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sidykittycat · 5 years

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M/M Book Recs

At the suggestion of @xxjinchuurikixx I’m putting together a list of published M/M books as they can be sometimes hard to find.

All for the Game by Nora Sakavic - A series

A wonderful series starring one tough runaway, a smol angry boy and some badass teammates who all have sketchy pasts playing a made up sport that you’ll get really invested in. Oh and the yakuza is involved as well.

Latakia by JF Smith

Our lead Matt gets mistaken for another person while over-seas and ends up being rescued by a special forces team. They get off to a rough start (one in particular, Pete favors insults as his form as affection but becomes Matt’s ride or die guy later on). It’s a really good read with a nice focus on brotherhood and how first impressions and stereotypes don’t always hold true.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

A wonderfully sweet and sad book based off the stories Achilles and his boo Patroclus. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and despite my hatred of second pov I still loved this book.

For Real by Alexis Hall

This was one steamy read. It’s second pov which I’ve mentioned before is my least favorite but I took a chance on this one and boy am I glad I did. We start off with Laurie is close to 40 and has been around the BDSM community for a long time and is getting tired of it. Enter Toby, nineteen and just starting out in the community but he knows what he wants. I really enjoyed this books take on BDSM. There was a stronger focus on submission than there was masochism which isn’t as common in the published books that I’ve found. They also showed a dom dropped which I had never seen depicted in published work before.

The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks by Josh Lanyon - a series

A cute little who dun it series. Perry Foster returns from a romantic weekend gone wrong and finds a dead body - wearing yellow socks - in his bathtub. In the time that it takes for Perry to run to his neighbors for help the body is missing. Enter one of his neighbors, retired Navy SEAL Nick Reno. While skeptical of Perry’s claims at first after looking at the scene after the police he notices some things have been moved and cleaned up. What follows is the two of them trying to figure out what happened.

Enemies of the State by Tal Bauer

Newly elected president Jack Spiers has had a difficult time starting off. Between the terrorist attacks across Europe, tensions with Russia, and the Middle East, Jack is dealing with a lot.

Secret Service Agent Ethan Reichenbach has recently been promoted to the lead in the president's personal security. After having protected three presidents in the last twelve years he’s not expecting much from meeting Jack. Despite his low expectations he and Jack begin to develop a friendship - something that the Secret Service has strict rules against. For their relationship to grow into something more well, that’s just not possible. After all he’s straight and is a widower, still mourning his wife who died while on duty in the military. Ethan has long since sworn off falling for straight men but there’s just something about Jack...and maybe Jack isn’t as straight as he thought.

Whilst Jack and Ethan are figuring out what they are to each other there a rogue black ops team has the president in their sightlines.

Infected: Prey by Andrea Speed - a series

In a world with a sexually transmitted virus that turns people into werecats exists Roan is a born werecat and a private detective.

It’s a really good series and it takes a nice realistic look at how weres may be treated if they truly existed. They turn against their well based off the cycle of their infection and every time they transform they have no control of themselves. With a painful transformation the longer bigger cat they transform into the shorter life span thay have.

In the Company of Shadows Series by Ais and Santino

It’s a really well done and very long series that took the authors around 10 years to write. It’s on the darker side but it’s also very good. It stars Boyd and Sin who are agents of an agency that’s only known as The Agency. Sin is the best agent they have but is held captive by them and forced into working for them. Boyd’s the son of one of the higher ups and is being threatened by his mother into becoming Sin’s handler. Over the course of the series the two go from enemies to friends to lovers to exs to friends to lovers again. All while the there’s spy drama, fights, and torture - and love, humor, friendship, and sweetness mixed in. Oh and it’s completely free which is always a bonus!

Honorable mentions/I’m tired of typing up my own summaries of all of these but you still read them

When all the World Sleeps by Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock

Sacrati by Kate Sherwood

Pretty Pretty Boys by Gregory Ashe

Josh of the Damned by Andrea Speed

Murder on the Lake of Fire by Mikel J. Wilson

Bonfire by Amy Lane

In the Absence of Light by Adrienne Wilder

#sidy says stuff #recs #book recs #all for the game #latakia #the ghost wore yellow socks #song of achilles #for real #in the company of shadows #sacrati #pretty pretty boys #murder on the lake of fire #andrea speed #tal bauer #enemies of the state

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fearsomeandwretchedandwrong · 4 years

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7 Book Covers in 7 Days Challenge

Rules: Each day, I will post the cover of a book that I love and nominate someone new to start the challenge. No explanation, no discussion, just post the cover and by doing so spread some literary love!

Tagging: @johnsimms

#the ghost wore yellow socks #josh lanyon #books #tag you're it

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josh-lanyon · 7 years

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A little something that has inspired some of my writing for The Ghost Had an Early Checkout

#the ghost wore yellow socks #the ghost had an early checkout #mystery #gay mystery #gayfiction #mmromance #tarot

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hey-hamlet · 4 years

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BNHA AU Ideas : Your blessings are your curses.

Also on AO3

TL;DR:

Dead All Might acts as a guardian angel to this heroic quirkless kid he runs into. Izuku gets put into a dangerous situation and turns out – DNA wasn’t needed to pass OFA. Just intent. Izuku gains the ability to see All Might along with the ability to use his quirk.

Sadly, AFO notices.

Now Izuku is on the run with a ghost for a guardian after AFO’s goons kill his mother.

Your blessings are your curses:

TL;DR: Dead all might, acts as a guardian angel to this quirkless kid he runs into. Izuku gets put into a dangerous situation and turns out – DNA wasn’t needed to pass OFA. Just intent. Izuku gains the ability to see All Might along with the ability to use his quirk.

Sadly, AFO notices.

Now Izuku is on the run with a ghost for a guardian after AFO’s goons kill his mother.

So – In the fight between All for One and All Might six years before canon, All Might loses.

Not horribly. All for One is still left almost dead and retreats into hiding, but All Might falls unconscious never to open his eyes again, later dying of sepsis in the hospital. His eyes may never physically reopen, but he does awaken – translucent and noncorporeal.

For a while he doesn’t know if it’s a latent quirk, or maybe something All for One did as a final blow, but no – it’s One for All. One for All has a mind of its own and refuses to disappear until Yagi has found a successor. Not that Yagi knows that.

His old haunts are too painful to hang around, the whole nation is grieving for him and seeing that pain on his old friend's faces burns something fierce. So he does what he’s always done. He helps.

Midoriya Izuku is nine when his favourite hero dies. He sees how the nation is grieving and his desire to be a hero only burns brighter. The bullying he suffers worsens, hate crimes against the quirkless and those with ‘villainous’ quirks uptick. Japan isn’t a pillar of safety and security anymore – crime rates have risen to match or overtake worldwide averages.

Still, he feels almost, safer? He gets luckier – the book his classmate stole shows up in his bag by the next period, bullies trip more often, and sometimes as he runs from villain attacks or classmates with their quirks popping against the nape of his neck, he feels a broad hand push him forwards, giving him an extra burst of speed.

He decides it must be the All Might charm he bought the day before the news of All Might’s death broke. A small solid plastic charm meant for a phone with a bright yellow bell attached, along with a tag reading “I AM HERE”. He fills the bell with scraps of paper so no one can hear it ring as he holds it tight in his hand when he gets nervous.

Midoriya Izuku is nine when he is almost killed.

With All Might gone, organized crime spikes. Quirk trafficking rings spring up – very rare, but no less real. It’s one of these such rings that kidnaps Izuku on his way home from school. He awakens, sore and blurry-eyed in a warehouse with a half dozen other crying children. One by one they are forced to show off their quirks, to gauge their value.

Izuku has no quirk to show. He has no value to these people. They growl at him to stop playing around, to stop pretending to be a hero (his All Might charm is almost cutting into his hand from how hard he holds it. He needs his luck more than ever please all might save me one more time - ). He can't bring himself to shut his eyes as a flaming hand reaches towards his face.

For a moment it feels like he's being held. He feels safe.

A shockwave levels the warehouse, leaving he and the other children untouched, the villains buried in the rubble. Green sparks sink into his skin, dancing over the rapidly purpling bruises decorating his arm. He runs.

He comes back to himself in a park, sobbing and shaking, arms wrapped around his shaking form and an oddly familiar voice murmuring apologies and praise as a broad hand runs gently through his hair.

It seems One for All never needed DNA, only intent, to pass itself along. With the passing of the quirk, Yagi should have dissipated, but he refused, clinging to the child he’d accidentally burdened with his legacy, the same quirkless child he’d been playing guardian angel for all this time.

When Izuku sees All Might he freezes. It’s not All Might as he knew him, rather – this is the All Might that died. He’s translucent, faded around the edges, with a tattered and bloodstained costume, thick padded bandaging over his stomach hiding stiches staining to close infected wounds, doing little to stop the blood oozing through. Still – All Might’s eyes are bright blue and kind and his smile is as it always was. Izuku throws himself onto his hero and sobs.

All Might – Yagi, as he insisted Izuku call him – led him to the nearest police station, as he tried to explain what had occurred. It wasn’t easy considering Yagi didn’t seem to be sure himself, but Izuku was pretty sure the quirk he’d been accidentally gifted was sentient.

Izuku held his arms up to the sky, stretching his fingers to the pinpricks of light in the night sky. Sparks of glittering gold, green, white, blue and red jumped across his skin, like the static shocks he’d get when he wore his wool socks in bed, but less painful. They almost felt playful.

“What are they called?” Yagi looked at him, confusion clear on his face. One of his spikes of hair drooped, and if Izuku could ignore the dust and blood that ran through it it would almost be funny.

“They? My boy, do you mean the sparks? If so, they don’t have a name.”

Izuku frowned, letting his hand drop. He could feel the sparks gently brushing his injuries, almost soothingly. “No, I mean your quirk. They should have a name, they’re so nice to me.”

Yagi coughed, dark blood spilling from his mouth, never to hit the ground. “One for All. It’s called One for All.”

Izuku’s frown deepened.

“All Might, mama says it’s rude to call someone an it.”

Inko is reunited with her only mildly injured son, now excitedly gushing about a quirk he’d somehow manifested. She privately thanks whatever spirit finally decided to smile upon her son, even if it took so long.

Their happiness doesn’t last long. Days later Izuku receives a summons to the head office. He freezes when he sees the police officer, Yagi’s comforting hand on his shoulder the only thing that keeps him from running.

It was a villain attack, the officer says with kindness so forced Izuku wants to cry. Yagi looks angry. If you’ll just come with us so we can get you to the safehouse with your mother –

Yagi almost growls with rage. “She’s lying.” He whispers, habit enforced despite the fact Izuku is the only person alive that can hear him. “Follow her out of the school then run” Izuku does exactly that, quirk sparking up his legs and pushing him forwards, down the familiar path to home. He takes the stairs six at a time, quirk chipping the edges of the concrete as he hurls himself forward.

Their apartment is in shambles, bookshelves tipped, small objects laying scattered on the floor, a pale arm laying limply from a half-open bathroom door.

Yagi pushes him out of the apartment and confirms the identity himself. He urges a sobbing Izuku to say his goodbyes to his mother’s corpse as they quickly gather all the money in the house, a few spare clothes and whatever food and water Yagi could knock down from the pantry shelves for him. Izuku crams it into his backpack as he sobs, Yagi guarding the entrance as he boils with rage and guilt.

He didn’t think All for One would find Izuku. He didn’t think he would even be looking. He was wrong and now his boy was paying the price.

So starts his time on the run.

He meets Shinsou first, saving him from some rubble in a villain attack. He meets him again later, battered and bruised – not from a villain, but from his foster parents. Shinsou joins him, no matter how Izuku explains hes in danger. Shinsou wants to be a hero, and if the only way he gets to be a hero is stubbornly keeping Izuku out of trouble? That’s not a bad trade-off, considering izuku was the first person to save him.

A little while later the two run into Shouto feverish and badly burnt and try to nurse him back to health as best they can. A few days in Touya and Toga run into their little camp guns blazing, expecting them to have kidnapped Shouto only to see Izuku patiently trying to feed him rice porridge with a veritable pile of ‘liberated’ fever reducers on the floor beside them.

They apologise but Shinsou and a still feverish Shouto refuse to talk to Touya or Toga for like three days bc they made Izuku cry.

They refuse to leave no matter how Izuku explains he has a centuries old villain after him. These kids are ride or die. So Hitoshi, Shouto and Izuku are like 9 and trying to learn what they can from libraries and newspapers, never settling down for too long. Toga (12) and Touya/Dabi (14) try and keep them all alive by working or stealing what they need to live. It doesn’t take long for them to evolve into a mini vigilante group.

Aizawa becomes familiar with the messy group of short vigilantes that seem to bounce from prefecture to prefecture every second day, to the point that the force is pretty sure one of them has a teleportation quirk because they don’t seem to have any kind of home base. He’s completely uninterested in trying to arrest them in the beginning – they aren’t hurting anyone and are not half bad at what they do.

That changes when he meets them.

Battered and bleeding out in a rainy alley with a villain looming over him with a knife, Aizawa is pretty sure this is the night he dies. The knife swings back, glinting in the streetlights as he tries in vain to scramble backwards with heavy limbs. It never connects. The villain jerks back as a brilliant blue plume of flame cuts him off, burning the tips of his hair. Not expecting backup the villain bolts. Aizawa feels small hands helping him into a sitting position – his stomach starts to sink. When the short masked figure with curly hair speaks he feels his heart turn to ice. The figure couldn’t be older than 11, probably closer to 10.

He wakes up in the hospital and he makes it his mission to save these kids.

Ghost All Might is having a rough time. His boy is in danger and the best he can do is rattle windows and trip sprinting villains. He can’t help them enough.

He has a plan though.

He warns Izuku that he’ll be gone for a while and to keep safe without him and he goes out scouting. Being invisible and impermeable is normally a curse but when trying to find a paranoid 200-year-old super villain? It’s pretty damn useful. It takes months but eventually he’s not only tracked down All for One’s main hideout he’s also memorised his schedule. It’s nothing impressive considering the man is still mostly bedbound after what All Might did to him, but he won't be a pushover. It’s a start, though.

Izuku cries tears of joy when he sees All Might again and cries even more when he shares what he found. It’s do or die time. He offers every one of his friends the chance to split now because there is a good chance they’ll die, but none of them wants to leave him. With that, he starts planning.

They’ll need Eraserhead, no bones about it. Without him, there would be no way to strike the final blow. They spend a few weeks refining their stealth then they seek Aizawa out.

They knew he’d have a price for helping them, but they never expected it would be so high, but simultaneously so kind. In exchange for his help and a vow of silence he wants each child to let him help them, to find them a safe place to live, a school to go to – a future. Izuku has spent his whole life being told he doesn’t have a future, from when he was diagnosed quirkless to the almost 2 years spent on the run from Japan’s most dangerous villain. He’s still not sure he’ll have one, even with All for One dead, but he knows he wants his friends to grow up happy and safe.

He accepts.

With Aizawa’s help, with Dabi and Toga clearing the way and Shinsou standing in the wings as the last resort, Izuku kills All for One as he sleeps. Nothing flashy, nothing fancy, just quiet footsteps, a sharp knife and shaking hands.

Aizawa is horrified this child just killed someone in front of him, but Izuku is sobbing and All for One is notorious in underground circles so he keeps his quirk up until the blood stops flowing from his neck. He takes the children and flees.

#bnha au #full au #your blessings are your curses au #all might #aizawa shouta #midoriya izuku #dabi #shinsou hitoshi #toga himiko

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pinkhairedlily · 3 years

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Chapter 11 - Student Council President Sakura / Graduation Chapter

SCPS AO3 | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Youtube playlist for your reading accompaniment

They held a run-through of the graduation ceremony on the last day of class and technically the last day of the trio’s high school life. Unlike their first general assembly, Uchiha Sasuke was to deliver the graduation speech but not without great sulking from Haruno Sakura who landed a close second despite ranking first in their final exams.

And obviously, not without Sasuke trying to give up his speech privileges by campaigning instead for Sakura.

In the end, all three of them were granted speech slots – one for Sasuke as valedictorian, Sakura as student representative, and Naruto as the school’s first national MVP. It was this debacle that led the three of them to brainstorm in an empty AVR after the dry run.

“Done!” Sakura yelled like the diligent student she was. “Let me look at yours!”

Sasuke presented her a blank paper while saying, “It’s all prepared in my head”, and Naruto showed her his baseball doodles.

“Oh God, you’re all so hopeless.”

Then the electricity suddenly got cut off in the AVR. Sakura expected the boys to screech in surprise and cling to each other, but she only heard silence in the dark. She jumped in her seat when the doors opened with a loud bang, a confetti splash, and the lights coming back to life.

Sasuke and Naruto were still in front of her, holding two bouquets of irises and yellow roses. Behind them were the old and new student council members with other students holding a large banner saying Thank you, Student Council President Sakura!

She started to leave her seat to come to them, but they gestured for her to stay on her seat. In front of the room, the large monitor beeped and showed a compilation of videos.

Sukehiro Aoi, an alumni and currently an intern in an animation studio. “Hello, Ms. Pres. You once asked the body to submit a publication material for an event of the student council, and I sent mine through a dummy email with no expectations of winning. I wasn’t comfortable with the public seeing my art. I was afraid of the unsolicited remarks so sending it anonymously gave me some relief. You chose it however, and you knew how big a credit was to an artist. I was really scared when you were able to hunt me down just by my watermark, but my name in the info blast caught the attention of a school board member and referred me to this animation studio. It was the littlest thing, but you handed me my dream.”

Watanabe Kota was a year below them. He has a small frame, round thick glasses, and battled with face acne. “Ms. Pres! People never had much confidence in my physical appearance, so I don’t know what you saw in me when you asked me to take over the school radio. But here we are – we’re airing daily and we even produce documentaries and radio programs. Thank you for seeing what I didn’t.”

Ito Amanaya, a typical jock in the football team, muscular and came across as intimidating, but he had the gentlest cadence. “I was bullied by the same group that bullied your dynamic duo. When you ran them off, you also saved my life. Thank you, Haruno.”

Kimura Shinze, a classmate in third year, beautiful, popular, and the captain of the cheering squad. “Hope you’re having a great day, Ms. Pres. Remember that time when the class was guessing who were our crushes and I blurted out that it was a girl, you told me thank you for telling us. That was…a big deal to me. Thank you for that gesture.”

Himurata Aoi, president of the koto club. “Sakura, I know you had many people come up and confessed to you so when I did try, I was glad that you didn’t give me a bullshit reason like you’re not into girls. You turned me down because you have someone you already love. I am thankful for your honesty.”

The biology teacher, Takahashi Kande. “Student council, thank you for your mental health program. As a single father to twins, I don’t have the luxury of time to sit in a couch and sort out my issues. To be able to do that in my workplace during breaks is a heaven-sent gift. You saved me and my family. Thank you.”

Many more messages came on, from a classmate she lent spare change to, from a staff she helped clean, from countless students who she wasn’t aware she gave kindness to.

“Why….” She asked breathlessly.

“You’ve been beating yourself lately. We thought you needed some reminding,” Sasuke muttered, under his breath, the bouquet still in his hands. “You left some pretty big footprints, Ms. Pres.

“You might not have noticed,” Naruto jested. “But this is always innate and natural to you, isn’t it?”

“Why did you bother so much?” She was reduced to tears.

“It was Naruto’s idea.”

“Huh? You did all the compiling though!”

“Shut up, it was me,” yelled the current president.

“Thank you, everyone.”

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It was a weekend, but Sasuke requested Sakura and Naruto to meet him at the school gates. He only gave the time and place, and he knew well enough that they would be there – no questions asked.

They stood there, minutes earlier than planned, a first but nothing more unusual than homebody Sasuke asking them to go out on a weekend. Sakura wore an oversized rust shirt over a pair of muted cotton blue trousers tied with a brown leather belt and tan fisherman sandals, her long hair kept in one single braid at the back. Naruto probably expected a fancy lunch with his outfit – black silky long sleeves over gray pants and black loafers.

Sasuke, high on impulsive decisions, wore bright colors, a complete departure from his usual neutrals; mustard vest over a deep violet polo, baggy pants, off white converse, and a white fanny pack. “Well, we’re mostly dressed for comfort, except for that idiot beside you.”

“What do you mean dressed for comfort? I borrowed these loafers from my vice-captain and my feet aren’t used to them,” Naruto whined. “Besides, aren’t you taking us out to a five-star meal, Mr. Valedictorian?”

“Wow, what a way to show off.” Sakura pursed her lips in annoyance. “Don’t worry Naruto, I got your next café order.”

“Ah no. It was just something we heard from the grape vine.” Naruto scratched his head and carefully glanced at Sasuke. “Grumpy got his trust fund today.”

In bated breaths, they waited for him to respond with a scowl or a retort, but he just nodded. “Come on, we’ll miss the train.”

They traveled for three stations and disembarked on the fourth, Sasuke sandwiched in between the two, his shoulders pillows again to their heads and yet such burdens were light as cotton. The surfacing emotions since last week were taking hold of him, but he needed to pull through somehow because breaking down while commuting was one thing he did not really see doing.

“Word just got in. The house was turned over this morning,” Itachi told him over the phone.

“Impeccable timing when I’m also moving abroad next week.” Sasuke pulled out his Bleachers vinyl and anticipated another lonesome lull for the night.

“Do you miss the cream puffs?”

“Nothing comes close.”

“Hmm. I’ll pay for the rental fee of your car.”

In Itachi’s defense, while he was an afficionado of escapism, he also knew how to read between the lines. “Watch me get a Mercedes-Benz.”

“I have a good driving playlist.” This only meant math rock, and Sasuke wanted something to scream his lungs too.

“Don’t need one.”

“Treat your friends to dinner, okay? Gotta go.”

“We’re walking?!” Naruto almost limped out of the train. Sasuke took one look at his heels and saw that they were bruised red. He took off his converse and socks and gave them to him.

Sakura whipped out a small first-aid kit and covered the rash on Naruto’s heels. “Hey don’t look at me like that. Brought it just in case we’re going on a day survival tour. A camping would be nice too.”

“Did you scrub your feet, idiot?”

“You think so low of me grumpy. Of course – last week!”

With Naruto now comfortable, the three resumed walking on the unfamiliar residential area. Sasuke gestured for them to enter a bamboo forest on the far side of the main road. Hidden in the shadows of the clumped stalks were a small opening, the growth hampered and ground rid of grasses and weeds; many people have also chosen this shortcut, walked through the forest, did a little nature bathing, and emerged behind the bakery, still there, still standing, still operating.

Sasuke tapped on the large glass window cum counter on the front and bought three sets of cream puffs.

“Oh, it’s you,” the old baker greeted. “You brought your friends over? You always buy one set.”

Sasuke offered her a smile, briefly glancing to his periphery where Sakura was fussing with Naruto’s feet, and nodded as he accepted the paper bag. “It’s on the house, kid.”

“You brought us to stalk someone’s house?” Sakura dug in one paper bag, bit the puff in one bite, and with full mouth, she sighed. “This is heaven.”

“It’s our old family house, before the accident that is.” Sasuke also took out one puff and munched on it, ruminating on the sight before him, a two-story house with an imposing façade, his mom’s climbing hydrangea gone and cut by the new owners, beds of roses and daisies already withered, but the wisteria tree on the vacant lot beside continued to grow and shade what he supposed were the children’s rooms. It was in his third bite that he saw the tomato fruits he planted, alive and full with harvest. “Do you think my parents know?”

Naruto slid an arm across his shoulder and grinned sheepishly. “Then they would be happy ghosts or maybe they would voluntarily move away to give the new owners the opportunity to make it a happy a home like yours.

“What part are you gonna miss?” Sakura asked, halfway through her set of puffs.

“The sight of the wisteria before I sleep and after I wake up, and the sunlight in my parents’ room. My dad liked to make these suncatchers for my mom. The play of light was a good morning greeting, she said.”

“What’s your funniest memory?” Naruto sat on the grass, uncaring for the stains that would taint his good pair of pants.

“It was probably Christmas when I was seven, and Itachi had this big idea to bake a cake, but he swapped the sugar for the salt and we were wondering why it wouldn’t make a custard. Our parents still ate it, saying it was a very salty version of dark chocolate cake.”

“It was a good home,” Sakura patted the space between her and Naruto and Sasuke sat down cross-legged too, dipping his hand on the paper bag with the last cream puff.

“It was a good home,” Sasuke agreed as he bit into the last vestige of his family memory. He was suckling the powdered sugar off his fingers when he realized he was already crying, and the two were downright sobbing on his either side.

Such an embarrassing sight to see; he wondered what would the new owners feel if they looked out their windows this instant and saw three teenagers breaking down on the road across. It was honestly stupid and laughable to a point, considering how funny it was for grief to become lighter when someone else cried with him.

Naruto was sniffling so much that he had to offer his handkerchief to him. “I forgot to tell you guys. Hinata confessed to me during the cultural festival.”

“Oh my god. What did you say?” Sakura took a tissue out of her bag and dabbed her eyes. She flashed an apologetic look to Sasuke who already offered his hanky to Naruto’s fluids.

“Ah, what else? I had to reject her.” Naruto sneezed on Sasuke’s handkerchief again. “I told her I was in love with someone else.” He slyly glanced at his raven-haired friend and pursed his lips which Sakura quickly caught.

“Who is it?”

“Sasuke also likes someone.”

“Shut your mouth, blondie. Point is already moot. Besides, we’ve already been rejected.”

“Who are these people and why don’t I know them?” Sakura genuinely looked offended. “I could have vetted them!”

“Exactly why it was fortunate you didn’t meet them,” Sasuke said as an excuse though he pegged Sakura for not being that naïve. She, thankfully, let it go and gathered their trash. She dropped the bomb as she was brushing the grass blades from her trousers. “My parents are divorcing. Such a travesty not to have them show up on graduation day, and I thought I did a great job.”

The two, ever so sure, held onto her hands in case she was trembling again.

“Let’s get that five-star dinner,” Sasuke suggested, “and we need to rent a Mercedes-Benz.”

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Graduation Day

“Let’s welcome to the stage, class valedictorian, Uchiha Sasuke.” Kakashi was the officiating faculty today so she expected difficulty going through the event, but for some reason, he slipped into her mental back burner, no longer taking up room in her active consciousness. That was a good step, she smiled to herself. Her smile became wider as Sasuke got up the stage.

His fans club’s cheers were heard outside the auditorium, and the graduating class chuckled at the quick interruption. He cleared his throat and started his piece.

“Please get it on record that I was coerced to do this speech. Then again, I also had a hand on the turn of events that led me here today, in front of you. And it’s a little too on the nose, but I came to high school with a clear set of goals – have high grades and lead an uninteresting life. I accomplished the first one rather easily, and it’s a good metric for the future that’s upon us right now. Good grades land us good colleges. Good colleges land us good jobs. Good jobs land us good life.

But it’s not the sole benchmark as I have learned lately. You see, my second goal really missed the mark. Good life can also mean good friends, fun experiences, a caring environment, a complete family. If you ticked off each one, then that’s very notable. You have the four-leaf clover, and it’s a rare blessing. I only ticked off three, but that goes without any regret. If you only have one silver lining in your high school memory, then that makes us all the more human. And if there’s none, there is still is still a whole stretch of possibilities we can discover to find one. Thank you for your kind attention.”

Sakura was pretty sure she heard several sniffles across the student body. “The bastard delivered a good speech,” she muttered to herself.

“We would like to welcome our first national MVP, Uzumaki Naruto.”

Outside, the school band played the cheering anthem for his last national games. The cheerleaders also did a routine in tribute to him. That made him well up when he got to the podium.

“Wait oh my god, I’m tearing up so much.”

Sasuke grunted loudly and went back the stage to hand him a handkerchief which Naruto quickly used to wipe his snot.

“Thanks Sasuke. How can Kakashi-sensei let me follow after that rousing speech, and before Sakura too. It’s kinda evil.”

Laughter broke out.

“Well, this one’s a bare minimum. I didn’t have any goals or expectations, unlike genius grumpy over there. I just wanted to live my life like an ordinary boy. Someone said that how you spend your day is how you live your life so I did just that – ate ramen, slept in class because I am a growing kid, and played each arcade game until I won them. I also believe in serendipitous – thanks Sakura for this word, for the spelling and meaning – serendipitous coincidences. I just pitched and batted for former captain Haru one afternoon and now we landed in the national finals. I had loneliness for a friend, but now I’ve got all of you. And you know what else, the magic of working together. We wouldn’t have stepped foot in the nationals if it weren’t for your collective help. When we work towards a common goal, that also gives us common happiness, right? It’s infectious, a bouncing energy that gets thrown around and still makes it one piece. So wherever you will be after this, believe it!”

When Kakashi called her name next, she thought she was deaf, the noise around her collapsed in muted decibels. It took a minute before her fellow classmates shook her and motioned for her to quickly come up the stairs. Her silver-haired teacher looked so concerned in the shadows, but for what it was worth, she was civil and calm enough (at least in the matters concerning him) to nod at him in quiet exchange of assurance.

It was because she saw both of her parents at the side with a bouquet of roses. She struggled with the paper she brought with her although she had it memorized in her head; she even went through it flawlessly for three times last night. Tears blurred the words and the mere shock of the sight of their togetherness disabled her mental function to string coherent thoughts. She also started hyperventilating, her breaths coming faster than what her lungs could pump.

Then she felt Kakashi’s hand on her shoulder, a steady presence, and it reeled her back to reality. He tapped the mic and the feedback echoed. “Ah, Ms. Haruno had some technical issues. Again, let’s welcome former student council president, Sakura.”

Sasuke and Naruto in the front were almost standing, but she flashed them a smile as if to say she was okay now. “Hello, good day to our honorable guests and graduates. I think it’s safe to say that Sasuke and Naruto provided really good words of advice. So I have nothing more to offer, but to share my gratitude. Everyone was saying the student council did a good job in its programs, but it was actually the lot of you who made this possible – from your activity suggestions to participation and feedback. After all, you were the makers of your memories.

Earlier last week, my councilmates and friends reminded me how small actions go a long way – a smile, a wave across the hallway, a short exchange of good morning and see you soon, and I thought, aren’t we all just an accumulation of these small, little things? As such, it was what you think your insignificant moments were that pushed us to deliver you the best. It was the passing comment, the top-of-your-head tips, the interlude stories we hear during lunch breaks that allowed us to give you grand gestures and memories we hoped were worth keeping. And if we could start to use that perspective as well in our lives then maybe the uncertainties of a future wouldn��t be so heavy on us. We will face tomorrow with a lightness in being.

In behalf of the student council, thank you for allowing us to serve you.”

She bowed at a level where her torso was almost aligned at her hips, and she was confused with the lack of reaction. Sakura sighed, mulling over the deficiencies in her speech, but she straightened her back to a sight of a standing ovation and a thundering applause.

Then, she let her tears fall.

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

“Why would you let Kakashi-sensei take the pic?” Sakura hissed at them.

“Just this one time, Sakura!” Naruto grinned.

“Sakura, you’re out of the frame,” Kakashi remarked. “Okay good. Say cheese.”

In spite of her recent heartbreak with him, she permitted herself to bask in fleeting cordiality. “Cheese.”

“Grumpyyyyyy.”

“Idiot blondie.”

Kakashi took three more shots and handed the camera to the trio. He almost turned away when Sakura caught his sleeve.

“Just one more,” she said. “With you.”

Sakura shifted to the front, almost kneeling with the camera angled for a selfie, her two friends beside her looking equally annoyed as the other, and Kakashi behind them, his hands on either head, smiling with his deceptively charming beauty mark.

It was the last picture of their high school life.

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

The three were rushing through the airport crowd fifteen minutes before the immigration closes gates.

“Here!” Sakura slid a folder on the large pocket on Sasuke’s bag. “It includes your passport, your flight details, your valid IDs, your itinerary, and letters from us! Don’t forget our Friday video calls!”

“I can’t see. These tears are bullies,” Naruto said through tears. He was continuously wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

“And If I don’t get on my flight because you made us eat ramen for one last time and the orders took too long, I’m gonna have you cursed by a witch and a shaman!” Sasuke growled. The guards were starting to close the gates when a sobbing Naruto sprinted and basically tackled the guards on the floor.

“Sasuke come on, hurry up!”

“Drink your vitamins! And if you miss cream puffs, I’ll teach you how to make them.” Sakura was trying hard to keep pace with Sasuke’s brisk walking, but she ended up breathless anyway.

The three of them finally reached the immigration entrance, and Naruto was profusely apologizing to the guards for the interruption. Sasuke showed his documents, wheezing as they looked at it. They gave him a thumbs up and opened the gates.

The two were already slumped at the floor, waving without words, and exhausted from the clock race. Sasuke was almost through when he remembered something he forgot. He muttered a quick sorry, ran through the opening, and hugged his two friends.

“I’ll miss you.”

#SCPS #student council president sakura #haruno sakura #uchiha sasuke #uzumaki naruto #hatake kakashi #team 7 #sasusaku #kakasaku #narusaku #fic!pseudolily #fic!pinkhairedlily

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magalidragon · 3 years

Note

I can’t wait for Jon to show up at Dany’s door in we’ll meet once more!!!!!😍

Weeeeell…. 😘😏🤗

He raked his fingers through his hair. He hadn’t tied it back and it was wolffish. Contacts were already out when he called Ygritte and he hadn’t put them back in. His dark frames slid down his nose. He pushed them back up with his wrist and exhaled, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He had no earthly idea what he was wearing, he just hoped he didn’t look too much of a fright. Black t-shirt and jeans and a flannel, he hoped that would be good enough…

Seven hells, I’m nervous as a maid, what the bloody… He mumbled to himself. “Get a grip Snow.”

“Daddy why are you weird?”

“Got me.”

Arry pushed the bell again, but before she could step back, the door flew open backwards, wreath rattling. She threw her hands up. “Dany!”

“Dany!” he blurted.

On the other side of the threshold, in the postage stamp foyer, Dany stood with water staining the front of her gray t-shirt, her silver hair free of its intricate braided style from earlier, only two small ones holding back the remaining silver mass from her face. She also wore a pair of tie-dye black and red yoga leggings and thick socks that appeared hand-knitted.

Her violet eyes widened, surprised to see them. “Oh my…Arry! Jon! What are you…” She laughed. “It’s nine at night!”

“Had to return the poncho,” he said, lamely. He jerked his hand up with the fish, his laugh nervous, high. “And get a fish!”

Rhaego appeared at Dany’s side, in flannel pajamas with dinosaurs printed over them. He squealed, jumping up and down. “Arry! Jon! Hi! Come inside! Come look at my cat Drogon!”

Arry ran ahead without another word, minding only to kick off her shoes and shake off her coat. He glanced up at the sky, a drop of water falling into his forehead. A soft, ominous thunder rumble followed. “Um,” Dany chuckled, stepping away, gesturing. “Come inside. Before the next downpour.”

“Thanks,” he said, hopping inside. He offered the fish. “Peace offering?”

She chuckled, taking the fish. “Thanks. Although I think it’s a bit late for that.”

“Aye sorry, I just wanted…” He had no idea what to say. It was insanity, showing up here as late as it was, with nothing but a fish and a wrinkled plastic poncho. He glanced at Ghost, who sniffed up at Dany politely, sitting calmly beside him. "Uh, this is Ghost...sorry I forgot you had a cat."

She smirked. "Drogon is a bit more than a cat. He can take care of himself."

A huge black and reddish brown ball with four stubby legs came rocketing out of another room, secured its beady yellow eyes on him, and hissed. He turned to Ghost, who wagged his tail and lowered his head, red eyes wide and unblinking. The animal hissed at Ghost and ran off again. Followed by two squealing children, who were way too amped up.

"Um, let me put this guy in a bowl."

"Sure." He toed off his boots, so he didn't track mud around, and unclipped Ghost. He went off in search of the kids, who appeared to have trapped Drogon in the living room, the cat on his cat tower, tail twitching warningly as they tried to coax him down with toys.

#jonerys #my fics #fic tease #nice anon is nice #jonerys au

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miyaniacs · 4 years

Text

Forever - Ushijima Angst

A/N: Sooo i was in the mood to break your hearts - also feel free to hate me in the comments lol or cry together

warnings: angst, mentions of death, suicide, and angst - guys I teared up writing this - and I was having fun writing the atsumu angst so.. .yes.

masterlist

The door closes behind him.

He’s alone now.

All alone.

Looking around the room he can still feel your presence.

Ushijima walks to the kitchen.

Your mug is still on the table with some leftover coffee in it. His eyes move to the fridge and the pink sticky note on it. He walks closer and takes it off the fridge. It was old, you two always forgot to take it off.

“Hey honey, the pasta is all done in the glass form. You just have to heat it up for 30 minutes with 200°. I’ll be home around 9pm. I love you - can’t wait to finally see you again my love.”

Wait.. that noise, could it be?

He turns around and is met with nothing.

He just imagined it. He didn't hear your footsteps on the wooden floor.

How could he.

You’re not here.

Ushijima looks around in the room. He’s lost. Totally lost.

He knows you’re not here, yet he sees you everywhere.

Standing next to him, telling him about your day while you put the past out of the oven. Turning around he’s met with your beautiful smile - then you vanished an appear on the door again, extending your hand for him to grab it. Together you walk to the bedroom.

He can smell your perfume and feels your soft skin on his.

The door is open.

The bed is still messy, two dresses laying on top of it.

He chuckles.

You always change your clothes countless times in the morning just to end up wearing the first outfit you’ve put on. He usually had to sit on the bed and you showed him every outfit choice of the day. It was always hard for him to decide - in his eyes you look beautiful regardless of what you wore. He still remembers your words. “Toshiii baby, I love you and I adore that you’re so supportive - But I look better in red than in yellow - so please don’t tell me to wear yellow and embarrass myself the second I step outside.” After that morning he came back home with a beautiful yellow skirt, the same you wore today, showing you that you in fact look stunning in yellow.

He sits down on the bed and lays down.

Turning to his right side, he sees your bare back and your (haircolor) hair. He moves closer and puts his arm over your waist. His face nuzzled in your hair, Ushijima inhales your smell and closes his eyes.

Since the first time he saw your, your smell hypnotised him. The smell reminds him of home. It always calmed him down, brought him back to reality.

A soft miau is heard from the end of the bed.

He sits up again and sees Teddy. The golden brown cat looks at him with his big golden eyes. Ushijima smiles.

He’s more of a dog person and would have never thought he’d fall in love with a cat, yet the second he saw how your eyes sparkled when you came home one day, with a small baby Teddy in your arms, he fell in love with the cat, because it reminded him of that moment. Your sparkling eyes, the big smile on your face, you whole aura was bright and warm as the sun.

You named him Teddy, since he remind you of Ushijima and you always jokingly called him your big Teddybear.

Teddy jumps off the bed and waits for Ushijima at the door.

With a sigh he gets up and follows the cat to the kitchen.

Just to be met with the sight of you again.

You’re wearing one of his jerseys, hair in a bun and your fluffy socks on.

Bending down you take Teddy up in your arms and hide your face in his fluffy fur. Teddy purrs and you laugh. Turning around you walk towards the kitchen again.

Teddy jumps off your arms and you take the coffee mug in your hands, looking directly at Ushijima.

Then you vanish again.

And he’s all alone.

The mask he wore since he arrived at the hospital finally breaks.

His eyes start to burn, his lips shake.

He sinks down on his knees and the tears start streaming down his face.

Why.

That’s the only word that consumes his thoughts.

Why was his flight delayed?

If it wasn’t you would have left the house earlier.

Why was this person drunk?

Why did he decided to drive while being drunk.

Why haven’t he see the red light?

Why haven’t he saw you crossing the street?

Why haven’t he stopped the car?

Now you’re gone.

Gone forever.

Ushijima longed to see your face again, to hear your voice again, to feel your body in his arms.

You two planned to go to that cute Cafe you recently found, that had, so you said: “The best muffins ever!”

He was excited to finally see you again after a week of having to leave you due to some games in a different country.

Why did he leave you in the first place?

Those games were just for practice.

They weren’t worth it.

Nothing would be worth loosing you.

Ushijima lays on the floor, the mug you used right before leaving the house today, in his hands.

His eyes are red and puffy.

There are no tears left to cry, yet he’s still crying.

Crying over the loss of his true love.

How could he live without you now?

The answer is he can’t.

So he gets up and walks back into the bathroom.

His steps are heavy, his vision is still blurry, but he has a one last thing to do.

He swallows all the pills in his hand with some water out of your mug.

Slowly Ushijima walks back to the bedroom and falls down on the bed. His breath is heavy, his movements slow.

He takes a small box out of his pockets and opens it, revealing a beautiful ring. The ring his grandmother gave him. She told him to save it for that one special person. That one person that took away his breath the second he laid his eyes on them. The person that makes him feel all warm and fuzzy, that makes him smile simply by thinking about them. The person that supports him, yet calls him out on his bullshit. The person that simply wants the best and only the best for him. The person, who makes him feel home.

Blinking a few times the ghost of you appears again.

“I planned to ask you tonight. To ask you if you’d be mine, if you want to grow old together with me, if you want to marry me.” His voice isn’t more than a whisper.

You smile and nod.

Ushijima starts tearing up again and he feels your lips on his. Even though his body get colder with every second that passes, he feels warm. He feels as if the sun shines on him. As if the sun shines only for him.

“Forever.” He hears your voice and feels your body laying on his chest. His arms wrap around you, pulling you closer one last time.

“I love you my big Teddybear.”

He’s walking over a field, the sun shines.

With every step he gets closer to you

Your yellow skirt shines brightly, the sun illuminates your soft skin.

And then he finally reaches you.

“Toshi, you’re here.” You smile and place your hands on his chest.

“Yes my love I’m here. Here with you.”

With the biggest smile on his face he closes his eyes one last time.

Both of his hands lay on his chest, as if he is still holding something or someone. The box with the ring slowly falls down his chest, to the right side of the bed. The side you used to lay on.

Teddy jumps up on the bed and rubs his face on Ushijimas.

He miaus and nudges him.

He tries to get him to move, over and over again.

But he is long gone.

@shhhlikeme @kageyamasbraincell hope you two aren't crying ✌🏼

#haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x y/n #haikyuu angst #ushijima x reader #Ushijima angst #ushijima headcanons #hq headcanons #hq ushijima

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spaceiez · 3 years

Link

Chapters: 2/?

Fandom: Gravity Falls Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bill Cipher/Dipper Pines Characters: Dipper Pines, Bill Cipher, Mabel Pines Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Older Dipper Pines, Older Mabel Pines, Human Bill Cipher, Alcohol, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change Summary:

Sophomore year of college and Dipper is ready for new adventures! But, when there is an unexpected dorm room change, Dipper must face a new challenge, a (crazy?) roommate named Bill Cipher.

Chapter One: Illnnzgv Xszmtv

Dipper felt his lips curve into a smile as he set one of his suitcases into the bright blue college moving cart. He stood back up and slid out a plastic bin, filled with bedsheets, blankets, a mattress pad, and his pillow, out of the car trunk. He plopped it into the moving cart with his black suitcase. The young man glanced up, smiling wider as he took in the large campus around him. Dipper could feel both the excitement of being back at college and the anticipation of starting a new year with new classes rising in his chest.

His pine tree trucker cap was suddenly shoved down in front of his line of sight, which jolted him from his thoughts, “Hey!” He whined, fixing the hat back to its proper place and brushing the hair from his eyes.

His twin sister grinned at him, giggling at his reaction, “Sorry, couldn’t help it bro. I have to let my energy and excitement out somehow!” She poked his arm as she danced around him.

Dipper laughed, “Okay, okay, how about you direct that energy into unloading your stuff from the car?”

Mabel patted Dipper’s shoulder thoughtfully, “Check-in isn’t for another five minutes, I got plenty of time.”

“You have four large bins, a mini-fridge, one suitcase full of sweaters, two suitcases full of other clothes, and another with dorm decorations,” he raised his eyebrow, “And...I’m pretty sure you have a duffle bag full of just gummy candy.”

Mabel shrugged, “Gummy koalas supply more energy.” Despite her words, she did start unloading her college bags into her moving cart, occasionally plopping a gummy candy into her mouth. Mabel pulled out a bag of stickers from her suitcase and smacked a glittery rainbow on one of Dipper's plastic bins, "BAP! Now your bin is stylish!"

"It's already stylish," Dipper smiled as he pointed to his bin. It already had a 'California' and 'film student' sticker on it. He shook his head and continued to unload his bags.

It was their second year in college at a well-known university in Los Angeles. The twins had always wanted to attend college there and as fate had it they were both accepted. They were also thrilled that they could experience college together as they had with middle and high school. Sometimes having your sibling around during new adventures was better than any best friend or significant other. Mabel was a second-year fashion and design student while Dipper was majoring in film and media studies. The kid dreamed of starting some kind of ghost hunting show or something that covered the supernatural. After spending their summers in Gravity Falls, where they were constantly exposed to the supernatural, Dipper became obsessed.

Dipper waved his hand towards his face as he began to sweat, “Gosh, why did our move-in date have to be one of the hottest days of the year?”

Mabel nodded, thankfully she had a loose, white cropped tank top on. It definitely helped with the heat. “Global warming. It’ll only get worse.” She frowned sourly, carefully setting her sweater suitcase in the cart.

Dipper nodded and handed her the car keys, “Hey, lock the car once you’ve got everything in your cart. I’m going to check into my dorm and start unpacking. I’ll say hi to Nick for you.” Dipper smiled at her and she responded with a salute.

Nick was a close friend from Dipper’s friend group he joined last year. They had similar majors and enjoyed many of the same tv shows, hobbies, and books so they decided to room together this year despite the common belief that ‘friendships get ruined that way'. There wasn’t really anyone else to live with anyway. And random roommates were a hit or miss.

As Dipper pushed his cart along the path to the dorm he happily took in the view around him. The college was pretty gorgeous with its Greek-like yet modern-style buildings. The pathways that led to the halls and dorms were surrounded by open green spaces. Most students liked to study there or just relax with friends. The large trees were also a nice touch. Dipper inhaled deeply; it reminded him of Oregon.

He came up to a long, modern-looking building that was around five stories tall. Vines crawled up the sides of the walls and some trees stood around the perimeter. ‘Smith’ was etched on the entrance. The brunette smiled up at it and proceeded to walk inside. Thankfully a gust of AC greeted him, much better than the outside heat. A young woman, either Dipper’s age or a year older, hurried over to him with a wide smile. She had highlighted brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and long eyelashes. The woman wore a blue shirt with loud yellow words, reading ‘Student Coordinator Team’ and carried a clipboard, probably full of welcome sheets or something of that matter.

“Hello there! I’m Annie, a student coordinator, here to help you with move-in! Can I get your last name?”

Smiling politely, Dipper nodded, “Pines. Dipper Pines. Thanks, but I already know I’m in room 128 with Nick Shasta.”

The young woman flipped through the papers attached to her clipboard, soon stopping and squinting at one of the pages, “Ohh.” She sighed through her nose, “I’m really sorry, but there were some issues with roommates and dorms and Housing had to make some last minute changes.”

Dipper blinked twice, his stomach flipping, “What? Changes? Why?”

She shrugged, “They were last minute, but you are now in room 918.” She glanced at her paper as if she needed to double-check, then Annie nodded. She handed him a keycard from a box that sat on the front desk. Dipper stuttered, “I don’t get it, why was my room changed? Does Nick know? Can I change back?”

She looked over Dipper’s face, which was already red from the heat, but now more so from the unexpected news. "You can email Housing Services, I’m sure they can help explain this better than me. I’m sorry.” She gave him an apologetic look.

Dipper pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Okay, thanks. I guess. I’ll email them. Thanks.” He sucked at his lower lip, quickly pushing his moving cart past the girl and to the elevators, his head spinning.

Why a last-second change? Was Nick aware? The elevator doors opened and Dipper pulled the cart inside as he went through various scenarios in his head. His anxiety made it hard to process the situation. When the doors opened he arrived at the fifth floor. Dipper licked his dry lips and sighed. Just email Housing, text Nick. No big deal. No big deal.

Students lined the hall with their parents, unpacking their things and getting settled into their dorms. Others were chatting with friends, looks of giddy excitement on their faces. Some were crying and hugging their parents. 916...917...918. Dipper closed his eyes, trying to calm his racing mind before he met the person behind the door. Once the thoughts were as quiet as they were going to get, Dipper unlocked the door with his key car and pulled his cart inside.

The door shut behind him, closing Dipper off from the hallway. The room was larger than an average dorm room, having two twin-sized beds, two desks, two dressers, two large closets near the door, and room for a tiny kitchen area. Although one had to bring a microwave and mini-fridge. There was nice cupboard space which was a plus.

One side of the room was already set up. The twin bed was decorated in soft grey sheets, a fluffy black pillow, and a white comforter that sported yellow triangles. There were pictures hung over the wall above the bed. Some were of a group of friends and others were of odd subjects, like a random fork or tree.

Dipper turned his attention to the kitchen area. The individual had brought a mini-fridge and had decorated it in more triangles and other geometric shapes, this time the shapes were multiple different colors that formed a messy rainbow across the stainless steel door. On the person’s desk was a computer as well as a weird-looking plant, and a jar of…

“The fuck…” Dipper mumbled slowly, squinting to see if he was viewing the objects in the jar correctly.

Teeth. Different sizes and types of teeth filled the mason jar. Dipper blinked slowly, what the hell? He plopped down on the bare mattress on his side of the room and continued to observe the other side of the room as if it was a specimen itself. It wasn’t very messy, but there was an open box of Oreos and a can of beer on the dresser. Colored lights lined the sides of the ceiling and were flashing different colors. It was quite obnoxious actually.

Dipper groaned. Hopefully, he could move in with Nick after he sent an email to Housing because the person who lived on the other side of this dorm room was a freak. A freak who collected deer teeth and probably got drunk every night.

The dorm room door suddenly swung open and a young man lazily leaned against the doorframe as he looked over Dipper, a strange glint in his eyes. The man had different tones and layers of blonde hair, which caused it to be fluffy and stick out in random places. The freckles across his cheeks and shoulders complimented his sun-kissed skin nicely. His eyes were two different colors, one being a soft golden and the other a bright blue. Dipper didn’t have much time to take that in, because his already-stressed brain was focused on other key aspects about this guy. For one, he was wearing nothing but black shorts, not even shoes or socks. The second was that he had some nice abs. Shit, they were really nice abs. And the third, he held another jar of...something...in his hands

“I lost this bad boy in my car,” he wiggled the jar and whatever was in the inside bobbed around within the liquid solution, “took me ten minutes to find it. It was so hot outside, thought they might melt or something. Hell, I could have melted. Damn heat!” He laughed loudly which made Dipper flinch. The young man waved his hand in front of his face to cool off, “Bill Cipher by the way.”

A second later, the blonde tossed Dipper the jar. Dipper’s reflexes kicked in and he caught it in his hands, fumbling a little. He stared down at the jar to see what was inside and what was inside...stared back. The jar was full of real eyeballs.

Dipper shrieked.

#AO3 #Billdip #bill cipher #dipper pines #mabel pines #fanfic #fanfiction #gravity falls #gravity falls fanfiction #atwr #and they were roommates #college au

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a-crash-in-time-collection · 3 years

Text

Chapter 1: The Crash

She was floating in space. Only it didn't seem like normal space, which she knew all about. It seemed to shine with different colors. She couldn't move much, it was almost as if she was forced into her current position. Voices of old filled her head. Voices she wanted to remember. Voices she never wants to forget. But at the same time, the voices brought back memories of a different time. A different time...

"Us kids should stick together, not stalk one another. I mean, Mafia Town can be a really dangerous place" "If you want it, we'll have to settle it in true Mafia style!" "You Moon Penguins are just gonna write some loud, noisy drivel!" "This last time piece is all for me, darling." "Your contract has expired, sleep now in the fire!" "And do it quickly pup."

Her face formed a smile, before tears started to fall. Wait... why was she...

"Don't leave us!" "Hey kiddo, let's make another contract!" "Don't you dare leave, lass!" "Let's watch our movie, darling!"

That's why... she couldn't have just stayed. She at least needed to try and get home. And her kind weren't keen on creatures from other planets... who knows what would have happened to them? But with the end result, did it even matter-

A large ringing brought her out of the space-like place, finding herself sitting on the soft surface of her bed. Glancing around as she stopped the ringing of the clock, everything was in place. Her relics on their podiums, toys she made based on her time on that planet on the shelves in her room. Most of her badges she bought from the strange badge guy on a pin board beside her bed. Her umbrella was next to her dresser with the mirror.

A glance out the nearby window showed the mostly green and blue planet. It reminded her a lot of the planet that she could now only visit in her dreams. Unlike that planet, there was little if any magic. Talking animal creatures were only heard of in movies. Ghosts were just tall tales. So similar, yet different at the same time...

She got up, yawning as she stretched and walked over to her closet. Opening it, she grabbed a purple blazer and yellow scarf. She paused, looking at them both slightly. The blazer was taller than she used to be, when she first found herself crashed on the planet...

She remembered checking the vault as she passed by, only one time piece was left. She knew that wouldn't be enough to make it home, and she didn't know if she would pass another planet she could survive on in between them. So she grabbed it, and braced for impact. The ship crashed on 'Earth' in the middle of the night, and looking back on it now, she was lucky no big place caught sight of her. She remembered bleeding, maybe having a broken or fractured bone with the sharp pain coming from the left side of her body. She found herself being too hurt to move on her own right away... it was possible that she would have died...

But then two people entered her vision as she picked herself up. Both wore hats like she did, one of them actually had two. Apparently the two hat man, Reginald, had seen the ship pass in front of his airship while it fell from the sky. The two were naturally confused on why she was there, and concerned if she was alright. She remembered them offering to take her to the airship's medbay, but she was more worried about her relics, which were not the only things she had of her time with her old friends. The one with his orange hair in a ponytail that hung over his shoulder, who called himself 'Right Hand Man', offered to do it for her. However, she took liberty and carried them all herself to the airship. Needless to say, the two were surprised by the child's strength.

She now called these two 'Dad' and 'Papa', and they called her their daughter.

She allowed herself to exit her thoughts as she pulled her brown shoes over her purple socks and pants, standing up and walking over to the door of her room. It was a new day.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up." An energetic voice spoke as soon as she opened the door. She was met with a more-humanoid Topbot, with a face that smiled at her, and silver hair that helped make them seem more like a teenager. He wore a blue and orange jacket, with the faintest hint of a green shirt being seen, and dark dull indigo pants that ended in his metal shoes that were literally his feet.

A few years ago, Hat Girl had found herself more lonely. Her dads, while they made time for her, were often busy at work. Most of the younger kids aboard the airship didn't let her play too often, and the teenagers were often on training missions or just plain avoided her. In an attempt to give her someone to hang out with, Reginald took aside a random Topbot, redesign and reprogrammed it to act as a brother to Hat Girl. He spent so long and hard on it that it felt like part of his soul belong to the machine in the end. Which could possibly explained how Platinum wasn't just following an interactive script, but was fully self aware and alive. He did have a small panic attack at first due to the sudden self awareness, but soon after he was able to cause trouble with Hat Kid.

"You ready for today, brother of mine?" Hat Girl asked, a smile forming on her face.

"Uhh, yeah." He said, a smirk forming on his face as well.

"Good, we can get started on our prank plans after breakfast." She stated, passing him and walking down the hall, humming a slight tune as she glanced out at the seemingly-night sky.

"Aww, come on!" Platinum said, racing next to her quickly, rolling his bright orange eyes. "You always have to eat before we can have fun. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Brother." She said, sticking her tongue out playfully. She never fully grew out of her childish phase. "I pity you sometimes, food is great and you're unable to experience it."

"Please. I got my Tanks and Family, that's all I need." Platinum replied, rolling his eyes as the two walked into the cafeteria area, which was currently a bit busy as you would expect from it early in the morning. "I honestly don't see why your body decides you need food. Just seems inconvenient in my option."

Hat Girl shook her head slightly with a chuckle as she walked over to the sideboard, where Burt and Fredrick were talking.

"I'm starting to get concerned over your coffee obsession, Burt." The Cheese wearing Toppat said, arms crossed as he glared at the man in front of him. The man always sounded like his throat was sore, at least to Hat Girl it did. She remembered questioning if he was alright when they first met.

"Coffee is nice, Fredrick." Burt said, the dyed orange part of his black hair covering one of his eyes, as per the usual. He always seemed to act like he had no emotions, and spent most of his days in his office or grabbing himself the drink that was currently the topic of their talk. "The fact that you never tried coffee worries me."

"I'm more of a Hot chocolate person, and besides, the smell alone is enough to turn me off." Fredrick stated, grabbing the lake of floating marshmallows in a cup along with the plate of 'Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Bombs' he liked. "But I know all that coffee isn't healthy for you, I swear you drink more coffee then you eat actual food."

Burt rolled his eyes at the statement, before glancing around the area as he grabbed his coffee and toast. "Fine. I'll eat a little more today." With that, temporarily balancing his plate on his other arm, he grabbed one of the muffin-like items off Fredrick's plate and walked away.

Fredrick was frozen in shock for a few seconds, before huffing and glancing to the side. It was only then he realized the children of the leaders. "Oh, sorry you two, I didn't see you there. Off going to cause some trouble later I assume?"

"Possibly, possibly not." Platinum shrugged as Hat Girl chuckled, before giving her breakfast request to the cook-toppat that came by.

"I'll be taking that as a yes." Fredrick said, shaking his head. "Just uhh, do me a favor and don't go on a spree of spray-painting the inside of the vents, again. Took me and Sammy nearly the whole day to clean it last time."

"Alright, no spray paint in vents..." Platinum said, raising his arms in front of him slightly in defeat. He watched as Frederick left, before turning to his sister. "Want to finally see how many people we can surprise with airhorns tape to their chairs and doors?"

"Oh heck yeah!" Hat Girl said, giving her brother a thumbs up. And the Toppats that heard her shout began to feel a faint feeling of fear among them. They knew then that chaos caused by those two would come later that day.

-------

What they didn't know was on earth, a conversation was happening. About the true chaos.

"You sure this is... safe?" One government person asked another as they glanced at the cannon. Although cannon felt like an understatement. The place where the 'cannonball' would come out of look like it itself was 27 miles long. "For Earth I mean."

"Should be." The other replied, hoping away from the gears they were adjusting. "The material should begin to burn up after it makes contact with the toppat orbital station. The worst we should have to deal with are burning pieces of metal and stuff falling down to earth in the size of normal meteoroids."

"Am I the only one who feels this is a bit... extreme?" The first asked as they hop into the tunnel to the underground control system of the cannon. "I understand they've been a pain to deal with since they got up, but can't we just set up traps for them on earth."

"It's not just about the Toppats alone." The second stated as they followed the first, wanting to be as far away from the cannon before it blew its canon ball. "If other criminal organizations see what the clan has done, they'll likely follow in suit. Soon all crime might be unstoppable because those who caused it are up in space. Is that the world you want to live in?"

"No."

"Then we need to make a statement. And this is the only way. Now let's get to the control room, and get this party started..."

-------

Hat Girl had found herself staring out the cafeteria window as she finished her plate of breakfast, slightly blocking out what Platinum was talking about as he sat in front of her. This was a bit normal for the two, half the time they were inseparable during the day. Especially since the incident where Dad was captured, and Papa had to be turned into a cyborg to live. It was a bit of a struggle for the clan then, and even with Dad back it was a lot of work to make up all the money that had been stolen the night before they were meant to launch their station-

Her train of thought stopped as she faintly spotted something outside the window. She got off her seat and walked over to the window, placing her hand on it faintly as she glanced down at the planet they raided. There was some sort of... gray and slightly green ball thing. At first it was just a speck of dust, but it was getting bigger.. and bigger... it was coming to them, faster and faster.

"Hattie?" Platinum questioned, walking up next to his sister in confusion. "What's going on, you don't just leave a plate of food alone suddenly like that." She was a bit wordless at first, but managed to point to the strange thing. Platinum had to squint his eyes to see it. "That's... just a space rock."

"Coming FROM Earth?" Hat Girl asked, looking at her brother. "As a former space traveler, I have NEVER seen that happen, and I know that's not a normal occurrence for this planet. And not to mention it's perfectly... in the path of.. hitting... Get Dad and Papa and warn them, NOW!"

"Time to act serious for once then." The topbot said, quickly racing away from his sister and the group of toppats.

She glanced at the ball again, seeing it was getting closer and larger with each passing second. She found herself frozen like the poor souls in Vanessa's Manor, or the times she used her ice hat years ago. What was she going to do?

"Dad, Pops!" Platinum called as he reached the Cockpit of the rocket, taking an unneeded breath as he reached the door.

"Platinum?" Reginald asked, turning away from his cyborg husband as he glanced at his Robotic son. "What's going-"

"We need to move, or use Supreme Dominance." Platinum cut him off, with worry in fear shining in his orange eyes. "Now-"

At the very seconds, the 'cannonball' of metal and small bits of trash collided with the orbital station, hitting the middle of the rocket.

Hat Girl fell to her feet as the station twisted and chaos fell around her. Everything outside the window became a blur, as Toppats screamed in panic. She suddenly found her grip from the wall she'd grabbed onto slip, and she was slammed against another wall. Everything went black to her after that.

-------

It took a bit for her mind to process things as she awake, her body aching in places like she had a faint sunburn. She slowly opened her eyes with a groan, scanning the mix of dark and light. She appeared to be where the window of the cafeteria once was. Keyword there being once was because now it was a pile of glass on the grass below her. Some of the glass were close to her arms, and likely was responsible for the small cuts she saw on them. She glanced around as much as she could without getting up.

Chaos was the best word that could describe the current state of the station. Well, other then 'destroyed'. Parts of the orbital station the Toppats called home where broken and scattered across what she could only assume was a forest clearing. The earth was dragged up from a few parts finding themselves lodge into it. She was able to see a few Toppat members getting up or helping others up, while trying to take in what had just happened. Not like she could blame them, she knew exactly what happened, but was still trying to process it herself.

Their home was attacked, and was sent far from earth. Yet, judging by the fact none of them were suffocating, it meant this planet had oxygen or some other air humans could breathe in. Which made sense, they did land in a forest. But that meant they were out of the solar system...

Her train of thought was cut off by a sliver of a blur that entered her field of vision. At first she was a bit spooked out, until her vision adjusted, and she saw the familiar metal hand, only with a few faints scratches. She took the cold hand, although by now she was used to the chill, as Platinum helped her to her feet. "You ok, sis?"

"Y-Yeah." She said, letting go of his hand as she rubbed her arms slightly. She picked up her nearby fallen top hat, and made sure to check the side. She sighed in relief as her hand made badge, one that had the hats of her fathers on it, was still there, and placed that hat back on her head. "Some shards of glass cut me a bit when the window broke."

"Well... considering what just happened, it could have been a lot worse." Platinum looked around. "This is all so unreal..."

"Yeah..." She slowly walked past her brother as she glanced up at the sky, then around at all the greenery around them. Why... was she feeling like she had been here before? Her mind told her it was simply because it looked like earth, but her heart was insisting it was something more.

"Oi. Are ya ok, Reg?" Right Hand Man asked, as he helped the Chief onto his feet, worry in his human and robotic eyes.

"I'm fine. But... the others..." Reginald coughed slightly, before looking around the crash site, as much as he could without moving from his spot anyway.

As the leader of the Toppats, one skill he gained over the years was being somewhat-able to get a rough estimation of how many clan members were in his sight. And after seeing at least 100 Toppats in his vision, he knew others were likely on the other side of the rocket. Assuming at least 88 toppats were on that other side, it meant that a few were still stuck inside, likely injured or, worryingly, dead. Not to mention the children...

"Right Hand Man! Check the rumble for any trapped members!" He ordered, his voice and tone clear that there was no time to waste. He was still not fully used to his lover's cybernetics, watching his legs turn into a booster as he flew into one of the openings near the top. But he loved him all the same. He glanced at a nearby group of Toppats. "See if you can find anything from Medbay, and get it setup for any injured members!" The toppats seemed to be slightly surprised by his tone, but they quickly got to work, scanning the nearby areas.

"Sir." A voice appeared behind him. He turned around to see a man in a black jacket with his white shirt visible. "I know you likely don't want anyone else going into the wreckage, but-"

"Yes Quincy, go find the kids. Just be careful." Reginald answered, the fellow father wasting no time to do so in response, likely worried for his own daughter. The kids were in a pod similar to the leader's pod, it was one of the first things Reginald planned out when he made the blueprints. They would spend most of their days in there, it was the safest for them, especially if the place was to below up, they would already be in a pod and on their way to earth.

Hat Girl found herself walking near the nearby Woodline. That's when she noticed the traces of purple deeper down, and found herself frozen in realization.

Reginald noticed his daughter near the Woodline, and walked up to her. "Are you alright, Hattie?"

"I recognized this place." She said, looking at him. "I been here before."

Reginald's brown and blue eyes showed sudden confusion, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly. "You... what?"

"This was the planet I was on before I crashed onto earth." She responded. She then pointed out where the green of life and calmness turned into the creepy purple and black of dread and the unknown to all but her. "That ghost who's song Papa sings lives there."

"Really, the one with that Mafia, one of which went into space to try and get a toll from you?" Reginald question. He never thought his daughter was lying about the planet, but he figured he never find himself on said planet so he mostly just consider it stories.

"Yeah!" She exclaimed, childlike joy in her voice. She never really outgrew her childish side.

"Well... I suppose that means there's a town nearby, at least We should be able to get resources there." Reginald sighed, turning over his shoulder as Right Hand Man landed behind him. A look over the cyborg's shoulder showed some toppats in a little medbay-like area, some medically skilled Toppats using their skills to help the more injured Toppats, the 3rd in command Sven among them. He looked back at his partner in crime. "Was that everyone... alive in the rumble."

"Got everyone t'at was in t'e rubble." Right Hand Man stated. "Surprisingly, everyone lived."

Reginald was a bit surprised at this, but a smile formed on his face. "That's very relieving."

"So... what's the plan Dad?" Platinum asked, glancing at the Toppat leader slightly. "We can't just stay here with no place to rest, or prepare food." He paused for a second. "Well, you guys can't, at least."

Reginald brought his hand to his chin in thought, before dropping it and walking up a nearby rock. He cleared his throat, before calling out. "Can I have everyone's attention!?"

The clan members stopped whatever they were doing, except the few tending to the hurt Toppats, but he knew they were listening as well.

He took a breath before speaking. "As your Leader, I would be lying to you all if I were to claim I knew how to fix this, or the exact steps we should take next. We are the first of our kind to find ourselves stranded on a planet that can maintain life. But we cannot let this disturb us. It may be a long while, but I promise you, we will find our way home. But for now, survival is our goal, to watch after one-another, as clan and family." He paused briefly as he glanced at them all, lost souls unsure of what to do, before resuming. "Those of you who are well enough, see if you can move the walls detached from the station in order to make a temporary form of shelter. We do not know when a storm will come by, if this planet has storms at all. Look for supplies that fallen outside of the ship, only go in to retrieve items that are necessary for our survival. Go along the Woodline and look for wood for a fire. And trust in one another." With that, he backed up from his position on the rock.

Platinum watched as the clan members took a few seconds to process the orders, and the fact they were on another planet, before most started to look around. He spotted Burt and Fredrick walking up to a broken piece of wall, and seemed to start debating where the best place would go to serve as shelter. He saw Calla Fox, the one who stole the Ruby alongside Sven, slowly walk away from the Swedish man to help others look for supplies. He found himself glancing to where the purple part of the woods were hidden, his curiosity growing.

Reginald began to walk over to the wreckage that a few hours ago was the base of operations for the Toppat clan. "Hopefully we stolen enough we can sell in order to pay for what we need to fix the station..." He placed his head in his hands. "It's going to be so expensive..." He let out a muffle shout, not wishing to distract his clan members.

"Still t'ink ya s'ould 'ave let me 'unt after t'at pink-'aired government-kissin' t'ief." Right Hand Man grumbled, glancing at him. "Especially since we lost two members t'anks ta 'im."

Hat Girl watched her dads walked closer to the broken station, and went to follow them to help, before feeling a chilly hand grabbed her hand. "You said one of your friends lived in the creepy woods, right?"

She turned to look behind her, taking a second to glance at where the woods were before returning to her brother. "Yeah."

"And the creepy woods is in the direction of that purple stuff, riiiight?" Platinum voice showed intent, and seems to show he already knew the answer.

"Yea, The forest is kinda pretty in it's own way though, if memory serves me right-" She suddenly looked at him, processing the grin that appeared on his face. In response, she gave her own smart smirk. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We sneak away from the clan while they take care of the crash rocket mess and chill with your old pals?"

"YES!" She said, high fiving her brother as she bounced in the air slightly. "I been wanting to see them all again, but never thought I actually could until now! I just... hope they aren't still mad at me for sweeping them off of my spaceship."

"Come on, with your cute face as a child, and you still a bit childish face now?" Platinum asked, warping an arm around her shoulder. "They'll forgive you in a heartbeat."

She nodded, a smile on her face as removed her brother's arm around her shoulder. "Catch me if you can then, brother." She said, sticking out her tongue with a 'bleeh" and raced into the woods. She heard a shout from her brother, something about 'cheating' by 'not telling him' and heard his metal feet click ageist the ground to catch up to her. She let out a giggle before shouting once they were a safe distance away from the clan. "Snatcher, here we come!"

#a hat in time #the henry stickmin collection #crossover #ahit fanfic #thsc fanfic #fanfiction #hat kid #hat girl #topbot #henry stickmin oc #reginald copperbottom #right hand man #copperright #fredrick muenster #burt curtis #sven svensson #quincy tattlemuffin

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ahatintimestorybook · 3 years

Text

A Royal Problem Epilogue

Here it is! The last chapter!!!

Enjoy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the years passed, Subcon started to slowly thrive as a living village again. Houses were back up, and some people or birds have been living in the newly developed town. The snow leading to the manor has melted and flowers and grass have started to grow. However, due to their past with the manor, Snatcher and Vanessa decided it was best not to live in the manor. Instead living in a new home, which was Snatcher’s tree now made to be more livelier and bigger for the two of them to live.

As for the manor, it turned into the home for Mu. Hat Kid decided to park her ship next to the manor and turned it into her own house, but she did travel with it when her planet needed her. Though as the years went on, Hat Kid started to come to Subcon less and less; she had missions to do, a boyfriend, who she soon married, and started to have a family of her own.

It has now been 15 years and Snatcher and Vanessa went over to the manor to see Mu before she left on her own journey. “Hello.” Snatcher spoke up. Mu paused in packing and smiled to see Snatcher and Vanessa outside her door.

Mu looked different the past 15 years, her hair was shorter, she still kept her mustache and wore a red dress with gold and purple patterns on it.

“Hey.” Mu replied.

Snatcher and Vanessa came in, and the two were wearing the capes Mu gave them during their visit to Mafia Town. “Could we come in?” Snatcher asked. Mu nodded and the two ghosts came in to see a backpack filled with important stuff for her journey. “You seemed prepared.” He chuckled.

Mu chuckled back. “Yeah.” She replied. The mustached lady looked down as she rubbed her arm.

“Are you okay?” Vanessa asked.

The mustached lady looked up at the ghost, giving them a tearful smile before giving them a hug. “Thank you! For everything.” She tearfully said.

Snatcher and Vanessa were surprised and hugged the young lady back. “Mu, you and Hat did so much for us.” Vanessa started. “We should be thanking you for helping us rebuild Subcon.”

“And, for taking care of us during the whole Time Piece thing.” Snatcher added.

Mu chuckled as she let go of the ghost, and wiped the tears from her face. “Gosh,” She sniffled. “I shouldn’t be crying over this.” Snatcher and Vanessa chuckled over it. Once Mu wiped the tears off her face she smiled and grabbed her bag ready to go on her journey.

“You're not going to leave without saying goodbye to me. Aren’t ya Mu?” A voice asked. Mu, Vanessa and Snatcher looked up and saw it was Hat Kid, well, Hat Adult standing outside of the room.

Hat Adult wore a purple wool blazer with gold buttons and replaced her cape with a yellow scarf. She wore a more fancy purple hat rather than her purple top hat she always wore, and like Mu’s her hair was much shorter and tied into a ponytail.

Mu giggled and ran to her best friend giving her a hug. “You know I wasn’t.” Mu replied. The two girls shared a laugh as the two hugged each other for a while.

“What about us, Auntie Mu?” A young girl, Hat Adult’s daughter asked.

Mu let go of the hug and saw two young kids next to Hat Kid. The girl looked to be 5 years old and had long black hair, styled almost like Hat Adult’s when she was a child. Had Hat Adult’s bright blue eyes and wore a purple blouse with a dark purple skirt, neon yellow socks and black boots.

The other child was a 3-year old boy, who surprisingly looked like Snatcher when he was a Prince, only his hair was the same color as Hat Adult’s, had his mother’s blue eyes, and wore a red T-shirt with a star on it, brown shorts, and brown boots like his mother wore when she was a child.

During those 15 years, Hat Adult found love and got married and had two children. Her daughter was named Nessie, and her son was named Luka.

Mu giggled and hugged the two kids tight, which made them giggle. “You know I wouldn’t forget you two, kiddos.” She told them. Mu let go of the two kiddos and grabbed her bag ready to go on her trip. “Take good care of your mom, Snatcher and Vanessa, okay?”

“Promise!” Nessie replied with a beaming smile. Mu smiled and ruffled the young girl’s head. “Hey!” She laughed.

Mu smirked, before chuckling herself. She then kneeled down to Luka, who looked nervous, and gave him a warm smile. “You’ll come back. Wight?” Luka asked, scared he wouldn’t see his favorite auntie again.

Mu ruffled his head gently. “I promise I will. In fact I’ll get you guys gifts when I’ll be back.” She promised. Hat Adult’s two kid’s eyes widen in amazement knowing they’ll be getting gifts soon.

Hat Adult looked at her best friend. “Just don’t go overboard like you did for Nessie’s birthday.” She begged.

“I won’t.” Mu told her, though the wink she gave to the kids was enough to tell them she’ll be giving them a ton of gifts, but not too much. The kids giggled, as Hat Adult rolled her eyes knowing Mu hasn’t changed even as an adult. Mu gave a soft chuckle before grabbing her bag and, giving one more look at her friends before leaving the manor to go on her trip.

Once she was gone, the Adult was able to sigh and look at her ghostly BFF’s. “I hope she doesn’t put herself into trouble like before.”

Snatcher and Vanessa laughed, agreeing with her. “Relax, kiddo.” Snatcher replied, still calling Hat that nickname even though she’s no longer a kid. “She’s grown up just enough that she’ll never fall back on her old habits.”

Hat Adult gave another sigh and smiled knowing Snatcher was right. Soon Hat Adult heard a beep coming from her phone. She answered, “hello?” She then smiled hearing who it was on the other end. “Hi Bow!” No one could hear what Bow was telling Hat on the other end of the phone, but seeing Hat’s disappointed expression knew that it wasn’t good. “Right now? Okay.” Then she hung up and was silent for a bit.

Snatcher and Vanessa looked at one another before looking at Hat Adult. Before they could ask what’s wrong. Hat Adult spoke up. “It looks like I’ll be traveling myself.”

“What?!” Nessie shouted. “Why?” She asked, sounding disappointed at her mother.

“My best friend Bow, another aunt of yours, has gotten into some trouble on the planet herself with her student.” She explained. Hat Adult then chuckled, “it’s a bit of deja vu if you ask me.”

Snatcher chuckled seeing that a friend of Hat got themselves into the same situation as her as a kid. “Well, good luck kiddo.” He told her.

“Thanks.” Hat Adult replied. She then saw her daughter, mad and disappointed that her mother was leaving on a trip. “Oh Nessie, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll be back as soon as possible.” She promised, but Nessie wasn’t having any of it. Then with her signature smug on her face, she told her daughter something that would cheer her daughter up. “You know, Snatcher and Vanessa will take care of you and your brother.”

Nessie, Vanessa and Snatcher’s eyes widened when Hat Adult said those words. “Really!?” Nessie asked, a smile appearing on her face.

“Really?” Vanessa and Snatcher repeated, knowing Hat Adult was dropping this on them out of the blue.

Hat Adult nodded. “Really.” She told her. “Plus I won’t be long like Mu, it will be just a few weeks.”

“If your mother decides not to put herself in danger again.” Snatcher whispered to Hat Adult’s kids, which made them giggle.

“Snatcher! I know mommy went on many adventures, and that was brave and kicked a-” Nessie was cut off when Snatcher covered her mouth not wanting her to say a bad word in front of her mother. Hat Adult replied with a glare towards Snatcher knowing it was him or Mu who taught her daughter to speak that fowl language. Snatcher gave a nervous chuckle, which earned him an eye roll from Vanessa and Hat Adult.

Hat Adult then felt her son hug her leg tightly and heard him let out a sniffle. “Mommy, could I come with you?” Luka asked, his eyes being big as saucers as tears flowed like waterfalls.

Hat Adult sighed as she picked up her son, “Sorry Luka, remember when you and your sister are 9-years old you can go on journeys with me.” She told him. Luka sniffled and started to cry as he hugged his mother tight. Hat Adult soothed her son as she rubbed his back, hoping to calm him down. Luka cried, and showed no signs of stopping.

Vanessa went over to the two and got close to Luka. The young boy paused his crying as he watched Vanessa use her ice powers and made Luka a small snow figure just for him. Wiping away the tears from his eyes he held onto the small ice figure, which calmed him down.

“I promise I’d make you an ice figure like I made for Nessie.” Vanessa told him. Luka slowly started to smile, and looked at his mother. Hat Adult nodded and slowly put her son down.

Nessie put a hand on her little brother’s shoulder, and Hat Adult faced Nessie again. “Take care of your little brother, okay?”

“I will.” Nessie replied. Hat Adult smiled and hugged her daughter.

“Promise me you two can keep them safe?” Hat Adult begged as she looked up at Snatcher and Vanessa.

Snatcher gave a soft smile, and put his hands on Hat Adult’s shoulders. “Kiddo, you took care of us,” He started, “and we took care of you and Mu. We can handle taking care of your kids.”

Hat Adult smiled and hugged Snatcher and Vanessa tight. “Thank you.” She replied. “I know in your care, they’ll be okay.” Snatcher and Vanessa let go of Hat Adult as she stepped away from her kids and friends. “Well, see ya! And good luck!”

With that, Hat Adult teleported to her ship and went off.

Thank you guys so much for this journey of A Royal Problem!!

If you guys are going to stick around for the alternate endings, that’s great!! I’ll be seeing you again soon once I get it up. If you guys aren’t that’s fine too, I’m just glad you guys enjoyed ARP!!!

I’ll be now shifting focus to Eclipse, Ebb and Flow, and Cat-Tastrophe for the time being. However, I got tons of ideas for more AHIT fanfics coming your way! One being a bit “magical” and the other an “new adventure”! So stay tuned for that!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day ^^

#ahit au #a hat in time #A royal problem au #a royal problem #snatcher #ahit the prince #queen vanessa #hat adult #mustache girl #mustache lady #hat kid #AHIT OC #Nessie #nessie

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wreckofawriter · 5 years

Text

Not So Perfect Sister Part 2 (Final Part)

Part 1

Pairing: Sirius Black x potter!reader

Word Count: 3,235

Warnings: Mentions of neglect, Mentions of sexual harassment, Swearing, yelling, Angsty

Summary: Reader returns to house to confront her parents and brother.

A/n: Ngl this part isnt as good as the first in my opinion. But whatever. I hope you guys like it!

You felt the light buzz of alcohol in your chest. You could hear crickets chirping quietly, the dull thud of your head following their rhythm. You took in a deep breath, letting it out, its steamy fog disappearing into the cool night air. You licked your lips, they tasted of vodka and blood. Your heart hammered in you chest uncomfortably. You wanted to turn and run. You would much rather fly than fight.

You then felt a warm grip fall around your hand. Its heat flowing up your arm and spreading through your body like water slowly trickling through a stream bed.

You turned and locked your gaze into the stormy skies you considered more of a home than the one you stood in front of. You watched as Sirius' eyes dragged slowly over you.

You were bathed in the yellow light, making your bloodshot y/e/c eyes shine, their rims red and puffy. Your lip was split open, still raw and brilliantly red. Your hands were bloodied, pebbles still lodged painfully beneath your y/s/c skin. Your left cheek was red turning purple, the palm of a hand struck there in anger. Your y/h/c hair was knotted and windblown, stained wet from tears and sweat. Your clothes wrinkled, the occasional smear of blood or dirt dotting your green t-shirt. A leather jacket that didn't belong to your draped over you. Your feet were bare besides a baby blue ankle sock on your left foot a purple one on your right, both were soaking wet, midnight dew soaking through their thin fabric.

Yet you stood tall, your eyes turning back to the prison you called home, they narrowed with determination, darkened with rage. Your lips drew into a thin line, jaw tightening. Sirius sympathized for who ever you decided to lock eyes with next, you looked simply dangerous.

He felt your hand tightened once more around his, the scratches pressing firmly into his palm. When you dropped it, he could still feel the warmth of blood linger there.

He watched you climb the porch steps. Your actions weren't hesitant or careful. Instead they were firm and confident. You knew what you were doing and you weren't afraid. Not anymore. Each step you took left behind a wet footprint, staining the wood of the porch dark.

You didn't hesitate at the door, not even for a second. You ignored every single thing in your body telling you to turn around and run back into the musky scent of alcohol and smoke. You needed to do this alone. No one could fix this but you.

When you opened the door you were washed with a wave of warmth, the scent of a dinner you never ate still lingering in the air. You walked through the mudroom and into the living room.

You were met with four pairs of eyes, each seeming to show a different emotion. Guilt flashed through all of them as they looked you over but only in one pair did it stay. The other three were replaced by anger, disappointment and fear.

"Oh Merlin y/n." James gushed rushing towards you, one of his shameful eyes darkened to a bruised purple.

You involuntarily flinched away from him, giving him a full view of the darkening red mark he left behind from your last meeting.

He stopped dead in his tracks his eyes brimming with tears, "Oh my god." His voice was choked and broken. "I did that?" Tears slowly dripped from his eyes sliding smoothly down his cheeks.

Only then did you see your parents eyes falter. They faded into sadness when they looked upon James.

How could they? How could they feel sorry for him? When you stood broken before them? They grew angry but James gets upset because HE hit YOU and they felt sorry for him?

"Yeah, yeah you did." You spat at your brother before pushing past him to stand in front of your parents whom to your disgust, almost looked bored. As if they were watching some unentertaining movie.

You waited for a second, eyes flicking back and forth between the two adults seated on the couch. You wanted them to say something. Anything. Asking if you were okay or what happened to you. Even some half assed apology. But they stayed silent, relaxed. As if they were waiting for you to bore them with some meaningless lecture.

"Do you even care?" You asked your voice broken and disgusted.

The room fell deathly silent. Your father opened his mouth but you cut him off.

"You know what don't answer. I'll do it for you." Your eyes pricked with tears wanting to spring from your eyes. "No. No you don't."

"Of course we do." Your mother spoke harshly, "Don't you dare disrespect us. We have taken care of you your whole life you have no right."

"Ok mom." You chucked, "If you care so much and you have done so much for me, can you tell me what position I play in quidditch?"

Both of your parents went silent.

"The postion I've been playing since second fuckung year." You glowered at them.

They glance at each other expecting the other to answer.

"What about James."

Silence.

"You know his right?"

Nothing.

"Oh right of course you do. Because his fucking point scored per game is ON THE REFRIGERATOR!" you could feel the hot tears seep down your face.

"I'm a keeper by the way." You spat. "You've watched me save hundreds of goals. You've watched me block James shots for Godric's sake!"

Your mother looked down at her hands. You father at the wall.

"But you don't see your daughter do you? You don't see me saving those goals. You just see another green uniform getting in the way of your precious little boys game."

"Y/n, we're sorry we don't cheer for you, it's just easier for us to cheer for the house we were apart of." You father explained as if it was obvious.

"I'm sure it's so much easier for you to boo your daughter right. So easy to brush her off because of the color she's wearing." You wiped furiously at your tears.

"This is a lot of fuss over a few quidditch games " you mother scoffed.

"You think this is just quidditch games?" You seethed.

You watched as she shrunk away from you, "You don't know a damn thing about me!"

Once again your father opened his mouth to speak.

"You don't!" You fired at him before he could even ask the question. "You don't know who my friends are, you don't know the name of my owl, you don't know my ex-boyfriends name. You-"

"You had a boyfriend?"

You rubbed your eyes, pinching the bridge of your nose. "We dated for a year and a half. "

You watched your parents cringe.

"I bet you can't even tell me my favorite color." You scoffed.

"That's easy, green" your father stated triumphantly.

"I wish you were kidding." You muttered.

They cringed again.

"Its y/f/c. It's been y/f/c since I was seven years old."

"Y/n I'm sorry we don't pay attention to a few things in your life. We are very busy." Your father argued.

"You know all of that shit about James." You snapped.

You turned so that you were facing both your parents and James whose eyes were now red rimmed and glassy.

"I have a question for all of you."

James snapped his attention to you. Lily who sat next to him, her arm wrapped him looked at you with pity, making you want to slap her so much more.

"Do you know what happened to me in third year?"

James shook his head solemnly. Your parents looking anywhere but you.

"When I was in third year I was felt up by a sixth year." James looked like you just slapped him. "He thought that because I was wearing a crop top he could stick his hand up my shirt and pin me up against a wall."

The room was dead silent. Sirius who had been standing in the corner of the room went pale. James began to sob again. Lily's mouth dropped. You moms eyes went glassy as your father went beat red.

"None of you noticed." You cried voice breaking, "I wore nothing but long sleeves and oversized sweatshirts all of my third year because of it and none of you even cared!" Sobs began to wreck your body. You tried to speak but nothing but it was like someone had lodged an egg carton down your throat.

Sirius still pale as a ghost took you quickly into his arms.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered into your hair, "I'm so so sorry."

You looked up at him and everything else fell away. His grey eyes glassy, his dark hair framing his unfairly handsome face, his cheeks were pale and he looked like he wanted to throw up.

"It's not your fault." You murmured, you wrapped your hand around his neck pulling him into a soft kiss.

"What the fuck!?" You instantly broke apart to see James, tears still sliding peacefully down his cheeks. His mouth dropped open and his bloodshot eyes wide with surprise.

"None of your business James." You seethed.

"I think it is my business! My sister and my best friend just kissed!" He hollered, standing and advancing towards you. "You're going to ruin my friendship!"

You stepped towards your brother your hands shaking with rage. "This is what I mean!" You shouted, "You are selfish James!"

"How am I possibly being selfish!" He shot back furiously.

"You don't care about me! All you care about is your friendship! Your friend! YOURSELF! You don't give two shits about what's happening with me all you care about is your perfect little life being ruined by your not so perfect sister." Your voice was now lowered to a hiss as spoke.

James anger flashed in his eyes again and he took a step toward you, but this time you didn't flinch.

"What?" You spat, "You gonna hit me again?" You challenged darkly.

Shame flashed through him and suddenly it hit him. He almost stumbled at the force of the facts that suddenly became so real to him. He was selfish. He was an asshole. He ignored his sister for years simply because of the color of her robes. He had looked at her with disgust and anger simply because she was ambitious and cunning. He only cared for himself and his perfect life. He could suddenly see every time he blew you off, everytime he side stepped you or glowered at you as you did nothing but exist.

"Oh my god." He whispered, his voice shaky.

"I'm done with this damn family." You scoffed, "You're all selfish and rude. You all think your so much better than those stick up their ass purebloods but deep down your no better than them, because all you do is ignore and neglect those who are different than you and it's revolting." You turned to look at your parents, "All I ever wanted was a mom and a dad, but since the day that hat was placed on my head you couldn't see anything but a goddamn traitor." Your eyesight blurred and with that you began to walk for the door.

But you were stopped, not by James or your parents but a pair of soft grey eyes.

"Y/n/n, you can't." Sirius sighed. "You know you can't, just give them a chance."

"I gave them thousands of chances." You muttered back attempting to shoulder past him but he held his ground.

Sirius opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the sharp voice of your mother.

"The fact that you think you have the right to call us as foul as families who would cast out their own son is what is repulsive young lady! If you truly believe that then by all means walk out that door!"

You turned ready to unleash hell on to the women but were surprised when your brother stepped in front of you.

"No mom!" He yelled, "Shes right!"

Your mother stumbled backwards, her eyes going wide, "James?" She questioned softly as if she had just found out that he had done some unspeakable act.

"Mom. You may not have physically cast her from the family but you just threatened to. And we have all neglected her since she was eleven as well." James paused taking a breath as your mother slumped back onto the couch.

"We may not have used a torturing curse on her but for Godric's sake I just slapped her and we have mentally tortured her for years! Can you please get off your high horse for just a second and realize that maybe you and dad aren't as perfect as you seem to believe you are?!"

The silence that followed was suffocating as you watched you mother process the information she had just been given. Slowly but surely reality began to seep through her skull and she looked up from her hands with guilt in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered, her voice breaking. Before she broke down to sobs and it took you a second to realize she was talking to you.

Your eyes widened in surprise before narrowing once again and you turned on your heel but instead of heading straight for the door you stomped up the steps. Sirius sent a final glance around the room before following your actions.

He walked into your room to see you lying on your back on the floor. Your eyes were trained on the white ceiling above your hands fiddling with the sleeve of his leather jacket.

Sirius didn't ask questions, he simply lay next to you and slowly edged his hand over to yours, intertwining your fingers with his.

You sat in silence for a few minutes hearing faint arguing bellow.

"It took James." You finally spoke causing Siirus to turn his head towards you in question.

"It took James for her to realize that she might actually be wrong." You explained a tear sliding from your cheek like a raindrop set carefully against your y/s/c skin.

"I know y/n." Sirius mumbled, "But at least she realized."

"I know it just made me so mad that after everything she still won't listen to me." You winced feeling a sharp pain on you hand when Sirisu gripped it tightly.

He immediately apologized having you situp as he fished for his wand.

"Yeah it does suck." He agreed before muttering a spell over you hands as you felt the pebbles begin to slowly pull from your soft flesh. "But she needed someone like James agreeing with you to make her hear you. "

You sighed, "Your probably right." You smiled softly up at him.

"Of course I'm right," he smirked, "I'm Sirius Black."

"God your an ass." You giggled as he pulled you towards him pressing his lips slowly on yours, his touch made you feel warm and fuzzy, you could feel his heartbeat quicken as you placed your hand lightly on his chest.

There was a knock at the door, three soft wraps which you were sure had to be your mother's. Much to Sirius' dismay you pulled away standing to open the door.

When you swung it open you were greeted by emerald green eyes and fiery red hair. Lily looked nervously at you probably expecting you to slam the door in her face, and the truth was you were tempted.

"Yes Evans?" You asked feeling Sirius walk up next to you.

"I think they need you down stairs." She said quietly.

You glanced at Sirius who nodded, "Ok." You spoke hesitantly.

You were about to leave when you suddenly stopped.

"Evans."

She turned to face you expecting you to explode in her face.

"Sorry about all this. And you can move your stuff into James room, Sirius can sleep in mine."

She grinned back nodding and beginning to gather her stuff.

"That is if you want to." You shrugged glancing at Sirius who seemed to be smirking down at you.

"I thought you'd never ask." He taunted.

"Neither did I" You huffed as you descended the stairs.

You were greeted by you parents and James. He stood carefully next to you facing your parents as well. And you suddenly realized it was no longer four against one. It was three against two.

You stood in front of your parents waiting for them to speak. They seemed to be communicating back and forth with their eyes, raising and lowering their brows to for different expressions that you honestly couldn't quite read.

Finally you cleared your throat loudly and you father sighed before turning to you and saying, "Y/n, we want to apologize." He paused looking down before sighing and continuing, "You were right about everything thing you said, and it wasn't fair for us to neglect you simply because you were different."

The room once again dropped silent, all eyes on you. You could feel them boring into you like a woodpecker into wood.

Finally your mother spoke, "Y/n, please forgive us, we are so sorry, it is terrible that it took us that long to see it but please give us another chance." She begged. Begging was not a pretty color on her. It seemed strange to see such a strong woman, who you had grown to see as cold-hearted, beg.

You glanced around this room, eyes sticking on Sirius the longest. Eventually you let your y/e/c orbs travel back to your parents.

You sighed, "Ok." And with that word everyone in the room let put a relieved sigh.

"So you forgive us then?" You father asked hopefully.

"Merlin's beard no." You scoffed back watching them deflate, "I'll give you a chance but I'm going to forgive you in four seconds for what you did to me for four years."

They nodded understandingly and you let out a sigh, "I'm going to bed." You mumbled before retreating back up to your room but before you could make it up you were stopped by a hand grabbing your wrist.

You instinctively spun around to be greeted with a pair of dark eyes.

"Thank you y/n/n." He whispered and for the first time since you were 11 your nickname slipped from his lips.

You just nodded before turning to leave but his grip stayed firm.

"What happened between Sirius and you?" He asked nervously, "Because I mean I'm not just asking as a friend, I'm asking as a big brother and I-"

Your giggle cut him off, "We kissed James, tonight actually so honestly, I don't even know what happened."

"Oh. Okay well, I just don't want you to get hurt, you know how he is." He mumbled awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck as color tinged his cheeks.

"Thank you James." You smiled giving his hand a squeeze before walking up the stairs Sirius soon following behind.

When you reached your bedroom you turned pulling Sirius into a searing kiss, your lips colding sloppily as your tongue grazed his bottom lip. After a second you pulled away panting.

"Thank you." You mumbled before pulling him close to you once again.

Taglist:

@accio-rogers @roslea @k3nz-doodl3 @sarcarstic-space-weirdo @give-me-ernest-sinclaire @mcluuvin666 @voldemort-twerks-for-jesus @freakingrat @handsheartsouleyes @paigeyisme @gutdump @thatgirlfromcamp25 @youlook-likehell @arianna-17-11 @xinyourdreamsx @magicalydelicious @thewolvesof1998 @voodoodollgirl @hahaboop @songforhema

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wastelandcth · 4 years

Text

exile - cth

anon requested: hi hello🥺 can you please write a blurb(or a lil longer than a blurb) inspired by exile by taylor swift (with calum obv)🥺 want some angsty dialogue there🥺

summary: calum’s breakup feels like a movie he’s seen before.

author’s notes: hello! this was requested by an anon! it was such a good song and it finally made me listen to taylor’s new album so thanks for that! hope you enjoy!

warnings: mentions of breakup ups, sad calum, angst really.

masterlist

Calum had seen a lot of romantic movies in his time of being with her. He'd seen the classics where the two lovers end up together after thousands of struggles. He'd seen the ones where the two lovers ended up away from one another. Calum had even seen the ones where their love just wasn't enough to keep them together. He just never imagined his life would be turning into one of those, especially not the last one.

He'd been at the same party as her, something he wished he would've known because there'd be no way in hell that he would've showed up to see her in his arm laughing at the joke he'd read online months ago. He'd been fine with her being there, he was an adult and could handle seeing an ex at a party. He thought he was fine until he saw her run over to a guy he'd never seen before and hug him like he was the only person on planet Earth.

Calum's heart felt like it had been sucker-punched, he felt like he was frozen in time and that it was only five minutes ago that she'd walked out on the life they'd created in their small apartment hidden in the busy city. Now all he could do was watch her kiss some guy he'd never seen before while he held all their love on his wrist in black ink.

Calum was not okay. He hadn't been okay ever since that party. He'd gone home shortly after seeing them, making up an excuse about how Duke needed to go on a walk, and then he was out the door and racing home to try and stop the tears from falling down his cheeks. He felt like his life had become a movie ever since she'd walked out of that apartment. He felt like every day was just a montage of getting up and going through the same motions day after day. He walked through his half-empty apartment and tried to find himself as his friends, family, and his loved ones kept on moving and left him stuck in a movie scene he'd seen before.

She'd missed seeing Calum's smile. She missed the way his eyes scrunched up and the way that his laugh was too loud and how he tried to cover it up with his hand over his mouth. She felt the way his brown eyes followed her across the backyard and the way that not even the loud music could block out the gasp that fell from his lips. She could feel his eyes on her when she was in the arms of another and the way his body tensed when she pressed her lips to another cheek. Even when she hugged him and Calum's fists clenched and his eyes narrowed.

She'd planned to talk to him, using a drink refill as an excuse to find Calum and talk to him. She'd walked into the kitchen and looked around, looking for a bob of blonde curls that she'd seen walk in a few minutes ago. She spotted him, halfway out the door as he looked back into the house, his red eyes landing on hers before he quickly shut the door behind him and left her alone.

"I just...I can't do this anymore, Calum! I'm not some random girl from the bar who is just waiting for a callback! You're an adult you can handle yourself as you so clearly stated!" Her breathing was uneven now, her hands running through her hair as she tried to make sense of where she was and why she'd been fighting with the man she loved in the first place, "You're just so afraid of falling into a love that you're willing to destroy what we have. I'm not going to stand here and let you slowly rip my heart out, I-I can't let you do that."

She'd been reliving that moment ever since she'd seen him at that party. She'd laid in her bathtub, staring at the ceiling as she tried to think over ever mistake she had made since that night. That night was she walked out of his life and left him in that tiny apartment with nothing but the tears on the floor and the small dog barking.

"You know that I love you. You know that I would do everything to make you happy. You're my everything before you I just...I didn't even know I could love as much as I love you. A-and you're going to just throw it all away? Why? Because you're scared of loving me?" Calum's voice had never been one to falter. That was one thing she had always admired about him, he always spoke with confidence and honor, never once lying to her because that's what their relationship had been. It was trust and love and truth. And she was the one who got scared and threw it away.

She'd walked out of Calum's life four years ago. She walked out and Calum had to try and pick up the pieces and become whole again. He'd walked out of the party two years ago, thinking that his life was never going to stop replaying in front of his own eyes. It had been one year since he moved into his house with a suitcase and Duke running behind him while he carried in boxes of musical equipment. It had been a year and six months when he'd finally stopped thinking about her. When he finally felt free and could breathe in the fresh air in whatever city his life had brought him to that day. When he could finally see happy couples walking around hand in hand and not imagine himself being with her like in the beginning. It had taken her three days to get her things from the apartment and it had taken Calum longer to get rid of her ghost that seemed to linger in his life, for the little things he saw every day to stop reminding him of her.

Calum had bought a ring a week before she'd left. He'd hidden it in the sock drawer next to his bed and prayed that she never looked in there to find a pair of warm socks to wear during the chilly October nights they shared. A few weeks after she'd left and Calum had hit the bottom of his sock drawer, the little black box stared up at him as if to mock him. The ring inside had been a testament to Calum's love for her, a way to show her that he wanted more, that he wanted their souls to love one another even after the Earth had crumbled and everyone had been forgotten.

Calum thought he knew what she'd been thinking, that he could easily read her and tell when things weren't going okay. Thinking back on it, Calum had seen the signs but he was too in love to even try and acknowledge them. She'd get home late, usually without warning and in the early hours of the morning when Calum was lost in a dream world. She'd taken up more hours at her job, explaining to Calum that she'd been working on a super important project that needed more of her attention. Calum should've realized she was pushing him away, preparing him for a life without her in it. He should've known that when he got used to sleeping in bed by himself again when he started going out without her more often and the guys stopped questioning where she was, he should've known when he felt completely normal being on his own again after months of heartbreak.

The scent of coffee and the chilly air coming in from the front door that opened brought her back from her thoughts brought her back to the cafe where life seemed to be bustling around her. Her coffee was still steaming from the reusable cup she'd bring anytime she needed a break from the stuffy office where printers and phone lines crowded her mind. The trees outside were moving with the wind, swaying like colorful dancers in the sky, and she was once again pulled from her own thoughts of dancing and the chilly air when she heard the barista call out a name she hadn't heard in almost two years.

Watching Calum laugh warmed her heart, she missed the sound of his laugh and even if she hadn't been the one who was responsible for it anymore, she was grateful to be able to hear it once more. She watched him from where she sat near the back of the cafe, her eyes following him as he walked up to the counter and took his order off the counter. He looked good, his brown curls were covered up in a bucket hat but his smile lit up the entire cafe. He was dressed for the weather, dark jeans, and a dark yellow sweater that seemed to bring back too many memories of fall mornings together and reminding her that he always wore warm clothing since he usually ran cold. She could've stayed there all day and watch him if she could, but the notification on her phone informed her that she would be late for her meeting if she didn’t leave soon. So with one more look at the man she had let go, she stood and walked out the side door, a ping in her heart as she remembered when that smile from the man with the brown eyes was for her.

#calum hood imagine #5sos imagines #calum hood blurbs #5sos blurbs #calum hood oneshot #5sos oneshot #calum hood #5sos #5 seconds of summer #gemma writes #anon requested #song requests #exile taylor swift

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bunnylouisegrimes · 3 years

Text

Sick Day (NOS4A2 Drabble)

A/N: Holy shit! I actually wrote something?! Well, unfortunately, this is probably gonna be my only fic for a while since I’m gonna be so busy. But I hope you all enjoy some Charlie fluff! It helped to let my creative muse out amongst my stress! (Also, I own a Totoro like the toy pictured above) ;)

Sick Day

NOS4A2 Drabble

By: Bunny Louise Grimes

That Friday, the stretches of farmland rolled along beside the Wraith as we went for a leisurely drive. The clouds were grey, the spring air was cool, and dew covered the windows. We took a rest outside of a beautiful and abandoned hospital to eat our fries and crack each other up. Nearby, a park sat where Charlie pushed me on the swings. But by the time we decided to head back home and order a pizza, I noticed I was feeling a bit tired. While ordering the pizza, I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. The only interesting (and scary) thing on was a news segment discussing how a shooter at a restaurant two towns over had threatened to kill people (something like an altercation with his girlfriend who was a waitress perhaps?), and he was still at large.

“Well, that explains the helicopters we’ve been seeing and hearing,” I said.

“Indeed,” Charlie nodded. “We’ll have to be careful tonight and make sure everything is locked up so that he doesn’t try to hide here, especially since this house is the perfect place to hide. Out in the middle of nowhere, miles of forest to run, the mountains... good thing my Wraith has a mind of her own, because if he thinks about hiding there, he’ll be ran over.”

After I ordered the pizzas from my laptop, we went out for another small drive in the grey skies to retrieve them. By then, my tiredness had gotten worse, and I noticed my body had a dull ache. I wrapped myself up in my yellow sweater tighter. Besides that, I was wearing green floral leggings, green socks, and black Mary Janes. It was already a cool afternoon, but it wasn’t this freezing, so why was I so cold? I thanked the fact my hair was done in a pair of long fluffy puppytails held together by my green ribbons so that I had an extra layer of warmth.

“I’m concerned I might be coming down with something,” I told Charlie. “I’m starting to feel real tired, cold, and achy.”

“Well, we’ll see how you feel,” he said. “If you start to feel really sick, we’ll have our answer and we’ll give you medicine.”

After coming home and eating our pizza, my tiredness, alongside my full stomach, overtook me, and I fell asleep. When I woke up from a bizarre dream, I realized how cold, achy, and tired I was. Charlie felt my head and observed that I was feeling very hot. He took into consideration how cold his body temperature was and placed the tympanic thermometer from the bathroom into my ear. I was 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the dot, a definite fever.

He presented me with medicine and he carried me upstairs, where I fell asleep once more. When I woke up from even more odd dreams, my fever had increased to almost 103 degrees. I had developed a headache and chest discomfort. I went to the bathroom due to an odd sensation in my stomach, and I realized what it was once I was done.

“Charlie,” I called weakly to the hallway. “I have diarrhea too!”

“Well, all of this is most unfortunate,” Charlie sighed. “We should call the doctor and he can figure out what’s wrong.”

He got on the landline and contacted the local doctor. I ended up with an appointment that day at three. Charlie helped me change into the clothes I wore yesterday, and he helped me rebraid my hair. When we arrived 30 minutes later, there was only a few other people in the doctor’s office. I was the second person to be called. After a quick checkup and a quick talk with the nurse about my symptoms, the doctor walked in five minutes later and concluded I had the flu.

“Flu season’s in fall and winter,” he said. “It peaks between December and February, but it can run even as late as now. It happens sometimes, someone has it and you just catch it. It’s pesky influenza, you can get it at anytime.” He turned to Charlie. “That elderberry medicine was good thinking. Keep giving her that so it will help her immune system. I also recommend Vitamin C, so orange juice is a good drink idea. Here’s an antiviral prescription.” He gave the paper to Charlie. “I’ll call the pharmacy, you’ll be able to pick it up in a few hours.” He turned back to me. “In the meantime, you just take lots of rest and stay hydrated, especially with your diarrhea. Since your stomach might be upset, you should eat lighter things like crackers.” He chuckled and smiled, saying, “I assume you know all this, however, given you are in the medical field yourself.”

I nodded, laughing as best I could. “I don’t work as a nurse now since moving here, but at anytime, if I do need to work, I think this would be a good place.”

He beamed. “Absolutely! I’m glad you think so! You seem like the person we’d like on board. But you focus on your health first.”

After leaving, Charlie took me home, where I switched into my pajamas and cuddled up with some of my ponies (Razzaroo, Minty, Wysteria, Sweetberry, Cotton Candy, Sunny Daze, Sparkleworks, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Kimono), Kuchi Kopi (who glowed a comforting green), and my stuffed Totoro on the couch.

“I’ll make you some soup,” Charlie said. “You want some Progresso rice soup with Taco Bell sauce?”

“Just like when I was a kid,” I smiled. “Yes. Can you put in A Charming Birthday so I can watch something small for a little bit?”

He put in the pony VHS tape and went into the kitchen. The soup was done and I had adjusted myself on the couch. He also presented me with orange juice in a glass and ice. I ate my soup and drank my OJ carefully while Charlie turned on the news again once the twenty minute short was over. The culprit from yesterday had been caught, so there was no need to worry about him on the loose anymore. Other than that, the news became annoying, so I asked Charlie if we could watch a movie.

“Could we watch My Neighbor Totoro?” I asked.

“What is that?” He looked puzzled.

“It’s one of the movies I brought. It’s from the 80’s, animated, and from Japan.”

He looked at the clock. “Let me get your medicine. I’ll have to get it in about fifteen minutes, and you know it takes ten minutes to get to town. Finish your soup while I’m gone and I’ll make you some hot chocolate upon my return.”

I nodded, changed the channel to Two Broke Girls, and we exchanged a kiss before he left once more. I had finished my soup almost ten minutes later and my stomach felt slightly upset (not the fault of the food, it had to have just been my stomach being in the state it was in). I weakly stumbled upstairs, chills hitting my aching body without my blanket, and did my business in some discomfort. I did my best to clean myself up with painfilled muscles. I felt clean and wrapped up what I needed to do. The lilac smell of the soap and the warm water I was using to clean my hands up smelled and felt refreshingly pleasant on my ill body.

I snuggled with my toys when I returned downstairs and chuckled at Caroline and Max’s antics to get more money until Charlie returned home. I took my medicine (including the elderberry medicine he gave me yesterday) and he made me hot chocolate, alongside a plate of crackers. He put in the Totoro DVD and I anticipated seeing the serene and beautiful world associated with Studio Ghibli movies. I was snuggled up with Charlie and had my head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

“Are you feeling any better?” He asked.

“Physically, no, but emotionally, yes.”

“I’ve never seen this movie before. How good is it?”

“Very. It’s comforting, light hearted, and filled with lots of innocence and imagination.”

He smiled. “Hmm, seems like it’s right up my alley. I’m intrigued.” He picked up the case. “What is a Totoro?”

“He’s a forest spirit. He’s a mix between a cat, owl, and raccoon. You’ll like him, he’s a gentle giant.”

We watched the entire movie, the two of us making side comments every now and then, and Charlie loved every minute of it. By the time the famous ending credits serenaded, I was ready for a nap. Charlie turned it to Ghost Adventures reruns. I desperately wanted to stay awake, but I knew by then I couldn’t. I didn’t mind too much because I knew I had all of their episodes on DVD. I warned Charlie I might fall asleep.

“That’s fine,” he said, kissing my forehead. “This is just so you have something you like to lull you to sleep. I might take a nap myself.”

Within minutes, I fell asleep and had vivid dreams inspired by the movie (something about it raining and Totoro roaring and flying in the night sky while I was roaming around a gorgeous forest). When I woke up, I needed water. I went into the kitchen and downed as much as I could. Charlie woke up a few minutes later. I had to go to the bathroom again and Charlie helped me this time.

“I feel very sweaty and gross,” I sighed.

“You want a warm bubble bath?” He asked.

“You’d give me one?”

“Of course.”

I slipped my pajamas off and he filled the clawfoot bathtub with warm water and and sparkly white bubbles. He made it smell like two soaps called Cosmic RainbowBerries and Old Fashioned Flowers. Once again, my cold, achy body felt exposed, but stepping into the soapy water melted it away. The scent was amazing, and his firm and gentle hands cleaning my weak body made me sigh in pure content. He unbraided my hair and I embraced every moment of his nails and fingers working their way through my scalp. All the while, he was softly humming “Put Your Head On My Shoulder.”

Once I was all clean, he wrapped me in a soft towel as quick as he could so I would not freeze while he dealt with the tub. I picked out a long and soft nightgown with strawberries on it and thigh high flowered socks. I wandered back into the bathroom so he could blow dry my hair and rebraid it.

“Why look at you! You smell as clean as a spring flower! Perhaps the first rose in the meadow? Fitting for your name, dear!”

I laughed and hugged him. “I certainly feel like one thanks to you.”

When we returned downstairs, he began making chili for me, and I decided to play some Call of Duty Zombies. I took more medicine before I played and drank more water as I did. After eating it, talking with Charlie about various things, and snuggling up with him while playing, sleepiness took over again. By the time I went down from running out of options and being surrounded by the undead, I was about to fall asleep on Charlie’s lap, controller still in hand.

“I think, my darling, it’s time for you to find a more comfortable place for your head,” he coyly teased. “And as I would consider myself a gentleman first and foremost, I would certainly rather have my lady comfortable in a bed rather than my lap.”

I lifted up and rubbed my eyes. “Ugh, you’re right, my fever might be getting a tiny bit high again because it’s night. Sorry, baby.”

He kissed my cheek. “No, no, it’s quite alright. You are correct your fever might be higher now. Let’s head to bed.”

We turned everything off, I put my ponies (with the exception of a random three of Minty, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash) and Totoro back where they belonged, but I held onto Kuchi Kopi. He carried me to bed as I snuggled with my toys and blanket in his arms. I set my ponies and Kuchi Kopi near the lamp on my side of the bed. I brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom one more time (but not to deal with my stomach, luckily, that would maybe be saved for the morning), cleaned off my glasses, and hopped into bed. Charlie has brought up my glass of water and set it near my lamp as well. He turned off the light and left us with the comforting white hallway light and Kuchi Kopi from beside me. We snuggled into bed under the covers and I held onto him.

“Thank you for taking care of me today and helping me every step of the way,” I kissed him on the cheek.

“Of course, my dear, anything for you. I know you’d do the same for me... well, if I could get sick, but I don’t, hence why I was able to take care of you to the extent I could without fearing exposure. But even if I wasn’t a vampire and could get ill, I’d still take care of you.”

“Awww, sugarpop ,” I kissed him again. “I wouldn’t want you to get sick. I wouldn’t force you to do it. I’m not even forcing you now.”

“I would anyways, and you know this.” He rested his chin on my scalp.

“You are the sweetest man alive, you know that?”

“And you are the sweetest girl alive. Once you are feeling better, would you like to visit the children? I am sure they would love to see their stepmother all healthy and well.”

“I’d love that, and we could make pillow forts, eat cookies and oatmeal, drink hot cocoa and watch Totoro together...” My eyes fluttered just at the thought and my body sunk into his.

“They would love that deeply,” he agreed. “I admit, in some ways, those two little girls in that movie remind me of my own Millie and Lorrie. I think they’d relate to their sisterly bond.”

“Mmmhmmm...” I snuggled closer to him, about to drift off.

“Good night, mignon,” he whispered. “I love you.”

“Good night... I love you too...” I mumbled.

We both fell into deep sleep. It had been a rough two days feeling as ill as I did, and I knew the next few days would be the same, but I had Charlie by my side to help take care of me. And that would make all the difference.

#nos4a2 #charlie manx #charles manx #nos4a2 charlie

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ghostsofmemories · 4 years

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INSECT POISON: UPDATE 3

okay so first things first: I rearranged some things so what was previously chapter 11 is now going to be referred to as chapter 12, which is so long that it’s the only chapter this update will cover! it clocks in around 6.5k after cutting it down with editing. I’m eventually going to split it into two or three different chapters, but because all the events take place in the same day and were meant to be in one chapter, it’s easier to cover them all in one update and not include the chapters that’ve been written since then, all but one of which are pretty short.

content warnings (some of these are pretty heavy): sexual assault, death and cemeteries, possible hallucinations, toxicity/manipulation, instability

anyway, on with the update!

chapter 12 (formerly 11): quivering lip

this chapter surrounds adult Robert’s trip to visit his sister’s grave in the town he grew up while having a mental breakdown, the woman he meets there, and the interaction they have at her house that leaves him feeling even worse than when he started off.

some select excerpts from the beginning:

All this town knew how to do was rot. Robert realized this upon coming back for the first time in years—nothing was beautiful, nothing was alive, and nothing here was worth coming back to visit.

As he made his way through the empty parking lot, going slow in an effort to remember where Ramona’s grave was, he was struck with another bout of feverish anxiety. The baby was going to be his, and all his genes matched his sister’s, even when held up to the light. Would she grow up to look like her namesake, too? Would he have to watch a carbon copy of his dead sister, his greatest secret, grow up and put her hair in braids and ask for help with her math homework? He could already see it. Freckles and deep brown eyes and dark red hair, soft smile from her mother, talkative and hyper. Everything Amanda convinced herself Ramona used to be. He would be raising a eulogy, a little memorial. Ramona Bennett-Blanchard, in loving memory of Ramona Diane Bennett. Robert had force back vomit at the mere thought of it.

not him being totally wrong about what his daughter’s going to be like I’m-

He made sure no one else was around before sitting cross-legged in front of Ramona’s headstone. The feeling of fever left him just enough to give him hope this might help. “It’s been awhile,” he said, snaking his fingers through the grass around him. Dry, yellow, half-dead already. At least the sky was cloudy. The earth here needed some rain. “It’s miserable out here. Cold and stale.”

There was no reply, of course. The breeze replaced the need for one: skimming the sweat on his forehead and the back of his neck, smoothing him over. He felt like a child, here, thumbing weeds and talking to no one—like a schoolboy being forced to apologize. He made himself smaller, tried to conserve his heat against early November’s faltering autumn. He couldn’t picture himself leaving until his patience ran out, and desperation gifted him with heaps of it.

okay here’s the part where he talks to “Ramona” (she’s either a ghost or a hallucination and you don’t know because neither do I <3)

And there she was. Ragged bangs hanging over thin eyebrows, hair straight greasy and down to her waist, overalls covered in grass stains. Everything about her was juvenile and smelled of stale lake water. She sat on top of her stone, looked straight ahead, as if Robert was irrelevant to her situation. The dead version of Ramona was the same as the old one in looks as well as attitude—she’d been pulled fresh out of a memory, right out of their fifteenth birthday.

“You’re so…” Robert paused, looking up in awe at his sister, vulnerable as he could manage, tired as he was. “Young. And here.”

“You’re old and here.” She said, looking at him, now. He wasn’t sure why he expected her to look older, or if he’d expected to see her at all, but whatever his expectations were, they’d been slaughtered by her stare—cold and violent. No different than when they were both children and alive.

and oops here have some of the manipulation that made me realize some things in earlier parts of the book need to change:

Robert stood up and walked after her, realizing the ground was seeping and mossy and wet all around them. It hadn’t been before, he was sure of it. As he walked, the landscape meshed itself from dying town to young forest, and he was distracted by it, having to close his eyes when he wanted to speak. “How do you know about my daughter?” Robert asked, his socks getting wet beneath his canvas shoes, not standing well against the moist, newly swamping ground.

“Because I can know anything I want to, as long as you knew it first. I’m a part of you.” Robert stopped walking, and Ramona looked back at him. “You still can’t think about two things at the same time? How old did you say you were?”

“You can’t be a part of me. You’re a ghost. You’re dead.” He said, shutting his eyes again. Shutting his vision out didn’t seem to do anything. The landscape was in his head as much as it was around him.

“How is that more feasible than me being a part of you?”

“But you said you hadn’t been in my house. You said you weren’t following me.” He kept blinking, waiting for it to be dark just once. He tried putting his hands over his eyes, which seemed to work, but made him feel childish, all of a sudden. He didn’t know what to do with himself, with his body. He had trouble convincing himself he was inside of it at all.

“Like I’ve never lied to you before. Of course I’ve been there. I’m in your head all the time. You didn’t have to come here to talk to me.” Ramona laughed and started walking again. The laugh kicked Robert in the gut. It was old, rotting. He couldn’t be imagining this, could he? That was so her. She seemed almost more vivid than she had when she was alive—she was a memory playing out around him, but everything in it was raw, fresh out of the slaughterhouse.

a little internal monologue excerpt after ghost-Ramona says something about Robert killing her:

No one, himself included, had ever said it out loud before. He’d spent countless nights as a teenager practicing what he’d say if someone ever accused him, and he’d imagine confessional scenes before he went to sleep, or therapy sessions where he’d admit what he’d done and then disappear and change his name. But it was all in his head, just lips moving with nothing but breath coming out. He couldn’t afford to be overheard by anyone, for even the walls and the ceilings and the mirrors to know what he’d done. When he heard it come from someone else, he became a child caught drawing on the walls. The stages of grief hit one after another, each one knocking the wind out of him, but reaching acceptance was as impossible as catching a bird—he could run and lunge and sneak quietly up behind it, but all the bird had to do was go up.

and that’s that for that scene! now it’s time to meet Agnes! don’t get your hopes up about her :)

“Sir?”

He jumped awake and stumbled backward. There was a young woman, maybe a teenager, standing a few feet away from him, too nervous to get closer. She wore a brown jacket that went down to her knees, probably belonging to her father or bought for a couple dollars at a thrift store. Her hair reminded him of something that fluttered or floated, cut off at her shoulders and so brown it was nearly black, but swaying around her face at even the slightest breeze or movement.

“Sir, do you need help?” She asked, taking another step toward him. She was braver now that she saw how exhausted he was, how red his eyes were, how he coughed so hard that he nearly fell back on the ground. “It’s cold out here, and it’s been raining for awhile now. I think you’ve been out here for too long.”

“It’s raining?” He asked, and made an attempt at directing his attention to his surroundings, though the woman—or girl—seemed to have an extra dimension in comparison to the things around her, like she was a deer shaking in a forest. More rich. More colorful. Just more. But there was still a graveyard, still grass, the mossy swamp and Ramona were both gone. For some reason, this is what he expected. To become the madman who fell asleep in front of a headstone, who didn’t wake up even when it started raining. “I don’t know you.”

What he meant to say was are you from around here? and then because I’m from here. I used to be from here. And I don’t know you. It was nothing unfamiliar for his mouth to cut off the first half of his sentences.

you guys I promise I did not mean to start feeling bad for this guy and now I have to change his whole backstory to make it make sense someone help me

“I’m Agnes, and I don’t know you, either.” Agnes crouched down to be level with Robert, like she was kneeling over an injured animal or talking a toddler down from a tantrum. He supposed he was both. “Would you like some help?” She stuck her hand out, and when he reached out to take it, his blood, frozen, thawed a bit. Her hand was too warm and gripped his too tightly.

She hoisted him up, though she was much smaller than him, probably a lot lighter. “What do you need?” She asked, taking a polite step back. Her eyes were level with his throat, but she turned her head up, eyes darting around different parts of his face. His nose. The blood on his lower lip (if prompted, he wouldn’t have known where it came from). His eyelashes, tangled from sleeping face down over his arm but mostly dry when put up next to the rest of him.

Eventually, he and Agnes were in his car. He couldn’t remember, exactly, what conversation had lead them there, but he was almost sure she was afraid to leave him alone, that she had assumed he lived in town, and that he had probably lied about where he was from or where he was headed or why he was at the graveyard in the first place.

“Are you feeling alright?” She asked, bouncing her knee, looking up at him from her place in the passenger seat. He remembered how wet he was, that he was probably soaking the car and the seat and that he’d have to clean it all up later.

He realized, then, that Agnes had too much faith in him. The girl saw a man, most likely older than her, who’d fallen asleep crying at the grave of someone he most likely loved, and decided he was most likely a good person who was grieving, who was most likely unstable in a self-isolating way, in a no one will ever understand way, in a million ways he wasn’t.

“No,” he said, knowing he had waiting too long to answer and there was nothing else he could say that she would believe. He sighed, tried to remember where he was supposed to be driving. “But I’m sure I will be.”

“I hope so.”

“You shouldn’t say that,” he said, and let his subconscious drive for him. He remembered that he was supposed to be headed to Luther Street, that she lived at the end of it, that he told her he only lived a block away from there and he’d said he’d let her make him a cup of coffee and change his clothes, that they had a tub of her brother’s old clothes that were supposed to go to goodwill that would probably fit him.

“What?” Her eyebrows tied themselves into knots, knitted themselves into something sloppier. “Why not?”

yes I am going to continue oversharing excerpts from this chapter. I spent three months writing it and I think I deserve to indulge

“Because I’ve done a lot of bad things,” he said, and his heartbeat quickened in a way that was unfamiliar. Like someone walked in right after he broke something. “I’ll feel fine, eventually, but I don’t deserve it.” This was not something stated as a way to tear pity from the throat of the small animal beside him, it was a simple fact. This naive girl thought he was something worth saving, trusted him enough to get into his car and let him drive. He was a liar, a murderer, evaded her attempts to learn his name (but would hand it over anyway when she got into his car and saw his nametag from work).

“No one is irredeemable,” she said, looking out the window and making a small noise of understanding, something like huh but only in a hum, her lips never parting. “It’s snowing. It hasn’t snowed since the day before Thanksgiving.”

She was the sort of girl who loved winter, but mostly for the spring that followed. She was the sort of girl who would suffer through the death of everything colorful just for the satisfaction of watching all of it come back to life.

“I am,” he said, and he turned onto Luther, a street of smaller houses, where some of the locals couldn’t afford garbage service and tossed their trash into the back of their trucks until they had the extra cash to bring it to the dump. This was where most the stray cats of the neighborhood called home.

“What makes you so different?” and then a boney finger pointed to a blue-gray house on the right side of the road, a double wide trailer with a car in the driveway that was hoisted up on a jack. “That one.”

“I guess it’s because I’m still not sorry.”

“I think,” Agnes said, looking at him, though he couldn’t look back for more than a second at a time, trying to find a way to park in Agnes’ slender driveway, “that you are. You just don’t know it yet.”

“You have too much faith,” Robert said, turning the car off. He pulled the key out a little too harshly, and was compelled to look at it, to make sure he hadn’t broken it, but he knew better. The key wasn’t broken, half of it still wedged into the ignition, rendering the car and key useless. To check that his key was still in one piece would only further cement his impression as being crazy.

That’s what Agnes had to have thought. There was nothing else for her to think. There was no other option for men who fell asleep in graveyards, who called themselves bad people with no repentance, who checked to make sure their keys weren’t broken when they turned their cars off.

“I think I have the right amount.”

don’t get too attached to Agnes btw (spoiler alert: she doesn’t die (a little unfortunate imo)).

She was already frustrated with him, the stranger. Robert, his ID had said. Robert Bennett. Agnes came from a family of helpers and saviors, and Robert didn’t want to be saved.

Still, there were ways around such things. She would make him want it.

ew ew ew EW

He decided to wash his face in the bathroom sink before he buttoned the shirt up the middle, the warm water a refreshing change from the rain’s cold that seemed to have set into his bones, decided to stay there until it got warm enough to start decaying. He scrubbed with his hands, then with his fingernails, until he could feel his skin shedding. When he stood up straight again, he saw Ramona’s face—all covered in red, just like his, hair dark red and still damp because the towel could only hold so much. He slammed himself back against the wall, which was only a step away. In the kitchen, Agnes froze over the sink, the coffee pot overflowing in her hand, wetting her hand up to her wrist.

“Are you alright?” She asked. A moment had passed with no other sound to follow the crash, and there was nothing to do but ask. It felt like an invasion of privacy to do anything else, anything more.

Robert closed his eyes and took a moment to learn how to breathe again, then how to speak. “I’m alright,” he said, and if he was in his own house, no one would have heard him. The walls here were thin, though, and Agnes shook off the interruption to start the coffee maker.

When he was ready to open his eyes again, the reflection in the mirror hadn’t changed. It wasn’t Ramona. It never was. He just looked more like her than usual, that’s all. It was seeing her that had refreshed the image in his mind, gave his idea of her face more clarity, that’s all.

He sat on the lid of the toilet and held his head in his hands, for a moment, but didn’t let himself cry. There was no reason to, she wasn’t here this time. He hadn’t seen her.

and then some of their coffee scene:

“Oh, that’s terrible. I’m sorry. If you want to talk about it, you can, but you don’t have to.”

He was speaking before he had the sense to stop himself. “I won’t get too far into it,” he said, reaching for his cup of coffee. He had no plans to drink it, but now that it had cool enough to just warm his hands, he was thankful that it kept him busy, “but she drowned. In the lake. It was a long time ago.” Indeed, emptying his troubles out to a stranger was soothing, but Robert wasn’t known for his conversation skills. He wanted to let something else slip out—the sight of Ramona out of the corners of his eyes, seeing her at the graveyard and waking up to this gentle woman. Or girl. She was younger than him, he was almost sure, but she could be anywhere from seventeen to twenty-seven.

“Oh, I think I heard about that. Ruby Bennett? My older cousin was close with her. Well, she says she was. She exaggerates sometimes, but they knew each other at least. Martha’s my cousin’s name. I guess if you and Ruby were twins you would have graduated with her.”

“Ramona,” Robert corrected, and set his cup down. The name Martha was familiar to him, but not enough to distract from his sudden, unexpected defensiveness. He moved himself to the edge of the chair, frowning, already feeling the toll of the cheap furniture on his back. The furniture in his apartment was cheap, too, but it was a sort of cheap he was used to. Thrift-store-miracle cheap, not mass produced for $8 a piece cheap. “Her name was Ramona.”

“Oh, sorry. Ramona,” Agnes ran her finger down the short pile of unopened mail, averted her eyes, embarrassed by the nature of her mistake. Her accidental disrespect of a dead girl.

this next part is where the big content warning comes in, if you’re sensitive to sexual assault (it doesn’t follow through all the way but it’s definitely implied) probably don’t read this excerpt or the one that follows, they’re both pretty heavy

Not much later, Agnes was swiping a kiss in the hallway, walking Robert to her bedroom, breath hot and vision blurry. He was unsure how or when they got there, but it was something like this:

Robert, finishing his coffee out of obligation, hoping the caffeine would soothe his headache and give him the energy to drive home soon. He stood up, took the two or three steps to the sink to rinse the cup out.

Agnes, following his movements faster than he could make them. “Let me get that,” she offered, and took the cup from his hand, set his and hers down in the sink, stared up at him with dark eyes and deep red cheeks.

They were three inches apart. Robert opened his mouth, took a step back (Agnes mirrored it, of course, before he’d processed that he’d moved at all), closed his mouth. Opened it again. A toddler trying to speak, a fish pushing air to the water’s surface, a drowning man.

Several more seconds of staring, then Agnes’ hand on his shoulder, then her lips on his, then the half-walk, half-kiss through the kitchen and down the hallway. Robert felt as though he might doze off, might fall over, might start crying again. He didn’t understand what he was doing enough to stop. Agnes kept kissing him while she fumbled with the loose doorknob, kept kissing him while she shoved the door open. It had been awhile, but she wasn’t completely without experience. She moved like liquid, so fast and fluid that Robert could hardly inhale, let alone speak. Did she think she could baptize him like this? By holding him under? She started unbuttoning his shirt, slid it off his shoulders, let it fall off the unmade bed and onto the carpet.

It wasn’t until he realized that she was undoing his jeans that Robert pulled away. Pushed away. Did both at once. Agnes’ eyes flitted open, and she frowned. “What was that about?” Her hair framed her face in a way that made her look young, innocent (and it was still difficult to believe that she wasn’t either of them). She was sitting on the bed and he stood as far from it as he could. It was a twin size and still took up most of the room. He was only a step away from it and backed against the wall.

“No. No, I’m sorry. I can’t. I can’t have- I can’t do anything like that. I didn’t mean for that to happen, I-” He already knew his whole face was red and his hands would shake the second he thought too hard about them. “Agnes, I’m sorry. I’m not feeling well. I need to go home.” His apologies were as sincere as they were unnecessary. This wasn’t what he wanted. He knew he wasn’t a good man, but he wasn’t his father. His marriage was what tied everything together, the only reason he’d ever had to regret his past. It was what kept him grounded, even if that wasn’t exactly what he’d wanted for himself. Amanda was the only promise he’d ever kept, the only thing he’d ever paid faith to.

yeah so after this there’s a really awkward dialogue that needs some work so I’m just going to pretend it doesn’t exist for now, just take the end of this neverending hell chapter :) this excerpt is a bit disorganized and messy but so is Robert and so am I so it’s fine.

Leaving his hometown, dizzy and sick to his stomach a forcing his eyes to stay open for the entire fifty-six minute drive, there was a dull knife of guilt pushing at Robert’s gut, trying to cut him open. Why didn’t he stop her sooner? Had he just cheated on his wife? Where did he go from here?

He kept his eyes away from the roadside when he passed his childhood home on the way out of town. His mother wouldn’t miss his visit, and he was likely better off without it. He understood this better than he understood most things, and yet he had to stop himself from turning around, from finding himself on her doorstep, from knocking on the door and falling into her arms the second it opened. He longed for the comfort of any mother but the one the one who’d raised him. Was that an evil thing to think? Would his mother hate him if she knew he’d driven past her?

It didn’t matter. man does what he has to do sometimes, and if that made him evil, he could live with that. Sometimes, a man has to drive past his mother’s house. And sometimes, he has to stop someone from ending his life in a lake by the forest, watch the bubbles float to the top until they don’t, wait a little bit longer to make sure. And sometimes, he has to come home and tell his wife he wasn’t feeling well and had gone to the doctor and was told that he needed to rest for awhile pick up some tylenol if it didn’t get any better, tell her he’d sleep on the couch so he wouldn’t get her sick, question all night if he would tell her the truth tomorrow or not just to disappear off to work before she was up in the morning and leave a note on the fridge that he was feeling better and that he loved her.

Maybe he did. He couldn’t imagine a world where he’d be so afraid of losing something that he didn’t love. This constant exchange of fear and comfort really couldn’t be anything else.

okay yeah that’s it! hopefully soon I’ll update on the shorter chapters I’ve written since this one, but one of them needs to be re-written entirely since I’m changing so many things about Ramona’s character.

writing this chapter was a bit of a catharsis for me, and also made me realize some changes that need to be made to the backstory/early narrative because Robert’s character ended up evolving into less of a bad person and more morally gray, the kind of character you can relate to but sometimes in ways that scare you a little bit. I hope you enjoyed this update! I spent way too long working on it and even longer writing the chapter. I’m finally getting back in the swing of writing post-covid and post-going back to school for the first time in two months, so hopefully no other large life-altering events happen because I’m having a pretty good time writing this book.

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braindeadforiwa · 4 years

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Pizza and Wine

synposis : in which Teru finds out that he isn't even on your radar. Maybe he should be content with what he's already got. Maybe he can live with just being friends. based on a prompt from this post.

pairing : terushima yuuji x reader

WC : 1371

The pouring rain was a constant rush of sound behind Terushima. The old yellow sweatshirt he wore was soaked through, and his black joggers were in the same sorry state. By far the worst thing though was the wet socks. The squelch he felt with every step he'd taken made him want to crawl out of his skin.

The things I do for a friend in need, Terushima thought to himself. Ultimately he didn't really give a damn about the wet clothes. He was more concerned about you and your emotional state.

You'd been more or less ignoring his texts since yesterday. And he'd only bothered calling twice, but you immediately rejected those calls. Normally he would have let you be. After all, maybe you were just busy.

But call it a gut feeling, intuition about a close friend, or the fact the tone of your texts had changed -- Teru felt that he should go check on you regardless of your disinterest in speaking to him.

And that's why he now stood on your doorstep, box of pizza in one hand, bottle of wine in the other. Terushima kicked on your door again.

"I didn't get drenched walking to your apartment for you to say no to pizza," Terushima called through the closed door. "I have wine too."

Teru waited a beat longer before saying, "C'mon, I know you're sad so let me in, _____."

Just when Terushima was about to resign himself to eating pizza alone on the concrete floor, your door opened.

Well he was certainly right to have been worried. Even with the poor outdoor lighting Terushima could tell your eyes were red and puffy.

"Bro...you look like shit." Tact was certainly not Teru's strong suit. "Nothing a little food and wine can't help though."

You moved out of the way, and Teru strolled into your apartment. The place may as well have been Teru's second home. He was over to often that you'd given him a drawer for his spare clothes and toiletries. You'd reasoned it would be better then having to find him a ride home if both of you were drunk, not to mention most days he came over he'd be there until at least 3am.

The two of you met in college during your first semester, and for the past five years you hadn't left each others' sides. Most people often weren't convinced that you and Teru were only friends though. Which, understandable to a certain extent. Both you and Teru realized that people weren't convinced two people could be so close and not be dating. The intimacy you guys shared rivaled a handful of the relationships you'd witnessed in college.

That's not to say the idea of dating you had never crossed Teru's mind. Over the years, Teru had found himself wondering what it'd be like to date you. He imagined it wouldn't be a whole lot different than what you had now. Really the only difference he could think of was that he'd be able to kiss you. And kissing you certainly wasn't any sort of con in his book.

"Go get changed." Your voice carried the exhaustion he could lining your shoulders. "I'll get the food and stuff ready."

"Thanks," Teru said, ruffling your hair.

After drying off and changing, Terushima met you in the kitchen, a towel around his neck. You'd gotten glasses for the wine and had already started munching on a slice of pizza.

"So what happened?" Teru asked. He hopped onto the counter and you turned to face him. God, how much had you been crying? Face masks were definitely in your shared future.

"Always right for the throat with you."

"Well it's gonna suck talking about it no matter what, right?" When you didn't say anything Teru conceded. "But I guess I can let you get a glass or two of wine in your system first."

And for the next couple hours Teru did what he did best: he distracted you. He talked about his friends and a couple wild nights, he updated you on his family, and told you about some new clients he'd gotten this week. He got you talking about a new show you were both excited for and the newest chapter for a manga you both read. He'd even managed to get you to laugh a couple times.

At some point while reminiscing about college, you ended up doing face masks, and now you found yourself sat in front of the television. You were planted between Teru's legs on the floor as he combed through your hair and played with it.

As the conversation lulled and the movie continued on screen, Teru spoke up, his voice a little more gentle than usual. "So you wanna tell me what happened now?"

A beat, and then, "Maya broke up with me."

The pause of Teru's hand in your hair was the only form of shock he showed. Not because he expected it, but because he knew you didn't like people getting too riled up on your behalf. It drew too much attention to what you were feeling. "She say why?" he asked.

"Found someone up where she is," you said. The life had started fading out of you again. "Guess she got tired of the long distance thing."

Teru clenched his jaw. For the five years he'd known you, you'd dated Maya for four of them. Hell, things had always been going so well between you two that Teru assumed you and Maya would just get married. Even you had mentioned the possibility of marriage to Teru before.

"When'd things start going bad?" Teru asked.

"Couple months after she moved," you said. "Video calls just weren't cutting it anymore. I mean, why settle for that when you find someone you could be happy with that's also in the same city? At least that's what she said on the phone."

You let out a sigh, your body sagging. "I don't blame her though," you whispered. "I understand where she was coming from. Honestly....I hadn't been dong too well with the long distance thing either. But I'm still sad, you know? And frustrated. Like, so much time and effort is just gone now. Plus she at least has someone new. Meanwhile I'm just alone." You let your head fall to Teru's knee.

Though he could tell how taxing the conversation was on you, Teru was thankful to see that it seemed to be helping you. Getting your thoughts out of your head helped you work through things. It's something he'd noticed over the last few years. It helped you to slowly work your way back to yourself. And even though he knew you had a ways to go with properly healing, you were at least taking a step.

"Well, I may not be new but you still got me so you aren't actually alone." Teru grinned.

"I meant romantically, dumbass. Romantically I'm alone."

The grin faded from Teru's face. "I can be romantic."

"Teru, I love you, but you kinda suck at relationships," you said, turning to look at him. "You get spooked any time you think someone might be into you and then either distance yourself or completely ghost them."

Teru was quiet. You weren't wrong; he did get scared at the idea of being in a relationship. It wasn't a characteristic he often consciously thought about, but yeah...you were right. The idea of being emotionally intimate with people freaked him out when he knew that romantic feelings were involved. But...you already knew so much about him. You two had bared pieces of your souls to one another on multiple occasions. You knew more about him then anyone else probably did and you accepted every part of him. If it were you...well he didn't think he'd be as scared. If it were you he'd be willing to give it a shot.

But it seems for you that wasn't even an option.

His voice was full of faked nonchalance as he said, "Well, If you ever change your mind you know where to find me."

"Sure," you chuckled as you turned back to face the TV. "I'll keep it in mind."

#haikyuu #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu fanfic #haikyuu headcanons #terushima yuuji #terushima x reader #yuuji terushima #haikyuu!!#terushima angst #hq headcanons #hq scenarios #hq imagines #ironic that this was a fluff prompt and u got angst instead #at least it's not heavy angst ya feel #but anyway #i want teru to play with my hair

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