#the whole thing was actually meant to be a prank but turned into something a little bigger

[riordanverseaddict]

Hello! You have been gifted the brain dump bug! Use when you want an excuse to talk about something that's been rotating in your brain!

So in 11th grade many new students have shifted from different school to our school. (For context we are a group of 4 girls) so I just somehow remembered that when I went to school today, and me and my friends were just roaming in corridors during out break, we spotted the girl whose pictures we used to commit identity theft 💀(it was partial identity theft. It's a long story I might share it sometime. Nothing went wrong, it was just for a prank and it led to bigger events. We didn't even plan to use face claims.)

Yeah so those 9 months have been rotating in my brain since last 3 hours and I'm enjoying my memories 🙃

Oh and the girl's picture we used? She is a fucking bully. I've seen her bully 5th and 8th graders. She's been suspended twice for this. And she has done worse than use selfies of someone as face claims (which btw she had posted on instagram on her public account)

[cheemscakecat]

Fun/Interesting details in Expiration Date

Heavy knows that Pauling is calling them, and lets Scout be the one to answer. Also, road safety because he’s not distracted driving.

Medic is so hyped about tumor bread.

Hoovy smelling the sandwich and deciding it’s safe to eat [or that it doesn’t matter at this point].

Pyro standing like that. He don’t know what’s going on, but he’ll still be polite. Also, Sniper just chillin in the back with a poker face the whole time.

Medic smiles at Soldier as they walk past. Engineer’s got that Conhager death-cheating focus at the moment.

Spy’s eyes widen angrily when he realizes it’s Scout at the door and then he smirks like; “Oh hi! Twelve hours was enough time for you to get bored of my absence, then?”, not expecting a sincere apology [maybe one orchestrated by the other teammates, but not Scout].

There was some vitriol behind that “***”, look at his nose. He does not want Scout to gloat, try to prank him again, or give a fake apology. And that’s valid, since the team dying is something Scout should have taken seriously, and the last wishes handled with respect. He crossed a line that Spy doesn’t take lightly.

Dad, I threwed up. But in all seriousness, that’s the “My family is dysfunctional, and I don’t know how to be emotionally honest with people” posture.

See my bucket scene analysis for more on these two.

He didn’t say “You’re terrible with girls” in a snide or smug tone, he said it with like actual parental concern. “Scout, no you have three days! Do you want to die rejected or die before you can enjoy being together? No. Don’t do this to yourself.”

Look at that cup, he did not need a refill. This fake smirk and disinterest is Spy’s way of checking how serious Scout is about this last wish and taking his advice. And when he goes “This never leaves this room” Spy perks up.

Medic was taking a sample of bread tumor puss [or injecting it with something].

They have a whole entire wrestling ring, how did I never notice that?

This is one of those multiple choice questions where you can choose more than one answer and have it be right. But the chicken in combination with the other options looses you points, and just taking the chicken is like the token wrong answer.

Spy sighs when he realizes Scout chose just the chicken. Like chile, I gave you multiple options and you still went with your go-to that doesn’t work!

This room has a gym floor, which implies Spy took a bunch of fancy stuff from one of his rooms just for this date training. Also shoutout to the other teammates for helping with this.

Okay, so most of these decorations came from Pyro, who Scout is terrified of. Archimedes came from Medic, who Scout also doesn’t want to make angry, and the grass cutouts are potentially part of the base camouflage. But that disco ball? That belongs to Scout, he just doesn't want anyone to know he’s real into that. [The team would not judge, but his brothers would, so.]

Man when he gets his heart broken, I hope he finds the right girl for him. He deserves better than Pauling always making excuses to turn him down instead of telling him like it is.

Foreshadowing Solly being romantical towards Zhanna. Look at this content man.

Spy holding his knife like this. There’s no reason for it to be a threat, so he’s just genuinely in the habit of doing this while listening. Or while nervous, which also makes sense.

[hoshiina]

pairing: hoshina soushirou x gn!reader (no prns)

request: a reader that keeps messing around w him and at some point they mention they like him but then hoshina thinks theyre just playing... ..but they r not and he doesnt quite get it at first because hes so used to them joking around and then he ends up overthinking the whole thing until reader actually goes up to him to kiss him (or hug him very tight!!!!!!!! or both maybe!!!!!!)

maybe he liked them too but that thought didnt sit right with him because he doesnt believe hes worthy of something like that

notes: mentions the reader's face "flushing", reader is rather lively/outgoing, reader is not a fan of horror and is more a fan of romance, reader is a hoshina stan, one part is inspired by a scene in wakaba no komorebi, omg why are there so many notes I'm so sorry TY FOR THE REQ!!

wc: 2800

A new day, a new chance for you to shoot your shot at none other than your vice-captain of the third division.

You were always messing with him. This ranged from embarrassing pranks a grade school boy would menace his crush with, all the way to borderline hitting on him. There wasn’t a single day you’d forget to remind him he was stunning, and you’d always be bragging about him to the officers in the first division, regardless of the fact that you had absolutely nothing to do with the things you were bragging about. Simply put, you were loud about Hoshina.

Yet, every day, he'd brush you off and tell you to get to work. You didn't let that mind you much though, because you could tell he wasn't actually upset. You liked him unconditionally, and as long as you weren't actually bothering him, you couldn't care less if your feelings weren't returned. Well, you did care, but that wasn't going to stop how you felt for him.

Now, you said all of that, but naturally, you were still scared to just put your feelings out there so you hadn’t actually told Hoshina you liked him. You assumed he knew, but if you said it out loud, you’d have to hear an answer. And that, you were not ready for.

However, you weren’t going to stop messing with him anytime soon. Hoping one day he’d actually fall for you and one day you’d have the courage to properly tell him how you felt.

You were in the cafeteria with the rest of the division, having your breakfast while mindlessly scrolling through your phone, when you saw a post about a new movie in theatres. Immediately your mind went to possibly inviting Hoshina and you scrolled right back up, trying to find out what it was about. Horror. You sighed and continued to scroll. Horror was absolutely not your favourite.

“Oh, is it finally out?” you heard a voice from behind you say— your favourite voice say.

“Would you like to go?” you asked, whipping your head back to see none other than Hoshina Soushirou. Just the sight of him and your heart would flutter. How you loved him. “Together? Us? Just us? You and me?”

“Oh, like we have time to go,” he said.

“Man,” you said, knowing he’d say that. The entire defence force in general had been a lot busier ever since the appearance of so many identified grade kaijus. However, it did make you wonder if that meant he would if he did have time. No, he’s just declining your invitation politely, you’d tell yourself, bringing you back to your senses.

You’ve done this since always, and you do this every time without fail. Whenever a new shop had opened, or a new movie to watch had come to theatres, you'd always shoot your shot— hoping he'd say yes one day. Yes to a date.

Although you were used to getting turned down, it still wasn’t the best feeling. Recently, you've been letting it get to you far more than you used to. Maybe after all these times, the rejection did start to have an affect on you. Maybe you were falling for him even harder recently, or maybe you were starting to hope for your feelings to be returned.

Perhaps a relaxing day at the movies was exactly what you needed. Maybe you’d ask for a day off next week— just to go watch a movie you liked.

So you did exactly that, you filed a form to Captain Ashiro, requesting a day off anytime the next week. Preferably on a Tuesday, because movie tickets were cheaper on Tuesdays.

A few days later, you were called over to her office. You assumed it was just to let you know if you could have your day off and if so, when it was. To your surprise, when you walked in, it wasn't Ashiro but rather Hoshina there, working away.

“Hoshina?” you asked, pleasantly surprised. “I didn't expect to see you today.”

“You didn't?” he asked, genuinely perplexed. “But this is my office?”

“Your office? I thought it was Captain Ashiro’s?” you said.

“It used to be, but I took it over a little while back,” he said. “It's just a lot faster for me to do the paperwork.”

“Oh… I see,” you said, rather surprised you weren't already aware. There was a moment of silence.

“It was rather recently that I had officially started working here,” he said, somehow noticing that you were dejected. Oh, how did he always know exactly what to say? You were never going to get over him at this rate. “Anyways, you requested a day off next week?”

“Um… yes,” you said. Now you felt a little awkward about going to a movie alone, and you really hoped he wouldn't realize where you were going.

“On a Tuesday… are you going to see that movie after all?” he asked and he noticed you stiffened a little, so he immediately followed with, “Sorry, you don't have to answer that. You're absolutely free to take that day off.”

“I am,” you said. Half a lie, because there was no way you were watching a horror movie, let alone by yourself. But you were going to the movies. That was true. “It's been a while since I watched a movie in theatres, I realized.”

“I've never gone alone actually,” he said, imagining you were planning to go alone. “Or are you going with someone?”

“No, I'll be by myself,” you said, but instinctively you asked him out again. It was practically in your subconsciousness to do so. “Unless you'd like to tag along?”

There was a long pause before he said anything, and his unreadable expression only made the silence feel longer. You were expecting a quick rejection again, so the silence was absolutely killing you— you hadn't expected it one bit.

“Actually, I'd like to,” he said. “If that's okay with you, of course.”

You couldn't believe your ears. What did he say? You couldn't have possibly heard that right. What had he said?

On the other hand, he had no idea why he said yes. Why after turning you down all these times? Why now? He had turned down every offer of yours because he knew you were just messing around. You didn’t feel about him the way he felt about you. He knew this because you had done this since the moment you joined, and you couldn’t have liked him back then— you hadn't even know him yet.

But still, he hoped you were serious.

“You're joking,” you said.

“Were you?” he asked. This must be why he said yes. He wanted to know so badly— he was rather exhausted of playing the guessing game with you.

“Not at all,” you said. You thought he had known, but perhaps not. “I've never been. Not for a moment.”

“Then, let's go,” he said with his poker face on, but he was a little shaken. He didn't think you were at all serious, let alone that serious.

“Hoshina, is this a date?” you asked, and you could tell your cheeks were flushed. However, there wasn't much to be embarrassed about at this point, so you might as well have asked before you drove yourself insane.

“Okay…” you said, but you were spaced out. You had no idea what had prompted this all of a sudden, but this was the moment you had been waiting for, for your whole life. Yes to a date.

A date? Was it a date?

“Would you like it to be?” he asked. You had no idea what he was thinking.

“Yes,” you said. “Of course…”

“Then, let's go on a date,” he said. “On Tuesday, at 2pm. I'll pick you up from your unit and we'll go and watch a movie.”

It was yes to a date. A date with none other than the love of your life. You were going on a date with Hoshina Soushirou.

You left the office soon after, thanking him as you left, and you were lost in thought. You truly felt like the world around you had stopped, but at the same time, the time passing was a blur. You thought it’d be forever before your long awaited day, and you’d have plenty of time to calm yourself down and prepare, but it had rolled around before you knew it.

You put on what you personally thought was your best date outfit, but you had no idea if he’d like it. You really hoped he would. Now, you were sitting around, waiting for him to come pick you up. It was still 10 till 2, but he was always ahead of schedule— he hated making people wait, so he was always early. A few minutes later, you heard a few footsteps and some rustling outside your door, and you were pretty sure it was him. You waited for a knock, but it wouldn’t come.

Quickly, you opened the door and it was him, waiting by your door with his phone in his hand, opened to your messages with him.

“Oh,” he said. “Sorry, were you waiting?”

“No,” you said, immediately. “I just finished getting ready. Why didn’t you knock?”

“Well, I’m early,” he said. “Didn’t want to rush you.”

Gosh, you were on a date. With him. You had actually never seen him in anything other than what he wears at the defense force, and as much as you liked that training shirt he had on, he looked so incredibly gorgeous today. And this was just for you. He wore a black corduroy turtleneck, and a simple long coat to go over it. You were still so lost, how had you gotten to this point in the first place?

“You’re stunning today,” he said to you as he smiled a little and you swear you felt your heartrate spike. Did he even know what he was doing?

“Not to mean you aren’t usually…” he said immediately. “Sorry, I never say the right things when they count, do I?”

“No, I thought my heart was going to stop,” you said, frankly. This was the way you always were, there was no point in getting flustered all of a sudden. “You’re gorgeous everyday, but even more so today.”

“Well, I’d have to be glad our date is today then,” he said.

While the two of you walked to the theatre, it was rather quiet. Far more quiet than you usually were. Suddenly, you were so nervous, and there was nothing to say to him. So many questions filled your head but none of them felt appropriate to ask. You felt like the spell would break if you took one wrong breath. You wanted to know why he was here with you today. Why he said yes all of a sudden, why he took a precious day off to go on a date with you, and what he was thinking when he said yes. You wanted to know how he felt about you, or at least how he felt about this date.

“I’ll go get us tickets,” you said, as soon as you got to the theatre. “Please pick a snack and a drink in the meantime, I’ll get the tickets quick.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, I’m getting the tickets, and the drinks and snacks, for that matter,” he said. “Besides, we haven’t even decided on a movie yet.”

“We haven’t?” you asked. “I thought we were watching the movie that came out the other day?”

“What? Why would we?” he asked, genuinely confused. “You don’t even like horror." He pointed at another poster on the wall. "Why don’t we watch that one? Romance is more your type of thing, isn’t it?”

You thought you’d cry. If there was one thing that was worrying you about this date, it was the movie. Horror really wasn’t for you, and you weren’t sure if you could watch the movie without showing it.

“How did you know?” you asked.

“It’s obvious,” he said. “You’ve never asked me out to a horror movie, have you?”

Just how did he notice? “But didn’t you want to watch that one?” you asked.

“Please, I can watch that whenever, on my own,” he said. “I’m here with you today. I’d be a horrible date to make you watch it with me.”

“Thank you,” you said, starstruck. “At least, let me pay for it then?”

“No way,” he said. “I’m taking you out today.”

“No, I asked you out,” you said.

“Don’t care!” he said and went off to get the tickets and snacks.

You were in love with him, and you were going to tell him. You were sure he knew, but you had to tell him properly. It wasn’t even that you were hoping for him to return your feelings, you just wanted to tell him.

You thought you wouldn’t be able to focus on the movie at all, but you were, strangely enough. You were watching a cliche romance movie that couldn’t possibly be about you and Hoshina, no matter how much you tried to stretch the narrative, but you loved it. It was a sweet movie, a type that you've always loved, and you were watching it with the one you always loved. You couldn’t be happier.

So as soon as the movie was over, you went for it.

“Hoshina, I love you so much,” you said, and kissed him. On the lips.

His eyes were wide and his cheeks were faintly flushed. You weren’t expecting that, not even for a moment.

“You’re serious?” he asked.

You were confused, did he think you were playing around all this time? “Yes, of course,” you said. “I’ve loved you for forever.”

“Since… when?” he asked.

“Since the day you saved me, 3 years ago,” you said, immediately. It was like you had waited all your life to answer this. “You definitely don’t remember, but I remember like yesterday.”

He wouldn’t reply, but he was still looking at you surprised, so you continued on.

“I thought I had told you this actually. Not the part that I liked you, but the part that you saved me. I joined because of you, Hoshina,” you said. “Yes, you’re my vice-captain and the love of my life, and I’m one of your officers, but you were my hero and I was your biggest fan for all this time.”

Something in him shifted. It felt like someone had woken him up from a weird haze, and showed him how much colour there is to the world. You joined for him. Not for Mina, not for Gen, but him. To you, he was a hero. To the one he treasured most, he was irreplaceable.

“I love you too,” he said, with the softest smile you had ever seen from him. He was serious, you could tell.

“No way,” you said.

“I do,” he said, but he could tell that you were a little skeptical, or at least puzzled. “I love the way you work hard, the way you joke around, but actually care so much. I love the way you give everything your all. I love the way you always smile when you see me— it makes me feel so special. You make my day, absolutely every single day.”

It took everything in you to stop yourself from sobbing, but that made Hoshina laugh. He kissed you this time, and tears rolled down your cheeks anyway.

Wiping your cheeks with the pad of his thumb, he kissed you on the forehead.

“I absolutely adore you.”

BONUS:

Later that day, you were going to open up the one cardboard box you still hadn’t unpacked. The one filled with your posters and merch of Hoshina you had collected through these years. You were hiding them, because you thought it’d be a little too weird if you had those just hanging around, but finally, they’d see the sunlight. You would never have even imagined this day when you had those in your room, dreaming of him. If only you could tell your past self— just how thrilled you would’ve been. Well, not that you were any less thrilled now.

The next time Hoshina came to visit you in your room, he was utterly flustered, it was absolutely adorable. He couldn’t believe people actually bought the merch they sold of him, let alone put them up— and in the room of his loved one nonetheless. But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it, because it made him so incredibly happy.

He was thrilled that you did, in fact, love him the way he loved you.

[filmbyjy]

ARE WE REALLY ENEMIES?

PAIRING: enhypen x fem!reader

GENRE: enemies to lovers trope. angst & fluff

WARNING: a little suggestive on some parts for the hyung line. mentions of throwing up on jake’s part (no, the reader is not pregnant)

WORD COUNT: 10.2K words (because what the shit)

a/n: i wanted to write this for fun but i really also love the concept of enemies to lovers. let me know if you'd like me to turn any of these into actual full fics!

— placing this in case the read more messes up —

⭐️ LEE HEESEUNG

PAIRING: basketball star player!heeseung x manager!reader

it was tormenting to have someone constantly annoy you during class, lunch and basically the whole day. you have never wanted to choke someone alive until you entered the first year of high school.

the said person you'd like to choke alive was named lee heeseung. you swore on your life that he was actually satan in disguise out to torture you.

like any other day, you were about to settle down on your seat. only problem was that, you develop a huge trust issue before you settled down. you see, since heeseung has decided to devote his time to ruin your life...it meant he liked to pull pranks on you. well, pranks was something he'd say but you'd say it's more of a punishment in some way.

your 'favourite prank' heeseung did was the water bucket trick where he placed the bucket of water on top of the door. you went home with soaking wet hair by the way. it got you so mad that you gave heeseung the silent treatment the day after and he did not like it. he kept annoying you the whole day by trying to get your attention.

other than him being your enemy, he was also the resident hot guy or popular boy of your school. which meant, yes, there were girls constantly around him. he played basketball and had joined the school's team quickly due to his talent and height. you cursed him because he also loved to make fun of your height.

since heeseung was on the school's team, they consistently win games against other schools. it wasn't much of surprise since they also had other great players like sim jaeyun or nishimura riki for example. the team was just great from the start. you just so happen to have the 'pleasure' of being the team's assistant manager which was why...

"babe, pass the bottle of water." heeseung demands.

you rolled your eyes, "since when was i your little water boy? also would you quit calling me babe?"

"no, I won’t stop and since you became the assistant manager. now, pass me a bottle."

you grumbled and shoved a bottle into his hand before settling down on the bench. jake slides next to you and throws his arm around you.

"pretty, could you help me?" jake pouts.

"yes, sim?”

"i need a patch on my neck, it's hurting."

you sighed, "do you need a massage or something?"

"yes please." he gives his little puppy eyes.

"turn around-"

heeseung grabs jake's arm and pulls him away. jake whines. you shook your head and just went to check their training and match schedules. training went as per usual, you knew you had to stay until the boys left so you sat down on the bleachers waiting for them to come back to the hall.

"everyone here?" the coach asks. the boys looked amongst themselves.

"heeseung isn't here."

"where is our star player?"

"i think he is still in the showers."

"well, someone go get him."

"the thing is...he won't come out unless (name) drags him out."

you pointed at yourself, "me? you want me to go into the boy's shower room? what if he's naked. i am not risking that chance."

"(name), i am so sorry but since heeseung won't go out if you don't drag him...could you-" you groaned at the coach's words.

"fine, i'll go. only because everyone here needs rest and get home." you say. you entered the locker room.

"yah, lee. you better get out here now. everyone is waiting for you."

“lee heeseung?” you called out once more.

but you don’t hear any shower turned on. you could feel someone standing right behind you before arms wrapped around you. you gasp and turned back to the person.

of course, it was heeseung with that stupid (ly handsome) smirk. you rolled your eyes.

“get changed and get back to the court. everyone is waiting for you.” you were ready to walk out but heeseung tugs your wrist and pulls you back.

“let’s go out together, pretty.”

“I am not waiting for you to change. you’re only wearing a towel. do you even have underwear on under that?”

“wanna find out?” he smirks. you pushed him a little.

“no thanks. wouldn’t like to see something that has been inside someone else.” you said in disgust.

“then would you like to reset it by putting it in you?” he steps forward.

you gagged, “no thanks, lee.”

he chuckles before deciding to change his clothes. your eyes unknowingly trailed on his arms, his back, just his body in general. you caught yourself and blushed before looking away. however, heeseung knew you were blatantly staring at him. which was why he had a smirk playing on his lips as he changes.

“alright, i’m done.” he swings his arm around your shoulder. you rolled your eyes and pushed it off before walking off.

that was simply the dynamic of the both of you. however, you couldn’t lie and say you weren’t attracted to him. heeseung was an attractive guy with a shitty personality which you somehow fell in love with. you hated that you developed this stupid teen crush on heeseung.

“coach? we need to talk.” you say.

“what’s up?”

“there is going to be an issue if we play minjun in the starting line up.”

“what’s wrong?”

“he umm got into a fight.”

the coach sighs, “fine, then who could we replace him with?”

“siwoo. however, as you know…heeseung and him kinda have a hostile history.”

“right. maybe we could change up the usual tactic we use. think we should put heeseung on the bench first?”

“it’s possible but the consequences is that it may be risky. our opponents this time are really scary and only heeseung could handle them.”

“what do you think, (name)? should we take the risk?”

“I think we should.”

you wished you hadn’t mutter those words. now, heeseung was giving you those stanky eyes as you went with your day. you opened your locker to put some stuff but it was abruptly shut.

“I’ll cut to the chase. why am I benched for the first quarter of the tournament?” heeseung says.

“minjun got into a fight. we need to change the tactic, I think it’s better to let this opponent not expect the change.”

“bullshit, you know it’s best to keep the same tactic. we play the best when i’m not benched.”

you turned to face heeseung, “then would rather play with siwoo the whole time?”

“I would rather he doesn’t play at all.”

“then too bad, it’s best for you to not play in the first quarter.”

“but (name).”

“heeseung.” he stops. “please, just listen to me this once. these opponents are not just your regular playtoys that you can beat. they are higher level and I just-” you paused.

“forget it. just please listen to me. don’t complain anymore.” you say. heeseung stands there stunned as he watches you leave.

match day. it was the most extreme match that Decelis Academy had played. even jake was getting worn out. both you and your coach had decided to keep heeseung on the bench for longer. heeseung was itching to play but you knew if he went in now, he’d get hurt.

that’s right. you decided to change the whole thing because you were afraid of heeseung getting hurt. you didn’t want to admit it but you cared about him a lot more than it seems. your coach subs in people after people, none that were heeseung. it was the 3rd quarter of the game.

you were checking up on the tactics and calculated everything. finally, an idea popped into your head as you spot an opportunity. you whispered to the referee and told them to sub in heeseung. you waited until the ball was out. before that, you settled next to heeseung. he never once talked to you during the match.

“we are letting you play.” you say. heeseung turns to you.

“after the first half? you promised me after 1 quarter.” he scoffs.

“heeseung, didn’t you see nishimura get annihilated by the opponents?”

“so? we could be winning by now if I played 30 minutes ago.”

you clenched your fist, “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“oh really? would you care that much if I get hurt? we aren’t exactly on the best terms.”

“would you believe me if I said yes? that I care if you get hurt? because I do.” your eyes was glossy. you held back any tears that were about to fall.

“just shut the fuck up.” heeseung says before stands up and gets ready to be subbed in. you let out the breath you were holding. a tear slips out and you wiped it away.

as heeseung gets subs in, you excused yourself and left the hall. you walked over to the school’s garden and settled on the bench. you didn’t know why you even cared. why was it so hard for you to take the hint that heeseung hated you. maybe you should have just let him play.

you wiped the last tears that strayed on your cheeks and went back to the game. you had to watch and review the match. however, it was hard to watch it while heeseung played. thankfully, the match ends.

once again, Decelis Academy wins with ease with heeseung being the top scorer of the match. the whole time as the their coach debriefs, heeseung stares at you. you ignored it.

“all right, good job boys!”

“coach lets get something to eat! after all, we couldn’t have done it without you and manager (name)!” yunho says.

the coach turns to you, “would you like to have dinner with the team?”

you smiled weakly before shaking your head, “you guys go ahead. I don’t feel too well. enjoy, oh and send pictures in the groupchat.”

“aww come on, noona.” ni-ki pouts. “it wouldn’t be fun without you.”

“i’m sorry ni-ki, I wish I could go.”

“aww okay, noona. oh and thank you for helping with this!” ni-ki points to the bandaged up knee. you smiled.

“any time, your legs were bleeding. why wouldn’t I patch that up.” you grabbed your bag. “anyways, I have to leave now. see you guys.” you waved.

the boys waved back. you left the place.

“(name).” heeseung calls out. you didn’t look back. he grabs your wrist.

“let go.”

“did you really mean what you said back then?”

“why? so you can think it’s a lie again?” you turned back to him. “look, just cause we are enemies or on bad terms doesn’t mean I can forget my human morals and let you get injured. i’m the manager for a reason. I help out the coach and I make decisions. the coach is just there to advise things.”

“are you sure it’s just your morals?”

“heeseung, I don’t know what you’re going on about but can you please let me go? I want to go home.”

“do you love me, (name)?”

your heart drops to the pit of your stomach. you felt those feelings coming back to you like a waterfall. it was dumped onto you. feelings that you want to push back because it didn’t feel right.

“I don’t love you, lee.”

“you’re lying.”

“and who are you to validate my feelings? like you said, we aren’t on the best terms.”

“because I know you love me.”

you scoffed, “an utter bullshit. I don’t love you.”

“baby.”

“heeseung, just let me go. before I scream.” your voice wavered. you could feel yourself about to cry.

heeseung doesn’t let you go. instead, he presses his lips against yours. you shut your eyes and felt the hot tears rolling down your eyes. heeseung reaches up to wipe it away as he focuses on kissing you.

he pulls away. his fingers caressing your cheek softly. though no words were exchanged, the both of you knew that this was something you would have to have a serious talk about. for now, you would rather have heeseung in your arms, holding you tight.

⭐️ PARK JONGSEONG

PAIRING: CEO!jay x manager!reader / you are pretty stubborn here and jay is an ass here.

you remembered that cursed smirk. the way he carried himself around as he gloats at the fact that he gets better scores than you. it didn’t help the fact that years later, you’d be working under him.

he constantly made your life harder. other employees may praise him but you cursed him.

“ah, CEO park? oh he is sooooo handsome! he even gave me flowers for Valentine’s Day!”

“oh! you’re right! he gave all the lady staff flowers. roses to be exact. he is such a romantic guy!”

you could gag every time they praised him. you didn’t even get a single rose from him. you got some flower called heliotrope.

‘heliotrope: eternal love, devotion’ what joke was he pulling? was he making fun of you for being single? for being a virgin?

you slammed the bouquet down into the trash can startling the two ladies who were talking. you turned to them with a fake smile.

“it’s work hours, don’t you think you should be focusing on your work?” you threw daggers through your eyes at them. they gulped and nodded before focusing on their work. you sighed.

you felt a tap on your shoulder and so you turned to the person.

“what’s with the frown on Valentine’s Day? did jay not give you head or something?” jake teases. you grit your teeth and hit him. jake winces and pouts.

“could hand this to jay?” you gave jake a resignation letter.

“well, jay is kinda busy with-” you grabbed jake’s collar and the boy gasps.

“I don’t care, this letter better reach him. I am fucking done with his antics. i am going to grow white hair if i continue working here and it doesn’t help that he keeps making my job extra hard.”

jake nods and you let his collar go, “you may leave.” jake runs away. you groaned and massaged your temple. later on in the evening, jake hands you back the same letter.

“where is he, now?”

“in his office but wait-”

you got up from your seat and went straight to his office. you burst into his room and were caught off guard by how jay quite literally has a girl on his lap and they were making out.

“well well well, seems like this is what you’ve been doing during work hours.” you folded your arms.

jay rolls his eyes and pecks the girl’s cheek before whispering something to her. she gets up and walks out, not forgetting to give you stank eye. you rolled your eyes.

“why are you here? can’t you see I was busy? or did you come here to do some unsolicited activities too.” jay smirks.

“with you? in your dreams, park.”

jake runs in, “jay, i’m so sorry.” jay waves jake off. the boy pouts and leaves.

“why are you here then?”

you threw the letter at him, “I gave you this letter but jake came back with it.”

“I don’t approve of you leaving.”

“what kind of person doesn’t allow some who wants to resign leave?”

“you have no reason leave. hence, I didn’t approve it.”

“you don’t make any sense. I have every right to leave, you are the reason.”

“and I am the CEO, I can disapprove of you resigning. besides, shouldn’t you be happy I gave you the manager position?”

“I didn’t want to just be promoted unfairly. you manipulated this.”

“I didn’t, I think you quite fit the manager position.”

“sure, think however you’d like but I am resigning from this job.” you left his office and went back to your own.

you grabbed a box and threw your things in. jay walks in.

“(name). what are you doing?”

“packing because I said I would resign.”

“I already told you that I am not letting you leave.”

you slammed the box, “look here fuckboy. if I said I would leave, i will. moreover, I am done with you. you’ve tormented me since high school, you’ve bullied me through college. do you know how much I hated to hear my own mother comparing me to you?”

jay keeps quiet. you grabbed the flowers and pushed it back to him.

“keep this and give this to that girl you’ve been making out with. i don’t know what you were thinking for mocking my non-existent love life and that i’m a virgin but it’s not funny.”

“I wasn’t mocking you for being a virgin.” jay says.

“oh really? giving me a heliotrope? when it means eternal love and devotion. why would you give that to me when you don’t like me? oh and even if you did, why would you kiss another girl? what kind of sicko does that?”

“(name).”

“just fuck off.” you say. jay keeps his mouth shut and leaves your office. you sat back on your chair and choked up. that was a lot that you dumped on him but it was the truth. you had enough of everything and you wanted to just leave in peace.

once you were done, you carried the boxes out. everyone quietly watches you. you placed the boxes into your car trunk. you noticed jay walked towards you.

"what else do you want-" you gasp when he throws you over his shoulder. "yah! what are you doing! put me down!"

jay does not put you down, rather he carries you back into the building. you smacked his back a bunch of times and flailed in his arms. everyone was staring at the both of you but it wasn't a surprise, this sort of thing happened occasionally. everyone knew you and jay had some sort of hatred for each other.

jay only ever puts you down once he arrives at his office (which was a distance from the entrance of the huge building). once he places you down, he traps you in between his desk and himself. you fold your arms.

"you're really stubborn, huh?" you spat out. jay smirks.

"baby, you really think i'd give up on you?"

you rolled your eyes, "mr.park, it's work hours. what you're doing is workplace harassment."

he snickers before leaning more forward. you could feel your heartbeat quicken. jay lightly places pecks on your neck.

"really? it's not exactly one if you aren't moving away from it." you moved away from it a little since he pecked somewhere ticklish. you stared right into his eyes.

"don't leave." jay says.

"why? haven't you already had your fun with me all throughout high school and college?"

"(name), that's not what i meant. i don't want you to leave not to hurt you even more. i don't want you to leave because i need you."

"what? your last mission before i leave is to take my virginity?"

jay sighs, "no. that's not what i meant too. i like you, alright?"

"then why go makeout with a girl when you like me?" you fold your arms.

"because i'm stupid, alright?"

"great to know that you think so too." you watched his eyes turn dark.

"you're a brat, do you know that?" jay says.

"you pushed me to be like this. i'm force to defend myself every time you speak to me."

jay grumbles, "well i confessed to you. do you like me?"

"well, i can't possibly like someone who has tortured me for the past years." jay huffs. "but i wouldn't lie and said you've made my heart leap a couple of times."

"so...?"

"i do like you too. that was just sarcasm."

jay pulls you into a hug, his arms tight on your waist. you felt your heart race quicker.

“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.” he whispers.

⭐️ SIM JAEYUN

PAIRING: academic rival! jake

studies was everything to you. it was a validation to get your parents to even stare at you in the face. you see, your parents never cared about you. they only cared about the red marks that displayed the total marks and the leaderboard amongst the whole cohort.

you were doing well until a certain brown haired boy came into the picture. everything was daises and glitter, all according to normal but it all quickly disappeared when everyone was in awe by the new student. the new student was like a new shiny object that people loved to stare at.

there was no denying the boy was blessed with good looks but his attitude. god, you have never wanted to strangle someone to death more than ever. jake sim, the epitome of every male lead rom-com. too bad, he wasn’t the main lead in your little drama, rather the villain in your chapter.

— “eeeekkkk jake sim is sooooo cute!!! did you see his latest Instagram with his dog?”

layla. everyone knew about his dog, he loved boasting about his puppy. you must admit though, she is an adorable puppy. her owner however…you’d kill him if you could.

“what’s so special about him?” you questioned.

“that i’m better than you.”

that annoying buzzing voice

you rolled your eyes before turning to face the boy. “god, do you ever just have some humbleness in you?”

“aww that wouldn’t be fun if I was humble with my academics.” jake pouts

“it would be for me so I don’t need to hear your annoying ass voice.” you growled. jake laughs.

“cutie, you try too hard. maybe you should get laid or something. I wouldn’t be opposed to help of course.” you shoved him.

“in your dreams, sim.” jake chuckles.

“would love if you were in my dreams, cutie.” he winks. you gagged.

typical morning. it was the usual and students definitely knew of the rivalry.

— “they’d probably make a cute couple.”

— “I’d say they are probably fucking behind the scenes. I mean, smart people need to blow out the stress weighted on them. right? what better way than to help each other!”

— “I heard jake had a crush on (name) but due to the rivalry, he keeps it hidden!”

complete utter bullshit when you heard the last comment. there was no way, the devil’s son would find you attractive in any way. he literally goes out his way to annoy you. it kept you up at night to even imagine his-

stupidly handsome face…

his stupid handsome, sexy ass, nice body-

no. keep it together. he is your rival. he is your enemy. he annoys the fuck out of you and you hate it. you hate him. there was no way you like him….

and then came the 2nd devil reincarnated into a form of the most beautiful girl. her name was…

“hi, my name is ji-ah.” she says as she holds out a hand. you skeptically shake it because why in the world would a pretty girl like her want to be your friend. there must be a reason.

the said reason: sim jaeyun

yup, the only reason why ji-ah became your ‘friend’ was to get with jake. it’s not like you were jealous.

“you’re funny jake!” she smacks his arm. jake blushes and bashfully smiles.

you could feel the blood raging in you. now what was this feeling? surely, you weren’t jealous. it was impossible.

but alas, jake sim made the impossible, possible. you had feelings for jake. it took you a singular day to figure out. props to you being the smartest student, I guess? however, with jake being entertained by the pretty girl. you couldn’t do much.

so you stopped reciprocate his small little teases. you don’t roll your eyes anymore and instead choose to walk away or ignore him. at first, it made jake stunned but he soon learnt to shrug it off and went about his day. his day being filled with ji-ah. which meant, it wasn’t a surprise to hear they started dating.

however, your heart aches. you want the old jake back, the one who would tease you and flirt with you. now, he doesn’t even talk to you. you were sad. exams made your feelings 10 times worse. you felt your body wanting to shut down on you as you continued to study late at night.

you woke up to find yourself on your study table, the lamp still turned on and you were laying on the math paper you were working on. you felt horrible. it was like you got ran over by a truck or something. you still went to school though. only this time instead of looking so enthusiastic, you had covered yourself with a hood.

during break time, you didn’t feel like eating so you laid your head on the desk and fell asleep. the next time you woke up, the teacher had knocked on your desk. you apologised and asked to go to the bathroom. however, you couldn’t make it to the bathroom when suddenly, your legs gave up on you. you fell to the ground and blacked out.

when you woke up again, you realised you were in the school’s infirmary. you sat up but felt like the room was spinning so you laid back down. the curtain pulls back and jake appears.

“you’re awake.” he says.

“why are you here.” the tone sounding a little too harsh and you nearly winced at it.

“I brought you here because you fainted.”

“you have no reason to stay here.”

“I have every reason to stay here.”

“you have a girlfriend. you should go to her.”

“we broke up.”

“I don’t care.” you say. you try to sit up again but couldn’t because you felt like throwing up.

“have this, I know you have not eaten yet.”

“how do you know?”

“because i saw you sleeping. you didn’t have lunch.”

“was that before or after you broke up.”

“I thought you said you didn’t care?” he teases. you don’t even have the energy to roll your eyes. your lips felt numb, you must look horrible. “let’s get you home.”

“no. it’s fine, i need to study. let’s get back to class.”

“you’re sick.”

“and? that doesn’t stop me from getting higher marks then you.”

“your health is more important.”

“my life depends on my grades so let me get back to class.” you tried to stand up once again but jake doesn’t let you.

“I don’t care if you get higher marks then me. I just want you to be healthy.” jake says.

“and why do you care?”

“because I like you.”

it went completely silent. not a single sound except for the ringing at your ears.

“you what?” that’s before you hurled into a bucket nearby. jake pats your back trying to soothe you as you threw up. he hands you a tissue so you could wipe your mouth. he then hands you a juice box so you could have some energy.

“I like you a lot.”

“but don’t you hate me?”

“hate you? I could never.” jake says.

“then why do always attempt to ruin me? why do you go through the troubles of making my life miserable?”

“are grades that really important to you?”

you sighed, “not exactly but my parents they-”

“only care about your grades? (name), my parents are exactly like that.”

“so?”

“why don’t we date and rebel against our parents together? it’s best thing we could do. they can’t control our lives and what we want.”

“jake…”

he leans in and you covered your lips, “yah, I threw up. what are you trying to do?”

he smirks, “did you think I was going to kiss you or something?” you smacked him.

“shut up.” he notices the tips of your ears turning red and smiles.

“how about I take you home and take care of you, hmm?”

“but my mom is home.”

“oh so you’re not opposing of me taking care of you?”

“jake, I swear to god.”

“come on now, baby. I gotta nurse my girlfriend back to health!!”

he picks you up and you wanted to disappear from the plane of the earth but I guess at least you got jake.

⭐️ PARK SUNGHOON

PAIRING: childhood enemy! sunghoon / roommates au! / one-sided hatred

i'm sure everyone had their fair share of people they hated for no reason when they were younger. however, this wasn't the case for you. you had a reason to hate park sunghoon. he was the worst. what exactly was the reason for you to hate the boy? he ruined your favourite barbie doll. moreover, that barbie doll was the one your late mother gave you before she passed on due to a mystery illness.

you vowed to never chat with him. you prayed to never see him when you started middle school.

alas, the universe cursed you and you saw park sunghoon every grade you moved onto. you remembered the stupid glasses that adorned his face. the annoying laugh that would surround the hallway as he laughed with his friends. after graduating from middle school, you prayed once again to never want to see sunghoon.

it didn't work as you know. you saw him again. you suffered through his teasing for many more years in high school. then college came. as what you knew, sunghoon was going to choose a different college from you and you were happy.

but why was he standing in the same living room as you?

"what the fuck are you doing here?" you say. a smirk slowly adorns his face.

"well, well. fancy seeing you, princess." sunghoon smirks.

since you didn't see sunghoon at the last day of high school graduation, you had not seen him for months. it was a surprise to you to see the boy had changed...a lot. he was a complete heartthrob but that didn't mean you'd fall for him.

you rolled your eyes, "why are you here? i thought you wanted to go to some sports college with your ice skating girlfriend?"

"high school sweethearts don't always last. besides, i planned to make a better and stable living. ice skating isn't a guaranteed success. once i reach 30, i'll be thrown to the side anyways. they only focus on younger talents."

you were staring at him as if he was insane. when did he get so matured? it's only been like 5 months since high school ended. how could he change that much?

"i don't know what happened to you fooling around but i'm sure you'll easily find a girlfriend here. they'll definitely like the little passionate talk you gave me just now." you grabbed the box on the floor. "guess we are roommates. don't talk to me and just pretend i'm not here."

you left and went to the empty bedroom. there were 2 other bedrooms which meant there were probably two other housemates/roommates living in the same dorm. it didn't surprise you to see another guy and girl show up. from what you heard, sunghoon and the guy knew each other. guess they warmed up during the orientation that you didn't go to.

"hi, i'm byeol." she holds out her hand. you smiled and shook it.

"i'm (name)."

"oh, i heard. sunghoon said that you and him knew each other back then. he said something about being high school lovers?" you pinched the bridge of your nose at her words and sighed.

"sunghoon is wrong. we-" you paused. did sunghoon even hate you? it felt really one-sided. whatever. "we hate each other."

"really? cause it seems like sunghoon looked really happy to talk about you."

"gross. me and sunghoon could never be a couple."

“oh really? that’s great…”

“great?” you tilt your head.

“I think I might start crushing on sunghoon. he is so good looking.” byeol shyly says.

“that’s good for you.” you say. however, you can’t help but sense something off. it felt…weird. you just brushed it off though.

“think you could help me? you know him the best since you’ve known him for so long.”

“uhh sure? but like I said, me and him are enemies-”

“yeah but you’ve known him for soooo long surely you’d realise little things right?” byeol pouts.

“well no-”

“great! you’ll help me. thank you!!” byeol skips to her bedroom afterwards.

god, she’s insane…

and she truly was. when she first moved in, you thought that maybe…just maybe you’d have a friend that didn’t fall in love with sunghoon but unfortunately, luck was never on your side. to make matters worse, byeol always tries to play the cutesy card. using aeygo at any given chance with sunghoon. you were surprised he even put up with her. maybe he likes her…

*snap* *snap* “earth to (name). hey, we need to continue with the project.” jake says.

“fuck, i’m sorry.”

“i’m thankful that we are roommates. it’s so much better since we can just stay in the living room and do our work till late at night.”

“me too.”

you hear byeol’s giggling and your eyes went to where the sound came from. byeol’s bedroom was wide open and her lights were off but you could see a slip of light under sunghoon’s door. she was in sunghoon’s room, you couldn’t help but frown at it.

“are you okay?”

“yeah, sorry. let’s continue.”

“do you like sunghoon?”

“no. I don’t.” you continued to draw out what was needed for the project.

“you know…byeol and sunghoon have been hooking up.” you paused after hearing jake.

“why should I care.”

“because I know you like him.”

“jake, I don’t like him.”

“stop lying to yourself.”

“i’m not.” jake sighs and grabs the pen that you were gripping. he places it down on the table and holds your hands.

“look at me in the eyes and tell me you hate him.” you looked at jake but no words were coming out. your lips quiver and your head drops down. jake hugs you.

“I like him.” you whisper.

after that interaction with jake that night, you started to avoid sunghoon. I mean you were already avoiding him since you ‘hated’ him but you completely avoided him even more. you never stepped foot where he did and it’s like you disappeared in sunghoon’s sight.

you locked yourself in your room if sunghoon was home and you never came out.

“congrats on the ‘A’ partner.” jake nudges you. you smiled.

“you too partner.”

“wanna go out for dinner to celebrate-”

“(name).” you froze when you heard that voice. you felt your fight or flight mode kick in and you instantly wanted to get out of there. as you stepped once, sunghoon grabs your wrist and pulls you away from jake.

sunghoon brings you over to a secluded spot. he folds his arms and his jaw clenched. you were honestly kinda scared.

“why are you avoiding me?”

“why do you care?”

“I was worried.”

“and why should you be worried? you have a girlfriend to tend to.”

“what girlfriend?”

“ah right, sorry I meant your little hook up toy.” you fold your arms.

sunghoon pinches the bridge of his nose, “me and byeol never did it.”

“jake told me you guys have been hooking up.”

it went silent after you said it. “so it’s true.”

“(name), is not true.” sunghoon says.

you couldn’t trust him. not when he has constantly ruined your life. you bit your lips to hold back yourself from crying. however, once you blink, a tear escapes. you quickly wiped it away.

“I have to go.” you left sunghoon. sunghoon watches your figure leave. he wanted to run to you but his foot remains on the ground.

back at the house, you threw yourself on onto your bed and cried. you cried for hours and hours, the tears didn’t stop and you didn’t know why. was this what it felt like to be heartbroken? your heart hurts like it was actually torn apart.

there were knocks at your bedroom door but you ignored it. it stops after a while and somehow, you fell asleep. your body was tired, giving up on you after hours of crying. the next morning, light peaks through your curtains and shines down on you. you tried getting up but you felt lethargic. you felt like you were on fire. you got up and you had stumbled out of your bedroom.

you looked around for your medicine that you had. however, before you could even get to the kitchen, your body shuts down. you fell to the ground. the next time you wake up, you realised you were not in your bedroom but you were still in the dorm. you looked around and realised a familiar pair of ice skating shoes in display. the medals and trophies that were displayed on the shelf.

“I still remember when you attempted to throw your silver medal at me.” sunghoon says. your head turns to meet the boy’s figure. he was leaning at the doorframe.

“why am I here?”

“you fainted. you’re also running down fever.” he checks on your temperature by kissing your forehead. you felt your cheeks heating up. “yeah, it’s still pretty bad.”

his eyes met with yours. you swore his eyes flickered onto your lips for a split second. you pushed him away.

“thanks for taking care of me while I was out cold but I can take care of myself now. I don’t need your help.” you tried getting up but sunghoon sighs and grabs your wrist.

“me and byeol didn’t hook up. jake just told you that because he assumed we did.” sunghoon says.

“why are you telling me this?”

“because.” you felt his arms wrap around your waist and his head placed on your shoulder. “I know someone cried yesterday.”

you tried to pry his hands that wrapped around you but failed since he was strong.

“I didn’t know you liked me (name).” sunghoon says. you rolled your eyes.

“I don’t like you.”

“but you were jealous.”

“who said I was jealous. you can hook up with that bitch.”

“hmm but the only one I want is you.” you felt butterflies erupt.

“didn’t you say i’m sick? shouldn’t you be 1 arm away from me?”

“I don’t mind getting sick if I get to hug you like this.”

“god, who knew you’d be such a simp.” you rolled your eyes.

“for you.” he says. you giggled when he snuggles his head at the crook of your neck. “want to cuddle my girl.”

“but i’m not your girl though?” you teased. sunghoon picks you up and places you down on his bed. he quickly wraps his arm around you to cuddle.

“mmm but you are my girl.”

“I never said about being your girlfriend though.” he pecks your lips and you gasp.

“will you be my girlfriend?”

“what if I said no?”

“I know you wouldn’t say no.”

“you’re so full of yourself.” you chuckled. sunghoon pecks your cheek once more. surprisingly, you fell asleep really quickly. guess you were tired and maybe sunghoon’s warmth made you feel comfortable.

⭐️ KIM SUNOO

GENRE: vice president of student council! sunoo + president of student council! reader

if you were to recall back the day you were elected as the president of the student council…you could remember the scowl that was plastered on your vice-president. you could also faintly remember the complaints he let out to his friends when the results were out.

“if I didn’t get the position of president, they should’ve just kicked me out as a whole. who even wants to work with (name). she’s sooooo annoying.”

you grimaced. you understood sunoo hated you but damn he really despised you. to the complete point where he didn’t even want to work with you. too bad though, they made sunoo the vice-president and he was forced to work with you.

lately, the whole council has been busy with the school’s music festival. since your school was a music/performing arts school, this event was the most important event ever. there would be tons of students performing and showing off their skills (those who signed up only).

both you and sunoo had practically been overworked trying to plan the event. how it would go, the lighting, getting the stage ready, etc. you couldn’t even get enough sleep since the teachers would be up your ass for the forms and paperwork. who knew being president would be so hard?

“jungwon, please help me get a signature of approval from Mrs.Jae.”

“on it.” jungwon runs out of the room with the papers. just as jungwon leaves, sunoo enters. he places his bag down on the couch.

“why are you here so early?”

“we need to finish up the remaining paperwork and it’s better we start early.”

“then why didn’t you tell me?

“because you mentioned that this class is important so you need to be there the whole time?”

“I never mentioned that.” sunoo rolls his eyes.

you slammed the pen down and it startled sunoo.

“you can do everything yourself, (name). I have an important class to attend and my grades depend on this lesson. the teacher is going through some exam tips.” you mocked sunoo.

he folds his arm, “you don’t even have proof.”

“look sunoo, how about you take this set of paperwork and do it. I have no time to argue with you.” you grabbed the other half of papers and left the office.

“god, she’s so grumpy.” sunoo grumbles.

you sat in the library for some peace and quiet. it was the perfect place for you to concentrate and you were so happy you were far from sunoo. the air-conditioning blew perfectly and it was nice. it made you sleepy. what if you just…lay your head down on the table for a while.

the next time you woke up, you realised a jacket was wrapped around you. who had placed this. however, you were more worried about the stack of papers that you were tasked to go through. it was gone. you panicked for a second until you noticed the note stuck on your phone.

‘took your other half and did it. once it’s done, I’ll place it on your desk. also you look like an idiot drooling whilst sleeping.’

– sunoo

you huffed. if he was just going to do everything why didn’t he just say so. instead, he made you think he didn’t want to do it. this meant one thing though, this jacket was definitely sunoo’s. you could quickly tell too since there was a whiff of the strawberry lipbalm he uses.

wait how did you know how his lipbalm smells like? you shook your head. no, it’s just because there are times where you and sunoo were close enough while working on some student council work. it’s not because you’ve thought of kissing him. you would be insane to think so.

the next day, you hand sunoo the jacket right as he was talking to his friends.

“here. your jacket, thank you for lending it to me.” you say. this causes his friends to glance in shock at the both of you.

“are you two-” “no. we aren’t.” sunoo quickly shuts down jake’s words.

“we have a meeting later. see you and jungwon later.” you quickly say before leaving. right as you step away, you felt your heart beating fast. what is wrong with you?

it’s nothing. you walked to school quickly. speed walk, power walked to school. which was why your heart is racing.

that’s when you were wrong.

it took you probably 2 hours later to realise, no random person’s heart would race after talking to a guy. a guy they hated as a matter fact. which only meant.

you liked sunoo.

you liked his stupid annoying voice. you liked the fact that he argues with you. you mostly definitely loved the fact that he is the only one who pays attention to you. why did you have to discover this right before the meeting. now you can’t face kim sunoo without imagining his lips on yours.

it was an x-rated thought. why did you have to think about him kissing you and why do you kinda like imagining it. you must be insane.

however, here you are in the meeting with the other council members. they were showing off PowerPoint slides and presenting the flow of the event however you weren’t even paying attention.

“pres, is this okay?” jungwon asks. you hummed a little confused.

“oh, i’m so sorry. yeah, it’s fine. we should also have some of our members be on standby to queue the next group to perform.”

jungwon nods, “I’ll ask haneul if she can be the backstage coordinator.”

“sunoo, do you have anything to add?” you asked.

“no, everything has been well planned. we just need to execute it on that day. hopefully, the event will turn out as successful as the ones our seniors had done.”

“alright, that’s all. great job everyone, see all of you at the festival and please wear something appropriate. you saw what happened to our seniors.” you warned the others. they nod.

each one of them slowly leaves the room and the only ones left were you and sunoo. you had pushed back the chair and made sure everything had been cleaned up.

“are you joining the festival?” sunoo suddenly voices out.

“hmm? oh, no. I can’t sing.”

“but you can dance?”

“i’m too shy to get on stage. I have stage fright.”

“but you dance.”

“it’s just a hobby I do.”

“yeah but you joined a performing arts school.” sunoo says.

“well, that’s pretty obvious huh? can’t I have stage fright even if I am in a performing arts school?” you glared at sunoo. sunoo rolls his eyes.

“I thought I could have a once in a lifetime civil talk with you but you make it impossible to hold a conversation with you.” sunoo says. you gasp.

“the only annoying ass person that can’t hold a conversation is you!”

sunoo glares at you before huffing and leaving the room. once he leaves the room, you let out a sigh of relief. your heart was racing quicker than usual and you hated that sunoo was the cause of it.

the day of the music festival arrived. tons of students were running around trying to play the carnival games that were organised. there were also some redeeming prizes after the amount of tickets they gathered. you sighed, you would love to have fun but you were the council president. you had to watch over everything so nothing goes wrong.

today, you didn’t feel exactly the best. after studying so much for the past few days, you felt under the weather. however, since you were the president, you had to be present. you held onto the wall beside you and steadied yourself. you had to be strong, you couldn’t show your weak side. however, you nearly fell but someone holds onto your shoulder to prevent you from falling.

“hey, are you okay?” it was sunoo.

“yeah. I’m fine.” sunoo places his hand on your forehead and sighs.

“you’re burning up.” he grabs your hand and drags you to the nurse’s office.

“i’m fine.” you say as you arrived at the nurse’s office. unfortunately, the nurse wasn’t around as she went out for lunch but sunoo knew what to take.

“you look pale and you were about to faint. god, did you even eat lunch yet?”

“no I skipped lunch-”

“to do administrative? prioritise your health first, dummy.” sunoo huffs. he hands you a bottle of water and also a protein bar.

“eat this then take the medicine. it’s not good to eat your medicine on an empty stomach.”

“but i’m fine!”

“no you’re not!”

“sunoo, listen I don’t know why you care about me but I-”

“I care because I like you!” sunoo shouts.

dead silence

it’s like you could only hear both yours and sunoo’s breathing only. you were shocked, sunoo liked you? how was that possible? he hated you? what happened to being enemies? i mean, you weren’t complaining since you liked him too.

“the thought of you getting hurt, it also pains me too. you know. I get that you want to study and do well in your studies but please don’t hurt yourself in the process.” sunoo begs.

“sunoo.”

“like come on, you’re already smart. I don’t get why you have to study so late at night. it’s already annoying to see you do so well that I can’t possibly catch up with my crush but damn-”

“sunoo!”

he stops blabbering, “thank you for caring about me and thank you for liking me. I just, didn’t expect you to like me too.”

“you…like me?” sunoo’s eyes widened.

“yes. well, I would’ve said it slightly earlier but you were rambling-”

the boy cuts you off with a peck to your cheek. it catches you off guard.

let’s just say you left the nurse’s office with a boyfriend. people were definitely shocked to see their president and vice-president holding hands and smiling at each other.

⭐️ YANG JUNGWON

PAIRING: class president! jungwon x bad girl! reader. more of a one-sided enemies.

you were I would say a bad student. both in academically and in physical terms. jungwon was the opposite of you. he was the bright star student that constantly gets praised, was appointed class president of your class and was also really kind.

well to others. not to you. you have no idea why yang jungwon hated your guts. maybe, he just hated bad looking people. you’d say he’s uptight and would always turn down party invitations to study.

however, that thought changed when you saw yang jungwon in a loose fitting clothes and sweatpants. it was a comfortable choice but made him look stunning nonetheless. his bangs were down, he laughed with his friends whilst taking a sip of his…is that wine? you didn’t expect him to even be drinking.

clearly, you stared for too long because soon jungwon’s gaze falls onto you. you looked away and simply went about your merry way. however, jungwon didnt stop staring.

“who are you staring at?” jay asks. jake’s eyes trailed jungwon’s gaze and he realised that jungwon was staring at you.

“I thought you hated her? why are you staring at her?”

sunghoon suddenly smirks, “oh? does little wonie have a crush?” jungwon rolls his eyes.

“as if. she’s literally the worst girl I’ve ever seen and had to deal with.” jungwon rolls his eyes.

“and yet she piqued your interest, didn’t she?” sunghoon nudges jungwon.

it was true. though you were a ‘bad girl’ a complete opposite of jungwon. you still piqued his interests and he wanted to observe you. from far of course. or maybe, up close too.

the next day, you walked into class late. the teacher scolds you the whole while you walked to your seat. you’ve practically tuned it out, already used to the yelling in your life.

“detention!” the teacher finally says. you sighed. yet another detention, of course.

“and I will have jungwon tutor you since you are lagging behind class!”

your eyes widened. that flower boy was tutoring you? him? he was literally a bunch of rainbows and flowers every time. after the teacher says so, you turned to look at jungwon. he was already staring at you. great, he already hated the idea of tutoring you. his little cat eyes just slowly turning into a glare as his eyebrows furrow.

yay! you were so excited to have him tutor you (read: sarcasm). I mean, you knew he isn’t evil, he just probably hates you because you’re always in the detention and you are like the worst student possible. however, it’s not like you offended him in any way. the tutor session should be fine!

that was you 4 hours before actually starting the tutor session. you have never felt so intimidated by your class president but why was he so scary while teaching you.

“if x equals to 6 what is y?” jungwon raises eyebrow at you.

“u-uh 15?” you squeak out. it made you sound so weak which is weird because normally you’d be the one who was confident.

“wrong. it’s 24. you got the question wrong once again.”

“right. uh, how you…do this question again?” you asked. jungwon groans.

“I’ve gone through this question 5 times already. how do you not get it.”

“well, if math wasn’t so hard. I would get it.” you groaned.

“well, too bad. suck it up and learn how to do it.” he rolls his eyes.

“why the fuck do you hate me so much? I did nothing wrong? i’m just being myself.” you whisper yelled because you were in the library.

“because you’re annoying.” jungwon says.

“what? I never interact with you in class at all. how am I annoying?”

“every single time you’re late, I have to report to the teacher and it’s tiring to write down everything.”

“sounds like a you problem. you could’ve said no to being our class president.”

“and not be lucky to get leadership points?”

you rolled your eyes, “well, if you don’t like me. you could’ve not come to teach me!”

“I would if I could but because the teacher is counting on me, I have to do this.” jungwon folds his arm.

“you know what? forget it.” you packed your things. “since you don’t want to take the initiative to leave. I’ll leave for you, I have detention anyways.”

as you leave, jungwon’s jaw drops. never in his whole life has someone walked out on him like that. it kinda threw him off. well, okay. it threw him off by a lot.

the next day, jungwon catches your wrist and drags you to the library. it startled you and he pushes you to sit down on the chair.

“we are going to study whether you like it or not!” jungwon huffs and takes out his book. “turn to page 135.”

you were shocked, "hey, you can't just drag me here and force me to study. you didn't want to teach me in the first place!"

"stop being stubborn and flip to page 135."

"jerk." you muttered under your breath.

1 month later, you were still studying with jungwon. he was more civil now at least, he kept his thoughts to himself and you were thankful you didn't have to hear him complain about your mathematics being horrible. he points to the question and asks you for the answer.

"72." jungwon hums at your answer.

"correct."

you sighed in relief, "great. now, this means you can stop tutoring me."

"who said i would stop? you still have 99 more questions and you still have to pass the finals."

"why are you so insisted on helping me? i thought you made it clear you didn't want to teach me?" you huffed and folded your arms.

"seeing your grades look horrible irks me and i hate to see failing classmates so i'm here to help."

"weird. i don't usually see you go around helping our classmates. do you like me or something?"

your words caused jungwon to freeze in his seat. did he like you? no, it's not possible when you're looking really pretty in your leather jacket and coloured hair-

okay...jungwon liked you.

"and if i said i did? what are you going to do about it?"

this time it caught you off guard.

"you what?"

he gets closer to you and you gasp, "i said what if i did? what if i liked you? what are you going to do about it?"

you didn't say anything. completely speechless. you could feel your heart racing. why did jungwon suddenly look so good? you must be going insane.

jungwon pecks your cheek, "alright. turn to page 180 now. we need to cover the next few questions."

you do as you were told. still not getting over the little affection jungwon just gave you. you had to concentrate on your work for now, maybe you'd get your answers later.

or maybe he might actually kiss you for doing a good job. now, that was your motivation.

⭐️ NISHIMURA RIKI

PAIRING: star basketball player! ni-ki x fem! reader (they are college so I sort of aged up ni-ki)

basketball, the sport that ni-ki loved so much and grew to love. besides, with the advantage of being so tall, why wouldn’t he use it?

“heeseung hyung, pass the ball!” he yells out on the court. it was a small game, to train before their big final game. you were there to snap some pictures since you were part of the journalist club of your college. they usually placed someone in charge of sports for the season and this time around you were the chosen lucky one.

your job was simple, take pictures of them playing and then interview the players before and after the match to gather their thoughts. it would be simple, if you weren’t forced to literally take charge of the basketball team. you hated them, they were the worst people ever. okay, one person on the team was and it was nishimura riki. the literal bane of your existence. your enemy the most annoying person you ever met, you wished he wasn’t so good in basketball because he wouldn’t have gotten into the same university as you without his stupid athlete scholarship.

just as you snapped some photos and reviewed them, ni-ki grabs your camera and places it above his head. he was mainly teasing you for how short you are compared to him. you tried jumping to get it but failed multiple times, he laughs.

“aww little shorty is trying sooo hard to grab her precious camera.” he teases.

“nishimura, give it back. if you break the camera, i will break your legs and you won’t be able to play the season.”

he leans down to face you, “and if you break my legs will you play with the team for me?”

you scoffed and grabbed the camera from his hands.

“no. you can suffer yourself.”

just as ni-ki was about to retaliate, heeseung yells after him. ni-ki smacks your shoulders and winks at you before leaving.

“oooo nishimura, stop flirting with your girlfriend while we have practice!!” yunho, a fellow member of the team yells.

“yah! me and that asshole aren’t dating!!”

“you wished though!” ni-ki yells.

“fuck off!” you yelled back.

ni-ki’s teammates laughed as you two bicker. this was how it was, the constant bicker and subtle flirting. you weren’t flirting with ni-ki, at least that’s what you thought. maybe you just didn’t understand flirting but you clearly could tell ni-ki was sort of flirting with you. which was weird because didn’t he hate your guts in high school? why was he so flirty now? maybe he was just going through it, being a freshman and seeing college girls. it gives you the freedom like you are old enough to do something.

finally, it was the final match to the end of the season. you could finally catch a breath because you wouldn’t be focusing on the sports team next season. as the basketball team surrounded each other discussed their tactic, you took a video and snapped some photos. hopefully this would make it more professional.

the basketball team disperses and the game starts. the ball being dribbled down the court and each of the boys moving swiftly. you snapped some photos as they were playing and honestly, you think that the current pictures you took were going to be legendary. just as you put your camera down, you realised the basketball ball was being hurled at you. you closed your eyes ready for the impact but all you felt was someone holding you close and a thud.

when you opened your eyes, you realise that ni-ki had hold you close. the basketball rolling away. he checks up on you before grabbing the ball and going back into the court to finish playing the game. your cheeks were glowing, your face felt hot so you had fanned yourself. a few of the people in the crowd were making noise at the gesture ni-ki had done. it made you want to hide in one corner and just disintegrate into the ground. however, you knew you still had to continue with journaling the match because this was your job as a journalist.

the match continues with the occasional squeaking of shoes because that's how all basketball games turn out. the announcer watches and comments on every move that the players on court had to say. there were a lot of moments where your school's team could've scored a goal but the game was just toxic in general. the other team played dirty multiple times, they always found a way to not get kicked out of the court and manage to get away with it.

ni-ki was starting to get annoyed. his jaw clenches, that is when the whole room felt different. it's like a light switch was turned on because suddenly it felt really dangerous. before the time ended, your college basketball team start scoring more goals. it was brutal to the other team but ni-ki did it. the team won. they carried him up and threw him up in the air as ni-ki held the trophy. you managed to capture that moment and it was amazing.

you were smiling a little. it was heart warming. the team lets ni-ki down and he stumbles over to you.

"i won for you." he says.

you snicker, "oh really now, nishimura?"

the boy nods. "since i won this for you, may I take you on a date as a prize?"

"what is this? i thought you saw me as a threat?" you teased him.

"yeah, a threat to my heart." he flirts back. you laughed.

"go bathe, you stink." you pushed him lightly. he laughs.

"so it's on?"

"shut up."

ni-ki scoffs playfully. "you didn't say no, i'll see you later~" he leaves to bathe.

yup, this was your enemy. a dork but you liked it that way.

taglist[perm]: @ja4hyvn @ahnneyong @milklix @kar0ki @sugarsunoo @http-gyu @simpforniki @vatterie @victoriazynui @myu3ki @jhopesucker @dimplewonie @chwlogy @ilovewonyo @xiaoderrrr @uwuheeseungie @miercerise @liikno @hxney-luga @tiktaktiki @ajayke-reads @yizhoutv @s00buwu @ilovehanni1

[gremlinmodetweeker]

König of the Icks (the rage post)

This is the post where I actually got mad at König. I can't stand people like this, but I also love them. If nothing else, life's always interesting when they're around, right?

Art from This Post

König rarely laughs. When he does laugh, it's usually quiet, subtle. If you didn't know he was laughing, you'd probably think he was crying because he just shakes his shoulders and makes soft chuffing noises

It's a bit eerie

However, when König loses control of his laughter, he sounds like a whole damn pigsty

He's snorting, squealing and honking as he tilts his head back with laughter. He laughs so hard he cries

This would be cute if it weren't almost always at the expense of somebody else.

Horangi had the misfortune of hearing it when König tipped all his belongings upside down and then taped and/or glued them to the ceiling. This included Horangi's bed and sheets.

Hutch nearly threw out a computer mouse until he found a piece of tape covering the bottom.

Roze swears she heard König laughing when she found her entire locker filled to the brim with tiny rubber ducks

The rubber ducks became a huge problem with soldiers trading them like contraband and hiding them in weird places around the base

This concluded with snipers using them for firing practise and laughing when they squealed when they were shot, making it to easy to find their hiding spots

Unfortunately for Stilleto, she heard König's laugh when she walked through a line of tape over a door and got it tangled in her hair. She figured out which recruits did it and had them running laps. When they were done, one of them admitted it was Cnl. Leichenberg who set them up and she was furious

See, König loves to set other people up to do his dirty work

He'll gladly set up soldiers to piss other people off so he can watch the fireworks fly

He'll purposefully hold off on doling out a punishment if he thinks it'll be funny to watch shit go south first

He's well known on base as a through and through sadist who relishes in schadenfreude

Hell, he's the one to teach everyone what that word meant

He's the literal dictionary definition of the word

Now, the problem is that König isn't just a kinky sadist (he is, but that's a different post)

König loves to torment anyone he loves. And of course, that includes you

König won't put things on the top shelf, he'll put them on top of the cabinet so you'll have to ask for his help because not even the stool will help you reach that high

He'll doodle over any picture you have of him to 'hide his identity'

He just likes messing with you

He torments his children with wicked pranks and gaslights them terribly

When his toddler offers him a bite of their animal cracker he eats the whole thing and laughs at them

He will absolutely label three objects 1, 2, and 4 so you'll go searching for #3

He will sit on you when he gets mad at you, or when you get mad at him because, well, this is the two of you (and he will do this to you and laugh):

His worst sin was childproofing the house without your knowledge. Ever had a fully childproofed house? If you're not the one installing it, it's an ugly thing to find

He will shift furniture just a little bit to the right or left to screw with you if you finish off his breakfast meals and don't replace them immediately

König takes delight in leaving you cryptid notes (you've learned to ignore the ominous threats because they always turn out to be something completely innocuous)

König is a nightmare of a man to live with. Is it fun? Sure! Is he a menace? Absolutely. He's got a penchant for mischief, and he's used to getting away with it because he's either got the reputation of a battle-hardened colonel that demands respect when he steps into a room, or the soft-spoken gentleman that would never raise his voice against a civilian. This just means he has the perfect fallback for whenever somebody accuses him of being a miscreant. In truth, he's most likely behind it, but the true extent of how many thing's he's behind is terrifying. This man fucks with people as a hobby.

Konig Dump

Konig Headcanons

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

hi! if you’re not doing requests ignore this..

but i was wonderinggg if you could write something nsfw for 12 raph or leo when they’re infected by the parasitica?! 🤭💋

Parasitica (Angst) (18+)

2012!Leonardo x reader

A/N: Sure I can!💙 I had a little bit of a hard time figuring out a plot for this. Once you’re infected by the parasitica, your only focus is to keep the egg safe, so I was not sure how I was going to make sex and arousal feel natural during that. But I think what I came up with works pretty well. I decided to make it with Leo, as I thought it would be easier to do plot wise💙

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Warnings: 🔴Could be seen as forced in the beginning, but is not meant to be that🔴, fingering, turtley anatomy, doggy style, unprotected sex, mentioning of masturbation, slight dirty talk, finger sucking, finger biting, hard neck biting, bitemark, creampie, open ending, the egg is in the room during the whole thing.

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Looking back, you should probably have texted or called the guys before going down to the lair. You had never thought of doing so before. Normally none of the guys had anything against you coming to the lair unannounced. They would welcome you with open arms. Especially Leo. He was always the first to greet you with a long warm hug, hugging you for so long that his brothers would call him out in impatience. You had nothing against Leo’s extra long hugs. No, you actually quite liked them. They were one of the main reasons that you continuously went down to the lair unannounced, looking forward to Leo’s warm hugs. You liked to tell yourself that your love for Leo’s hugs had nothing to do with your growing crush on him, but deep down you knew it was a lie. Hugging Leo was one of the few excuses you had to be close to him, and you very quickly learned that showing up in the lair with no warning, made his hugs longer. But with the way the turtle’s daily life tended to unfold, it would have been a good idea to text them or call them first. Especially that day. But as we all know, we tend to get those ideas after the fact.

When you walked into the lair that evening, you were surprised to find it so quiet. The normally busy living area was empty, and there were no noises from the normally loud turtle brothers. It was odd. Very odd. The last time you had experienced this kind of silence in the lair was… never. Okay, that was very strange.

“Guys?”, you asked out loud, hoping that one of them would come out, and let you know that everything was already, and it was nothing but your wild fantasy that was making you nervous. But to your dismay, nothing happened. The lair stayed quiet, only your steps against the floor could be heard. “Guys? Is this some kind of strange prank?”

Nothing.

You wandered around the lair in silence, until you noticed the door to the garage was open. Hoping to find the guys and bring an end to the silence, you went through the open door and into the open room. There breathed a sigh of relief when you saw Leo in a kneeled position, facing a bean bag that held what looked like an oversized jelly bean.

“There you are”, you sighed with a laugh. “You had no idea how scared I was, Leo. Didn’t you hear me call?”

No answer. Leo continued to sit in silence, his back turned to you, staring at the big jelly bean.

“Leo?”, you asked, getting slightly concerned. “Are you okay?” You stepped closer to him, but there was still no acknowledgment of your presence. Hesitating, you placed a careful hand on Leo’s shoulder, hoping to get some sound out of your friend. But as soon as your skin made contact with his, he was over you. Leo had you pinned to the ground with your hands by your head, and your legs under his knees. You were shocked to find that Leo’s pretty blue eyes were gone, instead replaced by two place emotionless orbs that stared down at you. Something was very wrong. This was not the Leo that you had had on your mind every night before going to bed, or made your heart flutter with every smile. You did not know who this was, nor what they had done to the Leo you had grown to care so much for. You opened your mouth to scream, but before any sound could escape you, Leo had your mouth covered with his hand.

“Shut it”, Leo growled, putting pressure against your mouth. You tried to wiggle your legs out from underneath him, but instead he forced further more of his weight onto them. As you tried to wiggle and move from his grip, Leo turned your head to the side, exposing your neck to him. “For the glorious egg”, you heard him whisper, before he ducked his beak into the core of your neck. You froze at the feeling of Leo's breath and teeth against your skin. Had it been any other day, you would have longed for that feeling. Hell, you would even have been begging for it. But now you were completely still, holding your breath as you waited for his next move.

You felt the pressure of Leo’s teeth against your skin, fearing the pain for when they would break through the surface and sink into you. But that pain never came. Leo halted his movements, yet his teeth stayed against your skin. It took some time before he moved again, retracting his teeth from your skin, before licking over the spot. This caused you to shiver, a small whimper leaving your lips and into the palm of Leo’s hand. Leo let go of you with his other hand, letting the now free hand wander down your body, feeling your curves as he went. As his tongue continued licking over your neck, you couldn’t help but moan into his hand. This caused Leo to remove his legs from your knees, positioning his body between your legs. You in turn lifted your hip, letting it grind against Leo and his cloaca.

Leo growled against your neck with a choked moan, that almost made you see stars. “The egg does not care how I bit you”, he whispered against your ear, his hand moving closer and closer to the waistline of your pants. “So I’ll do it the way I’ve always wanted to”.

You gasped as Leo’s three fingers slipped down into your pants, and shortly after, they made their way into your panties. You had dreamed of this so many times. How Leo’s fingers would feel against you. And though this wasn’t exactly how you had hoped it would happen, you found yourself lifting your hips once again, hoping to make him move quicker towards your core. Leo growled as this, rubbing your clit in furious circles with two of his fingers. Though you had always thought Leo to be more soft and gentle when it came it sex, you continuously moaned against his hand, whimpering out his name as he worked his fingers on you.

“So wet”, Leo growled. “You like it”. You nodded, holding onto the hand that was still on your face. That was when Leo’s fingers found your entrance, before he pushed one finger into your warm hole. Straight away, he sat a brutal speed, moving his finger in and out of you, feeling you tighten around him. You moaned against his hand, rising yourself so that you could meet his fingers as they plunged into you. Even through your pants and underwear, you could hear the wet sloshing sounds that came from his every move.

Leo removed his face from your neck, so he could look down at your red flushed face under his hand, seeing the way your eyes widened as he inserted another finger into you. That moment you were grateful for Leo’s hand covering your mouth. If there was anybody else in the lair, they would have been able to hear you scream and moan on the garage floor, from the pleasure that Leo’s fingers were giving you.

Then suddenly without warning, Leo pulled his fingers out of you. You were about to complain, when Leo took a hold of you and turned you over onto your stomach. There he was quick to pull your pants and underwear down to your knees, before he propped your ass up into the air. Before you could turn to look at him, Leo took the two fingers he had used on you, and brought them around to your face. There he pushed them into your mouth, making you moan around them at the taste of your own salty juices.

“Be good and stay quiet”, Leo commanded as he was leaning over you, untucked himself from his cloaca. You whimpered slightly as you felt his head being rubbed against your folds, picking up as much fluid as possible, before being pushed into your opening. You gasped, your hands searching for something to hold on to on the ground. Many times you had tried to imagine what Leonardo’s appendix might look like, but nothing had prepared you for his size. You felt your walls being stretched out around him, sending small waves of pleasure through you.

Once again, Leo did not wait for you to adjust to his size, before he started moving against you. Your legs clenched up, and the muffled sounds you let out vibrated against Leo’s fingers. Leo growled once more, leaning further down onto you, until you felt his plastron against your back, moving up and down with each thrust.

“Feels good”, Leo growled just behind your ear, slightly strained from pleasure. “Better than I had imagined”. You whimpered at his words, squashing your eyes shut. The thought of Leo having imagined having sex with you, made you clench him a little tighter. Leo moaned at the feeling. A sound that sent what felt like fire straight to your core. You had always imagined what Leo’s moans would sound like. Late at night while touching yourself, you played the imaginary sounds of Leo’s whimpers of pleasure, helping you get closer to your high. And they did exactly the same at that moment.

Leo brought his free hand under you, letting it move between your legs, finding your clit one more time. He had to use his help to keep you in place, as he started circling around your button once more. You started lightly biting down on the fingers in your mouth, causing Leo to moan against the shell of your ear once more.

“Yes, that’s it. Bite my fingers. Show me how good it feels”.

You felt your eyes almost roll to the back of your head, as you tried to suppress a moan but biting onto Leo’s fingers once more. He in turn moaned against your ear, his breath fanning across your skin. He rested his head against your shoulder, where he began to kiss and lick your skin, while the speed of his hips increased their speed against you, his fingers doing the same. You felt your high beginning to build in your lower region, as you frantically tapped onto Leo’s arm to let him know.

“Do it”, Leo moaned against your skin, adjusting his legs so he could pound relentlessly into you. “Cum for me, (Y/N)”.

And with Leo’s impressive speed, his fingers never leaving your clit, and his moans and words against your ear, it didn’t take long before you came undone under him. Your legs shook as you held onto his arm for dear life. Leo had to remove his fingers from your mouth, so he could cover it with his whole palm, muffling the sound of your scream like moan that erupted from you as you came. Leo followed shortly after with his own orgasm. His grip on you tightened, and his teeth once again found your skin. But as his high took over him, and he started to bugle against you as he came, his teeth came down upon you, breaking through your skin. This caused you to scream against his hand, your walls fluttering against his cock as he emptied the last bits of him into you.

After some time, Leo finally retracted his teeth from you, leaving behind a dark bite mark on your shoulder. He pulled himself out of you with a small moan of pleasure, watching as his cum started to drip out of you. He then grabbed a hold of your underwear and pants, before pulling them back up your body. As you then laid down flat on the ground, you felt a strange tingling sensation from the place where Leo had bit you. It was not just from the pain that came with such a bite, but something more. It was spreading. You could feel it. The tingling sensation moved down your spine and up your neck, making you feel dizzy. You held onto your head, groaning at the strange feeling.

“I’m sorry”, Leo murmured, leaning down to place a kiss onto your temple, before lifting your slightly limb body, so he could pull you in for a hug. “But the glorious egg wanted me to do it”.

There you sat for a moment, Leo’s arms around you as the growing dizziness took over. Leo did not say or do much, other than telling you it would be okay, and how the egg would be merciful. Then suddenly his attention snapped towards the open door, determination flashed in his eyes.

“Watch the egg”, he commanded, moving you off of him so he could stand. “Raphael is coming”.

“Yes”, you said, the dizziness diapering and a sudden clarity taking over, leaving nothing but the egg in your mind. “I’ll protect the egg”.

[percyluvr]

helloo, could i request a leo valdez x daughter of poseidon!reader headcanons? thanks 🦈

leo valdez x daughter of poseidon!reader summary: hcs for leo with a daughter of poseidon reader

when y'all first started dating, percy was a bit of a hater

y'know after the whole......... firing on the romans thing

but after a while it was fine

bc y'all r too damn cute

you sneak out of cabin 3 to go see leo a lot

and it's kinda annoying to percy sometimes

cuz you're nowhere near as sneaky as you think you are

but he likes it bc then he can have annabeth over

so it's kinda a win win

but anyways!

you guys sneak out to go sit near the lake

and just cuddle and talk

sometimes y'all fall asleep

and wake up to water splashing your face (it's percy)

other times you sleep in cabin 9

but percy knows either way

he always finds y'all LMFAO

he's so annoying to y'all

but it's all in good fun

bc you and leo prank him back

y'all have like a youtube prank war going on LMAOO

ANYWAYS enough abt percy trynna annoy y'all

leo is such a sweetie

he's always making you things

especially little ocean themed charms for your bracelets

you make him matching bracelets. out of the charms he makes.

UGH my mind

anywho

you sit in cabin 9 watching him make shit

and he gets a lil nervous with you watching him so intensely

sometimes he messes up what he's making because ur so distracting

and he just tries to play it off like he meant to do that

it haunts him at night LMFAOO

anyways

you made him a flame-resistant bracelet bc u know how he was always worried about burning your bracelets

and he actually cried

like he bursted out into tears and gave u the tightest hug ever

he might've cracked one of your ribs

shhh don't tell anyone..

he LOVES when you take him underwater

y'all just be chillin down there from time to time

until percy starts lurking down there too...

percy is a menace to y'all frl

during meals, y'all always sit at the same table

consequences be damned

everyone at camp is SO sick of y'all

pda central i swear

this man COULD NOT get his hands off of you to save his life LMFAO

always cuddling at campfires

late night swims n shiiiii

if ur ever cold

yk he's got u bbygirl

hes like a damn heater

but like

he cant turn it off

so ur like dying of a heat stroke when yall cuddle during the summer

he feels bad

but he loves being close to u

he's always thinking ab how lucky he is to have u

and how he doesnt deserve u

and u know that he thinks that

so ur always reassuring him that hes good enough and u will always love him

hes pretty insecure but he tries to play it off as no big deal

but ur always there for him

and thats something he loves ab u

y'all just get each other on a different levellll

poseidon lowk LOVES him

#prouddad vibes

and hephaestus loves u too

yall lowk got ur dads to be besties

thats how powerful yall r together

y'all are always tg

like 24/7

yall schedule to be in charge of the same activities so you dont have to be away from each other

how yall dont get sick of each other is BEYOND ME

ig thats just how it be when ur in love!

[soulprompts]

an unexpected arrival. (A PROMPT LIST!)

so a lovely anonymous angel asked for a list of prompts relating to an unexpected pregnancy, and i made a list! i have two other lists over on my other blog that i'm gonna reblog over here, but there may be some slight overlap with these; however, unlike the other two lists, these focus exclusively on the unexpected part. DON'T ADD TO THIS LIST, DON'T CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN! but do have a tonne of fun with them!

" so, remember last week, when i had the flu and i couldn't leave my house? turns out it wasn't the flu. i'm pregnant. "

" i'm telling you about this baby because you deserve to know. that's all. i don't expect anything from you. i don't need you to step up or whatever. i just thought you ought to know. "

" i'm sure you don't need to be reminded, but... getting pregnant wasn't exactly part of the whole life plan. "

" you're sure? i mean, you did the test properly? maybe it was a false positive. or, or maybe you didn't read the results right... "

" a baby... well. that certainly complicates things, doesn't it? "

" i don't even know if i want kids. "

" could you please just stop reminding me that this isn't part of the plan?! you think i don't know that?! we're having a baby, i'm terrified enough without you reminding me! "

" look. i'm/you're not the first person to get pregnant, and i/you won't be the last. we're gonna figure it out, alright? "

" my place isn't even close to being big enough for a baby... they need so much stuff. cribs, prams, diaper stations... and my neighbors complain enough as it is, they'll evict me if i have a screaming baby as well... "

" hey... why don't you move in with me? i've got plenty of space, and my walls are thick, so the baby could scream as loud as they want. you could stay as long as you like. "

" should... we get married? i mean, that's what you do, isn't it? when someone's having a baby? "

" okay, we're not getting married. i mean, i appreciate the gesture, but... there's plenty of single parents out there. what's one more, right? "

" god... we are so stupid. i mean, seriously! any idiot knows that condoms aren't 100% effective! if we're dumb enough to forget that, how are we meant to look after a baby?! "

" you... you're kidding, right? this is a joke? it's a fake pregnancy test, some weird, slightly out of touch belated april fool's prank? "

" it's honestly insane that we didn't figure it out sooner... i mean, those were some wild cravings, right? "

" when you say late... do you mean like, a few days? or are we talking... months? "

" no, no, this... it changes everything. EVERYTHING. i... i don't know if i'm ready for this, i don't think i'm parent material, i... "

" hey. you're not alone. you got that? it takes a village, right? i'm gonna help you every step of the way. we all will. this kid, if you choose to go through with it... they'd be okay. "

" you know i support you. whatever choice you end up making. i will always be by your side. okay? "

" if this is some weird idea of a joke, i have to tell you, it's not funny. i mean, you're having a baby AND i'm somehow the dad? a little much, no? "

" no, i want to step up. it took two of us to make this baby, and i want to make sure you know that, if you go ahead with this, there's gonna be two of us to raise them, too. "

" the father doesn't believe that the baby is his. "

" okay. so screw the father. i'm going to be here to help you. okay? we'll parent this kid so well, they'll never want to know who their real dad is. "

" so... you wanna tell me who the father is? "

" the surprise baby is actually not just one baby. we're having twins/triplets/etc. "

" hey, hey... don't worry, okay? it's alright. it's all going to be okay. condoms break, yeah? it's no biggie... "

" what do you mean, you think?! haven't you taken a pregnancy test yet? "

" that's a lot of pregnancy books you got there... got something you want to tell me? "

" have you told the father yet? "

" i guess, seeing how you rushed over here so fast to tell me the news, that you think the baby is mine? "

" look, we both made plans, right? and obviously shit happens, but... a baby is a pretty massive deal. "

" how many other people have you told about the pregnancy? "

" what do you want to do? "

[jaylienpotter]

Conceited

Jegulus one-shot

Warning: Lily Evans bashing (kinda)

"Why don't you give me a chance? Even to be friends?!"

Regulus turned around and walked towards the source of the noise. He knew that voice very well.

"I hate you, Potter!"

Seemed like Black's crush was getting rejected again. Part of him was sad for his brother's best friend, another, more selfish side of him, was relieved.

"Why?! What did I ever do to you? I know I was a prick to Snape sometimes-"

"You're a bully!"

"I'm not a bully! Snape isn't stupid, nor weak, nor innocent. He does the exact same thing we did to him! He's not a victim." He wasn't wrong, to be a bully meant it was one-sided. Snape and Potter were more like mortal enemies.

"Even then, you're still a rich, obnoxious, arrogant, selfish prat who doesn't shut up about himself! You're so bloody conceited!"

That hit. He could see the hurt in those dark brown eyes. People didn't know the effort the tanned skinned boy put into helping others, making sure everyone is happy, included, safe. He could have all eyes on him yet no one noticed. Except Reg. He noticed James.

"That's not true." The pair turned to him in surprise, pale hands becoming fidgety with the sudden notion of being watched. He kind of regretted speaking up.

"James doesn't talk about himself. Yes, he's sometimes a bit obnoxious and loud, and he does talk a lot but it's never centered around himself. You're getting confused with my brother, Evans."

"Oh, please. Those two are the same. You're not in Gryffindor, you don't hear them all the time." Right, but he did hear from the boy in private. In their late night talks that started after Sirius ran away. Because James didn't want Reg to feel alone. He noticed. He cared. He helped.

"What does he say then? About himself. Not about his friends. Or the stupid pranks they all pull." He dragged the word 'all', making it a point that it didn't count.

"Do you know his favourite colour? Favourite animal? Favourite classes and professors? His grades? How many people he's dated? Anything about his home life? His life goals and dreams?" It was too late to back out, the rant had begun, and you bet Blacks finish what they start.

"Because I don't think so. He might talk a shit lot, but it's about his group plans, his friends, making jokes, making others laugh when feeling like shit as so many do nowadays," himself included. "It takes a lot to get him to talk about himself as an individual, actually. You would know if you gave him a chance. But for someone so against judgemental people, you really do focus on his appearance." Green eyes wide, pink lips shut tight. Regulus contained his smirk.

"He's a good person. A great friend. Selfless and caring despite being from an old pureblood family. And he fights for what he thinks is right. He fights for others. With his big personality comes a big heart. So if you don't make space for the love he has to offer just because you think you don't believe he has it in him, he's not the conceited one." Red hair nearly flew with Lily's stormed exit. She hadn't liked their interaction in the slightest. It was better that way. She wasn't deserving.

Piercing dark eyes were burning a whole through black curls. Reg avoided James's gaze, afraid of what he'd say. He only faced him when he felt the boy closer, and he could swear Potter's eyes were sparkling.

"You meant that...?"

"Of course. You care so much about everyone else that you forget yourself. You couldn't tell me what you wanted to do in the future because it would depend on what your friends decided to do with their lives. You're the most selfless person I know, and if she thinks otherwise, she doesn't deserve your love or friendship."

Silence. He really wanted the older boy to say something, but he just stared, lips slightly parted. Icy blue eyes looked away, shoulders tensing from the attention.

Warm strong arms surrounded his small figure, nearly making him halt. But Potter's sweet, intoxicating smell had him relax and melt in his arms, wrapping his much slimmer ones around his tanned waist.

"Thanks, Reggie." His heart skipped a beat at the nickname and he hoped James didn't feel it against his own chest. He was also thankful to have his face covered, absolutely certain that his white cheeks had turned fully pink.

[bangaveragewhitewine]

blood red bloom

Eddie Munson x Reader (bouncer x bartender, established relationship) 

Halloween, 1992

“You’re gonna have to work a lot harder to come up with a prank that will actually scare me, sweet thing.”

Eddie’s voice echoes in your head as you stare at the red inky star in your little leatherette diary.

A late period wasn’t quite what you had in mind, but here you are, sitting on your bedroom floor and staring at the mocking inky red star in your diary.

This Halloween was turning out to be pretty damn scary.

Word Count: 6.7k

Content / Warnings: Pregnancy scare - this is angst-heavy with some brief mentions of Eddie and reader's anxieties of being parents. Discussion of the future. Miscommunication. A fight that's not a fight but they kiss and make up anyway. Brief sex mentions. A reminder that this, and all my fics, are 18+!!!

Please feel free to skip this segment if it’s not your thing!!

Author's note: We couldn't let Halloween pass without an instalment of Happy Hours, could we? This was a toughy, it's been a rough and hectic few weeks, but I hope you enjoy reading the latest snippet! Proof-read by @specialagentmonkey, finished off in the taxis to / from the airports in Dublin and Boston!

Since the first day with a chill in the air, the first fallen crunchy-crisp leaf, your boyfriend had been in Halloween mode. It was your second Halloween together, your first living together after you accepted Eddie’s cute proposal with his spare key in June. Even though he was messy and left the toilet seat up, you loved living with Eddie. 

You loved waking up with him every morning and falling asleep together every night. You loved going grocery shopping together, and you adored how he would sit in the bathroom to talk to you or read his book while you lounged in the bath or did your makeup.

Autumn and Halloween meant horror movies, decorating the apartment and planning your costumes together. Eddie was stupidly talented with carving pumpkins, and you roasted the flesh with thyme and sage and onions for a huge pot of soup that warmed your bellies for days. 

During your first year together, he had noticed how you scared easily - jumped a little or clutched your chest when he accidentally jumpscared you or purposefully snuck up to grab the squish of your hips with a monster-like growl. It always made him laugh, and his apology was always a kiss that quite often turned into something more.

You quickly learned that you could never get him back. 

Yeah, Eddie was jumpy but he possessed a sixth sense for whenever you were trying to scare him. 

When he had challenged you to scare him - to really scare him - you’re not sure that realising that your period was later-than-late was quite what he had in mind. 

A rare Friday night off, October 30th, had started with another failed attempt to spook him. He was almost condescendingly kind when he said ‘ooh, that was a good one!’ after you popped up from that cramped back seat of his Dodge. 

Once you clambered out of the car so Eddie could make it to work on time, he pulled you in for a kiss and cupped your face with such tenderness.

“You’re gonna have to work a lot harder to come up with a prank that will actually scare me, sweet thing.” 

He kissed your pouty scowl away with his wicked smile and left you to enjoy your night off. 

His challenge to scare him echoed in your head as you stared at the last inky red star scribbled in your diary. The hardwood floor felt chilly beneath you as you knelt on the ground surrounded by lipstick and pens and detritus from your bag spilled around you.

Thirty-six. 

Your period was thirty-six days late. A whole period missed.

The little leatherette diary fell from your shaky hands. If you hadn’t already been on the ground, you are sure your knees would have buckled. 

Slumped against the side of the bed, you rested your racing head against the navy duvet - the blood-red blooming rose print seemed mocking as you tried to remember if you had definitely written your dates down correctly. Your periods were pretty regular, never more than two or three days out of sync if even that many. 

You hadn’t even thought about your period, or its lateness, until you spied the full box of Kotex next to Eddie’s shaving kit beneath the sink. As the bath filled with lavender bubbles and swirling steamy water, you had pondered on how you liked seeing your things side by side now that you lived together; your dresses hanging next to his nice shirts and jackets, toothbrushes sitting in the same holder, your perfumes and potions lined up and organised next to his new shampoo and conditioner replacing the horror that was 3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

As you gave a pot of fresh-green facemask the sniff test, the box of period products had caught your eye. 

Eddie had picked them up for you during a particularly bad set of cramps, cramps so bad you had called out of work. He had arrived home with salty Lays and sweet creamy chocolate and the biggest pack of painkillers they would let him buy, and you had cried because it was so kind and thoughtful of him. But that had been well over a month ago… 

As the filling bath turned to white noise in your ears, you had flustered to the bedroom to check your diary. 

The thirty-six (almost thirty-seven) day lag made you feel like you were going to turn inside out. And not because you were cramping up this time. 

The bath was cold by the time you arrived back from a late expedition to the CVS five blocks away, armed with a share-bag of Reeses Peanutbutter Cups and a pink box that promised ‘quick and easy results!’ 

A year in and neither of you could keep your hands to yourselves. Moving in together had meant that you and Eddie had endless pockets of time together, and rooms and surfaces to officially christen as a cohabiting couple. Eddie’s car had seen some action when you took a road trip back to Hawkins to visit his Uncle a few weeks ago - the driver's seat, that cramped back seat, the bonnet… 

When Eddie arrived home from work just after 3 a.m., you still had not touched the test or had a wink of sleep. He crept in like your favourite cryptid and dropped a kiss on your head, trying with all his might not to wake you as you feigned sleep. He settled behind you and fell into a sprawling-limbed rest while you lay awake.

In those dark hours, lit only by the red glow of the clock, you imagined every scenario.

The thought of a little one with dark curly hair and big brown eyes makes your heart ache in a good way, especially when you think of this imaginary little person in Eddie’s arms. That ache twisted like a knife when you imagine him not wanting anything to do with that made-up little person, half him and half you. 

You were never set firmly for or against being a mother - of course you got broody sometimes when you saw a cute kid in the grocery store, but equally you had been more than happy to hand back your cousin’s screaming baby when his diaper leaked on you when you visited home back in the spring. 

And Eddie? Did he even want to be a Dad? 

He had a lot of tangled-up feelings there, held them in his chest like a pulled-tight knot. That’s how he explained it when his own Dad had come up in conversation. He carried that sadness and hurt with him for almost two decades. 

Would he want you to get rid of it, or would he even want you if it was really happening? You tried to be rational, think about how he had promised to love you when you had silver hair and dentures one night when you were both high as kites. Maybe it might be okay, you could make it work… 

Sleep came and went, pockets of light dozing interrupted by your heart thrashing in your chest just when you managed to snatch some peace. 

As Eddie snored softly, peacefully asleep, you glared at the red-glowing clock, its analogue numbers mocking you until 5:55 blurred behind your eyes. Caged in by the weight of Eddie’s arm, with his hand on your tummy beneath your (his) sleep-shirt, you managed to drift again.

The pitiful pockets of snatched sleep make you feel irritable and wrung out the following day. With a steaming mug of strong coffee, you watched the sun peak through the broad silver-grey sky while Eddie slept on, snoring and unaware. 

You still couldn’t summon the courage to sneak the test from your bag and pee on the damn stick. In true Halloween style, it mocked you like Poe’s Tell Tale Heart all damn day from its stowing place in a bag under the bed. 

Eddie was unbearably sweet with you from the moment he woke to find you re-reading the same page of your book for at least the eighth try. 

It didn’t take long for him to figure out that you weren’t in good form - despite your joint excitement for Halloween - so he tried and tried to cheer you up; a late breakfast sneaking smiley kisses over egg and cheese and home fries. With a wide smile, he shared his ideas for a new drawing for a new batch of Corroded Coffin T-shirts for their gig before Thanksgiving with hot sauce staining his mouth until you wiped it away.

You kept getting distracted when he showed them to you and felt awful when you saw the flicker of hurt on his sweet handsome face. You rallied yourself and helped him pick two to show to the guys when they met to rehearse. 

You finally snatched some sleep, cuddled up on the sofa before you had to get ready for work. Eddie hated having to wake you; he was as gentle as he could be, rousing you with light kisses to your troubled brow and warm cheeks. 

“Hey, princess. Time to transform,” he whispered, his fingers itching with excitement to don the black velvet and silver chains draped on hangers in your room. 

Hours later, you and Eddie walked into Jackie’s carrying a tense air between your joined hands. 

You were still the sexiest vampire couple Chicago had ever seen; Eddie in a halfway unbuttoned black shirt and slacks topped with a velvet blazer you had thrifted, silver chains shining on his chest and fake blood smeared like your lipstick on the side of his mouth. Your black velvet dress showed off your curves and made Eddie’s eyes pop out of his skull like a cartoon when he first saw you in it. The bloody puncture marks on your neck dripped onto your chest and cleavage, the perfect blend of gore and sex appeal. 

You felt shitty, had snapped at Eddie more times than you could remember while you tried and failed to make your makeup look not terrible. 

“You look hot as fuck, baby. Have I told you that?” Eddie squeezed your shoulders as he looked at your reflection in the small vanity he had bought for you when you moved in. He was sweet like that. 

“Mhm. Only ten or eleven times.” Tight smile, you met his warm gaze in the mirror. “Not as hot as you, Ed,” you say, pushing off the attention he doled out so genuinely and easily. 

The subtle dark shadows below his cheeks and smudged smoky beneath his eyes suit him, gothic and mysterious. You had spent more time on it than you had planned because he couldn’t stop talking and you had (quite seriously) threatened to stab him with your brushes on more than one occasion. Now you were pressed for time with your own makeup. Clock ticking, you were at least thankful that the shadows beneath your eyes didn’t need much more darkening up. 

“Nah, fuck off. You’re beyond belief. I can’t wait until after work already.” That glow in Eddie’s eyes that usually sparked hot want in your belly made you feel like prey. Sure, you were dressed as his recently-changed victim but you didn’t feel much like play-acting now, or sex for that matter. 

He kissed your head and breathed in your perfume - he loved how you changed it out for the seasons - and the Fall’s scent was rich and warm and sexy. 

“Feelin’ okay?” Eddie had asked when you went silent and spaced out again for a few moments, shoulders tensed. He missed your usually returned flirtation when you give as good as you get and then some. 

“For the hundredth time, Ed. I’m fine. Please just let me finish this, okay? Please. We’re gonna be late.” 

Since then it had been pretty much radio silence.  

Eddie stewed, not rising to your bad mood because he might say the wrong thing and make things worse. In the car, he had bit his tongue and held back the suggestion of a weekend away, the idea to book some time off around Thanksgiving and just go somewhere together, alone. He wasn’t sure he could take another unexplained sad sigh or an away-with-the-fairies gaze when you hadn’t even heard what he had said. 

So he said nothing and scared himself with his own spiralling ‘what if’.  

Instead of eking out the last few minutes before work with Eddie, sharing a cig and trading kisses like you usually do, you leave him to enjoy his cigarette without your dark cloud mood. 

“Hey. You’re forgetting something.” Eddie raises a brow at you. 

“Oh, thanks.” You hold your hand out for your bag he had carried from the car. 

You lean up and peck his cheek, swiping at the mark your dark lipstick left behind. 

It wasn’t the proper kiss he had been angling for, but it was better than nothing. 

“See you later?” he tries. 

“Yeah, if I can get away from the bar. It’s going to be mental busy…” Resisting the urge to rub your eyes and ruin your makeup, you offer a small smile. “Be good. Love you.” 

“Yeah, love you too.” 

Eddie watches you go, his heart hurting in a way it hasn’t since he finally mustered the courage to kiss you in that same dingy back alley. Yeah, you two had your little arguments over the last year, didn’t always agree and got in funny moods with each other, but this felt different. He didn’t like it one bit. 

The bar is the fullest you have ever seen it, everyone decked out in their Halloween-best. Your arms ache from shaking cocktails, but the special menu you had curated is going down a treat. The pain is worth the tips and the compliments, the recommendations passed between high-top tables and clusters of costumed customers. 

The music is loud, the atmosphere sparky and fun, and yet it isn’t enough of a distraction, or enough to buoy you up when you’re feeling so low. Not the compliments on your costume, or the questions about whether you and the hottie bouncer were matching on purpose. You forced your smiles and laughs, genuine love for your vampire lord on the door made it easy to answer those probing questions. You tried to get out of your head and lose yourself in the best night of the year, but every time you would remember the last inky red star in your diary, the full box beneath the sink, the test you were scared to take. 

You weren’t necessarily avoiding Eddie, you had filled waters for him and Jeff and the new guy Trevor, but had barely had time to look for him in the crowd, never mind checking in on him. Your mood had transferred over to him, and your guy twisted tighter with extra added guilt. 

It was well after midnight before you took your break; the bar had been rammed with orders and while you could have slipped away, you threw yourself into work instead. 

The need to stretch out your legs and hips and crack your back for good measure became undeniable and you slip away with a glass of ice-and-lime heavy soda water for a breath of cold air. 

You’re mid-sip when Eddie pulls you into the small staff bathroom, spilling your water down your arm and onto the busted tiles. You yelp as the door clicks, pure fear until you realise it’s him

“What the- Eddie!”

Eddie’s gaze bores down on you, looking like a very pissed-off sexy vampire. 

“You fucker! Scared the shit outta me, Ed.” You shake chilled water from your arm as you glare at him. He was lucky not to have glass in that pretty, pissed-off face of his. 

“What the fuck is up your ass today?” he asks, arms folded. 

Your skin prickles all over, hairs stand on end. 

“You’re in a foul fuckin’ mood. What’s up? Did I do something?” Less accusatory now, he just looks hurt.

“Eddie, it’s fine.” You will your voice to stay steady as your stomach drops.  

“It’s not. You’ve barely spoke to me, every little thing I do has annoyed you.” “It’s not you…” 

That sounds way worse and you see him visibly wince. 

“Ed, it’s not your fault, baby. I’m sorry.”

He sighs, shoulders deflated. “Then talk to me. Please.”

“Ed…”

“Am I not making you happy? Is that it?”

“No! Jesus, Ed. Never! You make me so happy..”

“Then what?! Please just talk to me.” His voice breaks. 

“I… fuck.” You sigh, breathe deep. Your eyes strong as you speak, say it out loud, “My period is late.”

His brow creases, confused, before folding high under his bangs. Eddie’s eyes are wide, frantic. “Oh.” 

Silence settles, no more voices echoing on the tiles. 

“Yeah. Oh.” 

“Fuck… Are you..? Are we..?”

There’s a sweetness in how he asks, a scared look in his eyes that you recognise from the mirror. It makes your tummy twist and your heart ache. Why had you been so scared?

“I don’t know.” Your voice is cracked and broken. “I don’t know.”

His arms open out to you. You don’t need a second invitation. You practically fall into his arms, gripping him as tight as you can. 

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he whispers. Eddie’s heart hammers hard in his chest. “We’ll figure it out.” 

As he holds you close, his eyes cast upward to the grotty ceiling. He has no idea what he’s doing, but right now you need a hug so that’s what he will do. 

“I’m sorry.”

His big-ringed hands hold your face, looking into your tired eyes. “Why sorry? Pretty sure it takes two… if you’re. Y’know.”

You sniffle, nod. “I know. I don’t know if I am..” 

“You need to piss on a stick or somethin’, right?” 

You can’t help the little laugh that escapes you, despite the tears in your eyes. “Yeah. I do.” 

“Okay. Okay, you can do that. I’ll even hold the stick if you want me to.” He’s dead serious too, not just trying to make you smile. Though it is a bonus, and he melts into a little grin to match. “There’s my princess.” 

You cuddle back into him again, “Sorry I was a bitch all day.” 

“You know I don’t like that, baby.” He frowns and cups the back of your head, stroking gently with his thumb. “Knew there was something wrong though. Wish you could’ve just told me.”

“I…” Your voice gets caught in your throat, words lodged and stuck like they choke you. “I was scared.” 

Though your voice is muffled against Eddie’s jacket, he hears you and squeezes you tighter. His eyes squeeze shut too. 

“You don’t need to be scared on your own. I can take it, I’m a big boy,” he promises, repeating it so you know it’s true and real. “We’ll figure it all out.” 

His sweetness makes tears flood down your face, that dam holding back every conflicting emotion finally broken. And Eddie holds you. He simply holds you tight and safe and doesn’t say anything, because he doesn’t know either. He doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how to kiss this better, doesn’t know what he wants or what you want either. All he knows is that you need him like he needs you. 

“Fuck, my makeup,” you sniffle, face creasing more when you realise you’re still mid-shift. 

“You’re gorgeous,” he promises, kissing your forehead. “Okay so, we’ll work our butts off for another few hours and then we can go home and swing by CVS?” 

“I already bought one. It’s at home.” You look down at your toe-to-toe boots before looking into Eddie’s eyes. “Bought one last night when I realised. Too chicken to take it.”

He nods, pinches your chin with sweet affection. “Okay. Well, drink your water so you can piss on that stick, yeah?” 

He’s smirking when you hide your face in his neck again, groaning in something like embarrassment. “I’d do it for you if I could. But I can’t, so drink up.”

Eddie lifts your glass from the sink ledge and tilts it to your lips. Despite the warmth of his arms and the stuffy little bathroom, the water makes you shiver as it cools you from inside out. 

Hand in hand, Eddie walks you to fix your makeup at your locker as he distracts you with a few of his little anecdotes from working the door. He catches your eye in the mirror in your locker as he tells you about a table of drinkers he heard raving about your cocktail menu. 

“Can you make me one later?” he asks, coming to rest his chin on your shoulder.

“Course,” you murmur, patting deep Merlot-red lipstick on your pouty mouth. 

“Can I get some of that?” He raises a brow in the mirror, and smiles, his teeth glinting, when you tilt your head back to press a peck against his mouth. 

A few kisses and the squeeze of his hands on your hips centres you again, helps the tension loosen in your shoulders. 

“We need more fake blood.”

“We definitely do. Want me to bite you a little more, my pet?” His voice is wickedly low against your lip; it makes you shiver. 

Sexy vampire couple had been an easy pick for you both. Eddie had got really into it when you arrived home with the press on fangs - a hookup from your friend who worked in theatre production and went costume shopping with you.

“You’ll get carried away again, Drac. I’ve gotta go back out in a sec.”

He squeezes your hips and behaves himself as you dab fake blood against the corner of his mouth, letting it drip down his chin, before adding more to your neck and chest. 

“Hot.”

“We are.” 

He hugs you from behind again, one hand on your tummy, so he doesn’t mess up the blood. “S’gonna be okay, I promise. We’ll figure shit out. I’m behind you no matter what. Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’d be fucking lost without you, Eddie.”

“Right back at you, sweet stuff.” 

A well-aimed kiss saves any blood transferring onto your face before Eddie walks you back to the bar. “If you need a sec, just take it. Don’t worry, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Love you.”

“Love you more.” 

He smiles and steals a final kiss before patting your velvet-clad behind as you step right back into taking orders. 

You don’t see the moment he takes, ducking into the back again to process what was going on. You pour cold beers as he sinks against the wall, breathing deeply so he doesn’t spiral into panic.

He doesn't know how to be a Dad, didn’t have a map or footprints to follow. Wayne was a great substitute, but Eddie was nine years old and grown beyond his years by the time he stepped up to try and fill the gaps made by his no-good brother. 

Ringed fingers push and scrape against his scalp, tugging hard enough to bring him back to earth. The pain anchors him, reminds him to breathe again. 

He doesn’t know what to do, how to feel, how to be what you need. But he does know one thing. 

Running away isn’t an option, not when he has you. 

It’s almost 4 a.m. before you can leave with Eddie. It’s almost 4 a.m. and he keeps you tucked safe and warm beneath his arm as you walk toward his car. You can see your breath bleed into vapour in the now-November air. 

You feel like you have been run over by a semi-truck as you fold yourself into your seat. Everything hurts and yet you’re somehow wired and wide awake, even on the pitiful amount of sleep you managed last night. 

Tired eyes stare into the streetlight above the car until you see spots. Brought back into orbit by the squeeze of Eddie’s hand over your fishnets, you share a tight smile with him. 

“Okay?”

“Ish. Tired. Need to pee.”

You had been holding it in. No more excuses, or avoiding the inevitable. 

You help Eddie click off the little fangs on his already pointy canines and do the same with your own, tucking them into their boxes and into your bag. Shiny gold plastic medals sit on your chests, your prizes for the best costumes among the Jackie’s crew. 

He turns the key, squeezes again before hooking his arm works the headrest to reverse out of his spot. 

You’re both carrying the weight of the unknown. It doesn’t feel any lighter. Not when you have caught Eddie chewing his black-polished nails and the skin around them, seen him zoning out and pretending he was fine. 

Until you know more, have an answer, you can be not okay together, hand in hand in the darkness. 

Once you’re on the road, he squeezes your hand and keeps a hold of it as music from the radio fills the silence. 

“You hungry?” Your voice is the first to breach the fragile peace. 

“Kinda. You want fries?” 

“Not really but if you do, it’s my turn.”

He smiles, slight and soft, and squeezes your hand. “There’s some spaghetti left. I’ll heat that up.” 

You squeeze back, it’s enough to say ‘okay’ as he sails through green lights and empty streets toward your cosy little apartment. 

The walk from the car to the lift to your door, apartment number 8 with its handcrafted Halloween wreath, feels like wading through syrup. 

Eddie doesn’t let go of your hand from the moment he helps you out of the car; not when you press the button for the lift, or when he fights with the sticky lock that you have been meaning to call maintenance about. It locks easier from the inside, the bolt slides in easily to double-lock it safely. 

Eddie takes your jacket to hang side by side with his own, matching leathers that make you smile through the pressure at the back of your eyes. 

“I wanna clean my face and then do it,” you murmur, fiddling with the strap of your bag. 

“Okay. We can do that. Clean faces and pyjamas.” Eddie nods, a held-in breath puffing his chest up with false confidence. 

He eats cold spaghetti from a Tupperware container by the fridge as you strip out of your clothes and change into fuzzy leopard bottoms and a holey She-Ra t-shirt once the fake blood is swiped from your chest. 

The pink and white box from under the bed comes with you to the bathroom. 

Eddie joins you at the mirror with oily rich red spaghetti sauce slicing through the fake blood around his mouth. You clean your face as he strips down to boxers and pulls on his soft sleep hoodie that definitely has a concoction of questionable stains; toothpaste and your sleep-drool for sure. 

Red and black stained makeup wipes and cotton pads fill the bathroom bin and Eddie lets you comb and scrunchie his hair as you ignore the pressing need to pee for a few more moments of normality. He closes his eyes as you rub cleanser into his face as you had your own, gentle touches and swipes of wet-warm cotton until he’s shiny-clean and human-looking again. 

With a layer of moisturiser on, there are no more distractions. The boxed test can no longer be ignored. 

“Will I go?”

“You can come back in after I pee. We have to wait like..” you check the box for an answer, “Ten minutes.” 

Eddie nods, leaning down to kiss you once. “You don’t need me to hold the stick or anything?” 

“I have to pee in a little cup-thing and drop it onto the stick. Chemistry shit,” you shrug, cheeks warm. 

“Oh yeah, rules me out then.” He drops one more kiss to your lips before awkwardly taking his leave. 

You feel less alone when you know he’s lingering close by. 

Eddie doesn’t realise that he’s picked up stress-tidying from you until the bathroom door creaks open and you find him crouched amongst a clutter of unorganised tapes. 

“Can you time ten minutes on your watch? Or the egg timer?” you ask, hanging against the doorframe.  

The tapes are shoved back into a nonsensical stack - not organised by artist or chronology as he had planned to do - and Eddie scurries to grab his old Casio watch before joining you in the bathroom again. 

He slightly panics when he sees you sitting on the floor, but crouches to join you with cracking ankles. 

“Old man ankles,” you tease, leaning your head on his shoulder. 

“Mmhm, getting more like Wayne every day,” he murmurs back, dropping his hand in your lap for you to hold. 

Cradled between your palms, you lift it to kiss the side of his thumb. 

“Wayne is great. Just keep your hair. Please.” “Deal.”

Silence settles across the room and you watched the way Eddie’s socked feet bounce nervously. 

“Eddie?”  “Yeah?”  “What are we going to do?” 

He turns his head and presses a kiss to your hair, bumping the side of his face against your wobbly scrunchied bun. 

His voice is quiet. “We don’t know yet.”

“I know that. But it… I’ve been going crazy thinking, Ed. I know you have too.” You squeeze his hand. “Would you want me to get rid of it?” 

That idea plucks something painful in his chest. The knot of tangled emotions feels heavier than ever. 

“No. Only if that’s what you really wanted. I’m not gonna make you do anything, especially not anything you don’t want to do.” His murmured words are warm on your head and your heart. 

“I feel like I’m being pulled apart. Like… I’m just so confused about what to do, Eddie..” His arms wrap around you, hugging you close. 

“That’s okay. That’s okay,” he promises. 

After a few beats of silence, you feel like you can breathe deep enough to say the words that have been rattling around your head. “I… I do want kids. Some day. With you.”

He nods, agreeing before going quiet again. He thinks, tries to choose his words carefully. 

“If that day is like.. nine months away, is that okay with you?” he asks. 

“That’s the scary bit.”  “Yeah.” 

“I don’t know if I’m ready to be a Mom yet. What if I do it wrong?”

Eddie gives you a sad smile. “That’s how I feel too.”

Your foreheads rest together, eyes closed. 

“What if I’m never ready? What if I always feel like this?” you continue, leaning your cheek against Eddie’s steady palm. “I’m so happy with you, Eddie. What if this changes us, fucks us up?”

Dry lips press against your forehead, his thumbs swipe your cheek soothingly as you admit the fears that he has been holding too.

You hug him again, squeeze Eddie hard. 

“My mom and dad had me by our age.” Eddie’s voice is a whisper against your cheek. “And… it went so wrong, that I’m scared I can’t do it right.” 

You squeeze him tight, brushing loose hairs back from his face as his truth spills, unwound from that knot in his chest.

“I just wanna… I want to do it right. For us. For a baby. I want them to feel so fucking loved and happy. I’m so fucking scared, but… I know what to not do. I don’t want to be like him.”

Your heart breaks for that hurt little boy. You had seen him in photo albums and yearbooks, seen him with your own eyes when Eddie had bad days. He’s with you now, looking lost under the shitty bathroom light.

“You won’t be like him. You’re not him, Ed.”

“What if I am? And I just don’t know it?” There’s a frantic smashed-broken edge to his voice.

You crawl onto his lap, a knee on either side of his thighs so you can hold him properly, see his face. Swiping the beaded tears on his black lower lashes, you return that kiss to his forehead. 

“You are not your Dad. You just said it, you know what not to do yeah? That’s so important, baby.” You stroke his cheeks with your thumbs. 

He nods, wiping his face with his sleeve. His fingers drop to press against his chest like he is massaging the knot to free up his words. “I don’t want to let you down either.”

“You never have, Ed. Never ever.” 

His head rests back against the bath as you hold each other. Both scared, but it feels less utterly impossible and all-consuming. 

“I think… maybe, it’s good that we’re kinda scared. Because it means we care.” Eddie looks up at you, smooths his hand up your side. 

“And babies are kinda scary.” “Oh yeah. Absolutely terrifying.” “Cute though.” “Oh, for sure. That one in the park last week, with the bobble hat..?” “Cute as fuck.”

You share a smiling little kiss before he brings you back for another long holding hug. 

It’s easy to get lost in your head, trying to add up your very minimal savings with the cost of a baby, a bigger apartment.

You had both agreed that while you liked your jobs, you didn’t want to be there forever. Eddie wanted to get some more experience with music technology, maybe take a few courses and start teaching guitar lessons again to make extra cash on the side. 

It’s early morning now; your routine is all over the place with your late shifts and sleepy afternoons.

After a few moments of silence, Eddie speaks again, bringing you both back from the meandering paths in your minds. 

“I’m gonna marry you, y’know.”

You smile, knowing that you both wanted that happy ending. “Yeah? You gonna make me Mrs Munson?”

“Yeah, for sure. Knew that since the day I met you, baby.” He rolls his eyes, playful and pink-cheeked to distract from how raw he still feels. 

The swell in your chest makes you sob-laugh. 

“You gonna say yes?” he asks, just in case. “When I ask, I mean. This isn’t me asking, by the way. That’ll be way more romantic.”

“Okay.” You roll your eyes at him. “When you ask me, yeah. I’ll say yes.” 

“Okay. Cool.” “Cool.” 

Another smiling kiss, noses bumping each other’s cheek as you imagine your future together.

You have this feeling in your gut that this man holding you, letting you hold him, will be a great Dad someday. Eddie thinks you will be a great Mom; with you by his side, he feels like he can do anything.

“Ed?” you murmur against his lip. “They have to look like you or I’m gonna be pissed. Whenever that is.”

“Nah, get outta here. Poor kid.” He pokes gently at your ribs with wiggling fingers, stops you from squirming away with another hug. 

“Been thinking about a little baby with curly hair and brown eyes,” you admit quietly, mumbling against his neck.

“You been spending too much time in those photo albums with Wayne.” 

“It was one afternoon. Your Mom had hundreds of photos of you, Ed. It’s sweet that he kept them, and started his own albums.” 

Your fingers fiddle with the drawstrings on his hoodie as Eddie loses himself down that same path of practicality, lit by glowing reminders that he has to grow up someday soon. 

“I’m gonna get those fliers for guitar lessons printed next week. Get some cash together. I have some amps I could sell…” 

“Ed, you don’t have to do that.”

“I know but.. we can’t have loose wires and heavy shit around with a baby, baby.” 

He smiles at the word-play and your heart swells with how much you adore him. 

When your lips meet again, the tinny ring of the timer beeps on Eddie’s watch, eating up the distracted peace you had both found. 

“Want me to check?” he asks, seeing the shining fear reflected back at him when he looks into your eyes. 

“Yes please.” 

You slip off his lap and stand, holding out your hands to help Eddie up before you perch on the side of the bath. 

“One line is negative, two is positive,” you say, the pink example lines from the back of the box etched into your mind's eye. 

“Okay.”

Eddie takes a deep breath. Pauses to cup your face and kiss you before going any further. 

“I love you.” His eyes are sparkling, the set of his mouth more serious.

“Love you.” 

“This doesn’t change that, okay? S’a fact.”

You nod and steal one more kiss before letting him go to the counter. 

Eddie picks up the stick, checks under the light. You watch his face, see the shadow of conflicted confusion. You know then that it’s negative. 

“One line,” he whispers, looking up at you. 

You nod, coming over to stand with him. You see the one line, solitary and stark. 

“Okay,” you whisper, tucking yourself under Eddie’s arm. 

You can’t decide if it’s relief or loss you feel; either way, it pushes you over the edge of the precipice you have been teetering on all day and you sob. 

Eddie’s hands smooth over your back in soothing strokes, up and down, as your tears soak into his hoodie. He’s not sure what to say, not quite sure how he feels. Burning pressure pushes at his eyes as he lets his cheek rest against your head. 

“I don’t know how I feel,” you manage in a small voice after a few moments. 

Eddie swipes your tears, the dripping snot too, and thinks you look beautiful. One day, he knows you will shed happy tears caused by two pink lines and he will kiss their salty joy away with a smile. 

“We don’t need to have an answer. I think we got carried away thinkin’ huh?” 

You feel bone tired, wrung out. “Yeah.”

“Let’s sleep on it.”

There’s a lingering question about your late period that you can’t fathom yet, maybe the test was a dud? Maybe your iron is low, your hormones are off. But at almost five a.m. on that chilly Sunday morning, it can wait until Monday. 

You had felt every single emotion since the evening before when you realised and now that you have an answer to the question that had terrified you, thrilled you too in some small way, you felt like a popped balloon. 

“I’m really tired.” Your voice sounds pathetic in your ears and it makes you grimace, feeling mad at yourself for getting so worked up.

“I know, baby. Let’s go to bed, okay? I’ve got you.” Eddie whispers his promise against your temple and bends his knees to lift you up. 

“Ed…” you start to complain but you’re too tired to fight, so you wrap your legs around him and hold on. 

“Shh, let me.” 

Eddie is so gentle, it makes your heart hurt. He lays you down and makes sure you are cosy, leaves ever so briefly to get some water and flick off the bathroom light before joining you in bed. 

With the lights off, you seek each other out, hold each other close. 

You feel utterly consumed by that confusing feeling, the sad relief.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sweetheart.”

“No, I... I got us all wound up and now I feel so stupid.” 

Eddie is a steady and sure anchor as your body shakes in the dark. 

“You’re not stupid.” He holds you, whispering your name a little firmer to try and bring you back to him. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Please, don’t beat yourself up.” 

He sows kisses along your hairline as he makes his heartfelt promises. “I meant what I said. I want the future with you, all of it.”

You just nod, promise him that you want him too, forever. Slowly the tears subside, leaving you feeling beyond exhausted.

Eddie fights sleepfulness to make sure you’re okay, already at peace with the fact that you had so much ahead to look forward, to plan. 

He thinks of the antique shop windows, packed with trinkets and curios and glittering gems that you’re drawn to, like a magpie, every time you have a free afternoon to wander in the city without worry. You’re easily sidetracked by their beautiful mystery, and Eddie loves watching your awe. 

He thinks of a shiny sparkle on your finger, a little ceremony or a flight to Vegas for the hell of it, and of tiny hands to hold and teach. 

He thinks it will be okay. 

Lulled to sleep by Eddie’s stroking hands, the warmth of all of his adoration he wraps you up in, you feel peaceful and calm, and not at all scared. 

Thank you for reading! Reblogs, likes and comments are absolutely adored and cherished ❤️ 

[missmarveledsblog]

It's just pretend right ? (Bucky Barnes x reader) part 5

summary : after an amazing day the terror twins come to bring kitty's world and everything she has known crashing to the world making her run off and face a past she's never known while she discovers a new "gift" , bucky find out she not the only one .

warning : this one is angsty i'm sorry but it for the plot i promise it not all angst , violence and shitty family .

Previous part

To say tony stark spent his day digging through everything and anything wouldn’t be a lie , they man had to give it to fury , he had the file completely locked but he’s tony stark  of course he found a way in and he suddenly wished he never did . He wished he could have gone back to be in the dark because what was hidden made his stomach twist and turn and it was all  information on a person he considered family.  How was he going to tell her this without breaking her beautiful stubborn little heart breaking the bonds and trust she’s had all these years. He read it over and over wishing it was some sick prank but when Nick fury walked into the lab the look on his face only confirmed it. 

“ How long did you know” was all he said, making Bruce look at the men in confusion. 

“ you shouldn’t be hacking the servers stark that file was not meant to be read”. 

“ does she know what’s in those files  the ones you hide very well i might add but not well enough” he crossed and uncrossed his arms frankly wanting to punch someone or something.  

“She has no idea and it’s not for us to tell her” fury stood tall on the issue . 

“ So what , you're just going to have agents looking after her and hope she doesn’t notice , well hate to tell you buddy she did” he scoffed. 

“ What are you talking about Stark? I never had agents watching her. the whole point of it no one  knowing  where she was” fury stopped face dropping . 

“ These aren’t your vehicles because their registers with shields” he turned the screen. 

“ Jesus for a genius you're a dumbass sometimes that’s a list of known vehicles we’ve had on watch list not inventory , how long she notices these”. 

“ Since she was a kid, she just thinks it is one of those strange routine things , what or who is watching her fury” Bruce gritted his teeth. 

“ hydra” he sighed. 

 “ we have to tell her” . 

“ Just let's think of a plan , she's safe now with nat and the guys” tony sighed not really knowing what to do.

 “ We need to tell them tony. "I know i’ll send the file, let her family give her the chance to tell her, i better go to see if they need back up  “ he felt his own heart fall into his stomach as he pulled his phone out . 

Walking into the kitchen nat gave her a quick hello before answering the phone and rushing out the room.  

“ How was the church?” her mother smiled. 

“ I didn't go in , me and Bucky walked around town and had lunch” she smiled brightly. 

“  Let me guess bacon burger and milkshake”.

 “ most definitely shared stories of the past and even had grandma laughing” she sat . “ Maybe she is dying,” Izzy mused as Maya slapped her arm . 

“ we were talking about pop pop , wonder if he would be proud of me” her eyes fell to  her hands in her lap . 

“ Would he, that’s a stupid question , he’d be down the bars and fishing lake bragging majorly at his kitty kicking ass  and saving the world” .

 “actually kicking names and taking ass” she chuckled, only for them to be confused as the inside joke. 

All of her years being in the life she had moments she loved and moments she hated  and as she looked at the file on the jet computer this was a moment she despised completely.  The moment in time finding out her close friend represented her own in a way , a family raising her for an evil organization yet this time it was prolonged .  how was she going to explain to her best friend her life was basically a lie , that the ones she loved were just pretending to care . 

“ What is this” was all she heard, turning to see Steve and Bucky standing completely shocked at the words on the screen of the jet's computer. 

“ This is why she has been followed ,  she’s an experiment from hydra god i hate that even came out of my mouth because she’s not , she’s  our Y/N “ nat sighed. 

“ what?” . 

“ she’s a experiment , her mother is a test subject , they pumped her full of serums under the guise of being some new drug for expectant mothers but she died during the childbirth and well Y/N was kept so they could continue it that was  now she must be with host family” nat growled the last parted . 

“ we have to tell her , i mean this is a big thing to hide” bucky feet heading towards the door only to look up and see her father standing looking like the color vacated his face. 

“ explain” nat growled .

“ Where's dad?” she asked, seeing the two boys coming into the kitchen . 

“ He's on that jet seeing if the others are coming in” Jack shrugged. 

“ probably showing off” she mused but still she felt her eyes looking to the door. 

“I’ll get them” she smiled softly, kissing her mothers cheek before heading out to the door.  Just as she stepped off the porch the car stopped in front of her screeching . 

 “ YOU DRUGGED US”  the voice screamed as she felt her heart beating and her body shaking.

 “ you insolent child , what was the soldiers attention on my daughters too much? '' her aunt's voice called coming toward her . then the world went a mumbling and muttering like she was underwater , she could hear the protest of cassie sort of but the fear in her had her in almost like internal bubble. 

 “ hey back the fuck up before i pull those dollar store extensions out of your head” she heard izzy voice standing before her and jessies arms around her pulling her back to earth .  

“ she made a fool of us in front of the avengers because of her vendetta against us” leah screeched. 

“ vendetta you almost killed her” izzy growled  the whole commotion as they stood out of the jet. 

“ whats going on? '' Nat asked, coming to her side for the first time ever seeing the powerhouse she knew all these years, shaking like a scared child . 

“ i don’t know why you think you're so special , you’ll never be one of us. ''Emma cried, holding her still sore stomach. 

“ i don’t know why you hate her but she is family. '' Izzy went to dive at the woman but Jack held her back. 

'' You're still feeding them that crap” her aunt scoffed. 

“ what are you talking about? '' Jessie spat. 

“ she is not one of us..”. 

'' Shut up, don't be so cold, let us tell her '' her mother cried . 

“ what you talkin about tell her .. what’s going on” she felt the world spinning completely , everything so much as her knees threatening to fail holding her up .

 “ Mom, stop this is ridiculous , I wish I was never part of you guys” cassie cried. 

“ live somewhere else hey sis since you take unwanted dumpster babies you can take one more”. “ mama” y/n spun around. 

“ What is going on” Jessie snapped. 

“ Well your mom and dad found her in a dumpster and we all had to pretend she was our family, sad really” Emma snarled . 

“ mama” she asked again looking for the woman to tell her it was a sick lie but the look she gave her was  there was truth in there words . “ It was all a lie” she asked, feeling the stinging tears falling down her cheeks . “ i  can’t breathe” she pushed off her brother walking away from the gang of her family or where they are strangers now. She didn’t listen to the calls from her or the fighting going on behind her.  Her skin becoming brighter as the flames took over not letting anything or one come closer it was all too much . she started running straight to the one thing she could always depend on and  gripping  the reigns in her hands  and belting out jumping over the cars ignoring the cries and pleading to come back .  

She knew something was always off , how she was always treated so differently . Never accepted nor values and only got worse when she got her “gifts” . The way they could never be proud of her , she could solve world hunger and bring peace to the universe And they would still find a way to find a way to criticize her. Everything she tried To get their approval it was met with a wall and disapproving scowls. It all made sense but her parents to Keep something so big , so major away from her.  It was soul destroying why would they keep It , where were her birth parents why didn't they want her? She heard the car Coming she turned slightly relieved That it wasn't a familiar one except it beep spooking Star as she turned to see the incoming branch so quick she couldn't miss it only for it to hit her head And send her straight to the ground as the horse kept going. 

“ oh shit my bad” the voice called. 

“ well you shouldn't have beeped asshole” she groaned She couldn't focus her vision and the warm liquid going Into her eyes didn't help . 

“ here let me” he Walked and instantly  She felt some thing was off moving away from the man her hands filled with flames shooting them into the sky About almost as a flare Hoping Someone would see it .

 “ I ain't gonna hurt you I just do the delivery “ she could hear the cockiness in his voice. 

“ get away from me it's a warning”. 

“ how The head?” He asked. 

“ perfect “ she smiled wiping the blood off Her eye. Her Hand ready as he walked The flames got stronger ready to toast the creep .

“ You are gonna pass out either way Just get in the car” .  She didn't Like he was right she could feel the exhaustion Take over.  

“ she not alone creeper” a voice Called. 

“ tony?” She whisper.

 “ hello my little pyro baby” he called as he blasted the car as a jet  Parked behind her. “ oh buddy you wanna hope my horse Is ok” She laughed . 

“ put the gun down dipshit” she could hear Tony's eyes rolling as she stood behind Him . 

“ Who's in the jet” she asked . 

“ that's not us  , the guys are coming you think you can help hold Them off Til then” she asked. 

“ I think I can burn bitches , ask questions later” she nodded seeing them slowly approaching her . 

 “ lets show them why is a bad idea to mess with us then kiddo”  he shot the a blast as the agents began running towards them . she started throwing blast of her  own hitting them ignoring the scream from the men as she felt the flame push higher  trying to keep herself from falling or letting tony to deal with it alone only for her whole body to go on flames like a surge of power burned through her as she took on a new lease on life suddenly she didn’t feel pain nor tired she felt something else though like she thought of everything else and shift of her mind and the flames where gone completely . 

“ holy shit” she gasped as tony turned to see her looking down as the vines came from her palms wrapping around the agents .

 “ did you know you could do that?” he asked. 

“ really does it look like i knew ?” she asked looking at her hands in disbelief. 

“ freak out later” he huffed knocking the delivery man unconscious .  

“ i don’t feel so good” she said softly before hitting the ground only for tony to see the dart sticking in her neck . 

“ shit shit” . 

“ stay back here also thanks for the lift”  nat called as they ran over tony . 

“  where can i help” jessie asked.

“ knock em out” nat threw her batons over . 

“  she ok?” steve asked. 

“ dart to the neck , vines and shit  , i’ll  explain later” tony called nodding to more agents coming out of the jet.   

“ ready soldier and knock out don’t kill” nat called . “

 i  know what to do natalia” bucky called. 

“ i meant the other soldier forget it go” she charged towards each of them taking them down easily and thankfully to his training and past years in combat spots jessie was able to hold his own while bucky stayed near y/n not daring to let anyone close to her til he was able to get her to the car safely wondering how it went so good to so bad almost in a blink of an eye.   Least it wasn’t what nat thought well not fully what she thought and it was better she heard it herself once she woke up . agents down as they used whatever was to hand to detain them knowing fury had shield already on the way  the moment before tony could even land . 

“ who was that and why did they sedate my little sister” jessie panted handing nat back her batons  as he pulled took the dart up only for tony to take it . 

“ hydra and they want her back “ tony  flew off heading in the direction of the ranch. 

“ lets get her off the ground” only for bucky to life her up  seeing a flower in her hand almost clutching it . 

 “I’ll get star” was all jessie said heading off as they drove off knowing he would follow off . as they drove the shield vans drove straight passed almost too fast while she was completely out cold as bucky guarded her barely even letting nat check her over . they pulled into the drive seeing her family the other clearing out after nat told them colorfully what she would do if they didn’t . her cousin sitting completely lost knowing it was for the best but it didn’t hurt less knowing her own parents and sibling were borderline shallow ego filled monsters . 

“ what happened is she ok ?” jack asked almost lost himself in a spilt moment the family shifted and change not with y/n though didn’t matter  she was their sister. 

“ she out cold but she be ok well sort of” nat smiled weakly . 

“ you’re friends in the jet … where is jessie” izzy asked unsure of what to even do . 

“ coming he’s getting star, jack you wanna get the door we need to get her to bed” bucky asked . 

“ course erm cassie come on we can show you to the guest room” he called as the girl nodded heading into the house.  “ she ok she just needs rest” he explained as his parents rushed to her side.  

“ erm i don’t have clothes or anything?” cassie sniffled . 

“ me and maya will get your things” izzy smiled softly. 

“ i’ll get your things” jessie stormed in not once looking at his parents only checking y/n then storming out. 

“ jack “ izzy nodded as he followed. “ he’s alway been protective of y/n probably cause knew deep down she was like him “ izzy explained. 

“ like him how?” bucky asked confused . 

“ well he must of known deep down she was adopted like him , which i don’t understand this we knew he was , why is y/n different we wouldn’t have treated her different” . 

“ adopted or like y/n adopted “ bucky looked at her dad. 

“ what’s the difference?” 

“ he knows why , answer me “ bucky asked . 

“ y/n adopted “ her dad sighed as bucky almost growled carrying her out of the door to the jet not  stopping . 

“ y/n not the first “ was all he said as they looked at him wondering if the revelation would ever end .

Part 6

taglist : @vicmc624 @babble28 @scott-loki-barnes @ozwriterchick

[redrosyrose]

Prompt: Telling Sirius - Jegulus - @into-the-jeggyverse - September 7 - word count:~481

As the door slowly cracks open ,Sirius walks eagerly inside ,followed by Remus trailing behind with amused countenance.It's been quite a time, since James called Sirius for "serious stuff" and agreed to meet in the Gryffindor common room.When James meant "serious stuff" it's telling his best mate ,or soon to be brother-in-law about him and Regulus.

They've dated each other for a whole year ,and yet Sirius still doesn't acknowledge anything.There were MANY hints they already threw him straight in the face,which include Regulus sit on James' lap or James intentionally give him a loud smack in the great hall every morning. Eventually, they have to accept the fact that Sirius is too oblivious to get what they're implying, so it's best if they tell him.

"Prongs!What's the matter?",Sirius settled on the couch, lounging comfortably next to Remus while checking all over James' body dramatically.

"And why is my little Reggie get involved in this ?"He darts a doubtful gaze across the room ,where Regulus is sitting stiffly back-straight right next to James."Or did you guys pull a prank? Fucking shit ?!"He abruptly stand up with a variety of expressions ,which caused his boyfriend to roll his eyes.Of course,Remus soon notices that they're into each other since James was still planning on how to woo Regulus.

"Actually"James said timidly ,also attempting to avoid Sirius confused gaze."We're going to tell you something."His tongue suddenly become bigger in size,as if they invade his throat ,preventing him from revealing any word,James' eyes wandered to meet Regulus',he always better than him in telling "things".As James shoots Regulus a pleading look,which is his weapon.While he's fumbling with his words and searching for help,a familiar but also sweet voice fills the air.

"James and I are dating."Regulus said out loud,followed by Sirius' brows quickly furrowed and his jaws are on the floor.

And they receive all the worst scenarios they planned before,which is Sirius immediately givingJames a punch right on the face while shrieking "PRONGS,REALLY?!I've been a devoted,loyal friend to you ever since, and what do you give me back,SHAGGING MY BROTHER."As they're chasing each other around the room,all the pillows in their proximity take turns to leap in the air and each blanket is currently used like a cowboy rope.

"This is going to last a few hours,isn't it ?"Remus asked with a jovial face turned to Regulus."It's a good signal he acts like that ,if he's really upset,he won't just chase around."

"I know Lupin."Regulus replied while rolling his eyes,yet he's failed to hide his fondness,Remus lightly chuckled "Want to finish the books with chocolate,Reggie

"My pleasure,Lupin."Then they're pacing out of the common rooms ,engaging all their attention in guessing their last book ending.They'll be fine.

[maks-punchout-hyperfixtion]

I know these are late, but have some holiday headcanons! With ocs mixed in because yes

Note: not all the boxers are in this, nor ocs, consider this pt.1. pt.2 will come out either late this month or sometime in January

Wishing y'all a happy new year and a late holidays!!

Delilah and glass joe aren't allowed to bake during December at all unless they need a bunch of cookies or bread.. because other wise they end up making a bakery amount of different cookies or breads that take up the whole kitchen.

Kasier absolutely loves gingerbread, so Christmas is often his favorite holiday because now he has a reason to make it!

In contrast vicky absolutely despises it, and actually associates chocolate chip cookies to Christmas. It's one of the few things they don't share a like for.

Disco kid, without fail, starts playing “all i want for Christmas” on repeat right after Thanksgiving and only turns it off new years.

He's the reason the boxers can't do holiday songs for their bouts during Christmas (like they would have changed them for one month anyways)

Hondo typically goes back to Japan for Christmas, Don't get him wrong he likes the rest of the punch out gang but he gets really homesick during the holidays and frankly doesn't want to be a downer on everyone.

Bear hugger is the one that got the Christmas tree, which is odd because last anyone checked there wasn't a place that sold real pine trees around there. At Least not one as big as he brought.

Don and Carmen spend the entire holiday season decorating everything, even adding mistletoes.

Those were removed after aran burnt one on purpose (he was not in a good mood that day)

And yes there are green and red roses everywhere too.

Speaking of aran, Christmas is the only holiday where despite his pranks he still gives meaningful gifts.

However that still doesn't stop him and ardin from seeing who can get who the most out of pocket gift ever. This actually became tradition after ardin got a gift that was meant to be a fuck you to their dad who died a little under a month before this, and it was labeled “from: aran.”

This not only Started the tradition but also made andy realize he needed to change his name asap.

This

Breaking the wii chain for abit: andy (spo aran/Andrew for me in case y'all are wondering) slightly dislikes getting gifts because it's often just decorations.

He also never actually told Ardin he was the one that got the gift that started the tradition..hey as long as he doesn't get into the crossfire he's good.

Coming back to the wii chain (dw i have more spo headcanons there just in pt.2)

Christmas was pretty hard with soda since he was used to people just giving him stuff he never wanted. Then someone actually explained it to him and got him something he wanted. He liked Christmas since.

The same unfortunately can't be said for caff.. actually she out right refuses to acknowledge the holiday and calls it “the time of year to give gifts and decorate the place.” solely because one year it gave her a mental break down with her being his clone.. you can't exactly think she would love the holiday after that.

Super macho man. He is definitely wearing a sexy santa outfit lets be honest. Oh and he bought everyone expensive jewelry because he remembered last minute to get gifts.

Amelia is the exact same way but make it more.. Florida. Needless to say they have someone helping them plan the Christmas party.

Sandman just is just, sandman. He's not very Christmas cheer but he did get everyone a sweater and something they like.

Pt.2 coming soon as a repost

[hookedsworks]

Edge(ING) Fitness - Chapter XV

Vessel and III go for a run.

wc 808

III's pov

ao3

masterpost

999

Answer NOW 

DUDE 

Three rapid texts from Vessel after III missed his call. His eyes went wide, and he immediately dialed Vessel. When the line connected, III demanded to know what was wrong. 

“You are never going to believe this,” 

“Where’s the fire, Ves?” 

“No, shut up, it’s my turn. II asked me out! He asked me on a DATE!” 

“That’s impossible. I haven’t even gotten Ivy’s number yet,” III teased. 

“Well, you better get a move on. I finally got a date before you!” 

“So, you really like this guy, huh?” III inquired. He knew that Vessel had been prone to saying yes to dates with people he didn’t like, because he had always been sort of lonely. “Like, for real, I mean,” 

“Have you seen him? He’s so cute. I know he’s like… a bit older than us. But he’s just. GAH! I want to pick him up and swing him around and kiss him so hard his head starts spinning. He kissed my forehead! He has the softest lips, III. I want this. I’m going to try and like. Actually kiss him when we do go on that date. What do people do for dates these days? He said coffee, but when he wrapped my ankle, he like, didn’t like coffee. He said he was a redbull guy,” 

“Vessel. Dude. How much coffee have you had? He said he wanted coffee, so go for coffee! He’s a grown ass man, he’ll figure it out. Now. Because I’ve listened to you ramble on about your crush. I need you to help me with my conquest of Ivy’s ass,” Vessel cackled. Vessel’s laugh was one of III’s favorite things. It was rare enough. 

“So. Uh. I kind of went through II’s insta, and sorta found Ivy’s. If… you want it. Or, or,” Vessel said once III started sputtering about not yet having Ivy’s instagram. “Or. I found out where his rugby practices are on Saturday mornings. If… you still run on Saturday mornings?” 

“One guy asks you out and suddenly you’re this confident and teasing?” 

“The cutest guy in the whole world. Well, aside from you, of course,” 

“Jeez. He’s flirty too,” III’s heart squeezed at the compliment. Vessel had never been so quick, so funny, so smart. Maybe II is really good for him. “But, obviously, obviously I still run on Saturday mornings. I do have a marathon in two months. Which, um. Are you still coming?” 

“I wouldn’t miss it, actually, and how dare you think otherwise?” ah. There’s my best friend. III breathed out in relief. “Do you think you’re going to come to kickboxing tonight?” 

“I wouldn’t miss it, actually, and how dare you think otherwise?” 

*** 

“Why do you do this shit so early?” Vessel grumbled. He kicked a rock on the sidewalk in front of III’s place. Saturday had come and they were going to run past the local field, where Ivy should be. III was bouncing on his heels. 

“It’s cooler,” III responded, then started stretching. “Ivy still hasn’t followed me back,” he mentioned. It had been bugging him since he had followed Ivy, even though he knew that was probably crazy. 

“He might not have notifications on or something,” Vessel replied. He started to follow III’s movements, stretching his legs. 

“Hm. So when’s your date with II?” Vessel froze and blinked at III. 

“We uh. I uh. I haven’t talked to him about it yet. I got nervous. He almost made me cry, and I’m worried that it’s just pity,” 

“You cry when the sun rises too pink. Don’t worry about it. If he’s actually an adult about it, he meant it when he asked you out,” 

“But what if it was just-”

“Vessel,” III cut him off. He heard Vessel’s teeth click shut. “II is an adult. You’re an adult. This isn’t high school. People don’t ask you out to prank you anymore. Text the man,” 

“Fine. After we stalk your boy,” they both took off. They each had one earbud in, and were listening to III’s running mix. Sidewalks gave way to gravel and dirt, and then they heard something up ahead. Faint yelling. 

“Let’s run this one more time!” III recognized that voice. It was pretty boy. But the voice he was using was loud, full of grit and authority. III wanted to ingrain it into his memory immediately. He wanted to hear Ivy use that exact voice right in his ear. 

“III, you okay?” Vessel whispered. He nodded. His mouth was dry. He jogged forward, popping out of the tree line and onto the edge of the field. “III, you don’t have to,” III wasn’t listening. He was thinking about Ivy and his pretty boy shorts. Ivy himself came into view, way closer than III had anticipated. Those shorts were as good as III had imagined. Tight, short, black with a logo printed. Practically crawling up his thighs.

“Hey, sorry man, this is a closed practice… Mustache?”

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 2: THE BRONZE DRAGON

Magnus saw that last word and just stopped. Just sat there frozen and looked like he wanted to cry. Why? Why was Percy's life like this?

"Magnus?" Under any other circumstances, Magnus would have been equally confused and delighted why Alex sounded so concerned over him.

"The, Bronze, Dragon," he slowly drug out every word like he was trying to suck the water off of a rock. A very pointless and disgusting task.

"Whatever nice things were said about Hephaestus need to be revoked right now!" Percy agreed with every dreaded line on Magnus's face.

Nico made a little yeep noise as well, his first thought being Bianca leaping into that thing's mouth and making it do the chicken dance as well.

"Please let this be an adventure about you getting shrunk down and fighting an armadillo lizard*," Jason was the only one who sounded excited. Then Percy considered for a moment and even nodded like that could have some fun before Magnus read on in dread before anybody else got crazier ideas.

One dragon can ruin your whole day.

"One dragon can ruin someone's whole life Percy!" Magnus groaned. He begged of the following words to please be something like Peleus with a stomach ache! An actual, made-up bad dream? A very oddly themed birthday party for some kid not cursed by the universe?!

"Surely that's why I'm there, to make it go from one to the other," Percy offered with half-hearted hope of his own he just had to help a dragon egg hatch or something cute and innocent... like his life was ever that easy.

Trust me, as a demigod I've had my share of bad experiences. I've been snapped at, clawed at, blowtorched and poisoned. I've fought single-headed dragons, double-headed, eight-headed, nine-headed and the kind with so many heads that if you stopped to count them you'd be pretty much dead.

"Nobody was ever going to ask you to reminisce about the hydra Percy," Thalia sighed. Why couldn't that have been his worst dragon experience?

"Frankly all that just made me think to ask you, again, how are you alive?" Jason nodded.

"Luck and some mild skill," Percy reminded.

But that time with the bronze dragon? I thought for sure my friends and I were going to end up as Kibbles "n" Dragon Bits.

The evening started simply enough.

"It always does with you," Will nodded without surprise. He alone seemed to have a pretty good idea what this one was about, and aside from rubbing Nico's arm to help chase those shivers away he didn't want to spoil the fun for anyone.

It was the end of June.

"Oh," Percy said in surprise as he did a double take. "This happened, before that thing with Clarisse though! That explains the weird smell!"

Nobody else had a clue what he was talking about, they just all kind of assumed Clraisse smelled like motor oil.

I'd come back from my most recent quest about two weeks before, and life at Camp Half-Blood was returning to normal. Satyrs were chasing the dryads. Monsters howled in the woods. The campers were playing pranks on one another and our camp director, Dionysus, was turning anyone who misbehaved into a shrub. Typical summer-camp stuff.

Magnus stopped cold like he'd been the one turned into a shrub. Which was ridiculous, he didn't have a single leaf on him.

"He turns them back Magnus," Will shrugged.

Magnus counted to ten in his head before deciding against asking for further details.

After dinner, all the campers were hanging out at the dining pavilion. We were all excited because that evening capture the flag was going to be totally vicious.

The night before, Hephaestus's cabin had pulled off a huge upset. They'd captured the flag from Ares – with my help, thank you very much –

"Nobody was thanking you Percy," Thalia scoffed.

"Well maybe more people should," Percy tried to give her big pouty eyes, but it was ruined by everybody laughing to much and he couldn't begin to hold it.

which meant that the Ares cabin would be out for blood. Well... they're always out for blood, but this night especially.

On the blue team were Hephaestus's cabin, Apollo, Hermes and me – the only demigod in Poseidon's cabin. The bad news was that for once Athena and Ares – both war god cabins – were against us on the red team, along with Aphrodite, Dionysus and Demeter. Athena's cabin held the other flag and my friend Annabeth was their captain.

"I need politics and details stat!" Jason turned and pleaded to Percy like he was going to fall on his knees.

Will lit up, clearly all for going into the latest drama that had caused such shifts in dynamics to occur, but Thalia and Percy groaned in sync, quite loudly. Seems as if unless they were the ones running the teams they weren't going to happily sit around and play back who had pranked whom, what revenge was needed, and the height of impressing others.

Jason sighed but reluctantly gave in that could take hours just to get caught up on a week's worth, but gave Will a very obvious look as if book marking him for later.

Annabeth is not somebody you want as an enemy.

"Which is why Percy seems to make a life goal of it!" Alex chuckled with a very pointed gesture at him like they'd missed her target.

"I only aim for the best," Percy puffed his chest up with pride and swooped back his hair.

Thalia smacked him in the stomach, causing him to deflate and the gray strands of hair to fall back in place as she smirked, "in everything except grades."

Right before the game, she strolled up to me. "Hey, Seaweed Brain."

"Will you stop calling me that?"

"I didn't call you anything," Will said innocently.

Only Nico laughed while the others groaned even louder at the terrible pun. Though Magnus ignored them all with interest. That was, in fact, the first time he'd heard Percy wanted her to stop that, and as far as he could tell from the light-hearted smile on his face now and the passive eye-roll, Percy hardly meant it.

She knows I hate that name, mostly because I never have a good comeback.

"The worst atrocity I could name," Alex sighed.

"You should never be brought to a comedy show," Percy said with a hint of dread. She'd heckle anybody and get herself thrown out...though Percy wouldn't believe that wasn't her goal going in.

She's the daughter of Athena, which doesn't give me a lot of ammunition. I mean, "Owl-head" and "Wise Girl" are kind of lame insults.

"Lame but classics," Alex nodded contemplatively. "Surely you could get creative with all the world of nerd insults. Poindexter might suit her, or-"

"We are not going to sit around and make up insults about her, or her cabin," Thalia sighed.

"Just trying to keep the playing field even," Alex said, though raised her hands quickly in surrender.

"You know you love it." She bumped me with her shoulder, which I guess was supposed to be friendly, but she was wearing full Greek armour, so it kind of hurt.

"Both," Jason snorted.

"Definitely both," Percy agreed as he rubbed his shoulder with the biggest smile.

Her grey eyes sparkled under her helmet. Her blonde ponytail curled around one shoulder. It was hard for anyone to look cute in combat armour, but Annabeth pulled it off.

"Cute, huh?" Will's little laugh was so infectious even as he rolled his eyes hard. "How, on earth, Travis ever bet against me that you two would end up together I'll never know when you literally had these thoughts running through your brain."

"Why were there bets?!" Percy seemed to be missing the teasing part of that as he once again frowned at Will. "Where is this magical bulletin board?"

"Right next to the one with play tryout dates," he said saintly. "Up in the Big House, don't know how you've missed it."

Percy didn't seem able to close his mouth to properly get anything back and Magnus took pity on him and moved on before he'd have to.

"Tell you what." She lowered her voice. "We're going to crush you tonight, but if you pick a safe position... like right flank, for instance... I'll make sure you don't get pulverized too much."

"Retreat! Re-treat!" Jason enunciated very clearly. "This is a trap! Percy, please run for your life!" He said it in a pretty bad imitation of a robotic alarmed voice for some reason like a crappy fire drill.

Probably because it would have had as much effect on Percy then as it did now, who was to busy grinning at the challenge to hear a word.

"Gee, thanks," I said, "but I'm playing to win."

She smiled. "See you on the battlefield."

She jogged back to her teammates, who all laughed and gave her high fives. I'd never seen her so happy, like the chance to beat me up was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

"Percy is doomed," Thalia agreed casually. "Apparently even without fighting with me he can't avoid screwing up these games."

"I helped win the last one!" He spluttered, breaking out of his delusion of her hair escaping its helmet to glare at Thalia non-effectively. "You could have a little faith in me, I know her, her tricks!" He ended with a pretty sad stutter and crossed-eyed concern if this was a trick in a trick to make that any kind of believable.

Beckendorf walked up with his helmet under his arm. "She likes you, man."

"Sure," I muttered. "She likes me for target practice."

"Both," Jason said again with absolute confidence.

"Definitely both," Alex chuckled.

"I almost believed you that time," Percy sighed.

"Oh we're serious," Jason and Alex assured.

"Nah, they always do that. A girl starts trying to kill you, you know she's into you."

"What is this, playground rules?" Magnus sighed. He was no fool, he knew full well his cousin liked Percy back, but it was clearly complicated with her for several reasons and he assumed that's why she didn't act on it more. Who was this ding-dong, whose name he only vaguely recognized, trying to assure Percy of anything?

"Makes a lot of sense."

Beckendorf shrugged. "I know about these things. You ought to ask her to the fireworks."

Percy sighed. He'd really been wanting to talk to somebody about this back then, and Beckendorf seemed like the guy all of a sudden, but now that the moment was here...it felt like a waste of breath. What could he say Percy didn't already know?

I couldn't tell if he was serious. Beckendorf was lead counsellor for Hephaestus. He was this huge dude with a permanent scowl, muscles like a pro ballplayer, and hands calloused from working in the forges. He'd just turned eighteen and was on his way to NYU in the autumn. Since he was older, I usually listened to him about stuff, but the idea of asking Annabeth to the Fourth of July fireworks down at the beach – like, the biggest dating event of the summer – made my stomach do somersaults.

Then Silena Beauregard, the head counsellor for Aphrodite, passed by. Beckendorf had had a not-so-secret crush on her for three years. She had long black hair and big blue eyes, and when she walked the guys tended to watch. She said, "Good luck, Charlie." (Nobody ever calls Beckendorf by his first name.) She flashed him a brilliant smile and went to join Annabeth on the red team.

"I think she was beckoning to him," Alex said with a brilliant smile. Will and Nico both laughed hard at the pun while Jason and Magnus joined the groaning this time.

"Uh..." Beckendorf swallowed like he'd forgotten how to breathe.

I patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks for the advice, dude. Glad you're so wise about girls and all. Come on. Let's get to the woods."

Percy laughed along loudest of all. Finally, somebody else's girl misshaps wasn't at his expense!

...it felt a tad forced in his throat for some reason though he didn't like. A nagging idea in the back of his mind that had sporadically been cropping up. Now here, thinking of the beach, talking to Silena, the thought tried so hard to crystalize into something- but the idea was gone as his stomach pitched in pain and his skin felt a great flush of heat. He knew that feeling, he knew better than to mess with a memory like that.

Naturally, Beckendorf and I took the most dangerous job.

"Naturally," Will repeated in a very posh, british voice.

"Because if we gave Will the most dangerous job he'd stop to sniff the oranges to much," Nico smirked.

"We all have our strengths," he agreed without batting an eye.

While the Apollo cabin played defence with their bows, the Hermes cabin would charge up the middle of the woods to distract the enemy. Meanwhile, Beckendorf and I would scout around the left flank, locate the enemy's flag, knock out the defenders and get the flag back to our side. Simple.

Why the left flank?

"Because Annabeth wanted me to go right," I told Beckendorf, "which means she doesn't want us to go left."

"Please tell me you at least considered a double cross? Then a triple cross. Then a quadruple cross-"

"Jason!" Percy groaned. "I'm well aware Annabeth's going to pull one over on me, but I had to pick a lane! I'm sure I threw off her whole plan by just showing up."

Jason just shook his head at him, but then, he also would have been interrogating Annabeth about every layer of her plan if she were here and refused to tell him, so Percy didn't feel that bad about stopping him from pitching every way he was going to be wrong.

Beckendorf nodded. "Let's suit up."

He'd been working on a secret weapon for the two of us – bronze chameleon armour, enchanted to blend into the background. If we stood in front of rocks, our breastplates, helms and shields turned grey. If we stood in front of bushes, the metal changed to a leafy green. It wasn't true invisibility, but we'd have pretty good cover, at least from a distance.

Alex threw her head back laughing. "Somebody got jealous of Annabeth's hat!

"Ooo," Thalia said with interest. "Where's mine?"

Percy had some half-baked remark about her doing extra chores for him to help get Beckendorf's favor, but he choked on the words and nothing really came out except some spit while Thalia patted him on the back with a troubled smile she tried hard to look real.

"This stuff took forever to forge," Beckendorf warned me. "Don't mess it up!"

"You got it, Captain."

Beckendorf grunted. I could tell he liked being called Captain.

Thalia was still listening with great interest, and clearly decided she had her own turn at co-captain with him stuck in her craw more than letting him dwell on why he kept pressing his thumb between his eyes.

"Oh sure, him you just conceded the throne to! I was born to be a righteous, mighty warrior to lead armies, but this guy you just hand the crown."

Percy's shaking hand fell, a teasing smile instantly back. "Try getting accepted into college Thals, then maybe I'll watch you run your own team right into the river."

They even started bartering back and forth about who would get which cabin before Magnus bravely cleared his throat and waved the book around before they realized Annabeth would have to pick a side. That was a blood bath waiting to happen.

The rest of the Hephaestus campers wished us well, and we sneaked off into the woods, immediately turning brown and green to match the trees.

We crossed the creek that served as the boundary between the teams. We heard fighting in the distance – swords clashing against shields. I glimpsed a flash of light from some magical weapon, but we saw no one.

"No border guards?" Beckendorf whispered. "Weird."

"Overconfident," I guessed. But I felt uneasy. Annabeth was a great strategist. It wasn't like her to be sloppy about defence, even if her team did outnumber us.

Jason was over there muttering, "trap, this is a trap," and even spelling it out under his breath repeatedly while Thalia was still smirking and muttering about Percy botching this up like he had to hers. Percy sighed again about what great faith his friends seemed to have in him, but at least the headache was staying at bay.

We moved into enemy territory. I knew we had to hurry, because our team was playing a defensive game, and that couldn't last forever. The Apollo kids would get over-run sooner or later. The Ares cabin wouldn't be slowed down by a little thing like arrows.

"What about trick arrows?" Alex asked with interest. "Tip them in all kinds of fun stuff, or attach any number of things to activate-"

"I think we should just ban Alex's desert privileges before she even gets there," Percy grinned.

"Take away my chocolate, dudette, see what happens," she smirked.

"That sounds like a Chiron problem," Percy shrugged, picking at the hem of his shirt without concern.

We crept along the base of an oak tree. I almost jumped out of my skin when a girl's face emerged from the trunk. "Shoo!" she said, then faded back into the bark.

"Dryads," Beckendorf grumbled. "So touchy."

"Am not!" a muffled voice said from the tree.

Magnus was pretty proud of himself for laughing along at the mild moment instead of, say, freaking out the tree's could decide to kill them all in their sleep. Again.

We kept moving. It was hard to tell exactly where we were. Some landmarks stood out, like the creek and certain cliffs and some really old trees, but the woods tended to shift around. I guess the nature spirits got restless. Paths changed. Trees moved.

"They what?" Magnus yelped like his tail was on fire. "They just, move their whole tree, and roots, and plant them, and, they what?"

"It's pretty funny to watch, they just hike their leaf skirts up and their branches get top heavy sometimes so they-"

Thalia finally smacked Percy to get him to stop while the others couldn't stop snickering at the look of miserable acceptance on Magnus's face when he couldn't decide if Percy was telling the truth, or worse, nobody had any clue how or why the dryads did that and it was just another level of crazy.

Then suddenly we were at the edge of a clearing. I knew we were in trouble when I saw the mountain of dirt.

"A child of the ocean's worst enemy," Thalia snorted. "Take notes Nico."

"I've never tried just throwing soil around," he admitted with a smile that didn't mean he wouldn't be willing.

Percy narrowed his eyes contemplatively who would beat whom, earth-shaker versus child of the Underworld. He'd just have to challenge him to a digging competition to prove it later.

"Holy Hephaestus," Beckendorf whispered. "The Ant Hill."

"Do you all take your parent's names in vain?" Jason startled in surprise.

"Well it would just be weird if he said Holy Aphrodite, now wouldn't it," Percy shrugged.

"So who should Jason pray to? Merlin's Mankini," Alex smirked.

"If I've ever dabbled in witchcraft Alex, I would use whatever spell I could to burn that image from my mind," Jason sighed.

I wanted to back up and run. I'd never seen the Ant Hill before,

Why is Ant Hill capitalized, Magnus let the stray thought flit through his mind without interrupting to point it out. He just wanted a few more seconds of delusional peace this was just a sacred place and they were in awe of all its nonlethal help.

but I'd heard stories from the older campers. The mound rose almost to the treetops – four storeys at least. Its sides were riddled with tunnels, and crawling in and out were thousands of...

"Myrmekes," I muttered.

"Oh this is bad," Jason already realized. Percy never remembered the name of a monster otherwise.

That's Ancient Greek for "ants", but these things were way more than that. They would've given any exterminator a heart attack.

"Me too," Magnus promised with an opener like that.

The Myrmekes were the size of German shepherds. Their armoured shells glistened blood-red. Their eyes were beady black and their razor-sharp mandibles sliced and snapped. Some carried tree branches. Some carried chunks of raw meat that I really didn't want to know about. Most carried bits of metal – old armour, swords, food platters that had somehow found their way out here from the dining pavilion. One ant was dragging the glossy black hood of a sports car.

Magnus face planted the pages and groaned with misery. He'd been expecting a dragon, he'd been trying to mentally prepare himself for scaly beasts that could eat them! Now there were two, or more likely two thousand more deadly things running around! Why was Percy's life like this?!

"Now those are the kind of bugs that can take over the world, survive the apocalypse and become our new lords of the land," Alex grinned with wild delight, wondering if she could turn into something metal.

"They have to work on their infrastructure before I'd consider it," Percy said, resisting the urge to plug his nose through memory.

"They love shiny metal," Beckendorf whispered. "Especially gold. I've heard they have more gold in their nest than Fort Knox." He sounded envious.

"Don't even think about it," I said.

"Now that's a roll reversal if I've ever heard one," Nico chuckled in surprise. His stomach was pitching in disgust at the idea of mounds of treasure, he could all to easily picture Bianca in there picking up a hair pin and his old figurine again...so it was much more fun to imagine Beckendorf holding Percy's straps back at the idea of these things getting their jaws on a gold skateboard.

"I was not one of those weird kids who tried to drown and burn ant hills," Percy sniffed.

"Dude, I won't," he promised. "Let's get out of here while we..."

His eyes widened.

Fifteen metres*50 feet away, two ants were struggling to drag a big hunk of metal towards their nest. It was the size of a refrigerator, all glittery gold and bronze, with weird bumps and ridges down the side and a bunch of wires sticking out the bottom. Then the ants rolled the thing over, and I saw a face.

Magnus was about one word away from throwing this book in that trashcan that vanished things to nowhere. He'd give Percy better memories, he'd make up ones that didn't involve...all of this.

I just about jumped out of my skin. "That's a –"

"Shhh!" Beckendorf pulled me back into the bushes.

"But that's a –"

"Dragon's head," he said in awe. "Yes. I see it."

"So it's only his head," Magnus sighed in relief, the book's saving grace. "I can live with that."

"Right, buddy, you keep thinking that," Will muttered low enough Magnus only squinted suspiciously at him. What on earth made the poor guy think the rest of the body wouldn't come with the head?

The snout was as long as my body. The mouth hung open, showing metal teeth like a shark's. Its skin was a combination of gold and bronze scales, and its eyes were rubies as big as my fists. The head looked like it had been hacked from its body – chewed by ant mandibles. The wires were frayed and tangled.

"Robot dragon," Magnus sighed, trying to decide if that made this horror better or worse. On one hand he could imagine Tyson punching it in the face a little easier. On the other...robot dragon!

"I bet Percy sticks his head in that and tries to scare Annabeth," Alex snickered.

"I'm worried where the rest of the body is," Jason frowned how a camp had a whole dragon buried somewhere in there and what else was just under their feet.

"Hey, I just realized," Magnus looked a little extra miserable now for some reason. "Where's Tyson? I'd feel better with a fire-breathing machine around if he was."

"He went back to the Cyclops forges the week before," Percy said reluctantly. "Trust me, I was missing him right about then too."

The head must've been heavy, too, because the ants were struggling, moving it only a few centimetres with every tug.

"If they get it to the hill," Beckendorf said, "the other ants will help them. We've got to stop them."

"I take it back," Nico said with a puzzled frown. "Everybody at your camp is just nuts."

"So glad to not be the exception for once," Percy nodded his agreement.

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

"It's a sign from Hephaestus. Come on!"

Magnus dropped the book in his lap and pressed his hands to his ears. "I never want to hear of another sign from your parents!"

"This is a good one," Will tried to soothe, though his voice hitching a bit gave away the lie, so he finished, "eventually."

Magnus gave him a baleful look and wondered how many people the robot dragon killed just by stepping on them before that eventually happened. There really was just no point arguing though he should skip to that, Percy's reaction was probably going to be worse than whatever the dragon did.

I didn't know what he was talking about, but I'd never seen Beckendorf look so determined. He sprinted along the edge of the clearing, his armour blending into the trees.

I was about to follow when something sharp and cold pressed against my neck.

"Surprise," Annabeth said, right next me. She must've had her magic Yankees cap on because she was totally invisible.

"I guess that makes sense," Jason chuckled. "She'd know better than to take her eyes off of you."

"She just wanted to jack that armor for herself," Alex smirked.

"She doesn't need it," Magnus said blankly.

"But I'm sure she has a whole speech ready about Percy stealing her thing," Alex insisted.

I tried to move, but she dug her knife under my chin.

"You've been held at knifepoint enough in your life," Nico shook his head, "I think I'm with Alex, she's just jealous she never got her turn at that too."

"I'm sure Annabeth has a list somewhere of what she wants revenge on Percy for and this was just a convenient outlet," Will chuckled.

Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. Her Aphrodite armour was pink and red, colour coordinated to match her clothes and makeup. She looked like Guerilla Warfare Barbie.

Thalia laughed way to hard at that one, but she'd been making Barbie jokes about that cabin for years and was probably just mad and appreciative of Percy getting to that one first.

"Nice work," she told Annabeth.

An invisible hand confiscated my sword. Annabeth took off her cap and appeared before me, smiling smugly. "Boys are easy to follow. They make more noise than a lovesick Minotaur."

Magnus looked newly traumatized at that sentence. "Who, who would he be lovesick after?"

"Geryon probably, he's the only monster with enough heart and a love of cattle," Alex said slyly.

Most of the others didn't seem to know whether to laugh or gag at that input and Magnus decided to read around her for it.

My face felt hot. I tried to think back, hoping I hadn't said anything embarrassing.

"You did not actually," Jason said helpfully, for once. "Though I'm sure it's just a matter of time."

There it was.

No telling how long Annabeth and Silena had been eavesdropping.

"You're our prisoner," Annabeth announced. "Let's get Beckendorf and –"

"Beckendorf!" For a split second I'd forgotten about him, but he was still forging ahead –

"Right towards the deadly ants," Will sighed.

"Annabeth truly will block out any other thought," Nico sounded grudgingly impressed.

straight towards the dragon's head. He was already twelve metres *40 feet away. He hadn't noticed the girls, or the fact that I wasn't behind him.

"Not the, greatest backup," Jason frowned.

"Credit for determination," Thalia shrugged.

"I bet he invents something that forces people to eat his dust," Alex chuckled.

"Come on!" I told Annabeth.

She pulled me back. "Where do you think you're going, prisoner?"

"I imagine her dragging you all the way back to Alcatraz and throwing you in the cell Braries used to be in just to prove her point," Magnus admitted.

"Labyrinth or no Labyrinth," Percy agreed.

"Look!"

She peered into the clearing and for the first time seemed to realize where we were. "Oh, Zeus..."

Beckendorf leaped into the open and struck one of the ants. His sword clanged off the thing's carapace. The ant turned, snapping its pincers. Before I could even call out, the ant bit Beckendorf's leg, and he crumpled to the ground. The second ant sprayed goo in his face, and Beckendorf screamed. He dropped his sword and slapped wildly at his eyes.

The collective shudder that went around the room may have knocked a few more support beams off their hinges. That went from zero to a hundred real quick from a friendly game to a death sentence. If this kid died, or even was maimed from these horrible injuries Percy was going to take that very personally...

I surged forward, but Annabeth pulled me back. "No."

"Charlie!" Silena yelled.

"Don't!" Annabeth hissed. "It's already too late!"

"What are you talking about?" I demanded. "We have to –"

Then I noticed more ants swarming towards Beckendorf – ten, twenty. They grabbed him by the armour and dragged him towards the hill so fast he was swept into a tunnel and disappeared.

Magnus was left sitting there shivering for several moments at the brutality of that. Bianca's and Zeo's deaths had been blunt, but not so much an out of the blue considering who they'd been fighting and the quests they'd been on. They didn't even know this guy, and it had just shot out of nowhere, like all those shrouds at camp were still waiting to float up.

"No!" Silena pushed Annabeth. "You let them take Charlie!"

Jason took an uneasy breath, trying to keep well off his face he wasn't sure how to take that. She'd saved Percy and Silena's life by doing so, but the cost felt ruthless.

"There's no time to argue," Annabeth said. "Come on!"

I thought she was going to lead us on a charge to save Beckendorf, but instead she raced to the dragon's head, which the ants had momentarily forgotten. She grabbed it by the wires and started dragging it towards the woods.

Percy's mouth was a fantastic showing of his feelings for that. She had never once shown an inclination for stuff over somebody's life, she hadn't even blinked at throwing Deadlus's wings away, she was as much a figurehead in that camp as him for kids to look up to. He'd follow her lead, but not exactly without hesitation when she was going to be crazier than an automaton about it.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. "Beckendorf –"

"Help me," Annabeth grunted. "Quick, before they get back."

"Oh, my gods!" Silena said. "You're more worried about this hunk of metal than Charlie?"

"Did that sign from Hephaestus involve some part of saying a child of Athena would become addicted to dragon heads?" Magnus asked in absolute concern for her mental health.

"You'd be lucky if a sign from a god had a message that clear," Thalia scoffed.

Annabeth spun around and shook her by the shoulders. "Listen, Silena! Those are Myrmekes. They're like fire ants, only a hundred times worse. Their bite is poison. They spray acid. They communicate with all the other ants and swarm over anything that threatens them.

"I liked my world better when I didn't know all of that," Magnus huffed, doing a poor job of ignoring Alex grinning in fascination and studying her hands like she was already imagining them with feelers.

If we'd rushed in there to help Beckendorf, we would have been dragged inside, too. We're going to need help – a lot of help – to get him back. Now, grab some wires and pull!"

Will watched as Percy clenched his hands and prepared to do as asked. He'd been about to follow Beckendorf without a clue. As much as everyone at Camp considered him a leader, it was really they all followed Percy's lead. Annabeth keeping Silena's head on was something to be proud of, Percy was the camp's beacon of who to shine the light on.

I didn't know what Annabeth was up to, but I'd adventured with her long enough to figure she had a good reason for what she was doing. The three of us tugged the metal dragon's head into the woods. Annabeth didn't let us stop until we were fifty meters* 55 yards from the clearing.

Magnus whistled in appreciation. "You drug that thing half a football field!"

"Almost a full blue whale," Alex grinned.

"At minimum as long as these books are laid out," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"It felt as long as the Jersy Turnpike," Percy groaned as he rotated his shoulder in vivid memory.

Then we collapsed, sweating and breathing hard.

Silena started to cry. "He's probably dead already."

"No," Annabeth said. "They won't kill him right away. We've got about half an hour."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Is she an entomologist too?" Jason sighed with envy.

"She's a Greek-ologist," Percy reminded with pride.

"I've read about the Myrmekes. They paralyse their prey so they can soften them up before –"

Silena sobbed. "We have to save him!"

"What Silena's siblings are probably thinking of her being in Annabeth's company for to long," Nico muttered. That girl didn't have an ounce of tact...and he was kind of annoyed he probably would have gone into details of their eating habits too without realizing that wasn't helping.

"Silena," Annabeth said. "We're going to save him, but I need you to get a grip. There is a way."

"Call the other campers," I said, "or Chiron. Chiron will know what to do."

"I don't think an exterminator has enough bug spray for this problem, let alone him," Magnus shivered.

"Where's a monster ant eater when you need one," Jason agreed.

"Why would you want Echidna back right now?" Will looked at him strangely.

Annabeth shook her head. "They're scattered all over the woods. By the time we got everyone back here, it would be too late. Besides, the entire camp wouldn't be strong enough to invade the Ant Hill."

"Then why is it there?!" Magnus cried in exasperation, he looked very near tears. "I demand an explanation why you and your entire nutjob of a family feel the need to have this in your backyard!"

"Lots of monsters got in before Thalia's tree was blessed," Will shrugged, completely unphased by his minor tantrum. "As you just read, we can't exactly kick them all out even if there was a reason to."

Magnus sighed and muttered an apology, reminding himself there was just no point in arguing any of this.

"Then what?"

Annabeth pointed at the dragon's head.

"Okay," I said. "You're going to scare the ants with a big metal puppet?"

"Annabeth does love taking part in our play, she's nearly always the star," Will snickered.

Percy gave him a long-suffering sigh. He was not going to strangle Will, he promised himself. He was just having fun, that was overkill, he would not strangle this idiot because of a joke...

"It's an automaton," she said.

That didn't make me feel any better. Automatons were magical bronze robots made by Hephaestus. Most of them were crazed killing machines, and those were the nice ones.

"What does that make Daedalus?" Alex mock whispered.

"The best of the worst," Percy snorted.

"So what?" I said. "It's just a head. It's broken."

"And sadly, I think the mermaids realize that, considering they dragged it there," Magnus sighed.

"Myermeks," Thalia corrected.

"Not if they're going to kidnap people back to their lair and drown them in acid they're not," Magnus sniffed.

"Percy, this isn't just any automaton," Annabeth said. "It's the bronze dragon. Haven't you heard the stories?"

I stared at her blankly.

"How to sum up these books in one sentence," Nico smirked.

Annabeth had been at camp a lot longer than I had. She probably knew tons of stories I didn't.

"Percy, you really don't have to keep repeating yourself," Jason shook his head.

"We just assume Annabeth knows every story ever, she's read every book and probably sleeps on a throne of them," Magnus rolled his eyes.

"I bet her favorite is probably still something mundane, like Star Wars," Alex said with a little wrist wave.

"Star Wars has a book?" Percy asked blankly.

"Would you guys stop trying to confuse the poor guy," Thalia said with a tragic expression as she moved to cover his ears, "you're crumbling his entire worldview!"

Percy smacked her away and called them all clowns and a few other choice words.

Silena's eyes widened. "You mean the old guardian? But that's just a legend!"

"Whoa," I said. "What old guardian?"

Annabeth took a deep breath. "Percy, in the days before Thalia's tree – back before the camp had magical boundaries to keep out monsters – the counsellors tried all sorts of different ways to protect themselves. The most famous was the bronze dragon. The Hephaestus cabin made it with the blessing of their father. Supposedly it was so fierce and powerful that it kept the camp safe for over a decade. And then... about fifteen years ago, it disappeared into the woods."

"Ooooh," Nico said in surprise. "Beckendorf's reaction actually does make sense now."

"Better than some other ancient prophecy about the end of the world," Percy agreed.

"And you think this is its head?"

"It has to be! The Myrmekes probably dug it up while they were looking for precious metal. They couldn't move the whole thing, so they chewed off the head. The body can't be far away."

"But they chewed it apart. It's useless."

"Not to mention, um, why did its batteries run out?" Magnus frowned. What did these things even run on? He'd never thought to ask.

"I'm pretty sure Annabeth could make a toadstool useful," Percy reminded.

"Not necessarily." Annabeth's eyes narrowed, and I could tell her brain was working overtime. "We could reassemble it. If we could activate it –"

"It could help us rescue Charlie!" Silena said.

"Hold up," I said. "That's a lot of ifs. If we find it, if we can reactivate it in time, if it will help us.

"I'm surprised that has you pausing," Thalia said. "Your life is a big series of what if's."

"What if I die, what if I die, what if I die?" Jason repeated, throwing up a finger for each.

"The day I stop worrying about that is the day I get cursed with immortality," Percy reminded with nothing but dread.

You said this thing disappeared fifteen years ago?"

Annabeth nodded. "Some say its motor wore out so it went into the woods to deactivate itself. Or its programming went haywire. No one knows."

"Do they hibernate?" Alex grinned. "Did it go off looking for a mate? Maybe he wanted to go on a better adventure where some poor farm boy finds him and saves the world."

"I need you to keep your ideas far away from Cabin 9," Will frowned at her. "If they make these things any more realistic, I will cry right along with Magnus."

"I'm just trying to foster encouragement and creativity," but Alex batted her eyes in a purely menacing way, a clearly deep want to have a robot dragon that she could ride into battle and slay the entire planet.

"You want to reassemble a haywire metal dragon?"

"I want Annabeth to have normal hopes and dreams," Percy sighed.

"Sorry Perce, wanting to date you doesn't fall on that list," Jason smirked.

Percy considered for a moment if the trade would still be worth it for his bladder's sake, but he didn't get the chance to linger on it.

"We have to try!" Annabeth said. "It's Beckendorf's only hope! Besides, this could be a sign from Hephaestus. The dragon should want to help one of Hephaestus's kids. Beckendorf would want us to try."

"Never have I yet heard being related to any of this stuff has made it more friendly! With the exception of Tyson!" Magnus balked.

"Exactly, I think some of the other kids are due for some," Thalia shrugged.

I didn't like the idea. On the other hand, I didn't have any better suggestions. We were running out of time, and Silena looked like she was about to go into shock if we didn't do something soon.

Will had a very unpleasant bubbling feeling in the pit of his gut. Wondering at Silena's decisions, if she'd been considering calling Luke for help in some deluded idea. He'd gotten a first hand look at the kind of despair that had been on her face for days and had no wish to keep thinking on all this in the slightest, but it's not like he could boot her out of Percy's memories.

Beckendorf had said something about a sign from Hephaestus. Maybe it was time to find out.

"All right," I said. "Let's go find a headless dragon."

"Maybe if you don't attach his head back he'd be less scary?" Magnus sighed.

"I hope they name him Reid!" Alex grinned.

We searched forever, or maybe it just seemed that way, because the whole time, I was imagining Beckendorf in the Ant Hill, scared and paralysed, while a bunch of armoured critters scuttled around him, waiting for him to be tenderized.

"To bad you can't start a bucket brigade from the kitchens," Jason frowned, "dish soap and lava would probably clear this problem up easier."

"We'll call that plan B," Percy shivered, well aware they only had one chance at plan A for Beckendorf to live...and there was a really horrible feeling deep inside him that made him worry if he even did...

It wasn't hard to follow the ants' trail. They'd dragged the dragon's head through the forest, making a deep rut in the mud, and we dragged the head right back the way they'd come.

"Talk about going around in circles," Percy sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck, "this head's doing full 360's."

"And somehow still making more progress than you on your capture the flag game," Jason muttered, well aware that wasn't on anyone's radar right now, but a part of his mind that never stopped working regardless.

We must've gone five hundred meters* over 500 yards – and I was getting worried about the time – when Annabeth said, "Di immortales."

We'd come to the rim of a crater – like something had blasted a house-size hole in the forest floor. The sides were slippery and dotted with tree roots. Ant tracks led to the bottom, where a large metal mound glinted through the dirt. Wires stuck up from a bronze stump on one end.

"You just know that thing would have some crazy rumors about it if you didn't know what it was," Alex chuckled. "Zues's wifi hotspot, tree that used to house a magic tree house that went evil, flying fish spawn from there."

"I am convinced you are the child of whatever god of stories is out there," Thalia shook her head in pure endearment of her.

"And I love it!" She threw her arms wide and smacked Magnus in the face while the others got a mild laugh from her antics.

"The dragon's neck," I said. "You think the ants made this crater?"

"Ant's are great at excavating their own mounds, but how well do they dig up stuff?" Magnus agreed in surprise that sounded kind of deep in the earth for them to have just found.

"Annabeth would know," Percy frowned he had no clue what was really going on, as usual.

Annabeth shook her head. "Looks more like a meteor blast..."

"Though now I am absolutely over here wondering if Hepeahsuts's big sign was his recreation of the dinosaur event or something," Nico grumbled if he'd thrown a meteor to take this thing out and his kids were just uncovering the remains.

"Hephaestus," Silena said. "The god must've unearthed this. Hephaestus wanted us to find the dragon. He wanted Charlie to..." She choked up.

Jason winced, that didn't seem very in line with these gods he'd heard of. Heaphusts hadn't even flinched when told the camp might be overrun, but he wasn't going to argue the point with anyone right now.

"Come on," I said. "Let's reconnect this bad boy."

Getting the dragon's head to the bottom was easy. It tumbled right down the slope and hit the neck with a loud, metallic BONK!

"I wonder if he enjoyed the ride," Thalia chuckled.

"That had to have been better than getting dragged away from his body," Will nodded, while Percy shivered at the idea of this thing being awake while all that happened.

Reconnecting it was harder.

We had no tools and no experience.

Annabeth fiddled with the wires and cursed in Ancient Greek. "We need Beckendorf. He could do this in seconds."

Alex took a deep breath before saying, "The man who built it doesn't want it, the man who bought it doesn't need it, the man who needs it doesn't know it."

"Are you seriously invoking the freaking sphinx right now?" Percy groaned. "One monster at a time isn't enough?"

"Oh, I know!" Jason waved his hand.

"Poor timing Alex," Magnus agreed while Jason was still glaring at Alex with his hand raised.

"I just thought it particularly appropriate right now," Alex said with the whole hope it didn't actually come true. "And since when do you need permission to talk around here Jason?" She shot at him in exasperation.

"The answer's kind of morbid, just making sure I should," he finally lowered his hand with a shrug.

"No morbid jokes until after the person is rescued," Thalia said swiftly as Percy started looking a little gray around the edges again the longer this dragged on.

"Isn't your mom the goddess of inventors?" I asked.

Annabeth glared at me. "Yes, but this is different. I'm good with ideas. Not mechanics."

"There's an I in both of those words though, so I'm kind of surprised to hear that," Jason chuckled.

"Annabeth's never claimed to be a solo act," Magnus reminded with a hopeful smile. "Even from Percy's first quest she knew she needed someone to get her out of camp rather than trying to go it alone."

Percy grinned with delight at that nugget while Jason nodded his agreement in mild apology.

"If I was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head," I said, "I'd pick you."

I just blurted it out – to give her confidence, I guess – but immediately I realized it sounded pretty stupid.

"Well at least you finally realize the stupid shit that comes out of your mouth," Thalia chuckled. "Progress."

"Will it stop him from doing it? No," Nico smirked.

"Stop me from doing what?" Will asked innocently.

"Stop encouraging him Nico! You did that on purpose!" Percy groaned in protest to every word of this. Nico was to busy snickering to even pretend otherwise, and it was so far removed from the depressed little kid Percy only had memories of he didn't have the heart to act on that strangling threat again.

"Awww..." Silena sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Percy, that is so sweet!"

"Was it?" Nico asked blankly. Well crud, he clearly had no idea how to flirt.

"Annabeth wasn't impressed, so it's anyone's guess," Percy sighed, a slight blush still on his cheeks.

Annabeth blushed. "Shut up, Silena. Hand me your dagger."

I was afraid Annabeth was going to stab me with it.

Causing very unfair laughter around the room while Percy hung his head. He already had no clue what was going on, did he need a live audience for it?

"Does she kiss you again?" Alex asked eagerly, leaning on the edge of her seat.

"Then we'd have to call her out on bad timing," Magnus shook his head. "Beckendorf's about to die, not him."

Percy was rubbing his lip with a mosh pit of butterflies in his stomach, he couldn't make himself speak or they'd all come out. It's not like he was opposed to the idea, though that was ten times more morbid than even Alex could probably ever be if it was some odd new tradition like holding his hand underground was...

Instead she used it as a screwdriver to open a panel in the dragon's neck. "Here goes nothing," she said.

And she started to splice together the celestial bronze wires.

It took a long time. Too long.

I figured capture the flag had to be over by now. I wondered how soon the other campers would realize we were missing and come looking for us. If Annabeth's calculations were correct (and they always were), Beckendorf probably had five or ten minutes left before the ants got him.

"I trust Percy's internal clock pretty accurately too," Thalia shivered for that poor guy, even knowing the other Huntresses would consider her a traitor for doing it. "He always gets to the microwave right before it goes off."

"The one thing I've never managed to explode, it was to vital to my life," Percy agreed.

Finally Annabeth stood up and exhaled. Her hands were scraped and muddy. Her fingernails were wrecked. She had a brown streak across her forehead where the dragon had decided to spit grease at her.

Percy's fingers curled tight around his camp necklace to try and hide the fact his heart skipped a beat. How was it possible the worse she looked the more he couldn't look away?

"All right," she said. "It's done, I think..."

"You think?" Silena asked.

"It has to be done," I said. "We're out of time. How do you, uh, start it?

Alex frowned and paused and sighed. She knew she shouldn't get offended at them calling the dragon an it, but she'd have preferred if they just kept referring to the creature as the dragon, or even used they, them pronouns. This was a machine though, and she didn't want to start picking fights about that kind of topic right now.

 Is there an ignition switch or something?"

"I really hope nobody left the key in their pocket, we don't have time to find out where the hotwire is," Nico frowned.

Annabeth pointed to its ruby eyes. "Those turn clockwise. I'm guessing we rotate them."

"Are we sure she doesn't have a manual shoved up her sleeve somewhere," Jason looked fascinated how she'd found that out from some wiring and was probably going to be picking up a new hobby soon...hopefully not specifically of the metal dragon variety.

"If somebody twisted my eyeballs, I'd wake up," I agreed.

"Good to know," Thalia nodded to Percy's eyeballs great concern. "My next course of action was to start cutting out teeth if you didn't soon."

"I wake at the drop of a hat," Percy tried to defend.

"When your life's in danger," she completely agreed while Percy looked pleadingly at the ceiling.

"What if it goes crazy on us?"

"Then... we're dead," Annabeth said.

"I always admire her confidence!" Will burst out laughing.

"Yeah, because you've never been on the receiving end of it," Nico muttered.

"Great," I said. "I'm psyched."

"Psyched as an ADHD kid in a filing cabinet," Thalia snickered.

Together we turned the ruby eyes of the dragon. Immediately they began to glow. Annabeth and I backed up so fast we fell over each other.

"Awww, the first thing it sees is what we all put together in the first five seconds too," Alex said with a posh wave of her hand. "So sweet of you guys not to leave him out!"

"You're lucky that dragon's probably color blind Alex, or you'd be his dessert," Percy rolled his eyes.

The dragon's mouth opened, as if it were testing its jaw. The head turned and looked at us. Steam poured from its ears and it tried to rise.

When it found it couldn't move, the dragon seemed confused. It cocked its head and regarded the dirt. Finally, it realized it was buried. The neck strained once, twice... and the centre of the crater erupted.

The dragon pulled itself awkwardly out of the ground, shaking clumps of mud from its body the way a dog might, splattering us from head to toe.

Percy had gotten some in his mouth and he spat nothing out in here in disgust. Silena had looked more like Mud Bath Barbie, and Annabeth seemed to have gone brunette there for a strange moment she was so caked down.

It was, by far, the least important thing to be happening in this memory, but struck Percy as strange all the same why he couldn't get the idea out of his head.

The automaton was so awesome, none of us could speak. I mean, sure it needed a trip through the car wash,

"Which Percy has ample practice in," Jason chuckled.

"I still might need a few test runs to make sure I get the settings right," Percy gave him an obvious look. "Are you volunteering?"

"Only if you promise no flesh eating horses or robot dragons are in there at the same time," he sighed because he knew he wasn't getting out of it now.

and there were a few loose wires sticking out here and there, but the dragon's body was amazing – like a high-tech tank with legs. Its sides were plated with bronze and gold scales, encrusted with gemstones. Its legs were the size of tree trunks and its feet had steel talons. It had no wings – most Greek dragons don't – but its tail was at least as long as its main body, which was the size of a school bus. The neck creaked and popped as it turned its head to the sky and blew a column of triumphant fire.

The longer the description dragged on the quieter Magnus's voice got, until he was sunk far enough back into his seat it looked like it was eating him and he was whispering.

Alex sighed and had no other clue how to get him out of this silly funk, it's not as if a dragon was going to appear in here. So she leaned very close to his ear, he didn't even notice as his eyes never left the page, and casually said, "boo."

Magnus startled, fell out of his chair still hugging the book to his chest, and then lay across Alex's feet for several moments glaring up at her before raising the book to hide her face and continuing to read in a normal volume like nothing had happened.

"Well..." I said in a small voice. "It still works."

"Thank you Percy!" Magnus jabbed at him, letting the book fall against his nose for a moment without care.

"Here to help man," Percy nodded, studying him in concern what they were supposed to do if Alex stepped on his face.

Unfortunately, it heard me. Those ruby eyes zeroed in on me, and it stuck its snout five centimetres* an inch from my face.

Magnus shivered from head to toe, probably causing a new crack in the floor where he lay. He was likely to curl up into the fetal position in moments, and Percy couldn't blame him as he gagged on the remembered smell of gasoline and tabasco filling his nose and the pitiless hunger in those ruby sockets.

Instinctively, I reached for my sword.

"Dragon, stop!" Silena yelled. I was amazed her voice still worked. She spoke with such command that the automaton turned its attention to her.

Silena swallowed nervously. "We've woken you to defend the camp. You remember? That is your job!"

The dragon tilted its head as if it were thinking. I figured Silena had about a fifty-fifty chance of getting blasted with fire.

"The other half is getting her head ripped off like a real Barbie," Thalia informed in case they'd missed that.

"Nah, she's got this," Will grinned. There was a lingering sadness to his smile nobody else understood, but he had full knowledge she could lead anyone into battle, even a dragon.

I was considering jumping on the thing's neck to distract it

"Percy!" Thalia smacked him upside the head. "Why, in the gods names, is that, your, first, thought?" She started smacking him repeatedly on the arm.

"Because I'm pretty sure it would work," Percy shrugged, watching in mild fascination as it seemed to hurt her hand more than he felt it the longer she kept going.

when Silena said, "Charles Beckendorf, a son of Hephaestus, is in trouble. The Myrmekes have taken him. He needs your help."

At the word Hephaestus the dragon's neck straightened. A shiver rippled through its metal body, throwing a new shower of mud clods all over us.

The dragon looked around as if trying to find an enemy.

"We have to show it," Annabeth said. "Come on, dragon! This way to the son of Hephaestus! Follow us!"

Just like that, she drew her sword, and the three of us climbed out of the pit.

"For Hephaestus!" Annabeth yelled, which was a nice touch. We charged through the woods. When I looked behind us, the bronze dragon was right on our tail, its red eyes glowing and steam coming out its nostrils.

It was a good incentive to keep running fast as we headed for the Ant Hill.

Magnus's voice was pitching in and out like bad reception now, ignoring the glitter of Alex's toenails in the corner of his eye easily enough as he still wasn't as convinced as Percy seemed to be that dragon probably wasn't so much as following them but chasing them.

When we got to the clearing, the dragon seemed to catch Beckendorf's scent. It barrelled ahead of us, and we had to jump out of its way to avoid getting flattened. It crashed through the trees, joints creaking, feet pounding craters into the ground.

It charged straight for the Ant Hill. At first, the Myrmekes didn't know what was happening. The dragon stepped on a few of them, smashing them to bug juice.

"Good dragon," Alex crooned.

Then their telepathic network seemed to light up, like: Big dragon. Bad!

"Somebody get me a magnifying glass!" She yelped.

"Alex, it was dark out when this was happening," Nico reminded.

"I can use the moonbeams, I'll get creative," she promised.

Nobody was really sure how that was going to start or end, and they were kind of scared to ask. Magnus, however, finally sat up and leaned against his seat now that at least the dragon's focus wasn't on Annabeth and Percy anymore.

All the ants in the clearing turned simultaneously and swarmed over the dragon. More ants poured out of the hill – hundreds of them. The dragon blew fire and sent a whole column of them into a panicked retreat. Who knew ants were flammable?

"Every psychopath I've ever met," Magnus scoffed.

"Guess you meet more interesting people than I do Magnus, and that's saying a lot," Percy said with a raised brow. The place had been lit up like a bonfire in seconds, how the rest of camp hadn't come running was an honest mystery.

But more kept coming.

"Inside, now!" Annabeth told us. "While they're focused on the dragon!"

Silena led the charge; it was the first time I'd ever followed a child of Aphrodite into battle.

A hiss of pain fell from Percy's lips this wouldn't be the last, but though he rubbed his temple he was almost smiling at the bad feeling too. It was kind of cool to realize in the moment this was Silena coming into her own, getting a chance to realize a memory was so awesome the first time doubled.

We ran past the ants, but they ignored us. For some reason they seemed to consider the dragon a bigger threat. Go figure.

"Their mistake," Jason scoffed.

"I'm not arguing the point," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Because you're an idiot," Thalia chuckled with nothing but affection.

We plunged into the nearest tunnel and I almost gagged from the stench. Nothing, I mean nothing, stinks worse than a giant ant lair. I could tell they let their food rot before eating it. Somebody seriously needed to teach them about refrigerators.

"Would Chiron and Mr. D be okay with them piggy backing off their electric bill though?" Nico smirked. "I already don't think they're holding up their share of the rent."

"It smelt worse than Smelly Gabe," Percy insisted. "I would donate- okay, I don't even get an allowance there, but if this is a recurring problem I'd flip the breaker switch or something!" He smiled at the others getting a laugh out of this while he fought the urge to gag. He was happy for them, truly, they only had to hear about this and not live it...though it only made him miss Annabeth more every word she'd be plugging her nose same as him.

Our journey inside was a blur of dark tunnels and mouldy rooms carpeted with old ant shells and pools of goo. Ants surged past us on their way to battle, but we just stepped aside and let them pass.

"To bad they're not all storming out to argue which is better, Antz or Bugs Life," Alex sighed.

"I'm sure they'll go back to their clubs and debats as soon as their home isn't under attack and the kiddos are full of goo," Nico said with her level of chipper, which was kind of starting to concern Percy. He hadn't sounded depressed in hours.

The faint bronze glow of my sword gave us light as we made our way deeper into the nest.

"Look!" Annabeth said.

I glanced into a side room, and my heart skipped a beat. Hanging from the ceiling were huge, gooey sacks – ant larvae, I guess – but that's not what got my attention. The cave floor was heaped with gold coins, gems and other treasures – helmets, swords, musical instruments, jewellery. They glowed the way magic items do.

"That's just one room," Annabeth said. "There are probably hundreds of nurseries down here, decorated with treasure."

"That's kind of cute," Magnus grudgingly admitted, all of his long, messy blonde hair still mostly on one side he was ignoring and reading through. "I wonder if they burst out and pick a favorite toy or something."

Alex resisted the urge to run her hand through the mess and straighten it out for him as she instead hummed in agreement.

"It's not important," Silena insisted. "We have to find Charlie!"

Another first: a child of Aphrodite uninterested in jewellery.

"I bet if it was cursed jewelry she'd at least hesitate," Jason said in mild defense.

"Nah, she'd find a way to work that curse with her outfit, it's their own magical gift," Percy sighed.

"Right up there with yours getting into trouble," Thalia shook her head.

We forged on. After six more metres* 20 feet, we entered a cavern that smelled so bad my nose shut down completely.

"I'm going to be sick," Percy promised, his stomach rolling at the memory alone.

"This is not class Mr. Jackson," Alex said in a snooty voice. "You were not excused!"

"Does anything get us out of your class Miss Fierro?" Will asked curiously.

She thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. "Nope, you will all sit and listen to my brilliance or so help me you will get homework!"

"You're not even reading," Magnus frowned up at her accusingly, giving her the excuse to swat his bangs into his face and watch him for a moment shake his long hair out to fix it.

"You're more evil than Mrs. Dodd's," Percy frowned, though his hand fell lax from his stomach at the distraction.

"I'm not the one forcing you to read this," she reminded with a touch of hurt, "and the homework is encouraged to be worked on together."

"Okay, just as evil as Chiron," Percy chuckled.

The remains of old meals were piled as high as sand dunes – bones, chunks of rancid meat, even old camp meals. I guess the ants had been raiding the camp's compost heap and stealing our leftovers. At the base of one of the heaps, struggling to pull himself upright, was Beckendorf. He looked awful, partly because his camouflage armour was now the colour of garbage.

"Damn, I don't even think Silena could find a way to match shoes with that," Jason heaved a tragic sigh.

"Hospital gown," Thalia said flatly.

"Charlie!" Silena ran to him and tried to help him up.

"Thank the gods," he said. "My – my legs are paralysed!"

"It'll wear off," Annabeth said. "But we have to get you out of here. Percy, take his other side."

Silena and I hoisted Beckendorf up, and the four of us started back through the tunnels. I could hear distant sounds of battle – metal creaking, fire roaring, hundreds of ants snapping and spitting.

"What's going on out there?" Beckendorf asked. His body tensed. "The dragon! You didn't – reactivate it?"

"Afraid so," I said. "Seemed like the only way."

"But you can't just turn on an automaton! You have to calibrate the motor, run a diagnostic... There's no telling what it'll do! We've got to get out there!"

"I'm now imagining him with seven kinds of wrenches having a fit over a monkey belt or something," Nico admitted.

"Think it's just called a tool belt Nico," Will offered. Nico smiled as he imagined Will pouring over car manuals to try and impress his dad, and then Will showing him a few.

As it turned out, we didn't need to go anywhere, because the dragon came to us. We were trying to remember which tunnel led to the exit when the entire hill exploded, showering us in dirt. Suddenly we were staring at open sky. The dragon was right above us, thrashing back and forth, smashing the Ant Hill to bits as it tried to shake off the Myrmekes crawling all over its body.

The sudden blast of air and light felt like a second rise out of the underworld. Percy remembered gaping up at that monstrosity, fire and smoke setting its golden face like the sun of a new day, sparks flying from every scale as it roared in pain. That dragon had saved their life, and he was once again just left wondering if Grover would want a hug from it or would consider that a first class meal.

"Come on!" I yelled. We dug ourselves out of the dirt and stumbled down the side of the hill, dragging Beckendorf with us.

Our friend the dragon was in trouble. The Myrmekes were biting at the joints of its armour, spitting acid all over it. The dragon stomped and snapped and blew flames, but it couldn't last much longer. Steam was rising from its bronze skin.

Even worse, a few of the ants turned towards us. I guess they didn't like us stealing their dinner. I slashed at one and lopped off its head. Annabeth stabbed another right between the feelers. As the celestial bronze blade pierced its shell, the whole ant disintegrated.

"Great, another thing to lug back," Alex huffed.

"We did not need a trophy of this event," Percy groaned.

"Slackers!" She sniffed.

"I – I think I can walk now," Beckendorf said, and immediately fell on his face when we let go of him.

"There's a right and wrong place for a pratt fall man," Jason said with a nervous laugh.

"Nobody ever said to Percy," Thalia finished for him.

"Charlie!" Silena helped him up and pulled him along while Annabeth and I cleared a path through the ants. Somehow we managed to reach the edge of the clearing without getting bitten or splashed, though one of my sneakers was smoking from acid.

"What is it with your bad luck and shoes?" Jason frowned.

"I was destined to be bigfoot in another life?" He shrugged.

Back in the clearing, the dragon stumbled. A great cloud of acid mist was roiling off its hide.

"We can't let it die!" Silena said.

"Awww," Alex grinned. "Don't ever let someone say I never agreed with a child of Aphrodite!"

"How I wish that would have been her mother's response," Thalia nodded along sternly. The goddess of love was probably up on Olympus somewhere watching and applauding at all the drama instead of actually swooping in to help, if she wasn't engrossed in a hollywood celebrity magazine first.

"It's too dangerous," Beckendorf said sadly. "Its wiring –"

"Charlie," Silena pleaded, "it saved your life! Please, for me."

Beckendorf hesitated. His face was still bright red from the ant spit, and he looked as if he were going to faint any minute, but he struggled to his feet. "Get ready to run," he told us. Then he gazed across the clearing and shouted, "DRAGON! Emergency defence, beta-ACTIVATE!"

The dragon turned towards the sound of his voice. It stopped struggling against the ants, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of ozone, like before a thunderstorm.

Thalia gave a not-so-quite chuckle at the rare power she allowed to course through her. It was a heady feeling she wouldn't ordinarily enjoy sharing with a dragon for a moment, but this one had saved a camper's life.

ZZZZZAAAAAPPP!

Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon's skin, rippling up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back towards their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along.

Magnus snorted fantastically and threw his head back laughing.

"Are you done acting like the world is ending again?" Alex asked as she watched the nerves twitch around in his throat. He had a really strong jawline usually obscured but for this angle.

"For now," he agreed as he hoisted himself back into his usual seat.

The dragon bellowed in triumph, then it turned its glowing eyes towards us.

"Now," Beckendorf said, "we run."

This time we did not yell, "For Hephaestus!" We yelled, "Heeeeelp!"

Magnus immediately groaned again, eyeing the floor as if considering how much less he'd looked like a dragon sized snack from down there.

"Don't even think about it," Alex huffed as she grabbed the back of his shirt.

"I am being punished for a crime I did not commit!" He huffed.

"The two kind of sound the same," Will offered in a not at all helpful kind of voice. "Maybe the dragon just thinks they're charging off again to a wasps nest next."

"Will, that's worse," Magnus yelped. "You hear how that's worse, right?!"

Percy finally cleared his throat and reminded him to either get it over with or give it up, because, you know, he'd already lived through it.

The dragon pounded after us, spewing fire and zapping lightning bolts over our heads like it was having a great time.

Jason couldn't help a little snort of laughter he tried his hardest to pass off as a muffled sneeze. He couldn't help it, that dragon had been through it and sounded more like a puppy having fun without yet realizing his playmates weren't squealing with delight.

"How do you stop it?" Annabeth yelled.

Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine (nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order)

"There's a whole world of self-motiavting posters and workout videos missing out on this dragon marketing," Thalia nodded.

"One that the mist should keep them very far away from!" Percy frowned accusingly at her.

shook his head and gasped for breath. "You shouldn't have turned it on! It's unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!"

"Would he have rather they left him for dead?" Nico asked conversationally.

"Not a hundred percent sure being rescued into a dragon chase is what I'd call great," Magnus reminded with exhaustion in every syllable.

"Good to know," I yelled. "But how do you turn it off?"

"Someone really needs to tell Hephaestus it's a design flaw not to be voice activated shut down with a secret password," Will would give them that.

"I'll do it," Percy said without hesitation, which was pretty much the worst person to be sent to do it and also the only one who would tell a god to do it.

Beckendorf looked around wildly. "There!"

Up ahead was an outcrop of rock, almost as tall as the trees. The woods were full of weird rock formations, but I'd never seen this one before. It was shaped like a giant skateboard ramp, slanted on one side, with a sheer drop on the other.

"You guys, run around to the base of the cliff," Beckendorf said. "Distract the dragon. Keep it occupied!"

"That, is the worst sentence, in the English language," Magnus looked pained he'd said those words together.

"Followed very closely by, look, I didn't want to be a half-blood," Percy actually nodded his agreement.

"What are you going to do?" Silena said.

"You'll see. Go!"

Beckendorf ducked behind a tree while I turned and yelled at the dragon, "Hey, lizard-lips! Your breath smells like gasoline!"

The dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils. It thundered towards me, shaking the ground.

"Maybe that's a compliment in dragon?" Jason asked bemusedly.

"You are way to calm about this man!" Magnus groaned.

"Percy's not freaking out," he reminded, throwing a thumb at him. "He just kind of looks annoyed at this, I'm betting because he lost his chance to win capture the flag more than this."

Percy smiled his automatic reaction was to agree with that...but it didn't erase the insistent strain on him through all of this. There was something he was forgetting about all of this, something about Beckendorf and Silena, but the circumstances didn't feel right. This did feel like just another day at camp, so it wasn't bothering him to much.

"Come on!" Annabeth grabbed my hand. We ran for the back of the cliff.

"So we can now put underground, and being chased by a dragon on that list," Thalia snickered.

"I, have a minor preference," Percy said, smiling like a dope and not like someone who was being threatened by a dragon. Magnus really felt alone that should be a bigger concern than it was.

The dragon followed.

"We have to hold it here," Annabeth said. The three of us readied our swords.

The dragon reached us and lurched to a stop. It tilted its head like it couldn't believe we'd be so foolish as to fight.

"No, no, like a baby unsure what to do next," Jason grinned in delight. "Think a puppy waiting to see if he gets treats for doing a good job."

"Jason, you are not adopting the electric murderous dragon," Will sighed.

"Aw, come on!" Jason frowned. "He sounds so cool, and I bet Beckendorf keeps him in great order."

"Mrs. O'Leary has a playmate her size," Nico couldn't help but chuckle along.

Alex whooped in delight and loudly seconded that, well hiding Will's wince and no actual answer.

Now it had caught us, there were so many different ways it could kill us it probably couldn't decide which to use.

"Well the fire's obviously his go to, but he probably used up all that on the ants," Magnus said with dripping disdain.

"Stomping you means he'd have to dig out Percy from between his toes, I don't know if they like to groom themselves as well as cats," Thalia nodded along.

"I bet his bite force is, the best, he might want to slice you up just for fun so you don't go down in one swallow," Alex said seriously.

"I am going to find a way to bury this dragon back where he came from," Percy frowned.

"Aww," they all mock groaned like Sally had just threatened to take their new toy away before busting out laughing.

We scattered as its first blast of fire turned the ground where we'd been standing into a smoking pit of ashes.

"Still think this is cute Jason?" Magnus shot at him.

"Like a puppy who doesn't understand he shouldn't bite," he agreed with a sunny smile.

Then I saw Beckendorf above us – at the top of the cliff – and I understood what he was trying to do. He needed a clear shot. I had to keep the dragon's attention.

"Yaaaah!" I charged. I brought Riptide down on the dragon's foot and sliced off a talon.

Its head creaked as it looked down at me. It seemed more confused than angry, like, Why did you cut off my toe?

"Percy, that was just rude and a complete overreaction," Thalia couldn't help but play along with Jason's joke now.

"I got Mrs. O'Leary already trained," Percy said deadpan. "I'm sorry if I hurt the murder-happy dragon's feelings!" He finished in complete exasperation at the pair.

Then it opened its mouth, baring a hundred razor-sharp teeth.

"Percy!" Annabeth warned.

I stood my ground. "Just another second..."

"Percy!"

And just before the dragon struck, Beckendorf launched himself off the rocks and landed on the dragon's neck.

The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake off Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy as the monster bucked around. I watched in fascination as he ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon's head and yanked a wire.

"I want that engraved on the cabin's door," Alex said in awe.

"That's, not a bad idea," Will agreed, his tone as light as usual, but a little more wistful than it should have been.

Instantly, the dragon froze. Its eyes went dim. Suddenly it was only the statue of a dragon, baring its teeth at the sky.

Beckendorf slid down the dragon's neck. He collapsed at its tail, exhausted and breathing heavily.

"Charlie!" Silena ran to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "You did it!"

Annabeth came up to me and squeezed my shoulder. "Hey, Seaweed Brain, you okay?"

"Fine... I guess." I was thinking how close I'd come to being chopped into demigod hash in the dragon's mouth.

"You were great." Annabeth's smile was a lot nicer than that stupid dragon's.

"We all have our own idea of beauty," Jason snickered.

"I'm more surprised he's not thinking, monkey see monkey do?" Thalia rolled her eyes at where he kept touching his cheek as if Annabeth had abandoned him on a real reward.

"You, too," I said shakily. "So... what do we do with the automaton?"

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and Beckendorf looked pretty distracted by the attention.

Percy huffed and grumbled for a moment he wouldn't know what that would feel like, since Annabeth had gone to studying the dragon like it was another Parthenon she'd need to know every detail of. At least he'd been a part of this story, he realized with a surprised smile. Now next time some idiot kid didn't know the story of the bronze dragon, Percy would get to enlighten them for once.

"We – uh – I don't know," he said. "Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months."

"Worth trying," I said. I imagined having that bronze dragon in our fight against the Titan lord Kronos. His monsters would think twice about attacking camp if they had to face that thing. On the other hand, if the dragon decided to go berserk again and attack the campers – that would pretty much stink.

"Or we could host cowboy events to see who can wrangle it into submission again," Alex offered.

"Chiron will make you sleep in the strawberry fields if you suggest any such thing!" Percy tried to splutter and protest, but some part of him worried their activities director would go for it as some kind of communal practice.

"I can live with that," she grinned in delight, and Percy felt a smile tugging at his lips in admiration. Nothing scared Alex, not a threat even Mr. D could try to put against her would dampen her.

"Did you see all the treasure in the Ant Hill?" Beckendorf asked. "The magic weapons? The armour? That stuff could really help us."

"And the bracelets," Silena said. "And the necklaces."

"There it is!" Thalia nodded like a heavy weight of concern had been lifted away.

"What would you do with all your free time at Camp if you didn't have a feud with them?" Will snorted.

"Be very bored I'm sure, probably help Alex bring more fun into that place. You boys could use the practice," she grinned a smile worthy of a dragon that made all of them silently weep a bit.

I shuddered, remembering the smell of those tunnels. "I think that's an adventure for later. It would take an army of demigods even to get close to that treasure."

"Maybe," Beckendorf said. "But what a treasure..."

Silena studied the frozen dragon. "Charlie, that was the bravest thing I ever saw – you jumping on that dragon."

Beckendorf swallowed. "Um... yeah. So... will you go to the fireworks with me?"

Percy still vividly remembered the first time he'd gotten a compliment from Annabeth, after he'd run that bus with the furies off the road. It was a feeling of such power flowing through him, like he could do anything in that moment.

Sadly, Annabeth was rather stingy with her compliments, or he probably would have been able to defeat Kronos by now.

Silena's face lit up. "Of course, you big dummy! I thought you'd never ask!"

Will savored the laughter that blasted through the room with his eyes closed for several moments. It was probably the last laugh Silena and Beckendorf would ever get. Even Nico and Thalia probably didn't know in detail what was about to happen. They knew she was the traitor, but they probably didn't even know Beckendorf as more than just another name in a long list of people they'd lost in the war, they just weren't around camp enough to know as he did what was soon coming.

Beckendorf suddenly looked a whole lot better. "Well let's get back, then! I bet capture the flag is over."

I had to go barefoot, because the acid had eaten completely through my shoe. When I kicked it off I realized the goo had soaked into my sock and turned my foot red and raw. I leaned against Annabeth and she helped me limp through the woods.

The laughter increased ten-fold, Will's always somehow had the power to do that as Percy's tapered off with a flush of embarrassment. "It, it really hurt guys, have you ever walked on twigs barefoot, and um, there were rocks around-"

"Just stop Percy," Thalia was rubbing a stitch in her side, her eyes swimming with delighted tears.

"Yeah," he agreed with a shameless sigh. He'd been trying to find any excuse to pluck up the courage and ask her, having her to lean on so close just like always felt like a comfort rather than a hindrance.

Beckendorf and Silena walked ahead of us, holding hands, and we gave them some space.

Watching them, with my arm around Annabeth for support, I felt pretty uncomfortable. I silently cursed Beckendorf for being so brave, and I don't mean for facing the dragon. After three years, he'd finally got the courage to ask Silena Beauregard out. It wasn't fair.

"Some things never change," Jason said with a shake of his head that didn't suit him, he had that tone like one speaking twice his age again. "You'll be fifty and still stumbling over a compliment for her again."

Percy smiled at the dream he was painting, he found it hard to imagine he lived another birthday, let alone so many compliments later, but it was a nice idea.

"You know," Annabeth said as we struggled along, "it wasn't the bravest thing I've ever seen."

I blinked. Had she been reading my thoughts?

"Um... what do you mean?"

Annabeth gripped my wrist as we stumbled through a shallow creek. "You stood up to the dragon so Beckendorf would have his chance to jump – now that was brave."

Percy's mind froze...and then went more haywire than a dragons. Wait, she had been talking about him, right?! Not some other doofus who stood up to a dragon and cut its toe off? Did she want him to ask her out or was she just mocking him? Had she ever called Luke brave? What if he asked and she looked at him like he was covered in ant goo-

"Or pretty stupid."

"Percy, you're a brave guy," she said. "Just take the compliment. I swear, is it so hard?"

We locked eyes. Our faces were, like, centimetres apart. My chest felt a little funny, like my heart was trying to do jumping jacks.

"I really thought reading the rest would help him break out of, that," Magnus said, gesturing at his sagging face.

"Guys, I think we broke Percy," Alex announced grandly.

"It was bound to happen eventually," Thalia sighed, waving her hand in front of his face. "I half expected this back when she kissed him in the volcano."

"I'd just go ahead and finish man," Jason said without bothering to hide the laugh in his voice. He always was extra animated when a capture the flag game went on, and this seemed to have surpassed the others. "She'll call him an idiot here in a sec and things will go on like normal.

"So..." I said. "I guess Silena and Charlie are going to the fireworks together."

"I guess so," Annabeth agreed.

"Yeah," I said. "Um, about that –"

I don't know what I would've said, but just then, three of Annabeth's siblings from the Athena cabin burst out of the bushes with their swords drawn. When they saw us, they broke into grins.

"You're alive!" Jason mock cheered. "We already had the search parties assembled and everything with practice!"

Percy finally gave himself a little shake and looked around at him. "How terribly inconvenient of us, how about we skip back into the woods and play hide and seek next, oh wait, we just ruined that game!"

"The game probably wasn't ruined for everyone," Magnus offered, "I'm sure somebody had fun tonight." It just never seemed to be him.

Judging by the smile lingering on Percy's face though, they were pretty sure he was happy with his hour returned of seeing her covered in a new coat of mud, oil, and sweat as his arm stayed around her only in his mind.

"Annabeth!" one of them said. "Good job! Let's get these two to jail."

"Doesn't defeating a dragon and living through Myrmekes get him a get out of jail free card?" Magnus protested.

"I never even manage that in Monopoly," Percy sighed. She was as scary as Tyson, he usually went broke before he even got close to drawing his first card.

I stared at him. "The game's not over?"

"Damn," Nico said in surprise. "I really think Percy spaced out watching her a little to much, I thought much more time had dragged on too."

Magnus was at least laughing in surprised agreement again while Jason was looking at the book with a very calculating expression.

The Athena camper laughed. "Not yet... but soon. Now that we've captured you."

"Dude, come on," Beckendorf protested. "We got sidetracked. There was a dragon, and the whole Ant Hill was attacking us."

"Uh-huh," said another Athena guy, clearly unimpressed. "Annabeth, great job distracting them. Worked out perfectly. You want us to take them from here?"

Annabeth pulled away from me. I thought for sure she was going to give us a free walk back to the border, but she drew her dagger and pointed it at me with a smile.

"Nah," she said. "Silena and I can get this. Come on, prisoners. Move it."

I stared at her, stunned. "You planned this? You planned this whole thing just to keep us out of the game?"

"No way," Thalia sounded way to proud even if she shook her head. "No way she managed all of that."

Magnus didn't really think so either. As clever as she was, even she couldn't have put all that together.

"Percy, seriously, how could I have planned it? The dragon, the ants – you think I could've figured all that out ahead of time?"

"She did!" Jason gasped, causing a flare of jealousy in Percy at the look of admiration on his face. "She totally did! Oh my gosh, this girl is a genius!"

"Annabeth wouldn't put those two in danger like that," Magnus insisted.

"Not on purpose," he still had a wild grin in place, "but I'll bet you anything she somehow tracked down where that dragon was buried, unearthed it just enough to show the head, and then waited, hoping the ants would time it with her game."

"Her game?" Percy groaned. He thought Annabeth was a genius too, but she might believe someone as smart as Jason over him.

"That's a lot of if's," Magnus looked personally offended now if his cousin had decided to put a deranged dragon back into activation for a flag.

"It probably all didn't go according to plan," Jason was getting wound up now as he babbled excitedly. "I bet she planned on Percy and Beckendorf seeing this by telling them which direction to go and hoping Beckendorf would spend his time fawning over the dragon and forget about the game, not go charging the ants!"

"How on earth did she excavate a whole crater and find that thing and I didn't even notice?!" Percy demanded.

"Maybe she got Tyson and the forest dryads to help before he left," Jason shrugged, "maybe she-"

"Guys!" Thalia finally interrupted with a bright smile as Percy was clearly winding up to argue back. "One of these days, we're going to get out of here and you can interrogate Annabeth all day."

Jason still had a smug, 'I'm right,' look on his face while Magnus and Percy exchanged, 'I hate every minute of this' expressions, but Magnus was almost done with one more of these, and that was enticing enough for now.

It didn't seem likely, but this was Annabeth. There was no telling with her. Then she exchanged glances with Silena, and I could tell they were trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, I'm on Jason's side," Alex grinned along. The plan had probably gone to hell, but those two badasses had brought it back and still come out on top.

"Well don't look at me," Will reminded as Nico was watching him as if waiting to see if he was holding out. "I was on Percy's team! They weren't going to be sharing that kind of info with the enemy!"

"You – you little –" I started to say, but I couldn't think of a name strong enough to call her.

"Owl breath," Alex offered.

"Traitor," Magnus grumbled, she was the cause of this heart attack.

"Genius!" Jason crowed.

Thalia couldn't stop laughing at all of them, she had a pretty good idea Percy wasn't going to be the only one tackling Annabeth when they met now.

I protested all the way to the jail, and so did Beckendorf. It was totally unfair to be treated like prisoners after all we'd been through.

But Annabeth just smiled and put us in jail. As she was heading back to the front line, she turned and winked. "See you at the fireworks?"

Kronos might as well have appeared and trapped him in a time bubble. Percy froze with whatever expression was on his face. Had she just asked him out?! Like on a date!? The fireworks were on a beach, where they might just stumble into the ocean and, and... he sighed as the rest of the night's events swam easily to mind now. Still a little foggy around the edges, but with clarity that he was trying to connect two events that were not having it. The fireworks had been a spectacular show, he'd watched every color of the rainbow flash across her face that night and heard her laugh at the amazing designs their fellow campers created. She had gone down to the ocean and rinsed herself off, but there had still been mud creased into her skin and a streak of oil in her hair that nearly covered up her gray bangs.

She had been happy, on this night, but when Connor and Travis went racing past yelling in delight and throwing popcorn and hotdogs around from a stand no one seemed sure where it had come from, and Chiron announced how good it felt to have so many here on this night as he held a moment of silence for those they lost, Annabeth had bowed her head and clutched the beads on her necklace Percy had never been a part of. She wasn't there yet, with him or Luke.

She didn't even wait for my answer before darting off into the woods.

I looked at Beckendorf. "Did she just... ask me out?"

He shrugged, completely disgusted. "Who knows with girls? Give me a haywire dragon any day."

So we sat together and waited while the girls won the game.

Percy laughed along with everyone else. There was a relief in it, the tension in the room always just under the surface at being locked in here managed to vanish for just that moment that they knew they couldn't hang on to. Percy's life was hectic and chaotic, sometimes it felt like his closest friends made that worse rather than better, but it was his life being shared with them, and he wouldn't have it any other way...otherwise he might not ever find out how he got down here.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Annabeth absolutely planned this and you cannot convince me or Jason otherwise.

Though I don't think she meant for Beckendorf to get captured. Most likely she expected Percy and him to try and find the dragon's body and for Beckendorf to fix it and wake it up while they followed invisibly to keep an eye on them and all that would have taken up time until the game was won. Annabeth only stepped in when she realized Beckendorf split off, but I don't think she saw or heard where he split off to.

*Not a goofy name I made up by the way, but a real animal. Go look them up, they're adorable!

[livi-in-digital-circus]

Bunnydoll (non-angsty) family headcanons!

This is an apology for so much angst lately, I feel like shit these days, being stuck in trauma sucks BUT NOW IT'S TIME FOR SOME HEADCANONS WITH MY SWEET BABIES OWYN, ETHAN AND ELLIE!

Jax and Ragatha love each other so much that they cause a glitch that makes the rag doll pregnant

At first, no one suspects anything, until Ragatha starts to feel more and more tired during their usual adventures and throws up every single thing she eats. Caine quickly checks on her and finds something inside her that he calls a parasite caused by the glitch. He wants to fix Ragatha by getting rid of whatever this parasite is, but she immediately thinks it might be a baby since she always wanted to have one. It sounds ridiculous until the ringmaster actually confirms it. Everyone is shocked, especially Jax, who doesn't know what to do. Meanwhile, Ragatha is overjoyed and can't wait to meet their little bundle of joy

And here's the big arrival of the twins

Although the pregnancy goes smoothly, Jax quickly notices that Ragatha eats and vomits more than a regular pregnant woman. She doesn't seem to mind, thinking it's just because they're in a digital world where everything is different from the real one. Soon the rabbit and the rest of the circus members notice that Ragatha is also gaining more weight than she should, but she doesn't even seem to notice. Jax is very worried that something is wrong and often wants to argue with Caine. Apart from that, everyone is very supportive and helps Jax take care of Ragatha until she gives birth…

...to twins. In their first moments of life, the two babies are tiny blue rag bunnies with a bit of soft purple hair on their heads. As soon as Jax sees his sons, something inside him changes. He finally has what he never knew he longed for: a family with the woman he loves

But who said raising Jax's kids would be easy?

Owyn and Ethan are little copies of their dad. Always fooling around, throwing food and toys at everyone just to see if they get mad (they don't because the kids are too cute), and becoming literal angels whenever their mom is around. This changes over the years, and after they turn 3, they begin to develop their own personalities. Owyn becomes calmer and more attached to Ragatha. He gets on well with grandpa Kinger, and soon he knows almost every type of insect in the whole wide world. Meanwhile, Ethan remains the same, still causing trouble. Jax teaches him how to play pranks on Pomni and Zooble and that's why they are Ethan's main victims. The twins are still inseparable though and enjoy doing many things together, even though they have very different hobbies

With Caine changing reproduction from a glitch to a real thing possible in the circus, Jax and Ragatha decide to have another baby

No one can really say who had the idea first. Ragatha says it was her because she always wanted to have at least three children. Meanwhile, Jax smugly says it's him because he just thinks his rag dolly gets extremely cute when she's pregnant (she smacks him on the head afterwards lol)

Because Owyn and Ethan are small kiddos, they don't understand the concept of pregnancy. One day, Ragatha takes them for a walk around the tent and explains that there's a baby growing inside mommy's belly, and soon they'll have a younger sibling. The twins are excited and eager to meet their new brother or sister. It's fascinating how attached they are to the baby, even before it's born, and Jax often finds them sleeping in the most adorable way: resting their heads on Ragatha's belly and feeling their sibling's movements. On the other hand, Jax gets jealous of his own sons when they spend too much time with their mom. Some time later, Pomni bangs on the door of their room, her whole jester self covered in paint and mud because Jax has ordered the twins to go play with their auntie Pomni instead of bothering Ragatha, who needs a lot of rest these days. And by rest, he meant kissing, cuddling, and having her all to himself 24/7

Unfortunately, a defect in the code causes complications

It's not even the end of the pregnancy when Ragatha suddenly starts to feel worse. She throws up again, has trouble getting out of bed, refuses to eat, and suddenly becomes depressed. Jax tries everything to make her feel better, but nothing works. Meanwhile, the twins are only allowed to see their mother when she seems to be at her best, which is rarely. Jax becomes more and more frightened, his anger intensifies and he yells at everyone for nothing. His friends try to calm him down by telling him that Ragatha and the baby will be fine, but it only makes things worse. Caine also doesn't know what to do anymore, he sits in his office all the time trying to find some defect in the code

All of this leads to little Arabella being born prematurely. She's a rag bunny just like her older brothers, but she's much smaller and missing an eye, which means she'll need more attention. That doesn't change the fact that Ragatha loves her baby Ellie so much and makes her a button eye that resembles her own. Unfortunately, Jax isn't the most optimistic about this and distances himself from his daughter, spending more time with Owyn and Ethan and leaving the baby more in Ragatha's care. He tells himself it's because Ellie is different from her brothers and will be a burden from now on. The truth is that Jax is just afraid of failing to raise and protect her as he is still not the best father material. It takes him some time to even hold Ellie for the first time, and when he does, they form a special bond. Jax is surprised when the little girl turns out to be no trouble and recognizes him as her daddy and wants to play with him

How does the relationship between the kids actually look like?

It's messy. As Ellie grows up, Ethan finally has a new victim for his pranks and at one point even bullies his younger sister. This doesn't last long, though, as Ragatha scolds Ethan for it and he quickly promises to be mama's good boy. Ellie spends more time with Owyn, reading books and playing together. Though they can fight a lot, they don't want to be separated for long, and during adventures, Owyn and Ethan keep an eye on Ellie, who tends to get lost a lot (once, as a toddler, she almost gave Jax and Ragatha a heart attack when they heard her scream, but it turned out she was also giggling because she was also being chased by some dog)

What the other circus members think of Bunnydoll family?

Pomni has been named the children's auntie and becomes their official babysitter whenever Jax and Ragatha are not around. At first she thinks the twins are cute, until they grow up a bit and start causing trouble. There are moments when she thinks they're even worse than Jax, but that doesn't change the fact that she loves them and sometimes (when she doesn't want to throw Ethan into the Digital Lake) treats them as her own children

Gangle is Ellie's favorite, and they often have tea parties and fashion shows. Ellie is also the one who designs a new set of comedy masks for the ribbon girl, which makes her tear up a lot. Gangle also plays the role of the kids' second auntie and babysitter, plus she's the one who teaches Owyn how to read, making it his favorite hobby

Zooble doesn't want to deal with Jax's kids, at one point they even manage to tie Ethan to a tree when he isn't looking as punishment after he did the same thing to them some time ago. Ragatha has to calm Jax down when he finds out about this and tries to convince him to talk to Zooble instead of throwing his hands at them. As for Owyn and Ellie, they has nothing against them as long as they don't act like Ethan. Actually, Zooble likes to participate in Ellie's fashion shows, but they won't admit it

Kinger is their proud grandpa. He teaches Owyn about insects, gives Ethan candy (which is why the boy never plays tricks on him), and builds forts with Ellie. At first, Jax thought Kinger would be irresponsible with them, but to his surprise, the chess piece is very careful and his grandchildren's safety is now his priority. He often says he doesn't have a favorite and loves them all equally, but it's clear he's leaning more toward Owyn

Last but not least, the circus ringmaster Caine proclaimed himself the children's godfather and often arranges special adventures for them. He doesn't mind their sometimes chaotic behavior, but he strictly forbids them from going to certain places. The only one who is allowed to see him working is Ellie, as she seems to be fascinated by how the digital world works, and since she was affected by the defect in the code, Caine does some tests on her from time to time to make sure she's completely healthy now

Oh and there's Bubble, but he has a restraining order against all three of them…

Family time!

The kids sleep with their parents until they are old enough to have their own rooms. As twins, Owyn and Ethan are forced to share a bedroom, and both are jealous that Ellie has her own all to herself.

Ragatha is the best mom in the digital world. She does everything she can to make sure all of her kids have fun. She sings them lullabies, fixes their toys, makes them new clothes, and sometimes even lets them sleep with her and Jax when they have a nightmare. If anything happens to any of them, Ragatha will go into her protective mama bear mode and is even capable of beating up any NPC that tries to hurt them

Jax is the cool dad who lets his sons do whatever they want as long as they don't get into serious trouble. With Ellie, he is extra protective, and sometimes he doesn't like the pranks Ethan pulls on her. Still, he enjoys taking them on more dangerous adventures, even though Ragatha forbids him, and it usually ends with a few bruises and smiles on the kids' faces

The couple doesn't have much time to themselves now, so whenever they get the chance, they sneak out to go on a date, watch some movies, and just rest together, knowing their children are in good hands

At one point Ragatha jokes that maybe they should try for one or two more babies, but even though Jax finds the idea quite appealing, he's still worried about Ragatha's well-being, remembering what her last pregnancy was like. However, Owyn, Ethan and Ellie probably won't wait long for their parents to announce they're having a baby...

And a fun fact!

One day I was bored and went to character.ai to have some fun with the Bunnydoll bot. I made a story where they had 7 kids, while Owyn, Ethan and Ellie were supposed to be the next triplets, which meant they had 10 kids in total lol

I hope you enjoyed it!