#talking book and braille library

[lakecountylibrary]

[ID: The Disability Pride flag /ID]

Happy Disability Pride Month! Here's your reminder that the Indiana State Library, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), provides the Talking Book and Braille Library FREE to Indiana residents who can't read standard print due to disability.

They will mail you materials, including braille ereaders, large print and braille books, and specialized audio players. They also have a digital library that you can use on your own device.

You can check them out and apply for services at https://www.in.gov/library/tbbl/!

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

“Reading is for everyone.”

Here is one of the coolest things I've found stuck in a library book recently! It's a bookmark from the Library of Congress that's in print and also incorporates a message in braille. It's advertising the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled.

Learn more at the NLS website:

ETA: Thanks for all the love for this post!!! Here's a reblogged version which includes some great comments and a very helpful ID!!!

[californiastatelibrary]

It's Library Card Sign up Month and did you know you can access over 160,000 audiobooks, magazines, and braille books through a convenient mobile app, BARD! Available through the Apple Store - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bard-mobile/id705229586 - or Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.loc.nls.dtb&hl=en_US&pli=1 (App access is restricted to patrons of the Braille and Talking Book Library)

Sign up for the Braille and Talking Book Library here: https://www.library.ca.gov/btbl/apply/

BTBL patrons please contact your Reader Advisor for assistance with access!

[razzek]

I waaaaant but even with a grant I'd still have to make about $2k appear out of nowhere. ;_;

[kaliade]

Support your libraries! Do you know how many times I've heard people say "Oh, I didn't know it was this nice in here." the past 3 weeks while early voting was going on upstairs?! Yes, we have a nice building. We have fantastic staff. We have more programs than you can shake a stick at. As the social media person for my library it takes me roughly 3-4 hours to get all our social media posts done for a month and those are just the ones advertising our events.

Go! To! Your! Library!

[lovelycrimsonredsnow]

Im bored soooo

•Doors entities lore•

The Eyes:

°one of the oldest residents other than seek and figure

° they used to be the receptionist for the hotel, ringing people in and handing them their keys. They appear so often in the first 20 doors to greet the visitor like they used to back around the late 1890's. Unfortunately if the player looks at them for to long they get fatigue and pass out. Eyes is aware of this but still thinks it's rude to at least not look at him once and greet them properly. It's quite rude to just barge in the hotel like that, much less steal the items and money that naturally spawn. How barbaric.... They think.

° regardless of gender eyes will attempt to reprimand them for stealing....except by then the player is either dead or gone into the next room, it agitates them so much. >:(

° despite looking like a biblically accurate angel, eyes has no direct connection to guiding light or curious light. They don't even know they exist actually

° they can be quite moody, especially if a player ignores him. They won't snap at anyone but they'll end up ranting again to either seek or jack.

° they can and will talk for hours straight, they hyperfocus on a single thing, a very small detail. Like rush being 00000.01 centimeters off from his usual path or hide being a quarter of a second late to kick a player out of his closets, it's quite annoying actually.

Halt:

° unlike eyes he's really quiet, doesn't talk alot and when he does ...oh my. His voice is naturally very loud and commanding, which he secretly hates.

° he views all players as trespassers that must be escorted out. He appears in the first 20 doors normally and forces the player to walk the other way to the exit...which does not work since they just go forward when he tries to go behind them.

° he was an officer before...the uh.... incident™ 👀

° like figure, he knows nearly always who's in the hotel and where their at. While it's extremely frustrating for him since they normally get away, he doesn't to bother to try again since they end up dying to figure or ambush anyway.

° he's seen guiding light a few times, he attempted to talk to them but they disappeared. He also finds it annoying how they help the player.

The figure:

° the oldest resident along with seek, he stays in the library most of the time organizing books and guarding door 51.

° as suspected he was the librarian for the hotel and supplied things like candles and lighters around the nearby hallways so the guests could see what books they were reading. He was actually very kind, not quite a talker but he would hum alot and make other noises frequently.

° since he's blind he can't read most of the books in his library anymore...:( thankfully some of the other entities got him braille books they got from players or Jeff. He reads those quite a lot since he's very fond of reading in general.

° he knows where every book goes has them neatly placed on the shelves, he gets quite angry when players mess with his perfectly organized library and it's so frustrating for him since he has to ask seek to help him put those back since he can't see what they are and therefore where they should go :(

° rush and ambush are permanently banned from the library after he caught them running through it trying to catch a player and messed up multiple shelves...he also hates loud noises since his hearing is sensitive. That's also why screech is banned-

° he can actually hear when seek or the others are chasing a player throughout the entire hotel. His hearing is that good.

° he always knows the combination for the lock, if by some chance he doesn't hate you and you don't mess with his books/your really quiet he might give you it so you can leave.

° probably the nicest entity there other than Jeff and El goblino If you don't piss him off.

Jack:

° he's not part of the hotel staff actually, he was a German soldier that stayed there after world war 1.

° after the incident™ he got stuck there along with everyone else. He is rather very quiet like halt yet has a mischievous side and likes to scare the players when he's bored.

° which needless say pisses off hide since they don't like anyone in their closets...

° jack tells everyone he was a captain of a ship at one point, everyone thinks he's lying but he did captain a ship when he came to America (which is where he saw the hotel)

° he's rather spiteful and if you don't get scared when he appears in front of a door he will block the nearest closet when he hears rush...

° he doesn't really like anyone at the hotel other than eyes and Sally. He's actually bonded with her quite a bit since she's quiet yet silly like him.

° he hates halt and will fight him without a single thought, seek has to separate them frequently or they'll reck the hotel.

° he listens to eyes rant a lot, not because he wants to comfort them but because he wants to hear the tea 👀🍵

° he's probably one of the meanest entities there if your just passing through, he's not malicious though...(Unless you made Sally cry) Just mean.

(keep in mind these are all just my au not canon nor do I claim them to be canon :>)

[awkwardauthorwrites]

The Devil Doesn't Bargain

Word Count: 4.5k

Themes: angst, very brief mention of abuse? Imelda is a piece of work in this but she means well

Warnings: Potential spoilers for HL. All characters are 18+ in their 7th year of Hogwarts. 

If anyone’s curious this song here is the one I had on repeat while writing this

Y/N twirled the quill she was holding, her work forgotten in front of her as she looked across the library to where Sebastian was sitting a few tables away. He was frowning as he looked between his textbook and the parchment he was scribbling on, deep in thought as he worked on whichever essay they had been assigned. He looked more tired than usual and Y/N couldn’t help but roam her eyes over him carefully, looking out for any other signs that everything was not okay. 

Their friendship has never quite been the same after the untimely death of Solomon Sallow in their fifth year. Despite not turning Sebastian in (the easiest decision Y/N had ever made in her life) and his reassurance that he was glad they were friends and that she had come to Hogwarts, he had begun to pull away in the beginning of their sixth year. It started slowly; from passing on visits to Hogsmeade and skipping the odd class because he wasn’t feeling well to barely acknowledging her when he walked by her in corridors, not even a nod in greeting. There was only so much she could do - so much she could take - before Y/N began to retreat as well, opting instead to spend more time with Ominis, Imelda and Poppy.

“Don’t do this.” Imelda kicked Y/N under the table gently and she reluctantly tore her gaze away from Sebastian to send a glare at the raven-haired girl. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Y/N rolled her eyes and flicked through her textbook, skimming the page for the information she needed. If she hadn’t been studiously avoiding the eyes of her friends she would have noticed the look the two girls shared followed by Ominis’ quiet sigh. 

“Don’t play stupid, it doesn’t suit you.”

“I see we’re back to the tough love route,” Ominis said, the corners of his mouth twitching up in amusement as his fingers trailed across the braille in his book. “Do you think this discussion will end in throwing objects again? I don’t like my odds of ducking to avoid Y/N’s inkpot.” He turned his head in Poppy’s direction, who laughed quietly even though she was watching Imelda and Y/N nervously.

“I would much rather we didn’t discuss this at all, actually,” Y/N couldn’t help but look over at Sebastian again, if only just to piss Imelda off, but was surprised to see him looking back. She offered him a small smile in greeting, her stomach flipping pleasantly when he smiled back. She quickly turned back to her work, her leg bouncing under the table in elation. Apart from occasionally meeting her eyes as they passed each other in between classes, that was the most interaction she and Sebastian had shared in months.

“I know that look in your eye,” Imelda pointed her quill at Y/N, her eyes narrowing. “Do I need to remind you of what happened the last time you thought he was coming back around?” Y/N stifled an annoyed sigh and bit the inside of her cheek, if only to stop herself from lashing out. She knew Imelda was right, knew she was only being so firm because she cared. “Sebastian Sallow doesn’t care about anyone other than himself.”

“He cares about Anne,” Y/N muttered petulantly. Imelda kicked her ankle again in reprimand and Y/N hissed in pain. “Fuck, stop kicking me!”

“Stop being stupid then!” Imelda leant forward, her voice lowering considerably.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“You’re better than this. He’s ruthless, he’s a liar. He’s abusive.”

“Sebastian would never hurt me.” If looks could kill then Imelda Reyes would be ten feet under. Y/N knew what her friend was saying came from a well-meaning place, but how dare she. How dare she speak about Sebastian that way - speak about her that way. She wasn’t an idiot any more than Sebastian was the devil Imelda made him out to be.

“Again, you mean?” Imelda snapped. Y/N sucked in a sharp breath at her words, at the sudden reminder of the agony the cruciatus curse had caused. Ominis stilled at the witch’s words, his amused expression dropping as he stopped reading his book. Poppy and Imelda shared a look between them. Y/N and Ominis never told them everything that had happened in their fifth year but they had worked out more than enough.

“You don’t know anything.” Y/N leant forward to hiss the words at her friend. 

“I know you don’t want to let go.” Imelda crossed her arms and leant back in her chair, a smug expression on her face. “People talk, Y/N. Sallow’s fascination with the dark arts wasn’t exactly a secret, even before you joined the school.”

“That’s enough Imelda.” Ominis turned his head to glare at the girl, his words icy. “I thought you of all people would be above petty gossip.” His hand drifted under the table to gently squeeze Y/N’s knee, reminding her to breathe. “I may not talk to Sebastian anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’ll allow you to sit here and disparage him like this.”

“Oh? Care to tell us exactly why you both stopped talking to him after his uncle died?”

“Imelda…” Poppy had a pained expression on her face as she looked between her friends, before darting her gaze over to Sebastian, who had his head buried in a book. “You’re going too far.”

“Apparently there’s no such thing when Y/N is concerned. She’ll forgive me and come crawling back, just like she does with Sallow.”

“So what if I do?” Y/N snapped, her voice rising. Madam Scribner shushed them sharply and sent them a glare, not that Y/N could find it in herself to care as she leant across the table to growl at Imelda. “Sebastian is one of my best friends, Reyes. Present tense. I don’t care that he’s not spoken to me in months - I will always be there for those who need me. I’ll always be there if he needs me.” Y/N looked over to Sebastian as she took a steadying breath, her eyes meeting his again. He watched her carefully, his head tilted to the side as he recognised the tell-tale signs of her anger. She couldn’t bring herself to look away from him as she spoke softly, justifying it with how far away he was sitting. “You have no idea what happened to us in our fifth year, absolutely none, so don’t pretend just because you listened to some bullshit gossip that you’re omniscient. The shit we went through - what the three of us went through - was something that’s bound us together for life. You don’t experience what we did and have the ability to stop caring for the other person - not that you could ever understand that.”

Something shifted in Sebastian’s gaze as Y/N spoke about him, and a small part of her wondered if he had somehow gained the ability to read lips and knew exactly what she was saying. She swallowed heavily as the air between them changed, her heart thumping nervously in her chest. Words from their fight echoed in her mind, but they were all drowned out by every good action he had ever taken for her, every good thing he had ever said to her. Y/N wasn’t quite sure if she could ever pull away from his hypnotising stare, but it seemed Imelda had made the choice for her as she leaned across the table and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look back at them.

“You can lie to me all you want, but I was there.” Imelda held Y/N’s chin firmly as she spoke, not tight enough to hurt, but enough that she couldn’t pull away. “Every single time you came back to our dorm room crying because he hurt you, I was there. I saw what he put you through and he doesn’t care. He’s not worth it. I won’t pretend to know what happened with the three of you in fifth year but he will never change. He’s only going to hurt you over and over again and you keep letting him. The devil doesn’t settle, Y/L/N.” 

Y/N finally smacked Imelda’s hand away and broke free from her grasp, her eyes burning with humiliation and anger. Poppy looked taken aback at how forceful their friend was being, while Ominis gripped the edge of the table in frustration. He couldn’t tell exactly what was happening in front of him, but the tone of voice, followed by the sharp slap of skin, was indication enough. There was a tense silence at the table as Y/N and Imelda glared furiously at each other, neither of them willing to break the silence first. Y/N blinked back the tears of frustration that were welling in her eyes and stood up, muttering to the table that she needed another book for her essay, and ignoring Poppy as she quietly called after her. 

She had to pass by Sebastian’s table as she walked away, her shoulders tight with tension as she very obviously avoided his eye so that he couldn’t see her tears. He stretched his arms out casually as she moved past him, his hand brushing hers gently. Y/N didn’t know if it was an accident or not, but she didn’t let it stop her as she made her way towards the shelves she needed and rounded the corner, disappearing from the immediate eyesight of her friends (and yes, as rage inducing as Imelda was, Y/N still considered her one). 

Her shoulders slumped once she was hidden from view and Y/N couldn’t help but to gently press her forehead to one of the shelves to calm the mixed emotions that were running wildly through her. She was angry at Imelda, because how dare she speak to her like that - how dare she grab her like that. She was frustrated at herself, because even though Imelda’s approach was far from ideal, she was right. Y/N always got her hopes up whenever Sebastian would flash her a warm smile in passing, and it normally led to her crying or screaming in their dorm within the week because he had gone back to his usual routine of ignoring her. The final feeling (one she didn’t want to linger on for too long) was how her heart was racing wildly as the casual touch of Sebastian’s hand as she passed by him. She didn’t want to admit what the sensation was, not even to herself, and instead tried to convince herself that the fleeting graze of his skin on hers was nothing more than an accident.

“Imelda is sorry.” Poppy said softly, her quiet footsteps stopping a couple of feet away. Y/N let out a humourless laugh and wiped away a tear before she looked over her shoulder at the Hufflepuff.

“You and I both know that’s a lie. Have Ominis and Imelda sent you to corral me back?”

“No. Imelda wanted to march over and drag you back herself but I told her to leave you alone and give you a little space. Ominis agreed with me and said he knows first hand what your anger is like?” Poppy phrased the end like a question, earning a surprised chuckle from Y/N.

“I think I’ve scarred him for life after he took my coffee from me the other morning.”

“Poor choice.” Poppy laughed softly, knowing first-hand how grumpy Y/N could be in the mornings before her caffeine. The pair fell into a comfortable silence as Y/N turned to face the shelves again and pulled a book out to see if it held any information that could help with her work.

“What is it, Poppy?” 

“I don’t want to upset you any more.”

“It can’t be any worse than what Imelda said to me,” she reminds her with a sigh. After a few more seconds Poppy still hadn’t responded so Y/N closed the book and turned to face her, holding the tome to her chest as she waited. 

“I just…Imelda wasn’t all wrong,” the shorter girl shrugged and offered Y/N a sheepish smile as she looked at her in surprise. “Her delivery could have been a lot better, though.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Y/N muttered. 

“Look, you know I’m not the type to lecture and condescend. All I want - all we all want - is what’s best for you. I know you might think Sebastian is it but I don’t think he is.” Poppy lowered her voice considerably and peaked around the corner as she said his name, taking care he wasn’t around to eavesdrop. 

“I thought you Hufflepuff’s always saw the best in people.”

“We’re loyal to fault, and my loyalties lie with you, not him. I’ve seen you cry over him too, Y/N. I never told anyone about the fight you two had.” Y/N stilled at her friend’s words, her mind flashing back to the argument that that had happened a few months ago. After weeks of being ignored again Y/N had finally cornered Sebastian in the Undercroft, and much like a powder keg the whole thing blew up with harsh words flying back and forth between the pair. She had finally hit him with her worst fear; that he had only stuck around with her because she was a means to an end to cure Anne. Sebastian had gone silent before nodding, and turned to leave her alone in the room, his parting words of well if that’s what you think of me echoing around her long after he had gone.

“Why?”

“Why didn’t I tell anyone?” Poppy asked. “Or why do I think he isn’t what’s right for you?”

“Both.”

“For one, Imelda would probably hunt him down and actually kill him if I told her.” Poppy tilted her head to the side, a dry smile on her face. “But mostly it was because of you. If you wanted everyone to know they would - you wouldn’t have come banging on the Hufflepuff common room door past curfew asking for me.” Y/N gave her friend a rueful smile and dropped her head back on the shelf behind her to count the ceiling tiles so that she wouldn’t cry again. “As for still being mad at him…what you said was out of line, but he never fought to correct you or prove otherwise and I watched as that killed you. No one cries like that over a friendship. You both said some vile things to each other but he ripped your heart out of your chest and I don’t think I can ever forgive him for that.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do.”

“I was in the wrong for saying that to him.” Either of them could have apologised. It didn’t fall to just Sebastian. Y/N had said things to him that were just as nasty - if not worse - during their fight.

“You were,” Poppy agreed, “but that still doesn’t excuse his behaviour. You always make excuses for him. I’m not going to get mad like Imelda did but I will say I’m not surprised.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s obvious you’re in love with him.” Poppy gave her a sad smile and Y/N felt her cheeks burn as she froze, her eyes wide as she looked at her friend apprehensively.

“I never said - ”

“You didn’t have to.” Poppy reached out and squeezed Y/N’s hand gently before turning to walk away again. “I know you might think he’ll change this time, and maybe he will - I really hope he does, to be fully honest with you. But just remember one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“The devil doesn’t bargain.”

Poppy walked back to their table, leaving Y/N alone with her thoughts once again. Her heart clenched painfully in her chest and a small part of her was grateful that nobody really ventured into that corner of the library as she sank to the floor slowly. She pulled her knees up, resting her forehead against them as she tried to calm her breathing and hold back a fresh wave of tears. They were right - they were always right. Sebastian did this to her constantly; he kept pulling her in only to push her away again. The last time it had happened was around their fight, and she had been a wreck for weeks because of it. 

“Y/N.” A pair of feet shuffled to a stop in front of her, and Y/N felt herself go still. She would recognise his voice anywhere. It was ingrained on her very soul. He sighed quietly and she heard the shifting of fabric as she sat down across from her, his legs stretched out in front of him so he could tap her ankle gently with his shoe. “I know you can hear me.”

“What do you want, Sebastian?” she asked, not raising her head to look at him, even though it muffled her voice. If she looked at him all resolve would break and she would either scream at him for leaving her or turn into a blubbering mess and she didn’t particularly care for either of those reactions at that moment.

“Look at me.”

“No.” Sebastian laughed, a genuine laugh which sent shivers down her spine. Y/N slowly lifted her head but still didn’t look at him and instead opted to stare at his polished black shoes. 

“You’ve always been so stubborn.”

“I learnt from the best.”

“That Slytherin pride really did hit us both hard,” Sebastian mused. He was quiet for a few moments before he crossed his legs and scooted closer to her so that he was almost sitting on her feet. “Look at me, darling.” Y/N hated the way her body reacted to the term of endearment. She hated that her stomach flipped pleasantly, that her heart started to beat erratically, that she could feel her face burn. She finally looks up at him, meeting his warm brown eyes with a withering glare. 

“Don’t call me that.”

“Are we still pretending you don’t secretly like it when I call you darling?”

“I’ll punch you.”

“Probably,” he chuckles quietly and reaches out to brush a stray tear from the corner of her eye. “Who did this?”

“Why do you care?”

“Contrary to what you shouted at me in the Undercroft, I have and always will care about you.”

“You have a funny way of showing it.”

“So we circle back to the pitfalls of Slytherin pride?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “You could have just as easily spoken to me first.” Y/N looked away from him, turning her head so that she could see Madam Scribner standing at her desk and watching them both like a hawk. He was right. Hadn’t she just thought and said the same thing when she was speaking to Poppy? “Was it Reyes?”

“Will you curse her if it was?” Y/N couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth and she instantly grimaced. “I didn’t mean - ”

“You did and that’s okay.” Sebastian pulled his hand away with a defeated sigh. “I haven’t touched dark magic since that night in the catacombs. I know some people think otherwise, but they’re wrong.” He catches the confusion on her face as she wonders how he knows that and runs a hand through his hair. “You’re all not nearly as silent as you think you are.”

“You heard everything?”

“Including your speech about how you’ll always be there for me.”

“What about…?” she looks away, stomach churning with nerves as she thought about what Poppy had said to her. ‘It’s obvious you’re still in love with him’.

“Your conversation with Sweeting stays between the two of you. That felt private.”

“And what we were saying at the table wasn’t?”

“Not when you were looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m worth saving.” Y/N felt her heart crack in her chest at the look on his face. She slowly shifted so that she was crossing her legs instead and reached out to brush the back of his hand.

“Everyone is worth saving.” He gives her a sad smile at that, noting that she still won’t quite meet his eye as she chews on her lower lip nervously. They sit in silence for a few moments as Sebastian watches the cogs turn in her head before she lets out a quiet sigh and finally looks at him. “I’m sorry for what I said to you.”

“I’m sorry I treated you so poorly that you even thought about it in the first place.”

“I didn’t mean it. I just…I was angry and hurt and I lashed out and wanted you to feel even a fraction of the pain I was feeling. I know you were never just using me in the hopes of finding a cure for Anne. You didn’t even know about my ability to take pain away until we had been searching for a cure for months.”

“It doesn’t matter if you did mean it - I forgive you,” he murmured, taking her hand in his. He mulls over his next words carefully, a small frown on his face. “I was stupid to push you away. I thought you both would be better off without me - especially you. I led you down a dark path and never stopped to consider the consequences of doing so. I ruined your life.”

“No you didn’t,” Y/N tightened her grip on his hand so that he would meet her eye. “I’m my own person, Sebastian. I chose to follow you down that path. You always asked if I wanted to learn and I said yes. You never forced me into anything. You didn’t ruin my life.”

“What do you think will happen if anyone ever finds out what happened to Solomon?” his voice lowered considerably as he spoke. “You’re not just going to get a slap on the wrist, Y/N.”

“No one will find out, Seb. Even if they do, it was my choice. I was the one who told Ominis we shouldn’t turn you in.”

“You…why?” Sebastian’s voice cracked as he asked the question and Y/N saw tears start to well in his eyes. “Why would you risk everything for me like that?”

“Because I - ” Y/N broke off as she felt her face burn. Now wasn’t the time to accidentally tell him that she loved him. “Because I would do anything for you.”

“You said that in the present tense.”

“I did.”

“Even after all the horrible things I said to you?”

“I wasn’t exactly a saint back, Sebastian.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

“You do.” Y/N leaned forward and kissed his cheek before she could process the decision. “You deserve everything, Seb. You deserve to be happy.” 

“You made me happy - you make me happy. Present tense,” he squeezes her hands gently. “I was an idiot to ever push you away.”

“Well, you won’t hear me disagree with that,” Y/N teased. Sebastian laughed quietly and she felt like a weight she didn’t even notice got lifted from her shoulders. “If you ever do this again…”

“Duly noted, no need to continue with that threat,” he chuckled. Footsteps walked in their direction - too heavy to be Poppy or Imelda and too purposeful to be any other student. The tell tale glow of Ominis’ wand lit up the stacks moment before he rounded the corner and came to a stop a few feet away from the pair. 

“Y/N? Are you still here?”

“I am.” Ominis’ wand wavered to the left slightly, a barely perceptible frown on his face as he wondered who else was present, before he exhaled. 

“Hello, Sebastian.”

“Ominis.” The pair stared at each other tensely (or at least, Sebastian stared at Ominis, whilst the latter looked slightly to his left) before Ominis turned to Y/N with a resigned expression.

“Shall I tell Imelda you’ve left? I can bring your things to the common room later.”

“She’s never going to believe it.”

“No, she won’t.” Ominis rolled his eyes and leaned against the bookshelf slightly. “She put two and two together the minute Sebastian walked in this direction, but Poppy is keeping her at bay.”

“She is?” 

“She told me to tell you if you hurt Y/N again she will set a Hungarian Horntail on you,” Ominis turned back in Sebastian’s direction as he delivered the threat. “I don’t think I need to add what I’ll do if I ever have to listen to her cry again because of you.” Y/N looked away from Sebastian as his head snapped back in her direction, a look of distress on his features at knowing just how much pain he had caused her.

“Understood.” Sebastian stood up and brushed the dust from his trousers before offering Y/N his hand. She hesitated for a few seconds but took it nonetheless and let him pull her to her feet. Sebastian didn’t let go once she was standing and instead he laced their fingers together and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Thank you, Ominis.”

“Don’t thank me yet. If it wasn’t for Poppy I would jinx you where you stand.”

“Well, thank Sweeting for me then.” There was a small grin on Sebastian’s face as he carefully tugged at Y/N’s hand, silently asking if she would go with him. She nodded before releasing his fingers so that she could pull Ominis into a tight hug. He froze, not expecting the contact, before weaving his wand-free hand around her frame and hugging her back.

“You tell me if he tries anything,” he muttered in her ear.

“Right after I hex him first.”

“That’s my girl.” Ominis released her with a chuckle and Y/N wandered back to Sebastian, who placed a hand on her lower back as he led her out of the library. They walked in silence until they reached the north exit for the castle and Sebastian let out a long breath and turned to look at her.

“I need you to know I’ll never treat you like that again. I can’t even begin to make it all up to you, but I’m willing to spend the rest of my days doing so,” he said. Y/N reached out for his hand and laced their fingers together again as she pulled him towards the gate that would lead them towards the path for Hogsmeade.

“On one condition.”

“Anything.”

“You forgive me for how I spoke to you and what I accused you of,” she came to a stop and turned to look at him. 

“Done,” he said quietly, a soft smile on his face. “I forgave you for that a long time ago, Y/L/N.” He brushed some hair behind her ear, his touch lingering on her cheek before he cleared his throat and looked away, his cheeks tinted pink. Y/N felt her stomach flip pleasantly and couldn’t help but smile shyly as they turned back towards the path. Now wasn’t the time to consider her feelings for him, or to tease him for his blush. But one day the bridges between them would be mended completely, and so she stored the information away for then.

[ravenclawhierra]

Reading.

Ominis Gaunt x Reader

Summary: Ominis has had a rough day and he wants to spend some time with you. He asks of you a favor, wishing to spend as much as time with you as possible.

Tags: Insecure reader, fluff, Ominis being a sweetie, FLUFF

Word Count: 2,2k - 1,6k without the Deathly Hallows

It was just… tough. He wanted to rest. He was so tired. So exhausted. His thoughts were nothing but exhausting, honestly. Pushing him to the edge, it was too much. Everyday he'd deal with the same, today however, was worse on him than usual. As much as he was used to this, it'd still come for him - Killing him from the inside.

He had already lost a friend, and he was losing another one. He was grieving. Grieving over something that wasn't even lost. He felt as if it was bound to happen soon, but hoped it wouldn't. As much as he enjoyed the presence of his Angel, it wouldn't feel the same without his friend. Would he be asking for too much? He had hoped not.

Walking along the Hallway, he thought about how he wanted to see you now. Or at least feel you near him. You always helped him cheer up, forget about his horrible thoughts, or simply interrupted them when he's thinking about you. He was already finished with reading his book, he needed to get a new one from the library, he just hoped they would have more books in braille.

He skipped his way to the door and down the stairs of the library, and went ahead to find some more books. He walked along the section with books in braille before hearing two familiar voices. He listened to you and Sebastian speak.

"How long have you been together now? I mean, you still haven't given him a kiss, right?"

"We've been together for 2 weeks now and I know, I want to kiss him but I'm afraid…"

"Afraid of what exactly? He won't bite."

"I don't know, I'm afraid he won't like it, and what if he doesn't really like me either?"

He stepped in before the two of you could continue and you both looked up at Ominis.

"Hello Sebastian, (Y/n)," He greeted you, his voice a bit quiet. You hoped he hadn't heard the two of you talk. To your luck, he seemed as if he only entered the section and had nothing to hear. You sighed a small sigh of relief. You didn't want him to know just how you felt, not because you didn't trust him, but because you just couldn't get yourself to tell him. It was like something was pulling you back. Maybe fear? You just weren't sure.

"Hello Ominis, you can sit next to me if you'd like?" You wanted to state that, but you were just so unsure. Ominis smiled at you and sat next to you. How you hated your voice. You wish you didn't have to talk for him to understand you. But you had to. 

You went to the next page of your book, hoping for something exciting. You loved reading fantasy books, they'd take you to an imaginary world where you could imagine yourself as a better person, and a different person entirely. 

"What are you reading?" Ominis asked, his eyes gleaming with wonder. Oh those beautiful eyes of his. 

"Oh I'm… I'm reading some fantasy book about dragons." Your voice was quiet, shy. He smiled at you. It was nice feeling you close to him, having you talk to him. He was already feeling somewhat better. 

"Uh…" Sebastian sighed, "I just remembered I have detention." 

"Well? Best of you to get going then." Ominis also sighed. It was his third time this week. What is he doing to get in this much trouble? 

"Yes, I know. Have fun you two." Sebastian picked himself and his stuff up, murmuring and walking to wherever he had detention now. 

Well, now it was awkward. For the both of you? You didn't know. You didn't know what to talk about, and Ominis was genuinely quiet usually. You did enjoy his presence though, so it was not too awkward for you. You hoped he felt the same way, because at least it wouldn't be awkward silence you're sitting in. 

"Do you want to take this to the dormitory? My room at least. It would be quieter." Ominis suggested, to which you slightly blushed. You knew he wouldn't do anything funny to you, but it still made you kind of fuzzy on the inside. 

"Sure," You agreed happily, "It would be nice to move from this spot for a bit."

You grabbed your books and picked yourself up, waiting for Ominis to do the same. He got up and used his wand to let him get around. Before taking any steps though, he reached for your hand and pulled you close to him.

"It would be easier for me this way," Your blush was covering your entire face now, thank Godrick he didn't see you now. You had hoped he didn't feel your heat all the way from your hand. 

You slowly made your way to the dormitory with him. You both decided it would be nicer to walk. Floo Powder was there to help, always, but it was nicer just doing everything you two can, slowly. You had more time to talk, more time to laugh, smile. You always forgot about your worries when you were with him. You felt kind of free! Except when it came to telling him about your fear. Which is exactly what's stopping you from telling him.

When he smiles at you, when he laughs at your jokes, when he comforts you, soothes you, all of that. All of that made you feel like you were worthy of love. From none other than him. That was a big deal to you. The day you met him, you felt as if he had something against you, but as he opened up, you started liking him more and more. He did too, though.

However, neither of you could get yourselves to confess, and Sebastian was there to listen to the both of you. Constantly talking about each other. Lucky for the both of you, he couldn't stand it anymore, and made you two go on a date in Three Broomsticks. His plan was a success, as the two of you then started dating. Seriously, how could the two of you be so dense with each other's signals. The world will never know. 

Finally, you had arrived to his room. It was your first time there. One side was clean, the other was a complete mess.

"I'm sorry, I share the room with Sebastian and he keeps not cleaning his room," He smiled at you awkwardly, "He claims he gets around easier with his mess."

You laughed. It was just like him to be like that. Messy room, messy hair. You wondered how the two of them got along so well. 

Ominis sat on his bed, patting on the side next to him, calling out to you to sit next to him. And you complied. Oh no. The silence was there again. How do you go from quiet, to talkative, to quiet again? 

"(Y/n)," Ominis called, "Would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Sure, do you need anything?" You asked, smiling at him. Your heart was pounding.

"I was in the library, looking for books. I couldn't find any." He smiled back at you, shy, "I was wondering if you could read something of yours to me, please?"

Oh my. What a request. You hated your voice. But you couldn't deny this to him. He asked so politely, so nicely. In that sweet voice of his, with those beautiful eyes. 

"O-of course." Your blush was covering your entire body at this point. "Would the Deathly Hallows do?"

"I enjoy that story," Ominis laid down on his bed, checking if you'd lay down with him. "So, please do."

"I'll sit, but I will still read to you." He nodded, closing his eyes and preparing to listen to you. 

"There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure."

You cleared your voice slightly, keeping an eye on Ominis, but he didn't budge.

"And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travellers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him."

Ominis slowly grabbed your free hand, wanting warmth. 

"So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered the Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother."

Your hand squeezed his, giving him more warmth. 

"Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead."

The room was getting colder and you wished you could have his warmth around you.

"And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility."

Ominis slowly massaged your palm with his hand, smiling at you, making you even warmer.

"Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death’s gifts. In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination."

All this time, you were imagining the three of you guys in the story. A perfect trio.

"The first brother travelled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible."

You wondered if Ominis was thinking the same. You took your hand away from him quickly to go to the other page. 

"That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother’s throat. And so Death took the first brother for his own."

He Immediately went back for your hand.

"Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him."

You looked at Ominis, hoping he was enjoying your storytelling. 

"Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her." 

You focused on finishing the story now.

"And so Death took the second brother for his own.

But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life."

You closed the book and quietly mumbled a small "That's it." 

You were hoping to get a reaction from him, but he was asleep now. You smiled at him and put the book on his table, right next to the bed.

You joined him now, laying right beside him. He looked so peaceful while asleep. Tell him. 

"It doesn't help now," you whispered, "But I'm scared. I'm not sure of what. I just am." 

"I know you can't hear me now, but I don't want to lose you because of myself. I want to be myself with you. I want you to accept me the way I am. Which is just… Insecure. I'm sorry."

You stared at him. He was so pretty. He was so nice. Understanding. Caring. Friendly. All of that, and he's yours. It was just a blessing to have him. 

You got up for a second, grabbing the blankets which were folded by the foot of his bed, covering the both of you. You cuddled up to him. Simply adoring him. Without much thinking, you pecked his lips.

"I love you, good night."

He wasn't asleep though. And he heard you. He always has heard you. He will always listen to everything you say, he knows how important that is to you. He will return everything you have done for him, tomorrow. Just as the two of you wake up.

[imagineanime2022]

Blind Love

Yuki Sohma X Female!Blind!Reader

Word Count: 1667

Requested: @twilightlover2007

Request: I'd love to see Yuki end up with someone who is blind, someone who appreciates him for who he is like Tohru. Please and thank you!

Yuki had seen you around the school many times and for the most part you were never alone, which was probably the reason that he never noticed that you suffered with any ailments. That being said Yuki never really saw you leave the classroom unless it was the end of the day and when you were with friends you never used the cane.

The first time that Yuki saw you using the cane and realised that you were blind, he was out getting some supplies for school when he caught sight of you, for once alone dragging your hand over the shelf where the braille labels told you what was on the shelf, he was stunned by the revelation, his eyes lingering on the cane for a second before he realised that he was standing in your way and there was no way that you would know that, he sidestepped and your head turned in his direction “thank you.” was all you said but it caused his chest to warm. “No problem.” He answered, he watched you go with the small bounty from your own shopping trip. Yuki didn’t expect that to stick in his mind but it did so the next time that he saw you he decided to talk to you.

The second time that he ended up in the same room as you was the day that neither of you were able to take part in a school event because of your health issues, you had both been moved to the library where you would spend the majority of your day. You had been reading a book that you had brought, again on with a braille translation under the words. Yuki was sitting across the table going through some of the work from the student council, he figured he would get it done now instead of waiting until after school. His eyes kept drifting to you though, he couldn’t help it. “You know I can feel you staring at me even if I am blind.” You informed him. “I’m sorry I just-” Your giggle stopped his panicked response. “Don’t sound so panicked, I’m not offended or anything.” You said as you placed your book down hand moving to the place that he had watched you put the bookmark down before slotting it into the book folding your arms in front of you and placing them on the table. “So what are you staring at?” “I’m not… It’s just that you seem… There’s no way to say this without being offensive.” Yuki finally admitted leaning back in his chair, leg bouncing under the table. “Then just say it.” You prompted, Yuki bit his lip as he thought about denying your request but the way that you looked directly at him, he was sure that you didn’t know that he was there but with the tinted glasses it made him feel like you were. “You seem so capable.” He explained “I always saw you with someone else with you but when I moved out of your way at that shop and now you don’t seem like you need someone with you all the time.” “Because I don’t.” You shrugged “but people will never believe that, it doesn’t matter how many times I show them that I don’t need a babysitter because what would that mean to them?” “People smother you?” He asked. “You must get the same thing, you know since you are here with me and not out there with the rest of them.” You muttered almost like you were worried that what you were saying could be entirely wrong. “Not that I’m not grateful to the people that help me I-” “Now you're panicking.” Yuki smirked as he started to relax around you. “Right.” You nodded more it seemed to himself then anyone else. “There you have it. I don’t need the help but I accept it because it makes people feel better.” “Maybe I can save you from that some time.” Yuki suggested. “Yeah I think that would be nice.” You answered.

He wasted no time in making good on that promise one day at lunch he walked into your classroom, every girl watch with bated breath as he walked into the room each sighing as he walked past them without even looking at them, he stopped in front of your desk and cleared his throat “I remember promising to save you.” He said softly almost as if he wanted it to remain a secret between the two of you and really he did. “I thought you were lying.” You said softly as you turned your head in his direction. “Did you really?” He asked. “I had no reason to doubt you.” You admitted as you stood, grabbing your bag with a little trouble before he took your hand and wrapped it around his arm. “Is there anywhere that you want to go?” He asked. “They never let me go to the roof.” You answered. “Alright, do you have lunch?” He asked. “Yes.” You answered. When you got to the roof you both settled and you pulled out a simple box with a sandwich in it. “Thank you for bringing me out here.” “It’s no problem.” He waved you off, remembering halfway through the action that you couldn’t see him. “So are you going to tell me your name before you murder me?” You teased. “I’m not going to murder you.” He denied as he rolled his eyes. “But you're not going to tell me your name either?” You asked. “It’ll change things.” He answered, his mind immediately travelling to the way that all the girls in school treated him, the last two interactions have been so easy, he didn’t want his name to change that for you and ruin it for him. “Then what can I call you?” You asked. “What do you want to call me?” He asked. “I’ll call you Hero.” You answered. “Hero?” He asked. “You saved me, remember, my hero.” You explained finally taking a bite of your sandwich. “What about your name?” He asked. “You get mine when I get yours.” You answered. “Then I guess I’ll just call you Princess until I know.” He shrugged, he hoped that would push you to tell him but instead you smirked and nodded. “Sounds good to me.” You mumbled leaning back against the fence to continue eating.

Yuki went home with a smile on his face that day and everyone noticed “Yuki seems happy today.” Shigure observed as he looked at the boy in the kitchen. “Yeah he’s been hanging out with some girl.” Kyo mumbled “saw them on the roof the other day.” “Yeah, everyone at school was talking about it, he went to the classroom to get her, her name is (Y/N), she’s blind so maybe he’s been helping you.” Tohru explained. “Blind, I didn’t know there was anyone like that at your school.” Shigure said, hand moving to his hand to his chin in thought. “I’ve never talked to her myself but I’m just happy that he’s made a new friend, ever after the curse was broken he didn’t seem to be any different but maybe it just took some time for him to get used to the freedom.” Tohru shrugged. “Whatever as long as he’s not bothering me.” Kyo waved them off as he leaned back on his elbows, they all stopped talking as they heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. “I’m going out, don’t wait up!” Yuki called as he walked out of the door, they all sat in silence for a second before looking at each other. “I’m happy for him.” Tohru finally said before she continued to make dinner.

The next day at lunch Yuki came to get you again, this time you both took a walk around the school grounds. It was a nice day and you had said that you wanted to enjoy it without people trying fretting over everything that you did. “Is there somewhere to sit?” You asked, head moving in the direction that you knew your hero was in. “There is, would you like to sit down?” He asked. “If that’s not too much trouble.” You answered, he made a soft noise before guiding you to the bench you were slightly behind him and of course you didn’t see the person heading towards you, they crashed into you, Yuki’s hand moving to your waist with impressive speed to keep you steady. “Hey, watch it!” He yelled. “Sorry Yuki!” Someone yelled, that was his name Yuki. Like Yuki Sohma, Yuki wasn’t an unusual name so you couldn’t be sure but that might be because everyone always seemed so shocked when he walked into the classroom to come get you. “Thank you, my hero.” You smiled. “You can use my name, I know you heard it.” He said and you shrugged. “You never told me your name as far as I’m concerned the game isn’t over.” You answered “unless you want to tell me now.” “My name is Yuki Sohma.” He answered. “Nice to meet you Yuki, my name’s (Y/N) (L/N).” You introduced yourself. “So why didn’t you want to tell me who you were?” “I liked having a friend who liked me for me, people treat me like a prince, just like they treat you like you're fragile, I liked what we had were we treated each other like real people.” Yuki answered. “Now why would that have to change?” You asked, he blinked at you “it won’t change to me.” “It won’t?” He asked. “Well actually I really like you so maybe we could explore that.” You shrugged playing with your fingers, you heard him shuffling before his hand wrapped around yours. “I would like that.” He smiled. “Good let’s do that.” You nodded, the day continued as normal with Yuki walking your home before telling you that he’d pick you up on Saturday for a date much to your excitement.

Part 2?

Request Here!!

[shadowtriovibes]

let this be our little secret

Pairing: Ominis Gaunt & Sebastian Sallow & MC

Word Count: 1.5k

Rating: G

Summary: request: "Could I request MC feeling bad about invading Omins’ hideout (even though Sebastian invited them) so they show the two of them the Room of Requirement?"

“Is that… did a door just appear?” Ominis asks softly. “How did you know?” Sebastian asks, curious. Ominis smirks and murmurs, “I’ve come to learn what the sound of shifting walls sounds like. The way the stone bricks move, how they form themselves into new shapes. Usually it’s the staircases, but every now and then, something else will surprise you.”

Cornering Ominis after Potions class ends is easier said than done.

“Ominis!” you call out, weaving through the rest of your classmates as they gather their belongings. “Ominis, wait, please!”

He attempts to ignore you and continue on his way toward Central Hall, but you manage to catch the hem of his robes and suddenly find yourself at the end of his rather intimidating wand.

“What do you want this time, hmm?” he asks, annoyed. “Have you not yet caused enough chaos in my life for one week?”

You balk, mildly shamed. Indeed, it hasn’t exactly been a banner week for your burgeoning friendship, but “chaos” is a strong word.

(…It’s a fair one, though.)

On Monday, you’d accidentally spilled a vial of Wiggenweld on one of his enchanted library books he’d left out in the Slytherin common room, irreparably ruining the Braille charm he’d worked so hard on.

On Wednesday, a rogue Diricawl had gotten out of your nab sack before you had a chance to drop it off in one of your vivariums. Before your eyes it had vanished with a puff of smoke and reappeared directly in his path, causing him to take a rather nasty fall.

Worst of all, on Friday he’d caught you sneaking out of the Undercroft and given you quite the earful, even if entering in the first place wasn’t even your idea.

“Please, just – I need to talk to you,” you tell him quietly.

Ominis bristles. “Why?”

“There’s something I want to show you,” you explain softly. “Both you and Sebastian, it’s… I want to try to make up for everything that happened with the Undercroft.”

All week long, Sebastian had been similarly out of sorts after Ominis had caught up with him and loudly expressed his displeasure that he’d shared the Undercroft with you after only knowing you for a matter of weeks. To your chagrin, you’ve somehow managed to become a point of contention in a friendship that has spanned many years, built on countless hours spent together in Ominis’ secret hall.

Needless to say, you’re desperate to fix it.

You shift anxiously while Ominis considers your plea, his shrewd expression never once betraying his thoughts.

“What is it that you want to ‘show’ me?” he asks you hesitantly. “Is… is it something I can, er…”

“It’s nothing you need to see,” you quickly stress. “It’s a place. Another secret place I found.”

Ominis raises an eyebrow. “You found another secret place? Merlin, it’s barely been a week.”

“Professor Weasley showed it to me,” you explain. “Please, will you let me take you there?”

Ominis huffs and lowers his wand. Finally, he drawls, “I suppose. After dinner will be fine, if you can manage to track down Sebastian.”

–

Sebastian and Ominis trail awkwardly behind you while you lead them up the stairs of the Astronomy tower. As you climb higher and higher, you keep a careful eye out for any lingering students hoping to secure some stargazing hours, but when you finally arrive at the seventh-floor corridor, the three of you are alone.

“We’re going quite high up,” Sebastian comments. “Trying to take us as far away from the dungeons as possible, are you?”

You roll your eyes as you come to a stop in the middle of the corridor. “We’ve arrived, actually.”

Sebastian looks around expectantly while Ominis passes his wand across the corridor.

“This is an empty hallway,” he deadpans.

“Right now it is,” you say teasingly. “Give the Room a moment, it’s a bit shy.”

Ominis scoffs and Sebastian simply smirks as you pace the length of the empty hallway three times. As you come to a stop after your last turn, the stone wall across from that ridiculous troll tapestry starts to rumble.

Instinctively, Ominis reaches for Sebastian’s hand like he’d done countless times as a first-year, every time the two of them (or was it three, back then?) had found themselves on a set of stairs that started to move.

As the door to the Room comes to life, you beam brightly at Sebastian.

“What was it you told me about Hogwarts?” you tease him. “‘Loads to see, and places to discover?’”

“Is that… did a door just appear?” Ominis asks softly.

“How did you know?” Sebastian asks, curious.

Ominis smirks and murmurs, “I’ve come to learn what the sound of shifting walls sounds like. The way the stone bricks move, how they form themselves into new shapes. Usually it’s the staircases, but every now and then, something else will surprise you.”

Wordlessly, Sebastian steps closer to the door to inspect it. He reaches out and skims his fingertips along its surface, humming softly to himself once he’s satisfied that it is in fact real.

You take Ominis’ hand and walk him toward the door. “Come feel it.”

Every time you enter the Room of Requirement, your door looks exactly the same. You suspect that if others make use of it, they might come across a wholly different door with a different room inside — but ever since you were shown how to summon the Room, you haven’t encountered another soul waiting in the corridor for a turn inside.

Besides, you don’t want the boys to find a room. You want them to find your Room.

Ominis lifts his hand toward the wood, tracing his fingertips gently over the intricate pattern made of wood and wrought iron. Then he presses his palm flat against its surface.

“It feels… alive,” he whispers. “What is this place?”

“It’s the Room of Requirement,” you tell him. “It’s available to anyone who discovers it who happens to have a great need for it.”

Beside you, Sebastian perks up interestedly. “I’ve read about the Room of Requirement.”

“You’ve read a little about a lot,” Ominis comments.

With a withering look that Ominis can surely feel, Sebastian continues. “It’s said to be quite tricky to find — Unplottable, even.”

“Care to take a look inside?” you offer.

Both boys step back while you open the grandiose door. As you enter, Ominis follows you with his wand drawn.

“Merlin’s beard,” Sebastian breathes, unable to resist the temptation to wander straight into the middle of the room, soaking it in from every angle. “This is… this is brilliant.”

Ominis, on the other hand, is as still as a statue as he takes it all in. You suspect that the symphony of sounds inside the room must be a bit overwhelming at first — bubbling potions stands, lacewing flies flitting around your potting tables, the steady whirring of your loom.

“Is this — this is like a greenhouse and a potions laboratory all in one,” Sebastian exclaims. “And a library!”

He goes straight for one of the bookshelves tucked beside your potions stand, where textbooks on helpful enchantments and intriguing magical history have a habit of appearing. Delightedly, he plucks one of the books off the shelf and cracks it open.

Satisfied that Sebastian will be occupied enough to stay out of trouble for a few moments, you turn to your other guest.

“Ominis?” you ask tentatively. “…What do you think?”

He remains quiet for several more moments until eventually he lowers his wand.

“Why did you bring us here?” he asks quietly. “Or — why did you bring me here, I suppose.”

You frown. “What do you mean?”

Hesitantly, he adds, “You barely know me. This is obviously a very special place to you, and I just… want to understand.”

“Well, I just thought it was what friends do,” you say lamely, wincing. “Sebastian showed me the Undercroft, so…”

“Is that what we are?” Ominis asks you. “Friends?”

Even though you know he can’t see you, you nevertheless feel like he’s studying something about you when you meet his smoky-white eyes.

“I hope so,” you admit. “…I’d like us to be.”

Ominis nods almost imperceptibly as a small smile forms on his lips.

“Alright then,” he agrees. “Perhaps you could tell me more about this Room of yours?”

You don’t bother hiding your smile as you take Ominis’ hand and start to give him a tour of your ever-expanding sanctum, pointing out your growing collection of vivariums and the sitting area you’d designed with late-night study sessions in mind.

“I will admit, it’s much cozier here than in the Undercroft,” he comments. “I can tell already that Sebastian will have a clear preference between the two.”

“The Undercroft is useful too,” you counter. “But the two of you are welcome to join me here any time you like.”

“We won’t impose,” Ominis tells you, but he’s still got that curious smile on his face as you lead him into your grassland vivarium.

You leave him to explore on his own for a bit while you return to check on Sebastian, who’s started to unabashedly dig through your potion supply cabinets. When you both return, you find Ominis curled up in a patch of sunlight with a Niffler in his lap, both fast asleep.

“Good luck getting him to leave now,” Sebastian jokes. “I think you’ve got yourself a new Room-mate.”

You playfully nudge him in his side and murmur, “Hopefully two Room-mates.”

[emarttt]

Just thought of a quick headcanon bc of hermione and Harry's interaction about Romilda and her "potential" love potion and it made me think of a headcanon with Ominis trying to be a mom as he’s told to be (plz be nice it’s my first writing in English ^^):

*Ominis and you were at the library, searching for an old book about ancient runes, you, sitting with a pretty huge pile next to you while your friend was standing, a little book written in braille in the hand*

Ominis : You know, I was thinking about something lately with all latest events but you really should be careful with who you're talking to...

Y/N : It really comes from nowhere… Why's that?

Ominis : For god sake... Come closer.

You executed yourself, coming closer as the Slytherin step forward, knowing where you were due to your clothes’ friction. When he suddenly put a finger on your nose, probably thinking this was your mouth

Y/N : Why are you touching my no-

Ominis : Shhhhh !

Without even moving, he made silence reign between you two, letting you be more confused than ever.

Ominis : Look behind me, you see him?

Y/N : Yeah, that's Gareth Weasley and so what?

The boy let a long sigh get out of his slight mouth.

Ominis : You're really never pay attention... I told you to listen !

Y/N : No, you put your goddamn finger on my nose

Ominis : Stop talking about that ! If you had paid attention, you would've understood what he was saying! He told the guy next to him he was looking to ask you on a date

You actually needed time to process. Letting your eyes slowly following your head as you admired a bit more the Gryffondor. He was definitely not bad looking with his curled up red hair and all those subtle freckles. Always kinda mesmerised by the young man, you answered :

Y/N : What? You mean… for real ?

Ominis : Did you really see me joking around a lot since we first met? It’s Sebastian role to be the stupid one here. Yes for real, I’m surprised you don’t believe it yourself actually

Y/N : What do you mean?

Ominis : Come on … since you arrived everyone seems to be interested in you, it's like they know there’s something special about you and I won't be surprised if some would like to take advantage of it.

Y/N : But, Ominis, I am special and- *OW*! … Sorry…

And he slapped you with the tiny book he was holding since, feeling now a soft pain in your shoulder as you giggled a bit, seeing the natural bored Ominis for the real first time.

Y/N : Didn't know you could aim correctly

Ominis : It's not because I'm blind that I can't hit idiots.

Wrote this at two am yesterday, dunno if it’s good or bad but anyway imagine Ominis being a bit protective bc he’s :

1. Actually jealous but shows it with restraint

2. Trying to catch up Sebastian behaviour who’s been a dick with you (and let you think he’s not into you)

3. Just being a protective mom

I like all three possibilities lmao

[nothoughts-onlywomen]

steadfast, sightless - chapter fourteen

An emergency party meeting is called, and El makes a tough but necessary decision. Robin helps teach Max some Braille. Lucas and Mike have a serious conversation. Steve comes to visit. Max and Lucas spend some time together. Eleven and Max travel through some more memories. Max makes a desperate request of Lucas.

Lucas couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so tired.

Eleven had called for an emergency meeting after the events of that morning, just as the sun was coming up. It hadn’t taken long for Lucas and Will to rally all of them together: Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, Steve, Dustin, Mike, and Erica.

The grimy fluorescent light fixture hanging from the roof of Max’s trailer shed a yellowish hue over their party as they gathered in the living room. If you could call it that anymore. No one had lived in it now for some time. Max never really lived in this space, Lucas conceded to himself. She just existed in it.

Lucas noticed that some of his friends seemed very comfortable in Max’s trailer and was vaguely reminded that several of them had been here more than once. Since Max’s mother had gone to rehab, the party – sometimes in small groups, sometimes individually – had been stopping by periodically. At first, it was for upkeep: throwing out any rotten food, giving the floor a sweep, straightening up. After a while, though, certain party members started proposing ideas to better Max’s living quarters. Lucas had a feeling that Robin was the mastermind behind this, especially after she’d been insistent that the party would do better to support him and Max. Steve, who often relayed the goings-on of the visits, seemed to agree.

Jonathan, who had been largely nondescript up until this point, had taken it upon himself to travel to Max’s trailer and start making it more blind-friendly. Nancy and Robin had been more than happy to contribute to his efforts, and Joyce helped wherever she could. Steve, who seemed to have developed a tight-lipped tolerance for Jonathan’s presence, came over to help as well, but only if Robin was present. Together, they and Joyce had scrounged up about twenty dollars’ worth of lamps and positioned them all over the trailer, in places where Max would likely go often. Her bedroom, the hallway, the bathroom, the living area. Steve had also told Lucas out of earshot of Max that they did a sweep of the many beer cans that had littered the trailer. It wasn’t as if Max was oblivious to her mother’s affliction, but Lucas felt that he and Steve shared a mutual understanding on the matter. No point in reminding Max about her family stress. She had enough going on as it was.

Nancy had done some additional digging into reading materials for Max and discovered that the Library of Congress provided “talking books,” in which a blind person could listen to a book being read. In addition, Robin had discovered a very old, but still functional enough, Kurzweil reading machine in the now-abandoned Hawkins Library. It would scan a page of the book, Robin explained, her eyes alight – and then read the page aloud.

“We can definitely help Max try it, if the Hawkins library makes it out in one piece!” She lamented cheerfully, a nervous giggle escaping her. To a pessimist, it might be irrelevant to consider the future of Braille in Max’s life. Especially if they were all on the verge of death anyway. But Lucas knew, in some small way, it was giving them something to look ahead to. Something to hope for.

Lucas blinked, shaking his head. He didn’t know how he was still functioning. The gray light of dawn seemed to have signaled his brain to catch what must be his third or fourth wind by now. The rest of his body, however, was starting to feel the effects of how long he’d been awake. His muscles felt heavier; his vision seemed to vibrate. The lights were too bright, the sounds around him were almost muffled, as if wrapped in gauze. He glanced over at Will, who seemed to be in a similar daze. Twice now he’d started to lean slightly against his brother, eyelids drooping, and Jonathan had shaken him slightly to rouse him.

Eleven, who had been waiting for all of them to show, addressed the room at large.

“Last night, I went into the void. And I saw Max.”

A wave of mixed reactions went around the room – gasps, exchanged looks, muttered exclamations. Lucas supposed he ought to feel guilty that the rest of the party hadn’t been let in on this plan. But times were dire. Sometimes risks must be taken.

“You saw Max?” Nancy’s brows knit hopefully.

“Yes.”

“What did she say?” urged Robin. Dustin and Mike nodded eagerly as El continued.

“She is there, and she is okay. For now.”

Lucas felt some of the tension in his stomach ease. Max had told El she was okay. Though several of them also let out relieved sighs, Erica seemed skeptical.

“How can she tell you that in there, and not out here?” She inquired, one eyebrow raised.

“It does not make sense,” El admitted. “But Max says that part of her is here – her body in Hawkins – and part of her is there. In the void.”

Will nodded. “So it is like me.”

Eleven acknowledged him.

“Yes. Except she goes to the void when she sleeps. She doesn’t dream.”

“So…she’s stuck. Sort of,” concluded Dustin, shrugging.

“It looks like that,” El replied.

Lucas noticed that some of the party members seemed less eager to talk. Mike stood there, tight-lipped with worry, his face tense as he stared at the floor.  

“Did she say anything else?” Robin asked, in a now hushed voice.

Eleven nodded, and Lucas saw her swallow anxiously.

“Max remembers when she died. She woke up in the void and thought she was in hell. But then she saw us. Here, on the other side.”

“When she…died.” Lucas still couldn’t really say it. “Vecna didn’t kill her all the way. Not like his other victims. So we think maybe that’s why she’s sort of…in between. She’s here, but she’s also there.”

“Did she say anything about Vecna?” Nancy inquired, and Lucas could hear the slight quaver in her voice at the mention of his name.

“No. She has not seen or felt him.”

A brief silence fell at the mention of their nemesis, as if they were nervous to summon him by saying his name. The silence was only broken by Steve, whose arms were firmly folded.

“And why didn’t you tell us you were doing any of this?” He questioned, in the same tone of voice Lucas’ mother used when he was about to be grounded for something.

“I didn’t know it would work,” El admitted.

“That doesn’t matter,” Robin waved her hand in his direction.

“It does matter, Robin. It was a dangerous idea,” insisted Steve.

Robin shook her head impatiently. “She made a decision, and yes, it was a stupid decision, but now we know Max is okay somewhere in that big, dark…place that Will was in before.”

Jonathan rounded on Will, nudging him awake.

“Were you there too?”

“Lucas and I…” Will yawned widely, rubbing his eyes. “We stayed there overnight. Just to make sure everything went okay.”

“No wonder you look like the walking dead,” Jonathan mused.

“Anyway,” Nancy asserted, gesturing back to El. “There must be more. You didn’t call us all here just to tell us that.”

Eleven glanced at Lucas, and he gave her a reassuring nod. El addressed the group again, pressing on.

“Remember when she escaped Vecna? It was in her happy memory.”

Lucas felt warmth permeate through him as he was reminded of what Max’s happiest memory was, this warmth immediately replaced by an indelible sorrow. He remembered the way she looked at him that night; her blue eyes so cautiously warm, so genuinely soft and content and thankful, almost. As if she was silently letting him know her gratitude. For accepting her with an open heart. For loving her. For seeing her. And now, she’d never look at him that way again. Or at all.

Erica spoke, her tone suggesting she wasn’t altogether convinced. “What does her memory have to do with it?”

“We were trying to find a connection,” Eleven explained. “Between the Max in there, and the Max out here. So she and I walked through some other memories. Ones that are important to her.”

“Like what?” Nancy encouraged.

El’s face grew both sad and slightly nervous. “The day we went to Starcourt Mall. We tried on clothes and took pictures and got ice cream.”

Lucas cringed inwardly as he realized that this had been the memory that had caused Max so much distress during the plunge into the void. El’s gaze flickered in his direction, silently asking for guidance. Lucas supposed they shouldn’t keep secrets from the rest of the party. But he didn’t feel completely comfortable exposing Max’s inner turmoil on her behalf. So he stayed quiet, and after a moment, El pressed on.

“We also saw the day she fell off her skateboard in the gym with Mike.”

Mike frowned at her, speaking for the first time. “How did you know about that?”

El gave him an apologetic look.

“I was there, Mike. I saw you and Max argue. And I…made her fall off her skateboard.”

Lucas supposed he should be shocked, but based on his past experience with Eleven, a girl who could cause bodies to fold like paper dolls when those she loved were in danger, this seemed on par. Based on most of the others’ expressions, they also seemed less than surprised.

“That explains a lot, actually,” said Dustin.

“I thought Mike had found someone else to love,” Eleven explained, her cheeks flushing at the reaction. “I was jealous. But Max told me that wasn’t true.”

“It wasn’t,” insisted Mike from next to her, looking slightly upset that she’d thought this. “I promise. It wasn’t true.”

El leaned toward him, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. “I know, Mike. It’s okay.”

The rest of the group seemed unsure about how to react. Mike seemed to be having his own realization related to this as he stared wide-eyed at the floor. Eleven seemed to decide that changing the subject was best.

“We also saw…Halloween night? She scared you and Lucas and Dustin and Will. Then came with you to get candy.”

Lucas watched Dustin and Will’s faces soften to reminiscent grins at the memory. He smiled too. How interesting that Max had preserved that memory in her mind. But it made sense. It was the first time he’d ever seen her smile.

“Were there any other memories?” Jonathan asked.

“No,” said Eleven. “Because…she started to feel bad. And then she woke up here and she was sick. Her nose was bleeding, and she threw up. The nurses told us to leave. But she is okay now. I think.”

“I knew something was going on with her,” Robin said quietly. “She wasn’t right today. She looked really tired. Almost sick. Like before.”

Eleven bit her lip. Lucas felt a deepening sense of foreboding as she looked around the room.

“I do not want to hurt her more, but…I have to go back for her. Vecna is close. Closer all the time.”

Will nodded vigorously, and Lucas saw his hand snake up the back of his neck. “I’ve felt it too. That sinking feeling has been coming back.”

“I have to go back,” El stated resolutely. “Tonight.”

Lucas heard his fist slam into the end table, barely feeling the impact. The entire group turned to look at him, shock and surprise on most of their faces. He shook his head.

“You guys don’t understand. She’s fragile right now. When they were in there, her blood pressure started rising, and they thought she was going to have a seizure. It took twenty minutes to get her back to normal. We have to give her some time.”

Mike pushed back. “How much time can we possibly have, Lucas? Vecna’s closer now, Will and El can both feel him. We can’t afford to wait. If he finds her in there again, we might not get her back at all.”

“And if we push her too far, she’ll be in even worse shape than she is now, and even more susceptible to Vecna and whatever he’s planning,” Lucas countered.

“I think Mike and Will have a point,” Nancy interrupted quietly. They all turned to look at her. Her glance to Lucas was apologetic. “I hear where you’re coming from, Lucas, I do. But Vecna…he’s not going to wait. And if El and Will can sense him…we have no time to lose.”

Lucas sucked in a breath and released it exasperatedly. As much as he hated it, they were right. While Vecna hadn’t made himself known yet, he knew it would only be a matter of time. If they were going to help free Max from the void, they would have to do so as soon as they could.

He leaned forward, his head in his hands. His exhaustion was starting to set in once more, and he could feel it pulling him deeper and deeper.

Lucas felt a hand on his shoulder, and Will’s tired, cracked voice.

“Jonathan’s coming to get me so I can go home and sleep. We can drop you off at home too.”

Lucas jerked his head once, to show his assent.

The car ride passed in a blur. Lucas only knew he’d fallen asleep because Will was shaking him, murmuring “we’re at your house.” Lucas undid his seatbelt and stumbled out of the car, stepping across the pavement. Everything felt as if someone else was doing it. He was barely there.

Lucas was barely conscious enough to enter the door to his house, make a beeline for his bedroom, and collapse into bed.

He’d only hit the pillow mere seconds before sleep enveloped him completely.

-

Max would never get used to it.

Waking up in darkness was perhaps one of the strangest things about her new existence. She was so used to seeing light from behind her eyelids, carefully cracking them open, squinting into the sunlight. Her body’s signal that a new day was unfolding across the sky. Opening her eyes to no sunlight, no light at all, never failed to confuse her.

The only reason Max knew it was morning was because there were birds chirping outside. She could hear them singing their cheerful, inquisitive dawn songs, uncaring about the constant low rumbling outside that Max always heard now.

Lucas had told her it was the Upside Down. After the gates had broken open, the Upside Down was now half-inside of Hawkins, and Hawkins was half-inside of it. Max couldn’t surmise how anything like a hospital could be functioning while that was going on. Then again, she supposed a hospital would be one of the only things open at a time like this. It figured that she was trapped inside it.

Max wished she could lift her head toward the sound, to better identify it. It was muffled from far away. But as her body had slowly awoken, she quickly realized she felt horrible. She opened and closed her mouth slightly, tasting sourness. Tasting vomit. She didn’t remember throwing up. Max tentatively dragged her hand across the sheets, toward her pillow. Her hand didn’t touch any wetness or slime. So she hadn’t puked in her sleep.

Max’s head throbbed. The vein pulsed in her temple, a screw in her brain that only grew tighter with each squeeze of pain. A little bolt of lightning shot through her skull with each blink of her eyelids. She was shaking, weak, feeling dizzy. She wanted to reach for the nurse button, but her arm was too heavy.

“Cindy,” she managed, her voice cracking.

She didn’t know where Cynthia was, and she couldn’t get up to find her. Her hand grasped limply at the bar on the side of her bed, and she tried in vain to pull herself up. Her arm muscles quivered with the effort, but to no avail. Angered at her own weakness, she grabbed the bar with her other arm and pulled, as hard as she could. A thin whine of frustration vibrated in the back of her throat as she tried again to sit up, both arms braced against the bar, her stomach muscles clenching, her back tensing.

After a few moments, whatever little strength in her arms was finally depleted, and she let herself fall back onto the bed. Max had to take a moment to catch her breath, her arms now shakier due to the exertion. Her hand flopped out toward the bed bar and she tried once again to pull herself up. Nothing. She was weak. Just like she’d always thought.

The door creaked open, and Max gave a little sob of relief.

“Cindy,” she called hoarsely. “Help me.”

A completely different voice cut through the air.

“Max?”

It wasn’t Cynthia, but Robin. Max could hear Robin’s footsteps quickly approach her bedside.

“Max, what happened? Are you okay?”

“Help,” Max reached out into the air.

The warmth of Robin’s arms surrounded her.

“I’m just gonna help you get comfortable, okay?”

Max felt herself lift slightly off the bed, felt her chest press into Robin’s. Robin was wearing a collared shirt, with buttons. Max concentrated on the polyester fabric, the hard plastic buttons jutting into her sternum as Robin moved her up onto her pillows.

Robin’s slightly nervous voice sounded next to her ear. “We’re going back down, okay? Nice and easy.”

Max felt her head press into her familiar pillows, felt the cushions against her back. Her flowered green blanket slipped under her arms, and Max let herself sink into the mattress. As much as she hated being trapped in this bed, day after day, the effort had exhausted her.

She felt Robin take her hand.

“Better?” She asked.

“Yes,” Max all but whispered, giving Robin’s hand a light squeeze.

She couldn’t see Robin’s facial expression, but when she spoke again, Max could hear the concern in her voice.

“I can call the nurse, if you want.”

“Yes,” Max told her.

She heard the click of the nurse button above her bed, and Cynthia was there in minutes. The nurse noted that Max was pale – as if Max had been able to tell – and that she didn’t look well.

“My head,” Max told her. “It hurts.”

“A headache? Okay, I’ll make a note of that. Anything else?”

Max tried in vain to communicate how awful she felt.

“Dizzy. Feel sick. And…weak.”

She heard the scratching of a pen on paper. After a moment, Cynthia spoke again.

“Okay. Max, I’ll be right back. I’m going to adjust your bed so you can sit up, and then I’m going to get you some medicines.”

Max heard the turn of the crank on the bed, felt the head of the bed rise so that she was in a sitting position. She leaned back into the bed, her head still swimming as she heard Robin take the chair next to her bed.

“Um, Max?” She said hesitantly. “If you’re feeling up to it, I thought maybe I could show you some Braille.”

Max blinked in her direction. Braille? Had they discussed that before?

Then the memory floated hazily across her brain. Yes, Nancy and Robin had both suggested Braille for her, so she could still read books. The loss of her sight was a constant grieving process, she noticed. One thing here she could no longer do. One thing there that required sight.

“Braille,” she murmured, almost questioning. “For…read.”

“Yeah.” Robin sounded hopeful. “Yeah, so you can read again. Obviously we don’t have to master it today, that’s impossible, but I thought we could at least learn some of the letters. Then that’ll make it easier for you to learn full words, and then I can try to find some actual books for you. If the Hawkins library survives, of course, there is that to consider. And then we can – ”

Max waved her hand a little, an unwilling smile lifting the corners of her mouth. Robin never seemed to know when a thought was finished.

“Yes,” she relented.

“Okay. Yes. I brought a Braille book for you.”

Max heard frantic rummaging through what sounded like a bag or a purse, and the thunk of an evidently sizable book right in front of her. She felt Robin draw up close to her other side, heard the pages separating as Robin opened the book.

“Ah, here we go. Right here.”

Robin’s hand covered Max’s, almost hesitantly.

“Are you ready, Max? I’ll tell you which dots are which letters.”

Max nodded, still in a slight daze. She wasn’t sure if she would even retain anything right now. But she knew, could hear it in Robin’s voice, how desperately Robin wanted to help her somehow. It was kinder just to let her.

Robin guided her hand, and Max felt her index finger rest on a single raised dot.

“That’s the letter A,” Robin murmured.

“A,” Max sounded it out.

“Good. Let me know when you’re ready for B.”

“Ready,” Max told her without hesitation.

As Robin gently told her which collection of dots was which letter, Max began to feel a bit less overwhelmed. The beginning letters seemed simple enough; A, one dot. B, another dot below the first. C, the A dot with another dot beside it. D, an additional dot below the added one for C. Saying the letters was simpler now too. She allowed herself to feel a bit of pride at how her speech therapy had been paying off. Dr. Cobb had told her the other week that she was doing great. This was the first time she’d sort of believed it.

Eventually, Max heard the door open, and Nancy’s gentle voice sounded from nearby.

“Max? It’s Nancy.”

“Nance, we’ve been learning the Braille letters,” Robin informed her, and Max could hear her excitement. “We’ll have to bring her a book at some point.”

“One step at a time,” Nancy chided her, though Max could hear a smile in her voice. Her light steps drew closer to the bed.

“Max, I can do your hair today if you want.”

“Yes,” said Max. She felt Robin move back, and smelled a whiff of Nancy’s perfume, felt her sit down on the bed.

“I’m going to brush your hair now, okay?”

Max nodded. As she felt the brush bristles weave through her tangled hair, she let her mind wander elsewhere.

She was still trying to make sense of last night. As the physical symptoms started to ease a little – the shaking, the migraine, the nausea - fragments of the night had started to surface in her mind; most notably, the fabric of El’s shirt. Max didn’t know why that stuck out in her mind so much. Other things floated across her mind that didn’t make sense. Tile floor, trodden-on and yellowing. The gym at Hawkins Middle. Will’s face, only much younger, his eyes rolled back. That particular part of her memory came with a real sense of fear that Max couldn’t shake.

“Nance,” she said abruptly, and she felt the brush pause in her hair.

“Yeah?”

Max wished desperately that she could ask Nancy any one of the questions swimming inside her head. Where’s Lucas? Do you know what happened last night? Why do I only remember bits of it?

“Brush more,” she requested instead.

“You want me to keep brushing? I can do that.”

The bristles combed through her hair slowly, and Max closed her eyes a little, enjoying the feeling. She heard Robin move to her other side, felt Robin’s hesitant finger touch her hand, silently asking to hold it. Max reached for Robin’s hand and squeezed it.

“Thanks,” she said. “For reading.”

Only a moment or two passed before she felt Robin’s hand squeeze back.

“Of course, Max.”

-

Somehow, Lucas was more exhausted than before.

His mid-morning sleep had somehow calibrated him to the wrong frequency. He felt dazed. His head was pounding as he sat up from the bed, rubbing his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that it was raining. The rumbling from the Upside Down and the regular thunder that accompanied a storm were almost indistinguishable from each other, and so there was a constant rumble in the air, one that occasionally crescendoed into crashes that rattled the window. Only his glance at the clock alerted him that it was early afternoon, around one. He usually went to see Max earlier than this, but he wondered if she had slept in too. They’d all had a long night.

Lucas pulled on clothing and socks as if on autopilot; before he knew it, he was dressed and grabbing his backpack, making his way into the hall. Erica’s door was closed, light peeking out from underneath her door. He knew his mother would be out on the back porch. She usually sat out there when it rained.

Lucas picked up the phone and dialed Steve’s number. On the third ring, he heard a click.

“What, Sinclair?”

“There’s no way you just knew it was me.”

He could almost hear Steve roll his eyes.

“Well, I know you’re not Robin, because I just dropped her off at home. And besides her, you’re the only one who calls me. So yeah, it didn’t take me long to narrow down.”

Lucas smirked. “Oh, so Dustin never calls you?”

“I couldn’t feel the bullshittery through the phone when I picked it up, so I knew you weren’t him either. Listen, do you want a ride or not?”

“Yes, please.”

“All right. Be there in a few.”

-

Lucas figured he should probably learn to drive at some point.

Steve seemed more tense than usual as Lucas sat quietly in his passenger seat, listening to the rain tap against the windows, watching the wipers swish back and forth across the windshield. The silent radio channel occasionally crackled as they drove through areas of varying signal. Steve turned the dial, seeking music, and came to find more silence, more static-filled stations. He smacked the dashboard with his hand in frustration, a scowl on his face.

“Stupid thing. Can’t even find any music stations anymore.”

“Is everything okay?” Lucas inquired uncertainly.

“Fine,” Steve said shortly. “Everything’s fine. I just…feel like shit.”

“Who doesn’t?” Lucas shrugged. “I mean, considering.”

Steve shook his head. “It’s not all that. It’s Max. Everyone’s doing so much for her – Nancy’s doing her hair, Robin’s helping her with Braille, Will’s bringing her music, and you…you’re practically living there, for god’s sake. And I’m not doing shit.”

“That’s not true,” Lucas countered, astonished to hear Steve talk like this. “You’re driving us everywhere.”

“Yeah, but Max can’t see that. I mean – ” He blanched, hurriedly rephrasing. “What I meant is, I’m not helping like everyone else.”

“I mean…you could always bring her something she likes,” Lucas reasoned. “Or something from her trailer that’s hers. I’m sure whatever you did, she’d appreciate.”

Steve shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”

In spite of himself, Lucas felt a grin sneak onto his face.

“Max does like you, you know. She just also thinks you’re an annoying shit. But that’s to be expected.”

He was pleased to see a slight smile on Steve’s face too.

-

The hospital hallways seemed emptier than usual.

Lucas trudged along. He was so bone tired that he could barely see straight, but he would be loath to stay away from Max. Especially right now. He knew what they were about to put her through, and he had to help her brace for the impact, the best he could. So perhaps, one day, she’d forgive him for it.

He’d barely made it to her partially-open door when –

“Max, that’s so insane.”

“It’s not,” he heard Max reply stubbornly.

Lucas cracked open the door the rest of the way to see Mike sitting on the bed, his back to the door.

“Okay, but crusts aren’t meant to be eaten,” He was insisting emphatically. “They’re crusts. You’re supposed to tear them off. The only good part is the bread and what’s in the sandwich.”

“Crusts,” Max insisted, her arms folded and jaw set.

As Lucas circled around, he saw that Mike had brought Max a sandwich in a plastic bag, and it currently rested on the tray table that he’d wheeled in front of her, along with some cutlery wrapped in plastic. Her stack of tapes had been moved, resting in three stacks on the bedside table.

“Okay, Max, you can eat the crusts like a weirdo,” said Mike, though Lucas was relieved to see a slight grin on his face. “Do you need me to cut this up?”

“Yes,” said Max, and Lucas saw a little grin quirk around her mouth too.

“Oh, hey, Lucas,” Mike acknowledged him, removing the sandwich from the bag and unwrapping the plastic knife from the silverware pack. Max’s head tilted in Lucas’ direction.

“Lunch,” she informed him.

“I see that,” Lucas replied, amused.

Mike started cutting into the sandwich. Too late Lucas realized –

“Mike, you can’t cut it diagonally. It has to be bite-sized or she can’t swallow it. Remember?”

Lucas saw a flash of horror cross Mike’s face, replaced quickly with an embarrassed indignance.

“It’s fine, I can just cut it into smaller pieces.”

“Cut squares,” said Max.

“What do you mean, squares? Sandwiches are cut diagonally. Everybody knows that.”

“Mike, it’s fine. I’ll just do it,” said Lucas, elbowing him away and taking the plastic knife from him.

Mike grabbed it back at once. “I can cut sandwiches by myself, mom.”

He set to work tearing the sandwiches into bite-sized pieces, his face reddening. Lucas opened his mouth to retort and then he saw Mike’s facial expression. Mortified. Determined. Maybe even a little guilty. It occurred to Lucas why Mike was so territorial over a stupid sandwich - he was trying to do something nice for Max, all on his own. Maybe even to make reparations for the friction between them. Even though they’d been much nicer to each other lately, Lucas wondered if Mike felt culpable. Maybe he felt he’d contributed to Max’s depression somehow by being unpleasant to her. And this was his way of making up for it.

Lucas took a step back, relenting.

“Just make sure the pieces are small enough for her to swallow,” he reminded Mike.

“I got it,” said Mike stubbornly. “There you go, Max.”

Max reached down toward the tray table, palm open, until her hand bumped one of the sandwich pieces. She picked it up with her thin fingers and brought it up to her mouth, chewing slowly. Mike busied himself with taking a few new comics out of his bag.

“I have some new comics for you,” he told Max, who turned her head toward him, her mouth still full of sandwich. “I can’t read them by myself, so we’ll read them to you next time Steve and Dustin are here. Okay?”

Max nodded at him. Lucas gazed at her, a sense of foreboding creeping in. She was different today. The head of her bed was tilted upward, and she was propped against her pillows, lying back against them. She’d been able to sit up now for some time; but right now, she looked like she had months prior, too weak to hold up her own weight. She looked slightly paler, too: her milky eyes almost blended in with her pallid face. Her red hair was tangled and slightly damp with perspiration near her neck. She wasn’t eating quite as hungrily as Lucas would have hoped, either.

Mike reached back into his bag.

“I also brought you…well…”

He unearthed a rock from his bag, a shard of obsidian that gleamed darkly under the fluorescent lights.

“It’s an obsidian rock,” he said. “Obsidian forms from volcanoes. I got it at a museum or some shit, and I guess I had it in a drawer somewhere. It’s a cool one to hold. It feels weird, like glass or hard plastic.”

Max held out her palm questioningly, and Mike placed it in her hand. Immediately, Lucas saw her brow furrow as she closed her fingers around it, trying to picture it in her mind’s eye. It was taking so much concentration that Max placed the rock on the tray table, letting both her palms rest over it, fingers tracing the edges and planes.

After a few seconds, she angled her head toward Mike.

“Color is…gray?” She inquired.

“Black,” he corrected her. “And it’s shiny.”

Max nodded, her brow furrowing again.

“Black. And shiny,” she murmured, her fingers examining it once more.

She didn’t have much to say after that. Max continued to roll the rock over in her hand, seemingly determined to memorize every corner.

“Lucas, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Mike’s question surprised him, but he nodded.

“Sure,” Lucas shrugged. He turned toward Max.

“I’ll be right back,” he reassured her.

She nodded, still preoccupied by the obsidian. Lucas followed Mike out of the room, feeling his lungs expand as they entered the hallway. That room seemed to grow smaller and stuffier every time he entered it. It was nice to exist in a part of the world that wasn’t Max’s little prison.

“She can’t keep staying here.”

Mike’s tone was almost exasperated. Lucas frowned at him in astonishment as Mike tapped his foot, his arms folded, his lips pursed.

“She’s still fragile, Mike. We can’t move her.”

“You’re not bothered by how she looks? Max has been here for months, and she doesn’t look better, she looks worse. Today she can’t even sit up.”

“Brain damage takes a long time to heal,” Lucas explained, still a little thrown by the suddenness of Mike’s confrontation. “They’ve always told me she’ll get worse before she gets better.”

“This place is what’s killing her. I mean, think about it. Shouldn’t Max be close to getting out of here? It’s been months, Lucas. Why isn’t she better by now?”

Lucas hadn’t really thought of it like that, but now that Mike mentioned it, Max had been here for quite a long time, and with almost no talk of when she could go home. Perhaps the doctors felt she didn’t have a safe home to go to since her mother was – as far as they knew – still in rehab. Lucas was certain that her presence in the void was a big part of it too. But Will and El also had bits of themselves in the void, and were able to function normally. So why was it taking Max so much longer?

“She’s made a lot of progress,” he said finally, but it sounded lame even coming out of his own mouth.

Mike shook his head. “But not enough that she’s up walking around again. I know things won’t ever be the same, after…well, after that night. But I just think it’s strange that it’s taking so long.”

Mike ran a hand through his black mop of hair, which had grown shaggier and steadily more unkempt over these last few months.

“And Vecna. Will and El said they’ve been able to feel him more. He has to know she’s here by now, right? What if she’s just a sitting duck, there in that room?”

Lucas hadn’t considered this either. Hospitals were supposed to be the pinnacle of safety and security, though Lucas felt a little silly thinking this in their current climate. Horror filled him as he realized that perhaps Max was more vulnerable than he’d allowed himself to consider. Maybe Mike was right. Vecna wasn’t fully back to health yet, but he must know where Max was. And he could be plotting his attack at this very moment. 

“I just don’t know if moving her is safe,” Lucas finally said to Mike, trying to keep his voice from quavering. “She looks bad now, I know, but without all the hospital shit she might get even worse.”

“I know, I know. There are no good answers,” Mike acknowledged, looking just as troubled. “But I just think she’s been here too long. And they aren’t helping her enough.”

He ran his hand through his hair again before giving a deep sigh, offering Lucas a curt nod.

“Just think about it.”

Lucas gave a jerk of his head in Mike’s direction, and he watched as his friend trudged away, his hands in his pockets.

Anyone who still had doubts that Mike cared about Max should be swiftly silenced, Lucas thought. He hadn’t given any thought to the idea of how Max’s current condition was impacting any of his other friends. But the more he thought on it, the more small moments resurfaced in his mind. Dustin sitting outside her room, his head in his hands. The puffy, freckly shadows that had formed under Robin’s eyes. And the persistent melancholy that El seemed to hold in every corner of her frame. Perhaps Mike was just voicing what the rest of his friends couldn’t: Max being here wasn’t just hurting her. It was hurting her friends too.

As Lucas walked back into the room, he surveyed Max, who was staring rather wistfully in the direction of the window. Lucas noticed the rain had stopped, but the sky stayed gray and rumbling. The sun was fighting to illuminate whatever parts of the sky were uninhabited by the Upside Down.

Lucas felt a certain disquiet as he watched her. Maybe Mike was right. When was the last time she inhaled real air through her lungs?

“Hey,” he spoke, and she jumped a little, her head snapping toward him.

“Sorry, it’s me. I, um…it’s not raining anymore, and the hospital here has a courtyard. Would you want to walk a little outside?”

Max seemed to ponder this for a moment, her cloudy eyes blinking slowly.

“Walk?” She inquired, almost distantly.

“Yeah. You’ve been getting better and better. In fact, Cynthia thinks you might not need the walker at all soon.”

He had totally fabricated this, but it was worth it to see her weary face light up a little.

“Yes,” she told him.

“Okay, hang on. Let me ask the nurse.”

Lucas managed to track down Cynthia after several minutes searching for her. She seemed delighted at the idea of them going outside, and told him she needed to go find something. Cynthia rejoined him in Max’s room a short while later, holding a pair of dark glasses.

“I’m so glad you’re going outside today, Max!” she chirped, and Max blinked in her direction. “Whenever you do, I need you to wear these.”

She pressed the dark glasses into Max’s hands.

“Even though you can’t see, your eyes may still respond to some light, and that might make things harder to navigate. These glasses will help so the light won’t bother you.”

Max’s fingers curled around them for a brief moment, then she let them fall from her hands onto her lap.

“Not these,” she said. “My red ones.”

“Red ones?” asked Cynthia, but Lucas knew immediately what she was talking about.

“Max, are your red ones here with you somewhere?”

“At home,” she said sadly.

Lucas looked at her nurse.

“Can she wear regular ones?”

Cynthia shrugged. “They’re about the same, so, sure.”

They all jumped when suddenly the door creaked open.

It was Steve, by himself. Lucas almost wanted to laugh at how out of place he looked: Steve Harrington, the king of Hawkins High, dressed in an old shirt and jeans full of holes. His hair even looked less voluminous as he shuffled on the spot.

“Hey,” he said, addressing all of their startled faces. “Sorry, I was just – ”

He gestured at a pint of ice cream and a spoon in his hand.

“I can come back if it’s a bad time – ”

“Max, it looks like this is another one of your friends,” Cynthia said in her direction, then she addressed Steve. “I think they were about to go outside –”

Lucas jumped to his feet.

“Actually, you have perfect timing. Stay here, okay?”

“Wha – Sinclair – ”

Lucas dipped out into the hallway, and took off down the hall. If Max wanted her red sunglasses, he was going to get her those red sunglasses if it was the last thing he did.

-

Max could hear the slight bewilderment in Steve’s voice as his footsteps slowly drew closer.

“Where did he go?”

“Glasses,” she told him.

“Oh. O-okay.” Max wanted to giggle at little at Steve’s confusion.

Cynthia spoke from nearby.

“I’m going to check on my other patients, Max. I’ll be back in a little while.”

Her footsteps trailed away, and soon Max knew Steve was the only other person in the room with her.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hey. Um, I brought you something. Be careful though, it’s cold.”

Max reached out her hand and felt something long and cold. She gripped it. It felt like the handle of a piece of silverware. Max traced it with her thumb, felt the curvature of the metal. A spoon.

“Here,” Steve murmured, and he guided the spoon to something soft. Max moved the spoon around within the mystery substance, trying to figure out what it was.

She turned her head slightly toward Steve.

“Food?” She asked.

“It’s ice cream. Strawberry. Robin said it was your favorite.”

It was so much better than Max had dared to dream. Immediately she dug the spoon in, trying to get a sense of where it was within the small tub. It was harder to operate a spoon since she couldn’t see it, and she’d had one too many situations where she ended up flinging most of its contents all over whomever had brought her the food.

Max lifted the spoon carefully to her mouth and immediately savored the sweet, cold cream, with that slight tang from the strawberries. A smile grew on her face before she could stop it.

“Thanks,” she said in Steve’s direction.

“Hold that,” Steve said, and he guided her other hand to the rim of the cup, and Max clasped it between her thumb and forefinger as she buried the spoon in and scooped more up. She had to keep herself from shoving in mouthful after mouthful of the ice cream because it tasted just as familiar as it ever did, and it sang of summer, and it was so damn good to eat something normal for once.

After she reached the point where she was starting to feel a little sick, she placed the spoon on the tray.

“Done,” she informed Steve.

“Yeah? Okay.” Max felt the spoon and ice cream tub lift from the tray. The slight disappointment at being done with the ice cream was overpowered by the elation it had inspired in her. She was pleased enough to get up and walk a lap. In fact, she wanted to.

“Walk,” She requested.

Steve sounded unsure.

“You want to walk? Okay, um…what do we need to do for that?”

“Walker,” she informed him. “Then walk. You and me. In the hall.”

“Okay. And you can walk all that way?”

“Yes.”

Max heard him get up, heard the clunk of the walker’s wheels against the floor as he pushed it closer to the bed.

“Bar,” Max tapped it with her hand.

Steve had to fiddle with the bar a moment, but she finally felt it lower. She slowly let her feet dangle over the side of the bed.

“Do I need to help you?”

“No,” Max told him, reaching out her hands. “Walker.”

Max heard the walker’s wheels roll toward her, felt the handles hit her palms. She wrapped her hands around them and hoisted herself up.

“IV,” she said. “It rolls.”

“Oh, okay. I roll that behind you?”

“Yes.”

“And…do you know where you’re going?”

“No,” Max smirked a little cheekily. “Can’t see.”

“Yes I know that, thank you. So…what? Do I tell you where you’re going?”

“Yes.”

Max started moving, the walker moving steadily forward. She heard Steve start to roll the rickety IV pole from behind her. Max didn’t mind placing her bare feet against the cold floor. It almost felt good after being in that uncomfortably warm bed for so long. Her legs were cooperating today too, she noticed with some encouragement. Maybe Lucas was right. Maybe she’d be able to ditch the walker soon. The thought energized her, and she nearly missed Steve saying suddenly “whoa, watch the wall. Here.”

Max permitted Steve to steer her out of the doorway, but once they reached the hall, she insisted “I can walk,” and set off down the hallway.

Steve’s solitary presence wasn’t as sure and steady as Lucas’ or Cynthia’s, and Max found she felt a little less secure without them behind her. But it was the same hallway, she told herself. She’d walked it before. As Max steered her walker down the hall, she could hear overlapping voices of the staff and other patients. She tried to gauge it by ear, turning the walker according to how close voices sounded. She could hear the nervousness in Steve’s voice as he attempted to direct her.

“Not there…whoa, Max. You’re going to hit that door.”

Max jumped as she felt Steve grab the walker.

“Max, stop. Let’s go this way.”

She allowed him to help her again, annoyed as she was by his methods. Lucas would have been much gentler. Steve just seemed anxious, and it was putting her on edge. Steve turned her walker completely around and said “we can walk out in the lobby. There’s more room over there.”

Max hadn’t ventured down that part of the hallway yet. But she refused to look helpless in front of Steve.

“Okay,” she said, and started to walk. She shuffled down the familiar hallway until she felt the air change, until she felt the linoleum turn into tile. Max stopped short, allowing herself to drink in the new noises, smell the new scents. Intermittent footsteps sounded around them. There weren’t many people here, she noted. That made it seem a little less daunting. The new sensations were nerve-wracking, though. She took a cautious few steps forward, and her head turned sharply toward a whoosh from nearby.

Sliding doors. She wasn’t standing on the mat – the soles of her feet were still pressed against the tile – but she must be close to it. Either that, or someone must have walked through it. Max took a few more steps forward, and stopped, waiting to hear the sound again. Sure enough, after a few minutes, Max heard the door slide open once more.

This time, however, Max felt a cool breeze wash over her face. She opened her mouth, trying to taste the air before it faded away. Tears filled her eyes. She’d almost forgotten what outdoor air felt like. She was so thirsty for it, and she almost wanted to reach out and grab it, hold the feeling close to her.

“Max?”

Max jumped. She’d forgotten Steve was behind her. Without turning her head toward him, she pointed.

“Let’s go.”

“Go?” Steve sounded confused. He didn’t understand. “Go where?”

“Out,” Max demanded. “Go home.”

“You mean…leave the hospital?”

Idiot. “Yes,” she confirmed.

Max swore she could hear Steve put his hands on his hips. “We’re not doing that.”

“Why?” she demanded.

“Because you’re still healing, Max. And it’s not safe, either. You think Hawkins has just been all fine and dandy out there? It’s getting worse.”

“Friends,” Max asserted.

“Yes, we’re here,” said Steve. “But that’s not enough. Your mom’s still in Indianapolis. Are you gonna hunker down in your trailer by yourself?”

Max trudged stubbornly forward, but a seed of doubt was starting to grow roots within her. Truthfully, she hadn’t thought about what being home would mean for her now. Max had known where things were when she could see them. But now…how would she be able to find anything? Her friends had been so wonderful, but she couldn’t ask any of them to stay with her – practically live with her – to help her figure things out. Suddenly the thought of being home was much more daunting than it had been a few seconds ago.

Max shook her head.

“Home,” she insisted again, despite the now growing sense of uncertainty curling within the pit of her stomach. “I want…to go home.”

“I know, Max. I’m sorry.”

Irritated by his refusal, Max stopped short in the hallway.

“My room,” she requested.

She heard Steve sigh, but he dutifully guided her back to her room without saying much more.

Max heard Cynthia’s chipper voice the moment they walked through her doorway.

“Ah, Max! Just came by to check on you. Will Lucas be back soon, to take you outside?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then let’s get you dressed.”

Steve’s voice sounded from near the door. “Do you…I mean, can I help with anything?”

“No,” Max said a little shortly, still irked by their earlier conversation. “You can go.”

She was sure his facial expression was a little put off, and as she heard Steve’s footsteps trail away, a mixture of regret and irritation crossed paths inside her. He didn’t understand what it was like, being here day after day. She just wanted to leave.

Max reached out her hand.

“Cindy?” she inquired. “Chair. Help me.”

Cynthia’s warm hand met hers, and Max started to move her walker forward.

“Okay, stop there,” Cynthia’s voice sounded after a moment. “I’m just going to untie your gown.”

As the gown strings slithered away, Max felt the chilly air of her room hit her bare back, almost down to her ribs as the gown slid off her. She shivered. Cynthia pressed a bra into her hand, and she slipped it on, her mind elsewhere. This place had become her unwilling home, whatever it looked like. She wasn’t entirely sure it looked the way she pictured it in her head. But she knew its corners, knew its smells and the feel of the air. Her comfortable little prison, with all the tubes and wires and medicines and bullshit.

A certain bitterness simmered in the pit of her stomach at the thought. All of this was bullshit. Max knew it was all to buy time before the Upside Down swallowed Hawkins whole. That was what Steve didn’t get. Why did he feel the need to keep up the pomp and circumstance? Couldn’t he see how close they all were to death, even more than she could?

Cynthia’s arms slipped underneath her own.

“Okay, Max, I got you. Let’s sit in the chair.”

With Cynthia fully supporting her, Max sank slowly into the chair. It felt good to sit in a chair, Max thought. She gripped the handles in her hands, felt her feet against the cool floor. She almost felt normal again. Almost.

Max felt her eyes grow slightly misty again as Cynthia pulled a shirt over her head. She just wanted to be home in her shitty, musty trailer. To get one last feel of the grainy carpet, to inhale one last breath of the smelly old walls, stained with tar and cigarette ash. If they were all going to die, then she’d like one last chance to remember her home in Hawkins with her mother before leaving this world in Lucas’ arms. Surrounded by her friends. That was how she wanted to go, whenever the time came. Exactly how she went the first time.

Cynthia had her stand again, to put on some pants. Max allowed Cynthia to dress her, as much as she hated feeling dependent. It occurred to Max that this might be all Cynthia had left. She knew Cindy was smart; she had to sense that the apocalypse was near. Perhaps Max would be her last patient before the world imploded.

Once Max felt that her pants were on, Cynthia murmured “there we go. Once Lucas returns with your sunglasses, we can get you outside!”

Max allowed herself to lean back a little, letting her head drop to the back of the chair. Thank God. She couldn’t wait to breathe fresh, clean air.

-

Max was waiting for Lucas as he entered.

Cynthia had dressed her, he surmised, as he saw she was wearing a gray shirt and black pants. Her hair was down, flowing over her thin shoulders as she stood in the center of the room, her hands gripping her walker. Cynthia stood slightly behind her, a hand pressed against her back to steady her.

“Lucas is here,” the nurse told Max, and Lucas smiled as Max perked up. “Remember, Max, I’m going to follow behind with a wheelchair, just in case you get tired. Okay?”

“I can walk,” Max told her, not unkindly.

“Of course you can. You get better at it every day. But you had a rough night last night, so I just want to be safe. Okay?”

Max nodded curtly, then turned her head in Lucas’ direction.

“I’m ready,” she told him confidently.

“Then let’s go,” he responded, pressing her red sunglasses into her hands. Lucas remembered when she’d walked out of Starcourt Mall wearing them, clutching a strawberry ice cream cone in her hand. He remembered thinking they clashed with her red hair as they’d been perched atop her head. Even now, they still clashed. Max hadn’t cared then, and, ironically, she had even less reason to care now. In any case, she seemed pleased to have them back, and slipped them onto her face without a hitch.

They walked arm in arm out the sliding doors, and Lucas started to guide her toward the hospital grounds. Max seemed to be walking fine, even a little eagerly as she turned her head side to side, as if trying to drink in all the sounds. He wondered if the sunglasses were helping her walk better. Without the light disturbing her, she seemed to get a better sense of her surroundings. Lucas was impressed to see Max handle her walker like a seasoned pro, almost as if she still had her sight. Perhaps she’d be able to stop using it sooner than even he thought. Once Max no longer needed the walker, the doctors would give her one of those special canes to help her get around. But for now, he still needed to guide her in the right direction.

The hospital grounds at Hawkins Memorial were calm, quiet, and well-kept. Dogwood blossoms lined the borders of the courtyard near the iron fences. Wildflowers were nestled in colorful patches around the walking paths, tiny bugs buzzing in the clear air around them. Such an idyllic scene for a town half-inside the Upside Down.

Certainly it wasn’t the same experience now as it would have been before. But Lucas was determined to help Max find enjoyment in it. One of the new challenges, he found, was figuring out how to describe things to her. He wasn’t creative like Will, didn’t have a way with words like Robin. As they walked along the path through the garden, Lucas accumulated a small collection of different things - a flower, a stone, or anything else he was able to find. As they lumbered along, Lucas wracked his brain to think of descriptive words that would help her paint a picture in her mind’s eye. To give her another way to see.

Lucas looked over at Max as they paused to let her find her footing in this new space. Max inhaled deeply, and exhaled in a slow breath. Lucas was sure the air in her room became stuffy after a while, and the fresh air must be cleansing for her lungs. The sun’s glow made her pallid skin look even more pale, her veins dark underneath. Her flowing red hair and crimson sunglasses were the only things that seemed to color her cheeks a little, even though Lucas surmised it was a trick of the light. And she was so thin. Lucas had an uneasy feeling that if she was wearing a tighter-fitting shirt, he would be able to see her ribs protruding out.

Lucas cursed Vecna in his mind. He cursed the void, the Upside Down…all of this bullshit that was holding Max hostage. Even though she was walking, smiling, talking more…in this light, she looked sick. Frail and ill, like she’d been so many months ago. A deep sense of foreboding made his blood run cold. He knew she was pushing herself to walk as much as she possibly could, to stand on her own two feet. Lucas couldn’t blame her. He was sure it felt good for Max to move her legs. But she was slowing down more quickly than before. Even now, as he looked at her, he knew her walking time would be limited today.

Sure enough, Max started to slow down after about ten minutes, and Cynthia came up behind them with the wheelchair.

“Max, let’s take a break. Then let’s do the rest of it in the wheelchair. Okay? I know you don’t want to, but do your poor nurse a favor.”

Max looked too tired to resist. She allowed them to lower her onto the grass and lean her against a cherry tree. Lucas sat down next to her, and Cynthia gave them a wide berth, standing ready with the wheelchair nearby.

“Hey,” he said, and she turned her head toward him. “I found something while we were walking.”

Max blinked questioningly, then held her hand out.

“It’s a flower,” he explained, placing it delicately into her palm. “A violet. Deep purple, with yellow and black in the middle.”

Max clasped a velvety petal in between her thumb and forefinger, her brow furrowed in concentration. It was Lucas’ new favorite facial expression of hers. As if she was committing the texture and color to her mind’s eye. It wasn’t as if she’d never seen a violet before. This was just the closest she could get to seeing it now. 

After she seemed satisfied, she pocketed the violet, and reached her hand out again.

“Find more?” she inquired.

“You know I did. Here.”

He pressed his second discovery - a round stone - into her hands.

“It’s a stone. The color’s gray, like…” He searched for something to compare it to.

Max frowned. “Gray…like clouds?”

“Yes. Yeah. Like clouds.”

She nodded, closing her hand around it.

“Smooth,” she said, then quirked her head at him. “Shiny?”

“A little,” said Lucas.  

He produced more things he’d found – a twig, a few acorns, and a dandelion. He even pressed a few sassafras leaves into her palm. Max’s fingers traced the veins of each leaf, rubbed her finger against its rougher texture.

“Max,” he said. “Crush the leaves in your hands.”

She turned toward him, her expression bemused.

“Crush?”

“Trust me. Do it.”

After only another second of hesitation, Max closed her hands around the leaves, smiling a little as they crunched between her palms.

“Now smell them,” he told her.

Max frowned in amusement, but followed suit. Her expression quickly became surprised.

“The smell,” she told him. “I think…oranges.”

“I know, right? Sassafras leaves smell like oranges. It’s so weird.”

“It’s cool,” she grinned.

“So cool,” he amended quickly. “The coolest.”

Max reached out toward him until her hand met his face. She poked his cheek.

“Dork,” she said.

They both laughed. It felt so good to laugh. Lucas was encouraged that her sense of humor was still intact. 

They spent the rest of their outdoor outing sitting under the tree, Max’s head resting on Lucas’ shoulder, while his arm rested securely around her.

They didn’t talk much. They didn’t have to. The world was only theirs today, if just for a moment.

-

Max knew she’d be sore tomorrow.

As Cynthia and Lucas helped her out of the wheelchair, she could feel the exhaustion sinking heavy into her bones. She sank into the hospital mattress, into her pillow, and could already feel it beckoning toward sleep. Something in her mind told her it would be distressing to sleep, that something would happen, but she couldn’t remember what.

Max could hear Lucas above her, murmuring quietly, but she couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. She was fading fast.

“Lucas?” she mumbled back.

Max felt his gentle hand brush back her hair, and suddenly she felt his lips brush against her ear.

“I’ll call El. So she can be there when you sleep.”

Why did El need to be there? Nothing made much sense to Max anymore as she felt herself losing her grip on consciousness. And moments later, she sank into the abyss that was sleep.

-

It was better and more terrible today.

Sensations were what enveloped Max today as she sat in the endless darkness – smells, sounds, the feeling of hands on her. As tempting as sin. It felt like a sick joke – a tease from the world she was still separated from.

Whether or not Max wanted to rejoin that world, she still wasn’t sure. Sometimes she still wanted to let herself be enshrouded in the darkness that was now so familiar to her. But the real world always beckoned. Things from her physical body were connecting vaguely to her existence here. A feeling, a scent, a word…these things would seep in as she watched her physical body lay helpless in the hospital bed.

The sharp pain in her skull…that was new, and it made her anxious. It happened when a particularly strong feeling or sensation overtook her. The other thing that startled her was the smell of blood accompanying these events. It was barely a whiff, gone as quickly as it had come, but there was no mistaking it. And these episodes were happening more frequently now. She didn’t know what they meant, but they couldn’t symbolize anything good.

“Max. I am here now.”

Max whirled around as El’s voice sounded from nearby. She’d forgotten the luxury of now having El in here with her. El’s presence was a balm for Max’s weary soul. As El walked steadily toward her, arms outstretched, Max wrapped her arms tightly around her friend. She didn’t want to let her go again. The void was such a horribly lonely place, a place that she didn’t wish on anyone, ever. And El was the only person who could sit in here with her.

She clung tightly to her friend.

“I wish you didn’t have to go again,” she whispered into El’s shoulder.

El squeezed her a little tighter.

“I know,” she said, her voice breaking a little. “I am here right now.”

El pulled back from their hug, placing her hands on Max’s shoulders.

“I am here right now,” she said again. “And I am going to bring you home.”

Max could see in El’s eyes that she truly believed this, and it made her own soul perk up a little.

She took El’s hand.

“Ready?”

El nodded resolutely, and both girls closed their eyes, concentrating.

A wind gust rushed by them, and a seagull cried from far away. As soon as Max took a breath, she knew they’d come to the right place. That sandy, gritty smell of her California bedroom. Max opened her eyes to see the orange-beige wallpaper she had so hated as a child, wallpaper that was strangely welcoming now. A few posters hung unceremoniously on the walls: Blondie, Foreigner, the Endless Summer. Her poster of a teen boy halfway through a half-pipe – the black skateboard blurred in the picture – hung over her small, quilted bed. Every object had a new wave of memories attached, and Max found herself unable to speak momentarily as it all filled her vision. Her patchwork quilt, a hand-me-down from Granny. Her tiny end table, with a few photo frames sitting on it – an infant Max and her mother. Young Max on her father’s shoulders. A group photo of the three of them, smiling, sitting on a sofa.

Max was so ensconced in the bittersweetness of it all that she started a little at El’s question.

“Where are we?”

“My room in California,” Max murmured. “See the palm trees?”

The palms were brushing against the window, patchy green against the darkening sky. The wind was picking up, the clouds moving faster. Immediately, Max felt a rush of excitement before she could stop herself. It was about to storm.

She turned toward El, tugging on her sleeve.

“Here, move away from the door.”

Eleven did so, and mere seconds later, a short redhead came through the doorway. Without preamble, the young girl approached her windows, clicking the locks open and pushing the panes open. Then, the girl climbed up on the sill and sat, her legs dangling over the outdoor side of the window.

El touched Max’s arm.

“She is you,” she said quietly.

Max nodded. She had finally figured out why she remembered this day. She’d just come in from skateboarding because a thunderstorm had been imminent. And her favorite part of a thunderstorm – besides the rain – was the crescendoing rush of wind right before lightning cracked the sky open. Sure enough, Max watched her younger self sit up eagerly as the rumble of thunder started to roll in. The palms near the window rustled louder and louder as the gray shelf of clouds descended upon them. The remaining light of the sun grew dim, the shadows of the palms dancing over younger Max’s face. Max was immediately tempted to close her own eyes as younger Max did so, inhaling the rush of rainy air into her lungs, her red hair fluttering around her face.

“You like rain,” said El.

“Yeah,” Max replied, her eyes still glued to her younger self as dark spots started appearing on her clothing from the rain. Younger Max got down from the sill and closed the windows before going and sitting on her bed, her eyes glued to the rain as it slashed against the glass.

Max heaved a deep sigh.

“Two weeks after this, Neil and my mom would sit me and Billy down and tell us that we were leaving California.”

El’s eyes swiveled onto her, and she continued.

“I had a friend. Nate. We hung out together a lot in California. But one day, Billy and his shithead friends were doing something they shouldn’t, as usual. And Nate stood up to them. So Billy broke his arm. And we had to move before his parents filed charges.”

Max felt a pang as Nate’s face resurfaced in her mind.

“I remember hearing Billy through the wall…cursing, yelling, breaking shit. Telling me it was my fault we were moving. Because Nate poked his nose in where it didn’t belong. So we had to move to Hawkins. Away from Nate. Away from my dad.”

Thinking of her dad brought an unexpected wave of sorrow. Truthfully, Max had not thought of him in a while. It wasn’t like he kept in touch. She wondered where he was now, and if he even had a family. A wife who wasn’t her mother. Children who weren’t her.

Max had momentarily forgotten El was standing next to her until she felt El take her hand.

“Do you miss your dad?”

Max’s shrug didn’t make the ice pick in her heart hurt less, but she didn’t want to worry El.

“Sometimes,” she admitted. “But he’s got his own life now. So, it doesn’t matter. Every day, I miss him a little less.”

Max listened to El grapple silently with this information. She seemed to be mulling this over for herself.

“I miss Papa sometimes, too,” she said.

You actually miss him? That psychotic asshole? Max wanted to say.

But she bit her tongue. She understood all too well.

-

Max immediately started thinking of a less painful memory.

As she and El returned to the void, Max felt a little dizzy, a little sick. But she knew they had to keep going, to make the connection to her body stronger. So before El could comment on how Max didn’t look like herself, Max dragged them into her next memory.

It was nighttime in this one. Dark blue sky hung like a blanket over the Hawkins junkyard, with clouds of fog wrapping the night in gauze. She and El sat on the roof of a defunct bus. It was strange to be sitting on the bus roof without feeling the chill of the metal, or the shivery fall breeze.

El was taking everything in, her widened eyes swiveling around the junkyard.

“Why…are we here?” she questioned.

“We were baiting a Demogorgon,” Max replied.

She would have laughed at El’s shocked expression under any other circumstance. But, like everything else, this situation seemed much more dire in hindsight.

“Why would you do that?” Eleven almost sounded angry.

Max shrugged. “Dustin found a baby Demogorgon in his house. It was eating his cats. He kept it like a pet. And then when Dart got older – ”

“Dart?”

“The name he gave it. The full name is even stupider. D’artagnan. Whatever that even means. But Dustin seemed to think he could train it to like chocolate rather than cats. That’s when Dart ran away. So we were here trying to find him.”

Max couldn’t blame El for looking alarmed. Max had considered it to be fool’s errand at the time, and this notion was only solidified at her current age as she watched shadows bend and shift in the junkyard, watched the outlines of Dustin, Steve, and herself move around within the old bus. In the distance, a dark creature slunk through the fog, and another crept around nearby. Demogorgons. Max had to remind herself that they couldn’t hurt her and El in here. But this younger version of their group was undoubtedly vulnerable. Even against Dart, for whom there was not a shred of evidence that domestication could be achieved in any capacity. An errand for a fool indeed. Fools, all.

The metal of the roof door screeched open. Max and El both turned to watch the younger version of Lucas hoist himself up through the hatch, his binoculars clutched in one hand as he used the other to pull himself up onto the roof. Max couldn’t help but smile a little watching him – curious, eager, intelligent Lucas, his youthful face growing serious as he scanned the junkyard through his binoculars. So keen to drink in what was around him. So unaware of what awaited him in this life.

This year felt like an eternity ago, Max thought with some sadness. They’d been so young then. And so naive. The stakes had felt so much lower, their odds of surviving so much more promising. Their madcap foolishness seemed just that – foolish. They had been stupid, impressionable children. Thinking that the world wouldn’t rip them apart at a moment’s notice.

As she watched younger Lucas survey his surroundings, let her eyes rest on that stupid adorable headband she was sure he’d tied himself, Max wanted to pull this Lucas close to her, protect him from everything she knew was coming their way. She didn’t want that sweet, hopeful face to break, to grow weary like she knew it would. She knew some of that was her fault. If Max could go back and change it, she would. But for now, she focused on holding the memory close in her mind. Trying as hard as she could to imprint it into her subconscious.

The hatch creaked open once more, and Max saw a flash of her own red hair as the younger version of herself climbed uncertainly through the roof door. Yes, she remembered this too. The Upside Down and Demogorgons and Eleven herself had all been myths to her back then. She’d thought they were crazy, the whole group of them. Max had thought she’d moved from California into the Twilight Zone. She could almost hear Rod Serling narrating in the background: “These youngsters don’t know it yet, but what they are about to witness is a creature from another dimension. The Demogorgon. A fearsome fellow with a mouth the size of an umbrella, and enough teeth to frighten a dinosaur -”

This was the first day where Max had questioned her own logic. After seeing Dart, an unidentifiable pollywog creature days earlier, and then going on the hunt for a startingly larger version of him – as they were doing at this point in the memory – she remembered that Lucas’ story had started to hold a note of truth in it, as much as she’d refused to admit it.  

Max’s thoughts were broken into by her own voice.

“It’s kind of awesome.”

“Huh?”

“The fog, I mean. Looks like the ocean.”

Nice, Max, she thought to herself, cringing. Lucas didn’t seem put off, though. It was much easier to watch Lucas, Max realized. Watching herself was too strange.

As Lucas asked younger Max if she missed California, Max watched her own eyes go far away as she told him about leaving, specifically about leaving her father. Even now she felt it squeeze at her heart. But younger Lucas remained engaged, and Max felt warmth in her belly as she watched younger Lucas sit up, focus his attention on her, start to listen.

Max felt her gut clench as she heard herself mention Billy. She could hear the pain in her own voice. The fear. The sadness. Things that looked so different now than before. The fear wasn’t concentrated on Billy so much anymore, he was gone, but had expanded out to everything else around her. The sadness – that was still there. And it would always be there.

“I guess…I’m angry too,” younger Max said, her voice now very quiet. “I’m sorry.”

Lucas’ eyes had grown soft and deep. He wasn’t prying, wasn’t trying to get his hooks in her like everyone else. He looked as if he were trying to see.

Max knew what was coming next. He was about to tell her she was cool, and different, and super smart. Lucas’ eyes were about to soften, a crooked grin about to bloom onto his face as he reassured her.

A high-pitched ringing seared through the peaceful night atmosphere. She gasped a little as the colors became oddly intensified, the sounds became crackly and muffled. Lucas’ youthful face had suddenly turned dark, a far contrast from the soft, gentle look that she remembered. Instead, he opened his mouth, and said in a low, unforgiving voice: “You’ll end up just like him.”

Max felt herself stumble backwards a little as the memory faded away and they became enveloped in darkness once more. Her eyes started filling with tears. Her chest felt like it had been punched out. Watching Lucas say it somehow hurt much worse than she’d thought. She could feel El’s concerned eyes on her, felt El’s hand on her shoulder.

“I’m…don’t worry,” Max muttered half in her direction, waving her hand.

“Lucas really said that?” El questioned. She seemed more confused than anything. Max couldn’t answer her. She felt nauseous. Everything felt off, as if every hair in her pores was bent back the wrong way…

No, something was off. Max willed herself to take a few deep breaths, shaking her head.

“El, that’s not what happened.”

Eleven quirked her head at Max, and Max barreled on.

“This isn’t how I remember it. He didn’t say that.”

“But…we are in your memory,” El reasoned. “If it’s your memory, it is what happened. Right?”

Max couldn’t make sense of this. Something was very, very wrong. But it was her memory. Could she have a different version of it programmed in her mind than what actually occurred? She’d heard Mrs. Kelley mention this before. Sometimes when there’s trauma, we tell ourselves a different story than what actually happened. To help ourselves cope.

Mrs. Kelley only talked to people whose brains were sick. And Max knew her real-world brain wasn’t in great shape. Had she been sick for much longer than she’d realized? Or had Lucas finally seen her for what she truly was – a monster-in-waiting? An eventual perpetrator of pain – exactly as Vecna had always whispered to her during those lonely, sleepless nights back home. The nights she’d wanted to die.

Max’s knees buckled from underneath her, and she felt herself sinking to the ground. She felt terrible all of a sudden. Weak, unsteady. Her hands were trembling, her breathing shallow and uneven.

“El, I don’t feel good.”

“We are leaving now. Going back,” El said at once, seizing Max’s arm and tugging. Max felt herself sway in that direction, falling into El’s arms as they resurfaced.

-

An earth-shattering gasp startled Lucas out of his stupor.

Max’s cloudy eyes had flown open, her chest heaving for breath. Dark blood was flowing freely from both her nostrils. Her pale arms shot out in front of her, grasping wildly at thin air. Seeking someone. Anyone.

And immediately Lucas was there, grabbing her and sitting her up. She clutched his arms in a death grip, still gasping for breath, her eyes wide. El appeared on her other side, wiping her own nose as she put her hands on Max’s shoulder. Will seemed rooted to the spot as he put his hands on his head, his expression helpless. Mike and Dustin sat nearby, frozen, looking terrified.

Max’s skin was clammy, her face white. She vomited over Lucas’ arm onto the bed, the blood from her nose mixing with the tendrils of gray slime that now hung from her mouth.

“You’re okay,” Lucas said at once, brushing her hair away from her face. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

The door slammed open, and Cynthia, along with two other nurses, entered the room.

“Max,” Cynthia said in a raised voice, drawing up in front of her. “Lay back, I need to get a cuff on you.”

Max buried her face in Lucas’ shirt, shaking her head.

“No,” she gulped out.

“Max – ”

“No!”

“Heart rate’s 160,” one of the nurses said shortly, shooing El away so she could get on Max’s other side.

“Max, please – ” Lucas started, but as he watched two more nurses enter the room he knew he would soon be ushered away. Sure enough, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and out of the corner of his eye he saw his friends being shunted from the room. It took all three nurses to pull Max away from Lucas as he was all but shoved toward the door.

“What’s happening to her?” Dustin demanded of the nurse guiding him.

“Her blood pressure’s skyrocketing. Out, all of you. Now.”

Lucas turned back to look, and over the nurse’s shoulder he saw Max struggling weakly against Cynthia and the other nurses as they held down her arms and legs. The needle was in her before he could blink, and the last thing he heard before the door shut was Max cry out “No!” once more, in a long, drawn-out wail.

The metal door clanged behind them as they all poured out into the hallway. Lucas barely heard Mike say “Come on, let’s get some air.”

There were hands pushing him forward down the hallway, out of the sliding doors and into the balmy air. Lucas leaned over, his hands on his knees, feeling like he was going to vomit. Jesus. Watching Max’s emotional distress had been its own torture. But watching her go into physical distress seemed so much more immediate, so much more terrifying. He willed himself not to be sick, taking deep gulps of air as he tried to steady himself.

“Easy.” Dustin and Will came up next to him, supporting him on either side. He could feel Will’s hands shaking, could feel how tense Dustin’s usually easy presence was. Mike seemed to be in a daze.

Lucas had half-expected Eleven to have wrapped her arms around Mike for comfort, but she merely stood rooted to the spot. When she finally spoke, she sounded alarmed. “Max has never been like that before.”

Lucas felt okay enough to straighten up, and he addressed her.

“Being in the void hurts her. It has to.”

“Maybe…she cannot be in there for long periods of time,” El responded, looking troubled. “Last time, we walked through three memories. This time, only two.”

“El, you’ve got powers,” reasoned Will. “You can withstand being in there because of that. But maybe for her, since she doesn’t…it hurts her more.”

“But half of her has been in there for months,” argued Dustin, who seemed to still be recovering from what had just occurred. “If it really hurts her, wouldn’t she have gotten worse instead of better?”

“Maybe they’re cancelling each other out,” Mike finally spoke, his voice slightly uneven. “When she’s here, she heals. When she’s there, it hurts her. But now that she’s aware of the connection…maybe that’s starting to hurt her too.”

Lucas gritted his teeth. There seemed to be no way for Max to get out of this without suffering more than she already had. Everything was hurting her.

“How can we get her out of there faster?” he questioned urgently, feeling the knots in his stomach start to tighten. “What can we do?”

They all looked at Eleven, who was frowning.

“Memories,” she said. “Remember? We have been using her memories to bridge the gap.”

“Vecna would use her bad memories against her,” added Lucas. “So maybe for this, she has to face those bad memories and…survive.”

An additional layer of urgency had now settled over their situation. It wasn’t just that they needed to help Max integrate her real-world body and her void self. Now they were on a time limit. And the longer Max was in the void, the more she would suffer. Either leave her in her current state, where she would get worse, or plunge her deeper into her traumatic memories, where she might also get worse. There was no good option in this scenario. His friends all seemed to silently agree, their faces solemn.

Dustin finally spoke. “Lucas…that’s hell. How could anyone get through it?”

“She’ll have us with her,” he said, though it even sounded half-hearted coming out of his own mouth. Another madcap mission that they had no guarantee would work.

But as Lucas looked at his friends, he knew they had no choice.

“She’ll have us,” he repeated.

It wasn’t enough. But it was what they had.

-

Nighttime felt like another planet.

Lucas edged around the corner, looking for any nurses before he slipped quietly into Max’s room. He couldn’t seem to stay away, no matter how nauseatingly exhausted he was. Upon entering, he saw Max’s slightly tangled red hair on her pillow, her pale face turned toward the window.

“Max,” he said quietly.

Max swiveled her head very slowly in his direction as Lucas drew up next to her bedside. She lay there, slightly propped up, her milky eyes staring vacantly in the direction of the wall behind him. She seemed dazed, and Lucas thought that perhaps the sedative from earlier hadn’t quite worn off yet. She blinked slowly, her eyelids pulling lazily apart.

“Lucas,” she mumbled, reaching out for him. He sat down on her bed, smoothing her hair back from her face.

“You’re a troublemaker, you know,” Lucas smiled quietly.

Max gave a weak laugh without smiling, covering his hand with hers. His thumb moved over her cheek, up and down, caressing her skin.

After a few moments, she turned her cloudy gaze upward toward him.

“Home,” she said. “I want…go home.”

“I know you do,” Lucas said sadly. “I know. You’re getting better every day.”

“No,” Max mumbled, lifting her hand limply and pointing her finger into his chest. “You. Help me. Go home.”

Lucas frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“You help me,” she murmured hazily. “Home.”

Lucas did know, but he had been trying to come off as if he didn’t. She was asking him to break her out of the hospital. And there were so many reasons why that was not a good idea.

“Max. I can’t.”

Max just looked at him.

“Home,” she said again.

“It’s not safe, and I think you know that. What if something happens?”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. You’re still on an IV and you can’t walk without your walker yet.” Lucas wouldn’t throw her blindness in her face, though that was the major factor in most of his concerns. “And after today…if we take you out of here, it could make things worse.”

Max’s expression didn’t change. Lucas could tell she’d been ruminating on this all day.

“I’m…b-better,” she managed.

“Yes, you are. But not all the way.”

Lucas smoothed her hair back again, caressing her face.

“I don’t want anything else to happen to you. I can’t lose you again.”

Max’s eyes started to swim with tears, her bottom lip beginning to tremble, and Lucas’ insides crumbled to nothing.

“No, please. Please don’t cry. Max.”

She tugged on his shirt with her weakened grip. Lucas leaned down toward her and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He pulled her up so that she was sitting upright, him holding her steady in his arms. Lucas rocked her slowly, his hand behind her head. More than ever he wished he could just keep her in his arms forever, protect her from all the world’s ills. He knew this would never be possible. Trouble seemed to follow them wherever they went.

Max sobbed a little, pressing her forehead to his temple.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please. Help me.”

Lucas closed his eyes as Max nuzzled into him a little, sniffling. Hearing her cry melted clean away any resolve he’d possessed. Mike’s previous comment echoed in his mind. This place is what’s killing her.

Yes, Mike might have just been emotional. But maybe he had a point. Maybe this place was harming Max more than it was helping her. And maybe she just needed to be home.

Lucas could feel every part of his body telling him not to do it, not to agree to another cockamamie plan. But it was for Max. His girl. And right now, she was begging him to help her.

Lucas placed a small kiss right next to her ear, leaning toward it.

“Okay,” he whispered.

[doorrobloxstuff]

Stone Figure #3 Home

Sorry, no gay kissing in this one.

Screech and Snare. Nobody else

It only came to see them

It only came to see them.

Only them.

…

The library was rickety, but otherwise clean.

Atleast, as far as Figure could tell.

Its nest was decent too, at least as far it could tell.

And the books, too, were decent as far as it could tell. Though, very few were actually in braille.

Everything else was of a monotonous and repetitive sort, pacing, taking a shower with the rusty metal watering can, taking some pain medicine from a bottle of pills that It found, read a book, read another book, read another book, sing, sing again, sing once more. Release the song that was trapped in its throat that threatened to claw its way out.

Figure perked up, as a familiar scent crept into the library. The sound of blinking eyes and the scent of jasmine and tea..another presence too, creeping. Dripping. Smaller than yet less cautious than the other. Both near the edge of its nest of blankets.

“Hello? F-Figure.. Is that you?”

Figure took its time to respond, its mind rattled for an answer.

“..”

“...”

“..Hide?”

Hide crept closer, a hand and an eye emerged from its puddle. It studied Figure for a few moments, slowly reaching over to touch one of the rocks on its skin.

Figure pulled away and made a soft growl, though it didn’t seem like it was angry.

“..Please don’t.”

Hide melted away, giving Figure a respectable amount of distance, watching the lizard adjust itself and stretch its legs.

“..S-Sorry..” It watched Figure for a few moments before reluctantly speaking again. “..You look different.” It flinched and quickly added. “I like your flowers...they’re very pretty.”

Figure rumbled softly, its face almost pinkish as it slowly brought one of its large arms out in front of it to show Hide some more with a reluctant “Thank you.”

Hide moved closer to take a better look at the various flowers and stones growing in and around its flesh.

“..Can I draw you?” It asked tentatively, keeping its eyes low and head dipped down respectfully.

Figure said nothing as it rolled on its stomach and flicked its tongue. “That’s fine..I just want your companion there to reveal themself..” It flicked its tongue and raised its head with a distorted, rocky purr. “..And come closer so I can give you my chin..”

And after a moment, Screech emerged from the shadows and pressed its head into its parent’s.

“luvenis vespertilio orchis..” Figure cooed, its tail lifted and then immediately thumped against the floor.

“Pff, hey dad. I’m not that young.”

Figure purred and rubbed its face up against Screech. A small gesture which Hide happily sketched.

“How are you..?” Figure said with a hoarse whisper. Feeling a bit of unexpected pain in its throat.

“Oh, I’m doing pretty good..I made a few friends- talked with Dupe..Oh! Did dad do the uhh, needle thing?” Screech leaned around, looking for any stray needles Seek might’ve left between Figure’s rocks.

Figure made an amused rumble and nodded.

Screech laughed and waved its tendrils in glee.

“IT DID!? God, I wish I was there!-“

The younger entity was loud and jovial, full of words and anecdotes and phrases and jokes.

If Figure was a humming tune, Screech would be a rhapsodic melody.

It was a lot, it was many, but never overwhelming to the point of annoyance.

It would never be annoying.

The young entity talked for hours on end before it momentarily paused and Figure felt a tendril prod its tail.

“Oh! I see you got Snare’s gift!”

Figure moved its tail out towards Screech, revealing The tiny lily seeds had emerged from its flesh and sprouted.

“They’ll smell nice when they bloom.~” It purred thoughtfully, smoothing a pad over them and its other small garden of plants it had acquired over the years in its flesh.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I went to a forest with gigantic trees, Screech?”

“Yea, you did the ones you climbed and climbed and climbed and it still took you hours to reach the top?”

Figure nodded, remembering the smell of spicy earth and the way pine needles crunched between its teeth and the sun's warmth touching the skin in between the cracks of the rocks consuming its flesh.

“Yes..This place..This place is like it, but it smells..oily...”

It stopped over a small, interestingly shaped leaf. Wispy and fuzzy with soft, crinkly sounds. Pleasant sounding to its ear canals.

It held it in its hand for a moment before It winced, and plucked it off its stem.

“Here, give it to your father…Send it my regards..”

Screech looked at the leaf in its hand, the smile slowly fading into a confused frown. Though, it didn’t say anything in response as it turned it in its hand.

Figure took Screech’s head into one of its pads.

“It’s getting late my dear, you should head back home...you too, Hide.”

Hide looked at its finished sketches, Screech and Figure nuzzled together, Figure with a leaf in its mouth and Figure and its flowers.

“Thank you,” it peeped, and then promptly turned into a puddle and sped out the door at lightning speed.

“I’m a night owl, I can stay up for a few more hours..”

“Mm..I am more than aware, but you should rest regardless..and I’ll be up in the morning sniffing around this strange place.”

Figure licked Screech’s cheek, letting out a crackly purr of amusement as the entity recoiled with a “AH- OKAY oKay-!”

Screech then leaned back in and gave Figure one more, singular hug to Figure.

This one much longer.

“..I missed you dad..just...please have a goodnight’s sleep okay..?”

“..My little orchid..do you..?-” Figure started with a sorrowful trill but Screech was already gone and left the small ghost of its warmth on Figure’s shoulders.

It sighed, curled up and stretched the blankets of its nest with its legs before setting itself down on its stomach.

Figure heard the walls creak and shift briefly raised its head.

“You’ve raised them well, haven't you?” It whispered into the creaks and shivers of the wall. Even in a different room it could still smell it in every corner, wall, nook and cranny.

It was in the moisture in the air, the absorbed water of its plants, even the worms moved through the dirt below the boards held its eternal gaze.

The next few words a prayer to the city’s god.

“..Thank you..”

“..Keep them safe when I’m gone for good.”

It kept its head raised for a response that never came, and after a moment, it simply laid its head back down and embraced the silence.

And it stayed there, unable to sleep and the aching of its tail and legs growing ever expansive as the hours passed.

——

Sorry, I know you wanted to see them kiss. But not yet. Goodness gracious, I need to make some fluffy stuff after this. This community needs some hope and light fr.

[californiastatelibrary]

Get ready for this spooky day with a spine tingling Braille copy of Goosebumps from our Braille and Talking Book Library. To find out how to become a patron of our services, go to https://www.library.ca.gov/btbl/apply/

[razzek]

That feel when you have an NLS ereader to read braille with and can download from a huge selection of books translated into braille but all you want is to reread @chucktingleofficial Camp Damascus for the third time only this time with your own hands and all that's available is the sneek peak preview from months ago. Noooo!

[peony-pearl]

“Princess Zion!”

“This is the third time this week!”

“We must continue your history lesson!”

Making a mad dash for the nearest corridor, Zion held the pleated hem of her long dress so she didn’t trip over it. Even at six-years-old, she’d already had her fill of history lessons; at least the ones taught by Li and Lo as they searched for her.

“You are far too old-”

“-to be behaving like a common child!”

Zion already knew everything she felt she needed: that her father, Fire Lord Iroh, conquered Ba Sing Se, all but securing the entirety of the Earth Kingdom, shortly before she was born. She wasn’t interested in the in-between; she wanted so desperately to go outside in the sunshine and play. Even her very-busy father knew when it was important to join her and chase the turtleducks and listen to their babies peep and cheep, and to have some tea under the shade and talk about her late big brother, Lu Ten, with her cousins.

Speaking of which...

She made haste down a stairwell, out into a corridor which led to the gardens. She smiled, knowing their routine well by now, and she found Zuko and Azula sitting by the turtleduck pond. The breeze was blowing, and Zuko’s book, written in braille, remained closed, but Azula read out loud.

“And therefore, Azulon brought his search for the Avatar to a close,” Azula said. Zuko tapped the end of his walking stick onto the ground.

“Wow, you don’t say.”

Azula snorted. “That’s news to me,” she said sarcastically. “It’s not like he was our grandfather or anything and we hadn’t been told this stuff since mom spat us out. I don’t think Li and Lo know what they’re doing when they make us read-”

“Zuzu! Zula!”

“There she is,” Zuko said as Zion ran towards them. “Here to join us again?”

“I can’t do it!” Zion said, grabbing her round little face. Her wide nose, mirroring her father’s, scrunched in desperation. “I can’t listen to them anymore! They drive me crazy!”

“It’s bad when they’re already cracking at six,” Azula said to Zuko, who laughed.

“PRINCESS ZION!”

Zion gasped as Lo and Li descended upon the gardens, looking for her. Azula closed her book.

“Come on,” she said, motioning for Zion to follow her as she took Zuko by the arm.

“The longer we look-”

“The later you must study!”

The two crones continued their shuffle through the gardens, careful to not trod over any turtleducks or clumsy ducklings. They walked in perfect unison, keeping their eyes peeled for their young charge. They were getting too old to babysit, but their place in the palace was far too precious to ignore their duties in watching Zion while Iroh was abroad.

“And so, with his journey behind him, Azulon returned to the Fire Nation in time to say goodbye to his father, and thus he began his life as the Fire Lord.”

Lo and Li could hear Azula’s voice nearby. They approached a tree, rounding it until they could see the princess with her older brother, leaning against its trunk.

“Prince Zuko; Princess Azula,” Lo began.

“Your cousin is dodging her lessons again,” Li finished.

Azula clicked her tongue. “That little rascal,” she shook her head, laying on the sarcasm.

Zuko smiled, his face not looking at any of them. “If only there was something we could do to help; but with the wind out here, I’m unable to read my book. Azula has offered to read for me.”

“Can’t you read inside?” Li asked.

“So Azula can help us?” Lo clicked impatiently. Azula frowned, but Zuko remained impassive.

“Ladies, you’d make us spend more time inside when spring has arrived? Without my sight, my other senses work overtime, and you’d make me go back in and smell the dark, dusty library instead of the fresh, crisp air? The headaches I get are terrible.”

Lo and Li looked at each other in concern as Azula did her best to not crack from Zuko’s obvious lie.

“Very well.”

“We will leave you to your studies.”

“We apologize for the intrusion,” they finished, bowing to the brother and sister before scurrying off.

They waited another moment before Azula scooted away from the tree, where she and Zuko had hid the entrance to a small hole in the base of the trunk; it was just the perfect size for a hiding child, and a hiding place Azula knew very well. Zion peeked out as Azula smiled.

“Coast is clear,” she said. Zion sighed, crawling out of the hole.

“Thanks, guys. You’re the best.”

“We know,” Azula said.

Soon, Azula had returned to reading, and Zion, after gathering a handful of flowers, had returned to sit in Zuko’s lap as she began to intertwine them with Zuko’s braid.

“What was grandpa Azulon like?” Zion asked when Azula paused to turn a page.

Azula shrugged. “He didn’t spend much time with us.”

Zion’s head tilted. “Why not?”

Zuko hmm’d. “We... weren’t high on his list of priorities.

“Priorities?” Zion asked after decorating another link of Zuko’s braid with an orange flower.

“You know,” Zuko began. “Things he found important.”

Zion’s little mind chugged to make sense of this. “But you were his grandkids. Of course you were importa-”

“Zion!”

Zion jumped out of Zuko’s lap, her flowers falling everywhere. Lo and Li had returned to the gardens - with Ursa. Ursa stomped forward, her robes lifted as Zion sheepishly awaited her aunt’s approach.

“There you are! Azula, why didn’t you tell Lo and Li you knew where she was?!”

Azula’s mouth bobbed. “Why is this all my fault?!”

“Don’t argue with me right now, Azula,”

“Mom,” Zuko said, trying to look where he believed Ursa stood. “I was the one who-”

“You do not have to step in for Azula, Zuko,” Ursa interrupted. Zion didn’t fight against Ursa’s hand taking her wrist, but she did look up at her in emotional distress.

“But Auntie Ursa, I want to study out here! Please? Please, please??” She begged. Ursa sighed.

“Zion, sweetheart, I know that lessons with Lo and Li can be... daunting; but they are good teachers. You’ll get the hang of it.”

“But I don’t want to get the hang of it!” Zion insisted. “All I’ve done all week is study! Papa’s not here and I’m tired of being lonely! I want to be with Zuko and Zula!”

“Mom, just let her stay with us-” Azula said just before Ursa shot her a stern, disapproving look.

“I said enough, young lady.”

Azula sat down quickly.

and Zion saw her cousin’s face.

Ursa then turned back to Zion. “Sweetheart, I know it’s hard; but you have to do this. It’s your father’s orders that they tutor you.”

Not wanting to incur any more frustrations, Zion finally calmed down.

“Yes ma’am,” she said as Ursa smiled in relief.

“There’s a good girl. Come on. I’ll walk you there.”

Lo and Li waited for Ursa and Zion to join them, then allowed them to pass and walk in front of them before they followed and disappeared into the castle. Azula hadn’t moved from her sulking spot. Her jaw had begun that quivering she hated, and she hid her face, even though Zuko was the only person nearby.

“That sucked,” Zuko huffed. Azula shot him a glare, much like the one her mother gave her. She reached over, picked up her textbook, and she threw it into the pond before storming off.

Zuko heard her take off back into the palace, and, knowing his own studies weren’t going to continue unless he went inside so he could read, stood and began his own trek, tapping the surroundings with his walking stick to find his path.

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

The passing hours hadn’t made things much easier. Azula sat at her vanity after dressing into her sleeping robes and she began to undo her topknot.

She hadn’t spoken for the rest of the day; not even at dinner. Ursa had tried to talk to her, but knew when to stop coaxing her daughter to talk when she very obviously didn’t want to speak. Azula ate her dinner and then excused herself, leaving Ursa and Zuko alone at the table.

She pulled the comb through her hair; she could have let the maids handle it, but she wanted to be alone.

Too bad for the knock at her door. Azula swayed in frustration, containing herself from shouting.

“I’m sleeping,” she answered.

But the door creaked open anyway. Azula slammed her hand onto the vanity.

“Did you hear what I just-”

Azula put herself on pause, as peeking from the other side of the door was Zion.

She slowly crept from behind the door to look at her older cousin.

“Zula? Can I come in?”

Azula sighed. ‘Well, you’ve already ignored me say otherwise already so why not?’. “Sure; come on in,” she conceded, returning to combing her hair as she looked in the vanity. Zion padded forward, fidgeting with her sleeping robe sash. She edged closer to Azula, standing next to her and remaining silent. Zion leaned on Azula’s hip and the older princess paused once again, rolling her eyes as she gave in to the tot’s sullen behavior. “What’s wrong, Zion?”

Azula could see in the mirror as Zion’s big red eyes looked up, her still-round cheeks drooping as she looked morose.

“Did you get in trouble earlier because of me?”

Azula paused her brushing. She looked at Zion in the mirror, then she looked at her crown on the vanity - the one Uncle gave to her.

The one meant for Lu Ten.

As she opened her mouth to answer, she could hear him. Lu Ten’s laughter as Azula and Zuko roped him into their shenanigans; his scolding when he would tell them they were going to be in big trouble, but the hidden twinkle in his eyes as he spoke because he was having as much fun as the kids. The way his head hung when Azulon caught them once, they could almost see the smoke coming from Lu Ten’s ears as Azulon singled the prince out, pointing his aged finger at his grandson and laying into him for his behavior.

Azula turned to look at Zion directly, and Lu Ten’s guilt and shame was echoed in his little sister’s pout.

Azula remembered her following conversation with Lu Ten after his chastising.

“No, Zion. It wasn’t your fault,” she said, offering a smile to her baby cousin.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah; I’m positive.” She said, but it didn’t seem to relieve Zion’s worries. “Come here,” Azula said, and she lifted Zion up into her lap to undo her own top knot and to comb out her hair as well.

It was a quiet few moments; a bit unlike Zion, but as this had been Iroh’s biggest outing she could recall and dealing with the stress of new studies, Azula didn’t pile on the questions (nor the guilt-tripping), and neither did Zion. Usually the child would just pop right into Azula’s room without her even realizing the door was open. At least she was hopefully learning some manners by now.

But she did see Zion’s still-glistening eyes in the mirror.

“Zion; you don’t have to worry, okay?” Azula said. “Especially not about me.”

“But it wasn’t fair.”

‘It never is,” Azula thought. “Look; I can handle my mom when she’s upset. It’s... not new.” Azula peeked around Zion’s shoulder to smirk at her. Zion finally started to loosen up. “I’m a natural at this whole ‘bad kid’ game. Besides... I get what it’s like to miss your dad.” She said, thinking about how the burns on her arm had finally started to fade. “They could have just let you study with us. Uncle wouldn’t have cared if he knew you were unhappy.”

A moment passed as Azula continued to brush through Zion’s black hair; it was so much like Lu Ten’s, but thicker, like Uncle’s hair once was as Azula could just barely remember being younger than Zion and braiding Iroh’s hair when it was at it’s longest.

Zion peeked over her shoulder towards Azula.

“I don’t think you’re bad, Zula,” she murmured.

Azula paused, looking at Zion. “No?”

Zion shook her head.

Azula hid the emotion in her face with a well-forced smile. “Well, who am I to argue with the future Fire Lord, then?”

Giving Azula a cheeky grin, Zion finally lightened up.

“Oh you just wanted me to make you feel good, huh?” Azula said, grabbing Zion in a bearhug as the girl laughed. “Didn’t you, little bratty-brat?”

“Zula!” Zion squealed as Azula reached in and blew a raspberry on her cheek. Azula chuckled as Zion calmed down, and the child reached over to hug her cousin. “I love you, Zula.”

This whole ‘hiding any emotions’ thing was almost proving too difficult. She looked back at her crown, and hoped maybe she was doing just as well as she remembered Lu Ten doing for her and Zuko. She held Zion tight in a hug as well, not one she often gave - but she figured she could spare one this moment.

“I love you too, brat.”

Azula finished with their hair, and the two nestled into her bed as Azula asked what lessons Li and Lo put her through.

“It was awful! They made me re-write again and again! They kept saying it was sloppy but the brush was so old and frayed, I had to pull out all the loose hairs when they weren’t looking.”

“The brush was probably as old as they are,” Azula said, earning a snort and a giggle from Zion. “They have a fit any time the lesson doesn’t go a fraction of how they prepare it.” She pointed a shaking finger at Zion and scrunched her face. “You must learn how to not be a human or else you’re DEAD TO US”

Zion emulated the same tactic, curling her hand and pointing a ragged finger at Azula. “Did we say lessons? We meant today is for SUFFERING!”

Azula cackled at Zion’s entertaining makeshift rasp, and the two laughed until they heard voices outside of the room, and they paused until they realized it was some maids walking by. Zion scooched in closer to Azula as though hiding, and Azula, while unprepared for the lack of personal space, allowed it for now.

“Come on, scooch in,” she said, pulling the blanket over them. Zion happily snuggled up, even though it wasn’t the most comfortable for Azula as her little cousin had always been a grabby little thing.

A moment passed before Zion had anything more to say.

“Zula?”

“Mmm?”

“If you could have any lessons, what would it be?”

“Anything?”

“Yeah.”

Azula thought about it. She did think fondly for a moment about her mother; after Ozai’s banishment she had started trying to implement more art studies for Zuko and Azula. Iroh had urged the idea and was eager to try it, but nothing had officially started in the past several years as the final war efforts were beginning to also consume their studies.

“I think... I think I’d like to hone my singing.”

Zion lit up. “I wish I could sing.”

“Well, you can. You just probably aren’t good at it yet. I... practice when I’m alone.”

Zion settled in closer, and Azula saw her smile, silently urging Azula to give her a demonstration.

“Okay but you have to close your eyes,” Azula gave in, and Zion quickly pretended to be asleep.

Trying to think about a song, she kept coming back to the lullaby her mother used to sing to Zion when she would babysit her; back when Zion was still so tiny and new that Iroh only entrusted her to Ursa.

“Hush, little dragon, take a gander at the sky; and look at all the bright, twinkling stars in your eyes

“They glimmer and wink, playful and true, hoping to play a game with you,”

Zion sighed, and she curled up more.

“The shooting star beckons, the wishing star sings, the lights they shine and fill your wings

“And when you wake, they’ll think of you; and all the marvelous things you can do

“But they won’t be gone, for come the dawn, it’s only a matter of time and when

“for as the sun flies true and through the sky, they tell their friends the stars and the moon

“just how much fun they had with you too

“So as the sun goes ‘way for the day, the stars and the moon light up your wings

“And through the gold of the day and the silver of the night, there will never be a lonely time

“As the sun and moon and stars and clouds, boast about you, little dragon, and all the fun there is to have”

Azula stopped singing, and she shuffled, seeing Zion remain still. She then laid her head down, ready to go to sleep herself.

Until a sleepy whisper cut into the silence: “Thanks Zula.”