#the ask pile doesn't stop from getting taller

[brainrotcharacters]

Must be wild being an elder wolf of the Shaw pack and watching David grow up.

You live a life at the front of the pack when you're moving as a group. To set the pace. And your instincts tell you Gabe Shaw is on the back end of that line, monitoring everyone. Gabe is reliable, and familiar, and you're positive the mating bond between him and one of the females will click soon.

It does. David is born. Perhaps even born to succeed Gabe. Gabe doesn't mind. The pack knows David is his new priority now. You all don't mind. Gabe starts calling him Davey.

Davey is barely as tall as Gabe's knee when they're both in human form. His chubby face is frowning and serious when Gabe is being alpha. He watches Gabe as closely as he could; his young attention span, plus the other toddlers Asher and Milo, distract him often. It frustrates little Davey.

As soon as the meeting is done, Gabe sweeps up his son in one hand and nuzzles his fat cheeks. David protests, but you see him giggling. Gabe messes around with Asher's dad, and if you look close enough, Asher is also poking David until he's pissed enough to bolt into a run and chase Asher down. They crash into little Milo in a yelping pile of puppies. Their dads egg them on. The pack is full of idiots.

David's mother dies of illness.

As pack elders, Gabe confides in you of his grief behind closed doors. The pack meetings continue. Gabriel Shaw keeps things intact, because of course he does. David's human form seems to get taller everyday, his wolf form larger. He is encouraged to find his mate. He himself pulls away from Asher and the others. Asher forces himself to smile, "Give him time. He knows where to find us." Asher could be a wise pack elder someday, you realize.

Gabe dies.

You've never seen David more furious than when he glared at cars. Otherwise, he stares at nothing. Only one other wolf showed such trauma so young. You still lead the line when the pack moves from place to place, but it's David Shaw at the back of the line now. Was Gabe so darkened before he met his mate? You struggle to remember.

David's grief becomes grumpiness. Asher is his second in command, and his mediator to the rest of the world. The pack is more successful than it had ever been before. You know David's parents would be proud.

One day, David introduces a human. Angel.

And you've known David his entire life. He refused to invest in any relationship with a fellow wolf, or an empowered, for a list of reasons. As pack elder, you're more lenient in his choices to fix up the paperwork that would register Angel as an informed unempowered. David knows you'd give Angel the benefit of the doubt.

Outside of official pack business, Angel doesn't care about their reaction when they want to kiss David. When they want to hug David, human form or otherwise, they do it ferociously. Genuinely. You watch David smile at Angel, and you blink. David's mother smiled at Gabe just like that.

Oh. Oh.

Angel visits the pack another time and they're covered in David's scent. The pack knows Angel is David's priority now. None of you mind it.

The one time a crime punishable by death had happened, Angel had dealt the killing blow. The criminal put David at risk. No one stopped Angel that day. You asked David to relay that you're proud of them.

Angel visits the pack another time with a ring around their finger. David is laughing again. He's messing around with Asher, Milo, Darlin, and their respective mates. They guide the pups how to walk in either wolf form or human form, and when you blink, you see David's parents teaching him when he was a child.

And you wonder if Gabe and David's mother really left you. They're right there, in the love and the mating bond between David and Angel. And things are okay.

[scar-lie]

My Wife [Natasha]

I DO COMMISSION JUST DM ME FOR THE INFO

Summary : Y/N the adoptive daughter of Clint Barton got rejected multiple time by the Black Widow, the best friend of his dad

 Pairing :  Natasha Romanoff x Fem ! Reader

Warning : Cursing, depression

Word count : 5059

No one has permission to repost my work anywhere, if you see it please let me know.

"Here she is....AAAAHHHHH HERE'S MY WIFE." You beam while jumping up and down a little bit once you get up from the couch, pointing to Natasha, who just entered the living room from her room.

A series of laughs, especially from your father, Clint, who is happy to see you with this enthusiasm just by Natasha walking into the same room as you are, already gives you so much joy that it hurts to think to himself

"Arghh........please Y/N, I'm not your wife," Natasha groaned, going to the kitchen that's attached to the living room and getting a glass of white wine.

Pfff, yes, you are, even though I haven't put the ring on those beautiful, slender fingers of yours. You're my wife already........I know it," you said with a giggle, then ran to her.

"Stop, please, Y/N, I'm not your wife nor your girlfriend; for god's sake, I'm way older than you." You just ignored her sentence and hugged her from behind. Since she's taller than you, you cuddled your face on her back.

"Y/N," she sighs, taking your arms around her and pushing you gently.

"Come on, don't make your wife sad and pouty." You pout and give her puppy eyes, but she just rolls her eyes. She's already annoyed and already at her limit, but she just controls herself so she doesn't snap at you.

Natasha is already pissed and stressed by the paperwork. Fury gave it to her yesterday, and she still has one pile of it that needs to be done by tomorrow. This makes her beyond pissed, so your teasing and calling her wife makes her irritated, and the teasing by the team didn't help.

"Come on, Nat, don't make your little missy sad and pouty. Tony teases with a smirk and wiggles his eyebrows when Natasha's eyes and Tony's meet while you look over your shoulder and wink at them. That makes me giggle more.

"Nat, don't make my daughter, or should I say your wife, sad and pouty; you're going to regret it," Clint, your father, teases while drinking beer, and Natasha looks at him in disbelief.

'Seriously, you're pairing your daughter with me, your best friend, who's 15 years older than her?! ' Natasha asked herself and huffed.

Seriously, Clint, that's your daughter for god's sake," Natasha said in disbelief, and the team laughed while you just smiled at her innocently, hands held together in front of you, swayed your top body from right to left, and looked up at her eyes, and she scoffed.

"Argh....I don't have time for your bullshit," she spat, and she just left with her PB&J and her white wine, going back to her room.

"Another time," you whisper to yourself, a little hurt, then go back to joking with the team.

—

You're brushing your hair in front of your mirror on the vanity table while drying it. The only thing that's covering your naked body is your undergarment underneat the towel wrapped around your chest down to your mid-thighs when there's a knock on your door.

"Come in!" You shout with one closed eye, drying your front upper hair. That's when you saw Natasha enter your room in her black sexy dress, revealing her upper boobs and hugging her figures.

This makes you smile widely. Seeing your wife—well, not technically, but for you, she's your wife—wearing this beautiful dress and coming to your room here in the compound makes you flutter, so I put down the hair dryer, then turn around my chair, flashing her my wide smile.

"Arghh......will you cut that fucking grin of yours? You look creepy," she spat, but you ignored it and stood up, still smiling.

"Did you dress for me? Awww, you should inform me that we're going on a date." You fake pout, then run to her and hug her.

"Argh, get off of me, and no, I'm not going out with you; I'm here because I have something to tell you." Then she pushes you away, then crosses her arms across her chest, which makes her boobs get bigger, so I smirk and wiggle my eyebrows.

"Aww are you going to confess to me? That's sweet, but no need; I told you you were my wife, so it's—" she quickly cut me off with a harsh tone.

"No, and I'm here to tell you to stop calling me your wife; I am not, and stop going around and telling people that you're my wife because that's a lie," she said with gritted teeth and piercing angry eyes, looking at your soul.`

"I'm. Not. Your. Wife...............I don't fucking like you, your just a young woman who seeks attention to everybody, you're ruining everything, even my date, you little shit, just accept the fact that I'm not into you, you little attention seeker, she spat, the anger of her now spilling out, and this makes you shrink.

"You're out of my league; for God's sake, I don't need nor want a burden like you in my life, so fucking stop, you people's pleaser, bullshit!" she screams and gets out of your room, slamming the door shut on the way.

You just stand there, looking at the wall in front of you where she was previously standing, and a single tear falls down, followed by another tear. You're breathing heavily, and the towel around you makes you feel like it's trapping you tightly.

So you take it off, throw it away somewhere in your room, and start to claw your throat down your chest, crumble down on the floor, and crawl backwards until your bare back gets contact with your bed.

"Air... air...I-I....ne-need air," you rasp out, breathing heavily. Your neck and chest already have an angry red line, and you keep kicking the floor and squirming in your seat.

"Air......" Tears stream down your face as you try to get as much air as you can, but then there's another knock on your door.

"Y/N/N? Honey, are you alright? I heard some noises." Your Dad knocks, waiting for your response, but that didn't come; instead, a series of noises like someone keeping banging the wall or floor

"Honey?" Clint grows worried, so he quickly opens the door and finds you on the floor, gasping for air.

"Honey, oh god, breathe, baby, breathe," he said, taking you in his arms, holding you tightly, and putting your head on his chest.

"Listen to my heart and follow my breathing, baby," and Clint takes deep breaths while rubbing your back until your breathing is back to normal. Because of what happened, your body gives up, and you fall asleep in your father's embrace.

—

After what happened, you still call Natasha your wife, and this makes Natasha pissed off every time; even seeing your face already pissed her off. Of course, your father, Clint, didn't know what happened that night; all he knew was that you had a panic attack.

You don't want to cause any trouble between your Dad and his best friend, slash your ultimate crush—no, you've fallen for them—so you just make excuses and lie about the panic attack almost every night so you wouldn't cause any chaos on the team.

"Are you ready?" your father asked you when you came into the living room, bags in your hands.

"Yeah, I think all of my things are packed." You give him a sweet smile, so he nods.

"Ok, let's go; we're heading out now, guys. Bye." You two said your goodbyes to the team and waved at them. You turned around to go to the Quinjet but stopped when one voice bid them farewell.

"See you next week." You both looked back and saw Natasha just entering the living room.

"Yeah, see you next week, my wife." You wiggle your eyebrows again, and she instantly rolls her eyes, already pissed.

"Just get out of my hair for god's sake," she mumbled to herself, which no one heard, but you read her lips, so you just smiled at her.

"Don't miss me too much, ok? I'll just be gone for a week. Now be careful, my wife." You bid your good-bye with your father to Natasha and go to the quinjet, going home to your family that you missed.

—

A week and days go by, but Clint still hasn't come back to the compound with you, but the team understands when Clint informs them that he or you two can't come back just yet.

Well, you're not really a part of the Avengers (Your father didn’t let you just yet), but you grew up with them since Clint adopted you when they saw you—a 14-year-old girl trapped in a cell of a Hydra facility—so they took care of you, and Clint and Laura adopted you.

"Clint?" The two married couples look at the doorway when they hear a knock on the door followed by Natasha's voice.

"Nat? What are you doing here?" Clint asked once he opened the door, stepping aside to let Natasha get inside his house.

But Natasha quickly frowned, and then she got greeted with pure silence; not even Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel greeted her, especially you, who show enthusiasm when you see her, but no, it's a complete silence, like only Clint or Laura are the only people in the house.

"Nat," Laura greeted her with a hug, and she returned it.

"What are you doing here? Not that I don't want you here," Clint said, and they sat on the couch while Laura made coffee.

"I'm worried; it's nearly two weeks and you and Y/N still haven't stepped foot in the compound." Clint looked back over his shoulder at his wife, and they exchanged looks.

"What? What is it?" Natasha quickly asked, knowing that something was definitely wrong.

"Clint." Laura nods at Clint as her husband sighs.

"It's Y/N." Then he stands up.

"Follow me." Natwsha quickly stood up, and she followed her best friend with her heart pumping.

"I don't know how you will react, but hold yourself together," Clint said, and with that, they opened your bedroom door, and there you are, laying in your bed, back facing them.

"What about her?" Natasha asked, seeing that there's nothing wrong but you're just lying down in your bed.

Clint nods at Nat towards you, so she walks around your bed just to find you, looking at the wall blankly, eye bags under your eyes; you're smaller, and now you're skinny as she last saw you, and you didn't hold a single emotion; it's all blank.

She gasps at it and steps her foot back, shocked at what she saw—the once-held beauty of a beautiful smile and the spark in your eyes every time she sees you are long gone.

This isn't what she expects when she steps foot on the farm. The first time she steps foot on the Barton's resident, she feels something isn't right.

Because every time she would pay a visit, even if she was far away, you could sense it and quickly run to her and greet her with a warm hug.

She should know better to know something is definitely wrong from the first time she feels something's not right, which was a week ago, two days after that night.

"Hey...Y/N?" Natasha whispers, slowly walking towards you and crouching down to your level.

Natasha bites her lower lips when she doesn't get any reaction or a single move out of you; you're just there, laying down, looking into nothing.

"Y/N/N... he-hey...please look at me," Natasha whispered, softly touching your arm, but still nothing. She bit her lips harder and looked at Clint, and the couple just shook their heads.

"Clint, tell me, Natasha begged, walking towards them, so Clint pulled her out of the room and closed the door.

"I don't know Nat, I-" Clint sighs, closing his eyes. It breaks him to see his daughter like this.

"It's just one day she's like that," Laura continued, eyes full of worry and sadness.

"When we got home, she was so jolly, and then after two days, she's just like that. I should have known that something was wrong the first time I noticed she was so jolly." Clint holds his wife's hand tightly, and Laura squeezes it back.

"What? What do you mean, Clint?" Natasha grows so anxious that she starts to rub her hand on her jeans.

"She has depression, Nat; she always has." Natasha gasps at hearing the new information and looks back at your closed door.

"It's my fault," she whispered to herself, tears running down her cheeks.

"I want to stay.......here?" She looked at the couple and wiped her tears.

"Until Y/N is better.....please" She clenches her hand with her nail digging into her palm, and the couple sigh, nodding.

—

Since the day Natasha knew about you, she has stayed by your side and refused to leave you. She will tell you how beautiful the weather is or how beautiful the night sky is. She will also tell you stories and read books while she lies beside you, but mostly she's hugging you tightly. When the night comes, once your eyes are closed, her tears run down, wetting your pillow, and she quietly sobs while hugging you tightly, telling you how sorry she was.

"Y/N/N, I have some of your favorite Y/F/S," Natasha beams, entering your room, and she sees you there, sitting up on your bed, which makes her stop.

Y/N-," she quickly runs to you, puts the snacks on your bedside table, and helps you up because she knows you always lose balance.

"Going to the bathroom?" You just shook your head and pointed to the window.

Out," you whisper in horse, and this surprises Natasha, because after weeks of trying to make you say a single word or a letter, you finally spoke, but she quickly gets out of her trace and nods happily.

Ok." With that, she helped you go out and sit in the rocking chair.

"Wh-what do you want to do?" Natasha asked carefully, looking at your side profile.

You didn't answer back; instead, you just looked at the dogs playing in the field—the three dogs you love, and one of them is the one you saved from the explosion.

"Ok, I'll just get us snacks and drinks." With that, Natasha left with a little smile on her face.

You've been improving for over 3 weeks; you've improved a lot more than the first time she saw you; you've been eating at least 2 times a day, even if it's just a few spoonfuls of food; you've been starting to acknowledge your surroundings, answering them with a nod or shook of your head; your pale skin is now gaining color; and now, you want to get up and go out to look outside, which is a kind of big step in your stage.

"Ok, here are the snacks," Natasha said, resting the snacks and drinks on the table. You look at her and nod.

Thanks," she smiled, nodding at you.

"You're welcome" and means that you start to eat the snacks little by little.

"Ca-can..." you whisper and grab a drink. Natasha waits until you take a sip of water.

"Can...you tell me a story?" She smiles and nods, happy that you're finding some comfort in her stories.

"Of course." With that, she starts another story of her life before they meet you and rescue you.

In some point you're loving the stories she's telling you, specially when she tell you the stories of her sister Yelena in the Red Room, you even request it to her to tell you stories with Yelena in Red Room, you don't know but knowing someone suffer the same pain and having a similar backstories/past is bringing you comfort, that your not the only one who go through it all

But for Natasha, she doesn't want to share it; she still struggles to open up about her past. It's hard for her, but seeing you wanting to know it and the feeling of getting it out without judgment feels too good, so she learns to open up to you and let herself be vulnerable.

Slowly, you're getting better, and sometimes you're smiling too. You're joining them at the dining table and listening to their jokes. You even join them on movie nights. Either your siblings will cuddle you or Natasha.

"Dinner's ready!" Laura shouts, smiling that her eldest daughter is starting to go back to them again.

Hey, dinner's ready; do you want to eat now or later?"Natasha asked, looking at your side profile while you looked up at the calm night sky with various stars and your eyes sparkling while watching.

"Let's go." You look at her and nod, so you two go to the dining table and see everybody already sitting there, waiting for you two.

"Sissy, look, it’s your favorite," Lila said with a smile and pointed to the dish, so you smiled at her.

"Yeah, it is, thanks mom," you smile at Laura, and she stops herself to shed a tear and nod at you.

"You're welcome, my sweetheart." With that, you all pray and start eating while joking around.

D-dad," you giggle for the first time, and all of them look at you with shock and a smile on their faces.

"Yo-you..." you smile and point to his chest.

"You have crust on your chest," you say, and he looks down and gasps dramatically.

"Oh, silly me, hahaha.......I'm such a clumsy person," he mocks one of those girls in the movie who acted in such a precious move, and this makes you giggle more.

"My wife's giggling." Natasha can't help but miss how enthusiastic you are around her, especially when you call her your wife. She misses it, and deep down in her, she likes it—no, she loves it; she just doesn't want to admit it.

But this causes your smile to drop, and you look down on your food and take a small bite. With this, they all look at you, and Natasha grows worried, already regretting what she said.

"I'm not your wife," you coldly reply, and Natasha's heart clenches, so she just nods and tries not to show how hurt she is.

Now she knows how it feels to be rejected, and now she knows that this feeling is always lingering on her every day, hour, or minute, and it hurts her like hell.

"Oh...so-sorry-" she said, getting cut off when you stood up to leave.

"Wait, where are you going, honey?" Clint asked, standing up and going around the table.

"Up to my room." You refuse the help of your father and go up to your room by yourself.

This makes Natasha shrink in her seat, look down on her food, and clench her hand that's holding the utensil.

I-I. I'm sorry, Clint.....I-I fucked up again," Natasha whispered, and she quickly stood up to leave before anyone in the family could say a word.

"Nat wait—" Clint got stopped by his wife.

"Let her be for now, Clint; she needs space." Clint looks at his wife, worried. They both know how guilty Natasha is of what she had done before, and Natasha thinks she deserves to be blamed even though the couple didn't blame her.

She just needs something to hold on to to blame, and that's what she chooses; that's her way to cope up and fight for you, and the thought that she fucked up again didn't sit well on her mind; it keeps messing with her head.

Now, you're sitting in your chair, looking out the window, while Natasha takes a ride on her big bike, going as far away from you as she can. She just can't stand to be near you right now, so while she's driving, she keeps wiping her tears until she's out of town and parks at the nearby gas station.

She looks at the empty street and the night sky. She sighs before going inside the store and buying a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and gum.

"Why do you have to be stupid and ruin the best things in your life, Natalia? she hissed to herself once she got out of the store.

going far enough in the gas station with her bike and lighting her cigarette, looking up at the night sky, who shine with the stars

"It is really beautiful," she whispers to herself, only appreciating the night sky now. At first, she doesn't get why people, or specifically you, love looking up at the night sky. Even in the compound, she always finds you at night on the rooftop, laying down with the blanket on the floor and looking up, or at the edge of the building, feet swinging back and forth while looking up.

Now she knows why the silence, the calmness, and the beauty of the night help you and calm you down in times like this and especially make you realize some things you are constantly denying and what you've done and make your mind clear.

After a few sticks of cigarette while looking at the night sky, she starts to feel a raindrop starting to fall down and a thunder sound can be heard in the place, so she quickly steps on the cigarette.

She hops on her bike to go back to Barton's house before the rain gets worse, or at least she wishes, but she's so wrong because she's just driving back for over 5 minutes when the heavy raindrops start to fall down, soaking her wet.

Once she got back, she was drenched from head to toe inside her boots, and it was cold as hell, so she quickly got inside, taking her boots and jacket off.

"Nat?" Natasha stops and looks forward to seeing Clint, Laura, and you sitting on the couch.

"So-sorry about the floor," She whispers, and Laura gives her a towel.

"That's ok, go and dry yourself." She nodded and went upstairs to take a quick warm shower and change into her pajamas. Once she got out of her room, Clint was waiting for her with a crossed arm. At this point, she understands if he wants her to go back to the compound tomorrow morning.

"Clint look," she started, but he cut her off.

"I trust you, Nat; I trust you with Y/N's life; I don't know what I'm going to do; I can't read her; and she refuses every help we offer her; she just wants to be on the couch." Clint looks up at her with pleading eyes.

"Please....try Nat," he said, Nat looking at him hesitantly.

"It's not your fault, Nat; trust me when I say It's not your fault." She shook her head, not believing him.

"You're her light in her dark mind; you're keeping her alive. She saw something in you that saved her. You saved her so many times in any way you could possibly save her." She looked into his eyes with teary eyes.

"I want my Y/N back, the jolly one. But you're the only one who can bring her back. Please, Nat '' Nat plays with her tongue on her right inner cheek while nodding.

"I'll try..." With that, she composes herself and goes down where you are, passing Laura on the way.

"Hey...Y/N/N?" she asked softly, like the first time you look over your shoulder for a second and go back looking at the movie playing in front of you with the lowest volume, so she sat beside you.

"Can you tell me your story again, the one with Yelena?" you asked, still looking at the TV.

"Yeah, ok." Natasha sighs and starts to tell you her story of how the Red Room is programmed and how she needs to fight for her and Yelena.

"What happened to Yelena?" Natasha can't find a word, not a single one; she just shuts her mouth. She doesn't know how to answer your question.

Even though she and her sister are reunited and in a good relationship, she just can't accept the fact that she escaped the Red Room without her, so she just leaves Yelena alone.

"I-she..." she said, looking down on her hand.

"Did you leave with her?" She could feel your gaze on her, so she closed her eyes and shook her head.

"No," Natasha looked up to you, but you shook your head, going back to watch the movie. Natasha thought it was her cue to leave you alone, so she stood up and turned around to leave.

"I am her," you said while still watching, and Natasha looked back at you with a frown.

"What?" She waited for you to talk again, now facing you.

"I am Yelena," you whisper, fidgeting your hand, so Natasha sat beside you again, looking closely at your side profile.

"I was left behind too..............by my older sister," Natasha gasped, biting her lips.

"She left me behind the four walls of the cell in Hydra...............she just used me to get her way out there." You look at Natasha for a second and go back to the movie. Natasha is shocked to learn this story.

No one on the team, even your parents, knows this; all they know is that you're the only one left alive from the Hydra experiments; they didn't know that you have a sister.

"Wh-what happened to her?" Natasha wants to hold you, but she doesn't know if you want that.

"I don't know, but one day when I'm in training, they just throw her dead body in front of me, telling me that I will end up the same as my sister if I try to escape." You stand up and go outside on the porch, so Natasha follows you behind.

"I don't know what I should feel.........I'm-......I'm not allowed to feel anything." You start to go down the stairs of the porch.

"Y/N, wait, no, you're going to get yourself soaked." Natasha tries to get you back to the porch, but you're already down on the grass, where your body is starting to get soaked.

"I didn't know that I was bottling it up..........I don't know what feelings or emotions are." Natasha doesn't have any choice, so she follows you.

"Until I meet you and the team..........you all show me what emotion is." You stop in the middle of the field, 30 feet away from your house, and the fact that you're starting to shiver makes Natasha notice it, so she grows worried.

Y/N, you're going to get sick; please let's get back." She stands beside you. You smile, looking up and letting the raindrop fall on your face.

"And I hate it............" You look at her with teary eyes and a smile.

"At first, because that's where I start to feel the grief, betrayal, guilt, sadness, loneliness, depression, and how much of a monster I am—" your tears start to roll down your eyes, but even if they're running down your checks with the raindrop, Natasha knew you're crying.

"Y/N" Natasha is going to hug you, but she stops when you talk again.

"But I am grateful and happy because... over my entire life, I finally know and feel what happiness is and what love means." That's when Natasha hugs you, rubbing your back.

"But it's too much......I don't want to feel it anymore. It hurts." You sob on her shoulder.

Natasha's own tears roll down her cheeks while she shushing you, holding you, and comforting you while you sob, letting go of every emotion you bottled up.

"Let it all out, baby. Let it all out. I'm here. I'm not going to leave. Just let it all out." Natasha whispers in your ear while you hold on to her shirt tightly like your life depends on it.

"I hate it." Your sob subsides a little, and you tuck your head on her neck, already tired, and keep whispering, 'I hate it.

"I know...shhh, I know. I know, love. I know," she whispers, running her hand over your hair.

"Help me," you whisper, looking up at her eyes, so when she meets your eyes, she smiles and nods, happy that you're opening yourself to her and letting her in.

"I will.....I will be by your side every step of the way. Ok, cause I love you so much. I'm not going to leave you, ok?" your lips starting to quiver while looking up at her eyes.

"You love me?" A spark in your eyes didn't go unnoticed by Natasha, and she smiled, nodding.

"Of course, I'm your wife, and I'm going to put a ring on those gorgeous fingers someday." Natasha kissed your forehead, and she saw Clint running in your direction with two towels and one umbrella.

"Now let's go inside; you're shivering. You're going to get cold." You again buried your face on her chest while shaking your head, making her chuckle.

"But I like the rain," and that's when Clint quickly put the umbrella under your heads.

"Oh my god.......I thought something happened to the both of you!" Clint exclaimed, putting the umbrella he's using between his shoulders and checking while wrapping the towel around the both of you.

Dad," and you hug him, so he hugs you back tightly; it's been a while since he's been able to hug you.

"Let's go home now, sweetheart." With that, Clint wrapped his arm around your shoulder and led you and Natasha back to the house.

—

Since then Natasha always with you, she still read you book, tell you stories and help you every ups and downs on your life, she even take you for a ride every now and then, going into different places where she knows you will love and she even give you flowers even if she just steal some on the garden of your parents or someone else

With the help of your now-lover and your family, the team is constantly visiting you, and you've healed from a big rough patch.

Hey, you leave me for a sec there? "You snapped out of your thoughts, looking at your girlfriend for over 6 months now, who's been lying beside you in your sahred bed, in your shared bedroom; it's actually Natasha's bedroom, but she insists that you should move in, so every time you're in the compound, your room is Natasha's.

"Sorry" you whisper with a shy smile.

"That's ok, my love." She smiled, then started to tickle you.

"It's a tickle monster," she said, and she started to tickle your stomach, which made you squeal and try to get out of her grip.

"St-stop Natty... please," you laugh out loud, pushing her hand away.

"What? I can't hear you!"You scream when her fingers start to tickle your most ticklish spot, which is your armpit.

"NAAATTYYYY!" You scream, and she suddenly stops looking down at you, and you pant heavily.

"You ok?" she asked, taking a deep breath to get some needed air.

"Yeah," you look up and giggle, then her dementor changes; she looks like she is thinking deeply while examining your face structure.

"Nat?" you whisper, putting your hand on her right check. She sighs and leans on your hand.

"You look like an angel, my darling, and I really love you so much," she whispered, kissing your palm and laying down beside you, pulling you in so now your back is facing her, cuddling, her being the big spoon and you're the small spoon.

"And I really love you too, my big bear," You whisper, hugging her arm that's wrapped around your waist.

[jazzy-man13]

Hello! I like to ask/request, if you have time, could you do the TFP Decepticons and Autobots, of your choice, and with human Reader? Romantic/Platonic

Reader adopts twin sparklings or cybertronian babies, Girl and Boy Twins, and Reader doesn't know what species/race/alien the twins are, yet Reader's raising and loving the twins as their own. Same with the twins and their kinda Mama's kids (?), they're very attached, love, and also very protective of their human parent…

Then One day, they meet them, the Autobots/Decepticons, and that bot/con kinda like or act as parent figure, being co-parent to their adopted sparklings, and also having feelings for the Human reader.

Gn human reader with sparklings encountering TFP autobots/decepticons (pt1?)

Grrr tysm anon for the request, I had a lot of fun with this! I was gonna do hcs with several characters but I got carried away with a Bumblebee scenario- so um yeah here's that. I plan on doing a follow-up at some point with more characters (hcs) for this but I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer! Hope that's okay :))

Bumblebee-

You were out looking for more of the blue substance your twins fed on. It had been a couple days since you ran out, and the twins were getting restless. The girl, which you had named Goldrush, started gnawing on her brother, Darkage. Darkage didn't take to kindly to that, swatting her off of him with a surprised squeak.

You sigh. "What am I gonna do with you two?" You chuckled, waving the twins back over, not wanting them to wander off as they bickered. As you walked off the road and towards a cave that you hoped would have some more, you heard an explosion.

The ground shook, nearly knocking you off of your feet, before you saw a yellow car, followed by 3 purple cars, racing towards you at an incredible speed. With a yelp, you dive out of the way, the twins landing next to you in a pile. "You okay?" You ask, worridly turning to the twins. They nod, with Goldrush looking slightly agitated at Darkage for landing on her.

A dark shadow looms over you as you look up to see one of the purple cars, now having transformed into a tall bot, reaching down to grab you. With a frightened screech, you duck out of the way. The twins rush in front of you, standing only a few feet taller than you are, growling and snarling at the purple mech.

Before it has time to react, a yellow bot slams it in the side of its head, sending it flying out of your view. The yellow bot looks down, noticing you and the twins, and starts beeping as what you could only describe as confused.

You hesitate, not sure if it- he?- is hostile or not. He looks an awful lot like whatever your twins are, but way bigger. You figure he's probably a completely developed version of whatever species Darkage and Goldrush are. He reaches out to you, seemingly offering a hand to help you up. The twins growl at him nervously, waiting for you to make a move.

Unsure of the situation but not wanting to make the twins more anxious, you accept the yellow bot's hand.Once you're standing on your own two feet again, the twins calm down. The yellow bot transforms back into a car, opening the door as an invitation for you to get in. You figure that if he's the same species as Darkage and Goldrush, he'll probably have some of that blue junk you need. You shrug at the twins and get in the car as they latch onto the roof.

A short while later, you end up driving inside of a mountain in the middle of who knows where. "So, uh, where are we, anyways?" You ask, not really expecting a coherent answer from the bot that speaks in beeps. As expected, he beeps a few times before stopping inside of some giant base. He lets you out of the car, and the twins jump off as he transforms again.

"Bumblebee! You're back!" You hear a kid shout excitedly, before seeing a short boy run over. The boy quickly takes notice of you, as does a large white and orange mech. "Bumblebee, you brought another human here?!" They shout in unison. The mech sounding displeased- while the boy sounds thrilled.

"Uh. Hi?" You say nervously, glancing behind the boy to the large, and clearly annoyed, mech. "I-" The white bot pauses, looking behind you to the twins. "Are those... sparklings...?" He questions, looking at you with bewilderment and suspicion. The yellow bot, who you assume is named Bumblebee, now turns to look at you, as if he just realized the twins were there.

"I guess? I don't know." You shrug nonchalantly. "So... are you gonna introduce yourselves or just stare at me?" You questioned teasingly.

"The name's Ratchet, but-" Ratchet gets cut off by the young boy, who eagerly introduces himself. "I'm Rafael! You can just call me Raf- as you probably figured out by now, he's Bumblebee." Raf gestures behind him.

You smile brightly at him. "I'm (y/n), and these two are Darkage and Goldrush." You say, gently grabbing one of each of their hands and leading them closer. Ratchet tries to speak again, but Bumblebee cuts him off with more beeps. "Oh, Bee wants to know if they need energon," Raf tells you, looking at the twins.

"Energon?" You question.

"Yeah, the blue stuff that cybertronians eat." He replies.

"Blue stuff... OH! Yeah, we've been looking for some for a while now. They could really use it." You say, happy to know that you'll be able to feed the twins soon. "By the way, how can you understand Bumblebee?" You look at Raf quizzically. Raf explains to you how Bee communicates through noises while Bumblebee runs off to get some energon for your sparklings.

At this point, Ratchet has given up on trying to talk to you, and is now inspecting the twins for any injuries. Soon, Bumblebee runs back in with an energon cube in each hand. He kneels to the twins' level, and carefully hands one to each of them. Beeping sweetly, he coos at them, before noticing you and the others staring at him. Looking embarrassed, he turns to you and starts rambling about how cute they are.

With Raf's help, you're able to understand him, and the two of you start getting along remarkably well. He goes out of his way to spend time with you and the twins after missions, and he tries to teach the three of you some combat skills, to varying degrees of success.

The twins cling to Bee like glue whenever he's around, riding on his back or grabbing onto his legs, while Bee lets you rest on his shoulder. In Bumblebee's free time, he teaches you and the twins about Cybertron before the war.

As Darkage and Goldrush get older, bigger, and stronger, you and Bee are able to properly train them. With the twins starting to go on missions, Bee takes you out with him so you can supervise your sparklings.

To the cons' surprise and dismay, you and Bee make an incredible power couple/duo on the battlefield, in spite of your small size. The two of you are inseparable, and with your newfound family, you're just about ready to take on anything.

[marsupials-of-mars]

Ford spends his golden years on the stan o' war with Stan. It keeps him young; he chalks it up to the fresh sea air and finally being able to sleep a consistent 8 hours a night.

He feels like a kid again, adventuring with his brother. He teases Stan when he can't keep up, just brotherly ribbing.

But then it becomes a bit more apparent. It's not just good health. Maybe traveling through dimensions where time moved differently had latent effects on his aging?

Stan's shrunk a few inches. He's wrinklier, and his hair is thin. The Pines family reunion happens every year at the shack, and every year, the kids are taller, their voices deeper.

Grunkle Ford has a reputation through Gravity Falls for aging so gracefully. A few of the greying citizens have asked for his skincare routine, or for what kind of supplements he takes.

He attends Stan's funeral. He passed from natural causes. Mabel brings her daughter. When Ford gives his eulogy, he doesn't look a day over 65.

He scours his journals, checks his math on temporal relativity, searches the Falls for any way he could have been exposed to some sort of immortality curse.

Fiddleford passed away a few years before Stan, though he and Ford had both expected he'd go quite a bit sooner. Ford checks the piles of disorganized notebooks his lab partner had left him (everyone had agreed he was the only one who might be able to make sense of them).

He finds nothing. Even the time he and Fiddleford had found a lesser "fountain of youth" geyser, it's affects appeared differently.

He didn't look any older, even when he stopped getting consistent sleep. Even breathing landlocked air.

Bill checks in on Stanford. He's permitted to use a few of his all-seeing eyes, as a treat after his weekly (weeks don't exist here) progress checks. If he behaves, obviously.

He notices his old friend hasn't been looking so hot lately. He notices he hasn't been changing as much as the humans around him.

And Bill vaguely remembers a drunken night where, in a moment of fleeting sentimentality, he'd gifted his unconscious partner immortality as a token of appreciation for showing him a good time. What a surprise it would be when he found out, he'd thought.

He laughs. What a dumb thing to forget.

[out-there-tmblr]

Young zaundads wip (35)

***

If it was up to Vander, they'd spend the next week in bed, close and safe and only leaving it to eat and wash. Silco refuses to do that. He doesn't force Vander to go back to work, but lying around in bed without Silco is much less interesting.

He's surprised when Silco volunteers both of them for level one. "You sure?"

"Level three is closed until the engineers come down from Piltover. They need to work out if the coal there is worth the cost of reinforcing it," Silco says, as he signs for a pickaxe and shovel from the store rooms. No charges because they rarely use explosives on the established tunnels of level one. "You might as well be working with your friends."

Vander does enjoy spending the day with Benzo and Felicia. They see Connol a couple times, but he's mostly busy on level two fixing a broken cart. It's easier work. He doesn't have to hunch down to fit into new tunnels; there's space for two people to swing pickaxes. He doesn't constantly feel like he's taking up too much space, too big compared to Silco and the other foundlings.

If anything, Silco's the one who stands out. He seems smaller up here in all this space. He's taller than Felicia, but Felicia has no trouble swinging a pickaxe into bedrock or using a pair of gauntlets. Silco's swings just don't have the same power behind them.

Vander stops for a drink and passes the water flask to Silco. He doesn't even say anything, but Silco takes one look at his face and snarls, "Say one condescending thing and I will gut you."

Behind him, Felicia laughs. "It takes a couple weeks to get used to."

"Oh, great news," Silco says sourly but he listens carefully when Felicia makes suggestions about his stance.

"You need more momentum," she says, swinging her own pickaxe to show him. "If you don't have the power to brute force it, you've just got to hit it faster."

To Silco's credit, he does try to follow Felicia's advice. He straightens his shoulders and copies her stance, but the pile of rocks at his feet doesn't grow in a hurry. When the cart returns, Benzo and Felicia have a pile each, ready to load. Silco's pile might, if he's lucky, fill half a cart.

When the cart comes back the third time, after Benzo and Felicia have loaded their work and marked it off today's quota, Silco looks at his morning's work with dismay.

"You might as well load yours next," he tells Vander.

"Sure," Vander says, "give me a hand."

They load the cart together and wait for the runner to come along with a clipboard. It's a teenager Vander doesn't recognise, but he gives a quick nod to Silco. "Name?"

"Silco," Vander says and the teen looks up in surprise. "I'm just helping him load it."

The kid looks to Silco for confirmation, and only marks the clipboard after Silco nods. After the kid walks away, Silco glares at Vander. "What was the point of that? What good does it do for you to miss quota just for me to meet it?"

"I'll meet quota."

"You're a cart behind now, and–"

"I'll meet quota," Vander insists. He shrugs and figures he should be honest. "I usually exceed quota."

Silco raises one elegant and disbelieving eyebrow. "You exceed it?"

"Up here, where I can take a swing without needing to watch my head? Yeah, I exceed quota."

"By how much?" Silco asks carefully.

"Two carts? Sometimes more."

Silco knows as well as anyone that the quota up here is four carts per miner. On level three, where the work's slower, it's three carts.

"Fine," Silco says eventually but he sounds annoyed about it.

"Fine? You're not going to fight me on this?"

"This is not about accepting charity. This is about making the company pay for every cart we dig for them."

***

[sulumuns-dootah]

13. 12. Amy - Going for a drive

      ༺☆༻

⟡ Masterlist ⟡ 

⋆꙳·❅‧The Yule festival of Hell 2‧❆ ₊⋆

      ༺☆༻

“Hm... Yes, thank you...Goodbye... To you too.” you speak into your phone with as much restraint as you're able to muster up after being put on hold as many times as is humanly possible. Guess everyone's gonna get their gifts in February up to the beginning of March next year.

With a heavy sigh you set you phone down and get up to walk somewhere. Then a pile of empty boxes catches your eye. The boxes are on their way out anyway, so what's against a little stress reliever?

So you let your anger unleash on the poor cardboard, which doesn't even last that long under the downpour of your fists and kicks. You don't stop your assault until you're out of breath and have barely any solid piece of cardboard left.

As you're catching your breath, an amused whistle catches your attention. Your eyes fly in the direction of its origin. There you see Amy, leaning against the doorframe, casually observing you with a spark in his eyes.

You gasp and are about to say something, but instead, Amy pushes off and walks towards you to hug you from behind. He softly sniffs your neck and you could swear you heard the faintest moan under his breath.

“Mmhmm... You smell so good. Need some stress relief? I was just gonna ask you if you wanna go for a drive.”

“Haah... Please, drive me somewhere far away from here so I can just not do this anymore. That fucking post office sent my order to the other fucking side of Hell and refuse to do anything about it like it's MY fault and not theirs.” you close your eyes with a sigh and lean back into the warmth of Amy's touch.

“Ooh...Maybe you can tell me about it once we're somewhere where nobody will hear us?” the demon hums and holds you even closer so you understand what he's implying.

“Maybe... But only if you'll be a good boy.” you turn around and face the slightly-taller demon above you to look him deeply into his eyes.

Amy's quick to drop to his knees and look up at you with a puppy eyes. The sudden role reversal made his knees weak anyway.

Doing anything sexual is, honestly, the last thing on your mind right now, but maybe getting distracted with some spicy banter is what could make you feel better.

Affectionately, you pat Amy's head and run your fingers through his hair and tease the base of his horns a bit. He gasps and pants in response to your touches, wishing you did more than that.

Instead, you lean down so your face just slightly hovers over Amy's, “Drive sounds fun.”

      ༺☆༻

But wait, this demon also has a gift for you!

"Oi, wanted to give you a helmet too, but heard that the red lump was faster than me. So I got you your own bike!"

[saturnzskyzz]

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕

Lee: Sal Ler: Larry And brief Gizmo

(Found this on Pinterest)

𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: sᴀʟ ʜᴀᴅ ᴀ ʟᴏɴɢ ᴅᴀʏ ᴜɴᴘᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ ʜɪs ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴀᴛ ʜɪs ɴᴇᴡ ᴀᴘᴀʀ���ᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪs sʜᴀʀᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʟᴀʀʀʏ, ᴛᴏᴅᴅ, ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴇɪʟ.

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: | ᴛɪᴄᴋʟɪɴɢ | swearing | if it's not your forte then feel free to scroll right past! Safe travels! :]]

𝙰/𝙽: 𝚛𝚎𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍! :]

---

Divider credits

FUCK! It was a long day.. The loads and piles of getting boxes to pack was exhausting, to say the least. Immediately unpacking it all just might have been the worst part of it.. Not to mention the boxes afterwards going to waste in a storage unit. There was a lot of organizing and putting everything together. A lot of cleaning, talking, exchanging, agreeing and disagreeing, the PAPERWORK! You can tell by now how much all that is to just move into an apartment.. JUST AN APARTMENT! imagine what it's like moving into a HOUSE..

Anywho,

Sal was tired as hell. I mean who wouldn't, given the circumstances? But now that Sal is completely finished, he can finally relax- wait.. Is he forgetting something?

"It feels.. Empty. Too empty." Sal had whispered out loud to himself. Of course things would feel empty and Lonesome, it's a new place- new environment! What is there to feel crowded and warm inside when you're all alone in the apartment-

"GIZMO!" Sal randomly shouted.. Wow, Thanks for interrupting. The boy was right however, cause Gizmo was no where to be seen. All the moving and stuff had Sal so physically and mentally tired that the thought of his own cat swept his mind.

So,

For any logical young man to do in these drastic circumstances is to go retrieve their pet.

And retrieve he did!

Not even 5 minutes later, Sal had brought his cat home just in time to see Larry and Neil sitting in the living room area.

"Oh, hey Sally face!" Larry said enthusiastically. He had gotten up from his place to greet Sal and Gizmo by resting his arm on Sal's shoulder, and using the other hand to gently pet the unbothered feline.

"Do you really have to rest your arm on me everytime you see me?" Sal asked while moving his shoulder to try and get the taller's arm off. (It didn't work by the way.)

"As your brother, I am obligated to annoy the absolute shit out of you,, C'mere Sally!" Larry then wrapped his arm around Sal's neck without any actual force, causing the shorter to stumble on his feet, and started to give him a noogie.

"Wait- ssh-Ow!! Laharry?! Quit ihit, that huhurts!" Sal yelped in surprise, still holding Gizmo with pride. The blue headed guitarist tried to get out of his brother's hold, but it was to no avail.

"C'mon Sally~ if you don't want a noogie, then I'll give you my special Larry~ Annoyance!" the older stopped his noogie attack to dart his hands to Sal's sides.

"AAH! Lahaharry! W-wahahait!" Sal, a nervous wreck, panicked with how he's going to hold onto Gizmo without dropping him and feeling bad for the rest of that evening. Although the tabby was unbothered by all the moving, Gizmo couldn't help but to look up at Sal with a confused expression on his fur.

"Awe, look at Gizmo! He's curious about you, Sal." Neil chipped in on the commotion, looking fondly at Gizmo who tried to sniff out the sounds that were coming from Sal. The curious feline got close enough to the boy's neck, and continued to sniff out the sounds.

Unfortunately for Sal, the feeling alone, as well as the whiskers, had made the tingly sensation worse through out his body. He had become weak to the knees, but still had enough strength to keep himself up so he doesn't end up falling and possibly hurting his cat.

"Nohoho Gihizmo,, cuhuhut it ohout!" Sal said quickly. He was thankful that his mask was on so no one could see how beat red his face has gotten.

"Awee, look at that! Gizmo is one curious cat, isn't he?" Larry said, still owning up to his name and tickling the shit out of Sal.

"Ihihi'm gohohoing to ahahactually kihill you laharry!" Sal tried to sound threatening, but with how his childish giggles were betraying his usual mysterious image, it was hard to take him seriously.

"Oh no! I'm so~ scared! I need to hide.. But where?" Larry acted out in a scared tone to make Sal laugh even more like the tickling sensation and Gizmo's very affective sniffing wasn't enough already. To drag out his act, he moved his hands around Sal's torso and ribs like he was trying to find something, but really was acting on trying to "hide".

"StohAHahp!! Ihihi'm gohoing toho fahAAH!" unfortunately for Sal, his psychic-like powers were pinged correct as Larry darted his hands in Sal's underarms, and this caused the shorter to lunge slightly forward while bringing himself and Gizmo down to the floor.

Larry followed however, trying to use his strength to level the fall so the landing doesn't hurt his brother too bad, as well as startling Gizmo as much.

Luckily for the both of them, Gizmo took this as a sign to finally get off of the panicked boy, and strut over to Neil who was still watching the scene unfold on the couch. Amused as ever.

"LAHAHARRY! IHIHI- stahaha- *snort* Pleahaha-!" The poor boy was too ticklish to form any words, much to his dismay.

"Hoholy Macorle! This is hilarious! Neil! You should video this for Ash." Larry suddenly said, still keeping his hands in Sal's underarms.

"NO NO NO!,, Dohohon't!" Sal swung his head from side to side to emphasize how he doesn't want ash to see this side of him. Of course, they've had their tickle fights, but to have it taped and sent out?? That's too embarrassing!

Unlucky for Sal, however, Neil did what was asked and pulled out a recorder to send to Ashley.

"Hey, Ash! It's Neil. Just wanted to make this short video to show this adorable scene of Larry tickling the shit out of Sal!" Neil proudly announced, aiming the camera to Sal.

"NOHOHO! Pohohoint Thahahat thing ahahAWAAY- LARRY!!" Sal suddenly screeched while trying to block out the camera view when Larry suddenly hit a weak spot.

"Mahan! If only if you were here, Ash. His reactions are priceless." Larry said loud enough for the phone to hear.

The embarrassing blush that formed on Sam's check were thankfully not shown with his mask in the way, but damn was he getting sweaty from under that mask because of it.

"Ohohkay, you hahaha- had yohour FUN! plehehease stohop." sal pleaded. He was growing tired from the laughing, and both Larry and Neil knew it.

Larry thankfully seized his onslaught and let sal basically lay there to recover.

He basically curled up and took heavy breathes to try and calm down, still havin a bit of a giggle fit from the phantom touches.

"Alright, well Sal seems to be done, so hopefully you enjoyed his mihisery. Bye ash! Guys, say bye!" Neil suddenly said, catching Sal by surprised by him stopping his breathe for a second before completely drowning in his own embarrassment.

"Bye Ashley!! Don't forget you're coming over this weekend! See ya later." Larry said happily, waving at the camera while also patting Sal's back for a dramatic show for the girl.

"Plehease don't send that to Ahash!" Sal begged, looking up to stare and Larry and Neil.

"Don't worry, Sally. Ash already knows you're ticklish, so it's nothing new, haha." Neil said, analyzing the video that was proudly heard by the others.

"If you really don't want us to send that video to Ash, then we won't. Promise on my life, dude." Larry said sincerely. He stuck out his pinky finger to Sal with a genuine smile to show that he was actually telling the truth.

Sal was about to lift up his own hand to connect his pinky with Larry's until they both heard Neil gasp in surprise.

"Oh no.. I'm so sorry dude, I accidentally sent the video while Larry was talking.. I can try to delete the video, but she's already looking at the video." Neil said, apologetically. Still going by larry's word, he deletes the video and explains to Ash about Sal's embarrassment; reasulting in Ash being understanding of it.

"It's okay, I guess.. Let's just hope she doesn't try anything while over here for the weekend." Sal said nervously.

Yeah.. This weekend..

[inneedofsupervision]

Roll Call

Summary: Hajime is making his daily roll call when he notices that one of the Inmates of Cell Thirteen is missing. It is always troublesome dealing with them, and the prison director doesn't know what will happen if he gets his hand on Number 15 when he finds the teen. But he can promise one thing. Inmate 15 will regret running away again. (Re-upload) (also edited)

Lee! Jyugo / Ler! Hajime

"Cell Thirteen, roll call!"

Hajime walked over to unceremoniously knock with the back of his hand against the heavy iron door before promptly kicking it open. Black boots stopped in front of a heap of bodies lying motionlessly on the ground. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance, and he kicked against the nearest person, earning a tired groan. The pile of libs twitched and began moving.

"Number 69!"

"Yes, yes. I'm awake. No need to scream like that."

The tall young man with the number 69 tattooed on his forearm rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before getting up from where he had been lying. The man walked past the door, mindlessly raking his fingers through his colorful mess of hair that could rival a bird's nest.

"Fix your bed hair," commanded Hajime, fist clenching when Inmate 69 rolled his eyes at his words. Deciding to not waste more time on the American, Hajime continued the most disliked part of his morning routine.

"Number 11!"

"Huh?"

A blanket gets shoved to the side, revealing the face of Inmate 11.

"Oh, hi Hajime," said Uno, not bothering to get up. He threw the prison director one of his trademark smirks as he began brushing his hair. Hajime's eyebrow ticked in annoyance as Inmate 11 began braiding his hair in insouciance as if owning all time in the world.

Hajime just rolled his eyes and continued.

"Number 25!"

"Mhhh?"

The teen branded with said number was still lying on his futon, not moving an inch.

"Stop sleeping!" Hajime was growing angry.

He stomped into the cell, ignoring the protest of Inmate 11 as he kicked a bunch of the blond's hair products to the side to slap the green-haired teen on the back of his head, which made Number 25 finally open his eyes.

Inmate 25 blinked slowly before his eyes focused on the bald man.

"Ah, it's Hajime-chan," chirped the teen with his usual cheerful voice, suddenly full of energy, which made the man roll his eyes. It's always the same with these idiots.

"Only one is missing," thought Hajime, taking a deep breath as he couldn't catch a glimpse of Inmate 15.

"Number 15!" he called out.

The three other cellmates continued their morning routine, not minding the man who checked under every futon and even under the sink, his expression turning sinister with every second he couldn't find the teen.

"Number 15!"

He scanned the cell with his eyes, frustration growing.

"Ah, you're searching for Jyugo?"

Rock turned around, catching Hajime going through their heap of dirty clothes piled in a corner, now furiously checking everywhere for the youngest inmate.

"I woke up in the middle of the night, and he wasn't there. He might have sneaked out in need of a little midnight snack? Did you check the canteen already?"

"You're the only one here who would break out for food in the middle of the night, Rock." Uno laughed and playfully slapped the taller man on the back. The blond wriggled his eyebrows, a playful smirk growing on his face.

"I bet he sneaked out to see a girl~."

Uno clung to Rock and made some silly kiss movements in his direction, which made the purple-red-haired man snicker as he playfully pushed Uno's face away.

"I don't think that Jyugo would break out to meet someone. Maybe he wanted to get some new manga?" Nico grinned brilliantly as he shared his idea. The other two wore thoughtful expressions as if actually considering that nonsense as possible. Hajime clenched his fists, a vein popping out on his forehead, feeling the rage boiling in him as he listened to the pointless chatter between inmates 69, 11, and 25.

"How can you all be this dense?" he asked, shaking his head. He tramped over to the door before turning around.

"Seitaro will take you to the canteen while I search for your stupid friend. If one of you decides to try something funny, then you can prepare yourself for a punishment. Am I clear?"

"Yes!"

Uno, Rock, and Nico answered quickly, swallowing aloud as Hajime threw his infamous death glare at them.

"I hope Jyugo will be okay," said Rock, flinching as the door slammed shut with a bang. Nico and Uno could only nod in silent agreement. Hajime could be very scary when he grew angry.

In the meantime, the man had reached the control room.

"Supervisor! Inmate 15 has escaped again!" cried Seitaro, who had been waiting for him and was close to bursting out in tears as he ran up to his chef. Hajime rubbed his hand over his face, done with all the commotion. Couldn't he have one single morning where everything follows the routine? He sat down at the desk where a wall of monitors was set up, eyes scanning over them. The digits of the alarm clock above them go up, reminding them that they earned another minute with one of their inmates missing. Hajime banged a fist onto the table, a cup with stale coffee cluttering at the power he hit the desk.

"Seitaro!"

"Y-Yes, Supervisor?" asked the younger man, straightening up at the sharp call of his chef.

"You go bring the inmates from Cell Thirteen to the canteen. I will find Number 15 by myself."

"Yes, Supervisor!" cries Seitaro loudly and salutes. He nearly stumbles while hurrying out of the room to fulfill the orders. Hajime sighed again. Days like these made him question if it was worth the trouble. He considered calling the prison directors of the other buildings to inform them of their runaway. He quickly decided against it. Scenarios of what he would have to listen to if one of the other directors would catch his Inmate, Number 15 of all people, run wild in his head. He would be reminded of it at every meeting. The director's face pulled into a grimace. Dealing with these idiots of Cell Thirteen brought nothing but headaches and masses of paperwork. Hajime deactivated the sirens. The sound didn't help his growing headache. The man sighed before checking the cameras. It didn't matter how much security feed he skimmed through. Number 15 was nowhere to be seen. If Hajime wasn't so pissed, he might have been impressed by the sixteen-year-old for breaking out of his cell with such ease. He puts his hat down and runs a gloved hand over his head in thought, trying to think of where the teen could have disappeared.

His head tilted as a weird noise reached his ears. Turning in his chair, Hajime raises an eyebrow.

"What are you doing there, Kuu?"

The feline in question, which had been scratching at the door leading into the break room, stops to meow before trying again to get into the room.

Hajimes frowned when he stood up and walked over to the door, wondering why his cat would want to go there. Kuu had never shown interest in the break room before. Opening the door, Hajime is greeted by darkness, which Kuu doesn't seem to mind as the cat strides between his legs into the room, heading for the direction where the bed for the staff stands. Hajime was about to turn on the lights when something made him stop mid-movement. It was the sound of soft snoring. His eyes narrowed.

Turning on the lights and stepping into the room, the prison director of Building Thirteen had to take a deep breath, refraining from throwing something as the fury was about to boil over. On the bed right in front of him laid Inmate 15, whom he had so furiously searched for just seconds ago, sleeping peacefully. The vein on Hajimes forehead grew before he stomped over to the sleeping teen and promptly ripped away the blanket Inmate 15 was clinging to.

"Hmm, it's cold," muttered Jyugo when he suddenly got pulled out of his sleep by the feeling of cold air hitting his skin. His hands searched for the blanket but stopped when they couldn't find it. Mismatched eyes opened only to look right into Hajime's angry black ones.

"Oh, hi Hajime," muttered the still sleep-drunken teen, not sensing the dark vibes that evaporated from the jailer. He lazily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, blinking as a gigantic yawn passed his lips.

"Don't "Hi" me, you idiot!" shouted Hajime, promptly kicking the drowsy teen from the bed.

"That hurt!"

"I hope it does."

Jyugo pouted as he sat up and rubbed his side where the kick had hit him. Hajime glanced over his shoulder at the clock display, eyes narrowing. He couldn't believe how much time he had wasted on this idiot already.

"Stand up. We have to bring you to the canteen, although I doubt you earned a breakfast," retorted Hajime, waiting impatiently for the teen to move.

"Don't wanna," said the black-red-haired boy, who was now sitting cross-legged on the ground, pouting. "I'm not hungry."

"I don't care if you don't want to or not. You gonna move your ass. Now!"

"I don't care if you care or not," remarked Jyugo, squinting at the man.

Hajime clenched his fist. Jyugo looked up when he noticed a movement, and his stomach tightened when he saw Hajimes expression as the man stalked over to him with his fists tightly clenched. The teen instinctively moved backward, only to jump when he felt the cold stone wall of the room pressing against the thin fabric of his clothes. He should have refrained from provoking Hajime, aware of the man's remarkably short temper, but now it was too late. Jyugo might be the best at breaking out of jails, but out of this situation, he couldn't escape. He should have kept quiet for once. Jyugo swallowed as Hajime came closer. When the director stood before him, his boots only inches from touching his leg, the boy couldn't help but squeeze his eyes shut in fear of a strong punch awaiting him. And so his surprised yell was even louder when he suddenly got thrown over a board shoulder.

"If you don't want to go, I will make you."

Jyugo, who was still too shocked from being suddenly carried like a sack of potatoes, needed a few moments before he started squirming in the director's hold.

"Let me down!" protested the teen as he struggled and kicked in the hold. Hajime grimaced at the screaming and cursing next to his ear but continued walking down the corridor, not giving a damn about the kicking and protesting inmate hanging over his shoulder.

"Hajime," whined Jyugo after noticing that shouting didn't help and tried to pray the arm and hand off. He despised the thought of Hajime carrying him to, and even worse, into the canteen. He knew that the man would even go as far as to only let him down when they arrived at their table. Jyugo could already hear the teasing he would receive for it, causing a dark blush to creep up his neck to the tip of his ears. He had to get Hajime to let him down, and that fast!

"This isn't funny, Hajime! I mean it. Let me down!" cried the teen, and his struggling increased again as his frustration grew with every step the guard made.

"You bought this on yourself," reminded the man coldly, which led to Jyugo angrily hitting with his fists on his back while chanting, "Let me down, let me down," and kicking his legs.

"God, can't you just stay still for a moment?" asked the taller man and tightened his grip around the teen's waist just in case but stopped in his tracks when he felt the small body on his shoulder jump at the touch.

Jyugo managed to hold the squeal in when a finger dug into his sides, and he quickly muffled the sound by pressing a hand over his mouth.

"Number 15?" asked Hajime when the struggling, hitting, and shouting stopped abruptly, and the body on his shoulder stiffened. A frown appeared on his face at the lack of an answer. Hajime loosened his hold around the teen's waist, lowering him carefully to the ground.

"Are you injured?"

"N-no," answered Jyugo while avoiding eye contact, causing the man's frown to deepen. The prison director of Building Thirteen took pride in controlling his strength. The more it confused him how the teen had reacted when he fastened his hold on him. The kick from earlier couldn't have caused such an injury, and Number 15 also wasn't one to hold back complaining if something bothered him. The teen hadn't said anything about being hurt, causing Hajime to grow frustrated with not knowing what in the world caused that violent flinch.

"And what's with that jump just now?" asked Hajime, clearly not believing the boy, a bit suspicious about No.15 unusual behavior.

"It was nothing. Didn't you want to bring me to the canteen? Then let's go," tried the teen to change the subject, and was about to go when a hand gripped his wrist and held him back.

"If you aren't hurt, why flinch like that? If you are injured, we're going to the prison doctor," said the man and was about to drag the teen in said direction when Jyugo began to protest.

"I don't need to go to the doctor. I'm fine!"

Hajime sighed at the stubborn teen before he stopped and turned around. Number 15 had the nerve to glare at him.

"If you don't want to go to the doctor, fine, but I will not let you out of my eye without checking if you are unharmed. I am obligated to prevent you and your cellmates from getting harmed. If there is a suspicion of injury, I must act on it."

"Why aren't you believing me? I said I'm fine!"

Jyugo had almost been touched by Hajime's words, not used to the man talking this openly about trying to keep them from getting hurt, if it weren't for the fact that the man was still about to look at his waist, undoubtedly needing to touch him and thus exposing his until now, well-kept secret.

He tried making a dash for it. He must have given away his idea somehow, as a pair of arms blocked his way before he could do one step. Jyugo's eyes widened, and he tried to stop from running straight into Hajimes arms but failed spectacularly. In his attempt to slow down, he stumbled over his feet, falling face forward, and crashed into a muscled chest.

"You are not making this easier on yourself, Number 15."

With these words, Hajime pinned Jyugos wrist with one hand against the wall behind him and promptly started to strobe the teen's body in search of injuries or bruises.

"Hey, get your hands off! You cannot just touch me. That has to be against more than one law."

Hajime stopped at that, glancing down at the teen, almost impressed. The corner of his mouth pulled up.

"You are right about that," he calmly stated.

"Then get your hands off me, you perv," growled Jyugo, waiting to be freed, only to stare shockedly at the man as the other just kept going.

"What are you doing? You just said you're not allowed to do that!"

"In case of allegedly keeping weapons, Guards have the permission to search inmates at all times."

"Weapons? I don't have any weapons on me," protested the teen, not believing what he just heard. "That's a bad excuse!"

Hajime ignored his protest and continued looking for hidden injuries, not caring for being called out on him, bending the rules as he pleased. Meanwhile, Jyugo had to bite his teeth together so he wouldn't make any telltale sounds. His jaw clenched, and his body was tense as a bowstring as the finger fluttered over the soft textile of his uniform. It came close to impossible as his upper ribs, sides, and the front of his stomach got thoroughly prodded and touched. If Hajime found out that he had flinched because it had tickled, then Jyugo was sure he would die of embarrassment. No one knew he was ticklish, and Jyugo would like to keep it that way. It was already hard enough to avoid getting involved in the tickle fights that seemed to break out permanently between the other three members of their cell. Jyugo knew that he would be screwed when his cellmates found out just how ticklish he was.

So, one could imagine why the teen wasn't eager for Hajime to find out about his little secret first. It seemed he didn't have to die jet as Hajime looked to have finished his examination. Jyugo relaxed and noticed that he had been holding his breath the whole time the older man had looked for bruises or broken bones.

"Ah, wait, I haven't looked at your lower ribs yet," said the taller man. Before Jyugo's brain registered just what came out of Hajime's mouth, fingers were softly digging into his sides and lowest rib. The teen couldn't suppress his body from violently flinching away. The tiniest giggle escaped him, and Jyugo prayed to God above that Hajime didn't hear it, but luck wasn't on his side today.

"What was that?" asked Hajime, surprised. He looked at a now furiously blushing Number 15.

"N-nothing. You're done with examining me now, aren't you? No weapons, no injuries, or whatever you searched. You can let me go now." During his nervous speech, Jyugo had pulled at his wrists to underline his point.

"Did you just giggle?" asked Hajime, who didn't let himself be fooled by the younger man and poked experimentally at Jyugo's side.

"Come on, Hajime, let me go. There is no point in STOP IT!"

Jyugo shrieked and tried to bend his body to the side as the older man playfully poked his sides a few times, trying everything to avoid the hands. Hajime's lips curled into a sly smirk as the realization hit him.

"You're ticklish."

Hearing these two words was enough to drain all color of Jyugo's face. It got worse when he registered that it hadn't even been a question. Hajime knew. Their director knew he was ticklish. It would only be a matter of minutes until everyone would know.

"Oh my god."

The whimper came over his lips before he could stop it. The paleness got chased away as a bright red blush crawled onto the teen's face.

"That's what you have been trying so hard to hide, huh?"

The tone in the director's voice sent shivers down Jyugos spine, and he knew by the gleam that was glinting in the man's eyes that he was screwed.

"Me being ticklish? No, that would be way too childi-hmpf!" Jyugo had tried to play the question off with a sassy remark but barely managed to hold in a high-pitched squeal. Hajime pulled his hand away from where his pointer had reached out to poke the teen in the middle of his stomach.

"What's wrong, Number 15? Are you certain that you're not hurting anywhere? Maybe I should look at your ribs again to make sure?" asked the prison director with mock concern before he pretended to check Jyugo's ribcage. He poked and prodded between the sensitive bones, making it difficult for the black-red-haired teen to hold still. The higher the fingers wandered, the more Jyugo twitched and squirmed under the touch, tightly pressing his lips together, trying to prevent the giggles from revealing his poorly kept secret. He was so embarrassed by this whole situation. The teen couldn't give Hajime the satisfaction of breaking him. When Hajime reached his highest rib, the teen couldn't help the snicker that made it past his lips.

"Hmm, did I find a bruise here? Let's better check that, right?"

Hajime would never admit it, but this little discovery of Number 15 weakness is entertaining him immensely. With a grin, he wiggled his fingers at Jyugos outstretched armpit. At this point, the professional jailbreaker couldn't hold it in anymore. Bubbly laughter sputtered out of him like water without the fingers even touching him.

"Not ticklish. Of course, that's exactly what not ticklish looks like."

Hajime smirked, switching places and tickling the young teen's unprotected tummy. Jyugo's knees bucked under him, his legs barely holding his widely squirming body upwards when he threw his head back, loud childish giggles and shrieks escaping him.

"Nyahahah, Hajihihimehe don't," cackled the young man as fingers dug into the soft sides of his stomach, sending ticklish sparks through his body and making him jump as they hit a sensitive spot. He had a lot of those. Jyugo pulled at his wrist, trying to lower his arms and protect himself from the tickling. Once again, he had to accept that their director would always be the stronger of the two whenever it came to bodily strength. The man was just too strong, and Jyugo couldn't do anything but laugh and contort helplessly when Hajime mercilessly attacked his upper body with tickles.

"Don't what? I thought you weren't ticklish," mocked Hajime, smirking as he pinched the spot right under the teen's armpit and over his highest rib, which made Jyugos legs give in. He was now only being held up by the Hajime's grip on his wrists.

"Nahaha Hajimehe I-I canahahn't," whined Jyugo through his laughter and chortled as fingers started wriggling in his outstretched armpit before they wandered down and gave his hipbone an experimental squeeze. The teen nearly kicked Hajime against his shin at that.

"I hope you learned your lesson for breaking out of your cell and sleeping in the night duty room again," said Hajime calmly while reaching for the teen's leg, giving his knee some good squeezes, which made the boy scream in laughter.

"YEHEHEHES. I-I PROHOHMIHIHSEHE! NAHA, STOHOHOP PLEHEHE."

Jyugo couldn't even finish the sentence anymore. Tears of laughter started gathering in the corner of his eyes while his body twitched and bucked under Hajime's touch.

"You're sure?" asked Hajime, teasing the teen to ensure he learned his lesson.

"Yehehess!" was all the cackling boy could bring out between shaky giggles before the other finally let go of him. Jyugo tiredly slid down the wall, panting hard as he wiped a tear from his cheek.

"You nearly killed me," complained the panting teen as he glared tiredly at the guard.

"That wouldn't have happened if you would sleep in your bed. At the next roll call, I don't want to see you anywhere except your cell. Did I make myself clear?"

The guard turned his head sideways as the corner of his lips turned up in amusement. He had never seen Number 15 like this. The teen was thoroughly spent, head resting against the wall with his eyes closed, almost as if he was ready to go back to sleep. Jyugo gave him a tired note, too drained to verbally answer.

"That's how one gets to shut you up, huh? I need to remember that. Get up now. I won't listen to your complaining about getting hungry later when you missed breakfast."

At that, Jyugo lifted his head, a challenging gleam in his eyes.

"I could break out and get myself something to eat any time of the day."

He regretted the words as soon as he said them, as the next moment, he found himself back on Hajime's shoulder.

"Hajime, let me down! It was a joke! Seriously, let me down. Hajime, please, they will make fun of me!"

"You should have thought about that before being mouhty."

"Hajime!"

Hajime shook his head at the protest. God, how he hates roll calls.

[william-solace-aaaaa]

Second chapter of my book!

1st chapter here:

@nico-di-angelo-aaaaa @averagehopelessguy @andrew-and-flower @camstargone @dontbothermeimtired

Hope yall like it

1064 words

My dog can fly

Once Ariel and I had left, she showed me where she found me. This place had some sort of different vibes, like some crazy vibes. There were so many weird little creatures, I don't think I was in England anymore...

There were little animals that looked like flowers and mushrooms. They were so tiny that they could probably fit in your hand. 'Aw, that's adorable!' I said because they were. I wanted to step on one. 'Where are they going?' I asked as we continued walking into the forest. 'And what are they?' 'They're plants.' Ariel informed. 'Oh.' 'Not a very creative name.' I said (very smartly). 'No, they're plants that have been enchanted by magic users.' Which is stupid because magic doesn't exist. 'Magic doesn't exist.' 'Yes, it does,' 'especially here. This is a magic forest.' Oh. 'I knew that.' I said, because I did. I one-hundred percent knew that.

The forest did feel like it had some ominous magical stuff everywhere. Ariel informed me that the unnaturally tall trees that I fell into were so tall because of the magic in the ground and nature, and sometimes it can make the smaller plants sentient (hence the weird flower creatures). Ariel said they were called Asi.

The further and further we got into the forest, the taller and taller the trees got; every step felt like it was being watched. We stopped. 'This is where I found you.' She said, pointing to a pile of blood. Woah, was that all my blood? 'What were you doing this far into the forest? It feels... creepy.' 'The deeper into the forest, the more magic there is. I usually don't go this far, but I heard screaming and a large thud,which i presume was you.' She said, and if I fell around here, then Ruby shouldn't be that far!

'Why is the forest magic, And how did it happen?' I asked, the thought had been chewing at my mind for a while. 'Well, 16 years ago, a queen named Lilith had come to Emaia. She said that she wanted to make a deal with the king that her son, Killian, and his daughter, Eliza, would both get married when they were old enough. But the king said no because he knew Lilith was a magic user and that anyone who was to make a promise to her would have no choice but to follow it through.'

'You see, magic users are people that have been born with powers, and no two magic users have the same ability.' I didn't sign up for a history lesson. She continued anyway, though.

'Some say what made the king really decline, though, was that Lilith was dangerous. Her kingdom, Fenadi, were known for their magic users; Lilith's father had caused chaos throughout the entirety of Emaia because his magic was destruction. He could destroy anything with just a thought. There was a war between Emaia and Fenadi, and many lives were lost, the Queen of Emaia had died by the hands of Lilith's father, so the proposal of his daughter someday marrying the grandchild of the man who killed his wife had outraged him.' Wow, this was the most interesting history lesson ever.

'When he declined Lilith's offer, though, she was angered. She had gone out of her way to try and mend both the kingdom's reputation within each other. Lilith had decided that she had been disrespected, and so she had waged another war on Emaia. A war of which is still going on. The king banned all magic users from ever entering his kingdom after that-' There was a noise in the distance. Some kind of animal. 'Ruby?' I said before dashing towards the sound. 'Eric, wait!' Ariel said as she ran after me. The animal had sounded hurt. Was it Ruby? Was Ruby hurt?

I ran. I ran as fast as I could, tripping over logs and bumps in the ground. The noise was definitely Ruby. It sounded just like when she wanted my food, even though she had just eaten. God, Ruby must be hungry. I'll be sure to get her some amazing food. 'Agh!' I tripped, allowing Ariel to catch up to me.

'Eric! You can not just run off like... that.' She trailed off. 'What is it?' I said, looking as her face twisted into one of alarm and confusion. 'Is...' she started. 'Is that Ruby?' She said, pointing towards a dog-like creature.

That was Ruby, alright.

It was her, just, it wasn't. Ruby looked the same except for the red scales covering some patches of her fur, the stubby horns coming out of her head, and a pair of scaly, golden-red wings.

'Ruby?' I said cautiously. She looked over at me for a second before recognising me and running up to me, licking my face and making it wet with dog spit. I would've been really grossed out if I wasn't so happy.

'Ruby!' I said, giggling and wiping my face with my clothes. Sorry, Sebastian. I still hadn't gotten my own clothes yet so I've been wearing the biggest clothes ever. Like, I get that he's buff, but I'm pretty bulky too, if I do say so myself.

'I thought you said she was a dog. Why does she have wings?' Ariel said, doing something that looked like a silent prayer. 'She is! Well- erm, was.'

'Okay. Okay. That's fine. That's cool. It's totally not a dragon dog thing that could probably kill us all. Nope. Cool.' 'Hey! She's a she, not an it.' I said as Ruby licked me again. How could Ruby kill us? Just because she has wings and scales now doesn't mean she's gonna hurt anyone! Ariel was just being dramatic.

Ruby seemed to be limping. 'Come here, girl.' I said as she came over to me. I grabbed her paws and saw that she had some scrapes and cuts on them. Well, it's better than what happened to me.

'Wanna go back now? I'm getting cold.' Ariel said, gesturing at the sky. Damn. It was almost pitch black. Thanks a lot, history lesson. 'Yeah, let's go. Come on, Rubes.' I said, picking her up, careful not to hurt her.

Even when we got out of the magic woods and back to the house, I couldn't seem to shake the feeling of being watched.

[blackjackkent]

Woohoo, didn't have to work late today so I can continue Rakha's adventures in the Gauntlet of Shar!

Specifically today we get to go deal with Yurgir. And hey - things are DIFFERENT than they were for Hector! Which is always exciting. (I'm assuming this is because Rakha already fought and killed ratboy.)

Things already felt a bit different because I didn't catch early sight of the displacer beast like I did on my previous run. I wondered if I'd just missed it, but walking down in the direction of Yurgir's hideout, all the merregon minions are just sort of wandering around and don't seem to take any notice of Rakha whatsoever:

Yurgir himself, too, is off his usual ambush platform and instead standing down at the front of the room near his bed made of dead bodies:

Rakha stumbles in on all this entirely by accident. She's focused on finding the library that Shadowheart mentioned, and the Spear within it - and then all of a sudden, she isn't thinking about that at all.

The room is... incredible. Appalling. Delicious. The beast squirms in her head as she looks around, taking in the piles of corpses mounded in every corner of the enormous hall. There is blood spattered on the floor, on the dramatic marble columns, in the braziers. Bodies hang from the ceiling.

Several small infernal-looking beings trot around the room; one of them sniffs at Rakha idly and then takes no further notice. At the far end of the room, next to a pile of corpses that makes the beast go from interest to open salivation, is a much larger figure - a muscular devil with a crown of sharp horns and battered armor.

Is this the monster Raphael spoke of? The infernal force lurking in the depths of this place? Rakha wants to consider him more deeply, but it is hard to focus as the beast struggles for control.

(A/N: Yurgir doesn't even start the conversation on proximity this time; I have to click on him deliberately. :O )

"Wait-- quiet!" the hulking devil snaps as their footsteps approach. He rounds on them and stares wide-eyed - not at them but past, listening intently.

Then he draws a sharp breath inward. "...It's gone. The song is gone! The contract is completed!" The tone of utter joy in his booming voice is entirely incongruous to anything around them, and Rakha blinks rapidly; this is perplexing enough that the beast settles in her head for a moment, enough for her to speak.

"Song?" she asks. "Contract? What are you talking about?"

The devil's head has tipped back and his face bears an air of wonder. "I was bid by Raphael to slay every Justiciar I found in this place," he murmurs. "The contract was a song, one stuck in my head until I finished the deed. I had to hum that blasted tune for *years.*" He looks around wildly. "But now the song has stopped. The contract is fulfilled!"

He pauses, leans forward to squint down at Rakha. It's rare enough that Rakha speaks to someone taller than her, but he has at least a foot and a half over her height. "I suppose you showing up at the same time is no coincidence..." he says slowly.

Rakha's eyebrows shoot up. Several facts about the situation suddenly click into place, fact and fact and fact, out of nowhere.

They have only seen one living Justiciar in the Gauntlet - the one who had been hiding in the form of a horde of rats; all the others have been empty armor suits.There was a book next to the ritual circle where they fought the rats - a book that made no sense. It had Raphael's name signed in it, next to the incantations that originally shattered the Justiciar apart.

This devil was given his task by Raphael, who then simultaneously orchestrated the spell that made it impossible to complete. Raphael has been playing a double-cross.

Whatever his reasons, this does not surprise Rakha at all. "There was one last Justiciar," she says flatly. "Dead now. Raphael helped him hide from you."

She feels a flicker of deep satisfaction as the devil's face contorts with rage. "That conniving sack of worms!" he roars. "I should've known! I should've ripped his tongue out before he even spoke of this contract!"

He clearly has a lot more to say on the subject, but before he can really get into full voice, there's a sudden sharp snap and a flare of flame from Rakha's right side. She jumps with a startled noise, and spins in time to see Raphael appear out of thin air, leaned against one the pillars in the ancient, decaying room.

"Here I am, Yurgir," he says with a casual smirk, deeply pleased with himself. "Tongue and all, precisely on time for a lesson in semantics. Devil's in the details, you see, and the details are in the fine print."

He pushes himself slowly off the pillar and fully onto his feet. The other devil - Yurgir - has a crossbow leveled at his chest, but he seems utterly unconcerned by it. "You were to fulfill the deal," he says coolly. "Nowhere does it stipulate you could subcontract the last kill to the first adventurers' party that came trotting along." His eyes flick pointedly at Rakha, who is standing unmoving oblique to both of them, watching the conversation play out with considerable bemusement. Then he looks back at Yurgir, and his smile widens. "In short - you're in breach of contract, my friend. Oh, dear..."

Yurgir's eyes have widened again - this time with dismay rather than relief. "BACK TO THE HELLS with what we agreed!" he roars, and cocks the crossbow with a jerk. "I have you now, Raphael. Pay the debt, and I will make this quick!"

Raphael quirks an eyebrow up and shrugs. "Consider your position," he says casually. "You are about to forfeit what reputation you have left. No contracts, no fame, no power. You'll be a streak of excrement even lemures will slither away from." His eyes narrow. "Unless, of course, you consider instead my infinite mercy. A new contract. A chance to balance the books." He peers around the blood-soaked room with a sneer. "Not to mention a welcome change of scenery."

Rakha absorbs everything that is happening and with every word her hatred for Raphael deepens. This is just like Mizora's mocking of Wyll, dangling the contract before him and the threat of the terrible punishment that comes from breaking it. This Yurgir has done what was asked of him, and Raphael is finding ways to twist it to his own advantage anyway.

One thing solidifies in the back of her mind. Astarion can not be allowed to pursue whatever interest he has in talking to Raphael. There will be no good outcome.

Yurgir, however, is already too tangled in Raphael's web to escape. "Bastard. Fine," he mutters coldly. "On one condition - no more songs."

Raphael chuckles, as if this is a joke. "What's a contract without whimsy, I say," he says blithely. "But fine. No more songs. Now off to the House of Hope for cocktails and canapes, and a brand new signature on a brand new deal. But first..."

He flicks another narrow-eyed glance at Rakha. It's obvious that he knows perfectly well that she hates him, but the unflinching smirk on his face shows equally clearly that he doesn't care. "It would be only befitting if you reward your subcontractor," he says tauntingly to Yurgir. "The greater reward for the greater hunter."

Yurgir growls low in his throat. He's trapped and he knows it and he hates it just as much as Rakha does. "Anything I leave behind is yours," he mutters sullenly. "Pick over it however you like."

And then he vanishes, and so does Raphael, and the party stands there in utter bemusement.

"Well," Rakha says cautiously. "That was unexpected." Her tone hums with irritation. She does not like to give in to the killing urge in her head... but she will not be sorry when the day comes - and it will - when she and Raphael come to blows.

[soupandsorcery]

For the Rook ask, 22, 36, 42 :)

22. Most embarrassing memory as a teenager:

There was a girl that Beaux had a huge crush on when he was like 15 and was working to protect his aunt and uncle's merchant caravan. He was getting taller and stronger and wanted to show off for her, so he was carrying a pile of boxes, tripped, and fell right in a pile of horse poop. All in front of this girl.

One of Fiore's first contracts went horribly wrong, and before she could kill her mark, he managed to fall off a roof and smash his head on the ground, essentially killing himself. It was very messy, and other Crows saw it, so up until that whole thing with the Antaam, that was the thing people remembered about her.

Lysander definitely knocked over one of those skeleton tableaus in the Memorial Gardens and tried to put it back together. It uh...didn't go great, and he got a very long lecture from Myrna about it that he still has nightmares about.

36. What would Rook say are their flaws?

Beaux can't let things go and he really does care too much. He knows it. He knows it makes him weaker for not being able to move on. He still thinks about how he wishes the man responsible for his parents' deaths hadn't been killed by someone else so he could confront him, and it's been like 12 years.

Fiore's flaws all echo in her head in Viago's voice. She's impulsive. She's reckless. She doesn't stop and think. She thinks too highly of her own skills and doesn't understand that there's always someone out there who might be better than her. She confuses what's right with what's best, and it gets her into trouble every single time.

Lysander has a laundry list that keeps him up at night. He's timid. He's not well spoken. He's not brave enough to be a leader. He's just so, so odd. He doesn't understand people, and he doesn't know how to get better at it. He does not know how to 'read a room'. If he can't use magic in a fight, he's largely useless.

42. Something Rook regrets:

Beaux regrets not being there to protect his parents most of all (even though he was like 13 when they were killed and he probably would have died to). He regrets every person he couldn't save like a physical wound.

Fiore regrets going off on Viago every time it happens. She feels like it sets them back further and further, but he's just so frustrating all the time and she doesn't know how to not get offended when he nitpicks her. But he's all the family she has and that means something to her, even if she really doesn't know how to show it.

Lysander regrets pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth, lol. More than that, he regrets that Varric was the one to get hurt during the initial confrontation with Solas. Varric would know how to do handle all the everything that keeps happening, and Lysander could do fine from a bed recovering from a wound, offering whatever weird knowledge might be helpful. Of course, once he realizes the truth, he changes his tune a bit. Though then he starts to regret that he didn't realize sooner what was actually going on.

Thanks for the ask!!

[ask-codeearasure]

The Outer Realms -- Chapter 2

<----Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ----->

Chapter 2:

Shatter

—----

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”― Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)

—-

It was a crippling revelation to have, after all. Carrot and Indigo were livid, unable to fathom how someone could be so malicious like Error that day. It was unthinkable. Dream in particular couldn't understand why Error would plan such a thing, It just didn’t add up considering his past actions and pattern of behavior,... but there was a general consensus. Indigo had to stay home.

Carrot had already lost yet another loved one, he couldn't handle a third. Alphys tried to comfort Indigo and even gave a hearty laugh, "Look at it this way! That means we can train harder than ever, get you ready to kick his ass in the case he ever shows his face here!"

Though Indigo wasn’t entirely a fan of this offer for once, he agreed. Carrot was the fighter, always had been. Indigo was more of a pacifist until provoked.

Dream though had an idea and concern that he couldn't shake. He had dragged Edge and Carrot out of the house that night and into Undyne's lab.

As they walked, Edge and Carrot tried to pry the reason from Dream as… gently as they could.

"Why do you need us to go to Undyne's lab with you?" Carrot asked, shifting his pullover. It had been twisted awkwardly when he first put it on in a hurry.

"Yeah, what's this about?" Edge grumbled.

"Error doesn't play piano. In most timelines I've seen, Sanses prefer trombones. It’s Undyne that likes piano." Dream frowned.

Carrot stopped at that moment, and Edge paused to look up at the taller skeleton. It was easy to see the dots connecting. They had to sprint to catch back up to Dream. When they got to Undyne's home in Waterfall, Dream had almost banged on the door.

Undyne yanked it open, her shirt baggy, a sleeve slipping off one of her shoulders. She shifted it back into place. "Dream? What's up?"

"Is it possible to make drones that monitor the Doodlesphere?" Dream asked.

There was a glint in Undyne's eyes that Edge never saw in his Alphys' eyes.

When they were invited in, Undyne got to work immediately. Piles upon piles of books, several drones, many of which were fried by general use and the force of magic.

"I've actually tried to see if I could get cameras out to the surface in our world, to see what the humans were up to, but they've all failed. The Barrier senses the magic that keeps the cameras and drones active. Buuuut considering that the Doodlesphere is outside the influence of the Barrier, it should work!" Undyne gave a toothy smile as she tried her ratty hair up into a bun.

"How many do you think you can make?" Dream asked.

"How quickly do you need them made?" Undyne asked.

Dream contemplated on how soon he could use them. Before he could answer, Carrot answered for him.

"Will ten by tomorrow afternoon work for you? We need at least some by then, if you can continuously make more on your downtime and make a program that records any anomalies or activity and saves the data for us, that would be wonderful."

Undyne nodded, "You bet your asses I can! Leave it to me! I'll blow you all away with it!"

"Boys, let's get her something from Muffet’s" Carrot smiled gently.

He teleported them there.

Before either of the smaller skeletons could blink, they were at the bakery. Edge was shocked to see that Muffet owned the little building in Snowdin, but he figured that the spider would be the best candidate to replace Grillby, considering her desperation for gold back in his universe.

Carrot was fast when it came to ordering for Undyne. He had memorized Undyne’s favorites for times like these.

"Large coffee, two cubes, a shot of sea salt caramel creamer, a dozen Spider Donuts. To go." He teleported it to the scientist’s kitchen not a second after the order was handed out.

The boy's orders were simple in comparison.

Edge had a black coffee and a spider muffin.

Dream, a hot chocolate.

Carrot just wanted a bottle of honey. Typical.

"That was a smart idea to get Undyne to work on some cameras." Carrot said.

Dream shrugged and took a small sip from his drink. "Just made sense. If Edge is right and we were set up, then that means that… that wasn't our Error ."

"Or he's just weird." Carrot hummed.

"But if there's multiple of us… why couldn't there be a different version of Error?" Edge asked.

Carrot paused but he shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that.

"I need to search through the other universes again. We need to find Nightmare. I just�� have the feeling that something is extremely wrong…" Dream mumbled. He knew the risk it would take, perhaps he shouldn’t be sharing the idea with Carrot and Edge, but Nightmare pays attention to the parts of the multiverse no one else does. Unless they could get a hold of the Abyss Team, maybe Core!Frisk, Nightmare was their next best option.

Carrot looked down at the usually cheerful monster. It was easy for Edge to see that Carrot wanted to say something snarky, but was holding himself back from doing so.

"Look, I don't doubt something’s up, but if you think it’s only going to get worse, then… fine, I'll help you." Carrot grumbled. "But I think Nightmare is going to get us all killed… but if you think it's the right move, I'm putting my trust in you right now."

"Thank you." Dream smiled.

—-

The next day was fairly good at first. Undyne excitedly showed them the cameras she scraped together, and then even gave them small pins, one gold, red, and blue.

"They are also recorders! This way if you ever run into something interesting, we'll have data collected, even if it's only a little bit!" she explained.

"Ingenious…" Edge mumbled, earning a deep blush from Undyne.

But from there, things gradually went downhill. When it came to navigating the multiverse, it was like wandering aimlessly around a maze led by a blind person, impossible to determine what they were doing or even looking for.

It was up until they reached a strange universe that was trying its best to kill a human girl… or… well a monster that looked like a human girl. Humans and monsters were doing their best to kill her, but she'd mow them all down in a sick glee using a pink scythe. Dream, Edge, and Carrot couldn't help but hide away from them only to find the universe quickly tearing itself apart the same way Edge's universe was. The girl looked shocked and began trying to destroy the distortions before finally resorting to her magic in a desperate attempt to open a portal, but nothing budged. She began using her scythe to try to find a way to escape. Dream, Edge, and Carrot couldn't help but be horrifically mesmerized by the strange girl's actions. Suddenly, teal strings impaled her the same way it did to Dream and the others.

She panicked more than she was before. Shifting her shape and transforming and reforming, but unable to escape from the strings that pinned her to the ground. Suddenly, she too was corrupted like the world. She looked like she was made from a crumpled ball of paper, then shredded cardboard, then yarn.

Unexpectedly, strings wrapped around the group, pinning them in place where the corruption could reach them too.

A dark and chilling voice, echoing and staticy like coming from an old radio, inquired, "Do ya wish ta die as well?"

The strings yanked them through a glitchy portal, where they were released and landed roughly on the 'floor' of the Doodlesphere. Dream landed harshly on his side, his body then rolling a few times before staying face down. He struggled for a second to get up.

When he did, he spotted “Error”, who had watched everything with glee clear on his face.

"Did ya like my work?" he asked. His voice was already strange enough with the new radio-like filter, but he also had a strange accent now. It was hard to explain. It was as though he forgot the 'r', and yet spoke quickly, as though it was natural for him.

Dream held the arm he landed on and tried to find his words.

Edge got up roughly and used his magic to summon a Gaster Blaster to blast “Error” into nothing, but a string was summoned and opened a glitchy portal, taking the hostile magic and sending it back through another portal to destroy the weapon.

"Don't ya know that won't work with me by now?" “Error” said, a smidge of agitation made obvious. "You know, the greatest sign of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again, expectin’ different results?"

His grin could easily be compared to that of the Cheshire Cat. So wide and lethal, it looked to split his face in half from just the wrong angles.

"What do you want?" Carrot asked while he got up, patting the dust off his clothes.

"Nothin’." “Error” barked, as though it was obvious from the start.

"Why are you…" Edge couldn't seem to get the words out, his mind like a blank sheet of paper. "I mean- you destroyed my world! Why the FUCK did you do that?!"

"Why shouldn't I?" “Error” asked.

Edge couldn't help but stare at the Error, who looked back and sighed as he got some playing cards out of his pocket.

"Look, it ain’t like your universe was some pumpkins." the glitch claimed nonchalantly, shuffling the cards before picking one out and turning it to Edge, showing it was the joker's card, "It's tha bottom fact that your universe was nothing but… well, to simply put it, a disgrace." It seemed like he was tempted to say something else, but assumed they wouldn't understand.

Edge tried to attack again, summoning several bones to try to impale “Error” but when they landed and the dust settled, he was gone from where he stood and appeared behind Edge.

"Alright, alright." “Error” said, holding his hands up, "If ya wanna feel better, dat kid in yellow an’ blue's universe is worse than yours. But I couldn't exactly destroy it, which makes it worse."

Dream shot several arrows at “Error”, but they disappeared in a portal made by a string again, the projectiles disappearing into several universes with no other sign of them.

The impostor grinned. "Ya people really don't learn… I save you all and ya react like this? No appreciation."

"You killed Chara! You've destroyed universes!" Carrot growled.

"Oh? The squeaker?" “Error” laughed, "You should know better than to get attached to humans. You’ll never know when they'll get bored and decide to kill everything in sight. Consider it a favor. If you want their soul, I'll gladly give it back, but it's not gonna be much help since your universe has been tainted by these two."

"The hell's that supposed to mean!?" Edge asked.

"Ya really don' know?" The impostor seemed confused. He then laughed like a loon for a moment. "You blokes are so dim. Alright, think about it. Each universe has a set path that it will take. A simple code that it follows, without question, and obediently at dat. Take your code for example," he looked at Edge, "your code was that you were set to be murdered by your human along with tha rest of your universe… dat is until I took their soul and tampered wit’ tha code. I gave your universe a few years o’ peace before it was set ta self-destruct an’ slowly kill everyone off, den delete tha universe as peacefully as I could think of, like a bunch a glimsticks burnin’ deir last lights before snuffing themselves out. But ya see, Swap ‘ere, ‘is code has been corrupted by tha two a’ you and tha idiot with da brush. Because o’ that, ‘is code is up in tha air. It's like tearin’ the pages out o’ a book, or smearing paint on dat book. There's no tellin’ if ‘is universe will still have its happy endin’ or if dat universe can adjust to you idiots bein’ dere. So I did ya tha mercy o’ not allowin’ it ta further mix itself by takin’ the soul."

He said it all as though he was explaining a basic math problem.

"So you're saying we… took away their happy ending?" Dream asked breathlessly.

The Error nodded, " Correct. I may’ve killed tha kid, but ya ended the story before it could even try ta finish itself. Every universe ya visit, ya taint it like a virus. No matter what ya do, ya can't fix it."

Dream stared at him as if time itself stopped. Those last words, No matter what you do, you can’t fix it , echoed in his mind. That couldn’t be true, could it?

“No…” Dream mumbled, “You… you have to be lying.”

“Am I now?” the Error snickered, “What about your little universe? Thank ‘bout it, Dream. I know ya can really tell if little ol’ me would be lyin’ o’ not.”

A light blue string cut through the air around them, and they were in his universe. Dream looked around and nearly tripped on the tree that the village had cut down. It looked so distraught. Everyone was still stone, others remained with bodies melted to oblivion with dark negativity. No… how did he–

“Look around,” this Error wasn’t anything like the one he and Ink had to put up with, he used some strings to levitate one of the villager statues into the air, “Dis AU ended a long time ago, yet here ya are. The story your world told wasn’t anythin’ dat special, a typical story of abuse an’ betrayal. Maybe a bit of irony since the two o’ you were squeakers yourselves, but dat whole possession and your brother running off ta torment otha universes… dat’s what set ya free. He broke your timeline completely by sheer greed alone. If I had it my way, well… dat otha soul in dat tree wouldn’t be there and that would give you, what…? A good century at least.”

He threw the statue a good few kilometers only for it to shatter against another statue. Dream couldn’t move, his limbs locking up on him and threatening to collapse under him.

Edge stormed over and grabbed “Error” roughly by his turtleneck, “What’s your fucking point? What are you playin’ at?”

“Simple.” The impostor grinned, “Ya were doomed from da moment dis place was created, an’ tha moment dat idiot with the brush was created as well. Tha second ya tamper wit’ a universe, it’s doomed. An’ you all can’t trust a human. That fifty-fifty chance shit means nothin’! If ya can’t take away deir ability ta reset a timeline, then ya might as well have the universe be destroyed, o’ really, destroy itself . I prefer a guaranteed good timeline. None of ya have dat wit’ dese viruses runnin’ around, or havin’ humans in general wit’ so much power. Betta’ ta keep things simple.”

That was it?

He did all of this for such… an odd reason. And it sounded familiar too. Has he heard it before?

Carrot shook his head, “And here I thought my brother was a perfectionist…”

“Well, I kinda am, considerin’ I am a Sans, but I see ya point.”, “Error” shrugged, using his magic to force Edge away. “But, I guess I am a bit more extreme. One o’ my friends said somethin’ ‘bout OCD once.” he snickered as if it was some funny memory, or a moronic comment.

Wait…

He had friends? That’s impressive.

Errors don’t usually have friends… or anyone, really. Not even Blueberror could handle a consistent dynamic no matter how stable it actually was, and he was the best of them.

“But seriously, Dreamy, ya follow me? Cause your annoyin’ Inky friend does. In fact, he claims my work makes even more creativity! Can ya believe dat garbage?” “Error” asked.

Dream gave him a stubborn look. No, of course not.

The glitch frowned, sighed and said carefully, “Do ya understand what I’m sayin’ here? Ya little projects fail before they can even start.”

“No… you’re wrong.” Dream stated. “Just because some universes exist in unfair circumstances doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get the chance to live! You are killing them before they can try!”

“Welp, can’t say I didn’t warn ya. And I’m one of tha nicer ones in my group...” The last part seemed to be for himself, “Just try ta not feel like we’re tryin’ to chisel ya or anythin’. It’s nothin’ dat personal… well… from me at tha very least.”

“You mean Nightmare is working with you?” Dream asked quickly.

“Not your Nightmare.” “Error” rolled his eyelights as if the mere thought of him was an afterthought at best. “Dat guy… dat guy is a problem. Tha one I’m working with…” He stared at Dream for a second, “Yeah, he wouldn’t like ya much either. Tolerate, though?... dat’s a strict maybe.”

The glitch then checked his watch, “Welp! Time’s up! I’ll be seein ya around.” Then he teleported away before Dream could even reply.

“Darn it.” Dream growled. For the first time ever, Dream felt that maybe… just maybe, he could actually hate someone. It made him feel weak.

[yanderepuck]

What if Vincent got to the mansion a year before Theo.

(Vincent died in 1890

Theo died in 1891)

Theo believes Vincent was murdered. It all points to murder. At least that is what he is telling himself.

Comte brings Vincent back, but Theo is still alive for another 7 months.

Vincent gets used to his life in the mansion. He never lost his memory, he's just chosen to ignore it for the most part. He has to be careful when he goes into town because there is a possibility that he could run into someone he knows, and everyone knows he's dead.

He tried to move on from his family and not try to check in on them. He had no clue how Theo was doing, he was trying to focus on himself. Trying to get better. But his depression and schizophrenic episodes followed him into his vampire life.

He had no clue Theo even died...until a few months later when he shows up at the mansion.

Vincent doesn't have the heart to tell him that he shot himself. No one but Comte knows. Theo keeps asking him who shot him. He doesn't want that person to walk freely. Vincent just tells him that he didn't get a good look at the person. He doesn't know who shot him. It's much easier than telling him the truth.

Theo might be the little brother but he's gotten really protective over Vincent. Those few months without Vincent were the worst months of his life.

He's not sure how to tell Theo that he isn't any better. He's thankful for another chance at life, but this also means he's able to hurt himself without much consequence.

He does it just a little to help stabilize his mood. A small relapse can be justified to prevent a larger breakdown, right?

No one is going to see, he's always wearing long sleeves and his jacket after all.

But now that Theo is back he doesn't get much time alone. Not enough time for that little relapse.

He loves his little brother with his whole heart, but what did Theo come back for anyway? Something about Theo made him remember how his parents treated him, and how he was never good enough no matter what he did.

"Broer?" Theo knocks on the closed door to Vincent's room.

He panics for a moment and quickly pushes his sleeve down "One moment!" He puts his coat on, not even concerned that the blood might seep through.

He quickly opens the door, smiling brightly at his taller, little brother. "I'm ready, let's go!"

~

He didn't get back until late that day. His arm stung but he paid it no attention, not until he walked into his room and leaned back against his door, his smiling dropping

He dropped his scarf to the floor, then his coat. His eyes were closed. He didn't want to see how much of a mess he made. How much he messed up. Theo is back and he shouldn't be doing this.

He opened one eye, then the other, looking down at his arm. How there managed to be no blood on his jacket he didn't know.

As he walked to his closet, he took his shirt off, tossing it under his couch. He grabbed a stash of bandages he kept in a box and wrapped his arm to stop the blood from getting on anything else.

Taking deep breaths he changed his clothes and laid down. He's starting to hear the voices again. He can't always understand what they are saying but he knows it's not nice.

"Leave me alone already," he covers his ears and shuts his eyes. "I don't want to listen."

~

In the next few days Sebastian was gathering laundry, going from room to room to grab clothes. As he was in Vincents he saw a white shirt kicked under the couch and grabbed it. It wasn't until he laid it on top of his pile that he noticed the browning stain.

"What that..?" He picked it back up and looked at it more closely. His eyes widened when he realized what it was.

Vincent walked into his room at the same time while holding Brush. He smiled at him as always "Morning, Sebastian. Do you need-" the act immediately dropped when he saw what he was holding. "Wh-where did you get that?"

Sebastian immediately walked past him and closed the door.

"S-Sebastian," he tries to chuckle. "It's not what you think.. it's just-"

"I've cleaned enough things around here to know what blood looks like."

Vincent froze. He held onto Brush tighter to calm himself down, petting him gently.

"Care to show me?" Vincent immediately shook his head. "Master Vincent... This is one of the few times that I'm not asking."

"I-it is healed already. N-nothing to show," he backed up and Sebastian came closer to him, worried that he'll grab his arm.

"Then how about telling me why? Did becoming a vampire not help with your issues?"

"M-my.. issues?" It's easy to forget that Sebastian is from the future, let alone what he actually knows.

"In and out of hospitals. Your history of harming yourself. Your attempts of killing yourself. I know what happened. I guess becoming a vampire can't cure mental issues."

"P-please! Just don't tell Theo. He can't know. Please..."

His grip on Brush became a little too tight and he jumped out of his arms.

"As long as you come to me or Le Comte for help then I don't see why not."

"I-I'm sorry," tears start to stream down his face resulting in Sebastian quickly embracing him. The tears come down faster. "I want it t-to stop."

Sebastian rubs his back gently. "You aren't alone. Everyone here cares about you."

Sebastian holds him for a time, not letting him go until he is ready. "You're an amazing person. I'm glad to have met you. Why don't we clean up your arm properly, okay?"

Vincent sniffles and just nods, letting him go. Sebastian buries the shirt in the laundry pile so no one coming by will see it, and goes to the bathroom with him.

[lost-girl-2021]

Definitely want to hear more HC!

Here's some random notes I had about Spider & co. in my Days Into Decades fic :)

Spider eats the weirdest combinations of food. He had to make a lot of his own food and never had anyone tell him he couldn't put ketchup on his pizza, so he tried all sorts of gross shit. Jelly on ice cream? Surprisingly delicious. Cheeze whiz smooshed between two crackers? Yum. His friends have valiantly tried to stop the madness, but he just tries to force-feed them his concoctions as a result. All of the adults are reasonably disgusted by this, but I feel like Quaritch and Jake would both try to one-up the other by trying the grossest things Spider can come up with, after hearing that the other tried it. ("Sully ate whipped cream on a slice of tomato? Fuck it, give me one.") Spider one-hundo percent uses this to his advantage.

Spider and Lo'ak get stoned every once in a while. The latter doesn't really smoke often because he's in sports and his girlfriend doesn't really like the smell, but his and Spider's drug dealer is Kiri. Kiri is all about communing with nature and sees no problem with relaxing with Eywa's creations. She's not really a drug dealer, but she supplies the boys with stuff in exchange for random tasks (Spider once had to be a model for her art club).

Neteyam does not smoke. He tried once, got way too paranoid and ended up sitting in his closest for four hours. He does however, like to record the others when their high, because it's extremely entertaining. Kiri says the most out of pocket shit, like existential questions, then tries to count all of the pieces of wood in the floor. Lo'ak usually just sinks into a bean bag with a bag of chips and relaxes. Spider either gets really zoned in on stuff and doesn't talk for hours or will not shut up.

The Sully's have entire albums dedicated to each child, but also have albums from each year, sometimes more than one depending on how interesting things get. Because of the sheer number of photographs they have, there are also a lot of pictures of Spider scattered throughout. Somewhere in the chaos, Jake has a picture of Neteyam and Spider grinning, both missing a tooth after a badly timed hug when they were four.

Jake and Neytiri have a lot of kids. Sometimes, especially as kids, Spider just got tossed in the mix and they didn't even notice. When they were really young, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Neteyam slept in a pile on their parent's bed everyday for naptime. More often than not, Spider would end up in the tangle of limbs, snoring away. Even as they got older and had sleepovers, they'd end up on top of each other in their sleep. Spider always slept best on those nights, even when they would camp out on the living room floor and stay up as long as they could.

Spider thinks he's the most intimidating person ever. Like, all of his friends are taller and stronger than him. He looks young for his age, often mistaken for a freshman at school. But, he dresses in baggy clothes and ripped jeans, even has a wallet chain. He skateboards and draws on his beat-to-shit converse in sharpie. He frowns at people and sometimes even colors his nails in black marker. Because, he's a degenerate, okay? But, in reality, most people just think he looks like a kid playing dress-up. Like, old ladies see him at the grocery store and go oh, what a nice young man, doing the shopping for his parents. He thinks they're talking about how scary he looks, but really they think he's thirteen and such a cutie-pie. He is not observant, guys.

He constantly misplaced his inhaler as a kid. As a result, the Sully's (specifically doomsday prepper Jake and his apprentice, Neteyam) have inhalers all over. Neteyam keeps one in the glove compartment and another in his backpack. Jake has like, four of them scattered around the house just in case and asks Spider if he has his nearly every day when he drops him off at school. When Quaritch eventually gets custody, he'd totally buy like ten of them. One in the car, one in the kitchen, the bathroom, his bedroom, Spider's desk drawer. And he totally makes Spider physically show him the inhaler every time he goes to leave the house. Everyone is paranoid as shit about it and Spider takes this as nobody trusting him to be able to remember something so simple (even though my boy is forgetful af)

Spider has (undiagnosed) ADHD. Like, he cannot focus in school most of the time, even when he likes the class. He usually copies notes from someone and tries to go over it all again after school. He forgets stuff all the time, constantly losing his phone (it's usually in his jacket pocket and he just forgot to take it out when he got home). He likes being outside a lot, so he can burn off some of the energy when everything becomes too much.

This is all I have atm, but a lot of it won't be in the fic, so I thought I'd put it on here.

[nightcall99]

Dreams from 27.6.24

Dream 1: I'm at work preparing for something big like a head office inspection. It felt bigger than that though. MN was on the sidelines guiding me with tasks left to do. I was running around everywhere like a headless chicken but I didn't feel panic, I was just focused on what I had to do. The place looked completely different, bigger, like I was taking care of shopping centre almost. I remember in the back room there was a huge pile of gifts which were orders that had never got delivered to the recipients. I never knew this section even existed. It was something that the intern KA knew about and had been trying to handle. I saw a list of orders on the computer screen, one of them was from someone called 'Bob Boss' (prob K) who had cancelled his order. I deleted the message so it wouldn't pop up again. They were also going to check how we presented ourselves. My staff card needed to be changed to the temporary version which is something we print out on white paper. Everyone had them in their lanyards and I was the only one with the normal red hard-card.

At one point I was in a large room putting away stock. I was trying to avoid SM who was talking with a few other people nearby. As I got close, I became hyper-ware of my body and felt really awkward. We didn't acknowledge each other which I was upset by, but felt there was no choice because I was busy. Also, MN had been helping me but I thought he was about to go home and basically leave me to handle everything. But it turns out I'd misunderstood and he'd only been on his lunch break because he put his uniform back on. Throughout this dream, there's just this feeling like something big is happening which I was preparing for.

Then at the conclusion of this dream, my brother's 'spirit' came down from upstairs (irl he doesn't live with us) and just stood there in the dark, by my bed. It was really freaky, I got really scared. I tried to move away from him but it's like I was paralysed. There was a really strong energy emanating from him, and he seemed taller than ever. Then he leant down and opened his mouth to suck my soul out, exactly the way dementors do in Harry Potter. I tried to scream and woke up.

After I woke up and as I was jotting down this dream in my notes, I suddenly remembered a dream from yesterday where I was finally getting round to doing that forgotten assignment from all those recurring dreams. I was getting into the nitty gritty of it.

Dream 2: I was at the airport to go on holiday to Europe. This time, everything had been taken care of and we were inside of a small plane, which was probably just a helicopter. There were 8 people of us. The pilot told us the flight was for 12 hours. As we were flying I asked, How can we go to the toilet? Because I don't think there was one. I was really concerned about not being able to go for that long. The pilot made a stop somewhere.

Then I was walking around in the streets of London but it was whatever. It didn't feel different at all, it's like how it always feels when I'm walking around in my home city. I was walking through an alley when some shady guy tried to get my attention. I quicky brushed him off and kept walking. Then I kept thinking about how I need to get back home for my shift on Sunday which was 'tomorrow'. It turns out I'd only taken a few days off for this trip and didn't realise it would run into Sunday for some reason. I was thinking about the fact that I could easily just forget about it and stay here. Should I even tell MN? I could just not show up. I was enjoying this time off. In the end I decided I needed to get back.

I ended up catching a plane back which only took 8 hours and I was home again. In the next scene I was at work, doing all the usual things. I was putting stuff away. I had not told anyone where I had been the past few days. Then I realised that I had to get back to London/Europe. This time it felt like it would be for a duration even less than before, perhaps only for one day. I wasn’t sure if i should tell MN or just go and not say anything.

Dream 3: There's a movie or show that's about to start and I'm waiting with my friend in the foyer. We befriend two other dudes, and we're all waiting together. We had just brought some snacks from the kiosk and were sharing them, pouring them into each other's containers. Mostly it was just candy. They had started it so I was retuning the favour since it was only fair. It felt like we were just passing time too. They seemed nice. Then we were about to go in but it turns out my friend and I had left our 'keys' in the car. (I think without them we wouldn't be able to get to our seat, so read: ticket, I guess). I looked at my friend (not someone I recognise) and I hadn't noticed it before but she was pregnant. She said, My parents gave me some in the car so I'll go get it now. She turns to leave. I think about how she'll have to go through all the checks to get inside again but there was no way around it. All I know is it's time to get seated because it's about to start.

Dream 4: I went into the hair salon with my friend (who I don't recognise) and to see how much it would cost for a cut. I could see they were finishing up with another client. It was one of those cheapo Asian places, and there was a language barrier with the ladies. I asked the how much it is to get a perm and she didn't answer my question, just started talking about clozapine (anti-psychotic drug) which was so random. I ended up leaving since we were getting nowhere.

Dream 5: In the dream, a long time ago, a customer at the shop I used to work at (a middle aged white man) gave me his divorce papers for safe-keeping. I was only just remembering this now, as if I had to go take them out now or something.

[spacecadet-ticklesinspace]

Family Guy

Summary: Peter 2 gets a special love surprise ❤️

"Oh Peter Twooo! Where are youuuuuu?"

The oldest Peter looked up from his phone. That was the voice of someone looking for trouble.

"Oh Two?"

Peter 2 took the chance. "In here Three."

Peter 3 appeared in the doorway of Two's room. When he spotted his older brother on the bed, the middle Peter grinned. "Two!"

A moment later, Peter 2 was tackled by a flying Peter 3. "Oof!"

The taller Spiderman wrapped his older brother in a hug. "Hi Two!"

"Hi buhud. Yohou're in a cuddly mohood."

"That's juwst becauwse I wove youw! And I juwst needed tow snuggwe youw."

Peter 2 chuckled. "You could hahave just asked."

When Two attempted to his free his arms, Three tightened his grip and moved so more of him was on top of his brother. "No."

The oldest Peter lifted an eyebrow. "No? But I thought you wanted to cuddle."

Peter 3 shook his head.

"But you said---."

"I said I needed to snuggwe youw."

"Whyhy doho you need to snuggle mehe?"

"So I can do this."

Before Peter 2 could respond, an attack of kisses was launched on his face.

"Ah! MJ!"

The smaller woman grinned as she continued her attack. "Surprise!"

The tallest Spiderman shifted. "Wehe thohought you could uhuse a lohove surprise."

"Eep! Whyhy!"

MJ chuckled. "Juhust because."

"You missed his ears MJ."

"You're right Peteheart, I did."

Two's eyes widened. "Wha-? EEP!"

Peter 3 cooed. "Adowable."

"NOHO!"

MJ grinned at Peter 3. "Come shohow him how adorable Peteheart."

The tallest Spiderman hurried to place himself by Peter Two's other ear. Once in place, he started whispering 'I love you' over and over in Peter 2's ear.

At this moment, the only sound Two could make was squealy giggles. His arms slipped out of Peter 3's hold only to flap and squirm through the attack. In addition, he couldn't stop squirming.

To finish off their attack, MJ and Peter 3 shifted down to kiss each of Two's cheeks at the same time. After that, the oldest Peter collapsed into a pile of residual giggles. "Yohou twoho are ahawful."

MJ cooed. "And why's that Tiger?"

Peter 2 pouted. "Because yohour meheanies."

Both MJ and Three shared a look.

The oldest Peter's face changed. "G-guhuys?"

Peter 3 smirked as he rewrapped his arms around Two. "Apparently we haven't loved you enough."

"W-wait!"

MJ shifted down. "And whehere should we give him sohome love next Peteheart?"

Peter 2 squeaked. "Dohon't you dahare!"

Peter 3 shifted closer. "What was that Twoho? Your tummy neheeds some love?"

The oldest Peter blushed.

In response, MJ rolled up her husband's shirt. "Well wehere hahappy to give your tummy whahat ihit wants."

"Oh no."

Peter 2 squealed and curled his legs as MJ nuzzled across his tummy, leaving kisses in her wake. She knew exactly which spots to hit to make her husband cackle or squeal or squeak.

In that moment, Two was thankful his wife didn't have a beard.

"I see the love building uhup." The taller Spiderman placed his finger on the bottom of Two's tummy and dragged it up to the top of his ribs. "Ihit's gohoing from here to here."

"Don't let it escape through his ears!" MJ exclaimed.

"Oh! You're right!"

Two's giggles became even more loud and squeaky as Three returned to his ears.

"Tickie tickie big bwothewr."

"And here. And one there."

"GUHUYS"

"Is someone dying in here?"

All three turned their attention to the doorway.

Peter 1 smiled at the sight in front of him. "Whatcha doing?"

"We're giving Peter 2 aha lohove surprise!" Peter 3 exclaimed.

"Gehet Peter 1!" The oldest replied.

"But we're not giving Peteybear lohove rihight now." MJ poked her husband's tummy. "Wehere gihiving you love."

Peter 1 sat on the foot of the bed. "Can I help?"

"As long as it doesn't overwhelm Tiger."

The blush on Peter 2's face spread to his ears. "Theheres nohot much rohoom left toho love."

"There's always room toho love someone Dos." The taller Spiderman shifted. "Hehe can shahare wihith me!"

Two's blush darkened.

With an ever growing grin, the youngest Peter curled around Two's other side.

Peter 2 whined. "Whyhy dohoes eheveryone wahant toho lohove me!"

"Now yohou knohow how Ihi feel!" The youngest teased.

"Buhut you're cute!"

Three poked Two's cheek. "So are you."

"Hehe's rihight Tiger." MJ skittered her fingers across Peter 2's tummy. "You're adorable too."

The oldest Peter's giggles picked back up. "Ihi guehess thahats ohokay."

"Ah-ha! I knew it!" Peter 3 exclaimed.

"We ahall knew it Peteheart." MJ poked Two's tummy again. "This one is just to stubbown tow see it."

Somehow, the oldest Peter's blush darkened at the teases. "Shuhush ihit!"

"Uh-oho," the youngest teased. "Sohounds like someohone needs aha lohove reminder."

MJ grinned. "Wehell hop to it Peteybear."

A moment later, Peter 2 let out his loudest squeal yet as both his neck and ears were attacked by ticklish teases and kisses. He didn't fight to hard to get away . . . not that he had done much fighting to begin with.

Meanwhile, MJ kept lightly skittering her nails across Peter 2's tummy and sides and added quiet coos to the background.

At the moment, the only thoughts running through the oldest's mind were giggles and love. They buzzed across his body and melted his muscles until he was nothing but giggly goo between three people who loved him.

A few moments later, the tickles stopped and three sets of arms wrapped him in a snuggly hug.

Peter 2 cuddled closer. "Ihi lohove yohou guhuys."

"We love you too Tiger."

"You're the best Dos!"

"The absolutely behest Behear."

Peter 2 smiled bashfully. "Ihi'm lucky toho have aha fahamily like you."

Without a shadow of a doubt, Two genuinely believed he had the best family in the entire world.