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whirlybirbs · 4 years ago

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( another gif by @unearthlydust from this beautiful set ! )

✪ — VACANT MIRRORS ; B.B. | 3/?

summary: you find out about bucky’s past, he finds out about yours.

pairing: bucky barnes / f!reader

tags: set before & during tfatws, friends to lovers, therapy positive, trauma healing techniques, ptsd mentions, the normalization of anxiety disorders, and a good ol’ slow burn

word count: 6.4k, va va voom

a/n: oh look out here comes the plot, charactization, and growth between to pals who are maybe starting to feel a little something begin to take shape. but ignore that, there’s danger afoot. no spoilers for tfatws here!

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“You know I have to ask these questions. It’s part of the check-in.”

“Yeah,” you fire back, flat enough to warrant Dr. Hart’s scowl to grow. You can’t see it over the phone, but you know the way her words whip around you means she’s upset, “I know.”

“If you’re not following the action plan set out by the judge,” she begins, leaning forward as her tone drops into a scalding hot sort of seriousness on the other end, “You will go to prison. You know this. So, do you want to spend ten years of your life behind bars? Are you trying to get yourself locked up? Come on.”

You can’t look up from your computer’s screen. Or maybe you can, but right now, there’s a dangerous mixture of anger and guilt and frustration boiling under your skin.

“I’m trying.”

“Trying isn’t good enough for the GRC,” Dr. Hart snaps, “You know this. They’re giving you a chance — they know you’re talented. You have the ability here to go straight, to earn a living, to finally make up for those years of blackhat work.”

“Everything I did,” you fire back, ripping your eyes up to meet Dr. Hart’s, “Was for others. I didn’t get a fucking penny.”

“You’re not Robin Hood,” she shakes her head as her tone softens, “We all make mistakes. But, everything has a consequence. You know this. And this conversation isn’t even considering the other charges.”

“You know the extortion case would never hold up in court.”

Dr. Hart sighs raggedly. “And I don’t intend on ever seeing it play out in court, because you’re going to follow the conditions of your pardon.”

“The GRC is a bunch of fascists—”

“Enough,” she snaps, “If you want to go and appeal your case with the judge, be my guest, but I can almost guarantee you’ll be perp-walked out of that Federal courtroom in cuffs.”

She’s right.

Dr. Hart is right.

Your knee is bouncing, up and down and up and down. You’re wound up around yourself, arms crossed tight, brows knotted. With a shaky exhale, you just nod. You breathe, and you remind yourself that she’s right. She’s right, she’s right, she’s right. It’s not worth it. Dipping yourself back into that world, the layer of the web beneath the surface, isn’t worth it.

The GRC is your way out.

Just be a good little girl and do as you're told.

“So, I’m going to ask you again,” Dr. Hart begins, pen clicking alive on the other end of the phone call, “...Have you engaged in any illegal activities online in the last seven days?”

◦ ◦ ◦ ◦

Inessa Sidrova’s photo stares up at him from its place on the speckled marble counter, stacked neatly next to his notebook where her name is scrawled in chicken scratch — between two other names: Zemo and Henrikson.

His laptop, technically on loan from the FBI, sits beside both.

(When Barnes had agreed in that closed doors meeting to the conditions of his pardon, a certain FBI agent by the name of Jimmy Woo had been rather insistent that Barnes needed a personal computer in order to carry out his portion of the conditions insofar as tracking down the remaining HYDRA pawns in the States. Woo had also insisted, to the agreement of Dr. Raynor, that a personal computer would help better acclimate Barnes to the new world he’d been dropped into.

Woo was even nice enough to take an hour of his own time to show Bucky enough to get started — but was whisked away for some investigation out in New Jersey.)

Bucky rubs the cold vibranium of his left palm into his eye, then exhales long and slow.

He’s done all he can. And still, no leads on the woman.

Rounding the kitchen island, he digs his cell from his pocket. He goes back to staring at that text — the one he’d laughed out loud at the moment it lit up his phone — and he can feel that ol’ bite of anxiousness creep into his arms. His fingertips tingle.

On the television, a laugh track plays over a clip of The Three Stooges. Blue eyes flick upward, and he partially wishes a ladder would put him out of his own self-induced misery.

Outside, the antics of a Saturday night in Brooklyn roll on.

In the last few days he’s parsed through his thoughts enough to realize it’s not telling you that scares him — no, it’s telling you the truth. The whole truth. All of it. After all, the good comes with a lot of bad; the sort of bad you chain in a chest and sink in the ocean. And Bucky finds that, even still, the good is questionable at best. The good is… small. Microscopic. Completely and totally tainted by the fuckin’ decades of brainwashed, war dog bullshit.

He groans and drops his head back against the wall.

He tries, for the next twenty minutes, to formulate some sort of reply to your text message. But, half the battle is figuring out what to say, and the other half is actually typing it out. This whole flip phone purchase was really starting to sting like regret — and as much as Bucky loved technology back before the war, and all the magical possibilities it held, he can’t help but feel like an ornery old man now.

It’s the change. Steve was right. Too much change.

He can’t find the space button and he can’t figure out how to delete the random 3 he’d accidentally punched in — so, with a grumpy huff of disapproval, Bucky simply dials your number.

You pick up on the third ring.

“Don’t you know it’s Saturday?” your voice is a welcomed sound, “The History Channel is running a bunch of old war documentaries you might enjoy, grandpa.”

Bucky snorts, fiddling with the hem of his hoodie. “What makes you think I’d wanna watch that shit?”

“Everyone knows that old men like two things,” your voice is light, half-distracted from the sounds of it, “World War Two, or grilling. And honestly, you don’t strike me as the grilling type.”

“I like a good burger.”

“Yeah?” you snort, and Bucky can hear you shift your phone from one ear to the other, “Is that why you called? To hint at being hungry?”

“No,” he exhales, looking out the window, “No, I was trying to reply to your text but I can’t find the fuckin’ space button. Calling is easier.”

“Oh my god—”

“Shut up,” he barks with a laugh, sitting up, “Don’t even start — are you hungry?”

“Almost always, why?”

“Got any plans tonight?”

“... You do know who you’re asking, right?”

Bucky grins, a little boyish and a little tired. “Good point. Loser.”

“Oh, shut up. You’re the one calling me to hangout,” you snort, leaning to prop your feet up on your desk and lean back. Your chair wheels backwards, far enough for you to get a good look down the street. It’s a nice night, cool enough, and it seems like the whole borough is awake, “But, I’m only hanging out if you tell me what the fuck is up with court mandated therapy. I can’t wait another three days.”

Your anxiety has been pricked the last few days over it.

“... Do I get to pick the place?”

You roll your eyes. “Fine.”

“Great,” he exhales tightly, “I hope you’re in the mood for sushi.”

◦ ◦ ◦ ◦

Izzy’s is busy, but there’s privacy in the bustle.

Bucky had buzzed your apartment’s ringer and you’d flown down the stairs, looking… alive. The sort of alive that was new — like a fresh bud beginning to bloom in spring. It had made him grin, and he’d watched you push a tress of hair behind your ear as you decided it was warm enough for no jacket tonight. The light of the crosswalk sign lit you up like a star.

He was sweating.

Dr. Raynor was right — that was it, of course it was — that it was getting too warm for his usual outfit. So, he’d settled on the next best thing: a sweatshirt that was big enough and black enough that he could bury himself in it. His hands are tucked neatly into the pockets.

No gloves tonight.

He feels naked.

He shoulders the door and holds it open with the toe of his boot as you duck towards the back of the restaurant. There’s a booth in the back by a large bamboo plant — you weave through the place with a new found confidence. There’s anxiousness in your shoulders but it melts when you look back at Bucky. Like a watchful guard dog, he nods.

You settle into the booth, toss your jacket in the corner, and smirk.

“I get out sometimes,” Bucky remarks before you can even say anything. He shifts in the booth and reaches up to scratch his cheek with his right hand, “Not often, but I do.”

“I didn’t say anything...”

“You were going to,” he nearly smirks back, his brows raised as he adjusts the chopsticks on the table, “I know that look.”

You snort, nudging his boot under the table. That works a huffed little laugh out the man across from you. Almost immediately you can sense anxiousness rolling off him — it’s the tightness in his mouth that gives him away, the way he’s fussing with the soy sauce dish and trying to get it to line up perfectly with the marbling on the table. Worry flashes in your eyes.

“Bucky.”

He raises his head.

“You alright?” you ask quietly.

“You have to promise not to flip out.”

Your brows knot tightly — but before you can even question what the fuck he means, he’s casually dropping his other hand onto the table.

And you almost don’t notice at first. Your brain fills the gaps in, figuring it’s his glove. But, then you blink and his hand catches the light and you realize it’s not leather. It’s glittering obsidian, garnished with gold, and it’s moving. Flexing. Seams bending and warping and there’s a gentle hum coming from the appendages and you squint because he’s tapping his fingers on the table and there’s a metallic tik-tik-tik that meets your ears.

Then, your eyes jump to his face.

He looks pained.

You’re confused.

And then you’re not.

“You’re —”

You slap a hand over your own mouth. You have to promise not to flip out. Your eyes are eighty miles wide and your jaw is falling open and you’re leaning forward, whispering in a rushed tone because what the fuck.

“You’re that Bucky?!”

Oh, you feel stupid.

The hostess appears, suddenly. You snap backwards in the booth, Bucky tucks his hand away, and you both muster forced smiles to the waitress. She’s young. Pretty. Her name-tag says Sarah.

She asks about drinks.

Bucky gets a beer.

Slowly, you knock your knuckles against the table and drop your head into your hand. The look on your face is exhausted. “Do you guys have Mai Tais?”

The answer is yes. And you’re glad. Because you’re going to fucking need it.

The two of you are quiet until the drinks come — avoiding one anothers gazes for completely different reasons. Bucky is sheepish, a bit mortified, like he always is when people recognize him. It’s why he shaved his fuckin’ head. It worked well enough but… the arm was usually a dead giveaway.

Meanwhile, you’re wondering if you could shave your own head and disappear. Because there’s no easy way to explain the weird elation swirling in your chest right now.

Bucky’s first to speak. His beer is in his good hand. He inhales quickly, eyes darting to you as he leans forward and whispers incredulously. He speaks quickly and his words are pointed with an edge of curiosity.

“...What do you mean ‘that Bucky’?”

“Y’know, I knew there was a reason you acted like you needed a senior citizen discount. And you know exactly what I mean,” you rush out all while waving your Mai Tai and jabbing the side with the umbrella towards him, “Listen, this is a lot to take in, Mr. Avenger.”

“I am not an Avenger—”

“You helped reverse the Snap. You’re the Winter Soldier. That makes you an Avenger—”

Bucky’s shaking his head, eye screwed shut tightly because the sudden equation to his past self being considered a hero is like being socked in the mouth. He stutters over his words and shakes his head more vigorously, like he’s trying not to hear what you’re saying.

“I am not the Winter Soldier. Not anymore. And it’s not like I’m not on the fuckin’ roster, doll—”

You hold a finger up, stopping him there, and take a long sip of your sunset colored drink. You swallow. You exhale. Bucky swigs his beer.

“One, don’t call me doll,” you say curtly, then raise a second finger. You lean in and squint, “Two… Christ, the haircut really makes a big difference, doesn’t it?”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” he sighs raggedly, dismissing your scrutiny.

You puff your cheeks out and exhale. Leaning back in the booth, you try not to feel so fucking insane.

“...I can never have you over now.”

Bucky’s brows narrow quickly and his eyes snap to yours. “What?”

“I can’t have you over,” you explain slower with your eyes rooted to the soy sauce in the corner, “Because I don’t think I could ever handle you seeing my signed and framed Captain America poster from his USO tour in 1943.”

Bucky’s face is deadpan. “You’re kidding.”

“I really wish I was,” you gripe, “It’s an original.”

“...You’re a Cap girl,” he says suddenly, leaning back with this look in his eye. It’s less of a question. You can’t pin it down. It looks like he's damn near traumatized.

Bucky thinks — honestly — that this is the cherry on top. Every girl back then was a Cap girl, too. It figures, now, in this new century where he’s making new friends that… as per usual, Steve gets the cake. That fuckin’ pint sized bastard.

He’ll have to tell him about this.

You yank your eyes up to Bucky’s face. His mortification is shifting to surprise to amusement. You’re fast to sit up, mouth opening to fire a retort — but Bucky’s suddenly really enjoying the look of pure horror on your face at the insinuation. He’s smirking. Plain as day. He swigs his beer.

“No, no—” you raise a finger, “No, stop it. Don’t make it fuckin’ weird, Bucky, it’s not like I have his name tattoo’d on my ass. And I knew a girl in college who did.”

His brows rise sharply and you’re finding you’re regretting everything that’s coming out of your mouth.

“Stop looking at me like that,” you guffaw, gesturing for him to show you his hand again, “I wanna see.”

Bucky sighs and plucks his hand from his hoodie pocket.

With a sort of tenderness Bucky wasn’t prepared to handle, you take his metallic hand into your own. There’s an immediate twinge — one that’s procured by flashes of violence from years of being a walking weapon. He breathes, and he reminds himself that this arm is not the same that tethered him to HYDRA all those years ago.

This arm is his, it is not him.

The sensation is different. He isn’t used to anyone touching him like this; he’s used to the feeling of flesh on the other end of a punch, or a throat caught in his palm. Not the gentle pass of your fingers, delicate and purposeful, over his knuckles.

You turn over his hand, eyes alight with curiosity — and Bucky, desperate to stamp out the hotness growing in his gut, moves quickly to flick your nose.

“Ow—”

“Don’t stare,” he says coyly, “It’s rude.”

The waitress is back. His hand is tucked away, and you wrestle the stupid expression off your face long enough to order a plate of assorted maki rolls and some fried tofu. Bucky orders what seems like his usual — shrimp tempura and spicy tuna rolls.

The waitress, Sarah, disappears with a smile.

You’re grinning.

“So… Does this make me the sidekick?” you whisper playfully.

“Shut up,” Bucky laughs, his lips almost darting into a smile.

You cock your head, pushing your chopsticks across the table with a horribly coy look on your face. It’s comical. “...I think this makes me the sidekick.”

“It — stop it — it does not make you the sidekick,” Bucky says slowly as he sips his beer and pins you in the booth across from him, “I’m not a hero. You’d have better luck asking Cap on that one.”

You grow silent. There’s a question hanging on your tongue. You’re wrestling with yourself — Bucky can see that much. He frowns.

“Spit it out, Goose.”

You blink. “Was that a Top Gun reference?”

“You wanted to be the sidekick.”

You wave it off, blinking into your Mai Tai. Your voice is quiet. Even as you speak, there’s a hesitancy akin to walking on eggshells. “What happened to Cap? Is he… alive? He’s gone off the grid. It’s, like, this massive conspiracy theory online.”

“He’s upstate.”

You blink.

“That’s ominous.”

Bucky shrugs. “Someday I’ll take you. It’s… nice.”

You go quiet. You freeze, drink halfway to your mouth. Bucky can’t help but smirk at that. His laugh is more of a scoff than anything.

“Relax, Miss America.”

“Shut up — do you mean that?”

“What, that I think you’re in love with Captain America?”

“No, you bastard, that you’ll take me. To meet him.”

Bucky’s words are easy. They roll off his tongue without a second thought. He feels… okay. Like this part is okay. Not as bad as he thought it could be. His anxiousness isn’t as heavy now. He feels like he isn’t losing you. But then again, he hasn’t gotten to the bad part yet.

“He’s my best friend,” Bucky explains plainly, “And so are you.”

The admission is warm. As easy as breathing. Two months in the making.

“Your only friend,” you say quietly, offering the joke as a cover for the softening tone that dances over your words. It’s affection, you realize, as you mimic his shrug, “But, go on.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Bucky chirps, “But, yea, I mean it. He’d like you.”

You raise your chin, wiggling a bit in the booth. It’s pride — and as much as Bucky likes the look of it, he can’t handle the ridiculousness that comes along with it. But, it’s sort of comforting. He knows this playfulness, this easiness, it’s all because he’s him. You trust him. In.a way, it strikes Bucky with guilt. There are wall of his still built up high. Maybe they’re slowly coming down, but… he’s like a stray dog, slow to trust.

“Safe to say,” you breathe, “I have a few questions.”

“I figured as much.”

You sip your drink and swallow. You raise a hand. “But — I wanna know the boundaries. I don’t want to… I don’t want to pry about shit I have no business knowing, alright? It’s your life and even if we are friends, I don’t need to know everything.”

The relief is almost immediate. He thumbs the label of his beer.

“Ask anything. But I can’t promise I’ll be able to give you the answers.”

“And I’ll leave it at that,” you say sternly, propping your elbow up on the table and offering your pinky finger, “Until you want to talk about it. Promise.”

He crooks his pinky in yours, squeezing gently. You smile.

Sarah comes back with the food, and then Bucky offers his usual half-exhausted, half-amused smirk.

“You get three questions now. Then, we shut up and eat.”

You fold your hands neatly over themselves, eyeing your food as you try your best to sort out what questions come up with the most urgency. There’s… a lot. I mean, everyone knew about the Avengers — and everyone had their opinions. The Sokovia Accords, Lagos, the Blip… and SHIELD. Years of bullshit culminating around those who were considered the heroes. The kickback usually ended up on everyday citizens like you. After the initial amazement, the reality of it all set in.

But, to Bucky’s point, he wasn’t really an Avenger.

Nowadays, there really wasn’t a team at all. No up-state compound, no leader, no Stark and no Rogers.

You’re sure the GRC will try — that the military will try. Morale and hope and blah, blah, blah.

You narrow your eyes. “How old are you?”

It’s quick. “One hundred and six.”

“How’d they keep you alive that long?”

There’s a wince that flashes across his face like he’s been stabbed with a white hot poker in the ribs. You see a twitch of irritation bubble across his lips. Not with you. No, it’s that this question is still hard for him to answer. Bucky exhales sharply.

“Next question.”

You feel a pang of guilt flare in your chest. You move along.

“Who kept you alive that long?”

“The Russians. HYDRA, if you wanna get specific.”

You exhale and settle on the fact you now have more questions than answers. But, you nod and snatch up your chopsticks. Enough of the twenty questions game.

In all honesty, it’s not like Bucky’s existence was common knowledge. The Winter Soldier was known mostly, sure, to those who had floated in the same circles as him when he was nothing but a rabid cur on a choke chain. He can’t help but be a bit thankful for the minor erasure of his new self — sure, in the eyes of the U.S. government he was a high-level threat to be reintegrated as soon as possible and surveyed at all times. But, to the average New Yorker, he was just another person. Everyone was so used to seeing the heroes in their costumes with their bigger than life personas and…

Bucky was just Bucky.

Even he didn’t really know who that was. He was starting to.

His pardon had come with some flak from some of the more political news outlets but… somehow, the details of the Winter Soldier’s exact crimes were being kept silent. Probably to avoid panic. And, even then, the connection between the newly alive James Buchanan Barnes and The Winter Soldier hadn’t been made yet in the public eye. He was glad.

The haircut definitely helped.

It’s like he was a walking classified redaction.

Bucky has a sushi roll in his mouth when he finally speaks. “For such a Captain American fan, I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me.”

“Oh, you’re really not gonna let that go, huh?” you say as you chew, covering your mouth. You swallow and waggle your chopsticks at him, “Listen, it’s been a while since I’ve… y’know, had my Avengers phase. That was years ago. It was at its peak when I worked for SHIELD. And besides, you’re kinda new to the whole superhero scene.”

Bucky frowns. “You worked for SHIELD...?”

“For a year,” you say tightly, “Back before the collapse.”

“Only a year?”

“It was for my graduate program,” you wave it off, “I won out on the most competitive internship NYU had to offer. I was working within their cybersecurity division. I will say I spent more time trying to sort of email phishing scams than anything else, though. I’m sure they saw my record and wanted to keep me away from the juicy stuff.”

Bucky squints.

You offer a sheepish shrug.

“I got into trouble when I was younger,” you sip your drink and sigh, “I always liked computers. I used to spend all my time on forum sites just… reading and talking to people and figuring out how these sites actually worked, so learning how to write my own code was just the next step. When I was fifteen, I learned how to tap phones. At sixteen, I was hijacking my neighbor’s internet conenctions and remotely controlling his laptop.”

“Sounds like a good time.”

“Yea, well, he was a sitting Senator who was having an affair with the nanny,” you mutter, “And I was stupid enough to try and blackmail him for cash. I wish I could say I learned my lesson.”

Bucky exhales long and hard at that, like he knows where that snap of misguided judgement goes. It’s not like he’s passing judgement onto you, but… like he knows the feeling. And you manage to not feel so small, then — telling him this is easy. It’s not your favorite part of your life by any means, but Bucky is listening. Really listening.

He fiddles with the paper wrapper of the chopsticks.

“So, less a Goose and more a Kevin Poulsen type, huh?”

You snort. “For an old man, I’m surprised you know who that is. But, I wasn’t hacking into the Pentagon at seventeen. I was too busy doing community service.”

“HYDRA had their eyes on him in the 90s,” Bucky mumbles through a bite of spicy tuna, the memory popping into his mind and flying out before he can stop it, “I remember… I thought his username was stupid.”

“Oh, you didn’t like Dark Dante?”

“Like I said,” Bucky chortles, “Stupid.”

“You wouldn’t have liked mine, then,” you smirk lightly, “It’s worse.”

Bucky raises his brows, somehow doubting that entirely. “Really?”

“...I was hackrabb1t for a long time. Y’know, with a ‘one’ for the ‘i’,” you cringe, “People kept thinking I was a furry.”

There’s a pause. Bucky’s face is set in an unreadable emotion. It’s confusion mixed with amusement mixed with… something else. When he speaks, he clears his throat and tilts his head.

“It’s clever. But,” a pause, “What is a furry? I’ve been seeing that word all over PlentyOfFish.”

Your jaw flies open. You raise your hands as your head reels around. Bucky has a look on his face like he knows, he knows he shouldn’t have asked and he definitely shouldn’t have given you enough context to know where he’s seen that phrase before, because now you’re looking at him like he has seventeen heads and they’re all on fire.

“Y’know what, nevermind—”

“—Oh, no, no, there’s way too much to unpack here,” you lean forward, “You’re on PlentyOfFish?”

“ChristianMingle wasn’t really my speed — stop laughing.”

“Shut up — stop it, stop — this is too much,” you say with a high voice, “If you get catfished, I’m not helping you track the person down…”

“—What the hell is a catfish?” he nearly cries, raising both hands in a desperate shrug, “I don’t even know what any of these words mean.”

“Oh, you sweet, naive, innocent, man—”

“No, no, no, no,” he chirps, raising a finger with a deadly look of seriousness on his face, “No, I am not naive or sweet or any of the above. I’ll take ‘cute’, sure, but none a’ those.”

“Is that what the furries call you on PlentyOfFish? Cute?”

He drops his head back against the booth and stares at the ceiling.

“Our friendship was a mistake, rabbit.”

You choke out a laugh. “Shut up, you walking claw machine.”

You’re both laughing now — quieter but sustained and everytime you think you’ve calmed down enough to sip your Mai Tai, you just have to look at the distraught, scruffy man across from you to break into another fit of muffled laughter. Finally, after what feels like forever, you both manage to calm down enough to finish the plates in front of you.

There’s a warmth that’s settled in Bucky’s chest — it’s eaten away at the usual jitter in his legs, the anxious twitch of his fingers. It’s a different emotion. Acceptance, maybe. Comfort. Affection.

Then, while you’re piling the last bit of sushi rice into your mouth when your phone, set on the side of the table, begins to go off. It hums erratically, dancing in a circle, and all you do is stare at the name flashing across the screen. You’re smiling, hugging her. It’s from Jaimie’s wedding — out in some big, wide open orchard with the sun setting behind you. The picture there is old; you were both different people then.

Before… everything.

MOM Morristown, NJ

You scowl and stare.

Bucky blinks.

“You gonna get that?”

Quickly, you snap out of it. You reach and silence the buzzing with two quick taps. Quietly, you offer up a somber sigh.

“I never do.”

Bucky frowns again, this time with a worried look that digs deep into his eyebrows. You ignore it on purpose, pushing your plate away and leaning back in the booth. He knows what you’re doing — you’re avoiding his gaze, and therefore his own questions.

“Rabbit.”

“Oh, is that my new nickname, then?”

“It fits,” he chirps before crossing his arms, strategically hiding his metallic hand, “What’s up?”

You grow quiet — then it spills out.

“I can’t talk to her.”

“Why?”

You chew your lip. You bite your tongue and you hold back on the finer points of your anger — ones dredged up by the still present sting of your check-in with Dr. Hart this afternoon.

Here it comes.

“As a part of my pardon, I was ordered no-contact with my family,” you exhale, controlling the level of your voice, reciting the court papers you’d read over and over and over, “It was deemed that further contact would impact my progress towards reformed behavior and judgment.”

Bucky’s eyes are wide. His jaw is tight.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘pardon’?”

It’s your turn to cross your arms now, to ignore the sting of his look. It’s the kind that screams disappointment more than anything. You hate that you’re getting it from Bucky of all people.

“Like I said, I didn’t learn my lesson when I was a kid,” you shirk, “Last year I was arrested on a number of counts — I’d been evading the FBI, CIA, all of them, for years. I was doing it all for people like me. The ones who got left behind.”

Bucky’s tone is flat. It’s serious. His next sentence is less of a question, more of an order. The cadence is rhythmic and it reminds you of your brother the night he found out about the first time you’d been arrested; you decide, then, that Jaimie and Bucky would have gotten along.

“What did you do?”

“Whatever I could,” you wave your hands, “Identity theft, falsified documents, insurance fraud. Anything. There were people, like me, that in a blink, lost everything. Accidents, deaths, evictions and no one did anything for us. The insurance agencies wouldn’t cover damages related to The Snap. Life insurance policies, social security… It all got snatched up by people at the top while the system collapsed around us. I had to pay for my brother’s funeral out of pocket. And there were hundreds of thousands of people just like me, just trying to get by. And everything failed us.”

Bucky is stuck in silence. It’s like mud, dragging him to the bottom of a pond — the sort that’s dredged with misery. In an instant, his veins are on fire with an anger he hadn’t felt in a while. It manifests itself in the tightening of his jaw. He rubs his face and props his elbows up on the table.

“Why won’t they let you see your family?”

You fiddle with your napkin.

“My brother… His wife was on maternity leave when she disappeared in the Blip,” you mutter, “She came back to no job, a dead husband, and no home. Their apartment complex had been abandoned. She’s trying her best to make ends meet. She lives with my Mom in our old home. Neither of them can find work. They… The court thought that I’d be influenced to do something if I was around them.”

“What, like help?”

“They see me as a criminal,” you manage, “But I’m useful, so they’re keeping me around.”

Silence falls between the two of you once more — and the sad look on your face makes Bucky’s chest tight. He can see anxiety beginning to spill over; you’re wringing the napkin, fiddling with the edges. Suddenly, Bucky realizes you’re feeling exactly how he was an hour or so ago.

Your voice is soft. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you.”

“Looks like we’re two birds of a feather,” he says, knocking the toe of your sneaker with his boot, “Listen, we all do stupid shit. I’ve got a lot worse weighing me down. I get it.”

You look up, sadness glistening in your expression like sun off a lake. It’s harsh. He wants to look away.

He doesn’t.

“... So, that means you’re good with computers?”

◦ ◦ ◦ ◦

That’s how you find yourself in Bucky’s Brooklyn apartment at almost midnight, wandering behind him in the long halls and watching curiously as he digs his key from his pocket and shoulders the door open.

It’s a small apartment. One bed, one bath, a kitchenette and that’s really it.

For its size, it’s hardly lived in.

You suppose it makes sense — Bucky didn’t have a lot of personal belongings, and with the hints he’d dropped about his life before The Blip, you were beginning to understand that he may have never really had that much to begin with.

There’s a blanket on the floor by the television and a single couch pillow. It’s tucked in the corner, behind a small sofa. There’s a chair in the living room, one from an old dining set. At the kitchen counter, there’s a stack of papers and a single laptop. Even though all the kitchen’s wares are older models, the bones of the apartment are good. Bare, but good.

You stop in the doorway to the bedroom and stare at the untouched bed. The sheets are tucked tightly in the corners — there’s something militaristic about it. Across the hall is the bathroom. It’s small. You can see a few amenities scattered across the sink’s top.

Being in here feels something like an open wound.

It was lonely. Quiet. Cold.

“We need to make a trip to HomeGoods,” you mumble as Bucky flicks on the lights, “I get the whole minimalist thing, but sheesh.”

“I don’t have a lot,” he says, kicking off his boots by the door and shrugging off his jacket, “And I don’t need a lot either.”

You watch as his shoulders sag a bit, like he can finally let down his guard just a little in his own space. It’s endearing. You perch yourself up on the kitchen counter as your eyes follow him; he moves to fling open a cabinet and grabs a mug. Then, he hesitates.

“You want tea?” he asks over his shoulder.

“Tea?”

“Dr. Raynor said,” Bucky reaches for a container of tea bags from the top shelf. His henley lifts enough to flash a bit of skin along his lower back and you swear you see a scar, “It would help with my anxiety.”

You swing your legs a little. “Then sure.”

“You can use my Captain America mug,” he chirps, laughing a little to himself, “Seeing as you’re such a big fan…”

“God, I regret even saying anything to you,” you spit as you hop down and lean around him to get a look at the mug, “Did you seriously buy that?”

“It was a gift.”

“Bullshit.”

Bucky snorts as you shake your head and wander backwards, eyeing the rest of his apartment with a bit of astonishment. It’s really nothing impressive — but, you suppose it makes sense. Whatever meager disbursement that the government was willing to give Bucky for his efforts in fixing the Snap was better than nothing.

Your gaze hangs on the blanket in the corner.

He watches you; and he notes the sore sadness that dissolves your posture at the sight of the nest in the corner. A bit of shame colors his cheeks as he heats up the water. When Bucky speaks, it’s slow.

“The bed was too soft. I couldn’t sleep on it,” he shifts from foot to foot and focuses on taking the tea bags out and methodically wrapping the strings around the handles, “Dr. Raynor said that’s a typical thing for soldiers to experience when they come home from war.”

You’re quiet for a while after that, only speaking when he rounds the counter with your tea. He offers it up with a tilt of the head.

“You never got to come home, though, right?”

“No,” comes the short reply as you both watch the lights outside the window, “No, I didn’t. Not until now.”

You nudge his arm with yours. You lean a bit. Bucky leans back.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he manages after a sigh and sip of the tea, “I can’t just feel sorry for myself anymore. I’m trying to fix the wrongs I did — and that’s why I need your help.”

You quirk a brow. He reaches around you and grabs the stack of papers on the counter. With a steady grip, Bucky presents the photo of a woman who looks strikingly familiar. You can’t place her face, but there’s something about her that feels like a slap across the cheek. She’s young here, in a faded photo with tattered edges. Beside her is a man who is laughing. The photo is candid, and they’re both beautiful. They’re both wearing a uniform — but you can’t place the era or location.

You turn to Bucky for answers.

“Back in the 70s, at the height of the Cold War, HYDRA was working in tandem with the Russians to spy on American forces,” he offers easily, staring out the window, “The American HYDRA cell hadn’t yet been planted. This man, Andrei Kuznetzov, was a spy. He was feeding the Americans information on the Russian nuclear program. His wife, the one in the photo, was ordered to kill him. She refused.”

Bucky’s fingers twitch.

His words are soaked through with pain.

“I,” he continues, “killed him.”

You hold your breath. Then you spare him a mournful look.

“Inessa Sidrova went on to help form the same HYDRA cell that ended up taking over SHIELD here in America,” Bucky mumbles, “She’s dangerous. There’s others like her, ones who I helped create, all over the world. But, she’s my top priority. I just haven’t had much luck tracking her down.”

“That’s why you need my help.”

“I’m 106 years old,” Bucky deadpans, “The microfiches at the library were getting a little tedious.”

“But,” you chirp with a sly smirk, “You figured out how to set up a PlentyOfFish account?”

He shoulders you again as you sip your tea and laugh.

“Shoulda never said anything,” Bucky grumbles, “Dr. Raynor thought it was a good idea. Y’know, to get back out in the world.”

“I can promise you,” you say with a stern shake of the head, “The metal arm will get you plenty of chicks and dudes in due time.”

“Good to know,” Bucky replies as his words lilt with a playful sort of questioning that you purposefully ignore. You’re not feeding his ego today. Maybe tomorrow, after you take a crack at figuring out where this woman is.

It’s going to be a long night.

#vacant mirrors #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x you #winter soldier imagine #tfatws imagine #bucky barnes #marvel imagine #bucky x reader

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steele-soulmate · 2 years ago

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Tattooed Wings, CHAPTER 3, Peter Steele & OFC, Soulmate AU

SUMMARY: Mary Claire Bradley meets her soulmate- literally- the famous Peter Steele of metal group Type O Negative. But will obstacles including trauma, stalkers, and toxic family members get in the way of their life?

STORY WARNINGS: mentions of child rape (nothing graphic) PTSD

First rewritten reworking 06/16/2023

Second rewritten reworking 09/27/2024

CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 1350

After Peter rescued me from the big tent, I was quickly put on playground duty. I didn’t mind- I quite enjoyed watching after the kids while their parents were busy with adult faire duties.

I was seated on the bench that was closest to the archers’ encampment, my crochet hook in hand as I worked on making a purple bunny plush toy. I would look up every couple of minutes to check on the kids- Emma and Izzie were on the monkey bars along with their older brother Allen, who was keeping a close eye on his younger twin sisters. Michael was running back and forth pushing siblings David and Remi on the swings. Little Elijah was playing with carved blocks at my feet and his two month old little sister was taking a nap on the bench next to me, swaddled up in blankets and caged from rolling off the bench with a fluffy pillow.

“…and done!” I held up the brightly colored toy, beaming as I admired my latest completed project. I placed it into my basket and began on another bunny, this one in green.

“Hey.”

I looked up and smiled at Peter, who had an opened bottle of ice cold Gatorade in his hand and an equally shy smile on his face.

“Would you like to sit?” I asked him, setting aside my new project to pick up the baby only to have Peter beat me to it. The sleeping child looked ridiculously small in his giant hands as he maneuvered her to be comfortable. “You’re good with her.”

“I have five older sisters, nine nieces and fourteen great nieces,” he explained, chuckling at little Elijah, who stood up and grabbed at Peter’s jeans, waving a block of wood that was carved like an elephant, babbling adorable nonsense.

“No brothers or nephews?” I asked him. “Your poor father.”

He laughed outright at that, barking out his laughter at my quip as he bent down to pick Elijah up. The little boy snuggled into the giant man’s arm, reaching out to gently pat at his sister’s foot.

“Yes, don’t you worry,” he murmured softly before turning back to me. “No other boys in the family.”

“Yeepers.” I moved my eyes from him for a moment so that I could momentarily focus on forming one of the two floppy ears. “After mom had Adam, she really wanted a girl, but she got Benjamen, then Caleb, then Daniel, then Ephraim, then Frank, finally Gideon.”

“Your brothers?” he asked, clearly amused.

I reached into my bra and pulled out my cell phone. I pulled up my photo app and scrolled through my albums before tapping MY FAMILY. I tapped on one of my favorite pictures of the ten of us kids at one of dad’s vacation homes in our swimsuits, goofing off by the lake.

“How tall are they?” he asked nonchalantly, clearly amused by how dwarfed I looked in Gideon’s arms.

“Gideon, he’s the youngest, is the tallest at seven feet three inches,” I causally answered, giggling at the look he shot me. “You have no idea how much of a pain it is trying to find bedsheets that fit his bed.”

“What does Gideon do for a living?” he asked me, clearly nervous, as though I was going to sic my brothers on him.

“Adam is a Navy SEAL, Benjamin is a MMA fighter, Caleb is a professional boxer, Daniel is the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, Ephraim works for the CIA, Frank is SWAT and Gideon took the smart way out- he became a lawyer.” I giggled at the fearful look on his face.

“Even more motivation for me not to hurt you,” he muttered, bouncing little Elijah up further into his arms. “If I ever make you cry, no one is going to be able to find my body.”

I shrugged as I finished an ear and got started on the other.

“They’re all extremely overprotective over me, for reasons you may’ve already guessed,” I said in a low tone as I looped and hooked the yarn together. “You should’ve seen Adam when mom first told him. All that he could say was ‘So where did you say he was again?’ I know he and my other brothers would’ve killed him. Even Gideon, and that man won’t even kill a spider.”

“Won’t the age gap weird them out a bit?” he wondered, making a silly face at the two happy babies in his arms.

“I’m not telling them about you anytime soon,” I told him, focusing all my attention on the green bunny I was crafting. “I want you to myself for a while at least. Besides, they can be… inappropriate when they want to be, too much testosterone at times.”

The baby girl in Peter’s arm began to fuss and I set aside the partly finished bunny before motioning for her. Peter handed her over before shifting little Elijah to sit in both arms. I expertly held the girl in one arm while I pulled my top and bra to the side and readied myself to feed her.

“Francesca, she’s their mom, she can’t produce natural milk to feed,” I explained as she latched on and began to suckle greedily. “And since I make more a little bit milk then normal, I help out by giving her my excess. Isn’t that right, baby girl?” I turned my attention, cooing at the small child in my arms, who was almost asleep once more. I felt something draping over my shoulders; it was Peter’s leather jacket. Peter smiled awkwardly as he finished fussing about me and drew back into his own circle, offering little Elijah his hair to play with.

“Gramacy,” I smiled, quickly averting my eyes back to the playground, giggling as Emma and Izzie started chasing their brother. Allen let out a scream of mock fear as he began to sprint, not too fast to where his sisters wouldn’t catch him, but fast enough to encourage them to run after him.

“Wee Allen, please don’t leave the playground!” I called out, my Irish lilt coming back into play.

“Yes, Mary Claire!” he chirped, screaming as he was tackled by his little sisters. I chuckled as he pretended to rough house with his sisters, ending with their backs pressed against then asphalt as they giggled.

“Wee lambs,” I chortled, removing the baby who had stop feeding at my breast. “Can you burp her for me please?” Peter took her from me with no complaint and started patting her back. Little Elijah helped by tapping his hand on her little rear.

I quickly righted myself before slipping my arms into the sleeves of Peter’s jacket, automatically swallowed whole. I emerged with a gasp, practically flailing as I swam in the leather jacket.

Peter chuckled as he held both Elijah and his little sister.

“You look cute in my jacket,” he chortled, poking his nose into the knot of curls that I had tied to the top of my head. I leaned into him, wrapping an arm around his torso, my other hand going to rest on my belly. I closed my eyes- I wanted Peter in my life, but…

But I was just so terrified of the unknown.

Gramercy, thank you, Old French?

TAGLISTS ARE OPEN/ ASK BOX IS OPEN/ REQUESTS ARE OPEN/ PLOT BUNNIES ARE WELCOMED

If you liked this, then please consider buying me a coffee HERE It only costs $3!!!

PETER STEELE TAGLIST

@rock-a-noodle

@elianafilthyrose

@ch3rry-c01a

@rockstarslutt

@angelxfuckk

#Peter Thomas Ratajczyk #Josh Silver #Kenny Hickey #Johnny Kelly #Mary Claire Bradley (OFC)#Peter Steele #Type O Negative #Heavy metal #Doom metal #Soulmate AU #Real person fiction (RPF)#Tattooed Wings #Romance #Family #Humor #Drama #Friendship #Matching tattoos soulmate AU

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destinygoldenstar · 3 years ago

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Total Drama Refilming Action ; Episodes 13-18

Link to Part One and Part Two down below: 👇

https://destinygoldenstar.tumblr.com/post/671055378888474624/total-drama-refilming-action-episodes-1-6

https://destinygoldenstar.tumblr.com/post/673126603506827264/total-drama-refilming-action-episodes-7-12

Part 3

Episode 13: Ocean’s Ten- Or Eleven

Geez, first time I have to change the episode name for logic reasons. Wow.

Anyway, back to the show.

Episode 13 starts with Heather walking into the mess hall to grab food, complaining about the scent in her skin, which Noah teases that it sucks to be them, which grants him a death glare from Leshawna, Gwen, and Heather. (Remember, in the previous part of this rewrite, these three girls were blasted by skunks)

In front of Heather’s line is Duncan and Gwen, Gwen clearly stepping away from Heather when seeing her. Heather tries to make fun of Gwen, but accidentally bumps into Duncan and makes him drop a picture. Gwen catches it and hands it back to Duncan, seeing that it’s a photo of Courtney.

“Don’t make fun of me,” Duncan scolds, and Gwen instead asks “Do you think she’s routing for you?”

“Even if she’s not, she’s still feisty,” Duncan smirks at, and then stares at Gwen charmingly to claim “She’d have to fight for me if she was here.”

Gwen rolls her eyes, proclaiming as she grabs her plate “What do you think I am? A cheater?”

“Yes,” Heather says in the back, making Gwen stomp away. “Girls,” Duncan calmly brushes off, and as he pulls out a piece of wood from his pocket, he adds “You get some, you lose some.”

He begins chipping away at the wood with a knife, and Heather makes her “vandal” comment from canon. She sits down to see Harold and Leshawna looking away from each other in distraught. They’re both clearly holding letters to their chests that the other can’t notice, and Harold gives a brief lookover and blush at Leshawna, only for him to look back away when she turns her head. Tyler meanwhile is too busy admiring Lindsey, who is charmingly brushing away her gold locks. Even Heather waving her hand over him doesn’t work, and it makes her scoff sarcastically “Such a team player.”

“Like yourself?” Harold asks, where Heather only shoots back “Shut up, nerd.” Which just in canon, makes Harold stick his tongue out at her.

The rest of this scene goes, for the most part, untouched. Leshawna tries to keep everyone together, Harold has his confessional, Heather makes fun of Leshawna, prompting Leshawna to leave and get kidnapped. The only tweak here needed is that instead of Harold saying “That’s an interesting read” it’s Tyler, after Heather slaps his shoulder.

We then focus on the Grips, where Beth remarks how great it is to still be here, with all of them getting along beautifully, no one being a manipulative jerk. Lindsey then awkwardly points to Noah, claiming she forgot who's still here. Noah’s sitting away from the other three picking at his food, and accidentally makes a smiley face with his bacon and eggs that reminds him of Owen and Izzy. He looks up at Lindsey’s mention of him and proclaims “Are you kidding me? Call out myself but give Justin a pass?”

The girls don’t believe such, and Justin assures the gals that they don’t have to worry. Noah will be eliminated right out of the gate if they lose.

There’s then a Justin and Noah confessional back to back.

Justin points out that Noah should be thankful for his abs giving them a great advantage, plus he screwed over the Gaffer’s game pretty good. Noah didn’t do that. He did. So he should just give up.

Noah then points out that he’s not thankful for Justin at all, and he’s even more upset that he ended up getting to him. “Frankly, that’s my fault, since I gave in.” But now his only allies are out of the game, and Lindsey and Beth are too stupid to realize they’re being used. If the Grips lose a single challenge now, he’s dead. Unless of course he can convince Justin to just give up.

After the confessionals, Justin tries to offer Noah a truce in all of this. He tries to charm him, claiming that Noah can have some of Justin’s beauty products for a week if he just agrees in following Justin’s plan.

However, Noah doesn’t fall for it, and he instead remarks “Your ‘plan’ is to stand still and look pretty, and HOPE to win money.”

Justin however counters Noah’s snarkiness, stating that it’s how all the famous people get by. Noah rolls his eyes and declares he’d rather take his chances than ally himself with the big bad of the show. He gets up and leaves to get some more bacon, only for there to be none left available and he notices Chef isn’t in the kitchen. Noah calls out to him to ask if he’s on break, which leads to him going into the kitchen itself, and that’s where Noah gets kidnapped.

(This does mean we’re cutting out the gag with the crane being needed to lift the body, because I’m pretty sure Noah is like, a tenth of Owen’s weight. Maybe even a twelfth.)

Chris then comes in to explain the movie genre and the challenge. Tweaks here are needed, like Noah being the one the Grips need to rescue. And when Chris declares that they’re gonna save them, instead of the gasps, it’s an awkward silence for everyone, as no one cares, which makes Chris smirk “Heartless, are we?”

Other than those tweaks, the challenge explanation is untouched.

Same goes for the people in the vaults, Leshawna’s untouched scene at least. Before her, we get Noah’s reaction. He rips off the bag from his head and states that he’s been in detention before and it’s quite like this, basically correcting a teacher and calling her ‘show your work’ policy stupid is illegal and it can get you locked up. But that does NOT mean a reality Tv show needs to replicate that!

From there, the campers try to crack open the safes. Once Harold and Heather have their fight, Gwen asks Duncan if he has any ideas, where he lies that no, he has no clue. Then we get Duncan’s untouched confessional, and as Harold and Heather are wrestling in the background, Tyler attempts to simply bust open the safe on his own terms with his muscles… and he fails at such. Seeing the chaos, Gwen sighs and joins Duncan in leaning on the wall with their arms crossed. She remarks that it’s a casual day today, isn’t it? To which Duncan adds “Right back at ya.”

The Grips meanwhile are trying to figure it out themselves, Lindsey asking if it’s like cracking an egg, where Beth remarks that no, gritting under a failed combination that it’s like cracking teeth. She should know, she and Brady have both been through recent dentals. Lindsey asks who exactly is Brady to Beth, and Beth at first claims that he’s a boyfriend, someone she got along with beautifully.

“Like… someone you know you can trust?” Lindsey asks, to which Beth remarks that he’s one of the only people she can trust in her life outside of her and Justin. Lindsey glances over at Tyler crashing to the ground, after failing to break open the lock by force, and it transitions to the Gaffers as Heather steps over him. Harold, beaten up, thanks Tyler for moving, trying to hear the clicks in the lock. Heather and Harold scold each other just like in the original, and instead of the flash edit to the Grips, the camera moves over to Lindsey’s eyes watching everything. She asks if cups can help with their case, and Justin counters that with the declaration that the only good thing cups are for are containing cologne.

Lindsey then tries to figure it out herself, proceeding to ask from Justin’s suggestion that the numbers are the code from a cologne bottle. She tries such, only for it to not work. Justin asks if Lindsey actually used his cologne bottle to memorize that, and Lindsey asks back “Wait… did I forget to ask first?”

We then cut back to the Gaffers with Heather’s attempt at the lock, and this bit with Heather and Harold goes completely untouched, until after it’s through. After Heather scolds Harold to stop, Tyler wonders if Gwen and Duncan know anything about the safe. Gwen claims that it seems like they’re too busy for them to step in, and she herself genuinely has no idea if they even want her to interfere. Duncan simply puts that he’s well off as is, and he and Gwen both share a handclap in smirks. After said contact, Gwen glances at her hand awkwardly and hides it under her other arm, clearing her throat and looking away from Duncan.

Tyler scoffs that they’re all trying to save Leshawna here, like it or not, plus this is a game show. So at least give him a hint. To that, and remembering Leshawna, Gwen decides to give him a bobby pin. Harold scolds this idea, and Heather snatches it from Tyler to try it herself, claiming it’s the best thing Gwen has done for them in two whole seasons.

We cut back to the Gaffers where Lindsey and Beth try to bust open the lock by force, and when they ask Justin what they do, Justin looks over at Chris and claims he has an idea. Walking up to him, we get the untouched scene where Justin tries to seduce Chris into giving them the combination, with the same results. While that’s happening, Lindsey and Beth hear a vague voice from the vent, and Beth leans over to hear it. It’s Noah, trying to get through to them from the other side, and a brief cut to him shows that he’s moved a ton of lockers out of the way to reach the vent, and all of them are knocked over.

“Do you two have brain cells?” Noah asks them, where over the Gaffer’s shouting, they can barely hear him. This makes Lindsey say “What? Do we have plain bells?”

“I didn’t think so,” Noah scolds in response to that, then trying to give them a hint to the code. He tells them to think less numbers and more structure. This is a vague line that indicates that there is NO combination to open the lockers, as that’s not how bandits get in.

Beth however, remarks that they’re not listening to Noah, not after his stunts. Lindsey meanwhile, studies the lock and comes up with the idea that they can simply unscrew the lockers altogether and make it crash down, finally noticing the loose screws on the top corners of the doors. Beth calls out to Noah to get rid of the screws from his side, and Noah’s eyes widen at this as he remarks “Oh my god, they’re actually human.”

With that, Noah tries to stack the collapsed lockers up to the screws, with Beth handing Lindsey and Noah (slid through the vent) two pins to use to screw the bolts. With no confessionals interrupting this process (Sorry Beth) the three proceed to do exactly that, and slam down the door altogether. Noah gives a ‘not bad’ to Lindsey and Beth, and he hands them the robbery supplies and tells them to get going. He goes over to Justin still trying to seduce Chris, and Noah calmly asks “Am I missing something here?”

Chris and Justin both stare at Noah awkwardly, their eyes darted briefly to the collapsed door and back onto him and seeing he’s free.

Justin asks “Did you die in there?” And Noah responds monotoned “Yes. My ghost is taking your ladies to another challenge.”

Seeing the Grips go, Duncan finally proclaims that they don’t need Leshawna to rob a bank, and though both Harold, and Gwen try to counter this, they end up going anyway.

From there, the Gaffers proceed to formulate their own plan and robber cosplay, and this scene goes completely untouched. There’s only one tweak at the very end where Gwen is in the back and looks over to see the photo of Courtney and Duncan on Duncan’s bed.

She has a confessional, where she admits that Duncan is pretty much the only person here who doesn’t hate her now, she very much respects that carelessness of him. “Courtney must be very proud to have him steady.”

We don’t cut back to Leshawna at all, instead we go right to the Gaffers and the next scene with them edging the robbery table, only here Chris reveals that he got bored of waiting, the Grips already left. Instead of cutting to said Grips, Duncan bangs his fist on the table and holds the fake gun to Chris’s head, scolding that “If we’re going to have a problem stealing, then you’re not going to like the rest of this conversation!”

To which Harold points out in the back “I don’t think that’s the right movie, Duncan.”

(I mean, WOW, you name the episode after Oceans 8, but DON’T make an Oceans 8 reference?! You disappoint me canon)

To this response, a voice in the back of the set remarks “Bad as ever, I see.”

It’s a sweet, slightly smug voice, and we pan over to a spotlight transitioning over to a certain figure, who smiles and adds happily “I hope that doesn’t get in your way.”

This causes Gwen, Duncan, and Harold to exclaim in absolute shock “COURTNEY?!!!”

Courtney gives a smug smile to the camera, and the screen fades out.

After the fade back in, we have everyone on the set shocked to see Courtney in the game. Duncan especially is stammering, unsure what to say to her arrival, he thought she followed rules! Gwen looks up at Courtney and waves in greeting, claiming she doesn’t think they’ve talked before. Duncan told her a lot about her. To that, Courtney only looks away from Gwen and shrugs off with the saying “So I’ve heard.”

From there, the scene goes untouched, with the Gaffers winning the money, and the Grips winning Courtney. YES, we’re keeping Courtney’s confessional too. (As much as you want to complain about Courtney’s brattiness, (I certainly have) this IS in character for her)

But yeah. Courtney is back in the game. And this was the time for many that Courtney fanboys had their hearts shattered for better or worse.

The only other change needed here is an addition of everyone gushing over the cars while running, one of Duncan explaining to Gwen and Courtney how he used to drive getaway cars in his time. Courtney calls that controversial, and Gwen compliments his daredevil nature. Gwen’s compliment is the one that makes Duncan smirk back, and this makes Courtney gaze bitterly at Gwen.

Again, we DON’T have Leshawna’s scene AT ALL. Instead we go right into the teams trying to assemble their carts. As the Grips are working, Gwen comes over to talk to Courtney, and at first Courtney tries to push her away that she’s busy. But then Gwen points out that she wants to talk to her about Duncan, which gets her attention enough for her to ask what’s going on. (Courtney is clearly weary about everything throughout the entirety of this conversation.)

Gwen asks what part of Duncan compliments Courtney, clarifying that she’s wondering because Gwen herself can’t even keep a boyfriend for a week. Courtney clarifies that Duncan compliments her as a foil, a foil she can tamper with and repair like the carts. Gwen asks if that’s what it takes to gain trust, and Courtney clarifies that “Who cares about trust? What matters is what YOU want, what YOU believe, what YOU want to be.”

Gwen then hugs herself, making it clear to Courtney that she doesn’t intend to harm anyone, she just wants to do HER. “And… as you might have seen, after Trent left me partially because of Duncan, I just wanted to make sure we were cool with that, and you’re cool with me hanging out with him.”

“That depends,” Courtney finally says, asking directly “How do you see Duncan?”

Gwen hesitates, asking “What do you mean?” Courtney clarifies, “I mean, as a friend, as an acquaintance, as an enemy, as a pawn, as a crush…?” She lingers on that last example.

Gwen’s eyes noticeably dart to the side at that, unsure how to respond to her question. To her lack of answer, Courtney focuses back on the cart, and tells Gwen that she’s heard enough. Gwen tries to ask again if they’re okay, and Courtney snaps at her to Get. Out. She needs to focus on her work, and not deal with Gwen’s plotting to ruin her life.

As Gwen leaves, Beth tries to calm Courtney that it’s just a game, and from there we get Courtney scolding Justin about the pipes, which are completely untouched. And as Courtney says “Useless-ville,” her point is clarified when Lindsey tries to put a bolt and pipe together, and it doesn’t work at all.

She glances over at the Gaffers working on their cart, and it’s for the most part untouched, only instead of Heather complimenting Duncan, it’s Gwen. Once Duncan crushes his hand, Gwen comes in to help him with the wheel, even grasping Duncan’s hand to see if it’s hurt. This is, realistically speaking, a platonic exchange. However, Courtney sees it and sees it differently, snarling. She then has another confessional where she downright claims “Gwen is plotting. She’s playing the loner act to plot against me and use Duncan for her own gain. And she wants me to envy that? I don’t think so!”

Regardless, the Gaffers finish their cart first and start driving out. Seeing this and after the Duncan tease, Courtney demands them to pick up the pace. Noah scolds her that they can’t rush filling in the oil, making a cart isn’t easy when you have three useless sets of hands! Courtney however scoffs at his snarky comments and proclaims that FORGET IT! They’re not gonna make it in a traditional way, and she doesn’t think Lindsey even knows what geometry is! (Prompting a brief cuttaway to Lindsey trying and failing to get another bolt attached in the wrong spot.) Courtney suggests they improvise, on HER lead!

“Hold on, you can’t just call that-” Noah tries to say, only for Courtney to cut off that she just DID!

We cut briefly to the Gaffers, and this drive through is completely untouched, except for the tweak that Gwen and Tyler are obviously here, and Tyler is dangling off the back struggling to hold on. And at the end of the poster smash they drive into one more of a rock, and by that point they stop screaming and instead are expecting it to be another poster…

Only to reveal it’s a real rock, and they crash, with Gwen adding afterwards “Nope… this is real.”

Just like in canon, the Grips carry the cart over with Courtney’s bossing around, and by the finish, the Gaffer’s cart is busted, (due to the engine snapping from their crash) and despite their efforts to push the cart to the finish line, the GRIPS end up crossing the finish line first and win the challenge.

Courtney rubs it in their face, Harold specifically, mocking that she guesses this means he’s gonna cheat her out again, right? Harold however, only says back “I’ve redeemed my honor, Courtney.”

Courtney brushes that off, excited over the victory and embracing her teammates warmly. Beth asks why, since she literally just called them duds a moment ago, and Courtney openly expresses in the embrace that she overreacted, she didn’t mean a word she said. Noah and Justin stare at each other in concern over this.

We then FINALLY cut back to Leshawna, who has been on her own reading every letter she had in her pocket to pass through time. So much so that she’s currently repeating the words of one poem to herself about how she’s the beauty to Harold’s strength, a compliment that counteracts games and time. The door then finally opens revealing Gwen and Harold letting her out.

Gwen immediately apologizes for leaving her in there all this time. Leshawna takes it lightly, wondering how much time has actually passed…? Neither are sure how to answer that, making Leshawna stammer at them to give her the answer to that, and it results in friendly awkwardness as Leshawna demands to know how long they’ve abandoned her. As they stammer and leave, Harold looks back to see all the letters in the vault, and his eyes widen at seeing them. He mutters “You keep the letters…?” Only for no one to answer.

We then cut to the elimination ceremony.

So now we reach the voting sessions, where the votes have been casted, and losers have been selected…

But then Chris rips apart the voting papers, revealing that the Gaffer’s votes WILL NOT COUNT.

Why?

Because as assigned in the lawsuit, COURTNEY, for her dayview episode only, is going to decide who’s going home amongst them!

The others protest this and how this isn’t fair, but Courtney, on the stage, only apologizes that this is HER game to play. So she hopes she doesn’t offend anyone with her choice.

Harold specifically tenses up at this and squeezes Leshawna’s arm against her will, thinking she’s going to choose him after he got her booted in Island. Duncan also smirks at this, thinking that will be her choice.

With that, out of all the Gaffers, Courtney decides to eliminate…

…

GWEN.

Yep. She still gets 12th this season guys. Goodbye Gothie.

Everyone is shocked at this, with Heather being the only one genuinely happy about this. She even downright says “I envy your choice, Courtney.”

Gwen stands up to ask “I’m sorry, did I do something to you?” To which Courtney answers “Don’t take it personally, but you did become a finalist in Island. I have to play a strategy.” She doesn’t downright say it, but I think we all know that’s obviously NOT the only reason she’s booting Gwen.

But yeah, Gwen departs and has her Lame-O-Sine. Leshawna briefly apologizes to Gwen for this inconvenience, and asks if they’re still friends, to which Gwen confirms. Duncan bids her farewell before she gets in the limo of losers, asking if she’ll be okay out there. Gwen says that she doesn’t know, but she’ll be free to hear him mock her about her bad life choices. They share a hug, and Gwen leaves the game.

Duncan walks out to the back of the stage on his own, and Courtney catches up with him. Duncan asks what she wants, and Courtney simply expresses how much she’s missed him. She tried to say that before, but… she thought he was busy, with challenges and stuff. Duncan makes it clear that he missed her too, actually glad that she’s back.

Courtney then asks if they can work together to win the entire game. Under her leadership, they can become the finalists of the season. Duncan expresses that he really doesn’t care about the money, only for Courtney to suggest that maybe they can at least see where their relationship goes now.

Duncan looks her in the eye again, unsure how to take that, only for Courtney to calmly press a finger on his lips and wrap her arm around him, flirting that she thought he was more aggressive than this… but she likes the new him.

“Oh trust me sweetheart,” Duncan flirts back, “I can be spicy if I want to.” “If I want to,” Courtney corrects, and the two share a kiss into the night. The camera transitions to the night sky, and the episode ends.

Episode 14: One Million B.C

Episode 14 starts with everyone hanging out in the morning. In the girls cabin, Lindsey is brushing her hair, remarking that she kind of feels bad for Gwen being booted like that. Heather however claims that she doesn’t, if anything, they all should be thankful of Courtney for making such a good choice with her trump card. Lindsey then remarks that she wonders if Tyson feels sad over Gwen’s elimination, and everyone corrects her that it’s Tyler.

Leshawna then comes in, and her exchange with Heather goes completely untouched. (Yeah in this rewrite people did let her out, but she was still locked in that vault all day, so her point still stands.)

Heather then helps Lindsey with her hair knot, and again, just like with Harold, while I AM keeping the first confessional, the timing of it was off. So here the first confessional doesn’t start until after Heather yanks at Lindsey’s hair the first time. And as for the second confessional, I am cutting it out altogether, because… two Heather confessionals in the same scene? Like, at least space them out!

Other than that, the rest of this conversation goes completely untouched.

At the end of Leshawna asking if Lindsey said something, Tyler reveals himself to claim that she said she was trying to be a boss. He himself envies that.

He pushes Heather away and calmly helps Lindsey with her hair, who is thanking him for his support, even though she calls him the wrong name.

It prompts a Tyler confessional where he admits that it’s hard to be there for her when she’s smarter than he is. And she doesn’t even remember him well enough for him to make an impact for her in this game… It kind of makes him want to try harder. For her sake.

We then cut over to the guys, where Justin is putting so much spray on his hair, it’s ridiculous. Noah scolds “Who needs that much spray?!” And Justin gives his canon explanation about how it’s his best feature. Noah instead asks if his brain is also his best feature, coughing up some spray as he says so.

“Good, but not the best” Justin claims, which makes Noah mad at him, and the two get into a petty argument, one that triggers Duncan, who is in bed with exhausted looking eyes. He gets up crossed, with papers all over his bed, and he noticeably isn’t wearing his piercings. He scolds them that he hoped to get at least five extra minutes of shut eye, but apparently that’s not a possibility.

“Well then,” Noah scolds, “Maybe you shouldn’t have gone to bed so late at night!” Which makes Justin add “What were you doing anyway, robbing something?”

“I was with Courtney,” Duncan claims.

The two boys give him an awkward stare and raise eyebrows.

Duncan then adds “We TALKED.”

“You talked about lawsuits?” Noah asks, looking over at all the papers on the bed.

Duncan then has a confessional, basically a similar one to a canon one (that was originally in episode 24) about how Courtney gave him a package of notes on how to ‘correct his faults’ and MEMORIZE them. The only change here is obvious, and that’s that Duncan doesn’t mention alien probing at all, since this confessional in this rewrite takes place BEFORE that.

Justin asks in concern if Duncan is really okay with this, and Duncan proclaims that it’s all good. She’s hot, she’s helping him, it’s not a big deal.

Tyler then comes back in the trailer to ask the guys how it’s going, and they all turn to him and ask where he’s been. Tyler is honest that he was with Lindsey, and that it doesn’t matter. Duncan straight up says through his exhaustion that he thinks Tyler is more invested in the blonde chick than his own team.

“I’m still good for the team!” Tyler shoots back, accidentally spilling some hair spray when charging forward. Justin scolds him for spilling it, and before Tyler can apologize and pick it up, Harold comes in wearing only a towel. From there, that moment goes untouched with the context of the spray being on the floor instead of the soap. After Harold loses his towel, Courtney walks in to check on Duncan, only to see what’s happening and casually remarks “Okay sue the crap out of me, I don’t know what’s going on here!”

Duncan covers her eyes and stammers that it’s just a setback. Harold claims he’s comfortable in his own skin, Duncan demands he keeps his skin to himself, Harold leaves, and then afterwards Courtney scolds Duncan that part of the paper was that he actually keeps his space cleaned… and covered.

Duncan apologizes that it won’t happen again, he’ll make sure of that, and Courtney forgives him. Just like she forgave her 376 other lawyers who failed her.

“That’s concerning,” Noah downright claims, and Courtney scolds in confusion that first the girls, now them, isn’t anyone besides Duncan at least happy to see her?

We don’t cut back to the girls, instead from there, we have Chris sounding the horn for the challenge.

Starting off the bat for Chris, we don’t have the awkward flash cut and instead as Chris is laughing everyone is walking up to him. For the most part, Chris explaining Courtney’s rules goes completely untouched until we get to her bit with Duncan. While Courtney does scoff him for the Gwen stuff just like in canon, Duncan scoffs instead that his friendships are not getting in the way of anything, he’s still with her. (And now here Courtney’s beef with Duncan ‘hooking up with Gwen’ while she was away, actually makes more sense)

“Well at least you have common sense,” Courtney claims happily, offering him the lobster dinner she’s having tonight. Duncan agrees delightfully, but then Courtney snaps that ONLY if he can follow suit with her papers, prompting Duncan to wrap his arms around her from behind in comfort.

After this exchange, Chris’s explanation of the challenge and the stone age goes completely untouched.

Everyone’s reactions to the cavemen outfits are pretty good too. But I am adding one reaction with Tyler where he asks if the caveman outfit is what makes him look strong. Lindsey agrees, but Noah, flicking away a bug in his pants, asks if that implies sanitary, because if so, absolutely not. Justin also adds to that response “For once, I agree with you.”

From there, Chris goes on to explain the first challenge and give everyone the rocks, and Harold and Duncan’s exchange goes completely untouched.

We don’t fade out and back in though, (cause that was awkward) and just go right to Chris’s untouched explanation. The Gaffers collecting the sticks goes, for the most part, untouched. Yes, we’re keeping Chef catching Duncan cheating, that’s funny. Changes don’t come until after Harold’s confessional.

Duncan still trips Harold over and makes him get dragged away by the beavers, but Tyler steps in with the stick to save him, and manages to knock out the one gripping Harold. Tyler holds it’s neck and admirably stares at Lindsey, who giggles at his rescue. That is until a beaver grips his arm and drags him away, and Leshawna is too busy making sure Harold’s okay. He is despite his scratches, and he thanks her, asking flirtingly for a revival with a kiss. Leshawna backs away from that, clearly weary on the whole thing and unsure what to tell him.

From there, the Grips’ fire scene is untouched script wise. The confessionals once again have bad timings, so alongside Duncan and Courtney’s back to back, Lindsey’s is there instead of Heather’s. Heather still snips off Courtney's hair, but for most of this episode, that’s just gonna be a consistent side gag visually.

From there, we go on to start the fire, and it pretty much goes untouched. Yeah, I’ll explain the Courtney glare later.

With that, the Grips are handed the bigger bones, for the same reason. Only addition being that Courtney had a cameraman reviewed the footage and correct Chris. When Lindsey is declared to have made fire first, Tyler wraps her in his arms and congratulates her, which causes a stare from the others.

Tyler has a confessional where he explains that cavemen worshiped the girls, and from what Lindsey can accomplish, he has no problem with giving her the attention she deserves.

At the same time, Lindsey has another confessional where she expresses how great it is to have Tyson support her. She’s an idiot, she’s aware of that, but she’s his idiot. That’s admirable.

Courtney expresses to Duncan that she appreciates the gift (indicating that this was their intention) And Duncan happily remarks that he has a lot more for her, “Sweetheart”. Courtney snarls, making Duncan correct “Courtney.”

Chris then goes on to explain the challenge of the cavemen fighting against each other on the rock pillars. We don’t get Courtney whacking Duncan in the head at all, we’re cutting that part out. Aside from that, this goes untouched. Matches are then set up. The matches themselves are somewhat different from canon.

First is Leshawna vs Noah. Leshawna asks if she’s supposed to knock off this small boy with this just as small bone. Noah retorts back that at least he’s a smaller target than she is, though he’s struggling to lift his own bone. Chris has his untouched moment with the signal to start, and it’s enough that Noah stammers and drops his bone. Leshawna grins at him as he looks up, and Noah laughs nervously that she’s looking GREAT in that fur! Only for Leshawna to grab him by the arm, wrap him in a ball effortlessly, and slam him into the tar pit.

Point goes to the Gaffers.

Noah pops up from the tar pit, asking what this is made of, and Chris ignores him to declare the next match, as well as the arrival of the paradactyls.

Next is Heather vs Beth. This match is completely untouched, except that Beth’s confessional doesn’t happen until AFTER Heather completely falls into the tar pit.

Point goes to the Grips.

Next is Tyler vs Lindsey. Tyler asks casually how she’s doing, and that it must be great to have a high ground like this, that she deserves. Lindsey thanks him, and Duncan recoils that it was a great roast. Only Tyler was being genuine with his words, and wasn’t sarcastic. Lindsey asks in confusion what this means, and the sound of the horn, plus the paradactyls still around, makes Lindsey nearly fall off. Tyler however, catches Lindsey before she can fall, claiming that he’s got her, he’s not giving up on her like this. Lindsey blushes at his words, and the two lean in and lock lips despite dangling over the edge.

At this kiss, Duncan snarls and calls out how STUPID they both are! “Just let her go, Tyler! Save yourself!”

A paradactyl comes up at them, and at a last ditch effort, Tyler whips Lindsey over the pillar as he’s pinned by the monster’s beak, making him comedically dangle off the flying bird for a few seconds before losing his grip and falling on the edge of the tar pit, just barely missing it.

Point goes to the Grips.

And for the rest of this episode, Tyler has a bandaged arm.

Next is Harold vs Justin. We don’t have Justin’s confessional and instead go right into the fight. And for the most part, this fight and with the beavers gag is completely untouched. The result however, is different.

Harold does get thrown off by the beavers, but as he grabs Justin’s fur, he is able to spin around him and catch himself. Justin tries to whack him with his bone, only for Harold to rip off Justin’s fur piece accidentally, which makes Justin fall into the tar pit, with Harold barely dangling off and saving himself. Harold notices the fur piece in his hand, and looks down at Justin rising from the tar pit. Harold apologizes to him, making it clear that it’s okay being comfortable in his own skin.

Point goes to the Gaffers.

As Justin rises from the pool, Noah angrily asks “How could you lose that?!”

And Justin snaps back “How did YOU lose?!”

And they’re both silenced in the roast being a draw.

And lastly, we have Duncan vs Courtney, in the same column. Duncan teases at Courtney’s grip that he’s grateful to be stuck here with her, and Courtney recoils that it’s nice, being stuck up here with the only thing standing between you and victory is your guy, and a bone. Duncan doesn’t catch this foreshadowing, and helps catch her from falling, driving her into a kiss to try and replicate Lindsey and Tyler’s moment.

However, after the confessionals, the result is the same. As Courtney uses the opportunity to whack Duncan smack in the groin with the bone, and knock him off (With Chris comedically replaying the frame).

And with that, the Grips win Immunity.

Duncan climbs out of the pool in pain, and looks up to see Tyler focusing less on his safety and more so on Lindsey. He congratulates her for the win, and Lindsey asks if he actually meant what he said on those pillars, and Tyler claims that he does, that she is capable of so much. Smart, beautiful, she deserves a lot.

The two embrace happily, and Duncan watches, a sad look in his eyes.

The Grips are declared to win the rib, but we don’t get the egg stuff, the rib falling in the tar, or the confessionals AT ALL.

Instead, the Gaffers are going to be voting someone off.

(Yep, you guys can already tell where this is going)

After a brief comedic bit with Heather chasing the bird with her wig, and Duncan asking in pain why girls go for the kiwis, we go exactly there.

We then cut to the elimination ceremony.

So now we reach the voting sessions, where the votes have been casted, and losers have been selected…

The awards go to Leshawna…

Harold…

Heather…

And Duncan.

Which means that yep. It’s time for Tyler to go.

Tyler asks why this became the case, and Duncan makes it clear that he hasn’t been a team player to them. To the girl, sure, but not to them. Tyler apologizes for such, and tries to ask immediately afterwards if he can say goodbye to Lindsey, only for him to get picked up and thrown into the limo of losers.

There’s then a last Lindsey confessional where she remarks that Tyler is gone, he’s not in the game anymore. Now she has to deal with the Grips alone and without his support? “Ah well, like Trevor said, I can handle it. I hope. He lives on in me.”

Kudos Tyler, and thank you for your addition into Refilming Action!

Episode 15: Million Dollar Babies

Episode 15 opens with Leshawna in the communal bathroom by herself extremely early in the morning. She’s only wearing a robe, and her hair is in the afro, where she takes a box filled with hair pins to fix it into her ponytail. She sighs at herself, staring at her reflection to tell herself “You’re here to win. What you said was not a big deal.”

She glances over at the PDA on the table and holds it close, unsure how to respond to the image on it with her and Leshaniqua at the spa. She plays a brief clip of Leshaniqua talking, who expresses how insane it is that she got kicked off reality TV for popularity alone. “Isn’t that just unfair?”

“Unfair or not, I’m still doing it,” Leshawna says back, repeating her own words from the PDA. Leshaniqua recoils “I can’t understand how you’re even able to put up with all of that! I mean, my career is already a slog to get through, but doing life threatening challenges on a daily basis?! Battling a bear?! Putting up with all those crappy people competing with you for the prize?”

“Heather, definitely,” Leshawna points out, adding to try and disagree “But I wouldn’t say that-”

Leshaniqua cuts her off, proclaiming “No?! From what I’ve seen of that show, I feel bad for you. You deserve a better influence than them, I mean, they’re idiots, delinquents for crying out loud!”

“I guess…” Leshawna trails off, where Leshaniqua keeps pushing the gossip and claims that at least Leshawna knows how to play a game, be a legitimate sabotager and come across as likable. “You really expect me to believe that people not like that are a good influence?”

Leshawna’s face in the present grits her teeth at this, when her voice from the device hesitates, but soon enough claims “Good influence? Of course not! You know why?! They’re all-”

Leshawna turns off the recording, not wanting to hear any more. It’s clear from her face that she’s ashamed of the recording. She mutters under her breath how the heck Courtney found footage of this, and she decides to open the PDA and rip out the SD card inside, throwing it in one of the toilets to discard the memory.

She has a brief confessional where she remarks that Courtney is a SNITCH. As much as she wants to pound Courtney for that, she has to acknowledge that it’s her fault that recording even exists. She should have never lied in the first place, her relationships are already damaged as is. “Maybe it’s better than being booted from a parrot? I don’t know, it still sucks.”

We then cut over to the guys trailer, where this scene is pretty much untouched. The only addition being is that in a counter of Justin’s line “I’m moving to Canada, except I’m already there.” Noah responds with “Then move to the North Pole.”

They’re interrupted by Courtney springing open their door to shout “WHO TOOK MY PDA?!!”

She glares directly at Harold, who stammers that he didn’t take it. Courtney snaps that he’s a liar, and Duncan tries to assure her to calm down. Courtney snaps “Rule 33 in that packet, don’t tell me to calm down! He rigs me out, then he steals my legal right!”

“I didn’t take it!” Harold tries to say, only for Duncan, frustrated with both of them, demands that Harold give it back.

That is until Leshawna reveals herself from behind Courtney, fully dressed, and holding out the PDA to hand back to her. Courtney gives a death glare at her before Leshawna lies and says that she found it in the communal bathroom, Courtney must have left it there last night.

“I don’t leave things out of place like that,” Courtney counters, where Leshawna hands it back to her regardless. Leshawna asks that she just take the PDA back, and also take a chill pill while she’s at it. Courtney thanks her, then quietly snarls under her lip that someone better not have tampered with it.

Chris calls them to head over outside with everyone else, and they all oblige. From there, Chris and Chef hand over the spaghetti, and explain the sports movie challenge, and it’s all completely untouched.

And to be honest, while the campers’ running to the court is fine, this part of the episode is just 3 minutes of filler that ends up contributing nothing to the remainder of the challenge or the episode at all. The only thing worthwhile in this is Leshawna getting the idea that the others are trusting her again, but this is something we can easily move to another point. There’s also nothing in there that applies that this sets up the matches for the games, as the teams were doing everything together, plus they ignore that screen and just announce who’s against who anyway. So to prove my point, we are NOT doing all of this.

Right after the lawn comment, Harold comes over to help up Leshawna. She hesitates in not needing it, but ends up accepting it, where he claims that teammates do things together. This makes Heather scoff in the back, and it prompts confessionals from Leshawna and Heather. Leshawna basically has the same confessional from the original about asking if her team is finally trusting her, just reframed with this context.

Heather scoffs at the idea that ‘teammates look out for each other.’ “The Merge exists for a reason people! And I also cut out Harold and our alliance for a reason! I don’t want to be around someone as uncooperative and daring as them, I’M supposed to be doing the calls here! When I had hair I did anyway.”

From there, Chris goes on to explain the sports challenge, claiming that each team member will be selected by Chris himself in separate games. Heather scoffs that it sounds too far-fetched, but Harold assures her that they’re playing their parts. That is until Chris brings up that someone from the Grips gets a freebee since they have an extra member, and Noah immediately volunteers.

“Have fun repeating history, Noah!” Justin calls out as Noah sits on the bleachers, and Noah shoots back, “I will!”

Lindsey has her gardening confessional, and we get started.

We then go on to the marshmallow boxing challenge between Lindsey and Harold. Only TWO tweaks are needed. One is that we don’t have Beth finding the PDA, (especially when she takes that find way too casually). The other is that Chris doesn’t mention that Harold and Lindsey were last place in the football drill, as in this rewrite’s context, there were no football drills.

Other than that, this entire challenge is one of the best moments of the season, especially for the two best characters in the canon, I LOVE IT, and ALL of this is staying. Every line, every frame, every movement, the whole shebang. Just… if the entire season was this ridiculously delightful and entertaining, I would not want to do this rewrite. It’s THAT good.

And YES, we’re keeping the exact same results with Harold winning despite Lindsey knocking him out. Even that makes sense because Chris established those rules before the fight. Plus, Chris is a psychopath, that’s always rule number 1.

We then move on to the badimin challenge. To Justin’s questions at the start, Noah snarks from the bleachers “It’s badimin, genius.”

“Same thing,” Justin calls out, and Noah argues back “No, it’s not.”

From there, Chris’s part is untouched. However, I am cutting out the Chef confessional for being pointless. And there’s a brief shot of Noah writing something down in the book.

The badimin challenge between Beth and Heather goes untouched until the point where Leshawna starts denying Beth’s boyfriend. Which not only does this come out of nowhere in canon, but also because in context of this rewrite, no one’s denied Brady’s existence, they just don’t care. Instead when the Gaffers start cheering, Leshawna goes on to scoff “It’s embarrassing when Heather has more of an edge, sweetie!”

This angers Beth, and we get her badimin moment where she beats Heather. Again, this is kind of untouched, until Leshawna’s comment, which is MUCH different.

Leshawna instead scoffs at Heather's loss that “That was just uncalled for!”

Beth calls out, “I don’t think it is, Leshawna! I think you just don’t get what I can do on my own.”

“I don’t deny that,” Leshawna makes it clear, only smirking and narrowing her eyes at them that “I’m just saying, it sucks to have a crutch on your team that is Courtney.”

This triggers both Courtney and Beth, and they both stomp up to her with Beth asking “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“I mean that you shouldn’t need her,” Leshawna clarifies, rolling her eyes and muttering “Sheesh, so touchy.”

“You want to know why we’re touchy?!” Courtney points her finger at her in objection, proclaiming to everyone “It’s because people like YOU don’t care about us, and just want us left in the dust!”

Leshawna stands up for herself, accusing Courtney that “I DO NOT THINK THAT! You’re just mad at my team for being competition!”

“Competition? Or that I actually VALUE my teammate’s competence?” Courtney asks, pulling out her PDA, which stuns Leshawna hard with her entire confidence drained from her face.

Courtney proclaims with a grin, “You’re just here to destroy us! You hate EVERYONE here! All of your compliments and teamwork value was just an ACT. Because in reality, we’re just PAWNS to YOUR game!”

“You’re one to talk,” Noah scoffs in the back, where Courtney ignores him and reveals “There was a bonus clip of your spa night, Leshawna! Where you said all of that LOUD. AND. CLEAR!”

Leshawna scolds that she has NO proof!

And Courtney then gives her exactly that, asking “Well what did you do to my PDA in the bathroom this morning? Steal it? Rip out the SD card and destroy it because you didn’t want anyone to figure out about your TRUE feelings?!”

Courtney then smirks and reveals a spare SD card, adding “I think you didn’t realize, I POSTED that clip on the TDA website! EVERYONE online already knows it!”

Leshawna demands that Courtney stops, failing to grab the PDA from her hand. She proclaims that they can talk about this later, the others don’t need to hear this. Heather however, claims that she WANTS to know what exactly Leshawna said about them that was so insulting. (Her voice is clearly sarcastic in disbelief.) Courtney adds onto that, claiming that the others deserve the truth.

With that, she plays the clip.

We don’t fade back out and back in just yet. Instead we hear the recording and see everyone’s reactions right away. There’s some static in between lines, indicating that Courtney’s putting all of this out of context to make Leshawna look more spiteful than what the actual moment was. (Because wow, the dialogue in that canon scene was just unnatural)

(And, if we’re feeling ambitious, we can even have a separate bonus clip of the entirety of the conversation Leshawna and Leshaniqua had)

But yeah, overall, this is a pretty brutal scene, as there’s no music at all, just everyone’s hurt faces and Leshawna’s words from the PDA.

“Good influence? Of course not! You know why?! They’re all pathetic! I mean, seriously, not a single word of sincerity and respect has come out of them! Heather for example, just mean for the sake of it.”

“The Grips have nothing against me! They’re brain dead AT BEST. Noah and Justin, just a bunch of lazy egotists who think they own the team because their strategy ‘works.’”

“If Beth and Lindsey’s brains were made of soap. I’d believe it!”

“I mean, my OWN TEAM doesn’t want to cooperate with me! Duncan REALLY wants people to think he’s a bad boy, but he’s more so just whining and playing the act.” “Cause he’s scared?” Leshaniqua asks, and Leshawna answers “Probably! Can you say insecurity?!”

Courtney pauses the recording, and everyone glares at Leshawna. Leshawna stammers that it’s not TOO bad, Courtney put that out of context, her sister was… was…

She can’t figure out how to describe it other than “She prompted it, basically.”

“You still shouldn’t have said that!” Duncan scolds, and Leshawna tries everything to explain. She tries to explain that she was just being REAL. They’re playing this game in such a pathetic way and allowing so many things to get the best of them, THAT’S what she means.

Courtney rolls her eyes, scoffing “You just hate us! You just want to win yourself!”

Leshawna tries to come up with something, only to find she has no words to counter that. Realizing at that moment, that Courtney is right.

Harold, the only character not being made fun of in the recording yet, tries to separate the two. Though he’s lingering himself. “Look, she made a mistake. A BIG mistake, but… I don’t know, maybe that was the past, she’s opened up to things now-”

Courtney shoves the PDA in his hands, pressing the record button for Harold to see himself.

“What about the scrawny kid?” Leshaniqua asks, “He gets a pass?” “What do you mean ‘a pass’?” Leshawna asks, and Leshaniqua recoils that the boy has gone all sweet and soft over her. “What an incel that boy is, giving you NO space and no say of your own? You’re way over that boy’s level!” Leshawna in the recording claims that he’s not entirely a bad guy, but Leshaniqua cuts her off and asks what she thinks he’s WORTH.

Leshawna says “Oh, I don’t know, probably an old schooler getting as much love as a background post in a play!?”

In the present, Harold is completely saddened, his hand shaking on the grip of the PDA. He looks up at Leshawna briefly, who is unable to say anything.

The recording keeps going, where Leshaniqua says directly “Seriously girl, you deserve better! You deserve so much more than that dweeb. To think you actually KISSED him…”

“If I could, I’d take that back!” Leshawna claims in the recording, trying to prove to her sister she’s a winner by doubling down that “I don’t care.”

With that, Harold drops the PDA altogether in his shock, and Courtney barely catches it. She scolds Harold to be careful with the device, but no one responds. Instead Harold turns his back and walks out of the court, claiming he needs some air.

Leshawna immediately runs over to try and stop him, apologizing over and over again. She makes every excuse she can possibly make as he keeps walking away and refuses to look at her. That she was just making a point. That she wasn’t thinking straight. That Leshaniqua wanted her to say that. That she was joking. That she was just trying to make an impression, and he’s…

“-An embarrassment?” Harold finally asks to that last one, pausing his movement.

“No! No… you’re just…” Leshawna tries to say, trying to hold his hand in comfort, only to end up saying “You’re just not my type, that’s all.”

Harold finally turns back at her and snatches his hand away, the heartbreak in his eyes becoming contagious to Leshawna as he exclaims “Then why didn’t you just say that to my face?!”

Harold stammers “Why didn’t you just punch me in the face like everyone else does, instead of teasing me by actually reading my letters and giving me all those loving gestures?! Why didn’t you just throw them away? Why didn’t you just shove me in that boat in rejection? I thought you cared about me, Leshawna… I thought you loved me.”

Leshawna has nothing to say in the heartbreak of his words and crack in his voice. She can’t say anything, as she already knows very well that this is all her fault. She hugs herself alone as Harold walks into the dark tunnels in between the bleachers, transitioning to the screen fading to black.

As we fade back into the show, the other campers are leaning by the tunnel walls near the entrance. Leshawna is the only one not there, as she’s sitting in the bleachers staring at the court blankly.

Noah and Justin are next to each other, with Justin being unfazed by the situation. “The fact she could pull that off…” Justin mutters quietly, referring to Courtney “That’s insane.” “She had a point,” Noah claims, having his arms crossed, where he’s clearly letting Leshawna’s words sink in. Noah looks at the book in his hands, asking himself “Why am I still here?”

“Leshawna told it as is, and that was just brutal honesty,” Heather claims, which brings everyone’s attention as she makes it clear “So what? People bad mouth each other all the time, it’s a form of speech. I do that to you guys way more often.”

Lindsey tries to break that by claiming that Heather was called mean and nasty, but Heather shoots back that she can live with that. “You could say I’m the queen of that title.”

Chef blows a whistle to have everyone come along for the next game, and though they hesitate, all but Heather oblige. Heather looks back to notice Harold doesn’t know the instructions, and she turns back to find him.

She finds Harold jogging outside the court, clearly losing his breath quickly as the camera focuses on his sweating face and the gushes of wind in the sky. Heather chases after him and joins him, trying to lighten his mood and tease “You do realize you’re going circles, right?”

And a zoomed out frame shows that Harold is only jogging around a tree over and over again.

Heather tries to scoff that she didn’t break their alliance so he could be petty, she did it so he could be as pathetic as he was before. “Thanks for spelling it out!” Harold bitterly scoffs, continuing his jog with Heather constantly trying to block him off.

Heather claims that he really should just get over it, let that fish go, there are others in the sea. But Harold doesn’t listen, and as he’s jogging past her, he recoils that so far today he’s been told to die, got falsely accused for stealing someone’s device, got set up to be beat up with marshmallows, and turns out the only crush in his life so far hates him. And considering Heather FORCED him to work with her before and tried to drag him along her orders, he really doesn’t want to hear a thing from her.

Heather cuts him off from his track, proclaiming “You know, I thought you said you were alone by choice.”

“Yeah, cause I accepted that I wasn’t gonna be liked by anyone a LONG time ago,” Harold says, trying to get through only for Heather to grip a hand on his shirt to stop him and make him look at her.

“And I finally understood what you meant by that now and not before the Island, now you spit that claim in my face,” Heather scoffs, clearly annoyed with him and adding “Thanks a lot.”

“You deserved it,” Harold scoffs back, “You tried to use people, including myself. I’m still trying to figure out what I did.”

“Well sometimes people are just stubborn like that!” Heather blurts out, unsure how to put it herself “Maybe… maybe we just can’t see anyone as people for the sake of getting what we want.”

Harold finally sits down on the tree to catch his breath, unsure what else to say as his hand grips the grass. “But I never meant to view Leshawna as an accessory, that’s not how I see her. Do you not understand what it’s like to finally find love, and it turns out she doesn’t even want you? That you really are just a desperate incel who drove her away?”

“No I don’t,” Heather proclaims bitterly, “I don’t know what love is.” (Which, again, is FORESHADOWING)

Harold argues back, “YOU didn’t even want me to help you. YOU. So just let me wallow away like a rational person!”

“Dude, I have no hair!” Heather argues, removing her wig briefly to show him, “I have no power left to carry around someone like you! You know why I ditched you when you saved OUR LIVES?!”

“Because I was holding you back,” Harold guessed, only for Heather to sit down next to him and answer “Because I couldn’t contain what you brought to the table. I thought you were a pawn, I thought I could use you for my own gain… and turns out we all do that. But does a pawn really have a crush? Feelings? Be sincere with people? Be annoying as I’ll get out and drive you crazy? Make you want to punch them? Let alone that again, you saved my life! You saved all of our lives! With that dedication, who cares if Leshawna doesn’t feel the same way for you? Who cares if Duncan hates you for stupid reasons he can’t get over? Sometimes… sometimes we just need to look out for ourselves. Decide what WE think is good for us that doesn’t involve others.”

Harold looks at Heather awkwardly, especially after Heather tries and fails to touch his shoulder in comfort, where she slaps her hand down too hard.

“You’re really bad at this, you know that?” Harold brings up, and Heather rolls her eyes to scoff “I am trying here! Okay? Give me a break.”

Harold gives a smile at her, soon enough looking away to add “I really should have listened to her the first time before I tried to push a relationship. Maybe she said that out of discomfort.”

“Eh, possibility,” Heather shrugs, adding “Girl’s feisty.”

“Right?” Harold says in delight, beginning to gush again “And the way she’s direct with everyone and being such a boss all the time…”

As he’s gushing, Heather mutters “I’m starting to think ‘incel’ was a great word for Leshawna to use…”

We then cut to the other campers by the ball pit bleachers. Leshawna noticeably away from everyone. From there, we get Chris explaining the challenge and the set up between Courtney and Duncan. This goes pretty much untouched, even their confessionals, though one cut being that Duncan doesn’t mention Trent and Gwen… cause there is no point.

But the Courtney and Duncan wrestling match in general is…

Surprisingly untouched.

Remember, Courtney values winning more than Duncan, and Duncan himself in this version is okay with that, thus okay with her assault. But this IS going to come into play later in this rewrite.

We then move on to the last face off, Justin and Leshawna in the slam dunk competition. Already there’s a tweak here, as instead of Harold’s insults from canon, Harold and Heather are both walking up to the challenge. Leshawna gazes at them, but they both look away from her, and Leshawna is saddened by this, prompting her canon confessional.

Before Justin does his slam dunk, Noah calls out to try and give advice, saying to go for the drama spice. Which Justin does with his canon dunk. And Leshawna’s slam dunk goes canon as well, with the same results.

With that, we move on to the tiebreaker that includes cheering for someone. The explanation goes untouched from Chris. (Gosh I feel like I’ve said that a lot) In the Grips huddling, Noah steps in to claim he knows who they can cheer for, holding up his book and proclaiming that he’s studied ‘his’ actions today. It could work.

We don’t hear his plan, instead we go to the Gaffers, and they go pretty much untouched. They get timed out, leaving Leshawna to improvise on the spot, doing a cheerleader apology to the other campers. There are some tweaks here, with the cheer itself, the framework and animation is totally fine, but since it can somewhat be classified as a song, and that’d mean I’d have to rewrite the whole thing if I do that, please work with me on keeping it brief.

In this cheer, Leshawna gushes over the pairing of Duncan and Courtney, calling it ‘sad but superefficient,’ claims Lindsey and Beth have the hearts that overpower their brains, digresses Noah and Justin as brains vs beauty that match in brutality, calls Heather the Queen of Mean, and lastly confesses through the cheer that she values Harold’s ‘goofy and scrawny’ demeanor in more ways than anyone, including herself, can express and see in him.

She ends the whole thing with “I think you’re crazy, but hey I am too. Who cares about the win when I have all of you?”

This cheer gets the same reactions as canon, pretty much.

And also in canon, the Grips counter it all with a cheer for Chris, and OF COURSE Chris picks them as the winners, because loves himself. And probably no one else.

After the cheer, Justin high fives Noah for the good idea, but they both immediately take it back in disgust. Instead, Noah retoils “Try studying from the sidelines once in a while.” To which Justin points out, “Trust me Noah, I have… and we gotta do something.”

We then cut to the elimination ceremony.

So now we reach the voting sessions, where the votes have been casted, and losers have been selected…

The awards go to Harold…

Duncan…

And lastly, unfortunately for Leshawna…

She’s safe.

Which means that just like in canon, Heather is eliminated.

But I do want to clear something up, and that’s that the voting process in my mind, looks like this: (Harold -> Duncan, Duncan -> Heather, Leshawna -> Heather, Heather -> Leshawna) So if anyone asks ‘Why did Harold vote off Heather in this continuity?’ He didn’t.

But the confessional collab with Duncan and Harold is fine enough and stands with that point, so I’m okay with keeping that in.

(Yes, even the hug in that. I know you Duncan and Harold shippers exist for some bizarre gross reason, and you exist because you reframed this context. Don’t you hide from me!)

Anyway, Heather departs to the limo of losers. (I’m still shocked that’s not what it’s actually called.) But before she leaves, Harold runs up to her to bid her farewell, even apologizing for her loss.

Heather asks, hanging on the limo door, if he remembers back at the river where he asked if they could be friends at the end of all of this. Harold confirms, and Heather proclaims that she wants to put that into consideration. For real this time, not for the game’s sake. But if he tries to push the crush talk to her, or talk about her hair, she’s going to take it all back. “Got it!?”

Harold agrees to such, and Heather leaves.

…

And in case anyone's wondering why I did this instead of Leshawna and Heather becoming friends, basically why I cut that altogether, here’s why. I originally DID keep this, but the show does nothing with that concept. Especially in World Tour, which forgets about it altogether. Plus in this canon episode, it was just rushed and made no sense. Heather and Harold meanwhile had been built up from the Island special, PLUS Harold does end up helping Heather in World Tour, something the show doesn’t forget about. So focusing on their mutual friendship instead with Heather discovering Harold as more than just a pawn, and Harold understanding her shoes, feels more like a fitting continuation from Island, that ends up impacting World Tour all the more.

Continuity. It matters.

So anyway… BACK TO THE ACTION!!!

Episode 16: Dial M For Merger

Episode 16 begins with everyone sitting around the trailer grounds. Courtney is chatting away with Duncan as they both share toast and jam. Duncan calls her move brilliant, as well as complimenting her wrestling skills, remarking how he has a sore throat now. Courtney happily chimes back that it was playing a good game, and she might even say that they have no competition whatsoever.

As she bites into her toast, Duncan points out that Courtney has jam in her teeth. However, this makes Courtney snap, asking him to remember a certain page of the packet, that he doesn’t criticize her! EVER.

Duncan apologizes, complaining that it’s just hard to study. “I want to burn something so bad it’s making me sick!”

“Well unless you want to go back to prison, that’s too bad,” Courtney says simply.

Noah and Justin are watching this, and Noah tells Justin “I didn’t know you studied.” Justin ignores him and asks “You’ve seen them, right? Courtney has her own alliance up her sleeve?” This indicates that off screen, they’ve been talking about this situation.

“Girl has lawyers and admin privileges,” Justin points out, making it clear “Look, I know you and I never liked each other.”

“That’s putting things lightly,” Noah says.

Justin continues “And we both want to drown each other in each other’s skin right now.”

“For me, it’s textbooks,” Noah points out.

“Whatever,” Justin gets to the point, claiming “Point is, you and I both know that we HAVE to take. Courtney. Down. If we let her play her cards, she’s going to destroy both of us. Then we BOTH lose the game.”

“Thanks obvious,” Noah claims, standing up to deny his deal. He asks Justin “Give me one good reason why I should be in any alliance with you?”

Justin is ready to charm him, only for Noah to snap “And I DON’T want to hear ‘ah well, I’m so hot I can win anybody over!’ YOU CAN’T!”

“Never doubt yourself, Noah,” Justin shrugs, and in his words Leshawna walks up to everyone. From there, the scene goes completely untouched. Nobody wants to be around Leshawna, she tries to get support from her teammates, she fails, and of course, everyone gets kidnapped.

This is untouched, the only tweak needed is how Noah gets captured, and that’s because he gets locked out of the trailer alongside Harold. Noah tries to scream at Justin that now he leaves him to die?! And he gets zapped by touching the door and passes out, making Harold run away and prompt his confessional.

With everyone waking up, it’s also untouched except for one tweak. When Justin starts whining, Noah is the one to smack him in the back of the head with his book, directly calling Justin pathetic. To this, Justin grabs Noah’s arm to pull him closer, snarling in a question if Noah would like it if he was ugly.

“Relax, prince,” Noah scoffs, “It’s just karma. That’s all.”

Justin swears that he’ll SHOW him what karma looks like, and then it cuts to the Beth and Courtney moment. Other than that, this is completely untouched, Chris’s moment and explanation of the challenges, the confessionals, and the announcement that these characters are all MERGED.

Yep, we’ve finally reached that point.

Unfortunately, I do have to cut out the merge song, for THIS part of the episode. (I’m moving it) Because as much as it’s such a satisfying scene, it really comes out of nowhere and breaks the flow of the current moment. Instead this merge song is going to happen at the very end of this episode, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When Leshawna says her “After all we’ve been through?!” line, Duncan tells her coldly to get over it. From there, this scene goes pretty much untouched. The only change here is with the confessionals. Justin’s is pretty much the same, only here when he pounds his head he accidentally spills a perfume jar on the table, making him scoff “No, no it’s not there.”

Then we have another confessional after Justin’s, one of Noah.

His eyes are widened in shock as he asks “Oh my gosh, does Justin actually have brain cells? Is he finally going to listen to me?!” He looks down to see the exact same spilled jar, and he groans at himself to say “I’m going to take this as a no.”

We get to the challenge of stealing the bag. Though instead of Duncan going ahead first before the lasers come in, it’s Justin. (Because seriously, Duncan is a delinquent and a criminal, he should expect this.) Another tweak is that Justin asks Noah directly if he has any ideas, rather than his own brain line, and Noah scoffs “Do I look like a criminal to you?”

Lindsey and Beth’s scene, and Courtney and Duncan’s moment, are untouched. Again, changes come with Justin. Justin is in the back with Noah, who the latter scoffs at the former that he doesn’t think Justin’s brain has been exercised for sixteen years. “I can do this,” Justin assures him, and Noah laughs at that, asking “Oh, what are you going to do? Use that mirror of yours to reflect the lasers?”

Justin grabs Noah again and picks him up, making a short Noah dangle from his grip to meet Justin’s height and for the two to lock spiteful eyes. “I have no problem shoving you in!” Justin snarls, and Noah smirks back and asks “Why? Cause you don’t have anything left to lose? How do you think I felt when you not only broke my friend’s jaw, but also shoved me in the dust years ago?!”

Justin steps forward to shove Noah into the lasers, but because Noah dropped his book when he got grabbed, Justin trips on it and they both slide across the floor. Justin is barely able to clutch his mirror to save himself from the lasers. Noah is crushed under his body, unable to do anything as Justin grins at him and asks “How’s that for the brain dead model you call me?”

“Just…” Noah tries to speak, but being crushed makes his voice raspy “Don’t get us killed.”

Before we cut to anyone else, we have Justin questioning his circus career. Noah is able to barely climb out, and he tries to roast, but is breathing heavily “I would… never hire you… even if you… you… I don’t have the oxygen to insult you.”

From there, starting with the Leshawna, Harold, and Duncan bit, the remainder of this goes completely untouched.

After Courtney gets the bag, Chris does the explosion fakeout. We DON’T fade out and back in, then just replay the moment, that was extremely awkward, and the show has NOT done something like this up until this point, so it doesn’t work. Some other tweaks are here with everyone’s reactions, like when Leshawna hugs Justin, Harold is standing there and backing away in distraught, opting instead to curl up in his own way. Instead of him saying “I’m too knowledgeable to die!” It’s Noah.

But of course, it’s a fakeout.

Courtney doesn’t push away Duncan though, and they don’t have their confessionals, because in context here, she’s in a relationship with Duncan.

I’m also going to extend their escape time to one minute instead of thirty seconds. Because even if you want me to stretch out the amount of time these exchanges actually take in the tower escape, THIS is just crazy. So yeah, one minute.

But the exchanges themselves are completely untouched. There really isn’t anything out of character or anything to add here that I can find. Courtney opts to escape herself and leave them to die, she gets them to share the prize money with her to save them, and turns out it’s all a false alarm.

We then move on to the untouched explained bomb defusing challenge. These are untouched until, again, Justin. (Sheesh Justin in the canon episode) To Justin’s moment, Noah angrily scoffs “It’s called PICK ONE!” As he’s trying to study the wires himself.

“I suppose you know?” Justin asks, and Noah scoffs that of course he doesn’t! But at least he’s putting in the effort. Justin asks why he’d do that, and in a quick explanation with Noah being bitter the whole time, Noah says that what Leshawna said about him at the spa, WAS THE TRUTH. She had every right to say that about him, even if it hurt. “Because honestly, school sucks, I didn’t have to try to get straight As, I didn’t have to be challenged in any way to get a president position, and neither did you! But we’re in the real world, and in a real world stance, we gotta take this stuff down before it destroys us!”

As he’s holding some wires, Justin asks “So… what do you mean by that? The bombs, or…”

“YES!” Noah finally proclaims “I don’t want to, but YES, I will work with you! But only until we get rid of Courtney, AND you listen to MY plan on how to do it! Deal?”

Justin agrees, and then asks Noah what his plan is to defuse the bomb.

To which in a brief comedic line, Noah says “I have no idea.”

And with that, the Lindsey moment is completely untouched, as she’s able to use her own knowledge to break the blue wire and attempt to save everyone…

But because the bombs were going to go off anyway, regardless of what wire they cut, they all die to the lack of oxygen to their scent.

RIP Mergers. You all lived good lives.

The tomato bath moment is, for the most part, untouched. After all this reward talk and the entire moment, we get a transition to the morning sun after those twelve hours of tomato bathing. Everyone is worn out and sick of each other, especially when Lindsey finishes off her extremely long monolog with “And that’s me and my genius knowledge of cheese!”

“Great,” Noah face palms, slumping into the juice to groan “I really want to die.”

Duncan and Courtney are cuddled together in their own section of the pool. Courtney is smiling in his arms, admitting that if it weren’t for these losers around them, this would almost be bearable.

“Would you really leave us to die in a building?” Duncan asks, where Courtney answers “That depends. Would you take into consideration that I NEED to be an efficient CIT?”

“I thought I already did, but I guess that’s not good enough for you,” Duncan sighs, and Courtney makes it clear “You just have to change for me Duncan. There’s no problem with that. We have an entire merge to explore.”

“So guys?” Lindsey tries to bring up, excited over the news to bring up “I guess this means we’re all together now! No more teams, right? We can just have chats like this in harmony!”

Everyone is dead silent at her enthusiasm. That is until Leshawna brings up “At least it’s better than hearing you guys talk for a whole night in a tomato bath.”

“Watch your words,” Noah calls out, and Leshawna counters back “Watch yours.”

With that, Harold jumps out of the tomato bath and grabs his keytar, and from there, we get the Merge Song.

It’s pretty much an untouched song, except that they’re all near the tomato bath as the stink clears away to reveal the bright daylight sky as the song progresses, and by the end of the song, everyone is united in one happy merge, and as they throw their hands and confetti into the air, the camera floats up to the light in the sky as the music ends.

Fade to black, and the episode ends.

Episode 17: Super Hero-ld

(Okay, I actually messed up what this canon episode was called, for the longest time I thought it was called ‘Super Hero-ID’ But it wasn’t until I looked up the episode on the wiki for understanding the references in the episode better, where I realized it was actually a play on Harold’s name. Yeah, Harold of all people has an episode named after him. I kind of don’t like that for this specific show, having episodes be named after certain characters when every single episode is focused on multiple people, but hey, good for Harold.)

So… to clear that up, Episode 17 starts just like with the original with Duncan bullying Harold over a burrito.

And since it was prompted in the rewrite’s last episode, Justin and Noah both try to recruit Duncan and Harold in their alliance. We don’t get a mention of there being more girls than guys here, because in this rewrite’s logic, there’s 4 guys and 4 girls here. Instead, we get the two mentioning that Courtney is a huge threat to them with her lawsuits, and her power and skill, with Noah even mentioning that they think these two can help out because Duncan is her crush, and Harold rigged her off last season.

Harold scolds them to STOP defying him by that one wrong action, claiming he’s not doing it again, but they don’t listen. Duncan then scoffs that they don’t have to target Courtney specifically, with the statement that she over relies on her lawsuits and it’ll bite her in the butt when the time comes.

Justin asks “But what if it doesn’t?” And Duncan rolls his eyes to claim that if they want him to turn on his own girlfriend, they’re gonna have to do better than that.

Both Duncan and Harold walk away, and Noah face palms from behind. Justin asks Noah “Are you sure about this?” And Noah asks back if he has anything better to say in his own chessy brain.

With his line transitioning to the cut of the girls cabin with Courtney and Lindsey returning from their cheese factory tour. When they get inside, Courtney immediately goes for the spray and Lindsey happily greets back Leshawna and Beth. Since Beth is closer Lindsey pulls her in for a hug, and Beth pushes her away to comment that she stinks. Lindsey then brings up that the smell is the cheese she brought back, taking it out and offering it to the others. When Beth says no, and Courtney says “Not if your hands were on it,” Lindsey asks if Leshawna wants it, but she gets no answer.

Leshawna is in her bed curled up, her mind lost in thought as she scrolls through Courtney’s PDA, and with earbuds on she hears the recording play over and over again on the part where she bad mouths Harold. When that part ends, Courtney rips off the earbuds and snatches the PDA from Leshawna, scolding that if she wants to mope, do it when she wins, that’s her best advice. Leshawna says nothing to that, even after Lindsey asks her if she wants the cheese and she kindly denies.

We then cut back to the guys with Justin trying to persuade Duncan in the bathroom while they’re brushing their teeth. Already there are tweaks here, like Harold is NOT in this scene, and Duncan is looking over the packet as well.

“You gotta listen to me, and if I’m working with Noah on this, that should be a guaranteed message that I’m being sincere,” Justin explains, but Duncan spits on the floor and scolds, still reading “I really don’t care about your toddler act in the sand pit with him.”

“If we don’t boot Courtney, we’re going to be next on her chopping block.” Justin counters, “Trust me when I say, she doesn’t care how much you try to be her slave, she’ll ditch you for the million bucks any day. Frankly, I’d do that too, but… I’m not helping my case.”

“I’m fine with that,” Duncan tells him, and before he can leave Justin grabs the packet from him to look at it. After skimming through it, Justin says “This looks way too similar to my modeling documents.”

“I guess you could say that,” Duncan claims, putting his toothbrush away along with several piercings. (Cause remember, Duncan isn’t wearing his piercings anymore) “You’re frustrated with her,” Justin assumes, and Duncan turns his head back to jab Justin “Don’t tell me how to deal with my girlfriend! Get your own!”

He walks out of the bathroom, leaving Justin to only roll his eyes at the jab.

I am cutting out the Chris massage scene, because it’s pointless.

We then cut to Harold and Noah in beds across from each other, Noah having explained everything to Harold. “Well, you say I know how to get rid of Courtney,” Harold tells him, “Truth is, I don’t, and I won’t. Last time I did, it left everything in my screen time to go wrong.”

“Well, what do YOU want from us?” Noah offers, where Harold brings up “Respect. Admiration. Time away from Duncan.”

Noah then says, “Out of stock, sorry.”

“Then I’m retired,” Harold states, curling up on his bed to declare “Find someone else.”

Noah chimes in, “Hate to say it, but you’re the best option I’ve got, I mean, there’s two stupid chics, a boyfriend to Courtney, a brain dead male model, and Leshawna.”

“And a snarky know-it-all,” Harold adds, making Noah feel the roast and scoff “Oh shut up.”

“You just want to use me as a sidekick,” Harold tells him, “How do I know you’re not going to ditch me once we do get out Courtney?”

Noah puts a finger up, ready to object, only for his breath to linger.

It transitions to a confessional from Noah, where he admits “Dang. He’s got a point there. I should have considered my track record.”

In the present, Noah answers “Because I know someone who will, and hesitate less than me.”

“Even if I want to get rid of Duncan, even if he wasn’t in a relationship with Courtney, he’s a lot more powerful than myself.” Harold brings up, where Noah claims “Power is subjective. That’s just your perspective from such, this is the real world, not a world where people have superpowers and break through windows at their own free will-”

And just as he says that, the cat crashes through the window and makes a karate pose, making Harold jump and let out a girl's scream, and for Noah to scream “Are you kidding me?! What is this script?!”

That’s when they all hear Chef’s screaming, causing everyone to run outside and see him tied to a tree from a rope, wearing his dress.

Courtney scolds that a girl CANNOT get her sleep, and Leshawna asks what is even happening. Which brings up Chris in the Batman outfit to save Chef, which is basically the same scene but in the night behind the trailers instead. (I mean, come on, he’s parodying Batman, a hero who only comes out at night, get your DC heroes right Total Drama!)

Chris’s superhero explanation is, by his dialogue untouched. Only in this context, it’s the middle of the night, and they’re expected to work all night to get their superhero costumes done to present early in the morning, which also means a lack of breakfast. Harold and his owl monolog is also fine enough that I’m okay with keeping it in.

After the explanation of the challenge, the guys walk back to get to work. Noah catches up with Justin to ask how it went, and Justin claims that he expects him to reason with a criminal. “Come on, we’re guys!” Noah tries to say to both Justin and Duncan, “We become sleep deprived together, we starve together-”

And it prompts Harold to walk by and thank Duncan for the burrito.

Noah is left silent at that, and Justin scoffs “You really need to keep your mouth shut.”

After Harold’s confessional, we go straight to costume designing. We don’t have the girls' aged cheddar exchange because it’s pointless. Chris’s explanation of the challenges is untouched completely.

Again, the confessional from Lindsey is staying, but the timing was bad. So we do the whole scene of her fighting with Courtney over fabric, the latter winning, and THEN get to that confessional. Other than that, this montage is completely untouched.

In regards to the presentations, Beth and Justin are pretty much untouched. But in between Justin and Harold is Noah’s superhero costume. Now, just like with the cheerleading song, I am gonna keep this brief. Basically, Noah is ‘Bolt of Burns’ a parody of Shazam, where in his case his superpower is burning things… with his words. He barely cares about the superhero act, and just demonstrates by saying that Justin and Beth’s designs look like cardboard cutouts, which offends them, and that Chris’s obsession with tights is so tight, he should audition for a ballerina in a cheesy musical.

Chris however isn’t fazed by his words, claiming that he actually has been in one. With him barely being fazed by it and calling his powers ‘ineffective’, he gives Noah 4 points.

Harold’s is… untouched, pretty much. Not gonna lie, I WAS thinking about changing it. Not because it’s gross, but because this style is more so Owen than Harold, and even the canon episode acknowledges this. But then I remembered this is the same guy who is the worst roommate ever, so… eh, I can believe this enough that he gets a pass.

Duncan’s is untouched. I mean come on. It’s Duncan. He doesn’t give a s**t.

Courtney and Leshawna are also untouched pretty much, but of course Lindsey with her Wonder Woman cosplay wins the game. This is really just too funny to cut. Ah, we love our airheaded princess.

From there, we move onto the second challenge, explanation completely untouched.

Lindsey’s round is also completely untouched. Nothing else to add here. Harold’s round is also untouched, but I AM getting rid of Leshawna’s confessional response, cause… NO. Keeping Harold’s hero persona is already gross as is.

We then get a montage with everyone else. Error correction with Beth interacting with Dunacn’s test, even though they’re doing this separately.

Just like in canon though, Courtney wins immunity.

The guys meet up at the trailer that night, Harold complaining about how he got robbed from the challenge. None of them want to listen, as Duncan asks who they’re gonna boot together. Justin recommends Courtney, only for Noah to snap “Courtney has immunity you piece of plastic!”

“Well if we’re not booting Courtney, I guess I can help you,” Duncan says, then recommending they vote off Leshawna. Noah claims he likes that, but Harold calls this out, claiming they’re supposed to be helping her, and they should vote Duncan off.

Duncan threatens him that unless he cooperates, the girls are going to outnumber their votes. He HAS to cooperate with this. He tries to threaten him, but it doesn’t work on Harold. This is framed as basically that same moment, but afterwards, Noah comments that even if they all cooperate on voting off Leshawna, they need help from at least one of the girls to do so. Otherwise there could be a tie, and who knows if whoever they’re choosing to vote off will actually win that?

Justin asks “So what do we do about that?” And Duncan, knowing who they can get to work with, claims that he has an idea. They get to Courtney behind the girl’s back, convince her, and then it’ll be five to three. “Yeah, but we’d have to go behind Leshawna’s back,” Noah brings up, asking “How do we distract her?”

Which makes everyone stare at Harold.

The girls in the shower go untouched for the most part. After Beth leaves, Leshawna sighs to herself, which makes Lindsey ask what’s wrong. Leshawna smiles and assures Lindsey that it’s not her, “It’s just… I don’t think I’ll make it out of this. If I don’t, I’d have to go home… no other path for me.”

Lindsey however, laughs at that, laughing at the idea that there’s no other path. This confuses Leshawna, only for Lindsey to clarify that who cares if she doesn’t win a million bucks? She never passed seventh grade, but that didn’t stop her from being here. Leshawna, confused by these words, puts on her clothes and heads outside, claiming she’s going to get some quiet and think about it. Before she leaves, she apologizes to Lindsey for the inconvenience she caused at her time here.

She walks out to the trailer grounds to sit down on a hillside and look at the stars, taking a deep breath as she does so.

That’s when her silence is interrupted by the sound of a slamming trailer door, a lock being clicked, and someone banging, as well as a deep raspy voice shouting “You steal my cape and then you kick me out of the place?! GOSH!”

Leshawna looks up to see Harold, still mostly in his costume but without the stamp and the cape, stomping out of the trailers in frustration. She calls his name softly, making him stop dead in his tracks to see her sitting by the hillside on her own. He hesitates, but walks over to her and sits down, greeting her quietly.

Leshawna greets back, asking if he couldn’t stand this drama either, to which Harold shrugs. He looks over for a second to see Duncan, Justin, and Noah, all in their superhero outfits, escaping from the windows of the trailer and making their way to the girls cabin, Duncan pointing at him in a threat to keep the act going.

Throughout the rest of this scene, these three are seen from time to time in the background running into a few shenanigans to get to the other trailer, like animals, trying to stalk on the two, and whatever you guys want to imagine.

“So…” Harold tries to start a conversation, unsure what to say to her, “Here’s the thing, I feel like I should be talking, but I don’t know what to say if I don’t write it down…”

“What?” Leshawna raises an eyebrow at that, and when Harold tries to apologize, Leshawna stammers that it’s fine.

“I just… I should be the one apologizing…” Leshawna admits, “About what I did to you. I have no excuse for that, I was nervous, I didn’t think I was doing what they wanted, I… I completely forgot what made me such a popular camper in the first place.”

“It’s okay,” Harold admits, hugging his knees and telling her that he’s not mad at her. He really should have considered her position and her feelings before he put all of this on her, he should have respected her choice to dump him the first time she said such.

He buries his head in his legs, groaning to himself that he’s an idiot. Leshawna tries to comfort him and assures him that he’s not an idiot, he shouldn’t apologize for what others see in him.

“Really?” Harold asks, unsure how to take that, “I mean, here I am as a laughingstock for everyone, Duncan keeps beating me just to complain about Courtney, you didn’t even want me in the first place. You were just kissing me back at the Island out of sympathy, you don’t actually care-”

Leshawna cuts him off, immediately stating that she didn’t mean that. She didn’t mean a word she said about him at that spa night, and she regrets ever being scared to reject such thoughts.

Leshawna also hugs her knees, pointing up at the bright stars and the night sky to try and prove her point to him.

“I’m not… very good at seeing people besides their first impression. A ‘black and white’ mindset I guess… Like, once Heather said one mean thing, I rivaled her for all it was worth and casted her out of my heart. Once I saw Gwen for her soft side, I considered her a shining star… thing is, I never knew how to classify you.”

“Classify… me?” Harold asks, where Leshawna tries to explain “I mean… you’ve got issues. You’re pushy, you’re clingy, you made some regrettable choices, you pick your nose in your sleep-”

“You know about that?” Harold asks surprised, and Leshawna ignores him to bring home her point “But even with that, I could never shun you out. You weren’t like any guy I’ve seen in real life before, and it… it gave me something else to see, a whole other path in my life, let alone in this game. I was… scared I was doing something wrong when I broke up with you, that I’m expected to date a buff rich boy, and therefore I should… not what my heart was telling me.”

Harold’s silence lingers at that, gazing at Leshawna still looking at the stars. His face uncovers a shade of pink as he tries to look away from her. He assumes that what she’s saying is “Look… if I’m not the hero you need, I totally get it. If you don’t want me, I get it… it hurts but…”

That’s when to his shock, Leshawna crawls over and presses her lips on his cheek, soon enough hugging his side and resting her head on his shoulder. Harold is stunned at this, especially when Leshawna claims “I do want you, Harold…”

Harold’s eyes widened at this, shocked to hear her words. That’s when Leshawna adds “But I don’t deserve you… I need to know myself before we can be in a serious relationship.”

“Okay…?” Harold wonders, and Leshawna asks, “So please, just take things slow with me, be patient. It might work out, it might not, but… I’m sick of this game right now, I want something true.”

Harold hesitates, unsure if she’d take the gesture, but seeing as she’s smiling, he takes a hand and caresses her back, keeping her close. He smiles himself, and replies “Yeah… me too.”

Duncan, Justin, and Noah reach Courtney, and she face palms in the presence of all three of them, asking “What? Is someone naked again?”

Duncan tells her they need her help to vote off Leshawna. Courtney asks to give them a good reason why she would listen to that, and Noah answers that she doesn’t have invincibility forever. Maybe LINDSEY of all people could take her out. Courtney smirks and claims that no one can take her down, let alone Lindsey. Justin then brings up that Leshawna is competition, and competition is something they should all get rid of.

“Please Courtney,” Duncan toughly pleads, “For me?”

Courtney gazes into his eyes and she smiles, asking “So who do you have so far?”

We then cut back to Leshawna and Harold, who are laughing together and pointing at the stars. Harold is giving a whole biography of a certain constellation, and it only makes Leshawna smile.

The other boys head back to the trailer with Courtney with them, and briefly Duncan glances at Harold and Leshawna laughing happily and getting close. Without any words, he looks at Courtney, then back at them. He grits his teeth at the sight of Harold having a happier relationship, and he stomps back in the trailer.

Beth then comes up to them and scares the two briefly. She apologizes, asking if she was interrupting something. Leshawna claims that she’s fine, and from there, Beth explains to Harold that they have to vote off Duncan, and Harold agrees as such. This is, dialogue wise, the same exchange between the two, only they aren’t whispering here since Leshawna’s here as well.

Harold, still blushing, then returns to the trailer, only to be shocked to find they brought Courtney with them. “I assume it went well…?” Harold asks, and right away, Courtney claims “You KNOW you owe me.”

“You beat me with a lamppost, what more do you want?” Harold asks, standing his ground. Courtney then goes on to tell him that they NEED him to cooperate. Not just for her sake, but also for his place in the game as well. The girls could very much be planning to vote off HIM.

“I want to make a deal with you, and don’t think I can guarantee this, I can’t,” Courtney offers, “You help me this one time. I’ll take you to the final four along with me and Duncan.”

“Wait, what about us?” Justin asks, to which Noah scolds “No one cares.”

Harold grits his teeth and makes it clear he’s NOT voting off Leshawna. They can’t make him!

Courtney however, pins him to the wall and traps him in place, her voice becoming edgier as she asks if he can really trust her, after everything she’s done to him? She doesn’t love him. And Duncan then adds that REAL lovers have everything figured out off the bat, kissing Courtney’s hand as he does so.

This gets under Harold’s skin, and Courtney, Duncan, Justin, and Noah trap him in place and leave him covered in their shadows, with Duncan making it clear “It’s up to you Captain Alberta. It’s either her, or YOU.”

And it cuts away before we can hear Harold’s answer.

We then cut to the elimination ceremony.

So now we reach the voting sessions, where the votes have been casted, and losers have been selected…

Courtney is safe.

The awards go to Justin…

Beth…

Harold…

Lindsey…

Noah…

And Duncan.

Which means that just like in canon, Leshawna is eliminated.

And with all the work we’ve done in the past episodes, the scene where Harold apologizes and Leshawna embraces him hits harder, so there really is nothing to change here, and this canon moment makes it a bittersweet elimination. Bitter because Harold gave in to what the others claimed of him and Leshawna’s leaving, but sweet because Leshawna no longer cares about winning the game. If anything, she’s relieved of being pardoned and that she’s able to reconcile with Harold.

Just like in canon, with Leshawna’s parting words being the reminder that Harold should stand up for himself from now on, and kick Duncan’s butt. Which is then followed by Duncan kicking him and Chris breaking his glasses.

(Eh, I’m sure it went somewhere in canon and I don’t have to do justice to it…)

Episode 18: Aftermath The Third

Episode 18 kicks off our third Aftermath show of the season. Geoff and Bridgette introduce themselves, and also go over the new guests lined up: Gwen, Tyler, Heather, and Leshawna. With the exception of the tweaks that Gwen isn’t in the loser line, and a noticeable part that will only be brought up at the very end, Owen is also not here. Other than that, these Geoff and Bridgette exchanges are surprisingly untouched. After their exchanges, they go on to review what Gwen has gone through in the saeson.

In their video, they talk about how Gwen was originally a fan favorite, and finalist of season one, as she won everyone’s hearts with her cold gothic exterior and her romance subplot with Trent… that is until season two happened, and the two went their separate ways from inconvenience, and Gwen was left to clean up after Trent thanks to Justin, and in doing so, she lost all of her friends, and all of her fans, who have been berating Geoff and Bridgette ever since the second Aftermath show. But despite the hate, Gwen has pushed through and fixed her ties with Leshawna, and grew closer with Duncan, it seemed like everything was going back on track for her! Until Courtney came along and put the hammer down on Gwen, booting her from the show in a rather rigged way.

They call up Gwen, but she doesn’t show up. They show a video of everyone in the waiting room, Gwen pacing around nervously as the other three watch. Gwen stammers that they’re gonna crash an anvil on her head out there, they’re gonna kill her! And then Trent’s out there as well…

“Oh my gosh, get over it!” Heather snaps, proclaiming “He hates you, they’ll kill you. So what?” The camera guy comes in to claim that Gwen is up, and nervously, she asks if they’re live. She waves at the camera and nervously greets everyone, but we hear booing from the audience.

Tyler then volunteers to go on with her so they can die together, and though Gwen is hesitant, Tyler insists.

Hearing this news, Geoff and Bridgette decide to also touch on Tyler, playing a video of his story.

In this video, they talk about how Tyler was, from day one, a daredevil on the field who was in over his head, and cheated death every other episode. This season, his own girlfriend Lindsey doesn’t even remember his own name, but that didn’t stop Tyler from supporting her through and through, at the cost of trust from his own team. Ah, the things we do for love.

With that, Tyler and Gwen both come onto the stage.

They both hesitate, with Tyler stammering “On second thought, maybe I get your pain-”

But Chef shoves them both on stage. Tyler crashes onto the floor face first, and Gwen catches herself on her feet. Gwen nervously greets everyone, but they boo at her, one guy even shouting at her to get off the stage.

From there, Gwen basically has the same pressure planted on her from the canon episode 12, including the Katie and Sadie recording. Gwen, the whole time, tries to avoid talking about the breakup, but Geoff keeps pushing, asking about her friendships as well and how terrible her track record is now. Even her own fans despise her for their sunken ship.

“Wait, people are shippers?” Gwen asks, rolling her eyes to add “How invasive.”

“It’s called TV Gwen,” Geoff says.

Tyler then gets back up to try and change three subjects, asking if anyone wants to hear about HIS relationship problems with Lindsey. Gwen raises an eyebrow and comments “Since when have you two had issues?”

“We uh…” Tyler tries to figure that out, only to realize he doesn’t have an answer to that.

“Well, you guys want shipping, right?” Tyler asks, soon showing several video clips of his happy times with Lindsey, when they danced on the beach, their grins at each other in the prison episode, him helping her in the war challenge and them later making out, and basically all of their scenes in episode 14.

Geoff stops this and says “That’s all sweet, I’m happy for you… but happiness doesn’t really give us ratings, does it?”

Bridgette asks “So? They’re happy! Do you seriously think ratings are more important than that?”

Geoff dodges the question, instead asking Tyler if he REALLY thinks Lindsey loves her. Tyler says yes, but then Geoff shows clips of all the times Lindsey has gotten his name wrong.

“I dunno about you, but I’d be pretty sad if my girlfriend doesn’t even know me,” Geoff says, and Bridgette exclaims back “I am right here!”

With that, Geoff decides to proclaim that relationships are only good when there’s juicy drama, thus deciding to start Truth or Electrocution on Gwen.

Bridgette is shocked to hear this, and immediately shoots back that they SHOULDN’T do this! But Geoff assures her that it’s low voltage. Gwen claims she doesn’t want to do this, and Trent stands up for her as well to fight back that Gwen has suffered enough.

Gwen is surprised to see him stand up for her, but Trent stands his ground. To this shock, Gwen apologizes all over to him about what happened, and the break up, she didn’t get to make things up to him, she screwed over everything and everyone, she doesn’t know who she is, she’s sorry Trent had to go through all of this because of her- Trent stops her and makes it clear that they’re cool. He’s not mad at her, he doesn’t blame her for anything. He knows she makes mistakes, but she’s still a great girl, and no matter what she chooses, whether it’s to be with him romantically or to just be friends, even if she goes for someone else, he’s okay with it.

Gwen is relieved to hear this and they hug each other, asking if they’re still friends. Trent agrees that they’re JUST friends, and he’s happy with that.

This however gets a boo from the audience, and hearing this, Geoff interrupts them to put Gwen in the electric chair.

When we cut back, she’s strapped in, and she, again, basically says the same things she’s said in the canon episode 12, about how she still likes Trent, has a lot of love for people, Geoff tries to push the Duncan talk, Gwen compliments Leshawna and other people she considers friends, but again, all they want to hear is about Trent.

After such, Geoff brings up that the amount of rage she caused to her fandom is unreal. Gwen rolls her eyes and remarks “Whatever. If anything, they’re probably thankful Courtney booted me.”

“No,” Geoff corrects, “It’s because you dumped Trent for Duncan.”

Gwen immediately shoots that down, claiming that she THOUGHT she told them multiple times. THEY. ARE. JUST. FRIENDS.

But then Geoff pulls up that video clip of Gwen and Duncan wrestling each other in the night, (that again, was originally in episode 12) The only tweak here being that Courtney isn’t on the stage. However, Gwen stands her ground that they are just friends, claiming Geoff is twisting this, and Bridgette makes her comment that fame is getting into his head.

Bridgette relieves Gwen, and Tyler tries to help her out, only to get caught under the cap himself and accidentally break a side of the chair. Thinking he’s safe, he claims he didn’t do it, but then the chair shocks him. Bridgette and Gwen make sure he’s okay, and Tyler gives them a thumbs up that he’s fine, though he’s clearly dazed.

“I think we should put this away, Geoff!” Bridgette calls out, but Geoff plays the act and instead asks what time it is?

That’s a transition to the pain segment clips, where they’re pretty much untouched, except fully cutting out the bits that weren’t in this rewrite, like Owen snapping off the wires in his jaw, Owen in the kitchen, Owen crashing down the vault door… basically everything Owen centric is cut here.

After that break, Bridgette argues back that Geoff isn’t hearing her! Geoff asks back what the big deal is, this is their job! They have to do this! Bridgette however scolds that NO, they don’t have to do this. And with that, she chooses to resign from her job, leaving Geoff stammering at her to come back. She leaves the stage entirely, and thus, the only thing left for him is to move on to Heather and Leshawna.

This video itself is pretty much untouched, except there is no mention of Leshawna and Heather becoming friends, because in context of this rewrite, that did not happen.

With that, Heather and Leshawna come onto the stage, and they have the usual ‘hi how are you? Good to have you here!’ exchange.

Then Geoff immediately prompts Heather onto the electric chair, and Heather is cool with it like she was in canon.

And Heather’s time in the electric chair goes pretty much untouched. As well as the video, only instead of Bridgette calling the video, it’s Tyler, who tries to interrupt the whole electrocution process with something random.

Leshawna doesn’t claim that she and Heather are friends, as she only high fives Gwen as they both claim it makes her look funny. With that, Leshawna is called to the stand.

We don’t get Geoff asking about Heather defending her. Yeah I know Heather kind of did in the context of this rewrite, but Leshawna wasn’t there when that happened. Instead Geoff goes to ask if she was mad at anyone for the spa incident.

Leshawna admits that the only thing she kind of has an edge towards regarding that, is Courtney posting it online. But even then, she has to admit that she deserved it, if she was her, she’d be mad too. But though she said nasty things, she does value the nicer things she said more often. We then go onto that video question, and this is pretty much untouched on this guy’s questions. Yes, even the part where Leshawna claims that she and Harold are just friends. Because even in the context of this rewrite, they didn’t ‘hook up’ , they just accepted each other’s boundaries and haven’t decided to become an official couple on their own terms.

When Geoff claims in the clip that Leshawna looked at Harold the same way Bridgette looked at him, Bridgette is seen at the side by the curtains gazing at Geoff in surprise. Tyler notices this and gets up to talk to her.

Other than that, Leshawna’s response to that clip is completely untouched. With the exception of Bridgette being in the scene, the others stand up against Geoff and call him out for his behavior, their dialogue pretty much untouched. Only Gwen replaces Owen’s lines, and Geoff shows more visible restraint on his face when he says his lines.

Heather then brings up the suggestion on how they can pry such out of him, and points at Geoff to declare that HE should go in the electric chair!

Bridgette watches this in shock herself, as Gwen, Heather, and Leshawna join together to trap Geoff in the electric chair.

Leshawna goes on to ask if this really is the true Geoff, or if this is just out of stress that this is what people want from him. (Basically Bridgette’s canon question) And Geoff lies that this IS the real him, and he gets shocked. Heather asks who is the hottest girl on the show to him, but before that question gets launched, Gwen looks over at Tyler, who gives her the thumbs up, and she then asks Geoff how he truly feels about Bridgette.

He lies that he could care less about her, and he gets shocked, and immediately Bridgette runs over to him in concern over his state and his words. As he stammers that he loves Bridgette with all his heart, and that he just wants to do the best for her, Bridgette reveals herself to have come back, and she frees him, hugging him tightly as he apologizes for his act.

The two kiss and make out, and as they do so Leshawna brushes off her hands in relief, claiming they saved the Aftermath show, she calls that a win! The others agree, and with that, all the previous losers of the season gather around to call off the episode!

…With a brief comedic line at the end with someone asking “Hey, has anyone seen Owen?”

And that’s where we’re going to leave things for today. As you can probably tell, there’s no set schedule for these parts to come out, and I want to thank you all for the support given to this project. Also know that you guys are free to reply down below any friendly notes, criticisms, or just something you want to say. I will do my best to address anything you guys say, whether I admit that you’re right and that I goofed somewhere, or defend myself and some of my more… controversial writing choices. We have 7 campers left in the running for the million! Who are the finalists? Who wins? Tune in next time on TOTAL. DRAMA. REFILMING ACTION!!

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petals-and-bullets · 4 years ago

Text

Intimacy

Pairing: Izzy x Reader

Word Count: 1204

Info: Anon request! ‘Hello! I hope you’re doing well! I was wondering if you have time could you please write a fic where Izzy doesn’t want to have sex with the reader after she gives birth and the reader thinks it’s because he doesn’t like her body anymore and he thinks she’s ugly but the real reason is Izzy is scared of accidentally hurting her and he doesn’t think that she want to have sex yet and it’s a big misunderstanding but it ends with fluff please 😊💕’

A/N: Hopefully, we’re back in business and you can all expect regular posts! I’m proud of this one; I hope you like it!

The house was clean. The little one was finally down for the night – or at least for a few hours until he woke up and demanded a feeding – and Izzy was home. Sure, he was exhausted from the gig, but he was home. The pair of you had made a small home in an apartment that you were renting from your uncle in LA, and considering the pair of you had been joint at the hip since you were 10, it was unsurprising that you’d announced you were pregnant a few months into living in LA.

Unexpected. But welcomed.

Well, it was for you. The idea of it terrified Izzy; he was bouncing between bands and just narrowly avoiding getting arrested for dealing, but you were confident that he’d be a great dad. And you knew that as soon as Izzy saw little Andrew bundled up, you were right. He immediately warmed up to the concept of being a dad, and had even tried to reduce his drug usage; at least, he kept it out of the apartment.

The one thing that bothered you was that Izzy just didn’t want to be intimate with you. Sure, you’d only given birth around ten weeks ago, but you were ready to get back into the swing of your normal relationship – with the added benefit of having a little one to share your lives with. You smiled at the thought and gently placed the cup of tea down in front of him on the coffee table, before you perched carefully in his lap and brushed his hair out of his face.

“What are you after, darling?” He muttered, his arm slithering around your waist to hold you comfortably against his chest, his lips brushing along your jawline tenderly. You stifled a small laugh at the ticklish sensation, before you took his hand and gently guided it to your inner thigh.

“I’m not after anything, Iz. I just wanna have some fun. Andie’s in bed, and that means we have some peace and quiet and time to just spend with each other. And I think I know exactly how to spend it-“

“Records and cuddles.”

You blinked, your brows furrowing in confusion at how fast Izzy had answered you – and how unexpected it was. Izzy wasn’t innocent; he picked up on hints and innuendos faster than the crack of a whip, but suddenly he seemed to have not understood what you had insinuated. After a moment, you shrugged and slid out of his lap in order to place the needle down on the record on the record player, not really caring to change it.

“C’mere, doll. I wanna just have a break and relax with my favourite girl,” he murmured, before he patted his lap and smiled softly at you, and you were unable to resist the offer. Almost immediately you were curled up in his lap, his hand tangled in your hair as he leaned back against the couch, his eyes closed. He was significantly at peace, and you smiled to yourself at the sight. He’d been working almost non-stop ever since your son came into the world, determined to make it so your lives could be the best they possibly could be – and considering he’d decided to at least reduce the drug intake and ban the use of drugs in your home, you couldn’t hold him at fault. And yet, you couldn’t shake the feeling that your relationship had changed.

“Iz.”

“Mm?”

“… Am I not attractive anymore?”

He opened one eye to observe you quietly before he sat straight, furrowing his brows as he gave you his full attention.

“What?”

“Am I not attractive anymore? I mean, I’ve been trying to drop hints and god knows what else that I want to go back to how it was – sex included, and-“

“And the doc said that we should take it easy, doll. You’re the sexiest you’ve ever been - trust me – but I don’t want to run the risk of you getting hurt. You did just push a baby out of you no less than ten weeks ago.”

You blinked for a few seconds, your brain trying to comprehend just what he’d said to you. After a moment of just staring at his face, you burst out laughing and buried your face in his neck, your arms wrapped around him as you tried your hardest to calm down. After a moment, Izzy joined you in laughing, resting his head on yours before he gently patted your thigh.

“We should try and quieten down; don’t want to wake the little one,” he breathed out between laughs, and you managed to control your breathing enough to calm down. After taking a moment to clear your throat, you sat straight and nodded, wiping your eyes to rid yourself of the tears that had begun to build. Despite your efforts, however, a faint cry echoed from your son’s room and Izzy’s head fell back as he chuckled softly.

“I’ve got him,” he murmured, patting your thigh before he guided you off his lap and stood. Taking a moment to stretch, he winked at you before he walked out of the room and you listened carefully for Andrew’s whines of protest at the concept that he would have to fall asleep.

It never came.

Instead, the soft lilt of Izzy’s voice wound its way out of the room, and you smiled as you made your way down the hall and to your son’s bedroom, only to stop and lean against the doorway at the sight of your boyfriend leaning against the wall with your son cradled against his chest, his thumb rubbing his head gently. It was a tender sight, and you couldn’t help but smile – you knew that you’d chosen the right man to spend your life with, and despite his faults, he was a dedicated father and would do anything for his little one. You remained in the doorway for a few more moments before you turned and left your boys to bond, laying down on the bed with full intentions of closing your eyes for a few moments.

By the time you woke, sunlight had already streamed into the room through the parted curtains, and you scrunched your nose up in disgruntlement before you rolled over with the full intentions of waking Izzy with kisses. Although you quickly realised that his side of the bed was not only empty, but was clearly still made from the morning before. After a moment to just recollect yourself and wake up properly, you rubbed your eyes and slid off the bed and wandered out of the bedroom, only to stop when you realised that Andrew’s crib was significantly fuller than it had been the night before, and you smiled when you realised that Izzy had climbed in with Andrew. They were both still sound asleep, and you couldn’t help but quickly grab your camera to take a photo of the Isbell boys before you left them to sleep.

You may not have gotten what you were after in sense of normality in your relationship, but you knew that this new normal was far better than anything you could’ve ever imagined.

#izzy stradlin x reader #Izzy Stradlin #izzy stradlin fic #guns n roses fanfic #guns n roses #gnr fic #gnr fanfic #gnr fanfiction #guns n roses fanfiction #anon request #requests

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years ago

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oooh those prompts are GREAT 👀 if you're taking them, 45 - svelte?

Vic is the second winner of “saw a prompt list I didn’t actually intend to post yet” today, haha. Hm... I give you:

CW: Teenage child of recovering whumpee, brief kleptomania, SERIOUS mommy issues, referenced intimate whumper/captivity and referenced abuse

Jax Gallagher (referenced) belongs to @comfy-whumpee

She’s only in the classical section of the shop to browse - or she tells herself, anyway. It’s a tiny bookshop with music in the back, everything crammed together on shelves and stacked on tables. The music - records and CDs, for the kind of people who still seek them out - is organized loosely on a set of tables in cut-off plastic crates, and she spends some time flipping absently through Alternative, Pop, and Rock before her eyes shift to Instrumentals.

She likes these little shops - they smell like dust and old books, two scents she has known only in the safest places in her life. She has three paperbacks already crooked in one arm, two sci-fi stories and then a true story about a woman in the states kept captive for ten years.

She has a bunch of these books, they pile up under her bed, hidden carefully away in a long flat box, underneath some other things she isn’t hiding. She reads them at night, alone, sitting up with a torch under the covers, trying to understand the immensity of there being others out there who have lived this way.

Not that she remembers much - but some.

Enough.

None of the books talk about the people like her - the children, who go to a new world in the end, and they have stories but their privacy is respected, and so Izzy searches for the children as best she can between the lines written by their parents or by the ghost-writers or by true crime authors that never spoke to them at all.

She finds a mention, here and there, of things she knows as well as her own breath - the crying, the quiet, the fear.

Try as she might, though, she ends up in the Music section. And then in Instrumentals. And then... Classical.

Izzy Gallagher flicks through hard plastic CD cases, barely seeing the names. Always the same, a person with an instrument, a tree, a landscape, meaningful words, a list of songs on the back.

Then she stops. She finds what she refused to tell herself she was looking for.

Her mother, years and years ago - nearly fifteen years ago, her mind supplies. She stands with her violin in hand on a pristine, polished white floor, in a room with white walls and ceiling. There’s a skylight and sunlight pours down onto her mother’s hair, wild untamed dark chocolate brown, a riot around her shoulders and down to her waist.

There are plants everywhere, in white pots - lush green leaves that brush against her skin, frame her like a saint’s halo, paint her in such deep colors she seems like a Renaissance painter’s muse. Her mother smiles, bow drawn against strings just so, and her eyes are on the camera, bright and wide and so very blue.

She’s beautiful.

Izzy picks the CD up, almost against her will.

Savannah Marcoset, reads the swirling script across the front. Along the bottom, the word Bella.

She’s gorgeous- svelte and with the slight color to her skin set off by the brilliance of the natural light, the green of the plants clustered all around her. She had the photo taken in the sunroom, the bright white room Izzy remembers best because it was the only place she and her father could feel alone, and free, before. It was Jax’s room, and here is her mother standing in it, violating it. Taking even this small piece he was allowed to keep for himself, and forcing her way into it, like she did into everything.

She’s never let him be weightless, she has always given him things to drag him down into her orbit, forced him to live captured by her gravity. She marked him with scars, left him with night terrors, forced on him the two children he could not leave behind.

Even in this, her music, the songs are all for him, about him, inspired by him, in some way. She named this CD after a daughter she was hiding alongside the man in the house. Izzy would have been a year old, she thinks, when this album came out.

A year old, silent baby hidden in silent spaces by a father threatened to teach her to stay quiet.

Savvie, though, is here endlessly lovely, utterly awful, hiding it beneath the beatific smile. She’s beautifully soft in her thin white shirt and skirt, angelic-sweet. Somewhere just out of sight, though, is a man begging for himself and his daughter to be found. And he won’t be.

He’s never found.

He had to find - and save - himself.

In a sudden burst of energy, she slips the CD into the waistline of her pants, tucks it against her hip and abdomen, covers it with the billowing fabric of her own shirt. She could pay for it, of course - she should pay for it, but she... can’t. She can’t make herself.

Instead, she walks with the CD jamming its corner into the space where hip and thigh meet, hoping it looks casual and natural. Her pulse races, she barely hears the total for the three books as her blood rushes in her ears. She digs out the money to pay, gets change, doesn’t know how much.

She keeps waiting to hear them yelling, running after her, stop, thief! But no one does. No one chases her. No one stops her from curling up on a bench, knees up nearly to her chin, staring down at the little booklet included with the CD. Flicking through page after page of her mother, sitting in her practice room, standing near the rose bushes, laughing with her head thrown back.

Izzy shivers with uneasy memory of the sound of that laughter.

She thinks she will take the CD home and hide it, in the flat box under the bed, with all her other reminders of the way she was born to be a block of concrete dragging the person she loves most under the water, to force him to drown.

She thinks she will take the stolen music home.

Instead, she finds herself snapping it in half, dropping it in a wastebin, tearing the images of her mother into tiny pieces, a trail of breadcrumbs leading her back to a house that was never home.

In an album named for her daughter, every single song is about him, instead. Izzy is not jealous.

She is only so, so sorry to be here giving him no escape from her scars.

#izzy fucking gallagher #poor jax #savvie marcoset #referenced torture #referenced captivity #kleptomania tw #(brief)#child of whumpee #identity issues #referenced abuse #recovering whumpee

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harringtondale · 4 years ago

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@cassandraclare can you please answer why Will’s connection to Tessa is not mentioned in TDA?

It’s already painful enough that he’s no longer around. I mean yes I’m really happy Will got to marry Tessa and live the rest of his life with her and had kids with her and died peacefully with her in his arms but she’s still alive and Jem is still alive they’re still part of the current story with the new main characters while Will is not around and not only that but he barely ever gets mentioned and even when he does it’s so vague i don’t get why.

Every other characters relationship status’ is stated clearly in TDA even irrelevant side characters but when it comes to Will and his connection to Tessa it’s always so vague. I just don’t get it? It’s not like it’ll spoil the events of TID since it’s already spoiled big time.

What’s even more frustrating is that there were so many moments when it made no sense for Will’s connection to Tessa to not be mentioned. Like when Tessa was talking to Kit in the last book of TDA when he asked her why she’s taking him in it made no sense for her not to at least let him know she was once a Herondale. How could she not tell him?

Also when Emma saw that photo of Will and Tessa why didn’t she say in her inner monologue that this was Tessa with her husband? Or when Jace was talking to Kit why did he never state that Tessa was actually Will’s wife? There are so many moments where it could’ve easily been stated but it almost seems like you’re purposely not stating it and i would like to know why.

Also how come we see Emma interact with Jem a lot yet we never saw Tessa interact with Jace? Like Tessa is Jace’s only blood relative yet we never see them interact.

I am deeply invested in your books if i wasn’t this wouldn’t affect me so much. I’ve been a fan for almost ten years and I want to stay attached to this amazing universe you created but this is the one thing that really keeps bothering me and ruins my enjoyment of the series so I really hope in the wicked powers Will’s connection to Tessa is no longer vague not only it gets clearly stated but it would be great to know that the other characters (Jace, Clary, Simon, Izzy, Emma, Julian, Kit etc) know that too.

Like I said it’s already so painful that Will is no longer part of the current story while Tessa and Jem are still around and interacting with all the main characters while these main characters barely even know anything about Will let alone that he was Tessa’s husband.

#will herondale #tessa gray #Wessa #kit herondale #jace herondale #the wicked powers #the last hours #the dark artifices #the infernal devices

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ladieswttda · 4 years ago

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One in a Million (Guns n’ Roses x Fem!Reader)

Chap.1

Description: The tour life of a rock girl band in the 80’s, but not without their not so normal friends and band called Guns N’ Roses.

Warning: some curse, and a light mention of alcohol and drugs. It’s not a warning, but Mötley Crüe is going to appear into the chapters

Words: 2911

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Y/N exclaimed as she ran down Sunset Strip trying to get to the bus, and of course with a huge bag trying not to bump into anyone and screaming 'sorry' to a guy she almost knocked into the ground.

Today was the day her band would take a new level. They were going on their first big tour, opening with Guns N' Roses for the crazy band called Mötley Crüe. She was beyond excited, but as always she was super late. The bus was supposed to leave at ten am and was already eleven. Y/N was certain that they had already left her in LA, but she had a little hope they waited for her because they couldn't replace their amazing drummer.

Y/N was relieved when she spotted a huge bus with a not so tall redhead smoking a cigarette and kinda stressed talking with, what looked like, the bus driver.

"I'm sure she's coming, Sir. She's just a bit, how can I say.... slow?" When the driver was going to say he was done and the bus was leaving, they heard a scream and turned their heads "I'M HERE! I'M HERE!!"

Axl blew a breath that he didn't even knew he was holding "You almost made they leave you here, sweetheart." Y/N smiled at her old friend and handed over one of the bags to the driver, with a quiet 'thank you'.

It wasn't new that the girls from Y/N's band had a great friendship with the boys from Guns. And more obviously because Ayla, the guitarist, was Slash's sister, so they knew each other from a long time.

"I'm so fucking sorry, Ax. For real, a lot happened and..." She was going to start explaining, when he put his finger over her mouth and smiled "It's okay, let hop in the bus before someone scream at me again, and at you now." Y/N nodded and they started walking into the bus.

When they got inside, the first thing Y/N noticed was that the girls were already having a friendly conversation with the mötley boys, which was great and how Steven looked worried.

"What if she died? And how we just abandoned her here? She's going to be..." Before he could finish, Axl cleared his throat and everyone looked at their direction "Look who I found outside?" He had a hand on Y/N's small back and she weirdly smiled and waved.

Steven ran and hugged Y/N with all force he had, almost crashing her "You're alive! We were so worried abou you..." Ayla laughed and replied "You were worried, Stevie. We all knew Y/N would be late." She said rolling her eyes making Y/N roll her ones too.

"What happened this time, sweets?" Izzy asked hugging her.

"Actually the question is, what didn't happened?" Y/N answered setting her backpack in one of the sits.

"Are you sure you didn't over slept with a groupie?" Blake, the bassist asked earning a laugh from everyone besides Y/N, who kindly answered "Fuck off, will you?"

"Before we continue with Y/n/N story time, let's introduce her to the them." Axl said and pointed to the older band "Guys, this is Y/N, the drummer." She smiled, not sure if they were mad at her for the lateness "I'm so sorry for being late..."

Before Y/N could continue the tall drummer interrupted "Its okay hot stuff, we all lose the time track, don't we pals?" The other mans nodded their heads "I'm Tommy, the old man there is Mick, the blonde bitch right next is Vince guy and then we have Nikki." He pointed at them and they waved at her too "I know who you are..." Y/N said laughing a little at the adjectives Tommy gave for his band mates.

"Even better!" Vince winked at her making Y/N blush a little.

When they finished introducing, Y/N turned to her best friends and band mates who were already waiting in one of the sits "Hey girlfriend!" She exclaimed while hugging Ayla, who was Slash but in a female form. "Hello, my love..." They laughed at how they always said their hi's as a couple.

"You two date?" Nikki pointed at the two girls, they shook their heads and Ayla explained "For the press yes, they think we are a big orgy." She rolled her eyes and Y/N giggled at how her best friend hated the midia, like she did too of course, how sexist they were to say stuff like that just cuz they were fucking best friends?

Turning to the brunette and super tall bassist, more known as Blake " Heya, Y/n/N!" They hugged and saying hi lastly to their amazing blonde singer Sofia, who gave her a little kiss on her cheek "Where's Duff and Slash?" She asked sitting between Blake and Steven, who was more relaxed now that his bestie ( hehehe cute) was here safe and sound.

"Slash is passed out in one of the bunk beds and Duff is..." Suddenly Duff pop it out from the tiny bathroom interrupting Iz "Missed me sweetheart?" He asked giggling at her, who jumped and crashed him into a bear hug "Always, giraffe!" Besides him she looked like a smurf, not that she was normally tall, but with him it was like he turned everything into small ants.

"Now that everyone is settled, I wanna now what or who made our amazing friend late?" Axl said with his well known smile.

Y/N knew she could lie and make a false statement, that her car broke or something like this, but she was a terrible liar, so she decided to say the truth "Well, remember that my dad was working on a huge case and it was for a very famous person?" The girl's nodded indicating she could continue.

"What he does, kid?" Mick asked "He's a layer, actually both my parents are." Y/N answered gesturing with her hand and he nodded.

"When did you dye pink under your hair?" Steven asked as if nothing was happening, making Y/N giggle at Axl and the others impatient faces "Yesterday, Stevie.Needed a new look, don't you think?" He smiled and nodded at the girl "Continuing, happily the case was resolved and my dad's client won, so as a gratitude gift he gave my dad some tickets."

"Tickets? How this place into you being late?" Blake asked getting confused.

"Well, my dear friend, he happened to give backstage tickets to his show..." Everybody was paying attention to the girl and she was making even more mystery now.

"For gods sake woman, spit it out!" Everybody laughed when Tommy screamed at her, Y/N laughing too "It was tickets for Aerosmith, and the client happened to be Steven Tyler." Especially the girls were shocked, following the other men's reaction.

"You got fucking BACKSTAGE tickets for a fucking Aerosmith concert and didn't tell us???" Ayla jumped from her sit and started hitting Y/N with a jornal "Stop bitch! I didn't get! My father did, I just fucking went!" The boys were surprised that she wasn't that shy as she looked when she entered the bus.

"And now we have the true Y/N." Izzy laughed at the scene, but stoping as soon as Y/N gave him a mortal look "Just joking sweets, just joking!" She rolled her eyes and turned to their curly guitarist "If I could, obviously I would take you guys, especially you Lala." Ayla smiled at the sweet nickname.

"How it was it???" Sofia asked gripping and shaking Y/N arm.

Remembering last night Y/N smirked and put a hand in front of her mouth starting to giggle "STOP, you are doing the face when you get the D!" She laughed even harder at the bassist.

"You fucked Steven Tyler, Y/n/N?" Duff asked more curious then ever.

"NO, fucking hell!" She couldn't stop the giggles "I wish guys, but no..." Y/N shrugged "But the concert was fucking amazing, I thought I was going to have an orgasm right there." Everyone started to laugh "But the thing was after the gig, we were invited to the after party."

"You even went to the after party? Aren't you a luck bitch?" Nikki exclaimed receiving right after a push o his shoulder from Mick "Have some sense." Y/N shook her head with a smile "It's okay! Actually my dad is! I just came along with my bro's."

"And Mrs. Y/l/N?" Izzy asked "Nope, girl's night with her friends." Y/N shrugged and turned to Stevie, when he poked her arm "Yes, Stevie?"

Steven was the biggest fan of Aerosmith she knew. Y/N was sad that they didn't went together, but little did he know she was already planning the next time they were in the same city "Did you take photos with them?" He asked with a little smile.

Was clear that Y/N had an inexplicable connection with them, but nothing explained how much she loved Steven. Not in a romantic way, and not denying that sometimes she would do some naughty things with him, but they were best friends since high school. Y/N always saved him from fights and problems from school, sometimes when his mom would kick him out, her parents would let him stay with them, making him forever grateful for Y/N's huge heart.

"YES, how could I forget? They are in my bag pack, pick for me Ax?" He nodded and picked the pinky glittery bag, yes she was on a rock band, but how could you not love glitter? "Why do you have so much stuff?? Look, why do you have so fucking much medicine?" Axl hold a little bag with some meds "Well, I'm the mom of the group, I need some back up. If I don't have all this, the next thing you know she's vomiting." Y/N pointed at Blake giving them a weird smile.

After some minutes Axl found Y/N book of polaroids, dropping to her lap, she started flipping the pages till the last page where the photos were "Here! Everybody come closer." All of them got around her, sitting in one of the tables in the bus, with Axl on her left and Tommy on her right "Okay this first one is from de beginning of the gig, then this is... me and the band in the back playing."

"Nice dress, Y/n/N." Sofia pointed at the photo with a smile "Thanks, Sofs. I think I got last summer." Y/N flipped the page showing more pics from the gig "Doesn't he look like a god?" Stevie said "He is a god, Stevie!" Tommy said picking the photo from Y/N making her stare at him "Sorry, just got excited" He laughed but gave back the photograph saying sorry.

She flipped again, now the photos from the after party "Didn't your old man got uncomfortable with all the booze and drugs?" Vince asked "Nah, he's used with rockstars. It's not the first time he provide services for a famous person..." Y/N shrugged "So you are rich rich?" Nikki asked, making Mick poke his arm again "You truly don't have sense, do you?"

The girls were trying their harder to not to laugh at how Tommy, Vince and Nikki looked like Mick children. "Well, you can say my folks are, i'm not. Yet..."

"Oh my god, look at this one! Isn't Joe Perry looking at your ass?" Blake screamed.

"Oh, yeah." Y/N smirked "You naughty little bitch, you slept with him, didn't you?" Ayla said laughing "Yes, of course with my father and my two brothers in the same place,I escaped and fucked him in the bathroom." She rolled her eyes at her best friend "This is me and Steven, then me and the whole band. Then Joe whispering in my ear for my number." She smiled at the memory, Y/N always had a crush on him and when this happened she almost died at the moment.

"Did you give?" Izzy asked sitting on Axl legs to have a better look at the photographs , making him grumble at the guitarist.

"Nope, but he did." She giggled like a teenager girl when her crush ask her out.

"Are you going to call him?" Duff asked "Maybe, dunno, he's like 37?" Y/N bite her nails thinking "What's the problem? He seems to be nice enough to not be a creepy." Blake words made Y/N think, maybe she should call him.

Before they could continue, the tour manager cleared his throat making everybody look at him "We are going to stop at a gas station, so you guys can eat, hydrate, piss, I don't know. But please don't destroy or rob something!" He said looking directly at the mötley boys, that only looked at each other and laugh "Of course Johnny, we have some girls to impress" Tommy said looking at the girls.

Blake did a sass face and looked them up and down, trying to control her giggles "Yeah, sure drummer boy, you wish." Ayla and Sofia laughed too, making him blush, who'd thought that bad boys would blush at some rock girls?

Y/N put the book back into her bag, picking some cash to buy some food and something to drink "Who's gonna wake Slash up?" Axl asked already in the bus door "I can go!" Y/N said, going to the only bunk bed that was with its curtain closed.

Opening it, she could see only his naked back and how his hair was everywhere "Hey, sleepy boy, wake up." She stroked his back receiving a pleased 'hmm', but still not moving "Slash, honey, we stopped so we all can eat something, you need to wake up."

"But it's so good right here" He turned and shook the hair of his face "You should join me..." Slash smirked at Y/N who only did a negative sign with her head and pushed his hands "Nops, get your ass up here or I will... I will cut your favorite leather pants!" He stared at her face thinking if she would do it. After solids two minutes he gave up and got out of the bed "You can be very nice, but you still are a little minx sometimes, i don't trust you with my babies..." He grumbled and crossed his arms "Don't be such a baby. I can cuddle with you when we get back! Or you are too macho man for that?"

Slash was a little behind her, so when she said that he ran a little and hugged her waist, nuzzling her neck "Baby girl, for you I have both sides..." Y/N laughed loudly, making some other people in the convenience store look at them "I already said for you to stop calling me that, people will think we have a thing!" She said poking his hands that were on her hips "People thinking you date me is that bad? He made a fake cry sound "If you weren't such a whore, I wouldn't care." Slash couldn't stop laughing at her statement "Not a lie, Y/n/N."

After some good 30 minutes they had found everything they needed and went to check out their stuff "24.60 dollars." The cashier said with a bored tone "I pay, add a pack of marlboro, please." Slash gave the cashier a 50 bill making Y/N complain "Hey, why you paying my stuff, dickhead?" He smiled "Always treating my lady the way she deserves..." Slash winked at her, making her roll her eyes.

Picking their plastic bags, the duo returned to the bus, and setting the drinks into de mini fridge "Everyone is here, right?" The manager asked and received 'yeah' and 'yes' from the guys "Okay, we can pull off!"

"I'm going to sleep again, you coming?" Slash asked Y/N "Yep, just let me put a hoodie." He nodded waiting beside her, talking with his band mates.

"We can go." She extended her hand to him who happily accepted "You two don't forget to use condoms!" Axl screamed and hit high five with Izzy.

"Don't fucking start." Y/N flipped him off and got into the bunk bed, Slash following her movements.

He laid behind her and hugged her waist "I don't know why you still pay attention to his comments..." Slash nuzzled his nose on her hair and neck "That's nice" She hummed at his actions, he gave little kisses to her skin in response "And, other thing, we all know he's jealous of me..." He said making her kick his leg "You are not the only one who cuddles me, curly boy." Slash pinched her hip " But i'm the best on bed..."

Well, with great friendships, great relationships come too. It's a not a lie that Y/N and the girls would have a little more than a friendship with de boys once in a while, but more exactly Y/N, she was the closest with the boys and sometimes they would have some escapades...

"Okay, Saul" Y/N giggled "Believe what you want." Slash hugged her even close and whispered to her ear "You can be sure, sweetheart." They giggled "Night, curly boy"

"Good Night, Y/n/N."

taglist: @harley-m-rose (if you want to be added, just send a message or reblog with your request)

#guns n roses x reader #guns n roses imagine #gnr #axl rose x reader #slash x reader #guns n roses fanfic #guns n roses #axl rose #duff #slash #Izzy Stradlin #motley crue #tommy lee #nikki sixx

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jaxl-road · 5 years ago

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The League of Extraordinary Rockstars, ch.1

Summary: LA is a hub for music and mutants, making it the perfect place for Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, and countless other mutant musicians to call home. But it’s not all easy, especially when it comes to finding a decent place to live. So what better solution than moving in together in the mansion of an immortal? Love, drama, and super powers. If nothing else, it’ll be interesting.

Chapter Warnings: Language, genderswap!Steven

AN: This is a collaboration between myself and @the--blackdahlia! It combines elements from her fic “It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)” (specifically her genderswapped!Steven) and my super powered GnR series. It is completely AU and ignores timelines like Woah, but hopefully you’ll have as much fun reading it as we’re having writing it! Let us know what you think!

~~~~~

Los Angeles. The city of angels. Also, the highest per capita mutant population in the United States. With it’s history of welcoming minorities, it was no surprise. And West Hollywood was the hot spot. Humans hanging out with mutants, getting their cigarettes lit by a bass player who could control fire, getting their joints from a singer who could control pot. Things were great in LA.

Well, pretty much. They painted a picture perfect world of mutants living in the hills with the rich and famous, when in reality, they were living in small apartments that had more mice than people in them. But the one nice thing about LA? It was usually sunny. Rarely a cloud in the sky. Stevie Adler smiled as she looked up at the sky.

And then there was the honking horn.

“Get out of the street you bitch!” A guy screamed from his car. Stevie sighed and shook her head, crossing the street towards the recording studio. Yeah, LA was a great city.

“What was that about?” Izzy asked from his designated smoking spot.

“Asshole is impatient,” Stevie shrugged. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Slash is hiding because Axl is screaming at someone on the phone,” Izzy explained. “Duff’s not here yet. But Baz is, and he’s getting a kick out of watching Axl trying to avoid going supersonic.”

“Is there a betting pool started yet on if he’ll lose it?” Stevie grinned.

“I’m giving him about ten minutes,” Izzy smirked. “I think it’s Neil he’s yelling at.” Stevie rolled her eyes.

A cold gust of wind blew past them, causing Stevie to shiver. It seemed to get darker all of a sudden, a cloud covering the sun, but before she could comment on it, Izzy was looking past her with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh-oh, looks like someone’s in a bad mood.”

Sure enough, when she followed his gaze, she saw a very sour looking Duff stalking towards them. The weather witch looked deep in thought, a scowl on his face, which made sense as he usually didn’t lose control of his powers like this, especially since he knew Stevie needed as much sun as she could get.

“Hey, stormcloud!” Izzy shouted, getting the bassist’s attention, “Reel it in, motherfucker! The weather report said clear skies today!”

Blinking, Duff seemed to notice the shift in weather for the first time, “Ah, fuck,” the clouds quickly dissapated, the wind dying down as the sunshine returned. “Sorry guys,” he sighed.

“What’s got you all worked up?” Stevie asked.

Running a hand through his hair, Duff glared, “A fucking pipe burst in my apartment. The place was shitty enough with cockroaches crawling all over me, now I’ve got two inches of water covering everything.”

“Hey, if you need a place, Tracii moved out so Slash and I have an empty room,” Stevie told Duff. “I might be able to dry your stuff out. I’m sure Nikki would help.”

“Yeah, because you know that Axl loves those guys hanging around,” Izzy laughed. “Let’s go inside.” The three of them headed in, seeing Baz and Slash, but no Axl.

“He’s in his tantrum hole,” Baz laughed, pointing at the soundproof room. “He’ll be out in a minute once he calms down.” Stevie headed over to Slash to talk to him, leaving Izzy and Duff standing there together. A few moments later, Slash was hugging Duff.

“Roomie!” Slash laughed.

“I see Stevie talked to you,” Duff chuckled.

“Dude, this will be awesome!” Slash grinned, “Now I’ll have my two favorite drinking buddies in the same house!”

“This is a terrible idea,” Izzy muttered to himself.

“What’s a terrible idea?” Axl finally emerged from his designated anger room, with a look on his face that said he was very consciously keeping himself calm.

“Duff is gonna move in with Stevie and me!” Slash exclaimed, “Apparently his place is underwater, and we’ve got some space since Tracii moved out, so it’s perfect!”

“...Yeah, I’m gonna agree with Izzy and say that’s a terrible idea,” Axl shook his head as he moved to lean against Sebastian’s side, “The three of you? In one place?”

“It feels like a threat to public safety,” Izzy chimed in.

“You’re just jealous cause you know we’re gonna be the most fun house on the strip now,” Stevie teased.

Izzy smiled tensely, looking briefly between Duff and Stevie before glancing away.

“Wait a minute, I thought Motley Crue had the most fun house on the strip,” Baz pointed out before Axl glared at him. “Sorry babe, but you gotta admit, they know how to throw a party.”

“I think that Nikki’s party trick of catching himself on fire is annoying and overused,” Axl huffed. “And you’re supposed to be on my side.”

“Okay, before Sebastian and Axl start fighting to make up later, can we record some music?” Stevie asked with a laugh. “Duff, we’ll go get your stuff that can be salvaged. I’ll call Tommy to come help.” Axl groaned but Stevie pretended she didn’t hear.

“Think you can get through a couple songs without shattering the glass?” Slash joked at Axl. The singer merely flipped him off as they finally made their way into the booth. Stevie took a seat behind the drums, not noticing Duff and Izzy glancing at her. Slash just sighed and got his guitar.

Baz smiled as he listened to Axl sing, and soon, they had a couple rough tracks down before their studio time was up. Stevie bounced to the payphone to call Tommy while Slash, Izzy, and Duff talked.

“So...you’re moving in with Stevie…” Izzy said, staring at Duff.

“And Slash,” Duff pointed out. “Not just Stevie.”

“Right, right…”

“Gee, way to make a guy feel loved,” Slash pouted.

Izzy rolled his eyes, shoving Slash’s shoulder lightly, glad for the break in the tension as the three chuckled. At that moment, Stevie jogged back over, giving a thumbs up as she smiled.

“Alright! We’re all set! Tommy should be here s-”

“HEY GUYS!”

A gust of wind swirled around them as Tommy skidded to a stop beside them, his hair a wild mess around his face. The speedster gave Stevie a quick hug as he chattered, “Stevie told me what happened, that sucks dude!” He gave Duff a sympathetic pat on his shoulder, “I’ll totally help though! Nikki’s dealing with Vince right now, apparently he’s having a bitch fit cause of some phone call or something, I dunno, but he’ll be by to help out later. Anyway, how are the rest of you guns?”

Tommy gave Slash a quick hug, but when he moved to throw his arm around Izzy’s shoulder, his arm fell right through the other man, sending the drummer stumbling forward. Slash, Duff, and Stevie laughed as Tommy pouted at Izzy’s deadpan expression.

“Oh come on, man, don’t be like that!”

The next couple hours were spent bickering and joking as they waded through Duff’s apartment to clear out his meager belongings, Tommy running between the flooded space and Slash and Stevie’s apartment while Duff chewed out his landlord until he got his deposit back.

Duff came back to the soggy apartment to see Stevie standing there, holding a book and smiling. He raised an eyebrow until he saw what she was looking at, then he tried to run to grab it.

“Duff, you were so cute!” Stevie laughed.

“Let me see!” Tommy ran by, grabbing the book. As he did, a photo fell out of the back. Slash picked it up. “Duff, you were a dorky looking kid.”

“Says the guy who was wearing tights in a picture his mom showed me the first time we met!” Duff pointed out.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Tommy groaned.

“At least you don’t look as dorky as Stevie,” Slash teased, showing Tommy a picture of Stevie asleep next to Duff, her head on his shoulder, and most definitely drooling. “I’m just surprised you didn’t burn up the camera. Either with your sunshine crap or being so ugly.”

“Love you too,” Stevie rolled her eyes. “Why do you have that?”

“Just liked it,” Duff shrugged.

“Okay, well, do you guys mind like, getting out of here?” Tommy asked. “Everything that can be saved has been saved, and I can feel the mold growing on us as we stand here talking about how I’m much cuter than everyone else.” He smirked. “And Nikki said he’s gonna try to meet us over at your place to help dry things out.”

Nodding in agreement, the group made their way over to the apartment that housed Stevie, Slash, and now Duff. The place wasn’t much better than Duff’s old apartment, but it was dry, so they couldn’t complain. Plus, the bassist was happy to note that there were significantly less cockroaches than his old place contained (not no cockroaches, that’d be asking for too much, but less at least).

On top of that, despite being small and dingy, Slash and Stevie still managed to make the place feel like a home. Cracks and stains on the walls were covered by posters, fliers, and magazine cutouts of their favorite bands, the pictures layered over each other excitedly. Their garbage dump couch was covered in an old tie dyed bed sheet to mask the tears. The kitchen counters held rows and rows of empty bottles, some of them containing the dried remains of long dead flowers that would probably give Vince a heart attack if he saw them. A lingering scent of cigarette smoke clung to the whole apartment, there was trash everywhere, and a pile of records reached halfway up the wall next to a thrift-store record player.

Duff immediately felt right at home.

“So, your room is right over here,” Slash led the way down the short hallway. They passed a bathroom that had definitely seen better days, a bedroom covered in KISS merch that simply had to be Stevie’s, and another door covered in caution tape that was closed tight.

“That’s Slash’s room,” Stevie leaned over to whisper in Duff’s ear, “He thinks I don’t know about the python he’s got in there, but at least he keeps it contained.”

Shuddering at the idea of being in the same space as a large snake, Duff debated about turning right back around and returning to the lake of his apartment, but before he could, he was being steered into the final bedroom. It was a little smaller than his old place, but it’s not like he was picky. Tommy had piled his stuff along the walls in two groups- the stuff that needed drying, and the stuff that was okay.

Right on cue, there was a knock on the door. “Oh, that’s probably Nikki!” Tommy cried enthusiastically, and with a gust of wind was off to the door.

Sure enough, Nikki was there with Vince and Mick in tow. Nikki had a couple pizza boxes in hand, Vince had a sour look on his face, and Mick, well, was Mick.

"We brought pizza!" Nikki announced. "Two large supremes!"

"Did you get something not supreme?" Stevie quizzed.

"Just pick off the black olives and shit," Nikki teased. Mick smacked the back of his head and handed Stevie a pepperoni pizza.

"Here you go," He grumbled. "Nikki just likes to tease you."

Sticking her tongue out at the bassist, Stevie happily accepted her pizza, the group gathering in the living room to take a break before tackling Duff’s damp belongings. As they ate, Vince kept scowling, pouting, and muttering under his breath. Finally, Slash sighed dramatically.

“Alright Neil, I’ll bite: what the fuck is your problem?”

Glaring, the blonde singer huffed, “My problem is that your singer is an asshole!”

“Are we supposed to be surprised or something? This isn’t news,” Stevie chimed in.

But Vince continued as if she hadn’t said anything, “That bastard stole my favorite pants, I just know it, and when I called to nicely ask for them back-”

“He wasn’t remotely nice. I was there,” Nikki contributed.

“-he had the fucking audacity to say, ‘why would I ever steal your ugly-ass pants?’! Like, we all know that my style is MILES better that his garbage, midwest grunge look!”

“Don’t let Izzy hear you talking like that,” Duff snickered.

Meanwhile, Stevie’s brow was furrowed in thought, “Which pants are these?”

“My acid-wash jeans with the white stitching on the side,” Vince answered, sighing wistfully.

“Oooooh, shit,” Stevie grimaced, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I gave those to Axl after last laundry day.” Slash and Stevie’s apartment building was the only one in the group that had a laundry facility on-site, so once a week all the rockers showed up on their doorstep with a bag of dirty clothes and handfuls of coins for them. Slash and Stevie used to deal with it together, but ever since Slash decided that laundry detergent and dish detergent were interchangeable, he had been banned from the laundry room.

“What?!” Vince screeched, “Stevie, how could you?” he cried, his voice full of betrayal.

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Stevie threw her arms in the air, “I was tired, we all dress the same, and you and Axl are the same size!”

“You take that back! I am a quarter inch taller than him and you know it!”

“Oh, excuse me,” Stevie rolled her eyes, “how could I forget? How’s the weather up there, skyscraper?”

Gasping in exaggerated offense, Vince turned to his bandmates desperately, “Do you hear this blasphemy? She’s trying to sabotage us! She wants to break my spirit and give my superior wardrobe to her singer!”

“Yes, Vinnie, she is clearly an evil mastermind,” Nikki chuckled as he looked at Stevie’s pouting face.

“Aw, come on man, look at her!” Tommy reached over, putting his hands on either side of Stevie’s face to squish her cheeks, “How can you stay mad at her? Look at this face!” Stevie giggled as the other drummer pulled her closer, both of them giving Vince puppy eyes as Tommy sang, “You know you loooove herrrrr.”

To Vince’s credit, he put in a good effort fighting off the smile on his face. But eventually he couldn't resist breaking into a wide grin at the drummers’ antics, “Goddammit, you guys, I have a reputation!”

“You do?” Nikki laughed as Vince punched his arm, the group descending into playful bickering and laughter.

"I think I saw something about his reputation on the bathroom wall at the Roxy," Duff teased, making everyone laugh.

"Guys I gotta pee," Stevie laughed. She got out of Tommy's hold and headed to the bathroom, Duff taking a peek.

"See something you like?" Nikki teased, elbowing Duff.

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he huffed, shoving Nikki’s shoulder, “Didn’t you come over here for a reason? Come help me with my shit before it fucking dissolves or something.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” grinning, Nikki rubbed his hands together as they glowed lightly, the two bassists making their way back to Duff’s new room to try to salvage more of his stuff.

Tommy shook his head lightly and turned to Slash, “Dude, Duff and Stevie in the same apartment? Have fun with that.”

“God, don’t remind me,” Slash groaned, “You should have seen Izzy’s face when we were talking about it.”

“I can’t believe Stevie still hasn’t noticed.”

“Hasn’t noticed what?” Stevie chirped, narrowing her eyes suspiciously as she rounded the corner, making her way back to her seat.

Without missing a beat, Slash smirked, “That Tommy’s been trying to flick olives down your shirt for the last ten minutes.”

“Dude!” Stevie cried indignantly, smacking Tommy’s arm, “Not cool! This shirt isn’t even low cut, you’re just gonna just fucking marinara on it or something!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Tommy grit out, glaring at Slash as he, Vince, and Mick laughed at his misfortune.

The night went pretty smoothly, other than Vince calling Stevie ‘Benedict Arnold’ various times throughout the night, and Nikki almost catching a couple of Duff’s books on fire. But soon, the Crue headed out, leaving the three roommates in their home.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat,” Stevie yawned. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She said goodnight before heading to her room, Duff watching her as she went. Slash slapped his shoulder.

“I’m not living with you pining over her,” Slash groaned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Duff stood up and headed to his room. “Stevie doesn’t even like me like that.” With that, he headed towards his room, leaving the guitarist there to groan.

“It is a sad, sad day,” Slash muttered to himself, “when Axl is the one in a stable relationship.”

With one last shake of his head, he made his way into his own room, bracing himself for what was sure to be an interesting new living situation.

#Guns n Roses #guns n roses fanfiction #Motley Crue #skid row #fem!Steven #super power au #my writing #other people's writing #steven adler #duff mckagan #slash #axl rose #izzy stradlin #sebastian bach #tommy lee #Nikki Sixx #mick mars #Vince Neil

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rhosyn-du · 4 years ago

Text

Title: A Wonderful Institution Artist: @bidnezz Pairings: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, various background pairings Word Count: ~53k Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, discrimination against Downworlders, reference to rape, Clave-typical homophobia, implied character death, minor character death Summary: Magnus doesn’t have time for this bullshit. Warlocks are disappearing in New York City—five people in less than three months—and Magnus is determined to find them and protect the rest of his people from whatever took them. He doesn’t have time for politics, and he certainly doesn’t have time for whatever nonsense the Clave is proposing about marrying a Shadowhunter to a Downworlder as part of the new Accords. He doesn’t really have time for a pretty Shadowhunter who’s surprisingly kind to warlock children, either, but, well, he’s always been good at multitasking.

Alec always knew he couldn’t have what he wanted, but he’s spent the nearly four years since the newly-appointed Consul recalled his parents to Idris without explanation making the best of what he can have. When life suddenly offers up almost everything Alec actually wants on a silver platter, he can’t quite bring himself to trust it, especially when it comes with a million caveats and a side of impending disaster. But he knows how to handle disasters, even if the return of the Circle on top of Clave secrets that could destroy the Accords is way beyond the disasters he’s used to fielding. Hope, on the other hand? He doesn’t know what to do with that.

This fic was created for the @malecdiscordserver Mini Bang 2020.

Chapter One

Magnus should have taken it as a sign when, instead of sending the information he asked for, the Spiral Council insisted upon an in-person meeting. He should, at the very least, have rescheduled cocktail night, but he wasn’t about to let politics or the headache that had been building behind his eyes all day interfere with standing traditions. If nothing else, he desperately needed someone to drink with.

“How is it,” Catarina asked as she slid into their usual booth, “that I just finished a ten-hour shift at the hospital, and you still look more worn out than I do?”

Magnus shook his head, raising his glass. “Drink first, my dear. Then talk. This is not a conversation anyone wants to have sober.”

“Cheers, then,” Catarina said, lifting her glass. “No Raphael tonight?”

“He’s overseeing the integration of a new fledgling. Ragnor also sent his regrets.”

“Ragnor has sent his regrets every week since 2003,” Catarina muttered into her cosmopolitan.

“And will continue to do so for years to come, I’m sure,” Magnus said.

“We’ll see about that. Come here.” Catarina motioned for Magnus to join her on her side of the booth.

Confused, Magnus joined her. “What are we—? Are we taking a selfie?”

“We,” she answered, smiling up at her phone, “are showing Ragnor how much fun we’re having without him, so he’ll be jealous and forced to show up for cocktail night sometime this decade.”

Magnus held up his drink, toasting the camera as Catarina snapped a photo, then frowned. “Since when does Ragnor have a smart phone?” he asked, watching Catarina tap out a text. “Or any kind of phone, for that matter.”

“Last month, I think?” she answered. “Raphael got it for him. Said texting was more convenient than fire messages, but honestly I think he just likes to give Ragnor a hard time about being such a Luddite.”

“But now I can’t tease him about still being stuck in the nineteenth century,” Magnus complained. “Also, how do you have his number and I don’t?”

“I’m guessing the same reason you look like you haven’t slept in the past month. You’ve been a little hard to get a hold of recently.”

Magnus made a noise of grumpy agreement.

“You want to talk about it?” Catarina asked.

“Why don’t you tell me about your week first?” Magnus suggested. “I’m still not ready to think about mine.”

Magnus was on his third bourbon on the rocks when Catarina finally got him talking about his own day and the disastrous meeting with the Spiral Council.

“Five warlocks missing in less than three months, and they brushed it aside like it’s nothing,” Magnus told her. “They called me there like they actually had information, but no, just ‘we haven’t heard anything, we’ll keep an ear out’ and then straight into this absolute nonsense with the Clave.” He drained the last of his glass and conjured another, too worked up to bother walking over to the bar to order. “As if it’s not suspicious enough that they want to renew the Accords years earlier than scheduled, as if marrying a Downworlder to a Shadowhunter as part of the terms isn’t among the most terrible ideas in the Clave’s grand library of terrible ideas.”

“Let me guess,” Catarina said. “They want you to be a part of the negotiations?”

“Oh, no,” Magnus said, waving his glass in a way that would, in anyone else’s hand, have sent the drink sloshing over the sides. “If they wanted that, it would be annoying enough, but they actually had the gall to suggest I should put my name in for consideration as the Downworld representative in this disaster-in-the-making political marriage.”

Catarina made a strangled noise that might have been outrage but might also have just been choking on her drink. “They actually…” She shook her head. “The Spiral Council wants you to marry a Shadowhunter? And they think this will prevent war with the Clave?”

Magnus shook his head. “No, no, they don’t actually want me to marry anyone. They just want my name on the list. Something about how much it would mean to have such a visible sign of my support. Which they will not get, because, as I explained to them repeatedly and at great length, I do not support any of this. And that’s not even getting into my lack of confidence in their assurances that I wouldn’t be chosen.”

“They’re probably right about that,” Catarina told him. “Rumor is the Clave is putting forward one of the Lightwood children, and I can’t imagine a world where Maryse and Robert Lightwood would allow one of their offspring to marry you.”

“Somehow, the council failed to mention that part.” Probably because they knew how Magnus would react. This lunacy was bad enough without the Clave deciding the child of two former Circle members, one of whom was rumored to be the Consul’s personal enforcer, was the best person to make a political alliance with the Downworld. “That’s a bullet I’m more than happy to have dodged.”

“What, you don’t see yourself having a mad, passionate romance with a Lightwood?” Catarina teased.

Magnus wrinkled his nose in distaste. “As amusing as it would be to see the look on Maryse Lightwood’s face if I did, no. I would rather marry a Ravener demon.” He took a long pull of his whiskey. “I would rather marry Lorenzo Rey.” He drained his glass, setting it down on the table with a resounding thump. “I would rather see acid wash jeans as the height of fashion for the next three and a half centuries.”

“Only three and a half?” Catarina laughed. “Not four?”

“Even a Lightwood couldn’t be that bad,” Magnus told her. “Another round?”

“That’s all for me. I’ve got another shift in the ER tomorrow, and the last thing I need is a hangover to go with it. I’m happy to keep you company, though. Seems like you could use it.”

“Your company is very much appreciated, as always,” Magnus said. “I’ll just—”

Magnus’s train of thought as well as his sentence were effectively derailed by the arrival of a fire message. He plucked it from the air with a frown that only deepened as he read.

“It looks like that’s the last drink for me, as well,” Magnus said, gathering his coat from the seat beside him.

“Anything I can help with?” Catarina asked, nodding toward the paper in Magnus’s hand.

“I’ll certainly take it if you’re offering,” Magnus answered slowly. “This could be very bad.” He couldn’t, after all, think of any good reason Iris Rouse would be calling him for help.

“Alec, you aren’t listening to me.”

Alec took a deep, calming breath, focusing on fastening the buckles of his thigh holster rather than how very done he was having this conversation for the hundredth time.

“I am listening, Iz,” he said, sliding the last buckle into place. “I just still disagree with you. And since this is my life and not yours, my opinion is the one that matters.”

Izzy grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her. “This can’t actually be what you want. If Mom and Dad are pressuring you into this—”

Alec snorted. “Trust me, Mom and Dad aren’t pressuring me into anything.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. They weren’t pressuring him into this, not really. His mother made her disapproval quite clear, for all that she’d also said this marriage was necessary for the updated Accords.

Izzy’s eyes told him she wasn’t convinced. “I know Mom has said some things about how you should be looking for a wife,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure Mother meant I should marry a nice Shadowhunter girl,” Alec said. “Come on, Iz, do you really see our parents pressuring me into marrying a Downworlder? Even for the Accords?”

“Then why?” Her hand on his arm was a gentle pressure now, cajoling rather than demanding. “You keep saying this is your decision, but you won’t tell me why you’re making it.”

Alec sighed. This wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, not even with Izzy, but it was clear she wasn’t going to let it drop until he did. “Because someone needs to do it, and I at least won’t resent it.”

“Are you sure about that, big brother?” Izzy’s eyes were intent on his, and Alec both loved and hated how she could always see his deepest doubts and fears, even when he’d pushed them down so far he could almost forget them himself. “You deserve to be happy, Alec. You deserve to fall in love with someone who loves you just as much. And I think that’s what you want, too.”

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” he said, shaking off her hand. “This is what I’ve chosen.” This was what he could have. At least in an explicitly political marriage to a Downworlder, no one would expect him to act like he was in love with his wife or ask questions if they didn’t have children.

If he were very lucky, maybe his future wife would be open to adoption.

“But you can still make a different choice!” Izzy insisted.

“Isabelle,” he said. “Drop it.”

Izzy opened her mouth to speak again, but Alec cut her off. “Come on, we’ve got a mission.”

He stalked out of the room before Izzy could say anything else, but her irritated huff of breath as she followed him to the ops center told Alec she wasn’t anywhere near as done with the conversation as he was.

They picked up the trail of Ravener demons just east of Prospect Park. Signs indicated maybe six or seven in the pack, which was worrisome since the original sighting was of more than twice that number.

“I can trace the trail back, see if it splits,” Jace suggested. “You guys follow this one and I’ll catch up with you.”

“All right,” Alec said after a moment’s hesitation, “but if it does split, call the Institute and have them send another team, then catch up with me and Iz. Do not go after the other group on your own.”

“Obviously,” Jace said, completely at odds with the hint of a smirk that told Alec that was exactly what he’d been planning to do.

Alec just barely refrained from rolling his eyes.

A quarter mile on, the trail split again, and Alec nodded to Izzy, indicating he’d follow left and she should follow right. He didn’t bother telling his sister to be careful. She might not always be exactly prudent, but she was very good at gauging what she could and couldn’t handle in a fight and had significantly better self-preservation instincts than Alec’s parabatai.

Alec made it another three blocks before he caught sight of one of the demons, darting from behind a dumpster to slink down a dark alleyway. Activating his night vision rune, he pulled an arrow from his quiver and turned down the alleyway after the demon.

There was no movement in the alley, no sound to be heard over the ambient noise of the surrounding streets. Alec scanned each dumpster that lined the alley, each pile of debris, searching for the place the Raveners had to be hiding. Ravener demons were fast, but not fast enough to make it to the far end of the alley so quickly.

A small sound drew Alec’s attention. It wasn’t the scuffling he expected, but instead something that sounded almost like a tiny, muffled sob. He focused on the area it came from, arrow nocked and ready.

It took Alec a few seconds to really register what he was seeing, sticking out from behind a pile of broken-down boxes. The toe of a small shoe. As he watched, the shoe retreated behind the boxes.

Alec lowered his bow as he moved toward the pile of boxes. Not all the way, because there was still a Ravener around here somewhere, but enough that he could approach without pointing it directly at the hiding child.

He debated speaking, which might put the child more at ease, but could also attract the attention of the Ravener, and any of its buddies that might be hanging around. He didn’t know who the demons were hunting, either. With so many at once, it was almost certain they’d been summoned by a warlock to track and probably capture or kill someone, and Alec couldn’t begin to imagine why someone would go to that kind of trouble for a kid, so they probably weren’t the target, but he didn’t want to take the chance that he was wrong, especially since the kid was clearly hiding from something.

Splitting the difference between the two options, Alec dropped to a crouch when he drew even with the pile of boxes and spoke in a soft voice.

“Hi there.”

He waited a beat, and when no reply seemed forthcoming, continued. “You don’t have to come out if you don’t want to, but this isn’t a safe place to be right now.”

Still, nothing.

“Okay, well, if you don’t want to come out, is it okay if I come back there with you for a minute? I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

Again, silence. Alec waited.

After at least a full minute of silence, Alec heard movement behind the pile of boxes, and suddenly he was faced with a terrified-looking little girl. She looked to be maybe six or seven years old, if Alec had to guess, and even though fear was evident in her eyes and posture, she met Alec’s eyes without flinching and there were tiny blue flames flickering across the fingers of one small hand.

Alec forced himself to keep a relaxed posture, even as he kept alert for any sign of the Ravener demon. It was just barely possible that the Raveners were after a warlock child, although Alec still couldn’t imagine who would send a pack that size after a kid, even a warlock kid.

“That’s a good hiding place,” he said conversationally. “I almost didn’t notice you.”

The girl regarded him with somber eyes.

“Can I walk you back home to make sure you get there safely?” he asked.

This time, she shook her head emphatically, but the flames around her fingers died, which Alec took as a good sign.

“Okay,” he said. “We can stay here for a while if you want, but I need you to promise that if anything happens, you’ll get behind me, okay? There are some scary things out here, and you don’t have to face them by yourself.”

The girl cocked her head to the side, considering, then nodded.

“Cool gills,” Alec commented, nodding at the girl’s neck. That got him a tiny, shy smile. “I’m Alec.”

The girl chewed her bottom lip, then said softly, “I’m Madzie.”

Before Alec could respond, a Ravener sprang from the shadows of a nearby dumpster, heading straight toward them. In one smooth move, Alec turned on his knee, placing himself squarely between the girl and the demon, and let an arrow fly.

He didn’t bother to watch the arrow find its mark—he knew it would—already turning to loose another arrow at one of the two demons approaching from the other direction. The second demon was too close to use his bow by that time, so Alec pulled his seraph blade from the sheath along his thigh and rose from his crouch to drive the blade straight into the demon’s chest. He felt a faint, sharp pain in his knee, probably a rock or piece of broken glass he’d kneeled on. He’d deal with it later.

A sound from the mouth of the alley had Alec spinning again, seraph blade abandoned in favor of his bow once again. He had an arrow nocked and ready before he properly registered what he was seeing. The man standing in front of him, watching him with open curiosity and something else that made Alec’s breath catch in his throat, was most definitely not a Ravener demon.

The door to Iris Rouse’s home stood open several inches when Magnus and Catarina stepped out of the portal on her front stoop. It hadn't been broken down or torn from its hinges or apparently forced open in any way, which Magnus might have considered a good sign under different circumstances. Given the recent disappearances, however, the door hanging peacefully ajar seemed ominous.

The two warlocks entered cautiously, but the house was eerily silent and apparently empty, with nothing to indicate that even a struggle had taken place. It was an all too familiar scene.

Magnus swore softly. It wasn't just a missing warlock this time, though. There was also the matter of Iris's message. Please, you have to save the children.

“We’ll need to search the house,” he told Catarina. “Not that I expect to find more here than I have anywhere else.”

“You never know,” she said. “Today could be your lucky day.”

“Seems unlikely, given how the day has gone so far.”

They decided to search top to bottom, and both agreed that splitting up would be a terrible idea. The first two rooms yielded nothing, exactly as Magnus expected. The third door, however, gave the first sign of something out of place. For one thing, it held two sets of bunk beds and a crib, plus a number of stuffed animals and a toy box tucked away in a corner. For another, the window stood open wide, white lace curtains fluttering in the breeze.

Catarina looked over the room, eyebrows raised. “Did you know anything about Iris raising kids?”

Magnus shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to Iris Rouse in over two centuries. I knew she was living in Brooklyn, obviously, but we were never exactly friendly, and we’ve been happy to keep right on avoiding each other. I guess this does give some context for her message, though.”

Catarina made a noise of agreement, kneeling to examine a stuffed rabbit that lay on the floor.

Magnus turned to look out the window, where a tree branch bobbed lazily in the wind. It wasn’t sturdy enough to hold his weight, but he thought it just might have been sturdy enough for someone smaller to grab a hold of and shimmy down, if they were determined enough.

“I think—”

A faint sound caught Magnus’s attention, causing him to pause mid-sentence. Catarina nodded, and gestured toward the closet. She’d heard it, too.

Magnus made a motion for Catarina to stay behind him as he approached the closet door. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he used his magic to fling the closet open, but it definitely was not the mundane woman who launched herself at him, teeth bared and fists flying.

Magnus stepped back, raising a hand to restrain her with magic. For a moment, the house was still and silent again. Then, the silence was broken by the unmistakable wail of an infant.

“You can’t take him,” the woman snarled, struggling against her magical bonds. “I won’t let you.”

It was a ridiculous thing for her to say. A mundane woman—barely more than a girl, Magnus realized, now that he was really looking at her—didn’t have a chance against two warlocks. But there was no doubt in Magnus’s mind that she meant what she said. If he and Catarina tried to take the baby nestled among the blankets at the bottom of the closet, this woman would do everything in her power to stop them.

“We’re not here to take anyone,” Magnus said in his most soothing voice.

“We’re friends of Iris’s,” Catarina added. Not exactly true, but close enough. “I’m Catarina, and this is Magnus. We’re here to help.”

The woman still looked suspicious, but when neither of them made any move toward the closet, she stopped fighting the bonds. Magnus released her as soon as she looked like she wasn’t in danger of trying to commit violence upon him. She immediately ran to the closet and scooped the infant up in her arms.

“I’m Leigh,” the woman told them, rocking the baby as its cries subsided. “They took Iris, and the children, too. I hid Noah, and I think Madzie might have gotten away, but I don’t know. There were just so many of them.”

“Who did?” Magnus asked. “Who took Iris and the children?”

Leigh frowned, her face going slightly vacant. “I don’t know. There were so many of them. They weren’t there, and then suddenly they were, but…” She looked at him, face all confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Which, of course, it wouldn’t, to a mundane. Except this mundane was apparently living with a warlock. Or at least babysitting for one. So, when the kidnappers dropped the glamor that kept them hidden, it seemed to her that they appeared out of nowhere.

Magnus had been paying more attention to Leigh than to the child, listening to her confused explanation, but he caught Catarina’s pointed look at him, then at the baby in the woman’s arms. She, at least, had been paying attention to the child.

Magnus glanced at the infant. At first, he didn’t see it, but then the baby blinked, and a second set of eyelids, like those of a raptor, closed across its eyes. The infant was a warlock.

“You’ve been through something very traumatic,” Catarina said, slipping into the voice Magnus had heard her use with patients. “It’s normal to be confused. Why don’t you sit down for a minute?”

“I…” Leigh still looked dazed. “Yes, thank you.”

“You said the people who came here took Iris and the children,” Magnus said. “What can you tell us about the children? It could help us locate them.” Not that he had high hopes, if they were warlocks like the baby. He hadn’t been able to track a single warlock who had disappeared. He couldn’t even sense their magic, which meant they were most likely dead, although no bodies had turned up.

“Madzie is the oldest,” Leigh said. “She went out the window when those things—” She stopped, shaking her head. “When the people broke in, and we saw them grab Dierdre and Indra. They must have broken in. I wanted to go, too, but I didn’t think the tree could hold my weight, and anyway I couldn’t climb down with Noah, and I couldn’t leave him.” Her voice was climbing, becoming more panicked.

“So, you took him and hid in the closet,” Magnus finished for her. “It was a good plan. You said Madzie escaped out the window?” he asked, latching on to the one piece of information that might be useful. If a child had escaped, there was still a chance he might be able to find her.

Leigh nodded. “I heard them come into the room after. I thought for sure they were going to find us, but they never came near the closet. I heard them follow Madzie out the window.” She frowned. “Except, that doesn’t make sense, either. Because an adult shouldn’t be able to climb down that tree, so maybe…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

Adult humans, no. But demons? There were plenty of demons small enough to climb down that tree. Hell, there were plenty of demons that could scale the side of the building, and several varieties that could fly.

“Can you show me something of Madzie’s?” Magnus asked. If he had something of the girl’s, if he wasn’t too late, he could track her. He might even be able to find her before the demons did. Or at least find the demons.

“Something of— Why?”

“Something familiar to comfort her when we find her,” Catarina lied smoothly.

“Oh,” Leigh said. “Oh, of course. There,” she said, pointing to the stuffed rabbit Catarina had noticed earlier. “That’s Mr. Flopsy. He’s Madzie’s favorite.”

“Thank you, dear,” Magnus said, grabbing the stuffed toy. He looked at Catarina. “I’m going to look for the girl. As soon as she’s recovered enough, take them back to the loft. They’ll be safe there while we figure out what’s going on.”

“We’ll see you there,” Catarina answered. Then, when Magnus hesitated, “We’ll be fine. Go.”

Magnus had no trouble at all picking up Madzie’s trail, which was on the one hand convenient, but on the other hand meant the demons probably weren’t having much trouble tracking her, either. The one solely good piece of news was that Magnus was able to recognize the girl’s magic from the residue on the toy, and he could still feel its echo out somewhere in the city. If the demons chasing Madzie had found her, at least they hadn’t killed her, yet.

It didn’t take him long to pick up the trail of the Ravener demons following Madzie, either. A warlock had scrubbed all sense of their presence from Iris’s house, but the trail popped up clear as day at the end of the block. Which suggested that whoever was controlling these demons hadn’t gone with them after the girl. They must have gone with Iris and the other children, wherever they’d taken them.

The trail led him half a mile east of Prospect Park before he heard the distinctive growl of a Ravener about to attack. Magnus ran toward the alleyway from where the sound had come, magic ready at his fingertips, only to stop dead in his tracks when he rounded the corner just in time to watch a Shadowhunter neatly dispatch three Ravener demons in rapid succession.

The man’s movements were fluid and efficient, arrows hitting their marks dead on before taking down the final demon with a seraph blade in a move that looked almost effortless even as his forearms flexed in a way that Magnus couldn’t help but appreciate. More impressive than the man’s skill at taking down demons, though, was the way he did so all while keeping himself between the threat he faced and the young girl behind him. The young warlock girl.

Shadowhunters were pledged to protect the world from demons, and even the most repugnant ones Magnus had the misfortune of meeting seemed to take that job seriously, but he’d met precious few who would put forth even the slightest effort to protect a warlock, not even from a demon.

Then the Shadowhunter was turning to face him, and Magnus found himself struck once again, because the man was stunning, with bright hazel eyes, full lips, and a jawline that could cut glass. He also had an arrow trained straight at Magnus’s heart.

Magnus searched frantically for something to say. Something witty and flirtatious, perhaps. Or something dignified and professional, as would befit the High Warlock of Brooklyn under such circumstances. Or just something that would reassure the Shadowhunter that Magnus wasn’t a threat.

What actually came out of his mouth was, “Who are you?”

For the briefest instant, Magnus thought he could see the hint of a bewildered smile on the Shadowhunter’s lips, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” the Shadowhunter countered. Then his eyes flickered to something behind Magnus, and Magnus whirled around to face a truly staggering number of Ravener demons pouring into the mouth of the alley just as an arrow flew past his shoulder to hit one of the demons in the chest.

“Kill demons now, introductions later?” Magnus suggested, tossing a ball of fire at the closest demon.

“Sounds like a plan,” the Shadowhunter agreed. “Stay behind me,” he instructed the little girl. “Keep your back to the wall.”

They fought surprisingly well together for two people who hadn’t even known each other long enough to exchange names. Without discussing it, Magnus handled the demons who managed to get into close range of their little group, while the Shadowhunter took down those further back.

“You know,” Magnus said as he watched another demon burn to a satisfying crisp, “normally I’d ask what a guy like you is doing in a place like this, but I get the feeling you might just be a killing demons in dark alleys kind of guy.”

“Not as many dark alleys as you might expect,” the Shadowhunter said. “And usually not this many demons at once.”

“Or with quite such charming company?” Magnus suggested. Only two left. “Because I certainly don’t.”

“Well, you’ve done a pretty decent job of proving you’re not the one who summoned the demons, at least.”

The Shadowhunter’s arrow hit one of the remaining two demons just as his own flames took down the other.

Magnus gave the Shadowhunter a sidelong glance. “Glad to know being in mortal peril helped with my credibility.”

Magnus turned to face the little girl, who was clinging to the leg of the Shadowhunter’s pants and crouched down to her level. She shrunk back from him, and after a moment’s hesitation, he unglamored his eyes. “Hi, my name is Magnus. Are you Madzie?”

The girl eyed him warily, then nodded once.

“Iris called me for help when the demons attacked your house, but I didn’t get there before you left. I’m sorry I wasn’t faster.” He pulled the stuffed rabbit out of his coat. “Leigh said you’d want Mr. Flopsy when I found you.”

The girl grabbed Mr. Flopsy and watched him shyly. “You know Nana?” she asked in a quiet voice. “Can you take me to her?”

“I’m sorry, sweet pea,” Magnus said, “but I don’t know where your nana is right now. I’m going to do everything I can to find her, though. And I can take you where Leigh and Noah are now if you want. My friend Catarina is taking care of them.”

Madzie looked at him for a long moment, then up at the Shadowhunter. “Are you coming?”

The Shadowhunter’s face showed a flicker of surprise before melting into a soft smile. “Yeah, I can come. I just need to let the rest of my team know where I’m going.” He glanced at Magnus, still smiling, and oh, Magnus was in trouble. “Where am I going?”

“My loft,” Magnus answered, too aware of the answering smile he had absolutely no control over. “In Brooklyn Heights. I’m Magnus, by the way.”

“Alec,” the Shadowhunter answered, his smile widening and making him somehow even more stunning. “I’m gonna,” he gestured over his shoulder awkwardly, eyes never leaving Magnus’s.

“Right,” Magnus said. “Call your team.” Finally, when it was nearly over, his day was starting to look like it just might make up for a little of the shitshow it had been.

“Yeah,” Alec said. And then his legs buckled beneath him.

Acting on instinct, Magnus reached out to steady him. Alec fell against his side, unable to get his feet back under him, and Magnus very intentionally pushed the way Alec’s back muscles felt beneath his hand to the back of his mind with a mental note to revisit that later, preferably not in the middle of a crisis.

“Sorry,” Alec muttered. “Sorry, I can’t—”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Magnus told him. “Are you injured?”

“Left knee,” Alec said, wincing. “Thought I cut it on some glass. Just need to—” He pulled out a stele and activated his iratze.

Nothing happened.

“I’m going to wager a guess,” Magnus said, leading Alec to lean against the nearest wall, “that it was not glass. Let me take a look.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Alec protested. “I just need to get back to the Institute.”

“Nonsense,” Magnus waved him off. “I’m right here, and it’s less effort to just heal whatever is wrong with you than portal you back to the Institute.” Probably. Maybe. “Besides, I owe you for rescuing Madzie.”

Alec’s voice was sharp when he answered, “You don’t owe me for that. She needed help and I was here. And it’s my job,” he added, an obvious afterthought.

“Then,” Magnus said, crouching down to examine Alec’s knee, “consider this my way of saying thank you.”

It didn’t take him long to find it: a small wound just beneath Alec’s thigh holster. Madzie crowded in beside him, and he let her look, hoping the small size of the wound would ease her fears that Alec was seriously hurt.

“Demon venom,” Magnus concluded. “Not much or you wouldn’t still be conscious, but it’s been in your system too long for your iratze to help. I’ve got a potion that will take care of it back at the loft.”

It was a testament to how badly the venom was affecting him that Alec just nodded instead of arguing. Or maybe he really did take Magnus’s line about a thank you at face value. Either way, he let Magnus put an arm around him and help him off the wall.

Magnus was about to open a portal when two more Shadowhunters dashed into the alley.

“Alec!” the dark-haired woman cried, rushing toward them.

“‘M fine, Iz,” Alec mumbled, very clearly not fine. “I’ve got everything under control,” he explained, before promptly passing out on Magnus’s shoulder.

#malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #fanfic

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