#she needs a life and sun god she can call a bitch and throw rocks at

[wyrmflight]

BG3 won't let me be a cleric that hates gods which is so sad because it means I can't make my PoE character in baldurgate. And like, look at her.

[coryosmin]

johanna mason sfw alphabet

A = Affection (How affectionate they are)

i think johanna would pretend that she’s not affectionate. she would act as though it was below her. but when you give her affection, she’s practically preening and would love to give you affection too in private. in public, she’s always touching you in some way, shape, or form.

B = Best Friend (what they would be like as a best friend)

johanna is like that best friend everyone needs. she’s aggressive, she’s supportive. she’s aggressively supportive. she will hype you the fuck up like “OH MY GOD BITCH FUCKING ROCK THEIR SHIT BITCH YOUVE GOT THIS”. literally immaculate vibes

C = Cuddles (Do they like cuddles?)

teehe yes. she loves cuddles. she loves being the little spoon especially. she just wants you to hold her tight while she snuggles into you.

D = Domestic (do they want to settle down, how are they at cooking and cleaning?)

i don’t think she cooks or cleans but she’ll want to settle down with you.

E = Ending (if they broke up with their partner, how would they do it?)

in a very toxic sort of way. yelling, screaming, throwing that person’s shit out of the house. like very toxic lol.

F = Fiancé(e) (how do they feel about commitment?)

i don’t think she’s too open about commitment. you need to really be someone worth her time in order for her to ever consider marriage. but once she considers it, she’s so down bad and will love you for eternity.

G = Gentle (how gentle they are emotionally and physically)

this may surprise a lot of people but i think in private, she would be very emotionally gentle. usually her personality is very aggressive but if you come to her crying and needing comfort, she will be so soft and there for you exactly the way you need her to be. as for physically gentle, never.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? What are their hugs like?)

she loves hugs. she especially loves hugging you from behind while you’re doing something.

I = I love yous (how fast they say the L word)

it would take her a very long time to say i love you. she would need to know her feelings completely. but once she realizes she loves you, you’re her ride or die.

J = Jealousy (how jealous do they get?)

extremely jealous!! if she ever sees someone flirting with you, she’s calling them out in front of you and she will kiss you in front of everyone so they know your hers and no one else’s.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? where do they kiss you? where do they like to be kissed?)

kisses with johanna are always full of desperation and hunger. she will kiss you like her life depends on it even if it’s something as simple as a goodnight kiss. you’re always breathless after kissing her because it’s just so good

L = Little Ones (how are they around children, do they want children?)

BIG NO!! she does not want kids whatsoever. she will be so adamant about it too.

M = Morning (how they are in the mornings)

she’s so grumpy in the mornings and attitudinal until she gets a coffee. she definitely has a caffeine addiction and isn’t ashamed. she will be so mad and bitchy until she gets caffeine.

N = Nights (How they are at night)

johanna is definitely a night owl. she will stay up with you talking to you about anything and everything under the sun because that’s the time when she feels as though she can be herself without any judgement.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

not until a long time after knowing you. she’s not an open person, she’s very closed off. she would not want to be open at all until she knows that you’ll love her no matter what.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

VERY EASILY. that’s all i have to say lol

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

personally, i believe she would remember every single thing about you. she strikes me as the type to pretend she doesn’t care when in actuality, she cares so much more than she wants to admit.

R = Remember (Favorite memory about your relationship)

her favorite memory about your relationship would be when she came home one day to you having made a whole meal for the two of you and you painted a picture of the two of you (whether the picture was good or not didn’t matter) and she hung it up in your shared bedroom because she adores it.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

she’s so protective. she wants to make sure you’re okay. and she will comfort you if anything happens to you whatsoever. you’re hers and she’s yours and she will do anything in her power to make you safe at all times.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

i don’t think she would know how to try. she would have to be taught. so as long as you’re kind and patient with her, she will learn to try hard and be the perfect girlfriend to you. she just needs to be loved and supported as she’s never really had love before.

U = Ugly (What are some of their bad habits?)

she definitely picks her nails and the dead skin off her lip. i also feel like she has the habit of burping obnoxiously but that may be a good habit for some of y’all lol

V = Vanity (How concerned are they about their looks?)

not concerned at all about her looks. love her or hate her but she will always love how she looks!!

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

once she’s completely in love with you, if she loses you, she would be so lost without you. especially because you’d mean the world to her and without you, it would no longer give her purpose because she doesn’t really have anyone else.

X = Xtra (Random headcanon)

she makes wreaths out of tree branches because it calms her.

Y = Yuck (What are some of the things they don’t like?)

she hates the feeling of dry skin. so she always has moisturizer.

Z = Zzz (Sleeping habits)

she’s a snuggler. she wants to snuggle into you. i also feel like she snores obnoxiously but like in a cute way lol.

[wouldpollyapprove]

All War Can Touch

Request: hiya, please can i request an angsty tommy with the prompts 9, 11 and 18 x 

hiya, please can i request a one shot in which the reader is tommy's wife before the war and like they have a couple of kids but in season 1 he meets grace and shit goes down for real? xx

Requested by @i-volunteer-for-finnick & Anonymous

Thomas Shelby x Reader

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: neglect, language, pregnancy, alcohol

A/N: I must warn you guys, I didn’t do much editing for this. I was lazy and didn’t want to. @nemesis729 went over it for me and I’m grateful for that. If it’s trash, that’s my fault cause I know I should have edited. But that’s effort. Anyway, I will have the second part out shortly because I can’t seem to write oneshots anymore, they always have to have a second part cause I’m too lazy to write one long fic.

Masterlist 

Part Two / Part Three

“I’ll get us some drinks,” Tommy stated, kissing his wife on the cheek before he slid out of the booth in the private room, an action that had become rare since he’d returned from war. A foot out the door and his wife’s voice, no more than a whisper, hit his ears. With a sigh, he turned back to face her, rolling his eyes. “What was that?”

Looking up from her nails, Y/n shrugged, “Nothing, dear.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned against the doorway, not intending to leave until she spoke her peace. “Why are you lying?”

“It doesn’t matter, Tommy. Go get our drinks,” she waved him away, hoping he would drop the subject. But as he was a Shelby, he couldn’t do that.

“No, tell me what you said.” His face held no expression, features flat and tight, but his eyes… they held a storm. There was a storm of anger and hate brewing in them, the rain that would pour from the clouds was full of hurt, but Y/n couldn’t understand why. She was the one that deserved to have that storm brewing inside her. She was the one that had been walked all over. 

Mirroring his stance, arms crossed over her chest, she huffed. “Fine, you want to know what I said?” Her husband nodded, irritated that she was taking her time. “I said, ‘Your girlfriend can get them for us.’” Her words were bitter as they rolled off her tongue. 

Tommy was unfazed, simply rolling his eyes in response. Y/n wasn’t sure what reaction she wanted, but that wasn’t it. “Don’t do this here,” he groaned.

“Why not? It’s either here or in front of our children, which would you like? Your bitch to know she may have you after all or your children to know they live in a broken home? Which do you want, Tommy?”

The man rolled his eyes, hand falling to his side, and he stepped out into the bar. Composing herself, Y/n stood and flattened the wrinkles out of her dress. She wasn’t going to have a drink with him, the man that once loved her, when he spent most of his time eyeing the barmaid. Instead, she grabbed her coat, resting her hat snugly against her head and stepped out of the room. 

“I hope you know, not answering my question, answers it,” she called to him as she walked to the door, not willing to look back to see he didn’t even glance her way.

Y/n wanted to go back in time. To a time before the war, when they were just to young lovers who smiled at the world. She wanted to go back to her husband that would bring her flowers and dreamt of building his family a cottage. Desperately, she wanted to grasp her hands on the fabric of that man’s tie, the man that spent his nights at home, rocking his children to sleep and dancing with the love of his life, and keep him tucked away from the war.

The war… that’s what had done this.

The fucking war came knocking on their door and Tommy, an hounerable man, couldn’t pass up the fight. Leaving his children and wife behind, he became a new man, one that was unrecognizable at heart. Though he looked older, his heart was black and his mind was broken. That’s what war did, it broke the strong, Y/n knew. But she never thought it would tear her family apart in the most unexpected way.

Sitting across from Polly in the parlor, Y/n could hear her children playing in the next room. Ben was giving his sister orders as they played with their toy horses, the ruckus echoing throughout the house. A smile tugged at her lips, but she was in no mood to give into it.

“Did you tell him?” Polly asked, pouring tea into the cups that sat at the coffee table. Y/n shook her head, taking one of the cups in her hand. “You’re going to have to tell him soon, dear. Tommy’s a smart man, he’ll put it together.”

Shaking her head, she leaned against the back of the chair, resting her head against the soft fabric. The woman across from her followed her movement, waiting for her to look her in the eye but Y/n couldn’t. She couldn’t look Polly in the eye, the woman who was like a mother to her, and let her see how broken she was. “I’m not going to tell him,” she finally muttered, saying the words aloud for the first time.

Bewildered, Polly set down her cup and replaced it with one of Y/n’s hands. “What are you going to do, then?” Voice laced with worry, she never knew what the young woman had to put up with, none of the Shelbys did.

“I’m leaving Tommy.” There was silence as she slipped her hands out of Polly’s grasp and sipped on her tea.

“The war may have changed him but it didn’t destroy him, Y/n,” she scolded her like a mother does a child, causing Y/n to roll her eyes. “Where are you going, then? Your parents hate you for marrying a gpspy and those closest to you are close to your husband as well. And what about the children? What about your baby?”

A sigh escaped her lips as she placed her cup on the table. “Polly—” Y/n folded her hands in her lap. “—it doesn’t matter where I go. Anywhere is better than where he is. He no longer loves me, it’s clear when he slaps me in the face by flirting with the fucking barmaid,” she seethed, remembering the day she first caught her husband too close to the blonde barmaid for her comfort. 

“He won’t touch me unless it’s to tell others I’m his. At home, he would rather be with the children than me and when in bed, he won’t even look at me.” Tears were swelling in her eyes, a hand going to caress her slightly swollen belly. “This baby is a miracle considering I’m like filth to him.”

“Have you talked to him about it?”

Had she talked to him about it? Y/n wanted to laugh at the question, of course she had. Tommy knew exactly how she felt. First, she was subtle about it, small hints that any man would understand. But Tommy ignored them just like he did her. And then, she became more verbal about it. Why hide what he already knew? Y/n was furious, hurt, by his actions. She was once the love of his life and if he no longer wanted her then she wanted to know. Being tortured by seeing what he refused to give her wasn’t something she wanted to live with. 

She sighed, nodding in response.

“And he doesn’t care,” Polly shook her head, disappointment shining like a beacon in her eyes. Out of all the Shelby men, she thought her nephew would be the opposite of his father. Before the war, he was a loving man. A family man. After, she thought that man was still in there somewhere, but she should have known better. All the nights Y/n brought the kids over, Tommy nowhere in sight, and the days he stayed in the office until the sun rose the next morning should have sounded an alarm. But with the boys home from war, like everyone else, Polly wanted to believe things would settle back into some sort of normal. She was wrong. “If you have a place to stay, I’ll help you pack.”

“My brother and his wife have offered to let me stay with them for as long as needed,” Y/n informed her. “I’d like to leave now, if you don’t mind, since Grace is entertaining my husband.”

Polly nodded, getting to her feet, gesturing for Y/n to follow her as they packed bags for the kids. 

Y/n never wanted to leave her husband. She believed that Tommy would come to his senses and at least be kinder to her. 

During the war, she missed his touch. The fingers that lingered after a soft kiss. The arms that would encase her as she slept. The warmth that radiated off him when their skin touched. But the war was over and she found herself longing for the exact things she once believed would return to her. Longing for the man she still loved. That’s what hurt the most. Her love for him had never wavered and if they didn’t have children, perhaps, she would wait for years for him to love her once more. 

But that simply couldn’t be done when she looked down at the two small beings playing on the floor. Y/n didn’t want them to grow up and believe that it was acceptable to settle for what was given to them. She wanted them to know their worth and know that they deserved love. That couldn’t be done if they grew up seeing their mother throw herself away for a man who wouldn’t do the same. 

With their bags all packed, she didn’t regret a thing as her brother pulled up in his car. Ben and Julie were beyond impressed with the object that shone in the evening sun, asking their uncle for a ride before he could even get out of the car. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, approaching his sister with his niece on his hip. 

“I am. Tommy made his bed. Now he has to sleep in it.” She smiled sadly and picked up a bag. Once all the bags were in the car, the children along with them, Y/n turned to Polly. The woman was on the verge of tears, Y/n didn’t blame her. This was not the evening either of them were expecting. 

“Thank you,” she whispered, embracing her. 

Slowly pulling away, Polly glanced between her and the children, who were snuggled up in blankets. “You take care of them, you hear? And write to me everyday, tell me how things go.” Y/n nodded, squeezing her hand. 

“You deserve better than this and, by god, you will get what you deserve, I know it.” With that, Polly pushed Y/n towards the car. Who knew when Tommy would be home and she didn’t want him to pitch a fit over something he’d done.

“Be safe, Pol.”

“I will,” she smiled and the car roared to life, slowly making its way down Watery Lane and out of sight.

*~~*~~*

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[handwrittenhello]

where the road then takes me

Prompt: Law of Surprise Relationships: Geralt/Jaskier/Renfri, Geralt/Renfri, Geralt/Jaskier, Jaskier & Renfri Rating: T Warnings: None Summary: When Jaskier runs into a pack of wild dogs while searching for his lost hen, he's lucky that Geralt is nearby to save him. But he has nothing to repay the witcher with except the Law of Surprise, and who do they find upon returning to the farm, but Jaskier's sister, Renfri, back early from marauding?

For @witcher-rarepair-summer-bingo!

(ao3 link in reblog)

--

Jaskier, eighteen, had grand dreams.

They were little more than dreams, unfortunately, because seeing as how he and Renfri had grown up fending for themselves, stuck in a tiny village on the border of Creyden, he didn’t have much opportunity to go to school or learn to play the lute or anything, really, besides tending to the farm while Renfri got… freelance work elsewhere. That was all he cared to know about it—she would leave, and return home every couple of weeks with a decent bag of coin and blood-spattered clothes, which Jaskier would bitch about cleaning. She made enough for them to live, though not comfortably—Renfri had kept him fairly sheltered, but he knew that they were one of the poorer households in town.

Which was why Jaskier only dreamed of traveling the Continent, singing songs and weaving grand tales for the commonfolk. Instead, he was stuck here chasing down their old hen again, after the coop had blown down in the storm for the fourth time. Henrietta was a sneaky fucker, already gone by the time he woke up in the morning. He cursed but pulled on his boots and stumbled out into the cold morning air to look for her.

He cursed all the way to the edge of the forest, where she’d apparently disappeared into, judging by the tracks and the few scattered feathers he found. “Damned hen. Ought to just eat you and be done with it,” he muttered, pulling his cloak tighter around him before heading into the forest.

He followed her trail as the sun slowly rose, stopping when he heard barking in the distance. Fuck, he hoped that was the hunters’ dogs—he hadn’t thought to bring a knife to defend himself with. Whatever it was, he trudged onwards, because they couldn’t afford to lose a hen. Renfri would kill him if—when—she found out.

And then he heard it—familiar squawking, accompanied by those same barks, louder. He crept closer and saw exactly what he’d feared—a pack of wild dogs circled Henrietta, one of them darting in every so often to snap at her slashing claws. She was fending them off pretty handily, actually—Jaskier knew how vicious she could be firsthand.

But the dogs would no doubt attack in force soon, and then she’d have no chance. Without thinking, Jaskier picked up a rock and threw it at the nearest one, hitting it square in the nose. It recoiled and turned its attention away from Henrietta, which was exactly what he wanted.

Unfortunately, it turned its attention towards him, which was exactly what he didn’t want. “Oh, fuck,” he spat, and turned tail as the pack gave chase.

He dashed over tree roots and fallen logs, blind stupid terror coursing through his veins. He had no plan beyond don’t get caught—and he could only run for so long before tiring. He threw a glance backward and saw that they were gaining on him—and fast.

Not looking where was going, he was taken completely by surprise when he slammed into something hard, bouncing off it and landing with an oof on the mossy ground.

Dazed and still half-blind with fear, he didn’t even notice that he’d slammed into a person until they moved, stepping over him and taking on the dogs with an easy confidence, sword swinging with preternatural force.

Two swords, armor, incredible speed and fighting skills? As the man finished dispatching the last of the pack and turned around to reveal mutated cat eyes set in a heavily scarred face, Jaskier realized who the man was. He sucked in a sharp breath.

The witcher sheathed his sword, holding out a hand as if to calm Jaskier. “It’s alright,” he rumbled, voice full of gravel. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

Jaskier picked his jaw up from where it had dropped. “I know that,” he answered, getting to his feet and half-heartedly brushing the dirt off himself. “You’re a witcher.”

“I am. Usually fight more dangerous things than wild dogs, though. Also don’t usually see unaccompanied kids running around being chased by them.”

“I had to get their attention somehow. Henrietta was—wait, Henrietta!” Jaskier, remembered, abruptly spinning on his heel and dashing back to where the pack had cornered her.

“Wait!” the witcher called from behind him, but Jaskier paid him no heed.

He was gratified to see that while he’d been running for his life, Henrietta had seen fit to begin making herself a nest right in the same spot. “Oh, aren’t we cozy?” he grumbled, creeping closer in an attempt to grab her. He was almost upon her when the witcher ruined it, crashing through the underbrush behind him and sending her clucking away just as Jaskier pounced.

Jaskier sighed and turned to face the witcher, who at least had the good grace to look a little guilty. The guilt soon disappeared, though, when Jaskier rounded on him and began to lecture. “Now look what you’ve done. It’ll take me ages to catch her,” he complained, watching as the witcher’s eyes grew incredulous.

“You risked your life for that scrawny thing?” the witcher asked, amused disbelief coloring his tone.

“That scrawny thing is probably the most valuable thing we own, so yes,” Jaskier snapped. He couldn’t stand it when out-of-towners looked at him like that, like he was a stupid farm boy who knew little more than dirt and chickens. Which, to be fair, he didn’t, but it wasn’t as if he wanted it that way.

The witcher’s face cleared to something more akin to understanding—thank the gods it wasn’t pity. “Then I suppose I owe it to you to help catch her,” he said, and in the blink of an eye he’d snatched Henrietta up. Jaskier accepted her into his arms somewhat stunned.

“Thank you,” he eventually managed to stammer. The witcher said nothing in return, and they stood there for a long, awkward moment, before Jaskier realized he was probably waiting for something. “Oh! I don’t—I don’t have anything to pay you with…” he trailed off, recalling all the old adages, that witchers never worked for free. Fuck. Renfri wouldn’t be home for days if not weeks still, and the only coin he had he needed to save for the market day after tomorrow.

The witcher began to speak—what it was he was going to say, Jaskier didn’t know, but he interrupted as an idea struck him. “But I can offer you the Law of Surprise!” he suggested, recalling the ballads of children promised to witchmen. “We’ve a bitch due for pups soon—perhaps we’ll return home and you’ll find yourself with a companion to warm the long nights on the road!”

“Hmm,” the witcher replied, but it wasn’t a no, so he figured that it probably meant he wasn’t about to be forced into the witcher’s debt. Humming, he led the way back to the farmstead, the witcher a silent, hulking protector at his back.

Once they arrived, Jaskier was quick to secure Henrietta in the barn, where normally there would be pigs, but now, after sickness had taken their only sow, there was only dust and hay and the occasional mouse. He left Henrietta to her mouse hunting and led the witcher to the cottage, throwing open the door, excited to see what surprise he might find.

“Jaskier, why the fuck have you brought a witcher home?” asked Renfri, perched on the table and cleaning underneath her fingernails with one of her many knives.

Jaskier paled. “Renfri! You’re—you’re not meant to be home yet,” he choked out.

“What, you’re not happy to see me?” she drawled, eyebrows knitting together. Jaskier, helpless, threw a glance back at the witcher, who was wearing a thunderous expression. Shit.

“I—not in this case, no,” Jaskier said tersely. “Fuck.”

“Some welcome,” she said faux-calmly, hopping down off the table. Jaskier recognized the tenseness in her form that spoke of a predator preparing to pounce. Sure enough, she lunged a moment later, her knife held a half-inch away from the witcher’s throat. Jaskier yelped. “Did he hurt you, Julek?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the witcher’s face.

“No, nothing of the sort, now put that down,” Jaskier hissed, tugging ineffectually at her arm. “He saved me, in fact, and…”

“And?” Renfri asked lowly.

“…and I may have promised him the Law of Surprise in return,” Jaskier finished all in a rush, wincing. “I swear, Ren, if I’d known…”

“That’s the thing about surprises,” the witcher interjected. “But you needn’t worry. I have no plans to claim your—sister?” Jaskier nodded. “As I said before, I need no payment.”

Renfri lowered her knife, and Jaskier breathed a bit easier for it. Renfri was a formidable fighter, but Jaskier doubted even her strength against a witcher. If a fight had broken out, he’d have had to—well, not help, because he was rather useless in a fight, but it was the principle of the matter.

“I suppose I could do worse for myself,” Renfri mused, looking Geralt over critically.

“Wait you’re—Renfri, he said he wouldn’t claim you, you don’t have to.”

“And what if I want to?” Renfri answered. “He seems a decent sort. And not too hard on the eyes, either.”

The witcher, looking uncomfortable, stood there and said nothing.

Jaskier threw his hands up. “You’re insane. And you!” he said, turning to the witcher. “Are you agreeing to this?”

“The life of a witcher isn’t well suited to… companionship,” the witcher replied, face twisted. “Walking the Path is difficult.”

“And if I promise that I can handle myself?” Renfri asked, twirling her knife in one of the many tricks she was proud of. “I’m no stranger to the road. It’s Jaskier you’d have to watch out for.”

“I resent that,” Jaskier said mildly, mostly out of principle. But the prospect was too exciting to dwell on it for long—was Renfri truly proposing that they set out with a witcher? “Ren, do you mean it?”

“If your witcher is fine with it, then I don’t see why not,” she replied. “What do you say, witcher?”

“Geralt,” the witcher corrected her. “If we’re to travel together, you ought to at least know my name.”

“Geralt,” Jaskier repeated. It rolled off the tongue wonderfully. “Oh, this is so exciting! I’m going to write so many songs, just wait,” he gushed. “The Witcher and the Shrike—I can hear it now.”

Renfri pulled him out of his thoughts with a cuff to the shoulder. “Ow,” he said mildly. “Wait—you are planning on sharing, right?” he interjected. “Because, I mean, look at him.”

“Am I a toy to be shared among siblings?” Geralt asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Is that a no, you don’t want to sleep with both of us? Because I’ll respect that, I will, but also, not to objectify you or whatever, but dear gods please, I think my poor heart might break if I didn’t get to fuck you at least once.”

“Jaskier! Leave my Husband Surprise alone,” Renfri said, shoving him away. “Go get packed. Essentials only!”

“Alright, alright, I’m going,” Jaskier placated, raising his hands in surrender. “Don’t get up to anything while I’m gone, you lovebirds.”

As he left, Geralt turned to Renfri. “Is he always like this?”

“Yeah, he’s chronically stupid. Gets it from our father.”

“Remind me again why I agreed to this?”

“Don’t know, but it’s too late now. You’re stuck with us, witcher,” Renfri replied, looping an arm around Geralt’s.

Geralt made a show of sighing, but in truth, he wasn’t annoyed as all that. At least it would make life more interesting.

[athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit]

Feral Fatality

(Part 3)

Last update for now! I hit a wall and so...I need to shift direction, make way for my requests (up til now I merely wrote one word) so gonna forget this one for the time being and push this deep under every article I have in the works—

Anyways, some fluff before I disappear *insert peace out and fade meme*

Pairing: Jason Voorhees x Fem!Reader

Word count: 1.6k

Warnings: Nothing extreme, a little blood only.

—

The masked killer gave you one shook of his head before he took off.

Saving you... for last?

Why weren't you afraid? Hell, you are going insane.

You looked down at the corpse under you. Time to clean up the mess, no one would want a rotting bitch on their doorstep.

Standing up, you decided to drag the body into the woods, maybe an animal would be happy to eat her flesh.

Huh, you were taking everything so well.

-

After you left her body a good distance away from your cabin, you went back to wash up, the red liquid on your skin was beginning to itch. You took off your clothing, the blood on your them was hopefully still removable, you wouldn't want to throw them away if you can help it.

Your thoughts strayed to that of earlier. You killed someone. You killed Betty.

And it felt good. Euphoric, even.

You never thought you could end someone's life, one of many that wanted you dead too.

"It was self-defense..." you assured. They intended to kill you anyway, the food they served for you was possibly poisoned. Even a fool would notice how suspicious they acted.

Not to mention Eloiza declared it straight to my face.

Then again, she would still die with the murderer out for her blood, it's just that I ended her myself.

Everyone's probably dead by now.

You stared at your hands– your palms, swollen from gripping your murder weapon.

"...Jason Voorhees. I wonder if he'll kill me too..."

You trailed off as your head drooped, your previous high fading out as your limbs felt heavy. Wobbling your way to your bed, gravity did its thing and you fell on the soft sheets and blacked out, the distant ringing of screams but a mere lullaby to you.

—

The ever-rising sun warmed your slumbering form as its rays peeked through the gaps of the window, stirring you into consciousness.

You groaned, rolling away from the prickles of their heat, wanting to get more sleep from last night's events...

Last night?

You shot up, rubbing your grogginess away as the thoughts of the past evening came rushing in. You couldn't believe it. Or did you? Did you really do it?

Was it all a dream??

You brought your hand to your right cheek, the action so sudden that you smacked yourself, instantly regretting it when you felt like you've just planted your face on nails.

"God fucking—" You clenched your teeth and squeezed your eyes shut, muffling your scream. Little tears threatened to pour out so you looked up to keep them in. When the pain numbed down, you exhaled and panted hoarsely.

Well, damn me if it was a dream, that fucking hurt!

A gurgling noise.

Right, I didn't eat anything for dinner.

You sighed, time to take care of your business before anything else! You could eat a whole stallion with the way your stomach grumbled. You stood up and plodded to the cupboards where you kept your food. Unfortunately, you didn't have a horse at hand, and you doubt you could even kill such a beautiful animal, so some easy-to-open corned beef would have to do. Maybe two-three cans would sate your hunger.

Knock, knock.

"Yeah, yeah, wait a bit, I'm opening dinner... breakfast. Dinkfast or breakner? Mm." You responded nonchalantly, still lethargic from both the pain and exhaustion. You pulled on the ring of the can. And it resisted like a lil shit. Three more tries and it didn't budge. You slammed it down the table, huffing.

Easy-open my ass!

Knock, knock.

Yeah, right, the door. You moved to grab the knob and whipped it open. Your face met with a broad chest, a bluish, dark gray shirt stained with what looked like dried blood and dirt. Slowly trailing up, you froze as you met two blue orbs staring down at you from behind a hockey mask. Your jaw dropped.

The silence dragged on for who knows how long before you broke away and fumbled. Absolutely lost, you did what a totally sane person would do.

You stepped aside and invited him in.

"I, uh, come in then, Mr...Voorhees." You uttered, your eyes unblinking as you looked anywhere than at the killer who took careful steps into the cabin.

——

Jason trudged to the cabin you resided few hours after he finished cleaning up the mess. Ten meters away and muffled words followed by a silent scream reached his ears. Five large strides and he was at your doorstep, coming to a halt and contemplating on barging in and scaring you even more, or knocking.

Knocking seems to be the calmer option, although he was concerned if you were hurt again. He doesn't know why he's feeling such...emotions towards you, technically a trespasser but different...

A minute passed before he knocked, twice. You answered something about eating and made-up words. He knocked again after he heard you slam something down and huff. Before he knew it you opened your door and stared. You were a lot shorter up close, craning your neck up to meet him.

You looked at each other for a while, before you moved out of the way to let him in. Even going as far as calling him Mr. Voorhees, which baffled him. So you knew who he was. If so, why didn't you leave or scream at him? That and a bunch of questions ran around his head.

He needs answers.

——

You stood to his left, facing his side as you felt awkward. You were in a room with a mass murderer, a legend. What's more, you were the one who let him in. You pinched the sleeve of your navy blue jacket from behind as you rocked on your feet. Was he here to end your life? No, no wait, if he wanted that he could have done it when you were asleep. You're pretty sure he could break down the door and crush you with it and you would never wake up again. Same as just now but he...he knocked? What will you even do if he decides to carry out the task now? You were, by no means, fit to fight back. You can't even open a fucking easy-open can! He could snap you like a twig any second now.

You waited, resigning to your fate and wishing you were reincarnated as a rock in your next life.

"..."

Well, nothing happened. He just stood there, unmoving as he faced the opposite wall.

A grumble and he whipped his head to you, making you flinch. Curse your stomach for being such a whiny shit. But you couldn't resist your hunger anymore, you need to eat. Moving a step at a time around him, you took hold of the can and pulled, swearing when it didn't budge. You were gonna die at this rate, if not by the killer behind you then by fucking starvation.

You felt a finger poke your shoulder, not even a flinch as you were too frustrated to care at the moment. You turned around to face the man, he was looking at the can you were holding.

"Oh, uh, I haven't eaten anything? The damn can just won't let me have what's inside." Since when did you talk this much?

He gestured, his gloved palm exposed, as if waiting for you to give him the can.

You placed it in his hand. With one tug, ONE TUG, of his finger it opened. It looked like he just touched it and the lid gave away. You huffed in disbelief as he handed it over to you with two fingers. You grabbed a spoon from the drawer and started wolfing down the contents. If you were gonna die might as well be full.

When it was empty, you glanced at the other can on the table, untouched. You looked back and forth a couple of times between the man and at it. You guessed he understood since he silently picked up the can and opened it for you. The corned beef ended in your stomach seconds later.

You set the last can down, only to pick them all up and dumped them inside a garbage bag you set up yesterday. Grabbing your tumbler from beside the sink, you took large sips from it.

Wiping your mouth with the sleeve of your hoodie, you walked past him and went to sit on the bed. He followed you. You stared at the one who murdered everybody else, standing in the middle of the cabin.

"..."

"So...Am I supposed to die now?" you asked. You sneaked a glance at the machete in his holster.

He didn't give you any response, but he stepped closer until he was in front of you. You didn't look up.

The man raised his hand, and you shut your eyes, expecting the worst— only hoping it was painless and quick.

You almost jerked when you felt his hand on your head.

But what surprised you was how gentle it was, no pressure at all, not even close to a killing move. Then you realized...

He's...he's patting my head.

His hand...wasn't cold nor warm, but the way he did it was akin to petting a little animal; stroking the top of your head so softly you sniffled. This made him stop and step away from you, his hands waving— hovering around you it was practically comical.

"N-No, I'm alright," you answered his silent question. "It's just...I've never been patted like that before and I...It was nice."

You've been subjected to abuse and degradation most of your life that a gesture, one that meant no harm or malice, made you cry. You wiped away the wetness of your eyes before you looked at him.

"Thank you, Mr. Voorhees. I actually wouldn't mind if you kill me, but I guess you won't...?"

He gave you a soft grunt in reply, and you giggled.

The man patted your head once more, before he made his way out of the cabin, closing the door quietly behind him.

You let out a quiet breath. Jason Voorhees simply appeared on your doorstep, helped you with your food, patted your head, and walked out without a word.

It's crazy and it wasn't a dream— if the throbbing on your cheek was any indication.

You're happy though. More than happy to be alive.

[novannna]

"Let go of my hand." With nobell? 👀👀

ahhhh rae tysm for the ask i had a lot of fun writing this!!!!

nova and danna are just doing a standard mission, when stuff goes wrong.

tw: death, bombs, heights

wc: 2035

“So,” Danna said smoothly, coming up behind Nova. “Got any plans tonight?”

Nova rolled her eyes. “Yeah. I’ve got a date.”

“Do you? Is the lucky person any interesting?” Danna smirked, and leaned against the railing surrounding the rooftop.

Nova shrugged. “Eh. I like to think that I’m the one who really completes the relationship.”

“Hey!” Danna frowned. “Rude.”

Nova rolled her eyes again. “You were asking for it. And you know I’m joking. You are the interesting one, I just like to stand next to you and look pretty.”

“And you excel at that,” Danna replied, leaning in to kiss Nova’s cheek. “But I’d say you’re pretty interesting yourself, with your uncle being Ace Anarchy, and being the former supervillain Nightmare.”

“You think so?” Nova asked, her tone part sarcastic.

Danna grinned, and pushed herself off the railing, and threw an arm over Nova’s shoulder. “I know so. Believe me, all my other partners have never saved the world from a sadistic asshole pretending to be a god.”

“Yeah, I am pretty great aren’t I?”

Danna grinned, and leaned in to kiss Nova’s chapped lips. “The greatest,” she murmured.

Nova glanced over at the criminal behind them. Just a simple robber, nothing special. There was only a need for two Renegades to deal with him. It had only taken a few minutes for them to find, and subdue the criminal. Now, he was sitting, bound in handcuffs, and propped against the railing of the roof, a strange smile on his face.

“How long till clean up gets here?” Nova asked, her face twisting. “Something feels off about that guy, and I can’t wait for him to be out of our hands.”

Danna followed her gaze, and wrinkled her nose. “At least an hour. We’re out at the ass end of Gatlon, and there was a problem that required immediate attention. You’re right though, he’s scaring the fuck out of me.”

“And he’s not even a bird!” Nova widened her eyes in mock amazement.

Danna scowled, and lightly punched Nova’s arms. “Shut up.”

Nova smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Make me.”

“Is that a challenge?” Danna asked, already pushing Nova’s choppy hair out of her face, and cupping her head in her hands.

Nova laughed softly. “What do you think?” She lifted her brown eyes to Danna’s and inhaled her warm scent. Danna smelled like flowers, and sun, and all the best things in Nova’s life.

“Are you smelling me?” Danna asked, amused.

Nova’s face flushed bright red. “Maybe,” she half mumbled. “You smell good.”

Danna laughed, her voice sending warmth through Nova’s body. “You smell good too, Star.”

Nova froze, her smile curving into a frown. “Do you hear that?” A faint beeping noise, barely hearable, but still there.

Danna cocked her head. “Hear what?”

Nova drew away from Danna and walked towards the noise. It was coming from the robber, his lips still in a twisted grin.

There wasn’t any happiness, or playfulness left on her face. “Star, what do you hear?”

Nova didn’t respond. Instead, she knelt next to the robber, and carefully peeled back his jacket.

A ring of explosives around his waist, and a timer blinking down. There were only seven seconds left, each red pixel sending a bolt of fear into Nova.

The robber laughed, low and sinister. “You lose, bitch.”

“Nova get back!” Danna screamed, stumbling away, her feet clumsy with fear. “Get away from him!”

Nova couldn’t get far enough. The timer blinked out, the red 00:00 mocking Nova. The explosives erupted in fiery red heat, the blast throwing Nova around. She landed hard against the railing, the metal sending sharp pain into her back. A large piece of debris smashed against her shoulder, sending pain lancing through her arm.

“Nova!” Danna screamed, her voice sounding far away.

Then the railing was tearing away, and Nova was falling. Her body was falling through the air, ready to shatter against the hard concrete far below.

Her body came to a wrenching halt. Danna was leaning over the edge, eyes full of terror and tears. Her hand was wrapped around Nova’s, the only thing keeping her from falling to the merciless ground.

Nova could feel the wind blowing against her clothes, a reminder of how high she was.

“Hold on Nova,” Danna gasped, her face screwed with pain.

Nova nodded, too terrified to speak.

“Can you pull yourself up?” Danna asked.

“I… I don’t think so,” Nova said. “I think my other arm is broken, and there’s nothing for me to hold onto. I’m stuck.” She could feel both their hands start to get sweaty, both from the exertion and fear.

Danna nodded, her movements frantic and forced. “You’re going to be okay,” she said. “We just need to wait for the others to get here.”

Nova shook her head. “That’s over an hour Danna. I can’t hold on that long.”

Danna’s hold on Nova’s hand tightened. “Well you have to. I’m not letting you die tonight.” There were tears spilling out of Danna’s eyes, cutting tracks through the dust left from the explosion. Dimly, Nova was aware of how filthy she was too. Her entire body was gray,and her hair was full of dust.

“What are we doing tonight?” Nova asked, trying to think of anything but the air below her. Trying to think of anything but the fact that she could be moments away from death.

Danna half laughed, half sobbed. “You’re hanging off the edge of a 200 foot building, and you want to ask about your date?”

Nova tried to shrug with her broken shoulder, but instead gasped at the rush of pain. “I’m trying to think of something pleasant to look forward to.”

“Well I can’t tell you,” Danna said, her voice breaking. “It’s a surprise. If you want to find out, you just have to hang on for a little bit longer.”

Nova laughed, but it was sobered by the impossible reality.

“Danna…” She said softly.

Danna shook her head. “No. You have to hold on for long enough, you understand? I’m not letting go, so you can’t either.”

“They won’t be here for at least an hour. One arm is broken, the others in pain, we’re both tired. It’s impossible.”

“No, you can do it. I can do this. Nova, you aren’t fucking falling, understand?” Danna’s voice was strong, but her eyes betrayed her doubt.

“Crystal,” Nova replied, trying to blink away tears. “But if-”

“No ‘if’s’.”

Nova tried to smile, and nodded. “Alright. I’m surviving, then we’re going to go on our date, and you’ll surprise me with some wonderful evening.”

“Exactly. You see, pretty simple.”

Simple enough in words. But still Nova’s arm ached, and her fingers grew sweatier, and all she wanted to do was let go.

But if Danna wasn’t giving up, then neither was Nova.

“Can you reach your wristband and call for help,” Nova asked.

“It was broken by a rock in the explosion.”

“Fuck,” Nova muttered. “Is there anything we can do?”

Danna shook her head.

Nova cursed again. “My hand really hurts,” she murmured.

“Mine too.”

“I don’t know if I can’t hold on for an hour Danna.” Nova met Danna’s eyes. “I want to hold on for as long as possible, but can we please be realistic?”

“No,” Danna said, her voice breaking into a million pieces. “I know how impossible this is, but I can’t fucking let you go Nova. I can’t watch you fall. I can’t.” Her body shook with barely contained sobs. “I fucking love you. I’m holding on until the Renegades get here, and even then I’m not letting go. There’s only one ending to this, and it's me and you walking out of this together.”

Nova was sobbing too, the force of her grief making her body move on the wall. “Danna, please. You have to be realistic.”

“I can’t think of it Nova. Because if you fall, then it will be my fault. I let you die. I would be the one who let your hand slip away. I can’t live with that.”

Nova nodded, heart thudding in her ears. “Then I just have to hold on a little longer.”

“Why did this happen? Why did he have to have a bomb, why did it have to be us?” Danna asked.

“I don’t know.” Nova could feel her skin starting to rip open from Danna nails grasping her wrist so tight. “There’s nothing that we could have done.”

Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t. But, at that point, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the arm holding Nova tight, keeping her safe from the world.

Nova was finally starting to think that they may be able to wait long enough for her to be saved.

Of course, that was when it came tumbling down. The piece of roof Danna lay on, weakened by the explosion finally had enough. It started to rip out of the wall, carrying Danna with it.

With a scream, the girl managed to wrap an arm around the metal railing, just as the stone fell down, shattering against the concrete so far below.

“Danna, are you okay?” Nova asked, horror coating her throat. Her breath was coming out in short gasps.

Danna nodded. “Good enough. I’m not too hurt. But the railing is starting to rip out. I don’t know if it will hold.” She was crying. Her body was shuddering, maybe for the first time considering what could happen.

Nova wasn’t though. She knew what had to happen. SHe knew what she needed to do. Fuck, she didn’t want to though.

All Nova wanted was to go home hand in hand with Danna, back home to their small apartment and friends. She wanted to have their date, then have a few more. But they weren’t going to be able to hold on forever, and Nova wasn’t going to bring Danna with her.

“Let go of my hand Danna,” she said quietly, her voice barely a whisper.

But still Danna heard her.

“What? Are you crazy? No way!”

“I can’t hold on much longer, and that railing isn’t going to hold the both of us forever. I’m not going to make it, you know that.” Nova was perfectly calm now. If Danna was in danger, then Nova was ready to die for her. She’d do anything for Danna.

“It will hold,” Danna insisted. “Nova, you can’t let go. You can’t make me live without you. You can’t.”

“I love you,” Nova screamed. “I love you so fucking much, so don’t you dare risk yourself for me.”

Now she was crying. Big fat tears rolling down her cheek, and falling down to the ground like rain.

“Hold on,” Danna pleaded.

Nova looked at Danna, tears clouding her vision. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and she let go.

Such a simple feat. So easy, just a single thought.

But it was the hardest thing Nova had ever done, letting go of Danna. Letting go of the life she had wanted. The life she had fought for. Letting go of her everything.

Danna still held on to Nova, but it wasn’t enough. With each breath, Nova slipped a little farther.

“Nova!” Danna screamed. “Please, just wait. We can do this. Please, I can’t live without you.”

“I love you so much,” Nova said softly, trying to convey all the unspoken words. “But there’s no good ending for us. I won’t last another hour.”

The metal railing groaned, and both girls fell a little farther.

“I don’t think we’re going to have our date tonight,” Nova said quietly.

Danna shook her head. “We will! We’ll have one every night! I swear, just hold on a little longer!”

“Danna, promise me something,” Nova said. “Promise you won’t mourn forever. Promise you’ll try and find someone new. Please.”

“Nova!”

She smiled sadly, and met Danna's eyes. “It’s okay, Danna. Let go of my hand.”

“No, I can’t,” Danna sobbed. “You can’t.”

Nova closed her eyes, and kicked off the wall, breaking the contact between her wrist, and Danna’s hand.

She could hear Danna’s scream, muffled by the wind, and then there was nothing at all.

[writingbakery]

⥂ 𝐧𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 (𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬)

chapter i | price tag punch ; the last thing you’d ever expected is to see kuroo tetsuro’s lying, scheming ass again. little do you know, you’re about to get very well acquainted, all over again, for the lovely price tag of $60 million. a job’s a job, right ?

dessert pairing; international smuggler! kuroo tetsuro x international smuggler! fem reader

warnings; a solid right hook to the jaw, criminal activity, meet-ugly, reuniting exes

a/n; oh boy, i hope y’all are ready to hate kuroo’s smug lil ass !

the last time you saw kuroo tetsuro, he was harnessed to a helicopter rope above an abandoned villa as dutch police put you in handcuffs. he’d betrayed you, sold you out to the competing smugglers and stolen the briefcase containing the priceless original drafts of mozart’s earliest compositions, and he did it all with that absolutely infuriating shit eating grin he always had when he pulled a fast one on someone. usually, it was a competing thief. this time, it was you.

a years partnership down the drain, and a year’s worth of hookups & whispered love confessions burnt with that final bridge. you’d never forget the way he looked that morning, golden in the rising sun as he deserted you. your heart had never truly recovered.

luckily, you had contacts in nearly every agency; you were a free woman ten hours later, purse a little heavier from pickpocketing every cop who’d given you shit. [the hermés bag was a “self gift” from the bitchy receptionist. at least she had good taste in handbags.]

recovering from the betrayal wasn’t so easy, nor quick; you lost count of how many nights youd spent in some slicked up city bar, drowning your sorrows & scouting out new jobs. two years of rock bottom hadn’t been kind to you, but you were finally on the up & up, reestablishing yourself among the ranks of your fellow smugglers.

you were a thief, for god’s sake. you couldn’t mope forever.

thankfully, in the two years since “the dutch incident” — as you’re so dramatically labeling it — you haven’t seen so much as a whisper of tetsuro. he wasn’t accepting jobs or teaming up with anyone, not that it would matter to you if he was. in your mind, kuroo tetsuro was dead & gone; you’d like to keep it that way.

besides, you had more important things to think about than him.

you’d been tapped for a business meeting, with an elusive mr. ondori — on paper, the man was a ghost, completely off the grid. none of your contacts knew him either, so you were going in completely blind; less than ideal.

still, you trusted yourself to handle whatever life could possibly throw at you. you were prepared for anything now, & you keep that mindset as you ride the elevator up to the penthouse of an apartment block in london that looked too expensive for even your red bottom heels to walk through.

pushing open the wide, polished wood door, you can see nothing but high end furniture & floor to ceiling glass windows at first. it’s a beautiful apartment, & you’re wondering just what kind of smuggling job you were taking on when you spot an all too familiar head of spiky black hair.

never presume a thief dead until you see a body.

kuroo fucking tetsuro saunters over to your wide eyed, shocked form, a far too smug grin on his lips.

“hiya angelface — you miss me?” he looks just how you remember him; a mess of black hair falling over one eye, broad shoulders & sharp jaw shaping an unfairly handsome face. it’s like not a day’s gone by since the “dutch incident” — it’s almost laughable how little he’s changed.

for a moment, you’re both staring at each other in tense silence, neither one of you making a move to break it.

and then you pull your fist back with surprising speed, fist landing clean with a solid crack! against kuroo’s jaw.

well. that’s one way to break the tension.

when you focus again, your hand is throbbing, the lavish apartment in chaos; kuroo is whining like a bitch, blood is on the polished wood floor, & you realize with a start that he’s real. kuroo tetsuro is cowering behind a suede chair that probably cost more than the both of you combined, a split lip & a bruised jaw marring his — still stupidly handsome — face.

“i cannot believe the fucking balls on you, kuroo backstabbing piece of shit fucking rat bitch tetsuro ! you were dead to me ! dead & gone, for good, & you’ve got the audacity to trick me into meeting you here after you fucking sold me out—“

“alright, alright okay ! just let me explain, okay? please put down the vase.” you didn’t even realize you were holding it, brandishing it above your head like a weapon more like.

you lower it slowly, face not changing as he straightened himself out. “five minutes, kuroo. five minutes, then i’m leaving.”

he nods hastily, hands still up in a peaceful gesture as he watches you put the vase down. sighing in relief, he sits down in the chair, motioning towards the free one across from him — which you tentatively sit in.

“first... i’m sorry. i know it doesn’t mean shit now—“ “—you’re damn right it doesn’t—“ “—but still. i’m sorry. i’m also sorry that i can’t give you an explanation. but i’ve got a job for us now, so can we just.... put it behind us, at least until i offer you the job?”

you nod slowly, your glare not softening in the slightest; he’ll take what he can get.

“$60 million, kitten. 60. million. dollars. typical billionaire bullshit — he cheated on his wife, she robbed him of the most expensive thing he had in the house, he wants it back. in & out, okay?” the price tag makes your eyes water, & it almost seems laughably easy. except....

“why me? the amount of smugglers you could hire before me is longer than your dick—“

“ouch, kitten, no need for insults.”

“stop calling me that. you lost the rights two years ago.” he sulks a little at that, but you’re past that. he’s lucky you’re even still listening. “why me, kuroo?”

“i’ll be honest, i wouldn’t have decided on you either. i figured... i’d done you enough damage. but it was a condition of the job. i could have anyone on my team, but you had to be apart of it.” you frown at his words, confused & concerned; why would they want you?

luckily, kuroo’s got an answer for you, looking sheepish. “i’m not as good on my own, i’ll be the first to admit it. fucked up some jobs since we split. it’s probably insurance, ya know?”

the answer isn’t enough, but you accept it, mulling over the proposal with a sigh. “$60 million?”

“$60 million, ki— [y/n], & you’ll never have to see my ugly mug again. hell, you could retire. aren’t you tired of running?”

the words ring around in your head, & you can’t lie, it’s too good to pass up; even if it meant being stuck with kuroo for longer than you’d ever be comfortable with again.

“$60 million & i ghost, kuroo. i’m not doing this for you, so don’t expect me to like it, either.” from the look on his face, you’d have thought you’d agreed to marry him in paris.

“you won’t regret this, kitten. i mean, [y/n]. “ god, that’s going to get annoying.

“shut up, kuroo.”

“of course, dear.”

whap!

“ow ! alright, jesus christ kitten— put the vase down!”

bonus: “i’m surprised you didn’t know it was me. ondori literally means rooster in japanese. you’d call me rooster head all the time.”

“yeah, back when you were tolerably insufferable & not a waste of good, clean oxygen.”

“ouch, kitten. you’re a murderer with words.”

[taglist: @cloudydayanime @animefandomally @seita @kyberhearts @rienin ]

[ratonnhhaketon]

See The Fire In Your Eyes (Chapter 4)

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Summary: Catherine Hays grew up in a picture-perfect, high society family in Virginia. She had her whole life planned out for her and was about to get married to a man she could not stand. When her brother uncovers a murder plot and has to pay with his own life, Catherine decides she can’t continue playing along. She takes control of her own destiny and goes south to a pretty little town called Blackwater.

Warnings: Swearing, Canon-typical violence, Kidnapping

Chapter 4 - Misadventures In Mail Delivery

It had been about two weeks or so since the incident with the stagecoach, and Catherine had definitely been keeping busy around camp. Mrs. Grimshaw quickly put her to work with the laundry, dishes, and assisting Pearson with the stew preparation. Adjusting to the life of an outlaw was a slow and strange process, especially after never having to do regular chores prior her entire life, but it was starting to feel normal. She even picked up new skills and hobbies that she enjoyed, like sewing, despite how many times she pricked herself while Tilly taught her the basics.

Catherine awoke to a particularly chilly morning and quickly got dressed in an effort to block out the cold air. A simple long-sleeved maroon shirt and a pair of black jeans, that she actually preferred over skirts after wearing them so often, accompanied her riding boots. She ran a brush through her tangled hair, taking time to pay special attention to a stubborn knot in the back, before putting it in a simple plait.

As she exited her small tent she raised her arms up and stretched, groaning a bit when her lower back popped a bit. Like every morning, she made a beeline to the fire and grabbed a cup of coffee.

Hosea called her over to the table he was currently sat at. “Would you mind taking a ride into town to pick up the mail?”

She gave a quick nod at him before downing the rest of her coffee. “Of course! What do we need?”

“Mrs. Grimshaw ordered some clothes and there are probably some letters for Dutch and myself.”

“Sounds good. I’ll get a move on now.” They shared a smile before Hosea returned his attention to the book in his lap and Catherine headed back to her tent. She grabbed the dark blue jacket that was slung on top of her clothing trunk before walking over to where Arthur, John, and Lenny were standing and enjoying their coffee. “Morning fellas,” she said with a warm smile as she pulled the jacket on.

The group replied with their own nods and small ‘morning’s of acknowledgement before she spoke up again. “Well I’m heading into town to grab the mail, any of you need me to pick up somethin’ from the store?”

Arthur spoke up first. “A pack of cigarettes would be nice.”

~~~~~

She looked between the other two as they just shook their heads. “Can do, Mr. Morgan. I should be back in an hour or so.”

The ride into town went smoothly as always. Catherine passed only a few people on the road, as the sun was still just over the horizon, and stopped at the post office first. She collected everything they needed, a stack of letters addressed to the ringleaders of the gang and a package for Miss Grimshaw. She securely strapped the package to the back of her horse before slipping the letters into the saddlebags and walking to the general store.

Catherine made a quick lap around the store, picking up Arthur’s request as well as a can of peaches for herself and some candies for Jack. As she stood at the counter to pay she felt someone staring at her and quickly looked around the store before taking note of the man paying a little too much attention to the box of biscuits in his hand. She passed the clerk a few bills before gathering her things and returning to her horse.

As she was putting the things into the saddlebags, that same looming presence of someone watching made itself known once again. Catherine quickly slipped the cigarettes and chocolate bar into the inner pocket of her jacket before she mounted and spurred her horse into a gallop to get out of town as fast as possible. When she was barely half a mile out of town the sound of steady hooves following her seemed to grow louder with each passing moment. She spared them a quick glance over her shoulder before turning off of the road and into the thick forest of Tall Trees.

Her mare protested every time she was spurred on to keep up her pace, but the stead never once slowed down. Catherine ducked and weaved through low hanging branches, keeping a hand held out in front of her face to avoid any collisions.

The sound of hooves only faded for a moment as she ducked into the forest before reappearing almost twice as loud. A small “shit!” escaped her lips as the sound of hooves and the edge of Tall Trees grew closer.

Catherine failed to realize that she was nearing a small cliff and, before she could slow down, her horse slid down the slope uncontrollably. Her mare began to freak out, frantically trying to regain its footing on the loose dirt and rocks, and bucked her off in the process. She fell to the ground with a hard thud, pain in her chest and the air fully gone from her lungs.

Between ragged breaths as she lay on the ground, trying to regain her breathing, she noticed the sounds of hooves had stopped and steady footsteps crunching leaves began to approach her. She tried to reach for her pistol but one of the men shot a bullet next to her head, obviously missing on purpose.

“The boss is gonna be very happy about this,” the other man chucked. The last thing she saw was her mare sprinting off in the direction of camp before the butt of a rifle knocked her out cold.

~~~~~

“Hey, Lenny!” Arthur called to the man on guard duty as he walked towards his horse. “Has Miss Hays gotten back yet?”

He adjusted the rifle in his hand as he turned to look back at the man behind him. “No, I haven’t seen her.”

“Damn, I could use that pack of cigarettes she promised.” No sooner than the words left his mouth did the steady gallop of hooves start to approach the camp. The two men looked towards the sound expecting to see the woman they were just discussing, but were met with her dark brown mare barreling down the path. Arthur, wasting no time at all, instinctively put his hands up to slow the horse and grab the reins. He calmed her down enough that she stopped moving, though she was still shaking her head and huffing from the unfamiliar contact.

The two men shared a glance before Lenny spoke up. “Well,” he exhaled. “This ain’t good.”

~~~~~

The world was a haze around Catherine as she started to come to her senses. The room she was in was mostly dark, with a small stream of light peeking in from the torn curtain. She blinked a few times to get her eyes adjusted to the space around her. It was a small room, with a mattress pushed against the opposite corner of the room and a table covered in playing cards and empty cigarette cartons next to her.

Her mouth was dry and tasted like metal. Her vision was still blurry from the darkness, but she could still tell her eyes were very swollen. Despite her whole body screaming and protesting against her, she tried to move. Her muscles ached against the rope tied around her hands and legs.

She stopped struggling when a male voice spoke up outside. “How much longer do we have to be in this shithole?”

Another man replied, “Another day or two, probably. Just waiting on Calvin to send word for us to send her back.”

She felt her stomach churn. Of course he was behind this.

The door to the cabin swung open and she could vaguely make out the shape of a man walking towards her. “Look who’s awake, boys!” As he walked closer she recognized the figure to be the man that shot at her earlier.

“I’d rather die than go back to that rat,” she spat, struggling against the ropes.

The man laughed and crouched down next to her. “As much as I would love to make that happen,” he said with a smile. “I’m afraid Mr. Foster specifically requested you be returned alive so he could decide exactly what to do with you.” He lifted up a hand to her cheek, stroking the soft skin with his thumb. God , she wanted to throw up. Or punch him in the face. “Pity though, that he gets to have all the fun with you. I bet you’d make a very-”

Before he could continue she moved her face to the right towards his hand and bit down hand, directly at the base of his thumb. He yanked his hand back and grabbed it, making sure that he wasn’t bleeding. Catherine looked at him with fire in her eyes and he returned the gaze with pure anger. “You bitch!!” he yelled, using his opposite hand to slap her across the face. Her head went back and hit off the hardwood of the wall behind her, a yelp of pain escaping her lips. The world started to spin around her and her vision started to get hazy. She vaguely heard the man spew some string of curse words at her before she blacked out.

~~~~~

The second time she woke was to gunfire outside of the small cabin. The men that captured her were not only yelling a lot between each other, but she had a feeling that they were losing the fight as well.

“Check inside, we’ll keep watch out here,” a distant voice said. It sounded hazy and muffled as it broke through the ringing of her ears.

The door to the house opened and she tightly shut her eyes from the heavy moonlight. After a moment she opened them to see a figure approaching her, to which she instinctively curled her bruised body further into a ball. Her figure shook violently from fear and the cold air surrounding her.

“Hey, s’okay. I ain’t gon’ hurt ya.” the figure spoke up in a soft tone. The voice was deep and gravelly but also gentle. One that felt familiar and safe.

She looked up with tears in her half-lidded eyes and said, “Arthur?” Her voice was weak and sounded almost like a wheeze.

“Shhh, it’s alright. We’re gon’ getcha outta here.” He carefully cut the ropes on her arms and hands. “Can ya walk?” When Catherine slowly shook her head Arthur bent down to slide his arms under her legs and behind her back. He hoisted her body up- to which she let out a loud cry of pain- and walked back out of the small cabin, careful to not hit her against the doorframe. She rested her head against his chest as they walked to try and stop the world from spinning around her.

For the first time in what was probably days she felt safe.

“Take her back to camp,” another voice spoke up. “We’ll stay back for a bit and make sure no one is left.” Arthur sat her on the front of his horse’s saddle and carefully got in behind her to assure she wouldn’t fall during the ride.

As they rode off back towards camp Catherine kept her head propped up against Arthur’s chest with her eyes closed, desperately trying to ignore the aching pain her body felt as the horse galloped. Her right hand clutched the front of his shirt, her legs dangling over the side of the horse, and a few stray tears leaked out of her eyes.

“Well be back soon, just stay with me.” She felt his chest rumble against her head as he spoke and groaned out in pain, to which he instinctively wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I know it hurts but we’ll be back soon.”

She started to feel lightheaded and groggy. Using the last of her strength, Catherine opened her puffy eyes and looked up at Arthur. “Wasn’t.. O’Driscolls,” she murmured, voice nearly giving out at the end.

The last thing she heard was Arthur’s confused “What?” before her field of view was swallowed into blackness and she slipped out of consciousness again.

~~~~~

Catherine didn’t remember much of what happened after that. She remembered a lot of yelling, people rushing around, and what she thinks was Arthur and Lenny talking. When she was finally fully conscious she woke up to a very dry mouth and almost every part of her body in pain. She looked at her surroundings and realized she was back at camp, in her tent, with Hosea reading a book beside her cot. Upon noticing her awake he smiled and shut the book, and reaching for a cup of water he had resting on the crate next to her.

“Good to see you awake, Catherine.” He helped her lean up and drink, reminding her to go slow and breathe so she didn’t choke. “You gave us all quite the scare.”

Before she could reply the flap to her tent was opened and Arthur’s familiar hat peaked in. “Glad to see you’re up.”

She felt the corner of her mouth turn up in a light smile at his voice. Hosea waved Arthur in and stood before saying, “I’ll let you catch her up on everything, but make sure she eats something and gets a lot of rest.” He gave Arthur a pat on the arm before leaving and closing the tent’s canvas.

“How..” she started, struggling to speak as her throat was still sore and voice was almost gone. “How long was I out?”

Arthur sat down in the chair next to her and leaned back. “A few days. You’ve been in and out a couple times, but never as aware as ya’ are now. Hell, Reverend was considerin’ reading you yer last rights last time you were conscious.” They shared a chuckle at the thought before Arthur continued. “Took a hell of a beating back there but at least Miss Grimshaw will go easy on you for a while.”

Arthur looked at her for a second and took in her features. “Do you have any idea who those men were? ‘Cause you said they ain’t O’Driscolls when we were coming back to camp.”

She let out a sigh. “Yeah, I do.” Her gaze shifted from him to the canvas covering the top of the tent. “Calvin sent them. The man I was supposed to marry.”

He looked down at his feet and nodded, before looking back up at her a moment later. “I’m guessing he’s not too happy you left your old life?”

Catherine’s eyes returned to the man next to her. “Not at all.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked down at her hands, her thumbs fidgeting together in her lap. “I’m sorry you have to deal with this. I didn’t want to get you all wrapped into more problems than you already have.”

Arthur leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Catherine,” he said with a sincere tone, “You’re a part of this gang now, which makes you family. And as a family one person’s problems become a concern for all of us. If this son of a bitch shows his face again we’ll take care of it.”

She smiled at the sincerity of his words, tears threatening her eyes. The two sat in silence for a moment, enjoying each other’s company before a thought popped into her head. “Oh!” she said suddenly. “Is my horse alright?”

Arthur chuckled at her concern. “She’s perfectly fine. An hour or two after you left she showed back up at camp without you, so me and Lenny figured you were in trouble. Real smart girl you got there, seeing as she was able to bring herself all the way back to camp on her own.”

Catherine smiled at the good news. “Thank god she’s alright.” Her eyes drifted to the trunk on the floor next to Arthur’s chair and she spotted her jacket laying on top of it. “Arthur, could you grab my jacket for me?” She gestured with her right hand to where it lay and he picked it up before gently laying it on the bed next to her. “Before I forget,” she said with a smirk as she reached into the pocket on the inner lining. “You might be wanting these.” She handed over the, now slightly squashed, pack of cigarettes to him.

He laughed as he accepted the gift, having nearly forgotten that he even asked for them. “Thank you very much, Miss Hays.”

“Consider it payment for rescuing me from my captors.”

[im-immortal]

Favourite EK lyrics ? ❤️💜

"And I'm losing time, losing weight I'm a loser for this man I've been lost since our first date He is a tight-rope talker, I can't balance at all He says it's fascinating watching me tip-toe and crawl He says my ex-boyfriend is boring, he says the moon is the sun He says anxiety can be the source of lots of fun My best friend made a list of ways his love is off-track But I don't give a shit And I refuse to call that bitch back..." --Back On Love

"And I'm angry when he leaves me I love, they love me not Popsicle to my temples, I'm so fucking hot And I'm frustrated forever About the air that hangs around Wafting around my apartment I can't cool down..." --Popsicles

"Oh, I've been watching you all day in those dark sunglasses And I've been wanting you more and more with every moment that passes You like to say it's all wrong, I like to say it's all right The type that never hurts But to see you at this party feels like a sign from the universe But, if it's not Say you got drunk and lost, lost, lost..." --Drunk and Lost

"When the world is on fire But your heart is on ice It's hard to know what's wrong and what's right But if you wanna feel your blood burn, get to the floor Scream to God, "I want it more!" More hurricanes, snow storms, rain in my face More midnights drunk and dizzy, dancin' at your place A life of fame and fortune and the star of some show Now it's almost over, almost time to go..." --Last Chance

"And if we're gonna be laughin', I would like to be in on the joke Sometimes I think you show me scabs Just to tempt me to tear 'em away Makin' me draw blood Will never make me wanna stay Oh, it's sad but true Love is never enough..." --The Turtle and the Monkey

"And I've got a song in my head And It's never done I tried strumming out the chords The night we started having fun It sounds like crickets in the floorboards Cupcakes in the dark The drums of fireworks and staircases and Echo Park Got your notes on napkins And my blood on your walls Our soda glass love Could only take so many falls Can only take so much rain Before it drowns, dissolves Gets dragged down the drain I only wish you the best But I've got this pain in my chest It doesn't soften or scab Lessen or fade..." --Soda Glass

"Maybe I just wanted love so badly I drew it up to look like you Colored in the corners with some lipstick What's a girl at a rock show supposed to do?" --Boy Band Hero

"The movie goes by so fast It's been a month and a year The world is a hurricane You and I are just a single tear The mountains cut against the sky It's like I'm in some dream The supporting character to something else's lead..." --The Supporting Character

"I am done with the jealousy Done with the fighting Done with the words that feel just like biting I have found a new man with a heart he wants to share It just goes to show, life isn't always unfair I have pumped new blood into this heart for him to take We're gonna move to California, to a house on a lake And someday, we will kiss, in front of family and friends Only cake and champagne and no need for weapons..." --Weapons

"I can't help but break in half each time you ask me to bend I can't help but unravel when you pull out a thread I just lose my mind when you mess with my head And I will always throw a tantrum if you throw me just some bone I'm not your puppy, I'm a famous fish, who'd rather swim alone..." --Mermaid Song

"I swear he's trying to say he loves me The way he's moving his mouth I swear he's trying to say he loves me But the words never come out Baby, that's what I call feeling mortal Put your head and cry on my shoulder We can watch the moon turn bright blood red You can stay the night in my treehouse bed Oh, he's got my soul in his hands And oh, next to Skid Row on a rooftop, we slow dance Is this forever? I'm not at my best But I'm addicted to the music Swear I hear in his chest..." --Mortal

"And oh, I kissed a boy on the west side of town With a Porsche and a million-dollar record deal Oh, but there's a boy living downtown Doesn't understand how he makes me feel Logic tells me I should drive that Porsche toward the sand But my heart only beats for this downtown man So I'm lovin' like a loser Batting zero for ten I'm gonna drive downtown and make the same mistakes again I can’t say I didn’t know better I can’t say that I was just naive When he left before the night was over I was crying in a blanket on my knees Praying, “God, please give me direction” Scrub away his scent with five-star hotel soap It doesn’t matter how he pushes and pulls Oh, Los Angeles, I’ll never give up hope..." --Same Mistakes

"She said she's packed to go But I know she'll never leave 'Cause when it comes to giving her whole heart My sister's just like me..." --Genetic Makeup

"You've got these rough spots I'll rub 'em down I wanna show you I'm not just some easy girl you found Let's go to Paris, let's go to Rome You're like a hotel that I keep wishin' was my home You're like a hotel I mistake for a home..." --Easy

"I am a sun, he's like a cloud I gotta know what he's about So I defy the laws of daylight Turning down the waves that burn bright He gets heavy, he gets dark He leaves a shadow on my heart Now I'll never light the world the same Without windy whispers of his name..." --Jonathan

"You build castles in the clouds, when the sky was clear and blue No one else sees cloud castles 'cept for me and you And the grayness turns to glitter, with a laugh and a wink All the buildings are outlined in orange, and gold and pink My black, white life turns to color But baby, I'm with another..." --Masterpiece

"But I was never yours, and you're no longer mine Oh, I'd like to kiss you, but my lips are purple And I'd like to love you, but our love is spent And we wasted our wishes, hurt our best friends, Made a home in heartache, And now we can't pay the rent So what can I, what can I do for you, honey? Buy you a coffee? Lend you some money? Walk you to Times Square. walk to the moon?" --Times Square

"Stealing all my thunder when I try to boast It's got it hooks in my brain like a radio song Over and over 'til I'm forced to sing along You're a smart, pretty catch, quite a winner If you were just a few pounds thinner Oh, I wanna be skinny, let my bones show Let the world grow while I am shrinking I wanna be beautiful, I'm constantly in fear And crying midnight tears 'bout what you're thinking Oh, God, give me self-control God, give me one more mile God, give me some small space to fit for a while..." --Skinny

Well, that got away from me :) But I can't even begin to explain how much I relate to EK's lyrics. Her music is beautiful for so many reasons. Thanks for the ask! <3

[wilde--at--heart]

End of March - Alex Learns a Couple of Truths

ALEX

No lights are on when I open the door to my condo. I should’ve swung by here yesterday. Except that a major project for Hoodoo Mobile kept failing to render. I had to spend all day calming the client (and nagging Bridget about finding decent tech support, since that falls under her ever-expanding domain). I stumble over a stack of flat boxes. I’m about to blow a gasket. Chris isn’t close to moving out. I’ve been beyond patient with her. I’m tempted to start packing her stuff myself.

My rage defuses at the sight of her. She’s asleep on the cream leather sofa, hugging a ratty beige teddy bear like a sweet, neglected child (she was). Moonlight streams in from the side window. The pale silver light illuminates her face. I stand still, watching her. God, she’s beautiful. With her long lashes and turned-up nose, she resembles an old-fashioned doll. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I had to.

My eyes fall to a sheet of paper on the coffee table. I pick it up, curious. My heart lurches in my chest. A grayish blob floating in a sea of black, a tiny dark smudge on one side. I can hardly believe it.

Our child.

Christine really is pregnant. She wasn’t lying.

I am going to be a dad.

I perch next to her, gently shake her shoulder. “Hey, Chris.”

Her eyes flutter open. Her mouth splits into a grin of perfect little teeth.

“Alex!” Her face is radiant. She looks ecstatic to see me. No one else looks at me the way she does. Not even Marissa. Her eyes gleam bright. Her smile has no artifice. There is nothing controlled about her. She’s wild and free, which I absolutely loved about her, but hated, too. She could never rein herself in. Right now, I don’t care. I cut my own reins loose.

I throw my arms around her. She smells like strawberries and her Satsuma shampoo. I missed her smell. I feel as if I’ve come home again after a decade-long absence. “I hope you’re okay. I’ve been such a jerk to you and I’m sorry. It didn’t even hit me until now.”

She doesn’t say a word. Just clings to me like a barnacle on rock. I wonder what’s going through her mind, search my own for what I should say. The strap of her silk nightdress slides off her shoulder. My eyes fall to her engorged breasts. I hate how I convinced myself she was lying (because it was easier).

Our lips meet and we begin kissing. God, how I miss her sometimes, the old her, when we first got together. I’m kissing that person now. I run my hand along her shoulder and down her arm. Her skin is as soft and silky as her negligee. I reach up underneath and slip it off over her head. I run my hand along her bare tummy. I plant a kiss.

Inside, a brand new life is forming.

Made from my life, and hers.

A miracle.

*     *     *     *     *

CHRISTINE – 5:30 am

Alex snoozes on the couch while I lie on my back in bed wide awake. Fooling around felt like old times, but I know him. He’ll wake up hung over with guilt, and convince himself it was no big deal because we stopped short of going all the way. We didn’t fuck. A midnight text from his new girlfriend interrupted us. When it comes to relationship boundaries he has the precision of a lawyer. I roll onto my side and hear the pipes in the bathroom shudder, then the shower hissing. He is so predictable. Up and at ‘em way earlier than he needs to be. As soon as he’s finished, I go to confront him in the bathroom.

“I’m almost done.” He keeps his towel around his waist while he steps into his boxer briefs. I can feel his guilt from where I’m standing. “They scheduled this stupid power breakfast at the Ramada and I just got the call for it. Harvey’s going to be there so I have to go.”

The steamy air stifles me. I flip on the exhaust fan and block the door. “I know you don’t want to be with me. All I ask is for you to have a relationship with him or her once they’re born.”

He hangs his head, resumes getting dressed. He can’t even look at me. “Of course I will! What do you take me for? I don’t understand why you always assume that––”

“I’ll be honest,” I say, praying that whoever this new chick is, she kicks him to the curb. If she doesn’t, she has zero pride. Knowing him, he hasn’t told her yet. “I wish we were still together. I know what it’s like to grow up without a father around and––”

“I’m sorry, Chris.” He holds his arms around me. His skin is sticky. The smell of his aftershave stings my nostrils. “We’ll talk about this later tonight. Let me know how your doctor appointment goes.”

He is so fucking cold sometimes. Goddammit! “You cheated on her last night!” I shove him square in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards, his arms flailing. Why else would he have stopped kissing me the second his phone beeped? He’s trying to have his cake and eat it too and he damned well knows it. I saw his phone. Her page-long text about all the things she was wanting to do in bed with him.

“We were never serious.” He purses his lips, bundles his clothes in his arms, and barges past me.

“Does she know that?” When he doesn’t answer, I snatch his arm, digging my nails in. He tears out of my grip, glances at the blood oozing out of a scratch on his bicep, and puts on his shirt and jacket. “Better watch your balls because you’re juggling a few too many, hm?”

“Quit taking everything the wrong way! I need to think about how we should go about telling my parents and it’s not so easy to break the news to a—”

I let out an exasperated shriek, storm back into the bedroom, fling myself down on the mattress and curl up. I’m about to explode. He always does this!

“I’ll talk to you later!” Alex calls through the door. Then I hear the one to the hallway slam shut. Rage boils in me; I’m freaking out. If Alex were any kind of man, he’d be here for me. He’s a fucking pathetic coward, a lying, cheating shit, and probably stringing how many new chicks along right now.

I stomp into the living room, desperate to blow off steam. I grab a side of the nearest bookshelf and slam it to the floor. God, that feels good. High on endorphins, I pitch Alex’s favorite vase against the wall, feeling an amazing rush as I watch it shatter into a million glittering pieces that catch the rays of the morning sun. The gift from his bitch of a mother couldn’t have met a more deserving fate. I wish it was her skull. Would serve her right for calling me trash right to my face.

Next, his precious stereo. I pick up the amp and raise it high over my head like a WWE wrestler about to smash a chair over the head of his opponent.

“What are you doing?” Alex gawks at me from the hallway.

Shit. “I thought you left.”

“I forgot my ...” His eyes land on the splinters of crystal spilled across the floorboards. He shakes his head and I’m on the verge of collapsing in tears. He’ll never understand why I get like this. I have this monster inside of me. No matter how much I try to keep it chained, it always breaks loose.

“Hormones,” I whimper, but he’s too furious to care. While I stand frozen like a marble statue, he takes the amp out of my hands and tucks it under his arm.

“I can’t deal with you like this––get help. Mental help. This is why we aren’t together anymore! Thanks for reminding me!” He leaves again, slamming the door behind him. I’m so numb I feel my whole sense of self slipping away, disappearing into thin air. I don’t need help, I just need him to be more understanding, to stop being so goddamned cold. Just once.

Fuck it. I call his direct line at work. If I word it the right way, he’ll have to hear what I say before he realizes it’s me and hangs up. At the beep I say, “You tell her, or I will. Bye.”

[einlov]

Knife to a fist fight.

A story between two troublemakers. 🔪 + 🌸 

🌸~🔪|   Featuring: Male-to-Female reader!   | 🌸~🔪

Warning: Transphobia and Violence.

Playful warning: The best parents in the damn world! 🏳️‍⚧️

Setting: School! (elementary-ish??-middle?)

Day: Valentine’s Day

Word count: ✰ 13k ✰

Children’s laughter and screams fills the sunny atmosphere. The temperature is above 75 degrees, but the soft wind cools everyone down. I continue to play with my rock collection, they all have names, but there’s one that stands out from the rest. The rock is fragile, it seems to break when under pressure, even if it’s a simple squeeze. I tend to keep that rock away from the others as the rock doesn’t feels accepted from the others. Staring at the rock, I hear my teacher calling back the class, dusting off I collect the collection and walk over to the teacher.

We all head into the bland classroom and take our seats. I take the table that has no one around it. The teacher stands in front of the classroom, “Now, we can finally pass out our Valentine’s candies. Remember, if I see a wrapper on the floor though the passing out will be canceled.” The room erupts with sighs and “yes ma’am!” In a flash students head for the backpacks and hands out candy and cards to their friends. All I can do is watch. After everyone passed out their goodies, I was empty-handed. The teacher flashes me a sad smile and continues to help other students with passing out goods. The table near me looks back at me and laughs, they continue with their gossip. Bitting my lip I stare at my lap, I was wearing the skirt for our uniforms. The school almost kicked me out because ‘I’m a male’. Thanks to my parents, they kept me in the school by cursing out the principal and threatening legal action. They are and will always be my supporters. Helping me feel more comfortable with myself, mom covered my face in subtle makeup and I wore bows in my hair. That didn’t stop the teasing though, “You know, my mom told me that sinners don’t get good things.” I look up at the girl at the nearby table, she leans near my table with a smirk. Her friend joins in, “Yup, and my mom said that people like you deserve to burn in hell.” The boy across from them stares at me, “God don’t like ugly!” They all laugh in unity. My face is blank, I’ve heard that comment for the whole school year. I simply ignore them and go back to staring at my favorite rock in my jacket pocket.

The period is finally over after continuous nasty comments and hits with candy pieces. One piece hit my eye, all I can see is floaters from that eye. When they were confronted by the teacher they said it was an accident. She believed it. I sigh while walking to gym class. I was staring at the two lockers rooms, the coach demands me to go into the boys locker room as she says, “Look, as long as your name is (deadname), you will still be put into the system as male. I’m sorry, but you need to go in there.” I sigh and head to the boys locker room slowly. All I hear is my heart beating rapidly, then a high-pitched voice catches my attention, “HEY YOU! What are you doing?!” I look back to see a girl with blond pigtails. She skips towards me, “Can’t you read? That’s the boys locker room, the girls locker room is over there!” She holds onto my arm and guides me into the locker room, I search around for the coach’s attention, she was nowhere to be found. I’m trying to pull away but her grip is way more tight. When we are near the lockers, girls stare at me blankly and whisper to each other. The blond girl looks back at me with one eyebrow up, “Well, where’s your clothes?” I look down at my feet, they are in the boys locker room, in my locker. She sighs, “You aren’t the talking type hm? Well that’s okay! I have a feeling we are going to be friends anyway!” I smile softly at the ground, she shoves shorts in my arms, “I’ll wear my shirt and you wear my shorts ok?” I nod slowly, looking around the room I spot the restrooms and enter a stall. This uniform shirt looked weird with the pink shorts, but I couldn’t help but to feel good in them. As I walk out the stall a full body mirror is in front of me. I admire the shorts, but can’t help but to reach for my flat-chest. All the girls at least have a bump in their chest area, but me. All my mind says is, ‘Because you’re a male.’ I sigh and walk over to the girl’s locker, she stands up and smiles at me. I smile sadly at her, “...thank you.” She nods extremely fast, “You look adorable! You even wear it better than me!” She puts on a fake pout, I can’t help but to smile widely. Her arm links with mine as she skips for the exit of the locker room. When we reach outside, boys that came out of their locker room glares at me. The coach runs up to me and scolds me for not entering the boys locker room. The girl beside me stares at the teacher blankly, I stare at the ground while closing my eyes. The coach sighs and rubs her forehead, “Don’t do that again! Just for that your grade is dropping 20%.” I roll my eyes while she walks away and guides the class to the court near the locker rooms. The girl near me whispers, “Bitch.” I choke on my spit and stare at her, she smiles at me gently. We both stare, laughing as we walk to the court, together.

The heat wave hits us hard as we all jog around the court. The court is wide and surrounded by basketball hoops. The blond girl kept up with my pace, she would shove some people out of our way and tease people...did I join in the taunting? YES. Oh, did it feel good, to see their faces when the blonde silently theatened them if they said something back, it was a sight. Though, that didn’t stop a kid named Liam, he is from my previous class, teasing me. The blonde pushed him out of the way as he was about to crush us into the fences near us. Liam sped up and looked back with a scolding face, “What was that for?” The blonde rolled her eyes, while my confidence grew bigger as the seconds passed near her, I said with my eyebrow connected, “Well, I don’t know, it’s not like you almost crushed us into the wired fence.” He sizes me up and down, “The fuck did you say to me he-she?” The three of us stop running as he proceeds to get in my face. My hands are shaking by my side, I can feel my eyes stinging, the heat from the sun couldn’t compare to the amount of heat my face produced. “Tch, who are you scaring? She will say it again!” The girl near me stares at me with a smirk, with all of the kids running we were covered. Though, some kids started forming a small circle around us as I open my mouth. My jaws feel like it’s going to lock in, the only noise that comes out of my mouth is a small “yeah...”. The blonde’s lips form a upside down curved line, she looks me dead in the eye and say, “Boys aren’t suppose to lay their hands on us, so, if he even tried he would get in trouble. And not just by the school.” Her eyes narrow as she says that last sentence, she holds my hand near her. I breathe and look straight at him, “Yeah...where’s your manners? Haven’t your...mom taught you how to treat...a lady- ladies?” He gets in my face and huff, “You ain’t a lady, girl, or woman, boy. You want to know what my mama taught me?” He is 4 centimeters from my face, the grip of my hands gets loose. My eyes are dilating, he continues, “When someone messes with you, you knock some sense back into them.” There was no more talking, a punch was thrown...

The circle leans back as the boy falls back from the blonde punching him square in the jaw! He stands back up and rubs his jaw, instead of tackling her, he aims at me. My first fight has begun. The circle erupts with gasp, cheers, and taunts. I fall onto the ground as he grabs for my collar, with all his weight on me I struggle to get on top of him. The coaches shouts are far but are approaching quickly, with my face turnt to the direction of the coaches voices, he takes the opportunity to punch me in my face.

And another one.

And another.

Another.

Again.

And...

Again.

...

Tears spill out of my eyes as my mouth collects dust. He takes a small break to get off me, I turn my head to spit out blood, feeling on my busted lip and searching for the blonde. When I spot her she being held by one of Liam’s friends. She continues to try to kick his...nuts as she is in front of him with her arms linked together, behind her. We catch each other’s eyes, she yells, “GET UP.” I watch Liam’s friend lift her up and throw her down into the dirt. The pain from my face is ignored as the adrenaline helps me get back up. My vision goes red. Liam stares at me with a smirk and his arms crossed, he walks around me and watches the coach approaching. Taunting me. Before I knew it, I lunge onto someone.

STRIKE ONE-

My vision is blurry, but my hands kept going...I shouldn’t punch this hard nor rapidly, but I couldn’t help by release my emotions through rearraging Liam’s friend face! 

STRIKE TWO-

I wasn’t raised like this. Mom always said that words spoke louder than fist, but it felt good. Every hit felt like I was hitting a ball on a bat, my arms are shaking, my bows are scattered around us the others hung from my hair, but I can’t deny that it felt good to stand up again and-

STRIKE THREE-

Be needed and supported. I’m doing this for me and for my new...friend. If someone taught me something it would be ‘When someone messes with you, you knock some sense back into them’. T-ha. I guess Liam isn’t so bad after all, at least for life lessons. I have a feeling he’ll be on the TV for aggravated assult. 

The blonde is near me holding back Liam from getting to me, her hair is pointing in all different directions, our clothes are covered in dust and dirt. Liam is trying to restrain from hitting her, but she keeps on swinging and biting. The crowd is hopping, some people recorded. It felt like we were animals at the circus, entertaining to please their boredom. I look down at my hands, Liam’s friend is barely responsive, he is covering his face with his arms...mom is going to be disappointed in me. 

I look back towards the blonde, she is reaching into her black slippers, Liam lays on the ground trying to kick her away. The sun hits a shiny surface from her hands, she does a small flick to the object, it’s small, it looks like she is gripping the side that has a handle...is that...a knife?!

I get up and reach for her from behind, but the sound came up already.

                                              SWOOSH

My vision and hearing goes in and out as everyone in the fight was swung off each other. I was pinned down by one of the school officers, the blood of Liam was near my face, his blood was absored by sand near the concrete of the court. The blonde’s pocket knife was stained with his ruby colored blood, she quickly put it back into her shoes as the other school officer chased her. She climbed the fence and made a run for it...without me. The crowd is still around, the last thing I hear is screams, shouts, and cheers. My body relaxes, my eyelids drop.

           __________________________________________________

The sound of a silky voice clouds my hearing, then that voice started to up their tone. The yelling came and my eyes are opened. Raising up was difficult, my back felt like it was on fire, I couldn’t feel my legs. The room that surrounded me was very clean and quiet, the hallway wasn’t so quiet. I was placed on a patient’s bed, it’s hard, but the covers around me were fluffy. A bottle of water sat on the table near me, I glup the water in three attempts. A nurse comes in and checks the room, “Oh, you’re awake. Good, your mother have to leave. So, you will be going home. Do you feel any pain?” I shake my hand to represent ‘kinda’. She nods and checks on the cuts and bruises that covered my body, mainly on my arms and face. Luckly, my facial features weren’t in too much damage from Liam’s attack. I wince while remembering the beatdown that occured to Liam’s friend. 

A yell comes from the hallway, “YOUR CHILD CAUSED ALL OF THIS, I HOPE YOU ARE READY FOR COURT-” 

That silky voice counters, “COURT MY ASS. THAT DEMON YOU PROCREATED HIT MY CHILD, MAYBE IF YOUR SON LEARNT SOME MANNERS HE WOULDN’T HIT GIRLS.”

The other woman screeched, “YOUR CHILD ISN’T EVEN A GIRL!”

There is silence.

“BITCH.”

Screams and shouts are erupting from the hallway, the nurse dashes out of the door. 

“Honey! Please calm dOwN-”

“PUT DOWN THE HEELS, SWEETHEART-”

“Ah...fuck it. THAT’S MY WIFE AND I’M PROUD, GET HER BABE!”

A small smirk appears on my face, ah, yes, my parents. ‘Words speak louder than fist’. T-ha. How is she going to explain this to me?

I walk slowly to the door, my legs feel like it’s going to give out, but I made it. The door is opened slightly, I could see my mom holding onto the woman’s hair, my dad is collecting her stuff off the floor like her heels, the woman is screaming as my mom dogs her out, I was afraid the woman’s face was going to fall off! Liam is behind the woman, he is trying to pull her away from my mom. A sick smiles marks my face, it doesn’t feel good hm Liam? To watch someone you care about endure this...karma is a beautiful thing. Through all the things I’ve been through, it’s not enough, he should consider himself lucky, my mom isn’t the one for letting scum go easily. 

My dad’s eyes fall on me, he is mouthing the word, “Get. In. The. Car.” I nod and grab the keys he kicks to me from the floor. 

After making my escape from the school, I turn on the engine and turn on some music while waiting for my parents. 

Minutes pass, my parents came out, my dad is carrying mom out of the school, something brown is in mom’s hand, hair. I couldn’t contain the chuckles that escaped my mouth. Dad opens the passagers door and places mom in the seat gently, he even placed kisses on her cheek as she continued raving about “the bitch”. He shakes his head while smirking at me, my smile becomes wider as I try not to laugh. He walks around the car and settles into the driver’s seat, we all buckle up and prepare for a long ride. 

“I mean, who did she think she was? A lawyer? The bitch works at the local coffee shop, I should have theatened her with law, as I ACTUALLY have a damn degree in law.”

A lawyer that commits crimes, in this case, assult. Ah, you’re doing great mom.

My dad nods and continues to listen to her rants, my mom opens the sun visor to check herself out. Her make up looks untouched, her hair remains in perfect conditions, nails are still on, her professional outfit is still black and tidy. I turn to the window to look at myself, geez, is that Satan herself? 

“I still look good, don’t I love?”

“Definitely.”

She smiles at him and leans to kiss his cheek, his lips perk up. I couldn’t help myself, “eww.” 

Dad laughs while reaching for mom’s hand, she takes his hands and looks back at me, her smile fades. Her authoritarian voice appears and her face is stone. Sigh, it begins. 

“Syria.”

She’s using middle names...great.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“You know what I’m going to say hm?”

I nod while crossing my arms and slouching.

  .                              .                                     .

“WHY IN THE HELL, DID YOU GET INTO A FIGHT?! DIDN’T I TELL YOU ABOUT KEEPING YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GO TO COURT?! DID YOU KNOW I HAVE TO PAY FOR A KID’S MEDICAL BILLS, BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO BUST THEIR FACE IN?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?! SYRIA, ANSWER ME, DID YOU LOSE YOUR DAMN MIND?!”

“Um, n-”

“HUSH, AIN’T NO ONE TELL YOU TO SPEAK, I’M NOT DONE!”

Geez, it was hard to not roll my eyes, but I was afraid if I did, I wouldn’t have them anymore.

“MEDICAL BILLS AREN’T CHEAP, YOU THINK MONEY GROW ON TREES?! WHERE IS THIS?! WHERE IS IT?”

She points to her head while getting close to my face, I breathe in and out.

“NOW I HAVE TWO PARENTS ON MY ASS, BOTH OF THEM CAN SUE ME AND YOUR FATHER! ESPECIALLY WHEN A DAMN WEAPON, WEAPON, WEAPON!!!! WAS IN THE FIGHT. YOU CARRYING KNIVES NOW!?”

“Mom, I didn’t carry the knife, the blonde did! She-”

“YOU JUST REMINDED ME, WHO IS THIS NEW FRIEND OF YOURS?! WHAT’S HER NAME?! AND WHAT KIND OF FRIEND RUNS TO LEAVE THEIR OWN FRIEND IN TROUBLE?! IS SHE YOUR REAL FRIEND?! WHEN DID YOU MEET HER?! IS SHE NEW?!”

I started to grip my hair and stare down at the floor, all I could do was sigh and breathe heavily.

“Love, stop, let her breathe, you know she wouldn’t start a fight willingly. Let her explain.”

Dad looks back at me slightly, a sympathetic smile is sent my way. Thank you dad. Mom breathes out and sits back in her seat. My breathing slowly regulates to the normal speed, ungripping my hair I put my hands into my lap, and look up. Mom is facing forward, she grips onto dad’s hand harder, and uses the other hand to rub her forehead.

There is silence for at least 10 minutes. We are close to home.

“Syria...why? How did it start?”

“Well, um...”

I explain EVERYTHING, I rather not be in more trouble.

“Hm, well that would explain most things like where you got the pink shorts, and who it even started it in the first place.” Sigh.

I nod, “Yup, it all leads back to the blonde. Honestly, mom, I don’t know her. I don’t believe I’ve seen her around the school before. Also, SHE was the one that carried the knife! I was trying to prevent that cut, as much as I hate Liam, I knew you were already disappointed in me. I didn’t want to disappoint you two more.”

Finally, comfortable silence, or at least comfortable enough to speak confidently.

Dad speaks up, “See, I’m telling you, we raised a good kid. You should have known she wouldn’t cause any of this.”

Mom nods slowly, “Hm, yes, but, she did antagonize him.”

“Mom, I remembered what you said to me, if I couldn’t lay my hands on him, I went to the first best thing, words.”

Dad chuckles, “That’s my kid, use her words against her, hurt doesn’t?” He leans near her to stick his tounge out at her, she rolls her eyes with a smile. 

“Shut up, anyway...I did say that...touché.”

Me and dad’s laughs fills the car, mom only smiles and looks back at me.

“Alright, alright, I’ll give you that one, but you are still going on punishment for BREAKING that same rule you are shoving in my face. Also, you better stay away from that girl, she’s no good. You and her have been placed on suspension for a week and recieved a referral. You will be doing housechores until you go back to school, no ifs, ands, and buts.”

“Yes ma’am.” 

Dad inputs with a smirk, “Speaking of fighting, what about your fight Ms. Mike Tyson?”

Mom chuckles and dusts off her shoulder, “Nobody talks about our daughter without getting a can of whip-ass.”

Dad nods, I smile at mom, she looks back at me and smiles back.

“Look at me, you come from a place of love, you understand? I’ll be damned to let a little hoodlum and the mother disvalue you, because you are everything with a bag of sunflower seeds, you understand?”

My teeth are showing at this point, “Yes, ma’am, tell me something I don’t know.” I dramatically flip my messy hair, a bit of dirt comes out of it. 

Mom warmheartly laughs, dad smirks back at me before parking into the garage.

While dad stops the car, he collects mom’s belongings. Mom stops me from getting out and says, “Syria, listen to me, don’t be like me, be better than me. I shouldn’t have put my hands on that...woman. It was legally wrong, but sometimes our morals get in the way. Whatever you choose don’t let your emotions control you, you have a brain for a reason, use it. Also, take a shower you smell.”

I chuckle slightly and nod, she leans and kisses my forehead. 

We get out and all settle at home.

A knock on my door interupts my thoughts, “Come in, please.” My dad’s head pops into the room, “Hey angel, I wanted to speak to you about what happened eariler.” I nod while crossing my legs on the bed. He walks in and sits by me.

“Firstly, what you did was irresponsible and in result, me and your mom are possibly going to face...ok likely going to face legal actions.”

I nod slowly, a small sad smile is all I give.

“But, we love you nevertheless, please stay out of trouble.”

Nodding, he continues.

“Now, with that new friend of yours...I don’t know her personally, so I don’t believe she is bad for you per se. I believe she left you for a reason. Why would she leave you after trying to defend you? That doesn’t add up.”

Hm. That’s true. She did punch Liam to get him to leave me alone, I’m sure she didn’t expect him to attack me, but, why? Why leave me behind? 

Dad yawns and continues, “Anyway, in that fight you mentioned something...those punches you served to the friend! Show me what you got champ!”

I laugh and punch the air with a pathetic attempt at a punch, dad leans back and dramatically falls off the bed, “Geez! Are you training with Ms. Mike Tyson up there?!” We both laugh loudly as he gets off the floor and dusts himself off. 

He holds onto my shoulder and says with a warm smile, “We love you, don’t forget that! Also, remember what I said about that girl, there’s always two sides of the story.”

I nod rapidly and he places a kiss on my forehead. I use to hate those kisses they gave me, it made me feel like a child, but love doesn’t age. After saying night, I settle for bed...and morning chores. Sigh.

Happy Valentine’s Day to me.

                 _________________________________________

                                                   SNAP.

My eyes open automatically. 

                                                  Rrrrrrr....

What. In. The. World. 

From the end of my bed the moonlight that hits my cover is not in their scattered positions. The light is completely intact...even though the window has a “t” frame in the middle of it. My window is open. 

I lean up and stare straight ahead at the window, well I was right, the window is up and a small hand is entering the window. 

I freeze.

All I was able to do was watch the figure enter and trip on the frame of the window, hitting the hard wood floor in my room. 

I finally hop out of the bed and run to the figure. Before the figure could get up or say something, I punch them square on the face. I repeatedly hit the figure while they huff and cover their face. 

“Wrong house, you scum!”

“ACH. GEEZ, I TRY TO HELP YOU OUT AND THIS IS HOW I AM REPAID?!?!”

My fist freeze in the air, the figure kicks me in the stomach, I hit the end of my bedframe. The figure dashes to my lamp on one of my bed stands, like that I see the person clearly. 

I turn around fully to look at her, the girl that got me in trouble.

“Wat-what-WHAT IN THE WORLD!?! I-I-WHY AND HOW?!?! I-?!?”

She sighs and rubs her arms, unbothered. 

“You suck at greeting friends! Is that really how you treat friends?”

My eyebrows connect, my fist are balled up, “Friends? Friends?! Friends don’t leave their friends to make a run for it!”

“Sorry?...”

“SORRY?! THAT’S IT?! SERIOUSLY?!”

I back her up onto my bed stand, my lamp is tipping over. 

“BECAUSE OF YOU WE CAN’T GO TO SCHOOL FOR A WEEK, THAT’S A LOT OF WORK TO MAKE UP. THEN I HAVE HOMECHORES. THOUGH, WHAT REALLY PUSHED ME TO THIS ATTITUDE WAS YOUR RESPONSE TO BEING IN TROUBLE, YOU RAN. THEN, YOU POP UP IN MY HOUSE TO SAY SORRY?! REALLY?!”

She stares at me, “Yes.”

I grab onto her hand and walk her to the window, turning to her, “Get out. All you did was cause trouble. I don’t want to be friends with you. But before you leave, tell me why.” 

She closes her eyes and drops her head, “I’m sorry.”

I roll my eyes, “Ugh, get out-”

She continues, “I have caused trouble today, but if you believe I regret what I did, you’ll be mistakened. I did my duty as a friend. I didn’t want you to get in trouble, it was all games at first, I didn’t expect this.”

My grip on her hand gets weaker.

She raises her head to look me in the eyes, “I don’t have parents. That’s why I ran.”

I let go of her and stare wide-eyed at her. She blankly stares and continues, “You know what happens to parentless kids?”

I nod, “Orphanage.”

She nods. 

There is silence for a couple of minutes, she walks to my bed, and pulls snacks out of her uniform pants and place them on the bed.

“I ran around the school to get them off my trace. When they lost me they placed a missing child report, while I was hiding in the bushes in front of the school, I waited to see if you were a bus rider or car rider. Luckily, your parents picked you up earlier than the dismissal bell. I followed your car by using the crosswalks and sidewalks. When I was near your neighborhood I lost your car, so I stopped by the store and got snacks. I visited every door and peeped in each house to find yours. I was placed in school without parents by using my parents names for my school files, even though they left me years ago, with fake IDs and signatures I was placed in a school.”

                                  .                           .                            .

Lost of words...my dad wasn’t kidding when he said ‘there’s always two sides to a story’. Since I was focused on my emotions so much I didn’t notice her clothing. It was the same clothing I seen her with at gym, Liam’s blood still rest on her shirt. Her slippers are tearing up, must be from all of the running she did. Her pegtails are slanting, her shirt and school pants are dusty and covered in dirt. Her face was all most grey from the dirt, the cuts are uncovered and filled with dirt. 

Well, now I feel bad. Even with me hitting and yelling at her, she still got me some snacks to make up for her mistake, something she can’t even afford...

“Toga.”

I say, “Uh?...”

“My name is Toga. I hope you like chocolate, it’s the least I could do.”

“...thank you.”

I walk to my clothing drawer and grab a pair of nightclothes, Toga sits on my bed and watches me.

“Toga, go to my bathroom and change, my parents are sleeping upstairs, you should be fine. The bathroom is across my room.”

She raises one eyebrow, “...When you get out of the bathroom, get the medkit from under the sink and give it to me. I’ll clean your face and cuts.”

She smiles slightly and take the clothes to change, “Don’t eat all of the snacks! I’m hungry too you know.”

A sad smile appears on my face, I shouldn’t do this. I’m already in trouble, what am I doing?...I walk to the window and close it, something shines from the light of my lamp, looking down below the window I seen the pocket knife. Picking it up I place it near my lamp. 

My bedroom door opens again, Toga is wearing a matching checked night set, they are pink. She places her slippers in my closet, “Place your clothes in my laundry basket, I’ll sneak them in the washing machine in a moment. Your shorts are in my clean clothes, near the morning I’ll place your school clothes and gym clothes together under my bed. Since your school shirt was left in the locker room I’ll give you one of my school shirts. Uh, sit on the bed with the medkit, I’m gonna sneak to the laundry room.”

She still carries her dirty clothes, “No. I’ll go with you. Aren’t friends suppose to stick together?” Before I can object, she slips the medkit out of her arms and place it on the bed. She looks back at me, waiting. I sigh and nod. Friends.

The laundry room is upstairs...we creep upstairs. Luckily, my parent’s door is shut, we quickly grab the powder and put the clothes in the machine. In case my parents check the machine, I blend the only dirty clothes on the floor with hers. She walks around the house a little bit as I stuff the clothes in the machine. The clean clothes are searched through to find the pink shorts, lets hope mom doesn’t notice. I walk out of the room and guide her back to my room. 

“I like your house, it’s fancy!”

I wouldn’t call it fancy, the wallpaper is aged, the toilet system is trash, the washing machine leaks water from the back...but now I feel like a princess compared to Toga. 

“Uh, yeah...kinda. Anyway, lets clean those cuts.”

She nods, we sit on the bed after I lock my bedroom door. Her cuts seems to come from tree branches and when she was thrown onto the ground, my hands ball up for a moment at that memory. I use my basic knowledge in caring for cuts, alcohol, cotton balls, and bandaids.

Toga held onto my hand as I applied the alcohol to each small cut, I couldn’t help but smile at her “Ack! Ow! Slow down!!”. It’s just funny to see a girl who almost stabbed someone to death cry over small cuts. She pouts, “You laughing at me?!”

My smile widens, “Well, hehe, it’s funny to see the badass in gym class cry over simple taps with alcohol.” 

She smiles widely, “It stings, but don’t be fooled! I’ll still stab someone for you.”

I add on, “Again.”

She rolls her eyes, “Tch, that was barely a cut! I didn’t stab him! My knife just happened to dig deeper into his cheek when I grazed him! Not my fault.”

She shrugs with a smile, a small smirk is on my face.

We fall in comfortable silence. Though, her loud smacking on a chocolate bar fills the silence a bit.

I cover her in cute bandages after proper care, designs of kittens, flowers, hearts, and short self care quotes are all over her face and arms. I pack up the materials and place them back in the bathroom. When I came back, Toga sets three candy wrappers on the bed stand near her. 

She spots me, “The rest is yours, I’m full. Do you have some water?”

I raise one of my eyebrows, she only ate three candy bars, how is she full? Plus, there’s one problem with that considerate action, there’s 25 candy bars left! How and why would I eat all of that chocolate?? I sigh and push the candy bars back to her. She stares at me with her eyebrows up.

“Do you not like chocolate?”

“I don’t like chocolate comas, this is too much! Take half, you deserve it, also, how did you get away with half of the store in your pants??”

Her shoulders goes up and down, she says, “What do you think the knife is for?”

My eyes widen, “You...what did you do?”

My body tenses up as she stares at me, “I robbed the store.”

There’s no emotion into that sentence...I mean those corner store workers have families too! That’s not right!

She gets up and explores my room, stopping by my dresser with a wooden chair near it. The dresser has a star shaped mirror, pallets of makeup, lipglosses, collections of rocks, and a music box. 

I was barely able to close my mouth...but why? It wasn’t necessary for her survival...how does she survive without parents?

“...Why? But, why Toga? You...you could have harmed someone for something so small! You did that for candy? Why?!”

Her hands are admiring my music box, the box has two kids that twirl when the handle is twisted. It’s wooden, except the kids, they are made from clay. One of the kids wear a dress with black slippers, the other has overalls with shorts. They twirl together. She pays me no mind.

I huff and walk over to her, grabbing the box out of hands, I set it back on the dresser. She follows the music box’s placement with her eyes. My hands trembles as I reach for her cheeks. The stare is back. My eyebrows creases, I push her cheeks together lightly and force her to focus on me completely. 

“Toga, why.”

Her eyes closes. I sigh while relasing her face, I walk towards the bed and sit while rubbing my forehead.

There’s silence for a while. Then, a voice asks something, “How do you work this thing?” I look up to see the music box in her hands, I respond by a tense stare. She gives me a small smile and turns to face the dresser, “That’s fine. I tend to figure things out by myself a lot. Play-sesame!” A chuckle escapes her. I watch her tinker with the box for a couple of minutes. I sigh and say, “You twist the handle, not pull or push.” She turns a bit with a smile, “Thank you!”

The room is filled with the soft melody and voice.

Though, all I can hear is “ouu!” and “cool!”.

Then, her hips starts to shimmer. We stare at each other, one of my eyebrows are up, with a frown. Her mouth tries to follow the lyrics, but fails. Her feet starts to move to the side while going foward towards me. The rhythm is not with her, but she still twist and twirls around the bed. Then I feel a hand lands on mines, grabbing it and dragging me to the middle of my room. Her hands takes both of mines and we ‘tango’. She kept stepping on my toes, in responds she got scolds from me. They all fell on deaf ears. The room looked like it was spinning and warping as we spun a couple of times.

“Toga, let my hands go! I’m tired and dizzy, plus, you still didn’t answer my question!”

“I like that melody, is that your voice?”

“Toga-”

“She sounds really pretty.”

“TOGA-”

“Ou, I knew it! Only pretty people can recognize other pretty people!”

Why is my cheeks burning? Did she...NOPE. SHE’S TRYING TO DISTRACT ME. I’m not falling for that! I want answers!

“TOGA-”

“You’re so cute-”

“SHUT UP-”

“AH! You look like a pretty tomato!-”

She dips me, I almost fall out of her grip until she settles her arms around my waist. HOW?! I’m like twice this girl’s size!

“The prettiest I have ever seen!”

“Ugh!-”

“How did you fit such a pretty voice into that box??”

“UGH. THAT ISN’T ME. THAT’S THE VOICE OF A OLD FRIEND!”

When I look at her face, a sick smile is forming on her face. 

Oh. No. She. Didn’t. 

She tricked me to get information!

“I bet she’s not as pretty as you though.” Her smile causes her eyes to squint. My eyes narrows as my face feels like the sun is near it! 

Before I can demand for her to answer my question and stop dancing, the grip on my waist gets tighter as my body is swung out of the room. She uses one of her hands to unlock and open the bedroom door from behind her.

“WHAT THE-”

We guide across the wooden floor in the hallway, though the music has been stopped our feet still remembered the soft melody.

My voice is lowed as I chastise her, “Toga.”

Her body keeps on dragging me out of the hallway, she stare at me with a smile. She grabs onto my hands and pushes away from me to come back and spin me.

“You need to-”

We are approaching the kitchen, my arms starts to ache, but I continue whispering.

“Ugh, I swear if you don’t let go I’ll-”

Her hands are now gripping my hands harder, 

“T. O. G. A. LET GO OF MY-”

One of her index fingers touches my lips, a small “Shh.” comes out of her mouth. When my lips opens slightly, 

“ACK-”

I am spun away from her, hitting one of the counters with my hips!

As I am rubbing one side of my hips, in my peripheral vision I see a light coming from something. Though, there is a shadow in the light. Turning my head a bit, the light was coming from the refrigerator, I see that blond hair...yup I made my decision, I am not having children in the future. Demon spawns.

A small “ahhhhh.” comes from her, I struggle to get near her, but before I could reach for her she turns around with a red liquid dipping from her mouth. I look down to her hands to see that nasty carton of tomato juice in her hands. This girl is drinking from the carton! 

“WHat thE?!?! Put that down! Where’s the cap?!”

She shrugs her shoulders and burps. I wave a hand in front of my face and reach for her ear.

“Ow! I was thirsty!...You want some??”

I take the carton of tomato juice out of her hands and yank her ear. 

“NO. I DON’T WANT SOME. BUT I’M GONNA GET SOMETHING IF YOU DON’T GET BACK IN MY ROOM! I’m already in trouble! Did you forget that!?!”

The sound of footsteps stops our movement...

We look at each other and dash to my bedroom!

I close the door quickly but quietly, then I push Toga into my closet, she nods and squish between my hanged clothes and shoe boxes in the corner. Closing the closet door I dash to my bed stand and push the knife under my bed. 

I grab for a book that was in my dresser, and lay on the bed. Now, the waiting game has begun. There’s still the sounds of creaks from the footsteps...

The room is completely silent, my breathing starts to get caught in my throat when that sound gets louder, the footsteps speed up.

My eyes close, I make sure the book is on my face, I keep on my lamp light to create the “oh I fell asleep reading” image. 

The footsteps aren’t there anymore...I exhale, Toga peeks out the door when two minutes pass. 

I give her the thumbs up and put my book on the bed stand near me. 

To be sure we stayed quiet for a couple more minutes. 

The coast is clear. 

I sigh, Toga flops onto my bed, she lays on her stomach and stares at the door.

“Darn it Toga! We could have got caught!! If you wanted something to drink we could have walked to the kitchen!!! Now, one of my parents can be up right now!...Wait, did we close the refrigerator?...Isn’t the carton still out??”

She scratches her head and swings her feet. “I don’t remember. Anyway, I’m bored, what can we-” 

“Anyway? Anyway?? We almost got in trouble! And you’re worried about fun?? What????-”

Words starts to fuse together as I rant to her, she listens and watches me. A few “mhm” and “I understand” comes from her. When I am done, I flop onto my pillow and close my eyes. 

I feel weight on my legs, looking down, Toga is laying across me with my music box in her hands. 

“...when did you get the music box?”

She looks from the box and smiles at me, “Minutes ago, I thought you were asleep already! I was getting bored...”

There’s silence 

“What the heck is on your face???”

I lift myself up and take her face into my hands. There’s black streaks near her eyes, some of the lines look smudged. Something shines on her face, on her cheeks, forehead, chin, and nose...I look over to my dresser.

“Seriously?!”

My lipgross is shining against the surface, and my eyeliner is mixing with the lipgloss. The eyeshadow was untouched.

I feel her cheeks go up, looking down at her, she gives me a toothy smile. 

“I wanted to look pretty, like you!”

Why?? Why does she keep on complimenting me?? 

“It’s back! That red shade! Why can’t you take the truth? You’re cute!”

“Ugh...lets go to my bathroom to get that off your face. Why did you put LIPgloss on your face anyway??”

“Oh...that’s what that was?? I thought it was a face shining thing. I like the shininess!”

“That’s highlighter!”

“Ohhhh...wait what?? Why would you put a highlighter on your face??”

Her eyebrows are up and she is scratching the side of her head. How does she not know what makeup is? She looks pretty girly to me. 

I sigh and hold onto her wrist, we walk to the bedroom door. 

Tap.

I stop and look back at Toga. She shrugs.

Tap. Tap.

The sound seems to come from the door...we stop and stare at the door.

Tap-tap-tap!

The door moves against the frame like someone is knocking on the door!

We give the final stares and go into positions. Toga dashes into the closet, I look around the room and put my stuff back where they were. The messed up makeup was stuffed into the dresser, the lipgloss codes my hands, I wince while wiping my hands on my pajama pants. 

I speed walk to the door. Exhaling, my hands reach for the door knob. ‘ACT NORMAL. ACT NORMAL.’

...

The door is swung open. There’s no one here.

...

When I was about to close the door, something seems to push it away.

I looking down, I see a black silky looking coat on a mini-paw? Their eyes are glossy and wide, a nice shade of green in their eyes dances in the moonlight, I stare at the shape of a white moustache...Raymond! Thank goodness. 

His smirking lips opens, “Meow?”

“MEOW?!” The sound of the closet door opening shakes the wall near it, the girl stumbles before reaching the bedroom door, she pushes me away from Raymond. I spin myself before hitting the wall near me, I reach my bed and stare at the back of her head while squinting my eyes.

“A cat?! Hello!- Oh- Uh- I meant, meow! What’s your name? Meow?”

“Meow!”

She gasps, “That’s a pretty name! Mine is Toga!”

I can see her hand reach for him, her arm shakes slightly. I move to the side to see what was happening, his black paw is encased in her small hands, they shake...hands?

She looks back at me with a wide smile, “You didn’t tell me you had a cat!”

My eyes roll, “Maybe because I have been through hel- stuff this whole night.”

“Ouu! Look she almost cursed! That’s unlady-like! Right?” She looks back at Raymond, I swear I seen his head go up and down slightly. 

She moves out of his way as he walks in the room with a sway in his hips. His tail is up and swings, his head is up, and his eyes are closed. Sigh. Now I have two divas in the room. 

He jumps on my bed and licks his paw while Toga runs around him, she spills words of praise to him. He would occasionally look at her, then turn his head with his eyes semi-closed and continue with his bathing session.

Her movement stops completely, I raise my eyebrow at her after locking the door.

“I just thought about something...we have three people in this room. Makeup. And snacks...you what that means?”

I am afraid to answer. Who knows what she has under her sleeves. I walk to the bed and sit by Raymond. 

“SLEEPOVER! This is my first sleepover! Ouuu, what should we do!? I say makeovers and munching on snacks! Oh! How about-”

“How about we SLEEP. It’s too late for all of this! And keep your voice down!”

Plus, I wouldn’t call this a sleepover, more like ‘trying to keep a person from dying on the streets’-over. 

She sends me a pout, her attention is on Raymond now, “Well, what do YOU say? Party! or Sleep?” She rolls her eyes at the last word, Raymond is now staring at her. 

I huff, “Darn it Toga, it’s the middle of the morning! We don’t have much to do anyway.”

Her attention is now on me and Raymond follows her stare. They both stare at me with blank stares. 

“Oh, come on Raymond, you know we should go to sleep, don’t stare at me like that.”

He stands up completely and stretches, I watch him walk over to Toga, Toga beams at the back of Raymond’s head. 

My eyes are blown out of proportions, no, he, didn’t! He knows what he is doing! Encouraging her behavior, t-ha, ‘cats are nice’ they say. I shake my head while saying, “...Traitor.”

He stares at me, he looks like he is smirking. I roll my eyes while rubbing my forehead.

She is basically jumping on my walls at this point...I just want to go to sleep.

His continues to taunt me...I should have got a dog. 

Toga chants, “Sleepover! Sleepooooovvvvver!!”

A chain of “mew” and  “meow meeeow” follows her chants. 

Raymond and Toga runs around the room, “Sleep-”, She double points at Raymond, “Meow!”

The room is now surrounded with the phrases, 

“Sleep-meow!”

“Meow-sleep!- wait-”

Raymond looks back at her while she jumps around with him, his brows goes down, he shakes his head at her. 

“Ugh! I messed it up again! Start over!”

“NO. DEAR THE HEAVENS, NO.”

They look at me with one eyebrow raised, “Just!...Sit down! Please! I can feel my nerves trying to escape from my ears! I’ll...I’ll think of something! Just give me time, please!”

They settle down a little bit, the bed bounces me up as they tumble onto the bed. All I can feel is my forehead heating up and my eyes drooping. What time is it anyway? It has to be 3:00, because if the heavens took my asks, they would be knocked out by now. 

As I look behind me, I see Raymond laying on Toga’s stomach...He never did that to me! A pout appears on my face. Toga looks at me with one eyebrow raised, “Well, what did you think of?”

Sleep. 

I sigh and search around the room. My eyes stops on the music box, then I shake my head. That music box puts me to sleep, but doesn’t do that for Toga, who knows if she has another dance routine in mind? What else puts me to sleep, but isn’t something that blows my mission. Mission: ‘put the damn demon asleep!’. I can see a light bulb flash above my head! THE MIGHTY HAIRBRUSH.

I rush to the dresser, my hands avoids the lipgloss, I grip onto the handle of the hairbrush, then look back at them as they watched me. 

“Hairbrush? Really? What are we gonna do with that??”

“Well...”

Come on! Think of a GOOD reason! My eyes falls onto her messy hair. Ah. Right, I forgot to put her hair up...

“-you did mention makeovers, so, you’re first! Maybe we could...”

DON’T SAY IT! DON’T-

“-put color in your hair?”

DARN IT.

She pops up and nods quickly. A small shriek escapes her, Raymond hops off her and spins in circles, they both cheer...my ears feels like it’s gonna fall off.

“OK. OK...sit on the bed. I’ll get the materials...”

Sigh. Why did I set myself for failure. I know this is gonna go wrong. The girl seems to cause trouble in every environment. 

A mini tray is in my hands as I walk into the bedroom. It’s blue with stars that I painted on when I was seven-years old. They are white and gold. Toga waits with her legs swinging and Raymond sitting in her lap. I walk over to her and set the materials on the bed stand near me. She hums while I comb and study her hair. Her hair seems to be gray from leftover dirt and dust. Everytime I wiggled strands of hair, the dust would almost choke me to death. 

“Eh. You wash your hair right?”

She looks up at me and nods.

“Yup, with water.”

I raise my eyebrow, “Just water??”

She nods slowly, “Isn’t that the right way of doing it??”

Me and Raymond look at each other. I sigh and leave the room again. This time a bottle of shampoo, bucket, and washrag was in my hands. She reaches for the shampoo and examines it. 

“Shampoo?...Oh! So, that was what I was missing?! It smells good!”

I nod and gently pops the rubber bands from her pegtails. These rubber bands are for art supplies, so they yank some of her hair. She flinches and looks up at me. I mumble an apology.

There is silence for a couple of minutes. When I am done with the rubber bands, the bucket is placed in her lap, Raymond hops off her and watches me while sitting near her. I push her down while applying the shampoo and washing it out by the water in the rag. She kept raising her head and waving her hands, I sigh and force her head back down. 

“ACK! It’s in my eyes!!”

“Maybe if you kept your eyes closed it wouldn’t be in them! Stop moving!”

Raymond would lick her arms to calm her down, it kind of worked. Though, water stained my carpet as she knocked over the bucket a couple of times while squirming. 

When that was done, she narrowed her eyes at me. 

I roll my eyes, “Oh stop it, it wasn’t that bad. Plus, I would have done this in the shower, if one of my parents weren’t possibly up right now! Take this as a lesson.”

A pair of eyes glares at me as I walk out the room to clean and put materials back. Before leaving the bathroom, I grabbed one unused towel and one dirty towel. 

When I walk back into the room, Toga was whipping strands of her hair gently into Raymond, he was jumping at her hair and paw-ing her hair. A small smile was on her face. I walked over to them and adjusted her head to look up at me. She releases her hair while I dried her hair with gentle circular motions with the clean towel. The dirty towel was placed under our feet. Lets hope mom doesn’t pop into my room in the morning to see this towel and Toga...

She smelled strands of her hair, “What is this smell?” 

I respond while reaching for the hairbrush, “Cinnamon. You ever had any snacks with cinnamon in it? Like Cinnamon Toast Crunch?”

“That’s cereal right?”

A ‘mhm’ leaves my lips as I brush the back of her head. She nods slowly, “When I was younger, yeah.”

I twist the hairbrush a little bit when it reached the ends of her hair, “Hm. How old are you?”

She looks up at me with her eyebrows raised, “Uhhh, 13...”

The hairbrush stops, “You sure?”

She nods slowly. 

The room is now silent.

Raymond sits in her lap as she scratches his head gently. My hands continues to slowly guides the hairbrush. The room starts to disappear, my thoughts are getting loud.

Does she celebrate birthdays? How?

...Does she eat cake? How and where does she get the cake?

How does she continue to live without proper care? Stealing can only get you far...

Did she ever get caught stealing before? What happened if she did?

...What is it like to be...abandoned.

A small hand is on my wrist that carried the hairbrush. The room starts to reappear, Raymond and Toga looks up at me with one eyebrow up. 

“Why did you stop? That felt good! Please brush here again.”

Her hand guides me to the center of her head, the hairbrush brushes through the hair in circular motions.

“Sorry.”

I continue the motion without her assistance. 

She breaks the silence again, “Are you okay?”

One of my eyebrows are raised as I glance at her. I respond with a nod. 

Raymond hisses with no true malicious reason behind it. He usually did that to show disapproval in what I said or did.

I break eye contact with Raymond and distract myself with styling her hair. 

Toga looks down at Raymond with a wince, “What’s wrong buddy? You okay??”

He nods slightly and licks her cheek. After that his stare starts to make a hole on the side of my head. I shallow my spit and continue ignoring him.

That same small hand stops me. The hairbrush is pulled out of my hand and placed on the bed stand. I look at them with one eyebrow raised. They return a look at me. Raymond shakes his head at me while Toga looks between the both of us. 

“Are YOU sure?”

“Yes. Now, what style do you want? Ponytail? Buns?”

“Braids!”

“Oh. Ok, what kind?”

“Any??”

“...Ok.”

Since her hair was silky and extremely straight, I got through two medium-sized braids that was placed on one side of her head. Now, two more on the other side would complete the look. Then, hopefully she’ll forget about the coloring hair idea. Seriously. Why would I propose that??

Raymond still stares at me, but now he laying down on his paws, he looks like a loaf of bread...with thick angry eyebrows. Sigh. Sometimes I wish he couldn’t read my mind. 

I sigh and open my mouth slightly, but another voice beats me to talking. 

“What are your birthdays like?”

My hands stop mid-braiding, her eyes are back on me as she waits for my response, “...kinda, um, hm. I can’t describe it.”

“How come?”

I shrug and stare at her hair instead of her. 

“Do you like your birthdays?”

Raymond hops out of her lap. He struts to me and rubs his head against my thigh. 

A small sigh ecsapes my lips. Kinda. Just kinda. My family is supportive of me, but sometimes...all I want is a friend near me as well. No matter how much I wish for one it doesn’t come true.

I feel my chest getting heavy, my hands starts to shake, and my vision is getting blurry. 

All I can whisper is, “Kinda.”

She glances at my eyes for a bit. Before I knew it her arms are around my stomach, firmly. The messy makeup is smuging as she moves her face against my shirt. 

“Tell me what’s wrong, please.”

I breathe in and out before speaking, “Just...my birthdays are fine. I have family behind me during those days...not every child has the opportunity to experience that.”

My eyes fall on her as she stare up at me. 

I continue as my voice cracks a bit, “So, I shouldn’t complain. My life could be worst.”

There is silence for a bit. 

That high-pitched voice responds, “That’s stupid.”

I jump a bit with one eyebrow raised. 

She shakes her head with a straight face, “That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard!”

A small smile appears on her face, “And that’s a lot coming from me!”

The smile dims down a bit as she continues, “I don’t need you to pity me. Also, don’t compare my situation to yours! That’s not fair. We all have problems! What good does it do to ignore yours?”

A sound comes from Raymond as he nods and stares at the two of us, “Meow!”

The hug around me gets tighter, Raymond joins by attempting to use his tail.

One last thing comes from her, “We are human you know. It’s ok to cry!”

My lips forms a curved downwards line. 

My vision is even more cloudy. 

My lips quiver, I manage to whisper, “Thank you...”

She releases me to stand in front of me and give me a proper hug. It’s loose...and extremely warm. My arms dangle beside me, Raymond licks the hand near him. 

After I blinked, I was sitting on the bed with Toga beside me with the hairbrush.

She gently pulled strands of hair out of my bun and brushed the strands. 

I sniff out a sentence, “What are you doi-ng?”

She smiles a bit, “Hm, you sound funny!”

“Shut up.” A smile starts to form on my face. Raymond jumps into my lap. I brush his cheeks with my nails. 

She responds with her eyes squinted and a small pout, as she focuses on the strand of hair that fights back against the brushing. I can’t help but chuckle softly. “Sooo...are you going to tell me the truth? What’s wrong?”

I look down at Raymond as he looks at me with a small ‘smile’. 

...No. This is all I needed, for today. A good cry. 

Thank you, my special stalker. 

I shake my head. Raymond nods slightly and closes his eyes while taking in the rubs. 

“But, I do have to tell you something else...”

She raises her eyebrows and leans a bit closer to me, “Well, come on, tell me!”

A smirk is on my face, “You smell like tomato juice. I hate tomato juice.”

She gasp and leans back. The hairbrush is against her chest and her other hand in against her forehead. Raymond ‘snorts’ and I giggle, genuinely. 

A small hand pushes my shoulder softly, “Meanie! Plus, tomato juice is good!”

My eyes roll playfully, “How? It taste like dirt.”

She smirks, “How do you know what dirt taste like?!”

My smirk gets wider, “Maybe because my head was practically in the dirt yesterday.”

Her smile drops as she rubs her neck, “Ohhh...right...”

I reach her shoulder and giggle, “Seriously...what we did was stupid, but, I don’t put that all on you. WE kicked some ass back there!”

She giggled and teased me, “Ohhh! Look at that! The goody-two-shoes cursed!”

Her finger flicks my nose a couple of times, Raymond lays on the bed and watches us poke and taunt each other. We both end up on the bed, panting softly. Raymond lays in between the both of us, his tail kept hitting Toga’s face. 

My smile slowly fades as my serious tone comes back, “Ok, ok. Back on the subject. Toga, I have had a friend before, but, they had to leave. It’s been years without them. So...I’m not use to...this. You know. Someone that isn’t apart of my family, willing to listen to me. It’s new...just give me time. One day I’ll be able to tell you everything, just not now...it’s hard to find people like you.”

She stares at me and nods. 

We both stare at the ceiling for a moment. Until, Toga sits up and stares at the mini-tray filled with coloring materials. She looks back at me with a smile. I roll my eyes and smirk, “I was hoping you would forget about that.”

She shakes her head and pouts, poorly hiding a smile. 

I sigh and sit up with her. We go through each color. Blue was something that reflected well on my hair, but not for Toga. We looked like clowns, with colorful streaks in our hair. She kept pulling strands out of my bun to put new colors into my hair, I used the un-done strands of hair for her. Raymond would occasionally push off the colored ‘crayons’ onto the floor. The carpet was almost representing the LGBT+ flag.

There is comfortable silence. Until a question popped into my mind.

“Toga, why do you like tomato juice? It’s disgusting.”

She continues to put purple streaks into my hair, “It reminds me of blood...I know, weird.”

I shrug, “Not really. Blood is cool, it keeps us living.”

Plus I can’t judge. I play and talk to rocks...not the average thing a kid my age does. 

She sighs a bit, “...yeah.”

I hold onto her shoulder softly and stare into her eyes, “Look, we all have weird interest! I like talking to my rocks. I even give them names.”

She smiles slightly, “Weirdo.”

I smirk, “Hush!”

Her smile gets wider before I continue talking, “When I’m around rocks I get a strange feeling. Like someone is hugging me, it’s a fuzzy feeling. Rocks don’t judge you, you know. So, maybe you have a special connection to blood. There’s so many jobs out there for people like you! Think about so many lives being saved from your interest! You can do good things with that connection.”

She looks down at her feet with a small smile, I grip a little harder. 

“You would be the best doctor! Scientist? Blood donor? Organ donor? The possiblities is nearly endless. Plus, you would look pretty cool in a lab coat! Just don’t kill me if I appear in your hospital.”

Her teeth are showing, she pulls me into a tight hug. She whispers, “Maybe. Thank you. I haven’t heard that before...”

I return the tight squeeze. When we release each other, her hands hold onto the red crayon. Her fingertips are covered in red marks. I raise one eyebrow as she grabs onto leftover strands of her hair and my hair. She attempts to braid them together, it’s sloppy work so I help her. 

Once our hair was entwined together, she drowns each strand with red. I watch her as she concentrates on each strand. Raymond squeezes between us and play with the ends of our hair. His claws would occasionally get struck, ending up with us squawking and hissing. 

The deed was done, but I still had one eyebrow raised. 

Our heads are almost together, she looks at me with a smile, “To friendship!”

Her feet gently stumps against the carpet and towel. Her hands are balled into fist, it hits her knees everytime her feet hits the carpet. She stares at me with big eyes and a wide smile, continuing to chant, “Tooooo friendssship!”

I can feel my feet starting to copy her stumping. Her hands started to clap lightly and a small sway is followed behind each clap. My eyebrows go up as my body starts to copy her movements. Raymond joined in by creating circles on the bed and joining in her chants. He would jump sometimes and hit my cheek with his paws, the nails were hidden of course.

She smiled at Raymond as they continue to chant, but I didn’t join in, I watched them have fun. Toga looked at me with raised eyebrows, “Well, what ‘cha doing? Join us! This is a chant for friendship!” I nod with a small smile, “I know, it’s...nice. But. Just. Hm...” My movement stops. Since Toga was still moving, I could feel strands of my hair being pulled. I wince. Raymond sits by me and rubbed his head against my arm. Toga stopped moving and stared at me. Her smile fades. 

“Sorry! Got a bit too happy.” 

“I can tell. ” I rub the spot that was pulled. She rubs the same spot. 

“So....now that we are friennnndddsss, we should really make it official! Like-”

A yawn escapes her lips, she covers it. A little smile is on my face. Sigh. Finally.

I smirk while patting her head, “-like going to sleep! Seriously, I’m certain it’s 5:00 now, we should set up for bed. Not set up more activites.”

She pours and tries to look away from me, but our hair pulls me with her, “I’m not tired yet! Raymonds not tired either! Look!”

We look down in between us to find a yawning cat. He looks up at us and shakes his head at Toga. After that he settled in between us and closed his eyes while shaped like loaf. She sighs and raises her hand in defeat, “Fine! Fine!...I’m tired.”

I respond with a ‘mhm’. She rolls her eyes and stretches her limbs. I stop her from trying to lay down, “Let me take that off your face first, I don’t want you breaking out.” 

“Ohhh, right, I forgot I had this MASTERPIECE on my face.”

I smile widely, “Mm, last time I checked, dollar tree styles don’t make it on the red carpet.”

She gasps while I giggle, “Ok, ok, stay right here for a minute. I’ll get makeup remover.”

She pouts and crosses her arms. Right when I get up, she gets up as well. I raise one eyebrow at her. She looks at the hair between us. Oh...right. 

“Forgot about that. Help me unbraid this.”

She nods and we get to work. 

But, one minute turned into five. 

Then ten...

We stop and rub our hands. The pain in my hands starts to affect my fingertips. They are extremely soft and wrinly. She sighs and looks at me, “Uh. We aren’t making any progress.” 

I sigh, “I can see that...”

She puts her hands on her hips, “Well, what’s the plan now??”

I yawn and shrug, “Honestly...I don’t know. I’m tired as well. Though, I do know something, we aren’t going to the bathroom now. We can’t risk you getting caught, especially with all the noise we’ve been making.”

She nods slowly, “Maybe you have something in the room??”

I shake my head, “I don’t believe I do, at least not for removing makeup or untangling hair.”

She sighs and yawns, “Well....can we sleep now?? I’m sleeeppppyyyy.”

My hand rubs my eyes, my legs are starting to give out, “How are we going to sleep? Our hair is tangled and your makeup will rub onto my pillow cases!”

She shrugs and walks to the bed. I pull back. 

“Toga...we need to find a solution.”

Her eyes roll, “Not now please! We’ll find something to do in the morning...”

“But my parents-”

“Pleeeassssseeee?!?!”

My eyes shut, my arms are getting lower as the seconds pass, and my legs gave up when she collasped onto the bed. Raymond moves slowly to the end of the bed and rest. Our faces are in the bed. We drag ourselves onto the bed completely, she places her head onto my pillow. I take the pillow near her. We face each other. Our hair is begging for us to get closer. She sighs and clings onto me. Her arms hug me, it’s warm, but I feel a little too warm. Her breathing is slowing down, but my eyes keeps staring at that messed up face on my pillowcase. Sigh. My parents are definitely gonna kill me. 

I watch her mouth out, “...I thought of something...I never asked for your name. What is it??”

Her eyes are still closed, but I still stare there, “...call me Syria.”

Her lips goes up, “Pretty name...for a pretty person!”

I roll my eyes while she smiles widely. 

There’s silence for a couple of minutes.

My eyes are closed, but I see complete darkness, even when the lamp is on. The room is filled with quiet breathing. Her hold on me gets tighter, but it isn’t the worst feeling. It feels like a bear hug. My body is going numb. 

My thoughts are getting quieter.

Before I can fade into complete slumber, I hear a whisper.

“Syria?”

I feel a finger poke my cheek, but my mouth is completely shut. 

“...I have something to say. Even if you’re asleep right now.”

I still can’t respond, but I listen.

“Everyday is the same routine. I steal snacks for my dinner and breakfast. Taking clothes from stores as well. Do I use the knife? Yes. Why? I don’t have a choice. I have to provide for myself...”

My ears peck up a bit, as she exhales.

“...I’m not sure about my future. My school grades are bad. I have no parents. What is there for me? Nothing. But, it’s nice to not be alone.”

I hear a smile as she continues.

“I cause a lot of trouble for people...I don’t blame them for leaving. But, I came to the conclusion that I don’t care for them. I hate them.”

Her smile seems to get wider as some words slur.

“...but, because of their failure to take care of me, I met you...therefore I ask you for one more thing, don’t leave, please. Today was nice, even if this ends in the morning, you will always be someone I care for. A friend. A friend that deserve more than snacks. One day I’ll be able to steal something more valuable for you. You asked why earlier. The answer is simple, for you. Even if me using a knife to get snacks seems dumb to you, I’ll keep doing, if it was for you.”

I can feel her poking my face gently. My mouth seems to loosen up, before she could continue talking I whisper.

“...Toga. You don’t have to continue stealing and possibly harming someone in the future. A little hope can go a long way...you, no, WE, can improve as people. Just have a little hope...”

Her voice gets strained.

“...together?”

I can feel her pinky hooking onto mine’s.

“...I’m sure I don’t really have a choice now.”

A small giggle is heard. 

“At least you know.”

I sigh and smile. My pinky squeezes her’s back. 

The final thing that comes from the room is one more sentence.

“Thank you for being a friend.”

A smile seems to be printed onto my face. My consciousness is slipping. 

But, one more thought is presented into my mind.

‘Hm...who knew? Dreams could come true...’

The room is gone and my dream state is on. 

*         -            *            -          *

         My body is loose. My eyes squint while the sunlight hits my face. While grunting, I stretch my limbs. When my feet hits the end of the bedboard I look down at my feet. Empty. 

         I look to the side of me. Empty. My body shiver as we slept on top of the covers instead. I fight my shivers and sit up. My feet hits the wet towel, beside the colorful carpet. I sigh and reposition the towel to cover that area. I look to the bed stand that still had the mini-tray on it. 

         I stand up and creep to the door, it was kinda open...

I look out of the door, the hallway is clear and quiet. I walk into the hallway and lean onto the wall that allowed people to enter the living room/kitchen. The smell of bacon, pancakes, and eggs fills my senses. My stomach grumbles violently. When I was about to walk into the living room, the sound of a pan falling causes me to go back into sneaking. 

         A smooth voice sighs. Then, the sound of a door opening catches my attention. Looking into the kitchen, I see a white door open, the wall is covering the stove area. So, the person coming out of the bathroom wouldn’t be seen by mom, she was cooking breakfast and texting. You’ll only see the person if you were in my position...

         That was a REALLY GOOD thing! Because when I seen that messy and blond hair...my jaw dropped. 

I wave my hands in the air, rapidly. Trying to get the attention of the airhead! She doesn’t look my way, with every step forward, my heart drops. I’m gripping my hair and the wall. 

She has entered the arch.

The kitchen.

The area that is going to be the death of me!

Oh no!

Oh dear! 

My breathing is speeding up, I feel like I just ran...

I hold onto my stomach, I can feel the bile climbling up my esophagus...

Toga walks to the countertops in the middle of the kitchen, apples and pears are in a bowl in the middle of the countertops. Since those countertops form a table, they had chairs. She sat in one.

IDIOT. IDIOT. IDIOT.

The only thing that gives me hope, is the lack of my mom turning around. She faces the stove. Putting down her phone beside the stove....

There is silence. 

Then, my mom vocalizes something, her voice is a bit relaxed, I can see her face from the side, she has a pout and downward eyebrows. 

“Good morning. Syria, did you wash your hands?”

I stare at Toga with wide eyes. She still doesn’t see me. ‘TOGA. PLEASE. FIND. A. WAY. TO. RESPOND.’ is all that is rushing through my mind.

A small “mhm....” leaves her mouth...NO TOGA! IT’S “YES MA’AM”! 

I can see one of my mom’s eyebrows go up. Her hands still pays attention to the eggs in the skillet pan....

“Hmm, you must feel funny today. Maybe because you left tomato juice sitting out! Syria, seriously, why were you drinking something out of the container?? Especially something you despise??”

She sighs and continue to scramble the eggs...

I feel like my heart is going into overdrive. PLEASE TOGA, LOOK OVER HERE!

“Well, remember your job today, wash the dishes after this breakfast. Then, hopefully your mood would improve after eating, a better mood increases any activity darling. I use that knowledge for handling your father.”

A small smile is on her face. My grip on my stomach loosens up a LITTLE bit.

Toga stares at the back of mom’s head...she smiles a bit.

“Oh, I forgot! Toast is over there, use that to help distract yourself while I complete these eggs.”

She points to the dining table, it has at least 5 pieces of toast on a plate. Luckily she didn’t turn around completely! 

Toga gets out of the chair....

I see Raymond running into the kitchen, he runs up to Toga. She picks him up and grabs a piece of toast...the buttery one. MY piece of toast. I feel a pout on my face, while my stomach grunts in disapproval as well. I grip my stomach and hush myself.

Toga stands by the plate and eats the toast slowly. Her face lights up when she shallows MY...sigh, the piece of toast. Raymond looks up at her with those eyes. The gulit tripping eyes. REFUSE TOGA, REFUSE!

She pouts while chewing slower. 

No.

FIGHT BACK.

REFUSE!

...

A piece of toast was now in his mouth. TOGA. WHYYYY??????!

Mom is reaching for a plate...the eggs are almost done.

The toast hangs from his mouth, he tries to munch on it, but the action is aggressive. She munches on one side of the toast, he attached to the other side. They fight for the bread, but there can only be ONE winner. Raymond. Of course. He yanks it away from her. But, there’s a problem.

She. Screeched.

Time slows down.

Mom’s head slowly turns to her direction.

My breathing has stopped...

and a plate has dropped.

             •                 •                 •

The screaming....has not stopped.

“WHO AND WHERE IS YOUR PARENTS??!? WHOOO???-”

“I-HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!?!?- DREEEEWWWWWW!!!”

She is leaning into the stove, her hands are on the handle of the oven. Her eyes are blown out of proportion. She’s not the only one. My eyes are about to roll out of my eye sockets...

I hear heavy footsteps rushing down the stairs, his movement has caused my strains of hair to blow into my face. He rushes into the kitchen with a tie loosely on. He stands near mom, following her eyes, he spots the blonde with Raymond...and the toast hanging out of his mouth. Speaking of mouths, mine is on the floor. 

Dad raises one eyebrow and stares at mom, “Damnit, I knew we should have used a condom!”

She turns to dad with a gasp and pure disgust.

T-ha. Just when I thought the bile was coming up, it was ready to come out! 

Dad smirks and works up mom more, “Hmmm, that child don’t look like me though??? We need Maury??”

Her hands reaches her hips, balled in fists. She uses one hand to SMACK dad on the back of his head!

She raises her voice, as dad puts one finger in the ear near her, “DO THIS LOOK LIKE COMEDY CENTRAL TO YOU?!??! THERE’S A RANDOM CHILD IN THE KITCHEN, FOOL!”

He rubs the back of his head and nod, silently saying sorry.

She turns her attention back to Toga.

“Are you lost?! Are you hurt?! WHY DO YOU HAVE A BALD SPOT IN YOUR HEAD? Where do you come from?! How does Raymond know you?!?!”

My head is pounding...then I feel a strange cool sensation on the top of my head. I search around my head to locate the feeling, I found a spot...there is no hair there...WHAT. THE. FUCK. This was the spot...I look straight to Toga’s bald spot.........SHE RIPPED US APART........SHE.....I need the wall for complete support now. 

Toga stare blankly at mom, her eyes are sparkling?....

Her mouth opens, “Wow...now I know where Syria gets her beauty from!”

Mom drops her face, she rubs her chin, “Did...did you say...”

Mom and dad looks at each other with one eyebrow raised....

•                 •                 • 

“SYRIAAAAAAAA-”

sigh....

GODDAMNIT TOGA!

[trvelyans-archive]

a commission for @sexysideoftheforce of his lone wanderer sarah and butch deloria <3 thanks for commissioning me andy, i love you so much !!! i hope i did right by your gal :)

---

The hot, heavy sun beats down on them. It cooks them in their travelling gear as Butch follows Sarah down a narrow pathway between two huge boulders he swears are going to fall on them any minute, and he frowns as he glances up at them uneasily, wiping his forehead on the back of his hand and then wiping the back of his hand off on his dusty pants. She said they weren’t too far away from Megaton, whatever the fuck that is, and once they get there they can take a break at her house (which Butch didn’t know she had until she mentioned it), but they’ve been walking for hours without a break and Butch needs a drink.

He leans against the rock and pulls his flask from his pocket, tipping his head back and taking as long of a swig as he can until he chokes.

Eventually Sarah realizes he stopped and turns around, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the light. “Hey, we need to get a move on, DeLoria,” she says. She doesn’t say it soft but she doesn’t say it rough, either, and that’s the only reason he actually listens. Normally he wouldn’t – if she bitches, he bitches back, and he feels like that’s only fair, but right now they’re both wiped and he just wants to find some place to sleep that isn’t covered in mutated animal shit.

“Fine,” he says, pulling away from the rock and stowing his flask away again. “You better keep your promise about a nice home-cooked meal, by the way.”

She frowns at him as he lumbers down the path to join her again. “I don’t remember making any kind of promise like that,” she says pointedly as he brushes past her and continues down the path.

“What happened to getting a move on?” Butch calls to her over his shoulder, trying to disguise his disappointment. “We can argue over dinner if you want to, gal, but we actually need to make it alive to that dinner first.” Hopefully she’ll be tired enough by the time they get there that he can just trick her into making it for him. She’s not gonna be very good at it, he thinks, since she can barely cook a can of beans over a fire without burnin’ them, but he’s sure he’d end up blowing something up if he tried and then she’d shoot him through the skull like she does to all those raiders. Otherwise, he would.

Maybe. If he felt like it.

Sarah says nothing more to him. Instead she follows him down the path for a minute or two until he very nearly trips over a rock and then, once he recovers and straightens himself out, they both realize he has no idea where he’s going, and she pushes in front of him with a huff to take the lead again. Butch rolls his eyes as he adjusts his grip on his gun, the one she gave him after she was finished with it.

She was right – it’s a piece of shit. It’s the only thing he’s got, though. God knows she isn’t gonna give him anything better.

Well, he has two things, actually, he thinks after a little while. He may not love Sarah, but she’s what he has left of the Vault, and she’s taken care of more than a few bloatflies and radroaches for him over the few weeks they’ve been together. So, it could be worse. Not much, but it could be worse.

To be honest, he doesn’t know why she invited him along with her, especially when he was practically black-out drunk when she found him in that run-down bar in Rivet City. They barely get along now and they got along even worse back home, and they beat the shit out of each other a couple times when they were kids, and she seems like the kinda person who wouldn’t look past that stuff so easily and would probably hold a grudge strong enough to kill a guy just by starin’ at him, but still, here they are, and it surprises Butch every day that she doesn’t throw him into a river and let him drown.

Now that he thinks about it, he probably shouldn’t push her about making that dinner…

Still, he catches up to Sarah, who’s fiddling with her own gun and staring off into the distance to where Megaton probably is, at least he hopes so because his stomach his grumbling and he thinks that the soles of his feet might be bleeding in his boots, and then clears his throat to get her attention. “So,” he says. “I wanted to ask you somethin’. Or… say somethin’, I guess.”

She nods in reply, and he clears his throat.

“I know… Okay, look.” He reaches for her arm and pulls her to a stop. “I just wanted to say sorry.”

Sarah raises an eyebrow, shifting her weight from one foot to another. “Ok-aaay,” she says uncertainly. “Is… uh… that’s everything?”

Butch furrows his eyebrows. “Uh… I guess?” He cocks his head at her. “You’re not gonna except my apology? I-it takes a big man to apologize about his… uh… wrongdoings, you know, so I think you should… I don’t know… be a little nicer to me about it. Maybe.”

“What are you apologizing about?” Sarah asks. “Do you even know?”

Butch stares at her blankly. “… Everything?”

“You know what I want an apology for, Butch?” She steps towards him threateningly, her eyes narrowed. “I want an apology for you making my life as shitty as you could when we were kids. My mom was dead, and my dad was super busy all of the time, and you made me feel like I had no fucking friends! So…” She breathes in deep as if she can’t believe she just said all of that and her voice comes back a little quieter. “Maybe I’d like an apology for that instead of your general... I dunno... headassery.”

He rolls his eyes and gives her a scoff, crossing his arms over his chest. “So what?” he says defensively. “You want me to apologize for being a dickhead kid? We were all dickhead kids! You kicked the shit out of me sometimes too, you know!”

“Yeah, only because you started it!” She jabs her finger into the centre of his chest, and it hurts a little, and he pretends like he doesn’t wince.

“Only because you were a little –“ He stops himself. “Asshole!”

“You were an asshole first!” Sarah protests. “You tried to steal a sweetroll from me at my 10th birthday party, Butch, do you remember that?”

He doesn’t. “You probably deserved it.”

“No, I didn’t!” She shakes her head, laughing. “I was 10, and you were 10, and we could’ve been friends because I really wanted to be, but…”

“You had friends,” he points out as if he’s one-upping her, because she’s pointing out all of his flaws right now and he really didn’t expect that, especially because he’s hard enough on himself as it is that he doesn’t need her chiming in and giving her opinion. “Well… A friend.”

“Yeah, and you picked on her every chance you got, Butch!”

He bristles. “She deserved it!”

She didn’t. She was a kid. They were all just kids. But he’s trying to get by and he can’t have her dragging up the past like that.

And Sarah is fuming so hard that Butch expects her explode like a nuke so instinctively he takes a few steps back only for her to follow. “No, she didn’t!” she says. “And after I left, she took care of you and everyone else in that Vault anyway, even though none of them really deserved it. You didn’t, either.”

“Don’t say that about me,” he says, reaching up and knocking her hand away before getting up in her face like she had to him a few seconds earlier. “Don’t say that about me, Sarah, okay? I work my ass off out here to make sure you don’t get killed by all these bullshit monsters, okay? The least you could show me is a little goddamn respect!”

“Respect?” she says. “You think you deserve that?”

“Is that why you hate me?” he asks, sneering. “Because I picked on your little…” His bravado is fading quickly, but he’s not gonna back out of this argument for anythin’. “’Cuz I picked on your little girlfriend? That’s why you hate me, huh?”

She punches him before he can think of anything else to say.

He staggers back and loses his balance as he reaches out for the rock to steady himself, and then he falls onto the ground sideways, the rocks scraping up his other cheek and his arm as he collapses onto his side. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he lets out the most childish, pathetic string of noises in the world before he can help himself and after he realizes that he did, he’d rather lie here and rot than get up and face her, especially because she’s probably right. No, she’s definitely right.

Pretty much the worse way to end a fight, he thinks. He’s going to be embarrassed about this whole thing for days.

Then, he realizes, something is blocking the sun from view, and when he cracks an eye open, he can see Sarah bending down with a hand outstretched, looking more sad than angry like he expected.

“Come on,” she says quietly. “We’re almost there.”

It’s night by the time they trudge into Megaton, though which is a dump exactly like Sarah described it, but from where he stands beside her he can see her shoulders relax (though she’d probably never admit it). He barely has time to take it all in before she’s heading towards some beaten-up two story building around the edge of town, fishing in her pocket for something, and he hurries to follow her, rubbing his scratched-up cheek because shit, it really stings.

When they pass through the door, she swings her bag off and throws it on the ground; her jacket follows soon after. Butch uncertainly tugs his own jacket off and stores it in a nearby locker, stowing his gun in there as well because he doesn’t wanna accidentally shoot something.

He finishes unloading his stuff, and as he turns around, Sarah clears her throat, arms crossed over her chest.

“You don’t look too good,” she says.

“Yeah, didn’t think I did,” he replies, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pants.

There’s a long, awkward pause, and then Sarah jerks her head towards the stairs. “Go sit in the spare room,” she tells him, “and I’ll be up in a minute to deal with you.”

For some reason, he’s scared that ‘deal with you’ means ‘shoot you between the eyes and throw your body out the window’, but he goes, anyway.

Lots of fucked up things are happening today, it seems.

He should’ve known he had nothing to be afraid of, though, because after he makes himself comfortable on a shitty well-worn couch in a spare room, Sarah just comes up to meet him carrying a small cloth filled with ice and a bottle of somethin’ to clean the cuts on his face.

“Take this,” she instructs, handing the ice out to him. He does, because he’s not going to challenge her now that they’re in her house and she could poison whatever food she decides to make (or not make) for him. “Now sit back.”

He leans back against the couch and she sits down next to him, pulling a second cloth from her pocket.

“I’m sorry,” she says evenly as she wets it with liquid from the bottle. “I shouldn’t have… uh… punched you.”

“You think?” Butch says, but he’s smiling a little.

“You deserved it,” she retorts, but she’s beginning to smile, too. “Well, maybe you didn’t. But I am sorry.”

“I am, too.”

It catches her off-guard, and he feels proud for it. Good. He wanted it to surprise her.

“You were right,” he murmurs. “Everything you were saying, you were right. I shouldn’t’a picked on you guys, Amata especially. She was… She’s a good gal. You are too.”

Sarah’s eyes flicker towards him, and Butch takes a deep breath.

“My mom was just… not the greatest.” He laughs but doesn’t mean it. “And I couldn’t… I dunno… Give any of it back, yenno? And I loved her, and I’d never want to. So… you got the most of that, I guess.”

She nods in understanding. “I knew that, I think, actually,” she says. “Consider it water under the bridge.”

“I was gonna anyway, but thanks for your permission.”

Sarah chuckles, wiping his arm clean as he ices his cheek.

“Friends?” he asks, holding his free hand out to her.

The cloth is unexpectedly soft in his palm as she shakes it. “Friends,” she agrees, and Butch can’t help but give her a grin.

[seb-owns-these-tatas]

“Winter’s Gem” (Sneakpeak) (Bucky Barnes AU SERIES)

Summary: Bucky Barnes has been scouted by your boss in Felicity Night, you were just a mere young, cleaner in Felicity night and have been living in the basement of the club for all your life. He's the most wanted Gigolo in the city, and taking him away from eager, thirsty women seemed to be impossible especially if he chose to be a Gigolo as his way of living.

Warning: There are NSFW parts in this AU, Kinda angsty, Parent to child type of physical abuse, 10-15 years of age gap but not entirely the type of age gaps that can be considered creepy, kinda slow burn. As of the moment, this chapter has curse words and mentions of sex.

Words: 2,681

A/N: This plot wasn't really exactly for Bucky to be honest. This has been in my drafts in Wattpad and I decided to just make it a Bucky Barnes AU instead. Let me know what y'all think, Tater tots! THIS IS A SERIES.

Disclaimer: PNG's used in edits aren't mine. Only the edits and the entire AU of course. 😊

Dedicated to: @anxiousamandapanda​ - Yo, buddy! I dedicate this to ya’ because you have been my first friend in here! Love ya! 

It was evening where the sun finally sets whereas criminality most likely happens every time it reaches dawn. In a positive addition to that was the beautiful time of the day where sexy, ripped men began swaying their glorious and perfectly built topless, sweaty and greasy bodies accompanied with the slow music echoing around the area that comes with their performance.

Groups of aging women were sitting at a wooden round table, eyeing different gorgeous races of strippers like they were their preys while throwing a bunch of cash on stage. They were having at least some fun before their adulterated single-nights end. Their spouses were probably sleeping like a dead man at home or maybe even doing the same thing behind their backs.

The scene where older, depressed, needy, hungry ladies..and even men who were women at heart were pinning their dollars down on a man's underwear. It looked excruciating to some person who isn't used to seeing that. Hungry women were even using their paper bills as a towel, wiping their bills off the stripper's rock hard muscles before slipping it in the waistbands of their underwear. You've been immune to cringing, Not because the stripper named Drax was teasing the ladies that he was about to take his black underwear off, accompanied with his gray waterproof body paint sticking on his skin. The scene in front of you was normal in your daily life and you were totally used to it. You were used to Drax's set anyways.

The sexy bald headed Drax appeared to be enticing a 40 year old dark haired woman who slipped stacks of bills on his waistband. He gave her a slow body wave, taking her hand as he gave her the permission to touch, directing her hand on his very prominent pectorals before gradually sliding them down.

Woman with a dark hair couldn't control the felicity she felt, her facial features telling her group of friends how she was lucky enough to get a touch of his sweaty torso...Once her hand was close to his lower abdomen, Drax still holding on to his indescribable, cold features..He quickly backed away from the woman and continued stripping his way towards the pole.

Every woman squealed when Drax took his underwear off. You thought it would only be a tease, turns out he went all the way tonight.

You sighed, ignoring the women disrespectfully walking from where you were just mopping, you continued cleaning the tiled floor. Dipped your mop in the dirty yellow bucket of floating germs. Everybody's footwear were squeaking as they passed by your wet floor that hasn't been dried up yet. These women don't bother reading the warning sign that was blocking their way and you tutted to yourself before you continued to work.

"Oi! You dirty scum! Mop this barf, Will ya'?!" A middle aged woman wearing a displeasing floral and sparkly dress pointed at the splattered barf that was disgustingly laying in front of her foot. She hollered, rudely demanding you to clean the mess that her friend did. The woman even whistled for you to come over like you were a dog that she owned.

You hid a scorn beneath the scowl of your lips. Deliberately walking towards her and rigidly mopping the vomit off the floor. Some barf residues accidentally flew towards her expensive and newly designed looking sandals. 'Oh no.' Before you could even apologize to the woman, her veiny and calloused hand struck your face with a hard, rough slap.

The slap was quite similar to your mother's hand, even though it wasn't actually your mother's.

Your left ribs stung painfully as it suddenly hit an empty table from the strong impact, but you were used to this. You should be. You were used to all the violence that every human can take and give.

"You idiot! You had only one job but what the hell happened?! My Chanel shoes is now ruined! You stupid bitch! You're a worthless cunt!"

You stood up like nothing happened, ignoring the stingy slap that was now lingering your right cheek. You still sent her an apology, but you didn't bother cleaning her shoes. She could get that cleaned up on her own or if she's really a Germophobe then she could just buy another new one.

Rich, arrogant people could have every thing in the world in just a snap of their fingers. You weren't an idiot who would beg on your knees just for her to forgive you. She wasn't worth an apology, a wholehearted apology. It was just an accident, and by the looks of her face? She was far more intoxicated from swaying around like a drunkard and you didn't want to earn another hit even though you were used to the pain of being beaten.

You were quick to carry the pail of dirty water and your mop before going to the bathroom with a stingy red hand print on your face. You didn't mind it at all as you passed by a mirror, completely blocking out those continuous moaning from one of the women's cubicle. Play it cool, Y/N. Play it cool.

The thought of calling Bucky was distracting your mind while you were pouring the pail of gross vomit and dirt in one of the sinks. If you call him, Will he stop whatever he's doing for you? Or who ever he's doing? He told you to call him whenever you needed him or whenever you're lonely, depressed or hurt. You're physically hurt right now. Does it count?

You both only have each other. There's a reason why you were being dependent towards him. Your mother didn't have an ounce of care towards you plus your father was probably dead anyways. You found the warmth that you wanted and needed from him. Only him, only from Bucky.

You brought the mop back to its proper place, at the farthest end of the bathroom before dialing your speed call. He told you to do it, so you could call him urgently when you're in danger and you quickly did since you always do listen to what he says.

"Oh my God!" You heard a voice of a woman who was moaning in pleasure. Your face contorted in discomfort, resulting to a cringe that probably looked hilarious on another person's point of view. The moans you've heard that was coming from that certain woman in one of the cubicles finally came to halt, was she pleasuring herself? you couldn't hear any moans besides hers.

You were planning on barging in and singing 'Gorilla' on her face since she was being too noisy for her own good. Oh, The man that she's with got himself an old screamer, if there was even a man with her, you were lost in your train of thoughts.

She was loudly pounding the locked up door while she was being fucked, and you were fighting off a loud laugh as to how this woman was reacting to sex. It was like she had the greatest 'fondue' for her entire life..or it's maybe because the sex was too good for her to handle?

You quietly chuckled it off, shaking your head in disbelief as you brought your phone to your ear, the phone rang and you were eager and excited to hear his voice. You're tapping your finger on the marbled sink, your reflection distracting you from your reverie. Your lips turned into a frown, loud insults of yourself kept on barging inside of your head. All you can see was a flawed, hideous ugly woman dressed in plain blue jeans with a plain black shirt that wasn't fitted for you. Obviously, It wasn't your size and the shirt was definitely not yours because it was from Bucky.

Those scars that were evident on your face were the proofs from your tough battles. Those are the memories from your horrible past that you overcame, and you were proud to have it since Bucky told you that it simply shows how strong of a woman you are in life. Every scar was a downfall. But, Those downfalls were brought to the top by him. Only him. To make it short, he was simply the strength to your weaknesses.

It rang for the fifth time and you were cringing at the thought that maybe he's 'busy' with his latest customer. You were about to end the call, until the man that you were dying to hear from finally answered.

"You okay, Doll?" He rasped quietly, voice laced with worry and care.

Bucky was always quick to ask that question every time he answers the phone. Your heart flattered as you could hear how worried he is, and you couldn't help but truthfully answer him back with a smile on your face.

"No. I miss you..Can you be with me right now?"

"Of course. I'll be there in a jiffy, Doll. Just give me a second,"

A grin formed on your face and it couldn't help but make your heart flutter in the most extreme. Your index finger traveled up the mirror as you touched it, noting how dirty it already was. You reminded yourself that you needed to clean the bathroom when the club closes.

You smiled alone, daydreaming about Bucky..Whenever you needed someone, he has always been there to save you. Always.

"Do you even know where I am, Bucky?"

"That's why I was asking you, Y/N. Tell me where you are and I'll be there quick--you're going? That fast? That was just a quickie!"

You heard the love of your life spoke as a woman's voice piped in from the other line of the call before it ended in a echo, you couldn't help but feel the familiar pain inside your heart as you knew that you were sharing him with other married, divorced, horny, and needy women that were obviously older and richer than you.

Your mind does always question your heart if you could still handle the pain? Can you? Are you strong enough to handle the pain when you're still fragile enough to break in just one touch?

He's your everything. He's the reason you stay alive.

You're wholly his, His heart is yours. But, his body..his body wasn't only for yourself.

Mind, Heart, Body and Soul. Those four constituents were partners in crime with love. You have his mind and heart, yet his body isn't yours. You share it with other hungry hunters that ought to have a taste. Now, you understood how lions and tigers were fast in hunting their preys since it would be unsatisfying if their prey was to be snatched by another.

And his soul? His soul was signed by the devil.

But, you didn't care. You always tell yourself that you didn't care. Bucky was still yours to love.

You heard the creak of a cubicle door as your eyes lit up from staring at the sink. Seeing a woman in her 40's came out with a disheveled hair, an obvious tight Botox that outdid her face and a tight, red dress that was up to her thighs as it was hung a little. The woman didn't look like she was in her 40's. She looked ten years younger. You were too good at realizing her age in just one look of her tight pretty, rich face.

She was grinning and smiling, looking like she was in her own precious little bubble. The smile was showing how she loved every bit of what happened and you couldn't help but shake your head in disappointment. You remembered that this woman had a husband since you saw her in a mall the other day, walking arm in arm together with her bald, big belly of a husband that looked rich as hell.

Her smile faded into a frown as a sudden realization hit her.

"I payed for you! For a night! The whole night! Not just for a quick fuck in the bathroom!"

"Well, Ma'am.. Your payment is not enough to have my whole night. You know I cost higher than any other gigolos out here! Why don't you just come back some other time,"

The woman's eyes sparkled in joy and you finally turned your back to see her face to face. You were a noticeable eavesdropper at the moment. Your eyebrows were furrowed, you knew that voice. The man she was having some intense and intimate moment had his broad, ripped back at you. You had a feeling it was Steve or Sam But, deep inside..you knew you're trying to act oblivious and stupid as a painful sight before you was beginning to unfold.

"Will you be here tomorrow?"

"No. Find another available fucker. I don't spend the night on another woman's bed.." He shook his head in disdain, appearing to fumble with the zipper of his slacks. "Not anymore,"

"But, I only want you!"

"I don't care who you want, need, or anything your lust says, Mrs. Williams. I'm not available, nor will you have the chance to have me again. Do I make myself clear?" The man in a black crisp suit snapped and surly sneered. He spun around, deciding to leave the aging, absent-minded woman alone. But he stopped and stared. The dazzling blue eyes that you've manage to love waking up to every morning lost its hostility, quickly changing to a loving but stupefied look.

"Sugar?"

You were lying to yourself. You knew it wasn't Steve nor Sam or any other gigolo. That man's voice only belonged to the man you gave your heart, mind, body and soul.

It was your Bucky.

The man who owns you. But, sold his body to women who wanted him.

You wanted to be selfish, but you can't. You couldn't. It was his way of living and you have no choice but to accept that.

You didn't even know if you could still handle the love of your life in being the most requested Gigolo in this club that both you and your mother works in. You were no sugar mama, so you couldn't help him pay what he needed and wanted in life. You were only a mere janitor living in the basements of the club you were in.

What you've tasted, these hungry pussies have already tasted it too. What you touch, hug, kiss and adore..

Well, you bet they already did everything with him too.

Nevertheless, you weren't one who won't be putting up a fight to let them know who he rightfully belongs to because you would and you will.

He was yours and yours alone. You already had that scribbled upon your grave.

This is just a sneakpeak or like an introduction to the series. IF YA WANNA BE INCLUDED IN THE TAGLIST, SEND ME AN ASK. Or just turn on the notification button for my blog so y’all will see every update I post. This can be quite a rollercoaster ride, alright? Hehehe!

XOXO, TATA

[bapyess1r]

Sunny Daze

WARNINGS: violence and cursing

Pairings: Drake Brothers x OC

Chapter 7

Sam’s POV

I hopped off the plane, lighting myself a cigarette as I went. A chill blew off of the icy Scottish waters and I pulled my fleeced denim closer. Nathan followed out behind me, zipping up his brown leather jacket and Sunny flipped up the fleece collar on her plum leather jacket, tugging at the black fingerless gloves on her small hands. She jumped out, landing with a cute little bounce. I hid my smile with a drag of my cigarette before Sully popped his head out. “You kids be careful up there. Watch each other’s backs.” He said, handing my little brother a communicator. As the two continued to talk, in my peripheral, I watched Sunny walk over to a cliff, watching nature’s scenery as she shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand. I approached her, standing next to her to enjoy the view with her as she lit a cigarette for herself.

“Pretty right?” I asked her as I looked at the amber trees on pure white snow against the perfectly blue sky, jagged rocks cutting across the landscape. She took a drag and placed her hands on her hips.

“It’s gorgeous. Looks just like a painting.” She said, never tearing her eyes away from the dark colored ocean. I tore my gaze away from her as she bit down on a cherry red painted lip. I couldn’t stop staring at her since last night. Even this morning she made me a little nervous as we sat outside the hotel sharing a cigarette and coffee as we were now. I knew I had to get over it though. ‘A girl like that for a guy like me… It’s a miracle she even talks to me.’ I thought, fidgeting with a hangnail on my finger.

“You reckon we’ll find the treasure today?” She asked me and a splash of excitement and anticipation hit me. I enjoyed when she talked sometimes. I liked the fact that she had a tendency to speak like a cowboy...

“God, I hope so…” I mumbled, taking a drag of my cigarette. She nodded with a wide grin full of optimism.

“I think so.” She said taking a drag of her cigarette, scratching a spot on the back of her head. “Or if not thee treasure, then at least some sort of direction on how to get to it.” She looked at me and I just smirked, hoping some of that optimism would rub off on me.

“I believe you.” I answered, looking into the bright sky. Suddenly, Nathan approached us with a sigh, cracking his back. “We all set, little brother?” I ask him.

“Yup. Good to go. You ready, Sunny?” He asked her and she put out her cigarette in the snow. She took a deep breath and turned to us with a blinding smile.

“Ready when you are.” She said.

“Alright then, lead the way.” I gestured and we began our adventure.

We climbed cliffs and descended rock slides until we reached the site. Shoreline supply boxes were strategically placed everywhere, filled with all kindsa shit. Weapons, dynamite, hand grenades… You name it, they had it. “What’s Shoreline?” Sunny asked.

“Well… remember that woman with Rafe? Sully told us it’s her crew. Buncha mercenaries for hire essentially.” Nathan answered. She had her ah-ha moment and didn’t question any further.

“Have you guys ever seen that woman?” She asked with a grin, a blush playing across her cheeks as she spoke of her. “She was ridiculously hot….” Where I looked surprised, my eyebrows shooting up at the thought of her being with a woman, Nathan frowned.

“I saw her fist on my cheek and the bottom of her foot but that was about the extent of it.” He said and Sunny burst into laughter. He pouted a bit and I grinned.

“You let a girl kick your ass?” I laughed a bit too hard and they both stopped to stare at me. I was laughing alone and Sunny bore holes into my skull with a perfectly sculpted brow.

“Want me to kick your ass?” She asked with a hint of warning in her voice. She set back on her heel with her arms crossed. To tell you the truth, I did not want that problem. I’d seen her fight first hand and what she did to those men I did not want done to me. I like my neck where it is. I pulled myself a cigarette and flicked my zippo.

“I’m good.” I said, taking a few steps back. She smirked and shot me a wink that damn near set my heart ablaze.

“That’s what I thought, bitch.” She said before walking to a cliff to climb.

“Woah- ‘bitch’? That's low, Sunny.” I smiled to myself as I watched her walk away. Suddenly, Nathan shushed us and signaled for us to take cover. Sunny pulled her pistol from her leg holster and cocked it, holding it ready and I did the same. We watched as Nathan moved and followed accordingly. He silently took down a soldier and I moved ahead to assist. Sunny jumped another and as we continued to move that way, we didn’t use our guns at all. We put them on safety and tucked them away again until we needed to use them. “So Rafe bought up all this land?” I asked. Just as I finished speaking, the sound of explosions took place in the distance.

“Yeah… and evidently they’ve gotten tired of digging.” Nathan said.

“So they resort to explosives? Because that’s smart as hell.” Sunny commented, sardonically. I grinned as we pushed on.

We fought several Shoreline mercenaries that evening. Honestly, I could’ve used a break. My fists were starting to hurt and I didn’t know if my nose could take another breakage. I grunted as my fist collided with a man’s jaw, shaking off the soreness as I went. My arms were getting heavier and it was harder to breathe. “I gotta quit smokin’...” I said to myself as I pulled my gun to shoot and punch my way out of the tight space. There were too many of them and they were beginning to surround me; had me backed into a corner. ‘Shit. This is it. This is how I go…’ I thought a moment. I closed my eyes, ready for execution when I heard three shots fire in close range, bodies hitting the ground one after the other. When I opened my eyes, I saw Sunny throw her empty gun away and run towards a wall, she kicked off from it, throwing her weight around. She wrapped her arms around a man’s neck and pulled hard. He landed on his back and never got up. Another mercenary approached her from behind. He was a whole head and shoulders about her. She turned to deliver a quite impressive high kick but he simply blocked her. He blocked her attacks like it was nothing and I could see her get tired. He gave a punch so hard it damn near knocked her out. But this guy… I’d seen guys like these before. The ones that enjoy the struggle. With one hand he picked her up by the neck, choking her and held her against a wall, her small feet dangling a few feet from the frozen grass. I felt a flash of adrenaline and the protector in me awakened. The same one that tried to protect my little brother for so long. “HEY! HANDS OFF, ASSHOLE!” I shouted, grabbing an empty long range gun. I tossed it upside down in my hands and bashed it against his head in one fell swoop. As he was knocked off balance, he dropped Sunny. She clutched her throat trying to catch her breath a moment as I attempted to wrestle the guy into submission. We were around the same size so it was a bit of a challenge. But I’ll be damned if I let someone put their hands on her that way. With much struggle, I managed to pin his arms down enough to leave him wide open and I head butted him. I was hard headed as hell so it didn’t hurt me much. When Sunny regained her strength, she kicked him in the back of his knees with a mighty yell, cracking his neck and he fell before her feet. ‘Fuck, that was hot…’ I thought as I watched her wipe a bit of blood off the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. Immediately, I went over to her, holding her petite face in my hands as I listened to Nathan finish the fight, praising himself for a job well done. I was more concerned with Sunny’s well being. “You okay, sweetheart?” I asked her, stroking over the area on her cheekbone that has already begun to bruise as my brother called out for us. She nodded but I could tell she was a bit shaken. She could hold her own in a fight and she was a tough cookie but the fights were getting more and more dangerous, the closer we got to finding Avery’s grave. “Look at me,” I told her as she zoned out for a moment. I stared into her big shiny browns and spoke as honestly and as sincerely as possible. “You’re alright. I won’t let anything happen to you, I swear…” I didn’t mean to let myself be so vulnerable right then but it happened.

“Sam…” She said, her lips trembling. I pulled her into a tight hug.

“You saved my ass again. Let’s try not to make this a reoccurring thing though, yeah?” I joked. I could feel her body relaxing in my arms and she pushed herself away from me with a deep inhale. All this time I had been worried about her slowing us down but she was saving me left and right. I should’ve been listening to my little brother...“We’re almost there. I can feel it.” I told her. She just lit herself a cigarette with a nod and began scavenging the guns and ammo. I followed suit and placed a hand on her shoulder on my way over to Nathan. I puffed on my cigarette as my brother also looked for extra ammunition.

“How is she?” He asked me. I sighed.

“Well she saved my life again and then a guy almost killed her just now so…. She’s about as great as she can be…” Nathan’s head whipped around as I spoke.

“She what?” He asked worriedly. As our heads turned to the fort, she walked out strapped to the nines with guns, her head hanging low.

“She uh… had a slight brush with death. Guy almost choked her out. Definitely wasn’t fun.” I mumbled before taking a drag. Nathan ran over to her and they embraced each other tightly. I sighed, slightly jealous that my younger brother got to know her before me. After a few encouraging words from my brother, she handed out the extra ammo.

“The graveyard should be just through here.” Nathan told us and we followed him into a thick brush of the forest.

We arrived at the graveyard, multiple head stones of varying shapes and sizes were covered in snow. The three of us split up to find Avery’s grave but ultimately Nathan had found it. We pressed around on the headstone hoping it would trigger something but nothing was working. I turned to look back at Sunny who was staring at the plaque with intent. Her eyes narrowed and she raised a brow. “Somethin’ bothering you?” I ask her. She takes a few steps forward to get a better look at the headstone and fixes her mouth to say something.

“I… I don’t know if it should be to the left or to the right but the skull isn’t turned correctly… Or am I just reaching?” She asked us. The light bulb went off in both of our heads with a grin.

“I love you, Sunny.” Nathan said simply and she crossed her arms with a smile.

“I know.” She seemed quite proud of herself. I watched as Nathan turned the skull to the right and a rumble began beneath our feet. Suddenly, a secret stairway appeared before us, right next to his grave.

“I bet you Shoreline hasn’t found this.” my brother laughs proudly in amusement as the three of us peered into the opening. It was dark and dusty down there.

“Whaddya think we’ll find in it?” Sunny asked, scrunching up her nose that had begun to turn red and chapped against the harsh cold.

“Let’s find out…” I said pulling a flashlight from my pocket. “Ladies first?” I teased, picking up that she wasn’t going to enjoy this very much. She looked at me with a smile before speaking to me in a soft and kind voice.

“Sure! After you, Princess.” She said sarcastically, gesturing to the entrance.

“Oh, ha ha. You’re funny.” I replied unamused as Nathan chuckled. She pulled out her flashlight as my brother descended the stairway and we followed behind him. As we navigated the hall we found ourselves in a crypt. Sunny posted herself up in a corner, nervously tapping her foot as my brother and I looked around. I chuckled at her as I looked inside an open coffin; Nothing but spiderwebs and dry bones. Everywhere. I sighed looking at her. “You hangin’ in there, sweetheart?” I asked her loudly. She mumbled something incoherently, scratching her head.

“She always did get a little antsy around skeletons.” Nathan told me as he shined his light on the wall of open coffins.

“Really?” I was absolutely amused by this. “You get shot at all day, climb mountains, kick people’s asses like they stole your last fry but skeletons…?” I teased her about it mercilessly as we continued down a hall to more coffins. She backed into a far corner of the room and when I saw what I saw, I decided not to tell her. I just wanted to see what would happen. I tapped my brother in the chest with the back of my hand pointing towards her with a sly grin. Sunny sat down on a half opened coffin, not realizing that a body was half hanging out of it. She set back on her hands and looked down to swing her feet when she noticed the dusty skull staring back at her. Almost immediately she screamed and ran over to me, gripping my jacket tightly as she hid behind me. I keeled over in laughter with my brother as he pushed on to the next room.

“It’s not funny!” She exclaimed, punching me on the back of my arm rather hard. It left a lingering sting as I massaged the spot, still laughing at her reaction as I followed him.

We came across a larger room suddenly and my laughter ceased. A depiction of the crucified trio stood before us in bold marble.

“Sunny… I think this might be a you thing…” Nathan said as we assessed the situation before us. I looked over at her as a smirk curled her lips. She strutted around analyzing the contraption and circling around to find a door behind the wall. She pressed against it briefly, however it didn’t open. I stood next to her to assist but still it didn’t budge. She twisted her lips as she looked around. On the wall behind her we’re lamps ready to be lit. “Aye, Smokey. Light it.” My brother said in our general direction.

“I don’t know which one of us you’re talking to but that hurts my feelings regardless.” I commented as Sunny snickered, flicking her black matte zippo. I flicked mine and assisted lighting the lamps. Suddenly the contraption shifted and a magnifying glass appeared where the crosses were. Streams of light began to shine on the door in a pattern to match the gems laid into it.

“Well fuck…” she mumbled. She walked around the wall again to see through the peepholes near the crosses, smiling as she immediately figured out what to do. “Sit tight, boys. I got this.” She said as she leaned over, giving me an incredible view of her ass.

“Please… take your time.” I smirked as I leaned against a nearby wall to watch her work.

[samslosthoe]

gen's birth chart

i don’t really wanna do this one, but i said i would. at least there’s no guesswork with this one. 

i’m gonna tell you right off the bat that as an aquarius, while i fully understand capricorn, they’re not my favorite. signs next to each other tend to have very different life philosophies and just because i understand it doesn’t mean i have to like it. i will, however, do my best to put the bias aside and please my libra rising and libra moon with fairness. 

genevive is a capricorn with an aquarious moon. “but samslosthoe,” i hear you ask, “doesn’t that make it a little better for you?” and no, no it doesn’t. this combo is not a fun one. a capricorn that thinks they’re better than everyone else with an aquarius moon that thinks they’re different from everyone else? fuck me, man. 

so here’s the thing about capricorns: they’re rigid, focused, reserved, strong-willed, ambitious (within limits), and ~responsible~, but only to what they value. basically the anti-aqua. they care about status, will work their asses off to get it, and prefer “the beaten path.” success has very few incarnations to a capricorn and if they (or you) don’t achieve it, they’re unsatisfied.

capricorns don’t care about flashy, but subtle opulence. think old money, not new. think martha’s vineyard, not calabasas. there’s a right way to do something and they SUCK at hiding their disdain so if you do something differently, prepare for the LOOK.

HOWEVER: capricorns are ride or die. secrets you tell a cap will go to the grave with them. their rigidity and sense responsibly lend itself to being there for you when you call for help. just don’t expect to get out of a loan, or not hear how you should have prepared for emergencies. these people are stable as fuck. i gave you examples of water signs, so here’s one for capricorn’s earth element: these bitches are an immovable mountain. (taurus is a boulder, virgo is a perfectly smooth river rock, just in case you wondered.)

they care about the world, but they care more about their contribution to making it better than...actually making it better. they work hard, so they want to be recognized for that. 

i personally think a cap with an aqua moon can be dangerous. a capricorn in general isn’t touchy feely and forthcoming with their emotional state. throw in the aqua moon and you’re gonna need a cipher to get any kind of read on them. see, aquarius is observant (hi, how are ya), and when you have an ambition like capricorn as your driving force, that shit can be used for manipulation tactics. i’m not saying they WILL, but they certainly know enough to take you down if they have to. 

caps are stubborn, but aqua moons are willful and when they don’t have a check on their emotions, they might throw some temper tantrums. capricorn likes to ignore things not worth their while, and aquarius likes logic, so a cap with aqua moon is gonna yeet emotions right out of there...unless they serve a greater purpose. 

aquarius, and even moreso aqua moons, are always trying to be independent. if you don’t give them space, it’s not gonna be a good time. they think and feel differently than most, and if you don’t give them the room to do that, you could easily be seen as “not worthwhile.” not unlike some of the others, gen’s aqua moon will make her super sensitive to criticism, but she’ll hide it better. usually.

her mercury in capricorn just highlights her cap sun, bringing more hardcore earth energy. super rational, probably good at studying something, impatient with people, and a tad pessimistic. 

gen gets interesting with her venus sign because it’s completely different than all this capricorn. sagittarius energy is the sunshine and rainbows, light of the world, when capricorn sits there and points out all the ways its not gonna work. with her venus in sagittarius, you’re gonna find some conflicting socialization with gen. sag venus is open, super social, and just wanting to learn and love. they love love! but not restrictive love...where as restriction is the name of capricorn’s game.

god this is a hard contradiction to live with. it’s like what she wants out of life and out of love are two different things, and finding the balance between the two is probably really hard. that has to be really confusing for her, or maybe she found a happy medium. 

i think with gen, you have to really want to get to know her to really know her and be part of her life. it’s not like pisces where you have to be delicate, but you have to prove your worth with her to look twice. 

[ayeateez]

The Hunger Games AU - Part 2 - Park Seonghwa

Pairing: Seonghwa x fem!reader

Warnings: Mentions of murder, blood, death

Genre: Fluff, angst

Word Count: 4.9k

Part 1 - Choi San

I held my head in my hands, tears running down my cheeks as my body burned from crying. I lost both San and Jongho. I don’t remember exactly what happened after San died, but they told me I wouldn’t let go of his body, how I was screaming at them to bring him back, how I said I’d kill myself right then and there... they said I was cuffed so I couldn’t do any harm to myself.

The sudden knock on my door shook my out of my thoughts.

“Y/n... we’re back at 12” she said before closing the door. There was no doubt my team felt bad for me, losing both my childhood best friend and my.. I don’t even know what to call him. Was he considered my boyfriend? We’ll call it that for now, but I loved them both... what is life going to be like without Jongho? Climbing onto rooftops and star gazing, wrestling with each other, seeing how far we can throw rocks into the forest...

I wiped my tears, standing up and grabbing my very little things, and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked terrible, my eyes bloodshot red, dark purple bags under my eyes from not sleeping, tear stains running down my face.

I made my way off of the train as people watched, the stared and observed my state, a few cheering, trying to get the mood up. I spare a few quick glances at the crowd, before covering my face and moving forwards, towards the new house I had earned due to winning.

Walking in, I looked around. The door shut behind me and I was all alone. I walked around, my mind blanking as I ran my fingers over the smooth mahogany. The crystal table decoration was perfectly angled to have the sun shine in my eyes, I moved on to other rooms.

I leaned on the balcony in the room I had claimed to be mine, as it looked out on the forest and sky. Jongho would’ve loved this. The sun was setting, the sky was a calming orange-pink, moon slowly starting to show.

A rustle from the trees caught my eye as I saw a young man, who couldn’t have been more than 18, sneaking out of the woods and back through our fence. It was supposedly electric, but they never turned on the power. We made eye contact and he froze. His eyes were begging me not to tell anyone, and I just nodded as he ran off, holding a few dead animals.

•

“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” The young man asked after bumping into me, helping me up. I looked at his face, he was the guy from a week ago. I could tell he recognized me too. I slowly nodded. He was handsome, but not like San... what would San want? Would he be okay with me trying to move on? Of course he would, right? He couldn’t possibly expect for me to stay like this forever... he’s dead.

“Yeah... I’m fine. Are you okay?” I spoke for the first time since my victor tour. His eyes looked me up and down as he nodded.

“Damn you’re beautiful... I mean- ah shit I didn’t mean to say that out loud I’m sorry...” he said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. I laughed

“It’s okay... you’re handsome too” I complimented him back and a blush slowly crept onto his cheeks. He looked away, not knowing what to say.

“I should probably leave you to what you were doing... it must be important” he laughed.

“Only if you call walking around important, then yes” I said, making us both chuckle.

“Then do you maybe... wanna hang out or something?” He asked. I shrugged.

“Sure, why not?” I agreed and he smiled at me. The field wasn’t too far away, and the sun was just setting. It hadn’t rained in awhile, therefore the grass should be dry. We talked the short way there, getting settled on a small patch of grass. Was this a date? Could it be considered a date?

“I’m Seonghwa, by the way. You’re Y/n, the 72nd victor, yeah?” He introduces himself, and me, which was a little weird but everybody knows me... especially now cause I had some sort of relationship with San. I stumbled over my words at District 1.

“Y-Yeah... 72nd victor” I laughed awkwardly.

“I know you might get this a lot and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what’s it like in the games?” He asked out of pure curiosity, brow furrowing as he tilted his head slightly, leaning back on his hands. I thought for a bit.

“Terrifying. Anything and everything can mean the difference between life and death. Air you breathe? Could be poisoned. Water you drink? Could be infected and unclean, and the thing is, you never get away from it, even if you win. I still have to mentor future tributes. You’re always going to be associated with the games” I explained, and his eyes widened.

“Next year is going to be my last reaping... I hope I don’t get picked” he sighed.

“Me neither. I want them to stop the games... I wish we could overthrow the capital...” I laughed slightly.

“Don’t say that here... someone could be watching or listening” he said panicked, and I laughed.

“Why would the capital be spying on us?” I asked.

“Well,,, you’re a victor, you lost your boyfriend in the games, and you’re on a date-“

“Date?” I asked.

“I-I mean um not date... it can be if you’re okay with it but um-“

“God, you’re panicked. Calm down” I smiled at him, patting his shoulder. He let out a breath as he relaxed his body.

“Do you get nightmares?” He asked. I froze and thought about it for a moment.

“Yeah... yeah I do. Most tributes/victors do. I mean, you have to kill people that are mostly innocent, you’re fighting to the death, of course it’s going to scar you” I said with a small laugh at the end. He’s probably confused as to why I keep laughing.

We went on for hours, talking to each other about the most random things you could ever possibly think of. He was kinda like Jongho, he could be my new best friend if I wanted him to be, but he was also kinda like San, too. He constantly asked about the games, like if he ever got chosen how should he prepare himself, it was kinda like I was his mentor, except he probably won’t get picked, hopefully anyways. I thought I wasn’t going to get picked, but what happened?

•

“Seonghwa, get away from there!!” I laughed at him as he stuck his face near the oven.

“Why?” He asked, a playfully smile growing on his face.

“You’re gonna burn yourself, especially your face. Then you won’t be handsome anymore!!” I joked and he stepped back.

“Not handsome? You can’t call me not handsome, I’m basically your boyfriend~” He giggled, hugging me, however, it was just a trap to tickle me, oh boy.

“Seonghwa stop!!” I giggled out, and he only shouted a “no!” before tickling my neck. I let out shrieks and screams as it got harder to breathe with the way I was laughing. He finally stopped, though.

“Boyfriend?’ I asked and regretted asking that because he only started to tickle me again.

“This is torture!!!” I yelled. He only laughed in response, that evil bitch.

As we got settled down, I leaned my head on his shoulder.

“Hwa, what did you mean by you’re basically my boyfriend now?” I asked.

“Well, we act no different then a normal couple… I like you, I think you like me… the only thing that’s missing is titles, but we don’t need them” He sighed, putting his arm around me.

“You think I like you?” I giggled. His face flushed a bright red.

“I- well… uh… yeah…” He looked away from me. He only became even redder and shocked as I pulled him in for a kiss. He let out a surprised gasp before kissing back instantly.

“You shouldn’t get too attached to me though...” he said, slightly out of breath from our kiss.

“Why?” I asked.

“When is the next reaping?” He asked. I sat back from him a little.

“Few months, why?” I asked suspiciously. He shrugged.

“What if I get picked-“

“Seonghwa, no. Don’t say that, I can’t imagine losing you..” I sighed, bringing him closer to rest my forehead on his, my heart breaking at the thought of losing Seonghwa. He pulled me onto his lap, kissing me once more.

“So, am I your boyfriend now?” He asked all giggly.

“Hm, let me thing about it...” I joked and he pouted.

“Yes” I said and he smiled brightly at me. Not the “I’m in pain” smile but his real, beautiful smile. I curled up on his lap, and he hugged me tightly.

“As much as I’d like to stay here, I have to go now. I’ll be back later tonight if I can sneak out, though” He sighed and I pouted.

“Do you really have to?” I asked. He nodded.

“I mean, unless you want me to get my ass whoops” He shrugged. I sighed before letting him go.

“But I’ll see you later” He pecked my lips once more before leaving.

•

With reaping day a week away and Seonghwa’s questions about the games coming back makes me nervous and suspicious. What was he planning on doing? Maybe he’s just trying to be prepared if he gets picked. I really hope he doesn’t get picked, I can’t lose another one. Especially cause I’ve known him longer than San.

“Baby, you’ll still be with me, even if I get picked, right?” He asked.

“Stop asking these questions, Seonghwa! You’re making me think about losing you, about you dying! Just stop!” I yelled, a single tear running down my face.

“Baby...” Seonghwa said softly, placed his palm on my cheek to wipe away the tear. He pulled me into his chest and hugged me tightly, rocking us slowly while apologizing.

He didn’t speak of the games anymore after that, he stopped asking questions, but he disappeared into the woods more. He told me he was good at archery, maybe District 12 should be known for archery.

But I woke up this morning, heart already racing. It was Seonghwa’s last year, if he could just survive this reaping. Maybe I could live a happy enough life, here out in 12 with Seonghwa. I’ll never have kids, though. Not if the games are still going on.

I took my spot on the stage as a victor, watching everybody pile in. My eyes landed on Seonghwa and he waved at me, and I waved back.

“You’ve found someone new, haven’t you?” Katniss whispers into my ear. I nodded.

“This is his last year... if he can survive this year I might actually live a happy life” I chuckled, before all the talking died down and it started. I zoned out a bit until they did the actually picking of the names. They chose a small girl, who’s name I can’t remember. She looked around 17, if only she survived 2 more years.

My heart picked up the speed as the boys were picked. My eyes shut as I focused on the voice.

“Park Seonghwa”

My eyes shot open, watching Seonghwa make his way onto the stage, avoiding eye contact. Tears rolled down my blank face, trying to realize what was happening.

Seonghwa was going into the games.

•

“Y/n...” Seonghwa sighed as we all made our way onto the train.

“Y/n... please talk to me” he said, voice breaking. I looked up at him, both our eyes glossy with tears.

“What do you want me to say?” I snapped. Why on Earth was I mad at him? He had done nothing wrong, really. I just hugged him tightly before any other words were spoken.

“I guess all those times I spent answering your questions weren’t for nothing, huh?” I mumbled into his shoulder, sniffling.

“Yeah” he nodded.

“Whoa, what do we have here? A tribute and a victor? D-“

“Shut up!” I yelled, and whoever was talking instantly disappeared.

•

I watched with a small smile on my face as Seonghwa’s stylist added the final touches.

“How do I look?” Seonghwa asked, turning to you.

“Handsome” I smiled, leaning up to kiss his nose, making him blush a little.

“Uh, sorry to break the moment but he needs to be with the rest of the tributes” A stage director interrupted.

“Go steal the crowds heart” I cheered him on and he smiled at me once more before leaving.

~

“Say, Seonghwa. You’re quite handsome, is there any special girl back home at 12?” Caesar asked.

“Well uh, yeah but also no” Seonghwa laughed awkwardly.

“Oh, please elaborate” Caesar leaned forwards a bit.

“Yeah, um, I do have a girlfriend, but she’s um, here in the capital with me, and I know she’ll be cheering me on from the moment I step into the arena until the moment I win for her” Seonghwa smiled, making the crowd erupt into cheers of adoration.

“Wait wait wait, so does this mean you’re dating a victor?”

“Yeah, yeah I am” Seonghwa nodded, making the crowd, who was once going crazy over his sweet words, now whispering and wondering who. 12 only has 2 female victors, one of which is publicly taken, therefore I’m the only option left.

I hugged Seonghwa tightly, telling him how good he did once he came back from the stage.

“Are you hungry? You need to eat well, tomorrow you’re presenting to the game makers. Whatever you do, just make sure they’re watching you. Then the next day... you’ll be going into the games” I got quieter at the last part. It still hasn’t fazed me that there’s a chance I might now ever see Seonghwa again after he steps into the arena. Alive, at least. I don’t know where they keep the bodies, or whether they keep them or not, but I know I couldn’t handle seeing Seonghwa’s lifeless body.

~

“You’ll do great in there, just hit the target, get a good score and you’ll earn sponsors” I cupped his face and he nodded before heading into the waiting room. I’ve never personally see his archery skills, but he just has to be good with all the meat he brings back.

~

“Hwa, you need to eat” I sighed, trying to feed him but he shook his head.

“Look, I know you’re nervous, but you need to eat. Once you go into the games, you won’t get to eat very much. You need as much food as you can eat until the games, okay?” I gave him a small lecture, and he finally listened to me. I smiled a bit as I fed him, and he let me. It’s like we’ve switched rolls for once.

“Thank you...” he sighed after finishing his food.

“Look, try not to think too much of it, don’t overthink it. Try to make some allies, please. They really do help” I rested my palm on his cheek, making him look at me.

“We’ll get your score tonight and see from there, okay?” I asked, trying to sooth him a bit.

“Okay...” he mumbled.

It was pretty quiet between us for the rest of the day. They stopped having tributes get to know each other, probably cause of what happened between San and I, complete devastation and me refusing to go on my victory tour, people cheering for me because I murdered near innocent people.

We all huddle around the hologram, the fake tv as we waited for Seonghwa’s score to appear.

“Now moving onto District 12, Park Seonghwa with a score of... 10” Everybody’s eyes widened in shock as I hugged Seonghwa tightly, and he did the same.

“You’re gonna get sponsors, don’t worry, you’re gonna be just fine out there” I whispered and he nodded.

It was possibly our last night ever to sleep together, holding each other, his arms around me, so we held on tight.

“Shh, Hwa. Go to sleep” I shushed him.

“I just want you to know that... what ever happens in the games, I love you and I will never stop loving you” he sighed, running his fingers through my hair.

“I love you too, Hwa stop saying things like this, you’re gonna survive. You’re gonna win and we’re going to live happily...” I shut my eyes, wishing for what I just said to be true.

No more words were spoken, just pure silence but our breathing, savoring these moments together that might be our last. I’ll miss Seonghwa’s arms around me, his warm body encasing mine.

The next morning was silence. Very few words were exchanged from everybody, and the others could feel the tension in the room. Breakfast was quiet, uncomfortable.

The time I dreaded came quicker than it should’ve. I wished it was last night, or maybe months ago, where he wasn’t going into the games. I wished somebody had volunteered.

“Hwa, you’re going to do just fine” I tried to comfort him as he was shaking.

“W-What if I die-“

“Look, Hwa. You need to run from the cornucopia, or at least grab something near the edge. Dodge all knifes, arrows, swords, etc. Mingi and Hongjoong from districts 1 and 2 are beyond vicious. So is Yunho from 7. Stay away from them, or become allies. Odds are, you’re at the top of their kill list-“

“That doesn’t make me feel better, y/n!”

“Just run! Find water, find food, and stay warm. Whatever you do, DO NOT start a fire. Unless you want to get killed. And if you really have to... try to earn sponsors by faking a relationship” I sighed at the last part.

“But everybody knows about us-“

“Say we broke up. This is the last resort for survival, though. And preferably use the girl tribute from 12” I sighed again.

“Just... please stay alive. Please... you know how to kill, I’ll be waiting here for you, okay? I’ll be right here when you win” I pulled him close, resting my forehead against his before placing a soft kiss to his lips. The doors to the tube and his stylist opened.

“Goodbye, Seonghwa. Please come back to me...” I whispered.

“I will... I promise” he mumbled back, pressing one more kiss to my lips before walking into the room, then we were shut off. The games were supposed to start in 3 minutes.

Walking back to the room I was staying in, I turned on the channel where the games will be showing 24/7 until somebody wins. Of course there were different channels for each tribute, so of course I’ll be watching Seonghwa’s. Maybe switching to another every now and then, but I’m not sleeping until I know Seonghwa is safe and out of the games.

The countdown started, as all the tributes rose up from their tubes. The camera shower Seonghwa for a few seconds, making me miss him already.

“5...”

“4...”

“3...”

“2...”

“1...”

The horn blew as Seonghwa went right for the closest backpack, grabbing it and sprinting off into the woods. I watched as he tripped over himself, falling and rolling, but at least he was alive. He ran and ran until he collapsed, panting hard. Sitting against the tree, he checked his surroundings before looking what he got.

Rope, a knife, matches, and a water bottle. Empty, must I clarify. I hope he was thinking what I was thinking, water. He needed to find a water source ASAP. I watched Seonghwa used the dirt trick I taught him as he made his way closer to a water source, finally finding a small pond.

He sighed in relief as he filled up the bottle, drinking tons before topping it off and capping it. He explored part of the arena, his head snapping around at even the wind, just like I taught him to. I knew he was getting hungry and that he needed to find food, and he needed to find it quickly. He gets hungry easily, and will probably pass out if you don’t feed him.

Because throwing knives isn’t his thing, (I should know, he almost hit me instead of the target and I was standing right next to him) he was probably going to have to chase and strangle an animal or fish, possibly stab it. Then the cannons went off.

I counted a total of 14, which is a lot for the first minutes of the game. It’s usually only 11 or 12. This now means Seonghwa has a higher chance of winning. I spotted in the corner of the screen a squirrel scurrying down a tree.

I watched as he head snapped towards it’s direction and took off, chasing after it. The scene was a bit gory, but he strangled it. It was disgusting, but I can’t blame him. He’s just trying to survive. He stopped in his tracks and I could tell he was thinking for a bit. He can’t just make a fire. I mean he could, but the careers would find him in an instant and kill him.

But he did it anyways, looking out for any signs of another tribute. He cooked it until it was cooked just enough to eat before stomping out the fire and taking off, letting the wind cool the hot meat as he ran.

He climbed before settling in a tree, sighing as he hugged it for dear life, something he used to do with me. I flopped on my bed as it only showed him eating the cooked squirrel.

The sudden movement on the screen caught my attention as now he was in a life or death situation. He raced down the tree, now chasing someone with a knife. He’s close enough where if he threw it, there’s a low low chance he’d miss.

It seems like we’re sharing the same brain today, because he threw the knife and didn’t miss. He stabbed them again for... god knows what before making his way back to camp, smiling to himself as the cannon behind him went off. I couldn’t blame him for smiling, he just survived. He killed another tribute. A step closer to winning. A step closer to a happy life.

•

2 days went passed, and Seonghwa hasn’t done anything interesting. It just him, the careers, and like 3 other tributes. Nobody has died, besides the boy and girl from 10, the girl from 9 and the boy from 4. Who dies from falling out of a tree? They must’ve gotten stung by a tracker jacker and I just didn’t see.

He jumped on camera and looked around for a few seconds after a cannon went off. It was late at night, so he almost fell off the tree as the slide to honor the fallen appeared in the sky. The girl from 1. She must’ve not been a career, or she got herself killed somehow. Sometimes I wish it had shown how that tribute died, but I don’t want graphic details of the boy from 6 getting slit in the throat. It doesn’t matter, 1 less career to face, 1 less tribute to kill, 1 step closer to winning and 1 step closer to a happy life.

The next day is was the boy from 3. S there must be some type of poison of venom they don’t know of. The girl from 12 still hasn’t died yet, and I don’t like wishing for people to die, but if she gets herself killed, it’s just one more step closer to being with Seonghwa again.

The careers slowly died off 1 by 1 until it was just the boy from 2, Hongjoong, I think his name was. Short, leader of the pack, absolutely vicious. Terrifying. Could probably look in your direction and kill you like that. Terrifying. Did I mention the girl from 12 drank unsanitary water? Got herself an infection and died. Stupid, huh? You never know what’s in the water you’re drinking, and you just gotta hope.

At this point, half of the arena has burnt down, and it’s just Seonghwa and Hongjoong. Seonghwa is so close to winning, he can do it, I know he can. He found an abandoned bow with a quiver full of arrows yesterday, it honestly could’ve been a trap but his dumbass took it anyways. I’ll make sure to scold him for that after he wins. I need to stop being so confident, I might jinx it.

He ran away from the fire, sweat dripping off his face. He was already tired, had almost no food, barely slept and has had to sprint daily for a good period of time, if only I could take care of him.

My heart only dropped as he crashed into something. Someone. Hongjoong.

The evil smirk that grew on Hongjoong’s face and the look of terror made me jump onto my feet as I got closer to the screen, watching closely and carefully. Seonghwa tried to back up, but the fire blocked him. He was trapped in I’d say a 10x10 foot area surround by fire, now fighting to the death.

As Seonghwa regained he thoughts, he quickly loaded up an arrow, only for Hongjoong to knock the bow out of his hands, sending it into the fire.

“Come on Seonghwa... you can do it... you’re strong enough...” I mumbled, tears already threatening to fall at the though of losing him. Hongjoong threw Seonghwa’s arrows as well as his own weapons into the fire as well. How could Seonghwa let Hongjoong treat him like this? How come he wasn’t fighting back?

“Fight me like a real man” Hongjoong hissed. Seonghwa set his foot back, slowly walking backward as Hongjoong only approached him. He swung at Seonghwa, which was easily dodged. They were fighting. Fist fighting, how stupid. Seonghwa advanced, only for Hongjoong to step back and avoid Seonghwa’s fist. A move that Seonghwa wasn’t predicting was Hongjoong’s foot in his stomach as he stumbled back, collapsing at the edge of the ring of fire.

“No no no, Seonghwa no, push through, fight through it” I sniffled, a few tears running down my face as I watched Seonghwa get hurt. Hongjoong kicked him again and again to get him weaker, as he was already on the ground. If only Seonghwa hadn’t tried to block the kicks and grabbed his leg and swung him into the fire, then again, I couldn’t train Seonghwa to think like I do.

Hongjoong stood above him, smirking.

“I think you’re time has come, yeah?” He chuckled darkly, a sudden knife appearing as he twirled it around his fingers. Cheater.

“So sad, you wanted to go back home and live a happy life with your girlfriend, right? What was her name again? Ah yes, y/n? You mean the victor from last year? I can only assume she trained you. Looks like you didn’t pay too much attention, huh?” Hongjoong teases and leaned in a bit. Blood poured from Seonghwa’s nose and mouth, dirt covering his face and sticking to his blood-soaked clothes. He was too weak to respond.

“You’re just about useless. I’ll make you useful. You’ll be my final stepping stone to win this thing, yeah? How does that sound?” Hongjoong pinned his wrists so he couldn’t move as he traced Seonghwa’s jawline with the knife.

“Both of her little boy toys are gonna be killed the same way, except you couldn’t protect yourself, San was an act of bravery and love. You... look at you. You’re just a useless piece of shit. How could a girl like her fall in love with a boy like you? Maybe I could get her to fall for me? We’ll see about that. But for now, must I take care of this problem?” Hongjoong laughed at the end before Seonghwa let out a sudden scream, the knife passing through his stomach as Hongjoong only laughed. How could such a man claim he could make me fall in love with him as his hands were covered in my boyfriend’s blood?

“SEONGHWA NO!!!” I screamed, collapsing on the floor.

“You have approximately 8 seconds, anything to say?” Hongjoong cocked his head in fake curiosity.

“Y/n... I love you” Seonghwa’s voice croaked, before his body went motionless.

“SEONGHWA!!! SEONGHWA NO!!!” I screamed again, hitting the screen as a cannon shot went off. I had so much faith in him...

Hongjoong laughed as he became the new victor, the aircraft from the capital coming to gather him and Seonghwa’s dead body.

“I-I love you Seonghwa... please I love you... please don’t leave me like this...” I sobbed on my floor, my tears already puddling on the clean, dark hardwood.

“Please no... I love you Seonghwa... I love you...”