#there was also a cat in the dream and i woke up with a stuffy nose so wtf was that part

[stardancerluv]

The Past Follows Like Your Shadow

Part 3

Summary: The pain still lingers.

Notes/Warning: Implied dom!Gator, dated/sexist views of marriage…sex.

Bullying behavior, hitting someone…

Coming soon…Gator Tillman smut

❤️s, reblogs, feedback are all welcome! Wanna be tagged please ask!

Kurrrrplop!

You distantly saw something fall onto your friend’s plate before a scream ripped from him.

Ahhhhh!!!

“Gator? What’s the…?“ Your voice trailed off as you watched him fall and scramble from the picnic bench you both shared.

Moving quickly he was getting up and dusting himself.

“Are you ok?” You whispered.

Nodding he dusted himself off. You quickly noticed him rub the tears that had flooded his eyes when he fell with the back of his hand, luckily before the three goons that always gave the two of you trouble ambled over. Inwardly, you groaned.

“You are such a wuss Gator, they seriously should have scaredy-cat;” The other two chuckled. “You are no gator if a frog scares you.” Said the one who always did the talking.

Gator stepped forward. “I am not wus.”

“You are and you know it.” The older practically brushed against him as he also stepped closer.

Gator you noticed didn’t move away.

You blinked and the taller kid’s yelp startled you. That’s when you realized Gator had punched him in the nose.

“Hey now what’s going on here?” The much larger figured cast a shadow over all of you. It was Roy, Gator’s father.

“Nothing.” You managed to get out.

“Oh really?” His eyes darted to you.

You nodded and swallowed, the man terrified you. You saw one of his hands formed a fist.

The bully spoke up. “Yes, we were just horsing around Mr. Tillman.”

His eyes narrowed on him as he took a hand away from his nose that had become bloodier. The boy looked as if he shrank.

Never had you been relieved that everyone feared Gator’s father.

Then he turned to his son. “Gator?”

Startled awake you fell off your sofa with a thud.

Blinking, you looked around confused. The lights were on. Even the ac gently blew. Seeing Gator, had derailed you. Coming home, you tore through the boxes. You organized things in a blur to distract yourself. Before you knew it, it had been too late to get on the phone to settle anything with your Great Aunt’s bill.

Tiring yourself out, you had thought a short nap would help. You felt like you were all over the place, you couldn’t ground yourself with one emotion. You had not expected seeing gator would do that.

There was another knock at the door. This one vaguely sounded more urgent. It was that, that had woke you up from your dream of the past. But who could it be. Her neighbor had already brought over far too much food.

You looked down at yourself and straightened your shorts and tank top. Mabel, would just have to deal with your attire. You swore these old women, your aunt included had an endless array of moomoos to wear. She most likely going to invite you over for dinner like she had last night.

It had grown stuffy while going through her belongings before you had decided to take a nap. You had not intended to take such a long one. It was now dark out.

Fixing your messy ponytail you reached for the knob on heavy door. It barely budged. Sighing, you ended up needing both hands, it finally creaked open.

You gasped. “Gator?” You looked around then him up and down. “What are you doing here?”

A slow smile spread across his face. “I had to make sure they put on your electricity. Are you going to let me in?”

You gestured around you. “You, you?”

He nodded. “Who else?”

“Well, I was going to get it taken care of but, got distracted.” Inwardly you sighed. Grimacing, you nodded. “Sure but the place is a mess but sure.”

You didn’t know what to say, as he walked past you. The whiff from his cologne was distinctly stronger, you wondered idly if he had applied more before dropping by.

“How did you know?”

He turned on his heel to face you with lopsided smile you’d never forget as much as you tried to forget him. “Had my suspicions, decided to follow my hunch.”

You glanced down before looking back at him. “Well, thank you.”

He nodded. “Like I said Tulip let me help you.”

“That was for my car.” Your tone had an edge.

You had not meant to be mean, well actually you don’t know how you felt. You still had not been prepared to see him. You had hoped to avoid him all together.

“Is there any heavy lifting that needs to be done?”

He broke the silence, shedding his sheriff’s jacket. You bit your bottom lip as you watched his trim body move under his thin t-shirt. It looked even better under the leather harness.

Turning, he ran a hand over the boxes. “What can I help you with first?”

“What about Mary Sue?”

All you could see was that little pixie, Mary Sue the good little girl at all the Sunday church picnics. Who everyone loved.

He shrugged. “She’s a good wifey. She knows I work hard.”

You don’t know why, you honestly thought you were strong enough for all this. But his words cut across you like a slap across your face.

Over the last six years bitterness replaced the pain since leaving all of this behind.

“Any kids?”

You didn’t want to get surprised if you ran into them at the market.

“She won’t take my seed.”

He coughed. You watched as the vape once again appeared from out of no where. He had always promised he would be different then his father. He would not be cold and cruel.

But right then, his father could have easily said the same sentence. If there was any liquor in the house you would have made yourself a drink.

“I mean we are having problems. Father, brings us to church to pray on it.” He chewed his bottom lip. “He refuses to let us adopt. We wants to see he if her sister can be of any help.”

“Ah, right. He would do that.”

You nodded, quickly replying. Nothing had changed, you pressed your lips together.

He stepped closer to you. His body heat came off him in waves. You shivered.

You barely caught him sliding his vape away into one of his several pockets but you did feel as one of his hands wrapped around your arm. His thumb idly caressed you. “Relax. Its just me.”

His touch scattered your thoughts. Then you remembered the pain. “I left to get away from you.” Fire grew in the pit of your stomach.

He squeezed your arm. “What happened wasn’t my choice. You never let me explain.”

“Would it have changed anything?”

“I don’t know. I was a kid. We both were.”

“Yeah, but I was the one humiliated. Painted as the town harlot trying to seduce the sheriff’s only son.”

“We both know the truth.”

“Nobody else did. Not even my family.”

He pulled you closer. You didn’t know why you let him. His cologne tickled your nose. Bringing more memories to the surface.

“I never stopped thinking of you.”

It was all you had ever wanted to hear. You melted momentarily at the words. But them it hurt.

He was married and had become the sheriff. While you, you only had your dead great aunt’s house and the childrens’ books you wrote and got published.

You wrenched your arm free.

“I doubt that.” You spat out. His face contorted before it smoothed once again. You couldn’t read his eyes. “Are you upset that she hasn’t been able to carry on the Tillman name by giving you a son?“

He reached out and wrapping an arm around your waist and brought you against him. You struggled.

“Let me go.”

“No, stop. I don’t want to tame you like I would a stallion.”

@delikaitxx

[silverwings-stories]

🌼DaisyClan: Moon 19-20🌼

Moon 19

Bubblingpaw shrank back as his clanmates chanted: “Hoppaw! Brushpaw! Bubblingpaw!” His brother and sister were sitting tall, their eyes sparkling, their fur fluffed with excitement. But Bubblingpaw felt like he had ants in his pelt. This is something every kit looks forward to! He thought. So why can’t I be happy about it? 

One thing was for sure, Bubblingpaw had always been a little . . . different from his siblings. He didn’t join them when they chased each other around the camp, he didn’t trail after the older cats, pestering them with questions, and he certainly didn’t like sleeping in the stuffy den with his siblings piled on top of him. But it seemed like that was the sort of thing normal kits did. Was there something wrong with him?

Bubblingpaw was shaken from his thoughts when his brother, Hoppaw, nudged him with a paw. “Come on, Bubblingpaw!” He squeaked, his tail twitching with agitation. “Our mentors are going to show us around the forest! Don’t you want to come?” Looking up, Bubblingpaw noticed that Brushpaw was already waiting by the cavern entrance with her mentor. Woodfur was there, too, and when he met Bubblingpaw’s gaze, he smiled and flicked his tail encouragingly. They were getting ready to leave.

Bubblingpaw sighed, and got to his paws, following Hoppaw as he scampered toward the entrance. At least it would be nice to get under the open sky. 

>>>

Notable Events

Hoppaw, Brushpaw, and Bubblingpaw are made apprentices.

Fawnpaw is developing a crush on Rabbitpaw.

Moon 20

In a patch of pale flowers, a star-shaped daisy was growing, its petals opened to the beams of sunlight. The flower was small, but it had numerous neighbours which would shelter each other if the weather turned sour. Right now, though, it was peaceful here. After so many moons of cold winds and dark skies, the star-shaped daisy felt it was good to finally stretch its petals wide.

But, of course, the peace could never last.

On this warm afternoon, everything was silent and still, until a faint drumming sensation vibrated through the ground. The drumming grew louder and louder until it became a rhythmic pounding, and the flowers shook with each impact. At last, the source of the noise came into view: a tall shadow with long front limbs and five curled claws on each paw.

The creature stopped, surveying the flower patch. The star-shaped daisy trembled as its hot breath washed over them. After a moment of consideration, it chose its prey. Reaching down, the creature plunged its clawed paw into the earth right next to the star-shaped daisy, tearing its neighbour out. Their roots clung to each other, then snapped, as the star-shaped daisy’s neighbour was lifted away by the creature, leaving an open hole in the flower patch, like a fresh wound in the soil. 

Clutching the stolen flower, the massive creature turned and began lumbering away. The daisies shook as a sudden gust of wind overtook them. Their leaves brushed together, and the whispering that filled the air seemed to form words: Gone, gone . . . but not lost . . .

Woodpelt woke with a jolt, her heart pounding in her throat. As sleep left her, she would feel the memory of the vision slipping away, too. She growled in frustration. Minkstar had seen the shadowy creature holding the daisy in a dream a few moons ago. Clearly it was important, if now Woodpelt was seeing it. But why? What did it all mean? Would this creature take more daisies from the flower patch in the moons to come?

>>>

Notable Events

Woodfur and Bubblingpaw drive a rogue off DaisyClan territory.

Woodpelt has another vision from StarClan, but still can’t interpret it.

Gone . . . but not lost.

If you want to see more of my work, I also have an alt account where I post non-clangen art and a YouTube channel.

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

[neverendingparable]

💕 - Whichever ship you feel like talking about :D

@parables-for-days

Send "💕" to find out how my muse met their crush/partner!

"So you know how I and the Grimdarks don't get along at all because I think they're shitty people and they are too weak to handle my sexy Maso vibes? Also you'd think after all that torture shit from Alice, I'd have the common sense to stay away from her and her deranged girlfriend. But! I wasn't really in my right mind and I had Calypso hanging around." Maso's recounting the story while he and Thursday sit on his bed of stuffies, the shitty slasher move on mute in the background.

"Caly and I picked up a weird signal coming from the grimdarks one day - not any signal, but one from The Antagonist himself! I wanted to meet that guy for suuuch a long time and having him so close, I couldn't risk letting my chance get away. It turned out he was in the Dreamland, which is exactly what it sounds like. You have to be asleep to enter it, Melissa of course is a lot better at it than I am. She knocked me out and sent me to where Phobos was lurking around."

At this point Maso hesitates. It's been so long but this particular part of the memory still disturbs him. It disturbed him back then.

"There was a little girl in the dream. It was her dream, I think. Scarlett Smiley. She had been kidnapped by Doctor Money. Something was really off about her. After I watched her nightmares, I managed to take a bit of her despair away with the help of Calypso. But she changed, and I dont think it was her who was speaking anymore. Like there was something else inside of her, yknow? Someone else. Phobos woke her up though and I never really found out what happened to her afterwards. I did send someone to go check on her once I woke up too.

Anyway, though. Back to our love story! After gushing over Phobos and all, I tried to get him to show me to his torture Office. When he refused I tried to make him a deal. And eventually we agreed on one: I break up with Calypso and he becomes my new best friend. 

Now, you can probably imagine what I was thinking. A masochist, about to become BFFs with the most notorious torturer in the Office! But Phos had other plans. He was nice to me. Petted my hair. Healed my injuries. Put me in a bath. Washed my fucking hair. Can you believe the audacity? That ass!" Maso laughs at the memory; he had really acted like an unhappy cat, hissing and fighting Phos every step of the way.

"And the rest you know! That's how I met Phobos and won his heart~ I'm 90% sure it was my really bad attempt at rapping that made him start to like me."

[jodilin65]

So Tom thinks you should be able to move to another country. This is when I asked him what he thought of the immigration situation which I do not support. He has a point but I think there should be limits. Too much is simply too much. We only have so many jobs, doctors, and housing here.

Slept horribly again. Strange sounds woke me up that Tom said he didn’t hear, then I had to get up and pee, and then I couldn’t breathe out of my nose because part of my nose strip came off. Tom swore he didn’t hear any loud bangs and he checked the camera for the time I thought I heard a loud engine of some kind and didn’t see anything. He told me the other day when he was napping that he could have sworn he heard someone knocking on the door, got up and checked, but no one was there. Then he checked the camera to see if he missed anyone and he didn’t. So I guess that sometimes these things are in our dreams. I swear whatever is up there is hell-bent on doing whatever it can to fuck with my sleep!

Well, I can’t fight back against the imagined sounds, the occasional nightmares, or the screaming bladder, but I’m now pretty sure that my nose - which is getting stuffier by the minute - is because of the losartan. It makes no sense that after being here for over two years, I would develop allergies like this or that it would be from the rat even though she’s close to the bedrooms when we had two to four rats in the other place and I didn’t have this problem. The only animals I’m allergic to are cats and they affect my lungs, not my nose. So I think the losartan is responsible for the stuffiness and the snoring as well, which also started around the same time.

It’s not dangerous to stop BP meds for a while and couldn’t cause the problems that stopping my thyroid meds would cause so I’m going to hopefully have an answer within a few days to a week, according to my research. I might have to try something else or not take anything and really watch my sodium intake and hope I don’t get kidney damage from the high blood pressure if I’m not able to get the weight off, or if I am and it doesn’t help. Not everyone with high blood pressure gets kidney damage, though, just like not everyone with high cholesterol has a heart attack, and not all fat people become diabetic. There’s just an increased risk, but not a guarantee.

I still expect to have some fatigue because my thyroid still isn’t perfect and I’m still older but I’m pretty sure I never had sleep apnea. Dozed for an hour earlier which helped a bit but I’m still quite exhausted. I’m very grateful for speech-to-text because sitting up typing all this would be a bit of a drag on those really tired days.

Sleep was horrible, as I said. I had to have woken up at least half a dozen times and one of the times it was hard to get back to sleep. First I thought I heard or at least felt a couple of thumps, then a loud engine, then I had to pee, then it was my nose, and then I had an awful dream about getting ready to move back to my home state with my parents. I didn’t know Tom in the dream. I’m not sure where my parents and I were living but we weren’t living together at the time. They were in the process of looking for a place up north for the three of us and I made them a tearful video trying to explain my sleep disorder to them, knowing they wouldn’t get it.

As for the diet, I was horribly hungry and tired yesterday, so I’m going to take today off as Tom suggested and then rethink how I’m going to approach it from there. I can definitely say that 1200 calories is too low for me in this day and age. It takes more calories for me to feel good than when I was younger. So if I feel comfortable with 1600 calories a day as I usually do, that’s probably what my body needs. Besides, I’m not that big so there’s no point in being obsessed over my weight other than in Andy’s imagination, lol. The question is what direction do I want to go? Do I want to add 100 calories at a time until I feel better but might still be able to lose weight, or start at something like 1500 a day and deduct 100 calories at a time till I’m not feeling as good and adjust from there?

It might rain today. This is definitely the wettest winter since we’ve been here. Seems a bit colder too but if there’s any good in it it’s that it’s keeping the honker off his motorcycle more often.

I was in the bathroom in the evening when I heard those dogs going off and I swear they sounded like they were in the field behind the house. Then the barking quickly faded away as if they ran around the corner of a building which makes me think even more that they’re behind us and not coming from that subdivision. Because sounds travel easier in cooler weather they were almost to the point of being annoying.

[beaversatemygrandma]

I had another dog dream Specifically where i was in a new place and i went to a shelter and walked out with a dog that looked oddly similar to my old dog. He wasn’t my old dog though. There were more brown patches, not just the one on his head. Just a big white fat-headed mutt with brown patches, and a dapper name that honestly matched up with Atticus. It wasn’t Atticus but it had the same power to it. I’ll probably remember what it was later bc that is exactly what i want to do. I’ll go and get me another big dumb sweet mutt again and give him a smart name all over again.

[one-small-nightmare]

One Small Nightmare

Based on One Small Dream by @calcium-cat

Chapter 3

A few seconds of silence passed by. The younger version of nightmare blinked and finally spoke. “who.....WHO ARE YOU GUYS?!? W-WHAT IS THIS PLACE.” He pointed at them and then saw his hand “w-wait why is my hand.....” He looked at the rest of his body. “Wait why am I covered in black goo?!? W-what did you guys do to me!?!” “W-we didn’t do anything! Don’t you remember me nightmare?? It’s me, Dream.”

“D-dream....?” The goopy skeleton said. “Yeah it’s me! Don’t you remember?” Dream replied. “You do look like my brother, but how can I be sure that your not pretending to be him?!?” Nightmare crossed his arms. “B-besides he’s not a grown up yet.” Dream tried to think what he should say. He decided to say some of the truth but if he said all of it maybe it would be too much right now. “Well s-something happened that made me a grown up...” Dream Lied about that part. “And why your all goopy is because back at the village...you were guarding our tree because I was doing something else....and then the villagers came....they...cut down the tree and you tried to save an apple but...it was corrupted and you...ate it...” Nightmare looked at Dream with some tears starting to form. “I-I ate......it?” Nightmare asked. Dream nodded with a sad expression. “then you....scared the villagers away and I tried to stop you...but-“ Dream was cut off by Nightmare starting to cry. “D-Dream *sniff* I *hic*...I’m...I’m sorry!“ Nightmare said while crying. He went over and hugged Dream tightly, his tentacles subconsciously curling themselves around them. Dream looked down at nightmare a little bit surprised but then smiled. “Nightmare it’s ok! I forgive you” Dream said with a smile. “Y-you do..?” Nightmare asked. “Of course I do!” Dream said while hugging nightmare. Nightmare wiped his tears. “*sniff* O-ok.....so then where are we.....” Nightmare asked. “We’re at....uh....our new home! With two of my friends..” Dream replied. Nightmare looked at blue and ink. Blue waved while smiling. Ink seemed to still be processing what just happened. “I don’t trust them.........” he finally said. “Don’t worry they’re good! They won’t hurt you!” Dream responded. Nightmare still looked unsure of the other two. Dream spoke “You can..um..stay in my room!” “Ok..” Nightmare replied. Night,are got of the sofa and went over to Dream. He hid behind Dream and looked at Blue and ink. He then followed Dream to his room.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that to happen...” Blue said. “Right Ink? ........Ink?” Blue looked at Ink. Ink was still staring unblinkingly. “iiinkk” Blue waved his hand in front of Ink’s face. “INK!” blue shouted. “HUH, WHAT, WHERES THE FIRE- oh” Ink said. “You were kind of zoned out” blue told him. “Oh...wait where did nightmare and dream go?” Ink asked. “They went to Dream’s room. Nightmare doesn’t seem to trust us though.” Blue responded. “Then again he hasn’t met us before so we just need to get him warmed up to us!”

Nightmare hurried to catch up to dream, his head hurt and he couldn’t remember much for some reason. Maybe he had a bad headache? “M-my head hurts.......” Nightmare finally said to Dream. “Don’t worry, You can rest in our new bedroom!” Dream replied. They walked down the hallway until they reached a white door with yellow star stickers on it. Dream opened the door and let nightmare go in first. Nightmare slowly stepped into the room looking around as Dream turned the lights on. The room was painted gold and white with a sun and moon glow in the dark sticker on the ceiling surrounded by star stickers that also glowed. He went over to the bed and sat on it, leaning on one of the pillows. “S-so you said your head hurts..?” Dream asked. “It does but I guess it’s not as bad right now. It hurts more when I try to think back on what happened before you found me. But I can’t remember anything from there......” Nightmare responded. “It’s ok, atleast we found you! And your not hurt apart from I guess a headache.”

Dream replied “I guess, but this is all really new. I don’t even know what these things do.” Nightmare lifted up one of his tentacles which where moving around by themselves. “And now I’m also covered in some weird goo and there’s two new monsters here. I thought we were the only skeletons in the village.”

“W-well I saw them one day and they’re nice and we became friends. You don’t have to worry about them!” Dream responded. “I still don’t really trust them...” Nightmare said. Dream walked over to the bed and sat next to Nightmare. Nightmare leaned on Dream. Dream had a slight smile.

Dream opened his phone and texted the star sans group chat. Hey blue, can you make some lunch for all of us including nightmare? Then he quickly added to the text Something EDIBLE. He turned off his phone and looked at his brother, who had fallen asleep. He gently placed laid his brother under the sheets and quietly walked over the door. He turned of the lights, the stickers glowed as Dream silently closed the door.

About an hour passed. Nightmare was thrashing around in the bed. A loud noise had waken him up earlier. He didn’t see Dream anywhere so he tried to go back to sleep but was unable to. He was bored anyways so he decided to get up and explore.

He opened the door a crack to see if anyone was infront of it. No one was there so he opened the rest of the door slowly and stepped outside. He found himself in the corner of the hallway. There were two ways he could go, forward and right. He decided to go forward. The hallway was pretty long with some locked doors until he found a big door. He decided to open it to see what was there, and there was a small library section there. It looked so cool!

He went inside and saw a ladder. It was hard to push but he was strong! He pushed it over to a section of a bookshelf filled with many colorful books. He climbed up the ladder as it wobbled slightly and looked through the books. He saw a book called The Moon and Sun and decided to take it along with two other colorful books. He climbed down and went to go back to the bedroom when he heard a sound coming from the other part of the hallway that he didn’t go to. Whatever was happening over there must’ve been what woke him up in the first place. He decided to leave the books on the bed and then go and investigate. He peeked from a corner and saw one of the skeletons that Dream said were some of his friends. The skeleton was wearing a short blue scarf and had blue eye lights. It looked like he was cooking something. He looked around the room until he found a skeleton with a stain on his cheek bone looking directly at him. “AAAAAH-“ Nightmare yelped while stepping back. “Hey there, Don’t be afraid!” The skeleton responded with a slight worried expression but also slightly smiling. “Ink, remember! He’s not used to us yet.” The other skeleton yelled. Nightmare ran away to him and his brother’s bedroom and closed the door. He could hear some muffled voices as he sat on the bed and turned a lamp on. He didn’t trust those skeletons, he would’ve stood his ground and been brave. It’s just that they caught him off guard is all.

He heard the bedroom door open and braced himself. He then realized that it was just his brother coming in. “Dream!” Nightmare ran over to him hugging his leg. Dream smiled. “Lunch is ready!” Dream said.

“Lunch?” Nightmare asked while looking up at Dream. “Yeah! One of my friends prepared lunch for all of us!” Dream replied.

“O-oh. I saw them earlier, one of them spoke to me.” Nightmare said. “Oh yeah, Ink said that he saw you and said hi but then you ran away.” Dream responded.

Nightmare became a bit embarrassed. “W-Well they just scared me a little bit is all. I-I wasn’t expecting him to talk to me all of a sudden.”

“Well, come on! Let’s go eat lunch!” Dream said. “O-ok..” nightmare said with a bit of an unsure expression.

He followed Dream to the dining room where the other two skeletons were waiting. The one with the blue scarf waved at him. The other one named Ink smiled at him. He sat down as Dream handed him a sandwich for lunch with a cup of orange juice. “Thank you...” he said to his brother.

Dream sat down and they began to eat. Nightmare took a bite out of the sandwhich. It was good! Then the skeleton with the blue scarf spoke to him. “Hi there!”

“H-hi..” Nightmare shyly replied. “My names blue! I made lunch for us. And this is ink, he’s the one who spoke to you earlier.” Blue said. Ink waved and then spoke. “Sorry if I scared you!”

“I-it’s ok...” Nightmare said. “I just wasn’t expecting-“ he was interrupted by him sneezing. “Bless you!” Everyone said. Nightmare was a bit embarrassed. He also coughed a little bit and sneezed again. His nose was getting stuffy. “Nightmare are you ok?” Dream asked worriedly. “I-I...I’m not sure....” nightmare felt a bit dizzy.

“Nightmare? Nightmare!” He heard dreams voice say as it faded away and he passed out.

This one is a bit of a long one but I finished it! Hope you guys enjoy :3

Also remember to go check out one small Dream!!

Previous Chapter ( 2 )

[mochegato]

Hope on Board

Chapter 29 – Truth Will Out

Chapter 1     Chapter 28

Marinette slowly, carefully closed the bedroom door. She waited next to the door with her hand on the knob for a few seconds just to make sure Rob really had fallen asleep and wouldn’t start crying again.  Hearing no noise for a full minute, she let out the breath she had been holding in case the sound from her breath woke him up.  

She gently removed her hand from the knob and silently padded toward the library, which had quickly become their regrouping center, much to Jason’s annoyance.  However it was right across the hall from the room their family was staying in while at the manor and it had almost immediately been annexed as a place where she and Dick could relax and talk to people while still being close enough to hear the twins when they woke up.  For quick naps and showers while the twins were sleeping, they used Dick’s room, which was just a little further down the hall.  But the library offered a place that was more open to the whole family.

“And thank you two for not meowing or trying to sneak past me,” she cooed at Kismet and Alfred as she walked.  All of the animals in the house had taken a liking to the twins and more often than not, Marinette or Dick were woken up by one of them scratching at the door to get into the bedroom so they could curl up with one of the twins or lay down at the base of one of the cribs.  

As long as they were quiet about it and didn’t wake up the twins, Marinette thought it was absolutely adorable.  However, those rare times when their scratching or barks or meows woke up the twins, Marinette would send them a glare that had the dogs running with their tails between their legs and the cats… well, not really reacting at all until Marinette got the water bottle.

“He sleeping?” Dick asked looking up as she came in and chuckling at the line of animals trailing behind her.

“Welcome home.  And yes. We have a little bit of time before they wake up again,” she smiled at him, slumping onto the couch next to him.

He hugged her into his unbandaged side, chuckling into her hair.  “You want to take a nap?”

Marinette made a vaguely groan sounding noise and pushed away from him just enough to angle her head up to look at him with a sleepy smile.  “I’ll do that during their next nap.  I think I should eat during this one.”

“Do you want me to talk to Alfred?” he offered, half getting up as he spoke.

“I can make something for her,” Adrien offered, waving him down.  “Or let Alfred know so he can.  You can rest if you want.”

“Thanks, Adrien,” Dick gave him a grateful smile. “Actually, I think I’m going to shower. Get the Academy off of me.”

Marinette pulled her shirt away from her body and eyed it suspiciously.  “Yeah, I’m not sure when the last time I took one was.  Maybe I should do that during the next nap time instead.”  

Dick chuckled and pulled her closer.  “You know, you could always take a shower with me…” he whispered into her hair.

Marinette blushed deeply and pushed his face away.  “Yeah, not there yet.  Food, sleep, nap, shower.  Those are my priorities right now.  And I’m extremely negotiable on the shower part.”

“Two of those were the same thing, Bug,” Adrien shook his head.

She narrowed her eyes and pointed at him as if challenging him.  “All four can be the same thing if I try hard enough.”

Dick rolled his eyes but laughed in spite of himself. “You’ve been hanging out with Stephanie too much.”

Marinette scoffed.  “If anything that’s Alya’s influence…” her eyes suddenly widened. “Oh God.  They can never meet.”

Adrien scoffed this time.  “Alya got that from you, not the other way around.  You and Steph are the danger duo.  Although you, Steph, Cass, and Alya… I’d be afraid for Gotham.”

Dick shuddered at the thought.  The sheer chaos of it.  “Just make sure I’m not on duty that night, please.”

Marinette giggled and rested her head on his shoulder. “How was the first day, Cadet Grayson?”

“Eh,” he shrugged.  “Boring.  Introductory stuff.  Not that I’m expecting it to get better.  I’ve known more about police procedure than most officers since I was eight.  I can already pick out some of the cadets who joined as a power play.  I also recognized a few people I bus…” he looked over to Adrien with a grimace, “…who I know I’ve seen on the news after the bats busted them.  Which means either the person in charge of vetting entrants didn’t do their job, ignored the records, or someone on the force expunged their records.  I already let Gordon know,” he gave out a tired sigh.

“You sound like you need a nap,” Marinette poked him in the cheek.

He hummed noncommittally as he caught her hand and brought it up to his lips for a kiss, causing Marinette to blush again and bury her head in his shoulder.  If he kept doing little things like that, she didn’t know how much longer her resolve was going to last.  But it had to last.  They had to wait until they figured out their issues.  They couldn’t rush it.  

“Shower first, then we’ll see what the twins allow for,” he smiled at her.

“How long will Clover and Hood sleep?” Adrien asked too innocently for his comment to not be intended to get a reaction.

“I hate you,” Marinette grumbled into Dick’s shoulder, but made sure it was loud enough for Adrien to hear.  Adrien laughed hard at her reaction but immediately tamed it down after the glare Marinette shot him.  If he woke up the twins, she really would hate him.

“Clover and Hood?” Dick asked unsure, looking back and forth between Adrien and Marinette.

“Lucy, Lucky, Four Leaf Clover, Clover.  Robert, Rob, Robin, Robin Hood, Hood.” Marinette elaborated into his chest.

Dick stared at her for a few seconds, letting the logic train sink in.  He glanced over to Adrien in time to catch his smug grin.  He leaned down to whisper in Marinette’s ear.  “We can’t let him call him after Jason.”

Marinette gave him a flat look.  “You explain it without telling him who you are,” she whispered back, working hard to keep the smirk off her face.  She knew Adrien knew who Dick was, but Dick didn’t know and was still trying hard to keep it a secret.  Adrien knew that too, which is why he was having so much fun pushing his buttons.

“You can’t call my son ‘Hood’.  You can’t go around yelling ‘Hood’ at a kid.  People are going to think he’s a thief or that you saw Red Hood,” Dick finally reasoned.  Marinette pouted at how he handled it.  It was entirely too quick and well thought out.  She was hoping for something more dramatic.

Adrien pouted at him.  “Fine.  That makes sense.  I’ll come up with something else.”

“Good.  That was subpar effort, K…” she suddenly woke up slightly and blinked a few times. “Uh… sorry.  That was a terrible effort, Adrien.”  Adrien gasped dramatically, pulling his hand to his chest in mock offense.

Dick laughed.  “Okay, I’m getting up.  You’re going to have to find another warm pillow.”  Marinette mumbled something that might have been an objection, but made no move to stop him.  He scooted out from under her, kissing her on the head as he left.

Adrien was trying to get Marinette to tell him what she wanted to eat and keep her awake as he was leaving.  Dick shook his head and wished him good luck with that.  When Marinette crashed, it was hard, a bit like Tim after a bender on a case.  A tuba couldn’t wake her up.  And yet, the slightest whimper from one of the twins would.  He shook his head.  Must be a hormonal thing.

He let out a deep sigh as he made his way to his bedroom to take a shower.  He wished they were going to take a shower together, or a nap together… or something more, but they weren’t there yet, and he knew that.  They were still figuring out some lingering trust issues. Marinette trusted him, but not when it came to not lying about something he thought was important, which was fair, because that was something he needed to settle with himself.  

He was so used to deceiving people to cover his vigilante work and to do what needed to be done, he was having a hard time remembering he didn’t have to do that with Marinette.  It had been ingrained in him that he was the leader and therefore took the brunt of the decision and all the worst of the consequences, so he forgot he was supposed to be sharing responsibility and decisions with Marinette for the rest of his life.  The things he was doing were the way Batman would do them and he wasn’t Batman.  He didn’t want to be Batman.  That wasn’t his dream.  His dream was having a loving family, preferably the one he had already started.  He wanted to be Lucy and Robert’s father.  He wanted to be Marinette’s husband, someday.  He had to change how he thought to make his dreams come true.  He had to retrain his brain and it was taking time.  

He turned on the shower and started to undress before remembering he left his shower things in the bathroom off the family bedroom. He groaned, dreading the idea of going back into that room while the twins were sleeping.  Lucy was like her mom, she could sleep through most things, except the animals making noise.  Robert however inherited his father’s tendency to wake up at the slightest sound.

He anxiously looked around for something else to use, but there wasn’t anything in his bedroom or bathroom.  He groaned again, turned off the shower, and padded back to the family bedroom.  He paused outside the room to prepare himself and plan how he could be as quiet as humanly, or possibly even more than humanly, possible.  His whole body went rigid when he heard talking in the room.  Nobody was supposed to be in the room.  Marinette had left it with just the twins.  She would never have left so calmly if anyone else were in it, even a family member.  

“Come on, Sugar Cube.  This is offensive.  Look at this long nosed monstrosity.  It should be a cat.  I should accidentally destroy…”

Dick stopped listening at the word ‘destroy’.  He tensed for a fight and burst into the room with a yell.  The two figures hovering over the cribs squeaked in surprise and the elephant stuffie Marinette had made, which seconds before had been in the black one’s hands… paws? In the black one’s grip suddenly evaporated in a stream of dust and ash.  Dick froze in surprise unable to make sense of the image in front of him.

Marinette and Adrien rammed into Dick in their rush to check out what was happening.  The push broke Dick of his paralysis.  He moved between the floating figures and the twins.  “Who are you?  What do you want?”  He quickly picked up Robert when he started fussing at the sudden noise.

“Plagg… Why is there a pile of ash on the floor?” Marinette glared at him.

“Pla… you know what these creatures are?” Dick whipped around to stare at her.

“Yes,” Marinette admitted with an annoyed glare at Plagg.  “Let’s get Robert back to sleep and talk in your room.”

Dick looked at her incredulously.  The red figure obediently flew through the wall into the next room, but the black one stared at him as if challenging him.  Adrien silently moved over to it and grabbed it by the tail to fling it out the door with a huff.  Dick slowly turned to Marinette, staring at her questioningly. She gave him a strained smile and gently took Robert out of his arms.  She laid him in the crib, gently rocking him in his swaddle in the crib and turned on the mobile above his bed.  It took a few more minutes, but Robert was soon sleeping again.  She motioned out of the room with a comforting smile.

Dick glared at her, but followed her to his room as requested.  She carefully closed the door behind them.  As soon as she got to his room she glared at the black figure.  “Plagg, what the hell just happened?”

“Hey!  It’s not my fault!  Pompous circus boy was supposed to be in the shower in his room.  Instead he’s sneaking around like a fox and scared me.”  He flew toward Dick but Adrien grabbed his tail again to stop him. “Talk to the annoyance, not me,” he grumbled crossing his arms over his chest.

“I am talking to the annoyance,” Marinette gritted out.

“That hurts, Bug,” he responded in a mock hurt voice.

“Not as much as it’s going to.  No camembert for a month,” she growled.

“A month!”  His eyes suddenly were as large as the rest of him.

“Are you kidding me right now?” she exclaimed loudly. “You’re objecting to a month? You’re lucky it isn’t six!”

“Bug, have mercy on a poor, innocent, protective cat,” he bent his knees and brought together his hands as though he were praying in front of her.

“It was my nursery!  And my pompous circus boy you just exposed yourself to,” she threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

“Hey!  I have no idea what’s going on here, but I’m fairly confident I’m justified in objecting to that,” Dick interjected.

Marinette looked over to him as if just remembering he was in the room.  She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.  “It would have been so much better if this happened after a nap.  I…” she collapsed on the edge of the bed.  “I don’t know where to start.”

“You knew those things were here.”  It was a statement not a question.

“Yes,” she confirmed with a short nod.

“And you didn’t think it was worth mentioning?” he questioned, skepticism lacing his voice.  This wasn’t some small thing, some small secret.  These were magic, probably, creatures roaming around his kids and his home.  Creatures Marinette knew about and never discussed with him.  Creatures Marinette exposed his children to and never discussed with him.

“You didn’t think your nightly activities were worth mentioning when you were missing half the pregnancy?” Marinette raised her eyebrow with a pointed look.

Dick grimaced slightly.  “Okay, point taken.  But I remember getting yelled at for keeping it from you.  I remember you breaking up with me for keeping it from you and you were keeping something just as big from me.”

“No, you got yelled at for lying.  We broke up because I couldn’t trust you after all the lies.  I was asking you questions and you were lying in response.  We were still finding out about each other, figuring each other out, deciding how much to trust one another.  I told you before, you were and are allowed to have secrets and that I had some too. This is one of them.”

“Okay fine.  I don’t know that I agree with that logic, but okay.  Let’s shelve that to come back and bite us later.  But can someone explain…” he motioned toward the floating figures.

“Well you see…” Adrien started, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I think he means me,” Marinette interrupted.  The exhaustion seeping out of her voice and listless posture.

Adrien looked between the two of them.  “Oh, right.  Why don’t I…” he looked around uncertainly.  “Why don’t I leave you to it then?”  He turned to look at Marinette sincerely.  “Unless you want me to stay around, just in case.”  He eyed Dick suspiciously.

“I’ll be okay, Kitty,” she assured him.  “We were going to have this conversation soon anyway. This just pushed it forward by a few weeks.”

“I’ll stay, just in case,” Plagg insisted, floating up in front of Dick’s face with a malicious grin.

“No, you won’t.  Not if you’re going to threaten my babies’ father,” Marinette chastised sternly.

“Fine!  No threatening him.  I’ll just stay… and keep Tikki company,” Plagg offered petulantly.

“No.  I don’t want either of you here,” Dick objected.  Plagg looked affronted but Tikki gave him a look of understanding and started tugging him toward Adrien.  “I don’t want creatures with unknown powers, actively destroying things, to be around my children.”

“Why don’t I take them both tonight?  You guys should be pretty safe here in the manor.  If you need us, we’re just a phone call away,” Adrien assured her.  He opened his pocket for the kwami.  Tikki zipped over to him but Plagg held his position, attempting to stare down Dick. He was fuming from the suggestion that he would ever hurt the twins.  He’d been with the twins more than Dick had and yet Dick was kicking him out!  The unmitigated gall!

“Thank you, Adrien,” Marinette answered quietly.  “Plagg,” she spoke up.  He kept facing Dick but his ears twitched indicating he had heard her. “Plagg, thank you for everything you’ve done.  Let me speak to Dick alone please.”

Plagg huffed at her.  “I don’t wanna.”

“I know,” Marinette moved over to him and scratched between his ears.  “But, Adrien’s right.  We’ll be safe tonight.  You’ve been on babysitting duty for seven months straight.  You can take a break for one night.”

Plagg huffed at her again, still refusing to move. Tikki flew out of Adrien’s pocket to tug on him.  “Come on, Stinky Sock.  Let them have some time alone.”  

Plagg finally acquiesced, but sent a final glare to Dick.  “Fine. But if he hurts her…”

Tikki pushed him again.  “He won’t hurt her.  Come on protective cat.  You’re causing more damage than good.”

Adrien let out a relieved sigh and nodded to them. Just before leaving the room he turned and gave a pointed look to Marinette before shifting his eyes down to his ring with a nod.  Marinette smiled at him with an understanding nod at his wordless permission to divulge his identity.

She slowly turned back to Dick.  She shifted anxiously from foot to foot, her entire body tense. This was not the way she wanted to tell him, but then again Dick hadn’t gotten to dictate the terms of either of his reveals either.  Neither of them got to prepare for the deep, meaningful conversations.  But, even if timing might be against them, she had faith they could do this.  They had always been able to communicate, excepting the lying portion, they had always been able to talk through their concerns and worries.  She just had to breathe and be honest.  They could do this.

Dick studied her carefully trying to read the situation from her body language.  She was nervous, but not at all about the creatures.  She was completely at ease with them despite the stuffie incident. And Marinette was one to catastrophize. She was more likely to anticipate the worst than just blithely accept it.  Which meant she is thoroughly familiar with them and their powers.  She was completely confident they did not pose a threat to their children.  No, that wasn’t what she was nervous about.  She was nervous about him and how he was going to react to the situation. He sighed and leaned against the desk. Their lives were a complicated mess. “Let’s start slow.  What did you mean he’s been on babysitting duty for the last seven months?” Dick finally asked.

“Plagg has been with me constantly since the pharmacy incident,” Marinette answered quietly.  “That incident scared Adrien and the kwami a lot.  They wanted Plagg to be with me too in case something else happened.  I wouldn’t transformed while pregnant, especially not with Plagg, but he could do other things, like let Adrien know where I was if I got kidnapped and lead him to me.”

Dick stared at the door Adrien had left through, the clues slowly starting to click into place.  “Because Adrien is Chat Noir.  That’s why Chat is so protective of you, because he’s Adrien.”  Dick’s mind was racing through all the implications, missing the way Marinette winced in response to his wrong assumption.  He looked over to her as something else clicked into place.  “When Chat said he had you bugged, he meant that thing.  That that thing…”

“A kwami named Plagg,” she supplied.

“That… Plagg was with you,” he finished.  She nodded.  “And that creature… Plagg, how dangerous is he?”

“Depends,” she bobbed her head to the side in a wishy-washy motion.  “Kwami are the physical embodiment of concepts.  Tikki is the embodiment of creation and good luck.  Plagg is the embodiment of destruction and bad luck, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I haven’t discussed it with Adrien, but I’m pretty sure the destruction of the Court of Owl base where they were holding me, was Plagg.  I don’t think Adrien could have done it that completely.  It had to have been Plagg.  They are linked to physical objects that a person can wield, when transformed their power is a lot more controlled by the wielder.  But Plagg has control too.”

“He accidentally destroyed a stuffie,” he gave her a pointed look.

She waved off his concern as she rolled her eyes.  “That wasn’t accidental.”

“You can’t know that,” he said cautiously.  She may be comfortable with having a creature like this around his children, but he definitely wasn’t.

“If it was accidental, there would have been a whole lot more damage and no ash trail.  The destruction would have been complete.  When he accidentally destroys things, entire cities disappear.  Entire orders of animals become extinct.  That was a controlled, focused use of his power. Likely because Robert was showing a bit too much attention to that stuffie rather than the black cat stuffie.”

“Okay…”  He eyed her suspiciously, not entirely convinced.

“Also, I should warn you.  Intentional use of his power to punish can result in destroying a cult’s stronghold or… sinking a city,” she gave him an overly wide, tense smile.

“Like Atlantis,” he nodded in realization.

“Like Atlantis,” she confirmed.  “Apparently he still holds a grudge too.  Your friend Garth, he’s Aqualad, right?  He has to be.  Plagg was acting up all night when I met your friends.  Every time Garth came near me, Plagg was pitching a fit.  I couldn’t figure out why and he wouldn’t tell me.”

“That’s what that noise was!” Dick gasped.  He had thought something was going on.  Some emergency at the office because her purse had been buzzing constantly.  “I thought your phone just kept going off.”

“No, just Plagg being overprotective and not wanting him near me.  I had to keep hitting my bag.  I’m surprised your friends didn’t think I had muscle spasm problems,” her eyes widened in embarrassment remembering that part of the night.

“Okay… so that’s why you had Plagg, because Adrien asked you to keep him.  Is it the same for the other one Teachi?  Did her wielder ask you to keep her too?” He cocked his head to the side, a slight furrow marring his brow as he tried to force the pieces together.

“Tikki.  No.” She looked away nervously and ran her hands up and down her arms to try to calm herself down.  She knew there was no reason to be nervous.  Dick wouldn’t reject her or be mad at her for having been a hero.  But he was the first person outside of her team to know.  The first new person who would find out and she could never take it back and that was terrifying.  She had to be absolutely sure of him.  

But she was.  She was sure about him.  She wasn’t sure if they would end up together.  She wasn’t sure if they would get married and have more kids, but she was absolutely sure she could trust him, at least with this much.  And she was absolutely sure she didn’t want to keep it from him any longer.  “Tikki is with me because she’s my kwami.”

“Your…” he stared at her.  His eyes suddenly widened in surprise.  “You’re Ladybug!”

“I was.  That’s why Adrien was so protective.  We were partners.  When I said we were always together during attacks, that’s why we were.  When I said we died for each other… that’s why we did,” she finished quietly.

“You were a hero,” he breathed out, barely above a whisper.

“I was,” she confirmed again with a slight laugh.  He had the most adorable gob smacked expression on his face like it was the last thing he would have ever thought, which, with the magic glamour, might be the truth.

“Oh my God!” He slapped his forehead and fell onto the bed next to her.  “I was wearing a Ladybug shirt when we first met.  You were wearing a Nightwing shirt!”

“Yeah,” she giggled.  “You’re where I was a few weeks ago.”

“That’s why Adrien and that… Plagg kept calling you bug. I thought it was because you are so small.” Marinette scowled at him but he was so caught up in the revelations and puzzle pieces finally coming together.  “But that didn’t make sense that Plagg would call you that until now.”

He turned to her, a glint of awe in his eyes.  “I remember seeing video of you in action.  I checked out Ladybug and Chat Noir after you mentioned them when we first started dating.  You were amazing.”

“Thank you,” she bowed her head graciously.

“I mean you still are.  I didn’t think I could think you were any more amazing than I already did, but you were so impressive in action.  Your moves and your confidence, your compassion and your creativity.”  He looked away to process the new information and come to grips with his newfound admiration.  He thought through some of the fights he’d seen footage of, some of the moves he remembered.  She had been absolutely amazing.  Everything he admired about Marinette but amplified because of the extreme situations. He shook his head at the fights he remembered until one of them caught in his head.  One incredulous, ridiculous, asinine move.  “You jumped into a dinosaur’s mouth!”

“I… did,” she grimaced at the reminder.  Not her best moment, but it worked.

“Oh God.  No wonder you and Jason hit it off so well.” He shook his head at the thought of the two of them fighting together.  Jumping into a situation relying on luck and determination to get them through.  They would fit far too easily together in a fight.  “Oh my God, the rest of the family is going to go insane when they find out.  Wait,” he looked over to her with a questioning look, “were you planning on telling them?”

“I… hadn’t decided yet, but I don’t think so.  I thought I might eventually tell them about being Multimouse or the dragon, but not about Ladybug.”  Dick frowned slightly.  If anyone could understand being a hero and weighing normal life with that life, it was them.  They could understand her in a way few others could.  “It isn’t that I don’t love them and trust them it’s just… you know our villain, Hawkmoth?  He wanted our miraculous because combined, it gave him a wish.  One wish that could rewrite reality.  Could destroy a continent, or a planet, could bring perpetual wealth, or health, could make one immortal or bring someone back from the dead, but at a cosmic price.  I just… I don’t know.  If your brothers knew of that power.  If your brothers lost someone and knew all they had to do to get them back was take the jewels and make a wish, but if they did there would be a price.  Do you think they would restrain themselves?  Or do you think they would find a way to sneak them away from me and Adrien to make the wish, whatever the consequences?”

Dick stared at her, a concerned frown on his face. She was right.  He knew she was.  If they lost Bruce again, he had no doubt Damian would do anything to bring him back.  If Tim ever lost Kon…  If any of them had a child that was lost…  He massaged his forehead trying to ward off the migraine he knew wanted to start with all this new information bombarding his brain.  

“That’s why I took so long to tell you.  There’s so much damage that can be done.  I’ve never… we’ve never… neither of us has ever told anyone else.  The core members of our team know, but nobody else.  There’s six people in the universe who know who we are… now seven.”  She looked at him gravely.

He took a few deep breaths and eyed her apprehensively, letting the seriousness of the situation settle over him.  Finally he nodded in agreement.  “So we don’t tell the family.  Is there more I should know?”

“If we’re going to stay together, yes.  But I don’t know if I’m ready to go there yet.  Things only Chat… Adrien knows.”  She studied him carefully for a moment before one side of her mouth quirked up a bit.  “I’ve had it drilled so thoroughly into my head that I can’t let anyone know, it feels strange to be able to be honest with someone else.  I’m glad you know.”

“I’m glad I know too.” He moved closer to her and cupped her face, gently stroking her cheek.  “I can’t wait until we both know all of each other’s secrets,” he whispered, slowly leaning toward her.

Marinette smiled.  “You have more secrets to tell,” she whispered back with a teasing smile.

“So many.” He nodded, his eyes focused entirely on her lips as he leaned closer still.  “I’ll make some up if I have to.”  He smirked at her eye roll.  He was close enough now that he could feel her breath fanning out across his face and she wasn’t backing away.  She wasn’t pushing him for space and that fact alone was making his heart soar.  

He was just about to close the gap when she quirked her head to the side and sighed.  “That sounds like Lucy, which means Rob will be up too.”  She gave him an apologetic smile and moved to go nurse them.

Dick let out an exaggerated sigh and fell back on the bed. He suddenly shot up as a thought occurred to him.  “He knew I was Nightwing and Jason is Hood when he suggested the nickname for Rob.”

Marinette laughed at the offended look on his face. “Oh, definitely.”

“That bastard.  I’ll show him.  I’ll introduce him to Wally as a punishment.  He’ll never be able to get another word in again.  Hey, wait up.”  He jumped up and rushed over to her, slinging his arm around her waist and planting a kiss on her temple.  “I’ll change their diapers for you.”

Chapter 30

Tags:

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[tali-likes-tugs]

Can you please make some dating headcanons for the Star Tugs, please? (You can do the Z-Stacks later if you want to)

*screaming* IM BACK

I've been working on this for like 2 months, it sat in my drafts box for about a month and a half with just TenCents' and then Big mac was added like a month ago LMAO

Why not make it an even longer post?👀

Star Tugs, Z-Stacks character relationship headcanons

Sorry about the massive post ya'll hope you enjoy

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Star Tugs

Tencents

General

Very loving throughout the whe relationship but can be very hardheaded/stubborn.

Will bring you flowers when ever he can or leaves notes on your door/office.

Loves to cuddle and watch movies at night.

Favorite dates are sitting at the end of the doc and talking with you.

Beginning of relationship

Thought that you would never like him or want to date him so be kind of acted cruel when feelings arose.

And then something happened

You were pushed off one of the tugs once and without thinking TenCents dove into the frigid water after you and pulled you out.

He held you in his arms until medical personnel could show up and he broke down when you left in an ambulance.

He showed up to the hospital the next day with flowers and when he saw the tubes and wires he cried

Throughout your stay he cringed a little as tubes and such were taken out.

He stayed by your side and held your hand until you woke up and kissed you the minute he could.

He told you how much he loved you and how he felt so bad for being such an ass and he ended up spending the night curled up in your hospital bed with you.

Oj and Hercules still have the photos

Big Mac

General

Veey sweet man

Loves to tease you though so be prepared.

Will give you kisses on the cheek as a way to show love or as a goodbye if he's in a rush.

Kind of protective, specifically when it comes to the Z stacks.

Beginning of relationship

You never expected him to have feelings for you. Not because he does what TenCents does, but because he shows his love in ways that you really have to look for.

You work with him? He'll help you and work with you whenever he can.

You live with the fleet? Will try and help you with meals or cleaning or just keep you company.

He vents to you a lot and thats another way you can tell you've learned his trust.

When he asks you out it's more or less a "would you like to see a movie together?" Or something along the lines of that.

Your first "date" was very sweet and he did did his best to spoil you and make you feel comfortable.

The first time he said i love you, you bith looked at eachother stunned and then smiled

10/10 amazing man.

Otis Jones (O.J)

General

Very sweet and traditional lover.

Will compliment everything, your eyes, your smile, your laugh, you hands, anything he can compliment he will atleast twice.

Is traditional in the sense that you aren't officially dating until he takes you out a few times

Holds your hands and give you kisses on your knuckles whenever

He also does this little thing that if your hands are scuffed or dried he'll put lotion on them for you.

Beginning of relationship

Very upfront with his feelings as he knows that keeping them hidden can only hurt your relationship with eachother.

Very politely asks you while making dinner or cleaning the dishes with you.

Doesn't want to tell anyone until your officially together and comfortable with it.

As i said before he wants to take you out and test the waters a few times to see how you feel about dating.

Brings you daisies and always holds your hand when showing you something.

Top Hat

General

Shows his love through buying gifts and surprisingly, dancing!

Is like Otis in the sense that he wants to take you out a few times before being official.

Little side note, your first kiss was on the stern of his boat as the sun went down to the song You Send Me by Sam Cooke during a party.

Beginning of Relationship

Grampus and Billy were the first to find out and Tophat was slightly pissed.

His love language is very much physical touch and buying gifts so things like slow dancing, soft touches, and new jewelry.

Kind of rubs that whole thing in Hercules' face

Doesn't want kids but very much loves yours if you have them or your nieces and nephews.

If you have siblings he will definitely have a drink with them and have long conversations with them so long as they are smart and can be sarcastic.

You have a promise ring with it, it's a thing for if he ever has to go out to sea you know he's with you.

Plans on marrying you as you are the only person he's been very attached to.

Warrior

General

Very much a himbo but he loves you so much.

Fell very hard very very quick and Big Mac kimd of teased him for it but definitely cheered him on.

Very very in love with you and was the first to say I love you.

Beginning of relationship

Isn't good at dancing or with his words so he told you he loved you by writing it out in a letter.

Walks down the docks while you take about your day and how you're feeling are his favorite "dates".

Loves to hear you laugh so very much, it never fails to make him smile.

Will give you kisses randomly and that's how the rest of the fleet found out.

He had a job with SunShine and as a way to say good bye he ran up to you, grabbed you, and kissed you and ran.

50/10 very loving and genuine man.

Hercules (my most developed character LMAO)

General

O h t h i s m a n i s a f l i r t .

Lives to make you flush.

Gave you a necklace with a photo of him and TenCents in it (TC is basically his son).

Gave you little hints that he was smitten with you right off the bat.

Wasn't afraid to ask you to dinner but you weren't official as he wanted to test the water bc past relationships went to hell.

Everyone knew he had actual feelings for you, he was sweeter on you and seemed to trust you more, and smile at you more than the others and is always more goofy around you.

Beginning of relationship

Took you to a bar to go dancing and the song Sh-Boom - Life Could Be A Dream came on and when he dipped you at the end of the song he kissed you and held you close as the next song came on, foreheads pressed together.

Definitely sleeps with you in his arms every night and his two cats sleep with you. (TenCents and Sunshine have konked out with guys a few times.

Dates where you lay out a blanket in a field and read or look at the stars are very common (he does this thing when if you're on your stomach reading he'll lay his head on your thighs or ass)

Again, lives to make you blush and he'll do basically anything to make you turn as red as TenCents' Scarf.

Loves to dance and sing.

Dusk is sometimes spent dancing on his boat.

Loves to dance to hound dog with you

Sunshine

General

Relatively mature lover.

Very gentle and sweet on you and loves to make you laugh and smile.

Could be covered in grease or dust after work and would still bring you flowers or a sea shell he found if he got the chance.

"Oh boy, here comes lover boy Sunshine!" -tophat

Big mac definitely soothed him into telling you about his feelings.

Beginning of relationship

Very nervous to tell you and stuttered a little when talking to you.

Grabbed your hand by accident one day and thats when you turned to him and told him you had feelings for him.

Poor man almost passed put and fell into the water out of pire relief.

Nights spent watching movies or sitting on the beach talking about dumb things together are his favorite ways to spend time with you.

Z-stacks

Zorran

General

Oh god you never thought he had feelings for you.

He was a complete asshole and seemed to live pissing you off.

So when he asked you out you were stunned and almost turned him down, but decided you would give it a shot.

Very difficult man, but he was a lot softer on you after a little while.

Beginning of relationship

This relationship definitely started by you snapping at him over something hime dod and him leaning down to your face and saying something like "well aren't you a cutie"

You just about smacked him and then it settled in that he was basically flirting with you.

First date consisted of a walk down the streets of San Francisco (yes this au is in SF CA bite me.)

He took you into a shop and pointed out a cat stuffie that you said looked like one you had when you were little and he bought it for you with a red bow on it a few days later.

His love language is definitely gifts.

Zebedee (my love)

General

Absolutely lover man

Basically the Hercules of the Z-stacks just a little harder to read.

Has a son. His name is Zip. You are a parent now.

Zebedee was brought up in a weird house hold so he works very hard to make sure you are comfortable and he doesnt make the relationship miserable.

Beginning of relationship

Was quite open about the whole thing and surprisingly practically cussed out Zorran when he started with his shit.

Very much a sweetheart and would do anything with you if he could.

Zak

General

Dickwad. Doesn't know how to show his love for you, but it's there.

Shows his love by being protective and always being aroune basically.

Very rarely actually smiles but when he does cherish the fucking moment.

Beginning of relationship

"Sir wtf everyone thinks you hate them" kind of vibe.

Thought he just wanted to get to know you but now you're a week into the relationship and holy fuck i want to get married.

Wants to hold your hand most of the time and just hear your voice.

Zug

General

Little bit of an asshole but tries his best

Buys you little things like journals if you like to write or seeds if you have a garden.

Wears ties and always has you pick them out and if you aren't around he wears the one with your favorite flowers or colors on it.

Beginning of relationship

Teases you and acts like a big man when you first get together but then he realizes how much he loves you and becomes a big softy.

Loves to cuddle randomly and Zorran is a little piss baby about it

Loves everything about you, especially your eyes and he always makes it known.

Zip

General

Kind of a ditz but you have to love him for it.

He was a stuttering mess when he told you he had caught feelings and held out a single sunflower for you to take.

Loves to lay his hedon your lap as you play with his hair and talk or watch a movie.

Likes to write stories, a lot of them involve you, and he reads them to you! He's a very good writer and so many of his characters are really well developed and beautifully designed.

He has a little brother named Zacary (Xacary?) and his brother often helps Zip set dates and such up

Beginning of relationship

I have a little headcanon that Zip might have partial autism but he has ADHD and he was abused as a kid so the relationship is a little rough for him at first.

Adjusting to the whole thing of hey they love me, i love them, i can trust them.

But as he warms up he helps more, and dances with you more, and begins to really thrive in the relationship.

Is definitely in love with you even if he forgets to tell you some days.

He's trying his hardest, give him a little time

Zorran definitely had feelings for you qnd was pissy when you fell for Zip and Zip fell for you

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Gonna add Boomer, Lillie, Billy, Grampus, and Cappy on later in a reblog.

[stealingpotatoes]

After Hours

AO3 Link

Summary: Emily wakes up from a nightmare on the Dreadful Wale. But she’s not the only person awake. 

(NB: If you think about Meagan’s Heart line "Some nights she wakes choking, hearing the screams of a young girl, watching - her mother die", along with the fact Emily has got to have PTSD in some shape or form after DH1 it leads to... stuff. This is stuff, I guess. Perhaps poorly executed stuff, but stuff nonetheless.)

---

Emily gasped awake and shot up, panic gripping her entire body.

She looked around her frantically, before her shoulders dropped out of their tense position and her breathing became less ragged. She was on the Dreadful Wale, in her cabin. She was fine. She was safe. It was just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare.

But, of course, it wasn’t really just a nightmare, not really... most of it had actually happened. Not in quite the same way as the dream, but similar. Recognisable.

This wasn’t the first time she’d had a nightmare in the month-and-a-half she’d been on the Dreadful Wale. She didn’t get those kinds of nightmares that often -- not as often as when she was a kid, at least -- but they still happened enough.

In all honesty, Emily was hoping that with all she’d seen since the coup began, she’d have something else to have nightmares about. She’d hoped she wouldn’t have to see those masks when she slept ever again. But instead, all the events had merged into some horrid and warped amalgamation.

Tonight, it felt like she’d seen everything. She hadn’t just seen her mother killed, she’d seen the Golden Cat, the Loyalists’ massacre, her father turned to stone, Alexi stabbed. And all she could do was watch. Stuck still, no matter how hard she willed herself to move, to fight, to do anything. She was helpless. She could only watch, just like when it happened.

And the Whalers… the Whalers were there. They did it. All of it, for some reason, not only assassinating her mother. And Daud was in it. He led the Whalers. Emily couldn’t remember his face, not really. Just the impression of it. It made sense; she’d only seen it briefly, fifteen years ago. Still, she remembered his red jacket, and how big and scary he was. And his blade… his blade ripping through her mother--

Emily inhaled sharply and blinked away her tears. She needed some air.

Emily changed into her trousers and shirt. It probably wasn’t cold enough to merit her wearing her coat. Anyhow, everything felt too hot and stuffy; she could do with a bit of cold. She pulled her boots on, opened the door to her quarters and made her way to the top deck, staying as quiet as she could, careful not to wake Anton or Meagan.

She opened the outer door and was immediately met by the starry sky and a cool night breeze on her skin. Emily shut her eyes for a moment and breathed the sea air in. Exactly what she needed.

She opened her eyes again and quietly closed the door behind her, before walking to the side of the Dreadful Wale’s low-lit deck and leaning over it.

Emily stared out at the dark sea. The waves were calm tonight, as was the wind. The occasional gust rippled along the water (and blew her long, undone hair about her face), but otherwise the waves were low and methodic, gently beating at the Dreadful Wale’s side. They were small enough that they weren’t disrupting the reflections of Karnaca’s lights and the moon and stars all too much. It must’ve been about three hours past midnight, but the city still seemed to be as awake as ever, even from all the way out here.

Emily looked up from the reflection at the city itself. She’d understood why her father had missed it so much from the very second she’d seen it sailing in. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but there was a sort of magic about it. A certain joy or brightness, even now, with all that the city and the Empire was going through. Or maybe it was just because the sky here was actually blue, and not almost always depressingly grey, like Dunwall’s.

Emily laughed to herself a little. She’d also come to understand why her father complained about Dunwall’s weather so much after being here. Karnaca was so much warmer than home. Not oppressively hot -- at least, not most of the time -- but a nice, comforting warmth. She definitely preferred it to Dunwall’s weather too.

“Can’t sleep?”

Emily startled at the sudden noise. She looked over her shoulder towards the source of the voice: Meagan Foster, standing a few paces behind Emily on the deck. Emily chided herself mentally for not hearing Meagan coming before. Meagan was weirdly good at sneaking up on people; she’d made Emily jump a few more times than she was happy to admit, and Anton had made a fair few comments about it.

Emily smiled at Meagan. She couldn’t see her properly in the low light, but she could tell Meagan was fully dressed for the day, in that cream coat she always wore, despite how early it was.

Emily’s eyes lingered on Meagan’s arm for a few moments. She still wasn’t quite used to Meagan having both arms, or both eyes again, but that made sense, really; it had only been a couple days since she’d changed the past back at Stilton’s Manor -- only a couple of days since Meagan had got her arm back. Or only a couple days since Meagan had never lost her arm...? It was all a little confusing and Emily wasn’t even going to try to pretend she understood it completely.

Meagan walked up to Emily and joined her leaning on the ship’s side.

“Yeah- it was just a bad dream. That’s all,” Emily answered dismissively.

“Ah.”

Emily glanced at Meagan. Now she was closer, Emily could see her better. She looked tired, in that sort of way people did after a rude and unexpected awakening. Probably the same way Emily looked right now. Maybe even for the same reasons… Emily remembered something the Heart had said about Meagan once; something about how some nights Meagan woke up choking, hearing the screams of a little girl watching her mother die. Had that happened tonight? And who was that girl? Was it Meagan? The Heart was always so vague and she didn’t usually answer Emily’s questions, or explain much further.

Emily knew so little about Meagan’s past.

All she really knew was from Meagan’s aside comments and that… well, that didn’t add up to much. But Emily had decided Meagan’s past didn’t matter; what mattered was that she was helping Emily now. Emily wasn’t in a position to start being picky about her allies. And if Meagan didn’t want to tell her, Emily wouldn’t ask. She owed Meagan that much. She owed Meagan her life, really.

“I take it you can’t sleep either,” Emily stated, looking at Meagan through the corner of her eye.

Meagan gave a small nod.

“Anything keeping you up?”

Meagan hesitated. “Nothing in particular,” her eyes were still trained on the water.

Emily looked out to the sea too, and they fell into a silence. The peaceful water lapping on itself and the side of the ship took the place of their conversation.

“After we returned to the Tower- after all the shit that happened after my mother was assassinated, I used to get nightmares a lot.” Emily started, breaking the quiet. She was talking more to herself than she was to Meagan, and she knew it, “And I’d always ask my father to stay with me. Because I uh- I insisted I didn’t get nightmares when he was there.” Emily laughed a little, “I still got nightmares, of course, but…” she trailed off.

“But it was nice knowing he was there?” Meagan finished, quietly.

“Mm,” Emily hummed with a smile. She looked down at her hands and sighed, “I know he was busy- he was so busy. He had all the work he had to do as my protector, then as spymaster-- and he was pretty much doing half my paperwork too. But he never said no. Every time I asked, no matter what, he’d stay. He’d sit by my bed for the whole night sometimes, just because I was a little scared of a bad dream.” Emily looked up and stared out at Karnaca across the water, “I miss him.”

Emily glanced at Meagan. Meagan was still staring out at the water and her expression was almost completely unreadable. Emily caught herself. Right… Meagan probably didn’t want to be regaled with stories of Emily’s messed up childhood.

Emily made a dismissive motion with her hand, “Sorry, I- I’m rambling.”

“He sounds like a great father,” Meagan said after a moment, with a reassuring and unusual warmth.

“He is,” Emily smiled. Is . Emily was going to free him from whatever spell Delilah had put on him, and she was going to get him back. He wasn’t gone. She hadn’t lost him.

Meagan and Emily settled into another silence.

“My uh-” Meagan stopped and took a slow, steady breath, “My father wasn’t the sort of father you came to with your bad dreams.” She paused, “But he always knew what to say to us, and when to say it. When one of the t-- when one of my... younger siblings was freaking out about something, he’d say the exact right thing. Every time...” Meagan sighed quietly, almost too quietly for Emily to hear, "I guess I know what you mean."

Oh, this was odd. Meagan was telling Emily about her past. She was actually choosing to tell Emily about her past. Was Meagan just that tired? Had Emily picked up a new Void ability? Or maybe they were just friends now? They had known and lived with each other for over a month now, after all, and… Emily realised she should probably stop analysing the situation and just be thankful Meagan was telling her.

“Are you two close?” Emily asked tentatively.

Meagan let out a sort-of amused huff, “No. Last time I saw him was… it was a while ago. More than a decade.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Emily shifted her position a little. This was definitely going to be crossing a line; “Did something happen between you?”

Meagan’s mouth drew to a thin line, “We had a... disagreement . A big one.” Meagan paused for a moment, sombering, “The kind you don’t come back from...”

There was another silence and Meagan suddenly looked quite uncomfortable and almost confused, as if she’d only just realised what she’d been saying. The silence became more awkward.

“You should get some more rest,” Meagan finally looked at Emily again, pushing herself off the side of the ship, “Aramis will be here this evening to brief you on what he knows about the Duke’s palace.”

“Yes,” Emily stood up straight too. There was a short moment before Emily gave Meagan a small wave and turned towards the doors.

After a few paces Emily stopped and turned on her heel to face Meagan again, “Thank you.”

Emily was pretty sure Meagan gave her a half-smile, but she was a little too far off to see in the dark. Emily smiled back and turned around again, heading off to bed.

[eclecticlanie]

The Alignment

On this night, Hubs and I were asleep and out of a dead sleep I woke up because I felt something incredibly intense and extremely dark searching my house! I sit up in bed and stare down down the hallway that shows all the doors to the upstairs of my home. My room being the very last room and furthest from the stairs. I haven’t felt anything this dark in an extremely long time. It did not feel familiar, either. If dementors were real, I would swear there was one in my house. The only difference is this entity didn’t bring depression or despair. This brought on a feeling of maliciousness and it was on the hunt. I haven’t been this scared ever in my life and I’ve been through some hellish experiences. I woke my husband up accidentally while I was freaking out in bed trying to rack my brain on what to do. I haven’t practiced in so long I was most definitely unprepared. He normally calls me out if I’m overreacting but this man immediately got out of bed and asked me what he could do to help.

 I told him, “I didn’t know.” 

I couldn’t take my eyes off the hallway. I could feel something staring at me as if it had the most twisted grin you could think of. I could probably compare it to American McGees Cheshire Cat or Mad Hatter grins. I could feel its intentions of harm and malice seething and rolling off of it like a billowing fog. It was enjoying my panic and frozen in place stance. Hubs starts looking around the room for my cuddle toy to attempt to calm me down.

“I need a knife. I need to protect the kids.” I managed to state while shifting to sitting on my feet in bed. Now, I am bipolar. I was diagnosed at 27 and have been medicated since. Asking for a knife to protect the kids against an invisible enemy alarmed Hubs quite a bit. 

“What are you going to do?” He asked as he tried to hand me my cuddle toy.

“Blood magic. I need to smear the door frames.” I muttered. Hubs is very wary about magick due to his own experiences with his mother as a child and doesn’t truly practice, only cleanses basically. I only raised more flags for him. We never went further than discussing we both have had craft experiences or practices and never adventured that pathway together. I’ve only done blood magic one other time in my life and I’m not proud of it either. I am tied to someone I now wish I could sever. In this moment, I didn’t think twice about using blood magick again as this situation would have been more than appropriate unlike the first time I used it. 

“I don’t want you to hurt yourself. Would holy water work?” He asked. I nodded and he dug through some boxes (we never got to unpack our bedroom like we had the rest of the house). He pulled out the holy water and started anointing the doorways. He walked right through the spot where this thing was standing. It didn’t budge and Hubs couldn’t feel it specifically in that spot. He comes back in the room and crawls into bed with me. He tries to cuddle me and I barely move to allow him to attempt to console me. I’m still in a staring match with this thing who is now annoyed we made a protection move. I can feel it settle to the floor as if it was just going to sit there and wait me out to see if I would leave the room. 

“What is it you’re staring at?” Hubs asked. I explained what I was feeling and he just nodded.

“You must think I’m crazy... maybe we should just admit me...” I was starting to doubt myself that there was anything there. Maybe it was just my bipolar? Maybe I was hallucinating? Maybe I need a med adjustment... 

“No... You’re not crazy. I do feel something is off but I’m not as sensitive to this stuff as you are.” Hubs tried to console, “You have a much clearer picture as to what is here.”

With that, Hubs stayed up with me for another hour before he couldn’t any longer. Sleep overcame him and I sat up in bed. It was now 3 something in the morning. I feel like I can pull my eyes away from the hall even with that thing still sitting there. I start looking on my phone for ways to protect the house. I’m on a website with protection spells and an ad I didn’t touch at all starts playing (it shouldn’t have played without clicking on it). A song plays, “I can’t keep my eyes off of you...” I clicked off the ad and continued scrolling. This thing was now messing with me from the hallway. I am reading the spell and again the ad plays, “I can’t keep my eyes off of you...” I click the browser completely off. There I am, giving up on research, holding my stuffy. 

Dawn finally arrives and I feel the entity leave. I can feel the message of it will be back crawl into my head. At this moment is also the moment Hubs wakes up. He looks at me, “You didn’t sleep at all did you.” 

“No.” was my simple answer. We both get out of bed and start getting ready for the day. I start rambling about how my phone sang to me. I went back into my phones browser history to show him that the only way it would play is if it was interacted with. He looks at me and asks what do we do now? 

“If you don’t mind, I would like to go gung ho and back into practicing. We need to cleanse this house inside and out. I want to do the perimeter of our property. I want to get some crystals for us personally and for the house. And that is just the start. I need to find out who is after me.” I stated. We go about our day with mini conversations and him agreeing to everything I’m suggesting. That day we made a trip to a metaphysical shop and bought a bunch of crystals and candles. When we got home, we cleansed and charged the crystals. I do a candle spell anointed with rosemary and sage to protect our home. I ask my pendulum and my oracle deck a few questions. Did we get cursed? Yes. Was that thing after me last night? Yes. Is it personal? Yes. Would it go after anyone else? No. I dug out my husbands moms box of spiritual stuff that we never had the chance to go through after her death. We don’t remove her many tarot decks. We do take her sage and cleanse the house. A day later we cleanse the border of our property and also go around the outside of the house.

The next few nights following this attack I had more attacks but in my dreams. My dreams were riddled with beatings and rapes by people who have previously done me wrong. We completed another protection candle spell. Hubs started anointing my forehead with holy water before bed and also made me wear his hamsa talisman. With those last two actions I haven’t had another issue. Although the night after I started wearing the necklace I felt like something not malevolent but creepy as fuck was “peeping tom” through my window with HUGE eyes. We decided to black salt the house that night. With that, it disappeared. 

We have discussed with a few friends about these events and all of them are in conclusion that I’m being targeted, whomever is doing the targeting used the alignments power to attack, and that this will not be the last we see of these attacks. It is now priority to attempt to find out who this person is. No one has been able to help figure it out. Google has not been of help other than to suggest curse reversal, which is also the suggestions I got on reddit and other media sites as well as my friends. That will be my next post. 

[bishiglomper]

I had a dark, creepy inception dream.

Very FFXII inspired. There were supernatural stuff as far as how the laws of nature worked.

First bit of the dream I had little plushies I would pick out to be my "children"? I would pick out a little funko pop sized one, love on it and it would sit and incubate somewhere until it was ready. But i kept forgetting about then and like a year later I'd check on it like "omg I'm so sorry, are you alive, do you still love me??" And the stuffie would slowly start moving like blinking to life and it would seem to forgive me and then I had these live plush things. That I called my children. There were some figure ones that worked like those sponges you put in water and when it was done and you wiped off the water-saturated goo, you'd have a baby. 😂 I stuck with the stuffie version.

For some reason my uncle drove a huge yellow school bus. Just to get these like, 8 teens every day. Mom and i were always there. I fuckin' hated it. He drove too fast and people were always diving out of the way to not be killed. I was always freaking out waiting for the inevital bump of going over a body. Somehow it never did. I always sat in the back looking out the windows. One day i had enough and said out loud "I CANNOT STAND THIS DAMN BUS!" And people were like "huh" and "why" and mom was like "shhh your uncles driving it"

Once again i was just like "I CANNOT STAND THIS GODDAMN BUS" knowing my conservative christian uncle would be annoyed. He told me to basically shut up and sit down. I was in a very "fuck you" mood and stormed off though. I was just relieved to be off it. It made me so anxious and angry. I dunno what all that was about.

Another part; I made friends with this fey child thing. She was kind of a bitch, as far as children go and there was a grumpy talking (light grey Persian) cat. Dunno wtf these were but they were of the monster variety.

I wanted to abandon my life and go with the monster girl. One of the things i learned was in the tilled field next to us, below lived some sort of huge scary monster. Like spiders? But they were kind but would put you to work mucking out their tunnels. Gross but interesting. Also carried the fey risk of never being allowed to return, but if one wanted to run away and live with the monsters, it wasn't the worst one could do. There was another option that involved running a gauntlet in a river. I watched someones attempt, and there was magic involved and they were about to not make it, and drown... But some creature came to their aid and what it did was speed them up as they were swept down the river in the wake of something's tail. They sped up because to make it out and over the falls they had to go supersonic or something. So the fish? Hummingbird? Creature saved them and they passed. Definitely not worth risking.

Then the dream shifted into more plotty things and there was a big mansion. This is the inception part because i think i was thinking up a story but at the same time, was involved in it. Or it mirrored my situation.

The monster girl had her mom and i told her I was coming with her. But that we needed to leave as soon as possible because there was danger from another monster. She was like yeah, and told me to wait. I waited by the cat. I later found out the kid abandoned me to go to bed. But she said we'd leave during the night. So I tried sleeping for a few hours.

Well. The monster matriarch caring for the house/people wasn't going to let me go. It was like a momma wanting to keep her babies home. She'd sooner eat me than let me leave.

I guess we tried to drug her into sleeping deeper so we could flee easier but something went wrong and this monster mom slowly started stalking after us. I woke the girl up, found out her mom had been sucked dry and was just a husk. We grabbed what half-packed bags we could with me literally flinging shirts and jeans into a bag as I ran to the window. We were gonna hoof it until she just straight up threw her shit in a nearby truck and got in the driver's seat. She looked 8. I think i was little too. Btw she was moving in an urgent sort of way, but was otherwise unfazed by the events. Like she knew how to handle it. I however was scared shitless.

After we were on the road, someone else was driving while we tried to get some rest. This is when i thought i had been plotting so I thought i would share what setting i had with her. To talk about something else.

Basically the plot was..

Main character gets drafted but shortly dies. (Directly stolen from the beginning of FFXII LOL) and he leaves behind a brother and friends in this small town though he lived at the big mansion. That was cared for by a matriarch thing. This matriarch was a monster and had a certain influence over the place. I mean, people were content enough but definitely had an unnerved sort of vibe about them.

I remember there was a younger brother shrouded in this same contentedness but eventually started to realize things were off. So he wanted to escape. But they had an even younger brother, who was sickly and often snuggled down with... Not the matriarch, but some of the people who were definitely doing her bidding. One of the things they did was reward and keep the kid's interest by giving him special marbles they said looked like planets. Like the kid didnt know anything about planets and was completely fascinated in collecting and learning about as many as he could. He'd only have a handfull of marbles at a time but they were treated like special magic stones. He was completely saturated by this influence. (Since its FFXII inspired, lets call it Mist)

So the middle brother tried to enlist the help of his uncle who could be trusted and wanted to help. (He had some political power at the house but in one of those.. "The bad guys obviously dont like or trust him" sort of ways) And i guess the middle kid was training to be a doctor because they used it as an excuse to be handling certain things. I think they were trying to get closer to the sick kid. Also find proof that something wrong was going on.

The guy tried to involve a handfull of his friends. Some were his older brothers friends. There was one that had gone into a drunken depression at his death and was on a bad path. (A sherrif like guy was worried about him, having promised the dead brother he'd watch over him but..) One guy had a small motorcycle he loved but was the cautious friend with the sense of reason. Kind of the leader. Dunno much about the others.

At some point, they have to flee. They're all on crotch rockets and trying to evade the cops which are under the matriarch monsters influence. They hop a barbed wire fence and escape past some curly haired cow calves in a stable. They just managed to get away.

I think the drunk guy was gonna turn his nose up at the friends and tell them to fuck off when they ask him to help, but he meets up with them later out of a sense of duty.

I dont remember much more that i can organize into linear thoughts. But the whole vibe was dark and so creepy..

[theangelssecondwing]

Chapter 1

My name is Cora, and I was never considered beautiful. I was always sorrounded by beautiful things and people, but I, myself, was never beautiful. So I thought that nobody would ever love me.

Until he came into my life.

It was one of the many banquets the elite of Midgar always held. I stood by my father and allowed a concerning number of men kiss my hand while barely concealing the disgust over even having to approach me, while letting my eyes wander through the room. That's when he caught my eye. He was a bit taller than average, so he stuck out. And he was impossibly, ethereally beautiful. His face was without any blemishes, and so was his exposed chest. His hair was almost long enough to reach his knees, and of a light, silvery colour. He seemed to be talking to someone who was short enough to blend in the crowd, but he seemed to notice my gaze, because he looked up and for a single, heartstopping moment, our eyes met. Even at a distance his eyes looked a bit off, but I could quite say why.

I tugged at the sleeve of my father's expensive blazer as if I was a child begging for attention.

„Father, who is that man over there?"

Father followed my gaze. "Him? That's Sephiroth."

„THAT's Sephiroth?" I returned my attention to the man. Of course I had heard of him. He was a war hero after all. But none of the stories had mentioned just how jawdroppingly beautiful he was.

„Not quite as amazing as the stories tell, is he? You should pay attention to more important matters", said a voice, the sound of which made my fight or flight instinct kick in. But, bound by social expectation as I always was, I gave the newcomer a diplomatic smile.

„Mr. Shinra. How nice to see you. How are you doing on this fine evening?"

The blonde young man who approached me was handsome, or would have been if a) I didn't know how much of a dirtbag he was and b) I hadn't laid eyes upon the most alluring man to ever walk this planet just seconds prior. „Please, Cora. Call me Rufus. Mr. Shinra is my father."

I was overcome by the urge to retch. Not just because I detested this man with every fibre of my being, but also because all of the pleasantries that came out of his mouth sounded so fake. He sounded like an actor who hated his role and therefore put as little effort into his performance as he could. He didn‘t even smile. I took a deep breath. Remember your manners, Cora… „Before I forget: please send your father my regards. He has really outdone himself with this party."

„I will make sure that your praise will reach his ears." He looked over to where his father stood. „Or maybe you should tell him yourself.“

I recoiled and quickly looked for a way out. Conversations with Mr. Shinra Senior tended to go into uncomfortable directions, mostly because my father was only insignificantly less wealthy than the Shinra family and thus I was ‚perfect wife material‘ for Rufus, which we both agreed wasn‘t true. „I… Uh… I would really love to, but… i-it's quite stuffy in here, and I'm a bit dizzy. I will go get some fresh air, if you don't mind."

That was a blatant lie and he probably knew that. There was no fresh air to be had here; the air in all of Midgar was polluted to the brim, even in the more wealthy districts.

Rufus ever so slightly raised his eyebrow. Wow, something resembling an actual facial expression. Impressive. „Shall I accompany you?“

„Oh, I wouldn't want to stop you from enjoying the party, Mr. Shinra. Good evening." As much as I hated him, I had to admit one thing: He probably hated me just as much.

I took a deep breath once Rufus was out of sight. I looked around for Sephiroth, hoping to catch another glimpse of him, but he was nowhere to be found. I turned, poised to leave… and bumped into someone on the way. Stumbling, I mumbled an apology. A pair of big yet slender hands steadied me.

„No, I must apologize. I wasn't paying attention."

This voice was the auditory version of chocolate. Deep, dark and rich, with a smooth, silky tone. A subtle, sweet and earthy scent was in the air, and I had to stop myswlf from inhaling deeply. Then I looked up and I swear that my heart skipped a beat. Now that he was closer, I could make out more of his face. His lips were full and sensual, though curled into a slight frown, his teal eyes with the slit pupils looking at me from underneath thick, long lashes. He had eyes like a cat.

My breath hitched in my throat. He was even more beautiful up close.

I quickly took a step back, hoping that he couldn‘t hear my racing heart, and awkwardly cleared my throat. „I believe we weren‘t introduced to each other yet. My name is Cora.“

„Sephiroth.“ A t least the frown disappeared, being replaced by a carefully neutral expression.

„I know who you are. Well… most people do. You are pretty famous, after all.“ I stumbled over my words, not knowing what to say. I bit my lip, angry at myself for letting his presence affect me so much.

He let out a slightly amused huff. „Is that why you were looking at me before?“

Oh no.

„I… well.. I...“ Blast. Everything I knew about making light conversation seemed to have vanished under the intensity of his eyes. What was I supposed to tell him? That I had been awestruck by his beauty? No, I didn‘t want to gross him out. Trying to swallow the lump in my throat, I looked up. „Well, you are quite a sight to behold. Surely you must be used to people staring.“ Did I really just tell him to get over it? What on earth was wrong with me? Trying to salvage the situation, I quickly added:„Of course, that does not excuse my staring. My apologies for that.“

He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly, as if he was amused by my clumsiness. „I suppose I should be used to it by now.“

I chuckled nervously, looking around and finding that a lot of people were staring at us. I ducked slightly, trying to make myself look smaller as if I could somehow evade the disapproving glares of my peers. „I was actually just about to leave. I really need some fresh air right now.“

He slightly tilted his head. „Mind if I join you?“

„If you‘d like to.“ I couldn‘t believe it. A chance to be alone with Sephiroth!

I tried to keep calm, reminding myself that I knew him for a grand total of five minutes plus the minute or so I had been staring at him before. And that I was disgusting. No need to get carried away.

We barely talked as we made our way through the iron corridors of Shinra Corps main building. But when we finally stepped out into the cool evening air, I let out a relieved sigh.

„Are you alright?“, Sephiroth asked.

I rubbed my forehead to clear my thoughts. „Yes, I‘m just… happy to be having some more breathing room.“

Sephiroth smirked. „If you really want fresh air, you‘d have to leave Midgar.“

I shuffled my feet a little. „I‘d love to. Someday, maybe.“ I looked up at him. „I never left Midgar before. What is it like out there?“

„That depends on where you‘re headed.“ He scratched his chin. „There are lots of interesting places outside of Midgar.“

We walked along the streets of the upper districts, up on the plate that shrouded the slums below in perpetual shadow. And we talked about anything our minds wandered to. He told me about far-off places he had seen during missions, and people he met.

It was strange. We had only just met, and yet… after the inital awkwardness passed, I felt so comfortable around him. As if I had known him for years.

That night was the first time I dreamt of him. It was but a flicker of his silvery hair, and the feeling of heavenly soft lips pressed to my neck, my jaw and then my mouth and a deep, silky voice whispering my name. I woke with a start, half expecting to see him on top of me, holding my hands down and kissing me with a hunger that was a reflection of my own. I sighed and let myself drop back into my pillow. A dream… just a dream. I let out a long, suffering sigh. This was crazy. I had only talked to him for a few minutes, and now I was having dreams about him? But then I thought about him, about his perfect face and intense eyes and his heavenly smooth hair… Of course I would desire him. Any woman capable of being attracted to men would, I was sure of that.

I got up shortly before sunrise. I wasn‘t a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but with the dream from the previous night fresh on my mind, I felt like I needed to go on a walk to clear my head. On my way away from the Shinra building, I passed the daughters of some of my father‘s colleagues. One of them said:„Look, it‘s Cora. I saw her talk to Sephiroth last night.“

„Really? How did he not run at the first sight of her fat ass barreling towards him?“

I rolled my eyes. „Don‘t you have anything better to do than stand here making stupid comments?“

A loud crash snapped me out of my anger, and I turned my head just in time to see Sephiroth dodging another man‘s attack, which cut through the wall right where Sephiroth had been standing just a second before that. Judging by the state of the wall, this happened more than once. A bit of rubble broke off and hit me square in the face, splitting my bottom lip open and knocking the glasses off my face. I stumbled back and fell flat on my ass.

The girls who had just insulted me also looked at the spectacle.

„Sephiroth is so amazing! I would die if he ever looked at me!“

„He‘s so beautiful! More beautiful than any man or woman I have ever seen!“

The so admired hero landed safely on a platform not far from us, wiping some stray hair from his face and giving his opponent a smirk. „Are you quite done now, Genesis?“

The man named Genesis sheathed his weapon. „For today.“

And while putting away his own sword, Sephiroth noticed me. And the state I was in. He jumped off the platform and walked up to me. „Oh, Cora, did we hit you? I‘m so sorry. Here, let me help you up...“

I let him pull me to my feet. There was blood dripping down my chin, and I could barely see anything without my glasses. The other man, the one Sephiroth had been fighting, picked them up, dusted them off and handed them to me.

„Sorry about that. We probably shouldn‘t spar in a place where civilians are running around.“

„As I have told you“, a third man, black haired and with a very stern face, said as he approached us. „Many times.“

Sephiroth sighed. „Yes, Angeal. We know.“ Then he looked at me again. „Are you okay, apart from your lip, Cora?“

I absentmindedly pulled an tissue from my pocket and pressed it onto the still bleeding wound. „Eh, I‘ll survive.“

„Oh, you know her?“, Genesis asked slightly surprised. „Didn‘t know you had any friends apart from Angeal and me.“

„I met her at the party yesterday.“

„Oh, right. I saw you walk out with her.“ Genesis extended his hand. „Genesis Rhapsodos. Nice to meet you.“

We shook hands, and now that I heard his full name, I remembered that there was indeed a man of that name who was a member of SOLDIER.

The third man, Angeal, now stepped forth and also shook my hand. „Angeal Hewley.“

„Nice to meet you“, I replied with a smile, still pressing the tissue onto my lip. „I‘m Cora Hunter.“

The women from before approached us and just shoved me aside, causing me to land on my ass yet again. Good thing I was padded there. „Oh wow, you are so strong, Sephiroth!“

He just gave them a puzzled look before walking past them and helping me up again. The women gasped in offense.

„I feel really bad about hurting you, Cora. Is there any way to make it up to you?“

„Oh, it‘s okay. It was just an accident, after all.“ I finally removed the tissue, only to find it stuck to the wound. Ouch.

„We were actually just about to go grab some coffee. Why don‘t you come along? Our treat.“ Genesis gave me a pat on the shoulder. „Come on.“

Sephiroth gave me an encouraging nod.

I looked down on the ground, feeling my cheeks heat up. I was not used to so much positive attention, especially from attractive men. „Y-you really don‘t have to...“

„But we want to. So come on, our favourite coffee shop is just down the street...“

Ten minutes later I sat in a corner booth in a very nice coffee shop, with a cup of latte in front of me. It burned in the split on my lip, but it was sweet and creamy, so I could forget the pain.

Genesis was reading a book while he absent-mindedly stirred milk and sugar into his coffee. The word „Loveless“ was printed onto the cover.

After a while, he looked up. „So. You and Sephiroth met at a party? That‘s weird… Our Sephiroth usually isn‘t the type to just chat up random women at parties.“

„Genesis.“ There was a warning in Sephiroth‘s voice.

„What? It‘s true.“

„You‘re being very invasive, Genesis“, Angeal remarked.

I chuckled softly. „I‘m probably just as curious about Sephiroth‘s reasons to speak to me as you are, Genesis.“

Sephiroth rested his chin on his hand. „I might tell you someday. If you‘re good.“

His tone was so suggestive, my face grew hot and I was pretty sure that there was steam coming out of my ears. I lowered my head to hide how furiously I was blushing. But from underneath my bangs, I could see Sephiroth smirk as he took a sip of his coffee.

„You know, we train at the very spot where you met us today almost every morning. So if you‘d like, you could drop by and watch us.“

I managed to take a deep breath and somehow get my vocal cords back under control before answering:„S-sure.“ Looked like I was about to become a morning-person.

I couldn‘t get Sephiroth out of my head for the rest of the day. I went about my usual business, helping my father go through paperwork and occasionally attending meetings. After all, I had to know the ins and outs of his work by the time he decided to retire and leave his share of Shinra to me. But the entire time, my thoughts were dominated by a pair of striking, cat-like eyes.

I couldn‘t wait for the following morning.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

The 7 Times Eraserhead And Present Mic Became Parents

Summary: The seven times Aizawa Shouta and Yamada Hizashi became dads.

Pairings: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present

Warnings: Mentions of Past Child Abuse, Mentions of Past Trauma, Adoption, Lethal Doses Of Fluff But Also Slight Angst, Mentions of Past Non-Con

Crossposted on ao3

Chapter 3: Tenko

A little over a year after they had adopted Touya and Shoto, Aizawa was on a drug bust. He entertained his thoughts while he waited for his cue. The kids had grown, they were all recently now six, with Hitoshi's birthday having been just two days ago. It was the third of July and the night was quite cold compared to the day today.

Touya was still withdrawn and shy, and he flinched quite horribly still whenever someone raised their hands near him. It had nearly terrified Aizawa the first time Touya had done that violent flinch in self defense of him. It hurt to see him do that even though he hadn't intended to hit him at all, he'd intended to hug him.

Shoto was still frustratingly cold to others but was still very protective of his two brothers. He, unfortunately, also flinched, to a lesser extent than Touya, but it was enough that it was noticable. It infuriated him to know that they had these reactions.

Hitoshi was getting bolder too, beginning to excitedly point out that he wanted to be a pro hero. Touya and Shoto had excitedly buzzed energy to follow their adopted fathers' footsteps and be pro heroes as well.

It made him unimaginably proud to see them striving for something like that, but he also wanted them to have their own dreams; not just the ones he and Hizashi had. Touya had, at this comment, said he wanted to have a cafe and Shoto said he didn't care. Hitoshi told him he wanted to be a teacher at UA.

He heard someone's voice. His cue was the door of the building he was to listen for  the undercover officer to yell 'Freeze' after he was inside. He looked down to see him go in and landed quietly, waiting a few seconds for his cue but instead heard someone scream that didn't sound like the officer.

'Shit!' He thought, rushing in with his Erasure activated the second he was through the door and gazed at Shimura Itami and Shimura Kizuna with the undercover officer, Kyokanosaeru Shizuka. Shizuka was golding her gun to Itami's temple, hand over his eyes and Kizuna was hesitating because of it. So who got shot?

He heard a cough in the corner and then retching. He dared glance from Kizuna to see a boy in a white very oversized shirt clutching his stomach while he threw up onto the floor, shivering weakness.

Kizuna took the second to move but Aizawa erased her Quirk, which was Recreate. She could recreate anything she touched with all five fingers. He was grateful Shizuka had covered Itami's eyes. His Quirk was Pain, he could look at someone and cause them pain, much like his own but with more destructive consequences to the victim's body, eventually ending up with with the victim dying from the overwhelming pain or even going into psychosis if Itami gazed at them long enough.

Aizawa heard sirens as he restrained Kizuna with his capture weapon and he did the same to Itami's eyes too, to keep him from seeing anyone. Then he attended to the boy, leaving the villain couple to Shizuka to apprehend. The boy screamed at touch, two finger gloved hands coming up to scratch at Eraserhead's own in self-defence. But he was ultimately getting too weak to fight.

"I won't hurt you. My name is Eraserhead. I'm a pro hero. I'm here to help you. Can you talk?" He began. The boy nodded and let him lift his dress/shirt to press against the wound to stem the bleeding at least. It was to his lower abdomen, hopefully away from any vital organs. "Good job letting me help. Can you tell me your name?"

"Tenko."

"Good, that's good, Tenko. What's your Quirk? Why do you wear those gloves?" He pressed to keep him conscious. If he stopped talking and passed out with a wound like this and all this blood loss, he surely wouldn't make it.

"Decay. I can't touch anything with all five of my fingers or it turns to dust." The boy was breaking down into tears. Thankfully, the medics came in to take over.

"Don't take his gloves off. His Quirk is destructive if he touches things with all five fingers." He told them.

They took little Tenko to the hospital and it hurt to see him leave because he was reaching for him and crying harder and screaming. His heart throttled his throat even as he filed his paperwork and went home to Hizashi waiting up for him with the boys sleeping waching a movie while they waited.

"Hey, hun." Hizashi greeted him with a kiss.

"Daddy!" Touya awoke and hugged him.

"Hey Dad." Hitoshi jumped and hugged him too. He caught the two. Shoto simply waved tiredly. Thankfully the kids were all tired to he and Hizashi put them to bed and let them fall asleep in their own rooms.

"I think we need to talk about something." He told his fiance once they'd gotten all three boys to bed and had retired to their room, getting ready for bed as well.

"What's up, hun?" The vocal hero asked.

"What would you think about adopting again?"

"I'd love to. Were you thinking an orphanage or getting matched with a kid in the adoption system?" He looked over at Hizashi. He wanted Tenko, every burning instinct was telling him Tenko would die all too soon in any kind of orphanage or foster agency. He wasn't a strong boy like Touya and Shoto or a baby dumped on his doorstep like Hitoshi. He was frail and weak and Shouta's body screamed to protect him. Especially after reading when Shimura Kizuna and Itami had done to him, letting customers pay to use him. It made him gag and get nauseous worse just thinking about it. The tiny fragile boy had been through to much to be just six years old.

"There was a kid during the drug raid tonight on Agony and Recostruct. He's their son." He felt his voice, usually so monotone, crack.

"Shou?" Hizashi hugged him from behind.

"They let their customers pay to rape him, Zashi. They shot him and tried to kill him so he wouldn't be able to give information to the cops. They forced their own son to let men touch him like that." He felt himself holding tears back.

"Oh God, how could they...aw, Shou. You wanna adopt him?" He nodded, furiously wiping his eye. He couldn't cry now.

"He wanted me to stay, Zashi. He wanted me to stay with him but I couldn't." He rubbed furiously at his eyes and sniffled.

"Shou, if that' what you really want, and what you think he'll want, of course we can adopt him." The vocal hero was quiet behind his ear. He turned in his arms and pressed against him. He couldn't contain his emotions right now, not after seeing such a tiny child so hurt and malnourished and sickly. Tenko was supposed to be like Touya, Shoto, and Hitoshi, running around at the park playing tag, not in the not in a hospital with a gunshot wound he may not survive.

"We...We have to find out if he makes it through surgery first." He held Hizashi close tightly.

"He's that bad?"

"Tenko was so tiny, Zashi. He looked like they hadn't fed him in weeks." He heard Hizashi curse.

"Come on. The soorner we sleep, the sooner we can wake up and ask the cops if tenko made it. There'll be no waiting up and asking Sansa." And so they went to bed, but not quite to sleep. Halfway throught the night, Touya and Shoto came in after a nightmare and not had to use the bathroom and not being able to sleep by himself again, respectively. This was followed by their insomniac Hitoshi having woken up and been unable to get to sleep again. With their three boys snuggled up between them, Aizawa was finally able to sleep.

His brain woke him up early like he'd woken from a nightmare. But he saw Hizashi, Tenko, Shoto, and Hitoshi gone from the bed. The kids' cat stuffies were still on the bed. Shoto's bear with its red left side and white right, Touya's with its red back and white front, and Hitoshi's purple one. They all sat  abandoned near Shouta's arms. He heard a childish cheer from the kitchen.

"Yay! TenTen made it!" Hitoshi cheered. TenTen? Wait...Tenko? Was Hisashi calling the cops to ask about Tenko with Hitoshi?

"Papa?" So Touya was awake too and not just back in his room. "Will Tenko be okay?" Touya asked Hizashi.

"Tenko will be just fine, boys. He made it though the surgery just fine." He felt a weight lift off his chest. He sat up and stretched, walking out to the living room to find the boys crowding Hizashi, who looked to have just hung up the phone while the four sat on the couch.

"Shou, Tenko made it through surgery. He's been asking for you."

"That's great. I guess I should visit him later."

"I already got permission both from him and the police chief. All five of us are on his visitors list now."

"They put him in the secure ward then?" He asked, getting his coffee.

"Yeah, Daddy. They said because his parents are bad." Touya told him while Shouta poured creamer into his coffee and stirred it together.

"They are. They're very bad. They hurt Tenko a lot." He told them.

"What did they do, Dad?" Shoto asked.

"Well, boys, they sold really bad illegal drugs to their customers. And, since they're bad people, they let their customers pay to touch Tenko."

"To touch him? Like a hug?" Touya asked.

"No, a bad touch. Not like a hug. A very bad touch and it hurt tenko a lot." He explained. Hitoshi watched with wide eyes. Obviously Hitoshi understood it more than the twins, he'd heard of their job longer than Touya and Shoto.

"Is Tenko okay?" Shoto asked.

"Yeah, is he!?" Touya seemed teary, like he would lose control of his Quirk at any moment with the excessive emotional distress.

"I don't know, boys. We'll have to visit him." That seemed to calm Touya and, by extension, Shoto.

"Can I get something at the store for him first?" Hitoshi asked.

"Of course, Hito." Hizashi agreed.

"Thank you." Hitoshi went back to reading, something he was very proud that he could do so easily. He would easily excel all his English courses, curtosy of Hizashi teaching him to read just as soon as he could. Touya was close to being able to read by himself since they only had him for thirteen months and Hizashi had begun teaching him as a bonding therapy only seven months ago. Shoto was still struggling with reading some books that had writing on their left pages but he was very close to reading by himself as well.

So they all ate, got dressed, and went to the store. Hitoshi made a break for the toy section and was looking over cat plushies.

"It's gotta match his hair like ours. What's Tenko's hair color, Dad?" Hitoshi asked.

"Light blue." Touya picked up a powdery blue one.

"Blue." He told them, handing Aizawa the stuffed animal.

"Shoto, Touya, you should pick something out for Tenko too." Hizashi urged them. Touya led Shoto to the food section and Touya shrugged and picked up a couple umaibo while Shoto grabbed a box of building blocks. So they headed to the checkout and then to the hospital, checking in at the visitor's desk and got pointed toward Tenko's room. The blue haired boy was awake, talking with Sansa, who has a suppressor collar in his hands.

"It should fit. Are you sure, Tenko?" He asked. The boy nodded, allowing the metal around his neck, the red light blinking while Sansa adjusted it to sit correctly and then the green light came on with a light beep. Aizawa shook his head, remembering that feeling too well and looked to Sansa as the officer looked at him.

"Oh, hello, Eraserhead, Present Mic." Sansa greeted them.

"Hey, Sansa." Hizashi greeted him. Tenko's eyes got big before he looked away, red eyes hidden by his uneven pale blue hair.

"I'll get going. The Chief probably has more paperwork for me." Sansa told them, leaving while Shouta and Hizashi picked up Hitoshi and the twins and set them on Tenko's bed.

"Tenko, these are my sons, Touya, Shoto, and Hitoshi. They heard you got hurt and wanted got you some things." Shouta explained.

"Really?" The boy asked.

"Of course." Hitoshi told him before either adult could say anything. "I got you a plushie cat like mine, Sho's and Tou's. It matches your hair." Hitoshi explained. He held it out to the bluenette and, hesitantly, Tenko took it, fingers holding it close against his chest, eyes still hesitant but he looked like he trusted them.

"I got you umaibo. Papa gets them for us when we get sick and they make us feel better." Touya handed him the two different umaibo.

"Thank you."

"I got you building blocks. So you have something to do until you can leave." Shoto offered.

"Thank you." He was rather meek and he seemed timid, almost scared.

"You have a suppressor collar?" Hitoshi asked.

"I scared one of the nurses after she took my gloves off. So I asked for one from the nice kitty when I woke up." He held the stuffed cat close. Hizashi seemed amused. Aizawa could practically hear Hizashi asking him why all the kids they'd chosen, or rather fate had thrown at them, loved cats for some reason.

"You'll get control of it." Shoto assured him.

"I'll work on my control." Tenko promised, smiling. How could this tiny thing that hade been through so much smile still?

"Okay, I think Papa's gonna take you three to school. I'm gonna stay here and talk to Tenko." Aizawa told them.

"Do they have to go?" Tenko whispered.

"They do, but they'll come back and see you after they come back from school. I'm gonna stay here and talk to Tenko." Hizashi asked the three, who all agreed almost immediately.

"Okay, by Shoto, bye Touya, bye Hitoshi." He waved at them.

"Bye Tenko!" The three chorused while Hizashi led them out like ducklings. Shouta cracked a smile at his fiance getting followed like a mother duck with their ducklings.

"Now, Tenko. There are some things we need to talk about, okay?" Shouta hated getting right to it but Tenko seemed uncomfortable in the silence and he was too.

"About my parents?" He asked.

"Kind of." Tenko looked up at him oddly. "Your parents have lost custody of you so they can't take care of you anymore."

"Not that they did before." Wow, that was sure...something. Obviously the kid hated his parents.

"So, since you have no relatives besides them living, you'd be put in an orphanage or foster agency."

"But them I can't see you or Shoto and Touya and Hitoshi again." His eyes welled with tears.

"Tenko, if you want, me and my fiance could adopt you if you wanted. Hitoshi, Shoto, and Touya would be your brothers. Does that sound good?" He asked.

"I-I mean...i it doesn't bother you...or them." He was back to being shy again.

"Us being your dads and brothers wouldn't be a problem for us at all." He assured.

"Really?" He sat down on the bed with him.

"Yes really. And Tenko, do you wanna know something?" He nodded anxiously. "All three boys, Touya, Shoto, and Toshi? They were all adopted just like what I'm offering to you. Hitoshi's mom couldn't take care of him and gave him to me as a baby. Shoto and Touya, me and Hizashi found them a little over a year ago. They'd run away from home because their father's abusive and their mother burned them."

"They're yours? Even though you didn't have them?" Tenko asked.

"Of course they're mine. I wouldn't give up even one of them, ever." Tenko looked close to tears. "Adoption means that they want you and they'll protect you no matter what." Tenko sniffled, wiping his face with his hands.

"If it's okay." Tenko smiled shyly.

"It's perfectly fine, Tenko." He pulled him in to hug him.

Tenko settled against him, easily falling asleep with his cat plush toy still stuffed into his arms. Tenko was released from the hospital a week later after his wound had healed enough and he'd gained enough weight back that his doctors weren't as worried about him having to come back. The paperwork had been filed by the end of the week so they could take Tenko home upon his release. The first thing the boys had done was make a blanket fort with their new brother and fell asleep inside.

[ukthxbye]

Three-word-prompts: weary, telenovela, comfort (sherlolly). Please?

Here is it :)

on ao3

“You have a cold, Molly,”

“I’m fine,” she sniffled. And then proceeded to sneeze five times with a cough to follow.

“No, you are not. Home,” he commanded, turning her from the direction of her office, with a hand on her back directing her path.

“Sherlock really…”

“Don’t try it. You’re going home.”

Too weary to argue, she walked with him outside, texting her superior. She fell half asleep in the cab, leaned against the window its coolness made her headache lessen.

“Thank you, Sherlock, I think I can manage now,” she managed, struggling for her keys in her pocket at her door.

He reached around her, used his own to open the door and ushered her inside and to the sofa. He pushed her shoulders down, and she complied, sinking into the comfort of being home.

Shrugging his coat off and then his suit jacket, he hung them near her door and strode to her kitchen without a word.

Loud rifling through her pantry and refrigerator and a loud grunt were all she heard before he came around back into the sitting room, exasperation evident.

“It seems you and I have much in common.”

“How?” she asked, dabbing her nose with a new tissue.

He rolled his eyes for a moment but it was not at the question. “Neither of us believe in the concept of keeping actual food in our homes. Though yours is bereft of spare parts for experiments which would have helped with the eventual boredom.”

She pulled her chin into her neck, confused, “I don’t do those things at home”

“But I am staying here to help and eventually you’ll sleep and I’ll get bored.”

“No you don’t have to stay, Sher–er…achoo!”

“Mmmhhmm”  is all he answered. “I am going to the chemist, I’ll be back”

“No I ‘ate how mets make pheel,” she murmured out with a very stuffy nose, before blowing it loudly.

“No matter. You need them.  Be back in a few,” he smiled as he slipped on his coat and stepped out her door.

She scrolled social media her phone for while waiting for him. She wondered why this was longer than just a trip to the chemist. She almost started looking up delivery for food, quite sure he got caught on a case. But she had switched over to Youtube and was watching funny cat videos when she heard the key in her door.

He placed an armload of items on the counter and she eased up off the sofa to look at his haul.

Boots meds in one bag that she rummaged through.

As stuffy as her nose was, a wonderful smell permeated it as he began opening containers. “Pho. Best cold cure I know,” he grinned as he searched for bowls in her cabinet. He found two large glass ones and she was too hungry and exhausted to inform him they were mixing bowls. Corner of her lips curled, watching him carefully assemble the soup and noodles and meat. He added so much chili sauce her the bowls she paused.

“Um I like spicy but–”

“It will clear your head, its worth the pain I promise,” he chuckled, setting a bowl of steaming pho in front of her.

“Sit, eat, now,” he directed, setting his own bowl beside hers.

“Water?”

“Yes, good idea” He gets them both a large glass of water.

They sat in quiet, slurping their soup and gulping water to quench the fire. She would have stuffed a tissue up her nose if she was by herself but decided against it in his presence. Her nose ran constantly but he didn’t seem to notice. He typed on his phone while slurping up a noodle.

“If you need to, you know, you got a case or anything…” she spoke softly, “I’ll be good, really”

“I can solve these from my phone, they are barely a 4,” he sniffed.

She swallowed hard, asking “Why are you doing this?”

He cocked his head, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. “We are friends,” he breathed out quickly and then tipped his bowl up to drink the last of his broth.

She didn’t look at him but smiled to herself as she finished the last of hers. Her head felt much clearer and she could breathe out one side of her nose at least.

He moved to the sofa, slipping his shoes off. “I am here for the day to make sure you get well,” he grinned.

One part of her logical brain thought he wanted a favor but the weary part of her mind accepted maybe he is just being nice for once and also maybe he is a bit lonely today. She knows John is on holiday after all.

“I’m going to get into something more comfortable, “ she advised, then realized too late the typical nature of those words as her cheeks coloured. “I MEAN… just some comfy, baggy pyjamas…and a robe probably.”

He appeared to take no notice of the slip, his face remained neutral.

“I wish I could join you,” he started, and added quickly “With the comfy clothes that is, of course.”

She turned her head to hide her awkward smirk. “I think you have a pair of pyjamas still here actually.”

“Ah”

“I’ll bring them in here for you if you want to change…that is if you are staying tonight.” She kept her head turned away, emptying her pockets onto the side table near her as an excuse not look at him.

“That may be the plan yes. We’ll see how you feel.”

She nodded and retreated to her room.

She found her favorite pajama bottoms and an old well-worn uni t-shirt. Big fuzzy dressing gown soothed her as the symptoms started to come back. She shuffled back to the couch, his neatly folded pyjamas in hand.

She flopped into her usual spot.

He was standing the kitchen, preparing tea and a fresh glass of water.

“Here drink this, and take these pills, “ he advised, handing her the water while setting down her tea.

She watched his pause, hand on the pyjamas, before he grabbed them up and went down the hall without a word, she presumed to change. She turned on the telly and found the channel she always looked for when she was sick.

Well, this is a helluva thing, she thought to herself. If she had a fever, she would assume this was all a hallucination, a fevered dream. But she knew the warmth she felt as he returned to join her on the sofa was not virally provoked.

Her robe suddenly became too toasty as he sat near her.

“I don’t want to make you sick, Sherlock,” she attempted to warn without conveying her awareness of his nearness.

He rolled his eyes a bit and gave her a side glance “I am already exposed and you know this. Hardly worth worrying about now.”

She felt her head start to ache again and closing her eyes, she laid her head against the back of the sofa near his shoulder  

He stared in silence at the television for a few moments, arms folded.

“Is this really what you want to watch?”

She cracked an eye open, searching his face for a moment before answering.

“I had a flatmate in uni from Mexico. We both got the flu one week and took care of each other. We found a channel showing telenovelas and just watched them the whole time we were sick.”

She shrugged, “Since then I like to watch them when I don’t feel good.”

“It’s the same drivel as our own television, only more colors and a different language”

“Mmhmm still like it anyway,” she murmured, the medicine starting to take its effect and ease her headache.

Soon she was asleep.

Her head shifted to his shoulder and in her sleep she settled into it, her hand landing near his. She snored softly but that was to be expected, and he ignored it.

He stiffened at the contact when her head fell into his arm, but relaxed letting her cuddle up close with no protest.

He wanted to throw his arms up that the detective in the show still has not solved the murder after an hour but he stayed still to let her sleep. But soon his arm became tingly and as he shifted he forgot to make sure she stayed upright. Her head slid down his arm and before he could catch her, she shifted in her sleep.

Now her head was laying on his thigh, and her hand on his knee. He froze in place, unsure whether to move over and let her head fall to the sofa. But he was trying to keep up with the story as well. He grabbed the pillow next to him and slipped it under her head instead, she seemed settled and sleeping peacefully. He knew this was the best medicine, despite the brief moment of thoughts and sentiment he felt watching her laying there.

And he recorded in his mind every millimeter of her face in sleep for his room for her in his mind palace without even realizing it. He pushed away those musings and focused on the inane but distracting storyline on the telly.

So there she slept for another hour.

His own weariness, or perhaps it was boredom, he found no interest in the repeating storylines. He stared down Molly, sleeping quietly. He followed the compulsion to move her hair from her face, after all, it might bother her in her sleep he reminded himself. He ignored that little quake in his chest as his fingers gently moved the chestnut strands behind her ear. He restrained reaction as she shifted once more in her sleep. He only thought of her comfort, which was a new process he found oddly relieving.

He wanted to lay his head down; he had found her sofa quite comfortable before for sleep. But he didn’t know what to do with her. In more than one way, he thought to himself. He resigned himself to the position he was in and let his mind slip off into slumber, his head leaned back on the sofa.

When she woke for a few minutes late in the night, she wondered if she indeed was feverish.

Laying down, her head rested on his arm, and she found her eyes focusing on the gray t-shirt he chose to sleep in. She risked looking up to see his stubbled chin.

He was holding her tight to him, and she gulped at the realization her arm was laying across his side rising and falling with his slow breathing.

When did this happen? Was this the meds? She ran her thoughts in circles but she knew he was not sick, he was under no influence. Something unconscious happened. But it felt too good for her to ruin it now.

Maybe I should have colds more often. Enjoy it and let the morning bring what it brings, she reminded herself as she snuggled in his arms, and he returned it in his sleep.

[shortcakemonster]

Go-Away Green pt. 4

Summary: You and Peter catch each other in the act.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5

Peter Parker could hardly contain himself within the day that he had to wait to get back to school. He wouldn’t have been able to sleep had he not had an extracurricular activity that did wonders for helping him get some energy out.

Come Monday morning, Peter was nearly bursting with anticipation to see you at school again. May barely managed to get a pair of toast slices into his hand as he rushed out the door to catch his bus. It took her a few seconds after the door slammed to realize that her nephew had left fifteen minutes early.

Peter found himself in the hallway at Midtown High School (now on time instead of early, thanks to a cat that he’d had to get down from a tree as his alter-ego), searching frantically for his best friend.

“Ned, you will not believe what happened, on Saturday,” Peter whispered as he caught up to his friend. “Did you hear about Delmar’s getting robbed?”

Ned exchanged a handshake with Peter as he spoke. “Yeah, I heard. You were there to save the day, though, right?”

“Kind of. I was there at the very end. But listen, man, when I got there, I busted in through the back door and the first thing I saw was the robber pointing a gun at (Y/N).”

Ned cocked his head to the side. “Who?”

Peter blinked at him. “The girl who wouldn’t join the decathlon team.” Still receiving no affirmation from Ned, he pressed on. “We had a whole ordeal, last week. Flash and MJ looked like they’d been under some sort of spell. You thought she was an alien from Doctor Who.”

Ned’s face lit up in recognition. “I didn’t say she was an alien, I said she was like one,” he clarified with a wag of his finger.

“Whatever, man. She was standing there- the thief had his gun on her, and you know what she did? She grabbed his hand, pointed the gun at the ceiling, and hit him over the side of the head with a ladle!”

Now Peter had Ned’s attention. “No way!” he exclaimed, his eyes widening. “You have to be making this up.”

“I swear on my life, dude. It was awesome!” He bounced on his feet with enthusiasm, a giant grin taking over his face.

Ned smirked. “You are getting way too excited about this.” 

“No, I’m not!” Peter denied, crossing his arms. “And dude, listen, I was looking at pretty much every news outlet ever this morning, and nobody’s mentioned her. Hardly anyone even remembers the thief getting hit before I showed up!”

“I’m sure ladle-girl is slightly less notable than Spider-Man,” Ned reasoned.

“(Y/N), Ned,” Peter chided. “Her name is (Y/N). Try not to forget it, I’m still suspicious about her.”

“Why would you be suspicious if she saved everyone at Delmar’s?”

“Because, dude, right before she grabbed the gun, I could’ve sworn that the robber looked away for a split second. What kind of a criminal takes their eyes off a hostage for even a moment?” He ran a hand through his hair, the stress from the weekend returning as he tried to figure it out.

“Didn’t the news say that he was high, at the time?” Ned asked.

“Well, yeah-”

Peter was interrupted both by the school bell and his best friend’s following question:

“Do you have a crush on her, or something?”

Peter felt heat spread over the back of his neck and the tips of his ears. “What? Of course not!” he spluttered.

The blushing did not go unnoticed by Ned, who squinted slightly. “You seem a little obsessed, is all.”

“I don’t know anything about her, Ned, besides the fact that she doesn’t want to join the decathlon team.”

Ned shrugged. “She’s probably too busy beating thugs with kitchenware to join a silly decathlon team.”

Peter broke into laughter, giving Ned a light punch on the arm. “You know, I hadn’t thought about it that way. You’re probably right.”

“I’m always right.”

All the talking forced the two friends rush to their first class, which only made Peter even antsier. He spent every class before chemistry- where he knew he could see you again- waiting for the bell to ring. He also did some subtle (or not-so-subtle, if you saw it from Ned’s eyes) searching for you in all of his other classes, wondering if he’d managed to miss you for all these months. Every search left him disappointed.

At long last, the time came for chemistry, and Peter bolted into his seat as Ned moseyed in behind him. He had no idea why he was so excited. Peter obviously couldn’t question you about last night, as only Spider-Man was supposed to know about it.

That thought brought him back to Saturday night, when he’d talked to you as his alter-ego. You’d avoided eye contact, crossed your arms over your body, used as few words as possible and only when completely necessary. At the time, he’d blamed it on the aftershock of the robbery, but could he have made you that afraid all on his own? Could Spider-Man strike fear into the people who he was meant to be protecting?

His legs bounced as his eyes darted between the clock and your empty seat. You were never late, were you? If you ever were, you probably entered through the back door so not to draw attention to yourself. He took a careful look around the room, but you were nowhere to be found. His lips flattened into a line and his eyes softened with disappointment.

Ned smirked. He’d seen that look on his best friend’s face before. Whether he knew it or not, Peter Benjamin Parker was in for a wild ride.

You were beside yourself. You hadn’t gotten any sleep for the whole weekend, anxiously awaiting the possible consequences of what had happened at Delmar’s.

Fortunately, your obsessive checking of every local news outlet brought you to the conclusion that nobody remembered you from Saturday night. Hardly anyone even remembered the robber being struck before Spider-Man showed up.

Except for Spider-Man, that is, but you were the only one who knew that. Hopefully.

But for once in your life, you had bigger priorities than schoolwork or making sure nobody noticed you, and that was getting a handle on your newfound invisibility powers.

On the one hand, you could easily see this working to your advantage. Maintaining constant invisibility was your dream. If you could keep it up, then you would no longer have to waste any time on mind control, if you could call it that. You’d never tried to use it for anything other than making people forget you, so you had no idea of your own capabilities. Still, the thought of being able to weave through crowds or walk home at night with no risk of anyone noticing you made your heart race with anticipation.

On the other hand, you hadn’t stopped flickering since Saturday night.

You assumed that you’d maintained full opacity as you slept, but you had no way of knowing this for sure and you you didn’t really care to. It didn’t matter what you looked like as you slept- unless one of your parents were to check in on you while you were sleeping, which was highly unlikely.

But every waking moment was spent trying to distract yourself from your plight and suddenly looking down to see your form shifting between visibility and invisibility.

At the very least, your clothes disappeared with you, so if and when you got full control over your abilities, you wouldn’t just be an outfit walking around with no head. This made you question if anything you touched could be turned invisible, and sure enough, anything you held in your hands wavered in opacity along with you.

Unfortunately, this was little comfort, as you had no real control over your powers. No matter what you tried, you couldn’t make yourself fully visible or invisible by your own free will. Visualizing yourself as either one caused you to become slightly more opaque or slightly more transparent, but you never landed fully on either end of the spectrum.

On Monday, you decided not to show up for school for the first time in a long time. You weren’t sure how you’d clear it up with the attendance office since you couldn’t ask your parents to call you in sick. 

Oh, well. One unexcused absence won’t kill me. Except my parents might get a call from the school and I might be forced to talk to them or someone from administration and either way it’ll mess up my perfect attendance record dear God how long have I had that going for well it’s all messed up now I wonder what the universities will think I’ve got no extracurriculars so I need all the help I can get-

You took a deep breath. You had much bigger things to worry about.

On the plus side, you woke up completely opaque and seemed to stay that way. But you couldn’t risk it, especially not at school, were hundreds of other students attended. If the robbery was any indication, you turned invisible during times of extreme stress when you really, really didn’t want to be seen by anyone. School, while hopefully not the grounds for a drug-addicted freak with a gun to show up, was still ripe for the kind of situations to make you want to be invisible.

So, there was no way you were going out in public. But, your bedroom had become stuffy with all the time over the weekend you’d spent inside with no doors or windows open. Feeling the need for some fresh air, you opened the window to the fire escape. 

You stuck your head out and took a whiff. The air in Queens wasn’t the clearest, but it was better than sitting in a room filled with your own body odor. Your gaze wandered over the neighboring buildings, the cars that zoomed past on the street, the jaywalking pedestrians- and a man lurking in an alley, poking his head out and glancing around the street every few seconds.

You felt your stomach turn. There was something wrong with this guy, you could feel it. This wasn’t your general cautiousness or trust issues, this was intuition.

But what could he be planning?

You got your answer moments later, when a young woman on her cell phone came walking down the side of the road, clearly in a hurry. The man swung out from the alleyway and came to stand directly in front of her, blocking her path. The woman collided with him and took several steps back upon seeing who it was.

You couldn’t quite make out what they were saying over the distant sounds of traffic a few blocks over, but his wild hand gestures and her raised, defensive hands suggested that they knew each other. He wouldn’t be wasting his time talking if he didn’t have something specific in mind. Hell, he wouldn’t be doing this in broad daylight if it wasn’t personal.

Your upper body slowly inched out the window bit by bit, trying to see more of the situation. The man’s voice became louder- you could vaguely hear him scream, “Thought you could just walk out on me?!” The woman grimaced and wiped at her face- he’d probably spit at her.

The woman began to subtly reach into her purse, but the man snatched it and grabbed her by the arm to drag her down the alley. Your heartbeat sped up at the sight, and you frantically looked around the street for somebody who could help her.

But there was no one.

No one except you.

You shook your head at your own thoughts. You weren’t a hero. The situation at Delmar’s was a one-time thing. Just because you could now turn invisible didn’t mean you’d be any good in an actual fight. Not to mention the fact that you had little to no control over your powers and there was a serious risk of flickering in front of the assailant and the victim.

And even if you managed to stop the man from harming that woman, there was a chance that he would turn his efforts towards you. The idea nauseated you.

And yet somehow, during all of these thoughts, your body moved of its own accord. Before you knew it, you were fully out the window, down the fire escape, on the ground, and running across the street. Your feet hit the pavement with thud after thud, but you looked down and realized that you couldn’t see your feet even slightly. You didn’t even have a shadow.

Without even realizing it, your mind had fallen into a steady stream of look through me look through me don’t see me not here not here look through me look away.

You slowed down at the mouth of the alley, quieting your steps so not to alert the assailant, who had the woman pinned to the wall with a knife to her throat. Your mouth went dry at the sight.

“Think you can just up and leave?” he growled, pressing the knife closer against her skin. “I thought you were different!”

“Honey, please, I didn’t mean it. Please don’t hurt me!” the woman sobbed.

What do I do now?

In your hurry, you’d neglected to grab a weapon. Immediately, your mind raced for another solution as you searched the alley for something to use. There was nothing but a large metal dumpster concealing the man and the woman, as well as some trash bags scattered here and there and some dirty needles lying in a puddle by a drainage pipe. But you weren’t looking to give the man an autoimmune disease.

You looked down and raised your hands. You still couldn’t see them. You were shrouded both by your own powers and the darkness of the alley.

Keeping your eyes on the assailant, you reached over and knocked your knuckles against the lid of the dumpster. It ratted loudly at the impact. 

The man’s back hunched over at the sound. His hand closed around the woman’s neck as he pointed the knife in the direction of the rattle.

“Who’s there!” he barked.

You held your breath as his eyes passed over you.

Look through me look through me look through me.

You leaned over and tapped your fingernails against the drain pipe, generating a tink tink tink. 

The man’s eyes flew to the pipe as his grip tightened on the woman’s neck, causing her to cough and sputter.

You were too far away to help, just yet. You kicked out your leg to the side and struck the dumpster, making a huge clatter. The man whipped around and waved his knife wildly through the air.

“Who’s there! Show yourself!”

Over his own shouting, he couldn’t hear your footsteps, and he certainly didn’t expect you to reach up and grab his hair and yank down. He howled in pain, collapsing to his knees and releasing the woman and the knife, the latter of which skidded away with a kick from you. 

The woman’s eyes widened with shock and confusion as she bent over and coughed, trying to regain her breath. The man’s hands flew to his head and you immediately released him for fear that he would touch you. 

The woman hopped over him in an attempt to run away, but he grabbed her around the ankle, tripping her. She plummeted to the ground with a yelp, but before he could make a move on her, you’d kicked him in the stomach, sending him into a fetal position with a cry of pain. 

You stopped for a second, considering the situation. What were you supposed to do now? Keep kicking him until he was incapacitated? What if you flickered? What if you-

“Okay, folks, party’s over.”

Before you could even turn your head in the direction of the voice, a web came slinging towards you. You had to jump out of the way to avoid it, letting it hit the man in the shoulder, pinning his side to the ground. Several more webs flung out and strapped his arms and legs down.

The man craned his neck up to see Spider-Man strolling up to him. “What the hell?!”

Spider-Man scratched the back of his head. “I dunno what it is, lately, I just encounter the rudest guys.”

The man growled angrily. “She attacked me!”

“I’m sure she did, sir.”

He even calls people sir and ma’am when they’ve done something wrong? Who raised this guy?

Spider-Man directed his attention toward the woman, who still sat on the ground, breathing heavily. “You alright, ma’am?”

The woman nodded, tears filling her eyes, clearly unable to speak. Spider-Man walked over slowly and gently grasped her elbow, easing her off the ground.

“Ma’am, how about you wait here a sec while I deal with lover-boy? You should relax while I get an ambulance for you.”

“This is none of your business, spider,” the man spat. “Just a domestic dispute.”

Keeping contact with the woman, Spider-Man glanced at the assailant. “You know, most domestic disputes don’t involve knives and dark alleyways.”

That shut the man right up. You slowly retreated against the wall as Spider-Man continued talking to the woman to calm her down as much as he could. You remained in your position, unwilling to leave, just in case he needed your help.

Spider-Man? Needing your help? Right.

A police cruiser and an ambulance showed up minutes later, although how they knew to come here, you weren’t sure. The woman was herded away by a paramedic as Spider-Man shot some sort of fluid over the man’s body, dissolving all of the webs that encased him so the police could get him into a squad car.

Soon after that, Spider-Man leapt up and flew through the air, swinging between the walls of the alley with his webs and disappearing from sight. Everything after that was a bit of a blur.

You’d been frozen in your spot, so focused on the situation and making sure nobody saw you that you had no idea how much time had passed since the last emergency vehicle had driven out of your sight. You couldn’t remember when you hadn’t heard the sirens, anymore.

You ran a hand through your hair, letting out a breath as you felt a weight off of your shoulders. Your relief didn’t last long, however, as you could see the state of your arm in your periphery.

You were flickering again.

It must have been the exhaustion from the fight, from seeing Spider-Man again. But it meant that you couldn’t go back out, not even right across the street to get back to your apartment. Someone might see you.

After a few minutes of trying to will your powers into obeying you for a change, you finally gave up and settled onto a dry spot on the ground, away from any trash or needles. Only time would tell if you could go back out into the daylight, again.

You looked around the alley for something to focus on besides your predicament with your invisibility. Your gaze landed on the drain pipe and followed it upward until it landed on something bulky stuck to the wall, covered in webbing. You stood up, squinting your eyes to further examine it.

Was that a backpack?

Right at that moment, an all-too familiar voice came echoing down the alley walls as a red and blue figure made its way towards you.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry, Aunt May. I got caught up with the- yeah, I’m headed to the grocery store right now. Okay. Love you, too.”

Was he on the phone with someone? Whatever the case, he hadn’t noticed you. You silently ducked behind the dumpster for good measure and watched him as he effortlessly darted up the wall and sprayed the backpack with web solvent. It leaned forward as it became unstuck, and Spider-Man caught it in one hand before gracefully descending back to the ground.

Huh. Spider-Man has a backpack. And an aunt named May.

More importantly, Spider-Man was in the same alleyway as you and you were flickering!

You ducked your head back behind the dumpster. You heard the zipper of the backpack opening, as well as the shuffling of some materials. You peeked out again and nearly collapsed at the sight of a half-naked body. Spider-Man was only in his boxers, revealing his toned torso and muscular arms and legs. Your face flushed with heat.

You couldn’t help but stand and let your eyes follow the body upward until you saw-

You almost keeled over right then and there. Curly brown hair. Soft brown eyes. A very, very young face.

Peter Parker? From school? From the decathlon team? With the Legos and the secret handshakes?

It couldn’t be. It absolutely couldn’t. Could it?

Your mind raced with a million questions and a million possible answers, but it all came to a halt as his head rose from its focus on his backpack and his eyes scoured the alley, looking for something.

You could have sworn that your heart stopped. You hadn’t made a sound, had you? You hadn’t-

Look away look away look away eyes forward eyes away I’m not here don’t see me for the love of God please don’t see me.

His head turned, and you locked eyes with Peter Parker.

A/N: Sorry it’s been so damn long. It was my birthday over the weekend. I don’t have an excuse for all the weekdays before or after that lol.

Tag list:

@3003st @aubreylovesthegames @catnolannn @dat-one-goat  @embrace-themagic @greenarrowhead @hawaiiantozier @honestlysasha @justapotatonow @literallyjustshipping @lucille-lovely @soullesstrashcan @spider-stud @stone2576 @timelordy-fangirl2 @wicked-wiccan-witch

[themimsyborogove]

G I A N T . C H A R A C T E R . S U R V E Y

[ tagged by ]: @eloquated (thank you for tagging me! This was fun!)

[ tagging ]: @muscleunit @openbiandbroken @bytheangell

G E N E R A L

[ name ]: Ragnor Fell. And no, I won’t say what it was before I chose my own name. 

[ nicknames ]: There was a woman who called me her dear little cabbage, which stuck around in France. And another that called me her sweet peapod of love. Adorable pitcher plant, emerald treasure, flowering cactus, and darling treefrog were among some of the others. Magnus, you really shouldn’t drink your wine that fast. 

[ birthday ]: May 17th

[ birthplace ]: The Scottish Highlands

[ age ]: 624

[ eye color ]: Brown

[ height ]: 6’3

[ weight ]: I don’t keep track. 

[ nationality ]: Scottish

[ astrological sign ]: Taurus

[ location ]: Currently Magnus’s living room. 

[ siblings ]: One older brother, and four younger brothers and sisters, gone for centuries now. 

[ pets ]: None

[ in the morning i’m ]: Awake early. It’s when the world is quietest and everyone leaves me the fuck alone. 

[ all i need is ]: Books and somewhere quiet. 

[ love is ]: Rare. 

[ i’m afraid of ]: Someone getting past my wards. You remember how I died, right?

[ i dream about ]: I was forcibly resurrected and trapped in my corpse for months until Magnus found a way to fix it. You don’t want me to answer this question. 

H A V E . Y O U . E V E R ?

[ pictured your crush naked? ]: I doubt it counts as a crush anymore, and I’m not answering this question. Catarina, stop laughing. 

[ used someone? ]: Yes.

[ been used? ]: Yes.

[ been cheated on? ]: Yes. 

[ considered cheating? ]: No, though many of my past relationships were not exclusive. 

[ been kissed? ]: What? Of course I have. Why would you ask this after the string of cheating questions?

[ done something you regret? ]: Yes, and it’s usually Magnus’s fault. 

F A V O R I T E

[ food? ]: Hearty stews   

[ fruit? ]: I’ve always been fond of citrus fruits. And stop saying it’s because of my sour personality, Magnus!

[ candy? ]: I don’t like sweets. 

[ color? ]: Ignoring the obvious answer of green, I would say yellow. 

[ number? ]: How many decimal places should I recite pi to? How long do you want to sit here?

[ animal? ]: Cats, I suppose. 

[ drink? ]: Tea, pale ales and stouts, and good whiskey. 

[ soda? ]: Again, I don’t like sweets. 

[ book? ]: I couldn’t possibly pick a single one. Catarina and I have been reading the Discworld series together for years though, which has been enjoyable.

[ room? ]: The living room has the most comfortable reading chairs. 

[ movie? ]: Those Monty Python movies are surprisingly funny. 

D O . Y O U ?

[ have a boyfriend/girlfriend? ]: Yes, Catarina, though it took us a long time to get here. 

[ like cleaning? ]: It can be soothing. 

[ have a tattoo? ]: No. 

[ have any piercings? ]: No. 

[ cheat on tests/homework? ]: No, and I’m excellent at catching any students who try it. 

[ drink/smoke? ]: I like beer and whiskey. I don’t smoke, it smells terrible.  

[ swear a lot? ]: What the fuck do you think?

[ like watching sunrises or sunset? ]: Yes, especially when I’m camping. 

[ pray? ]: I gave that up a long time ago. 

[ go to church? ]: No. 

[ have secrets? ]: Yes. 

[ have a best friend? ]: Magnus, let go of me you idiot, I can’t breathe!

[ like your own handwriting? ]: Yes, I do have fairly neat handwriting. 

A R E . Y O U ?

[ obsessive? ]: I don’t like mysteries, and I will look for answers until they are found. 

[ excited? ]: About what?

[ bored? ]: Right now?

[ happy? ]: Than I’ve been in a long time. 

[ missing someone? ]: I’ve lost so many people. Most recently? Raphael. 

[ confused? ]: Continuously about everything to do with Magnus Bane. 

[ tired? ]: Often. 

[ mad? ]: There’s a difference between mad and irritable. Most of the time I’m not actually mad. 

[ sleepy? ]: Not at the moment. 

D O . Y O U . E V E R ?

[ wait around just to talk to someone? ]: I’ve had to for a variety of reasons before. 

[ write about those ‘special’ moments? ]: Yes. 

[ wish you were a member of the opposite sex? ]: What? No. 

W H O . W A S . T H E . L A S T . P E R S O N . W H O ?

[ you talked to? ]: Other than Catarina and Magnus? Alec, I suppose. 

[ you hugged? ]: Magnus, let go of me.

[ you kissed? ]: Catarina. 

[ sent you a letter? ]: Tessa sent a postcard from Shanghai last week. 

[ you sent a letter to? ]: Dean Penhallow over some Academy business. 

[ you laughed with? ]: Catarina. 

[ slept in your bed? ]: Also Catarina. 

[ you shared a drink with? ]: Considering we are currently sitting together and drinking wine while answering these stupid questions, Catarina and Magnus.

[ you went to the movies with? ]: Catarina. 

[ yelled at you? ]: I don’t remember. Not many people are brave enough to try that. 

[ you called? ]: Probably Catarina. 

[ you kicked? ]: Magnus. Just now. 

[ you saw? ]: Again, Catarina and Magnus. 

W H O . I S ?

[ the most handsome person you know? ]: Jem. Magnus, stop throwing pillows.  

[ the weirdest person you know? ]: Magnus. 

[ the funniest person you know? ]: Catarina. 

[ the loudest person you know? ]: MAGNUS. 

[ the quietest person you know? ]: Everyone seems quiet compared to Magnus.  

[ the sweetest person you know? ]: Catarina, obviously. 

[ the most serious person you know? ]:Have you seen some of those stuffy idiots in the Clave? They wouldn’t know fun if it bit them. 

[ your best friend? ]: *gestures vaguely at the room*

[ the person you hate the most? ]: That’s a tough call between Valentine Morgenstern and Malcolm Fade. 

[ the person you see most? ]: Catarina, as we live together. 

[ your soul-mate? ]: I don’t believe in soul-mates. I believe in holding on to love for as long as you’re able to. 

W H A T . I S ?

[ the first thing you thought of when you woke up? ]: How early it gets light outside now. 

[ the song that best describes you? ]: MAGNUS WHY DID YOU TURN ON THE SHREK SOUNDTRACK?! DID YOU PLAN THIS? WERE YOU WAITING FOR ME TO GET TO THIS QUESTION SO YOU COULD DO THIS?

[ your best feature? ]: My skin, obviously. 

[ your most treasured memory? ]: Is extremely private. Magnus, stop laughing. 

I N . T H E . F U T U R E

[ what is the age you hope to get married? ]: I was eighteen when I got married. It didn’t end happily. 

[ number and names of kids? ]: I never had the chance to have any. 

[ where do you see yourself at age twenty? ]: That was a very long time ago. 

[ describe your dream wedding? ]: Eloping. 

[ when and how do you want to die? ]: I died once. I would prefer to not repeat it.  

[ what are your career plans? ]: Slowly but surely teaching the Nephilim to not be idiots. 

[ some place you’d like to visit? ]: It’s been a while since we’ve climbed Everest. We should do that again. 

L A S T . T I M E

[ last time you went out of state? ]: This morning. 

[ last time you were outside? ]: Earlier this evening. 

[ last time you had a snowball fight? ]: The last time Catarina and I went hiking.

[ last time you were listening to music? ]: Magnus won’t turn off the Shrek music, and has put wards around the stereo so I can’t blow it up. 

O T H E R

[ how many people would you say are good friends of yours? ]: Four now. 

[ what hurts the most, physical or emotional pain? ]: Emotional. 

[ have you felt this recently? ]: Yes. 

[ what do you wear to bed? ]: Nothing, usually. 

[ when’s the last time you slept with a stuffed animal? ]: Never.  

[ have you ever used a ouija board? ]: Do you want a demon infestation? That is how you get a demon infestation. 

[ how many rings before you pick up the phone? ]: However long it takes me to get to the phone. I usually don’t rush.