#the electric glowing orb yellow circle thing???

[kyberphilosopher]

Reverse Flash

A backwards version of your favorite speedster comes searching for Barry, only to find you instead. 

Word Count: 2403 Warnings: Crude Humor. Not proof read yet because I’m too tired. 

As per my latest fics, the gender of the reader is not specified. 

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

Barry was always nice to you.

Well, Barry was nice to everyone. I mean, his parents named him Barry. He was set up for a life of cheekiness before he was even born. But Barry was nice to you even after ‘the incident’. Barry was nice to you when everyone else stopped. On top of that, Barry was being nicer to you than usual lately.

Probably because he and Iris were having a rough spot.

That was the only annoying thing. Barry liked you, and he was interested in you, but you were still second place. He was just using you. He wouldn’t marry you, or feel a deep longing for you. He’d just take you on ice skating rink dates in the winter and give you the best Valentine’s day of your life every year. Which is everyone’s dream, you guess, but it wouldn’t have been genuine, no matter what Barry managed to convince himself.

Barry’s little support team seemed to be on the same page as you (which was a first), which both added to and subdued your aggravation. All of them were in agreement of the simple fact: you were no good for Barry. Mr. Flash was the only one who didn’t seem to get the memo.

In the very beginning, things weren’t like how they were now. Team Flash or whatever the name was considered you good colleague, and they trusted you because Allen trusted you. You had been friends with Barry longer than anyone else there. And of course you were smart, and you handled annoying journalists and incriminating footage like it was nothing. But then you’d suggested using lethal force to subdue one of the Flash’s biggest problems. That’s when the air changed. That’s when people decided you should not now, not ever go on a date with him. It would throw off the whole rhythm of the team, probably Barry’s morals and possible the timeline. Lucky you.

Though flat out rejecting Barry might make it worse. You had been irritable lately. Maybe a little more sarcastic than normal. What if you snap, and then the team snaps too? And sweet little Barry is too kind to tell you off? God, you knew you were the worst, but the thought alone seemed like more than just ‘the worst’. It was like a tornado of stinky shit just barreling toward you, somehow simultaneously faster than the speed of light and slower than a turtle filled with rocks for organs.

And it was all definitely Barry Allen’s fault.

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

So, that’s why you’re here now. Stuck with watching Headquarters while all the speedsters go out and... speed. Who knows. You’re out of the loop with the whole... speed demon thing. You’re pretty sure they have a group chat without you. Fuckin’ nerds.

Your legs are stretched out to the desk in front of you. They cross over each other at the ankles, to the left of the big computer monitor that’s supposed to display the heartbeats of the team but is instead displaying something from cartoon network. A near empty bag of Chinese food sits at your side, it’s contents littered across the table.

As you chew, you look around the room. Several suits in display cases curve against the wall in a half circle, illuminated by blue light. Some are burgundy, some are silver, and some are golden. And you could smash every single one of them right now.

But you won’t, and you don’t. Not to say it isn’t tempting- it is. You still don’t touch the suits. 

God, what’s been wrong with you recently? Barry was your friend, and yet you’d been so annoyed with him. His flirting had only made it worse. Wally wasn’t any better. He got even more annoying once thinking about how childish, yet powerful he was. All the Kid Flash’s were just temporary brats that never stayed, whether you  liked them or not. And Iris wasn’t a fan of you. That was fine, because you weren’t exactly a friend of Iris’s either. So the most important part of your life that literally depended on superhuman existence and stopping crime was teetering because of pure social discomfort. Typical.

You’re watching the screen that serves as the closest light in the room as you shovel the next bite of rice between your lips. Neon colors make the shadows across your face feel alive and electric. It makes the glow in your eyes more prominent, encouraged by the childish nature of the media. You’ve just finished a snarky personal comment and given yourself another bite of rice when he appears to you.

He looks like Barry. The only difference is that he’s the complete opposite.

Instead of scarlet, his speed suit is yellow with red and dark grey accents. They remind you of blood lightning at the seams. Even under his half mask, he seems so familiar but so much more defined than your friend. As he exits the slice of colorful air and thunder, the heels of his shoes skidding across the floor, the red glow in his eyes settles into a calmer thrum.

And you’re still frozen in place, eyes wide as you still yourself mid chew.

The yellow speedster settles his orbs on you. They’re intelligent, and in the reflection of the little light in the room you can see they’re not red, but blue. And you? You’re just a deer in the headlights. 

“Aw, you’re not Barry,” he groans in disappointment, standing straighter as his arms cross over his chest. 

You finally continue your chewing, keeping your wide eyes on the intruder. Then you swallow it down. In your chest, your heart thump, thump, thumps with something. Fear? Not quite. Anxiety? Almost. It’s something else. Something more... intuitive. And the way this man looks at you makes you think that he can hear it, even from where he stands. That he knows.

“Uh... no?”

The man responds not a millisecond after you’ve gotten the words out. “Where is he? Where’s Barry Allen?”

Woof. His voice is throaty and laced with sarcasm, even though he’s clearly deathly serious. But the vibrations send a funny spasm straight to that little place between your legs, making the nerves in your spine dance with alertness. Arousal. Barry was never able to do that, let alone with just the sound of his voice.  

“Doing something?” you decide. “I don’t know.”

The golden man cocks his head to the side, almost smirks, and takes a step forward. “Hey, I know you.” His arms uncross. One raises and bends to point at you. “You’re Barry’s tech support. I remember reading about you in his museum.”

Your brows furrow. Hurriedly, you clear the take-out box from your lap and begin wiping your mouth with the back of your hand. You drop your legs from their position on the desk to their normal position on the floor, knees bent. “Uh... I beg your pardon?”

“Yeah... Y/N L/N. Now I see it.” The man leans back on his heels and looks around the room. The red glow in his orbs burn away completely so it’s just him. “Ah, so this must be before you defected, huh? Interesting.”

“Pardon?!” you call again. Now you’re sitting forward, disbelief across your face. 

Golden speedster smiles. It looks evilly distorted, even though it’s just a normal smile. It curves his face sarcastically. His hands fly upwards as if in surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger, Y/N. You know actually, you’re kind of a villain in my time. This is nice for me.”

“Great, I’ll tell Barry when I see him,” you bite.

“Thank you, sweetheart. Now how about you tell me where Barry is before I erase you from existence.”

“I don’t know,” you repeat as the quick bolt of fear fizzles from your system. Your eyes trail down to his chest for just a quick second, but it’s quick enough to observe yet another difference between your familiar scarlet speedster and him. The circle surrounding the lightning bolt on his chest is facing the opposite direction, red, and that circle is filled with black. It’s as if he were the complete opposite of Barry. A reverse Barry. 

“Yeah you do. Come on.”

You blink once, still in your roll-y chair. 

You’re not sure what to do here. On one hand, this guy radiates pure evil. You should really alert Barry or one of the other members of Team Flash. But for one reason or another you’ve made no attempt to. You’ve got no clue who this dude is other than the fact that he seems more inclined to rip the fabric of time apart than anyone else. There’s no doubt in your mind he really will erase you from existence if you make one wrong move. But what’s the wrong move?

On the other hand, Team Flash has been a bunch of dickhead’s to you. Barry has been ironically slow to the whole thing. Would it be so bad if you did make a wrong move? Not for you, but for your friends? They’d all die, wouldn’t they? This yellow one would end them, and then what? Would it really be so horrible for you? You can’t imagine mourning much.

“I don’t,” you say again, slowly. “They’re in the city. I don’t know where.”

The man seems to think for a moment, cocking his head back so the light behind the glass cases catches his sharpened features. “Hmm.”

Without even blinking, now he’s in front of you. So close, you can smell him. It’s not terribly strong, it’s just masculine. But it’s also flowery, with a dash of sweat from running. And then there’s something more. Something... metallic? 

Both his hands clutch the arms of the chair beside you, trapping you as you lean back reflexively. “Did you know that I killed Barry’s childhood best friend before he was born?” the man says lowly. 

On instinct, you prepare yourself to say, ‘Barry doesn’t have a childhood best friend’. Then you realize why. 

He continues. “Would you tell me where Barry was if you did know?”

You don’t even think about it. You’re true to your nature. “I don’t know, would I?”

Blip! You wait to burst into a cloud of nothingness. To never have been born or even get to be a ghost. But fifteen seconds later you’re still alive. And from the way Barry talks about being a Flash, fifteen seconds is a long time for someone of that caliber. 

The man is back by the cases of suits now. You can see his muscles through his suit. They’re more defined than Barry’s, thank God. 

“I think you would. But it’s gonna be hard to do that when you’ve got my fingers vibrating into your skull.”

“What?”

“It’s going to be hard to speak when my fingers are inside you.”

You cup a hand against your ear. “Huh?”

“I said-” The man stops. His eyes narrow, arms crossing over his chest once more. “Oh, I see.” A short, dry- but genuine- laugh falls from his throat. “Very funny. Very, very funny.”

Suddenly, your eyebrows crease together in confusion. You place both palms on the arms of the chair for leverage as you push yourself into a stand, as if stirred by some great, important purpose. “Wait. Did you say you were going to stick your fingers inside me?”

“I knew you and I were the same,” he drawls. He sounds entertained. As if in his eyes, missing Barry and meeting you instead was the best outcome he could’ve hoped for. 

“Can’t you just...” Your shoulders slump as you glance around. “Just kill Barry and get on with it?”

“Aw, no. This is far more interesting.”

“Fingers in my skull...?” you whisper, half to yourself. Then you look up to him with a snap. “You are so weird,” you tell Reverse Barry, emphasizing it with a low point. “So weird.”

“Want me to tell your future?” 

Again with the voice and the nerves in that special place. 

“I gotta say, it’s kind of disturbing,” the man smirks. “You’ll love it.”

“Weird.”

Across the base, just two hallways away, something clicks. It’s a familiar click. It’s the click of the door opening. 

Quickly, you glance backwards, then lean down to pause the show on the computer. You hadn’t even realized it was still going. Once that’s done, the man is still standing in front of you. That sinister and yet innocent grin is still dancing across his face, though his steely eyes are totally locked on you. 

“What, weirdo? You know where he is now. Aren’t you gonna go get him?”

“You want me to so badly, don’t you?” Reverse Barry whispers. You just give him a look. 

“I’ll be back for you.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

And then the speedster is gone. Right on time, too, cause Barry jogs into the room not a second later. 

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?” you turn around. 

“Did I just... see someone here?” Barry points towards your end of the room in his scarlet suit. Huh. Reverse Barry was taller too. 

“What are you on about?” you throw casually. “Nobody’s been here but me since you left.”

“Are you sure?” the Flash keeps pushing. You hate it. Pushing. 

“Yes, Barry,” you roll your eyes. “I’m sure. Oh, by the way, Barry. Did you have a childhood best friend?”

Barry frowns. “No, why?”

You smile to yourself as you turn back away from him. The other speedster’s footsteps are coming closer and closer. You can hear them echo off the walls. 

“No reason,” you answer with a smirk just as one of them enters the room, probably to give you crap again.

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

Fun fact, Reverse Flash is actually my favorite villain in DC comics. Bro is vicious in the comics. I just hate all the live action versions of him we get. Lego DC Villains Reverse Flash and Injustice 2 are the best versions. Injustice 2 is my personal preference. I’d like to do more with this but, who knows. Depends how this is received. #lol

[fanfic-me-up]

Best Part || Kaminari Denki x Reader

“When we wake up and then we make love, it makes me feel so nice” Best Part - H.E.R ft. Daniel Caesar

Pairing: Kaminari Denki x fem!reader

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: 18+, morning sex, dom!Denki, praise kink

A/N: This is the first fic I’m releasing for my 1k follower event! Hope you enjoy! 😊 And shoutout to @unbreakableeiji​ for reading it over and reassuring me it’s not complete shit 😭

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

You wake to sunlight dotting your vision. Taking your time to stretch against the sheets, you think this is infinitely more peaceful than the brash alarm every other day of the week. You smile at your husband, asleep, and with a bit of drool slipping down his chin.

Sunday is the best day of the week; when you can sleep in and forget about the troubles of the outside world. The only way Sundays could be ruined is if your husband gets an emergency call from work. But, what can ya do? You signed up for the hectic pro-hero life the moment you said “I do.” This is why you vow to savor every moment with him. You slide the ring on your finger that’s lying on your bedside table, sparkling an iridescent yellow-gold.

Your eyes flicker to appreciate what you have, more like who you have; taking it all in before the moment passes and it’s onto the next one. Sunlight caresses his electric locks, bathing him in a golden aura; you trace the outline of the lightning bolt striking his bangs. You lean forward, softly rubbing your nose against his and his own twitching in response. His eyes remain closed, soft snores continuing to fill the room. You pout before a devilish glint takes your face. Reaching under the sheets, you palm Denki’s already half-hardened cock. It only takes a couple of strokes to stand at full attention. An alluring motif graces your ears in the form of a deep groan. Denki shifts beneath the sheets, allowing you a better grip, but you don’t give him what he wants.

“What are ya doin’ to me, baby girl?” Denki mumbles into the pillow.

“Whatever do you mean?” You bite your lip to conceal the smile threatening to break through.

Golden orbs shoot open.

“You know exactly what I mean,” he growls. 

“Good morning to you too, sunshine.” 

You peck his lips, and when you pull away he makes sure to latch onto your bottom lip with his teeth, pulling you back in. You take your time languidly exploring each other’s mouths. Denki swipes his tongue across your lip and you open up for him, meeting him in a never-ending slow dance. It’s not long before he reaches down to circles his fingers lazily along your folds, juices flowing instantly at the touch. A breathless moan escapes you when he finds your clit, warming you up just right. You dig your foot into his hip, grinding against his fingers already drenched in your slick. 

Denki stops his ministrations to show you the slick glistening his fingers, made even more obvious by the light. “Damn, baby girl, look how wet you are already and I’ve barely even touched you.” He brings a finger to his lips, eyes never leaving yours as his tongue swirls around the digit expertly. You flush at the inherent display of eroticism. 

Hiding your face in the crook of his neck, you whine a muffled, “C’mon Denki…” 

“No need to be shy, baby girl, it’s just you and me.” 

“ ’m not shy…” 

He breathes a quick laugh at how utterly untrue that is. “Then why don’t you come out of hiding?” You huff into his neck which he replies, “Please? For me?” 

Crazy how he still manages to get you shy even though you’ve been married for five years and counting. 

“You know,” he starts, “just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean I can’t see you…” He shuffles awkwardly, “learned that from… ahem… personal experience…” 

You twist your head so your eyes pop open to meet his. “Really?” 

“There she is.” His eyes light up.

“Hey! I don’t appreciate being tricked,” you pout.

“Oh, I wasn’t lying. I used to hide behind poles thinking no one could see me.”

You don’t show a reaction of disbelief like a normal person would, already used to Denki and his… unique way of thinking. 

“I was like… ten.” 

You raise an eyebrow. 

“Okay, twelve. I was twelve. It made sense in my head, okay!?” 

“Oh, I have no doubt about that,” you say.

He narrows his eyes, a dark look replacing his jovial one. “Turn around,” Denki commands, giving your ass a soft spank enough to make you jolt.

You know better than to argue.

He slides his cock against your folds, spreading your legs so the head rubs against your clit each time.

“Mmmm… baby…” you whimper. Denki elicits a soft gasp from you as he sucks at the sensitive spot on your neck. You’re dripping between your thighs, coating Denki’s cock enough that he could easily slip in.

“Lower your hips…fuck yeah… just like that,” he groans in appreciation, “good girl...” 

The praise is not lost on you, body tingling at the approval. 

Denki grips your hips, entering you from behind. You gasp at the delicious stretch; the right amount of pleasure and pain swirling in your nether regions. He takes his time sliding into you, making sure you feel every ridge of his thick cock, loving the way your walls clench around his girth. 

You mewl at the absolute slowness, simultaneously loving and hating it. You dig your face into the covers as he rubs your pebbled nipple; and when he doesn’t move for a full minute, you wiggle your hips, desperate for just a fraction of the friction you were getting before.

“Shh… it’s okay. We got all the time in the world, baby girl.” 

You bite your lip to keep from whimpering, but you’ve never been very good at keeping quiet. It’s rare for Denki to take things slow, it’s against his nature, and the one time you wanna take things fast, of course, he’d want to take his sweet time. Oh, the irony. 

He plants a ray of kisses down your neck, and as much as you want to get on top and get this show on the road… you can tell he’s thoroughly enjoying the syrupy goodness of a Sunday morning. You twist your head to find a look of pure contentment on his face; you’d think he fell back asleep if it weren’t for the frustrating finger still toying with your nipple.

You thank the undeniable force that causes Denki to finally move. He does so slowly, not even thrusting properly all the way in and out. It’s a lazy rhythm of him slowly grinding his hips against yours. To make up for it, he slides his hand down to pay attention to your throbbing clit. It sets your body alight, an ignited spark ready to catch flame, setting fire to your entire being. 

You moan his name, knowing that gets him going. As expected, he grunts in response, bucking his hips faster. He thrusts deep enough to hit the spot that makes you scream. “Ri-right there! Mmmm…fuck baby... right…” You close your eyes, surrendering yourself to the pleasure of Denki filling you up, of feeling whole, and to the heat squeezing you from the inside out, building and building and building...

“Yeah? Right. Here?” He punctuates with a hard thrust, mercilessly ripping a shout from your throat. “You like that, baby? You like me fucking you from behind like this? Filling you up so good you feel it for days?” He slaps your ass hard before palming gently. 

“Say my name.” His voice ghosts the shell of your ear.

You only get the first syllable out before succumbing to the waves of pleasure wracking your body. Denki grabs you by the jaw, turning your face towards his. Your heart drums at the darkness shadowing his naturally light features. His eyes resemble a wicked golden-brown, only seen by you in these intimate moments. 

Denki grips tighter, enough to display dominance, but not to actually hurt. “Say. It.” He’s thrusting just shy of the spot inside of you, and his fingers have stopped rubbing your clit, like he’s waiting for you to obey before giving you what you want.

You muster up the last of your breath to moan a soft, “Denki…”

He strokes your cheek, “Good girl.”

But the tender gesture is here just as it’s gone. Denki returns to the brutal thrusting and abuse of your clit. Your eyes roll back to the sudden onslaught of pleasure. This time he doesn’t stop until you’re on the brink, muscles tightening and sucking him in deeper than he thought possible. He groans at the tight heat engulfing the whole of his cock. It’s enough to hit him like a punch to the gut. He makes sure to sheath himself all the way in as he spills into you. 

The satisfying warmth of Denki draining himself into you causes you to fall off the edge yourself. Denki continues to fuck into you (despite already finishing) helping you ride out your orgasm.

“You’re doing so well, baby,” Denki praises as your body shakes from the strength of the orgasm. He stares in awe at the way your lashes flutter over your cheekbones, the way your body glows under the rising sun, the way you’re no longer in control, a nonsensical flow of words and moans streaming from your mouth. This is a release you need to start off your day, and Denki is more than happy to give you what you need. Denki makes sure you get off more than once, like fireworks setting off one after another, until you’re a writhing, oversensitive mess begging him to stop. 

You both take a moment to catch your breath after your third and final orgasm. Denki’s still pressed against you, head tucked in the crook of your neck. You whimper when he pulls out, longing for him to stay, but also relieved to escape the blistering body heat.

Denki flops back to his side of the bed, completely sated, and an arm bent under his head. You curl up next to him (screw the body heat, you want cuddles!) as he wraps his other arm around you to stroke your back. 

“Damn, babe, have I mentioned how much I love Sundays?” He looks down at you; his usual goofy smile returned. 

“Oh, I don’t know, only a thousand times,” you smile. Not only has he said this in front of you, but the hero agency he works at also knows how much Denki loves Sundays and why he loves them, resulting in you and him getting into several long talks about oversharing and professionalism in the workplace. Uraraka assured you that he doesn’t go into explicit detail, mainly just gushing about how perfect you are, especially on Sundays “wink wink.” (Yep, you married a guy who actually uses the phrase “wink wink” instead of just winking.) You haven’t told Denki yet, but you secretly swoon. Despite your friends sending you joking texts on Sundays, Denki’s public displays of affection show he’s confident in his love for you, and you’d take that any day over someone who’s afraid or ashamed to be with you.

Grrrrrrrrrr

Your thoughts are interrupted by a stomach growl which isn’t yours. You raise an eyebrow at Denki who gives his best puppy-dog eyes. You already know what’s coming before he even opens his mouth. 

“Pancakes?” 

“Sounds good, babe, call me when they’re done.” You lay on your side with your back towards Denki, eyes closed like you’re going back to sleep. A minute passes before you hear shuffling and arms wrap around you.

“Please?” 

You really shouldn’t give in. It’s settled that it's Denki’s turn to make breakfast this Sunday. Your mistake was looking back because you always find it hard to resist your husband’s tried and true puppy-dog eyes.

“Ugh. Fine.” 

“Yessssss,” Denki hisses, a victory smile taking over as he makes himself more comfortable in bed.

You begrudgingly get out of bed when Denki sheepishly adds, “With chocolate chips?”

You grumble in agreeance, almost out the door when you’re stopped again.

“And whipped cream?”

“Don’t push it.”

“Sorry.”

He sinks into the covers all dejected that you can’t help but give in.

You’re in the middle of flipping a pancake while humming along to your favorite song when excited footsteps pitter patter across the kitchen floor.  

“Looks good, hun, pancakes are for sure the best part of lazy Sundays!” Denki rubs his hands together, tongue swiping over his lips.

Uhm… did your husband really just rank pancakes over you?

“Excuse me? What about the mindblowing sex we just had, huh? Or the fact that you wouldn’t even have pancakes if it weren't for me?” You cross your arms to stop yourself from whacking your husband with the spatula currently in your hand. 

He chuckles, wrapping his arms around you from behind, “You’re absolutely right.”

“I am?” 

You’re taken aback. Usually, Denki would either run away or play along with your play fights so this tenderness is unexpected.

“Of course,” he kisses your temple, “You’re the best part. Forever and always.”

[erigold13261]

📢Psychonauts NSR AU, Chapter 3: Vs. Cold Comet Crispin📢

“Billions upon billions of organisms on this tiny planet. Each meticulously designed to fufill their given purpose. But you have the bare minimum to reach mediocrity. You can't even handle a simple satellite procedure!” A man snapped on the phone. The man was a DJ who was wearing a blue cloak with a yellow sun by the neck and rotating planets. He wore a silver scarf that were like hands. He wore dark blue pants and black boots. The man had yellow skin and blue hair and wore a visor. “Such people can be idiots… I mean, it's not rocket science… but is and…” the man stopped and saw what he was eating, “Can someone get me some new Honey Pepper Bacon? This plate's gone cold!” He ordered as his scarf grabbed the plate and threw it away. “Great… now what.” The man complained. Just then the man heard the door suddenly slammed open. He turned around and saw Milla and Sasha running to him.

“What are you people doing! We citizens are getting no electricity while you guys just party!” Milla complained.

“Who are these two? Did they have the right to enter?” The DJ asked.

“You don't remember us? We're Bunk Bed Junction, and we're here to stop NSR from taking control of the city! The people of Vinyl City needs to know about what Rock is about!” Milla explained.

“Rock? Fascinating. Your limited aspirations, your misplaced efforts. You remind me of… Pluto!” The DJ insulted. “What once was a planet, and now no longer is.” He continued.

“P…Pluto? Sasha, what he said was bad, right?” Milla asked.

“Well, being a dwarf planet is not that bad.” Sasha comforted.

“Well either way, your intelligence is strikingly shallow, as everyone else's is. Meaning that you plutonians are no longer relevant.” The DJ explained.

“What? So you think that your music is so relevant, that our's isn't? You pedaço de ditado porcaria?” Milla asked.

“Don't you know who I am?” The DJ asked, “I… am… DJ COLD COMET CRISPIN!” he introduced himself. “My music will reach to the furthest of galaxies, what do you have to beat me… SIMPLETONS?” The DJ spoke. The fight was on.

Four orbs appeared circling around DJ CCC as if they were planets. Milla strucked her guitar on one of the orbs many times, creating ammo for her to collect. Sasha did the same, with his difference being that he used his drumsticks. They launched their ammo at DJ CCC until he got off of his DJ Booth.

“NSR's dominance over Vinyl City will end!” Milla shouted.

“NSR? Maybe, but my music? Highly unlikely.” DJ CCC responded. Then, the walls of the dance club opened. Revealing an arena in shape of the solar system, similar to the club's floor. “For my music, will ripple to rims of the universe and back!” DJ CCC shouted as he grew larger. Now things were getting serious.

Milla still attacked the planets with her guitar. Getting herself some ammo and aimed at the DJ. But then she saw some asteroids attacking her, thankfully she dodged. Sasha did the same but he accidentally got strucked by the planet Neptune. They launched their ammo, but it wasn't enough… they still attacked only this time Milla used some rockets and Sasha launched the ammo he collected by using an accelerator, causing them to hit the visor of DJ CCC.

“Just surrender DJ Broken Record!” Milla shouted.

“Shut it!” DJ CCC spoke. “You have barely, barely scratched the surface of my brilliance! I am done stooping to your level of idiocy!” DJ CCC shouted.

“Oh come on, I'm pretty sure we can talk this out.” Sasha responded. But then the rockers saw that DJ CCC grabbing an Earth Model and placing his finger on it… which had a larger variant of his finger on it. Which revealed a much larger stage.

“Or… maybe not.” Sasha spoke. Now it was time for the battle. Sasha started first, he got some ammo to attack, and transformed a satellite into an accelerator, but it wasn't enough. Milla used her ammo, but it was no use. Suddenly, the planets started to attack in rhythm, the two dodged them. But then they saw that the planets were no glowing purple, perfect for parrying. And it worked, causing the planets strike at DJ CCC causing his visor to be completely cracked.

“You're endeavors mean nothing to me, they mean nothing when a billion of stars and thousands upon thousands of planets—” but before DJ CCC could finish… a black hole popped out of his visor. Now it was time to get serious.

Milla grabbed her guitar and saw the planets glowing purple. She parried one, then another, and another, until the job was done. That was when the finisher was prepared.

“There's only one thing left to Milla.” Sasha told th guitarist.

“Right you are darling!” Milla responded. She set her guitar on attack mode, while Zuke prepared his drum sticks.

“BUNKA”

“JUNKA”

“SHAKALAKA-BAM!” they shouted. Causing a blue light to attack at the DJ. Causing him to fly off.

“Billions and trillions!” He shouted off in the distance.

“And Pluto is still relevant! You hear me!” Milla shouted. “Right?” She asked her drummer. The two then heard a screen turning on.

“DJ Cold Comet Crispin. Can you read me? Is everything alright?” A voice spoke. Milla knew that voice.

“Heh heh… I'm sorry, but the DJ is out of commission. Would like to leave a message?” Milla asked cunnignly.

“What?! Who do you think you… hold on, I remember you two. You're those two troublemakers from the Lights Up Auditions am I right?” Ford asked.

“Yep! We're Bunk Bed Junction. And we're here to bring back rock!” Milla responded.

“You're joking…” Ford responded.

“You better believe it!” Milla replied back.

“And we’re not stopping until we claim our fame!” Milla replied.

“And bring change to the world.” Sasha reminded.

“Also that too.” Milla responded.

“Oh please…” Ford complained.

“This city had enough of your tyrannical control! It's time that we will give what the people want!” Milla replied.

“Stop the theatrics! You think that you're better than me? I'll say it before, and I'll say it again. The age of Rock is over.” Ford spoke.

“That's where you're wrong. And today's win is proof that the power of rock is stronger than ever! What do you say to that? HUH?!” Milla replied.

“Persistent little—. Fine! You wanna take this road? I say bring it on. We have the force to deal with the likes of you! We fight with ORDER, and you have no place in our system.” Ford finished.

“If that's what you stand for, then we want no part of your stupid regiment. It's time we fight for fairness! For the people of Vinyl City! We fight for… THE LITTLE GUYS!” Milla shouted as she raised her arm with her pinky finger up.

“Pssst… Sasha! Put your hand next to mine!” Milla whispered.

“Oh… ok.” Sasha responded as he held Milla by the wrist.

“What are you doing… just hold up your pinky finger!” Milla whispered again.

“Like this?” Sasha responded as he raised his pinky finger.

“Now put your hand next to mine.” Milla whispered again.

“Like this?” Sasha responded as he let go of Milla's wrist and had his hand on Milla's left.

“No! The other side!” Milla whispered.

“Ok, like this?” Sasha responded.

“Yes! Just a little be to the right.” Milla order quietly to which Sasha did… on the left.

“I meant my right.” Milla spoke.

“But I was doing that!” Sasha responded.

“I mean left, Sasha…” Milla spoke.

“Like this?” Sasha responded.

“Exactly! A bit more the left.” Milla responded. Sasha slowly moved his arm to Milla until it was in the perfect position. Milla then looked at Ford and shouted.

“Yeah! For the Little Guys.”

[tatttletale]

Roulette!AU | Steven Universe

AU: Basically, Rose is still Pink Diamond, but this time around, due to her life on Homeworld she's more skittish and soft-spoken, and because of her gentle treatment with her new Pearl, that's allowed her to become more confident, and in this AU Pearl is the leader of the rebellion and Rose is more in the role of "terrifying renegade Quartz". Garnet stays the same as a fusion, and so does Bismuth, but her love interest has changed on account of the personality changes.

Let's start at the beginning. The very beginning.

○○○

"I— I can't believe it," Pink Diamond murmured, voice soft, disbelieving. ". . . My own colony!"

        "Isn't it exciting?" Pearl agreed. "And it looks so beautiful! What should we name it?"

        Pink smiled at Pearl's boldness. If any other Pearl had suggested their owner's colony was just as much theirs, they would undoubtedly be reprimanded. It was safe to say, as well, that Pearl wasn't really hers anymore—she was her own Gem, and if anything, Pink found herself more Pearl's than the other way around.

        "What about. . . Earth?" she gave a soft laugh. "It feels good to finally say it. . . I've been saving that name for so long."

        "I love it," Pearl grinned.

        "Have you already organised the Lapis Lazuli schedules for us?"

        "Of course! The terraforming should only take a few weeks, and then we'll be making our own Gems!"

        "I can't wait," Pink sighed, wistfully.

○○○

Pearl sighed, reaching out to the control panel from her seat on Pink Diamond's lap.

        For now, the moon base was as close as they could get to their new colony, but it quickly grew dull. The Earth hung in front of them like a giant blue marble, teasing them through the communication room's full-wall window.

        "The Kindergarten was injected years ago! Shouldn't they be emerging by now?"

        Pearl squirmed a little on the restless Diamond's lap and placed a hand on the panel, electricity buzzing up through her arm and into her head. Graphs appeared before her eyes.

        "The terraforming is going as scheduled. Lapises are already terraforming the Beta Kindergarten in the northern-western hemisphere. Bismuths have constructed strategic warp panels across the Earth and Peridot technician stations are planned to be developed in the Kindergartens soon. The first—" With a gasp, she lit up, quite literally. "Pink, the first Quartz soldiers are scheduled to emerge soon!"

        "Finally, something exciting!" Pink agreed.

        In a rush, they bustled down to the viewing orb and Pearl turned it on. The walls lit up with a holographic vision of the Prime Kindergarten.

        Pink gasped, gazing around in awe, and Pearl threw an arm out, pointing. "Pink, look!"

        On the far rocky wall, what appeared to be a Gem-shaped hole was glowing pink. A beat later and a grinning Amethyst burst from the rock and landed on the floor. The gem set against her upper arm was clean-cut and pristine.

        Pink felt excitement flare up within her. "We're creating life from. . . nothing!"

        "Welcome to Earth!" Pearl cried to the hologram, and then her face fell as it walked right through her and into the arms of a pair of newly-emerged soldiers.

        Pearl sighed, face resigned. "I wish we could be there."

        Pink said nothing, dreading the inevitable.

        As she'd anticipated, Pearl's features suddenly lit up. "Wait— of course we can be there! We can warp into the Prime Kindergarten!"

        "Wh-What? Pearl, no—" Pink Diamond found herself cringing. "If we went down to the kindergarten—if we were caught—I would never hear the end of it from Yellow and Blue." She let her eyes drop. "Blue would throw me in the Tower."

        The room was silent for a moment, and then Pearl padded over and reached up, lifting her face a little. She could just reach her this way, as she was kneeling on the floor.

        "Pink. . ." Pearl's voice was soft. "You can't let them control you like this."

        Pink only shook her head. "I can't do anything about it—they're my family. If. . ." Her voice petered out. She didn't like the idea herself, but if it would make Pearl happy. . . "—If you want, you can go by yourself. I'll stay here and wait for you."

        "What? No!" Pearl sounded scandalised. "I'm not doing that! We'll both go, together."

        Pink tried to ignore the fluttering feeling her words brought about in her stomach. ". . . How?"

        "What if. . . you shapeshifted? To look like another Quartz?"

        Pink raised her head. "You think so. . .?"

        "Yes!" Suddenly, Pearl was completely onboard with the idea. Gem aglow, she projected a model of her Diamond into the air before them, saturated in a holographic blue. "If you shrink down in height, widen your build, grow out your hair. . . no one would know the difference!" The model complied, shrinking down into a soldier with tight ringlets.

        "I. . . I can try," Pink said, if only to appease her. She took a good look at the hologram and then closed her eyes, imagining the form in her mind's eye, withdrawing the excess of her light projection back into her gem.

        She heard Pearl gasp, and she opened her eyes.

        "You look amazing!" Pearl cried, and brushed a hand over her chest. She shivered. "You even remembered the Court symbol!"

        Pink smiled down at her in relief, and she could have sworn Pearl flushed before she stepped back and cleared her throat, shooting her a mischievous smile. "Are you ready to go?"

○○○

The Kindergarten warp pad chimed, shooting a beam of light into the sky. When the light cleared, it left a Pearl and a pink Quartz soldier standing together, gazing in awe around at the enormous canyon.

        "Pearl. . . look!" Pink-Diamond-as-Quartz leaned over the warp pad ledge, pointing at a band of marching Amethysts. Pearl's grin was luminous.

        "This is incredible!" Her wide eyes sparkled in excitement, and she grabbed ahold of Pink's hand. "Take us down there, quick!"

        Taking her under an arm, Pink-as-Quartz obligingly leaped from the warp pad and into the air. Even as they drifted down to the Kindergarten floor, chunks of rock burst from the walls as dozens of Amethysts emerged and jumped down.

        "Pink," Pearl breathed as they touched down. "This is. . ."

        "Out of my way!" a newly emerged Amethyst cried, and shoved them apart as she ran past. Pink-as-Quartz fell to the ground with a surprised ugh!.

        "Oh, dear!" Pearl cried, a small smile on her face, and padded over to help her up. "Are you alright?"

        "Of course," Pink returned, taking her hand. "But this is. . . so different."

        "Isn't it?" Pearl agreed with enthusiasm. "You're fitting right in! No one's saluting you now!"

        Pink-as-Quartz gasped lightly. "You're. . . You're right!"

        "This is so fun," her companion gushed. "Thank you so much for doing this for me. I couldn't have done this on my own!"

        The words warmed Pink, and she smiled before taking her hand. "What about those Amethysts?"

        "Yes!" Pearl cried, and hauled her over to the gathered soldiers nearby. When they pulled up in front of them, Pearl gave Pink a sly nudge.

        "Uh, hello. . . fellow Amethyst guards!" Pink-as-Quartz called. "What. . . are we all up to?"

        "There's two more from our unit that haven't emerged yet so we're gonna wait for 'em," one replied, eyes half-hidden beneath a neat fringe. At that moment, a section of the rock wall lit up and burst apart. The new Gem tumbled to the ground before them wth a groan. ". . . Here comes one of 'em!"

        Delighted, Pearl stepped forward. "Oh, my stars, look at you!"

        "Welcome to Earth!" Pink beamed from behind her.

        "That is the first and. . . nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," the Quartz smiled back, soft eyes flicking between them.

        "What's going on here?" Another light-haired Amethyst ran up to the group, hands on hips. "Our orders were to move out as soon as you emerged!"

        "But. . . 8XM hasn't emerged yet," a different Amethyst replied.

        "She can catch up with us later! Go! Go! Go!"

        Pink began to move after them, but was quickly stopped in her tracks by Pearl. "We can come back here later. Wouldn't you like to explore some of Earth's other features?"

        Pink-as-Quartz gasped. "Pearl! Yes, let's go!"

        They emerged unhurried from the Kindergarten, transitioning from barren dirt to lush green grass. A light chirping filled the air. "So. . . this. . . is Earth," Pink breathed.

        Vast green fields, carpeted with pink organics, and rising on the horizon, majestic purple landforms, framed by a clear blue sky.

        "Isn't it beautiful?" Pearl beamed, and took her by the hand. "We have to see it all."

○○○

The day sped by. They laid together on the grass and gazed at the clouds; they gathered flowers, throwing petals into the air where it fell as pink rain; they explored the mass of tall trees, glimpsed organics in the patches of dappled light; and at one point Pink-as-Quartz made a grab at a fluttery-looking organic, which escaped her fingers and instead flew around them in circles.

        They came across a flowing body of water, through which they watched slippery organics swim, and Pearl bent down to trail her fingers through the water. Then, across the banks, Pink noticed a set of figures. As she watched, the small one gathered water and walked back to the two taller shadows, disappearing again into the trees as Pearl stood up. She thought she could feel Pearl's elation falter.

        They made their way back to the Kindergarten in growing shadows. There was a rumbling somewhere nearby—it seemed to come from the grey sky. As soon as they crossed from green grass to brown Kindergarten dirt, Pink stopped.

        "We can't go through with this invasion," she said, voice soft.

        Pearl sighed, and took her hands into her own. "I know. I didn't realise that. . . that all this life, growing wild on Earth. . . that it's going to be destroyed."

        "We're not creating life from nothing," Pink murmured.

        Pearl's eyes mirrored her own sadness when she answered. "We're taking life, and leaving nothing behind."

        There was a flash from the sky, and water began to fall in droplets from the grey overhead, pattering onto the bare rock walls of the Kindergarten, washing the dirt away in a brown wet mess.

        A newly-realised Pearl and her Diamond stood, hand-in-hand, gazing out at the endless green, wondering how much longer it would last.

(Chapter 1/13)

Check out the rest of this story on: - Wattpad - FanFiction - Archive Of Our Own

[kaetastic]

No Longer A Secret

pairing: Maxwell Lord x F!CEO!Reader

summary: The rivalry between Chimtech Consortium and Techlite Coterie was no joke. The electrifying glow around the two CEOs of the company had been more than prominent whenever the two are in the same room. People could just feel it. There’s just one rule, whatever happens in private- stays in private. They knew it would’ve been broken sooner or later.

word count: 2.6k

warning: smut, language, dirty talking, jealous!maxwell, friends (?) with benefits, rough sex ??, choking

note: my first maxwell lord AND (?) pedro pascal fanfiction! yay! i’m so excited, i’ve been enticed by his wonderful acting that made me love all of his characters 🥰- techlite is an actual company but that was the name that i could come up with at the top of my head lol. tagging @storiesofthefandomlovers​ because guess who had a doubt they couldn’t find answers from google? Me! (just a reminder that we still have yet to see Max’s true personality- so :))

Glowing of red rays splayed across the street of the boisterous city. Despite the growing intensity of the vibrant red, there were other territories who decided to claim part of the land as their own. Shades of grey sprinkled over the road as blocks of cars swirl in organized strings. Various signs were hung up, some larger than the other; however, even though the size difference was quite prominent, it seemed it had not done its specified job. The expectations of greater, flashier, eye-catching signs to power over the rest had been over the market’s roof. It did nothing as the pedestrians would graze their eyes over the block letters in yellow or barely readable cursive blue, before continuing their path. 

There was such a gorgeous scene set up right outside the office window, a pro the male CEO had liked. It almost made him feel as if he had the whole view over a chunk of the city. Conquering. However, as time went by- it was nothing but just a passing routine of his day. Despite the great view the city offered, there was nothing else beautiful than the staggering moans inside the closed-off grand office.

“Fuck! Max...” The shrill escaped her throat in a quivering line as her legs tingled from the thrusting of his hips and the piercing of his fingers into her thigh. The combination that he always liked to mix-and-match would always get her to jump in shock. His eyes shot up, the sight of her head thrown back, hairs angled up in peculiar angles from the excessive rubbing against the wooden table had only caused him to double the filthy thought that had already tinted his mind. 

Not to forget her fingers weaving through her locks as if to grip herself into reality when he had snapped his hips. She had already tried several objects that were available on the desk to hold her steady. Except, most of them had been thrown onto the ground, either from her pushing it off the surface, or it was during the commencement of the meeting. Y/N’s lips were gaped open, a relief sigh escaping her lips once his fingers cladded around her throat as if she wore a choker.

“Don’t fucking call me Max.” He growled out, sending shivering vibrations into the warmth between her legs. Despite the enticing sensation on his pelvis slapping into her, Y/N couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his infamous attitude. The attitude that claimed of his whiny, brat-like tone. There had been flying rumours behind his back, the words on a creaking wagon with every step he took. They claimed that behind the fake grinning facade of a mask he wore, he was only a smug man. And Y/N, well... she could confirm as their inconsistent, abrupt meetings had proven more evidence than she would need. It was never like that at the start.

In the beginning, the two could barely stand in each other’s peripheral, leading to a very immense, awkward distance between the two CEOs of the dominating companies of the market. Even for other business-related people in the same room as them could see the string that wrapped around their heads did not bend or fold, for it kept a constant distance between the two. As if something would’ve gone off if they had opposed the rules. Then, everything had flipped around. Y/N could barely remember how, but it was something on the lines of alcohols, and running into each other at midnight. Pushing their secret meetings down a hole, they had tried their absolute best to keep their relationship a secret. Although, that was a challenge for the two when they found a narrow spot in the janitor’s room during a gala. She didn’t know how she had managed to drag Maxwell into that one.

“Oh! Fuck,” Y/N moaned out when she felt his other hand crept up her thighs to draw circles on her clit, suddenly pressing the bundle of nerves without a warning. “Right there!” With her hand over his circling ones, she gazed deeply into his eyes, even though there had been a few droplets of tears blurring her sight that were ready to be set free in a blink. “I’m close.”

He nodded, chest heaving at the most strenuous activity he had done for the day. Maxwell watched her unoccupied hands run across his mess of a table, her grip only managing to grasp onto the edge of the freezing wooden table. He let out a chuckle, “Yeah? Fucking come for me. Yeah, just like that... fuck, on my dick, yeah.”

Glazing the sheet of protection was the glistening liquid that oozed out of the woman and onto the man. With eyes rolled to the back of her heads, her orbs settled onto the figure who beamed at his shaft in fascination, “Fuck, look at that,” Maxwell sniggered, his fingers wrapping around his still erected cock. A staggering sigh caressed into the air, his fingers cladded with her juices. Their eyes met, unseen yet shuddering shivers of electricity clambered down their spine, Maxwell quirked his eyebrows at her perched up elbows. “Lay down, baby, I’m not done yet.”

“Are you going to the gala?” Y/N inquired as she sauntered across the office for her clothing, skin still bare and exposed to the air that was now frigid. There was not even a second of coldness when she was thrown onto the table with Maxwell inside her. All the warmth the two had generated together had evaporated in thin air. The male CEO had already yanked up his pants, the trousers that had been coiled to rest around his ankles during the strenuous activity were now buttoned up once again. His eyes lingered on her naked figure, orbs taking in the glowing sight. The warm rays of the afternoon smeared along the canvas of her.

Maxwell sniggered, head shaking in amusement, “I just made you come three times, and the first thing you ask me is if I’m going to the gala?” His fingers slipped the leather belt that sat on the corner of his wooden table into the slits. Arms resting onto the cushion of his chair, he gazed upon the sinful sight. The thoughts that had sparked the meeting swerved into his head. 

“Well? Are you?” Y/N quirked her eyebrows, finally clipping on her bra. The nearly shredded looking dress in her grasp, looking as helpless as it could be. The results of hasty hands.

“I’d rather stay at home, and get ruined there.” Y/N let out a chuckle, her arms slipping into the sleeves. While her body had now been covered by the previous dress that had been yanked off of her (nearly ripped into two fabrics by Maxwell’s force), Maxwell didn’t bother to button up his dress shirt. The male CEO had poured himself whiskey in the rock glass, tongue already coated by the day’s delicacies.

“I’m going, dragged once again to these stupid meetups. Always end up talking about what we’re going to eat for breakfast or shit.” Despite her mumbling the last sentence under her breath, Maxwell had heard it clearly. Amused, he chuckled.

“Who’re you going with?”

“Not sure yet. Heard that Michael might be asking me.” With that, Maxwell’s smile was wiped off clean from his face. The crescent frown he wore had not matched the slightly curling of Y/N’s lips. 

“Michael? Michael from Kingsley Steel?” If his mood had not declined down enough, the nod from the woman had been the reason it passed the horizontal line of zero.

Creasing down her folding dress that seemed to find comfort in brushing against each other like an accordion, Y/N swiftly swept her foot inside her heels, “If you’re ever need of a gal, I’m sure I can hand a list of those who could tolerate you, Maxie. Not promising there would be a name!”

“Don’t call me that!” The male CEO shot up from his chair, the glass still in his hand.

Giggling while she sauntered towards the door, she threw a glance over her shoulder, waving at the man, “Thank you for the delighting meeting, once again, Maxie.”

Maxwell huffed, planting himself back into the warm seat, his palm running to rub his face. This was the situation he got stuck in. How does he flee from it?

Gold engulfed the room. Well, that was all he could see with his limited peripheral. Obnoxious sparkle and twinkles of the warm glow from the light bulbs were angled to bounce off the draping gems. Maxwell sneered, although his expression was covered when he took a sip of the champagne. If he had to breathe one more second in the room, he would throw himself out of the window. Or, if he had been slightly daring with alcohol in his system, he would just throw himself onto the tall tower of gingerly arranged champagne glasses. There had been too many- countless parties thrown at the same party hall, it was starting to get onto his nerves. Maxwell was about to lose it. There had been good memories and without a doubt, bad, but all the man wanted to do was just ram a wrecking ball. 

It was quite rare to see the owner of the Chimtech Consortium alone, lingering in a pack of one. Especially without a date. No one to accompany him. Maxwell sometimes liked it that way. Sure, it could’ve started some burning rumours, but the man has had enough of the business people who went on and on about this and that. The recent pair he had chatted with had gone on and on about their branch they were opening down south. Maxwell was so close to smashing his cup against their heads. 

In the midst of judging people with scurrying, hawk-eyes, Maxwell was pulled to a screeching halt. A sight that caused his blood vessels to pump in a furious speed. The pace sent rapid electric currents to zap around the muscles of his fingers. When he realized that he had been suffocating the neck of the glass, he let out an exasperated huff. He didn’t bother the inconvenient place he had kept the glass, knowing someone who was paid to do the job would clean so. 

A large grin was plastered on Y/N’s lips, almost as if it was wipe-less. Maxwell sniggered, eyes nearly rolling at the sight of the fake facade she was performing. There had never been a moment a single muscle on her lips faltered. Her cheeks must fucking hurt. He couldn’t help but find narrating her thoughts to be amusing. Although he liked jabbing at the mask she paraded around under the grand chandelier, there had been something more infuriating. The arm that subtly rested behind her back. Oh, how bad he wanted to smash his fists on that brunet- Michael. There had been so many things parallel between the two male. Michael was young. Maxwell couldn’t deny that he was ageing, more prominently. 

There had been other points he could consider, but that would only make Michael look less than what he was. Indeed, Maxwell had just snipped his train of thought before the list could even continue. The CEO knew he had everything over Michael. Like the success of the passed-down company was a starter, although, the passed-down part had sounded a bit less... threatening. Even the name ‘Michael’ sounded so bitter, like an overcooked line of meat on a steak. Maxwell reminded himself to make sure there were no Michaels running around his office. It would only bring up memories he didn’t want to remember.

Maxwell pondered if she could feel his eyes on her. Usually, she would’ve noticed. Their discreet eyes meeting across the whole room could never be hindered. The only reason being whatever they participated behind the walls could not just be dusted over with a layer of padded dirt. Unfortunately for him, Y/N hadn’t bothered to pull away from the conversation. 

Maxwell barely had time to process the breeze swerving beside his body. Maybe it had been the disconnection between his brain and the muscles of his legs because he was already midway approaching the woman. He didn’t bother to stop, “Mr Harris! It’s so great to see you here, Michael, Y/N.”

The smile he had claimed to be wipe-less vanished from her face. Just a stoic expression remained. Even though the coverage, Maxwell knew there were a lot more going on behind the mask she yanked up. It could be endless- breaking the one rule (the only Maxwell had decided to prioritize and bothered to remember) they had or to why he had interrupted a well-flowing conversation, “Maxwell, I did not expect you to be here, with you know, your new launch and all.”

Feigning a burst of humoured laughter, Maxwell swatted his hands, “There’s always time for partying.” The eldest man of the four cackled, lungs nearly squeezed out of his ancient chest. The only reaction from the group aside Michael’s pathetic, much more, died-down laugh. 

“There always is, you must enjoy your youth, or else you’ll end up like an old clump, like me.” Michael shook his head, a genuine smile plastered on his face.

“You’re not old, Mr Harris.” 

“Anybody who is called with a ‘Mr’ behind their name is considered old, Michael.” Y/N chuckled.

A second of silence seeped through the bodies, slithering up their spines as they soon lost themselves in the body of water they call thoughts. Something that shouldn’t ever happen. While Michael ran his fingers on the rim of his glass, Maxwell could practically hear the train of thoughts in his mind. The imagination of the boy’s fingers running on the bare body of the woman who remained at the peculiar shape of figures played in his tainted head. Maxwell had seen and he had drum his fingers on every inch of Y/N’s skin. Michael would not be able to do that... or see it. Michael was just a boy. Maxwell was a man. 

The off-toned moaning in his head echoed of Michael’s name. It would never happen. Plus, it wasn’t how she would moan. Maxwell could feel his eyes roll at the teenager’s thoughts (Michael was in his mid-twenties, something Maxwell did not care to acknowledge). Y/N’s and Maxwell’s eyes met, her furrowed eyebrows jabbed at him. They had never been this close in the public, always keeping a safe distance. Now, it felt as if it was only her who had remembered the ground rules. What was he trying to do? 

“Uhm, I’ve got to go.” Neck zapping in a fluid movement, almost as if possessed, Michael’s body swiftly turned away from the group. The warmth of his arm around her waist leaving a spot of a cold kiss. 

Y/N pulled away from her cup, “Where are you going?” She had been too late. Michael had already swum through the crowds of known figures who had hefty-weighed price tags. Red crept up her neck. Y/N wasn’t sure if it was from anger or embarrassment. Even though she could not see those who were ogling their eyes for the next upcoming rumours of the woman who had been left by her date, she knew something would be the talk of the next day. And that frustrated her. 

“Well, that leaves you with me, baby girl.” With a nod at the astounded Mr Harris, Maxwell’s fingers clasped around Y/N’s wrist. Mouth gaped open, she could see the blurred out walls of shocked guests. Her leg was moving, feet shuffling against the red carpet, but it felt as if the scenery around her was the one to shift. The only thing her eyes had focused on was the back of Maxwell’s creaseless suit and his sleeked back hair. Soon, she was met with the dark canvas of twinkling stars, overlapped by flashing of cameras. It was no longer ‘whatever happens in private- stays in private.’

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 8- Power Surge

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU belongs to @theguardiansofredland )

Team ZIT- and Mumbo- are left behind to handle the dark crystal. When even Tango's hellbound magic and Impulse's explosion magic don't seem to work, can Mumbo get his own magic to even appear and help his friends?

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

Tango and Zedaph were eventually kicked out of the infirmary, among other hermits. Now, only Cleo, Grian, Xisuma, Ren, and Wels are in the building. Hermits settle back into their homes, but four stare at the blue orb sitting in the grass.

“It looks so innocent, tucked away in Jev’s slime.” Mumbo whispers, afraid to step closer.

“Like it didn’t just attack and nearly drain almost all of TFC’s magic and life.” Tango growls, teeth baring as he stares at the dangerous item. He works with dangerous magic, hellbound spells. But this isn’t like that. Hellbound magic takes power from the underworld. This takes power from other creatures. Living creatures, life sustaining magic stolen from their bodies. Sucking it up like it did TFC. And Gildara. 

“We need to take care of it.” Impulse rises from his crouch, an easy smile on his face as he cracks his knuckles. “Let’s get this thing out of our hair.”

Impulse flicks his hands, shocking yellow magic appearing in the air. He pulses the magic forward, and a concussive blast ripples from his hands. The ground blossoms red and orange, dirt tossed across the group remaining on the train grounds. 

But when the dust settles, the crystal is nestled in the crater Impulse blew apart. Slime had been eviscerated, only the black rock left behind. He tries another explosion, focused and sharp. Still nothing. Impulse sighs, knowing he needs help.  “Tango, can you perhaps lend a hand, man?” 

Tango grins, cracking his knuckles and joining Impulse in the fight to break the gem. Leaving Zedaph with Mumbo. “Alright, I’ll put it to fire and you blow it to pieces. I got your back.” 

The two share a fistbump, and activate their respective magic in tandem. Tango’s pattern curls and pops red like a fire, while Impulse explodes yellow outward, shockwaves and blasts in his circle. Two impish smiles and fiery eyes look down at the tiny crystal.

And they don’t hold back. A wall of fire, so hot it turns blue, burning at the gem and it’s dirt surroundings. Warping the stone and dirt it nests within. Zed and Mumbo find themselves flung backwards by Impulse’s blast, their heads spinning and teeth rattling. Impulse and Tango managed to stay upright, hair sweeping back and feet dug into grass in an attempt to not meet a similar fate as their friends. Tango sees it first. “This stupid fucking gem won’t break!” 

Fire erupts around Tango, but he’s quick to tamper down any of his frustration, aided by his friends. Impulse and Zedaph join him, glaring at the crystal as they plot on how to destroy it. They don’t just want to break it- they want to obliterate it. The crystal siphoned energy from TFC, attacking him when he used it. Zedaph closes his eyes, grimacing as he remembers the black veins and pale skin that marred their guildmaster. His soft purple irises remain closed as Tango and Impulse continue.

“Maybe we can borrow False’s cannon?” Tango whispers. 

“I don’t think she’ll give us that ever again.” Impulse looks over his shoulder, seeing the dark oak and stone brick home, the forge nestled in the crook of the house. A part of the roof is new wood, but Tango and Impulse have still yet to fix the other hole in the back of the house. 

Zedaph opens his eyes, and sees Mumbo. Standing a distance away, shifting from foot to foot and watching the grass at his feet sway in the sea wind. Awkward and alone. “Hey Mumbo. You have lightning magic, right?” 

The multi-mage jumps back into reality, patting his foot over the indent he dug with his boots and tugging on the seam of his sleeve. “Oh, y-yeah. Not well, per se, but I have lightning magic.” 

“Maybe we can be a little cleverer- more clever? I dunno, whichever- about evicting this gem from existence.” Zedaph smooths his hair, nodding Mumbo to join the trio. “I’m not exactly the crystal guy, but gems tend to have a lattice structure to it, yeah?” 

“That’s what they taught us in middle school.” Tango chuckles. He tucks one hand under his forearm, still feeling the exciting energy of casting his magic. Hellbound magic was unstable, changing on a whim and easy to lose control. Not just of the magic, but of oneself. He spent years just training to keep himself in check, making sure he never falls victim to the nature of magic. Admit it’s danger, but find beauty in it, in the same way Zedaph sees a soul to shepard in even the most rabid animal, and Impulse can refine any explosion into art like a flower. 

“Well, if Mumbo can excite the lattice of the crystal, it will be less stable. You two can go at it with the booming and blazing, and bam! No more creepy gem wanting to take over our grandpa.” Zedaph rests his hands on his waist, looking around at the others.

Impulse and Tango are all in. Among the ZIT trio, Zedaph is the one with the craziest plans. The ones that always somehow end up working. But Mumbo isn’t so convinced. “You guys are placing a lot of faith on me and my magic. I don’t know if I’ll be able to control it like you want. I can hardly even summon it.” 

Just to prove his point, Mumbo opens his hands. A wobbly red circle casts in each palm, before falling apart. Mumbo’s shoulders drop, and even the tips of his robes collars seem to wilt with his emotions. 

“Come on, Mumbo. We’ve seen your power- you’ve got more than most of us combined. You’re a multi-mage, that’s so cool man!” Impulse’s cheerful excitement exudes off him like sunshine, rippling out like an explosion’s heat. And just as energetic. 

“You’ve been training with Grian and Iskall, and when you really put your mind to it, you destroyificate them.” Tango adds, grinning as he remembers seeing those two cocky hermits get blown off their feet by the newbie. “That’s not one but two S-Class wizards you can easily hold off. This wimpy little crystal should be trembling in it’s cleavage.” Zedaph and Impulse can’t help but giggle at the word. Still immature adults. 

“Bu-but I can’t control when that happens. We haven’t figured out how to yet.” When he’s not training with Grian and Iskall, he’s digging through Joe’s library and talking with Xisuma. So much power, it takes so much to call upon, to release. It’s like breaking open a dam, and the power rushes out of him when he does. If he’s not careful, it can take control of him, instead of the other way around. 

“Just give it a shot. You never know until you try!” Zedaph pushes Mumbo in front of Tango and Impulse, and retreats. His magic isn’t exactly useful in this situation. 

Mumbo’s quaking in his boots. “Oh, oh dear. Well, I guess I’ll just-” He raises his hand, fingers shaking as he draws up his sigil. A blossoming red lotus of redstone and electricity, flecks of magic falling away like embers. They drift into the sky, carried up towards the bright blue atmosphere and fluffy white clouds. Zedaph can’t help but notice that they look like sheep, his ungulate allies in the barn he calls home. 

When he looks back down, the circle has been cast. But what the trio sees erupt from Mumbo’s hand looks less like a great bolt of red lightning, and more like a static shock stained ruddy. Mumbo whimpers, watching it disappear like the embers of his circle. He doesn’t have the courage to tell the trio he told them so, because he’s so focused on his own failure. 

“Aww, it’s okay Mumbo. Just try again- I’m sure you can do it.” Zedaph, dares to step forward, giving a hearty pat on Mumbo’s back. Zedaph grew up in the rural countryside around Foresta, where everything is rough. Calloused hands from years of farming give the tightest hugs.

And a weak city boy like Mumbo just wasn’t prepared for Zed’s strength. There was no malice, but his lanky body just couldn’t handle the slap on the back. He stumbles forward, hands catching himself on the ground- and sparking the magic deep within him. Magic flows freely from his fingers, redstone forming a circuit along the verdant grass and into the crater Impulse has created. Magic rushes through him, overwhelming each and every atom and fiber of his being. He doesn’t have control of his magic. His magic has control of him. 

The circuit connects to the gemstone, the dust illuminating and lightning ricocheting free from the trail. Mumbo blinks, his eyes filling with red light as magic takes over his whole body. So much magic, uncontained by a circle. 

“Guys, do it now!” Zedaph orders, noting the way the dark crystal rocks in the dirt. It glows from within, red light and lightning escaping the darkness of the opaque gem. Being ripped apart by Mumbo’s astounding magic. Zed knew Mumbo was strong- but this? This is unlike anything he’s ever seen. Including two different forms of magic. 

Impulse doesn’t waste a second. He waves his hand, casting a spell and snapping his fingers. The crater grows deeper as the dirt erupts in an explosion, smoke illuminated by deep red and yellow fire from Tango’s magic. They don’t  stop, they don’t let up. Only when the dust settles and smoke clears away, Mumbo’s circuit going dead, does Zedaph dare to peek into the cavity caused by his friends. 

The crystal has been obliterated. All that’s left it dust, caught by the wind and scattered into the azure waves of the sea around them. Team ZIT celebrates the defeat of the crystal, grabbing one another and pouncing on their backs. Howling with joy and rubbing their knuckles rough into each other’s hair and back. Mumbo stands up silently, bolts of lightning escaping from his hands. Striking around him, turning the grass a burnt black color. And growing stronger.

“We did it, guys! We showed that stupid crystal it messed with the wrong guild!” Impulse cheers, his smile so wide across his face it hurts his cheek. 

“Mumbo, dude, that was incredible.” Tango looks over Zedaph’s shoulder, brushing dirt off of the pink capelet. Mumbo doesn’t answer Tango’s compliment. He’s just standing in the grass, eyes closed. Zaps of lightning grow more frequent each second. “Mumbo?”

Zedaph steps away, pulling free of Impulse and Tango’s touch. He reels back as a bolt of lightning nearly hits his leg, all his blond hair standing on end. “Mumbo? Mumbo can you hear us?” 

Mumbo’s eyes snap open. But those grey irises, filled with inquisitivity and anxiety, are overshadowed by a glowing red. Sparks like static electricity crease free from his eyes, staring blindly out. Mumbo’s not in control of his magic. Impulse is the first to notice his feet losing connection with the ground. “He’s going into a power surge!” 

Impulse and Tango run into the lightning storm, each grabbing a sleeve of Mumbo’s black robe. Holding him down, their faces creased with pain when lightning courses into their body. They can feel the air turn to ozone, the scent of a storm on the horizon. Tango clenches his teeth, digging his heels into the ground. They shouldn’t have pushed Mumbo when he wasn’t ready. He needs to have control of his magic. “Zedaph! Do something!” 

Zedaph is already summoning his magic circle, the intricate spell requiring a number of motions to draw it up. Taking control of an animal is one thing. A human is something completely different. And a friend, more than anything. He hates having to remove their free will- but Mumbo isn’t in control. He has to do something. Impulse slips from his grip on Mumbo’s sleeve, fingers digging into the gold trim near the newest guildmember’s ankles. The grass is becoming further from Mumbo’s feet, weightless like a feather. 

“Mumbo!” Zed calls as he casts his spell. The two souls find a connection, Zedaph pulling on Mumbo’s soul. Trying to bring sense back from the senseless entropy of magic. Zedaph is standing still, but his face is contorted as he works to calm his friend down. He’s a shepherd mage, this is his job. To herd minds in the direction he so pleases. Animals, humans, he has the ability to speak to things beyond human language. To people beyond talk. To Mumbo, trapped and warped in his own magic. “Mumbo, calm down. Take control again.” 

Zedaph’s voice was no louder than a whisper, but to Mumbo it was a roar. His eyes blink away the red that blinded him, falling back to the ground with a stumble. His mind feels hazy, his body two steps ahead of his actual consciousness. Grass brushes against his hands, a gentle tickle against tingling skin. He finally looks up, and finds he’s not the only one on his knees. Zed has fallen down, his face pale but still smiling. 

Mumbo struggles to stand, struggles to understand what happened. Until he hears a crunch at his feet. He looks down, moving his boot out of the way. The blades of verdant green have been charred black, rocks and dirt flung aside. Like lightning struck the ground. “Oh, oh dear.” 

“It’s okay, Mumbo.” Zedaph whispers, wiping blood from his nose. “We got the job done, and that’s what matters. Good work, destroying the crystal. I knew you could do it.” His smile does little to ease Mumbo’s concerns.

[thesandersinitiative]

Where did you guys find the Tesseract out of curiosity?

“I’m surprised you’re not more interested in this,” Thomas admits to Dee, waving a white flag of momentary surrender with his topic change, “We may not understand what’s happening down there, but it’s history being made. Opening a door across worlds.”

Dee snorts as he stares down at the little people below them, “Well, spectacular job opening door they doing. Three months and no progress. We not going to be ones opening it.”

Thomas frowns, “What do you mean by that?”

Dee blinks finally, peering up at his superior, “Its door.” He motioned downwards to the scurrying scientists, “We knocking. Loudly. What coming will not be friend.”

As if reacting to the vague, ominous comment, the Tesseract lets out a pulse of energy that thrums through the air. Thomas feels all the hairs on his arms raise and shifts his weight around. The scientists down below scatter with a few yells, and begin furiously typing, making notes, or scanning the screens before them.

There’s another pulse of energy, this time strong enough to blow the fuse on several computers and cause most of the lights to burst. Dee straightens, and turns fully around to peer down below, slipping the snake bite back onto his left wrist.

Thomas’s hand goes to his gun holster. The other waves off the camera–the new recruits don’t need to see this. 

“Talyn,” He calls down below, “What are you guys doing?”

The blue haired scientist throws their hands up, waving a clipboard. “Us? We’re not doing anything!” The cube crackles with blue energy enough that Thomas can see it even from up where he is. Talyn ducks behind one of the sparking computer frames, with a mouth full of curses. “That thing!” They yell, “Is doing this all by itself!”

“Shut it down,” Thomas tells them, but he kinda already suspects what response he’s going to get for it. “Turn it off!”

“It’s an Energy Source, Sanders!” Talyn throws their clipboard up at him (it doesn’t get anywhere close to them), “I cut the power and it turns it back on!”

The Tesseract hums with energy to the point where Thomas almost thinks it is alive. He grips the railing, feeling the electricity of the room, the tension building while the cube just glows brighter and brighter. Physically, Thomas doesn’t think the room is getting smaller, but somehow it gets harder to breathe.

Then all at once, the Tesseract stops: the light dims, the energy stops crackling, the air is suddenly breathable. The whole area is silent, staring at the alien thing they had in their possession.

“What the f–” Talyn starts.

And the Tesseract explodes.

Energy ripples off it in a wave so huge and crushing it knocks everyone in the vicinity off their feet and steam rolls several equipment racks. Thomas hits the floor of the grated walkway, and his gun skids from his holster. The entire rafter catwalk screeches with the threat to bring itself down on the lab below them. The glass bulbs over them shatter the rest of the way and Thomas feels the pinpricks of pain slice through his suit. Several people scream, and Thomas can’t pick one voice from another.

At least he couldn’t.

“Oh I just love that sound! It’s music to my ears!”

It slices through the clearing fog of shock in Thomas’s mind. He pulls himself upright with the railing, ignoring the ache in his back and stares down at the lab while he blindly grasps around for his gun with his free hand.

There’s a person down there.

Tall and thin with a rat’s nest of curly brown hair tamed sleek against the skull with a single curl of shining gray to bounce across the pale forehead. One hand is propped up against his hip, and the other dangles down, fingers wrapped around the shaft of a golden scepter set with a glowing blue gem. He’s wearing leathers—battle leathers, almost identical to the ones Roman had shown up in last year only in midnight black and putrid green.

Come to think of it, Thomas blinks, trying to get his vision to stabilize, his leathers aren’t the only thing that look awful reminiscent of the God of Honor. They have the same nose and cutting cheek bones; the same mouth, even if Roman’s never twisted up quite so maliciously; and would even have the same eyes, if the newcomer’s weren’t a piercing green to Roman’s warm brown.

Clearly, he’s not the only person to think so.

“Roman?” One of the agents—one of his agents, who was in New Mexico last year—asks. A second later she’s choking on blood.

“Mmm,” The figure says, suddenly standing in front of her, scepter thrust forward through the agent’s chest. Even up in the rafters, Thomas can see the flint of madness in his eyes, “Wrong brother! Try again!”

He violently yanks the scepter out of the agent’s chest, and she crumples to the ground, blood moving to stain the cement. He brandishes the spear outwards and turns in a slow, deliberate circle. Two dozen agents have guns pulled out on the figure.

He smirks, highlighted in the blue of the Tesseract and the warping violent energy that Thomas just now notices is physically twisting over their heads like a sun just minutes away from imploding right over them. If Remus is worried about the possibility of the several hundred tons of rock that is likely to come down on them, he doesn’t show it.

“See, I’m not the Prince of Assland.” Remus tells them all theatrically, nastily, vehemently, “Next person who messes that one up gets their tongue cut off and shoved up their ass so they can really taste the bull—” The man jolts, stumbles, and almost trips over the hem of his own jacket.

Thomas’s gun is suddenly slapped into his hand as Dee shoots off another electrical blast to hit the figure square in the back. His snake bites glow a sharp, electric yellow. Dee yanks Thomas up by the back of his jacket, while not-Roman shrieks and shouts, “Kinky!”

Dee pushes Thomas to the stairs, “I hate being right all times,” He says, accent thick with exasperation.

Thomas dismisses his comment, and shouts, halfway down the steps and watching his agents and half the science division stare, frozen at the armed figure who’d stepped out of the portal, and killed one of their own, “Sir, put down the spear!”

Not-Roman laughs, “Oh, I do love it when they call me Sir! Can you try Daddy for me? Daddy Remus!”

Ah. Thomas thinks, so this is Roman’s twin brother. Crown Prince of the Vanir. The God had mentioned he had a foul mouth, and a fouler sense of humor, but with the well worn exasperation of a sibling who had long since grown used to his twin’s quirks and was generally able to dismiss them easily. The homicidal tendencies had never quite come up though.

(Thomas is almost not surprised at all: Roman had shown up bragging about the enemies he had slayed with his magical sword like killing people was something to be proud of. And Roman was supposed to be “well rounded” and “adjusted” by Asgardian standards. Maybe Thomas can convince the Director of SHIELD to gift Asgard with a Dictionary for the next Norse holiday that came up.)

“Get cube,” Dee hisses from behind him, “I will handle our guest.”

Dee doesn’t really give him an option on the matter. Thomas only has a half second to vaguely wonder when the little prick had decided it was acceptable to give his Supervising Officer orders, before Dee had pitched himself over the stairwell railing, and trapezed himself to the lab floor with feet lighter than feathers.

“Move,” Dee says to the nearest scientist and powers up his Snake Bites for another attack.

Remus looks delights at the aspect. “Oh, all you mortals!” He laughs giddily, “You really have no clue just how breakable you all are!” His spear twirls in his hand, almost absently. It looks inexperienced, untrained, but Thomas isn’t a fool and neither is Dee: they both know that Asgardians, Vanirians, whatever the hell this God is, had been trained in all weapons since their births.

Then all at once, Remus’s hand twists and he spins leveling the tip of his spear towards a group of frozen scientists and does something. Thomas doesn’t see, can’t see, but the effect of it is instant: the glowing orb on his magic weapon bursts and explodes outwards like a laser beam from one of Logan Ackroyd’s repulsors.

Talyn is the only one fast enough to move.

Talyn is the only one that manages to throw themselves to the side, slamming their head against the base of a blown out computer and screaming as the energy misses them by mere inches.

Talyn is the only one that survives.

“So very breakable!” Remus laughs as the bodies (bodies, plural. Bodies, unidentifiable) hit the floor just as Thomas takes his last step off of the stairs.

Dee’s jaw twitches, tightens. His fists clench at his sides, reaching for a gun that’s not there, Thomas realizes, inching towards the Tesseract. Dee hadn’t returned Thomas’s gun to him; he’d pulled out his own Glock 26 and handed it over. Thomas doesn’t have the time to feel the horror rising in his chest, because Remus is leaning in with the tip of his spear and a smirk on his face, just as Dee times off one last electrical blast right in his face.

Thomas runs.

He grabs the closest briefcase and flings it open to dump all the papers. (It was someones life work, Thomas knows, someone’s life work and  he probably just watched that someone get flambeed alive.) Its not made to hold the Tesseract, but Thomas doesn’t think there’s a single thing on this planet made to hold the cube that just brought that murderer into their lab.

The sounds of gunshots, of his own agents yelling and several heavy things hitting the floor make Thomas’s heart jump straight to his throat. There’s a crash, and it sounds like one of the computers toppling over. Thomas doesn’t look, can’t look, please don’t make him look.

His boots clang against the metal platform, echoing as loudly in his ears as the thrum of his rapid heart beat. There’s an explosion behind him, one that sounds like the same thing that just killed half a dozen scientists and he wants to scream. But Dee had been right; he needed to get the cube out of here–

He chances a look up at the ceiling where the excess energy had colgerated and seemed to be fighting a war with itself.

–before they get buried alive. Because Thomas once watched Roman brush off being run over like it was merely a paper cut, and Remus could probably walk off a building collapse. Thomas doesn’t know if Remus even wants the Tesseract, but he doesn’t want to give him the option.

Thomas almost grabs the cube with his bare hand, but he stops himself at the last possible second and yanks up his shirt, twisting it over his head and leading it down his arm. The cool air of the lab stings his bare arms but at least he’s still got his vest and undershirt on. He grabs the Tesseract from its mechanical pedestal and winces as the mere touch of it sears through the first two layers of his shirt. He drops it into the case without much preamble and slams the lid closed.

He turns around just in time to see the outcome of Dee and Remus’s fight.

(He hadn’t realized the lab had gone silent. Not over the pounding of his heart and the rush of his blood and the screaming of his own thoughts.)

They’re twisted in an off balanced stance, like ballerinas in the middle of a dance. Dee is over extended, his arm pinched backwards with Remus’s hand pressing his elbow to an inversion that has Dee gritting his teeth against. Dee’s been in worst situations though, Thomas knows he has. Dee was a living weapon who knew how to make any limb in his body move incapacitate his opponent.

Except.

The tip of Remus’s spear is placed almost delicately over Dee’s heart: gold, glinting, and deadly. Thomas watches, transfixed and horrified, as he grips the handle of the briefcase. He can’t see Remus, but he can see the spark of fear glinting in his best, in his most dangerous agent’s mismatched eyes before darkness races over the sclera and turns them both black.

The scepter glows blue. The darkness washes out of Dee’s eyes and and leaves his irises glowing the same sharp, piercing color. Remus let’s go of Dee’s arm, and the agent lowers it back to his side obediently.

Fuck.

Thomas wants to scream, because Dee is a lot of things but not one of them is obedient, because Dee hadn’t lost a fight since Thomas had known of him and probably even before that too, because Thomas once promised Dee he’d never be a living weapon again but the blank look on his face suggests that Thomas just failed.

“Hey, Fuckface!”

And Thomas’s chest seizes when he sees Talyn leaning against one of their computer boards, looking three shades paler than a ghost and shaking from head to toe. Even so they have a pen in their hand and they throw it at the God.

Remus blinks, smile curled into one of disbelief, like he can’t believe the tiny mortal with the blue hair just threw something at him when they just watched him obliterate everyone else. (Thomas can’t believe it. Oh god, he can’t believe it.)

And Dee? Dee raises his snake bites right at Talyn with no hesitation, no recognition.

Thomas feels his blood freeze in his veins, his own breath trapped in his throat as he watches and wonders if he’s about to watch Talyn die right in front of him–

“Wait,” Remus says, as Talyn shrinks back, and Dee listens.

The God tilts his head from side to side, like he’s having some sort of playful debate in his head over what flavor ice cream he wants rather than about killing another person. He grins proudly.

“I like the spunk,” He decides and lunges forward with his spear, placing it right over Talyn’s heart.

They gasp for air, like they’re drowning right there in the lab. They try to wretch backwards, Thomas thinks, but the moment the spear touches them, their limbs stop responding, all except for their eyes.

Eyes that even full of panic and fear, flicker past Remus and Dee and go straight to Thomas.

Eyes that tell him to run.

Eyes that turn bright blue and sweep all traces of his friend from existence.

Thomas should have run. But he doesn’t. And Remus follows Talyn’s gaze right over his own shoulder and sees Thomas just standing there.

“Oh!” Remus says, “I was wondering where you went!”

Thomas is a better agent than this. At least he thought he was. He never used to freeze up like this, never used to be the one to hesitate, never used to doubt himself. But for some reason he’s still standing there, like some sort of fresh Level One agent in the middle of his first emergency simulation who didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing.

Any and all bravery that he might have had is gone, and in its place is just Thomas. Thomas who is mortal and very killable and is nothing compared to a god and the Energy Cube of Death(™) in the briefcase in his arms. Thomas who very quickly is realizing that he is the only agent of SHIELD left standing because the rest of his team, of the scientists , of the people who were part of this project, are either dead or– or– or whatever the rat man just did to them.

And honestly? Thomas doesn’t want to die. Its selfish though, because there’s so much he had wanted to do with his life, so many places to travel and people to help and things to see. Because he wanted to marry a cute guy some day and adopt a kid and grow old.

And honestly? What chance does Thomas have anyway? He doesn’t even have a shirt on anymore, just that bulletproof vest he’s supposed to be wearing at all times and an undershirt. He’s not sure how he’s still standing with the way his knees are shaking and how harshly his breathing is and how feverish he feels.

“Did you pack up my toy for me?” Remus asks, condescendingly, jokingly, “How considerate!”

And honestly? Thomas considers just handing over the briefcase.

But then he meets Remus’s gaze: those eyes that sit with a gross over-confidence, shining with a blue flicker from light show overhead of them that almost looks like some type of insanity breaking free. Its the gaze he’s gotten a lot over the years, from the vile villains who just kept showing up like they thought the world owed them something and then decided to take it from the innocent people they decided were below them.

That look, that gaze, that feeling, which was the reason why Thomas had joined SHIELD in the first place.

His hand curls around the handle of Dee’s Glock.

“Why don’t you come and get it!” Thomas yells and fires three times Remus and twice at Dee before he bolts off the platform with the briefcase in his hand and sprints for the side exit.

He knows this base like the back of his hand. Much better than a god from another world.

But Dee, who’s spent two weeks working security detail for the facility, knows it even better.

Thomas has a head start: He makes it out of the room just as Remus recovers, hears him bark orders to Dee and Talyn just as he’s swinging into the stairwell, and violently triggering the evacuation alarm by punching his gun through the glass to slam the button down.

Sirens ring in his ears, the glass cuts burn his dominant hand, and Thomas isn’t even half way down the first staircase before the stairwell door slams open behind him. He thinks of Talyn’s eyes, dark and desperate. He runs.

He doesn’t get very far. Dee shoots him in the back with those damned snake bites, and he goes tumbling down the stairs with the briefcase clutched tightly against his chest.

(When he first recruited Dee, nineteen years old and right after he’d demolished an entire SHIELD squad using a plastic snake as a makeshift garrote, everyone had told him it was a mistake. They had pointed to the black scales tattooed on his face and said, with absolute and utter certainty, that the kid would stab him in the back first chance he got. The irony of it, ten years later, tastes bitter in the back of his throat.)

Shit. His ribs are bruised now, definitely. At least one is cracked. Dee had nailed him between the second and third ribs, a kill shot, a death sentence, if only he hadn’t been wearing his vest.

His mouth tastes like metal as he forces himself to roll over, dragging the the case behind him and raising the glock. He pulls the trigger twice on the approaching form– sorrysorrysorry– but Dee moves like he doesn’t have any bones at all. The other agent hurtles the last step, landing so heavily on the platform Thomas is surprised it doesn’t break underneath the both of them. Thomas pulls the trigger again and again–

But Dee is already too close, inside the kill zone. Thomas’s shooting arm is wretched to the side by Dee’s iron grip and the shots explode somewhere behind them ringing as they ricochet off the metal interior. With a simple– far too simple– twist of Dee’s wrist, Thomas’s hand screams in pain and the he lets go of the Glock. Dee’s shoe comes up to meet his face, and Thomas falls back and keeps falling because its another staircase and he’s the broken slinky being used as entertainment.

The floor is freezing, he thinks, because its easier to think about the temperature of the floor than it is to think about the shrill shrieking of his shoulder or the crying of his wrist or the acidic burn of bile in the back of his throat that’s mixing with the blood in his mouth. He tries to push himself up, get up, go, but the mere thought of putting pressure on his arms has his eyesight blurring.

There’s thumping behind him. Slow. Dramatic. Thumping. Footsteps.

Dee crouches down in front of him. Thomas’s vision blurs and refocuses. He adds concussion to the list of potential injuries. The Glock is back in Dee’s hip holster, meaning he took the time to pick it up while Thomas was choking on his own blood trying to inch away. Even now he’s taking his time, with casual smooth motions, reaching over Thomas’s body for the briefcase. One by one, Thomas feels his fingers being pried off the briefcase and Dee’s smirk is burned into the back of his eyelids as the agent stands back up with Tesseract in his grasp.

“It was a nice try, Sanders,” Dee tells him cruelly, and it hits Thomas like a blow to the chest because suddenly the accent is gone and with it, part of Agent Dee Ekans. And if the eyes weren’t enough, then this is. Dee only ever drops his accent when he’s on a mission, and hasn’t around Thomas since he was still a junior agent on probation. It’s like a final blow against his heart: they’re gone. And I might not be able to get him or Talyn back. “But you’ve never been able to beat me before.”

“Liar,” Thomas wheezes, “That’s how I recruited you.”

If it was Dee he was talking to, mismatched eyes glinting with amusement, he would’ve tilted his head up and laughed. Would’ve shoved Thomas’s shoulder. Would’ve told him in his thick Russian accent, Think how you are wanting, Old Man. But we both know I kick your ass.

This is not Dee. This is a stranger living under Dee’s skin with sharp blue eyes and a nasty smirk. This is the living weapon HYDRA wanted, and not the traumatized teenager Thomas pulled out of their organization. “Don’t try to stall me,” He chides, “The Prince is already in the garage. If that portal destabilizes now, the one it’s taking out is you.”

“And you,” Thomas points out, each breath a sharp pain in his chest, “And…  the Tesseract.”

“You make a fair point,” Dee hums, glancing away, “But I still have ten minutes to escape. I doubt you can make it out in your—” Dee kicks him in the chest, hard, and Thomas thinks he tastes blood, bites back a scream, “—condition.”

Dee turns his back on Thomas. He turns for the stairs. He turns his back on Thomas, and it’s everything the other agents told him what would happen and everything he never feared. He turns his back on Thomas and walks away, walks down the steps with each clang of metal echoing in Thomas’s ears, walks away without a single glance.

Thomas is no longer available for asks.Dee is no longer available for asks.

End of Chapter One.

Previous Ask || Rules || Ch 1 Start || Masterlist || Next Chapter

[atomic-taco-muffin]

The Lost Princess Chapter 15

Warnings: fluff/angst

Rating: SFW

In the Small House, you and the others carried on with your conversation. 

“So, you delivered that book? That navigation gummi’s installed and ready to go. You find another one, you bring it to me. I threw in a warp gummi for the heck of it. Now you can jump to worlds you’ve been to before. Well, better get back to my real job. What’s my real job? You’ll see. See me at the First District,” Cid said. 

“I’ve been thinking about the bell in the Second District,” Aerith said. 

“That one that rang a bit ago?” you asked. 

“The one above the gizmo shop. There’s a legend about it, you know,” Yuffie said. 

“But it’s all boarded up. Nobody can get in there,” Aerith said. 

“Heck, go check it out. Ring it three times to see if anything happens,” Cid said. The four of you left and entered the Second District, battling Heartless on the way to the roof of the Gizmo Shop. The four of you took down the wooden boards of the bell tower and Sora rang the bell. The mural in the fountain in the square below changed and the empty fountain filled with flames. You rang the bell and the mural changed once more, the fire dissipating and the lights above the fountain blinked on. When the bell tolled the third time, the lights shut off and water spurted out of the fountain, the mural changing finally to butterflies surrounding a flower, which then revealed a large Keyhole. The four of you jumped down to the square and approached the fountain when the Guard Armor dropped from the sky. You and Sora began attacking the torso of the Heartless while Donald and Goofy went after its legs. It spun its arms wildly and with a few more hits, it crashed to the ground, motionless. The four of you paused, watching as the armor twitched. It reformed its body and fell forward, its arms digging into the ground. Its torso and legs flipped over, and the toes of its hammer- like feet curve inward, forming hands. Its helmet opened and its yellow eyes stared blankly at you four. It lunged forward and met the blade in Sora’s hands. The Opposite Armor continued to tackle you four, floating in midair. The Heartless soon split itself in half, the helmet and arms going after you, and the feet and torso found their targets in Donald and Goofy. Donald summoned a Thunder spell with your help, sending bolts of electricity into the armor. The helmet swirled around between the arms, almost taunting them, before its body reformed. It moved to tackle you four again, but mid-tackle, you striked, knocking its parts everywhere. Nearly defenseless, the four of you destroyed its appendages, leaving just the torso and helmet. It turned its torso sideways, staring at you four with its glowing eyes. A ball of energy shot out from inside it, and it targeted you and Sora, who dodged away. Another ball of energy shot out, and this time Sora was ready for it. He blocked with his Keyblade, sending the orb back to the Opposite Armor, which began to shake violently. The helmet fell inside its torso and a large glowing heart floated out into the sky, before the armor disappeared. You and Sora walked over to the shining Keyhole, and Sora locked it. The Keyhole shimmered and broke off, disintegrating into pieces, leaving only the butterfly mural and a gummi block. You, Sora, Donald, and Goofy return to the First District and met Cid behind the Accessory Shop. 

“Hey, now that was quick! Now you know. I’m in the gummi block business. Workin’ on your gummi ship sure was great. Come again and I’ll give you a big discount,” Cid said. You handed him the gummi block. 

“Go ahead, take it. It’s a special giveaway,” he said. The four of you showed him the gummi block you found at the Keyhole. 

“Hey, got another navigation gummi there, eh? I’ll bet you want it installed,” he said. 

“Yeah, please,” you said. 

“Hmm... Looks like this is another one of those blocks that come in sets. You gotta find the mate to this one.” He returned the gummi block to you four and the four of you entered the Accessory Shop, seeing a small boy on the floor near the counter. Jiminy Cricket jumped onto Sora’s shoulder (i always forget that he’s there).

“Well, well, as I live and breathe! If it isn’t Pinocchio!” he said. The cricket hopped down to the boy and you and Sora were surprised to see that he was entirely made of wood.

“Oh. Hi, Jiminy,” Pinocchio said as he looked up. 

“What in the world are you doing down here?” Jiminy asked. 

“Um... Playing hide-and-seek.”Jiminy started pacing around. 

“I just don’t believe it. And here I was, up all night, just worried sick about you. Why of all the—” he looked up at Pinocchio, shocked. 

“Pinocchio!” he said. Pinocchio stared at his nose, which had magically grown longer. 

“Pinocchio! Are you telling me the truth?” he said, sternly. 

“Yes!” Pinocchio said. 

“Then tell me, what is this?” he asked as he pointed to an item on the floor beside them.

“It was a present,” Pinocchio said. 

“No fibbing, now! You know you’re not supposed to tell lies. A lie only grows and grows, ‘til you get caught! Plain as the nose on your face!” 

“But if you want something, why wait? Why not just take it?” 

“Oh, my! Who told you that? You need some advice from your conscience!” 

“That’s right! You’re my conscience, Jiminy! I’ll never tell lies as long as you’re around.” Magic surrounded Pinocchio’s nose and it shrunk to its normal size. 

“You need to be good so you can become a real boy. You promised Geppetto you would be, right?” Jiminy said. 

“Oh! Do you know where Father is?” 

“He’s not with you?” 

“Jiminy, let’s go find Father!” 

“Now, hold on! There are all sorts of dangers and temptations out there! I’ll go find Geppetto, so you just wait here. These fellows here will be helping me.” 

“We will?” You and Sora asked. Pinocchio stood up.

“Well, shall we go?” Jiminy asked. 

“You could’ve asked us first...” Sora said. The four of you left Traverse Town and traveled to Olympus Coliseum, where you all competed in the Phil Cup. After making your way up the tournament, you spoke to Phil and Hercules. 

“I never thought you’d do it. Not bad,” Phil said. 

“Phil, you’re just as stubborn as ever. Don’t pretend you’re not happy for them!” Hercules said. 

“Ahem! Now, kid, you’ve still got a long way to go. The next round’s startin’ soon. Next time it’ll be the real thing.” The four of you left for the world of Agrabah, where a tall, thin man in robes walked through the streets with Maleficent. 

“And the Keyhole?” she asked. 

“The Heartless are searching for it now. I’m certain we’ll find it soon enough. So that just leaves...” the man said. Overhead, a brightly-colored parrot squawked through the air loudly before circling down to land on the man’s pointed shoulders. 

“Jafar! I’ve looked everywhere for Jasmine. She’s disappeared like magic!” he said. 

“The girl is more trouble than she’s worth,” Jafar said. 

“You said you had things under control,” Maleficent said. 

“Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in. But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the Keyhole.” 

“We need all seven princesses of heart to open the final door. Any fewer is useless. And let’s not forget that a spirit has risen. We need that girl’s powers to make the plan complete.” 

“Well, if the princess is that important, we’ll find her. Along with that spirit.” Bandit Heartless appeared behind him, brandishing swords. 

“Find Jasmine and the spirit and bring them to me at once,” Jafar said. The Heartless followed Iago through the streets. 

“Don’t steep yourself in darkness too long. The Heartless consume the careless,” Maleficent said. Jafar laughed proudly. 

“Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary,” he said. Behind Maleficent in a watermelon stand, a worried young woman overheard their conversation. She was no commoner, as her jewelry and her clothes are obviously expensive. You, Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived  in the Plaza to find Heartless roaming the streets of Agrabah. The four of you took out the Heartless as you made your way into an Alley. Sora gasped, when he saw someone staring at them from behind a pile of crates. 

“Who’s there? Hello?” she asked. The girl came out of hiding and spoke to you four. 

“I’m Jasmine. My father is the sultan of Agrabah,” she said.

“Uh... So that makes you a princess,” Goofy said. 

“But he has been deposed by Jafar, who now controls the city.” 

“Jafar?” you asked. 

“You haven’t heard of him? He’s the royal vizier. He’s gained evil powers and seized Agrabah. He’s desperately looking for something— something he calls the “Keyhole” and a spirit. Jafar caught me trying to escape, but he helped me.” 

“Who helped you?” Sora asked. 

“We were hiding nearby, but he left a while ago to take care of something... Oh, I hope Aladdin’s all right.” 

“Aladdin? Where might I find this street rat?” The five of you looked toward the voice and saw Jafar on a high ledge. 

“Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. Same with you, pretty spirit These little rats won’t do, you see,” he said. 

“Jasmine, (Y/N), run!” Sora said. You took Jasmine’s hand the two of you ran into the city and the three revealed their weapons.

“Ah, the boy who holds the key,” Jafar said. Jafar summoned Heartless, who dropped down and attacked them as Jafar escaped. They defeated the Heartless and walked through Main Street, finding an entrance to a loft. Inside the loft, they found an ornate rug trying to pull itself out from under a chest of drawers. They moved it off of the rug, who stood in front of them on two tassels and bowed in gratitude, before magically flying out the open hole in the wall. 

“The carpet flew off toward the desert. Let’s follow it, Sora!” Donald said. They made their way to the vast desert, sand and sky as far as the eye can see. The magic carpet flew towards them and landed. It motioned for them to come along, and they rode it to a sandpit, where a young man and his pet monkey were trapped in the sand. A horde of Heartless appeared and they were forced to fight them before reaching the young man. More Heartless surrounded them. 

“Gawrsh, not again!” Goofy said. The man managed to get himself free, pulling out a rather old and dirty oil lamp. 

“Genie, get rid of these guys!” Aladdin said. He rubbed the lamp and held it into the air. Magic sparks appeared from the lamp followed by blue smoke, and a large genie erupted from it with a yell. 

“Wish Number One, coming right up!” The Genie said. He snapped his fingers and the Heartless vanished around them. Later, they stood in the desert as the magic carpet flew overhead. 

“I see...Thanks Sora!” Aladdin said. 

“Aladdin, what’re you doing out here?” Sora asked. 

“Same old stuff. Hunting legendary treasure. Just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders.” The carpet landed next to him. 

“I found that magic carpet, and this lamp,” Aladdin said as he held up the magic lamp.

“Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon the—”

“Please, kid, leave the intros to a professional. The one and only GENIE OF THE LAMP!” The Genie interrupted as he rubbed the lamp

“Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and have your dearest wishes granted.” He bowed and flew over to Aladdin. 

“Today’s winner is...Aladdin! Congratulations!” he said. Genie made confetti rain down on him and shook his hand.

“Any wish?” Donald asked. 

“Patience, my fine feathered friend,” The Genie said. He split into three genies, each holding up three fingers.

“Any three wishes ! A one wish,” he said as he made one figure disappear.

“A two wish.” Another figure disappeared.

“A three wish. Then I make like a banana and split!” The third figure disappeared. 

“Our lucky winner made his first wish—” He reappeared next to Sora.

“And let me tell you, what a doozy that wish was—” He split into two back-to-back genies. 

“So he has two left,” he echoed. He popped out and zoomed back in, turning his smoky tail into a microphone.

“So, master, what’ll you have for Wish Number Two?” he asked. He spun and dropped a spotlight on Aladdin, who put a hand on his chin.

“Hmm, how about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?” he asked. 

“Oooh! Money! Royalty! Fame!” The Genie said as he pinched the air and bowed. 

“Okay, you asked for it! A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold!” he said. He started dialing on an imaginary phone, holding his hand up to his ear.

“Just say the word and I’ll deliver it in 30 minutes or less, or your meal’s free,” he said. He flew over to Aladdin, putting an arm around his shoulder. 

“Hey, I’ll even throw in a cappuccino!” he said. 

“No, thanks!” Aladdin chuckled. 

“Okay.” 

“I think I’ll put that on hold until we reach Agrabah.” 

“Uh, why a prince?” Goofy asked. 

“You see, there’s this girl in Agrabah named Jasmine. But she’s a princess, and I’m... Aww, she could never fall for a guy like me,” Aladdin said. He looked toward the sand.

“Oh. Princess?” Donald asked. 

“Jasmine?” Goofy asked. 

“Oh, that’s right! She’s in trouble, Aladdin! And so is (Y/N)!” Sora said. 

“Who’s (Y/N)?” Aladdin asked. 

“She’s my best friend.” 

“What? Well, c’mon, let’s get going!” They boarded the magic carpet, and started flying back to Agrabah. Genie flew alongside them. 

“Ah, fresh air! The great outdoors!” he said. 

“I guess you don’t get out much, huh?” Sora asked. 

“Comes with the job. Phenomenal cosmic powers. Itty-bitty living space. It’s always three wishes, then back to my portable prison. I’m lucky to see the light of day every century or two...” 

“Say, Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?” Aladdin asked. 

“You’d do that?” The Genie asked smiling.

“Genie, it’s a promise. After we help Jasmine and (Y/N).” They flew to the city and entered Aladdin’s House.

“So, Jafar is after Jasmine, (Y/N), and this “Keyhole.” Why does he want (Y/N)?” Aladdin said. 

“(Y/N) has the power of a spirit but I don’t know why Jafar wants her,” Sora said. 

“Keyhole and a spirit, eh? I could swear I’ve heard about those somewhere before...” Genie said. 

“Really? Where?” Donald asked. 

“Now, where was it? It’s only been 200 years...” 

“Well, anyway, we’ve got to stop Jafar before it’s too late,” Sora said. They entered the Palace Gates by way of a high ledge and saw Jafar standing at the gates with Princess Jasmine and you. They jumped down to your level, alerting the vizier to their presence.

“Setting your sights a little high, aren’t you boy? Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess any more,” Jafar said. 

“Sora!” you yelled. 

“(Y/N!” Sora yelled back. 

“Jasmine!” Aladdin shouted.

“I’m so sorry, Aladdin,” Jasmine said. 

“Me too, Sora,” you said. Jafar held out an arm to block you and Jasmine, while Aladdin pulled out the lamp behind his back. 

“Genie, help Jasmine and (Y/N), please!” Aladdin said as he rubbed the lamp. Jafar turned and his eyes grew wide, seeing Genie carrying you and Jasmine. 

“One wish left! You’re making this really easy, you know,” Genie said cheerfully.

“So sorry, boy. I’m afraid your second wish has been denied,” Jafar smirked. Iago flew over to Jafar with the lamp. Aladdin looked at his hand, seeing it empty, and knocked the cap off his head in shock. Iago gave Jafar the lamp. 

“I’m sorry, Al,” Genie said. He disappeared and you and Jasmine fell through the air with a scream, landing in a clay pot which suddenly grew legs. 

“And now, I bid you all farewell. Attack!” Jafar said. He disappeared as two pots exploded behind them, revealing the front and back of a Heartless. Sora attacked the front head, and its antennae lit up with a burst of electricity. It swung them around wildly, striking Sora in the face. He reeled back as Aladdin searched around for you and Jasmine, who were desperately calling out for help among the clay pots. Several of the numerous pots had grown legs and were walking around the area toward the large Heartless. Sora watched as the Pot Spiders joined with the head and tail, becoming a Pot Centipede, which began to walk toward the desert, gathering more Pot Spiders and growing bigger. You and Jasmine’s cries became fainter and they ran after the Pot Centipede, searching for you and the princess within its body. As it raced away from them, its tail bursted with darkness. 

“Courage!” Sora said. He held a hand to his heart, summoning with all his might. He gathered energy on the end of his Keyblade and thrusted it into the air, magic swirling around him. Up from the ground came a large figure with glowing eyes. It stepped forward and its golden fur and large mane came into view. The lion gave off a mighty roar, which filled the air. Simba jumped toward the Pot Centipede and bellowed, sending various Pot Spiders shattering. When two pots were left, the Centipede gathered it up and started to run faster. Aladdin raced after it and with Sora’s help, the Pot Centipede was defeated. Aladdin ran at it, but it disappeared, leaving nothing. 

“Jasmine!” Aladdin said. 

“(Y/N)!” Sora said. They heard an evil laugh emanating from the desert.

“To the desert! Come on, let’s move!” Aladdin said. They took the Magic Carpet to the Desert. Suddenly, something burst out of the sand, spinning violently toward them. It landed two giant feet on the ground, clawing at carpet, who dodged frantically as Sora gritted his teeth. The four of them toppled out of the carpet as Kurt Zisa turned its six-armed body in their direction, summoning two orbs of energy in its hands. The orb canceled their magic summoning abilities and Sora moved in to attack its feet. As it walked closer to them, the mechanical crunch echoing through the desert, it stared at them with its snake-like head. Two of its other arms held long curved scythes, which was spinning wildly, slicing at them. Sora and Aladdin eliminated the magic-cancelling orbs and Donald sended a Thunder spell, sending it falling to the ground. It’s head reared up out of its body on a long elastic neck, attempting to bite them, before it jumped back up, summoning large dust devils, tossing sand everywhere. Goofy charged it with his shield, but missed as it spun through the air toward Sora. Donald healed him (that’s a first) as it sended fireballs toward them. With several more critical strikes, Kurt Zisa stumbled forward. They ran away from it as its arms crashed down in the sand around them. Aladdin summoned the Magic Carpet and it swooped down to grab them as the Heartless fell over completely. A large glowing heart rose up into the sky as they flew away towards the end of the desert, watching as the Heartless vanished in the distance. They reached the sandpit where they found Aladdin earlier and dismounted from the carpet. They stepped forward and the sand in front of them lurched upward. The ground quaked as an enormous tiger head heaved out of the sand. Its mouth opened, heat and flame emanating from its depths, and its eyes glowed. An evil glow, one of dark purpose. They approached its mouth before it reeled upward, blasting them with a hot torrent of sand. Heartless appeared and they realized the tiger head was under their control. Sora began thrashing at the Heartless before a beam of energy striked Aladdin in the back, knocking him over. Donald healed him and Sora saw that the beams were coming from its eyes. After he destroyed a few Heartless, the tiger head buried its mouth in the sand, and Sora jumped onto its nose, because it released a spray of sand from its mouth. Sora attacked its eyes before a Bandit Heartless flipped onto the top of the tiger, almost knocking Sora off. Goofy climbed up the side of the tiger head and shield Sora from more flying Heartless. Sora continued striking the eyes until the power of darkness was driven from the Cave of Wonders. Once everything settled down, they entered the cave. Fighting Heartless through the labyrinthine halls of the Cave of Wonders, they dropped down to a watery level and Sora destroyed a pillar with a Fire spell. Meanwhile, in the Lamp Chamber, Jafar stood next to an enslaved Genie as you and Jasmine laid unconscious on the stone floor. Jafar tapped his snake staff on the ground and held up the magic lamp. 

“My first wish, Genie! Show me the Keyhole!” Jafar said. Genie looked over, despondently, and snapped his fingers. The rock wall bursted open, revealing pillars and a Keyhole beyond. Jafar cackled evilly. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin made their way past the Treasure Room and into the Lamp Chamber, where they found Jafar speaking with Maleficent. 

“That boy again?” she asked. 

“He’s more persistent than I expected. Why not explain the situation to that boy Riku? Doing so may actually prove useful to our--” Jafar said. He was distracted by footsteps, and turned to see Sora and company arrive. 

“Wait a second. Are you Maleficent?” Sora asked. The witch vanished without a word. 

“Jafar, let Jasmine go!” Aladdin said. 

“Not a chance,” Jafar said. You and Jasmine laid at his feet in front of the Keyhole. Sora noticed that you had an faint energy radiating off of you. 

“You see, she’s a princess—one of seven who somehow hold the key. And she is a spirit. The very last of her kind who can control time if she wanted to. Both of the them hold the power to opening the door,” Jafar said. 

“Open...” Donald said. 

“...the door?” Goofy asked. 

“But you fools won’t live to see what lies beyond it. Genie! My second wish. Crush them!” Jafar said. Aladdin gasped as Genie hung in the air. 

“Genie, no!” Aladdin said. 

“Sorry, Al. The one with the lamp calls the shots. I don’t have a choice,” Genie said. Jafar lifted his snake staff into the air, and its eyes glowed, creating a magic barrier around the room, blocking the exit and the Keyhole. Jafar began chanting a spell and he sent a beam of heat from his staff at them. Aladdin ran forward and attacked Jafar, who teleported to a platform on the other edge of the room as Genie floated toward them. 

“I’m really sorry about this. Run!” Genie said. He swiped at them, but they dodged his attacks and followed Jafar. Sora caught up and began thrashing with his Keyblade, causing Genie to cheer. Jafar chanted another spell, causing a giant hailstorm in the center of the room, trapping Donald and Goofy. Aladdin struck from behind while Jafar was distracted and the vizier pulsed with energy. Lightning crackled around him and he screamed. Sora and Aladdin ran over to you and Jasmine, but before they could reach you two, Jafar got an idea. 

“Genie!” he said. They turned to see Jafar floating in the center of the room, holding up the magic lamp. 

“My final wish! I want you to make me and all-powerful genie!” Jafar said. Genie covered his eyes and looked away, pointing his finger at Jafar and releasing as small amount of wish energy as possible. It struck Jafar, who began to glow and the floor crumbled beneath him, revealing a large pool of lava surrounding stone platforms. Jafar descended towards the pool and they stared down into the frightening, gaping maw. They jumped down into the cavern, searching around for Jafar, when suddenly he burst out of the lava with a great laugh. He gazed down at them evilly in his red genie form, brimming with power and malice. Iago flew by them, holding a coal black lamp.

“The lamp! Get Jafar’s lamp!” Aladdin said. 

“Iago! Keep the lamp away from them!” Jafar said. 

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you!” Iago said. Jafar began throwing molten rocks at them as they went after Iago. 

“Nag, nag! It’s all he ever does!” Iago said. The air was dense with heat, making it hard to breathe. They cornered Iago on a faraway platform as Jafar rose up to meet them. Sora sent a Blizzara spell at him, bu he shrugged it off.

“Ugh! Is it hot in here, or is it just me?” Iago said. After attacking Iago for a while, the bird finally landed.

“Water! Water!” Iago said. He took back the lamp and continued flying around with it. The platforms rose higher, allowing them to knock the lamp away from the bird. It dropped to the ground and Sora grabbed it.

“Okay, Jafar! Back to your lamp!” he said. He held it up and Jafar screamed as magic whipped around him, pulling him into the magic lamp. You and Jasmine watched slowly from above, before hearing footsteps behind you two. The two of you turned around slowly and was taken. The magic carpet brought Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin back to the keyhole, but you and Jasmine were nowhere to be found.

“Jasmine? Jasmine!” Aladdin said

“(Y/N)!” Sora said. The Keyhole glowed in the presence of the Keyblade and a curtain of gold sparkles covered it with a loud locking sound. The cave began to rumble and Goofy covered his head with his shield.

“Jasmine!” Aladdin said. They pulled Aladdin onto the magic carpet and it sped them out of the Cave of Wonders. They flew back to Aladdin’s house.

“So, Jasmine and (Y/N) are no longer in Agrabah. Sora, let’s go find them. I know how much (Y/N) means to you,” Aladdin said.

“Sorry. I can’t take you with me,” Sora said sadly.

“Wh-Why not?” Aladdin asked as he sat down. 

“I sure wish we could...” Goofy said. 

“But we can’t. If we take him to another world, we would be...” Donald said.

“Muh... Mudd—”

“Meddling!” 

“Aladdin, we’ll find Jasmine. I promise,” Sora said. 

“Uh, earth to Al. Hello? You still have one wish left. Look, just say the word. Ask me to find Jasmine for you,” Genie said as he patted Aladdin’s back. 

“I...I wish...” Aladdin said. Genie rolled up his imaginary sleeves. 

“For your freedom, Genie,” Aladdin said. 

“Al!” Genie said surprised. Magic swirled around Genie, who’s smoky tail split into two legs, and the golden cuffs on his wrists disappeared. 

“A deal’s a deal, Genie. Now you can go anywhere you want. You’re your own master. But if you can, it’d be great if you could go along with them and help Sora find Jasmine and (Y/N),” Aladdin said. Genie turned away, crossing his arms. 

“Sorry, Al. I’m done taking orders from others. But... A favor, now that’s entirely different,” he said. He looked back at him, smiling brightly.

“I guess I could give that a try,” he said. He leaped over, putting a hand on Aladdin’s shoulder. 

“After all, we’re pals, right, Al?” he asked. 

“Genie...” Aladdin said. 

“Just leave it to me!” Genie said, smiling. Aladdin runs a hand through his hair and chuckles.

“Don’t worry, (Y/N). I’m coming,” Sora said.

To be continued...

[cryysiswritesthings]

Emotional H/C || Draining Reality

Fandom: Inuyasha Rating: Teen and Up Warnings: N/A  Status: Complete  Pairing: KogKag  Summary: Kagome is having a shit day, and Kouga is at a loss of how to help.

Find it On: AO3

Tumblr Tags: #kogkag #inuyasha #hurt/comfort #modern au

“I'm sorry, what? What do you mean I haven't paid my bill?”

“Ma'am I'm looking at your account--”

“So am I. It says right here that I owed the hospital just under five hundred dollars, and now you're trying to tell me I owe them another thousand?”

“Miss Higuarshi, your first bill was for the hospital directly, not for the physicians and MD who took care of you.”

“I only had one physician, actually, and I had to sit around waiting for over five hours for her to come stitch me! And just to make it worse, she chose not to listen when I said she was still causing me pain and then had the nerve to tell me I hadn't said anything! Do the words ��ow that hurts’ suddenly not mean anything?!”

“Ma'am I understand your frustration--”

“Clearly you don't! And who exactly is this Dr. Kimoto?! Why am I being charged for services by someone who never even saw me?”

“Dr. Kimoto was the attending MD on site Miss Higurashi.”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“Your PA would have consulted with him about treatment options.”

“If she’s a god damned PA she shouldn’t need a consult on how to stitch someone!”

“Miss Higurashi there's no need to shout.”

“I'm sorry, do you have $1,000 just lying around in your house? Because if you do you are more than welcome to pay for this since I'm not going to!”

“Not paying your bills will result in them being sent to collections and have a negative effect on your credit.”

“I. Do. Not. Care. I'm not paying you people for making me sit around for five hours only to end up causing me even more pain than the cut did in the first place! You want me to pay for the five minutes it took for her to sew me up? Fine! But I'm not paying for hours of sitting around doing nothing, and I'm sure as hell not paying some random doctor who never even saw me!”

“Miss Higurashi there are clear notes in your file from the doctor stating that he saw you.”

“Oh really? Really? Describe him. Tell me what this doctor looked like. Was he the old lady who came in and cleaned out the cut? Or was it the young blonde guy who came in and re-did her work while doing a ten times better job? Or maybe it was the head nurse who came in and told me his name was Raito and to let him know if I had any concerns about my stay.”

“Ma'am, Dr. Kimoto is a middle aged, dark haired male with square glasses and a beard. I'm looking at his photo right now.”

“... You're kidding me. You have got to be kidding me. The random guy who walked into my room, didn't bother to introduce himself, unwrapped my hand and let it bleed for a good minute only to rewrap it and walk out typing on a computer? That guy is Dr. Kimoto, and you want me to pay him?”

“Miss Higurashi, I am sorry about your experience, but bedside manner aside--”

“This has nothing to do with bedside manner! He didn't do anything but make me bleed and you want me to pay him five hundred dollars for it?! Are you crazy?!”

“Ma'am--”

“No, you know what, screw that! Go ahead and send it to collections, and when your people write it off for their tax breaks, I'll be calling my lawyer and suing you and the hospital for personal and emotional damages. Good bye!”

Kagome Higurashi slammed the phone into its receiver and screamed her frustration into her hands. What kind of crap was this?

"So," her head shot up, staring at the tanned male leaning against her door frame. "That sounded like absolute hell."

"You have no idea," the girl groaned, dropping her head to her arms. She didn't bother looking up at the sound of the door closing, or at the ruffle of moving blinds. Folders dropped to her desk blew a gust of wind over her hair.

It was the warm hands on her shoulders that made her tense, the slow circles drawn over her back only making it worse.

“Kouga, now is really not a good time.”

“Kagome…”

“Please, not now.” He only wanted to help, she knew that, but her agitation wasn’t doing him any favors. “You’re trying to be sweet, but I’m in a horrible mood right now and the last thing I want is to accidentally take it out on you.”

Much as he wanted to argue, Kouga knew better than to stick around when she asked him not too. But that didn’t mean he liked the thought of leaving her alone. “Do you still want to come over tonight? I can pick something up.”

“I’ll call you and let you know?” She dug her teeth into her lower lip, back a line of tension.

He swallowed back a sigh, squeezing her shoulders once and releasing her. “Sure. Just let me know.”

Some of the stiffness in her spine relaxed, though it wasn’t much. Better than nothing though.

Knowing her well enough by now, he wasn’t going to wait for her answer. He allowed himself one brief, barely felt kiss to the back of her head, and saw himself out, locking the door behind him.

Relief was a balm against the pounding thrum in her body, but it didn’t last long. It was dark with her head down, but the room was too quiet. A stilled silence. If she didn’t do something, it was going to drive her mad.

Wincing as she lifted her head, Kagome gave her eyes a moment to adjust. The cord of her desk lamp rattled as she pulled it, shining on the wood with a soft, incandescent glow. The buzz from the electricity flowing through the bulb helped some, but it wouldn’t be enough.

She stood to flick the switch for the office light, casting the room with a warm, sheltering darkness. The desk lamp gave off just enough light to allow her to work, and when she retook her chair she pulled up the display settings for her computer.

A few adjustments tinted the screen, removing the harsh edge of its light. Satisfied, she pulled up a playlist of soft rock on her phone, setting the volume on low. Loud enough to make out the words if she wanted, but still able to fade into the background.

Perfect.

Her closed office door meant she wouldn’t be disturbed, and the click of her pen helped her focus on the work in front of her.

~

Kouga hadn’t seen his lover emerge from her office since he’d left her, and the worry was starting to gnaw. He’d watched her lights dim, and between the blinds he could see the gleam of her lamp’s yellow bulb. He could already picture it; leaning back in her leather chair, the warm light making her skin glow. The first few buttons of her blouse undone, exposing the warm skin of her throat. It wouldn’t take much to slide her skirt up--

Jesus Christ, he needed to get a hold on his damn libido. Friday’s were supposed to be the start of their weekly date night, leading up to a glorious weekend tumbling between the sheets. Thanks to the bastards at the hospital, he’d be lucky if she came over at all.

He might have to make a run down there and throttle someone.

But that wasn’t Kouga’s main concern right now. Claws tapped a rhythm on his plastic desk, trying to stop his frequent glancing at her door. How could he make this better?

Huffing a growl, a ‘ping’ from his computer told him he’d been messaged. Seeing who it was made him roll his eyes.

M.Bong: My friend, I am in dire need of help.

K.Wolf: What have you done now?

There was a stream of denials of any wrong-doing. Not bothering to try and insist otherwise, he interrupted the human male mid triad.

K.Wolf: Miroku I’m busy. What do you want?

Blue dots bounced while the other male typed. Kouga quirked a brow, unhelpfully amused as they disappeared and reappeared while Miroku debated his response.

M.Bong: It seems I have managed to incur Sango’s ire. I was wondering if perhaps you could ask Kagome to speak to her on my behalf.

K.Wolf: Absolutely not. Fix your own screw ups.

M.Bong: But it was all a misunderstanding! She simply walked in at an inopportune moment!

K.Wolf: Uh-huh. And does this ‘inopportune moment’ have a name?

M.Bong: Koharu, but that is hardly the point. I’m innocent!

K.Wolf: Sure you are.

M.Bong: I mean it Kouga! Koharu’s been after me for months, she refuses to back off! She’s almost as bad as Ayame was!

The thought of all the things his ex-stalker was capable of made him wince in sympathy.

K.Wolf: You sure you’re not just exaggerating?

M.Bong: She left lingerie in my desk drawer for Sango to find last week. What do you think?

… Holy shit.

M.Bong: I know I’m a womanizer, but I am not a cheat. I would never do that to Sango. She’s my everything.

M.Bong: And it’s not that she’s really frustrated with me personally, it’s the situation. We’ve gone to HR and they’ve promised to handle it, but that doesn’t help her feel better about it now and I don’t know what I can do to help.

That was a feeling he knew intimately. Kagome’s door pulled at him, heart clenching in his chest. Dammit all, he wanted to fix it but that wasn’t…

Wait a minute.

He was suddenly reminded of the conversation they’d had a few weeks ago. About guys always wanting to give solutions when a girl just needed to vent.

Clearly that wasn’t going to happen right now with Kagome feeling the way she was, but… That didn’t mean there wasn’t another way to help. Kagome had a gift for always knowing how to help someone feel better after a bad day, and they tended to revolve around the same thing. So maybe if he did for her what she did for him…

Kouga grinned.

K.Wolf: I think I’ve got an idea.

~

The quiet tinkling of her phone’s alarm pulled Kagome from her task. Blue orbs flicked back and forth across the room. Nothing was out of place.

Sucking in a shallow breath through her nose, Kagome linked her hands behind her back, stretching them above her head. Pops bubbled and burst through her spine, the stretch of muscles making her yawn. She’d been sitting in the same position too long.

Her sighed turned into another yawn, making her eyes water. Wiping them briefly, she started gathering her work together. While she’d gotten a head start on all of her upcoming projects, the hanging organizer on her door was bound to be filled with more. The office would be closed for the weekend, so she’d have to take it all home.

Chairs scraped linoleum floors, signaling the real end of the work day. And reminding her that she hadn’t spoken to Kouga since she’d asked him to leave.

Rising from her chair, Kagome slipped around her desk and peeked through the blinds. Kouga was still sitting at his desk, pen tapping rhythmically in agitation as he glanced repeatedly at his phone. Her poor wolf. She knew all he wanted to do was help, and her silence was only making him worry about her.

But she still wasn’t feeling like herself. Conversation was on the very bottom of the list of things she needed, and he’d want to talk about it and see how he could fix things. She didn’t honestly think she could handle it right now. Still…

Kagome looked back at the room, hugging herself. If Kouga was willing to… ugh, it sounded so selfish just thinking about it. How rude would it be to ask him to leave her alone while she was in his house ? She may as well not even bother going.

She missed him though. And she wouldn’t mind the company.

Biting her lip, she gave her arms one last squeeze and headed for the door. Nerves danced along her skin; she didn’t want to be out there right now. There were too many people, the fluorescent bulbs would be too bright, and the noises didn’t even bear thinking about.

But Kouga was waiting, so she was going to deal with it

She struggled briefly with the knob, kicking herself when she remembered he’d locked it on his way out. Embarrassment tinted her cheeks pink, but not enough to keep her from cracking her door to peek out at the floor.

Kouga looked away half a second too late. Even if she hadn’t seen it, the subtle lines of tension in his body would have given him away. She’d always been able to read him like a book.

Wetting her lips, Kagome slipped from her office, offering brief smiles to those passing. A break in the crowd let her make her way towards him; he was already standing by the time she reached him.

She stepped into his open arms, burying her face in his button down shirt. Large, warm hands moved slowly up and down her spine, and a soothing rumble hummed in his chest. She was letting him comfort her, and he was going to take full advantage.

She was so lucky to have him.

She made to pull back, but one of Kouga’s hands cupped the back of her head, keeping her there. Voices grew in volume as they chattered aimlessly, moving slowly down the hall and away from them. She was so, so grateful; even with the little things, he was still looking for ways to help her feel better.

Flushed and pleased, she turned just enough to leave a light kiss over his heart.

“How are you feeling?”

“Only a little better. Still not great.” Her fingers curled around the fabric of his shirt, clinging to him.

Her wolf dropped a kiss to her head, humming in thought. “How can I help?”

Kagome bit her lip, nervous though she knew there was no reason to be. Kouga could be ridiculously understanding when he wanted to be.

“I was thinking… I do want to come over tonight, if that’s okay.” She giggled quietly when he scoffed. “I just… I don’t really feel like talking much. At all, really.”

“But you still want to stay the night?”

“Mm-hmm.” She tilted her head up, searching his face worriedly. “Would that be okay?”

Cupping her cheek, he kissed her, lips soft against her own.

“Absolutely.”

~

When Kagome had left the office to head home and pack, Kouga booked it to his car and headed home. He finished a call on the way there, taking the steps two at a time to get to his apartment. He could have just taken the elevator, but the quick workout helped him clear his head.

Jacket hung and briefcase tossed to the side, he spent the next hour cleaning up his apartment. Dishes were done, floors vacuumed or swept, sheets on the bed changed, laundry started, fridge emptied of its few expired foods, trash taken out…

Standing back to admire his work, Kouga smirked. Perfect. Kagome would be around in another half hour or so, so he’d make sure to turn the radio on before she got there. Now all he needed was a shower and they’d be set for the night.

Kouga was in and out of the shower, drying off completely and tugging on some lounge pants before doing one last sweep of the place. He flicked the radio on as he entered the kitchen, pulling down some bowls and plates from the cabinet. He left them on the counter for now, fingers tapping impatiently against his sides. What else, what else… there had to be something he was missing…

It was the sunset that made him think of it. Lighting, that was what he was forgetting!

He flicked off the main switches, turning on lamps to illuminate the living room in their place. The kitchen light was more fluorescent than yellow, but Kagome likely wouldn’t be spending any time there. Not if he had anything to say about it.

As a passing thought, Kouga grabbed some pillows from his bed and threw them on the couch. Kagome’s favorite blanket he hung over its back, along with an extra comforter for himself. AC turned down was a little manipulative, but it might make her more willing to cuddle too…

The lock on his door turned while he was debating, the open door blowing Kagome's scent sweetly under his nose. She wore her favorite pair of sleeping shorts and overly large t-shirt, soft from years of use. She’d come dressed for comfort, slipping her flats off and dropping her overnight bag by the door.

She looked a little worn even freshly showered. Rather than say hello, Kouga simply held his arms open, closing them around her when she stepped into his embrace. Her sigh of happiness was a line of warm air across his chest, and kissed the top of her head, breathing her in.

They stayed that way for a while, Kouga holding her, Kagome allowing herself to be held. She was glad she’d made the decision to come over and see him. He wasn't pressing her to explain, wasn't trying to make her talk when she didn't want to. They stood quietly together, existing in each other's presence. It was exactly what she needed.

Kagome’s peace was interrupted by a chime from her wolf's phone. Pouting when he pulled it out, she snuggled more tightly against his chest, only making him laugh at her antics.

He released her with another kiss to the crown of her head and headed for the door. Curious, but unwilling to follow, she collapsed onto his couch, tugging the blanket over her head. She really should be getting started on the work she’d brought with her.

Only half listening, Kagome followed the sound of Kouga’s movement throughout his apartment. The slap of feet against tile made her look up curiously, peeking around the back of the chair to peer at the entryway of Kouga’s kitchen. Something smelled delicious. He’d had food delivered?

She made to sit up and stand, feeling nosey. Apparently he was paying more attention than she'd thought, because he poked his head out of the kitchen.

"Sit, you," Kouga told her, only half joking. "I'll be out in a sec."

"But--"

"Stay." Her huff was answered with a fangy grin, and he got back to work.

Sighing, Kagome let him finish… whatever he was doing. She arranged the blanket and comforter, shifting things around for them to be comfortable. The clinking of plates and silverware still kept distracting her, but she stayed settled on the couch. He was being secretive, but she'd find out soon enough.

Feet on the tile turned to padding on the carpet. Kouga was in front of her only a moment later, a glass of wine and a bottle of beer held in one hand with two plates balanced on his other arm.

“Kouga!”

“Ah! Sit.” His tone was disapproving as she made to stand. “I am more than capable of carrying a few plates.”

“I still could have helped.”

“Yes you could have, which would have defeated the point of me carrying them.” He wanted to kiss that annoyed pout right off her lips, but one wrong move and he’d drop everything. Better to stay focused.

She watched curiously as he first set the drinks down, wondering at the food on his plates. She was only half paying attention to him when she handed him a pillow to sit on as he sat across from her.

She didn’t have to look at him to know he was silently laughing at her, intent as she was on the dish in front of her. Why did… It hit her like a sack of bricks, and she looked up in dazed surprise.

“You ordered from Marrow’s.”

His smile was pleased. “I did.”

“They took this off their menu.”

“They did.”

“But you got it for me?”

“Looks like it.”

When she looked up from her plate, her smile was grateful, if a bit watery. “How…”

“I learned from the best.” Kouga’s eyes softened, and he covered her hand with his. Nerves whispered down his throat, worried but hopeful. “Did… does this help? I know it’s not an instant fix, but it works whenever you do it for me, so I thought, maybe…”

“It does.” Kagome’s sniffle was quiet, wiping at her eyes and releasing his hand to crawl over to his side of the table and into his lap. Her arms circled his neck and his her waist, hugging her to his chest. “It really, really does.”

A relieved sigh emptied his lungs, his grip around her tightening with gratitude. “I tried to set up the apartment a bit. To help, I mean.” Cupping her cheek, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I think I got it all, but if I messed up somewhere I can fix it.”

Frankly, it hadn’t really hit her why walking into Kouga’s apartment had relaxed her so completely. She turned now, taking the time to fully look around and see what he’d done. The dimmed lighting, the radio quietly playing, even the blankets and pillows. He’d turned his apartment into a haven for her to settle herself in.

New tears brimmed her eyes, and Kagome captured his lips with hers, kissing him with a smile. “What did I ever do to deserve you?”

His thumb lingered over the soft skin of her cheek, sky-blue orbs gentle and loving. “I think somewhere along the way you might have agreed to marry me.”

Kagome leaned into his touch, warmth seeping into her heart. Her fingers closed lightly over his wrist, and her other hand pulled the thin silver chain hidden under her shirt into the open. On it hung a simple, elegant ring. “I did, didn’t it?”

“Mhm.” He brushed a kiss to her forehead, nuzzling her lightly. “Means you get all the perks of having me for a future husband.” Her laugh soothed the last of his worries. “The laughter’s free.”

“You’re too sweet to me,” she said with a sigh, laying her head against his chest.

“Nah.” Kissing the crown of her head, he pulled her plate over to his side, spearing one of her shrimp and holding it to her lips. “When it comes to you there’s no such thing.”

Biting her lip didn’t hide her smile, but she opened her mouth, indulging him. “If any of your guy friends heard you say that, they’d call you whipped.”

“I am proud to be whipped, thank you very much.” His fiancee giggled into his chest, so he took a bite of his own food.

“Think you can handle the teasing?”

Snorting, he held a bite of her food out for her. “They can tease me about it all they want. Doesn’t make it any less true. Hell,” Kouga’s lips quirked in a grin. “I’ll take whatever they want to dish out. Me being whipped just proves how much I love you.”

His woman shifted in his arms and pressed her lips softly to the underside of his jaw. The submissive gesture made his chest rumble in pleasure, and he tilted her head up so he could properly kiss her. Her eyes were soft as they parted, so he stole one more kiss, brushing his nose with hers.

“Now then.” Kouga’s lips quirked in a playful smile, holding out another forkful of food. “Think you love me enough to let me feed you?”

“Hmm,” Pretending to think about it, Kagome tapped her chin thoughtfully even as she settled back into his chest. “I’ll allow it.”

Snorting a laugh, he let his fingers dance briefly against her side, making her laugh. “Such an honor, Your Majesty.”

“You know it.”

They sat that way for a while, Kagome with her back to his chest, and Kouga alternating between feeding the two of them. Her glass of wine was untouched, his beer warming the longer it sat.

“Kouga?” He hummed, letting her know he’d heard her. “I love you.”

Smiling, Kouga hugged the love of his life to his chest. “Kagome?”

“Hm?”

“I love you too.”

[crownedcupcake17]

Taiyuu round 2

Zoë vs Gakusa

@taiyuu-high-oct

It was the first year’s first time at the Sundown Zone and the students couldn’t help but stare. Towering in front of the two classes was what looked like the center of a city. With skyscrapers as far as the eye could see and paved streets in every direction, it felt, and looked, like the real deal. After allowing the kids to look for a few moments, the two teachers stepped in front of the group to explain the day's exercise.

As Zoë was walking to the starting point she had been assigned, her mind raced through everything she knew about Gakusa’s quirk and physical condition . Since the boy was in a different class, the girl was only able to gather a few offhanded pieces of infor, all from Hotaru.

“Touched based, Information gathering, powerful, strong in hand to hand, fast” Zoë couldn’t even use his performance in the first joint class for reference because his match had been after hers, meaning she had been passed out while he was fighting. As she stopped at her starting point, the ergokinetic realized she would be going in blind. Fighting was hard enough as it was, but to try to go up against someone you knew almost nothing about? That made winning almost impossible. Add, on top of that, a completely foreign environment-

After climbing for what seemed like hours, the six of them had finally reached the top. In Front of them, stood a familiar figure. The brown haired girl turned to them and smiled as they overlooked the city

“ lesson one, the city ground is unreliable, the rooftops are your friends!”

The panic that had started to fill the girl receded as the words settled into her bones. Running through crowded streets? An unknown area? They were the first things she was taught. She didn’t need to know Gakusa’s quirk, hell, she didn’t even have to fight him. Zoё had the terrain on her side. If she played her cards right, he wouldn’t even see her.

“ Student's take your mark…. GO!” As soon as she heard the worlds, Zoё was off. She launched herself onto the nearest fire escape and got on top of the building as fast as she could. The girl took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“Focus, where can you feel higher concentration of energy” Zoё slowly turned in a full circle until she felt the familiar pull of strong electric energy. Her eyes flew open as she narrowed in on one of the smaller buildings in the makeshift city.

“ There you are,” she smiled. Taking several steps back to the edge of the building, the Ergokenetic took a deep breath and counted to ten before launching herself forwards and off the side of the skyscraper she was on.

Pausing only a moment to regroup when she landed to the next building, Zoё kept running and jumping, running and jumping, running and jumping. The pull of the orb became stronger the closer she got to it but she almost didn’t feel it. Instead, the girl focused on the feeling of the wind in her hair, the burning in her thighs, the freefall, the feeling of being home.

As Zoё reached the place the orb was being stored, she slid back down off the building and took a moment to assess the area around her. She couldn’t feel the heat energy that she would be able to sense if someone was around her, so she deemed it safe to continue into the building.

Sliding open the door as fast, and quietly, as she could Zoё walked into what she could now see was meant to be a warehouse and was immediately met with a bright light and an almost overpowering sense of energy. In the center of the room, a pale yellow orb was glowing on top of a pedestal of sorts. As she got closer, she could see that it was floating above the stand instead of sitting on top of it. Zoё went to grab it but paused, an idea forming in her head

In her hand, the girl formed an almost identical sphere, the only difference being a more vibrant color. She swapped the two balls out for each other, leaving the fake one for her opponent to grab. She left the building, taking care to put everything she had found in it, and started her sprint back to her starting point, reminding herself to apologize to Gakusa for tricking him.

Zoё smiled as she spent the rest of the exercise jumping across the city and reminding herself exactly what it felt like to be home again.

“ I can’t wait to tell all the other girls about this, the’re gonna be so proud of me”

[mpkcom]

Winter rabbit

2800 words short story inspired by nature and it's cruel side. Mild horror and fantasy.

Let me tell you a story. A story not told over seven hills and seven seas but right here. In my backyard. You could say it is over seven grasslands for there is no mountain or lake in sight. Flat. Everything is flat, except for an occasional Oak or Cherry.

The story begins in winter. A normal, even a mild winter, but with a thick layer of snow. Houses here are low with roofs touching the white blanket, creating mounds with sparkling chimneys. The roads? You mean trenches dug from one farm to another.

In one such burrowed path my friend drove in his car. An old Eastern European vehicle designed to be stubborn on these occasions. Steering wheel vibrated. He opened his mouth. Motor let out a ticking sound. Snowflakes on his windshield slowed down. Clash. Glass broke.

He stopped yawning. With a fluent swoop, he looked around his cabin. Foggy windows were whole. His heart pounded.  The only sound he heard. He looked at the radio. Smudged yellow light illuminated an FM scale. Only a moment ago it signaled a radio station playing songs with lots of trumpets and bass. He turned the knob. Only static on every frequency.

Outside the snowflakes fell in a straight line. Right light shone. Left flickered. He placed his hand on the door handle. As the lock clicked so did his mind. All the stories about wolves and night predators came to his mind. He gulped and cracked the door open. The wind pushed the moist chill air onto his face. Warm tears rolled down his cheeks. Snow crumbled as he sank ankle deep.

Cracks formed an intricate mosaic in the glass originating from a frozen ball of ice. Only forty centimeters tall, it bent in the front bumper and a small part of a square hood.

The right light flickered and all of them shut down in unison. The wind howled carrying a copper, bitter smell. Hair all over his body straightened, hands trembled and a warm, electrical, current ran down his spine separating his will from his legs. He only felt numbness from the waist down.

Howls cascaded in the distance. Wolf howls. He turned, stiffed and reluctant. Red orbs, not even bloodshot eyes but pure red orbs, stared back at him. Close. Yet not close enough. Only a fifty meters away. He could run. He could come to my house. It`s only a hundred meters ahead. Not that he didn`t want to.

He could hear the blood rushing through his veins. He still felt the warmth in his chest despite inhaling deep icy air. His fingers turned pale from quenching his fists, but legs… Why they didn`t want to move?

Matted glow ran down from the center of the two orbs, resembling a shooting star with a very short lifespan. My friend gulped. His legs moved. One, only one, throbbing, unsure step that made him jerk to the left.

The glow dashed at him. Snow squeaked. He ran, waving his hands around as he battled the primal element of wind. Warmth crept behind him. It took a form of a breath filled with the stench of rot and decay. He stepped on my porch. His hands squeezed the door handle. Locked. With his free, right, hand he assaulted the door. Wooden frame shook on loose hinges.

Lock clicked. He stumbled forward. If it weren`t for me and my wooden buttons on a thick woolen vest, his fingers wouldn`t find a place to grab. He would lie belly flat on the floor.

I stepped back. Lifted my fist. His eyes, wide open, glossed. I lowered my hand. Behind him, I saw darkness. Cold prevailing darkness. Nothing else. He gasped for air and lifted himself up. Slamming the door shut, he turned to find something to reinforce it. His eyes focused on a simple chair with chipped white paint. He pushed me aside. Grabbed it. Once snugged under the door handle he breathed out. He swayed side on side and lowered his shoulders.

He sniffed and turned around. My lips stretched. I knew what he smelled. The Oyster Mushroom creaked over the open Oak fire. I bid him sit next to the fireplace. Cattle whistled and I served us mint tea. He told me everything. Every little detail. We decided that something needed to be done with those wolves the first thing in the morning.

And the morning came. Rather late, however, normal in winter days. My friend smiled at the sight of bacon and eggs. His smile grew wider after I took my carbine off from its resting place above the fireplace. The lock clicked and I stepped into stumped snow. Reflection of daylight bounced from the white layer. Like needles puncturing my eyes, it burned. I lifted my right hand to shield me. With every step, it became more bearable.

Thirty steps away from my porch I noticed it. Puffiness scattered in a circle. Next to it, boot tracks of a grown man. I crouched. Snow froze over the night. At the edge of the circle pointed out a wide and buried stone. Further ahead were two sets of tracks. One leading toward the snow crater and one leading back. The print itself stayed sharply etched into the snow. A print that I recognized. Rabbit. Large one. Insanely huge. I rubbed my eyes. By the tracks, this monster should be big as a bear cub.

My friend shifted from one foot to another. His gaze burned the back of my neck. I stretched my legs and dusted my green coat. I placed a round in my carbine. He gulped behind me.

His car stood in front of us. A whistle came from behind the car. My friend stepped beside me. Our elbows touched. If I knew, he would obstruct my aiming hand so much I would forbid him to come. It whistled again. I unlocked my weapon and stepped forward. Stepping as quietly as possible. The sound resembled a sad muffle cry.

I came four meters in front of the car. I stopped. Circled it around the back end. My barrel at point ready. Nothing. In front of me was nothing. I glanced at the car itself. Its windows fogged. I couldn`t perceive what was inside. I touched the handle. Cold. Pulled it. It didn`t move. I jerked my arm back. Handle cracked. The door didn`t move. Locked.

I stopped to listen. The cry stopped. I moved toward the passenger door. Pointing at the murky window. Handle clicked, the door opened. I jammed it wide open, ready to shoot. Nothing. The car was empty. Only a bit of snow piled on the seat. I glanced at the door. The glass didn`t touch the upper part of the frame.

The cry sounded again. Coming from the very place, I looked. Air brushed my cheek. I grinned and shut the window properly.

“Blood,” Shouted my friend.

He stood ten meters in front of the car. Looking at the ground. I lowered my weapon. Looked left and right. Couldn`t shake that terrible feeling of being watched but I couldn`t see any other living being besides us.

My friend pointed at the red smear in the snow next to the rabbit track. Small in size it reminded me of a

 wound drop. I crushed and rolled the end of my mustache. The tracks lead on further away into the field. The red droplets looked bigger as we went.

First, we found them every ten meters, then six meters. Soon they followed to four, three, and two. Not that we needed the tracks anymore. Red ground stretched in front of us. Clothed blood. At the center laid scattered carcasses. Grey fur, long snouts, and canine teeth. Wolves. Something razor like slashed at them. Hot flash ran down my spine and my shoulders trembled.  I never saw something like this.

My friend turned his back to the sight. Inhaling deep breaths. Bowing and resting his hands on his knees. I head slow moans coming from him. He pressed his belly.

I crouched to better inspect the bodies. I never saw something like this but I remembered what my grandfather used to say. He told me his hunting stories. One still stayed with me. He hunted a fox in the middle of winter when he found it butchered. Next to it were paw prints of a creature he never before saw. The creature attacked all the livestock in the area but somehow no one could catch it, let alone see it. He said that occasionally the nature itself in its chaotic whip creates a monstrosity unlike any other. He told me stories of goats with golden horns, unicorns, and more sinister natured beasts. A price trophy of any hunter.

The rabbit tracks stopped. We decided to get back to my home and try to repair my friend’s car. When we came back, I spotted new prints. Fresh. Running around my house. I unlocked the safety mechanism on my weapon and readied myself. My friend stayed next to his car. I circled around the house. The trail ended behind my wood log storage. I looked left and right. Nothing. I looked up. The thick layer of snow resting upon my roof seemed as usual as ever. I climbed upon the storage roof. I opened my eyes wide. My jaws quenched and I took in fast shallow breaths. Footprints doted my whole roof. However, I still couldn`t see the rabbit anywhere.

I came down and went to my door. Locked just as I left it. The rest of the day went peacefully. We found out that his car battery died and it took a large chunk of the day to refill it. I offered him to stay the night. After a strong dinner, we were readying ourselves to go to sleep when the electricity went out.

My friend panicked. He told me to fetch some light. I grabbed a box of matches and walked toward a wood drawer where I kept a few candles. I stroke a match. The fierce yellow spark illuminated the window above the dresser. Two red eyes stared at me. I let off the match. It extinguished on the ground.

Immediately I stroke another one. No trace of the eyes. Must have been my imagination. I lighted up the candle and went to see my fuse box. Everything seemed all right. Must have been an outside issue. My friend begged me not to go out during the night. Could be because of his tone of voice or the apparition of the eyes but I listened to his pleading.

Muffle sound came from the roof. Fireplace extinguished. An avalanche of snow fell in it. My friend passed me the carbine. I felt the trembles of his hand when I touched the cold slippery barrel. He dropped the munition. I bend down to pick it up. I straightened myself. Two red orbs shone on the same window. My friend shrieked. I loaded a round. Loud bang. A sweet scent filled the room. Yellow flame escaped the barrel. Glass crashed. The eyes disappeared.

I turned to see my friend holding a kitchen knife in his right hand and the candle in his left. I knew that the monster couldn`t get in. Windows were barred, but it would be inconvenient if the candle died out on us. Being blind in a fight is never a good thing. I commanded him to fetch an old oil lamp and turn it on. Meanwhile, I closed all the window shutters and bolted the door.

Oil lamp only began to wake up its murky light when squeaks came from the attic. I stood frozen in place. Looking at the wooden trap door leading to it. The hair on the back of my neck straightened. My legs throbbed with electricity. My grip on the weapon slipped. I whipped my palms on my pants.

My friend didn`t wait. He lighted the remaining two candles I had. He placed them in three different corners so the whole room lighted ablaze.

The squeaks came toward the trapdoor. A little cloud of dust fell down the wooden stairs. I pointed my carbine at it. The squeaks turned to stomps and it moved away onto the other end. I took the oil lamp and climbed on top the stairs. With the end of the barrel, I pushed open the trap door. Ready to squeeze the trigger any moment. Dark void reigned in the attic. Coldness seeped from it. A freezing sensation that grabbed my heard, pressing it.

Seconds turned to eternity. No sound came to me. No creature, no eyes not even a shadow moving. I brought the oil lamp close to the edge of the door. Darkness withdrew. Dusty chests dominated the room. Behind one old bed frame, I swore I saw something move. The oil lamp tapped on the doorframe. I lifted it and placed it on the attic floor. Rolling it further inside the room with the point of my carbine.

It moved again. Brown Fur. It twitched. Straightened. Two long ears darted out. Loud cry raptured the room. In a flash, a gargantuan brawn ball lashed at the door.

I twitched. Moved backward. My foot slipped and I fell on my back. Carbine flew out of my hand. Above me, I saw two long razor sharp teeth. The lamp oil dripped down on me from wet sagged fur. The creature’s nose had a large wound. There were bite marks on its head. It hissed at me and jumped fort with its saber tooth’s

Instantly, I covered my head. Teeth sank in my flash. Piercing my right underarm and back of my palm. Gunfire echoed. The weight lifted from my chest. The beast rolled and pounced on my friend. He ducked. The creature slammed on the wall. Breaking the small nightstand. Yellow candle on top of it

Fell on its front right paw. Flames rose up to its leg. The creature screamed and ran towards the door. Flames spread to its shoulder. Splinters flew. Doorframe cracked and hinges broke. The monster ran outside. Rolling on the snow along the way. My friend shot another round at it. It disappeared from our sight.

Blood dripped down my hand. I held it. Squeezing it. Quenching my teeth. I stumbled toward the first aid locker. I rampaged it through. Inhaled one deep breath and poured alcohol over the wound. Then applied the bandage.

We managed to barricade the door and close the chimney. During the rest of the evening, the beast didn`t return. We took turns at keeping guard.

The morning shone and I created a plan. It was apparent that the creature feared fire. We will lure the creature in and trap it. I couldn’t move my right hand there for I agreed to act as live bait. The monster had already a bite at me. I hoped it developed a taste.

The whole morning we dug up a hole near my house. We took gasoline from his car and the car itself acted as a hunting hideout. At around four in the afternoon, the sun started to set. I sat at the bottom of the hole. Two hours passed and I almost fell asleep in the cold.

Tapping sounded in the distance. I dared a peek outside. Something pushed me from behind. Razor sharp pain pierced my right ear. My back bent by the sheer weight. Claws sank into my skin and ran down my back. Tears came to my eyes. I lifted myself up from the pit but it pulled me down. Shoot fired. Yelp. The weight fell from my shoulders. I looked up. My friend lends me a hand. My foot slipped on the edge of the hole. I almost pulled him to the pit. He stood strong and lifted me. Claws reached for my foot. He fired again. I clicked the lighter wheel. The blue flame burned at the top of the nozzle.

I smirked. Threw the lighter in the pit. Fire blazed like an inferno. Creature squeaked. The ball of fur jumped out of the pit. It`s back still burning. It ran toward the forest. My friend grabbed my carbine and chased after it. I fell to my knees. Rubbing my ear, shoulders and back with cool snow. It helped. I heard several shots and after ten minutes, my friend returned. He cursed. The beast got away. He carried me inside and tended to my wounds.

The night came. We waited for the revenge. The morning lighted up. No trace of footprints around the house. I got a fever. My friend helped me change the bandages, and we cleaned the wounds with moonshine. A week passed and still no sight of the monster. We went hunting it but even the tracks disappeared. Years passed and I almost forgot about the story. Until today my grandson. The picture you took looks very similar to the winter rabbit.

[hisvanity]

writober day 9: blood.

he is frozen in a scream.

the sound that escapes milotic’s throat sings like something not of this earth as she rears her magnificent head back and collapses onto the ground. the zeraora’s slash drew shining blood all the way down her serpentine body, her outer jugular a spurting mess of gore, her inner jugular nestled just below two of the gaping wounds. somewhere at some time, the referee blows the whistle. but it’s not here. not where he is. when trapped in a panic, you’re not in the world anymore, you’re locked only in your mind--in one part of your mind, locked away, and fear holds the key.

she can bleed out. she can die.

he bursts onto the field. each step feels as though he’s running through sand. was she really born when he was for this? did she spend every day of his 29 years by his side for this? to not even have the honor of dying for those she loves, to be struck down by some nameless brute who took this friendly match too far? his heart pounds so fast, it nearly stops. he calls for her. she does not respond.

he sprints there before the medics do. he rips the mystic water necklace from his neck--a childhood gift from his older sister--and smashes the pendant on the ground. from it pours a mystic water that he dribbles over the jugular wound, tears mingling with the healing salve. out of the corner of his eye he notices the medics coming toward them. on the other side of the field, his opponent does nothing.

“please,” he whispers. “come back to me. PLEASE--”

her eyes snap awake. she lets out another cry and begins to thrash, sending wallace tumbling to his feet. his throat seizes up--maybe she’s in her death throes--no, things can’t end like this, no, NO--

then the blood begins to move. it surrounds her in a protective circle, a red aqua ring shining bright. the water flows over her, wrapping around her like a ribbon, closing her wounds. the crowd cheers--she lives! she revives!

she looks down at wallace and the medical team assembled before her. though the medics don’t understand her, her message is clear: <leave me. i will fight to the end.>

“what is it?” he asks. he can understand her through the bond phenomenon that they both share. “what’s going on?”

<i…aqua ring…it’s never happened like this before,> she stammers. <i feel--stronger. faster. i can fight this! i can win!>

“are you sure?”

<never surer.>

he grins. 

“Now, Milotic!”

the air grows cold. the blood swirls around her in two opposing circles, getting faster even as the temperature drops. a row of ice crystals circles at the opponent obliquely from the left, impromptu castles of frigid spines springing from the earth. zeraora tenses as the crystals approach. snarling, they leap to the right, only to be slammed by a burning scald-ice beam, steam flowing off the blue glow of the ice as the move barrels into him at full strength. the initial ice beam was but a distractor, a clever trap designed to make zeraora’s movements predictable; it dodged to the right, just as milotic had planned. the feline yowls as the move slams into its chest with a crack! that rings throughout the stadium. the blood rings circling milotic have given her the strength to break the bones of myth.

“ngh--!” the other trainer balls a fist. “you can’t let wallace get away with that! light the stage with the thunder of legend! CLOSE COMBAT CHARGE!”

the zeraora lets out a shriek, a felinized sound of sparks flying against metal. he clutches his chest for a moment and strings of electricity crackle around him--he pushes through, getting on all fours and launching himself across the field. milotic opens her mouth in preparation, a brilliant orb of water surrounded by the swirls of a gathering gale. the crimson close combat and the vermillion wild charge swirl into a crackling tempest that reaches the sky. the ground cracks underneath his feet until he leaves it entirely, a red-yellow maelstrom of might, a bloodstained blood knight ready to break claws, fists, arms just to land his final hit--

hydro pump and twister slam into him, shattering his outstretched fists. his own momentum turns against him, inertia breaking him down to the bone. both of milotic’s moves come from her mouth--she spits out a storm. zeraora hurtles back to his trainer, his fainted body bowling him over and sending the two skidding across the field. the medics once sent after mliotic’s dire injury now sprint toward the one who had wounded her.

wallace folds his arms. today she has triumphed--over all and over death.

[honeypressed]

SKZ Superhero AU based on @vampire-channie‘s au that you guys should check out!!! it’s amazing and i needed to write this so this is for you bub!! i hope you like it sakdjd also if you wanna rb please rb with the cut~ i dont wanna spam your blogs with a long post <3

No matter how many times they see Woojin shapeshift, it still feels weird and oddly intimate, like they’re watching Woojin bare his soul to everyone. A wolf, silver fur the exact shade of moonlight halts in front of them and curls in on itself, eyes glow a vivid purple, the light emanating until it glares too bright for one moment and then Woojin’s standing in front of them in human form, looking slightly weary and sporting several cuts and bruises. Hyunjin advances towards him, hands already glowing a pulsing shade of pink as he makes Woojin sit down and moves his palms over the wounds.

“They’re already at the edge,” Chan says before Woojin can even start talking. He looks tense, his eyes ringed in light blue as he surveys the patch of dark forest where they’re located.

“Read my mind,” Woojin says, with a little laughter, though his throat sounds extremely dry, “Yes, they’re at the edge of the district. The barriers around us is keeping them out for now since Jisung slammed a fuckton of electricity in there… But I don’t think it’ll keep them out for long.”

“So we fight now,” Changbin says calmly, standing up straighter, “We fight to protect what’s ours, what we love, don’t we?” He surveys the rest of them with a fierce gaze, “We protect our district.”

There’s one moment of silence then - all hell breaks loose.

A loud screech rings through their ears and the earth beneath their feet runs jagged cracks of dark blue as the electricity Jisung deployed before returns to him in a rush, and Jisung glows dark blue for a few moments, battling to control his powers. Around them, the earth starts to shake and dark clouds draw close above them, and Minho does not take well to this. At all. 

“No fucking elementist is controlling our district,” Minho snarls, starting to emit a green glow as he throws his hands up into the sky and pulls them apart, letting the clouds disperse and the rough onyx sky emerges again, too fast, too sudden. Abandoning the sky for a moment, Minho slams his palm down on the earth and at once, the earth stabilises and in several lines, shoots begin to grow out, extending from his palm, and they continue to grow, now moving in erratic lines out of the forest they’re in.

“Leads to our enemies,” Chan forestalls Minho, eyes still shining bright blue, “And only we know what they are… If we’re lost, they’ll lead us back to each other.” He takes a hard look at all of them, the eight people that now mean so much to him, shrouded in darkness, and tries not to think that this could be the last time he sees all of them. “Fight well,” He says quietly, “Stay safe.” 

Changbin is off before Chan even finishes his words, tracing one of the lines blooming with tiger lilies, figure sprinting alongside the rapidly glowing blossoms.

 Felix takes Jeongin’s hand and they melt into the background, Jeongin’s invisibility powerful enough to shroud both himself and Felix. They follow a trail of sunflowers, bright yellow to cover Felix’s yellow trail as he speeds them ahead. The colour seems like hope in the dark, a flicker of something better in the grim today.

“I’ll take the south side,” Seungmin says, then he makes his way alongside blood-red poppies that dot  the floor, like blood scattered in his wake, and a loud crash tells the rest of them Seungmin’s just toppled a tree and caught someone in it. 

They barely have time to breathe before a strand of blue geraniums curl around Jisung protectively and the shoots harden, steel-like as a huge rock drops down on him. The shoots break off, but Jisung is unharmed  - and furious. 

“Come fight me properly, you scumbag,” Jisung hisses, hands crackling with electricity and eyes flashing a light blue akin to the most dangerous summer storms. 

“Get out,” Minho says, edging him away, “I’ll deal with this person. You need to help Chan-hyung.” Another huge rock materialises and drops out of nowhere and Minho barely brings his hands up in time for a tree to block the blow. “Jisung, please, go!”

“I’ll stay with him,” Hyunjin adds, moving in with Minho and taking his back, “Jisung, go!” He swipes his hand at a wall of incoming spears and they fall to the ground harmlessly, faint pink smoke rising from them.

“Hyung,” Jisung says, running beside Chan, following the zig-zag trail of white tulips that are already stained with dirt and what looks like blood, “Hyung, do you know where everyone is?”

“Just about,” Chan replies, sounding like he’s a thousand miles away, and Jisung knows he’s keeping tabs on where everyone is. The line they’re taking splits away, and dark purple orchids sprout thickly, leading deeper into the forest, and Woojin stops, looking at them.

“I’m going here,” Woojin says, and before either of them can stop him, he’s shifted into a wolf, taking the path of the dark orchids, fur changing to blend in with the dark forest, and all they can do is trust that he’ll come back.

“We’re heading for the heart,” Chan says quietly, then switches to telepathy. We take down the heart, and we greatly reduce the power they have, and it’ll be easier for the rest to take them down.

We need to distract the heart, Jisung thinks, narrowly avoiding a stray arrow from the depths of the forest, aim for the weak spot and we can destroy them from within.

I’ll distract, Chan replies immediately, you stay hidden and attack when you spot a chance, okay?

Jisung doesn’t feel comfortable about Chan being bait, but Chan outright refuses for him to be bait, so he goes along with Chan’s plan, albeit somewhat unwillingly. The fear for the rest of his team increases tenfold when he spots Changbin facing up against a team of Ghuis, but Changbin decimates two of them in one blow, gaze burning ember-orange, and turns for his next target, a walking body of destruction.

He’ll be okay, Jisung thinks, holding on to that thought with all his heart, he’ll be okay.

I’m going now, Chan says suddenly, and Jisung has to restrain himself from standing up, trying not to give his position away. From his perch in a tree, he watches as Chan approaches the unmoving group of troops in the middle of their district, their land.

“I’m here to offer you an exchange,” Chan says, loud and clear, his voice ringing through the unnatural silence even as battle roars outside their little circle of terrifying tranquility.

“Speak,” A voice sounds, disembodied and from what Jisung can see, nestled in the centre of a circle of Milesminia. He resists the urge to swear. Milesminia, hyung! He says, somewhat panicked, the dishonoured soldiers! I need Seungmin with me to face them off, I can’t take them all out with my electricity alone.

You can, is the last thing Chan says to him before he feels Chan cut off telepathy with him.

“I offer you me, in return for you leaving my district forever,” Chan says calmly, walking towards the immobile troops, but as he inches closer, the outside flanks point their swords, dripping with fire and blood at him. Chan stops, smiles slowly at the heart of them, head high and proud, “Come, make a deal with the devil, why don’t you? We’re already in hell, you can sink no further.”

Chan stares straight ahead, eyes blown with blue, the colour threatening to take over his whole eye, and he’s pushing himself to find a mind, find a conscious that’s the only living one in the mess of these unliving troops.

The silence stretches long, too long, too long, and Chan is in danger but then -

Go back, he shouts, screams, finding the conscious he’s been searching for, this is not your district, leave us alone! For one moment, the troops all falter, and the Milesminia around the heart falter, revealing an orb projecting a spectre so gruesome, unlike anything Chan has ever seen - faded and patched, a Gyeolguk, something Chan never thought would be real - and everything dies away from one second then before it ends Jisung leaps in.

“Eat shit,” Jisung snarls, flying in from the air and punching straight through the orb, whole body crackling with electricity, eyes ringed with blue so dark the ocean could be in his eyes, and the same screech resounds through the air, hanging for seconds, minutes, decades, a forever and the orb pulses once, twice -

Explodes.

A dark light ripples from the center, obliterating everything inside their small circle of quiet, and everywhere, inside their district, the creatures falter, their source of magic destroyed. Between the rest of the team, the sense that Chan’s telepathy is always there, that they can feel it under their skin, is gone, and it’s terribly unsettling.

Felix stops, his sunshine-yellow trail lighting up the darkness and making him particularly visible in the night, and he squints up at the sky, wondering if it’s become darker. “Jeongin, let’s go,” He says after Jeongin manages to trick one of the Ghouls into slamming into a tree and destroying itself. Taking Jeongin’s hand once again, they speed through the forest, following the sunflowers that are starting to wilt, a mark of Minho’s strength wavering, and Felix’s heartbeat notches up as he catches sight of Hyunjin’s pink glow in the dark fog.

“Hyunjinnie?” Felix asks, and the pink glow falters for a moment.

“Lixie?” Hyunjin asks, “Oh - thank Kore - you guys aren’t too badly hurt… Minho-hyung really spent himself out, used all his elements in one attack and his magic drained everywhere, plus he’s sustaining these lines and trying to protect all the animals by cornering them together -”

“Stop healing me,” Minho says through gritted teeth, even though he looks like he’s in a lot of pain, “We need to find the others, quick. I’m going to lose my shoots if we lie here anymore so -”

“Guys!” A voice bursts out, and just as the last tiger lily dies and rots away, Changbin emerges, eyes still smoking orange faintly, and he looks shaky. “You guys are okay - I - we need to go find the rest and find Chan-hyung and Jisung, please, I was around that area when the blast happened and -”

“What blast,” Woojin demands, emerging from the northern forests, a mess of orchid petals stuck in his hair, “I made sure all the animals are fine, Minho, you can let go of them. What blast? I heard the screaming, but a blast?”

“Everyone!” Seungmin cries, bursting in, sounding distressed, “Please - come, quick - it’s Chan-hyung and Jisung - I managed to lift it off them but -” He cuts himself off, rambling now, and they get up, Hyunjin and Woojin helping Minho to stand as the elementist was on the verge of passing out.

They follow Seungmin through the forest, the last of the red poppies dotting the way to the rest of them. There’s an air of finality as they make their way through the forest and into the open of the centre, bathed in moonlight, and they see what Seungmin had meant.

Chan’s body, strewn in the middle, no visible wound but unmoving, and beside him, Jisung, cold and motionless, a sword bleeding gold lying to his left.

“I found the sword about to stab - stab him,” Seungmin says, breaking the horrified silence first, “When I was following the poppies. And - And I forced the sword off him, but it took so long, like it was sentient, and then the sword fell to the ground and started - leaking gold.”

Hyunjin’s already taken steps towards them, sliding towards them and his knees are grazed but he doesn’t care - his hands are glowing pink over Chan’s chest and shaking with a kind of deadly desperation, doesn’t really know what he’s healing, just hopes that Chan will wake up, and his mind is a steady stream of please please please Chan-hyung come back, please, we need you, please -

What?

The first wisps of consciousness comes back to Chan, and the familiar feeling of his telepathy washes under their skin, and everyone releases half a breath. Chan stirs slightly, opening his eyes, tinged with blue, and he stares straight up at Hyunjin.

“Hyun… Jin? I - oh - we were fighting, and I told the Gyeolguk to fuck off and - and Jisung!” Chan says, sitting up so fast he nearly knocks into Hyunjin, “Jisung punched the Gyeolguk’s energy source, he might be infected, I -”

“Don’t worry,” Minho says, panting slightly and on the brink of exhaustion, “I saw his hand start to bleed gold as well so I earthed him and he’s okay, he’s not infected. I think - Hyunjin just needs to see him.” He sways alarmingly and his knees buckle, though he waves away help and says he’s just tired, withdrawing all his shoots back.

“Jisung,” Hyunjin murmurs, now pressing his glowing hands into Jisung’s chest, exhaustion prickling at his skin and making his head swoon, “Jisung, come back, please.” He hardly knows what he’s doing, just knows he needs to expel the gold out of Jisung, make him come back to them, make him wake up, make him realise he’s protected their district and it won’t be their district without him.

It’s slow. Slow like how the night has elapsed and the sun is rising with slow determination. The light breaks over them slowly, gradually, and as it does, Jisung starts to stir, eyelids fluttering and and waking up. Hyunjin pushes on, pink light glowing even more ferociously as he works to clean Jisung, because though Minho earthed him and the gold won’t come in anymore, there’s still traces left in him that could mean Jisung never wakes up again.

But Jisung does. He opens his eyes as the first rays of proper sunshine dawns over them, casting a fiery red glow over the darkness and chasing the remains of the battle away, his eyes dazzling with the force of a thousand stars.

“What - What happened?”

They have a thousand days and more to tell him what happened. For now, they’re safe, and so is their district. Sadness and pain can wait for another day.

[thong-in-the-twist]

Power 5/9

Summary of the prompt: an Intergalactic quest for powers, a.k.a. fantasy meets sci-fi. Angstish.

Part 1 2 3 4 5

Planet 0112 was brown. Brownish. Maybe maroon. Mostly dull. But read-outs did not bring anything substantial nor dangerous to your attention. You didn’t want to report that knowing that Junmyeon would let the crew go out and stretch their legs, especially with sensors confirming Earth-like atmosphere. Oxygen levels were off the chart and keeping crew inside the vessel would be, putting simply, a waste.

So it happened. The engines were turned off, ramps were opened, and the crew slowly went out. You weren’t surprised to see Chanyeol go out first, but seeing Jongdae leading Baekhyun out just behind him startled you. Baekhyun was wearing an isolating glove and he kept his hand on Jongdae’s shoulder.

Unsurprisingly Kyungsoo was the last one to go out, dazed Jongin at his side. It was Kyungsoo who dragged the jumper outside, but when he let go of his arm, Jongin just stopped, looking into space. You didn’t have to check that Jongin was staring where the Wolf-Rayet star should have been. You focused on the cautious mechanic. Kyungsoo trod carefully, looking around, eyebrows drawn close.

Yixing grunted and shot you an annoyed stare when your side started to hurt. You were worried, you couldn’t help it! Even though this planet didn’t seem as dangerous as they did usually, you knew that Kyungsoo wouldn’t come back unscarred. It didn’t work this way.

You glanced at Junmyeon. He, Sehun and Minseok were sitting together, enjoying the fresh air. You didn’t know who was the next in line, but you expected that you’d go to the next dropping zone immediately after leaving Kyungsoo.

A loud crack followed by mad laughter caught your attention. Chanyeol, Jongdae and Baekhyun were apparently sparring? Baekhyun was sitting cross-legged on the ground and Jongdae’s hair was the familiar halo around his head. He was the one laughing madly, although Baekhyun joined in cheerfully when Jongdae brought his hands up, bluish sparks appearing between his fingers and he brought his arms down bring down a lightning out of the fucking nowhere. A scream caught in your throat and you stared horrified – until you realized that Baekhyun somehow gathered the lightning and made a star out of it.

Looking at them now you could see various bigger or smaller glowing orbs whirling around Baekhyun. Some of them were yellow, some were bluish, some were reddish and you realized the colour depended on whose energy was used to form it.

“There is nothing living here,” you heard in your ear. It was Yixing his voice shaky. “No plants, no animals.”

You turned around to reassure him but his eyes caught your attention. They were bright, saturated green and they jumped weirdly from side to side as if he was looking for any life forms. You weren’t sure what was happening to him, but given the recent history of the crew you were sure – nothing good. He started shaking as if he was going into a seizure but he was still standing. Horrible smell of burning skin invaded your nostrils and you unconsciously tried to find the source of the stink. His hand. The hand that repeatedly burned while he held Jongdae was burning without a reason. But you still saw skin getting red and breaking, slowly turning black as meat on his hand appeared – you finally screamed when his pinkie fell off his hand.

Few things happened right after each other. Jongdae hearing your terrified scream assumed Yixing was trying to hurt you and without a single thought, he shot a lightning out of his fingers – a lightning that grazed your side and hit Yixing right in the solar plexus. When his back hit the ground, he no longer had a hand.

But Jongdae wasn’t done. His rage galvanized the air around you and when you turned around to him, his eyes were pure gold and focused on ragdoll like Yixing on the ground. Who now was really seizing.

“No, Jongdae, stop!” yelled Junmyeon. Your side was burning but it was a shock that stopped you from doing anything and you just watched how your boyfriend attacked again. Chanyeol tried to stop him, burning his hands when he tried grabbing Jongdae’s arm, Baekhyun tried to gather the energy, but Jongdae’s rage was just too pure.

It was Jongin who teleported Yixing out of the hit zone – Jongdae’s lightning hit the ground, electricity flowing in every direction painting burned circular pattern in the dirt, raising small hairs on your body. Silence filled the space and you stared at Jongdae, afraid of the power he held. He couldn’t look at you, only now coming back to himself.

That’s when ground moved. It didn’t shake the planet like an earthquake would. No, it was different. First, the place Jongdae’s lightning struck went down. Maybe five centimetres. You should have started running then, but the crew stared at this phenomenon wordlessly. Second later area between you and Baekhyun rose, again maybe five centimetres. And then the ground just started moving, one section dropping deep down to the core of the planet, next shooting up into the sky.

“Run!” screamed Sehun, the last conscious of you, and it woke you up. You started running, fearing that every next step would be wrong and you’d fall to your death. Your side was hurting madly but you gritted your teeth and focused on the ship.

Which second later disappeared into the ground. You tripped, your other side exploding with pain. Now the pain was overwhelming, it felt like something was trying to split you in half sawing your waist. You heard the rest of the crew scream at each other but their words were muffled as if coming from afar.

Strong hands grabbed you and yanked up, your feet hitting collapsed rocks. You´ve heard Junmyeon scream at someone not to do anything if they can´t do anything useful and you realized it was Sehun who was dragging you. The ground under your feet shook and it shot both you and Sehun up into the sky. Both of you fell down, desperately trying to hold onto the moving rock. You saw Chanyeol bursting into flames as he jumped from another raised formation. Sehun was swearing quietly under his nose and you just wanted this madness to end. Lightning zapped near the ground and you heard Jongdae calling your name desperately. Among this madness, both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo remained stoic. Baekhyun was still sitting cross-legged on the ground, little orbs orbiting lazily around his head, while Kyungsoo stood frozen in his spot, probably realizing that he was to be left alone on this wild planet.

Just why?

“Thank God,” murmured Sehun, just as cold fingers circled your wrist. Suddenly everything around you disappeared and you reappeared on the bridge. Sehun immediately sat down in his chair, but you couldn’t, despair getting better of you. Jongin disappeared.

“We can’t do it,” you said quietly on the verge of hyperventilating. Sehun snapped his head to you and what you saw in his eyes was fear heavily laced with desperation.

“We can do it,” he said loudly and surely, but his eyes said something different. “We will do it.”

A wild spasm surged through your body just as the ship shook. Sehun jumped out of his seat to push you into yours. He strapped you in, squatting next to you. He grabbed your head and he made sure you were looking at him when he said:

“We will do it, but you need to calm down!” another spasm shook you and the vessel, Sehun dropped to his knees. “Please! Calm down, we have to escape, now!”

Jongin appeared with Junmyeon and Minseok.

“How is Jongdae?” asked Sehun urgently, turning his head to newcomers.

“He is good, I am sure Jongin will bring him back in a second,” answered Junmyeon immediately, coming to you, kneeling just next to Sehun, who swiftly slid back into his seat and turned on his com. Junmyeon put his hands on your knees. “It’s all going to be alright, ok? Trust me, it’s going to be ok, we just need you to calm down.”

He seemed so sure and his eyes staring into yours were unwavering. You believed him. You believed Junmyeon that everything was going to be alright. So you wiped out tears that you weren’t sure when started falling and you turned your com on to calculate go-no-go. You were still deep inside the planet but they assured you everything would be alright.

Sensors told you that fourth engine took damage, that combined with already wonky third engine didn’t paint nice future for you, but you still believed. Jongin brought back Chanyeol and Baekhyun who lost all of his orbs but seemed happy to be back on the bridge. Jongin snatched Sehun’s isolating glove and jumped to get back Jongdae.

“Engines are ready and force fields are ready as well,” you reported, trying not to think about lack of runway. How were you going to do this? One last spark of electricity announced Jongin’s return.

“Start the engine,” said jumper quietly, leaning against a wall. You were preoccupied with ensuring that Jongdae was ok and you nearly dismissed it. You couldn’t start the engine, not underground.

But Sehun did. He started the engine and pulled up force fields. Nervous pain zipped through your system and you turned around to scream at him. That’s when outside read-out disappeared. Half of your system sensor’s went black and you stared at your screen feeling how your heart pounded in your chest.

It took longer than usual. You didn’t know if it was because of the distance or because Jongin was moving through space something as big as a whole ship. You were too scared to even look away. Suddenly sensors came back, reporting that you were far outside planet’s atmosphere. A loud thump behind you announced that Jongin collapsed.

*

It took Yixing one week to grow back his hand. The sole fact he was able to do was both impressing and nauseating. You were appointed to take care of infirmary, so you spent the week with unconscious Jongin, sedated Yixing (the pain was too strong for him to deal) and cheerful Baekhyun. During the day he usually babbled and joked.

At night he kept talking about light and darkness.

Jongdae slept at the infirmary, not being able to touch you, but finding solace in your proximity. Days he was spending in the machinery room. No one of your merry band was allowed outside when you reached planet 0412.

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Aquamarine

Aquamarine Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Kidge Summary:Continuation of [this] fic; warning for a lot blood! With time running out, Keith is now face-to-face with the Almighty Jufaruta to determine if he is worthy of the elixir that could save Pidge’s life. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more. AN: Not much to say except that I hope you all enjoy Day 6 here!

The inside of the temple was dank, smelling of stale water and damp dirt, and the chamber he walked into was a deep, rich violet color. There were bright yellow tapestries depicting the same creature as the statues fighting off various other creatures to protect the denizens of the planet. There was another small staircase across the room from him, leading to the next chamber, but settled on the top of the steps was a large beast similar to the statures outside. They were the size of a horse, with a thick coat of sandy colors with a white muzzle and black tufts on its ears and in intricate swirls along its shoulders and paws. The two upper sets of eyes were closed and the lower set were just barely cracked open. It’s tail swayed and twisted behind it, the mace-like object seeming to be made of soft, fur-like material. “Are you the Jufaruta guarding this elixir?” He asked cautiously.

The Jufaruta turned, walking toward the open passage to the next area without a sound, and a small platform raised in the center of the room. There was a small golden jar on the top.

“Wait, what am I supposed to do? Can’t you give me a hint?” He called out, frantic.

It looked back at him over it’s shoulder, standing just past the threshold of the next chamber, before it’s third set of eyes closed and the door slammed shut behind it.

“Okay, so I’m on my own?” He grumbled angrily, pinching the bridge of his nose. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, a conversation from a long time ago.

“These things never make any sense,” He grumbled, his head tilted as they watched the protagonist of the film jump past a pit of spikes.

“What do you mean?” Pidge asked, lifting her head from his shoulder to gaze up at him curiously. She reached into the bowl of psuedo-popcorn they had brought out with them for the film, grabbed a handful, and tossed a piece into his mouth. They had decided to marathon a few action flicks since they had the free time and, being on to the third film, he’d noticed a trend developing in regards to Gaduratu’s most recent exploration of some extinct-cultures ancient artifacts.

“These ancient temples always have super-complicated secrets to figure out in order to get through them,” He said, indicating the latest chamber that was filled with marked stones and a floor of lava.

“They aren’t super-complicated,” She explained with a small snort, “if you’re good with riddles. That’s all they really are at their core, after all; riddles that you have to solve in order to get through. They’re not too terribly difficult if you concentrate. Just think of it like the trials from when you were joining the Blade.”

He took a deep breathe and slowly approached the jar in the center and eyed it curiously. “What did that plaque say, again? Something about tasting without consuming, sensing without seeing, trusting without knowing and speaking without hearing, I think? So I guess this would be that first one then,” He mumbled twisting off the top of the jar. Underneath what looked to be a long, slim needle of some sort. There was a small liquid dripping from the jagged tip; either a poison or some kind of drug, he reasoned.

With a nervous gulp, he reached forward and prodded the tip of his index finger against it. The tip was as sharp as he expected, leaving a small cut. He then pressed the cut into the liquid, forcing himself to hold steady despite the sting until he was sure a decent amount had gotten into the wound. A rumbling noise echoed in the chamber and the door lifted again. “So I guess that was the right approach. Thanks for the tip, Pidge,” He mumbled, glancing from the cut to the open entrance. He paused long enough to use a small bandage to cover the little mark and then rushed forward.

The Jufaruta was settled beside a large glowing orb in the center of the room, which seemed to be suspended by an electric current running through it via two plates on the ceiling and floor respectively, cleaning it’s paw with long strokes of its pale blue tongue. The walls of the room were a bright and welcoming yellow hue. There were more tapestries hanging from the walls, identical to the ones in the previous room, but were actually a smoky grey color this time around. The Jufaruta’s lowest set of eyes were open now, a luminous and glowing orange color with lime green pupils that looked like a diamond as opposed to a circle, and the second set up were cracked just a bit now. It perked up and licked it’s chops at the sight of him, almost seeming to be grinning. It carefully hoped down from the orb and took a few steps closer, it’s nose twitching as it sniffed around.

It got close enough that Keith could have touched it, gently tapping its cold nose against the very tip of his covered finger, before letting a soft purr-like sound that he took as satisfaction. It then retreated back towards the orb, tail flicking back and forth in an almost amused fashion. Keith noticed in specific that the little orb at the end seemed to be more solid and firm now as well. It hopped up in one long jump, and skid it the edge of it’s tail along the plate keeping the orb in place, seeming to flick some kind of switch. It wobbled and teetered, barely kept in place by the lower current, and it began to get darker, the top half of the orb flickering off. The rumbling continued and that was when Keith realized that it wasn’t only the orb wobbling, but the whole room itself. The orb maintained both the lighting of the room but also the gravitational pull of it.

He received another purr as his only warning before the Jufaruta dragged it’s tail along the lower plate and sent the room into darkness and orbit.

Keith growled and pulled out his blade, digging it into the ground below him as everything flipped upside down around him. He heard the orb crash into what had previously been the ceiling and roll about as the room slowly rocked back and forth. “Okay, the second part… Sense without seeing… Which I assume means that I need to get that orb back in place and turn those switches back on again,” He grumbled to himself before there was a whooshing noise in his ear, something loud slamming into the stone just past his head, landing in beside his sword. A skittering noise that reminded him of insect sounds started to creep closer and he growled. “Of course there had to more to this than that!” He snapped, yanking his sword free and curling into himself as he headed towards the ground, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

Sense without seeing, huh? Well, good thing they’d had that training exercise with the Lions.

He forced himself to find his center and suddenly a strange tingling sensation crept up from the small cut in his finger, up his arm and settled all throughout his body. When he opened his eyes, it felt as if he wasn’t actually seeing, but instead reading the energy. The room was still pure black, but the walls were outlined in a low dim white hue while the orb was a near-blinding gold. It was also rolling its way to be beneath him. He reached his arms out and pushed on it once he got close enough, pushing it back and managing to get his feet settled on it. It swayed from side to side and he had to keep moving, but he had a decent handle on it. He stole a glance up to see the creature that had attacked him, which was outlined with bright red energy, hissed and dropped down to join him.

Through what the energy revealed, it was like a giant three-tailed scorpion with horns akin to that of a bull. It dropped and narrowly missed landing on him, pushed back by his block with his sword. He growled as it’s jagged back legs jabbed into the orb, cracking it a bit and creating a makeshift foothold for itself. It swung at him with all three tails, trying to impale him, but he shifted and blocked. He stole a quick glance around then smirked, shifting to push the orb to the left.

When he did, the creature hissed in distress as it was dragged along in the wide circle.

It was hard keeping his balance as he ran atop the sphere, managing to flip from the original ceiling to one side of the room, but he managed it somehow. And as long as he kept moving, the creature seemed unable to dislodge it’s limbs from where they’d stuck them in. He grinned and looked at the wall opposite him, trying to track down the first platform that needed to be reactivated. Once it was locked partly back into place it was just a matter of using his jet pack to reach the upper switch. The creature hissed again and one of it’s tails swung at him blindly, narrowing missing his cheek. He stumbled back, rolling the orb, then growled. He ran across the orb until where the creature was pinned was underneath the orb and then charged forward.

He flinched at the loud crunch of the creature underneath the weight of the glorified pinball but quickly focused again.

From where he was positioned, he would be able to reach the switch if he jumped for it. He walked along the wall until he was face to face with it. He only knew where it was because, strangely enough, it was the only portion of the room that wasn’t lit up with some kind of energy. He felt around and smirked at what felt like a slim, narrow piece jutting out from a part of it. A quick flick up and sudden;y the room rumbled again, the orb starting to float beneath his feet.

He jumped free of it and activated his jet pack, making his way towards the top as the light slowly began to creep back into the room. He used his blade to nudge the other switch back in to place, worried that the current might zap him or something. The whole room was briefly enveloped in light so bright he had to shut his eyes, and when he opened them again his vision had returned to normal. A quick glance around the room revealed that any damage that may have been done by the orb crashing and rolling around was gone, as well as the nick in the stone from where he’d lodged his blade. There also seemed to be no evidence of the strange scorpion beast that had attacked him.

But the Jufaruta was also gone. Meaning it had probably snuck out once the room turned into a carnival ride.

He headed through the next passageway, using his jet pack still in hopes of spending the process along. This room was a smoky grey while the tapestries were an almost teal color this time. The center of the room, however, was a bit strange. Unlike being the same color as the ceilings or walls as the other two rooms had been, the floor seemed to be make of soil here. He scoffed a bit and focused on the open passageway ahead of him, assuming that this room was just a small rest spot before the last two trials. The minute he passed to about the halfway point of the room his jet pack suddenly cut out and he was plummeting downwards. The surface he fell into was not soil, but more akin to something like the bed of a swamp, and he ended up only being in up to his waist. “Damnit!” He cursed, trying to push his way through it. The more he squirmed, though, the farther in he sunk towards the center.

It was something like quick sand, he realized with a small snarl. It didn’t take long until one of his arms was completely submerged and the other was only loose because he had the foresight to lift it above his head. “Why are you doing this, Keith?” A tired voice asked in front of him.

His head shot up and he gasped at the figure squatting down in front of him. “Pidge,” He breathed.

She looked like her but also unlike her, as odd as it sounded. She wasn’t clad in her Paladin armor any longer, but was still wearing her flight suit and she still have bits of dried blood and grime on her. He knew she wasn’t physically with him; both because it was a logical impossibility but also because she cast no shadow and she seemed to be hovering less than a centimeter above the strange molasses-like substance. She leaned her elbows on her bent knees and flashed him a small, sad smile. “Were you expecting Santa Claus?”

“How are you here?” He asked, his struggling halting completely. If he didn’t move, he noticed in the back of his mind, it seemed like the substance stopped pulling on him so much.

“Astral projection,” She explained with a small shrug. She then looked back at how deep he’d sunken in and sighed. “Keith, this isn’t going to help anything, you know.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll figure a way out of this,” He said, glaring down at the dark brown liquid.

“You know that isn’t what I meant,” She said. His head snapped up to focus in on her, a heavy weight made of dread starting to weigh down on his stomach. “You need to stop this. This whole mission… It’s ridiculous. You’re just wasting time and resources.”

“No, I’m not!”

“A long time ago, you told me that the lives of two people weren’t more important than the rest of the universe,” She said calmly. He tensed up and bit the inside of his cheek to keep from arguing. “I have accepted that I won’t be making it out of this alive, and now you need to. I have enough strength to pull you out of there and get you back to the ledge before I have to return to my body and wait for the final moment. This is the way it has to be, Keith.” She offered one hand to him and he stared between it and her, feeling his heart start to ache. A flicker of movement behind her caught his attention suddenly.

It was the Jufaruta. The second set of eyes were now open – lime green irises with bright pink pupils – and the third set was cracked. Trust without knowing.

He took a breath and grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards him. She let out a small startled noise and he only stopped tugging when their foreheads were nearly touching. He tilted his head and gently pressed his cheek against her hand, surprised that it felt real but disappointed at how cold it was, and held her gaze steady with his own. “I will save you, Pidge. I promise,” He vowed before taking another deep breath, releasing her, and willingly diving underneath the surface of whatever he was trapped in.

“Keith!” She cried just as he disappeared, but then everything went silent. He tried flapping one of his hands near his ear, expecting to hear the slight jostle of water, but no sounds came from it. He shifted and started to swim in the direction he’d been getting pulled towards. The closer he got, the easier moving got, until he reached a point where he simply let whatever current it was drag him along. He tried to remain calm the longer he was under, but as he got closer to running out, he became fearful that he had chosen the wrong path. His mouth opened, letting what little air he had left out, and he grabbed at his throat.

And suddenly he was falling again.

He landed on a soft, blush surface that slowly slid apart and pushed him down, kind of like some strange automated slide. He forced his eyes open and took in a heaving breath, looking up at the dimly glowing ceiling of what he could only call an underground cavern. There were stalactites hanging from the ceiling, little flickering stones of various colors decorating them, and for a moment he just laid there pliant and trying to catch back up. There was a dull ache in his head, so he pressed his thumbs up against the tops of his eyes to try and get it to subside, at least temporarily. He then smirked and flipped the bird at the ceiling. “I was right,” He said before lifting his head and starting to push up.

As he did, the material he was leaning back against shifted to help push him upright. The whole area that he was in was lit solely by the stones in the stalactites, creating a pathway towards a large, glowing room a few feet away. Still a bit unsteady on his feet, he moved at a regular walking space along the path, wondering what the next trial the Jufaruta had for him would entail. The only virtue left was speaking without hearing, but he wasn’t exactly sure how that worked.

The cavern he walked into was a gorgeous underground lake.

The room was filled to the brim with pastel colored stone, with a narrow path leading to a circular sitting area in the dead center of the lake, and bore a pleasant aroma that made him think of milk and honey. There were two small benches there, with Pidge settled at one and the Jufaruta seated beside her. The Jufaruta was sitting behind the bench with it’s fore paws resting on the empty space beside Pidge, all three eyes open and watching Keith with what he could only call amusement. Despite how far away from it he was, it’s eyes were glowing so bright he could still make out the colors; bright pink for the irises with pupils that were the bright orange of the lowest sets irises. He stole a quick glance at the waters of the lake, where he was certain the smell was coming from. It was the same color as the tapestries in the other room and he now recognized the color as being aquamarine.

He looked ahead and walked along the path towards the Jufaruta, his headache becoming more aggressive with each step.

“Please, take a seat, traveler,” Pidge said once he got within earshot, her lips turning up a small grin and one hand gesturing with an elegant wave. Keith scowled and then gasped when he looked at her eyes.

They were not the usual warm honey tint he was used to, but had become three rings of orange, green and pink. “So you created a figment of Pidge to try and trick me,” He growled lowly, but moved to do as he was told. Once he was seated, he crossed his arms and let one leg bounce, rage rushing through him. But how had the creature figured out what Pidge looked and sounded like? Or know about her at all?

Pidge giggled and covered her mouth with one hand, an act far too demure for his liking. “Heavens me, you think so loud! But to answer your question simply, no, this is not an illusion or a trick. I was able to call forward this young woman’s astral self by using your memories to put together what was motivating you through my trials!” She said calmly. As she spoke the Jufaruta purred, low and pleased, along with her. “Which, I must say, I am impressed. It has been many a century since last a warrior came to seek my fortunes and even more so since they made it this far. Tell me, what brings you here?”

“I have come to get the elixir, so that I can save her – Pidge – from dying,” He said, looking first at the Jufaruta itself and then to Pidge when he specified her name. His gaze softened on her astral form seated there. “She shouldn’t be dying like this, not right now.”

Pidge heaved a small sigh and rolled her eyes. “Is that all? You are not the first come for the elixir with such a reason. Playing God under the false pretense of saving a loved one seems to be a favorite of the selfish that have come here before you,” She said, seeming bored now.

“She isn’t meant to die now or like this,” He said, forcing himself to remain calm despite the rage slowly brewing inside of him.

“You do not know that; you are simply deciding that for yourself,” She scoffed. It got under his skin, how this thing was using her voice and her mouth to tell him lies. “The truth tends to be difficult for baser life forms such as yourself to hear, but I won’t censor myself. Now, either explain to me why your desire deserves to be fulfilled before I eviscerate you for wasting my time.”

“That’s the thing; it doesn’t necessarily deserve to be fulfilled,” Keith admitted, causing the Jufaruta to perk up. All six eyes blinked in unison and it said nothing, so he continued on. “The fact is that everyone’s morality is different, and all requests are selfish in some way, shape or form. There’s nothing I can say or do to truly convince you that my reason for wanting this elixir is any better than anyone else. All I can do is be genuine in saying that I love Pidge and I am afraid of losing her. And I would rather rush off to take a shot in the dark to save her than simply accept that there’s nothing I can do to change this.” The Jufaruta stared at him for a moment before it grinned again, Pidge’s expressions mirroring it, and both their eyes began glowing with the same white lights the statutes had emanated outside.

When he was able to see again, he was in the first room all over again, the golden jar sealed before him. The Jufaruta was seated at the top of the stairs again, but he noticed there was no longer a passageway behind him. Astral Pidge was gone, as well. He looked from the Jufaruta to the jar before cautiously twisting off the lid.

Instead of the needle and dripping drug, the jar was hollowed out and filled near to the brim with the aquamarine liquid from the underground cavern. He stared at his reflection in the small surface before slowly lifting his head to stare at the amused creature watching him. The tingling sensation from before surged through him, and his mouth opened without his urging. “I see with eyes that are unclouded, baser life form. By speaking to me on my terms and rejecting to hear the logic of the world you hail from, I chose to fill your request,” When his mouth closed, the sensation was gone and he shook his head in surprise.

“Thank you, Almighty Jufaruta, He said, quick but sincere, and bowed to it before snatching up the jar and making a beeline out of the temple. According to the time, he’d be able to make it fifteen minutes before Pidge’s time was up if he was fast.

…………………………………………………………

In the end, he made it even sooner. He had apparently impressed the Jufaruta quite a bit because his ship had been sitting right outside of the temple when he stepped out, which saved him a full thirty minutes of hiking. The minute he was out of the thicket and able to open the comms, he called up the Castle Ship and told them what he’d acquired. Shiro had been stunned but also clearly thrilled, turning around and starting to bark orders to the rest of the team about getting everything set up in preparation for whatever the procedure could entail. Allura had flashed him a proud smile before telling him that she’d get in touch with Matt to let him know that Pidge should be healed and safe once he arrived.

Keith had flown reckless and fast before but never as much so as he did making it back to the Team.

Coran greeted him the minute he disembarked and the two walked as quick and in step toward the medical wing as they could. “How much did it give you?”

“The jar is completely full,” He said, looking from door to door in search of the one Pidge was in.

“How much do we need to give her to heal her?” He asked as they rounded a corner. The rest of the team was standing outside of the door, watching them with anxious and red-rimmed eyes.

“Dunno. Gonna give her a bit, see how much it does, and give her more as I need to,” He said bluntly as they headed into the room. Lance and Coran were right behind him while Hunk, Shiro and Allura watched through the large window into the room. The curtains had been drawn earlier but they were wide open now, leaving them to gaze at his back as he came to her side. The shrapnel was still in her, but it had been shaved down some. “We’re gonna have to remove that first, or else the injury might try to heal around it.” He pointed out.

“I’ll get a fresh blood bag ready,” Lance said, darting over to the cooling unit that they were kept in. Keith had never been more grateful that Lance had taken an additional interest in the healing and medical technology of Altean’s as he was in that moment. Once it was all hooked up and situated, Lance headed over to another drawer and started shifting through until he returned with a syringe. “We can put the elixir in this to make it easier. If we wake her up to have her drink it after we move that metal out of her, she might go into shock and choke on it. If we inject it straight into her heart it should spread fast enough before she can bleed out.” He nodded and opened the jar, watching as Lance filled it up. He made a small noise of surprise at the color and then set it on the small supply table beside Pidge’s bed.

“You might want to step back for this,” Coran advised. Keith did as he was told, moving to stand in the space above Pidge’s head so Lance could take his spot and leaving the closed jar on the supply table in case they needed more of it. Between Lance and Coran, they shifted Pidge slowly and carefully to her good side so they could remove the shrapnel. An egregious amount of blood gushed out from both ends of the wound and for a moment Keith felt panicked that she’d be dead before anything more could be done. Her chest had been rising and falling slowly as it was, but with the severity of the hemorrhaging it started to slow even more. With a small, determined growl, Lance seized up the syringe, jammed it down in the center of her heart, and pushed down on the syringe plunger steadily until it was empty.

A quiet thump sounded from outside the room and Hunk’s face disappeared from the viewing. Keith felt a pang of sympathy; if not for his adrenaline pumping so hard he would have fainted, too.

The three watched, holding their breath, as slowly little flickers of light began to bloom from Pidge’s injuries. They glimmered and gleamed like the stones in the cavern, appearing over where her skin had been sliced and diced, and then fading out to the same soft peach color as her skin. Her chest began to heave more and more, breathing steady and normal, and slowly she cracked her eyes, whining a bit at the bright lights around her. “Katie?” Keith breathed uneasily, shaky hands coming up to hover just above her face.

They opened about halfway and shifted to fix on him, tired but also the breathtaking brown hue he’d become enamored by. She flashed him a tired smile, licking her lips a bit in preparation for speaking. “Let Kolivan know I’m kicking his ass next time I see him,” She croaked out, trying to be playful.

A hiccuping sob of relief bubbled out of him and he pressed his forehead against her, hands finally resting against her cheeks to trace with his thumbs. “I’ll hold him while you hit,”

[wristic]

Yellow Light (Part 2)

Pairing: Loki X Reader, hint of Thor X Reader Word Count: 1900 Warnings: None

-Part 1- -Part 2- -Part 3-

How was it possible to crave the cold? Left alone to feel sweaty, burn in panic at the sudden loss of it? Thor tried not to pace, his fingers instead, itching as Tony explained his system was tampered with, one minute you were there and the next all of FRIDAY went silent for five minutes. The slightest hint of a body appearing in the room before it shorted out and everything went black.

The worst part was the sight of you lingering by the door after it shut, after he left you alone. Your hand ran down the door as your head dipped sullenly. He shouldn’t have left you alone. A part of Thor wanted to stay, feeling how lonely you’d become even if you wouldn’t admit it aloud. But he never quite trusted himself around you for long, your company so easy to be in, certain temptations always edging on his mind, edging dangerously with the drinks.

Some radio residue was left in the center of the room, nothing recognized as earthly, but Thor knew it well. The kind of energy needed for folding the universe for a brief moment, something that would need to take months in preparation, longer if done alone. Thor tensed all over, his teeth aching as his jaw clutched tight. Stepping back from the computer screens he reassured Tony, “She isn’t on Earth anymore.”

He began walking away when Tony jumped up, following close behind, “What do you mean ‘she isn’t on Earth’ anymore? Where is she?” Thor only sighed but didn’t stop, taking great pains to force back his denial. “Hey!” Tony grabbed his arm and yanked Thor to face him. “Where are you going? Where is she?”

“I have to go to Asgard.” The frustration of it all bubbled out in a bitter laugh. “The only other person to know about her and have that kind of magic… was Loki.”

Tony took back. “Loki?” Thor nodded, unable to look at him, feeling so much shame it hurt. “What would Loki want with her? I know he was a little fascinated and tried to mind control her to his side a couple times but, I mean, I feel like he could find someone similar when the literal galaxy is open to him.”

“I don’t know if it had anything to do with her powers.” Thor mumbled. In a sudden switch he clapped a hand on Tony’s shoulder, brushing aside the deeply confused and concerned look, “I’ll find her. I’ll bring her home. I swear it.”

Tony was growing annoyed with the refusal to explain anything further, grinding his teeth before looking back at his system that failed to protect you in the first place. A hard determination filled his eyes before looking back, “I’m coming with you.”

Lurching his hand back, Thor stared appalled. “Absolutely not.”

“This is my fault-”

“It really isn’t-”

“I’m not just going to sit here while she’s out in the galaxy with your maniac brother!” It was hard not to see the guilt and blame in Tony, knowing his equipment failed not just him but you when this was supposed to be the safest place in the world. Then again it was also hard not to see the trouble he’d be in bringing Tony.

Closing your eyes and walking through, it was like stepping into a cave. At first you thought you had, until you looked up. There room was pitch black but far above your head was a perfect circle for the sky, stars twinkling in a globe. When a light came, a ball of pure white glowing from Loki’s hand, he smiled to you in revealing a dome room of metal, the walls etched with large circles overlapping and craved in ruins. It was almost sad with it’s forgotten condition, the metal rusted and cracked, caked in a layer of ice yet a bit glossy now, like it had been blasted with heat. Below your feet was a raised platform, eight deep gutter lines reached out from under it, steaming though nothing was in them.

Loki stepped closer to you, “Do me a favor? Lift us through that hole in the ceiling would you?”

Looking between him and the ceiling, it appeared the most sensible thing to do with the only exit in front of you two caved in. Reluctantly, you let go of him to crouched down. Most of the ice you created was pulled from the air, but strangely you felt a surge jump up your arms as you reached for the cold. Nothing was created, but you felt ice stretch far beyond you, feeling almost eager to be used on your call. There was just so much of it.

“Something wrong?”

You looked up at him, a quirk to his lips he failed to hide. “N-no.”

Focusing, a pillar started springing from below your feet, slow at first, gradually growing faster to not unstable balance. The pillar grew high, far higher than you intended and the winds were harsh outside the dome. A thin but strong clear layer of ice sprouted up to protect you and him from being pushed off before you lifted your hands. It was all so easy, so effortless on your endurance, in fact you felt energized. You didn’t tell him any of that, instead tried to hold back the unease. Loki seemed to get it anyway, looking from your hands you were busy examining and smiling a bit wider when you caught his eye. You gave him a stubborn grump face before looking out.

The world was struck in midnight, not sun and no moon above a sky blanketed in stars, clouds of cosmic dust painting it purples and blues. The mountains that encased the area were so large and so tall they disappeared in black grey clouds, silhouetted giants the harsh winds withered away the snow from. There were no trees, no animals, but below, the pillar stood in the dead center of ruins stretching far and wide.

It was clear to you a battle had visited the once capital city. Blasted gaping holes in buildings, the things inside left in their final place, forgotten by fleeing citizens. Littered were glowing blue stones helping you discern it all between toppled towers and demolished aches. You wondered if they’d been street lamps once, and tried to imagine the city when it was vibrant and alive. Mystical as it seemed to only glitter with a small layer of ice, the snow stopping at its borders by seemingly nothing.

Bewildered and bewitched, you whispered, “What is this place?”

“A world you’ve heard so often, yet never taken to.” His hand raised to you, brushing along your jaw for your attention. You responded instantly to the feather touch, looking to him as he announced, “Jotunheim.”

You watched as his skin darkened under contact with you, dragging your eyes away to the city again. “What happened?”

“They once had their own form of civilization, at least had started creating a stable environment for themselves. Ah, but old traditions, how hard they die.” He didn’t take his eyes off you, looking into yours that were so distracted on the silent and broken kingdom. “Frost Giants are war-bound creatures, valuing their strength and itching to use it, to prove themselves and conquer all others weaker than them. They threw their chance to the wind. As they lost their impossible war they abandoned their progress, feeling the pleasures of life is what made them weak, retreating back into the caves and mountains.”

Pulling close to him, staring off feeling like you’d catch ghosts between the alleys, Loki whispered down to you. “I want you to remake it.”

Taken back, he chuckled at you, white teeth between cold blue lips and teasing red eyes, “No one is here but you and me. This history is loathed among them. Take it, create something only you can.”

Feeling overwhelmed by the request you stepped back and fiddled, “I-I’m not strong enough to make a city, I don’t even know how that would really work I-”

“Have you ever tried?” Of course you hadn’t. Even if you wanted to, it would only panic everyone, the true extent of your abilities left uncharted for their comfort. But even still, could you really? Loki took your lowered chin, pulling it up to face him from your doubt. “Try.”

Ironically a shiver ran down your spine. Finding some stability, you sighed and crouched down again, both hands on the platform. Again it was like a jolt of electricity, gluing your hands and taunting you to covered the world in an unending glacier of ice. Instead you drew up the already set layout, the forgotten marks not quite withered away, shocking yourself with how far your reach could spread.

Your abilities were only limited by your imagination now, pulling up on the chill around and below you, feeling it crawl high like a swarm, lifting the stones in their place, using the ice to crystallize into a finished smooth layer. 

 Loki watched it all from up high, like a garden flourishing, molding into something of dreams. The city shimmered and glowed anew as building crawled to a stand, bridges connecting the higher layers. He stepped forward as a massive tower in the distance began to crack and burst, reshaping like a flower blooming, vines spinning and encasing it, spreading wide in a clear layer to form a bubbled cone, others joining a little ways below it. Loki couldn’t help but smile. It seemed you were thinking of the future, perhaps already claiming a castle for yourself. Looking to you, a blizzard orb began swirling around you, streaks of blue lightning cracking from your hands and brewing a storm in the pedestal you and him stood on.

Suddenly as the glowing stones cracked and started to glow the city, the pedestal began to lower, melt away back into Jotunheim's abandoned and barely working Bifrost. Inside glowed a pale blue with stones decorating the platform in a spinning mosaic. The ice was gone from the rusted metal and the exit remade and devoid of rubble, the doors wide open, a thin layer of glistening ice to keep them all together in an effort to show the design once carved into it a thousand years ago.  

In a release of breath at the magnificent power displayed, he looked back in time to see you stumble to stand. Quickly he caught you, nitrogen mist steaming from your beautiful skin and spilling from your lips. Your pupils were wide and glowing white as you looked up to him, “That was amazing.” You sighed into a smile tainted in bliss.  

Loki chuckled at that, his voice bouncing off the clean and lit dome. Your smoking hand came up and caressed his cheek, making him still a moment as his skin changed to it’s darker hues. There was such adoration in your eyes as you whispered, “You are so beautiful.”

His smile faded as your white stare gazed into his red eyes. Loki tilted his head curiously. Seeing how your mind was as clouded as the fog bellowing from you, he wondered how he really looked to you. Using his free hand, no longer needing to create a light, he lifted your legs and carried you away into your city. You were going to need your mind for when the residence of this cold planet caught wind of your creation from their abandoned and forbidden lands.