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aylacavebear · 10 months ago

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She Thought She was Normal

Story Summary: Maria really thought she was normal, for most of her life. It was normal for people to have natural talent, she would tell herself the older she got. Many things came easy for her, and that was probably how their rivalry began when she was five and he was seven and she met the Winchesters. Little did either of them know that it wouldn't stay like that forever, both having a far larger destiny than they could imagine

Word Count: 3878

Please don't take my work. I'll post warnings for each chapter. Will eventually be 18+!

Warnings: Mention & Insinuations of Sex, some angst, Cussing, Tattoo, Highly Sensitive Person (HPS) discovery for OC

----------------------------------------- Chapter 15

Over the next couple of days, things seemed to fall into some sort of routine for the five of them. Dean and Maria didn’t avoid each other, but they’d gotten verbally snarky with each other.

There was more than one occasion where someone would have to remind them to be civil to each other, which they did. When Dean’s phone rang on that third day near noon, he begrudgingly answered it.

“Hello?” he groaned, annoyed at the last comment Maria had made.

“So, where I am supposed to meet someone? I’m in Lebanon,” the man on the other end said.

“Dad?” Dean asked, sitting up in his chair.

“Yeah son,” John told him, and Dean could tell that the man was smiling.

“Meet me at the diner in town,” Dean told him, smiling a little himself.

The other four looked at him, but he didn’t say anything, just grabbed his jacket and keys before he left, leaving them wondering what had been said. They had a vague idea as to the gist of the call, John had made it, finally. They’d still been looking for a way to kill Azazel, wanting to do more than just send the demon back to hell. If they just sent him back to hell, he could just come back to earth to possess a different person, starting his antics all over again.

An hour later, Dean and John pulled into the garage. John was impressed and Dean was smiling, happily as the two made their way into the war room, then the library, “So, I hear you have some intel on yellow-eyes. Dean wouldn’t tell me anything till we were here,” John said as he stood at the end of the tables in the library.

“Nice to see you too Uncle John,” Maria chuckled.

John chuckled a little in return, a bit uneasy seeing Sam, and the girl next to him, remembering how the two had parted ways a few years back, “I’m just glad you’re okay. You went off radar for a while.”

She smirked, “I wasn’t the only one,” she replied a bit sassy.

“I had my reasons,” John replied.

“Yeah, so did I,” she retorted back.

Damn the girl had gotten mouthy, but he couldn’t help but smirk and chuckle a little, “Alright. So, what’s the news?” he asked.

“His name is Azazel, and he’s a night of hell, or a prince of hell, depending on the lore,” Sam explained.

“Oh, and we’re all getting tattoos,” Jess added.

John ignored the part about the tattoos, “Any luck on finding a way to kill him?” John asked, more serious than before.

“Not that we found yet,” Bobby told him.

“I might be able to help on that front then,” John said, smiling a little.

That got all their attention, “We’re all ears,” Bobby said, and they were all hopeful at this point.

“There’s a legend, or at least that was what I thought it was. A Colt. Back in eighteen thirty-five, when Haley’s comet was overhead, same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun. A special gun. He made it for a hunter. A man like us, only on horseback. The story goes, he made thirteen bullets. This hunter, used the gun a half dozen times before he disappeared, the gun along with him. They say this gun, can kill anything,” John explained.

“Kill anything like supernatural anything?” Dean asked.

“Yeah. I think I might have tracked it down, to a hunter who might have it,” John replied.

All of them were hopeful at this point, “Tattoos first, then we’ll work on getting it,” Maria said, feeling hopeful for the first time since she’d learned the demon’s name.

“I’m not getting a tattoo,” John chuckled.

“If I have to get one, so do you John,” Bobby grumbled.

Maria grabbed the book with the anti-possession sigil in it, showed it to John, and explained the importance of it. John was not happy but also knew that it was a good way to protect all of them. When Maria saw the comprehension cross John’s face, she smiled, triumphantly.

“Alright kid, you win. When we doin' this?” John asked, still not keen on getting a tattoo.

“I’ll set it up for tomorrow, give you some time to settle in,” Maria replied, proudly as she moved into the war room to make the phone call.

Dean gave John the tour while Maria made the call, setting it up for when they opened, at nine the following day. Jess had already talked her into getting the tattoo in the same place that she was. Dean and Sam had opted for their chest, near their heart. Bobby on the other hand had decided on his back, over his shoulder, which John would also choose. Maria pulled out chicken for dinner, letting it defrost in the sink until it was time to cook, in a few hours. She felt more than hopeful now. They knew the demon’s name, and now, there might be a way to kill it. They’d also found a summoning spell in one of the books, plus, they had a dungeon to hold the demon in.

Maria was humming to herself as she moved around the kitchen, gathering what she would need for dinner when Dean stopped in his tracks in the doorway, Before she could look over at him though, John moved past him into the kitchen, looking around. That pulled Dean to his senses, putting on that cool guy facade again. John was thoroughly impressed with the bunker.

“To think, Will kept this a secret,” John said quietly, still in awe.

“He was a Men of Letters, or was until before I was born,” Maria said without turning from her task of putting spices on the counter for the chicken.

“Looks like I’ve got a lot to catch up on,” John chuckled.

“Well, I’m gonna get dinner started and can fill you in, if you want,” Maria suggested, “Unless of course, Dean already filled you in,” she said that last part with a smirk as she glanced over at him, letting him know she knew he was there.

He rolled his eyes before he went back into the library, annoyed. John sat down at the kitchen table, “So, what’s up between you two? Still rivals?” he asked, bemused. John knew how Dean felt about her, but it wasn’t his place to bring it up.

“He’s a jerk and yes, we’re still rivals,” she replied plainly, which made John chuckle.

Maria explained what her father had told her in the letter she’d found on her pillow that first day, leaving out the weird stuff about her, that she still hadn’t gotten around to facing. John was fairly impressed and decided it might be nice to have a place to call home again. The thought of being able to be rid of the demon who had killed his wife more than two decades ago had been his only goal since then, even if he had wanted more for his boys than this kind of life.

“I heard about what happened between you and Sam. There’s still time to patch things up,” she suggested as she put the chicken in the oven and turned to look at him.

“That kind of thing works both ways,” he told her.

“So, be the bigger person and understand he’s an adult,” she replied bluntly.

John chuckled a little at her bluntness, “After we take out yellow-eyes. How’s that sound?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She crossed her arms over her chest, “If it were me, I’d do it before. You never know how long you have, being a hunter. It’s not like those that have gone up against Azazel have survived,” she told him, making a point he couldn’t find an argument to.

He took a deep breath and sighed, looking at the table in front of him, “That was a low blow, but I’ll let you have that one, and… I’ll think about it. That’s the best you’re gonna get,” he said quietly.

Maria shook her head and got busy peeling potatoes, annoyed at how stubborn John was, which Dean had clearly gotten from him, although, in a way, so had Sam. John went to the garage and grabbed his bag before looking for a room to at least sleep in for the night. He was still debating staying there, especially with the unspoken conflict between him and Sam. Maria waited till she was working on the gravy before she hollered for Sam, who looked confused when he entered the kitchen.

“What’s up SIs?” he asked her.

She didn’t look over at him, not right away, “You and your dad, you two can patch things up,” she told him.

“Sis…” he said, not wanting to have this conversation.

“I’m serious Sam,” she stated as she turned around, “It might take being the bigger person for once, letting shit go. I know you don’t hate him and you’d be devastated if he died, so don’t lie to me,” she stated, narrowing her eyes a bit, then sighed, “We’re going up against Azazel. He killed both my parents, your mom, and who knows who else he is gonna try to kill to get to us. All I’m saying is that… you have an opportunity, to have a better relationship with your dad, just in case.”

He said nothing, just absorbed her words. She had a point and part of him hated that. Sam grabbed a beer out of the fridge before he went back into the library, lost in his thoughts. Her words had hit him fairly hard. Neither Jess nor Bobby pushed him. They could tell he needed time to think, even if they had no idea what was going through his head.

Dinner came and went and the six of them sat in the library, drinking and sharing stories again. Jess and Maria were looking forward to getting their tattoos in the morning. The guys though, not so much. The girls showered after dinner, shaving their nether regions so that the tattoo could only be barely visible above their jean line, leaving plenty to the imagination of how far down it would go. Maria was having second thoughts about where she had agreed to get the tattoo but knew there was no backing out of it now.

In the morning, the girls dressed in loose-fitting sweats and went commando for the tattoo, none of the guys knew. Well, Sam knew about Jess’s, but not Maria’s. She was keeping that to herself. Maria found Jess in the kitchen, up just as early as she was, the coffee pot had just finished.

“This is gonna be so much fun,” Jess told her excitedly.

“I’m not sure I can go through with this,” she replied nervously as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“Oh come on, don’t wimp out on me now.” Jess pouted.

Maria groaned a little as she sat down across from her, “It’s just… that’s a really sensitive area, that’s all.”

“Yeah, but if you ever end up with a guy, he’ll find it hot as hell. Trust me,” she winked with an insinuating tone.

She rolled her eyes, “I don’t have time for a guy.” Jess chuckled, “Maybe after this whole demon business is done, you might,” she said optimistically.

Again she groaned at the thought. She had spent her entire life being a hunter and wasn’t sure if she’d be able to stop doing it after Azazel was taken care of. She really didn’t know anything else. The guys joined the two of them almost an hour later, looking a little nervous, which made the girls chuckle.

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

Dean almost burst through the door when he heard Maria let out a pained, quiet scream that sounded also like a groan. He’d already gotten his tattoo and it was tender, but he wasn’t letting on. The girls had been behind that closed door for almost a half hour now and the brothers were trying not to worry. Sam was smiling though, knowing where Jess was getting her tattoo and he couldn’t wait to go exploring to see it all.

“Remind me to never let that girl talk me into something like this again,” John groaned, joining his sons in the lobby area of the tattoo parlor.

“What’s the matter Dad, don’t plan on getting any more tattoos?” Dean teased him with a smirk.

He ignored that as he joined their gaze on the closed door, “Those two still in there?” he asked.

“Yeah. Sounds like wherever they’re getting theirs, it’s tender,” Dean answered, trying not to sound concerned.

“They’ll be fine,” John chuckled.

Just as Bobby joined them, the door opened. Jess was laughing while Maria was glaring at her a bit, “I’m never letting you talk me into something like that again,” Maria told Jess, feeling the skin where her tattoo was burning a bit, which was normal.

“Just put that burn cream on it like the lady said and you’ll be fine, baby,” Jess teased her before she went over and had an intimate moment with Sam, not even caring that the others were there, “Can’t wait to show you later,” she whispered in his ear.

“Looking forward to it,” Sam smirked.

Dean just rolled his eyes but the adults chuckled. John realized how much his youngest son loved that woman and that was enough for him to decide to be the bigger person and put the past aside.

“I’m so glad I didn’t drive here,” Maria groaned.

“Rethinking the whole tattoo thing?” Dean teased her as he smirked.

“Shut up,” she growled before she went outside.

The others just chuckled to themselves as Dean found her response amusing. There were only a couple options for driving back, Dean’s Impala or Bobby’s little beat-up car, neither of which were appealing to Maria at the moment. They joined her outside moments later, all of them but Dean went to Bobby’s beat-up car, leaving her to sit with Dean. She glared at Sam who just shrugged with a smirk before he got in Bobby’s car.

“Looks like you’re riding with me sweetheart,” Dean smirked.

Maria looked more than annoyed but got into the passenger seat and crossed her arms, doing her best not to slam the door of the Impala. The car hadn’t done anything wrong and she didn’t want to take her annoyance out on it.

“Don’t call me that,” she said somewhat coldly when he got in the driver’s seat.

Dean made a mental note of her reaction. He figured if he couldn’t talk to her normally, he’d at least find ways of annoying her. It wasn’t the attention he wanted but it was amusing nonetheless, “Alright Sweetheart,” he told her, that damned smirk plastered on his lips again.

Maria didn’t even look at him as she attempted to sit so that the sweats she was wearing didn’t rub against her tattoo. However, the moment he started driving, she felt every bump in the road and made plans not to leave her room when they got back until her tattoo healed. She couldn’t even understand how Jess wasn’t bothered or in pain, let alone had made plans to be intimate with Sam that same night. Give her demons, werewolves, vampires, even ghouls any day of the week, but a tattoo in a very sensitive area and she turned into a baby. She put on a hard outer shell though, not wanting to let Dean see that she was weak.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Dean told her with a smirk as he drove down the one-lane paved road.

She looked out the passenger window, arms still crossed over her chest, “No,” she replied, flatly, but annoyed.

That made Dean raise an eyebrow, more curious than ever about where she’d gotten hers, “What’s the matter, not up for a little show and tell?”

“Drop it, Dean,” she told him in a low growl, which only made him chuckle.

The moment he parked, she was out of the car before he could even turn off the engine, grabbing two beers before she locked herself in her room. Maria carefully slipped out of her sweats and grabbed one of her oversized shirts out of her dresser, changing into it. However, the bottom portion of it brushed against the tattoo, causing her to push her ass backward before grabbing the shirt to hold it off of her.

“Never again,” she grumbled as she sat down on her bed, carefully.

Maria put some of the burn cream on it that the tattoo artist had given her, which gave some much-needed relief. The tattoo artist also explained that Maria was more sensitive than most, so it would probably cause her more discomfort than her friend. She popped the beer and took a decent drink out of it when she heard a knock on her door.

“You okay in there?” Jess asked her, trying not to chuckle as Sam was behind her, kissing along her neck.

“I’ll be fine, but I’m never doing that again,” Maria grumbled.

“You gonna come out of there?” Sam asked her.

“No,” Maria replied flatly.

“Dean’s cooking tonight. He’s making burgers. So, at least come out long enough to eat,” Sam chuckled as Jess teased her fingers along his back.

“Would you two just go get a room already and let me be,” Maria groaned, leaning back on the headboard.

“Stop being a baby about this. The tattoo was your idea,” Sam told her, doing his best not to chuckle at her behavior.

“It may have been my idea but your girlfriend out there is nuts and I’ll never let her talk me into anything again,” she grumbled.

All that did was make the two laugh as they walked to their room, leaving Maria to lick her wounds. She could take a beating from a monster but that tattoo had hurt more than any wound she’d ever experienced before. At least the burn cream was helping a little.

Dean couldn’t resist retrieving her himself. He really wanted to know where she’d gotten her tattoo. Once he was done cooking, he knocked on her door, “Dinner’s ready Sweetheart,” he told her with a smirk as he leaned against the wall next to her door.

“Go away Dean,” she groaned.

“Come on, it’s just a little tattoo,” he pushed.

She could hear the cockiness in his tone and it was annoying her, “Just leave me a plate outside my door,” she grumbled.

“If Jess can come out to eat, so can you,” he teased her, which pissed her off.

The moment she stood up, her shirt brushed against her tattoo, and she inhaled deeply as a pained groaned escaped her lips, “You’re an ass, you know that,” she snapped at him as she carefully slid her sweats back on.

“And you’re being a baby,” he quipped.

“Fuck you,” she muttered under her breath before she unlocked and opened her door. Seeing him there with that smug look and a smirk to match made her want to hit him.

“Awe, what’s the matter Sweetheart?” he asked, more to annoy her than anything.

She pushed him so that his back was against the wall as she forced herself to walk normally, not wanting to give him more ammunition to annoy her. He just laughed a little before he followed her, wondering why she had to look that good in sweats. The others were already sitting at the kitchen table. Maria barely kept the grimace off her face as she sat down, adjusting quickly so her sweats and thighs weren’t touching her tattoo, at all. Most of them caught it and chuckled silently, mostly because getting the tattoo was her idea.

“You alright there kid?” Bobby asked her, raising an eyebrow, sounding amused.

“I’m fine,” she answered, shortness in her tone, which made Dean smirk again.

“Leave her alone Dean,” John told him, noticing the smirk.

“What?” Dean asked innocently as he sat down on the other side of the table.

She glared at him, almost daring him to say something or look at her the wrong way. Due to the burn, she was ready to go off on him. John just gave Dean a look before they all served themselves. Jess found her discomfort hilarious, knowing it would only last a few days while it healed. Whether Maria wanted to admit it or not, Dean was a really good cook. She kept the annoyed look throughout dinner, not giving him the satisfaction of a compliment on the meal. There was some conversation but she stayed out of it, tuning it out due to the burning that had returned to her tattoo. It was quite the turn of events since when they were younger, he had been the one refusing the compliments on her cooking.

“You gonna help clean up?” Sam asked Maria, his face contorting a bit as he did his best to attempt to keep from smiling, let alone laughing. Jess had told him where Maria had gotten her tattoo.

Maria glared at him so badly that if looks could kill, he would have been dead ten times over. That was when Dean lost it laughing. Luckily Maria was done eating. With every ounce of stubbornness she had left, she got up and stomped off to her room, not even flinching at how badly her tattoo burned. It wasn’t until her door was locked behind her that she almost crumbled, carefully removing her sweats before sitting back on her bed as she had before, applying more of the burn cream. A sigh of relief left her lips as she leaned her head back on the headboard.

The way they had messed with her was just how their family was. It was all in fun. She was more annoyed at herself for being so sensitive down there than anything, something she wouldn’t have known without the tattoo experience. She also vowed to never again let Jess talk her into anything else like this, ever again. Maria glanced at the book on her night table. She hadn’t moved it since the night she had set it there and debated reading it. She had no plans of leaving her room anyway, not until her tattoo healed more first.

“Not tonight,” she sighed quietly before climbing under covers.

That was when she realized that sleeping was going to be an even bigger issue for her. How was she supposed to even get comfortable and not let anything touch that spot? Then she remembered the little bit of gauze the tattoo artist had given her for the first night. She carefully climbed out of bed and pulled it out of her sweatpants pocket. Maria applied a little more of the ointment before applying the gauze bandage, sighing at the feeling of relief. Maria had been too distracted by the pain to remember everything that the tattoo artist had told her and hadn’t been in the mood to ask Jess. She wasn’t in the mood now either, but planned on asking her in the morning, or whenever she rolled out of bed.

----------------------------------------- Chapter 16

Tag List: @deans-spinster-witch @kazsrm67

Link to the master list for this story.

#spn #spn fanfic #supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural oc #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester x oc #dean winchester x femaleoc #nephilim #nephilim fanfiction #sam winchester fanfiction

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camille-lachenille · 2 years ago

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Day 30 of All of Arda is Autistic:

Prompt: acceptance

Rating: Gen

CW: internalised ableism, reported ableism, Denethor being a terrible father offscreen

The room’s door opened and closed with a soft clic. “Faramir? Fara?” Boromir’s voice was worried as he padded toward the bed. Faramir did not answer and simply tightened the blankets around him. The mattress dipped at the foot of the bed. “Tell me what happened, Fara, please,” his brother pleaded. The silence stretched between them but Faramir was glad for his brother’s presence.

Yet, after some time, Boromir stood up and left the room. Faramir blinked tears away and curled up a little more on himself. Even his big brother couldn’t stand him. Only his mother had ever truly understood him, but she wasn’t there anymore and Faramir was left alone like a broken toy.

The mattress dipped again and a soft weight landed over him, making Faramir startle a bit and opened his eyes. Boromir was sitting beside him, carefully arranging their mother’s blue cloak with silver stars on top of the blankets without touching him. Faramir melted under the familiar garment, trying in vain to catch what was left if his mother’s perfume on the fabric. “Thanks,” he whispered.

Boromir smiled and held his hand out in a silent question. Faramir nodded and pressed his head into his bother’s hand, revelling in the feeling of fingers combing through his messy hair.

“Do you want to tell me?” Boromir asked, now looking serious. Faramir bit his lip. It was nothing out of the usual, really. And his father had been right to scold him for that. And yet…

“Father said that I have to stop rambling about Númenor’s history like a freak each time someone mentions a tradition of Gondor or ask a simple date.” he explained, his voice barely audible. And it felt like a heavy weight lifted from his chest as he told Boromir everything. “I don’t understand. Father called me his clever boy, before… before mum died,” he concluded. “But now, I’m never good enough. It’s always too much or too little. I act too childish, don’t know how to behave in public and so on…”

There was a silence where Boromir never ceased running his hand in his brother hair, before he sighed deeply. “You are worthy, Fara. So, so worthy. Father… he shouldn’t say these things to you. You are not a freak, nor childish. You are Faramir, and you are clever, passionate about ancient lore, shy but kind and always polite, and the best brother I could wish for.” Boromir declared in a fierce tone. “Can I hug you?”

Faramir didn’t even bother to answer as he bolted up and flung himself in his brother’s arms, effectively knocking both of them flat on the bed. Boromir laughed and held him tight as he sat up again. The sound made something break in Faramir and he started crying on his brother’s shoulder. “Thank you, Boromir. Thank you so much,” he managed after a while. “Love you.”

“I love you too, little brother.”

Faramir is 12 or 13 years old, and Boromir 17-18 years old. I love the relationship between them so much!

And this challenge is done! It’s the first time I try a writing challenge with prompts and I am mightily proud I managed to complete it, especially since April was so hectic. But sitting down (almost) every day to write about characters I like so much was very pleasant and gave me the opportunity to explore some thematics/characters/relationships I wouldn’t have written about normally. And I think that the very, very short ficlet about Maeglin might be amongst my favourite fanfics I wrote. Thank you so much @all-of-arda-is-autistic for organising this event and proposing a prompt list!

#all of arda is autistic 2023 #tolkien #the lord of the rings #faramir #boromir #boromir and faramir #autistic character #my favourite brothers #acceptance #autism acceptance #ficlet #writing prompt

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soulventure91 · 2 years ago

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im kicking the door down for 🍋🍐and 💙 for the diric lore

oh god Diric lore from the jumbo asks oh boy oh BOY -|

🍋 Does your OC act petty and jealous easily? What sort of things make them feel like this and do they experience guilt for getting so worked up? How do they deal with these emotions when they get them? If your OC doesn’t feel like this often, why not? Okay SO. We know the answer to the first is relatively yes - the why is a bit tricky. Diric's jealousy often derives from seeing someone he cares about (and we're talking like. Devoted levels of caring, like to the level of only-missing-a-ring-and-vows, which is. a problem for him.) interacting with someone else Dir probably doesn't know as well or doesn't feel secure in himself to be around - and getting on with equal or greater ease that Dir usually feels when interacting with the person he's given his heart to. This is why he had to have a couple clarifying talks with Alar when Alar made his initial arrival because man did Alar rub Diric wrong those first few weeks ^^; To be honest if they talked some more, especially because Alar is the last of three party members with direct divine communication he hasn't talked to about his therapy, I think Diric would find a lot of respect and admiration for Alar. Probably he wouldn't reach the same levels of devoted but Diric would be more in line with figuring out maneuvers with Alar in mind like he has with Maahes. Diric absolutely has to be called out on his jealousy if it's spotted; otherwise he's going to sit on it and end up saying something really stupid as his invasive thoughts start going off. He'd be more guilty about what's said in that case, but not over the feelings that triggered the outburst. With his therapy stint, another thing he gets to work on is not getting jealous in general - doesn't help that he and Mio are still figuring out how to patch things up and Diric still has a severe case of heartbreak to parse through - which is part of why Diric still has self-isolating moments at present and also giving Maahes any space he might need (partly in the hopes Mio would come to him if he needed to vent - though overhearing Mio opening up to the others somewhat, while a good healthy move for Mio that Dir does, in his psyche, understand, makes Dir question exactly how much Mio does trust him - look, invasive thought spiral ay). To be honest Dir should not be self-isolating. Someone please just sit next to him.

🍐 What is your OC’s mentality? Are they overall positive? Negative? A bit of both? Describe their thought patterns and reasoning behind their choice making! Motive number one for any choice Diric makes: does this help me better protect those I care about? Protecting others is the focus of his mindset, period. To Diric's mind, if he can't protect the people he loves - even if those people are more than capable of protecting themselves! - that's a failure on himself. Combat encounters where he lags behind the others and is either put in danger or unable to get in a swipe before the party wipes out the enemy? He's failed. Trying to advise or be a listening ear but getting chided for doing that? He's failed. Venting his thoughts or trying to explain the weird broken bits of his brain and not feeling like he's been understood? Failed. It's very negative, not healthy, and why one part of his new promises to Bahamut includes the caveat of not at the expense of myself when it comes to extending himself protectively. Usually, motive two is the more selfish one: can I become stronger doing this? It was this motivation that spurred him into Blackthorn and then the Underdark. If Diric could look at Blackthorn and say 'no, being there again wouldn't help me or anyone', he wouldn't have pressed going. But because it put to rest some of his issues and he was able to grow personally and protect the party, overall Diric's choice was always going to be yes, return to Blackthorn. Even if he hated every second of it. But he'll refuse to go back unless Aislinn herself asks for him.

💙 What did your OC want to be when they grew up and why? Did they have any lifelong dreams or ambitions they never got to work on or are they currently working to achieve this dream? Has their life taken a very unexpected turn and put all these plans on hold for a while or have they given up on any dreams? This poor little boy all alone in his room surrounded by toy weapons and the equivalent of comic books and action figures only ever had one dream: to be important to someone and be recognized for himself. All he could dream of was being a soldier like Malarnur Duskblade and one day being strong enough to fight alongside him. Obviously Dir did get his wish of becoming a soldier, but when you're put in the unit of social outcasts and expected to die...yeah. Add on completely wrecking your first command operation and there was no way Diric was ever going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his childhood hero. Which came true for the most part since Diric killed the pit fiend possessing said childhood hero! But I think by that point he didn't...want the hero's celebration he'd once dreamed about. Which is part of why he doesn't want to ever go back to Blackthorn, even with now being fully Drow. He was there as an outsider, not as someone that earned his place. I think part of Diric still has that dream of mattering to someone; it's why he devoted himself so much to Mio, why part of him is so certain he'll find somewhere that wants him. Because if he knows the where, the who should come naturally. But if he can't find the where or the who, that could break Diric entirely. This little boy's dream is all he really has left holding his heart together.

#TEARS IN MY EYES BEFORE I GO TO BED WITH THAT LAST ONE AJ #dir just wants to find his Home and his Person T_T #anyway enjoy having made me suffer wheeee #oc: diric vajon

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springvaletales · 2 years ago

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((Session 41 is wrapped!))

Most of the party started off with the reading homework (re: written exposition that had to happen but that I didn’t want to use up session time to work through) bc nobody read it before class. I did the same thing all through high school so I can’t be mad.

Bagelby’s PC had to let go of their dog this past week, so we spent half an hour sharing beloved pet stories to help cheer them up.

“It’s, like, three pages long!”

“Listen, listen, I was on a roll.”

We waffled back and forth for a minute on whether Bagelby would be a wizard or a warlock, but ultimately settled on a wizard.

“Bagel is very much a cash up front kind of guy.”

“I don’t think Bagel even knows what cash is.”

Ena’s Player, to Lex’s Player, to catch her up: “Velenna and the Taker are about to have a custody argument over Michael.”

“Bagel is tripping on slugs while trying to read a book about magic.”

Sir Carl Jaeger moved to sit between Velenna and the Taker to prevent them from fighting.

Ena, just wanting answers: “WHY AM I PURPLE?!”

Velenna, unimpressed: “Because I fucked someone millennia ago and you’re related to them.”

The party, collectively: *gasps in horror*

Ena, sputtering: “Wh-. Why the FUCK did you do that?”

Velenna, glaring: “I’ve often asked myself the same thing.”

Ena went off on Michael, screaming that he had NO right to be throwing a pity party because he didn’t even remember the person whose ghost he was crying over, or her, OR their father, OR their home-. Aaaaand now Ena’s crying, too. Ena’s hair began to flare up more and more as she lost control of her emotions, prompting the Taker to lean back from her on instinct. No-one else in the party knows what to do to calm her down.

“You’ve gone full Ghibli!”

After unloading like a shotgun and leaving Michael speechless, Ena stormed off from the group and tried to leave, but the spell Velenna used to lock off her property won’t let her cross it, so she slumped down against it and cried some more.

The Taker - torn between his two upset children - sent a flower to comfort Ena

“Which crying child needs his attention?”

“This should be an easy answer - there’s only two of them this time.”

Asahi decided to take the lead and asked the two powerful arcane beings if they knew about the “crazy chaos tree growing out of a portal” in the basement of Skaadi’s lost temple.

Both of them grew immediately tense, but not with each other - whatever the “crazy chaos tree” is, it appears to be something they both have heard about.

Thiori is slowly moving away from the party in search of a tree to sit under. He won’t explain why.

Me, to Ena’s Player: “There’s not a single important rock I’ve put in this campaign that you haven’t licked.”

Bagelby spent half an hour showing Velenna his rock collection, and she sat there at listened to him talk the entire time.

Asahi: “You’d be amazed what kind of- THIORI HE’S WANDERING.”

Thiori: *sprints up and tackles Bagelby*

Bagelby, listing off all the things he’s stolen in life: “…and the sack I was found in!”

The Party: Excuse me what?

Instead of growing grey hairs when his children worry him, the Taker sheds leaves from his cloak.

Things Sir Carl has done in the last week:

Joined an adventuring party

Lost his squire

Survived a coup

Ridden a dragon

Become a father x2

Stopped a fight between an ancient dragon and an Archfey

Bagelby finally discovered the fate of the lighthouse from the Blackstone City harbor (demolished when the harbor roof caved in) and was utterly distraught.

Bagelby: “Who’s my dad?”

Velenna: .......

Bagelby: …….

Asahi: Are you actually honoring that request?!

Bagelby has not learned who his father is today. Some mysteries, Velenna says, are best solved first-hand.

Bagelby: “I don’t know how to answer that question, so I won’t!”

Asahi’s Player has an actual checklist of questions to ask and I’m struggling to keep all my lore straight.

“Don’t try me - I’ll make your favorite show canon.”

Thiori has finally named his mimic friend - Saoirse - and ransacked the picnic spread for some jerky.

“Everyone else roll perception to see if you notice Thiori feeding his mimic at the picnic.”

The Taker of the Lost can masquerade as a Korok to ‘blend in’.

“Michael and Asahi understand money but think of it on different scales.”

Thiori and Asahi decide to race back to the tavern to ask Bethany Herself for a ride to the palace, and Lex - remembering that she has magical speed candies - jumps up, downs two candies, and does Sonic the Hedgehog proud.

Lex’s speed candies are like Benadryl - you really should only take the recommended dose.

Lex - of course - won the race, and asked Bethany if the ‘Group with Too Many Names’ could have a ride to the palace.

Bethany begrudgingly agreed to ferry the party to the palace on her own way there, provided Velenna agree to supply her with another shipment of Shorthalt’s Classics songbooks for a local bard club in town.

#OOC #Quarantine D&D

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dragonfairy19 · 2 years ago

Text

Part 3

By the time the red-clad turtle woke up, she was gone and so was everything else. He told himself that he was glad it was her fist and her claws. As he walked home he hears his brother Leo calling for him outside their home.

"Would you stop yelling my name? I'm pretty sure half of Jersey City can hear your annoying voice." he groans.

"Just get here and explain where you ran to." His leader sighed.

When they walked in, Mikey was the first one to jump up and run to them.

"What the Shell Happened to you? Did you get jumped or something? Did you find her? Where is she?" Mikey Bombards them with questions getting a result he knew was coming, a smack in the back of the head by three of his brothers and their famous line. 'Shut up Mikey.'

"Well, do you care to explain?"

Ralph groans. "Fine, I saw someone walking in the sewers I thought was her, but it wasn't. I did find her though... In an underground fight club as the main fighter." He continues to tell them where she work and lives, the deal, and last of all the kiss.

"You did what now?" Leo shouted.

"Way ta go Raph." Don said proudly.

"Lucky..." Mikey pouts.

"Yeah well, save your damn applause. Cause after we kissed she punched me in my face knocking me out." he sighs

"Good for her." Leo chuckled.

"She was... I wish you guys could see her shift... She's taller than Don maybe about 3 feet. She could have killed me if she wanted to."

"Anyways that aside--"

"You got your ass handed to you." Mikey cut off Leo and laughed till he cried.

Leo punched him in the arm.

"awe, hey what was that for."

"Anyways that deal you made with her. Since you lost to her you have to do what she says now."

"Sure, I guess."

"She going to realize how hard that going to be." Leo snorted.

Raph growls and started to head to his room, but got his arm grabbed.

"Wait there's a note on your back." Don grabs it off of him. "The note reads: Hey, teddy bear I put my number in that thing. I guess is a phone. I'll call you when I need you. P. S. If someone else is reading this give him..." Don turned red. Mikey looks at the note and laughs.

"Damn, she's evil." takes the pictures from the note. It was her half-shifted sitting on Raph shell. "she's so...hot." he whistled.

Leo also took a look and just smiles because on the inside he's really laughing his ass off. "Her tail. Wow," gets an idea. "Raph did she ever used her tail when the both of you fought?"

"No don't think so, why? Wait she was still holding back, damn it."

Don figured out where his brother-in-blue was going with this. "If I think what Leo is saying is correct you could win the next time you face her. In some lores, a dragon's tail in its full form helps them to fly. In others, dragons' or dragonborns' tails are heavy and can be used as a weapon, but the downfall is their tail is super sensitive which depends on how much they use their tail." He then went off on a tangent after that and head to his lab/room.

"Yeah, pretty much what I was not going to say, but if she didn't try to grab or step on it to pin her down. If anything he said his true be care." head to his room.

Meanwhile in Ginger's apartment. She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror touching her lips and imagining the kiss. 'Idiot why the hell did you let your guard down like that.' she sighs thinking to herself as she changed to get ready for bed. Wearing a blue crop top that says in red 'Here lays a bad bitch' and red-laced underwear. She looked down at her phone. She had put it on silent to avoid distraction. Ginger noted 5 text messages.

"Great it hasn't been a day and he's messaging me. Guess this was coming." Sighs opening them and marking them as read. "But it doesn't mean I have to reply." She smirks to herself and went to bed.

It was long after she had fallen asleep when she got a call. Ginger sat up in bed and answer the call not knowing it was a video call. She rubs her tired eye. "Hey, do you know what time it is? Why couldn't this wait till the morning?"

"Yes, I do and this isn't Raph you're talking to. "

(open RP: Tmnt bayverse +18 only)

Warning: not 18 or older will be blocked

One night the turtles went on patrol. The sky was filled with dark clouds and rain.

Three months had passed after they faced kranng. They thought it was the last time to dealing with an alien but, they were mistakenly incorrect. As a ship crashed in Central Park.

"Should we go check that out?" one in orange said curiously.

"We'll go. To make sure no one is hurt. We don't know what it is or what could be in it." the leader said.

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lemonykoo · 2 years ago

Text

some of the genshin boys when you have a nightmare!

Includes: Diluc, Gorou, Albedo, and Scaramouche

Genre: Fluff!

Word Count: 380-500ish words per character.

Notes: Just short bullet imagines on what the boys would do when you have a nightmare! Just the boys being mushy, love sick fools over their s/o. I realize that this is a kinda popular thing to write about, so I just want to clarify that I didn’t take any inspiration from anyone on this. If there’s anything I’ve written that is very close to what someone else has written, though, let me know! Spoilers for Albedo’s lore and Scara is very loving and probably a little ooc but who cares! I was going to include more characters but I got kinda tired and couldn’t think of anything, but if you want more characters, just let me know and I’ll write a part two! (Not edited btw hehe)

Diluc:

You paced in front of the fireplace, your bare feet padding against the dark, hardwood floors softly as you bit your nails anxiously. The firewood cracked and popped as it burned slowly beside you and the heat it radiated would normally give you a deep sense of comfort, but it was no longer present – not at the moment. Not with your heart beating wildly, daring to jump right through your ribs and your skin and out of your chest and onto the floor.

“Lady Ragnvindr,” head-maid Adelinde stated as she watched you pace around restlessly, “maybe you should sit down and drink a cup of tea. The Master will be home soon.” When you didn’t respond, she sighed. “You just had a nightmare, y/n. Master Diluc is just at the tavern tonight, and he’ll be back before you know it.”

“I’m not going back to the bed until I know he’s okay,” you answered quietly. Adelinde nodded, before scurrying off to make you a pot of tea.

The minutes ticked by slowly and agonizingly, but almost two hours later, the front door to the Dawn Winery creaked open. Diluc entered silently, under the impression that you’d be upstairs sleeping. Instead, he was met with you sitting in front of the fireplace with a teacup in your grasp as Adelinde sat beside you holding the tea pot. When the door shut, you were startled out of your daze, drawing your attention to him as he approached you. “Diluc, you’re okay,” you murmured, standing to greet him.

“Of course I am,” he responded, shrugging his coat off and tossing it aside onto a nearby chair. When you were close enough, he embraced you warmly and placed a soft kiss on the top of your head before planting another on your lips. “Why would I not be? Did something worry you?”

You had almost forgotten about your tragic dream since Adelinde had convinced you to sit down and tell her what was bothering you so much. You were feeling a lot better now, but you still wanted to be awake for your husband’s return to ease the ball of anxiety residing in your stomach that just wouldn’t leave. “I just had a bad dream,” you explained simply. “It made me worry about you.”

Diluc still had you in his embrace, keeping you close to his body. He glanced up to see Adelinde smile gently at him before leaving to go to the kitchen with the tea pot and cup you had sat down. “Well,” Diluc started, “I apologize for not coming sooner, darling.”

Diluc knew that you always worried for him, with his vigilante job and whatnot. He wished he could reach into your mind and pluck those worries out so you wouldn’t be bothered with any scary dreams of something bad happening to him. Since he can’t do that, though, he’ll just hold you close in the bed, hoping whatever bad dreams tried to disturb you during the night would be scared away by his presence.

Gorou:

You never felt the need to worry for Gorou. Sure, he was a general, but you never felt… anxious or scared when he went out to defend the resistance. You were always confident in his abilities. Being a childhood friend of his and now his lover, you knew Gorou was capable.

After the height of the Vision Hunt was reached and all the fighting happened, though, you quickly realized that danger becoming your fiancé was very real and wasn’t just something to brush aside like you had been.

You tried to convince yourself that you weren’t going to show how worried you were for him though and choked down those thoughts. It didn’t take long for those worries to surface in your dreams, however, and turn them into nightmares.

While you slept, you’d be tormented with visions of Gorou being defeated during a battle. The way he’d lay lifeless on the ground, his vision no longer glowing golden but rather fading in color, just like his life from his veins. You’d wake up in a panic before making sure Gorou was still with you, peacefully sleeping beside you after a long day’s work.

Tonight’s nightmare was just awful, though – worse than any other nightmare you had yet. You don’t know why it was particularly worse this time, but it was and you wanted it to stop but it never did. Just when it couldn’t get any worse, you awoke, sitting up quickly and banging your head on something in the dark.

“I’m sorry!” you heard the hushed whisper of your fiancé in front of you. You opened your eyes to see him rubbing a spot on his forehead. “You were whimpering in your sleep, so I was trying to wake you up. I didn’t expect you to jump up like that.”

You felt a dull pain on your skull from the accidental head butt you had given him. “It’s okay,” you reassured. “I was just having a bad dream.”

“I could tell,” Gorou answered, shifting to sit beside you. “I didn’t want you to experience it anymore… so that’s why I wanted to wake you up.” He reached toward you and guided you to lay against him. “I know you’re worried about me, y/n, but it’ll be okay.”

He laid down, you following suit with your head on his chest, and his arms came to lace around you to hold you closer to him. “But you don’t know that,” you murmured, tears surfacing in the corners of your eyes. “What if it’s not okay?”

“I know I can’t promise anything,” he said. “But, knowing I have you waiting for me at home keeps me here. I can’t just leave you here all alone. I never have and I never will.”

You didn’t feel like forming a rebuttal, and instead continued to lay there and let your fiancé play with your hair as you drifted off to sleep once more.

Albedo:

Your eyes popped open and you observed your surroundings, your heavy breaths beginning to calm as you realized you were just in your room, and no longer in whatever hell you had been in in your nightmare. You sat up and looked at the spot in the bed beside you to see it empty. Flashes of your nightmare surfaced in your memories, and you gulped, remembering this was exactly how it started.

Swinging your legs over the side of the bed, you got up and ventured to the hallway outside of your room, stumbling a bit as you had just woken up. You paused before turning the knob to the room your boyfriend often holed himself up in with his research and cracking the door just enough to see him at his desk, swiftly jotting down notes.

“You’re still here,” you whispered without thinking, drawing Albedo’s attention to you as you lingered in the doorway.

“Oh, y/n, did I wake you?” he asked, turning a bit and welcoming you to come in. You walked over to him and once you were close enough, he placed an arm around your waist. “No,” you responded. “I just had a bad dream.”

A look of concern crossed Albedo’s face as he looked up to you. “A bad dream? What was it about to make you so upset?”

You bit your lip, images that hurt you the worst appearing in your mind like pictures in a photo album. His blonde hair, the fire raging behind him, the blood on his hands. “You destroyed Mondstadt, or at least what was supposed to be Mondstadt.”

Your boyfriend stood from his chair and enveloped you into a hug. “Let me take you back to bed.” What you couldn’t see as he hugged you was how concerned he looked at the mention of your nightmare, but he didn’t want you to see that. “Nothing like that is going to happen, okay?”

With that, he led you back to your bed and laid you down, before getting ready for bed himself so he could ensure that you would be okay.

Even though there was a bigger truth to him than what he told you, Albedo hoped that you would be gone by the time he got to that point. And if you weren’t, he at least hoped you’d be spared from the monster he’d become. But for now, he’ll hold you tightly underneath all your blankets to comfort you that he’d never become what he feared.

Scaramouche:

With a jolt, you awoke, sitting up as your heartbeat pounded in your head. This strange feeling of anxiety coursed through your veins and you don’t know what woke you up but it must have been a nightmare. You felt panicked as your eyes scanned the dark room around you, hoping you could remember what your dream was about in hopes of calming down. As for the time being, though, you could only remain scared and anxious over an unknown cause.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked, startling you. You looked beside you to see your husband, gazing up at you from his position beside you. You could see in the soft moonlight his slightly annoyed expression, but in his eyes you saw concern. Your heart rate seemed to slow as you remembered that everything was okay – you were just at home, safe underneath your covers with the man you married just almost a year ago.

“I just had a bad dream, Scara,” you stated, sighing a bit before you laid down once again. “Sorry if I woke you up.” You rolled over to your back to him, back into the position you had been before you had woken up. You knew he wouldn’t be upset if you had – you had come to learn that his annoyed expressions weren’t really anything and that it was always his eyes that told you how he was feeling. Still, you hated that you might have disturbed him, since he needed every bit of sleep he could get.

“I was already awake,” he responded curtly, though you felt his arm wrap around your waist and pull you closer to him. That was another thing: though his tone could be cold and brash, you knew it had been conditioned to be like that due to his work. You could hear the gentleness and love peppered into his words when he spoke to you, even when all others could hear was short, bland sentences. A quick, soft kiss was placed on your exposed shoulder. “Just go back to sleep, y/n. I’m here.”

Even though he didn’t say it out loud, you could hear the rest of his thought in the night air around you, wrapping around you lovingly like the arm wrapped around your waist.

Nothing will ever harm you if I’m here.

#genshin impact #genshin gorou #genshin albedo #genshin x reader #genshin #genshin imagines #genshin diluc #genshin scaramouche #diluc #diluc x reader #genshin fluff #albedo #albedo x reader #gorou #gorou x reader #scara #scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #lex’s writing 💫

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nightfallsolace · 2 years ago

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Hi can you do Andrew, Luca and Mike reacting to their s/o being a drummer and they play heavy metal songs?

MUAHAHAHA I've been getting so many requests, it's absolutely amazing, I've now learned and researched on e v e r y idv characters including backstory, lore, and facts, so ask away!! <33

THIS IS LONG sorry i got carried away, i love them sm,

TW!! Cursing

Identity V Characters reacting to their s/o being a drummer that plays heavy metal songs

Andrew Kriess

-OK SO LIKE, i think Andrew would be the type of guy who listens to calming music, like lo-fi or ambient music,

-he never really considered listening to heavy metal, he had heard of the name, but never actually its song,

-that is until, you somehow managed to have a whole fucking drum set in match,

-it was LOUD, you had played War Ensemble by slayer,

-Andrew had been shocked by the sudden volume of the music which made him mess up a calibration, but it was fine since you still had the hunter stunned

-You guys ended up in a 4 man win

-what you had did in the match spread like wild fire among the survivors and hunters

-AND HOLY FUCK did you become the center of attention, mostly about the whole drum thing, on how it was even logically possible, but others asked on the music,

-You spend the entire rest of the day explaining to everyone on how you had done such an act

-(Don't you dare ask me for an explanation on how I don't know either its just game logic)

-After all of it you were e x s a u s t h e d so you went over to the kitchen to make yourself a strong black coffee with extra sugar, and went outside in the garden,

-you found Andrew there sitting on a bench by the flowers, and you approached him,

-The two of you sat in an comfortable silence, until you decided to initiated a conversation that is,

-you had asked him about what he did, and the details about him, he was hesitant to answer at first, but slowly began to open up,

-poor bbg thought you were going to call him weird for his profession and looks so he was hesitant to say so :((

-but did you? fuck no, you already thought his fit was rad as fuck and knowing about what his profession is made it even better,

-”Seriously? that's literally so cool!! tell me more”

-he was blushing, his reaction is absolutely adorable <33 the only other person he would talk with these things about were Aesop, so he was glad to have someone else who didn't judge him for it

-Gosh darn i lave this man so much

-In the end of such things a strong friendship bloomed between you two, Andrew had also taken a liking to heavy metal, and you had thought him how to play the guitar, and the two of you would preform songs together, (in private, he’s still shy <33)

Luca Balsa

-You see, i see this man being into rock and heavy metal, so instant vibing,

-He was downed in a match and was about to get ballooned when you started playing

-You were halfway through the song when you noticed that Luca was still there,

-you changed one of the lyrics to "run" and glanced at Luca, hoping he would,

-and thankfully he did, he ran away just as you had finished your song, and it was down to the last chiper,

-you had lost the hunter, and all the chipers were done,

-you were at the back of the map so you sprinted towards the exit, hoping that everyone had already escaped,

-but much to your dismay, you found luca being chased by the hunter,

-you swerved the hunters attention away from luca and towards you,

-you saw luca still wasnt running, why the fuck was he not sprinting towards the exit like any normal person would? Yeah sure you might might get chaired but you still could escape trough the dungeon, even if the chances are slim, there was still a chance

-instead, he grabbed you hand and schoked the hunter before wooshing towards the exit

-the two of you escaoed levaing a raging hunter behind

-after the match you wanted to confront the prisoner on why he didnt run, but he got to you first

-"hey why didnt you run asya when the hun-" "HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO HAVE SUCH A LARGE INSTRUMENT CONCELED SO WELL?? WHAT ARE THE MECHANICS? IS IT ELECTRIC? OR DOES IT RELY ON HINGES? TELL ME E V E R Y T H I N G"

-you had explained to him how you manage to have such a large instrument conclude, the mechanics, and how it was made, (NO ONE ASK ME HOW)

-He was fascinated by how it worked, noting down each and every detail on it,

-after explaining about your instrument, he had asked about what genre of music it was, and everything about it, which you happily answered,

-you told him everything from the music, how its classified as "heavy metal" the style, the history, the famous singers and bands, everything

-by the end of it all, he was in-love (with what exactly? ;)))

-Achievement Unlocked: Rookie Recruiter

-Punk Luca omg <33 (drawing this)

-Trough the power of Monster energy drinks and ear-raping music, the two of you formed a strong bond

-and sexual tension

Mike Morton

-He was walking past your room when he heard music playing

-curious, he peeked over the crack of the door, slowly opening it to get a better view,

-he stayed there the whole time listening

-when you finnaly finished you screamed with joy, you had been practicing that song for so long, and yoy finally perfected it,

-you trew your stuff around screaming with joy,

-clapping came from you door, and you looked to see the acrobat, Mike Morton standing there

-you shrieked out of suprise “WHY THE FUCK— HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STANDING THERE???”

-He laughed and told you he had been there the whole time,

-your face flushed, “what if i messed up?? Didnt you think about that??

-He simply smiled and said ok, before asking if he gould go in

-you groaned in respond and answered yes,

-hear me out, despit mike being in a circus with all the boisterous music, I think he would enjoy music like, Orchestras and symphonies, but he would be open to other types of music

-he had mostlikely heard rumors abou the “magic drum set” but never reaaly saw it in person

-when he did doe he tought it was some magic trick, like the ones they did in the circus,

-but after the match you had explained it wasnt

-whenever your practicing or making a new song he would be there and listen, making comments and a pick up line evey now and then which would make you mess up

-dont get mad hes just having a bit of fun <33

-he wants to hear everything you play,

-i know i said he'd probably be into like, mozart or some shit but i genuinely think he would experiment with what music he listents to alot,

-if we were talking about a mordern mike he would be on discover weekly on spotify for new songs

-he would in my mind, do tricks to the music, idk why i think i do, i just do,

-helps you alot,

-might be into the aesthetic its a 50/50 chance

-but still, punk mike idk i like it

-you guys would most likely be causualy friends,

-hey maybe even more than that

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straighttohellbuddy · 3 years ago

Text

don't think i'll ever get enough {Dream}

Summary: A few moments in Y/N and Dream's life in the year after they get married. Things that change, and things that don't. Telling friends and keeping quiet. And, of course, idiots in love; so, so much (stupid) love.

A/N: 5728 words. final part, but i genuinely don't think you need to have read any of the last three to enjoy this. its so tooth-rotting, and they're so very stupid. please please please let me know if you enjoyed this series/what you enjoyed about it, because it kind of owns my heart. i'll be rereading this one for a long time to come. If it's 8am and I spent all night finishing this, don't worry about that, just read the fic!!

Warnings: implied nsfw. mentions of smp-violence. tooth rotting fluff

{ Idiots-To-Lovers 'verse } | { 4 / 4 }

"I saw on Twitter the other day, someone talking about how they missed our dynamic before..." You trailed off a little, unable to stop your faint, knowing smile, "before we started dating." You say carefully; you knew Dream would hear your hesitation, and be the only person to understand why the wording made you smile so.

"We both know the reason," Dream, you could hear, was smirking.

"Oh we both know the reason," you agreed, grinning from ear to ear, "but you're Mister Super Famous Minecraft YouTuber so you have to be careful what you say, and I may be an idiot, but I'm not foolish enough to say something on stream with you that would get you cancelled -"

"Thank you," he laughs.

"- but also, speaking of; Foosh!" You exclaim with delight, "I haven't spoken to Foolish in ages, I miss him!" Your train of thought is quick to switch tracks, suddenly fond adoration shines through your tone. "There's a few people that I've been meaning to speak to since our holiday -" Dream hums at that, but doesn't comment; you wonder if he's fidgeting with his ring at the memory like you wished you could. But your ring was sitting, gold and demure on your desk just out of frame.

[Y/N ANSWER MY TEXTS CHALLENGE] Quackity, who you knew had been watching the stream, sends, and you snort a laugh, [I MISS THE OLD Y/N WHO HAD TIME FOR LORE]

"You little goblin," you hissed with a smile, watching your chat erupt into chaos at the mere hint of potential DSMP lore with your characters. At Dream's confusion, you explain the situation, but you can hear your husband's shit-eating grin as he asks chat to spam roses.

"Fuck you," rolls off your tongue instinctively.

"Fuck me yourself, coward," Dream counters with absolutely no forethought and barely concealed glee.

"Oh no, I'm not falling for that again;" you grin, "trick me into a spite kiss on stream once, shame on you-"

"Hey, you're the one who felt the need to come and spite kiss me -" he pointed out, loftily.

"You know me and my braincell never back down from a challenge," you pointed out, and he hummed thoughtfully, though it trailed off into a laugh, and he agreed quietly, fondly.

"I need people to take me seriously in Minecraft again," you mused after a moment, and you sigh dramatically before Dream can even begin to ask you what you mean, "everyone thinks I'm silly, which-" you clarify pointedly, "I am, but I contain multitudes! Silly is a facet!" Dream is muffling his laughter behind his hand, and you're grinning despite your attempt at a serious tone, "just because I, as a content creator, only have one braincell, and that braincell happens to be allergic to my- Dream's," you catch yourself quickly, hoping your chat hadn't noticed your slip, "doesn't mean I can't craft a mean character! Once I message Q and Sam back, it's over for all you hoes!"

----

With one eyebrow painted in bleach, and carefully holding a chemical-laden brush in one hand, you pause, expression contemplative as you frowned at yourself in the mirror you'd brought into your office for the stream.

"I don't know why people assume I don't think about my future," you mused, expression as serious as you can muster, "I think about Dream all the time-"

"People assume you don't think about your future because you're an idiot," Quackity supplies, equally as deadpan, holding the bowl of bleach in one hand, though most of his focus on your chat speeding along.

You don't even seem to register what he'd said. Or, if you do, you don't seem bothered by it. After a moment, as you carefully smear the bleach on your other eyebrow, you turn, and Quackity finally looks to you, doing an incredible job of not laughing, at least until you start speaking.

"Do people really bleach their assholes? This burns on my eyebrows, I wouldn't want it anywhere near my-"

"Pretty sure they don't put hair bleach on assholes - no," he says very seriously, seeing the glint of mischief and intrigue in your eyes, barely containing his laughter, muttering, "why am I the reasonable one here, what kind of opposite day bullshit -"

"I just wanna see what all the fuss is about!"

"They don't put hair bleach on assholes to bleach them!"

"How do you know so much about asshole bleaching?!"

"Sometimes I really question Dream's tastes -"

"Don't deflect the question, Alex!" You shout through your laughter, "and don't be fucking rude!"

"You invited me here, it's like you don't even know me," he snorted, "I swear you used to seem smarter than me," he mused, squinting at you, though his tone was still light and obviously teasing. For your part, you grinned toothily at him, taking none of his insults to heart.

"That's on you, dork, do less lawyer activities," you teased fondly, to which he rolled his eyes.

"Is that your way of asking me to help bleach your asshole?"

"No..." you thought about it for a moment, really considered, "yes? No. Maybe?" You looked to your monitor as he found himself doubled over with laughter, "sub goal? What do we think, chat?"

And you and Quackity chat back and forth for a while, figuring out what number could conceivably be realistic, given that the time limit was the remainder of the stream, granted the two of you hadn't been online long and had intended this to be something of a half-day stream, with VC cameos from your various friends.

"- okay, so if we reach that before eleven, we'll spend the last hour before midnight..." you took a deep breath, scrunching up your whole face while Quackity wore a shit-eating grin, "bleaching my asshole," you sighed, like you can't quite believe you'd agreed.

"I know your viewers are dedicated, but are they that dedicated?" Quackity asked, eyes shining with mirth at your apparent regret.

And you go back to your mirror, and the task at hand.

Less than a minute later, an audio cue goes off on your stream, letting you know someone had donated some gift subs. You sighed.

"It begins," you muttered with a thin smile, squinting at yourself in the mirror, carefully wiping the bleach off of your first eyebrow with a damp cloth, as Quackity reads out -

"Thank you, Dream -" and is immediately incapacitated with laughter, as upon hearing your husband's screen name, you knew it could not mean good things. As if on cue, Dream's voice comes through the office door.

"Okay, okay, in my defence -" he's laughing too, while you're incoherently screeching, reading where he'd just gifted enough subs to reach your goal within a minute of you updating it, "in my defence it's the funniest sub goal you've ever offered."

The next few minutes are simply Quackity only half in frame, past the point of audible laughter, while you've opened the door, and everyone can hear Dream trying and failing to hold in his laughter.

"My love, my darling, apple of my eye, enchilada of my bosom -" you say with the utmost seriousness from off-screen. Only Quackity can see how you're holding Dream's face with both hands, trying desperately to keep your composure.

"Come on, tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same thing," Dream tries to match your tone, but you push on regardless.

"Love of my life, I'm begging to know why you're so insistent that our beloved friend Quackity gets acquainted with my asshole in a way that -"

"I hate this!" Quackity's practically choking on his laughter as he interrupts you, unbridled glee written all over his face, "this is fucking awful, holy shit! This is the worst idea I've ever been a part of -!"

"It's not like you're showing your asshole on camera, it's more that everyone's gonna know and I assume hear you bleaching your asshole with hair bleach," Dream's clearly delighted by this whole series of events, and even Sapnap can be heard laughing in another room, finally figuring out what's happened.

After a moment, you stalked back to your computer and muted the stream, head out of frame. Apparently you say something controversial, however, as Quackity's whole expression shifts to something wide-eyed, mouth falling open in surprise as you head back to the door, and to Dream, with the stream on mute. Everyone sees his mouth move in a distinctly 'wait, what?!' movement.

What the stream doesn't hear is you cackling as you fondly tell Dream he's an idiot, knowing him well enough that you had anticipated his response;

"Yeah, but I'm your idiot! Forever, baby!" Gleefully sticking out his hand to show off his wedding ring, hence Q's surprise. Both you and Dream confirm that it's not a bit, but that it's not public knowledge, and he takes a moment to absorb that information before nodding and grinning at you both, admitting that he's not as surprised as he thought he'd be.

When you unmute your stream, the first thing that Quackity does is raise his voice to ask Sapnap if it's always like this, living with you and Dream. Sapnap says yes, in no uncertain terms, but his voice holds nothing but affection.

"Okay, Q, I can do this on my own, and you can just... I don't know, stay on stream, behind a partition or something, I'm not going to force you to help me," you snort, "bleach my asshole, but -"

"What am I gonna do? Back out? I'm not a bitch; if you're in, I'm in."

And you, with one bleached eyebrow, egged on in your impulsivity by your husband, your chat, and Quackity himself, find yourself almost painfully grateful for the people you surround yourself with, who despite everything, seem to get you in a way that not a lot of people in the past have.

----

Considering how inconsistent both yours and Dream's sleep schedules are, if either of you has editing or some other quiet work to do, it's easy enough to tune it out and fall asleep to if either of you is working on the computer in your room. If Dream wants to stream, however, or record some kind of voice-related audio, he tends to move into the office as to not wake you up. It's a curtesy that you're grateful for, however you hadn't anticipated that it would generate some of the sweetest audio clips of the pair of you that would end up circling Twitter and Tumblr.

After a night of work, you crash into bed with Dream in the early hours of the morning. When the next day arrives, and with it a planned group stream, Dream logs on at the given time and tells the group that you'd been up all night working, and you're easily forgiven.

An hour into the stream, the door to the office opens, and Dream's focus is pulled from the game.

"Morning, baby," his voice is warm, almost syrupy, close to the affectionate way he'd sometimes been heard to talk to Patches, however, you yawn. You don't even give a proper greeting, pulling up the second seat close to him and resting your head on his shoulder.

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm sorry I'm late," you mumble sleepily, and you hear the faint greetings through Dream's headphones. You tuck your arm into his.

"We're playing Jackbox," he says, and you let your gaze drift across the screen lazily.

"You winning?"

"He wishes!" You hear someone in his headphones, and you grin as Dream laughs.

"You just gotta talk about your dick, or kissin' George -" you're pretty sure you hear someone in his headphone boo at your suggestion, and you're also pretty sure it's Quackity.

"That's how I win?" Dream teases you, voice still sweet and warm, a little muffled where he's pressing a quick kiss to the top of your head.

"Tha's how you win," you yawn again. Both you and Dream know that you're almost definitely going to fall asleep on his shoulder as he plays. You're pretty sure there's no place you'd rather be.

----

"Dream, fuck off, I'm trying to take myself seriously," you laughed, waiting for the other SMP members to log on and join you for the stream.

"You're so cute though, are you in costume?" Dream, leaning in your doorway, is grinning at you, while you've got your eyes closed, fighting back your own smile.

"I'm doing serious lore things," you crack one eye open to look at him, still trying to keep up the illusion of seriousness, "I helped Q with some cool stuff for his stream, but I'm not half as organised, so I- yeah, I'm in costume," you looked down at your mafia-esque outfit that resembled your current in-game skin.

"Okay, I love you," he says warmly, and obligingly closes the door to the study, while you sit, a little flustered from his attention, waiting. Chat was calling you cute again. You'd let them, for now.

You tried to just chatter away, and keep in mind everything that you and Quackity and Sam had discussed over the past few days, about what this stream would entail. You couldn't lie, you were excited for some of the things you'd been working on for your character to finally come to fruition.

And something about defying your audience's expectations was thrilling.

"- after everything we've been through, why can't you just listen to me, and- and- and understand that I was made Warden for a reason," Sam, who was your older brother in-canon, was yet again attempting to thwart your prison break in attempt.

"After everything we've been through?!" You spat back, but his voice rose over yours.

"I was your Warden first!" He shouted, and your mouth snapped shut at this, your character's fury radiating white-hot from you, "I kept you safe, I loved you, I never gave you reason to doubt me -"

"You weren't my Warden, you were my brother, Sam!" You shouted, trembling your lip, "like every fucking kid comes to understand their parents are flawed, I came to see the same of you; you are not infallible, you were not appointed my guardian - not my Warden - by committee, you were given that position by process of fucking elimination -"

"Don't you dare-" he snarled, but you cut him off.

"Elimination of our parents! Our parents! You were not given a choice, and I get that, okay? And I loved you for who you were, but I'm not a child, and I am not your responsibility anymore -"

"You will always be my responsibility, Y/N -"

"You don't respect me!"

"You don't respect me!" He hollered, "I raised you!"

"You made me what I am," teeth gritted, you straighten in your chair, flicking through your hotbar to begin drinking potions in-game as you spoke, "I'm just glad you never passed on your delusions of adequacy -!" And you attack him; he blocks.

"Why throw your life away for Dream?" Sam tried one last attempt at getting you to see reason, but you'd known this about your character since you'd gotten serious about the roleplay aspect of the SMP.

"Because you didn't have a choice about putting up with me," you told Sam sweetly, "and he did; cry all you want about how you raised me, but I was never a burden to him."

"I won't fight you."

"Then you'll die by my hand," you tell him, and again, you swing your sword at him -

"Could you really live with yourself?"

"I really could; can you?" Your smile is cold.

And you kill him.

Through your closed office door, where you're pretty sure your husband is watching the stream in your room, or on his phone, you hear Dream's 'oh shit!' as the stream, lagging a few moments behind, catches up.

Your heartbeat is thundering in your ears. Sam leaves the VC, and Quackity joins, asks what the fuck just happened. You're picking up Sam's things. Your whole body has been full of tension for the entirety of the stream, and there's a tension headache forming at your temples but you power on.

There's still another reveal, another betrayal, of Quackity against your character, finally admitting to visiting the prison to torture Dream for the revival information, at which point, tense and overwhelmed, tears genuinely begin to form in your eyes. Your character wants to find Foolish, who you've come to trust, or Wilbur, who's been recently revived and seems to have positive feelings towards Dream, but neither of them are online.

"Q, if you get in my way, I'll kill you too," your bottom lip is trembling.

"You're my friend, and I don't want to hurt you," Quackity says, voice heavy and serious.

"Then don't get in my way," you take a deep, shaky breath, finger hovering over the escape key, "because my brother wasn't special enough for me to spare, so don't delude yourself into thinking you would be."

Before you can even hear his response, you exit the server, and end your stream, before muting yourself in the VC, and collapse onto your keyboard, shaking and emotionally depleted. In your earphones, you can still hear Q going off to himself and his chat.

There's a soft knock at your office door, and Dream and Sapnap both let themselves in.

"Dude, holy shit," Sapnap says faintly, and you feel the adrenaline finally mixing with some relief and excitement.

"I'm ordering so much food tonight, just all of it, a buffet," you announce, face still resting against your arms on your desk as a few tired tears dampen your sleeves, "I forgot how much that takes out of me."

Raising your head, you quickly type out a grateful message to both Sam and Quackity, before finally turning away, to see Sapnap and Dream in the door, both looking at you with fondness in their eyes. When you stand, walking to them, they both wrap you up in a tight hug. The three of you, for just a moment, find stillness and serenity here; love from your best friends is exactly what you needed right now.

Later that night, where only the moon can bare witness, Dream will trace abstract shapes on your bare back, and will tell you he loves you for all that you are, and all that you're capable of.

"All this over a Minecraft roleplay?" You'll give a contented, almost dreamy smile, and he'll huff a soft laugh.

"I've loved you for long enough that you think I'd never be surprised by you, but I am."

"Good surprised?"

"Always."

----

I Lost Dream Privileges & Want Company is the name of your stream when you go live, sulking in Sapnap's room where you'd commandeered his setup in the middle of the afternoon.

"I've been banished from my office because Dream needs to take some photos," you sighed deeply, "and having me around is apparently "counter productive"?" You scoff, using derisive air quotes, "Why? I'm not allowed to tell you, chat, I'd be banned from twitch - wait!" You announced with delight as your eyes lit up.

Suddenly you're a rush of movement and excitement as you scramble around the room, and then burst from the office and around the rest of the apartment.

"Two can play at this game, chat," there's something wild and determined in your eyes as you slam back into your chair with determination, "two can play at this game!" You hiss with excitement, tapping excitedly on your desk.

"Okay, I'm going to film thirst traps, but I need to get ready to film thirst traps, so feel free to ask me questions, and send me audios on TikTok that you recommend; I'll answer the questions while I- where's... where's my eyeliner?" You look over the bundle of clothes and accessories you'd collected and brought in, trying to find it, "everyone looks good in eyeliner, chat, trust me."

And you cherry picked the questions you responded to, though sometimes you decided to humour a few of the more risqué comments; it was the least you could do considering the content you were planning to make that afternoon.

"No, I don't have a maid outfit," you mused when someone asked, "not because I'm opposed to maid outfits, I just literally don't have one," as you're fiddling with the hem of your shirt, your gaze flicks to your chat, "yeah, I have the cat ears somewhere -" eyes going wide, you leapt from your chair, "you're right chat, you're right! I'll be right back!"

By the time you get back, chat has decided to set it's collective sights on a new line of questioning, and you roll your eyes as you secure the ears onto your head.

"Dream isn't my sugar daddy, so no, he hasn't bought me..." you trailed off as you frowned at chat, giving their point some serious thought, "I mean it wouldn't hurt to ask; we both know I could just buy it myself, I can just... you know I can ask..." You go to leave for a moment, but then lean into the camera for effect, "he's not my sugar daddy, chat, don't make this weird." But you're grinning.

You leave your mic on as you head down the hall to the office, leaving Sapnap's door open and making sure both your knock and voice were loud. The stream can hear the door open, and then promptly close before anything's said. Then, Sapnap, muffled.

"I'll sabotage your dick, lemme talk to Dream!" Your response is what chat hears first, followed by quiet, indistinct squabbling between yourself and Sapnap, and the faintest laughter from Dream himself.

"Sit your ass down and finish your stream," Sapnap's marching you back into his room, back to your stream. He bends to cast a disapproving look to the camera, before straightening up and out of frame again.

"I need to know now though," you argued back, swivelling back and forth in his desk chair.

"They're accusing Dream of being my sugar daddy," you then point out, for reasons that appear to evade and confuse your housemate. Dream, now apparently in the hall, laughs louder.

"We don't pay rent," Sapnap reminds you, "they're not wrong."

"Okay, yeah," you concede, "he's our sugar daddy in the communist sense -" Sapnap moves off camera, and chat hears the bedroom door close firmly, but you still appear to be looking at him off camera. Dream, outside the closed door, protests faintly.

"Lemme see Dream all dressed up," you whined, clasping your hands together.

"As if I trust either of you!" Sapnap laughs, which has you momentarily preening at the roundabout compliment, before giving a loud, put-upon sigh, asking if you could at least ask him one question, "sure, through the door."

"Dick," you snipe at him, before raising your voice, "babe would you buy me a maid outfit?"

"Yeah, done, obviously," Dream calls back, barely waiting for you to finish your own sentence before he's agreeing, and Sapnap wheezes a laugh while you turn back to your stream, grinning and all kinds of pleased.

"That's all I wanted to know, thank you!" You smile over your shoulder at Sapnap, who sounded exasperated. The moment he opens the door, however, your gaze snaps to it -

"You look so good! What?!" Dream crows, and your entire face lights up with glee as you see him, "babe, what?!" While Sapnap groans and jokes that he's hourly.

"Sap, no come on," you stand, "babe, come back here, come on -"

"I'm sick of having the only braincell in this house," Sapnap announces, and closes the door.

Slowly, you sink back down into the desk chair, expression a little dazed and delighted. Turning back to your confused chat, you're quiet for a few more moments still, grinning from ear to ear, looking a little starry-eyed.

"Not to rub salt in the wound and remind everyone that I know what Faceless Minecraft YouTuber DreamWasTaken looks like," your smile somehow grows even wider as you sit back, almost giggling to yourself, "but he's so hot; guys," you sighed almost dreamily, "he's so hot, what the fuck?" As if you weren't live looking like a whole damn meal yourself. Predictably, your chat, and also every single social media platform you're on, goes wild with these moments, and your subsequent thirst trap videos.

[screaming crying throwing up about dream and y/n what the FUCK /pos] appeared to be the general consensus, including the moments of mostly dead air where you'd filmed the start of a TikTok to a Cardi B audio, and everyone practically saw the lightbulb go off above your head. Like lightning you're on your feet and wrenching the door open, skittering down the hall.

"This is for content, I promise! Let me in!" You announced with glee, before asking Sapnap to film yourself and Dream for the second half of your video, promising to get out of their hair after. Sapnap must have obliged you, however, as you stroll back in with the full audio playing, and you watching with adoration. Looking to your stream, you grinned from ear to ear.

"That one I have to hold on to," you say slyly, "but I'm already excited to post it." you pause for a moment, smile growing wider, "I don't think I have any content where you can physically see Dream and me together -"

[bestie i think i'd explode if i saw you and dream together] a dono was read out, and you started to practically cackle with glee confirming that that may have been your intention. This clip is taken and posted onto Twitter, blowing up with the caption;

Glad to see Y/N and Dream have gone from bullying each other to making themselves everyone else's problem.

And a month later, when Dream's photos from the Change My Clothes album shoot become public, you're both a simp and feral on main for your husband in a suit, before you get the go-ahead to post the thirst trap of the two of you.

Predictably, with you in your thirst trap outfit, and Dream in his suit and mask, side by side, his arm around you and hand low on your hip, it has waves of followers foaming at the mouth. Finally, video proof of your proximity, of your relationship. It's fifteen seconds but its everything to your fans, and quietly, to you.

@sapnap: i asked @yourtwitter how many times they'd watched their video and they said 'like 83 shut up dream's hot that's not my fault' ....... thought this honeymoon phase would have ended this is sickening

@yourtwitter: ..... do u want a smooch, buddy? come to the kitchen 4 smooch

@dream: 😘😘😘

"Last time I was in LA I was on my honeymoon," at the end of November, you finally decide to humour your Californian friends and go to visit them, on your own this time. There's an influx of content creators in LA at the time, and beside you on the balcony, Wilbur chokes on his drink.

"You what?" He splutters, and you're apologising, trying to offer a packet of tissues, though most of the drink didn't end up on Wilbur himself. Once you were sure he was alright, you took a deep breath, fully realising what you'd said; before leaving, you'd had this same conversation with Dream, and you were both okay with your friends knowing, since Quackity had known for months now.

"Yeah," you laughed a little, "I just remember because I've got a photo from then on a balcony like this," you raise your hand. There, in gold, your wedding band, subtle and unassuming.

"You're not joking right now, are you?" Wilbur asks, repositioning his glasses and leaning in to take a closer look at your ring. You're not quite sure how to respond to that in a way that he'd believe. However, it appears that he's convinced enough by the ring, because when he looks back to you, he's beaming.

"You really went and married Dream and kept it quiet for- for how long?" There's something proud and genuine in his voice, and you grin in response.

"Like seven months," that appears to come as a shock, however, and you can't help but laugh with delight, finally able to admit it, "and I know everyone thinks it was too soon, but I've... I've really never been more sure of a decision in my life, and -"

"Haven't you two been together for years?" Wilbur frowns a little, and you go quiet, expression twisting.

"Not... technically?" And despite how hard it is to explain, you're glad that Wilbur seems to understand. He takes another sip of his drink and leans back against the railing, asking if he's allowed to call Dream your lover still.

"God, absolutely not, even I hate that."

"Is househusband better?" And it's almost as bad, but in a strange way, it makes you light up with joy.

"The moment the rest of the world knows, you have my blessing," you tell him, delighted llaughter ringing from you, "you may not have Dream's, but you have mine."

----

The world finds out during MCC All Stars.

The four of you that make up the internet-dubbed Dream Team are finally together; in order to balance teams, the four of you have never been in more than duos together on separate teams, so there's a warm familiarity to be competing together.

Still, as a player, you're underestimated in the predictions, your strength as a player, especially in PVP, and consistent high ranking often overlooked due to your exuberant personality, but you couldn't bring yourself to care.

There boys were your best friends, you were married to one of them, if there was ever a group you could focus for, and fight for, it was the Dream Team.

You helped devise plans, and followed plans and orders with ease. You came third overall in Battle Box despite your team losing focus, and placed in the Top Five for both Skybattle, and Parkour Tag, coming 7th overall, while you and your boys championed your way through the games to Dodgebolt.

The second to last, however, had been Sands of Time, and Dream had kept the team focused and on task as the Sand Keeper. As the game came to an end, and your team was cheering at winning the game by what felt by a landslide, you couldn't help yourself;

"This is why I married you!" You laughed loud and bright.

"Knew there was a reason," George teased.

"Best fuckin' Sand Keeper right here," Dream crowed with confidence, "Sand Keeper, I'm a keeper; they nailed it!"

"You guys are so stupid," Sapnap's grin was loud and clear, pride bright in his voice as the cheering moved on and you all moved on for the final game. As you did, however, you chanced a look to your chat, and it hit you what you'd just said... to seventy thousand people. Twitter was going to be a nightmare.

[so everyone knows now] Dream sends, and you reply with an apology. He tells you that you don't need to apologise, he's just glad he doesn't have to hide it anymore. If you weren't seconds away from the last game before Dodgebolt, you would have marched into his room and kissed him until he was damn well breathless.

After TGTTOSAWAMCCPWHNWAEY finishes and the results are in, messages in-game begin to pop up as you assume viewers are spreading the word.

As you all waited for Dodgebolt, you pick up the ring that had been sitting just off to the side of your keyboard, putting it on your finger and grinning, listening as the boys are all joking and laughing at the others' confusion about you and Dream. They hear you typing, and ask, with mild trepidation, what you're going to send, but you don't tell them until you press enter.

[to all my dear wonderful fellow mcc as players who may have heard the news]

[no i did not come first individually]

[but my husband did]

Though the audible aside you add is heard only by your teammates who are wheezing with laughter, as you do your best impression of the John Mulaney sketch moment as you explain that 'now I've thrown them off their rhythm' regarding the team you'll be facing. If it does anything, it incites your team's laughter further, and fuels your own. A dono flashes up on screen that only knocks the wind out of you further.

[you really do wanna fuck each other so bad it makes you look stupid]

"Do either of you think before you do any of the impulsive things you do?" George asks, though where words like that would usually be said with malice, at worst, in your friend's voice, there is only fond exasperation.

"If we thought about half the impulsive things we did, we wouldn't be here," Dream points out.

"There's no way I'd be half as happy," you added, and Dream audibly awed at that, calling you adorable.

"You guys are so lucky I'm happy to see you both happy; you're so sickeningly cute some times," Sapnap groans, and you resist the urge to go and wrap him up in a hug, and you tell him as much.

"Listen, let's win Dodgebolt, and then you can give all the hugs you want."

"Buddy, you get the one, then I'm going to bother Dream until he pays me attention -"

"You really are worse than Patches sometimes," Dream says fondly, before adding, "but we did get together while you were wearing cat ears, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised -"

"Hey!" You laugh, before conceding, "I can't believe you remember that," it's strangely touching, and now you have almost a hundred thousand people in your chat crying over the reveal and the cuteness.

In the few seconds before the game begins, a dono from Dream flashes up on screen. He tells you he loves you, for the whole world to see.

"Love you too, green boy," you murmur with sincerity, even when you know both George and Sapnap will playfully protest.

Because you know it'll make Dream smile.

#dream #dreamwastaken #dream imagine #dream x reader #dreamwastaken imagine #dreamwastaken x reader #mcyt x reader #mcyt imagine #cyltlanp #idiots to lovers #Spotify

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bi-bard · 3 years ago

Text

Not Enough Time - Jack Kline Imagine (Supernatural)

Title: Not Enough Time

Pairing: Jack Kline X Reader (20)

Requested: nope

Word Count: 6,223 words (this took me three days)

Warning(s): major character death, grief

Summary: (Season 14, Episode 7/8) After Jack collapses in the kitchen, Team Free Will is left to find answers and a cure for something

Direct follow-up to this imagine: "You've Got to be Kidding Me"

Author's Note: I... avoided writing this. Adamantly. It hurts. Also, it's long as hell. I'm sorry.

Oh! I am writing this using they/them pronouns for Jack. I will be going back and editing my other Jack Kline imagines to also use the correct pronouns (There are a shit ton because I have no self-control).

If you catch a pronoun mistake in this imagine, please let me know, so I can correct it. I tried to edit this, but there's always a chance I missed something along the way. Thank you!

Hey! I did a rewrite of the ending of Supernatural. It took a really long time to complete, so it would mean a lot to me if you check it out. Here’s a link! (it’s on my personal account)

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

After Cas and Sam came back, we moved Jack to their room. They deserved to be as comfortable as possible.

My instinct was to go check the lore. Anything about losing grace or powers and what that could potentially do to a vessel. I knew that nothing was going to be about Nephilim, but I had to try.

Sam stopped me from running down the hall.

"I... I need to go look through the lore," I tried to explain.

"You need to be here," he replied. "Jack's gonna want to know you're here. Dean and I can do the research when we understand what's happening."

I nodded and leaned against the wall.

"I kissed them," I said quietly after a moment of silence. Sam looked at me in shock, but Dean's eyes just shut, and he looked down. "Right after we went on that hunt for the necromancer. I kissed them. And now... I feel like I wasted so much time."

"Hey," Dean grabbed my shoulder. "We're gonna figure this out, you hear me. Jack's gonna be fine."

I nodded again just as Cas walked out of Jack's room.

"Are they okay," Dean asked. Cas sighed.

"I... I did what I could, but I don't... I don't know what's wrong with him," Cas explained.

I walked around the group and into Jack's room. I was about to walk over and sit by them, but I got there just in time to see their body roll over the far side of the bed.

"Guys," I shouted, running over to the other side. "Jack."

They were seizing. I rolled them over so they could rest on their side.

"Get them to the car," Dean pointed at us before storming out of the room.

Sam pulled me out of the way before picking Jack up. Cas and I followed Sam through the halls, trying to make sure he didn't whack Jack's head off the wall as he was rushing.

Cas and I slid into the back seat of the impala, helping Sam get Jack comfortably across the seat. I did my best to keep their head turned to the side.

Dean was never the safest driver, but his driving that night was something else. The fact that we didn't crash was astonishing.

Jack's seizure had ended by the time we got to the hospital.

Sam and Cas supported them inside. Dean yelled for a doctor, and I just pushed past him, running up to the nurse at the desk.

"We have someone puking up blood and seizing," I rushed out. "We need to go back, now."

"I just need basic information-"

"Did you miss the seizing part-"

"It's procedure," she said. She was being way nicer than I deserved. "Full name."

"Jack... Kline," I answered. Dean was staring at me, clearly wondering how much information I was going to let slip.

"Date of birth."

"May 18th," I answered. She looked at me for the year. I looked at Dean. "...2000."

"Family medical history, let's start with the father."

"He's dead," I replied. I felt Dean hit my arm.

"Cause of death?"

"...Murder."

"Okay, okay," Dean finally cut me off. "We don't have time for this. They're sick. Their name is Jack Kline. Their dad was murdered. You've got all the basics. Now, what's he gotta do to see a doctor?"

Just as he said that Jack collapsed again.

There was a gurney out in the lobby in a matter of a few seconds. The nurses and a doctor lifted Jack onto it and started wheeling them back.

The four of us got stopped outside of Jack's room.

All we could do after that was wait. Wait for answers or some kind of idea. Something that could seem somewhat beneficial.

"This is crazy," Dean muttered. "I was worried when they became human given what we do. I thought something could've happened to him, but I thought it'd be a vampire or a ghoul, not a friggin' cough."

The doctor was walking into the room just as Dean finished his comment. Sam walked over to her.

"Doctor," he said. She grinned at him. "What do we know?"

"Well, I can tell you what we don't know," she replied. I bit my lip and crossed my arms over my chest. "Jack's test results all came back negative."

"Isn't that good," Sam asked.

"Well, Jack's very ill. We're just not sure what we're up against."

"But the tests were all negative," Dean said.

"Now we have to run more tests."

I ran a hand over my face and walked over to the glass, deciding to tune out the doctor explaining the list of tests that needed to be done.

"What's happening to them," I cut her off. "Right now, I mean."

She looked me in the eye and sighed, "Jack... Jack's in total system failure."

I felt like I was going to vomit. I closed my eyes and tilted my head down. Was I praying or just trying to hide? I honestly had no idea.

As the doctor walked away, I looked back up. Cas put a hand on my back, guiding me into Jack's room. He let me sit on the chair next to their bed. I reached out and took Jack's hand.

"Dean mentioned what happened on the last hunt," he said softly. "While we were waiting, I mean."

"Oh," I nodded, only glancing at the angel for a minute.

"We're going to get this figured out," he continued. "I promise you that. Jack is going to be okay."

"Everyone keeps saying that, but no one's come up with a solution," I muttered.

Sam and Dean walked in a few moments later.

"We're heading home," Dean explained.

"What," I asked.

"All of us," he replied. "We're taking Jack home. This hospital can't do anything because we can't explain what they're going through. Jack's situation wouldn't exactly be written about in a textbook."

"Okay," I nodded. Luckily, Jack had been starting to wake up.

Cas and Sam helped Jack get out of the hospital bed before Cas slipped over his trench coat and slid it on over Jack's hospital gown. I grabbed the plastic bag in the corner, making sure that all of Jack's clothes were in it. I handed Sam their shoes and pants.

The doctor walked back in when they saw what we were doing.

"What's going on," she asked.

"What's it look like," Dean replied. "You can't expect him to hit the street with nothing on but a hospital gown. His ass hanging out."

"He's not going anywhere," the doctor said.

"We can leave AMA," I corrected.

"We're just getting a second opinion," Sam tried to reassure her.

"Jack," she stepped forward.

"We're getting a second opinion," Jack repeated.

"If he leaves the hospital, we are no longer responsible for him," she continued. "You and he have to acknowledge that you're leaving against medical advice."

"That's what A.M.A means," I said as I followed Sam and Cas as they carried Jack out.

"We're leaving," Jack added.

When we got back to the bunker, we got Jack back into what was basically the bunker's medbay.

I grabbed a chair and pulled it over to Jack's bedside.

"Hey," I said softly.

"Hi," they muttered, reaching for my hand. I grabbed onto it gently and grinned.

"We're gonna get you help," I promised. "Sam's calling a friend. We'll get this figured out."

As if on cue, there was some shouting from the other room. Jack managed to stand on their own and walk out there. I stayed close in case they passed out again.

"If I know anything about the father, the world will be better off without the son," Rowena shouted.

"You might be right," Jack spoke up. "We're all still trying to figure that out."

Rowena glared at Sam for a moment.

"I'm Jack," Jack continued. "And I know people have a lot of strong feelings about my father, but I'm trying hard not to be like him. Sam and Dean, they say such nice things about you."

"They do?"

"You saved all of us from apocalypse world," Jack nodded.

"Well," she replied. "That's true."

"So, before you go, I just wanted to say thank you," they grinned at her.

I wonder how much coaching it took from Sam to get that guilt trip perfect.

Jack's coughing fit started right after that. I held onto their shoulders as Sam came over to help me.

"Hey, buddy," Sam muttered to them. "Hey. You're all right."

I heard Rowena sigh, "Bollocks."

"You'll help," I asked.

"I'll do my best," she replied. After making sure Sam had Jack supported, I ran over and hugged her tightly. "Okay, dear, come on. We don't know how much time we have."

Sam walked Jack into the medbay again and got them to lay down. I sat back in my seat as Rowena came in with a collection of supplies.

"Am I in your way?"

"Not at all," she replied. "Just don't touch anything."

I nodded before throwing a smile over to Jack.

The spell was quick. Rowena wouldn't answer us when we asked what was wrong. She just walked out of the room. I was about to follow her, but Jack touched my hand.

"Stay here," they muttered. "Please."

I nodded and sat back down, "I'm right here."

We were sitting there in silence for too long. I don't know how long we just relaxed together. Suddenly, Jack shot out of the bed.

"Hey," I said, going to grab them. "Jack, hey, slow down. Where are you going?"

"Somewhere," they shrugged. "Maybe Vegas. Tahiti."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm gonna die. I know that. I just... I want to experience some of the world before I do."

"Jack... slow down."

I followed Jack to their room and watched them pack a bag.

"You know I can't just let you go."

"I'm just trying to be happy."

"I want you to be happy," I moved my hands to cup their face. "I don't want you to be alone."

"(Y/n)-"

"We need to talk to Sam and Dean," I insisted.

"Please," they begged.

"Please," I replied. "I... I know what you're doing. I understand. I want you to get this chance, but... please. Just. Talk to them."

Jack let out a sigh.

"Please," I asked.

Finally, they relented, nodding before I stepped back to grab their hand. We walked out to the kitchen to see Dean making some food.

"Hey, what's with the bag," Dean asked.

Jack looked over at me and I nodded. I had too much influence here. I knew that.

I leaned up and kissed their cheek before stepping back, "I'm gonna go see if Sam needs some help with research."

I walked into the library without a word, snagging a book from a pile that Sam had grabbed before sitting down opposite him.

"How's Jack," Sam asked.

"Wanted to talk to Dean in private, so I came out here," I shrugged.

Just as he nodded, his phone rang. He stood up and walked to another table with a book resting on it. I looked over to see Rowena also frantically making calls. Cas came and sat next to me, offering a comforting grin.

"You should be with Jack."

"I'm useless by their bedside," I shrugged. "I should be helping."

"Okay," he replied. "Dean."

I looked over to the doorway as he walked in.

"The bunker's vault has a number of Enochian texts on archangels, but nothing on their half-human offspring," Cas explained.

"And I have spoken to some of the greatest minds in witchcraft," Rowena added. "And they all say there's nothing that'll help Jack."

"Well, then, they're not the greatest minds, are they," Dean replied.

"Well, I just got off the phone with Ketch," Sam said. "He's got a line on a shaman."

"A shaman," Dean asked.

"Yeah," he explained. "The British Men of Letters used to use him as a consultant. Whenever they needed to 'solve the unsolvable', he was their guy. He's an expert in mysticism, esoteric divinity. I mean, Ketch says the Brits swore by him."

"Ketch says," I muttered, rolling my eyes. Still a sore spot.

I heard Sam sigh, "Yeah... his name's Sergei. I've got a location and Ketch says he'll set up a meeting."

"Okay, I'll go," Cas nodded and stood up. "You guys stay here with..."

He trailed off as Jack walked in. I stood up after him, grinning at them. They grinned back.

"Jack," Sam said. "Hey, what're you doing-"

"We're... We're headed out," Jack explained.

I closed my eyes for a moment. I knew that Dean would agree, but it didn't calm any of my anxiety over the situation.

"You're... uh... Where," Cas asked.

"We're takin' Baby for some exercise," Dean replied.

"You think that's a good idea," Sam added.

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "(Y/n), come with us."

"I... I need to be researching. Helping-"

"These guys have a lead," Dean cut me off. "Come with us. Spend a day with Jack without... this."

I looked at Jack, "Do... Do you want me to go?"

Jack grinned a little before nodding.

"Um, yeah, okay," I looked around the room for a moment. "Let me grab a jacket and then we can go."

I jogged down to my room and snagged a jacket off of my desk chair. As I made it back to the library, the other three were staring at me. I walked up to Sam.

"I'm sorry-"

"You're not doing anything wrong," he shook his head before pulling me into a hug. "Don't think about any of this. Try to have a good day."

I nodded before stepping back, "I'll see you later."

He nodded.

I followed Jack and Dean out to the car, feeling this sense of guilt in my stomach. I wanted to spend a day with them, but there were pressing issues at hand. I needed to be working.

Dean told us to wait for a second while he moved the car a little bit. I just blindly nodded, not quite listening.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt Jack grab my hand. I grinned at them.

"Hey kid," we both looked at Dean. He tossed the keys to Jack. "Why don't you drive?"

"What," Jack asked.

"That's why you moved the car," I guessed. "Didn't want to make Jack back out of a spot?"

"Didn't want Jack to scratch Baby in the process," Dean shrugged.

"I don't drive," Jack shook their head.

"Now you do," Dean replied. "Get in."

I sighed before sliding into the backseat. Jack got in the driver's side while Dean jumped in the passenger seat.

"You'll be fine," I said, trying to be encouraging.

I bit my lip as Dean explained how to start the car. I was not going to laugh at them when they were clearly overwhelmed.

They managed to get a hold of it eventually, starting to drive down the road without not a lot of guidance.

"It's like I'm you," Jack said excitedly, looking at Dean for a moment.

"Yeah... no," Dean replied quickly. "I'll tell you something though; you're doing a lot better than (Y/n) did the first time they drove."

"Dean, the first time I drove, you were bleeding out in the backseat and Sam was patching you up while simultaneously trying to yell instructions at me," I said. "Pretty sure Jack and I had very different learning environments."

"Details, details," Dean replied sarcastically, waving me off. I rolled my eyes.

The rest of the day felt like it was a world away from what had happened in the bunker. After driving for a while, Dean took Jack and me out fishing. We sat on the edge of a river and just relaxed. Quiet and secluded. I resigned myself to leaning on Jack's shoulder, ignoring the stress that we had driven away from and the stress that we were inevitably going to face.

"Bait and beer," Dean said after a while. "You are a cheap date. Certainly not Tahiti."

"You once told me that you and your dad did the same thing," Jack replied. "It was your happiest memory of him."

"I didn't say that," Dean argued.

"It was how you said it," Jack explained. "I guess my point is that... if I don't make it... the stuff I'd miss wouldn't be things like Tahiti. Or the Taj Mahal. I'd miss more time with you. I'm getting that life isn't all these big, amazing moments. It's time together that matters. Like this."

I turned my head so I could hide my face, wanting to ignore the tears that were coming to my eyes. I pressed a kiss to Jack's back before resting my head against it.

"Well, who'd have thought hanging out with me would make you sentimental," Dean joked, taking a sip of his beer.

"I've had a good life," Jack said.

Just not enough of it, I thought.

We didn't spend a lot of time there after that before Dean stood up, "Let's go. I've got something special for you two."

He started climbing back to the car while Jack and I got packed up. Dean jumped into the driver's seat. Jack got in the front seat, and I jumped into the back.

"Where are we going," I asked as Dean started driving.

"None of your business," Dean replied.

"Okay," I chuckled.

A little while later, Dean pulled up outside this little ice cream stand.

"Here," Dean passed the credit card back to me.

"Why," I asked, suspicious.

"You two are going on a date."

"Are we?"

"(Y/n)," he turned around to face me. "You two have both faced too much for your age. You deserve just an element of a normal relationship. So, go. Have some ice cream and be all sappy together. I'll be right here in case anything happens."

"Thank you," I said. I tapped Jack on the shoulder. "Come on."

The two of us got out of the car and walked up to the woman that was inside.

We found a picnic table that was in Dean's line of sight and sat down together.

"This is nice," Jack said as we both relaxed. "I wanted to take you on a date. A real one. I just... I didn't have a chance."

"Story of our lives, huh," I joked.

"Thank you," they continued. I tilted my head. "You've been so supportive through all of this and... that means a lot to me. Thank you."

"You're welcome," I smiled and leaned over to grab their hand. They smiled back. "But let's talk about something else. Anything."

"Do you have any hunting stories," they asked. "Any that you haven't told me?"

"Uh, yeah," I nodded. "I could tell you about the time when Dean and Sam had to do a hunt completely drunk..."

So, that's what we did.

We took our turns rambling and chatting. Like young people were supposed to on dates. It was nice. It was the only time I had truly pushed my stress and guilt out of my mind. I just had better things to focus on.

After we were done with our ice cream, we both made our way back to the impala. Dean was sitting in the front seat, clearly asleep. I stopped Jack and motioned for them to be quiet.

I walked over to the driver's side and saw the window was open. It was like leaving a dog in the car.

I reached in slowly and pressed down on the horn before jumping back quickly.

Dean shouted a little as he woke up. He glared at me immediately. I looked over at Jack, who trying not to laugh at Dean's reaction.

"Whatever, lovebirds, get in the damn car," he muttered before starting the engine.

I climbed into the backseat while Jack got back in the passenger seat.

We drove back to the bunker after this.

There was a distinct shift as we pulled in. The calm energy from leaving had melted back to welcome the return of the anxiety that I knew was going to be there.

Jack grabbed my hand as we walked inside.

Rowena was waiting for us. She guided up back to the medbay area and told Jack to sit down. I stood back and just watched her work.

The other three walked in soon after us.

"What's that," I asked, noticing the box in Sam's hand.

"It's from Ketch's contact," he explained. "Archangel grace."

"Wow," I muttered.

"And this Sergei is legit," Dean asked.

"I mean, he was definitely odd, but he seemed honest," Cas replied.

"So, we're still not certain this is gonna work," Sam asked.

"No, we're not certain, but..."

"Gentlemen," Rowena said to get their attention. I stepped back so I was next to Cas. "Are you ready, Jack?"

They nodded, "Yes."

I watched Sam hand Jack the grace as Rowena said the spell. After Jack inhaled the grace, the lights in the bunker started flickering.

Jack looked up and their eyes glowed for a moment before they stood up.

"Something," Jack muttered.

"Something good," Cas asked as he stepped forward.

Jack grinned, "I think so."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Definite improvement," they muttered.

I went to step forward and hug them, but they doubled over and hissed in pain.

"Jack," I asked.

"Did you say the words right," Dean snapped at Rowena.

"I did," she shouted.

Jack collapsed to the ground a few moments later. I rolled them over to see them unconscious again.

"Say them again," Sam yelled.

Dean helped me lift Jack back into the bed again. Ground zero. Back to where we started. Except now, Jack was worse.

I sat on the chair next to Jack's bed as Rowena used her powers to scan over them again. My leg was shaking relentlessly, and I felt the tears burning my eyes as I studied their face.

I was silently willing them to wake up. To come back. We deserved more time.

I could hear the boys mumbling to each other behind me.

Rowena stood up straight again and gave me a somber look.

"No," I denied. "Please don't tell me."

"(Y/n), I'm sorry."

"Faced the damn apocalypse world together. Faced Lucifer. Watched over them when they were scared and alone. And this is the one thing I can't fight. At all."

Rowena circled the bed and pulled me into a hug.

"What can we do," Sam asked from the top of the steps. Rowena stepped back from me.

"Watch over them," she replied. "Stay by their side... as they die."

I felt my entire body tense at the word.

The boys moved Jack to their room a few minutes later.

The four of us just waited there until Jack finally started to wake up.

"Hey, hey, hey," Sam said as Jack tried to move. "It's all right. Take it easy."

Jack grumbled as they finally manage to rest against the headboard. They looked over at me. I offered them a sad grin, pulling their hand up to kiss their knuckles.

"Please don't be sad," Jack asked all of us. "Maybe... Maybe this is how things are supposed to be."

"No," I shook my head.

"Don't give me that 'meant to be crap,'" Dean snapped. "This isn't a part of some damn plan."

"Dean," Cas said.

Jack started coughing again, grabbing the oxygen mask that Sam had tracked down somewhere.

Dean finally stormed out. Jack looked at me again.

"Can you tell him... it's okay," they asked after their coughing subsided for a moment.

"You can tell him yourself," I answered. "He'll come back."

"Sam," they turned to look at the other Winchester, who was barely holding it together. "What happens next... for someone like me?"

"I don't know," Sam answered honestly.

"Then, it'll be an adventure," Jack put on a sad grin.

I let out a shaky breath as they laid back down.

Jack looked back at me. I just pulled their hand up to my lips again, holding it there as tears finally fell.

I don't know who I was trying to comfort, them or me or Sam or even Dean on the other side of the door. But as I clung onto Jack's hand, I quietly started humming.

"Hey Jude". Just like Mary had sung for Dean. Just like Dean had sung for me. Just like I had sung for Jack when they first got to the bunker.

I saw Sam look down and run his hands over his face.

The melody turned shaky and slow as I watched Jack's breathing slow down. I gave up when I saw it stop. I put down their hand reached over and check for a pulse.

Nothing.

I finally let out a quiet sob, pulling my hand back to cover my mouth.

Dean and Cas walked back in. I looked at them.

"Jack's... Jack's gone," I said.

I was immediately pulled from my spot and into a crushing hug by Cas. I closed my eyes as I finally let all of the pressure and fear from the last few days come out. All of it hit at once.

"Kid," I stepped back to look at Dean. "This isn't a debate or a discussion. You are gonna go lay down. You have not slept an ounce in the last... I don't know how many days. Now go."

"If you guys are staying-"

"You're still a kid," he cut me off. "It is our job to take care of you. Now try to get some rest."

I was going to continue arguing, but I couldn't. I was just too exhausted.

I spent the next few hours in my bed. I tried to sleep, but the first thing I saw when I closed my eyes was Jack dying.

After spending hours trying to sleep and maybe getting 45 minutes, which is being generous, I gave up.

"God fucking damn it," I muttered. I changed my clothes and walked back out into the library.

No one was there.

I could hear them talking in the kitchen. Laughing.

I walked in slowly, arms folded as if I was trying to hide myself. Sam spotted me before the other two. He grinned softly before holding out a candy bar.

I hesitated for a moment before stepping forward and taking it from him. I sat in the seat next to him. Dean and Cas offered me small smiles. I leaned on Sam as I listened to them tell stories.

The brief moment of joy was refreshing.

It didn't fix what had been done, but it made it feel a little less hopeless.

The stories must've been what I needed to get me to rest. Because the last thing I remembered was listening to Dean recount the story of Jack and me waking him up after our date. Then, I was waking up in my room. Cas was sitting in the corner.

"Hi," I mumbled as I sat up.

"Hi," he replied. "I wanted to watch over you. Try to make sure you slept properly."

"Thank you," I grinned as I got up, pulling on my flannel and my shoes. Sam must've let me sleep in my jeans.

"Also, Sam called in help."

"Help," I asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Come on."

We walked out to the library to see a woman standing by Sam at the map room table, talking about something sitting on the table.

"Hello," I said awkwardly. The woman looked at me. "Lily Sunder, right?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I heard about your situation. I'm sorry to hear about it."

"Thanks," I awkwardly muttered.

Castiel walked over to help them. I couldn't quite tune in on anything being said.

"So, it's possible," was the first thing my ears actually seemed to register. I walked over to the table quickly.

"Maybe," Lily nodded.

"Maybe what," Dean asked as he stumbled in from the kitchen.

"Hello, Dean," Lily greeted.

"Dean, you remember Lily Sunder," Cas explained.

"You got old," Dean commented.

"Did I," she asked sarcastically. "An unfortunate side effect of giving up magic, I suppose."

"What are you doing here?"

"I called her," Sam replied.

"Okay," Dean muttered. "Last thing I remember was her killing a whole bunch of angels to get revenge for her daughter. She tried to kill you."

"Yeah, I remember," Cas mumbled.

"Listen," Sam sighed. "Sometime last night, it hit me. We've torn through all the lore looking for a way to cure Jack, right? But we never looked through Kevin's angel tablet translations."

"Yeah, because they're worthless," Dean replied.

"Aren't they written in some kind of language that only prophets can read," I asked. "And I hate to say... Donatello's kind of out of commission."

"Maybe I can read them," Lily suggested.

"You're not a prophet," I said.

"She's the next best thing," Sam explained. "She's an angel expert that's tapped into their magic in ways that we didn't even know existed. So, if she can read the translations, then maybe we can pull off a miracle."

"What kind of miracle," Dean asked.

"A way to bring Jack home," Cas answered. I let out a breath.

"Okay," Dean replied. "Go for it."

When Sam tried to speak up, she shushed him.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't read it."

I was thankful I hadn't gotten my hopes up.

"Oh, all right," Dean rolled his eyes. "Well, thanks for stopping by."

"Wait," she insisted. "You can use my magic."

"Your magic," Cas asked.

"The magic I used, as you so sensitively put it, to get revenge for my daughter," she explained, "You said your Nephilim kid- Jack- without their angel grace, their human body died. My magic draws power from the soul, the human soul. It could save them."

"You'd give your soul up," I asked, arms crossing over my chest.

"Not my soul. Theirs."

"Pass," Dean answered.

"It's not their entire soul, obviously," she continued.

"How much," I stood up a little taller.

"As long as they're only using it to sustain their body, it won't cost much. They'll never miss it."

"What are we even talking about," Dean asked. "It's too late. Jack's dead. Their soul's gone, right?"

"Maybe not," Cas answered. "If Jack's soul is in heaven, I might be able to pull their soul into his body. It would only be for a few seconds."

"That's all the time I need," she replied. "If I can open the door, your kid can use my magic to stay alive. A resurrection and a cure."

"What are you getting out of this," I asked. "Sorry, but... you never met them. Why would you be so eager to help?"

"I'm hoping to trade."

"Trade what," Sam said.

"I'm old and dying," she explained. "And when my life is over, I'm pretty certain I'm going to hell."

"Why?"

"I murdered a lot of angels," she replied. "I don't expect them to welcome me with open arms. So, you want my help, get me into heaven."

Dean motioned at Sam and me to follow him over to the other side of the library.

"You know what my answer's gonna be," I muttered, leaning back on the table. "It's a second chance."

"(Y/n)," Dean said. "This is Jack's soul we're talking about. Sam?"

"Well," Sam replied. Dean looked at him in shock before looking at Cas.

"I think that Jack should decide for themself," Cas replied.

"Listen, I know how important a soul is," Sam continued. "Believe me, I do. But if we have a shot at saving them and bringing them back-"

"Look, even if we do this, how are we supposed to get her upstairs," Dean asked. "Do we talk to Death? Billie? Kidnap a reaper?"

"Death is powerful, but she and her reapers, they don't decide who goes up and down."

"Who does," Sam asked.

Cas walked over to one of the shelves, pulling out a book and laying it on the table. I waved Lily over to join us.

"Anubis," Cas explained. "Guardian of the Dead. The Ancient Egyptians believed that when you die, Anubis would then weigh your heart against his justice feather."

"Yeah, the weighing of the heart ceremony, right, but that wasn't Anubis. That was Osiris. We met him."

"Major dick," Dean muttered.

"Osiris is Anubis's father," Cas said. "Heaven passed over him when they enlisted his son."

"Anubis works for heaven," Lily asked.

"He doesn't work for heaven; he works with heaven. When God left, we needed a new judge and Anubis was the obvious choice."

"Great, so let's summon him," Sam said.

"You can do that," Lily looked at all of us. "You can summon a god?"

"Done it before," Dean shrugged.

Sam and Dean started getting the library set up while I went to help Lily in whatever way I could. Cas was trying to get in touch with heaven.

"How long have you and Jack been together," she asked as she was scribbling down instructions.

"Not long," I replied with a shrug. She glanced at me. "They collapsed the same day we had our first kiss."

"Oh," she muttered.

"Yeah, call it shitty timing," I tried to joke. She gave me a sad smile. "Anyway, what all are you writing?"

"Just the spell that they need to read out after their soul is back."

"Thank you," I said. "In case I forget to say it."

"You're welcome."

The rest was a bit of a blur.

It was all just summoning Anubis and trying to convince him to let Lily in. I just wanted to make it to the end of the entire event. And then Lily threatened to leave when it was revealed that we couldn't get her into heaven.

"Lily," Sam said. "I know you're upset, but you can still do the spell."

"That wasn't the deal," she replied. "I've gotta go."

"You're kidding," I snapped.

"(Y/n)-"

"Shut up, Sam," I cut him off before getting in Lily's face. "You sat there and gave me this bullshit sympathy. You acted like you felt sorry for me and then the moment we weren't useful, you take off?"

"I'm sorry-"

"I don't believe you," I shrugged. "I think at your heart, you're a coward. And I don't think you'll ever truly grow past it. Because you burned so much of your soul, that all of your guilt is gone. You are purely led by your own desires. How else could you force people to go through what you did?"

I motioned to the brothers, "Losing a kid."

I pointed back at myself. "Losing a partner. Someone you... love."

She looked from me to the boys, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"I'll stay," she agreed.

"Then let's get going," Dean said.

The boys were setting up the library for when Jack's soul came back. It was just two tables covered with a cloth that Sam and Dean laid Jack's body on top of.

I stood next to Lily as we waited.

We all jumped when Jack suddenly shot up on the table, immediately going into a coughing fit.

Dean and Sam ran forward, pushing him to read whatever Lily had written. I saw Lily grab her chest and walk away.

I watched her sit in one of the armchairs. The two of us made eye contact for a moment before she grinned at me. I grinned back and nodded at her. She nodded back before closing her eyes and relaxing into the chair.

I turned back to the scene going on at the table. It all seemed to have gone well. No more chaos. Just a few moments to adjust to the environment.

I slowly walked up to the other side of the table, stopping a few steps short as I watched Sam and Dean hug Jack.

As the two of them stepped back, Jack looked over at me.

Dean looked at Sam and nodded toward the map room. Sam nodded and the two of them walked out.

I circled the table quickly, pulling Jack into a tight hug. I felt them hide their face in my shoulder. I smiled as they pulled me closer.

After a few minutes, I leaned back so I could look Jack in the eye. They smiled at me. We sat there for what felt like forever, just trying to accept that we were together.

I took a deep breath before leaning over slowly. I hesitated for a few seconds before gently pressing my lips to theirs. It only lasted for a few moments before I slowly pulled back and rested my forehead on theirs.

"How're you feeling," I asked.

"Better," Jack muttered. "I thought that I was never gonna see you again."

"So did I," I admitted, blinking back a fresh wave of tears. I nudged my nose against their's.

"I saw my mom," they said. "I told her about you. She wanted me to thank you for her."

That made the tears spill over. I moved to hug Jack again, hiding my face in their shoulder.

It felt like time had been reversed.

I grinned a little as Jack pulled me closer. It was like the bunker had just faded around us. It was just the two of us in our own small space. No monsters or hunting or risks or anything else.

It was... perfect.

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

Masterlist

What I Write For

Some Original Characters

folklore/evermore Writing Challenge (and Masterlist)

Maisie Peters - “You Signed Up for This” Writing Challenge Masterlist

Lizzy McAlpine - “five seconds flat” Writing Challenge Masterlist

#jack kline imagine #jack kline fanfiction #jack kline x reader #fanfiction #imagine #x reader #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural imagine #supernatural x reader #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester imagine #dean winchester x reader #sam winchester x reader #sa #sam winchester imagine #sam winchester fanfiction #castiel imagine #castiel x reader #castiel fanfiction

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roxannarambles · 3 years ago

Text

title: ships that pass in the night

ship: goldenlight (luz x hunter)

notes: got inspired when I saw this comic, so I used it as an opening prompt. set soon after “hunting palismen.”

parts: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part10 Part 11

tags: angst, fluff, discussion of magic lore, friendship, crushes

Luz yawned as she ascended the stairs. That had been one too many episodes of that violent, gory show that King had been watching on the magic ball, on top of an already very busy day, and she was beat. As she opened the door to her room, she called over her shoulder,

"Eda, tell King I'm very tired and if he doesn't hurry up he might miss his goodnight kisses."

When she entered her room, however, she froze in place. Across from her, the stained-glass window was pushed wide open, and the Golden Guard was hanging halfway through her window, having wormed his way in on his stomach.

Luz blinked. He stared up at her, completely frozen. He held the bookbag she'd left sitting on her sleeping bag, one of his hands inside it.

"It's not what it looks like," he blurted.

Luz wore a very unamused expression as she stepped closer.

"Man, I wish I knew what it looks like."

"Ok, before you call the Owl Lady, just let me explain."

Luz crossed her arms.

"You better start talking fast."

He dropped the bag, its contents gently spilling out onto her sleeping bag, and he scooted back slightly.

"U-uh, well. So, um. It's like this, you see . . ."

"Faster," Luz said, raising a brow. He jerked and stammered out,

"I-I was trying to reproduce the glyphs I saw you use, and it wasn't working, and I couldn't remember exactly how it looked, and I just needed to see them again, so I . . ."

He trailed off and then gave a meek little shrug. Luz just stared in exasperation a moment, and then pinched the bridge of her nose, too tired for this nonsense.

"And it didn't at any point occur to you to, like, just ask like a civil, normal kind of person would? You really thought climbing in here and scavaging through my stuff like some kind of raccoon was better?"

She couldn't see his expression through his silly mask, but she heard him give a dry little laugh.

"Right, ask you. As if that would work. You're just going to hand over one of your spells to the enemy?"

Luz hesitated.

"Well, I dunno, maybe I would have if you decided to stop being such a big jerk!"

The Golden Guard shifted, trying to make his ridiculous position in the window slightly less awkward, and quickly said,

"Look, never mind. This was a bad idea to begin with and I knew it, and I did it anyway, and I just-- I'm just gonna go, forget I was here. You can check your stuff, everything's here, I didn't take anything."

Luz came closer and knelt down to examine the papers and stuff that had spilled from her bookbag, while the Golden Guard began to extract himself from her window. He'd been telling the truth, nothing was missing.

She glanced up at him, his birdlike mask giving the impression of someone impassive, calculating, heartless. But the hood to his cloak had slipped down, so she could see his hair and his ears sticking out. Ears that were flushed red with embarrassment, she noticed.

"Wait, hold on."

He had been just about to flee, but he stopped.

"What?"

Luz brushed through her things for a second and picked up a green, ring-bound notebook. She stood and held it out to him.

"This one isn't mine, you must have dropped one of your own notebooks in here."

He looked down at the notebook. His voice came, puzzled;

"This isn't mine."

"Well it's not mine, so it must be yours," Luz answered in a level tone.

"But I didn't even--"

Luz pushed the notebook firmly at him, and gave him a meaningful look. She repeated calmly,

"It's definitely your notebook."

He stared at her for a beat. A very, very slight smile reached Luz's face.

"A-ah, r-right," he stammered awkwardly.

"I . . . I guess it must be."

He accepted the notebook slowly.

". . . thanks."

He tucked it under his arm, then glanced around and added,

"And, uh, sorry for. Um. This."

Luz waved it off.

"Pssh, no worries. But you'd probably better leave before Eda sees you, because she'll definitely kill you, magic or not."

He nodded curtly.

"Right."

He flipped his hood back on and stepped back, readying his staff.

"See ya."

And then he swooped away on a flash of red magic. Luz watched through the window.

She shook her head.

She thinks it's the last she'll hear of it. But one week later, while she's busy working on some homework in the evening, there's a distinct tap at her window. Cautiously, she stood and went over, opening the window.

She's surprised to find the Golden Guard's face there again. Not really alarmed, oddly enough-- just surprised. Lightly, she quipped,

"Oh, hello mysterious and slightly creepy masked man visiting me at an alarming hour!"

He replied,

"Hi!"

Then he pulled something from his cloak and tossed it through her window, so it landed on her sleeping bag with a plop.

"I came to give you this back."

It was her notebook. Luz picked it up with a faint smile. She didn't actually expect him to return it. After thumbing the pages for a few seconds-- yep, it was still all there-- she asked,

"So did it help at all?"

The Guard was silent, but turned away slightly. After a few beats, he said,

"It did, yeah. I was . . . really skeptical at first, considering how few base glyphs there seem to be. But your notes at the end on the different combinations made me realize I was wrong."

He turned to her, and despite being cloaked with a mask, she could sense his eager energy.

"If these glyphs really are like an archaic alphabet or vocabulary, then just the same way words can construct almost endless combinations, their versatility is potentially endless. The last combination you wrote about was especially--"

He stopped himself short. Clearing his throat, he waved a hand and said,

"Didn't come here to chat, sorry. Just to give you that back. And to, uh . . . give you this."

He pulled something else out from his cloak and handed it to her. It was a book. Luz glanced over the cover and her eyes widened.

"Roots in Ice and Flame . . . the same author as Bones to Earth? I've never seen this one before!"

The Guard crossed his arms and leaned against the frame of the window, looking a little proud of himself.

"That's because Lord Belos has almost every single book on wild magic rounded up and locked away. Even before then, this book was rarely in circulation."

Luz looked at him with amazed eyes.

"Y-you're letting me have this?"

He raised a finger.

"Borrow. I'll be back in one week to retrieve it."

That was still incredible. Sincerely, she answered,

"Wow. Thank you, Hunter--"

He lifted his artificial staff to gesture with it.

"But don't get the wrong idea about this. You did me a favor, so I'm returning the favor. I don't like being in anyone's debt. We're even now, you understand?"

Luz blinked at him. She felt the excitement inside her wilt into disappointment.

"Ok," she answered, her voice stiff. She added quietly,

"But, thank you anyway."

"Hmmph," the Guard answered, turning to leave. As she watched, something popped into her head.

"Wait, one sec!"

He stopped.

"What?"

Luz ran to grab something off a shelf and brought it back over. She handed him a small cloth bag. His voice tense, he looked at it and asked,

"What you are doing?"

Luz smiled impishly and rocked on her heels.

"Weeeeell, a little birdie might've told me that a certain cardinal Palisman found himself a new witch! And while 'Lil Rascal was visiting me, he really loved those seeds. I know Palismen don't need to eat, but I figured he'd enjoy the rest."

The Golden Guard opened the little bag and stared at it for a while, remaining silent. Eventually, he spoke, his voice a little uneven.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have any palisman."

Luz raised her brow and studied him. Well, as well as she could study him, considering the mask he liked to hide behind.

"Well, maybe I was mistaken. But I guess it's still a nice snack, in any case."

The young man stood there, as still as a statue. Finally, he said,

"This, this doesn't-- if you're giving me things so you can expect more favors from me in the future, I can promise you right now, that isn't gonna happen."

Luz shook her head.

"No expectations. I just wanted to do it."

She glanced away.

"I know this might be hard for you to understand, but . . . sometimes people really want to do something nice just to do it."

The Guard scoffed and said with confidence,

"Everyone always wants something."

Suddenly, there was a small crash coming from downstairs, and they both glanced in the direction of the sound. Luz winced and said,

"Sorry, I think I should go check on King and Eda. They're probably fighting over who gets to pick what to watch on the magic ball again."

"I'm headed out anyway."

After a second of hesitation, he tucked the little cloth bag into his robes. Then he turned to go, readying his staff. Luz wasn't sure what else she could say to him, but then he turned to look back at her over his shoulder, just slightly.

"And thanks," he muttered quietly. She barely even caught it, but she was certain he said it.

Then he flew away.

The third time the Golden Guard paid Luz a visit, it caught her off guard. It was several days after a week had passed, and much later in the evening. Luz was actually asleep, but she woke to the sound of gentle tapping. It took her a while in her bleary, half-awake state to piece together that it was the sound of Hunter's staff on her window.

She hastily lit a candle and then opened the window.

"Hi there," he says, his voice lowered so as not to wake the rest of the household. She blinked at him, truly confused at first about his late-night visitation, before it dawned on her.

"Oh, right, your book! I almost forgot. Hold on, let me get it."

He moved to sit on her windowsill as she went to retrieve his book. She'd gotten a little more organized over the past week and had set up a makeshift desk in her room. Quickly, she grabbed a few sheets of fire glyphs she kept nearby and lit a few more candles, then shuffled through the things on her desk. There were layers and layers of books, papers and notepads from her intense study of the borrowed book. Finally, after shifting over a large stack of glyphs, she found the book buried underneath.

Suddenly, the Guard’s voice cut through the hushed room.

"Did you enjoy it?"

Clutching the book, Luz turned and beamed at him. She was too tired to question whether he was asking sincerely or not; instead, all her giddiness from the past week of study spilled out.

"I loved it! Dang, that Mr. Gramarye really sounds cool when he writes, everything's so poetic. But yeah, you have no idea how many gaps in my knowledge it helped me fill in. Like, I almost feel like I have some sort of real understanding now of the deeper principles underlying all this glyph stuff."

Luz frowned and added, "Wow, I sound nerdy." She shook her head and carried on,

"Anyway, it's really exciting, because I've been able to create some really complicated new glyph combos with it!"

Still perched on her windowsill, the Guard asked,

"Really?"

"Yeah! Oh, I've also refined a few combos and I'm currently working on something that will bend light in other cool ways. It's still got problems but I think I'll be able to work it out eventually."

Sounding excited, the Guard began to step into her room, asking,

"What part are you stuck on? Maybe we could--"

But then he froze. He let out a breath and pushed himself back up on the windowsill.

"Sorry, that's not why I'm here," he said quietly.

Luz came closer, much closer, until she stood directly in front of him. She tried to catch his gaze through the mask and asked,

"Then why are you here, Hunter?"

He seemed to ruffle a little.

"To get my book back, obviously."

Luz snorted.

"Look, it's obvious you want to collaborate--"

"I can't," he interrupted harshly, startling her. They stared at each other for a few beats. Then, quieter, with a hint of regret, the Guard said,

"It's . . . just too dangerous. These are raw, unfettered forces we're messing with. Sooner or later that's going to blow up in your face."

Luz looked down at the book in her hands, thinking. She glanced up at him.

"You've obviously been studying wild magic anyway, despite the fact you think it's dangerous. So some part of you must think it's worth the risk."

He turned his head away. She took a breath and asked,

"What is it that you hope to achieve with this?"

The Golden Guard was very quiet and still for a while, turned to one side. He seemed to become absorbed in absently tracing the handle of his staff with his gloves.

Luz began to think he wasn't going to answer, but then he finally spoke. His voice was the softest tone she'd heard from him so far.

"Despite its danger . . . I see how much raw power and potential there is in it. And I think maybe if it's handled right, it might be used for some incredible things, even . . . to help people who otherwise can't be helped."

Luz looked at him curiously.

"Help people? You mean . . . like people who are hurt or sick?"

He nodded slowly. Luz sensed there was more to it then that, like there was a specific somebody he wanted to help. But, she didn't want to push it, knowing how quickly he could clam up.

Instead, she said,

"Ok, so I may not know your whole deal, but to me, that sounds like a good cause. If you really do want to help people, don't you think it's worth the risk?"

He was quiet, but she took it as encouragement to continue.

"And I know you don't believe me, but for what it's worth, as somebody who's been working with wild magic for a while now, and somebody who knows a wild witch very well-- it is safe if it's handled properly. I think it's just like any sort of power. In the wrong hands it can be misused, sure, but you could say that about anything."

His head was lowered, but she was getting to him. Maybe. Hopefully.

"Anyway, in the end you're your own person. So, regardless of whatever they tell you in the Emperor's Coven, you get to make your own choice, right?"

Her words hung in the air for a while. She waited patiently, still holding his book, wondering what was going through his head.

She wasn't sure how much time passed in the tense silence, but eventually he hopped off the window ledge, stepping into her room.

"All right," he said gently, and Luz fought the urge to immediately whoop in victory, but holy crap, he was actually agreeing, what, how did she manage to do this?

It took a gargantuan effort to reel in her enthusiasm, but she squashed her 'whoop' down into an excited little squeak. Then she handed him the book and bounced over to her desk.

"Ok, ok, forbidden midnight study party it is then!"

She started to energetically pick through her piles of notes to try and sort them.

"Sorry for the mess, my system of organization is sort of just 'chaos incarnate,' but it works for me. Oh, here, you'll probably want to look at these first."

He silently took the stack of papers from her and tried to read them, but Luz noticed he was holding them very close to his face, and she laughed.

"Uh, I know you love the whole broody mystery man thing, but that might be a little easier if you took your mask off."

"I guess," he admitted quietly, and slid the mask from his face, his hood fluttering down at the same time. Luz turned to look and stopped, her breath catching. It suddenly felt very strange finally seeing his face again; somehow it seemed so different now, with him standing so near beside her in just the flickering candlelight of her bedroom. Was he, uhh, always kinda cute? Maybe just a little bit? Was it just because he wasn't trying to kill her now that she was finally noticing?

"Hi," she said, dismayed at how her face was warming up.

"Hi," he answered, sounding a little awkward, glancing away.

Luz felt like she understood why he was so attached to wearing that stupid mask. His eyes were remarkably expressive. It almost made him seem like an open book. They were so strange, too; such a striking shade of hot pink, not a color she'd ever seen in another witch before. And so intense, almost like--

"What? Why are you staring?"

Luz jerked, nervous laughter bubbling out,

"Ahaha, what, no, no-- I was just thinking! Right, so, you start with-- those! I don't think you've seen them before, so you're in for a surprise."

He took up the first sheet in the stack of papers, studying it.

"Can you guess what it does?" Luz quizzed him, grinning. He frowned, tracing some of the pattern with a finger, lost in thought. He shook his head and admitted,

"I have no idea."

Luz took the paper from him and gestured dramatically.

"Behold! Keep your eyes on me, if you can."

With a wink, she slapped her hand on the paper, activating the glyph. From her perspective, nothing happened, but from Hunter's stunned look, she had proof enough it had worked just fine.

"Wh-what?!"

She let out a mischievous giggle.

"That's incredible!" He reached out into the space she used to occupy, but his hands simply passed through air.

"Wait, so are you-- is this invisibility or are you actually incorporeal, too? How long does this last? How do you reverse it?"

Luz quietly tip-toed past him, grinning, unable to resist messing with him just a little. From behind him, she leaned in and said into his ear,

"Boo."

The startled jump he gave was extremely satisfying, as was the tiny "gahh!" he made. He whipped around and she jumped back but he managed to grab her arm with a gloved hand-- damn, he had some quick reflexes. He stared, as his hand seemed to be clasping empty air.

"So it is just invisibility," he concluded, marveling at the sight of, well, nothing. Then, all at once, Luz snapped back into the visible world, still grinning.

"To answer your questions, it wears off on its own and seems to only last about 30 seconds to a minute at the most? I used to have to hold my breath for it to work, but I don't need to anymore. Still haven't been able to make it last longer yet, though."

Hunter picked up another slip of paper with the same Invisibility combo on it, looking at it thoughtfully.

"Then this is what you meant about bending light. It's basically a variation on the light glyph."

Luz nodded.

"Yep!"

He pointed to the middle of the glyph.

"But something I still don't understand is how you derived all your combo glyphs. Why a plant glyph in the center?"

Luz smiled self-consciously.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not completely sure. Most of these I just figured out with trial and error. Some of them, a LOT of error . . . ahem. But I knew invisibility would have to do with light, and so I played around with that idea for a while. I was thinking the plant glyph in the middle represented the person or thing being made invisible."

Hunter took the slip of paper and set it on top of a random object in Luz's room-- it happened to be a world globe from Eda's junk pile-- and tapped the glyph, watching the object disappear. He picked it up and watched until the globe re-appeared in his hands. Looking up at her, he said,

"There has to be some underlying set of rules that explain how glyphs link together. If we could figure that out, you wouldn't need to do it by trial and error."

"Yeah, exactly," Luz said eagerly, plopping down at the chair at her desk.

"That's what got me so excited about your book. I feel like it has me close to understanding the code."

She flipped the thick book open, searching for a specific section.

"Where is it . . . no, no . . . ah, here, right here!"

She tapped a passage.

"'The Creation of Illusory Beasts.' It talks about how the elements of Light and Ice work together. 'Ice's shape can transform Light in a fundamental way, splitting it into different colors' . . . like a prism, I guess? It keeps saying the power of Ice is what can transform Light into more complex colors and create patterns. So that's what I've been trying to do with my glyphs."

She spread the stack of glyphs out across the desk.

"These are all my works in progress. Maybe together we can come up with something."

Hunter crossed his arms, eyeing all the variations on the combo glyphs. After a few moments, he said,

"Ok. It's worth a shot."

"Great!" Luz picked up a large pad of blank paper and a quill and handed them to Hunter.

"Between the two of us we're bound to get it."

He took the items, though he seemed to do so with some trepidation.

"Ah . . . right."

Luz launched into a rambling explanation of her works in progress and all the different things she'd tried so far. They agreed on what to try next and then set about drawing new glyphs.

Or, at least, that's how it started out. A few minutes later, Luz glanced up from the shapes she was drawing to notice Hunter looking increasingly frustrated. He was almost glaring at the page, teeth clenched, his breath escaping in a hiss.

Luz raised a brow.

"You ok there, man?"

His eyes snapped up at her, and he looked immediately embarrassed, flushing a little. He glanced away and mumbled something Luz couldn't catch.

"What was that?"

He looked back to her reluctantly and, with an air of defeat, finally admitted,

"I could never really work out how to draw these damn circles."

Luz's eyes widened in realization.

"Oh! Oh."

"It's stupid, I know."

Luz frowned.

"It's not stupid at all! It took me a ton of practice to do them consistently."

He glanced down at the scribbles on his notepad. Sounding slightly relieved, he asked,

"Really?"

Luz stood and gestured him over.

"Yeah, honestly it was a pain at first. C'mere, sit at the desk, it'll be easier. I can show you the technique."

He took the seat and Luz rummaged around in the desk drawer until she found an only slightly chewed-on pencil.

"Here, first off, this is way easier to start with then a quill. There's a couple different ways to do this, but this is what's easiest for me. So, when you're normally writing or drawing or whatever, you're holding the pencil like this, right?"

She scribbled on the notepad for a bit, then waggled her hand,

"See, lots of movement here in the fingers and wrist. That makes it harder for circles though. I want you to try and keep your fingers and wrist as steady as you can. You don't have to clench it or anything, just keep it steady like this. And here,"

She tapped Hunter's shoulder, causing him to jump slightly, and said,

"All the movement comes from here, your shoulder and elbow. Big, swooping motions. Like this."

She demonstrated, drawing a few circles out.

"Now, it still won't be perfect right away, you'll need to practice first. Just draw a whole bunch, it's the best way to get the hang of it. Here, just fill up this notepad with 'em."

He took the notepad skeptically.

"You don't mind if I use all your paper?"

"Pssh, it's fine, I have stacks of them."

She watched as he tried to imitate her advice, though he was still struggling.

"That's better, but you're still moving your wrist a lot."

Mildly exasperated, he said,

"I'm trying not to. It feels weird."

She pointed at his arm as he drew.

"Here, the focal point should be here."

"I am--h-hey!"

She leaned in and grabbed his hand, which seemed to annoy him, but he was being a big baby, so he could live with it.

"Let your arm relax, ok? Do it like this."

She held his wrist steady and moved his arm in a circular arc, before setting the tip of the pencil to paper and completing a circle.

"Oh," he said, his expression relaxing. She let go and let him try on his own, and he clearly understood the movement now, producing a few decent circles. Happily, Luz said,

"Yeah, exactly like that! Great job."

He glanced up at her, and the look on his face was . . . odd. It almost looked like disbelief. Luz wondered if maybe he wasn't used to people telling him he was doing a good job.

"They're still a little bit lumpy," he pointed out.

"They're getting much closer though. Keep practicing for a bit, I'll work on the glyph combos in the meantime."

And so, Hunter scribbled lots and lots of circles while Luz perched on one of the old wooden trunks in her room, working on her own notepad. She tried increasingly elaborate glyph combos, stopping to occasionally tear a page out and activate a glyph she thought would work, carefully aiming it away from the two of them. Most of them spattered out ice shards and little flashes of light with varying degrees of intensity and aggression. Hunter would pause on occasion to look up and watch the explosions, and, she swore she heard him chuckle at one point.

"I think I finally got it," Luz announced, feeling her confidence soar. This one had to be it. She showed him the glyph, but he didn't seem very impressed.

"That's almost exactly the same as the last one."

Luz answered defiantly,

"But small changes make a huge difference with glyphs."

He thought about that and then said,

"Guess I can't argue with that. All right, let's see it."

Luz aimed her glyph and took a breath, focusing on her goal. Then tapped the sheet of paper. It crumpled into a ball and emitted a sudden, blinding flash of light followed by a shrill explosion, shards of ice spewing across the room in all directions. Luz yelped and ducked, covering her head.

After several seconds, when the coast seemed clear, she meekly sat back up. Ice shards stuck into walls and a few random objects in her room here and there but other than that, the damage seemed minimal.

"I, uh, I usually like to experiment . . . outdoors."

He frowned in thought.

"Explain to me again why you're using so much ice in these glyphs."

She gestured.

"It's right there in your book. They used the Ice element somehow to transform light, I know we have to be on the right track."

He tugged the book off the desk.

"Hold on, let me re-read this."

He fell quiet for a while and Luz came to read over his shoulder.

"See? Right there," she said,

"Ice's Shape Transforms the Light. That's why I've been using all these different patterns."

Hunter rested his chin onto one of his hands as he pondered.

"Right . . . I get that, but . . . hmm. You said earlier you think these combos work clockwise, right?"

"Oh, the order? Yeah, I think they start from the top and go clockwise."

His eyes darted back to the book.

"I think your problem might be you're misunderstanding this passage."

Luz looked at him curiously.

"How?"

He pointed at a spot on the page.

"You've been focusing so much on this part, 'Ice's Shape Transforms the Light', right? But just before that it says, 'Light Moves Through Ice.'"

"Yeah . . .?"

He pulled up one of her glyphs.

"It's like . . . if individual glyphs really are like words, then we have to think about the grammar when we're putting them together. And in grammar the order really matters. The way you've been writing these, you're saying 'Ice is acting on light to do this thing.' But really, it's more like Light is acting on Ice and Light is transformed in the process. Light is technically supposed to be the actor in this sentence, and Ice is the object."

Luz stared at him and said,

"Ok, I like that you're getting into this, but, umm, I wasn't paying a lot of attention the day they went over grammar stuff, so . . . could you maybe explain it a different way?"

He thought a moment.

"Yeah," he said, grabbing a fresh sheet of paper.

He drew a circle, and Luz smiled, feeling a flutter of pride at how quickly he'd picked it up. She watched as he drew the plant glyph, and another circle above it.

"You always start with Ice and then move to Light. It's like you're saying, 'Ice, change Light!' But if we start with Light instead . . ."

He filled in the Light glyph on top, then drew another glyph, moving clockwise.

"Then instead, you're saying, 'Light, move through Ice . . ."

He finished the Ice glyph, and then filled in the rest, with another Light Glyph and a final Ice one.

". . . and allow the shape of Ice to transform the Light."

He finished it and looked at her. Luz picked up the sheet of paper. Quietly, she said,

"Of course. I was doing it backwards."

She held the paper flat in one hand and closed her eyes, concentrating. Then she pressed her other hand into the glyph. As the paper melted away, she could already feel it was working, a soft, warm glow filling up in her enclosed hands.

She smiled.

Then she pulled her hands apart, drawing the shape of an arc in the air, colors flowing out of her hands as she did so-- and she traced the shape of a perfect rainbow, glowing gently with all the colors.

"Mmmmagic!" she squealed. Hunter gave a short laugh, his face lit up with joy. Luz had never seen that expression from him before, but as she studied him, glowing in the light of her first illusion spell, she immediately decided it that (a), that smile really suited him, and (b) she definitely needed to find some ways to make him do it more often.

As the colors faded away, Luz still grinning triumphantly, Hunter cleared his throat, rubbing at his undercut, and she saw him school his expression back into his usual, more aloof one. He said,

"I, uh, wasn't sure if that would actually work."

Luz grabbed up a notepad and replied,

"Worked like a charm! Here, let's see what we can make this new spell do."

It took some time and work, but before too long, they had refined the spell and practiced how to focus the spell's intent, and were producing some fairly decent illusions. Certainly not on the same level as an experienced witch in the Illusions coven, but the progress was still impressive. Luz started off making simple objects, like an illusory pencil and an illusory coffee cup, which Hunter was able to match. Then she tried to move on to something much more ambitious and attempted to make an illusory echo mouse. It took practice, because getting the mouse to actually move took an incredible amount of ongoing focus, but she did it. Sure, the image was still kind of flickery and you could still sort of tell it was made of light and not a fully solid object, but it looked like an echo mouse and it moved like one and it was kind of amazing.

"Look, Hunter! I'm doing it! It's actually working!"

She made her illusory echo mouse skitter over to him and sniff at his boot. He reached down and ran a hand through the flickering image.

"That's . . . honestly impressive."

Luz beamed at his acknowledgement, then she added with brash smirk,

"I bet you can't do better."

His eyes snapped up to her in surprise, and at first he looked irritated, but then a small smile slowly overtook him. He crossed his arms and asked,

"Oh really?"

She grinned and he set about writing a new glyph and trying to recreate her success. While he worked, she practiced with her echo mouse, letting it run around the room, jump, and nibble on things. Occasionally she'd glance over to see his progress. She'd assumed he'd try to make an echo mouse too, but he didn't seem to be, instead creating what just looked like a very vague, dark shape. It wasn't forming correctly, whatever it was.

"What are you doing?"

"Shhh," he hushed, waving her off.

"Just give me a minute."

The shape grew larger and larger but was unstable. Luz chuckled and made her mouse move over and sit on her own lap.

"You're trying to go too fast, you should practice with something simpler first, you know."

She giggled as she made the little mouse look like it was dancing. Then she made it open its tiny mouth as if it were a puppet saying her words;

"Hunter can't make a little teeny mouse, it's too haaard, oooh little teeny-tiny meeee . . "

Suddenly, a black figure leapt onto Luz's lap and she shrieked,

"Gyaahh!"

It was a cat. Fully-formed, yellow eyes gleaming-- and it had grabbed Luz's illusionary mouse in its mouth.

"H-hey!"

Standing above her, Hunter smirked down at her.

"You were saying?"

Luz huffed and bounded to her feet, trying to wrest control back for her echo mouse.

"How'd you do that?! Hold on, give me a sec!"

Luz floundered for a bit, struggling to make a larger creature than the echo mouse. Infuriatingly, Hunter just watched and taunted her, which while, okay it was probably fair, but that didn't make it any less annoying.

However, eventually he actually gave her some useful suggestions about where to focus her energy. And soon, she'd recreated a sleek, white cat. Which she used to promptly attack Hunter's cat. From that point, they continued to screw around with illusions, going through a variety of animals and generally trying to one-up each other. Hunter had a wide catalogue of weird demons Luz had never seen before, but she was able to confuse him with her own human realm animals. As well as a range of other things. For some reason, he found the Pikachu she created to be especially unnerving, claiming its eyes were boring into his soul.

And the thing was, strangely enough, she realized she was having fun. Like, genuine, real fun. Maybe even stranger, she knew Hunter was, too. He was smiling again, and laughing, even-- and the look seemed to lift the awful gloom that normally settled onto his face. He looked . . . good that way, freer somehow. Like he wasn't the Golden Guard tasked with subjugating the populous; instead, he just looked like he could be himself. Like he could just be Hunter, whoever that was.

And as they sat there on the floor of Luz's bedroom together, and drew a pair of imaginary birds darting around the air, weaving around each other in sync, flashing blue and red, Luz glanced over to the boy, and his soft, relaxed smile, and she felt her heart squeeze in her chest.

Something caught her eye then, a little motion from Hunter's cloak. All at once, a tiny red crest poked out, and gave a little chirp. Then, the palisman hopped out and crawled up onto Hunter's shoulder.

Luz gasped, letting her illusion drop away, and she said warmly,

"Oh my gosh, hi 'lil rascal! Oh, I didn't know you were here, or I would have said hi sooner!"

Hunter's illusion vanished too and he stiffened, staring at the bird on his shoulder and looking very nervous and awkward.

"I-- I told him to stay hidden, I'm-- not sure why he didn't."

The cardinal chirped cheerfully, almost as if in reply, and nuzzled Hunter's face. His cheeks darkened a little in a blush. Luz cooed,

"Aaaw! Maybe he noticed how relaxed you were and knew it was safe. Palismen are supposed to be very in-tune with their witches, you know."

Hunter glanced away, scowling slightly, but his hand did lift up to gently scratch at the cardinal's chest feathers. The bird chittered pleasantly.

"I guess so."

Luz lowered her face so she could see the bird better, then addressed it seriously,

"So how have you been, huh? Are you liking your new witch friend? Is he taking good care of you? You look happy, at least."

The cardinal bopped its little head up and down and began a series of tiny warbles and chirps, which it finished off by nibbling Hunter's stray lock of hair and then nuzzling his face again. Luz couldn't understand the bird, but its intent was clear enough anyway.

"Wow, he must like you a lot!"

Hunter half-looked at Luz, but seemed dismayed.

"Yeah, he . . ." He rubbed his face with a hand before admitting,

"I think that's the gist of what he's saying. I can almost understand him sometimes, I think."

Luz's eyes widened.

"Ooh, nice! You'll be able to understand him better with time."

He looked at her cautiously.

"How do you know?"

Luz smiled.

"Eda says as a palisman's bond deepens with its witch, they can communicate better. She knows exactly what Owlbert says, so I'm sure you two will become that way soon, too."

Hunter gazed down at the floor, looking tense and uncertain. Luz wasn't sure why her comment would make him so unhappy, but she kept quiet and waited. Eventually, he muttered,

"What if I don't want that to happen?"

Luz felt a little stab of surprise. Feeling hurt on Rascal's behalf, she asked,

"You don't like him?"

Immediately, Hunter turned and said tersely,

"Of course I do."

He took the little bird up in his hand and stroked its crest, as if to reassure the palisman.

"It's just . . ."

He fell quiet and continued to pet the bird, with a surprising amount of tenderness. Then he set it back on his shoulder, glancing away.

"I'm really not sure why he chose me."

Luz looked at the cardinal's one-eyed gaze for a moment. Carefully, she said,

"Well . . . the Bat Queen said they choose a witch they can feel close to. He must have seen something special in you."

Hunter gave a humorless chuckle.

"Right, special."

He turned to look at her and stated plainly,

"He chose a magicless witch who almost got him killed."

The cardinal seemed to look between the two of them, then gave a solemn little chirp. Luz smiled softly.

"Maybe he saw the good in you, Hunter."

She glanced up at him, at that intense magenta gaze, and added without thinking,

"I think I can see it too."

He immediately gave a little huff and turned away, and his palisman had to flutter a bit to keep from falling off his shoulder.

"You're too soft, human."

Luz probably should have felt insulted, but she didn't. She just gave a little shrug.

"Maybe."

She got up off the floor and held out a hand.

"But I offered to help you with glyph magic tonight, so that's what I'll do. C'mon, you said you were interested in healing magic, right? You want to give that a try?"

He hesitated, looking at her; but then reluctantly let her pull him to his feet. She headed back over to her desk. She heard him ask,

"Do you really think glyph magic can be used in that way?"

Luz shrugged.

"I don't see why not. We just invented an illusion spell from scratch tonight, why not healing as well?"

Hunter sort of half-smiled at her.

"Well, at least you never seem to lack confidence."

Luz grabbed some sheets of paper and laughed.

"Of course, I'm a genius. And you're pretty smart too, I guess. Hold on, let me find the section on healing."

Roots in Ice and Flame did have a section about healing with magic, but as Luz remembered while scanning the section again, it wasn't exactly easy to understand. In fact, she wasn't even sure what sort of element they were even using for their healing magic. The book kept referring to the Element of Life, but that didn't match any of Luz's glyphs. They theorized the element of Life was actually a combination of elements, and that's what would allow for healing. But reverse-engineering what the exact combination was proving difficult. Creating a test subject was simple enough: Luz created a small plant with a plant glyph and then burned it a little with fire. The goal was to heal the plant. But the rest of it wasn't so simple.

The chapter delved into the different types of healing, describing the creative forces of healing when growing new leaves or mending bones or closing up a wound, and talked about fire as having the powers of growth and as acting as a sort of catalyst. It also talked about the destructive forces of healing, when breaking down poisons or toxins in the body, or when isolating and destroying harmful invaders like bacteria or viruses. This, too, spoke of combining the life element with fire in an act of destruction and consumption. Luz thought it kinda made sense, but figuring out the exact combination was a lot harder than the illusion spell.

After a long time of experimenting and nearly burning Luz's bedroom down on more than one occasion (she had to be pretty quick with the ice glyphs to put things out), they were starting to get tired.

". . . what about this? Two alternating rings of plant and fire, an outer and inner circle."

"Nah, I already tried that one. Besides, I think we need Ice in there somehow, the fire keeps blowing things up."

"The book doesn't mention anything about using ice."

"So? The book doesn't say a lot of things. It has to be in there, how else are we going to control the fire?"

Hunter narrowed his eyes.

"You're just making things up again. You need to look at the actual text to find what works."

Luz waved the book at him, annoyed.

"We looked at the text. It doesn't say! These ancient witches are poetic but they be vague as frick sometimes."

He snatched the book from her.

"They're not vague, they're just using a certain set of rules and worldviews we don't fully understand. Don't blame them for your ignorance."

Luz scoffed.

"Oh, my ignorance! Okay then, Mr. Savage Ages historical master, enlighten me! Do you even know what the heck an Element of Life is? No? All right then!"

The two of them fell quiet after that, Luz flipping through her notebook, annoyed, but not really focusing on anything. Hunter just seemed to be sitting there, scowling.

"I don't think we're getting anywhere," he said after a while.

Luz sighed.

"Yeah, I guess not."

She turned to look at him sitting at her desk, and he was slouched over, idly doodling a glyph, while his palisman nested snugly in his hair. The sight was adorable, but he looked so defeated, and she felt a twinge of guilt. She opened her mouth, about to apologize, but he spoke before she could.

"Hey, could you tell me something?"

He glanced up at her.

"I know you told me you found these glyphs by looking in nature, but do you have any idea why they look the way they do?"

She came over and stood beside him at the desk.

"I wish I could, but I really don't know."

"Hm."

She looked down at the plant glyph he'd been drawing. He asked,

"Doesn't it seem weird to you the plant glyph looks like a person?"

Luz frowned.

"What? It doesn't look anything like a person."

He raised a brow.

"Yeah, it does."

"How is that a person?"

He pointed at the circle inside the glyph.

"Well, there's the head. Here's the body, and the arms. They're upside-down."

Luz chuckled.

"Oh my gosh. So what do you think this part is on top?"

Looking very much like he was regretting even mentioning it, Hunter said slowly,

"Uhhh, I don't know, a . . . dress . . . maybe?"

She giggled and said,

"Oh, Hunter, no . . . look. The circle is like the ground or whatever. Those two short lines are its leaves and this line is the stem, and the top is the flower."

Hunter stared at the page for a moment, and then buried his face in his hands.

"Oh. Oh, I'm just an idiot."

Luz continued to giggle, feeling kind of bad but damn, it was too funny not to laugh, what an absolute noodle.

"All this time you thought the plant glyph was a pretty lady in a dress? With like, one eye?"

"Shut up."

Oh god, man, he might end up hating her, but at least she'd have fun before he decided to go back to trying to kill her.

Looking at the glyph again, still sniggering, she confessed,

"Okay, to be totally fair to you, I do kinda see it now that you say it."

"Nrgghh," he grumbled bleakly, not moving. She picked up the sheet of paper, smiling down at it.

"I'm not gonna be able to unsee it that way now."

Then she frowned. A strange thought popped in her head.

"Wait, uh. I just got an idea, Hunter."

He didn't answer her, apparently still sulking, but Luz continued anyway.

"We've been trying so hard to find the combination for this element of life, but what if we have it already?"

Hunter lifted his head up and looked at her.

"You mean . . ."

She set the glyph on the desk.

"Yeah. What if that's what this is actually called? I've been calling it a plant glyph because that's all I've been able to do with it, but . . ."

Hunter cut in,

"That's what I'd been sort of thinking, when I thought it was a stylized person. Like it was a stand-in for life forms in general."

Luz pondered the idea. She said thoughtfully,

"Maybe you're actually right."

They looked at each other.

"You're still dumb for not seeing that it's a flower, though."

"Shut up. Get the book."

Luz retrieved the book and Hunter got a fresh sheet of paper. They suddenly had a lot of ideas to re-visit, now that they had a new theory about the life element.

"It makes so much more sense now," Hunter said excitedly as they went through the chapter.

"We were over-complicating it before, it's actually so simple."

He drew a simple combo, plant in the center, surrounded by two glyphs in an outer circle-- fire and plant. It looked very similar to Luz's Invisibility spell. When he activated it to test it, it didn't immediately explode, which was a very good sign. So he tried it again, this time testing it on the tiny burnt plant they were using as a test subject.

It was so, so faint at first, but as Hunter sat there at her desk, his eyes squinted shut in concentration, hand hovering over the plant, Luz saw the plant began to tremble, just a little, and she gasped. And then, the burned leaves expanded, gently, slowly, growing greener and greener, until they were restored.

Luz grabbed Hunter's shoulders and bounced in excitement, exclaiming,

"Oh, my gosh, Hunter, this is amazing. I knew we'd figure it out!"

He shook his head and said,

"Don't get too excited yet. We don't know if we can use this for anything other than healing a few plant leaves."

Luz gestured at the little plant on her desk.

"But the basic idea is there! Look, it's healed! It's okay to be excited, you did it!"

Hunter looked anxiously at the plant and shook his head again.

"No, we needed to improve the illusion spell first, remember? And I don't know, this might just be a case of using the plant glyph to create new plant matter instead of actually healing it. We need a better test."

Luz contemplated that.

"Okay, well I guess we could create a bigger plant or something, maybe--"

Hunter stood up, saying,

"No plants, we need an animal. Do you have anything sharp?"

Luz balked at him.

"W-what? Hey, back off, I might seem soft and cuddly but if you try and cross me I will break you, mister."

Hunter rolled his eyes and continued to search her room.

"Not you, you moron-- I'm going to test it on myself."

Luz blinked.

"Oh."

Then she processed that.

"Oh. No, wait-- I'm not letting you do that either!"

At this point Hunter had found some old sheathed sword crammed into one corner of the room, which was among the piles of junk Eda had collected. Luz scrambled to get over to him quickly. He said,

"Relax, it's not like I'm going to chop my leg off, I'll start small."

He unsheathed the sword, but Luz grabbed at the sword's handle, stopping him.

"Holy crap, slow your roll. I don't care if you're 'starting small', I'm not letting you hurt yourself for science. Or magic. Or whatever. We can find some other way."

He looked annoyed, but allowed her to take the sword away.

"Like what? We're the best test subjects around."

His eye roamed the room and then settled on a small cage in the corner.

"Unless . . ."

Luz held up a hand,

"NO. Heck no. We're not using my echo mouse as a guinea pig. What's wrong with you, man?"

Hunter held out his hands, exclaiming,

"Then what?! You want to play around with healing magic, what did you expect to do? We need something to heal!"

Luz sighed, exasperated, but knew he had a point.

"All right, all right . . . let me just think a minute."

Her mind flickered over the possibilities, but none of them were especially easy. Not anything they could get to and quickly try out without leaving her room and going somewhere, anyway, unless they wanted to experiment on her housemates. That was a no. She mumbled,

"Ugh, I-- I'm not sure . . ."

Hunter sighed, but then he asked diplomatically,

"Will you be all right if I promise to only do something really small? What about a papercut?"

Luz looked at him.

"Hm. Yeah . . . ok. That seems fair. I guess we could do that."

"All right then," Hunter said, turning and pacing back to her desk. Luz followed him over.

"I can't believe how squeamish you are," he complained, as he tugged at the fingers of one his gloves, pulling it off. Luz realized it was the first time she'd seen him remove his gloves, and then was struck with an extremely irrational feeling of embarrassment, like he was disrobing in front of her.

"Uhhh, yeah," she babbled, feeling warm and fighting desperately to push weird thoughts from her mind. She watched as he picked up a few sheets of paper and grasped the edge, then yanked the paper quickly through his fingers.

"Fuck," he hissed. Luz gasped.

"Language, Hunter."

He just grunted in reply, and she grinned, adding,

"And you're the one calling me squeamish."

He pointed at her and defended himself,

"Hey, papercuts can weirdly hurt a lot, ok?"

"Uh-huh."

He began drawing a new set of glyphs.

"Just help me with this."

They began work on their new "test subject," but healing Hunter's finger was not, in fact, as simple as healing plant leaves, as it turned out. Any glyphs that Hunter produced failed to work, but when Luz tried it didn't work, either. Hunter went down a path of drawing increasingly complex combos, the mania in his eye starting to grow fierce, desperate to find a breakthrough. Meanwhile, Luz spent most her time looking at the book and feeling increasingly confused.

"I don't understand," he said as another glyph fizzled out and did nothing.

"I thought we cracked the code, this should be working! The grammar in these combos is flawless."

Luz eyed his stack of glyphs warily.

"I dunno. I get the feeling these are just too complicated, you know? They start to get confusing."

He huffed,

"That shouldn't matter! All the elements are there and in the right order."

Luz scowled and glanced away, muttering,

"It matters if we can't even tell what it's supposed to be doing."

They fell quiet for a minute, and Luz assumed Hunter would just go back to scribbling more glyphs, but when she turned back, he was still looking at her. She stammered,

"W-what?"

"You might have a point."

Luz looked puzzled. "I do?"

Hunter stood from his spot at the desk.

"We've already seen glyph magic has two parts to it, right? The actual structure of the glyphs and then the intent and focus of the spellcaster."

Luz thought about it and nodded. He continued,

"Maybe I'm underestimating how important the intent part is."

"Okay. So what does that mean?"

Hunter looked at her intently.

"What combo makes the most sense to you for healing?"

Luz frowned.

"I dunno, we already tried so many--"

He shook his head,

"No, no, just-- completely ignore all that. Which one did you like the most, that you thought should have worked?"

Luz looked down at the stacks of scribbled glyphs for a few moments.

"I guess . . . well, honestly, the one at the very start, this one. The one that you used to heal the plant."

He picked up the glyph and handed it to her.

"Okay. Try that then."

Luz laughed.

"But we already tried that!"

"Actually, only I tried that one."

Luz furrowed her brows.

"Why should that matter?"

He waved his hand vaguely as he said,

"I don't know, maybe because I was convinced it wouldn't actually work. Maybe I have sort of a, a mental block or something. If intent really is as important as the actual glyph, then it would make a difference."

"Oooh," Luz said, finally seeing his point. Hunter held his hand out to Luz, fixing her with those intense magenta eyes of his. Calmly, he said,

"I want you to heal me. Just focus on it, and do it."

Luz swallowed. Oh, boy, that was a lot of pressure. She started to protest,

"But--"

"--I know you can, Luz."

She felt the rest of whatever her sentence was vanish instantly and the breath exit her lungs. That was definitely the first time he'd actually used her name. Hearing it made her heart quicken, for some reason. He was looking at her with such pure conviction.

A little shakily, she held the glyph out, then placed it on Hunter's open palm. She closed her eyes, exhaling slowly and drawing in a breath, focusing as she touched the glyph.

Life glyph. Imagine the energy of the fire glyph transforming the life glyph. Life passing through the fire glyph, ignited by its energy, galvanized. Expanding outward, growing, knitting together skin . . .

Luz could feel the soft glow at her fingertips, fuzzy and warm, and she concentrated on that, coaxing it gently, slowly to expand. She felt a strange, euphoric rush when it responded, feeling the energy flowing through her, out through her arms and then her fingertips.

Somehow, she knew when she was finished, because the sensation slowly ebbed away, before finally coming to a stop.

She opened her eyes, still clasping Hunter's hand. He was looking at her with a soft expression of awe. She lifted her hand up and they both visually confirmed it: the cut was gone.

"Yes," Hunter gushed, grabbing her hand back and squeezing it, then giving an excited little bounce,

"You did it, I knew it!"

Luz beamed at him, giddy at their triumph and at how elated Hunter looked.

"We did it, that was just as much you as it was me."

"So what was going through your head when you did that? Describe it for me."

Luz tried to ignore the funny fluttering in her stomach because a dorky, grinning Hunter was still holding her hand tightly, and she answered,

"I, uh, it was just focusing on the glyphs, you know? I thought about the Life glyph and imagined it passing through the power of the fire glyph, and how that transformed it."

Something seemed to light up in Hunter's eyes.

"Of course. It really is that simple. It really is just about letting one element transform another."

He finally let go of Luz's hand and grabbed excitedly for a notepad.

"If that's all it really is, one you learn the elements, you could do just about anything. Here, name two of the elements for me, pick any two."

Luz smiled and said,

"Uhh, hmm, ok. How about Light and Life? Light's kind of my favorite, and you're really interested in the Life glyph."

"Ok," he said, swooping a circle onto the notepad, then drawing out the two glyphs, connected. Then he settled his hand on the glyph and activated it, closing his eyes as he concentrated.

Luz watched in fascination as a plant expanded in his hand and started to take shape, into what looked like a white flower with ruffly petals. But then the flower began to glow from within, very softly at first, and then brighter and brighter; until the bloom was spilling out a beautiful golden light.

"Whoa," Luz said in a hushed tone,

"That's beautiful."

Hunter opened his eyes and smiled in satisfaction, examining the bloom a moment. Then, after a brief moment of hesitation, he held it out to Luz.

"Here," he said, glancing away shyly,

"For you."

Luz felt herself blush as she carefully took the flower from his hand. Wide-eyed, she gazed at it, seeing how it shimmered like a firefly.

Her gaze shifted back to Hunter, who was watching nervously. Her voice came in a squeak;

"Hunterrrrr! You're such a sweetheart, I knew you were deep down!"

He let out a breath and looked away, grimacing. She wasn't sure what she said wrong. He rubbed at his undercut and quietly muttered,

"You wouldn't say that if you really knew me."

Luz opened her mouth to disagree with him, but he suddenly jerked, as if startled.

"Shit, Luz, what time is it?"

He was looking at the window-- where faint sunlight was spilling through. Luz quickly looked to her alarm clock, feeling shocked.

"Whoooa, um, 6am."

Hunter looked immediately panicked.

"I have to go, now. I'm supposed to be on duty in an hour, shit, shit."

He rushed across the room, grabbing his napping palisman and tucking it into his cloak, then scrambling for his artificial staff.

"Ok, hey, it's ok! I'm sure they won't kill you if you're late-- umm, will they?"

By the time she'd said that, Hunter was opening the window. Luz's eyes widened and she added,

"W-wait, your book!"

He froze, and she grabbed the book off the desk and rushed over to him.

"Ah, r-right," he said, sounding embarrassed he'd forgotten. She handed him the book and he accepted it. Awkwardly, he said,

"Thanks."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I really have to go now though," he said, tucking the book under his arm. He pulled his mask back on and tugged his hood up. Lightheartedly, Luz said,

"Nah, I get it, that's fine. When do you think you'll drop by next? If I have a little warning next time I can make snacks. Eda has a pretty mean chocolate-chip cricket cookie recipe."

Despite his initial rush, the young man now stood still and quiet. She studied him and the shape of his strange, golden mask, curious about his silence.

Then his voice came, quietly.

"Luz, I . . . won't be coming back."

There was a tone of true finality to it, and Luz felt appalled.

"What? Why? We made so much progress-- and-- what the hell?! I thought--"

He shook his head and cut her off.

"It doesn't matter. This is still too dangerous. For the both of us."

Luz crossed her arms.

"Are you kidding me? We've been over this, you were fine with it before!"

He gripped his staff tightly and shot back,

"Well I was stupid, ok?! I got caught up in the moment. But I have responsibilities, and they have to come first. And I can't-- I can't be spotted having playdates with the enemy."

Luz felt anger bubble up inside her.

"I'm still the enemy to you?"

He scoffed. Coldly, he said,

"Don't act like it's any different for you. It's not like because we spent some time together you're suddenly now willing accept Belos' unification of the Boiling Isles, are you? Don't be naive, of course we're still enemies."

The worst of it was, this wasn't even a surprise to Luz. She knew this outcome was always possible, maybe even likely, and yet it still hurt. His words still wrenched her insides.

Fighting back the little pinpricks of tears, she shouted,

"Yeah, well what about all that stuff you said before about helping people with your magic? Don't you have somebody who's counting on you? Or are you just going to abandon your work on that too?"

He seemed to hesitate at that, but then he shook his head again and muttered,

"I'll just have to find some other way."

Her voice raw, she said,

"Hunter--"

"Goodbye, Luz."

He turned and took off on his staff without another word. She watched him go, bitterness squeezing at her throat.

She doesn’t see that behind the mask, as he flies away, he's fighting off tears.

Part 2

#toh #the owl house #goldenlight #luz x hunter #lunter #goldenluz #fanfic #guys I'm ngl #I saw the plant glyph the same way hunter does here #idk what's wrong with me #rating: pg-13 bc I let somebody say 'fuck'#mystuff #goldenlight fanfic

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storytellerofuntoldlegends · 4 years ago

Text

somebody loves you for yourself

A/N: I have had this nicomas fic in my head and have been working on it basically since fwsa came out, and it’s finally done!! it’s like 7k of pure fluff and nico meeting the sides, enjoy! (title is from Wake Up, Sunshine by All Time Low)

Summary: On a relaxing date night with Thomas, Nico stumbles upon someone on the kitchen- someone who looked eerily like his boyfriend. Then he ends up meeting five more "Thomases," as well as finding out that there is so much of his boyfriend to love.

Warnings: flirting, kissing, hugging, cuddling, remus being remus, janus being all “we live in a society,” mentions of amazon being a not great company (lmk if anything should be added, otherwise this is pure fluff!)

Things had been going spectacularly well with the cute disaster gay Nico had met at the mall. Since that fateful meeting, the two had exchanged numbers, gone on more dates… and well, it had been a few months now and Nico was pretty sure that Thomas was it for him. He really couldn’t picture his future without Thomas somewhere in it. Nico wasn’t really sure what he’d do without Thomas’s infectious enthusiasm, how he could go a day without seeing the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his passions or the way pink would dust his cheeks when Nico used any term of endearment towards him… well now Nico was just waxing poetic now, wasn’t he? Sue him, he was a poet! And Thomas had irrevocably become his muse.

“I was rambling again, wasn’t I?” Thomas asked, startling Nico from his thoughts. The two of them were in Thomas’s apartment, Nico watching Thomas playing Kingdom Hearts. Well… it was more Thomas playing for a bit, then pausing the game to ramble about the lore and storyline of Kingdom Hearts. But Nico was more than content to listen and watch as Thomas gestured emphatically as he spoke. Although Nico admittedly got caught up in how Thomas’s voice was like audible sunshine, how Thomas could start literally glowing from excitement and Nico wouldn’t bat an eye… Thomas once confessed to him that he had thought Nico was radiant the first time he saw him, but Nico was pretty sure it was the other way around. Thomas was the radiant one, like a beam of sunlight that had gotten confused and taken human form.

“No, it’s okay! I like hearing you ramble, it’s cute! Although… I will admit that I might have gotten a little distracted by said cuteness and zoned out,” Nico replied with a sheepish laugh. Thomas flushed and let out a squeak, hands flapping excitedly for a moment before he covered his mouth, as if he were trying to hold back the squeak that he had already let out.

“You know I don’t know how to respond to compliments!” Thomas protested when he dropped his hands down from his mouth.

“Think of it this way, babe- if I keep giving you compliments, you’ll have more practice at responding to them! Besides, you’re unreasonably cute when you get all blushy and stimmy like this,” Nico said with a grin. Thomas squeaked again, this time opting to bury his whole face in his hands.

“This is RUDE I’m being ATTACKED!” Thomas exclaimed, voice muffled behind his hands. Nico chuckled, shaking his head at his boyfriend’s dramatics.

“Okay, okay, I’ll show mercy. I was gonna get some water soon anyway. Need anything while I’m up?” he asked. Thomas looked up from his hands then, face still flushed but looking less like he was going to melt.

“Nah, I’m fine, thanks though,” Thomas replied.

“Be right back,” Nico said, and with a kiss to Thomas’s cheek to fix the not-melting problem, Nico stood up and walked over to the kitchen. He flicked on the light, and he was still rather lost in his thoughts about Thomas that he didn’t notice the man sitting on the counter until he looked up and locked eyes with him. He was… Thomas?! Or at least, someone who looked eerily similar to Thomas. He wore a black hoodie with plaid purple patches and for a moment, Nico thought he had sparkly purple eyeshadow underneath his eyes. But then the man locked eyes with Nico and the eyeshadow was black. Nico let out a surprised yelp, the man sitting on the counter yelped back, and soon enough both of them were screaming.

“Uh… everything okay in here?” Thomas asked, frowning with concern as he walked into the kitchen. He didn’t seem perturbed by the man on the counter, and Nico looked between them incredulously.

“So… were you going to tell me you had a twin, or was I just supposed to get scared half to death by finding him sitting on the counter?!” Nico demanded, unable to keep his voice from rising with mild panic. Thomas’s mouth dropped open, and he looked at the man, then back to Nico.

“You can see him?!” Thomas gasped. Nico’s expression twisted with confusion.

“Uh… kinda hard to miss an emo version of you sitting on the counter. Thomas, who is this and why are you so shocked that I can see him?” Nico asked, glancing to the man again, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to cease to exist at that present moment. But surprisingly, the man spoke up.

“He’s surprised because I’m part of him,” he said, and he even sounded like Thomas, but his voice was rougher and deeper.

“What do you mean, ‘part of him?’” Nico asked slowly.

“This is Virgil, he’s my anxiety. And up until now… I thought I was the only one who could see him,” Thomas explained. And frankly, this clarification just left Nico even more confused.

“So… your anxiety is somehow… personified? And is a real, actual person?” Nico asked.

“He’s not… ‘real,’ in that sort of sense, I thought he was more like… a figment of my imagination, or a projection of how I was feeling, anxiety-wise? Although he and the others are able to interact with the real world sometimes…” Thomas trailed off thoughtfully.

“Wait wait wait. Back up. Others?!” Nico exclaimed. Thomas instantly looked a little sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I- um, well…”

“We’re his ‘sides.’ Parts of his personality, basically. There’s Logan, Patton, Roman… and a few more,” Virgil explained, fidgeting with his hoodie sleeves and eyes glued to the floor.

“Oh. Okay then… so are all of you just in his head the rest of the time? How come I haven’t seen any of you before?” Nico asked.

“We usually are in his head, yeah. But I don’t know why you haven’t seen any of us until now. Heck, me and Roman were with Thomas when he met you!” Virgil exclaimed, biting his thumb nervously after his rather panicked outburst.

“Wait, you were?” Nico asked, looking to Thomas for confirmation. Thomas smiled sheepishly, dropping his hand from the back of his neck.

“Yeah. In fact, Virgil was the one who pushed me to talk to you. And uh- I mean the ‘pushed’ part literally,” Thomas explained.

“Wait really? I just thought you were clumsy- not that being clumsy is a bad thing! Kinda endearing, actually,” Nico said, expecting the inevitable blush to travel over Thomas’s face- but what he wasn’t expecting was a squeak from Virgil and his eyeshadow turning sparkly and purple.

“I mean, to be fair I am a little clumsy sometimes,” Thomas said with a nervous laugh. Nico glanced between Virgil and Thomas, a bit of a playful smirk quirking on his lips.

“Well, whether your clumsiness is just you or your sides- I think you’re all around endearing,” Nico said, voice nearly a purr. Thomas let out a delighted little sound and flapped his hands with excitement, and Virgil outright giggled. If Nico hadn’t thought Thomas was everything to him before, he definitely thought so now with meeting one of his sides.

“Your eyeshadow turns purple and sparkly when Thomas is excited, that is adorable,” Nico cooed. Virgil let out a sound that was half giggle and half yelp, hiding his flushed face in his hands. After a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he peeked up at Nico, looking timid and insecure.

“You really think so?” Virgil asked quietly, tensing up as if he were afraid of the answer.

“I do think so. It makes sense after all… Thomas is adorable, therefore his sides are adorable too,” Nico replied with a shrug. Virgil let out an elated giggle, hands flapping excitedly- and in that moment, Nico knew that he was more than okay with Thomas having sides. It just meant there was more of him to love and appreciate.

Since meeting Virgil, Nico was determined to meet the rest of the sides. Thomas had explained that he could summon them whenever he wanted, but Nico insisted that they could just come to him on their own. He had felt a little bad about his first meeting with Virgil being so panic-inducing for all of them, and didn’t really want a repeat of that situation. But luckily, Nico didn’t have to wait that long to meet another one of Thomas’s sides.

Nico had been sitting at the table, idly chatting with Thomas while he was in the kitchen making dinner for the two of them. Nico had offered to help, but being the sweetheart he was, Thomas insisted that he was more than happy to handle dinner. As they were talking, one of Thomas’s sides rose up into existence. This side wore glasses, a black polo, and a tie… Nico made a mental note to tell Thomas that he looked very good dressed a bit more formally.

“Thomas, please be sure to preheat the oven for the garlic bread this time,” the formally dressed side said. Then he looked over and seemed to notice Nico, and though his expression seemed carefully maintained and neutral, Nico could see his eyes lighting up with excitement.

“Hi there!” Nico said, giving a small wave. A smile crept over the side’s face for half a second, but his expression quickly turned neutral again, and he adjusted his tie nervously.

“Hello. I am Logan, Thomas’s-”

“Wait! Don’t tell me which side you are, I wanna guess! It’s kind of like a puzzle… although I guess that’s kind of weird to say about part of your boyfriend’s personality…” Nico trailed off sheepishly. Logan’s face lit up, and this time it was purely unrestrained. If Nico could get heart eyes like a cartoon character, he certainly would have in this situation. Something about seeing this serious side of Thomas so excited… it made Nico’s heart flutter.

“Do you like puzzles?” Logan asked, sounding like he was trying not to seem too hopeful.

“I love puzzles!” Nico exclaimed. A grin took over Logan’s face, and with a wave of his hand, a puzzle appeared on the kitchen table. It was a Nightmare Before Christmas one of Jack Skellington’s face being made up of various scenes and characters from the movie.

“Oh- wait, I’m not sure if you’re going to be able to-” Logan’s sentence cut off abruptly when Nico reached out and took the lid off the top of the box.

“What were you saying?” Nico asked, setting the lid down and looking up to Logan. Nico could only describe his expression as calculating, but in a warm and endearing way.

“Fascinating,” Logan murmured, gazing at Nico. He felt his face heat up slightly at the attention, but was mostly feeling a little lost.

“Logan? What’s going on, buddy?” Thomas asked, observing the two of them from the other side of the kitchen counter. Logan blinked, shaking his head and looking a little sheepish.

“Apologies. I was rather fascinated that Nico was able to touch the puzzle box. I had momentarily forgotten that I am technically imaginary, and therefore anything I would summon would be imaginary as well. However, Nico seems to be able to interact with the puzzle,” Logan explained, and frankly Nico felt like he could listen to Logan talk for ages. He was so precise and professional with the way he spoke, but there was still an undercurrent of excitement and fascination.

“Maybe you guys are becoming more real, somehow?” Nico suggested.

“Perhaps, but you seem to be the only one who can see us. There have been some close calls with Joan and some of Thomas’s other close friends, but you have been the only one who has outright interacted with us,” Logan explained. Nico hummed thoughtfully as he began sorting out the puzzle pieces. Logan sat down with him and helped sort the pieces as well, flushing slightly as their hands brushed whenever they reached for the same pieces.

“Maybe it has to do with how close to Thomas someone is?” Nico asked. A contemplative expression came over Logan’s face.

“I am not responsible for Thomas’s emotions, so I would have no way of knowing. But that is a plausible theory,” Logan replied. Nico nodded, and went back to the puzzle for a few moments, sneaking a few glances at Logan every now and then.

“Well, you confirmed that you aren’t Thomas’s emotional side, and I know you aren’t his anxiety because I already met Virgil. And you seem to like Nightmare Before Christmas, but I’m not sure if that really contributes to which side you are,” Nico said, and was surprised to see Logan flush with mild embarrassment.

“I- while your skills of deduction are admirable, my reasonings for summoning a Nightmare Before Christmas puzzle was not because I enjoy the movie, but because you seem to. If the sticker on your laptop is any evidence to go by,” Logan admitted a tad sheepishly. This time it was Nico’s turn to blush, and he placed his hand over Logan’s with a grin.

“Logan, that’s so sweet! So tell me, what do you like?” Nico asked, squeezing Logan’s hand before removing it to continue the puzzle. Logan stared at his hand for a moment or two, then blinked and shook his head.

“I- erm, I do have an- an appreciation for mysteries and detective stories,” Logan replied, stumbling over his words slightly. Nico glanced up from the puzzle to see that Logan looked a little flustered, and a small smile came to his face at the sight.

“So let’s see… not emotional, seems very factual and is on the more serious side, likes puzzles, mysteries, and detectives… my guess is that you’re Thomas’s intellectual side,” Nico said. Logan’s face broke out into a grin and his expression lit up with pride, sending butterflies fluttering through Nico’s stomach.

“Correct! Although technically speaking, my official ‘title’ of sorts is that I am Thomas’s Logic,” Logan said, voice surprisingly warm and fond.

“Well then, Mr. Logic, shall we finish this puzzle?” Nico asked with a grin. A small smile slipped onto Logan’s face.

“I think we shall, Mr. Flores.”

Nico and Thomas had been having what they liked to call “joint creativity days.” The two of them would hang out in Thomas’s apartment while Thomas would work on a script for a video, while Nico would work on his songs or poetry. And it was on one of these joint creativity days that Nico met another one of Thomas’s sides.

“By the prophecies of Apollo, are you writing a sonnet?!” a hushed, yet excited voice piped up beside Nico. He looked over to see one of Thomas’s sides nestled rather close to him on the couch, eyes lit up with awe as he looked at Nico’s screen. The side in question was dressed like a stereotypical prince: white tunic with gold detailing, a bright red sash- but oddly enough, no crown.

“Well… I’m trying to. My songs aren’t really going anywhere, so I decided I’d try to do some poetry. But I’m getting tripped up on the syllables,” Nico said with a sigh.

“Why restrict your wondrous writing to the syllables of a sonnet? Although I do appreciate the Bard’s work,” the princely side asked.

“I thought giving myself some guidelines would help, otherwise I’ll feel like I have too many options and I don’t end up writing anything at all,” Nico said with a sigh.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re writing much with those guidelines- but this certainly is a good start!” the side said, eyes scanning over the words again. A thoughtful expression came over the side’s face, and Nico could practically see the creative gears turning in his mind. Wait… creative? Could he be- well, Nico should probably ask the side’s name before making any guesses.

“Oh gosh, what am I doing? I didn’t even ask for your name or anything!” Nico said with a sheepish laugh. The side blinked, startling slightly as he was torn from the partially written sonnet. His face broke out into a charming grin as he sprung to his feet, got down on one knee in front of the couch and took Nico’s hand in his. Nico thought he was flustered at the side’s actions- but then he spoke and Nico was fairly sure his face was burning.

“Prince Roman at your service, my fair poet,” he murmured with a kiss to the back of Nico’s hand. Nico let out a sound he absolutely refused to call a squeak.

“Where is this suave-ness when I’m trying to flirt with Nico?!” Thomas demanded indignantly. Roman stood up with a huff.

“Virgil can be very convincing when it comes to not flirting versus flirting!” Roman squawked indignantly.

“Good point,” Thomas replied with a sigh.

“Well, whenever you are comfortable enough to do it, the suave-ness is much appreciated by me,” Nico said, only sounding slightly strangled. Roman’s face lit up, and he clapped his hands together excitedly as he bounced on the balls of his feet (the lack of crown now made sense to Nico, with how much the prince seemed to move).

“Really?!” Roman squealed.

“Of course, Prince Roman- or should I say, Thomas’s creativity and passion?” Nico guessed with a grin. Nico thought Roman looked rather joyous before, but Roman’s expression turned positively ecstatic. Nico half-expected Roman to start glowing with how enthused he looked. He all but bounded forward to sit next to Nico again and hug him tightly- and then he pressed a kiss to Nico’s cheek. Nico’s face heated up once more… and okay, fine, he squeaked. Roman drew back from him quickly, looking completely mortified.

“I have never thought about a single decision I have ever made,” Roman said, voice coming out quiet and mildly strained. Nico gave Roman a comforting smile, and took the prince’s hand and squeezed it gently. Roman’s tensed form instantly relaxed, but he still looked a little distraught.

“I don’t mind a little spontaneity, your highness,” Nico murmured, thumb rubbing soothing circles over the back of Roman’s hand. A sound between a gasp and an exclamation left Roman’s lips and a delightful pink flush grew over his cheeks.

“I- Nico, you- I…” Roman rambled, seeming at a loss for words. Nico smiled warmly and leaned over to kiss Roman’s temple… and well, it looked like Roman wasn’t going to be formulating words any time soon.

“Nico! Now I’m really not going to get any work on this script done!” Thomas said with a laugh, setting his laptop aside.

“I can’t help that my boyfriend and his sides are so handsome and lovely! It makes complimenting you so easy,” Nico said, flashing Thomas a grin. Thomas squeaked, blushing just as brightly as Roman.

“This is DISTINCTLY not fair!” Roman pouted, which was frankly adorable in Nico’s humble opinion.

“You started it, dear Prince,” Nico hummed with a shrug, turning back to his sonnet. Nothing like a little mutual flirting and flustering to get the writing motivation flowing.

Halloween was approaching, which meant that pumpkin patches started opening up. So Nico came up with the date idea of going to a pumpkin patch and carving pumpkins afterwards. And was the main purpose of this date to wear cute fall clothes and take pictures with Thomas? Maybe. But Nico also really loved Halloween and carving pumpkins, so really it was a win-win.

Nico took pumpkin carving very seriously, so he was meticulous when it came to choosing a pumpkin. Thomas had already chosen his, and was watching on fondly while Nico pondered over the pumpkins. Nico had narrowed down his choices to two pumpkins when a voice piped up beside him.

“Having trouble picking there, pumpkin?” the voice asked, and Nico glanced over to see one of Thomas’s sides crouched beside him. Nico couldn’t think of any other way to describe this side other than a dad with an affinity for cats. He wore glasses, a blue polo, khakis, and a cat hoodie tied around his shoulders. Nico blinked at the side with mild confusion.

“Was that… a pun?” Nico asked. The side let out a sheepish laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeahhh… not my best one. Oh hey! Can I just say that you look gord-eous today?” he said with a grin. Against his will, Nico’s face flushed and a giggle escaped his lips.

“You have a dad side?” Nico said, standing and turning towards Thomas with a laugh of disbelief. Thomas let out a sheepish laugh.

“Well, he’s technically more than that… but pretty much yeah,” Thomas replied.

“I didn’t think you or your sides could get any more adorable,” Nico said with a grin. Thomas flushed slightly, and a squeal came from the side beside Nico.

“Oh kiddo! You’re so sweet!” he cooed. Nico turned to the dad side with a slightly mischievous grin.

“Am I sweet as… pumpkin pie?” he asked. Thomas’s side giggled, while Thomas groaned at the pun.

“I’d say you’re even sweeter! My name’s Patton, by the way,” he said, holding out a hand to Nico. He looked at the offered hand, then to Patton’s face.

“Sorry Patton, but I don’t think a handshake is gonna do. Could I have a hug instead?” Nico asked. Patton’s face lit up like a child’s did on Christmas, and he pulled Nico into his arms with an elated sound. Thomas was a good hugger, Nico always felt safe and loved in his arms- but hugging Patton was that feeling times a thousand. Patton just radiated care and comfort, and Nico hadn’t really thought he needed a hug earlier, but part of him felt absolutely relieved to be hugged. One of Patton’s hands came up to gently card through Nico’s hair, and he all but purred at the touch.

“I’m not getting Patton back anytime soon, am I?” Thomas joked.

“No,” Nico replied with a slight pout, hugging Patton tighter.

“No complaints here!” Patton said, and Nico could hear his smile in his voice.

“I mean, to everyone else it probably looks like you’re hugging the air,” Thomas pointed out with a chuckle. Nico sighed, and regretfully drew away from Patton.

“That’s okay, I can always hug you later when there aren’t people around!” Patton chirped with a sunny grin. Okay, so Patton was definitely the side responsible for Thomas being like a ray of sunshine that came to life. But Nico had no clue as to what part of Thomas that made Patton. His kindness, maybe? But Nico had a feeling that Patton was more than that, that there was something more than the puns and cheerful attitude.

“I’ve gotta say Patton, you’ve got me a little stumped. Puns, sunny disposition, kindness… but I feel like there’s something more to you than that, something more specific that I can’t quite put my finger on,” Nico hummed thoughtfully.

“Do you want a hint?” Patton offered. Nico pondered this for a moment or two, then nodded.

“Sure, just don’t give it to me too easily,” he replied. Patton grinned, clapping his hands together excitedly.

“Yay! Well Nico, I just wanted to say that I am morally obligated to tell you that I heartily look forward to our next hug!” Patton exclaimed. Nico blinked in mild confusion, getting the feeling that Patton had used two puns in his hint. He pondered Patton’s sentence for a moment or two, regarding the side with a contemplative look.

“Are you… his morals? Or his heart?” Nico asked, more thinking out loud rather than settling on an answer.

“Both! Well, ‘officially’ I’m Thomas’s morality, his sense of right and wrong- but I’m his heart too!” Patton chirped.

“I knew there was something more to you than really good hugs and dad jokes,” Nico replied with a grin. Patton giggled, face flushing ever so slightly as he fiddled with the sleeves of his cat hoodie.

“Well, to be fair… I am mostly that sort of stuff,” he said, sounding a little sheepish. Nico regarded Patton with a concerned expression. Something about Patton’s demeanor… it struck Nico that perhaps the side didn’t think of himself all that highly. Maybe it was a bit of a stretch to assume, considering he had just met him, but there was insecurity in every fiber of his stance.

“Maybe, but it takes a lot of wisdom to deal with moral issues. You can be smart and silly, it’s not a dichotomy,” Nico said with a soft smile. Patton’s eyes grew wide behind his glasses, and Nico was vaguely startled to see that it looked like he was going to cry.

“Oh- I- well… well Logan’s the smart one, not me,” Patton protested, though his voice was soft and hopeful.

“Sure, Logan is logic and facts, and ‘traditional’ intelligence… but there’s a lot of different types of intelligence. You seem to lean towards emotional intelligence, which does make you smart and caring- plus you must be pretty witty to come up with puns,” Nico said, still smiling softly.

“Oh,” Patton said softly, eyes still wide and the beginnings of a smile on his face. Patton stood still for half a moment, then rushed forward to hug Nico. This hug felt completely different than the one Nico had received earlier. This time, Patton felt so small in his arms, instead of being all-encompassing comfort. Patton was the one who needed the comfort here, to know that just because he was sweet and silly, it didn’t mean he wasn’t important. Nico hugged him back tightly, reaching a hand up to run through his hair, mirroring what Patton had done with him earlier. Nico looked to Thomas over Patton’s shoulder- and was shocked to see an expression that had been eerily similar to Patton’s- disbelieving yet hopeful. Then it hit Nico- the sides’ insecurities were Thomas’s too, at least on some level. He squeezed Patton tighter and smiled at Thomas comfortingly. There was so much of Thomas to love- and Nico was determined to show Thomas that he loved every part of him.

Thomas and Nico were curled up on the couch, Thomas’s arm around him with his head resting on top of Nico’s. They were having a rather relaxed evening by watching The Lion King, arguably one of Nico’s favorite Disney movies (other than Nightmare Before Christmas, of course). What made this particular viewing of The Lion King so enjoyable was Thomas softly singing along to the songs and his laughter at various parts of the movie. They had gotten to “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” in the movie when Nico heard some snickering from off to the side. Nico looked over to see a mustached side with a white streak through his hair hiding behind the couch. Out of all the sides Nico had met so far, he looked the most different from Thomas. Yet something about him reminded Nico of Roman- they definitely seemed to have a similar style, as something about the side seemed regal with the elaborate black tunic and electric green sash.

“What are you giggling about?” Nico asked. The side merely cackled, wiggling excitedly behind the couch.

“You’ll seeeeeee,” he crooned. Thomas looked over to the side with an apprehensive look and sighed.

“Remus-” Thomas started, but the side (Remus?) quickly shushed him. Thomas huffed out a sigh and rolled his eyes, snuggling back into Nico. They continued watching the scene for a little while longer until Remus broke down into giggles, causing Thomas to sigh again.

“What’s so funny?” Nico asked, glancing between the television and Remus. They had gotten to the part of the song where Simba and Nala had rolled down the hill together, and Nico couldn’t quite figure out what was so amusing about that.

“Oh come on, Nala was totally asking Simba to hakuna her tatas with those bedroom eyes she was giving him,” Remus cackled. Thomas’s expression was twisted with a mixture of disgust and disappointment, while Nico couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Both Thomas and Remus looked surprised at his reaction, but Nico was too busy laughing to really wonder why.

“Hakuna her- oh my goodness how did I never think of that-” Nico said between laughs.

“And you said it would be a bad idea if I talked to Nico!” Remus scoffed with a grin.

“Cause I thought you would traumatize him, not- not whatever is happening here!” Thomas protested.

“What is happening here is that I am hilarious,” Remus shot back, his grin turning more smug than chaotic. Nico finally managed to stop laughing and catch his breath, looking to Remus with an inquisitive look.

“So you’re- what, pure chaos and humor? You also remind me of Roman in a weird way… I can’t quite puzzle you out,” Nico pondered. Remus opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by an indignant voice from the end of the couch.

“I resent that, I am NOTHING like him!” Roman exclaimed, crossing his arms and pouting slightly.

“Hey! I’m talking to Nico now, you got to meet him a few days ago!” Remus shouted back. Roman and Remus quickly devolved into childish bickering, sounding more like a pair of kids than two sides of a grown man.

“This is the first time I’ve seen your sides interact with each other, do they always bicker like this?” Nico whispered to Thomas, gaze darting between Roman and Remus as they continued to argue.

“More or less, but these two are a… special case,” Thomas muttered.

“I am quite special and spectacular, thank you,” Roman said, abandoning his argument with Remus to turn to Thomas and Nico.

“Pretty sure ‘special’ was not a compliment there, Ro-Bro,” Remus huffed. Roman let out a dramatic groan, looking to Remus his nose wrinkled in distaste.

“Why did you call me ‘Ro-Bro’, I know you have the capability to be cleverer than that,” Roman huffed.

“Well it’s true! Your name is Ro, and you’re my bro! And Thomas told me I couldn’t traumatize Nico,” Remus pouted.

“Wait, ‘bro?’ Like you guys are actually brothers?” Nico blurted, interrupting the argument before it could really begin.

“Unfortunately,” Roman huffed.

“Well I think I am an absolute delight to have as a brother,” Remus shot back, sticking out his tongue.

“More like an absolute fright!” Roman fired back.

“Awww, you called me a fright! That’s gotta be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me!” Remus chirped, seeming genuinely pleased. Roman let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Please don’t scare off Thomas’s boyfriend?” Roman huffed. To Nico’s surprise, Remus flushed slightly.

“I won’t,” he muttered. Seeming satisfied, Roman sunk out, leaving Thomas and Nico with Remus. Nico turned to look at Remus who seemed… uncharacteristically sheepish. Nico hadn’t really known Remus for all that long, but something told him that he wasn’t the type of side to be particularly bashful.

“So… Remus. Roman’s your brother? Does that mean you guys have similar functions?” Nico asked with a contemplative expression. Remus squirmed semi-uncomfortably for a moment or two before huffing out a sigh.

“I guess so. Technically,” he said with a slight pout. Nico regarded him with a concerned eye. Remus seemed just as unwilling to admit that he had any similarities to Roman as Roman was unwilling to admit that he had any similarities to Remus.

“So you’re creativity too? But Thomas and Roman both said something about scaring or traumatizing me… so you’re Thomas’s darker creative thoughts?” Nico asked.

“Yup. But I’m his intrusive thoughts too. Y’know, those random little thoughts you get about how easy it would be to stab somebody while they’re helping you do the dishes and you happen to be drying a knife,” Remus replied, his strange melancholy demeanor shifting to something more malicious and chaotic as he spoke. Nico was suddenly reminded of the other day when he was helping Thomas do the dishes after dinner, and how Thomas had dropped a knife like it had burned him while he was drying it. Nico had fussed over him and asked if he was okay, and Thomas just blamed it on clumsiness. But now Nico could see that there was a bit more to Thomas lurking beneath the surface. Nico knew that Thomas would never hurt him- if the immense guilt and shame currently written over his face was anything to go by- but it did hurt Nico’s heart a bit to know that Thomas struggled with such thoughts and felt ashamed to talk about it.

“Well… just because you think such things doesn’t mean you’d ever do them, and thinking those sorts of things doesn’t make you an irredeemably bad person either. Plus it’s not a bad thing to have a darker imagination! Stories can’t be all sunshine and rainbows, sometimes you’ve gotta have a little darkness to even things out,” Nico explained in a soothing tone, relieved when both Thomas and Remus perked up.

“Really?” Remus asked in a disbelieving tone.

“Really! Trust me, I’m a poet. And poets love writing about dark stuff, just look at Edgar Allan Poe! He’s one of my inspirations, did you know that?” Nico asked, grinning when Remus’s face lit up.

“Me too! The Tell-Tale Heart is one of my favorites of his!” Remus exclaimed, beginning to chatter away about hearts beneath floorboards and birds that foretold death. Thomas muttered something about Nico providing Remus more nightmare fuel to torment him with, to which Nico happily placated him with a peck on the cheek and the promise to defend him from any nightmares.

On more than one occasion, some of Nico’s friends had enthusiastically recommended the show Good Omens to him. As it turned out, Thomas’s friends were also recommending the show to him. So they both figured it could be something they could experience together. Watching Good Omens had become a bit of a weekend tradition, and they were now halfway through the show. Nico was getting popcorn ready in the kitchen, while Thomas fussed over the television setup. For whatever reason, Thomas seemed to be struggling with pulling it up… no, that wasn’t quite it. Thomas seemed strangely hesitant about pulling up Amazon Prime onto his television.

“Something up, babe?” Nico asked as he carried the popcorn into the living room.

“No! No, I’m fine,” Thomas replied, a little too quickly as he queued up the show and sat down on the couch. For a brief moment, Nico could have sworn he heard a chilling laugh and a flash of yellow out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to follow it, there was nothing there. Shaking his head, Nico sat down beside Thomas and instantly cuddled into his side, popcorn still in hand.

“Sure doesn’t sound like you’re fine,” Nico said, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head up to meet Thomas’s eyes. He fidgeted for a moment or two before replying.

“Just saw an article the other day about Amazon, that’s all,” Thomas said with a sigh.

“Yeah, Jeff Bezos is a crummy guy, and unfortunately we live in a capitalist world where there is no such thing as ethical consumption,” Nico said, tone grim and melancholy.

“He’s right, Thomas. After all- what’s the phrase? Ah yes… ‘we live in a society,’” a voice crooned. Nico jumped, nearly spilling the popcorn in the process, and looked over to see one of Thomas’s sides seated on the far end of the couch. The side’s appearance absolutely radiated “stereotypical villain” with the bowler hat, capelet, and yellow gloves- but Nico couldn’t help but be reminded of Crowley due to the scales on half his face and the piercing yellow snake eye. And he wasn’t sure why, but something in the way the side regarded Nico made him flush ever so slightly.

“Janus…” Thomas trailed off, pinching the bridge of his nose as if he felt a headache coming on.

“Now Thomas, we could be avoiding this guilt if we had just pirated the show like I insisted. But instead, we’re kissing up to-” the side- Janus- started, but was cut off by Thomas.

“There are… good points to what each of you are saying. But like I said before, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. If we spent our time trying to debate the moral standards of each and every piece of media we consume- well, we wouldn’t really have anything to consume. And that doesn’t mean we should outright ignore things like a company treating their workers terribly, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over something that isn’t in the realm of our immediate control either. Instead, what we can do is sign petitions and look into how else we can support underpaid and overworked workers. Besides, Good Omens is arguably queer, Neil Gaiman himself has made that pretty clear. We don’t get much of that,” Nico pointed out. Thomas and Janus seemed to ponder this for a moment or two, until Janus’s face broke into a sly grin that definitely had Nico blushing.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But pirating makes Virgil freak out cause what if I end up getting a virus when I download the show from a sketchy website and then all my data gets stolen, and then-” Thomas rambled, before Janus butted in.

“And Patton prattles on about how pirating is stealing, and stealing is wrong- but tell me, stealing from a corrupt company makes a right, don’t you think?” Janus said, gaze flicking to Nico for confirmation.

“I think I underestimated you, Mr. Flores,” Janus purred, and Nico’s face was absolutely burning at this point.

“And I thought Roman was handsome and charming,” Nico said in a strangled whisper, not really meaning to say what he was thinking out loud, but was glad he did when the human side of Janus’s face turned a bright red.

“I- erm. That’s- whatever,” Janus scoffed, examining his gloves in an excuse to not meet Nico’s gaze.

“Y’know, that’s impressive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him speechless,” Thomas commented dryly. Janus merely hissed at Thomas in reply, and Nico couldn’t help but giggle.

“Well what I think is impressive is that you have a snakey crime side,” Nico said between laughs.

“Flatterer,” Janus accused, although he was absolutely preening at Nico’s comment.

“Maybe I just think my boyfriend and his sides deserve to be flattered,” Nico replied with a shrug. Thomas let out a flustered giggle, and Janus’s human side of his face was quickly turning red again.

“Well, obviously he does. I knew that,” Janus said, trying (and failing) to seem aloof.

“The flattering also includes you here, Janus,” Nico said with a chuckle.

“Really? Oh, I’m not sure about that,” he replied, smiling coyly. Nico grinned wickedly, and Thomas glanced between Nico and Janus in a mix of mild confusion and intrigue.

“Then I’m sure you’d absolutely hate to hear that I find you incredibly stunning,” Nico purred.

“Careful there, angel- lest you fall prey to the snake in the garden,” Janus replied with a grin, flashing fangs that Nico was pretty sure weren’t there before. His brain was a little too busy re-playing the way Janus had purred “angel” on loop to actually remember.

“Speaking of snakes in gardens and angels- are we ever going to get around to watching Good Omens today or not?” Thomas asked with a chuckle.

“In a minute! I haven’t figured out which one of your sides Janus is yet,” Nico protested, shaking off his flusteredness to regard Janus with a curious eye.

“Oh please, as if you could ever unravel the marvelous mystery that is-”

“Let’s see, sneaky, snarky, dramatic, cunning, wants to encourage Thomas to commit minor crimes… anything else I’m missing?” Nico asked, cutting Janus off.

“... you forgot s-s-snakey,” Janus pouted. Nico broke into giggles at the sudden shift in Janus’s demeanor.

“Right, you’re right, sorry. So… you’re his… trickery and cunning side?” Nico tried. Janus pondered his answer for a moment or two, before he broke into a pleased grin.

“Well, I do encompass those things as well, I suppose. So I’ll give it to you- but formally, I am Thomas’s Deceit,” he said, tipping his hat to Nico.

“Pleasure to meet you, Deceit. Well, with that settled, we can watch Good Omens now!” Nico said, patting the spot on the couch next to him. Janus looked surprised for a moment or two before he shook it off and his expression was back to smug indifference.

“Well, I suppose I can be tempted to stay,” Janus said, sinking out for a moment before reappearing next to Nico. After setting the popcorn on the coffee table first, Nico grabbed one of Janus’s hands to pull him into the cuddling he and Thomas were currently engaged in.

“Hey, you’re just letting him stay cause you want double the cuddles!” Thomas teased.

“What makes you say that?” Nico asked as he wrapped an arm around Janus- while more arms than were normal for a human being wrapped themselves around Nico.

“Don’t lie to a liar, darling,” Janus crooned as he snuggled himself into Nico’s chest. Thomas rolled his eyes fondly, and with his lingering guilt about Amazon aside, the three of them settled in to watch Good Omens.

Thomas and Nico were on a walk in a park nearby Thomas’s place, holding hands and swinging them idly between them every once and a while. Every now and then Nico would catch Thomas giving him an incredibly sappy look- but really, Nico couldn’t blame him. After all, he was sure his own expression was as equally lovestruck.

“So, have I met all of your sides yet?” Nico asked, the question meant to be casual, but he was surprised when Thomas’s face twisted with concern and mild guilt.

“Well… you’ve met all the ones I’ve met. There’s still other parts of me that I have yet to confront,” Thomas said with a sigh.

“That’s okay! Learning about yourself is an ongoing process! And to put you at ease, there isn’t a part of you that I’ve met that I don’t love,” Nico said with an unabashedly adoring smile. This admission halted Thomas in his tracks, and he looked to Nico with wide eyes.

“Really?” he asked softly.

“Really,” Nico murmured, pulling Thomas into a kiss. Thomas made an elated sound against his mouth, holding Nico close as they kissed. When the kiss broke, he didn’t go very far, leaning his forehead against Nico’s.

“I love you too, you know,” Thomas said sheepishly.

“I know,” Nico replied with a grin, then gave Thomas another quick kiss before pulling away. He grabbed Thomas’s hand again, and the two of them continued their walk, hopelessly in love with every single part of the other.

Sanders Sides Tag List (send an ask/dm me to be added/removed!): @4amanxiety @adorably-angsty @alix-the-skeleton @allthemetalsoftherainbow @anxious-fander-bean @armageddonhascome @backatthebein @bangthekobrakid @bloodropsblog @cefinitely-rolo @coffeestudylive @cosmic-chu @cyndaquil17 @dani-jeanso @didsomeonesayprince @emphoenixcat @every-day-insomniac @fandomsandanythingelse @flix-net @freekiphotography @freepaperie081 @giant-motha-fuckin-snake @hanramz-the-fander @hhhhhhhhhhfjaskfsagfhasfgdsakfsa @i-need-a-social-life-2710 @i-really-dig-the-purple @ironwoman359 @justanotherpurplebutterfly @k1ngtok1 @kanejandkruge @kitsuneprideleader @kittycake574 @le2712 @littlemiracle05 @loganpatton @look-its-meme @loverofpizzaandallthingssweet @lynlinked @mewsicalmiss @midnightcandy @moonstonefox @musicsavedmefromdeath @mystrangedarkson @nightmarejasmine @not-as-smart @of-treble-and-dragons @punsterterry @purplepatton @quoth-the-sparrow @radioactivehelena @royallyanxious @ruuworld @sanders-trash-4ever @save-me-oh-dream-of-mine @shadowsfromthesun @shygirl4991 @sleepyssnail @softbludemon @softnic @sombraplayslazertag @sos-fandoms @sweetkirbi @that-one-garbage-nerd @theatresweetheart @the-fandoms-are-takin-over @thelowlysatsuma @theresneverenoughfandoms @thisrandomperson102 @thuriweaver @vigilantvirgil @virgilantanon @yetanother-fangirl

#sanders sides #nicomas #sanflores #karrot kings #thomas sanders #nico flores #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #fluff #sage writes

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michaels-two-dads · 3 years ago

Text

Interrogation Room (Beeduo)

AKA If Tubbo won’t write Nuke Lore, I’ll do it myself.

“Tubbo.. why are we here?” Ranboo asked, “What is this place?”

Tubbo had led him to one of the gray towers outside of Snowchester. It was one that he had been working on lately, but it’d changed since the last time Ranboo had seen it. When he’d last seen it, the inside of the tower had been hollow. He hadn’t been sure exactly what its purpose was before, and to be honest, he hadn’t exactly been paying much attention at the time. Clearly, though, Tubbo had made some drastic changes in interior decorating.

The floors and ceiling were made of a mix of blackstone and obsidian, absorbing the flickering orange light of the lanterns that hung from chains above. The room as a whole was claustrophobic to the next degree, hardly large enough to fit the single table and two chairs that served as its only occupants.

Ranboo couldn’t help but be reminded of another room, one with hastily-written signs on the walls, a jukebox in the floor, and water dripping in through the ceiling. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to be reminded of.

“Have a seat, Ranboo.” Tubbo said.

Ranboo frowned. Tubbo hadn’t answered his question, and his tone of voice had taken on that toneless, hollow quality, the way it got when someone mentioned Technoblade, Schlatt, or Dream. Something was very wrong.

“Uh- okay?” Ranboo said. He hesitantly pulled out the closer chair and sat down.

Ranboo wasn’t used to feeling this uneasy with Tubbo- usually, it was everyone else that he felt uneasy around. His eyes tracked Tubbo as he made his way past Ranboo to the other side of the small room, taking a seat in the chair opposite to him.

He watched as Tubbo opened a small drawer on the side of the table and pulled out a piece of paper, placing it in front of Ranboo theatrically.

“What were you doing on this date at this time?” He asked.

Ranboo let out a laugh, unsure of how else to react as he looked at the piece of paper, “How am I supposed to know, Tubbo, I- Mining, probably?”

He searched Tubbo’s expression for a sign of whether he accepted that answer or not, but his husband offered nothing, expression staying blank.

“Check your memory book.” Tubbo said.

Ranboo blinked, “Uh, my memory book isn’t like a- like a diary. I don’t date my pages, and I don’t write in it every day. I just use it to.. to keep track of important things- things I need to remember.”

Tubbo tilted his head to the side, a crack in his cold facade as his curiosity showed through, “Like what?” He asked.

Ranboo tapped a claw on the surface of the table, “Major events.. Michael..” He paused, making eye contact with Tubbo, “..You.”

Tubbo flushed, kicking him in the shin underneath the table, causing Ranboo to yelp in pain, “Stop flirting with me.” He commanded.

Ranboo bit back a grin, “I wasn’t!”

“You were.” Tubbo shot back.

Ranboo let the grin spread across his face, resting his chin in his hand, “Well, maybe a little.”

Tubbo kicked him again, “Stop it! This is serious!”

Ranboo rose his eyebrows, “Is it?” He asked. “Because you still haven’t explained what’s happening.”

Just like that, the temporarily light-hearted tone dissipated. Tubbo sat up straighter in his chair, his hands moving to fiddle with the zipper on his coat. After several seconds of silence, he finally responded.

“The thing is, big man, that something.. something has happened. Something bad. And I.. I need to ask you a few questions about it, just in case.”

A thousand scenarios flashed through Ranboo’s head. Was everyone alright? Did someone get hurt? Had something happened to Tommy? Or Michael?

“Wha- Can I- Can I ask what it was that happened?”

Tubbo didn’t answer for a few seconds, “..Let’s just say..” He trailed off, then started again, “Let’s just say that something has gone missing- something very, very important, and something very, very dangerous.”

Dangerous? What on the server was dangerous that had to do with Tubbo? There was nothing that Ranboo could think of, except for-

“Wait, Tubbo, you’re not- You’re not talking about-“ Ranboo lowered his voice, “Tubbo, are you talking about the nukes?”

Tubbo’s expression shifted, and Ranboo’s eyes widened.

“Is one of the nuclear weapons missing?!” Ranboo asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew that the answer was yes.

“Be quiet!” Tubbo shouted.

Ranboo shrunk back a little, startled by the harshness in his husband’s voice.

“I’m the one who will be asking the questions here.” Tubbo said firmly.

“Alright, that’s fine, that’s fine.” Ranboo said. “Sorry- That’s my bad.”

Tubbo wavered for a moment, and then his expression softened a little, “It’s alright, big man.” He said softly. He cleared his throat, “The thing is, Ranboo, the thing is that when Jack Manifold and I left the object that I will call a ‘firework’, and when we came back to find that it was missing.. you were the only other person online.”

Ranboo frowned, “Wait.. you don’t.. you don’t think I took it, do you?”

He knew it was a stupid question. Of course Tubbo thought he took it. Why else would he be here? But something in him still had trouble believing it.

Tubbo wavered, “I.. I don’t..” He set his shoulders, “We have to explore all possibilities, Ranboo. There’s no other suspects left.”

“So you think I took your nuke.” Ranboo said.

“Firework.” Tubbo corrected. He formed the word strangely.

Ranboo averted his eyes downwards, “Right, sorry.”

There was a moment of tense silence, eventually broken by Tubbo.

“And I never said I thought you took it, I just said we have to consider all possibilities.”

Ranboo looked up, “So you don’t think I took it?” He asked hopefully.

Tubbo didn’t respond.

“..Tubbo?”

Tubbo looked him dead in the eyes, “Did you?”

“Of course not!” Ranboo responded automatically. His tail twitched nervously.

Had he taken the nuke? He liked to think that the answer was no. He liked to think that he wouldn’t do that- but what he hated was that he had no idea whether he had or not.

According to his memory book, his enderwalking self was motivated by stopping “conflict”. Nuclear weapons definitely fell under the realm of “conflict”. But even in his enderwalk state, would Ranboo really steal from his own husband?

Out of anyone in the server, Tubbo was probably the person that Ranboo trusted the most. Ranboo certainly trusted him more than himself. And though Ranboo would admit that he had never liked the nukes, he had always tolerated them, because Tubbo assured him that he would never use them, and he trusted his word.

However, the idea of his enderwalking self with that kind of power.. that was terrifying.

When Ranboo looked back up at Tubbo, he had to look away. His blue-gray eyes pierced right through him.

“You don’t seem very sure.” Tubbo stated.

Ranboo exhaled a sigh, shutting his eyes tightly as he hung his head. Tubbo knew him too well.

“I’m not sure.” Ranboo admitted softly. He felt a familiar feeling of guilt clawing into his chest.

Ranboo felt a hand over his own, and he opened his eyes to see Tubbo smiling at him with an earnest expression. “Come on, Ranboo. What possible reason would you have to steal it?”

“I.. I don’t know.” Ranboo said.

“Then why would you not be sure?”

“Because-“ Ranboo stopped, suddenly gripped by a sense of urgency. He moved his other hand to clasp onto Tubbo’s. “Tubbo..” He inhaled deeply, trying to find the right words, “There are things I’ve done that I.. regret. Things that I don’t remember doing.”

Tubbo frowned, “Then how do you know you did them?” He asked.

Ranboo let out a pitiful laugh, “I just.. I just do.” He choked out.

Tubbo was quiet for a few seconds, taking in Ranboo’s words.

“I think we’ve all done things we regret.” He finally said. “Just because you don’t remember them doesn’t make you any different from anybody else.”

“But-“

“Nope! I’m right.”

Ranboo laughed fondly, blinking away the sting of tears that had been threatening to fall, “Alright, fine.” He said.

At that, Tubbo moved to sit down properly from where had been leaning far over the table, a smug smile on his face. “Good.” He said.

Ranboo smiled at him, reminded, as he often was, of how much he loved Tubbo Underscore-Beloved.

They sat in silence, until eventually Tubbo began to tap his fingers on the table, a far-away expression on his face. He appeared to debate something for a long time, before the tapping finally stopped, and he turned his head towards Ranboo solemnly.

“Ranboo, I need you to do me a favor.”

Ranboo tensed. The word “favor” immediately put him on edge. A voice in his head said danger, danger, tread carefully.

Despite all of that, Ranboo found himself saying, “Of course. Whatever you need.”

Tubbo’s brow furrowed slightly, before smoothing out again, “Tell me you didn’t steal the nuke.”

Ranboo’s heart dropped, “What?”

“Just tell me you didn’t.”

“Tubbo, I- I can’t.” Ranboo said.

“Why not?” Tubbo responded.

“I- There’s no way for me to confirm that.”

“So?”

Ranboo stopped for a moment, taken aback, “So there’s a chance I’d be lying to you!”

Tubbo was quiet for several seconds, staring at Ranboo with an intense expression, “Then lie.” He whispered. “Lie to me, Ranboo. Tell me you’re certain.”

Ranboo’s eyes widened, “Tubbo-“

“Please, Boo.” Tubbo’s voice was quiet, soft, and wrought with emotion.

Ranboo’s heart twisted painfully. He opened his mouth to say something, to force out a response- an argument- but the only sound that came out was a distressed enderman thrum.

He paused, took a deep breath, wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and tried again, “I-“ Ranboo’s voice cracked as he took in Tubbo’s appearance. At the sight of the desperate, pleading look in his husband’s eyes, his resolve broke.

“Okay.” Ranboo said weakly. “I didn’t take the nuke.”

“You’re certain?” Tubbo asked.

Ranboo held back a sigh, “Yeah.” He said. “Yeah, I’m certain, Bo.”

Despite the pit of dread that had already begun to settle in his stomach, seeing Tubbo’s shoulders visibly relax at his words made it difficult for Ranboo to regret his decision.

Soon enough, Tubbo had plastered on a cheery smile, all traces of vulnerability gone in an instant, “Alright, then!” He exclaimed, standing up. “Interrogation over, I reckon.” Then, he actually winked at Ranboo, “What do you say we get out of here, Memory Boy?”

Ranboo let out a startled laugh as he felt his face heat up, completely caught off-guard by the shift in tone, “I- I, uh- I-“ He stammered, “I- Um-.”

Tubbo’s smile widened, clearly proud of himself, and Ranboo laughed, his heart fluttering, “Sure.” He said. “That sounds good.”

Then, Tubbo walked out of the room with a skip in his step, leading the way out.

Ranboo began to follow him, but stopped after the first few steps, hesitating. He surveyed the room around him, swallowing thickly as their conversation fully set in.

His hand twitched at his side. He needed to write this down. He knew he did. As much as he’d like to ignore it forever, as much as he wanted to deny it in the way that Tubbo did, he had to remember. He had to know if he had really done it.

Ranboo took out his memory book, the leather cover feeling familiar against his clawed hands. He opened it carefully, then turned to the next blank page. After a moment’s deliberation, he took out his quill and wrote:

One of Tubbo’s nuclear weapons has gone missing.

He paused, then scratched out “gone missing”, replacing it with:

One of Tubbo’s nuclear weapons has been stolen. He asked me about it today. I was online on the day it was stolen, but Tubbo doesn’t believe it was me.

“He trusts me” Ranboo began to write, but he scratched it out halfway through, feeling silly about how much warmth the phrase made him feel.

Tubbo’s voice called to him from outside, “Ranboo? Are you coming?”

“Yeah!” Ranboo called back, “Yeah, just give me a second!”

Ranboo jotted down a simple question in his book:

Did I steal the nuke?

Then, he closed the book, put the quill away, and he jogged out of the room to catch up with Tubbo, who cast him a smile.

“Finally.” He said. “I was just about to file for divorce.”

Ranboo laughed, because it was a joke. At least, he was pretty sure it was a joke.

“Please don’t do that.” He said to Tubbo.

“Don’t worry, bossman.” Tubbo said, bumping their shoulders together, “You know I would never actually do that.” And before Ranboo could swoon too much, he added, “You’re too rich.”

Ranboo smiled, and they left together.

But even as they went, even as Tubbo took Ranboo’s hand, even as their fingers interlaced together, the weight of his memory book sat heavily in Ranboo’s pocket, and the weight of that unanswered question sat even heavier on his mind.

#Beeduo #Beeduo fanfic #Tubbo #Ranboo #Dream SMP #dsmp #dsmp fic #:D #Please reblog if you enjoyed and let me know what you thought!#My writing

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bokettochild · 3 years ago

Note

Request: something with the doppels please?

I headcannon the dopples as being Legend's deviants in a similar way that the Colors are for Four, so that's reflected here.

I came up with this a while ago though, and while I'm not fully satisfied with it, I thought it would be fun to explore how the dopples react to the Four Sword.

Hence, Color and Dopple bonding/meeting!

If the item they grabbed in order to help someone else could not be cursed for once, Legend would be very thankful.

But since when did things ever go his way?

...Their way?

You know what, when did things ever go as planned? There, pronouns don’t matter this way.

Not that the pronouns really change much, they just become... plural...

Four would very much not like to believe their eyes.

No really, please, make this not be real.

There are four Legends; four of him, and the Four Sword has been split.

Sure, the enemies that sprung on the two of them while they were gathering kindling are now dead. Sure, Legend protected them when the attack had caught them both off guard. And yeah, all five of them are now bleeding and injured, but why does it need to be five?

Because Legend’s sword was knocked away. Vio reminds the rest of them. Because our sword was the closest at hand and he needed a weapon.

Picking it up shouldn’t trigger it though, it needs force, it needs power pushing through it to activate. Blue grumbles.

And what do you think Legend does with his sword usually? None of his items are exactly normal if you recall.

Blue huffs at that, but no one says anything else, Red is too busy cheering at having more brothers while Green is currently weighing the pros and cons of Legend knowing the secrets of the Four Sword.

In all honesty though, the vet is taking it rather well.

“Seriously,” The red Legend sighs, looking at his alternate selves and then at the Four. The man doesn’t even ask for an explanation, he’s just burying his head in his hands. “Of course, of course this happens.”

“Aaand that’s why it’s called the Four Sword.” the green Legend sighs, looking at the blade he still holds in his hands with a slight smirk.

“I’d wondered if it was fully capable yet.” Blue Legend hums. “I suppose it only needed some power to unlock it’s abilities.”

The last of the four Legend’s sits frozen, shining gaze locked on Four for a brief moment as they look back at him. It doesn’t last long. They aren’t sure how or why, but this deviant is smaller than Legend, and the second that they make any move towards their split companion, the yellow deviant squeaks and ducks behind the green one, bright eyes shining with absolute horror.

“Hello,” The blue deviant peers around his brother in confusion. “There’s a forth one?”

“Four Sword.” The red deviant grumbles. “It implies that there would be four.”

“There was never four before.” The green one muses, looking behinds himself with a cocked brow. “And none of us was that fearful.”

“You okay?” It’s clear Legend’s blue isn’t the same violently minded variant as Four has, in fact, he seems something more like Vio or Green, calm and observant, but not altogether unattached from the world.

“How-” The golden variant whispers, eyes still not leaving Four as the younger looking Legend stares out from behind his other deviant. “You’re dead!”

They pause, confusion on their face as they take in the uneasy way that Legend’s variants look at each other.

“You’re dead, you’re dead, YOU’RE DEAD!” The deviant shrieks, frenzied and frightened in a way they’ve never seen Legend before, hands gripping tightly to his counterpart as he stares at the Four-Who-Are-One with a manic sort of terror, confusing them and setting his brothers ill at ease.

What does this...child, intend by his words? Is it a threat? Is it a dream, a hallucination? Splitting can mess with the mind, especially for first timers, is this part of Legend just insane somehow?

“I killed you!” There are tears in the golden one’s eyes, and he continues to quake behind his counterpart as the other three exchange looks of recognition.

“Kid, calm down.” Red starts, brash and uncertain.

“That’s Four.” Blue adds.

“He’s our friend.” Green soothes, oozing charm and charisma that reminds them of Warriors.

“They tried to kill us.” Goldie whispers, clutching even tighter at the tunic in front of him.

“Um...no?” Blue is taking the forefront of their own mind, but Red holds him back from being too violent. Even so, their own variants know better than to push at something so fragile. The golden variant of Legend is like the metal he’s colored after, delicate and so easy to break, too harsh a movement or action will snap him in two, and they aren’t ready to deal with that split, not when Legend is already in four pieces!

“Ignore him, please.” The red Legend sighs, rubbing at his face in a tired manner, and when they look closely it’s easy to see that this variant received the burden of Legend’s eyebags- his tunic and cap may be red, but the bruises beneath his eyes are a dark purple that make the vet’s own gaze seem near black in comparison.

“It’s a slight mix up.” The green one adds, kneeling down beside his counterpart with an assuring smile that they have only ever seen directed at the youngest of their number, and even then, most of the time it’s meant for Hyrule.

The Blue, Red and Green deviants all stare at each other, eyes flicking silently and expressions twisting for a moment before there’s sighing from the Blue and Red, and the two of them stand and make their way over to Four.

“Let’s give them some space.” Red sighs, “Kid’ll be freaking out for a hot second yet.”

They can’t help the suspicious raise of their brows. “You do realize he’s part of you, right?”

The two Legends exchange another look before looking back to him.

“Not exactly.”

“He,” Red Legend jabs a thumb over his shoulder, “Is supposed to be dead.”

Four would like a moment to scream please.

“What do you mean?” Red takes control as a panicked glance is shot over to the small-Legend. “He’s part of you!”

“Part of us that died.”

“We’ve been split before.”

“Albeit in a different way.”

“There wasn’t four of us to choose from.”

“Not with our soul already divided.”

“The Four Sword had to dig up something that wasn’t there anymore.”

“It was either us or the blade.”

Four has been split for the last six years and even they don’t do this. “Why are you talking like that?” They hiss, looking between the two forms of their friend. Blue is screaming inside and Red is shivering, Vio is demanding answers and Green is contemplating the possibilities of learning to do this themselves, all of which at once makes for a very busy head and no space to process much of what was just said.

“Practice.” The two Legends echo, nodding en tandem.

“Like we said,” Red sighs again. “This isn’t the first split for us.”

“First time we’ve become four.”

“But not the first split in general.”

Four looks between them, curiosity winning out over shock as Vio takes the lead. “Explain.”

And they do. As it turns out, the fabled sixth adventure of the hero of Legend resulted in his mind being divided amidst three separate bodies, each of which took on a few of his qualities as their main attributes, but, for the most part, remained distinctly Legend.

“It’s not a clear divide.” Blue Legend explains. “We share memories, can speak with each other via a link of our minds, and in general we act like we would when together.”

“Some traits are stronger though.” Red Legend adds on.

The red variant, Crimson, it turns out, is Legend’s exhaustion and irritability. He’s the frustration and stress and takes the brunt of their experiences. The blue variant, Ocean, on the other hand, is the resourceful, experienced part of Legend that can spy opportunity and possibilities in most places. He is, in a way, like Vio, representing the creative and intelligence of Legend. The green variant, Forest, the two inform him, if the valor and strength of Legend. Like their own green, this part of Legend is dedicated to his tasks and to the people around him. Without the exhaustion, bitterness and calculating aspects being as prominent, it allows him to be more open and friendly when separated from his brothers.

“And the golden one?” They ask, eyes trailing back to where the deviants in question are still talking.

Crimson sighs once again, shaking his head. “Call him Lore.”

“He’s us, but much younger.”

“He died when we were young, so his memories, his experiences, that sort of thing, they don’t line up with ours.”

Ocean nods in agreement. “Last he knew, we were visiting our grandparent’s farm after our third adventure. He doesn't know about our experiences since.”

“Much less us.” Crimson adds on. “He’s the only Link as far as he's concerned.”

“But how is he dead?” Four presses, confusion eating at their minds. It wouldn’t make sense for a deviant to be able to die, not without affecting the soul as a whole.

“He’s Legend’s innocence.” Crimson answers, eyes too dark and too sorrowful. “He’s been buried so far and so deep that he’s ceased to be a part of us anymore.”

“And he’s scared of me because...?”

“Because you tried to kill me- I mean... us.”

Three heads turn to where the younger looking Legend stands, hand tightly holding onto the forest deviant’s hand. The youngster looks calmer now, if not considerably confused. “How are you alive? I thought-”

He's cut off by a hand over his mouth as Forest offers a pained smile that looks more like a grimace. “We all thought you came hundreds of years before us.”

“I do. What’s this about killing us?” Vio’s slipping, but none of the Legends seem to notice.

“Nothing.” Three voices chime at once.

“Right.” Ocean looks around them with a frown. “How do we change back? Splitting up always causes problems, and the sooner we reunite and get back to normal, the better.”

“The Four Sword should do the trick, if you can become of one mind.” They provide their brother- brothers? “Just touch the tips together.”

Legend’s deviants all nod, understanding in their gazes that shouldn’t be there.

“Why aren’t you freaking out? Most people would at least be a little shocked by this.” They ask, gaze traveling from one of the split heroes to another.

“We’ve wielded the Four Sword before.” Crimson explains.

“Not wielded, exactly-” Ocean corrects.

“We carried them.” Forest clarifies. “But only until we could put them back.”

Four looks between them, and as once, they answer. “Adventure number one.”

Okay then. “I have so many questions.” They sigh, looking between Legend’s deviants.

“Ask Legend. We’re him after all, so when we reform, we’re still there.” Ocean reassures them.

“Most of us anyway.” Crimson murmurs.

“Am I dying too now?” Lore sighs, looking up at his brothers with eyes so tragically sad that Four almost feels guilty for asking them to reform.

“Not dying.” Forest winces.

“You’re going back to sleep.” Ocean tries.

“Or back to Gramma.” Red adds. “She’s probably worried.”

Lore looks pacified, and it takes only a moment more before Legend is standing, as one, before the Four again, eyes shadowed and hand rubbing down his face as he hands over the sword. “Oy vey.”

“You took that well.” They respond, taking the sword back and not at all wrapping their arms around it protectively.

“Been split before.” Legend groans. “Speak no words, or I tell everyone about you.”

“Me?”

“All of you.” Legend glares, but their mischief in his gaze. “I didn’t study the legends of the Four Sword for nothing, I know.”

And somehow, that doesn’t worry them. Legend knows how they work, knows there are more than one of them, but he’s the same, in a twisted, strange and not Four Sword based way. “We’re talking later, and I want to know more about them if I can.”

“Only if you split too.” Legend challenges.

“We can do that.” Four agrees. “We really should split more anyways.”

“We?” Legend cocks a brow, straightening up from where he stands.

“Us.” Four gestures to themselves. “Four.”

The vet stares for a moment before chuckling softly. “Why didn’t you tell us we had your pronouns wrong? Plural they/them is fine you know, you just had to say something.”

“Would you like the same?”

“Heck no!” Legend winces. “I’m male, singular. The dopples are just parts of me, but that doesn’t make me a plural entity, just someone with a jumbled brain on some days.”

“Dopples?”

Legend rolls his eyes, stooping to collect the wood that he had dropped when they were attacked earlier, disregarding the way blood smears across it from the cut on his arm. “I’ll explain on the way back to camp.”

#dopples #linkeduniverse #linked universe #legend linked universe #four linked universe #four swords

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