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sunfleurry · 4 years ago

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Hold Me

Click here for part 1

Part 2 of Fires and Flames.

Disclaimer: I write stories and use Harry Styles as a face claim. In no way shape or form does my writing reflect how I perceive the actual Harry to be. These are my characters, the face is just a bonus!

“Have a nice evening!”

“You too!” I yelled back before clocking out of my shift and making my way out the door.

It was dark outside, the king of night that begged to be breathed in and admired. Normally after a nine-hour shift, I would be exhausted and more than ready to go home. For some reason tonight, I wasn’t in the mood to turn in just yet. It was summertime and I loved the city lights when it was dark out. I eyed my car parked on the curb and ignored it, opting to go for a walk along the pier not too far from MediBrooke Pharmacy where I worked.

A year ago, I was at a low point in my life. I tried not to think about it too often, but every now and then, I would compare my life now to then and it reminded me to be proud of myself. I got through it, didn’t let it affect my grades, and now I was set to graduate with my PharmD degree in less than twelve months.

There weren’t too many people around as I made my way to the boardwalk, the clicking of my heels on the wooden path echoing in the quiet night. I checked the time on my phone. 20:30.

The pier was big. It was more intimidating during the wintertime when the water was turbulent, but today, it was still as a predator.

There was a man at the end of the pier, right across my destination but I did not pay him any mind. He was leaning against the railing, head hung low as he stared into the dark waters.

I was almost at my destination–a spot on the pier right under a lamppost with a built-in heater. I had left my jacket at home. At the sound of my approaching, the man across from me looked over, and my steps faltered as I beheld his face.

“Shit,” I mumbled when my phone slipped out of my hand.

Trying desperately not to look at the man, I held the strap of my purse against my shoulder and bent over to pick up my cell.

“I got it,” his deep voice said.

I hadn’t heard him approach, but I watched as he crouched down and wrapped his fingers around the device before standing back up and holding it out for me.

Harry looked different. His hair was longer and he seemed bigger–broader. I could tell he spent a decent amount at the gym since the last time I saw him over a year ago.

I jumped at the sound of my name coming out of his mouth, and seemed to remember he was still holding my phone.

I grabbed it, carefully avoiding touching his skin. “Thank you.”

He nodded.

He watched me and I watched him–both at a loss for words. I never expected to see him after our breakup. I applied to transfer to a pharmacy school away from the city, yet there he was, at my favourite spot in town, looking at me like he was seeing a ghost.

“What are you doing here?” I asked finally, almost breathlessly.

He blinked and looked over my shoulder at the water behind me. “My nan lived here. She passed away last week.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Harry glanced back down at me with heavy eyes. Grief. “Thank you.”

A lump formed in my throat as I felt his pain like it was mine. I wasn’t sure if he even had any family left. He never gave me details when we were together.

With him standing there in front of me, I felt an internal dam break, and memories and emotions started flooding to the forefront of my mind. Pain, happiness, heartbreak, love… It was all rushing back to me.

“How are you?” The words came out of his mouth with care but also with wariness.

“Fine.” Five minutes ago, I wanted to add. Because I wasn’t fine anymore, not with the source of my heartbreak suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

He nodded.

“You?” I wanted to slap myself. His grandmother just died; of course he wasn’t doing well.

He saw the look on my face and smiled reassuringly. “Habit.”

I smiled gratefully at his understanding.

Harry suddenly grabbed my elbow and pulled me towards him. I didn’t get a chance to react as my body fell into him before a group of teenagers ran by us right where I was standing. Had he not reacted, they would’ve toppled me over.

“Sorry!” One of them yelled half-heartedly over his shoulder.

I breathed heavily as I watched their bodies get smaller and smaller the further they ran away.

I didn’t realize how comfortable I was engulfed in Harry’s scent with my cheek pressed against his chest before he started pulling away, releasing my elbow.

I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”

He rolled his lips inward and rubbed the back of his neck. “You look good. Very professional.”

I looked down at my pleated pants and button-down shirt and offered him a small thanks. “I work at the pharmacy down the street,” I explained.

He smiled. It was the first genuine smile I’d seen on him since we ran into each other. “I always knew you would succeed in what you do. You’re still studying?”

“Yeah,” I said, trying to mimic his smile, but I was too busy trying not to cry in front of him. “One year left.”

“I’m so proud of you,” he said. I knew he meant it.

I bit my lip. “I know you are.” He always used to tell me how proud he was of me. Despite the way he treated me, the way I let him treat me, I knew deep down that he cared for me. He just didn’t know how to show it.

His smile fell as the memories of us came back to him. I was positive he was thinking about all those times he cooked us meals or did the dishes while I stressed over my notes, preparing for my exams. He was always supportive of my career choice and did his best to make me comfortable while I doubted myself and my capabilities of succeeding in my program.

“Look, can we just—“

“Harry?”

I whirled toward the foreign voice to see a woman whose beauty rivals any Hollywood actress approach us with a relieved smile.

“Harry,” she said again while wrapping her arms around his waist. I watched as he wrapped his own around her shoulders and held her at his side. “I was looking everywhere for you,” she scolded. “I convinced myself you fell in the water.”

He chuckled. “Sorry, I got caught up.”

It was then that the woman looked at me, as if just noticing my presence. Her blue eyes were so bright they were mesmerizing even in the minimal light offered by the pier in the darkness of the night.

She held out her hand, displaying short manicured nails. “Hi! I’m Christina.” She held up her other hand that was clutching car keys. “His chauffeur, apparently.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.” Then he addressed me. “Christina and I met around nine months ago. She wouldn’t leave me alone since.”

“You would be lost without me,” she scoffed.

Harry only looked at her with fake annoyance for a few seconds before nudging her playfully. “Yeah, you’re right.”

She laughed.

I watched the interaction between the two with more care than I would’ve wanted to admit. A part of me felt hot jealousy start boiling from the pit of my stomach, another part of me was over the moon seeing a smile on Harry’s face that didn’t seem forced.

My eyes flicked to Christina’s hand that was clutching his forearm. I used to do the same when I caught a girl staring at him–I would touch him to silently warn her he was mine. Was that what Christina was doing at the moment?

I couldn’t suppress frowning as I forced my eyes to look away.

“We’re going to be late,” I heard her whisper.

Harry cleared his throat and said my name.

I didn’t want to look at him. I wanted to hide the tears that had already formed in my eyes that I knew must be already as red as my cheeks.

He touched my shoulder as a second attempt to get my attention.

I finally blinked up at him.

He inhaled. I shook my head with as much subtleness to make it noticeable to him only. He seemed to understand.

“Christina and I need to go.” He said, sympathy coating his voice.

I cleared my throat. “Okay. It was nice seeing you, Harry.”

He took a step toward me then seemed to stop himself. Were you going to hug me Harry? Kiss me? Why did you stop?

My eyes flickered to Christina who was texting someone on her phone with one hand, the other still clutching Harry’s forearm.

“I’ll see you around,” he said. It almost sounded like a question so I nodded.

I stood under the heating lamp post and watched the pair walk away.

_______________

“Just one shot, come on!”

My friends cheered when I finally gave in and took the shot glass from Jeremy.

I laughed at their antics before throwing my head back and welcoming the burn in my throat.

“To our final semester!” Someone yelled. We all cheered.

I made a nice friend group in my new university. I met Jeremy first when we were assigned to work together for one of my courses, and he introduced me to his friends who turned out to be great people. Today, we wrote our last final exam of the semester. We all agreed to go out and treat ourselves to a more expensive club for some celebratory drinks before the winter break separated us.

A popular song started playing and suddenly the bar blew up in cheers and synchronized singing. People rushed to the dance floor like a herd of elephants. I watched them stumble over each other, trying to find their friends to enjoy the song when a hand cut into my view.

I glanced up to find Jeremy’s brown eyes on me waiting for me to put my hand in his. When I did, he pulled me off the stool and I swiped my purse off the counter as he dragged me towards the crowd of moving bodies.

Being in the crowd made me realize it wasn’t as dense as it seemed from our table. Jeremy wrapped an arm around my waist and held my hand up to the side as he encouraged me to move to the beat with him while keeping a respectful distance between our bodies. That last detail didn’t go unnoticed by me. I appreciated it.

The song ended but another played, and the crowd screamed to the loved and familiar beat. Even I couldn’t help but sway my hips and mouth the lyrics as Jeremy lifted our joined hands and twirled me. I squealed at the motion and slammed into his chest clumsily, the both of us giggling before we continued dancing with everyone.

We stayed on the dance floor for two more songs before I told him I needed some water. He nodded and walked behind me as we started making our way to our table when I heard him ask, “What’s up, man?”

Frowning, I turned around and found him speaking to someone whose hand was on his shoulder.

I risked a glance at who caught his attention and my heart stuttered when I recognized Harry. As if feeling my gaze on him, Harry’s eyes landed on me and mind fogged up. I didn’t know what to think as I took in his soft wavy hair and green jumper that made his eye colour brighter than it actually was. I could hear him ask Jeremy if he could steal me for a second, eyes never leaving mine.

Jeremy looked hesitant at him, unsure who Harry was but then turned towards me, passing the decision on to me.

I nodded and Jeremy’s bent his head to be at eye level with me. “If you need anything…”

I offered him a smile. “I know him.”

He seemed to relax and smiled back before making his way towards our table where the rest of our friends were watching the exchange.

I was suddenly very aware of the fact that I was left alone with Harry. My breath hitched when I chanced a glance at him and realized he was already staring at me.

“Harry,” I said quietly, enough that he could hear me over the music.

“Can we talk somewhere more quiet?”

He seemed to have noticed my hesitation. He took a step forward. “You can tell your date if it makes you more comfortable.”

I frowned. “More comfortable? You think I’m scared of you?”

Harry bit his lip and looked away.

I touched his arm. “I would never…”

I felt his bicep lose tension under my fingers as he let out a breath, as if he was afraid I didn’t trust him with me alone. It broke my heart, if I was being honest.

I followed Harry to the entrance and he held the door open for me to walk outside. The air was cool, nothing I couldn’t handle under the summer night with my skirt and long sleeve blouse. The quiet of the night hit me like a brick as we stepped out of the crowded club into the silence of the almost empty street.

Harry led me to the nearest bus stop, silently asking me to sit on one of the wooden benches before joining me. I smoothed out my skirt, nervously playing with the seam.

He cleared his throat. “So… How have you been?”

I inhaled, and the scent of his cologne overwhelmed my nose. I welcomed it. “I’ve been good,” I said honestly. I was. I moved to a new place, made great friends, got the job I wanted and I was set to graduate soon.

Harry smiled, looking almost like he was relieved. “I’m glad.”

I played with a frayed end on my skirt. “You?”

“Same.”

I peered up at him, thread forgotten. His piercing eyes were already looking at me, wide and he started nodding.

“I mean it. I am good,” he smiled. “I’ve been getting help, I changed jobs, made friends.”

My heart swelled for him. I put my hand on his and squeezed. “I’m proud of you.”

He separated our hands and I suppressed my disappointment. “I just wanted to bring you out here to check up on you. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah,” I breathed. “Thank you.”

I couldn’t deny that everything about the interaction was awkward. I could’ve asked Harry about what help he’d gotten, about his new job, his friends… But when we were together, over a year ago, I learned not to pry when it came to his personal life. I wasn’t sure if he still felt that way.

We were swallowed by an uncomfortable silence, neither one of us sure on how to approach any subject that came up in our minds. I started focusing on my breathing as I prepared myself to stand.

“I think I’m going to head back inside,” I said, eyes everywhere but him as I picked up my purse and smoothed down my skirt.

He relaxed into the bench. “Your date must be worried about you.”

I stopped. “Jeremy is not my date.”

Harry’s head snapped up. “I didn’t mean to assume…”

I huffed a laugh. “It’s okay, he’s just a friend from school. I’m here with a group of them.”

I could tell he was recalling the people at the table Jeremy headed to before we went outside. “They seem nice.”

“They are,” I smiled. I decided to take the bait. “What about yours? Do I know them?”

He shook his head. “Just Christina. I, um, I met her in therapy.”

I had to swallow down the rising jealousy at the mention of her name.

“She was kind enough to wait with me even after her appointment was over,” he continued. “I was rude and cruel towards her, at first. I think I was trying to chase her away. I didn’t want anyone’s pity, but she stuck like a bucket of glue.”

I chuckled. “It’s hard to stay away from you,” I admitted.

His face fell. “I felt like I didn’t deserve anyone’s attention, not after what I did to you.”

It was like a bucket of water was dumped onto my head, my expression immediately morphing into one of sadness.

“Christina became a big part of my healing. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t deserve her help because I’m a grown man. I don’t need someone holding my hand along the way, but she was there. And I’m grateful for it.”

Hearing him talk about another woman like that had my feelings in a puddle. I wanted to be happy that he found someone who he could relate to and guide him through his pain and his past but I couldn’t quash the betrayal for the simple fact that he refused my help but accepted that of a stranger’s. I didn’t say anything though. No, I would never even think of interrupting him. I watched him with wide eyes as he explained everything because this was the first time my Harry had ever spoken this much about himself so freely. It made me want to cry.

“She was also dealing with some things of her own. For some reason, she still wanted to stay by my side and I kept her around. For selfish reasons, she reminded me a lot of you.”

I stiffened at the confession. He studied my reaction but I tried to pretend like it didn’t affect me. I knew I failed when my voice came out shaky and disbelieving. “Why?”

“I don’t know… She was stubborn, always forcing me to do what’s right for me even though I fought it. She checked up on me all the time, and she just…” He held my stare. “She cared.”

My eyes started watering and my anger was slowly rising. “And why, Harry, if she was so much like me, did you not think of me and all that I did for you, instead of finding someone who was just like me?”

His shoulders slouched and I watched as he fiddled with the pendant against his collarbone. “Because I didn’t deserve you,” he said pointedly. “I didn’t want you to feel like you had to mother me. I was holding you back from being happy all because I refused to take care of myself.”

The tightness in my chest worsened. “You don’t get to decide what’s right for me.”

Harry’s jaw clenched. “You’re the one who left.”

I gasped. “You’re really going with that argument?!”

He sighed and slumped back against the wooden bench. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry you let me leave to instead be with another woman who reminds you of me?” I rolled my eyes.

Harry rubbed his chin as he regarded me with lines forming between his eyebrows. “Be with… Are we still talking about Christina?”

I wanted to scoff with disbelief. “Are we having the same conversation?”

“You think I’m with Christina? As in…she’s my girlfriend?”

I felt my jaw slacken. “Are you not?”

It was then that Harry threw his head back, laughter escaping from his mouth. I watched him with my widening eyes as I replayed our conversation in my head to figure out what was so funny.

He said my name with laughter in his voice after a few seconds of trying to calm himself down. He cleared his throat and turned his body to face mine on the bench. I tried my hardest to ignore the hand he laid on my knee. “Christina is just a friend.”

I shook my head. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he chuckled. “Besides, I don’t think her girlfriend would appreciate her cheating with me, a man.”

“Girlfriend?”

Harry’s smile widened. “She’s gay.”

I was at a loss for words. “Oh.”

My stomach fluttered when Harry lifted his hands and held my face between his palms. “You think I would replace you?” He asked quietly.

I prayed he couldn’t hear my rapid heartbeat. “I—” I tried to communicate with my eyes that I didn’t want to answer that question. I didn’t know the answer to it. He’d been unpredictable throughout our relationship and I wasn’t sure if he had changed or not and I refused to believe it until I saw it.

Harry gave me a mirthless smile and let go of my face. I felt heat in the spots where his fingers touched my skin and I almost asked him to put them back. “I miss you,” he whispered.

I closed my eyes then, and the tears I tried holding back fell down my cheeks. I tried stopping them, but they started coming faster and I didn’t have the choice but to drop my head into my hands to silently cry. Many thoughts and emotions were flying through my mind and I couldn’t keep up with their overwhelming pace. I felt Harry’s arm wrap around my back and pull me to him until I was flush against his side.

“I’m so sorry,” his voice broke on the last syllable. I felt him kiss my hair and squeeze me harder as I cried harder. The past year, I pushed my emotions back. I suppressed any thoughts and feelings left behind by Harry and focused on work and school. I ignored all stimuli that reminded me of him. At this moment, I knew that it was a bad idea as the heartbreak flooded my senses and I couldn’t escape it no matter how much I tried. Harry never let go as he wrapped his other arm around me until I was pressed against his chest, the fabric of his jumper muffling my sobs.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, holding me for the next few minutes until I finally stopped crying. I didn’t let go right away, I wasn’t ready to. I missed him immensely and didn’t have the willpower to separate from the familiar feeling of being so close to him, or the smell that is so distinctly Harry that it comforts me no matter where I am. After I controlled my breathing, I finally mustered up the courage to push off of him and face him.

“You didn’t bring me out here to just check up on me,” I said, not leaving room for the statement to sound remotely like a question.

Harry sighed. “No, I didn’t.”

I stared at him while holding my breath in anticipation. I knew what was coming before he even said it, but I still felt anxious.

He swallowed audibly and craned his neck to the sky as he gathered his words. “I want to try and win you back.”

Heat tingled in my heart and it spread like wildfire over my skin until I was covered in a mix of relief and desire. “I don’t know what to say.”

“I figured,” he nodded. “I don’t want you to make a decision right away.”

“I wouldn’t be able to even if I wanted to,” I said honestly.

Harry’s head dipped to his chest and he started fiddling with his necklace again. He expected my answer, but still hoped I wouldn’t say it. “I understand. Which is why I wanted to ask you out on a date.”

“A date?”

He smiled. “I want you to get to know me–”

“But I already know you.”

“No,” he said. “I want you to meet the new me. I want you to give me another chance to prove to you that I am not the Harry you knew.”

The reminder of who he was reminded me of who I was with him. I was happy to be with him, I loved him. I still do, I realized, but the love I had for him overshadowed the anger and pain that our relationship carried for the year and a half we were together. He was full of self-loathing and that only took a toll on who we tried to be–who we used to be. There was Harry, in front of me, promising a second chance for the relationship we had sans the pain and I didn’t know if he was serious or not.

I looked at him with helplessness. “I don’t know…”

He rubbed his upper arm, a nervous tic I recognized a long time ago. “Please. Do you still love me?”

His piercing gaze was suddenly too intense for me and I looked down at my lap. “Why are you asking me that?” I stammered. The day I confessed my love for him was the day I left him. The memory only brought a squeezing sensation to my heart. Heat prickled in my eyes.

“I just need to know, if you still do. Because, I was too much of a coward to tell you,” he took my hands in his and held them up between our chests. “I love you too.”

I felt lightheaded as my mind processed the last four words he’d just uttered. A whimper escaped me before I threw a hand over my mouth.

“Don’t cry,” Harry whispered, bringing my hands to his mouth and pressing kisses to my knuckles. “Please.”

I expelled a shuddering breath. “I think it’s the shot I took an hour ago catching up to me.”

Harry laughed, only because he recognized my attempt to lighten the mood.

I stared at our joined hands as I tried to regain my breathing. My palms started sweating when I thought more and more about the two of us together, something I never imagined becoming a possibility ever again. I glanced at him to see nothing but genuine hope in his eyes.

Harry confessing his feelings to me was something so foreign, my body had no idea how to take it and create a reaction. It was unknown territory and I promised myself that I must tread lightly all the while keeping maximum defence surrounding my already fragile heart.

Knowing Harry, he would never lie about something like that, he had always been a straightforward man. He was against bullshitting and it was with that thought in mind that I finally stared back into his eyes and said:

“Yes, I’ll go on a date with you.”

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inkweaver22-blr · 4 years ago

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Four for four baby! This is perhaps the last of my daily updates as I’ll be busy the next few days. Here’s another little filler chapter but it’s a good one as it’s the first one where we directly see references to other creators’ Monkie Kid works! There’s three references here, two subtle and one explicit. I’ll make sure to have links to each work in the notes at the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy!

AO3 Link

Scattered Cicadas - Chapter Four: Childish Behavior

Tang often feels like the only adult surrounded by children. Literally sometimes.

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If there was one thing Tang had learned about these timelines he kept jumping between was that they were consistently inconsistent.

The minor details that changed randomly but never really affected the outcome of the events from his original time were still abundant and rarely phased him much anymore.

(Although that one time he had platinum blonde hair had been interesting.)

It was when entirely unique situations arose that the scholar was caught off guard.

New events sprung up every now and then and inserted themselves between the original ones. As with the smaller changes, these new scenarios were unpredictable and varied wildly in scope.

A surprisingly durable MK clone that somehow managed to escape being dispelled, gaining independence, and becoming Macaque’s apprentice.

An ocean demon sinking ships just outside the bay and Sandy getting to go on that water adventure he wanted.

MK’s birth parents trying to reinsert themselves back into his life after seeing his achievements on the news.

(Tang was so incredibly proud of his kid for standing up for himself and refusing their empty platitudes. The pranks that he, Mei, and the Monkey King had pulled on them in retaliation were great stress relievers.)

Since Tang could still do his best to help out in each new event without horrible consequences, it seemed the rule of “No Interference” did not apply to them. He supposed that made sense as he had no way to predict when or if they might occur and thus couldn’t change an outcome he didn’t know about.

He was grateful for that small mercy at least.

Still, with how these cycles seemed to be endless so far, a few of these events would happen over multiple timelines.

Getting de-aged by a mischievous trickster demon or spirit was a strangely common occurrence.

MK seemed to be the most popular target for this particular curse. The brightness of his personality seemed to shine even stronger whenever he was reverted into a child, which simply made Tang love the kid even more.

(He wished he could have helped the Monkey King tear Macaque apart for kidnapping their precious little one in that cycle.)

They all had their own turns of having their biological clocks reversed of course. Mei was a little trouble maker, Pigsy was a shy and timid toddler, and Sandy liked to have things he could break apart. Tang couldn’t clearly remember the times he had been de-aged but was pleased when an exhausted Mei and Mk had said he was the easiest of the adults-turned-kids to take care of.

Then there was the Monkey King.

Having to corral a rambunctious young monkey with the strength to crush boulders and the ability to duplicate or shapeshift was not easy.

(He still had no idea how MK had managed to do it alone once.)

With the amount of times they had all been subjected to this specific curse, Tang only really had himself to blame for not seeing it coming.

Tang poured over the scroll in front of him, trying to find the counter for this timeline’s version of the curse. Behind him, Mei distracted a de-aged Red Son, or Red Boy as that’s what the small fire demon was calling himself.

Getting kidnapped by a somewhat feral child with the ability to freely toss around the True Fire of Samadhi hadn’t been the most pleasant start to his day. While being mistaken as the monk Tang Sanzang was a little flattering, the threat of being roasted over the sacred blume flames and eaten had quickly dampened those feelings.

Luckily the young demon had fallen asleep, the fires dissipating as he lost consciousness. If only Tang knew how to cast the Monkey King’s fire ward...

“Ahem.”

Tang glanced up and paled at the sight of a displeased looking Demon Bull King.

“Little thief,” the demon addressed an equally freaked-out MK. “I believe you have something of mine.”

“Father! You’re here,” Red Boy called out as he jumped from Mei’s arms. “I have wonderful news! I’ve found a husband!” He quickly ran over to a petrified MK and leaned against him like he was presenting some great treasure. “Look! Look! Isn’t he pretty?”

Tang had almost forgotten about that particular detail. If they got out of this alive he was never going to let MK live this down for the rest of the cycle. Prerogative of being a dad and all.

“What do you think father,” Red Boy continued, ignoring MK’s desperate plea for him to stop. “I can marry him, right?”

DBK’s expression was frankly unimpressed as he stared down into the hopeful one Red Boy wore. Tang had a bad feeling about what was going to happen and slowly made his way around the room to hide behind MK and Mei who were also backing away.

“No.”

Tang winced a bit at the bluntness of the answer and braced himself for the explosion that was sure to follow.

“What? But… why? WHY NOT?!”

The genuine hurt and confusion in the young demon’s voice would have made Tang feel a bit sympathetic, if Red Boy hadn’t tried to eat him of course.

“Because I said so,” DBK growled as he knelt to be closer to his de-aged son. “Now, enough of this. Time to stop being a child.”

Tang frowned. That was... not how to calmly explain to one’s child about why you were refusing their request. Not if you wanted to avoid a full-on meltdown. He should know, having to take care of a young MK multiple times.

Looking into the Demon Bull King’s scowling visage, he wasn’t sure if the older demon simply didn’t know how, or just didn’t care.

“That’s… NOT FAIR!” Red Boy’s disbelief predictably turned into anger as his hair once again burst into blue flames.

“THAT’S NOT FAIR! I am not a child!” The True Fire of Samadhi burst out around the boy, seeming to startle DBK who took a step back. Tang was just thankful that it wasn’t aimed at him this time.

“I… I’m not-” Red Boy’s anger quickly melted away, as did the fire around him. The young demon sniffed a few times before dropping onto the ground and beginning to cry.

Loudly.

“You’re recording this, right?” MK whispered to Mei.

“Obviously.”

Tang sighed at their antics and looked over at DBK. The demon still looked angry but the scholar could see the uncertainty in his eyes. He seemed completely out of his depth and unsure on what to do.

Tang took a steadying breath before mustering his courage and stepping out from behind MK. If Demon Bull King didn’t know how to act like a good father then perhaps he could show him.

If he survived this he was going to need a vacation to fight back against the grey hairs this was going to give him.

The other adults all looked at him as if he had sprouted another head as he approached the sobbing child and knelt next to him.

“Red Boy?”

“H-huh?” The young demon looked up in confusion at being addressed.

“I know that right now everything seems pretty unfair and that can be upsetting,” Tang soothed, keeping his voice steady and reassuring. “But I promise you that your father has a good reason for not letting you marry MK. Would it help if he were to calmly explain that reason without getting angry at you?” He aimed that last sentence more at DBK than Red Boy, who’s sobs had slowed.

“M-maybe…” the young demon finally admitted.

Tang turned to stare expectantly at the Demon Bull King. The demon glared down at the scholar.

“Why are you treating him like a child?”

The harshness of his tone made Red Boy start to tear up again. Tang glared right back at DBK.

“Because right now, until we can reverse this, he is a child,” the scholar snapped, his fear replaced with righteous anger. “And like every child, he deserves to be treated with kindness and respect. He deserves to be comforted by a parent whom he obviously adores and be told that it’s okay to cry. He deserves to feel safe and loved.”

The room was silent save for the hiccups and sniffles from Red Boy as they all stared at Tang. DBK’s mouth hung open as he gazed incredulously down at the human, seemingly struck speechless.

“F-father?”

The small and unsure voice of Red Boy snapped the Demon Bull King out of his thoughts, and something seemed to loosen within him.

Tang stood and retreated back to MK and Mei to give the demon some privacy as he knelt next to his son and began speaking in a hushed tone with him.

“What the hell Mr. Tang,” MK hissed into his ear as he stared wide eyed at the pair of demons on the ground.

“Language MK,” Tang hissed right back before leaning over to Mei. “I know you aren’t recording two incredibly powerful demons having a moment of vulnerability who would stop at nothing to destroy us if they discovered the existence of such a video, right?”

“Eep!” Mei nearly dropped her phone as she rushed to stop her recording and then delete the last few minutes of the resulting video.

There were a few minutes of tense silence as the three humans did their best to pretend that there weren’t two demons having an emotional moment together just a few feet away. They gave a sigh of relief when Red Boy launched himself at his father, wrapping his arms around his neck. DBK seemed panicked at first before slowly wrapping his own arms around the young demon.

Tang adjusted his glasses and gave a nervous smile to the Demon Bull King who was scrutinizing him like a particularly confusing puzzle.

At least he didn’t seem angry any more.

Perhaps they would escape this fiasco unscathed after all.

----------

I was not expecting this chapter to turn into another Dad Tang story. It just kind of happened that way. So onto the references!

First is Durability by TaintTheUnstoppable which is beginning to shape up into something really interesting.

Second is Little One by @its-kall-the-clown which is just a huge fluff fest capped off with some nice angst. Highly recommended.

Finally we have the Red Boy comic by @purble-turble! Now obviously the Tang in their comic probably won’t do what this one did, by this Tang is too much of a Dad to let a little kid cry for too long.

Next chapter won’t be up until sometime next week! See ya then!

#Ink Writes #Monkie Kid #Scattered Cicadas #Tang #Tang Monkie Kid #MK #Mei #Red Son #Red Boy #Demon Bull King #DBK #Lego Monkie Kid #Durability #TaintTheUnstoppable #Little One #KALL #purble-turble #its-kall-the-clown

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sixeyesgojo · 4 years ago

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Team Gojo as flowers

Summary: Gojo, Yuji, Megumi, Nobara and Sukuna as types of flowers

Characters: stated above

Content warning: mild manga spoilers

Word count: -

A/N: I’d appreciate feedback here (and in general) because I’m not sure whether to do this kind of hc for other JJK characters or not. I am thinking of Toge in particular because I love my salmon boy. Also fyi, this was some time after 135 but before 140 for sure.

Gojo Satoru - Nemophila

I just saw these and immediately thought about how good they would suit him???

another name for them would be baby blue eyes (no, I had no idea beforehand)

they symbolize prosperity, victory, success or triumph over an enemy

flashback to Gojo beating Jogo tf up... but add a nemophila field in the background <3

That being said, his profile literally states that he is perfect in every way (except for his personality but we still love that, right?), so if this isn't success in every way then idk

This flower's essence is also said to be helpful for those who put up a mask over their painful sensitivity

Gojo also displays characteristics of cynism and mistrust towards the higher-ups

Furthermore, I think he is a little anti-social - doesn't have a lot of friends. As someone from the secret Jujutsu World, he's bound to be hidden in a way. This is enforced by the fact that he is the strongest, so a lot of people and curses are out to get his head. I'd think he doesn't keep anyone too close to him so that they do not become a target for anyone. Must be traumatizing to be him.

This flower helps soothen the soul's conflict, healing it slowly, which is exactly what Gojo needs imo

it really is the perfect flower for him

but it's native to North America

Yeah, watch him teleport there to bring back a bouquet of them for his s/o

Itadori Yuji - Protea (orange)

This kind of flower comes in many different shapes, which is why it's a symbol of transformation, which is exactly what Yuji embodies by going from a regular human being to being a Jujutsu sorcerer

Diversity: Yuji is open to anything, Gojo even described him as "having a few screws loose up there". I don't even think he questions how he is being taught by Gojo or anything for that matter?

Yuji also embodies courage and is known to be daring and i don't think i need to explain this one further

I mean, the boy literally jumped right into a curse to rescue Sasaki and Iguchi and help Megumi while not even knowing what a curse is

Orange proteas represent cheerfulness, joy and happiness - if that isn't our sunshine boy, then idk. After what happened to Junpei, he seemed a little down at first but recent episodes have shown that he will not slow down because of that and will keep on being the energetic fluffball of joy that he is.

moreover, they also symbolize unlimited possibilities as his cursed technique so far probably isn't even his final technique yet - compared to Nobara's hammer and Megumi's shikigami. All we know is that Sukuna's techniques are going to be his over time but we don't even know the full extent of the said curse's power yet

If anyone ever mentioned all this to him and showed him the flower, he would think it looks weird at first but will grow to find it interesting (especially the shape). It's not like the flower is native to Japan, so he most likely wouldn't have seen it anywhere.

Gets really excited if you were to give this baby one of these flowers

Fushiguro Megumi - Anemone (purple)

hear me out

The most common symbol for the purple Anemone is 'protection against evil'. While it's Megumi's primary focus in his line of work as a professional, you ought to know he became a sorcerer in the first place because of his sister, Tsukimi.

Fragility: While Megumi shows a lot of potential for growth, it's also said that he will most likely stagnate due to the mental aspect. He's pretty insecure about his own abilities and doesn't think much of himself but that doesn't mean he won't use his powers in order to protect someone.

Anticipation: As previously stated, Megumi shows a lot of potential as a sorcerer, even to the point that Sukuna (mind you, the creature that only cares about himself) has praised him and will not hesitate to make Megumi a pawn to whatever his big, mysterious plans may be. With that being said, if Sukuna himself is interested in our blue-haired boy, we can anticipate great things from Megumi in the foreseeable future.

This specific flower seems to be a double-edged sword in terms of symbolism. In some cultural circles, it is believed to be a symbol of bad luck, whereas in other areas it's seen as a lucky charm (in which we hope this is the one for our boy). I see the same principle applying to Megumi's descent and his mysterious technique - not gonna elaborate further though (feel free to ask though)

a rather dark symbol for this particular flower: "death of a loved one". In this case, I am referring to Tsukimi, his step-sister. She may not be dead but it is indicated that she is in a comatose state due to being cursed. It seems that Megumi does not know when - or rather whether - she will wake up or not. Knowing this boy, he probably has tried anything and everything in his power to wake her up (hell, he probably even consulted Gojo) but nothing worked so far. This poor boy is anxious about it all the time.

he's surprised anyone would even associate him with flowers but wouldn't mind it

Kugisaki Nobara - Orchid (mainly orange)

I had some trouble finding something for her but orchids seem to suit her best

couldn't really pick a particular color though but I am leaning towards orange

orange orchids represent: pride, enthusiasm and boldness

Nobara is very proud of who she is. She strikes me as a person who is not afraid to tell her story, even though she despices the countryside where she is from. She also takes pride in staying true to herself all the time, to the point of admitting that she only enrolled in Jujutsu High so that she could move to Tokyo to Yuji, who was basically a stranger at that time

She is also very enthusiastic about her own future. She knows she won't ever like having to exorcise curses but somehow, being a Jujutsu sorcerer excites her.

plus points for her being enthusiastic about winning in the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc and just beating up the Kyoto students

I don't need to mention her being enthusiastic about shopping and sightseeing in big cities, do I?

Bold? Oh, she is bold. She has no filter when it comes to speaking her mind and would never hesitate to put anyone in their place. I see her going places in Gojo's revolution... and cussing at the superiors.

Yellow symbolizes new beginnings and friendships. Nobara does not have any problems making new friends, she adapts fairly well in new environments. There's also the way she mourned for Yuji, despite "only knowing him for two weeks" and I don't even doubt for a second that it was her making him hold the black funeral picture frame when he came back lol

Pink: grace, femininity, joy + purple: royalty and admiration

There is no doubt that Nobara tries to enjoy her life to the fullest *cough* moving to Tokyo

Moreover, there is something about her that just screams "queen behavior" to me and I don't even mean that in the slang sense. Have you all seen how graceful this girl moves? (I would like to thank MAPPA at this point)

Nobara shows respect where it's due - I'm just gonna mention Maki here - but is a very admirable girl herself

probably has an orchid plant in her room, ngl

Ryomen Sukuna - Snapdragon

please, the name already sounds a little dangerous

This flower shares a certain character trait with him: being unique

Snapdragons are usually associated with strength due to the way they even grow in rocky areas and if that's not screaming Sukuna's name, who is all about strength, then correct me

Deviousness is practically Sukuna's second name, so this symbol isn't exactly off the track either. Let me remind you about the way Sukuna and Mahito laughed at Yuji??

Graciousness: just like Nobara, he possesses some sort of grace that makes me percept him as a majestic being

but maybe that's just his throne of bones and title as King of Curses contributing

and him owning a shrine???

or maybe that is just the way he majestetically killed that special grade lol

"Only large insects like bumblebees can pollinate snapdragons because the petals are too heavy for smaller insects to push apart." I read this and if you reverse it a little, it somehow reminded me of the fact that Sukuna's fingers need to have a powerful vessel aka small fry won't do because they will simply die away.

Deception: despite being given the minimum amount of information about Sukuna in general, I just don't see him being anything but egoistic and evil. I just cannot picture it. So yeah, put everything evil in a pot, stir a little and don't be surprised if your result is not the Powerpuff girls but a four-eyed multi-talented and deceptive curse that is out to kill you for fun

#gojo satoru #fushiguro megumi #itadori yuji #kugisaki nobara #ryomen sukuna #gojo satoru headcanons #fushiguro megumi headcanons #itadori yuji headcanons #kugisaki nobara headcanons #ryomen sukuna headcanons #jujutsu headcanons #as flowers

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geekgirles · 3 years ago

Text

Your Heart

Chapter 8 -- Aftershocks

Word Count: 13482

READ ON AO3

Margaret’s quarters had to be one of the most glamourous in the entire manor. Designed to be a duplex, it consisted of two different spacesーthree, if you count the bathroomーthe lower floor held the living room, and the higher one was where the Council member’s actual bedroom was.

The living room resembled that of a wealthy family’s. A deep red velvet hue gave a touch of colour to the walls, which were decorated by several portraits revealing pieces of contemporary art. Now, Sam loved going to museums and culture in general, but she couldn’t identify what the artists had tried to portray to save her life. When asking about the meaning of one of the paintings, Margaret once told her it was an allegory to the passage of time. How could a smear of red, a blue smudge, and a black, straight line mean any of that she had no idea.

Questionable taste in decor aside, Margaret’s quarters also consisted of a parquet flooring that always seemed to have been recently varnished, so shiny and clean one could eat from it. Just from a small glimpse at her room, one could guess the older witch had a weakness for rococo furniture; a set of golden couches and chairs with cream upholstery was scattered around the place. A backless seat was in front of the piano at the far corner of the room, a loveseat could be seen located under a particularly large painting, Sam and Margaret were both seated, one in front of the other, on two chairs…

Ironically for someone as elegant and graceful as Margaret, all her plants were made of plastic. Grandma Ida had once told her in confidence the clan’s best spellcaster was also the worst gardener she’d ever seen. According to her grandma, when Margaret was still just a witch in training her teachers ended up forbidding her from getting near to their supplies of mandrake; she always killed them all and the plant was very difficult to find.

At the far corner of the room, to the side of the piano, a white staircase with a golden banister led to the Council member’s room. What secrets her bedroom held, however, Sam didn’t know. Margaret was very particular about who she let in on her personal life, and bedrooms were extremely personal.

Which was enough of a hint to understand she hadn’t been called just to chat and have some tea with her. “Your Majesty,” Margaret broke her out of her musings and from inspecting her personal chambers, “I understand you already know why I have summoned you here, correct?”

Even when she was about to scold her, the older witch always looked like the epitome of grace and dignity. They were currently seated on two of her rococo chairs, which Sam had to admit, were pretty but not necessarily comfortable; a coffee table with a porcelain tea set alongside different types of biscuits, scones (a favourite of Margaret since she spent some time abroad in London in her youth), and sandwiches were in full display in between the two.

Knowing how seriously Margaret took table manners, Sam put her teacup on its respective plate before delicately placing both down on the coffee table. “I have an inkling as to why that might be.”

The African-American woman’s perfect posture never faltered. “In that case, I will get straight to the point: sending Miss Baker and Miss Zhou back home while you were left alone with the Ghost King was unbelievably unwise.”

Sam couldn’t help but wince when Margaret’s forest green eyes laid on her, an icy quality to them. “I understand your concern, Margaret, believe me, I do, but…”

“‘But?’” Margaret cut her off, raising an eyebrow as her cup of tea was halfway to her mouth. “Your Majesty, in case you forgot, you are our queen. Amity Park clan’s leader. Dozens of women depend on you for guidance. Your sole presence keeps us from going to war over the throne!”

Unable to hear the same things over and over, the young queen turned her head to the side, as if pained by her words. “I know, I know.” She raised a hand to silence her. “Margaret, you needn’t remind me the very reason why I even stepped up to become queen. Keeping the clan from succumbing to chaos and honouring my grandmother are my main motivations for everything I do.”

“You and me both know that, my Queen.” Margaret conceded, stirring her second cup of tea. “But that does not change the fact that what you did was foolish. However, I also know that you never do anything without reason, so I am willing to hear it.”

With a gesture of her hand, she motioned for Sam to explain herself. Sighing, the violet-eyed girl did just that. “I know my life is precious, but the circumstances were dire and even now I can’t shake the feeling that it’s a miracle I’m even alive.”

“Forgive me, your Majesty. But I fail to see how that is helping your case.” The green-eyed woman pointed out. Deep down she knew Sam probably had a good reason for doing what she did, but as second-in-command, it was her duty to ensure their queen never made a mistake like that ever again.

“I’m getting there, I promise.” Sam hastily said.

With a nod, Margaret gestured for her to continue. “I don’t feel comfortable putting my safety before others’ just because of my position.” She finished, and even Margaret’s stoic mask cracked a little at the revelation. “Stephanie and Susan were with me, Margaret. They were in as much danger as I was, I couldn’t risk their lives like that.”

“Miss Zhou and Miss Baker both volunteered to escort you to your visits to the Ghost Zone, your Majesty.” Her fellow Council member reminded her in between sips. “Had anything happened to them, they were just doing their job.”

“And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing their loyalty would force them to pay such a high price.”

Margaret was about to take another sip of her tea when Sam’s solemn words made her eyes widen. Looking over at her, she noticed her tense posture, her stiff shoulders, her slim fingers clutching tightly at the fabric of her black and purple plaid skirt...And the resolution in her eyes. The older witch could’ve sworn she saw the same fire that was so characteristic of her grandmother in Sam’s violet gaze.

Unaware of the reaction she’d caused to the woman in front of her, Sam went on. “I’m the queen, Margaret. It’s my duty to make sure our people are safe. How do you expect me to just leave them behind, not knowing if they’ll even make it alive!? Even if the black hole had been taken care of without my assistance and they would’ve been safe from it, how do we know the ghosts wouldn’t have taken advantage of the chaos to attack them?!

“Even if I have a feeling King Phantom would’ve tried to protect them, it was still too risky. I would never have been able to live with myself if anything had happened to them because, somehow, my life’s more important than theirs!”

Setting her now cold teacup down, the African-American witch clasped her hands together on her lap. She regarded the young queen with a face that betrayed no emotion. “Your Majesty, you do realise every single one of your points can also be applied to your own situation, right? Just like Miss Baker and Miss Zhou could have been in danger at the hands of the ghosts, so could have you. Except an attempt against your life would be grounds for going to war.”

Knowing she was right, Sam averted her gaze to the side. Suddenly that one painting with the impossible-to-understand analogy on the passage of time seemed much more interesting than ten minutes ago.

Margaret sighed as she stood up. Her high heels clicking against the parquet, she hovered over Sam, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Samantha, I know choosing what is best for our people is hard, especially if it comes into conflict with our personal beliefs and desires, but duty must come first.”

The young sorceress started at the sound of her full name. She really hated being called ‘Samantha’, but knew that was the most personal Margaret would ever get with her, so it'd only be rude of her to complain. “I know,” she sighed dejectedly. “I know, it’s just...I can’t just do that to them! Susan is still just a teenager; no matter how good of a potion-maker and warrior she is, she’s still too young. She has so much to live, I can’t afford to make her miss out on all that for my sake…”

“But what about Miss Baker? I believe you two are the same age; you both still have so much to live, as well.”

“You mean Stephanie still has so much to live for. I gave up on that a long time ago…” Sam couldn’t resist the urge to scoff.

Even if all witches had to make compromises to balance their lives inside and outside of the coven, Sam’s entire life had revolved around giving up on one passion after the other. Growing up she couldn’t make friends because other girls weren’t allowed to go near the queen’s granddaughter. Her world was reduced to the manor and her house, to her family and her teachers, to her lessons and the very scarce moments where she could pretend she was a kid like any other. After her grandma died, under the threat of her coven falling into anarchy until they found a new leader, she sacrificed her one chance at a relatively normal life in exchange of being elected the future queen. For four years her extensive studying and isolation were self-imposed; the only times she allowed herself to take a break where her birthday ーso her dad wouldn’t get suspicious as to what was so important she couldn’t celebrate her own birthdayーand the anniversary of her grandma’s death; because there was no way she’d ever have the energy to work on the most painful day of the year. And now that she was queen, every waking moment was dedicated to looking after her people.

Stephanie was just a shy girl who loved books. Between the two of them, she was the only one who really had a chance at experiencing life outside of the manor’s walls. And Sam refused to be the reason why she lost that chance.

Understanding dawning on her, Margaret’s face softened. “Your motives were noble, my Queen, and I am sure the Baker and Zhou families are extremely grateful for having their children returned to them. Just try to keep in mind that with great power comes great responsibility, and more often than not, that means making sacrifices for the greater good.”

As the spellcaster went back to her chair, Sam could only stare after her like she’d just nonchalantly revealed the meaning of life to her. “...did you just quote Spider-Man?”

Picking her teacup back up, she just chuckled in amusement. “I am a woman of culture, your Majesty. Now, pour yourself another cup of tea or help yourself to some snacks, before it gets cold.”

Reaching over for the kettle to pour some more tea on her cup at the same time as she started munching on a vegetarian sandwich, a comfortable silence settled between them. The only sounds disturbing the quiet atmosphere were the occasional sound of sipping and of plates clattering. In the midst of the silence, Sam’s mind couldn’t help but race back to the moment right after Phantom stopped the blackhole.

She wasn’t lying when she told Margaret she believed he wouldn’t have let anything happen to Susan and Stephanie, for her own protection seemed to be one of his top priorities. That and their last interaction before she returned to Earth had been replaying inside her head over the last several hours.

As she and Phantom stared at each other, unbeknownst to them, both thinking that they could indeed make things work as long as they worked together, Sam’s mind unexpectedly wandered to uncharted territory. Now that she was looking at him up close, a part of her had to agree with all the fangirls who’d squeal every time Phantom appeared on TV; he was quite handsome.

It was undeniable that the Ghost King’s defined physique was anything but hard on the eyes. She didn’t know what it was, but something about himーmaybe the inches he had on her, or maybe the way he’d pressed her close to his chest earlier when he was trying to put her to safety, or maybe the intensity of his neon green eyesーmade her feel safe.

Now that they weren’t separated by a large table and a few feets of distance, Sam could appreciate his chiseled jaw and how his Adam’s apple moved up and down when he gulped, sending a heatwave straight to her very core. His intoxicating eyes no longer looked at her with suspicion and disdain, but with gratefulness and with a candour whose origins she couldn’t quite identify, and at that very moment she was sure nothing would’ve been able to get her to tear her own violet gaze away from them. His shock-white hair alongside his characteristically ghostly glowーthat glow she used to interpret as a warning sign; a reminder of his true natureーall of a sudden made him look ethereal, otherworldly. Like a guardian from beyond sent to protect everyone from evil. Like...Like…

Like an angel.

And his lips...Oh, God. They were so inviting. The mere thought of kissing those lips was incredibly exhilarating. From where she stood, Sam could already imagine his lips on hers, coming together in a slow, passionate dance; their touch so rough and yet so gentle; both breathing her to life and leaving her breathless; and the way he was moving them at that very moment only helped in further cementing her beliefsーwait a minute. They were moving?

“Lady Arcana, are you okay?” Phantom asked, even though he looked a little out of sorts himself. “Your face is a little red. Should we have someone check it out?”

“No!” Sam exclaimed a little too quickly and a little too loudly, shaking her hands before her and already feeling the scorching heat on her cheeks. She barely resisted the urge to facepalm herself. What was she thinking?! Drooling over Phantom? Fantasising with kissing him?! Did she lose her mind?! Maybe he wasn’t as bad as she originally believedーshe was still debating on itーbut he was still a ghost. And ghosts and witches didn’t mix, especially like that. Hell, not even when they were still allies did a ghost and a witch ever end up together!

Noticing the Ghost King staring at her quizzically, the witch cleared her throat in an attempt to appear nonchalant. “I mean, no; I’m fine, really. Probably just a little affected from all the excitement.” Averting her gaze, she jerked her thumb behind her. “I, uh, I should probably go back to my people. They’re probably recruiting an army to come and save me as we speak.” She laughed it off weakly.

Phantom’s eyes shot open at that. “Oh, right! Yeah, it’ll probably be for the best. Wouldn’t want to start a war over a misunderstanding…” He rubbed the back of his neck as he, too, looked away. “I...I’ll let you be.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for saving me.” Sam told him, missing the way his eyes softened at her words. She put a little distance between the two, ready to cast the spell that would send her home, when Phantom’s voice stopped her in her tracks. Turning around, she raised an eyebrow at him, “What?”

“Are there going to be any more meetings after this?” He asked. “I mean, after this whole fiasco, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to call it quits…”

In spite of herself, the young witch couldn’t help but give him a small smile. “We still need to solve the portal problem, don’t we?” Then, she smirked. “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Phantom!”

The relieved expression he sent her way sent her heart aflutter. Feeling the blush coming back, she hastily turned around once more, ready to leave. “Well, until next time!” Again, she was getting ready to leave when Phantom’s voice stopped her.

“Wait, Lady Arcana!”

“Yes?”

“I...u-uh,...well…” He stuttered before taking a deep breath. “Thank you for saving me, too.”

Against her better judgement, Sam’s expression softened. “You’re welcome, Phantom.” Finally, she focused on her anima, willing a purple light to engulf her as she chanted, “Omnes viae Romam ducunt.”

She could almost feel how every individual cell in her body separated before being rearranged again. The tingling sensation was similar to when she’d phased through Phantom’s lair, except it was warm rather than chilly. Spellcasting felt like being cocooned in a thousand blankets inside your home during a particularly cold winter night, while the sensation brought by ghost powers was akin to sticking your head into the freezer when it was 104 º outside.

Both experiences were incredibly pleasant, albeit drastically different from one another.

When Sam opened her eyes, everything was mayhem.

She’d arrived in the middle of the Grand Hall inside 917 Maplestreet, and every single witch present was looking straight at her. Judging from their positionsーsome had risen from their seats, their hands slamming the tables; others had their arms raised as if making suggestions or waiting for their turns to speak up; a few were arguing amongst themselves…ー, she’d just interrupted a council meeting. Most likely to discuss her current situation.

Oh, great.

“Your Majesty!” A voice cried out, and Sam almost fell back upon impact, for someone had slammed into her chest with great force, almost knocking the wind out of her.

Looking down, she realised the iron grip she suddenly found herself in belonged to none other than Susan. The poor thing was sobbing and hiccuping uncontrollably against her chest. Automatically, Sam put her own arms around her in an attempt to sooth her. With how fierce and disciplined she usually was, it was easy to forget she was, technically, still a kid. She had much to learn before she became completely desensitised to the world’s horrors.

“It’s fine, Susan.” The queen soothed, caressing her hair. “I’m fine.”

Right at that moment, the room erupted in a row of applause and cheering, alongside many questions directed her way. Before Sam could so much as tell them to speak one at a time, she felt something being discreetly slipped under her dress. Turning her head to the side in surprise, she found herself face to face with Stephanie. “Welcome home, your Majesty. I am so glad you have returned.”

When the strawberry blonde winked at her, Sam understood everything. Steph had taken advantage of the current chaos, and of her tied up skirt, to return Arcana’s Grimoire to her. Sam couldn’t help but smile; she was worth much more than people often gave her credit for.

Paulina and Star almost tripped over themselves trying to reach her. Rushing to her side, both simultaneously looking panicked and relieved beyond belief, the moment they reached her side they started fussing about her personal care, promising to prepare a warm bubble bath immediately.

“Your Majesty!” Paulina exclaimed in between pants, “You have no idea how glad we are that you’re back!”

“Totally,” Star agreed beside her friend, nodding but equally winded. “One minute Pauli was trash-talking Ms. Gorilla, and the next news reached us that you hadn’t returned from the Ghost Zone!”

“I’m sorry,” a sultry voice from behind startled them, while Sam shook her head in pity, anticipating what was to come, “you were doing what?” Delilah asked the two ladies-in-waiting sharply, her unforgiving eyes narrowed on them.

The Witch Queen could only roll her eyes knowingly at the way Paulina and Star flinched upon noticing the shapeshifter heard them. ‘Ms. Gorilla’, as Star helpfully supplied when they were assigned to her upon becoming the clan leader, was a moniker Paulina had come up with at the height of her jealousy towards the stunning Council member. Sam, despite her love for animals and nature, hadn’t noticed until they pointed it out, but Delilah shared her name with the famous Purple Back Gorilla that was discovered to be female by a high school student working on extra credit back when she was fourteen.

The thing is, as good-natured and laid-back as Delilah could be, she did not appreciate being compared to such a majestic creature. “I’m waiting, Miss Anderson. What did you say you were doing before you heard the news?”

From where she stood, still being held by Susan’s iron grip, Sam could see how Star was beginning to sweat. The blonde usually didn’t have trouble saying what she thought of others, even if it was mean-spirited or uncalled for, but even she knew it was foolish to anger another witch, especially when her position was much higher than hers.

Squirming under the shapeshifter’s harsh glare, the handmaiden couldn’t do anything but stutter. “Uh...um...w-well...we...we were…and the...the gorilla...b-but then...” She trailed off, luckily for her, Paulina chose that very moment to jump in on the conversation.

“We were just talking about the new gorilla-inspired fashion collection!” The Latina lied and, if you listened closely, you could hear the way her already pronounced accent thickened. Paulina was a good liar, but even she sometimes had trouble working under pressure. “It’s absolutely fabulous! Almost as much as your blouse,” she complimented as she reached out to touch the fabric, “Is it new?”

Unamused, Delilah decided against pushing the issue...for now. Gently swatting the Latina’s hand away from her clothes, she directed a much kinder expression towards Sam. “It’s good to have you back, my Queen. We were worried sick for your safety.”

The violet-eyed queen smiled in return. “It’s good to be back.”

Suddenly, an imposing voice made itself heard from the other side of the room. Heads snapping to the origin of the sound, everyone’s eyes landed on Margaret standing with her hands behind her back by the entrance. She looked as poised and collected as usual.

Somehow, Sam knew she was in for a world of trouble.

“Your Majesty,” Margaret began, and her voice commanded such respect a pin drop could be heard in the middle of the previously loud room, “you have no idea how grateful we are for your safe return. If what Miss Zhou and Miss Baker told us is true,” both witches at her side sent their queen an apologetic look, “then you must be exhausted. Please, after you’re well-rested, come tomorrow to my personal chambers.” She ordered, because she didn’t even ask for an answer, before turning away. Just as she was about to leave the room, she called out over her shoulder, “We have much to discuss.”

Oh, yeah. She was indubitably, thoroughly screwed.

Her instincts were proven correct the moment she was given the third degree by the woman in front of her. As she pondered Margaret’s previous words, however, a question materialised itself inside Sam’s mind.

Furrowing her brow, she called out to her fellow Council member. “Margaret?”

“Yes, your Majesty?”

“You said we more often than not have to make sacrifices in the name of the greater good, even if it goes against our personal beliefs and desires…” she started carefully, looking down at her cup. “Have you ever had to sacrifice something you cared deeply about or wanted desperately for the sake of the coven?”

For a moment, the silence had returned, only it now hung heavily over them, when just a few minutes it’d been comfortable. After a few minutes had passed and she still received no answer, Sam was about to ask again when Margaret finally answered. “Yes, I have.”

Her head shooting at her uncharacteristically lifeless voice, Sam almost gasped. Before her, Margaret wore the saddest expression she’d ever seen of her face. Her deep, green eyes, usually so vibrant and full of colour, were now bleak and devastated, reminiscent of a forest after a wildfire. The otherwise calm and collected Council member now looked heartbroken and desolate, like a piece of her was missing. Margaret certainly wasn’t crying, but she seemed so miserable Sam could feel tears of her own stinging her eyes.

“I...I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.”

“Uh...right! O-of course. Don’t worry.” The lavender-eyed witch hastily said, too shell shocked to be more eloquent. Margaret never used contractions when talking to her.

Margaret acknowledged her with a respectful nod of her head. “Thank you, your Majesty.” Then she went back to drinking her tea.

Deciding it’d be best to imitate her and pretend nothing had happened, Sam couldn't help but wonder what might’ve happened to Margaret to make her so miserable. But above all else, she could only hope she’d never have to sacrifice the same thing. Somehow, she had a feeling death would be less painful.

...........

The forest in the outskirts of Amity Park could be described as anything but a walk in the park. The tree trunks knotted and twisted, forming shapes made out of the stuff of nightmares. The wind rustling the leaves sounded like a ghostly wail, not unlike Danny’s, albeit much quieter. That only made it more sinister. And the sound of twigs, dead leaves, and fallen tree branches crunching beneath had him frantically looking around for the slightest sign of danger. Since it was mid-October, nearing Halloween, the weather was beginning to change as well. For instance, temperatures were starting to drop from the cool yet warm ones that reigned during late September, and the first fall rainstorm hit the town just the night before.

And since it’d just rained the night before, that meant Tucker was now stepping on mud. He was stepping on mud with his new boots on. He was stepping on mud and getting his new boots that cost him a fortune, mind you, dirty. Already irritated and spooked beyond belief, he called out to the person walking in front of him, “Care to remind me why the fuck I didn’t turn you down on your invitation to, and I quote, ‘a fun fieldtrip?’”

Stopping momentarily to look over her shoulder, Jazz scolded him, “Language.” With that out of the way, she turned her head back around and kept on walking through the forest. “And to answer your question, you agreed to come with me because you want to help Danny as much as I do.”

Tucker rolled his eyes, taking advantage of her back, turned to him, and followed her close behind. “Yeah, that I know. What I mean to say is, how is hiking aimlessly around the woods going to do anything to help Danny?!”

They’d been trekking around that damned forest for three hours, with absolutely nothing to guide them but an old, probably outdated, map some ranger had given to Jazz back at the information booth. Three hours wandering around a forest that was creepier than Mr. Lancer’s ‘sculptured summer physique’ back in summer camp, and the most resting they’d done was when Jazz would suddenly halt to check the map or crouch down to get some samples.

Just like she was doing at that very moment. “Look at this, Tucker. Ocimum basilicum!” She reached her hand out to show it to him before putting it inside a little glass jar. She brought the jar close to her face. “Did you know in Christianity this plant is said to have sprouted when Jesus’ blood fell to the ground?”

“No, I didn’t know that.” The technopath said, unimpressed. “What I do know is that Ocimum basilicum and basil are the exact same thing! Care to tell me why you’re so transfixed on a mere spice? As much as I love myself a good pizza, even I have to admit this is just ridiculous.”

Sliding her backpack across her shoulder, the redhead put away the basil. With that taken care of, she sent her friend a bored look, standing up from the floor and coming to stand beside him. “It’s important because it’sー.”

“‘It’s going to help Danny.’” Tucker finished for her, doing a poor impression of her voice. “You said that over a million times already! Can you at least tell me how it’s going to help Danny?”

Jazz looked away, sulking. “Because...because it just is, okay?! Trust me, Tucker, I know what I’m doing.”

But the African American young man wasn’t buying it. That answer was far too childish, especially coming from someone like Jazz, who’d been acting like someone twice her age for almost as long as he could remember. Something was definitely off.

“But what could it be?” He asked himself as they resumed their march. She said she knew what she was doing, and that was all great and dandy, except he had no idea what they were doing! He was the technician of the team, his specialty were computers, viruses, and thwarting technology-dependent ghosts’ plans! He was not made to hike, looking for God knows what, in the middle of a forest!

And Jazz?! He barely held back a scoff. No matter how much more physically adept than him she was, the eldest Fenton was no field agent, either. For years, her way of assisting Danny in ghost-hunting had been through research, bringing back-up,helping work out the tricky details in their plans, now she was obsessed with finding out more about the witches…

Wait a minute.

Tucker stopped dead in his tracks, fists curled at his sides and a very angry glare directed at the back of the head of his best friend’s older sister appeared on his face. “You dragged me here to help you research witches and avoid Danny’s wrath.”

It wasn’t a question and she knew it. Wincing at the, accurate, accusation, the redhead turned around slowly. “I...I have no idea what you’re talking about…” She tried playing dumb.

In an instant, Tucker got in her face, wagging a chastising finger at her. “Oh, don’t you dare play innocent, little missy! You might have been able to fool your parents all these years, but that’s only because they’re surprisingly gullible. You can’t fool me; we’re here to research witches aren’t we?”

Looking down on the floor, Jazz ultimately gave in, sighing. “Yes, we are.”

“And I’m guessing Danny knows nothing about this which is why; first, you went out of your way to organise this on my free day, which, for the record, also happens to be the day Danny’s schedule is packed; second, you wouldn’t tell me why we’re here; and third, you’re just picking random things up, because not even you know what you’re looking for.”

She bit her lip, knowing she’d been caught. She always forgot how observant Tucker could be. “Maybe?”

“Jazz!”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?!” She snapped. “I know I shouldn’t have lied to you or Danny, but I just can’t sit idly by and watch as he enters the lion’s den, completely unprepared!” She stepped closer to Tucker, looking him dead in the eye. “You know Danny, Tucker. He shoulders everything and refuses to let us help. Please, you have to understand; I have to help my little brother.”

Looking down at her pleading eyes, the techno geek’s own teal orbs softened. He did understand. He really wished Danny would let them help more often. It was just painful watching him come back looking like death, knowing he’d been sticking his neck out for a town that didn’t always appreciate him, and not being able to do much because even then he was protecting them.

It was maddening, really.

Sighing, he grabbed Jazz by her shoulders, trying to show her just how much he understood her plight. “Listen, I know how you feel. You know I know how you feel. But we gotta make sure us going behind Danny’s back will really be for his own good. We can’t just wander aimlessly with no real plan in mind! Never mind how good our intentions are.” Seeing as she only stared at him, unblinkingly, he sighed and let her go. “Face it, Jazz. We’re about as lost as Danny when it comes to witches.”

He was sure what he said would be discouraging, hence why he didn’t understand the way her eyes lit up. “That’s where you’re wrong!” She exclaimed just as she started rummaging through her backpack. After a few seconds, she pulled a book out. “This is a book on plants, arthropods, and other ingredients traditionally used by witches in folklore. If we find a place where many of said ingredients grow or inhabit, we might know where to find them!”

“Right…” he drawled, he should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy to keep Jazz from her goal. “Because there’s no way a group of women from the 21st century have learned to grow or breed those things from the comfort of their homes.” He deadpanned in response. “Is that why we’re here? To look for a bunch of plants and insects?”

Her right hand still clutching the book close to her chest, the other hand fisted on her hip, Jazz sent him an irritated look. “As a matter of fact, I was thinking the witches’ lair could actually be around here.”

Tucker’s brows shot up at that. “What makes you think that?”

“Because it’s tradition!” She exclaimed, before pulling her phone out of her pocket and shoving it in his face. “Did you know Baba Yaga was said to inhabit the Russian forests?”

Glaring at her, he carefully got her phone out of his face. “Yeah...She was also said to be an old hag, with a blue nose, and a bone leg. Pretty sure the Witch Queen Danny meets up with is supposed to be quite the looker. So, try something else.”

Jazz pouted, before trying to come up with a theory that would please him. “Well, what if there are Russian witches in Amity Park? Maybe they stayed true to tradition, taking advantage of the locals’ ignorance to remain inconspicuous.”

“Nice theory,” he clapped sarcastically, “only one tiny, itsy, bitsy detail, though. I doubt the Cold War made it easy for Russian witches to move to the USA. Instead of putting them up to trial for being witches, they’d have been accused of being spies.”

She was beginning to get frustrated with Tucker’s lack of cooperation. Groaning, she snapped. “What do you suggest we do, then?!”

“How about get back to civilisation and forget all about this silly quest, huh?!” He snapped back, dramatically flailing his arms in the air in exasperation. Seriously, were all Fentons supposed to be stubborn to the point of idiocy? Didn’t they understand some things weren’t worth falling-outs and even their lives? He loved that family to death, but if he was going to die for them, he at least would like it to be because of something useful.

Jazz just kept staring back at him, frowning in annoyance, before turning away from him in a huff. Tucker was about to call her out on her behaviour when she beat him to it. “I know I’m being difficult. I know I’m looking for things that aren’t there, but I just need to help Danny!” She whirled back around to look him in the eye, desperation clearly laced in her voice. “Please, Tucker. You have to understand.”

“Uh, no. Not that! Anything but that!” He cried, frantically covering his eyes with his hands. She was pleading, giving him the trademark Fenton, sad, puppy-dog look. The damned thing was so effective he was genuinely surprised it didn’t count as a persuasion technique. Peeking through his fingers, he chanced to look, only to close his eyes shut not long after. Nope, she was still doing that look.

With a dismayed moan, he gave in after a while. “Fiiiiiine!” He groaned, only to subsequently send a glare at Jazz’s direction when he saw her fist-bumping from the corner of his eye. He quickly squared his posture, jabbing his finger against her chest. “But if Danny busts us, you’re explaining things to him!”

He so hated the way she was beaming at him, completely ignoring his threat. “No problem!” She then slapped his hand away, causing him to let out a sound of complaint. The grin had been replaced by an irritated frown. “If you ever touch my chest again, though, I’m going to blast you with the Fenton Ghost Peeler until your skin falls off and only your non-existent muscles remain.”

“Hey!” He began to protest against her comment, only to back-pedal when she sent him a withering glare in warning. “No touching your chest ever again. Got it.” He smiled sheepishly at her. When that seemed to please her, she turned her focus on her book, prompting Tucker to ask. “So, what now?”

“Now we look for evidence that proves the witches of Amity Park visit this place.” She replied, not looking up from her book.

“No, I got that. I mean how are we going to do that?”

“Well, if witches really do need certain ingredients for their spells and potions, then I’d suggest we look for things that could possibly grow around here.” Jazz kept reading the paragraphs detailed in her book, turning pages at the speed of lightning. Stopping at a certain page, she tapped her chin with one finger as she pondered their options before showing the book to Tucker. “Do you think we could find some newts around here? They’re said to have been highly demanded as an ingredient for their eyes.”

Taking a look at the slimy creature pictured in the book, the techno geek recoiled in disgust. He couldn’t hold back a shudder before regaining his composure. “First of all,” he lifted his index finger in the air, “the closest lake in the area is Lake Eerie, a good three hours away from here. So I highly doubt we’ll be finding any newts any time soon.” He fiddled with his PDA before showing it to her, a map appearing on the screen. “And second, even if there were any lakes around here, there’s no way I’m gonna touch an amphibian. I’m a techno geek, not a biology geek. If you want help collecting those little guys, you’re going to have to ask Sam for help.”

That perked the redhead’s interest. “You mean the Manson heiress?” She asked, not missing a beat. Even if the topic of conversation had changed greatly, her focus was still on her book. If newts weren’t an option, something else had to be. She just had to find it. “Is it me, or is there something going on between her and Danny?”

Not one to resist some good gossip, especially when it was related to Danny’s love life, Tucker leaned in closer to Jazz, as if he were about to share a conspiratorial theory with her. “Oh, something is definitely going on. I haven’t seen Danny act so comfortably yet bashful around a girl since Valerie. As for Sam, let’s just say I don’t usually see her with other guys. Period. As a matter of fact…” Eyes snapping open, he trailed off. What Jazz had said about Sam finally catching up to him.

The psychology understudy looked over at him in concern. Unlike her friend, she wasn’t one to gossip, but her little brother’s mental health and social life was something she cared deeply about. Moreso because the two aspects tended to go hand in hand. “Uh, Tucker? Is everything okay?”

“What did you just say?” He practically mumbled in a voice so low Jazz had to strain her ears to hear him.

“Um,” she stammered, “I said, ‘is everything okay?’”

“No, no.” The African American man shook his head and hands, indicating that wasn’t what he meant. “Before that.”

“I literally said ‘uh, Tucker.’” She repeated, looking at him like he’d grown a second head or something. Did a branch fall on his head while they were hiking and she hadn’t noticed?

Oh, for the love of God...This was getting ridiculous! Did he have to spell it out for her? Scrubbing his face with one hand, growing frustrated, he tried one last time. “No, Jazz.” He gritted out as gently as possible. “I’m asking what you called Sam earlier.”

“You mean when I said ‘the Manson heiress?’” She raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Yes, that!” He exclaimed, before returning Jazz’s confused expression with one of his own. “What do you mean by that?”

“You really don’t know?” She asked in disbelief. Considering that, no, he really had no idea what she was even talking about, the technophile could only shake his head and wait for answers. “Oh! Wow...So turns out Danny isn’t the only person in Amity Park who doesn’t know!” She meant to mutter that part to herself, but her disbelief was so great she forgot to lower her voice, causing Tucker to hear her just fine.

He didn’t know why, but the moment the Fenton girl’s aqua eyes landed on him, Tucker couldn’t help but feel he was being regarded with pity. The fact that she nervously rubbed her arm holding the book up and down while avoiding his gaze didn’t help matters any. “Um, you see...You know Sam’s name, right?”

That made him furrow his brow, not quite following. “Obviously,” he scoffed. “Her name’s Sam Manson. But how come her ID makes her an heiress?!”

“Because she’s not just a Manson,” Jazz corrected him gently, “she’s the only child of the Mansons.”

“Are you saying she’s related to that psycho serial killer?” He squeaked, rightfully freaked out. Deep down, however, he knew that couldn’t be right. Sure, Sam had a spooky taste in...everything, really. But she would never hurtーno, wait a minute. She could definitely inflict pain on others through elaborate and well-thought schemes. But she just couldn’t be related to a serial killer!

...or could she?

“What?!” The redhead gasped. “No, of course not! I’m saying she’s related to the Manson family,” when he was about to comment further, she stopped him with a raised hand, “as in, the descendants of Izzy Manson,” she stressed, annoyed; “the creator of the cellophane-wrapping machine used for chopsticks.”

Growing frustrated at Tucker’s blank face, she made an indecipherable sound at the back of her throat before snapping. “Darn it, Tucker! Rich, I’m saying she’s filthy, stinking rich!” She rolled her eyes when the techno geek’s jaw almost touched the floor. “Gosh! I swear, you’re even more hopeless than Danny!”

“Wait a minute, Sam is rich?!” He all but screeched. “How come she never told me?!”

Feeling sorry for him, she could only shrug in response, her previous aggravation gone. Honestly, she’d only met the girl once, and not even a prodigy like her would’ve been able to determine her thought process with just one session. “I don’t know. If I’m being honest, I’m a bit more surprised you never figured it out.”

That gave him pause. “What do you mean?”

“I mean...” she crossed her arms. How could she put this gently? “I mean, you’ve known her for a while, haven’t you?” Slowly, he nodded. “And you’re way more into the wealthy and powerful than Danny, and, come on, Sam’s an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian Goth.” She sent him a pointed look. “Goth clothing and vegetarian food aren’t cheap, you know.”

Tucker could only grimace, knowing she had a point. “I know who the Mansons are, but I’ve never seen Sam in any of the pictures taken of her family’s sophisticated parties. And, really, would you seriously take a look at her parents and go, ‘Yep, no doubt. These preppy, cheerful folks are definitely related to cynical, brooding Sam Manson.’” He defended himself, and judging by Jazz’s expression, he knew she concurred. Then, he added, almost as an afterthought, “And honestly, I legit thought she basically ate grass and mud, so…”

Sympathising with him, Jazz put a soothing hand on his shoulder, smiling kindly at him. At first he returned the gesture, before furrowing his brow in concentration. Something wasn’t right... “Wait, how do you know any of this? How do you even know Sam?”

“Ah, Danny and I ran into her and her dad last Saturday at that new Vegetarian Mexican restaurant.”

The bespectacled young man couldn’t do much but blink in astonishment. Then, suddenly, he let himself fall to his knees, crouching down before crossing his arms over his chest, pouting. “How can I possibly be that out of the loop?!”

Jazz flashed him a meek smile in response as she lowered herself to his level; literally. The tug in his lips turned into a full blown smirk as a devious thought came to him. “Was there UST between the two?”

The older girl let out a loud cackle at his question. “Oh, you have no idea!”

With a ‘hm’, he settled for a content smile that Jazz knew was only half-hearted. “That’s enough for me...for now.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Jazz, trying to joke, but the way she was looking at him made it clear she didn’t buy his attempts to lighten up the mood.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself, huh?” She offered softly. “You speak so fondly of her, and she seemed to know you well enough when we talked about you the other day. I’m sure she’ll come clean to you if you let her know you feel hurt over not knowing who she is.”

Normally he hated when Jazz psychoanalysed the situation, more so if it involved him. But now he couldn’t help but feel grateful for having the eldest Fenton’s advice and support. “Yeah, I...I think I’ll do that.” He smiled at her. “Thanks.”

She smiled back, “You’re welcome.” The quiet atmosphere soon dissipated when she got back up on her feet as she dusted herself off. “Well, we’d better find something that’ll hint us on the witches’ hideout!”

Getting up from the ground as well, Tucker watched as Jazz pulled out the map from her backpack at the same time as she leafed through her book using just her thumb, that girl’s ability to multitask was both impressive and unnerving. She was clearly searching for a clue to get them started on their quest. Rolling his eyes fondly at her, he started fidgeting with his PDA, looking for clues of his own through the best way he knew; technology.

Printed books and maps were fine and all, but it didn’t take long for them to become outdated. With the Internet and his trusty PDA, Tucker always had the latest information in the palm of his hand. Literally. As his eyes scanned over dozens of articles from the day before to several decades prior, his eyes landed on one story in particular.

Gasping, he called out to Jazz. The girl looked up from her own research to see Tucker motioning for her to come closer with his hand. Curious, she did just that. The moment she was within touching distance, he handed the PDA to her. “Look!”

She squinted her eyes on the screen. What appeared was an old newspaper article, around thirty years old. When she read it over, however, her eyes widened. “Is this what I think it is?” She whispered in disbelief, as she turned to Tucker, who was smirking.

“You’d better believe it!” Snatching the device from her hands, he began scrolling down and zooming in on certain fragments of the article. “It’s a news segment dedicated to two rangers’ retelling!” He exclaimed, his eyes not once looking away from the screen. “According to them, a few days before the interview with the newspaper, they were patrolling around the woods when they came upon what appeared to be a garden entirely made up of mandrake! Which took them aback because, first, that was a restricted area to the public; and second, mandrake usually grows in Mediterranean weather!

“Since it was getting late, they decided to investigate the following day first thing in the morning. But when they tried getting to the garden, they found they couldn’t. Somehow, whenever they thought they were getting closer, they kept getting lost and further away, something that was odd because they’d both been working as rangers, walking through the woods, for more than twenty years!” He finished, looking far more excited at the prospect of their research than he’d been before. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Her hands clasped in front of her beaming face, Jazz could only nod eagerly. “Mandrake is one of the plants that are most popularly associated with witches and magic, and the rangers kept getting lost because they’d found a patch of mandrake and the witches wanted to keep them away in order to protect their secret!”

“And you said Internet searches were only going to lead us to Satanist sites.” He flashed her a shit-eating grin, feeling proud of himself.

“Ugh, knock it off!” She playfully shoved him away, before growing serious again. Her joy being replaced by uncertainty. “Just a question, though?”

“What?”

“How are we going to find this mandrake patch? It’s been over thirty years! And if the witches were able to make two seasoned rangers wander aimlessly through the forest, what chances do we have of finding it ourselves?”

Tucker opened his mouth, only to close it again, realising he didn’t have an answer to her question. Yep, that could definitely be a problem. “Well, the rangers didn’t know they were facing off against a group of spellcasting women; we do.” He tried steering the conversation in the right direction. “What do we know about witches?” She was about to speak when he cut her off, “ Aside from the obvious.”

Bringing a fist to her chin, Jazz began to revise everything she’d learned on them ever since Danny shared his latest plan with them. “Hm, Danny said witches used to be able to summon ghosts from the Ghost Zone and make them cross over to Earth. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Hm, it might.” Tucker replied, the gears already turning in his head. “You know how every ghost has its own ecto-signature?”

“Yeah?”

“What if the witches have something like that?” He suggested, his mind already focused on the possibilities.

Jazz gasped, her eyes widening at the possibility. “Then maybe we could create our own version of the ghost radar, except that instead of ghosts, it’d latched onto a witch’s own signature!” She added, practically bouncing up and down.

“That way, we could lead the radar to someplace with a particularly strong magical signature, and therefore guide us to the mandrake patch without getting lost!” Tucker continued, equally excited.

“Which would then allow us to track any witch that comes to the garden.” Jazz said.

“And eventually lead us to their hideout!” Tucker finished. The two of them high-fived the other, reeling from the revelation. They were so hyped they almost forgot to address the most important part of the plan.

“So,” Tucker started, slipping his PDA back in his pocket. “What about Danny? Do we tell him about this?”

Against her better judgement, Jazz shook her head. “No. I believe it’d be best if we don’t.”

“Are you sure?” Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Arguably, this affects him much more than it does us.”

“I know, but we need to give him an edge over the witches. An ace up his sleeve! Something to use as leverage if the queen ultimately turns against him.” She explained. “Telling him of our plan before we even have a clue would only make things more difficult for him.” Noticing Tucker’s unsure expression, she rushed to reassure him. “I promise, the moment we know where they gather, we’ll tell him. Okay?”

Tucker didn’t look convinced. Excluding Danny in something this important just felt wrong! But, on second thought, Jazz was his older sister; she’d been taking care of and protecting him long before she learned about the accident. Jazz was always looking out for her baby brother’s best interests. Sighing, he gave in. “Okay.”

“Thank you, Tucker.” She grinned in appreciation before she looked down at her phone and noticed the time. “Now, come on! We still have to get back before Danny finishes his classes and notices we’re nowhere to be found. We don’t want him to get suspicious, do we?”

As he followed her back through the way they’d come from, Tucker could only hope their decision wouldn't bite them in the ass.

..........

“Remind me again why we’re here?”

“Because we needed to meet up and the You Mocha Me Crazy was closed today.” Tucker smirked smugly at her from the seat across from her; a mixture of grease and sauce dripping from his fingertips. “My, what a tragedy!” He lamented in mock sadness.

Her body leaned forward and her elbow propped up on the wobbly table, Sam sent him a nasty look. “Knock it off! You like the café and you know it.”

The techno geek shrugged, unconcerned. “I’ll admit, they make good sandwiches. But nothing can beat my love for the Nasty Burger. It was about time I dragged you here for a change.”

Danny was sure the Goth girl was about to deliver a very colourful string of words their friend’s way hadn’t he intervened. “Remember, Sam,” he warned, putting a hand on her shoulder, making her look at him instead, “this is a kid-friendly space.” He took her huffing and crossing her arms over her chest as she slumped on her seat as a victory. “Look on the bright side,” he pointed at the trail of food in front of her, “at least they serve vegetarian menus.”

“It was a pleasant surprise.” She admitted, looking down at the tofu-soy melt she’d been served. “I honestly thought their only options would be a bunch of so-called salads with more meat than lettuce.” Picking the sandwich up, her face wrinkled in disgust when she brought it to her face. Averting her eyes, she promptly set it back down, before sliding the trail away from her. “That being said, that thing’s soggier than a quarterback’s socks after a football game.”

“Then it should be just like you like it!” The techno geek quipped, causing Sam to fling some of his own fries at him in retaliation. Tucker could’ve tried shielding his face from the assault, but that would've meant dropping his burger, leaving him no choice but to become an easy target. “You’re gonna pay for those fries.” He deadpanned, his scowl only deepened when the Goth girl blew him a raspberry in response.

“I believe it’d be more accurate to say football players’ socks are stiff after a game, giving the poor hygiene of the guys at our high school,” Danny pointed out matter-of-factly, trying to keep the peace between the two, before noticing the possible innuendo thanks to the help of Tucker and Sam’s meaningful looks. “But I get what you mean.” He finished lamely.

Changing her position so she was looking directly at him, her face leaning on the hand resting on the table, Sam raised an amused eyebrow in his direction. “No offence, Danny, but teenage boys aren’t exactly known for their impeccable hygiene.” With a noncommittal shrug she leaned back against her seat. “There isn’t much of a difference between you guys and pigs; you’re both more voracious than a pack of hyenas and your body odor is arguably stronger than a pig-pen’s stench.” She pinched her nose with her fingers for emphasis, the smirk never leaving her face.

Both guys seated with her shot her matching glares. “I resent that.” They said in unison, making her laugh.

“FYI, Sam,” Tucker said between bites of his Mega Meaty Nasty Burger, “Danny and I had to learn the wonders of personal hygiene much sooner than any other guy at our school.” Setting the remainder of his burger down on its trail, his arm resting close to it, he leaned closer to Sam, as if he were about to share a secret. “For all the cruel things the girls said about us behind our backsー”

“Or to our faces.” Danny reminded him with a pained mumble.

“Or to our faces.” Tucker agreed. “Despite everything, they never, not even once, complained about the way we smelled.” He leaned back against his seat with a triumphant grin, the burger already in his hands. “That’s way more than the jocks ever got.”

“Now that you mention it, Tuck,” the blue-eyed boy started, “I think the closest we ever got to a compliment from the A-list girls was when Paulina, grossed out by Dash trying to flirt with her all sweaty after P.E., screeched, ‘Get away from me! Not even those losers of Foley and Fenton smell nearly as bad as you!’” He mimicked in a very whiny, high-pitched voice.

While Danny’s imitation got him and Tucker in stitches, it got Sam thinking. Did he say Paulina? She didn’t want to just assume the Paulina she knew was the only one in town, but she couldn’t help but think of her. “Uh, guys?” She waited until they gave her their full attention. “Um, sorry if this is weird, but I just realised I never got around to asking you; which high school did you go to?”

“Casper High.” They replied at the same time. “Why?”

Okay...so they were talking about the Paulina she knew. The Latina wasn’t kidding when she said she used to be the queen bee at Casper High when she and Star studied there, if Danny and Tucker’s retelling, as the lowest end of the food chain, was anything to go by. “Um...no reason, really. I was just curious, that’s all.” Not feeling up to compromising her, for once, plausible answer, she quickly tried changing the subject. “If what you’re telling me is true, though, how come you were such prodigies in the art of not smelling like garbage that’s spent way too much time under the sun?”

“Ghosts.” Tucker replied simply. Panicking, Danny discreetly kicked him in the shins, the only reason his best friend didn’t yelp in pain was the warning glare the raven-haired boy was sending him. He was about to ask him what he wanted when Sam supplied the answer.

“Ghosts?” She echoed, tilting her head to the side.

Flinching at the realisation of what he’d just said, he immediately tried to cover his slip-up. “Y-yeah! Ghosts!” He vaguely registered Danny rubbing his temple with two fingers from the corner of his eye. “You...you remember Danny’s a Fenton, right?”

“Yeah?” She raised a quizzical eyebrow, while Danny’s head shot up at that, wondering what his best friend was up to.

“You see,” Tucker said with the same tone of voice a teacher would use when enlightening his students on his subject, “since Danny’s folks are ghost hunters, ever since the spooks started haunting Amity Park, Mr. and Mrs. F. have been a little...say, trigger-happy. So every time they thought a ghost was near, we’d accidentally end up covered in whatever goop they were developing. Hence, why we were always taking showers.”

Catching onto what he’s best friend was up to, Danny was quick to add. “In fact, my sister used to have long, flowing hair, but ended up cutting it to a pixie cut after one too many accidents.”

“That’s...weird as fuck.” Sam said, and for a moment the two men feared she’d seen through them. Until she bobbed one shoulder up and down as she readied herself for round two against her tofu-soy melt. “But I guess it makes sense.”

“It does?” Danny asked, before Tucker’s foot painfully stomping on top of his brought him back to his senses. “I-I mean! Of course it makes sense...well, it shouldn’t, but that’s my family for you!” He made a helpless gesture as he shot her a sheepish grin her way.

Their antics made her frown in suspicion, “Are you guys okay? You’re acting weird, and that’s saying something.”

“We’re perfectly fine!” Tucker rushed in to say, at the same time as Danny tried with, “Just tired!” They shared furtive glances at each other when the dissonance registered in their brains. Then they tried again, only for Tucker to squeak, “Just tired!” at the same time as Danny assured, “We’re perfectly fine!”

A little creeped out by what was taking place right in front of her, the girl munched on her sandwich painfully slowly. “Uh huh…” She drawled, not buying it. She swallowed her food before addressing them again, her hazel-eyes strained on the two nervous-looking boys. “So, which one is it? Are you perfectly fine, or are you tired?”

Gulping loudly, Danny chose to speak for the two of them, seeing as their usual ‘bronnection’ was failing them. “Come on, Sam. We obviously mean we’re a little tired, with all our assignments and whatnot, but overall, we’re perfectly fine!” The halfa tried alleviating the tension with a motion of his hand. “That’s just your usual college student life. What’re you gonna do? Right, Tuck?” He elbowed his bespectacled friend, urging for support.

The African American young man started, “Oh! Um...sure” He stammered at first. “Totally. Nothing going on but your typical college life problems.” He let out an awkward laugh.

Sam just kept staring at them just as intently as before, her intertwined hands resting on the table. With her eyes narrowed on them like a gangster deciding whether to kill or torture a snitch that’d ratted them out to the cops. The pair of best friends could barely contain the urge to squirm under her scrutiny. Finally she shook her head and, for a moment, they were sure she’d made her choice; they were dead. “We definitely can’t come back here. The food’s so bad it’s rotting your brains!” She shook her head in mock concern. “And it’s not like you had many to begin with…”

“Wait a minute!” Tucker protested while Danny let out a relieved sigh, “You leave the Nasty Burger out of this!”

“I just say it as I see it.” Sam countered in a sing-song voice. It was so easy to get a rise out of him, she just couldn’t resist.

As his two friends started bickering, Danny limited himself to watching them, amused and content to have them in his life. A part of him still couldn’t believe how easily Sam had filled the space he didn’t even know was empty. His whole life he thought Tucker’s companionship was all he neededーexcept for his early high school days when he dreamed of being part of the A-listers, but he’d since wisened up. With ghost-hunting overcomplicating his life, he’d long given up on expanding his social circle outside of his sister and best friend, and serious girlfriends were an all-time no-no, but in just a few meetings, the Goth changed that.

Her individualism and strong moral compass were the perfect addition to his dry sense of humour and awkwardness, and Tucker’s optimism and desire to do something big. It was like they balanced each other out. Sam’s own sense of justice aligned itself nicely with Danny’s own need to do the right thing and protect others, while she shared the need to stand outーalbeit in different waysーwith Tucker, as opposed to his efforts of blending in. Even their differences were a great addition to their friendship, for they forced them to open their eyes to new possibilities they might have overlooked.

Danny wished Clockwork would just stop time right at that very moment. There, in the middle of the crowded and not always sanitary Nasty Burger, surrounded by teens complaining about the struggles of high school and underpaid workers, everything was perfect. Being there with Tucker and Sam, watching them bicker and mediating when things threatened to get out of hand, felt like things were as they should have always been.

They weren’t even there to talk about witches! Somewhere along the way hanging out with Sam just became normal; the right thing to do. And to think not that long ago he didn’t even know she existed…

Watching her bring a hand to the shaved half her face, as if she were about to push away some hair blocking her view only to stop in mid-air and sheepishly put her hand back down on the table when she remembered there was nothing to push awayーmaybe she still wasn’t used to missing half of her raven locksーwarmed his heart. For a moment, she redirected her focus on him, probably sensing his eyes on her, and she flushed prettily, causing heat to creep up on Danny’s own cheeks as a result.

They immediately averted their eyes and focused on something else; Sam looked back at Tuckerーwho was trying very hard to keep his impish grin off his faceーand Danny found himself looking at the ceiling. He’d never noticed there were pieces of gum up there...

For someone who’d sworn off romance after sophomore year of high school, he was doing a very poor job at steering clear of it. Just like the route his treacherous mind had taken the other day as he locked eyes with Lady Arcana…

The halfa could feel his heart squeezing in his chest just by looking into those heliotrope orbs of hers. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, he knew not even his glowing gaze could compare to them in uniqueness. Regrettably, the usual frostiness he found in them hindered their beauty. But now that she was staring at him with great esteem and, dare he hope, a hint of admiration, it was as if spring had finally arrived and had defrosted her gaze; revealing the field of lilacs hidden underneath.

The content smile tugging at her lips illuminated her entire visage, accentuating that tantalising beauty he chose to overlook due to the rocky nature of their relationship. In all his years coming back and forth between the Ghost Zone and Amity Park, he was sure he’d never met anyone who represented the beauty of both worlds quite like she did; and he was a halfa!

Her amethyst eyes and her paranormal nature made her stand out even in a dimension populated by powerful entities, each possessor of a unique gift. The way the eery light coming from the ectoplasmic swirls around them reflected on her slick, black hair gave her an appropriately otherworldly glowーso beautiful it eclipsed anything he’d ever seen before. It was almost like she belonged in the Ghost Zone.

But her personality wasn’t like any he’d ever encountered before, let alone in a spirit. He hadn’t realised it until now, or rather, he hadn't allowed himself to see it, but there was no denying the glimpses of something incredibly humane within her. As unusual a sight it might be, her love for her carnivorous plant wasn’t any different from that of a little girl playing with her puppy. The care she felt for it was evident in the curve of her smile whenever she glanced down at her little, potted friend. Her love and loyalty for her people were admirable as well. He’d been lying if he said he hadn’t been taken aback by her insistence of staying behind in order to protect her two subjects. As vain as it sounded, he’d only seen that kind of dedication and sacrifice in himselfーright when he took off to take on Pariah Dark. She’d even saved him, a ghost! Her alleged worst enemy! And all because she saw him in need and couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing.

He could see it now. Lady Arcana represented the best of both worlds. It was like she belonged with him…

Eyes widening in shock, he quickly tried to shake off the strange feelings taking residence in his core. Maybe he’d been too quick to judge Lady Arcana, but she was still a witch! It’d be incredibly foolish of him to ignore centuries of beef between their people just for a pretty face. Besides, even if ghosts and witches weren’t enemies, he still could never date her. It’d be too dangerous.

He had to snap out of those delusions, pronto. “Lady Arcana.” He called out to her. A few seconds passed and she said nothing, causing him to worry. Now that he looked closely at her, she seemed a little flushed; what if something was wrong with her?

“Lady Arcana, are you okay?” Phantom asked, even though, unbeknownst to him, he looked a little out of sorts himself. “Your face is a little red. Should we have someone check it out?”

“No!” She exclaimed a little too quickly and a little too loudly, which only made him worry more for her sake. She was frantically shaking her hands before her and her cheeks only took on a deeper shade of red.

Looking at him like she’d been caught doing something bad, the witch cleared her throat, although it looked a little forced. “I mean, no; I’m fine, really. Probably just a little affected from all the excitement.” Averting her gaze, she jerked her thumb behind her. “I, uh, I should probably go back to my people. They’re probably recruiting an army to come and save me as we speak.” She laughed it off weakly.

The halfa’s eyes shot open at that. Duh! What was he thinking!? Of course not seeing their queen return from the Ghost Zone would cause an uproar among her clan! “Oh, right! Yeah, it’ll probably be for the best. Wouldn’t want to start a war over a misunderstanding…” He rubbed the back of his neck as he, too, looked away. “I...I’ll let you be.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for saving me.” Lady Arcana said softly, and Danny could feel his heart swelling at her words. Unbidden, his expression fell a little when she put a little distance between the two. She was about to cast the spell that would send her home when his voice acted before his brain had time to catch up to it. “Wait!”

Turning around, she raised an eyebrow at him, “What?”

“Are there going to be any more meetings after this?” He asked. “I mean, after this whole fiasco, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to call it quits…”

In spite of himself, he couldn’t keep the seed of hope from being planted when she gave him a small smile. “We still need to solve the portal problem, don’t we?” Then, she smirked. “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Phantom!”

Danny was pretty sure he’d just smiled appreciatively at her, which was why he didn’t understand when she hastily turned around once more, ready to leave. “Well, until next time!”

“Wait, Lady Arcana!” He called out to her once more, hating how desperate he sounded.

“Yes?”

“I...u-uh,...well…” He stuttered before taking a deep breath. “Thank you for saving me, too.”

The way her expression softened was enough to bring forth emotions he long believed dead and buried. “You’re welcome, Phantom.” Finally, she focused on her anima, willing a purple light to engulf her as she chanted, “Omnes viae Romam ducunt.”

And with that, she was gone.

The snow-white haired ghost kept staring off into the distance even after she was long gone, his mind still trying to process the day’s events. But there was something that, hard as he might, he just couldn’t make sense of. She’d been able to grab him while he was intangible, but how? At first he thought it was a specific spell or something, but that theory was soon proven mistaken when not even Lady Arcana seemed to know how she’d been able to touch him.

Only one thing was for sure; he needed answers. And he had a pretty good idea where he’d be able to get them.

Danny’s musings were abruptly interrupted by the sight of his best friend pointing a fry accusingly at Sam, “When were you going to tell me you’re rich?”

A heavy silence suddenly filled their booth. It was like someone had forced a horrible screech out of a vinyl disc by scratching on its surface. Looking over at Sam, the halfa was sure she was about to drop her food, too stunned to even move. The way her eyes had popped open would’ve been comical, hadn’t it been for the tense atmosphere.

Shaking her head lightly, the Goth girl finally regained her senses, her shocked face morphing itself into a scowl. “Say it a little louder, Tucker.” She grumbled. “I don’t think they’ve heard you all the way to Siberia.”

Now it was Tucker’s turn to scowl. “Uh, no. You don’t get to be mad at me for saying it aloud.” He slumped back on his seat, turning his head away from her. “Not when you never even told me yourself; I had to find out through Jazz.”

“Jazz?” Danny repeated, confused. “When did you talk about this with Jazz?”

“Uh...we were texting each other and it came up.” He shrugged his concerns off. “But that’s not important right now. What matters,” he said hotly as he shot the brunette a pointed look, “is that we’ve been friends for over a year and you never told me! How come Danny and Jazz get to know you’re part of the Mansons but I don’t?!”

The youngest Fenton was about to try and explain things to the techno geek when Sam beat him to it, “Tucker, it’s not like I planned this! I was just having dinner with my dad when Danny and his sister appeared at the restaurant.” She explained, exasperated. “And honestly? The only reason Danny knows is because Jazz already did. It’s not like I saw them come in and waved at them like, ‘Hey, guys! I’m here with my Hella wealthy father! You wanna come with to our yacht in the Mediterranean?’” She droned in an overly cheery, sugary-sweet voice, her lashes fluttering excessively.

“You have a yacht in the Mediterranean?” Both boys asked, incredulous.

Her scowl deepened. “That’s irrelevant.”

“Yeah, well..,” His shoulders slouched, Tucker could only sulk, hurt. “Could’ve still told me. I thought we were friends, Sam.”

His words were like a knife piercing through her heart. They were friends, weren’t they? Despite their differences and some of his most obnoxious flaws, Tucker was still the first person to ever approach her without ulterior motives in mind. Even after they’d made it clear they could never work as a couple, he stayed with her. Annoying he may be, he was still the first friend she’d ever made on her own, and she loved him for it. He was right; he didn’t deserve to be hurt due to her secretive nature.

With a sigh, she scrubbed her face with one hand, feeling remorseful. “Tuck, I’m...I’m really sorry.” She confessed, earning the techno geek’s full attention. “You’re right, even if the secret was mine to tell, I should’ve let you know sooner.” She sighed once more, unable to meet his eyes. Sam hated allowing herself to be vulnerable in front of others; growing up, she’d learned to depend on no one but herself, therefore, showing her helpless, weaker, side to others was incredibly hard to do. “Listen, you’re the first friend I’ve made in a very long time. I was afraid of losing you.”

Although his posture was still guarded, Tucker couldn’t deny her words piqued his interest. “What do you mean, Sam? How is me knowing who you are going to lead to you losing me?”

“I sort of agree with Tucker.” Danny commented. “If anything, it’d bring you two closer.”

“Right?”

Chuckling mirthlessly, the Goth shook her head. Both boys flinched when they saw the pain reflected in her hazel eyes. “Look, being me isn’t easy, okay? I’m not saying life in general ain’t shitty, because that’d be lying, but my life is especially complicated.

“I grew up trying to live up to insanely high expectations, a childhood no kid should ever be forced to go through. I was constantly reminded of the near impossibility that was me making real friends, and I guess, once I reached puberty, it just made me cynical.” Sam admitted quietly, not looking up from her trail of food. “By the time I could try making friends of my own, I was already convinced the moment they learned of my family’s wealth, they’d start seeing me as their personal credit card, instead of my own person who deserves to be loved and accepted just for being who I am.”

Although she desperately tried to hide it, Danny and Tucker immediately exchanged concerned glances the instant she sniffled. Their hearts broke in two for the girl sitting with them. Sure, they’d been Casper High’s laughing stock from the beginning to end of their high school experience, but they always had each other. Sam...Sam spent the majority of her life alone. It was impossible not to feel for her.

“In...in the end,” God, how she hated the way her voice shook! “I decided hiding that part of me was easier. I wanted friends who liked me for me, and having a Black MasterCard was surely going to make things difficult.”

“You have a Black MasterCard?” Tucker accidentally let out. When Danny’s neon green glare started burning a hole in his skull, he backtracked. “I’m sorry, Sam. I mean...I guess I mean I’m sorry.”

“You are? But I’m the one who’s kept you in the dark this long!”

“Yeah, and it hurts.” He admitted. “But it’s obvious you had your reasons and after hearing them, man, I can’t blame you. I would also hide all that cash if I were you. Even though the temptation of flaunting my own private jet in front of all the asholes who used to shove me into lockers would be too great.”

Despite herself, his joke made her laugh. “Thanks Tuck. Friends?” She rubbed her eyes to wipe the imaginary tears away. She was relieved to know she didn’t cry; crying was something Sam Manson just didn’t do. It would’ve been mortifying.

He leaned over to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’re still friends. But you’re paying for our next meal.” That earned him a playful punch on the arm from the Goth, but the smile on her face betrayed her true emotions.

Shaking her head good-naturedly, she scoffed. “Deal.”

After that, the three kept talking amongst themselves. About everything and nothing. Nearing the end of their meal, Danny and Tucker were too engrossed reminiscing about their high school days per her request. Admittedly, just hearing the traumatising experiences they’d been through made her feel suddenly grateful for never attending the dreaded place herself. Still, after the tenth story retelling how some jackass had forced Danny to eat his jockstrap after losing a betーew!ー her mind wandered elsewhere.

Her last encounter with Phantom sent her reeling. The way they both complemented each other when they worked as a team was astounding. It reminded her of Grandma Ida’s tales of how things used to be before the ghosts forced them into hiding, when the two species were practically symbiotic of each other.

For the first time since she received his letter, she found herself trusting him. Most importantly, a part of herself came to wish she could indeed trust him. Perhaps all the centuries apart and resentment had clouded their people’s minds. Maybe they were really better off together than separated. She had to admit her knowledge on ghosts was very limited aside from what she’d been taught her entire life, and if there was something Sam was, that was inquisitive. She never took anything by face value, so why did she do just that with ghosts?

She needed to learn more about them. She needed to act like an individual, rather than a bee awaiting orders from the queen, and do a little research of her own.

She needed answers and, crazy as it might be, she knew where to find them.

“Hey, Danny?” Her voice stopped short Tucker’s retelling of his hellish experience dating the second most popular girl in school. When Danny’s baby blue eyes met hers, she almost lost her nerve. Almost. “Um, would you mind taking me to FentonWorks?”

#Danny Phantom #dp #dp fic #my fic #your heart #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #jazz fenton #Paulina Sanchez #star dp #Amethyst Ocean #ghost king! danny #ghost king au #witch queen au #witch queen! sam #enemies to friends to lovers

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slipping-through-my-fingertips · 4 years ago

Text

mirrorball

Summary: in every life, that they’ve ever lived, they’ve chosen to come back, and find each other, and fall in love with each other over and over again

Notes: As promised, another part of my folklore series. Enjoy!!

AO3

As much as Kurt loved going to the theater or eating dinner in dimly-lit restaurants around the city, his favorite dates were the ones spent at home.

When he and Blaine danced around each other in the kitchen trying out a new recipe for dinner. When there’s cheesecake cooling in the fridge. With music flooding their ears.

As they set the table, Kurt brings his arms around Blaine and pulls their bodies together. Their fronts pressed together and noses touching.

“I’m so in love with you,” he tells him.

The oven beeps so Kurt quickly moves away to get their dinner before it burns.

I want you to know

I'm a mirrorball

I'll show you every version of yourself tonight

I'll get you out on the floor

Shimmering beautiful

And when I break it's in a million pieces

Later, when the dishes are on the drying rack and the pots and pans are soaking in the sink, Kurt and Blaine are curled up together on the couch. The playlist from earlier is starting over, the sun has set and the apartment grows darker.

Blaine sits up to lit a candle but snuggles right back under the blanket with his boyfriend.

“I love you too, you know?”

Kurt kisses the top of his head.

“What if we hadn’t met?”

“If you didn’t come to Dalton?” Blaine asks.

Kurt nods.

“I’d find you,” Blaine says, “I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from being pulled towards you.”

“You really believe that?”

Blaine just kisses him.

Hush

When no one is around, my dear

You'll find me on my tallest tiptoes

Spinning in my highest heels, love

Shining just for you

For the next week, Kurt comes up with plenty of scenarios for a different life for them. Each time, Blaine has their perfect meeting to go along with it.

They’re getting ready together that morning. Standing in their small bathroom. Blaine applying gel and Kurt brushing his teeth.

“If I were a Prince...” he mumbles around the toothbrush.

“And I, a commoner living in a stone house outside the castle,” Blaine continued, “you’d come into town and bump into me while buying fabric. Our eyes met and boom: love at first sight.”

Kurt rolled his eyes and rinsed his mouth. “Or maybe you sneak into a ball where I am supposed to find my future husband. We dance together and I just know it’s you. It’s always you.”

Blaine had cupped his face and kissed him.

“Minty,” he said with a laugh.

Hush

I know they said the end is near

But I'm still on my tallest tiptoes

Spinning in my highest heels, love

Shining just for you

I want you to know

I'm a mirrorball

This back and forth became a game of “What if…” with Kurt normally asking the questions and Blaine being quick to answer.

“Okay, but what if…we didn’t live in Ohio. If I grew up here and you came from LA.”

“I’m not a Hollywood guy, Kurt, my acting would still take me to Broadway.”

“Maybe your career would take you to the West End in London.”

Blaine side-eyed Kurt for a moment. “Out of the two of us, I think you’re way more likely to go to the West End than me.”

Kurt chuckled. “You’re right.”

“And how come in all these situations, I have to come to you. How about you come to me?”

“Okay, you start then.”

Blaine takes in a breath and decides on his scenario.

I can change everything about me to fit in

You are not like the regulars

The masquerade revelers

Drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten

At eighteen, Blaine Anderson was expected to be married. Soon, his older brother Prince Cooper would take the throne, and until he and his wife produced an heir Blaine would be second-in-line for the crown.

The only problem with getting married was the lack of unmarried gay princes. As far as Blaine knew, he was the only one. Prince Sebastian had tried to court Blaine years ago but ultimately married Prince Hunter of the Southern Kingdom. Princes Nick and Jeff had been betrothed since birth in order to unite their respective kingdoms.

Due to this issue, his father was hosting a ball. All major and minor kingdoms were invited, especially those farthest away. Even ones that they normally did not interact with because Blaine was in desperate need of a husband.

Blaine’s only request for this ball was that it be a masquerade. His father, of course, thought this to be a bad idea but Blaine insisted. There was much less pressure on his shoulders if those he danced with and spoke to weren’t sure if he was the prince or not.

Hush

When no one is around, my dear

You'll find me on my tallest tiptoes

Spinning in my highest heels, love

Shining just for you

Kurt’s voice broke the fantasy. “So, in this situation, am I also a prince? Just from a far away kingdom?”

“If you’d let me finish,” Blaine said, “you’d know that information.”

His boyfriend lightly slaps his shoulder. “Don’t be mean.”

“Be patient,” Blaine countered.

“How about this instead?” Kurt inched closer to him on the couch. “We dance together at the ball and I pull you out of the ballroom, charm you, and we kiss just outside the party pressed together in the dark hallway.”

“Then what?” Blaine asked, their lips brushing together.

“We live happily ever after, of course,” Kurt told him before pressing their mouths together.

Hush

I know they said the end is near

But I'm still on my tallest tiptoes

Spinning in my highest heels, love

Shining just for you

When they wake up from their unprompted nap, the sun is just starting to set. Golden hour tanning Kurt’s pale skin and highlighting his messy hair.

Blaine only gets a few moments to stare at his boyfriend. Watching his breathing, the small twitches his body makes, and his unconsciousness making him move closer to Blaine. Then, he stirred and lazily opened his eyes.

“Hey you,” Blaine said.

Kurt hummed but even in his sleepy state, he gave Blaine a toothy smile.

“We should make dinner.”

In reply, Kurt snuggled closer to Blaine.

“Or we could order take-out.”

Blaine felt Kurt nod.

“Okay. Thai?”

Kurt shook his head.

“No Thai. Italian? I could go for some fettuccine alfredo.”

Another no.

“Alright, what do you want?”

“Greasy fries and a burger.”

Blaine abruptly moved away to stare down at Kurt, who groaned clearly unhappy that his space heater was gone. Kurt made grabby hands for Blaine to come back. Unable to resist him or cuddling, Blaine readjusted himself next to Kurt.

“Seriously, you want a burger?” Blaine asked.

“Yes please.”

With a short laugh, Blaine grabbed his phone from the nightstand and put in an order for delivery for burgers and fries.

“Milkshakes?” he questioned.

“Strawberry.”

And two strawberry shakes.

And they called off the circus

Burned the disco down

When they sent home the horses

And the rodeo clowns

As they unwrapped their burgers, Blaine started another scenario.

“Alright, this time I’m a famous sports player.”

Immediately, Kurt cut him off. “What sport?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Blaine told him. “And you’re dragged to a game with your dad or Finn or someone.”

“It matters to me.” Kurt sipped his shake. “If I’m to form a successful happy ending, I need all the information, Blaine. You know I’m a detail guy.”

Blaine bites his tongue. As usual, Kurt’s stubbornness was shining through. Except this time, he was clearly joking if his smirk had anything to say about it.

“Football.”

“You better get taller and put on some muscle mass first. You’ll get pummeled.”

"Says the formed McKinley High kicker."

"And I would've been pummeled otherwise," Kurt tells him.

“Fine, not football. Um, how about hockey?”

“You are an excellent skater.”

“Thank you.” Blaine beamed. “Anyway, I’m a jock and you’re a non-fan.”

“Professional jock,” Kurt corrected.

“Eat your burger and listen.”

I'm still on that tightrope

I'm still trying everything to get you laughing at me

I'm still a believer but I don't know why

I've never been a natural

All I do is try, try, try

I'm still on that trapeze

I'm still trying everything

To keep you looking at me

Kurt couldn’t believe he was letting his dad and Finn drag him to a hockey game. It’s freezing even if they’re not right up against the glass. Despite hot chocolate in his hands, Kurt’s shivering.

“Tickets came with money on them. Go buy a sweatshirt,” Burt says.

“You can take my coat,” Finn offers. “I want to show off my jersey anyway.”

Kurt takes Finn’s coat but instantly hands it back because it’s way too long and he can’t sit comfortably with it on.

“I’m going to the gift shop.”

“Be back soon if you don’t wanna miss the puck drop,” Burt tells him.

It’s hard to get lost in a hockey stadium because it’s just a circle so long as Kurt has his ticket he can get back to the seats. He finds the gift shop to be mostly empty despite the insane amount of people here for the game.

He remembers the patriotic colors his dad and Finn were wearing and tried to find the least offensive sweatshirt that supports the Ohio team.

“You don’t have to get Blue Jackets just cause you’re from Ohio,” a voice tells him.

“I rather not get booed at,” Kurt replies, resisting the urge to say the booing would be by his own family.

“Fair enough.” The man shrugs. “I’m partial to the black and silver of the Kings.”

Kurt looks at the sweatshirt in question. It’s much less...loud than the Blue Jackets.

“Isn’t that the opposing team?”

He smirks. It’s then that Kurt really gets a good look at the man. He’s not wearing either team’s colors. No nametag or uniform either. So, he probably doesn’t work for the stadium.

“Who are you exactly?”

“Blaine Anderson.”

Kurt shakes his hand. “Kurt Hummel.”

“Nice to meet you, Kurt.”

“You too but that didn’t answer my question, who are you? You don’t work here and you don’t seem overly invested in the game since you couldn’t be bothered to wear either of their jerseys.”

“Let’s just say, you’ll see me on the ice.”

Then, Blaine handed Kurt a piece of paper with his number on it and walked off.

Because I'm a mirrorball

I'm a mirrorball

I'll show you every version of yourself

Tonight

By the time Blaine has finished his alternative meeting, Kurt has dragged him away from the kitchen into the living room. He moved their coffee table out of the way and pushed the sofas back.

“So, I find out you’re a hockey player after the game,” Kurt said, “I text you on the way home asking if you were distracted because your team lost.”

“And I say, I couldn’t keep my eyes on the puck because I was searching for you in the stands.”

“Cheesy.”

Blaine smiled.

Kurt extended his right hand, “may I have this dance?”

“There’s no music,” Blaine answered but placed his hand into Kurt’s regardless.

Kurt pulled their bodies close so Blaine could rest his head against Kurt’s shoulder. Tucked together swaying in their living room.

“You’re all the music I need.”

#klaine fanfic #klaine fanfiction #klaine #my fics #folklore series

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thiswasinevitableid · 4 years ago

Note

for mermay, 9 indruck nsfw?

Here you go! #9 was folklore, Indrid’s design is based on a blue-ring Octopus, and I borrowed from one of the Discord convos we had about mer Indrid recently.

Content note: there is implied transphobia/misgendering in the reason Duck ends up in the water.

Duck goes to the depths still protesting, hands and ankles bound in rope and dark water closing over his head.

No amount of insisting he was the man he said he was or appealing to logic was enough; a woman aboard, even when he isn’t a woman, is bad luck and must be gotten rid off. So here he is, drowning for the sake of superstition, folklore and nonsense the reason his lungs scream in protest, denied air.

Whoever said drowning was like falling asleep was a damn liar; he’s in agony, reduced to his most basic state of a creature that wants to stay alive and cursed with the knowledge that he won’t. He shuts his eyes, as if that might make it more dreamlike, and circles past him, he feels fingers on his cheek and then, and then....

Then he’s waking up, chest rising and falling with ease. No more than a nightmare, then, he’s still on the ship-

No, wait, his blanket is floating where he kicked it away. He’s alive, he’s in some sort of bedroom, and he’s fucking confused.

Voices float in under the door, a lilting one reaching him first, “...most stubborn set of legs I ever encountered. A kiss is supposed to be enough, yet while his body can survive in our realm, it insists on remaining like itself.”

“Indrid, his majesty is going to be unhappy when he finds out.”

“I am aware, Vincent. And if my brother finds a drowning man, he may rescue him or not as he sees fit. He does not get to dictate my conscious.”

“I mean, I think you did the right thing” A woman’s voice now, “but he’s still pretty angry at you for the whole giving me legs incident.”

“You wanted to see your beloved, and I am almost as fond of Aubrey as I am of you. A charm that allows you to go between worlds is hardly cause for such a fuss.”

“It was the no-voice thing that bothered him.”

A sigh, “Time and again I have reminded him that strong magic comes with a price. In your case it was easily paid, because Aubrey recognized you instantly and kissed you. As if I would send my own niece into a situation where she might be trapped.” The last sentence is muttered, like the speaker knows no one will listen.

“I know that. That’s why you're my favorite uncle.”

“I am your only uncle” the smile is audible, “and I am just glad the two of you will be married soon. Now if you will excuse me, my foresight tells me my guest is awake.”

A door opens and shuts, and a moment later the curtain of kelp at the end of the room parts. Duck’s never believed in mermaids (or mermen), but that’s what swims to him now, human face and torso giving way to eight silvery tentacles dotted with deep blue rings. They’re almost as striking as his face, his features sharp and alien, crowned with silver-white hair.

“Hello” The mer smiles with sharp teeth, “How are you feeling?”

“Uh, not as confused as I could be on account of what I heard, but still tryin to work out why the fuck you saved me at all.”

“Three reasons: for starters, I dislike having corpses floating around the kingdom. I also do not see the point in having the power of foresight if I cannot use it to prevent suffering when possible. And finally I…” The calm smile on his face falters a moment, “I saw the moments that lead to your being thrown into the waves. You were condemned for being something you are not. I, ah, I could not let such an injustice come to pass.” His mask remakes itself, “and so here you are, Duck Newton.”

“And the kiss?” Duck raises his eyebrow.

“Ah, yes. If a mer kisses a dying human, that human will become a mer themselves. Except in your case, you have-”

“-Stubborn legs?”

A light laugh, “And here I thought I would be the one interrupting you. Yes, exactly. I have no idea why. I’m simply glad the magic worked well enough to help you breathe. There is a, ah, an issue however. My visions show that in your current state, you will not be able to survive on land.”

“But you said somethin about a charm to your, uh, niece?”

“That worked because it simply had to take her from mermaid to human; you’re stuck between forms in a way that, were I to apply the same approach to you it would end badly. As in accidentally turn you into a fish badly, at least in most timelines.”

“Huh” Duck worries the inside of his cheek with his tongue, “so I’m stuck here.”

“Indeed. I’m sorry.” Indrid sits on the foot of the bed, tentacles moving this way and that to fidget with the blankets, the bedposts, and the stray shells on the floor, “This has never happened before, and I did not mean to trap you in this way, I only meant to save you, to give you freedom.”

“That’s more than a lot of folks’ve tried to give me lately.” Tentatively, he touches the tentacle tip nearest him. It weaves between his fingers, the pressure from the suckers on the underside oddly pleasant. He rubs his thumb over a blue spot, which draws Indrid’s attention. His face goes pink and he pulls the tentacle back.

“Apologies, they have a mind of their own at times.”

“Don’t bother me. I, uh, I was just tryin to show you I ain’t mad. Feel a little adrift, but that’s a damn sight better then bein’ dead.”

“Adrift--OH, oh I see, you are going to say you do not know what to do now. The answer is heal; even though you are alive, your body and mind suffered before I saved you. You need rest and care, and I promise you shall want for neither. You are my honored guest, Duck Newton. My home is yours. I, ah, I would offer to let you leave the instant you are feeling able, but as you heard there are some issues with you being seen in this state.”

“Used to layin low.” Duck sighs, flopping back on the bed (or trying to, as he floats down onto the mattress instead).

“I gathered. If I had things my way, you would not need to do such things here. Alas, until my brother gets eaten by a shark, we may be dealing with this arrangement for some time” he gestures to the room, bathed in blues and greens as light filters down from the surface and in through the windows. Two tentacles gather the blanket, spreading it back up Duck’s body and smoothing it down.

“Rest now, Duck Newton. In the morning I will have much to show you.”

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

Duck wakes up clawing at the water above the bed, heart beating fast enough he fears it might eject itself up his throat.

The nightmares a fewer these last two days, but whenever they want to be done for good is fine by him.

He gathers seaweed green robe Indrid gave him and makes his way out of the bedroom and down the hall. Indrid gave him a bracelet of cowrie shells that’s enchanted to let him walk without floating away. He’s a strong swimmer, but without a tail to aid him he tires quickly against the force of the water.

The merman’s house is huge, an attempt by the king to keep him happy without giving him any useful power. Most rooms are cluttered with etchings and drawings or items salvaged from wrecks or the shoreline. There are spare beds, but after the night where Duck awoke in a panic and could not calm down, where Indrid found him the next morning exhausted and shaking, the mer offered to sleep in the same room with him. Duck pointed out that it was technically Indrid’s bedroom anyway and he could sleep there if he wanted to. The mer dragged a variety of comfy pillows into the corner and declared he would be quite happy there. More than once Duck’s woken up first to see him sprawled out on the cushions, always clinging one against his chest. Duck wonders what would happen if he offered to take it’s place. He suspects he could do so without issue.

He’s no stranger to being admired, though the last time someone eyed him so approvingly he ran off to sea to avoid marrying them. Indrid’s red eyes contain the same desire but none of the entitlement. The merman’s been staring at him since that first day, though it’s only recently that he let’s Duck seem him doing so, after Duck caught his eye and stared right back.

Teasing Indrid is more fun than he expected, because while the mer usually gives as good as he gets, some days he blushes and wiggles his tentacle tips under Ducks attention. Indrid is obviously high status and, in Duck’s view, the most captivating mer in the kingdom; making him go pinker than a virgin at a striptease from a little flirting is gratifying.

His absolute favorite part of his new home, aside from Indrid, are the gardens at the center. Coral glistens and rainbows of fish flit across his path, sea flowers bloom and wave as he passes by. The best place to sit is in a massive clam shell with an excellent view of the grounds and the city beyond. It also happens to be Indrid’s preferred location to draw.

The mer takes one look at him and extends a tentacle, guiding Duck down to nestle close to him. When they’re with arms reach, one hand leaves his drawing to pet Duck’s thigh soothingly. He tilts his head, intending to study the sketch and ask about it, but ends up with his head on Indrid’s shoulder, slipping back into sleep.

“Oh dear.” Indrid murmurs, closing the book as a flurry of voices swim towards them.

“So, the rumors are true; you’ve brought a human into our domain.”

“Good morning to you as well, dear brother.”

The king crosses his arms, glaring at them, “if you cannot provide a decent reason for your having him here, I will make exile him myself. Right now.”

Indrid’s expression and voice remain calm, but one tentacle coils around Duck’s ankle and his hand clings to the loose trousers, “He, ah, he is, ah”

“I thought as much.” The king swims forward.

“Pet!” Indrid grins triumphantly, “he’s my pet. You keep saying you wish I would find a way to occupy my time and stay out of trouble, and here he is.” Indrid pulls Duck into his lap, patting his head with such exaggeration Duck has to stifle a laugh, “I have been so busy with him the last few weeks I’ve had little time for anything else. Isn’t that right, Vincent?”

Their friend nods, “Yes, your highness, the prince has found Du--, uh, the human most diverting.”

The king narrows his eyes, “Very well. The human may stay in that capacity.” With that, he swims from the gardens, trailed by his advisors.

“I gotta start wearing a leash now?” Duck teases, realizing too late that he’d do so in an instant as long as Indrid was holding the other end.

The blue of the rings deepens, “Not at all. Apologies for referring to you as my pet, but the timelines shifted so heavily in the direction of him casting you into the open sea that I panicked.”

“Aw, you lied to the kings face just for me. Must really like me.”

“I do! I, oh dear have I not made that clear?” Indrid gathers Duck’s hands between his own.

“You have, I was just teasin you. I don’t mind playin your spoiled pet to get one over on him, provided you keep spoilin me.”

Indrid’s grin returns, “I’m certain I can manage that.”

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

“I hate it when he calls my bluffs.” Indrid glowers into the jeweled box just delivered to their doorstep. Right before Duck asks what’s wrong, the merman hands him a small piece of parchment.

Prince Indrid,

Included is a gift for your ‘pet,’ as you are apparently in need of it. It would be a shame for him to get lost, after all.

The note ends with the kings seal. Duck looks up as Indrid turns the box his way, revealing a collar studded with abalone shells and a leash woven from dark, sturdy seaweed. So many obscene images flood his mind it takes two tries before he can focus on Indrid’s words.

“...Thought I kept us clear of anyone who would bother to report us. I’m sure there’s a way around it, ruse aside you are my friend and equal and I will not ask you to humiliate yourself. Hmm, oh goodness, we will need to send word to Dani and Barclay that we cannot come to dinner to tonight, that’s not enough time to draw up a solution, though perhaps we can invite them here instead.” His tentacles trawl the ground as he paces the room.

“‘Drid?”

“Yes?” The mer stops, then his eyes widen, “you are serious?”

“Gotta let me offer first.” He replies with fond exasperation, “I fine with wearin it while we’re out. I know how you really feel about me and, uh, it, uh, makes me feel...safe?” It’s right on the border of a lie by omission, but he manages to get it out.

“I see” Indrid swims casually towards him, as if that will distract Duck from the pink creeping up his cheeks, “in that case, may I put this on you, pet?”

“Uh huh.” Duck tilts his chin up, shuts his eyes with a happy sigh as Indrid latches the collar in place. The mer stays chest to chest with him, testing to be certain the collar is comfortable.

“How is that?”

“Woof” Duck deadpans.

Indrid blinks, confused.

“It’s the noise a dog makes.”

Another blink.

“Y’know those things that are like sea lions but on four legs instead of flippers?”

“That’s what those are called. Fascinating.” Indrid loops the leash into place and Duck growls playfully. The mer pats his cheek, fingers lingering on his skin as he purrs, “good boy.”

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

“Are you ready?” Indrid tips to vials of purple powder into a bowl, causing sweet smelling swirls of color to fill the room.

“Yeah. Been ready for years.” Duck stands opposite from him, drumming his fingers nervously on the rim of the bowl.

A week ago, Indrid asked in that blunt way of his if Duck wanted his human form to be different than it was. When he said yes, the mer immediately swam from the table and into the library to pull books from shelves.

“It will take a few days to prepare; I am careful in all my spells but, well...well I suppose when it is you I am inclined to take even more care than usual.”

It’s not the spell that’s making his nerves bubble up his chest; it’s the component of it he has to contribute. A secret, a precious one, because powerful magic will not give something for nothing.

“Whisper it into the foam.” Indrid gestures to the golden bubbles on the surface of the bowl.

Duck keeps it short and sweet. Then blinding light surrounds him, pure white spiked through with pink and blue, and he collapses to the ground, unable to do anything but hold himself as the spell courses through him. When the colors fade and the room returns to view, it’s all he can do to make his legs stand.

“How, ah, how do you feel?” Indrid taps his fingers together nervously, four of his tentacles following suite.

“Like I got trampled by a horse and came out a new man.”

“Oh. Good.” The fidgeting intensifies. Duck can only think of one reason for that.

“‘Drid? Did, uh, did the spell mean you learned the secret?”

“Yes.”

“Does it bother you? What I said, I mean.”

“No.”

A pulse of water, flourish of blue and silver, and Indrid’s lips find his. Arms and tentacles lift and hold him as they spin slowly across the room, the mer moaning when Duck drags his hands up his chest. He keeps kissing him as he speaks, mouth growing needier after every pause, “I, there were only a few timelines where you confessed your feelings for me and I, I wanted them so badly but I swore I would only act on your feelings if you used them in the spell, not simply because I saw futures where you might.” Tentacles slide under his shirt and up his pant-leg, “ohhhh, touching you in visions is nothing compared to feeling you for real.”

“Can feel me as much as you want, darlin. Got some things I wanna get my hands on too.” He tangles his fingers in Indrid’s hair, glides his mouth down to kiss his collarbone and tease a nipple with his tongue.

“Oh my sweet little human, the things I am going to do to yo-”

The doorbell times and Indrid nearly drops him.

“Damn it all, I forgot we were hosting game night.”

“Don’t worry ’Drid,” Duck pinches the base on one tentacle, “I ain’t goin anywhere, we can pick this up another time.”

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

“I call that a success.” Indrid ushers Duck into the house. They’re returning from Aubrey and Dani’s engagement party (Indrid having provided Aubrey with a mer-charm of her own. As much as he loathes the idea, King Woodbridge has had to give the marriage his blessing; Dani is his only heir. If he disowns her, his throne passes to Indrid, a scenario he hates even more than a human/mer wedding.

Duck wore his collar all evening in case one of the king’s toadies got it into their heads to tell on him. It also matches the clothing Indrid bought him exceedingly well, and he’s not ashamed he admired himself while passing the mirror.

Indrid doffs his cloak as Duck closes the bedroom door, “You can remove that now my sweet.”

He leans against the carved driftwood, “And, uh, what if I don’t wanna?”

The mers hand pauses where it’s setting the leash on a table, “then I suggest you come here at once, pet.”

Not for the first time, Duck longs for a tail so he could speed through the water into Indrid’s arms. The mer is impatient as well, gives a wickedly charming grin as the lease whips out on it’s on to connect with the collar so he can yank Duck flush against him.

“Better, but you are still not as I need you.” Keeping the leash wrapped around one hand, the other starts on the buttons of Duck’s shirt. The human tries to help, only for tentacles to trap his wrists together, “thoughtful, pet, but I do so enjoy unwrapping you myself.”

“‘Drid, pleaseplease hurry.”

“Manners, pet” A tentacle thwacks his ass just as two others pull his pants to the ground.

“I said please” Duck laughs as Indrid nibbles his neck.

“Is that sufficient for someone who spoils you as much as I?” Indrid flutters his eyelashes.

Duck bumps their noses together, “Please, ‘Drid, want you to fuck me, you take such good care of me, wanna take care of you right back, I’ll make you feel so good darlin please.”

“Much better”

His remaining clothing falls away. Out of habit, he moves to cover himself, only for his arms and legs to be pulled outwards, leaving him spread-eagle in Indrid’s hold.

“Do not so much as think about hiding this perfect form from me, pet.” In the front folds between his tentacles, Indrid’s dick begins to emerge.

“Someone get off on admirin his handiwork?”

The smile softens, “I am admiring you, sweet one. You have the finest body I have ever laid eyes on; you did when we met, and you do now. I delight in holding it, touching it, these days I delight in seeing your comfort in your own skin.” A predatory glint returns to his eyes, “and of course, I like fucking you in it. In fact, that gives me an idea.”

Tentacles spin Duck in a half circle as Indrid swims to the mirror, meaning the human sees their reflections as the mer purrs in his ear, “I want you to see just how perfect you look on my cock, pet.”

“Jesusfuck, ‘Drid, yes” His own cock is hardening between his legs as small tendrils part and prod his ass; Indrid’s cock resembles a human one until it reaches it’s base, where the tendrils wait to push his partner further open or coax them to climax. They took some getting used to at first, cool and slick as the teased into Duck’s ass. Now he welcomes them, savors the tenderness with which they ready him.

Indrid coos and purrs in his ear, chirping whenever his cock grinds between Duck’s cheeks. The hand not holding the leash caresses his face while the tentacles see to everything else. And he means everything

“Fuck!” One coils around his dick as another rubs gently at his balls. The first time they tried this they were cautious, unsure how human anatomy would respond to the pressure and suckers. In Duck’s case, the answer was “cum so hard and fast it takes them both by surprise.” Indrid had taken one look at the cock with cum still beading at the head and swallowed it to the root, not relenting until Duck came a second time.

“Ohhhnnnyes” The head of Indrid’s cock presses into him, “oh I never tire of how you feel, pet. So warm and welcoming for you, ah” he whispers in Duck’s ear, “master”

“‘Drid you, you keep that up I’m gonna cum any second.”

“Not before I show you something important. Look” Indrid forces his head forward with the collar. His reflection writhes and bounces eagerly on a cock he can’t see but can definitely feel, lips parted in a prolonged moan as Indrid lays claim to every inch of him.

“My perfect, handsome pet, letting me play with him as I see fit.”

“Damn rightAHfuck, I’m close, if you twist like that again I’m gonna-”

“Cum” Indrid orders. Duck obeys, spilling into the water with a groan of thanks. The mer waists no time, traps him in place with his tentacles so can fuck him hard and fast, one hand tugging the collar and the other fisted in his hair, “oh yes, yes pet, just a little more, you can take a little more, you must, because you are my spoiled little treasure and I can cum in you whenever I please.”

“Fuuck” Duck turns his head for a messy kiss as the mer empties into him with a muffled trill.

One by one, the tentacles relax, Duck’s feet gradually meeting the floor as Indrid trails kisses down his spine.

“Goodness, whatever did I do to deserve you, Duck Newton?”

“Save my life?” Duck turns, gathering the mer into a hug.

“I did that because it was the right thing.”

“You’re right. Hmmmm” he peppers Indrid’s face with kisses, “must be because you’re so damn perfect.”

Indrid hums happily as Duck maneuvers them into bed, “I doubt that’s it, but I am too tired to argue.”

Duck lays down beside him, looping his leg over Indrid’s waist as tentacle twines around his ankle. Maybe one day it will cling to his fins instead, but he’s not all that worried about that now. However he ends up, as long as he’s with Indrid, he knows life will be perfect.

#Indruck #indrid cold/duck newton #mermay #mermay fills

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precisemuseum · 4 years ago

Photo

Puyo Puyo PC-98 Manual Translation

Once upon a time, in the age when the power of magic was bestowed upon the world, a powerful sorcerer created a great spell named "Owanimo." One of the strongest spells of all, it could banish monsters to a space between dimensions, but he sealed it away, recording it only in his "Book of Magic."

Not because it was forbidden knowledge or incredibly hard to use, but because to him, it seemed useless. And thus, the spell entered a dormant state, awaiting a day when a new sorcerer would come forth...

Years came and went until finally, the seal came undone with the appearance of a great sorceress: Arle Nadja. One day, this auburn-haired girl with golden eyes came across the Book of Magic.

"Owanimo...?" Arle studied the chapter on forbidden spells for what seemed like hours. "When four monsters of the same color are in your sights, chant this spell loudly. The Goddess of Time shall listen, and whisk the monsters away to a space between dimensions."

Arle continued to read, learning the Owanimo spell, but then closed it with a heavy sigh once she finished.

Why set it aside like that? Well, Arle had never seen "four monsters of the same color" as the spellbook described.

"I spent so much time reading, and it's not even a spell I can use for anything..."

But just as fate brought the Book of Magic into Arle's hands by chance, so it brought from the world of darkness the very monsters she had read about.

And thus, a great battle awaits. With her great magic abilities, and the newfound power of "Owanimo," Arle Nadja sets out to protect the world.

CHARACTERS A・C・P

Arle Nadja The protagonist of the game and the (aspiring) sorceress who released the spell "Owanimo". Nobody knows how she ended up this way, but despite looking like she wouldn't hurt a fly, she's actually a merciless girl that slaughters innocent Puyo. She currently attends a magic school, but she's already too scary for anything to stand in her way. That's my opinion, anyway.

Carbuncle During the game, when you find your eyes moving towards the center of the screen... Awww~! He's sleeping!!! This is Carbuncle. When he's lying still, he almost looks like a loaf of bread, but as he sings and dances he shows off a wide range of movement and facial expressions. A truly profound deuteragonist.

Puyo Puyo Despite their fate as short-lived, jelly-like monsters who are stacked and popped, they have managed to secure a leading role this time around, and even get to dance on the title screen. They're sure to enjoy this special opportunity to perform on a grand stage in five different colors. Looking at them with an empty stomach will reveal their appetizing nature and make you hungry. Hehe.

Arle, the protagonist, is brimming with curiosity.

PRACTICE STAGE ENEMY MONSTERS

Skeleton T While he appears as the epitome of a tea-loving Japanese man, he is a fine monster as well. He will be the first opponent you face during your trials. But you'll find that in a rather endearing way, he's a miserable fool who doesn't even know how to rotate his Puyo. Boohoo. Sipping bitter green tea during battle will instantly make you one of his tea-drinking buddies.

Nasu Grave An eggplant. Specifically, a Kamo eggplant. On top of that, he makes for a rather strange presence. Just what the heck is this thing? Despite appearances, his defensive power is high, so novices might find themselves struggling a bit. You'll have no choice but to keep at it and apply a steady technique. But in the end, your opponent is still just an eggplant. A regular talking eggplant. …Heh.

Mummy Even though it's called Mummy, it isn't a mommy. It's a mummy. What? You already knew that? Oh, deary me, I'll wrap it up then. (←One-man comedy routine.) Mummy is an opponent that makes you want to bully it because the crying face it makes when it's about to lose is just too cute. Sorry, Mummy.

The Goddess of Time whisking the monsters away.

BATTLE STAGES 1-6

Draco Centauros As you might expect from someone who shouts "Rawr", this half-dragon being takes pride in those sharp horns. Appearing as the first obstacle of your quest, this opponent has top tier judgment and piece precision but takes forever to think things through. Because of that, she's a pitiful lass who is only ranked as a third-rate monster girl... You heard me right! Draco is a girl. I'm sure someone around you thought she was a boy...

Suketoudara A pollock who has an aura of coming from some far-off sea. However, he seems to have the character of an Edokko. He's an athletic-type who tends to err on the side of caution. However, he's also arrogant. When he wins, he makes a face that screams "You're no match for me!", which is truly aggravating. Many say they especially don't want to lose to him.

(TL Note: Literally meaning “Child of Edo”, Edokko is refers to a person born and raised in Edo (renamed Tokyo in 1868). It implies personality traits such as being assertive, straightforward, cheerful, perhaps a bit mercantile.)

Sukiyapodes Let's just get this out of the way; he has a giant foot. It measures about 16 mon. Even though he has a complex about it, he directs that frustration into bettering himself. Well, we're not sure if that last part's true, but he always has a cheerful expression on his face as he slowly and steadily builds precise chains. He's a bit of an unpleasant guy.

(TL Note: mon is a unit of length for measuring the size of one's foot. 1 mon is equivalent to 2.4 cm. His foot is 38.4 cm, or 15.12 in.)

Harpy Now then, it is time for Miss Harpy's song. She loves singing more than she loves having three meals a day. She could sing for ages if no one stopped her. If there was something like a "Puyo Puyo World Karaoke Tournament", she'd win for sure. But unfortunately, this is only Puyo Puyo.

Sasori Man “How d'ya do, partner? I’m a famous Naniwa salesman known 'round these parts as Sasori Man. Put 'er there! Huh? Yer askin' for my secret to success? I ain't spillin' the beans no matter how much ya beg. That's somethin' to look forward to when we do battle. Till then, happy trails.”

Panotty A flute-playing boy. But honestly, he's nothing more than a noisy, mischievous brat. He disrupts his opponent's chains by dropping large amounts of Nuisance Puyo on them. Everyone has fallen victim to his antics at least once. What a truly ruthless Puyo technique. For when his last flute sounds, the dead shall be raised. Just kidding.

BATTLE STAGES 7-12

Zombie A zombie. All of his lines are stuff like "Ugheeee." This zombie is quite the formidable trickster. Sometimes he will be swiftly defeated, and other times he will take you by surprise and suddenly pull off a huge chain. If you don't take him seriously, you'll find yourself in a tough spot. Battle with caution.

Witch In the forest stands a grand mansion. Living there was a very ordinary family whose lineage can be traced back hundreds of years. The family's only daughter was born and was raised in a very ordinary fashion. But there was one thing that was not so ordinary...That young lady was a haughty witch. Ohohoho! Ohohohoho... *fadeout*

Zou Daimaou Pawoo! The mammoth mogul has arrived! A young aristocrat who comes from an ancient and distinguished line of royal Indian elephants. An irritating fellow who likes bad puns, gives his words an elephantine quality, and casually rhymes. He also enjoys Puyo Puyo. Plus, he's strong. An aphant-garde aristocrat whose ground-shaking chains are as sharp as his tusks.

Schezo A silver-haired man with deep blue eyes. Schezo, the embodiment of picturesque beauty. However, he's been deemed a pervert thanks to Arle, and strives to restore his honor by challenging her.

B-E-A-U-T-Y! Perfection won't pass you by! P-R-I-N-C-E! Of the Puyo Puyo World, it's meant to be! Go now! Go forth! Show us what you're really worth!

...Well, this has turned into something rather silly..

Minotauros Risking life and limb for his duties, a bull who lives by the code of chivalry, leaving a flurry of cherry blossoms in his wake. That is Minotauros. Ever since Rulue rescued him long ago, he has served as her devoted attendant like a faithful dog. Seeing him like this brings some to tears. For Rulue, he'd go through hell and high water. He's giving it his all today, and his one-eyed look is as cool as ever.

Rulue A woman truly worthy of the title of "Fighting Queen". The queen of the Puyo Puyo world. There's nothing that she can't obtain... Oh wait, there is something — Satan's love. Possessing a very jealous nature, Rulue is always lying in wait, ready to obliterate anyone who gets close to Satan. It's rumored that her true strength is even greater than Satan's.

BATTLE STAGE 13

Satan He is the king that rules over heaven and earth. He soars the skies with wings that slice through wind. His two horns point towards the heavens. His sharp eyes are like glistening gems. Cloaked in the veil of night, his devilish hand beckons you in. He is darkness’s cherished protege. It seems playing Puyo Puyo is a guilty pleasure of his. His true strength is unknown. It's said he's won the Puyo Puyo World Championship a countless number of times. In any case, he's obviously a bigshot. Can you truly defeat Satan, who boasts of elite skills in speed and chaining?

(You can download the PDF here)

#puyo puyo #translations #tl acy #text #puyo puyo pc 98 #source florek #photo

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rohad93 · 4 years ago

Text

Moonlit Masquerade: Ch 10

Luz appraises herself in the mirror one final time as she gets ready to leave. She holds her mask in her hand as she looks at the eyeliner King had carefully applied for her after she’d gotten out of the shower, as well as the glyphs inked carefully behind her ears, giving them a pointed appearance.

For someone with no eyelids, he's really good at it.

She steadies herself on the sink, as she stares back at herself in the mirror.

Was their milk in her lunch? Her stomach is squirming uncontrollably.

Aye dios mio

Shes is so nervous.

She decides talking to her mom might make her feel better. She pulls out her phone and starts the recording.

"Hey Mamì, I'm about to go to a magical masquerade party and confess my feelings to one of my closest friends…well, wish me luck!" When the vlog is saved she pockets her phone.

She takes a deep breath and exits the bathroom and walks down the stairs where everyone is waiting on her.

Eda and Lillith are sitting on the couch talking quietly to each other, King is curled up on a cushion beside them.

She clears her throat softly, drawing everyone’s gaze.

“Well, how do I look?” she asks nervously, holding out her arms and doing a little spin.

A black vest fits snugly, buttoned around her frame over a dark violet dress shirt tucked into the waist of her black dress pants, which stop just below the ankle, too rest on her polished black dance shoes. Her hair is slicked back much like at grom and the flower she had picked up at the market is pinned to the vest on her chest, a bright pop of white against the darks of her clothes.

She feels really fancy actually and she kind of likes it, even if it’s a little strange for her.

Eda lets out a long, low whistle as she stands and walks over to Luz with Lillith trailing behind.

“You look fantastic, Kiddo.” Eda grins, walking circles around her.

“Very dashing.” Lilith agrees, smiling.

"You will conquer your enemies and the heart of that measly girl!" King raises his tiny fists into the air.

Luz puffs her chest out at the praise.

"That illusion on your ears is pretty impressive," Eda hums. "Maybe we could do something like that with the other ones.

Luz is momentarily sidetracked by the idea.

"Do you think if I drew the fire glyph on the palm of my hand I could shoot fireballs?"

"That sounds incredibly dangerous…," Eda says.

Lilith is relieved that her sister is being sensible for once.

"And totally awesome! We'll wait till after the party to try it though."

Lilith slaps a hand against her forehead.

She puts on her mask. It covers her face from her forehead to her cheeks, leaving her eyes and mouth exposed. It's black with bright swirls of purple around the eyes and a pair of upward curved horns on the forehead.

“Wait, how am I going to find Amity if she’s wearing a mask?” Luz suddenly remembers.

“The Blights will be wearing masks, but they aren’t enchanted with the glimmer spell. They’re the hosts and it would be quite problematic if no one could find them.” Lilith soothes her worry.

“That and they’re too proud to hide,” Eda huffed. Lilith doesn’t disagree with the statement.

“Oh, well, I guess I’m ready then.”

"You got this kid, show that girl of yours some of that bad girl coven charm." Eda winks, prompting her sister to roll her eyes even though she's smiling.

"Right!" She smiles and bolts toward the door.

"Hey, hold on!" Eda calls and she slides to a stop looking back at her mentor. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Eda questions.

"Uh, bye?" She tries and Eda chuckles, looking at the girl fondly.

She holds out her hand and a few seconds later her staff flies into the room landing in her outstretched fingers before she tosses it to Luz, who scrambles to catch it before it can clatter to the floor. She looks at the staff in her hands and then back up at Eda.

"Be careful, and try not to make too much racket whenever you come back in." She smiles and Luz's face breaks into a bright grin.

"I won't, I love you!" she calls as she runs out the door.

Owlberts wings pop open and she straddles the staff and takes off toward her destination, wind whipping through her hair as she flies above the treeline.

Eda and Lilith watch her go from the doorway.

"She's got this." Eda crosses her arms and leans in the doorway. Lilith hums in agreement.

The cool air helps calm her nerves some as she directs Owlbert toward her destination.

"You can do this, you're Luz Noceda, you've done way harder stuff than this!" She hypes herself up on the short flight to Blight Manor.

Though, nothing she's ever done before has had such power to potentially break her heart…

She shakes it off and clutches the staff tighter.

She's going to do this!

As she rides through the air she can see the moon in the sky, it's large, full and not surprisingly, blue.

A bright cobalt in fact.

She knows what a blue moon is in her world, it's just a second full moon in one month, but she's not surprised at all that in the Boiling Isles it's actually blue.

Soon Blight manor comes into view, it’s as large as Luz imagined it would be. It reminds her of a Victorian-era house she saw in a history book once. She glides to the ground outside the large black gate that encircles the house.

A pair of stone gargoyles sit outside the gate and suddenly their eyes light up.

“Invitation” an eerie, breathy voice drifts out of the statues and Luz jumps.

“Oh… uh.” she digs the paper out of her pocket and holds it up, then the gate swings open and the statue’s eyes go dark.

“That’s so cool…,” Luz whispers, starry-eyed as she walks up to the house.

She knocks on the door and after a few seconds the door opens up and Emira is standing there in a long golden colored dress. Her hair is out of its normal braid and done in long ringlet curls around her head. Her mask is the same color as her dress and studded with little crystal gemstones.

“Hey, Emira,” Luz greets with a grin.

“Hey, come on in." She stepped out of the way and gestured inside. By the lack of recognition on her face, Luz can tell that Emira has no idea who she is.

She follows the older teen inside.

"You can leave your staff here." She holds a hand out to a rack affixed to the wall that already has a number of staves hanging from it.

Luz carefully hangs it up and follows Emira through the entryway into the main room which is already filled with people in masks chatting and helping themselves to the refreshments.

"Enjoy yourself," Emira says before disappearing into the crowd.

Luz looks around at everything. Everyone is dressed to the nines and there are some very interesting masks among the crowd. She doesn't recognize anyone, but that was the point she supposed.

The lights are low but there are floating sconces with fire to give the room a certain ethereal glow and upbeat music is wafting around the room. She just happens to look up and her mouth falls open. The ceiling is a rounded dome of glass, allowing for a clear view of the night sky and the moon slowly moving overhead, it's blue light shining onto the high polished floor.

Luz has seen a lot of amazing things since coming to the Boiling Isles, but this really does make the top five.

The food looks amazing but she really can't bring herself to eat right now.

Instead, she begins scanning the room, looking for a certain head of mint green hair.

She glances over the dance floor where a few people are already dancing but doesn't see who she's looking for among them. She walks around, taking it all in.

She catches a few people's eyes and they wave or nod. She smiles but doesn't stop to talk, she's on a mission.

After five minutes she finally turns around and freezes.

Amity

She'd recognize her anywhere... provided she wasn't wearing an enchanted mask of course.

She’s standing on the other side of the room, looking around, and Luz hopes it's her she's looking for.

She finally really looks at her and her mouth goes dry.

Amity is wearing a dark, magenta-colored dress that stops at mid-shin and the ‘v’ shaped collar dips just below her collar bones. The long sleeves go all the way down to the back of her hands and are affixed to gold rings on her middle fingers to hold them in place. Luz swallows thickly as she takes in the girls’ entire appearance. She’s pretty sure those are the same shoes she wore to grom and there’s a black choker wrapped around the column of her neck. Her mask is black with fang-like points framing her cheeks and little white stars painted on it.

She’s never seen Amity with her hair down before and it does weird things to her insides.

A gleam catches her eye and her gaze is drawn to the brooch pinned to the left side of her chest.

The brooch Luz had given her.

Seeing this sends Luz’s heart too thumping loudly in her chest, but it also emboldens her.

She squares her shoulders and straightens her vest before walking confidently across the room toward her, carefully maneuvering around the other guests but never taking her eyes off Amity.

Amity is facing away from her when she stops just behind her and, resolved, reaches up to tap the other girl’s shoulder.

Amity looks over her shoulder and her curious face turns surprised before she spins around to face her.

“It’s you,” she says, softly, eyes wide behind the mask and Luz’s heart is beating so hard she’s surprised Amity can’t hear it, but her nerves are tempered by a lack of reaction that tells her that Amity really doesn’t recognize her.

“Hi” Luz smiles and dips herself in a half-bow, holding out a hand. She’s seen this in more movies and books then she can count so she figures, why not?

The greeting gesture is familiar to Amity, being from the upper echelons of Boiling isles high society.

She slips her hand into Luz’s and her anonymity emboldens Luz to a level she could never even begin to dream of without it as she leans down farther and skims her lips over the back of Amity’s knuckles, hardly a touch at all but it’s enough for Amity to make a surprise choked noise.

Luz straightens up and scratches the back of her head with her free hand and chuckling sheepishly.

“Sorry, too much?” She asks.

“No! No, it’s fine.” Amity chokes out as her hand is released. "You look very nice." Which is an understatement of unparalleled proportions she thinks.

Her 'date' is about her height, lean and cuts a very nice profile in her fitted suit.

Something is so familiar about her, but the glimmer on her mask keeps Amity from really focusing on what it is. She supposes that she'll know before the evening is through.

"Thank you." She seems to straighten up at the compliment. "You’re beautiful." She smiles and Amity flushes behind her mask. At the many parties her parents had dragged her to over the years she's heard a variety of compliments. Cute, adorable, pretty.

Usually Adults talking to her like she’s a baby.

This is the first time she's been told she's beautiful and it makes her knees weak because she knows the girl standing in front of her means it.

"Thank you." She smiles shyly.

“I’ve never seen you with your hair down… it’s nice.” Luz says and the young witch flushes all the darker and Luz can’t help but grin.

"I thought I'd do something different…" She shrugs and is reminded that this person knows her.

Before they can say anything else, Edric and Emira appear on a nearby raised dais in a puff of blue smoke.

Edric is wearing a gold colored vest and mask that matches his twins' but it's over a black dress shirt tucked into black pants.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blight manor." Edric holds up an arm and takes a dramatic bow, making the tails of his vest swish about with the movement.

"Remember not to reveal yourselves to anyone until the party ends when the blue moon is directly overhead." She points up and all the guests look up at the celestial body that is only just peeking past the edge of the glass to be in view.

At least two hours before it's overhead.

"And enjoy yourselves!" the twins echo with a wink before they draw a spell circle and disappear as quickly as they had appeared.

"Those two are a riot…," Luz chuckles once the twins have finished officially starting the party.

“You know Ed and Em?” she asks, trying to think of some way to make conversation but then just wants to slap herself for that. “Oh… well, duh, they invited you, so obviously you must…,” she trails off, embarrassed and Luz can see the pink dusting her cheeks. The mask doesn’t cover much and she smiles.

“Ah, well, I wasn’t exactly on their list of invitees,” she chuckles. “I asked them if I could come.” she shrugs.

"You willingly wanted to come to this? Why?" Amity asks with a laugh.

"Of course!" Luz grins. "I knew you'd be here." She says this like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Amity feels like tonight is going to be a theme of her being red faced and embarrassed. She thought it was bad when Luz was around.

She stiffens at the thought, but quickly pushes it aside.

“Emira seemed to figure out how I felt about you and I think she took pity on me.” Luz chuckles with a shrug.

Amity’s brows furrow at that, Emira knows how she feels about Luz, why would she encourage some secret admirer? Then again that seems like the kind of teasing thing her sister would do.

Now that the party has officially begun, more people have moved out onto the dance floor and a quick upbeat song is playing.

Her date looks at her smiling, and there's something so achingly familiar about it that tugs at Amity's heart strings.

"May I have this dance?" She holds out a hand, open palm inviting.

She smiles and rests her own in hers.

#Lumity #Luz Noceda #Amity Blight #Edric Blight #Emira Blight #Eda Clawthorne #Lillith Clawthorne #King #TOH #the owl house #fic #Moonlit Masquerade

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i-dream-of-twilight-sparkle · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 29: Starlight’s Mother, Part 5 - Closure At Last

Now that things settle down after the heartwarming moment between Starlight and her mother after telling her everything about when she traveled in time in a dangerous maneuver to a mother who spent most of her life protecting Equestria. Twilight continues on recapping the villains she’s faced.

Twilight: Ok… so now we’re back to Starlight saving Equestria from Chrysalis. This resulted in pretty much the rest of Chrysalis’ army to our side. So Starlight didn’t just help save us, she’s the very reason we have more allies then ever. She technically helped jumpstart our expansion to ally with as many nations outside of Equestria as possible before the school of friendship even started!

Sunset: Yes, having the Changelings on Equestria’s side certainly provide some unique allies. Helps that they get fed by simply walking around and feeling the different kinds of love that we ponies have.

Starlight: One of the Friendship School’s brightest students is a changeling!

Twilight: Indeed! Ocellus is a real book bug!

Sunset: So what else came after Queen Chrysalis’ return?

Twilight: After Queen Chrysalis was defeated again… I guess was when the Pillars of Equestria returned from Limbo along with the Pony of Shadows who just happened to be a friend they neglected named Stygian. We helped them mend their friendship, and now we have all of them walking around Equestria. It’s been kind of nice to have some ponies who know about the past to talk to

Sunset: The Pillars being back on Equestria is definitely very interesting. I imagine they all must of had some culture shock at first, but it is a great point to have ponies who lived so long ago to talk to.

Twilight: Though now we have spirit summoning, we’ll have even more to pull from! As long as they have a living relative, or if they were friends with the pillars, Celestia, or Luna.

Sunset nods

Twilight: After that though… other then the aforementioned return of Sombra. as well as Chrysalis and Tirek also returning one more time there was only one more... Though you’ll probably kind of laugh at first, given she was just a little filly… a crazy evil one… but a little filly nonetheless.

Sunset: Heh heh heh, ok… What was her name?

Twilight: Cozy Glow

*THUNDER BOOM*

The moment Twilight said Cozy Glow, time essentially froze for Sunset and the loudest thunder boom from outside is heard. Startling the group as once again Sunset Shimmer gets a huge jog to her memory. The group watches in horror as Sunset writhes around as if having a seizure. She lets out a huge scream, and lays on the floor.

Firelight: Shimmy?!

Starlight: Mother?! What’s wrong?!

Sunset heaves as if to breathe hard once again, and slowly gets back up. Once she has recovered, she faces the group with a determined face.

Sunset: …I remember everything now.

Starlight: Remember everything…? You mean… your death…? and who was responsible?

Sunset nods

Sunset: Cozy… Cozy Glow was there... The three anarchists were her and her parents!

The whole room gasps

Starlight: But wait… you died more then two decades ago… Cozy was just a filly when we met her… how does that possibly work?!

Sunset: Allow me… to explain…

I’ll begin with saying who Cozy’s parents were. Her father was a unicorn named Cheque Mace, who was a burly stallion, his Cutie Mark was the king piece of a Chessboard. Like said piece of the chessboard, he’s slow, but he was calculating and strong. Cozy’s mother was Glitterani an average sized pegasus mare. her cutie mark being the queen piece of a Chessboard. Like the Queen piece, she could be quite fast and dangerous.

What they had in common they were both narcissistic psychopaths. They could not feel love, and their only definition of friends were if they did something for them and/or gave them power, their only reason for marrying and giving birth to Cozy was to have more ponies in their ranks. As even back then, even the more antagonistic ponies wanted nothing to do with their sociopathic tendencies or thought their goal was insane.

Their goal was to take all of the magic in Equestria, either to take it for themselves so they can rule the world. Or if failing that… make sure everypony is magicless in the twisted statement of “if they couldn’t have it, no one else will”. They seeked 6 powerful artifacts capable of being conduits to gather all the magic of Equestria in one spot...

The entire rest of the group gasp recalling that’s exactly what Cozy Glow did under the School of Friendship

Sunset: To be perfectly clear of what would of even happened if they managed to succeed for long. Was that it wasn’t going to really be possible for either of them to gain power from collecting all the magic of Equestria. It most likely was going to result in Equestria becoming magicless, but even if these 3 knew that’d be the most likely result. They didn’t care, they wanted to inflict pain and suffering on the entire world.

I have no idea why they got so evil, but it may be safer to just say they were just born pretty messed up. Because there was not going to be anything redeemable about them, the elements that make up Friendship never occur to them.

They’d rather lie and mislead then be honest.

They have a twisted sense of loyalty that they say only applies to them

They are not generous at the least, and would refuse to give even the most basic needs.

They have no kindness in their hearts.

The only thing that makes them laugh is the suffering of others.

And the magic of friendship is only power to them...

I had to try to take them out somehow someway before I fully retired, as I was afraid they’d fulfill their plan within the next few years before Celestia found Twilight. I could nip them in the bud before things really got bad, and while Cheque Mace had some skill as a unicorn. I would wipe the floor with him on a 1-on-1 duel, Glitterani was fast but nothing my magic couldn’t handle, and Cozy Glow was the most unknown but she was a just a little filly who was also a Pegasus. Perhaps if there’s one thing I underestimated the most about them, was Cozy’s manipulation tactics…

*Flashback*

Sunset had just arrived in the location that would later become New Haven. The train tracks leading here hadn’t even been made yet, and there was only one building at this time that had a front and back entrance, the back leading to Nightmare Cliffs. Sunset had received a tip that’s where Cheque Mace, Glitterani, and their young daughter Cozy Glow fled once they caught wind Sunset was after them. As Sunset approaches the building, she can hear the faint sounds… of a crying child. Sunset gets a closer look, and finds a little pink pegasus filly straight in the middle of the building with curly light blue hair and bows, she had no Cutie Mark yet.

Sunset identifies her as Cozy Glow. She approaches cautiously. Cozy Glow looks toward the front entrance and sees Sunset. Continuing to cry to try and get the sympathy of Sunset.

Cozy Glow: A…ar…are y-you… S-Sunset Shimmer? You’re the Princesses’ protege, aren’t you?

Sunset: Not anymore, really. But even so, I am here to put you and your parents into justice. You will never take the magic of Equestria away.

Cozy: Whaaaaaat? Me facing justice? But I’m only a filly! I’m not responsible for my parents’ actions!

Sunset: Even so, I don’t know what they taught you. We may try to at least see if you can be changed... if you can prove that you’re different enough from your parents.

Cozy: Oh, Golly! But I am! I-i-i-i have no choice to go with them because they’re my p-p-parents… they take p-p-pleasure in a-a-abusing me physically and emotionally. And when it comes to crimes, if I refused, they would k-k-kill m-me… and they tell me that if I was captured, I’d just end up r-r-rotting in the Canterlot dungeons… But you said they’d try to help?

Sunset isn’t completely sure she can take Cozy’s words at face value. But she wouldn’t put it past the other two to end up having a daughter that wants to be good but they abuse her to the point where they force her to go along with their plan.

Sunset: Yes, if we deem that you can be a good pony in the way your parents can’t… Equestria would welcome you...

Cozy: Wow! That sounds so swell, Sunset Shimmer! Wanna be friends?

Cozy looks at Sunset with a big grin and puppy-dog eyes.

Sunset: I… guess?

Suddenly a voice from just outside is heard

Cheque Mace: COZY!

Glitterani: How dare you betray us! We ought to destroy you along with Scumset…

Cozy: Ahhhh! Help me, Sunset! My parents are here!

Sunset puts up a determined face, and steps in front of Cozy to protect her

Sunset: Cheque Mace and Glitterani! Your life as criminals are coming to an end today! And with any luck, Cozy will be a better pony then you two ever will be.

Cheque Mace: I think you are mistaken, for it is your life that is ending today.

Sunset: Not when I have a reason to get back, once I’m finished with you.

Cheque Mace: Oh... are you talking about your “darling” Fi-Fi

Sunset goes wide-eyed

Sunset: How do you know about me and Firelight? I never even told the Princess about him…

Cheque Mace: I have more eyes then you think, Sunset. Maybe when I’m done with you, I’ll give him a visit. And show them your decapitated head!

As Cheque laughs evilly, Sunset rages and blasts both Cheque Mace and and Glitterani out of the building and gives chase leaving Cozy behind in the building. Sunset confronts Cheque and Glitterani near the edges of Nightmare Cliffs. They stand at first at a standstill, a decent length from each other in a triangle formation. Sunset on one point, Cheque Mace to the right of Sunset’s view, and Glitterani on the left.

Glitterani takes the first move, speeding towards Sunset and spins around fast enough to create a tornado. Forcing Sunset to use magic to bend some earth around her hooves so she remains stationary, so she isn’t blown away by the tornado. This however also leaves Sunset vulnerable to Cheque’s lasers without protection. Sure enough as Sunset entrenches herself, Cheque fires lasers but Sunset knows defensive shield spells that easily protect her. Glitterani just trying to fly around to distract Sunset and force her into putting down her shield just enough for Cheque Mace to get a direct hit on Sunset. But suddenly…

*THUNDER BOOM*

A lightning strike startles Glitterani as she wasn’t too far from the bolt as it struck. She stops in the air, covering her ears after the large boom, and shock of almost being seriously hurt or worse. This leaves a clean shot for Sunset to make a small hole in her shield, so she can target Glitterani. Sunset fires her shot, and she gets a direct hit on her right wing. Rendering it useless for certainly well past this fight. Glitterani falls dangerously close to just off the cliffs but just manages to land at close to the edge.

This also gets rid of the tornado that Sunset had to keep herself stationary for, now free to move however she feels. Leaving Sunset only having to deal with Cheque Mace on a 1-on-1. An advantageous position for her. Off in the distance a faint laugh of a child is heard, but Sunset ignores it as she locks eyes with Cheque Mace. The stare down as either waits for the first move.

Finally, Cheque is the first one to flinch as he fires a large blast at Sunset’s direction. She smugly smiles and says

Sunset: Check. Mate.

Just as she gracefully dodges via a backflip that transitions into a teleport closer to Cheque and fires a counter laser that curves straight at him

Cheque Mace: Noooooooooo!

The laser hits him off to the side, and off the cliff. Sunset assumes he’ll teleport before he hits the ground. Though a thud is heard, followed by the faint sounds of a splash a moment later.

All that was left now was the injured Glitterani. Sunset had basically already won swiftly, though as Sunset approached Glitterani. The sounds of a laughing child get progressively louder every so often.

Sunset: It’s over Glitterani, once I get you and your husband’s injured selves to Canterlot you are facing justice to the full extent of the law.

Glitterani just grumbles as Sunset gets closer, but as she looks up. She sees a small silhouette that is either moving forward or sideways in straight line like the Rook piece of the chessboard, and she grins smugly.

Glitterani: Not yet!

Sunset raises an eyebrow as Glitterani starts laughing, thinking she’s trying to comfort herself with sociopathic fits of laughter. Sunset thinks nothing of it as the silhouette up in the sky gets to just above where Sunset stands… and something is dropped from it. The unwary Sunset still facing Glitterani.

Sunset: Just what are you laughing a-

*SMASH*

*CRACK*

A large rock hits Sunset right at the base of her horn. It’s weight puts pressure, cracking the horn before ultimately it bends too far, and falls off, The rock also hits hard on Sunset’s forehead. She screams out in pain, and falls off on her side. Her vision keeps fading in and out of blurriness as she lays there. A full-on concussion. She also has a black eye as part of the falling rock scraped her still open right eye as it fell off. It takes a few minutes before finally Sunset can look around, she looks up wondering where the rock could of possibly come from and she now has a clear view of who dropped it.

It was Cozy Glow, who just looks at the scene with glee and sadistically jokes

Cozy: Ooooooops, golly… did I do that? Ehehehehehe

Sunset rages, she sits back up and yells at Cozy

Sunset: What… I thought you said weren’t on your parents side! You… you… you liar!

Cozy: Hey, I didn’t totally lie. They do abuse me… But I never said I didn’t like it! Ahahahahaha! Oh and by the way… Mom! I have my cutie mark!

Cozy glow shows her flank and both Sunset and Glitterani see a rook shaped cutie mark. Glitterani laughing.triumphantly

Glitterani: Hahahaha! Cozy, you are indeed one of us!

The rook cutie mark now etched into Cozy’s flank confirms this was a manipulative plan she came up with her parents the entire time.

Cozy Glow: Too bad, poor dad isn’t going to get the chance to see it. I think he had a pretty big tumble and water’s probably filling his lungs right now! But meh, we don’t need him. Right, mom?

Not even an ounce of empathy, Sunset realized then and there that the apple didn’t far from the tree. A rotten apple from a poisonous tree at that, as Cozy was just like her parents. Falling for Cozy’s lie has already cost Sunset her horn. But her magic is the only thing that’s going to reach Cozy from up there if she’s going to get any payback, so despite intense pain still throbbing from the loss of her horn. She decides to fire something, without a full horn to truly focus her magic... whatever is fired at Cozy could be almost anything. Firing something makes the pain in her head worse but something does get fired straight up at Cozy Glow.

Cozy sees the approaching blast, and freaks out before dodging just before it hits. She then proceeds to mock Sunset.

Cozy: Haha! Missed me, Shamset!

But then a slight boom is heard from up above her. Cozy at first thinks nothing of it, thinking it was just thunder. But as she looks up, the blast that Sunset blasted starts expanding into a transparent white dome with star symbols on it, Cozy is too close to it as it starts to suck her up like a vacuum cleaner. She tries to fly out of the dome’s suction but she loses strength quick, and she screams as she’s flung straight up into the dome. The dome then disappears with no sign of Cozy.

Glitterani: C-c-cozy? Cozy?! Cozy, where are you?!

Sunset takes this chance to laugh herself, albeit still through some pain. She approaches Glitterani at the edge of the cliff.

Glitterani: Stop laughing! What did you do to Cozy?!

Sunset: I didn’t think you’d have concern for anypony, even your daughter. But I’m pretty sure what got Cozy was a time travel spell. That dome is pretty classic Starswirl. But... because she broke my horn. I have no control of how far she went. She could of been sent some years to the past, maybe years into the future, or maybe she’s been sent back to the age of the dinosaurs! She may be nothing but dino-chow right now!

Sunset just looking down with a smug face. But then Glitterani gets angry, suddenly leaps up and grabs Sunset pinning her down on the ground.

Glitterani: If we’re going down… I’m taking you with me!

Glittering starts rolling them both close to the edge. This was a fall neither was likely to survive without Sunset being able to teleport to safety.

Sunset: What are you doing?! We’re both going to die if you roll us off!

Glitterani: That’s kind of the idea, you fool…

Sunset: No, wait! Please! I have a family!

Glitterani: And I had one too… before you ripped that away just now. This was exactly why we had you follow us here to these cliffs. We put on a brave face but we knew deep down you were too good... but then Cozy plotted with us a way in which even if we fail... at least we weren’t going down alone... plus whatever happens... no one will know what happened here... You’ve doomed your family to despair! And the best part is… they’ll never know what happened to you!

Sunset: Noooooooooooooooo!

Holding on tight to Sunset to make sure she fatally plunges with her. Glitterani rolls them off the edge and they start plunging down to certain death. Sunset has to act quick, and try something with her horn as it’s the only move she’s got. Sunset charges up what remains of her horn. Though Glitterani sees this and puts a hoof over the hole that was Sunset’s horn. Inside Sunset’s head a burning sensation gets hotter, hotter, and hotter as the pressure of her magic being blocked by Glitterani's hoof makes it build higher and higher until…

*BOOM*

Just a few feet before hitting the water. A big explosion from Sunset’s head envelops the two falling ponies. And if there was anything left of either of them… They were cleaned up by hungry sharks and other meat-eating water predators to eat their fill with. Sunset Shimmer and Glitterani had met their end. Cheque Mace as implied by Cozy had also fallen, he hit his head amidst falling, going unconscious as he fell into the raging waters, body sinking, and thus ultimately drowned. While Cozy was sent into a then unknown time.

*Flashback ends*

((Story continues after the break))

The entire room gasps again having been told the whole story of how Sunset died. Glitterani was ultimately the one who forced Sunset to essentially blow herself up, but without an assist from Cozy Glow breaking Sunset’s horn… Sunset would of most likely survived. So indeed, Cozy Glow had a role in the death of Sunset Shimmer. The room stays silent just processing the story.

Twilight: So… if I heard what happened correctly… Cozy Glow was sent through time… and it just happened to be somewhere over two decades into the future… where at some point she caught wind of the School of Friendship… and she manipulated us in order to infiltrate as a student in order to eventually do what she and her parents wanted to do… with assistance from Tirek.

Sunset: Wait, Cozy actually ended up collecting all of Equestria’s magic?!

Twilight: Yes… and she nearly trapped me and my friends in Tartaurus in the meantime, plus she also had your daughter trapped in the sphere of magic collected. It was thanks to a particular team of 6 students plus the Tree of Harmony intervening under the school that she was defeated. And magic was returned.

Sunset: I see… good that she was defeated quickly enough… otherwise I’m sure by now nearly all life would be dying right now…

Twilight: Huh? What do you mean?

Sunset: Remember what you learned from Jinn? Our souls are magic too, although Cozy and her Parents plan can’t collect soul magic… and neither can Tirek for that matter… Since soul magic is a lot less tangible, as what it becomes is determined how they lived their life

But without the magic that can be taken such as the casting magic Unicorns have, Pegasi’s flight plus weather-changing abilities, as well as Earth ponies ability to tend the land… Equestria would become a depressing place that can’t do anything about the dark magic that would slowly envelop the world. And with so many unhappy or worse inhabitants, the death of life everywhere would only increase the dark magic, hastening the extinction of life. The world would return to the state of when the Sun and Moon did not move. But there’s too many clouds made of dark magic to see either sunlight or moonlight on top of it.

Twilight can only be reminded of a certain timeline she, Spike, and Starlight saw during their time travel confrontation.

Twilight: That wasteland me and Starlight saw in that timeline… That might have been if Cozy Glow and/or her parents succeeded…

Starlight’s has had her head lowered down for the whole time since hearing the full story of how her mother died, though she briefly raises her head up and goes wide-eyed having heard that the final timeline they saw could have likely been the result of Cozy succeeding. She lowers her head back down, but she seems to have a rage building up inside.

Sunset: Twilight… where is Cozy Glow right now, by chance?

Twilight: She’s trapped in stone alongside Tirek and Queen Chrysalis.

Sunset: *phew* That is such a relief. Of those three, Cozy deserves to stay in stone forever… she may just be a filly. But trust me in saying there’s no redeeming her.

I understand Chrysalis has been stubborn, but perhaps the right circumstance could do it if we can reconnect her with her army... since most of them were her own children.

I doubt Tirek could be changed easily, but he has family issues in regards to his father and his brother Scorpan that could be perhaps worked out to perhaps make him less antagonistic…

But Cozy is a lost cause that must be kept in stone, forever. It’d take outright brainwashing to erase the evil in her heart and there’s no guarantee that even works. I don’t want to know what kind of Dark magic would be released if she died.

Twilight: I admit from appearances alone… it’d seem like Cozy was the most capable of changing… but given what you’ve told me she’s done… and recalling that timeline… not even Tirek and Chrysalis wanted to wreck Equestria that badly… them ruling Equestria would still be bad… but they mostly intended on ruling over us… with an iron hoof or fist probably… but still not exactly ending all life on the planet…

Rainbow: So wait… if Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow’s team up succeeded in defeating us… that could of resulted in a civil war where of all situations… Tirek and Chrysalis would be the good guys?!

Sunset: By comparison… yes.

Applejack: Gosh, that’s bleak…

Apple Bloom: Ah can’t believe we helped such a monster!

Sweetie Belle: We were such suckers…

Scootaloo: If we had known Cozy was like that, we would of left her crying!

Sunset: It’s ok you three, one of Cozy’s skills was manipulation. She fooled me too when I fell for her act of not actually being in cahoots with her parents.

Rainbow Dash: And from what I heard from Sandbar and his friends at school… she had almost all of our students against them!

Twilight: She also manipulated me when joining the school in the first place, when she came into my office to enroll. She started with a sob story about how she was an orphan… and while it wasn’t exactly a lie that she was orphaned… I couldn’t tell her parents were two of the worst ponies to ever exist… let alone that Cozy Glow was from more then 2 decades ago in the past…

Though actually speaking of Cozy’s parents… if they died… what did the dark magic that came out of them become?

Sunset: The dark magic from the deaths of Cheque Mace and Glitterani unleashed a twin pair of strong Hurricanes in the ocean they died in, likely devastating any coastal cities in their path. Large enough for me to see on the planet from the soul shield. These hurricanes return every few years, but each time thanks to the cities putting up more defenses, as well as the strength of friendship magic increasing, thus weakening dark magic everywhere. Just like how the Windigoes are hardly a threat any more, those hurricanes eventually will amount to nothing.

Starlight finally speaks up

Starlight: So… if I’m hearing from you right, mother… dark magic being unleashed from the death of someone evil can be beaten back with time…?

Sunset: Well yes… but it’d still be safer to make sure they don’t di-

Starlight’s voice and anger rises with each sentence

Starlight: And not get any ounce of satisfying retribution for her role in your murder?

For manipulating me and my friends, trapping me in a sphere of Equestria’s magic… and nearly dragging me wherever it was going to go?!

For being part of the reason I never got to know you are until now?!

For being the reason my early life was so terrible?!

For trying to remove all magic from Equestria?!

AND FOR TRYING TO KILL ALL LIFE ON THE PLANET?!

I HAD THAT LITTLE MONSTER IN MY BUCKING OFFICE AT THE SCHOOL! IT IS FAR PAST TIME THIS BRAT FACED DISCIPLINE! AND SAID DISCIPLINE SHOULD BE ETERNAL DETENTION AS A PILE OF RUBBLE!

The group doesn’t know what Starlight’s about to do, but there’s plenty of concerned faces. Meanwhile, Starlight pulls out a piece of portal gum, and starts chewing.

Twilight: Starlight, what are you doing?!

Starlight blows the bubble, Starlight manages to spawn a portal to the exact spot where Cozy is trapped in stone. And she starts charging a powerful laser.

Sunset sees what she’s doing and beckons Twilight to stop her

Sunset: Twilight! You have to stop Starlight before she kills Cozy!

Twilight: On it!

Starlight blasts her laser that will both fit into the portal, and if it hits Cozy’s statue will most certainly shatter it, and thus kill Cozy. But before it even crosses the portal, Twilight gets in front and forms a shield, blocking Starlight’s blast. Starlight stops firing to speak.

Starlight: Twilight! Why are you protecting Cozy?! You heard my mother… she’s an irredeemable psychopath, and if the tables were turned… she wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing! And even if her death does release devastating dark magic… we’ll have the power to shrink it in time!

Twilight: I agree that Cozy is never going to change, but unleashing some unknown, devastating form of dark magic on what will most certainly be all of Ponyville isn’t worth the immediate satisfaction of a sudden execution! Cozy is already facing justice as a statue! You’ll just put everypony in Ponyville in danger just for the brief moment of satisfaction of killing in revenge, even if it sounds justified!

Starlight thinks for a moment before trying to blast through anyway, despite Twilight’s insistence. So Sunset puts up a determined face to talk to her daughter.

Sunset: If you won’t listen to Twilight, maybe you’ll listen to me as your mother… Yes, Cozy was partly responsible for my death. I hate her about as much as you do for it, but this isn’t the answer!

Starlight stops firing, and her rage shifts into sadness and overflowing tears

Starlight: Why isn’t it?! She didn’t directly kill you… but she may as well have! The circumstances of your death was the true reason I turned to darkness. I couldn't control what happened then, but I know what I can do to rectify that!

You would have been fine if Cozy didn’t break your horn!

I would of had a loving mother such as you around so I wouldn’t have had such disdain for something that should have been one of the happiest moments in my life… receiving my cutie mark and knowing the pony I was destined to be…

AND on top of that she planned on ending life as we know it!

So what if Ponyville has to deal with something like a storm of dark magic every so often…

Won’t it feel like justice to you?!

Sunset: No! Because whatever damage the dark magic from Cozy’s death does could endanger more lives then it’s worth in exchange for the brief satisfaction of ending Cozy’s life. Letting anger fuel you as you end a life will also only end up bubbling up potential dark magic from your own soul’s magic.

Starlight: Didn’t you technically kill Cheque Mace when you blasted him off the cliff?

Sunset: In a way, I suppose I did.... But I didn’t do it intentionally, I was thinking he was going to teleport before he fell… I didn’t know he had become unconscious until Cozy implied he was dead. This is a world where emotion and morality influence our magic power and determine what our soul does after we pass, whether we add additional strength to the soul shield or become vengeful dark magic that wrecks the planet.

Putting our harshest and/or most stubborn villains in stone is our way of punishing them harshly without them unleashing dark magic that can hurt others. Killing them, even beyond the ensuing dark magic devastation… may end up only making Cozy a martyr for potential villains of the future...

Starlight: Wouldn’t leaving a statue just make something potential villains idolize or even try to free them if they’re magically adept?

Sunset: That is a possibility, but not if we outright properly educate who Cozy was and why she needs to stay as a statue… Just look at her face… even I know that Cozy’s scared look as she’s petrified is another of her manipulation moves. Before turning to stone, she acted quickly to look like she was scared and innocent, so she could perhaps one day fool an onlooker to think we petrified an innocent pony…

Or… if we destroyed her as a statue… make it seems like we executed an innocent little filly… and whatever comes down on top of Ponyville would seem like retribution from nature to some who would want to follow down Cozy’s path of psychopathic evil. In that sense, you could end up only creating more Cozy Glow’s...

Starlight’s finally stands down and takes a moment to calm down, though still at least gives a suggestion. Meanwhile, Twilight take the opportunity to closes the portal as Starlight speaks.

Starlight: Alright… I think I understand… but I think at the very least if we’re going to consider the future like this, we should then think about putting Cozy in a place where a potential future villain like her could not use the statue to idolize it or even get freed by someone adept in magic enough to reverse petrification. Do we have a super secure facility? Or you want to try putting Cozy in Tartaurus again only this time she’s a statue ON TOP of being trapped there?

Twilight ponders something

Twilight: I think I may have an idea… what if I put Cozy’s Statue in it’s own pocket dimension. And much like our gum portals. Only those with the magical authorization can access it. What good is Cozy’s manipulating petrified pose, if almost no one’s going to be able to see her?

Starlight gives a smug look that harkens back a little to her old ways before Twilight and the others befriended her.

Starlight: Hahahaha! Almost makes me want to be able to at least free Cozy’s head temporarily just so I can see her face as she hears where we’re leaving her!

Rainbow: Geez Starlight, seems you still have a little bit of that evil dictator side of you

Starlight: Maybe, but can you blame me? Cozy’s part of why I was led on the path to become one in the first place. I’m not actually serious about freeing Cozy’s head, I’m just saying... it’d be satisfying.

Sunset decides to play along with a bit of an exaggerated disappointed mother.

Sunset: Starlight Glimmer... enough of that talk and I may have to ground you for the first time! *giggles*

Starlight: Maybe, I should let you ground me just to have a taste of the mother you would have been *giggles* I even know a spell where I can play out if you had been around for my childhood

Sunburst: You mean that spell you used to try to get me to play Dragon Pit with you again?

Sunset: Oh I loved the Dragon Pit board game! I played it alot with my brother when we were kids. I would of played with you and/or Sunburst almost all the time. Too bad I won’t be able to roll dice and move the pieces. Iiiii can’t exactly touch objects aside from the floors, I have to sort of float since I can kind of fly in order to sort of go on stuff like beds, and I can’t float stuff with my horn anymore.

Starlight: Always the option to have somepony roll and move your player for you!

Sunset: That is true!

Starlight: But in all seriousness... knowing Cozy will cause no more harm nor be able to potentially manipulate somepony who doesn’t know better about her will be great to know.

Sunset turns toward Twilight

Sunset: Putting Cozy’s statue in a pocket dimension is a great idea. And in fact if you know somepony else who might have devastating effects somewhere should they die, you should probably do the same thing.

Twilight: The only other villain I can think of on that level is Zathir, I’ll definitely have to petrify him as well, and put him in the same pocket dimension as Cozy.

But until then, I think now that we’ve solved everything. We’re going to start to head back, we ought to go see how Applejack’s parents are doing with Big Mac, Sugar Belle, and Granny Smith.

Starlight: If it’s ok, Twilight… I’m going to stay the night here, to spend some more time with my mother. Since pony Spirits can be down here indefinitely, right?

Twilight: This is the first time we’re having spirits down but I suppose I can let you stay the night here with your mother. Though I’m not sure what will happen if Sunset tries to sleep, though given I’m part spirit… I might at least have a hypothesis... if a spirit goes to sleep… They may go back to the soul shield, similar to how when I go to sleep, I go back into my bottle.

Sunset: That feels like it makes sense. After all, our comet-like forms are kind of also us sleeping

Firelight is a little distraught.

Firelight: Shimmy… you’ll go back up there in the soul shield if you sleep?! I… was almost kind of looking forward to being able to have you sleep with me again… I’ve felt so lonely hoping one day you’d come back… cause I didn’t know you were dead this whole time…

Sunset smiles, touched that her husband thought about that.

Sunset: Well, I still could. I just have to not go to sleep myself. How about this… We’ll sleep in our bed tonight, and I’ll only go back to the soul shield sometime after you’ve fallen asleep. And if you want to see me again tomorrow or any other point. Just get Starlight or yourself to go see Spike to summon me down again.

Starlight: We also have a wedding between 2 of Twilight’s friends in Saddle Arabia to attend in two days. We could… perhaps summon you down so you can attend if you’d like.

Sunset: That sounds lovely, I won’t exactly know much about the 2 being wedded. But if perhaps you and Fi-Fi are going, I could definitely go.

Starlight: I think I was going to go regardless, but It’d definitely be great to see you there.

Firelight: I wasn’t going to go initially… but if you’re going to be summoned down for the wedding. Then I absolutely have to be there.

Sunset: Then of course, summon me back down on the day after tomorrow’s wedding and I’ll be there the whole way.

The room cheers and claps to have a spirit attendee.

Applejack: Heh, ya’ll could even become spirit friends with mah parents if we invite them too!

Twilight: That does sound like a pretty good idea.

Rainbow: Hey everypony! Don’t look now, but I think the storm’s over!

The whole group walks back outside, and perhaps appropriately with the skies clear… the sun itself is setting in a fitting fashion with the return of Sunset Shimmer. Starlight walks on over to the Cutie Mark Crusaders as Sunset continues talking with either the Elements of Harmony and/or Firelight

Starlight: I want to thank you three for starting me on the road to find out who I am. You deduced that I inherited my magic power from my mother. And now I know that I’m the daughter of a former Celestia protege. Whatever I do with the magic I inherited from my mother is up to me and me alone to decide. For now, I intend to use it to lead and protect the School of Friendship. But who knows what the future holds.

Apple Bloom: No problem, Starlight! Ah’m happy ya’ll got t’ see ya mother fo’ the first time just like ah did today!

Sweetie: Yeah! Your mother is amazing

Scootaloo: Definitely, one of the coolest ponies I’ve ever seen!

Starlight now turns to Sunburst and Trixie.

Starlight: So Trixie, what do you think of my mother?

Trixie: Your mother’s great, Starlight. Now I know why you’ve always been so talented. And… I’ll admit the full story of what happened made me cry a few times… ok that’s an understatement… I cried most pretty much the whole time hearing how much your mother’s death impacted your life…

Sunburst: I might just stay the night in Sire’s Hollow with you as well Starlight. Not just for my own mother and my father being back for good, but getting to know my long-lost Aunt.

Starlight: Plus, we’re cousins now… that means your plan-filled mother is my own Aunt heh heh

Stellar: That’s riiiiight, my newfound niece!

Stellar smiles and boops Starlight on her nose

Sunspot: We welcome you to the family, Starlight. We already thought of you fondly when we didn’t know you were related, but thanks to all the reveals we got today from summoning my sister… you are always welcome in me and Stellar’s household.

Firelight and Sunset walk on over. Firelight in particular turning to Stellar Flare.

Firelight: Hey Stellar, I have a suggestion…

Stellar: Yes, Firelight?

Firelight: You know the museum that we agreed to build over there?

Firelight points to the construction currently being built

Stellar: Yes, what about it?

Firelight: I want to give it an official name

Stellar: Huh? Isn’t it just going to be called the Sire’s Hollow Museum?

Firelight: That was the plan originally… but I think I have a better name and purpose for it. I’d like to call it… the Sunset Shimmer Museum. It’ll still have a section dedicated to our town, but mainly because Sunset was going to make this place her home. I think it’d have a greater purpose to sharing the world who she was. As not everypony’s going to be around for when we summon her spirit down again.

Sunset gasps, but is ultimately touched that Firelight would dedicate an entire museum to her.

Sunset: Oh Fi-Fi, you’re so sweet… You don’t need to dedicate the whole museum to me…

Firelight: Maybe I don’t need to, but I really, really want to. You deserve some recognition for keeping Equestria safe before Princess Twilight would just about finish the job by providing the peace we have now.

Suddenly, Celestia walks up from behind.

Celestia: A museum dedicated to Sunset sounds like a great idea, I still have plenty of cherished items back in the Canterlot castle related to Sunset’s time as my student that I can donate.

Sunspot: I guess that’s where I can put your horn, sis… if that isn’t too much of a reminder of what happened…

Sunset: It is a little grim… but hey, plenty of museums have real skeletons. It’d make sense that the only trace left of my body would be at my own museum.

Starlight: An interesting thing about this is because we can summon you down here, you’ll technically be able to be a tour guide for your own posthumous museum!

Sunset: Ha, that might be fun. It’d certainly make it more interactive. Maybe I can even play a bit of a prank on some guests thinking I’m just a highly advanced magic hologram. And then at some point do something that surprises guests when I suddenly say or answer something that would be impossible if I was a pre-recorded hologram!

Starlight: Now that would be funny!

Sunset: Can’t be there every day of course, but for special days I’d love to do it.

Stellar: The museum’s far from finished anyway, but we’ll love to have you back down for opening day when it is.

Sunset: Absolutely!

Sunset turns to Princess Celestia

Sunset: On another subject… Princess Celestia… I think I heard in passing somewhere that you’ll be retiring with Twilight taking your position. I don’t know what you plan to do in your retirement, but know I’ve always been proud of serving you. I know you kick yourself hard for things you see as mistakes fair or not, like Princess Luna becoming Nightmare Moon or not coming with me for my last fateful mission...

But know for every failure, you’ve maintained Equestria in balance for long enough for ponies like me, Twilight, and my daughter to make Equestria an even better place. Everypony in Equestria owes a gratitude for you whether they realize it or not. And if you get Spike to summon more of your many generations of loyal staffers and guards, they’ll say many of the same things I’m saying now. Without you… Equestria would of fallen apart long ago.

Celestia’s eyes well up with tears of joy

Celestia: Thank you, Sunset. I… really appreciate hearing that…

And um, Sunset. I can wait a little while before you do. But on an occasion you’re summoned back down, I’d really like you to meet my sister Luna.

Sunset: Oh yes, I’d love to get to meet her as well.

Celestia: In your younger days, you actually reminded me quite a bit of Luna when she herself was younger. I think you’d two would make great friends.

Sunset: I knew how much you missed her even back then, so I know she must be amazing. So I will definitely cherish seeing her for the first time. Maybe I’ll see her if you’re both at the wedding

Celestia: Yes, me and Luna will be attending the wedding. That’ll be the perfect opportunity for you to meet my sister for the first time.

Sunset approaches Celestia for another good long hug.

The group now splits between the family of both Starlight and Sunspot. The Elements of Harmony, Spike, The Cutie Mark Crusaders, Trixie, and Princess Celestia are next to a portal to Ponyville. As they all wave to each other.as they start heading out the portal. Twilight the last one to go back, and gives her goodbye before walking in.

Twilight: We’ll see you all at the wedding in two days! Goodbye Starlight, Sunset, and family!

And thus a family fully reunited after years of mystery and hardships. The family all hugging each other one more time before talking the night away. Sunset will return to the soul shield during the nighttime once everypony was asleep. But there was now a sense of closure for the entire family

UP NEXT: Chapter 30: A Pear-fect Reunion

#Secrets Of The Dragon's Tear #Twilight Sparkle #Sunset Shimmer #Starlight Glimmer #Firelight #Cozy Glow #Cheque Mace #Glitterani #Rainbow Dash #Applejack #Apple Bloom #Scootaloo #Sunburst #Trixie Lulamoon #The Great and Powerful Trixie #Stellar Flare #Princess Celestia #Sweetie Belle

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softyoongiionly · 5 years ago

Text

Mama Mia 🗺

Your boyfriend Jungkook has become the worldest youngest billionaire after inventing the most sought after wine on the planet. After meeting you and falling in love, he decides to ditch the bustling streets of Seoul for a picturesque villa on the Greek island of Mykonos. Today, is the first day in your new place.

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Word Count: 3.5k

Genre: Smut, fluff, Boyfriend! Jungkook, Billionaire! Jungkook

Warnings: SMUT (18+ only please), there’s a lot of fluff, also Jungkook speaks Korean again and, this deserves a warning, language

A/N: I swear that Yoongi is my bias...I’m just really going through it for this man. Love you guys!

***All italicized/bolded words indicate when characters are speaking Korean***

“Jagiiii!” Your boyfriend beckons from the front door

You giggle to yourself, moving from your seated position on the floor to jog over to him.

He’s stumbling in through the stone archway with far too many cardboard boxes in his arms.

“You’re going to break something, what are you doing?” You laugh, grabbing one of the boxes that is threatening to crash to the ground.

“I hate making multiple trips…” He grumbles, pouty lips slightly chapped from the summerwind.

Shaking your head, you usher him into your villa, nodding at the dining table: one of the few items you’ve managed to unpack, “I’m just stacking everything here for now until we get everything inside, I’ll help you finish unloading….”

You go to turn towards the door before you feel your boyfriend rush up behind you, wrapping his strong tan arms around your waist, “Nooooo don’t help, I got it. The rest of the stuff is heavy, I don’t want you to hurt yourself…”

“Me? You’re the one who keeps trying to bring in 10 boxes at a time…” You point out, giggling as his black, fluffy hair tickles your neck.

It’s been getting so long recently and, you’re really into it.

“It was only 8…” He grumbles, brow furrowed as he hugs you tighter, “Please let me finish, I really want to help, you’ve been working too hard.”

Jungkook wasn’t much for speaking with strangers so, in the process of your international move, you’d been the one communicating with the real estate agent and, the movers to get everything arranged. He doesn’t like feeling inadequate so, when it came time for heavy lifting, he was all over it. Packing up your former shared apartment in Seoul and, unpacking once the two of you had arrived in Mykonos had been his sole mission.

With a sigh and, the absence of a backbone, you smile, kissing his partially exposed forehead, “Fine but, take it easy yeah? I’ll be in here if you need me…”

Jungkook’s bunny smile informs you that he’s pleased with your response and, he nods eagerly before kissing your cheek and, rushing out of the front door.

You return to the living room floor and continue to focus on the box you were previously unpacking. The labeling system the two of you had figured out proved to be quite effective. However, moving is never simple, regardless of ones efforts to make it so.

This box, for example, did not belong to the living room, it belonged in Jungkook’s old study but, that doesn’t stop you from smiling at its contents. Awards, medals, his first bottle of wine he ever made, along with his certifications and licenses to sell liquor, all things that ultimately lead to the two of you meeting , falling in love and, moving half way across the world together.

Jungkook was the youngest billionaire in the world and, he made his fortune from patenting his own brand of hangover-proof wine. Sounds gimmicky right? Many people thought so but, Jungkook’s family had been in the wine making business for generations so, with his passion for the craft and his disdain for severe hangovers, he sought out to create a product that would revolutionize the industry.

And boy, did he do just that.

At the age of 22, he launched Azucar De La Luna or, Sugar of the Moon. After 7 years of research, he managed to create the most delicious, hangover-proof wine the world had ever seen and, ultimately launched himself and his family into international fame.

You had met him at an art exhibit you were running and, the two of you instantly had chemistry. It was rather cheesy actually, he was charming and handsome, you were unaware of his status and, he was into that.

It didn’t take long for things to heat up and take off.

Two years later, you both decided that Seoul wasn’t giving you what you needed. Jungkook, being an extreme introvert, was growing weary of the hustle and bustle of life in the city. He loved his work and, had an immense passion for what he did but, he was tired of being treated like some kind of rock star. He yearned for a simpler life, off the grid, where he could live and create in peace.

After months of discussion and planning, you settled on relocating Mykonos, a beautiful island in Greece. With both of your statuses and, massive wealth, it was extremely easy to place an offer on a beautiful, cliffside, villa on the quieter part of the island.

“Jagi, where do you want the books?” Your boyfriend’s voice brings you out of your thoughts, swinging around a pillar with a larger box in his arms.

“Go ahead and, set them in here for now, I have your certificates and stuff too…” You nod to the coffee table and, he obliges. He sets the box down, pushing up the sleeves to his striped sweater.

He smirks down at you, starry eyed, “ You look cute.”

“I’m so sweaty right now”

His nose scrunches up as he chuckles, shaking his head, “You’re still cute. You can shower when we’re done, did you see it? It’s so cool…”

You push the box aside, setting his things in a neat pile before smiling, “It’s incredible, there’s so much room, you could literally hangout in there…”

“Y/N if you want to shower with me, you can just say so, we have to be honest in our relationship, communication is key…” He emphasizes, smirking and wagging his brows at you.

You groan, laughing at his antics, throwing a wad of newspaper at him, “Get back to work, before I banish you to the stables…”

He snickers, a boyish smile on his face, saluting to you, “Yes mam.”

With a shake of your head, you attempt to wipe the love-struck expression off of your face as you return to the task at hand.

An hour passes and Jungkook meanders into the villa, finally shutting the creaky wooden door behind him. His hair is partially stuck to his forehead, his sweater sleeves are pushed up as far as they can go and, his cheeks are splotchy from all the exertion.

“All done?” You smile from the floor, breaking down one of your last boxes for the day.

You two had been moving in since the early hours of the morning, eager to get your new place set up. The California king bed had been delivered around noon which caused you to breathe a sigh of relief that you wouldn’t be sleeping on an air mattress again.

“All done,” He affirms with a sigh, I just have to run down to the gate to make sure its locked…”

“I’m finishing up too, are you hungry?”

He smiles at the mention of food, nodding eagerly, “I’m starving. Do we have enough to make something here?”

Jungkook could cry at the thought of going into town after such an exhausting day.

Thankfully, you provide the news he’s after, “Our neighbors dropped off a bunch of stuff for us this morning, I’ll figure something out after I shower.”

Another smile is sent your way, “Sounds good, you can go first then. I’ll be right back.”

While the two of you would love nothing more than to shower together, you both understand that given the amount of sweat and dust covering your bodies, it wouldn’t exactly be the sexy experience you were after.

Christening the new place could come later.

After getting the living room somewhat organized, you make your way into your shared bedroom. Most of your clothes are still in boxes so, you opt for the soft blue cotton dress that stuck out of your suitcase. It’s comfortable and breathable but, more importantly, it requires minimum effort.

The bathroom is absolutely immaculate. Marble flooring and countertops, oversized standing tub and, the biggest shower you had ever seen. The walls were mostly windows covered by white linen curtains that allowed the natural light of the sun to envelop the space.

You stunned by the idea that this place is actually your home.

Smiling to yourself, you step into the shower and, allow the warm water to wash away the dirt and tension from your body. Jungkook loves the smell of your shampoo so, the two of you share most of the products in the shower, except his loofa, that’s off limits.

He’s such a Virgo…

After your shower, you apply your moisturizer and, a few spritzes of your favorite perfume before pulling your dress on. Jungkook’s already in the bedroom, his sweater thrown in the laundry basket, his slacks hugging his slender waist. He’s rifling through his suitcase, brow furrowed as he searches.

“Jagiya? Have you seen my black shirt? The really big one?”

His question causes a snort to leave you, “You have approximately 400 big black shirts, you gotta be more specific…”

He smirks tossing his dirty sweater at you, not looking up from his suitcase, “It’s Gucci, it has two little triangles on the back…”

You move in his direction, shuffling beside him and, Jungkook could literally melt as he gets a whiff of your perfume.

A second or two of searching goes by before you find what he’s looking for, “This one?”

Your boyfriend’s bunny smile makes an appearance as he takes the t-shirt from your hands, “How do you always do that?”

With a smile, you lean up towards his lips, brows rising, “Magic powers…”

He chuckles warmly, pressing a kiss to your nose, “Uh huh, I’m sure. I’ll be out in a minute, I have a bottle of Luna in the wine cooler if you want some with dinner. The rest is still being imported…”

You’re still leaning towards his lips and, you notice him trying to move away from you, “Are you not going to kiss me after I valiantly searched for your t-shirt???”

He grimaces, kissing your forehead again, “Jagi, I’m so gross right now and, you smell so good, I don’t want to ruin it. I’ll kiss you when I’m out…”

You concede with a short laugh, pointing in his direction, “I’m holding you to that…”

A smile breaks through his grimace then as he kisses your forehead once more, “I’ll be right out, don’t start without me.”

Your neighbors had dropped off a basket of cured meat and fancy imported cheese that you plan on slicing up along with some dried fruit and, freshly picked grapes. Obviously, Jungkook had ensured that the Villa be situated on an expansive vineyard which had delayed your moving date quite a bit. However, after popping one of the grapes in your mouth, you decided it was completely worth it.

Your charcuterie board takes 20 minutes or so to put together and, as your placing the finishing touches you feel two strong arms wrap around your waist.

“You did so good Jagi…” Jungkook’s voice caramelizes in your ear, the woodsy scent of his body wash warming your senses.

“It’s not too bad right?” You turn in his arms, pecking the side of his head, causing a smile to play on his lips, “It will work for tonight at least, we can go into town tomorrow for groceries…”

“I’ll have them delivered…I want to rest with you tomorrow, you’ve work too hard lately…”

“We’ve both been working hard, not just me…you worked your ass off today.” You point out

He nods, eyes closing as he inhales, “We’ll both rest then. Did you get the wine?”

His eyes open with his question, his chin resting on your shoulder.

“Not yet, do you want to grab it for us? I have water too…”

Jungkook moves quickly and as he makes his way to the wine cooler you notice he’s only wearing his t-shirt and a pair of white boxers, his long hair, stringy and wet from his shower.

God, he’s really beautiful.

“Can we eat on our balcony? It’s so nice out right now …” Jungkook suggests as he grabs two wine glasses from the cardboard box on the counter.

With a soft smile, you nod, securing the platter in your hands as the two of you make your way to the French doors.

Jungkook rushes in front of you, ensuring he’s there to open the door for you.

“Oh my god, look at the sunset.” You gasp as you see the scene before you, quickly setting the platter down before rushing to the edge of the balcony.

Your villa overlooks the Aegean Sea which sparkles as the sun attempts to stay above the horizon. The sky is littered with hues of purple, pink and orange which compliment the striking blue of the sea water.

“Wah…” Your boyfriend beams beside you, his hands holding the banister, a look of awe in his eyes, “It looks like a picture…like a screensaver or something.”

You giggle, nodding at his comparison, still in amazement that you can call this place home.

“We’re going to have a good life here Jagi…” He smiles, his eyes deep in thought, fingers reaching out to you.

Warmth envelops your heart as you return his smile, taking his hand in yours, placing a kiss to his knuckles.

“I think so too…”

Another hour passes and, after stuffing your face with quality food and, sipping a few glasses of wine, both you and your boyfriend are feeling rather good.

“Jagiyaaa…why’re you so far?” Jungkook slurs, his voice deepening in his slightly inebriated state.

You laugh, reaching out for his hand, “I’m right here, what are you talking about?”

He pouts, brows furrowing in his own adorable way, clumsily grabbing your hand, “Want you over here…on me.”

You don’t deny him, the mood is too good for any resistance. Stumbling over to your boyfriend, you notice to how toned and tanned his thighs looks in his white boxers.

Did you mention he was beautiful?

“Better?” You hum as you sit in his lap, placing hands on his shoulders

A satisfied grin finds its way onto his mouth, “Mmm much better…c’mereee.”

You snuggle into his chest, tucking your face in his neck and wrapping your arms around his waist, “I’m hereee…”

He giggles at your imitation, both of you far from sober but, not quite drunk, well, not on the wine at least.

“Good. Stay here. Don’t leave. Ever.” He grunts causing you to laugh, placing a gentle kiss on the tender flesh of his throat.

“Ever? What if I have to pee?”

He shrugs, leaning his head back against the back of the chair, closing his eyes “Figure it out…”

You laugh again, sneaking your hands underneath the hem of his t-shirt, smoothing over his toned skin.

“This batch is good, did you put anything different in it?”

“Mmm love…” He murmurs, hands resting on your back, fighting a smile.

You pinch his side, laughing again, “You’re so dumb…”

“You’re dumb…” He parrots, grinning, his hands slowly sliding down your back.

Another kiss is pressed to his neck as your hands slide further up his body, a certain feeling stirring between your legs, “You’re gonna get really tan living here, I can already see it just after you working in the sun today…”

“Good, it makes me look healthy…like a big burly, working man…” He grunts as you shift on his hips, his voice faltering slightly.

“Ah yes, my big burly working man, the strongest man alive…” You giggle fondly, your eyes closing now as he moves his hands over your ass, squeezing gently.

“Damn right…” He chuckles.

A few more moments of silence and passive touching pass before a sigh leaves your boyfriends lips.

”Are you…uh in the mood for…something?”

You smirk, “Something?”

“Lovemaking…” He utters in his native tongue followed by another chuckle.

He knows what that does to you...

“Why do you have to say it like that?” You whine, pulling out of his neck before pinching his cheek.

His laughter comes in full force then, pleased with your reaction, “It’s a new home Jagi, we have to christen it right?”

Jungkook’s eyes are open now and, slightly darkened, the touching and alcohol causing him to feel all kinds of tingly.

With his pouty lips and, perfectly disheveled hair, you’d have to be made of stone to deny him.

“You’re not wrong…” You lower your voice, one of your hands sliding to the base of his boxers, “No foreplay though, I’m too tired for that…”

He chuckles, his hands sliding up your thighs, “I’ll go slow then…”

You bite your lip as you watch his hands slide further up your thighs and, all you really do is nod, the warmth in your body becoming too much not to fall into.

“You’re not hard yet…” You point out and, he smirks his fingers beginning to walk up either sides of your inner thighs.

“I’m getting there…”

Jungkook pushes up the blue cotton of your dress until it sits around your hips. At the sight of your choice in panties, he lets out a shaky breath.

“Can we leave these one? They’re my favorite…”

You nod, tugging on the hem of his t-shirt, “As long as you take this off…”

He snickers but, obliges, pulling it off and throwing it onto the balcony floor.

The action causes your brows to furrow, “Didn’t you say that was Gucci?”

Jungkook just shrugs, “I have like 6 more…come here…”

He cuts off any response you may have given him before leaning into your lips eagerly, capturing them between his.

The kiss is slow and messy. It tastes like wine and, is equally as intoxicating. It makes Jungkook swell in his boxers which only encourages you to make him harder.

Your fingers tug at the band of his underwear, Jungkook lifting his ass off of the chair to assist you. His dick springs back against his stomach and, the sensation causes Jungkook to smirk into your mouth.

“The first time we made out, I got hard…that’s how I knew you were the one jagi…” He murmurs and, you scoff at his brashness, hitting his shoulder lightly.

“You’re so romantic…”

He beams, leaning back against the chair, chuckling “I try.”

His brows furrow, nodding to your dress, “Take it offff…”

Jungkook is whiny when he’s tipsy and, you wish you could deny how much you like it.

You’re powerless though and, instead, you pull off your dress, discarding it.

Jungkook grins, his eyes lulling completely as he slides his hands up your body to your breasts, “So good…”

You giggle at his choice of words before pulling your panties to the side and, securing his length in your hand, “Hold these over for me…”

With an unsteady hand, Jungkook hooks his fingers into your underwear, holding them over.

A sigh passes between you as you sink down on him, the stretch and burn of him, salacious and relieving.

“Whoa…” He grunts, smirking as his eyes close, head falling back against the chair again.

“Mhm…” You hum starting to move your hips against him, your hands bracing against his hips.

The setting sun is warm against your back, the tender flow of the summer breeze caressing your body.

You’re in heaven, you must be.

Jungkook clearly shares the same conclusion, his face smoothed out in pure pleasure as he meets your hips halfway, his hands freely exploring your body.

“Feels good on my dick jagi…so good…” He’s speaking Korean again, something he often does when the two of you are at it.

“You’re going to kill me…” You giggle, moving your hips faster against him, creating toe curling friction inside of you.

He chuckles darkly, his eyes opening as he stares up at you, his cheeks completely flushed, “You like it…don’t lie… Go faster for me…I’m getting close…”

A smaller moan bubbles over your lips as you lean back, giving yourself more leverage as you start to bounce up and down on him, your clit buzzing and throbbing with the movement.

Jungkook sits up then, hands securing around your waist as he pulls you close into his lap, his lips finding yours.

“I’m gonna fuck for us jagi ok? You just cum for me…I can feel how close you are…”

His words do a number on you and, all you can do is nod, your breath growing shakier as you near your high.

“Good girl…just rest your head on me, I’ll make you feel so good…” Your boyfriends low voice rings in your ear as he pounds up into you, his dick throbbing inside of you.

“Fuck…I love you…” You whimper into his neck as your orgasm hits, your body growing limp as he fucks you.

“I love you…”

He cums too, not much longer after you do, the two of you collapsing back into the chair as you try to settle your breathing.

Nothing can be felt but, pure bliss.

You stay like that for quite some time before you eventually decide to get cleaned up and, take the food inside. On slightly shaky legs, you gather the platter and make your way inside, Jungkook grabbing the trash and, the wine glasses. He take his place behind you once again as you rinse off the platter in the sink, his lips brushing against your neck.

“I’m gonna marry you one day, if that’s cool…” He says matter of factly, arms tightening around your wrist.

Your heart blooms with love and, you try to resist the huge grin that threatens your mouth.

“That’s cool…I guess…”

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