#so uh yeah the final selection chapter is. going. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

binart · 1 year ago

Text

Space Ranger Partner's Adventures Chapter 1

(First) (Next)

A marriage proposal from a complete stranger in the middle of a top-secret alien spy base was, surprisingly, not the strangest thing to happen to Lance in the past 24 hours.

The strangest thing was probably that he was even here. He'd been proposed to a handful of times after his part in the war efforts largely ended; Adoring fans, of course. But in under a day he'd been flown from his family home in New Altea, introduced into the very secretive very select ranks of the Blades of Marmora, got his ass handed to him by some cat alien who was currently standing 10 feet away and therefore very likely his new teammate, and—possibly most surprising of all, realized he was going to have to ask his buddy keith out because apparently he'd gone off and gotten hot in the past three years.

"No, no. I told you no proposals." From beside him, the very same Keith Kogane—his ex-teammate turned leader—lurched forward and extracted Lance's hand from Torat, one of his new teammates. Though the alien stood well over a stocky 8 feet, he had dropped to one knee before asking Lance to spend the remainder of his apparently short life with him. His large hands had all but encompassed his own, but were shockingly gentle.

"Have I.. conducted myself improperly within the ritual..?" Torat questioned in a small voice, much to Keith's clear chagrin.

"You forgot a ring!" Kestin, another of Lance's new teammates—their pilot—helpfully supplied.

"Not supposed to do it in front of a crowd unless the other person says you can!" To the right of Kestin, Hedrox joined in. They'd met yesterday, and the blade seemed all too happy to join in on the fun.

"...Yh.." The lanky cat alien, En, stood stiffly next to Hedrox, slightly turned away from everyone. He'd been that way since he and Keith entered the room just moments before. "You cannot simply ask a h-hu-human being to join into such a pact! T-There are numerous prerequisites—to say nothing of the time needed to be spent with the other individual—before such a momentous proposal can be made!" They turned their head to look directly at Lance—Or so he assumed; All members save for himself and Keith wore masks covering their entire faces. Then they gave a human soldier salute. "Lieutenant, Sir!"

Lance had no idea how to respond to any of this. "Y-Yeah. Uh.. Uh. Yeah. Sorry." Man, he really hadn't been around anyone except for his family for a while. He felt rusty. He gave a weak salute in return, before a memory from the evening prior bubbled to the surface of his mind.

"I will do my utmost to familiarize myself with human naming and title customs-"

"It's fine, man."

Oh. Maybe that was related.

"Okay, guys, enough." Thankfully Keith cut in, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're not here to—propose to Lance, alright?!" He wiped a palm down his face as if to try and banish the redness creeping in. "We're here to see all the time and effort we've been putting into this project finally see some results."

The room quieted, and everyone stood tall, and tense. Hedrox, however, seemed excited.

"That we are, Commander!" There was a table with a digital surface separating Keith, himself, and Torat from the other three, and Hedrox slapped their palms down onto it. Immediately, several large rectangular screens coated in Galran projected into clear view. The room automatically darkened. "I'm very pleased to say I've been at the helm of this—which, er, Commander? Do we need an explanation for those who are new?" His voice held a pleasant watery lilt to it, and if it weren't for the horn protruding from their forehead Lance would have guessed they were a half-Galran half-merperson or something.

Keith crossed his arms and gave his throat a quiet clear. "I've only briefed him on the basics. Floor's yours."

"Excellent. Gather 'round, team. Here's what we're doing." With deft hands they tapped away at a console and began pulling up several images, as well as additional Galran text Lance struggled to quickly translate. He'd all but mastered Altean since he retired (thanks mostly to Allura teaching him, but sometimes he wondered if the marks she gave him when she thought she was going to die contributed to how effortlessly he learned), but he'd only just started learning Common Galran half a year ago. Frustratingly it was way more context based, and very, VERY heavy importance was placed on sound emphasis. There were also over three hundred individual characters to memorize, whose meaning could vastly differ depending on what other characters were next to it. He was actually pretty glad to have something else to fill his time now; A great excuse to avoid slamming his head against the language every day. He could make out.. Eta-17 pa-facilty..? Facility? Facility. He squinted. Why was that familiar?

"..For the last year, we've been surveying a Galran anti-coalition outpost at the edge of the Ornitier System, which we know is serving as a key point for filtering and channelling intel. I've been doing what I do best and systematically replacing tiny components of their communication terminals with the tech the green paladin and I co-designed.” There was something strangely human about the way he spoke, despite the mild alien accent.

“And now, we stand nearly ready for a seamless takeover.”

Hedrox held up two small devices. "These. Are my baby children. Months of hard work. Cleared—and might I add complimented—by the green paladin. When both are installed into the facility's internal security network and main processing core respectively, they're undetectable. We'll be able to spy on enemy intel with them none the wiser." The ground beneath them gave a weak lurch. Lance could feel the familiar pull of motion, even if he couldn’t confirm via a window; No one paid it any mind, so he assumed it was normal.

“So that's why we're here today. They're too complex for my little helpers to remotely install.” Tiny clicking erupted then spilled from Hedrox's hood; At least thirty floating mechanical looking creatures no bigger than sunflower seeds circled his head. “I've altered the security rounds the sentries take to facilitate an easy infiltration and installation, and as long as they haven't gone and scrambled their normal routes, this should be an easy in and out.” The blade then motioned towards Lance. “The commander had research and development outfit a sniper rifle with a scrambling code that will temporarily freeze any sentries it hits and reroute them in case there's any hiccups in the plan, or someone's about to get caught.” Among other things; the knife and pistol in their respective holsters reminded him of their weight.

“Their monitoring and sentry patrol systems ‘refresh’ once an hour—so, that’s our time limit—and we need to get in so I can upload a new set of instructions to a pre-existing program that will facilitate—That is, uh. It’s—It’s a virus? The green paladin called it a virus. Am I using the term correctly?”

Keith nodded, scratched the back of his head and turned to Lance. “Basically, we need to get in so Hedrox, En, and Torat can upload a virus that’ll make it so we can track down their headquarters eventually.”

From the other side of the table, En growled. “The malignant remnants of the accursed empire and their cowardly tactics..! Always on the run, attacking colonies before fleeing. They’re filth, and we will find them, and cut short their worthless excuses of lives..”

The room grew quiet, and stuffy. There was the whir of machinery and motion from all around. Keith cleared his throat.

“Right. So, the security network room and main processing core are in different locations, but the area where Hedrox and En need to work together will have more foot-traffic. You'll be giving them cover.”

Hedrox brought up additional panels, this time with a 3-D map of several alien-looking floors. He traced what Lance read as “entry-point” labelled in Galran all the way over to the right. “Here's where you'll be stationed with the Commander—route A. First, Kestin brings us in. The Commander and Lieutenant follow route A and get into position and provide cover fire as needed. Torat goes through route C, and En and I head to B. Easy!”

Lance smirked. “That's it? I take out sentries from afar while the hacker blades do their thing? Just like old times?” With a fond smile, Keith let out a puff of air from his nose.

“Just like old times. I’ll be there next to you since—uh, I was originally going to take your spot.”

Lance blinked at him. “Huh? I didn’t know you were good at—“

“I’m not. Just, making due with what we had. Things’ll go much more smoothly now that you’re here watching our backs, and I can focus on troubleshooting if anything comes up.” Keith’s complete faith in him left Lance light on his feet, and he hung his head and chuckled nervously.

“Cool, that doesn’t actually sound all that bad. ‘Think I can handle it.” Keith gave a surprisingly gentle nudge with his arm against Lance’s own.

“You got this, Lance.” He turned to the rest of their team. “ETA?” This time, Kestin spoke up.

“Approximately 20 minutes, sir.”

—

Pre-mission anxiety, long forgotten, made its unwelcomed return.

Lance sat pressed against the dark wall of an unsecured entry duct alongside Keith, Hedrox, and En; Though the tallest of them gave him a wide berth likely due to the events of the night prior.

Good. He might have acted the bigger person, but Lance very much did not like having his ass handed to him. He’d get a rematch from them at some point.

His stomach gave another uncomfortable lurch, and he pressed a palm to his abdomen to will the discomfort away. They had to wait for Torat’s initial sweep of the place before they could advance to their own spots; Surprisingly he seemed to be the stealthiest out of all of them despite his size.

“You alright?” Keith’s quiet voice filtered through the internal comms system in his suit. Though now masked, Keith tilted his head back to glance in his direction. He gave a weak thumbs up.

“Nerves. It’s been a while,” he quietly admitted. Three years of therapy had made it surprisingly easy to talk about his feelings, even if years ago he would have balked at the idea of showing weakness to Keith. But things were different now.

Keith reached a gloved hand over, and rested it on Lance’s forearm. Firm, but comforting, somehow. “Hey, you’ll be okay. I’m right here beside you the whole time, right?”

Things really were different now; Even his voice was doing things to him. “Y-Yeah. Yeah. Thanks—We got this.”

“In position.” Torat’s whisper of a voice interrupted the singing in his chest, and prickles of anxiety returned to gnawing deeper into his stomach. “Sentry patrol routes seem randomized.” Hedrox gave a light click of his tongue.

“..I knew they’d start doing it to all their bases eventually, but I was hoping we’d have more time before it got to the ones we compromised..” The blade brandished from his thigh pouch a strange, tiny black capsule that was barely the size of Lance’s thumb. “Guess there’s not enough leeway to sticky our fingers a bit, huh?” Lance furrowed his brows.

“Uh, what?” Keith made a dismissive gesture towards him.

“Pidge’s new tech. They’re tiny, but we use them to collect huge chunks of inorganic matter—usually servers or data storage. Not today, though. Come on, clock’s ticking.”

“Yes, Commander.” Featherlight and silent owed to their suits, the four advanced. En and Hedrox split off into the seemingly endless halls, while Lance trailed behind Keith. Weapons were a last resort, but if anything went wrong; Lance felt the pistol’s weight heavily on his right thigh, and his knife on the left. He’d dealt with sentries hundreds of times before now, and so despite how queasy he was starting to feel, the idea of potentially fighting some of them left his pulse surprisingly steady.

Keith took a sharp turn left to a dead-end, then motioned for Lance to use him to boost up to the small maintenance shaft in the corner. Right, the nest was up in there. Despite himself, Lance felt his cheeks flush and was grateful that they were hidden while he sat on Keith’s shoulders for the short time needed to remove the panel. He slid in with plenty of room to spare, and the other man soon followed.

After half a minute of near-silent upwards crawling, the shaft opened up into what would be Lance’s vantage point. There were seven large, curved window like panels punched out of the metallic dark purple walls, with a dimly shining object rested off to the side on a wall. He made his way over and picked up what was clearly a blade issued rifle, shockingly alike to the one he had practised with the day before. Adjusting to it wouldn’t be an issue, then, other than—

“This doesn’t shoot bullets, so—no kickback?” Lance turned to face Keith, who was now peering through the open panels into the massive facility below; From Lance’s precursory glance he saw walls upon walls of wires and oblong towers lit up in Galran code. The hood on Keith’s head bobbed in affirmation. From behind, he could see just how broad his shoulders had gotten..

“Got you in my sights, Hedrox.” Keith looked around. “Where’s En?” With that, Lance realized he should be doing what he was brought there to do and got into position. He raised the sights and took in the area below, scanning for the wayward blade.

“Eight o’clock, Commander.” He couldn’t hide the satisfaction in his voice, and Keith followed the point of his rifle until he spotted them emerge from a small maintenance shaft. Another pleased half-laugh.

“Good eye, Lieutenant.”

“‘S what I’m here for.”

“Uh, do you—“ Lance turned his sights toward Hedrox working to pull apart the base of one of the strange techno-towers while he spoke in a jovial watery tone. “We have a private line on our comms, Lieutenant, in case you and the Commander want to—Y’know what nevermind.“

“Focus.” Keith crossed his arms and looked away. “Torat, how’s that upload?”

”Forty percent, Commander.” His already quiet voice was a hush of a whisper. Then, “..Patrols have necessitated my heavy cloak function for five dobos—minutes and counting.”

Keith's masked view immediately shot to his wrist with a quiet hiss. Their regular cloaking built in to their exo-suits dampened sounds and turned the outer coating into something like a mirror, but the heavy cloaking function removed any and all methods of detection that the Galra were currently known to use, Keith had explained on the way there. But the power cost was enormous, and could only last fifteen minutes when drawing from the suit’s internal battery. Best used in short bursts, since completely depleting the suit’s power meant no oxygen, and no protection from the ravages of space if they had to be jettisoned out in an emergency.

“Hedrox, anything you can do to help speed it up from there?” Immediately tension shot through the air, and Lance listened with a growing sense of helplessness. “Lance, your left.”

A sentry getting too close to the others, quiznack! He held his breath, took aim, then fired. The rifle didn’t flinch, but the sentry’s head immediately bent at a strange angle, it twitched while standing upright, then turned around and began heading back in the direction it came. He got too caught up and Keith had to bail him out, he realized shamefully. He readied a quick apology on his tongue, but voices buzzed back into his mask.

“Working on it. Not great at multi-tasking though. En, gimmie a hand.” Hedrox’s normal ease had sharpened into something else. The cat-eared blade made their way to his side and took the panel passed to them before typing away nearly as quickly as their partner. “Couple yottabytes of code to implement Commander, this is gonna take some time on both ends.”

Quiznack. Another two sentries from either side. Inhale, hold. Position, fire. Position, fire. Another sentry turned the corner just as soon as the other two turned away. Exhale, inhale, position, fire.

“Torat, are the sentries letting up?”

”Forty-two percent. ..No, Commander.” Inhale, position, fire. Lance spared a quick glance at Keith, now clearly growing more tense. He returned his focus. Man, there were so many! Three more marched in a group to Hedrox and En’s flank, and there was only a narrow gap of space to get them as they approached. Exhale, inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire. The sentries turned away, and so did Keith.

“We may have to call this.” Keith's tense body language betrayed the even way he spoke. Inhale, position, fire.

Lance could hear En’s breathing pick up as they typed furiously away beside Hedrox in between shots. There was a shocking number of sentries, and Lance couldn’t help but wonder if having less bases to work within meant the anti-coalition Galrans could stuff the ones they did still have full of them. “An entire Deca-Phoeb worth of operations, wiped away..?! Commander there must be another way.”

“No. Torat, abandon the upload when your suit gets down to two minutes. I’ll extract you.”

Inhale, position, fire. Silence.

“Torat.” An authority from Keith Lance hadn’t witnessed before emerged from his suit. “Is that understood?” Harsh. No room for further discussion.

“….Yes, Commander.”

In between breath after dizzying breath, the seconds and then minutes ticked by as everyone worked in frantic silence. He watched as Hedrox and En practically glued themselves to the small walls of the gutted tower, hands flying over keys faster than even Lance’s eyes could keep up with. Distantly in his ears, Torat updated the upload percent every sixty seconds as he, too, typed away. Sweat beaded then dripped down his neck as stiffness crept up it. His rifle smeared and shifted until it looked like his old bayard, and Lance ignored it and continue to fire.

Thirteen minutes in, it was clear to everyone there wouldn’t be enough time. Keith’s steadying presence had knelt next to Lance by that point, intently watching the battery of Torat’s suit drain and pause, then continue draining via a small screen on the underside of his wrist. He stood up, and shook his head.

“I’m calling it. Torat, abandon the upload, rendezvous at the extraction point.” A muted, miserable sound. En? Inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire, exhale. No, Torat.

“We must succeed, you have worked too hard, Commander.”

“There’ll be other outposts. Now, soldier.” Again, silence. Inhale, position, fire, position, fire.

“..Failure here, for a life that may not even see il’E’s newest sun.. No, black paladin sir. For this I would gladly go without its warming rays.” Keith froze. Lance glanced at him, then back to his scope. Shit, shit, what was happening?! Inhale, position, fire, position, fire. “If ever you are able to retrieve my capsule from the vent below, have my family bury it under the spire by our sea.”

Before Lance could even register what was said, he was pulled. Keith vanished from his view and he felt a hand grip the back of his suit’s chest piece before being yanked very quickly from the room. It happened so quickly that he nearly fumbled and dropped the rifle, but managed to keep his hold. He was then hoisted up by—he realized now it was Keith—and manoeuvred until he was then sliding down the shaft he and Keith had crawled up before. “En, Hedrox, heavy cloaking, now. Keep your work out of sight. Abandon mission when I give the signal.” Steady, clipped.

“Yes, sir.” Keith was sliding behind him now even though he couldn’t hear or see him; The heavy press of his palm against his side to keep him steady nearly burned. He felt pressure lift his hand and press down on his palm—oh, right, the button to cloak himself. Then, in through his mask,

“Get your pistol ready, set it to stun, follow me.”

They shot out from the end of the maintenance crawl and Lance tore after the back of Keith’s head.

“The upload will proceed as planned. It’s been an honor, sir.”

Keith did not respond, only sprinted and twisted down the endless hallways as they dodged around sentry after sentry. Lance had strapped the rifle to his back and readied his small pistol as commanded, even though he didn’t understand. Were they going to extract Torat? He tapped the side and slid a piece into place to ensure it was set to stun. He trusted Keith, he knew what he was doing, and he could—he wanted to help in whatever way he needed him to.

The sound was different, somehow, but Keith’s voice once again came into his ears, panting with exertion. “He’ll have to uncloak for at least half a second for the capsule to recognize and capture him. When you see him, I want you to shoot him in the forehead where his eye is, Lance.”

The capsule? The one for.. inorganic matter? If organic matter like a person was compressed into it—wouldn’t that definitely kill them? Through the adrenaline, it distantly clicked what Torat was intending to do, but he couldn’t waste time thinking about it. “O-Okay.” Lance hooked his arm against a corner and pulled, narrowly missing a towering sentry as he caught up to Keith. Half a second to make a shot when he was practically wheezing though; Hesitation crawled up his spine. “How far—until we—get to him?”

“End of the hall, dead left.” Keith showed no signs of slowing, and Lance through the haze of it all wondered if he was cut out for any of this, and what would happen when he failed. If he failed. He was going to mess this up. He was going to get Keith killed somehow, wasn’t he?

Their feet silently pounding against the neon lit floor came to the end of the hallway. As they did so, Lance took in the most even breath he could muster, prayed his pulse wouldn’t throw off his aim, whipped his pistol up to the left, and aimed. Keith jammed his palm against their open com channel and flashed back into view.

“Torat, look at me—That’s an order!” The blade in question materialized suddenly in front of them, holding the same thumb-sized black capsule in front of his chest. Time slowed. In that millisecond of a moment, Lance realized he didn’t have a clear shot of Torat’s third eye. The capsule glowed a clear enough target, easy to shoot out of his hands, and his thumb was still hovering over the button on the top. Time moved another inch, and the hulking blade twitched, then could not help but turn his head towards his commanding officer.

“Forgiv—”

Lance took the shot.

—

Debrief was quiet.

No one spoke except for Keith. Lance, foolishly, felt like he was eight years old again and in trouble, for some reason. A memory of something his therapist said to him once drifted into his mind as Keith grumbled out a report. Lance couldn’t even remember the exact wording, but it was something to focus on while he ignored the ache in his entire body, and his pounding headache, at least. What was it, again..?

Hyper aware of mental states of those around him.. Discomfort around emotions regardless of where it was directed..? He couldn’t really remember. While he was reflecting, he decided to explore the room they always met in back in New Altea; Two o’clock sharp every Friday, warm room facing the sun, post-modern in decoration and very comfortable. Photos of her family on the desk, two dogs. Always enough tissues when he went there because he couldn’t cry around his family who would worry, but he could cry around a stranger who didn’t matter.

A stranger he would outlive, since she was fully human.

Torat swayed next to him, but soon righted himself.

“Understood. You have completed your mission, if nothing else.” Kolivan’s ever serious visage stared down at them from a bizarrely massive screen. Did it need to be that big? If he had nose hairs Lance would have been able to see them. “Dismissed.”

They were supposed to meet in the rec room after showering and, if needed, a trip to the med bay; A Keith mandate since his team was supposed to set an example that it was normal and good to relax after a mission, but.. was that still okay to do?

Lance probably had some of the best aim in the universe, if he was being honest, but with that aim he had just shot one of his teammates in the head not even an hour ago! The suits obviously had eye protection, but Torat dropped like a rock back in the facility, and they only managed an evac without being seen thanks to Keith’s ridiculous half-galra strength. While he dragged the unconscious Torat, Lance covered them with the rifle, and somehow En and Hedrox finished up on their end without being seen.

They did everything they set out to do, but it really felt like they failed.

The silence was broken with a soft clearing off Hedrox’s throat. “Wellll, I’m beets. Time for a shower, then uhm. Whoever feels like it meet up at the usual spot..?”

En pointedly kept his sharp gaze toward Torat, who did not look up from the ground. Sneering displeasure was evident on his now unmasked face, but he eventually turned to face his horned companion. “…The correct term is being ‘beat’ as in ‘beaten, and exhausted.’” The taller blade pressed his palm to his other set of fingers and stretched his wrists as he began to walk away. “But yes, I shall await you in the showers.” Hedrox jumped comically before slapping En’s arm.

“Don’t say it like that, shh!”

Lance blinked as he watched the two aliens saunter away, with Kestin soon to follow after giving Torat a sympathetic look. How was it Hedrox seemed like the most human out of all of them? Lance felt awkward, and guilty, and didn’t know what to do with himself.

He looked over at Keith, who ripped his furious gaze from Torat and regarded Lance with an unreadable expression. His eyebrows furrowed, and he looked like he wanted to say something; He only shook his head, turned, and marched off, leaving only Lance and Torat remaining in the room. Lance peered up at the blade and saw he couldn’t entirely hide his trembling.

“..Hey man, is your eye.. Did I—hurt it?” He wanted to apologize, even though he knew he’d done the right thing. Keith must have realized the only way to keep Torat from.. killing himself was to knock him unconscious, and he needed Lance’s arm to make sure the job got done correctly. Lance wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but there was still guilt shining through. Above all else, he really didn’t like hurting people.

Torat gave a nearly imperceptible twitch, then brought his large palm over his masked eye. “Bruised, but unruptured. I will be fine, Lieutenant, thank you. Please excuse me.” Quietly, the larger blade nearly tiptoed away through the opposite door of Keith.

Lance wanted to go after him, even if he wasn’t sure what to do or say.

There’d been times back in the castle of lions where he used to catch his teammates sulking alone, or when Silvio was upset and would hide in his garden, and he always went after them to at least make sure they didn’t feel alone. He could only crack stupid jokes, and maybe he annoyed them more than he helped, but it still felt like something he needed to do.

A shower, first, Lance decided. Then, he’d track down Torat and—at least make sure he went to the med bay or something. After that, if there was time, rec room with the others.

He wanted to spend much more time scrubbing the sweat and grime off of his aching body in his shower, but tingling urgency didn’t allow a long stay. Lance popped into his most comfortable hoodie and grey sweatpants, slipped on his sneakers, then began his search.

First, he went to the obvious location, Torat’s room. No one was in, so he went to the med bay next (after signing a few autographs from some fans on the way) and once again did not find his teammate. It was at that point Lance realized that despite how the mission turned out, Torat might have just gone to the rec room. Maybe Keith was trying to foster a more tight-knit team unit thing, but before all that, and even now, Lance was pretty sure death in the Blades was a very common occurrence.

Approaching the hallway connecting to the rec room, a loud slam sent Lance a foot into the air. A sharp cough came from just around the corner before he heard a growl that undoubtedly belonged to Keith. Was he in trouble?!

“—That was the whole reason I even formed this unit in the first place!” Keith hissed, and there was another grunting cough. Lance sidled up against the wall and tried to figure out if he was needed.

“Your work is—ghh—more important than my life, Commander..!” That was Torat’s strained voice. There was some shuffling, and Lance could at least piece together that they were having an argument.

“You don’t get to call me that. My work, is showing the rest of the blades that we can do our job without throwing away our lives for the sake of—knowledge. Understand?! No matter the mission, you keep yourself alive.”

Quiet pulsing buzzing from the blue-tinted lights above hung in the air. “..I-I.. If—this is what you wish, Commander.. I shall.. try.”

A dull thud, then footsteps. “No, you’re off the team. I’m not risking keeping someone on who’s fine with killing themselves if it means the mission succeeds.”

Torat gasped. “Commander, please..! Allow me to stay—I shall make up for my transgressions, this I swear..!”

Should he leave?! Lance felt like he shouldn’t be hearing any of this.

Boots scuffing on the waxy floor. Keith turned back towards him? “Make up for it by staying alive on a different team.” His clipped footsteps faded in the opposite direction. Lance needed to leave, right now. His throat was feeling hot, and it was getting too hard to focus.

He couldn’t help Torat at this point, that was becoming obvious to him.

The muffled sounds of the rec room and even quieter alien cries faded from Lance’s fuzzy mind as he stumbled back into his room and hid under his desk.

Breathe. Deep breaths. In through the nose. Count to—how long? He couldn’t remember. Okay, okay. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t focus. Try to breathe.

Keith flashed into his vision, an impossible view of him in the cockpit of a tiny cruiser as Lance watched him try and fly into the barrier at Naxzela. His death in exchange for the mission succeeding. They never talked about it.

Allura in the Blue lion, about to be killed; A split second decision to trade his life so Voltron could go on with its heart intact.

Keith was a hypocrite.

No! People could change their minds. It had been years since he pulled that stunt. People could change. Lance mushed his soggy face into his palms and shuddered.

Stupidly, all he could think about was how terrifying it was for Keith to be so close when he shot Torat with the stun round. With Keith’s armor, even if he had somehow accidentally missed and hit him, he couldn’t have killed him. There was no way. But his dreams were always so vivid and he was always accidentally killing Keith. To be there next to him in that situation felt—surreal.

Lance managed to get his breathing under control. It took a few minutes, but eventually he calmed, and shuffled over to the bathroom to wash his face.

He thought for a second about going and meeting up with the rest of the team, but shut that thought down almost immediately. Instead, he slipped into his pyjamas and slid into bed.

The empty ceiling greeted him without his familiar stars.

And Lance thought back to Torat, holding the small capsule in front of his chest, ready to ensure the blades could eventually track down and eliminate the remainder of the empire with his tiny sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

And Lance realized he didn't disagree with Torat's decision.

😳👉👈

DID U LIKE....

#klance #vld lance #vld keith #voltron #vld #keith x lance #srpa #bina's writing

747 notes · View notes

sfblah · 2 months ago

Text

The Cleanup Crew - Tactical Maid Service

[Next Chapter]

A while back I was waffling on about how I finally wrote something again, and so here it is. I was holding out cuz I wanted to have more of the next chapter(s) finished first, but I figured I should just go ahead and post this before a million years go by. As usual it's a send up of various anime tropes, as well as my inner repressed 16 year old that never stopped playing too many first person shooters.

Female sneezes - Dust

Operation "Hurry"

A spotlight switches on with a sharp kcham, illuminating a circle on the warehouse’s concrete floor. In its center stands a young woman clad in a black and white maid’s uniform, the cloth slightly wrinkled, but hardly noticeable at a distance. She holds her hands together calmly in front of her waist, though only for a moment before she caves to the urge to visor her eyes from the blinding light.

“Alright, last one for today,” grumbles an unseen voice from somewhere up above. After a brief pause, the maid fidgets and points to herself.

“Um, me?” she asks, looking at where she assumes her proctor must be.

“No, behind you.”

The maid turns around, and an incredulous groan immediately follows.

“Yes, you. Jesus, how’d a bucket like you pass selection? Ugh, forget it. Step forward.”

A series of overhead lights activate in sequence, revealing the entrance to the examination course. Still fidgeting, the maid approaches.

“Grab one of the weapons from the table.”

She hadn’t even noticed the table until the proctor pointed it out. Atop the rough wooden surface sits a sawed-off double barrel shotgun, a half-empty box of shells, and absolutely nothing else.

“This is the only one here,” observes the maid.

“You want it or not!?” snaps the voice from on high, startling the trainee half a foot into the air.

“Alright, alright, jeez,” the maid replies, retrieving the weapon. She breaks it open, loads two of her meager collection of shells, and after a brief struggle, slips it into the concealed holster under the back of her skirt.

“Okay, moving right along,” the proctor continues. “Yadda yadda, complete the course as quickly as you can, yadda yadda. By beginning the examination you consent to hrmm meh meh, you waive your right to blah, blah, blah… Look, this is the fiftieth time I’ve read this today. You know what to do, right? Just go through the thing.”

The maid blinks, glancing back and forth between the door and the still-obscured source of the voice.

“Uh. Yeah, totally. For sure.”

A single clap echoes in the rafters.

“Okay, great, great. Start whenever you’re ready. I’m gonna go grab a ham sandwich.”

Footsteps on the catwalk above fade into the distance, leaving the maid to shrug and shake her head.

“Yeah, okay. Rude?” she mumbles to herself, turning to face the entrance to her final test. A plywood facsimile of a foyer is visible through the open door, decorated with a few plastic houseplants. The maid cautiously sticks her head through the threshold, half expecting to be hit in the face by some manner of contraption. To her amazement, nothing happens. Suspiciously so, in fact. She proceeds to creep across the room, eyeing the doors on either side of the far wall, but she slows to a stop when something else catches her attention.

A metal grate is set into the wall. Neither near the ceiling nor the floor, it seems oddly out of place even in the industrial approximation of a manor. Almost as if it isn’t supposed to be there. Looking back over her shoulder, the maid approaches and discovers all but one of the screws meant to hold the grate in place are missing. After one more glance up at the vacant walkways above, she simply swings the grate aside and hauls herself through the opening.

Perhaps a more seasoned operator might have thought to look through the grate at some point before opening it. The unlucky maid assumed she was about to skip ahead in the exam course, but instead she finds herself wedged into a cramped metal duct, arms pinned to her sides and feet kicking uselessly in the air. Before even opening her eyes to take stock of her new surroundings, she stubbornly wiggles herself deeper into the vent.

“Well, this was a stupid idea…”

The test proctor may not have been watching, but the fates were certainly listening. When the maid took a deep breath to gather her strength, she instead succeeded only in filling her big, clumsy nose with dust. Her flailing legs go limp, and the warehouse hangs in silence for a moment before…

“ah-ahh-ahhh-CHOOOO!!!”

The maid’s loud, powerful sneeze did nothing to clear her sinuses. On the contrary, the remaining dust that had settled in the vent was scattered into the air, only exacerbating her need to sneeze again.

“ah-ahh-CHOO!!”

And again.

“haa-CHOO!”

And again…

“ah-ahh… AHH-CHHOOOOOOO!!!”

Her frantic wiggling resumes, adding a chorus of popping and straining sheet metal to the cacophony. Mercifully the duct isn’t especially long, and eventually the maid manages to shimmy and sneeze herself far enough along to free her arms and fully push herself out the other side. She lands upside down in a heap, legs kicking one more time as she gives another “ah-CHOOO!”

The maid rolls herself upright, sitting on the floor of an unexplored part of the test. Instead of reorienting herself, she shakes her head and begins to rub her tickly nose up, down, and all around with the palm of her hand. Finally she cracks one eye open with a thick, wet sniff. The room is dark, but it again appears to be plywood construction with more fake plants.

“Hey, Bucket? Where’d you go?” calls the proctor through a mouthful of food. The maid just manages to register their footsteps approaching from somewhere behind before she folds over with a screamed “HA-CHOOOO!!”

The footsteps quicken to an awkward jog, soon arriving overhead.

“Oh, shit! I didn’t think you’d get this far already. Let me just…”

The room lights up, and the maid has no time at all to absorb her surroundings before cardboard targets burst out of every nook and cranny, and the deafening sounds of recorded gunfire fill the air. If the maid had bothered to stand, imaginary bullets would have already torn her to shreds. Instead she sits in dubious comfort behind a couch, desperately rubbing her nose.

“Intruders! Shoot the targets!” shouts the proctor, scarcely audible over the chaos. The maid fumbles for her shotgun, nearly pulling her skirt down to her ankles before she manages to retrieve it from its holster. Then, barely able to keep her eyes open, she peeks over the back of the couch, points her weapon roughly in the direction of one of the cardboard cutouts, and pulls the trigger.

The recoil sends the maid falling back to the ground, where she remains for a moment as she gasps and heaves forth a strained “ah-ahh-CHHOOO!” She shakily returns to her feet and repeats the process, shooting, falling, and sneezing all over again. This time she doesn’t stand, deciding to reload first. She opens her shotgun and dumps out the two empty shells, then begins to feel around under her skirt for more.

“Remember, switching to your pistol is always faster than reloading!” the proctor advises.

“I don’t have a pistol!” shrieks the maid, kicking her feet up and down.

“Shit, uh, sorry…”

Just as the maid finally manages to fumble a shell into one of her shotgun’s barrels, a falling hunk of metal hits her right on the nose. She screams and covers her face, rolling onto her side and unknowingly kicking her shotgun across the floor. What the hell even was this test? If she’d known she was going to be treated like this, she would have just stayed home and stuck to video games.

Her right hand finds the dropped pistol after a few aimless slaps on the floor. Knuckles white on the grip and breathing heavily through clenched teeth, the maid rises to her feet, takes what she assumes is a shooting stance of some kind, and fires wildly at the remaining targets. She continues pulling the trigger even after she expends her last bullet and the pistol’s slide locks back, only coming down from her rage when the simulated gunfire stops.

Somehow, against all odds, each of the cardboard targets have been neatly punctured. Well, maybe not neatly, but good enough. The maid lets her arms fall to her sides, and soon her jaw and eyelids begin to droop in turn. Her head tips back, her large, teardrop-shaped nostrils flare, and…

“AAHHH-CHHHOOOOOOOO!!!”

And she doesn’t stop sneezing for the next… She doesn’t even know how long. Somebody takes her by the shoulders, leads her somewhere, and someone else begins to address her, all while she continues to sneeze.

“Hello, and allow me to congratulate you on passing your final assessment.” This new voice is lower and softer, not that the maid is able to pay any attention.

“ah-CHOO!”

“Your form says your callsign is ‘Bucket’? Is that right?”

“Aaah-CHOOO!!”

“Wonderful. Let me be the first to welcome you to The Cleanup Crew.”

#OC Bucket #snz #snz kink #snzfic #blah writes #tbh I wasn't super thrilled with this one at first but hopefully someone out in the cosmos will like it lol #I forget what other tags I put on fics idk

32 notes · View notes

apompkwrites · 2 years ago

Text

schoenheit upbringing || vil schoenheit

masterlist characters: vil (platonic) genre: angst contains: death during childbirth, online rumors, self-deprecating thoughts summary: how (name) schoenheit was raised in a media-centric world and how they were first exposed to stardom. notes: another short chapter for schoenheit I'm sorry i love them i promise!!! just wanted to give a bit more insight into their character ;-; also i went with the idea that vil's mom is dead? so uh yeah parts: [og post] | [previous] | [next]

the day that the youngest schoenheit was born was the day that the schoenheit family grew to four, only to immediately shrink to three once more.

there wasn't much for you to remember that day, but it was permanently engraved in your father and brother's minds.

your father remembered holding you in his arms, cooing quietly as you whined and cried upon being brought into the world. and he remembered the doctors and nurses panicking, screaming at each other about the patient losing blood and slipping through their fingers into death.

your brother remembered being told to wait out in the hall, anxiously waiting to see the little sibling he promised to take care of and become a hero for them to look up to. and he remembered hearing muffled yells from the other side of the door and the sound of his father crying out in anguish and pain.

all you remembered was growing up without a mother.

it wasn't long until you were brought to a movie set, ready to make your first appearance on the big screen. you had been sought after when news broke out about the newest addition to the schoenheit family. hopes were high for this new child, most likely due to companies wanting to stake their claim on being the catalyst for your acting career.

because of course the next child in the schoenheit family was destined to be an actor.

you had just turned two when you were brought to set.

the casting director apparently had a vision, seeing as how your brother was also there alongside your father. the story was meant to follow the main character's life, from birth to death. and you had just been selected to play the role of the antagonist during the toddler section of the movie.

you didn't know any better. you didn't even know how to run properly without stumbling. and yet here you were, exposed to the bright set lights and harsh schedules and demanding expectations of stardom.

you could vaguely remember watching your brother act his part, letting the words flow out of his mouth as if he had truly been made for this role. you couldn't help but be in awe.

unbeknownst to vil, that was the moment you saw him as your hero. of course, you wouldn't be able to identify that thought, but it was there in the subconscious.

and soon, the time came for your part to be filmed.

the director was bold to assume that by reading out the script a single time that you would fully understand it. you were two and you were expected to be a prodigy like your brother.

it would be an understatement to say that the first take was horrible. once the cameras began to roll, you stumbled onto the floor and wailed as loud as you could. you didn't know why but that fall hurt. it hurt and all you could focus on was the pain and the lights and the cameras and the whispers and--

it was a miracle that the final take was achieved. it was beyond a miracle that all of the scenes were finished in a timely manner. but you couldn't care less. you just wanted to go home. you just wanted to cuddle up to your blanket and sleep the day away.

you were glad that your father agreed to it, scooping you up into his arms and carrying them off the set. vil was quick to follow, taking quick glances up at you as you buried your face in your father's shoulder.

when the film was released, it was met with stellar reviews. all of them praised your father and brother for their performances, raving about how well they played their parts. and you wholeheartedly agreed. with what little judgment you had, you had decided your brother and father were superheroes, ones that had the power to act a part so wonderfully and beautifully as if they had become an entirely different person.

you didn't even care that some reviews criticized your acting. it didn't matter, you couldn't comprehend any of it anyway.

but it did matter the more you grew and the more you began to understand critic reviews.

you remembered that fateful day you remembered the first movie you were in. you remembered searching up the reviews and feeling tears well up in your eyes when you began to read the reviews. you were two, for gods' sake. you didn't know any better. and yet, there they were, grown adults criticizing a two-year-old for being lackluster in performance and being a "disgrace to the schoenheit name" as one critic wrote.

what fun, realizing at age seven that even at two you were already a disappointment--a leech that sucked at the schoenheit name's legacy like water.

although the more you grew--and the more you learned about your birth-- you realized that maybe, just maybe, you had been a leech to the schoenheits since the day you were born. after all, you were the reason your mother, vil's mother and eric venue's wife, was dead.

you were lucky that your father was such a doting man, coddling you the day you were born despite all the damage you had done. and he continued to coddle you day after day after day. even after you were a failure on the first movie set you performed on, he still wrapped your blanket around you and held you close.

you loved your father with all your heart. and, just like your brother, you wanted to be like him.

but above all else, you wanted to be like vil.

vil was, for lack of a better term, the greatest actor you had ever seen. he was not only a beloved actor but a highly sought after boy in any field he chose to put effort in. he was loved. he was cherished. he was wanted.

he made the schoenheit name proud.

he wasn't a leech who only served to ruin the legacy from the inside.

the minute those tabloids were released, planting the seed of doubt of your legitimacy into the world, was the minute you realized just how bad you were for the schoenheit name. you knew you weren't an illegitimate child. you knew because you had murdered your mother.

in fact, if those tabloids were right, it would be a better reality.

if you were illegitimate, maybe you wouldn't have to live up to the impossible expectations of being a schoenheit. if you were illegitimate, maybe you wouldn't need to be an actor. if you were illegitimate...

maybe you wouldn't have killed vil's mother.

taglist: @brokenncrown @help-meplz @destinationdesignation @rainys-personal-garden @kalims @sxftiebee @luxaryllis @auld-a @the-dumber-scaramouche @ayra2452008 @tinywho-man @spadecentral @justeclem44 @bajifairyy @mulandi @sadimon @stormyovent0aster @sn00zl4x @f1fty-f1fty @bloomed-night-flower @madusas-girlfriend @b0nkers-papaya @arandomeroacher @randonamedcl @mizucika @iammeyouareme @gasoline-eater @rainingdandelion

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twisted wonderland headcanons #twisted wonderland imagines #twisted wonderland scenarios #twisted wonderland angst #twst angst #twisted wonderland vil #twisted wonderland vil x reader #twst vil #twst vil x reader #vil x reader #twisted wonderland vil schoenheit #twisted wonderland vil schoenheit x reader #twst vil schoenheit #twst vil schoenheit x reader #vil schoenheit x reader #black sheep

630 notes · View notes

tai-janai · 8 months ago

Text

Reunite

Path 12: An End

(Chapter Select)

At the bottom of the stairs is the basement. Smooth stone walls and cobble flooring. A lone, barred window that lets in bright white light.

The Other sits at the other end. It does not wear a metal chain around its neck. Held tightly in its hands is a pristine blade. His form has changed somewhat; he looks softer than you remember, and a cape is wrapped around his shoulders.

It looks at you, and its eyes soften. Its lips turn upward for a sad, relieved smile. It is happy to see you. After everything the Echo said, you still feel like he is a part of You.

The Hero:

Hey...

His voice is weak. He tilts his head and watches you approach, but he does not move.

"Did you hear any of that?"

Something flashes in his eyes, like he hasn't figured out if he did or not. Then he scratches the back of his neck.

The Hero:

Yeah, I... The, uh, sound travels pretty well into here.

You sit on the floor in front of him. He seems a bit flustered.

The Hero:

I-it was... a lot of information. I'm not really sure... how to take it.

"How did you get here?"

The Hero:

Oh. I... got really worried after you got taken away by a pair of hands, so I kind of... followed you. It wasn't that hard, I know your psyche pretty well by now. But before this place was anything, I'd already been split from you. Then, I was put down here for... some time. I don't know, time is really weird here. It felt like forever but I know it wasn't.

He looks down at the blade in his hands.

The Hero:

And this thing was here. It's always supposed to be, right? One of those, uh, rules?

"What about the Others?"

The Hero:

Well, I finally reached the end of the last world, so they're probably all together. Knowing them, they're all probably looking for me. I'm only here, though, after I left that last world, there's no part of me left with them at this point. Not 'til I leave this one, too.

The Hero:

That world... At the end, you had been taken over by something, were you? The thing that wanted those Beings dead... The Princess?

You remember the way your body did not feel like yours. The way your mind conflicted with itself, wanting the Being dead, because it was meant to kill you. You remember that fear of death.

The Hero:

Are you okay?

You look into his eyes. Your eyes. His eyes.

"Do you know what you were supposed to be?"

The Hero:

Ah... The Long Quiet, He called it. If you're asking if I was ever that, I don't really know. Your memories are all I have, and all we know is that we woke up in a cabin.

"Did you know you were supposed to slay the Princess? And by connection, me?"

It laughs a little.

The Hero:

I only barely knew there was a Princess, mate. I had no idea what we were or what we were supposed to do. My only sense of purpose came when we saw that first Being, anxious and trapped. We felt bad for it, even if it was terrifying and hated us.

The Hero:

The... idea of killing you feels weird. You're so... me. But I've been doing it this whole time. It's something I was made for, like some... inevitability. It feels obvious until I take the second to think about it.

Its eyes trace the edge of the blade.

"What comes next?"

He thinks. His face contorts in frustration.

The Hero:

I... I never felt like the one making the choices here. He said I am choice, but I don't know how to make any, myself.

The Hero:

He made it sound like three options. I have qualms about each.

The Hero:

I could slay you, the way I was always supposed to. Death and change would be gone, and all of the other guys will get their happily forever after in the places they are now. Or ... We fix ourselves back up to being... what, everything? A god? And then... things will just... keep going?

"And the third option...?"

The Hero:

I stay here with you, and we don't do anything, forever. The cabin crumbles and it'll be just us. And... I'll never see the others again. Nobody will join back together, but, they'll eventually die. I, uh... don't think the guy upstairs would like that too much, though... Um. I... I don't know if I like that one, either. But it is... an option.

You think about these choices. Everything about them scares you.

"Do you have a preference?"

He looks to the side, flustered, and a hint of a smile he's trying to hide. He gestures vaguely at you.

The Hero:

Well, I'm not gonna lie, I-I liked being, y'know, Us.

With a pause, his gaze turns downward.

The Hero:

But I liked being with Them, too.

The Hero:

And... I hate to say this, but they would not like being anything but what they are now. Like, they love you, they really do, they're unbelievably grateful for everything you've done for them- But I... It wouldn't be... what they wanted.

He shrugs and leans his head to the side.

The Hero:

You could do it anyway, though, I guess. They probably wouldn't be able to do much once we're all in one piece.

He looks into your eyes, and his feathers droop.

The Hero:

After everything, would it still be freedom? Your choice, limiting theirs...?

"Why are you making me decide? I thought that wasn't my role."

The Hero:

I don't know? I didn't make the rules here. I'll go along with whatever you come up with. I mean, I am choice, right? The thing that gives you the options...? Not the one making the decisions.

"You clearly have a preference, and it's the one that means I get slain."

The Hero:

It's not like I want you to die. Just, out of everything so far, I don't want what we've given them to go away.

He sighs. You know be is conflicted. He fidgets with the hilt of the blade. He really is more them than he is you. But, you don't blame him.

"I'm scared. I don't know what being a god would be like."

The Hero:

I don't know, either, but this is it. The big ultimatum.

Decisions. You were never made for decisions.

You can die along with Death, and let the others be happy in what remains of the construct for all of eternity.

You can go against the others' wishes and reunite the way the Echo offered, with Death eradicated.

Or you can stay here alone with the Other, keeping him with you forever, while the worlds and the shattered fragments continue on, dying and reforming.

#ok so if you cant tell im leaning towards one option here #im hoping you all trust the hero #but i am leaving it in your hands.#stp #stp fanfic

62 notes · View notes

damn-stark · 1 year ago

Text

Chapter 8 The worlds a little blurry

Chapter 8 of Sugar

A/N- I’m not saying to keep the training scene with Satoru in mind, but do it because it will come into play later?

Warning- Swearing, fluff, ANGST!!!, VIOLENCE, Blood and gore, death, spoilers, long chapter.

Pairing- Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader, Choso x Gojo!fem-reader

Episode- Half of 2x05

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

*A YEAR LATER. 2007*

“Here we go!” Shoko exclaims before she and Suguru hurl school supplies at your brother. And of course, only the eraser hits his forehead, whilst the pencil Suguru threw stops because of Satoru’s infinity.

Which is ridiculous by the way, he’s much harder to torment with his infinity on all the time nowadays.

“Yeah, it’s working,” Satoru says as he grabs the floating pencil.

“Ugh,” Shoko groans. “What the heck was that?”

“Automatic selection of targets for your Jujutsu technique?” Suguru questions from behind you.

Satoru nods. “Yup. Though, to be precise I’m the target for the technique,” he explains, making you sigh out of boredom and lean back against Suguru’s legs.

Why does your brother want you here again? To watch him show off? It’s really annoying when he doesn’t explain things right off the bat.

“I’ve automated what I used to do manually,” he continues to say. “Now it can discern an object's danger level based on the strength of its cursed energy, its mass, its velocity, and its shape. I’d like to get it to discern poisons, too, but that’s still proving to be difficult. This will allow me to keep my Limitless technique active almost perpetually with minimal resources.”

“Having it perpetually active will fry your brain,” Shoko points out exactly what you worried about when he told you a couple days back.

“But I can also keep running the reverse cursed technique with the energy I generate on my own,” Satoru explains to her exactly what he told you. “So I’m constantly giving it a fresh brain to work with. I’d already been working on shortening my hand seals. That’s nailed now, too. So I can also activate multiple instances of Blue and Red simultaneously. The only remaining hurdles are Domain Expansion and teleportation over long distances. I should be able to get that down if we set up some courses without any obstacles in Jujutsu High. Shoko,” he calls out and leans forward. “Could you lend me some lab rats?”

“Uh…” she questions. “Well, you have y/n here.”

You furrow your eyebrows and throw your hands up slightly to retort. “Hey!”

Shoko snickers and you roll your eyes before you then shoot your brother a smirk. “What about my cursed technique? Will you learn to protect yourself against me?” You tease him. “With the right amount of power I could definitely break through your infinity.”

Satoru turns his head towards you and tilts his head down before he scoffs. “As if,” he counters smugly. “You’d never be able to hurt me.”

You don’t let that tear you down, you actually grow smug too. “I don’t know man, the air definitely can. I am getting stronger.”

So much so that just last week you got assigned to a mission with your brother, and Yaga says you’ll get assigned to more together because he says your techniques work well together. Which must mean something because the only way your brother and you get assigned to missions together is for the rare group missions you get assigned to.

You still are getting assigned with Nanami and Haibara because you are in the same class, and your teamwork is absurdly well. But it does seem like you’re finally growing strength wise.

It makes you wonder what your parents think about it?

“Well we’ll see won’t we?” Satoru counters your comment. “That’s actually why I asked you to be here,” he finally reveals. “I need you to hit me with your cursed technique.”

You pull your shades down and grin at him. “Oh? You should’ve said that from the beginning!” You exclaim and push yourself away from Suguru to summon air to your hand as you raise it to get ready to lash at him.

However, he throws the eraser at you as he interjects. “Not yet, idiot.”

You pout with disappointment and watch the eraser fall at your feet.

“Suguru,” Satoru calls out next. “Have you lost weight? You okay?”

Your smile fades at the sound of his comment, and when you peer back at your boyfriend you frown with pity. He looks exhausted—well you’ve noticed that he’s looked exhausted for a while now. Just like you’ve noticed that he’s lost weight too.

You like to think it’s just overwork, getting assigned to missions alone must be exhausting, but the truth is you’ve noticed that something has been wrong with Suguru a couple of months after Toji Fushiguro killed Riko; after you entered that damn non-sorcerer cult who cheered over the death of an innocent girl. At first it was subtle signs like sleepless nights, things that you told yourself not to worry about, stuff he told you not to worry about. But he then began to grow distant with your friends, with you. He often lacked motivation, he didn’t show affection, and if he did it almost felt forced, like it cost him a lot of energy.

Suguru also smiled a lot less, and his eyes…his dark eyes have begun to look dull. You try and try to make him feel better, you try to help him in any way you can without pressuring him, but he keeps pushing you away. He’s like a…fading light at the end of a tunnel, no matter how much you want it to reach it, the light grows smaller and smaller.

It hurts, it really does, but he’s not accepting help, so you’re respecting his choice and just trying your best to be there for him in the best way you can. You love him after all. You don’t want to give up on him.

“It’s just heat fatigue,” Suguru assures Satoru. “I’ll be fine.”

“Did you eat too much somen?” Satoru asks cluelessly. Which leads you to wonder if he’s finally noticed Suguru’s distance too. You have brought up your concern for Suguru, but Satoru brushed you off saying Suguru was just exhausted. You’ve never tried since. Especially because as of late Satoru is often busy. Being the strongest comes with a lot of responsibility after all.

You just hope Suguru will feel better soon, that he’ll let you help him at the very least.

“Anyway, y/n, hit me.” Satoru calls for your attention, but you let your eyes linger on Suguru.

He seems to notice and meets your gaze, so you offer him a soft smile. Suguru blinks in surprise before he gives you a faint half smile before he looks away again and loses his gaze on Satoru.

It makes you want to embrace him, give him a small peck, or pull him aside, but your brother steals your attention again. “Hit me with something small, something normal.”

You swallow back before you sigh and return your attention to your brother. “Define normal?” You pick on his comment since it makes no sense.

“Just hit me with your air whiplash,” he explains in annoyance. “Something not too strong, just something you use on, uh, low curses.”

You blow out air and effortlessly summon air to form on your palm, causing the dirt and dust on the ground to pick up softly.

“Okay,” you warn your brother. “Here it goes.” You then proceed to fling your wrist. And just as the orb leaves your hand you manage to maneuver it into a curved line that you lash out at him instead.

But of course the air doesn’t even touch him, it breaks apart around him and flutters away.

“See you can’t touch me,” Satoru rebuttals with a cocky smirk.

You scoff with discontent and stand up. “Okay, all powerful sorcerer, let me hit you with all I got,” you challenge him as you begin to summon more air to your palm.

Satoru snickers and lifts his chin. “Hit me with all you got sis.”

You shoot him a grin and make the still air turn to strong gusts of wind that make Shoko shield her head from the dirt you pick up. You then shift a foot back and draw in a deep breath as the orb in your hand grows.

Satoru places a hand on his hip and looks at you with nonchalance which gets you fired up.

“We are in a courtyard you two,” Shoko points out loudly so she can be heard over the howling wind. “Whatever you break you have to replace—then again it’s not like it’ll make a dent in your money.”

“Ready?” You ask Satoru.

Your brother nods, but just before you can hit him you get a message so you check that first and actually lose all concentration as you see that it's an old non-sorcerer friend.

“Oh my god!” You exclaim. “Satoru guess who just texted me?!” You run over to him and show him the name on the phone. “It’s Suki!” You face your friends and grin. “Suki is Satoru’s ex-girlfriend from our junior high days.”

“Oh right!” Your brother exclaims. “She was your best friend, I completely blanked.”

You roll your eyes and scoff. “Yeah, my best friend, I told you not to date.”

Shoko slouches as she snickers. “Please tell me you got him back for that.”

You flash her a grin and skip back to her. “Oh totally, I dated this rival he had, he was—”

“An asshole,” Satoru finishes for you, which you agree to.

“But,” you add. “He did have long dark red hair he’d dye all the time,” you say thoughtfully whilst you put your phone away.

“Long hair?” Shoko questions. “Oh so it’s like that?”

You blink in confusion and query. “What?”

Shoko glances back at Suguru and snickers. “Oh nothing. Just an observation.”

You look at Suguru, and he meets your gaze to share the same confusion. Albeit his confusion isn’t so prominent on his face.

“I don’t understand,” you mutter and glance back at Shoko. “Elaborate.”

“Well isn’t it obvious you have a thing for guys with…” before you can finish hearing what she had to say her voice trails off as you get startled by an arm thrown around your throat.

There’s only one person not accounted for in front of you; your fucking brother. So it isn’t hard to guess who it was.

“Get the fuck off me you psycho!” You grimace as you grip his arm to try and pull it off.

Your brother chuckles. “You said you wanted to train more. I have time, we’re training.”

You try to kick back, but he easily evades your kicks.

“Satoru,” Suguru finally breaks his silence.

Said man groans. “Don’t worry, Suguru, I'm just helping her because an enemy will never announce when they’re moving against you now will they—“ he comes to a sudden halt as you bite down on his arm after you realize his infinity is off.

It’s the only way his arm would actually touch you.

“What the hell?!” Satoru exclaims and lets go of you to walk back in disbelief. “Did you bite me?”

You do what he wanted this time and summon fast and strong gusts of air to your hand quicker than before. You then spin around without warning and lash it out at him.

You can’t tell if it hit him at all because you proceed to charge at him.

Just before you can reach him though you jump up high above the buildings that surround you. Satoru doesn’t hesitate to smirk before he steps back and jumps up too to try and meet you halfway in mid-air. However, before he can reach you, you counter him by spinning around in the air as you summon wind to your foot to lash out a sharp and strong curved line of air from your foot.

And it seems that some gusts of wind seem to travel through the infinity because he falters in the air.

Nevertheless, it’s not enough to knock him back to the ground or catch him completely off guard because just as you’re turning your body to face him again in the air, your brother grabs ahold of your ankle and quickly flips you around to throw you back to the ground.

And since he is a lot stronger and faster you fail at landing on your feet and land on your back.

The impact hurts, but you muster a playful smile before he lands over you and immediately grabs you by the collar of your jumpsuit to lift your head off the ground.

“Satoru,” Shoko calls out with worry while he raises his fist over you.

Neither of you try to assure her, you look into each other's eyes with no ill feeling, just playful undertones as you wait for him to land a finishing hit.

He doesn’t however, he hesitates, so you take advantage of this moment and gather air to your hand before you slam your hand on his throat, causing him to be thrown back whilst the air in his lungs is knocked out.

“Fuck,” you chuckle and push yourself up, seeing that your brother only landed a foot away from you since your techqinue isn’t strong, and well, he is strong.

“That was a rush. You like that move though?” You ask as you walk over to him. “I call it a knockout. As long as I can touch your throat I can use my cursed technique to throw you back and manipulate the air in your body to knock it out of your lungs.” You chuckle. “Of course, it only works if that person or thing has cursed energy. Otherwise, pft.” You stop and see your brother catching his breath.

“You hesitated,” you point out smugly before you offer him your hand.

Satoru sighs with defeat, but he doesn’t hesitate to slap his hand on yours to let you help him up.

Once he’s on his feet his frown breaks into a proud grin. “Are you okay?” He asks as he slaps his hands on your shoulders.

You nod. “Nothing RCT won’t fix,” you assure him, and instinctively put your hand back so he can give you a high-five.

“Nice work,” he compliments you. “Of course sloppy but good thinking. Plus some of that air did touch me.”

“Well,” you point out as you begin to walk back to your friends now standing on the stone steps. “Air travels fast. So I'm not surprised some gusts of air did touch you. I mean I know it’s not much, but it is some.”

“Keep working on that,” he adds. “And you’ll actually be able to knock me down.”

You smile and turn around to walk back and face him. “Don’t make yourself an easy target though,” you tell him. “It doesn’t matter if I’m your sister.”

Satoru laughs softly. “Trust me I won’t,” he rebuttals.

You reach the step below Suguru and spin around on your heels to face him. However, you notice that he’s on his phone so you wait to speak to him.

“I’ll just say this,” Shoko interjects. “I'm sure a lot of people would pay a lot of money to watch you two fight.”

You lean towards Suguru to press your cheek against his shoulder as you respond to Shoko. “If I were to win, would you quit smoking?” You tease her.

Shoko narrows her gaze on you for a moment while she thinks.

“If you lose, would you smoke?” She rebuttals.

You laugh. “You sound like an addict. Answer me first.” Because jokes on her, you've already smoked with Suguru. You didn’t like the smell it left on your fingers, but you didn’t feel as disgusted that time.

“Fine,” Shoko says with a sigh. “If you were to win I would quit smoking.”

You smile at her brightly. “Ah, good then I’ll make sure to win,” you assure her. Which probably is no comfort at all to her, but you still do so confidently.

“I’d like to see that,” Satoru taunts.

“You will,” you remark. “I’ll beat you. One day.”

Satoru laughs softly and nods. “All right I like the sound of that.”

You smile softly and then back up to look at Suguru.

He has his phone down now and looks at you this time around. Albeit there's something off about the way he looks at you right now that makes your heart jump with gut-wrenching worry.

“I have to leave for my mission now,” he announces to you and the others.

You sigh sadly. “It’s already time?” You complain.

Suguru hums in agreement softly and focuses solely on you now. “Can we talk before I leave?”

Your smile falters as you detect how much colder his voice is. “Yeah, sure,” you answer hesitantly.

Suguru nods softly before he takes your hand and begins pulling you away gently.

“Be careful, Suguru!” Saturo yells out. “Text me!”

Suguru throws back a wave to his friend and doesn’t bother to look back. He doesn't bother to make conversation with you either, and since you feel worry grow within you, you stay quiet too.

It’s only once you're in the tunnel exit that he finally stops walking and faces you with that same gloomy look. Albeit now he can’t even meet you in the eyes.

“Is everything okay?” You ask softly as you grab ahold of his bicep.

Suguru nods stiffly. “Yeah,” he mutters.

You don’t believe him, but you know you won’t get anything else, so you move on. “How long is your mission? You didn’t tell me. Maybe we can do something when you come back home?” You ask.

Suguru swallows thickly and shakes his head. “Y/N...I don’t think this going to work.”

You scoff softly. “I can go to your room, that’s fine. I can even have some food waiting for you. Hm?”

“No,” he counters softly and slowly lifts his gaze to look at you with a long frown and a sorrowful look. “I mean, we have to break up.”

The smile on your smile immediately falls, and your heart sinks. You know you heard him right, there’s nothing going around you to make you mishear him, but you still don’t want to believe those tragic words that just came out of his mouth. “I,” you gasp and let go of his arm. “I don’t understand.”

Tears fill your eyes, and your mind itself begins to race, leaving no room for coherent thoughts.

“D-did I do something wrong?” You ask as you fight the need to cry. “I know things haven’t been the same but Suguru I can help you, just let me help you, please.”

Suguru let’s out a deep breath and looks at the ground to shake his head. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, y/n

I need you to understand that,” he says and meets your gaze. “You were good, I just…I can’t do this anymore. You deserve better than me.”

Better than him? What does that even mean? He is good, he’s the best, he’s your world.

“No,” you argue and step forward to pull his hand out of his pockets. “I don’t want anyone else, I just want you. Suguru…please talk to me, I’m right here, please.”

Suguru steps back and sighs. “I can’t,” he continues to say. “I can’t drag you along with me anymore. I’m letting you go, y/n. It’s for you own good.”

Tears slip out of your eyes and frustration begins to grow within you over his vague explanations. “You’re being selfish,” you remark. “What do you know about what I need? You keep pushing me away. Everytime…every single time I-I try to get close you push me away. So you can’t tell me what I need.”

Due to your upbringing, it’s hard for you to express yourself in any way, anger, happiness, sadness. Satoru has kind of changed that because he lets you talk to him, but even then when you get frustrated expressing yourself is hard and usually turns to tears. So to express this kind of anger without breaking into a sobbing mess is truly significant. It even surprises you, but anger is all you can feel at this very moment as you face the man you love, as you try to progress the words he’s using to break your heart, as you look into his dark eyes that hide sorrow behind that hard serious expression.

“What I need,” you mutter and step forward with more tears. “Is for you to give me a good reason. We said we’d be honest, please be honest with me.” You clutch your chest and look at him helplessly and hurt. “Please, Suguru.”

Said man holds your gaze for a second before he averts his eyes and nods stiffly. “I did tell you the truth. That was it. I can’t be with you, and you can’t be with me. Not as I am, so please just let it go. For your own sake, y/n.”

You feel physically ill, like you’re going to throw up, or have some kind of attack with the way your heart is racing.

“So that’s it then? That shitty ass excuse?” You cry softly and step back. “Look at me,” you whisper as if you’re out of breath.

Suguru blinks and does as you ask.

“Is that it?” You ask whilst you begin to hear tires approach at the end of the tunnel.

Suguru doesn’t say anything, but you leave him space to explain himself, to give you something better than what you got. You deserve something better, no? All the love you have, the memories you share, the moments you lived need to mean something, no?

You express that all with your watery gaze and with your lips parted ready to fight back. And you know he knows that.

But even still, he leaves you just like that.

“Okay. I…” you try to find something to say but all your anger disappears now just as fast as it came. “I,” that’s all you can muster in your disbelief and growing ache.

“Y/N,” Suguru whispers.

You sniffle and look to see the manager pull up to take Suguru away to his mission, so you step back with your lips parted and your hands trembling.

Suguru steps forward to try and what? Assure you after he broke your heart?

Fuck him.

You turn around and storm away without letting him say anything else, without saying anything else yourself.

You just can’t think anymore, it all hurts, this pain like no other completely overwhelms you to the point you can’t even shed another tear.

You know he’s struggling with something he doesn’t want to say, but you thought he’d be someone who didn’t give up regardless. You thought he’d be someone to give you something more than some shitty excuse, but he wasn’t, he isn’t.

He ended it just like that, everything, a years worth of a relationship is over because of something you don’t even know about. Some selfish reason.

It’s all over…

So what do you do now? You don’t know what to do. You can’t go back to where Satoru is, you’ll break and you don’t want to break and start drama. You can’t go on a mission today because you didn’t get assigned to one. You need to do something…

“Y/N!” You hear Shoko shout.

Shit, shit.

You stop just before you can reach the dorms and draw in a deep breath to try and hide your agony. You can’t cry, so it should be good. Right?

“Back already?” Your friend laughs as she catches up to you. “I’m surprised.”

You exhale and slap on a nonchalant look before you turn and face her with a tiny smile. “Yeah,” you breathe out. “I’m back.”

Shoko stops before you and meets your gaze with a smirk. You smile at her but as you look into your friends eyes your smile begins to tremble and those tears that dried up due to your disbelief come rushing back.

Shoko notices right away and her face falls with concern. “Whoa, is everything okay?” She asks right away and reaches her hand over to grab your arm.

You part your lips and fight your tears as you nod. Shoko scoffs and holds your gaze to try and read what has you on the brink of tears after you saw someone who never fails to make you smile.

She struggles a bit but she then understands what happened without needing you to explain. You wouldn't be crying otherwise.

“Oh,” she breathes out and doesn’t fail to throw her arms around you, causing you to finally break and sob—“he’s an asshole. He is.”

You try to speak, but nothing comes out but a soft whimper as you hug her back tightly.

“Come on,” she whispers and pulls back with her hand sliding down to grab yours. “Let’s go inside. I have all your favorite things in there.”

You’ve had girl friends before, you have cousins, but never one as important as Shoko. Out of everyone, she’s the only one who's touched your heart, the only one you’ve grown to love.

“Here,” Shoko mumbles and sits you down on her bed. “I'll bring the fuzzy socks and the cigarettes? No,” she scoffs to herself. “Alcohol? Fuck…” she trails off and walks to her drawer full of snacks and other things you both may need when you sync up on your periods.

“Ah, never mind, I found just the thing.” She pulls out a pack of your favorite snacks and throws them on the bed along with other things she has stored inside.

“I will take a beer,” you mumble as you put the fuzzy socks on your feet. “And maybe…”

Shoko swipes baggy shirts off her rack and throws them on the bed, making you smile softly over the fact that she already knew. It makes you grateful for her.

“So,” you interject as you put the baggy shirt on. “Have you decided to go on another date with that guy from Kyoto?” You ask her.

Shoko walks over to leave the beers on the bed while she also begins to change. “Yeah,” she mutters. “I decided I’ll go for it, I mean why not? He was a lot of fun.”

You sniffle and lay back on the bed with a pack of snacks and a cold beer in hand. “That’s good…dates are a lot of fun…” you trail off and feel tears fill your eyes all over again.

Now you try to hold yourself back, try to think of something else, but you can’t help the emotions from coming out like word vomit. “Do you think he stopped loving me?”

Shoko hops around to face you whilst she puts shorts on, and proceeds to sigh deeply before she responds with a reassuring tone. “No, I don’t think so. I just think there’s more going on with Suguru. But I don’t think he stopped loving you.” She finishes changing into her comforting clothes and jumps on the bed beside you with her beer and savory snacks.

“Maybe you were right,” you bring up as you drag yourself to sit up and lean your back against the wall. “Dating people you see everyday was a terrible idea. I’m going to have to see him all the time now…it’s going to be so awkward.”

Shoko sighs again and opens your beer can for you since your manicured nails get in the way. “Well,” she says. “I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t right.”

You take the beer and look over at her. “You were,” you correct her.

Shoko grabs her own beer and then meets your gaze. “Well, it depends, doesn't it?” She asks as she opens her own beer.

You sniffle and look at her puzzled. However, you don’t get to ask before she explains herself. “I just mean, Suguru looks like he’s going through something, you can’t blame him for that because some people like that just think it’s for the best.”

You blink in confusion. “People like what?” You probe. “Depressed?” It’s not hard to guess or identify on Suguru, it’s the only explanation for his sudden change.

“Yeah.” Shoko nods and takes a long swig from her beer before she continues on. “And knowing him he thinks he’s dragging you along, that he’s not, I don’t know, enough? I mean you met him when he was confident about his strength, now so many things are changing, and he’s taking that hard and doubting himself.”

With the way she acts so nonchalant and carefree you forget she’s studying to be a doctor, so she always impresses you when she behaves all doctor-like.

“I don’t care if he’s the weakest,” you say shakily so you take a drink of your beer before going on. “He’s enough for me in any way. So I don’t get it…he really hurt me.”

Shoko takes a long drink before she leans back against the wall and wraps her arm around your shoulders to pull you against her. “I know,” she whispers. “I'm sorry.”

A soft sob escapes past your lips, making Shoko hold onto you tighter.

“Look, I’m going to say this completely unbiased,” she interjects as she rests her head on yours. “Fight for him. I know it sounds super cheesy, but do it. You guys make each other happy, and you know fighting for someone doesn’t always have to mean the guy, you can fight too.”

You nod. “I know,” you whisper. “But what if I try and he gives up completely?”

Shoko exhales deeply. “Then you let him go. But I think you should try, and maybe try and reach him too. He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“Or me.” You sigh and pull back to take a sip of your beer. “I’m just…scared.”

Shoko nods. “I understand, but won’t trying at least satisfy you? If it doesn’t work at least you can say you tried—my parents,” she begins saying and averts her gaze. “They went through a rough patch when I was young, but they fought for each other and came back stronger. Now they’re all sappy and hardly ever apart.”

You laugh softly. “Are you comparing me to your parents?” You ask.

Shoko rolls her eyes. “I'm giving you an example,” she quips. “Fight, or don’t and you’ll find someone else with long hair.”

You tilt your head in confusion whilst you take a drink. “I don’t get it,” you mumble.

Shoko snickers. “You totally dig guys with long hair,” she points out.

Your ex had long hair, Suguru has long hair now and it was also longish before. And all your celebrity crushes—oh. You get it, maybe you do have a type.

“That’s so stupid,” you say breathlessly. “And who knew you’re such a sap, Shoko?” You giggle.

She shrugs nonchalantly and surprises you by downing the rest of her drink in one last go. When she’s done she throws her can to the ground and lays back on her bed.

“You tell anyone I’ll tear your closet,” she threatens, making you drink the rest of your drink so you can lay beside her.

“Besides,” she adds and slides her hand over to interlace her fingers with yours. “You're both my friends, and you’re my best friend. We live together, so I see more than you do, more than anyone, and I know that it’s worth fighting for. If it wasn’t, trust me I would tell you.”

Rather than smiling you frown as that fear that always accompanies you makes you think of the worst. “And if it doesn’t work?” You ask as if she actually knew that answer. After all it seems she had loving parents, it’s why she’s giving you this advice. But you? Your parents are the complete opposites from her parents, they never fought for each other, you never saw them being any kind of affectionate. So this doubt creeping inside you isn’t out of the blue, it's a real terrorizing fear you have experienced.

“If it doesn’t work?” Shoko responds and lifts her head to look at the same time you tilt your head down to look at her. “Then you let it go, plain and simple. I’m sure it’ll hurt, but you’ll get over it, plus I’ll be here, your brother is oddly good at comforting you. We’ll all be here.”

You let out a shaky breath and show her your thanks and appreciation by resting your head on her shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re here,” you tell her softly.

Shoko rests her head on yours and sighs softly. “I’m glad you’re here too.”

You rest your eyes and try to stop crying as you do feel some kind of reassurance, but those tears still come out since the wound didn’t actually heal. No matter what resolve you figured out, that doesn’t actually change what happened. Suguru and you still are broken up—

That’s so weird to think about. So weird to say in your mind. It’s…unbelievable, and painful.

But at least you have Shoko.

——

*A COUPLE DAYS LATER*

So much for the hope of it all. So much for more than anything. So much for it all. You tried so hard to date around your brother, you didn’t fight much but you fought against his protests. And just as he was barely getting around to fully accepting it, Suguru ruins it.

Now, you’ll have to live on awkwardly because what’s the point in trying? He broke up with you, he left you, he hurt you. Why should you try to fix things? Why risk getting your heart torn and stomped on again?

“Right?” You ask yourself while you cover the fireball you make with rocks and dirt you summon off the ground with your cursed technique.

You do miss him, and yes, he was rather distant for the past couple of months, but you still had each other. He still made your day complete even if there were days where you’d only see each other for a few minutes. He still listened and helped you when Satoru was busy. Suguru…was always there, and now even if you live in the same place he’s never with you.

It’s so fucking lonely. It’s so weird. Plus at night it’s even worse, you didn’t sleep together a lot because you’d get in trouble, but you’d sleep with his shirts or his sweaters and you’d be content with his scent that clung onto it. Now it’s just a cruel reminder that he broke your heart.

So it begs the question, should you fight?

Part of you wants to more than anything, but the other part is filled with anger, and fear that he won’t want to fight with you, that he’ll reject you. And yes, you know that if you don’t ask him you’ll never know, but telling him you loved him took so much time because of your stupid fear—or anxiety as Shoko likes to call it (you don’t believe that.) So now telling him to fight for another chance with you will only take even more time to express.

Fuck. Fuck…

You sigh and drop your head, realizing you’re still holding the dirt covered fireball without concentrating it.

At least that’s a plus. But regardless, you’ll keep torturing yourself by overthinking rather than going for it…

As of now though, you let the dirt fall and collect the fire back through your dragon mark before you stand up and exhale deeply.

No more thinking of Suguru. No more thinking of the anger you feel over this breakup. No more thinking of the building up stress you feel over an upcoming mission that you’ll have to travel far for.

Just focus on calming your breaths, on your leg as you slide it forward while you move the other one back. You focus on one arm as you stretch it out to use your cursed technique, and summon some water over to you to cover your arm in its wet body. You use your other hand to tap into your fire and have that begin to twirl around your body, along with the water you move off your arm.

You proceed to take another deep breath and listen for the wind. When you hear it howl by your ear you smile as it seems that it’s calling out to you specifically. You then easily gather some of it and make it twirl around your body along with the fire and water.

Now all that's left is earth, but that’s harder, rougher, and heavier than rest to manipulate, so you save it for later. Instead, you shift to different forms with a peaceful mindset, ending up balancing on the ground with one hand.

Once you're confident with your form you then try to pick some dirt off the ground to have it dance with the rest of the elements around your body, but it’s fucking hard. You can mix your cursed energy well with the dirt and the rocks, so it begins to falter as you lift it off the ground. It makes you lose focus on your calm breaths. And the strain to keep it up makes you open your eyes and causes your body to begin losing balance.

“Hey! Don’t think too much about it!” Someone you don’t recognize yells out, causing you to lose concentration and collapse on the ground.

“Sorry!” They yell out.

That’s so embarrassing. Tsk.

You slowly push yourself to your feet and dust the dirt off you first before you look up and see an impressively tall blond woman with the kindest brown eyes you’ve ever seen.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Y/N Gojo!” She exclaims with a smug smile when she reaches you by the pond.

Albeit you step back and look at her with confusion. “Uh, pleasure I'm sure, but who are you?” You quirk a brow and study her to check if it’s someone you’ve actually seen before. But no, she isn’t.

“Oh,” she breathes out with disappointment. “I’m Yuki Tsukumo.”

Your eyes widen with awe and a smile breaks on your face. You see her part her lips to add on but you cut her off excitedly, like a fan girl seeing their idol. “Oh my gosh, you’re her!”

Tsukumo’s lips pull to a wide smile and she grows smug again. “Oh, I like the sound of that,” she interjects.

You grin. “You’re the sorcerer who’s always out and defies the higher ups, it’s so cool to finally meet you. I’m a big fan.”

Tsukumo rests her hand on her hip and tilts her head down as she flashes you a sweet grin. “That’s so nice to hear. I didn’t know I was so well known amongst one of the Gojo’s. I’m flattered.”

You scoff. “You’re acting as if I’m royalty,” you quip.

“Well,” she sighs. “You kinda are.”

You roll your eyes and shake your head. “Far from it.” You step forward and continue to look at her with awe. “I need to ask…how did you do it?”

Tsukumo straightens out and looks at you with a confused look. “Do what?” She probes.

Your smile falters and a sigh escapes your lips. “Get strong,” you clarify. “I mean how did you do it all by yourself? You don’t come from one of the big three. I mean I know you came to school, but your reputation? You’re overall poweress? You did that all by yourself, so how? I have the privilege to be born a Gojo, to have a strong brother teaching me, but no matter what I do I continue to struggle.”

Tsukumo's smile turns soft, and her gaze falls on the ground for a moment before she lifts her eyes to meet your gaze with a soft look. “Little by little,” she shares, “I didn’t get strong overnight, I learned and learned. I exhausted myself, but I pushed myself to learn. I for sure as hell didn't listen to any of the old geezers who kept trying to make me hold back.”

You smile softly at that comment.

“But,” she exhales slowly and smirks at you. “I didn’t listen to my head, I trusted myself. I didn't get strong for anyone. I get strong for me. That’s the trick.”

You admire her for a moment before you smile at the ground and nod in comprehension. “I understand, thank you,” you mumble.

“You can be strong and still be a woman, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” she adds. “A lot of people, those old geezers included, only look at you one way. Not both. Prove them wrong every step of the way.”

You chuckle softly. “Oh, trust me I know.” You meet her gaze and shoot her a smirk. “Fuck the higher ups.”

Tsukumo grins. “That’s what I’m talking about! I like you!” She throws her fist out, so you gently tap it with your fist and cause her to shoot you wink that gets you all flustered.

“Hey, we should hang out,” she adds. “We’re both special grade and women at that, we’re a rare pair. So we should get to be friends, don’t you think?”

This is like a dream. This is so cool!

But you need to play it cool. Play it cool.

“Yeah I think so,” you hide your excitement. “That would be cool.”

Tsukumo hums softly before she whips her phone out and offers it to you, making you do the same to trade contacts.

“Anyway,” you bring up as you type in your number. “What brings you around here? Are you picking up a mission?”

“No,” she says. “I came back from a trip so I wanted to meet you and the other special grades.”

You hum before you add in, “well Satoru is on a mission, but,” you pause and exhale slowly. “Geto is here. Somewhere.”

This is the longest you’ve gone without thinking about him. It sounds pathetic but its true. And weird.

“I can…find out where he is so you can meet him,” you suggest hesitantly whilst you return your phones to each other.

“Yeah, that would be great, thank you!”

You hum quietly and look at your phone to go and click on his contact.

It’s been a while since you texted him—will he even answer?

You to Suguru: Where are you?

Your heart begins to race as you grow nervous.

“So,” you interject while you wait. “If you don’t mind me asking, Tsukumo, where were you before returning home?”

“Yuki,” she cuts in bluntly. “You don’t have to be formal with me, call me Yuki.”

You smile softly and nod. “Yuki,” you correct yourself. “Where were you before?”

“I was in Singapore.”

Your eyes widen and you can’t help but grin. “Really?” You probe. “I love Singapore.”

Yuki shows off a grin and nods slowly. “It’s beautiful, and the nightlife is great!”

You part your lips to fangirl over her but a message comes in so you keep quiet and feel your heart jump. When you check you inhale deeply.

Suguru: Hall B, why?

You exhale and leave him on read to offer Yuki a feigned and nervous smile. “Geto answered, I can take you to him.”

Without hesitation or wasting more time you walk her to where Suguru is. You’d prefer not to see him at the moment, it just won’t make things any easier, but…you also miss him. So this is just a small excuse.

“Hey,” Yuki interjects. “About your previous question about strength, does your brother train you?”

You sigh and shrug. “He does but he’s busy a lot now so not as much anymore. I have other friends who help me though, and school of course. But that’s about it.”

She hums and stays quiet for a moment. Once you reach Hall B, she stops before you can walk inside, making you stop along with her.

“In here,” you point to the door.

“Look,” she changes the subject. “I don’t stay in one place long, I like to travel, and I know that it’s not ideal for a lot of people. But if it’s something you’re okay with, then you should consider letting me help you.”

You blink in disbelief and can’t think of what to say through that shock that begins to grow.

“It can be once you’re out of school, or if you decide that being here isn’t for you then you can come along and I’ll help you train,” she adds and doesn’t help ease you whatsoever. “Whatever you decide, I want to help you. We girls have to stick together, especially us because we’re a rare pair.” She smirks.

“Yeah, I agree,” you muse. “Just,” you pause and think about your brother and your friends, they’re all here. Whatever happens with Suguru won’t change the fact that you like living with your friends and your brother.

But you also want to get strong for yourself, for your dream of helping other sorcerers, for those friends you cherish so deeply. So that’s where you get stuck, you can go with her, let her train you, and get strong a lot quicker. Or you can stay here with everyone and gain your strength a lot slower. Hm.

“…just give me time to decide,” you tell her. “I’m honored by your offer though. I really appreciate it.”

Yuki grins. “Don’t sweat it, the offer will be open for you. Until then we can still get to know each other.”

You sigh with relief and nod softly. “Yeah I like the sound of that. Thank you again.”

With nothing else to add you continue to walk inside the building. And now your shock gets replaced with that nervousness all over again. You almost want to run away before you can lay your eyes on him, but that’d be immature. After all you do live with him which means you can’t hide from him forever. So now is better than later….

You repeat that to yourself as you approach the corridor. It’s all going to be fine, you assure yourself—no, you’re gonna be sick.

You lead the way past the vending machines and the first person you lay your eyes on is him. Your breath hitches as if this is the first time you’re seeing him. Your heart pounds faster as his dark eyes find your gaze. Your eyes widen slightly with awe as you see that his hair is down. And even through all the hurt he made you feel, relief is all you feel wash over you.

Does he feel it too? He sits up and you notice his Adam’s apple lift up before it slides down.

“Y/N!” Someone else exclaims.

You break from your stupor to notice that Haibara is next to Suguru. You didn't take note of that before.

“Hey Haibara!” You greet as if you hadn’t just seen the guy a couple hours ago.

“Is everything okay?” Suguru’s voice surprises you, causing you to look back at him with that surprise expressed on your face.

He’s acting as if nothing happened while you’re slowly dying inside, how is he so good at that?

Regardless, before you can answer, Yuki finally enters the corridor and steals the attention of both guys, letting you notice that Suguru’s eyebags have only deepened.

“Are you Geto?” Yuki interjects boldly. “What kind of woman is your type?”

What kind of question is that?

You can’t decide if it’s cool or weird upon a first interaction.

“Who are you?” Suguru avoids the question, leading you to wonder if he’ll actually answer it. He is single now so his answer may vary.

“I like girls who eat a lot!” Haibara exclaims, causing you to snap your eyes to him, and giggle.

“Oh?” Yuki probes, whilst Suguru scolds him softly.

“Haibara.”

“It’s okay,” said man brushes Suguru off. “She’s not a bad person. I’m a great judge of character!”

You smile wider at your friends comment.

“You say that while sitting next to me?” Suguru interjects, causing your smile to fall right away, and your concern to grow.

What does he mean by that?

“Yes!” Haibara agrees without hesitation.

Yuki laughs. “He was being sarcastic, you know,” she tells Haibara, but you know she’s wrong, you can see it in the way Suguru’s averting his gaze. So what does he mean? Why can’t he talk to you?

You want to know, you need to know. So that’s what you’ve decided, you’ll talk to him. You have to, if not for your relationship, then just for him. He looks like he’s in pain and you can’t just sit by and wait for him to come to you. You’ll just wait until after you come back from your mission.

You’d do it now, but Yuki did say she wanted to know him, so your talk will have to wait.

“Anway,” you interject and look at Yuki. “I’m off now, it was nice to finally meet you.”

Yuki pouts. “You’re leaving already? I thought we could hang out together a bit longer.”

You briefly glance at Suguru, and he looks at you, so you look away and then respond to her. “I’d love to but I am going on a mission far from here tomorrow, so I need to finish some work before I leave, or else my teacher will have my head.” You giggle. “But hey, when I come back and you’re still around we should go out to lunch or something, hm? I would love to know more about your trips.”

Yuki nods. “Absolutely! And think about my offer, I don’t give them to everyone.”

You flash her a smile and nod. “I will!” You look away from her and look at your friend. “Haibara you want to come help me with my work?”

Your friend pushes himself off his seat right away and nods. “Sure! But I won’t do it for you.”

You pout and watch him meet up with you. “That’s so mean,” you whine and throw your arm around him. “Not even a little?”

“Nope.”

You groan and roll your eyes. “Boo,” you whisper before you look over at Yuki and flash her an excited smile. “Bye Yuki!”

“Bye Y/N!” She gives you the same excited energy.

You lastly glance at Suguru and see that he was already looking at you, so you quickly avert your gaze and pull Haibara away with you.

“Excuse us!” Haibara exclaims as he pulls back to take one last glance at both Suguru and Yuki, making your hand slide off his shoulders.

Silence then follows and once your friend catches up to you down the hall, he immediately finds the chance to question your fading smile.

“Are you okay? You look upset—or actually you’ve looked upset for the past couple days, is everything okay?”

He knows you well, but you don’t want him or anyone else to know about Suguru and you breaking up yet. You do want to work things out so telling everyone, (escpaully Satoru) will create unnecessary tension you don’t need. So you’ll keep quiet for now and hide your anguish.

“I’m fine. Just…tired is all.”

Haibara opens the door for you, letting you walk out under the cloudy sky. “Are you okay?” You redirect while you spin on your heels to look at him.

Your friend nods. “Yep, just getting mentally prepared for tomorrow.”

You hum and sigh dramatically. “Yeah, that’s a real pain in the ass. But hey, after the mission, Nanami did promise that he’ll come with me to the shops, so I’m excited for that!”

“Really? Great, I'll come with!” He interjects.

You scoff softly, and happily hook your arm around his. “I didn’t expect it any other way,” you say with a growing smile.

——

*2 DAYS LATER*

Suguru: Be careful

Even if it’s just through text those words have been ringing inside your head since he sent it.

You hate it for one, he just sends you the message as if nothing, without even talking anything out first, it makes you mad. But two, you appreciate that he thought of you, it makes your heart flutter. Yet, third, you’ve been stuck between answering back or not. Should you be petty and not answer, or be nice and write back something super simple?

Something that can lead to ‘hey let’s talk when I get back.’—no. Not now. You should concentrate on the mission in hand. But…

No! No, you cant.

Actually he shouldn’t be sending you these messages. It’s so hard on your overthinking mind.

“Should we put a curtain?” You ask as you put your phone away.

“I doubt we’ll step outside,” Nanami says. “But let’s do it just in case.”

You both turn to look at Haibara, and he sighs before he steps forward and raises two fingers. “Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness,” he chants. “Purify that which is impure.”

Within seconds the cloudy sky is covered by a black growing veil that drops over the property you were sent to, adding ominsity to a rather easy mission; exorcizing a second-grade curse.

“If you want, y/n, you can go in alone, we'll wait for you here,” Nanami remarks as you walk past an arch.

You roll your eyes. “It doesn’t work like that Nanami. Special grade—”

“Means you have the power to take over countries,” he cuts you off. “That’s what you are, and it’s what you have the possibility of doing.”

You scoff. “Sure, it’s a possibility, but I can’t do that now, you know that,” you argue the same old fight. “I need to work to get myself strong. I…” you pause and hum in disappointment. “I’m not strong like that yet. I'm working to it.” You fist your hands eagerly and then look back at him with a smirk. “And when I am, don't start missing me, Nanamin.”

Said guy rolls his eyes, making you smile at him.

“Don’t worry y/n,” Haibara cuts in, drifting your eyes over to him. “Take your time, we like having you come with us. We’re a team after all! We work great together and Nanami knows it, he’s just giving you a hard time.”

You chuckle and walk back to fall beside Nanami and pat his shoulder. “Oh, I know. It’s all tough love.”

As you reach the entrance of the red-roof building you let Nanami go and frown. “Sense that?” You ask and come to a stop with them before you can climb up the red stairs.

“It’s not even trying to hide,” Haibara points out.

You crack your knuckles and let out a deep breath, while Nanami pulls his blade out, and Haibara rolls his shoulders back.

“It should be easy,” you try to assure them and yourself. “We go in as practiced.”

Nanami nods stiffly, and you let out one more deep breath before you take a step on a red stair and begin ascending them. When you’re on the porch, both guys hide behind the wall, while you open the door and slowly creep inside the softly lit parlor room.

Right away you notice the curse you’re after; it’s tall, built like a man with tightly toned muscles, but green and twisted. It notices you right away and turns around, showing off its one eye on its face, and the snake like tongue that it sticks out at you.

It’s gives you the creeps, but you ignore it and lift your chin to show it a smirk and show it that you’re not afraid.

You don’t think it actually senses that, nor do you think it has any emotions besides the instinct to cause terror, but almost as if you did hurt its ego, the curse wails out before it charges at you.

You don’t move though, you confidently stay where you are, and just before it can even reach you, Nanami and Haibara come out of hiding and run at it too. And since the curse is tall, you manipulate the air from outside to come to your hands, and then push it towards Nanami. And without the need to say a word, just like you have done dozens of times before, you use the air to give him a boast.

Nanami uses the boast to his advantage and flips in the air. The curse looks up and twists around to follow Nanami, it tries to reach out for him with its long arms, but Nanami swings his blade while in the air and manages to cut one of its arms off with a single swing. When he’s falling back down, he manages to kick the curse towards Haibara before he lands swiftly on the floor.

And since the curse is stronger it’s harder to take down, you need to use a lot more strength and power. So when Haibara punches its eye out with his cursed energy, the curse still stands up and comes stumbling towards you.

Now depending on the curse, you can land the finishing blow, but you see and sense this one is more durable. Thus you tap into your dragon mark wrapped around your arm and make flames bask your entire arm, causing your growing smirk to be brightened by your flame's hue.

The curse wails loudly at you, but you don’t flinch, instead you manipulate the air that lays outside on the courtyard behind the curse, and have it burst through the doors to shove the curse towards you. You then lunge forward as you pull back your fist covered in flames, and smash it through the curses gut so hard your fist burns through the other side.

Yet it still doesn’t get exorcized. The curse falls on its knees and bleeds out from its wound.

“You really are annoying,” you grumble before you raise your foot, and use the air to kick out a mighty blast that sends the curse flying out to the courtyard.

“Let’s end this,” you tell your friends coldy.

Haibara and Nanami both nod before the three of you walk out to the back porch. The curse finds strength to stand up so that motivates the three of you to continue on stronger.

So as Nanami runs to the curse head-on, Haibara jumps off the porch's railing and runs to its side. You step off the porch and watch as Nanami slides down and slices the curses legs off with his cursed technique, while Haibara hops on the curses arm to rip it out of its body, giving you your cue.

And so forth before the curse can continue to irritate you, you pull gusts of air to your palms and form it into a long and thin curved line. You then proceed to lash it out, and manage to cut the curses head clean off.

“Finally,” you pant and drop your shoulders as you let out an exhausted sigh. “Good job guys!”

“Right back at you, y/n,” Haibara redirects, making you smile at him softly.

“Uh, I hate to burst your bubbles but the veil hasn’t come down,” Nanami points out.

You snap your eyes up and see that the black veil still in fact remains intact. Is there another curse here?

Nevertheless, before you can ask your question out loud you hear thumping. When you look down you see the curse begin to convulse violently.

“Uh,” you breathe out in horror and step back.

The curse then suddenly stops, making you squint your eyes on the curse to wait with a racing heart. You then lift your head and at that moment see the curse regrow its limbs, including its head. Its already toned body grows larger, and with more muscles as if it had just pumped itself with fucking steroids. Two arms then grow to four, and from one neck grows out two more heads longer than the original.

This isn’t a second-grade curse, but it’s also something you can't run from, you’ll have to fight your own fear and give it your all.

“We got this,” Haibara uses words of encouragement.

You clench your fists and nod stiffly, whilst you also begin to feel regret for not texting Suguru back. After all, this has turned for the worst, what if you don’t make it out? And the last thing you told him was…a bunch of sputter.

You want to talk to him again, you do. You want to tell him you miss him, that he’s worth walking through fire for, that he’s enough for you. But most of all you want to tell him that you love him more than anything in this cursed world.

So to whatever divine being that is up there don’t let this be the end. Please.

“I’ll get rid of the arms,” Nanami says. “Haibara try and get his legs so y/n can try and exorize it.”

You nervously swallow back but nod in understanding, but you also look over at Nanami and can’t help your worry. He sees that and drops the hardened expression to offer you a soft smile to try and assure you.

You draw in a deep shaky breath and mirror his smile before you look ahead. Now before any more time can be wasted you summon air and blast out, Nanami sprints over and jumps, letting you use that same air to boast him.

You then follow by growing a raging fireball and throw it at the curse, causing it to shift back. Haibara uses this slight distraction and charges it, whilst Nanami flips down and tries to swing his blade.

However, this time the curse is more prepared, it twirls around and swerves Haibara's attack before it proceeds to swat Nanami away as if he were nothing but a fly.

“Nanami!” You cry out while his body slams into the wall behind him and goes unconscious.

The curse turns back around and wails out at Haibara and you, but you don’t cower, you dig your heels in the ground and glower at it.

“Cursed technique,” you seeth. “Fire dragon.”

The dragon mark on your arm begins to glow brightly, whilst the veins on your other arm begins to glow with the flames that travel down to your palms. Your hands then glow from the fires light before you throw your arms out and blast large flames from your palms. The fire quickly takes form into a large fire-made dragon that flies towards the curse.

This time your fire-made dragon is much larger than last years. Now it contains a lot more power.

Alas, just as you think you see the fire-made dragon grab the curse with its jaw, the fire-made dragon crashes through the wall, and what you see before you now are two curses in front of a building that begins to feed the fire that the fire-made dragon left behind.

Two bodies now join the fight. They’re the same build, they have the same green skin, but now both bodies just have two arms. One body even has two heads, while the other only contains one.

It split itself into two.

“Haibara!” You bellow and don’t take your eyes off the curse with the one head watching you, waiting to attack. “Get Nanami!”

You only catch a glimpse of Haibara running and the second curse running after him, so you try to blast fire out at it to try and distract it, but the curse that had been watching you like you were it’s meal, catches you off guard and slaps you down to your knees.

You quickly try to counter but it lunges at you to grab you by the throat and pick you off the ground with its strength.

You can’t let that stop you though, so you try to blast air at it by kicking your foot, but the curse hurls you back towards the parlor room.

When you hit the floor you yell out because of the pain, but you also try to quickly get up so you can counter. However, the curse is fast and catches up to you right away. It doesn’t let you catch your breath before it kicks you to your back and begins throwing punches over and over again on your face.

You try to move your arms to hurl air or fire, but each punch is like getting stabbed by sharp needles so the pain is agonizing and paralyzing.

It’s not the same as before, either because it was holding back or because it got stronger when its head got cut off, like the monster from Greek Mythology, The Hydra. Which would make sense with this curse being born from the Ubusunagami faith. One head falls and multiple are born in its place.

But why wasn’t this identified before? Why weren’t they more careful? This is a grade 1 case, you might be special grade but that’s only because no one knows how dangerous your technique can be, they based you off possibilities, if it wasn’t because of that you’d be a grade 2 just like the others. And they know that too, so why? Why weren’t they more careful?

Now you can’t even lift a finger, all your mind is filled with is pain. You try to think of some strategy to get out, to outsmart the curse, but you can’t even move. Every hit brings you closer to an eerie darkness.

Until there’s a voice.

“Y/N? Are you okay?”

It’s your brother's voice from a memory of the day you got the scar on your torso. You were only a little girl who was scared of many things, he had been gone all day because your parents wanted him away from you, so when he came back the trauma was already engraved and the scar was already stitched.

He came after the fact, but he was such a relief to see. He was a light in the sea of darkness.

“It hurts,” you complain with fresh tears in your eyes.

“I know,” he whispers. “I'm sorry.” He sighs and turns around to give you his back and crouch.

“Come,” he says. “I'll help you get to your room.”

Satoru was told many times not to spoil you the way he does, ‘it’ll only make her weaker.’ they’d say, but he never listened and they never corrected him because of who he was.

“We can watch a movie and give you something for the pain.” He adds.

You wipe your tears away and stand up to step towards him, but you stop and bring up your concern. “But mother said no.”

Satoru peers back and confidently counters. “I don’t care. Now come on, get on my back.”

You smile softly and don’t think twice about accepting his offer now. You get on his back and wrap your arms around his neck before you rest your head on his shoulder, and let him give you a piggyback ride to your room.

Now you don’t know why that certain memory came to mind, there are so many other ones where he was that light in the sea of darkness, so why this one? It's only a reminder of the pain your family made you endure.

So why now as this curse is beating you to a bloody pulp?

Why? You ask yourself as the curse hits you again and strikes your body with more pain.

Why?

But then, in that brief moment where it’s fist is off your face you know why, because you see a vision of brother appearing through the darkness. Not Suguru, not Shoko, or your other friends, but your brother. He’s the sudden burst of energy you need to regain your consciousness and find that strength to pull your leg back and direct a cluster of your cursed energy and fire to your foot.

The curse hits you again, but you don’t falter, you counter by kicking your foot out and blasting fire at it from your foot.

The curse gets flung back, but it doesn’t go far, instead it falls under the doorframe. You still get up though and fist your hands whilst you shift your feet into a fighting stance. The curse gets back up and immediately wails out at you.

“Fuck you,” you grimace and run at it with your arm getting basked in flames. Before you reach it you jump up to swing your fist down at its face, but the curse isn’t weakened by injuries like your bruised and blood-covered face, it’s stronger and manages to throw its arm out and capture you by your throat.

You try to kick, but the lack of air running to your lungs immobilizes you. All you can think about now is wanting to breathe. All that there is is fading consciousness until you hear a scream coming from the courtyard.

Nanami was unconscious, he could have woken up but it’s unlikely, so the person screaming was Haibara. He’s in trouble. He needs help!

As if hit with another burst of energy, you manage to slap your hands on the side of the curses head and instantly blast fire out of your palms,

The curse wails as the flames burst through its flesh and begin burning it from the inside out. It lets you go to try and escape, but you wrap your legs around it and dig your fingers in its head while you blast more fire in its head.

You cry out of anger and the curse stumbles back, it claws at you, but you use more of your cursed technique until the curse finally explodes and dies, causing you to fall on your ass and finally gasp for more air while you push yourself to your feet.

Haibara doesn’t scream again, but you still run out to the courtyard. And immediately as you do you see the curse holding Haibara several feet over the ground by his head. You gasp in horror as you see Haibara’s entrails hanging out of a long and deep gash.

“Haibara!” You cry out louder than you thought possible.

The curse snaps his head towards you, and you quickly lift your hands off your sides and begin gathering air into a orb in between your palms.

“Cursed technique,” your grimace with tears already forming in your eyes. “Air manipulation, lashing wind!”

You proceed to throw the orb made of air out. And while it’s flying towards the curse you form it into a curved line that slashes both of the curses heads off the moment it cuts through, causing it to let go of Haibara.

Before your friend can hit the ground you sprint over and manage to catch him in your arms. However, he’s heavy so when you catch him you collapse to the ground with him.

“It’s okay,” you mutter shakily. “It’s okay,” you assure him even as his eyes are rolled back. “You’ll be okay, Haibara.”

You don’t see his chest move anymore, and his blood is spilling out of his gash and staining your body, but you still refuse the truth and carefully put him down. You then rip the white skirt off your waist and carefully wrap it around his bleeding wound.

“It’s okay,” you tell him again. “You’ll feel a little bit of pressure, but Shoko and that first aid class told us to do this, remember?”

Haibara remains unresponsive, but you continue to tighten the white skirt over his wound so it could stop bleeding.

“You’ll be okay,” you whisper and look at his face. “Haibara? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Just please hold on a while longer okay? I…I can call Shoko, she’ll know what to do.” You pull your phone out and desperately find your friends contact. As it rings you look back and see the curse is beginning to shake like last time.

“Shit, shit,” you grumble.

The phone rings a couple more times before you get sent to voicemail. “Damn it!” you exclaim.

You peer back and see that the curse grows four heads now and grows taller, bigger.

“I—I’ll call Suguru, he’ll know where she is,” you tell Haibara as he continues to lay still.

This time when you call Suguru, the phone rings only a few times before he thankfully answers. “Hello?”

You sigh shakily with relief, “Suguru.”

“Y/N, what's wrong?” He asks the moment he hears your shaky voice.

You look at your friend and hold your phone to your ear with your shoulder as you press your hands on Haibara's wound to help the bleeding stop.

“Suguru, where’s Shoko? She doesn’t answer her phone, I need her help, please.” You say quickly.

“Shoko isn’t home,” Suguru says. “What's wrong y/n, are you okay?”

You groan and look back to see Nanami up now and trying to distract the curse.

“It’s Haibara,” you say shakily. “I-I don’t know what to do, I’m trying to stop the bleeding, but the gash won’t stop bleeding. And he—Suguru…he’s not breathing. I need Shoko, please, I need her.”

“Y/N,” Suguru mutters through the phone. “Haibara’s gone. I need you and Nanami to get out of there—”

It’s not the solution you want so you hang up the phone and shove it back in your pocket to focus back on your friend and begin CPR.

“Come on, come on, COME ON!” You yell out in desperation.

Your attempts are futile though, he doesn’t wake up, he doesn’t gasp for air, he continues to lay still, adding to your anguish.

“Nanami!” You call out. “I need help! Please come help me…someone please help me…” you trail off and pick up Haibara again to cradle him in your arms. Your phone begins to ring but you ignore it and put all your attention on Haibara.

“You have to fight, okay? We still have so much to live for, and you—you have to become a teacher just like you wanted,” you tell him as you hear wailing in the back. “We have to graduate next year and do so much more, please Haibara. Please.”

“Y/N?”

You look up and see Nanami panting in front of you.

“Nanami—”

He cuts you off and grabs your arm to try and pull you off the ground. “We have to go!” He bellows out at you while his eyes are on Haibara’s body.

“No,” you argue and shove his arm back. “I’m not leaving him behind!”

Nanami glances past you before he crouches down and grabs your arm. “Y/N, Haibara is…” he pauses and lets out a shaky breath before he finishes breaking the truth to you. “He's gone. We have to go or we’ll die next.”

You look down at Haibara and finally notice how lifeless he looks, you finally notice how fatally deep his wound is. And as if slammed by a rough wave, you finally grasp the truth and feel a deep agonizing pain clench around your chest to the point you can’t breathe. You can’t think, or cry, all that there is, is the cruel truth and pain.

The phone's incessant ringing doesn’t tune in, Nanami’s desperate pleas to leave don’t register. Nothing snaps you from that stupor but the sudden wail of the damned curse.

Anger then follows after that sound, a raging anger that only tightens that grip around your chest. No matter how much you want to let it go and leave, you can’t, it doesn’t feel right or like it will let you breathe, so you put Haibara down and twist around as you remain on your knees.

“Y/N,” Nanami warns as the curse begins to storm over.

You ignore him though and narrow your glare in the curse. The ground then begins to shake beneath you as you focus on doing something new and without thinking. Cracks grow on the ground, and you lean down to press your palms on the surface.

The curse jumps off it’s feet and tries to tackle you, but in that moment you let out all the emotions that had been plaguing you, and finally breathe.

All your life you’ve been taught to control your emotions to work with your cursed energy, but you’ve never felt more in control over your emotions than at this very moment after Haibara’s death triggered something off inside you. Something so monumental that lets you blast out a tidal wave of fire from the cracks on the ground to slam the curse back.

Up until this moment, you’ve never felt that rush of excitement from a fight, Satoru always talks about it, but it’s something you could never relate to. The only excitement you felt was last year, but that was met with regret, and you never felt it again because missions and fights were always such a burden or terrifying, but right now? As you use Yuki’s advice about not giving it too much thought, all you feel is excitement. And it grows as you use your cursed technique to lift pieces of the earth around you to blast it out at the curse and everything that stood around you, like a second wave. Leaving nothing left standing, but dust. And proving Nanami right.

Now you would have taken this time to leave, but Nanami doesn’t even attempt to move after what he saw. You can’t move after you realize what you did.

That rush of power was new, that technique was new. All born from a change inside you that Haibara’s death brought.

Yet you know that it’s a power you haven’t fully tapped into, it was only a taste. But that’s enough to cause your eyes to flicker between the familiar color of your eyes, to a deep red color that Nanami notices when you turn back around to face him and Haibara’s body.

“It’s over,” Nanami says through heavy breaths.

You hum softly in agreement, and then gently wipe your fingers down Haibara’s face to close his eyes.

“It can be once you’re out of school, or if you decide that being here isn’t for you, then you can come along and I’ll help you train. Whatever you decide, I want to help you…”

You were unsure before about accepting Yuki’s offer and leaving, but after this happened. After you tapped into some depths of your power you didn’t know you had, your mind finally comes to a conclusion.

A/N- Will Suguru and you work things out? Are you really going to accept Yuki’s offer? Ahh! We have to wait for the next chapter to know.

Tagged- @deniseabad1928

128 notes · View notes

starlitiris · 5 days ago

Text

“Where is the Justice?”

Chapter 5: Lab Rat

Summary: “Sebastian and Malachi are having lunch together, just as they have been everyday for the past few months. I’d like to say that nothing is new, but that would be a lie. It’s the calm before the storm.”

Notes are at the end

~ ⚖️ ~

January 29th, 2014

“Looking a little blue around the gills, Sebastian!” Malachi sat across from Sebastian at the table, setting his lunch tray down without much care. He grinned, finding himself very funny.

“Dude. Not cool,” Sebastian glared.

“Well, it’s true,” Malachi picks up his fruit cup to open it. “You do have gills, and they are blue,” he points out.

Sebastian rolls his eyes and goes back to picking at his meatloaf – if he could even call it that. The food here wasn’t much better than what he was given in surface-prison.

Sebastian wasn’t too jazzed about having gills visible on his neck for everyone to see. He wasn’t too jazzed about them being there period. It hurt and itched to grow them in, and the soreness and itching hadn’t stopped yet. It was distracting and unpleasant, not to mention the skin around his gills was starting to turn a blueish-gray. It looked gross to him. And everyone can see it. At least his jumpsuit was hiding the gills that had formed on his sides. Those ones looked even more disgusting, in Sebastian’s humble opinion.

“You’re an ass,” Sebastian remarked.

“Nahh, you love me!” Malachi said teasingly before shoveling a spoonful of diced fruits into his mouth. He didn’t finish chewing before he spoke again. “So, any updates? What’s the deal with, uh… whatever’s going on with you?”

“No idea. They said the skin changing color is a side effect they’re going to have to rule out. They also said that my skin changing color seems to be the only side effect presenting itself so far, but if anything else starts to change, then they might put me on 24 hour watch to monitor the changes. Also to make sure I don’t die or melt into a puddle of goo, too, probably.”

“Damn. Hopefully turning you into a smurf is the only side effect,” the blond added, this time without a mouth full of food.

“Okay, first off, fuck you. Don’t call me a smurf. And second… yeah, me too. But knowing how my luck has been lately, it probably won’t be the only side effect I have to deal with,” he concluded pessimistically, finally beginning to eat the slop on his tray.

“Hey, you never know! Your luck might start to turn around soon,” Malachi offered a hopeful grin.

“Easy for you to say,” Sebastian retorts. “I got sentenced to death for something I had nothing to do with right after finding out my partner was pregnant, got brought down here 32 minutes before I was supposed to be killed, wasn’t even here for a month before being randomly selected for a human experiment meant to disfigure me, and now I have gross gray gills on my body and everything is sore and itchy.”

“... Mm. Well,” Malachi starts, “at least you’re alive.”

Sebastian looks up from his food to see his friend’s sympathetic smile.

“And you have me!” The blond shrugged. “That’s somethin’ right? I think it helps to have a friend when everything sucks. No matter what happens to you because of this experiment thing, I’ll always be right beside you, man.”

Sebastian says nothing.

“I mean, I know I annoy the shit out of you sometimes, but I just like to have fun. And I care, y’know? I try to be a good friend to you when it counts,” he sets his empty fruit cup to the side and continues. “I know you lost a lot and feel like you have nothing left, but you have me. And you always will.”

Sebastian stares at his friend thoughtfully for a moment, then sighs. “I don’t know how you stay so optimistic when you lost everything, too, and got stuck in this shithole.”

“Blame my sister. She’s the one that taught me to make the best out of anything. And besides, I didn’t lose everything. I still have myself! And that’s something that nobody can take away from me. Plus, I have you now!” Malachi playfully kicks one of his friend’s feet under the table. “You and I are in this together from now on. So don’t go dyin’ on me in some containment cell, okay?”

“Tsk. Yeah, whatever,” Sebastian can’t help but smile a little. Malachi’s good mood was obnoxiously contagious.

He really isn’t sure how Malachi does it. Half the time, he seems to be off in his own little world where everything is sunshine and rainbows. As if they aren’t doing slave labor at the bottom of the ocean as punishment for crimes they either didn’t commit, or didn’t know they were committing. As if the other prisoners around them weren’t dropping like flies because of whatever this organization was making them do. But Malachi proves time and time again that he isn’t oblivious to any of that. He understood the gravity of the situation they were in. It was unfair, and their lives were at risk everyday. It sucks, and Malachi knew it. But he wouldn’t let this place, or anyone break his spirit. He wouldn’t let anyone break him. Sebastian admired that.

Having Malachi around keeps him afloat. Sebastian is still grouchy and miserable all of the time – it’s hard not to be when he’s still trying to process how much he’s lost and been through in the past months – but Malachi helps him push through. He helps Sebastian think sometimes, even if just for a brief moment, that maybe things will be okay.

And all Sebastian does is bitch and moan about how terrible life is. He knows he can’t really be blamed considering everything he’s been through, but he must be a real drag to be around, huh? He feels like he owes a lot to Malachi. He supposes… trying to be a little more positive is the least he can do.

“... My birthday is soon,” Sebastian mumbles.

Malachi perks up at this exciting piece of new information. “No shit, really? When is it?”

“February 3rd. I turn 21.”

“Oh, nice! I know there’s not a whole lot we can do about it, but I’ll try to think of something! Maybe I’ll just give you whatever you want from my lunch tray as a birthday gift,” he notes with a goofy smile.

Sebastian shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to do that. Keep your crappy lunch to yourself.”

“I gotta do something for you. It’s your birthday! And we both need a little more celebration in our lives, anyway.”

“Giving me your food is probably the only thing you can do, and I don’t wanna take your food from you. You need to eat.”

“You won’t be taking my food. You’ll be receiving my food. As a gift. Besides, it’ll only be for one day and I’m not giving you my entire lunch.”

“Yeah, yeah. Still. A simple ‘happy birthday’ will do.”

“Hmph,” Malachi crosses his arms and thinks. “Oh! You know what- maybe if we’re lucky, they’ll have those blueberry muffins you like as an option for breakfast again! If they do, I’ll give you mine and settle for a carton of milk or something.”

“... Alright. Fine. If they’re giving out the muffins again.”

Malachi grinned, happy to have made some sort of compromise. Sebastian shook his head again, but he was still smiling. He appreciates his friend wanting to do something nice for him on his birthday.

Enjoying his upcoming birthday would be difficult. He desperately wanted to spend it with you. With you, his mom, Rita, Gavin, and the twins which he was sure had been welcomed to the world by now. Thinking about the twins left a sharp pang in his heart, knowing he would never meet them. But, as per Malachi’s advice, he would try to remind himself that they were in good hands. And he would try his best to enjoy his birthday a little. For Malachi, for himself, and for you. He knows you would want him to try.

And, to a very small degree, he was able to. His luck did briefly turn around on the day of his birthday, and he was able to have two blueberry muffins for breakfast, courtesy of Malachi.

If only that luck had lasted, though. A few months later he would be struck with migraines and severe leg pains. He was rendered unable to work, claiming to be in too much pain and not having full function of his legs anymore. So, as planned by the scientists on his case, he would be taken away for testing and 24 supervision.

Malachi was worried, hoping his friend would be okay and wouldn’t be gone for long. It was a little alarming to watch him get carried away on a stretcher.

In the following weeks, Sebastian ended up being glad for once that you and the others thought he was dead. This way, none of you would have to know about what was happening to him in the months to come.

You wouldn’t have to find out about any of it. He truly believed it was better this way.

Death would’ve been more merciful than what he was about to go through.

~ ⚖️ ~

Ending Notes: At least he got his blueberry muffins

Sorry my chapters for this series tend to be so short </3 I might come back to this later and try to make it a little longer, but no promises. If I do end up doing that though, I’ll be sure to let you guys know in the notes on the next chapter!

Ao3

Chapter 4 - Chapter 6

#pressure fanfic #sebastian solace x reader #sebastian solace x you #sebastian solace x y/n #pressure x reader #whereisthejusticefic

15 notes · View notes

tinkabelle24 · 7 months ago

Text

Remains

Chapter 3: Mutual Desperation (PART 1)

An unexpected illness divides the group.

TW! Blood/Gore.

Chapter 2

---

(6 months earlier...)

Exhaling shakily, Addie finally bit; selecting Matt's contact icon and pressing 'Call', removing her facemask as she lifted the screen to her ear.

She was a ring away from being sent to voicemail, when he picked up. "Yeah?"

The blonde pushed her tongue to the wall of her mouth, stifling a scoff. You don't speak to me all day, and the first thing you say is 'yeah?'. Whatever...

"Hey. I'm, uh..." She shifted awkwardly against the break room counter; voice low, in consideration for the few co-workers attempting to eat their reheats in peace. "...I'm gonna need you to pick Luc up again tonight. Please."

"...Why?"

What the hell's with these one-worded responses?

Addie couldn't help herself, this time. She scoffed. "Matt, I've been under the pump all week, with this virus going around. You know that if I could leave, I would."

"Can't you get an exception?" He sighed in exasperation. No, I can't. You know I can't. "I have stuff on tonight, Ad-"

"What, got a date with your side-piece?" Addie caught one of the women staring, and not with concern. She hurled the nosy bitch an admonitory look, before swiftly turning her back; stepping to the furthest wall.

"...Ad, we've had this talk, many times: nothing physical ever happened-"

"Yeah, and I still don't believe it. But you keep telling yourself-"

"Want me to pick Luc up, or not?"

"...What happened to your oh so important 'stuff'-"

"Like you give a shit about what goes on in my life."

Tears seared the blonde's eyes, as she shot back: "That's not true, and you know it!"

"Uh-huh, sure. We'll see you tonight, whenever that is. Bye."

"Matt-"

Click.

Addie cursed as she tore the device from her ear; clenching it tightly, imagining her husband's throat.

You're such a... fucking... NO!!!

Not here! Dear God, please, not here!

Sucking in a trembling breath, Addie proceeded swiping the tears from her cheeks with her undershirt sleeves; sniffling, as she pocketed the phone.

Shake it off. Just a few more hours...

Tentatively, she turned; the woman was still staring.

"Eyes down, Sandra! Krijg de kolere..."

Chaos.

That was the best way Addie could describe the atmosphere, the moment she stepped back onto the floor - utter chaos.

The blonde kept her gaze low as she strode down the crowded hall to her station; narrowly avoiding careening hospital beds, frantic physicians, and zombified nurses.

The amalgamation of sounds (alarms, chatter, crying, coughing, groaning...) assaulted her senses, skyrocketing her already intense anxiety.

Typically, it wouldn't bother her; she'd lived in this environment long enough, it'd devolved into semi mollifying white noise - not this. This was like standing under an idling plane.

Addie's heart sank when she spotted one of her fellow nurses, Ben, slumped awkwardly against a trolley - unconscious. Poor guy had been here long before she clocked on, thirteen hours ago.

I can't possibly leave you like that...

Snatching a thermal blanket from said trolley, she quickly tucked a it around his shoulders, then proceeded pushing his legs further toward the wall. They were out so far into the walkway, it was a miracle he hadn't been run over-

"On your left!"

As the startled Addie pivoted inward, then upward, she was abruptly yanked, by the collar of her scrubs, toward the hospital bed whizzing past; staring down the swollen, pus-filled throat of a screeching patient-

Addie yelped when a sharpened pole suddenly pierced the walker's temple - inches from her face.

She yelped again as she was then wrenched backward; reflexively tightening her grip round Lucas' trembling body.

Whipping her head around, she found Leo tearing the gore-riddled smock from her torso; surrendering it to the undead already gripping it. She felt a giant, calloused palm press between her shoulders, and panicked breath against her neck, as he resumed hurrying her forward; toward the truck slowly circling the parking lot.

The music still boomed, evenly dividing the ravenous crowd.

"Distraction, Donnie-"

"Yep!" The tallest, purple-masked one shouted in response; jerking the tip of his bloodied staff from another walker (simultaneously impaling another with the other end), before plucking what appeared to be an unlit Molotov cocktail from the largest pouch on his well-equipped utility belt.

"I've gotchu, bro!" The shortest, orange-masked one covered his comrade, beating walkers over the head with his steel nunchaku, as the latter ignited the wick; tossing it through the smashed window of the Toyota Yaris beside him.

The resulting blaze drew in a sizeable portion of their assailants, like moths to a flame; widening the laneway to their destination.

The truck was already roaring round the corner, when Leo lifted his fingers to whistle it over; brutally dispatching all walkers in its path. The cabin door was shoved open, as it jerked to a roll; revealing a fourth green being, frantically beckoning them inside.

He - the brawniest, red-masked one - hollered in a thick, Brooklyn accent: "MOVE YA FUCKIN' ASSES!!!"

The group readily obliged, practically throwing themselves inside.

"GO, APRIL-"

The vehicle immediately lurched forward, hurling those not quick enough to grab hold of something, to the floor.

Snatching one of the handgrips dangling from the ceiling, Leo caught Addie's waist, right before she and Lucas made impact; pinning her back against him as they finally sped away.

The last thing the blonde saw was a snarling, stumbling crowd, backed by a fiery inferno...

Then Red slammed the door closed, plunging them into darkness.

youtube

"No, take the left," Leo enjoined, gaze fixed on the approaching intersection as he guided a shell-shocked Adrie to an empty seat.

Even under multiple layers of clothing, he could feel just about every rib, every vertebrae... Her son, dressed in only a long-sleeved 'Finding Nemo' pyjama top and bottoms (no socks, nor shoes, nor jacket) looked like a living skeleton.

It broke his heart.

"We're steering clear of all freeways, from now on - it's too risky. We don't have the gas to double back, if there's another pile-up."

"We don't have the gas, period..." Donnie mumbled dejectedly; shifting in his seat, opposite the newcomers.

April nodded stiffly. "Got it."

Leo gripped the back of Adrie's seat as the truck swerved onto the adjacent road, toward Rothrock State Forest; passing several walkers beelining for the KinderCare bonfire, and clipping two.

"We'll swap, once we hit the treeline," Raph 'offered', earning a piqued look from the dark-haired woman.

"I'm quite capable of navigating the road, thank you, Raphie-"

"Please, don't call me that-"

"Well, then, quit patronising me," she bit out, as the red-masked terrapin thrust open the front passenger door on an incoming walker. "I'll decide when I need a break."

"Alright, alright - fine! ... S'cuse me for tryna look out for-"

"Raph," Leo snapped, glare piercing his brother's rancorous side-eye. "For once in your goddamn life - listen."

Those words carried more vitriol than he'd anticipated...

A tense silence fell over the cabin as the two dragged out their staring match, daring the other to break first.

April, watching through the rear-view mirror, scoffed softly; shaking her head. The youngest brothers shared her sentiment.

"Hey, what about the husband...?" Mikey - seated alongside Donnie - enquired carefully, attempting to shift the subject.

Leo promptly folded; anxious gaze falling on the blonde (limply cradling her whimpering child) before him, still seemingly staring into space.

"Are we just gonna leave him there-"

"We had to." The leader sent his youngest brother a doleful look.

Understanding immediately, Mikey and Donnie both lowered their gazes; April and Raph shared a look, before returning their attention to the vehicle-scattered road ahead.

Silence befell the group once more, as a cautious Leo finally lowered himself onto the edge of the last seat, beside Adrie.

Cocking his neck slightly, he watched, with increasing self-reproach, as the woman's steel blues welled with tears, and a despaired whimper forced its way past her trembling, chapped lips.

Minutes, hours... Addie wasn't sure how long they'd been driving, but eventually the truck choked then shuddered to a halt; in the middle of an open road.

The blonde's tentative gaze followed Leo, as he stood, glimpsing her bloodied machete, dangling from his belt; and the other woman's (April, was it?) striking grey orbs, once again.

She'd been stealing glances after every turn.

"There it goes, again..." Donnie - the other voice Addie recognised - muttered wryly; heaving a sigh as he, too, hauled himself to his large, combat boot-clad feet

He joined Leo, Raph(?), and April, in the cockpit; the orange-masked one remained in his seat, 'sneaking' concerned glances her way.

"We can't trust the gauge, anymore..." April sighed.

"Like I said: this stuff's over six months old," Donnie explained, shaking his head to an equally crestfallen Leo. "It's practically water, at this point."

"I don't think we'll be travellin' on wheels much longer... Hey," Raph abruptly reached over the centre console; resting a giant, three-fingered hand atop April's tiny shoulder. "Ape, you okay?"

"Yeah- yeah..." She murmured, nodding stiffly. "I'm okay..."

"We'll find somewhere," Leo reassured; sharing a curt nod with Raph, as he comfortingly petted the woman's seat. His contradicting stance (power pose, accompanied by a lowered gaze) betrayed his insecurity.

"I know-"

Addie's focus was disrupted when a sudden coldness struck her chest. A gasp escaped her as she snapped her head downward, finding Lucas clutching her now bare breast.

"Nee!"

The four whipped around, right as Addie, beet red from embarrassment, tugged her soiled tank top back up. The worse they may have seen was some cleavage...

The orange-masked one however had, apparently, seen everything.

"Everything alright?" Through matted hair, the blonde found Leo carefully approaching.

She maintained a vice-like grip on the fabric, as her grizzling son continued grabbing at it.

Leo watched her struggle a moment; metaphorical cogs in his brain turning, as the scaly ridges where his brows would've been steadily furrowed.

Without another word, he swivelled on his sandaled heel; beelining for the rear of the truck, outside her periphery.

She listened to the rustling and clanking of items that followed (avoiding the others' prying gazes, shifting between herself and him), till the sounds eventually ceased.

Leo crossed in front of her, re-settling into the seat alongside. "Here."

Addie's eyes damn near sparkled at the clear zip-lock baggies of dried meat and fruit now before her.

Chef Boyardee was nowhere near enough...

"Don't worry about us," Leo reassured, catching the blonde's gaze flickering outward. Tilting his head to redirect it, he levelled her a severe look. She could drown in those cerulean orbs, of his.

"There's more than enough to go around..." His expression softened considerably as he nodded to the baggies, holding them out further. "Please. You both look like you need it."

Relief enveloped Leo as Addie finally, tentatively obliged. But, curiously, she made no move to open them; not even when her son feebly whined and tugged at them.

Hugging the baggies firmly against her chest, the woman continued staring; eyes brimming with apprehension as she silently studied the... man, and his comrades, before her.

Leo abruptly realised:

"Forgive me," he maintained the gentle tone and lowered his gaze slightly; an effort to further encourage trust. "We've not officially met – my name’s Leo. That, there, is my brother Mikey-"

At the gesture in his direction, the orange-masked one - flushing a deep shamrock, still unable to look Addie in the eyes - smiled sheepishly.

"Donnie-"

The purple-masked one gave a polite nod, pushing his tape-riddled glasses to the bridge of his snout.

"I probably don't need to tell you we're also related, heh... uhh, so, our friend April-"

The dark-haired woman smiled warmly, giving a short wave.

"...and Raph-"

"Were ya bit?"

Leo sighed inwardly at that as Addie followed his brother's narrowed gaze, downward. Looking at her, bedaubed with dried blood and gore, like she'd bathed in it, the leader would be lying if he said he wasn't suspecting the same.

He wouldn't have been nearly as terse with his questioning, though.

"Just give her a minute," he held up a placating hand, glimpsing panic in the woman's eyes. Could they be correct in their suspicion, or was she simply afraid of being left behind? "Let her gain her bearings-"

"Why? It ain't like it's gonna change anythin', if she were. Might as well get it outta the road now, so we can..." Raph faltered a moment, as he warily glanced an incredulous-looking April's way; clearly debating whether to finish his sentence.

"...figure- behind-!"

The woman barely had a chance to register the warning, when a deafening THUMP behind her, jolted her out of her seat.

"SHIT-"

As she flew into the red-masked one's arms, a full, rounded belly suddenly entered into Addie's field of vision, ripping a startled gasp from her.

She's-!

"Dead fucker-!"

Practically dropping April into his seat, Raph proceeded snatching the pair of pronged weapons from his belt; thrusting open the cabin door with one swift, facile movement.

"Careful-!" Leo exclaimed over Lucas' strangled shriek, as a second surprise walker - EMS uniform dangling in bloodied tatters from its waifish body - lunged itself at his comrade, followed closely by another.

Raph wasted nary a moment kicking the nearest one to the gravel with his giant, two-toed foot, then impaling the second's skull through the chin. The furthest had already met the lethal end of Donnie's bō, by the time Raph's slumped to the ground.

The catalyst walker, allured by the commotion, came staggering round the truck. The two men (Reptiles? Turtles? Turtle-men? Turtle men) dispatched it together, dashing its now shattered body against the grille.

Inside, the women finally released their breaths, sharing a knowing glance as Addie proceeded consoling her child. She relented with the jerky.

"We can't stay here," Raph remarked; glowering at the blonde's very brief, hushed monologue to her son - clearly not in English (German?). He knew she spoke their language; she did so over the radio. So, why the hell wasn't she using it now? "We're sittin' ducks without a set'a walls 'round us."

"Agreed," Leo nodded, mentally noting his brother's veiled hostility.

"That building over there looks good," Donnie offered; pointing to the tall, cream-coloured double garage several hundred feet down the road. At least a dozen vehicles, engulfed by overgrown greenery, surrounded it. "Should fit the truck, with some change."

"Wait, wait-" Mikey's baby blues and gesture grew wide. "You wanna push this?? Wha... all the way over there??"

"What's the matter, baby bro?" Stepping a foot inside the cabin, Raph proceeded thumping the orange-masked brother's shoulder, knocking the wind out of him. "'Fraid ya weak ass is gonna embarrass yaself in front'a the ladies?"

"Unless you'd rather risk our necks hauling everything we need back and forth-" Donnie countered distractedly, elbowing Raph's bicep. Another walker, stumbling out the side gate of a nearby house, had snatched his attention.

Raph promptly called dibs.

Pushing the 20-odd ton vehicle to safety was a three-man job which Leo, Raph, and Donnie grudgingly endeavoured, while Mikey brought up the rear to protect the women and child. Thankfully (or concerningly), no additional walkers presented themselves.

Their new sanctuary: a double-storey automobile workshop – Glenny’s Garage. After a brief once-over of the outmoded but seemingly undamaged and secured exterior, Donnie and a reluctant Leo split off to sweep the interior; leaving the others waiting by the truck, for several agonising minutes.

Raph’s chartreuse peepers scrutinised Addie’s every move, attempting to will all her ‘secrets’ out into the open. Yes, he’d advocated hard for her rescue, very nearly exchanged fists with Leo over it, but that had shit all to do with trust or sympathy (save for the kid; he wasn’t that far gone, yet…) – only what she could do for April.

Anything for April…

“Hey, Raph?”

The turtle-man in question shifted his gaze, finally granting a visibly tense Addie respite. April – who’d been standing alongside, looking like something crawled up her ass and died – had summoned him.

“What’s up-”

"Could you be a dear and go fetch us some waters, please?" The brunette's tongue dripped with honey, but her eyes hissed, 'don't you dare argue'.

"Two, thanks- no, I asked you. I'm sure Mikey's more than capable of watching over us for the two seconds it'll take for you to go inside and come back..."

After a brief staring match, Raph finally relented, shooting the object of his ire one last pointed look before disappearing inside the cabin.

“Sorry about him… he can be a real di-” April’s abruptly anxious gaze landed on the boy in Addie’s arms, chowing down on what she presumed was his seventh piece of dried venison. The baggy was nearing empty and she’d yet to see his mother take a single one for herself. “Jerk, sometimes… Are you having any of that? … Adrie-?”

“Hm?” Addie finally looked up, cursing herself for losing track of the seconds Leo had been missing from her side. It was a strange feeling: attributing safety to who’s essentially a complete stranger. She wasn’t sure she liked it, but one thing was certain: his presence was a miles better feeling right now than his absence.

“I’ve eaten already. It’s okay.” April politely declined the offer of the last jerky piece, giving the blonde a knowing smile. “Leo’s right, y’know – you should eat something-”

Addie’s gaze abruptly darted beyond her. The behemoth had thudded back into view with, to the women’s surprise, two plastic bottles in hand.

April smiled mawkishly as she plucked both from him, pushing one toward Addie before hand-waving him away with a, “We’re talking – go hang out with your brother”. He harrumphed but eventually obliged.

Addie needn't voice anything; the frown she levelled at April as Raph stalked away was question enough.

"He's a friend," the brunette chuckled, unscrewing the bottle lid to take a sip. Addie followed suit with hers, allowing a moment to relish the clean, fresh taste - a rarity these past few months - before eventually handing it over to her eager son.

"A very protective friend..."

The words had already cycled through her ear canal by the time she realised: that was the first time she'd spoken more than one word to them in person.

Judging by the mild surprise on April's face, she'd realised that also.

"So-" Addie promptly turned her head to cough. Her throat itched and voice rasped. She was no longer accustomed to using the top of her lungs, so she presumed it'd done a number on her vocal cords... "Pardon... So, y-you're safe?"

April didn't appear distressed, but the fact that she was the only female surrounded by males compelled Addie to speculate...

"I've known these guys a long time," the brunette emphasized, unwittingly stroking the top of her swollen abdomen as she smiled down at Lucas.

Though she tried, Addie couldn't help staring; a myriad of questions inundating her already overwhelmed mind.

"Trust me, there's no safer place for you and your little one to be."

Addie's lips tightened as she nodded, stealing a glance toward the problem turtle-man already side-eyeing her; blatantly ignoring Mikey's attempts at engaging him in conversation.

The jury's still out on that one...

"I'm sorry about your husband, by the way..."

The image of a reanimated Matthew dangling from that door, clawing at their terrified son, flashed through her mind; then the sickening thwacks of her machete as she mercilessly cut him down...

They discussed what they'd do should one of them become infected, early on; an effort to desensitise themselves, perhaps?

Given she had no clue whose face she was mutilating at the time, it saved her the heartbreak... then their son uttered those fateful words...

"I lost my own husband in this, also - t-three, four... months ago...?" April's smile faltered slightly as she lowered her gaze, seemingly joining Addie in remembering something - something equally painful. "It never really leaves you, but it does get easier to live with; if that's any consolation, heh..."

"How far along are you...?"

Returning her gaze to Addie's, April gave a tremulous breath; staring silently for several moments, before finally answering, "T-thirty eight weeks, two days..."

Addie's stomach dropped. Schijt...

So, any day now, this child could decide they're tired of sloshing around in their private primordial pool, and attempt to join them in this hellish world.

Addie only hoped, for April's sake, their impending exit will be quick...

The abrupt rattling of a door handle drew the group's attention toward the garage. They watched the office exit door creak open as the purple-masked turtle-man stepped through it, followed almost immediately by the metallic sliding of the nearest roller door.

Addie's gaze then fell upon Leo's face, and her heart unexpectedly lifted.

"Ladies... c-child," Donnie nodded awkwardly toward the women as he gestured inside, prompting them forward.

"Turtles-" Leo shared a fleeting look with Addie as he sheathed his unsullied blade, before turning to address his brothers. "Limber up. We've a slight incline on the way inside."

"No pussyin' out this time, Mikey."

---

@android-cap-007 @happymoonangel @miss-andromeda @jasminarts01 @obsessedftshit

10 notes · View notes

suguaotruther · 8 months ago

Text

You ever just as writer go like this when reading the foreshadowing you've built up and think you've executed it well on your own work?

Caution! - Contains spoilers for the newly released Chapter 19 (As of this post)

Chapter 5 He crushed Blair’s hopes and dreams like it was a small twig, Juliana showed up finally and now he can relax and be alone. Not bothering to take part in one of those movie night hangouts or sleepovers that his classmates liked to do. He didn’t mind the fact he never was invited to any of that despite being Champion or the ‘Go to Guy for Help’ they sometimes refer to him as. He believes he finally grew grew numb to the concept of loneliness. Or that’s what he keeps telling himself.

Chapter 19

“It’s no big deal! You’re a dear friend to me Kieran, this is what I do for any of them.” Juliana reassures him before turning to her TV. “Is there something you wanna watch while eating? I got Pokeflix and Zuzu.” She turns on her TV and spots the Brycen-Man films and Big Monster series being available for streaming on Pokeflix. “Those take me back, I remember watching them so much my mom had to buy another DVD copy of one of them.”

“...You like Brycen-Man and Big Monster too?” Kieran blurted out, before looking away embarrassed. “I-I mean that’s cool…”

“Yeah I do! Especially Big Monster! It’s where I got my love of reptilian Pokémon!” Before she knew it she was gushing about the two franchises. “And I just recently learned that Unova’s current Champion played the main heroine for them!”

She heard a low chuckle from Kieran, “Well why don’t we watch Big Monster 2: The Mechanical Menace? It’s my favorite of them.” He gently pats the spot right next to him, inviting her to sit with him. To which Juliana immediately accepts. She sits close by him and selects the movie.

And.

Kieran looked away for a moment. “My parents…” He muttered before sighing. “Uh…I’m still feeling a wee bit light-headed. I think I’m gonna go lay down and rest here. If… If that’s okay with you, that I can stay the night here.”

“Kieran, you’re free to stop by and rest here whenever you want. You don’t have to ask.” Juliana lets out a light giggle. “I’m probably gonna go to bed real soon after I put away the rest of the soup and grab your clothes out of the dryer.” She gets up to head to her closet. “I think I have a spare blanket here somewhere. You can take my bed. I know it’s not entirely comfy laying on my couch so I’ll-”

“But this is your room!” Kieran interrupted her, shocked. “How is that fair?”

“Well there’s only one bed so unless you wanna share it.” Funny, a few days ago she was a blushing mess on the idea of sleeping right next to Kieran. But now? Not so much, here she was trying to humor him even with the small blush she could feel on her cheeks.

“T-Then let’s share it so that neither of us wake up with neck or back pains by sleeping on the couch.”

“That sounds fine to me! Let me just get my PJs on and do what I said I was gonna do!”

#dipplinshipping #my ramblings

11 notes · View notes

immortality-becomes-you · 8 months ago

Text

RUMORS• e. munson

masterlist

chapter 1

November, 1984

Everyone knew that Ziggy Zigova was going to be valedictorian in the same way that everyone knew Steve Harrington was going to be Prom King. It was just the way things were.

In a way, it could be said that there were three corners of Hawkins High School on a social level. In one corner was King Steve. He was held on a pedestal that only a select few could touch. Everyone pretended to love him, but deep down, most of the cliques that didn't mingle with him had a mild hatred for him.

In the next corner was Eddie Munson. He held the schools 'freak' title and he seemed to enjoy it. Everyone loved to hate him and the few that didn't would never show it. He had his own little clique and only the kids who were perceived as bottom of the barrel joined.

Finally, Ziggy held the third corner. She was smart. Everyone knew it. They didn't dislike her but they also didn't praise her in the way that she quite frankly deserved. She was the girl to go to when you needed a partner for a lab or to proofread your essay. However, her social interactions rarely went beyond that. If it wasn't academic, she really only talked to her brother. In a way, she was the middle ground.

"I'm telling you, Ziggy; Freddy Krueger would tear Michael Meyers to shreds...literally." Adrian squaked as he walked next to his sister. Her short stature made her seem to disappear in the sea of students, but Adrian stood at nearly six feet, so he found it fairly easy to squeeze by.

"Bullshit." Ziggy scoffed with furrowed brows. She and Adrian enjoyed debates like these; Adrian thrived off of pop culture and Ziggy was a wonderful debater.

"'Bullshit'? What do you mean 'bullshit'?"

"I mean there's no fucking way that Freddy could even touch Michael."

"Oh yeah, wiseass? I think his knife fingers beg to differ. One slap and that onesie little Mikey wears is done for."

"Adrian, when's the last time you saw Michael Meyers take a nap? The freak doesn't even sleep. They wouldn't even be able to interact." Ziggy stopped in front of her sixth period with Adrian trailing behind her.

"Well, if that's the case, Michael couldn't beat him either. We tie."

"Nuh uh. No way. I never said Michael would beat Freddy, I said there was no way Freddy could beat Michael." Ziggy shrugged with a cocky smile before turning into her next class, leaving her brother in the doorway.

"So you win on a technicality; that's just barely winning." He whined before walking away with his head held low.

Ziggy took her usual seat in the middle of the row next to the left wall of the classroom. She noticed there was a conversation being held at the front of the classroom, but when she sat down and got settled in her desk, she looked up to find Eddie Munson in all his metal head glory. Once he sat in his spot at the back of the classroom she brushed it off for the remainder of the class period. It was only when the bell had rung and her teacher called her up to the front to talk that their conversation had relevance.

Ziggy chose not to mingle with her peers, but that didn't mean she didn't know any of them. Even if she didn't know most, she would have to be blind, deaf, and non-anglophone to not know Eddie.

She didn't care much for the rumors she had heard, she simply thought he was stupid and lazy.

"Eddie Munson? You- you're really gonna tutor him? Willingly?" Adrian had stopped chewing mid French fry when he heard his sisters news.

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Ziggy shrugged, not understanding what the big deal was.

"Why w- Ziggy, why would you wanna tutor him? This is his second time taking senior year, for christs sake." Adrian was hunched over the table with wide eyes and greasy fingers.

"Exactly; no one wants to fail twice. He's already taken the class once, so he'll be familiar with the material." Ziggy kept her head low as she worked on her homework. She liked doing her homework at lunch so she could have her lunch at home.

"No one wants to fail once, either. I really don't see what you have to gain from this." Adrian remembered having multiple conversations about Ziggy's distaste for the Hellfire boy. He was more confused than anything.

"Okay then, I'll lay it out for you. We're almost half way done with the semester. If I tutor Eddie until our marking period, I'll have more than enough community service hours for the whole year. Then I can focus on my own schoolwork and secure my place as Valedictorian. Easy peasy. I'd be stupid not to tutor him." Ziggy had tossed her pencil down on the table and stared at her brother blankly while he mirrored her.

"Okay then, when do you start?" Adrian grinned as his sisters face faltered ever so slightly. Her brows furrowed with a small frown.

"I don't know, actually. I haven't even agreed yet." Adrian's eyes slowly shifted to focus on the boy at hand stood across the room at his friends table.

"Well if I were you, I'd get it over with before he gets too riled up." As if Adrian could see the future, Eddie began his usual show of yelling and jumping around to entertain his friends.

Ziggy spun around in her seat with wide eyes. Upon seeing Eddie's theatrics, she scrambled to gather her things. Everyone knew that once Eddie got on a roll, it was useless to try to mellow him out.

While Eddie knew Mr Miller was looking to assign him a tutor, he had no idea who that tutor would be nor when said tutoring would begin. Ziggy wasn't sure what he knew or how he felt and if she was going to be the one to break the news, she wanted it to be before he went on one of his tirades.

She hurriedly walked through the lunchroom with her bag half off her shoulder. Her messy hair blew slightly in her face; a strand getting stuck in her eyelashes from the ever so slight breeze in the lunchroom caused by the bustling teens. As she neared the table she dreaded to approach, the man of the hour stood on his chair, extending his arms dramatically. It was only when she stopped to stand about four feet away from him that she made out what he was saying.

"Then it hits October first and suddenly, our little ghouls and goblins aren't so taboo! It's only okay to be a freak when ev-"

"Excuse me!" After clearing her throat roughly three times to ensure her voice wouldn't crack or waver, Ziggy cut Eddie off in the most professional manner she could.

Eddie abruptly stopped talking. His hands were still outstretched lazily as his head whipped over to look down at the short girl. His brows furrowed in complete confusion as his lips remained slightly parted. Slowly, his arms began to lower back to his sides. When Ziggy continued to stare up at him with wide eyes, Eddie looked her up and down before verbally acknowledging her.

"Yeah?" Eddie's response wasn't snippy or rude, simply confused. Ziggy cleared her throat again as she shifted on her feet.

"I'm Ziggy. We have English together." She projected so he could hear. Eddie stepped down from his chair to stand in front of her; still looking down slightly at their half-foot height difference. He glanced around the room as if it would give him a clue as to why she was talking to him.

"Alright...what's up?" A small, awkward grin sat on his lips at the uncomfortable interaction. Ziggy's hand tightened around her bag strap as she pulled it higher on her shoulder.

"Mr Miller wanted me to talk to you." She rushed the words out of her mouth, ending with a tight lipped smile in hopes he would get the point. Eddie's eyebrows raised slightly as he inhaled deeply. He frantically looked around in an attempt at preventing eye contact, slightly running his hands over his jeans.

"Yeah, we should- we should probably go do that." He quickly grabbed his bag, leading the way out of the cafeteria after telling his friends goodbye.

"We can go to the Hellfire room; no one ever goes in there." He wouldn't admit it, but when someone new started talking to Eddie, which was rare, he'd look for any excuse to take them to the Hellfire room in hopes of impressing them. He held the door open for Ziggy, giving her a playful bow as she walked in. Ziggy decided to stay standing as Eddie took a seat on his throne.

"So, I'm not sure how much Miller told you but I'm gonna tutor you for the rest of the semester. I'll help you with English, but if we finish your assignments early and have extra time, I wouldn't mind helping you with other class work. We will meet for three hours a d-"

"Woah woah woah, hold on. What are you- don't I get a say in this?" Eddie's waved his right hand in the air while his left elbow rested on his knee at his chest. Ziggy stared back at him blankly for a few seconds.

"No."

"What do you mean 'no' ? I'm the one being tutored here."

"And I'm the one tutoring you. I have a busy schedule; school, homework, chores, a job. I mapped out a whole plan that works around my schedule." Ziggy carefully pulled out a folder and carefully placed it on the table. Eddie looked up at her in disbelief.

"Okay, that's neat and all but I just so happen to have a schedule of my own; planning campaigns, Hellfire meetings, band practice-"

"You just listed three leisure activities." Ziggy's brow raised in disbelief. Eddie narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance.

"And what about it?" Eddie pushed himself up and out of his throne coming toe to toe with Ziggy.

"You have two months to raise your grade to a D. Otherwise, you're looking at a super senior Hattrick. I am more than willing to tutor you, mister Munson, but I have a lot on my plate. All I ask is that you cooperate with me." Ziggy looked up at Eddie with a small grin. He stood so close that his hair nearly brushed her cheek. Unlike the reaction Eddie expected from her, Ziggy stood her ground. Her voice became just above a whisper, still dripping in confidence.

"Being the President of a club will look good on your record. If I were you, I'd drop the rockstar act. You can be the next Van Halen in college." She stood under him for a few more moments, watching his eyes twitch in anger as his tongue poked out of his lips. Upon realizing she wasn't going to receive a response, she turned on her heel and left the room, hoping he would choose to utilize the phone number on top of the schedule plan on his table.

Luckily, her phone rang less than an hour after getting home from work.

"Hello?"

"Are you always that bossy, Zigova?" Ziggy froze in her spot next to the receiver, not expecting that response.

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"The next Van Halen. You know, this little blueprint is pretty exhaustive. Five days a week?" Ziggy grinned as her eyes focused on a small smudge of dirt on her ceiling. She could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Five days a week." She confirmed. A moment of silence followed on the other end of the phone.

"You still there, metal-head?" She glanced down at the phone as if she could see him through the speaker. The dramatic sigh that followed answered her question.

"We start tomorrow, metal-mouth." The line went dead abruptly. She chuckled as she hung the phone back on the wall, running her tongue over her braces.

March, 1986

Ziggy ran her tongue over her smooth, straight teeth. She had gotten her braces removed a few months after summer break. She walked through the rows of books, putting them in their rightful spots on the shelves.

She had been working at the library since sophomore year. It was practically the perfect job for her. It was always quiet and peaceful. Until it wasn't.

Dustin Henderson slammed the front door open with such ferocity that it bounced off the wall and came back to hit him in the arm, only for him to slam it into the wall once more. Three teenagers ran in behind him, all four breathing heavily as Dustin looked around the building.

"Ziggy! Is Ziggy Zigova here?! We need-"

"Excuse you!" Ziggy's voice boomed in the large building, cutting off Dustin's screeching. The quartet froze in fear, turning to find Ziggy sending daggers at them from around the corner. Silence enveloped the room once again.

"I can help you four at the front desk." Her voice lowered to an appropriate level, remaining ever so menacing.

She walked towards the back of the room. They stood frozen for a moment before Max shoved past them, following Ziggy. Soon, they all met at the counter.

"Okay, what do you want?" Ziggy was monotone and unimpressed as she watched them all glance at each other nervously. It was only then that she recognized Steve Harrington.

"We uh, we wanted to know if you know where Eddie is?" Robin looked down at Ziggy with hopeful eyes. She watched as her face morphed from unimpressed to absolutely pissed.

"Get the fuck out of here." The groups eyes widened at her rash response.

"Woah woah woah, Ziggy listen-"

"Really? You came to my work to harass me? Are you kidding me, Harrington?"

"No! No, I'm not here about your relationship! We-"

"How many times do I have to tell you people? We weren't in a relationship. I was tutoring him for gods sake. We graduated a year ago and you're still trying to-"

"Something's wrong!" Dustin yelled once again, cutting off Ziggy and Steve's bickering. Ziggy's angry scowl faltered for a moment as she turned to the younger boy. She glanced around the group, Robin looking scared and Max letting out a small sigh.

"What happened?" She whispered.

"We're not entirely sure. That's why we need to find him before the police do. They're gonna come looking for you too." Max warned her with an intense tone. Ziggy furrowed her brows at the girl.

"Police? What do they want with Eddie? What do they want with me?" She was beginning to panic and their lack of information was not helping. She walked from behind the counter to come closer to them.

"When they hear about the rumors they're gonna question you, just like we are. The difference is, if you tell them, they're gonna arrest him for a crime he didn't commit." Dustin explained calmly, keeping his voice low. Ziggy stared up at him. Her stomach had dropped while her breathing picked up.

"What crime?" She asked, her voice shaking. Dustin looked back at his friends with an unreadable expression. Steve sighed, looking down before meeting Ziggy's eyes and licking his lips.

"Murder."

#eddie munson #stranger things 4 #stranger things #imagine #netflix #fanfic

8 notes · View notes

ink-on-the-brink · 1 year ago

Text

Obsessed Engie x GN Reader ~ Dark Nights Come With A Cost [PT 12]

Chapter Selection

Darkness had fallen on the winter roads, streetlights starting to pop on as the air temperature dropped further. The only thing keeping you warm was your thick coat and moving body, your pocketed hands a reminder that you had forgotten your gloves before you left. However this mild annoyance faded into the background as you took a deep breath in, relishing in the calm silence of the night. You wished you could see it more, though the thought of ever doing so alone felt like a death sentence in itself.

"So, how's your studies goin'?" Dell's voice finally spoke as he ended the silence.

"They are uh...well they're going. You've certainly helped if that's what you're asking," you responded naturally before taking a second to untuck your hands to blow warm air into them.

"Well that's good ta hear. Ya said you were graduatin' this year right?" He asked, his eyes turning over to you. In the distance you heard a small flutter before spotting a bird flying just a little bit past its bedtime.

"Yeah. What about you?" You asked, his face slightly scrunching at the question.

"Me? Well I ain't too sure. Was hopin' ta maybe get a few more studies in before quittin' college altogether. There's a lot ta learn y'know? Though I don't think I'd be doin' it full time. Probably just do it online or somethin'," he responded genuinely, so he was surprised to hear a small snicker from you.

"Right. Because nine PhD's isn't enough," you teased in a lighthearted but slightly mocking tone, quickly catching his attention. Upon seeing the small smirk on your face and a light roll of your eyes he found his own smile growing, seeing that you were now in a better mood than before.

"Well now a man can't know too much can he?" He retorted, only to earn a tsk from you.

"He most certainly can mister Conager. I've seen it with my own two eyes," you responded just before turning to him, a light chuckle falling from him as you did so.

"That's Dell ta you sweetheart," he quickly replied, his brain mildly short-circuiting at having let the nickname slip out. Though the poorly hidden look of minored shock on your face made it almost worth it. It was short-lived as you quickly turned back to looking in front of you. However he was surprised to hear a quiet laugh from you afterward.

"Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it mister Conager?" You emphasized the name this time, taunting him with it. A wide smile broke on his face as you did so, his eyes lighting up at the fact that you felt comfortable enough to be this playful with him. Even with this sudden joy he was also very aware that he couldn't let you get away with this. And, glancing towards the snow that laid on either side of the sidewalk, he knew just what he had to do. He swiftly dipped down, grabbing a handful of it before he stopped walking. You didn't notice for a few seconds, taking those extra needed steps away before you realized he wasn't there and, in almost a panic, you turned around.

Only to be met with a snowball to the chest.

The world paused for a moment, your mind trying to register what just happened. That was before you looked over to Dell, a wide grin plastered on his face and a second snowball in his hand.

"Oh. So we're playing dirty now huh?" You quipped.

"Well s'only fair. Considerin' I asked nicely the first time," with his grin only growing he wound up the second throw. Seeing it coming this time you ducked behind a nearby fence, the packed snow disintegrating on contact.

"Oh, what a gentleman!" You mockingly yelled before picking up a ball of your own, appearing for just a split second from the fence before throwing your newly made weapon. Disappointment was all you felt when it hit the ground.

"Gonna have ta try harder than that!" He retorted, sending another set of white flurries your way, eventually compromising your position. So you went further down the street taking shelter behind trash bins and lampposts as he continued advancing, though not without a few hits of your own. You could never have contained your joy upon having actually hit him, especially as he turned with a feigned look of shock. You found yourself laughing, genuinely full-on laughing, for the first time in years. You had never been in a snowball fight before, yet now you wished you would have grown up doing so.

As this one-on-one middle of the night snowball fight between the two of you continued he began to inch closer and closer, gaining more ground than you could keep between before, eventually, he stood only a little more than an arms length away, snowball in hand as you found yourself without one.

"Seems like you've met the end'a the line," he teased, his small step forward sending you a step back, your hands slightly raised, a pretend mark of surrender.

"Awww come on we can talk about th-" before you could finish your sentence you took another small yet unwise step backward, your balance immidiately lost on a thick sheet of ice that covered a decent chunk of the continuing sidewalk. With widened eyes Dell dropped his snowball, both hands reaching out to catch you, only to lose his own balance. It wasn't even a full second before you both met the earth while just barely managing to keep your head high enough to not hit it on the ice that you both almost comically slid down before coming to a complete stop a few feet down the sidewalk.

Silence enveloped the world for a moment, the shock running through your system before you slowly opened tightly shut eyes, revealing how he had landed on top of you. He went into an immediate panic.

"You alright?!" He asked as he pushed up just enough to not have his full body weight laying on you, leaving inches between his face and yours. You took a few seconds before you allowed a deep breath to fill your lungs, the world coming back to you. Besides having the wind knocked out of you and a bruise that future you would have to deal with, you felt relatively fine. Nothing felt broken at least.

"Yeah, just lost my breath," you finally spoke, his panic dissipating with the response.

"You okay?" You asked with slight breathlessness. He took a second to make sure but besides bruises he was also perfectly fine.

"Yeah. I think so," he answered. There were another few seconds of silence as you further caught your breath before speaking again.

"It uh...might help if you get off," you pointed out, knocking him back to reality as a look of embarrassment took hold. He quickly rolled off to which you finally sat up. You winced, another shock of panic rolling through his system at the sound. Though when nothing came from it he calmed again.

It was then that both of you turned to look at each other, smiles creeping onto your faces before being followed by at first small but soon howling laughter. The both of you shared the same moment of pure joy as if nothing in the world could be funnier than this. Surrounded by cold snow in the isolation of the night, both of you couldn't have felt happier in each other's company.

When the laughter died down and the quiet crept in, peacefulness fell. The stillness was no longer able to produce discomfort around each other. You both locked eyes, your smiles smaller now.

Staring at Dell you felt your worries disappear. Not a single thought of the past crept into your mind while around him, just the joy of the moments he always seemed to bring. And it was then you felt your heartbeat a little faster in your chest, though you quickly explained it away as a slowing of your adrenaline.

You were taken away from this peace when you lost Dell's eyes as he turned to stand. Upon making it to his feet he turned back to you, outstretching a hand.

"Best get back to movin'. Gettin' a lil' too cold out here for my taste," he suggested, his smile still visible. You took his hand to which he pulled you up almost effortlessly.

"Woah!" you exclaimed, surprised at the sudden speed that you were pulled to your feet. His smile fell back to poorly hidden worry.

"You okay?" He asked again, his eyes looking over you for any injury you might not have spotted the first time.

"Yeah no I'm- I'm fine. You're just stronger than you look," you pointed out, your eyes turned to your hands as you brushed off bits of snow and dirt, unaware of the wide grin that showed on his face at the compliment.

"Well movin' metal boxes might do that to ya" he pointed out, to which you nodded in agreement as the two of you continued on with your walk. Though there wasn't much of it left.

Less than ten minutes later the two of you finally arrived back to your apartment and as you did your reality was slowly coming back to you. A few steps away from the complex you turned to Dell with a question.

"It really is getting cold out here. You should uh, come warm up a bit. Wouldn't want you to freeze on the walk back," you offered, your eyes not looking at him even though you had tilted your head his way. Turning to you he almost immediately caught your apprehensive eyes, your wavering smile and tense posture. It was enough for him to know what you were really getting at.

"Sure. Though chances are I probably will anyway," he spoke in a flippant tone, trying to keep the mood light. Something he knew he succeeded in when you couldn't force away the small smile that tugged at your lips.

"Yeah well we can at least make sure you make it to your car as a slushy rather than an ice cube," you responded, another small chuckle falling from him.

Walking into the complex the soft ding of the elevator swiftly caught your attention, your eyes falling into a group of people filing out of it. Not recognizing any of them you continued walking, only noting their matching black clothing and baseball caps. Dell gave a passing hello to the group who didn't so much as turn to him. You were more focused on getting into the elevator though, Dell not far behind. Once he made it in you clicked the button, not noticing how his eyes narrowed towards those you had passed.

"Up we go," you whispered to yourself as the doors slowly closed, both of you soon ascending up the floors. It was quiet again and, though you weren't sure why, something didn't quite feel right. You looked over to Dell, his expression not too different than before, though you noted that he stood a little taller. You gave a smile that he returned but it did little to comfort the sudden unease that you felt. Even as the two of you left the elevator and began your short walk down the hall, silence remained.

Suddenly though you were stopped, Dell ceasing your movements as he laid a hand in front of you. To help come to a sudden stop your hands grabbed his arm, slowing the inertia of your body. Unable to move further confusion crept onto your face before you looked over to him, a suddenly serious stare consuming his features.

"Dell-?"

"Your door's open," he pointed out. Your eyes immediately turned back to the door, utter terror falling on your features when you noticed it was held slightly ajar. Your hands tightened onto his jacket as your stomach dropped. You both didn't make any other move for a long while, instead staring at the door, waiting for anything to leave. When nothing happened Dell then went to take a quiet step forward. Your sudden vice grip pulled him back.

"What are you doing???" You whisper yelled in an obvious panic. He turned back to you, now seeing the fear held in your eyes which only led to his furthering need to keep you safe.

"I'm gonna go see if someone's in there," he stated quietly, though your tightened grip didn't loosen in the slightest

"Are you insane?!? Dell what if- what if there is someone in there!? What the fuck then huh?!" Your voice held deep worry, your eyes now begging him to listen. And in those pleading eyes he found guilt bubble within him as he knew he wouldn't be able to listen. If he learned one thing growing up it was how to deal with scenarios like this and right now he either had to one, call the police (which wouldn't happen in any world what so ever) two, call someone from his family (which he truly did not want to do and would likely seem strange to you) or three, go see what it is. The third seemed like the most reasonable option. After all, it wasn't as if he was defenseless.

"M'just gonna look alright? Ya might'a just left it open on accident. I'll be right back," he tried to calm you with an explanation as he gently pulled away once again. This time your grip only gave slight resistance before you finally let go, instead watching him walk closer to your door from a few feet down the hall.

Making it to the door he situated himself to the side of it, slowly pushing it open and remaining ready to bolt at a moment's notice. The door creaked slightly, the sound almost ear-piercing in the silence. Looking in through the small opening he had made, his eyes widened at what he saw.

Flipped furniture, holes in the wall, shattered glass from sources he couldn't quite identify, flipped chairs and torn apart tables, it was all in a huge mess around your apartment. Curiosity and dread drove him to open the door further, soon finding that everything within sight was trashed, as if whoever did this aimed to leave nothing behind.

"Mary above," he muttered, catching your attention.

"What?" You asked, his head turning to you as his hand moved to his lips, his pointer finger held to silently shush you. You went silent again and so his head turned back over to the door, pushing it open the last bit out of the way and taking slow, hesitant steps in. His hand found its way to his hip as he readied himself for anything that might happen. He continued to slowly walk, staying near places he could quickly duck behind as he scanned for any sort of movement. He continued like this further into the apartment, his senses on high alert. His breathing slowed and his eyes sharpened into icy daggers as he didn't let a single crevice of place go unchecked. What felt like hours to you passed in minutes as he realized there truly was no one here. Even with that comfort his posture didn't change, nor did he let his guard down in the slightest, but he was at least sure that no one was here at the moment.

Unable to take waiting any longer, you slowly poked your head around the corner into your apartment, your jaw dropping and your stomach churning at the sight in front of you.

"What the fuck," you whispered to yourself, both fear and devastation fighting for the expression that fell on your face. Dell looked back, his eyes softening slightly as he saw you look around the room, taking in the damage that had been done. He gave a sympathetic stare. He couldn't begin to imagine what was going through your mind right now. He moved the hand on his hip to make his grip look a little more natural in hopes that you wouldn't notice or draw attention to it as he took a few steps toward you.

"Don't seem like no one's here, though I ain't sure if anyone's comin'," he spoke, the loud echo of his voice in the deathly silent room almost unbearable to his ears. You slowly began to step in, your head turning to look at what had once been your home, now lying in pieces around you. Your eyes welled with tears, the pure sense of loss and weeks of piled-on stress breaking you down further. You didn't look at him, in fact he felt almost as if you had forgotten he was even there as your eyes passed him.

As you moved you began to slowly wander into the kitchen, the heaps of glass under your feet recognized as every breakable item that had laid in your cabinets. Though among the wreck you found that your eyes drifted to the place your photo had been, only to find that it wasn't there. Instead it sat among the shattered glass, its frame ripped apart, its see-through covering lost among the piles of similar material, and the photo barely visible under certain piles of it. You slowly crouched down, carefully pushing the pile away before pulling the photo out only to notice it had been singed. The faces were burnt out, a black color covering most of what was left.

You felt the wet streaks of tears begin to fall down, the overwhelming situation taking you over. You felt almost unable to think, to even fully understand what was going on. All you could register was the destruction of it all.

After a little while Dell followed you into the kitchen, his senses still on full alert. This didn't feel safe. Even in the silence and with no current discernable threats he didn't feel at any sort of ease here. And with that feeling bubbling its way up his body, he knew one thing rather clearly.

You couldn't stay here.

"It's uh..." He started, your face staring at the photo for a second more before turning to him.

He almost couldn't talk once you faced him, the radiating pain of your expression almost silencing him.

You looked so tired. Not the type of tired you get from an all-nighter or a busy social event, no. It was a look of pure exhaustion he couldn't begin to describe. The type you would expect to see when an immovable object finally loses against the unstoppable force.

Yet somehow he was able to eventually find his words, his deep concern and general paranoia winning against his immediate thoughts of falling with you.

"It ain't safe here..." He spoke up, his body standing only a step into the kitchen. You looked back to the photo, its state irreparable and irreplaceable. You eventually sat it back on the ground, knowing that keeping it would be useless. Silently you stood, your arms held against you in a self-soothing hug as your eyes stared at the floor.

"What am I supposed to do Dell? What...what do I do?" You asked, resignation found in a now hollow tone. You were at a loss, completely and utterly defeated. You had given everything you could, there was nothing left in you to fight anymore. There was no spite or anger or even thoughts of self-preservation. You had nothing. No knowledge of when or even why the world had decided you were deserving of this, no power to fight back against it. You were a leaf of pain set to sea in a hurricane. It was inevitable you would be torn apart, your soul splayed in broken pieces the world would forever ignore. How futile fighting had seemed now, how fruitless.

It would have been less painful to have let the storm take you...

Dell didn't move, didn't speak, didn't act. Your voice had explained even when your words didn't. He could only stare as you lost yourself, asking him to solve what you had failed to. He didn't know what to say, what to feel. There was a swirl of so many meanings in your words. To choose one was to choose wrong and to remain idle was to let you fall apart in front of him- but there was no answer! No solution, no problem he could solve. There was nothing he could say, no righteous way to act.

There were only pieces.

"Y/n..." He started, hoping that any words would come to him, that his tongue knew something he didn't. He instead found that it fell dead in his mouth, vowels of answers nowhere to be found. He stepped closer, the glass on the ground further breaking at his feet. You finally looked back to him, streaks of hollow agony flowing down your face. And it was then, with nothing else he could think to do, that he slowly pulled you closer, his arms wrapping around you, hoping that he could bring any sort of comfort. That somehow his arms could pull against the waves of stormy sea and find your lost pieces.

You froze a moment, your body tense under his touch. Slowly, almost apprehensively, you returned it. Your arms wrapped around him, your hands soon balling up the fabric of his clothes as you fell into him. You didn't crumble in his arms as you had done before. Not a sob left your lips as you held him. There was nothing left to crumble, nothing more to break. You could only hold on to him in hopes that he somehow held a piece of you with him.

However you didn't find yourself in his arms. Instead your focus fell onto the light smell of oil and pine that surrounded you, the texture of the worn jacket that wrapped him, the natural warmth his body freely gave to you. There was no judgment in his eyes nor annoyance in his hold. He didn't dismiss you, he didn't ask you to pull yourself together, to push your emotions back into the dark void you usually kept sealed. No, he held you. His arms didn't hang loosely or ask for anything from you. He held you. And even as the shattered glass began to resemble your lost will, he held you. He- He felt...

Safe

"S'alright...you're gonna be okay," he mumbled just as he began to rub circles on your back. You squeezed him a little tighter, trying to remind yourself that he was real. That in your desperation you hadn't just imagined such kindness. Afterward you took a deep breath, calming down from the strange state of mind you had been in only seconds ago. His words ingrained in your head, your body relaxing as you took his word for truth, his arms for comfort, his presence for safety.

"Thank you," you whispered back, a response that caused him to relax as well, knowing now that he had somehow helped, if only a little bit. After that realization he slowly pulled away, each other's hands hesitating to let go, but doing so in the end. A few tears had streaked down your face once he did, though you quickly wiped them away, taking another deep breath to further calm yourself. Silence lingered for an extra second, Dells eyes a mixture of unease and worry

"My-..." He started again, his thoughts not fully collected and his apprehension for the idea he was about to propose slowing him down a moment. But with a quick glance at the surrounding area and flashing images of your shattered state, he didn't feel like there was another option.

"My family's got a house 'bout fifteen minutes out from here. We got a couple'a spare rooms. You can stay there for the night if ya need to," he finally offered, an incredibly serious expression on his face. Your eyes once again averted from his as you thought on it, hesitance found in the moment of silence you prolonged.

Then again, it wasn't like you had anywhere else to go.

"Yeah um...If you- If you think they would be okay with it," you accepted, your answer greatly relieving to hear, though the relief didn't outshine the doubt that was beginning to grow in his chest, especially with the words you had chosen to respond with.

"Course...we should get goin' then. S'gettin' a little late and we gotta walk back to get my truck" Dell pointed out to which you nodded along.

The two of you left the destroyed apartment, standing closer to each other than you had previously. Dell looked over to you, only one thought repeating through his head as he did so.

'Ain't no one allowed ta treat you like this'

Next Chapter

#dark nights come with a cost #tf2 #tf2 x reader #reader x tf2 #tf2 engie #engie #tf2 yandere #yandere tf2 engineer #tf2 engineer x reader #tf2 engie x reader

49 notes · View notes

shino-mina-324 · 5 months ago

Text

The Thunder Hashira

Chapter 6

Warning: injuries, blood, hand demon

2k word count

Slowly over the next two days other people trickled in. They mostly kept to themselves, sometimes glaring our way when we got too loud. Soon enough we went into the forest. We had met and stuck together with a group of other kids. One boy, Murata, he seemed nice.

Sabito was the one that kept rushing forward to fight the demons which kinda irked me.

"Is everyone alright?" Sabito asked walking back over to the group. I nodded smiling at him. We then heard running noises and saw a demon running toward us. Sabito was a little ways away and I was closest, finally! I ran forward and grabbed my sword. I could hear Sabito yell and rush after me but I ignored him.

I grabbed the handle of my sword, and took in a deep total concentration breath.

"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!" I jumped toward the demon, pulling out my sword and swiftly chopped their head off. I landed a few feet behind them and then dropped the stance, restoring my sword to its sheath. I turned around and saw the demon turn to dust.

"Hey guys." I said walking back over with a wave.

"Are you ok?" Sabito said grabbing my shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said confused. I mean I trained hard to get here too, why's he so worried over me? I stretched then looked around. "Should we camp out here for a while? To rest. It doesn't take forever to cross the forest and most of the group looks tired." I said and Sabito turned to examine the group then nodded.

"Yeah we'll camp out here for now, but not long." So everyone settled, some people asleep as there were people assigned to look out.

"Should someone go out to look for food?" Someone came up and asked. Sabito thought for a second but I shook my head.

"No, don't worry I have some. We shouldn't go off on our own though so we should just make it last." I took out a small case from my small bag that I was holding. I opened it up and sighed. It was only enough to last one person seven days cause I hadn't anticipated travelling in a group. I started to pull and break the food into small pieces. "I have enough for each of us to have one price now and another in a few days. But that's it." Everyone either nodded or made a noise of acknowledgement and then took their piece when I handed it to them. I then put it away.

"Aren't you going to eat your piece?" Giyuu asked walking up to me. I shook my head.

"I'm not very hungry, we should save it for later." He furrowed his brows in worry but went along with it. I sat down against a tree and sighed looking over the group. They were either resting or talking to each other. I heard a shift beside me and turned to see Murata sitting next to me.

"Hello." He smiled at me.

"Oh hi." We fell into an awkward silence. I fiddled with the end of my haori.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"It's just, I saw you sitting here by yourself and thought you might want someone to to sit with and I was just standing there and didn't know who to go to since everyone is either in their own groups, asleep, or hostile. I'm sorry." Murata then started to stand.

"It's fine." I said catching his hand. "You can sit here." He slowly nodded then sat back down and we fell into another silence.

"So uh what breathing style do you do?"

"Thunder breathing, you?"

"Water breathing." Another silence and then I pulled something out of my sleeve and waved it at him.

"Care for a game of cards?" He stared at me then blinked. His lips then tightened and he laughed a little. "What?" I asked, confused.

"Who brings a deck of cards to final selection?" He laughed and I huffed.

"Well just for that, I'm going to go ask Sabito and Giyuu if they want to play and leave you here to wallow in your loneliness." I said and started to stand.

"Wait—no! I'm sorry, I'll play. I didn't mean it like that!" He said grabbing my wrist. I then laughed too.

"I know, I was just kidding." I then shuffled the deck and divided the cards. I put the extra to the side and organised mine as he did the same. "Solitaire."

"Huh?" He looked up at me confused.

"For your question, I brought the deck cause I like to play solitaire sometimes."

"Oh cool, care to teach me some time?" He smiled at me.

"Yeah sure. Four?"

"Go fish." I sighed and picked up a card. We then went on to play the game while having little conversations throughout.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"The food, you're very kind."

"Oh it's nothing." I waved my hand in dismissal.

"No really, I think it means a lot. The food really helps, without it we would all be very weak, not good to be weak when fighting demons."

"Yeah I guess you're right."

"Really." I looked up and Murata was looking at me with a serious look. "Thank you." I smile say him.

"You're welcome."

It's now been about six days since we began final selection. So far no one has died which is good. All we have to do is last today and then leave the forest in the morning and we all pass. I sighed and sat leaning against a tree. When I opened my eyes there was a small piece of onigiri in my face. I looked up and saw Giyuu.

"Don't think I didn't notice."

"Notice what?" I asked tilting my head.

"You haven't eaten. I didn't get it a few days ago but I do now. There was enough food for all of us except one person. You decided to make that person yourself. That's not good, you'll need your energy if you fight another demon. Plus it's your food, Himiko."

"I'm fine Giyuu, it's your ration." I waved him off.

"No. Eat it." We argued for a few more seconds but I then sighed and slowly took it.

"Fine, but only if I can fix your braid!" I said pointing this hair. He looked surprised and touched his hair, he didn't even realize he still had it in.

"Yeah ok." He sat down in front of me after I ate the piece of food. I undid the previous braid then combed my fingers through his hair again to get rid of the knots. It took a few minutes cause of the braid from earlier and how long we've been in this forest. I then picked out the prices of leaves and dirt then sectioned it off.

Sabito came over and sat next to us, watching me braid Giyuu's hair again. His eyes were wide and looked on like I was doing magic when it was just a basic braid. My cheeks heat up just slightly at his stare.

"Done." I say after tying up the braid with a small band I had in my bag. I smiled and patted Giyuu's shoulder. He smiled back. We then started to go into our own little conversations when my eyes landed on Sabito's mask. It was a white color with red-ish pink accents to it and had the same long pink scar as Sabito had on his cheek. I also noticed Giyuu had a similar one.

"Where'd you get your mask from?" I finally asked.

"Huh? Oh our master carved them for us! He gives them to each of his students when they go off to take the final selection. It's a warding mask." Sabito explained and smiled.

"That's cool." I say, he then tilts his head and a slow smile crossed his face. My face heated up at his expression, why was he looking at me like that?

"Wanna try it on?"

"Wha-what?" I asked shocked, why'd he offer something like that? He seemed very attached to the mask. "Y-you don't have to!" I honestly didn't know what to say.

"Here!" He had already grabbed me and pulled me closer by the time I figured out a protest. He pulled me close, barely an inch away and reached to tie the mask up to the side of my head. His brows were furrowed in concentration and I could feel his breath on my cheek when he got close to get a better look at the tie. He then pulled away. "There." He said and examined it. I then noticed his cheeks were also a bit pink.

I was about to say something when we heard a scream. We quickly looked over, at some point without either of us noticed Giyuu had wondered off and now he had been attacked by a demon that found us. We both rushed over at the same time, Sabito was faster and slayed the demon while I went to check on Giyuu.

"Here I have a med kit." I said taking it out but was stopped when Giyuu passed out in my arms. "Woah." I set him down on the ground and checked his head. I was about to start when we heard another yell from further in the forest. I handed the kit to Murata. "Can you look after him while we go check that out?" I asked following after where Sabito ran off before he could answer.

I ran after him but stopped frozen at the demon that I found. He was a large demon, green and basically a mountain. He was also made up of hands, just hands. I was frozen in fear. Sabito spotted me and ran toward me after breaking away from the demon. He stood in front of me.

"Run Himiko! Get out of here." He said holding his sword up to the demon. I took a deep breath then shook my head. I took out my own sword.

"No. I'm not leaving you." I said. He tried to protest but was interrupted by the demon.

"You girl." The demon said pointing at me. I looked to both my sides then pointed at myself. What did he want to say to me? "Yes you. You're one of Urokodaki's brats aren't you?"

"Who?" I asked tilting my head.

"That's my masters name." Sabito said.

"You are, aren't you, you have one of his little fox masks." He said and then I paled slightly, right I was still wearing Sabito's mask.

"That's my mask." Sabito said and clenched his sword harder. "And how do you know Urokodaki?" The demon laughed and what he said next made my blood run cold. He went into a detailed speech on how Urokodaki had captured and brought him here and how he hunts down and ears every one of his students that he sends here. He even described how he killed a few of them. My face had long gone white and blood cold. I started hyperventilating.

"Keep calm. It's never a good idea to start panicking while in a fight with the a demon."

Suddenly my masters voice filled my head as I remembered his words. I took a deep breath and calmed myself. I looked over to Sabito but he had no such luck. When I looked back to the demon I was met with a green hand coming straight at my face. I gasped and nearly screamed but then the arm dropped to the floor when Sabito chopped it off.

"Don't touch her." He then charged at the demon. I ran after him as he chopped every arm that came towards him until he reached close enough to cut its neck. I didn't stop running after him though and then he swung. The sword met flesh but instead of the sound of flesh being torn like we expected we were met with a shattering of metal as it was destroyed. My eyes went wide. I ran faster to meet him. A hand came out reaching for Sabito's head, to crush it in its fist.

"SABITO!!!"

A sickening crunch and blood curdling scream filled the forest.

#kny #demo slayer #kny x oc #fanfic #tanjiro #original character #oc #character x oc #giyuu #sabito #shinobu #zenitsu #nezuko #written: shino-mina-324

3 notes · View notes

cuppimagines · 11 months ago

Text

A Jolly Odd Christmas, 003- The soldiers

I'm admittedly a bit late to this! I wanted to write a chapter every 5 days, but because of IRL things, I was too tired to get to this. So the final chapter WILL be at the latest posted on December 30th, but I hope by then you still have some holiday cheers to enjoy the finale! For now, enjoy the chapter!

<- Previous Chapter | Next Chapter ->

You forgot exactly when you fell asleep, but it was a nice, long, relaxing rest after the time you spent with Jack Frost. All you remember was the feelings you had as you drifted off to sleep. Pleasant, comforting, safe yet again. Waking up however, you were nudged by someone.

“Hey. Little Buddy. You up?” Huh? Who was that?

You woke up…at a much more familiar place than before. You could smell peppermint coffee, and saw you were laid down on the sofa of an office area. Oh! You were back at the factory! This wasn’t Mr. Cedar’s office, but you could hear the sounds of the workers outside from before, and saw above you there were two nutcracker guards. One of them also seemed oddly familiar. Odd because you realized….

These nutcrackers seemed to have the same face built for them. A strong jawed, handsome, broad nosed masculine face. Only difference between the two of them was that the more familiar one had a tanner complexion, with long curly brown hair and a thin pencil mustache. The other was paler, with shorter blonde hair and silver-gray eyes.

“I’m…back at the factory?” you looked around.

“Yeah! Apologies for the uh…incident,” the brown haired nutcracker clasped his hands together with an awkward smile. Huh. From before, he seemed a bit more stone faced and serious, not really an expression. Both of these men were emoting just fine, like they weren’t wood and metal automatons. Just two large people.

“I mean…I sorta saw what happened, it’s not your fault,” you looked around. “But how did I get here?”

“We were sent on a search mission for you, only a select few of us to not raise suspicion,” the blonde nutcracker said. “We found you just outside of the woods asleep on a buncha pillows. Weird place to fall asleep but okay.” Oh…that weird old bastard dropped you off there. You figured he knew a nice safe place to leave you while these two picked you up…so you supposed it was fine. For now.

“I’m actually happy to be back here, where’s Mr.-”

“YOU!” Mr. Cedar burst through the door with another elf by his side. “Oh thank goodness you’re okay! I heard you were captured! Dammit, we need to get better security around here…”

“Mr. Cedar! Oh it’s great to see you!” You stood up and ran over for a hug. Mr. Cedar went bright red in your arms, before gently nudging himself out the hug.

“U-uh, well uh…so, we should be getting to business. It turns out somehow, somewhere you were found out and so those nasty little dwarves probably want to find you and of course, eat you. We can’t have a death here, so before anything else happens, we have to get Mr. Claus on the horn ASAP. I don’t want to bother him with this sort of thing, but he’s the only man who can properly deal with this and send you back home. “

“So…I get to go there and talk to him?” you asked.

“Yes, and this time you’ll have guards, proper guards so that this won’t happen again.” You looked up, wearily, at the two nutcrackers. You were caught BECAUSE of some nutcracker who was…corrupted? Glitched? Whatever that was, and you were unsure you wanted to put your trust in another one.

“What happened last time won’t happen again…right?”

“Oh no no no!!” The blonde nutcracker waved his hands. “Poor Clack here just ended up targeted by those poor fellas, but he’s fixed up! And we have precautions against that now!”

“Deepest Apologies…” Clack bowed his head. “Once I came to I realized I wasn’t of sound mind, and that those fiendish dwarves played me like some sorta puppet! I’m so glad you were here for me, Ruffle…”

“Anything for a friend,” the blonde nutcracker, Ruffle, put a hand on Clack’s shoulder. “Since our job is to protect you, dear human, get ready for a bit of travel. Mr. Claus’s place is a pretty decent way’s away from here, so let’s get a move on!”

“Can I uh, can I just relax here, first? Just for a few minutes before we leave?” you asked, glancing over at Mr. Cedar. “I also need to do a few things.”

“Of course!” Both Clack and Ruffle said in unison. “We have to get things ready anyhow, so we'll be back to retrieve you!” Both large robotic men left the office, and with that, Mr. Cedar and you were left all on your own. It was silent for a bit, but you sat back down, a small nervous smile on your face.

“I’m sorry for being such a nuisance, I know you have a lot to do,” you said.

“No need to apologize, I thought about what you said the other day,” Mr. Cedar sat down next to you. “And you were right. Before I discovered that you were taken, the next morning I went to talk to some of the managers, and ask if I could outsource some of the work to them so that there was less of a workload on myself. Wanna know what they said?”

“...What did they say?”

“Well…well they laughed at me and asked if I was replaced by some magical doppelganger. But they agreed to that, and so now, work is still hard but now there's less of that hard work for me to do.” You smiled, leaning back in your seat.

“I hope that goes well then,” you replied. “I’d say all that stress would send you to an early grave…but I mean, you’re pretty old, I think. How old are you?”

“Now now, it’s rude to ask a man for his age,” Mr. Cedar wagged his finger at you. “But I can at least say I’ve been around far, far longer than you. Magic sorta keeps the likes of myself and many folks you see here around for a lot longer than humans. At least…humans that don’t interact with us too often.”

“So uh…what’s going to happen once I’m gone, then?” you asked. Mr. Cedar paused, looking away for a second.

“Well uh…you’ll go back, and you’ll forget any of this ever happened,” he answered. “This will all just be a dream that’ll fade the moment you wake up, and you’ll go about your regular life.” That…honestly seemed a bit sad. Your shoulders slumped, and you looked down at your lap, a bit sad.

“Oh…okay…”

“I know, I don’t like it either, but rules are rules,” Mr. Cedar placed a hand on your shoulder. “But I missed coming in contact with a human. It’s been a very, very long time. You’re a breath of fresh air, even if we haven’t known each other for very long.”

“I mean…well…if I’ll be gone and forget all of this…could I have just one request before I leave?” you asked.

“Hm…oh yes of course, what is it?”

—

“So you were listening in on them the entire time?” Ruffle asked. “Damn, I didn’t think Mr. Cedar was that sorta man.”

“I heard rumors floating about,” Clack shrugged. “I thought it was just normal stuff till I heard all that bang bang banging around. That man’s a freak, who knew?” Clack knocked on the door to alert they were back, and when the two were let in, they saw Mr. Cedar…and another elf, one that looked a lot like you, but still was just an elf.

“Uh…where’s the human person?” Clack asked.

“Oh, Clack, Ruffle, they’re right here,” Mr. Cedar gestured to you, going over to gently pat the hat you had on. “This is a magic little hat I managed to find in my desk, old but it works. Now they can walk amongst other elves and nobody will ever know. Which also makes them less of a target.”

“I hope this isn’t too much, but I had one last request to make before leaving,” you said. “I hope it’s not a burden, I wanted to take a tour of the city before going home. It’s pretty out there, and I don’t think I’ll have another opportunity to do that. Even if I forget all this ever happened, I at least want to, you know…experience it.” The two nutcrackers looked at each other, but had pretty satisfied grins on their faces.

“Oh that’s perfect for us!!” Ruffle grinned. “That’s basically a free vacation day for either of us, and all we have to do is protect you!”

“We can do that no problem at all!” Clack gave you a salute. “Cmon then buddy, let's go!”

“Yep, let's go!!” Clack and Ruffle grabbed your hands on both sides, practically lifting you off your feet to take you out.

“Goodbye, Mr. Cedar!” you grinned and waved his way, and he waved back, a smile on his face as the door closed behind you.

“We got permission to ride the new fancy sleds we’ve been making!” Clack grinned. “More discreet, and oh man they’re handsome!”

“No deer required, just the power of pure elven magic!” Ruffle had a skip in his step. “You’ll like it, I promise you that!” You were taken down the rather active halls of the factory, and you felt more at ease just walking around in this disguise. Though being 4 feet tall was quite weird to you…everything felt bigger but at the same time since the architecture was made for this size, just right at the same time.

The two lead you to what looked to be a sorta…landing strip, and being polished up was a rather large sled, with several tall well built reindeer men inspecting it over a few times. And as you were looking on with a bit of curiosity, Clack and Ruffle brought you over to another sled…but one that appeared to be more mechanical in nature. Built similarly to Santa’s sled, but with a closed top, and with treads replacing the blades of a regular sled.

“Is that our ride?”

“Heck yeah it is!” Clack grinned. “This beauty’s just a tester. The folks say that it probably won’t be something too useful for everyday what with the train system being as good as it is, but it doesn’t hurt to have an extra option or two!”

“And we get to ride it!!!” Ruffle squealed with delight. “Cmon cmon hop on!” With very little protest, you were shoved into the sled. This one definitely wasn’t made for the elves, because you felt like a pet in the backseat of a car with the sheer size of this compared to how easily Clack and Ruffle slid in, with you smushed in between them.

“So then little buddy, where to?” Clack asked.

“Anywhere big and active and festive, spare no expense!” you said with a grin on your face. You were honestly excited, possibly the most excited you’ve been this entire time here. Yes you were going to forget all this the time you came back home, but at the same time..it would be fun to enjoy it while you could. With a flick of a switch and a turn of a handle, it started slow, but the sled went out the landing zone at a pretty fast pace down the stone, you almost weren’t ready for it, but after getting used to it it just felt like you were riding on some much faster tractor than anything else.

“So uh, y/n was it? You’re the first human we’ve ever met,” Ruffle said

“To be honest I thought you’d look a bit different than I thought humans look. You’re just a taller elf, sorta like Mr. Claus,” Clack continued.

“Mr. Claus huh? I saw his picture at- at somewhere around here before getting kidnapped. What’s he like?” you asked.

“Well…we haven’t met him in person, BUT!!” Ruffle spoke up. “We’ve heard so much about the guy! Big, handsome, and super super nice to the folks around town! Not just some jolly round old guy either!”

“I heard he’s got some muscle on him!” Clack flexed his arm, and to your surprise you could see his muscles flex like he was made of flesh. “Bet underneath that coat he’s got some beef to him! Some big tough wrestlers build!” You leaned back in your seat, trying to imagine that, and thinking about the portrait you saw at Jack Frost’s mansion. A large, burly, round bellied older man with that nice, kind smile and curly cloud-like hair…that’s actually not too bad sounding…

“Oh! y/n!” Ruffle spoke up, snapping you out of your thoughts. “So how were you doing with Mr. Cedar? He seems like a hardass, hope he didn’t treat you uh…too roughly…” You raised an eyebrow at that. What did he…surely Ruffle didn’t hear…

“What do you…?”

“Oh uh, look!” Ruffle brought the sled to a stop, and very quickly took you out the sled. What you saw looking out the window of Mr. Cedar’s office was absolutely nothing compared to looking at all of this from up close. You lived in the city before, you’ve seen the bright lights, the gorgeous trees, the decorations strewn about every December as you walked along the snowy streets, be it day or night. And yet you were still awestruck at the magic of the bright lights, the massive, massive pine trees, the buildings with folks in the windows dancing or cooking or just relaxing with a drink. The streets were busy, though some folks stopped to stare at the sled you three just rode in on, but nevertheless continued on their merry way.

The shops had big bright windows with clothes, toys, candy, jewelry, so many things on display, with elves coming in and out, packing up their own gifts for one another. If you looked closely, you could even see some of the elves in there working away at making their own toys and clothes. Everything seemed so happy, so bright, so filled with life in every corner you looked. Your head was practically spinning from all of this, and Clack seemed to see that you looked close to fainting from the sheer awe of it all. He went and very gently patted your head, looking down with a smile on his face.

“It’s nice isn’t it?” he asked. “We’re gonna make sure you have a lotta fun.”

“I trust you guys to do that!” you smiled. “There’s so much here, oooo it’s perfect!!”

“Then let’s not waste anymore of the day just looking!” Ruffle grabbed you, picking you up to carry you on his shoulder. “Let’s go then little buddy!”

—

This was probably the most fun you had in a while. When Clack and Ruffle told you you were going to have a fun time, they weren’t kidding. Looks like Mr. Cedar gave them a fair bit of money JUST to spend on you, and they took you shopping for snacks, some cake, and you got to try elk meat for the first time! After that with the lakes being frozen over, you went ice skating…albeit, very poorly, and the two nutcrackers practically had to carry you the entire time so you wouldn’t constantly eat shit on the ice. You couldn’t really buy any of the clothes you were looking at, since even if you wouldn’t remember all this, they would be too small when you got back home anyway…but that didn’t stop you from gleefully trying them on with Clack and Ruffle very excitedly encouraging you, hunched over in very small seats for them.

As the day grew darker and the night came in, Clack and Ruffle had taken you out to the fair at the very heart of the city. You recognized the massive ferris wheel located in the center of town, and it was even more marvelous up close. Your feet started to hurt at this point, so you sat, waiting for Clack to bring back some snacks while Ruffle sat next to you.

“How’ve you been enjoying the day?” Ruffle turned to you, casually kicking his feet in the snow.

“It’s been great, I’ve had a lotta fun here!” you leaned against him, closing your eyes a bit. “Shame I’ll forget this all when I’m gone. But I have family and friends back home. If I could, I'd come here to visit during the holidays.”

“Awww, I’d love to have you visit, you’re a peach!” Ruffle wrapped an arm around you. “I am gonna miss this, everyone’s been busy preparing for the holidays. Little to no breaks even for the likes of us.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what is it exactly you guys do?”

“Oh! I mean, there’s not much to say. We’re bodyguards, handymen, protectors, all that sort. It’s a simple job, I mean I hope it is, because I was literally built for that. Now can I ask you a question?” You raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

“So…what were you and Mr. Cedar up to when you two were together?” That made you shoot up from your seat all of a sudden, eyes wide and faced hot and flustered despite the cold weather.

“O-oh uh…well,” you looked away from him. “I saw that Mr. Cedar was stressed out from work…so I uh…gave him some advice is all!”

“Advice eh?” Ruffle smiled, a very smug smile as he leaned back in his seat. “Trying to get him to relax huh? He’s seemed happier lately despite all the stuff he’s had to do. That advice must’ve been amazing~!”

“Oh hush, why are you asking this all of a sudden?” you pouted, crossing your arms.

“Well uh…how about I ask you when Clack comes back? You did want a chocolate peppermint donut after all.” And like on cue, Clack was there carrying the snacks you had asked for, a smile on his face.

“I’m back! Hope I didn’t take too long!” he grinned.

“Oh you came just in time!!” Ruffle greeted him. “Now we can ask about that ‘thing’ we were talking about earlier.”

“The thing…?” There was a pause, before Clack realized what his buddy was talking about.

“Ohhhhhh the thing! Oh yeah!! So!” Clack handed you the food before clasping his hands together. “We have a…proposal.”

“So, you are the first human we’ve seen, and uh…well, okay I’ll be honest,” Ruffle said. “My mind was only partially there when that weird blue crystal messed me up. But I was conscious enough to realize that you and Mr. Cedar Uh…you had your fun. And well…we uh…”

“We had never seen a human this up close before, so we wanted to…” You looked up at both of them, before looking down into their laps, looking back and forth between them. You were curious…did they…?”

“I mean uh, yes, but first off where, and second off how would that work?” you asked. “Are you guys built with uh…?”

“We can show you once we grab the sled and park someplace nice and quiet!” Ruffle looked excited. “Sooo, what do you say?” Both of them had some very excited, happy grins on their faces, and it was so cute and endearing on both of them. You had to hold in a giggle, covering your mouth and looking down at your lap.

“Yanno what? Yeah, I just hope your boss, ole big boy Cedar won’t mind!”

“He won’t! And he doesn’t gotta know anyhow!” Clack leapt up from his seat. “Think of it like…I dunno a study, an experiment! We just wanna see how a cute human like you ticks!”

—

It was a lot more quiet where you guys left the sled. The sounds of the fair were long gone, and it was just the night wind blowing outside. The back seat had been flattened out, allowing for a lot more space for the three of you to move around. You were realizing just how small you were now compared to Clack and Ruffle. You had taken the hat off, fully back to your regular size, but despite that you still felt so so small compared to them.

“So uh…are you uh, ready?” Ruffle asked nervously. “We promise we’ll both be gentle.”

“I’m very ready, trust me,” you nodded. “Here, should I…?”

“Actually,” Clack gently places a massive hand on your shoulder. “Let us, if you don’t mind.” You simply nodded, and just like that, you saw Clack’s hand lower down to your hips, one moving to lift your shirt, and the other to tug down your pants. With just how big he was, you almost felt like a doll being gently undressed so your pretty little clothes wouldn’t tear. Clack and Ruffle were both VERY intently staring down at you, almost in awe, like this was some marvelous new sight to both of them.

“So…not too much different from an elf,” Clack very gently rubbed your hips. “But something about you still feels so different, it’s nice~!”

“Let me try too!” Ruffle very gently nudged Clack out the way, leaning down so that he could plant a peck on the lips. You were surprised to feel that…his lips felt soft! They didn’t feel like hard wood at all, so you leaned up and gave him a second kiss to get another feel for his lips, which surprised him quite a bit.

“Oh wow, I didn’t expect that…” you muttered.

“Me…me neither! You’re adorable!!” Ruffle smiled brightly.

“I want a turn too hold on!” Clack grabbed you, pulling you in for a kiss as well, not a quick peck like Ruffle, but rather long, gentle, and slow. You could feel Ruffle wrap an arm around you, leaning in to start kissing at your neck. He noticed after a brief kiss that you had some markings on your body. There were still faint blue markings from Jack, and Ruffle looked rather curious about them.

“How did you get these…?” he asked, tracing a finger along your markings.

“Mm..ah…oh uh…” you pulled from Clack’s kiss. Oh god, Jack could use magic to clothe you and bring you back to safety, but apparently he couldn’t mask these marks. That fuckin bastard... “I just uh…got myself hurt, but don’t worry, kiss there as much as you want to…” Ruffle looked a bit hesitant at first, he didn’t want to hurt you, but you gave him your consent to, and so he started to pay close attention to those marks. He had a tongue, a warm, wet tongue that glided across each mark, and between that and Clack’s gentle kisses, your body shuddered in pleasure from both of them.

Clack grabbed your thigh, taking the time to feel your warm skin underneath his rough, more inorganic feeling hands. You could feel him squeezing you, pinching you, taking his sweet gentle time to just enjoy the feeling of you. Both men seemed excited, happy to get the opportunity to touch you like this.

“You taste…” Clack pulled from the kiss briefly.

“Amazing…” Ruffle moaned breathlessly. You decided to give Ruffle more attention too, and you leaned in and pressed your lips to his, moaning into the kiss while your hands ran through Clack’s shiny golden locks. You practically felt smothered between the both of them the way they gleefully groped you, kissed you, fondled whatever parts they could grab. It was both adorable and arousing how excited they seemed.

Both suddenly pulled away, leaving your back pressed against Ruffle, and your legs spread out. Clack seemed to have a gleeful expression on his face, like he had some surprise.

“Now, Technicallyyyyy, we’re not built with reproductive parts…” he said.

“But…that doesn’t mean we don’t have other tools at our disposal…” Ruffle continued. “Here…” he picked you up, so that his thigh was right between your legs, wrapping an arm around you for support.

“Just tell us to stop anytime, and we’ll stop…” Ruffle smiled, kissing you on the cheek. At that second, you could feel a small vibration between your legs. It left a tingle rushing through your body, before centering right at your core as soon as the vibrations got less and less faint. You brought your hand to your mouth, face flushed while your entire body shuddered in pleasure.

“Does that feel good…?” Clack asked softly. Your whimpers were muffled against your hand, but you nodded, moving your hips against Ruffle to feel the vibrating under you even harder. You could feel his pants getting soaked underneath you, already you were becoming a dripping mess, and all you could do was try and muster a weak apology.

“I-I…that’s an…” you whimpered. In turn, Ruffle just kissed your cheek.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, don’t apologize, I want you to feel good,” Ruffle reassured you. “You’re so cute, moan as much as you want.”

“B-but what if someone hears us…?”

“Oh we’re parked a good ways away, don’t worry!” Clack kissed you as well, bringing a hand between your legs so he could gently rub your clit. Both sensations made you jolt up, taking your hands off your mouth to grip Clack’s shirt.

“Fuck!! Oh goddd!!” you moaned, much louder than before.

“Oh look at you! You’re soaked, we knew you’d like this!” Ruffle grinned. “Just keep grinding against my leg, come on now. Be as self indulgent as you’d like~!” And self indulgent you were. The friction, the feeling of both Ruffle wrapping his arms around you and Clack massaging your clit with his massive fingers. Both men just seemed to be watching you. Paying attention to your expression and your movements, both out of curiosity and joy that they were pleasuring you so well.

“You’re very pretty like this, you know?” Clack kissed your lips, followed by your neck, right under your ear where Jack left another mark on you. “I hope enough people tell you how nice you look.”

“Especially when you’re this close to cumming~!” Ruffle leaned his head against the nap of your neck. “Cmon now, we wanna know how you sound when you’re ready to burst, go on~!” The vibrations got more intense. Both men were so much more feverish and excited with their movements. The kissing, the fondling…too much, it was too too much. You wanted to hug them both, and tried to wrap one arm around both of them as you cried out in pleasure. Oh god…you made an absolute mess on yourself already. The vibrations against Ruffle’s thighs died down, but you still tried to lazily hump him, even after such a loud orgasm. Both men kissed you, and Ruffle lifted your legs up, locking them in his arms and leaving you in an almost full Nelson grip, completely at the two men’s whims like this.

You only let out a weak yelp, you were nearly limp in his grip, like some little ragdoll for them to play with.

“Keep 'em like that, Ruffle,” Clack said. “I got a much better angle now, you ready, dear?”

“Y-y-yessss…Yes I am…~!” you moaned.

“Perfect~!” Clack pressed his fingers back up against your folds, only this time, the same vibrating sensation you felt against Ruffle, was now all focused onto Clack’s fingers. And this time, you could feel them slowly slide into you.

Oh…oh wow, his fingers were thick…two of them were already stretching you out, vibrating so, so hard inside you, your nerves felt like they were on fire.

“How’s that feel…?” Clack asked. “Again…just give us the word and we can stop anytime you want us to.”

“N-no, no it feels, it feels…!” You cried out in ecstasy, his fingers were so deep inside you, and they began pumping back and forth, at a mechanical rate, like you were using a sex toy instead of being fingered. That caught you off guard, but in the best way imaginable. You could barely squirm, barely move, all you could do was swing your legs each time you felt a sudden bolt of pleasure from Clack. He saw your expression, your mouth agape as you moaned loudly for both of them, and he looked pretty accomplished with himself.

“We’re doing a good job, right?” he asked.

“You feel good, yeah?” Ruffle added. “We want you to feel really good.”

“A-and I do…ohhh I really do…” you moaned. “Keep going please…please…!” Both Ruffle and Clack looked at each other, excitement in their eyes, and a big happy grin plastered across both their faces.

“We’re so happy we could make you feel good!!” Clack exclaimed with joy. The more joyous he sounded, the faster and harder he was against you, and in response you moaned even louder, barely able to do a thing, completely trapped between the two and stimulated to high heavens. Quicker than you realized, you came against Clack’s fingers. Your throat felt a bit sore already just from moaning as much as you did, and you barely had time to recover from that…before suddenly Ruffle turned you upside down, and you barely had room to breathe as the two were pressed against you from both sides. Your legs wrapped around Ruffle, and both of them seemed to take the time to look at just how soaked you were.

“Oh wow you are soaking wet!” Clack exclaimed. “Mm…I kind of want a taste…”

“Well don’t just stand there then, numbnuts,” Ruffle immediately dove in between your legs, and you felt his hot, wet mouth pressed against you. You were way too sensitive now at this point, and this didn’t make things any better. All you could muster was a weak, yet very pleasured whine, only becoming louder when Clack took the time to lean down and lick and suck on your clit. Both their tongues were taking time to explore your most sensitive parts, swapping their tongues either inside you or tasting your swollen, sensitive clit.

“Fuuuuck…ohhhh fuckkkk!!” you cried out. That was all you could muster before your moaning became completely incoherent and rambled.

“Mmm…oh you taste good~!” Ruffle pulled away briefly.

“Taste amazing more like it~!” Clack moaned. “I’m so glad we did this, you’re practically perfect~!” Both of them dove back between your legs, and you felt like you were gonna pass out at this moment. Not just from the blood rushing from your head, but the fact that there was barely a break before being pleasured all over again.

“I…I…” you could barely utter anything, anything at all. It felt too good and yet it was almost torture having a back to back orgasm. They were both so happy to see how good you felt, and they were both amazing. Your face felt hot, you could feel the blood rushing to your head, and you swore you were close to blacking out. The only thing bringing you back to reality was the fact that you came so suddenly against the both of them, letting out one final squeal of pleasure, before you went completely limp in their arms. Ruffle let go, and let you fall right into Clack’s lap, and you looked completely out of it.

“Oh uh…whoops,” Clack looked down at you, poking your cheeks. “Did we break them?”

“Nahh, let's just get them back to base,” Ruffle took off his jacket, allowing you to use it as a blanket while Clack went to turn on the sled. You were ready to fall asleep in the sled like this. It was relaxing to hear the motor and the treads move against the snow, so you drifted off asleep…

Up until Clack had shaken you awake suddenly. You don’t know how long it was, but you were back in the main city.

“Hey, hey hey hey!!” he said. “Let's help you get your clothes and the hat on, you won’t believe who's in town!”

“H…huh…what…?” you looked up, and saw a crowd out the window. Through that crowd, you saw someone very, very familiar. He stood above the elves all surrounding him, dressed in a nice, sleek red suit with a fluffy white fur coat draped around his shoulders. Gold and white spectacles, dark skin, curly white hair and beard, that large frame of his, and the warm, welcoming smile. You felt a similar excitement that you only remembered when you were young, before you were told Santa Claus was fake. But this was no old guy in a costume, no no, this was the real man.

Just your luck, you could ask him to send you back home!

#cuppimagines #nsft #nsft text #a jolly odd christmas

9 notes · View notes