#the one behind this in fact still has not flowered it's basically a bush

[vainvex]

LOOK AT HER!!!! SHE WAS A SEED!!!!

id: a large cosmo in a garden bed, around 3 feet tall. it has dozens of light-to-hot pink flowers in various stages of bloom. the stalk is bent at the base, and the plant has fallen over from how heavy it is. /end id

i'm unreasonably proud of the fact the flowers i started inside this year are blooming now :-) here are some of them!

id:

a clay pot with a pink cosmo plant with one full bloom, one flower about to bloom, and multiple buds forming. behind it are 2 snapdragon plants.

a closeup of one of those snapdragons, showing small buds forming.

a bachelor's button (cornflower) in a garden bed, with one full bloom and multiple stalks with buds on them. the flower is blue and turns almost purple in the middle.

a different clay pot showing cosmo leaves to the left side, and a long snapdragon stem growing away from it. the snapdragon's buds are beginning to turn pink, meaning it will bloom soon. /end id

[ashketchumseleventhbirthday]

Lavandula stoechas

Summary: Arven discovers a mysterious plant. Juliana touches it unwittingly and strange reactions run through their bodies.

Rating: MA - Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes.

Words: 2700

Notes: Finishing up the week with some smut! Lavandula stoechas or Spanish Lavender is an aphrodisiac plant, so...

“What kind of flower is this? It’s so beautiful.”

The gasp seemed justified. The flower has yet to bloom, still bundled together holding the secrets of its form, but Juliana, in her trips up and down Paldea, has never seen pedals so deep in colour or such thick black horns going all the way down the stem.

The girl leans in closer to inspect the vibrant violet petals. Even as only a button, it still looked amazingly beautiful, and she wonders if she can have one of her Pokémon to make it open faster. Even as their journey after the Hierba Mistica came to a close, there is still plenty of wonderous plant life in the country yet to be discovered, after all.

“I’m not sure yet.” Arven says from behind her, his footsteps growing louder as he makes his way over to the bush. “It was growing near some poppies but it doesn’t seem to be a part of the same species of plant. I’ve been waiting for it to bloom to see what kind of medicinal or poisonous properties it might have once it’s matured.”

He comes to stand next to her while he scribbles words on his notebook, still continuing the work he had started before she found him hiding away in the lonely lab. For a Humanities Track student, he spends a lot of his time at the biology department and the greenhouses, studying and describing the plant life.

The boy also had the unfortunate penchant to hole himself in his exploits, ignoring everything else around him, including his need to eat and sleep. He takes after his parents more than anyone would care to admit.

The smell of sugar and spice floats in the air around them, minty and sweet, something that Juliana came to associate intimately with her brutish friend over the course of the school year. She takes it in, almost completely forgetting about the flower in front of her. This close proximity make the butterflies in her stomach run wild.

Arven always did this to her when he was close, but, at the same time, he could not be more oblivious to the liking she has taken to him, infuriatingly so. Either he was painfully stupid or. if he did notice, he never let onto it, and she is still unsure of what she would rather believe.

Nevertheless, she is a persistent person. His spurious ignorance, or pretence thereof, has never stopped her from trying with him. Insistingly so. She brings him lunch between classes and League appointments because she knows he is working too hard to stop himself for a break. She is always keen in offering her opinions and thoughts to his never-ending need for knowledge when she came to his usual haunts. She manages his moods and does not take him too seriously when she knows he is riding on fumes, and she takes care of his small team of Pokémon when he forgets to.

At first, it was a service brought upon by guilt. Yes, Juliana did not murder his parents, but she was instrumental in their untimely demise, horrible people as they were. Regardless of how much he would say to the contrary, no-one comes out unscathed of this experience, and his obsessive behaviour gave weight to this observation. She would not want another disaster on her hands.

However, as time went on and she spent basically all of her free time around him, her guilty concern became a sort of desire. Desire to be close to him, to feel the warmth of him and have him tell her of the things running around in his mind. She is interested in his research and his observations, but also, she just really loved the sound of his voice and how lovely it sounded in her ears.

While she is not sure how Arven felt for her in return, and the fact he does not make her life any easier, his welcoming to her and her words were enough to tell her that he did at least enjoy her company.

She brings her fingers up to the flower, lightly running them up the silken pedals.

“Please, be careful.” The blond says sweetly as he watches the flower move under her touch.

As if her slightly chilled fingers had coaxed it to bloom, the flower bursts open suddenly. Large pedals go in every direction relieving a bright golden centre, very dusted with a darker shade of yellow.

Surprised by the sudden blossoming, they both lean in closer to inspect it and as quickly as it opened up, it releases a puff of pollen into the air. He reacts quickly, grabbing her shoulders with a gentle force to pull her back, though it is not fast enough to stop the pollen from invalid their senses.

It tickles her nose as Juliana inhales the floating dust, the air growing warmer down her throat and in her lungs the deeper it goes. Her chest burns, but it is not all that unpleasant, rather it feels… Strange. Unlike anything that she had ever experienced before.

She looks up at Arven to see if he is feeling the same. His hands are on his knees, eyes on her, studying her, watching her intently. His lips parted slightly as he breathes in. The sight makes her mouth water.

“Are you alright?” He asks, his voice deeper than it normally is.

Even if one is partially covered by his overgrown bangle, she can feel that both of his eyes remain fixated on her. She also cannot help but notice how dark they become as they look up and down her body.

“I think so.” She responds, scratching her left shoulder with her right hand. The bra strap over there seemed awfully uncomfortable all of a sudden.

The heat in her chest spreads throughout her body quickly, her head feels dizzy and she cannot keep his gaze for long.

Juliana closes her eyes, gulp down the saliva at the back of her throat, anything to help cool her, but every movement only seems to make it worse. Behind her closed lids, lay only lust-filled images of the cook standing before her. Things that she would never dare saying, not even thinking about.

Her body feels so sensitive, so hot it feels like she might burst into flames, but it is the flesh between her legs that aches the most.

Her eyes trail down his body and, even though her own body is screaming to touch what it sees, she rather wishes that she had not looked away from his face when she sees the incredibly hard bulge straining his pants. The vexing member was sketched very clearly against the beige fabric and it seemed larger than what she was led to imagine.

The sight has she pushing her legs together but, gods, she wishes she could just stay still. He notices at the exact moment she does and tries to bend and cover himself up.

“Juli, I… You, ahem, you’ll have to forgive me.” He coughs.

Arven seems to have difficulty in finding his voice at the exposition, but it is also incredibly hard to speak when all he can focus on is this girl and the way she is panting in front of him. If he could find the strength to do anything but force himself not to reach out to her, it is a sight he would love to register somehow.

He tried to get a hold on himself. “I can’t seem to... It appears this plant is an aphrodisiac, and a potent one at that.”

Her knees melt underneath her, her hands catching her before she hits the ground as she pants and fights for air. The coolness of the ground when it meets her legs does nothing to help how she is burning up.

The blond wants to reach out to Juliana, help her off the ground and apologize for this outcome but he is not sure he will be able to stop himself if he gets a hold of her. He would have to apologize later, for now, if one of them did not leave soon, he would do something crazy.

“One of us should leave, before I can’t control myself.” He hoarsely explains.

The aching between her legs grows tenfold within the time he says such a thing, and she can feel how wet she is as her essence starts to stain her panties.

With all her strength, Juliana sits up on her legs and looks up at him. Perhaps if they talk it out, it would not be so awkward and they could resist the pull of the chemicals by mental fortitude alone.

She immediately finds out that this was not a very intelligent idea. Good gods, does he look incredible. She has seen him be happy, curious, his own toned-down version of frustrated but never like this, like he wants to devour her. Her imagination of him in a romantic situation that came in her daydreams since falling for him was nothing compared to reality.

“I don’t want to...” She says through heavy breaths. “Flower or not, I want you, Arven.”

Juliana wants him to touch her, take her as he pleases, just as long as it is hard and it lasts. She wanted that even without the influence of the mysterious pollen, it just gave her the courage to voice it out loud.

“Are you certain?” He rasps, incapable of being any more eloquent.

She nods in response. “Yes.”

Not a moment later, his lips are on hers and he joins her in the ground. They are soft, cool against her own burning lips and she cannot get enough. Every kiss grows deeper than the last and she reaches for his coat to pull him closer. His gloves are quickly shed and his bare hands run up the sides of her neck, through her hair.

Those hands make her feel as though they are searing her skin and it has her moaning into his mouth.

“Juli, I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself much longer.” He says against her lips, his kisses slowing only to communicate with her. He does not want her to regret this or hate him for it after the effects of the pollen wear off. “Are you truly certain?”

“Yes, I’m certain. I’m certain. I… I want you so badly. Please, Arven.”

Without another word, his hands untangle from her hair and move down her back, pressing her flush chest against his and she moves her legs to straddle him. His cock is so hard against her core and just a light thrust of her hips through her pants is enough to have them both wanton and moaning. Slender hands cannot stop roaming over every inch of her body and her lips only part to breathe.

There is no will for patience between the two of them and their clothes get naturally shed quickly, most of them finding their way underneath her to keep her body from the cold linoleum floor of the lab. The cool air feels amazing against her burning flesh but it does not stop the heat that only continues to build inside of her with every desperate touch of his hands against her bare skin.

Juliana is a blushing mess against his piercing look, but she cannot tear her own gaze away from the perfect body that lay under his clothes.

“You’re so beautiful, Juli.” He coos from above her.

Arven attentively watches his hands trail down her chest, playing with her overly sensitive nipples before going down through her stomach. Every touch he gives her is so needy and leaves lingering flames in its wake. She cannot reply, all words she could have said leave her mind at the touch of his fingers on her folds.

She is soaking wet, her juices coating his fingers and only growing more wet with every touch. He pulls his hand away to grab himself, pumping his cock once before lining it up with entrance.

Even through the uncontrollable lust, he finds it hard to not study every reaction coming from her as he eases inside of her inch by inch. Every face she makes, every movement of her body, every noise that escapes past her pretty lips, he takes it all in and lets it drive his lust even further.

She is so fucking tight around him, her walls pulling him in even deeper with every rock of his hips. If he could speak, he would want to tell her how wonderful she feels, but he cannot find the words as he pulls himself almost completely out of her cunt just to slam back in.

The pace is animalistic and desperate but neither of them can find a single ounce of composure or care. All they want to do is to feel each other, let the heat in their cores burst. She bucks her hips up to meet him, the top of his cock kissing her cervix.

“Fuck, Arven!” She cries out.

He has always loved the way Juliana pronounced his name but, like this, in these circumstances, it drives him crazy in the best way. He grabs her hips, using his strength to pull them up to meet him again and again as he slams into her.

Soft sand-coloured locks tickle her forehead when he leans down to her figure and with her hands tangling in his hair, she crashes her lips against his with feverous intent. The sound of their kisses, their muffled moans and the lewd noises coming from her dripping cunt echo off the walls of the lab, all of them only growing louder the closer they both get to their climax.

Her fingers tug at his hair at a partially hard thrust, accidently pulling his head back in the process. The most sinful, the most angelic moan sounds from his throat, making her mind grow ever foggier and a flash of hot, white light rush through her eyelids. His fingers on her hips digging into her flesh, sure enough to leave bruises tomorrow and it pushes her over the edge.

Her walls pulsate around him, squeeze him for all he is worth and he cannot hold his own back anymore. Quickly, he pulls out of her and a desperate whine at the emptiness she feels starts to fall past her lips before she moans loudly, full once again but this time with his fingers.

Sticky hot cum coats her thigh as Arven pumps his finger in and out of her, letting her ride out her high for as long as possible. He watches from above, unable to decide if her fucked out face or his fingers disappearing in and out of her abused pussy is the best place to look. They are both such lovely sights.

With heavy, heavy breaths, her chest rises and falls evenly and, for the first time since the flower bloomed, her mind feels some sense of clarity. Her legs begin to shake, his fingers becoming too much when she became overly-sensitive. His fingers slip from her walls, and again she finds herself hating the emptiness she feels. The blond quickly finds her clit again, rubbing in gentle comforting circles.

“Arven…” She calls breathlessly, not really knowing what she is supposed to say in this situation.

Juliana opens her eyes to look at him. She is not sure what she wants to convey first, but perhaps she should apologize or ask if he is okay or tell him she does not want this to be the last and only time they are together, but even if it was, she does not regret it.

Before she can get her bearings, though, Arven takes a deep breath and opens his mouth, purposeful.

“Juli, I’d like to show you my feelings for you like this again in a more proper setting, if you’d allow me.” He says, with a tranquillity and a confidence that he neither feels, nor comes naturally to him. “Perhaps you’d like to have dinner with me tonight? I’d love to cook something for you.”

She smiles widely. “I’d love that, Arven.”

*_*_*_*_*

9th Gen Masterlist

[btsqualityy]

Magnolias in Springtime

Namjoon x Reader

Genre: Arranged marriage!AU, ABO (Alpha/Beta/Omega) dynamics, fluff, smut, and just a smidge of angst 

Warnings: Talks of arranged marriages, brief mention of polygamy (nothing comes of it, promise lol), oral sex, fingering, unprotected sex, knotting 

Author’s Note: This fic is based on a prompt from the Spring Fest “Spring Will Come Again” hosted by @bangtanarmynet​! I really hope you guys enjoy it! P.S: There will also be a part two to this fic so stayed tuned for that!

Prompt: While their parents discuss behind closed doors the terms of their arranged marriage to each other, they meet in the blooming garden to go over their own conditions.

Your pack was your entire life.

Growing up as what some of the elders in your pack referred to as the spoiled only child of the Pack Alpha and the Pack Omega, you were doted on by everyone. As a child, you marveled at the Alphas when they brought back the animals that they had haunted for the pack’s dinner and now as an adult, you were having Alphas dedicate those kills to you as a sign of intention to marriage. 

As a child, you tried to take notes on how the Betas seemed to be able to de-escalate any and all types of conflict, always seeming to have a solution that would placate everyone. Now that you were an adult, you found yourself going to those same Betas whenever you had conflicts with your parents or your best friends, because you knew that they would understand you. 

As a child, you thought that it was the coolest thing when you watched the Omegas essentially hold the pack together. They were the ones who gave birth, they were the ones who mostly took on child rearing and cooking (even though the Alphas and Betas in your pack always helped out as well), and they were always there when you happened to skin your knee as a child or just needed comfort. Once you became an adult and presented, you found yourself gravitating more towards the Omegas as you were also one now, and they took you under their wings as you learned just what it really meant to be an Omega. 

So in short, you loved your pack and you were extremely grateful for everything that they had taught you. Oddly enough, that gratefulness is exactly how you ended up in this situation. 

“We really appreciate the fact that you’re doing this for us Y/N,” your Alpha father, Byung-hoon told you as he, you, and your mother Deiji waited on the edge of the Kim Pack’s territory. 

“I told you that it’s fine Daddy,” you muttered, bouncing yourself up and down on the tips of your toes.

“Taking on this huge responsibility for our pack isn’t fine, but we’re grateful that you’re willing to do it,” Deiji said. Instead of answering her though, you decided to change the subject.

“Their territory really is beautiful,” you pointed out as you looked around, seeing multiple bushes of plum blossoms and azaleas. “At least I’ll have something pretty to look forward to once I move here.”

“That you will,” a deep voice added and when you turned around, you saw a large, muscular man walking towards you and following behind him was an almost equally tall woman who was easily one of the most beautiful women you had ever seen in your life. 

“Ah, hello Pack Alpha Ho-jin,” your father bowed and you and your mother followed his lead, holding the bow for a few seconds before straightening up again. 

“Hello Pack Alpha Byung-hoon,” Ho-jin replied as he and the woman bowed as well. “This is my wife, Pack Omega Eun Kyung.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Eun Kyung smiled. 

“This is my wife, Pack Omega Deiji and this is our daughter, Y/N,” Byung-hoon introduced.

“Hello,” Deiji smiled.

“Hello,” you echoed, even though your smile was a bit more forced than your mother’s.

“Oh, you are absolutely gorgeous,” Eun Kyung gushed as she stepped forward, reaching out and grabbing your hands. “Our son is a lucky man.”

“I’m sure that I am lucky as well, Pack Omega,” you replied.

“Please, call me Eun Kyung,” she corrected you. “I am going to be your mother-in-law soon.”

“Speaking of, where is Namjoon?” Your father wondered.

“He went off hunting with some of the other Alphas and Betas in our pack,” Ho-jin explained. “We plan on having a very big feast in order to celebrate their impending nuptials and he decided to go and try to find some extra meat.”

“Yeah, or to avoid meeting the wife that he doesn’t want,” you thought to yourself.

“He sounds like he’ll be an amazing provider and Alpha,” your mother smiled.

“Well, why don’t we all go into my office so that we can go over the terms and conditions of their marriage?” Ho-jin suggested before turning to look at you. “Y/N-ah, feel free to look around our territory and get a feel of the place. This will be your home soon, after all.”

“Of course,” you nodded. “Thank you.” After receiving a kiss on your head from your father and a pat on the hand from your mother, you watched silently as the four of them walk away together. As soon as they were out of sight, you let out a large rush of breath that you didn’t even realize you were holding. Even though you weren’t completely excited about this arrangement, your inner Omega wanted the parents of your future husband to like you and after meeting them, you were happy that you could seemingly not have that to worry about. 

Deciding to take your future father-in-law’s advice, you walked away from the front of their territory and ventured around. You were amazed at how vast their territory seemed to be in comparison to your pack’s, large buildings and houses searching as far as your eyes could see. As you walked, you took notice of what seemed to be a schoolhouse, a building that seemed to be a sort of meeting hall, and even a building that looked like a store front with mannequins in the window.

The thing that caught your attention though, was a large archway that was covered in gorgeous magnolia flowers. When you stepped over to it, you gasped at what laid behind it: A large wall full of nothing but magnolias stood a few feet beyond the arch, a small bench placed in front of it. 

“Gorgeous,” you whispered in awe as you stepped over to the wall, reaching out and gently touching the flowers. 

“Who are you?” A deep voice called out and you jumped up a little, your heart almost beating out of your chest as you turned around to find the source of the voice. Standing right underneath the archway, was a tall, tan skinned man whose presence seemed to command attention. 

“I-I’m Y/N L/N,” you replied, still feeling a little hesitant and the man’s eyes widened. 

“You’re Y/N?” He wondered and you nodded your head. “Well, you’re a lot prettier than I thought you’d be.”

“I’m sorry, who are you?” You questioned. 

“I’m Kim Namjoon,” he said, smiling at the soft gasp that escaped you. “Your future husband.”

“Oh,” was all you could utter in response because holy shit, your future husband was hot.

“Where are your parents?” Namjoon asked as he stepped closer to you. “I assume that you didn’t come here alone.”

“Um, they’re talking to your parents about the ‘terms and conditions’ of our marriage,” you told him and he scoffed out a laugh.

“Of course they are,” he chuckled as he took a seat on the small bench. “Well, I think that while they’re doing that, you and I should probably go over our own terms and conditions.”

“Our own?” You echoed as you sat down on the bench as well.

“Seeing as though we’re both fundamentally being forced into this, I figure that there’s things that you don’t want and that you do want,” he said. 

“That’s..true, I guess,” you nodded. “You go first.”

“Well, seeing as though you weren’t raised in this pack, I’d like for you to learn the ways of the pack and just be a proper wife,” he began.

“I’ve been learning about your pack since the discussions of a possible arrangement started,” you told him. “I have to wonder though, what exactly is your definition of a ‘proper’ wife.”

“Basically, just keeping house, cooking and cleaning,” he elaborated. “As my father plans to step down once we’re married, I’ll be too busy running the pack.”

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble but I wasn’t raised to be a docile Omega and I don’t plan on becoming one once we’re married,” you huffed.

“Why not? I mean, surely you don’t expect to run the pack with me?” He laughed.

“Actually, that’s exactly what I expect,” you smiled. 

“How can you expect to lead this pack when they don’t know you?” He asked.

“Since I’m going to be here for the rest of my life, then they’ll have every opportunity to get to know me,” you shrugged. 

“We’ll talk more about that one later,” Namjoon sighed. “Anything that you wanted specifically?”

“I know that your pack is going to be providing aid to mines once we’re married and as much as I plan on being involved in this pack, I also hope that you don't expect me to never see my pack again,” you said. 

“That’s the custom when you marry into another pack though,” Namjoon pointed out. “Plus, no offense or anything, but your pack is broke in terms of both money and resources and I don’t imagine there to be much to even go back to.”

“I am my parent’s only child and my pack is very close knit so I’d love to still be able to see them and for them to come see me,” you continued. “At least three or four times a year.”

“Alright, I guess that’s reasonable,” he relented. “Especially under these circumstances.”

“Thank you,” you smiled. 

“Oh, another thing,” he said suddenly. “I know that this marriage isn’t exactly something that either of us want but you cannot have any...uh, lovers on the side.”

“I’d never do something like that,” you frowned. “But I hope you know that the same goes for you.”

“That’s fine,” Namjoon nodded. “It’s not my style anyways.”

“In addition to that, I read your pack’s history and the whole taking more than one Omega as a wife thing isn’t going to fly with me,” you stated firmly.

“It’s tradition though,” he shot back. “Every leader of this pack throughout its’ history has had more than one spouse.”

“Your father doesn’t,” you pointed out. 

“Because he didn’t want one.”

“And you do?” You demanded to know and Namjoon just chuckled.

“You really meant that whole not a docile Omega thing, huh?” He wondered and you nodded while smirking. 

“You’re going to be Pack Alpha,” you said. “You have the authority to change tradition.”

“Fine, no additional Omegas,” he agreed. “I hope that means you’re going to be willing to have lots of pups then, since that’s what the whole multiple Omegas rule was for.”

“How many?” 

“At least 5,” he replied and you just laughed.

“5 is a pretty big number coming from a man who’s not going to be pushing them out,” you giggled. “Two, at most.”

“Three?” Namjoon bargained and after thinking for a few seconds, you nodded your head. 

“Deal,” you answered. “Anything else?”

“Just one more,” he added. “No roses at our wedding.”

“What? Why?”

“They’re overrated and cliché,” he shrugged. 

“What about magnolias?” You asked. “Those are my favorites.”

“I like those,” he smiled.

“Well, it’s settled then,” you announced. “No roses.”

“You know, this marriage thing is easier than I thought,” Namjoon said thoughtfully, making you giggle at him. “Do you have anything else you wanted to bring up?”

“Nope,” you shook your head. “I’m good.”

“Shake on it?” He extended his hand out to you and you let him grab onto yours, shaking each other’s hands. 

“Namjoon?” A deep voice called out and Namjoon sighed heavily. 

“That’s my dad,” Namjoon told you. “Should we head out there?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, standing up and waiting for Namjoon to do the same before the two of you walked back towards the front of their territory. As you did so, you couldn’t help but to Namjoon hadn’t let go of your hand the entire time.

“Ah, I see that the two of you met and are getting along!” Ho-jin announced happily.

“I’d say that we are,” Namjoon nodded as he looked down at you, and you nodded as well. 

“Well, why don’t we all move into our house?” Eun Kyung suggested. “We can have dinner and get to each other more.” After receiving nods all around, the group of you began to move towards the large cluster of houses that were a few yards away from where you were currently standing. As you let Namjoon lead you, you thought that maybe all of this actually wouldn’t be so bad. 

..........................................

A few days later, your time visiting Namjoon’s pack was winding down. After the first day, your father had happily told you that the negotiations between him and Namjoon’s father went off without a hitch and that the wedding could move forward immediately so the last few days of your visit had been spent planning your wedding.

“So maybe you and Namjoon can have your ceremony closer to the evening?” Eun Kyung suggested. “So that way we can move right into the reception afterwards.” You, her and your mom were currently in the dining room of Ho-jin and Eun Kyung’s house, going over some wedding details.

“That’s a good idea,” Deiji concurred. 

“Yeah,” you agreed. “Having the ceremony around 5pm sounds good.”

“Great,” Eun Kyung smiled as she wrote some things down onto the notepad that was on the table in front of her. “A later ceremony will hopefully ease some of the anxiety you’ll have that day.”

“Anxiety?” You asked.

“About your wedding night,” Eun Kyung clarified and your eyes widened. “When Ho-jin and I got married, we had our ceremony in the early afternoon and I was so nervous waiting for the reception to come because I knew what was going to happen afterwards and I had never been to bed with anyone before.”

“Oh,” you murmured. Of course, you knew that it was expected that you’d have sex with Namjoon on your wedding night and if it were up to your parents and Namjoon’s parents, get pregnant immediately but you had done your best not to actually think about it.

“Anyways, I think maybe roses for the flowers,” Deiji changed the subject and you gave her a small smile in thanks. 

“Oh, that would be gorgeous,” Eun Kyung gasped. “Namjoon’s grandmother actually has a garden full of red roses and I’m sure that she won’t mind us using some.”

“Actually, no roses,” you spoke up and both older women looked at you.

“I thought you liked roses, Y/N-ah,” Deiji said.

“I do, but Namjoon doesn’t,” you explained. “We agreed on magnolias instead.”

“You both agreed?” Deiji repeated and you nodded your head, making her smile. “That’s great.”

“You know, it’s so nice to see you actually trying to make the best of this whole thing Y/N,” Eun Kyung said. “I know it’s not ideal and you could be fighting this tooth and nail but the fact that you’re not says a lot about your character.”

“Thank you,” you smiled lightly. 

“Alright, magnolias it is,” Eun Kyung muttered as she wrote that down onto her notepad as well. Before the conversation could continue any further though, there was a sudden knock and when you looked up, you saw Namjoon standing in the door way to the dining room. 

“Hey, you all back from hunting so soon?” Eun Kyung wondered, referring to how Ho-jin, Namjoon, and Byung-hoon had decided to go off and hunt right after lunch. 

“Animals weren’t really out,” Namjoon shrugged. “Dad wanted to show Pack Alpha Byung-hoon our warehouse and I decided to come back here to spend time with Y/N.”

“With me?” You echoed in awe and Namjoon nodded.

“I wanted to show you around a little more, if you’re willing,” he offered. Before answering, you looked over at your mother who immediately waved her hands at you.

“Go, go,” she encouraged you. “We’re here for another two days so we can pick this up again later. Right, Eun Kyung?”

“Absolutely,” she agreed, turning to look at Namjoon after. “Show her the river.”

“I got it Mom,” Namjoon chuckled. “Y/N?”

“Sure,” you replied before standing up, walking over to Namjoon and grabbing his outstretched hand. 

“We’ll be back by dinner,” he called out to your mothers before turning around and leading you through the living room and out of the house. 

“Thanks for getting me out of there,” you said as the two of you walked down the front steps and began to walk away from the cluster of houses. “All that wedding planning was starting to get to my head.”

“I figured, which is why I got out of there right after lunch,” Namjoon laughed. “But I also genuinely wanted to spend some time with you too. It feels like I haven’t had a moment alone with you since the first day you got here.”

“I think our families are making sure of that,” you pointed out. “I think they’re afraid that we may realize that we hate each other if they leave us alone together for too long.”

“I think that’s actually a great assumption,” he chuckled. “They don’t have to worry about that though, at least not on my end.”

“Mines either,” you murmured shyly. “So, where are you taking me?”

“Well, even though my mom suggested that I take you to the river, I think that there’ll be plenty of time for you to see that later,” he told you. “I actually want to show you something that I’ve been working on.”

“Cool,” you nodded as the two of you continued to walk and you noticed that he was still holding onto your hand. On their territory, there were a few different clusters of houses and Namjoon was leading you over to a different one, stopping in front of what seemed to be the largest house. 

“What do you think?” Namjoon asked and you took a second to look over the outside, liking how it was painted a light brown color, had a large porch that already had a swing attached to the ceiling of it, and a large set of stairs. 

“I think it’s beautiful,” you smiled. “You built this?”

“Yeah, for us,” he revealed and you looked over at him in shock. “What? I hope you didn’t think we’d be living with my parents once the wedding is over.”

“Namjoon, I don’t even know what to say,” you murmured in awe.

“Want to take a look inside?” Namjoon wondered, reaching down and pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. You nodded your head rapidly and he chuckled before leading you up the stairs and unlocking the front door. Walking inside, you let out another soft gasp as you looked around. 

As soon as you walked into the front door, there was a little open space which could be used to place your shoes and jackets and then a staircase that led upstairs to the second level of the house. On your left hand side, there was an archway that lead into the dining room and kitchen and then on your right hand side, there was another archway that lead into the living room and another room that Namjoon said he planned on converting into a study. Once you went upstairs, you saw that there were a total of five bedrooms and the master bedroom was the largest and complete with an en suite as well. 

“I love it,” you gushed as you turned to look at Namjoon, who was leaning up against one of the walls in what would soon be your shared bedroom. 

“I thought I’d leave the decorating up to you,” he said. “That way you’ll have control over something here.”

“Good, because I already have ideas,” you grinned, deciding to throw caution to the wind and walking over to him, not waiting for him to ask what you were doing before throwing your arms around him. He hesitated for a second before hugging you back as well, and the two of you stood there for a few seconds with your arms around each other. 

“I’m happy that you like it,” he whispered and you craned your neck in order to look up at him. 

“I really appreciate it,” you told him.

“Anything for my future wife,” he smiled and it was when he said that that you realized how close the two of you still were. You dropped your arms from around him and stepped back, forcing him to let go of you as well. Feeling your cheeks warm up from embarrassment, you turned your back towards him and walked over towards the window to look outside.

“You know Y/N, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Namjoon began. “Why did you agree to all of this?”

“What, marrying you?” You asked for clarification and Namjoon nodded.

“I mean, I know the basic reason why but I feel like there’s more to it than that,” he said. “A lot of packs run out of money and resources at some point but their leaders usually figure something out instead of marrying off their children in return for more resources.”

“True,” you sighed before turning to look at him over your shoulder. “Long story short, I don’t want my pack to die out just because of my father’s mismanagement. I love every member of my pack and they have all been so vital to how I grew up and how I’ve become the person that I am. If me marrying into another pack will guarantee that those people can continue to live comfortably, then I’ll do it.”

“That’s incredibly selfless,” Namjoon replied as he walked over to stand next to you. 

“I guess so,” you shrugged. “But to me, I’m just repaying the people who gave me so much.”

“That’s amazing Y/N,” he muttered. 

“What about you?” You reversed the question. “Why did you agree to this?”

“Well, my reasoning was a lot more selfish than yours,” he chuckled. “It’s always been my dream to lead the pack and when my father came to me a few months ago saying that he was getting ready to want to step down, I was super excited. However, it concerned him that I’m 26 and not mated to anyone yet so he made it a stipulation that I meet someone and get mated before he allows me to take over for him. Since I planned on getting married at some point in my life, that stipulation really didn’t matter to me so I agreed.”

“Ah, I guess that explains why you weren’t too keen on me wanting to run the pack with you,” you said.

“Kind of,” he shrugged. “Although, after hearing why you agreed to all of this, I have to admit that I’m reconsidering that.”

“Really?” You smiled hopefully. 

“Of course, you’ll still have to get to know the pack and our ways,” he pointed out. “But I don’t think it would be the worst thing to have you by my side.”

“Great!” You exclaimed happily and Namjoon couldn’t help but to laugh from how excited you clearly were. 

“Do you want to go look in the other bedrooms?” He suggested. “Maybe see what you might want to do with them?” 

“Mm, we don’t have to. I don’t want to overwhelm myself,” you giggled. “Why did you make so many bedrooms anyways?”

“Well, for our future children,” he confessed and you felt your cheeks immediately become hotter. 

“Oh,” you whispered. 

“Is that ok?” Namjoon wondered. “I know it might’ve been a little presumptuous of me, especially since I did it before we had our conversation about what we both wanted the other day.”

“No, no, no, it’s....it’s fine,” you shrugged. 

“Oh, I get it,” he smirked. “You haven’t been with anyone, have you?”

“Namjoon!” You shouted in surprise.

“You’re nervous,” he surmised. 

“Can you blame me?” You scoffed. “I mean, it’s already embarrassing to have basically everyone know that I’m a virgin but knowing what’s expected of us on our wedding night....it’s nerve wrecking.”

“It’s not that big of a deal Y/N,” he shrugged. 

“Aren’t you nervous?” You asked him, only to see him shake his head. “Why not?”

“Because I’ve thought about filling you with my knot since the first day that I saw you,” Namjoon confessed. “So if you let me have sex with you on our wedding night, I’d consider myself to be a very lucky man.”

“Really?” You whispered.

“Of course, but I’m not going to push you,” he told you. “If you deicide that you don’t want to, then that’s completely fine. If you do though, just know that I’ll be more willing.”

“Good to know, I guess,” you muttered, more so to yourself but Namjoon still laughed at you. 

“Cute,” he smiled widely as he reached down and grabbed your hand, intertwining your fingers with his.

..........................................

A month later, your wedding day had finally come. After spending a week in Namjoon’s territory, you and your parents had traveled back to your pack’s territory where you prepared for the wedding alone. The only other time that you were able to see Namjoon had been when he and his parents decided to visit your territory in order to sign the treaty that would make the connection between your two packs official. 

Fast forward to now, you were standing in the guest bedroom of Namjoon’s parents’ house, getting ready with your mom and your two best friends. 

“I really wish you would’ve let me make you a more form fitting dress Y/N-ah,” Taehyung sighed as he pullzed up the zipper on the back of your dress. Your dress was pure white, with long billowing sleeves, a scooped neckline, and a loose, long skirt with a small train. 

“You know that I hate tight clothing,” you pointed out. “This feels more like me.”

“And you look beautiful,” Jimin spoke up, taking a second to stick his tongue out at Taehyung.

“That you do,” Deiji grinned widely as she placed a crown of magnolias on top of your head. “You look like a dream.”

“Thanks Mommy,” you giggled. Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door. 

“Everyone decent in there?” Your father called out and Jimin walked over to the door and opened it up, making your father gasp when he saw you. 

“Oh Y/N-ah,” he murmured as he paced over to you, setting his hands on your cheeks. “My baby girl.”

“What do you think?” You asked him. 

“I think that Namjoon is a very lucky man to be marrying such a gorgeous woman,” Byung hoon replied, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to your cheek. “You ready? There’s still time to back out and we can always figure something else out.”

“I’m not gonna do that Daddy,” you huffed with a smile, reaching out and taking the bouquet of magnolias that Taehyung was handing to you. “I’m gonna do this.”

“We can’t thank you enough,” your father murmured and you just leaned forward, giving him a kiss on the cheek as well. 

“What’s done is done,” you said. “So don’t stress about it.”

“Well, let’s go get you married,” Taehyung smiled as he reached up and pulled your veil down over your face.

“Let’s,” you whispered as you wrapped your hand around your father’s arm and let him lead you out of the bedroom. 

The ceremony was an unrushed affair once you met Namjoon underneath the little archway that had been placed near the large wall of magnolias where the two of you had first met. You found yourself not even paying much attention to what was happening during the ceremony and before you knew it, you were facing Namjoon as the preacher pronounced you man and wife.

It wasn’t the first time that you’d ever been kissed, but it still felt different all the same. Namjoon was so gentle as he reached out and grabbed the hem of your veil, lifting it up and over your head to reveal your face. He then placed his hands on your cheeks, cradling them as he leaned forward and kissed you softly. You found yourself kissing back on instinct, your hands reaching out and grabbing onto his suit jacket. 

The reception was definitely more fun than you imagined it to be. The food was amazing and so was the music, and you couldn’t help but to smile at how everyone in your new pack danced around happily as they celebrated your marriage. You found yourself having fun as well as you allowed Eun Kyung and Ho-jin to lead you around, introducing you to some members of the pack as well as spending time with your own family and friends as well.

Now that the night was over though, you were quietly walking back to your new house with Namjoon, which had been decorated to your liking. 

“Did you have fun?” Namjoon asked and you looked over at him, nodding your head.

“I did,” you smiled. “Your pack sure knows how to throw a party.”

“It’s your pack now too,” he pointed out and you hummed in reply. Once your new house came into view, Namjoon helped you walk up the front steps before pulling out his keys and unlocking the front door. 

“Wait,” he said when you moved to step into the house and before you could ask what he was doing, he leant down and picked you up bridal style.

“Namjoon!” You shrieked as he carried you into the house and you reached out to shut the front door for him. He then carried you up the stairs and into your bedroom before setting you down on the ground.

“What was that?” You giggled as you looked up at him.

“Well, I couldn’t let you be deprived of a prime wedding experience,” he shrugged, making you smile. A somewhat awkward silence then settled over the two of you then and it wasn’t until then that you felt your nerves kick in. You had been successful in not thinking much about your wedding night for the past few weeks but now that the two of you were alone, it was all that you could think about. 

“You know,” Namjoon spoke up suddenly. “We don’t have to do anything tonight.”

“Namjoon, we talked about this,” you replied.

“We did and I meant what I said then,” he said. “We don’t have to do anything just because people might expect us to.”

“Really?”

“Really. Plus, it’s kind of insulting if you only have sex with me because you’re expected to,” he joked, making you giggle.

“You have a point,” you smiled. “What if I said that I wanted to though, because I want to?”

“Do you remember what else I said to you when we had that conversation?” He wondered and you felt your cheeks warm up immensely as you recalled his words. 

“Yes.”

“What did I say baby?” 

“You said that you, uh, wanted to....uh,” you stammered and Namjoon smiled, deciding to take pity on you.

“I said that I wanted to fill you with my knot,” he finished for you. “And I still mean that.”

“You’ll be gentle?” You checked.

“Absolutely,” he stated firmly. “And I’ll go as slow as you need me to.” You knew that this was a big step, losing your virginity. However, something about Namjoon made you feel so at ease and besides, he was your husband now.

“I want to,” you announced, causing him to grin widely.

“Can I kiss you?” He requested and you nodded your head. He reached up and placed his hands on your cheeks before leaning down and pressing his lips against yours. You immediately moved closer to him, placing your hands near his waist. He then took one of his hands off of your cheek and before you could ask what he was doing, he reached up and took the crown of magnolias off your head before throwing it over his shoulder.

“Someone seems eager,” you teased.

“You have no idea,” Namjoon chuckled deeply. He kissed you again, this time much deeper as he walked you backwards towards the bed. Once you felt the edge of the bed hit the back of your knees, you pulled away from his lips and looked up at him. 

“Help me take this off?” You whispered, taking a second to turn around so that your back was facing him. Without any hesitation, he reached out and pulled down the zipper on the back of your dress. The feeling of his fingertips against your skin made you shiver and when your dress dropped down to the floor in a pool around your feet, the feeling of his eyes on you made you get chills. 

“Did you wear this for me?” Namjoon asked before leaning forward and pressing kisses along the curve of your shoulder, referring to the white, lace bra and panty set that you had been wearing underneath your dress. 

“Maybe,” you breathed out, his lips on your skin making it hard for you to focus. 

“Gorgeous. Lay down for me?” He said and you nodded before bending down and crawling onto the bed. When you flipped over to lie on your back, Namjoon was working on taking off his suit jacket and unbuttoning the white dress shirt that he had underneath.

“You still ok?” He checked in as he climbed onto the bed as well and you smiled as you reached up and wrapped your arms around his neck. 

“I’m ok,” you confirmed, leaning up and kissing him again. The kiss quickly became heated, your mouth falling open as Namjoon slipped his tongue inside. He then pulled away from your mouth, moving down to press kisses to your jaw before moving down to your neck. 

“Been thinking about this, about you,” he whispered against your skin and you just blushed as you looked up at the ceiling.

“About me?” 

“Mmhmm,” he hummed. “Been thinking about your scent too.”

“What do I smell like to you?” You wondered, doing your best to keep your eyes trained on the ceiling as you felt him start to move down again. 

“Like...pineapples and bananas,” he murmured as he grabbed the cups of your bra, pulling them down so that they sat right underneath your breasts. He then leaned down and sucked your right nipple into his mouth, making you arch your back up from the bed.

“Holy, huh,” you moaned and Namjoon chuckled at you, which automatically made you pout. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized after popping your nipple out of his mouth. “You’re just so cute.” You couldn’t find the words to say anything else because Namjoon reached underneath you and you lifted your back up so that he could take your bra off completely, and he didn’t waste any time before taking your left nipple into his mouth. 

Once both of your nipples had stiffened to a peak, he moved downwards again, trailing his lips across your skin until he made it down to the line of your panties. 

“Lift up for me?” Namjoon asked and slowly, you lifted your hips and waited until he had grabbed the waistband of your panties and pulled them down before lowering your body back onto the bed. Once he pulled them off of your legs and threw them off the bed, you watched as he sat his hands on your knees and looked down at you. 

“Still good?” He wondered.

“Seriously, stop asking,” you giggled. “I’m nervous as hell but I want to do this so I’m good.”

“I just, you know you can tell me to stop at anytime and I will, right?” 

“I know, and that’s why I want this,” you smiled. “Want you to give me a bite.”

“Fuck, ok,” he exhaled harshly. “I want to eat you out first though.”

“Ok,” you nodded and you allowed him to push your knees apart, exposing your folds to him. He laid down on the bed so that he was right in between your legs, and you let out a loud gasp when you felt his tongue make contact with your clit. He used the tip of his tongue to make slow circles around your clit and even though he wasn’t placing a lot of pressure behind it, you felt like you were going to lose your mind.

“Holy shit, that feels...good,” you huffed and you felt Namjoon hum against you as he closed his entire mouth around your clit. The feeling was almost euphoric, and you couldn’t believe that you had been missing out on this for the last few years since you presented as an Omega.

“I’m gonna give you a finger ok?” Namjoon spoke up after taking his mouth off of you and you nodded, wincing lightly when he began to push his pointer finger inside of you. He then began to slowly pump the digit in and out of you, which made you moan lightly. 

“Feels good?” He asked. 

“Yeah. Weird but good,” you told him. 

“Good,” he smirked. “You’re getting wet.”

“Don’t say that,” you groaned. 

“Why not? It’s a good thing,” he shrugged. “It’ll make it easier for you to take my knot.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“Good thing you’re stuck with me,” he smiled before leaning down and taking your clit back into his mouth. As he fingered and licked you simultaneously, you found it a little harder to breathe because of the pleasure that was building in the pit of your stomach. 

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” you hissed when he tried to ease his middle finger inside of you. 

“It’s ok baby, we just gotta get you stretched out a little bit,” he whispered and you just decided to be quiet and let him do it. Admittedly, you admired how much time he was taking making sure that you were properly ready and it made your heart soften because you had never had a man (other than your father) be so gentle with you. 

“Namjoon, I-I think I’m going to come,” you whimpered and Namjoon took his mouth off of your clit for a few seconds. 

“Go ahead baby,” he encouraged you before placing his mouth back on you. Sure enough, it didn’t take much longer before your body seized up, your orgasm washing over you. Namjoon continued to stroke you through it and by the time that it passed, you were reaching down and pushing him away from you. 

“Holy shit, that felt good,” you giggled, making Namjoon laugh as well. 

“That’s good,” He replied as he sat up onto his knees. When your eyes trailed downwards, they widened a little at the sight of the bulge in his pants.

“Should I, um,” you stammered as you motioned towards his pants and he looked down, chuckling before looking back up at you. 

“You don’t have to and besides, seeing you come turned me on and I doubt I’d last,” he admitted.

“Oh, ok,” you smiled shyly. He then pulled off the dress shirt that he had on, letting it fall onto the floor before moving onto his slacks, unbuttoning and unzipping them before pulling them down. He pushed them, along with his underwear, down his legs and your jaw dropped a little from the sight of his cock.

You didn’t know what you expected, but you definitely didn’t expect his cock to be so thick and long. You had to admit, actually seeing it made you even more nervous.

“Hey,” Namjoon called out and you looked up at him. “It’ll be ok. I’m still going to go slow.”

“O-Ok,” you whispered as he climbed between your legs. He reached out with two fingers and gathered some of your slickness from your orgasm before using it to lubricate his cock. 

“Ready?” He questioned as he positioned his cock right in front of your entrance and once you nodded, he slowly began to push into you. The stinging pain hit you immediately and you yelped out loud, reaching up and clutching onto Namjoon’s forearms. “Y/N?”

“Hurts,” you muttered through grit teeth.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, bending down and pressing a kiss to your forehead. He didn’t try to push any further, he waited until you gave him a small nod before pressing his hips forward again. You were almost ready to tell him to forget the entire thing as the stinging pain seemed to become worse the more he pushed into you. Before you knew it though, he had bottomed out and was looking down at you intensely.

“What?” You asked him.

“You just, you look so beautiful,” he complimented you.

“Are you just saying that because you’re inside of me right now?” You joked.

“I mean it,” he laughed. 

“Well, thank you,” you responded and he leaned down to kiss you again. He then slowly pulled his hips back before pushing back in, which caused you to let out a stuttered moan into his mouth. The pain was still thee but as he began to fuck you, it slowly went away and was replaced by what was probably the greatest pleasure that you had ever felt in your life up to that point. 

“So tight baby,” Namjoon grunted after he pulled away from the kiss. 

“F-feels so full,” you whimpered. 

“Good. I’m gonna fill you even more with my knot,” he said gruffly as he looked down at you. “You want that?”

“Yes.”

“Say it,” he instructed you.

“I-I want your.....k-knot,” you stuttered and he literally groaned at your words. He began to fuck you a little faster, making you grip onto him and wrap your legs around his waist.

“Been thinking about this,” he moaned. “Been thinking about how good you would feel wrapped around my cock.”

“Me t-too,” you confessed. 

“Fuck, you’ve been thinking about me baby?” 

“Yeah,” you nodded. “Since you told me that you wanted to...fill me with your, uh, knot. Thought about you calling me baby too.”

“You like it?” He smiled.

“Love it.”

“Then I’ll call you that as often as I can,” he promised. He continued to fuck you, and you realized that you were feeling the same buildup of pressure that you did when he was fingering you. 

“I-I’m gonna come Namjoon,” you announced breathily and he sighed.

“Thank god,” he huffed as he began to thrust into you both faster and harder, and your grip on him became so tight that you were sure you’d leave marks on his skin. “I wanna knot you so fucking bad.”

“Do it,” you encouraged him. “Want you to bite me too.”

“Come first,” he shot back as he focused all of his energy into making sure that you did so. After a few more thrusts, you were coming right onto his cock, your essence covering more of his cock every time that he pulled it out and then pushed it right back in. 

“Ready for a bite?” He asked and you nodded your head numbly. Leaning down, he stuck his face in your neck and began to suck on the skin there. As soon as you released a moan at the feeling, you felt his teeth sink in. 

You had heard a lot about mating bites and how it would feel when you finally received one, but you could truthfully say that the feeling was indescribable. You truly felt like you were now connected to Namjoon in a way that you had never been connected with any one before and the feeling was almost so overwhelming that you almost didn’t recognize that Namjoon’s knot was pushing its’ way inside of you.

“God damn,” Namjoon groaned deeply as his knot fully popped into you, and you gasped when you felt his cum pouring into you right after. You leaned up and after finding the perfect spot, you sunk your teeth into his neck as well, giving him a mating bite too. 

Namjoon collapsed on top of you and the two of you stayed like that for a while, at least 15 minutes, basking in the after glow of your new matching mating bites. 

“No offense or anything,” you spoke up. “But you’re heavy and it’s hot in here.”

“Some offense taken,” he laughed as he lifted himself off of you. “My knot has gone down but it’s gonna hurt when I pull out.”

“Go slow, ok?” You requested and he nodded, looking down in between your legs and slowly pulling out of you. It did hurt a little and you even winced a little bit, but it wasn’t that bad all in all. 

“Y/N-ah?” He called as he laid down next to you and you gently turned over onto your side to face him.

“What happened to baby?” You simpered with a teasing smile, making him chuckle. 

“I’m still gonna call you that,” he assured you. “But I wanted to talk to you seriously.”

“Ok, shoot,” you shrugged. 

“I know that you didn’t necessarily choose all of this and neither did I, but I don’t want you to worry,” he began. “I take this marriage and this relationship just as seriously as if we met in the conventional sense and I really mean it when I say that I can see myself falling in love with you.”

“Really?”

“Really,” he smiled. “Even though we haven’t known each other long, I can already tell that you’re kind, selfless, loving, and the most gorgeous woman that I’ve ever met in my life. I’d only be so lucky if you fell in love with me.”

“Well, I think that I can fall in love with you too,” you confessed, making him grin widely. “And I hope that I do.”

[novantinuum]

please ramble about your botw au!!!!

aaAAA yeS, so-

My as-of-yet unnamed AU is a retelling of the story wherein Link and his younger sister (named Aryll, in honor of Link's canon sister from Wind Waker) wake up in the Shrine of Resurrection.

(For the purposes of this story, Link is 18 and some change, and Aryll is a few months shy of 12.)

Link- confused and disoriented- still remembers almost nothing of his former life beyond the fact that the young girl he's with is most undoubtedly his sister. Aryll on the other hand... remembers everything about her life except how she ended up here. The story's focus is on the progressive strengthening of their bond as they embark on a long journey to discover the gaps in their memory, put an end to the calamity that's lingered in these lands for the past 100 years, and... ultimately... build a new life in the wake of the one they lost.

(Essentially this is my brain going: What if Link wasn't ALONE on those long, quiet roads? What if he had someone to care for and protect? How would the details of his journey change if he had to also consider the safety of a child while trying to free the Divine Beasts? How would having a family member with him who knew him before he picked up the sword impact his developing personality in the wake of his missing memories? And, for Aryll... how would a journey like this impact a young girl in the midst of her most impressionable years of development? What is her coming of age like?)

To provide a little taster of what I think Link and Aryll's basic dynamic would be...

-Link ends up beginning to teach his sister how to shoot with a bow pretty early on, wanting her to have at least one means of self-defense under her belt should they somehow end up separated. Aryll also gets her first horse riding lessons from him during some of their more peaceful travels.

-Aryll is the type to braid flowers into her big brother's hair when they're taking a rest somewhere. Link eagerly lets her, happy for the affection.

-Trips through the woods, ft. Aryll singing some old schoolyard songs very loudly as she skips through the brush and Link having to hastily shush her upon hearing something moving in the bushes up ahead. Having a younger sibling beside you is nice for company, but certainly NOT helpful when you want to employ the element of surprise on a camp of Bokoblins.

-In the wake of everything that's come to pass (waking up literally a CENTURY away from everything you've known), Aryll doesn't like being apart from her brother longer than she has to. There's some places Link absolutely would never willingly take her (Divine Beasts and much of Hyrule Field, for instance), but in less dangerous cases, he can be a bit of a pushover when she nags him to let her tag along. He's not fond of leaving her behind, either.

-Link in this story is selectively mute- he can and does occasionally speak out loud, but he finds it far easier to fully express himself with gestures and sign. This was the case for his entire childhood, so Aryll is fluent in sign as well, and will help translate his words at stables if he's not in the mindset to speak and the stable hands aren't familiar with Hylian sign language. Link is very appreciative.

[calif0rnia-lovers]

Dating Bishop Losa Would Include...

A/N: what’s wild is thinking I posted this only to realize it was sitting in my drafts. Showing my all time favorite love some love 😍

Rating: 💙

Check out the others I’ve done so far?: Dating Angel Reyes + Dating Ezekiel Reyes

✦ Bishop is entirely too old -- both physically and mentally --for playing games.

✧ So, if you’re looking for some quick, undefined and slightly messy, drama filled hookups please spare him the headache, and consult with a younger member of the MC

✦ The man’s got a lot of shit on his plate -- so stable, supportive relationships are his favorite cup of tea

✧ Doesn’t believe in beating around the bush, so expect an A class Old School Gentleman, wine and dine — treat you like a queen — from the beginning

✦ When you first get together, it takes Bish a minute to actually get with the program

✧ It’s been a while since he’s had an Old Lady — one who can actually handle sharing him with the MC — so cut him some slack.

✦ He’s not used to sending someone updates about his plans and whereabouts

✧ Hank might of nudged Bishop a few times — “you might wanna let the Old Lady know....”

✦ He’s also not used to someone waiting for him to come home.

✧ Seriously — cut the man some slack — he feels like shit when he finds you half-awake at 2 am that first time

✦ He’s apologetic AF if he misses a date, or has to cancel on you 

✧ You not riding him about it because you know he’s already stretched thin enough

✦ But once he gets with the program, Bishop keeps you in the loop

✧ Not with just his movements, but with the status of the MC as well

✦ Obispo BLEEDS LOYALTY AND TRUST — so as his Old Lady you’re expected to help him bear the weigh

✧ He’s not the type to unload each and every detail — in fact, he’s pretty bad at trying to carry the weight by himself

✦ There are just some aspects of the club he doesn’t think you should be involved in,  so he filters out some things when relaying it to you

✧ It’s not that he thinks you can’t handle it, he just doesn’t want you to worry — because man do you worry. And when you worry, Bishop worries so....

✦ Some nights it weighs on him. Those nights he’s different. His kisses are needy, hands rough

✧ He’ll ask for your opinion. It takes a while for you to feel comfortable enough to offer it, but he quickly learns sometimes you’ll give it without his asking

✦ Regardless, he respects your opinion even if it doesn’t always align with his

✧ Arguments are truly unavoidable — he carries around a lot of pressure and stress -- but Bish is really good at letting you vent 

✦ Sometimes he can’t catch himself, and he yells in the heat of the moment — the quickest to apologize

✧ Let a single tear fall, he’s next to you in a heartbeat

✦ Once your relationship becomes serious the most important question is -- Are you dating? OR Are you married?

✧ YOU’RE BASICALLY MARRIED

✦ You’re literally the only person who can knock him down a couple of notches

✧ And the only one bold enough to try it 

✦ Remember how Bishop doesn’t have time to play games? 

✧ When he introduces you to the MC it’s basically an unspoken promotion ceremony -- get ready to become the live-in mother to his children MC

✦ Bishop knows you do it for him, but also because the boys love you, and you love them.

✧ Tries his best to show how much he appreciates you taking on the responsibility. There are moments when he catches you, a deep kiss following. 

✦ “What’s that for?” You smile. 

✧ His lips soft against your forehead. “I love you.”

✦ Bish worries about the MC way more than he lets on -- WAY FREAKING MORE

✧ He’s pretty sure each day they knock a year off his life -- so he smokes way too much

✦ You tease him about it all the time -- “You smoke too much.”

✧ “Would you rather me strangle one of them?”

✦ Seeing you with the MC, and how easily they gravitate to you and how you help them relax, he’s hooked but let him see you around kids --

✧ All of a sudden, the idea of having kids doesn’t seem impossible

✦ Bishop listens to input from others, but sometimes he’s all about that tough love 

✧ The boys play you two like true freaking parents  

✦ They know when Bish is one of his tough love trips, all they have to do is mention something, and you’ll get Bishop to loosen up

✧ Angel is usually the one sent to butter you up —primarily because he’s the one getting that tough love --  Bishop falls victim to this 99% of the time 

✦ Loves to relax against you after a long day -- head against your chest with your fingers in his hair

✧ He always protests -- because it’s not necessary -- but he’ll  hand his phone over to you so that he can relax.  Even if it is for just an hour.

✦ He might or might not have one of the boys stay behind when he goes on a long club run. You learn to deal with the random check ins during his absence. 

✧ If you’re pregnant, and he’s gone for more than a couple of days, expect one of the guys to stay in the guest room. 

✦ He will literally not budge on this one

✧ You’re literally a goddess on earth -- Bishop worships the ground you walk on 

✦ Protective AF -- bleeds into him being overprotective at times. Primarily because he worries you might get affected by blowback from a club decision

✧ He knows you’re more than capable of handling yourself, but he still worries 

✦ License to carry -- Bish teaches you how to shoot. It gives him peace of mind so you indulge him  

✧ King of whispered compliments as he stops to steal a passing kiss

✦ He thinks it funny when guys try and flirt with you -- primarily because they don’t realize you’ll probably eat them alive. 

✧ As long as you’re smiling he’s cool, but let someone get handsy or not shut down their advances and Bishop’s stepping in

✦ Would literally kill someone with his bare hands if they hurt you 

✧ Don’t think that “harmless” flirting will be forgotten. Bishop’s got patience for days. You can’t tease him into cracking first so his payback is torture

✦ Bish is a natural born flirt -- homeboy is dripping in that natural born charisma that can diffuse most situations -- and the flirting does not stop once you start dating

✧ Pretty sure your permanent seat is his lap. He’ll drag you onto his lap, arm around your waist no matter what he’s doing

✦ This man is made of kisses for days. Whether it be a quick kiss to your cheek, forehead, or fingers. Or a stolen moment away from the club, kisses improve his mood 100000% 

✧ Typically seen with his arm draped around your shoulder, lips pressed against your temple or cheek

✦ When he feels guilty, for being too busy, he’s extra romantic. He’ll make dinner, pop up unannounced at your job when he’s got time to spare 

✧ "What do you want, Obispo?”

✦ “Just making sure you don’t run off on me,” he chuckles.

✧ You know those stories you read about where someone’s husband gave his wife flowers religiously every single week -- that’s some Obispo Losa type of shit

✦ May be a gentleman, but definitely rough in the bedroom -- 

✧ And in Templo -- you’ve lost count the number of times he’s taken you over that table or had you down on your knees

✦ Quickies. He’s a busy man, if he’s got time he’s not going to object to you pulling him away

✧ If you’re going to “accidentally” send a needy text while he’s working or you woke up thinking you’re gonna be sassy -- please know he’ll call you on your shit

✦ He has no problem having the room cleared & one of the guys relaying that “....he wants to see you.”

✧ His patience will outlast yours any day -- so get mouthy and try and cause a scene if you want --

✦ Most def leaves a kiss against the back of your hand every time he leaves you

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[libraford]

We interrupt the feral celebration of ousting an oligarch to bring you a story about Yeehaw and his Branch of Mystery.

  It has been a while since we last had some co-worker drama, but man- has it been a weird summer. I mean... we all had a weird summer in 2020, but I don't think I was really expecting this particular... flavor of weird?

 This is a story about Yeehaw, but it starts off with a story about Aggie.

 Aggie was someone we were excited to hire and part of our excitement was that it's rare to find someone with prior floral experience and we'd concluded at this point that it does no one any good to be picky about new hires in the middle of a pandemic. So finding someone who knew the difference between a carnation and a rose was a big deal for us.

 I say that in jest, but saying that we do 'on-the-job training' means that we've had to explain that yes- the flower in my hand that looks like a carnation is a carnation and not some other flower that looks like carnation but is not a carnation. Floristry is a very straightforward practice and for the most part a rose is a rose and a daisy is a daisy and if someone asks for those things, you give it to them.

 The hard part is, as always, making them look good together.

 Which is why we were pleased with Aggie- who previously did weddings for her friends and seemed to have a basic understanding of how to do things with her hands. We were happy to have her aboard.

 ... until you gave her criticism.

 She made her vases embarrassingly short, and if you tried to tell her how to fix it, she'd snap back with "I'm not DONE yet."

 She was done until you said something.

 If you gave her an order for two dozen white roses, she would take it upon herself to mix white and yellow roses together 'because it looks better.'

 It did not.

 Hashtag: #selftaught

 When a client asks for all white roses, there is likely a reason they asked for all white. Given that 90% of our work is funerals, it stands to reason that they are asking for all white because that is a traditional color for mourning. Working with a client means doing exactly what they asked for. Doing a wedding for your friends may get you high praise from people who trust you to work in the same aesthetic as them, but in a shop setting you are being paid to follow things to the letter. Doing so shows that you can follow directions, and they may come back next time.

 You don't know customer entitlement until you've been torn another asshole for leaving out a single rose.

 This seemed to never occur to her, and so criticism was a painful realization that perhaps she wasn't perfect at an art that was exceptionally susceptible to criticism. There were plenty of opportunities to make something in her own aesthetic, it wasn't like she was being stifled. There was a considerable amount of downtime where she filled the front cooler with her own creations- enigmatically giving each of them their own names like "Autumn Walk" or "First Snowfall." (This is not something that we do, on the whole.)

 Not very many of those sold.

 But I think what bugged me the most is that she only ever designed. She didn't take out the trash, she didn't answer phones, she never helped customers. She just... did flowers. Nothing else.

 Oh... and the chatter.

 "Do you travel? Oh, you simply MUST go to Bali sometime! You've never been to Asia? Well, there's nothing like achieving inner peace at a Buddhist temple on a mountaintop in Nepal. They have temples here in Ohio, but it's nothing like the real thing! You say you've never even been off the continent? Well, what are you waiting for? You only live once, you know!"

 Ma'am... we're in the middle of a pandemic. Ma'am... I only get paid so much...

 While trying to relate, I talked about my summer in Montana and she gave me the BIGGEST stank-face. "Montana? Ew, WHY?"

 Look, lady- I lived on a mountaintop next to an active, world-destroying volcano system. If that's not cool, I don't know what is.

 But thankfully, she only worked on weekends. See, this was her fun job. The job she does to stay social during a pandemic and flex her creative muscles while she makes money at her much more lucrative,but boring,HR job. So I only had to see her twice a month when I was manager on duty.

 Then she got fired from her weekday job and went full-time at the flower shop. Poor thing wasn't used to waking up at 7am every day. She was full of suggestions.

 "I think it would be easier for me if we only opened at like... 11am."

"Don't you think we should be taking proper photos of our work? All we would need is a nice camera and a soft lighting setup. Couldn't be much more than $1000."

"Oh I know! We should be doing inventory on tablets instead of writing things down!"

 Okay, you go buy those things then. It took her about a week of making those suggestions to realize that she wasn't real clear on how things worked around here and stopped. She became quiet, less enthusiastic about her 'fun' job now that she wasn't immediately the star of the show.

 Enter Yeehaw.

 We were excited about Yeehaw, too. He didn't just have experience with flowers- he had experience with a flower shop. He gave a good interview, he seemed like he knew what he was doing and was very passionate about flowers. He was definitely an entire hippie, but about 1/3 of all plant people are. Most importantly, we still had like three spots to fill left from our pre-Covid staff.

 Hired.

 There was an overlap of about a week where Aggie and Yeehaw worked at the same time. His work was... immaculate. Just... astonishingly beautiful work. You didn't even have to show him how to make anything. He just... knew.

 Well, Aggie didn't  like that much- we had only nice things to say about this new guy but all she ever got was criticism. And if we complimented him on something he made, he would give a little 'namaste' bow. And I could see her fuming with rage each time he did this.

 One day, she rushed into the back to take a phone call and any time someone went back there for a vase she would lower her voice as if keeping a deep secret. Twenty minutes later, she called Grandpa into the back as well to discuss something. Ten minutes later, Aggie left the building with her Live, Laugh, Love bag, looking pissed.

 "Where did Aggie go," I asked Grandpa.

 "She got a new job," she said. "Doing HR somewhere."

 "She didn't even say good-bye," Blue said, appearing unsurprised.

 And so we went on with out lives without really putting much further thought into Aggie, apart from the occasional 'you simply MUST visit Bali' line thrown in for bougie emphasis.

 Which brings us to the next part of the story, and that is Yeehaw.

 There are some details to know about Yeehaw that are kind of difficult to fit into a story neatly. Here is a brief list that may come in handy to know later.

-He lives with his mother.

-He drives a Tesla.

-He can afford the Tesla because he was in a terrible wreck that had him hospitalized, and a lawsuit was won.

-Because of this, he has two screws in his head at the temples.

-Unrelated, he has hair that goes all the way down to his back.

- And...

 "Grandpa, we need to tell you something," Blue said. "In private."

 Blue and Kali pulled Grandpa aside while Yeehaw slowly put together a funeral order. "Grandpa, there's no polite way to put this: Yeehaw is drunk as fuck."

 "He smells like whiskey," Kali said.

 "He's stumbling everywhere."

 "And he won't stop... burping."

 Grandpa paused. "There's something I need to tell you," she said, and she reached for a manila folder. "Yeehaw has something called... what's it called..." She leafed through the file and produced a paper, reading from it. "Auto-brewery Syndrome. His body actually produces alcohol anytime he eats bread or sugar. If he's drunk, it's because he can't help it."

 We each had a chance to go over the doctor's note, verifying that yes- that sure does look official. Everyone had questions, but it did answer the one I had about why he was sitting in the break room literally drinking peanut butter from the jar.

 So that was incredibly interesting and we no longer asked about the burping or why he was so slow.  

 However, the fact that he was so slow was extremely frustrating. Our average number of orders runs approximately 100 per-day. This can be eased somewhat when we have a full-staff with five designers- an average of 20 designs per person in an 8-hour day, 3 per hour.

 But it's a fine line some days, and if one person cannot keep up it turns into a struggle for all of us.  

 We did our best to accommodate. We gave him all the day-ahead orders so that we wouldn't be behind and he'd have all the time he'd need to make his gorgeous pieces.

 We were willing to make it work.

 A number of factors came into play one day, but most notably: Yeehaw's Tesla wouldn't start and he had to take the bus. So he was late.

 I think I saw him make one entire item in the two hours that we were in the same room. He went to lunch around 12:30, I took mine around 1:00. I saw him stumble back in from lunch, looking... out of it. Just... absolutely incomprehensible- mumbling, barely upright, his hair out of the bun, quite possibly sleepwalking- who knows?

 I saw him for that brief Sasquatch moment... and that was the last that I saw him that day. It was around 4:00 that  Grandpa asked the question:

 "Where's Yeehaw?"

 And no one had an answer. We all had places that we thought we'd seen him: cleaning the cooler, in the break room, heading to the bathroom... but no one had really... seen him since he stumbled back in around 1:30.

 We checked all these places.

 None of them.

 The person who actually managed to find him was Sarge, who noticed his feet sticking out from behind the bushes behind the building.

 "Huh," he said, presumably. He gave the feet a light kick and Yeehaw slowly sat back up. "Hey dude. You... okay, there? They're lookin' for you inside."

 Yeehaw mumbled something to Sarge and got to his feet, stumbling back into the shop without further interaction. He appeared into the workspace, holding a branch in front of his face for mysterious reasons. There were still twigs entangled in his long hair.

 "Where were you at," Grandpa asked, concerned.

 "Oh, I was in the bathroom," he lied from behind the branch of mystery. "I'm pretty tired. Is it okay if I go home?"

 Bewildered, Grandpa gave him permission to leave. It was soon after he left that Scout found his phone in the empty sink. "Who's trying to wash their phone," he asked in the loud manner that is characteristic of old white men. It rang while in his hand and one of our designers snatched it from him. It was his mother.

 "Hello," said the designer. "Yeehaw went home early, but he left his phone behind. Can you bring it home to him?" Mom agreed, she was just over at Trader Joe's anyhow.

 We thought, of course, that we were doing something smart and nice. Yeehaw's mom looks just about what you would expect the mother of a 30-year-old hippie that drives a Tesla to look. Grandpa, in a polite way, explained that he'd fallen asleep in a bush. To which Mom seemed neither surprised nor concerned about his behavior.

 "Okay. I'll be at Hallmark."

 Somewhere between the bus stop and Bexley, Yeehaw must have realized that his phone was not with him and so he came back looking for it. Despite his mother being literally in the same strip mall as we were, he seemed irritated that we'd taken the initiative to make sure his phone got to him.

 "Well, I bet if you just went down to Hallmark she'd give you your phone and probably give you a ride home."

 He mumbled something and then left.

 This seems like a decent place to pause, because him leaving the second time in the day should be the end of the story. However... at 5:00 in the evening there was still two hours left in the work day and from past experience... that is plenty of time for a lot of things to happen.

 The thing to happen was a phone call.

 "Hi, this is Jade from the main store. We've gotten... some... interesting phone calls. Is there... a... hmm... is there a dead body out in front of your store?"

 Pause.

 "We'll take care of it, bye."

 Who wants to be the one to poke the cadaver on the sidewalk? A volunteer from the audience! Ms Crowe: won't you come down?!

 I have had it planted firmly in my mind that Crowe certainly understands the concept of fear but does not recognize it. Apart from being one of our most reliable drivers, she is also a performer, a street medic, an activist, and most notably... a fire-breather.

 You have your hobbies.

 Point is- she's brave enough to check to see if the person laying on the sidewalk was dead or simply overdosed.

 As it turns out, it was Yeehaw- curled up in the fetal position with his arm covering his face.

 "Hey," Crowe said, poking him with her foot. "Heeeeeeey," she said again but more firmly this time. He moved, blinking in the evening the sun. "Buddy, you can't be laying around on the sidewalk. You gotta move on."

 Again, he slowly got to his feet. At this time, his mother emerged from Hallmark to see him talking with Crowe. A group of four people escorted him into Mom's car while he stopped every few feet to perform another 'namaste' bow.

 You think this is the end. But what have we learned?

 There's always more.

 He came in the next day as if none of this had happened. Conversation was difficult because we both desperately needed to know what the fuck happened and also did not want to trigger something. So we didn't bring it up. He apologized for leaving early: chronic fatigue syndrome, you know.

 Other places would have fired him, but we're a very forgiving workplace. Falling asleep on company time is not, in any way, the worst thing that someone has done at this location while still keeping their job. There was Sugar and her drugs, there was the dude that used the company van to pick up prostitutes (this was before my time), there was the guy that screamed at customers over the phone... it's a long list.

 The primary concern of our employers is whether or not you are a reliable person. If you routinely show up for your job and do the work, you're going to be okay at least for a little bit. And Yeehaw, for all his impeccable fuckery, at least showed up every day.

 We kept this at the back of our minds.

 One day, after the Day We Found Him In a Bush was behind us, one of the designers mentioned that they'd seen where Aggie works now. It was not in HR.

 It was our major competitor.

 Now, Grandpa knows this competitor well. She knows all her competition. It is the nature of a lot of florists to, once they've gotten sick of one place, move on to the next one and spill the beans on their operations there. So Grandpa gets the dirt on everyone.

 This particular shop was very regimented. You don't wing it- you follow the recipe as listed. He's been known to pick discarded flowers up off the floor and tell you exactly how much  money you're costing the company by letting it fall, to the cent. If you get so far as to make casket sprays, he will take your first one and chuck it across the room if it even looks like the stems are in there too loosely.

 This is what I mean about us being an easy place to work.

 Hashtag: #ohfuck.

 People come in and out of your life like that, in little ways. Sometimes you just have to have a little laugh at it. But what I thought was funny was that she felt the need to keep her new employer a secret, as though we would get jealous or tattle. Curious thing.

 Now that the glamour of Yeehaw's arrangements had worn off, we were starting to see more and more odd behaviors that didn't seem completely related to drunkenness.

 "Did you just fart?"

 "No, that was a spider barking."

 Amazing.

 Conversation with him was becoming... difficult. As I sat in the break room with my quick lunch and he drank soup out of a mayonnaise jar, he mentioned his area of study in college.

 "Cognitive Psychology and Hindu Philosophy, huh? That's an interesting combination."

 "Yeah," he said, funneling an amount of squash soup down his throat. "It'll take the rest of the world about 100 years before they catch up to where I am."

 I sat, posed in front of my beef and broccoli which I was eating with a fork, trying to process a logical reason why the rest of the world will be sleeping in a bush in one hundred years. "Uh... huh."

 This was followed by another thirty minutes of silence where I desperately wanted to know what he meant by that but didn't want to be the one to ask him.

 People will tell you that a hippie is generally an ineffective, benign kind of person who chants 'love love, peace peace' in a circle and consider that to be an action for change. But I can say with absolute certainty that I have met some downright egotistical hippies in my life. Those were lessons in bias- which I will have to save for other times.

 Eventually, Grandpa became frustrated with his slowness. We presumed that his speed of choice was a combination of his meticulous nature and his various ailments, but with the Christmas season coming upon us it was becoming much more than a series of symptoms.

 Previous persons who lacked speed were chatty, would play on their phone, or get distracted. But Yeehaw... Yeehaw simply moved like a tranquilized sloth. He slowly picked off each leaf, each thorn, each guard petal and took a minute for each action. He would put in his greens and then contemplate it powerfully for ten minutes before putting any flowers in... slowly.

 In the time spent doing this, I had already made something of a similar size and was starting on the second one.

 It was during one of these times that Grandpa finally said something.

 "Yeehaw, that spray is due in thirty minutes. Is there a way you can go any faster?"

 He looked up from his greens, held one carnation to his face, and said:

 "If you wanted me to move faster, you would pay me better."

 Let me start by saying that we do not get paid well. We don't. Compared to other flower shops in our city, we are probably the lowest-paid. This is something that the company is starting to work on with benefits and raises, but any amount of change takes time. (And its still better paying than when I worked in retail. But that's another book.)

 Yeehaw had been here for exactly one month. I don't know a single workplace that gives you a raise after one month and still lets you sleep on the clock without firing you. He knew what he was getting paid when we hired him.

 So anyways, he slowly grinds down our nerves to a very fine dust- burping, farting, falling asleep on his feet, staring intensely into space, talking about how much he should be making but isn't, bragging about his enlightenment, and generally just slowing down production.

 And then Grandpa had her well-earned vacation week. Blue was in charge for the most part and the week leading up to Halloween is generally pretty slow, so it was a good week for her to have a break with few mishaps.

 Eh... hehe. Yeah.

 Yeehaw... disappeared again. We checked the cooler, we checked the break room, we checked the bushes out back, we checked the sidewalk out front.

 He was in the bathroom.

 So we left it.

 He was still in the bathroom an hour later.

 We had one of the male drivers pound on the door to check on him. When Yeehaw opened the door to the men's room, there was a wad of toilet paper on the floor that he'd been using as a pillow.

 If I may pause here to explain- our men's room is disgusting. I have deep cleaned it several times only for it to become a germ-fest once more in a matter of hours. I don't ask who is peeing all over the floor because, honestly, I have no desire to know what grown man can't aim his willy in the right direction.

 So in order to fall asleep in the bathroom, you have to be willing to sleep in pee. During a pandemic.

 He reappeared in the workroom, put his apron back on, looked around at all of us still working and said: "Wow, it must be really hard to get fired here."

 It was at this point that Blue informed Grandpa.

 "Tell him that he's fired," Grandpa said, clearly 1001% done with this.

 "I'm not going to fire him," Blue said. "I don't think I can fire anyone."

 So she had the driver that found him do it, which was confusing for all of us. He ended up calling Grandpa to clarify. And by 'clarify,' I definitely mean 'beg for his job back.' A synopsis of the 20 minute phone call went like this:

 "What do you mean, I'm fired?"

 "Just that. You're fired. I'm tired of it, Yeehaw. You don't work here anymore."

 "Why?"

 "What do you mean 'why?' You spend all day making a total of three arrangements and then you wander off somewhere and fall asleep."

 "I can't help it if I have chronic fatigue syndrome!"

 "This is a physical job. If your body can't handle an 8-hour shift without falling asleep for two hours, this isn't the job for you. Tell me: where is that fair to the girls that you do 3% of the work while they pick up the slack and you wander off to sleep on the clock?"

 "I simply do not care about them."

 "You don't care that you're shoving all the work on your coworkers, and that's why you're fired."

 "I wish you'd given me a warning."

 "Tell me, Yeehaw: how many employers can you find that will allow you to sleep on the clock for two hours and let you off with a warning?"

 End of discussion.

 Now, you're probably wondering where Aggie comes back into this. Just hold tight, I'll get there.

 The Sunday after he was fired, he came in to pick up his paycheck. I was busy handling a minor emergency where one of our funeral homes forgot to order a spray and I had to make one as fast as I could. We held a brief conversation while I made the spray in a hurry.

 "I'm here to pick up my check," he said while I greened the spray and leafed through the paychecks simultaneously.

 "Here you go," I said, handing it to him without much fanfare. I presumed that he was looking for sympathy or some kind of followup or... I don't know. Sorry you suddenly care about your job?

 "So what are your next plans," one of the designers asked, trying to coax more information out of him while I did the work of three people.

 "It's kind of funny," he said slowly... as he did all things. "I've only ever been fired from flower shops." He paused, thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to go apply to the shop in Bexley that Aggie went to."

[songfell-ut]

Merry Xmas toooo

Hey @venelona remember when I was talking about that Beauty & the Beast thing in your server

Well, I copied myself, ‘cause Sans is still not good at following through on getting a human soul, and a stray bit of paper drives the plot once more.

This is nowhere near finished because it’s me. I’ll polish it up and put it on AO3 once my other gift is done for tomorrow (she said famous-last-words-ly). 

Prepare yourself for a shock: I wrote something long. Indents, meh. Warning, Sans is stupid.

Today was not a good day: it was cold, he had to get married, and now there was a human in his garden.

           This was problematic for many reasons. For one thing, as the literal lord of all he surveyed, Sans always found it hard to get any alone time, much less a chance to nap. He’d started coming outside each night after dinner to doze off for a few precious minutes, at least until the wind whistled through his sockets one time too many or his brother started yelling at him over the wall. On this particular evening, though, after his chat with Toriel, his sole aim was to avoid seeing anyone; luckily, he’d already forbidden the others from coming into the garden, and he was prepared to stay out here forever if he had to, weather and Papyrus be damned.

Sans was not prepared to take a shortcut to his favorite bench by the nightshades and sit down, only to catch sight of someone hunched behind a bush at the end of the row. The skeleton scrambled to his feet in sudden panic, readying his magic to defend himself. Who or what the hell was that? No one should be here—this was his place! Had Toriel told him all that crap to trick him into going out alone, then sent someone after him? But how?

His instinct was to attack first, but for all Sans knew, this was some kind of trap; instead, he watched and listened, waiting for the thing to make its move. His soul thrummed like a harpstring, ready to summon bones to skewer the intruder, or teleport away—

But nothing happened. As the seconds ticked by, Sans gradually realized that the small, dark-clothed figure wasn’t crouched to spring at him or lying in wait, just bending down to examine the flowers. He couldn’t sense any malicious intent whatsoever; in fact, it didn’t seem to know he was there, or that he was coming closer for a better look.

Well, no wonder: it was wearing a cloak with a deep hood that blocked its peripheral vision, and it was facing into the wind, where it couldn’t hear or smell anyone sneaking up from behind. That meant the intruder was either very confident or really fucking stupid.

Maybe it was just Monster Kid or one of the others screwing with him? After all, no matter how often Sans told them to stay the hell out of his garden, and no matter how strongly his subjects were compelled to obey him, he kept finding rocks, bits of bone, and other junk the little bastards had tossed over the wall. Things had gotten better since Papyrus started patrolling the outer courtyard, happy to combine his favorite pastimes of keeping things tidy and beating the shit out of people, but…

           But no, this wasn’t a kid who’d found a loophole in his orders, or an adult monster strong enough to defy him. Sans took a couple of quick shortcuts at different angles to appraise the intruder, confirming that it wasn’t sized or shaped like anyone he knew; it also failed to react when he stepped through an arch of greenery just a few feet away. No shift of attention, no magic gathering to attack or defend itself—who could possibly be that dumb? None of the surviving monsters would ever dream of dropping their guard like this, not even the kids!

The wind shifted, and Sans’ nasal ridge twitched as an unfamiliar stench hit him. He recognized the scent of leather from its clothes, but there were strong hints of…some kind of hair, and…bodily fluids? There was something missing, too, so basic that it took Sans a minute to pinpoint it: the trespasser had no magic whatsoever.

That was the most confusing thing of all. No matter how fishy or perfumed or otherwise gross they might be, everyone had that dry, slightly spicy smell. Had someone dressed up an animal and released it into the garden as a prank? A thrill of fear raced through him again—did Toriel’s curse include female animals? It’d be just like her to dump that on him and then make sure he ran into a bear or a deer or something!

           Suddenly, the intruder sighed heavily, straightened up, and shook its hood off. To Sans’ shock, it wasn’t an animal or a monster: the thing standing in his garden was a human. It turned its back to the wind, squinting down at the white-stoned path and up at the surrounding wall, the smooth black marble shining rose-gold in the twilight.

           What the hell was a human doing here? At least it was a male; Sans relaxed a little, then shook himself and edged forward.

Humans were legendary for their cruelty and cunning, but this particular specimen didn’t seem very dangerous. Beneath its dusty travel clothes and heavy cloak, it was almost as short at Sans, with a wrinkly face and gray streaks in its hair. Did all humans get like that after only…what, fifty years? Granted, Sans was just twenty-five, a baby by monster standards, but he wouldn’t be this twitchy or feeble when he reached the human’s age. And he wouldn’t be dumb enough to wander into someone else’s territory after sundown!

           The man had started walking again, still oblivious to Sans’ presence, and paused at a fork in the path. Sans silently willed him to turn right, and he’d been obeyed by everyone he knew for so long that it was a surprise to see the human go left instead. The skeleton watched in irritation, then disbelief, as his uninvited guest sat down on a low wall and pulled a map out of his pocket.

           That had to be the stupidest thing Sans had ever seen. Did human maps of the area include HAUNTED CASTLE ON FORBIDDEN MOUNTAIN? He doubted it. Besides, there was a village at the foot of the mountain, straight down through the forest; even if he couldn’t find the main path, all this moron had to do was walk downhill, back the…way he’d…

Wait. How had he even gotten in here?

           Quick as thought, Sans zipped over to the massive iron gates that stood between the castle and the outside world. Sure enough, the ivy growing between the bars had been disturbed at one end where the man had squeezed through. Sans extended one bony finger very, very slowly toward the gate, and as his phalange approached the nearest bar, the air filled with a warning hum, his bones prickling with alarm till he stepped away.

The barrier was still working, then. What had the King said before they dusted him? Anything could get in, but nothing could get out…except a monster in possession of a human soul. But there were no—

           The skeleton monster’s sockets widened again, this time in excitement. He grinned hugely, then took a shortcut back to the human, who was trying to fold up the map. Just in case, Sans peered at the human’s chest, gauging how much effort this would take.

           His elation immediately vanished, disgust welling up in its place. Of all the humans who could’ve wandered up here, it had to be one with a pathetically weak, almost sickly little soul—and why did it have to be green? Fucking Kindness! Talk about shitty luck!

           Not that he was going to pass up the opportunity, of course. Absorbing any human soul, no matter how crappy, would give him power greater than every other monster who’d ever lived, combined. He could finally pass through the gates, descend on the human village like a force of nature, grab as many souls as he wanted, and come back here to destroy the ga—no, he’d wreck the whole fucking castle! The others would finally be free, too, though he wouldn’t be stupid enough to share any souls with them. Maybe Pap could have a few, just enough to fulfill his dream of tearing Undyne to pieces, and to help eliminate Toriel; then they’d be untouchable in a world where “kill or be killed” was the only rule!

Sans was jerked back to the present by the human making a horribly wet noise and pulling a square of cloth from his pocket. Why was this disgusting sack of flesh even here, anyway? As far as Sans knew, no one had come near the castle for decades; even the local wildlife stayed far away. Yet here he was, an ordinary-looking human who had come all the way up the mountain in the approaching dark.

The man had finally sensed something wrong and was looking around uneasily. “Hello?” he called. Sans stayed where he was, silent and contemptuous; sure enough, the human’s gaze swept right past him. “Odd,” he murmured, lowering the map and folding it in half.

           Sans knew he should go ahead and kill the guy now, but the wind chose that moment to pick back up, rustling through the flowers and nearly yanking the map out of the human’s hands; the man swore and fumbled at the stiff parchment, fighting to keep hold of it.

The skeleton chuckled, almost pityingly. As lord of the castle, he decided he could be magnanimous and let this moron finish putting the map away. Besides, it was funny as hell to watch him lose to a piece of paper.

           Eventually, the man gave up and tried instead to stuff the half-folded map into his pocket, pulling a few things out to make room. Enough of this, thought Sans, his amusement fading. The skeleton took a few steps forward, letting his magic swell to a darkly feverish pitch and drift off him like red smoke. He was probably scary enough as it was, but anything worth doing was worth overdoing, especially when it’d make the human’s reaction that much funnier.

           Besides, this idiot had trespassed on Sans’ land and his solitude at exactly the wrong time. A quick, clean death was too good for him, but it couldn’t be helped: Sans had to get his soul out in one piece and reach the village before daybreak. Ha, maybe he’d put his hood up and pretend to be the Reaper the humans feared so much—wasn’t that why they had exterminated every single skeleton monster but him and Pap? He’d give the fuckers something to be afraid of!

It was time, all right. The human had finally sensed someone at his back, and began to turn around. “Excuse me, I—”

           Another gust of wind suddenly came howling through the garden and tore the map out of the human’s grip. It landed with a thk and skidded along the white-stoned path; with it went a couple of envelopes he’d set on his lap, and another, much smaller piece of paper, which blew straight into the nearest flowerbed.

           The human’s demeanor changed in an instant from annoyance to panic. “No!” He flailed at the air, then stumbled over the wall, charging through the flowers. “Come back here!” he yelled, as if the wind or the paper could understand him.

           Sans froze, feeling his magic go still as the blossoms answered—or, rather, echoed: “Come back here!” What the hell was the guy doing tromping around like that? Those were echo flowers, not daisies! One of them was worth twenty of this dumbfuck!

The wind was still blowing, but after a few clumsy grabs, the human threw himself full-length onto the ground, trapping the paper amongst the squished flowers. He sighed gustily – ha – and stood up, smiling. “There you are,” he murmured, his voice clear as the wind dropped to a light breeze.

The skeleton couldn’t see what the human was looking at so fondly. In his irate curiosity, he hesitated another moment too long: “Hm,” the man said to himself. “Yes, that’ll do.” He crouched again, grabbed a blossom at random, and plucked it clean out of the ground.

           “What the fuck?”

           Sans’ roar shattered the air like a rock through a stained-glass window. He was too angry to enjoy the human’s shriek of terror, or his attempt to turn and run; the skeleton jerked his hand up and sideways, yanking the man off his feet and hurling him onto the path. “Who the fuck d’you think you are?” snarled Sans. His magic flared up again as he advanced, staining the footpath red. “Huh?”

           The human was trembling violently, staring up at him. “Are you deaf or somethin’?” the monster demanded. He grabbed the man by the collar, hauling him to his feet. “Answer me, or I’ll rip yer fuckin’ head off!”

           The human gulped. “I…” He squeezed his eyes shut, sweat rolling off his face. “P-P-Please forgive me, my lord! I-I was being pursued by bandits, and they didn’t stop until I reached this place! I needed shelter, someone to point the way home—” He peeked up at Sans again, almost hiccuping in fear. “I-If you’ll permit me to leave, I swear I’ll never trouble you again!”

           Sans glanced up at a nearby lantern hanging on an iron post, and it obligingly lit itself. “That’s for damn sure,” said the skeleton. His wrath faded a little as his prisoner gaped at him in the clearer light. Now he understood the expression “bug-eyed,” not to mention “slack-jawed”; it was one of the funniest things he’d ever seen. Still… “You expect me to believe ya just wandered in here outta nowhere?” Sans jerked his head at the castle looming behind him, though the moon hadn’t risen to provide a properly spooky silhouette. “Didja think you could sneak in, grab somethin’, an’ get out before anybody noticed? ‘Cause I fuckin’ noticed!” He stabbed a finger at the echo flower in the human’s hand. “That shit doesn’t grow just anywhere!”

           The man blinked stupidly at the flower, as if surprised to see it. His eyes darted back and forth, his other hand sneaking toward his pocket. “I…I can explain, my l—”

           “Uh-uh.” Sans waggled his finger, and the human cried out as his hand was yanked straight over his head, the little slip of paper fluttering to the ground. Ignoring his protests, Sans made a couple more gestures to open the man’s coat and run a thread of magic through the pockets, then the lining. He frowned as he found several coins, letters, a comb, a pipe…but no weapons.

Huh. If the human hadn’t been going for a knife or something, then what the hell was he doing? Was he just trying to put the paper away? How goddamn stupid could he—

           “Please!” the man almost shrieked, and Sans was startled into releasing him. He watched the human stumble back, dropping the echo flower in his haste to run after the slip of paper again. Luckily for him, it blew against the corner of another bench, where he could easily stoop to retrieve it. The map lay nearby, but the human didn’t even look at it; he sighed in relief, and started to turn around.

           Sans was directly in front of him, grinning at his strangled squeak. “Whatcha got there?” The skeleton didn’t wait for an answer, just reached for it.

           “No!” To his astonishment, the man flailed at him, backing away till his shins hit the bench. “I-It’s nothing!” the human babbled. “Nothing at all! Just a picture that I didn’t want to lose! You can leave it!”

           Later, Sans would try to blame himself for not being more careful. But he had every right to be curious, and no reason to be thinking of Toriel right then; it was only natural for him to use his magic to grab the paper and hold it up to see what was so fucking important. So, he did.

           The human was right: it was a delicate ink drawing. Sans felt the smirk slide right off his face, and he took the picture in both hands, peering so intently that he didn’t even notice the man grabbing his sleeve. “Who’s this?” the skeleton inquired, trying to sound careless. “Yer wife?”

           “My daughter!” The guy was actually jumping to try to grab it, like a frantic kid. “As I said, it’s worth nothing to you! Please give it back!”

Sans absently pushed the human off with his elbow, raising the paper to the light. “Knock it off,” he grunted as the man came right back.

The human’s sheeplike face contorted. “Has milord never seen a woman before? Give it ba—”

Skeletal fingers shot out and locked around his throat. To Sans’ surprise, when he glared down at the human, the man glared right back, even as he clawed at Sans’ radius. “Why d’you want it so bad? Is she dead or somethin’?” the monster asked in sudden hope.

The human’s eyes bulged wider, and he struggled to speak until Sans loosened his grip. After a bit of coughing and puffing, the man rasped, “How dare you? She’s my child, you wretched beast!” He dashed Sans’ hopes with a jerky shake of the head. “I’ve been away from her for over a month, and I was only hours from home when I was attacked! That’s all I’ve had of her! If I’m going to die at your hand, the very least you can do is let me see it one more time!”

           Sans’ jaw clenched so hard that his single golden tooth creaked under the pressure. He shut his sockets, aware that he had to think very carefully before he spoke. “I got some questions for ya,” he snarled. “Tell me the truth, an’ you might leave in one piece.” He opened his sockets, his ruby eyelights pulsing across the human’s face. “Got it?”

           The wind shrieked past them again, but Sans held both the human and the slip of paper steady. The man stared at him in clear distrust; Sans wasn’t sure if he was being brave, or stupid, or what, but he wasn’t cowering anymore. As a slight token of respect, the skeleton opened his hand, letting the human jerk away. “Yes, milord,” the latter whispered, massaging his throat. “Whatever you wish.”

           Sans snorted, and snuck another glance at the portrait. “What’s your family name? What were you doin’ away from home fer so long?”

           The man’s brow wrinkled further. “My name is Proust, milord. I’m a merchant, so I travel frequently. I’ve been investigating a business opportunity in the capital.”

           A merchant? That was hard to believe. The coins in the human’s pockets consisted solely of pennies and a few silver pieces that Sans didn’t recognize; Proust was dressed fairly well, but on closer inspection, the fur trim of his cloak was patchy, while his leather coat was shiny with age. Either he was a cheapskate, or he hadn’t made any real money in a long time. “How’d it go?” Sans asked sardonically.

           “Poorly, milord,” the man snapped. “I promised Frisk I’d bring her something from the city, but then I could barely afford to pay my way home.” He looked down at the echo flower, which lay on the stones between them. “She likes gardening, so…”

           Sans knew he should make another fuss about the theft, but he had a bigger problem. “‘Frisk’?” he repeated. “Is that a nickname or somethin’?”

           “No,” Proust said stiffly. “What else would my lord care to know?”

           Sans gave him another glare, and though the man flinched, he didn’t look away. “Heh,” the skeleton murmured. “She your only kid?”

           “Yes, my lord. My wife died in childbirth. Frisk…” His voice caught. “She’s all I have left.”

The monster grimaced. He almost would’ve preferred an aggressive human to a sappy one. “How old is she?” The paper trembled. It wasn’t the wind: his hands were shaking. “Did you leave her home alone, or with ‘er husband, or…?”

           The human eyed him in rightful suspicion. “She’s twenty-two, my lord. We live with my brother’s family. She’s unwed—I’ve had several offers for her hand, but she refused them all.”

“Why?” Sans asked bluntly.

Proust blinked a few times. “She didn’t love them. She didn’t even like most of them, and the one she might have accepted left because my brother wouldn’t give her a dowry. Why do you—”

“A dowry?” Sans repeated. “The hell is that?”

This was obviously a sensitive question: the human’s face turned a weird color, and something pulsed near his eyebrow—a vein? Was that what it was called? Sans turned his head in disgust, studying the portrait again. If she had veins, he couldn’t see any.

The human cleared his throat. “It’s a gift of money or other goods that a woman brings to a marriage. Many young women in our social class have a difficult time finding a husband without one, and…”

“An’ you don’t have enough cash to sell her off?” Sans waved a hand as Proust swelled with rage again. “Never mind. Whatever stupid shit humans get up to, I don’ care.” He was quiet for a moment. “Just seems pathetic that you’ve gotta pay someone to take ‘er.”

“Was milord listening?” the human demanded. “I’ve had six other gentlemen ask to marry her, and four were willing to forego any dowry at all! She was good enough!”

It was Sans’ turn to twitch. “Why? What’s so great about ‘er?”

Proust made a noise like an angry frog. “May I humbly entreat milord to explain his gracious interest in my family?”

           Sans toyed with the idea of telling him the truth, and shrugged. “Just curious. So, I’m guessin’ you wanna see her again?”

           “Yes, milord, absolutely,” the man said in a rush. “I’d do anything—you have no idea how much she means to me!” He looked longingly at the paper in Sans’ hand, still held up to the lamplight. “She drew that herself,” he added.

           Sans started. “Really?” he asked before he could stop himself.

           “Yes, indeed,” the human said proudly.

           The skeleton scowled at the picture. It was a perfect rendition of a young woman seated at a table, wearing an old-fashioned gown; her dark hair was twisted up into a bun, showing a small earring, a pearl necklace, and a graceful curve of neck and shoulder. Now that Proust mentioned it, she did seem to be drawing herself in the mirror, one hand holding a pencil and the other steadying the paper, her head tilted to look up at Sans.

           For a moment, he was so angry that he couldn’t breathe. This was bullshit! Why should he pass up his chance at unlimited power because of a girl who probably wasn’t even that pretty in real life? He should just rip the stupid picture in half, rip the human in half, grab his shitty green soul, and get things started!

           But the longer he stared at the paper, the less he wanted to rip it in half, kill the human, become godlike, etc. etc. It just seemed…boring? Unnecessary?

Tch. This was all Toriel’s fault! She’d called him to her room that evening in an absolute fit of laughter and told him exactly what was going to happen, and the old bitch knew he’d come down here afterward and—

           And he couldn’t stay mad about it. Instead, something weird was happening behind his sternum, a sticky kind of warmth spreading like an infection through his ribcage and down his limbs. No matter how hard he tried to dwell on being jerked around, or why it had to be some squishy human with a dumb father and a weird name, Sans couldn’t look away from the portrait, caught by the girl’s clear, bright eyes. No one had ever smiled at him like that…

           He came down here every night to get away from everyone, but what if…what if he had someone he didn’t want to get away from? Unbidden, a thought crept up: what would the garden look like with this human in it, helping water the flowers or sitting with him to watch the sun set? What would it be like to always have someone to talk to about stuff bothering him, help with all the day-to-day crap of running the household…smile at him, keep him warm at night—

Shit! Had Toriel laughed at him because she knew he’d actually want this to happen?

           “Hello?” Proust was asking. “Milord? Is something wrong?”

           Sans shook himself. “Fine, she can draw. Does she know how ta do anything?” That’d be a perfect excuse to forget about her. If he wanted to keep something cute and useless around, he could just put a collar on one of the kids and make it do tricks!

           The human actually laughed at him. “We went to stay with my brother, milord, when Frisk was fourteen years old. He was a widower, so she took it upon herself to be the lady of the house. Within a few months, she was managing his servants, balancing his accounts, organizing his social affairs—clear up till he remarried last year.” His narrow chest puffed out. “It’s a large part of the reason she’s been sought after. Any man would be lucky to have her.”

           The monster’s hands were trembling again, a strange sensation burning him from the inside out. “Is—” It was a childish question, but he couldn’t help it: “Is she nice?”

           Proust looked at him strangely. “Yes, milord. She is.” He flinched as Sans’ grip on the drawing tightened. “Forgive me,” the man quavered, “but why do you—”

“Gimme your hand,” growled the skeleton. He gestured, keeping the paper suspended in midair as he lowered his own hands. “Take the glove off.”

           Proust swallowed once or twice, then obeyed. Sans didn’t hide his distaste as he took hold of Proust’s wrist, the human’s pulse twitching against his thumb. For a second, he didn’t know if he could go through with it; then he glanced at the portrait, and said, “Don’t move.” Before he could lose his nerve, the monster lifted a skull-shaped pendant from beneath his shirt, positioned the human’s finger between its tiny jaws, and willed them to snap shut.

           Proust yelped as the pendant latched onto his finger. “What in God’s name is that thing?” he cried, trying to shake it off.

“Magic,” Sans said pleasantly. The poor skull didn’t seem to like it any more than the human did: its jaws sprang right back open, and he could’ve sworn he saw it make a face at him.

Proust was staring at his hand in disbelief, searching for signs of any blood or puncture wounds—nothing. “What…?”

“Here’s what’s gonna happen.” Sans tucked the pendant back under his shirt. “There’s a spot over by the gates where you can sleep. No one’s allowed in here, so you oughta be safe till morning. When you leave, jus’ head straight down the mountain. Pretty much any of the paths will take you to Ebott. I’d send ya there now, but my magic can’t get through the barrier on the gate.” He sighed. “Need ta pull some strings to get you back out at all.”

           The human was torn between intense relief and distrust. “Thank you, my lord. May I—”

           “Nope. Just be happy that’s all I did.” Sans indicated the man’s finger as Proust pulled his glove back on. “I’ll even let ya bring ‘er the flower. Nice, eh?”

           The man swallowed hard. “Yes, milord. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. But…may I please ask why?”

The shadows seemed to creep in, darkening the lamplight. The human shrank back as the skeleton’s grin broadened. “Wanna hear somethin’ funny?” Sans reached up to run a finger along the portrait’s bottom edge. “I’m the boss around here, but there’s a lady hangin’ around I can’t get rid of, and she knows stuff. Guess what she told me ‘fore I came out here. Go on, guess!”

Proust looked nearly sick. “I…I don’t know, my lord. What did she—”

“She said, ‘Congratulations!’ An’ I said, ‘On what?’ And she said, ‘On your upcoming marriage!’ So a’course, I said, ‘The fuck are you talkin’ about?’ An’ she said I was gonna meet my wife real soon.”

It was subtle, but Proust’s eyes flicked to Sans’ pelvis. The skeleton’s amusement vanished. Just like a human—didn’t he know how magic worked? “Yeah, my wife,” he growled. “Funny part is, she was right.” The monster took Frisk’s drawing in one hand and tapped the side of his skull with it. “Wanna know who Toriel said it’d be?”

The man didn’t move, except to make a noise vaguely resembling “Who?”

Sans chuckled. “The first woman I saw once I left the room.”

A beat of silence. Sans was wondering if he’d have to spell it out when Proust howled, “No!” and made a credible attempt to tackle Sans and grab his daughter’s picture. “You can’t—”

The skeleton sent him sprawling with one push. “Sorry, Dad,” he drawled. “I left the room, an’ I saw ‘er. That’s that.” He laughed harshly at the man’s expression. “What? She’s gonna get her own damn castle, lotsa nice stuff—I won’t even make you pay for ‘er!”

“You—” Sans watched, bemused, as the human sprang to his feet, fists clenched. “Tear me limb from limb if you want, but I am not giving my daughter to a thing like you!”

“Yeah, about that.” The skeleton raised a finger. “Y’know that little nibble ya got just now? ’s a great trick. Lemme show you how it works.” Hmm…what to do? Better not get carried away, or the guy would have a nervous breakdown before he could get his daughter up here. “Grab the echo flower and say, ‘I’m a stupid doo-doo butt.’”

Before Proust could protest, his body turned, stooped, and picked up the blue flower. He brought it to his lips, and said, very solemnly, “I’m a stupid doo-doo butt.” Then his head jerked up. “What in the—”

Sans hooted with laughter, fighting the urge to slap his future father-in-law on the back and accidentally break his spine. “See? When I say you’re gonna do somethin’, you don’t have a choice, do ya?” He sobered in an instant. “So, yer gonna go home an’ fetch ‘er for me. Got it?”

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done to me,” Proust said defiantly. “You said it yourself. Once I pass your gates, your magic won’t have any effect.”

“Good thing it ain’t my magic, then. It’s yours.” He got a blank stare, and sighed in exasperation. This was getting old: it was chilly out here, and he had a lot of planning to do. “I don’ have time fer a whole magic lesson. What it boils down to is, yer a part’a this place now. The magic’s with you wherever you go. Even when ya get back home—”

Proust chose that moment to make a break for it. Sans watched him race toward the gates, then reappeared directly in front of the bars, forcing the human to stop short. “Listen,” he said coldly, forestalling Proust’s attempt to cover his ears. “Three days from now, you’re gonna bring Frisk here. Yer gonna tell ‘er whatever you need to make ‘er stay. Then you’re gonna shut up and leave, and you won’t come back.”

The human’s face was crumpling in a way that suggested something wet was about to happen. “You can’t be serious, milord! Please spare her! Kill me instead!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, quit bein’ dramatic!” Sans jerked his thumb at the castle. “Like I said, she’s gonna have everythin’ a lady could ever want. Almost everyone’s dead now, so there’s a bunch of neat stuff left. Hell, we got a whole room with nothin’ but jewelry in it.”

For some reason, this didn’t seem to reassure the human. “Frisk does not want things, and even if she could be bought off like that, a wonderful young woman like her has no business being entrapped by a loathsome abomination like y—”

“Shut your fucking mouth. Right. Fucking. Now.”

Proust’s teeth clicked shut as the air around Sans roiled with crimson magic. “Just for that,” the skeleton hissed. He stepped forward, jabbing the human’s shoulder with one pointed phalange, almost a claw. “Just for that, you’re not allowed ta make stuff up about her goin’ to school or marryin’ a human or somethin’. You’re gonna tell the truth: you fucked up an’ trespassed on my property, and you only get to live ‘cause you had somethin’ worth tradin’.” Another poke. “Let ‘er know that you’ve got three days from now—” Sans glanced at the rising moon. “—an’ if you’re not here by then, she gets ta watch her dad rot from the inside out.”

Another long moment of silence passed as the human stared up at Sans, hopelessness dawning as he searched in vain for any sign of mercy. There was no telling what he would have said if another sound hadn’t made them both jump: “SANS!” It came from over the marble wall, advancing rapidly. “YOU HAVE HAD EXACTLY AS MUCH LEISURE AS YOU DESERVE, LORD BROTHER! I HOPE YOUR TIME HAS BEEN RESTFUL, BECAUSE YOU HAVE FIFTEEN MISCREANTS TO DISCIPLINE AND A JAM SHORTAGE TO ADDRESS BEFORE YOU CAN RETIRE FOR THE NIGHT.” A stiff click-click of heeled boots. “I WILL BE WAITING IN YOUR SITTING ROOM. YOU ARE HUMBLY REQUESTED TO BE THERE WITHIN TEN MINUTES OR ELSE FACE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES!”

Sans mumbled a long stream of curse words as Papyrus’ footsteps strutted away. That reminded him of something. “Don’t even think about killin’ yerself or breakin’ a leg or somethin’ ta get out of this,” the skeleton said, still facing the garden wall. “I’ll say it one more time: go home, get ‘er packed up, an’ bring her back here on time. No tricks, no cute little loopholes, nothin’. Don’t bring anybody else with you, or I’ll kill ‘em. Got it?”

The human shuddered. “How—” His voice cracked. “How can you do this? You don’t have to do this! This is your castle, your land—surely there are enough women of your own kind to choose from? You don’t have to steal my daughter!”

The skeleton shifted to look at him. “Nope,” he said, and made to step around the human.

“Wait!” Proust fell to his knees, fists clasped in supplication. “One thing, my lord, I beg of you! Please don’t harm her!”

Sans could’ve cheerfully punted the man across the garden. “The fuck?” the monster snarled down at him. “Why the hell would I hurt my own wife? What am I, a goddamn human?”

There was no answer, only a ragged sob. “Good night,” the skeleton muttered. Proust tried to say something else, but Sans paid him no mind: he had things to do, and to look forward to.

~

           Her father was hiding something.

           That seemed impossible, and not just because he was a terrible liar: almost the moment he stumbled over the threshold of her uncle’s house in a filthy, sobbing heap, he had started babbling about a monster stealing his Frisk. Once he’d been cleaned up, fed, and tucked into bed, he’d stayed awake long enough to relate a horrible, fantastical tale of stumbling across the castle from local legend and running afoul of its hideous master. And they’d believed it, because…well, she loved her father, but he had the most wretched luck imaginable.

           At least her aunt had been asleep when all the commotion started, so there was nothing to stop Uncle Raph from assuring his brother that they would look into the matter as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Servants were dispatched to fetch books from the library and summon the nearest mage from his cottage outside the village; by the time Aunt Kay woke up, her maid could report to her that her brother-in-law had come home bearing a “geas,” a type of curse far too powerful for humans to break, and would lose his daughter in less than three days.

           Frisk had to give her aunt credit: she said all the correct things about being so very sorry and hoping that there was a way to save her poor niece from having to live with literal monsters, possibly for the rest of her life! And when it became apparent that there was nothing anyone could do, she was the first to embrace Frisk – as much as she could around her enormous belly, of course – and assure her that if any young woman could handle such a bizarre fate, it was her. She’d packed a bag of sentimental items for Frisk to take with her in case she got homesick, with only the slightest hint of glee at having sole dominion over the house now.

           Her father had come home with a cold brewing, because of course he had; knowing she was going to leave and having so little warning had caused chaos among the servants, and Frisk was too busy making arrangements to do more than check in on her father every few hours. He spent most of his time either asleep or staring at the beautiful blue flower he’d brought her.

           That was the last bit of proof anyone needed to believe his story. Echo flowers only grew in intensely magical surroundings, and there was so little magic left nowadays that they were thought to be extinct. But here it was, a thick-stemmed, six-petaled blossom that repeated anything spoken nearby. Frisk would’ve been more excited about it under different circumstances, but…well, maybe her new employer would let her have a few of her own.

           The whole thing was strange, all the more so because of the way her father had told that part when they were gathered to listen to his story. He’d said he was bound to do what the creature commanded him, which was to bring his daughter up to the castle within three days’ time. The most logical supposition was that Frisk was going to get eaten, but her father had hastened to assure them that the beast seemed angry at the very idea of hurting Frisk. He just wanted…

           There was that little hitch in his voice when he said the beast wanted Frisk to perform all the functions of a housekeeper, and that she would be well rewarded—why hadn’t he just said “The monster needs a housekeeper”? And why had he clutched his chest like that afterward? Was the geas hurting him for saying the wrong thing?

           Frisk had kept herself too busy to think about it very hard, to believe that she was really going to be thrown out of another home and into the clutches of monsters from myth and legend; on some level, she could convince herself that her father had exaggerated or made some kind of mistake, and it wasn’t going to be so bad. But now, nearing sunset on the third day after her father’s misadventure, they were most of the way up the mountain, and fear was starting to creep through her veins like frost. Her father could be naïve, even simple-minded, but he wasn’t crazy. She really was going to be left alone in a strange place full of strange creatures, expected to take care of them, answering to a walking, talking skeleton—this couldn’t be happening!

A couple of the younger manservants had insisted on accompanying them part of the way. The mage had warned them that they could only get so close to the castle before the horses refused to go any further; sure enough, about a mile from the castle gates, the men had to help them dismount before the animals grew frightened enough to turn and bolt. Frisk gave each man a quick hug – at least her aunt wasn’t there to scold her – and they reluctantly headed back down the mountain to wait with the terrified horses, ready to escort her father home.

           The latter was growing more and more agitated as they approached the castle on foot. He could barely speak with his throat raw from coughing, but the way he kept glancing at her, clearing his throat and sighing heavily— “What is it, Father?” Frisk finally asked.

           “I…” He swallowed. “I haven’t been entirely truthful, dear.” She stiffened, shifting her bundle to her other shoulder as he coughed into his handkerchief. “The creature didn’t order me to say the exact words in just the right order, and I didn’t want to humiliate you in front of everyone by telling the full story—”

           “What story?” The lump in her throat grew heavier as the trees started thinning out, the ground sloping sharply upward. “Is it really true that I have to stay with the monsters and keep house for them?”

           “It’s true, love, but…” Another maddening pause. “Er. He is a skeleton, so I believe you’ll be spared…some things, but running the household is included in your role as—”

           The wind rose from nothing to a scream of frigid air, nearly throwing them to the ground. Frisk lowered her arm, and to her dismay… “We’re here,” her father croaked.

           In the dying light, a huge wall loomed over them, black marble framing a set of gates over thirty feet tall. The bars were nearly obscured by climbing ivy; despite her fear, Frisk found herself drifting closer in sheer curiosity, reaching to pull the ivy aside.

           “Frisk!” her father croaked. He was almost unrecognizable, pulling her back and giving her a little shake. “I…” She watched him struggle with himself, and lose. “Stay here, and be good,” he said jerkily. His lips formed a few frantic words, but she couldn’t catch them before he crushed her to him in a sudden, fierce embrace. “Be careful,” he whispered. “I love y—”

           The sun had disappeared over the horizen. Before she could hug him back, Frisk felt something coursing through her father’s body, forcing his arms to drop and his legs to carry him back a step. He struggled to get more words out, but it was too late—what had his last orders been? “Shut up and leave”? Charming, and succinct…and effective.

This was it. Frisk had had plenty of practice at smiling, and did her best. “Goodbye, Father,” she said helplessly. “I love you, too.” Then she turned and plunged through the ivy before he could hurt himself resisting any further.

           When she stepped free of the bars and brushed the leaves from her face, Frisk almost forgot her sorrow and despair in sheer wonder. Lamps on iron posts lit up a garden arranged in long, orderly, but breathtakingly lovely rows of bushes, flowerbeds, statuary—she’d never seen anything like it. Letting her bundle hang from one wrist, Frisk turned to look at the gates and the massive walls, wondering how big the grounds must be if this was just a private garden. Granted, it belonged to the lord of the castle, and he obviously cared enough to keep it in good order…

           And had terrorized her father into forcing her out of her home to come play housekeeper amongst total strangers for…how long? If the problem was just that monsters couldn’t cook or clean up after themselves, maybe she could stay long enough to teach them and then go back. Surely they didn’t expect her to do it all on her own forever, not when they had magic to help them do everything? But if they could do it with magic, then why bring her here at all?

           Frisk shook her head, scanning the garden for signs of life. She could hear a fountain burbling in the near distance, just out of sight; the wind was freezing, but carried the smell of flowers, helping calm the human down a little. It was enough to let her take a step forward, then a few more, wandering into the first stand of rosebushes and a patch of black irises. Their petals didn’t reflect light, but shone like velvet, tempting her to reach out—no, she thought hastily, snatching her hand away. Touching flowers without permission was what got her poor, well-meaning, hapless father into this mess!

           No one seemed to be coming to meet her, but then, it wasn’t completely dark yet. If she had a few minutes to herself, then Frisk figured she could spend it in peace and calm before she met her fate, whatever that might be, whatever her father had been trying to tell her… So the young woman stood up and set off down the path, taking her time examining the rows of irises, snapdragons, and several flowers that had no business blooming at this time of year.

She didn’t see a shadow step out from behind a lamppost. Nor did she notice when it hesitated, then vanished, reappearing behind another lamppost, and another, and another, till it was just a few steps away.

Frisk thought she felt someone watching her, but when she turned around, there was nothing there. Shivering, she drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders, squinting up at a faint outline against the darkening sky. The castle wasn’t exactly hard to find, but that didn’t mean she knew how to get there; the garden was so huge that she couldn’t tell which path led out of it. Maybe she should—

“h u m a n~”

Raw terror flooded her senses, and her brain screamed so many conflicting orders that nothing got through; Frisk could only stand stock-still, clutching her bundle till she summoned the courage to whirl around.

Nothing was there. Was her mind playing tricks on her? No, she couldn’t have imagined such an awful voice, deep and rough as—

A delicate tap, tap on her shoulder.

Frisk shrieked and twisted around, landing on her rear with an ungentle thmp. “What are you doing?” she yelled. “Who’s—”

The air went still, her lungs shriveling and her heart stopping at the sight of a skeleton – this must be the skeleton – looming over her. The smooth bone of its skull had a dull, velvety sheen like the iris’ petals, and dots of red hellfire glinted in its empty sockets. Its teeth – no, fangs – were bared in a cruel grin, hands buried in the pockets of its black coat; beneath it, the creature’s shirt was a surprisingly bright red—satin? The tidy, domestic corner of her mind wondered how expensive that had been, and how difficult it was to keep clean; as a matter of fact, the skeleton was more richly dressed than her father had been at the peak of his wealth, right down to a frankly garish gold tooth. This had to be the lord of the castle, beyond a doubt.

But his wealth was less important than the fact that a skeleton was staring down at her. It didn’t speak, or grab her, or do anything but stand there, its face unreadable. Surely it could talk, after the way it had cursed her father?

Anger surged through her, propelling her to her feet. “Greetings, my lord,” Frisk said coolly, stepping back to discreetly brush herself off and drop into a deep curtsey. One of them had to be civilized about this! “My name is Frisk. I am here by your command.”

The skeleton blinked, the bone of its sockets somehow closing just like a human’s eyelids. Frisk was almost too fascinated to be angry—almost. It silently shifted its weight. Was it a “he”? The monster was dressed like a male, and had sounded like it. Why wasn’t he saying anything else?

A light gust of wind flapped her hood against her neck. Shivering, she broke eye contact to hitch her bundle back over her shoulder and reach to pull the hood up. “I hope I’m not too late to—”

Quicker than she could blink, the creature was right in front of her, inches away. Frisk tried not to cringe as his bony fingers plucked the hood from her grasp, letting it drop against her back. “What…?” Stupidly, she reached up again, and the skeleton’s brows drew together. His fingers pushed her hand away and, to her shock, rose to brush her hair off her cheek.

That did it: she was willing to come here to save her father’s life, not to be scared out of her mind, stared down, kept freezing, and all but propositioned by the thing that had done this to them! Who did he think he was?! “I beg your pardon!” she snarled, and the skeleton’s sockets widened as she smacked his hand away. “You will not touch me without my permission, milord! And if I am not allowed to wear this—” Frisk waggled her hood. “—then you will please take me somewhere out of the wind!” She tried not to sniffle, and hoped he’d attribute it to the cold. Without thinking, she scratched her cheek, trying to erase the unwanted feeling of those smooth, warmish fingers on her skin. “Lead the way!”

To her alarm, the red light in his sockets vanished, as if she’d blown out a candle. “Yes, m’lady,” growled a voice from somewhere deep in its chest. Frisk gripped her bundle as the skeleton turned on its heel. “Come along.”

Frisk tried not to gulp too loud, and hoped it – he – couldn’t hear her heart pounding as she followed him across the garden. With the anger ebbing away, fear was reclaiming her, dulling the wind’s bite and the ache building in her feet from the walk here; her aunt had insisted she wear a respectable dress and heeled slippers to meet her new master, never mind how impractical they were for traveling, and Frisk could feel a blister forming.

The skeleton’s shoulders were hunched, his hands in his pockets as his boots scuffed the white stones. It was a distinctly un-noble posture, almost sullen. Was he really the lord of the castle? He wasn’t carrying himself with much confidence, and though she’d obviously irritated him, he hadn’t bothered to correct her. Maybe monsters were nicer than humans overall, no matter what the stories said; maybe, she thought as they exited the garden through a wicker gate and started across a courtyard, humans were entirely wrong about them. She might just be a—

“Dumbass!”

The skeleton stopped so fast that she nearly walked into him. A moment later, something flew across their path, followed closely by a small yellow body. “The ball’s a dumbass,” it said helpfully in passing, with the snide, high-pitched tone of a child almost breaking the rules.

Frisk’s escort made a low noise and suddenly whipped his hand up and around. She barely had time to process what was happening before the little monster was jerked into the air, flipping upside down and hanging in a scarlet cloud. “Ya think you’re smart?” the lord demanded, gesturing to silence the…child, she supposed. “Don’t answer that!”

The lizard-like monster didn’t have arms to gesture with, but kicked his feet and snapped his teeth more than expressively enough. “Knock it off,” the skeleton warned him.

The child obediently stopped kicking, and started mouthing obscenities instead. To Frisk’s dismay, the cloud of magic dropped him onto the ground head-first and, before he could recover, picked him back up; the lizard stuck his tongue out in defiance, at which the red cloud rose several feet higher before dropping him again. This time, when it picked him up—

“Stop it!” Frisk protested. They both glared at her, and she shook her head. “He’s just being a child! He’s not hurting anyone!”

The skeleton snorted. Frisk felt her face flushing again as the magic dropped the young monster once more; the child gave her one sneering glance before scuttling off. Then the lord turned to glare at Frisk, who was trembling with fear and rage. “I could say a lot of stuff right now, but you just got here,” he said with dangerous patience, “so I’m gonna cut you some slack.” He started walking again. “C’mon. Everyone should be in the Great Hall by now, ‘cept that little fucker, but that’s fine. He’ll hear it, too.”

Frisk wanted to ask what he meant, and object to his language, but she was tired, and cold, and sore, and hungry, and now keenly aware of what the monster could do to her if he chose. She followed him meekly across the courtyard and through several more winding paths, most too dimly lit to see more than the skeleton’s broad back; he wasn’t much taller than her, but he was powerfully built, even without his hellish magic. He didn’t look sullen anymore, just angry. Frisk wasn’t one for self-pity, but…what had she done to deserve this?

He eventually stopped in front of a door so small and unassuming that she went right in after him, blinking in the sudden light, expecting to see a kitchen or servants’ entrance; instead, when her vision cleared, it revealed a dazzling array of…red carpets, stairs, dozens of voices, thousands of candles—her senses were too overloaded to take it all in. This must be the Great Hall, she thought muzzily, barely aware that the skeleton had turned to watch her.

She did notice when he took her hand, fingers tightening as she reflexively pulled away. “This way,” he muttered.

Frisk couldn’t help scowling. For someone who had spent so much time and cruel effort getting her here, he didn’t seem at all happy to have her. At least his hand gave her something to focus on as he led her through the columns at the back of the room and into the center of the red carpet. As she’d thought when he touched her face in the garden – which she still resented – his bones were as warm as human fingers, with a strange consistency, smooth and slightly pliant. He was probably strong enough to crush her fingers like brittle leaves, but he held them just firmly enough that she couldn’t get away. How nice of him, she thought irritably.

Suddenly, the skeleton paused and turned to face the room. “Hey,” he said, almost conversationally. “Shut up.”

The human thought he was talking to her until the hall grew very quiet, making her ears itch. A tug on her hand turned her to face the same way he was, and her eyes widened.

The room was full of monsters—the ones she’d heard about as a child, and with whom she’d be living and working now. There were creatures made of ice, one built almost entirely out of razor-sharp teeth, several fire spirits, some with fur or scales, or both…there was another, much taller skeleton, and…

Hm. She was good at making quick estimates, and there were barely a hundred monsters in the hall. Surely this couldn’t be all of them?

“So,” said the lord. With his free hand, he dug beneath his shirt and pulled out a pendant shaped like a miniature skull, elongated like a deerhound and sporting far too many fangs for Frisk’s taste. The skeleton raised the pendant to eye level: in an instant, Frisk sensed a shift in the atmosphere from mild disdain to wary, almost fearful anticipation. “Here she is,” proclaimed the lord of the castle. “Meet…Frisk.”

No one reacted, except for a few scoffs and an extremely half-hearted “Hurrah” from the back of the hall, more insulting than no response at all. Frisk hoped she wasn’t expected to introduce herself, or say literally anything else.

Luckily, the skeleton was already speaking again. “So,” he intoned, and as one, the monsters flinched. “First off, no one’s allowed to hurt her—directly, indirectly, on purpose, sort of on purpose, tricking her into it, trickin’ someone else into it, I don’t fucking care. Humans are weaklings, remember? If any of you assholes so much as breathes on ‘er too hard, I’m gonna take you apart mote by mote and burn yer dust in front’a everyone.”

Judging by the monsters’ shocked faces and low murmurs, this was quite the threat. The skeleton lord’s hand was holding hers a little more tightly—was he shaking? At the front of the crowd, the other skeleton had uncrossed his arms and seemed ready to—

“Second!” Everyone twitched. “You do what she says, when she says, unless I tell you different.” He paused, as if weighing his options. “No lyin’ to her. If she wants ta know somethin’, you gotta give ‘er a good answer.”

More murmurs of surprise and resentment. Frisk could feel little pulses through her contact with the skeleton—his pendant was doing something magic-related as he spoke. With a start, she remembered her father’s description of the skull that bit him and inflicted the curse of obedience; this must be the same thing, in a way that let him use it on every monster at once.

Regardless of how he was doing it, Frisk wished she understood why. He clearly did want her here, but how terrible could things be for him to go to these lengths for her? The first tiny prickling of unease began skittering around the back of her mind. What had her father been trying to tell her? Something he’d been hiding that would have destroyed her reputation among her family and friends, with worse duties than arranging parties and checking whether the maids were stealing anything …and the monster being a skeleton was relevant. What could possibly—

Someone had asked a question. “No, not yet,” the skeleton said, to groans of disappointment. “Party’s tomorrow. We’ll hold off for tonight and let her get settled.”

A loud, rude snort made everyone turn to the back of the crowd. “Well, ain’t that sweet?” It was a tall, armor-clad figure holding a faintly glowing spear. The voice was female, but almost as rough as the skeleton’s. “I know if I was her, I’d want you to hold off for tonight!”

The monsters erupted into jeering laughter. Frisk’s face burned as the implication sank in, and she gave the skeleton a disbelieving glance as that sense of disquiet prodded her again. What kind of party was he talking about? Would he really go to this much trouble to procure a normal housekeeper, much less protect her like this and celebrate her coming?

To her bemusement, the skeleton seemed as embarrassed as she was, and several times angrier. “Fuck off, Undyne!” His magic pulsed again so strongly that Frisk’s palm tingled. The woman in armor made a faint sound and staggered back against the wall. “If you’ve got time to say stupid shit, maybe it’s time you—”

“That’s enough,” said someone above them.

Frisk felt the air in the room shift again; this time, it felt like a classroom where the teacher had walked in and just looked at everyone. Every monster in the Great Hall – even Undyne – sank to one knee; the skeleton’s hands dropped to his sides as Frisk turned to watch another monster descend the staircase. “Tori,” he mumbled.

The white-furred monster glared at him. She resembled a giant goat, but seemed far more predatory, perhaps because of her golden eyes; they reminded Frisk too much of her uncle’s captive hawks, which always looked ready to eat someone. “How strange,” the goat-woman murmured. “I could have sworn that we’ve met before and you know how to properly address me.” Like magic, she was now smiling brilliantly at Frisk. “Welcome to our humble abode, my dearest girl. May I be the first to congratulate you on your conquest of Sans’ affections?”

The human’s polite smile was fixed in place, the one she used at parties when trapped in conversation with people she wasn’t allowed to run away from. “You certainly may, Lady…?”

“Toriel, my child. I am the former Queen of this place, now a silly old lady enjoying my twilight years in retirement.” The goat monster inclined her head, and suddenly raised her voice. “Thank you all for coming. I believe dinner should be ready soon?”

That was the monsters’ cue to scatter, no compulsion necessary. “Well,” said Toriel as the room emptied. Her smile twisted in utter contempt. “You seem surprised, my dear. Was Sans incompetent enough to allow your father to lie about your purpose here?”

The skeleton – Sans – gritted his teeth. Frisk would’ve felt sorry for him if…no, wait, she wouldn’t, ever. “Well,” she said, echoing Toriel, “when my father told everyone at my uncle’s house what happened, he said the monsters wanted someone to ‘perform the functions of a housekeeper.’ He never came out and said I’d be marrying anyone.” Frisk gave Sans as poisonous a look as she could, and his sockets went blank. It was unnerving, but she was too angry to care. “On the way up here, he tried to talk more about it, but then he had to leave.”

Toriel cackled, raising the hairs on the back of Frisk’s neck. “Of course he didn’t tell the rest of your family you’d be sharing your bed with a skeleton! You’d be the laughingstock of the village—no, the whole country!”

“Tori,” muttered Sans. Somehow, his entire skull was turning a dull crimson; he’d shrunk in on himself, looking much smaller and curiously vulnerable. Good.

The goat monster must have agreed; she smirked, and fully turned her back on him. “I hope you can understand your father’s intentions, my dear child,” Toriel said. Frisk would have given anything to make her stop smiling. “Parents tell these little fibs every so often to protect their children’s feelings.” She patted Frisk’s shoulder with a soft, heavy white paw. “I’m sure you’ll understand once you start having them.”

Frisk’s skin crawled—whether it was Toriel’s touch or the thought of that with Sans, she couldn’t say. Probably both. “I wish he had given me some forewarning, Lady Toriel, but I understand his reasons. He was also very sick when he reached the village, and likely still is, so we didn’t have many chances to talk privately.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” Toriel murmured. “But it was to be expected after a night outside without food or drink, and then a walk down the mountain without provisions.”

“A what?” Frisk rounded on her would-be husband, who was sweating profusely. How the hell did—no, never mind. “You didn’t give him anything at all? And you made him sleep outside?” she demanded.

Sans’ eyes sparked red again. “He trespassed on my land and fucked up my garden! What was I s’posed ta do? Give ‘im a cookie and his own private room?”

“Anything but keep him outside like a dog!” Frisk was so angry that her eyes were filling with tears. She swiped them as discreetly as she could. “I am overtired, Lord Sans! May I be shown my room for the night? Or would you prefer I sleep in the garden?!”

“Fine!” he bellowed. For a horrible moment, Frisk thought he was really going to lock her outside—no, he was grabbing the pendant: “Panne! Lapis! Get your asses down here, now!”

“I’m afraid you have your work cut out for you, my child,” Toriel said kindly to Frisk, who was seething so hard that it took a moment to realize someone was speaking. “If you want any help, dear, you need only ask.”

“Thank you, Lady Toriel,” the human replied. “I’ve dealt with bullies before, but they usually don’t have magic on their side.”

Toriel cackled again as Sans’ eyes went blank. “Well said, my dearest Frisk! Very well said. Our lord is accustomed to getting what he wants, but a bit of reality may be what he needs.”

“Y’know what?” The skeleton’s voice was high and loud with indignation. “You’re right. Forget it. Fuckin’ forget about this whole thing! We’ll do the ceremony, make it so yer creepy-ass curse worked, an’ then she can go back to her dumbass family. How’s that sound?”

Frisk’s heart leapt…until Toriel gave a gentle sigh. “Yes, Lady Toriel?” the human asked warily.

“Yeah, what?” Sans snapped.

“Several things, children. For one, Sans, you already came crawling to me for help in getting Frisk’s father through the barrier—to be honest, I’m surprised we were able to do it at all. I absolutely do not have the resources left to move another human through the gates safely.”

Frisk could have cried, but as it turned out, that was the least of her problems: “And if you think you’ll be man and wife after a few words and a slice of cake, you’re sorely mistaken. A true marriage is built on time, trust, and communication.” Toriel nodded benignly. “And sex.”

“What?!” It came out in perfect tandem between the skeleton and human.

The goat monster didn’t bother to hide her glee. “I never said you’d find a wife in name only, you pathetic sack of bones! What are you thinking, trying to get rid of her? Why go to all the trouble of snaring such a lovely thing if you were just going to shoo her off? I’ve never seen you so excited, having your room prepared and planning what to eat for—”

“There they are,” Sans said sharply, looking and sounding ready for death as two rabbit monsters approached. “You! Get her fed, bath, sleep, whatever! I’m goin’ to bed, good night!”

Toriel’s grin was the most evil thing Frisk had ever seen. “Good night, my lord? It’s only—oh, dear. There he goes.” She examined the tips of her claws, and gave Frisk a look that made the human shudder. “Was it something I said?”

 ~

             “REALLY, BROTHER, I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU EXPECTED.”

           Sans tried to think of something witty, but it was easier to bash his head against the wall some more. So—

           “WILL YOU KINDLY STOP THAT FOOLISH NOISE! IF IDIOCY COULD BE REMOVED THAT WAY, I WOULD GLADLY CRACK YOUR EXALTED SKULL OPEN. BUT NO, YOUR LORDSHIP’S STUPIDITY WOULD REMAIN INTACT NO MATTER WHAT MEASURES WERE TAKEN.”

           For the millionth time, Sans found himself reaching for his pendant, the key to the spell encompassing the castle and its grounds. All he had to do was concentrate on Papyrus and command him to shut up for ten goddamn minutes. His life would be easier, and quieter—

           —and complete shit, because Pap wouldn’t be his brother anymore. Sans rolled his skull sideways along his bedroom wall, glaring at the taller skeleton. “Get yer ass off my bed.”

           Papyrus snorted. “WHY? IT IS APPARENT THAT YOU WILL BE THE ONLY ONE USING IT FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.”

           “Oh, not you, too!” Sans grabbed a book at random from the shelf and chunked it at his brother, who easily caught it and tossed it to the floor. “What, you wanna be more like Undyne?”

           “PATHETIC AS SHE IS, IT WOULD STILL BE PREFERABLE TO OTHER PERSONS OF MY ACQUAINTANCE, BY WHICH I OF COURSE MEAN YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE TERRIBLE.” Papyrus did get up, though, and Sans tensed as his brother approached the mirror. “WHY DO YOU STILL KEEP THIS?” To Sans’ indignation, Pap took the ink drawing from where Sans had stuck it in the mirror’s frame, holding it up for a closer inspection. “SURELY, NOW THAT YOU HAVE CAPTURED THE HUMAN IT DEPICTS—”

           “Put it back,” Sans snapped.

           Papyrus tutted under his breath. “AS MY IDIOTIC LORD WISHES.” Unwilling to make a mess of any kind, the younger skeleton tucked the picture very gently back into the frame, smoothing down the creased edges. “IT WILL BE RUINED IF YOU DON’T STOP CARRYING IT EVERYWHERE.”

           “Yeah, I know,” the elder skeleton grumbled. He let the back of his skull thump into the wall again, earning another sharp look. “You can leave now.”

           Pap’s boots tapped impatiently on the stone floor. Several rolled-up rugs were stacked at the other end of the room, but Sans had made several excuses to leave them there, unable to admit his fear of picking something she didn’t like. Of course, now he would kill for that to be his biggest problem. “WILL YOU BE ALL RIGHT, BROTHER? SHALL I BRING THE MANUAL? THE SECTION ON WOOING A KIDNAPPED BRIDE IS PITIFULLY SHORT, BUT—”

           “I’m good, bro,” lied Sans. “Go to bed.”

           It wasn’t a command, and they both knew it. “I DIDN’T GET A CLOSE LOOK AT MY NEW SISTER,” Papyrus remarked. His gloved finger tapped the edge of the portrait. “IS THIS ACCURATE?”

           “No,” Sans said sharply. “Don’t touch it.”

           “HMPH!” Only Pap could make that a complete sentence. “I SEE. THE ARTIST SEEMS SKILLED ENOUGH, BUT IT MUST BE ANOTHER HUMAN LIE. IT IS A SHAME, BECAUSE THE FEMALE IN THIS PICTURE IS NOT NEARLY AS HIDEOUS AS MOST OF HER—”

           “Get the fuck outta my room!”

           Eventually, Papyrus complied, leaving Sans with only his stupid, stupid thoughts for company. There weren’t enough permutations of “fuuuuck” to express what he was feeling, so he settled on staring at the windows and letting his head hit the wall some more.

           He hadn’t lied to Papyrus. The picture wasn’t accurate: it didn’t show that her eyes were gray, or the way her nose scrunched when she was mad, or how her cheeks turned pink when he touched them. Looking at it always made him want to hold her, but it didn’t have her light, sweet scent or feel so damn soft that he forgot he wasn’t supposed to touch—

           Fuuuuuck. She was here, but this was still bullshit! He’d felt a twinge in the spell framework and realized that someone was trying to get around one of his orders – probably by a lie through omission – but how was he supposed to know it was Proust? He never expected that whinging, craven little shit would avoid telling Frisk she was going to be married. She hadn’t had time to get used to the idea, weigh the pros and cons, maybe move past him threatening to kill her daddy as leverage…

           Oh, who the hell was he kidding? Even if Sans had gone about this as honorably as he could, and even if she’d had a year to think it over, she never would have accepted him on her own. No matter what anyone said, he was still a monster, and she was still…

           His mind veered off yet again to when he’d followed her through the garden. He’d been so thrilled that she was really here, but so terrified that the ideal he’d built up from one picture would fall short of reality; maybe he’d made an ass of himself, getting everyone to clean stuff up and get things out and plan it all down to the second for someone who’d drawn herself to look better than she really was. Maybe her dad was just being a dad and he’d actually spoiled her rotten, letting her take the credit for some actual housekeeper’s work. Maybe she wasn’t really that nice. Maybe this was a mistake.

           So, faced with possible perfection, what did he do? He snuck up close enough to smell her, weirded her out, and then tried to play it off as a joke, which scared her even worse. And…

           No, the picture wasn’t accurate. He’d been so stunned that he just stood there like a complete moron, not apologizing or helping her up or introducing himself, because she was so beautiful that he forgot to breathe. Of course she got scared and mad at him, and he didn’t know how to handle it because he didn’t know how to handle anything, so he just acted like himself, and—

           He was going to kill Toriel if it was the last goddamn thing he did!

           The wind was howling again. Sans wondered if it was keeping Frisk awake, assuming she could sleep at all after discovering she was going to marry him.

He looked at his bed, which had never had anyone but him in it, thank you, Papyrus—he’d enjoyed modest success in his sex life before that stupid fucking day with Asgore, but ever since, he found that being able to make people do anything he wanted was a massive turnoff. It felt creepy and pathetic and, well, wrong, even if he didn’t actually order anyone into the sack, or to do anything in it.

           Now that he was going to have an actual wife – who thought he was a bully, hated and feared him – would that be any better? Maybe if he courted her well enough, let her see that he’d loved her before they ever even met, refrained from using magic to change her mind…

           If that was the best he could do, then no, it wouldn’t be any better. Sans gave himself one last bang on the wall, kicked his boots off, and climbed onto the bed. “G’night,” he said out loud, and closed his sockets to wait for morning.

[thiswasinevitableid]

88. I dropped my watch in an open grave, jumped in to get it, and while you were visiting your dead grandmother, you saw me climbing out of the grave (credit to @enchantedcass)

Indruck, sfw or nsfw, please!

Here it is! This is technically SFW, though there's some discussion of sex and a bit of steaminess at the end.

“Here, these are fresh.” Indrid sets the wildflowers on the small, stone marker, so covered with moss and worn with age that no one can read it. He only knows where to find her because he watched from the Barrens as she was put in the ground.

Temperance Leeds. His grandmother, the one who narrowly avoided accusations of witchcraft, the only human who ever set foot deep enough in the trees to bring him food, to drape blankets over his shaking shoulders. She never forgot him, and he shall return the favor as long as he lives.

There’s a thump of earth behind him and he whirls; it’s midnight in a graveyard, who could possibly be here? The ghosthunters usually wait for darker nights to come. In his periphery, a hand rises from an open grave.

Great, if the dead rise he’ll probably be blamed for that too.

“Fuck” A young man pulls himself from the grave, staring at his cell phone, “c’mon, please don’t be fuckin cracked.” Light illuminates his face and sighs, “thank fuckin christ.”

The light disappears and he blinks, eyes adjusting to the dark. Indrid, too caught up in working out why he’s in the ground, hasn’t bothered to hide as he should. The human notices.

“Uh. I. Uh. Dropped my phone checkin the time. I, uh, definitely wasn’t smokin in the off limits, uh, fuck, graveyard I, uh, I fuck, promise I’ll clean up my beer bottles I mean, uh, fuck.” He scratches the back of his neck, “please don’t call the cops?”

“Can you see me?” Indrid cocks his head.

“Yeah?”

“And you are worried about me alerting the police?”

“I mean, guess we’re both breakin the rules but I kinda figured you were staff here because of the clothes.” He gestures to the ensemble Indrid cobbled together from clothes lines.

Indrid stands, stretches his wings, flicks his tail and watches the human slowly notice the color of his eyes and the outline of his horns.

“Fuck. Look, man, whatever you are, I swear I won’t tell, I’m just tryin to keep busy, please, my folks are already worried about me-”

“I’m not going to harm you.” Lightning cracks through the sky, flashing his shadow across the frightened human, “I just wanted you to see me clearly.”

Rain patters on the leather of his wings. The man looks up at the sky, face seeming even younger as it fills with resignation. Indrid recognizes it’s source.

“You have nowhere to go, do you?”

“No. I, uh, decided I wanted to get outta town and never come back, made it as far as here before I ran outta money.”

Indrid offers his hand, watches the man’s face zero in on the claws, “You may spend the night with me, if you wish. My home is a ways into the woods, but it is dry and warm.”

“Okay.” The young man replies softly, letting Indrid help him up as the dirt turns to mud. Indrid shelters him as best he can with a wing until they reach the cottage. Indrid kneels by the fireplace, lumps kindling into a pile as the young man sets his backpack on a chair.

“Nice place. Gotta admit I was expectin somethin more dilapidated. On account of the whole, uh, y’know.” He gestures to Indrid’s horns and cloven feet.

“It was much like you expected, once upon a time. But a human named Arlo Thacker took pity on me and helped me build it with the aid of a few friends. There.” The fire flickers merrily, “that should keep us warm. You may--ah, what are you doing?”

The young man has removed his jacket and shirt, revealing what Indrid recognizes from human magazines as a sports bra. His hands are now on the fly of his jeans.

“You said I was supposed to, uh, spend the night with you?”

“Yes, in that you may sleep here to be safe from the weather and any who might wish you harm. Not so that you may keep me warm. So to speak.”

“You’re not gonna fuck me?”

Indrid flicks his tail, surprised, “You would offer yourself to me, looking like this?”

The man nods in a way that suggests he’s run a calculus in his head and decided Indrid’s desire was less abhorrent than some other option. Indrid crosses the small living room, bringing them face to face. He reaches out a hand, runs his claws through black hair until the human closes his eyes. Then his hand slides to cup his cheek, one nail tracing fond little shapes on the skin as the man sighs. Against his better judgement, he tilts his head down to nose the dark locks; smoke lingers there, just as alcohol hangs on his breath. He’s so warm, so willing and so very soft. Indrid wants nothing more than to undress him further, carry him to his cozy bedroom and discover what sounds come when he fits their bodies together.

“What’s your name?”

“Duck. It’s a nickname.”

“A charming one. But no, Duck, I will not take such advantage of you. I may be called a devil, but I do not believe in making one trade their body for basic kindness. Come along, the bedroom will allow you more privacy.”

“Thanks.” Duck sways, and Indrid senses a weariness he’s not certain a good nights rest will fix. Tomorrow he will be sure to be gone when Duck awakens, leaving his dry clothes and a map back to town outside his door so that he can do what Indrid can dare to; leave the Barrens and find a life waiting for him in the world beyond.

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

There are some days when Duck thinks his encounter in the woods was a dream. The hand-drawn map he keeps folded among his books tells him otherwise.

He’d come home after that night, made his peace with Kepler for a few years more, and often awoke from dreams where he was pushing through brush in pursuit of a strange shadow. He never cites these as a reason for his taking a job at a state forest in New Jersey that includes the Barrens.

Now, he’s decided to upgrade from his apartment to a house in the woods that’s been listed for over two years and is a goddamn steal because of that.

“As you can see, there’s another residence across the clearing; that’s why the company that built this lovely dwelling was able to do so. They intended to build a nice little community here.”

“The fact that ain’t happened got anythin to do with the reason I gotta stay the night before I make an offer?”

Ned’s smile falters, “Indeed, dear boy. I like you, so I’ll be forthcoming; we’ve never seen anyone in the other house. But they have most certainly seen us.”

Duck settles in for an uneventful afternoon and evening, reads his book and considers whether he could fit some windowboxes on the house for garden space. It’s not until it’s pitch black outside that it starts; footsteps on the roof, followed shortly by red eyes peering in through the living room window.

He opens the front door, the undergrowth rustling hurriedly to his left.

“Uh, hey there. You may not remember me but, uh, we’ve actually met before. About ten years ago. You uh, you let me stay the night?”

Only some crickets, unaware of the tension in the air, reply to him. Then the bushes grow two, ruby red flowers.

“Duck?”

“Yep. Y’know, you never told me your name. If we’re gonna be neighbors, feels like I oughta know what to call you.”

A shadow moves from the trees, stopping when it reaches the light spilling from the windows. He’s as Duck remembers him; short horns sprouting from a mop of silver hair, claws on his fingers and black wings folded on his back. His skin is a swirl of ashy grey and ember red. And his face, while striking, is human. That was the part that always tripped Duck up; the Jersey Devil was always drawn with a goat or horse face, making him question whether that’s who he met all those years ago.

“Indrid. My name is Indrid.”

“Nice to see you again, Indrid.”

The other man smiles, and Duck knows what will replace the mad hunt through the brush in his dreams, “Likewise.”

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

“You know, she had three more children after me. None of them suffered the same curse.” Indrid kicks idly at the long decayed remains of his family home. Their nightly walk brough them close to it this time around, and Duck had been curious. His interest is never prurient or morbid; Duck wants to get to know Indrid, not his legend.

“That fuckin sucks.”

Indrid chuckles, “I do enjoy how you put things so plainly.”

“I’m serious, what kind of folks put their kid out when it’s a baby? I mean, mine weren't always the fuckin parents of the year but at least they understood lookin after me was part of the deal.”

“It was a different time.”

“Fine, but I’m still judgin the hell outta them.”

Indrid looks fondly down at the human, “That’s as fair a fate for them as any.”

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

“It don’t weird you out?” Juno indicates Indrid’s house from where she and Duck are sitting on his front porch. The twin Adirondack chairs are a new addition, as the warmer months mean he and Indrid spend ample time trying to see the stars through the treetops.

“Nah. Indrid’s a real good neighbor when he’s around. He’s uh, from an old family so he don’t gotta work. Part of why he keeps such weird hours.” Duck wishes he could introduce them; it’d be nice for the three of them to have dinner before Juno heads south again. But Indrid has several centuries of shitty human encounters that dig under his skin like splinters, and Duck will never push him to ignore that pain. Besides, there will be other visits.

The summer and fall pass in much the same ways last winter and spring did. Duck works in the park, visits friends in town, runs errands, and generally goes about all the mundane moments that make up a life. Then he spends his evenings in one of the two cottages, or walking alongside Indrid on long-overgrown pathways.

The hardest part of it all is not mentioning Indrid in every single conversation; Duck is already tempting disaster being unable to lie and the neighbor of a cryptid. He doesn’t want to also drive his friends up the wall talking about said cryptids art, or his laugh, or the little herb garden Duck is helping him grow.

They’re in the stretch of days between Christmas and New Year, and Indrid has just finished opening the gift Duck brought him; a thick, soft sweater that Duck stitched a “I” into the front of along with a few little pine tree patches. Indrid smiles at him and notices that Duck’s sweater is done in a similar fashion (in fact, everyone in the Newton family wears one like this). The grin turns bashful and Indrid rubs his cheek against the fabric.

“Thank you, Duck. I, ah, I’m sorry I do not have anything to give you. Holidays are not my strong suit.”

“Just gettin to see you is enough.” Duck stands to refill his tea, Indrid’s gaze caressing his back as he moves through the room. He almost hadn’t gone home, had offered to stay and keep Indrid company. But his friend insisted, reminding him that while it felt odd to be without each other, they both had spent plenty of time apart and been fine. All the same, when he got home yesterday Indrid was knocking on his door before he even put his bag down.

Duck didn’t mind at all. No more than he minds when Indrid sleeps with his head in his lap or strokes his hair while they read on the couch.

The cryptid stokes the fire as the snow gives way to sleet, streaking the windows with icy drops.

“Goodness, what a frigid night.”

“No kiddin.” Duck sets his mug down, turns just as Indrid gets to his feet, “can’t say I mind, kinda reminds me of the night we met.”

The colors of Indrid’s skin make a blush difficult to spot, but Duck’s learned which dip of his head and quirk of his lip means it’s there.

“‘Drid? Did you ever think about that night? Because I did. I, uh, I do.”

“Yes.” Indrid’s tail twitches.

“What do you think about?”

“I, ah, I...you first.”

Duck crosses the creaking floorboards, looking up into red eyes, “I think about how safe it felt when you brought me here. How when I woke up, I felt like this was some kinda weird sign, that I needed to rethink some things and that’s how come I went home, which turned out to be a good call. And” he smirks, “I think about how I was drunk and desperate enough to ask the fuckin Jersey Devil if he was gonna fuck me.”

Indrid blushes once more, studies the ground as Duck touches his shoulder, “I must say that is the part that dominated most of my thoughts. Not right away; for the first few weeks when I thought of you I only hoped you were alright. Then I would let myself imagine that I had been devilish indeed.”

Gently, Duck raises Indrid’s hand and cradles his cheek with it as they did that night, “What would you have done, devil of mine?”

A snicker, “I will answer that only if you tell me whether you are angling for the demonstration that I think you are.”

“Damn right.” He closes his eyes, heart swelling and skin prickling as Indrid steps closer and nuzzles the top of his head.

“I would have asked if you were tired of running. If you wanted a home. And would you like to make it here, so that we could keep each other company. I know in my heart this would have been a selfish offer. I am glad I did not make it, did not trap you here, resign you to a fate that was not what you would have chosen freely.”

“I’m pretty fuckin free these days.”

“And that all on it’s own fills me with joy. But yes, there were nights where I wished I’d been selfish.”

Duck tips his head up, brushing their noses together, “Say you made that offer and I accepted. What then?”

Indrid cups his face with both hands. The kiss is chaste, Indrid sighing against his lips as he twines his claws in his hair. Duck wraps his arms around his waist, lightly teasing the edge of one wing.

“Then” Indrid murmurs, “I’d carry you to bed.”

“Yeah, that part woulda been easier when I was seventeEEN” he laughs as Indrid scoops him into a bridal carry with ease. He’s never been in Indrid’s bed, so he giggles again when he discovers it’s ten times squishier than his own. The cryptid sinks onto it with him, guiding him so they’re face to face on their sides.

“May I undress you?”

“Knock yourself out, darlin.” Affection deep and warm as a thermal spring wells up in him as Indrid carefully removes his sweater and shirt before dainty setting his claws to work on his fly. When Duck is down to his boxers, hunger enters Indrid’s eyes for the first time.

“Oh you are divine.” One hand strokes his leg, pausing at the crease of his thigh each time it reaches there. The other curves along his belly up to his chest before caressing his face, the black claws making his skin seem oddly pale and very fragile in comparison.

Duck touches the hem of Indrid’s shirt and the cryptid freezes.

“‘Drid? Is this okay?”

“Do you...truly wish to see me unclothed?”

Duck surges forward to kiss him as he rucks up his shirt, the movement a sufficient answer for Indrid to raise his arms and let him pull the sweater and battered shirt beneath it away. His skin here is the same swirl of colors as the rest of him, but there’s a dusting of peach fuzz fur across it. It’s delightful under Duck’s tongue, though the little keen of pleasure from Indrid is even better.

“It’s strange” Indrid traces hearts and zig-zags with his claws along Duck’s sides as the human continues kissing his chest and neck, “I thought that seeing you like this would so overwhelm me with need that I’d beg to have you this instant. But it seems I feel much the same way I did in my fantasies of that night.”

“Oh” Duck reaches up to toy with the base of a horn and Indrid groans happily before continuing.

“Had you stayed, knowing you were now mine, I’d have taken my time. Nestled you under the blankets, opened you up on my tongue until you were weak from pleasure. That way it would be easy to take you when I was ready. Perhaps on your back, so you had me to hold onto if you needed. Or on your belly, so you would be even more sheltered from the cold, cruel world by my body and wings. And I’d stay there for hours, make up for decade after decade of touch starvation by glutting myself on your young, willing body.”

“Holy fuck, ‘Drid.” Duck pulls him down into a kiss, “christ that’s a fuckin good image.”

“Mmmm” the cryptid licks his cheek, “it is, isn’t it. But since you are not going anywhere, and we are not limited by the confines of my imagination, I am even less inclined to rush. Will you indulge me with just kisse tonight?”

Duck brushes silver hair from his forehead, planting a kiss there when he’s done, “Of course.”

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

The morning brings several feet of snow and announcement that those who can stay in their homes and shelter from the ongoing storm should. The pines drop heaps of white across the ground, and frost makes the windows so icy it’s better to draw the curtains and stay curled up in the dark.

Duck doesn’t mind at all.

[thotsforvillainrights]

~Rainy Day~

(Man I’ve decided to combat baby fever by making some more of this Au. It’s been a while since I’ve written for it anyway so why not! Also you may notice the art I’ve drawn for this kiddo. It’s true his design differs from reader to reader. How he looks skin and hair wise is based entirely off your mind. But for me, I’ve drawn what I think he’d look like if I were Y/N myself.)

Au: Kaishi

Part: Sixteen

Theme: Fluff

A deep sullen sigh escaped as he sat on his knees and stared at the rain running down the window. He had long since lost his interest in pretending the drops were racing and now he was at the rock bottom of bordem itself. He leaned forward and pressed his chubby cheek against the window along with his ear so he could listen closely to the sound of rain hitting the roof. It could almost soothe him to sleep had it not been for the input from his father on the couch. 

“Brat, get your face off the window. Not only are you making it dirty with your dead skin and oils, but you’re also making yourself dirty from the possible germs it holds.” Kai spoke as he flipped the page of the book he was reading. effortlessly. “But I’m boooooooooored!” Kaishi drew out the word with a lengthy groan as his face slid down the window. Kai rolled his eyes and closed the book. “Then go do your homework.” He placed the book down and watched his son slug across the room to sit next to him on the couch. “I already did all of my work for today AND tomorrow too. I even did my bonus work.” Kai sighed and reached into his pocket to pull out a handkerchief. He began rubbing off the side of Kaishi’s face that was on the window as he spoke. “Alright then watch TV, or something. Go play with your toys, read something, or maybe help Pops tidy up the study. There’s a lot of stuff to do so cut out that complaining will you?” The boy grumbled under his breath and crossed his arms in annoyance. “I don’t want to do any of that stuff. I’m way too bored for that junk.” 

“Watch it.” Kai thumped his nose.

“Did I hear someone say they were bored?” You spoke as your head popped out from around the corner of the hallway entrance. The picture of both your son and husband’s eyes lighting up when seeing you was something you’d never get over. “What’s ailing you hmmm baby?” You took a seat on the other side of Kaishi and opened your arms for him to scurry into your lap. “I’m so super bored and daddy hasn’t given me any good advice.” You laughed at the way Kai scoffed. “Hmm well, it’s a rainy day huh. Why don’t you go puddle stomping?” Kaishi tilted his head at this, meanwhile Kai was shaking his head rapidly in the background. You smiled and continued explaining to you son while your husband sat in the background with a look of defeat. “Puddle stomping is something I used to do with my mom/dad/guardian when I was a little kid. It’s nothing big or serious but it was still really fun yknow? All you do is find puddles and take the biggest stomps you can! The bigger the stomp, the more fun the splash is! The best part of puddle stomping is when you come back inside from it. You take a warm bath and dry off with warm towels that were put in the clothes dryer. You can then have warm soup or hot chocolate depending on the weather. I always wanted an ice cream Sunday myself.” Kaishi’s wide eyes seemed to sparkle in excitement. He whipped his head around and practically shouted at Kai. “DADDY TAKE ME PUDDLE STOMPING PRETTY PLEASE!!!!!!!!” 

“Nope! Absolutely not! The entire act in itself is filthy. Think of all that nasty water that’s out in the streets. Not to mention the mud and dirt. That’s why I never did it myself, and I would’ve preferred if you never knew about the activity.” Kai paused to glare at you while you snickered to yourself. “Y/N, you do it.”

“Me? Well I’d love to but I’m busy today.”

“BS, no you aren’t.”

“Am too. I’ve got to get groceries.”

“Make Chrono do it.”

“Chrono is off today and I don’t want to bother the others. Why don’t you do it, my loving husband?”

“I’ve got paperwork to do.”

“Oh? That same paperwork you told me you finished earlier then?”

“...Well, Pops can do it then.”

“Nope, I’m taking Pops with me because he has a clinic appointment today.”

Kai groaned in defeat and Kaishi hopped off the couch. “Yes!!!” He rushed down the hallway to fetch his new raincoat and boots you got him last week. Once alone, Kai moved to smother you in a too tight hug. “You think you’re slick huh? Oh you’ll pay for this one later, Angel.” You wiggled out of his grasp and planted a kiss on his cheek, admiring the small pink that began dusting his cheeks. “Oh I’m so scared, oooo oh no!” You exaggerated before heading off to find Pops with a laugh. As you went down the hall, Kaishi came out of it wearing his rainy day attire. “Okay I’m ready!” Kai sighed and pulled his fluffy hood over his head. “You get 20 minutes of this madness and then it’s straight to the bathroom to clean yourself up, got it?” Kai ordered as he grabbed his large black umbrella. He passed a small blue umbrella with white polka dots and a red hook handle to Kaishi. “Thank you daddy!” The boy held the umbrella close, nearly shivering from excitement. “One more thing.” Kai paused with his hand on the door knob. “You stay close by y side out here. I don’t want you taking off running and getting hurt, okay?” Kaishi nodded in agreement and watched excitedly as his dad opened the doorway and ushered for him to leave. “The boy walked outside to the front, popped open his umbrella and waited until Kai followed along with it. “There, number one! It’s really big!” Kaishi pointed at a large puddle in the grass by the end of the driveway gate. “Go on then. I’ll stay back a bit so I don’t get subjected to this madness.” Kai watched his son rush to the puddle and basically leap into it. The cute giggling almost made up for the fact he was outside in the rain right now. He sighed and followed behind Kaishi as they exited the yard and walked down the sidewalk of their neighborhood. Kaishi took a break from the puddles to slow down and walk alongside his father and enjoy the rain for a bit. “Daddy, why come you never did puddle splashing as a kid?” Kaishi asked with curiosity. “It’s puddle stomping, brat. And the reason is the same as I said earlier: it’s disgusting.” Kai sighed and looked over at the flower bushes that grew alongside the fence line this way. It brought back a few memories of when Pops would walk him home with an umbrella after his school fights. “Daddy, you really hate germs huh.”

“Absolutely.”

“Well then what did you do for fun during a rainy day?”

“Shogi. I’d play it with Pops a lot. It’s why I’m so good at it right now. No one can beat me. Not even the old man himself.”

“Will you teach me to play Shogi one day?”

“Kai thought to himself for a second before smiling and putting his free hand on the top of Kaishi’s hooded head. “I suppose. If it’ll please you then I will.” Kaishi smiled widely and leaned onto his fathers touch before gasping and pointing ahead of himself again. “Big one spotted ahead!!!!” He rushed and jumped into the puddle repeatedly, unknowing to the fact that his father had slipped out the cell phone.

He smiled to himself and slipped his phone in his pocket. “Alright that’s enough. It’s been well past 20 minutes so let’s pack it up and get inside.” He directed before turning to walk away. He smiled to himself under his mask at the sound of pattering rain boots squeaking to catch up to him. Once inside, both boys hung their wet jackets up at the doorway hook and placed the umbrellas in the holder. Kaishi went to his room to pick out pajamas while Kai went to run some warm bath water. He looked up at the picture on the wall and stared at it for a bit while the water trickled from the bath spout. The picture was a baby photo of Kaishi wearing an oversized bath towel and smiling widely. Kai suddenly felt a lot less annoyed with today and a ton more thankful with the memories he was able to make. Kids grow up so fast, right? 

While Kaishi was taking a bath, Kai was preparing two cups of Sundays. How could he honestly resist joining in on the sweet icy treat? “Hope you’re making one for me too?” Your voice suddenly appeared as you entered from running errands with Pops. “Done already? It hasn’t even been all that long. How did you get everything done so soon?” Kai questioned as you pulled out a spare cup for your ice cream Sunday. “I never said how many groceries I needed to get. I only said that I needed to shop.” You winked at him and he rolled his eyes. “Of course you’d trick me.” Kai scoffed before filling your glass with ice cream first. “You’re home!!!” Kaishi shouted as he rushed up to sit in your lap and hug your neck. “And daddy is making the ice cream thingy too?! This is the best rainy day ever! Thank you daddy!!!” Kai smiled beneath his mask at his little family. You guys always brought out the fluff in this man.

“Go ahead and make room for me too. I’d love a Sunday.” Pops smiled as he entered the kitchen as well.

[georgemackayhey]

And I’m Coming For You

a/n: I think I’ve gotten at least a dozen vauge requests to write something for Ned over the year I’ve had this blog and I finally figured something out! 

warning: This wasn’t supposed to be nsfw but it’s Ned Kelly so it got a little steamy. Proceed with age appropritae caution or else! Basically 18+

gif by @hold-fire​ 

───※ ·❆· ※───

The Kelly’s. You knew the family name. Heard it through gossip in the village shops. Heard men on horses declare their mission to cease one of the gang’s latest schemes. Heard ladies worry over husbands who got mixed up with the lot. But never did you imagine any of the Kelly’s to be so handsome. 

But you didn’t know he was one of them… not right away. In your mind, The Kelly’s were a group of savages who hid out in the bush, waiting for passersby to torment. That’s the way all the rumors made it sound, anyway. So when a well-built man with piercing blue eyes strolled up to your stall, you didn’t second guess his status. You could hardly conjure up a polite greeting when you first laid eyes on the guy, only because of how alarmed you were by his beauty. He was sculpted by the angels, surely. You must have passed out in the deadly summer heat and a vision came to keep your comatose mind company. Till he spoke, in a voice that snapped you back to life.

“What have you got?” He asked like he was worried you wouldn’t have any of the things your booth advertised. But you understood his tone all the while. The summer was the driest yet, and the country's crops were long past suffering. You sold a farmer’s seeds, while the man was busy off bartering for more. If anyone was lucky enough to afford a bundle, the seeds still weren’t guaranteed to sprout in the dry barren world you’d found yourselves in, this year.

So with the sliver of hope you held fast to, you listed off the supplies in your sock, and avoided the man's piercing eyes as he watched you speak. When your spiel was finished, he shifted, and you pretended not to admire the way he moved- even the minuscule change in his stance seemed like a sight you were lucky to behold.

“I’ve only got these. Give me whatever they’re worth.” The guy laid two coins on your stand. They were barely worth handing over. And you’d been getting better at turning folks away, even given the circumstances, you had to eat too. But the thought of upsetting the tall brooding fella across from your stall made your stomach turn. So you gathered a reasonable collection of seeds and handed them over.

“There are too many here.” He glanced down to the bag, and then back up at you, like you’d wronged him. Like you, he had to eat too. So you added an extra few in, hoping some of the extra meant he’d surely have success. 

“Take them.” You pressed, sitting back on the stool that kept you in the measly shade.

The man sighed and tightened his grip on the small sack of seeds before turning away. He gave you a nod and the flex of his structured jaw before disappearing. You noticed his hair was a bit longer in the back as he drifted away, while you tried to memorize his every move in hopes you’d better spot him again one day.

The weather started to let up after then. Like your interaction with the handsome stranger set the world to spin right, again. How silly of you, dreaming of a face you’d likely forget about by the next burning summer. But even when a few gentle breezes passed by, the heat nearly sent your mind to melt out of your ears, and you seriously considered packing up your things and hiding away till winter came. 

The farmer you worked for was away longer each week, and your supply was running low. But even the most selfish and demanding customers seemed to understand though. Everyone was doing whatever they could, and most of the time that was nothing at all. In the beginning, you didn’t mind sitting around, waiting for someone to pass by. You were pleasantly occupied, and getting paid for it. But as the summer dragged on, and the community had taken to staying in, you loathed every new minute behind your stall.

Even when the barmaid brought you a cool drink, you could only smile at her thoughtfulness before regressing back to melting. Even when someone came by for some of the withering veggies you’d started trying to sell; you couldn’t be coaxed into feeling much more than dread.

Then he came back. The man with the icy eyes and choppy hair. He floated toward you with an all new vigour, like he’d known exactly what he’d come back for.

“Here.” He said, extending his long hand toward you. You straightened, and opened your palms at the command without question, though you had many.

“You gave me more than I needed, and we’ve had more than we ever had before. I must repay you.” His voice was full, and your palm was now heavy under the weight of a golden ring. An emerald set sparkling in the middle of the gaudy band, and your eye’s went wider the longer you admired the thing.

“This is a bit much for a few extra crops, don’t ya think?” You stammered and shook your head, and shoved the jewellery back toward the man who you’d lost hope of seeing again. As soon as your reach met him, the man grabbed your wrist with a lithe urgency. You watched as he took the ring from your grasp, looked back up to you, and slid the thing on your finger.

You gapped, watching the guy watch you, the feeling of his remaining grip warmer than all of summer, firmer than the ring he put on you, out of the blue.

“Isn’t it a bit early in the day to be harassing the townswomen, Kelly?” A distance voice cut in, from an officer high upon a trotting horse. 

At the man's word your mind spun a mile a minute. Your blood ran cold- and then it started to boil as you noticed the flash in the eye’s of the man; The Kelly who still held your hand like a prized flower.

“You’re the only one disturbing the peace, officer. Now do ya need seeds or shall we see you on your way, then?” You spoke sternly, shooting a glare to the officer. He grumbled and tightened the reins of his horse and turned to leave, keeping an eye on your interaction for a moment longer still.

“What’s your name?”  The man with sapphire eyes wondered, quickly taking back his hand yet standing still nearer than ever.

You told him and he repeated it, taking a dragging step back. And then another. You watched each other in the dry summer heat for what felt like forever.

“Ned.” He nodded. You smiled and watched him walk away with a fiercely beating heart, wondering why no one ever had a good thing to say about those Kelly’s.

__

A day passed, full of girlish bliss and silly daydreams bold enough to distract you from the heat. You wondered everything about Ned. Who you hadn’t thought of was the officer who seemed so eager to catch the guy in some kind of compromise. But it was the officer who came back the next day. He waited in line behind an elderly couple as you gave them what they asked for. And when they shuffled toward the closest indoors, the officer stepped up and seemed more keen on taking what it was he wanted than asking nicely for it. 

Before you could so much as ask how his day was going, the guy reached past your counter, grabbed your hand and yanked you eye to eye. 

“Nice ring you’ve got, here.” He glanced down to your finger in his vice grip, the ring from Ned placed proudly on the finger he himself adorned. “Too bad it’s stolen.”

“Are you implying I’m a thief?” You guffawed, trying with a sudden might to yank your hand away. Your strength was lacking, and the officer was quick to haul you away from your stand. You went fighting, cursing the man who dragged you down the block toward the police house at the end of the row. You didn’t care who might have seen from the windows of their cool shelters. You hoped somebody might have, in fact, and would race to your defence.

How dare he accuse you of taking what wasn’t yours.

“I know you saw as this ring was placed in my possession. How can you drag me in here and say I stole it?” You spat, fighting the officer’s grip all the way through the door of the jailhouse. He threw you toward the office with his name displayed on the door, but it might as well have been a cell.

“Oh, I know you didn’t steal it, las.” The officer grinned, giving your shoulder a harsh push so you sat in the chair across from his desk, as high and mighty as the horse he could usually be spotted upon. The officer leaned there, with a boot propped on the arm of the chair you’d been confined too. You gawked at the man in anger that boiled over your confusion.

“Ned Kelly stole the ring. Right from my very own pocket. He beat me bloody in a boxing match and decided on his own that my gold was his preferred prize for the attack.” He explained with a queasy smile. You started to sink in your chair, only attempting to distance yourself from the way the officer slinked closer and closer toward you.

“I want it back.” He grinned, right before you. He grabbed your hand in a gentle way that was equally as nauseating as his clawing at you had been. And then he regressed back to the only way he must have known, or prefered, ripping the ring from your finger in a way that caused you to subdue a shriek. You weren’t about to let your guard down. 

“And I’ve got it back.” The officer kept his slimy grin, leaning back against the desk and sliding the ring on his smallest finger. The jewel seemed so ugly now.

“I could have done that just as easily back at your stall. But I’ve brought you here because I just have this burning feeling that, when I ask you where Ned’s gone off to, you’re going to pretend not to know. And unfortunately, you can’t leave until you tell me.”

“What?” You asked through your teeth, sitting up with an all new rage sparking inside of you. 

“Tell me where that Kelly devil has run off too this week, and you can be on your way.”

“I don’t know Ned Kelly. Though it makes me curdle to admit to you I wish I did, he only gave me that ring in exchange for the seeds I sold him.” 

The office chuckled darkly, slamming his foot back on the chair you started to lean too far away from to hiss your honest truth.

“That game isn’t going to work.” The officer bent so his eyes burned right into yours and you knew he was right. You also knew if you lied, and gave away some random coordinates, that Ned most likely wouldn’t be wherever you imagined he might have been, and the officer would come back to treat you much worse than he was now.

“I don’t know where he is. Your ring is back on your finger now let me go.” 

“This was never about the ring, was it?” The officer cocked his head, and you realized there was no real way out of this.

“If it’s revenge you want you’re no better than a Kelly yourself.” You sneered. You’d come to reevaluate your mental image of the gang you’d only ever heard rumors about. You came to wonder if the officer was to blame for spreading most of them. But your insult was his final straw. His nails dug into your arm once more and he pulled you away from the office to a hole in the wall of the next building over. 

“You can’t do this!” You shouted, trying harder than ever to escape the man's grasp. He was strong enough to throw you behind bars, and fast enough to lock them before you could stand.

“I’ll find Ned one way or another,” The officer assured. “But you’ll stay here until you speak the truth.”

You wanted to cry but the summer heat had dried you from the inside out it seemed. You lingered for a while near the bars, hoping someone would pass through the barren land and you could talk them into breaking you out. And when the sun started to go down, a breeze came to chill the evening. What small hell, being falsely prisoned in the heat and finding no shelter in the night's cold. You grew tired of worrying and sat in the empty space watching the stars decorate the horizon. If you listened closely enough you could hear the sounds of the town coming alive in the distance. You could see flickers of lanterns and hear the ruckus from the pub, and even a few horses carrying people to parties that weren’t too hot to throw at this hour.

But the sound of trots became unmistakable gallops and as you tried to imagine what was happening, the horses seemed to stall somewhere near. You heard voices and the thud of feet on the ground and the shout of the officer whose voice was grossly familiar to you now. You stood to peer from the bars, hoping to catch a glimpse of the comotion, but no sooner than you rose to your feet, someone appeared on the other side of your cell. His hair was long and black and there were keys in his hand that he jammed into the lock. 

“What’s happening?” You asked, in a frightened hush. You didn’t know this man or why he’d chosen to break you out. And with the way the evening had gone, you were afraid of where it might have been going now. The man swung open the gate and waved you to freedom with a wild look in his eye. You hurried from the cell, but before you could turn in the direction of home, the sound of gunfire rang from just around the corner. 

You started to scream, but the man who’d freed you pressed his hand over your mouth and demanded you stay silent with one bone chilling look. What the hell have you gotten yourself into? As you wondered what was to become of you and what you might be able to do to decide your own destiny, the deafening quiet was broken.

“Get off of her. We’re done here.” Ned Kelly approached calmly, leading a speckled horse toward where you stood. The man with dark hair let you go and followed Ned’s command to get gone. But you stood, taking the sight of him in, trying to wrap your boggled mind over what was going on. You were much too scared to ask.

He was brooding as ever, his clothes seemed a size too small and his brow seemed permanently furrowed yet it seemed like the most beautiful sight you’d ever seen. 

“How’d you know I was here?” You asked, hardly having processed that you’d ended up where you had yourself.

“Someone wiser would have sold off that ring for something better,” Ned spoke, looming before you. Was his bold presence what shook the townspeople so? Was it only you who felt safe when he was near?

“You could have done the same." You pointed out.

"I gave it to you." Ned seemed to reason, in an endearing way that he didn’t even seem to realize.

"And I couldn't take it off then, could I?" You couldn’t help your small grin, considering everything.

Ned seemed to consider your words and then offered to take you home. You perhaps agreed too quickly, but you were on the back of his horse before you had time to second guess your eagerness. And though you longed to cling to Ned on the ride, you didn’t take your gentle hold on him for granted. You only hoped that once his horse rode past the mess of trees to your humble little home, that Ned would agree to stay for dinner. 

You talked the guy into leaving his horse in the stable near the woods, and promised you had more than enough of an evening meal to share with him.

__

Ned sat quietly in the corner of your place, a glass of water in his hand. Though the evening was chilled, your fire put on to cook dinner was reminiscent of the daytime temperature. You didn’t have to do very much but mix a few things in a pot and leave it to simmer. So when your task was finished for the near future, you turned your sights to the man you’d invited in.

“You saved me.” You said, walking toward the chair Ned waited in. Your statement was a sort of thanks and a question as to why all wrapped up in one. And while you sat in the seat at his side, Ned turned his head your way but didn’t look at you.

“I also got you into trouble. I shouldn’t have mixed you up in my way of things.” Ned countered, keeping his glass of water in a tight fist and letting his eyes travel up your figure until they locked with yours.

“You didn’t. I was already pretty mixed up with your way, myself.” You couldn’t help but admit you hadn’t stopped thinking about him from the moment he showed up that first day. When he came back, you were done for. And now here he was, in your home, his sapphire eye’s gazing into yours after he’d somehow come to your rescue.

You leaned in, and when Ned didn’t move away, you kissed him. Just a slow and sweet. He didn’t kiss back, not really. He just sat frozen, like you’d stalled time. You pulled away, hoping your blush could be excused but the temperature in this shack of yours. Just the heat getting to your head, again. You rose from your chair with a meek apology, and padded toward the fire to check on the stew. You killed the flame and scooped some of the meal into bowls and toted them toward the table. When you moved to refill the pitcher of water, your mission was halted. 

Ned’s fingers were around your wrist, gently yanking you closer to fill the space between the two of you. You could feel the rise and fall of his chest, and you could feel his breath on your lips, his eyes fluttered away from yours like he didn’t really want to look away from you. His nose nudged yours as his free hand rose to your jaw, and then he kissed you. 

It was slower and sweeter than the first time, totally unexpected. You smiled when you realized this mysterious rumored neerdowell was hardly any of the things the rumors surrounding his name made him out to be.

Because even as you snaked your arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, Ned’s hold on you reamied tender. 

“You’re not going to hurt me, Ned.”  You chuckled, taking one of his hands and pressing his fingers around your waist. “I trust you.” You nodded gazing up to the guy who searched your eyes with the slightest furrow of his brow. And maybe it was because your hands rested there but you swore you could feel some kind of weight lift from the guys shoulders. He leaned in for another kiss that traveled to your neck. You leaned into the wall and pulled him along too, and it seemed he wasn’t afraid to hold back after then.

His lips bruised yours and his rough hands trailed toward your chest and you already seemed to float closer to heaven while his touch had yet to meet your skin.

“Let me repay you for coming to my rescue.” You sighed, hooking a finger in the hem of his trousers. 

“Only if I’m to repay you in turn, and we might forever be in each other's debt.” Ned’s breath hitched in your ear, one hand daring to creep up your thigh below your dress. 

Dinner went cold as you pulled Ned toward your bed. You thanked him in more ways than one, and tugged at the hair that grew longer around his neck. You watched his brilliant blue eye roll as your hips met and soon forgot how to speak in the middle of telling him how best to use his hands. Yours stayed gripping the sheet and your mind wandered and made itself up. Even though you barely knew more than rumors about Ned Kelly, you learned the truth all night long, in a way. And if one day you’d come to find a reason to nod along with the townspeople while they gossiped about the Kellys; you prayed it might be because you’d become more than familiar with Ned’s mysterious ways

───※ ·❆· ※───

[mythgirlimagines]

Rushing into your inbox is this week’s Talentswapped Myth! Please give a quick hello to Myth, the Former Ultimate Sprinter!

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BACKSTORY AND TALENT

Myth’s motivation for becoming a pro sprinter was a pretty simple reason. As the daughter of two accomplished marathon runners, running was practically in Myth’s blood, ever since she learned how to walk. Myth was regarded as a prodigy amongst the crowds, for her innate stamina and her skill at running. In fact, Myth is currently planning on running in the Olympics, after graduating Hope’s Peak and chaperoning the Ultimates and Jr. Ultimates. Extra Fact: Let’s just say that all that running caused Myth to become quite the looker, for she became famous around her school for her looks, charming the pants off both girls and boys. In fact, people sell candid pictures of a hot and sweaty Myth all around the school for money, only to get stopped by Myth’s overly protective childhood friend. All while Myth remains completely oblivious to that.

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RELATIONSHIPS

Wyre Anon, Former Ultimate Emergency Planner

Despite her reckless, headstrong and almost delinquent-like behavior, Wyre is praised amongst her peer group for being prepared for any situation, whether environmental or medical. As the childhood friend of the simpleminded and scatterbrained Myth, Wyre is always one step behind her, making sure that Myth doesn’t get herself into any harm. Wyre is basically the Akaashi to Myth‘s Bokuto. Wyre also scares off people from Myth’s school who want to take candid pictures of a sweaty and undressing Myth and sell them for money in the school’s unofficial underground market, much to the confusion of the ditzy track star. Outfit: A construction hat on her head, a dark grey sleeveless parka over a red button-up shirt, a tool belt with a care kit for everybody and every occasion, blue jeans, brown steel toed boots and matching gloves, intact glasses.

Anon Scar, Ultimate Sharpshooter

Claiming to be cursed by an ancient parasitic spirit that inserted itself into her left eye, Anon Scar was nicknamed by the people of the shooting range she frequents as “Black Bullseye”, which obviously came from the skill she shows when she is in the booths of said shooting range. Acting like an old and grizzled war veteran and constantly speaking of “The Old War”, needless to say, Myth bought into Scar‘s chuuni act, much to the embarrassment of the sharpshooter. As Myth eventually figured out, Scar acts a lot like a mother to the more reckless and childish members of the Kibo-Con roster, but Myth especially.    Outfit: An black eyepatch on her left eye and a green military-esque uniform with black gloves and boots.

Fusion Anon, Ultimate Gardener

Fusion made worldwide news thanks to the large grove of fruit trees and bushes that he managed to cultivate all by himself, which was a massive turnaround from the dry and sparse farmland that his grandparents abandoned. Fusion views the trees and plants that he grew almost like his children, and he applies the same philosophy to his conmates, much like Scar. It could be said that Fusion basically adopted Myth, along with the rest of the con. If Myth ever gets hungry while on a run, Fusion is always right by her side with some fresh and delicious fruit on hand. Myth regularly likes to go for nature runs through Fusion’s giant garden.

Outfit: A red turtleneck sweater, blue overalls, green rainboots and gloves, a blue bandana around his neck with small yellow sunflowers all over, flowers in his large afro, glasses from original design.

Fusion Anon II, Ultimate Finder

Being famed around her school for her cool and rebellious attitude and her ability to find objects that her schoolmates lost, she was nicknamed “Sherlock Jr.” by her peers. Eventually, Fusion II started her own business, helping the citizens of her hometown find lost objects and even pets and children. But much to Fusion II’s dismay, her cool facade is constantly undermined by her nerdy side and her love for memes. Because Myth loses things all the time, Myth regularly and tearfully turns to Fusion II to help find them. And with the finding of the lost items, came praise from Myth and an ego boost for Fusion II.

Outfit: A dark blue fedora that casts shade over her eyes, a matching trench coat over a long white dress and black heeled boots.

Just Anon, Ultimate Screenwriter

If you were alive in show business, than you should know the name of Just Anon, known for producing only the greatest in screenplays of TV shows and movies. That is, if he ever gets into a creative mood, in which last-minute panic seem to be the only thing able to perk him up. In layman’s terms, he‘s a chronic procrastinator, despite being an entertainment king. Janon’s lazy attitude, despite his massive potential to succeed, warrants a potential punch in the face from Myth, and she wants to get to the root of the true personality beneath that demonic hoodie. Hopefully, Myth would never find out about Janon’s soft spot for kids.

Outfit: A black face mask with a crooked smile on the front, a hoodie that resembles a cartoon devil, underneath the same formal wear from his original design.

Sparkle Anon, Former Ultimate Linguist

As the wealthy daughter of two ambassadors, Sparkle has been exposed to foreign tongues and dialects, ever since she was little, and still finds foreign languages fascinating, often watching stage plays from other countries to learn more about their native tongues. Myth always found Sparkle’s skill in foriegn languages to be fascinating, and Sparkle finds Myth’s athletic skills (and her bodacious body, particularly her strong and athletic legs) to be equally stunning. Unfortunately, Wyre wasn’t about to let Myth be gawked at by the eyes of the flashy and dramatic linguist, and tries to thwart the devious plans of Sparkle. 

Outfit: Same outfit from her original design, but with the Rubik’s Cube skirt replace with a blue skirt that has several languages printed on it.

Egg Anon, Former Ultimate Confidant, and Wet Sock Anon, Former Ultimate Volleyball Player

Famous for running a blog that allows people from all around the world to vent their secrets to them, known as “What’s Crackin’”, Egg Anon seems to be way more reliable online compared to real life, where they sprout off cursed comments, alongside their equally cursed twin, famous volleyball star Wet Sock Anon. Myth seems to be the only person in the con who actually finds the cursed comments that the Freak Twins spout funny, often laughing when other Anons are staring in disgust. Myth, ever the open book, loves to vent to Egg, and Myth is happy to find that the famous volleyball star themselves is chaperoning the con trip alongside her.

Egg’s Outfit: A green hoodie over a yellow t-shirt and matching yellow hair clips, glasses, pants and shoes from original design.

Wet Sock’s Outfit: A black and white volleyball uniform, white socks, black volleyball shoes, hair tied back into a small ponytail, glasses from original design.

Curious Anon, Jr. Ultimate Tattoo Artist

Despite their yakuza connections and heavily tattooed arms, Curious wouldn’t hurt a fly (except if someone ordered them to) and takes all the stigma they face for their tattoos and connections with a smile on their face. After their family’s yakuza business went belly-up, Curious’s family decided to earn money the clean way, and opened up a tattoo parlour. Curious proved themselves to be a master at tattoo art and garnered popularity. Myth always wanted a tattoo on her arm, and asked Curious to give her cool lightning bolts on her left arm. Myth quickly bolted away, never to return, when she saw Curious holding a needle.

Outfit: A white button up shirt, black pants with black suspenders, heavily tattooed arms, shoes from original design.

Anon Nerd, Former Ultimate Carpenter

Famous for using his trademark goggles to burn patterns into wood and his masterful craftsmanship when it comes to creating wooden structures, it was no wonder that Nerd earned the title of Ultimate Carpenter. Nerd is also famous for his uncontrollable temper and rage issues, if he were to be interrupted, and the horrible burns that the poor shmuck who interrupted Nerd winds up getting. Unfortunately for Myth, she constantly interrupts Nerd in the middle of work, and has to suffer burns that have to be cared for by Wyre in the process. This means that Nerd and Wyre are mortal enemies, much to the dismay of the track star.

Outfit: Red-tinted goggles, a red flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves, brown gloves, tool belt, and shoes, blue jeans.

Eldritch Anon, Ultimate Surfer

Born on an isolated island in the middle of the ocean, Eldritch dominated all of the surfing competitions in both his area and foreign areas, garnering fame around his island as having an innate ability to find the biggest and most impressive waves in the deep and blue ocean. Unfortunately, being born on an isolated island doesn’t exactly translate into great social skills and trust in others, for he shows a hostile distrust in just about everybody, believing that they have harmful magical powers intent on harming him. This upsets Myth, because she genuinely wants to bond with a fellow jock, but Eldritch just continues to push Myth away.    

Outfit: Camo-hoodie from original design with nothing underneath, shorts from original design, seafoam flip flops, long hair in a ponytail.

Dream Anon, Ultimate Hiker

Famous for hiking long distances, no matter the terrain or weather, Dream Anon broke many world records in her trekking endeavors. Dream has a great love for nature and landscapes, and lives for the thrill of visiting new and obscure locales. Out of all of the Kibo-Con participants, Dream is the most similar to Myth personality-wise, and thus, Dream and Myth get along the best. Both of them bonded over their sporty personalities and their love for exploring new locales. Dream instantly realized she‘d be good friends with Myth, when Myth cleared Dream’s hiking spots in record speed, and now, they have hiking races together. 

Outfit: Black sunglasses, a heavy pink and grey jacket, a large backpack, black shorts, brown boots.

Iris Anon, Jr. Ultimate Tree Climber

Just like how Myth was good at running ever since she learned how to walk, Iris has been good at climbing things, ever since she was a baby. Despite being clumsy and uncoordinated when on the ground, when it comes to climbing trees, she’s a master, to the point that Hope’s Peak Middle School christened her with the title of “Jr. Ultimate Tree Climber”. Along with the innate ability to climb trees very well, Iris also is very knowledgeable when it comes to trees. Just like with Dream, Iris and Myth get along very well, thanks to their similar personalities, and they love experimenting with each other’s talents for the day.

Outfit: Same outfit from her original design, but with a tree motif in her design.

Purple Anon, Ultimate Lip Reader

Despite being born deaf, the timid yet determined Purple wouldn’t let her handicap stop her from communicating with others. On the side, Purple hosts lip-reading seminars for the deaf and is famed for her polite and wise nature. Off of the seminar grounds though, Purple is far more timid, but can still understand what others are saying, thanks to her expertise in lip reading. Myth may not really know what it‘s like to be deaf, but Myth would try her best to support the timid lip-reader regardless, even if Purple’s loquacious and old-fashioned vocabulary just confuses Myth, and she needs the smarter Anons to translate for her.  Outfit: Same outfit from the original, but without the beret and purple hearing aids.

This series would center around a simple-minded yet supportive sprinter getting babied and protected from her obsessive fanclub by the other Anons, Bokuto-style, much to the sprinter’s confusion!

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PERSONALITY 

The best way to describe Sprinter!Myth’s personality would be a female version of Bokuto from Haikyuu. Simple-minded, childish, and easily-impressed, Sprinter!Myth is what the modern generation would call a “her-mbo”. But as much of a simpleton as she is, she’s still really determined and steadfast, as well as kind and supportive towards her friends. Unlike Romantic!Myth, Sprinter!Myth is utterly dense to anything relating to attraction or romance, extending to her fanclub at her school.

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APPEARANCE

Sprinter!Myth has natural brown hair in a lightning bolt-shaped ponytail and an ahoge to match, contact lenses that she always forgets to put in, a headband colored like the bisexual flag, a bandage on her right cheek, a blue track jacket with white stripes over a white shirt with a “#6” on the front, red athletic shorts with white stripes and drawstrings, long white socks, and red and white running shoes.

——————————————————-

I hope you like this talentswap! Let me know what you think of this week’s swaps!

-Fusion Anon

[6pmtea]

Genshin Impact - A Scaramona Tangled AU (with a twist)

Enjoy!♥️

-Tangled Stars-

Chap.1

This, is the story of how I died...

But, well, it isn’t my story, really.

It’s the story of a boy, in a tower, a boy high high up in his lonely tower...

Our story begins many years ago, in the great kingdom of Inazuma...

They say, one day, from the depth of the night sky, a single star fell to earth, and from it, bloomed a mesmerizing white flower, glistening like a million stars on the clearest summer night, a magic flower, a flower that could heal all sorrow, all pain and loss, a flower of eternal life and beauty...

But, you see, many thought it a myth, a tale, and few were those who believed in, yet along looked for it.

See her? The old woman is one of those who, raised with tales and legends of the star-bloom, wasted all her life away to find the fallen star...

Remember her name, Mother Celestia, she plays a much more important role than you might think in the story I am about recount you.

She found the flower one day, her last, no doubt.

Aged and wearied, all but aimlessly wandering, with no choice than to spend the last of her life doing the only thing she’d ever known: desperately searching for a miracle...

Every night, she had repeated the song, lest she forget the magic spell, and thus she sang to the flower with her dying breath:

‘Flower gleam and glow,

let your powers shine,

make the clock reverse,

bring back what once was mine,

heal what has been hurt,

change the fates design,

save what has been lost,

bring back what once was mine,

what once was mine.’

And with her dying breath her wasted years and life found fruit, and replenished with the power of the blessed star.

See how her wrinkles faded, her hair regained color and her eyes light? How the life she spent longing for a way to lengthen it rushed back to her?

Such a gift was never meant for one, yet the woman kept it selfishly, hid it, and used it for her own gain, and the flower became her treasure and hers alone...

Until, one day, the Queen of Inazuma, expecting a child, fell ill, terribly so... A grave and fatal illness, one which neither she nor her child would recover from.

The King, filled with despair and prepared to do anything to save his beloved and his child, sent out all of the kingdom’s forces to find the long forgotten flower, to turn over every rock and every bush and find the miraculous cure.

But Celestia greedily hid it, and their searches were all but a miss.

However, one day, seeing the wrinkles start to form at the corner of her eyes once more, the woman visited the flower again and sang...

But, in her haste to leave as she heard the royal guards approaching, she could not fully conceal her treasure, and so, lost it forever.

With the tea brewed from the healing flower, the Queen recovered fully, and delivered a perfectly healthy, beautiful prince, with shimmering midnight eyes like a starry sky and hair paler than the brightest star. The King and his Queen cherished the boy dearly, and his first crown was fashioned of shining white silver, of the brightest diamonds and sapphires, and formed like a blooming star in honor of the flower that saved his life.

As old age quickly caught up to her with the loss of her gift from the stars, Celestia grew restless, and broke into the royal palace to regain her treasure, she approached the boy and sang quietly...

She rejoiced as she saw his hair softly begin to glow with the magic of the flower, but someone was near.

She quickly drew a dagger and cut two strand of hair on the child’s head to retake the flower’s powers, but immediate they turned an ashen blue and their magic faded...

Unwilling to leave her treasured flower behind, she stole the child and escaped as the King and Queen reached the room, too late, powerless as they watched her disappear with their beloved child...

Ever since, every year on their lost prince’s birthday, the whole of the Kingdom and its King and Queen, would release thousands of lanterns into the sky, hoping their darling prince would one day come home...

Celestia disappeared with the child in a hidden tower, far from the eyes of the world, and from all who would take her precious flower away again...

The child grew up locked away, alone in this tower for eighteen years.

Every year, on the night of his birthday, after Mother Celestia had gone to sleep, he would watch the stars, as his mother called them, but they looked different on his birthday, brighter, closer, different.

All those days locked away, his only friend was a chameleon who’d found its way up his glorified prison, he’d named it ‘Paimon’, after a character of tale he loved, a tale he’d read over and over of two Travelers’ adventure through fantastical worlds, with their flying fairy guide, Paimon.

Every morning, he would wake at seven AM, and that day, Mother Celestia was away, traveling, through the so very dangerous world he could never see, because others would use him, sell him for his powers, hurt him, if they ever knew....

Everyday, he would brush his long, long hair, sitting on the pillars and the stairs, the bed or the windowsill to reach the end of it, he had never been able to cut it, for it would lose its magic, Mother had explained to him years ago.

Then, he would do his chores, after which various other activities filled his days, reading, rereading the books over and over, baking, with disastrous results at first, sewing, and much more, but more than anything, anywhere he could, he would paint.

He would paint the stars over the walls, over the ceiling, everywhere a corner was free. It fascinated him, the stars in the night sky, the stars of winter you could see during the day, cold and shimmering in the sunlight, and most of all, the pretty, odd looking stars on his birthday...

That day was the one before his birthday, his eighteenth birthday.

The boy asked, opening the window to find his companion he’d been playing a round of hide and seek with, startling the poor creature out of its color matched hideout:

‘What do you think, Paimon?

Surely she’ll let me go see the lights this year?...’

Paimon shrugged, changing color back to its usual pale teal.

‘I’m eighteen already! I’m definitely old enough to handle myself, don’t you think?’

Paimon paused, and nodded hesitantly after a long minute...

The boy huffed, flicking Paimon lightly,

‘What, no faith in me?’

Paimon gave no answer.

The boy hopped onto the windowsill, looking out into the meadow below with a sigh...

He would often sing, wonder if, and when, he could finally see these peculiar stars for himself.

‘Seven a.m., the usual morning lineup

Start on the chores and sweep 'till the floor's all clean

Polish and wax, do laundry, and mop and shine up

Sweep again, and by then it's like 7:15

And so I'll read a book

Or maybe two or three

I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery

I'll play guitar and knit

And cook and basically

Just wonder when will my life begin?

Then after it's puzzles and darts and baking

Paper mache, learn the fandango and chess

Pottery and ventriloquy, candle making

Then I'll stretch, maybe sketch, take a climb

Sew a dress!

And I'll reread the books

If I have time to spare

I'll paint the walls some more

I'm sure there's room somewhere

And then I'll brush and brush

And brush and brush my hair

Stuck in the same place I've always been

And I'll keep wanderin' and wanderin'

And wanderin' and wonderin'

When will my life begin?

And tomorrow night

The lights will appear

Just like they do on my birthday each year

What is it like

Out there where they glow?

Now that I'm older

Mother might just

Let me go...’

‘Hey, Paimon? I’m gonna do it. Today, I’ll ask her...’

A couple hours later, there was Mother Celestia, down by the tower, calling out to him to let down his hair so she could get up the tower.

‘Mother brought your favorite! We’re having hazelnut parsnip soup tonight!’ She announced as she got off the windowsill.

‘Thank you, Mother, I hope your trip went without any trouble.’ the boy answered politely, helping his mother remove her cloak and setting the basket on the table.

‘Quite well, in fact...’ she started recounting this or that event of her travels while they started getting lunch ready, and as they sat down to eat, the boy asked:

‘Mother?... I was wondering... um...’

‘Yes? What is it dearest?’

‘Well... as you know, tomorrow is my birthday...’

‘Your birthday?... No, no, no, I distinctively remember, your birthday was last year!’

The boy chuckled, ‘That’s the thing about birthdays... they’re... kind of an annual thing.’

His mother laughed lightly, ‘And so, what about your birthday?’

‘I was wondering.... I’m eighteen already... so I thought... maybe...’ the boy mumbled.

‘Now, now, don’t mumble dear, speak up.’

He cleared his throat nervously and asked, ‘I was wondering... If I could go see the lights?’

Mother Celestia paused, perplexed, ‘You mean the stars?...’

‘N-no!’ He stammered, ‘I... I don’t think they are. That’s why... I’d like to see them up close, just once!... They only ever appear... on... on my birthday. So I wondered, if, maybe... They’re meant for me?...’

Celestia scoffed, ‘For you? I told you, darling, they’re only stars, they shine for no one in particular.’

‘But I just...’

‘No. You will not risk the dangers of the world to see some shiny lights! You may not realize it, but you see them better than anyone, up here, high up, and safe...’

‘I... I suppose so... But, if I could just go see for myself... just once! Please, Mother...’

‘Oh, dear little flower, don’t you know... I’m only trying to protect you.

Out there... it’s much too dangerous....

You want to go outside?

Why, my dear!

Look at you, as fragile as a flower

Still a little sapling, just a sprout

You know why we stay up in this tower.’

‘I know but...’

‘That's right, to keep you safe and sound, dear

Guess I always knew this day was coming

Knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest

Soon, but not yet.’

‘But-‘

‘Shh!

Trust me, pet

Mother knows best

Mother knows best

Listen to your mother

It's a scary world out there

Mother knows best

One way or another

Something will go wrong, I swear

Treasure hunters, Fatui

Poison ivy, quicksand

Hilichurls and slimes

The plague...’

‘No...’

‘Yes!’

‘But-‘

‘Also large bugs

Thieves with pointy teeth, and

Stop, no more, you'll just upset me

Mother's right here

Mother will protect you

Darling, here's what I suggest

Skip the drama

Stay with mama

Mama knows best

Mother knows best

Take it from your mumsy

On your own, you won't survive

Sloppy, underdressed

Immature, clumsy

Please, they'll eat you up alive

Gullible, naÎve

Positively grubby

Ditzy and a bit, well, hmm vague

Plus, I believe

Gettin' kinda chubby

I'm just saying 'cause I wuv you

Mother understands

Mother's here to help you

All I have is one request

Dearest?’

‘Yes?’

‘Don't ever ask to leave this tower again.’

‘Yes, Mother.’

With a sigh, the boy started to clean up their meal and his mother put on her cloak again.

‘Oh... are you leaving again, Mother?’

‘Yes, dear, but only for a few hours, I’ll be returning before dinner. I love you very much, darling.’

She smiled at him as she descended down the tower.

‘I love you more.’ The boy replied fondly, if a bit longingly as he watched her disappear into the foliage...

/in two parts because Tumblr limit reached TvT

[workingonit-currently]

Bat Outta Hell

Text-session today so yay. Can look at my sheets peacefully.

Still in the cave, about to go through new door.

Courage ready, Aleris ready, Silas ready! (Imogen might drop in but she's battling fire currently.)

Grim landscape stretches out with a city in the middle, obviously we must go to the city.

We emerge from the cave, maybe, from a cliff and can climb down safely.

Aleris turns into a bat! Whoooo!

Courage climbs down normally though is worried about Silas getting down but ehh, he has his boyfriend

Silas climbs down as well

I'm expecting some dex saves or something.... (It never happens.)

Bat Aleris is trying to guide us down to stop us falling

Drusten and Link also get down okay

See an aarokokra and two goliath guards approaching us as we reach the bottom

Bat Aleris is hiding behind one of Courage's horns

Friendly bird-man welcomes us and offers some food and drink but Courage says no.

Bird insists as the guard behind him shakes his head, holding out a tray to Silas.

Silas just asks what the pastries are made of.

"Just some puff pastry and roasted vegetables grown locally, folded up and baked with some salt." -Yeah, not suspicious at all.

Silas asks about if it contains mushrooms. Good question.

Offers Drusten one, he takes it. (also says it contains no mushrooms.)

Silas takes one and Aleris wants to try one as a bat so takes a little of Silas'

The aarokokra starts cooing Aleris

"Is this your pet bat, good sir?" - To Silas.

Aleris hides in one of Silas' pockets to escape the bird man who is scaring her

Silas is amazing! - "um,, well, the bat is certainly our companion, though I don't think they're fond of being called a pet..I apologise, but we are in a bit of a hurry, so we must be off. Thank you for the sample."

Heads off but gives an extra pastry 'for your stern friend'-Courage.

Finally the goliath guards approach and ask what we're here for

Bat Aleris pokes her head out to hear better

The guards ask about the bat hiding anything on their person and Courage says it's just a bat

"Also, is that bat hiding anything on their person? Any seeds, plants, etc.?"/You don't want to know what we've found inside bat ear canals."

Aleris gets nervous because she's carrying a LOT of fruit, nuts and stuff

(thought the guards wouldn't.. bat an eye) - Thank you Griff. Never change because you are perfect.

Calls us rich and tells us to go back to the caves

*face palm* Silas actually explains the situation and then Aleris turns back into herself and demands to see druids

The guards are surprised as Aleris keeps demanding to see druids

Silas says 'Aleris' in a warning voice

"...What is your business here? Our boss told us not to let anyone in unless they had a note from him." - Great.

Aleris is being very blunt but I suppose it's understandable, she's kind of close to finally seeing who might have abandoned her.

"I don't think so, small druid. If you'll stay here, we can send a messenger out to the city and bring our boss back and he'll tell us if you can be let through." - About Aleris entering the city.

oooh, threats from Aleris as she says, 'Or you'll learn not to call me small."

Aleris tries to look scary and a thunder sound back up her scary-ness

Silas is done with this group and wants to see the guard's boss.

The say it will take an hour and are scared of Aleris, one looks at the pastries

"I strongly suggest you throw those out at the nearest opportunity."

Aleris eats one in stubbornness. (I really like her.) While Courage asks why

"Nobody's healing you if you get ill from that pastry." - Silas to Aleris

'Aleris, you've eaten your fair share of foul-tasting things in your life, as anyone who's been on the road before and has eaten from sketchy street vendors has, and this is one of them. It tastes like some unholy combination of bitter and sweet and salty.'

Power move! - Though not how Si would put it

Guard is scared of Aleris, yay

Silas asks a lot of questions about where they are, anything th guards might recommend about this place, who the guard's boss is.

"Our boss is a man named Doneld Gray Old. He runs the city you see back there. Honestly, in terms of places I'd recommend, it would probably be going back to the surface."

Silas asks about 'why the surface?'

"Because you're enemies of the truth?" - Aleris

"Aleris you're being rude." - Silas

"Well, it's just a bit gloomy here, isn't it? I mean look around you. No sun, nothing taller than a bush, those rivers have mosquito larvae in it..." He turns very deliberately towards Silas and away from Aleris. "It's not a nice place down here. That city, for example...", he gestures to the city, "is full of zombies if you're in there at the wrong time."

Well...that's good to know. Always handy

"So is the surface, I don't see the difference." - Aleris laying down the facts as she ignores Silas purposefully.

Silas says pros and cons

"The surface has the sun, at least." He grumbles. "I don't see any pros to living down here. I have to deal with that damned aaracokra and his attempts to make puff pastry with crushed leaves."

Aleris suggests kicking the bird out then

Silas laying down the logic on Aleris' head. (Stop Si, you might make her shorter.)

so on, so on. The talk continues about stuff.

HOLD IT! The Aarokokra has been alone down here...all this time? ALONE!?

Silas suggest getting the bird coupons for a cookery course

Courage asks what they mean by him being alone here.

"He was the original guardian of the gate before we came along and he picked up baking. Before that he'd be the one doing what we did. With significantly less professionalism, may I add."

Aleris asks about how much longer they have to wait, she might be able to teach the bird the basics.

"It'll probably be another while. If you can get him to accept your help, may the gods rain blessings down on you, because I couldn't and I've been subjected to shitty pastries for the past three months now."

So Aleris goes to see the bird

Courage asks their names because I've been wondering for a while.

Might ask the bird his name as well...

"M'name's Edar. Edar Helhein. The other guard is Sam, and the Aaracokra is Griss." (Opps, they actually didn't have names.)

Hear a shout and a large ploom of smoke comes out of Griss' house.

"I suggest you go teach him to cook before he burns his house down."

I open the door and say to Griss If you're try to kill them so you can have your old job back you're doing if the wrong way - Aww, Aleris you sweet murderer. No one suspects you.

Griss tells her not to come in because it's smoky and jogs out

Aleris asks if her 'murder' hunch is true and if she can help.

Griss thinks he's good at baking. (oh baby nooo.)

Aleris tells him the truth

Aww, Griss is learning from his mistakes. No...he's not.

"I can learn myself, thank you very much. Also, when did you get here? You need to check in with the guards." - I think..he might have memory problems

He goes back in his house which is still kind of full of smoke

Aleris accepts it and starts cooking in front of his house. (she's making a plant-based bread.)

Griss realizes it's too smoky and asks 'our names' but...Only Aleris is there at his house.

Aleris tells him her name while making dough.

Drusten also tells him his name. Griss then asks Silas' and Courage's. (strange.)

Courage states her name and asks how old Griss is

He's twenty four. Cool.

He holds out a sooty wing and I couldn't help but make Courage slowly raise her weapon and stare

He stares at your weapon for a bit. "Huh. I'm...gonna assume you don't wanna take my wing off as a trophy?"

"N-no... I wanted to shake your hand...as I did with Drusten...?" Drusten is trying to silence and hide his chuckles behind his hand.

Courage does lower her weapon but still doesn't shake his wing. (just be thankful Griss, the last person to hold out his arm got it half removed...)

Finally Silas introduces himself as just some bard. (still hiding from being hunted then.)

Griss asks about the taste of the pastries

Silas says he's never tasted anything like it, which is true, and says they were great, which is a lie.

Aleris mutters that she's surrounded by liars

"YOU HEAR THAT?" He suddenly yells across the field to the guard. "PRETTY GOOD, HE SAID! THEY'RE GOOD!"

Courage says Silas would probably eat a bird

Griss tries to argue but nope, Courage is having none of it

Silas apparently has friends who are bakers. Big suprise right there, for Courage

Griss doesn't trust falconmail and looks at Aleris' vegan-bread

Aleris continues baking and Griss is suprised by flowers and flour.

poor bird but Aleris offers that he can help if his feathers are clean.

Oh no, Aleris is turning to the bird's leafy ways! (leaves are probably what made his food so bad.)

Griss goes to get leaves and Drusten sits down to have lunch

Courage finally has jerky, courtesy of Drusten.

[kidhuzural1]

Aragorn X Reader

All you had to was just collect fire wood before the darkness covered the forest like a blanket. That was the only thing you had to do, until you heard a noise in the bushes. With silent and slow steps, you walked towards the Bush. You knew for a fact that Aragorn would give you a hour long speech on not the follow every noise you hear, but you couldn’t hold your curiosity. You slowly moved the small branches to see what was behind the bush. It could of been a wild animal, or an orc, but you would of never expected to see a baby squirel on the ground. You got the small creature as gently as you can, and put her in your palm, and started to look around to see a nest. You didn’t know what to do when you found nothing.

“ Oh, shoot.” you whispered under your breath as you realized that the whole fellowship must be dead from worry.

You quickly put the squirrel in your small pocket, got the fire wood you had already gathered, and went back. And you were right. The picture was basically Aragorn pacing, Gimli shouting at Legolas for a reason (not like he needed one), and the hobbits looking around the bushes as if you were hiding there. You didn’t notice the figure standing behind you until you felt a hand on your shoulder. Before you could shout, the features of Boromir came clear. Your sudden movement must have caused a lot of sound, because the fellowship was now staring at you. Great.

“ Where were you?”

“Why were you so late?”

“Are you okay?”

“ You look pale. Why are you pale?”

“ How are you still alive?”

“ Aren’t potatoes better then tomatoes?”

You didn’t have to ask to know who asked what.

“ I’m sorry, I just got distracted.” Y/N explained.

Aragorn gave a small nod before sitting down at the small log. The rest of the fellowship started to calm down and sit down as you explained that you were fine for 30th time. As everyone sat down, you noticed the small movement in your pocket and remembered everything.

“Umm, Gimli, would you like to take a small walk with me? Please?” Y/N asked as she gave the puppy eyes to Gimli.

“Sure Lass,” Gimli responded.

You couldn’t help but notice the exchange of glances between the half lings, Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn. As you got further away from the camp, you started to relax.

“ I know you Lass. Tell me what has been bothering you.” Gimli said as he sat down under a tree, and patted next to him for you to sit. As you sat down, you took the baby squirrel out of your pocket. You noticed that she was munching on the small berries that you have collected earlier with Legolas. Gimli’s gaze softened, and he took the squirrel on his rough hands.

“ I-I can’t just leave her. Please Gimli, I need your help. Aragorn wouldn’t allow me to keep her after I tried to keep a baby wolf, and Legolas will probably tell Aragorn since he is such a Snitch. Please Gimli.” You begged as you looked at him.

Gimli gave a small chuckle and gave you a small nod which caused you to tackle him in a bear hug. And that’s how it all started. You and Gimli would go for small walks when the camp was set to feed the small baby. Gimli would sometimes carry the baby in his beard, which would sometimes end up with the baby poking her small head out of his beard when no one was looking, which would cause you and Gimli to burst out laughing. This was normal for you and Gimli, but the fellowship found it strange, especially a certain Ranger. His jealousy was building up inside his heart, no matter how much he tried to hide it. He wanted to be the one to make you smile and laugh, he wanted to be the one to go for walks with you, but him wanting wasn’t enough he noticed. After the camp was set, Aragorn grambed your hand and took you to the woods (ignoring your questions completely).

“ I might be a little late to say this Y/N, but I love you. You are my star in the dark night, my flower to the dark forest.” Aragorn said as he grabbed your hand and pulled you to his chest. His heart was beating fast, and your face was red. All you could do was do a small nod, before he started to slowly lean in. Your lips were getting closer, before you heard a small squeak. The baby squired climbed up to your shoulder. Aragorn soon started to laugh. Like literally laugh. The ranger soon understood why you an Gimli have been disappearing mysteriously. His laughter soon calmed down, and he grabbed your hand and walked towards to the camp. Let’s just say a new member joined the fellowship, who was named Squeaky. 

[andrewmoocow]

Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 6: Why so Blue? (originally published on January 11, 2021)

Author's Note: This is one chapter I've been excited to write. In my opinion, Lapis is my favorite character because aside from having cool powers and being pretty, I also relate to her a lot because I've been through a lot of suffering like her. Though thankfully, I wasn't caught up in warfare, trapped in a mirror for thousands of years, and finally released only to be trapped in a walking, talking abusive relationship under the sea; just some standard bullying by people who love pushing my buttons, being framed for something I obviously didn't do that forced me to drop out of my first high school following first semester of freshman year. But enough about my life story, onto my #1 Gem waifu!

Synopsis: Steven and Lapis try to confront a pair of Lapises that continue terraforming worlds.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven

Jennifer Paz as Lapis Lazuli, Mean Lapis, Nice Lapis

Amy Sedaris as Blue Zircon

--

"Thanks for the help Lapis." Steven thanked Lapis Lazuli as they planted some new flowers in his conservatory. "These blue hyacinth flowers really tie the place together."

"You're welcome, Steven," Lapis replied with a smile. "Peridot helped me pick these out from the greenhouse. You know, it's funny. The two of us didn't get along at first, me more than Peridot to be honest, but thanks to you, we're basically inseparable."

"Aw shucks Lapis, was nothing." Steven blushed, just as the communication console nearby began to light up. "Hang on, I think this one's for me."

When Steven turned it on, a particular Gem who he barely got to know greeted him. "Oh hey, you're that Zircon from my trial! How are things?"

"Going pretty good." The defense Zircon answered. "Ever since the other Zircon and I were unbubbled at the start of Era 3, we've left our lawyer days behind in favor of politics. With the Diamonds essentially no longer in power, Homeworld had decided to turn to democracy when the caste system was dissolved."

"It's nice to hear some more good news," Lapis interjected. "but why did you call us?"

"Oh yes, that." Blue Zircon realized before she conjured up a hologram with her monocle. "Rumor has it that despite the caste system's end, there are at least two Gems who continue to terraform regardless of the end of colonization. Last we heard, they were busy remodeling the former Blue Diamond colony Aozul 2."

"Wait, terraform?" Lapis said with surprise at the mention of her old duties. "Are they other Lapis Lazulis by any chance?"

"Yes, that is why I contacted you today." Blue Zircon continued explaining. "Why do you ask?"

"I think I might remember them from when I was a terraformer." Lapis revealed, before she turned to the Warp Pad. "That's why I'm coming with you, Steven."

"Alright then." Steven agreed. "Who knows? Maybe we can get them to come to Little Homeschool."

"I'm not too sure about that, Steven." Lapis nervously replied before they stepped on the Warp Pad and activated it, taking off for Aozul 2.

--

On the other Warp Pad that dropped Steven and Lapis off was Aozul 2, a gorgeous-looking moon orbiting a yellow planet thriving with unique wildlife. Though the pair was amazed by the nature around them, they still had a mission to do.

"Let's not get distracted, this may not take long." Steven said as he stepped off the Pad. "Most Gems come around pretty quickly when I invite them to Little Homeworld in person."

"What a beautiful place." Lapis muttered in awe, distracting her from the strange little native creature they almost stepped on. "Wait!"

Looking down, Steven and Lapis found a cute flower bud-like alien with its petals opened up. "Whoa, thanks for the save Lapis." Steven thanked his blue buddy before kneeling to pet the creature. "Hey, little buddy."

The creature closed its petals in fright and raced into a nearby bush, making more of its kind nervously emerge in front of Steven. "It's okay Flower Buddies." He chuckled at his name for the creatures as they began to crawl all over him, now no longer seeing the boy as a danger. "Haha, whoa now!"

"Wow, Steven, it took you all of five seconds to make a new friend. You must be getting rusty." Lapis commented as she approached the Flower Buddy resting in Steven's arms and began to pet it gently. "You know, I used to never notice creatures like this. Before arriving on Earth, I used to not think twice about terraforming, never taking a moment to appreciate what I was destroying." The Buddy smiled at Lapis and began to open its petals for her as well. "Life is so precious. And these guys remind me of Pumpkin in particular."

The other Buddies began to blossom, only to just as quickly close up their petals as the silhouette of a figure similar to Lapis zoomed over them.

"Uh, Steven?" Lapis brought her friend's attention to the figures flying around and conjuring up water to cause untold chaos upon Aozul 2.

After putting the Flower Buddy down, Steven made his way to the edge of a cliff to get a better look at the pair. From what he could gather, one of the Lapides had her gemstone on her stomach, darker colored skin and hair than the one he knew, the hair was done up in a ponytail, and had gold-colored freckles on her cheeks. The other Lapis had her gem on her shoulder, light azure skin, and medium-blue curly hair.

"So, the rumors were true." Steven wondered as the pair of Lapises continued their path of destruction, laughing all the way.

"You think that Zircon called us because they didn't get your message?" Lapis asked Steven while gazing upon the terraformers' progress.

"I'm sure they did." Steven replied assuredly. "Everyone did, but I'll try and get them to stop."

"This may be harder than you think." Lapis added as her fellow Lazulis flew closer to the pair, using their powers to cut a massive rock in half and terrifying the Flower Buddies.

"Hey, stop!" Steven called to the blue Gems, who reacted to their work's sudden intrusion by preparing to launch a massive tidal wave at the pair. Steven was ready however, and defended himself and Lapis with his shield.

"Wait, that's Steven Universe!" the ponytailed Lapis cried as she grabbed her partner's arm. "And is that who I think it is with him?"

"He's smaller than I thought." The curly-haired Lapis replied when she came to the same realization as her fellow Lazuli. "No way!"

"You guys!" Lapis squealed in delight, causing the other two to cheer happily as well. "Oh my gosh, it's been ages!" she yelled as the two Lapises raced down to hug her. "I haven't seen you two since I was sent down to Earth!"

"Wait, you all know each other?" Steven asked the three terraformers.

"Yeah, we go way back with ol' 3E8C-4XF here." The stomach gem Lapis remarked. "That's her facet and cut, by the way. I'm 2F8D-9ZE, and Curls here is 1J9G-5KL."

"Yeah, the three of us were an unstoppable terraforming trio back in the day." 1J9G-5KL snidely explained with a flip of her hair. "Tearing planets apart, taking names, and looking cool while doing it!"

"But then I was given a solo mission to Earth, which was how I got caught up in the Rebellion, and here we are." Lapis continued for her old friends.

"We're just so glad you're okay!" 2F8D-9ZE exclaimed happily. "So anyway, what do you think? We're just about almost done with this world. Exemplary work, no?"

"And we don't need the extra help." 1J9G-5KL said meanly. "So it was nice catching up, but please, ta-ta."

"Look, we came here because you gotta stop." Steven explained to the Lapides. "The Diamonds don't control you anymore. Didn't you get my message?"

"Yeah, we did." Freckles nodded.

"So, you don't have to terraform for them anymore." Steven continued. "You're free to do whatever you want now! In fact, we want to offer you the chance to come learn at Little Homescho-"

"Oh, so this is all some big misunderstanding?" Freckles interrupted Steven.

"This has got to be a joke." Curls rolled her eyes. "Like, terraforming is what we like to do, and now you're saying we shouldn't do it anymore?!"

"Oh, here we go." Lapis groaned. "1J9G was always pretty passionate about her work."

"You're getting it wrong." Steven tried to ease the tension. "You can do whatever you like! As long as nothing gets destroyed and nobody gets hurt."

"That's not what you said a sec ago!" Curls pointed out. Freckles tried to speak, but Curls shushed her by forcing her mouth shut with a finger. "Are you listening to yourself right now?"

"Why should we stop?" Freckles lowered Curls' finger to ask.

"Because it's wrong!" Lapis answered, becoming irritated with her former partners' behavior.

"Wait, wait, wait." Freckles said, gesturing to the destruction she and Curls caused. "How can what we were made to do suddenly be soo-oo taboo now? At least let us get back to work, we're almost done with Aozul 2 here!"

"Team huddle?" Steven nervously muttered to Lapis.

"Team huddle." Lapis replied, slowly retreating into the cobalt-leafed forest away from the other Lapides. "We'll be back with you in a bit, girlfriends."

--

"You're right. This is harder than usual." Steven said to Lapis as they hid in the bushes.

"You've gotta force them to stop." Lapis suggested while spying on her old friends from the foliage. "This is definitely gonna be a fight. They're not nice like what I became. 1J9G was always the alpha of our little trio, ordering us around and treating lower-ranked Gems like trash. 2F8D, on the other hand was more of the follower, as loyal to 1J9G as a Pearl is to their Diamond. I, on the other hand, was essentially the third wheel, mostly existing to follow along with them."

"So you guys were basically high school mean girls?" Steven compared Lapis's former situation to fiction. "Did any of you play the Gem version of croquet in your spare time, or wear pink on Wednesdays?"

"This is nothing like those movies, Steven." Lapis stated.

"Well maybe like those girls in the movies, they just don't know what they're doing isn't nice." Steven tried to assure his azure friend. "You get it, what made things click for you?"

"A cycle of horrible torture that I came close to repeating myself." Lapis gravely answered, much to Steven's fright. "But also like, living in nature and making meep morps."

"Yeah, that's it!" Steven cheered quietly. "Come on, we can do that for them."

"C'mon, not even a little torture?" Lapis asked while squeezing her hands together.

"No torture, just the other stuff." Steven decided against any lethal force before he and Lapis returned to the water Gems.

--

"Geez, what's taking those two so long?" the Mean Lapis asked impatiently while waiting for Steven and her fellow Lapis to return.

"I'm starting to get wet here." The Nice Lapis added, prompting her curly-haired buddy to turn to her with a raised eyebrow of disbelief. "I'm trying to make it a catchphrase. It depends on the context, in this case, I'm getting bored."

"Well, I urge you not to make that happen." 1J9G commanded, just as Steven and Lapis finally reemerged from the bushes, waving to them while walking backwards. "Oh, look who finally decided to come back."

"Okay, we've come to a decision." Steven declared. "Why don't we show you fun things you can do on Earth other than causing mass destruction?"

"Should we listen to him?" 1J9G asked 2F8D.

"He's only half-Diamond, so maybe we should half-listen to him." 2F8D suggested.

"I'll take that as a yes." Steven answered, trying to hide his eye twitching at being called a mere half-Diamond, before taking the two terraformers into the forest. "Let's go."

--

Once within the extraterrestrial woods, Steven began to show the Lapides around, trying to get them to appreciate the beauty of nature. "It's a beautiful day here. Fresh air, pretty trees, peaceful wildlife. Any life-changing epiphanies yet?"

"It's so bright." 2F8D observed as she gazed directly into the sun.

"No duh, Too-Eff." 1J9G rudely replied while poking on a leaf with a stick. "I only prefer two colors, rocks and mud. Right?"

"Well, I have to admit," 2F8D said as she continued looking at the sun. "that sun is a real pretty shade of-"

"I said, right 2F8D?" 1J9G cut her friend off.

"Uh yeah, rocks and mud!" 2F8D laughed nervously, her pupils rapidly darting around while holding her hands behind her back.

"I understand you don't see the beauty with this, but I know you will with time, girls." Lapis said. "There was a time where I didn't appreciate organic life as well, much like you guys. But I learned of how beautiful it can be. Maybe you can try something like this."

Gazing at the small puddle of mud in front of her, Lapis began to conjure up a strange shape from the wet dirt.

"This is what we call art, or in Lapis's terms, a meep morp." Steven demonstrated. "And it can be made out whatever you want to be, whether it be nature or just random junk you find lying around."

"So you can do whatever you want with your powers," 1J9G asked. "but you choose to make junk."

"It doesn't have to be like that." Lapis answered, continuing to toy with the mud. "You can make anything with a little imagination."

As an example, Lapis shifted the mud to take the form of a lawnchair for Steven to sit on, along with a drink and sunglasses. When Steven drank out of the mud-made cup, he immediately spat it out.

"So lifelike, I almost forgot!" Steven exclaimed in realization as the mud fell apart.

"That's it?" 1J9G muttered with a tilt of her head.

"It's more satisfying than you think it is." Lapis claimed. "Go ahead, give it a shot."

"But what can we make?" 2F8D asked, scratching her chin as she examined the wilderness around them.

"Didn't you listen, dummy?" 1J9G responded while conjuring up some water. "They said we could make anything!"

"Right, anything!" 2F8D said as the two turned the water into the shape of a ball. "I totally knew that."

"That's it!" Lapis cheered for her former friends. "Try making some other shapes, it can be anything you want!"

The Lapides listened as they made the water ball grow spikes before flattening it into a sawblade that they tossed in-between Steven & Lapis, cutting down a mountain behind them in two.

"Wow, you just made our jobs easier!" 1J9G cackled and pointed at the fallen rock behind the two Crystal Gems.

"We'll have this planet cleaned up in no time!" 2F8D agreed with a laugh.

"Steven, this isn't working." Lapis muttered fearfully, prompting Steven to try something else.

"Looks like you two still have some energy to let out." Steven laughed. "Maybe you should try something more physical, like dancing!"

"Dance?" 1J9G wondered while Steven pulled out his phone. "And what is that thing in your hand?"

"Just watch us." Steven stated as he turned on some funky music for he and Lapis to dance to on his phone, as another demonstration to the Lapides. Although 1J9G was unimpressed, she noticed 2F8D starting to get into the groove as she swayed her arms from side to side.

Steven and Lapis took this as a breakthrough and continued dancing to the music, but then their gems started to glow by complete accident. "WHOA!" they exclaimed in unison, stopping their dance to keep the glowing down.

"Almost fused there, Lapis." Steven chuckled.

"Yeah, wouldn't want a repeat of Peridot." Lapis replied.

"Uh, who's Peridot?" 1J9G asked while ordering 2F8D to stop dancing with a mean look.

"Only Lapis's best friend!" Steven exclaimed with a hand on his Lapis's shoulder.

"Yeah, you can meet all types of people on Earth, humans and Gems." Lapis said. "Peridot and I got off on the wrong foot because when we first met, I was basically her hostage in an invasion of Earth." She continued explaining. "But over time, we grew closer thanks to Steven's influence and even had our own home in this little barn, but then due to circumstances I'd rather not get into at the moment, we just kinda drifted apart for a bit. We did eventually get back together, but when Little Homeschool first started, we unfortunately didn't have as much time to enjoy our shared inter-"

Before Lapis could finish, the other Lapises started laughing. "Really, you and a low-class Gem like a Peridot?!" 1J9G guffawed, forcing the primary Lapis to scowl at the pair.

"What's next, an Aquamarine fusing with a Ruby?!" 2F8D let out a loud wheeze.

"Funny story, actually." Steven began, but 1J9G cut him off.

"Look, we don't wanna hear anymore, kid." The Lapis snarked. "We know you want to do what's best for everyone or some stupid stuff like that, but we decided on what's best for us, and that's terraforming." She stated. "Now, please, run along back to your little school before you make me slap your face off."

"Geez, Jay-Nine, no need to threaten him like that." 2F8D tried to convince her pal otherwise.

"He's threatening our way of life, you clod!" 1J9G yelled at 2F8D, who reflexively knelt and cowered. "If you think a little kid like him is right, then why don't you come with them?"

"Gee, 2F8D has real bad taste in friends." Steven whispered to Lapis.

"It's like I said, One-Jay really liked to order us around." Lapis replied. "She also really doesn't like it whenever what she says gets questioned."

"Now, if you'll excuse us 3E8C," 1J9G finally said while turning away from her belligerent friend. "we're gonna go back to work, so no more interruptions."

"Y-yeah, let's get back to it!" 2F8D meekly added.

Ironically, the pair was stopped from flying away when Lapis finally spoke up. "I get it." She said to her old friends. "All this won't make you feel good right away, maybe not even at all. You guys are just afraid of change after thousands of years doing one thing, but they can help you navigates new ways of feeling. If you aren't into dancing, maybe singing would be more your speed."

Lapis prepared to demonstrate, but then she started hesitating for a bit. But thanks to some encouragement from Steven, she worked up the bravery and finally started to sing. "Oooo-ooo-oooh, why so bluuuu-uuuu-uuue? So many shades of sorrow got mixed into my hue." Lapis began. "And each new moment just astounds me, so much I wanna do. I finally feel my colors shining through."

The other Lapides began following their former friend as she gazed into her reflection in a puddle. "I'm tired of the fighting, I'm tired of the blame." Lapis continued as she reminisced on her struggles. "That mirror was a prison, and fusion was the same. What's with these new sensations that suddenly appear?! Deep as the roaring ocean, free as the atmosphere!"

Racing away from the puddle, Lapis excitedly pushed back some leaves to show her ex-partners more of Aozul 2's beauty as her song reached its high point. "Oooo-ooo-oooh, why so bluuuu-uuuu-uuue? So many different reasons, but are they really true?" Lapis began to finish as she knelt to watch the Flower Buddies surrounding her. "I wanna keep on going, wanna be right here with you. I'd love to see your colors shining throoooo-ooough." The Buddy that made its territory in Lapis's lap then blossomed for her. "I'd love to see your colors shining through."

Despite what Steven and Lapis believed the song would do, 1J9G laughed mockingly at her, and 2F8D was ordered to do the same with a poke to the elbow. "You really expect us to dance and sing like we're Pearls?!" 1J9G said derisively. "Look, Steven Universe, you already got 3E8C doing it for you! I mean, did you make her like this, or was she this much of a loser?!"

"You never bothered to ask what I liked back in the day!" Lapis angrily said before her curly-bobbed ex-friend grabbed her by the shirt collar.

"Listen 3E8C," 1J9G commanded Lapis just as angrily. "you and that so-called Diamond are going to leave this planet so we can get back to doing what we want to do, not be reconditioned into following everything you say with a dumb song! End, of, discussion."

"You don't have to be so cruel!" Steven yelled at 1J9G. "And you don't have to be such a horrible friend ei-"

"Did I stutter?" 1J9G continued as she glared daggers at Steven before turning away from him. "Come on 2F8D, let's get back to work."

"Yeah, see ya." 2F8D replied and said farewell to Steven before they flew off. "It was wet seeing you again 3E8C!"

"CONTEXT!" 1J9G yelled.

Steven was just about ready to give up, but Lapis just started angrily as her fellow Lapides got back to terraforming. "That's it!" she declared. "I've had enough of you two!"

"But, you promised we wouldn't fight!" a worried Steven reminded Lapis.

"If we had done this my way, we could've gotten this done way earlier!" Lapis replied before she flew up to her former friends. "Hey girls, that's enough!"

"Oh, look who it is." 1J9G grinned sneakily.

"You finally come to give us a hand?" 2F8D asked.

"You could say that." Lapis smiled before she spawned a pair of water hands from below, and used them to flick 1J9G and 2F8D away.

"Did she just do that?" 2F8D said, recoiling from the attack.

"Yeah, she did." 1J9G replied as she got an idea. "So, you can make hands, huh?" she said as she and her beleaguered partner formed a water hand of their own. "Okay if we try?"

The giant hand slapped Lapis away towards Steven, who summoned his shield to catch her and protect himself from the water. "Lapis," Steven cried. "are you okay?"

"I'm okay, just stay out of this!" Lapis demanded Steven before she flew back up and sprouted another pair of water wings that she turned into fists. "DORARARARARARARARARARARARA!" She yelled while unleashing her fury on 1J9G. "DORA!"

1J9G was thrust out of the sky and almost crashed onto the ground, until 2F8D caught her with a water hand.

"You alright?" 2F8D said sympathetically.

"I'm fine, you big baby." 1J9G growled and rubbed her head just as Lapis tried to restrain the two with chains made of water, but were nimbly dodged. "Water chains?"

"You really need to stop teaching us these wet new things!" 2F8D giggled, invoking another angry glare from 1J9G, before they created chains of their own to restrain Lapis and pin her to the cliff face.

"Lapis!" Steven cried for his Beach Summer Fun Buddy.

"We really gotta hand it to you." 2F8D said. "This new stuff you're showing us isn't actually useless."

Once again, the Lapides created a sawblade. But this time, instead of chopping a mountain in two, they had darker intentions for it. The blade was tossed straight at the seemingly powerless Lapis, and Steven couldn't help but watch.

"OH NO!" Steven yelled. But suddenly, the saw stopped right in front of Lapis's face and was reduced back into droplets as the earth shook around everyone. Water from all around began to surround her, washing over the other terraformers along the way as Lapis formed a massive watery figure wielding a harpoon around her.

"WHO'S DULL NOW?!" Lapis boomed, terrifying 2F8D into hugging 1J9G for protection while Lapis prepared to land the killing blow. "WHO'S PITIFUL NOW?!"

However, when Lapis turned to Steven with a sadistic grin, his disappointed expression made her realize what she's become. After the water figure fell apart, Lapis returned to the cliff's edge in exhaustion.

"You okay?" Steven asked while having one of the Flower Buddies in his arms.

"I'm fine." Lapis answered as the Buddy jumped into her embrace. "Sorry about losing control there."

As the water receded, the Lapides sat there stunned as Steven and Lapis flew down to face them.

"It's over now." Lapis declared to her ex-friends. "No more fighting. Okay?"

"Fine by me." 1J9G said with a smirk.

"Yeah, that was so wet back there!" 2F8D smiled earnestly, with Lapis giving her a confused stare this time.

"And no more terraforming too. Promise?" Lapis suggested.

"Oh, we'll do anything you say now!" 2F8D exclaimed cheerfully.

"After that ridiculous show of strength, we're at your command!" 1J9G added.

"No, that wasn't strength!" Lapis said hotly. "That was weakness! Patience takes strength; restraint takes strength!" Before Lapis could finish, she just decided to stop and walked away. "And I don't have the strength to deal with you anymore."

Before he could follow Lapis, Steven fished some brochures from his jacket pocket that he handed to the Lapides. "Here, have some Little Homeschool brochures. In case you change your mind." He offered before walking off after her.

--

After Steven and Lapis left Aozul 2, 1J9G and 2F8D sat on a rock reading through the brochures Steven gave them. While 2F8D was growing interested in the opportunities Little Homeschool had for her, 1J9G wasn't amused.

"So what, it's not just dancing and singing like Pearls?" 1J9G complained. "We have to do all this other junk too? This totally goes against what we were made for!"

"Yeah, but as Steven said, we can do whatever we want now!" 2F8D exclaimed as she pointed at some of the activities. "Like, gardening, for example! Isn't that wet?"

"Stop trying to make 'wet' happen!" 1J9G yelled. "It's never going to happen!"

After having her attempts at a catchphrase ruined, 2F8D clenched her fist and worked up some courage to tell her so-called friend the truth. "Hey, Little Homeschool also gives us opportunities to make new friends outside of our old castes. And I mean actual friends, not Gems who relentlessly pick on you for the stupidest of things."

"Is this about our bond?" 1J9G growled. "I'm totally your friend! I just have a different way of expressing it!"

"Yeah, well, Steven treats 3E8C with some level of respect and kindness!" 2F8D argued back. "You ever heard of either of those terms before?"

"This isn't funny Two-Eff." 1J9G growled. "We are not going to that stupid school. And you will stick with me, no matter what! End. Of. Discussion!"

However, 1J9G realized a bit too late that 2F8D had already left her, and was already racing to the Warp Pad with one of the Flower Buddies under her arm.

"Sorry One-Jay, but I'm going off to learn how to be nice to people!" 2F8D said rapidly before the Warp Pad took her away from Aozul 2. "OKAY, BYYYYYEEE!"

And so, 1J9G was left utterly alone on the blue-colored moon. Alone and positively furious. As she began angrily chopping down trees with her powers, a black dropship slowly dropped into Aozul's atmosphere.

--

Night fell by the time Steven and Lapis finally returned to Little Homeschool. Still guilty for giving in to her anger, Lapis sat forlornly on the Warp Pad, only for Steven to seat himself next to her.

"I wish I hadn't done that." Lapis moaned. "They just reminded me so much of myself, and how I acted in the past. All high and mighty with no regard for anyone but myself."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up." Steven gave his blue friend a comforting smile. "You've grown a lot since I first broke you out of that mirror, but everything takes time. It's not your fault those two are still stuck in their ways."

As Lapis smiled back, the Warp Pad activated once again. This time, 2F8D stood behind them, and a Flower Buddy peeked from behind her. "Hey, is this that school you were talking about?" 2F8D asked sheepishly. "One-Jay and I had a disagreement, so now I want to learn what real friends are like."

The Flower Buddy stepped up from behind 2F8D and nuzzled itself on Lapis's leg. "I also brought this little guy along as a way of saying sorry." 2F8D continued. "Hope you like him."

"I love him." Lapis said as she picked the Buddy up. "Thanks Zuli."

"Zuli?" the Lapis now known as Zuli asked.

"Yeah, 2F8D might be hard to remember." Lapis explained. "Just came up with that nickname off the top of my head. You like it?"

"I love it!" Zuli cheered. "So, when can I start school?"

"Doesn't matter." Steven answered.

"Yeah, welcome to Earth." Lapis responded.

--

Back on Aozul 2, 1J9G continued terraforming the little moon to vent her stress, leaving a trail of fallen trees and small dirt canyons in her wake.

"I can't believe that freckled clod just ditched me like that!" 1J9G shrieked furiously. "She just fell for that kid's games, and then ran off!" Amid her ranting, the curly-haired Lapis began to cry. "Is this how he gets his sick kicks, just tearing apart friendships like that?! I'm gonna make him pay for stealing my friends when I find him again!"

Just then, some of the trees 1J9G didn't chop down started rustling, frightening her. "Who's there?" she began panicking. "Did you realize you made a huge mistake and come crawling back to me?"

However, 1J9G realized she wasn't talking to 2F8D. Instead, a large, grey hand with a white topaz on the back emerged from the foliage, and reached out for her.

--

Ominous, isn't it?! This was real great to write, especially since as mentioned above, Why so Blue is my favorite episode of Future. Hope you liked how I expanded on the Lapises and their backstory, and are excited for what I got next. Because on the next chapter of Steven Universe: Alternate Future, we aren't moving onto Little Graduation, that's the start of Part 2. Instead, we get onto cut content territory with Rhodonite's backstory at last. In the meantime, I'd really like this series to get mentioned on TV Tropes like my other written works.

[geronimo-11]

These Secrets That We Hide

Chapter: 1/?

Pairing: Jeremy Danvers x OFC

Summary: Katherine Adler thought she was moving to upstate New York with her brother for a chance to start her life over. But when events from her past catch up to her and secrets about the family down the road come to light, her dreams of a fresh start start to crumble. It seems like everyone has secrets to hide.

Warnings: None

A/N: This has been a long time in the making, but it’s finally finished! The first chapter of Katherine’s canon!! Big thank you to @mtwalker for brainstorming with me and just being an all around amazing person and friend.

This strays from canon quite a bit, but just stay with me okay?

Read it here or on AO3!

Chapter 1: Loyalty

No one under the age of fifty willingly moved to Bear Valley.

Most of the inhabitants were elderly retirees fleeing the pressures of city life, or locals whose families had been there for generations and just couldn’t picture a life outside the familiar comfort of their small town. The few young people who did live there were born there, but even then they were looking forward to the day they could bolt to greener, more exciting, pastures.

So when Nick got a call from a friend saying that he was making the long trek from Tennessee to upstate New York with the idea of putting down roots closer to the Pack, he was definitely surprised. He was excited to see an old friend — and at the prospect of having someone new to talk to besides Jeremy, Clay, and Elena — but surprised nonetheless.

Most of the Pack wanted to live as far from being under the Alpha’s thumb as they could get, so they could live their lives as ordinary as possible. Well, actually, so they could break as many rules without getting caught as possible. For someone who didn’t have as close of a relationship with Jeremy as the rest of them, it was odd for any member of the Pack to suddenly want to live so close. But, regardless, Simon was coming, and he seemed very adamant about the fact. 

Nick waited until the day after Simon had told him he would be officially moved in before getting in his car and driving down to greet him, just so he’d have enough time to get settled. The house Simon purchased bordered Stonehaven property and was barely a five minute drive from the house. It was closer to town, but there was an abundance of trees and land this far north, meaning there was plenty of space for a wolf to run and not be seen. As part of the Pack, Simon could even venture onto the Stonehaven property for a run if he wanted. All in all it was a pretty nice setup he'd made for himself.

The road to Simon’s house was long and straight and Nick’s car kicked up dirt in the dry August heat as he turned off the main road and onto a gravel driveway. He thought briefly of having to wash his car again when he got back to Stonehaven. Or maybe he’d run it through the carwash in town. See if he could finally learn the name of the girl working the desk… Focus.

The house came into view and Nick whistled under his breath. From what he remembered, the old farmhouse had belonged to an elderly woman in town who had died almost a year ago. She hadn’t been able to really take care of the house due to her age, and after remaining unoccupied for so long Nick was expecting the house to look a bit worse for wear. That didn’t seem to be the case.

The outside of the house had a fresh coat of white paint and the new porch was large enough to accomodate a wooden swing and two rocking chairs. Nick could smell the strong scent of new mulch in the flower bed as he parked his car and noticed that there were freshly planted bushes decorating the outside of the house. Simon had apparently been hard at work.

Nick shut the car door as he took in all of the new renovations and made his way towards the house. He hadn’t made it far before the front door opened -- heavy dark oak that didn’t creak on the hinges, also very new -- and Simon stepped out.

Simon hadn’t changed that much from the last time Nick had seen him three years ago. His messy brown hair was pushed back from his face --  uselessly, it would seem, since several strands still hung down in his dark brown eyes. A gray t-shirt clung to his broad shoulders and outlined the muscles in his arms. The only difference Nick could really see was that he hadn’t shaved in a while. Heavy stubble clung to his jaw and Simon swiped a hand over it as he hopped hastily down the porch steps. 

“Hey, man,” Simon greeted, holding out his hand and flashing teeth in a grin. “Good to see you.”

“Yeah, you too. Been a while.” Nick grasped Simon’s hand tightly and pulled him into a hug. He clapped a hand on Simon’s back and stepped away, looking around at the house once again. “Looks like you’ve been busy. This place was practically falling apart from what I heard.”

Simon turned back to the house and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, it needed some work. I can’t take all the credit, though. I had some guys come in and do some work before we got here, I just okayed everything over the phone.”

Nick raised a brow, doing a quick scan of the outside and then back towards the house. “We?”

Simon’s eyes widened and he turned to Nick with a nervous laugh. 

“Yeah. Um…” he paused and cleared his throat. Another laugh bubbled anxiously passed his lips and he ran a hand through his hair. “I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon. I thought I’d have a chance to…” 

Nick crossed his arms across his chest. “A chance to what?”

Silence. Simon bounced on the heels of his feet and gave Nick a wary glance. 

Nick frowned and took a step forward. “Simon?”

With another glance in his direction Simon gestured for Nick to follow him towards the house. He didn’t say another word until the front door shut behind them.

“I found my sister.” The words seemed to tumble from Simon’s mouth before he could stop himself. He was practically vibrating with excitement, eyes lit up with barely restrained joy.

Nick raised his brows and smiled. Simon and his sister had had a falling out about six years ago, severe enough that his sister had left their hometown, cut off all communication with her family, and remained completely off the grid. Simon couldn’t find her anywhere. That is, until about a year and a half ago, when he’d come to Nick wanting to reconnect with his sibling, and Nick managed to pull enough strings to get a general location for him. He hadn’t heard anything afterwards, when Simon went basically off the grid himself, but Nick was happy that the two seemed to have reconciled.

“That’s great, Si. I’m happy to hear it. But, uh,” He looked around the small entryway Simon had shuffled them into. “Why did we have to come in here for you to tell me that?”

“Because that’s not all I have to tell you, and I thought you’d feel better hearing the rest sitting down.” All the previous excitement Simon had shown when they first entered the house was gone. Even though he was still trying to put on a light-hearted air, he looked more serious than Nick had ever seen him. 

A pit settled in the middle of Nick’s stomach and he cast Simon an apprehensive look as he allowed himself to be led into the living room and seated on the couch.

“Is everything okay? Are you and your sister good now, or..?” Nick prodded when it seemed like Simon may fall silent again. Dancing around the subject was making his fingers twitch. He clasped his hands between his knees and waited for Simon to, hopefully, tell him what was going on.

“Yeah, Katherine and I are fine. Better than fine, actually.” Simon sat in an armchair across from Nick and grinned. “I apologized and we talked and cleared the air. It’s almost like nothing happened at all.”

Simon’s smile faltered slightly and he looked down at the floor. 

“But it just didn’t feel like enough to say sorry. Not after everything…” He trailed off and shook his head, his eyes glazing over as he lost himself in thought. After a moment he blinked, coming back to himself, and looked up at Nick. “That’s why I bought her this house.”

Nick stared at him. He… he must have heard wrong.

“You bought her… this house?” He gestured around the room with a single finger. Simon nodded. Nick’s eyes widened and he felt his jaw drop. He couldn’t think of anything to say other than, “That’s an awfully big gesture for just an apology.”

Simon’s eyes darkened and Nick watched as his jaw clenched and unclenched reflexively. 

“There’s more to it than that.”

Before Nick could snap and ask what the hell was going on, they heard the rumbling of a car engine coming down the driveway. Nick glanced out the window behind him and then back to Simon, only to find the other wolf’s eyes were already on him.

“I haven’t told Jeremy any of this,” Simon confessed cautiously. Nick pressed his lips in a firm line, the pit in his stomach growing with every word.

“I was planning to, I swear,” he placated with open palms when he saw the look on Nick’s face. “But I wanted to call you first and have you come over so I could tell you everything. You just beat me to it.”

Nick shook his head, eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. “Why would you call me-” The realization clicked and Nick felt his face drop. “You want me to tell Jeremy first. To cushion the blow for when you talk to him.”

Because Simon will have to talk to him. If he brought a human into his house -- a house that was basically on Stonehaven property -- without telling Jeremy, it definitely wouldn’t go unanswered. It probably wouldn’t have gone unanswered if he had told Jeremy. Regardless, either Simon would go talk to Jeremy or Jeremy would go talk to Simon, and the latter would be infinitely worse.

The engine was getting louder now and Simon glanced anxiously out the window. 

“There’s one other thing that I haven’t told you about,” he started slowly, standing up and walking towards the door. Nick stood to follow.

“You mean other than the fact you have a human living with you on Stonehaven’s doorstep?” Nick quipped. “I don’t see how it can get much worse.”

Simon offered him a wry smile. He paused with his hand on the doorknob and met Nick’s gaze.. Something flashed in Simon’s eyes then -- anxiety, protectiveness, fear -- but they all vanished before Nick could pinpoint just one.

“I just… I need you to keep an open mind.”

With that said he opened the door and stepped out on the porch, leaving Nick following after him slightly bewildered. There was an old, red jeep sputtering down the driveway when they went outside. The brakes squeaked as it pulled to a stop next to Nick’s car, and the jeep hissed and groaned so badly as the engine was shut off that Nick wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire thing fell apart right in front of him.

“I wish she’d get rid of that thing,” Simon mumbled beside him, shifting side to side as the engine gave a final sputter before it died. The driver’s side door creaked as it was forced open, and a woman stepped out. 

She was fairly tall, with long dark hair and sharp cheekbones. A smile lit up her pretty face when she saw the two of them on the porch and she held up a hand to wave. Nick held up his hand in response before realizing just exactly who she was. He looked at her and then again at his friend, brows raised.

“That’s your sister?” He asked. Simon shot him a half-hearted glare.

“Don’t.”

Before Nick could defend himself there was another loud, metallic groaning sound and one of the back doors of the jeep popped open. Considering Katherine was leaning over the passenger seat and grabbing a bag, there was no way she could have opened it. So, who..?

He didn’t have to wait long to find out. A pair of small legs poked out from the side of the jeep, and then a mess of sandy brown hair was barrelling towards them, shouting excitedly. 

“Uncle Si!” 

It was a little boy, probably no more than six or seven years old. He was bolting through the grass with the same blinding grin on his face that Katherine had given them moments ago.

Oh.

This must be her son. Nick looked over at Simon, who was actively avoiding looking at him. He was grinning, holding out his arms for the boy as he raced up the steps and into his uncle’s arms. 

When the breeze picked up, Nick realized why.

He had thought at first that maybe Simon was avoiding his gaze because he’d let not one but two humans into his home. But that wasn’t it. The wind picked up, ruffling the boy’s hair and carrying his scent towards the house. At first, Nick thought he was imagining things so he took a deeper inhale. His blood turned cold and his gaze immediately snapped to Simon, not even bothering to hide the panic he was feeling and wishing he had bit his tongue because things just got much, much worse.

The boy was a wolf.

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

“Does she know?” Nick asked, glancing down the hall where Katherine had disappeared. 

After brief introductions Nick offered to help carry in the luggage and boxes Katherine had stacked in the back of her jeep. She had offered to make dinner for him as thanks for helping them unpack, but Nick politely declined, saying he couldn’t stay long and just wanted to catch up with her brother for a bit. He’d turned on Simon the second she was out of sight. They hadn’t even made it past the entryway.

“Of course she doesn’t know. Do you honestly think I’d bring her here if she did? We’d be on the other side of the country by now,” Simon scoffed.

Nick threw his hands in the air, exasperated, “I don’t know! I’m still trying to figure out why you would bring her here in the first place!”

Simon shushed him, glancing down the hallway to make sure they hadn’t been overheard. He turned back to Nick earnestly, raking a hand through his hair.

“Listen, I just… I couldn’t just take Caleb away from her. And even if I had wanted to, there’s no way I’d have been able to do it without a nationwide manhunt being called down on me. Believe it or not I actually brought her here to keep her from finding out her son is a werewolf.”

Nick gaped at him.

“By surrounding her with other werewolves?” his voice strained, rising in pitch and cracking slightly in disbelief as he tried to keep from yelling. “I’m pretty sure she’s gonna notice when he hits puberty and you have to put deadbolts on his bedroom door.” 

Simon’s lips pressed in a firm line, biting back a retort, but remarkably he said nothing. Sighing heavily Nick brought up a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Do you honestly think Jeremy will be okay with this?” he asked. Simon laughed bitterly.

“Of course not,” he admitted. “There’s nothing about this situation that’s okay. Hell, I’m not even really okay with this. But I wouldn’t be here if I thought I had another choice.”

Nick rubbed his palms on his eyes and took a deep breath. He shook his head and looked Simon in the eye, making sure every word he said would register, that Simon was aware of the danger he was putting his family in.

 “You are knowingly backing him into a corner, Simon. And you might not be glad you did.”

A warning was all he could give him now. Maybe if Simon had bothered to call him earlier, Nick could have listed all the reasons why this was an absolutely horrible idea. But he hadn’t, and now they are where they are, with Simon digging himself a hole and Nick apparently the one handing him the shovel. Jeremy was likely to bury them both if they weren’t careful.

Simon swallowed and offered a sharp nod. “I know. But what was I supposed to do, let my nephew become a Mutt?”

Nick rubbed at the side of his face, exasperated. He threw his hands in the air helplessly. 

“No, just… I don’t know.”

“Exactly.”

Nick placed his hands on his hips, words dying in his mouth as the boy -- Caleb, Simon had told him during their introductions -- ran down the staircase beside them.

“Look!” he held up a small plastic dinosaur to Nick, a grin stretching across his face. “Uncle Si got this for me! They’re all over my room, even my bed has dinosaurs on it!”

Nick smiled at him. “That’s really cool, bud.”

Caleb offered Nick another toothy grin and took off down the hall, yelling excitedly about his new bedroom to his mother in the kitchen. Once he was out of sight Nick ran a hand over his jaw and shared an uneasy look with his friend. 

“What exactly are you going to tell Jeremy?”

Simon exhaled a long, sharp gust of air and rubbed a hand at the back of his neck.  

“The truth. All of it.”

Nick laughed once, a humorless puff of air past his lips. Katherine emerged from the kitchen then, with Caleb gripping her hand tightly and dragging her down the hall. His face was alight with excitement and his mouth was moving a mile a minute as he urged his mother towards the stairs.

Katherine’s eyes held the patience of a saint as she looked down at her son, smiling encouragingly at him and nodding every so often as she allowed herself to be drug across the hardwood floor. Nick felt his chest tighten, his thoughts turning to his own mother. The brief time they’d spent together in Ontario felt like a lifetime ago now, and he knew he’d never get the chance to see her again. He couldn’t, for her sake, and it killed him inside every time he thought about it. And not just her, either. Jeremy was still trying to decide what to do about Rachel. He hadn't made any decision yet, but he had to eventually.

As they passed, Katherine looked up and met Nick’s gaze. She smiled at him, the corners of her hazel eyes crinkling, and Nick felt himself smile in return. He looked between Katherine and Caleb one more time, saw the joy on each of their faces, and knew he’d made his decision. There was no way he could pass up an opportunity to help a wolf stay with his mother. He'd lost his own, and he may have no real say in what happens with Rachel and her son, but he has a chance to do something now. When they’d disappeared up the stairs once more, Nick sighed resignedly and dug his car keys out of his pocket.

“Well, it better be convincing. For your sake and for theirs.”

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

Katherine offered to make dinner twice more before Nick left and he turned them both down as kindly as he could -- although when she mentioned grilled steak he felt his resolve falter and mouth water. But he took one glance at Simon and shook his head, telling her he’d be more than happy to join them some other night. For now, he needed to think. About, well, everything. 

First he needed to figure out how to tell Jeremy about the situation that he had inadvertently dropped on their doorstep. If he’d known the real reason why Simon was looking for his sister-- no. He couldn’t go there. Not when he didn’t even know if Simon knew Katherine had had a son. He would give him the benefit of the doubt. For now.

The drive back to Stonehaven seemed shorter than the drive to Simon’s house, and before he even realized it Nick was turning onto the driveway. He felt his stomach clench and his grip tightened on the steering wheel. It was one of the few times in his life where he was genuinely nervous to go home. 

With any luck no one would be awake, and he could think about the best way to approach the news tonight and tell Jeremy about everything tomorrow. Simon hadn’t mentioned when he was thinking about coming to Stonehaven, but Nick knew he’d need to fill Jeremy in before that happened. He didn’t want Jeremy getting blindsided like he had been, especially considering the Alpha’s influence would literally mean life or death. 

His car rolled to a stop in front of the house and Nick felt his stomach sink. There was a light on in the living room. Maybe it was Clay or Elena, sitting up for a drink. Although, if they thought they were alone, he should probably knock before he entered the house. He snorted his amusement and turned the car off to head towards the front door.

Nick peeked into the living room when he got into the house, and the door shut behind him with a foreboding click as he felt his stomach sink impossibly lower.

Luck, it seemed, was not on his side tonight. 

Jeremy was sitting at his desk, a lamp beside him providing a soft yellow glow, just enough for him to see the papers in front of him. He looked up as Nick walked in and smiled.

Well. There was certainly no avoiding him now.

“You’re back late,” Jeremy commented off-handedly. Nick scratched at the back of his neck as he walked into the living room, stopping just in front of Jeremy’s desk.

“Yeah, we, uh, ended up talking for a while. There was a lot for us to catch up on,” he mumbled the last part and Jeremy raised a brow at him.

“And? How is Simon? It’s been a while since he was here last. I was surprised to hear he wanted a change of scene so suddenly.” He looked down at the papers in his hand and Nick shifted on his feet.

“He’s… good.”

His hesitation made Jeremy pause and then Nick was on the receiving end of two intense, questioning eyes. Suddenly Nick was sent back to all the times he’d seen that exact look when he was a child, the few instances when his father wasn’t around and he’d managed to sneak cookies before dinner only to be caught after the fact with chocolate all over his face. He squirmed just like he did when he was eight years old and Jeremy zeroed in on the movement. 

“Nick?” he prodded, dropping the papers on his desk and giving the younger wolf his full attention.

Taking a deep breath through his nose Nick stepped forward. He pressed his palms flat on the cool wood of the desk to steady himself and looked Jeremy in the eye.

“There’s, um… There’s something you should know.”