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litgwritersroom · 1 year ago

Note

Please, a vet Andy AU!

OH PAW-LEASE

Andy / OC - 4900+ words - @mrsbsmooth

Cass is having a day. And the fact that the hot vet gets to witness every bit of it? Great. Just great.

TW: Dog/Animal appears to be sick/injured, but is fine.

Cass rinsed the last of the conditioner out of her hair, and started on washing her body.

Another Friday evening, and once again, she was getting ready to meet a Tinder date. If it hadn’t been for her friends’ insistence, she would’ve given up already. She didn’t really want to go out with yet another guy who only saw her as a piece of meat. She’d much prefer to just sit on her couch with a block of Cadbury Dairy Milk, breaking off piece by piece until she’d convinced herself someone had broken in and finished half the block when she wasn’t looking. Sounded like a great Friday night to her. But, once again, she found herself in the shower, getting ready to meet up with another guy who’d watched just enough of her TikToks to seem interested.

Should she shave? If she really liked a guy, she made him wait until the second date to fuck him. Did she like him enough to make him wait for it?

She thought for a moment.

And grabbed her razor.

Shaved, and smooth as a baby’s arse, the way men supposedly expected these days, Cass threw her hair up in a claw clip. She collected the outfit she planned on wearing. Tight black dress, lacy underwear, no bra. Her Friday night special.

Her dress safely removed from her dry-cleaning bag, she shuffled into her giant fluffy cat slippers. She pulled on her hair-dye-stained Pet Shop Boys t-shirt and a pair of comfy shorts she usually wore to walk Joshie, shoving the underwear in the pocket.

But as if he could hear the swish of the shorts, Joshie appeared.

“No, Joshie, you’ve already had your walk. I’m going out.”

As if extremely unhappy with this arrangement, Joshie nudged the bathroom door open, and shoved his nose up the leg of her shorts.

“No, Joshie, there’s no treats in the pocket either. You ate them all.”

Cass swore Joshie gave her fucking attitude as he turned and sauntered off. Bulldog mixes were sassy, but Joshie was just a brat. His smooshy, ugly face and little snaggletooth making him look as cranky and grumbly as any dog could look.

God, she adored him.

She washed her face, pulled her cosmetics case from the cupboard, and slipped her makeup headband on. She took out everything she’d need to start with. Eyeshadow, eyeliner… where the fuck were her lashes? She’d had them when she did her last video, they had to be in here. She dug around for a few moments… until she heard it.

It was an odd sound, a crinkling, light sound that kind of made her hungry. It was so familiar somehow. It almost sounded like…

“Joshie! No!”

Cass bolted down the stairs, and what she saw made her heart stop beating.

Joshie, looking guilty, his paw on the bright purple chocolate wrapper.

He’d licked it clean.

The sound that came out of Cass’s mouth was unlike one she’d ever heard before. Wail, cry, scream, all of them at once, she didn’t even bother grabbing his harness before picking him up and rushing out the door. All she grabbed was her keys and wallet, unlocking her car and throwing Joshie into the passenger seat before practically falling over herself to get to the driver's side.

She couldn’t go back for her phone to call ahead.

There was no time.

She gunned it out of the driveway, went 15 miles over the limit down her street, running a stop sign and flying onto the main road as she swung her tiny little Audi around every corner.

And Joshie was starting to look unwell.

Cass could barely see as she sped toward the vet, sobbing her tiny heart out as she bartered and pleaded with whatever God she could think of, begging them to let Joshie be okay.

And then he started retching.

Cass screamed, swinging into the parking lot of the vet clinic and wrenching Joshie across to her side. He was so fucking heavy, but in the moment, she had all the strength in the world, bolting across the parking lot and reaching for the door.

She pushed it open, sobbing, as she pleaded.

“Help! Help! Please! Fuck, please, help me!”

The receptionist jumped to her feet, rushing toward them with arms outstretched as Cass collapsed under Joshie’s weight, dropping his back legs to the floor.

“What happened?” the girl asked.

“Chocolate, he ate chocolate, I don’t know how much, I think it was a lot.”

“How long ago?” she asked.

“Five? Ten minutes, maybe? I probably got flashed by four cameras on the way here.”

The girl nodded, looking in Joshie’s mouth as Cass just continued sobbing.

“Please, please, if something happens to him– this dog is–”

She couldn’t finish the sentence.

Cass burst into tears again, her head pounding from the strength of her sobs. She could barely even breathe.

“Okay, it’s okay,” the girl soothed her. “You did the right thing bringing him in. We’ll get him in right now. Let me just check if the vet’s still here–”

“I’m here, Jen!” a voice called, and Cass went to pick Joshie up again. But as she slid her arm underneath his bum, she felt a hand on her arm. “Here, let me.”

She sniffed hard, and let go, turning to look up in the direction of the voice.

You have got to be fucking joking.

Jesus Christ, if she hadn’t been so worried about Joshie, she might’ve dropped him.

Just her luck, the vet had to be the most stunningly gorgeous handsome delicious beautiful sexy thing that had ever graced a white coat and a stethoscope. Dark hair, dark eyes, a K-Pop smile and an adorable little clear spacer earring. Urgh.

He went down on one knee, lifting her fatass bulldog mix off the ground as if he was a goddamn pomeranian, and carried him into the examination room.

“Alright,” he said, heaving Joshie onto the table. “What’ve you done, buddy? Had a little chocolate snack? Bet that tasted good.”

Cass sobbed a laugh, trying to hide her sniffles.

“I’m Dr. Kim, can you sit?”

Joshie sat gingerly.

“Good boyyyyy. And can you…. shake?”

Dr. Kim held out his palm to Joshie, who simply stared off into space, groaning. Cass sniffled.

“Oh, he doesn’t know–”

“That’s okay,” Dr. Kim chuckled, lifting Joshie’s paw up and shaking it like a person. “Nice to meet you… sorry, I don’t have his file. What’s his name?”

“Joshie. Er– Joshua. He’s a rescue– I didn’t– it’s not–”

Dr. Kim furrowed his brow in amusement… and he laughed. It was pure, so sparkling and crystalline, dazzling like a chandelier on a beautiful summer’s evening.

“I love when animals have human names. My dog’s Murph. Also got a cat named Susan and a turtle named Gerald.”

She smiled, weakly, her laugh at the adorable names stunted by the deep sense of dread that hung over her.

“Alright, tell me about the chocolate. The type, how much, anything you know.”

Cass nodded, swallowing hard. “Cadbury dairy milk, the big block. But I don’t know how much he had. I just saw the wrapper, so he must’ve finished it. He was retching in the car on the way here.”

“And you said it was five or ten minutes ago?”

She nodded again.

Dr. Kim furrowed his brow, and opened Joshie’s mouth, he whined, pulling away, and Cass burst into tears again.

The adrenaline was so high, rushing through her body and leaving her shaking at the thought of losing Joshie. She’d only had him for two years, but if anything happened to him… Oh, God, she couldn’t bear to even think about it.

She sobbed, and Dr. Kim looked up, shooting her a sympathetic look as he fetched her a box of tissues. He stuck his head out the door, quietly saying something to Jen, and closed it again. Before she even had time to thank him for the tissues, Jen stuck her head in and passed Cass a glass of water.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he cooed, crouching in front of her. “I know it’s hard to watch, I’m sorry. But Joshie can sense that you’re stressing out, and he’s stressing out because he’s worried about you. Try and look at something else.”

Cass looked around the room, before finally settling on Dr. Kim’s deep chocolate brown eyes, but he shook his head, smirking a little. “No, not me. Why don’t you look at your absolutely awesome slippers?”

She dropped her eyes, blushing, and looked down, realising what she was wearing. The enormous, fluffy cat heads at the end bobbled as her leg bounced up and down.

“Oh God,” she cringed. “How embarrassing.”

He chuckled, turning back to Joshie. “I love them. I’d be staring at them too if I was you.”

“Thank you,” she sobbed, wiping tears from under her eyes. “I just– thank you.”

Dr. Kim didn’t say anything, and Cass wasn’t looking at him, trying to dab at her throbbing eyes and stop her nose from running. But when she opened her eyes, she caught him.

He was watching her. Like, watching her; a curiosity in his eyes that had her wondering what he was wondering. And why he was looking at her as if he thought she was cute or something.

Oh, dear sweet God, she suddenly was granted the gift of shame.

She was in the office of the hottest vet in the entire hemisphere, in oversized shorts, an 80’s t-shirt stained with hair dye, fluffy cat slippers and a fucking makeup headband. She would’ve looked like a pufferfish, her eyes and nose and cheeks bright red, snot and tears running down her face. Her hair was dripping wet down the back of her neck, she had zero makeup on… God, she hadn’t even brushed her teeth yet.

But before she could even finish internally cringing, Joshie threw up.

Cass’s heart stopped, and she reached out for Joshie to stroke his back, but he just threw up again, the awful, foamy liquid coating Dr. Kim’s exam table. However, Dr. Kim didn’t look at all phased. Instead, he leaned in closer.

“Well, I have good news and bad news.”

She looked up, her bottom lip trembling.

“Good news is, Joshie didn’t eat any chocolate.”

“What!?” she gasped. “Are you sure?”

Dr. Kim nodded. “Certain. The wrapper must’ve been empty.”

Cass blushed furiously. Great. And now the sexy vet knew she’d polished off an entire block of chocolate.

“Not sure how it could’ve been empty… surely… impossible…” she said, cringing to herself.

Dr. Kim’s stupidly pretty lips curled into an amused smile. But if she thought she was embarrassed then…

“He did eat something, though.”

Cass’s eyes widened as Dr. Kim stuck his pen into the green foam. And held up something black.

Black. And lacy.

Cass’s hand slapped her shorts pocket, and found it horrifically and mortifyingly empty.

Death. A swift death.

Please, Lord, come on, he had her pants on his fucking pen.

“Oh my God,” she groaned, covering her face. “Oh my God.”

Dr. Kim laughed, grinning widely at her. “Don’t be embarrassed. This happens at least once a week.��

Cass uncovered her face and forced a smile at him. Forced. Like she was going to force Joshie off a fucking cliff for doing this to her.

“In fact, it’s pretty lucky he brought them back up. These can wreak havoc on a dog’s intestines if they move through.”

“Why would he have thrown them up?”

Dr. Kim smiled a little. “Well… you said you were driving pretty fast. He might’ve just been carsick.”

Cass took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly as she watched him ruffle Joshie’s ears.

“You’re lucky your Mum loves you so much, Joshie. If she hadn’t made you throw up you could’ve been in real trouble.”

Oh, God, did he have to be so Goddamn gorgeous?

Cass couldn’t help but shuffle in her slippers, feeling incredibly stupid and horrifically unattractive in the presence of a vet who was not only gorgeous, but also clearly loved his job, and animals. She would’ve called him a panty-dropper if she were wearing any.

“Thank you, Dr. Kim,” she said. “I’m really grateful.”

“Please, call me Andy,” he said. “I’m only Dr. Kim to my patients.”

Cass thought for a second, before furrowing her brow and laughing at the dumb joke. “I’ll make sure Joshie remembers it.”

“Better make sure he doesn’t eat anything else of yours,” Andy grinned. “If you came in here with one of those slippers all chewed up, I might cry.”

“You really like them?”

“I love them. Look, I shouldn’t say this…” Andy covered Joshie’s ears. “I like cats as much as I like dogs.”

Cass smiled, motioning to keep Joshie’s ears covered, and whispered. “Me too.”

“And I’ve gotta say, they look great with the Pet Shop Boys t-shirt.”

She looked down, cringing. “I swear I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Yeah, sure, I believe you.” Andy winked at her.

“I’m serious!” she whined. “They’re one of my favourite bands.”

“Same,” he said with a smile. “It’s what my friends and I called ourselves at Uni.”

“Not the PAWlice?”

Andy beamed at her. “That was discussed. So was DePAWche Mode”

“Huey Lewis & The Mews.”

“Electric Light Pawchestra.”

“Salt-’N-Puppy. No, wait, The (laser) Pointer Sisters.”

“That one’s terrible,” he laughed. “But I admit, I could’ve vibed with Salt-’N-Puppy.”

“Should get some 80’s pop music going in here.”

“Nah, Jen would kill me,” he chuckled. “But I put my foot down at her Scandinavian horrorcore metal.”

Cass’s eyes widened, and Andy sighed. “You really are way too easy to mess with.”

She shot him a look of playful disapproval, and he grinned cheekily back.

God, he was fucking cute. Deep, chocolate-brown eyes, soft black hair that was dying to have her fingers run through it. He was nice, funny, had great taste in music, great taste in slippers, and clearly adored animals… If only she’d looked the tiniest bit nicer, and hadn’t been such a goddamn fool today. Maybe had played it a bit cooler. Maybe hadn’t been so oblivious at his jokes.

Andy offered Joshie a little treat from the glass jar behind him, which he gladly accepted, chomping it down quite disgustingly and slobbering everywhere. Then, Andy turned the jar to Cass.

She looked down at it, cringed, and looked up. “Thank you, but I’m vegetarian.”

Andy’s brow furrowed in confusion. “So am I… But, I was joking.”

“Oh… you were messing with me again,” she said. “Wow. Well done, me.”

Before Cass could keel over and die of embarrassment, Andy led her out to the front desk, and she placed her wallet and keys down to wipe her sweaty-ass hands on her shorts.

Jen charged her card, and Cass stopped short of asking for a new emergency vet in the area so she would never ever have to face Andy again.

She picked up her keys and wallet, shoved them in her pocket, and picked Joshie up, carrying him to the car and sighing heavily as she heaved him into it. As she stood up, she smacked her head on the inside of the car door. She stumbled a little, and suddenly, out of nowhere, Andy appeared.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” he asked, steadying her with his hands on her shoulders. She reached out to grab him, only managing to hook her hands onto his forearms, but as she did, she almost died. They were so firm, and not because he was flexing. That lab coat was hiding something– a physique that she could only dream about. He was fit. Fit fit fit fit fit.

She caught her breath for a moment, the pain searing through her like a knife as she shook it off.

“I’m fine, I’m totally fine,” she replied, forcing a smile. “Thanks.”

He looked at her with concern, and she looked back at him, feeling her cheeks flush a little as his strong hands held her shoulders. Damn. She kind of wished he’d grabbed her by the waist.

But something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. Andy had an opaque plastic baggie in his hand. She furrowed her brow at it… and then realised what was probably in it.

Cass wondered if her embarrassment would ever end.

Andy glanced at the baggie. “Sorry, I forgot to ask… Did you want these back?”

He’d tried to be discrete, but she knew what was in them. It wasn’t like she was going to wear them again. She was sure they had some god-awful biohazard bin he could dump them in.

“No, no, you can keep them.”

She knew what she’d said before the words had even finished leaving her mouth, but she couldn’t stop them. She didn’t say anything. He didn’t say anything. After the afternoon she’d had, she just…

Facepalmed.

Cass couldn’t stop her laughter, and it was only after a few seconds she realised Andy was laughing as well. They couldn’t stop, cracking up into a fit of giggles in the carpark with Joshie wagging his tail like crazy in the front seat.

“Okay, now I’m absolutely leaving. The sooner I get out of here, the sooner I stop humiliating myself.”

He sighed hesitantly.

She cringed. “What is it?”

Andy chuckled, biting his lip slightly. “Would now be the wrong time to tell you you’ve got fake lashes stuck to your headband?”

Cass tugged her headband off, inspecting it, and groaned, plucking them off. Andy was trying desperately to contain his laughter.

“Oh my God, stop enjoying this so much!” she laughed.

“I can’t help it!” he laughed. “You’re easily the funniest person I’ve had today.”

Cass playfully glared at him. “Oh, I’m glad I could keep you amused.”

Andy settled, sighing contentedly. “I’ll be honest, it’s not every day that… what I mean to say is…” He trailed off, slipping his hands into his pockets and chewing his lip.

“It was lovely to meet you. And Joshie. I guess I was wondering… “ Andy blushed suddenly, looking a little nervous. “Hopefully I’ll see you again soon?”

Cass smiled widely,

“God, for Joshie’s sake, I hope not!”

Andy looked a little perplexed, but waved at her as she said goodbye. She luckily managed to reverse out of her parking spot without hitting anything (cringe).

And she was allllllll the way down to the traffic lights before she realised what he’d been trying to say.

She had to rest her forehead on the steering wheel.

God fucking damn it.

Cass was over an hour late for the date, but she looked amazing, so Marshall didn’t seem to care. He also didn’t really care about her explanation for why she’d been late. Didn’t ask about Joshie, or her… just heard about her pants and asked if that meant she wasn’t wearing any.

She let him feel her up as she half-heartedly kissed him goodnight. But she didn’t fuck him. And it wasn’t because she liked him enough to make him wait for it.

As soon as she got inside, she deleted her Tinder profile.

Cass took off her makeup, brushed out her hair, and threw that same t-shirt and shorts combo back on.

And she went the fuck to bed.

Cass awoke the next morning to a bulldog-mix drooling on her bed. She opened her eyes, groaned, and pulled herself up.

“Early walk today?” she asked Joshie. “You sure? Because I’m not taking you again later. You’ll give up halfway through and I can’t carry you. You know that.”

He said nothing, just snuffled.

She’d worn Joshie’s walking shorts to bed, so she had to change, throwing on a pair of leggings, her trainers, and another t-shirt.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

She couldn’t help but cringe at how badly she’d fucked things up yesterday. But she threw Joshie’s harness on him, clipped his lead, and walked out the door.

It was a short walk to the dog park, and she knew Saturday morning would be a busy one, which was perhaps why Joshie wanted to go there. Then she realised that dogs don’t have a concept of days of the week, or of time. Or of dog parks.

Maybe he just really wanted to poop there. As if on cue, the second she swung the dog park gate open, Joshie took up his familiar grunting crouch position. And once she’d picked it up, she looked around for a bin to dispose of the bag. And realised it was all the way on the other side of the park. Cass sighed, unhooked Joshie’s lead, tossed his ball, and set off.

He was having a wonderful time, running around as best he could with a friendly Jack Russell, when out of nowhere, came a beautiful scruffy tan-and-cream dog, happily sniffing Joshie, who immediately fell head over heels in love. Because he started humping her.

“JOSHIE!” she gasped. “Mate, NO!”

She pulled him off, scolding him, and instead petted the lovely girl, keeping Joshie at arms length as she ruffled through the scruffy fur for a nametag.

Murph.

Cass furrowed her brow.

God, what were the chances of–

She looked up, and time started moving in somewhat slow motion. Because jogging towards her, in grey training shorts, a t-shirt, and a glowing halo of sunshine around him–

Was Andy.

“Joshie’s mum!” he called out, with a laugh as he approached.

“You have got to be fucking joking,” she said, horrifically out loud.

Andy looked amused as he finally reached her. “Wow, I knew dogs hated the vet, I didn’t know their owners did too?”

Cass blushed about fourteen shades of crimson, spluttering as he approached. “I– fuck, no, that’s not what I–”

His eyebrow twitched, and he shot her an expectant look. But, just like the day before, there was an obvious teasing in it. He was so goddamn motherfucking hot, she was sure she was going to fall over or walk into a tree or something.

She sighed.

“What I meant was– Why is it that every time that me or my dog does something embarrassing, the person who witnesses it is you?” she groaned. “Like, I’ve got a bag of dog shit in my hand, and Joshie just full-on assaulted Murph right in front of you? He is such a pain!”

Andy grinned. “Stealing his human’s underwear, assaulting pretty girl dogs at the park… I wouldn’t call him a pain as much as I’d call him a sexual deviant.”

Cass groaned, and covered her face with her hands. “Oh my God, see? I have a sexual deviant for a dog. Unlike you.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Murph’s got her quirks. There’s a reason I don’t have any cute slippers like yours.”

Andy crouched down, and Murph approached him with so much love in her eyes that Cass almost swooned. She’d never seen a dog love their owner so much. There was just something about her attention and the way she leaned against his leg. Cass could almost feel their bond.

“I’m Cass, by the way,” she said. “Though, you probably knew that from my file.”

“I did, but I’m glad you said something. I did feel like a bit of a stalker checking it after you left.”

“As long as you didn’t actually keep my underwear, we’re good.”

He burst out laughing. “God, no. I’ll leave stealing those to your dog.”

Cass blushed again, but couldn’t take her eyes off Andy and Murph. And she desperately wanted to stop talking about the fact that Andy had had her thong on the end of his pen the day before. Talk about the dog, Cass. Talk about the dog.

“Murph is beautiful by the way. You failed to mention she was an Otterhound.”

Andy’s face fell into absolute shock.

“Oh my God– How’d you know?”

She blushed a little. “I groom dogs on TikTok. I’ve never seen an Otterhound in person before, though.”

“Yeah… yeah,” Andy said, looking up at her as he stopped scritching Murph momentarily. There was something in his eyes– like a weird sense of astonishment and amusement– but she couldn’t exactly place it.

“How on earth did you find one?” she asked.

He stood up, his hand and gaze not leaving Murph’s head. “She’s a failed show dog. Her head was too big for the breed standard.” Andy frowned. “Her breeders brought her in to be euthanized. I asked if I could keep her instead, and they said no. So I bought her.”

Cass’s eyes widened. “Jesus Christ. She must’ve cost…”

Andy cringed. “Five figures, and a contract that stated I had to have her desexed immediately.”

“But they’re a vulnerable breed,” Cass said. “Even without the breed standard, she could be crucial for the survival of the breed…”

He nodded. “I wasn’t happy about it. But it was that or have her put down.”

Cass didn’t even have a chance to stop the words from falling out of her mouth.

“Those fucking assholes. Good on you. I hope you told them to fuck off as clients after that.”

Andy met her gaze, his own a little fiery. “Yep.”

“But far more politely, I’m sure.”

“Nope.”

There was a moment where his words sunk in. Only a moment. Because after that moment, she was pretty sure she was going to marry him. Or at least, be his best fucking friend.

“Do you want to walk with me?” she blurted out. “I’d love to hear the rest of your asshole client stories.”

Andy’s eyebrows shot up, a small smile curling on to his face. Followed by a slightly larger smile. Followed by a wide one.

“Yeah, I’d love that.”

They walked in circles around the dog park, making a stop at the bin, but their conversation didn’t stop once. They talked about everything. Dogs, cats, music, movies, food, work, there wasn’t a single lull in conversation.

He wasn’t on TikTok much, so he asked about her videos, getting her username. His jaw dropped when he saw her view count, and she blushed. Even more so when he realised she mostly did charity grooms for neglected dogs.

He let slip that Jen had an Instagram page set up for the clinic, and he tried to stop her from looking for it, trying to grab her phone as she navigated to it. She burst out laughing when she realised it was basically just a thinly veiled thirst trap page, mostly of Andy holding adorable baby animals.

“I can’t exactly say no to her- her parents own the clinic! They’re my bosses!”

“She’s pimping you out!” Cass laughed. “But I mean, it’s an outstanding business model.”

Andy laughed. “How!?”

“I mean, if you’ve got a disgustingly hot vet on staff, may as well use him for promo.”

Cass was so busy smiling at Joshie and Murph, that she didn’t realise Andy had stopped walking beside her. She also didn’t realise what she’d said.

Until she did.

She froze. “Uh… I…. Um…”

She turned back to Andy, cringing harder than she had at any point over the last day, expecting him to be looking at her weirdly. But instead, when she turned back, she saw him trying not to die of laughter.

Cass smiled sweetly at him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and jump off a bridge.”

She made like she was going to walk away, but Andy jogged after her, grabbing her arm.

“Cass,” he said. “I think you’re disgustingly hot too.”

She froze again. She really had to stop freezing like this. It was making her look even more awkward.

“I… what? Seriously?”

Andy raised an eyebrow.

“You’ve seen me… in two different 80’s band t-shirts, once in basketball shorts and cat slippers with fake lashes stuck to my head, bawling my eyes out. And the other time, I’m in leggings carrying my dog’s shit in a bag. What exactly about that screams hot to you?!”

He burst out laughing, and turned to her, beaming that same stunning smile.

“That,” he said. “Your sense of humour. You laugh at yourself, and you’re awkward, and you care as much about animals as I do.”

He stepped a little closer.

“But you’ve got an incredible smile. Your body is insane. And even with fake lashes stuck to your headband instead of your face, you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”

Cass looked up at him, and was a little lost for words.

“Andy… stop. And when I say stop, keep going.”

He cracked up laughing, grinning a mile wide before looking down at her again.

“You know I was trying to ask you out yesterday, right?”

“Yeah, I realised as soon as I got to the end of the street.”

“And you basically told me you never wanted to see me again.”

Cass cringed. “Well, I guess it’s lucky that you find my awkwardness adorable?”

“It is,” he said. “But can I take that to mean I can ask you now?”

“Actually…” She bit her lip. “Andy… would you like to go out with me, for a walk around the dog park, right now?”

For a moment, he was floored but gave her that same beautiful smile. “I would love to.”

“Great,” she said, slipping her hand into his. “Then this counts as our first date. Maybe we should get dinner tonight?”

Andy gave her the side eye. “Why does it sound like you’re trying to get me on a second date as soon as possible?”

Cass smiled to herself.

Good thing she’d already shaved.

#litg #litg fanfic #litg andy #litg season 6 #mrsbsmooth #litg writers room #writers room #love island the game #ask #dog

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hitoshisbabygirl · 4 years ago

Text

Authors Notes ♡: WHEW I LOVED THIS I had a time trying to come up with an idea and then it hit me : a princess being saved by fantasy au! Dabi. I’m still nervous with my smuts but heh I enjoyed this a whole bunch to write . Dabi is my favorite villain and I just love him so much, I tried to make him a soft inside and hard outside man in this , I Had fun for our free for all collab and I hope I help give it just a fun twist to fantasy and Halloween spirit ~ I hope you enjoy reading this and much as I did writing it ~ bunny ❥

Warnings :UH NSFW! Demon dabi has two dick (and their thick) , pet names, unprotected sex , a tad bit of a size kink? , a bit fluffy at the end but I think that’s it!

Word count : about 2k give or take!

Paring(s) :Dabi x F! Reader

Even with this being NSFW I had to make it a soft fluffy ending I’m sorry ♡

———————————————————————

Enchanted flames

Dabi

“If you have found this letter the Princess of Yuei needs your help. Meet me in the Enchanted Woods tomorrow night. Ill escape with you if you can save me from the proposed wedding - Princess [ ]”

With a sigh [. ] dropped the letter out of her window hoping someone, anyone , could save her from the doom that awaited her from an arranged marriage that had been planned from her kingdom to be to the neighboring ones prince, a smaller and very...purple hot headed boy by the name of Mineta who was unsavory for a lack of words. Sighing as she watched the paper fall she secretly wished her type of prince would come save her from this hell she expected.

As the night approached she slipped past her guards, telling them she was going out for air in her garden. The two towering men who looked down at her agreed, moving at the way to let the young woman past them and out into the halls, her dress dragging behind her as she headed out the giant doors to her garden. Taking in a breath she climbed over the perfectly managed hedges andddd off into the forest adjacent to the castle, roaming through the woods to her chosen spot to hopefully meet someone who could save her.

“Hello there little sheep, you called for help, correct?” A low, raspy voice called out as [ ] turned around , looking into the dark abyss in front of her. “ Hello? Helloooo? Who's there?” the girl called out as she heard something heavy land behind her. Turning to her right she saw bright blue eyes look back at her from the shadows. Before she could react a rather warm hand covered her mouth as the person or thing dragged her throughout the woods , the two of them slipping into the night. As soon as [ ] woke up her eyes adjusted to a dark but brightly lit and beautiful chasm, cyan and turquoise crystals of all types surrounded the room as she felt intense heat from everywhere around her. Standing up on shaky legs she felt eyes on her from behind. Letting out a deep breath she turned only to run into a barely covered chest.

Looking up from the revealed purple and pale skin , she saw those same blue eyes , lit with curiosity. “Ah you're awake..welcome little sheep to my...well..living quarters” The mystery man spoke as [ ] blinked at him, a grin spreading over his face as he continued to speak “Well i guess the princess doesnt know she isn't in her little castle anymore. Haven't those guards of yours realized they can't leave royalty alone or guys like me come along and take them out of their cute little homes” He said as [ ] gave him a suspicious look , her own thoughts taking over her face as a sense of calm rested over her features “Ohhh so you're the one who found my note..” She said as he gave her an unreadable look , soon walking away to leave the girl in her own world. “I guess he did” she thought to herself as she heard the male come back, a pile of things in his hands. “Here; a change of clothes and something to eat. I tried to be gentle taking you out of those dreaded castle grounds and through the woods but your dress isnt the smallest thing in the world” he said as [ ] let out a giggle , picking up the dark shirt and skirt he had given her along with the meal : some type of rice and meat with soup. Before she could ask the man answered “No i didnt steal it, i told you this is my home , its only natural id have something in this god forsaken place to eat.” He said as he pointed down the cave. “Theres a waterfall ahead if youd like to freshen up there.” And with that [ ] walked down the empty carved walls, finding the waterfall he was talking about.

Once she was finished getting cleaned and dressed she headed back the way she went, seeing the male now cloaked in a dark cape , fiddling with a pile of wood before setting it ablaze with a bright blue flame. “Ah i see you're finished , ILl be heading out , i'm gonna find us some more wood so you don't get cold. Theres a pot over there where you can reheat your food and get more if you like.” As he finished he proceeded to get up and head down another pathway, presumingly to the opening of the chasm “Wait!” [ ] called out as he stopped, turning to the girl with a questioning look back at her. “Yes princess?” he responded to her as she felt a unnatural wave of heat spreading to her face from simply calling her by her actual title. “What can I call you? And how long will you be gone?” She questioned. “Aw are you worried about me?” He cooed as she puffed out her cheeks “I was just curious” She lashed back as the male in front of her laughed , giving her a crooked smile. “ The names Dabi, and i won't be gone too long, an hour or so” Dabi said, giving her a smile as he started to leave again.

“Oh yeah , and there's a spare jacket in the back if you get too cold or that fire goes out.” and with that he left [ ] by herself as she finished up the dinner he had made which was exceptionally good, even better than what she tended to have at the castle. While she waited around for dabi to come back , [ ] looked at her royal dress, the red and pinks making her want to revolt as she pushed the fluffy tooled pile up into a blanket of sorts, covering her legs as she sat there thinking about her predicament “I really ran away...but what else can you do when youre gonna be married off to someone years older than you for land and alliance” she thought with a sigh as footsteps came from behind her , Dabi pulling his hood from his head as he smiled to himself at the girl in front of him “Im back princess” He declared as she turned to him, giving him a small smile as she stood up, dusting off her dress , coming up to Dabi “So...whatcha find?” She started as he pulled the bag from behind him , dumping out different goodies for the two of them. An array of food, wood and fresh buckets for water collections. “Here, this is for you too” Dabi said as he passed her a well woven balck dress, better than the two piece he had first given her. Taking in a deep breath he spoke up “I didn't want you to struggle with rags , so i got you something a little more comfortable and well...suitable for a run away princess” and with that she looked up to him and giggled which was heaven to his ears. ‘Why thank you Dabi..i'm flattered” [ ] said as she took the black dress , running to a hidden corner to change as Dabi smirked “Oh boy..what have i signed myself up for”

Weeks later and multiple posters for the lost princess later, [ ] had a rhythm living with Dabi. They cooked together and he left out to get things from shops ans out in the woods. Word spread that the princess had been stolen and the ugly grape himself had put a reward out for her safe return. Unknown to everyone she was quite content with the dark demon mage Dabi and his home in the woods. He explained the chasm as his work space, a place he could hone in on working with his flames and different elixirs that people needed. He was a half breed of human and demon, his father ridding of him to hide his affair with an otherworldly being, to keep the peace of his people and the overworld people as well. He really wasn’t a bad man, just someone who stayed in the shadows and kept to himself. And [. ] ‘s heart went out to him, as his did out to hers as she explained her own situation. ”Well damn sweetheart at least i saved you hm?” Dabi said as the two of them laughed together about their lives and what they'd like to change.

As the night drew on and they had their fair share of drinks and food that night “Thank you Dabi..for everything” [ ] said randomly as they relaxed by the fire he had started , [ ] wrapped into the oversized fur Dabi made her as the male laid against a log watching the tired girl mumble to him. She gave him a sleepy smile once he put his warmed hand on her face. “You're cute yknow...i'm not gonna let anyone get to you okay?” He said as she shook her head, moving herself closer to him , laying her head on his lap as he rubbed her head until she fell asleep, him soon realizing he was in love with the rogue princess in his lap.

As the next month rolled around , the princess and her demon mage had started a loving relationship, the two of them growing fonder and fonder of eachother. [ ] noticed that Dabi had tried avoiding being around her when she was fresh from the shower or even roaming too close behind her, he even took more time to come home with more ingredients or even sleep opposite to her. She didn't understand the switch from wanting to hold and hug her to avoiding her all day. One day she was able to catch and trap him with her. “Yes princess…?” Dabi ased as [ ] crossed her arms around her chest , the simple movement making him turn from her. “Did I..do something…?” She asked, her eyes bouncing between his as the turquoise she learned to love ignited with heat.

”Oh no doll...you haven't done a thing but make me want you even more..”

And with that comment her eyes widened. “What..?” She questioned. And with that Dabi picked the smaller girl up, pinning her to a crystal wall as she gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck.”Dabi…….?” [ ] called out as he started to kiss her neck ,running his rougher hands up the soft flesh of her thighs. “I think i'm in love with you doll..youve been invading my head or a while and all i can think about is making your cute little body want me the burning way i want you...I wanna make you cry out for me all night long...make you mines forever.....is that okay?” He whispered in her ear. With a shudder she agreed , letting him kiss the swells of her brest as he gave her a lopsided smile, picking her up and taking her to a pile of pelts and wool they made into a bedroom to rest in. Placing her down lightly he towered her , taking off his vest to reveal his toned and scarred body “Youre quite a beauty yknow...im glad you trust me…” He said with a smile as [ ] herself smashed her lips against his, cutting off his mushy talk. With a groan he pushed her dress up , letting her breast bounce out from the top. Pulling away from the kiss she helped him take off the dress over her head. With a shy smile [ ] covered ehrslf and laid back, spreading her legs lightly to expose her glistening lips to him

“Well damn, i havent even toughed you yet and youre this wet..what a little slut you are”

He growled out as he leaned back over to give her a kiss , pulling her lower lip as he licke dhis was down between her legs, giving her clit a hard suck as she whinned , closing her legs over his head as he slurped away at her pussy, making sure to watch her through hooded eyes, a tail whipping from behind him as a pair of horns appeared from atop his head, one mangled and cracked the other long and curled “Surprise” Dabi called out as his voice dropped octaves, it coming out as a low rumble as [ ] felt her walls clench at the sound , a chuckle coming from him. Going back to slurping and sucking on her labia and clit , Dabi watch with glee as the gilr under him started to shake, her hips rolling back to his mouth as he bit lightly down on her lips and pulled away from her , laughing at her pleas and whimpers “Turn sound baby and let me show you how much i love you” Dabi said , watching as [ ] rolled over arching her hips back as he smacked her ass, loving the moan she let out. Pulling down his pants he pulled his throbbing member out, rubbing it hard against her clit as she felt her heart jumped at the feeling of how thick he was. All of a sudden she felt hands pull her cheeks apart as a finger rub around the tight rings of her ass. With a gasp she looked back to see not one but two swinging dicks between the burning up male, a feral look in his eyes as he let a low rumble come from his chest “ Sorry babygirl..when I change there's more than just one of me to deal with, i promise i'll be gentle” He said as he rubbed her tight muscles just loose enough to put in the tip, her lower lips drooling as he slid his true size into her throbbing walls, moans and grunts tearing through the chasm as he pulled his hips back , starting to set a rhythm to his hips. While he picked up the pace, [ ] felt herself being full as the two dicks of his stuffed her. She could help the feeling of her walls getting tighter as she came once then twice and not once did Dabi stop, he laughed as he gave her more and more , pushing himself deeper in her as he let out what sounded like a howl of pain as he doubled in pace, reaching down to rub her clit as she screamed, soon feeling a hot and warm gooey feeling flood her senses. Dabi slowed his hips down as he pulled himself from her ass first, then from her pussy and cum started to leak from her holes.

“Shit...im sorry princess I didnt mean to go so rough…” Dabi breathed out as [ ] turned around giving him hr own lopsided smile as she saw him transform backto himself, those turquoise eyes softening as he saw the woman he had fallen for spent out from his own actions. “Geez when you said you were a demon i didnt think it was true…” She laughed as he scratched th back of his neck “Ive never transformed like this around someone….especially during sex but that means I trust you a lot….well doll..let me clean you up and then...we can go fro round two hm?” He smirked as he watched her pussy clench and relase more cum once he said that. “Mhm...clean me Dabi then we can have some more fun..”

#my hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha x reader #the circus dome collab #dabi x reader lemon #dabi x reader #dabi smut

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thelifeofprettycommitteealpha · 4 years ago

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How to Act Like Massie Block

Steps

We'll start with attitude, by far the most important aspect of being like Massie Block. If you only take one thing from this, remember that you must always show, radiate, and have CONFIDENCE! This means not pointing out your flaws to others, (ex: "My hair is so frizzy today!" or "Is this top cute? 'Cause I'm not sure...") having good posture and always looking straight ahead, (never at the ground) and not ever letting people know when you feel unsure of yourself or your opinions. Never appear to be upset. Don't cry or make comments about how "your life sucks." You must always make it seem as if you have everything together, and that your life is perfect, or else people will never idolize you. Even if you're majorly embarrassed about something, you have to just laugh it off and forget it (don't make it a big deal). You can never show weakness!

Another crucial part of your Massie transformation is looking the part. Massie is gorgeous. She has straight, extremely shiny brunette hair, about shoulder length, sparkling amber eyes, and perfect skin. You don't have to look exactly like this, (always choose the look that works best on you) but you must always appear your best.

Without a fabulous wardrobe, Massie would be nothing. Be a true fashionista and wear expensive clothes from stores/designers like BCBG, Coach, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, Seven For All Mankind, Guess, Lacoste, C&C California, Marc Jacobs, Joie, True Religion, etc. Always dress to impress! Never leave the house in sweats and a T-shirt (unless they're Juicy!). Even if you can't afford uber-expensive clothes, make sure to always look pulled together and stylish, with coordinated accessories and cute shoes. Don't tell anyone where you got your cheaper clothes unless you have a social death wish! A final note on inexpensive clothes: don't ever wear anything that looks cheap. This means don't go for the Wal-Mart or Target look when you can be buying low-priced (and way cuter) clothing from Forever 21 or Wet Seal. Oh, and no too tight/too big tacky clothing please. Wear stuff that fits you and looks good. Not sure? Get a second opinion. Make sure your underwear/bras are cute, too, from stores like Victoria's Secret or underglam.com. Trust me, people do notice in the locker room when you're changing. Never wear the same outfit more than once every two weeks or more: if you double up, people will think that you are thrifty and don't have very many clothes...and we wouldn't want them to think that, would we? No.

Massie is the queen bee. Popular. Worshipped. And how does she do this? By looking fabulous, having the right attitude, and establishing her dominance by using intimidation. Get together a clique of the prettiest and most fashionable girls in the school, 3-4 others. Make sure you are their leader. Your beta (second in command) should be the most loyal. The other girls should also be loyal and reliable; make sure you have at least one nice-ish girl to keep the peace in your clique. If you don't all get along, you will never rule. It's all about unity. This doesn't mean you can't boss them around though--it's what Massie would do! Test the waters by starting off really nice, then gradually getting a bit harsher. If they stick with you, you'll know you have 'em forever. Lighten up a bit if they start to stray. Make sure people are somewhat scared/intimidated by you, so that you know they'll do whatever you want. Be totally snobby to the losers at your school (a.k.a. basically everyone outside your group). Chances are, you'll be so fabulous by then, it will only make them idolize you more.

You must be thin to maintain your social status! This means very little or no fatty/sugary foods like chips, soda, candy, fried chicken, pizza, etc. It's a tough sacrifice to make, but well worth it in the long run! Work out regularly on a treadmill, doing crunches, squats, or playing the specified sports below. Chew sugarless gum. Never be too skinny or develop an eating disorder. Not only will many rumors be circulated about you, but you could even die from it!

Get super shiny hair by using shine shampoo, (such as Citré Shine or Brilliant Brunette Shine-Release) shine serum or spray, (know your limit--don't use too much or your hair will look greasy) and rinsing out your conditioner with cool water (as cold as you can stand it!). Straighten your hair with a good-quality flat iron and consult hair magazines or a hair stylist to find the best cut for your face (but never shorter than shoulder length!).

If you desire brown eyes, (and you don't have 'em) experiment with color contacts.

Achieve your best skin by washing your face morning and night with a good cleanser (Clean & Clear works great) and exfoliating and moisturizing daily. If you have dry skin, wash your face once per day and use more moisturizer; if you have more oily skin, skip the moisturizer. When you're drying your face, remember to pat, not rub, (rubbing pulls the skin and causes wrinkles). If you have bad acne that cannot be fixed by this skincare regimen, see a dermatologist.

Now for make-up...it can do so much for your face, turning you from plain to perfect in a matter of minutes. But be careful not to wear too much--you want to be like Massie, not Nina! Wear an eyeshadow in a natural color like brown, gold, or beige, (or whatever subtle color compliments your eye color) thinly line your eyes with a black or brown eyeliner, add a coat or two of blackish-brown mascara, and conceal all of your blemishes with the right shade and amount of concealer. It's also very important to remember your lip gloss--Massie would never leave home without hers! Buy a variety of different good-smelling flavors and bring them everywhere you go.

Make sure your teeth are bright-white and perfect. If your teeth are crooked, use "Invisiline" rather than getting braces (a lot more attractive!). Whiten your teeth with laser procedures or Crest Whitestrips. Brush at least twice a day with whitening toothpaste, and remember to floss!

Tips

Get a super cute dog (the smaller the better) such as a Chihuahua or a Pug, in black, light brown, or honey color (they're the cutest). You can also get a kitty; they're ah-dorable, too. Tell your pet everything, (yes, you can talk to her about your insecurities!) and love her as your child. Dress her in the cutest fashions, (this works best if you have a dog) and take her on walks in the evening with your Louis Vuitton leash.

Use words like "ah-mazing," "ah-dorable," and "ah-nnoying". Say "ehmagawd!" when you're shocked, surprised, or excited about something. When something is well-known and "ah-bvious" to you, say, "Given!". When you have the same opinion as someone, say, "Ah-greed". When something someone says strikes you as reasonable, say, "Point!" and draw an imaginary "1" with your finger if you desire.

Have the best and biggest room. Go with Massie and have everything be white, no exceptions! Make sure you have a queen-size bed, (you are one, right?) an Apple computer, a giant walk-in closet to store all your ah-mazing clothes, and a leather chaise by your bay window to have long phone conversations and brush your pet before going to bed. Vanilla scented candles are a nice touch, too. Have everyone refer to your room as the "iPad".

Sports are luh-ame unless they are something classy and don't involve getting dirty like Tennis, Horse-back Riding, or Volleyball. And shopping, of course!

Purple is the official color of royalty. Therefore it's your favorite color. Wear it, love it, decorate everything from books and pens to your cell phone with it (purple rhinestones, of course!).

Speaking of cell phones, you need one! It's the perfect way to stay updated on gossip and keep in contact with your friends. Make sure you have a texting plan so that you your clique can silently dish about stuff in class, detention, wherever! Cover it in Swarovski crystals and bring it everywhere you go.

Get together a carpool with your clique. Taking the bus is so ew!

Wear a charm bracelet with charms such as a shoe, Eiffel Tower, dog or cat, (whichever you have) star, and most importantly, a crystal-encrusted crown! Make sure the charm bracelet is gold, and never have any of the charms be silver (tacky much?). Buy it from Tiffany if you have the money.

Always have your fingernails and toenails perfectly manicured! I highly suggest a french tip for fingernails, because it coordinates so well with everything. Have them done at a fancy salon with your clique afterschool or on a weekend for a fun activity.

Throw a fabulous party to increase your popularity. Invite everyone.

You must always be prepared with a witty comeback for if, on some rare occasion, a wannabe insults you. One of my favorite Massie-style ones is, "Did I invite you to my barbecue?...Then why are you all up in my GRILL?" Consult the Clique books for some other great ones, or make some up yourself. Never let anyone get the best of you or think that they have won. Remember that YOU are in charge. YOU make the rules.

It helps to have an AIM account, or MSN, you'll need it to keep in touch with you friends one-on-one!

The magazines Teen Vogue, ElleGirl, and Lucky are your bible. Read them religiously(but not in a creepy way...)

Warnings

Be prepared to receive some backlash from the people that wish they were you. In other words, the jealous people. They may spread some pretty nasty stuff about you, but respond with something positively catty (your beta will help) to show them who's really the boss.

There may be occasions where controversy arises in your clique. Like a power-trip, where a girl in your clique suddenly wants the throne. Start by putting her in her place by telling her off in the hallway (preferably with many people around). If she still doesn't get the hint, kick her out the group and recruit someone new. Chances are, she'll come crawling back, begging for forgiveness. Let her back in after a little while, and ditch the temporary.

Many people will probably think you're a mean person. But they'll still love you, and wish they were just like you (they'll love to hate you). This is inevitable if you want to be on top like Massie. You'll get used to it.

#lifestyle tips #beauty tips

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seawitchkaraoke · 4 years ago

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Sketch in Shadows

(ao3 link in the notes)

This whole idea was stupid. It was way too early, barely even afternoon, she should be in bed and instead, here she was, sitting at a too small desk on an uncomfortable chair, listening to this human guy talking about some other long dead human guy, who had apparently been really good at drawing sunflowers.

The whole thing had been Toby‘s idea – of course. She‘d suggested that going to university would help her learn about the modern world and at the same time continue the „figure out what you actually like and what your mom made you like“ thing Raysel and her had going on and August had agreed, because she was bored, and she didn‘t have anything else to do and hey it might be an adventure, except this time without the getting lost for a hundred years part. So she‘d looked up some classes that sounded interesting and snuck out way too early, letting Raysel sleep who had wisely refused the education plan.

She had been bored. Somehow, she was even more bored now; she‘d really thought that art history would include a little more art and a little less life stories of dead humans.

August leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for just a second, sighing. She could leave anytime, it‘s not like she‘d signed up for anything or like she was actually planning on getting a degree.

She opened her eyes again.

There was a cat on her desk.

She stared. The cat stared back.

August blinked. The cat did not. It also didn‘t disappear, which would have been convenient.

„Um.“ said August, intelligently „I kinda need that desk. You‘re sitting on my things“

The cat said nothing.

August sighed. „Fine. I wasn‘t taking notes anyway, but once the class is over you have to let me get my stuff“ She reached out, petting the cat behind the ears. It was very fluffy, with long grey and white fur, making it look almost silver. It was a beautiful cat.

August leaned back, her hand still buried in the cat‘s fur, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn‘t wait to get out of here, beautiful cat or not.

The air smelled of paper and dust and human sweat and the violets and dry hay of the Daoine Sidhe changeling in the second row and the peppermint and burning walnut wood of the Cait Sidhe in front of -

She yanked her hand back so fast, she almost overbalanced, as she stared at the not at all normal cat in front of her.

The cat blinked, slowly, deliberately. August did not. She stared.

„You‘re Cait Sidhe! What are you- never mind, I don‘t care what you‘re doing here, why are you on my things?“

The Cait Sidhe, still, did not say anything. Of course not. They couldn‘t exactly transform back into a form capable of the English language in the middle of a lecture hall after all. They just looked at her with big purple eyes.

Right. Mortal cats didn‘t have purple eyes. She really must be more tired than she‘d thought.

„Ugh fine! Just give me my stuff back once the class is over okay? And then I can go home and tell my sister this was a stupid idea and you can do, whatever it is Cait Sidhe do all day“

The cat, again, said nothing, just looked at her out of big purple eyes that really should have ticked her off earlier that this was not a mortal cat.

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

The cat‘s name, it turned out, was Zircon and they were part of the Court of Golden Cats (which was ironic considering how silver they were), though they mostly stayed at the university, helping out stressed students and making sure none of the faerie brides were stirring up trouble. They told August all this in the span of the few minutes it took to walk back to the carpark, where Quentin would hopefully be waiting with the car.

„That‘s all great but it doesn‘t explain why you were sitting on my things. I‘m not planning to ‚stir up trouble‘ as you said, I‘m just here because my stupid sister convinced me that university might be fun and not boring“

„Excuse me, you find me boring? And that, when I was trying so hard to entertain you, I don‘t know whether to be hurt or insulted“ they smirked, walking backwards, facing August „you might say you don‘t want to stir up any trouble, but I always check out the new fae on campus just to make sure. And you‘re not exactly just any random fae, August Torquill, you said your name was? I met your sister, though I doubt she realized, she was covered in quite a lot of blood at the time. More importantly I heard what your mother did to the king of dreaming cats to force your sister to bring you home. So I hope you can forgive me, if I need to make my own picture of whether you‘ll stir up trouble“

„Great so you‘ll judge me because of what my mother did? You just said yourself I wasn‘t there for that! I was the one who made her give Tybalt and Jazz back, but no one ever seems to remember that”

That was the wrong thing to say. Zircon hissed and was suddenly too close to her face, the smell of peppermint and burning walnut wood welling up all around them „you want a price for doing the bare minimum? For not being as horrible as your mother? Should I get you a medal?“

August paled, “No! I…. I’m sorry, I’m just really exhausted and tired of people looking at me and only seeing my mother”

Zircon stopped at that, stepping back, slightly „Okay. I won‘t judge you by your mother‘s actions but I know how dangerous your family is, I‘m not so stupid to think you wouldn‘t be as well.“ They looked at August, smiling, showing their far too sharp teeth „you‘re welcome to continue classes here if you decide it isn‘t too boring after all. But this university is mine as much as it is anyone‘s and if I think that you are going to cause anyone here harm either by yourself or by bringing your cursed mother down on us, I will not hesitate to rip you apart. I‘ve heard how fast your sister heals, so I‘m sure I wouldn‘t need to worry about breaking Oberon‘s law“

They stepped back and grinned, teeth having lost their inhuman sharpness and said, almost joyfully „If you‘re interested in art but not the ‚boring‘ stories about dead human artists, you might want to check out some of the more practical classes, I‘m sure you‘d enjoy them“

With that, they sauntered around a corner and a moment later a long haired silver cat with bright purple eyes ran off over the yard.

Well. That could have gone better.

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August dropped in the passenger‘s seat of the car, groaning. She just wanted to go home and sleep some more and not deal with any stupid cats anymore.

Quentin shot her a sidelong look, as he drew out of the parking spot „So who was that person you were talking to? Cait Sidhe?“

„Their name is Zircon and yeah they‘re Cait Sidhe. They don‘t like me on account of my mother being the worst, they threatened me in case I was planning to start trouble for ‚their‘ university and they told me to try practical drawing classes since art history was boring“

Quentin blinked. That seemed to be the motto of today. „Huh. Well, I can‘t say I can fault them for disliking your mother-“ „Who could“, August muttered, „-but practical drawing classes might be a good idea if art history was too theoretical?“

„ Less theoretical, more just talking about the life and death of some human artist who was really good at sunflowers or whatever“

„Van Gogh?“

„Yes him. And I‘m sure that‘s interesting for the humans, but I wanted to hear about history of art, not history of dead artists“, she sighed, sinking deeper into the car seat „This whole thing was a stupid idea, I can learn about art by practicing, I don‘t need classes, especially not at a university with a cat who hates me“

Quentin looked at her for a second, then turned back to the road, „You know Toby used to be convinced Tybalt hated her. It was all she ever talked about“, he smirked, „so… you know how that ended“

„I‘m not Toby, I‘m not going to fuck a cat!“, Quentin shot her a look, “sorry, sorry I know I shouldn’t say it like that but still. I’m not gonna have sex with the first person I meet who isn’t related to me or a teenager, Cait Sidhe or not”

Privately, she thought she really didn‘t think she wanted to have sex with anyone, cat or no, but that wasn‘t something to discuss with her sister‘s teenaged squire

„and anyway, I‘m not going to see them again, I‘m not going back“

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

Two weeks later, August was once again standing in Berkeley, this time with art supplies slung over her shoulder and at a more reasonable hour – thank Oberon for evening classes. She hadn’t wanted to come back, but while going shopping with Raysel and occasionally May was fun and drawing on the giant chalkboard in Raysel and her shared room was enjoyable and occasionally incredibly cathartic, she’d been hanging around Raysel for months now and as much as she was learning to love her cousin, occasionally she needed some time away from her and away from the house that had a far too high average number of screaming teenagers in residence than August was entirely comfortable with.

So here she was, stepping out of Walther’s office, that Chelsea had opened a portal to – after calling first, to make sure Jack or some other mortal grad student wasn’t in – waving goodbye to the alchemist, who was working on some project or other in between his classes, and walking over to the art building.

She had barely set her things down, and there they were, a silver cat, with ridiculously fluffy fur and clearly unnatural purple eyes. August wondered briefly if any of the veterinary or biology students had ever tried to catch and study them; it should really be obvious to them that those eyes weren’t mortal. Then again, humans could dismiss a lot of things and would probably not jump straight from “cat with purple eyes” to “fae are real and walk among us”. Still it seemed irresponsible.

Irresponsible or not, they were strolling in casually, looping around students’ legs who cooed and occasionally bent down to pet them. August smoothed out her face, it wouldn’t do to be caught glowering at the campus cat, that would just make her stand out and not in a good way.

She shrugged out of her denim jacket – full of patches and glued on rhinestones and metal studs, because it turned out she liked being able to customize her own clothing however she wished – and sat in her chair. The teacher called the room to silence: “Welcome everyone! I’m sure Zaddy here is very happy to have your attention but I’ll need you to focus on me now. My name is Professor Smith and today we’re gonna learn how to draw a still life – though when we get to animals, you’ll be free to focus on Zaddy all lesson long….”

She kept talking, explaining the concept of a still life – apparently a drawing of unmoving inanimate objects – and setting down various things for them to use as models. August did her best to ignore Zircon – who had stalked over to her and was now sitting on a nearby shelf full of art supplies, yawning and showing off all their teeth – and listened intently to the teacher, already thinking on which of the objects she would like to draw most. There was a vase of flowers, though thankfully no roses, making the decision easy enough.

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

After the lesson ended, August packed up her half finished drawing and walked outside. Zircon had left at some point during the lesson, but she didn’t worry about them, if they wanted to talk, they’d find her before she called Chelsea and left, if not, all the better for her. She did not want to talk to the cat. If they had decided to leave her alone, that was exactly what she wanted anyway.

No such luck. She turned the corner and there they were, leaning against a wall, human disguise firmly in place. Their eyes were a dark blue in this form, their fluffy hair, that would surely be striped silver, grey and white in their true from, simply black. They looked good, of course, it would be silly to choose a human disguise that made them look bad, and yet August suddenly really wanted to know what they looked like in truth.

She pushed the thought away just as Zircon pushed off the wall and fell into step beside her

“I can’t say, it isn’t a delight to see you again, but I thought you’d said you found this place “boring” and didn’t wish to return?”

“Yes, and I thought you might not bother me with a speech today, but I guess we’re all mistaken sometimes. Also, you can drop the pretentious speech, if you’ve been living at this university for as long as you implied, there’s no way you speak like that”

Zircon laughed at that, “Ah but it’s that or speak in memes, which might at best confuse and at worst horrify you. I would have thought you’d prefer this sort of speech, after all as far as I know, you haven’t been living in the mortal world much?”

“Right because you’d know how much exposure to the mortal world I’ve had. I live with an average of 2 to 4 teenagers, I pick things up. Anyway, what do you want? I already told you I’m not here to make trouble.” August inwardly prepared herself for another round of threats. Maybe she should just find another university to attend; true Berkeley was neutral territory and therefore convenient but surely she could figure something out.

Zircon shock their head: “I know, and I already warned you what would happen if you changed your mind on that. As far as I’m concerned we’re good; no, I am here to tell you the same thing I tell every fae student here and to ask you a question that’s just for you”

August frowned “okay? And what would that be?”

“First, I’ve been taking care of this university for a long time. I protect and help the students, both mortal and not and in return no one minds when I steal some snacks from the cafeteria or curl up in someone’s office. That means if you’re planning to attend regularly, I’ll be happy to help you too. You’re unlikely to need this, but if you ever need a place to sleep or a warm meal, just find me and I’ll help you. If you need advice on what classes to take or where the best spots are to get someone to teleport you out of here, if you want somewhere closer to the art building than Professor Davies’ office, I’ll be happy to give suggestions.”

“And you offer this to everyone?”

“Yes, although obviously I can’t just say it to the humans. With them I have to be a little more subtle, but I help them all the same”

“I’m sorry but aren’t Cait Sidhe supposed to, I don’t know, keep to the court of cats and run around chasing rats all day or something? Tybalt is going to have to give up being king when he marries Toby, because it’s a conflict of interest, how is taking care of an entire university not a conflict of interest?”, she stopped herself, “um, no offense or anything.”

Zircon laughed lightly: “ah, see Tybalt is a king and I am just a normal Cait Sidhe who finds that “chasing after rats” all day gets old quickly”

August reddened in embarrassment “I didn’t mean it like that, I’m sorry, I’m still…. I’m still unlearning a lot of the things my mom taught me”, this was getting uncomfortable, “um, but you said you had a question?”

“Yes!”, Zircon grinned, “would you like to go for coffee?”

Wait what?

“Excuse me?!”

“I asked if you would like to go for coffee. Or tea if you prefer, of course.”

“Caffeine doesn’t work on me, so I would prefer tea actually, or hot chocolate, but that’s not the point- are you asking me on a date?! Last time we talked you threatened to rip me apart!”

“True and you came back here anyway and didn’t try to hurt me or set your mother or your sister on me. You’re the daughter of a firstborn but you attend art classes at a human university and wear a denim jacket with patches and stuts and glitter and you haven’t called me a beast or vermin even once. You’re intriguing and I’d like to get to know you better. Call it a date, if you like, or a call it just a friendly chat between acquaintances”, they smiled, this time almost softly and August knew she would say yes, “or call it nothing at all and decide afterwards what it was. Now I ask again, though slightly amended: Would you like to grab a hot chocolate?”

The night had barely started, and Chelsea wouldn’t mind picking her up later – it wasn’t like it would take her much time after all. And Toby always said she should meet more people.

“Yes” August said, a smile of her own forming on her face, “I think I’d like that. Just one condition”

“And what’s that?”

“We go somewhere run by fae if there is such a place around here. If were gonna get to know each other better, I want to see your actual face”

Zircon smiled.

#october daye #august torquill #fanfiction #nonbinary character #asexual character #yeah i'm a fanfic writer now i guess #lmao two days ago i was still like 'nooo i don't write'#anyway meet Zircon! they're my oc and i love them very much #please let me know what you think?

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miracleboiz · 5 years ago

Text

Making a Home Ch.5

Kita Shinsuke had experienced a lot in life. He had been raised with his grandmother, a loving foster parent and for some time he followed in her foot steps before finding his own path. He thought his foster care license had expired before getting a call at three am with two small boys thrust into his arms. Miya Osamu and Atsumu, from broken homes but still fighting. Thirty days before his license expires. Thirty days to make a choice, keep the boys or let them be separated into different homes. Thirty days to fall in love with them.

Words: 4k

Relationships: Gen

Warnings: Mention of past child abuse, non-graphic abuse

Not from Kita, but it is mentioned. I will post any warnings before any panic attacks or vague descriptions of abuse.

Read below or on AO3

“Shinsuke-san, what’s that?” Osamu called as he stared up at the tall rows of toys. Both his and Atsumu’s free hands were pointing at a large glass container of Lego creations, including a series of what looked like strange airplanes.

“Legos, you build with them, but I don’t know what they built.” Shinsuke said honestly, tilting his head when Akagi let out a laugh.

“It’s from Star Wars, those are fighter planes and that's BB-8…. I’m calling movie night tomorrow.” Akagi sighed, shaking his head in exaggerated suffering at the three blank looks he received. He reached up and grabbed the box above the glass container, smiling down at the twins as he tucked it under his arm.

“I’ll get this for you guys, I think you’ll enjoy it… Did you see anything else you like?”

Atsumu immediately turned and pointed up to the top shelf at a giant purple creature, eyes bright with excitement. He turned to look at Shinsuke, teeth burying themselves in his lip when Shinsuke hesitated for a moment at the price of 21,000 yen. His hand started to drop before Shinsuke stepped up beside him and grabbed the creature. After all, when was the last time Shinsuke had actually bought something he didn’t absolutely need, Shinsuke could definitely afford it.

“Kitty!” Atsumu gasped, letting go of Osamu’s hand to wrap his arms as best as he could around the creature. “Oh! It has a name…Eifie… It’s a.. a … poke… pokemon? Oh! I’ve heard of these, Kenma-kun was playing it when we first met him, remember Osamu?”

“Yeah! But his Pokemon was a turtle… this is a cat…”

“There’s different types of Pokemon, Osamu, weren’t you listening to him talk?” Atsumu frowned at his brother who paused to think it over before shaking his head with a grin.

“Nope! I was nappin’!” Osamu said proudly, turning and running down the aisle as he caught sight of something else.

Casting a meaningful glance at Akagi, Shinsuke turned to follow after Osamu. The boy led him through the aisles, peering at different objects before rounding a corner and returning with a small box. He looked down at it for a moment before holding it up to Shinsuke to reveal a small microscope on the front.

“My sensei… at my old school, she had one of these and it was a lot of fun… It’s not that expensive and look! It comes with bugs!” Osamu bounced on his heels, trying to point out the prepared slides.

It was a very scientific device and if Osamu was actually interested in science it could help nurture his will to learn… Of course it could just be that children were naturally inquisitive and Osamu wouldn’t care about this in the next week or so, however denying Osamu something simply because Shinsuke had decided that Osamu wouldn’t like it long term wasn’t something Shinsuke could do. It wasn’t nearly as expensive as Atsumu’s pokemon and Osamu was really excited about the bugs…

“It does indeed come with bugs, I’ll hold onto this until we’re ready to go�� Do you like coloring?” Shinsuke asked, leaning down slightly to point out the coloring book wall and Osamu immediately set off with a delighting shout.

Shinsuke followed after him, looking behind him to see Atsumu tugging Akagi away from a slime machine.

“I gotta keep you out of trouble Oji-san! Shinsuke-san said so!” Atsumu said, scolding Akagi when he whined until Akagi finally followed after him into the toy car section.

By the time they met up again, Shinsuke was both ready to never look at another slime machine again and aware his wallet was going to be considerably lighter. Both of the boys had arms full of track sets for their new car collection (that Shinsuke was certain Akagi was eyeing with envy) and way too many boxes of slime.

Shinsuke passed the large purple creature to Atsumu as they scanned it, unable to stop his own smile when Atsumu held it as close as possible with the largest grin he’d given yet. He turned to his brother, happily chattering at him about his new ‘Kitty’, while his brother was doing his best to open the Pokemon card container without spilling any.

A pile of coloring books was next, though Shinsuke noticed the ones Osamu had picked out were the ‘adult’ coloring books while Atsumu had grabbed a few of the more cartoon ones.

“Osamu are you sure these are the ones you want? They don’t have as many fun shapes or characters.” Shinsuke said, flipping through but Osamu just looked up from his picking and smiled brightly.

“Yes sir! There’s a lot of pretty colors on the front see! I can make it super pretty… Do… I know it says adult… but… it’s just coloring…” Osamu said, hesitation starting to grow on his face before Shinsuke laid the book down on the counter again.

“It’s fine if it’s what you want, Osamu, I promise. I just wanted to make sure you were happy with it.” Shinsuke soothed over his worry, reaching out to pet down the mess that was Osamu’s hair. He really was going to have to remove that hair wax or he was going to wake up to Akagi putting it in his hair.

Osamu smiled, smaller than his brother’s but just as sweet. Shinsuke’s heart panged as he forcibly reminded himself that this wasn’t long term, just until they got adopted. They were only his to watch and guide for a little longer.

“Your sons are very cute… is the little one's face okay?” The clerk asked as she bagged the last of the items, a large package of ‘Bendaroos’. She smiled softly at Osamu who inclined his head in return.

“He’s fine, just a little accident yesterday- Atsumu don’t go outside yet, you can’t see past…” Shinsuke called as he swiped his card and tucked it away, sighing as Atsumu crashed plushie first into a pole. He fell back onto the ground and blinked blankly back at them, trying to figure out what happened.

“Akagi, please keep the pokemon off the ground and help him up. Osamu, stop laughing at his brother, your cards are falling out.” Shinsuke ordered, frowning at the cackling Osamu. Osamu yelped as he realized he had already lost a few cards and scrambled to pick them up only to lose more.

“I… have failed at becoming a Pokemon Master.” Osamu said, staring at the mess for a second before his head shot up to meet Shinsuke’s gaze. For a second Osamu’s chest stopped moving and Shinsuke knew he was about to panic again.

Shinsuke crouched down, carefully scooping up the cards into his hands.

“Pick them up one by one, Osamu, don’t move too fast or you’ll spill more… Just like that…” Shinsuke murmured, smiling softly at him as Osamu kneeled to the floor and slowly reached out with a shaky hand. “Don’t worry about the mess, we can clean it up.”

Shinsuke let him grab the rest, moving closer to catch any cards that slipped out of the container before Osamu was able to close it completely. He reached out and caught his cheek carefully, using his thumb to wipe away the tears that had slipped out.

“No need to cry, Osamu, you’re safe now little one.” Shinsuke said softly, moving back to his feet and turning to the clerk.

“I’m sorry, please forgive us for taking up your time.” Shinsuke said, bowing slightly before grabbing the bags and pulling them onto his arms. He turned to Osamu, offering him a hand and humming when it was immediately taken.

Outside the shop Akagi had caught Atsumu and was holding him on his hip, the pokemon nearly knocking both of them over. They were laughing loudly, almost enough to attract the attention of nearby people but any who looked over didn’t seem to mind the child. Akagi spun, dramatically pretending to nearly fall until Atsumu called for him to stand up straight.

“That was very dangerous! What if Kitty got hurt?” Atsumu scolded Akagi, shoving the purple pokemon into Akagi’s face while Akagi whined. “Tell her you're sorry Oji-san.”

“Yes yes, I am very sorry, very sorry Kitty-chan.” Akagi said, bowing and pretending to almost drop Atsumu again. Atsumu squealed with delight, giggling as they straightened back up and Akagi apologized before bowing again.

Shinsuke looked down at Osamu who was staring at the ground, fingers wrapped around Shinsuke’s hand. He tugged him a few steps away from the door before crouching in front of him, heart aching at the pitiful look on Osamu’s face.

“Osamu?” He asked softly, waiting until he looked up. “You know you’re not in trouble right? It’s okay to be upset, but sometimes you have to take a breath and calm down like we did to pick up your cards…”

Shinsuke watched him for a moment, the eyes that darted around and nervous fingers tapping out a quiet rhythm. He looked over at Atsumu’s bright laughter and then back down at the ground and Shinsuke could only guess he was jealous of Atsumu’s happiness while he was feeling so down. Shinsuke would have to squash that now/

“Osamu… What’s your favorite thing to do?”

Osamu didn’t respond for a moment, obviously thinking it over as his fingers scratched over the metal case of the pokemon cards. He licked his lips, glancing over at his brother again for a moment before turning back to Shinsuke and dropping his head to mumble something.

“I’m sorry, could you speak a little louder?”

“... Cooking… but… the others said it’s a woman’s job…” Osamu admitted softly and Shinsuke fought off an annoyed scowl.

“Well, why don’t you help me choose some stuff for hotpot? Then we can make the broth at home and prepare some dough for dumplings?” Shinsuke offered, the ache in his chest easing at Osamu’s widening eyes.

“Yes sir! Yes, please Shinsuke-san, please!” Osamu said, gasping and trying to bow his back before Shinsuke caught him with a laugh.

“There’s no need for that, little one. Trust me, as long as you’re happy so am I.” Shinsuke said softly, reaching up to fluff through Osamu’s hair. Both of their laughs bubbled out and Shinsuke could feel Akagi’s gaze on him before Atsumu was running at them.

Atsumu tripped, Kitty taking all three of them down in one hit, though it did nothing to stop Osamu’s laughter. Atsumu let out a yell, before he was laughing too and grinning at his brother. He wiggled off of his pokemon, so Shinsuke could grab it as he sat up, and reached out to tug his brother to his feet.

“Why’re you laughin’?” Atsumu asked, only to dissolve into his own giggling mess as he caught sight of the leaf stuck to Osamu’s gelled up hair.

“Why’re you laughin’?” Osamu shot back, no malicious intent on his face as he stuck out his tongue. Shinsuke reached out and tugged the leaf off of Osamu’s hair, showing it to him only for it to send both boys into another set of giggles.

He really had no idea his life would turn out like this.

Sitting on the sidewalk outside of a store, a giant purple Pokemon on his lap. Watching two young boys laugh without a care or a worry, feeling his own heart bubble and threaten to burst with warmth and affection. He shifted Kitty more on his lap, carefully cleaning her off as he watched the two laugh.

He barely shifted when Akagi’s footsteps sounded next to him, simply holding the now dirt free Kitty up for him to take. Then he turned back to the boys, hesitant to interrupt their giggling as they poked at Osamu’s dirty hair, but Atsumu noticed him watching and shook his brother. They both turned to watch him, still breathing hard from laughter.

They just needed a safe home.

Shinsuke didn’t want to let them go.

“Are you two ready to go get clothes then? Or would you like to give Kitty another dirt bath?” Shinsuke said pointedly and the twins squeaked before Atsumu was moving to pat Kitty in Akagi’s arms.

“I’m sorry Kitty, sorry Shinsuke-san, I didn’t mean to knock you over… Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, but can you two help me up?” Shinsuke asked, offering his hands to them and instantly he had two hands on each of his as the boys tried their hardest to pull him up. He moved with them, letting them pull him forward a few steps until they were certain he was okay to stand on his own.

“Well now that I’m dirty…” Shinsuke said, wiping off the dirt that had stuck to his clothes before doing the same to the twins. “There we go. We’re all going to need a bath tonight… Lets get you some clothes and food and we can head home.”

As a dress designer and a boutique, Shinsuke thought himself well aware of the fashion trends and he did his best to encourage both of his boys into choosing something moderately fashionable. He expected it would be difficult, especially after grabbing a quick bag of groceries and the boys were raring to get home and play with their toys.

He did not expect to be walking out of the store with four bags of striped t-shirts and polkadot pants that Atsumu insisted made the best match. He also didn’t expect Osamu to see the brightest pinks and yellow and stare at them like a starving man staring at a banquet dinner. He had managed to wrangle in a few randomized shirts, jeans, and shorts. However he was still mortally wounded after watching Atsumu come out of the changing room in a neon green plaid button up, blue polka-dot shorts, striped socks, and sandals on.

Atsumu was wearing the outfit as they left, proudly showing it off to Akagi who oohed and ahhed in all the right places. Osamu had decided to leave his clothes in the bags and was instead doing his best to remove a butterfly hair clip from it’s package.

Shinsuke held out his hand, silent after the horror he’d been subject to, and took the case. He carefully pulled the hair clip free before slipping it onto the highest spike on Osamu’s head. Osamu’s blinding grin made the shopping trip almost worth it. The hand that entangled with his definitely did, however.

Shinsuke looked down at Osamu swinging their hands together, amused as the little one skipped over a crack. He hopped again, giggling when Shinsuke extended his leg to step further and get a little bit ahead. He jumped further, trying to drag Shinsuke forward but Shinsuke just extended his leg even further.

“Noooo, we’re gonna lose.” Osamu said as Akagi and Atsumu started walking faster to stay in front of them. Osamu moved to dash forward, only to be pulled back as Shinsuke moved to stand still instead.

Osamu let out a gasp as his plan was ruined, frowning at Shinsuke before trying and again and failing. There was a burst of laughter as Shinsuke hopped twice at Osamu’s insistent cry for him to move. Shinsuke ignored Akagi’s laughter, bending down slightly.

He opened his arms to him and after a second of pouting, Osamu hugged him around his neck. Shinsuke scooped him up into his arms and straightened, repressing the urge to kiss Osamu’s forehead and see if he could make him laugh again. It wouldn’t do to get too attached. It was only the first day, he needed to be more in control.

Yet, he couldn’t help himself as he started walking faster and quickly over took Akagi, Kitty, and Atsumu walking down the street. Osamu gasped as he realized what was happening and turned to stick out his tongue behind him.

“That’s not fair! Kitty’s fat!” Atsumu yelled after them, and Akagi repeated him.

Feeling unnaturally playful, Shinsuke turned and stuck out his own tongue at Akagi. Immediately the other man gasped and pulled the bags as far up his arm as he could before bending and maneuvering Atsumu under one of his arms. Shinsuke stared for a moment, worry filling him before Atsumu let out a laugh and held onto his arm and pointed at them.

“After them Oji-san!” Atsumu called and Akagi let out a war cry, starting to jog after him.

“Shinsuke-san! He’s going to catch up to us and win.” Osamu whined, hugging Shinsuke tighter around the neck.

“No he’s not.” Shinsuke said, turning back around and shifting the groceries on his arms before taking off himself. Osamu squealed with delight, fingers buried in Shinsuke’s shirt as his foster father kept a few meters ahead of Akagi despite Akagi’s calls that they would win.

“What on earth- Shinsuke-san?” Someone called and Shinsuke waved his hand over at Castle Bakery. Issei Matsukawa watched them curiously, amused by the change in Shinsuke’s more stoic and controlled personality. He looked down as something tugged on his pant leg.

“No, Shinji, I will not run around with you in my arm like a sack of potatoes… Well, not until it’s closing time.” Issei said, looking at his son staring at the other two. Shinji raised his hand hesitantly at first before waving it at their passing neighbors.

The twins waved back, already curious about the person across the street.

“Muffins?” Atsumu yelled at Castle Bakery, intending to ask Akagi if that was the muffin shop but forgetting to lower his voice.

“We have lotsa muffins!” Shinji yelled back, shocking his father before his son let out a soft laugh and turned to look up at him. “Can we make muffins tonight?”

“Sure sweetie… Ah, they’re gone… I wonder what on earth they were doing…” Issei said, before shrugging. It wasn’t like Tooru didn’t have the same habit of picking their kids up and running off with them so it didn’t matter in the long run, as long as they were having fun.

Shinsuke turned the corner to the small entrance to his home before turning and sticking his tongue out at Akagi with Osamu. Atsumu and Akagi groaned as they realized they’d lost, Atsumu huffed as he was lowered down to the ground before pausing and looking up at Akagi.

“That was a lot of fun, Oji-san! Let’s do it again later, please!” Atsumu said, squeaking when a hand descended on his head to ruffle it.

��Sure thing kiddo, anything for my favorite nephews.” Akagi grinned before straightening. His gaze caught on something behind Shinsuke and his lips immediately twisted into a mischievous smirk.

“Oji-san? Did someone forget to tell me something?” A voice called from behind Shinsuke. Deep and warm, familiar even after nearly a year of separation and Shinsuke’s heart seemed to speed up before slowing down again. He once knew that voice in and out, and part of him craved to know it again despite his attempts to squash it.

Shinsuke turned, carefully keeping a hand on Osamu, and couldn’t quite wipe off the still lingering smile on his face. Gentle brown eyes met his, plump lips already curved in a common small smile on the newcomers face.

“Good evening, Aran.” Shinsuke said softly, slowly blinking at the calm and warm aura Aran seemed to always exude. His heart skipped a beat when Aran’s lips twitched and he looked unbearably fond.

“Good evening, Shinsuke.”

#HQ #Haikyuu #haikyuu!!#Miya Atsumu #Miya Osamu #Kita Shinsuke #Inarizaki #Fluff #Fanfiction #Making a home AU

15 notes · View notes

emoboijk · 5 years ago

Text

knj | till death

In the demon world, arranged marriages are business transactions. But this isn’t that simple. —demon au, arranged marriage au, non-idol au

01 :: 02 :: 03 :: 04 :: 05 :: 06 :: 07 :: epilogue

warning: this chapter does contain nsfw smut so...yeah

5,988 words

picture credit

He's trapped. Banging against the walls of his mind but stoic in person. He sees you, registers the swollen eyes and the split lip and the bruises…so many bruises. He sees the blood in your hair and the streaks of tears through the dirt on your cheeks. His heart turns to ash in his chest.

But he can't move. He can't pull away as Taemin's hand snakes up his arm and links with his. He can't even frown when Taemin's lips press to the corner of his mouth.

Namjoon should've told you.

2 MONTHS EARLIER

Moni adamantly refuses to like Jin. Lisa adamantly refuses to like Moni. Jeongguk alternates between patting the hellhound's back and scratching behind his ears. Either way, the dog won't leave your side. And neither will Lisa, Jin, or Jeongguk.

"Go home," you insist, "It's late."

Lisa and Jeongguk shake their heads. Jin says, "No."

"Namjoon was pretty clear," Lisa says, eyeing Moni from her spot across the room.

"Two trained personnel with my wife at all times," Jeongguk recites in a deep-voiced impression of your husband.

"Well, I think Moni counts," you argue, looking down at the dog self-indulgently. Jin snorts.

"Is that what he said when you told him?" Lisa raises her eyebrows, "That the vicious hellhound is trustworthy enough to protect his wife?"

"Vicious?" you gasp, scratching Moni's ears so that his head goes floppy and his tongue sticks out, "Is this the face of a vicious dog?" Your voice turns babyish.

"Yes," Jin and Lisa say in unison.

You giggle and give the dog another pat.

Jeongguk slides onto the kitchen counter, miraculously pulling chocolate pocky from his pocket and asking, "What did he say?"

You worry your bottom lip. "There was a lot of silence and then he said ‘okay' and then he hung up." You shrug, considering it for another a moment before adding, "Well he kind of…squeaked the okay."

Jin chuckles, "He's excited."

"Yeah?" you tilt your head at him.

Jin nods, "Oh, yeah."

Just then the elevator doors ding open and in walks Namjoon, arms filled with dog paraphernalia. He's got a giant purple dog bed tucked beneath his arm, a bulging plastic bag in his other hand, and there's a giant bag of HellHound Nutri-Yums and a literal crate of dog toys floating behind him. His face is bright.

Moni barks happily in his direction and his tail starts wagging. All three of you look dumbfounded at the dog who already seems taken with him.

Jin rolls his eyes, "Guess he recognizes the alpha. I'm leaving." He barely waves at Namjoon or you before disappearing. Both Lisa and Jeongguk follow suit (Lisa giving Moni a wide berth and Jeongguk patting his head once), leaving you alone with Namjoon and the dog.

Namjoon drops everything on the floor clumsily, dropping to his knees and holding his hands out to the hellhound. "Moni," he breathes, his eyes shining.

The dog, although wagging his tail excitedly at Namjoon's entrance, stays planted at your side. His head tilts up to look at you, his tongue hanging out in what you would almost call a smile. You raise your eyebrows, "Go," you whisper and the dog bolts toward Namjoon at high speed, knocking them both over.

Moni plants himself atop Namjoon's chest and licks wildly at his face. He pets him all over, laughing loudly to himself.

"Come on," you giggle, after Namjoon's face seems completely slobbered over, "give him some space, Moni." The dog immediately gallops back toward you, wagging his tail happily and sitting like a soldier beside you. You pat his head softly.

Namjoon sits up, grinning, "He really bonded with you, huh?"

You look down at Moni and he looks up at you. You smile and shrug, "I guess so."

Namjoon stands and crosses the room, patting the dog's head. "Awesome," he says, leaning down.

You try to keep a straight face because you know he's going to kiss you. But your nose wrinkles and you pull back when he gets too close.

He stiffens immediately, backing away awkwardly, "Oh, are we not—?"

"Wait, it's not—"

"I just thought…because you kissed me yesterday, but if we're not, I won't—" He's stuttering over his words and there's a fuchsia flush creeping up from beneath his collar.

"Joon, wait," you grab him by the shoulders, "it's not that."

His eyes are wide and embarrassed.

"You just have dog slobber all over your face," you whisper.

Namjoon breaks into a thousand-watt smile and you feel the effects in your chest. He scratches the back of his head self-consciously, "I'll go wash up."

"Me too," you nod, whispering, "then…kissing."

Namjoon chuckles as you scurry past him to your room, moving toward his own. He freezes at your door with a sudden realization, "Did you just call me ‘Joon'?"

Twenty minutes later you've changed into Namjoon's blue shirt and leggings, Moni following behind you at a respectful distance as always. You find Namjoon already on the couch in sweatpants and a large black t-shirt, his head tilted at an angle as he scrolls through his phone with a pensive look on his face.

There are at least five other places to sit, but you pause in front of the couch anyway and ask, "Can I?"

Namjoon locks his phone and tucks it into his pocket before he looks up at you with a playful smirk, "Can you…what?" You grumble your answer, but Namjoon plays deaf. "What was that?"

You roll your eyes, "Can I sit in your lap?"

"Of course," he smiles, warmly, genuinely. He spreads his legs and with not a little apprehension you settle in between them, his arms wrapping around your tummy and squeezing. "Hi there," he whispers so that his lips brush against the shell of your ear.

"Hi," you breathe, your heart racing.

A thrill runs through you when you feel his lips, gentle, on the curve of your neck. He hums softly into your skin, "You're warm."

You lean against him, letting your head fall against his shoulder and inhaling, "You smell nice." Like expensive cologne and smoky magic.

Namjoon cranes his neck and looks down at you, a lust so potent in his gaze that it soaks into your mind. His heavy, full lips hang open and his tongue darts out to lick them. You can read his thoughts in his expression and it makes something stir in your stomach. No, lower than that.

Your mouth opens, too, like a beggar waiting for water. And he's right here, inching towards you, tantalizingly slow, his hands beneath your shirt and his strength enveloping you.

It's like a splash of cold water when Moni jumps onto the couch. You shriek. And then you laugh. And you know Namjoon's disappointed, but he laughs too, scratching behind Moni's ears.

"I already have no game, Moni here isn't helping."

You scoff, "You have plenty of game."

"Oh, yeah?" he says, a tinge of that earlier lustfulness on his words.

You elbow him playfully and snuggle deeper into his embrace, Moni's head settling in your lap. As Namjoon scrolls through options on the TV, you look down at the dog and say: "Actually, he reminds me of you." The dog twists his head in your lap so your fingers scratch behind his ear.

You can feel Namjoon's chest rumble against your back with a throaty chuckle, tossing the remote aside as he picks something. He runs his fingers through your hair absentmindedly. "How so?"

"A cold exterior, soft and warm on the inside," you give an extra scratch beneath the dog's chin, "but also extremely dangerous when provoked." You tilt your head back so it's pressed flushed against his shoulder and you can meet his eyes.

Namjoon is looking at you like no one in the world has ever understood him the way that you do. Maybe he's right. After all, that's how you feel about him. "Accurate," he whispers, leaning down and pressing his lips softly to yours.

In the months that follow, everything goes so well you almost forget about Taemin.

Namjoon has started lagging in the morning just so he can see you before he leaves. His little notes have gone rampant across the apartment (in your bedroom, bathroom, the kitchen, the living room)(your favorites are the ones he puts atop books he's pulled from his study to recommend to you; this made me think of you or you'll love this or i expect a book report on this one ;P).

You spend your days at home (reading and watch TV with Lisa or playing video games with Jeongguk) or at the animal shelter. You feel better after Hobi's self-defense class and insist on going once a week (mostly because you just really like him, but also to keep yourself sharp). Sometimes you'll go shopping (usually with Jin) or take Moni to the dog park (you think he likes intimidating the other dogs), and you've even begun visiting Namjoon at work.

Moni is so well trained that you don't need a leash, he just trots beside you into the massive air-conditioned skyscraper Namjoon calls his "office." The security guys all know you and only the newest of them watch Moni with their hand on their taser. He glares back at them and it makes you laugh.

Your favorite part of your trips to the office are the moments before Namjoon sees you. It hadn't taken you very long after getting married to realize that he acts differently with you than with others. And you like that he feels safe with you, comfortable enough to be vulnerable. But you love seeing him in his natural environment: powerful and commanding, cold and hard.

The elevator doors slide open and you step out with Moni, spotting Joon through the glass walls of his office. His chin is jutting out seriously and he's saying something to a group of people on the other side of his desk. They nod and jot down notes, tense and slightly afraid (you'd guess).

"Good morning." Jimin's voice is flat and has all the traces of his standard bitchiness, but you know he's grown to like you. He just doesn't want to admit it. You can see it in the little glimmer in his normally matte black eyes and the tilt of his lips in an amused smirk.

Taehyung bounces up behind him and hugs you before he can stop himself (Moni allows it with a growl that sounds like an aggravated sigh).

You eye the office and say, "Did I come at a bad time?"

Jimin shrugs, "I doubt it would matter."

You almost laugh. You have to admit that you sort of love this detached, bitchy persona he's crafted for himself. You want to get drinks with him and gossip.

The workers file out of Namjoon's office, discussing the meeting in hushed tones. Namjoon turns away from the doors to a person crouched in a chair (Yoongi, you think, from the shock of platinum blonde on his head).

"I don't buy it," Yoongi says, seeing you from behind Namjoon before directing his gaze back to the taller man.

"What's there to buy?" Namjoon says, rolling his shoulders, "He hasn't blooded any humans. And his…minions have stopped wreaking havoc."

"There's got to be another plan," Yoongi grumbles.

"Then find out what it is."

Yoongi sighs and stands, bowing his head respectfully and in agreement. Before shimmering out, he throws casually over his shoulder, "Your wife's here."

Namjoon tells Jimin to push back all of his meetings (even the one's Jimin says "But—" and "Uh, it's kind of import—" about and even after you tell him you won't stay long). Namjoon guides you into his office and scratches at Moni's ears, sitting on the same side of the desk as you (resisting the urge to pull you into his lap) (or fuck you across the desk, if he's being honest). Taehyung brings coffee with cinnamon and little cookies, and you talk about the animal shelter and Lisa and Jeongguk and he talks about Yoongi and his coworkers and what you should eat for dinner.

You end up being there for forty-five minutes and even then you don't want to leave. It doesn't even surprise you anymore how much you just…want to be around him. You hesitate at the door like a girl with her lover on the phone: "No you hang up first."

Jimin is tsk-ing in your general direction, leaning against his desk across the room. Taehyung is sitting behind him at the computer, glancing around it to see what Jimin's looking at.

"What?" Taehyung says, "They're happy."

Jimin rolls his eyes and says, "Namjoon is…cold and serious and blunt. He's a brilliant businessman. The most respected and possibly the most powerful demon of our lifetimes. He's terrifying." He says it with a little bit of awe, the most emotion Taehyung's ever heard in his voice; Jimin wonders if his little seven-year-old crush is obvious. He sighs, "But for her…he's soft at the edges."

"What's wrong with that?" Taehyung says, only half-listening (he's trying to balance a pen beneath his nose by puckering his lips out).

Jimin shrugs, "It's just dangerous."

The pen drops. "He's dangerous."

Jimin rolls his eyes, "That doesn't mean he's invincible."

You glance down at your watch and curse, "Yeri will kill me if I'm late again."

Namjoon can't help himself; he tucks your hair behind your ear and drags his finger down your jaw, "I do prefer you alive."

"In that case," you smirk, "I better go." You press your lips to his chastely and pat Moni's back, "C'mon, boy." Namjoon watches until the elevator doors slide shut on you both and he sighs.

When he turns back to Jimin his demeanor is stony. Jimin is almost startled at how swiftly his attitude changes without you there to mellow him out. Jimin would be lying if he said he didn't want to be the one Namjoon went soft for.

Yoongi doesn't come back to the office until late. It's after 2 AM and he knows Namjoon won't be there; he's kind of glad, Namjoon has been irritating him lately. He rolls his shoulders and knows this, like everything, will pass.

He scribbles a note on top of the manila envelope he's come with (Told you so. I'll be in late. -MYG) and leaves it on his keyboard. Namjoon will find it in the morning.

Namjoon does find it in the morning, stumbling into his office nearly an hour late, tie askew and hair a mess; he hadn't been able to keep his hands off you. There's a cold shot of espresso and a plate of cinnamon cookies on his desk; Jimin purposefully left them there to get cool so he could replace them when Namjoon came in.

Namjoon rolls his eyes at the note Yoongi's left for him. Jimin replaces the tray of cold espresso and cookies with a fresh one, pausing in the doorway when Namjoon asks, "Did Yoongi say where he was going?"

"Going?" Jimin's eyebrows raise.

Namjoon holds up the pale manila envelope with the note scrawled on the front: Notes inside. Haven't been feeling well, taking off for a few days. -Yoongi

Jimin shrugs, "I didn't even know he was leaving." The door clicks shut behind him.

Namjoon straightens his tie and focuses on the prickly feeling in his chest, a sure sign of danger or something being off. He glances at his reflection in the mirror to fix his hair and finds a lipstick stain on his earlobe; a fluttery feeling replaces the prickly one.

As he rubs the stain with his thumb and forefinger, his mind is dizzy with possibility. It's been almost 9 months now…slowly you've begun to trust one another and you're finally comfortable with him (physically and emotionally). Which is good because lately he dreams of nothing but you naked in his bed, the things he wants to do to you, and the way you'll say his name when he does.

He has to cut himself off because he's half-hard just thinking about it.

Namjoon slices open the envelope and thumbs through the pages, sucking in a harsh breath. He's nearly still as stone by the time he gets to the end of Yoongi's analysis. Now, having sex with you is the farthest thing from his mind; he doesn't waste any time.

That's how he ends up standing in the animal shelter parking lot, his face scrunched up against the sun. Despite everything, his chest clenches at the sight of you: slightly dirty but glowing. He beams when you reach up to peck at the side of his mouth without a moment's hesitancy.

"What's the matter?" you say, absentmindedly pushing his hair away from his face.

Namjoon spots Jeongguk and Lisa behind you, lingering at the animal shelter entrance with concerned looks on their faces. He cranes his neck so that his face is close to yours, "I think we have to go away for a bit."

You tilt your head to the side, "Away?"

Namjoon chews on the inside of his cheek, "There have been some threats."

"Taemin?" you whisper. You're outside, the sun blaring on you, the wind stirring up dust…but being this close to him is like being in your own world.

He nods and takes a deep, steadying breath; you akin it to him rooting himself like a tree. He runs his fingers through your hair, planting his hand on the back of your scalp and nudging you gently towards him. He presses his lips to your forehead and whispers, " I don't want to put your protection in anyone's hands but my own."

You pull away and smile at him, his hand moving to rub soothing circles into the back of your neck. You lean forward and peck his lips, "Okay. Vacation," you smile, "Where are we headed?"

"Well, I was thinking, since you and I are now...more officially…" you watch him as he struggles through, he's so rarely nervous that you bask in his stuttering, "it could be like our...honeymoon."

Your face lights up and Namjoon feels the familiar tug in his chest. "I would," your eyes are almost watery at the idea, "I would love that."

"What do you want?" he runs his fingers delicately across your cheek, smiling, "I'll make it happen."

You close your eyes because his touch feels like heaven. You hum in thought, a smile spreading across your lips, "A beach house," you whisper and open your eyes, "And a private beach."

"Done," he says.

"And," you say, pressing your hand against his chest, reveling in the feel of him beneath your fingers, "Just us two. If you can."

He can. And he did. And it's so much more than you were expecting.

You've been married just shy of a year and still, you underestimate him.

Moni gallops ahead of you. You can see him run straight through the open double doors at the front of the house, through the house itself, out the double back doors, and straight to the waves lapping at the sand. He jumps around playfully and bites at the foam, craning his neck to watch as you pause in the entryway.

You keep your hand on the doorframe to steady yourself, breathing in the salty air and the peace. Namjoon's arms wrap around your waist and squeeze, his body curving around yours. He digs his chin playfully into your shoulder, dragging his lips across your neck and nipping at your earlobe.

Namjoon is intoxicated by the privacy. Even as a child he'd always had his family's servants or bodyguards around him, and as his power and status grew those extra people in his life also grew more necessary.

But now, alone in a remote part of this island, in a private beach house… Everything in him stills and grows quiet.

He rubs his nose into your hair, inhaling your scent and humming happily to himself.

You find his hands at your stomach and squeeze them before turning in his grasp. You wrap your arms around his neck and let your fingers go crazy with the ends of his hair. If you'd been unable to keep your hands off each other at the apartment, your own private beach house only upped the ante. You've grown so confident, in the last few months, of your body and of him.

When your mother had lectured you about "pleasing your husband" before your wedding…she'd made it seem so mechanical and detached. Like a job.

But when Namjoon touches you that couldn't be further from reality. It's wild and messy and intoxicating. It's a craving. And it surprised you because you'd never thought that physical intimacy could feel that way, so hot and necessary and like being complete.

And now you're tired of waiting. You've given him every other part of yourself and you want him to have this piece, too.

"What should we do first?" he asks, body still curved around you to keep his lips on your neck and shoulders.

"Hmm," you draw a heart on the back of his neck, "I want to check out the bedroom."

"Thank god."

From the moment he picks you up in that entryway, Namjoon is in charge. His fingers press into your flesh like he knows just where your buttons are, just what to do to elicit the lewdest reaction. His hands draw patterns down your spine and give you goosebumps, his fingers make trails up your abdomen to make you shiver, his thumbs flick and squeeze your nipples to make you bite your lip, he palms at your sex to make you moan.

But you can tell he's holding back. There's a darkness in his gaze where you can see all his fantasies, everything he's been dreaming of and lusting after but that he can't get himself to do right away. Instead, he keeps his hand in your panties and whispers them to you, these little daydreams.

"With your pretty little mouth around my cock…"

"—pounding into you from behind until—."

"—my tongue on your clit until you cum on my face…"

"We're going to fuck all over this beach house, kitten…against the wall, in the shower, on the kitchen table, on the beach…"

Until he's so worked up that he's humping into your leg for friction and you're falling apart on his fingers, your eyes closed and your body taut with arousal.

Namjoon presses his forehead against yours, heaving breaths as he tries to keep his own arousal under control. It's been so long since he had sex that, although he's not sure he would admit to it, he almost came just watching you now.

"How was that, kitten?"

You moan softly as he removes his fingers from your panties, dragging them up your bare stomach so there's a line of your juices leading up to your breasts. He pinches one of your nipples between his fingers, moaning himself at the little whimper it elicits.

"I," you gasp for breath, "I like ‘kitten,' it's cute," you grin.

Namjoon laughs, kissing your cheek softly, "So not what I was referring to." He pushes off the bed, leaning forward to slide off your ruined underwear.

You're still high from your orgasm (more intense than any of the ones you'd ever given yourself) and breathing heavily; it doesn't even feel cold to be entirely naked on the bed, but you whine at his absence.

He chuckles at you, pushing off his pants and tugging off his shirt.

You stare for a long moment. You'd seen porn of course, so it's not like you've never seen a dick before. But it's different in person, staring one down for the first time. You lick your lips, dirty, previously unfathomable thoughts filling your mind.

Namjoon slips on a condom and kneels on the bed, readjusting your position as he settles between your legs. He hovers over you, bracing himself on his elbows before holding his cock at your entrance. He takes a deep breath, he really doesn't want to come as soon as he pushes inside.

"Okay," he whispers, kissing you softly, "This is probably going to be uncomfortable. And it's possible that you won't cum from penetration, most people don't on their first time, okay?"

"Okay," you nod, suddenly feeling sheepish.

He kisses you again, slowly, savoring your taste on his tongue. You smile and he says, "Ready?"

The discomfort isn't like you imagined and it makes you freeze. It makes Namjoon freeze too, his brow furrowing in concern and concentration. You grip his biceps until your nails draw blood from his skin (a bit of a turn-on for him actually), and you suck in a shaky breath.

"Move, move, move," you chant.

Namjoon shifts back and forward again, tense as he sees your jaw clench. He pushes a strand of hair from your face, "We can stop. Should I stop?"

You shake your head, "Just keep going."

Namjoon keeps a steady, torturous pace, but slowly the discomfort recedes. He can tell because your body relaxes, your arms looping around his neck and your back arching. "Okay," you whisper and he knows he can let loose now.

His hips snap back and forth so fast and with such a steady pace that you realize just how horny he's been the last few months. Despite everything, a rush of gratitude hits your chest because he's waited so long. You start meeting his thrusts with your hips, clinging to him tightly until he unravels above you.

"Oh fuck, kitten," he moans, thrusting weakly until he's completely spent. He kisses your neck softly, both of you breathing heavily as he pulls out. He rolls to the side and disposes of the condom.

When he comes back he wraps you in his arms and burrows with you under the covers. He nuzzles into your neck and says sleepily, "That was good."

You sigh, finding his lips and kissing him softly and repeatedly. "I really like being called kitten," you giggle.

You wake up at twilight, the world is baby blue and the sky is cotton-candy pink. Everything seems clear and easy. Your whole body feels soft and pliant; you're warm, wrapped in Namjoon's embrace. He's curled himself around you in his sleep, breathing softly and snoring into your neck.

You run your fingers through his hair and relish the feeling of belonging so wholly to another person. When you close your eyes you can see him standing at the alter a year ago, tall and dark and handsome. Now that you know him, you can see the nervousness at the edges of the picture, the way his fingers twitched, the way his eyes moved over you.

You'd been so scared then, so hopeless. You press a kiss between his eyebrows because there's a worry line there and because you're grateful. Because of all the endings you could've imagined for yourself, this had never occurred to you. Genuine happiness…the possibility had never entered your mind.

He groans into your neck, "Go back to sleep."

"I'm going to make breakfast," you laugh.

"No," he insists, tightening his hold around you, "I'll conjure some. Don't get up. Do not put on any clothes."

You kiss him and it's all bad breath and pure laughter.

You spend the next three days hanging off each other.

"Making up for lost time," Namjoon says, pinning you against the wall with your arms above your head.

You're lucky if you get underwear and a shirt on, but you mostly spend the time wrapped in the bedsheets or in nothing at all. You think you end up showering only because it doesn't require any clothes. When you glance in the mirror one morning you find yourself covered in bruises and hickeys and scratches; he's a demon and he makes love like one. You're surprised to find yourself proud of the marks, proud to have such a physical (and abundant) sign of his love for you. You're equally proud when you find that you have similarly marked him.

It's day number four when you finally decide you want to see the beach.

"But—" Namjoon pouts, watching as you pull on a swimsuit and a sheer cover-up.

"It's been three days and we haven't left the house," you say, holding his face in your hands.

"But we can stay here as long as we want…you can see the beach later," he whines, his fingers already hooked into the edge of your bikini bottoms.

You stand up straight and run your hands through his hair, laughing, "How did you keep this horny teenager locked up inside for a year, hmm?"

Namjoon laughs, too, leaning down to plant hot kisses on your neck, "Meditation and masturbation."

You laugh and reach up to bite at his neck playfully, "Meet me outside, kiddo."

Namjoon is about twenty feet behind you, watching as you twirl in the sand toward the waves. He's wondering again why you're both outside, why you have on clothes, why you both bothered leaving the bedroom at all.

Sex on the beach.

You turn to him as if you could read his thoughts, smiling happily; out of breath and flushed but so, so happy.

You don't see Taemin appear behind you in a cloud of menacing, dark smoke. You don't see the knife in his hand. You don't see Namjoon's blood turn to ice or his heart stop in his chest. All you see is his expression turn terrified and then there's a hand on your throat and something sharp poking you.

"Miss me?" a voice whispers. And the beach is long gone.

You're not sure where you are. It's dark, moonlight streaming in from the glass ceiling. And it smells damp, humid.

You feel exposed. You're still wearing the two-piece that you'd had on at the beach; your sheer cover-up is barely hanging on, someone ripped it between the beach and this chair. You feel splinters pricking at your bare thighs and your shoulders ache from your arms being kept behind your back. And your head is ringing, probably from hit number two or three.

Someone says your name beside you, a half-hearted whisper.

"Yoongi?" you gasp. He's bloody and bruised. One eye is swollen shut and purple, there are cuts on his cheeks and his lips are bleeding. If his face is any indication, then the rest of him is in terrible shape. "But you…you're taking time off."

Your head is still ringing; you have all the puzzle pieces but you can't seem to make them fit together.

Someone laughs loudly in front of you, loudly and theatrically. A tall, slim figure steps into the light, his hands clasped in front of his chest.

"Come on," Taemin says, stepping forward and holding your jaw in one hand, squishing your cheeks together like a grandmother to a child, "you can figure it out."

"It's a trap," Yoongi rasps and when you look over there's blood dripping from his mouth.

You look back to Taemin. His eyes are black obsidian and shining. He mouths it's a trap before releasing you and kicking Yoongi's chair so that it falls to the floor. Yoongi groans in pain, the sound echoing through the room.

"Namjoon," you whisper, begging him not to come for you.

Namjoon tries to follow the smoke trail of Taemin's shimmers but he's too erratic and Namjoon can't latch on.

He ends up on Yoongi's front porch with Moni.

The dog settles onto the porch with a whine, hiding his face with his paws. He can't find your scent and it's rattled him. Namjoon pounds on the door of the house with a fist.

He remembers when Yoongi first got this house; it was on the first anniversary of his job with Namjoon and he'd been so proud of it. He'd grown up in a two-bedroom apartment in Daegu; this was a big step up.

Namjoon nearly loses his breath when he sees Jeongguk's expression as he opens the door. The young man's eyes are wide like a child's and filled with tears. He does the first thing his gut tells him to and pulls Jeongguk in for a hug, "What's wrong?"

"Yoongi hasn't been home in a week," Jeongguk hiccups. "He vanished."

"What."

Namjoon is pacing in Jeongguk and Yoongi's living room; he's so stressed that his eyes go full black without him trying and Moni keeps barking at him in intervals. Magic and demonic energy are pouring out of him effortlessly; things keep smashing or falling on the ground. Jeongguk sits on the couch in an oversized sweatshirt looking small and quiet and afraid.

"They've been kidnapped?" he whispers.

Namjoon nods, "But where would he take them?" His footfalls on the wood floors are heavy and purposeful.

Jeongguk bites his fingernails and sinks further into the couch.

Namjoon pauses, wrenching his hands through his hair. "It's about me," he whispers, "I'm the target." His foot is tapping against the floor anxiously; a mirror shatters to his left, making Jeongguk jump. He ignores it and keeps going, "Me," he growls and the vase of flowers Yoongi bought Jeongguk last week (wilting and brown) tilts and falls to the floor with a smash. He glances over at the mess and the realization hits him like a full-speed train. "Fuck," he mutters. He leans forward and pulls Jeongguk to a stand, a marker materializing in his hand; he pushes up Jeongguk's sleeve and writes messily on his forearm, "This is where I'm going; get the others and meet me there." Then he's gone.

You don't realize you're crying until after they pick you up and put you back in the chair. Everything hurts, but mostly your arm (you think it's broken) and your chest. You taste blood on your teeth and then salty tears; a shuddering gasp as they bind your hands behind your back.

"He's coming," Taemin smirks, pulling his Gucci scarf from around his neck and dabbing at his bloody knuckles.

You glance over and watch as they bring Yoongi back to his chair. He looks like a limp rag doll, one that's been stepped on, repeatedly.

The sun has started to come up so things are easier to see. You're in, you realize belatedly, a greenhouse. It's a tall slanted structure made entirely of windows; lying on your back while they kicked you...you had watched the stars.

Taemin turns when he hears the door open and Namjoon appears just as the sun breaks over the horizon. It's a stunning picture; he's still in his vacation clothes, jeans and a loose shirt, the sunlight making him glow bronze.

He wastes no time. He strides over to Taemin and takes him by the throat, raising him above his head and growling.

"You came," Taemin whispers happily. None of his minions, the ones in a circle around the four of you, interfere. "But this is a bit too kinky while we have guests," he chuckles.

Namjoon's growl grows louder but his arm slowly lowers until Taemin is back on his feet. "Thank you," he grins, turning to stand by Namjoon's side and looping their arms together. Namjoon stands stock still, frozen in place, his expression turning from anger to neutrality.

"Namjoon?" you whisper. He shouldn't have come and you see why now; Taemin's controlling him somehow…

"I take it he didn't tell you about our oath." Taemin's voice is like sugar, his fingers tapping happily along Namjoon's forearm. He interlocks their fingers and Namjoon doesn't make a move. Taemin grins, happily but sinisterly, "Don't worry, I'll fill you in."

author’s note— so this took forever

07: the final ↝

for more of my works check out my m.list

#bts #bangtanbuds #hyunglinenetwork #kim namjoon #rm #namjoon x reader #rm x reader

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hiddendreamer67 · 5 years ago

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Mandy in the Multiverse

Summary: Mandy the writer witch doesn’t know what to write for her prompt, so she goes searching back through her plethora of AUs for inspiration and accidentally stumbles into a few others as well.

(Shoutout to @callboxkat, @lefaystrent and @delimeful for letting me reference their works in this!)

October prompt #23: Witchcraft.

Check out more of my writing at @hiddendreamerwriting!

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Mandy sighed, laying on her back and tossing her pen in the air to catch again. It was dull, lacking the usual shine of inspiration. It seemed she was quickly burning through her magic supply this month.

Her eyes traveled over to the portal, humming in the corner. Several portals, actually. An entire wall of infinite portals, each leading into a different dimension she had created. But what did it matter? All the portals in the world wouldn’t help the young witch find a good story idea. She needed a new portal.

Mandy paused, catching her pen one last time. Or…she could always do a sequel. And for that, a quick lil’ inspiration trip wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?

“I’ll just pop in for a second.” Mandy grinned, already grabbing her cloak and sprinting through one at random.

A bright light flashed, forcing her to cover her eyes. She blinked the spots from her vision, peering around to find… a pet shop?

“Oh, tiny mers.” Mandy hummed, walking through the aisle ways. “Not exactly original, but-”

“Can I help you, gurl?” Remy the sales clerk interrupted her musing.

“Oh, hey Remy.” Mandy gave a disinterested wave, not even looking over as she peered into the empty tanks. She sighed. “Man, this is so boring. There’s not even anything happening here. Well, except with the cats.”

“We don’t sell cats.” Remy informed her.

“I know.” Mandy adjusted her cloak. She didn’t feel like walking all the way over to Picani’s place of residence just to see the shredded remains of Logan clinging to life, that’d just be depressing. “Don’t worry about it.” Without another word she twirled on her feet, the scenery swapping once more.

“Alright, where we headed?” Mandy rubbed her hands together, looking around to try and get the lay of the land. It was a wide open field, which didn’t give her many clues- that is, until she saw how dead the grass was and the hole left behind by what must’ve been a beanstalk.

“Aww, I missed it?” Mandy groaned. She looked around, seeing nobody at the bottom of the stalk either. “Well this sucks. I can’t even tell if this is Virgil’s or Patton’s story. Why does the beanstalk have to come down, anyway? Just let it stay up and eventually consume all the water on Earth.”

That was an idea, maybe. But today was not the day for mythical eco-terrorism. Instead with a sigh Mandy twirled again, crossing her fingers. “Please something fun, please something fun-”

Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed when she opened her eyes to see generic apartment number 3. “Darn it, just a borrower story.”

There was a quiet clattering behind her. Mandy turned, seeing a very startled human Logan standing in the kitchen. “I- how- what did you say?”

“Oh dear.” Mandy winced. Logan was always the one with too many questions, no matter the universe. “Um, a borrower? Tiny person about yeigh high?” Mandy held out her hands for scale. “You might have one already in a cage. That, or they’re still in the walls. I don’t really know what stage you’re at.”

Logan’s eyes widened, turning a deadly pale. He glanced back at the living room door anxiously, leaning forwards and lowering his voice. “How much do you know about the little mouse men?”

“The mouse men?” Mandy wrinkled her nose in confusion. Since when did Logan call borrowers ‘mouse men’? That sounded more like Littles, and the only story she knew with Littles was…

Mandy gasped, smacking a hand to her cheek. “This is Kat’s story!” She excitedly whispered. The witch looked down at her own hands in awe, having not been aware she could even do that. “Oh my goodness I could see Littles. Wait should I? What if I break something? No, I shouldn’t, they’re all so depressed right now, and Kat’s Littles are always so skittish.”

“Cat? What’s this about a cat?” Logan was frantically trying to keep up with her logic, to no avail.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mandy said hastily. “Tell them I say hi. Wait don’t, forget you saw anything. Okay. I love you. Bye.”

With these parting words Mandy spun away, eager to get out before she ruined over a year’s worth of careful planning. But this opened a newfound realm of possibilities; what were her limits? How far could she go? She eagerly focused her energy away from her own stories, trying to see if she could breach the wall again.

“...oh great. Another Remy.” Mandy sighed, opening her eyes.

“Gurl you better check yourself before you shrek yourself.” Remy judged her, taking a long sip from his cup.

Mandy glanced around, taking in the house in disarray. There was a strange amount of potato chip bags and binoculars. On a notebook was a list labelled ‘Vampires?’ where Logan’s name had been written, crossed out, rewritten, repeat.

“Is this Lefay’s Welcome to the Neighborhood fic?” Mandy guessed.

“Yup.” Remy nodded. Mandy wasn’t even surprised Remy had that knowledge; he was some sort of demon of the night anyways here. Or something.

“Good.” Mandy nodded as well. “So I can’t break anything.”

“Bold of you to assume you’re worthy enough to derail this plot.” Remy raised an eyebrow. “Where you headed?”

“I dunno.” Mandy shrugged, leaning against the couch. She cringed, feeling something sticky beneath her. “I mean not that you lovable trash raccoons aren’t, er, great… but I was kinda aiming for Delimeful.”

“The tiny dragon one?” Remy asked.

Mandy nodded. “I wanna introduce Puff to my dragon Virgil. Who isn’t really a dragon, just raised by dragons, and-”

“We get it, ya’ basic. First door on your left.” Remy interrupted with a point. Mandy paused, before with a shrug opening the door that was Remy’s haphazardly thrown together portal. There was another flash of familiar light, but this time the walls appeared more hazy. Translucent, even.

“So, this is a mind palace.” Mandy let out a low whistle, because she could do that in fiction. “Weird. I don’t work in canon enough, huh?”

But that wasn’t the focus right now. Instead her attention was drawn to a scuttling in front of her, a little purple dragon caught off guard by her arrival. Mandy grinned, taking the opportunity to lunge and catch him. “Gotcha!”

Puff did not appreciate this gesture, frantically clawing and biting at Mandy and nearly causing the young witch to drop him entirely.

“Geez, stop struggling, Virgil!” Mandy huffed, readjusting her grip.

“...Virgil?”

Mandy paused, looking up to see she had an audience. Roman, Patton, and Logan were giving her looks caught between confusion and horror. The dragon in question had frozen, terrified when she said his name.

For a moment Mandy thought she ruined everything, but no recognition dawned on their faces. “Oh right, you guys are pre-accepting anxiety.” Mandy gave a small sigh of relief, the others tensing further. “Don’t worry, it’s just a, uh, nickname. Totally irrelevant. Definitely not something worth pondering or asking Anxiety about. Okay, toodles!”

But as soon as Mandy attempted to spin on her heel with Puff in tow, a searing hot pain overtook her arms. She yelped, dropping the fledgling and spinning into the other realm alone, collapsing with a grimace.

“Okay, no taking things between realms.” Mandy grit her teeth. “Good to know.”

She looked up, her eyes peering through the darkness to see a sword glinting in the meager light, pointed threateningly at her face. Strangely, she hadn’t even heard the movement. That was suspiciously terrifying.

“State your business.” The not-dragon Virgil threatened.

Mandy looked down the length of the sword. She looked back up at Virgil. “I was just trying to bring you a present.” Mandy huffed, annoyed that her plan had failed. “It was a dragon version of you. A real one.”

Well, that was not the right thing to say. Mandy yelped, rolling out of the way as the sword came slashing down, clanking loudly against the rock wall.

“Lovely seeing you as always!” Mandy waved, turning on her heel to the sound of cursing behind her.

The witch gave a sigh of relief, trying to focus her mind again after getting so jittered. It was difficult whenever her creations got away from her, especially when she was at the wrong end of the sword. The Lord only knew how many times her giants got out of hand, putting Mandy in all sorts of compromising situations.

“Think Mandy.” Mandy told herself, continuing to spin as she began to get dizzy, multiple universes passing by and only offering her glimpses: cages, a butterfly wall, the ocean…. And of course the accompanying cast, but that was a bit harder to decipher considering they all shared the same fate. “If you could go anywhere, do anything, focus on that. Where would you go? What would you do?”

Her focus was shattered as in her dizzy state she took a single step back, breaking the spell and immediately tripping over something alive.

“Mrow!” The white cat hissed, scrambling fearfully up and away from Mandy and into Patton’s lap.

“Oh dear!” Patton gasped, bending down to check on her. “Are you alright?” She took in his light blue robes, recognizing a fellow magic user.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Mandy took his hand, standing up. She looked down at the bristling cat, glaring up at her haughtily. Mandy winced, slowly recognizing this to be her witch AU. “Sorry about your tail, Roman. Also sorry about your allergies, Patton.”

Patton gave her a bewildered look, not so subtly wiping at his nose. The cat hair was clearly getting to him again. “What? It’s just this spring air. Hardly your fault.”

“Right.” Mandy didn’t bother to explain that she was the one who gave him allergies in the first place. She sighed, wishing she could at least cuddle up Roman with his fluffy coat, but Roman looked to be in no mood to accept her apology. “Aristocat.” She muttered. “Are Logan and Virgil around?”

“No, I believe they went out to collect potion ingredients.” Patton explained.

“Ugh why didn’t I just do that?” Mandy smacked herself in the forehead. “I could have just written something about you four doing potion stuff for witchcraft. This is so needlessly complicated.”

“...sorry?” Patton didn’t know how to respond.

“Whatever, I’m getting out of here.” Mandy glanced at the pair one last time. “I suggest inventing magic benadryl. Or getting regular benadryl. I have no idea what time period this actually is because you refuse to go outside.”

With this mystic advice Mandy disappeared, forever on the hunt for that elusive inspiration.

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knybits · 5 years ago

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Howl’s Moving Castle! A Murder of One

sup gamers. machute inspired me and i didnt realize how accurate the parallels were with taniko and howls moving castle,,, so thanks @kny-writings and @thunderandrainclouds for pushing me to write this au!!

Akiko as howl

Tanjirou as sophie

Bc tanjirou has such a kind heart and akiko has NONE

Akiko’s witch vibes,,, yes to all the jewelry and yes to pretty clothing

But she prefers to have green eyes and black hair bc she thinks that looks best and her eyes hold a whole forest within them

Tanjirou still has the hat shop to have to take over later :,,)

Tanjirou always covers his head w a hat bc lowkey hes self conscious of his scar aw poor bb

Wicked witch of the waste is sanemi LMAO and he doesnt like tanjirou and cursed this mans to be an old gramps

But his hobby is to clean!! And akiko is a fat fucking mess in canon!! So yeah tanjirou pulls up to clean her absolute MESS of a castle

And her crow miruna is calcifer. Kinda symbolic bc she later accepts miruna to be her heart again

Lettie as nezuko!! Actual star of the bakery she works at

Zenitsu are markle bc in the book, markle marries lettie :,)

I know howl and markle are supposed to be super like,,, dad and son type of bond, but akiko constantly yelling and zenitsu and zenitsu constantly messing up spells is way funnier

And tanjirou doesnt know jack shit ab witchcraft but hes there to support zenitsu and cook for the boy!!

Inosuke is the dog lmaoo (wheezing noises)

God shes so dramatic

After the bathroom fiasco, akiko’s eyes are purple and shes freaking the fuck out and starts to ooze the green liquid and cry so hard the whole port town is flooded

Sure her teacher was shinobu (solomon) but shes AFRAID OF HER and thats why she tells tanjirou to go in her stead as her “grandpa”

Sanemi as a very nice and soft grandpa bc he has no more powers :,,)

And yES he loves dogs so he has goddy inosuke to pet all the time

symbolic that she turns into the giant raven when shes out destroying enemy bombers

Tanjirou’s final form (like how sophie is young but w silver hair like fuck guys what a LOOK) is the really cool fire scar he has!!

Turnip head is genya :,,) who has a fat crush on tanjirou for being so kind to him

Akiko gives tanjirou the WORLD. Shes not a fat mess anymore and embraces her golden eyes bc of tanjirou and when they move, the house looks like his old home and she brings the massive field of flowers to him

So fuck yeah flower shop tanjirou be BACK

She gives him the hanafuda earrings (like how howl gave sophie a ring)

And when they get separated and tanjirou falls down the ravine with inosuke, his earrings flutter a little and lightly yank him towards the door

Young star bright eyes akiko as a child catching the falling star and making a deal with the devil miruna and tanjirou with his fire scar telling young akiko to find him later before being consumed by the Void

So yeah, akiko has always loved tanjirou but we been knew

Akiko: ow why does my chest feel so heavy

Tanjirou: thats the burden of a heart!

And that ending scene with the music and theyre on the terrace flying in the air and akiko bends over to tanjirou to kiss him and theyre just so happy together

#bittle's murder of one #taniko #tamura akiko #kamado tanjirou #machute

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willowvale · 5 years ago

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You know what time it is. It’s dream story time.

So I had a dream that I ended up in this wacky fantasy world, kind of a blend of Wonderland, Oz, and your classic Otherland with tricksy fae.

I needed to survive, so I found work as a barmaid at this inn that was right across the road from this giant field full of the greenest, tallest grass you ever saw, with great snow-capped purple mountains in the distance. The denizens of the inn told me that it belonged to the fae, and you should never wander into it or they would snatch you up. Through the field like a silver ribbon ran The Gray Brick road, which would take you all the way to their capital city.

While I worked at the inn, I made a few friends. My fellow barmaid was a very young woman with a little daughter. The girl was picture perfect, with bright blue eyes and gold ringlets. The maid worked tirelessly to make the girl happy, so she was a little naive and perhaps a little spoiled. She wore this poofy, 1860s style dress that had an alternating white and pink floral design, but then at the bottom was trimmed with black and white striped ruffles. I remember having an out-of-dream moment where I thought “Well, that’s absurd. I want to make it.”

There was also a boy who reminded me very much of my younger brother (a bean pole with dark shaggy hair) who lurked around the inn begging for food. I always tried to sneak him scraps or a mug of spiced cider when no one was looking. One day he came by with one of his pant legs ripped all the way up to the thigh. Underneath, I could see there was a large gash that he had packed with mud and straw. I angrily grabbed his skinny arm and dragged him into to a booth- ignoring his protestations and told him he had better sit his ass down while I fetched supplies and not go anywhere or no more table scraps. I got clean cloths, warm water, needle and thread and gin from the begrudging innkeeper, made the boy drink some of the gin, and got to work. He would thank me when he didn’t come down with a nasty infection.

So here’s where things get nuts. The little blonde girl would play outside while her mother and I worked. One day, she took it upon herself to wander into the green field. The urchin boy saw this happen, and tried to go after her before anything could happen. They both disappeared.

So now I, the brave adventurer, must go after them alone. Into the field I went, having to crawl to avoid these incredibly fast fae riders. Traveling by night was best, until I made it to the first town. It was chaos. The buildings had a kind of renaissance style, but were all crooked and wonky, kind of like Diagon Alley in the harry potter movies. Every person was a riot of color, with lavender skin and bright blue hair seeming to be the most common coloration, but on top of that they wore the most outlandish clothing. I stopped in a shop and used the last of my money to buy what I imagine to be the fae equivalent of the poofy pink dress from Firefly (so not quite in fashion) in an attempt to blend in. I don’t remember it too distinctly, but it was all jewel tones of blue, purple, green and red. I was sort of aimlessly wandering through the streets, trying to figure out what to do next when someone grabbed my arm.

“Miss!” Hissed the urchin boy, “What are you doing here?”

He dragged me into a side alley, where I had a better look at him. He had tied strips of colorful cloth to his person, his torn pant leg bound back together with a long scarf. I supposed street urchins in Faery looked much the same as in the human towns. Being a clever creature, he had already dug up some info.

“They say the Faery queen has a pretty new pet, with golden curls! She’s been touring about to show her off, and no one knows where she’ll be next.”

So of course we had a long sequence of wandering about trying to figure out what the heck to do. We found a a wild fairy market where they sold all kinds of strange things, and there we met a sort of faery con-man running a magical medicine show. I don’t really remember the product or the act, but I do remember some big men interrupting the show to call him out. Likely unsatisfied customers. He jumped into the crowd to try and disappear, but his bright blue hair wasn’t helping. He passed close to me and our eyes met. I could see that he recognized me as human, this close, and we had a sort of “I won’t tell if you won’t” moment. I lifted the hem of my giant poofy skirt and jerked my head like “well” and swoop! down his messy blue head went like a fishing bobber. We snuck out of the crowd with him shuffling under my skirts!

Naturally, since I had freely given him my assistance, I could ask a boon in return. I asked him to join us as our guide, not really expecting him to agree. It would likely be much more dangerous than a couple of thugs. But he agreed- maybe because he considered seeing my bloomers as part of the deal.

I’m tired of typing, so part two forthcoming??

#dreams #story time

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somekidinacoma · 5 years ago

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The Prince and the Raven-Chapter 2

Chapter 1 here

Thank you to @imyasart for drawing the beautiful picture that inspired this story!!

-Present Day, in the Eastern Kingdom of Sanders-

Clang

Shhh-ah

Tsh

The various sounds of swords clashing into one-another rang through Virgil's ears as he watched the battle before him. The prince-turned-raven sat atop a shop in the so-called quiet village of Crofter.

Krsht

Shrt

No matter how many times it happened, Virgil still wasn't used to watching Roman fight. Especially so many people.

Roman had come to this town searching for the alchemist Logan Barry, by command of the king. Turns out that the man was worth something to nasty pirates, as well. Once the scoundrels got word of Prince Roman's arrival they attacked in vain. With no plan in place, they had nothing on the red-haired prince. He could handle them, of course. He'd fought the likes of which no ship-full of pirates could ever defeat. Giant trolls and grumpy ogres and the like.

But that didn't mean that Virgil didn't worry.

Roman smiled in victory as he knocked down the final good-for-nothing that stood in the way of the building holding the alchemist.

The prince took long strides towards the door of the small hut, a smirk on his face. His pride overtook him so much that he didn't take care to notice the disheveled man running towards him, a sword in hand.

Roman turned around to the shrill sound of a ravens call, just in time to roll out of the way of the swing of a sword. Almost.

The sword chopped of nearly a square inch of hair, which fell to the ground, seemingly in slow motion.

Roman stared at his lost comrades, horror decorating his usually bright, happy features.

Needless to say, Roman made quick work of the murderous man.

Virgil flew down towards Roman, landing on the prince's shoulder, lightly tightening his grip to show sympathy towards Roman's lost hair.

It took a moment for the both of them to remember the reason they had to sacrifice their cherished friends.

Virgil swore to remember this loss as Roman began to walk towards the hut. After trying the wooden doorknob, which didn't seem to work, Roman kicked the door in. The prince plastered a smile on his face, smirking proudly at the blue-haired alchemist.

Lord, how Virgil missed his purple hair.

Virgil dived for a small, dusty table as Roman went to untie the man.

"About time," Logan's voice instantly made Virgil want to speak to him. He sounded intelligent. The raven missed having conversations, especially with the wizards and mages that he used to speak with about magic. "I've been here for three days."

Logan stood, and Virgil took the chance to get a good look at him.

He was the same height as Roman, 5'11"-ish, making it easy to see the contrast between Logan's dark blue hair and Roman's bright red. The alchemist was very pale next to Roman's perfect tan, though he did seem as though he might be able to compare to Roman's strength. He had most likely been trained to defend himself with castle guards, just as Roman had.

"My deepest apologies old friend," Roman replied. "We had not received word of your disappearance until yesterday. The mail-carrier seemed to have gotten lost."

"How does one get lost on a journey to the capitol?" Logan sneered bitterly. Virgil had to admit that he had a right to be upset, although he didn't appreciate the scientist directing that towards the prince. "You can see the castle's towers from here!"

"Do not blame him, friend. He was but a young boy. T'was most likely his first journey to our home," Roman was quick to defend the boy.

"Why do you insist on calling me friend? We haven't spoken in years," Logan said distractedly, almost annoyed, as he went to gather the bag and parchment that the pirates had stolen from him.

"That does not mean we are not still friends," Roman declared, the smile on his face growing.

"I suppose you're right." Logan, too, smiled as he adjusted the straps of his bag to fit against his shoulder better. Something changed in the man as he looked back at the prince, almost as if he had remembered their time as friends. "Shall we be off?"

"We shall!"

****

"So you have acquired a raven, have you?" Logan adjusted his glasses to inspect the bird that sat atop Roman's shoulder more carefully.

The small group walked peacefully along the path back to the capital of the kingdom Virgil had come to call home.

"He was sent to me from a distant land. When he arrived, he had been enchanted to find one with a pure heart, as to find a companion to live for a while," Roman explained, a proud look covering his face.

"Enchanted, you say?" Logan asked, a curiosity that Virgil didnt think he liked sprinkled in his voice. "May I inspect him further upon our arrival at the castle?"

"That decision is V's to make," Roman eyed the bird to see if he seemed uncomfortable with Logan's prying. "He's an incredibly intelligent creature."

"So I see," Logan spoke as he went to poke at the bird. Virgil grabbed his finger with a talon, gently pushing the alchemist's hand away from him. "Should I take that as a 'no'?"

Roman chuckled lightly, as to make sure V didn't lose his balance. "We're almost to the castle. We'll have to see V's opinion once we get to your laboratory."

Just as Roman finished his statement, the outwr houses of Sanders' capital came into view.

Virgil flew ahead of the two, towards the castle, to alert the guards of Roman's return.

The raven could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Lord, was he in trouble. There was no way that he, a cursed half-raven fae creature was allowed to fall in love with the prince of an entirely human kingdom. Sure, this particular kingdom had now yet joined the war against the fae, but most humans still looked down on them greatly.

"Who gives a shit?" Virgil thought to himself as he landed in from of the guard tower, calling to them in the way he did every time he returned to the castle with Roman. "Its not like it matters. I'll never return to normal anyways."

****

"This is so exciting!" Logan practically jumped on excitement as he ran around his lab. "I've been studying enchantments and spells from the West for years."

"Just don't do anything dangerous." Roman felt a wave of nervousness wash over him. He didn't know what he would do if something were to ever happen to V. The bird had become immensely important to him.

Virgil also felt anxiousness in the pit of his stomach. After listening to Logan talk about his ideas on dispelling curses, he agreed to let the scientist work on him.

It was obvious to Roman now that the bird was under a curse, and the curiosity of what it could possibly be overcame any anxiety he was feeling, hence why he was even letting this happen. If not for this new realization, Logan's lab equipment would not be anywhere close V's purple-tinted feathers.

"Calm down, Logan." Roman didn't mean to sound so commanding, but the fear of something happening to V made him become far scarier than he truly was.

Logan did take a second to relax before gathering the last item he needed and walking towards the large, stone table in the center of the room.

Virgil took this time to really look around the room, needing a distraction. Its not like he would understand what Logan was doing or saying, anyways.

The room was about the size of Roman's bedroom (large, though there weren't near as many mirrors). Viles, and test tubes, and beakers lined the wooden shelves around the walls, most of them containing some sort of wildly-colored fluid. Some of the containers were labeled with such things as "ogre's sweat," or "troll bogey," and other things Virgil thought odd.

The bird was suddenly flung out of his observations by a scratch just under his beak, where Roman knew he liked being scratched. "Are you ready, V?"

Roman's eyes held a mixture of curiosity and concern, both of which got more intense as Virgil nodded his head, turning to face the excited alchemist.

Hopping forward, Virgil prepared himself for any pain he might feel. His transformation to this form hurt, so it only made sense that a transformation back would as well.

Logan held a tube with a bright purple liquid. The mixture didn't seem dangerous, and it didn't smell bad. Virgil took that as a good sign.

Roman held his breath as Logan poured the liquid over the raven. At first, nothing happened.

The room was unbearably silent. The prince found it strange how uncomfortable this silence was. The air felt thick, and Roman swore that even his sword couldn't cut through it.

Logan's shoulders dropped. "I guess it didn't work..."

Everyone let out a breath filled with both disappointment and relief. At least V wasn't hurt.

Logan grabbed some of the viles, turning to put them back in their place in the shelves.

Just as Roman reached out to pet V's head, a a beam of darkness seemed to blast out of the bird. Roman heard glass breaking and a gasp as more darkness emitted from the dark feathers of his friend.

Croaks and calls fell from the birds beak, and slowly the shape of the creature morphed and changed.

Feathers fell from the form, and replacing them was pale human skin and beautiful, purple hair. The dark beak turned from that into a human nose and soft, pink lips. Talons slowly turned into human legs, feet, and toes, and wings to arms, hands, and fingers (with appropriate black nail polish).

Slowly, but surely, the raven's calls turned to human screams, and slowly but surely, Roman's companion, a raven by the name V, was turning into a human.

@tinkslittlebelle

@icequeenoriginal

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cloudbattrolls · 5 years ago

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Zenith

Etuuya Vannyn | Present Night | Depths of Imperial Space

You have to shut your eyes as it approaches.

Even as a jade and a light-loving drinker, the ship is too huge and bright - you know very well you’d have to waste energy regrowing new ones from the sheer pain and damage of the glare.

What’s happening?

You have a million questions, but mostly you find yourself annoyed.

The whole scenario is damn silly, like the sort of beetle dreadful novel folks write for wrigglers about old colonization eras. You hope Karina got your message, at least, though perhaps she’ll wonder if you’ve gone insane.

You hear the ship groan, ears flicking as you grip the arms of the seat you’re buckled, and you realize you’re moving again. It’s not a random teleportation like before - rather a slow, deliberate pull, like being towed by a gravity beam.

Who wants you this badly? Who would go to all the trouble you now suspect they went to, in such a showy and unnecessary way, just to capture you? You doubt it’s for your snail care expertise or what you can do with a needle and thread.

Either whoever’s doing this is stupid, which is a comforting thought, or they have enough energy and resources that it’s all fun and games to them, which is significantly less comforting since anyone like that is going to be very hard to reason with.

You hear the distinct sounds of your ship docking, apparently without any say on your part. Well, at least it sounds like they’re being careful about it - on the off chance you get out of this alive, Tulais won’t cut your pay for damages. Silver linings.

It’s tempting to be ready with a gun, or try to set up traps when you can open your eyes again (the glare is still too bright, intense even with shut eyelids) but if these showy fools had wanted you dead you would be already, and it seems unwise to give them a reason.

So you just check your sylladex and make sure you have got everything in case you need it, tapping your fingers as all you can do is (unfortunately) wait.

You’re not kept doing so for long.

The glow dies, and the second it does, your eyes snap open and so does the door to your quarters, something pushing it aside.

It is definitely a something.

Whatever’s walking toward you has a troll’s basic shape, but no troll has horns covered with glowing veins, or eyes that look like lava. No troll has skin with what looks like glowing fluid swirling underneath it, pulsating back and forth in tune with their movements, with heat radiating off them like an oven.

No troll smiles at you with teeth black as obsidian - which might be what they’re actually made of, you’re not sure.

Their clothing is weirdly boring by comparison - standard issue gray and black wear - but it has an odd texture and consistency to it, looking more like armor.

“Hello.” You say after your moment of shock, sticking your hands in your pants pockets. “What’s your name, mysterious stranger? Or am I the mysterious stranger in this scenario. What a conundrum.”

“Come on. You’re expected.”

“You just hauled my entire ship in.” You drawl, following nevertheless as this entity turns, obviously expecting you to follow. “If you weren’t expecting me, I’d wonder what was going o - ”

The word dies in your mouth as you walk out into a shimmering white world.

It’s the white of marble, which could well be what you’re walking on, though perhaps it’s just some metallic or plastic alloy. You can see, barely, but you’re squinting as your head darts back and forth, absorbing the apparent palace you’ve been nabbed by.

Columns and webs of wire and metal intersperse the immaculate white, and plants ranging from small to jungle-size are everywhere. Why not? The heat of this place must be amazing for them.

Vines curl around columns threaded with gold, and pretty much everyone you pass looks at least a bit like your travel guide here.

They’re not all the same - their traits vary from patches of stony skin to stranger things like long antennae, or oversize obsidian claws - but all of them have those glowing eyes, and all of them radiate yet more heat in this already sweltering environment.

It’s a true novelty, being the most thoroughly normal person in the area. You wish you could bottle up the sensation and take it with you.

Most of the people - if that’s what they are - barely spare a look for you, which is nice, but also unhelpful. A bit of gossip as to what’s going to happen in your near future would be appreciated.

Nope, everyone’s silent, even your escort, who hasn’t looked back at you once since you started following them.

Wait. Why are they all silent to each other? Don’t they have news to share? Shopping lists to discuss? What do weird fire-people buy at Slayer’s, anyway.

Smoothing your hair back, you open your mouth to ask your not-really-a-good-guide a question -

- and nearly bump into them as they stop short in front of a door that just feels a tinge ominous to you.

Maybe it’s the fact that it’s on fucking fire.

Red, orange and purple flames dance around the huge white slab, but they don’t move. You’d think they were illusory if you couldn’t feel the heat, hear the hiss and crackle. Yet they burn with nothing to fuel them, as far as you can tell.

Glow-horns puts their hand on the door and sucks the flames out. At least, they burn for a moment with purple flames and then are back to their usual state.

What you assume is usual for them. Who can say.

You’re just glad you don’t sweat, you would be a mess right now.

The door swings inward and you hear what sounds like...singing?

Wordless singing, but still, it seems to be a troll’s voice.

Curious, you step in and blink repeatedly at the sight before you.

At the center of the room is a fountain. It’s shaped like one, anyway, but instead of water, it’s surrounded by steam. It has to be at least thirty feet tall, though it’s hard to tell through the haze.

The woman doing the singing is perched at the top.

Literally, because she has bird legs, also wings, and really can this night get any weirder?

Never mind, you don’t want to know.

She looks both more and less like a troll than the others - her legs are scaly from the knees down, with talons - and she has massive shining wings in too many colors to name. Gold, purple, red, orange and every hue in between.

Yet as she stops singing, spreads said wings and swoops down (nearly buffeting you backwards as she lands) you can see that while her eyes glow and she has feathers around their edges, they don’t look like lava. Nor does she have any patches of stone on her body - you can see quite a bit of her skin between her skimpy teal clothing, cut up to accommodate her extra limbs and shoulder feathers.

Her teeth are obsidian, though, as she too smiles at you like someone brought her the world’s best wriggling day present.

You are not meant to be smiled at. It would be nice if they all stopped. They can be odd lava creatures all they want, but some things are just plain uncomfortable.

Still, you extend a hand.

“Hi, I’m Tuuya, to what do I owe the pleasure.”

“I know who you are, little Vannyn.” She says, and as she stands up fully, wings folded, she must be eight feet tall, at least. Why is everyone a bloody giant these nights?

Stepping toward you, she ignores your hand and puts her own under your chin, tilting your head up as she looks down at you.

You go rigid, not from the heat of her that feels like it’ll burn you, but because - because -

“Please don’t do that.” You manage to choke out. “I promise, you don’t want to.”

She can’t know who you are, if she’s doing this.

“Don’t I?” She says, with amusement. “I spent three lives to find out who I was dealing with. I was very impressed, though a touch put out - you’re so restrained. You think so much of people who only see you as their pet. What a curious troll you are.”

You can’t think. Your mind is buckling from the weight of what she’s saying, what it means.

With a jerk you take your head away from her palm and look up at her, eyes brimming with hate.

“You made. A drinker.” You say, even, but your claws dig into your clenched hands as you shake slightly. “You sent a troll to a fate worse than death.”

She tilts her head, her feathered ears twitching as a smile plays across her lips.

“Every creature is meant to spread, reproduce - why does it bother you? Haven’t you been a sire before?”

Sire. What an attempt of dressing up a despicable act in pretty language.

“Don’t you feel some joy at your creation?” She queries, now going to your largely forgotten guide and putting her hands on their shoulders. They glow more brightly when she does, practically incandescent. “Why so miserable, Etuuya? I gave you a fledgling. I thought you liked being a lusus.”

It’d be better if she was mocking you, but there’s honest curiosity in her voice, mixed with a hint of disappointment.

“That troll.” You say slowly. “Is being forced to adjust to an existence they didn’t ask for. They are now a parasite to every living person, a threat by existing. They hate me, and they should.”

You haven’t actually talked to them, or asked anyone if they’ve said anything about you. Wester is their name, you later learned. It’s been too difficult to absorb anything else about the snake troll.

Especially since they had to talk you out of mercy culling them.

She clicks her tongue, shaking her head. Her hair is long, long enough to go down her back past her wings. How does she ever have time for anything else, between washing it and - can she preen those wings, with no beak? Does she have someone do it for her?

“Also - why are you troll Alfred Hitche’s daymare. Why...all this. What’s it about.” You wave a hand.

You’re not really expecting an answer (not a helpful one) but maybe it’ll buy you some time to think while she monologues, or cackles and talks about her evil plans or something.

Instead, she plucks you up by the collar of your shirt, there’s a flash of heat and light, and the pair of you are standing on what can only be an alien planet.

The three moons in the sky and the setting twin suns are a bit of a giveaway.

As are the vast volcanic structures towering in the distance, beyond the plain you’re standing on. Hardened lava flows that must be hundreds - maybe thousands of miles long - formed into impossible loops and spirals.

Big Bird’s archnemesis sticks out her arm and the whole sky erupts into a combination of fireworks and the northern lights, enough flashy colors and bright patterns to give you a headache, so you look at the ground.

“It only matters what we do with our gifts, little Vannyn. It’s painful watching you fetter yours, as if you were some common beast.”

“Just once -” You comment, with a touch of acerbity, “- I’d like to be in high demand for something I do. I make excellent clothes, and if you weren’t a veritable sun, I’d offer you something that covered more boob, ma’am, for fear of you catching a chill.”

She looks down at you as the lights continue to go off, a slightly annoyed expression on her face that gives you the idea she doesn’t appreciate your helpful commentary.

“You may call me Firebird.”

It takes everything you have to not double over laughing, so you compromise.

“I’m Carmen Sandie! Guess where I am.”

“This is a serious conversation.” She snaps.

“Oh, it would be, except I’m talking to a woman who’s a spicy chicken entrée, and she sent three poor bastards after me because she wanted to, I don’t know, get a feel for how I worked.”

“I could burn you to cinders with a thought.” She warns, blue flames dancing around her body.

“And I’m sure your lusus is very proud of that, but if you wanted me dead I would be.” You say, arms crossed. “So why am I here?”

Her dark teeth spread in a smile that plummets your moderately chipper mood right back down below sea level.

“Don’t you see the resemblance?”

You want to ask her if it’s to a KFC meal deal, but you manage to hold your tongue as a hot wind picks up some ash on the plain and swirls it around.

“No. Care to enlighten me? Never mind - I’ll do it myself.”

Her blue-gold flames and your white glow both flicker, and despite the situation, your eyebrows raise and you smile slightly.

Said smile is extinguished as your thinkpan comes to a screeching halt.

That moment on Tulais’s ship when you did the same to match her lantern. Firebird’s warm as a blaze, but her clothing is teal...

The avian woman chuckles as your ears flatten.

“Welcome to the Outer Limits Settlement Company’s headquarters, little Vannyn. Let’s go fetch my descendant.”

END

#etuuya vannyn #here she is: FIREBIRD #cloud writes #firebird

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psychosistr · 5 years ago

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Friendly Four Verse- Meetings Part 2: Bushroot

Summary: A few months into the dynamic duo’s heroic partnership, Megavolt and Quackerjack encounter a rather interesting, if a bit grumpy, plant mutant by the name of Bushroot. Is the poisonous plant-duck really as bad as he seems, or is there potential for friendship, and more, to bloom from their encounters?

Notes: As stated in the previous chapter, this one’s going to be a bit longer and go into the three character’s backstories a bit more. Enjoy!

Also, quick trigger warning because there is a scene that briefly deals with child abuse.

-First Chapter-

Megavolt and Quackerjack ran into Bushroot three times before they convinced him to join their little team.

The first time was at an old gardening supply store that had been out of business for years- thanks to the heavy pollution in the air, as well as a strict “no flowers in the city” law enforced by Negaduck and his goons, places like that were the hardest hit.

Still, even if it was a long-dead hobby, it seemed that some people still saw fit to loiter around the dilapidated building. This led to a rather noisy conflict that caught Megavolt and Quackerjack’s attention one day while they were out on patrol. When the pair followed the sounds of destruction and violence, they found a group of local thugs lying sprawled out in various states around the building- one face-first in a trashcan, one bent over an old bench, one shorter man hanging from the shop’s busted door, and another tied up with a gardening hose.

Following the noises into the building, Megavolt keeping one finger charged and Quackerjack priming one marble between his thumb and forefinger in preparation for a fight if they had to, they found another member of the gang from outside currently engaged in battle with what, to their surprise, appeared to be some sort of mutant plant creature.

The mutant plant creature was once a duck, its bill clearly giving that much away. It seemed rather thin, with thorn-covered vines for arms and a cluster of three oblong and lightly-pointed leaves of varying sizes (two large ones and one smaller) at the end of each arm to form its hands. The thorns lessened the closer they got to its shoulders until they reached its torso, which was a solid mass of green the same shade as its vines and actually seemed slightly fuzzy with fine hairs that were visible all over its upper-half. Halfway-down its torso, the green color gradually faded to brown where the fuzzy texture lessened and the texture became woodier, giving it hips and legs that looked like branching, vine-like roots woven together to form the lower appendages in a facsimile of a regular duck’s feet (if slightly more jagged due to the branching off roots here and there).

What caught the heroes’ attention the most, however, was its head: It was green like the rest of its upper body, but with surprisingly bright blue eyes. Or, rather, they assumed both eyes were blue, as one was covered by a large flower petal that fell over half of its face. Sprouting from the top of the mutant’s head was a giant flower that seemed to serve as a sort of “hair-style” for it with five main petals- one curled downward to cover its face, as well as two a little further back that were half-way between drooping at the same level as the one in the front or standing up parallel to the top of its head like the last two on the back of its head- and a cluster of much smaller yellow petals that stood straight up to cover the center of its head.

While they’d encountered quite a few mutants during both of their time as superheroes, this one definitely caught both Megavolt and Quackerjack by surprise with how colorful it looked in comparison.

“Look..this is the last warning I’m gonna give you.” The plant mutant said in a voice that spoke volumes regarding his (they could tell by the voice now) irritation. “Turn around, walk back out to your friends, and LEAVE. ME. ALONE.” Oh yeah, he was definitely irritated and ready to hurt whatever set him off next.

Which, unfortunately, seemed to be the punk currently trying to pick a fight with him. “Ha! You think THOSE chumps are my friends?! Those losers ain’t got nothin’ on me!” He flicked open the knife in his hand and charged at the mutant plant-duck with clear intent.

Quackerjack and Megavolt were about to intervene and break up the fight, when, with a tired and irritated sigh, the plant-duck raised one of his leafy hands and made a snapping motion (no snap came of it, though, because of the texture of his hand, merely a rustling sound). “Spot.”

All three other occupants in the room were briefly confused by the gesture and the seemingly out-of-nowhere word…until they heard a barking sound and the heavy “thump thump thump” of something approaching on multiple limbs.

When the sound got close enough, everyone but the plant mutant was shocked to see a giant purple pitcher plant the size of a mini-van running around on four vines like a large dog. Actually, comparing it to a dog seemed to be pretty accurate, since it opened the top-leaf that served as the upper portion of its mouth and let out a barking sound when it arrived at its master’s side. “Woof! Woof!” As it ran in a circle around its master, Quackerjack and Megavolt could even see a happily wagging “tail’ covered in small white flowers growing out of a green spot on its back.

The plant-duck gave the overly excited pitcher plant a pat on the head before pointing a leafy finger at the current source of his irritation. “Go play, Spot.”

The pitcher plant let out another happy bark before running towards the punk that tried to pick a fight with its master. “Woof!”

Seeing he was clearly outmatched by the giant plant monster, the thug screamed and ran away in fear. “AAAAAH!”

“Uh, Quackerjack..we should probably do something to stop this, huh..?” Megavolt finally asked once the bizarreness of the situation had a chance to settle in his mind.

“Huh?” Quackerjack blinked, finally being brought out of his own state of disbelief. “Oh! Yeah, right, right! You take Dr.Plant-little and I’ll go play with the dog, deal?”

“Works for me.” Megavolt nodded his agreement, the two doing a quick back-handed version of a fist-bump before running off to face their chosen enemies. Megavolt ran over to where the mutated duck was now grabbing a wheelbarrow and filling it with dusty old bags of plant food. “Hold it right there!” He pointed dramatically at the frustrated foliage-themed fiend.

The response he got was an irritated groan when the mutant allowed the plant food in his arms to drop roughly into the wheelbarrow. “What?” He shot Megavolt a glare that, were it tangible, would probably strangle him or set him on fire.

“Acts of violence and thievery are not welcome in this town!” Megavolt pointed at the wheelbarrow accusingly.

“Gee, could’ve fooled me. You DO realize you’re in Saint Canard, right?” The irritated mutant asked sarcastically with a cocked brow and a scowl on his face.

Megavolt scowled slightly himself when the plant-duck brushed him off after that comment and went back to filling his wheelbarrow. “Just because a few people choose to commit crimes doesn’t make it right! If you don’t surrender now, we WILL be forced to subdue you!” He shot a small spark of electricity at the ground near the rooted-feet of his enemy to show he was serious.

Blue eyes momentarily glanced down at where the spark hit before vine-shoulders shrugged indifferently as the rest of the arms continued their work. “You can try- won’t make a difference.” He finished his task and turned his head to call his pet. “Spot, let’s go!” When he didn’t receive a response right away, he started looking around for the giant plant. “Spot?”

Megavolt smirked triumphantly and folded his arms over his chest. “My partner is taking care of your wicked weed as we speak, villain!”

He received a glare from that comment, the irritated plant-person about to say something back to him, but they were interrupted by the loud “thump thump” of the approaching plant-beast.

“Down, boy! Heel!” He heard Quackerjack shout over the thunderously loud footsteps.

Tilting his head to get a better view, Megavolt spotted the clown-hero being dragged behind the pitcher plant by a length of neon-green jump rope tied to the beast’s legs. He could also see that the dog-like mutant’s other feet sported similar ropes of varying colors that had apparently been broken off from whatever they were tied to before.

Megavolt managed to grab onto Quackerjack when the excited plant ran by, helping him up onto his feet. “You okay?”

Quackerjack shook himself briefly to get rid of some of the dirt and dust that had coated the front of his costume. “Yeah..gotta say, I prefer walking the dog with a yo-yo…”

Their attention returned to the pair of purloining plants when the pitcher-dog leaned down and opened its large mouth expectantly. “Try not to eat all of it, okay? Save some for the others.” When the plant nodded to show it understood, the smaller mutant rolled the wheelbarrow directly into its gaping maw. “Alright, let’s head home.” He patted the beast’s head once it closed its mouth. Just as they were about to leave, though, their path was blocked by the colorful heroes, making the former-duck roll his eyes. “Seriously? What are you even gonna do? Arrest me? If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t any prisons around here…well, except for the ones Negaduck uses..”

Megavolt and Quackerjack picked up a bit of loathing in the way the mutant spoke of their town’s dictator, but didn’t have time to question it as the giant dog-like pitcher plant tried to run past them.

Pointing a finger at the plant’s path, Megavolt fired of a bolt of electricity that startled the giant mutant and made it back up a few feet. “!!”

Megavolt stood in the pair’s way, his voice strong and full of conviction while his face was set in a determined glare. “We may have nowhere to send you..but that doesn’t mean we can just let criminals continue to do as they please.”

“This town won’t change unless guys like us MAKE IT change.” Quackerjack was instantly at his side, his baseball bat gripped firmly in his hand and clearly ready for a fight.

The plant-duck looked down slightly after they delivered their lines, a bitter scowl on his face that felt…kind of sad, honestly. “Hmph..what a bunch of sentimental garbage..” He did the snapping motion again. “Spot, head home- I’ll catch up with you.” The pitcher plant started to whine at him, but he gave it a firm glare. “NOW, Spot.”

The plant whimpered, but did as it was told and tried to run past the heroes again.

Once again they prepared to stop it, but, this time, they were the ones who were stopped. Specifically, they were stopped by a pair of leafy hands that stretched over and grabbed each of them by one of their arms, tossing them aside as if they weighed nothing at all.

Megavolt landed on top of some old planting pots (plastic, thankfully, not clay or ceramic) and garden hoses, while Quackerjack managed to right himself in the air and flip over on top of an old gardening tool stand. “!!”

Since Megavolt was a bit disoriented from hitting the pots and tangled in the rubber hoses, Quackerjack was the first one to fight back. He reached into his handy toy-pouch and pulled out a handful of his brightly colored exploding marbles. “So, what should we call you?” He asked while jumping off of the stand and shooting the marbles at the plant mutant one after another using his thumb. “Flower Power? Creep Vine? Poison Ivy- wait, that last one feels copy-righted-”

“Don’t you ever stop talking?” To his credit, the plant man was pretty quick on his feet. He was able to dodge all of Quackerjack’s attacks by running serpentine through the store. What was even more impressive was that, when he ran into obstacles, the roots that formed his feet would detangle and spread out to allow him to climb over anything with ease. At one point, he vanished from sight behind an old shelf full of seed packets. “And I already have a name..” His voice echoed through the store, making it hard for Quackerjack to pinpoint his exact location…until the voice came from directly above him with an irritated sneer. “It’s Bushroot.”

“!!” Quackerjack looked up in alarm to see the plant duck hanging from the rafters by his completely unraveled lower half. He brought his hand back, a different colored marble situated between each finger, and prepared to throw them. However, before he had the chance, something green wrapped around his wrist and restrained it. “Huh?!”

Turning his head, Quackerjack saw that he was being held back by what appeared to be a bunch of dandelions. Following the trail of long stems and flowers, he saw that they originated from a torn-open packet of seeds by the shelf that Bushroot had vanished behind earlier.

“Quackerjack! Look out!” He heard Megavolt calling to him from the other side of the store.

Looking up, he saw Bushroot dropping down from the ceiling as his legs reformed. He landed right in front of Quackerjack and managed to smack the bat out of his other hand before the clown had time to react. With his main weapon gone and his other hand unable to access his backups, Bushroot was able to hold Quackerjack still long enough for more dandelions and various other plants now growing from the wall of seeds to wrap around Quackerjack and fully restrain him.

“Never was a fan of clowns.” Bushroot mused as he looked over the tied-up harlequin. “Except for mimes since, you know, they don’t talk.” He pinched Quackerjack’s beak shut with one leafy hand to prove his point and a tomato vine wrapped around his mouth to effectively muzzle him. And, apparently because either Bushroot, the plant, or both had a sense of humor, the vine sprouted a big red tomato right on the tip of his beak in a mocking gesture. “There, much better.” He grabbed the vines around Quackerjack’s torso and tossed him behind the long-unused register counter. Right afterwards, though, he had to duck to avoid a bolt of electricity that nearly hit him in the face. “Oh yeah..almost forgot about you..”

Megavolt glared at him, now standing up and free of the rubber hoses that had bound him earlier. “This ends now, Bushroot.”

“Wow, talk about cliché.” Bushroot scoffed with a roll of his eyes, one hand resting on his hip and the other doing a lazy “come on” gesture. “Alright, Sparky, let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Megavolt charged electricity down to his hands to prepare his attack, opting for a close-range assault since Quackerjack’s distance strategy offered too many ways for the sneaky creature to escape or hide. “The name’s Megavolt!” He clenched his hands into fists and ran at the plant-hybrid, swinging the charged appendages at the surprisingly agile duck.

Much to Megavolt’s annoyance (and mild amazement), Bushroot was able to dodge every single one of his punches by either using his agile feet to side-step away, or by bending his body at unnatural angles since he seemed to lack bones that would hinder his movements. “You guys are really serious about this whole ‘hero’ thing, huh?” His upper body bent and twisted sideways to avoid a blow to his head. “Word of advice-”

Megavolt felt something wrap around his ankle and looked down briefly to investigate. “Wha-?!” He saw plants, similar to the ones that had caught Quackerjack earlier, grabbing his leg.

“In this world, nice guys ALWAYS finish last.” Bushroot finished his sentence right as the dandelions lifted Megavolt off of the ground and started taking him up towards the rafters.

“Dang it!” Megavolt turned his still mildly-charged hands on the vines and reached up to grab them. Passing the current in his hands into the green stems and leaves, he freed himself by burning the plants holding him captive. That, unfortunately, caused him to start plummeting to the ground. “Woah!” Thinking quickly, he magnetized his shoes and was able to catch himself on a rickety old rack of chicken-wire- the springiness of the light-weight wires able to cushion his landing.

Recovering from the fall, Megavolt rushed to get back up onto his feet, preparing himself for whatever attack was about to come next. To his surprise, though, there was no attack waiting for him.

Instead, he saw Bushroot holding out his hands so that the burned plants could fall down from the ceiling into his waiting grasp. “Shh..it’s okay..” He soothed the slightly quivering flowers by patting them gently with two of his leafy fingers. He then carefully started pinching off the burned pieces of the plants until only the green was left. Once it was clear, he rubbed the raw edges of the stems to soothe them further. “There we go..little water, some food, and you’ll be good to go..” He moved the flowers up onto his shoulders, where they curled around him like some sort of scarf or a pet snake.

“……” Megavolt was…well, for lack of a better word, SHOCKED by the surprisingly tender display. He’d never seen a villain act so caring or paternal towards their weapons and/or minions before.

While he was caught in that stunned state of trying to process what he’d just seen, Bushroot stretched one of his already long arms so that it could reach the area of garden hoses that Megavolt had fallen in earlier. “Alright, I’m bored. Let’s wrap this up.” He brought the hose over to himself and gripped it in both hands while glaring at Megavolt.

Still a bit thrown off from the villainous vegetation’s previous demeanor, Megavolt clenched his hands into fists again. “Y-Yeah..right..” He charged a little electricity into them, but it was nowhere near the amount he’d used before- his heart just wasn’t in it this time.

The two rushed at each other again, Megavolt throwing punches while Bushroot evaded. Only, this time, Bushroot looked for openings and, when he found them, bound Megavolt’s hands one after the other by catching them mid-strike with the rubber hose. This was a sound strategy, as the rubber was not only difficult to break out of, but it also cut off the flow of Megavolt’s electricity.

Soon enough, Bushroot had both of Megavolt’s hands tied behind his back and had even tied them to his feet for good measure. “There..” He let out an exhausted sigh when he finished and lifted Megavolt easily by his arm, tossing him behind the counter next to the still bound and squirming Quackerjack. “Do me a favor next time you see me-” Bushroot leaned over the register-counter to glare down at the pair of heroes, a stern, warning tone to his voice. “Leave me ALONE.” Having said his piece, he turned and walked away, but not before calling one last message over his shoulder. “Oh, and for the record- THEY started it.”

After Bushroot left, it took about twenty minutes of Megavolt biting through the vines tying up Quackerjack for the clown to finally break free and untie the electrical rodent as well.

“Sooo…” Quackerjack began, leaning back on his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him. “We just got our butt’s handed to us by a talking thorn bush, huh?”

“Yeah.” Megavolt rubbed at his sore wrists under his gloves. “Yeah, we did..”

Neither of them were strangers to losing battles- it kind of came with the hero territory, especially in a city of so many super-powerful beings in a place like Saint Canard- but, since they’d teamed up, the two of them were usually able to handle whatever adversary they came across with varying degrees of ease or difficulty.

In the months since the two had known each other, aside from Negaduck and his lackeys they had NEVER fought someone that was both strong and clever enough to beat them so effortlessly and it was, honestly, a bit unnerving.

Quackerjack jumped up to his feet, offering Megavolt a hand up. “Wanna track him back to his lair?” Megavolt pulled himself up with Quackerjack’s help, but, before he could answer, something on the counter caught the jester’s eye. “Huh? Hold the phone, Megs..” He reached over with his free hand and grabbed the object he’d spotted by the register, showing it to Megavolt. “Check this out..”

Megavolt’s eyes widened when he saw the crumpled up wad of fifty dollar bills in Quackerjack’s hand. “He PAYED?!!!”

“Yeah..” Quackerjack looked down at the money as well. “If he’s supposed to be a villain, he sure doesn’t make a lot of CENTS.”

Megavolt rolled his eyes slightly at the pun, but was too busy processing everything they’d just witnessed.

Maybe there was more to the moody plant mutant than there appeared to be…

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

The second time they ran into Bushroot, Megavolt and Quackerjack were responding to a shrill scream and had gone to investigate.

When they arrived, they saw Bushroot lifting a crying little dog girl with white fur up onto the back of his pitcher plant pet while a woman, clearly the girl’s mother, shouted at him.

“You put her down this instant, you disgusting freak!” The woman shouted, seething with anger but keeping her distance since she clearly understood that attacking him would be unwise. “Give her back RIGHT NOW!”

Bushroot just scowled at her and folded his thorny arms over his chest with a cocked brow. “Oh yeah? And what if I say no? What are YOU gonna do about it? Hit me?” When her only answer was to glare and fume silently, the corner of Bushroot’s beak lifted slightly in a smirk. “Uh huh. That’s what I thought.” He turned back to the girl and his pet and patted Spot on his side. “C’mon, Spot, let’s go.”

“Not so fast, Bushroot!” Megavolt shouted, sending a warning spark from the tip of his finger to land near the plant mutant’s feet and get his attention.

Bushroot turned to look at the heroic duo and glared. “You two? Seriously?”

“Yep. Us two. Seriously.” Quackerjack replied sarcastically with a grin before sticking his tongue out at the grumpy plant man childishly.

“Return that girl to her mother right now!” Megavolt commanded while pointing another electrically-charged finger at Bushroot.

Bushroot didn’t flinch or even bat an eye at the tone of Megavolt’s voice or the clear but unspoken threat of physical violence. “Yeah- not gonna happen.” He folded his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed in a silent warning of his own. “You couldn’t stop me last time- this won’t be that different.” He unfolded one arm and patted Spot on his side. “Get her out of here, Spot- go.”

“Woof!” Spot let out a loud bark and ran off, bounding past the heroes and the girl’s mother thanks to Bushroot reaching his long arms over to shove all three of them aside roughly.

“No!” Megavolt scrambled to his feet and ran after the pitcher plant. “I’ll get the girl!”

“I don’t think so.” Bushroot tried to grab him again to prevent his pursuit, but his long arm was suddenly pinned to the ground by the tip of Quackerjack’s bat.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Quackerjack wagged one finger at Bushroot in a scolding manner. “You get to play with me first, Bush-brain.” Quackerjack flicked his bat, sending the green appendage back in the direction of its owner and standing in Bushroot’s path with a challenging grin on his face. “You won our game of hide and seek last time, so I think I should get to choose the game this time. Sound like fun?”

Bushroot glared at him with an irritated scowl. “Sounds like something, but fun’s not the word I’d choose..”

“Awww, c’moooonn- this one’s a classic!” Quackerjack gave him a fake pout and reached into his toy pouch to grab something. “It was one of my FAVORITE games for recess.” He pulled out a small red sphere that, when he pressed a button on the bottom, inflated into a big red ball. “Dodgeball!!” The excited clown shouted as he threw the ball at Bushroot.

Bushroot easily dodged the ball by leaning to the side. “Eh, never really saw the appeal of dodgeball..the ‘dodge’ part’s fine-” He suddenly ducked, narrowly avoiding the ball when it rebounded off of a wall behind him and nearly hit him in the head. “It’s the ‘ball’ part I’m not a fan of…” He glared at the ball that was now faintly flashing red.

Quackerjack held out his hand and the ball returned to it as if it were magnetic. “What? Seriously? But half the game’s only half the fun!” He tossed the ball again with a chuckle. “Why don’t you try and catch it!”

Bushroot dodged the ball again both times- the first time when it was thrown at him and then again when it rebounded back to Quackerjack. “Gee, thanks, but…no.” He replied sarcastically. “It probably explodes or something, right?”

“Or something.” Quackerjack answered vaguely with a mischievous grin and a giggle. “You’ll see when you lose!” He reached into the pouch again and pulled out a handful of the little red balls, tossing them on the ground to activate them.

Meanwhile, Megavolt was in hot pursuit of the pitcher plant and the girl clinging fearfully to its back. He had magnetized his shoes and was now skating across the tops of the power lines, using the electrical currents running through them to go even faster.

Finally seeing an opening, he jumped over to another set of cables and slid down to the ground so that he ended up ahead of Spot and the girl. “Sit!” He commanded, holding a hand out to stop the plant in its tracks.

“Woof!” Instantly, the puppy-minded plant skidded to a halt and sat down on the ground in front of Megavolt, its tail wagging excitedly.

“Good boy.” Megavolt praised, slowly walking closer. “Now..just give me the girl..”

When he made a move to reach for her, however, the large plant suddenly stood up again and growled, even shaking its “head” back and forth in a negative motion. “Rrrrh!” It backed up, squatting slightly on its front legs like a dog ready to attack.

“Easy, boy..” Megavolt tried to soothe it with one hand, discretely charging electricity into his other hand while hiding it behind his back just in case. It appeared to be working at first, so Megavolt took a step closer. “That’s it..just relax..I just want to-”

“Camilla, you get off of that disgusting thing THIS INSTANT!!” The voice of the woman from earlier suddenly shouted, making Megavolt turn his head to see her running up to them from down the street and looking rather winded.

Whatever progress he’d been making with Spot was suddenly and rudely shattered when the pet plant let out a decidedly darker and more vicious growl, backing away from Megavolt and the approaching woman. “!!!!!”

“AAAAAAH!” The girl, still clinging to Spot’s back, screamed and held onto it tighter when it began to move. “No!!”

The plant took off running again and Megavolt chased after it, firing off the electrical charge from his hand in an attempt to scorch one of its feet just badly enough to trip it.

The attack worked, but it sent the girl flying into the air. “!!” Megavolt ran as fast as he could, then, at the last second, he charged two blasts of energy to his feet and used them to propel himself up into the air. He managed to grab the girl and magnetized his shoes to some metal siding on a nearby building so they could slide down safely. “Whew..that was a close one..”

To his surprise, the girl in his arms started crying again and struggled in his grasp once they were on the ground. “No! Let me go! Let me go!”

“W-Woah, there! It’s okay! You’re safe now! I’m one of the good guys, promise!” He tried to calm her down and keep her from running away. However, in the process of doing so, and thanks to his closer proximity to her now, he saw something dark under her white far that he’d missed earlier. “Huh? Wait..” He carefully pushed some of the fur on her cheek aside and it confirmed what he thought he’d seen: Bruises. Large bruises of varying shapes and colors scattered between her face and her neck that were far too big, and some far too old, to have been caused by Bushroot with his leafy hands just a few minutes ago. “Who did this to you..?” He asked with a frown, his confusion replaced with concern and righteous fury for the poor girl’s state.

His question was quickly answered when the girl’s mother started to catch up to them. The girl saw her coming and gasped, a panicked look in her eyes. “Ah!” She squirmed out of Megavolt’s grasp and ran back over to the pitcher plant. “Help me! Please!”

Spot whimpered as it stood back up on its vines properly, but it lowered itself enough that the girl could climb onto it again. “Woof!”

As Megavolt watched the girl interacting with the pitcher plant- as he saw the fear in her eyes looking at her own mother and the way the injured giant waited until she was clinging to it securely to move again- he finally understood the truth of what happened.

“……” With a strong stride that spoke of firm convictions, Megavolt stepped out in front of the pitcher plant while facing the approaching woman. He raised a single finger and pointed it at her, firing a spark that hit the ground near her feet. “That’s far enough!”

The woman gasped in surprise and nearly fell back to avoid the warning shot. “Wha-?! What are you doing?! That beast has my daughter! Aren’t you supposed to be a hero or something?! Do the right thing and BRING. HER. TO. ME!” The indignation and rage was clear in her voice, but Megavolt chose to ignore her.

“I am doing the right thing.” Megavolt turned around to face Spot, holding one hand out by way of a peace offering and keeping the other one visible this time to show he wasn’t planning anything. “Sorry about earlier. Can you take me back to Bushroot?”

“……” Spot was quiet for a moment before barking and nuzzling Megavolt’s out-stretched hand. “Woof!” Spot kneeled down so that Megavolt could climb on too, its tail wagging happily behind it.

“Thanks, Spot.” Megavolt gave it a gentle pat on its head before climbing on behind the girl, holding onto Spot with one hand and her with the other to help steady her.

With an excited bark the plant took off running back the way they’d come from, though not without bowling over the indignant and enraged mother and knocking her into a pile of very old and disgusting trash bags along the way.

By the time they’d returned to where they’d left Quackerjack and Bushroot fighting, the tide had certainly turned in Quackerjack’s favor.

While he’d gone down from five flashing red balls to two, the sacrifice of his toys had been worth it: All across the impromptu battlefield were globs of a red putty-like substance that seemed very sticky and squishy at the same time.

Bushroot looked exceptionally irritated, as he was currently stuck in one of the globs. Specifically, his arm was stuck in one on the side of a building, leaving him pinned in place. “……” He glared silently at the giggling jester in front of him.

“Looks like you’ve gotten yourself in a pretty STICKY SITUATION, eh, Bushy?” Quackerjack teased while idly balancing the two remaining balls on the tip of his bat. “Maybe it’s time for you make like a tree and LEAF.” He laughed at his own joke, ignoring the way Bushroot rolled his eyes. “Unless you’d rather STICK AROUND!”

Bushroot scowled at him. “Do you EVER stop talking?”

“Hmmm…” Quackerjack tilted his head in mock-thought before shrugging. “Who knows? It’s a MYS-TREE to me!”

Bushroot groaned and looked down with a shake of his head. “That one barely even works…”

Their bantering was interrupted by the noisy return of Spot and his passengers. “Woof!”

“Spot?!” Bushroot stared at his pet in shock. “What are you doing?! I told you to get out of here!” The dog-like plant started to bark something at him, but it only seemed to rile him up more. “HE BURNED YOU?!!” Bushroot’s earlier shock turned into rage and he started pulling against the putty holding his arm to the wall.

“Hey, take it easy there, Bush-brain.” Quackerjack let one of the balls drop back into his other hand, preparing to throw it. “Don’t make me-” Whatever he was about to say died on his tongue when he saw the upper half of Bushroot’s trapped arm start to tear and green liquid ooze out. “H-Hey, take it easy! You don’t have to-!”

“!!!” With a pained hiss and a clenching of his teeth, Bushroot tore his own arm off to escape. “Out of my way!” He tried to run past Quackerjack, shoving the shocked clown out of his path with his remaining hand.

Still startled by the plant-duck’s act of self-mutilation, Quackerjack ended up dropping his bat and the remaining red balls he had. Regardless, he caught his balance and tried to grab Bushroot by his more in-tact arm. “Wait a sec-OW!” He winced when his bare hand met the various sizes of thorns on the viney appendage.

“Wha-?!” Bushroot’s anger turned to shock once more as he tried to snatch his arm away. “Are you an idiot?! Don’t touch me!!”

The warning seemed to come too late, though, and Quackerjack started to sway on his feet right as Megavolt finally reached them on Spot’s back. “Quackerjack?!” He jumped down and ran over just in time to catch his partner when he fell over. “Quackerjack!!”

“Sparky..?” Quackerjack wheezed out, his gaze hazy and unfocused. “I..I feel funny- not haha funny…why are you green…?” His eyes began to close and Megavolt felt a surge of dread creep into him.

“H-Hey! Come on, Quackerjack! Stay with me!” He patted the duck’s face a few times in an attempt to wake him up.

“Dang it..!” Bushroot scowled and snapped his leafy fingers at Spot. “Open up!” Spot did as it was asked and kneeled down low to the ground with its mouth wide open. Bushroot then walked over to the pair of heroes and grabbed Quackerjack’s hand to examine the thorns that had broken off into his skin. “We need to get him to my green house.” He tugged Megavolt along roughly by his elbow and pointed at Spot’s mouth. “Put him in there- head first.”

“……” Megavolt looked at the sticky interior of the purple plant, feeling reasonably hesitant about placing his partner in crime-fighting inside of a carnivorous plant.

“Oh, for the love of-!” Bushroot rubbed his hand over his face in annoyance. “We don’t have time for this! Look, Spot’s insides are sticky, so that’ll keep him from moving around! Plus he can start leeching out some of the toxins and thorns on the way there!” When Megavolt still hesitated, Bushroot snapped at him. “Do you want him to live or not?!!”

Megavolt blinked in surprise at the tone of the other man’s voice.

Yes, it was definitely frustrated, but it was a frustration born of something else…

Worry?

Desperation?

Concern?

Guilt?

He couldn’t tell at the moment, but, as he took one look from the frustrated expression on Bushroot’s face, to Quackerjack in his arms, then finally to the little girl still seated on Spot’s back, he made a decision he felt was the right one in that moment.

“Alright. I trust you.” Megavolt said as he carefully placed his friend into the large plant’s waiting mouth.

“……” Bushroot’s brows knit together for a brief moment at the other’s choice of words, but he ignored it with a shake of his head and reached in with his elongated arm to help settle Quackerjack properly- even making sure that his injured hand was palm-down against the area at the bottom of the plant’s body near a pool of liquid. “Get on.” He commanded with a jerk of his head as he followed his own advice and climbed on top of Spot.

Megavolt did as requested after grabbing Quackerjack’s bat and took his place from earlier behind the girl to help hold her in place.

The whole time they were riding on Spot’s back, Megavolt quietly prayed that his friend would be okay- that they would get to the greenhouse Bushroot spoke of in time. And that he really was making the right decision…

They reached their destination around sunset, the last of the light dwindling by the time they arrived at the surprisingly well-maintained greenhouse.

Bushroot was the first one to jump off of Spot’s back and he was already motioning for the pitcher plant to open up once again. “We don’t have much time left- carry him inside.” He directed the order to Megavolt once Spot opened its mouth enough for them to retrieve Quackerjack from inside. “Spot, take the girl and, I don’t know, go play with the petunias or something.”

Spot barked happily and ran off with the girl, taking her over to a small patch of dancing flowers just outside of the greenhouse. “Woof!”

Bushroot then led Megavolt inside, the various trees, shrubs, and flowers swaying and reacting to their master’s presence immediately. “Yeah, yeah, hey..” He grumbled as he made his way to an open patch of grass. With a wave of his hand, the patch of grass sprouted new plants that grew surprisingly quickly and smelled strongly of-

“Green tea leaves?” Megavolt questioned while sniffing the air.

“They can help stop bleeding.” Bushroot explained with a waving gesture indicating he wanted Megavolt to set Quackerjack down in the fragrant patch while he busied himself with going to various herbs and flowers around the green house. “Hey, guys..yeah, sorry, I hate to ask this..really? Okay, thanks, I appreciate it.” He went to an equipment locker against one of the walls and pulled out a bottle of water, a bowl, a jar of black powder, a pair of scissors, and, oddly enough, some surgical tubing and alcohol.

In a hurry, he carelessly dropped most of the gathered equipment on the floor, leaving only the bowl and scissors in his hand. As he started going around to the various plants he’d spoken with before, he carefully clipped off different pieces- seed pods, leaves, roots, even whole stalks or flowers- and collecting them in the bowl.

“Is there anything I can do?” Megavolt asked, feeling bad that he was just standing there doing nothing while his friend was dying –heck, even the tea leaves were helping out by removing the thorns still embedded in Quackerjack’s hand!

Bushroot paused a second to think over the question before pointing at the bottle with his scissors, keeping the bowl propped against his torso with his damaged arm. “Heat that up for me.”

Megavolt nodded while Bushroot continued gathering the ingredients he needed. “Got it.” He picked up the bottle and opened it before concentrating a small electrical current into the container. Minding his powers and controlling them could be difficult at times, but he kept his mind focused by reminding himself how important it was not to mess up. “For Quackerjack..” He muttered, closing his eyes and maintaining the current just enough to cause heat but trying not to warp or damage the plastic and spill the liquid inside.

“That’s good enough.” Bushroot’s voice cut through his thoughts and Megavolt opened his eyes to see the plant duck seated beside him on the ground with the bowl of plant parts in his lap. However long he’d been focusing on the bottle had apparently been enough time for Bushroot to chop up the various plants he’d gathered into tiny pieces. “Pour it in.” He instructed while managing to open the jar of black powder and pouring a fair amount of it into the bowl as well.

Megavolt did as he was told and poured the hot water into the bowl with the other ingredients, watching as Bushroot summoned a series of vines that rotated quickly like beaters for a mixer to combine the bowl’s contents accordingly. “What is that stuff anyway?”

“A few aromatic flowers to open up his airway, some herbs to restore any lost nutrients and boost his immune system, and some activated charcoal to absorb the toxins in his bloodstream.” Bushroot explained, checking the consistency of the mixture to make sure it was thin enough before dismissing the vines.

“Charcoal?” Megavolt questioned disbelievingly at the idea of putting charcoal into someone’s body. “Is that safe??”

“It’s a centuries-old, well-proven method for treating deadly nightshade poisoning.” Bushroot assured him while grabbing the surgical tubing. “Roll up his sleeve so I can find a vein.” Once Megavolt did as the plant-duck asked, Bushroot took the scissors from earlier and used them to cut a small incision into Quackerjack’s arm after finding the proper vein. “Good. Now, hold him still.”

Megavolt moved to the other side of Quackerjack’s unconscious body and held his arms down. “Just hold on a little longer, Quacky..” He said softly, looking down at the duck’s flushed and sweat-dampened feathered face as he remained completely unaware of what was going on around him.

Bushroot carefully inserted one end of the surgical tubing into the open wound, a large leaf-bearing plant sprouting up beside him and curling into the other end of the tube to act as a funnel. “Alright..here goes nothing…” He brought the bowl up to the make-shift funnel and began to pour in the freshly made medicine.

Quackerjack remained still at first…but that didn’t last long.

A few seconds after the mixture began to enter his veins, the duck’s eyes flew open and he stared ahead unseeingly. “!!!!” His mouth opened in a silent scream and he began to thrash against Megavolt’s hold in a panic.

“Quackerjack! Quackerjack, calm down!” Megavolt held his friend down harder, not wanting to hurt him but not being given much choice in the matter.

The silent screaming soon gave way to ACTUAL screaming once Bushroot finished pouring the mixture in. “Just hold him a little longer!” Once the bowl was empty, he tossed it aside and used his hand to hold the tube in place while the last of it entered Quackerjack’s bloodstream.

“Spiders! They’re crawling on me! In my brain! In my veins!” Quackerjack’s screaming began to form words, but they were all nonsense and he seemed deaf to Megavolt’s voice. “Ahahahaha! It tickles! I see it! Rainbows- so many colors! I can taste them! I-!” His eyes rolled back into his head and he gasped sharply before going still again, his eyes shutting.

Megavolt reached up to check the pulse on Quackerjack’s neck, breathing a sigh of relief when he felt the tell-tale thump of a heartbeat beneath his fingertips. “Is he gonna be okay? What was all that?” He questioned while looking at Bushroot with concern.

Bushroot took a seat and began carefully removing the tube from the clown’s arm. “He’ll be fine. Hallucinations and delirium are common side-effects of solanum carolinense poisoning, but his breathing is stable now and the poison’s moving out of his body thanks to the charcoal.” Once the tube was out, he held out his hand and another leafy plant grew so he could pluck the leaf and wrap it around the spot the tube had just occupied with some tea leaves underneath to help stop the bleeding.

“Good…” Megavolt said simply as they sat there and watched over Quackerjack. Unfortunately, now that the threat to his partner’s life was gone, things felt…awkward. “Um..thanks for helping him-”

“Don’t thank me.” Bushroot replied automatically without even looking at him.

They sat there in a tense silence for a few minutes while Megavolt tried to think of what else he could say.

“Sorry..about blasting Spot..and about your arm-” He began, feeling that would be an appropriate conversation starter.

Apparently Bushroot disagreed, however, because he cut Megavolt off once again. “We’re plants. We’ll heal. It’s fine.”

This was getting painful. Seriously, what do you say to someone you had pegged for a villain after they’ve saved your friend’s life?

“Is there..uh..something we can do to repay yo-” He tried to start another conversation, but was interrupted yet again.

“Just leave.” Bushroot said firmly, finally getting back up to gather his equipment. “And take the girl with you- you two can probably find a better place for her.” He turned away from Megavolt, using the bowl to hold everything he’d used that evening.

“Fine..” Megavolt conceded, carefully picking up Quackerjack’s unconscious body and making his way to the door.

When he was close to the exit, however, he heard Bushroot speak one more time. “He’s gonna feel nauseous when he wakes up- that’s normal. Make sure he stays hydrated, but no ice water or he’ll feel worse. If his fever comes back..just…I don’t know, bring him here or something…”

Megavolt couldn’t help but smile slightly at the plant-duck’s tone of voice. He was trying to come off as cold and clinical, like a doctor giving a diagnosis. But, beneath the harsh exterior and forced neutrality of his tone of voice, Megavolt could hear the genuine worry and caring nature hidden deep down that the odd creature was trying so hard to hide.

“I will. Thanks.” He replied without turning around.

“I told you not to thank-” Bushroot turned to snap at the hero, but it was his turn to be cut off- this time by the closing of the door after the two heroes were already gone.

Finally alone once more in his greenhouse (well, alone aside from his plants, of course), Bushroot allowed himself to heave a sigh, the tension releasing from his hunched shoulders all at once.

He looked oddly relieved..yet..sad…

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

The third time they ran into Bushroot was on purpose.

Bushroot was busy tending to his greenhouse when, much to his startled surprise, there was a knock at his front door. “?!” He glared suspiciously at the door, preparing for a fight, when Spot ran up to it and started barking excitedly. “Huh..?” Deciding to investigate, he walked to the door and squinted through the glass to see two very familiar color combinations standing outside. “Ugggh..” He rolled his eyes and opened the door to see a pair of heroes standing there “WHAT?” He asked with a clearly irritated expression, folding his thorned arms over his chest.

“Good to see you too, Bushy.” Quackerjack grinned at the clearly annoyed flower-headed duck, keeping one hand held behind his back. He looked at Bushroot’s arm and his smile softened slightly. “Your arm feeling okay?”

Bushroot spared a glance down at it and shrugged. “It grew back after a couple days.” He glanced over to Quackerjack’s hand- the one that had been pierced by his thorns and was now currently wrapped in bandages. “Your hand…?”

“Like almost-new.” Quackerjack noticed the look of poorly concealed concern and raised the wrapped hand up to wiggle each of the fingers in demonstration. “See?” He pointed his thumb at Megavolt with a childish pout. “The only reason I’m still wearing these is because Sparky here’s a worry-wart.”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Megavolt replied automatically, but there wasn’t any real annoyance behind his words. “Can we come in for a bit?” He directed his attention back to Bushroot.

Bushroot eyed them skeptically, one brow cocked. “You’re not here to arrest me or something, right?”

“No, but that is part of what we wanted to talk to you about.” Megavolt’s answer was elusive, but his tone was straight-forward and honest- something Bushroot could appreciate.

“Fine..” The perpetually-grumpy plant-duck led them further into the green house. Not having any real furniture (due to not needing any), Bushroot had to wave his hand to summon soft, gigantic flowers for them to sit on- one by itself for him and two across from it for the others. “So..” He began while taking his seat. “What do you want?”

Quackerjack and Megavolt took their seats across from him, Quackerjack being the first one to speak after hiding whatever it was he’d brought in behind his back. “Gee, right to the point. Not even gonna offer us a drink first?” He teased.

“All I’ve got is water and pesticide.” Bushroot responded dryly. “Now, are you gonna tell me why you’re here, or should I just cut to the part where I throw you out?”

Megavolt sighed in mild annoyance and rubbed his eyes under his safety-glasses. “Ignore Quackerjack, he can’t be serious to save his life…literally.”

“Aw, it was one time!” Quackerjack pretended to pout before bursting into a fit of giggles. “Besides, the look on that witch’s face was priceless!”

Bushroot got the feeling that was supposed to be a pun of some sort, but one that was more situational humor that he wouldn’t understand without a story that he really wasn’t in the mood for. So, instead, he just did a “hurry up” gesture with his hand to move the conversation along.

“We wanted to apologize for how we treated you.” Megavolt began, the frown on his face clearly showing the guilt he felt. “We judged you way too harshly, and we know that you’re not a bad guy now.”

“Yes I am.” Bushroot insisted with a scowl, leaning back in his flower-chair with his arms crossed defiantly. “I’m a poisonous species of plant mutant that can kill anything I touch. I stay out here so I don’t have to deal with the stupid people in town because I HATE everyone. The closest thing I have to ‘friends’ are my plants- plants that I create and control.”

“Plants like Spot?” Quackerjack questioned with a quirked brow while casting a poignant look in the direction of the large pitcher plant that was currently chasing its own flowery tail in circles. “Because that’s really not helping your case, Bushy.”

“He’s a carnivorous plant that can dissolve people with acid if he swallows them.” Bushroot glared at the overly cheerful and sarcastic clown.

Quackerjack smirked at the frustrated plant in amusement. “Funny, I don’t FEEL digested.”

“That can be changed.” Bushroot warned him, growing more frustrated with the clown by the minute. “EASILY.”

“Like I said, ignore him.” Megavolt reached over and lightly smacked Quackerjack on the back of his head before looking at Bushroot with a serious expression again. “And we know you’re not a bad guy. Honestly, I don’t think you ever were, even before..” He gestured to Bushroot’s body as a whole. “THAT.”

Bushroot scowled slightly and looked away, his arms wrapping tighter around himself. “You don’t know anything about me…”

Megavolt frowned, easily able to see through the mutant’s façade now that he knew what to look for. “We know that you’re a better person than you pretend to be. Those guys at the gardening store started the fight with you, but you didn’t kill or seriously injure any of them. You easily could’ve killed US, but you let us live. You didn’t have to pay for the things you took, but you did, even though no one even worked at that store anymore.”

Quackerjack nodded in agreement, finally allowing himself to be slightly more serious. “Not to mention the whole ‘saving my life’ thing.”

“I was the one that poisoned you.” Bushroot tried to retort, but it was half-hearted at best.

“No, I poisoned MYSELF when I grabbed you.” Quackerjack reached behind himself and finally revealed the large but flat box that he’d carried in with him, holding it out towards Bushroot expectantly. “Which reminds me- this is my way of saying thanks.”

Bushroot glared at the box, refusing to touch it. “I don’t want it- I told you not to thank me.”

“Bushroot..” Megavolt cut in before Quackerjack could say something about the plant-duck’s attitude. “Whether you want to admit it or not..you’re a hero. You’re a good person that wants to help others- we can tell. You saved Quackerjack’s life, even though you didn’t have to.”

“I just didn’t want you to come looking for ‘heroic vengeance’ or something..” Bushroot scowled, clearly uncomfortable with being called a ‘hero’.

“And what about the girl?” Megavolt questioned, eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

Bushroot frowned and glared at the floor, not having a comeback for that one. “…….”

Megavolt’s gaze softened slightly as he continued. “She told us everything. About her mother hurting her, about you stepping in and yelling at her mom, and about you saving her. You didn’t HAVE to do any of that. She was a complete stranger. You could have just ignored it and walked away and nothing would’ve happened-”

“What was I supposed to do?!” Bushroot snapped, finally uncrossing his arms and glaring at them. “Just stand by and do nothing?!”

“Only if you were as cold and mean as you pretend to be.” Quackerjack commented with a smile that was slightly teasing, but mostly just understanding.

Bushroot’s eyes widened and his mouth hung open for a moment when he realized exactly what he’d said. “!!”

Megavolt’s smile matched Quackerjack’s. “You act tough and scary but, deep down, you’re a good man that just wants to help people- like us. The only thing we don’t know is WHY you try to hide it.”

“…‘Why’?” Bushroot asked once his shock turned to frustration once again. “You REALLY wanna know why?” His leafy hands clenched at his sides, a scowl on his face. “It’s because this world takes ‘good men’, chews them up, and spits them out when they’ve got nothing left to give. I TRIED being a good person. I TRIED helping the world…and look what it got me..” He uncurled one of his hands and looked at it, the anger that had started to creep into his voice slowly being replaced with sadness. “I was a botanist, you know..probably not the best, but I was still good at my job. I was coming up with a way for people to feed off of sunlight and water like plants, thinking that would be a way for me to solve world hunger and get me everything I ever wanted- fame, glory, money…love…but Negaduck’s ‘no plants’ law made being a botanist impossible unless you found a way to make him money or weapons. When he found out about my research, he threatened to close down my whole department. My so called ‘colleagues’ kicked me to the curb without a second thought.” His eyes drifted over to the remains of some long-damaged machinery in the corner of the greenhouse that looked like they once contained a pair of raising platforms. “I figured my life was over anyway, so why not go all-or-nothing? I tried my experiment on myself and..well…” He held his arms out for emphasis. “You can see how well that turned out.” He lowered his arms again to look down at his twisted root-feet. “It was..surprising..but my research ACTUALLY worked! I ran back to show the others and they said that they were..they were actually..impressed with me…” He choked back a bubble of some sort of emotion on the word “impressed”, unintentionally letting the other two know how much that meant to him. “Rho- I mean, Dr.Dendron, one of my co-workers, asked me to meet with her that night. I thought I was finally getting everything I ever wanted…” The next expression they saw on his face looked…heartbroken. “But..it was all a trap…they went behind my back and called Negaduck. When I went to meet Dr.Dendron, he was waiting there instead and he gave me an option: Make an army of plant mutants for him, or let my colleagues dissect me so they could figure out how to do it themselves. I barely escaped with my head…” He shuddered painfully at the memory, wrapping his arms around himself in a subconscious need for safety and comfort. “So..that’s why I’d rather stay out here…why I’d rather make people think that I’m a horrible monster…it’s better than letting them think I’m just another sap they can take advantage of.” He looked back up at them, a bitter frown on his face. “Do you two get it now? Being ‘nice’ or ‘good’ in this world..it’s pointless..you’ll just be a loser in the end…”

Megavolt was silent for a while, absorbing everything Bushroot just told him. With everything he’d said, he could definitely understand why he felt so betrayed and disheartened with the world and its people. But, even still, he had to-

“Boy, do I know how that story goes.” Surprisingly, it was Quackerjack that spoke up first. Both Megavolt and Bushroot looked to see him reclining back as far as his floral seat would allow, the box he’d brought with him sitting in his lap. “You know, I used to work at a toy company.” He began with a wistful smile. “That’s actually where I got the name from- it was called ‘Quackerjack Toys’, and we were one of the biggest toy companies in the world for a while. I was PRETTY high up there on the corporate ladder, too. I tried to be a role model for other big-shots like me and started all sorts of things like orphanages and children’s hospitals and charities. I thought I could use my money to make a difference in the world.” His smile fell slightly, looking much sadder than his usual grins. “But..then Negaduck started to change things in the city…I tried speaking out. I tried rallying people together to stand against him..and he decided to silence me for it. He teamed up with one of my company’s biggest enemies- Whiffle Co. Video Games- and they framed me for embezzlement and grand-larceny. I went to prison because Negaduck had the judge in his pocket and spent years in there..most of it in solitary..” His fingers fidgeted slightly and he brought one of his bells around to the front so he could give his hands something to occupy themselves with. “It was..well…it was terrible, not gonna lie. I kept trying to find a way out, or find a reason why what happened wasn’t so bad, but half the time I just wound up stuck in solitary confinement again. I..went pretty crazy for a while there. I started to hate other people...and hate myself even more. I started to wonder if anything I ever did mattered at all. I mean, I dedicated so much of my life to helping other people, but where were they when I needed help? There was no one…” His smile lifted slightly after he took a deep breath. “But..then I met someone really sweet while I was there..she helped me out and I decided that I wanted to help other people, too. She tried to talk me out of it- she said I’d spent enough time trying to help others and that I should just worry about myself for a change.” He shook his head with a sad chuckle. “I tried to do what she said, I really did..but..I couldn’t fight it- helping people is just a part of who I am. No matter how mad I get at the world, I feel like I have to try and smile so the rest of the world can learn to smile back.” He looked at Bushroot with an understanding smile, handing him the box again and looking relieved when Bushroot actually took it that time. “So..I get it. This world is really messed up and it makes it hard to be nice sometimes..but I think that’s just a bigger reason to fight bullies like Negaduck even harder- otherwise, they win and that’s the end of it all…and I know I can’t just sit back and let that happen.”

Bushroot looked down at the box in his hands for a while, clearly debating about what to say in response, when both he and Quackerjack were startled by a muffled sniffle. “???” They turned their heads towards the sound and saw Megavolt holding his face in one hand and his safety glasses in the other, his shoulders shaking as if he were…crying?

“Megs?” Quackerjack frowned and placed a hand on the rat’s shoulder. “You okay there, buddy?”

Concern was clear on his face and in his voice, and for good reason: He’d never seen Megavolt cry before, over ANYTHING. No matter how badly injured he’d seen the electrifying hero, or how dejected he’d looked after a lost fight with Negaduck and his goons, the rodent had stayed as bright as the lightning bolt on his cape.

Now, though, when he removed his hand from his face and looked down at the glasses in his other hand with his glistening shrunken pupils, he looked so..small..and frail…and so, so very tired..

“I…I’m sorry…” Megavolt took a few deep breaths to try calming himself down, but the pained frown remained on his face. “It’s just..when I hear about good people like the two of you that had their lives ruined by Negaduck, it reminds me of how much I’ve messed up…and…how it’s all MY fault…”

“Your fault?” Bushroot questioned the miserable rodent. “How the heck is any of that YOUR fault?”

“Because I haven’t been able to stop Negaduck, no matter how many times I’ve tried.” Megavolt’s frown turned bitter, his empty hand clenching into a fist.

Bushroot stared at him in mild surprise. “Wait, wait, back up- you’ve fought that psycho before?”

“And on your OWN?” Quackerjack’s look matched Bushroot’s as the pair stared at Megavolt in clear expectation of an answer. The pair of heroes had gone up against Negaduck more than once, sure, but he’d never said anything about previous fights with the chainsaw wielding psychopath from before the two of them had teamed up. Quackerjack sure as heck wouldn’t have tried to do that by himself, even with his questionable sanity!

Megavolt gave a half-hearted smile and rubbed his thumb along the edge of the glasses in his hand. “You guys already told your stories, guess it’s only fair for me to do the same.” He took another deep breath before looking up at them again. “This probably comes as a BIG surprise, but I was pretty much the class nerd back in high school.” He gave a light chuckle at that, one that was echoed by the other two since they were the same way back then. “In my senior year, I was more focused on inventing things than on relationships or dances..so, when it was time for prom, I decided I’d rather spend the time working on my new static generator. It was going to be my big breakthrough in electrical engineering that would help solve the world’s energy crisis! Just think about it- a generator that produces electricity using nothing more than simple kinetic motion and naturally occurring static electricity found in mammals and shag carpeting! It would have reduced the carbon footprint of a city like Saint Canard by at least 40%!” His face had lit up with an excited smile as he described his machine and what it would have been able to do, but he quickly reigned it back in with a slight flush to his cheeks and a clearing of his throat to get back on track. “A-Anyway…some bullies came to make fun of me for ‘hanging out with the wrong kind of electric hottie’ that night and overloaded my machine.” He held up one finger on his free hand and caused a spark of electricity to dance along the tip. “The accident gave me my powers, which was pretty cool, even if it did mess up my hair..and my eyes…and gave me some nasty scars…” He trailed off on that part, subconsciously touching one of his hands with the other. “It was scary..but..also really cool..I spent hours testing out my new powers and figuring out what I could do. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them yet, but I knew I wanted to impress people.” His smile fell into a slight frown. “Then…I heard the screaming..” He shuddered, drawing his arms in closer to himself. “I went to the gym where they were holding prom…and I saw Negaduck attacking my classmates.”

“!!!!” Both ducks stared at him with equal levels of shock, experiencing the same revelation of just HOW LONG Megavolt had been fighting against Negaduck by himself.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing.” Megavolt continued, sparks flickering around his fingertips as he remembered that night so clearly, even after all these years. “I’d only just gotten my powers..but..I had to do SOMETHING, right? After all, I-I was the only one that could, so I fought him off while everyone else tried to escape.” He set his glasses down in his lap and started to remove his gloves. “But…he still won..” With the gloves removed, he held up his hands to give the other two a clear view of his injuries: A jagged gash that lined up perfectly across both palms, two-thirds of his right pinky finger missing, and a nasty split between his left pointer and middle finger that had long since scabbed over but was clearly never stitched back together properly. “I barely escaped in one piece and Negaduck still managed to send half of my senior class to the hospital with serious injuries, but at least I kept him from actually..well, you know..” Megavolt sighed heavily while putting his gloves back on. “I gave everything I could to beat him and I still came up short…and when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING.” With his gloves back on, he reached up and gave his head a light tap. “Turns out using too much electricity messes with the electrical field around my brain, causing all sorts of memory problems. After the fight, I forgot where I lived and I even forgot who I was for a few months. I haven’t seen my family in over twenty years and I hardly remember what they even look like anymore..but..that’s probably for the best- if Negaduck found out who I was, he’d definitely go after them to get to me..and I don’t want anyone else getting hurt because of me..” He looked at his hands, that earlier look of pain and guilt on his face returning once again. “But..it seems like no matter what I do, there are people who still get hurt because of Negaduck: Poor people who don’t have the money to pay off Negaduck’s goons. Sick people dying in the streets because of the pollution he forces into the air. Children that had to grow up never knowing the feeling of sunlight and fresh air. Guys like you who were just trying to live your lives and make the world a better place until HE came along and ruined everything for you…” The last comment was directed at the other two with a sad, apologetic half-smile before he looked back down at the safety glasses in his lap. “Sometimes I wonder if these powers should’ve gone to someone else. That, maybe if someone smarter, or stronger, or braver had them, then Negaduck would’ve been stopped years ago..before he had the chance to ruin so many people’s lives. But…it’s just me. I’m the one who has the power, so I’m the one that has to do something.” He finally put his glasses back on for the first time since he started his story, taking one last deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I know there’s not much I can do on my own, and I’m probably insane for not giving up yet..but, if I don’t do something, then I feel like no one else will. It HAS to be me. This town needs a hero to save it, and, even if I have to sacrifice everything I am, I’ll be the one to save it one day.”

A light slap to the back of the hero’s head made the ending of his monologue fall flat and he turned in confusion to look at his colorful companion. “Geez, listen to this guy, would ya, Bushy? Getting all over-dramatic and junk- honestly makes me wish I had some popcorn and a soda.” Quackerjack offered Megavolt a sympathetic smile and moved his hand down so it could rest on the rat’s shoulder. “Would you quit with the lone-hero routine already? In case you haven’t noticed, you’re not the only superhero in this greenhouse!”

Megavolt had the decency to look embarrassed at that comment, rubbing the back of his head and glancing away. “O-Oh. Right. Sorry, that really isn’t fair to you two, huh?”

“Why are you bringing ME into this?” Bushroot asked with a frown that was trying to show irritation, but just came off as confused. “I’m no hero.”

“Yes, you are.” Megavolt returned his attention to the plant mutant with a confidant and kind smile. “You can fight it all you want, but, deep down, there’s a full-fledged hero waiting to bloom- all you have to do is let him out.” He stood up, smiling down at the still seated ex-botanist, and placed a hand on his shoulder (careful to avoid the thorns, of course). “We won’t force you into anything, but we just wanted you to know that we understand how hard it is trying to be a good person in this world, and, if you ever want to help make a difference in this town, or just want someone to talk to, you can come find us- we’ll have your back, no matter what.”

Quackerjack stood as well, giving Bushroot a grin of his own accompanied with a wink. “You can keep the gift no matter what you choose, by the way- it’s my way of saying thanks.” Quackerjack turned towards the door and walked out, petting Spot along the way. “We’ll show ourselves out- don’t wanna wear out our welcome, so we’ll be taking our LEAF now.” He chuckled at his own pun, grinning even when Megavolt shoved him out the door for it.

The pair of heroes waved a final farewell over their shoulders to Bushroot and did as Quackerjack said and took their leave (no, Megavolt wouldn’t let him get away with the pun twice, even if it did make him chuckle under his breath).

Bushroot sat there for a long time after they left, silently thinking over their parting words to him.

After a while, his curiosity finally got the better of him and he opened the box that Quackerjack gave him. Inside, he saw dark fabric that was mainly two colors- extremely dark brown and a slightly less dark green. He squeezed the green part with his thin “fingers”, feeling how thick the padding was for the green parts.

Staring intently at the fabric, Bushroot frowned and set the box down on the ground, stubbornly crossing his arms and looking away from it. “Couple of sentimental fools full of more sap than a maple tree…”

Still, despite his words, his eyes ended up being drawn back towards the fabric…

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

A few days later, Quackerjack and Megavolt were locked in a fierce battle against an old foe they’d bested before: Morgana Macawber, the sorceress of St.Canard.

The dark and demented duck was a towering witch of a woman with long, curly dark hair streaked with red highlights. What would normally be an imposing figure thanks to her tall stature, beautiful face, and glowing magical aura, was slightly diminished by the fact that she was wearing a red sweet-lolita style dress with a long, puffy skirt accented with white lace along with a matching head piece, white stockings, and red shoes with more lace around the buckles. All-in-all, it was an…interesting set of contradictions that certainly showed in her personality when she spoke.

“I have you this time, foolish heroes!” Morgana giggled with twisted glee as she floated in the air in front of the roughed-up pair of heroes. “You two will be the PERFECT gifts for my beloved Lord Negaduck!”

Quackerjack picked up his bat from where it had been knocked out of his hands on the ground and used it to help hoist his battered body back up to its feet. “Yeeeaah, no thanks- I’d rather not become one of your creepy chocolate-covered valentine gifts…” He glanced at the various people around the town square that had been immobilized and frozen solid by different flavors and colors of chocolate.

“That goes double for me..” Megavolt pulled himself up as well with Quackerjack’s help. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s gay…”

“No he’s not!” Morgana stamped her foot in the air like a petulant child.

“Gotta go with Megs on this one.” Quackerjack chuckled at the sorceress’s immature temper tantrum, ignoring their impending doom in favor of teasing her a bit more. “Kinda hard to say he’s not after all the times he’s grabbed that big bodyguard of his and shoved his tongue down his-”

“SHUT UP!!” Morgana screamed and blasted the pair of already injured heroes with a burst of red magic. “My sweet Lord Negaduck loves me! He does! He just doesn’t know it yet!” She continued blasting them, hitting them again anytime they started to get close to the ground to keep them airborne. “We’re perfect for each other! You’ll see! EVERYONE WILL SEE! I’ll get rid of you two and then he’ll see that I’m the better partner- not that smelly brute Launchpad!” She hit them with one more powerful blast, leaving them prone and injured on the ground of what was once a thriving park but was now filled with nothing but dirt and dead trees. “Now..” She glared at them and her whole body glowed with a menacing red aura as she prepared to finish them off. “Say goodbye, heroes!!”

“Alright.” A voice that definitely didn’t belong to either of them spoke up. “Goodbye.”

Before Morgana had a chance to find out where the voice was coming from, she suddenly found herself being tied up by a patch of living daisies that sprung to life beneath her, seemingly out of nowhere. “What?! Let go of me! Grrr, stupid flowers!!” She struggled against the surprisingly strong flowers as they dragged her down towards the ground.

When Quackerjack and Megavolt had the strength to lift their heads again, they saw someone wearing a dark brown coat with puffy dark green sleeves standing in front of them- the image of a purple flower with a yellow center on the coat’s back matching that of its wearer’s head perfectly. The person wearing the coat had his back turned to them with his hands in the coat’s pockets, but they instantly knew who it was.

“Bushroot?!” They said at the same time with equally mixed feelings of surprise and relief.

Bushroot looked back at them over his shoulder, eyeing them up and down with a neutral expression. “Wow..you guys look like fertilizer right now.” He looked back to the struggling sorceress calmly. “Why don’t you two take a breather- I’ve got this one.” He took one hand out of his pockets and waved it back in their direction, causing a variety of fragrant plants such as lavender, peppermint, rosemary, and green tea leaves to sprout beneath the injured heroes and begin wrapping around them- secreting oils to help heal and soothe their wounds.

By the time he’d turned back to Morgana, the sorceress had managed to free herself from the debilitating daisies and was kneeling in the dirt. She got to her feet and looked at her dirtied dress with an angry expression. “Ooooh..you’ll pay for that, you overgrown weed!!”

Bushroot took both hands out of his pockets and did a slow clapping gesture that didn’t produce much sound. “Wooooow.” He said sarcastically. “You just won the award for the most UN-original insult I’ve ever heard. Seriously, like I haven’t been called a weed a million times already.” He walked towards her with no hesitation or fear visible anywhere in his voice or in his body language. “Besides, I technically AM a weed, so it’s not even that much of an insult, it’s just a fact. That’s like calling YOU a duck- it’s not really an insult..well, unless you’re trying to say it’s an insult to BE one, in which case, wow, that’s just racist and you DESERVE to go to jail just for saying that.”

“W..What..?” By the end of his comeback, Bushroot had reached a now very confused Morgana who just stared at him, unsure of what else to say.

“Here, let me give you the shorter version-” Bushroot stretched his torso so that he could look the sorceress in the eyes and smirk at her properly. “You’re an idiot.”

Capitalizing on the witch’s confusion, Bushroot had one of his legs detangle and grabbed her by the foot while she was distracted. He then latched onto the ground with his other foot and spun around in a circle, sending the startled sorceress flying when he let her go.

“!!!” Morgana’s eyes widened as she was sent careening through the air, trying to regain some control of her magic.

Not giving her a moment to catch herself, though, Bushroot brought his leafy digits to his mouth and whistled, making one of the nearby nearly-dead trees come to life and reel back one branch before slamming it right into Morgana’s head like a baseball bat. This rendered the Lolita-themed lady unconscious and sent her sprawling into the dirt below.

With the source of the curse unconscious, the people who had previously been frozen were suddenly granted their freedom and began to move around again. They were left sticky and stained from the quickly melting confection that had imprisoned them, but no worse for wear.

Speaking of no worse for wear, Quackerjack and Megavolt had watched the whole scene with their jaws dropped. Bushroot made beating one of the most magical ducks in the world look like child’s play!

Bushroot walked back over to the slightly less injured heroes and offered them each a hand up. “You guys just gonna sit there all day or actually pick your jaws and butts up off the ground?”

Quackerjack grinned and grabbed the offered appendage to pull himself up. “Considering you already saved these butts, guess we should do something with ‘em, huh?”

Megavolt pulled himself up next, giving Bushroot an equally big smile. “You really saved us, Bushroot- we owe you one!”

Bushroot let go of their hands and shoved his own digits back into his pockets. “Eh, don’t worry about it. I was just in the area and thought I’d lend a leaf.”

“You just happened to be in the area around the same time we were fighting a super villain?” Quackerjack asked with a cocked brow and a knowing grin.

“Yeah. That’s right.” Bushroot avoided eye contact with the grinning clown in a desperate ploy to appear aloof and uncaring, but, when he glanced back over, he saw that Megavolt was giving him the exact same grin. “What?” He glared at them, but they could easily tell how half-hearted it really was.

“Just glad to see you finally came around and decided to join us, Bushy.” Quackerjack teased while looping one arm around Bushroot’s shoulders,

“Welcome to the team!” Megavolt said while looping his own arm around Bushroot’s- the padding on the sleeve preventing the thorns from harming him at all.

Bushroot sputtered for a bit, looking between the grinning heroes with an expression of disbelief on his face. “Wh-Wha-?! I didn’t-! Who said-! I-!” He tried to shake and shove them off with an annoyed grunt. “I never said I was joining your stupid team! I told you before- I’m not a hero!”

“Scoreboard says otherwise, Bushy.” Quackerjack gave him that same infuriating grin that made Bushroot scowl at him.

“He’s right, you know.” Bushroot turned his head to the other side to look at Megavolt- the rat giving him a much kinder smile than his partner was. “You’re our hero, Bushroot..and we’d be happy to have you on our team.”

It was hard to tell with his pigmentation, but it looked like Bushroot’s cheeks turned a shade darker when he looked down to avoid seeing either of their faces. “Hmph..sappy idiots- both of you.” He tucked his hands back into his pockets, but didn’t try to shake off their grip on him like last time. “I’m not a hero, no matter what you two try to say.” He paused for a moment, only continuing when they looked ready to argue with him. “But..” He looked back up with the corners of his beak lifted in a half-smirk half-smile as he glanced between them. “You two would probably get yourselves killed without me, so I guess I’ll stick around to keep you out of trouble.”

Quackerjack and Megavolt stared at him for a minute, stunned into surprised silence from seeing a rare smile on the moody plant-duck’s face.

Then they grinned and cheered, celebrating their team’s newest member (even if he denied it), and jokingly started coming up with names for their little group- Bushroot giving Quackerjack an annoyed roll of his eyes but an undeniably fond smile whenever he tried coming back to the name “Thunderous Threesome” and saying it somehow sounded inappropriate.

Despite everything he said to the contrary, the reluctant smile on Bushroot’s face told his new friends exactly how happy he was to be there.

<-First Chapter Next Chapter->

End Notes: Warned you guys that one would be long. Heads up, the next one’s gonna be about as long as this one ^^”

By the way, for Morgana’s design in this, I decided that since her original version was based off of the Bride of Frankenstein with some influences from Dracula’s brides (and a little Morticia Adams), that the horror movie inspiration for her Negaverse-version would be Claudia and her Lolita style from Interview With a Vampire. I liked the idea of trying to appear sweet (here’s an image reference for the sort of outfit I saw Morgana wearing but with red shoes) while actually being an adult and her flipping back and forth between childish tantrums and psychotic obsessions. Also, it should be obvious, but I also based parts of her personality off of the classic yandere style characters from a few Japanese anime and games.

Oh, and Spot is essentially this universe’s version of Spike, and he’s based off of pitcher plants, another type of carnivorous plant like venus flytraps. In particular, I based the design off of Australian pitcher plants because I thought the vibrant purple color would coordinate with Bushroot’s purple petals nicely.

#negaverse #friendly four #megavolt #quackerjack #bushroot #morgana macawber #quackervolt #bushvolt #quackerroot #ot3 #nega-megavolt #nega-quackerjack #nega-bushroot #nega-morgana

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