#they will be checking out her adoption listing once its up

[stinkybrowndogs]

Nobody prepares u for the anxiety of finding good homes for the puppies

[moonchildxoxx]

The Gift of a Tiny Life

A/N: You are responsible for your own media consumption.  MDNI 18+ warning: a child lost off scene, child loss being spoken of, Cross Nursing of an infant? a good amount of anguish and cute moments

Pairing: Tsu’teyx Female!Reader, Spider x Mom! Reader

Word count:5,305K

Synopsis: Tsutey and the reader take Spider away from the human's neglect. They wind up adopting him after the loss of their own infant.

[ Request are open]

Master List

Rules

Tsu'tey had been a warrior next in line to be Olo'eyktan. You would never see him with his hands empty for he was always doing something. He taught the young hunters and helped his fellow clan members with menial tasks to lessen their burdens. This was something he did on his path to becoming Olo'eyktan to help his people and continued once he became Olo’eyktan. (Y/N) tried to track him down all morning to force him to take a break and eat.  (Y/N) finally found him at midday The mighty warrior was teaching the young hunters how to throw spears accurately. He was giving them an impromptu lesson when he felt eyes on him and noticed her.

 He didn't say anything, only raised a brow as if asking 'Do you need something, yawne?*. "Finish your lesson then you are going to grab a break and eat " she spoke out loud it was not heard to read her mate. He watched as she gave him a stern look and almost smiled. However, he was still in the middle of a lesson so he kept himself in check. He dismissed his students who walked off to hang out with one another.

He walked up to her and looked down at her. The corners of his lips threatened to curl into a smile. "I thought you would still be sleeping." She smacked him one "Do not think I didn't hear you sneak out of our marui before dawn " A faint flush appeared on Tsu'tey's face at being smacked. He raised a brow as she spoke. He chuckled softly as he rubbed the spot where she hit him."I did not think you had heard me." He said before giving his typical amused smile at her. “You always step on the creaky step when leaving " He let out a huff, shaking his head. Then he placed his hands on your hips and lowered his head, bringing his face close to yours as he leaned down.

"You know I could not sleep because I had too much to do. I would have come to bed, but I did not want to wake you, yawne." "You need sleep like everyone else Tsu'tey you did not have early patrol you had no reason to leave so early" He smiled at her "Don't worry; I've been meaning to eat for a while now."

He'd finished what he was doing. When he was ready to eat, he came back towards her. She gave him the pouch filled with various things. Tsu'tey took it with a grateful smile. It was a shame she had to be his caretaker but he was glad she did it. he pulled out its contents and started eating, breaking a bit to give some to her. "What about you? Do not tell me you did not bring anything for yourself. "Mawey ma Tsu'tey I've already eaten that's why I know you didn't " Tsu'tey stared at her for a few moments. How he had wished to argue with her but she was always one step ahead of him. Still...he liked that. He was more focused on the food now. "Then I suppose I should thank you," he said as he ate.

 She nuzzled him Tsu'tey was surprised at her action as he had not expected it. He set his food down to wrap an arm around her. "you're too good to me, yawntutsyip." “Nonsense ma tsamsiyu” she retorted  "You will spoil me if you continue," he joked with a smile, rubbing her arm with his calloused hands. He leaned closer in a show of affection as his face hovered near hers. She kissed his cheek. He seemed pleased by that action. He tilted his head in an attempt to get her to kiss him on the lips but of course, that proved to be futile. "You could not kiss me on the lips just this once?" He teased, a coy smile on his face. “Finish your food” He chuckled, knowing he wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise. He released a sigh before he returned to eating his food. " you are a demanding one, yawne," he teased, using the affectionate nickname he gave her. Once he finished his food and the pouch was empty of its contents, he leaned back and gave a satisfied sigh “There Satisfied now, yawne?" He teased as he looked up at her. 

She kissed him gently. He was surprised that she had kissed him even when he least expected her to follow through. The contact of their lips caused his heart to speed up, and his breath to get caught in his throat. When she pulled away, he gently pulled her closer to him with a hand on her waist. "you're going to give me an early death." He teased, still breathless from that kiss. He continued to hold her close to him, his grip on her waist tightening. It took all of his willpower not to take her then and there. But they were out in the open. "You are a tease." He accused as he gently nuzzled her. She nuzzled him back. Tsu'tey pulled her into his lap, wrapping an arm around her to hold her close. He nuzzled her neck, a small growl escaping him. "We are not in the safety of our tent, yawne. You need to stop teasing me." She kissed him softly. Tsu'tey's breath hitched when she kissed him again, pulling her closer to him. His tail flicked back and forth, his hands finding the bare skin underneath her top. " you are not being very fair to me," he murmured against her lips. She went to answer but suddenly stopped her ears twitching. Tsu'tey noticed her ears twitch which made him stop as well. 

He could easily tell something was wrong. He sat up, keeping her on his lap still but looking around for whatever it was that worried her. “Do you hear that?" Tsu'tey tried to listen and figure out what it was in question. But all he heard were the ambient noises of Pandora. "I cannot hear anything," he said, furrowing his brows. "What could you hear?" “ It sounds like a baby crying" His ears twitched as he tried to listen again for the sound of a crying baby. To his surprise, he heard the faint sound of a baby's cry. "you're right," he said in disbelief. "I wonder how we can hear it from this far away."

"A baby should not be crying that loud, we're far from the village" That was strange. He understood that the baby was crying loudly enough for them to hear it from a distance. But how far from the village was it? Where was it coming from? "Maybe it is in trouble," he said. "It does not hurt for us to look for it and make sure it is safe." She nodded getting up. Tsu'tey got up with her, taking her hand so they could stick together. He led the way out of the jungle, trying to follow where the sound of the baby's cry was coming from. (Y/N) kept following the sound it eventually led to Hell’s Gate Tsu'tey was getting an uneasy feeling the further they walked from the village. The crying had gotten louder which meant they were close. But when he saw that it had led them to Hell's Gate, Tsu'tey couldn't help but freeze. “Mo'at moved all the injured to the new village "

It then dawned on Tsu'tey as he came to realize that the crying must have been from not one of their own. He gave (Y/N)'s hand a squeeze and turned to her. "We should head back." She shook her head no and moved forward Tsu'tey watched her as she moved forward against his better judgment. He could not stop her, not when the path was set before her. So with a small huff, he followed after her. 

She walked towards the human base ignoring those allowed to stay when they sent the sky people back. Tsu'tey followed her into the human base and looked around in disgust. It was nothing but an abomination to Eywa to have this thing here. He could not understand why (Y/N) was adamant about coming here but he kept close to her.

She went through the doors following the sounds. The sounds led them to the human's infirmary and there they saw the human scientists, and more importantly, a baby that was wailing its head off, in a human baby crib. Tsu'tey knew now why the baby was crying so loudly to the point they could hear it from afar. (Y/N)’s ears folded back completely she looked around to see why the scientists were just ignoring the infant. Tsu'tey noticed (Y/N)'s ears fold back and he too looked to see no humans bothering with the infant who was crying like they didn't care.

"What are these people doing?" He grumbled in disbelief. (Y/N) placed her hand on its little body her hand so large that it covered its whole torso. The baby instantly stopped crying the moment she touched its body. It was silent now and looked at it with big eyes. Tsu'tey walked closer to the both of them, hovering over (Y/N). Seeing the child stop crying so quickly when she touched it was impressive. She clicked gently at the little one. The infant turned towards the clicking, a look of curiosity on its little face now that it had calmed down. Tsu'tey watched the interaction between her and the infant, a small sense of awe taking over him. She lifted it from the cradle. (Y/N) picked up the infant and carried it in her arms like a mother would Cradle her child. The baby instantly

made itself comfortable in her arms, even snuggling into her chest. She sniffed at the little one inspecting. The infant started to babble, moving its little hands as (Y/N) inspected it. It made grabby motions at her, probably seeking affection.

She got close to its lower half and immediately pulled away face scrunching up.

(Y/N)'s reaction caught Tsu'tey off guard. He was surprised to see her making that kind of face. "What is it?" He inquired, getting closer to her. "It's dirty" That was when Tsu'tey's sensitive nose picked up the foul smell and he grimaced. "I assume the humans left the infant in its filth?" He said tasteful look in his eyes.

(Y/N) hissed taking back the infant and left deciding to clean it herself.  Tsu'tey watched her take the infant and head outside, with him following after her. Outside, Tsu'tey could see her take the infant to a river to dunk it in the water to fully clean it. She stripped the infant and cleaned it, The infant made surprised noises at being suddenly dunked in the water and instantly the filth washed away. 

Now that the infant was fully clean, (Y/N) brought it back out of the water in her arms, dripping wet. "Much better," she murmured. Tsu'tey nodded in agreement. At least now the infant no longer reeks of its filth. But seeing the little one now clean and being held by her in such a motherly way, he was having very strange thoughts.

(Y/N) smiled looking at him " your such a cutie" Tsu'tey was snapped out of his thoughts when she said that. He tried to maintain a straight face but a small flush dusted his cheeks at her words. " Me? Or are you saying that to the infant?" "I'm talking to the baby Skawng your face is too ugly for that" Tsu'tey gave her a look of mock offense. "you wound me," he said in a falsely hurt tone. "You  think my face is too ugly for that and the baby is more attractive than me?" "you look like you got whacked by the ugly stick you can't compare yourself to this look at his little face " (Y/N) held the baby underneath his arms he was busy sucking on his fist  "Thanks for the encouragement," Tsu'tey said sarcastically as he looked down at the infant to see it sucking on its fist.

 He was silently envious of the baby. "Yes, yes, that little infant is so adorable. What with its little face and tiny hands. Nothing like me..." As he said that, he couldn't help but glance at her once again. The way she held the infant in her arms. The way she seemed so motherly to it, despite being so young herself and just recently having experienced a loss. And that brought those strange thoughts back into his head once more. She laughed "You hear that little one" 

Tsu'tey's face flushed once again at being teased. He crossed his arms, trying to look offended. The infant made some incoherent noises, still sucking on his little fist. The infant stopped sucking momentarily and looked up at (Y/N) with big eyes. Tsu'tey couldn't help but watch the infant. He still had those strange thoughts in his head, and it only got worse when the infant made a baby sound as it reached out to touch her. She picked up the baby. The infant was content at being in her arms once again. Tsu'tey observed them silently, his hands clenching and unclenching as he felt a strange feeling in his chest. One that was unfamiliar to him. The infant made some more baby sounds, its little hands grabbing onto the fabric of her top as it snuggled into her chest. Tsu'tey felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of it. 

The infant nuzzled into her so comfortably, like it was the most natural thing in the world. She smiled at this "You are such a precious little thing" she cooed "Yes you are stupid sky people don't know what they are missing"  Tsu'tey agreed with her, the infant seemed to be so tiny and fragile. And it was a shame that the humans were so careless about it. "Yes, it is a shame that this little one was left in its filth. What cruel creatures the humans are," he muttered. She turned the baby so he could see

Tsu'tey better Tsu'tey found himself looking into the baby's big eyes as it was now facing him. The infant seemed to be studying him, a look of curiosity now as it stopped suckling its fist.  Tsu'tey felt a mixture of emotions as he looked into the little one's eyes. It was so innocent and pure, completely unaware of the world around it. He felt a strange sense of protectiveness, suddenly wanting to keep it safe and sound.

The infant made another incomprehensible  baby sound, his little hand reaching out once more to grab at his hand. Tsu'tey instinctively held out his hand to the infant, feeling a small sense of awe as its tiny fingers wrapped around his much larger finger. 

"How long do you  think before the scientists come for him?" Tsu'tey's eyes darkened at the mention of the scientists. He let out a huff and gently pulled his finger away from the infant's grip. "I wouldn't doubt they'll come back for it soon. They likely have no idea how to take care of it anyway."

*It took a few days before the humans noticed that the baby was missing *

Norm Spellman one of Jake Sully's friends radioed  Jake in a panic to tell him When Jake heard Norm's voice on the radio, full of panic, he immediately knew something was wrong. He picked up the radio and spoke into it, his voice slightly anxious. "Norm, what's going on?" Norm's voice on the other end sounded frantic and panicked. "Jake, something's come up. You know the baby we were taking care of?" Jake's heart dropped and a sense of dread filled his chest. "Yes, I remember.  What about the baby, Norm?" he asked, his voice now tinged with concern. "Well, it's uh... it's gone," Norm said, his voice growing even more panicked as he spoke. "We don't know what happened, it was here one moment then the next it's just gone. We can't find it anywhere"

Jake's eyes widened in disbelief. How could the baby just disappear like that? It made no sense. "What do you mean it's gone? There's no way it could have just vanished into thin air." Norm's voice sounded even more panicked now. "I know! It's completely insane, we've been searching all over the base, but there's no sign of it anywhere. We don't know what could have happened t to it" Jake pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think logically. "Okay, calm down, Norm. We'll figure this out.  But first, I need you to tell me everything that happened before the infant disappeared. Any clues could be important." "Right. Well, everything was normal up until we checked on the baby about an hour ago. It was just gone. The crib was empty, and the baby was nowhere to be seen," Norm said, his voice still filled with panic.

 Jake decided that he would let Tsu'tey know about the situation at Hell's Gate before going over to help, Jake made his way to Tsu'tey's hut, his mind still preoccupied with the situation at hand. When he reached the entrance, he called out to him. "Brother, can I speak to you for a moment?" Tsu'tey, who had been inside his hut, heard Jake's voice and quickly stepped out to greet him. "Jake, what is it?" he asked, sensing the serious tone in his voice. Jake took a deep breath before speaking, his eyes filled with worry.

"Something's happened at Hell's Gate," he said. "The infant we were looking after, it's gone. We have no idea what happened  to it, and the humans are freaking out."

 Tsu'tey moved back the tent flap revealing the rest of his tent and towards the back was (Y/N) with the human baby sleeping  "That Infant?" Tsutey spoke Jake's eyes widened as he saw the infant being held in (Y/N)'s arms, and he stepped forward to get a closer look. "Is that...? But how..." Tsu'tey blocked his path "When did your scientist realize it was missing?" Jake was about to object to Tsu'tey's behavior, but the serious look on his face made him decide to answer instead. "About an hour ago. They  were doing routine checks on it, but when they checked again just now, it was gone."  " That's not possible Jake Sully she's had it for three days " Jake stared at (Y/N), his mind trying to process what he had just heard. "What do you mean? You've had it for three whole days? And the humans at Hell's Gate only just realized?"  " His cries could be heard from far we found it in your demon home ignored soiled and starving" Jake was taken aback once again. 

He knew that the scientists at Hell's Gate didn't care much for the infant, but to completely ignore it to the point where it was starving and filthy? It was unthinkable.

"I... l had no idea. I thought the scientists were taking proper care of it," Jake said, his voice laced with disbelief. Tsu'tey huffed, his expression darkening at the thought of the infant being neglected. "It seems like the humans cared more about their experiments than this little one," he said gruffly. Jake couldn't argue with Tsu'tey's words. The fact that humans could let an innocent infant suffer like that was maddening.  Jake looked relieved that the baby had been taken care of, but he was still troubled by the situation at hand. "This is all good news, but we still have to deal with the humans at Hell's Gate.

They're going to want the infant back, and they're not going to be happy to know that she has it." Tsu'tey crossed his arms, his expression darkening even further.

 "Let them come if they wish. We will not hand over the infant to their care. Not after what they've done." Jake knew that Tsu'tey was protective of (Y/N) and wasn’t about to take away the infant now after what she had suffered, but he also knew that the situation was precarious. " you can't just keep it hidden away forever." Tsu'tey crossed his arms, a determined look in his eyes. "Let them be unhappy. This infant was left starving and neglected in their care. We won't let them have it back. And if you need to be reminded we let them stay on the condition that they follow the boundaries we set they follow the Omatikaya way the infant will not be returned to them on the word from the Olo'eyktan "Jake sighed, knowing that Tsu'tey was as stubborn as ever when he made his mind up about something. 

"I understand where you're coming from, But we have to think about the potential consequences of our actions. This could cause tension between the clan and the humans." "The humans will learn to deal with it," Tsu'tey said with a huff. "The infant will be much safer under our care than theirs. And if they have an issue with that, they can take it up with me." Tsu'tey closed the flap making it clear that this discussion was over

Jake stood there for a moment, feeling conflicted about the situation. He understood Tsu'tey's stance on the matter, but he couldn't help but worry about the potential fallout. However, he knew that he couldn't change Tsu'tey's mind once he had made a decision. With a heavy sigh, he turned and exited the tent, his mind still filled with conflicted thoughts. 

(Y/N) looked up as Tsu'tey returned the baby still in her arms Tsu'tey noticed (Y/N) looking up at him, her arms still cradling the infant. He moved closer to her, his eyes scanning over the infant to make sure it was still content. "How is the little one?" he asked, his voice surprisingly softer than usual. She smiled up at him Tsu'tey couldn't help but notice the smile on her face. He huffed quietly, pretending not to be bothered by it. "What are you smiling about?" he asked gruffly. (Y/N) chuckled, used to Tsu'tey's gruff demeanor by now. "just admiring this little one," she said, running a gentle hand over the infant's head. The baby gurgled in response, its tiny hands flailing in mid-air. Tsu'tey's gaze softened slightly as he watched the interaction between (Y/N) and the infant. Despite his rough exterior, he couldn't deny the warm feeling blossoming in his chest. He quietly moved closer, sitting down beside (Y/N). They sat in silence for a moment, Tsu'tey's gaze fixated on the infant. The baby was now looking up at him, its eyes wide and curious. Tsu'tey found himself drawn to the innocent gaze, and he reached out a trembling hand, hesitating for a moment before gently touching the infant's soft hair. The baby gurgled in response, its eyes locking onto Tsu'tey's fingers. Tsu'tey couldn't help but be enchanted by the infant's reaction, his gruff demeanor momentarily vanishing as he continued to caress its tiny head. (Y/N) watched the scene unfold before her, a small smile playing on her lips. Seeing Tsu'tey, who was normally so stern and unforgiving, show such tenderness was heartwarming to witness. (Y/N) nuzzled him purring Tsu'tey felt a warm shiver run down his spine as (Y/N) nuzzled against him, her purrs filling his ears. Despite his usual tough persona, he couldn't resist the affectionate gesture. He let out a low rumble of contentment in response, feeling his guard slipping further. 

The baby in (Y/N)'s arms seemed to notice their display of affection and let out a soft coo, its tiny hands reaching out towards them. Tsu'tey chuckled, gently taking one of the baby's little hands in his much larger one. As he held the baby's hand, Tsu'tey couldn't help but feel a sense of protectiveness wash over him. This tiny, defenseless creature was under their care, and he was determined to do everything in his power to ensure its safety. He looked up at (Y/N), his eyes filled with a mixture of awe and tenderness. (Y/N) couldn't help but laugh as well, the sight of Tsu'tey holding the baby's hand was something she never thought she'd see. She leaned her head against his shoulder, reveling in the tender moment they were sharing. Tsu'tey couldn't help but grumble a little at (Y/N)'s laughter, but there was no real irritation behind it. He shifted slightly so that (Y/N)'s head fitted more comfortably on his shoulder. The baby in her arms made a soft gurgling sound, seemingly enjoying the warmth and comfort of their Presence.

Tsu'tey glanced down at the baby, his usual stoic expression softening even more. It was odd, the way this tiny creature had managed to worm its way into his heart. He gently stroked its little head with his fingertips, a rare display of tenderness from the fierce warrior. There was a comfortable silence between them as they sat there, the baby gurgling softly in (Y/N)'s arms. Tsu'tey continued to caress the baby's head, his thoughts filled with a mixture of emotions he couldn't fully understand. "Are you hungry little one" The baby let out another gurgle in response to (Y/N)'s question, its tiny hands reaching out towards her. Tsu'tey watched the exchange, a soft huff of amusement escaping his lips. She lifted the little one Tsu'tey watched as (Y/N) lifted the baby, its tiny limbs flailing in mid-air. He couldn't help the slight worry that crept into his mind. "Be careful," he grumbled, his protective instincts kicking in. (Y/N) chuckled at Tsu'tey's concern but assured him, "Don't worry, I've got this." She cradled the baby against her chest, feeling its tiny body warm against hers. The baby snuggled closer, its little hands clenching onto (Y/N)'s shirt. 

"I still have milk I can feed him " she whispered out to Tsu'tey as he reached for the drinking vessel with a thick milk-like substance. Though  the loss was still fresh and a painful memory it was a reality she still had milk to feed the human infant

Tsu'tey's expression darkens as (Y/N) mentions her milk. He can't help but remember her previous pregnancy and the loss of their child. But he also can't help but appreciate her compassion and willingness to care for the infant, even with the painful memory attached to it. "You don't have to," he mumbled, not wanting her to force herself through the pain if she wasn't ready. But deep down, he knew that (Y/N) was stronger than she let on. "

This won’t change what was lost,  Tsu'tey at least a baby is benefiting from it" Tsu'tey's expression softened as (Y/N) spoke. He knew that she was right and that this infant needed care and nutrition. But he still couldn't shake the worry he felt for her well-being. "You're sure?" he asked, his voice gruff but laced with concern. "I know," she replied softly. "But it feels right to do this. It's the least I can do for the little one. And..." she paused, Tsu'tey noticed the pause in her voice and cocked his head slightly. "And what?" he prompted gently, his eyes still fixed on her. (Y/N) took a deep breath before continuing, her voice barely above a whisper. "And it's selfish but it makes me feel a little less...empty." She spoke the word with quiet vulnerability, revealing a hint of the pain she still held inside. Tsu'tey's heart ached as (Y/N) spoke her truth, the raw vulnerability in her voice making his chest tighten. He knew firsthand how devastating the loss was, and how it left an emptiness that seemed impossible to fill. He moved closer to her, his instincts to comfort and protect her resurfacing. "You're not selfish," he said firmly, his voice rough but gentle. "You're strong, (Y/N). Stronger than anyone else could be."He reached out, gently taking one of her hands in his. His large, calloused hand dwarfed hers, but his touch was light and careful. He gently ran his thumb across her knuckles, a silent show of solidarity and comfort. "Besides," he added, a hint of a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips, "the little one is lucky to have you looking after it. Your heart's always been too big for your own good." (Y/N) let out a soft chuckle at Tsu'tey's teasing. Despite his gruff exterior, he had a way of knowing exactly what to say. 

She squeezed his hand gently in response, appreciating his attempt to lighten the mood. The baby in (Y/N)'s arms began to make soft whimpering noises, drawing their attention back to the infant's hunger. Tsu'tey looked down at the baby, his expression softening. "You should feed it," he said, his voice low. "It's still hungry."

(Y/N) nodded, shifting the baby to a comfortable position in her arms. She lifted her shirt, ready to feed the infant. Before she did, she looked up at Tsu'tey, a flicker of vulnerability in her eyes. Tsu'tey caught the vulnerability in (Y/N)'s gaze and gave her a reassuring nod. He could sense the mix of emotions she was feeling, knowing that the act of feeding the infant was a bittersweet reminder of her loss. He moved closer to her, his proximity a silent offer of support. 

She tried getting the little one to latch The baby protested a little, its tiny mouth refusing to latch onto (Y/N)'s breast at first. Tsu'tey watched with a mixture of concern and amusement, silently musing at the little one's stubbornness. (Y/N), determined as always, continued to try and coax the baby to feed. She gently adjusted her position and the angle of the baby's head, trying to find the perfect position for the child to latch on.  Tsu'tey watched the struggle for a moment longer before stepping in to help. He shifted closer to (Y/N), his large frame towering over hers. He gently took hold of the baby's head, his hands surprisingly gentle considering their size. With his deft touch, he guided the baby's mouth towards (Y/N)'s breast, helping the infant to get a good latch. He could feel (Y/N)'s tense muscles relax a little, grateful for his assistance. The baby, now properly latched on, began to feed greedily. (Y/N) let out a soft sigh of relief, feeling a mix of emotions welling up inside her. The act of feeding the infant was strangely soothing, even if it was a painful reminder of what she lost. Tsu'tey watched as (Y/N) fed the infant, her expression a mix of contentment and bittersweet sadness.

The baby's soft suckling noises and her gentle rocking motions created a peaceful atmosphere in the tent.

Time seemed to slow as they sat there, the world outside forgotten for that brief moment. Tsu'tey, who was usually so serious, found himself mesmerized by the scene unfolding before him. He reached out a hand, gently resting it on (Y/N)'s shoulder, his touch a silent show of support and affection. The baby eventually finished feeding, its tiny mouth releasing (Y/N)'s breast with a soft pop. (Y/N) gently maneuvered the infant, cradling it against her shoulder and softly patting its back to help it burp. Tsu'tey watched with a small smile on his face, his heart feeling strangely full. It was a sight he never thought he'd see so soon, (Y/N) being so nurturing and caring towards an infant.

© Moonchildxoxx 2023 | all rights reserved. do not republish, repost, steal, modify, translate or claim my work as your own.

[wendingways]

Wendingways' Star Wars fic recs

The vast majority of these are fix-its. Some are time travel/time loop. Most revolve around PT, TCW, and OT characters. A lot are also gen, as it turns out.

The order of the list has nothing to do with how much I enjoyed each fic, because I've enjoyed them all in different ways, for different reasons! Fics that seem to be really popular have been placed toward the bottom of each section, because I'm guessing they already appear on a lot of other rec lists. Aside from that, the order is pretty much random.

*Chapter and word counts may not be up to date. I try to go through once in a while to update the details for WIPS, but it's a lot to keep track of!

Complete multichapter fics

Finding Obi-Wan; T, 86.9k. Obi-Wan, having disappeared from the Jedi Temple, wakes up with no idea who he is or what the Force is and gets pulled into all manner of messes (yes, Hondo gets involved, of course he does), while Anakin refuses to believe he's dead and struggles to find him.

Blood and Copper Oxide; T, 36.3k. "Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader crash land on a planet that shouldn't have existed. Luke can't escape Vader and survive the planet at the same time. Darth Vader can't capture Luke and fight off the innumerable threats the planet sends his way. They might have to work together instead." Very cool story!

The Skywalker Secret; T, 39.8k. Anakin time travels back to the Clone Wars following Endor. The story is told mostly through the eyes of perplexed observers, and has an excellent ending; it's very satisfying and lovely!

Lunches at Anakin's; T, 93.1k. After Endor, thanks to the Force's meddling, Anakin finds himself alive but stuck on Tatooine, where he ends up reluctantly mentoring a Force-sensitive girl. (Technically complete, but part of a series which is not complete.)

(Tooka)Cat Scratch Fever; not rated, 17.7k. Luke adopts a tooka which turns out to be his father, under a curse by Sidious. (I would probably rate this one as T.)

In the Tall Grass; T, 18.5k. "After a failed order 66, in which many Jedi still died but the Sith were defeated, an exiled warrior and a boy wander a distant planet and attempt to get along." This one is so cool, it has such a fairytale feel to it! And there's a sequel!

Shadows of the Future; K+, 129.3k. Obi-Wan dies on Mustafar and is sent back to TPM, where he bonds with Anakin and begins to change the future for the better.

Gut Feeling; T, 7.5k. Amusing little multichapter wherein Piett is assigned a new aide who goes by the name of Lucas Starkiller (who is clearly not Luke Skywalker, definitely not), and from there becomes embroiled in treason.

May Death Find You Alive; T, 11.0k. Anakin gets stuck in a time loop where Obi-Wan keeps dying.

Empire Reimagined; series, T, 341.7k. A saga of Luke, Vader/Anakin, Piett, Veers, and Leia covering from ESB-era to post-ROTJ. Epic friendships abound! (Series not marked complete, but the last completed fic doesn't leave you hanging.)

Mirjahaal; T, 132.8k. Another lovely Wishful fic in the spirit of Empire Reimagined, involving favorite characters and somebody else who's a surprise!

The Exiled; T, 20.1k. "Leia has tried everything to help her baby son. She has turned to every expert on the Force she knows-- all but one. (Ben and Grandpa go camping)" (Visible to registered AO3 users only.)

Cloudy Symbols of High Romance; G, 22.1k. This one's a bit of a relict! Posted pre-AOTC, way back in 2001, it's a cool take on how Anakin and Padmé's AOTC-era reunion happened, and omg, it's so much better than AOTC. It's actually cute, and you can see why they like each other, and man does it make the knowledge of what's coming so much the worse.

Kintsugi; T, 16.7k. Quietly tragic, even though nobody dies and it's broadly a fix-it. Not a comfy fic, but one which is well done.

What Lurks in the Dark; T, 155.4k. "A simple mission to check out an abandoned weapons factory turns into a dangerous fight for survival. Trust is broken, loyalties will be tested, and dark secrets are brought to light. Because sooner or later, the truth always comes out."

The Beauty in the Beast; T, 46.1k. "When the Force decides it's had enough of Darth Vader and wants Anakin Skywalker back, it dumps his long-lost teenage son on his doorstep with an ultimatum: unless Vader renounces the Sith and turns back to the Light within three months, Luke will die."

Sibling Revelry; T, 24.9k. "After Bespin and before Endor, Darth Vader is shocked to discover that Luke and Leia are twins. Especially since Imperial Intelligence just told him that Organa and Skywalker are, erm, a tad closer than previously suspected..." A hilarious comedy of misunderstandings!

The Sith Who Brought Life Day; G, 13.3k. A rather entertaining take on how Vader found out who blew up the Death Star.

This Life of Ours; T, 53.9k. "On the run from the empire and the remaining Jedi alike, Vader must come to terms with his past and his future, all the while learning to care for the boy that is his only connection to his life as Anakin Skywalker." (Visible to registered AO3 users only.)

Teach the Padawan. Save the Galaxy.; series, T, 387.4k. 4 books complete, but the series itself is not complete. Ben Kenobi goes back in time and becomes Obi-Wan's master instead of Qui-Gon.

Legacy; G, 175.5k. Post-ROTJ Luke and Leia time travel to the Clone Wars.

there but for the grace of god; T, 49.2k. Young Luke winds up time traveling to the Clone Wars, where he causes both confusion and conversations that will lead to a brighter future for the TCW crew and the galaxy in general.

Precipice; M, 231.7k. "An AU in which Anakin Skywalker does not follow Mace Windu and the others to Palpatine’s office after they leave to arrest the Chancellor. As a result, he doesn’t get that final push over the edge, and doesn’t Fall." Padmé and Anakin each raise a twin and work to bring Palpatine down.

Don't Look Back; M, series, 533.7k. 2 books complete, 1 in progress. Leia gets sent back to AOTC-era, and omg is she a force to be reckoned with! Very detailed, very political series.

Oneshots

Negative Static Stability; G, 8.1k. Vader and Leia meet when Leia is 5; lessons on the workings of ships ensue, along with some good old Artoo scheming. Adorable!

Palpatine's Greatest Hits II: Imperial Boogaloo; T, 1.3k. Just Palpatine being salty. It's very fun! "Fortress Dramaticus" has got to be one of my favorite bits, coupled with Palpatine's ongoing disgust at its lack of shields and certain people's inability to learn certain lessons. And his disgust at Vader's Kenobi obsession. Okay, the whole thing is great. Go read it!

Dust to Dust; T, 4.7k. "Darth Vader goes back in time. The Galaxy is saved; he is not."

Puppet Kings; series, T-M, 18.8k. Really nicely done, dark oneshot trilogy (complete) about Luke, Vader, & Co. I'm not usually one for horror and tragedy, but I read the first fic in the series and didn't want to stop!

Amelioration; T, 8.2k. "A recently liberated Vader attempts to ameliorate the future by changing the past." A different sort of angle, and an interesting fic!

The Horrendous Space Kablooie; T, 6.2k. "9 year old Anakin wakes up on the Executor. Chaos ensues." Well worth reading! Can't say more because I don't want to spoil anything.

The Agony of Tarkin; G, 4.8k. "An extra in the Imperial Opera Company discovers he has been assigned the role of Darth Vader in its upcoming production of The Agony of Tarkin." Another hilarious fic in the vein of The Sith Who Brought Life Day and Accountant Non-Heroes of the Republic.

Accountant Non-Heroes of the Republic; G, 7.0k. "Palpatine makes a choice to hide his fiscal manoeuvres in the Financial Department. The Financial Department takes advantage of this lack of transparency to do whatever they want. This saved the Republic." It's always fun to watch Palpatine shoot himself in the foot, and all the better when it comes completely out of left field.

Out of Step; T, 4.9k. Nice little oneshot with post OT-era Obi-Wan and Anakin stuck into their TPM-era selves.

FIVE HUNDRED AND ONE THING THE MEMBERS OF THE 501ST LEGION OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO; T, 4.9k. A hilarious list composed by General Kenobi. I laugh myself silly every time I read this. (Visible to registered AO3 users only.)

501 MORE THINGS THE 501ST ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO; T, 3.4k. A sequel to the 501st list fic, also very funny, although it only has about 250 entries, not 501. (Visible to registered AO3 users only.) Listed with oneshots because the extant 250 entries can be read as a complete list.

Where Have We Come?; T, 2.0k. "The first time was one of the hardest and the easiest. Obi-Wan loses at Mustafar, but instead of dying he wakes up at the dawn of the last day of the republic, doomed to repeat the worst day of his life, over and over again." Time loop!

you drew stars around my scars (but now i'm bleeding); not rated, 1.1k. Post-Twilight of the Apprentice, Ahsoka and Anakin. I'd rate G or T. (Visible to registered AO3 users only.)

still dancing with your ghosts (sleeping with your memories); M, 1.1k. "Everyone knows about the Massacre, and how no Jedi made it out alive. The Jedi refuse to let anyone forget." I do not cry easily at fics. This one made me cry.

The Trick is to Keep Breathing; T, 3.5k. "She's older now, and so is he. Far older now. She wonders: will he have lost any power with his age? Will he be shorter, weaker? An old man on a ventilator? It's hard to imagine that he won't still be dangerous. But then, that's exactly what she's counting on."

Tuning up your TIE-Fighter to prove you’re better than the bastard currently running the TIE-Fighter Program for fun and profit; G, 7.1K. "As a rule, Vader didn't really do anything with his social media account, but then the rant of some kid from Tatooine about the inefficiency of TIE Fighters began trending, the pilots and engineers on the Devastator started fixing their ships and Vader got invested."

Multichapter fics that are incomplete but still appear to be alive as of now

Turning Point; T, 9.8k. After Vader dies on the second Death Star, he's sent back in time to the year 69 BBY, on Naboo, where he picks up an unfortunate barnacle in the person of the teenage Sheev Palpatine. Quite entertaining, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

The Good He Seeks; T, 70.1k. "After killing the Emperor, Darth Vader agreed to serve the fledgling New Republic and destroy the last true-believers of the Empire he had once helped create. But he's living on borrowed time." Though I do enjoy pure fix-its, there's just something that really gets me about fics that are fix-it-ish, but life is messy, the characters are messy, there are no easy answers or perfect solutions, and every positive development really feels earned. So far, this is one of those fics, and I'm loving it!

The Galaxy Revolves at a Million Miles a Day (Around Me); T, 40.7k. After dying on Executor during the battle of Endor, Piett finds himself trapped in a time loop which he must break. I'm a sucker for time loops, and this is such a good one!

The Sleepover to Restore the Republic; T, 56.1k. This many Skywalkers, clones, and associated friends, relatives, and coworkers were never intended to be thrown together, and when they are, boy oh boy. Gloriously chaotic and funny. (Visible to registered AO3 users only.)

Nameless, on the Edge of Nowhere; M, 100.7k. Vader survives ROTJ, but both he and Luke made it out of the second Death Star via random hyperspace jumps in separate ships. After getting by for a time, the not-fully-Sith-but-not-fully-redeemed Vader ends up with the Rebellion, where Leia becomes his handler. Slow build, and a really rewarding read thus far! (Also, I love the OCs in this one; they all feel very natural and vivid, and like people in their own right.)

Multichapter fics/series for those okay with living on the edge (inconsistent updates, long hiatus, or abandoned)

Headaches; T, 31.2K. "When Luke overhears his aunt and uncle arguing, he follows old Ben to Daiyu. Skywalker shenanigans ensues." Oh my goodness, the pure child chaos that is in this fic, it's an excellent time. Hasn't updated in almost a year, but what's there is so good!

Balance on the knife edge; T, 136.6k. After dying on Malachor, Ahsoka time travels back to Mortis, during the Clone Wars.

The Thunder Answered Back; M, 13.1k. "Count Dooku survives his duel with Anakin Skywalker only to wake up as a captive in the Jedi Temple on the evening of Order 66 and the siege. Betrayed, maimed, and surrounded by slaughter on every side, he must choose his path forward - and choose it quickly. RotS AU." Featuring Jocasta Nu.

Synchronous; G, 67.9k. "It's the usual time-entangling fiasco: 'Find the disturbance. Rectify the wrong. Fix the anomaly. Bring balance to the past so the Force may be balanced in the future.' There is a slight miscalculation, however, and Luke Skywalker finds himself in the Clone Wars while having to masquerade in the body of his late father Anakin Skywalker. Leia and Han aren't so helpful either."

In the Midst of Darkness Lays a Sleeping Light; T, 26.0k. Series, wherein Palpatine turns Vader into a dragon. (It goes great for both of them. Totally.) Angsty and enjoyable, and an interesting exploration of dehumanization/rehumanization.

To Set Up a Sith; T, 35.2k. "Teenage Luke tries to help his unwitting Sith father make a friend, with a little help from his ghost mom and the Force." Interesting story with fun and sweet bits, and I'm super curious about how it will turn out if it's ever finished!

like a lazy ocean hugs the shore; T, 10.7k. After Vader kills him, Fox gets stuck in a time loop around the time when Fives is killed.

Living Every Day; T, 82.9k. "When Satine Kryze survives her encounter with Darth Maul, it changes the galaxy. But even more than that, it changes the lives of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Skywalker family."

Dancing with Ghosts in Your Garden; T, 979.3k. Star Wars PT and TCW characters, but in a Hogwarts setting. It works surprisingly well! There's a little more teenage romance than is my personal preference, but it's a cool AU and quite long if you're looking for a fun, imaginative fic to absolutely bury yourself in for a while. (And it looks like Ahsoka might finally be entering during the next year of the fic!!)

What We've Become; T, 82.0K. "Darth Vader and Ahsoka’s fight on Malachor takes a different path, and Ahsoka actually is able to save her master. Or rather, she’s able to convince him to save himself. Diverges from canon in the last few minutes of Twilight of the Apprentice and goes increasingly AU from there."

better late than never; G, 41.4k. Ahsoka wins at Malachor, Vader redemption fic.

Madhouse Promenade; T, 13.0k. "In a bid to save his new apprentice's life, Darth Sidious siphoned the life force from Padmé Amidala, ultimately killing her. Ten years later, after finding out the truth, Darth Vader finds himself haunted by her ghost, and Padmé finds herself face-to-face with what her husband has become."

Hard Reset; T, 33.4k. "Anakin Skywalker wakes up to his worst nightmare, and he doesn't even know all of it yet." Aka Vader gets amnesia, and Anakin is confused about everything. (Visible to registered AO3 users only.)

The Ghosts on Coruscant; T, 143.6k. After surviving Mustafar and living as a rebel for eight years, Padmé is captured by the Empire, and Vader finds out.

Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns; T, 616.6k. ST-era Leia time travels back to ANH.

Old Man Luke; M, 109.4. ST-era Luke and Leia time travel to the Clone Wars.

Comics (all wips)

Dark Chasm; T, 21 chapters. "On Bespin, the truth is revealed, and Vader bids for Luke to join him. Luke looks down into the dark chasm and makes a choice."

Imperial Babysitters; T, 17 chapters. Cute comic/art series with Luke being raised by Vader, Piett, and Veers.

Our New Hope; T, 57 chapters. "After Ahsoka Tano discovers 12-year-old Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, she takes him under her wing and around the Galaxy. Meanwhile, Darth Vader has found Bail Organa's force-sensitive daughter and has started training her as a Junior Inquisitor. A chance encounter between the twins brings their worlds together."

The Tinies; G, 76 chapters. Cute comic with Vader and Padmé raising Luke and Leia.

[arxxq]

Hello! Can i request prompt 12. “I'm not that jealous type but what's mine is mine.” with Nagi Seishiro for the collaboration you posted? Thank you and take care always (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠✧⁠*⁠。

12. “I'm not that jealous type but what's mine is mine.”| nagi seishiro

Thank you for the request anon! Mwah♡

I'm not really doing good and i’m sick rn, my nose are stuffed, my head is spinning, my throat is dying and unfortunately i still have to go to school. that also explains my inactivity besides school rn. i’m doing my best to manage my time to write and do some of my school works as well. 

list of prompts are in my blog, i recently updated my navigation (my pinned post) so just check that and you will find the link to the prompts listed. 

mistakes will be fixed once i reread, lowercase intended

mentions of y/n / reader being reo’s step sibling. gender not specified. please forgive me if i mention she/her pronounces here. 

you and nagi have been together for a while. 

you must admit when you first started dating it did felt weird dating a lazy football player. 

just as you manage to got used to it in a few months, it got even weirder realizing that nagi seishiro, your beloved boyfriend was your brother’s best friend. 

it seems like reo himself didn’t know you were dating his best friend. it was clear to you that nagi had never told anyone of his relationship with you and that made you feel some sort of wave called relieve. so instead of telling reo, you decided to keep it hidden first. 

if you are wondering, no one in the school or anywhere infact knew about you and reo being step siblings because you didn’t really want the fame and your parents have always prioritize reo’s needs more than you, and with that you and reo agreed and manage to as well convince your parents to take in your biological mother’s surname instead. 

yes you have always questioned why the mikage family decided to adopt you, but that doesn’t mean you weren’t grateful about it at all. it felt like you were in a dream. even if your step parents didn’t give you much attention, you step brother did. he would always manage to convince his parents to spoil you. you have to admit, reo is probably the best brother you could ever have. 

he was always the person who cared, so its not really a surprise that reo would probably be the one who would stay longer then anyone when you are in your grave. and you would also do the same. 

now lets go back to our original subject....

not only did reo did not know about your relationship with nagi, but nagi himself also did not know that you were the younger sibling of his friend, mikage reo. the decision seems foolish because honesty usually is the best policy and you agree it is. its just that you can’t seem to bring yourself to tell them about this. 

so keeping it a secret was suppose to bring you time so you can feel prepared on when to tell them. 

but to your luck, life wasn’t liking your decision so of course it had to ruin it in some way possible. when you were already ready to tell reo, that was when fate decided to struck.

so it was at school. you came up to reo all of a sudden to ask if he’d like to walk with you for a while. yes it did weirded out others in the school because they themselves knew that you were already dating someone. 

everyone knew you were dating someone including your brother, but they just didn’t know who. yes reo did know about you having a relationship, but he didn’t ask you because he didn’t want to sound like and overprotective brother to you and he obviously did not want to pry into your personal business. he chose to be patient and waited you to tell him about it. 

that shows he’s a caring brother figure doesn’t it. 

meanwhile with nagi, he saw you walking up to reo his closest friend. it did bother him but he didn’t want to show it. he also felt a weird feeling and he absolutely disliked the whole feeling. something in his head had told him to follow you guys so he did...

so when you and reo arrived to a less crowded space you were about to tell him but you were cut off by your snow white boyfriend. 

“so what did you want to talk about?” 

“well it’s about--” just as you were about to tell him, you felt your body being pulled by to hands and your back was faced with someones chest, that person proceeded to put his head on you shoulder and say something you wouldn’t expect. 

“I'm not that jealous type but what's mine is mine.”

your jaw dropped. you knew who it was. his words had struck you and you went speechless. your face was also burning up. those words was something so unexpected to hear from nagi. he sounded so jealous right now. 

meanwhile reo had witnessed the whole thing and was processing what he just saw. now i guess he finally realized who you were with. he did felt disappointed you didn’t tell him but he understands that you have a hard time telling people something so big to you. he just smirked at nagi. 

“so you are jealous huh nagi?” he chuckled and decided to teased nagi even more. “of course i am. you can have anyone else just not my dove...” reo looks at you and he couldn’t hold in his laughter since your face right now was priceless. 

you were so flustered. your face was fully flushed with the colors of red and pink. 

“hey chill, i wont steel them from you cause that would be just weird!” that made nagi confused. “nagi..they’re my step sibling, and i have to say i am disappointed they didn’t tell me about you two but i’m happy its you honestly,” 

nagi was confused but shock at this info. “dove why you didn’t tell me that you were siblings with reo,” he sounded so sad and he looked quite betrayed. “i couldn’t bring the courage to tell you..” 

“mm i guess that’s understandable..” 

i had no idea on how to end this so i ended it there.

reblogs are highly appreciated 

do not claim as your own and do not post my works on other platforms unless you have my permit 

[professorofcosplay]

Murder Drones Headcanons since I have brainrot

— Uzi loves playing Mario kart with N since he’s a terrible driver because she always wins. She’s not above that. 

— Tessa wanted to be a hairdresser or in R&D for computer science when she grew up and loved practicing on her drones. She was leaning towards hair, though she had a knack with drones. You can imagine what her parents thought of these career leanings.

— J actually changed hair/wigstyles quite a bit because of this. The wildest “phase” was bubblegum pink. Her parents made her throw out the mohawk wig. :(

— J genuinely loved/loves Tessa, possibly even more than any of the others did; she just also faced the most punishment since she was the drone with Tessa the most and therefore she was the easiest to get ahold of. Thus, she faced Tessa’s parents’ wrath more often and was even more afraid of them than the others. This led to a sort of learned helplessness/submission in her that was hard to unlearn. 

— J is actually very, very self conscious. She’s isn’t a bully just to be a bitch but because she thinks it will save her from being the focus of someone’s wrath. Scapegoating at its finest. (Though she still is a bitch.)

— J steals the wigs from workers she kills and wears them sometimes. She doesn’t know exactly why; it just feels oddly familiar. 

— The three DDs all snuggled like a pile of puppies in the space pod when in sleep mode. The pod can be programmed for a destination but has to be piloted (or lack thereof) to the surface so they could just snooze until initial descent (and they did!). 

— Antifreeze is the drone equivalent of Monster energy drinks, so, naturally, Uzi lives off the stuff. 

— Most drones actually make their own wigs!   A lot of them are from thin wires they’ve scavenged from Copper 9’s wreckage, though there’s some made from melted plastic like faux hair human wigs. 

— Thad collects Nerf guns. They’re more fun than the real thing for him. That’s one thing Uzi and Thad can chat about for hours. 

— Thad and Uzi also collaborate (and compete) on pranks!  They have a prank hit list of workers they want to mess with and whoever checks everyone off first is the winner. Their favorite was replacing Lizzy’s lip gloss with oil. Cruel, yes, but the gross-out factor had them in stitches for at least an hour. 

— Thad has a JROTC-like chapter of the WDF as an after-school club. It’s mostly just LARPing with his Nerf collection.  

— V bites the tips of her claws as a nervous habit. They’re a bit dented and scuffed because of this.  

— Khan is a magnet user to cope with the stress of the colony’s existence on his shoulders, the loss of Nori, and single parenting. He doesn’t really tell anyone about it and is pretty high functioning. 

— N is a huge fan of stickers!  He has found a few packs of them and loves decorating himself/paper/Uzi’s hoodie when she’s not looking/pretty much everything them. 

— V and J are girl’s girls.

— Lizzy has painted V’s claws Barbie pink before. V absolutely adored how it turned out.

— Doll was adopted by Lizzy’s parents after her own family died and while she hides out at her old home to hide her consumption of oil/etc a lot of the time, she actually lives at Lizzy’s; this is why they’re so inseparable. 

— Speaking of Lizzy, the only one to mourn Doll’s loss will be Lizzy and her family, though Uzi will make every attempt to give her and what’s left of her parents’ remains a decent resting place.   — Humanized Khan is buff.

— Khan once threw Uzi a birthday party. None of her classmates showed up (though Thad did send a very nice card) so she only got one present. Guess what it was? 

[stevesbipanic]

25. Angst that ends in fluff #Bhits5k

25. Adopting a Pet

Steve had always wanted a pet. Every birthday, every Christmas he'd ask his parents for one. He didn't care what kind, big or small. There was always an excuse.

"A dog would rip up the cushions and dig up the yard, Steven."

"A cat would shed everywhere and rip the curtains, Steven."

"A fish isn't very manly, Steven."

"A snake is too dangerous, Steven."

"You'll get bored of a hamster, Steven."

Steve still desperately wanted a companion, something to keep him company while his parents were away, something to care for, something to love.

He once found a tiny kitten out by the playground. He took it home and hid it in his room, sneaking her scraps until his parents left town again. The kitten would sleep on his chest at night keeping him warm and soothing him with its purrs. Steve would've kept that kitten hidden in his room forever, but a week later he found a missing poster for it. The little boy to who he returned it almost cried when Steve showed up at the house with the bundle of fluff. Steve resigned himself to a petless life after that, on his next birthday he just asked for a baseball.

Eddie had always wanted a pet but never dared asked for one. Growing up he knew his dad was dangerous, he didn't want a little animal getting in the way of that anger. Eddie's father would throw cans at the strays around the trailer park and come home and hurt Eddie if he had a bad day, which was always.

Eddie would still sneak the strays some of what little dinner he had. Out his bedroom window, he'd feed a couple dogs and an old cat the rest of his microwave dinner. He cried when the old cat stopped coming by.

When he moved in with Wayne he still didn't ask for a pet, he understood a pet was another mouth to feed and he didn't want to be a further burden on his uncle despite the man claiming otherwise. He still fed the new trailer park strays, and he put out water for them in the summer, making sure it didn't freeze over in the winter.

Now he was older, he and Steve were freshly moved into their new apartment downtown. The apartment was small and poorly lit but it was the first place Steve could truly call his home. Eddie came home one day from work when he heard it. He poked his head into their bedroom, Steve standing in front of the closet a guilty look on his face.

"Steve, what's in the closet?"

"Well, certainly not me anymore."

"Hardy har, I'm serious what're ya hiding in there?"

Steve sighs before turning and grabbing something from inside. When he turns back around Eddie sees the tiny ball of fur in his boyfriend's hands.

"She was crying by the trashcan and she was just so small and I couldn't just leave her there, but I know I should've just taken her to the shelter, she's another mouth to feed and her fur will get everywhere and-"

Eddie cuts off Steve's rambling by wrapping his arms around his shoulders, "Hey, hey sweetheart, it's ok, I'm not mad, why would I be mad about my boyfriend rescuing this little cutie?"

Steve looks like he might cry again, "Because my parents would've been." Eddie holds him closer, being mindful of the little kitten. "Well, you know I know Dick has always been a dick, how about we head to the vet's to get the little one all checked out and then head to the pet store to spoil her with the paycheck I just got."

Steve smiles and that night when he falls asleep once again with a little ball of fluff on his chest and Eddie cuddled beside him his chest feels a little lighter.

Prompt List

I'm just realising my dumbass has two 25's and you probs meant the Break Up/Make Up one lol. Send the prompt again if you want that sorry, I'll fix the list now.

[shimmerwindow]

I Never Really

Part Nineteen

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: Marijuana use

Playlist | Masterlist

Tag List: @jazzyfigz @dont-go-home-without-me @poochiesworld @stardustcatcher @83rkblogs @jaketsguitar @dannys-dream @gretavanfan @do-it-jakey-baby @gvfpal @ignite-my-fire @gardensgatekeeper @torniturntomyarrow @dannythedog

To your absolute dismay, it no longer felt right waking up in Sam’s bed. You felt guilty, somehow. Immediate anxiety flooded your veins the moment sunlight hit your eyes and you rolled over to stare at his sleeping form. He was already awake, godlike and radiant with the light of the sun playing off specks of gold in his eyes.

Motions that had once felt so natural felt odd and foreign to you now. You had become so used to waking up next to him, and he would wrap his arms around you, and you would curl your body against his chest to revel in his warmth. The embrace of his arms never came, his hands tucked beneath the pillow. You were wracked with guilt, certain that you should have never spoken to him last night. Tears were already threatening to fall from your eyes before a word had even been spoken between you.

“We should probably talk,” he rasped, his voice still broken from sleep.

“Right now?” You weren’t sure you had the capacity to have this discussion, especially immediately upon waking up.

“Maybe not this very second. But some time today.”

It felt like you were about to be scolded by your mother, or berated by your boss. Your anxiety over this situation ran so high for a moment you thought you might actually vomit, but you managed to hold yourself together. “I’m sorry,” you said, tears spilling from your eyes and your head starting to ache. “For…everything.”

“Save it.” There was fire behind his eyes, a flame you’d seen many times before, when he was annoyed with his brothers or frustrated over school. He was actually angry with you, something you’d never seen before, and it scared you a bit. Not that you were frightened of him, but you were frightened of what it would mean for your future, what it would mean for you. “We’ll talk later. In my room.”

The remainder of the morning whisked by through your tear-blurred vision. He checked to make sure the house was empty before rushing you outside, out to his car, and back to the dorms. As you closed the front door behind you, you had taken one last long look at the inside of that house. It would likely be the last time you’d see it, with its creaky floorboards, chipped paint, eclectic furniture, and welcoming aura. A piece of you would remain there forever, and you knew that.

He ushered you up to his room, though with how high your nerves were, it felt like you were being escorted to the electric chair. You may as well have been – to live without him was a metaphorical death sentence. His dorm had gone through some changes between semesters, adopting his typical maximalist style more so than before. Posters you recognized from his room at the house adorned the walls, and the window sill was lined with as many plants as it could hold, all of them lush and green.

“I hate to say this,” he began, taking a seat in the corner of his bed with his back against the wall. He picked up a lighter that had been stashed on top of the soil of one of the plants, fidgeting with it. “But I’m more disappointed that you lied to me than anything.”

You sat across from him, as far away as possible, and you realized why this felt so familiar. Your positions now were identical to the way you'd sat with him the last time you’d had a conversation of this nature. Full-circle, as always. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you’re sorry, but…” he sighed, eyes trained on the little pink plastic lighter as he twirled it between his fingers. “Sorry won’t fix this.”

“What about you?” You couldn’t fight the urge to immediately go on the defensive. “You were with that other girl last night. Had you still been talking to her the whole time I thought it was just me and you?”

“No, actually.” He looked at you, and you could see truth in his eyes. “Hadn’t talked to her in ages. Probably shouldn’t have called her at all.”

“We all make mistakes.”

“Mistakes?” He scoffed, turning his eyes away from yours. “Is that what you’d call it? A mistake?”

You realized he wasn’t talking about his own actions. “Listen, I know you’re not happy with me. But why are we talking about this at all? I fucked up, and I know that. So we should just drop it, drop all of this, drop each other.”

“You know neither of us can.”

“Maybe we should learn, then.” You spoke softly, hoping your voice would not reach your own ears.

“Or maybe, we could just…keep some distance.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

He pulled his shirt collar aside, scratching at his shoulder. Just to the side of his collarbone, a circular bruise had blossomed, in the shape of your teeth. The sight of it made you ache, a feeling you knew would not be sated for a long time – if ever again. He didn’t respond, clearly trying to gather his thoughts, yet failing.

“I’m not tainted, you know,” you mumbled. “I’m not ruined because I…did that. And you’re not innocent, either.”

“I know you’re not. It’s about the trust. You lied to me.”

“You never made it official.”

“I didn’t think I needed to.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And you made it clear you wanted to wait, anyway.”

It dawned on you that perhaps you’d also been the one to put him in a difficult position. To expect him to stay perfectly faithful, when you had betrayed his trust and lied to him about it, was incredibly unfair.

“And I didn’t think about it from your perspective.” He fidgeted nervously, trying to work it out in his head. “It probably looked like I was leading you on. But I didn’t realize you’d go running to the one guy I kinda made off-limits to you. But, also, it was unfair to make someone off-limits to begin with.” He shrugged, twirling the lighter between his fingers.

“We’re both guilty.” You stared down at your hands in your lap, your eyes tracing over the remnants of the scar still present on your palm. A reminder of the love you’d shared so briefly, much more permanent than the finger-sized bruises on your hips.

“Space, then. We need to step back.”

“God, I don’t want to do that.” You whined it like a petulant child, squeezing your hands into fists.

“Do you love me?” He turned to face you, his eyes boring deep holes into you. With the gloomy sunlight hitting him, you could see the bruise on his face much more clearly. His brow was still a bit swollen, the remnants of a dark circle present in the yellowish color marring the space under his eye.

“I do.”

“Then we need to.” He held out his hand for you to take, entangling your fingers gently. “I can’t lose you permanently. Take some time to heal and I’ll do the same.”

The idea that you had to heal from anything – especially the wounds you gave each other – was mortifying. It brought you to tears, though you had none left to let fall.

“How am I supposed to live like this?” You asked.

“When you figure it out, let me know.” He tried to give you a smile, though it didn’t convey anything but sadness. “We just have to suck it up. No contact. I won’t text you, and you won’t text me.”

“No more walking to class together.”

“No more dinners together, either.”

“What if I run into you at the plant sale this week?” You said, a smile forcing its way to your lips.

“Just pretend I’m not there.”

* * *

The two of you managed to successfully avoid each other, for the most part. For a week, you didn’t see much of him, only the occasional glimpse between classes as you passed on the walkways. You’d always pretend as if you hadn’t seen each other. It was painful, but less than you'd anticipated, in all honesty. It was not a soul-crushing sadness that consumed you, but something more like a sense of relief. It was nice to finally prove to yourself that you would be okay without him, and to finally have time to reflect on your actions.

You were able to admit to yourself that you had, in fact, slept with Jake as some form of revenge. It hadn’t been conscious at the time – you'd been so deep in lying to yourself about everything, it felt natural to add another tangle to the web. But Jake had never been someone you’d wanted to pursue, not until you realized how badly it would hurt Sam if you slept with him. Neither of them had deserved any of it.

By the second week, something started to shift. You’d taken the time to own up to your actions in your own head, and the guilt that once crushed you began to dissipate. When you saw Sam, you’d stop, say hi, make up some excuse to talk – maybe you remembered some random knickknack you left in his room, maybe he remembered you still had one of his shirts, though it was always a lie. And both of you knew it.

At the third week, on one Friday night, he texted you. Something simple, only saying hello and asking how you were. You’d told yourself not to reply, fought with yourself typing and deleting paragraphs declaring your love over and over, until you wrote an equally bland response. Things continued this way for weeks, the occasional talk, the random texts, all of it cordial and simple.

Until one night, when you’d had a bit too much out of the wine you’d snuck into your dorm, and he’d been feeling a bit too bold. You’d texted him something a bit too risky, and within minutes, you heard a knock at your door. That had been the first night you’d broken your own rules, and it seemed to be a constant cycle from there.

Space was not something you could successfully keep. Not when you would “accidentally” run into each other on your way back from class. Not when he would stare at you with those eyes the color of Venus, smile at you with a mouth of perfect teeth and pink lips. Not when you would visit him in his dorm, with the intention to help him with an assignment, a code both of you learned quickly. Every time, it would end with your clothes on the floor, your naked body against his, your head on his chest as he held a smoldering joint between his teeth. Today was one such day.

“We really shouldn’t keep doing this,” he said, absently brushing his fingers through your hair. “Probably not good for us.”

You were quiet for a minute, listening to the crackle of paper burning as he took another hit. “But it’s so nice, isn't it?” You grinned, even though he could not see your face, playing the part of the devil on his shoulder.

“Sure is.”

You watched smoke curl up and away from you, sucked out the window by the gentle breeze. Spring was nearly here, midway into April, the chill finally gone from the air until the next batch of snow came. Spring in the midwest was a fickle thing. It was too cold at night to open your window, but you still always did – there was something about that smell of spring you couldn't resist. The buds on the trees, the first of the flowers poking their heads out of the ground, the birds returning, all of it was breathing new life into you. And, with any hope, breathing something necessary back into you and Sam.

It had been almost a month now of this song and dance between the two of you. It was almost as if nothing had changed, but you came closer to more arguments than before. You never fought, not outright. One of you would always back down before things could escalate too far. In all honesty, you wished the two of you could fight. There were plenty of things you needed to hash out, but you never quite could bring yourselves to bring it up. You’d both call it protecting your peace, but it felt like you were only doing more damage. You’d talked it all through to death, your mutual apologies numbering in what felt like the thousands. There were no hard feelings anymore, but the scars still lingered.

They’d started playing shows more frequently as of late. The venues had gotten bigger, cover charges had turned into ticketed events, and on a few occasions down in the city, lines had formed outside. You heard whispers of some guy down in Nashville, something about albums. It was bizarre, and didn’t quite seem to be sinking in for any of you. At the end of the day, Sam was still the wonderful, corny weirdo you’d fallen in love with. Even as you watched from the wings while women and men alike screamed and cheered for him and his brothers. The band even had a name, now. A strange one, but somehow it fit perfectly.

“There’s a show at the house tomorrow,” Sam remarked, his calloused fingers tracing shapes into the soft skin of your back. “Want to come?”

“Of course I do,” you replied. “But will that be…awkward?”

He shrugged, the motion making your head bob a bit. “It wasn’t too bad last time.”

You hadn’t seen the other guys much in the past month, only once, when you’d “happened” to run into them at a bar. The whole space thing between you and Sam had made for an interesting night. The two of you kept an almost ridiculous amount of distance, not even making physical contact once, sitting at opposite ends of the group, barely interacting at all. His brothers hadn’t quite known what to do with the whole situation, all of them glancing awkwardly between the two of you the entire night. Ultimately, they left it alone, knowing better now than to get between whatever you had going.

“I’d have to disagree,” you replied, pulling closer to him.

“For all they know, we’re still on that healthy distance kick.” You could hear the smile in his voice.

“You know how I get after your shows.”

“I’m well aware.” He laced his fingers into your hair, absently playing with a few strands. “What is it about that, anyway? Does people screaming the wrong lyrics get you going or something?”

You laughed in sync with him, rolling off of his chest to lay on your elbows, looking at him. “It’s your hands, mostly. The way your fingers move…” you imitated the way his hands would fly across the strings of his bass.

“Really? These things?” He held the joint between his teeth and wiggled his fingers at you. “All calloused and fucked up?”

“That’s the best part,” you grumbled.

“Guess I just don’t get it.” He reached behind him to stamp out the end of the joint, every curve in his body a masterpiece to your eyes. “So are you coming to the show or not?”

You pondered it for a moment, turning the idea over in your head. It seemed like a perfect recipe for disaster. But the days were getting longer, the sun shining warmer on the days it didn't rain, and a part of you was aching for a drunken night of music and joy. “Sure,” you sighed. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

[sequinsmile-x]

Slipping Through My Fingers

The one in which Emily and her daughter struggle with separation anxiety.

2/3

Part 1

-x-

Hi friends,

Here is part 2 of this fic! This is very fluffy and soft - perfect for a Friday night <3

Really hope you enjoy this. Please let me know what you think!

-x-

Warnings: None

Words: 2.2k

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

Aaron smiles as he wrestles clothes onto his 9-month-old son, the baby giggling and wriggling as he gets the shirt over his head. He’d told Emily he’d get their youngest ready for the day, despite it being something she usually did so she could spend some time with Stella. He’d seen the hesitance in his wife’s eyes as she passed Alexander over to him after she’d nursed him, the guilt washing over her face as she gave up some time with her son to go help their daughter get ready for her big day.

“Okay, buddy,” Aaron says, lifting Alexander once he’s dressed. He kisses his forehead before he rests him against his chest, “I need a favour from you,” he says, patting his son’s back as he babbles in response, his fist already wrapped around the lapel of his jacket, “You need to be extra cute today, okay? Mommy is going to need it.” 

It was Stella’s first day of kindergarten, and Aaron wasn’t sure if his little girl or his wife needed more support to get through drop-off. Emily was, despite her insistence that she was fine, struggling. She’d packed Stella’s backpack four times the night before, checking again and again that their daughter had everything she needed, the list the school had provided crumpled from how many times Emily had read it, the piece of paper gripped tightly in her hand as she all but memorised it. It was a level of organisation as if they were sending her to war, not a school just a 15 minute drive from where they worked, something that he’d thought but not vocalised, well aware that his usually logical wife was on edge. 

As if he’s understood him, Alexander cups his face, a tiny hand on each of his cheeks and he giggles when his father makes a a show of turning his head and kissing one of his palms. He was the happiest baby Aaron had ever met, always giggling and smiling at everyone. It was something he fiercely wanted to protect, something he hoped his son would carry throughout his life.

Aaron chuckles and kisses his forehead, “That’s my boy.” 

The door to the nursery opens, ending the quiet moment between father and son, and Emily walks in. A smile she couldn’t fight if she wanted to breaks out across her face at the sight of them together, how her son always looked smaller if he was in his father’s arms. They both smile, matching dimples staring back at her, and Alexander reaches out for her, tiny fists raised in the air as he squirms in Aaron’s embrace. 

“Come here, sweet boy,” she says, settling him into her arms, breathing him in as if it hadn’t been just 30 minutes since she’d sat in here with him as she fed him. She looks at the outfit Aaron had dressed him in, a pair of overalls emblazoned with woodland animals and its matching bodysuit, and she raises he eyebrow at her husband. She’d bought it only the week before even though their son didn’t need any more clothes, taken in by how adorable it was as she showed it to her husband in the middle of the store. She knows that him picking this outfit on the morning of Stella’s first day of school wouldn’t have been a coincidence. Everything he did was thought about, every action purposeful in his endless love for her and their children, even down to picking something for their son to wear on a day he knows she was finding difficult. She turns her attention back to her son and hums, “Daddy thinks he’s clever, huh Lex?” 

The nickname for the little boy in her arms briefly makes her ache. It came from when Stella couldn’t quite pronounce Alexander’s name when he was first born and it had stuck, everyone in the family adopting it as the moniker for the little boy despite the fact Stella could say his name now. She couldn’t explain why she was feeling the way she was, anxiety making her entire body vibrate as they got closer and closer to having to leave for the day. It felt like her little girl was growing up, a feeling that didn’t fade as she tried to rationalise to herself that Stella was four, that she was still a tiny little thing who was glued to her side at every given opportunity. It didn’t make it any easier, didn’t make the passage of time seem any less cruel as she thought about the fact it didn’t seem that long ago that her daughter was the same age as her son. 

Aaron steps closer to her, his hand on her lower back as he draws her out of herself, his smile soft and reassuring as he kisses her cheek. He was waiting on her to fall apart, she knew that, but she also appreciated that he hadn’t said anything, that he knew her well enough to understand that if he was too kind to her, if he was too sweet before they dropped Stella off, she’d go to pieces in front of their daughter, and that was something she didn’t want

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he denies playfully, winking as he pulls back to look at her, “Is she ready to go?” 

She sucks in a shaky breath and nods, a strained chuckle escaping as she adjusts her hold on Alexander, “I had to talk her down from wearing the tutu Pen got her last week,” she says, smiling when Aaron laughs, “But yeah, she’s ready. She said she wants Daddy to make breakfast for her and then she’s all good to go.” 

He nods and kisses her before he pulls away, leaning in to kiss Alexander’s head before he steps back, “Anything my princess wants, she gets.” 

“And she knows that too,” she hums as he goes, her laugh turning into a sigh when he’s out of sight. Alexander pats her face, vying for her attention, and she smiles, grabbing his hand to hold it in place as she kisses it, “You aren’t allowed to grow up, okay?” She says, ignoring the shake to her voice, and he smiles widely at her, leaning forward to press his face into her neck. She tightens her hold on him and kisses his dark hair, “I’m taking that as a yes just so you know.” 

___

Stella is fine until the moment they step into the classroom. Her enthusiasm disappears in an instant, any excitement she’d felt about the day ahead seeping out of her as she turns to look at Emily, her wide eyes full of panic. 

“Mommy, can you stay?” She asks, her sweet voice shaking as she steps closer to Emily, her fists tight in the material of her jacket. 

For a moment Emily considers grabbing Stella and turning around, a flash of her own anxiety made worse by her daughter’s. Her body thrums with it, and she turns to look at her husband who has Alexander in his arms and Jack at his side, looking idly around the room. Aaron smiles encouragingly at her, his love for her and their family as empowering as always, his ability to calm her down with nothing but his eyes meeting hers still as disarming as it had been since they’d first got together. 

She turns back to Stella and crouches down so she’s eye level, and she smiles as she reaches out and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. She runs her knuckles down Stella’s cheek, and for a moment she’s taken back just over four years to the first time she’d ever done this, testing the feel of her skin against her little girl’s for the first time. It was a moment in time, frozen in her memories, and it makes her ache. 

“Mommy can’t stay sweet girl,” she says, catching a tear that falls down Stella’s cheek, her face scrunched up as she sucks in a shaky breath, “But I’ll be back to pick you up when you’re done and then you can tell us all about school.” 

Stella nods and wipes her eyes, “We can get ice cream?”

Emily’s smile widens and she nods, stamping a kiss against her daughter’s forehead, “Of course we can.” 

Stella sniffs, edging closer to Emily. She places her hands on her thighs, her fingers digging in slightly, “Okay,” she says, wrapping her arms around her mother, “You can go.” 

Emily smiles as she pulls the little girl close and she kisses her forehead, “I love you, baby.” 

“Love you, Mama.” 

She takes a shaky breath before pulling back, not wanting her daughter to pick up on her wavering emotions and undo all the work she’d just done to calm her down, “Say goodbye to Daddy and your brothers.” 

She stands up straight and watches as Aaron leans down, expertly keeping Alexander against his chest as he says goodbye to their daughter, making her giggle as he whispers to her. Jack hugs Stella and tells her about how good the snacks are, about the teacher who had once been his and was now hers. 

Emily holds it together as they walk away, her shoulders tight as she blows out a slow breath. She looks back and sees Stella staring at her from inside the classroom, her hand held up as she waves at her. Emily waves back and smiles encouragingly, hoping her daughter doesn’t see the shake in it from where she’s standing. As soon as she’s outside, her emotions hit her alongside the fresh air, drawing a gasp from deep in her chest as tears immediately gather in her eyes.

Aaron doesn’t waste a second. He hands Jack his phone and car keys before an arm around Emily’s waist, making sure Alexander is still secure against him, and he kisses the side of her head. 

“Jack,” he says as he rubs his hand up and down Emily’s side, “Why don’t you go wait in the car for us for a few minutes?” He nods towards the car, parked only a few paces away, and smiles at his son. 

Jack looks back and forth between them, his eyes lingering on Emily as she looks up at the sky, desperately trying to stave off her tears. “Is Mom going to cry?” 

Aaron raises an eyebrow, “Jack.” 

The little boy nods and walks over, hugging Emily quickly, squeezing her all too briefly for her liking before he walks towards the car, hitting the button on the keys and climbing in. Aaron turns his attention back to his wife and he guides her over to the nearby bench. 

“She’ll be okay, sweetheart,” he assures her, kissing her temple as he wraps his arm around her shoulders, “She’s brave just like you.” 

Emily chokes on a laugh and wipes tears from her cheeks, “I know she is,” she says, shaking her head at herself, “I know she’ll be fine I just can’t explain it. She’s my baby,” her lower lip trembles, “And she's growing up.”

He smiles softly and pulls her closer, resting his cheek on top of her head, “It’s normal to feel like this, Em. But it’s kindergarten, not college,” he says, smiling when she pulls back and narrows her eyes at him, “We’ve got a long way to go before she outgrows us.” 

She hums and wipes her cheeks, the tears immediately replaced, “I know that too,” she says, her lips pressed together as she shrugs, “It doesn’t make it feel any better right now.” 

He knew what she meant. This was the second time he’d done this, but he hadn’t been alone this time like he had when he did this on Jack’s first day. He wasn’t the only single father in a room full of couples and a few single moms saying goodbye to their children. The room was the same. There were new drawings, new brightly coloured decorations, but the walls were the same colour. The desks and tiny chairs were the same. It was strange being back here again now that his life was so different to how it had been then, his past colliding with his present, a reminder he hadn’t known he’d needed until it was right in front of him. 

“I know it doesn’t,” he says, leaning in and kissing her, smiling when Alexander babbles between them, his tiny hand tangling in Emily’s hair, “Would it help to hold the baby?” 

She sniffs, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her jacket and she nods as she reaches for Alexander, “Yes please.” 

“Come on, buddy,” Aaron says, kissing the baby’s head as he passes him over, “Go to Mommy.” 

She accepts him gratefully, stamping a series of kisses to his head, breathing in the sweet scent of him as she hugs him close, “You’d best remember our agreement, sweet boy,” she says, resting her cheek on top of his head, “I’m not doing this again.” 

Aaron furrows his brow as he looks at him, “What agreement?” He asks curiously, and she winks at him, her smile turning into a playful smirk. 

“Sorry, honey,” she says, sounding anything but, “That’s between me and Lex.” 

-x-

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[silent-raven13]

Flower Shop Across the Music Store

(AU: Miles works at a flower shop. Hobie owes his music Store.)

The sound of the machine printing out a long list of receipts had the young man ripped it off to had to the customer. "Here's your receipt. Remember no returns if it's open." The Punker said in a serious tone before going back to reorganizing some CDs.

The customer left with a nod before taking his leave with his skateboard in his other hand. The front door opens with its bell ringing, a group of three teenage boys wearing Y2K outfits; large baggy pants, and oversize shirts. Very old school style of New York, with Jordans, and timberlands.

Hobie glances over, "Manny, did you do your homework?" At a brown teenage boy wearing bright red oversize t-shirt, baggy pants and Jordans. The one called Manny had a buzz cut with one earring in his left ear, he sucked his teeth in with an eye roll.

"Man," Manny frowns at his adopted older brother, "I was."

"Oh yeh? Let me see it?" The owner of the shop asked.

"Come on, bro." Manny grunts.

"Don't give me that. Go to the back and do your homework. Those are the rules." Hobie crosses his arms. "Unless you wanna go back to yer mama?"

Manny groans, "No. But can I just go skate for a bit. I swear I'll be back at five and do my homework!"

"Alright. But I better see you here before those lights turned on." Hobie pointed at the lamp lights on the street. "I'm gonna make jerk chicken and rice and peas! So you better get home by dinner time."

"Ight, bro! I will." Manny walks out with his friends going to the park to skate and hang out.

The punker merely rolled his eyes, he felt more like a dad to this kid than a brother at times. He heard the boys calling all at once, then one of them said, "Aye, look over there! it's a gonna be a Flower shop."

"Nah, mane. Who goes buy flowers?" A friend of Manny said.

"Who knows but it's better than that wack ass junk store."

"Ya that place was cover in dust."

Hobie saw the boys walking away laughing, he peeks over the shop across his store to find a flower shop being set up. Huh, he never noticed that. The Grand Opening show it's today with a free rose.

Two older Latina women went inside the shop to buy some flowers, coming out with their own bouquets. The punker arched his eyebrows being interested in the shop, during his lunch break he decided to go check it out.

Of course, by the looks on the Flower Shop it look a bit to posh for the neighborhood of Brooklyn. So he wore his black leather jacket and went full Punk on his aesthetics to see if the owners would freak out. He's biggest worry if it's a rich white owner trying to take over a black and brown neighborhood.

"Not on my watch!" He thought to himself before going over to the flower shop.

The door bing with an automatic ringer whenever the door open. The flower shop is small, but had many beautiful flowers with decent prices. "Coming." Hearing a male voice.

Hobie checks around seeing a lot of roses, so many in different types from white to pink to yellow to the iconic red ones. Then, he heard footsteps behind him. He turns around as he heard, "Sorry about that. I was setting up the vases behind the counter."

The moment Hobie's eyes saw the young man, it felt like love at first sight. He never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. The young cashier had big hazel eyes with a cute wide nose and dimple wide smile with those plump lips. The young man have dark skin and coily tapered Afro, with earrings on both ears. He wore an apron over his sunny yellow collar shorts and overalls that have Sunflower embroidered and OG Jordans.

"Uhhh..." Hobie felt like he was styling a sun by the way this man's face glows so brightly.

"Hm?" The cashier tilted his head to the side with those big doe eyes.

The punker saw the cashier's name tag, "Miles. Um, are you the owner?"

"Me? Nah, this is my aunty's shop. I'm working here part time." He looked worried, "Oh do you need to speak to her? My aunty and Uncle will be here tomorrow!"

Hobie never thought he would see someone this cute. "No. No-no!" He raised his hand up, "It's all good. I just wanna say I own a music shop across the street."

"OH! I always wanted to go there! You're the owner! Wow, you dress so cool." Miles' big hazel eyes gleams with excitement.

"Heh, I guess so. It's pretty crappy."

"Oh, I don't think so." Miles giggles, "I think it gives a bit of personality."

"Oh yeah?"

"Mmhmm."

"Never thought it that way." Hobie crosses his arms then slowly asked, "So, what you got for sale?"

"We got twelve dollar bouquets roses." Miles pointed out, "They are small but enough to be romantic." He to hold a bequest of Sunflowers, "Sorry, I need to fix this." He wanted to have the Sunflower flowers their own attention.

"Huh, you look like a Sunflower." Hobie's hand reach out to touch Miles' cheek, "Sunflower." There eyes met.

The young man felt his body heated up by this handsome Punker. Seeing him so tall and having Heterochromia eyes made him look so damn cool and attractive. "Oh, no one ever called me that or any flower."

"I think Sunflower fits you perfectly. Anyway, I like to buy that Sunflower." He offer.

"Oh this one?" Miles is holding it with great care.

This is what Hobie wanted to hold Miles and the best way was that Sunflower. He casually chuckles, "I like that one."

'Okay, I'll ring it up for you." The cashier nodded heading to the front desk to charge the flower. The two stay quiet it until Hobie couldn't take it anymore.

"Here, luv. Maybe you need a discount from her." He slid his phone number on a piece .

"Ehh?" Miles felt his cheeks warm when seeing the phone number on a piece of paper. "Don't you think that's old school?" His hazel eyes onto the punker.

"So? I wanna make my point across." The Punker flirted.

"Okay... but I didn't catch your name." The cashier went to wrap the sunflower.

"Hobie. Hobie Brown." He grins at Miles. "Let me take you out for a cup of coffee."

"I do like coffee." Miles flirted with him, having this warm smile. He could stare at Hobie's one silver blue eyes and the other being brown.

"Yeah." Hobie flirted back, "Hopefully, you and I can go further like dinner or a movie."

"Hehehe," The cashier giggles, "I would like that if things go well."

"I think you and I both know, luv, that we're gonna get along super well with each other." He smirks at him.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

The two were staring into each other having big smiles on their faces. Miles couldn't help but be attractive to the punker. "What about tonight?"

"Cup of coffee?"

"Maybe or a movie, since you already said we fit goo together." Miles hums having to charge the Sunflower. "That'll be five thirty five."

"Heh, alright." Hobie grins having to pull out his wallet to pay in cash, "How about this? I take you to a nice Dominican restaurant down there, and see where it goes."

"OKay. I do like Dominican food." Miles' eyes on him, they were interested.

"Alright, when you get off?"

"Around five. My uncle comes by to help close the shop." Miles said, "I'll be ready by then."

"Okay, I'll come by. I normally close shop early too." Hobie grins at the cashier. "See you then, Sunflower."

"See you, Hobie." He smiles at him watching him leave the store.

Hobie could only fantasize about Miles and the smell of Sunflowers just reminds the punker of him. His heart race thinking about it, then he remembers about his adopted brother.

He quickly texted him.

Hobie: Yo, I got a date at five. You can hang out with your friends longer.

Manny: Sweet, can I stay over at Luis till ten?

Hobie: Sure. Do your homework!

Manny: Sure thing bro.

Hobie smirks with that. Now he gotta think what to wear for this date. God, he knows this is the one. His soul mate, he could feel it in his bones!

[qe-podfic]

Check out @lexarturo's FUNKTACULAR cover illustration for Chapter 1 of Quantum Entangled.

AHHHHHHHH. THIS ARTWORK MADE ME PISS BLOOD. /pos

Excerpt below cut:

Gosh, he was late! Anathema—Aziraphale’s formidable but quirky supervisor—was going to wring his neck like a repressed housewife in the 1960s, squeezing the last remnants of dirty dishwater out of a hand towel. Only, instead of soap bubbles, it would be Aziraphale’s bloodied guts spilling out onto the linoleum floor. Anathema was a kind young lady, but there was an unmistakable fire in her eyes. It was the fire of a girl who had gotten her doctorate in her mid-twenties. And, with nowhere else for her limitless passion—and it had to be limitless, because writing a PhD at forty wasn’t an easy feat; doing the same, in half the time, required about as much mental fortitude as one might expect (ergo limitless)—to go, she had adopted Aziraphale as a kind of pet project. If you knew her, and you were gifted with any sense of self-preservation, no matter how small, you wouldn’t willingly get between Anathema and her latest pet project.

Aziraphale was currently getting in between Anathema and her latest pet project.

Never mind that he was the pet project, he wouldn’t put it past her to learn the lost art of necromancy in the wake of his recently corpse-ified body, post-murder on account of tardiness. A trivial little thing like death couldn’t put a stop to Anathema Device. Perish the thought!  Supposedly—on account of some author or another—there were only two constants in life; death and taxes. The first of these we’ve already discussed. The second, according to Aziraphale’s blurry memories of the Device estate and its subsequent callous disregard for bookkeeping—books of prophecy excluded—was no obstacle either. In the wake of such revelations, Aziraphale wished to propose an amendment to the popular idiom. There were only two constants in life; ‘were’ being the preliminary condition. Because, once Anathema Device was born, death and taxes both tendered their resignations and held hands while they skipped gleefully into the sunset. Aziraphale hoped they had a holiday house, somewhere near the beach, where they could grow old together. He would do the same if he didn’t fear Anathema finding his proverbial vacation-inn and thoroughly beating the—proverbial or otherwise, Anathema wasn’t much fussed—ever loving crap out of him.

The dark storm cloud of his—Anathema themed—violent musings had brought Aziraphale all the way to the faculty staff room. Its thin pine door was a wooden board lacking stature, opulence, and foreboding, but trying its best to make up for it by acting as the sole barrier between Anathema Device and the outside world. It was a futile effort as Aziraphale, easy as anything, pushed it open—the lock had broken an indeterminate number of months prior, and no one was bothered enough to do anything about it—entering the domain of his supervisor.

“Ana? I know I’m late, but I’m here now if that counts for anything!” Aziraphale called, wafting the gift of crappy university coffee towards the hunched pile of sweaters sitting at Anathema’s desk. The sweater pile turned to look at him, revealing circular spectacles that enlarged the eyes beneath them. Her elk-fur coloured irises, blown out to proportions more fitting for an alien, or an animated bug in a Disney classic, were not tempered by the human habit of blinking. Anathema had mastered the unmoved stare by the age of four, she was not going to let her streak—almost three decades unbroken—end now.

“Aziraphale,” she said in a tone that implied that it could list your sins verbatim, without need nor want for breath. There was a moment of silence. Then, unlike herself, she sighed.

“You don’t even have a paper for me to demand a draft of yet. Neither of us have any work to do. For all intents and purposes, this is a social call. You can’t be late to a social call, Azzy. It begins precisely when it does, with no interest in the time it was planned for.”  Anathema explained, making Aziraphale feel a mite foolish, as she was often wont to do. Having deposited the lukewarm beverage onto her workspace anyway, he made himself comfortable in the cubicle-desk hybrid opposite her; where she was regarding the cup with the conditioned wariness of someone who had already known the taste of the grim sludge TadU had taken to calling ‘coffee’ these days. Her first sip wrestled a grimace onto her typically calm features, but by the time the second sip hit her tongue, she had acclimatised to the amalgamation before her. She continued drinking it, her exterior, at least, affecting unperturbed. Anathema was always more for the content than the aesthetics. In this case, the content was caffeine and the aesthetic was the offensive chemical concoction that contained said caffeine.

“I spoke with Crowley today,” Aziraphale remarked, apropos of nothing.

Anathema hummed appropriately, if not disinterestedly, before actually processing what he had said.

“The thesis guy you were so excited about? The one with the dissertation on primate social behaviours and their implications for modern notions of evolution?” Anathema probed, suddenly interested in the conversation.

“The very same.” 

“Holy fuck, Azzy. You’ve had the biggest crush—” Her words were interrupted by the swift interjection of one—rather embarrassed—A.Z. Fell.

“Academic crush. I value his unique perspectives,” he didn’t need to say more on the matter. It was a well trodden argument.

“Fine, you’ve had the biggest academic crush—” She coughed something that sounded an awful lot like ‘bullshit’ before continuing. Aziraphale offered her his handkerchief, regardless. Politeness was something he prided himself on, even when his friends were being obstinate hecklers.

“—on him for ages! This is big news! What did he say?”

Aziraphale floundered for a moment, unsure how to distil their brief meeting into something comprehensible. While most of Aziraphale’s conversations strayed into the territory of ‘a bit odd’, his exchange with Crowley was more than ‘a bit odd’ even by his—somewhat unusual—standards. No, the banter between him and Crowley ventured past the ballpark of ‘a bit odd’, beyond the neighbourhood of ‘somewhat peculiar’, and landed straight in the realm of ‘Weird Nerds saying Weird Nerd Things’—capitals included. Not that Anathema wasn’t a Weird Nerd herself, it was just that her particular brand of Weird Nerd veered more towards occult philosophy and historical chronology than it did towards quantum mechanics.

“He recognised me, actually. He mentioned my Master’s in passing and even asked for my number.”

Anathema knew all about Aziraphale’s MDiv, having friended him doing a joint research project on the Salem Witch Trials. This meant that she also knew, more intimately than most, how utterly boring his thesis was. Well, boring to anyone who wasn’t specifically that brand of Weird Nerd. It both surprised her and didn’t surprise her that Crowley was exactly that brand of Weird Nerd. Surely, for as prolific and expansive a researcher as Dr. A.J. Crowley was, it wouldn’t be beyond justification that his interests swept the dusty niche of Pauline Christian theology. But, on the other hand, it simply didn’t fit the vague sense of academic identity he carved out for himself. His debonair leather jackets and faux-suave saunter never seemed like a natural counterpart to the stuffy rigmarole of pastoral philosophy.

“Did he ask for your number? Or did you bluster your way into his contacts?” Her tone was suspicious, and not unwarranted. Aziraphale had—mostly by accident—ambushed himself into the texting roster of many a fellow bar patron, classmate, and—on one notable occasion—a critical care nurse. It was an unfortunate habit of his, coercing people into adding him as a new contact. Therefore, Anathema was not unfounded in her doubts.

Finding himself unwilling to explain it, Aziraphale just handed her his phone. Letting Anathema draw her own conclusions was often the best option available when she scented a curiosity. Upon viewing, she grimaced. First at Crowley’s comment about wanking on Bohr’s grave, and then at something she alone could parse. It was the kind of double take that only she could do. One where the art of it was that she could present the aura of looking away without actually taking her eyes off of the chat logs.

“He sends an awful lot of kisses, doesn’t he?” was the sole comment she graced him with.

“I think that’s just how he types,” Aziraphale returned, for lack of a more poignant remark. Anathema nodded solemnly, like the text chain in front of her was instead a trial record straight out of Salem. It was oddly familiar, an absurd echo from their early post-grad.

“Angel?” Anathema questioned—something wicked about her—as she reread the nickname, thinking that she might have misinterpreted.

“Oh! I’m afraid that’s an in-joke of a sort. Nothing as untoward as what you’re implying, dear girl! Ho ha!” Aziraphale chuckled with the odd inflection of a bad liar, even though he wasn’t—technically—lying.

“Sure.” Anathema snorted, as unconvinced as a woman of her intelligence should be when faced with such an awful performance. 

It was in the ensuing silence (an intentional silence, on Anathema’s part—she could break even the toughest of method actors with her intentional silences) that the telltale ‘bzzt’ of Aziraphale’s phone brought news of an incoming text. Faster than Aziraphale by whatever metric you wished to measure them—other than, perhaps, the metric of who could devour a pie, éclair, or other sweet treat fastest—Anathema ducked under the desk to read what she hoped to be another message from Crowley. Lady luck, as it appeared, was on her side (or was just pissed with Aziraphale for no particular reason).

“Angel?” she recited with all the dramatic flair of a thousand William Shatners thrown into a Kugelblitz black hole.

“Did your supervisor…” she paused for effect, and also to kick away Aziraphale’s reaching hands as he tried desperately to get the phone back.

“Actually kill you?!” she squealed, peals of laughter interrupting her very serious and not-at-all-over-acted sobs. Steadying herself with a slow breath, she retreated further into the cubicle half of the cubicle-desk hybrid.

“I might just have to avenge your death,” she read, voice gravelly as she felt the ‘script’—or ‘Aziraphale’s private texts’ depending on whom you asked—required it.

“—if they’ve truly gone and skinned you alive.” The message ended with two obscenely wet kissy sounds, paying homage to Crowley’s typical sign-off. Then, prim and proper as anything, she got up from the floor under her desk and handed Aziraphale his phone back. She had the grace not to laugh outright as he hastily scoured the message with greedy eyes of his own.

Discord:

AO3:

[twistedwonderlandshenanigans]

TWST AU's - Feel Free to Ask About Them!

Legit have like 25 aus for TWST I'm not even joking and most of them are self indulgent and the list WILL grow sfhkldjfhksd

Coffeeshop AU (fleshes out Khan x Leona (this is a bad ship lmao they are NOT GOOD) and more sibling shenanigans between Vizzie and Leona)

Summer Camp AU (focuses around Sebek and Epel having been childhood crushes that reunite as camp counselours at a camp Viz and Leona run, there are Many Side Stories)

Pokemon AU (self-explanatory, I made teams up with my s/o and a bunch of bg)

Assassin AU (Students are all sleeper agents, operating under STYX as their test subjects basically, and they have no idea until one student's tech starts to malfunction.)

Prison AU (everyone has fucked up reasons for being in jail, they are All Prisoners, you'll notice in almost all my aus I have a shit ton of angst)

Circus AU (self explanatory, my LeoVil AU and Idikei AU)

Robot/MurderDrones AU in which Ortho's creation is the catalyst for STYX to make more androids for commercial and industrial use, and as they gain more intelligence Ortho would like to find a way to free his fellow bots from being pawns to the humans.

Rarepair AU literally put everyone's names in a wheel and just said Yep to every pair, very fun, have not fleshed this out at all lmao

Zombie Apocalypse AU pretty self explanatory except there are shit like blot zombies and varying degrees of those, Cheka grows into quite the little leader, I have not decided whether the ending is "happy" as in everything is resolved, or happy as in it's Actually Happy

Tattoo/Soulmate AU People with magic typically get into tattooing because they have the ability to make soulmate tattoos, but it varies depending on romantic, platonic/queerplatonic, familial feelings or other ones. Trey, Vil and Leona run a shop together, Deuce wants to join, Viz accidentally becomes his adoptive sister it's all fun and relatively low on the angst actually lmao

Monster AU hehe I've talked about this on this blog before, check out my pinned post!!

FNAF AU lmao this one has so much angst but you probably knew that already, inspired more by the pizzaplex/security breach than any other FNAF game, but a lot of the same type of lore

Coraline AU in which Viz gets to be Leona's big (half) sister for once. Falena is the eldest and treated with respect, everyone knows Viz isn't the king's biological daughter but they have to put up with her because the queen does, and Leona was the attempt between the king and queen to fix everything - it didn't work and he feels that. Ends up using an escape to another world to try and avoid that feeling, only to realize something much more sinister on the other side.

Biological Sister AU not super intuitive, seeing as above, Viz is Leona's half sister, but in this au she is also related him, just via the king this time. Don't ask me why I named it this, but it is what it is, she's taken in by the royal family early on and tries to bring it together. Idk it was a fun idea at the time.

Genderbent AU I wanted to explore Vizzie's trauma if she was around a bunch of other girls instead of guys and it goes Poorly but it's fun lmao

DnD AU b/c I've never played DnD and wanted to kinda learn so it's DnD inspired but the rules/roles aren't super strict but the worldbuilding is SO MUCH FUN (there are SO many dynamics all going on at the same time its GREAT)

Medieval Fantasy AU This is moreso my S/O's AU than it is mine but I wanted to talk about it because it also has a lot of fun worldbuilding in it that we did together (like the effects of OB and whatnot in this world)(also heavily inspired by DnD)

Arranged Marriage AU Viz and Riddle both have very overbearing, traditional moms and end up together against each others wills and have to unlearn their distaste for each other before they can start really working together to find ways to make each other happy

Greek God/Epic AU In which Viz takes on the Odyssey with Leona as her guide - he wants to prove himself worthy of the title of a God, and she will do anything to protect her people. It gets Complicated fast. (I actually have art I drew for this au lmao)

Poppy Playtime AU Really fucking depressing tbh, again, upon the perfection of Ortho's robotic aids (he never died, just severely incapacitated), all the other children that were used as test subjects were abandoned as half done projects and experiments that resembled toys

Dance AU I throw a bunch of the characters into dance. Vil, Riddle and Neige are on top but all three of them are having Gender Issues but in Big Denial about it.

Fairy AU My S/O also developed this one initially but I have a few different headcanons from them :D

Petsitter AU Cater is more of the focus in this one, he's recently left home, in between jobs and down on his luck and ends up calling in an old favour. He stays with Trey (and Che'nya) in their apartment and gets to know the people in the complex as he starts to heal <3

And then I have 4 other aus I might take to Ao3 just because it seems people can filter tags better on there and uh. They Need Tags lmaooo

[snowbellewells]

Fandom Birthday Rec List for @jrob64

Happy Birthday, dear Joni! Happy Birthday to You!!!

Okay, when I set out to make this list of my favorites of your works, I had a couple in mind right off the top of my head, and thought "This is a no-brainer! It'll be easy!" You would think I'd have known better after the massive list I created when Krystal asked for our favorite fics overall a couple years ago and I ended up making a Sweet 16 style bracket to even narrow mine down. Needless to say, I ended up with a solid dozen stories on my paper, instead of the five or six I needed, and discovered a few hidden gems from way back before I knew you that I hadn't even read!! However, my very, VERY favorite has never wavered and is still exactly the same - you'll see! ;)

Anyway, I am so glad I found your wonderful writings, have gotten to know you in person, text with you, travel with you, and become genuinely good friends. Your are a blessing in my life, and I hope this gift brings a bit of a smile to your face as I try to celebrate the joy you've shared with us all in creating further adventures for our pirate and princess. Happy Birthday!!!

**Top 6 Favorite @jrob64 Fics (in descending order)**

#6 - "One Thrill Ride Leads to Another" (my own birthday fic! ;p )

This five part (six, with the epilogue) story is pure fun and chemistry and sweetness overload. I adore it more than I can really say, and am beyond flattered that a handsome sight and chance comment of mine helped to birth the original idea. And no, it isn't even just because this one include an alive and happy Graham as supporting character and a hilariously hot secondary Red Huntsman plot line -- though it certainly doesn't hurt!! ;) My rambling can't really do this one justice, so if anyone reading this has missed it, I beg of you: Check it out for yourself! It's a perfect summer treat!

#5 - "Silly Songs With Killian" (Modern AU one shot - adorable!)

Okay, I realize that I am using a valuable spot on this list for a fluffy little one shot, but it's just that much fun and has that much heartwarming power. I dare you to get the image of Killian playing VeggieTales on the guitar for a wildly enthusiastic audience of one small boy who is madly excited by the effort out of your head! You won't be able to - it's gonna stick with you and make you smile every time it floats back in!! If you've had a bad day and need a pick me up, this is your fic right here!

#4 - "Taking on Mrs. Jones" (hilariously hot silver fox one shot)

This is another more comic/lighthearted one shot, but I just can't resist it. In fact, I re-read it in making certain of my list, and I love it all the more. This one features a slightly older, professor Killian (one of my serious weaknesses) and a married version of CS. Plus, when he gets an overly flirtatious new co-worker who makes him uncomfortable - Emma comes perfectly to the defense of her man and teaches that girl a lesson.

#3 - "Ghosted" (a WIP supernatural modern AU MC for @cssns24)

This story is still in progress, but it has very quickly jumped the list to become one of Joni's best, best offerings (in my humble opinion)! I love the unusual and intriguing plot and can't wait to see how it will turn out. The inclusion of Will and Belle as secondary characters (and a secondary love story) is wonderful👩🏻‍🍳 *chef's kiss!* And a ghostly version of Liam absolutely tugs on my heart. Definitely check this one out if you haven't yet.

#2 - "Always in my Heart" (5 Part Modern AU, so feelsy and angsty and deep)

This one moved me to tears in the process, way more than once. I loved the long lost friends reunited aspect of this story, right from the start. I loved the sense of adopted family Emma has with David and MM, and most especially Ruth. (I always loved David's mom in canon, and the chance to see a lot more of her in this fic, and to see what this version of her means to Emma was priceless, even if heart wrenching too.)

#1 - "Sowing Seeds of Trust" (and its extra chapter "Marco's Legacy")

This story was the first one of yours I discovered, Joni, and I was completely captured! It was wrapped around my heart from the very first chapter. I loved the vulnerability and need, but also strength and resilience, in this version of Emma. I loved Killian's support, understanding and love in how he reached out to her. I love the friendships with David, MM, Ruby, and of course MARCO!! (He steals the whole show here, honestly!) The faith and restoration and perfect "happy beginning" after trials in this story are original, unique, and unforgettable. It's always going to be my favorite, I think, as it lead me to your writing to begin with, and it touched me deeply.

*Honorable mentions - if anyone is curious - also not to be missed:

"Snowstorm Confessions"

"Lonely No More"

"Faultline"/"Seismic Waves" (Liam x Elsa)

"Where Her Heart Belongs"/"Her Heart's Home"

"For the Sake of Henry"

Hope you enjoy your little list - and an absolutely wonderful day!!! Very Best Birthday Wishes to You!!!

[r0-boat]

Out of Water

Merman Oc! Noah x reader

Ch: 2

Cut for length.

You spent your evening on your laptop scrolling through the list of missing persons on a government website. You kept glancing over at the brown-haired male who was staring wide-eyed at your pet snake, Luna. A white ball python you adopted from a neighbor before they moved out. For a moment, you thought about just letting the police handle him…

But you had already offered him to stay here, and if you're being honest, the police in this area wasn't too hopeful, to put it lightly…

Even though he seemed to have a very negative reaction when you mentioned his family or parents, it was no harm in checking…

The young man gave you a rather confused look when you mentioned identification—speaking that strange language once again.

As you continue to look over your thoughts, a sinking feeling in your stomach continues to Bubble within you as you keep scrolling through the list of missing people, unable to find a photographic match to the man you had in your house.

'Maybe something more Sinister happened to him?' You glanced over back at him. You saw as you began to push down your anxiety when you saw his big stupid smile when Luna flicked her tongue at him.

No, no, no… human trafficking? How ridiculous; he didn't really show signs of being in distress, no bruises or anything that would show signs of a struggle.

Besides, when you first met him, even though you can really understand him, he seemed polite and friendly, a little nice and, in fact. Letting out a sigh you will lower your head 

into your hands, those suppose you can't really judge me th. You just let a total stranger crash at your house.

…..

 A land creature he has never seen before! Its long pearly white body entranced him, and his eyes filled with Wonder and curiosity; the sea serpent looked different. Sea serpents back home were longer, flatter, and meaner looking. This one was smaller and fatter.

He remembered being warned to stay away from serpents as they zipped in the water quikly , and most were venom. Still, this is one, with its glimmering snow-white scales, was slow and almost graceful as it slithered its way out of its den to greet him, he was marveled when the serpent looked like it was smiling at him. Even with the wall of glass separated between the two Noah was still compelled to give the creature a little distance, almost afraid that it would strike and he would be poisoned! But the creature, curious about him to move closer, booping its nose against the glass on accident before flicking its tongue at him.

"Do you wanna hold her?"

Noah's eyes shifted to you; he understood some human, but not much. He watched as you got up from the chair closing your…. Uh thing? as you walk over to him his breath hitches in panic when you open the lid of the tank putting your hands the creatures containment box outwardly touching the land sea serpent.

He completely expected the white serpent to bite you but to his shock the serpent immediately wrapped itself around you, remaining docile yet inquisitive in your hands as you slowly bring it out of its box.

Noah's eyes widened in amazement, in a little bit of nervousness. 

A look of confusion crosses your face at his reaction to Luna. Trying to almost back away when Luna would try to reach her head to flick her tongue at him. Sensing that something isn't right, you try giving some distance between Luna and Noah so he can watch from afar. Still, for some reason, your ball python wanted to get closer. Luna was usually shy, immediately balling up in your hand when she didn't want to interact. Seeing her this excited to meet someone new was strange. You knew snakes had a bad rap for being scary, and you didn't want to contribute to that, so you quickly opened back up her lid, putting Luna back inside.

"Ah, Sorry, I thought you wanted to hold her."

Noah always had terrible encounters with serpents back home… He didn't think he was ready for the dry versions.

~~~~

You pretty much guide Noah to your bathroom. As it was getting late, he smelled like seawater, and his dress, now dried, had sand falling from the fabric.

"Is that the only thing you have?" You ask, pulling at his dress.

Noah tilts his head, grabbing at the fabric and looking at the white dress before looking back at you. He seems to understand what you are saying, only for you to panic when he tries to take it off. Your face turns red as you push him into the bathroom.

"NOPE, NOPE, NOPE! Bathroom, run the water now!" 

You paused, going over your thoughts,

… you have a random man in your house… 

hearing the shower quietly run…

Taking him in was a mistake immediately. What he needed wasn't just a place to stay he needed something that was far beyond your control… whatever fight or disagreement he had with his parents did not concern you and you didn't want to get involved. You rest your head into your hands, groaning. Tomorrow for sure, you're going straight to the poli-

Hearing the sound of crashing you immediately with your head around, it had only been about 2 minutes since you heard the water running?!

You turn the handle to your bathroom door. You couldn't believe your eyes to the sight in front of you. The white dress discarded on the floor, the slippery floor of your bathtub taking its first life. The mysterious hid tan skin was now replaced with silver scales draped over the rim of the bathtub, a fishtail lying Motionless inside the tub.

"WHAT THE F-!?"

[hestusjamsession]

I’m currently farming light dragon parts (sorry Zelda) and decided to do a follow up to my last post while I wait.

This list is all Linked Universe baby. Once again, if you know the blogs of some of these authors I’d appreciate it if you could tag them.

1. Linked Universe Age Swap AU by LazuliQuetzal

Let’s kick this off with a bang. This is a series of one shots centered around the Chain being alternate ages. We got Old Man Hyrule. We got Angsty Teen Time. We got Wolfkin Wild. It’s great. Check it out.

2. Dawn of the Fourth by LazuliQuetzal

By the same author, Dawn of the Fourth is one of those fics that I don’t think I’ll be able to do justice, so here’s a snippet:

Wild reached out and brushed a finger across the body’s cheek. Then he licked his finger. “Eleven,” he decided, smacking his lips.

“Hey, what the fuck.”

“Dirt tastes different depending on age—”

“No, don’t explain it! Why are you like this, I hate you so much—“

3. The Man and the Pup by Bubbly_Kandy

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Hyrule, there were eight boys and a man all trying to exist in a world that doesn’t want them.

This one has some serious fairy tale vibes which I love. It’s also kind of dark at times. It’s not finished but maybe if I point enough people towards it the author will pick it up again. Who knows? One can dream.

4. Deserving by @a-little-bit-of-ravioli

When Colin overhears part of a conversation between his father and his adopted big brother, he decides it’s up to him and his friends to protect Link from those wishing to do him harm.

5. Malevolence by @thescrapwitch

Wolfie eats something he shouldn’t and things go downhill from there. Secrets are revealed, friendships are tested, and Ganon is a jerk.

This fic is a masterclass in tension. If you need some heavy angst with a happy ending, this is your fic.

The one shot Wolf Heart by the same author is also very good.

6. Our Nightly Confident by Wisetypewriter

Alternative titles are “Wolfie is the Best Boy” and “Men Will Literally Talk to a Wolf Before Going to Therapy.”

This was one of the first LU fics I read and it’s so sweet. If you’ve liked Lupis Vigilans (coming up) you’ll really like Our Nightly Confident.

7. The Fierce Dadity Series by @skyloftian-nutcase

A series focusing on everyone’s favorite Mask-bound God/Spirit just trying to take care of his favorite mortal.

There’s a lot of fics by Skye that I love and it’s hard to narrow it down. But Fierce Dadity is up there.

8. Brethren in a Cradle by @skyward-floored

After coming across a village raised to the ground, the Chain finds its sole survivor: a baby boy. They quickly learn that there is more to this child than meets the eye.

The “Baby Joins the Chain AU”. Also I always get Skyward_floored and Skyloftian-nutcase mixed up and I would like to make a formal apology.

9. Where Your Meant to Be by @adrift-in-thyme

Malon has lived her entire life in her tower, never seeing the outside world. When a former-hero-turned-thief climbs through her window, her life takes a whole new turn.

The Tangled AU I didn’t know I wanted until I read it.

10. Lupus Vigilans by @pluviatrix

A character study of each of the Chain told from the point of view of Twilight, Hillbilly in Resident.

Wholesome and hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure, I can’t recommend this fic enough. Also, I’m from the Ozarks and it’s cool to see that accent represented in the wild.

Their other fic, And Still The Cradle Blossoms is also really good if you’re like me and need a good cry at three in the morning.

11. Down by @musashi

When the Chain gets hit by a horrible illness, it’s up to Sky to take care of eight stubborn heroes. Each chapter is focused on a different member, and Twilight’s chapter in particular hit me in the feels.

I love sickfics for some reason and this one is so good.

12. Colors by HylianHarmony

A Four centric fic where he reveals the Colors to the rest of the Chain. Also he has a mind palace which is pretty neat.

This fic isn’t finished but it’s too good not to recommend.

13. Alone Together by Blueskullcandy

Another Four centric fic but told from the point of view of different members of the chain (including Four). The Twilight chapter in particular is worth the read by itself.

This fic is also not finished but I still recommend it. It’s really good.

14. Brothers Becoming by @turtleduckscribbles

After a fight with Twilight, Legend is forced to face his fears and insecurities and confront the one person he wants to avoid at all cost.

Prickly Legend learns to let others in.

15. Not Like You by HylianHarmony

Wind deals with serious imposter syndrome, but the others don’t realize it until it’s almost too late.

This is one of my comfort fics y’all. When I’m down I’ll read it and it always manages to cheer me up. I can’t recommend this one enough.

[ladye-zelda]

Warriors angsting corner

Folktales

The cursed Deity

There’s more I want to ask about but… I haven’t caught up to anything you’ve already asked

XD No worries; I have updated the list to put check marks on the ones that I have done so that way it would be easier for everyone XD (and for myself too)

Warriors angsting corner

This was really meant to be a dump of stories to inflict pain upon our pretty knight (inspired by Silver) but I only have one thing on there called the Orphaned Knights AU and I swear I don't remember writing this XD Its one of those fics where all of the Chain just adopts each other I think lol

There really isn't a good place for a WIP (since it's all written like a summary except it's freaking long) and the short of it is Wars, Sky, Wild, Hyrule, and Wind are orphans; Twilight and Four are siblings and the sons of Time except Four lives with Time's adopted father for some reason; Time goes back to the military to fight monsters, Twilight sneaks out and joins the army to find him where he ends up meeting Warriors there; Sky, Wild, and Hyrule end up joining the military and Four and Legend become blacksmiths for them as well.

Yeah I have no idea where this fic was going lol

Folktales, but Zelda

This was kind of inspired by @/telemna-hyelle's own Zeldafied-folktale and I just wanted to make some of my own XD

The only one that I have in this doc is selkie Legend, largely inspired by the song "The Maiden and the Selkie" by Heather Dale

It was forbidden for a selkie to come upon land. It was made common among the seal-folk of the dangers of living on land outside of their seal form. If they were to stay on land past the stroke of midnight, they would surely die. But just because it was forbidden, didn’t mean it didn’t happen often. Legend had often admired the above world. He had spent more time on land than any of his other brethren, collecting trinkets and watching the usual passer-by from the safety of the beach. That was, until she came. People who passed by Legend unaware often spoke of the lady. A woman with red hair, dressed in island blue, with a voice that chimed like a harp. She had been walking along the beach while Legend was up there in his human form. He had stopped collecting trinkets as he stared at her with awe as the strange woman strolled along the beach, singing sweetly. Oftentimes she would stop to make friendly conversation with the seagulls. They seemed to talk back to her; a charm usually possessed by faery folk like he. 

The Cursed Deity

Honestly have no idea where this fic was going too, but I had written something for this one XD

The threat that surrounded Hyrule was too great not to check out for herself. Princess Zelda, alongside Link, journeyed far into the woods not long after the strange attacks started. Monsters covered in a strange, dark malice had been attacking the nearby villages and towns. Already one has been massacred before the monsters had cleared the area, and Princess Zelda wasn’t going to allow it again. She was always on her guard, staring daggers into the shadows around her. They were lucky enough not to run into too much trouble, despite heading deep into the heart of this problem. It could only mean that something bigger was on the horizon. Link pressed a hand onto Zelda’s clenched fists, that she didn’t even know were clenched. She looked down and relaxed a little, repositioning one of her hands so she was holding his. They looked into each other’s eyes and he gave a comforting nod. She was with Link. She had no reason to be afraid while he’s around. Then why was she so afraid? They rode for a little longer until the woods started to thin. Black, charred tree logs replaced what was once green, and soon enough their horses’ feet were crunching through dead grass. The trail ended in a sloping drop to an endless valley of death.  She could hardly believe her eyes as she showed her steed into a stop. What had once been a beautiful meadow on her map was now gone. Large rocks of inky blackness covered the map, which sent an uncomfortable chill down Zelda’s spine. Right in the middle of the cluster of rocks, looked to be a statue of some kind, glowing eerily with a black light. The hero and the princess dismounted from their horses, looking into the valley beyond. “That must be the source there,” Zelda said, pointing to the statue. “The Master Sword should be enough to—” Suddenly, the Master Sword was placed in Zelda’s hands. “Link, what are you doing?” the princess asked. “I’m going to go check it out,” he said, “take this, and run if anything bad happens.” He gave her the Hylian shield before sliding down into the valley below. Zelda called out to Link, but it was too late. He couldn’t hear her voice once he made it to the bottom, and headed carefully to the stone statue.

[angelofrainfrogs]

Going Back: Ch. 6

~Coauthored by @zeitghest~

Fandom(s): Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach

Description: Things are looking up for Gregory. After putting the soul of a formerly-immortal killer to rest, he and his new family can finally begin their lives anew. Sure, Gregory might have been cursed with mysterious Remnant in exchange for being involved in this mess—not to mention his caretakers consist of sentient robots and ghosts… But there’s no doubt that the bond they share is unbreakable. They love him, and he in turn. 

All in all, life is finally starting to go right for once. 

…Unfortunately, true peace is a hard-won battle. There are other things to contend with besides William’s decrepit soul, and Gregory will learn that his role in the lives of the Aftons and Emilys is far greater than anyone could’ve imagined. 

Rating: T

Read on Ao3

Michael’s heart dropped to his stomach. Out of all the missing children, it had to be Gregory’s parents that came calling?

The image on the poster was unmistakable—the spitting image of Evan, Gregory’s smiling face stared out at them with his formerly deep brown eyes. Although, Mike noted he seemed to have a little more baby fat in this picture than he did in real life. It was a small detail and certainly didn’t prevent anyone from recognizing the boy, but Mike wondered why they’d used a clearly out of date image for such a thing.

Based on everything Gregory had said or implied about his foster family, Michael didn’t trust this woman’s intentions one bit. 

Samuel swallowed the lump in his throat. Yep, he’d seen this missing kid alright—the only one still alive, and who’d already been adopted by one of his formerly Glamrock stars. Sam glanced from the paper up to Rita, meeting her gaze with a practiced smile.

“Not to my recollection, no—however, my staff and I can review our footage from… Uh, when did you say he went missing?” Sammy asked, trying his best to be thorough with the lie. He’d learned how to craft a good poker face from his friend Michael as they grew up. Though Sammy didn’t feel good about lying to this woman, he had no choice at the moment. He passed the poster with the information to Charlie, who studied the page intently.

Gregory Smith

DOB: 08/08/2010

Last seen on wandering south side Hurricane. Any information regarding the case can be referenced with the local police department’s number listed below.

Leaning over, Charlie let Michael see the poster, unsure of how well she was hiding her true volatile emotions when thinking about Gregory being taken away from them.

There was a slight downwards twitch of Rita’s mouth at Sammy’s question. Her gaze shifted to the floor for only a second before returning to his face while she answered.

“July 5th. The last time the family saw him, he was walking with these twins from down the street.” She huffed a sigh, looking away again and shaking her head. “They’ve gone missing, too. I can only guess what trouble they led my sweet boy into…”

Michael clenched his jaw to keep from verbally lashing out. July 5th?! The date had just crept its way into August! No way they could’ve been looking for Gregory almost a month and not checked the mega mall every kid and their cousin hung out in whenever they could… Something just wasn’t adding up.

“We’ll be sure to keep an eye out, Mrs. Smith,” Mike managed to say eventually with a wry, bright-eyed look of barely-contained fury. It was an expression that said Michael was not to be trifled with, and anyone who dared risked his immediate wrath. Hopefully, Rita would take this as empathy for her lost child and determination to locate him.

“Ah, thank… thank you,” she said, almost flinching back at Michael’s face. Looking to Sammy again, she pulled out a folded-over sticky note from her jacket pocket and handed it to him. “You can keep the poster; here’s my personal number. If you find any information, please give me a call. We just want our boy home safe as soon as possible.” 

Sammy and Michael pulling off their good cop, bad cop routine seemed to keep the mom from asking too many questions. Charlie was simply trying to hold back from asking how she knew her “sweet boy” wasn’t dead by now?

To not sound the alarm for the better part of four weeks… Were they just hoping Gregory fell off the face of the planet?

Charlie was willing to bet they were asking questions around town now in light of the random Pizzaplex shutdown. That inevitably brought the conversation of missing kids to the forefront, and surely people were curious as to where the twins had gone—where nine damn children disappeared to. With the security cameras having been “faulty” or completely turned off from their scheduled recording thanks to a glitch in the system, there would thankfully be no proof that the children, including Gregory, were ever here.

Samuel carefully took the note, committing the number to memory before folding it back up to set inside his own jacket pocket. “Yes, Mrs. Smith—and on behalf of the company, I give you our condolences. I'm sure you'll find your son soon; boys run away all the time...”

He downplayed the situation's severity, feeling somewhat sick as he lied. It felt wrong to just tell someone they would find their "missing" kid eventually when Sam knew where he was at that very moment.

Is this how William felt when he spoke to these distraught parents face to face?

No, Samuel thought, swallowing the bile in his throat. If that monster felt this way, he wouldn't have done what he did in the first place.

“Thank you,” Rita said, offering Sammy a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She looked to Charlie and Michael with the same sad expression, then to everyone’s relief turned to leave. “We’ll be in touch.”

To Michael’s credit, he waited until the woman made it out the front doors before losing his cool.

“Almost a fucking month he’s been gone?!” he hissed, turning to the Emilys with fire in his eyes. “What the hell have they been doing this whole damn time?!”

They’d been neglectful to the kid—that had been obvious from his appearance and the little details Gregory let slip out. But this was a whole other level. To not sound the alarm that your child was missing after a day was suspicious enough, let alone randomly kicking up the search after all this time. And so close to Gregory’s birthday, too… It made Michael queasy to think about what Gregory must’ve gone through at the hands of these people.

“We can’t let them take him, Sammy. That woman is bad news—I just know it.” Deflating slightly, he thought aloud: “Shit, what are we going to tell him and Freddy? They’re going to be upset…”

“That lady's a stone cold bitch,” Charlie snapped, glaring at the door after Rita’s departure. Though she liked to believe the best in people at heart, there was something wicked about her that Charlie could practically smell. Maybe it was the way Rita withheld information about Gregory, or how she never thought to check or call the Pizzaplex the weeks her son had been missing. “There's no way you're going to rat on him, right?”

“No—absolutely not. Gregory's not going back with her. God, she doesn't even care. You can tell...” Sam spoke with a manner of disgust in his voice, not entirely able to believe his own words. “Can you imagine what’d happen if we sent that poor kid back with her? He could wind up on drugs, or out on the street! Or, god forbid—”

Dead. For good.

Rita was the kind of mom that didn't care when you scrapped your knee, or whether you had a mysteriously dry cough. Ironically, Gregory would be worse off in the care of a mother who had no maternal instincts than the mechanical bear designed to be a rockstar...

“We'll be gentle and assure them we have a plan,” Charlie said, squeezing Michael’s hand and making Samuel tilt his head curiously at his sister.

“We have a plan?” he asked, making his twin shrug in turn.

“No,” Charlie replied with a lopsided grin. “But we'll think of one! We just can't have either of them stressing about it. Alright?”

“Agreed,” Mike said with a nod, returning the hand squeeze. He spared one last look at Rita as she hopped in her car and drove off, sneering at her back. Then he took a deep breath, gathering himself before heading back to the Daycare.

Once everyone had composed themselves, they returned to the cheerful, rainbow-studded room. The irony they’d have to deliver such unpleasant news in this place didn’t escape Michael. Of course, Sun spotted them as soon as they entered, always attuned to the sound of the door and the arrival of new guests.

“They’re back!” the cheery animatronic announced, waving to the trio. He was quick to make his way over to the door, eagerly wanting to spend as much time with his new friends and his good pal Sammy as he could. Freddy, Gregory, and Ennard weren’t far behind, soon crowded around Sun just in time for Michael and the Emilys to walk into the play area.

“Wow—did you guys really miss us that much?” Michael joked, ruffling Gregory’s hair while taking in the sight of the little crowd. He’d managed to plaster on a semi-convincing smile—at least enough not to immediately alert the others of anything amiss.

Mike may be able to fool people, but where Samuel could lie out of his ass to strangers, just like his sister he wore his emotions on his sleeve to those he was close to. Unable to help the frown settling in, Sam kept his head turned from the kid who seemed to stare right into his soul.

“OF COURSE WE MISSED YOU,” Ennard remarked, closing in as Gregory scrutinized the group. Charlie gingerly patted Ennard’s mask as they leaned towards her and Mike.

Gregory stood with his arms crossed. The mood was off. He didn't know why, but the group was hiding something. It was becoming increasingly obvious as Samuel rubbed his neck and cleared his throat.

“So—gang, uh... I have some news to break to you all. Just know that it's no cause for alarm.” He started off gently, as per Charlie's advice. This sent a shiver of worry down Gregory's spine, only looking fully panicked once Samuel asked him directly: “Son, tell me... Do you know a Rita Smith?”

For all they knew, this could be a total stranger trying to cash in on a payout of finding their “lost kid.” It was a disgusting tactic, but unfortunately wouldn’t be the first time the old CEO had seen it. Only in this case, Sam was hoping this was true.

Now it was Gregory's turn to lie.

“Huh? Rita who? Pft. I don't... know anyone named that. Dumb name if you ask me...” Gregory scoffed, pushing his emotions under the figurative bed with the mention of that dreaded, loathsome person. He suddenly turned on his heel, facing the Pizzaplex that’d become his new home with all its fun attractions. Now that he made it safe in here, there was no reason to face the danger out there.

“This conversation’s boring; let's play more, guys!” Gregory urged, starting off for the jungle gym.

“Gregory, wait.” Freddy's tone was soft but commanding as he expertly snagged the collar of Gregory's shirt, holding him in place. His gaze swiveled between the boy and his surrogate siblings, a distinct crease of worry between his brows. Rather than chiding him for lying about a topic that was obviously distressing, Freddy turned his attention to the adults. “What is going on?”

“Well... like Sam said, don't worry,” Michael began, trying to quell the rising tension. Even Sun seemed nervous, wringing his hands together and somehow already knowing this conversation was beyond his current level of understanding. “But that woman Vanessa mentioned? That was Rita Smith. She's looking for her kid.” At this, his gaze flickered to Gregory, and suddenly Freddy understood.

“Gregory's mother?” Freddy questioned, his voice straining ever-so-slightly. He shifted his grasp from the boy's shirt to his shoulders, pulling Gregory in to lean against his leg. It was a poignantly protective gesture, clearly showing Freddy's need to keep him safe at all times. Looking down at the boy in question, Freddy asked gently: “Is she really your foster mother? Please, superstar, you can tell us the truth—you know we only want to protect you.”

As all eyes watched Gregory with pleading stares to open up, he glanced away. He was soothed by Freddy's gesture of protection, keeping him caged in by his arms where he felt it was safest to tell the truth.

“…Fine. Yeah, I lived in her house with her husband and their kids. She’s got two of her own, but I’m the only adopted one. She's no mother,” Gregory said with a look of distain and hatred that Charlie certainly never saw before. At Gregory's ankles the Puppet imparted a hug, as she could tell that the poor kid really didn't care to speak on it. It was painful, but they needed to know what was happening. Gregory took in a deep breath and continued.

“I lived there for, like... two years now? No one else wanted me from the foster home; the Smiths were the only people that kept me for more than a few months. I can't—c-can’t even remember my stupid birth parents... Just them. Their ugly faces—” Gregory sniffled, hands clenching at his sides until his knuckles were an icy white, nails digging deep into his palms to ground himself as he felt anger rising. “Their stupid real kids and that ugly fucking house—”

The poor boy was shaking now. He was submitted to neglect and heartache there that no child should have to endure. 

“Gregory...,” Charlie chided gently, knowing he was upset but that those words would distress Sun in turn. Ennard already had them covered by folding their hands over where Sun should have ears, were he a real person. “We won't let her get you. I—we promise you that.”

Sun had let out a little gasp at Gregory's harsh curses, but to everyone's surprise otherwise kept his mouth shut. His protocol to protect and comfort the child far outweighed any coding that would make him lecture the boy for swearing. However, despite his intense desire to pick Gregory up and hug him close, he reasoned it best to step back and let the others discuss. To keep himself from reaching out he wrapped his arms around Ennard, keeping a tight grip on the amalgamation as he watched the others with a worried tilt of his head.

“She, nor anyone from that household will ever lay a finger on you, Gregory,” Freddy said with resolute determination. The mere thought of a child being mistreated was enough to enrage the normally-docile bear, so the fact this was his boy who'd suffered at the hands of these horrendous people made him want to march right to them and give him a piece of his mind. Instead, he lifted Gregory into his arms and hugged him close. “You are my son and nothing is going to change that. I will always keep you safe, and so will everyone in this room.”

Were his words a bit possessive? Maybe... but no one was in a position to knock Freddy for wanting to protect Gregory with every fiber of his being.

It was a fierce sensation, to love someone so much you'd risk everything to keep them safe—but to Michael, it was also a familiar one. It's what he'd been doing for decades after all, spurred on by the desire to right his wrongs and make up for the protection he couldn't provide before.

This case was no different. Rita and her family might not be possessed animatronics or murderous, British mechanics, but they meant Gregory harm... and that was something Michael absolutely couldn't stand.

“We'll figure something out,” he reassured, stepping closer to wrap his arms around the embracing pair. “You're safe with us.”

Charlie saw how frightening Freddy could be at the mere thought of someone taking his son away. As perturbed as that made her, she understood the obligation and love the animatronics had for children in the first place when programmed correctly. Her Puppet for example: it was designed with its first default function to protect anyone with a green bracelet should its facial recognition fail. In the event that she might be hurt, the robot was designed to even ruin itself to keep Charlotte safe.

“I already have a plan,” Gregory murmured, his thoughts becoming sharper with his anger. Even so, Gregory could get himself to stop shaking as floods of awful memories attacked his psyche. “And... I’ll need Cassidy's and the other ghosts’ help. We’re gonna scare Rita and Terry so hard they’ll crap blood.”

Charlie made a face at the crass wording, though she supposed it was par for the course for boys his age. She'd certainly heard Michael say way, way worse by the time they were teenagers.

“Gross—but so far, I'm loving the plan,” she answered with a laugh.

“Me too,” Michael said, fully on board with anything that involved scaring horrendous parents. “We'll get them off your tail for sure.”

“Let us not be too hasty,” Freddy warned gently, his own spike of anger fading in light of the shift in tone. It was all well and good for the adults to make the threat go away, but when it came to children—even immortal and undead ones—Freddy was hesitant to put them in the potential line of fire. Still, he had to reason that their help might not just be beneficial, but necessary for such a monumental task as making foster parents go away.

“Come on, Freddy,” Michael couldn't help but groan, looking at the former bear imploringly. “Having them all help out would be super useful!”

“Oh no, do not misunderstand—I am not opposed to the idea,” Freddy clarified, his bright eyes meeting Michael's. “I simply meant that we need to discuss things in depth before we put any plan into action.”

Mike patted his back warmly, pleasantly surprised the former animatronic had been so easily convinced to do something that involved messing with humans in a non-friendly way. He couldn't help but wonder if there was still a little bit of his rebellious disposition snagged in Freddy's personality chip, even after moving to a new body...

“Um, I... I'm sorry to say I don't think I can help much with this situation,” Sun piped up in an unusually soft voice. He'd let go of Ennard to clasp his hands in front of his chest, looking between the humans. “But I still want to do something! So... feel free to use the Daycare as a safe space to rest, or regroup, or plan, or... whatever you need! Oh—as long as Sammy's okay with that, of course.”

He tilted his head, static eyes fixed on the rather gaunt CEO. “Are you okay, Sammy?” 

“C... Cassidy?” The crew turned to Samuel, who seemed to shake at the thought of more than just the Afton children and his father haunting the Pizzaplex. “You all never told me—how many kids are...? Oh man...”

A clammy hand clasped over Samuel's mouth as the bile rose through the pit that formed in his stomach. Sam wobbled a little, but Ennard was fast in helping the CEO to sit on the floor. Charlie bit at her nails, hurrying to her brother’s side. She hadn’t yet tried to explain what had happened in that nearly inaccessible backroom.

“Hey,” Charlie reached out for him “It's fine—”

Flinching away, Samuel looked to Charlie and asked his sister “—Fine? Charlie there's more dead children I didn't know about and you're telling me things are fine? I mean—fuck, I guess I knew deep down but—”

His voice never raised, but wobbled with sadness as Charlie fretted over her mistake of not telling him right away. Samuel tried to square his breathing before speaking again.

“I... I don't know. Sure, if those ghosts want to help—let them help Gregory. The poor kid needs it,” he conceded, merely needing to come to terms with the idea that there were plenty of ghosts haunting this place that prevented him from truly escaping the past. 

Gregory could see why the man was upset, and told him: “It's going to be okay, Sam. Trust me—I mean, Charlie and Mike are ghosts, and they're pretty happy people. Right, guys?”

“God, Sam, I... I'm sorry,” Michael apologized, sinking down to the floor next to his old friend. To everyone but Samuel the concept of ghost children running around was merely a sad but inevitable fact. Mike was so used to the idea that he'd forgotten poor Sammy had only become aware of the true horror of Fazbear Entertainment's past the day prior... Honestly, Michael was amazed this latest revelation hadn't caused a full-on breakdown. His friend had gotten so strong over the years, despite everything.

“We should've told you sooner,” he admitted, placing a hesitant hand on Sammy's back, almost afraid he might reject the gesture. When he wasn't shoved off, Michael gave his friend a little smile and shook him gently. “But Gregory's got a point—Charlie and I are technically ghosts too, but we're okay. And what about your dad? You wouldn't even know he's one; he's just like his old self!”

There was a pause in which Michael's expression shifted to something unintelligible, and then he added in a soft voice: “Look, I've been chasing after ghosts since I was a kid. I know which ones are happy and which ones are vengeful, and trust me—the ones we've encountered in the Pizzaplex so far definitely lean towards the nicer side of spirits... Everything's going to be okay. We'll figure it out.”

We'll figure it out...

It was the mantra of his childhood. For a moment, Sam was transported somewhere far and distant. A time passed so long ago it felt like he was watching it inside of an old analogue television set. With every tragedy Samuel faced, he was met with the same philosophy.

Things never exactly turned out fine. Far from it, actually. Sam was so tired of all the cursed blood attached to the Fazbear IP. Tragedy was sure to follow whatever establishment bore the franchise name.

“I'm not mad, you guys. Or scared... I'm sad. It's not right what he did. I... I think I need to sleep. Yeah... Sun? Be a doll and lower the lights?” Samuel could feel a migraine coming on, and thought he should rest. “Know that the Pizzaplex is at your disposal however you need, guys. And the kids? As long as they're good, they’re free to visit, too.” 

It clearly bummed Samuel out to think of them as dead. The survivor’s guilt triggering once again, and feeling like he had unintentionally trapped these children by making another death trap for William to build around.

Before completely falling into unconsciousness, Sam had enough wherewithal to lift his walkie and murmur into the mic: "Vanessa? Can you hang tight for another hour or so? I got a little held up."

"I don't really have anywhere else to go, so sure," the former night guard crackled back through the static.

Luckily, Gregory's little pillow cloud hadn't yet been disassembled. Sun cared for all the employees at the Pizzaplex, but he had a soft spot for the ever-tired CEO and was always glad to let Sam rest in his protective care. He was at the light switch in a few long strides, flipping it down with deft fingertips that would soon shift from white to blue as he instinctually ducked behind the desk to hide his transformation. Michael couldn't help but let out a soft huff at this, curious as ever to see what exactly happened to the Daycare attendant when darkness fell. For the moment though, he was content to let Sammy rest against him, rubbing his upper arm soothingly as he held him in a side hug.

“I'll take him from here,” Moon's low voice rasped. The second Michael released Sam, Moon was quick to lift him up to cradle him like a child, ignoring whatever protests the CEO might make as he was carried over to the fluffy cloud of comfort. He placed Sammy directly in the center, giving his head the gentlest of pats before stepping back. Moon's faintly-glowing eyes settled on the rest of the group as he told them: “I'll watch over Sammy, don't worry—you all should rest as well. We'll see you tomorrow, after all, ehehehe...”

“...Right,” Mike replied, getting to his feet with a sigh. He hated leaving Sammy in such a state, but it was getting late and he wanted to make a good impression tomorrow morning.

“Thank you, Moon—we greatly appreciate it. Have a good night,” Freddy said, still carrying Gregory as he gave the attendant a gentle smile, then made his way for the door with the others not far behind.

“Night, guys,” called out Sammy. Despite his chagrin, Moon was quick to put Samuel to bed. Sam didn't know if he’d have pleasant dreams, however—so tonight he was more inclined to talk with Moon until he grew too tired to speak.

When Gregory went to walk away with his family, Puppet's protective arms seemed to tangle up the kid's legs. She didn't want Gregory to go—what if that lady they were talking about found him? She was going to hurt Gregory, Puppet knew it. Unfortunately she couldn't communicate any of this, and Gregory bent at the waist to hug her.

“I'll be back tomorrow, Puppet.” Gregory smiled before easily relocating the Marionette, making her wring her hands together nervously.

Gregory hadn't realized the same was happening to Michael; Ennard practically breathed down the back of their “friend’s” neck as they followed him across the playground floor. As Gregory trailed after his dad, he was pretty sure he overheard Sam asking if Ennard was made out of ripped up carpeting and old endos, hoping his friend the Moon would know. Gregory snickered to himself at Sam's confusion, the only thing that could cheer him up in the moment.

“Ennard, stop,” Michael said upon realizing the animatronic was not going to back off on their own.

Even after all the time they'd spend together, it would be a lie to say Mike was at peace with Ennard—or frankly even that he was fully comfortable in their presence. That wasn't going to happen for quite a while, if ever, though it certainly wasn't for lack of trying on Ennard's part. There was simply too much residual trauma lurking in the depths of Michael's mind to process that the creature could truly not be a threat to him in some capacity.

Still, the fact that the rest of his family seemed content enough in Ennard's presence did ease Mike a little. He was able to resist the urge to lash out as he used to, even managing to lower his voice into a normal, almost understanding tone as he added: “I'll be fine. So will everyone else, okay? Just chill and stay out of people's sight while we're gone.”

Instead of turning on his heel and leaving immediately, Michael crossed his arms over his chest and waited for a response. Coupled with his raised eyebrow and stern expression, it looked like he was trying to explain object permanence to a child who hadn't grasped the concept yet, instead of telling a years-old conglomeration of metallic wires and AI that their friends would return to play another night.

It made sense in theory. And Ennard knew they could easily overpower Michael and keep him there with them if they really wanted to. It would be easy. Though that wasn't the type of person Michael could stand to be around, it seemed.

Sometimes doing things the right way was worth it in the long run, they'd learned.

“GOODBYE, EGG,” they said like a secret joke between the two of them. Maybe one day Mike could appreciate the typo as much as they could. Ennard opened their arms, waiting for a hug—though, as Sun explained it once, sometimes people just don’t want to be touched. Ennard wouldn't hold it against Michael should he choose to just leave—they never really blamed the former night guard anyway.

“Oh, for fu—” Michael caught himself just in time to avoid activating Moon and Freddy's swearing protocols at once. With a heavy roll of his eyes, Mike uncrossed his arms to let them hang loosely at his sides. He looked up at Ennard with a scathing expression, surprised they even thought Michael would hug them at this point.

The pair stared each other down before Michael oh-so-slowly raised a hand. It looked like he was about to smack the robot, but he simply gave the back of Ennard's left hand one single, swift pat.

“Alright, let's go,” he said quickly, turning his back on the amalgamation and leading the charge out of the Daycare.

To Ennard, there was no way of misinterpreting that response: he and Mike were indeed “besties,” as Sun would say. In Ennard’s twisted head, that was undisputed.

As they reached the exit Gregory squinted through the tinted glass doors, concerned people he knew would be waiting for him outside. There was no convincing him that the outside was totally safe, so Charlie lifted Gregory up and held him in a way that made it easier to bury his face away in her shoulder. Gregory had voiced that hiding his features made him feel a little more hidden as the family traveled onward back to their paid room. As Charlie hauled their precious cargo back to their temporary home, she asked Gregory what he wanted for dinner.

“Pizza…,” he replied in a forlorn fashion.

Charlie would shake her head and suggested gently: “Maybe something different? You ate a lot of pizza recently, kiddo.”

It was clear Gregory needed variety in his diet. Who knows how they used to feed him at his old house anyway judging by his eating habits…

“How about a salad?” Freddy offered, though he had a feeling this option wouldn't go over well. Sure enough, Michael scoffed at the very notion.

“Geez, Freddy, I thought you were supposed to be a nice robot—don't torture the kid!” he griped, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“I am doing no such thing,” Freddy replied with slightly narrowed eyes. “Vegetables are a healthy part of a balanced diet, and Gregory certainly needs one.”

“Yeah, but a salad?” Michael shook his head, then looked to Gregory and Charlie for their opinions. “What do you guys think? Salads for everyone, yay or nay?” 

Charlie would probably agree with Freddy, even if she could stand to eat anything unhealthy for days at a time considering it would never affect her health. Gregory answered first shrugging it off.

“Salads are fine—as long as they have grilled chicken or those ham and cheese wheel things!” he said, hoisted up better into Charlie’s arms as she chuckled at him.

“Little carnivore... I’m sure we can find something good on the menu,” she added as they entered the parking lot area of the tourist trap hotel.

Despite Michael’s earlier protestations, he made no qualms when it actually came time to order—like Charlie, he realized the value of getting something green in Gregory’s system that wasn’t Monty-themed Fizzy Faz. While Charlie was on the phone, Michael took the opportunity to snatch Gregory up the second his feet touched the ground and toss him onto the couch, eliciting a surprised laugh.

“So, Freddy,” Michael began. “You never actually told us what Henry said about us eating.”

“To be frank… Henry does not quite understand what is happening either," Freddy replied, perching on the couch as well.

Michael tilted his head with a downturn of his lips. “…What do you mean?”

“He and Samuel opened up my body and looked around, but there was no evidence of me having eaten anything,” Freddy explained. “It was as if the food simply disappeared into thin air. I brought up the concept of converting it to energy like normal humans do, which Henry said made sense… if he designed that capability, which he did not.”

Freddy gave a little shrug, bright eyes filled with wonder and mirth. “Henry said, and please excuse my language as this is a direct quote: ‘Whatever is happening is a freaking supernatural miracle!’” 

Hearing Freddy say something considered crude by the animatronics standards left Charlie in a fit of giggles. She held her stomach as Gregory burst into laughter as well—though he did have to force it some even if he was genuinely happy. When he'd heard Rita’s name, Gregory felt as though he was slipping back into the notion he wouldn’t be safe anywhere. Wherever he went, it was as if people were out to get him. The fact his foster parents  even noticed that he was gone both astonished and scared him.

“That’s good, though! You can still eat burgers and try a bunch of new stuff!” Gregory would encourage, reclining back with his big brother.

Charlie was a little more skeptical. “It’s just gone? Inexplicably?”

It was just so peculiar to her. And yes, Charlie could definitely see how the supernatural murder victim thinking their robot vessel strange was a pot calling a kettle black, but her point still stood.

“Like your dad said—it’s a miracle! Nothing’s wrong so there’s no need to worry. Maybe it’s like… Magic, you know?” Gregory suggested. It wasn’t unlikely, given this crew’s eclectic circumstances.

“I would like to think so,” Freddy said with a smile, never one to quash a child’s imagination.

Besides—what else could it be, really? He used to be a huge, animatronic bear that worked from a knowledge bank of databases and logical thinking. Now, his consciousness had been transferred into a scarily humanlike android that reflected his scarily humanlike personality... Plus, his son was immortal and his other surrogate children were literal ghosts in their machines. Who’s to say there wasn’t a bit of magic floating around in the universe as well?

***

The night was blissfully uneventful, at least by their standards. To work off Gregory's burst of adrenaline and food-fueled energy, the group visited the arcade and spent a good while facing off against each other in various games. Even Freddy joined in on some, though his AI gave him a weird knack for being almost too good, making him step back in deference to letting the others enjoy the games in his stead. He much preferred to keep a watchful eye on his family anyway.

Once returned to the room, the group showered and prepared for bed, then chatted a while longer about happy plans for the future until Gregory drifted off to sleep, followed shortly thereafter by Michael and Charlie. Freddy still hadn't gotten used to the concept, but even he managed to doze for a few minutes here and there.

At some point during the day Michael slipped out to meet Sammy, leaving a note on the kitchen table to let the others know where he'd gone. He suggested it best for them to wait until nightfall to join him due to the recent development with Gregory's foster parents, and no one put up a fight to this. When darkness fell over the town the group set out, one of Gregory's hands in Freddy's while Charlie held the other.

“Hey!” Michael greeted them just inside the front doors of the Pizzaplex, seeming rather chipper. He was still dressed in casual clothes, although the disheveled state of his hair and grease-stains on his shirt and face indicated he'd been hard at work helping Sammy fix up some animatronics. “I missed you guys! How was life without me for a day?”

“Charlie and me hung out at the arcade and we built a pillow fort with Freddy!” Gregory recalled, abandoning his father’s and Charlie’s hand to give Michael a hug. Ushering them further inside, almost for fear of someone recognizing Gregory from the many more missing children posters she’d noticed now that she was allowed outside, Charlie agreed with a nod.

“We left it up—mostly because there’s a back to back marathon of Immortal and the Restless on later and I wanted Gregory to see the first episode,” she planned. It was weird but welcomed to see Michael back at it with the mechanic work.

Down one of the staircases Samuel jogged with a shopping bag in hand. He looked a lot happier than when they left; he’d really needed that nap after the horrible news he'd received.

“Gather ‘round, you guys. It’s present time!” he called enthusiastically, barely able to contain the surprise he had in store for them. “I went out and thought I’d get you guys something useful. I think you’re going to like the colors I picked out.”

“That is very kind of you, Samuel,” Freddy responded, settling himself at the man's side and giving the CEO a warm smile. “You have already done so much for us...”

“And we're eternally grateful for everything,” Michael added quickly, flashing his old friend a grin. “So what's in the bag?”

“Check it out! I got us a family plan!” From the white shopper’s bag Sam produced a dark green rectangle, first presenting it to Charlie. She gladly took the gift, looking happy—even though she was completely lost on what it was, exactly. It looked expensive though.

“You get one—here Michael, I got you the black one, and Freddy gets a red one!” Samuel had taken the liberty to plugging in the SIM cards, but left the personalization up them. “We should have each other’s numbers already synced, too. So now we can always be in touch.”

Looking up to Sam, Gregory pulled on his shirt with a bullishly bright stare. “What color’s mine?”

“Uh… Sorry, kid, you’re still a little too young,” Sam said, silently breaking Gregory’s heart. Though he dug inside the bag anyway with an air of excitement. “Aw, don’t look so sad—of course I didn’t forget to get you something, too. Here’s your present!”

Into Gregory’s hands, a little digital drawing tablet in a bright blue case was entrusted. It wasn’t a phone, but Gregory was still appreciative as he flashed Sam another bright smile. “Thank you!”

“Holy crap!” Michael exclaimed, not even feeling Freddy's quick glare due to the shock of receiving such a gift. “Sam, these are like... are these the latest models?!” Upon Sammy's nod, Mike blinked a few times, before reverently pressing the phone to his chest and pulling his friend in for a brief but meaningful hug.

Freddy was turning his own device over in his hand, letting out a little “oh!” as the screen suddenly lit up, nearly blinding him with its brightness. Unsure of how to make it stop, he simply flipped the phone over so the display faced the floor, where it turned off a few seconds later. When Freddy tentatively raised it back up, he was blinded yet again. Sure, he'd seen a million of these things during his time as a rockstar, but handling one himself was a new experience.

“Freddy, you can adjust that!” Michael laughed, quickly moving over to help as he saw the former bear's confusion. Slipping his own phone in a pants pocket for the time being, he took Freddy's and began walking him through how to set up his account profile, then adjust the light and sound settings. He spared a quick glance at Charlie, but by the look on her face Michael knew she'd require a lot more time and guidance to get her up to speed...

With a start, Mike realized that while he'd been gallivanting about the real world and keeping up with the times, all Charlie's exposure to technology had been confined to the Pizzerias—more specifically, the animatronics within. The last time she'd really interacted with a cell phone had been the 80s... No wonder she looked completely lost. God, Evan and Lizzie's eyes were going to bug out of their heads when they saw these things, too.

“Oh! Mine’s lighting up when I move it…,” Charlie said, confused when she touched the screen, only to have the screen say hello. Wondering about the capabilities of this square robot’s AI, she greeted with a cheerful: “Oh… Hi! My name’s Charlie.”

Gregory snickered, shaking his head. “Nooo, Charlie it can’t really understand you. It’s AI can only remember stuff you tell it to remember.”

Charlie would shrug, hugging her brother as repayment for the gift. “Thank you for the… The uh—” Charlie had to admit now that she didn’t know what exactly her brother gave to her, but it was pretty and green—her favorite color.

“It’s a cellphone, you goof!” Samuel laughed, patting his sister’s back as he knew she really did mean that she loved her gift, despite ignorance on what it really did. “I figured they'd work better than walkie talkies. Plus, Mike deserves it for helping me go the extra mile today—Freddy, I know I promised you I’d find Bonnie and fix him up…” Samuel began, though the look on Freddy’s face made it apparent that he knew just what the man was going to tell him.

“You did not...,” Freddy whispered, looking to Michael for confirmation. After all they'd been through, he thought Mike would want to avoid any contact with Bonnie for the foreseeable future.

Though they all knew it was William's soul controlling the normally-friendly rabbit to make him say and do such horrible things, Freddy would've been completely understanding if Michael never wanted to lay eyes on Glamrock Bonnie again. He was already out of the lineup, so while Freddy would've been sad at the confirmation his best friend was well and truly gone, he would have accepted it. But now, Sammy was implying something completely different...

“We did,” Michael replied, expression soft and understanding. As blue eyes met blue, Michael hoped his unspoken feelings would translate to the kind-hearted bear.

He'd been resistant to the idea of recommissioning Bonnie so soon, but Sammy had convinced him that if everyone else could get their old friends back from the dead, Freddy deserved to have his, too. With a smile, Michael clapped a hand on Freddy's shoulder and squeezed. “He's still got to go through a lot of tests before we can consider letting him out on the floor—extra precaution, and all that—but we managed to get him online about an hour before you guys showed up. He's hanging out in the bowling alley as we speak.”

“Oh my goodness... Michael, Samuel, I—I do not know what to say,” Freddy admitted, his last words muffled as he pressed a hand over his mouth, trying to keep his emotions in check. The first and only time he'd ever cried was when he initially left the Pizzaplex, but as his vision blurred with the realization that Bonnie was okay, Freddy wondered if this was about to be his second experience with his own falling tears. 

This pure act of love and selflessness had brought tears to Charlie’s eyes as well. When she saw the telltale lip wobble of someone else about to sob, she looked to Michael and pressed back her own. “I can’t believe how fast you guys fixed him!”

Samuel would snort at that, fixing his oil-smudged glasses. “Oh his programming was a mess! Just completely jailbroken—I had to wipe the endo and start over from his last saved data point. Took hours. The body wasn't too damaged, though; just needed some touch-ups and a few replacements. Bon seems fine now, but Michael’s right. Gotta test him before he’s debuted again.”

There was sadly no room for him in rockstar row right at the moment. But Bonnie Bowl was the place that the old bunny happily took up residency for the time being. With a smile, Sam patted Freddy’s shoulder. “Want to go see him, Fredbear?”

Charlie reached out to hold Freddy’s hand, shaking it excitedly and subconsciously encouraging him to shake off the tears. Tonight had started off great, despite the hiccup in their happiness they had the previous day.

Freddy nodded without hesitation, rubbing at his face with a sleeve. Thankfully, Charlie caught him just in time to stop any liquid from escaping, and a bright, eye-crinkling smile settled on Freddy's face.

“Yes, please,” he replied to Sammy, then held out a hand to Gregory. “Superstar, Bonnie is going to love you.”

“Oh yeah, that's for sure,” Michael confirmed, crossing his arms as the group began moving to the bowling alley as one. “He's super friendly—it's no wonder he and Freddy get along so well.”

If Gregory could push the violence that Monty and Moon forced upon him far from his mind, then he was positive that he could get along great with Bonnie, too. This was Freddy’s best friend. There was no other animatronic he could trust Gregory with more now that Bon was in the right mind.

Freddy chuckled, feeling like he was about to overflow with joy. The situation with Gregory's foster parents was a blot of darkness in their lives that they'd need to address sooner rather than later, but at least for the moment he could pretend like everything was alright... Like things were back to normal.

A new normal—and a much better one, in Freddy's opinion.

***

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