#she's also dating poison ivy ofc

[fanonimus]

Hello. It's time I chime into the nonexistent Harley Quinn convo regarding her rebrand.

After she broke up with the wallmart Clown, she got a redesign, which supposedly broke her apart from the Joker.

Except she kept the name. And the colours. And the mannerism. And the themes.

She just got a sexier outfit in red and black, and I do not appreciate that. I know I am probably late for the party, but I recently joined the fandom, so it's better late than never.

I had gotten out of an abusive relationship before, so I might be projecting, but I wanted to get away from that part of my past, the moment I realized what was going on. I think that Harley would know that the best way of dealing with the trauma of the relationship is to move on, but the crazy in her would want revenge. But not the "you gave me this, and I will make it mine" kind of revenge. I just personally think that is not the healtiest way of looking at it.

Keep in mind that I myself am not a therapist, I'm just a human with a not so stellar life, projecting my problems onto nonexistent characters.

Let me introduce you to my take on a post wallmart clown, Harleen Quinzel!

Sharlatan!

I think she would be around to cause chaos, spraypaint buildings, and just being a nuisance to everyone. She doesn't get up to murder, except when it comes to the Joker.

I wanted to keep the pink and blue hair, because I actually love that, and also chose that as the main colours. I gave her a torn black leather jacket to give her more of a punk vibe.

I let her keep the bat, bc it's kind of logical for her in my AU.

I decided to give her her roller skates as a permanent part of her outfit, and also pached jeans from the number of times she fell, or tore them on fences and things like that.

The roller skates are yellow because they are meant to kind of stand out, feel a bit alien compared to the rest of the outfit, because she got them before she got herself a rebrand.

They were actually a gift from Poison Ivy, and at the time, she just wanted Harleen to have something that wasn't black or red.

I think Harleen would keep Harley as a nickname, but would get really angry when someone would call her Quinn, because she left that life behind, and started with a clean slate. She's Harley Quinzel, a mix of her two former life, that create something new. Like chemicals.

I think that's it. If you have any questions, I do have the question box open.

(Don't mind my Harley Quinn design, I just needed her to have a bunch of bells on her.)

The name is a play on the Charlatan word, which in my language is really similar "sarlatán." I just mixed them, because why not.

Harley calls herself that because her main form of villainy shifted to grafity and vandalism. Except she can not draw for the life of her. She is not a creative person, being more analitical and such, but she claims to be the best of the best, and she wants that to be her new image. A charlatan, just like every rouge. Except she embraces that fact.

(It's also because she didn't notice the abuse. She thinks she failed as a psychiatrist because she fell for Jokers manipulation.)

It might be a bit out of character, but that is not a me problem, I am not trying to appeal to canon when there is no defined characterisation in canon. Thank you.

Excuse any linguistics mistake, I am not an english speaker.

You wanna see Poison Ivy in my AU? Here you go.

My DCAU collection

[stanlunter]

Bi erasure in the fandoms

There are many types of biphobia among people, but I wanna talk about the least noticable type of it, which is super common and barely gets called out. "Headcanoning" canon/implied bisexual characters (mostly female, for some reason) as lesbians.

Usually they don't even portay it as a "headcanon", but just state that they are and make everyone believe this. And when they done, people even start call you lesbophobic for calling bi erasure our, bc It's suddenly you're the one who "erase" lesbians. And the funny thing is that a lot of those who state so, haven't even watched these shows and just have "heard" that these characters are "lesbians" and the continue misinformate everyone else. And that's awful and very harmful for bi community

Let's take some examples

1. Asami and Korra

Both are bisexual women who were in love with the same man and then broke up with him and started dating each other. Prolly the most heavily implied bisexuals ever. But what do people have problems with? Oh, they think that if a bi girl has broken up with a man, it means only that she realized she's lesbian. Not that her ex was a cheater, not that their relationship was toxic. No, they can break up only bc she had a comphet. There are no other options. And if a girl dates another girl, she's also 100% lesbian, bc bi girls are just "straights who wanna invade lgbt", right? Oh, yeah, also Korra is strong and muscle "lesbian stereotype" and Asami is "cold and lady-like" "lesbian stereotype" so yeah, It's absolutely makes them lesbians! — another example of why the stereotypes are actually harmful.

2. Poison Ivy (both in the show and in the comics)

Absolutely the same thing as with Korra and Asami, but is also a "mean lesbian stereotype" which is basically the strongest stereotype, so yeah. Ivy dated Kite man and was actually attracted to him. She liked kissing me and enjoyed his company. The only thing that made her break up with Kite man is that he wasn't someone she saw her future with. He didn't fit her and she knew who did - Harley, her girlfriend. Even when Ivy knew she was attracted to Harley (bc she litterally cheated with her), she still knew she is attracted to Kite man and even so planned their wedding, but being attracted ≠ being soulmates, unfortunately. People also for some reason think that just bc Ivy hates men, it means she has to be lesbian. Ig they don't know there are bi or even straight girls who hate men. Like febfems (bi girls who refuse to date men for political reasons and their safety) don't exist. Like you can't be attracted to someone you hate.

And after all, Ivy dating Kite Man (and Dan Back) isn't even the main reason she's bisexual. Besides it, she was confirmed to be bisexual multipe times by many different authors. She's canon bi in almost every universe. And the way some new authors are trying to change her sexuality is a clearest bi erasure. And It's also funny, cuz if someone ever dared to turn a canon lesbian character into bisexual, everyone would immidiatly lose it. But when they do the same with bisexuals, It's suddenly being ignored. Wow.

3. Sasha Waybright

Thankfully the last time I don't see this so often (mb bc the fandom is dying tho), but just when everyone's favourite "mean lesbian" was confirmed to be bisexual, everyone went wild... Yeah, their favourite stereotype was broken. Does it mean they started to understand that stereotypes don't define sexuality and that even mean girls can like men? Ofc not! They obviously started to say that she was confirmed as bi bc: 1. Disney didn't want to let her be lesbian 2. Mate did it only to make the fandom mad

Lmao. They really gonna believe anything but that a character can just be...bisexual. And even so, they keep "headcanoning" her as lesbian. I've even heard people who were saying she had a "comphet" and will realize she's lesbian in the future. That's not even funny, but it does make me laugh

4. Princess Bubblegum

Oh, I love the way the whole tik tok fandom suddenly started to call Bubblegum "canon lesbian" just bc someone has said so and others have spread it up. Ig I should be thankful, that they at least recognize Marcelin being bisexual, huh?

Anyways, the thing is that Bubblegum, just as much as Marcelin was heavily implied to be bisexual. She litterally had an ex bf and for those who love calling every bi character with ex bfs lesbians with comphet, besides that Bubblegum was also in love with Finn in the episode when she turned 13. She litterally kissed him there and has said she wishes she could stay this way with him. It was directly shown throught the whole show that's the only reason why Finn's feelings are one sided is that Bubblegum is way older than him. And in the episode "Too young" it was directly confirmed. But people are still gonna call her lesbian just...bc? I don't even know why, she doesn't even fit stereotypes that much. Mb they decided to "ruin stereotypes" by it? Or mb they just decided that since6she rejected Finn (a litteral child) it means she can't be attracted to men at all? This logic is even worse. But God only knows what is in their heads

5. Yang Xiao long

Oh, yeah, this one is usually super objectionable bc she was showing interest in men basically only in v1 and then started dating Blake. And if Blake being bi was so clear that there are basically no people denying it or bc she fits bi stereotypes, who knows, however we should remember that bisexuals don't have to have equal attraction to everyone (like Blake, who had 2 male and 2 female love interests) and they don't have to date all genders to prove their attraction.

But there are many evidences of Yang being attracted to men too.

In the whole Yellow Trailer Yang actively flirts with a man

In ep3v1 she happily gazas on shirtless men and then, when Ruby says "father wouldn't approve it" she answers (I know, I fo) – which already would be enought to confirm her attraction to men

But in the same volume, when the team decorates their room, when Yang hangs a poster with a male band of the artists she's attracted too, it was shown that she liked men as well.

Yeah, I got that both the fandom and Roosters really love to forget everything that was in v1-2, but It's a fact that Yang is bisexual as well as Blake. But wait, she's a "strong lesbian stereotype", right!!! So let's ignore a bi representation, sure!

6. Sunset shimmer

Here's a girl, who canonically has dated a man and was officially confirmed to be bisexual by the author in Twitter. So why do people keep "headcanoning" her as lesbian? Oh, bc she's SUNSET and has flags of lesbian colors. Like "Sunset" was invented by lesbian flag, yeah. And what's the funniest thing in this perfect argument is that Sunset Shimmer was created even before the sunset lesbian flag designed!

And, yeah, I could take the "she has said that she didn't like Flash so it was a comphet/pretending" thing, but the problem is that it still litterally was confirmed by the author himself that Sunset is bisexual. And in the further show and even movie we can see clear signs of them still having a thing for each other. Like Sunset winks to him and many of their other interactions, but they can be read in a friends way as well ofc, which doesn't make her any less of canon bi!

7. Clawdeen Wolf

Her situation is exactly like Yang's. Since not so long time ago Clawdeen was confirmed to be lgbt and there was announced a comic about her and Toralei's romantic relationship, everyone started yelling that she's "canon lesbian" now. However it was only confirmed that she's wlw, not lesbian. And wlw includes these little unknown people called bisexuals.

But why do I say she's bi, but not lesbian? Well, bc it was clearly shown in the show and the movies that she's attracted to men. Yeah, she's a bit less obsessed with them than others and doesn't have a bf, however her feelings for many of them were obvious. And it was no where near a comphet. No, she was exactly attracted to them, that's a fact. So for now, she's a heavily implied bi character who had feelings for boys and who is dating a girl, just like Yang. And calling her lesbian is kinda biphobic

8. Kagami Tsurugi

A canon bisexual character, who's love to both Marinette and Adrian was confirmed in official synopsis for s5 and official show bible. She was shown to have a clearest attraction to Adrian and Felix, 2 men. Even if after she has broken up with Adrian (and no, not bc she realized she was lesbian, but bc he has fucking lied to her face and has broken up her heart) some people got an idea of her being a "lesbian with a comphet", this idea was destroyed again by her new attraction to Felix, another man.

However people are still gonna ignore her canon sexuality and call her a lesbian, by using "comphet" as a justification, or even by turning Felix and Adrian into transwomen, which isn't a justification to erase bi representation either anyways!

It's especially hurting since she's my favourite character I strongly relate to tho

9. Sayaka

Omg, Madoka Magica is an anime that includes girls who like girls. Almost all of the main characters are implied to be lesbians. But you know who's being headcanoned as a lesbian the most?? That's right! The only girl that likes boys too! What an irony, yeah? Sayaka has a huge romantic tension with Kyoka and has a canon crush on her male childhood friend – Kyosuke. So we can have the only bi rep out of 5 wlw girls. Ofc this rep was taken from us, bc some people wanna headcanon (or even impose it as canon) that the only bisexual girl is a lesbian with a comphet! Sure, yeah. Again, my favourite excuse for bi erasure, nothing's new, lol

10. Utena and Anthy

Another bisexual couple, who's coded sexuality is always getting erased. Uthena and Anthy love each other and even shared a kiss in one of the endings. The status of their relationship wasn't directly stated in anime, however everyone who has eyes can see their clear romantic and not only tension. Utena's another love interest is Touga, who was her childhood love who she was shown to have super clearest attraction throught the anime, and this attraction has no platonic explanation, so yeah, Utena ia attracted to both men and women and It's canon. The same goes for Anthy: she had strong feelings for Dios. Both characters are bi-coded and comphet was never there. People are just trying to use it as an excuse to bi erasure bc they want all wlw characters to be lesbians, that's all.

So, if someone is gonna say that I'm "denying comphet" or any other shit like that, no, I know it exists and I know a lot of lesbians go throught it and it deserves a representation too, but in such cases the difference between comphet and an actual attraction to men is so clear and you know that.

There are also examples of the characters who had or could have comphet:

Like Apple White, who thought she supposed to like Daring just bc he's "her destiny", but she never liked him (and even in her bio she says that just bc they have to marry, it doesn't mean they're dating) and her actual "true love", who's kiss made Apple wake up was Darling, his sister. And It's an actually good example of comphet bc of the society pressure. Or Yuzu (even tho for some reason some people still think she's bi) who was said to never be in love with anyone untill her step-sister, she even lied to her friends about having boyfriends bc she thought there was smth wrong with her since she isn't attracted to men. Also Velma and etc. Unfortunately there aren't that many examples, but even with these ones the difference between a lesbian with a comphet and a bisexual girl is obvious, so yeah, you just want an excuse to erase bisexuals and turn them into lesbians and it will never be okay

[bi-dykes]

would you happen to know if nate stevenson ever confirmed glimmer & bow to be bi specifically (like she did with catra & adora being lesbians), or just not straight? don’t get me wrong, i know they’re bi4bi and i’m not dismissing that, but i’m just curious because i feel like if it wasn’t explicitly stated and they weren’t in a wlm/mlw relationship, everyone would be headcanoning glimmer as a lesbian and some would probably want bow to just be a butch lesbian too 😭😭😭 i’m not even saying it happens in this fandom cause idk tbh but i’ve seen it happen so many other times with bi sapphic characters (i.e. poision ivy ofc)

also like… this is probably gonna make #somepeople without proper reading comprehension mad just by misinterpretation of what i’m actually trying to say here but i often presume writers mean “lesbian” as in “sapphic” since the latter isn’t as well known — like, they use it as an umbrella term regardless of whether that’s (historically) correct or not. my prime example would be caitlyn and vi from arcane; i’m absolutely okay with them being lesbians and i’m not erasing that fact at all but i think it’s worth keeping in mind that they weren’t confirmed by riot to be exclusively homosexual/wlw/“nmlnm”/etc. even though they may or may not very well be (i personally agree that they are). it’s another case of the google dictionary being unreliable because it relies on uneducated cishet ideas of queerness + terms so it simply defines “lesbian” as “wlw” (not even inclusive of nonbinary people) and “sapphic” as “relating to lesbians” or something like that.

anyway! sorry for making this too long, i had some thoughts but ended up ranting lol

Nate said “definitely not straight” specifically! I know that’s not the same as saying word for word “they’re bisexual”, but within the context, of both the show, and how neither of them are gay/lesbian, neither of them are aroace, saying “not straight” confirms them to be bisexual!

IMO, since bisexuality is more common and is the blanket statement under pan, omni, poly, etc. when a character is shown to be attracted to 2+ genders, they’re canon bi- now it’s up to the writers or the context of the show to specifically state whether the character is pan or anything else under the bi umbrella :) and it’s the same way in real life! If you want to discuss being attracted to 2+ genders, you will sound bisexual, unless you specify you’re pan etc underneath the bi umbrella

And here are the sources!

I KNOWWW fandom wikia is a sh💕t source, but they actually have the livestream itself to back it up! (Warning: it’s 4 hours long lol)

Chase lmao Vi and Caitlyn ARE specifically confirmed to be lesbians, not just sapphic. They are indeed exclusively homosexual wlw. The riot and league of legends twitter page had them with the lesbian flag (the new one, like the orange, white, pink one) so yeah. And this is official art; not like that fanart of Bubbline with the lesbian flag that Cartoon Network used for some godawful reason when they’ve both (or at least Marceline, and possibly Bubblegum) shown attraction to men. You are right about how some people have no reading comprehension skills tho. Like when Willow Wilson said that the latest Poison Ivy run would be loved by fans of lesbian stories and a good portion of readers jumped on that and ran with it and said that Ivy is their “canon” lesbian like uh? Ivy who wants to touch Batman’s pecs Ivy? Ivy who dated (and liked) a boy in college Ivy? Like the discourse around her is just starting to become funny to me now tbh tbh

LOL who would be headcannoning Bow as lesbian? He showed attraction to Sea Hawk, not really open to interpretation, it was quite obvious. I have tho seen him be headcannoned as gay and like. He’s soooo in love with Glimmer that gay headcannon is tone deaf lol.

No need to apologize! You can rant to me anytime :)) Thanks for the ask Chase 💙💜

[the-witches-you-couldnt-burn]

Drabble: Night’s Noir

An Adrien x Dick (Adrick?) life swap AU

It begins with Bruce who starts off as a hero seeking to revive his parents. Slowly he becomes villainous and tries to get the miraculous wish, the more people he comes to care for the more options he has for sacrifices.

Btw all the batboys are still adopted and have their backstories mostly the same

Bruce’s hero decay truly starts after Jason’s death

All of Gotham’s “villains” are akuma (Joker, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, ect)

Dick is ladybug ofc

I’m thinking maybe lone ladybug who uses circus costumes to disguise his other friends who are helping him (no chat noir)

Also I’m say that the miraculous isn’t the butterfly/moth miraculous but the bat miraculous

It functions the same as normal but the description changes slightly

It creates an echo chamber for bad thought that transforms the victim into its worst self

Bruce is the Villain Batman

Ok over to the Agreste’s

EMILLIE IS BATMAN welllllll she’s called Monarch (butterfly babe :p )

She ends up using the Lazarus pit

And Adrien and Gabriel discover her identity

They decide to help her

Adrien becomes her sidekick / partner

While Gabriel embraces his want to be a recluse and does computers, basically he becomes oracle

And Emilie still works as model and actress and everyone is just "no way she wouldn't have time" Her twin sister helps

Agender Felix who goes "well, there aren't rll girls in the family if there is a batgirl people won't think that hard"

Gabriel sighs and uses this as a chance to add more protection to felix’s torso (aka fake breasts)

How they meet

So Adrien and Mari meet like in canon

It’s always been Marinette’s dream to create a fashion empire in Paris

She wins a Wayne Enterprise competition and travels over there with Adrien (Emilie and Gabriel made him take a break)

#GoodAgresteParents

The vacation didn't last long, they thought Gotham was bad with Dark Cupid, Pixelator, Simon Says, Darkblade and others. But oh God Paris was so much worse

Mari is a Gotham Vigilante who has helped out the Agreste fam before, she specifically loved dealing with magic

Even if all odds are against her she takes pride in punching the magical bastard in their face

Adrien did not appreciate Marinette’s ego

Mari somehow gets targeted by an Akuma (the akumatised person is hunting her) and Adrien becomes ‘Black Cat’ (he knows the name isn’t creative, he was 13 and tired AF and panicked when the media cornered him)

He seeks out Paris’ heroes and helps them

Dick on instinct calls him ‘Chat Noir’, Adrien likes that

They manage to save Mari and De-evilise the akuma

Mari speaks her mind on the situation

She asks Dick why he doesn’t use the other miraculous, her logic is ‘if there’s one I’m sure there are others’.

He goes back to his ‘Master Fu’ (uhhhhh Alfred? Actually no Alfred will probably be the Natalie of this AU)

He finds out his ‘Master Fu’ is missing

He takes the miraculous box and hands out the miraculous to his trusted friends

He finds Mari and Adrien joking about on a rooftop

He admits to them he has been feeling numb lately and misses joking about like they do (the Wayne fam has a lot of unprocessed trauma and it’s become even worse when when akumations began to happen)

Fun fact: Bruce has weaponised his own children before, since they all have black hair, blueish eyes and roughly the same body shape they swap the miraculouses between them

Marinette leaves Adrien and Dick to talk

They begin to flirt

And Dick has never felt so safe

Adrien tells Dick about his vigilante family in Gotham and how they can help

They are connected to the Justice League but Dick refuses their help

He asks them to only monitor the situation and not participate

Adrien leaves saying “I’m fine having more stakeout dates with you.”

OR ORRR

“I’d be glad to continue observing that ass”

[thebooki3h]

Lukadamianette Au Part 2

First Here Next

We begin where we left off, with Luka and Marinette on one of the dates Luka Planned. Just because it makes sense in this, Luka and Mari arrive a week early

Because Mari is emancipated and excused herself for the first week of school before the trip during which the class is still in France bc they just ended summer and all that jazz. also I have decided that the trip has turned into a half semester exchange program even though this doesn’t make the most sense, but the French school thought the class could use a reward and tbh they just wanted to get the Akuma class out for awhile. Also this way they aren’t in Gotham for a whole semester of senior year. The trip is planned for the first half of the first semester of senior year. I know that this doesn't make a whole lot of sense but just stick with me.

They go sight seeing and basically on a week long date bc the following week begins the Wayne sponsored exchange program and when Luka has to work for Jagged. One day they go to museums, the next the go to famous parks around Gotham (which are thriving thanks to Poison Ivy), the next they see all of the famous villain spots (which are surprisingly popular tourist destinations bc for the most part they don’t get hit twice in short periods of time) which is a good cover for studying past bat battles. They take days in between to rest and use the inspiration they gained to make new songs or clothing designs. 

They share hotel room bc Mari’s parents stopped being her parents a long time ago and lost their say and bc Jagged says they are grown up enough to be responsible for their actions (which brings a blush to their cheeks every time bc “daaaaaddddd” “uncle jaggeeedddd”)

Mari also makes it her mission to visit all of the non chain coffee shops at least once while they are there bc coffee became her best friend when she was active as ladybug. She meets Tim in almost everyone because Tim also drinks coffee obsessively. Luka is more of a tea drinker because coffee interrupts his musical thought process and tea is less harsh. Marinette drinks tea when she wants to relax but coffee is the fuel of the gods. She expresses this to Tim and that's how they become acquainted bc finally someone understands his love for coffee. They exchange numbers after they run into each other for a fourth time. (Luka silently thinks that he might have to talk to Mari about her obsession of coffee again and if there is a rehab center for coffee drinkers) Tim learns that Mari is from the exchange class very quickly based off of Luka’s French accent as well as her light French accent that is mixed with a couple things he can’t quite place.

The class arrives, Lila ofc tried to pull something to leave Mari behind and she thought she was successful so she was gloating. She ofc took credit for the whole trip claiming that she was super close to the Waynes and that she helped Damian acclimate to his new school (she actually knows that Damian didn’t start living with his father until 10 bc why not). Mrs Bustier tries to check in under both her name and Lila’s name, both of which don’t work because they are A) an hour and a half early and B) all of the reservations are under the contest winners name (they have to ok their chaperones to use their name) C)Mrs Bustier told Mari to make all of the reservations under Mari’s name anyway and she totally forgot that. 

So the sit in the lobby for an hour, Lila has the whole class riled up bc Marinette isn't there and it is al her fault that they can’t get in to their rooms. Marinette shows up with Luka 15 mins before the class was supposed to show up (they had just gotten lunch at a cafe that jagged had recommended) and she is laughing and happy, which causes the class to BLOW UP in her face. She ignores them and checks everyone into their rooms. Kagami and Chloe share a suite bc they are rich in their own right and upgraded their shared room bc they are dating and signed up to be roommates. They got this okayed by Buister in writing JIC. Marinette as the contest winner also got a suite (the room she had been staying in with Luka that she just extended the booking for)

Lila and Alya obviously make a big fuss about them getting special treatment but bustier can’t do anything because Mari won’t let her. She secretly thinks Mari is a lost cause now but she tries her best to get her to see that she has to be a role model. Mari actually planned the whole trip and she did a fucking fantastic job bc its Mari and planning something is what she is great at. She has all of the bases covered including iternerary, bookings for food, emergency contact info, health info, info on Gotham, safety procedures and the whole shebang. All of which had to be approved by  Bustier and that Bustier has copies of but totally ignored.

The next day they try to pull the let’s leave an hour early to leave behind Marinette stunt. Not only does that fail because the tour can’t start until the contest winner is there, but they arrived before Wayne tower was even open to the public. Because jagged is extra he shipped Luka and Marinette motorcycles to Gotham bc they were going to be there for a couple months, they also got special permission from Wayne enterprises to park their bikes in the employee parking structures from Tim once he heard that they rode bikes as expensive as Jason’s. So she left early from the hotel with Luka(bc she knew that Bustier would leave her behind somehow) to go meet up with Tim at a new coffee place (one of his favorites). They end up riding on their respective bikes to WE together so they can hang out before the tour. Luka goes to a recording studio to meet up with Jagged, but not before a very passionate kiss goodbye, which makes Tim blush. (Tim may not seem like the biker type but he is a bat and he lives with Jason so he not only knows how to ride a motorcycle well has one, so it may not be his favorite mode of transportation but he’ll live)

So he and Marinette walk to WE about a half an hour before the class is supposed to be there in the middle of a debate on how best to brew coffee (Mari insists its French press) and low and behold they are there yelling at the receptionist. Mari gives Tim a look that says I’m so sorry you have to see this and yes I was not exaggerating walks up to the receptionist and apologizes for what she is about to do (not for the classes actions bc fuck them they can apologize for themselves she has learned to not take responsibility for others actions and she won’t let all that work go to waste). She then proceeds to yell, much louder than someone of her stature presumably should “SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I STG I WILL BREAK JOKER OUT OF ARKHAM AND LOCK HIM IN A ROOM WITH ALL OF YOU WITHOUT FLINCHING” this is shocking to everyone, especially mrs bustier who is  scandalized  that her role model student would do something like this.

Tim had a feeling that something video worthy would happen so as soon as she walked away he started recording, and he was NOT disappointed. The video gos straight to the batfam gc and Luka immediately. He powered off his phone then he proceeds to start laughing and applauding. Upon seeing the CEO’s reaction the rest of the employees start applauding as well bc damn those kids were rude. Tim then walks up to Mari talking at a speed no one but Mari, Chloe and Kagami could understand (bc the class is not fluent in English no matter what they would tell you). Mari proceeds to blush once he informs her that he sent a video to Luka (he does not tell her about the batfam gc)

Chloe and Kagami are immediate intrigued bc this is NOT what they picture when Mari said she met someone who loves coffee as much as she does. they may be hella gay for each other but damn that man is ripped. They join the convo while the class remains befuddled bc who knew Mari even swore. in the back of his mind Nino is reminded of a young blue-eyed girl who lost playground privileges for a week bc someone made fun of his glasses and proceed to punch said someone in the nose. But he shakes it of because Mari hasn’t been like that in years. 

Bustier eventually collects herself and gently, so as not to cause an Akuma (apparently she didn't get the memo), reminds Mari that they are here for a tour and she needs to get the class their passes.  So Mari leaves her friends to get acquainted and goes up to the receptionist, to whom she apologizes for her actions again, and the receptionist replies with a laugh and a “honey, you just made my week, there's no need to apologize I should be thanking you” (she does thank Mari). Mari gets a special pass bc she’s the contest winner to which Lila and Alya (then the rest of the class for the most part) proceed to throw a hissy fit over. The receptionist is so over them though and doesn’t even blink. 

Then their tour guide shows up. (its Dick and his assistant Damian). Damian proceeds to scold the class for a solid ten mins (which coincidentally leads up to their scheduled time to start the tour). Dick slides off to talk to the receptionist and his brother who isn't working and is talking to real people for once. Just for that they are his favorite out of the class. Tim unfortunately has to go to work so they talk to Dick to get acquainted until the tour has to officially start. 

Los tres amigos are the only ones who pay attention to Dick at all (he leads the tour bc he’s been there the longest but Damian throws in a comment here or there mostly related to shenanigans his family has gotten into but overall useful facts. for example these windows are reinforced because our CEO (Tim) leaned up against one, fell asleep and fell through the window to the office below.)

The rest of the class is focused on Lila who is talking a whole bunch of nonsense about the Wayne family and how she has helped them with their business. Some things actually sound kinda legit, but Mari and Co. know that it is BS. Dick tries to bet bustier involved but she makes an excuse for Lila and goes on her phone and doesn’t really pay attention. 

Eventually the class tour turns into Dick talking to Mari, Chloe and Kagami while the class vaguely follows them. Damian doesn’t really say anything because he generally doesn’t do well talking to strangers and these girls seem ok and he is still insecure (not that he would ever admit it to anyone ) about social interaction now that he has figured out how people who weren’t raised as assassins act. That is until Dick starts talking about shenanigans that his brothers get into, and Damian jumps in correcting him because  I did not try to tackle Todd, Grayson I did tackle Todd quite successful and also Alfred won’t let you into the kitchen anymore because you almost burned down the east wing of the manor not  because he is territorial over the kitchen. And Mari hadn’t really paid attention to Damian until now but OH MY KAWAMI he is hot, and how did she talk so long to notice that. 

She ends up taking a pic of Damian without him noticing (he really doesn’t notice which is a feat in itself but Dick does and he will  be teasing Damian about it later bc obviously) and she texts it to Luka bc if she is going to freak out over his hotness she wants Luka to do so too. ( he sees the pic in the middle of recording and he ends up needing a water break bc gay panic and he really is extremely handsome. Recording gets delayed even longer bc jagged cannot pass up the opportunity to tease him son and he does so mercilessly and Mari totally knew what she was doing when she sent that picture) Luka ends up demanding that she gets Damians number or he will because that man is fine.  

Mari now knows that the stuttering idolization that she had with Adrien wasn’t really healthy and Luka likes to remind her all the time that she can be smooth when she wants to be (sometimes unintentionally but she practices on Luka because she loves to see him blush). Mari then makes it her mission to compliment Damian as much as possible so that it is crystal clear and very obvious that she is flirting with him. If he even shows a little discomfort in a negative I don’t like this kind of way she will stop because she will not make someone go through what she went through with Chat Noir and unwanted advances.

Chloe, Kagami and Dick immediately notice that she is flirting with Damian. Chloe takes a video for Luka bc she knows that he would want to see this and Dick takes a video for the Batfam gc. 

Just to be clear Mari and Luka have talked about seeing other people and maybe adding a third person to their relationship as long as they talk about it. that line of communication was opened when Mari sent a pic of Damian to Luka and when Luka asked for his number that was his “go ahead” for her to flirt with Damian. Lila doesn’t understand how that works and neither do the rest of the class so that is a point of contention between the class and Mari. She would NEVER cheat on Luka, she loves him and he is the most important person to her in the world. Something that Juleka understands (she just doesn’t like Mari bc of Lila she knows how polyamory works this is why her and Luka aren't as close as they used to be)

Moving on... the batfam gc blows up for a second time that day and so when the class goes to the cafeteria Tim just has to see this for himself. Mari tries not to be obnoxious in her flirting so she compliments Damians intelligence by asking him questions that weren't included in the tour, and she asks him about his interests and is like that must have taken a lot of time to perfect you must be very dedicated. Damian isn’t used to genuine compliments especially from strangers so he is very flustered by it but he makes no indication for her to stop. 

The day winds down and the class has some free time before they have to go to dinner but the do have to leave the tower. Mari does actually get Damians number (he thinks she must be very well trained to get his number that quick bc he refuses to accept that he gave it to her because he likes her) Mari promises to ft him later bc he promised to let her meet his dog and she doesn’t want to wait until the class has dinner at the manor to see Titus.

First Here Next

Taglist

@dood-space

@toodaloo-kangaroo

Also I’m not very sure about how to go back and edit posts to link new parts so if anyone knows how to do that please comment or message me because I would love to learn!

[dyketectivecomics]

tell us about the roller derby AU!! <3

(tysm anon bc this got me to get my ass in gear abt actually writing it all down fdskl;fjla ALSO shout out to zom for leaving a reply <3 ty both omg)

OKAY, first things first. This started bc I was thinking abt the Sirens doing Derby together (OBVIOUSLY Harleys idea) BUT 3 players isn’t enough for a team (you need 3 blockers, a pivot and a jammer afterall) so this team HINGES on the fact that GCS had that brief team-up with Talia and Zatanna and the pure Chaos of them permanently joining the sirens in the mainverse is something I want to explore sometime in the future but ANYWAYS they also need a team to play against and I’m Nothing if not Consistent so OFC this is Sirens vs Birds

cue Same Age-Range College Setting, Roller Derby Focus AU. Everyone’s attending Uni at Gotham State and yes I have majors in mind too, for the Sirens we got undergrads Harley: Psych, Ivy: Botany, Selina: Art History, Talia: Anthropology, Zatanna: Theater. For the Birds, (grad student she’s fast-tracking) Babs: library science, (undergrads) Dinah: Music, Helena: Undeclared, Zinda: doesn’t actually Go Here lmao

now u might be saying “wait a min randy, that’s only four birds. DIDNT u JUST say u need 5 players for a team?” And yes. Yes I did. The Birds is actually a BIGGER team than the Sirens and includes anyone who has ever been on the BoP team ever. They’re all here! And there’s a lot of them that rotate in and out of the roster but for the sake of simplicity we’ll focus on those four as Main members.

So let’s talk positions, play style & other stuff!

so Harley is the Jammer, don’t fix what isn’t broken. I like the idea of Talia being the Pivot bc ofc she’d want to be in charge. Which leaves Ivy, Selina & Zee as the blockers

 YES Selina plays damn near as dirty as Harley does lmao. In fact if we rank them by how often they play Renegade vs Regulation, you’ve got, Harley, Selina, Talia, Ivy (all at varying degrees of being FAR at the renegade-end of the spectrum) and Zee is more like just Right of center in favor of Regulation (but not above elbowing an opponent or ‘accidentally’ tripping them up if they’re REALLY close to winning) 

Derby names MOSTLY follow their costumed personas, like Poison Ivy and Catwoman, but then there’s also Gnarley Quinn (currently taking suggestions for Zee n Talia tho bc... well they DONT have names other than their own really lmao)

For the Birds, Zinda is the Jammer, Dinah is the pivot, Helena is a blocker, Babs is actually the team manager & former pivot. Harley gave her a BAD injury during an end-of-season bout and kicks off the rivalry btwn the teams at the start of the plot. (Other birds in the rotation play blockers and jammers as needed. Helena will step up as pivot if Dinah can’t make a bout)

All the Birds PRACTICE regulation derby but....  well, when you put on your skates and the ref blows the whistle, what happens next can’t be helped (but esp after babs’ injury if its a Sirens vs Birds bout they’re out for BLOOD)

Yes their derby names are the same as their hero names, and yes ppl still call Babs Oracle even tho she doesn’t put on the skates as much even after her knee heals

Outfits and Skates:

okay, so OBVSLY zee & dinah are still VERY much the Fishnet Queens™, but i can totally see Harley, Selina & Zinda joining them. can’t have derby w/o SOME ppl wearing fishnets after all fjldka;s

also i know that derby’s sometimes a bit more butch and some ppl take issue with Zinda’s miniskirt but listen i am GAY and a SUCKER for vintage inspired looks and really? skirts and skates go hand in hand BEAUTIFULLY. the skirt STAYS for zinda

actually im a sucker for bombshells!Ivy’s dresses too, i know the big fandom push has been towards making her more butch but LISTEN.

wait, do i actually just want to see Bombshells on skates is that what all this is about. im gonna scre-

everyone else’s looks im still trying to figure out in my own brain but tbh, any artists out there who feel like doing their own spin on superhero inspired looks for these guys im *eyes emojis* would LOVE to see that actually would love to see that A LOT

imagine everyone color-coding their wheels, though, omg i need that

outside of derby i think Harley & Dinah would be rlly into jam/rhythm skating, Zee, Selina & Talia would like artistic skating, and Helena & Zinda would be into speed skating. Ivy and Babs like supporting their friends & esp their gfs but actually they’re trying rlly hard not to show them up bc theyre both pretty good at jam/rhythm themselves fjdkls

Now for the Extra Relationship Stuff:

Obvsly almost all of the sirens have dated each other at some point. Whether in the past or over the course of going to uni together. Cue even More Drama when Talia and Selina break up and Both start pursuing soon-to-be-drop-out Bruce (the dropping out is unrelated to the drama itself but I just think it’s funny if even in an AU setting Bruce drops out of college aksjak)

also listen ever since i read those GCS issues with Talia and Zee I’ve NEEDED to see Selina/Talia/Zee so so so badly. its my AU and its happening some fucking how i’ll make it work shut uppppp

Also I’m gonna throw in some real slowburn HarlIvy bc once again it’s MY AU AND I DO WHAT I WANT.

Yes Dinah and Zee become star-crossed/rival-to-lovers in this. Havent actually decided which way I wanna go bc starcrossed is Fun, but rivals gives me DRAMA and with them both being diff arts majors could Add to that aksj

the Birds marginally have their dynamics together better than the Sirens, but every so often there’s some communication issues bc yes, we need all the Drama in this!!! I demand it!!!

So yeah, if/when I ever plot this out, it would be something with equal focus on changing relationship and team dynamics, and then focus on how well each of the teams are doing leading up to the Big Bout where the Birds are out to Avenge Oracle. And do they succeed? I guess you’d have to read to find out lmao

Coming to a fanfic site near you...... eventually.......

[saiilorstars]

Rise Up

Ch.9: A Legend

Previous Story: It Had To Be You || Current Masterlist

Pairings: Barry Allen x OFC

Chapter Summary: Team Flash comes across a man hell-bent on killing Cisco's new girlfriend. As they try to stop him, they meet a mysterious woman also searching for the very man they are trying to stop. She calls herself the Jinx but according to the records, she doesn't exist. It leaves the question of where she came from.

This chapter (and the next) is a prequel that eventually leads to Graciela’s full story Redemption.

Pronunciation of OC: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog​ @maaaaarveeeeel​ @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles [If you’d like to be part of this OC’s taglist, let me know!]

A bright white and blue light appeared out of thin air in the middle of the woods, close to Central City. From it emerged a slim female figure. A metal device strapped to her wrist beeped with the same color of the portal. The woman aimed her wrist, that held the device, at the portal. It emitted a white light that seemed to the suck the portal right in. She started walking down the woods, her figure partially covered by the mist in the air.

"What's my location?" her English voice inquired.

'About twenty miles off Central City, Miss Haynez," a computerized voice from the wrist-device answered.

"And the date?"

"November 17, 2017."

"Excellent," the woman grinned and walked even faster.

~ 0 ~

Joe and Patty stood on both sides of Barry, all three staring at the gruesome pictures of their newest case. Barry had already snapped the needed evidence pictures to bring back and examine, while also swiping any physical evidence pieces he could find. They'd found various corpses down at a dock with no surviving witness to the attack. But the blood spilled was...was on a whole other level.

"Man, this was a bloodbath," Joe said, truly surprised by what they were seeing. No metahuman had yet to be so violent.

"Done by one person," Barry put down the picture he held, setting it next to the other pictures on the desk.

"One person did all this?" Patty quickly took another look at the pictures.

"Oh, yeah, you can see from the blood pattern," Barry tapped a finger over one picture, "This guy was shot first-" he moved his finger to the next picture, "-then the police chief, then these three were stabbed before finishing off the captain."

Patty knew she would never cease to be surprised. "Wow. Do you think a meta-human did it?"

"I don't know, but I found this in all of the stab victims' wounds," Barry picked up a small plastic bag with a piece of a golden knife. "It's some type of cryptocrystalline... Flint, most likely... Probably broke off the blade during the fight. I'll run it to make sure."

"Let's see what stores sell those kind of flint knives," Joe said to Patty and started heading out.

"Will do," Patty followed him. However, just at the threshold, she forced herself to stop and turned sideways. "Uh, Barry, do you know...if...if Belén is okay?" As Barry looked her way, Patty stepped back into the lab, looking pretty nervous. "It's just, the last time I spoke to her...it was about her Mom and...I haven't really spoken to her anymore, so...do you know if she's upset with me?" But even as Barry opened his mouth to assure it had nothing to do with her, Patty rambled on. "Because I really didn't want to cause problems." She just grew tired of Veronica always being on her case about all these mysterious cases handled by Joe and Barry. And to be honest, Patty didn't really see anything wrong with those cases. Joe and Barry had done what they could with those cases since they were all pretty much finished by the Flash and his team. What else could they, the regular ones, do?

"She's fine, Patty, and definitely not mad at you," Barry finally got a word in. Patty, relieved, began to smile. "She's just having problems with her Mom but it's between them I promise."

"Okay," Patty nodded, slowly convincing herself that Barry was telling the truth. "I wanted to make sure, sorry."

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to tell her you're worried," Barry smiled, actually touched that Patty felt this need to make sure their friendship was intact.

"Okay, thanks," Patty sheepishly smiled and finally went on her way.

As soon as she was gone, Barry released a breath and turned back to his work. He felt a bit sorry for Patty that she had to go through all this as an innocent bystander in the crossovers of Belén and her mother. He, himself, wasn't feeling all that well about it. He had to help Belén with her problems as well as be there to comfort her, and he had to take having her mother all around his workplace. Veronica Green was turning out to be a right nuisance but Barry would never say that out loud. He was trying to make himself understand that Veronica was trying to be a mother and care for her daughter...even if it did annoy the hell out of him sometimes.

~0~

Later that day, Barry had gone to STAR Labs to continue training with the help of Harry, and today Caitlin. While he ran on his special treadmill, Harry and Caitlin monitored his readings.

"He just hit 1,375," Caitlin read off the screens and looked at Harry, seeing he wasn't at all impressed.

"What's the fastest Barry's run?"

"Little over Mach two, when he ran back in time."

Harry remained unimpressed. "That's not good." He pushed the inter comm. button. "That's good, Barry." Caitlin shot him a look, not at all agreeing to lie. "We have our work cut out for us."

Barry came into the monitoring room, out of breath. "I'm not getting faster, am I?"

Caitlin awkwardly glanced at Harry for some help to be gentle. "Well…"

"No, you're not," Harry flatly said. Caitlin shut her eyes and inwardly sighed.

Barry did his best not to look so upset. "Alright, well, let's fix this, right? I mean, I can't beat Zoom at this speed. It felt like I was standing still next to him."

Before Caitlin could give him some words of reassurance, Harry coldly agreed. "That's because you practically were. Zoom is at least three, four times faster than you at this point."

Caitlin sighed. "How is he so much faster than Barry is and Jay was?"

"Physiology, form, strength, could be a number of things…" Harry paused and gave Barry a sharp study. "Attitude, diet."

Barry rolled his eyes. "Okay, all right, well, there's gotta be something we can do about it, so let's just figure it out... fast, okay?"

"We will," Caitlin nodded.

"Okay," Barry leaned off the threshold. "Where's Bells? She said she was coming here earlier."

"Off training with Cisco," Caitlin replied.

"Off also not doing as well, I should mention," Harry muttered, turning to the readings beside them.

Barry glared. He could take any criticism against him but not about Belén. "She is doing her best, okay?"

"Her 'best' won't be okay when she's up against a siphoner and probably Poison Ivy."

"Let's not focus on that right now," Caitlin told the two before they started going back and forth in an argument. "Barry, Cisco has a date tonight so I doubt he and Belén will be practicing late."

"Thanks, Cait," Barry gave her a polite nod and went off without sparing a look at Harry.

~0~

"Ye-ha-ha!" Cisco punched the air after Belén managed to strike down three of his practice targets.

Belén's skin faded from its green shade, and as she released a breath, she returned to her normal self. With a grin on her face, she turned to where Cisco monitored her. "I got it?"

"Girl, you got it!" Cisco laughed.

Belén glanced at the targets that were completely mangled with her vines. This was the first real session that worked in her favor and she could not be happier. She just tried to forget the fact these were targets and not the actual Datura. "Again?" she anxiously asked.

Cisco's excitement faded momentarily. "Well, uh, actually…"

Belén tilted her head and stared at her friend. "Cisco, you got plans?" she remembered he was still dating that barista and made her own conclusions. "Is there a date I'm butting into?"

Cisco pursed his lips. "I, n-no, not...not butting...no…"

Belén laughed and started walking towards him. "So butting in. I'm not going to ruin your date with the-" she cleared her throat and mimicked his voice, "-lovely Kendra Saunders."

Cisco mockingly glared at her. "Not funny!"

"Yeah, so funny actually," Belén had herself a good laugh.

Cisco raised an eyebrow, and thought of the quickest way to get her back. "Alright then, Mrs. Allen, you want a lift back home?"

And Belén's laughter ceased to exist. Her face went utterly red.

Cisco victoriously smirked.

~0~

When Cisco finished his round of laughter, he finally took Belén home in order to make it in time to his own date. Belén wearily made her way up to her own apartment. She unlocked her door and stepped inside, only to be surprised by finding Barry already there.

"So, since it's been a long while, and I figured you're tired, movie date-night?" Barry gestured to the various snacks set on her coffee table and to the television already turned on.

Belén started smiling and walking towards him. "You're the best boyfriend ever." She slung her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips.

"I like to think I am," Barry chuckled alongside her. He kissed her temple and sat them down on the couch.

"Making you a second key was the best thing I ever did," Belén reached for a box of licorice while Barry picked a movie for them.

"Yeah, I heard you went training with Cisco so I thought a nice relaxing night was something you would like," Barry shrugged. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.

"I think we both needed it," Belén hummed. She rested her head on his chest and smiled when she remembered her gain earlier. "I took down some particularly hard targets."

"That's great!" Barry shifted a bit on his side to meet Belén's happy face.

"Now if I can do that with Datura I'll be golden," Belén drew in a deep breath. Datura had been gone for a few days now, as well as Zoom, and while she tried to be happy about it she couldn't help feel like Datura was up to something. She would return with something worse for them.

"We'll find a way," Barry pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You want to pick a movie?"

"Uh, how about my favorite musical? Mamma Mia?"

Barry pretended to groan. "We've watched that like 50 times already!"

"So the 51st shouldn't be so hard anymore," Belén grinned innocently. "Promise to give you kisses throughout the movie?"

Barry pretended to think about the deal. "You mean it?"

Belén rolled her eyes at him. "Sure."

"No, but you gotta say it like you mean it!"

Belén grabbed him by the collars of his shirt and kissed him for a good minute. "How's that for meaning it?"

Barry's face was so dazed, just like his mind. She started laughing at him which pulled him out of his trance. "That's not funny!"

"It is from my end!"

"Belén would you-" But Barry was cut off at the sound of both his and Belén's phones going off at the same time.

"So much for movie night," Belén fished her phone out of her jean's pocket. "Huh, it's Cisco."

"He's in trouble," Barry realized. "I thought he was on a date but..."

"We need to go!" Belén exclaimed as she got up from the couch. Though she grabbed some licorice on their way out.

~ 0 ~

Jitters at night time had never looked as bad as it did to Cisco right now. Kendra had tried to create a perfect date for them by cooking dinner for them and having a movie ready to go over the rooftop. Everything would've been dandy had it not been for the strange man with a long beard and a long coat who decided to stop by.

Vandal Savage was not a patient man. What he wanted he got, and Kendra Saunders would not be the exception. He chucked forwards a silver weapon but missed as Cisco and his date, Kendra, jumped to the sides. Barry sped in with Belén and while the former attempted to punch Savage directly, Savage semeed to be ready for it.

Belén, on the other hand, went to Cisco and Kendra and helped them get up. "Who the hell is that guy?"

"I wish I knew!" Cisco said with the biggest scowl on his face. "He's ruining our date!"

Belén looked back when she heard Barry's body crash over a table. "I think your date is the least of our problems right now!" Belén struck a vine forwards to pay Savage with the same coin. It struck him to the side and as she was charging for him, a wave of purple energy came bursting through the door and, as simple as it sounded, it made Belén slip on the floor.

Savage thought it was his lucky moment as he pulled himself off the floor. "Pathetic," he spat first then attempted to continue with his own attack.

However, a woman appeared at the entrance with the most visible hatred on her face. "There you are," she, too, spatted but at Savage only.

Savage turned around, surprised someone would speak to him in that familiarity since he had never seen the woman in his life. "Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter," the woman briefly made eye contact with the others in the room. "If everything goes well you'll never know my name." She started smirking for some reason, but she decided to let Savage in on her secret. She pointed up to the ceiling. Savage followed her gaze and missed the light purple energy beam emit from the her fingertip. It hit the curtains above them and caused the poles sustaining it to creak and come collapsing down.

"Hey!" Barry sped towards them and pushed them out into the roadside.

"NOOO!" the woman screeched as her body tumbled against a mailbox. She shook her head and the pain from her fall to see where Savage had landed. It had been too late, though, because he was gone. "NO!" she screamed frantically and got up from the ground. "I had him!"

"You know him?" Barry called from his spot, eyeing the woman suspiciously. He only looked away to see Belén, Cisco and Kendra running out from Jitters to see where they landed.

The mysterious woman rose from the ground and blew on the hair in front of her face. Her light brown hair that was just above her shoulders framed her youthful face. Her eyes were dark and fierce, and very angry, though Barry realized it wasn't geared towards him.

Thank God because she's scary, he thought.

She wore a purple and black leather outfit that started off with a sleeveless, purple crop-shirt that had a small v-neck style. There was a bit of a black outline defining the v-neck style. Though, the crop shirt seemed to be connected at the armpits to a black, short-sleeved coat. Said coat covered the sides of her stomach, remaining permanently opened, and formed a long, twisted tail behind her. She wore knee-length, black boots over dark purple pants. And to finish it off, she had a dark, purple choker around her neck.

"I know him enough," the woman dusted herself off. She looked him over with great interest, then glanced at Belén to do the same. Her lips curled into a smile once she recognized them. "And I know you two - I read about you. History's even better when you see it with your own eyes."

"Who the hell are you?" Belén went straight for the question. She had enough with mysterious metas coming into their city to terrorize their people. "And do you know that man?"

The woman seemed to debate whether or not she should disclose her identity, but after a minute she gave a small nod. "You can call me...Jinx. And that man? It doesn't matter because I'm going to find him and kill him before he hurts anyone else. So, for everyone's sake, best stay out of my way, Azalea, Flash. I don't mean this city harm except for that man," Jinx warned and stepped forwards. "He's mine."

Jinx swung an arm forwards and shot purple beams again that forced the fire hydrant near Barry to shoot a violent gush of water directly at him and the others. It was how she made her escape.

~ 0 ~

The next day, everyone reported to STAR Labs to discuss what Belén, Barry, Cisco (and Kendra) dealt with. It also revealed that Cisco had, rather stupidly, revealed to Kendra that Barry was the Flash. Both Harry and Joe were still giving Cisco disapproving stares.

"I can't believe you're The Flash," Kendra could not stop saying, then glancing to Cisco, "And that you work with The Flash."

Cisco chuckled but was of course still hitting himself for his imprudence. "Yeah, let's keep that on the DL."

"And you're the Azalea," Kendra pointed at Belén with the same awe.

"You are so incredibly stupid my friend," Belén patted Cisco's arm and shook her head.

"Agreed," went Harry under his breath but still received a sharp glance from Cisco.

"Alright, so what exactly happened?" Caitlin asked the group in question.

"There was an mass homicide at the docks two nights ago and it left behind a scrap of knife that I analyzed," Barry pointed to the gold knife laying on the table. "It's the same knife used to kill the men at the docks. Residue is a perfect match."

"So it is the same guy," Joe noted.

"Definitely. But the thing is, these blades are old, centuries old."

"He nicked it off some museum then," Belén theorized.

"Do you have any idea why this guy would be after you?" Iris decided to question Kendra on anything that could help them.

"No, I've never seen him before in my life," Kendra swore to them all.

"Lots of these metahumans often don't have reasons to go after a person," Caitlin reminded, and everyone missed Barry's unsure expression.

"Well, he was certainly acting like he knew you," Cisco looked at Kendra. "He kept calling her Priestess Chay-Ara."

"That's Coptic," Harry pointed.

"In English, please?" Belén motioned for the translation.

"He means Egyptian," Caitlin said, though she herself still seemed a bit unsure.

"You know, that woman - Jinx - she was talking in a way like...like she knew about timelines," Barry remembered the strange woman. "Like you say-" he said to Cisco, "-that the guy was talking to you two."

"You think they're connected?" Caitlin asked.

"I can't be sure but she definitely wants him dead," Barry nodded.

"Iris and I were doing research on her and check out what we found," Belén moved over to the computers with Iris. "I mean, at first all we came across when we typed in 'Jinx' were these weirdos on the internet."

"Not surprising," Joe said on the side.

"But we had to figure out what she was," Iris continued, "Is she a metahuman? What can she do?"

"Oh c'mon," Cisco interrupted them, almost rolling his eyes, "The woman named herself Jinx - what does that tell you? She's bad luck, people!"

The others had to agree on the powers of the stranger.

"Killer name," Cisco had to add.

"But it's deeper than that," Belén started bringing up different headlines from different times, along with different pictures of women. "We didn't find one single picture of our mystery Jinx, but we found boatloads of other women from previous years with the same name."

Barry stepped forwards to get a better look at the different pictures. "They're all named Jinx?"

"Jinx, the Jinx, it's the same name really but they're all from different areas," Iris pointed out. "They're mostly grouped in America and England, though."

"Well, our Jinx had an English accent so we should focus on England," Barry said.

"But even then," Belén pulled down the tabs that weren't dealing with the English Jinxes, "None of them relate to ours. They have no similar appearances, but they do have one thing in common: they're all well known criminals in their times."

"And bad ones," Iris added to make sure they understood they were not dealing with their regular metas. "They have some wicked crimes under their names."

"Were any of them ever brought in?" asked Cisco, now feeling like he had to swallow down a ball in his throat.

"No," went the two reporters together.

"An interesting thing is that each Jinx seemed to disappear in their older years," Belén started going through some of the profiles for show, "1940s London Jinx disappeared when she was around 50. 1990s Bristol Jinx disappeared around her 60s. Before 1940, we had another Jinx in Cambridge who disappeared in her 60s."

"It's like they retiring or something," Kendra said as a light-hearted joke, but her words rang truth for some of the others.

"It could be like a mantle passing down generations," Caitlin theorized as she walked up to stand beside Barry in front of the screen on the wall. "Each Jinx has their daughter, or a niece, and once that daughter or niece becomes ready they take the place of the elder Jinx."

"That's great but how does this help us right now?" asked Joe.

"It lets us know that we're dealing with someone who knows her way around a fight," Belén crossed her arms. "If I had to say, she's had some good training based on these previous Jinxes. Our Jinx may be the current one and she's just getting started. She's a criminal and we have to bring her down too. But to find her, I'm guessing we need to find this man first. So," she turned around and looked directly at Kendra, "Why does this man have it out for you."

Kendra was startled with the implication that she would know why she was being targeted. "I...I don't know. I don't know either of them."

"This guy, he's clearly incredibly dangerous as well as Jinx, so I need you to at least let us try to protect you," Barry said, hoping she would listen to them on the first try. Thankfully, Kendra agreed.

"I can put a detail on her," Joe offered.

Cisco shook his head. "You didn't see this guy, Joe. No offense, but I don't think a cop is going to be able to protect her."

"To be fair, they are getting better with metahumans," Belén meant to be kind but even Barry agreed the police weren't up for this sort of task.

"We're going to need some friends' help...in Star City."

Belén gaped, as did everyone else who understood what Barry meant.

~ 0 ~

A short moment after giving a brief description of their plan, Belén and Cisco went after Barry to try and discuss the matter.

"What could possibly be that bad that we need to leave the city?" Belén asked that while staring at both men, knowing there was something one of them wasn't explaining. "Scratch that-" she made a motion with her hands, "-what's so bad that you want to go to Oliver for help?"

"I mean, she's sort of right…" Cisco swayed his head, giving Belén a clear understanding that Cisco was just as lost as she was. "We've fought meta-humans with abilities a lot worse than knife-throwing."

"I don't think this guy's a meta-human. There's something different about him…" Barry thought for the right word, "...something, ah, mystical. Even Jinx seems kind of off."

Belén and Cisco exchanged unimpressed glances.

"Mystical, really?" Cisco repeated.

"We stop meta-humans because we're scientists. We can figure out what their weaknesses are, but we don't have any experience when it comes to guys like this, with magic. They do."

"Are you sure Oliver is going to want to help us, though?" Belén raised an eyebrow.

"He'd probably be more inclined if a certain pretty girl asked nicely," Barry sent her a cheeky smile.

"Sure, let me get Felicity on the line," Belén crossed her arms.

"That could help too!"

Belén groaned. "On one condition."

"Which would be…?"

"I want to come too."

It was easy to tell Barry wasn't exactly liking that idea. "I - this guy is dangerous, Bells. He's not even a metahuman and it scares me!"

"You're forgetting that when I was training with Oliver I had my fair share of non-metahuman ass to kick," Belén continued with arms crossed and a straight face. "What else you got?"

Barry looked at Cisco for some help. Cisco quickly put his hands up, deciding this was not his argument. "I'm just going to go tell Kendra when we leave…" he made up fast and rushed away.

"Well, what excuse you do you have for me?" Belén challenged rather smoothly.

Barry racked his mind for the kindest, gentlest, way to make her see his logic. "Your Mom, Sherlock-cop, is behind you like a hawk. What do you think she's going to do if you leave the city all of a sudden?"

Belén faltered with that idea planted in her head. "Well, I...I don't…"

"You haven't decided if you want to tell her anything about all this-" Barry made a gesture to the place, "-and I think if you leave and all of a sudden there's sightings of the Azalea in Star City where she'll inevitably know you went to...don't you think she might put two and two?"

Belén thought about it with the time and effort the matter deserved and ultimately knew that Barry was right. "I hate dating a scientist sometimes."

"No you don't," Barry chuckled.

"I really do - sometimes I just wanna hit you with your stupid books!"

"You're just cranky and I'll let all those comments go," Barry pulled her into a hug, ignoring her muffled 'I'm not cranky' as he held her tightly.

~ 0 ~

Patty was once more looking over the evidence left behind by Barry on their bloodbath homicide case. She no longer felt surprised having Veronica constantly peer over her shoulders to observe the case as well.

"You could just take a seat, you know," Patty went ahead and handed one of the pictures to Veronica.

This time, Veronica made no snappy response. She merely took the picture and studied it. Patty looked up to see the older woman's blank face. It didn't appear Veronica was even examining the picture in her hand.

Although she felt awkward asking, Patty forced herself to be just polite and talk. "Is everything alright?"

Veronica seemed to snap out of her trance and put the picture down on Patty's desk. "Yes, of course. Um, so are there any leads on that knife bit yet?"

"No, not yet, it's in the process…" Patty answered the question out of professionalism but couldn't stop the conversation there, not when she was sure that it had to do with Belén. "Detective Green, are you sure there isn't anything wrong?"

Veronica gave Patty a long look before shaking her head and leaving the office room. On her way out, she bumped into Joe, and she called it her streak of unluckiness for that day. "I'm sorry," she gave a polite apology then hastily tried getting away.

"Detective?" Joe turned after her. "Are you alright?"

Veronica groaned but came to a halt and turned sideways. "I could do without your fake care, Joe. We all know you and your adoptive son are praying for me to get the hell out of this place."

Joe was not expecting that type of hostility against him personally, maybe a little for Barry. "Uh, it's not fake, and I would appreciate if you left Barry out of your problems with your daughter." Veronica, raising an eyebrow, slowly turned around. "It can't be easy to try and rebuild a relationship with your estranged daughter but Barry has only ever tried to make your daughter happy."

Veronica looked around, probably reminding herself that they were not alone to make a spectacle. She came back to Joe, speaking lowly between them. "I don't deny that he is. Truth be told, he seemed like a very a nice young man the times I have been with him an Belén. That, however, does not excuse all the sketchy cases done between you and him and those metahumans. It does not excuse the fact that I know he and Belén are hiding something from me - something that you know about as well. Now I think knowing all this, and putting yourself in my perspective, you would understand my reasons to have a little dislike towards your son."

At that, Joe could not and would not argue. He remembered when he first found out that Barry had begun making rounds in the city trying to be a hero. He felt a deep pit of terror in his stomach, and a big case of helplessness. In the end, a parent - no matter if it's biological or adoptive - only wanted their children to be safe. Veronica, at the moment, could not fulfill that desire because Belén had not told her the truth.

"If you'll excuse me, Detective, I need to go work on our latest case," Veronica spoke in her regular tone and walked away.

~ 0 ~

"So they're just gone, then?" Iris stood beside Belén at the latter's desk, both holding cups of coffees. Iris was still in the dark about Oliver Queen's vigilante's side and therefore only knew Barry was going to the Arrow in the next city.

Belén gave a small nod. "Mhm. I wanted to go but Barry pulled out his logical crap that I usually lose at, so…"

Iris smiled teasingly. "Been there so many times. It's annoying, actually."

"You're telling me. Now here I am, doing my work," Belén motioned to her computer where a half-written article was.

"And that-" said a new, female voice, "-is never something to be so glum about."

Belén quickly leaned forwards on her chair, just as Iris turned to the side and giving Belén a clear view of CC Pictures' visitor. "Laurel?" a great smile spread across Belén's face as she got up.

Laurel Lance stood tall and cheery at the doorway, happy to see her lifelong friend.

"What are you doing here?" Belén put down her cup on her desk and went to greet Laurel.

"I am visiting my mother and I thought why not stop by to visit my friend?" Laurel gave Belén a hug and whispered, "And to talk about the Azalea."

Belén pulled away with a chuckle. "It's okay, Laurel, she knows," she made a gesture back to Iris. "Laurel, this is Iris West. She's my co-worker and almost sister."

"Laurel Lance," Laurel shook hands with Iris. "Childhood friend."

"Ah, so then you have some embarrassing stories I could slip through to Barry," Iris sent Belén a teasing smile. "He gets on my nerves complaining about your teases."

"Not my fault he's a dork."

"Watch it," Iris pointed, but of course teased too.

"This is a new article, then?" Laurel peered down at Belén's computer.

"Still working on it."

"Nice," Laurel took a seat in Belén's chair then knowingly smiled at the two women. "I stopped by to see if my friend wanted to go out to lunch?"

"Oh, I'd love to, but I already made..." Belén was looking at Iris who was now shaking her head.

"You're good, Bells, just go," Iris smiled. "But hey, maybe we can all have dinner tonight?"

"Works with me," Laurel looked at Belén.

"Same. It might even be good to get Caitlin," Belén added. "Poor thing's been working hard with Harry lately."

"Harry?" Laurel gave a questioning face.

"I'll explain," Belén promised and went to gather her things.

~ 0 ~

As Laurel and Belén walked down the street towards Jitters for their lunch, Belén caught Laurel up with the latest in Central City - well the bits Laurel wasn't aware of. Of course the news of a new speedster terrorizing the city had made it into StarCity's newscasts several times, especially when Zoom confronted the Flash.

"You'd think there being multiple dimensions would freak me out…" Laurel raised her head, processing everything she'd heard with great calmness, "...but no."

"Quite the lives we live, huh?" Belén smiled to herself. "While it can be dazzling and happy...it's got some terrible drawbacks."

"Yeah, but...would you give it up?"

Belén right away shook her head. "Never. It's how I met my friends...it's how Barry and I got together. I'd keep it just the way it is no matter how bad things get." Laurel chuckled.

Jitters wasn't as packed as one would think it would be during lunch hour. Laurel and Belén took a seat at one of the empty tables after ordering.

"So then, are we going to talk about this whole Azalea thing?" it was easy to tell this was the topic that drew Laurel to find Belén again. "I mean, last time we talked, you were pretty hell bent on making sure the Azalea stayed dead."

"To be fair, the last time we spoke I felt like my life was over," Belén countered. "My brother had just died, my sister was sent to prison, two of my friends died, my boyfriend broke up with me...and I had gained custody of Axel." The entire memories made Belén stop to take a breather. "I was not at a good place then."

"But now you are," Laurel noticed with a genuine delight.

"I went to therapy," Belén admitted. "Actually, I still go. It's less but Dr. Baeva says that's a good thing."

"And you felt good enough to bring back the Azalea?"

"Yeah," Belén nodded her head, her eyes flickering to the side. "I thought the Azalea should stay dead so that I could move on, but...I don't want to do that. I don't think I could ever do that. Just like you fight to be the Black Canary, I fight to be the Azalea."

Laurel was so proud to hear her friend talk like this after so much despondence. "Exactly!"

"Unfortunately, it also resonates from the fact there's this psycho metahuman from Earth 2 trying to kill me."

"That's this Datura woman, right? I read about her too."

"Yeah. According to E-2 Dr. Wells, Datura has siphoning powers along with being one of the most poisonous metahumans on his earth."

"Now wait a minute, she siphons AND and she has powers based on this poisonous plant?"

"Yeah. Though sometimes I wonder how that works, because…" Belén trailed off, still thinking, "...Harry says that, back on his world, there were rumors about Datura...not being all the way there," Belén tapped the side of her head. "She would disappear for weeks and then resurface with new powers. At the same time, there were series of murder sprees where the cops would find corpses of metas possessing similar plant powers like Datura."

"Do you think Datura could've been looking for something in those metas?"

"That's our theory, and it's my theory that I have what she's looking for," Belén sighed, "I just don't know what it is. So, in the meantime, she's here...terrorizing my city, beating the crap out of me."

"Well, you gotta look at this from a different perspective," Laurel got to thinking for a moment. "You say she's a siphoner but...she calls herself Datura? Why? That's just one flower, one power she possesses, right?"

"I've thought about that too," Belén admitted. "Believe me, I've gone crazy thinking of her and her powers."

"So, what have you come up with?"

"Well, I theorize that the datura power could be either the first power she siphoned and thus became her baseline of all powers, or…" Belén stopped all of a sudden.

"Or?"

"Or they could be something of importance to her. Not physical importance but emotional."

"Why would she name herself after only one power when she's a siphoner?" Laurel smirked as now Belén was getting somewhere with her thoughts.

"Emotional importance," Belén answered, far more sure now that she had spoken her theories out loud. "You name yourself after your powers, after what makes you, you. I named myself the Azalea because I love those flowers. Gardening Azaleas and other flowers was my favorite pastime, my way to unwind and just..be me. I doubt Datura did gardening...she had to have named herself Datura for another reason."

"I miss this Belén," Laurel blurted, and the two shared a laugh.

~ 0 ~

Later that day, when her shift was over, Belén stopped by STAR Labs to see how Caitlin was holding up with Harry on her own. She found the two working at the prime desk in the cortex.

"Afternoon," she greeted and only spared the computer screens a brief look, knowing already she wouldn't understand their work. "So what are you scientists working on today?"

"We may have just created a way to help Barry become faster," Caitlin could barely contain her excitement. Harry had no problem.

"Really?" Belén loved hearing that and was sure that Barry would too. "What is it?"

However, before either Caitlin or Harry could explain, Jay had come in. He soon saw the computer screens himself and scowled.

"Velocity-6?" there was a trace of disbelief in his tone which put both Belén and Caitlin off. "This is what was so urgent, Harrison? You get me to come here so I can take your speed drug?"

Harry, on the other hand, remained at ease and simply pointed at Jay for being correct. "That's right."

Jay gave an incredulous look at Caitlin. "You knew about this."

"Of course she did," Harry answered for her. "She figured it out."

"What's the big deal?" Belén cut in. She definitely was not up for another physical fight between the two men.

"I thought this was to help Barry," Caitlin was on the same page as Belén.

"It is to help Barry-" Harry said, "-which is why we need to do test runs on subjects who once had the Speed Force in their system."

Jay was not having this. "The Speed Force doesn't work like that. It's not something you can create in a lab."

"How do you think you became the Flash, Garrick? By me and a lab," Harry reminded, and Belén did have to admit that it rang some truth. That is what their Wells had done to give Barry his powers in the first place. "Science is what did this to you, to Barry, to Zoom, and science is what we need to stop Zoom, and this is our only option."

"Find another one," Jay didn't hesitate to shut down the work, even if it was Caitlin's. "The Speed Force can't be replicated or enhanced. It's a living thing. It's a gift that was given to me. That drug... you have no idea what it's gonna do. I'm not going to let another one of your experiments mess with me again, Harrison. You find someone else to be your guinea pig."

"It's a drug?" Belén immediately saw the problem and turned on Harry. "You're giving my Barry a drug?"

"Keep that serum away from Barry," Jay warned her and Caitlin before storming away.

Harry had put on his black jacket and a hat in the meanwhile. Caitlin turned on him too and questioned his plans.

"To pick up what we need!"

"We can't give Barry whatever you're planning on," Belén snapped but the man started heading out.

"We're gonna do what we need," Harry left them with those words.

Caitlin, exasperated plopped down on a chair. She saw Belén's horrific stare after the threshold. "If I knew what it was, I would have never…"

"I know Cait," Belén assured. "I mean...is it wrong, though? It's like...steroids, right? But to make you faster?"

Caitlin nodded. "That's the idea."

"But...but would it have side effects? Like bad ones?"

"Jay seemed pretty sure that it wasn't the right thing…"

"I honestly don't know who to believe anymore. Jay doesn't bother to show up and help and when he does show up it's to shoot down all of our ideas."

Caitlin of course tried to make Jay look better. "I-it can't be easy having to lose your powers, and...you know? I just...we shouldn't be hard on him That's all I'm saying."

Belén smiled knowingly at the brunette. "Right. So listen, I stopped by to ask if you wanted to come to dinner with Laurel, Iris and I."

"Laurel?" Caitlin repeated. "As in Laurel Lance the Black Canary?"

"The one and only," Belén smirked.

"But I thought…"

"She's here alone. She didn't even know Barry and Cisco had gone to meet Oliver. So, you want to come?"

Caitlin looked at the computer screens still showing Velocity-6, then glanced back at the threshold. "I don't know. I think someone should stay here and hold the fort. And by that I mean check to see what Harrison is doing."

Belén thought that was a rational mindset and thought about her own choices. "You know what, I think I should stay too. I wouldn't want you to overwork yourself."

"No, Bells, it's okay. I know you haven't seen Laurel in a long time."

"But I don't want you to stay here all alone…"

"I'll be fine," Caitlin promised. "Go out. I think you deserve some time out."

"Okay, but afterwards I'm coming back here to keep you company. I'll even bring you something," Belén grabbed her purse.

"That would be nice," Caitlin smiled.

~ 0 ~

Setting the dinner date at eight, Belén took her sweet time to get ready. She pulled out a nice white blouse with fitted slacks and some heels. Applying some makeup and doing the hair took about an hour but she was still on time. Just as she was getting ready to leave, someone knocked on her door.

No longer was Belén surprised to see her mother making a visit.

"I'm not going to argue - I don't have time to," Belén snapped before her mother could start shouting. "I have a dinner to get to and then to STAR Labs with Caitlin."

Veronica didn't appear to have the fighting in her, something that even Belén saw right away. "Why STAR Labs?"

"Because Caitlin is there. Anymore questions?" Belén went back to the living room for her purse and phone.

"Honestly, Belén, I don't know why you keep going to that hazardous building. What's the point?"

Belén snorted. "Did you really come by to ask me that?"

Something snapped inside Veronica and she shook her head, straightening herself up. "No, of course not. I came to talk."

"We've done that, countless times," Belén returned with her purse strap hanging around her wrist. "It doesn't work out. Tonight I'd like to skip it."

"If you would just-"

"I have to go," Belén cut her off smoothly and ushered Veronica out the door. "You want to talk tomorrow morning then fine. Tonight I'm not letting you tarnish my mood."

Veronica let her daughter go without another word. It appeared she was really driving that wedge between them, and she feared how far it would go. A ringing from her pocket brought her out from her thoughts. It was a text from work.

~ 0 ~

"No Caitlin?" Iris asked when Belén had joined her and Laurel at the restaurant they'd agreed at.

"No, she and Harry are working," Belén decided to leave out the potentially dangerous serum out of the conversation for the moment.

"I'd love to have seen her," Laurel remarked while taking a look at their menus.

"Maybe tomorrow, then?"

"I guess." Belén honestly made it her life's effort to not show how upset she already was thanks to her mother's surprise visit. Without Barry around, she felt like she truly needed just some friends with her to make her forget how crappy her life was at the moment.

It was nice to forget that she wasn't a metahuman being hunted, and that she was in danger. After all, these were the moments when her life was supposed to be at its best. She'd finished college a long while ago, she snatched herself a good job, even went back to doing what she'd originally wanted to (aerial dancing). Along the way she'd met some really good people who slowly became like her family.

She deserved to remember that part of her life.

~ 0 ~

"So you're telling me that this flint knife is thousands of years old?" Veronica reviewed what Patty had told her just to make sure she wasn't getting anything wrong.

"Yeah, I'm surprised too, believe me," Patty gave a shrug of her shoulders.

The two women were walking down the street, discussing the matters of their bloodbath case. Patty had finally gotten news on the evidence Barry had gotten earlier and now Veronica was looking over the case file.

"But it means it couldn't have been on the market…" Veronica deduced and glanced at Patty.

The blonde hummed in agreement. "We checked and there are no records of it belonging to some set in local museums. We're expanding the search but even then it doesn't really look like it belongs anywhere."

"Except history books," Veronica closed the file and looked up. As soon as she did, she spotted a familiar figure across the street. A man was loading something into the back of a car.

"Are you alright?" Patty stared at the woman for a bit, worried.

Veronica's eyebrows knitted together. "It can't be."

"What…?" Patty meant to follow Veronica's gaze but Veronica quickly ushered Patty to her own car. "Hey! What about that ca-"

"I'm going to look it over for tonight and tomorrow we'll talk again! Goodnight, Patty!" Veronica then made her own mission as she hurried to her own car.

~ 0 ~

Caitlin had been giving Harry disapproving stares ever since he returned to STAR labs on the plan of finishing up the serum for Barry. Despite that, Harry didn't desist.

"We can't use that serum on Barry," Caitlin gave a crinkled-nose glance at the silver gun meant to inject said serum.

"That's up to him, isn't it?" Harry cleverly countered with. Caitlin frowned knowing that, in the end, it really was all Barry's decision whether or not to take the serum. "If Barry wants to stop Zoom, this is what he needs."

"Jay said it could hurt Barry-"

"Well, Jay's a coward," Harry pushed through the serum into the gun with a 'pop!'.

Caitlin huffed, clearly offended on behalf of Jay. "Jay's a scientist who knows a lot about speedsters!"

"You're a scientist, Snow. You've been watching Barry. You know he's nowhere near as fast as he needs to be," Harry snapped, reaching his patience with these people. "This other mentor, this other Harrison Wells, did not want him to reach his full potential... I do."

Caitlin glowered. "You know, you're really starting to sound a lot like him." She didn't want to be anymore of a part of the serum and walked into one of the side rooms, hoping that Harry would gain some sense in the meanwhile.

Harry could care less what Caitlin thought and turned the silver gun over to make sure the serum had been injected right.

"I knew it was you," Veronica's voice made him stop his work. She had come into the place with a gun in her hands, aimed directly at Wells.

"Who are you?" Harry, of course, had not met the woman before.

"I don't know how you did it, how you managed to survive while my son died, my daughter sent to jail and my youngest so...lost-" Veronica gritted her teeth, "-but you won't be escaping this time. You're under arrest."

Harry deduced that the woman had to be talking about his doppleganger, who up to now had apparently done no good to anyone in this world. "I'm Harrison Wells but I'm not the Harrison…"

Veronica threatened again with her gun after Harry took a step forwards. "Stop! You move closer, and I'll shoot."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Give me that-" he raised the silver gun still in his hand and Veronica mistook that as a threat and so she shot him.

The moment Harry collapsed on the floor, Caitlin came running in, going out of her mind with the scene. "Oh, my God, what have you done? Harrison? Harrison, stay with me. Harrison, Harrison, stay with me!" she didn't know how to quite move him without hurting him even more. "Stay with me, Harrison, come on." She shot Veronica a snarky look. "Why did you shoot him?"

"I thought that was a gun!" Veronica exclaimed and motioned to the silver gun on the floor. "That's Harrison Wells! He's meant to be dead-"

"Oh, and you decided to go ahead and finish that job!?"

"What - excuse you! I followed him thinking he was back to no good again! That was after I processed the fact he wasn't dead like Belén told me!"

Caitlin growled and got up from her spot. "I have to call Belén! And Nina!"

"What is going on!?" Veronica watched Caitlin run over to the desk to get on that phone call.

"Ms. Green, I will let your daughter do that explaining! Right now you're going to help move him-" Caitlin pointed at Harry, "-to a bed."

Veronica's eyes flickered from Harry to Caitlin incredulously.

~ 0 ~

Of course the moment Belén - and consequently Iris and Laurel - heard what happened at STAR Labs, dinner was cancelled. Belén came running in with Iris and Laurel behind, only to see Caitlin and Nina Clarke tending to Harry's unconscious self. Veronica still remained in the cortex, glowering at the two doctors but still primarily confused.

"What happened!?" Belén hastily walked up to her two friends.

"I shot him, that's what," Veronica was the one to answer, and quite aggressively too. She still didn't understand what was going on. As far as she knew, Harrison Wells was meant to be on his way to the hospital to be treated and then promptly shipped off to Iron Heights.

"Why would you do that?"

Veronica blinked rapidly, unsure if she'd heard right. "Y-you're asking me...why I shot the man who murdered my ex-husband, and destroyed my children's lives?"

Belén remained quiet. Of course to her mother, it was a stupid question.

"How is he doing?" Laurel neared Caitlin and Nina.

"He's losing oxygen," Caitlin shook her head.

"Nina, you can't do anything?" Iris went along with Laurel.

"There's a bullet in a branch of his pulmonary artery that's blocking off most of the blood flow from the left lung," Nina was quite serious in the matter. "And I can't remove the bullet without causing too much damage."

"You need Jay," Caitlin suddenly thought of and looked at Belén.

"Go, call him," the ombre-blonde gave a nod.

"Belén…" Veronica stared at her daughter hard, "...what the hell is going on?"

Belén looked at her friends and then back at her mother. There really was no way out of explaining this unless she felt like looking like a crazy person. Running a hand through her hair, she began to spill. "That man-" she gestured to Harry, "-is not the Harrison Wells you think he is."

Veronica's eyes squinted as she tried process the words. "E-excuse me? What? Belén, I'm not an idiot-"

"No, of course you're not! You're far from it!" Belén bitterly exclaimed. "You've gone in search so much that I have have to tell you now."

"Tell me what?" Veronica looked around the place, frowning with utter dislike. "Why do you come here so often? This place belonged to the man that destroyed our family."

"Because we've turned it into something good," Belén said softly, her eyes looking past her mother to the display case that was currently covered by the sliding wall Cisco installed to keep hers and Barry's suits out of the public's views. She walked over to the desk and with one last look at her friends (who encouraged her to go on), she pressed the button that slid the wall up. "I have helped turn it into something good."

Veronica followed Belén's gesture and turned to find a familiar green suit sitting on a mannequin. Veronica's mouth opened with a slight gasp.

"I'm her, Mom," Belén said before Veronica made her own conclusions. "I'm the Azalea."

So many things started making sense to Veronica within the next minute. Her daughter's strange behavior, for once, every time this vigilante was mentioned. It also helped to remind her that this precise vigilante had already made appearances in Star City, along with the Arrow.

"It was...you," Veronica turned back to meet her daughter's nervous face. "You've been this vigilante all this time and I'm just now hearing about it?"

"It's not something easy I can talk to you about," Belén said weakly, seeing anger starting up in Veronica's eyes.

"Oh, my bad, so it's my fault now," Veronica bitterly laughed.

"Mom, I don't want to keep fighting with you, okay? You know now. And you should also know that this man-" Belén once more gestured to Harry, "-is not the man you think he is. He's from another world, alright?"

"Another world…" Veronica laughed there, clearly disbelieving it.

"It exists, okay? This is...a doppelganger. And he isn't here harming us. The Harrison Wells you know about, he's dead. Like...actually, he was erased from existence so it's even better."

"You need to stop," Veronica pointed at Belén. "You need to stop talking. I-I need to…" her head whipped in the direction of the Azalea suit, and her eyes flickered to the empty mannequin beside it. "Who...who's that one for?" she pointed.

Belén thought that if she told Veronica about Barry, then it would really drive things home for her mom. "I…"

"Oh, now this is rich," Veronica, it seemed, already made her conclusions. "Oh my God-" she rubbed her face, "-of course you work with the Flash."

"Mom-"

"NO!" Veronica waved her hands, indicating she was done. "Two years all this has been happening and you decide to tell me this now! Not to mention that all of it is just...crazy."

"Crazy?" it was Belén's turn to laugh. "Mom, we're helping people-"

"You are putting yourself in danger!" Veronica glanced at Nina, Iris and Laurel. "And you all knew. Of course you did. But none of you had the common sense to make her see reality!"

"The Azalea has helped people, Ms. Green," Iris spoke up for Belén. "She and the Flash have saved people and places."

"But at what cost?" Veronica's eyes teared up. "I lost my ex-husband, my son, my son-in-law, and my daughter."

"But Belén is right there," Nina snapped. Unlike Iris and Laurel, she had more of an attitude to match Veronica's. "She is the one who had to fight against Rayan and Maritza to do what's right. You should be damn proud of her and not shouting at her like she's five years old!"

Veronica turned to Belén, her tears on the verge of spilling. "You are putting yourself in danger, Belén. With that...that monster of Zoom out there...and that-that Datura. You want to keep going?"

"Zoom is not after me, Mom," Belén said quietly. "He and the Flash have their own battle going on."

"But the crossfires, Belén. Those are the real dangers. And that Datura, she's already hurt you, hasn't she?" Veronica started to remember those strange bruises on her daughter's body. The stitches on her neck. "If I lose you too…I will break. I will." She decided that enough was enough for that night and so she stormed out of the room.

Belén dug her hands through her hair and took in a deep breath. Her own tears were threatening to fall.

"Hey," Laurel walked up to her, pulling her hands from her hair. "You did good. It's better she found out now than by someone else."

"She's so mad," Belén's voice broke. "I have never seen her like that. And we've had some arguments."

"She reacted like anyone in her place would have," Laurel glanced back at the others for some backup.

"My dad was really mad when he discovered Barry was going out in the beginning," Iris thought to help by reminding of that parallel.

"Laurel put her hands on Belén's shoulders. "Your mother has lost most of her family, so it's logical she's scared to death about this. Give her some space to think about it and cool down."

"Okay," Belén nodded. There was nothing else to do, really, but wait. She wasn't expecting her mother to understand it all in one go, and much less when Belén knew she hadn't said all of the story.

A while later, Caitlin's call had gone through and Jay had dignified to show up.

"How bad is it?" although he asked he made his own conclusions based on just looking at Harry.

"There's a bullet in his pulmonary artery," Nina informed. "Caitlin said you could help."

"Can you close the wound if I get it?" Jay countered with, a silent agreement made amongst them.

"Yes."

"How are you going to do that?" Laurel asked, getting an odd look in return. She smiled and introduced herself. "Laurel Lance. Black Canary-" she gestured to herself then went ahead and gestured to him, "-Flash of another world. I know it all."

Jay slowly looked to Caitlin, the only face he needed to see. Caitlin handed him the silver gun holding the serum.

"What is that?" Iris laid eyes on the silver gun with distaste.

"It's a serum called Velocity-6. It could give Jay temporary speed," Caitlin said. "He can phase through Doctor Wells' chest and remove the bullet."

"Yeah, but I told you, I have no idea what's gonna happen if I use that," Jay reminded.

"If Caitlin did it then you should be okay," Belén said, showing her full trust for her friend

Jay injected his palm with the serum and waited for the effects. He growled in pain but the women all saw the familiar orangey lightening fill his eyes. His right hand began to vibrate, and not wasting time, he dug it into Harry's chest and managed to pull the bullet out.

Nina quickly began to see the effects of the intervention and smiled. "BP and oxygenation is rising. Blood flow is returning to his lungs."

Caitlin moved over and hugged Jay. "Thank you."

~ 0 ~

After a new day to sleep on things, as well as to monitor Harry's situation, Belén found herself alone in her apartment...thinking. She was waiting, actually, for Laurel to stop by, but in the meanwhile she was planning on what to do with her mother. All that day, Belén had tried talking to Veronica but was sent away or her calls were ignored. She was beginning to understand how it felt to be paid with the same coin. She'd done the same thing to her mother and was now paying one.

Hearing the knock on the door, Belén went to go answer, mentally preparing herself for a nice night with Laurel. She opened the door and was mighty surprised to see Barry who was not meant to be back so early.

"Hi," she greeted with a slow smile working across her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Change of plans," Barry shrugged and raised his hands. "Bad guy's here."

"Oh...oh," Belén soon understood the implications.

"But don't worry, Oliver and the rest of the team coming too. We'll get him," Barry walked right in. "Did I miss anything here?"

"Uh...well…" Belén slowly closed the door, wondering how to put all her words together. "Laurel is here already. Um, Caitlin and Harry worked out this serum thing, oh and my Mom shot Harry which led me to tell her that I am the Azalea."

"What!?" Barry whirled around, his eyes widened to the impossible.

"Harry's fine, but my Mom refuses to talk to me so I'm just here on my own…"

Barry could see the last thing she wanted was to be alone. "Why didn't you go stay with Iris, hm? Caitlin? Or Nina?"

Belén gave a shrug of her shoulders as she walked past him. "I don't know. I live alone, I should get used to that."

"Yeah, but...why would you want to be alone?" Barry asked, a playful hint in his tone. "I've done that...and it's not a lot of fun."

Belén chuckled and turned away from him. "Well, Barry, sometimes a girl just likes to be alone. I can wake up and decide not to put pants on and who would tell me anything?" Barry got to thinking behind her. "I'm fine, really. I just needed some time to think about - are you staring at my legs?" she had turned around and found Barry's gaze directed at her legs.

Being caught, his face turned red. "I-I wasn't, n-no…"

"Were you thinking about it?" Belén laughed and sat down on the couch armrest. "Me with no pants on?"

"No!" Barry said a bit too quick, only making Belén laugh even more. "Oh, you are so gonna pay for that."

"You're an idiot," Belén accused as he marched up to her. "But I actually missed that so I'm going to let it go." Barry leaned down to kiss her but she pulled away. "On the one condition that you stop looking at my legs."

"That I can't help," Barry out his hands on either side of her. "See, you're too beautiful, and that includes your legs."

"Oh really?"

"Mhm," Barry closed to the gap between them with a kiss. There was a muffled laughter between them as Barry carefully pushed her back onto the couch.

"You came back with some necessities…" Belén laughed while while Barry crawled over her.

"I've discovered I can't be away from you very long," Barry innocently admitted. "Plus, you've got some nice legs."

"Oh my God, shut up!" Belén threw her head back in another round of laughter. She lightly gasped when she felt one of his hands trailing down from her thigh and down. "I love you and your idiocy."

"I love you and your sweet words," Barry countered with. He leaned down and barely got to kiss her again when someone new knocked on the door.

"Belén? Open up. I've got take out and it's pretty heavy!" Laurel's voice broke them apart.

"What?" Barry frowned.

"Oh, um, I forgot to mention Laurel was staying over," Belén pushed Barry off her in order to sit up.

"Well, it looks like I'm the odd man out," Barry pretended to huff.

"Aw, you can stay if you'd like," Belén offered and got up.

"No, I'd rather have you all to myself," Barry got up and took her hands. "We really need a date, you know. Or just some plain time to ourselves."

"Agreed, but we can probably sort that after we take down the bad guys?"

Barry nodded. He stole a kiss from her and sped out of the room, of course not before speeding Laurel's bags to the coffee table. Laurel's hair fell over her face from the speed and laughed.

"Now I see what Diggle means!"

[ao3porcelainstorm]

poison ivy & stinging nettles 5

On Ao3

Pairing: Sherlock/OFC

Rated: M

Warnings: eventual violence, torture, swears, adult themes (no explicit smut)

Chapter 4 - Chapter 6

Chapter 5- Fungi

~~~

Despite the initial tension regarding Jessica Reynolds, things seem to be progressing well with Amelia’s case. Sherlock was able to pull a number of shipping manifests from the assistant’s computer, each bound for the manufacturing factory in Manila.

It was fortunate that it confirmed almost every compound Amelia had noted when she stole the data set, at least in the cancer drugs.

The problem was the secondary product bound into the cancer drugs that caused adverse effects. The details on the manifests were less than helpful…

~~~

“Psilocybe mushroom components,” Amelia read the computer screen out loud for the third time since Sherlock had passed it to her, annoyance in her tone. “That’s it?”

“Magic mushrooms?” John asked, passing her a cup of tea, she immediately set it aside, scrolling through the computer logs further. “Seems straightforward enough.”

“John, there are over 200 different types of Psilocybe spores,” Amelia pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath. “Sherlock, please tell me you have an idea for how we can possibly narrow it down?”

“How many did you use in your research?” The detective asked, reaching for his own tea cup.

“47,” she answered. “Two were almost identical hybrids, so maybe 46.”

“There you go,” he smirked over the rim of his cup. “Narrowed down.”

“You know we’re going to have to get samples, even if we run the equations, some might work but not technically be the component. Not to mention the cancer drugs might be different,” she groaned and set her cup aside, throwing her head back against the sofa.

“Sherlock, it might be time to contact your brother,” John suggested quietly, earning a glare from the brunette.

“You have a brother?” Amelia asked, her head still flung back with her eyes closed. “Please tell me he’s a reputable drug dealer because it’s going to be a pain in the ass getting these things.”

“Even better, he’s a member of her Majesty’s Royal Government,” Sherlock chimed back. Amelia snorted, remaining still.

“He could also order seizures of the shipments,” John reminded the group coolly, sensing the rising tension between the group.

“Unhelpful if we can’t properly determine the malicious components, John,” Sherlock shot back, picking up on Amelia’s frustration. “The idea is that Chemco’s random samples are unable to be traced, and random.”

“Certainly a shipment would contain some variations?” he asked the pair. Amelia threw her arms up hopelessly, and he frowned. “Sherlock, don’t tell me you’re at a loss?”

“Short of breaking into a hospital, stealing their current supply, and testing it against the 46 varieties of mushroom Mia has worked with, this doesn’t lend a more efficient solution,” the detective hummed, drumming his fingers on his chin in thought.

Silence fell over the group, each person thinking through potential solutions.

“Monty!” Amelia shot up, nearly startling John into dropping his tea.

“What on earth-?” The doctor grumbled while Amelia fished out her phone.

“Ruthie’s brother in law, Monty, he’s an, er, herbal enthusiast,” she explained, tapping into her phone. “I bought a few illicit plants from him when I first moved over. He’s basically got everything you could think of. If not, he’ll know someone who does.”

“Is he in London?”

“Canterbury, lives down the road from Ruthie and her husband,” Amelia got a ping back. “Says we can swing by tomorrow if we’d like. I know offhand, I saw at least a dozen spores in one of his cold storages. I’ll dig up my research list, I can probably narrow down the list from 46 to something more reasonable if I look through what moved to the second stages of trials.”

“And then we go shopping for illicit drugs,” John replied dryly. “And what about the cancer medications?”

Sherlock and Amelia exchanged humored glances. There was certainly something that the doctor was missing.

“What?” John gawked between the pair. “You’re not actually breaking into a hospital, are you?”

“We wouldn’t need much, maybe one or two treatments?” Sherlock asked Amelia, who nodded  after doing a quick calculation in her head.

“The binding components are easy enough to track down over the counter, though we might need a better equipped lab than what you’ve got in the kitchen,” she noted.

“That’s not a problem,” Sherlock waved her off, skimming through the list of components from the shipping logs. “Easy.”

“I don’t like it when you two conspire together. It always leads to some sort of trouble,” John pressed, frown deepening.

“John, you’re a doctor,” Amelia reminded him excitedly. “Prescribe poor Sherlock Holmes a chemotherapy treatment for the tumor in his ego.”

“No, absolutely not,” John stood up. “That violates so many ethical rules- besides, you’re a licensed pharmacist. It’d be easier for you.”

“Not here, not yet. I mean, we can let innocent, immune compromised patients die,” Amelia shrugged, leaning back into the sofa. “What a shame about the little babies with leukemia. All because my wicked mother wanted a second mega yacht.”

“What truly is the core of medical ethics Dr. Watson?” Sherlock inquired, slowly closing his laptop, his gaze boring into his friend. “Is it not to protect life?”

John Watson, caught between an American and a hard place, was less than thrilled when he finally, begrudgingly, scribbled his name on a prescription pad and passed it to Sherlock.

“If my license is revoked-,” he threatened, holding it away from Sherlock briefly.

“Will you kill him?” Amelia asked, grabbing her crimson scarf from the back of the sofa and wrapping it around her shoulders. “Because I’d be very interested in seeing that.”

“Don’t think you get off that easy,” John turned his attention to Amelia while Sherlock scampered to his coat, mocking Amelia over John’s shoulder with a smirk. “You’re equally responsible for anything that goes wrong.”

“That’s not fair, I’m an innocent bystander to your collusion,” she pouted, catching her navy pea coat when John tossed it at her head.

“Careful John,” Sherlock warned, passing the doctor his jacket, shielding his friend from Amelia’s sad eyes. “Keep her pouting like that and she’ll convince you to clean her hair out of the shower drain.”

“Just go,” John shoved the detective through the doorway, not bothering to wait for the grumbling Amelia as she pulled her boots on and stumbled her way out the door behind them.

~~~

“And you’re going to be administering the medications at home?” the chemist studied the prescription order, glancing over the paper to John with a quirked brow.

“That’s right,” he answered with a curt nod, his hands stuffed in his pockets to try and stave off the nervous energy that radiated through his core.

“To a Mr. William Holmes?” the chemist looked to Sherlock next to him. “Is that you?”

“Yes,” he pulled out his ID and passed it to the woman, flashing a quick smile.

“Did you guys know that Beyonce is pregnant again?” Amelia held up a tabloid to Sherlock. “Oh wait, never mind. Just a rumor.”

“Who is this?” the chemist paused, looking up at Amelia.

“His fiancé,” she replied, setting the magazine aside and looping an arm through Sherlock’s. “Here for moral support. He’s just starting treatment and is nervous as all get out, isn’t that right, love?” For added effect, she snuggled closer, pressing her cheek against his arm.

“I wouldn’t have made it in one piece without her,” he nodded, giving her cheek a quick peck. “Just an absolute blessing.”

“We’re just so lucky to find Dr. Watson,” Amelia continued with a long sigh. “Not a lot of doctor’s are willing to do home treatments within the NHS, you know. And of course I’m completely out of my element with all of it!”

The chemist chuckled empathetically, asking how the pair met as she typed up the order for the supplies. Sherlock and Amelia shot back and forth, exchanging little tidbits about their “relationship” enough to almost convince John it was real.

“The order will be ready tomorrow morning,” the woman smiled at the trio and reached for Amelia’s hand. “I’ll be praying for you both.”

“You’re an angel,” Amelia replied, giving them a squeeze before ushering the group out of the pharmacy with a final wave at the woman.

Back on the street, Amelia slipped a hand into Sherlock’s pocket, pulling out his wallet.

“I did not know your name was William,” she studied his ID, trying to memorize the details before he snatched it from her. “And you’re only three years older than me? I don’t believe that.”

Sherlock grabbed the wallet and ID out her hands, returning them to his coat pocket with a huff.

“Is there no privacy with you?” he grumbled. “And what’s so surprising about how old I am?”

“I just figured you were older,” she shrugged. “I mean, I’m almost thirty, right? I figured you were like, almost forty or something.”

John sputtered out a laugh.

“That’s spectacular,” he threw an arm around her shoulders. “How old do you think I am?”

“John, in all honesty, I have no idea,” she answered. “Sometimes I’m convinced you’re fifty, other times you have to be my age.”

Sherlock snorted under his breath.

“It’s a fair assessment,” she insisted, frowning apologetically at John. “You get very grumpy in the mornings, and the matching flannel pajamas don’t help very much.”

“They’re warm.”

“I’m sure they’re wonderful,” Amelia smiled, patting his arm in a placating tone. “I’m just a terrible judge of age apparently. I should have know how old you actually were with all of the part-time super models you bring by.”

“Mia, you’re digging yourself into a hole you’ll regret for the foreseeable future,” Sherlock warned.

“Shush,” Amelia swatted his arm.

“That reminds me,” John glanced down at his phone. “I have a second date with Ann tonight.”

“Is she the one with the Pomeranian?” Amelia asked hopefully. He shook his head and she sighed. “I liked that one.”

“You liked the dog and I’m very allergic,” John reminded her. “Ann is a barrister.”

“Maybe you should make sacrifices for your relationships, John,” she countered. “Have fun with your boring lawyer date.”

“Ann is the boring one, that’s right,” Sherlock perked up.

“She is not boring,” John insisted, flagging down a taxi.

“We’ll call with an ‘emergency’ in a bit,” Amelia promised earnestly. “Get you out of talks about law and order. Blegh.”

“I’m turning my phone off,” he called, slipping into the backseat of the taxi.

“If it wasn’t so cold, I’d be half tempted to follow them,” Amelia mused, continuing down the street with the detective.

“Don’t, they’re seeing that action movie that just came out,” he sighed dramatically. "Boring."

“Movies never make sense as an early date,” she noted. “You can’t talk. How do you get to know anything about the other person? They could be a serial killer for all you know.”

“Exactly, hardly an intimate setting,” he shook his head in disappointment. Amelia looked at him in surprise, stifling a laugh. “What?”

“It’s hard to picture you trying to take someone on a date,” she confessed lightly.

“You’re one to talk,” he countered quickly. “You never leave the flat.”

“You literally don’t let me?” she replied with another laugh. “And arguably, I’ve gone at least one more date than you in the last month.”

“Jessica Reynolds does not count,” he shot back.

“She has the remnants of my favorite shirt on her bedroom floor,” Amelia shivered at the memory. “She counts. John’s been on half a dozen dates since then, yet I’m fairly certain I heard you making love to your calculator the other night.”

“Why did I allow you to move into my building?” Sherlock kept his focus forward. “And I’d be a wonderful date, assuming I knew who i was meeting and could plan accordingly.”

“You’d stalk your date for ideas,” Amelia bit back a smirk. “It’d almost be endearing if it wasn’t super illegal.”

“I do not have to stalk someone to take them on a decent date,” he insisted. “What about you? What would you do aside from a bar?”

“First of all, I would never take someone to a bar on a first date,” she held a hand up, stopping in front of him. “It’s tacky. Would you want to date someone tacky?”

“Ok, where would you take me?” he offered, folding his arms across his chest. Amelia considered his challenge, pulling out her cell phone and tapping at the screen. Grinning at the device, she looked up at him.

“I get a little leeway because I’m not from here,” she warned, flagging down a passing cab.

“What are you doing?” he watched her chat with the driver, and look up at him expectantly.

“I’m taking you on a date,” she answered. “Get in Mr. Holmes, and prepare to be wooed.”

~~~

The Barbican Conservatory wasn’t very busy at midday in the middle of the week, so they were able to secure entrance and tour around the large space without too much interruption from other guests.

“There are over 1,500 different plants in 23,000 cubic square feet of space,” Amelia tucked her hands behind her back. “And the ponds feature koi and carp from Japan and America respectively.”

“Did you just read the pamphlet?” Sherlock asked, looking over the informational packet. “Because you quoted the first paragraph verbatim.”

“It’s because I’m well versed in what I sought out,” she answered with a grin. “Look, flowers.”

She pulled him toward a large selection of tropical flora, naming the species as they moved through in both their common names and scientific ones.

“This one is particularly rare,” she gestured to a bright red flower, the pamphlet long discarded in her coat pocket. Sherlock listened intently, occasionally chiming in his own facts about the flora that surrounded them. He could tell she was pleasantly surprised at his own knowledge on some of the more obscure plants.

“Waitwaitwait,” Amelia pulled him by the wrist toward a large swath of sunflowers. “They’re taller than you, that’s so cool!”

“Does that make them extra haughty?” he retorted, letting her shove him in front of the flowers. She snapped a picture while he continued to quip, ignoring his comments a moment while she saved it to her phone. “Do not show that to anyone.”

“I would never,” she promised. “It’s a good picture, though.” She held her phone up, and sure enough, she’d captured a flattering angle while he’d been laughing.

“I’m not haughty,” he quickly stated.

“You know that isn’t their only meaning,” she hummed, tucking the phone away. “They also mean strength, happiness, confidence… I think they sum you up perfectly.”

“Happiness?”

“Oh that’s right, you were happy once and it was terrible,” she replied coyly. “How could I have forgotten? Happiness can mean bringing it to others as well, Sherlock.”

She turned to look at some lilacs, absently chatting while he stood frozen in place, the words running on repeat in the front of his mind.

Who did he make happy?

~~~

Amelia had a mouth full of falafel when Sherlock decided on where he was going to take her next.

“Mmwha mwean?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “Dwon’t swteal mwwy dawte!”

“You did an adequate job,” he answered. “But I still think I’m the superior date planner.”

She swallowed her food, eyeing distrustfully.

“I’m only interested if it’s a very old cemetery,” she replied, stealing one of his chips. “And it better be nighttime and there had better be ghosts.”

“There is no such thing as ghosts,” Sherlock clarified sharply.

“Consider this date over,” she stood up from the public bench they’d settled on. “It’s not me, it’s definitely you.”

“Amelia, come back,” he called, but she continued down the road, night starting to swallow the city. “They’re theoretically impossible.”

~~~

Amelia had to admit (though never out loud), Sherlock Holmes did know a thing or two about impressing a date (despite his disbelief in ghosts).

He purchased her a pink peony, her favorite flower, from a street vendor.

Next, they went to the aquarium, where they wandered away from the main tour and Sherlock gave his own version of the tour, naming the fish and telling her random facts about their origins. Together, they came up with complex names and origin stories for all of the fish.

“The puffer fish is obviously fed up with the whale shark’s nonsense,” Amelia laughed, pointing out the fish blowing up as the white shark passed it in the tank. “He’s probably having an affair with the puffer fish’s wife.”

“I don’t know, the whale shark was eyeing the sea turtle…” Sherlock mused, watching the mesmerizing scene next to her.

Every once in a while, Amelia would steal a look at him. The way the light reflected around them, and how it flickered through his blue eyes- should almost wished she had a paint pallet to try and capture the almost perfect cerulean color.

They left the aquarium chuckling about an octopus that had escaped during a demonstration, night having finally swept over the city.

“Ok,” she relented. “You win this round.”

“I’m not done yet,” he pulled his phone out and glanced up. “We have a final stop.”

“What else could you have planned on such short notice?” she asked, letting him grab her hand and pull her along.

“I told you, I know what I’m doing,” he teased, stopping after a few blocks, looking up at the glowing carriages of the London Eye. “It’s not a cemetery.”

“Might be better,” Amelia admitted.

And it was.

Amelia had never experienced anything so spectacular in her life. The lights over the Thames and the London skyline were unlike anything she’d seen before. The old city had a different energy to it compared to New York, and from the top of the famous Ferris wheel, she could see it all.

“I can’t believe we live in the same city as all of this,” she gestured below them. “It doesn’t seem real.”

“It looks like stars,” he agreed, looking over the edge.

“And the reflection on the river?” Amelia continued to gush in excitement, practically jumping around the edges of the capsule as they moved through the sky.

It was over far too quickly, though Amelia knew they needed to get back. John was probably long home from his date.

“You win,” she sighed. “You definitely win, but only for today.”

“That means there’s a second date?” he smirked, offering her his arm as they walk. She took it, falling in step while they tried to track down a taxi.

Amelia knew he was teasing. It was more of an outing between friends, a means to prove a point with no real intimate feelings involved. A challenge.

She repeated this to herself as she stared at the peony in her hands on the taxi ride home. Or when Sherlock made a quiet quip about extra marital whale shark affairs.

He had to prove his point, and he did. She was sufficiently surprised, and very much felt conflicted about it.

When they returned, Amelia cut into the conversation before John could ask where they’d been. He told her all about his date, and that while Ann was very nice, there probably wasn’t a third date in their future.

“Because she’s boring?” Sherlock joked, pulling out his laptop and checking his email.

“We have different interests,” John clarified sharply. “I think I’m going to take a break from dating for a bit. What about you two? What did you do all day?” His eyes fell on the peony in Amelia’s hand, and she froze, not sure how to respond.

“We went on a date,” Sherlock spoke up confidently from his perch, eyeing John and waiting for a reaction.

“You… on a date?” he looked between the pair. “Both of you? Together?”

Admittedly, it was a bit fun watching their friend process the information. Amelia just braced herself for when Sherlock clarified their challenge with one another.

“Yep,” he answered, popping the “p”. “It was a lovely day, wasn’t it Mia?”

Dazed, Amelia choked out an affirmative, her head still catching up with the fact there hadn’t been any specifications as to the motivation behind everything.

“A long day,” she forced out a yawn. “I’m going to put this in some water and head to bed. We’ve got an early morning tomorrow, don’t forget. I have our train tickets already, but one of you needs to get the chemotherapy into the fridge before we go.”

Both men said goodnight and she slipped downstairs to her apartment, sneaking a final glance over her shoulder, in case he was going to add anything else to the date conversation.

“A date?” John waited until Amelia was out of earshot. “You never mentioned being interested like that. In fact, you mocked me.”

“We were merely getting to know one another,” he shrugged. “Initially we were trying to prove a point, but it turned into an enjoyable afternoon. Though, I wouldn’t get too excited about it, John.”

“And why not?” John asked. “She’s been here for two months now, you two get along in your weird, mad scientist way, it could be a good match.”

“I’m far too busy to have time for romantic partners,” Sherlock shot the suggestion down. He stilled, his hands resting on the keys of his laptop. “And she seemed odd just now, didn’t she?”

“No more than usual,” John replied. “Worried she didn’t enjoy herself? You got her a flower, I’m sure she was enthralled.”

“A peony,” Sherlock corrected quietly. “She likes peonies. They’re in the perfume she wears.”

“Maybe she’s just deep in denial, much like yourself, and needed to sleep to get her head straight?” John snorted, standing up from his chair. “Speaking of, don’t stay up too late.”

Sherlock waved him off, staring down at his computer and re-reading the same sentence over and over. He couldn’t focus on any of his cases right now, his head was all over the place.

Grabbing his violin, he plucked away at the strings, trying to find a sound for the chaos in his head.

Meanwhile, laying in bed with her eyes closed, listening to the soft sounds, Amelia decided she had more important things to think about besides date challenges and eccentric roommates.

Things like corrupt CEOs and fungi.

Chapter 6

[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

Quiglet Descendants Au headcanons?

OH! OH I ACTUALLY HAVE THESE!

Alright so Quigley and Violet have the Mal/Ben subplot; aka Quigley is like “the only people allowed close enough to the fairy godmother’s wand at the coronation are the royal family and their plus ones, so we’ll just slip Violet a love potion and be on our way” 

And then ofc. Oops. He has feelings. 

What he doesn’t know is Violet has had extensive education on love potions and since she was a kid her parents always drilled into her head “if you get a sudden, huge crush, have your first date in the enchanted stream that washes away potions.” so like. that’s what she does 

but what Quigley also doesn’t know is Violet has a huge fucking crush on him anyway 

So she likes to assume the best of everyone so her immediate thought is “oh he likes me but has never been shown affection so he just assumes he has to drug me. that’s obviously not okay but i’ll play along for a bit and make sure he like. doesn’t do this again.”

So Quigley thinks Violet’s still under the potion’s effects because obviously nobody could actually like him, right? But every now and again she’s just like “hey you know what’s immoral. love potions.” and he has fuckin whiplash 

Ofc by like day three she figures out he’s not trying to drug her for anything other than cute dates. He brings her flowers one day and is like “idk if these are pretty or not we didn’t have many of these on the Isle but Carm says you’re supposed to give people flowers” and she’s like “holy fuck how am I supposed to NOT fall in love with him”

and then she’s like “that’s really sweet but those aren’t flowers. that’s poison ivy” and he’s just like “FUCK”

he’s insistent to the others that he does NOT like Violet, it’s JUST for the mission, shut UP, but... yeah it’s p obvious. 

Duncan: Sing the song Quigley. Sing the princess song. Quigley: I’M NOT GONNA SING “I WON’T SAY I’M IN LOVE” BECAUSE I’M NOT, GO AWAY

One time they were studying together, and after Violet thought he’d left she quietly sang “Something There” to herself. He was behind some shelves, about to go back for a pencilbag he left. He went red and screamed into a pillow for an hour. 

And then of course he finished the song, real quietly, to himself in his room. 

And that’s when he finally admits to himself that, shit, he might actually like her. 

[heidzou]

Feel so dumb cause I was also gonna day Gotham, but Batman: the animated series and the Harley Quinn series (if you’ve seen it!)

BTAS:

1. joker, cuz he's probably my fav character in the whole dc universe and mark hamill still the best j prove me wrong.......

2. bruce wayne. i love this bruce more than any other version, cuz he's finally looking like bruce in comics (for me ofc)

3. harley quinn. i love classic harley the most and i think it's the best harley, she's absolutely mad with her dependence about joker and i think that margot did good job with this side of harley in suicide squad

4. alfred pennyworth. i remember how i first seen this 'i'm tired of your shit mr wayne' vibes when i was like 10 years old and i think alfred in animated is the reason why i am bitchy sometimes........

5. selina kyle. it's kinda classic selina for me and first version of selina that i've ever seen so i can't not love her

HQTAS:

1. poison ivy. i love this ivy more than classic ivy from BTAS. they have the same vibes with care about harley, but this ivy JUST LOOKS BETTER FOR ME

2. harley quinn. even if i don't like much 'modern harley' with this look of rebirth era i still love her as a character in every single version. (her body also looks like a normal woman's body thanks god i'm feeling good)

3. king shark, he's so cute in this series, i just love him

4. bruce wayne. i love their dynamic with jim and how jim trying to call him for a 'date' and bruce just like I'M BUSY. and their relationships with alfred tho.......

5. joker. again, not my fav version of j, but anyway he's funny here AND HE'S HAIR LOOKS SO GOOD

[talkmagically]

WIP Game

I wasn’t tagged for this because the person I saw this from (@justanothersaltandburn) chose not to tag anyone, but I want to do it anyway! It’s where you post the last sentence of your WIP(s) that you wrote.

When it comes to my WIPs, I cannot speak about a couple of them because they’re for Bang events here on Tumblr. However, I have two Supernatural stories and four NCIS fics that are NOT tied to an event, so I can share the lines for them! I’ll share links where I can, but they’ll be spread out across Tumblr, AO3, and FFN for the sake of sharing the most up-to-date version of each story.

1. Scorching - The sequel to my Michael/Ruby fic Burning. This was originally meant for a Bang event, but I dropped out and have since started sharing the finished chapters. Fandom: Supernatural.

They harbor no ill will towards you.

2. Spared No Expense - My new Jurassic Park!AU Samifer fic, which I did a taste of here. I’m still working out the character list right now, before I continue writing more. Fandom: Supernatural.

Hopefully, still alive.

3. Poison Ivy - My first attempt at a romance and is currently my longest running WIP as the first chapter was posted back in 2011. My primary OC for this fic, Evelyn Brant, has gotten some good reviews. Tim McGee/OFC. Fandom: NCIS

Groaning, Tim hung his head a few seconds before picking it back up and began to recollect his things to leave the house again.

4. Future History - Currently my most popular WIP on both FFN and AO3. It’s a Rom-Com with some drama sprinkled in. This story features my most popular OC, Gunnery Sergeant Dimitri Petroviak. Tim McGee/OMC. Fandom: NCIS

It was a toss up on which pair was a bigger pain in Kate's ass; Tabitha and Deidre or Tim and Dimitri.

5. Apparitions - This is my paranormal drama. It has gotten some unique reviews because it’s the first time I’ve gotten readers into a genre they don’t normally read (paranormal). I’ve got several OCs for this story because I had to create a whole team of people (a paranormal investigation team, to be exact), but the primary one is Jade Green. She’s a medium. Tim McGee/OFM. Fandom: NCIS

In the dark of the equipment room, a handheld EVP monitor fell off its shelf.

6. Nomenclature - A drama where NCIS is working with the FBI as a mob war is triggered in the DC area. A secondary plot is finding out the identity of Mickey Murphy, an unidentified assassin for the Murphy Family. This story also contains several OCs, most of which come from the Murphy Family. Tim McGee/OFM. Fandom: NCIS

Colin shrugged one shoulder and jerked his head toward it, as if to say 'Fine.'

I’m sure these are teases for everyone reading! I’m open to being questioned about them, too, so if you want to know anything just send me an ask! If the answer isn’t a spoiler, I’ll tell you!

I tag @brieflymaximumprincess @dreamdreaded and @spnyoucantkeepmedown because you all have many lovelies that others want to know more of!

[ao3porcelainstorm]

poison ivy & stinging nettles 20

On Ao3

Pairing: Sherlock/OFC

Rated: M

Warnings: eventual violence, torture, swears, adult themes (no explicit smut)

Chapter 19 - Chapter 21 

Chapter 20- Rosemary

“We found him,” Mycroft explained a week later at the Diogenes Club.

“He turned himself in,” Sherlock translated briskly, crossing his arms.

“Regardless, he’s under lock and key,” his brother looked to Amelia. “Her Majesty’s Government intends to move quickly toward Magistrate’s Court and we will require your statement.”

“You have my statement,” Amelia replied, arching a brow.

“In person,” he clarified.

“Absolutely not,” Sherlock interjected. “It’s hardly been any time since Moriarty-”

“All the more reason to move forward with haste,” Mycroft countered sharply. “While the evidence is still fresh.” His eyes drifted toward the healing wounds on Amelia’s wrist.

“We have no idea the extent of the abuse,” Sherlock shook his head. “There isn’t enough evidence to move forward yet. Not while we’re still working through everything. We can’t risk him being let off.”

“Between Chemco, my uncle, and the kidnapping alone, that should be enough, right?” Amelia asked the elder brother, who nodded slowly. “That’s what the case is all about at this point.”

“If we’re so fortunate to have additional evidence by the time of the proceeding, we will adjust our case a necessary,” Mycroft closed a file on his desk and looked to Sherlock firmly. “Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment, brother mine. It’s unbecoming.”

He confirmed the details with Amelia, assuring her that Anthea would be in touch later that week.

Sherlock all but stormed out of the club, throwing up a hand to summon a taxi. Amelia hurried over, pulling his hand down and squeezing it between hers.

“Why don’t we walk a bit?” she suggested, pulling him along without too much of a struggle.

Sherlock knew he wasn’t mad at Mycroft or Amelia for that matter- he was mad at Moriarty. Everything was ticking along, Sherlock was certain, to the madman’s plans.

He had hoped that Amelia would have had more time to adjust to things again. Heal. But of course, things were never easy for Sherlock. Moriarty was pushing along the court date for a reason. An attack? A grand reveal? Of what?

“There’s steam coming out of your ears,” Amelia commented, a smile tugging at her mouth.

“I don’t like this,” he grumbled, looking over at her.

“I don’t either,” she replied, giving his hand a nervous squeeze. “But it was bound to happen sooner or later.”

“I’d have hoped to help you parse through- things,” he sighed, gesturing in her direction. “If something were to happen and I couldn’t help you-”

“You sound like my mother,” she scoffed, laughing at his offended expression. “Sherlock, we can figure it out. The Magistrate won’t have him or anyone else, aside from people we trust.”

“Until he pays off a guard to stab you in the loo,” he huffed under his breath.

“My, what a dark place your Mind Palace must be,” she tutted. “Surely you have brighter rooms to enjoy? A greenhouse?”

He did, but he would never tell her that it contained every small intricacy he’d picked up on her. Her favorite foods and colours. Favorite songs and movies. Even minute details like what shampoo she preferred.

“I need to stay ahead of him,” he stopped at the side of the walkway, hands on her shoulders. “If anything more were to happen to you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Avenge me, I hope?” she teased.

“You have no idea,” he mumbled. He’d tear across the world for this woman and those that hurt her? 

He had a special room in the Mind Palace for recalling those types of things.

Amelia looked at him thoughtfully, reaching up and cupping the side of his face gently.

Her hands were warmer than his.

“We’re a reasonably intelligent bunch,” she assured him with that damned smile. “It’ll be okay, Sherlock. Whatever happens, it’ll be okay.”

“If you die?” he asked, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm.

“I suppose I’ll have to help you from the great beyond,” she laughed. “Though that might prove difficult given your disbelief in ghosts.”

“I’ll hold a seance then,” he offered. “Only once. Just to be sure.”

They continued walking, hand in hand, Sherlock beginning to feel a little lighter as they joked and chatted.

“If I die?” he asked and she paused in thought.

“Don’t even joke, I don’t know what anyone would do without the great Sherlock Holmes,” Amelia answered with a frown. “Think of all the opportunistic criminals! And all the unsolved crimes, you know the Yard is basically useless.”

He knew she was being sarcastic and trying to inflate his ego at the same time, but it didn’t do much to distract him from the problem at hand.

All this joy and peace was at risk. This woman who’d stumbled quite literally into his life and brought with her the the light of the sun itself. She was too good for this nightmare he’d inadvertently brought her into, and he would spend the rest of his life ensuring she never feared another day again.

“Ruthie owns it now,” Amelia broke his train of thought, her hand leaving his to look at the building next to her. They’d made it as far as the old flower shop a few blocks away from Baker Street.

It was now boarded off, the caution tape replaced with plywood and keep out signs. The brick had been cleaned of soot, but largely the place remained unchanged from the day he’d found the Monkshood.

“Have you considered reopening?” he asked, her fingers reaching to touch where the front door used to be.

“Ruthie asked but-,” she gave a low sigh. “I guess I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop with whatever is hiding in my head.”

It was a rare sight to see Amelia deflated. The dynamics of their relationship usually rested upon Sherlock being on the receiving end of a hopeful statement or reassuring comment.

He hesitated, watching her look up forlornly at the upper levels of the shop.

Assurance. Comfort.

He knew what emotions he needed to convey, but had no idea how to begin-

Trust your instincts, you bloody idiot, John’s voice scolded from the back of his mind.

Sherlock wrapped his arms over her shoulders from behind, resting his chin on the top of her head and following her gaze up.

“You obviously couldn’t move back in,” he said.

“And why not?”

“You’d freeze at night,” he smirked to himself.

“Not ready to retire and become a flower man? Shame,” she turned around in his arms and tapped the tip of his nose affectionately. “Could still have the same amount of blood and guts. Roses and the like love all that, remember?”

“Maybe Mrs. Hudson will let us turn the basement into a greenhouse,” he offered, following behind in a few steps when she started back down the road.

“And why not your room?” she challenged. “There’s better sunlight after all.”

“I like my room,” he protested.

“And I like my little apartment,” she countered. “Though I suppose John will have to move out eventually... I hope he finds someone soon. He’d make such a great husband and father.”

Sherlock rolled his eyes while he snorted.

“If you’re so confident, marry him yourself,” he replied.

“Maybe I will,” she laughed, speeding up when she saw 221B ahead.

Before he could catch up, she sprinted inside and raced to the sound of John’s voice greeting them from upstairs.

“John Watson, will you marry me?” she asked, trying to catch her breath while Sherlock strolled past her with brows raised.

“Excuse me?” the doctor lowered his newspaper in surprise. “I thought we’d decided on the table settings for the two of you?”

“Amelia believes you’d be a good husband and father, so I encouraged her to take advantage of the opportunity before it became too late,” Sherlock explained, dropping into his chair and watching the exchange in amusement.

“All right then,” John set the paper aside and stood up. “Let’s do it.”

Wait. Sherlock’s head snapped in Amelia’s direction.

“How many kids do you think? Two?”

“Two dozen, more like it,” John took her hand and examined it. “Your hands are tiny. I’ll have to get my mother’s ring refit.”

“You two aren’t serious?” Sherlock stammered out, but the pair ignored him in lieu of their supposed engaged bliss.

“We could always buy a matching set,” Amelia suggested, holding both his hands in hers excitedly.

No, no, that’s where Sherlock’s hands went-

“I think that’s quite enough,” the detective cleared his throat and the pair finally glanced over.

“Oh no, I think this is a spectacular idea,” Amelia grabbed John’s hand and placed it around her waist, leaning into him with a grin. “We’re already best friends, and I’m told that’s the secret to a healthy marriage.”

“Decent age difference, well educated in the sciences,” John added. “And we both have a good appreciation for the arts.”

“Nope,” Sherlock stood up and pulled them apart. “How about not? You two wouldn’t even be able to have sex, it’d be too weird.”

“For you maybe,” John shot back with a smirk.

“Oh dear,” Amelia’s hand found John’s again. “I do believe Mr. Holmes is jealous.”

“Why wouldn’t he be? Our stationary would say; Dr. and Dr. Watson.”

“I do like the sound of that,” she grinned.

“And we are done,” Sherlock pulled Amelia away and sat her down on the sofa with a huff. “I’m not jealous.”

“Someone’s grumpy,” Amelia teased, standing up and giving Sherlock’s hair a ruffle. “I’ve got to call my mom. I promised I'd tell her about the meeting. Let me know when you guys are ready for dinner.”

She proceeded down the stairs with a final chuckle, the door to her basement flat closing.

Sherlock immediately turned to John with a single quirked brow.

“Don’t do that again,” he stated firmly.

“Put my hand on her waist? You know, she put it there,” John answered, coolly moving toward his chair and ignoring his friend’s glare.

“I know what you’re doing and it isn’t going to work,” Sherlock shot back tersely. He returned to his chair and grabbed a book off the table. Flipping through it, he peered back over at John again. “I mean, Dr. and Dr. Watson? Ridiculous.”

“I also like children,” the doctor hummed, returning to his paper.

“She kissed me the other night,” Sherlock blurted out. “So, just saying.”

John rolled his eyes, flattening the paper to look up.

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sherlock stuffed his face in his book, pretending to read until he felt John’s lingering gaze on him. “How am I an idiot?”

“You two-,” John shook his head with a low shucker. “I’ve never seen such infatuated but clueless people in my life. You care for her, don’t you? That’s the whole point of this nonsense with Moriarty.”

He did.

“And?” Sherlock pried, hoping that maybe his friend could provide more insight into these unusual feelings he’d been working through.

“She clearly cares for you in a similar manner,” John continued slowly.

“She was ready to marry you just moments ago,” Sherlock furrowed his brows.

“You’re really thick at this, aren’t you?” John pinched the bridge of his nose. “We were teasing you. I have no desire to marry Amelia, she’s like my sister. I have about as much desire to marry her as I would marry you.”

“That...” he groaned and threw his head back on the chair. “Why is this so complex?”

“You could just tell her you love her,” John suggested with a shrug.

He- what- the- no- not- he- didn’t- but-

“Ugh,” Sherlock huffed, crossing his arms stubbornly. “These attachments are making me weak.”

“Oh boohoo,” John scoffed. “You found someone compatible and willing to deal with your temper tantrums. How awful.”

“I’m serious, John,” Sherlock leaned forward, his expression falling earnest. “I don’t know what to do about Moriarty.”

John sensed the shift in emotion and studied his friend over briefly. Sherlock had found that John Watson was the type of person he could read in an instant- the doctor always wearing some kind of expression on his face that revealed his true thoughts.

Did he pity him? That’s what it looked like. John felt sorry for him. Pathetic. He thought Sherlock was a pathetic failure.

But- John wasn’t the type, he reminded himself at the doctor's expression.

This involved him too. Amelia was as much his friend as she was... whatever she was... to Sherlock.

“He turned himself in,” John recited. “And Mycroft wants him to be prosecuted.”

“That’s right,” Sherlock nodded.

“He’s going to do something,” John voiced, agreeing with Sherlock’s thoughts out loud. “Trigger the memories? Torment us a little longer? We have to remember that his target is ultimately you. What would hurt you the most? Losing the case? Losing Mia?”

All of it, a quiet voice whispered.

“And that’s what concerns me,” Sherlock confessed. “He’s playing too many variables this time. First, he tried to make me fail at solving cases by distracting me through Amelia’s disappearance. Then she returns, no recollection of events, and a week later he turns himself in.”

“What’s his end goal?” John considered quietly. “Why is he so fixated on you?”

“I’m not mad like him,” Sherlock realized, straightening up.

That was it. That was the difference between him and Moriarty. Sherlock had people who cared for him and he cared for in return. He had John and Amelia, Mrs. Hudson and Molly and Lestrade.

“He wants you to feel weak because you... care?” John asked, trying to follow along as Sherlock explained.

“He thinks I’m sentimental, and in his mind, that’s a detriment,” he replied, pacing the room. “That’s why he picked the clues he picked- Persephone? Ophelia? The War of the Roses? He’s well aware that in my sentiment, I would know these things and relate them back to Amelia.”

“And that, he hoped, would have distracted you and proven his point,” John nodded. “But it didn’t work.”

“No, so he knew he needed to dig deeper,” Sherlock pointed to John. “I don’t think he intended to do anything to Amelia initially. He wanted to prove a point. Scare her a little, and show me that these relationships hurt my abilities.”

“So what does that mean now?” John asked, now at the literal edge of his seat, watching Sherlock walk back and forth.

“It means that he’s going to continue playing on that sentiment,” Sherlock deduced confidently. “Another poem or a flower? He wants to get into my head and is doing so through hers.”

“That’s reassuring,” Amelia commented, falling backward onto the sofa. “At least he’ll leave my head soon. It’s really strange not recalling nearly a month in time. Did I menstruate? Who dealt with that? Where did I shower? What if I’m missing a kidney or something?”

“You have both kidneys,” John assured her quickly. “But that is a good point to consider- what do we do when he pulls the curtain on her memories, so to speak?”

“I’m preparing for the worst and hoping for the best,” Amelia supplied, staring up at the ceiling. “At least, that’s why my therapist is telling me to do.”

“We won’t know until it happens,” Sherlock agreed tersely. He hated the unknown, the unsolvable. He especially hated that James Moriarty knew something he didn’t.

“Then we watch out for signs and go from there?” John looked between the pair. “Proceed with caution?”

“For now,” Sherlock replied. “For now.”

~~~

The morning of the Magistrate hearing, Sherlock hovered over her. He hovered while she ate breakfast, hovered while she got dressed (though he did turn around after she threw a shoe toward his general direction), and hovered on their way to the taxi outside.

“Sherlock, you’ll be the first to know if something weird happens,” she promised him, patting his hand in reassurance. “I really don’t think anyone would be so bold as to do something right on the courthouse steps.”

“Just keep staying alert,” he mumbled, eyes scanning the roads, the front of the taxi, the driver.

The ride to the courthouse was blessedly short, Amelia growing tired of Sherlock’s overzealous actions. He held a hand up and made sure no one outside the courthouse was too close. Amelia snorted and pulled out her wallet.

Once Sherlock was out of the taxi, Amelia paid the driver. He paused, counting the bills before reaching into his sun visor. Pulling an envelope free, he passed it to Amelia.

Before she could ask questions, Mycroft approached and reminded the pair that they were needed inside. Amelia tucked the envelope away into her jacket, sliding out of the cab and following behind the Holmes brothers with more questions than answers at this point.

They moved through security, and before stepping into the chambers, Amelia excused herself to go to the restroom, with Mycroft calling after her to hurry.

Slipping into one of the stalls, Amelia took the moment of privacy to take a breath and pull the envelope free.

Hopefully, it wasn’t anthrax, she thought dryly, feeling the paper from the outside.

There was something inside, a piece of a fern or pine. Ripping the top, she emptied its contents on her lap, lifting the small sprig up to better examine it.

Rosemary, she recognized immediately, fingers running over the delicate periwinkle blooms.

It had to be a little gift from Moriarty. It was too bizarre to treat as some random act.

Why this though?

She checked the inside of the envelope for anything else, and finding nothing, she tucked it back into the paper and folded it into her coat. Weird.

Sherlock was outside the bathrooms, waiting with his eyes mid-roll while Mycroft lectured in the background.

“Thank goodness,” he grumbled when Amelia returned. “I couldn’t take another second with him.”

She fell in step with him, thinking to herself how to address the bizarre interaction. Pulling the envelope free, she held it up to him.

“The taxi driver gave this to me when I paid,” she explained when they stopped in front of the courtroom, Mycroft stepping inside with instructions to wait until they were summoned.

Sherlock plucked the rosemary free, brows furrowed while he studied it.

“Rosemary,” she supplied with a small shrug of her shoulders. “Nothing else though. No note.”

“Rosemary,” he repeated to himself. “And the taxi driver gave it to you?”

He looked at her reaction and she nodded slowly.

They were both thinking the same thing.

“Yeah,” she made a face. “Generally means love, lust, and mourning… though it’s been a minute since I last worked with it. I’m not sure what it would… why he would send it, you know?”

Sherlock hummed in agreement, pulling out his phone and sending John a picture with a request to double-check any other meaning behind the plant.

Amelia sighed.

There was something irritatingly familiar about the plant that made her run through every bit of flowers knowledge she possessed. It grew in coastal climates. Used in cooking, has a salty texture…

“Amelia, the Magistrate will be hearing from you now,” Mycroft peeked his head into the hall, guiding Amelia into the chambers to give her statement.

Once the doors closed, Sherlock’s phone buzzed with a new message from John.

He didn’t even have to look, the flower staring up at him from his palm. He knew exactly what this meant and exactly why the taxi driver gave it to her.

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember.

Oh no, no, no… Stuffing his phone into his pocket, Sherlock slipped into the courtroom, earning a pointed glare from his brother when he sat down next to him. Amelia was settling into the witness’ chair, nervously toying with the edge of her shirt sleeves.

“We have a problem,” Sherlock murmured to his older brother passing him the sprig of rosemary. “Amelia received this in the taxi.”

Mycroft’s face went ghost white.

“We can’t interrupt,” Mycroft grunted in frustration, watching Amelia intensely.

“Dr. Brenner, do you recognize this man?” the representative of the court asked her, holding up a photograph of Jim Moriarty.

“I do,” Amelia answered confidently, blinking a few times and frowning to herself when the representative turned to grab another piece of evidence.

“Can you please tell us how you are familiar with him?”

“I…” Amelia’s voice caught. “I’m sorry, can you repeat the question?”

“How are you familiar with this man?”

“Who are we talking about?” came Amelia’s blank-faced reply, confusion evident on her face.

Oh nononono. Sherlock could hear his heartbeat in his ears. Months of work. Months of effort were about to go down the drain.

“If I may?” Mycroft stepped toward the representative, murmuring something into his ear. The panel of judges looked absolutely scandalized at the interruption.

“Excuse me,” the female barrister approached the bench, speaking in a low voice to the trio.

“We will grant this request,” the center judge, a man, replied firmly. “Return in one hour.”

Mycroft practically dragged Amelia out of the room, much to Sherlock’s chagrin. Once they were in the hall, the barrister looked to Mycroft furiously.

“Mind explaining what the hell just happened in there?” she barked.

“Just, bear with me,” Mycroft released Amelia’s arm after Sherlock smacked his hand.

Cautiously, Sherlock touched her shoulder.

“Amelia?” he asked, and her head snapped toward him. Her face was sheet white, pupils dilated, breathing rapidly.

“Sherlock,” she breathed. “Oh my god.”

Sherlock saw that Mycroft was busy trying to calm the barrister and took it upon himself to guide Amelia to a more secluded area. He sat her on a bench, taking one of her hands protectively.

“What happened?” he pressed, keeping his voice low, controlled. He didn’t want to frighten her more than she obviously was.

“I remember everything,” she whispered, tears threatening to fall over her bottom lashes. “Oh my god, Sherlock… it’s…”

She pulled her hand out of his and buried her face into her palms, hunching forward.

“I can’t do this,” she choked out, green eyes looking at him wildly.

“You have to,” he insisted. “Whatever it is, we will work through it, but you can’t let him walk away.”

“You don’t understand,” she swallowed, her whole body shaking. “I can’t. I… it’s… just…”

“You’re the key to this whole case, Amelia,” he reminded her tersely. “I’m seldom one to beg, but you have to push through. It’s for one day.”

“And if it goes to trial?” she snapped sharply, her voice rising. “And the press? And his little goons waiting in the shadows to strike? Sherlock, no. I’m not…”

She stood up on wobbly legs, backing away from him.

“I’m going home,” she choked out.

“Amelia,” he called after her retreating figure, cursing under his breath as he passed Mycroft.

“What is going on?” Mycroft demanded. “We need to be back in an hour!”

“I’m working on it,” Sherlock huffed, sprinting after the terrified woman. He found her on the court steps, legs tucked to her chest, muttering to herself under her breath. “Mia.”

The nickname pulled her back and she stilled, silencing with a shake of her head.

“I’m not doing it,” she repeated fiercely. “Call anyone else. My mother. My cousin. I don’t care. I’m not doing it.”

“Don’t think about that right now,” Sherlock sat down next to her. “You need to talk to me. Tell me what happened.”

She kept her eyes glued to the steps in front of her.

Sherlock took the opportunity to hammer out a text to John. Whatever was happening, they needed to get out of the public eye for a moment, the court be damned.

“Sherlock,” she turned to him, eyes swollen, her whole being trembling. “It was… there aren’t words.”

He’d kill him. Sherlock decided. He’d rip his spine free from his body. Throw him off the courthouse roof. Spend the rest of his life ensuring no one ever touched a single hair on her again.

She pulled up her shirt sleeves, holding up the pair of healing scars toward him.

“20 days,” she stated bitterly. “If it were possible, I would have ripped my own hands off to escape. I can’t, Sherlock. Please. I just… I don’t even know what… Christ, he’s a monster.”

“We need to get ready,” Mycroft was jogging down the steps toward them. “The court wants to start up early.”

“It’s not happening,” Sherlock shot back. “She’s in no condition for this.”

“She just needs to recite her statement,” Mycroft pressed. “Once we get the approval to move forward-”

“Mycroft, no,” Sherlock stood up, face to face with his brother.

“We might not be able to bring this forward again,” Mycroft warned sharply. “If Dr. Brenner is so frightened, you both might do well to remember that without a pending trial, James Moriarty is to be released to the public.”

Amelia’s breath hitched at the thought. Looking at Sherlock in a panic, he took a breath.

“Just…” he considered their options, none of which were pleasant. “Get a postponement. New evidence came up and the government needs to verify its authenticity.”

Mycroft stared at him a moment, considering the suggestion.

Both men knew it was a weak excuse, but they didn’t have a lot of options at this point. If they threw the case out completely, Moriarty would be free to roam and terrorize again.

“Fine,” he seethed with a low sigh. “I will contact you with the details moving forward. Get this figured out.”

“Thank you,” Sherlock mumbled to the smug satisfaction of his brother.

“Just- get out of here before the barrister sees you,” he added, a little gentler.

Sherlock plucked Amelia up and hurried toward a line of waiting taxis.

John was going to meet them at the flat, preferably with a tranquilizer on standby.

“I’m sorry,” Amelia managed once they were a few blocks away from the court. She looked a little calmer, though it wasn’t much of a difference appearance wise. She just didn’t seem like she was about to pass out from sheer horror.

Sherlock didn’t register the small apology, his mind a million miles away, running through everything that had happened.

Moriarty had planned for this to happen. To shame her. Make her give up one of the potentially largest fraud cases in decades out of fear.

Sherlock’s hand found hers. She gave it a tight squeeze. At the very least she was here and not buried in a trench somewhere. The only benefit to this was that Moriarty was keen on giving him preferential treatment.

~~~

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Amelia mumbled, wrapped in Sherlock’s robe, a cup of chamomile in her hands. She was sitting in the chair. She’d never sat in the chair, even her first night at Baker Street after her shop burnt down.

But this was another monster. This was bigger than Chemco and shady family relations; this was James Moriarty. And everything she could try and recall could be essential in figuring out what his play was. Or so Sherlock had assured her.

“The beginning?” Sherlock suggested dryly, earning a smack in the arm from John. He rubbed the spot, glaring at him pointedly. “It’s the best way to parse everything out."

John just wanted to make sure she made it through all of this in one piece. With Moriarty on the mind, Sherlock tended to become hyper-focused, ignoring the comforts and general well-being of those around him.

It was all for a good cause, of course, but given the vulnerable state Amelia was already in- having been exploited by Moriarty that very day- he wanted to keep her safe.

“Are you okay if I record this?” John asked, holding up a small recording device. Amelia nodded and took a sip of the calming tea. “Just take your time.”

“A lot of it just phases together after a bit,” she explained after a pause of consideration, a chill going up to her spine at an unspoken memory.

John wasn’t sure if he was ready to stomach what she had to say. She looked so rattled, so scared. This woman who stared down the barrel of a gun and demanded that her uncle not be a coward and shoot her- looked absolutely terrorized.

What possible demons lurked in her mind?

She took a deep breath and looked up between the men. It was her show. She was in the chair and they were ready to take on Amelia Brenner’s second case.

Chapter 21 

[ao3porcelainstorm]

poison ivy & stinging nettles 19

On Ao3

Pairing: Sherlock/OFC

Rated: M

Warnings: eventual violence, torture, swears, adult themes (no explicit smut)

Chapter 18 - Chapter 20

Chapter 19- Willow

~~~

I used to love playing pretend when I was a boy. My sister and I would spend hours dreaming up impossible scenes to play in; dinosaurs, spacemen, anything you could imagine, we would come up with.

That’s what this has felt like- playing pretend. I don’t mind it, personally. Given all that has happened, it’s a bit nice to see my two dearest friends get on and enjoy a short break from solving crimes and dealing with Moriarty.

It’s just, unfortunately, the problem with playing pretend is that eventually your mum has to call you in for dinner and you’re thrown back into reality.

~~~

And if it was an open-shut case, I never would have known from the look on your face. Lost in your current like a priceless wine. - Willow (Taylor Swift)

~~~

“And what?” Amelia challenged a laugh on her lips, teacup in her lap and watching John in amusement. “You’re opening the present or so help me John Watson, I’ll tell Mrs. Hudson.”

The doctor lifted the bundle of perfectly wrapped boxes tentatively, giving the smallest one a shake.

“It doesn’t feel right,” he continued, and Amelia sent him a pointed look.

“I opened mine,” Sherlock commented, arms crossed, leaning back in his chair.

“You did?” John gaped at his friend in disbelief. “When?”

“A few nights ago,” Amelia waved her hand, not wanting to go into detail about her complete meltdown that first night. “And Mrs. Hudson opened hers yesterday. Just open it!”

Mrs. Hudson was gifted an all-expense paid spa trip to Bath with the three ladies she played cards with each week. The housekeeper had practically screamed with excitement, pulling Amelia into a tight hug, thanking her profusely before making phone calls to set up a date.

It was nice to have a bit of normal.

“Fine,” John grumbled, opening the first box.

All in all, he loved his gifts.

Two cashmere sweaters in navy and merlot, and an original 1st edition of Grey’s Anatomy.

He set the book aside and pulled Amelia into a hug, and even though he tried to blink away the tears in his eyes, she definitely saw them glisten.

No one mentioned the lapse in time often. Only when Sherlock was working on the case did he pepper he with questions. John talked about it even less, which was sweet, but no matter how much Amelia tried to pretend things were ok, she was still reeling from it all.

The Christmas decorations had come down after the New Year, leaving the apartment sparse when she returned, having left with it covered in lights and tinsel. The days were easing into February, while she was still waiting for January.

She’d started therapy the day before, at John’s insistence. Twice a week for the foreseeable future. The hope was that the sessions would unlock whatever secrets were hidden in her subconscious.

More than anything, though, she was tired of everyone looking at her like she was this fragile thing, waiting to shatter at the lightest touch.

She’d been home a little over a week now, and it was getting old. Amelia wasn’t one who did well with coddling.

Even her mother had become almost unbearable. Constantly calling and texting.

The only person she had the energy to deal with was Sherlock. He was careful not to overstep his boundaries, but also read her like a book when she was uncomfortable.

He’d insisted on accompanying her anywhere she wanted to go, including the shops when she decided to pick out a new winter coat.

It was nice.

Amelia had always enjoyed spending time with both John and Sherlock alone, but while John felt like an older brother, Sherlock gave her butterflies whenever he spoke.

Greg had been sweet enough to avoid calling him in unless absolutely necessary. And on the one occasion he did, Sherlock made sure Amelia was left with Molly at the hospital. Safe and secure while he and John went to the crime scene.

Otherwise, Sherlock was always at her side. But it wasn’t as smothering as anyone else. He didn’t nitpick and ask her how she was feeling or fetch her things because he pitied her. It was a natural presence, a little protective, but safe and warm.

Amelia had no problem falling back into old routines, sketching by the fire while Sherlock read and John worked through a crossword. It was what she needed.

Nighttime was the only thing that had changed drastically.

Ever since that first night in her room, Amelia and Sherlock had spent every night together, alternating between beds.

The first night in his room, Amelia had burrowed her face into his pillow, much to his amusement, trying to guess the elements of his cologne.

“I’ll never tell,” he teased when she listed a few common scents.

“I will figure it out,” she vowed.

And she did. He didn’t bother hiding the bottle and a quick google search revealed a blend of pine and light jasmine.

It certainly didn’t account for the smell of firewood, old books, and wool that seemed to be all his.

Neither of them had tried to name whatever this had turned into. There wasn’t “I love you’s” or kisses in the morning. They never had sex.

It felt like an entirely natural progression of things, granted, with the underlying context of kidnapping and memory loss. But Amelia didn’t mind. She was happy. Sherlock seemed happy. That was good enough for her.

She wasn’t so naive to assume that this would last forever, either.

They’d discussed it extensively, lying awake next to one another and dissecting potential plans that Moriarty had for the future and a grand reveal was the first idea they’d agreed upon.

It was coming. She didn’t know when or how, but it was.

Amelia just wanted to enjoy this little slice of joy that they had as long as she could. They could name things and have serious talks about the future, later on. For now, she was content in this vacation-like bliss.

~~~

“10... 9... 8...”

It was a small get together, Ruthie, Greg, Molly, and the residents of Baker Street, but it meant the world to Amelia.

John had pulled up a video of the New Year’s Eve celebrations, Mrs. Hudson had pulled out hats and noisemakers, and the plan was to count down until midnight.

“..2...1! Happy New Year!”

Laughing, kisses were peppered onto everyone’s cheeks. When Amelia passed Sherlock, he linked his finger with hers, giving her a small smile when she glanced curiously in his direction.  

Turning around, she pecked a kiss on his cheek, tapping the tip of his nose with a finger, before returning to the others.

More than anything, Amelia wanted to grab him by the shoulders and kiss him like she meant it. But they hadn’t even discussed their unspoken thing or shared the first kiss at all.

So, she held her composure and sent him smiles whenever he looked in her direction.

Greg and Molly left after Mrs. Hudson announced that she needed sleep. Ruthie was offered Amelia’s bed, but the women stayed up in the flat with John, splitting a bottle of gin and laughing next to the fire.

“Christ, I needed this,” Ruthie leaned her head back, resting up against Amelia's legs hanging from the sofa.

“No kidding,” Amelia murmured, taking the bottle from John and taking a large swallow. Making a face and handed it to Ruthie. “Gin. Awful.”

“Gets better the longer you drink it,” John voiced, sprawled over his chair.

“Tastes like a liquid pine tree,” Amelia grumbled.

“I bet you like rum or whiskey,” Ruthie held up the bottle to John.

“Bloody Americans,” John rolled his eyes. “Terrible taste in everything.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Amelia fell back, throwing a pillow over her head for effect. “Deep-fried Oreos are the shit.”

“Deep-fried... Oreos?” Ruthie poked her in the leg, the gin bottle making a return. “I love Oreos.”

“They’re like, deep-fried in pancake batter,” Amelia explained, popping back up. “It makes them all gooey and amazing.”

“Holy shit,” Ruthie paused. “We need to make some.”

“Not in my kitchen,” Sherlock threw blankets around the room, snagging the gin from Ruthie and taking a sip for himself.

“Sher...lock,” Amelia slurred, putting emphasis on the final “k”. “There are eyeballs and a human tongue in the freezer.”

“We can make Oreos,” John held up a hand.

“Deep-fried Oreos,” Amelia clarified with a wavering finger. “A very important distinction.”

“You’ll burn the flat down, no,” Sherlock countered.

“Not right now,” Amelia laughed. “Silly Sherlock. We don’t have Oreos.”

“Which is a tragedy,” Ruthie complained, stealing back the gin and finishing what was left. She grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders like a cocoon, tackling Amelia onto the sofa. “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

“Me too,” Amelia snickered, pressing a sloppy kiss on her cousin's cheek.

“Ugh, gross, you slobbered on me,” Ruthie dropped back, wiping at her cheek in disgust.

“You got emotional, consequences,” Amelia gestured above her, hand swaying while she examined it in the air.

What Sherlock first noticed was the way Ruthie stiffened at the sight of the vicious scarring and scabbing on her cousin's wrist. The second thing he noticed was the way Amelia went quiet when her drunken focus fell on the injury.

John let out a snore and Sherlock jumped up.

“Bed,” he announced, earning a chorus of complaints from Amelia and Ruthie. “You’ve both had plenty to drink. Happy New Year, bedtime.”

“I’m not moving,” Ruthie announced, curling up on the sofa, making it as difficult as possible for Amelia to crawl over her.

“Enjoy John and his snoring,” Amelia stumbled over the edge of the rug and caught herself in the doorway between the living area and kitchen. “Mmmm goodnight!”

“Don’t be loud!” Ruthie called once Amelia and Sherlock rounded the corner to his bedroom.

Sherlock had to redirect Amelia a couple of times, helping her navigate the hallway without smashing her head or breaking anything. She dropped onto his bed with a long sigh.

“What?” he stood over her, brow quirked.

“I think you’re right,” she answered, eyes opening to look at him. “Your bed is the best.”

“I’m never wrong,” he answered, dropping next to her with a soft thud.

“So very humble,” she rolled toward him, amusement in her eyes. “You’re the humblest guy I know, Sherlock Holmes.”

He turned his head to better see her, his chest hammering once he realized how close her face was to his.

Was this the right time? They’d both had a bit to drink and he didn’t want to escalate things to an inappropriate level until they were sober and-

Amelia pressed her lips against his, her fingers threading their way through his curls.

He pulled her closer, hand cupping her cheek while he reciprocated in turn. It felt like everything the movies and books he’d read about said a kiss was supposed to be.

His brain felt like it’s erupted in fireworks, and the rest of his body-

“Oh,” he pulled away, clearing his throat. She leaned on her elbow, watching him try to adjust his pants.

“I didn’t mean to get you all fired up,” she smirked up at him. “I feel a little powerful right now.”

He turned to her, scowling at her words. Cruel. She was being mean and enjoying it.

If he half a mind- nope. Gentleman. He was a gentleman and he was going to change into his sleeping pants and go to sleep. He announced as much, stood up, and locked himself in the bathroom with a change of clothes until he pulled himself together.

He stared at his reflection, hands gripping the sides of the sink. Gentleman.

If things came to that, he’d make sure it was right.

Groaning, he threw his night clothes on and returned to the room.

Amelia was on her back, snoring loudly, having only managed to change into an oversized shirt.

Running a hand down his face, Sherlock pushed her aside and threw himself onto his side of the bed.

Amelia rolled onto him, arms snaking around his waist and her hips against his.  

Gentleman.

~~~

“Mrs. Peacock, in the library with...” Amelia shuffled through her notes. “The rope!”

Sherlock lowered his hand and smirked.

“Nope,” he replied, popping the “p” and earning a fresh scowl from her.

“What do you mean, ‘nope’? You didn’t even open the packet,” she protested.

“I told you not to play him,” John mumbled, turning the page to his paper. “It never ends well.”

“It was Mrs. Peacock, and it was in the library,” he contended before flipping a card with his fingers. “But it wasn’t the rope.”

“But- you-,” Amelia scrambled through her notes and cards. “Impossible. Because then if you have the rope it had to have been the pistol.”

Sherlock handed her the envelope and with a litany of curses, sure enough, Mrs. Peacock, in the library, with the pistol.

“How did you...?” she stammered. “I didn’t... my cards...?”

“You touch the pieces you have at the beginning of the game,” he pointed out, lifting the tiny candlestick. “Unconsciously, of course, but you do. It’s an endearing tick, but sufficient to win.”

Amelia threw her cards into the game board, gaping at him in shock.

“I told you,” John sang, folding his newspaper. “You would have been better at Monopoly or Life.”

“I just...” Amelia shook her head, lifting the three cards from the envelope again. “I’ve never lost at this game before.”

“It is easier when it’s only two people,” Sherlock tried to offer but she shook her head.

“No. This is-,” she sat back into the sofa with a sigh. “I’m going to have to think about this. Restrategize.”

“It isn’t chess,” John chuckled.

“No, this is far more serious John,” she looked up at him firmly. “I’m going to beat him.”

“Good luck,” Sherlock mumbled and she whipped her head in his direction.

“I’m going to. And you’re going to eat humble pie, accepting that I, Amelia Ophelia Brenner, am better than you at something,” she announced, hopping to her feet.

“You’re better at painting than I am,” he suggested. “This is a game based on observation and deduction. You can’t win.”

“That’s why my victory will be all the sweeter,” she poked him in the chest with a grin. “Just you wait.”

“When shall I send out the wedding invitations?” John asked the pair. “I picked a lovely periwinkle card stock you’ll love.”

“I think a summer wedding would be nice,” Amelia paused. “Find a little church in the countryside. Wildflowers everywhere.”

“Allergies could be risky,” John replied. “Wouldn’t want to be sneezing on your wedding day.”

“Ah, but I assume you’ll be best man, so I would hope you’d be on hand wut Jaime antihistamines?”

“Of course,” John nodded solemnly. “Assuming Sherlock hasn’t taken them all first.”

“I would have accounted for allergies,” Sherlock piped up. “The insects would be my primary concern.”

“Bees,” Amelia pointed out in agreement. “I’m actually very allergic.”

“So we’re back to allergies,” John said.

“I know you’re allergic,” Sherlock looked at Amelia. “Which is why I renewed your epi-pen after it expired two months ago. I’ll make sure both John and myself have a backup.”

Amelia’s hand went to her chest, eyes wide, with a small “aww”.

“Clearly we’re going to have to bump the date up,” John snickered. “A nice spring wedding?”

“Rain,” both Amelia and Sherlock replied in unison.

“Also periwinkle is nice, but what about a yellow?” Amelia hummed in thought. “Or a tasteful navy with pastel pinks?”

“You just want to cover the tables in peonies,” Sherlock snorted, fishing for his phone after it chirped with a new message.

“Is that so wrong? They’re incredibly good luck for marriages,” she sighed dreamily.

Sherlock ignored the comment, reading over the short message from Mycroft a few times, just to be sure he understood it correctly.

Moriarty turned himself in.

MH

And just like that, the fun was over.

He looked toward Amelia, who was giggling with John over fictional seating arrangements, wrapped-up in Sherlock’s robe.

This was the part he’d been dreading. The game was on, and Amelia was back on the board. This last week being so peaceful for them all. The last tease before things became messy.

Sherlock had no doubt that by the end of this Amelia would know full well what had happened, and that terrified him the most.

~~~

Now this is an open-shut case, guess I should have known from the look on your face. Every bait and switch was a work of art.

Chapter 20

[ao3porcelainstorm]

poison ivy & stinging nettles 4

On Ao3

Pairing: Sherlock/OFC

Rated: M

Warnings: eventual violence, torture, swears, adult themes (no explicit smut)

Chapter 3 - Chapter 5

Chapter 4- Iris

~~~

Did you know that an Iris means ‘a message’? I picked up a book on flower meanings when Amelia and Sherlock began quizzing one another after finding the Monkshood in the shop.

While Amelia sought out a new apartment, she was staying in a small hotel up the road, stopping by daily for about two weeks now, trying to piece things together with Sherlock and I.

Eventually, I suggested 221C, not that I referenced any previous negative associations regarding the space. Sherlock spilled the beans when he asked incredulously if it was “safe”, but nonetheless, Amelia agreed, albeit on a trial basis. She confessed to already feeling like she was intruding in our lives.

It took less than a day before Max Brenner met us in town, a large moving truck trailing behind him. It was reassuring that despite Amelia’s lack of relationship with her mother, she still had one member of her family watching her back. In a sense, it reminded me of a certain pair of brothers…

~~~

“I told you, I was going to order everything next week,” Amelia complained as the movers passed her on the sidewalk with her new bed frame. “I had it covered.”

“Ruthie gets the same way whenever I try to do one nice thing for her,” Max gave a low sigh, closing his eyes until Amelia snorted back a laugh.

“If anything I should be doing the nice things for you,” Amelia pulled him into a hug.

“It’s not your fault that your mother’s a hell of a psychotic cunt,” he replied bluntly. “I’m sorry about the shop.”

“Stop, I’m the one who should be apologizing,” she insisted, swatting his arm. “I’m sorry I burnt down your incredibly expensive piece of London real estate.”

He shrugged off her words, instructing the movers to be extra careful with a large vanity mirror.

“I’m fairly certain the chemist store your grandpa ran in the day was a front for laundering,” he smirked. “A lot of good people, us Brenner’s.”

“Only takes one to break the dysfunction,” she mused.

“I don’t get it,” John shimmied past the movers in the front door. “Are you British?”

He directed the question toward Amelia, who exchanged a familiar chuckle with her uncle.

“Our family is,” she explained. “My grandparents both grew up in London, but moved to the States when my uncle and mother were kids, and they remained British citizens. I was born in New York, so technically, I’m both?”

“Dual-citizenship,” Max translated. “Her father was American, though he fled the whole scene after this one was born. Must’ve realized what he was signing onto with Lydia, lucky bastard.”

“Thanks,” Amelia chimed up sarcastically.

“You’re in one piece,” he added lightly.

“If only he’d taken me with him,” she gave a dramatic sigh. “What a life.”

“You’d be a starving artist living in some godforsaken desert town,” Max huffed. “At least you can play trust fund and afford central London rent.”

“Shrug away the emotional neglect, but boy can I buy shiny things,” she rolled her eyes. “Where’s Sherlock? He texted me that there was something he needed me to look at?”

“There was a break in another case,” John explained, stepping out of one of the movers way. “Lestrade told him explicitly to wait until they were done securing the scene, but you know he didn’t listen. Left a few hours ago.”

“Typical,” she hummed, the movers finishing up their work with a large dresser in hand. “I don’t even have enough clothes to fill this.”

Max waved her concern off, mentioning something about her using the furniture money for clothes while his attention drifted to the doorway.

Mrs. Hudson approached with a bright smile, her hands clapped together.

“Isn’t this exciting? I’ve been trying to rent out that flat for ages,” she looked up at Max and held up her hand. “Martha Hudson.”

Max took it gently and gave her knuckles a light kiss.

“Maxwell Brenner the Third,” he introduced himself. Amelia’s brows shot up. She looked to John who seemed equally as startled at the shift in energy. “It is a pleasure.”

Mrs. Hudson giggled, taking her hand back, holding it over her chest delicately.

“Would you care to join me for some tea? I just put a kettle on, and it seems the movers are all set,” she nodded toward the building and Max nodded eagerly. He followed after her, not bothering to check with the others, his focus solely on the landlady leading the way.

“So that was...”

“Weird, very, very, weird,” John bobbed his head in agreement as they watched the other pair close the door.

“What’s weird?” Sherlock popped up over Amelia shoulder, and for once, she didn’t jump out of herself.

“I think my uncle Max is making a move on Mrs. Hudson,” she replied. “You’re lucky you didn’t see it. The deductions were unsettling.”

“Speaking of, John, you know the waiter we were following yesterday?” Sherlock turned to the doctor.

“The one you’re convinced is the murderer?” John clarified dryly. “And we spent all day trailing him with no leads?”

“Precisely that waiter,” Sherlock hummed. “He’s dead.”

“Wait what?” Amelia gawked between the men while John grumbled about Sherlock wasting his time. The group moved inside, with Sherlock explaining that it had been the waiter's girlfriend who'd committed the initial murder and was trying to cover her tracks.

John started a kettle for tea, Amelia dropped down on the sofa and pulled out the sketch pad she had stashed underneath, while Sherlock got to work on his laptop.

“I wanted to ask you about this compound,” Sherlock passed the laptop to Amelia before her pencil scratched the surface. “It shouldn’t work unless there was another additive.”

That caught her attention. Leaning forward, she looked at the formula and frowned. At first glance, it seemed he was correct. She scribbled down the digits and ran through the full calculation adding the cancer drug.

Something was definitely off.

“If I remember correctly, I think that is a fungus that relaxes the cardiovascular system,” she passed him the computer and started at the notes on her sketch pad. “I had hoped it would have been helpful for anxiety.”

“There are a number of compounds they could have used to bind the two,” Sherlock noted, continuing to scroll through. “Fortunately, none of the components are particularly easy to get a hand on.”

“So, we find a supplier, and follow the chain,” John reasoned, leaning against the barrier between the kitchen and living room. “Could be easy enough.”

“Except, like Sherlock said, there are any number of components that could fill the equation,” Amelia frowned, biting the end of her pencil in thought. “If we could just get a quick look at a logistics log or shipping manifest for one of the production centers, I think we’d be able to narrow it down.”

“Who would have that?” Sherlock asked, glancing up briefly before typing rapidly at the laptop again.

“The regional execs for sure,” Amelia paused, mentally running through upper management. “My mother, some of the warehouse guys... but they’re all based in Manila, so that’d be a little tricky. We’d need someone local with oversight credentials.”

“Like him?” Sherlock turned the computer again, this time the screen had a photograph of Chemco’s Director of British Development, James Hastings.

Amelia recognized him immediately.

He was a total pig, constantly cheating on his wife when he went to New York for board meetings.

And exactly the person they would need to steal the information they needed.

“Yeah, like him,” Amelia grinned between the men. “Let’s get him fired too, if we can. He’s a total tool.”

“Tool,” John repeated in bemusement with his attempt at an American accent, turning to grab the kettle off the stove.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Amelia cleared her throat and tried her hand at a London accent. “A right wanker.”

“That wasn’t terrible,” John snickered, while Sherlock merely arched a brow, a small smile barely hidden by the laptop screen.

“I think I’ve found our way in,” Sherlock voiced. “His personal assistant, Jessica Reynolds.”

“What, are you going to woo her with that big brain of yours?” Amelia teased, ruffling Sherlock's hair as she got up to grab her own mug of tea.

“No, you’re going to woo her,” he corrected firmly. “You’re more her type.”

“Wait,” Amelia held a hand up, stopping in her tracks. “And who is to suggest I’m her type? I’ve dated plenty of men.”

“The Allison Olson you dated for two years in undergrad,” he hummed, pointedly fixing his hair. The bastard. Of course he’d done a full background check on her relatively fluid sexuality. “And you wouldn’t be sleeping with her. She has a tendency to drink at the pub, bring home strangers, and do her thing. We just need access to her personal computer.”

“That seems ethically wrong,” Amelia pointed out, looking to John for support. “I mean, purposely exploiting someone like that?”

And because John had better self-preservation than to get between Amelia and her morals and Sherlock and a case, focused his attention on picking a tea flavor and fussing with tea cups.

“You can sleep with her if you’d like, just make sure the front door is left unlocked,” Sherlock shrugged casually before snapping the laptop shut. “According to her social feed she usually hits the Red Hawk pub in the next few hours.”

“That’s across town, isn’t it?” John realized, dropping himself into the conversation, realizing it was against his better judgement when Amelia shot him a glare.

“Amelia, you should probably change,” Sherlock continued, giving her a once over. "Clean up a bit."

“What’s wrong with this?” She gestured to the mustard cardigan and black yoga pants she had worn most of the day. “It’s not like I’m going to the club, and I would also like to point out that I still have not agreed to this.”

“Your goal is to try and seduce her a little,” Sherlock emphasized sharply. “Are you even wearing make-up? Your hair looks like it was caught in a fan.”

Amelia’s mouth fell open in offense. She stood up from the sofa, considered her words, but continued to gape at the detective until she finally cleared her throat.

“I will do this for the cancer patients, and not for you,” she huffed, standing up. “I want that noted in the blog post. John?”

“Duly noted, Dr. Brenner,” he gave her a salute before she disappeared down the stairs to her new flat. “A little rude, Sherlock."

“She doesn’t actually mind,” Sherlock rolled his eyes. "She just likes being dramatic."

“You called her ugly,” John pointed out.

“No, I suggested she freshen up,” he corrected. “Her hair was unkept, and she looked like she’d been moving all day.”

“She has been moving all day, and her hair always looks like that.”

“And would you take her home?” Sherlock challenged, frowning and shaking his head as the question resonated with him. "Actually, never mind. I don’t want to know the answer.”

“Jealous?” John teased.

“Hardly,” he waved his hand dismissively. “I’m just not interested in having to listen to my flat mates flop around like animals all night.”

“Right,” John snorted. “And you’ve never spared a single glance? Not once? She’s cute and I have no shame in admitting that.”

“If you date her and break up, Mrs. Hudson will be incredibly disappointed that she lost the rental income,” Sherlock reminded him. “And besides, she isn’t your type.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, just that it wouldn’t be a lasting match,” Sherlock answered coolly, typing passively at his keyboard.

“I think you’re jealous,” Johns brows shot up. “And who would be a good match?”

“I don’t know? I haven’t met every sad sack looking to impress American biochemists,” he replied with a long sigh.

John was about to jump on the "sad sack" comment, when Amelia returned to the living room.

“I feel over-dressed,” Amelia stood in the door way, giving a quick spin. She’d changed into a new shirt and clean jeans, with a brown leather jacket thrown over. She’d organized her auburn hair into a loose braid that fell over her shoulder, and she threw a little eyeliner and dark lipstick on as a final touch.

“That's perfect pub-ware,” John voiced, earning a pointed look from Sherlock "Looks good."

“It’ll do,” the brunette hummed with barely a glance in her direction. “We should get moving if we want to catch her early. Can’t risk anyone else wandering in her path.”

“Of course, I’d hate to ruin our plan of morally grey actions for the evening,” Amelia snorted, stuffing her hands in her pocket.

~~~

“So what’s your biggest fear?” Jessica giggled over her vodka mixer, making eyes at the American woman who’d sat down next to her at the bar top. Amelia started chatting and before long, Jessica Reynolds had been pulled in.

“Oh,” Amelia considered it briefly, taking a sip of her beer. She'd been working on a London accent with Sherlock since moving into Baker Street, and the detective decided it was time to put it to use. “Definitely being buried alive. I might have to have a note in my will that I’m buried with one of those little bells.”

Jessica laughed obnoxiously at that, not that Amelia had really been trying to make a joke.

“Er, what about you?” She tried to ignore the other woman’s hand sliding up her thigh.

“Heights,” Jessica answered. “I’m scared to get too tall.”

Brows raised in acknowledgement, Amelia downed the beer and signaled for another one before her phone buzzed.

Get to her apartment.

SH

Snorting under her breath, she typed back a reply.

Screw off.

AB

The phone buzzed again.

I don’t know what that means.

SH

Another buzz.

Your vulgar vocabulary holds no credence here.

SH

Don’t get your pants in a bunch.

AB

“Who are you texting?” Jessica peered over, nearly toppling over in her chair.

“Sherlock Holmes,” Amelia replied coolly. “He’s been looking for a new hat, I suggested a top hat.”

Jessica started laughing uncontrollably, touching Amelia’s arm and exclaiming multiple times how great she was. Amelia downed her drink, prying the handsy woman off with as charming a smile she could muster.

“How about we take this conversation somewhere a little more private?” Amelia suggested in a low voice. Jessica’s eyes lit up and she flagged down the barkeep to pay her tab.

Amelia flagged down the cab, glancing around the street to try and see where Sherlock had holed up with John, when Jessica stumbled into her chest and started sucking on her bottom lip.

Shocked, Amelia shifted away from the taxi, practically throwing Jessica into the backseat.

Jessica slurred her address to the driver, and when the car began to move, she threw herself at the florist against, practically devouring Amelia’s face.

For the most part, Amelia tried her best to play her role, but her phone buzzed and well,

“-it might be someone from work, one second,” she held up an apologetic hand, answering the incoming call from John.

“You’re welcome,” the doctor chuckled through the line. Amelia sighed. “We need her address.”

“Don’t be so chuffed about it,” she grunted back, trying to slowly redirect Jessica’s hand at her waistline.

“Not a bad accent, the vowels are a little flat,” she could hear the grin in his voice and hung up the line before he could add anything else.

Angrily typing the address in a text with a less than polite emoji, Amelia was quickly pulled back into Jessica’s grasp, only saved by the driver announcing that they’d arrived.

Thanking the heavens for the distraction, Amelia offered to pay the cab driver while Jessica disappeared into the quaint townhouse to “change into something more comfortable”.

Amelia just assumed that meant the secretary was going to be naked by the time she got upstairs, and took her time paying the driver.

Dreading the next step in the plan, she started toward the building when another message buzzed her phone.

Leave front door unlocked.

SH

Demanding bastard. She almost was tempted to make him pick the lock, maybe he’d get picked up by the cops. Certainly a night in jail would humble him.

“Darling....” Amelia entered the house, making sure to leave the front door unlocked and found, unsurprisingly, a very naked Jessica sloppily draped over the entrance to her bedroom. “Won’t you join me?”

She tiptoed, stumbled, and caught Amelia by the sleeve of her jacket. Pulling it off and throwing it on a nearby chair, she dragged the reluctant American to her room.

Shoving Amelia back on the bed, Jessica went to attacking her mouth again, her hands exploring, and eventually catching the edge of Amelia T-shirt.

“I think one of us is a bit over dressed,” Jessica tried to purr, but it came out like confused mush. Still, what she lacked in coherent language, she made up for in sheer strength. With a quick movement, she ripped Amelia’s shirt clean off.

Clad only in her bra and jeans, Amelia stared in awe at what remained of one of her favorite shirts.

Holy shit.

What had she gotten herself into?

Just as Jessica grinned and moved to make another attack, Amelia’s phone started ringing from the pocket of her jacket.

Jumping up, Jessica pinned her shoulders down and nibbled at her ear.

“Stay...” she whispered through vodka laced breath.

“I’m on call for work,” Amelia lied, her New York accent slipping through slightly. “I have to make sure things are okay.”

She slipped from under the lust crazed woman, and nearly screamed when she saw Sherlock huddled over what she assumed was Jessica’s work laptop. Scurrying for her coat, Amelia covered herself, zipping it up the front.

“This was an awful idea,” Amelia whispered as Jessica spurred her alias from the other room. “She ripped my shirt, Sherlock. Clean off my back.”

“Babyyy, where’d you go?” Amelia heard Jessica stumbling up the hall and jumped to intercept her.

“I’m almost done, I have to finish this call for work,” she pulled her phone out. “Major tech issue that I’ve gotta walk them through.”

Jessica leaned forward and took Amelia’s bottom lip between her teeth. Giving it a quick bite, she giggled and turned back toward the bedroom.

“Hurry up,” she whined.

“You owe me so hard for this,” Amelia grunted, returning to Sherlock and watching over his shoulder.

“I’m solving your problem,” he reminded her.

“I never asked,” she answered

“You wouldn’t have figured it out alone,” he scoffed. “Who’s idea was taking the information from Reynolds?”

“We are still standing in her apartment, and I am still very much in just my bra under this jacket, so don’t call it a success just yet,” Amelia murmured in frustration

“Done,” he pulled out the usb and shut the computer. “Don’t take too long or I’m leaving without you.”

And with that, he was gone.

Fifteen minutes later, Amelia was sprinting out of the building, a bottle of red wine tucked under her arm and a muffed shriek shortly behind.

She caught him by the arm and shoved him into the back seat, eagerly smacking the drivers side urging him to get a move on.

“What happened?” Sherlock asked, watching while she stabbed her house key into the wines cork, pulling it free. She took a long swig and shook her head.

“We’re not talking about it,” she murmured.

Chapter 5