanced at my hand.

“Here. Let me take a look.”

I tried to hide my fear as I sat up and stretched out my wrapped hand towards her. She carefully unwrapped the blood soaked rag and let it drop to the floor, inspecting the wound as well as she could in the low light.

“That’s quite a cut. I’m going to have to stitch it closed, but first we’ll need to clean out the dirt to prevent infection.”

She dipped the clean cloth in the still steaming bath water and paused, looking at my face that could no longer hide the unease underneath.

“My name is Veil. What’s yours?”

I didn’t respond, my voice not wanting to break through the tight seal I had on my emotions.

“It’s alright. I’m here to help. This is going to hurt, but I’ll try to make it as quick and painless as possible, ok? Here…” she trailed off as she rummaged through her bag and produced a small bottle. She scanned the room and stood to fetch an empty glass from the vanity, pouring a small sip of the amber liquid from the bottle.

“Drink this and we’ll wait a bit for it to settle in.” She handed me the glass and started to tie her long, curly, black hair behind her. I stared into the cup, trying to decide if it would benefit her at all to poison me. “Come on. The sooner you drink it, the sooner you’ll feel better. Between you and me,” she whispered, her brown eyes sparkling with a smile, “I have to give this to the Baron before he’ll so much as let me look at a wound, so I know it works.”

I smiled a little and shot down the bitter liquid, gagging as it passed my throat.

“Yeah, he does that too.”

She chuckled and started to scrub away the grime around the wound as tenderly as she could. The muscles in my palm were still tender, but by the time she started to clean inside the wound, I could hardly feel a thing.

“I take that it finally kicked in?”

I nodded lazily, watching as she continued to pick out dirt and poppy seeds.

“You know you helped to make that? The opium in that tincture came from the first harvest of the year. I don’t like using it, but in small doses, it helps with minor surgeries like these.”

I knew that opium was the end product of the harvest, but Cogs had no way of affording a taste of the fruits of our labor. We never got a salary. Only food enough to get by, a shelter to live in, and our blue uniforms. I had never felt a euphoria like this. It was as if everything had melted away. I was no longer in the tub, or in the Baron’s huge house, or even in the Badlands. I felt a freedom like I never had before. I wasn’t a Cog anymore. I wasn’t even human. I just existed as a being in the universe. -:- I was just starting to come back to the room when Veil was snipping the last stitch in my palm. “There. Now, I’m going to bandage this back up and leave you with a few clean bandages and some salve. Keep it clean, replace the bandages daily, and it should heal up in a couple of weeks. Just be gentle with this hand, ok?”

I nodded that I understood.

“I can’t leave you like this. I don’t want you drowning on my watch. Here’s something to help you come back to the land of the living.” She handed me the glass again, but this time, the liquid was sweet and the color of mashed raspberries. By the time she had packed up, put her shawl on, and stood, I was wide awake and wondering where I was supposed to go next.

Veil was about to turn the door when she paused and turned to look at me. On her face was an expression of concern as she seemed to be trying to decide what to say.

“I suggest that you wash and dress as quickly as you can, get out of this house, and return to your family.” Her tone was hushed and troubled. “I don’t know why the Baron seems to have taken to you, but it would be in your best interest to stay as far away from him as you can.”

Before I could ask questions, she was already out the door.

Unsure of what she meant, but spooked nonetheless, I hurriedly finished up in the last of the warm water, climbed out of the oversized tub, dried off with the large clean cloth draped over the brass rack next to the tub, and surveyed the fresh clothing on the velvet chair. Before I could decide what to do with it, two house Cogs came scampering in to the room. While one started to empty the tub, the other came to address me.

“Miss, the Baron has asked that you join him for dinner in the main dining hall. May we assist you in dressing?”

Confused and still reeling from Veil’s warning, I nodded half heartedly and the Cogs bustled to their respective duties. One helped me into the bra, knickers, and corset provided, while the other shook out the dress and hung it from a hook on the wall. A third Cog came rushing in and prepared the vanity table with an ornate silver brush and several silver and porcelain pots and bowls filled with various cosmetics and perfumes. Within minutes, I was dressed, my hair was combed and pinned, my lips, cheeks, and nails were painted, and I was slipping my feet into the most lovely shoes I had ever seen. The first Cog led me to a massive mirror in the corner and I gasped aloud at the reflection.

The woman I saw in the mirror wasn’t someone I recognized at all. The floor length wine colored gown I wore fit perfectly. From the hem gracefully brushing the wood floors to the gold clasp reaching across my collar bones, the dress looked as though it was sewn just for me. The slit up to my thigh revealed the high heeled shoes, with a chain stretching over my toes and my ankles. My lips were plump, the color of the poppies I had spent my whole life caring for, and my lashes were heavy with kohl. My hair, which had been brushed and curled with a hot iron, tumbled effortlessly over my shoulders and down my bare back. I had never dreamed that looking like this was possible, much less that I’d be staring at my own reflection in the Baron’s house. Not even my mother, in all her glamour, had ever come close to the reflection staring back at me.

“Are you ready, Miss? Dinner is about to be served. The Baron is waiting.”

I snapped back to reality. The Baron! I had almost forgotten what I was about to do. But no time for that. The house Cogs ushered me out the doors, down the hall past the most gorgeous paintings of lush, green landscapes and immaculately dressed men and women, and down the stairs toward the dining hall where the man who owned my entire life was waiting to sit down to dinner with me.

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch8 Discovery P2

(Warning: Death Scene ahead. The third floor is the same cut third floor in the video here and all the things described are here as well. Only behind the door is something different for the story. And Snatcher's dialogue came from the video of the cut content as well. )

The guards marched the poor woman now panicking in their grip flailing about, trying to get out of their grip like a fly in a cold spiderweb to no avail. The two giant guards marched noisily towards somewhere unknown as the third floor rooms and hallways passed them as they marched with seemingly no regard for the woman yelling and pulling between them. Eventually marching down one hallways in particular with a double door room at the end of it, heavy and thick with chains and locks fit for a dungeon instead of a bed room. The two guards went right up to it and before Poppy could even yell out peck again- She was tossed in rather hard. She landed with a giant thud sound and yelped out as her body landed with the freezing cold floor. And it only began to get colder and COLDER!! Poppy groaned from the pain but those blue eyes snapped open at the sudden noise of doors slamming behind her. Panic and adrenaline pumping through her veins and she stumbled to her feet as fast as she could. The rattling of chains and clicking of heavy locks made her fear spike worse and she went to it as fast as she could grabbing the door knob and pushing.

"HEY!! WHAT THE PECK!? LET ME OUT!!" The heavy doors creaked from her pushing and pulling and desperately turning the knob. The floor shaking lightly with the heavy footsteps of the guards walking away. The realization of them walking away made her more desperate to get out, and she now went to banging on the door. "H-HEY!! DO YOU LUGNUTS HEAR ME?! I SAID I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OK?! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID BUT IM SORRY OK!! PLEASE!! LET ME GO!! I SWEAR TO YOU I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING THAT CRAZY SHADOW LADY SAID!!"

She got no reply and could hear them getting and farther away, panicking she tore herself away from the door. Heart hammering in her ears and eyes scrambling around the dark room for any signs of escape to no avail. No windows. No other doors. Nothing. The coldness was starting to creep in now and the shadows of the room got closer....and closer...... Her panting became faster and in a moment of desperation, she backed all the way to the other side of the empty room and looked at the door. Bracing herself, she ran as fast as she could across the room and rammed her shoulder as hard as she could into the heavy duty door. A thud rang out but there wasn't even a dent in the thick would. Leaving her only falling to the ground and reaching up to rub her sore shoulder from the ramming. The cold slowly creeped closer and closer and the shadows swallowed her whole until her world fell into a black slumber for a thousand years. ....... ............. ................................

Until her awakening years later.

The silence of the frost was an almost empty numb feeling until that jolt of energy shot through, and their was a gasp of air sucked into those newly awakened lungs that coughed and sucked in breaths. Like she had been under water for such a long time. It was dark. And it was cold. And she was scared. But the energy.....It was so big. And so bright light energy. It seemed to chase the darkness away. The sore, numb, stiff limbs moved in what seemed like forever. It was so hard and she shivered from the cold she still felt. Where was she?.....What happened?.....What was that bright light?

Poppy weakly managed to move her sore, cold body into pushing her front half up and looking around the room....She was...She was still in this prison? What happened? All she remembered was a crazy snow storm, and guards, and the last thing she remembered just being thrown inside here. In the dark her slow blinking eyes could vaguely make out the door. She...She must've knocked herself out from ramming into the door. Gotta admit not her most proudest moment or best idea. How long was she even out?...Didn't matter. All she knew was that she was still stuck in that room and needed to get out before that crazy shadow lady or guards decided to come back. And get away from this frozen wasteland as fast as possible. Willing herself onto her hands and knees, and crawled to the door and began weakly pushing and banging on it. Maybe someone would come and hear her out about her story.

And someone came.

***********************************************************************************************

Out of all the parts of the mansion she'd been in, the third floor was by fair the most creepy and she REALLY doubted anyone other than her and Snatcher had ever gotten this far up in the manor before and escaped Vanessa's wrath. The mafia men. Snatcher's subjects. Those Explorer guys. Rough Patch. That weird....ghost thing?? That one image made her shiver, but at least they were far away from this place now. But still. This place was creepy with a capital C. She was SURE she'd rather fight a hundred Snatcher's with an army of ghost behind him rather than explore one room of this third floor. Her ghostly friend wasn't kidding when he said Vanessa went off her deep end. The entire third floor was just COVERED wall to wall in literal newspapers. Very, VERY old timey newspapers where each one had to be hand written with an ink and pen, and copy machines weren't even a thought. She tried reading one before but found she couldn't make anything out other than maybe one or two old faded words. Some had old pictures but those were too faded to be made out too. But what she could read was Vanessa's crazy black paint scribbles painted throughout the entire place. Most were 'PRINCE', 'PRINCESS', 'QUEEN', 'KINGDOM', and VERY scarily 'HAPPILY EVER AFTER'. Along with multiple drawings of a crown here and there. But those weren't the only writings on the walls. She guessed Vanessa had at least a bit of sanity left before she lost it all because she found some full blown sentences and pictures around the place when she first explored it too. Some very weird things. In one room with a clawed chair she found a blue and green picture of a moon she guessed with an annoyed red face and a yellow crown on it's head. Not too sure what that was all about. Then there was another drawing of the moon phases over a curved line and under it looked like two eyes and a monicule similar to Moonjumper's but she didn't wanna think about that. Then there was the spooky eye and solor system diagram. And then there was the weird mural thing, looked like someone just spray painted a basic green land, blue sky, and bright sun or moon in the same colors used to draw that weird frowning moon picture. Vanessa must've been REALLY off her rocker, but what spooked her the most weren't the pictures or newspapers, but the very strange three fancy cursive writing sentences she found among them all. She still remembered them.

"The Prince loves the moon so much MAYBE HE SHOULD MARRY IT THEN MAYBE HE CAN GIVE ME MORE ATTENTION!!" She remembered Snatcher and Moonjumper saying he loved to watch the moon and stars when he was alive. So she guessed Vanessa was jealous of him loving the moon and stars as a hobby just as much as when she was Jealous over bacon. "My prince Im sorry what happened to your home I just didn't like to see you go It's alright now you can't miss it and neither will I." Hattie felt even MORE sorry for the two ghosts when she read that. They never had a chance. "I know it was weird how I said it! I just didn't want you to get unbound. All I want was for you to never leave this house." YEP!! REALLY WEIRD AND VERY OBSESSIVE!!!

She still crept forward keeping her umbrella handy and looking left and right throughout the dark. Yeah, Vanessa was still unconscious, human, and trapped inside a bathroom with no escape, but that still didn't help Hattie feel better. I mean any second she was expecting to see or her stupid, scary ghost self pop up around a corner or coming out of one of the rooms. THAT LADY WAS NUTS!!! The small creaking sounds of banging continued up ahead and the child pointed the umbrella forward, ready to blast anything at a moment's notice. She wondered for a moment if Snatcher had been right, and there really was no one up there, that it was all just the wind. Though she never heard anything like that before, she also never saw anyone frozen so maybe he was right....But that didn't sound like wind. As she tiptoed by she saw an old camera and remembered Snatcher's interference with her trying to get the time piece from the attic. Who knew he could shapeshift to look just herself. She still remembered it like it was yesterday, a camera flash then came the noodle she knew and loved to mess with. He didn't like her winning too much.

"Hey, hey now! No reason to throw a fist at your old buddy! Ha ha ha ha! What are you doing up here?" Then he appeared in the light from the camera "Don't you know she'll go mental if she catches you?" NNnnnooo. Really? She would've thought Vanessa was just chasing her to come and eat cookies like she said, not definitely turn her into an ice statue. So she asked him what he was doing there interfering with the contract they had. "What me? Im just looking for some dirt on my old friend the Moonjumper. Poor fellow. Doesn't even know he used to live here." She SEVERELY doubted that. When she first met Moonjumper he seemed super aware of the fact Vanessa was his ex lover and Hattie suspected that Snatcher was just mocking him which confirmed her suspicions with the next sentence. "Eeeeevery time I bring him something from this place he almost wets his bed in fear. Ha ha ha ha!" YEP! Moonjumper def knew who Vanessa was. "Subcon Forest isn't big enough for the two of us you know. And now you, a little girl, is trying to enter the fight for the forest as well? My, my. That won't do. You need to go or else she'll come up here and find you, right? I guess it would be a terrible misfortune if the key disappeared. Ha ha ha ha!" Oh yes. The good mindset he had that everyone was trying to take his forest and admitted at first he thought she was trying t invade his forest since he heard a lot about alien invasions. Then she had to go around chasing him while dodging Vanessa when he stole the key to the attic from her. "Ha Ha! It's mine! What are you gonna do?Don't you know you can't hurt a shadow?" .....Yeah. She got it back, but he was a sore loser as always. "You want the key? Take it! It's yours! I don't need it anyway and you won't be needing it either when she catches you! Ha ha ha!!" Jokes on him! She never will and he always lost to her!

But right now she'd give anything to hear that loud mouth yell at her, or the sweet voice of Moonjumper. But instead she heard nothing but the sounds of the smaller banging like the wind hitting the roof over and over again, but it didn't come from above. It came from right in front of her. She crept forward ever so slowly, the lightning lighting up the room every few moments as the child tip toed her way down the hall and towards the noise until it lead her face to face down a long stretch of hallway. It was dark and lead all the way down to that weird heavily locked door she had scene when she first got here. At first she thought it was the attic but the key Snatcher stole from her way back when didn't fit, so she just assumed it was more of Vanessa's crazy stuff. But the noises.....they were coming from the inside of the door. The chains were swaying lightly with each small bang from what she could see from the lightning. The rusty chains and locks shone in the light as well as the giant signs painted on it that read "STAY OUT" and "NEVER OPEN" and "TURN AROUND". Since when did she listen to signs, she slowly inched forward and brandished her umbrella in front of her just in case. But now this begged the questions. Why was the door making the weird noise? Was someone locked inside the room? How did they get in there? Were they a bad guy? The floor bourds creaked with her footsteps as she approached and after a second the noises completely stopped-.......Which confused the child into raising an eyebrow and walking over to the door. Gazing across the many things holding it shut before gaining up the courage to ask a question.

"Hello?"

There was silence for a good long moment. Tho Hattie couldn't see it, the woman on the other side of the door felt like she was about to cry from relief and happily answered back after another few short seconds.

"H-Hello?"

Hattie obviously jumped at the sudden raspy woman's voice coming from the other side of the door, but after a brief moment she realized with relief it wasn't Vanessa's voice. Then who was it? Another prisoner? She stood on her tip toes ad if trying to peer through the key hole under the doorknob. "Who are you?"

Her. THROAT. WAS. DRIER THAN A SANDSTORM!! It felt like she hadn't drank any water in a hundred years, but she was SO happy someone was even talking to her. This might be the hope she was looking for. The other's voice was clearly female and Poppy wondered old she was. She sounded quite young. "M-My name is Poppy. P-Please let me out *cough cough* I swear I d-d-didn't do anything wrong!"

"How did you get in there? Did Vanessa freeze you too?"

Vanessa? Who's Vanessa? The only Vanessa she knew was the Queen, but despite the Queen's strange behaviors and laws, from the few times she'd seen her in the village she seemed like a lovely lady and the children loved her so much. "I-I d-don't know who Vanessa y-you're referring to, but some crazy *cough* shadow lady made two iron giants kidnapped me and locked me in here. I-I think I've been in here for a couple hours, b-but I assure you I NEVER committed treason against the Queen."

So Vanessa locked her up and froze her too? That sounded like something the crazy old coot would do after all. "Don't worry! Im going to get you out like everyone else!"

Poppy felt her face smile for the first time in hours since she got there. "T-Thank you! B-But hurry! Im not sure when the guards or that shadow lady's going to come back!"

Hattie looked up and around at the old locks and chains all keeping it together. Ok. She didn't have the key and didn't know where it was, probably only Vanessa knew and she wasn't about to go asking the crazy lady for a key, and she probably wasn't physically strong enough to pull them from the door even if they were old and rusty. Snatcher was definitely no use, he'd just flop over like a helpless teddy bear.......But there was one way she could think of.

"Can you walk?"

Poppy blinked at the question. "What?"

"Can you walk? You need to back off the door!"

"Why?"

"Because Im going to blast it open."

Blast it?! Did this child have dynamite?! Or a canon?! Or did she know some magic? Either way she was not about to get caught in the crossfires of this, so willing her sore and numb body, she dragged herself away from the door to the opposite wall. Her lower half felt like a bowling ball. it hurt. It was like pins and needles on steroids and her legs were really sore and she barely got out of the way before a loud BOOM! was set off behind her that knocked her down face first onto the floor and on instinct her hands slammed down on her head to protect her from the flying splinters of wood and metal that shot out into the room. The blast seemed to have shaken the entire third floor and their was probably no doubt anyone in the entire manor could've heard the blast. Hattie stared at the remains of the doors that remained on the hinges and hummed. Maybe she should've tried picking the lock first just oh well. She just hoped that blast didn't wake up ms goldie crazy locks downstairs. Still brandishing the umbrella, she crept forward towards the door and peeked inside the room once she got close enough hearing movement inside. Inside was a.....woman? A lady with long braided red hair and a face of matching freckles was sitting on her knees staring back at the little girl. Her hands in a position that made Hattie think she must've been dusting debris from the blast off of her and the two stared at each other for a moment before Hattie finally spoke.

"Who are you?"

Poppy stared at her for a moment before blinking and replying. "I could ask you the same thing. .....But to answer your question. My name is Poppy. Poppy Rose Bloomington. What's yours, little girl?"

She blinked. "Hattie." She finally lowered her umbrella a little bit and watched as Poppy struggled to her feet leaning against the wall. She certainly didn't look very threatening, and she didn't get any dangerous vibes off her. Her vibes were more like DJ Grooves only less fun. So she decided to repeat her question to her once she saw Poppy's wobbling legs. "Can you walk?"

Poppy nodded leaning against the wall, her legs felt heavy and like jello, but she HAD to get outta there. "I have no choice! We have to get the peck outta here before someone comes and does something worse than lock us inside a room." She gave another look around at the mess. "....But it looks like you can take care of yourself fine, Little witch."

Hattie smiled. "Im not a witch. I just used the magic badge thingy on my umbrella." She swayed her umbrella and followed as Poppy made her way towards the door. "But maybe I am. That could be why Snatcher used to call me a little witch. Can you be a space travelling witch?"

Poppy barely paid attention to the little girl but absolutely froze at the sight of the horrifying ruined third floor walls, and the darkness covering them all. ........This wasn- Lightning struck outside the windows and lit up the whole third floor for a minute, revealing the faded papers and words painted all over them. Wha-...What HAPPENED HEAR!? It didn't look like this when she was dragged up here a couple hours ago. There was still snow and the chilly freeze she surely remembered, but the horror tale was new.

"W-What happened here?"

Hattie bounded up next to her confused. "What are you talking about? It's always been this creepy. At least that's what Snatcher told me. He used to steal things and scare Uncle Moon with them." She gave the still frozen older lady a look over.....Did she..look familiar somehow? Nah. But that begs the question. What was she going to do now that she found her? Snatcher already told one of his helpers to take everyone to his tree house, and she didn't know any long ways around. Plus judging by Poppy's current state, she didn't think she'd be able to jump over the bridge. She'd just fall into the ravene. ........Well, it seemed like there was only one way to quickly get her out safely before she put the time piece back together was to take her back to her ship, at least until she cleaned up Snatcher's mess. Then she'll take her to Mafia town or something. Hattie grabbed the woman's hand, who flinched at her touch and started pulling her along down the hallway, but stopped when she felt Poppy stumble and almost fall over. "...Are you ok?"

Poppy Nodded. "Uh..Yeah. B-But maybe don't move so fast ok?"

Hattie nodded and eagerly began pulling her along down the wall and again Poppy began to glance around in horror around her. ....It surely wasn't this dark when she was first taken up here. How could so much change have happened within just a few hours of her knocking herself out ramming into the door? Things only got worse when the child slowly lead her down the stairs towards the second floor. Poppy vaugly remembering it as she was brought up and thrown in there, but she didn't expect there to be so many claw marks lining the walls, it was much better looking than the third floor for sure and at least with this floor there was candles lit so she could see but that still didn't calm her nerves. Who made these marks? The crazy shadow lady or something else? The creaking of their footsteps echoing throughout the halls, she hoped no one heard them-

"KIDDO!! YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLAINATION FOR WHATEVER I HEARD UPSTAIRS, YOUNG LADY!!" "PECK IT, SNATCHER!! SHUT UP WILL YOU!?" "HEY!! IM NOT THE ONE WHO MADE AN EXPLOSION GO OFF!!" "WELL IF VANESSA ISNT AWAKE SHE IS NOW!!"

The loud voices made Poppy jump and release herself from the child's grip as she snapped her head wide eyed towards the direction of the voices she had just heard. One sorta distorted and raspy and the other like a proper city gentlemen yelling. The child however just smiled and began bounding her way over to an open door near the front of the hallway and stuck her head in. When Hattie looked inside she saw the two ghosts stuck together already looking in her direction, Snatcher making them scowl at her. She noticed the two had somehow taken the red blanket off the bed and threw it over their shoulders while she was gone. Messing up the bed but at least having something to keep them warm in the meantime. The book opened to page '23'. Snatcher was always a fast reader.

"Hi! Yeah, it was me."

"What the absolute PECK were you doing?! Trying to set the building to the ground?!," Snatcher demanded of her. Both Moonboy and himself had noticed the loud BAM noise from somewhere above them. It sounded like a cannon was shot through the side of the building above them shaking the whole house and if it weren't for their current state, Snatcher would've immediately ran up there and seen what had happened for himself, but unfortunately he couldn't without falling flat on their face and had to wait for approaching footsteps to know she was alright. But now she might be in trouble by the ghost. "Are you TRYING to wake the crazy pecker up?! I'd rather NOT have any crazy women screaming their head off about 'her prince' until Im back to normal!...What the PECK even happened?!"

"I found a lady!"

He rose a brow. "You found a what?"

Hattie jabbed a thumb behind her at the still frozen and confused Poppy. "I found a lady locked in that room upstairs. The one with all those scary locks, she's wearing a funny apron."

Snatcher was silent for a moment processing what he had just heard. A woman was inside the locked room upstairs? Who? Moonjumper thought of a possible solution really quick. "An apron you say?" Hattie nodded. "Hm. Sounds like one of the old cleaning maids." "Heh. Vanessa would be crazy enough to lock away a cleaning lady in a room with a ton of locks. But what was that noise?"

The child held up her umbrella. "The locks wouldn't unlock. So I blasted it to bits!"

"You blasted down doors to free a cleaning lady?"

''Hey! I said everyone gets to be free! And It's not like Vanessa can sue me. She's more empty headed than those no-headed statues outside."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" That got a round of laughter from Snatcher that made Poppy flinch outside. From her spot she couldn't see anything inside the room. Not that she wanted too, but now they were smiling. "That's the truest thing you've ever said, Kid!"

"Uh huh! Also, Ill be right back! I gotta take her to my ship!"

"What? You're leaving me again?!" "Us you creton. But you're leaving after just coming back?"

"Im just gonna take her to my ship so she's not turned back into another human-ice statue. And I won't really go back myself." She waved her umbrella at them. "Ill just use this to take her back outside, and come right back! Promise."

They stared at her for a moment, before she heard Snatcher grumble and turn back around down to their book. "Make. It. VERY. QUICK!! Ok? We can't just keep delaying this, Kid. I want OUT of this thing as soon as possible!! And that means NOW!!"

"It won't take long! Promise." She turned back away from the door smiling and ran back up to Poppy. The woman blinked and looked down at the little girl that grabbed her hand and started tugging her along again. "Come on! Don't step on any glass on the floor. I still have to fix it!"

Poppy didn't say anything but she allowed herself to still be dragged away by the child. Hattie lead her around the glass pieces and down to the next flight of stairs waiting to take them to the first floor, footsteps echoing around them. Poppy blinked and couldn't help but look over to the open door as they passed, Snatcher had already turned back to the book with a sour expression and didn't see who Hattie was dragging past the door, though Poppy had see someone wrapped in a blanket and a bit of brown hair sticking out of the blanket. Blinking she turned back to the small child still dragging her away and soon they decended down the second flight of stairs.

"Who w-was that exactly?"

"Oh! That's Snatcher. He's my dad. Don't worry about him being scary, he's just a big soon-da-rey." She giggled a little bit confusing the woman a little more. She had no idea what a soon-da-rey was.

The first floor wasn't as better from the first. Still cold. Still spooky looking. Still had random claw marks everywhere and she was still looking around in fright. Was that shadow monster going to pop out any moment? Where were the guards? In fact, where was everyone? She hadn't seen a single servant, guard, or even the Queen since she was broken out. Oh she hoped they were ok, she'd hate to know what would've happened if worse case scenario. And on that note of questions, who was this child? How did she and her father get in without getting hurt? Was she a little witch? She sure seemed like it with the blast she just performed. And where was she taking her? Outside hopefully, she'd rather be outside than inside this creepy prison. She glanced down as they passed by the painting Snatcher smashed and winced, Poppy did NOT want to stick around long enough for whoever did all this to come out. SO she rather take her chances with a little witch than a crazy shadow ghost. Hattie didn't stop even as she lead Poppy past the doors which made her turn in their direction and point.

"Where are we going? The front doors are right over there."

"I know but they're blocked up by this use snow pile and there's this headless statues that are REALLY creepy and they try to grab you. And I don't think Snatcher would like it if I blasted another door. We have to go this way!" She pointed ahead of them to yet ANOTHER flight of stairs that looked like it lead into the basement.

It gave Poppy an off feeling but she still didn't stop the child from pulling her towards it with their footsteps echoing behind them until they decended into the darkness of the stairs. It was overwhelming dark for a moment, before there was a splash and her whole foot suddenly felt wet and cold. One or two candles along the wall lit up the broken down walls and to Poppy's shock, there was water EVERYWHERE on the ground, must've been at least five or six inches deep because as she still allowed her shocked self to be lead through. Her Shoes and ankles getting absolutely cold and soaked, she hoped she wouldn't get sick from the cold. The cold stung herself and she looked around, their watery footsteps echoing around the home and she shivered at a pair of chains lightly clacking against the walls from the breeze coming from yet ANOTHER pair of stairs up ahead and they could see light at the end of the tunnel. As Poppy was lead up the stairs she blinked back away from the sudden cold that blasted her face and crept through her simple dress. As they reached the top of that stairway, blinding white caused her to blink and reach her hands up away from Hattie's grip to rub at her eyes. The storm and cold winds were still blowing, and as Hattie looked around she hummed. No foot prints left by the others, so she had no idea where they went and she'd have to stick to the original 'take lady to my ship' plan, luckily the dome's top let in the moonlight and a surefire way to let them get there. She'd get back by having Snatcher teleport her or using the time piece to teleport her back there, right now she had to hurry and get back to fix said time piece.

"This way quick!" Poppy stumbled as the child regrabbed her hand and pulled her forward almost making her fall flat on her face into the snow. The cold winds made their hair blow around with the snowflakes and the cold felt worse, especially on her wet feet and legs as they trudged through the snow at the insistence of the child until they were a couple yards away from one of the icy dome walls and far from the back of the manor. Hattie seemed pleased as she turned around and smiled at Poppy. Taking the hand she was holding and forcing the umbrella she was holding into it.Poppy blinked confused at the little girl making her hold the umbrella as she lifted it up to inspect it....before looking back to her.

"Sugarcube, I don't think this little thing is gonna be enough shelter from the wind."

"It's not for the snow! It's to take you to my ship! Here" She reached up and grabbed the umbrella, fiddling with something Poppy couldn't see because of the wind whipping her hand and snowflakes around herself before she released the umbrella again. "There! Now hold on tight and point it at the moon."

"Why?"

"Please just do it!"

Poppy sighed and looked up towards the moon through the snow and wind. Well, if this little girl really was a witch and trying to help her, maybe this was some kind of teleporting spell? If so she wasn't complaining about escaping the cold, so holding up a shivering arm, she pointed the umbrella up towards the mo- In a flash of blue-white light, Poppy vanished. In her place, a beam of that light shot up towards the sky and Hattie nodded. The umbrella successfully connected with one of the telescopes and she would be safe abourd her ship while she fixed this mess, which is what she seemed to do best around here anyways. Quickly turning back around, she sprinted back towards the manor. She had fixing to do. Poppy meanwhile was experiencing a whole new term to sea sickness, if she was really being teleported to a ship that is. The light and speed made her slam her eyes shut and her stomach sick. She felt like her whole body was being contricted into a thing twig and her knuckles turned white from gripping the handle so hard. She wished this would STOP- And it did. With a giant thud sound she was sent crashlanding to the carpeted floor of a child's bedroom where Bow was reading, worriedly waiting for her friend to come back but jumped and dropped the book at the sudden sight of a red headed lady suddenly crashlanding in their bedroom. The landy tumbled head over feet a few times before landing face first into the mountain of pillows the umbrella landing beside her feet. A few pillows were scattered with her collison and after a couple moments of silence......The woman groaned and weakly reached over to flip her onto her back. .....OK!! That was the LAST and ONLY time she was going to let herself be teleported by a little witch. Still laying on her back she slowly blinked her eyes open and was met with the face of another child with black curly hair. The two stared at each other for a moment before Bow spoke.

"Are you ok?...Who are you?"

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch35(end)

(Hey everyone. I just wanted to thank everyone who read this far and liked my story enough to read it to it's end. I had a lot of fun writing it and it makes me happy knowing some people loved it enough to read it fully. Thanks to everyone for reading this, faving it, or leaving a nice comment. And thank you to GearsForBreakfast for creating such wonder characters and giving me the opportunity to make this wonderful story. )

Ah. Cupid's Day.  The day everyone expressed their love to one another whether it be platonic love among friends and family, or for lovers to have a nice relaxing day out on a date with their spouses. Usually Snatcher would absolutely despise this day because of the implications of love to him was even more exhausting than usual. Yes, he'd tolerate the kiddos giving him small trinkets or pictures he'd hang on the fridge or on the walls of his tree home, but very evilly and totally not because he actually liked them ok! It was on this day he had a very special surprise planned out for a certain red haired fireball of a woman. All he had to do was wait for the right time to show her is all.....

Which was easier said than done.

The first thing that happened when the day started was him getting bombarded by Hattie and Bow rushing in and shoving cutesy pictures and hearts in his face with big smiles on their faces. Of course being the most evil of evil rulers he was, made a big groaning scene about it before taking them, reluctantly of course, and very VERY menacingly hanging them onto the wall above them to show everyone how evil he was by keeping something so mushy around him and showing he didn't care. Of course he hadn't spent all month hurrying his minions into working faster to put the last finishing touches on his very evil surprise for Poppy just to have it spoiled by these two, so to distract them all he gave them some of that mail Poppy had insisted he'd take to give to all the minions and dwellers running around. That should keep the two of them busy and running around for a good while before they went back to that ship! Good thing they didn't bring Poppy with them into the forest. He wasn't sure how'd he be able to get her distracted enough to finish his work....That didn't apply to a certain witch though when he paused when he saw Hazelle pop up.

Snatcher frowned. "What are YOU doing here?"

Hazelle smiled having a cute home made card in her hand. "Can't a friend visit a friend, Snatchy? And truth be told I came here to see how you were doing after the whole incident was over."

He huffed and turned away. "I'm fine. Just....working on something before the end of the day's over."

Hazelle nodded looking over the cards in her hands. "That makes sense. If that's all then I'll be hopping over to Moonjumper now."

Snatcher snapped his head back around to her. "WHAT?!"

"Calm down. I promised the girls I'd give him the Cupid's Day card they made for him and drop off Timmy for their sleep over."

"WHAT?!," he demanded again narrowing his eyes at her and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Snatcher, he was grounded for a long time and he's just a kid. He didn't know any better. One sleep over with his friends isn't going to hurt Poppy or you. Get over it."

Snatcher grumbled under his breath but didn't comment anything else when she tucked the cards away. "Well I'm off. But if you want to see me again, I'll be dropping Timmy off later at the ship."

Snatcher didn't say anything as Hazelle teleported away and he turned back towards his destination. He had work to get done and a limited time to do it in. The day went by realtively normally and fast, the girls came back a little while later with enough leftover mail to give the minions for Winter Solstice gifts. So he dissmissed them and off they ran. He guessed to go back to the ship and telescope jump around the planet to deliver more of those home made scribbled cards to those birds and cat. Whatever. It'd keep them out of his hair at least for a long while. It certainly took a lot longer than he suspected to get done, but when the last mushroom was replanted, and the last minion patted the dirt in the right place he nodded. It was ready. Of course living in a dark forest, he couldn't tell how late or early it was in the day, nor could he from space, so when he teleported himself to the kid's ship he was a little surprised to find not only Timmy there but the weird blonde girl that once upon a time made an alternate reality to get rid of all bad guys.....So naturally he frowned seeing the two of them huddled in the living room watching TV on top of a bunch of pillows with Bow and Hattie. Mustache Girl...Was that her name gave him a frown back and Timmy looked slightly nervous seeing the spook there. He also guessed he just must've missed Hazelle dropping him off because he was standing in front of Poppy holding a pretty shining flower in a small pot in one hand and a red scarf in another. Poppy was already holding a small cactus like the one you'd find in gift shops and a basket that smelled of delicious food. She smiled upon seeing Snatcher.

"Ah was wonderin' when you'd show up!," she greeted.

"Uh yeah. What do you have there?," he asked gesturing to her the objects in her hands.

"Oh these?" She held them up. "Cookie stopped by and asked if Mu could join the lil get together for the night. Somethin' bout her n' that loud mouth bird havin' dinner ah think. So I said I'd watcher her too! She was nice enough to give us some more food and this cute lil guy!" She smiled at the small cactus. "Ah never tried growin' a cactus before so it'll be a real fun experience." She called Bow to come over to take the basket of food from her and intrusted her to put it away then turned back to Timmy. "Watchin' him too! Now ya'll said ya wanted ta tell me somethin'?"

Timmy gulped and nodded. "Y-Yes, ma'am. I uh-...W-Wanted to apologize for what happened. I'm r-really, really sorry." He held up the shining Twilight Flower. "I got you this straight from the Alpine Alps. Hazelle helped me pick it out, yeah."

Poppy regarded him for a moment, before smiling and shifting her cactus into her other hand, reached down to pick up the decent sized bright flower from him. "Now ain't that sweet? Now ah got two plants I never had before! ....Apology accepted."

Ah. She always did like kids. So of course she would forgive Timmy easily. She blinked again when he also held up the neatly knitted red scarf. "Moonjumper asked me to tell you that's he's sorry too, and that he hopes you'll forgive him so you all can maybe be friends. He made this for you."

Poppy blinked at the scarf, but before she could even respond a dark arm shot out and snatched the red scarf right out of the boy's hand and up to the scowling face of Snatcher as the yellow orbs laserfocused on it. "I'll be the judge of that.." For the next few minutes Snatcher spent looking throughly at the red scarf, as if sensing every fiber. Scanning it long ways and up and down, back and front, and tugged a few strands here and there. After a bit he looked back to Timmy with a supicious face.....and slowly held it out to Poppy. "I don't sense any magical hiddden energy in it. It's safe if you're going to accept it."

To his surprise Poppy did take it from him and looked at it for a moment, then to Timmy with a serious face. "When you go back ya tell him I accept his apolody and gift, but it's gonna take a while before I decide if I really forgive 'em." Timmy nodded and she nodded back. "Good now go play and behave with the others. I have something to talk with the purple onion for a minute."

As Timmy ran back over to the other children Snatcher raised a brow. "You have something to tell me?"

She nodded. "Yep. Hold these for a minute." She shoved the small plants into his hands and turned to walk off towards the door to the kitchen. She had a certain something to give Snatcher on this day. As a thank you for everything he's done for her, as you all might remember a certain gold skull that was found along with the other gold that Poppy and the girls found hidden in the attic. Well Poppy remembered Snatcher getting the girls those skulls in the attic as gifts and since this is Philip now, what better gift to get him than a golden skull? She wasn't sure if the skull was a real skull before that R.King turned it to gold with the gold potion but she didn't have enough time to think of any better gift when the girls suddenly left to go around handing out those home made cards they made to everyone without telling her. She should really stop sleeping in so late, but as she entered the kitchen she caught sight of it real quick. It was decided the golden skull would be the thing to be left behind and was hidden under Hattie's bed for safe keeping when they had left for Express Town a while ago, so she spent a good amount of time polishing it and cleaning it up until the golden skull gleamed at her, catching the reflection of the adorable picture the girls gave to her on the fridge. It was a messily but cute drawn picture of her and Snatcher holding hands, with the two of them holding either of their hands as well. Smiling, she held it behind her back and exited. Snatcher's face looked to the door as Poppy came back out smiling from ear to ear, one hand behind her back as she walked up to him. "Ah got somethin' for ya."

"Oh really?," he asked surprised, "You didn't have to. I had enough of this mushy love to last me for eternity."

She chuckled. "Well Cupid's Day is 'bout celebratin' the people ya care about right? That means good friends too." She finally brought it out and Snatcher's eyes instantly widened at seeing the shiny golden skull she held up to him. "So here's ta good friends. Happy Cupid's Day, Snatcher!"

Snatcher stopped and just stared at the shiny thing showing his relflection in it for a solid moment...before he took it into his free hand and stared at the beautiful gold skull with wide eyes. "It's......." He looked at her. "T-This is incredible. Where'd you get this?"

She bashfully shrugged. "I-It was in the attic when we found all the other gold. I was savin' it for an emergency but I thought I could use it for your gift instead. A-As a thanks fer everythin' ya did for me."

He still stared at her for a moment before a small yellow flush dusted his face and he cleared his throat. "W-Well it's very .....nice. Thank you I guess."

Poppy giggled. "Your welcome. It was the least ah could do."

Snatcher rubbed his thumb over the shiny gold for a moment, before looking back at her with a small smile. "Well....I happened to get you something too."

Poppy blinked in surprise at his words. "Wait. Really?"

He nodded. "Yep. But I can't show you here. You'll have to come back with me to my forest.''

Poppy looked a little skeptical at that and rose a brow. "Back to the forest? Ain't it too dangerous?"

"Not with the contract, and my minions know to not cause trouble." He smiled that usually smirk. "As long as Im in the forest you'll be fine. Besides you'll love it."

".....What 'bout them?," she asked nodding to the kids watching the tv.

"They'll be fine being along for a little while. Won't you?" The children either hummed or nodded not looking up from the funny penguin cartoon they were watching. "See? Sides. It's not like they weren't left alone before you came along for a while. C'mon. I swear you won't regret it."

Poppy still didn't look too convinced but in the end she agreed and so the children were made to PROMISE to stay there and behave while they were gone and they were teleported just as Poppy grabbed onto Snatcher's arm. The familiar purple came over here along with the weird feeling that came with it, before she looked up as the purple disappeared and soon found herself back in the familiar scene of the nightmarish forest. Poppy shivered at the sight of it all and all the minions or dwellers than happened to stand around stop and stare at her. Snather cleared his throat to catch her attention and he gestured for her to follow him up the pathway towards his tree home. Poppy rose a brow noticing he still had her plants in hand, but followed none the less. Snatcher flew right into his home, Rough Patch giving a lazy meow from the chair he laid on before yawning and turning the other way to sleep again. The golden skull was placed right on top of his shelf next to the sewing kit. He gave one last look over and smile before exiting the home and going outside and staying towards the left side of the home. Poppy was slowly walking her way forward blinking at him as he just floated there seemingly waiting for her to get closer. When she did, he smiled and silently pointed to the ground. Poppy blinked and looked to where he was pointing, eyes widening as she saw a small pathway of small bushes leading off somewhere into the woods. And soon enough Snatcher started floating down that way, giving one look back to her as her signal to follow before he disappeared between the trees. And of course, Poppy followed. Into the woods following along the bushes as she slowly took her time walking and walking......And walking. Slowly but surely, a few glowing mushrooms popped up here and there starting with the smaller mushrooms Hattie and Bow would use to bounce on before they became bigger. And bigger. And BIGGER until the bushes disappeared and there was nothing but lots and lots of beautiful glowing mushrooms everywhere. In all shapes and sizes and colors. She gaped at the beautiful glowing blues, greens, and reds of all the polka dotted fungi everywhere glowing in the moonlight and lighting up the place. There was a clear path between all of them replacing the one the plain bushes made and she continued down it still no sign of Snatcher anywhere either, not that she noticed. She was too busy admiring all the beautiful sights around her. Before the path took a corner and of course she followed it. And she stopped DEAD. A soft wind blew through the trees as multi colored petals blew towards her and to her feet a few purple, yellow, and red ones floating by her head. Her blue eyes widened and her jaw dropped as the sight of what she was seeing hit her with the force of a meteor from space crashlanding into the dirt.

Snatcher finally popped up as he floated next to her gaping frozen self with a proud grin. "So. Do you like it?"

IT. WAS. ROSES!! RAINBOW ROSES!! All the colors of the rainbow sitting right there and multiple of them blooming beautifully in the moonlight. Some of the petals on the ground in a beautiful arrangement of color. Shimmering in the moonlight like a rainbow on stems. She still gaped at all of them and Snatcher only smiled prouder. Yes. After making that owl cough up the location of these wild roses (an oasis not surprisingly in a desert) and taking the ones in her shop for good measure too, Snatcher had a peck of a long time just gathering them and digging(having his minions carefully dig) them up by the roots and teleporting every single one of them back to his forest. But the extra work was worth the look on Poppy's face just now. Poppy still stood there stunned for a long moment. Before pointing and looking at him....then back at the roses gesturing with both arms then back to him again still totally amazed and shocked.

"HUH?!"

"What? I promised a garden and I delivered a pecking good garden! You got your regular bushes, mushrooms, a couple exploding apples, and even a nice flower section all of your own. Your welcome.~"

"HOW?!" She looked back at the beautiful batch of roses. "W-WHERE THE PECK DID YA EVEN GET THESE?!"

He shrugged. "Some small corner in the desert. Nothing too hard to find really. Do you like it?"

"YES!!" Her shocked face was replaced by a wide smile and sparkling eyes. "PECKIN' YES!! T-THIS IS INCREDIBLE!! I-......Ya never cease to out do yerself ya purple onion."

He shrugged again. "Well...you did give me a gold skull. I say we're pretty much even." He handed back the two small plants he'd been holding on since she asked him to hold them back on the ship. "Here. What's a garden for if you don't plant anything in it?"

She blinked at him for a bit before taking the twilight alpine flower and cactus. "Will these even grow here?"

"Anything will grow here if I want it too. Sides, with your skills you could get anything to grow here regardless."

Poppy smiled at him before turning around and starting forward. The two then took a moment, Snatcher helping her dig two holes a little a ways from the roses so Poppy could carefully put her two new additions into her new garden and carefully pat them in. Smiling as a mother would smile at her children when she was done, even if the bottom half of her dress and hands were all dirty afterwards. She took a moment just....staring and smiling at her new beautiful garden and Snatcher stared at her with a bright smile on his face seeing her smile so genuinely after so long....before frowning and looking down.

".....Listen, Poppy." She looked back up to him and he felt worry pool in his gut. "I know I....made mistakes when we first met again and if you....really want to live somewhere else or even break from the contract I'll respect your choice fully."

"....That's so sweet of ya but.....I'm not planning on going anywhere for a while."

he snapped to her blinking. "Wait. Really?"

She nodded smiling before looking back to the roses. "Ah really don't where I'd go if I did. Never did have any interest in travelin' 'round. And...A-And I think I enjoy havin' the safety of a purple onion." She shrugged. "Maybe things will change in the future but right now....I'm happy and content at this moment." She looked at him, moonlight making her blue eyes shine. "Thank you."

He felt yellow flush through his face again and he quickly turned away. "Y-Yeah. Well you know where to find me if you ever change your mind! I-It's not like Im super attatched or anything you know! You're your own person after all! You can make up your mind any way you want!"

Soft hands grabbed his neck fluff and yanked him down to eyes level with those blue eyes suddenly and Snatcher didn't have any moment to react before a pair of soft lips gave him a quick peck on his fanged mouth. And he froze! Poppy pulled back and stared at him for a moment....before snickering. His mouth had dropped wide open, eyes small as a dime, and his entire face a bright yellow. The fluff around his neck fluffing up to new heights as he just sat there. OH PECK!! OH PECK!! OH PECK- POPPY KISSED HIM!! LIKE REALLY R E A L L Y KISSED HIM!! LIKE-....A REAL ROMANTIC KISS!! Her snickering brought him out of his stuper as he sqawked like a bird and immediately pulled away. And Poppy opened the flood gates to laughter as she snorted and laughed at his flustered state.

"Y-Your- AHAHAHAHAHA! *snort* F-FACE!! I-IT LOOKS LIKE A JACK O LANTURN!!"

"WELL!! I THINK ITS TIME TO GO!! AFTER ALL YOU'RE BABYSITTER ALL NIGHT!! AND IM NOT HELPING!!,'' he yelled out as he began floating away.

Poppy reached out for him before stubbling to her feet still laughing and chasing after him. "W-WAIT!! I DIDN'T MEAN IT!! AHAHAHA!!"

"YES YOU DID!! BACK TO SPACE WITH YOU!!"

"HAHAHA!! NO I DIDNT!!

"YES!! YOU!! DID!!"

The red head chased the flustered ghosts back towards the tree home. A gently wind blowing more petals to the ground.

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time P15

(Warning: Poppy cries near the end.)

The pour woman was shaking all the way to the small clearing looking around her with newfound fear as she did so from the scare. But at least now they could take off and get her to a warmer place with food now....Or at least they would've if Bow hadn't grabbed her hand and jumped when Poppy flinched and yanked her hand away from the girl. The poor flesh still tender and sore from the rope suddenly yanking her up. She gave the girls an apologetic look and it occured to Hattie they couldn't teleport her together now if they couldn't hold her hands. Not to mention she was shaking and she didn't want to risk accidentally letting her go in the middle of teleportation again. So what did she usually do in these kind of situations? Go back and bother Snatcher for help of course! The purple ghost was NOT happy when the small girl yanked on his tail and told him about their situation. PECK NAB IT!! Couldn't he get one moment of peace around here?....Then again, it was rather responsible of her to come to him instead of trying something reckless with Poppy, and he didn't really want a repeat of Poppy crashlanding from space somewhere. She was VERY lucky the first time as it was. So, that's how the ghost was talked into coming over and transporting all four of them back to the ship. Wasn't anything like Poppy expected at all. Much to Poppy's still shocked state, he held the girls in one arm while grabbing her good arm in the other and asked her to close her eyes while the spell took place to keep her from freaking out anymore than she already had to which she gladly did so. Curling into him and pressing her face into the fluff around his shoulders. The movement made him stop and stare for a moment...before he cleared his throat and looked away slightly flustered. The teleporting worked as quickly as any other time he did it. Purple energy completely took over the world around them like the many times he's done this before and swallowed them all whole. He's donw this plenty of times before teleporting himself places or taking the girls home against his will when they fell asleep in his forest. But what was one more trip anyways? Especially since it'd help ease the nerves of his beloved-...beloved FRIEND. Just friend. One moment of dark black-purple later the four of them ended up inside of the kid's ship. The control room to be more precise. The controls to the ship were there as well as her Tv and the giant vault of those menacing time pieces.So imagine Poppy's surprise when she reopened her eyes and blinked at the foreign home to her. But was put back down on the ground by Snatcher again before the spook mumbles something about wanting to take a break and to not be bothered again as he gave a firm look at the girls.

"Stay HERE and do NOT bother me again unless it's actually a real emergency until I say so. I mean it."

"AH! But why?"

"Because Im the pecking adult! That's why!" Was all he said before purple energy oozed from his being like living fog and wrapped itself around him. Poppy watching in almost horror as it shrank in size until it was either too small to see or actually disppeared from the ship entirely.

Well.....That was a fast one way trip wasn't it? She was just SO so glad to be out of that nightmare forest she was happy to welcome this.....Space ship. Where was she in here anyways? Looking around she found herself sitting upon a giant pink round rug and a the rest of the floor was covered in green carpeting. Around her were all kinds of strange gadgets and gizmos she'd never seen before. Looking over she was the strangest thing. A child's toy train set and landscape. The cute little engine was making circles around some plastic mountains, a few mountains, and fake plants.  WHich for some reason was on a giant metal pillar and blocked off by rope and pillars. An odd television set sat in the corner where a puppy wearing overralls was trotting across the screen. ....She blinked and looked over to her other side where another similar pillar was there but it had some kind of plush??.......Something. It was a hamburger but she didn't know what the heck that was. Beyond that was brick like walls a yellow thing sticking out of the wall, and a couple doors here and there-

"oW!"

Something poked against her foot and she looked down. Immediately a small spooked squeal came out of the woman and she scrambeld back and onto her feet as she stared down the little roomba as it continued to just sweet harmlessly past her. But the woman had never seen a robot vacum so her fear was understandable as she pointed at it.

"W-W-WHAT IS THAT CREATURE!?"

"It's ok. He's perfectly safe." Hattie smiled at Rumbi as he harmlessly swept past them towards the ramp near the far wall.

She didn't look convinced but silently watched him sweep away before looking around her more...before slowly looking behind her to the gigantic windows behind her. And. Her. Jaw. DROPPED!!  As she looked out the giant windows,  she could seethe darkened purple land of Snatcher's forest and A giant chunk of white which was vanessa's frozen abyss of the planet. Placing a cold hand to the cool glass and watching as it slowly ticked by and just....watched it. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of thousands of stars twinkling....The world! Her world! It was right there! Big, bold and wonderful! The round planet seemed to have an aura of it's own and glowed perfectly. The perfect gentle blue of the sea, the bright tan yellows of the desert. Many islands. The highest mountains surrounded by pure white clouds even looked as if she could reach out and grasp it almost. It was so much more peaceful and beautiful looking when she wasn't falling through space that was. A sense of being so small came over her and she let out a shaky sigh as she did so.  So this was really reality huh?

"It's pretty isn't it?," Bow asked walking up next to her and smiling down at the world too and pointing at one small place on the planet. "That's Nyakuza City! I used to live there."

".....Yeah. I-I heard about the Nyakuza Kingdom," Poppy stated softly, "It was supposed to be inhabited by a whole race of cat people."

"It is!" Bow smiled brightly at her that she knew that. "Kitties are the best! They're so soft, and fluffy and really, really cute!!"

Despite herself, Poppy smiled at the cute smile the little girl had on her face. Children always had the ability to make her smile with their adorable nature and innocence. It was just to precious, turning back to the window and staring out she sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. She was really feeling .......confused? Right now. There were too many emotions going through her right now and not enough of it was ok..She didn't have a feeling of being ok. Not after what just happened. She looked back to her slightly scrapped arm. She guessed that's what she got after not listening to a ghost's warnings-

"ACHOO!" Bow flinched and looked up to Poppy who shook her head and looked back to the window sniffing.

"Bless you!"

"T-Thank you." She shivered from her body's still cold feeling. She almost forgot she was still from falling in swamp water and she had been running around all soaked for who knows how long now. She should change out of these soggy rags and warmed up before she caught a cold. So she turned around to ask where the bathroom was so she could scrub the dirt off herself- BAM!! She jumped at least a foot back smacking into the glass window and all three of them looked up towards the ramp area where the pair of swinging doors to the kitchen had been pushed open and small soft footsteps like a child's came scattering out. Another child?? She couldn't see anything past the banister. But all of that was answered when a chef hat and pointy cat ears came into view. All of that was attached to a small plump cat standing on two feet with calico patterns and orange fur.

What the WHAT?!

"COOKIE!!", both girls shouted and rushed towards the cat who giggled and held her arms open wide for the two to go skittering into her embrace as she did so. The giggling of the cat and girls filled the air as Poppy watched and then blinked at the small cat in chef wear-

"Oh how are you girls? It's been so long since I've been up here!," she cooed at the little children her size. By the voice it was easy to tell it was a lady and had a slight country accent. She smiled as she leaned back and examined the girls before her. "I thought I heard a pair of hungry little tykes scampering around hungry."

"We missed you," Bow answered honestly as she smiled at the cat with adoration.

"Did you make cookies?," Hattie asked practically sparkly eyed as she looked hopefully at her making the small cat laugh.

"Well you two haven't changed a bit. Always so sweet and hungry for sugar." She shook her head. "No. But I did make some roasted bird and mashed potatoes! Perfect for two little adventures! Now which one of you sneezed? It sounded like you caught a whopper of a cold." Both girls looked at each other for a moment, before looking behind them at Poppy who still watched silently as they all stood there, as soon as 'Cookie' saw her, the cat gasped and one paw came to cover her mouth as she caught sight of the messy grown, shivering woman in front of her. In a blink of an eye the plump cat carefully pushed past the girls and walked right up to Poppy. The red head could only blink and again feel kinda awkward seeing a giant talking talk on two legs......Wait. Was she a Nyakuza citizen? Was she one of those cat people she heard so much about? Well she didn't have much time to wonder until she stopped right in front of her and grabbed a part of her dress and pulled the material heavy and wet from dirty swamp water into her paws to examine. Sniffing at it before snorting and shaking her head, scowling up at her. She felt oddly small under the scowl of the small cat in front of her but still didn't move besides her shivering. "You look absolutely aweful! Look at this!'' She held up the material to her. "Look at your hair! You look like you went rolling around in the mud during a thunderstorm!"

She blinked stunned by the cat's bold and blunt move only responding with, "Uuuhhh....It's....Swamp water??"

"Swamp water?" She eyed the human up and down before shaking her head and dropping her dress, hands....uh..paws coming to stay on her hips. "I've seen plenty of country folk in my time for sure that don't mind to get a lil dirty, but you're the first one I've seen soaked romping through a swamp."

"It...wasn't really my intention to be soaked by gross water, but I crashlanded in some when I landed." She gave a small look to the little hat girl behind her who smiled nervously at her words. But was soon looking back to the cat when she made a small hum.

"So you landed here to? Does that mean you're another alien?"

"W-What? N-no. I'm from here I promise! I just....happen to be visiting their space ship is all," she clarified.

"Oh!" The small cat lady finally smiled at her like she had come to some brilliant conclusion. "Oh now I see. You must be one of their little friends! They have a lot you know."

"You could say t-that- ACHOO!!" Poppy turned her head to the side before sneezing again and sniffing. Her body still fairly chilly. Which didn't go unnoticed by the cat.

"Bless you! By the temperature of your dress, you must be soaked n cold right down to the fur." Her light scowl came back, "Didn't you ever think to change into a dry pair of clothes?"

"I g-guess it must've slipped my mind."

She was cut short when the small cat jumped up and grabbed her hand yanking her into a leaning over position when she pulled her back a few steps. "Well. There's no sense in you staying like this any longer than needed. You all go get cleaned up before you eat a single bite." She made a grimace looking back over Poppy's soaked self and taking in all the dirt covering her body and how tangled her hair was. "And YOU definately go bathe and get a good change of clothes." One of her paws ungrabbed Poppy to shoo the girls off towards the right side of the control room as she lead Poppy towards it-

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!

Poppy Jumped and they all snapped in the direction of the ramp leading up somewhere and the cat let go of her hands. "OH!! The oven timer. Bird's done." She looked to the girls. "Now you go show her where the bathroom is and wash up. I gotta go make sure that birdy doesn't over cook. You know how much I despise burnt food." The girls nodded and the cat smiled again before running to a small green ladder right below the vault and climbed up it, running back through the double doors with another light slam to them as Poppy blinked.

"Who..was that?"

"Hattie grabbed her still extending hand a smile on her face. "Cookie! She's like a REALLY good chef! The best in the world!" Her steps were jumpy and happy like any child making a small smile come to her face as she was lead over to a small door next to the green ladder Cookie climbed. "She visits a lot and makes a lot of food for my fridge!" She licked her lips. "Her cookies are they best! But she's been really busy with her cooking show after finally leaving Mafia Town."

"Mafia.....town?"

Hattie nodded. "I met Mustache Girl there!"...She frowned a little bit. "She's not very nice.....HEY!" Her face brightened again as she got an exciting idea. "Now I can show you how COOL my ship is!"

"But Cookie said she needs a bath." Bow leaned sideways from behind her and blinked.

"But Snatcher said to show her my ship! We're still going to the bathroom, but exploring too!" Bow rolled her eyes as Hattie tugged Poppy over towards the small blue glowing door. A small blue rug with a wave patterned on it stood before the door and to the older woman's surprise it opened automatically by itself giving her a little jump. Technology had really advanced since she was a little girl didn't it? "Come on, come on! I wanna show you the potion room!" She went through the kid sized door no problem....but Poppy had to literally lean down to look down the long mini hallway.

Bow also looked down it with a worried look. "Hattieeeeeeee!! We're gonna get in more trouble! Knock it off and lets go wash!"

"Y'know we can show her the metro room too," came the sing song voice from down the hallway and an instant Bow's expression change.

"FINE!! But then we wash our hands! I'm hungry!" She called back before also bounding down the hall and poppy lowered more to look in "......Come on Ms Poppy!"

.......She hesitated but braced herself. It couldn't get any more worse than it already was, and she doubted there was any headless statues or dangerous stuff here on a child's chip. Coming down to her knees she went to start crawling as she couldn't stand to walk  through these small halls- Which ended with her doing a yelp and leaning back up onto her knees to clutch her sore wrist which throbbed out a course of pain when she put the slightest bit of pressure on, still pretty sore from the giant yank the noose gave her- Poppy shivered from remembering that encounter. One of the children called out to her again sounding impatient..and if this was indeed the direction to getting cleaned up, then she might as well not complain anymore and suck it up. That's what she always did growing up in a poor farming community. Sucking it up and being grateful for what you're given. Even if it means crawling down a hallway with only one hand, which she did. It was....Kinda embarrassing and time consuming, but a couple little children probably weren't going to judge her for having no choice but to squeeze through these blasted tunnels. As she crawled along she took in the details of the walls and especially the carpet. There was some very impressive details in the blue carpet, they were so beautiful. Some grand weaver must've put a lot of work creating these wave patterns and she briefly wondered how many pons it cost the little girl to buy and put in here. In her day it would've cost a pretty penny. It took a bit more but before she knew it. The other door opened and she was allowed to crawl on through and stand to her feet again. Shivering as a blast of cold air hit her freezing body and opening her eyes to a-.....Very strange sight.

"What IS this place?" The air was chilly, and down below was a dark blue water which could've been mistaken for water on first glance and a few things like random barrels and chests, with some furniture. A tall closet like space with the words saying Dirty Laundry Cleaner 3000, And a ladder leading up to a different doorway above them there.

"The storage room," Hattie replied before regrabbing her none hurt hand and tugging her towards the left, making her blink down as the two girls excitedly pointed towards another small door to the left. Unlike the one she just came through, this one glowed purple and had a bottle like shape on it. "I wanna show you around!" She wasn't sure what to do but didn't fight against her as she pulled her towards the door which opened with another Whoosh like noise and Hattie disappeared within it's hallway excitedly. Poppy didn't feel like arguing anymore than she already did today, and again leaned down to look down the hall. Unlike the first one, with one has a lighter blue rug with dark blue gear patterns when she looked down it. The children waving at her from the other side of the tunnel as well, excited grins still on their faces as she blinked. "Come on! Don't be a slowpoke!"

With another sigh, guess who did more slow crawling down another cramped hallway, but she'd be lying if she wasn't curious about an alien space ship. I mean who else from her time would've gotten the honor of being given a tour of a real flying space craft by a real alien no less? She was curious to see what mechanics and insides made up this thing, and besides it'd be rude to say no to someone who's offering to show you they're home so excitedly and if it meant she was going to be staying here for a little while then she might as well know where things were. By the time she got to the other side and was finally able to stand back up, she sighed at the feeling of warmer air at least. Warming up was definately on her to do list. But the almost emptiness of this room compared to all the other rooms Surprised her to say the least. This one was much more open and tidy looking with more stone walls, a couple metal pillars, and equipment you'd see inside a labratory. Right dead center of it all was another metal table thing blocked off by rope like in the control room, but this time it had a giant box of crayons sitting on it. The crayons were a simple green, blue, and red color.

"This is my potion room!," Hattie announced proudly pointing at the room itself, "But don't touch anything. Snatcher dropped one of those pink potions once and it turned him pink for days. He said we shouldn't mess with weird potions."

"Potion room?" Poppy gave the children another curious look. "Are you sure you're not a witch?"

"No. Only when I wear my brewing hat! But I don't know any magic."

.......That only confused Poppy more so why would a child have a potion room? But she again didn't get the chance to relax before Bow ran over towards the other side of the room and towards a small door like hatch on the floor, the small girl grabbing one side of hatch and pushing. Bow strained and after a few seconds a metalic screeching noise rang out as it opened, both women wincing, cringing back at the fingers on chalk bourd noise, and clapping their hands over their ears in some attempt to block out the screeching noise. Poppy was SURE the creaking, screeching noise could be heard everywhere on the planet from their place in space from how loud it was. Up, up, up the hatch went and one giant push Bow managed to push it over. With a giant metal banging sound, the hatch's round metal door SLAMMED and I do mean slammed against the floor with enough sound to be mistaken for a cannon going off. For a moment nothing happened and both Poppy and Hattie stood there still hands clamped over their ears and eyes shut closed.......before slowly reopening their eyes and after a moment of silence, uncovering their ears to the smiling curly haired girl standing there pointing at the the now open hole in the floor.

"Geez, Kid! I think you were loud enough to wake the dead all over space!......ACHOO!!" She sniffed again at the third sneeze.

Bow's smiling didn't waver, instead pointing to it. "Come on! You'll like it promise!" With another smile the tiny curly haired girl turned and jumped down the hole.

"HEY!! KID!!" Poppy ran down the small set of stairs and ran over to the hole in the floor, the fear of the child getting hurt randomly jumping into a hole taking over and immediately looking down the opening. At first she saw nothing. Nothing but a ladder leading down it and some kind of wooden circle thing....but she could definately hear giggling and someone shouting for her to come down as well. ......DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD AND UNSAFE IT IS TO CLIMB DOWN A LADDER WITH A SORE HAND?! Poppy wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the fear of just seeing Bow dive down here and the looming presence of an angry ghost made her do the crazy thing and start to decend the ladder to her uneasy feeling. Which doubled MORE when Hattie fell past her making her cry out for the child only to watch the hatted kid bounce on the round wood circle and catapult herself like a spring out of eye sight. Panic coursed through her as she went down as fast as a sore bodied woman with one good hand could and paused on the ladder when she could actually see the inside of the room. To her relief, Bow wasn't hurt at all but giggling and laying face up at the opening in a pile of weird green paper. The small girl giggled as she made a snow angel in the pile, and Hattie was luckily safe as well looking through another telescope on top of the weird gigantic pile of green paper. Poppy sighed and noticed breifly another small metal table with another small item on it. This time some kind of white dummy and pretty looking gold necklace. With a shake of her head the frazzled woman slowly climbed the last of the steps down and stood by the ladder leading back up. Looking around the room she noticed it looked at it she was on one of the town's busy streets, with plants along the wall behind the metal table, glowing eletric things she was sure only an alien would have mysterious shaped like a blue cat, and behind her by the wooden circle on a spring was a rack with newspapers of all things. .......She blinked. "What is this strange place?" She paused seeing more in color tv screens on fans hovering about and jumped as something rumbled past the window on the far side of the wall flashing yellow making her scramble back. "W-WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THAT?!"

"That's the illusion created by the monitor," Bow happily replied sitting up now and smiling around the room with a bigger grin, "Hattie said the time pieces add stuff to the rooms on the ship to help show where most are located. *sigh* It....reminds me of home...Without all the crime and bad things. I like it here."

At that little sentence Poppy paused. Before looking away with a guilty look, feeling bad over being about to scold the little girl for scaring her like that being so excited to show her home and the place that reminded her of it. Taking a second look around the weird room, she couldn't understand any of it. Were the Nyakuzian people technicalogically advanced too? Or did all this technology form as she slept? She may never know but the face of longer on the little girl's face hit home almost immediately at her. As far as Poppy knew Bow's home still existed just with 'crime and bad stuff' as she put it. Has she fled the country under a war or something? So many questions buzzed about her skull it was starting to give her a headache as she leaned into the cool metal of the ladder next to her. This was all too much too soon. And she wasn't sure how much more she could take at this pace-

"What are y'all doing down here?!" Poppy yelped and ended up accidentally hitting her forehead against the ladder. Instantly her good hand came to clamp at the sore area as she hissed and looked up above her and saw a pretty familiar orange calico face scowling down at them all, one dark orange paw holding onto the chef hat as she did so. "I thought I asked you all to go get cleaned up. I could hear all that ruckus right through the kitchen floor!"

Instantly the children had froze at the annoyed cat's voice and now sported a pair of guilty looks at one another. "We were just showing her!" Hattie's voice answered back for them.

"Well then. The next room she sees is the bathroom! Now you all get up here before I take my cooking back for Conductor to eat."

At the threat of their delicious dinner being taken away both children scrambled for the spring pad kicking up more dollar bills in their way. And Poppy watched with slight surprise as both jumped onto the spring pad one by one catapulting themselves all the way back up as Cookie leaned back to not get knocked over by the two shooting girls. ....Poppy briefly looked down to the spring pad then back up the hole.....Yeah. She was taking her chance with the ladder. The slow climb back up was agonizing but by the time she poked her head at the top she witnessed the older cat lightly scolding the girls for taking so long, but as soon as she saw the head of Poppy, Cookie turned and grabbed her good hand. Pulling with surprising strength of a small plump cat and helping her crawl the rest of the way out, sighing when she was able to climb to her knees.

"Are you alright, Pumpkin?," Cookie asked placing a paw on her shoulder before letting go quickly. "Goodness! You're colder than my home made ice cream!"

"ACHOO!!" Poppy sniffed again and looked up to the tiny cat giving a tired smile. "Y-Yeah. I guess I am a little chilly...And tired...and sore. And now that you mention food-" Her stomach gave out a rumble and she winced. She didn't even know she was hungry."

Cookie gave her a sorry look before sighing and looking back towards the watching children. "Ok you two. I think this young lady's had enough exploring for now. You two go wash your hands in the kitchen and eat your plates I placed in the fridge. I'm going to show your friend here to a room where she can get tidied up and warm." The two girls gave excited smiles at the mention of food and with an excited cheer they scampered off towards the hallway with another sigh from the cat who turned her attention back to Poppy. "I'm so sorry. They can be a little over excited sometimes."

Poppy smiled back and waved a hand. "Oh. No, no. It's ok. I should've expected that from children.....ACHOO!!''

"Well, I expect we need to get you all better before you catch a cold instead of just sneezing." Cookie gestured her up at Poppy slowly stood and made a grab to her hand- Fur suddenly bristling when the human yelped and pulled her still sore hand away from the grip of the cat....Which was immediately pulled back with a pained whimper from Poppy as Cookie frowned and held up the sore limb to her eyes. "....You're hurt."

"J-Just a few scrapes. I-I'll be fine."

"That's no excuse young lady. You should get this under some ice!"

"Yeah...That Snatcher ghost told me too."

Cookie hummed before tugging her and walking towards the small hallway with her in tow. "So I see you met this ghostly friend of theirs too."

Poppy blinked at the small cat. "Wait. You know who he is?"

"I stumbled across him a few times coming up here to visit. Hmph! He's very rude and always steals any dish I make with bacon when he's around me cooking. Quite the oddball out if ya'll ask me." The door whooshed open as soon as they were close enough and she walked on through gesturing for her to follow. "But never fear! Cooking Cat is here! I'll have you all better in no time flat. We'll just get you a change of clothing, a hot meal, and some ice then you'll be good to go!"

Poppy could feel her stomach drop a little as she bent down and proceeded to slowly crawl through the hallway after the cat. "Uh...About that. I-I don't have any clothing for myself really."

Cookie stopped mid step in the middle of the hallway before looking over her shoulder at the slowly crawling woman behind her and reached a paw up to rub to her head. "Well aren't you more forgettful than a penguin on the sun? *sigh* Alright then. I suppose I'll just have to borrow the girls' washer and dryer."

"What? Oh n-no! You don't have to go through all that trouble for me, Ma'am! It's fine."

"Nonsense! I'd be ashamed of myself if I didn't offer a hungry person like you some help and this wouldn't be the first time I helped a person get better...OH! That reminds me. You never told me ya'll's name."

"Oh..I-Im Poppy. Poppy Rooo- ACHOO!!....Rose Bloomington, Ma'am."

Cookie smiled at her. "No need to call me ma'am. Just Cookie. Cooking Cat's only mah stage name you know. Nice you meet ya." She smiled and turned to continue walking down the hallway with Poppy right behind her.

A curious question bubbling in the young lady's head and she blurted out, "So...Since you're a..cat. Does that mean you're a Nyakuzian?"

Cookie didn't stop walking or smiling but her tone shifted a little bit to the sad side. "Well, yes...But not anymore I suppose. The city became too crowded for my liking and too many crimes were comitted. Mostly theivery."

"Yes, I think Bow might've said something about that."

"Poor girl. No child should have to grow up in a place like that."

"So ....you two fled the country?"

Cookie chuckled as the door back to the storage room opened up and she walked out. "You could say that. No. I moved to Mafia town persuing my own dreams of being a master chef a long time ago. You see where ah'm from there's lots and lots of food carts and cafe's so I knew I wouldn't stand much of a chance if I just stayed, and even if I did I would've just become another small store in the piles of stores around myself." She stopped a little aways from the door just as Poppy was nearing the exit staring at the ground. "No. I never wanted to be just like the crowd. I knew I wanted more for my nine lives, so after saving as many pons as I could, I moved far away to Mafia town. I heard it was a big fishing community and they sold most of the city's fish to us. There were rumors about their leader being a chef too. So I thought it was the purrrrfect oportunity for me......I wasn't too right about that though."

Poppy was all wars by now as she slowly climbed out at last and rose to her feet. Giving Cookie a sympathetic look as the cat looked back up to her, her body shivering from the cold air again. "I-I'm....I'm so sorry. What happened if you don't mind me asking?"

Cookie chuckled again. "Don't mind a bit. The mafia hired me on bourd straight away in their kitchen....But it turns out they only did so because they wanted me to chase down all the mice they were having a problem with." Poppy made a scowl and Cookie waved her off. "I know. I was disappointed too. You see usually us cats don't have a very good reputation because of all the theives who happen to coincidentally be cats, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to become an under dog hero of cooking if that made sense. I thought I would be doing a good thing if I switched all their bad food for my good food and maybe spare a few taste buds, but I knew I was wasting my talents there." She turned and began to walk again with Poppy following politely listening interested. "Eventually I did grow tired especially after meeting the cute lil alien. And I just couldn't help myself with all the questions. Was alien food really better than ours? Was there advanced tools to better cook with? My curiousity got the better of me and before I knew it I had so rudely snuck into her bridge using some moon penguin's teleporter to get themselves to and from the moon."

"So....Does that mean Bow fled with you?" They had both reached the ladder that lead down to the storage room floor that would let anyone get to the washer and dryer to use and upon reaching it Cookie turned around and descended the ladder. Poppy slowly doing the same but with her sore arm it was still a little slower. "What happened?"

"No. Honestly I have no idea how she ended up in mafia town herself, but that's a different story. Turns out an alien's kitchen is exactly like mine. In the long run I guess I was hoping for some kind of miracle to help me out of my rut but it didn't matter. I got fired by the head boss as soon as I came back for comspiring with traitorious aliens."

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry." Poppy's foot touch the ground and she watched as the calico waved her and made her way towards the Laundry Cleaner 3000.

"No. I was sick of working for those brutes anyways."

"So...What did you do next?," she asked as she followed.

"Well....I stayed home and felt pretty bad for a long time, but then I found an ad in the newspaper for a cruise ship needing a cook! So obviously I took the chance. It was....not better than the mafia to be honest. Those seals were decent cooks but they were so accident prone and their kitchen was so dangerous. I'm almost glad the ship sank, but it just meant I was back to square one again.....I was so about to give up and go back home. Better a small cook like the rest than not being a cook at all anywhere." Her smile grew as she just waltzed right into the closet like space and turned to poppy. "That little alien is more resourceful than you might think."

"Why? What did she do?"

"Why?...She introduced me to the man....or penguin that made all my dreams come true. We met up again by chance when she was on the same cruise, talk about coincidence. She saw how unhappy I was and wanted to help. But I didn't beleive she could do anything about my situation having already had so many set backs." She made almost a happy purr as Poppy finally walked in next to her after gesturing for her to stand next to herself. "So imagine my surprise when one day Mr. DJ Grooves himself arrived on my doorstep and asked ME of all people to star in a cooking show series! He said his little star told him all about the delicious food his staff received on their vacation and my cute face was absolutely perfect for it! IT WAS A HUGE HIT!! Turns out those moon penguins LOVED all my fish recipes and tips! Next thing I knew I signed a business contract and finally saw my dream take off right before my own eyes. I'll NEVER be able to thank them all enough for making it come true."

"A...cooking show? I didn't know they made those."

"Really? I guess swamp people wouldn't have tv. Oh. Push the red button there to take us down." Her paw pointed to a red button on the inside of the machine they were in.

"A-Actually...I grew up on a farm. W-We were pretty poor." She frowned and reached over to push the button like Cookie had asked. Wobbling a little when the ground beneath them suddenly lowered and she looked up to watch as the light disappeard.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I had no idea," Cookie apologized with a paw placed gently on Poppy's arm. "You poor thing."

"Uh...N-No. It's ok.....You can't change the past." Her frown saddened even more at that.

Cookie's smile came back as she looked at her. "That's true. I can't change how said and how much I struggled then, but that don't mean we can't have a happy future."

".....Heh. Y-Y'know...Y-You're the second person to r-really....t-t-tell me that." When light came back up Cookie's smile vanished seeing the older woman starting to cry but quickly trying to stop once light hit her face." I-I'm sorry. I s-shouldn't get so emotional. I-It's just that so many big bad things have happened recently a-and I.....I-.."

She stopped when a paw grabbed her and Cookie gave her a slightly stern and determined look. "Honey, there is no reason not to cry if you feel like you want or need to cry about it. Now you go on right ahead and don't mind me. Because I'm not gonna stop someone if they need to cry out their emtions. It's unhealthy to keep that bottled up."

That's just what she needed to hear. With watery blue eyes Poppy stared at this little cat for a long silent moment before she sniffed again and finally small little tears began to drip down that face one after another and before she knew it she was on her knees sobbing harder and louder than a baby. Cookie shushing her and rubbing the poor sobbing gal's back as all the pent up emotions finally came out as she cried and cried.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!!," she wailed out to no one between chokes. Her good fist coming down to hit the floor in frustration and anger. "IT'S NOT FAIR!! IT'S NOT FAIR!! WHY DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!? I WANT TO GO H-HOME!!" She hiccuped hard and reached her arm up to wipe at her heated face. "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!! B-B-BUT I C-CAN'T B-BECAUSE EVERYTHING'S GONE!! *hic* AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!!"

"Shh. There, there. I know it must be tough not having a home. Feeling so lost and scared having no one around. But it'll be ok. You just let it all out, Sugar."

"H-How do y-you know?," she hiccuped again and looked to the cat in question with tears blurring her vision.

Cookie smiled sadly. "Because I have a little blonde girl living with me who felt the same way. Sometimes these things happen and we just need a little help." The paw came up to her shoulder as Cookie pulled a small hankerchief from her chef's pocket and offered it to her to which Poppy was rather grateful. "Feel better?" She hiccuped and nodded wiping her face with that small tissue. A little relief coming to her from letting all the emotions out. "There, there. Come on. I bet you'll feel even better after getting all this dirt off your pretty self and getting a bite to eat."

Her stomach rumbled again at the mention of food and Cookie chuckled. Slightly pushing her body upwards to help motivate the sniffing gal to her wobbly feet once again and have a look around the room once those tears were dried away. ....Oh. This must've been the bathroom they were talking about it was all very clean with sea themed things everywhere. Starfish shaped handles on the drawers, sea shell covers for the lights, towels, a sink, mirror, bottles of soap, laudry soap, and shampoo on the shelves along with the towels, bath toys, and anything and everything else a bathroom would have including what looked like an extra set of washing machines with one right open with what looked like warm water and a stepping stool in front of it. There was even another metal table like thing with a tray of fake cakes on it. But funnily no showers or a bathtub in sight. Perhaps she was supposed to use the sink to wash her face but was surprised when Cookie lead her over to the full washing machine.

"Alright. Here. I'll get you a nice herbal shampoo, those work wonders for silky, soft hair."

"I-.....B-But this is a-

"Washing machine? Oh heavens no. It was recycled into a bathtub. Something the aliens call recycling. Fascinating isn't it? Now go on. Wash up. You don't want to be filthy forever do you?"

Well......She was in really no position to argue about anything anymore was she?

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch3 Plan On The Way

A quiet floating ghost made their way across the floor and over to the door as the tall and dark spector slowly opened the door and peeked out...The dark ship was still dark except for the kiddo's nightlight indicating the children was still asleep and eased himself out with a sigh. He didn't think he could handle another storybreak again- He sighed and reached up to comb a clawed hand threw his messy floof, floating casually now towards the Time Piece room, he was rather impatient just waiting for them to fall sleep and getting his kids' nightly routine out of the way. He swore he was about to go loose some nonexitance teeth from the sweet pancakes and doughnuts she always brought home. Or grow fat from all the sausegues and bacon and all the other fatty foods cooking cat brought. She+ was a good cook he wouldn't deny it, but he wanted couldn't eat anything and he didn't like all the fatty foods the kids always seemed to eat. He wanted some none fatty foods for them for once and MAYBE have just a small teeny tiny little piece of quiet before he left for his rounds- He froze when he heard a little buzzing and sweeping noise and looked down. The kid's weird robot pet, Rumbi he thought, was sleep sweeping again. Nevermind how a robot could sleep and sweep in said sleep, but he knew if he woke those girls up it'll be a bigger pain to put them back to sleep again. He spent the good majority of the day thinking over what Hattie said. Those things worked like wishing stars, certainly gave him the extra boost and that Mustached menace when they needed it, and right now. After so much hate, so much pain....SO MANY LIES!! He would get what he so rightfully deserved.

REVENGE!!

Revenge for every single little thing she had ever done to him! All those crazy things she banned him from. BACON of all things. WHO BANS BACON OVER JEALOUSY!? Cutting and dying his hair while he was asleep! Getting jealous over his old tutor, who by the way- WAS A OLD WOMAN ALREADY MARRIED!!! Seriously, he was so, SO blinded by his 'love' for her that he never saw anything coming. He should've listened to those red flags shoved at him while he still had the chance. Because of that stupid choice everyone in their giant kingdoms suffered. Him. The children of the village. .....Poppy. A feral growl forced it's way past his fangs. IF ONLY HE HAD LISTENED!! Maybe he would've gotten that love and happy marriage he always wanted. With his sassy, fiery Flower Princess and maybe even a child....Just like he always wanted. ...He shook his head. Snap outta it you ninny!! That was more than a thousand years ago. She was gone, even if she escaped Vanessa's wrath. There was NOTHING he could do about it now.

"Ow. mY cUrcIT bOaRD!!," that small little distorted voice caught his attention.

Snatcher looked down and rose a brow so to speak. His long tail had run into Rumbi and 'woken up' the robot that was just looking up to him now curiously as Snatcher stared back down at him. They stared at each other for a moment, before the ghost reached down and flipped the poor cleaning bot on it's back to avoid any loud sweeping sounds. The poor bot let out beeps and boops, not loud enough to wake anyone up at least. He smirked at the robot for a moment before the shadow spector continued on his past away from the kiddo's bedroom and over to the driver's room of the ship, where the giant pile of pillows was. It was easy for him to spot the giant locked volt which held the kid's stash of time pieces. The shadow smiled wide seeing the volt. Something like steel won't stop him from going right through it. It was easy for him to vanish through the giant heavy metal door, while the monitor screen on the left flashed a perfect one thousand time pieces present and accounted for, not for long though. The twinkles of the huge collection of blue time pieces made the spector grin even wider as his plan was about to get set in motion. ONE.All he needed was one little twinkling hourglass and he'd be all set.

"It'll be quick and easy," he told himself as those purple claws eargerly grasped around the closest one to him, picking it up gently as if it was a newborn baby. His smile reflecting in it's twinkling surface. Magic blue sparkling sand held within it. "Go to the witch's home. Wish her to get lost forEVER. And put it back before the kid wakes up. Easy." He wasn't sure if he was encouraging himself or just reassuring his plan, or both. But it seemed to be working as he chuckled glancing at his reflection again. "Oh this is going to be fun."

Getting out of there was easy too, of course he couldn't go through walls holding something. Then the thing he's holding wouldn't be with him, but he could warp into his domain with things. How else did the kid suspect him to sign his contracts without risking her running away into the woods? In warp of energy and magic the ghost cackled out loudly in the giant room and long purple shadows danced across the room covering the glittering hourglasses and as soon as it came it faded away leaving the room of hourglasses as peaceful as it was before. Outside the room, the ship was still quiet except for the Roomba. Outside by the door, the screen showing the count of all the hourglasses, glitched and the even count of '1,000' changed to the number '999' hourglasses in the room. Compared to the teleporting ghost who was surrounded by a purple void, shadows stretching along the room as he cackled and still glanced at the small hourglass in his claws. A moment later that purple curtain faded away and the familiar gloomy forest reappeared around him. It was dark, nighttime, and twisted trees were around everywhere as the ghost floated there for a moment just staring at the hourglass, already feeling the power energy spiking off it and chuckled again.

"Oh. This is going to be a night to remember.~"

"May I ask what is going to be so memorable, my cackling counterpart?"

The Snatcher froze. That voice!...That disgusting DAPPER voice!! he inwardly cringed as any happy feelings left him as he groaned and turned around to peer behind him with a scowl. Chains rattled as they floated around the other, glitching spector who blinked at him with a smile and those weird red patterned eyes blinked at him as his body glitched every few seconds. But as Snatcher hissed in utter displeasure at him, the other ghost only smiled politely waiting for a reply from the shadow ghost. Before he leaned over a little and blinked at the shiny hourglass in his claws.

"Oh, my." He pointed a blue claw at it. "Wouldn't that happen to be dear Hattie's little collectable?"

He hissed before wretching back around. "None of your business, Moonboy! Go haunt that toilet and turn into sludge!" He began floating away but to his utter annoyance his copy began following him.

The Moonjumper's sparkly blue and white hair glimmered in the moonlight as he leaned over slightly as he floated above the Snatcher. "Oh, come now. It was just an innocent question. As the girls' father, I don't think it's good morals to steal from her."

"I'm NOT stealing!," he growled without looking up at him, "I'm just borrowing it. It'll be back by tomorrow morning, just like nothing will ever happen."

A pause- "Stealing, not stealing. Whatever it is you call it. But I also known you for almost more than a thousand years, Shadow theif, and I know you never do anything without reason." He chuckled making Snatcher frown further. "Now what might the all powerful Snatcher, be needing that for?"

"Are you going to just bug me everytime you come across me?"

"To be fair, you teleported right next to me, so I was minding my ow business before you even arrived. And no. I'm too curious for my own good.~"

The shadow ghost growled like a feral animal but Moonjumper didn't flinch, to used to this by now. And a ghost couldn't harm another ghost after all. "If you HAVE to know, Cresent face.....It's all a part of my plan. Something I wished to do for so, so long."

That peaked Moonjumper's interest as he hummed and the chains clanked more. "Now what plan would that be?"

"To destroy Vanessa once and for all."

Moonjumper completely stopped at the words spilt from the shadow ghost's mouth. Blinking in mid air as Snatcher still didn't stop as Moonjumper stared at him- Before shaking his shock off and calling after him. "N-Now just wait a moment!" He quickly flew glitching after him and floated right next to him now as Snatcher still ignored him. "HOW may I ask are you planning on doing that?! A ghost can't hurt another at the same strength as them. And Vanessa's..."He shuddered(glitched. "Dark magic rivals both your and my abilities. How do you suppose you're going to pull all this off with a teeny tiny object of sand and glass?"

..That scowl disappeared as he chuckled darkly and smirked. Still not looking at him, he held up the hourglass. "These things grant you what you want, at least according to the kid. And what better way to get rid of someone you don't want then by wishing away Vanessa's afterlife.~ If these things can grant a blonde brat inter-dimentional time powers to get lost, then who's to say it couldn't do the same with me.~"

The Moonjumper was staring at him, already thinking about this whole thing. Vanessa could...get lost?...Forever? And no one would ever have to deal with her ever again?! A happy feeling washed over the other ghost's glitching self as the thought of Vanessa no longer existing came over himself. Sure, it wouldn't fix what happened in the past, but he DID like the thought of having a mansion to himself and chuckled darkly himself as he mirrored his counterparts happy smirk.

"Well, now.~ This would be ...most pleasing to me as well.~ I don't suppose you mind me tagging along to witness this glorious event, do you?"

Snatcher still smiled wide. "Just stay out of my way and we won't have any problems.~"

As the two spooks floated along, dwellers and Snatcher's minions watched confused as the powerful spirits floated past and gazed at the shiny thing in their King's hands. The forest slowly getting darker and colder as they went and slowly his plan would be fulfilled. In the meantime, back on the ship. A small little brown haired girl stirred awake.

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch 8

(Warning: Death Scene ahead. The third floor is the same cut third floor in the video here and all the things described are here as well. Only behind the door is something different for the story. And Snatcher's dialogue came from the video of the cut content as well. )

The guards marched the poor woman now panicking in their grip flailing about, trying to get out of their grip like a fly in a cold spiderweb to no avail. The two giant guards marched noisily towards somewhere unknown as the third floor rooms and hallways passed them as they marched with seemingly no regard for the woman yelling and pulling between them. Eventually marching down one hallways in particular with a double door room at the end of it, heavy and thick with chains and locks fit for a dungeon instead of a bed room. The two guards went right up to it and before Poppy could even yell out peck again- She was tossed in rather hard. She landed with a giant thud sound and yelped out as her body landed with the freezing cold floor. And it only began to get colder and COLDER!! Poppy groaned from the pain but those blue eyes snapped open at the sudden noise of doors slamming behind her. Panic and adrenaline pumping through her veins and she stumbled to her feet as fast as she could. The rattling of chains and clicking of heavy locks made her fear spike worse and she went to it as fast as she could grabbing the door knob and pushing.

"HEY!! WHAT THE PECK!? LET ME OUT!!" The heavy doors creaked from her pushing and pulling and desperately turning the knob. The floor shaking lightly with the heavy footsteps of the guards walking away. The realization of them walking away made her more desperate to get out, and she now went to banging on the door. "H-HEY!! DO YOU LUGNUTS HEAR ME?! I SAID I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OK?! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID BUT IM SORRY OK!! PLEASE!! LET ME GO!! I SWEAR TO YOU I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING THAT CRAZY SHADOW LADY SAID!!"

She got no reply and could hear them getting and farther away, panicking she tore herself away from the door. Heart hammering in her ears and eyes scrambling around the dark room for any signs of escape to no avail. No windows. No other doors. Nothing. The coldness was starting to creep in now and the shadows of the room got closer....and closer...... Her panting became faster and in a moment of desperation, she backed all the way to the other side of the empty room and looked at the door. Bracing herself, she ran as fast as she could across the room and rammed her shoulder as hard as she could into the heavy duty door. A thud rang out but there wasn't even a dent in the thick would. Leaving her only falling to the ground and reaching up to rub her sore shoulder from the ramming. The cold slowly creeped closer and closer and the shadows swallowed her whole until her world fell into a black slumber for a thousand years.

.......

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

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

Until her awakening years later.

The silence of the frost was an almost empty numb feeling until that jolt of energy shot through, and their was a gasp of air sucked into those newly awakened lungs that coughed and sucked in breaths. Like she had been under water for such a long time. It was dark. And it was cold. And she was scared. But the energy.....It was so big. And so bright light energy. It seemed to chase the darkness away. The sore, numb, stiff limbs moved in what seemed like forever. It was so hard and she shivered from the cold she still felt. Where was she?.....What happened?.....What was that bright light? 

Poppy weakly managed to move her sore, cold body into pushing her front half up and looking around the room....She was...She was still in this prison? What happened? All she remembered was a crazy snow storm, and guards, and the last thing she remembered just being thrown inside here. In the dark her slow blinking eyes could vaguely make out the door. She...She must've knocked herself out from ramming into the door. Gotta admit not her most proudest moment or best idea. How long was she even out?...Didn't matter. All she knew was that she was still stuck in that room and needed to get out before that crazy shadow lady or guards decided to come back. And get away from this frozen wasteland as fast as possible. Willing herself onto her hands and knees, and crawled to the door and began weakly pushing and banging on it. Maybe someone would come and hear her out about her story.

And someone came.

***********************************************************************************************

Out of all the parts of the mansion she'd been in, the third floor was by fair the most creepy and she REALLY doubted anyone other than her and Snatcher had ever gotten this far up in the manor before and escaped Vanessa's wrath. The mafia men. Snatcher's subjects. Those Explorer guys. Rough Patch. That weird....ghost thing?? That one image made her shiver, but at least they were far away from this place now. But still. This place was creepy with a capital C. She was SURE she'd rather fight a hundred Snatcher's with an army of ghost behind him rather than explore one room of this third floor. Her ghostly friend wasn't kidding when he said Vanessa went off her deep end. The entire third floor was just COVERED wall to wall in literal newspapers. Very, VERY old timey newspapers where each one had to be hand written with an ink and pen, and copy machines weren't even a thought. She tried reading one before but found she couldn't make anything out other than maybe one or two old faded words. Some had old pictures but those were too faded to be made out too. But what she could read was Vanessa's crazy black paint scribbles painted throughout the entire place. Most were 'PRINCE', 'PRINCESS', 'QUEEN', 'KINGDOM', and VERY scarily 'HAPPILY EVER AFTER'. Along with multiple drawings of a crown here and there. But those weren't the only writings on the walls. She guessed Vanessa had at least a bit of sanity left before she lost it all because she found some full blown sentences and pictures around the place when she first explored it too. Some very weird things. In one room with a clawed chair she found a blue and green picture of a moon she guessed with an annoyed red face and a yellow crown on it's head. Not too sure what that was all about. Then there was another drawing of the moon phases over a curved line and under it looked like two eyes and a monicule similar to Moonjumper's but she didn't wanna think about that. Then there was the spooky eye and solor system diagram.  And then there was the weird mural thing, looked like someone just spray painted a basic green land, blue sky, and bright sun or moon in the same colors used to draw that weird frowning moon picture. Vanessa must've been REALLY off her rocker, but what spooked her the most weren't the pictures or newspapers, but the very strange three fancy cursive writing sentences she found among them all. She still remembered them.

"The Prince loves the moon so much MAYBE HE SHOULD MARRY IT THEN MAYBE HE CAN GIVE ME MORE ATTENTION!!" She remembered Snatcher and Moonjumper saying he loved to watch the moon and stars when he was alive. So she guessed Vanessa was jealous of him loving the moon and stars as a hobby just as much as when she was Jealous over bacon. "My prince Im sorry what happened to your home I just didn't like to see you go It's alright now you can't miss it and neither will I." Hattie felt even MORE sorry for the two ghosts when she read that. They never had a chance. "I know it was weird how I said it! I just didn't want you to get unbound. All I want was for you to never leave this house." YEP!! REALLY WEIRD AND VERY OBSESSIVE!!!

She still crept forward keeping her umbrella handy and looking left and right throughout the dark. Yeah, Vanessa was still unconscious, human, and trapped inside a bathroom with no escape, but that still didn't help Hattie feel better. I mean any second she was expecting to see or her stupid, scary ghost self pop up around a corner or coming out of one of the rooms. THAT LADY WAS NUTS!!! The small creaking sounds of banging continued up ahead and the child pointed the umbrella forward, ready to blast anything at a moment's notice. She wondered for a moment if Snatcher had been right, and there really was no one up there, that it was all just the wind. Though she never heard anything like that before, she also never saw anyone frozen so maybe he was right....But that didn't sound like wind. As she tiptoed by she saw an old camera and remembered Snatcher's interference with her trying to get the time piece from the attic. Who knew he could shapeshift to look just herself. She still remembered it like it was yesterday, a camera flash then came the noodle she knew and loved to mess with. He didn't like her winning too much.

"Hey, hey now! No reason to throw a fist at your old buddy! Ha ha ha ha! What are you doing up here?" Then he appeared in the light from the camera "Don't you know she'll go mental if she catches you?" NNnnnooo. Really? She would've thought Vanessa was just chasing her to come and eat cookies like she said, not definitely turn her into an ice statue. So she asked him what he was doing there interfering with the contract they had. "What me? Im just looking for some dirt on my old friend the Moonjumper. Poor fellow. Doesn't even know he used to live here." She  SEVERELY doubted that. When she first met Moonjumper he seemed super aware of the fact Vanessa was his ex lover and Hattie suspected that Snatcher was just mocking him which confirmed her suspicions with the next sentence. "Eeeeevery time I bring him something from this place he almost wets his bed in fear. Ha ha ha ha!" YEP! Moonjumper def knew who Vanessa was.  "Subcon Forest isn't big enough for the two of us you know. And now you, a little girl, is trying to enter the fight for the forest as well? My, my. That won't do. You need to go or else she'll come up here and find you, right? I guess it would be a terrible misfortune if the key disappeared. Ha ha ha ha!" Oh yes. The good mindset he had that everyone was trying to take his forest and admitted at first he thought she was trying t invade his forest since he heard a lot about alien invasions.  Then she had to go around chasing him while dodging Vanessa when he stole the key to the attic from her. "Ha Ha! It's mine! What are you gonna do?Don't you know you can't hurt a shadow?" .....Yeah. She got it back, but he was a sore loser as always.  "You want the key? Take it! It's yours! I don't need it anyway and you won't be needing it either when she catches you! Ha ha ha!!" Jokes on him! She never will and he always lost to her! 

But right now she'd give anything to hear that loud mouth yell at her, or the sweet voice of Moonjumper. But instead she heard nothing but the sounds of the smaller  banging like the wind hitting the roof over and over again, but it didn't come from above. It came from right in front of her. She crept forward ever so slowly, the lightning lighting up the room every few moments as the child tip toed her way down the hall and towards the noise until it lead her face to face down a long stretch of hallway. It was dark and lead all the way down to that weird heavily locked door she had scene when she first got here. At first she thought it was the attic but the key Snatcher stole from her way back when didn't fit, so she just assumed it was more of Vanessa's crazy stuff. But the noises.....they were coming from the inside of the door. The chains were swaying lightly with each small bang from what she could see from the lightning. The rusty chains and locks shone in the light as well as the giant signs painted on it that read "STAY OUT" and "NEVER OPEN" and "TURN AROUND". Since when did she listen to signs, she slowly inched forward and brandished her umbrella in front of her just in case. But now this begged the questions. Why was the door making the weird noise? Was someone locked inside the room? How did they get in there? Were they a bad guy? The floor bourds creaked with her footsteps as she approached and after a second the noises completely stopped-.......Which confused the child into raising an eyebrow and walking over to the door. Gazing across the many things holding it shut before gaining up the courage to ask a question.

"Hello?"

There was silence for a good long moment. Tho Hattie couldn't see it, the woman on the other side of the door felt like she was about to cry from relief and happily answered back after another few short seconds.

"H-Hello?"

Hattie obviously jumped at the sudden raspy woman's voice coming from the other side of the door, but after a brief moment she realized with relief it wasn't Vanessa's voice. Then who was it? Another prisoner? She stood on her tip toes ad if trying to peer through the key hole under the doorknob. "Who are you?"

Her. THROAT. WAS. DRIER THAN A SANDSTORM!! It felt like she hadn't drank any water in a hundred years, but she was SO happy someone was even talking to her. This might be the hope she was looking for. The other's voice was clearly female and Poppy wondered old she was. She sounded quite young. "M-My name is Poppy. P-Please let me out *cough cough* I swear I d-d-didn't do anything wrong!"

"How did you get in there? Did Vanessa freeze you too?"

Vanessa? Who's Vanessa? The only Vanessa she knew was the Queen, but despite the Queen's strange behaviors and laws, from the few times she'd seen her in the village she seemed like a lovely lady and the children loved her so much. "I-I d-don't know who Vanessa y-you're referring to, but some crazy *cough* shadow lady made two iron giants kidnapped me and locked me in here. I-I think I've been in here for a couple hours, b-but I assure you I NEVER committed treason against the Queen."

So Vanessa locked her up and froze her too? That sounded like something the crazy old coot would do after all. "Don't worry! Im going to get you out like everyone else!"

Poppy felt her face smile for the first time in hours since she got there. "T-Thank you! B-But hurry! Im not sure when the guards or that shadow lady's going to come back!"

Hattie looked up and around at the old locks and chains all keeping it together. Ok. She didn't have the key and didn't know where it was, probably only Vanessa knew and she wasn't about to go asking the crazy lady for a key, and she probably wasn't physically strong enough to pull them from the door even if they were old and rusty. Snatcher was definitely no use, he'd just flop over like a helpless teddy bear.......But there was one way she could think of.

"Can you walk?"

Poppy blinked at the question. "What?"

"Can you walk? You need to back off the door!"

"Why?"

"Because Im going to blast it open."

Blast it?! Did this  child have dynamite?! Or a canon?! Or did she know some magic? Either way she was not about to get caught in the crossfires of this, so willing her sore and numb body, she dragged herself away from the door to the opposite wall. Her lower half felt like a bowling ball. it hurt. It was like pins and needles on steroids and her legs were really sore and she barely got out of the way before a loud BOOM! was set off behind her that knocked her down face first onto the floor and on instinct her hands slammed down on her head to protect her from the flying splinters of wood and metal that shot out into the room. The blast seemed to have shaken the entire third floor and their was probably no doubt anyone in the entire manor could've heard the blast. Hattie stared at the remains of the doors that remained on the hinges and hummed. Maybe she should've tried picking the lock first just oh well. She just hoped that blast didn't wake up ms goldie crazy locks downstairs. Still brandishing the umbrella, she crept forward towards the door and peeked inside the room once she got close enough hearing movement inside. Inside was a.....woman? A lady with long braided red hair and a face of matching freckles was sitting on her knees staring back at the little girl. Her hands in a position that made Hattie think she must've been dusting debris from the blast off of her and the two stared at each other for a moment before Hattie finally spoke.  "Who are you?" Poppy stared at her for a moment before blinking and replying. "I could ask you the same thing. .....But to answer your question. My name is Poppy. Poppy Rose Bloomington. What's yours, little girl?" She blinked. "Hattie." She finally lowered her umbrella a little bit and watched as Poppy struggled to her feet leaning against the wall. She certainly didn't look very threatening, and she didn't get any dangerous vibes off her. Her vibes were more like DJ Grooves only less fun. So she decided to repeat her question to her once she saw Poppy's wobbling legs. "Can you walk?" Poppy nodded leaning against the wall, her legs felt heavy and like jello, but she HAD to get outta there. "I have no choice! We have to get the peck outta here before someone comes and does something worse than lock us inside a room." She gave another look around at the mess. "....But it looks like you can take care of yourself fine, Little witch." Hattie smiled. "Im not a witch. I just used the magic badge thingy on my umbrella." She swayed her umbrella and followed as Poppy made her way towards the door. "But maybe I am. That could be why Snatcher used to call me a little witch. Can you be a space travelling witch?" Poppy barely paid attention to the little girl but absolutely froze at the sight of the horrifying ruined third floor walls, and the darkness covering them all. ........This wasn- Lightning struck outside the windows and lit up the whole third floor for a minute, revealing the faded papers and words painted all over them. Wha-...What HAPPENED HEAR!? It didn't look like this when she was dragged up here a couple hours ago. There was still snow and the chilly freeze she surely remembered, but the horror tale was new. "W-What happened here?"  Hattie bounded up next to her confused. "What are you talking about? It's always been this creepy. At least that's what Snatcher told me. He used to steal things and scare Uncle Moon with them." She gave the still frozen older lady a look over.....Did she..look familiar somehow? Nah. But that begs the question. What was she going to do now that she found her? Snatcher already told one of his helpers to take everyone to his tree house, and she didn't know any long ways around. Plus judging by Poppy's current state, she didn't think she'd be able to jump over the bridge. She'd just fall into the ravene. ........Well, it seemed like there was only one way to quickly get her out safely before she put the time piece back together was to take her back to her ship, at least until she cleaned up Snatcher's mess. Then she'll take her to Mafia town or something. Hattie grabbed the woman's hand, who flinched at her touch and started pulling her along down the hallway, but stopped when she felt Poppy stumble and almost fall over. "...Are you ok?"  Poppy Nodded. "Uh..Yeah. B-But maybe don't move so fast ok?" Hattie nodded and eagerly began pulling her along down the wall and again Poppy began to glance around in horror around her. ....It surely wasn't this dark when she was first taken up here. How could so much change have happened within just a few hours of her knocking herself out ramming into the door? Things only got worse when the child slowly lead her down the stairs towards the second floor. Poppy vaugly remembering it as she was brought up and thrown in there, but she didn't expect there to be so many claw marks lining the walls, it was much better looking than the third floor for sure and at least with this floor there was candles lit so she could see but that still didn't calm her nerves. Who made these marks? The crazy shadow lady or something else? The creaking of their footsteps echoing throughout the halls, she hoped no one heard them- "KIDDO!! YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLAINATION FOR WHATEVER I HEARD UPSTAIRS, YOUNG LADY!!" "PECK IT, SNATCHER!! SHUT UP WILL YOU!?" "HEY!! IM NOT THE ONE WHO MADE AN EXPLOSION GO OFF!!" "WELL IF VANESSA ISNT AWAKE SHE IS NOW!!" The loud voices made Poppy jump and release herself from the child's grip as she snapped her head wide eyed towards the direction of the voices she had just heard. One sorta distorted and raspy and the other like a proper city gentlemen yelling. The child however just smiled and began bounding her way over to an open door near the front of the hallway and stuck her head in. When Hattie looked inside she saw the two ghosts stuck together already looking in her direction, Snatcher making them scowl at her. She noticed the two had somehow taken the red blanket off the bed and threw it over their shoulders while she was gone. Messing up the bed but at least having something to keep them warm in the meantime. The book opened to page '23'. Snatcher was always a fast reader.  "Hi! Yeah, it was me." "What the absolute PECK were you doing?! Trying to set the building to the ground?!," Snatcher demanded of her. Both Moonboy and himself had noticed the loud BAM noise from somewhere above them. It sounded like a cannon was shot through the side of the building above them shaking the whole house and if it weren't for their current state, Snatcher would've immediately ran up there and seen what had happened for himself, but unfortunately he couldn't without falling flat on their face and had to wait for approaching footsteps to know she was alright. But now she might be in trouble by the ghost. "Are you TRYING to wake the crazy pecker up?! I'd rather NOT have any crazy women screaming their head off about 'her prince' until Im back to normal!...What the PECK even happened?!" "I found a lady!" He rose a brow. "You found a what?" Hattie jabbed a thumb behind her at the still frozen and confused Poppy. "I found a lady locked in that room upstairs. The one with all those scary locks, she's wearing a funny apron." Snatcher was silent for a moment processing what he had just heard. A woman was inside the locked room upstairs? Who? Moonjumper thought of a possible solution really quick. "An apron you say?" Hattie nodded. "Hm. Sounds like one of the old cleaning maids." "Heh. Vanessa would be crazy enough to lock away a cleaning lady in a room with a ton of locks. But what was that noise?" The child held up her umbrella. "The locks wouldn't unlock. So I blasted it to bits!" "You blasted down doors to free a cleaning lady?" ''Hey! I said everyone gets to be free! And It's not like Vanessa can sue me. She's more empty headed than those no-headed statues outside." "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" That got a round of laughter from Snatcher that made Poppy flinch outside. From her spot she couldn't see anything inside the room. Not that she wanted too, but now they were smiling. "That's the truest thing you've ever said, Kid!" "Uh huh! Also, Ill be right back! I gotta take her to my ship!" "What? You're leaving me again?!" "Us you creton. But you're leaving after just coming back?" "Im just gonna take her to my ship so she's not turned back into another human-ice statue. And I won't really go back myself." She waved her umbrella at them. "Ill just use this to take her back outside, and come right back! Promise." They stared at her for a moment, before she heard Snatcher grumble and turn back around down to their book. "Make. It. VERY. QUICK!! Ok? We can't just keep delaying this, Kid. I want OUT of this thing as soon as possible!! And that means NOW!!" "It won't take long! Promise." She turned back away from the door smiling and ran back up to Poppy. The woman blinked and looked down at the little girl that grabbed her hand and started tugging her along again. "Come on! Don't step on any glass on the floor. I still have to fix it!" Poppy didn't say anything but she allowed herself to still be dragged away by the child. Hattie lead her around the glass pieces and down to the next flight of stairs waiting to take them to the first floor, footsteps echoing around them. Poppy blinked and couldn't help but look over to the open door as they passed, Snatcher had already turned back to the book with a sour expression and didn't see who Hattie was dragging past the door, though Poppy had see someone wrapped in a blanket and a bit of brown hair sticking out of the blanket. Blinking she turned back to the small child still dragging her away and soon they decended down the second flight of stairs.  "Who w-was that exactly?" "Oh! That's Snatcher. He's my dad. Don't worry about him being scary, he's just a big soon-da-rey." She giggled a little bit confusing the woman a little more. She had no idea what a soon-da-rey was. The first floor wasn't as better from the first. Still cold. Still spooky looking. Still had random claw marks everywhere and she was still looking around in fright. Was that shadow monster going to pop out any moment? Where were the guards? In fact, where was everyone? She hadn't seen a single servant, guard, or even the Queen since she was broken out. Oh she hoped they were ok, she'd hate to know what would've happened if worse case scenario. And on that note of questions, who was this child? How did she and her father get in without getting hurt? Was she a little witch? She sure seemed like it with the blast she just performed. And where was she taking her? Outside hopefully, she'd rather be outside than inside this creepy prison. She glanced down as they passed by the painting Snatcher smashed and winced, Poppy did NOT want to stick around long enough for whoever did all this to come out. SO she rather take her chances with a little witch than a crazy shadow ghost. Hattie didn't stop even as she lead Poppy past the doors which made her turn in their direction and point.  "Where are we going? The front doors are right over there." "I know but they're blocked up by this use snow pile and there's this headless statues that are REALLY creepy and they try to grab you. And I don't think Snatcher would like it if I blasted another door. We have to go this way!" She pointed ahead of them to yet ANOTHER flight of stairs that looked like it lead into the basement. It gave Poppy an off feeling but she still didn't stop the child from pulling her towards it with their footsteps echoing behind them until they decended into the darkness of the stairs. It was overwhelming dark for a moment, before there was a splash and her whole foot suddenly felt wet and cold. One or two candles along the wall lit up the broken down walls and to Poppy's shock, there was water EVERYWHERE on the ground, must've been at least five or six inches deep because as she still allowed her shocked self to be lead through. Her Shoes and ankles getting absolutely cold and soaked, she hoped she wouldn't get sick from the cold. The cold stung herself and she looked around, their watery footsteps echoing around the home and she shivered at a pair of chains lightly clacking against the walls from the breeze coming from yet ANOTHER pair of stairs up ahead and they could see light at the end of the tunnel. As Poppy was lead up the stairs she blinked back away from the sudden cold that blasted her face and crept through her simple dress. As they reached the top of that stairway, blinding white caused her to blink and reach her hands up away from Hattie's grip to rub at her eyes. The storm and cold winds were still blowing, and as Hattie looked around she hummed. No foot prints left by the others, so she had no idea where they went and she'd have to stick to the original 'take lady to my ship' plan, luckily the dome's top let in the moonlight and a surefire way to let them get there. She'd get back by having Snatcher teleport her or using the time piece to teleport her back there, right now she had to hurry and get back to fix said time piece.  "This way quick!" Poppy stumbled as the child regrabbed her hand and pulled her forward almost making her fall flat on her face into the snow. The cold winds made their hair blow around with the snowflakes and the cold felt worse, especially on her wet feet and legs as they trudged through the snow at the insistence of the child until they were a couple yards away from one of the icy dome walls and far from the back of the manor. Hattie seemed pleased as she turned around and smiled at Poppy. Taking the hand she was holding and forcing the umbrella she was holding into it.Poppy blinked confused at the little girl making her hold the umbrella as she lifted it up to inspect it....before looking back to her.  "Sugarcube, I don't think this little thing is gonna be enough shelter from the wind." "It's not for the snow! It's to take you to my ship! Here" She reached up and grabbed the umbrella, fiddling with something Poppy couldn't see because of the wind whipping her hand and snowflakes around herself before she released the umbrella again. "There! Now hold on tight and point it at the moon." "Why?" "Please just do it!" Poppy sighed and looked up towards the moon through the snow and wind. Well, if this little girl really was a witch and trying to help her, maybe this was some kind of teleporting spell? If so she wasn't complaining about escaping the cold, so holding up a shivering arm, she pointed the umbrella up towards the mo- In a flash of blue-white light, Poppy vanished. In her place, a beam of that light shot up towards the sky and Hattie nodded. The umbrella successfully connected with one of the telescopes and she would be safe abourd her ship while she fixed this mess, which is what she seemed to do best around here anyways. Quickly turning back around, she sprinted back towards the manor. She had fixing to do. Poppy meanwhile was experiencing a whole new term to sea sickness, if she was really being teleported to a ship that is. The light and speed made her slam her eyes shut and her stomach sick. She felt like her whole body was being contricted into a thing twig and her knuckles turned white from gripping the handle so hard. She wished this would STOP- And it did. With a giant thud sound she was sent crashlanding to the carpeted floor of a child's bedroom where Bow was reading, worriedly waiting for her friend to come back but jumped and dropped the book at the sudden sight of a red headed lady suddenly crashlanding in their bedroom. The landy tumbled head over feet a few times before landing face first into the mountain of pillows the umbrella landing beside her feet. A few pillows were scattered with her collison and after a couple moments of silence......The woman groaned and weakly reached over to flip her onto her back. .....OK!! That was the LAST and ONLY time she was going to let herself be teleported by a little witch. Still laying on her back she slowly blinked her eyes open and was met with the face of another child with black curly hair. The two stared at each other for a moment before Bow spoke. "Are you ok?...Who are you?"

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Part 3

A quiet floating ghost made their way across the floor and over to the door as the tall and dark spector slowly opened the door and peeked out...The dark ship was still dark except for the kiddo's nightlight indicating the children was still asleep and eased himself out with a sigh. He didn't think he could handle another storybreak again- He sighed and reached up to comb a clawed hand threw his messy floof, floating casually now towards the Time Piece room, he was rather impatient just waiting for them to fall sleep and getting his kids' nightly routine out of the way. He swore he was about to go loose some nonexitance teeth from the sweet pancakes and doughnuts she always brought home. Or grow fat from all the sausegues and bacon and all the other fatty foods cooking cat brought. She+ was a good cook he wouldn't deny it, but he wanted couldn't eat anything and he didn't like all the fatty foods the kids always seemed to eat. He wanted some none fatty foods for them for once and MAYBE have just a small teeny tiny little piece of quiet before he left for his rounds- He froze when he heard a little buzzing and sweeping noise and looked down. The kid's weird robot pet, Rumbi he thought, was sleep sweeping again. Nevermind how a robot could sleep and sweep in said sleep, but he knew if he woke those girls up it'll be a bigger pain to put them back to sleep again. He spent the good majority of the day thinking over what Hattie said. Those things worked like wishing stars, certainly gave him the extra boost and that Mustached menace when they needed it, and right now. After so much hate, so much pain....SO MANY LIES!! He would get what he so rightfully deserved.  REVENGE!! Revenge for every single little thing she had ever done to him! All those crazy things she banned him from. BACON of all things. WHO BANS BACON OVER JEALOUSY!? Cutting and dying his hair while he was asleep! Getting jealous over his old tutor, who by the way- WAS A OLD WOMAN ALREADY MARRIED!!! Seriously, he was so, SO blinded by his 'love' for her that he never saw anything coming. He should've listened to those red flags shoved at him while he still had the chance. Because of that stupid choice everyone in their giant kingdoms suffered. Him. The children of the village. .....Poppy. A feral growl forced it's way past his fangs. IF ONLY HE HAD LISTENED!! Maybe he would've gotten that love and happy marriage he always wanted. With his sassy, fiery Flower Princess and maybe even a child....Just like he always wanted. ...He shook his head. Snap outta it you ninny!! That was more than a thousand years ago. She was gone, even if she escaped Vanessa's wrath. There was NOTHING he could do about it now. "Ow. mY cUrcIT bOaRD!!," that small little distorted voice caught his attention. Snatcher looked down and rose a brow so to speak. His long tail had run into Rumbi and 'woken up' the robot that was just looking up to him now curiously as Snatcher stared back down at him. They stared at each other for a moment, before the ghost reached down and flipped the poor cleaning bot on it's back to avoid any loud sweeping sounds. The poor bot let out beeps and boops, not loud enough to wake anyone up at least. He smirked at the robot for a moment before the shadow spector continued on his past  away from the kiddo's bedroom and over to the driver's room of the ship, where the giant pile of pillows was. It was easy for him to spot the giant locked volt which held the kid's stash of time pieces. The shadow smiled wide seeing the volt. Something like steel won't stop him from going right through it. It was easy for him to vanish through the giant heavy metal door, while the monitor screen on the left flashed a perfect one thousand time pieces present and accounted for, not for long though. The twinkles of the huge collection of blue time pieces made the spector grin even wider as his plan was about to get set in motion. ONE.All he needed was one little twinkling hourglass and he'd be all set. "It'll be quick and easy," he told himself as those purple claws eargerly grasped around the closest one to him, picking it up gently as if it was a newborn baby. His smile reflecting in it's twinkling surface. Magic blue sparkling sand held within it. "Go to the witch's home. Wish her to get lost forEVER. And put it back before the kid wakes up. Easy." He wasn't sure if he was encouraging himself or just reassuring his plan, or both. But it seemed to be working as he chuckled glancing at his reflection again. "Oh this is going to be fun." Getting out of there was easy too, of course he couldn't go through walls holding something. Then the thing he's holding wouldn't be with him, but he could warp into his domain with things. How else did the kid suspect him to sign his contracts without risking her running away into the woods? In warp of energy and magic the ghost cackled out loudly in the giant room and long purple shadows danced across the room covering the glittering hourglasses and as soon as it came it faded away leaving the room of hourglasses as peaceful as it was before. Outside the room, the ship was still quiet except for the Roomba. Outside by the door, the screen showing the count of all the hourglasses, glitched and the even count of '1,000' changed to the number '999' hourglasses in the room. Compared to the teleporting ghost who was surrounded by a purple void, shadows stretching along the room as he cackled and still glanced at the small hourglass in his claws. A moment later that purple curtain faded away and the familiar gloomy forest reappeared around him. It was dark, nighttime, and twisted trees were around everywhere as the ghost floated there for a moment just staring at the hourglass, already feeling the power energy spiking off it and chuckled again. "Oh. This is going to be a night to remember.~" "May I ask what is going to be so memorable, my cackling counterpart?" The Snatcher froze. That voice!...That disgusting DAPPER voice!! he inwardly cringed as any happy feelings left him as he groaned and turned around to peer behind him with a scowl. Chains rattled as they floated around the other, glitching spector who blinked at him with a smile and those weird red patterned eyes blinked at him as his body glitched every few seconds. But as Snatcher hissed in utter displeasure at him, the other ghost only smiled politely waiting for a reply from the shadow ghost. Before he leaned over a little and blinked at the shiny hourglass in his claws. "Oh, my." He pointed a blue claw at it. "Wouldn't that happen to be dear Hattie's little collectable?" He hissed before wretching back around. "None of your business, Moonboy! Go haunt that toilet and turn into sludge!" He began floating away but to his utter annoyance his copy began following him.  The Moonjumper's sparkly blue and white hair glimmered in the moonlight as he leaned over slightly as he floated above the Snatcher. "Oh, come now. It was just an innocent question. As the girls' father, I don't think it's good morals to steal from her." "I'm NOT stealing!," he growled without looking up at him, "I'm just borrowing it. It'll be back by tomorrow morning, just like nothing will ever happen." A pause- "Stealing, not stealing. Whatever it is you call it. But I also known you for almost more than a thousand years, Shadow theif, and I know you never do anything without reason." He chuckled making Snatcher frown further. "Now what might the all powerful Snatcher, be needing that for?" "Are you going to just bug me everytime you come across me?" "To be fair, you teleported right next to me, so I was minding my ow business before you even arrived. And no. I'm too curious for my own good.~" The shadow ghost growled like a feral animal but Moonjumper didn't flinch, to used to this by now. And a ghost couldn't harm another ghost after all. "If you HAVE to know, Cresent face.....It's all a part of my plan. Something I wished to do for so, so long." That peaked Moonjumper's interest as he hummed and the chains clanked more. "Now what plan would that be?" "To destroy Vanessa once and for all." Moonjumper completely stopped at the words spilt from the shadow ghost's mouth. Blinking in mid air as Snatcher still didn't stop as Moonjumper stared at him- Before shaking his shock off and calling after him. "N-Now just wait a moment!" He quickly flew glitching after him and floated right next to him now as Snatcher still ignored him. "HOW may I ask are you planning on doing that?! A ghost can't hurt another at the same strength as them. And Vanessa's..."He shuddered(glitched. "Dark magic rivals both your and my abilities. How do you suppose you're going to pull all this off with a teeny tiny object of sand and glass?" ..That scowl disappeared as he chuckled darkly and smirked. Still not looking at him, he held up the hourglass. "These things grant you what you want, at least according to the kid. And what better way to get rid of someone you don't want then by wishing away Vanessa's afterlife.~ If these things can grant a blonde brat inter-dimentional time powers to get lost, then who's to say it couldn't do the same with me.~" The Moonjumper was staring at him, already thinking about this whole thing. Vanessa could...get lost?...Forever? And no one would ever have to deal with her ever again?! A happy feeling washed over the other ghost's glitching self as the thought of Vanessa no longer existing came over himself. Sure, it wouldn't fix what happened in the past, but he DID like the thought of having a mansion to himself and chuckled darkly himself as he mirrored his counterparts happy smirk.  "Well, now.~ This would be ...most pleasing to me as well.~ I don't suppose you mind me tagging along to witness this glorious event, do you?" Snatcher still smiled wide. "Just stay out of my way and we won't have any problems.~" As the two spooks floated along, dwellers and Snatcher's minions watched confused as the powerful spirits floated past and gazed at the shiny thing in their King's hands. The forest slowly getting darker and colder as they went and slowly his plan would be fulfilled. In the meantime, back on the ship. A small little brown haired girl stirred awake.