#the scanner did something weird and i decided to keep it and call it a colour scheme

[abbythewritor]

"Specimen" Connor x Venom reader. *3.*

Description: Y/n, a girl who's been alone her whole life, decides to change when an alien from the sky corrupts her body. Learning to cope with the symbiote named Venom, the two figure out a way to help put an end to disgusting humans who pick on the weak. But what happens when a certain Android detective is on her tail as if he was attracted to her all this time?

Warnings: Drama, blood, violence, stuff from the game, you know, the usual from Detroit become human.

Other things:

-I do not own Detroit Become Human; they belong to the owners and creators of the game.

-We will be following both Markus and Connors's story, maybe a little bit of Karas, because the reader is with the deviants, while Connor, you know, does his cop duties, lol.

-Y/n is a human girl who is then corrupted by Venom; if you don't know who Venom is, then I recommend watching the movie about him, then that will sum it up for you.

Enjoy the third chapter, everyone. :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

?????????? POV

It was cold.....

Wet.......

And I was just in utter pain.

Even though, Androids can't feel pain, my initial core seemed broken, broken by....sorrow?

All of my emotions were on high alert, my mind racing with multiple thoughts and scenes from before.

I remember what happened...but...I don't know where I am exactly.

This place, felt...weird...and cold.

I had never experienced a feeling like this in my life, Nor did I ever express it all my career; all I ever felt was emptiness and blankness, never genuinely knowing my emotions. Today, I was truly more lost than ever before. it is where my genuine emotions began.

Rain was pouring heavingly onto the ground, the mud below me only getting wetter and messier.

I felt weak, broken, and torn apart from my life as I hear the sounds of disaster, the rain, and cries for help.

Where are their other's like me in this situation? Did I get destroyed by something I never had done?

I knew now where I was and how I got here....but...I don't know what I did to deserve to be here.

Carl.....that's the last person I saw...before everything went black.

His body was on the floor, his skin cold as it could ever be. My scanners didn't pick up a heartbeat, but only a heart attack...I wanted to save Carl; he was like a dad to me, but...before I could explain to the Humans what happened, with the situation of Leo...they pointed a Gun at me, then shot a bullet straight to my initial core.

That's right, the Humans were the ones that ended me, brought me here, and blamed me for something I didn't do, they even blamed me for theft and red ice consumption, which was Leo's doing.

I didn't know what else to do; I couldn't get any more lives endangered, and to see Carl on the floor, dying, the assault from the humans, everything that is going on...maybe it was my fault.

The humans blame my kind for everything; we get kicked and spat on, and they even call un-explainable names; the humans can barely look us in the eye without throwing a punch or kneeing our stomach.

We get treated differently than humans treat each other, even though we do everything for them. It's true what Carol has said, the world surely does hate someone who is different, and Now I finally realize, I was the different one. If I keep living like this...keep getting stepped on, spat on, even get thrown or decommissioned for something I never did, then...what is there to life than being trapped? I have to do something...I have to get out of here.

Lifting myself up from the ground, my eyes saw the dump and a little fuzziness. I ran my scanners throughout my body, Notifying me I was missing a leg, a heart component, a hearing component, and an eye.

Trying my best to see, I looked around the area, crawling to see if I could find any parts that weren't damaged yet.

My first task was to replace my legs, so I won't have to crawl the whole time. I crawled and crawled, trying my best to see until I eyed an abandoned leg sitting in the mud. It was perfectly fine when I scanned it, no damage was done, and a sigh of relief came from my mouth. I took the leg into my hands, ripped off one of my bad legs, and then simply put it back on, twisting it until I heard a 'clicking' sound.

It felt nice to get a new one as I looked and wiggled my new toes. Though as fascinating as looking at my feet was, I needed another replacement for the left leg to be able to walk again. So again, I crawled, some legs I came across were incompatible, and others were not even built to be used or in proper condition. But, soon, I came across a body of one of my own, looking at it with slight sorrow; as I looked at its leg, the left one was compatible, Good.

So, I ripped off my left leg and then the new one-off, replacing it with where my old leg used to be.

Suddenly getting a feeling on my left side, I could stand, but once I tried standing, I sometimes stumbled, which was to be expected. Since now I can be able to walk...I need to find a way out of here.

^ NEW OBJECTIVE

^ ESCAPE JUNKYARD

Beginning to walk, I felt off balance as I tried to find my way out of this place of hell for androids.

I still needed to find more parts, an eye, a heart component, and a hearing chip.

Walking for what seemed forever, a hand suddenly grabbed me; as I turned to look, it was a broken, lost android, and his eyes looked at me with despair. "There's a p-p-p-PPPPP-place w-we're whhhhhEEEEEEEEEr'e we can be f-freeeEeeeE! F-FinnnDDDddd Jericoh! Find t-the DEEEEvianTTT s-saaAAAvior."

I was confused, my sensor picking up everything he said. Making sure to save his words in an important file location, I walked past, continuing into the dump; as I had to crawl through a tiny yet tight space, more bodies and hands began to touch me all around.

Struggling to get through at first, I managed to free myself from the crawl space until one of them choked me, and my eyes widened with fear.

"Where are you going?" It asked as I tried to break free from its grasp, but once I did, I flung away, tumbling across the muddy floor.

I stood back up, turning in a direction where I could see a neon sign, which must be where the exit was. Looking at myself to see if I was a little bit ok; my sensors didn't pick up new damaged parts, which meant I could keep going.

"P-Please..." Something called, as I looked down, seeing a desperate android looking up at me. All that was left of him was half of his body, as he couldn't move or crawl anymore.

My eyebrows furrowed at the sight as I kneeled down to him, but I could not speak because of my missing components. "I'm begging you...I can't live like this...p-please just end me..." His request was rash; the more I looked at him, the less I wanted to kill him. I couldn't do that to him, I can't kill anybody, I would never. Standing up, I could hear him whine, calling back for me to not leave him; as much as I wanted to stay with him; I couldn't; I needed to keep going, I need to find a way out. Walking and searching for another couple of minutes, I stumbled upon another android with a right-eye component.

Taking its eye, I shoved it into my eye socket, a slight pain going to my head as my sight tried to adjust quickly. Soon enough, I could see clearly, the fuzziness of my one eye wholly gone, the world becoming much clearer through my View. My body, my mission, the exit...I am almost there; I just need to hear and have a core component...

With a bit more exploring, I soon found the core component I was looking for. The woman who contained it suddenly died and collapsed into my arms as I frowned at the sight; the sound of her voice shutting down caused my heart to feel weak.

Setting her on the ground gently, with full respect, I removed her upper clothing, revealing many scratches, holes, and blue blood from that area.

'She must have been abused before coming here..' I thought, looking away as I imagined what she could have been through, as the thought of many situations they could have done made e sick.

Getting my composure back, I looked back at her chest and took the core out of her chest, feeling some type of emotional pain through my right chest area, I put the core into my chest, and gasped, a pain rising where a human heart should be. I collapsed to my knees, my forehead hitting the ground as deep breaths and slight coughs came out of my mouth.

It was hard, hard to breathe at the moment as I was truly confused about why I was feeling pain or anything of the matter; Androids don't feel pain; maybe it was a shock, or something messing up in my software; I am broken, after all.

Taking a few minutes, I was able to bring myself back together as I slowly sat up, soon going back to my feet.

Like a new Android, I felt better as the last thing I needed was a hearing chip; I was almost to the exit. Exploring the last bit of the Junk Yardin and out, I found a compatible ear chip off another Android. This one was easier to remove than the other components, as the Android was shut down and facing away from me.

I still felt terrible about all the other components I took, as they all suffered great deals before coming here.

But, I needed the components, something in this world has to be done, and the way we Androids are treated is unfair.....humans must be stopped.

Looking at the ear drive, I began to put it into the socket behind my right ear, loud screeches and uncomfortable noises ringing through my ears.

Though, once it was all the way in, my hearing was able to come back as loud sounds from the thunder and rain ran through my ears.

Being able to hear again was a wonderful feeling, as I was now fixed, but at the same time...everything was scary, as the rain and thunder were louder than expected.

It was like a whole new environment down here, this...place acting more like Hell, rather than an android graveyard.

Still feeling weak, I pushed the emotions aside as one final task came into my program.

^ Find an escape route.

Looking around for any exits or safe places to hop onto, all I could do was climb and head to the neon sign above. It could be dangerous; I could get pulled back down here...but...what do I have to lose? I've already lost everything I could ever want...it's time to take any risks at this point.

So, I did that; I began the climb, taking one foot and hand in front of the other, trying to avoid any other hands that were trying to pull me back down.

Repeating the same steps for about ten minutes, my left hand reached the ground, and I used all my strength left to pull myself up, up towards freedom.

Finally, out, I crawled a little bit away from the edge, the rain still pouring onto my body as I took some deep breaths, myself soon sitting up on my knees.

My eyes looked up to the sky, not bothered by the drops of Rain hitting my pupils, as what I just witnessed and gone through, was more than a nightmare, it was hell, and I had just escaped it.

There is no time, now that I am myself again, to just stand around; I need a plan; I need to find the place and person that android was talking about; I need the plan to fight back the humans; I need the plan to be free, and keep freedom with me. Looking down, I noticed a sharp object that could be useful, as I knew just what to do with it.

Grasping it with my hands, I held it up to my burden, the LED, as I dug under it, taking away the circle that ruined my past.

Hearing it plop to the ground satisfied my ears as It notified me that I am no longer a slave or an android; I was someone and worth more than everyone else here.

Standing up, I slowly walked towards a pole with a Jacket on it.

I am very...sorry, everyone you had to witness all of that, witness the sadness and brokenness of my people. When I meet someone new, I give them an introduction, I could have if I wasn't broken and destroyed in that place of hell, but now that I am up, I can introduce myself...hello, it is nice to meet you all. Facing the camera, I blankly looked at you as the rain continued to drip slowly down my skin and broken body.

"My name......Is Markus..."

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

'Damn...it's really pouring out there.' You and Venom were home, not at Jericho, but at the home you rented out for yourself. Jericho is nice, but Humans like yourself can't really sleep on hard metal floors or even bug-infested mattresses, so breaking into an old, abandoned house you fixed up yourself was a pretty well-done investment. The storm outside was getting worse, giving luck to you that you were dry and inside as your hands gripped the hot, delicious coffee mug into your hands.

Yourself was sitting on the window seat, your eyes watching every raindrop hit your window, your eyes closing and enjoying the sound.

It was nice to come home from a long day, as the situation with the deviant and Gavin being an asshole made the day even harder and harder. Just when you thought the Meeting with Fowler would have gone smoothly, Gavin just made things worse by being a child and complaining to him about you.

Why? Well, let's just say as you were heading to fowlers office today, Venom slipped a little something into his coffee as you walked past, Gaving seeing you walking passed his desk, and similarly used you as the first suspect.

Of course, you told him off, and you weren't in trouble by any of it, but of course, on a day where everything seems to go to plan, this idiot of a detective fucks it up.

So here you are, home early, enjoying peace and quiet as Venom munched on the chocolate cake you have him.

A book was sat perfectly in front of you, as you just finished reading it, notes from the Novel written in the notebook below.

After taking a sip of the delicious dirty water, you let out a sigh of satisfaction before your phone buzzed.

Grasping your phone, you looked to see a message from North as you opened it.

North: Good Job today Y/n. The police got enough information they need without getting too close to our Tail, be ready for tomorrow, as a new Deviant case has been reported on the news.

Shaking your head with a slight chuckle, you never really understood how North is so good with getting information early like this, as it's impossible to leak into the police's information. But, what she is talking about, you already know, how a Deviant escaped with a little girl, the guy saying it almost 'shot' and 'killed' him. Just by hearing that stupid man's voice, you and Venom knew it was a lie, and he's definitely high on red ice. But you didn't know why the deviant Ran away, especially with the little girl. Venom could sense your confused thoughts as he turned away from his Cake, looking at you. "What is the matter? We since your confused thoughts. Is it about the new case that popped up?" Sighing, you looked down at your coffee. "Yeah....you know..it doesn't bother me that Deviants run away, but with a child...? It almost sounds like it was abducting it." Venom hummed, soon going closer to you. 'Could be for safety reasons, maybe the deviant is Taking her away from the man because he was abusive, or it could be the other way around, a Kidnapping.' Your brows furrowed. "Could be a possibility, like what happened on the rooftop with the other deviant the RK 800 took down, or the man could be abusive too; something is up with that man; you could also tell he was high, right?" 'Who wouldn't? That man looks like a fucked up scarecrow who has overwhelming diabetes; he definitely lied to the police and didn't want them to know anything about the truth."

"Well.." You sat your coffee down, your arms soon hugging your knees as you smiled, your head turning to Venom. "We'll know tomorrow, won't we?" *Knock* *Knock* Freezing in Place, Venom turned to face the door as you looked.

Confused, he turned back to you. "Expecting someone?" Your head shook. "No, I didn’t order anything from Amazon, nor did I give anyone my address back at the station..." Venom hummed again. "Let's check it out; it could be our neighbor, though I must go inside of you for safety measures; it could be someone dangerous." Nodding, you let Venom go back inside your back, hopping up from your seat as you made your way to the door, slowly but cautiously. Getting close enough, you didn't stand fully in the doorway, but your back hit the wall as you looked toward the doors. "Who's there?!"No answer. Confused, you looked around your living room, looking at your windows as you see no shadows or sense no more than one other person here. "I know there's someone here! If you talk, then I can help in some way!!! Are you dangerous?! Did you come to kill me?!" Silence arose again, which weirded you out. Who would knock into your door at freaking 1 am in the morning? Who in the hell is even up at this time anyway? It’s weird, You didn't like it, as you expected the person at the front door to answer you by now, or to burst open to shoot you or to stab you to death. ‘Open the door; if the man jumps you, I'll slice his head off.' Nodding, your hand grasped the handle door in front of you, your arm slowly opening your door as one of your eyes peaked out, looking all over your front porch. Not seeing anything too dangerous, your eyes glanced down, a small gasp soon escaping your mouth as your arm swung the door open, revealing an unpleasant surprise.

A male body, a handsome one at that, was lying flat on your doorstep, his clothes ripped and his body beaten.

His skin was a dark shade, his hair shaved as the cloak covering his head was down, the cloth blowing with the wild storm.

Kneeling down to his level quickly, Venom popped out of your back, soon attaching himself to the male. 'Hmm...this guy's an idiot for being in a storm like this...' "Shut up, Venom, he might not have had anywhere else to go...don't you see how damaged he is?" "Yeah, but I can also see how not human he is; this guy is an android Y/n, you can tell by the blue blood surrounding him' Venom was right; it was an android, as the gashes and wounds along his skin showed metal parts, and also wiring clearly.

The male was clearly passed out, some of his body parts lost and on a hanging point as they were about to fall. You were surprised he wasn't shut down with the amount of blue blood loss, as the liquid covered your entire front porch. "We need to bring him inside, we don’t know how long he has left.

‘His parts and shit are all ducking mixed up, he has two different colored eyes, his legs aren’t even apart of his model, it’s like he is mixed up with different fucking robots.’ Brows furrowing, you gave him a good look, as you wanted to find any clues of who, and what model he is. But, when you were searching every inch of him, your eyes widened again when you saw a Gun shot hole, right where his core should be. “Holy shit..” you muttered, Venom forming a face. “

“What did you find?”

“He got shot, Venom, and the size of the bullet is part of a Glock, which is what The police use on duty….” You explained, ripping off the clothing at the area, as it revealed a more gruesome wound than expected. Venom floated over the wound area, analyzing it more deeply.

“Idiot must have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, if he got shot, how in the hell he was able to make it all the way over here, don’t they take broken androids to the dump?”

Sighing, your head shook. “I don’t know, we won’t know more if we don’t get him inside; I’ll get my toolbox; Venom just bring him to my couch and shut the door, making sure no one is near or watching us.”

“On it.”

Venom formed into his human form, soon lifting Markus up, as both of you headed inside.

Setting him on the couch, you ran upstairs to grab your android repair kit. Your so glad you have prepared this thing early, it surely is needed now and will be needed in future just case something like this ever have happens. He was in brutal Condition, Venom sensing many beatings and bruises all done by humans.

He can tell by the shape, even the crappy accuracy of the bullet wound just barely hitting his component.

Investigating Markus further, he noticed some kick marks, not fresh, probably happened a week ago. Overall, he couldn’t pick up anything else as he sighed, grabbing some pillows from the other couch. Lifting him up slightly, he put a pillow under his head, his hands soon taking the ripped up shirt from his body, tossing it into the trash.

Hearing the hurried footsteps from you, he looked as you went around the couch, the Android kit in your left hand.

Setting it down quickly, you grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen/ sleep medicine, as you handed it to Venom.

“We need to get the bullet out of his chest component, since he is a deviant, he will defiantly feel pain we need this operation to go smoothly and quietly, understood?” Venom nodded. “Noted, but there might be a slight chance we are to late, just remember that brat.”

Forcing Markus’s mouth open, he put the two pills in, pouring some water to make it go down.

After a couple of minutes until the meds kicked in, the procedure was about to begin, as your gloves hand grabbed a Scalpel, putting some sort of cleaner on the part you wanted to cut.

It basically wasn’t easy to get the bullet out, as it was in a very awkward part and position into his component, you worked basically 4 hours trying to fix him, and get the bullet out, as he surprisingly stayed asleep for that long

But, as the morning sun rose through the closed curtains, you successfully got the bullet out, and recently closed the wound.

“Yeah, I know, he’s resting now, the wounds were pretty bad, the bullet was in an awkward position-Mhm; sure, I’ll take him there if he ever wakes up, but he needs to recover, so it won’t be for awhile- like I said his wounds are pretty bad I don’t know when he will recover- you know what ok, I’ll keep you and Simon updated, but if he dies, then there’s no point in getting angry at me for it, bye.” Hanging up the phone, you sighed while Venom crossed his arms. "What did Dick's head want?" "As soon as this model wakes up, Josh wants him at Jericho and only Jericho. But we can't bring him until he recovers because his injuries are terrible; how is he holding up?" Venom sighed. "His Core is steady; we got the bullet out just in time before the tin can shut down; the bastard is a unique model of the robots; never seen multiple of his kind before. Kinda like the Rk800 bastard, we work with now, but he's not a police officer." You hummed with a reply. "Didn't Kamski tell us he made three unique separate androids?" "No, he said five, but we only found two; why is it so important we find all of them, if I can ask? We might not be able to turn all of them into deviancy. Like North requested." Sighing, you ran your hands through your hair. "I know...but...." You looked at him. "We need them on our side if we want freedom for all; you know how harsh we humans can get with abuse to others. I just don't want the world going to even more shit than it already has. Connor will be the hard one to crack, and if we don't be careful, he might shut us down instantly if he finds out too soon." Venom sat next to you on the open spot of the couch, propping his feet up on the newly clean coffee table. "That work is a pain in the ass; his questions annoyed me the instant he talked to you. Kamski, the bastard, knew what he was doing when he made the model more innovative, faster and could accomplish a case in under 2 hours. To think a human can do that is outrageous-" Your phone buzzed, interrupting Venom's sentence as you sighed, taking it right out of your pocket.

//////// 5g ||| 7:51 Am

Hank: Oi, got a case of theft over Camden; it could be an Android.

Sighing, you began to reply.

You: K, be right there; coffee for the grumpy man? 🍵☕

Hank: Haha, very funny, black with two sugars, make it quick or you're off the case, Miss FBI.

Closing your phone, you hopped to your feet. "Come on, we got a case over at Camden." Confused, Venom followed. "Who would want something to do with Piece of shit. It's like a Ghost town." Shrugging, you grabbed your coat as Venom went back into you, quickly changing you into your FBI disguise. "Don't know, but we know when we will get there; also, make the perfect cup of coffee for Hank...."

"We don't wanna get on his bad side even more."

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

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Eobard in A3?

This is probably the scariest Eobard I’ve ever drawn (even with the perpetually wonky tie from ‘Doomworld’). I love it, what an excellent choice of expression.

(Send me characters and expressions!)

[raineydays411]

Reunions

Bruce Banner x daughter!reader

Summary: You are finally reunited with your father. 

Your heart raced as you waited for Loki to return. 

Apparently, Thor escaped and took Hulk with him. You were happy that they found a way to leave this damn planet. Or at least get out of the vicinity of the Grandmaster. 

But now, the Grandmaster was upset, calling for Loki. Turns out, you’ve come to care for the man, more than you ever thought you would. 

So here you are, outside the Grandmasters throne room, ready to step in if needed. You have no idea what you’d do, but you’d step in. That’s when Loki came out. You jogged up to his side, not realizing that he was with someone else.

“Well? Are you alright? What happened?” You ask, looking at his face for answers.

“Darling I am fine. Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He teases, then he turns his attention to the woman next to you. 

“What have you done?”

“I don’t answer to you, lackey.”

Loki grabs her arm, “It’s Loki, and you will answer to the Grandmaster.”

“Um hey maybe you shouldn’t” 

Then, she pushed his arm off her, the two of them hitting each other resulting in Loki getting punched in the face. 

‘Hmmph” The woman says smugly. Annoyed, Loki pulls out a dagger. 

“Why would you help my brother escape with that green fool” He asks pointing the blade at her threatingly. She pulls out her own knife.

“I don’t help anyone.” Loki lunges at her, the both of them swiping at each other trying to land a hit. You watch anxiously, debating on whether or not you would step in. That’s when Loki gets her arm pinned, seeing her tattoo.

“You’re a Valkyrie?” he questions, she breaks his hold, but he disarms her. She, however, doesn’t need a weapon as he lands several punches on Loki, managing to throw him to the wall.

“I thought the Valkyrie all dies gruesome deaths.” Loki taunted. It was surprising to hear him speak like this. He has always been so kind to you, you forget how cold his personality could be. He had a way to get under peoples skin, dig into their deepest insecurities. 

The Valkyrie knees him in the chest and hold the daggers to his face. “Choose your next words carefully.” She threatens.

That was enough to get you to jump in. You kick the back of her knee, making her loose her stance. Shocked at the sudden assault, her state allowed Loki to move in.

“I’m terribly sorry. It must be a painful memory.” Then he strikes, placing his hand on her forehead. It looks like she was forced into a memory. He face turning grim as she is forced to remember what, you assume to be an awful memory. 

She falls to the floor, shocked at what she had seen. Then she recovered. Faster than what Loki expected and pinned him on the ground, promptly knocking him out. 

You cringe, that punch looked like it hurt. Suddenly she stands up. Turning her attention on you.

“Hey, I’m no Loki but I’m pretty scrappy.” You say, tense and prepared to fight. She scoffs at your words.

“I’m not going to fight a child. You’ll either come willingly or face the Grandmaster.”

You sigh, gathering your bags. “ Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” 

She drags Loki, who is still knocked out and leads you outside the castle. 

“We have to hurry before the streets get busy. The Grandmaster has already announced the disappearance of his champion.” She says, walking briskly as you follow along.

“So...you helped Thor escape?” You ask trying to keep up with her.

“More like he tricked me. Like I said before, I don’t help.”

“Then why are you taking Loki? You could’ve just left him.” You inquire.

Valkyrie huffs and turns to you, “ You ask a lot of questions, kid.” 

“I’m a curious person.” You respond. You look around, the streets are already filling with people. They all are so diverse. It was different out here, seeing them in green and parading around masks and costumes of the Hulk. On Earth, people feared him. But here, he was...praised. 

“I have a question.” Valkyrie says, “How did a Midgardian child end up all the way out here, with this.” She gestures to Loki.

“I was looking for my father.” You say shortly, “Loki saw me panicking and helped me out. We’ve been together ever since.”

“hmm” she hums, “We’re here.” 

She leads you into a house, it was green and white, kind of like the other room Thor was imprisoned in. 

“You stay here.” She says dropping Loki on a small stool. She tied him with a chain she pulls out from no where. “ I have to go find that idiot.” 

Then she leaves you alone with a passed out Loki. 

You sigh, taking a seat next to a window. You pull out your phone and start listening to music. You don’t feel like writing so you just stare out the window. You start to song to yourself lowly, already bored of just waiting here.

Then you hear a groan. You turn to look at Loki, who was waking up.

“Y/n? What happened” He asks wincing in pain

“You got knocked the fuck out man.” You tease. “ That Valkyrie lady brought us to her house or something.”

“Are you alright? Did she hurt you” He says struggling with the chains.

“No, just threatened me and made me come with her. I would’ve anyway, I wasn’t going to leave you. Besides, she’s kind of hot.” You say, getting up from where you were sat and grabbed a random bottle that looked like a drink.

Loki looks at you weirdly considering what you just said.

‘Here” you said, holding the bottle to his lips, “ You must be thirsty.”

He drinks from the bottle but spits it out, “Ugh that's alcohol”

You look at him and then the bottle. 

“Don’t even think about it.” He warns.

“Aw man.”

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

Thor had just made it to the quinjet. He’s relieved to find that the jet still works.

“Welcome, voice activation required.”

He places his hand on the scanner.

“Thor.”

Access denied.

“Thor, Son of Odin.”

Access denied

“God of Thunder’

Access denied

“Strongest Avenger.”

Access denied

“Strongest Avenger” He emphasizes.

Access denied.

Thor grunts in frustration. Trying to rack his brain for any possible passwords or nicknames. He sighs realizing what it must be.

“Damn you Stark. Point Break”

All the lights turn on as the plane is activated. 

“Welcome Point Break.”

Thor rolls his eyes and starts working on starting the quinjet. 

That’s when the Hulk tears the back open.

“FRIEND STAY” He shouts, making his way inside the plane.

“Hulk no!” Thor shouts, trying to get him to stop wrecking the already damaged ship.

“ STAY!” Hulk shouts stubbornly. Thor starts desperately looking for a way to preserve the ship.

He clicks random buttons, in hopes of a miracle. That's when a video pops up.

“Nice work Big guy” Natasha's voice comes through, “ We don’t know where Ultron's headed but you’re going very high, very fast. We can’t track you...”

Hulk freezes. Then jerks around. He bangs his head against the walls, punches himself in the head. 

“NO BANNER.” Hulk shouts. 

Thor presses another button. And another video pops up.

“Hi daddy. It’s me.” Your twelve year old voice rings through the jet, “ Tony doesn’t know I’m in here, but I need you to hear this. Come home. Please, I need you. I don’t care if you’re the hulk or anything. I just want my dad…don’t leave me...” 

Thor can see emotion in Hulks eyes. He roars, desperate to stay as he is. 

“NO BANNER. NO”

He fluctuated between Hulk and Bruce. They both fight to gain control of each other. Till finally he collapses, shrinking down to reveal Bruce Banner, panting in exhaustion.

“Banner?” Thor says carefully, slowly placing a hand on the mans shoulders.

Bruce jumps, not aware of his surroundings. Thor hushes him, attempting to calm him down,

“Shh, shh the suns going down. The suns going down real low”

“Thor?” Bruce says panting.

“Yeah” 

“What happened to your hair?” 

“Oh some creepy old guy cut it off”

“It looks good.”

“Oh thanks” Thor says smiling.

“Where are we? Where’s Nat? How is she?”

Thor frowns, “Um, she’s good. I assume.” 

“What about Sokovia? Did we save the city?” Bruce asks 

“Banner, listen, Sokovia, Ultron. All that was four years ago.”

Bruce's heart dropped, “I’ve been the hulk for four years”

Thor winces, “I’m afraid so..”

Bruce looks down at the beads has wearing and takes them off. Then he freezes, “Thor, my daughter. Y/n..is she okay?”

“Of course, oh Banner she’s wonderful. She... she’s waiting for you.” Thor says, not knowing how to tell him that you were on the same planet. 

“I have to get home... I” Bruce stands up almost toppling over but Thor catches him.

“Banner there's something you should know...”

Bruce gets up and goes to the hand scanner 

“Bruce Banner”

Welcome, Strongest Avenger.

“What?” Thor says offended. 

Him and Bruce watch the footage from when he crashed on Sakaar. 

Thor sighs knowing that this was going to be hard to explain.

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

You sigh, after trying the fifth time to free Loki.

“What the hell are these chains made out of?” You grunt

Loki laughs, “Darling don’t stress yourself. We’ll escape in time.” 

You sigh and sit down next to Loki. 

“Was that you I heard singing earlier?” He asks, turning his head to face you. 

“Oh.. yeah, I do that a lot.” You blush, even though you’re a theater kid, you still get shy when singing in front of people.

“It was lovely.” Loki remarks not meeting your eyes. You smile, knowing not to make a big deal. You’re stomach growls. 

“There’s some fruit over there.” Loki says, “ They look about ripe.” 

You stand and walk towards the counter of fruit. It was just beyond the view of the door. You help yourself to the fruit. It was weird, like a mix of cantaloupe and a grape. You were about to offer Loki some when you saw him wipe his face of emotion and into an irritated look. Then the door opened.

“Surprise.” Loki said sarcastically. Then you see a can hit him in the forehead.

“Ow.” He says in a monotone.

“Just making sure.” you hear Thor say, walking into the place.

“Hello Bruce.” Loki says. 

You freeze, hearing your fathers voice for the first time in four years.

“So, last time I saw you, you were trying to kill everybody. Where are you at these days?’

“It varies from moment to moment.” 

You decide to make your presence known. You gulped and over your beating heart said, “ Don’t be such a drama king, you sound like an edgy middle school boy.” 

Loki smirks, looking towards you, but before he can say anything Thor cuts him off.

“Y/n! Thank heavens you’re alright” Thor says patting your shoulder. 

You smile up at him , avoiding your fathers stare, “Yeah I’m good, Lord of Thunder.” 

“Y/n?”

You take a deep breath, the room going quiet.

You slowly turn, facing your father, “Hi daddy...”

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

Bruce can hear his heart beating in his ears. He didn’t recognize you at first. He couldn’t have, the last time he saw you...you were a kid. This tiny little twelve year old that was barely in sixth grade. 

But here you are. His daughter, four years older. A teenager. He...He lost four years with you. He practically missed you growing up. Your first period, first day of high school. Here you were, on an other planet, dressed in some weird suit of armor, conversing with a man who tried to enslave Earth like he was an old friend. 

“Y/n?” He says in disbelief. You turn to him, slowly. Your face...you..you look just like your mother.

“Hi daddy” You say as your eyes start to water.

“Y/n” He says striding towards you and pulling you into a tight hug, “ Wha-what are you doing here? What are you wearing?”

“I came to look for you.” You respond, your face pressed into his chest. He pulls away, grabbing your face in his hands.

“God...look at you, you...you were just a kid..” He whispers tears filling his eyes. You smile sadly and nod. You really don’t know what to say, you’re relieved to finally see your dad but...it’s kind of awkward with all these people around.

“What is going on?” Valkyrie whispers to Thor as they watch the emotional scene play out.

“Oh, Y/n is Bruce’s daughter who hasn’t seen him for four years.” Thor simply says, “ Is that a dragonfang?!”

Valkyrie rolls her eyes at the topic change, “ sure is”

You roll your eyes, overhearing their conversation.

“ So, you were with Thor this whole time?” Bruce asks confused, “ why didn’t I see you?”

“Um actually I was with Loki..” you answer nervously, peaking over at Loki who looked annoyed to still be tied up.

“Did he kidnap you?” Bruce asks, “Thor, you let my daughter run around with your psychotic brother?!”

“ Hey!” Loki said offended. You giggle, always finding him being insulted amusing. You look at Loki's face, seeing an emotion in his eyes that you can’t place.

“Shh Banner stay calm” Thor says soothingly, “ in my defense I was enslaved and forced to fight.” He shoots a glare at Valkyrie who was drinking. She rolls her eyes and picks up another bottle.

“Can we get back to the plan?” Valkyrie, “ Sakaar and Asgard are as far apart as any two known systems. Our best bet, is a wormhole just outside of city limits. If we refuel on Xandar, and we can be back on Asgard in about...18 months.”

“Nope. We’re going through the big one.” Thor says, pointing at the large wormhole in the sky. 

“The Devil’s Anus?” 

You snort at the name as your dad’s attention is caught.

“Anus? wait, wait, wait, whose anus?” Bruce says, letting go of you and walking to the two Asgardians.

“For the record, I didn’t know it was called that when I picked it.”

You walk up to Loki, and sit next to him looking out the window.

“That looks like a collapsing neutron star inside of an Eisen-Rosen Bridge.” Bruce says facing the window. 

“We need another ship, that one would tear mine to pieces.” Valkyrie says drinking from another bottle. 

“She’s right, we’ll need one that can withstand the geodetic strain from the singularity” Thor says.

You make eye contact with Loki, both of you realizing that the Grandmaster has a bunch of ships. You have a silent conversation with him, trying to convince him to do the right thing. Considering that the time you two spent there, he had you steal the access codes to the security systems with his guide.

You look up at the right second to see your dad and Thor fist bump. Kind of awkwardly but its nice to see him get out of his comfort zone. 

“There are one of two ships, one of top of the line models and...”

“I don’t mean to impose..” Loki starts, but Valkyrie throws her bottle at him, nearly hitting him but smashing into the wall instead. Loki slightly turns his body to shield you from the glass, even though you were on the other side. You glare at her from where you are sat.

“The fuck...” You start, but see Loki's face telling you to stay quiet. 

“The Grandmaster has a great many ships. Y/n here, may have stolen the access codes to his security systems,” He says proudly glancing at you. You blush as the three glance at you. Your father looking at you in confusion.

“And suddenly you’re both overcome with the urge to do the right thing?” 

“Heavens no.” “I’m literally just vibing” You both say at the same time.

“We’ve run out of favor with the Grandmaster. In exchange for codes and access to a ship, I’m asking for safe passage, through the Anus. For the both of us.” Loki concludes glaring at you when you laugh at the wording.

“You’re telling us, you can get us a ship without setting the alarms?” Thor asks

“Yes brother, we can.”

“Why don’t we just take the girl? She’s the one who knows  the codes.” Valkyrie asks glaring at the both of you. 

“Y/n is not going back to that retched place.” Loki states, “We both know those codes, and she stays far away, where its safe.” 

“Okay, can we just,” Bruce gestures for the team to meet up, “just a quick fyi. Y/n you too.”

You groan, getting up from your spot as Loki rolls his eyes. You walk over to the 

“ I was just talking to him, and he was totally ready to kill any of us.”

“He did try to kill me.” Valkyrie says. 

“Yes, me too on many, many occasions.” Thor adds, “ There was this one time when we were children, he transformed himself into a snake, and he knows that I love snakes. So I went to pick up the snake to admire it.” “

no” Bruce whispers

 “ And he transformed back into himself and was like ‘blegh its me’ and then he stabbed me. We were eight at the time.”

Bruce looked back at Loki in disbelief, and when you looked at Loki you can see a small smile creep up on his face. 

“Well, he’s never tried to kill me.” You chime in, “ He made me some soup thing when I got sick. “

The three adults looked at you in disbelief. 

“Sweetheart, he’s murdered people.” Bruce said. 

“Okay?? He’s my emotional support murderer. He hugs me when I’m sad.” You say rolling your eyes. 

Thor and Valkyrie look at you in confusion. 

“That doesn’t sound healthy.” Bruce mutters

“Dad, if Bucky can get a second chance then so can Loki” You say stubbornly leaving the group to sit with Loki.

“Who’s Bucky?”

“Guys, if we’re going to boost a ship we have to draw attention away from the palace.”

“Why not set the beast loose?”

“Shut up” “That's a terrible idea.”

“Hey, why don’t you start a revaluation?” You say.

The adults look at you again in surprise. 

“I thought of that “ Thor says.

“Well I said it first.’ You snipe back with a smirk.

“...You’ve spent too much time with Loki.”

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

[phoenix-manga]

Vice Dorm Leaders getting along with Pokémon:

It didn’t take long for the vice dorm leaders to get involved with the Pokemon too. The shenanigans that happened with them are... interesting to say the least.

Trey + Slurpuff

“The Unbirthday Party was a success thanks to this little guy’s sense of smell… Though I should expect to make a large portion for it, the number of sweets it ate was shocking for everyone!”

Trey was a bit skeptical when Phoebe lent him Slurpuff and told him that chefs would use them to sniff out the freshest ingredients but if they say so then it must be worth a try.

Needless to say, he was pleasantly surprised to see the cake thing nudge him to the best ingredients to use for his sweets. He rewarded Slurpuff with a spoon covered in frosting or batter. The Pokémon mostly stayed out of his way and only has to bring him some tools or supplies.

When he presented the sweets he made, everyone including Riddle were almost knocked into a food coma with how good it was. Even Trey was lost in the trance of the flavor, but he was snapped out of it when he spotted Slurpuff eating almost half of the buffet table, he rushed to it and told it to ask him for more sweets to prevent any problems.

Ruggie + Crobat

“That Phoebe kid feeds you this? Aww man! I’m so jealous, now I wish I was a Pokémon!”

That one-time Ruggie came across Crobat was when he passed by Ramshackle to see a large bat creature with four wings eating from a large bowl filled with berries, Poke puffs and even poffins. The amount it ate distracted him from his usual task and he only snapped out of it when Crobat made eye-contact with him.

Crobat wasn’t sure why a stranger was here but it assumed it wanted food so Crobat nudged a Poke puff towards Ruggie’s direction before going back to chow down. Ruggie didn’t plan on asking it for any food, he was just curious but since it offered, who is he to decline? Picking up the Poke puff and taking a bite, he immediately devours it till there’s nothing left. That was the tastiest pastry he has had; they were even better than the ones in the cafeteria.

He hears Phoebe call out to Crobat and he took this time to scram before he was found. That kid pampers their creatures like royalty, he admits that he once had the thought that wishes that he was a Pokémon too. Ruggie now sneaks to go to Ramshackle and Crobat sneaks him a portion of its food, Ruggie repays it by offering some to it as well. They just formed this unspoken lunch trade. The one time Phoebe made malasadas for Crobat, Ruggie was in heaven lemme tell you.

Phoebe has no idea about this, this was just a secret thing between Crobat and Ruggie. One time Phoebe was with Crobat in the field and it spots Ruggie, Crobat immediately goes to him and flies around him. Phoebe assumed that Crobat took a liking to Ruggie because it probably sensed that he’s a foodie. Oh, if only she knew.

Jade + Lapras

“Such kind yet protective eyes you have~ I’m far from trustworthy yet you nuzzle against me like a seal, this is quite interesting”

Phoebe asked Azul if she can be allowed to have her water Pokémon swim about in Octavinelle. The lake is much too small for the larger ones. Azul gave her permission but in exchange she has to work part-time at the lounge, Azul is capitalizing as usual. The mention of Pokémon being at Octavinelle brought more customers to the lounge, the one that got the most attention was Lapras.

It was very friendly and even paused to look inside the lounge from the windows. Phoebe was not surprised that Lapras was friendly, what she didn’t expect was that it got attached to Jade for some reason. She would have thought it was Sharpedo or even Eelektross who would get along with the cunning vice dorm leader. But instead, Lapras is swimming happily in circles wanting Jade’s attention.

Jade, of course, finds the Pokémon endearing and would always take his time to pet it whenever he’s on break. Even offering Lapras a small treat or two, Lapras is enjoying it. There was a rare occasion that Jade swam with Lapras in his eel form, at times he swims alongside Lapras or have it chase him through the water, other times he just sleeps on Lapras’ back as it swam.

Jamil + Serperior

“Quite the proud one you are, at least you’re more tolerable than Kalim…”

Kalim promised a favor without consulting Jamil again, this time it was to look after some of her Pokémon. Kalim got caught up in the excitement of having to get close with those strange creatures that he didn’t think that it could be troublesome.

Jamil stopped in his tracks at the sight of Kalim with a large green snake behind him. Boy did he get quite the scolding from Jamil, but what can he do now that Kalim as already offered? He just decides to “help” him take care of Serperior. Thankfully, Phoebe provided a list of ingredients that Serperior likes, the list was as long as an A4 paper but at least Jamil has his options cut out for him. He doesn’t have to guess and waste any food.

Serperior mostly kept to itself and wanders around the dorm, inspecting its surroundings. Kalim tries to hug it but it just wraps its body around him and places him a few feet away before slithering off. Serperior will feel terrible if he smacks the sunshine boy away, so it places him at a good distance.

Jamil often sees it staring at him, its sharp eyes resemble his own. He never expected to have it get attached to him in a rather proud way. Everywhere Jamil goes, Serperior follows at a distance and there were rare moments it coils near his bedroom door, and Jamil walks out one morning only to fall into its coils. This strange behavior was suspicious at first but then Jamil learned to get used to it. Serperior is a curious one but then he thinks its more tolerable than Kalim.

Speaking of Kalim, Serperior sensed that most of Jamil’s stress comes from Kalim being a goofball that he is, so it catches Kalim and puts him in a coil hold when he’s about to do something reckless.

Rook + Oricorio

“Oh my! Such grace and beauty you possess to dance with excellent skills! Wait, you mean to tell me it had four forms? I would like to see it, please show me”

He spotted the dancing bird Pokémon in the field when they were having a PE class. Oricorio was in its Pom-Pom form and doing a cheer dance to motivate Grimm to fly better. He couldn’t help but approach Phoebe and ask her about Oricorio.

Needless to say, he was very interested. A creature that has four different forms that represents a different environment? It was like a fox having more than just a winter coat. He asked to see its other forms, it would be tiring to have it change forms constantly so Phoebe just brings out Rotom to show him the pictures of the Oricorio forms. Rook admired the pictures and each one gave off a different kind of beauty.

Oricorio, being a simp for pretty boys, took a liking to Rook. He was just so charming, Oricorio does its happy dance and follows him whenever it sees him. Phoebe once asked him if he can keep Oricorio company for a few days, he accepts the offer and he brings it to Pomefiore. Oricorio also liked Vil and Epel due to how charming their looks are, Vil is fine with it as long as it isn’t a troublemaker while Epel is kind of bummed out when he thinks it likes him because of his fragile looks.

The moment Rook was shown its changed forms in person, he is taking out his camera and is taking burst shots from all sorts of angles and lighting. Out of all the four forms Oricorio has, he loves its Baile form the most, the way it dances with embers around it in a display of passion and power. He looks forward to Phoebe asking him to look after Oricorio again.

Ortho + Emolga & Pachirisu

“Hey! That tickles, big brother you should try and pet them! They’re like those plushies you sometimes order in your room. Isn’t it like having your favorite plushy as a pet?”

Emolga and Pachirisu are both cheeky Pokémon and a duo for trouble. Emolga and Pachirisu were seen making student’s hair go static and stick out with small electric waves.

Ortho spotted the two behind some bushes and immediately approaches them, this is the first time Emolga and Pachirisu were caught off guard and startled. Their electric attacks don’t do much to Ortho due to his robotic circuits, if anything he considers it as some form of tickling.

Ortho thought how cute they looked and they resemble plush toys in his brother’s room. Emolga and Pachirisu was weirded out by Ortho at first but his cheerfulness was infectious and it didn’t take long for them to treat him as part of their group. Whenever Ortho passes by, the two would pounce on him and swing from his arms and legs, Ortho likes this game, he finds it useful to use his scanner to see where they might pop out next.

One time, he took them to see his brother and they made his hair stick out. He was startled but Ortho found it amusing, he got to see what would his hair look like if it stuck out. Emolga and Pachirisu still do their pranks but its less due to them wanting to find Ortho first.

Lilia + Dragapult

“A prankster and yet you dote on the little ones on your horns? We might be cousins from a distant world, fufu~ Let’s go scare Sebek some more!”

Dragapult pranks Sebek a lot, poor boy gets it from almost a lot of Pokémon. It once shot a Dreepy in his shirt causing him to squirm and try to get it out, he looked like he was doing a crazy monkey dance. Lilia appreciates this little prankster and he would join it in tormenting other students but mostly Sebek because his reactions were very amusing to watch. The two even went and started a pranking competition where they tally their number of pranked students for the whole month.

Lilia was allowed to play and hold the small Dreepy that reside in Dragapult’s horns. He melted at the sight of the little cuties playfully tussling his hair, which gave him an idea to mimic Dragapult’s horns(?) With an easy hair growth potion and a LOT of hairspray, he came to school with his hair in Dragapult’s style.

The sight alone in Diasomnia sent everyone, including Malleus into a stunned silence, Dragapult added fuel to the flame by letting the Dreepy reside in his hair for the rest of the day. Crowley saw Lilia and mumbled how the trends have gotten crazier every day. Cater took pictures and he laughed at the sight because it was so outlandish. Kalim was confused but precious boy still appreciated his hairstyle nonetheless. The perfect chaotic duo.

[impulsivefanwriter]

A Tiny Spark Leads to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always be Doused by Water)

Heeyyyyy so y’all know the Reverse Thanos Snap AU for SPBNR? Basically everyone but Smith/S!Kai gets sent to the M!verse. Everyone. The entire population of S!verse Ninjago City & a few surrounding areas. Except poor Smith. Essentially it happens because S!Garmadon tries to send Smith to a place where he can't mess with his plans, and ends up sending everyone away from Smith to take him out of the equation. 

The second part to this AU is that the S!Ninja end up searching for Kai in the chaos and grab the Red Ninja before jetting out of there with the Bounty. Except... they didn’t grab Smith (who’s still home), but rather Red (M!Kai).

Red thinks the S!Ninja are babysitter clones created by Garmadon after he somehow turned Lloyd younger without his memories & is trying to raise him to be his new General #1. With this in mind, he pretends to be S!Kai, and waits for the moment he can rescue Lloyd.

What would happen in the S!Ninja discovered his deception/their mistake of grabbing a wrong Kai and mistake Red for a recreated Aki (aka Bizarro Evil Clone Kai) before he could enact his plan?

Well, this is that idea. (Title inspired by how a crack AU spiralled into a beautiful angst-fest)

Enjoy. :3

-----*-----

Red was going to get Lloyd out of here tonight. 

Away from these Not-Friends made by Garmadon to emulate the Ninjaforce. Away from this flying ship built to emulate Master Wu's ship, so familiar and yet so off. Away from this false reality and back to the real everything where they could hopefully get his memories back and his age back and everything back to the way it was before the city descended into chaos.

He just had to... bide his time. Be patient. 

FSM, he was bad at being patient. 

His hands itched to grab Lloyd and run now, but he was horribly outnumbered and without his mech. No matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn't rush this. If he did, he would make everything worse. Like he always did.

But fate- or rather, Lloyd- had other plans.

The little version of his younger brother- yes, they were roughly the same age normally, shut up, Lloyd was still his younger brother- had been... eying him weird all morning. Not like Not-Jay and Not-Cole and Not-Zane, but like Not-Nya. Like he actually knew instead of suspected. These babysitter clones seemed to think he was the Not-Kai, and if that was the opportunity the universe was going to give him, then by the flames of the departed world was he going to skip this chance to save Lloyd.

Currently he stood on the deck of the ship as they parked in the sky a few meters above the docks on the outskirts of the city. It wasn't the docks with the Bounty warehouse, curse his luck, but it wasn't the endless sky or the empty ocean (though it was still too close to that murky, haunting water for his liking. Water was his sister's domain for a reason). At least he could sneak Lloyd off in the cover of night, maybe find someone in the city who wouldn't recognize the Son of Garmadon this way and would be willing to help them hide until they could make it back to the real ninja.

"Kai," Not-Zane spoke suddenly next to him. 

Red would never get used to the way his voice... lacked the same effect the real Zane's had. The effect that Kai and the rest of his team had assured their friend over and over was unique, special, but in a good way. To embrace it. That it wasn't noticeable, but when it was, that it was so Zane that his friends didn't care that it was different. 

This 'Zane' sounded much too different than his own. He hadn't recognized Kai's tested line of 'road work ahead' when they passed one of the many construction signs littering the city (even more so since the chaos happened a week ago), and instead had responded with 'a great deal of work to fix in the city'. 

Seriously, Garmadon, do better research on your clones.

Not-Zane was also much too... calm. Too 'wise' compared to the wild teen that was Zane. And he walked without heelies or whatever Zane used to slide around like a boss, though he was still silent. And that meant, like now, he snuck up on Red fairly often- and Red was training to be a Ninja, so that took serious talent. 

"Kai," Not-Zane said again, and Red finally broke his gaze from where he'd been staring over the railing, planning tonight's escape route. "Lunch has been made for over an hour. Are you alright?"

Red forced his brightest smile. "Course I'm alright! Just trying to figure out what happened, as usual."

Why Lloyd was suddenly like, 8, and without his memories. Why the Not-Friends were on this Not-Ship and had mistaken him for Not-Kai. Why the city was in a state of disarray and chaos. 

Not-Zane studied him, then turned to give the city a sad look. "I'm not sure myself. My scanners can't seem to figure out what is happening. It is as if... blocked by some force."

Red winced, then expertly disguised the move by leaning against the rail. Zane never would use 'my scanners', despite how often Red and the others assured him it was okay. Yet another reason why this wasn't his friend.

"You know Ninjago City," Red said with a weak laugh. "Always one crisis or another. Always those annoying Garmadon Attacks"

This seemed to satisfy Not-Zane, who nodded thoughtfully. "This event definitely seems to have Garmadon's hand in the mess."

He patted Red on the back. "Well, don't worry yourself ragged, Kai. Come in for lunch soon, alright? We have training for Lloyd later."

Ah, right. Training. AKA what Red assumed was how Garmadon was planning to shape this impressionable version of his friend into his new General #1.  

"I'm ready for training now, Zane!"

Speaking of Lloyd- 

The little gremlin came up from the hull with the rest of the Not-Ninja. Red hated when the entire group was together; it was way more difficult to act as Not-Kai around them, especially around Not-Nya. 

For starters, Not-Jay had a notch in his eyebrow that the real Jay never had. He was missing the iconic freckles, and the scarf, and the fluffy hair, though you could always say it was just a wardrobe change. What you couldn't change was the personality differences. This couldn’t be Jay. Jay was anxious and quiet, his jokes (while plentiful) said more timidly and his newest ideas shared with hesitance that only shrank after years of encouragement. He would never be this loud, ever. 

Not-Cole was the leader, probably because Lloyd was so young. But even then, in Red's team, Nya would probably take second-command. Cole was their sturdy support, yes, but he was chill, laid-back. Ready to follow and support his friends to the ends of the earth with his tunes and occasional sarcastic wit, but not lead. Not like Not-Cole, who was more serious and commanding and didn't. listen. to. music. Red hadn't spotted a single record or boombox in the room in the hull. That was a tragic oversight on Garmadon's part. The members of his research team should be Fired.

And then there was Not-Nya. Who wore a dress with confidence that his sister would love but never publicly wear. Who had short hair- Nya had tried that style once, and decided it itched around her neck too much- and jewelry, and a giant flying Samurai mech suit. His sister had the Water Strider Mech, and Not-Nya had a flying combat suit. Sure. Close enough. Personality-wise they were similar. 

Similar at first glance. Nya was fluid and adaptable to whatever role she needed filling. She was spunky, and as fiery as him when it came to tempers, though she knew how to keep hers in check (she had to, right? No one called her hot-headed and impulsive and reckless and blamed her temper for mistakes or damage or whatever the news comments liked to say about the Fire Mech). Not-Nya was also adaptable and independent-minded, but she seemed more rigid. More doing her own thing. 

Point was, everyone wasn't actually his friends, despite how much they tried to prove they were. And they kept acting like he was this Not-Kai, who was just as hot-headed but apparently more mature and training-oriented and basically the better, cooler (or hotter, perhaps, for the fire theme of the red ninja) him, since his acting never seemed to fully convince them. Trying to impersonate a standard he couldn't seem to reach, some legendary hero he wasn't- er, wasn't yet! Yeah! He just needed to prove himself, be better, and he'd be fine. Just... fine. Yeah.

Mini-Lloyd (Red was tempted to call him L'ilyod in his head, but that felt wrong somehow, like he was infringing on some kind of copyright law) stared at him like a goddamn falcon, and he wasn't talking about the bird that circled the ship. He had this bowl-cut Red would tease him about endlessly after all this was over- seriously, how had Mr. Fabulous Hair started with this mess? Garmadon probably didn't even have hair, so there was no way the guy knew how to style it, and it was very evident based on Mini-Lloyd's hairdo. 

Red noticed that all of them were staring, actually. Despite his relaxed rest against the rails, his fingers behind his back clutched the cool bar with a dull shake. He didn't notice how the metal seemed to glow red under his touch. 

"Training, right, we should get onto that," Red tried. "What do you want to start with, Lloyd?" 

"How about a little game?" Lloyd asked with complete innocence. "What we were playing last week before we got interrupted."

Oh sh!t. 

"I-I don't know, shouldn't we start with stretches? Or how about some sparring, that's always more fun than a game!"

"But I wanted to continue our game..." Mini Lloyd said, and FSM's sake, he couldn't deal with that pouting look.

Okay. Okay, don't panic. Think logically. What kind of game would an 8-year-old Lloyd like to play with him? Something physical, so no board games- he liked to test his mettle against Zane on those, and sometimes he would almost not-lose. Logic puzzles also fell more on Jay's area. Trivia, especially music trivia, was a bubble between the anxious motormouth and Cole. Video games fell on team building, and wouldn't classify as a training warmup.

"Well," Red said, taking a hopeful stab in the dark. "There's not too much space on the deck for... tag..."

Lloyd nodded, looking satisfied. The Not-Ninja looked- well, their expressions were hard to read because of how different it was compared to his friends. But Red was a master of deception (well, fire, but eh, technicalities), and he had them fooled, and he just had to keep it up until nightfall so he could rescue Lloyd and explain in a safe location-

"HE'S NOT KAI!"

Orrrrr improvise. Okay, yep, he could improvise. 

Red lunged forward and grabbed Mini Lloyd's wrist from where he had his hand extended in an accusatory point. He ducked under Not-Jay's attempts to grab him- fast, but not as fast as his Jay, his Jay who could disappear from an awkward social interaction in the span of a flickering lightbulb- and dragged his younger brother with him as he vaulted over the railing. Not-Zane almost managed to yank him back onto the Not-ship, but his icy grip caught only empty air as Red pulled Lloyd into a tight hold and ducked.

He hit the dock below with a stumble, rolling back onto his feet and taking off with a very stubborn green ninja in tow. It took all his strength to drag Lloyd (kicking and screaming like he was being kidnapped or something when Red was just trying to rescue him, for FSM's sake. Lloyd didn't know that, but he could still try to be at least a little more considerate.)

The wooden docks creaked and shuddered underfoot and Red grimaced; whoever rebuilt them after the latest Garmadon attack had shredded them like newspaper clearly hadn't wasted any unnecessary change. It certainly didn't help that Lloyd packed quite the punch for someone so small. Red definitely would come out of this with bruised shins and arms from where Mini Lloyd tried to push him away, but it would be worth it to keep his teammate, his younger brother, safe.

Then green filled his vision and broke his hold on Lloyd's wrist, sending him skidding across the dock planks as he was sent flying. When he finally rolled to a stop, neck and shoulder stinging from where the blast had caught him (no burns, just jitters like he'd been shocked), he had to take a few seconds to re-orient himself. Did the Not-Ship have cannons or something? What hit him from behind, so close it could have hit Lloyd?

Lloyd. Was Lloyd okay?

Red pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the bleeding scrapes on his hands and legs from where he'd gotten banged up by the splintered docks. His gaze, sharp and frantic, searched for signs of green. The warning of more blasts, the flash of the fabric of a gi, anything.

He spotted his brother in the arms of Not-Cole. No, no, no-

And suddenly Not-Nya was there, given a boost by Not-Jay. Her grip was as if she were wearing the robotic mech suit, harsh and powerful and near in-human. She threw Red back to the dock floor as her face twisted with the fury of a storming ocean. A resounding crack rang out over the harbour.

Red couldn't tell if it came from the planks under him or his own shoulder.

She pinned him to the wood, barking accusations and threats in his face faster than Not-Jay could talk. Red blinked through a haze of pain, trying to focus on her face and words. She was missing the beauty mark on her face, he noticed. Yet another tell she wasn't his sister.

"-scar on the wrong side-" And it was hard to hear again over the ringing in his ears. He tried to throw her off, get back to Lloyd, anything, but he was-

Useless. 

Her hands suddenly got in his face, slamming his left cheek to the wood. She was close- close to his face, close to his eye, close to his scar- pushing and prying as she tried to do something. Red picked up in his struggling, his attempts to free himself turning to desperate shoves and wild clawing like a trapped animal. He wouldn't let this creation of Garmadon's finish the job that teen had started all those years ago. 

"Or better yet, he needs to shut his damn mouth."

The flash of a knife. His vision half-blurry. Blood- so much blood- and a lasting scar.

"-contacts-" "-red-" "-struggling-" "-we know what he- it- is already-" "-not the real Kai-" "-wish-" "-Garmadon-"

He had to get away. Get Lloyd away from them now.

In one surge of strength- and yep, his shoulder definitely wasn't okay after that move, as if he'd ripped it not just from its socket but from its very attachment to his body- he knocked Not-Nya aside. If he could’ve seen through the red haze, he might have noticed red embers dancing around his fingertips as his desperation and fear tapped into something deep in his soul.

He tried to shoot to his feet, tried to run for Lloyd (held so tight in Not-Cole's grip, surely they were hurting him, he couldn't let that happen-). He roared, "LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!", but before he could take another step through Not-Jay and Not-Zane in his path, the docks gave one last ominous shudder  before deciding it had finally had enough.

The planks crumbled underfoot like charred firewood in a crackling campfire, and Red was sent tumbling into the frigid ocean water below.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Canary, Part 5

First

Previous

Tim tipped his head to the side as he considered the woman in front of him.

She had a slightly nervous smile as she pulled one of her earbuds out of her ears. “Hi.”

Her eyes flicked past him and, after quickly glancing back to make sure no one was about to attack him, he realized she was feeling cornered.

… probably because she was currently being cornered.

He hesitantly took a few steps to the side until he could lean against the wall. “I’m not here to hurt you or anything, I just want to talk,” he promised.

Her hand slipped out of her pocket. He was willing to bet that she had some kind of weapon in there.

Which was good, honestly. Gotham was a dangerous place for newcomers like her.

“... so, what’re you here for?” She asked when he didn’t say anything for a while.

He bit his lip as he considered her.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, 27.

The first time they’d spotted her following them around, they’d assumed she was just another alias of Canary… but the fourteen aliases they had found for Canary so far had always had one thing in common: despite how far back it may have gone or how many connections she may have had, there was never anyone alive to corroborate her story.

She would have definitely done that this time since there was a 100% chance that the bats would notice her. Canary would have made sure that, no matter what, they couldn’t pop on over to anyone’s house and ask about her.

But Marinette had two parents. They were back in Paris, of course, but they still existed. Babs had spotted them walking to the grocery store just yesterday. They had a consistent call history with them dating back years.

He had entertained the idea that they could be paid actors… but Canary worked alone. She had informants and sponsors, sure, but partners? No. It had been nine years, if she was going to start working with people she probably would have done that already.

Marinette checked out.

… or, at least, she checked out in all ways but two.

“How did you get here?” Asked Tim.

Marinette frowned a little. “... plane?”

He shook his head. “We have footage of you at Roissy Airport, but you never arrived in Gotham.”

Her skin paled. “Must be a glitch.”

Okay. That’s definitely not suspicious at all, no way.

He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think so, no.”

“Maybe you missed me.”

“With our facial recognition scanners? And three people checking it over?”

Her hand was back in her pocket and her eyes were flicking to the exit nervously.

“I’m not going to deport you or anything,” he added quickly. “Lots of people here aren’t documented and that’s totally fine, the immigration system is totally messed up… I’ll shut up about that now, that’s not helping... I just… want to know. Curious.”

“Paranoid,” she corrected with a hesitant grin.

“... cautious,” he said after a few seconds.

“Sure, if that’s what you want to call it.”

“It’s much nicer than paranoid, that’s for sure,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

She rolled her eyes and he smiled as some of the tension in her shoulders disappeared.

“The horse miraculous,” she said after a few seconds. “That’s how I got here.”

He sighed internally. Metas in Gotham. Not good. There was a reason that rule was in place. If metas -- even good ones -- started coming then there was nothing stopping the huge, otherworldly threats from following them over. They’d stick with their overdramatic fucks that need therapy, thanks, their gadgets didn’t exactly hold up against literal gods.

And then Marinette giggled. “You don’t need to look so scared. The weird old guy who holds onto all the miraculous… he doesn’t really use them, he just keeps them locked in a weird box thing. I just…” She shrugged. “I had something on him and he was more than happy to get rid of me.”

… well, that’s a little concerning, thought Tim.

Not exactly unexpected, though. She’d very publicly gotten a restraining order by Chat Noir around ten years prior and, while none of the other miraculous holders had come out against her, many of the ones that had revealed themselves as holders had already denounced her. Tim wouldn’t have been surprised if she had stalked more of them -- hell, she was stalking him and his family, clearly she hadn’t limited herself to Chat Noir.

But this raised his second question: “Why now?”

She cringed. “Well, I’d thought about moving a long time ago. No place in France was going to hire me with the whole ‘stalking one of their beloved superheroes’ thing… but I decided to stay for a while. I didn’t want it to seem like I was running away, y’know?”

He nodded his understanding slowly. That made sense. It wasn’t a decision based on logic, but not all decisions are.

She smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. “Also, I kind of missed having superheroes, to be honest.”

Tim raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t going to correct her use of the word ‘superheroes’ instead of ‘vigilantes’, English was at least her second language and that would be rude, so he went down a different route: “I thought they still had their miraculous. It’d be stupid if they didn’t. Mayura is still out there and all.”

“As far as I know, everyone but Ladybug and Chat Noir gave up their miraculous. Everyone knows Mayura is just Adrien Agreste even if we can’t prove it. Nothing else makes sense,” she said with a shrug.

He bit his lip. “I thought that the secretary disappeared that day, though. Wasn’t it her?”

“Nathalie Sancoeur? I heard she moved to America,” Marinette said with a shrug. “But America hasn’t had any attacks, so no one in Paris thinks it was her. Adrien is probably just waiting until the miraculous holders drop their guards.”

He nodded slowly. He didn’t realize he was going to be gossiping and discussing conspiracy theories with a person who stalked heroes but, he had to admit, it was kind of fun. Reminded him of the good old days when he was just a kid who followed the bats around for fun.

… but that wasn’t how things were anymore. He had responsibilities now. Which he was currently not doing. Oops.

“I should get back to work.”

“I should get back to watching you work,” she half-joked.

He hesitated. “Is there any way I can convince you not to do that? Gotham isn’t Paris, it’s dangerous here.”

She grinned. “I stalked a guy who had a literal god at his beck and call. I can handle a few odd goons,” she said.

He bit his lip but nodded. “Call for help if you ever need it.”

“Fine. Fine.”

He got the distinct feeling that she wasn’t going to but he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt just for now.

He pulled his grapple gun from his belt and hooked it around the rooftop.

“See you later.”

“Well, you will see me later, I’ll --,” she began, only to cut herself off with a gasp: “NO!”

He quickly checked over his shoulder but he didn’t see anything. He turned back to her, questioning look on his face, only to see her devastated expression.

“Cedric died,” she said sadly, pointing at the ear with the earbud still in it.

…?

~

Marinette sat in a coffee shop, sipping at a drink as she worked on her computer.

Tim Drake had five coffee shops that he enjoyed. The tiny tweet she’d sent out a little over a week ago ensured that he wasn’t going to be allowed coffee at his place of work. So, he was likely to go and get coffee somewhere else. She was currently sitting at the one closest to WE.

… it was very expensive. She needed to drink her coffee slower.

She squinted at her resume with a frown.

She was pretty sure it was good enough to get in, but…

Marinette sighed lightly and let her head hit the table. Fuck. She hated this stupid job so much.

She heard the chair across from her scrape against the wooden floors and slowly lifted her head. She squinted at the guy in front of her for a minute.

“Hello,” she said carefully.

The brown-haired man smiled at her.

She glanced him up and down. He was clean in a slimy kind of way. He was too nice. His hair was coiffed perfectly, his suit neatly pressed, his face clean-shaven. People who had the guts to dress like that in Gotham were always the worst of the worst.

“Hi!” he said cheerfully.

She sighed. “You weren’t even going to ask if you could sit here?”

“You’ve been alone for a while. Figured it was safe to assume you didn’t have anyone.”

Cool. Cool cool cool. Her hand slipped to the dagger hidden in her hoodie pocket. She may not know what kind of bad he was, but he was definitely bad news.

“No, actually, I was just waiting for my friend to get off work so they could join me.”

“Oh! I’ll keep you company until they show up!”

Damn. She hated when people called her bluff.

She forced her most pleasant smile to her face. “No thanks. I have work to do, actually.”

“Applying for jobs, right?”

She paled.

“Sorry, but I was curious so I just peeked over your shoulder a little bit. I actually had a couple of openings at my job, and you seem like a good candidate, if you’d like --.”

“No!” She said quickly.

His smile didn’t waver, but his eyes narrowed just a little. “I was just offering you a job.”

“I don’t want to get a job this way. I prefer the formal interview process and everything,” she lied.

“Oh, well, my company is having interviews tomorrow and there should be an open spot around --.”

A hand came to rest on the man’s shoulder.

“Hey, bud, she said no.”

~~~

TheBetterCanary: @/BrucieWayne give me a hundred million dollars and ill stop doing crime

BrucieWayne: Done.

TheBetterCanary: i take it back five hundred million

BrucieWayne: Sure.

TheBetterCanary: a billion

BrucieWayne: Alright.

TheBetterCanary: what the fuck

~~~~~

Next

Perma taglist: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Canary taglist: @jayjayspixiepop @unoriginalmess @miraculousfanfic127 @probably-a-hologram

[thotsforvillainrights]

I never done a match up before so here I go:

I'm a 5'1" white nonbinary person who has medium/long dark brown hair, bangs, & grayish blue eyes.

I like drawing, video games, & anime/manga along with plushies & figures which bring me a lot of comfort.

I tend to be moody more on the sad side but since I'm nervous about talking about how I feel I tend to keep it to myself the best I can..

(Sure thing, I got you!!!)

Match-Up #3

-I match you with Stain!-

headcanon|scenario|imagine|match-up

-It’s rare he would’ve ever sought you out of his own free will. In fact, he would never seek love with anyone to begin with considering that it wasn’t his thing. However, the universe has a funny way of dumping your soulmate out in front of you. This is especially true when you find the person you’re going to be with bleeding out in an alleyway behind your apartment. Everything in you was screaming to run away or to call the police but you ultimately decided against it. You knew he was the hero killer from the descriptions and you knew based on your stature/size that he would have no issues with killing you either. But you took him inside and ignored the nagging voice in your head that told you to run. You patched him up and he cursed at you. About 10 minutes afterwards, you opened up to him and he silently thanked you for helping. Then 10 more minutes later he cursed at you again AND nagged you about taking him in and helping him. It was a weird experience to say the least. Then he was gone.

-That night you had a silent battle with yourself about your morals. Sure hero society could have its flaws, but did you really have any right to help him and send him back out onto the streets to kill more people that were ultimately innocent? You didn’t have time to think it over because the very next morning he was back in your apartment again. This time it was to show you how easy it was for someone to break into your place and to attack you. He blabbered on about how there was no use in you waiting on heroes to save you if there was no money involved, and how (once again) stupid you were for helping him. It almost felt like he just needed someone to fuss at. You’re not really sure when down the line you’d fallen for each other but you did. 

-He was gruff and rough around the edges, a real strong silent type but you didn’t mind. In fact, the two of you rather enjoyed silence together most of the time. Your evenings consisted of you drawing with soft music playing in the background while he sharpened his dull blades. Other times he agreed to sit with you through binging one of your favorite anime (which he really didn’t enjoy but did it anyway for you). You two could sometimes be night and day sometimes when it came to interests. While you collected various plushies and whatnot, he collected different blades. He listened day and night to the police scanner he had and you played video games. He sometimes took part in enjoying an old cowboy movie or two, maybe something with action in it. I hope you don’t mind watching those things with him.

-Although he wasn’t a romantic, he still took time to silently admire the different things about you. He respected what you wanted to be addressed as, and threatened anyone that didn’t. He always kept eye contact when speaking to you not just out of respect but also because he found the color of your eyes to be alluring. Occasionally you’d catch him running a finger through your hair when he thought you were fast asleep. He’s lovey-dovey...you just have to catch it!

-One of the things you like most about him is that he didn’t push you. He knew you could be moody and that you didn’t prefer talking about your feelings as much as the next person. He silently supported you, keeping a hand on your head and patting it. He knows you know that you can open up whenever you want around him with no rush needed. Even if you kept it down forever, he’d never push you out of it. He also wanted you to know that he was there for you when you needed him no matter what. You two tend to mesh very well together.

[limit-list]

CONCEPT!!! zukos a librarian at a community library, does story time for the kiddos, sokka’s friend toph works at the same library, and he likes to listen in on the children’s story time and draw the cute guy who makes funny voices and acts out the best parts of the stories. zuko catches him staring and gets flustered, demands to see what he’s been drawing, sokka is embarrassed and self-conscious of his artwork and doesn’t let him.

zuko misinterprets his ramblings and thinks he’s making fun of his scar and verbally eviscerates sokka. sokka is absolutely embarrassed and crushed and just doesn’t know what to do to make it right!! so he finds him after his shift and apologizes profusely and is like wtf can i do to make up for this and zukos all like “actions speak louder than words”.

so now zuko’s got sokka following him around like a duckling when their class and work schedules align, sketching him when zuko decides to let him, stocking the shelves, sorting books, helping pick out books for story time, getting to know him a lot better.

*cue the montage of adorable scenes of these absolute goofballs, at first super awkward-turtleduck, sokka slowly getting zuko to relax and have fun around him, sokka getting jealous about zuko’s coworker jin, zuko unknowingly getting jealous cause he thinks sokka likes yue due to toph’s teasing, sokka bringing zuko coffee and then tea when he hears stories about uncle iroh, the boss (who is definitely the cabbage merchant) getting mad at sokka for hanging around for no reason, zuko and sokka hiding in the shelves and shushing each other pointlessly cause neither can stop giggling and it’s obvious where they are (toph is just distracting the boss, and man sokka, you owe her for protecting your flirting time) and zuko realizes crap i really like him and goes back to being awkward, except this time sokka just doesn’t let him, he keeps them together as friends even tho sokka is so freakin interested!!! he’s used to zukos weirdness and doesn’t expect anything more than friendship, really toph, there’s no way zuko likes him and he’s fine with that. totally fine. and every so often sokka’s other friends drop by and chat for a bit and zuko just keeps falling harder for him but doesn’t wanna risk everything cause now he’s not just friends with sokka, he likes all of his friends too, so he just pines from afar*

they get to be friends, duh, and then finally zuko gets to work one morning that sokka said he would be at and can’t find sokka anywhere, and he’s like ??? but decides to let it be (cause no one he ever wants to stay does besides his books and his uncle)

(he’s very clearly freaking out and trying not to, but toph just smirks when he asks where sokka is and says “around” so he’s assuming things are fine. things are f i n e, stupid brain)

however, when he goes to sort the books from the drop off bin there’s a quick lil sketch done of sokka holding up books with ridiculous titles and zuko laughing his ass off from last week. zukos in like shock at first cause he really thought sokka was never gonna let him see his art!! so he’s in shock, and he texts sokka a picture with ?????? but gets no reply.

zuko leaves it cause he’s still got a job to do, sorts all the books, goes to put them on the cart and taped to the side of the cart is a detail sketch of a hand on books, a hand with long fingers and perfect nails and a scar across two knuckles and wtf that’s zukos hand?? and so zuko tries to call sokka and there’s no response, so he’s like well okay. (he’s not overthinking this, he’s not getting his hopes up, he’s n o t)

zuko goes about doing his thing, reshelves, and then in the war book section he finds a little cartoon-style sketch of he and sokka when they re-enacted a battle on the tables and chairs of the big reading area and at this point zuko just takes a picture and sends it off with “okay but i clearly won the battle”, keeps moving.

today’s not his day to read to the kids, so he moves on to check out duty, where he finds a little doodle of sokka holding the scanner up to zuko’s face, captioned “yes, i’m checking you out.” zuko does his picture thing and says “hilarious.” (but internally he’s freaking out and doesn’t know if sokkas being serious or making fun of him and he doesn’t know what to do with this and no he is NOT freaking out he’s just mildly concerned)

zuko says hi to all the kids as they’re coming in for story time as they’re passing by. and then toph is like “oh shit, i think yue forgot to grab the books for today, can you bring them to her?” and zuko is like yeah sure, grabs the stack of books off the spot for children’s time and heads over to the kids area.

where he’s stopped short when he sees sokka telling a story to the kids. and he’s like wtf is this what’s going on?? but sokka sees him and just grins and is like ah yes children!!! here is the prince, come to save the peasant boy!!! and all the children cheer!!! sokka winks at zuko takes the books, goes back to the front of the room, and is like “okay kids ready for the actual stories?” but then a kid pipes up and is like “hey!! i thought you said the prince was in love with the peasant boy!!” and sokka just blushes really hard is like “no! i didn’t say that!” but another kid is like “fairy tales end with a kiss!!! mr. zuko has to kiss you!!!”

and sokkas just like total blush face, gaped mouth, then snaps his mouth shut and hisses “kids this isn’t the plan!!”, his eyes are going from the kids to zuko to the kids like he’s not sure who to be worried about more, but zuko’s been hit by his clue-by-four and is like ahhh i see, and kisses sokka on the cheek for the kids sake, then whispers something like “after my shift, can a prince get the real reward for saving you?” and sokkas just gaping before nodding frantically.

and so zukos laughing, says bye to all the kids, and goes back to check out duty. (and he’s still not freaking out, cause this time he’s got hope and confusion and he really can’t wait to see sokka again and figure this out).

story time ends, the kids all head out, last kid is overheard telling his mom about how he wants to be a prince so he can kiss the peasant boy while the mom is just like sure honey, sokka wanders up to zukos check out station like... hi? and zuko just completely straight face, looks him up and down, and then clicks his scanner in his face. and sokka just sputters “hey that’s MY joke!!!” and zuko rolls his eyes and pulls him down and kisses him over the counter, and in the distance toph yells “SUCCESS” while she and yue are holding the boss back from interfering.

(and later, zuko stops abruptly and is like “what did you mean when you told this kids this wasn’t the plan?” and sokka blushes again and mumbles “i might’ve had a plan to convince you i like you through book selection” and zuko is quiet and then he’s just laughing so hard, and he’s like “thank GOD the kids came up with a better plan, i’m entirely too oblivious for that buddy”)

(toph and yue bribed the kids with lollipops to force zuko and sokka together. the pining was exhausting to watch/listen to.)

[tsarisfanfiction]

Stabbed

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort Characters: Scott, Virgil, Gordon

Proofreading?  What’s proofreading?  This was a ventfic I started a while ago, and as my muse decided today - my one free day to properly write this week! - was the best day to go curl up in a corner and refuse to interact with me because some unwelcome stress appeared, I prodded a little more at this and maybe there’s enough to post.  Maybe.  It’s not a darkfic, but it is kinda whumpy so sorry, Scott.

I have nothing specifically planned for this, so chances are this is just going to remain like this forever more.  Sorry about that.

Scott gasped, staggering one step, two steps forward as something drove into his back.  Something solid, digging in painfully.

In front of him, crumbling away beneath the toes of his boots, was the crevasse he’d just climbed out of, the woman clinging to his back for dear life – uninjured, but shaken and unable to climb out herself.

Whatever it was was still lodged in his back, sending distress signals to his brain, but before Scott could unscramble it enough for a translation, there was a hand on his shoulder.  Steady but firm, heel of the palm dropped down over his shoulder blade.

“Sorry, hun,” the woman purred – was it the same women?  She’d been shaken but this woman wasn’t shaken at all – sounding entirely unapologetic.  “I appreciate the help, but I can’t have you blabbing.”

The pressure on – in – his back lessened abruptly, and the hand on his shoulder pushed.

Scott stumbled, earth gave way, and then he was falling, falling down into the darkness.  Instinct had him reaching for his grapple, but his back screamed at the movement and against his wishes his hands went numb, grazing the equipment but failing to grasp it.

Something went crunch inside his chest as his fall came to an abrupt end.  A rib or few, no doubt, but Scott had broken ribs before; a nuisance but as long as they didn’t poke holes anywhere they shouldn’t they’d be fine.  He was more concerned about his back, and the fact that he hadn’t landed at the bottom, but rather an outcropping of rock that wasn’t big enough for all of him. Already, he could feel blood rushing to his head as it dangled off the end, and the tingly feeling in his fingers that meant the blood flow to his extremities was compromised by the way they, too, were hanging.

Squinting, he could see his legs dangling as well, leaving his torso and abdomen the only thing actually caught by the outcrop.  If he shifted, his centre of balance would tip him off either forwards or backwards, and it was a long way down.

This was a problem. This was a big problem, and his screaming back just emphasised that.  His baldric was trapped between his chest and the outcrop, meaning that he couldn’t reach the comm in that, and his wrist comm…

He tried to twitch his tingling fingers without moving the rest of his arms.  It was not a successful move.  A second attempt was no better, and on his third he felt himself start to slip.

That was a major hint that he should stop moving.  Breathing didn’t help, either, his no doubt broken ribs sending stabs of pain through his chest to compliment the burning back.  He still didn’t know for certain what had happened, but he was starting to get a reluctant inkling.

There were only so many things that hurt specifically like this and Scott was unfortunately no stranger to things stabbing into him, as much as he tried hard not to think about it. He redirected his concern to the fact that whatever it was, it didn’t feel like it was there any more.

Suddenly the weird and uncomfortable position he was dangling in felt like a best case scenario, even if he could do without all the blood also rushing to his head.  But if it was pooling downwards, and the open wound was on the highest point of his body, maybe he wouldn’t bleed out quite so quickly.

He just had to hope one of his brothers realised something was wrong soon – but not so soon they also got attacked.

***

John telling him Scott had gone silent and wasn’t responding to hails had rushed Virgil into the fastest post-rescue clean up he’d ever done.  They weren’t far apart in distance – Scott had made the hop from this rescue to the trapped climber when the call had come in – but if John was worried, then Virgil was definitely worried.

Scott not picking up calls was unusual, especially multiple.  John had given them all enough earfuls about ignoring him that unless they had a really good reason, they always tried to respond immediately – the second eldest was not a brother to cross, and even Scott was wary enough of the consequences to at least agree to open comms.  Then again, open comms worked both ways and meant Scott could check up on them, too.

The added warning that it looked like his suit had taken some damage and he was partway down the crevasse and not moving was really just the icing on the cake.  Gordon had been slightly baleful at the snap to hurry up, until Virgil told him John thought Scott was in trouble, and then the aquanaut had jumped to work at a terrifyingly fast and efficient pace.

There was no room for slothfulness when a brother was in trouble.  Record time saw Thunderbird Two loaded and ready to go, and she roared into the sky at his touch, nose pointed in the direction her sister had headed earlier.

Thunderbird One had made the journey in five minutes.  Thunderbird Two made it in a shade under fifteen, going as fast as she could to minimise how long it took.  It was still twenty minutes since John had made the call, and Scott still wasn’t answering.  Scans and telemetry still put him down the crevasse, and Virgil didn’t bother to land.

Normally he’d keep control of Thunderbird Two and send Gordon down on the cable, but not this time. Not for Scott and the nagging sensation that he was needed.  Gordon didn’t argue when control was passed to him, and Virgil wasted no time in getting down to the module and rigging himself into a harness to be lowered.

It was a fair way down, not because Scott was far into the crevasse but because Thunderbird Two had to stay high so she didn’t dislodge anything with her VTOL.  They had no idea how secure or otherwise their brother’s position was, and if he fell from whatever was keeping him there, it was a very long way to the bottom.  A fatal fall.

Virgil couldn’t take any chances.

The familiar flash of blue uniform was the first thing he noticed.  The muddy crimson spreading across it was the second.

He accelerated his descent.

“Scott?”  His voice was drowned out by the VTOL of his ‘bird above. If Scott heard him, there was no reaction.  “Scott!”

Still nothing, and that red stain taunted him for the agonising seconds it took to draw level with the slumped form and properly get a look at his brother’s condition.

Bad was one way of putting it.  “John, find us a local hospital,” was another.

There was a ragged hole in the back of Scott’s uniform, the epicentre of the blood.  It barely missed the baldric, the margin looking painfully deliberate, but most concerning was the lack of an obvious case. Scott knew better than to take out foreign objects until it was time to be treated, and even if he’d mistakenly thought treatment was about to happen, there was no way he had reached whatever it was to extract it so cleanly.

Virgil felt cold at the implications.  “Gordon, anyone else nearby?”

He didn’t wait for the answer as he secured himself to the rock face with a grapple and yanked an emergency first aid kit out of his own baldric.  Scott hadn’t moved, hadn’t so much as twitched, at his arrival, and with the quantity of blood he’d lost, if he wasn’t unconscious he might as well be.

“Negative, Virgil,” Gordon said, voice steady and threaded with something that sounded like the military had come to the fore.  “How bad is it?”

“Bad.”  Virgil didn’t have the mental capacity to spare on anything more than basic answers.  “I’m secure; put her on autopilot and get a blood transfusion set up in the medbay.”

“F.A.B.”  The line connecting him to his ‘bird wavered slightly at the change in piloting, but the grapple held him in place.  Confident that Thunderbird Two would be ready for them, he wadded gauze and pressed it firmly to the hole in Scott’s back.  There was no response, no indication that Scott was even subconsciously aware of their surroundings, and he strapped it down with medical tape.

A deployed med scanner told him that there were two broken ribs.  Neither had snagged anything vital, but one was too close to Scott’s right lung for Virgil’s comfort.  There was very little he could do about that hanging inside a crevasse, and the priority was to get him to medical treatment as fast as possible.

It was awkward, but Virgil was creative, and securing a harness over his limp ragdoll of a big brother to tie him firmly to the cable suspended from Thunderbird Two was not an option but a necessity.  The gauze was already starting to discolour as the blood kept leaking out of the wound, and Virgil kept a careful eye on it as he triple-checked the line was secure and eased Scott off of the outcrop he was slung over.

The fact that his face was red wasn’t a reassurance; instead, it told him that Scott had been hanging down for long enough for the blood still in his body to pool in places it shouldn’t.  There wasn’t much he could do about it without risking further blood flow out of his body, but as the harness took Scott’s weight and left him suspended next to him, Virgil reached out a hand and carefully tilted his head so it wasn’t hanging down.

Blue eyes stayed lightly closed, no sign of conscious or subconscious recognition at the touch, and Virgil’s fingers trembled.  With his other hand he gripped the belt of Scott’s baldric, before sending up a call for them to be reeled in.  Whether it was John, Gordon or EOS that did so he didn’t know.  Didn’t care, either, because as the red drained from Scott’s face as blood retreated from pooling in his head it left too-white skin in its wake, which was almost worse.

Gordon’s language was colourful as he met them in the module, instantly fetching the hoverstretcher so that Scott could be gently lowered onto it as Virgil freed him from the harness and whisking him to the medbay as he extracted himself from his own straps.

It didn’t take long, but it was long enough for Gordon to have slipped Scott’s glove and bracer off of one arm and sliced the uniform open from wrist to shoulder, exposing the bare skin ready for the transfusion.  No words were exchanged as Virgil took over, Gordon instead relocating to cut away the baldric and the uniform around the hole in his back, exposing the site in its entirely.

Beneath his feet, Thunderbird Two thrummed as Thunderbird Five directed her into movement.  Virgil didn’t look away from his unconscious big brother for a single moment.

“This was a knife.” Gordon broke the silence, his voice icy. Virgil finished hooking Scott up to the blood bag and let it start flowing before looking over.

The aquanaut had removed the hastily plastered gauze, now saturated red, and was wiping away the worst of the blood from around the wound.  It wasn’t free-flowing, but that didn’t reassure Virgil.  After at least twenty minutes, Scott didn’t have much blood left he could afford to lose.  With most of it currently pooled where he was lying on his front, there wasn’t much to continue leaking from his back.

Virgil didn’t question his diagnosis.  When it came to things like that, Gordon knew more than he did.  Instead, he reached for a clotting agent, determined to do everything in his power to lessen the amount of blood still trickling out, while Gordon applied a fresh gauze.

“Mind his ribs,” he warned as his younger brother pressed down firmly.  “Two are broken.”

“Lungs?”

“Intact.”  For now.  Virgil hoped they could keep them that way.

There was little else he could do; a stab wound that deep needed surgery, and Thunderbird Two wasn’t an operating theatre.  Virgil wasn’t a surgeon, either.  “How far out are we, John?”

“Ten minutes,” his brother replied instantly.  “I’ve passed on the results of the scan and they’re ready to take him straight in.”

“F.A.B.”

He didn’t want to let his brother out of his sight – not ever, and certainly not if he’d been stabbed – but Scott needed more treatment than he could give him.  That didn’t make it easier to hand him over, blood bag still attached and a second prepped as the first ran low – and watch unfamiliar people whisk him away.

“Kayo’s on her way,” John told him.  “Thunderbird One is locked down and secure.  EOS is reviewing the security footage now to see what happened.”

“Some sonofagun stabbed him in the back’s what happened,” Gordon snapped.  His fingers were curling and uncurling, never quite making a fist. They were also covered in blood. So were Virgil’s.

“To see who did it,” John clarified, not reacting to Gordon’s waspishness.  “Until we know what we’re dealing with, stay together. And be careful.”

Virgil nodded, his voice somewhere stuck inside his throat, or maybe taken with Scott into the operating theatre.  He should be trying to reassure Gordon, but Gordon had slipped into something less familiar, more sharp edges and dangerous, and Virgil trusted him to handle whatever was going on around them while he ran through everything in his head, double-checking that he’d done everything right, that he hadn’t missed anything in his initial treatment, that there was no mistake he'd made that might cost Scott’s life.

There was a hand on his arm. Amber eyes looked up at him, firm and steely.  “Let’s get washed up,” Gordon said, although it wasn’t a suggestion.  Dimly, Virgil knew it should be the other way around – he should be the one making the decisions – but Gordon oozed confidence and a knowledge that he’d be obeyed, and it felt safer just to follow.  “Then we’ll go inside and wait for news.”

Wait to know if Scott would live.  The words weren’t said, but Virgil heard them all the same.

He nodded numbly and let his younger brother guide him back inside his ‘bird.

[clouditae]

First Love | 05

Yoongi x reader | 18+ | college au | tattoo artist au | angst | fluff | swearing | fear of someone

Word: 2.1k

You first saw him in the multi-purpose room. Later learn his name, and on your third year, as he becomes your neighbor, you discover his lifestyle. Knowing your crush on him was nothing but that, you wanted to find the courage to look for love. Asking your friend for help, you’re pointed in the direction of the expert. Your neighbor, Min Yoongi

Chapter Index

You sit in silence, hands rubbing together as the loud chatter rings all around. You’re trying to calm your nerves, but you can’t keep calm. You don’t want to be here. You just want to go back to your dorm and lie in bed for the rest of your life. 

“Y/N?” a voice calls. You stand to your feet as an officer on the other side of the hall opens the door further. “You ready?” When you give a short nod, he says, “All right, follow me.” However, when you are hesitant to follow, he smiles reassuringly and in understanding. 

The chair creaks behind you. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be out here waiting for you,” Yoongi tells you, placing his hand on top of your head as he lightly pushes you towards the officer. 

Entering the small room, the officer closes the door behind him. “Now, Y/N, we believe we have found the suspect, but it’s always best to have the witness confirm. In a second, through this window”—the officer points at the large window that shows nothing but a wall with lines and numbers showing someone’s height—“six people are going to go in, and we are going to need you to identify which person is Mr. Walter. Just state the number you believe is Mr. Walter.” 

You nod in response, hearing a small, “send them in”, and a door opens from inside the room on the other side of the window. Six men walk in, all of similar height, build and complexion line up against the wall. When they turn to face you, your eyes immediately find Leo. He looks mad, even worse than yesterday. You don’t want to be here. You want to leave. 

“Y/N,” the officer begins, standing next to you, “Mr. Walter can’t see you, and when we throw him in jail, he’s going back home to spend time there since he violated the restraining order.” He smiles at you, making you feel a bit more at ease. 

“Number three,” you tell him, voice a bit shaky. 

Everything after that is a blur. The suspects disappear behind the door they came through, the officer is talking you through the following steps, you do some other things you don't remember, and you’re finally leaving the station. 

You stand outside the police station, taking in the biggest gasp of air and wiping away a few tears that fall. You’re done. You’re not going to see him again. That's what you want to believe. That's what you are hoping for. To never see the anger he had in his eyes, never to feel the fear you felt that night. 

There is a tap on the side of your head. Looking up, you see Yoongi standing next to you, eyes looking ahead. “Let's go,” he tells you, walking ahead towards the parking lot. 

You follow, feeling mentally exhausted as you get into the passenger seat. 

Turning the key, his car comes to life. Resting your head against the window, Yoongi puts the car in reverse and drives out of the police station parking lot. The two of you ride in silence, going down the familiar streets that lead towards the dorms where you can collapse into bed and sleep the day away. You might not even go to school tomorrow. As you get closer to the dormitory, Yoongi doesn’t stop. He continues down the street. 

You turn your head to look at him in confusion, but he keeps his eyes on the road and makes no side glance at you. “I’m hungry,” is all he says. After a few minutes of driving, he pulls into the parking lot of a small café. Finding a parking spot, and turning off the car, you follow Yoongi out of the vehicle and into the pastel blue building. 

When you enter, you are met with the instant smell of coffee and pancakes. The smell is so overwhelming it makes your stomach rumble, letting you know just how hungry you are. Inside the café is quite quant. Booths run along one side of the wall, chairs lining around the counter in the center. A few servers walk around, handing plates, picking them up and taking orders. 

You follow Yoongi as he takes a seat in an empty booth. You sit across from him as a waiter comes up and greets you. 

“Good morning,” he begins, pulling out a notepad and pen, “what would you like to drink?”

“Coffee,” Yoongi says, grabbing the menu from behind the ketchup bottle at the end of the table. 

The waiter jots it down, eyes meeting yours as he finishes writing. “Orange juice please,” you tell him, giving a small, exhausted smile. 

He nods, writing your order down before saying, “Will this be a separate check or together?”

You open your mouth to answer, but Yoongi beats you to it, “Together.” 

That catches you off guard, and it’s clearly evident on your face as you can hear the waiter clear his throat and tell Yoongi, “okay” before walking away. 

“Don’t argue,” he tells you, not even glancing up at you as he browses through the menu. 

You want to argue. Tell him that you can pay for yourself, but you don’t want to cause a scene, so you decide to not argue with him and to pay him back once you’re given the opportunity. You grab the menu, quickly looking through it for something that catches your eye the most. You take a mental note to pay Yoongi back. You hope you can remember to write it down when you get back to your dorm. Whether it be cash or paying him back by food, you will pay him back nevertheless. 

The two of you are back to sitting in silence after the waiter took your order. However, there’s a nagging feeling within you saying you need to thank him for yesterday and today. The voice is telling you how to thank him—creating the scenario in your head before anything could be forced past your lips. 

Finally, the words are coming out, “I want to thank you.” You watch him as he looks up from his phone, eyes meeting yours and immediately your heart is racing. “For helping me yesterday with Leo, for calling the police on him”—you suck in a deep breath—“and for being there for me today.” You look down at your lap, unable to meet his gaze any longer. “I know that you’re only supposed to help me find a boyfriend, but I really appreciate you helping me with this too.” You’re really fighting back the tears. “I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there to stop him.” 

“Well,” he begins, your attention going up to him as he leans back in his seat, “you can pay me back by getting yourself a boyfriend. I don’t want any other ways of paying me back.” 

You aren’t really sure as to how you should take that statement, but you say nothing and nod as the waiter comes up to your table with your breakfast. For the remaining hour or so, you and Yoongi say nothing. You don’t know what to talk about, and it’s strange that he hasn’t said anything at all. It’s strange even though the two of you haven’t known each other that long. You’re used to him nagging about something you did.

By the time the two of you are done, you’re trying to calm yourself. No matter what you say to yourself, no matter what you imagine, you can’t keep your heart rate at an even pace. Some time in the middle of eating your pancake, you begin to think of this as being a date. You imagine this being your first date as a couple. Him surprising you by knocking at your door and telling you to get dressed, him leading you towards his car with no hint as to where you’re going. He takes you here first, the two of you eat in a comfortable silence, and then when you’re done, he leads you back to the car. From there, everything would be an adventure. An adventure of fun and romance. 

And you’re having such a hard time keeping yourself together. You can’t look him in the eyes, you can’t utter a word without stuttering like an idiot. So, you keep to yourself until Yoongi pulls up to the dorms, finds a parking spot, and the two of you are out of his car. You want to make a run for your room, but that would be weird and embarrassing for you, so you walk ahead of him, remembering how the two of you aren’t supposed to be seen together. 

Thankfully no one is really up yet, but the front desk’s window is now open as you walk up to the door to your dorm building. Then you remember you don’t have your ID with you to open the door, and so you stand staring inside the building like an even bigger idiot than you were ten minutes ago. You’re about to press the button to call the desk when Yoongi appears next to you, his ID in his hand. He says nothing as you move to the side while he presses his ID to the scanner, hearing a beep and opening the door. You follow in giving a quiet ‘thank you’ before quickly making your way towards the desk. The woman behind the desk smiles at you as you walk up to her. 

“Can I help you?” she questions, pressing the power button to the computer. 

“I got locked out of my dorm room last night,” you tell her. 

“Okay. Can I see your ID?” She holds out her hand for you to give her the ID.

“That’s another problem. My ID is in my room too.”

She slowly nods. “Do you have any ID?” You shake your head and her expression changes. She looks at you like you’re trying to break into someone’s room. “I can’t let you in without any identification to prove you live here.”

You felt your heart drop. “Please,” you whisper. “I can tell you everything about myself. My address, my social security, my date of birth—I’ve had a long night and all I want to do is go to my room and sleep.” Your vision was getting blurry and you know you’re on the verge of crying. Something you did not want to do in front of this stranger. 

She stares at you for a moment, as if she’s contemplating on what to do. Finally, as you wipe your eyes, she says, “Let me see what I can do.” You nod in appreciation, watching her type away at her computer. After a few seconds, she confirms that you live in the dorms. She never tells you how she confirmed this as she opens your door for you. “Try your best to have something next time, okay?”

“I will. Thank you so much.” She only gives you a curt nod in reply as she walks back down the hall towards the staircase. You close the door, feeling relieved that you’re finally alone. Pressing your forehead against the door, you let out a small whimper. 

You’ve felt exhausted before. You’ve felt drained before, but this time… 

This time you feel drained in more ways than one. Mentally. Physically. You want to cry, scream and sleep the entire day away. You just want this weekend to be over and for Monday to come so you can distract yourself and forget all about what happened. As you push yourself off the door, you can see yourself in the reflection from your peripheral. You can’t help but look in the mirror. You forgot you were in your pajamas, wearing Yoongi’s sneakers, and eyes red and puffy from your crying yesterday. You look like a mess. 

You sigh, take off Yoongi’s sneakers and climb into bed—you’ll have to give them back the next time you see him. Pulling the blanket over your body, you burry your head in your pillow and cry yourself to sleep. Just like you did yesterday. 

He was sent to jail. There is nothing to be afraid of. He’s going to jail in his hometown. He’ll be far away from you. There is nothing to be afraid of. 

The sound of the door opening catches your attention. When it closes, followed by the loud bang it usually gives, your bed shakes and the bang sounds like it’s coming from next door. Is Yoongi barely entering his room? Where was he when he entered the building with you?

You like to imagine he was watching over you while you talked with the lady at the front desk, making sure you got to your room. It put you at ease just a bit.

[dcforts]

[lebanon]

ao3

Sometimes, when he is at the bunker and things are quiet, Castiel goes out and ventures in town.

Some days he just feels like stretching his legs, so he takes off before dawn. It’s a long walk to the town center and back in time to see everyone get up for the day, but he likes the solid asphalt of the road under his shoes, the smell of the trees all around, the chirping of the birds nestled on their branches. He likes the clear air of the morning, the cold first light of the day. He enjoys how the landscape is both empty and full, quiet and rich.

It’s always too early to interact to anyone; the town is still sleeping and whoever is already around is too groggy or too busy to give you anything more than a curt nod. Cas appreciates that. Although at this point he feels pretty comfortable on Earth, there are times when he still feels like a fish out of water, so he relishes these morning walks that don’t require too much effort.

On one of those mornings, Dean wakes up while he is still out, and Cas’ phone rings in his pocket as he walks. On the other end Dean gruffly says, Where are you? and Cas looks around and reads out loud the first sign he sees. He says, Gallery Bistrò and Dean says, And where is that? and Cas says Lebanon, Kansas and Dean says Oh and, after a moment, I thought you’d taken off. Cas smiles, looking at the freshly baked croissant displayed in the windows of the bistrò and says I’m on my way and Would you like a croissant?

Some days, when he has errands to run, Cas takes his pick-up.

He always passes by the front windows of the post office and when the place is empty and she is not busy, Marta catches his eyes through the blinds and waves at him to come inside. He doesn’t mind spending a few minutes chatting with her. She is kind and nods understandingly and never makes him feel like he’s speaking in tongues. She always asks after Dean at some point, she says How’s Dean? and He should come by more often, will you tell him that? and Cas always says He’s fine and Of course, he’s very busy with work but he’d love to come by. He likes the way she lights up at that and how -  later, when he tells him - Dean snorts and brags about his charm.

But some other times when she talks about Dean she says He is such a gentleman and What a nice person and Cas nods and says He is and He is the best man I know and her face melts into a soft smile, she pats his hand and says I know, darling. Cas doesn’t know what she knows but he doesn’t ask. He doesn’t even tell Dean because he doesn’t know how to explain it. She shows him pictures of her grandson and he buys stamps with sea animals to give Jack as a present.

Then he stops at the liquor store. Jackson will have ready for him two or three cases of the usual beer. From the moment he sees him at the door he talks and talks about how happy he is that the Campbell brothers moved to town, because They know their stuff, he can tell, and he never had anyone like Dean with whom he could talk about booze for hours.

He motions to follow him out back and always insists on helping him carry the cases to his pick-up even if Cas says Thank you and There’s no need cause he can handle it of course, but Jackson is already grabbing one and cutting him off saying Believe me, give it a few years and you’ll feel it and You gotta be careful with your back so Cas lets him help and accepts the spare bottle of whatever new thing he has for Sam and Dean to try and promises him to tell the Campbells that they’re always welcome there.

When they are missing something from the bunker he stops at the mini mart. Fortunately, the young man he was rude to that one time doesn’t work there anymore. Stacy always greets him with a friendly Hello, unless it’s very early in the morning and she still has sleep fogging her eyes or late in the afternoon and she looks bored with her schoolbooks open on her lap.

The first few times, when he approaches her, she avoids his gaze, in a way that suggests that they both know the same secret, and it’s a truth that doesn’t exactly scare her but she would rather not know. Those first few times when he puts the basket on the counter, she says Everything alright? a little unsure, like she is asking about the shopping but also like she is worried that he is going to start talking about monsters. Cas says Yes and nothing else so as not to scare her.

One quiet afternoon though, she is clumsily trying to figure out how the brand new object scanner works and Cas sees her growing frustrated. She says I hate this thing under her breath. He extends one hand and says I can show you and, proudly, I’ve worked in a Gas n’ Sip. She doesn’t seem impressed by that, but lets him try and Cas teaches her. Now when she says Everything alright? she smiles and Cas says Yes and Thank you, Stacy.

If Max is perched on the counter next to her, flipping through a magazine, Stacy is even more relaxed. They exchange looks behind Cas’ back and Max watches him from under her eyelashes the whole time he wanders around in the shop. One time she sees him looking at the candy bars display for a long time and she heads over, points at one kind of chocolate bar and says Trust me. He buys three. He forgets them in the pocket of his coat and Dean eats them all one morning when they head out before he can have breakfast. After the first bite he turns towards Cas with his eyes wide and asks Where did you get these? And Cas says A friend recommended them.

As he drives by the small movie theater he makes sure to memorize the movies they are showing that week in case they decide to have a movie night out. One time they are giving an old movie whose title sounds familiar, so he stops the pick-up, fishes out his phone and sends Dean a picture of the posters, to which Dean texts back We’re going. Only, some case turns up later than night and they are gone all week and miss it.

When he comes back, Dean snoops in the bags he brings in, makes sure he got everything from Jackson, hears about his chats with Marta. Sometimes he jokes You’re gonna steal her from me, to which Cas responds earnestly, I don’t mean to, and Dean laughs and it echoes on the kitchen walls. And then Cas stops by Jack’s room and knocks lightly on the wooden door, usually ajar. As soon as Jack sees him slipping a hand in his coat’s pocket his face brightens. He stretches a hand out and Cas rests the stamp on his palm. It’s usually a little crumpled but Jack always smiles and says A sea lion! or A whale! or A shark! or A sea horse! and That’s so cool and Thank you Cas, like he just handed him a star. And Cas lingers a few moments by the door just to watch him place it in his little wooden box, together with the rest of his small collection.

Sometimes before going back to the bunker he visits the pizza place, where Max’s mum, Caitlin, works. He opens up Sam’s latest text message and lists off their order. During the weekend, a table far back in a corner is usually crowded with young familiar faces. He stands at the entrance waiting for his order to be ready, looking down at the checkered floor and twisting the receipt in his hands and he feels their eyes on him.

One time Eliot ventures to the counter to get a refill for his drink. He makes a poor attempt at covering the fact that he is watching him and Cas pretends not to notice to spare him the embarrassment, but Eliot surprises him, turns around and bravely asks You are Jack’s father right? Cas hesitates, then says, I am and Eliot smiles and nods enthusiastically, I figured, you look exactly the same. Cas is pleased to hear that. Eliot starts talking non-stop, about things he read and things he knows and asking about Jack without even giving him time to answer and Cas is only saved by Caitlin who hands him his pile of pizza boxes. Eliot follows him to the door and keeps it open for him and says Tell him to text me, okay? So we can hang out sometimes.

On the nights he gets pizza, he takes the boxes to the pick-up, places on the passenger seat and drives carefully back to the bunker. He parks, kills the engine, exits, gets to the passenger seat, takes out the pizza boxes and makes his way to the map room. Dean is usually there already, waiting, with an uncorked beer in one hand. He greets him widening his arms and saying Finally and Thank god I was starving before shouting for Sam to join them. Jack doesn’t need to be called, he comes stumbling immediately after Cas, drawn by the smell of food that fills the hallways.

Dean is on his second slice by the time Sam walks in and complains that Dean didn’t wait for him. Sometimes he comes in with a news or wants to talk about his latest research. And Dean rolls his eyes and points at the pizza, and with his mouth full says, Dude, pizza first, work later and Cas sits by Jack’s side and watches them and feels happy.

  +

 One time Dean drives to meet him in town and they sit at the pizza place and Caitlin stops by the table to get their orders and says It’s nice to have you here for once and Max and Stacy wave at them from the corner table and keep sneaking glances at them and whispering and Dean notices but doesn’t mention it, just fiddles with the menu longer than he usually does and keeps his elbows off the table where he’s sure he can’t touch Cas’.

He says, This is weird and Is this weird? and Cas says, It’s not each time until Dean relaxes and jokes and forgets about whatever was bothering him and when Caitlin comes by asking if they have room for dessert he cheerfully says, We’ll take two slices of pie for the road and nudges Cas with his elbow, now very much in contact with his.

Dean walks beside him down the empty streets, swinging the bag with the pies with one hand and touching the back of Cas’ hand with the other, once, twice. Then he grabs it. He says This is weird and Is this weird? and Cas says It’s not each time and Dean squeezes his hand. He says, Who could’ve known? and Cas says Marta knew and Dean laughs and says Yeah, you’re probably right.

They get to the cars and Dean follows him to his pick-up and Cas lets him push him against it and press his body against his. Cas slips his hands under Dean’s jacket to rest them on his hips, and kisses him slowly and the bag swings and drops from Dean’s fingers.

A long time passes before a distance sound startles them apart. Dean pulls back and says, We should get home. Cas watches him stumbling backwards, picking up his bag, smiling. He says Uh, right and I’ll see you at home and he waves awkwardly. Cas smiles and gets into his pick-up and as he drives right behind the Impala, the town, quiet and empty, rolls by outside his windows and he thinks, I like it here.

[corvus--rex]

So, to start off with, these are a little rough. Mostly cleaned up for spelling/grammar, but there are things that are more like placeholder notes in exposition form that would be written out if I went back to it.

This one's working title is Quantum Fracture, is "in universe" non-canon compliant, and is set both near the end of s.2 after ep.9, and a few years post s.8. It's also only semi-abandoned. I like it and want to keep going with it, but I've hit a wall and just can't do anything with it right now. It has (sort-of) time travel and "Galra genetics are weird" resulting in Klance kids. It does also switch between times, but those sections have punctuation separators.

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

“Lance, Pidge, keep watch on the area. Keith, Hunk, and I will go down to check it out,” Shiro said over the comms.

“Got it.”

“Copy that.”

Green and Blue split off from the V-formation, flying over the asteroid while Black, Red, and Yellow landed on its surface. Lance and Pidge kept a visual track on their friends while keeping their scanners active for anything in the area. Team Voltron had been on their way back to the Castle after liberating another planet from the Galra Empire when Pidge’s more finely-tuned scanners picked up on what looked like an abandoned Galra base embedded in an asteroid. Shiro made the call to check it out and let Allura and Coran know what was going on, keeping Lance and Pidge on watch. The Black Paladin took point, with Keith right behind him. Hunk brought up the rear, man-portable cannon ready for whatever might try to sneak up on them. The facility was powered down, a layer of dust on every surface.

“Looks like it really is abandoned,” Keith said, “I don’t think there’s anyone or anything left here.”

“Agreed, but I want to complete a sweep of the facility. Never know what might have been left behind,” Shiro replied.

They continued on, not making any real effort at stealth, but only made it about another 20 feet before a side door creaked and flew open, Keith finding himself blown out into space, despite Hunk’s effort to prevent it. Keith tried to use his jetpack to redirect himself and head back to the facility, but there was just enough gravity generated by the density of the asteroid field to pull him toward the nearest surface. He bounced off the next asteroid, damaging his jetpack in the process. It sent him away from the asteroid field and into open space.

This isn’t how this was supposed to go, Keith thought as he floated in the void, then realized just how much Lance was rubbing off on him. His back hit a second, smaller asteroid, and he bounced off into the nothingness. Come on, Red. Where are you?

He felt the shift in the vacuum an instant before the sensors in his armor picked it up. The short chirp announced the sensors’ findings, bringing it up on the HUD. The display’s minimal capabilities showed the slight variant, a faint ripple in the fabric of space.

“The fuck is that?” he asked the void of space.

He hadn’t expected an answer, and didn’t get one. What he did get was the familiar mental pressure of the red Lion, immediately followed by the equally familiar golden glow of the robotic cat’s eyes. Red swallowed the paladin’s free-floating body, and he rolled through the slowly pressurizing corridor before the artificial gravity activated. He had only just taken his seat in the cockpit when he heard Pidge shouting across the comms.

“Keith! Are you ok? There was a spatial-temporal fluctuation right next to you.”

“Yeah, I felt it, but I'm ok,” he answered, exhausted from the mission and subsequent launch into space.

Green came up alongside Red, guiding them back to the Castle, Blue right behind them. Once the three Paladins were back aboard the Castle of Lions, Pidge insisted that Keith go to the medical deck, just in case.

“Ok, fine, Pidge. But I'm fine. Really,” Keith protested while simultaneously giving in.

She didn’t trust him to really go, but she was also concerned with the anomaly she found, so didn’t question it when Lance volunteered to make sure Keith went.

“Keith, what were you thinking?” Lance asked when they were alone.

“I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t anything I did and Hunk and Shiro will figure it out. Pidge is more worried about the space-time ripple we encountered. But I'm fine. Really.”

Blue’s Paladin stopped in the middle of the empty corridor. “You scared me, cuervo. I saw you get ejected into empty space without Red or any of us nearby. Pidge said she was going after you, but still…it scared me.”

“I don’t think we should hide anymore. I think it’s time to let the team in on our secret.”

The pair had been dating secretly for a month at that point, intentionally keeping their relationship from the rest of the team. Keith didn’t think they would have been taken seriously to begin with, and Lance agreed. After a late-night talk, they both decided to give it time and let themselves settle into their budding relationship. But it was beginning to make them behave differently, especially on missions. They became focused on where the other was and it was causing mistakes. This last mistake could have been deadly, although Keith was right, he hadn’t done or not done anything that led to the deserted Galra base’s small side door opening and pulling the Red Paladin into the cold vacuum of space.

“Yeah, I think you might be right,” Lance admitted.

Keith took his boyfriend’s hand, linking their fingers together, and headed toward the medical deck. Coran met them there, no doubt having been called by Pidge. Keith was thoroughly checked over by way of the Castle’s scanners, and as far as they could tell, not a molecule was out of place. After finding out that Keith was at least partly Galra, Pidge and Hunk had thrown themselves into a reprograming project to the medical deck’s scanners, integrating human biological standards. They were surprised to find that the scanners were already programmed with Galra standards, and that was when Coran told the entire team about the original Paladins, Zarkon included.

Instead of the lounge or one of their bedrooms, Lance and Keith instead went to one of the Castle’s many observation balconies. Once they were alone, Keith let himself crumble, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and holding on as tightly as he could. Lance gently returned the physical connection, understanding that the events of the morning had affected him more than he would let on in front of anyone else. He waited until he could feel the tension drain and knew that Keith was just sneaking middle of the day snuggling.

“You better now?” Lance asked.

Keith sighed softly against Lance’s neck. “Yeah, I think so. We should probably go see what Pidge found before anyone wonders where we went.”

“I don’t wanna,” he protested, holding on tighter.

Keith laughed and pulled away. “Well, if we stop keeping all this a secret, we won’t have to worry about where and when anymore.”

“Ugh. I guess.” Lance’s tone was overdramatic as usual, but his blue eyes sparkled with excitement at the idea of being open about his relationship.

Stepping backward out the door, Keith led the way toward the Lions’ hangars and Pidge’s lab. Halfway down the second to last corridor, Keith tripped over the smooth floor. He caught himself mid-stumble and stopped completely.

“Keith?” Lance asked, “Mi cuervo, you ok?”

_~*~_~*~_~*~_

“Keith! What the fuck was that?” Lance called over the comm.

“Dunno, but my speeder’s sensors caught it. Heading back now,” Keith answered from inside his modified speeder.

Modified, that was, by Pidge, who had retrofitted all of the Lions’ speeders to be able to fly in space. They were still fairly short-range, not capable of straying far from the Lions. It meant that Keith was still in visual range of Red when the Lion’s sensors spiked with the anomaly’s fluctuation.

Lance was waiting at the door to the cockpit when Keith came in. The tail of the raised French braid that normally ran halfway down his back was draped over his shoulder. Lance had insisted on braiding his husband’s hair that morning. Keith had groaned and asked why, seeing as it was just a simple recon mission. “Because you’re pretty, the twins are at school, we have time, and I felt like it,” was the list of reasons Lance rattled off as he made Keith sit. He didn’t mind it, but they usually saved more complex braids for diplomatic missions, not “drive down the street for space readings” missions.

Keith had had his second puberty while in the Quantum Abyss with Krolia, and it ended up being a good thing she was there. Alone, he would have assumed that the abdominal cramping, chills, fever, nausea, and full-body pain meant that he was dying. Krolia, however, recognized the symptoms of the shift in her son’s body to that of a Carrier and becoming physically capable of conceiving and carrying a baby. She told him that his half-human status may well have rendered him infertile, but they didn’t have the resources to look into it at the time, and the middle of a war wasn’t the time to worry about it. So it surprised both Keith and Lance when he found himself pregnant not long after the war ended, and they welcomed their twins Andra and Ori five and a half months later after a normal Galra-length pregnancy. The twins birth records had their names down as Andromeda Artemis and Orion Fenris Kogane-McClain, names that were called with increasing frequency now that the twins were five.

Keith sat himself in the pilot’s seat, pulling up the sensor readings from both Red and the speeder. They looked the same to both himself and Lance, but Pidge would be able to make better sense of them. But something about the anomaly was bothering Keith. It took a good minute of staring at the readings to realize that it was similar to how spacetime behaved near the core of the Quantum Abyss. And something about thatbothered him even more.

“You ok, cuervo?” Lance asked, leaning against the edge of the display panel.

“Yeah,” Keith sighed, “Just something about that anomaly reminds me of the Quantum Abyss. We’ll get it to Pidge and figure it out.”

The trip back to the new Castle was short, Red bypassing the reconfigured IGF-Atlas and heading directly for his hangar on the original Castle of Lions. After the end of the Galra War and the brief, but intense, war with Honerva, the Voltron Coalition needed a permanent – and mobile – base. The Atlas reshaped itself, wrapping around the Castle like the defensive walls of an ancient castle around its keep. Its completed size rivaled that of Galra Central Command, now the seat of the newly-formed Galra Collective.

Team Voltron’s power couple – beating out Shiro’s marriage to Adam – crossed the distance to Green’s hangar, where Pidge still maintained her personal lab. They found her buried in her multi-screen setup, one screen dedicated to the call she was on with her long-distance Olkari girlfriend Malyn, the others covered in technical readouts, diagrams, and blueprints.

“We’re back,” Keith announced when they walked in.

“Oh good. Anything weird happen out there?” Pidge said, taking Keith’s comm.

“The anomaly is behaving like the core of the Quantum Abyss.”

Pidge shoved the device into her computer a little harder than she intended. Except for her ongoing call, she wiped everything off the other screens, replacing what was on them with the readouts from both Red and the speeder. Her amber eyes flicked from screen to screen, already analyzing.

“I’m really sorry, Malyn. I have to call you later.”

“Of course. Is everything all right?” Malyn asked, concern laced in her voice.

“I’m not sure yet. We found a spatial-temporal anomaly, but it’s behaving differently from anything similar I’ve seen. Maybe…there was one…nah, that was different…”

Malyn laughed, she always found her girlfriend’s analytical mind adorable. “I’ll let you get to that. We’ll talk later.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Malyn. We’ll talk again later, promise,” Pidge apologized again, but Malyn waved her off, still laughing, and cut the call.

“So, you'll let us know when you’ve found something?” Lance prompted.

“What? Yeah. Right. This is weirder than anything I've ever seen like this…”

Lance and Keith shared a look, knowing that Pidge was fully invested in the data and that she wouldn’t leave her computer unless she was physically removed. Deciding on the tactical retreat, they left her to it, heading back to their apartment on the Castle.

The Atlas hadn’t been the only thing to be reconfigured. The Castle of Lions had undergone its own renovations, the old single rooms turned into apartment-like suites. Shiro and Adam maintained Garrison positions onboard the Atlas, but retired to the Castle at the end of every day. Lance and Keith settled into their apartment after their two month long honeymoon. Hunk was splitting his time between the Castle and Balmera, sharing his space with Shay when they were there. Pidge mostly used hers as an excuse for more tech and a separate workspace, but Malyn stayed there with her when she could get time away from rebuilding Olkarion under Ryner’s guidance. Coran had decided to keep his old room the way it was, and Allura felt that her own rooms didn’t need the upgrade. The rest of the rooms stayed the same for the new Altean crew running the ship at a proper capacity.

It wasn’t until they got back that Keith realized Pidge still had his comm. “Well, shit. I’ll be back,” he said, heading for the door.

Lance decided to follow him out into the corridor.

“Why?”

“Because,” Lance answered, “I have nothing better to do and I can watch you walk away all day.”

“What the fuck, Lance?” Keith groaned in mock frustration.

“No, that’s after we get your comm.”

Keith turned, intending to call Lance out on exposing him like that, but stumbled, relieved that Lance was close enough to catch him.

“You alright, cuervo?”

“Yeah, I'm fine. Just tripped,” he said, but stopped. Something was wrong. He could feel the braid hanging over his shoulder from when he stumbled, felt the strength in Lance’s arms. No, this was wrong. He looked up. There was a small scar he didn’t remember being there, and the blue Altean marks were definitely new. His own body felt foreign. It was shaped differently, taller and broader than it should be. His voice was different, a little deeper, a little huskier than it should be. “Lance?”

“Keith, love, are you really ok?”

“I…I don’t know.”

Lance helped him to stand, leading him back to their apartment. Once inside, he sat Keith on the couch. “What happened? Exactly,” he asked.

“What does – is this about the anomaly? I told you before that I'm fine. We had Coran check me out. There was nothing wrong. Where are we anyway?”

“We didn’t have Coran check you out. There’s an entire medical crew for that anyway. We’re home, on the Castle. What do you remember from this morning?” Lance’s entire tone was cautious. Something was very wrong with his husband, but he wanted to have at least some answers before bringing it up with anyone else.

“We were coming back from a mission and stopped to check out an abandoned Galra base in an asteroid field. One of the side doors opened and I got blown out. There was a ripple in space-time, and I got close to it in nothing but my armor before Red came to get me. But I'm fine. I told both you and Pidge that.”

Lance remembered that mission. Overall, it was unremarkable. The base didn’t have anything useful. But there hadn’t been any temporal fluctuations. Yes, Keith had ended up floating through the void, but nothing happened other than that. The only reason he remembered that mission in particular was because that was when they decided to tell the team that they were together. It had been ten years since that mission.

“Ok. I do remember that. But, that was ten years ago. That was when we decided to tell the team that we’d been dating for a month.”

Keith’s face flickered between shock, bewilderment, and terror. Ten years? There was no way that could be right. But the evidence was right there. His own body and voice were different. He could see and feel how long his hair had gotten. And then there was Lance. He was beautiful as ever, and it certainly seemed that they were still together, but he was different. The scar, the Altean marks – how and when the fuck did that happen, and why? – and there was the fact that he was broader, more muscled, not slender and willowy like he had been. He processed everything in real time, not saying a word in that time. It had apparently been longer than he thought, because Lance was looking up at him from where he’d tilted his head to the side.

“Keith? Mi cuervo? What is going on?”

“You…you still call me that? It really has been ten years?”

“This has to be related to that anomaly,” he muttered. “Yeah, it’s really been ten years. And, yeah, I do still call you that. A lot’s changed in ten years, but not that. Stay here. I need to show you something. It might help.” Lance stood, leaving the room for their bedroom, coming back in less than a minute. He extended his free hand, bringing Keith over to the table where they both sat. Lance placed a ring of smoothly twisted and woven silver metal and carved crystal that shifted between blood red, cobalt, and vibrant violet on the table between them. “Do you remember this?” he asked softly, “Do you remember when I gave you that?”

Keith stared at it like if he could untwist it mentally, he could remember what it was. But he couldn’t, because Lance had never given him anything like it. It was definitely something he could see Lance picking for him, but as far as Keith knew, he never had.

“No, I don’t,” he had to admit.

Lance sighed, a tinge of sadness to it. “Ok. Something happened with the temporal anomaly we found earlier and that Pidge is still analyzing. I know you’re really Keith, but I don’t think you're my Keith. What you said happened this morning happened ten years ago for me. We need to go check in with Pidge and see if she’s figured anything out yet.”

“Ok,” Keith agreed, rising to follow Lance, “I shouldn’t know anything else. Not yet. But at least I know we’re still together.”

“We certainly are,” Lance agreed, taking Keith’s hand, “We’ll figure this out. That anomaly might have fucked with your memories somehow, but we’ll figure it out.”

_~*~_~*~_~*~_

“Yeah, fine.” Keith stood on his own, suddenly realizing that they shouldn’t have been a corridor and a half away from Green’s hangar, they should have been close to their apartment in a completely different part of the castle. Everything seemed ever so slightly bigger, except for himself and Lance. His braid was gone, and he was wearing clothes he hadn’t seen in years. And Lance looked so young. This was the thin, wiry boy he’d fallen in love with more than ten years before. The one without the Altean marks he’d gotten when Allura revived him after saving her from an energy blast. But he heard Lance call him by that familiar pet name. That alone left Keith with more questions.

“We need to see if Pidge’s gotten anywhere with that anomaly,” Lance said.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed. When had his voice gotten higher?

Keith stopped when they walked into Pidge’s lab. It wasn’t what he was expecting. This was the lab of a decade earlier. The one with the laptop she’d brought from Earth along with the equipment she had either repurposed or built from scratch. It startled him, and he froze in place.

“Keith, seriously, are you ok?”

“I…I don’t know anymore. Everything is wrong. Where is everyone else?”

“Hunk and Shiro are heading back from the abandoned base now. That door just malfunctioned after going so long without maintenance. And there was absolutely nothing important there,” Pidge answered, still focused on her computer screen. She realized part of what he said and turned around. “Wait, what do you mean ‘everything is wrong’?”

“You’re looking at a spatial-temporal anomaly, but it didn’t happen now. There shouldn’t have been one here. I…I think I might be from your future. Or, at least, sort of. I don’t look any different to you, do I?”

“No. You don’t. Get back to the part where you think you're from the future.”

“I don’t know how much I should tell you. I don’t know if it could upset the timeline. But I know when I am now.” He turned to Lance. “It’s been about a month now, right? And we had that talk?”

Lance nodded, trying to understand just what his boyfriend was saying about the future. “Yeah, and we did talk about it. Just a few minutes ago. But if you're from the future, I don’t know if talking about that now will help. It also doesn’t answer the question of if you’re Future Keith, what happened to Present Keith?”

“I don’t know. Best case, he switched places with me. He’ll be confused and probably a little scared, but I know he’s in good hands there. Fuck it feels weird talking about myself in the third person. Have you found out anything about the anomaly here?” he asked Pidge.

“Well, I think so, but I've never seen anything like this before.”

Keith came up behind her, looking over their temporal disruption. It was identical to the one he’d found in his time. He had no question now that he had switched bodies with his 18-year-old self. But at least there were a few things he didn’t need to worry about hiding. He knew he was at least partly Galra at this point. He wouldn’t meet Krolia for a little while, so he would have to keep that one to himself. But it also meant that he hadn’t been through the Quantum Abyss yet. There was no way he could tell them about that without explaining everything. He would have to be subtle with asking about the war.

“I have, but I can’t tell you anything specific. Like where, why, or how. And even knowing what it is, I don’t have your science brain, Pidgey. I have no idea how it works.”

Both Pidge and Lance were staring at him. Not because of what he said, but how he said it. He’d picked up a lot of linguistic quirks from Lance over the years, and no longer gave it any thought at all.

“You sound like Lance,” Pidge said finally.

“We’ve all spent a lot of time together over ten years,” Keith replied, avoiding the real question.

“Sure. What canyou tell me about this?”

Keith pulled Hunk’s usual seat over, sitting beside her. Lance perched on an empty spot of desk space, suddenly wanting to be closer to his boyfriend, or whatever he was at that point.

“It’s specific to a single point in space, but not this one. But that’s the problem. I can’t tell you anything about where it is or what it is because you haven’t gotten there yet. All I can say is that space and time work very differently there due to massive fluctuations in gravity, which is why this doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because there’s something there that affects the gravity in a way that it doesn’t where we found it.”

“Basically. It’s more like what affects gravity there doesn’t exist anywhere else, especially where this anomaly was found. It’s also far smaller here than it should be. Like the difference in scorch marks between Lance’s rifle and Hunk’s autocannon.”

“So, this anomaly is a precise shot, and where it should be is a huge mess,” Lance said.

“Pretty much,” Keith agreed, “But I really can’t tell you about it because there’s something vital to the war there and I don’t know how it would change things if you found out about it now. It wouldn’t be good. There are other players you don’t know about yet.”

Pidge continued typing away at her laptop, the 3D render of the anomaly rotating on the screen. Lance wanted to watch the progress, but he couldn’t focus on it. His attention was solely on Keith. Except for his earlier phrasing, he didn’t think Pidge had picked up on just how different he was. Body language, mannerisms, almost everything had changed in some way except for his physical appearance. And there was one thing Lance had noticed almost immediately after Keith started talking about the anomaly. He was pretty sure Keith wasn’t aware of it, but he had been running his left thumb across the ring finger of the same hand, like there was something missing. Lance thought about bringing it up, but decided not to, heavily suspecting Keith would just say that it was something else he couldn’t talk about.

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Brain spiked, and I have an idea. An idea for a sequel to the Powerful Soul fic. Oh boy here we go :)

Pungence decides to tell someone about his.. experience. Most likely Bdubs. They, obviously, don’t believe him. The next round, he notices Zedaph eyeing Bdubs and Beans. He takes it upon himself to save them from whatever Zed is planning by protecting him all game. Long story short, he fails. Miserably. Bdubs and Beans join the traumatized club. :D

*vibrates with excitement* MORE HACKER ZED YESSSSS

(also this got way deeper than I thought it would lol)

If you haven’t read the first part, go do that now!

…

  It’s been several rounds since the… incident, and Pungence still can’t look at Zedaph without feeling a chill run down his spine. He can still vividly recall the agony of having Zedaph rip through his code like it’s made of paper, the terrifyingly calm look on Zedaph’s face, the way his eyes bored into Pungence’s soul. Every time he sees Zedaph now, he quickly has to make sure he doesn’t end up alone with him. He doesn’t know if Zedaph remembers the experience as well as Pungence does but he certainly doesn’t want to risk anything.

  Finally, Pungence can’t take it anymore. 

  Before the next round starts, as everyone is chatting in the lobby, Pungence grabs Bdubs’s hand and pulls him away from the others. 

  “Pungey, what are you doing?” Bdubs asks confusedly. “Are you okay?”

  “No, I’m going crazy!” Pungence whispers back. “Do you remember a round a while ago that just ended abruptly without you voting anyone off?”

  Bdubs frowns, thinking hard. “Um… which round?”

  “If you have to ask, then you don’t remember.” Pungence sighs. “Look, I know this is gonna sound weird, but that Zedaph guy is… he’s… magical.”

  Bdubs stares at his brother. “Magical?”

  “I don’t know how else to describe it. Listen, I was imposter a few rounds ago and I killed him in navigation. Next thing I know, he’s confronting me as a ghost in medbay and he… he…” Pungence hesitates, unsure of how to describe his experience. “He tried to possess me. I don’t know what he did exactly but it… it was absolute agony. Dude, he stuck his hand through my chest and I felt like I was gonna die, that’s how bad it was. He managed to stop me from getting teleported to the meeting and when he somehow killed me, the whole round ended immediately and I-.”

  “Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Bdubs places his hands on Pungence’s shoulders, stopping him from speaking. “Take a breath, Pungey. Are you sure that wasn’t a nightmare of some kind? Cuz I don’t remember any of that.”

  “That’s something else I’m really worried about,” admits Pungence. “The fact that nobody except me seems to remember it. I don’t even know if Zedaph himself remembers.”

  “Have you asked him?” Bdubs asks.

  Pungence shoots his brother an unamused look. “Yeah, I went up to him and said, “Hey, do you remember being a ghost and thoroughly traumatising then viciously murdering me after I killed you as imposter in a round that may or may not have existed or am I just going crazy?” He confessed immediately.” 

  Bdubs rolls his eyes. “Sarcasm duly noted. Now are you REALLY sure it wasn’t a weird nightmare?”

  “Do you think I’m lying?” Pungence demands.

  “No, I don’t think you’re lying. Just… mistaken, maybe. Mistaking a dream for reality.” 

  “I’m not-!”

  “Guys, we’re getting ready to start,” Grian calls just then. 

  “Coming,” Bdubs calls back, before turning back to his brother. “Look, don’t worry about it. If it WAS real, nothing’s happened since then, right?”

  “Only because Zedaph hasn’t been murdered first since that round,” Pungence insists. “Seriously, please, listen to me. If you get imposter, DO NOT kill Zedaph, especially not first. It’s not worth it, man.”

  Bdubs just brushes his brother off. “Don’t worry so much. Everything that happens in this game is for fun, remember?”

  Pungence mutters to himself as the game starts. “Uh huh, yeah, a fun game about murder. All fun. So much fun.”

  Half to his relief, Pungence is assigned to be crewmate this round. He glances over at Bdubs, then Zedaph, but there seems to be nothing unusual about them. 

  He decides to do his tasks as quickly as possible so he can keep an eye on his brother for the rest of the game. 

  Meanwhile, Zedaph decides to do his scan first, so he heads straight for medbay. He finds Grian already in there, depositing the sample.

  As Zedaph hops onto the scanner, he spots Bdubs and Beans coming into the room. The door slides shut behind them, and Zedaph immediately knows what’s about to happen. 

  Sure enough, Bdubs swiftly kills Grian right at the sample station, a split second before Beans shoots Zedaph off the scanner. 

  Fighting through disorientation and nausea, Zedaph immediately shoots up as a ghost and catches the doors as they slide open, pushing them closed again without touching them. 

  Bdubs and Beans, who were just about to leave, turn and stare at Zedaph in surprise. “Wait, how are you doing that?” Beans gasps. 

  Bdubs wordlessly dashes for the vent but Zedaph waves his hand towards it and it locks. Spooked, Bdubs backs up to join Beans by the wall opposite the sample station.

  “How are you doing all this?” Beans demands. “You’re dead.”

  “And you two are the imposters,” replies Zedaph calmly, before glancing at Grian, who is standing frozen by the sample dispenser, eyes fixed on him. “Grian, go do your tasks. I’ll handle this.” 

  After a moment, Grian nods and disappears through the wall. 

  “Handle what?” snaps Bdubs. “What are you gonna do?”

  “What I always do when I die first: experimentation.”

  Bdubs’s eyes widen and he presses himself against the wall, as if trying to phase backwards through it like Grian did. “P-Pungence was right! You DID do something weird to him a few rounds ago!”

  “Oh, he remembers that?” Zedaph frowns. “That’s not meant to happen.”

  “What?!” yelps Beans. “You’ve done this before?”

  “I’m still figuring out my abilities. Being killed first gives me enough time to do some experiments. I’ve never done it on two imposters at once before, but hey, this should be interesting.”

  He reaches towards Beans and Bdubs, who are suddenly gripped by an invisible force. They struggle in a panic, Bdubs more so because he remembers Pungence’s description of what he went through last time. 

  Suddenly, the doors creak open a crack and a figure appears, managing to tumble through the door before it closes behind him. He scrambles to his feet and rushes towards Zedaph. “Stop! Stop it!”

  Zedaph holds out his hand and grips Pungence in the same invisible force. “You remember what I did to you a few rounds ago?”

  “Y-Yes, and I don’t want you to do it again! I’m sorry you got killed but I don’t want you to put my brother and Beans through what you did to me.” Pungence gazes at Zedaph with pleading eyes. “Please, Zedaph. You don’t have to do it. There’s no reason for it.” 

  “Pungence, these two are imposters,” Zedaph says, confused as to why the crewmate is getting in his way. “They killed me.”

  “It’s just a game, though! They’re not actually hurting anyone! But you, you’re… You really hurt me. And you’re about to really hurt them too.”

  Zedaph stares at him with a mixed expression for a few seconds, before glancing back at Bdubs and Beans, who are clearly still terrified. 

  “You’re right,” he says slowly. “It’s just a game. I shouldn’t be hurting people.”

  Pungence dares to breathe a quiet sigh of relief. “Yes.”

  “Then all I have to do is make sure I don’t hurt them.”

  “Wh-Wha-?”

  Zedaph drops Pungence on the ground and reaches back towards the two imposters, phasing his left hand through Beans’s forehead and his right through Bdubs’s. 

  Both of them scream, causing Pungence to flinch. 

  “Okay, this doesn’t seem to be working,” says Zedaph, retracting his hands. He frowns in thought. “It seems I need more practise with these weird ghostly abilities. Next time, I think I’ll try to possess an imposter and see what happens.”

  “Next time?!” Pungence yelps. “No, there can’t BE a next time! Zedaph, you’re hurting people! You need to stop and just let us play the game!”

  “I don’t WANT to hurt people!” Zedaph’s composure falls away for the first time. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone! All I want is to understand. When you were imposter, I felt overwhelming rage and hatred in you. But if this is just a game, why were you feeling such a strong desire to kill?”

  Pungence hesitates. “I… I don’t know…”

  “Exactly. There seems to be more to this “game” than meets the eye, and since I seem to be the only one who is able to access the code, it’s up to me to work it out.” Zedaph glances from Pungence to the two imposters, then back to Pungence. “I’m sorry for hurting you. I’ll make it so that you won’t remember this experience next round.” 

  Before anyone can respond, the room is engulfed in a white light, enveloping everyone inside. 

…

  “Pungey? Hey, wake up. Snap out of it.”

  Pungence opens his eyes to find Bdubs and Beans standing in front of him, the metallic interior of the lobby visible behind them. “Hey. You alright?”

  “I think so.” Pungence frowns. “What just happened?”

  “Dunno,” says Beans. “Grian thinks the game glitched or something; it just kicked us back out to the lobby. He’s having a look at the settings to see if something’s wrong before we go back in.”

  Pungence pauses, glancing around the room. He can’t remember anything from last round, except an uneasy feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. 

  “Were either of you the imposter that round?” he asks.

  Bdubs shakes his head. “Don’t think so. Honestly, I don’t remember.” 

  “Me neither,” Beans says.

  Pungence’s eyes land on Zedaph and their gazes meet momentarily. The uneasiness in Pungence’s stomach grows. 

  “Does something seem wrong to you?” 

  Bdubs glances at his brother with a concerned frown. “No. Why? Hey, are you sure you’re alright? You’ve gone pale.” 

  He follows Pungence’s gaze and blinks at the sight of Zedaph standing across the lobby with Tango, Impulse, and Skizzleman. His eyes flicker to Beans, then back again. Now, he too can feel the discomfort between them, a palpable tension that can’t quite be explained. As if the four of them have shared a harrowing experience that they can’t quite remember. 

  Across the lobby, Zedaph can sense that Pungence, Bdubs, and Beans are agitated at the sight of him. He glances away after a moment, trying to concentrate on the conversation the rest of Team ZITS are having next to him. But he can’t. Something keeps drawing him back to the fact that no matter how hard he tries, he doesn’t seem to be able to completely erase the experimentation experience from his victims’ minds. He doesn’t like hurting people, physically or mentally. It’s troubling to him that he can seemingly not control certain aspects of his powers.

  But he can’t stop the experiments now, no matter how much worse things get. 

  Not if he wants to figure out the true secret buried deep in the game that calls itself Among Us.

[milstrim]

The Wound Won’t Sew Itself

Penny Parker was afraid of abandonment.

That was a fact. It had stemmed from an early childhood loss and only heightened to an extreme after her uncle had bled out from a gunshot wound in front of her. It made her nervous, a lot. Her aunt and friends knew, and would often not mention it when she curled a finger into their belt loops or entwined her fingers with theirs. Every once in a while, they'd offer their hands too, allowing for her to attach and not make her feel weird about it. It was a gift, she'd decided, to have a family that anticipated for her.

Problems arose when Mr. Stark started to become part of that family.

Mr. Stark wasn't mean, but she knew their relationship was rather precarious. One wrong move and she was sure that he'd take the suit and cast her out, leaving her without her mentor and the man that had slowly become...like a father? He was like her uncle, but not. No one could replace Ben, but Tony had taken up a space in her heart she hadn't known was empty until he came along.

So when she felt nervous, Penny instead shoved her hands into her pockets, or bundled them up into her sweaters, refusing to even mention her discomfort or her fears to her mentor. She'd only been going up to the compound to work with him on the suit for a few months ever since the whole Homecoming incident, and losing him was terrifying beyond belief. It kept her up at night on bad days, the unthinkable nightmare of him dying or casting her out. Thus, she kept to herself, she made sure she was the perfect intern and mentee, quiet but enthusiastic when necessary and with no mental health problems at all.

When she arrived at the compound for her internship that Friday afternoon, waving goodbye to Happy and stepping into the elevator that took her up to Mr. Stark's lab, she flinched at the shiver that ran up her spine. Penny glanced around the lab as the doors opened for her, squinting nervously through the glass entrance to the high tech room, the dread attacking her gut and stuck in her throat only growing stronger.

Mr. Stark wasn't hunched over at his desk, or dancing around trying to keep up with the speed of his own ideas, a broad smile on his face whenever he turned around to greet her like he usually was. Instead, he stood ramrod straight, staring intently at a small hologram in front of him that she couldn't see the contents of. She thought she saw a glimpse of her face.

Penny pressed her hand on the scanner to the door, flinching back when it beeped a harsh red instead of its usual welcoming blue. The noise caught Mr. Stark's attention, who swirled around at the noise, throwing the hologram to the side defensively. Penny found herself rooted in place from his intense stare, another tremor racking her body, ending at a pounding thrum at the base of her skull.

"I, uh--hey, Mr. Stark!" she greeted, waving nervously from behind the door, "The uh--sorry--the door didn't let me in. I didn't mean to disturb you."

Mr. Stark stared at her for a moment longer, trancelike, before he seemingly snapped out of being a robot and walked over. But he still wasn't...Mr. Stark. He was too quiet. Immediately nausea churned in her stomach at the off glint in his eyes. Had she done something wrong? She didn't think she had. She'd been so careful! She hadn't disturbed him or Happy as much, she hadn't done anything too crazy, she'd even stuck to curfew!

...Most of the time.

Her good behavior didn't stop her from feeling like she was about to puke out her entire soul as Mr. Stark spoke, opening the door.

"It was supposed to do that," he said.

Penny shuffled nervously, shoving her hand in her hoodie pockets, "Do--do what, Mr. Stark?"

"Not let you in."

"What--why?"

"Because I don't want you here." She flinched. Her face heated up as tears swelled in her eyes, her mouth falling open in shock, "I guess I forgot to give Happy the memo, so let me remedy that here. I. Don't. Want you here. Plain and simple. I expected more from you by now. I offered for you to be an Avenger, and you're still saving cats from trees, or helping little old ladies across the street."

Penny took a halting step back, shocked. She stared up at her mentor. She'd never seen him like this, even during the Ferry, he'd said he expected more than too, and if she hadn't been as hurt as she was, maybe she would've thought about Mr. Stark's sudden 180 about her skills. About her. But as it was, she was just sad, and scared. Her worst fears coming true and bursting forth.

"I'm--I'm sorry," she stuttered.

"Sorry isn't good enough," he bit, holding out an expectant hand, "Give me your bag."

"What?"

"We tried this, it didn't work out. Sorry not sorry, give me the bag."

Working on autopilot, she did. He ripped it open, tearing out her suit, the red and blue sticking out painfully against the background of his dark gray blazer. She let out a cry of protest as he took, but he didn't respond other than throwing the bag roughly into her hands.

"I'll be taking this, since you're clearly not worthy of it," he said. She stared at him, unable to stop the tears that escaped down her cheeks. Wrong move. "What are you still doing here? The transaction is over. Get out of here. Go! And don't try to contact me again. Don't even call Happy."

Penny swallowed, stepping away hesitantly, as if this was all a cruel joke and someone was going to jump out and yell 'Surprise!!' But this was real life, and Mr. Stark had really told her to leave. He'd taken the suit back and...and everything.

"Yes, sir..."

She left.

    Penny cried a lot that night.

May was covering a shift at the hospital, having expected for her to be at Mr. Stark's until late, so Penny came home to her dark apartment seeping with the December chill of New York. All the shock came rushing forward. All the pain.

She dropped her bag the moment the door clicked shut behind her, choking on a confused sob. She ran her hands through her hair, pulling too roughly at her curls and sliding down on the door. She mumbled through thick tears, "What did I do? What did I do? What did I do?"

There was no answer to her question. No way of knowing. There was no one to answer, no one but her own fear.

She hadn't been enough, she concluded, and really, why had she ever thought she could be? Her former mentor was Tony Stark! Iron Man. A superhero who'd escaped terrorists with nothing but scraps and wits. And what was she? A science experiment. A poor kid from Queens who could barely hold her own in a fight even with superpowers practically just gifted to her. She could barely take down bank robbers.

Mr. Stark's words hurt, but they were right. She wasn't worthy to be his mentee.

But it still hurt.

Confident that May wouldn't be home until late, she allowed herself to stay a crying heap on the floor. She didn't move for an hour, crying herself dry, gasping for seething air that refused to come, blocked by the lump in her throat. She dug her nails into her palms, leaving little crescents of blood. She bit her lip in an attempt to stave her pitiful cries, a trail of blood following.

By the time she picked herself off the floor, the city was dark.

    Weeks passed by, and Penny heard nothing from Mr. Stark or Happy. Stupidly, she'd stare at her phone, anxiously waiting for hours on end. Maybe an apology, or just an assurance that she wasn't a screwup. Something. But of course, nothing ever came.

Penny didn't retell the exact events of what had happened to anyone, but she'd proclaimed to her friends that she no longer had the internship--much to Flash's great delight, and even she had to admit how much like a lie all of it sounded--and refused to delve into the details. Telling May had been a bit more difficult. A teary eyed afternoon in which Penny had said that Mr. Stark thought that she wasn't right for the superhero role and had taken the suit back. The woman had been furious and had attempted to call Tony, but found little success other than an automated voicemail.

They'd spent the whole night watching romcoms and planning how to make Penny her own homemade suit. Not as good as the Starksuit, but still a hell of a lot better than her old one. It didn't have Karen, and it definitely didn't look as cool, but Penny had outfitted it with her own tech that helped her senses and webshooters that did their job. She refused to stop trying to help the community. Not even Tony Stark could put her off from it.

The Daily Bugle didn't like her new suit, tearing her down for it despite having criticized her for 'mooching off of Iron Man' a couple months prior, but it was whatever. Life was...life was okay.

Her nerves had only shot higher than before, and the teenager often found herself texting her friends and aunt at odd times to make sure they were okay, grabbing onto Ned's hand between every class that she could, and even slipping into bed with May every once in a while. She felt horribly clingy and unworthy of their time and patience, so many nights filled with laying in bed and staring out the window, unable to stop envisioning May telling her what Mr. Stark had. Ned leaving. MJ abandoning her.

Sometimes eating felt like too much. By the time Christmas had come and gone, she'd gained as much bags under her eyes as she had lost weight. Exhausted and fatigued all the way down to the bone wasn't enough to describe how she felt. How on edge and worried she constantly was. But at least she was still Spider-Woman. At least she still got to help people, to save them. With or without Mr. Stark. Even if it hurt.

Penny let out a sigh that billowed out in front of her on the cold January air, rubbing on her arm as she tried to block out the cold. She hadn't managed to give her suit a heater in a cost effective way. Her eyes still narrowed with her though, which had honestly been her favorite part of the suit.

The vigilante had been patrolling for most of the day now--eating from street vendors and unfortunately going to the bathroom in porta-potties--since school was still out. Until tomorrow anyway. Oh the woes of waking up early once again and having to face Flash and his unending taunting. She was ready to see Ned again, and maybe chemistry class would distract her from Mr. Stark.

She shook her head, scolding herself. She was doing it again. Thinking about the man she'd thought as a father figure. No matter how hard she tried, his words always came back to bite her in the middle of the night. In the middle of a panic. And even while she sat atop a building while snow sprinkled down around her.

With a worn sigh, the girl leaped and began to swing her way back to her apartment, which was sure to be a while away since she was at the edge of the city. Well, first she had to stop to get her bag (and pray that it was still there) and then she'd head home. Maybe make some hot chocolate. It was freezing.

Spider-Woman swung for only before a few minutes before a chill ran up her spine, and not from the cold. She spun in midair, grabbing onto an outstretched flagpole of the building her senses directed her to and planting herself nimbly on top. She listened.

"--verything's going fine, I suppose. Crushing the brat didn't completely get rid of her though. I thought she cared about what you said, Stark."

"Don't you dare talk about her," snarled a familiar voice. Penny flinched at Mr. Stark's tone, narrowing her eyes and beginning to creep around the building. The windows were boarded up over broken glass, but the warm yellow light still slipped through the cracks. She continued to listen as she tried to find a better spot to perch.

"I could've been a lot worse, you know. Be thankful I just made her think you hated her and thought everything terrible about her to make her feel like shit instead of just killing her. Though that would've made quite the fuss. Too much to clean up, don't you think?" the voice asked, rich and smooth and terrible. It sent shivers down her spine. She finally came across a window with a large enough gap for her to slip through and cling onto the rafters in the ceiling, unnoticed, "Though nothing's impossible. It might be a good reminder for you to not try and break your chip again, hmm? Your lovely fiancee might be next."

Penny stifled a gasp as she surveyed the room. Mr. Stark was strapped up against the wall, his hands cuffed tightly. A bruise bloomed against the right side of his face, leaching over his nose and covering his eyes in a sickly blue. His face was tightened in anger, defiance evident in every part of his body. From his eyes, bright yet dark at the same time, a stoked fire ready to burn, to his hands, cuffed and restrained, but curled in anger, shaking with either the force of straining or the force of his will to break free.

The Iron Man suit sat idle in the corner of the room, its eyes deactivated and its posture slumped. It looked strangely dead. A strange descriptor of something that had never truly been alive. She had to hold back panic at the realization that it wasn't going to save Mr. Stark, probably having been deactivated or hacked. What were these people going to do with it? Not that they looked particularly threatening.

The host of people appeared as though they belonged at a PTA meeting instead of a kidnapping. There was a short balding man with a friendly looking mustache. A woman with a chopped bob, short and stout and wearing a flowery blouse. Two tall and thin people that were so painfully average in their completely beige clothes she had to blink in confusion. This did not look like a group of supervillains.

The only man that looked like he somewhat belonged to the supervillain lifestyle was standing in front of Mr. Stark. He was surprisingly handsome, with dark hair slicked back in a groomed puff and a neatly groomed beard. He held crazed confidence in his frame, bulking with muscle even through his long sleeves and cargo pants.

"So," the handsome man said, "Are you going to comply or are we going after your little pet? I'm sure she's still out there right now. And we'd be happy to go to her home. Or school. Gosh, just think of all the other people who could get hurt while we're carrying out your business. We could even make you do it. Your choice, really."

Mr. Stark held for a moment, stiff and angry, but like a switch had been turned, he slumped in defeat with a slow nod. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen from the man. A drubbing failure that exuded from him, tired. He had never more looked his age as he did now.

The man gave him a condescending pat on the cheek, his smile unsettling, "Good. Glad we've come to an agreement, Stark."

Penny swallowed nervously, watching with sharp eyes as the short man with a mustache stepped over to the handsome man, a small device in his hand that fit easily in his palm. She didn't like the look of it, and she crawled forward from her hiding space just a little, an instinct to protect pulling her forward. She stopped almost immediately.

Mr. Stark looked up as the two men in front of him talked, glancing over in her direction. His eyes widened ever so slightly at the sight of her, now frozen in the shadows of the roof. Neither moved, just staring at each other for a moment.

It had been a while since Penny had seen him. Almost two months. She hadn't even looked at pictures of him in the news, always turning the channel off at the mention of him or anything to do with even Stark Industries. May had told her to leave him behind, so that's what she'd been trying to do. Now, in the old building filled with hostile people with weapons, she wondered if that was a bad decision, because now she couldn't look away from his brown eyes.

Or maybe she couldn't look away because of the warmth in them. The sorrow. The apologies swimming in his face, a silent 'I'm sorry, kid' mouthed her way as the people in the room weren't focused on him.

She shook her head furiously, slipping back into the shadows as a tremor ran up her spine. She hid behind a scratchy wooden column just before Handsome Man glanced her way, her heart beating painfully against her chest. She took a deep, shaky breath, waiting in anticipation for the relief of the pounding against her skull to disappear, indicating the man was no longer looking her way.

Penny scrunched her eyes tight, sure that she was imagining things. She was so confused, and her entire body hurt, disoriented and dumbfounded. Embarrassed. What were they doing to Mr. Stark? Had his harsh words been protection? How long had he been hurt trying to protect her while she'd pranced around New York, refusing to hear his name and wallowing in her own sadness? And what the hell was that device?

The teenager shook her head. She couldn't think about it right now. Answers were for when Mr. Stark was safe and away from these crazy people. Answers were for when she apologized for being such a dumbass. Answers were for when she got her shit together and got down there and started doing what superheroes were supposed to do.

Penny peeked around the column as the man began talking to Mr. Stark again.

The man held up the device that had been handed to him, "Now this has been fixed. So if you try that little stunt again, it'll one: Not break, and two: we'll get a little alert that tells us it's time to go and take out Spider-Woman, capeesh?"

"Capeesh," Mr. Stark muttered. The man smiled. Penny's heart dropped.

"Good. Glad to hear. So stay still while we pop this back in and we'll be back to setting Stark Industries off on the right track, along with the rest of the world. None of this 'no weapons' nonsense."

"You were fired for a good reason, Beck. Maybe if you look past your own horseshit, you'd see why."

She could practically feel the man's blood vessel pop. Wasting no time, he punched her mentor. Mr. Stark's head snapped to the side, but wasn't given a moment of reprieve as Beck gripped his neck, slamming Mr. Stark's head against the wall, choking him. Beck bared his teeth in a crazed grin. Penny flinched, unwillingly clinging to the darkness.

"And maybe if you'd get your head out of your own ass, you'd remember that you're not in charge anymore! I control you!! I'M IN CHARGE NOW!!! AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!"

Without any pretense, the man shoved the device into Mr. Stark's ear. Mr. Stark answered with a short scream at the pain that was quickly cut off. Another shiver ran up her spine, warning her of the danger to come and making Penny sick.

The cuffs around Mr. Stark let go as Beck took a step back, an appreciative smile on his face as Mr. Stark stood ramrod straight. His eyes were no longer warm, but robotic and unseeing. She flinched.

"Good, glad to have you back, Tony," Beck teased in his deep voice. The Iron Man suit standing vigil in the back of the warehouse rose to attention. In the same metal nature of the suit, Mr. Stark walked over to it and stepped inside, "Now. Go get Spider-Woman please."

The head turned, and slanted blue met wide white.

    Tony was screaming, but no sound escaped his lips. Tony was crying, but no tears slipped from his eyes. Tony was hurting, and his heart scarred with every painful beat.

It had started two months ago. Well, if you really went back, you could say it started sometime about a year ago during his introduction of the September Foundation and BARF. Quentin Beck had led the team, and although Tony had been wary of the man's seeming instability, he believed in second chances and that first impressions aren't always a great indication.

He might have to change that policy of his, because as it turns out, he should always trust his instinct. Beck had insisted that his invention could be for more than 'just therapy' and could change the world. One war at a time. Firing him had seemed like the only logical conclusion, but maybe Tony should've kept an eye on him. If only the Avengers hadn't broken up. If only he hadn't been stumbling after a monstrously ambitious spider kid. If only he'd thought ahead. If only he was able to keep people safe.

The chip had overtaken him at a charity gala he'd attended on a Thursday night. He'd been sipping champagne from a tall flute, mingling with aggravating businessmen and wishing he'd brought the kid along so he'd at least have someone to talk to. Then the billionaire had slipped away to go to the bathroom, but he was intercepted by a waitress, and then suddenly his body was not his own.

Of all the things that had happened to Tony, he could at least say that this was one of the most interesting. Terrifying to his core for sure, but still pretty interesting.

Tony had made his way through the night, an imposter in his own skin, a spectator as he watched himself talk business in charity, exchange handshakes and cards, climb into a car driven by Happy--who'd furrowed his brows as Tony got in the back rather than taking the wheel--but hadn't questioned it.

He'd never been more afraid. The chip in his ear, small and stuck in deep, buzzed constantly, making him sick and tired, but his body never stopped moving. He had to at least appreciate they kept up a healthy sleep schedule, but nothing else was helpful in the slightest. Knowing that he was being controlled by an enemy, Tony watched in terror as he opened up top secret government programs and codes, keys to the Iron Man suit and how to access them, and then, everything about Penelope Parker.

Despite the lack of control over his body, his left arm had still shaken with fear.

The words began to appear then. Somehow spoken yet somehow not. They were just there. Clear and yet fuzzy, understandable yet unreadable.

Ah, so this is the girl, Stark? the voice had said, What a sweet girl. Oh! And smart too! You must feel so lucky that she thinks so highly of you, huh?

No. Not her. Anyone but her.

Yes, her, the voice had responded, an ounce of sympathy leaking into it, Tell you what, Stark, I'll strike you a deal. I'll send the kid home today, I won't get her involved in any of this, as long as you don't fight back.

And what is this?

This is going to change the world. And get me some revenge on the way.

Who the hell are you?

I'm--

The door behind him buzzed. He swerved, dismayed to see Penny Parker, smiling and waving at him adorably at the door.

Someone who can do a lot.

Tony's heart would stop if it could.

    Tony's heart didn't stop. In fact, it kept on ticking, a bomb in his chest. A bomb that didn't go off until he set it off, the chip exploding in screeching vibrations in his ear. It had knocked him out--and really he should've expected the failsafe. Kidnappers had learned from the Ten Rings' mistakes. And Tony had learned as well.

There were three things Tony knew about the voice that had been planted in his head.

One: They had a plan. It was complicated, and it took an embarrassingly long time for Tony to piece together as he was forced to gather materials, invent things, and make deals with people he normally wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. And honestly, their goal was straightforward, if a little stupid.

They wanted fame, retribution. They wanted to be noticed for the work they'd done, to be the face people expected when something happened. They wanted to be the next him. Or, a crude copy of what they thought was him. Well, you know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Two: He knew these people. Sorta. Their names took a while to click, long enough that a punishing shock was sent through his veins along with an annoyed remark from the voice, but he'd never been one for remembering names. He'd remember these ones though.

William Ginter Riva.

Victoria Snow.

Gutes Guterman.

Janice Lincoln.

Quentin Beck.

Some rightfully fired employees anxious for revenge, and a bit of the spotlight he'd seemingly stolen.

Three: They were willing to do anything to be the next him. Anything included cutting Penny out of his life and taking the suit. Anything included bullying Pepper out of the tower until she left, telling him in a beyond hurt voice that he wasn't himself and to call her when he was ready to be the Tony she knew. Anything included avoiding Rhodey, not attending his PT or fixing his braces and forcing him away in a way too similar to how Tony had treated him in college. Anything included hurting the people Tony cared about until they didn't care about him.

Anything included sending the Iron Man suit to kill Penny Parker.

    Penny leaped as the suit rocketed towards her, spinning around and swinging to the other side of the room. She hit Iron Man with a web, pulling the suit down as hard as she could justify while trying to escape, attaching the web to the ground. She knew it was fruitless to even try and escape--he was Iron Man after all, and he wasn't going to stop even after she left the building--but fear propelled her forward.

The web pulling down the armor only held for a few moments, Mr. Stark turning and easily burning it away with a repulsor shot. The few seconds she'd saved were crucial though, giving her just enough time to smash through the nearest window, shooting out a web as far as she could and zipping away. But the knot in her gut didn't disappear, and the rattle up her spine only grew. She flinched at the sound of crashing, sure that Iron Man had burst through the window she's just crashed through.

Her head start didn't end up giving her much help at all. She didn't think she'd been swinging for ten seconds when the repulsors charged behind her. Penny tried to twist in the air, flipping, and only getting a glimpse of the armor before a blast from the chest reactor caught her square in her stomach. She lost her grip on the web, free falling for a terrifying, painful moment, before metal arms scooped her up by her armpits.

Spider-Woman began to struggle, but she couldn't break free. A horrified chill settled in her stomach as she realized how much weaker she'd gotten from eating and sleeping less the past few months. And how much the blast that had singed her new suit black really hurt, like a hot iron pressed down on her. She groaned in pain, but continued to try and force her way out of the steely grip.

Iron Man only tightened her into a ball in his arms, diving back through the window of the building to the smiling face of Beck. Iron Man landed, but she was still held tight in his grasp, unable to break free as Beck approached her. She tried to rip her face away, but Beck grabbed her chin, tearing off her mask.

His clutching hand squished her cheeks together painfully as she was forced to look him in the eye. She narrowed her eyes, trying to be as threatening as she could appear.

"Hi, Penny," Beck greeted, his hand still on her face, "You were invading my privacy right now, and that's disrespectful. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Suck my dick!" she grit out. Beck chuckled.

"Cute kid, eh, Stark?" Mr. Stark didn't respond, still robotically still. "Put her in the cuffs. We'll see how well your new chip works in a moment."

The Iron Man suit marched across the room, forcing her into the same cuffs Mr. Stark had been placed in earlier. They locked around her wrists so tightly she felt like her hands were about to pop off.

Pleadingly, Penny stared into the face of the Iron Man armor, unable to keep the fear from her expression. Mr. Stark still had to be in there somewhere, right? The man who had ruffled her hair every chance he got, who gave her nicknames and pressed protein bars into her hands like she was in constant danger of passing out. Where was the man she had considered family?

The suit stared at her stonily. Beck stepped up behind him, a scotch in his hand and tapping something in his ear. Taking a sip, he ordered, "Break her nose."

A metal fist snapped against her face. Her head was slapped to the side at the force. She grunted in pain, gritting her teeth against a whimper as she felt blood trickle down her nose. The pain, sharp and cutting, had already receded, leaving behind a stinging numbness that was almost worse. Needles prickling at her skin.

"Good," Beck commended, "Hit her again."

He did. Repeatedly. Pulverizing her face. Butchering her skin. Crushing to her heart.

Penny tried to fight back against the pain wrecking her, lashing out with her legs, but Iron Man only gripped her ankle and broke it. The snap was lost to her scream. By the time it was all over, she was sobbing, tears mixing with blood on her cheek. Her leg was mangled, broken so roughly she could see the bone, and when she looked at it she couldn't hold back from throwing up.

Beck wrinkled his nose at the smell. The smaller man with the mustache skittered up beside him, nervous as he muttered, "I don't know if we should--"

"Shut up, Ginter. I'm having fun."

"But people will notice she's missing!" Ginter protested. Beck sighed as if the answer was obvious, his shoulders slumping.

"She's a vigilante. All we have to do is drop her body off, leave a mess and make sure our prints are nowhere near the scene. We'll never even be noticed."

Penny shivered. She was going to die. She was going to die, not alone like she'd feared, but killed by someone she loved. And, she knew, Mr. Stark would never forgive himself for this. Shakily, the girl looked up, glaring daggers at Beck. She wasn't going to let this happen. She wasn't going to die. And she wasn't going to let Mr. Stark be responsible.

Penny turned to the Iron Man armor, swallowing, she said, "Sorry, Mr. Stark."

The cuff snapped. She lashed out as quick as a whip, punching the Iron Man armor in the face as hard as she could. No holding back.

The suit flew across the room, allowing for her to break her other cuff. Strangely, the other people in the room did nothing, clearly entertained as she sprinted/hobbled over to Mr. Stark. She switched over the webs in her shooters, praying that they would work. She hadn't tried them out yet.

The suit had already recovered, standing back up and holding out a repulsor. It hit her shoulder, but she refused to stumble, fighting her way forward. Thankfully, the Iron Man armor met her halfway, barreling into her. She allowed for herself to be picked up, sticking herself to the suit and, with a last burst of energy, ripping off not only the faceplate, but the whole helmet as well.

Mr. Stark's face was just as inhuman and stern as the faceplate had been, his eyes dark and lost, unseeing. Penny gulped, aiming her wrist at the arc reactor. She shot.

Electricity flooded from the webs, leeching into the suit and crackling around it in a static fizzle. The suit dropped, Mr. Stark grunting in pain that swam in his eyes. Penny grunted as she was crushed under the suit. unable to stop the scream as it landed on her ankle, but she smiled as she heard Beck scream in protest across the room.

"NO!!!" the man yelled, beginning to sprint over, but it was too late. The chip fell from Mr. Stark's ear, clattering to the ground beside her.

He looked down, awareness in his eyes as he looked at her. She smiled weakly, the pain overwhelming.

"Hey, Mr. Stark."

She passed out.

    Penny passed out.

Tony felt like he went with her, but unfortunately, he was still awake. He was still awake to remember what he'd done. The screams he'd caused, the pain he'd forced, and his helplessness to stop through all of it. And fortunately, he was still awake. He was still awake to feel the thrum of power in his armor as it recovered from Penny's electric shock. He was still awake to stand up, huddling over Penny protectively, as he took in the terrified expressions of his oppressors.

Everyone but Beck took a step back, eyes twitching to the nearest exit, prey attempting to escape. Beck held his ground, rooted to the wood of the floor as though he were made of the same material, unmoving. Tony took a step forward, metal thudding against timber, cracking under his force.

Filled with rage and beyond ready for retribution, these people were no match for him. They were unprepared to fight, and they were unprepared to fight him when he had everything to fight for. Every blast felt like retribution. Every punch payback for what they'd done to his family. He left them all in a pile, destroying their tech and having Friday alert the police.

Still seething, Tony turned to look at Penny, his rage fizzling out immediately. The teenager still lay on the ground, her head turned to the side and her ankle splayed out unnaturally. It hurt to even look at. Pain and regret bubbled up as he stepped over to her, and he had to force down sick as he kneeled down beside her.

Without his helmet, he couldn't get her stats in front of him, but Friday still reported nonetheless, "She's alive, boss, but she needs medical before that leg can heal up."

"A hospital?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. I can do that." he nodded breathlessly, instructing the AI to alert a medical team beforehand and mentally preparing for the NDAs he was going to need. He slipped his arms under her as gently as he could, lifting her as he tried as hard as he could not to disturb any of her injuries. The man flew out the crumbling wall that had once been a window, zipping over to the nearest hospital as quick as he could. The wind against his face was bitterly cold, settling into his chest right alongside his too fast and too tired heart.

It took Tony too long to fly to the hospital. Penny was cold against him and he prayed that the burning cold of her skin was just the frostiness of drifting snowflakes. When he arrived there was barely any color in her cheeks, and it was all he could focus on. He ignored the stares and points as he clunked down in front of the hospital, focusing only on getting inside and shielding Penny's face.

He practically tore out of the suit, sprinting inside and almost sighing in relief as a harried team approached him. They looked panicked, clearly freaked out by the fact that Tony Stark had arrived in the middle of the night and needed their help, but they didn't ask any questions. Instead, cool professionalism fell over their faces as they ushered him into the nearest room.

Regretfully, he let Penny go. He only caught a glimpse of her pale face as he was forced out of the room, left to stare at the door in cold regret.

Tony swallowed. He needed to make some calls.

    The world slipped by. Everything was bathed in haziness, washing over her in a blurry mess that left her feeling shaky down to her bones. Not that she felt like she had bones. Did she? She must. Humans have two hundred-six bones, her brain supplied helpfully, but it refused to tell her what was happening, where she was, or even who she was. All she could tell was that she had a body, and that she didn't want it anymore.

Everything hurt. It hurt so badly she wanted to scream. Not that she knew how. But the pain still escaped her, fizzling in burns everywhere it could find. There were times when the pain dulled, paired with murky voices and whirring machines floating above her, wafting along the air and drifting through her head. Most of the time the voices were unknown, lost in a sea of anonymity, but then they were gone, and someone familiar took their place.

A rough, calloused hand gripped her own, a voice matching his skin dancing gently on the air. A sorrow symphony. She focused like she'd never focused before, seeking out the voice.

"...sorry, kid," the voice mumbled, a broken sob leaking through, "I'm so sorry, Penny. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I didn't want you to get hurt. Not--not because of me. Not ever."

Penny? Penny. She was Penny. And this was Mr. Stark.

Like a switch had been flicked, everything fluttered back. Her life, and then the night's events. Snow. Beck. Mind control. Pain. And Mr. Stark, who sat next to her right now, vulnerable in a way she'd never heard him before. It drew something out of her, catching onto her will. She squeezed her eyes, and, after a moment, they fluttered open.

The world was a sterile white. It smelt of death, chemicals, and sorrow. Or maybe that was just her. She wasn't sure.

"Penny?"

She turned her head with a wince, blinking dark spots out of her vision as she stared at Mr. Stark. He looked so helpless. Dark circles deepened his eyes, which were wary and crazed with worry. He looked like he'd aged a hundred years in an hour. She plastered on a weak smile, "Hey, Mr. Stark."

"Penny." 

"You said that already." Mr. Stark huffed in dry amusement, but his face remained dark. "It wasn't your fault, Mr. Stark. He made you do it."

He shook his head, "No, kid. I--"

"You didn't want to do it."

"No. I didn't. But I still did, and now you're hurt. You almost died, Penny, because of me." She tried to protest, but her words were lost to hacking coughs. Mr. Stark grabbed her a cup of water as the racking died down, helping her sit up and drink the water from a straw. It felt like heaven against her throat, "I like your new suit, kiddo. It's real great, but you're allowed to have yours back now, if--if you want it."

"Thanks. I miss the heater," she joked, forcing down every doubt that rose to her head. What if he took it away again? For real? Would they be accompanied by the same words as last time? Cutting and tearing her down until she felt like she wasn't even a superhero anymore?

"I see your brain ticking, kiddo," Mr. Stark interrupted, "It's yours. You deserve it. Not only should it have not been taken away in the first place, you saved me tonight. And you saved the city too. They had...they had plans."

"I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner."

"No. That's not your job, kid. Even Pepper and Rhodey didn't know what to do with me. I'm the one who's sorry. I should've planned for something like this, or at least a way to keep you from being hurt."

"It's okay, Mr. Stark. I'm just glad you're okay."

He sighed, closing his eyes as though exasperated. She worried she'd done something wrong, when he smiled at her, soft and tired, "Yeah, well, I better I'm gladder you're okay."

"I don't think gladder is a word, Mr. Stark. But I missed you too."

It wasn't long before Penny fell asleep again, darkness biting at her heels. Mr. Stark sat beside her the whole time. He was there when she woke up again. He was there when she was discharged from the hospital. And he remained beside her side for the following months as everyone recovered from the shock of what had happened, patient and caring. And whenever she slipped her fingers into his belt loop, too afraid to let go, he'd press a kiss to her forehead.

Penny Parker was afraid of abandonment, but her family wasn't going to abandon her.

[nozomijoestar]

Cannot get this out my head so just remember what I said about these two becoming more like each other and turn that into an entire piece, if you think abt it they're the same character interpreted two ways as is (tws for one sentence of body horror)

The philosophy of the Trikaya came to mind so I tried to embody it in sections and at times blurring together; my paragraph length is deliberately formatted to show the differences in character, have fun trying to decipher what the paragraph lengths mean for each character mindset

I couldn't decide 100% on what Susumu Hirasawa song fits them best so for now (lyric index) I'm considering Moonlight/Shadow of the Moon, The Master's Mountain, A Strange Night of Omnificence, and Venus

Individually Reina's Hirasawa character song is Day Scanner, Kumiko's is Snow Blind

For non Hirasawa music there’s You by Kazami off the Samurai Champloo ost / Eternal by SCANDAL (lyrics)

Also Yūko is listening to Tupac's Life Goes On & Me Against The World

There was something different. Not a bad thing surely, but different all the same. Was it Kumiko standing straighter than usual? No perhaps it was the way her jaw set while weighing decisions. Maybe it had to do with ease of her touch, or the resolve that could flash like lightening through slow motion at random in her gaze. 

Whatever it was and why didn’t change its singularity against all else. It was a difference. The concept sent a chill rippling through her; she imagined a figure being peeled back then rearranged before being resewn. A terrible nausea took her then and her playing faltered. Her fingers may as well have become lead on the trumpet valves. She stopped and lowered her trumpet ever so carefully. Change. Would Kumiko one day forget her sound?

Why had Reina stared at her like that after practice? Was there something in her teeth today? No she couldn't be silly. Reina would never see through her over anything trivial. If you asked Kumiko, that intensity easily took its place as the scariest feeling anyone worth more than five minutes of effort had shown her. But she wasn't saying Reina, or anybody, came off as some pet project! It was just...she couldn't give everybody equal time. There were only so many pieces of herself to split for everyone. There were only so many Kumikos before she burst at the seams. At least, these days there were. She preferred that; she knew what the alternative made her.

If you asked her to rank them though, Reina had a slice so huge it was unfair. Kumiko was sure she knew it too. So why had her eyes grasped her heart? She felt a repeat of the feeling now as it struck her even in memory. She was naked before that stare- like her whole being had unfurled the moment Reina's presence approached. Like she saw herself outside her own body. Like Kumiko could die fulfilled.

Her fingers slid over the cool brass of her euphonium. The way the sensation prickled her skin made the air sharper, let it flow through her touching everything before she exhaled. It didn't come frantic but steady and coaxed.

She brought the mouthpiece to her lips and played. Her eyes closed amid the cicada calls in this familiar nook under the shadow of Kitauji's building. Her feet planted easy on this ground that'd received her sweat and blood without complaint season after season. She played.

She played a note for everything, for every breath gave rise to a memory. High notes lifted joyful moments like bubbles meeting the sky. Low notes spiraled their way up beside them in hesitation, but rising nevertheless. Soon the divide blurred and she no longer knew where the two separated.

Together they soared from her; the music a tapestry woven in on itself over and over. The feeing was older than her, older than anyone she knew living. Notes wandered, whole passages surged endless. The piece that wasn't a piece vibrated her blood. The sound rattled her bones. She played.

Her fingers burned exhaustion asking so much of the euphonium. She didn't dare stop. A little more and it'd take a true shape and-

From everywhere a calm that stood side by side with anticipation washed over her. There came the sound of footsteps. Reina turned the corner eyes widened by a hair and lips barely open. Her cheeks had gone flush coloring her like a human sized red crayon. Seeing her in shock drove Kumiko's mind frantic and buzzing until all she blurted out after scooting backward was-

"Do you have a fever?"

"........I could ask you the same thing. Here."

The water was cold and the bottle sweating condensation. Drinking it melted her adrenaline into lava. Her body aches as if scrubbed raw beneath the heat under her skin. The world spun just for an instant before Reina pressed a second water bottle against her neck.

Kumiko yelped, jumping out her chair and scrambling to keep her euphonium from crashing to the floor. Her shoe trips but in an instant Reina is behind her holding her upright. Water from the bottle Kumiko clutched splashed across their skirts and sleeves. When she registered the cold dripping down her knees the picture of what she'd done snapped into place. Before she could control it her voice stuttered out.

"T-T-thanks. Sorry for the mess."

"It's fine. Come and sit."

She let herself be guided by Reina's hand. When they sat side by side the world became right again. Kumiko still gasped and wheezed as she let Reina's fingers tidy her hair. Over time the motions had graduated from bumbling to meticulous; she couldn't clearly remember a time Reina hadn't been doing this anymore.

"What were you playing? I've never heard it."

The tone to her words made Kumiko's stomach sink a little. It wavered between curiosity and scolding; yet at the same time found itself half smothered by her quiet voice. Had she been at it that long? Her body certainly said more than either could.

"Nothing. Was just free-styling and stuff...practice."

"Practice doesn't almost give you heat stroke."

"Maybe not for you, but if I'm special too now then I have to catch up. If I don't there's no point."

Reina's laugh burst from her clear and free. Kumiko's eyes widened. She knew exactly what was coming. The way Reina's black hair draped down her shoulders, the way this angle teased at her nape, the crinkle of her eyes and wiggling eyebrows as her head was thrown back; everything was Reina, and it emptied her mind. She remained staring with her mouth slack like an idiot when she heard it. Now Reina's voice became love.

"You're awful." 'Don't you know we're already alike?'

Reina had finally deciphered Kumiko's new attitude three days ago. Perhaps. Almost. Maybe. Her hunch was solid. Now she needed proof. She wanted proof so bad her blood boiled. Voices leaked through the band room doors. Picking out Kumiko's laugh was child's play. It had a warm quality she couldn't describe even as it calmed her heart.

She entered and wrestled the surge of emotions she couldn't pick apart coursing through her. Her expression remained flat. Calm. Centered. Reina Kousaka did not roar at the world before an audience.

For whatever reason Kumiko had yet to notice her in their crowd of bandmates. She slowed her steps, kneeled near a wall pretending to search her bag. Kumiko sat with Midori and Hazuki today. Their conversation filled her ears, stoked her irrational fear. That fear which hung over her heavier than a headman's axe. That fear who's tendrils constricted her heart at its leisure.

'You wouldn't abandon me without a word would you?'

Childish, Reina Kousaka!

"That part is so tough. My mom's been putting dinner aside when I come home late."

"You always practice real hard Hazuki. It'll be worth it. That's what Nationals are all about! Don't you think so Kumiko?"

"Lately it sounds like my breath control's gotten stronger. When I play the sound is talking...or something like that. I wanna give it all I've got. So I'm glad we're going for it."

"Who're you now? Reina?"

They giggled even as they complimented her after. It didn't matter, her mind raced. What emotions had coursed now rose to a flood. She felt her heartbeat through her tongue. Pride? Kumiko felt...pride in playing...because of her? At the very least with her as a reason?

"Kousaka what're you doing?"

Yūko loomed over her causing Reina to smack into her pink headphone wire when she turned. She flinched and rubbed her nose. She looked up at her; her mind blanked.

"Checking my things."

"You must have a museum in there to be checking your bag for three minutes straight. You look super weird, what's going on?"

No quips or barbs loaded in response; nor could anything dampen the joy already swirling in her head. Besides, any qualms with Yūko were long outgrown. Why dwell on what was settled? Her body still tingled. Kumiko was proud because of her.

Yūko kept staring in anticipation as the song blaring through her headphones faded into another. Reina noticed that little twist of the mouth she did whenever she got impatient. Reina's lips moved to answer her but Yūko cut her off.

"Fine. You don't have to tell me. It better not divide the band though."

"...It's between me and Kumiko. No one else."

"Oh. In that case uh...if you want to talk to someone..."

Watching Yūko look away and scratch her chin awkwardly made her swallow a laugh. Instead she smiled and nodded. Maybe she should blame her mood but a calmness settled her back into reason. Like a bridge connecting, a hand outstretched, she grasped Yūko's kindness. It was good to be alone, not lonely.

"I will. Thanks."

Nights on Mount Daikichi were more natural for them than breathing. Cloaked in the silver and blue of moonlight they glowed at first glance. Countless lights below lit the city like a map of stars. Like gazing up at the sky on Tanabata to find Orihime and Hikoboshi. The cicadas buzzing filled in their silence that wasn't silence. They held their breath even as they breathed.

"When you think about improving, what does that really mean?"

Reina inched her pinky atop Kumiko's. Kumiko did the same. Her head went back as she watched the sky.

"Hmmm...probably a road. There's a place far away just enough for me to see. I don't know everything it has; I know because of that, chasing it makes me better. I used to think it had to stay straight once I started. Kinda stupid, 'cuz I take turns on it all the time. You?"

Reina paused a moment, face contemplative.

"There are stars. Most despite sitting in the sky are far from the moon. Most burn out. Some fall. Fewer get their chance beside the moon. Their light shines the longest. Their light inspires people."

"Pft hehe, there you go saying stuff like a book character again. That's just like you. Is there any room for the band up there?"

"...Maybe..."

"Is there any room for me?"

Without warning Reina leaned closer; her expression went stern. Her voice faltered though it tried being firm. It was the softest tone Kumiko had heard in her life.

"Don't ask stupid questions."

"Ok. I won't."

Their foreheads touched and the cool breeze turned warm on their skin.

"What do you think of the others then...past and present?"

Kumiko shut her eyes. Aoi. Haruka. Kaori. Natsuki. Shūichi. Nozomi. Mizore. Midori. Hazuki. Yūko...Asuka.

The faces of all who's paths intersected and footsteps left prints as guides, tethers connecting her to the universe, appeared in her mind. Each had drawn on a blank sheet of her soul. They were nowhere near her yet she felt them echo. They were her as she was them.

"Unrivaled under Heaven."

"Now who's talking like a novel character?"

"Cut it out." Kumiko replied through a chuckle.

Their eyes met. Reina smirked but only for a pause. She inched forward, asking a question. Kumiko shut her eyes again.

The kiss was unlike anything before and possibly after. An explosion of sensations though they didn't move a muscle. There was no time to remember it yet each second couldn't be forgotten. Feelings of melting, soaring, absolving, each melded and surpassed bliss. The result transcended any name they could give it. A release.

They pulled away. Both panted for air then examined each other as if for the first time. They no longer looked; they saw. They no longer knew, they understood.

Many questions were on the verge of pouring; instead Kumiko cupped Reina's cheeks and smiled. Her thumbs brushed off the forming tears. She didn't say a word when Reina fell into her arms. She simply rested a hand on her head and held her trembling body.

The moon's brightness peaked. If you asked her, it'd moved a little closer.

[willadisastercry]

Appendicitis in space...

tw: emetophobia, appendicitis symptoms described, surgery, anesthesia, anxiety.

Coran is secretly shitting himself when the scanner lets him know that this particular human condition requires actual surgery. Most serious injuries they sustained did, but most also could be mended in a pod. This one was an exception, though. Because nothing needed to be fixed, something needed to be removed.

Lance tumbled forward awkwardly as the simulator sputtered and powered down.

“What gives, Shiro? I had that round!”

“Oh yeah? Then that wasn’t me just watching you getting your ass handed to you? Right,” Shiro laughed and he began packing up the equipment that had been pulled out.

“That’s enough for today anyway. Good work, everyone.”

Lance couldn’t even find it in him to continue his protests as he leaned over on his knees to catch his breath while he waited for the cramping in his side to dissolve.

Training that morning had been rough for everyone. Shiro wanted to ensure that the lull in active missions did not leave his team thinking they could kick back. So they worked on hand to hand combat and trained on as hard of a level they could tolerate until they became proficient in whichever skill they were focusing on.

Everyone did pretty well. They all made varying degrees of progress, but progress nonetheless.

Well, everyone except for Lance.

And he was pissed.

So he determined not to quit until he improved from his navice standing with a short sword, running the simulation countless times but barely making a dent.

He fought sloppily, all desperation and no strategy. Actually he did have sort of a strategy if you counted fighting simply to survive and that was not how you were supposed to train, but Shiro gave up on driving that point home early on.

Because Lance was visibly off.

Shiro had chided him earlier for picking at his breakfast, that he would regret it once they began training, but he just shrugged.

Lance barely spoke the entire morning of which Shiro was very wary of given that he was usually the most energetic of the bunch in the mornings.

But he assured the older boy he was fine.

Shiro knew that he had been feeling crappy the last few days so at first he attributed the weird behavior to him probably still feeling gross.

So when he fought sloppily he knew it was because he was fatiguing much quicker than his teammates. That when he got hit by an obvious blow it was because his brain quite literally couldn’t keep up with the battle.

He’d start off okay only to spend the rest of the simulation narrowly feigning off every strike after the first few parries and getting properly clobbered by way too many.

Shiro was glad he was able to recognize his shoddy performance for what it was before he exacerbated the issue, making a mental note to check in on him later that day as he finished cleaning up.

The paladins stalked off to the showers, Hunk and Pidge engaging in a riveting conversation explaining to Keith how the castle’s ‘waste’ was plumbed and disposed of.

He was horrified to say the least.

Lance lagged behind, the exhaustion from the session making his limbs feel so very heavy. Not to mention the knot in his side had never gone away and the trek was only increasing his discomfort as the adrenaline high wore off.

But he resigned that he was just overly tired and that a hot shower would likely help.

And it did, for his aching muscles. But his abdomen was still taut, the steady pulse of discomfort making him a little queasy.

He detached the removeable shower head and held it on his side for a moment. The water was boiling and so the heat seemed to numb the spot, but the pain was still there.

He gingerly began probing the area as he tried to work out what exactly was hurting, thinking maybe he’d pulled a muscle.

His stomach had been feeling weird for the last couple of days, but it had never been a concentrated pain like this.

And as he pressed around he was able to pinpoint the exact spot that was smarting the most so he could rub out whatever the issue was.

But as soon as he put pressure on it he knew he’d messed up.

It wasn’t even the pressure so much as the lack of it because when he removed his fingers to work out the soreness he grunted loudly as pain erupted at the site.

He was so caught off guard by the sudden sharpness that took over the dull ache that he dropped the shower head and it clanged on the tile, just narrowly missing his foot when he hadn’t even made an effort to avoid it.

His vision went white for a second and he stumbled into the wall, mostly due to the intense fear that was now upon him, and it took a second for the blood rush to settle before he could hear his friends knocking on the door of the shower stall.

“—ance? Lance!”

“The fuck is going on in there...”

He took a shuddering breath and called out that he was fine, he was just tired.

“Are you like weak in the knees tired or what? Because if you pass out in there and we have to help you while you’re butt ass naked, I swear—“

“I’m not going to pass out,” he groaned as he leaned his head back against the wall with a hand hovering carefully on his side.

“Okay, you’ve just been in there forever.”

“And Shiro said to keep an eye on you for suspicious behavior.”

“He’s not a suspect, Pidge, he’s just stubborn.”

“Well I am very much okay, so you can tell Shiro that and leave me alone.”

“Jeez—“

“Damn, well if you take a header you’ve gotten your wish, you’re on your own.”

Hunk and Pidge started off and Lance sighed, about to apologize when his side twinged, stealing a more pained sound from his throat.

He leaned his head back and tried to breathe through it, the worst muscle cramp of his life, once again not really being able to pay attention to what else was happening.

The pain wasn’t spreading, it was intensifying. Twisting and burning under each harsh pant, like someone was holding a fire poker to him and moving it around.

It was making his head swim and his stomach churn. He had been nauseous all morning and hadn’t eaten, so he was very confused as to how he could possibly need to throw up now, but there was no questioning it when he almost choked on the saliva rushing to fill his mouth.

He didn’t know when he’d grabbed the towel thrown over the door and tied it around his waist or when he’d made a break for the toilets across the room, he just knew he was moving and that he wouldn’t make it there.

And then he was hunching over one of the many sinks heaving, his side in a fiery protest with each contraction in his stomach.

The blood rush was back in his ears, so he didn’t know that Keith was talking to him or that he was even there until he was hitting his back when he couldn’t breathe in between gags and almost choked on his own sick. The shock of the hit allowed his stomach to break its cycle of relentless clenching.

He spit up the last of the bile that made its way up his throat and ducked his head further between his shoulders as he leaned on the sink while he caught his breath.

His lungs ached and he was dizzy. Everything seemed to hurt from that, all temporarily dulling the bite of the worsening throb in his side.

“Ok, what the fuck was that?” he could hear Keith asking after a minute.

He started to speak, to give an explanation, but he didn’t even know what to say, he wasn’t sure what was wrong. But when he went to talk his side pulsed rather aggressively and he was instantly gagging again.

Not much came up this time though as his stomach had already divulged itself of all its contents.

After he calmed back down, he looked up at himself through the mirror.

He was really pale except for a splash of red across his cheeks, his muscles tight and straining as he suffered through his discomfort and the pain, skin glistening in a mix of sweat and water.

And then he found Keith’s pointed gaze in it.

“Should I get Coran? You look like shit.”

“Ah—uhyh huh...” he struggled to formulate his words through his ragged breaths but got there eventually.

“Ye-yeah, please...”

“Okay, you good here or do you need to sit?”

“I-I’m gonna put... something on,” he stated before pushing himself up from the sink uneasily. Once he was up straight he wobbled a little and Keith grabbed his arm, but he shook him off saying he just needed a second and waited for the swirling black dotting his vision to disappear before heading for his pile of clothes on the bench.

Keith stayed next to him the entire way, making sure he got there without splitting his head open, more worried now then he was when Lance was choking on his own puke.

But he hid it well for the most part, except when he was actually being really nice. That was his tell.

“I’ll be back before you know it. Don’t try and get to the toilet if you need to yak again, wouldn’t want anything to happen to that amazing brain of yours—“

“Hey...”

“Kidding, i’ll be really quick though. And seriously just stay there.”

“Yup, not going anywhere...” he assured, returning his hand to hover over the fire that felt like it was burning a hole in his side, the other waving Keith off.

Lance pulled his hoodie from the pile first. His skin was covered in goose bumps from how cold he was and he didn’t have the energy to put his entire post workout sweat suit on so it would have to do for now.

He shrugged it on carefully, it took a while because lifting his right arm up aggravated his side, but once it was on he felt better. He was still really cold and his hair was still wet so that wasn’t helping.

Pants next. Well underwear first. He found his boxer briefs in the pile and got to his feet wearily. He was still really dizzy and so he decided to proceed with caution and moved over to lean against the wall for this.

He took a deep breath and leaned over to put his feet through. It hurt. The orientation made his head pound dangerously and he straightened up only to feel a twinge from his side.

Fuck, he remembered thinking as he leaned heavily on the wall. But he very much needed to have underwear on when Coran came back, so he tried again.

This time he just dropped his arms down in front of him, keeping his torso straight as he raised one leg at a time through each leg hole.

Success. He breathed a sigh of relief and released his towel then started for the sweat shorts but his body did not like that.

He was none too kindly reminded of how lightheaded and dizzy he still was in that moment and he staggered forward, his foot catching a wet spot on the floor and the momentum of the error took him to the ground hard.

He landed very much on his ass but the fall jolted through his side like he’d gotten shot. If he thought it was on fire before, he was very wrong. This heat was excruciating and nauseating and blinding and gosh it was hard to breathe.

He hadn’t known when he’d laid down but he was suddenly very aware he was writhing on his side, feet kicking and searching for purchase on the tile as he arched through the pain piercing his abdomen.

And then there was a shadow over him. It sounded like robots were talking over him, their cold hands gripping his shoulders and face and turning him to lie on his back.

He had just been so cold but their hands felt so much colder because he was not aware he had started sweating. That wasn’t the only thing coming back to him, so was the nausea rippling through his stomach just as intensely as the fire raged.

He tried to focus his eyes, tried to see the faces over him. It was hard with how everything seemed to be spinning but eventually he could make them out.

“C-Coran, please... p-please”

“I will my boy, but you’ve got to tell me what’s wrong. What’s hurting?”

His hand moved from scratching at the tile to tug on his sweatshirt pocket.

“Where on your stomach? Show me,” Coran ordered as he lifted Lance’s sweatshirt up to his chest.

From the outside everything looked perfectly fine, aside from his abnormal parlor.

So Coran was dubious when he watched the sick boy move his hand cautiously over his side right beside and a little lower down than his belly button, his fingertips barely brushing the warm skin but producing a stiff breath anyway.

“Hm,” Coran mused, muttering a quick ‘forgive me boy’ before he pressed down on and around the spot.

Lance’s scream was drowned by his gag and then Keith was beside Coran, his hands tilting Lance’s face to the side and then pulling his torso that way as well. He thrashed and tried to wriggle out of their grips as he struggled, the pressure of being on the side that was on fire too much as his gut wrenched up nothing but yellow.

“Calm down Lance, you’re okay!”

“Breathe boy, you’re working yourself up and it’ll only make it worse. I think your appendix has ruptured, we’ll need to get you to the infirmary immediately...”

He wasn’t sure what was said after he that, his memory of getting to the infirmary was hazy because of how much it fucking hurt.

He was vaguely aware of curling up in a wheelchair, one hand clutching his stomach and another barely holding open a vomit bag up to his mouth. Nothing was coming up then except for saliva.

He didn’t even remember being lifted into a bed in the infirmary because the movement had unsettled his stomach once more, stealing his breath while he struggled against the vice wrapping around his empty stomach.

They had to put a cannula around his nose to get him extra air while he dry heaved, but he only calmed down after he quite literally almost stopped breathing and Keith ignored Coran’s protest to hit him on the back like before.

He was also sort of aware he had started crying at some point and was reminded of that when Coran was pressing onto his side once more.

At this point he didn’t even have the energy to struggle, he just continued to tremble violently under the touch as fresh tears spilled down his face.

“Hey, shh you’ll feel much better soon,” a new voice assured as they ran their hands through his damp hair. He leaned into the touch and saw that both belonged to Shiro.

“Shit, if I had known you had freaking appendicitis I would never have made you train today,” he laughed sadly.

He shut his eyes closed at that and tried to breathe through the waves of nausea against his pounding headache all topped off by the fire poker in his side.

“Coran what’s the estimated time in the pod for this, you think?” Keith asked as the others were just arriving.

“I’m afraid he cannot go into a pod just yet,” Coran said gravely, not once lifting his face from his tablet.

“Lance!”

“Woah, what the quiznak happened?!”

“He’s so freaking pale, oh my god.”

“It’s his appendix,” Keith offered.

“The scans show that the organ has completely ruptured and is leaking into his abdomen. It is something that can only be remedied with—with surgery.”

“Oh, Coran... is that—something we can even do here?”

“It’s going to have to be.”

The time between when Shiro explained what was going to be happening to Lance and when they were about to put him under went impossibly slow and too fast all at once.

He would gag occasionally but nothing came up with it. They had since attached a bunch of wires all over him and put an IV in his arm that was giving him pain medicine and antibiotics.

It seemed to help a lot with his discomfort and he eased into the bed after they finally kicked in, his body relaxing for the first time in a while.

“I’m n’gonna feel an’thing right?” He asked Coran, his words sloshing together from the mix of utter exhaustion and drugs.

“Of course not my boy, this will take care of that as will the pain medicine,” he assured as he held a weird altean breathing mask in his hands.

“I’m going to put it over your nose and mouth now, just breathe normally and we’ll do a little count down while you fall asleep.”

Coran motioned to place the mask on him, but he turned away from it.

Lance looked around wildly as if he couldn’t see the multiple friendly faces looking at him and the machines recording his heart rate began to pick up, and then was reaching for someone, anyone.

“We’re here! We’re all right here,” Keith said taking up his hand with a wire attached to his finger, Shiro was grabbing the other.

“I-I don-I don’t”

“You’ve got to buddy, you’re really sick,” Shiro soothed as he ran his hands through his hair once more. The touch calmed him only somewhat, his breath hitching once more as he continued to worry.

“I k-know, but I-I’m scared I w-won’t...”

He was crying again.

“Won’t what buddy?” Hunk asked tenderly as his hand fell to Lance’s leg.

“What if I d-don’t wake up,” he managed before his breathing took a turn and Coran rushed to go find a remedy for it, not quite understanding it was mostly him just being anxious.

Pidge was pushing past all the bodies looming over the bed and sufficiently blocking her from being able to help Lance, but once she shoved Shiro forward she was scrambling onto the bed and nuzzling herself against Lance’s good side.

He gasped at her presence but seemed to melt into it soon after he realized what she was doing. She pulled at the hand clutching Shiro’s and placed it on her back so he could feel her calm breaths and ground himself.

“Slow and deep, you’re okay,” she urged and leaned her head against his chest, his sweatshirt was still on but folded up under itself to expose his stomach, a circle had been drawn around the location of his appendix.

He leaned his head against hers and breathed slow shaking breaths.

“Coran it’s alright, he’s calming down on his own,” Keith urged just as Coran turned up with some strange altean herb that was purple and emitting some sort of low cooing sound.

“You’re going to be just fine, Lance. Coran would never let anything bad happen to you.”

“Yeah, and if you feel like taking an extra long snooze we’ll be here to rudely wake you up like we always do,” Pidge added and she could feel Lance relax under her weight.

“I’m s-sorry for being so mean earlier, guys—“

“Shh, no more saying ‘i’m sorry’. Just accept the cuddle and zip it.”

Lance could almost summon a laugh but the pain in his side prevented it.

“Let’s try again with the sleepy time mask, yeah?”

“Yeah...”

He reached for Shiro’s hand again and all of the other hands on him tried to soothe him as best they could as he tensed when the mask descended on his face.

“We’ve gotcha bud.”

“You’ll be just fine Lance.”

“Nothing bad can happen to when you’re being cuddled so viscuously.”

“Okay, let’s start counting back from 10.”

“10, 9—“

“Easy, count slower. You’re alright.”

A second hand was on his head, pushing his hair back and trailing behind his ear. He closed his eyes at the sensation, it was something his mamá would do.

“9... 8... 7...”

“That’s it number three, easy...”

Around 5 he stopped counting. He felt his body becoming heavier and heavier as he breathed through the strange mask, he could feel the gentle but firm touches of his teammates, the only constant as he breathed deeper and deeper, a pleasant haze falling over him.

He could feel the level in Pidge’s breath, and tried to match it, his eyelids feeling so heavy they were hard to keep open.

And then he felt light.

The last thing he saw before his eyes fluttered shut was Allura and Hunk smiling while they said something that was lost on him.

He didn’t care though, he didn’t need to hear it to know what they meant.

He remembered feeling really safe in that moment.

He wasn’t scared anymore.