#this took 3 months because i got swamped with school work

[yunyuniii]

MY SKK BABYGIRLS ARE FINALLY DONE 🫶🫶

This took me nearly 3 months because my ass got beat by school requirements left and right 💀 I was hanging onto skk for dear life

[neptunesopening]

next to you

summary: you and bakugou are in a long distance relationship and he just wants to be close to you

a/n: new theme less gooo & n/n means nickname

“babyyyy how long do we have to be long distance?” he whined on the other side of the phone. “school is almost over just 4 more months baby i promise.” you reply to him while doing some homework.

“4 months is too long. i cant wait any longer.” you hear shuffling on the other side of the phone. “i know suki, but absence makes the heart grow fonder.” you close your textbook and put it away.

“alright kats i’m gonna get off the phone i need to shower and go to sleep.” he scoffs on the other side “go to sleep? it’s only 7:00. i thought i was the old one.” you laugh and tell him you love him and hang up the phone.

you take a shower because you have to get up at 4 am because your flight is at 5:15 am. you were flying home because you had a whole week off of school. you didn’t let katsuki know because you wanted it to be a surprise.

you took a shower and did your skincare and then went to sleep. your alarm went off at 4 am and you groaned. you brushed your teeth and packed your bag. you put on a hoodie and some leggings and put on some uggs.

you left your house at 4:45 and got to the airport at 5:00. you didn’t need 20 years at the airport, but just enough time so you weren’t rushing around. you sat down on one of the seats by where you would be boarding.

after a long 15 minutes, they called you to board and you were one of the first on. you knew it was going to be a long flight. 14 hours to japan from california. you sighed as you put in your headphones and put on princess and the frog.

you got through about 45 minutes and fell asleep. you woke up and there was still 7 long hours of the flight. you groaned and started the movie from where you fell asleep from. you finished that movie and then put on good girls. you got through 1 season and you finally landed.

you stretched your legs and grabbed your stuff and got off of the plane. it was 7 pm in japan and you were jet lagged real bad. you just decided katsuki was more important and got your rental and drive to his house. you called him and the phone rung about 3 times.

“hello?” he says. “hey suki. how are you doing?” you replied and he hesitated, but answered. “fine. how about you?” you got out of your car and shut the door. “i’m doing pretty good. man this homework has had me swamped lately.” you started walking toward his door. “yeah i get it, hero work hasn’t been any better here. it feels like since i became like a real pro the crime rate has just shot up.”

you knocked on his door and you could hear him getting up to get it. “sorry n/n, someone’s knocking.” you were so excited to see him after so long. he finally opened the door and paused. “hey suki.” you said as he stood there shocked.

he picked you up and swung you around. “what?! i thought it was gonna be 4 more months until graduation? and why wasn’t i invited?” he asked angrily. you kissed him and started laughing, “i have 1 week off of school, so no i didn’t graduate yet and no you didn’t miss it.”

he sighed and sigh of relief and went to grab your bag from the car. “bro i’m so jet lagged this is horrible.” you we’re holding your head because you were starting to get headaches. he kissed your temple and brought you in.

“i hate surprises.” he states and you laugh. “i know”

a/n - if you didn’t know this was based off of next to you by bryson, he’s so bryson coded (canon)

[yuna542]

Note/Disclaimer at the beginning:

I do not want to romanticize or trivialize (domestic) violence, suicide, drugs, and toxic relationships in this story. If these topics trigger you, then you should rather skip this story. If not, I hope you enjoy the little OBX Story I had in my drafts for forever and I've finally written down. If you are experiencing domestic violence, as hard as it is, tell someone, whether it's a friend, a teacher, or a family member. You are not alone <3

——-

Soundtrack:

⏯️Play: Wait a Minute by WILLOW

“Hold on, wait a minute

Feel my heart's intention, oh Hold on, wait a minute

I left my consciousness in the sixth dimension

Left my soul in his vision”

Prologue

Now I'm sitting here in a hammock in front of an old fishing shack in the swamp, trying to figure out how to tell this story in a structured way while my life is actually a complete mess. Well, before you read this, you should know three things: First of all, Hey! I'm a Kook. But not just any Kook. I’m Skylar Diaz the Kook Princess. At least that's what most people call me, since my family owns one of the largest ferry companies in the US. At least the part of it that's still left. I have built up this reputation over the years and have also lived up to it in a petty and clichéd way. The typical rich spoiled girl living in an estate in the Outer Banks. A brat and arrogant little bitch. The most popular girl at school, desired by all the boys and envied by the rest. With her perfect little family, hip friends, like the Camerons and no money problems at all. The perfect Barbie Dream Life.

But it wasn't always that way. Little Trauma Dump: My father was from the Cut, the South Side of the island. That's where those who make their living as waiters, yacht cleaners or skippers live and work. My mother was also from the Cut, which few people know. She and my dad fell in love and had me. Their perfect little star. My father was a very ambitious man who actually managed to become a police officer and was even promoted to detective on the mainland. However, he died on a job when I was six years old. So I have hardly any memories of him. A short time later, my mother started a relationship with Rick. He was my father's best friend and the richest man in the Outer Banks at that point. So all our money problems were forgotten and I have been raised and lived in a huge mansion in Figure Eigth ever since. The fancy Island Club, big parties and banquets, as well as expensive clothes were now part of my life. I played the role of the rich and arrogant princess flawlessly and knew how to present myself to survive among all the scavengers. And for quite a while I really liked this life.

Next, I should mention: All of this is a lie. Nothing in my life ever went perfectly, even if everyone thought it did. My mother committed suicide when I was only 16 years old. Everything fell apart as a result. My relationship with my stepfather Rick was disastrous even before that, but it got a lot worse in the months after “the incident”, how he liked to call it. I was never allowed to talk about it again and to call it what it was: A big shitty tragedy which ripped my life apart from that point on. We moved away from the Outer Banks and lived in Nassau for a year. Rick had always had a fondness for alcohol, but that year it took on proportions that made my life more than difficult. We never talked about my mother's death again. That was okay, because I didn't understand it anyway and the less I thought about it, the better I felt. Meanwhile, Rick was a violent choleric who couldn't even control himself around his own daughter. My great "friends" stopped contacting me after only a week and had probably forgotten about me even faster.

And last but not least (that’s when the shitshow really started) : We were now moving back after this year and I had no idea what to expect of Kildare. According to Rick there were new business opportunities, but what did he actually tell me? Actually, I didn't care either. With my return began a crazy journey full of chaos, a lot of anger, sadness and no end of adventure. I ran into old friends and things escalated quickly. I learned things about my mother's death that made me more than suspicious, and gradually I began to suspect that her death had not been a suicide after all. My father's death also suddenly seemed to be no longer a coincidence and I learned a lot about my roots and especially about treasure hunting.

Then there were the Pogues and a certain blond boy. My nemesis, who regularly drove me to white heat and equally to madness. But let's start at the beginning:

[-Press Start]

[lolitastories]

GHOST

Javier Pena x Reader

Chapter 3

“Hey Lola” I smile and wave at Miguel as I make my way to the bar. “Same as usual?” He was already preparing my drink before I could answer.

“Thank you” I let out a sigh sitting on the corner of the bar. I look over and see Diego coming out. “Hey”

“What's going on?” He asks with a smile coming up and starting to dry the glasses. “Haven’t seen you in awhile” Miguel comes up and lays the drinks infront of me.

“Yeah, I've been busy with work. Its hits always at the same time” Miguel didn’t know to make my drink virgin but thankfully I needed this drink.

“Taxes season right” Miguel laughs before leaving to attend the other guests.

“Anything new?” I shake my head.

“Since he showed up on my doorstep I got a sweet invitation for dinner” I downed the drink. I’ve never been an alcoholic person, never got the point. They said it relaxed you and some other shit and maybe it does but never wanted to test out the waters. “More people have been around so I actually had to start working” I get a laughfrom him. Atleast someone is getting the humor out of all of this.

“That was quick?” Miguel comes over and takes the drink and goes to prepare another one. Diego just shakes his head.

“His movement has been still for a while and aslong as it stays there it means he doesn’t feel pressured. '' I smile as Miguel set another drink infront of me.

“I was wondering something” I lifted my eyebrow waiting for his next words. “Would you like to go out sometime? Maybe here for some drinks?” Stuck in the corner with that one. Miguel was a nice guy, hell with it.

“I would like that but I will let you know when. I’ve been swamped at work so I don’t know when I will get a chance to relax again”

“You know where to find me” He smiles walking away again.

“Look at you,” Diego says with a smile. “This will be your first date, since when?” I roll my eyes, taking my attention back to my drink. “Since never?”

“Shut up”

“Honey-”

“Don’t call me that” He knows when I am serious but he also knows just because it upsets me doesn’t mean I won’t get over it.

“Sorry” he lifts his hands up in defense. “I have knowed you since middle school and after that guy, you haven’t given nother guy the time of day” He moved closer making sure nobody heard. “And I know you are only doing this as a cover but it's time you put yourself out there again”

“I will” I shrug finishing me drink

“I can’t remember how many times you got the chance and never took it.” As he places his hands over mine I feel a smooth surface. I turn it to act like I am holding his hand and slip to grab the piece of paper in it.

“I will” I smile getting up.

“No late drinks tonight?” It was 9 and I usually stayed sometime after midnight.

“Not tonight Miguel. Got so much work to finish and I have until the end of this month” I thank them and leave. I carefully move into a spot where it's not suspicious to people who may be watching. I checked the note and intently grew tired. Close the blinds. Hell. As I walk home, well the motel. I drag my feet. This is the fifth night Pena has done this in the span of 3 weeks. He would sneak into the motel and have me close the blinds. Later after we spoke he would sneak out when the men across the street would turn off the lights. This usually happened when my lights were off for a while so it would send Pena out around 1 to 4 in the morning. I got the door acting all normal. I would set my things down and walk into the bathroom doing my usual routine. “I thought I told you to stop coming” I groaned, walking out the bathroom and placing my clothes on a table in the bathroom.

“And I told you I wasn’t until you decided to let us in” I rolled my eyes walking back out frustrated. This is how the night went. I got home and he would be sitting on the toilet. I would take a shower as we start our discussion. After that I would come out and close the blinds. Go into the bathroom and change as Pena moves to the kitchen table. Finally I would ignore him and give him bits and pieces as I try to catch some sleep until morning. He would be out by the time I opened my eyes. Today I was over it. I ignored him as I took a shower and even as I got ready for bed. “You’ve been working overtime and spending time on road trips, what does he have you doing?” I shrug, removing the pillows from the bed and getting into the covers. “Y/N!”

“Shut up” I groaned. It was close to eleven now and all I wanted to do was sleep. I wasn’t tired enough not to stay up. I was tired of the life that I have to live right now. I can’t leave and it's looking like it doesn’t have an end. “Pena” I sigh sitting up. “I don’t have time for your threats or whatever speech you prepared” I say a little too loud.

“You would have to hear it if you would just tell me what's going on” He gets up from the table and walks over. I get up and turn off the lights. I place on my shoes and walk towards the back. “Y/N” he warned. He knew to stay hidden behind the wall as I walked out into the sort of porch outside. I wrap my arms around me as the cool air hits my face.

“I stand out here sometimes. I like to look at the sky and picture myself somewhere else. Usually surrounded by water. Floating and letting the motion of the waves rock me to sleep” I turn my head catching Pena's eyes. “Ironic because I am scared of the open water. I am going to say this as nicely as possible” I turn my body to walk towards the door outline without stepping in, I needed to still feel at peace to not let the frustration out on him. “No matter how much this involves you, you can’t be putting me,you,Murphy, and any other agent on the line. I am not a little girl, all the information I give goes directly to you and the ambassador” Thats when Pena stands up and stops right infront of me. “I can’t have you coming here and risking this operation because of your stubbornness and pride” I say this a little harsher as his presance radiates. It's like I could feel him so much closer than he was. Like he has engulfed me in a tight hug and somehow, that made me feel at peace. “It's not the right thing to do and if I am being honest I feel like everything is slipping off my hands” I hate not having control. Something I should have since it's my damn operation but with him involved it like I can’t get a hold of it.

“Y/N '' I felt his fingers grab my own until he enterwines our hands. “You are stressed”

“No! Pena” I finally let out. “I am scared” That was the last straw. I don’t know what caused it. I don’t know if he hugged me first and tears started falling or he heard my whimper as I cried and wrapped his arms around me. Silence surrounded us both not knowing what to say. The truth came out and I felt vulnerable. I hadn’t felt this way. Losing control wasn’t part of my traits. I was close to losing control and it was making me think of unnecessary feelings I learned to put in the past. “I know what I got myself into. I learned to not take it personally. A great deal of my life I have always been good at keeping my emotions in. To ignore. But-” I look up not knowing what to end with. There is nothing to think about. There is no other choice here, I must finish my operation. I must get back in control. “I'm sorry” I whisper, moving my hands to cup his cheeks. I pulled him closer pinning us against eachother. The kiss was breathtaking. I felt down and sad and having him kiss me felt like a solution. He didn’t seem to mind. It felt like he was desprate to take all the sadness I had in this one kiss. I push him inside, not letting us reach for air just yet. We stumble upon the kitchen table. “Careful” I chuckle, wrapping my arms around him as he slips around my waist. It was a simple long kiss but it was turning into something I craved for.

“Querida” He groaned as we molded together. His back knees hit the bit and it makes him sit down. I dare not let go yet and crawl on to him pushing him even closer for the kiss to never end. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to go back to reality. I only wanted to listen to his moans and groans as I start to slowly grind agains this jean pants. I only wanted to feel his heart beat beating with mine. His smooth finger continued to travel along my back and unclapsing my bra.

“Javi?” It sounded like a question to me but I was begging and he understood that. He took out my shirt and started to leave butterfly kisses starting from my mouth to my collarbone.

“Sounds so sweet when you say my name” I smile. My head falls on his shoulder moving up to kiss beside his ear.

“Javi!” I groaned louder, knowing he was ignoring my plea. Then there was. Not what I needed but it was a start. One head on my breath and his talented mouth on the other. Kissing first and the next licking and sucking like no tomorrow. I throw my head back pushing my chest closer. “Javi!” I screamed. “Fuck” I grab on his head pulling and tugging his hair. I forcefully continue to grind on him wanting nothing more than to get rid of the barrier of clothing between us.

“Mi amor” It was the heat of the moment I told myself. But it made a shiver run down my spin to my core. “Stop, you’re killing me” He groans and I start leaving kisses and hickies on his neck.

“Don’t you want to hear me scream your name some more?” I move up again, nipping on his ear and slowing down my hips but with more force.

“Yes” he whines. His hands grab on to my hips following my rhythm.

“But, we can stop if-” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence when he wraps one arm around my waist and the other helps him not fall on top of me as he turns us around and lays me down on the bed. “No?” I try to hold my laugh but it's cut short. His eyes hold seriousness. Still hovering over me he moves on hand to cradle my cheek.

“No” His deep voice sends another shiver down my spine. His thumb slides over my lips and I give him entrance. A simple suck and his eyes shut. “Mi vida” He groans. With his affirmations alone and sweet nicknames I could orgasm faster than if I was doing it myself.

“Wait!” I pushed into the bed, not in the way I wanted. I hold my finger up signaling him to keep quiet. I run to close the back door and the curtains. A quick chatter from outside and shadows that the moon allows to cast make me jump. I see Pena stand up and walk quickly towards me.

“Do you think-” I shushed him quickly. I grab on to his hand and push him into the bathroom. I open the cabinet and take everything from underneath.

“I need you to keep quiet and don’t come out until I let you out” I open a secret compartment. It was a small space fit for one person. “Pena” I turned around and stood up. “If you hear no commotion you let yourself out” I move out the way to let him. That's when a knock is heard on the other side.

“No way in hell-” I grab a fist full of his shirt.

“Don’t give me that shit right now!” Another knock. “You will do what I say. This is my operation and I won’t have you mess it up. I will send for you when I decide. And only then will you show up, understand? I can take care of myself” I ran back to the room and put my shirt on again. “Get in Pena” I hurry him inside and close it. I get the time to put everything in place before rushing back to open the door. “Hello?” I act like they just disturbed my sleep.

“We are sorry to come at this time Miss, but the boss would like a word with you.” Fuck.

“Okay. Give me a minute to change and I will be right out. They nod and I close the door. I can’t tell Peña because he would be right after us. I changed quickly going back to the bathroom and putting my head inside the cabinet knowing he would be able to hear me. “Please don’t do anything stupid and listen for once. I will keep you in the loop but I need you to promise me you will follow what I said before”

“Okay, but Y/N-“ I cut him off quickly

“I don’t have time Pena, I have to go over things with them so it will be awhile. In an hour you walk out the back door” I didn’t wait for his response as I walked to the door and into the car with these men.

Chapter 4

[vergess]

@autismserenity​ said: Your tags are the most American thing I’ve ever read, we are truly so screwed here   

May I interest you in a more complete, and more excruciating, explanation of what I spent the last 18 months doing?

It is, I need to emphasize, fucking nasty. Don’t feel obligated, especiallly if you’ve already had A Day(tm).

There’s a lot of disease, a lot of worker abuse including sexual and racial abuse, a fine portion of letting people die for not being white enough for real medical care, all leading to homelessness.

For NDA reasons, because my former employer was just as vile as any tech company has ever been, I cannot be super specific about who I worked for. However, I can say that we handled the records and patient contact for all COVID testing for several states, as well as 2 of the 5 largest metros in the US, and several dozen smaller ones ranging from the approximate population of San Francisco, down to little towns, as well as the testing for several public school systems and at least two government agencies that I am not at liberty to disclose.

I tell you this for a sense of scale. When I say shit like, “my boss was more than happy to let thousands or hundreds of thousands die” I am not exagerrating for effect. We handled hundreds of thousands of tests a week.

Again, I need to emphasize, government agencies. Ones you would know if I named them. Ones everyone in the country knows.

And we were in charge of getting their test results from the already over swamped labs back to the patients, who often were not allowed to quarantine while awaiting results.

The fastest we got our turnaround time to on any consistent basis was about 30 hours. Often it ballooned well into weeks.

There were a number of factors for this, but the big one was always understaffing.

The staff we did have were treated like trash. One of the big selling points of this company is how “trans friendly” it is to work there. That is a lie. Every trans employee on payroll had their dead name displayed to all other staff, and until I personally changed the system setup on my arrival, patient facing trans people’s dead names were displayed to patients.

Remember that thing about “hundreds of thousands of tests a week”?

I was able to change the way patient-facing names were displayed. I was not allowed or able to alter the way internal systems displayed trans people’s names. But I was assured that it’s fine, because once you get a legal name change, you’ll be given new system accounts with your new name!

Your old accounts with your dead name would still be displayed and associated with the new ones though.

This is the “trans friendly” working environment. We were allowed to be out of the closet, as long as we were willing to put up with that. And any attempts to get it altered were the result of those nasty little transgender ingrates not being thankful enough.

Meaning that by asking to use our own fucking names we were already in the disciplinary shitter.

Another big selling point is the ~racial diversity~. The CEO was a man of colour, and so were like four other people on staff!! Wow!!!!!!!

This, too, was laughable.

Once numbers started coming in about the care gap for COVID between English and Spanish speakers, and our Southwestern US service area began to have a separate and brutal backlog just of Spanish speaking patients, my employer encouraged me to interview potential hires who speak spanish.

Fair enough! We all wanted to do our part to help close the already massive mortality gap.

So, I found candidates, did interviews, hired them, trained them, etc. But I don’t speak Spanish. As a result, I appointed 2 assistant managers who do speak Spanish to assist me in managing, you know, like the job name.

So when my super contacted them directly, completely skipping me on the chain of command, and told them to stop all of our Spanish speakers from translating helpful simple messages to send to patients, and instead start translating medical and legal documents, they very reasonably assumed I was in the know and went ahead with it.

TO BE CLEAR, that could have ended my life, theirs, basically everyone involved. Everyone in the company would have been completely fucked. At that point, my subordinates, the people for whom I am wholly responsible, were doing everything from practicing medicine without licenses, to encouraging spanish speaking patients to enter contracts that no one on the fucking executive tier could even read.

The moment I found that out, I and the A.M.s immediately started trying to get actual medical translation services to do our documents. We collected them in a neat folder. We queried translation services. We got quotes. We contacted my super and the CEO, about this over and over again for months. In the late autumn, we received approval for one of the translation services.

The CEO decided at the last minute that having people with no medical or legal training draft medical and legal forms was fine and good actually, and refused to sign the contract or send the documents for translation.

The excuse I received was that the COVID emergency HIPAA relaxations would protect us.

That’s not how that works.

Throughout all of this, Spanish speaking employees were told to either keep doing medical and legal translation work, or lose their jobs.

Oh, did I mention everyone was working between 30 and 80 hours a week, and all of us were marked as “contractors” so the employer could tax evade? Don’t worry, we filed complaints with the labour bureau.

So the entire department was let go, and “rehired” as temps through a temp agency, which because it was a temp agency could keep them marked as contractors regardless of the facts.

This change was presented to all of us, myself included, as the company getting a new accountant to handle payroll.

So if you’re keeping score, we’ve covered racism, queerphobia, medical negligence, fraud, and a frankly uncountable number of deaths.

Let’s talk about the sheer negligence towards employees ourselves. If you’ve worked in near-death medical care before, or any number of emergency services really, you know that the standard benefit suite includes either a dedicated therapist for your staff, or access to peer support groups with other emergency and medical servants through your employer’s benefits program.

Do you know what our mental health benefits were for this company?

The CEO got on a fucking zoom call with us all one (1) time, and said that if we were feeling suicidal or traumatized by the work, to talk to him about it, and he would be our therapist.

Do you know how many people per fucking day we had to contact only to be told they had already died because our understaffing delays killed them? He doesn’t. He never listened when we told him.

But let me put the cherry on the “Oh baby, you can talk to me, oooh” sundae.

Anyone who “looked” or “sounded” female, regardless of actual or assigned gender, was subject to constant flirtations and slimy, overly personal compliments about our appearances. Fortunately, at 3 levels removed from the CEO (Executives > Department heads > Managers > Employees), most of the people under my management had relatively little contact with him.

I was not nearly so lucky.

The CEO of this company has a watersports (urination) fetish. I know this, because he told me so and attempted to get me to join him in it. I have no idea how many other people in the company he did this to. I mean, what the fuck was I supposed to do, risk losing my job to find out? I have a fucking family to support, people.

Not that it mattered.

Eventually, all of these abuses became too much for my subordinates. Productivity fell off a cliff. Delays were getting worse and worse. In a medical emergency like this, delays=deaths.

So, like a fucking idiot, when the department heads reached out to me to ask what they could do to improve productivity, I shot down their frankly insulting suggestion of raffling a $20 amazon gift card to patient facing employees, and instead suggested a very simple, “enroll us with a peer support group, every single person in this department has PTSD from working in this pandemic.”

They were confused by my assertion of PTSD. I was asked to compile a document of complaints, concerns, and weaknesses in our patient facing services.

I and the A.M.s did so. It was roughly 40 pages long, with each page given a known problem, the reasons why it was a problem, and some potential solutions that might inspire further solutions or be able to be implemented. We submitted it. There was no response.

A week passed.

I had been working 80 hour weeks for most of a year. I hadn’t even been able to take weekends. I took my first sick day, in a company with “unlimited vacation days.”

I received a call at 3PM.

I had been fired for “differences in communitcation.” If you’ve ever seen that “Problem Women of Color in the workplace” chart? Yeah.

So had most of my department, including every transgender member of the department, and several of our extremely limited in supply Spanish speakers, who were presumed to be “on my side.”

Some of them, I barely even knew beyond the formalities of the job, and they were punished anyway.

I lost my insurance, and as a result I lost access to my medications.

But the real problem? I lost my house. And not due to lack of payment.

I lost my house, because when I got the job we waited 6 months for stability’s sake, and then readied to move out of the area. I got a mortgage on the basis of my employer’s written guarantee to the bank that I would continue to be employed for the next year at a minimum.

With the mortgage approval in hand, we entered a sales contract on our existing home.

We got and accepted an offer just days before I was fired. To keep our house meant paying a 25,000 dollar broken contract fine. We didn’t have that. We had a 10% down payment for a modest fucking place in a cheaper area, which is less than half that.

But without a job, my mortgage approval was also voided, meaning we couldn’t buy a house either.

All of a sudden, we were homeless during the plague, because my employer wrote and signed a letter to a bank guaranteeing my future employ, and then changed his mind when too many people died due to his own negligence.

Oh yeah, one last thing: the job paid less than Pandemic unemployment Assistance.

...After that, well, it’s homelessness until just last month. I... if you’ve never been homeless it’s.

It blurs. Everything is happening constantly, except for all the ways in which you are endlessly, mind breakingly bored. Bored, overloaded, and always uncomfortable.

Obviously my health would have declined regardless. Malnutrition, stress, everything.

But I was also unmedicated.

It was hell. I was in hell. I don’t know if I can recover from it, to be honest.

I bounced back from being homeless as a child. Children are as resilient as they are stupid, and the monstrosity of homelessness was little more than a vaguely remembered loathing and a panicky fear that it would ever happen again.

A child who is dying is worthy of sympathy, even if it is meaningless coos from passers by. If they have family, they may be able to rely on them too.

An adult with the indignity to die homeless and crippled, according to the average passer by, is worthy only of disgust and perhaps even punishment for being such a worthless waste.

My reward for nearly killing myself in a desperate bid to help stem the tide of COVID was the destruction of not only my life, not only my entire family’s lives, but the lives of every single family of every single employee who worked with me.

And you know what’s worse?

Each one of us still did more to limit the lethal impact of COVID than the entire united states government.

It breaks something in you, going through that.

It makes you realize that hope is a fool’s game.

But, I have ever been a fool, and so, I continue to play.

[quirklessidiot]

Title: filthy rich [2/3]  Pairing: millionare!sakusa kiyoomi x y/n [filthy capitalist au] Genre: mild romance themes, major angst ahead, a bit of mystery, mafia!au-ish

Synopsis: He was perfect, maybe too damn perfect.

Warnings: mild sexual content, yandere themes, toxic relationships, violence, shady business, class differences, mentions of rape, and sakusa being a manipulative bastard [this fic does not in any way glorify these types of relationships!!!] Notes: Happy 605 followers guys! Decided to change this into a three part fic since it would be too damn long....I know this is a long overdue chapter hnnng i fucking hate college i cant wait to see sakusa in the new season, how was it guys? I was absolutely thrown off by akaashi even if he only had like a minute or so screentime hnnng...

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Sakusa Kiyoomi reminded you of an onion.

Over the past three years of going out with him, you seem to find a new layer to him. No longer was he the asshole from that day, he was the sweetest boyfriend, hands down. You were both a bit awkward in terms of affection since you two were treading on unfamiliar territory (much to your surprise, a man like Sakusa Kiyoomi has never been seriously intimate with anyone) but like every other couple out there, you surpassed it. You were now in the receiving end of his soft smiles, warm gaze, and affection.

Although you had your worries like your residency and his company growing bigger and bigger by the day, you started to wonder if you’d last long but the man casted your doubts aside and continued to be faithful to you and everyday you seem to fall deeper and deeper in the rabbit hole.

“...and for the last time, stop buying me expensive things and offering to pay my student loans.” you frowned, stirring the Butajiru for your boyfriend who was coming by today for dinner. Out of spite, early on in the relationship, you had to learn how to cook since Sakusa demanded you to when he learned that you lived a lot on canned foods and unhealthy take-outs. Much to your despise, he even volunteers to pay for your weekly groceries and even got you a ‘for sale’ stove that he apparently can’t return because he misplaced the receipt.

“I don’t get it, don’t partners like it when they’re given gifts all the time?” his brows are upturned, making you scoff. “From past experiences-”

“Are you sure that those weren’t sugar babies?” you cut him off, pointing the wooden spoon on your hand at him, “Because from your description you sound like a sugar daddy.”

“Hey.” He grumbled, walking up to you from behind to envelope you on a hug, “I’m not old enough to be a sugar daddy.”

You shut the stove off and turn to him, placing a brief kiss on the jaw, “You yell at teenagers and complain when it’s too noisy. I think you qualify for a senior discount and a sugar daddy title.” You joked, escaping his grip to grab some bowls so you both could start eating.

“You’re only four years younger than me.”

“Mhm.” You hummed, sticking your tongue out, “Also, aren’t you supposed to be at a party tonight?”

“You weren’t there.” 

“Aren’t you required to go?” You frowned, placing the bowl in front of him, “You know I’m not a big fan of those things and you can’t keep handing it over to Komori-san…”

“And you know I hate it when you aren’t there.” He softly repeated.

You roll your eyes and place your own bowl as you sit in front of him, “Always the smooth talker since we met three years ago.” you shake your head.

“Three years, huh.” Sakusa paused, “Speaking of three years, I was thinking…”

You stopped eating and looked up to face him, his face dead serious, “Move in with me.” He asked out of the blue. Your eyes widen and you let down a gulp, your stomach flipping at his words.

“I-” You paused, “I...I can’t…”

Sakusa tilted his head, confused, “What?”

“Don’t get me wrong…” You started, eyes looking at your food, seemingly nervous, “I-I wanna move in with you, my lease is almost up...but…”

“But what?”

“It’s not like I wasn’t going to tell you any sooner but….but i’m moving.”

Silence filled the room that you could almost hear the pin drop, “What do you mean you’re moving?” Sakusa’s voice was void of emotion and it made you scared for the first time. The man wishes you were wrong, wishing that you were just moving someplace nearby but the next words stun him.

“I got accepted for a huge humanitarian work in Medaide.” You gulped, carefully choosing your words as you slither your hands to his, trying to distract him, “We'll be travelling around third world countries, like the dream I've always told you about. I thought, well, I didn't got accepted since I didn't hear from them but it seems like I did.”

“How many months?”

“It’s- It’s a permanent job, I go back once a year…”

Silence enveloped the room, the only thing that could be heard was the faint sound of the bustling city outside. The world seems to have stopped for Sakusa that time.

“Congrats.” Sakusa smiled softly, breaking the silence, “I’m proud of you, bunny.”

Your eyes widen as you immediately leap out the chair and run to your boyfriend’s side, “Thank god!” you exclaimed, sitting on his lap to envelope him in a hug, “I was afraid you’d break up with me.”

You stare at him in the eye, hands on his cheeks, “Now why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, we’d only be seeing each other once a year if i accepted it.” You murmured, kissing him on the temple, “Thanks for being so supportive.”

You don’t notice how his grip tightens a bit on your waist nor the darken look looming over his features, “I’d never let you go, bunny. Never.” he hummed.

You continue on with your little happy bubble with your ever supportive boyfriend, you start shopping for some goodies for your trip that you were scheduled to leave next month. You should’ve known everything was too good to be true. 

A week before your trip, the company had called you in and said that you were cut off from the team and that apparently your experience wasn’t enough.

You vividly remember Sakusa rushing to your side mid-day when he should be swamped with work, whispering soothing words in your ear. You were absolutely devastated, the dream job you wanted felt like it slipped away, it took you a month to get back to your feet and actually go out. Despite getting over it, you were discouraged, the words they said echoed on your head, thoughts on how you weren’t performing well back  in med school and how your record on residency wasn’t enough.

“Y/N?”

“Oh.” you blinked, looking up to your boyfriend, “Sorry, I spaced out.”

“It’s alright.”

It seemed like the only constant thing in your life now was Sakusa, your friends were busy and they had come and gone, you didn’t want to worry your very busy parents so you didn’t call them about your dilemma. You didn’t want to call your aunt or Hinata about it too since you know they’d tell your parents.

Kiyoomi was the only person who stayed.

He was the only one you trusted.

“Is that roommate thing with you still open?” you suddenly asked, making Sakusa paused mid-movement.

“Of course it is,” He dropped the cutlery he was holding and strode to your side to caress your cheek, “It always is for you.”

“Guess I’ll be able to use my duplicate more often.”

Maybe being a humanitarian doctor wasn’t how it was going to be for you, it took another month for you to actually go and find a permanent job. Sakusa points out that you can take all the time out that you need but you don't want to lounge around and do nothing, you need a good distraction.

So you ended up working for a prestigious hospital as an ER doctor, for a moment, you forgot about Medaide with the help of your new job and your boyfriend.

You were happy.

Really happy.

The idea of staying in Tokyo didn’t actually seem like a bad idea now, you were going to bring it up to your parents and tell them that you wanted to stay here permanently with your boyfriend. They’d probably be happy, Sakusa Kiyoomi is a perfect man.

Until you come to the very sudden realization that he wasn’t.

Kiyoomi hated going out on long distance trips, he always wanted to be next to you or take you with him but this one was apparently too important to skip out so you greet him goodbye and wait for him to come home. Being the good partner you are, you decided to clean the house for your boyfriend. Kiyoomi was an incredibly clean person so you tried to keep your sloppiness to yourself when you moved in a few months ago.

Getting rid of the small dust here and there and throwing some unimportant things on the side, you prepare to throw out the collected garbage but ultimately freeze on your tracks when you find a ripped paper on the garbage dump.

Normally, you don’t do garbage dives.

Why would you?

Yet the name on top along with your boyfriend’s name caught your attention. It was Medaide’s logo, you grabbed the ripped piece of paper and started looking through the garbage dump, it did start to smell but curiosity always got the best of you.

Nervously biting your lower lip, you don’t find all the papers but you find one dated the same week you had broken the news to your boyfriend and the words, “Thank you for your donation and for sending us a group of more competent doctors for this batch.”

Your eyes narrowed as you stood there, shaking, the surge of panic and anxiety bubbling within you made the bile rose on your throat.

What was going on?

Was this really your perfect boyfriend?

Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding, why would your boyfriend do that? What would he even gain? You bite on your fingernails as you walk back and forth in front of the front desk, “Y/N-san?”

You jump on the spot.

“K-Kenjiro-san.” 

“You alright there?” Shirabu Kenjiro asked, tilting his head to the side, “You’re not looking very good these days.”

“Y-Yeah…” You gulped, “J-Just thinking about some things.”

“Well, your shift is about to be over. Maybe you can go home earlier? ER’s pretty much dead right now.”  Your fellow doctor shrugged, you turned around and let out a sigh, maybe you should request to go home earlier. You needed to rest. All this thinking was getting to your head that you had almost misdiagnosed a patient this afternoon.

“Hey Kenjiro-san.” you ask your workmate, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“I have a friend.” You gulped down, “They’ve got this perfect relationship and he’s a super great guy...then-then they realize that he did something bad…”

Kenjiro looks up from his paperwork and shoots you his usual upturned brow, “Can you specify what he did?”

“He got in the way of their dreams.”

Kenjiro is silent for a moment as if he was thinking of something deep, “Well if I were that person, I’d leave him. What kind of asshat doesn’t support their partner’s dreams?” he asked, placing his hands on his hips, “Tell your friend that they deserve better and not some asshat who is holding them back.”

“Yeah,” you nodded, he had a very good point, “Yeah, that’s right.”

Kenjiro had a good point there, maybe confronting Sakusa would be a wise choice but as of right now you decided against it, you needed to gather the courage to actually talk to him about it. The thing that scared you the most was how much you loved and trusted the guy too much.

He went through such lengths to get you to stay around, who knows what else he could’ve done?

You shake your head, you were being paranoid yet at the same time you couldn’t help it. Your anxiety towards the situation wasn’t helpful at all and it was spiking up and down.

On your way home, you decided to pass by a local pharmacy because your head hadn’t been feeling very well, “Do you have any pain killers?” you weakly asked the man on the front counter, after giving you your medication, you also decided to buy some extra vitamins because you recalled almost running out of them.

“Oh, we ran out of that brand yesterday.” The pharmacist replied, scrunching his brow in wonder, “Would you like another one? It’s not a generic brand but it’s  pretty much the same.”

“Yeah, that’ll do too.” You nodded, after paying for your purchase, you headed home. Fixing up your medicine in your cabinet, you freeze mid-action when you notice how familiar the vitamin looked. Shakily raising your hand to grab your birth-control pills in the medicine cabinet, you almost topple down when you pop it open next to the vitamin you bought.

It was the same.

It was exactly the same.

Before you knew it you were vomiting in the basin, your headache was worsening and the shaking wouldn’t stop.

The idea of the perfect boyfriend was completely erased in your head.

You didn’t look well these past few days, Kiyoomi noticed it because you didn’t even dared to hide it anymore, you wanted to leave him. Not only did he get in the way of whatever you worked hard for but he was trying to get you pregnant without your consent.

You felt utterly disgusted.

You sat at the tub, completely drained from all the events that transpired this past two weeks. The three year perfect streak that he tried to maintain was reduced to nothing but shambles. You wanted to blame yourself for being too stupid and caught up in this sham, your boyfriend was messed up, you wanted to get away but how?

You inwardly sighed, you were stupid. Too stupidly in love and intoo deep the rabbit hole that you hadn't even noticed.

“Y/N?”

Your gaze snapped to find him standing there with an expensive bouquet of flowers, you try to let out a weak smile, “Hey.”

“You’re not looking well.” He commented, placing the flowers on the side as he approached your naked figure on the tub, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” you nodded, “Just work.”

“I told you not to overstrain yourself.” He mumbled, bending down to your level, “You might get sick.”

You wanted to cringe away in disgust as he kissed your bare shoulders but you maintained yourself, “It’s fine.” You softly said, “I just have to do my best. I still want to try out for humanitarian work if I get a good recommendation from the hospital.”

You notice the quick shift of expression in his eyes, making you tighten your lips, so there it was.

“Again? I thought-”

“It’s my dream.” You began, trying to give him a smile, maybe, just maybe you can let him see through it, “You know how much I want this.”

“Maybe it’s not meant for you.”

“Excuse me?”

Sakusa Kiyoomi’s eyes widen at the new reaction, your smile turning to a grimace. Over the course of your relationship, you had never been this angry, “Y/N, you know that’s not-”

“Get out.” You shakily say.

“Y/N.”

“I said, Get out, Sakusa.” You yell again, eyes seeing red, the bastard had the audacity to keep pulling you back and doing these things to you. You were downright disgusted at him and everything he was doing, what more would you find? The mere fact that he destroyed your dreams and switched out your birth control had you on edge at the moment and you didn’t want to try to find out anymore, you probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.

He lets out a sigh, “You don’t have to leave the room. I’ll go sleep on the couch.”

You watch him leave and close the bathroom door yet his eyes don’t fool you anymore. 

You didn’t feel safe here.

You needed to get out.

Sakusa Kiyoomi is no fool towards your shift of attitude, he knows something is up when you snap at him when you were usually the calmer one (yes, you may be a bundle of energy and spitfire but you were relatively calm in the most part) so he calls the head of your hospital and sits him down, the head is shaking and on his knees, begging him to spare his life and his job for he did not know that you were overworked at all in your department.

“...I watch over her, sir…” the chief shakily exclaimed, “I always do…”

“So, you’re telling me… that my Y/N is a liar?”

The chief immediately freezes up on the spot, “Good lord, of course not! Doctor Y/N would never-”

“What would it be?”

“E-excuse me?”

“Your hands or your life?”

The man immediately cries out, begging him for mercy for he was innocent but Sakusa didn’t care. 

He didn’t care at all.

Yes, Sakusa Kiyoomi would do anything for you. If someone were to make you sad, tired, weary, or any negative emotion, he’d strike them down, just like how he paid your friends to stay away, just like how he had subtly shifted your parents work conditions that prevented them from returning to you.

You were his and his only.

No one could get in your ways.

“My name is Doctor Sato, I’ll be your new chief...”

You stare at the new head of the hospital blankly, apparently the previous chief, Doctor Yamomoto, had to retire due to some matters with his family. It was a shame, you really liked him since he was awfully nice to you and everyone in the ward, “...L/N-san?” the older man calls out as soon as the meeting was over.

Your gaze snapped towards him as he tilted his head slightly, you’re completely bewildered by the sudden attention from your new boss, “Are your working conditions alright?”

“Yes, chief.” 

“If you have any problem, “ his tight lip turns into a big smile as he places his hand on your shoulder, “Please don’t hesitate to ask.”

You blink at his uncharacteristic request and immediately move back to get away from his grasp, a rather uncomfortable smile made its way to your lips as you nodded, “I’ll take note of that, Chief.” 

Thankfully nothing odd happened anymore after the day ended and as you patched up your things, getting ready to go home, you find your one and only boyfriend standing there with another bouquet of flowers in his hands. The sense of familiar dread sinked in once again.

How would you end this all?

The perfect man was a liar and he got in the way but why couldn’t you end things with him quickly? Why couldn’t you cut him off? You were so angry at him yet at the same time you were so lost, where did it go wrong?

“Y/N…” He greets, “How was work?”

“It was fine.” You quietly replied, turning your gaze  at the expensive bouquet on his hands once again. Ever since you guys fought, he had been buying you flowers and expensive things but you remained the same, you just didn’t know how to act anymore around him.

“How was your new chief?”

You immediately tense up, as far as you recalled you had only met the chief today and no one knew about this outside the hospital. How the hell did this bastard know?

Sakusa notices you’ve gone too quiet, “Y/N? What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Word travels fast, huh?” you blinked, regaining your composure quickly, something wasn’t right now, you knew that something went deeper than that little Medaide charade he did and switching your pills to get you pregnant, “He’s alright and please stop buying me stuff, didn’t I tell you that we were fine already?”

“Y/N-”

You sighed and leaned in closer, pulling down his mask so that you could give him a peck on his lips. Inside, you felt disgusted but this was the only way now, “Stop acting all cringey and lovey-dovey. I forgive you. Let’s not fight again.” You consoled the tall man.

You notice how soft his eyes became.

Yes, two can play a game. 

From stopping you from moving to trying to get you pregnant, it was those things that made you come towards a conclusion that Sakusa Kiyoomi didn’t wanted you to leave his side. The man probably wouldn’t stop at anything, if he was willing to go to such lengths, what more could he do? You let out a tight smile as your boyfriend kisses your temple.

You needed to find a way and quick because the Sakusa Kiyoomi you thought you knew for the past three years was nothing like the Sakusa Kiyoomi in front of you.

taglist [send me an ask if you want to be tagged for the last chapter and as always if i forget to tag, just send me an ask]

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@kn0xiousnight  @newfriendjen

[can’t tag you guys uwu just make sure ur tags are open :<]

[night-fallz]

Jason Todd x Avengers Crossover

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Ao3 // Wattpad

previous II next

Unexpected (part 3)

If he knew that he would be blamed for murdering someone the moment he got back to Gotham, then Jason would’ve waited another week or two before returning.

No matter what a lot of people said, Jason wasn’t stupid. He knows not to expect things that were unlikely to happen.

Jason couldn’t risk raising his hopes when it came to the bats.

He knew that he wasn’t gonna receive a warm welcome filled with hugs and cupcakes. Honestly, the most he expected was a nod of acknowledgment. And if he was lucky, then maybe- maybe he would’ve gotten a smile with the quiet whisper of a welcome back.

It made his heart twist in all the wrong ways to know that his family didn’t trust him as much as he thought. Jason genuinely believed that he and the bats were on good enough terms to earn him the benefit of the doubt.

He forced himself not to flinch as he met Batman’s harsh, distrustful gaze.

“I wasn’t even here when he was killed,” Jason tried to say as calmly as he could, knowing that if he loses his temper, everyone would use it against him. “I was following a case up in New York.”

He couldn’t go back to Arkham! Not again. Not with the Joker only a few cells away from him, taunting him with his laughter— his voice filled with cruel exhilaration as he continuously promised Jason that they would play together once again. How he would soon be reunited with his favorite playmate.

His favorite Robin.

He heard someone suck in a breath behind him.

Jason didn’t expect anyone to defend him. Not against Batman. But still-

He didn’t expect them to just stand and watch as Batman tore him into shreds once again. Batman threw accusation over accusation, yet he never once provided a single piece of evidence that proved it was Jason that did it.

He took a step towards Jason and he had to force himself not to flinch. Batman wouldn’t… not with his kids in the same room.

He ignored the rising panic in his stomach. Jason was safe.

He was safe.

Bruce wouldn’t beat him in the cave. Not in front of everyone. Not in front of Damian.

Jason would be able to walk out of the cave with his ability to walk. He was gonna be okay.

“Look, B. You can even ask them,” he pointed at the spot where Dick and the others were standing. “I told them that I was leaving Gotham for a while.”

Batman turned to where Jason was pointing. “Well?” he asked expectantly.

The cave was engulfed in eerie silence before Tim opened his mouth, faltering a little when he met Jason’s pleading gaze. “He’s not lying Bruce. He told me that he had a mission out of Gotham while we were hanging out a few weeks ago.”

Jason could feel his chest loosen up for a few seconds, thankful that Tim confirmed his statement.

He remembered the day that Tim was talking about. The bats were getting even clingier than usual. They weren’t even trying to hide the fact that they were following Jason anymore.

Tim asked Jason if he wanted to watch a movie and Jason agreed.

The bats were gonna be watching him anyways— they didn’t even try to hide the fact that they bugged him and all the known safehouses he has.

At this point, Jason didn’t know whether he should feel offended with how much they underestimated or relieved.

They already viewed him as dangerous and unpredictable. If they ever find out that Jason’s been holding back, even if it was just a little-

He won’t let them throw him back to Arkham. Jason would rather go back to the League of Assassins.

If Jason wasn’t watching Batman so closely, he would’ve missed the sliver of a nod the man-made.

Jason tried not to think of the fact that Bruce immediately accepted Tim’s answer without hesitation.

For the millionth time in this conversation, he wished that he was wearing his helmet. Instead, he forced his expression to remain calm. To remain bored as turned back to Bruce an eyebrow raised.

“Is that good enough proof for you, old man?” he couldn’t help but spit out, bitterness clear in his voice.

Batman remained unaffected, not even bothering to verbally answer Jason’s question. Instead, he just nodded.

Jason’s heart clenched, of course, he wouldn’t get an apology. Batman was too prideful for that.

“Truth.” Cassandra’s voice rang across the cave, breaking the heavy silence. “No… not lie.”

Batman nodded once again and Cassandra’s eyes met his. It took everything in him to stop a retort from coming out of his mouth.

Couldn’t she have said that a few minutes ago? Before Batman ripped him apart like he was nothing but flimsy paper.

Still, he guessed he should be thankful that she defended him. Even though it was too late.

After a few seconds of no one saying anything, Dick broke the awkwardness with an annoying smile on his face. “Now that that’s settled, why don’t we get that movie started?”

It was only because of all his training that Jason didn’t break down right there.

Of course this was just another thing that they’d sweep under the rug. Something that they would never want to speak off again.

Discussions of what movie they were supposed to watch erupted the room. It didn’t take long for an argument to break out between Damian and Tim.

Jason watched the scene for a few seconds before looking away.

They looked like a real family.

He turned away, these things happened frequently enough for Jason to know that he wasn’t welcomed.

He blocked out all the noise as he walked towards his helmet, eager to put it back on.

It was only a matter of luck that the universe hated him so much that he knocked something down, the thumping noise alerting everyone that he was about to leave.

Jason couldn’t help but feel relieved that he put on his helmet as soon as he got his hands on it.

At least he didn’t have to go to all the trouble to force his expression to remain impassive anymore.

Batman could use it against him.

Dick’s eyebrows furrowed, “Where are you going, Jay? I thought you were joining us tonight.”

“Yeah, well maybe I’m not in the mood to watch a stupid movie tonight.” Jason spits out.

Was Dick being serious right now? There were so many things wrong with that question.

One: Why would Jason want to spend more time with the people who thought he murdered someone and didn’t even bother to defend him.

And two-

No one invited Jason.

Before anyone could say anything else, Jason hopped on his motorcycle. He needed to get out of the cave.

He could feel their eyes on his back but no one bothered to stop him.

The last thing he heard was Cassandra’s voice assuring the bats. “Be back,” she said with enough confidence that one would think that she could command Jason to turn around with only her words. “He will be back.”

Jason held in the harsh remark that threatened to leave his lips.

Plus, it wasn’t like Cassandra was lying. He knew it— and hell, the rest of Bats probably knew it too.

Jason would come back. He always did.

It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go.

But for now, he needed to get away. He thought that one week would be enough to calm the pit.

It wasn’t.

In fact, he feels like the interaction with the bats today just made it worst.

He’ll stay away from them for two weeks. That should be enough time for the pit to stop screaming at him.

But who would he stay with?

Jason had enough experience to know that the best way to calm the pit was to surround yourself with people you trust.

Kori and Roy were still in space.

And Talia was busy with the civil war against Ra’s.

Jason had no one else.

Except-  

His phone grew heavier in his pocket and he remembered that an Avenger owed him a favor.

Clint said that Jason could text him whenever.

And the more he thought about it, the more Jason decided that he did trust the archer in some way.  

Jason soon found himself staring at the side mirror of the vehicle and poisonous green eyes stared back.

He quickly averted his eyes.

Clint was his last choice. And Jason couldn’t risk being in the peak of a pit episode without anyone to keep him in his place.  

He could do this.

It wasn’t like he had another choice.

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notes:

Balancing out school and volleyball was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Only one month has passed and I am swamped with work.

I don’t know how I feel about this chapter. It’s not my best work but I wanted to put something out for you guys!!

I hope that you liked it.

I’m gonna spend this weekend to try and get my life together so hopefully, that means that next week will be easier for me.

Especially since I still need to finish my permit course. (If you couldn’t tell, I’m kinda hating sophomore year of high school right now)

Like always, please leave a comment. i love reading them and they just motivate me so much! And they would help an extra ton these days.

And once again, if you have any fanfic requests, questions, or just suggestions for a specific fanfic i’m writing, just leave it in a comment down below or you can just message me here on tumblr.  

[astrognossienne]

scandalous beauty: athalia ponsell lindsley - an analysis

“Not that St. Augustine citizens went around killing people they didn’t like. But Athalia was not on a level playing field. Nobody liked her, so there was not a big hue and cry when she was killed.” - Sally Boyles, a neighbour of Lindsley’s

For someone so brash, loud, and ballsy, her life, especially her early life, was quite a mystery. Just like her controversial death. On January 23, 1974, former model, dancer, political activist and television personality Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was murdered with a machete by an unknown assailant on the front steps of her home in St. Augustine, Florida. Her murder is notorious more than four decades after it occurred. The only eyewitness said a man attacked Lindsley with a machete in broad daylight on the front steps of her white mansion. Gossip swirled that neighbour Frances Bemis knew who killed Lindsley and would notify authorities. Bemis was later murdered on her nightly walk. Police arrested only one suspect for Lindsley's murder, which remains unsolved to this day. For someone who was a Leo, I don't think Athalia was a very happy person. I think she tried to bring others down, with her based on her ill-concealed dissatisfaction with the way things were. Unfortunately for her, her demise happened in a town that didn’t care for her.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley, according to astrotheme, was a Leo sun and Libra moon (the moon is speculative). She was born Mary Anne “Athalia” Fetter in Toledo, Ohio in 1917. Her parents were both wealthy New Yorkers; her father was a utilities magnate and her mother a socialite. Shortly after her birth, she and her family moved to Isle of Pines (now known as Isla de la Juventud), Cuba where she was raised until the age of 12. By the time the parents moved to Jacksonville, Florida and enrolled her in parochial school, she was winning beauty contests and pursuing an acting career. After high school, she moved to New York City, where it didn’t take her long to be employed as a fashion model for the celebrated fashion designer John Robert Powers, which helped her land work in some Broadway musicals and as a hostess on a TV game show. By 1949, she was the hottest model in NYC. She was just as hot off the runway as well; the list of Ponsell’s sexual conquests was long, including the likes of actor Tyrone Power and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. She was reported to have been married three times, one of  them to a man named Ponsell, but there is no information on him or her other two spouses. She had a scrapbook of all the celebrities and people she was acquainted. But success had quickly gone to the young model’s head, and by 1954, she’d burned all her bridges at her modeling agency, and her reputation as “the bitch of New York” was well-earned and kept her from earning any more work in the entertainment industry.

Out of work, over the hill, and her looks fading, Ponsell quit her 20-years of modeling and entertainment work and retired to a white stucco mansion in St. Augustine in 1972. By that time, the 55-year-old washed-up model became embittered. From the moment she arrived in St.Augustine, she did her best to position herself at the top of the city’s high society. But the sides of that pyramid were very steep, and to the city’s old-school cultural hardliners, she was an outsider, and an obnoxious one, at that. St. Augustine is known for being a rather cliquish town, and unless you have Spanish, Menorcan, or WASP roots, any newcomer is looked at as an outsider. She was known as a pain in the ass, criticizing everything she thought was wrong with the town and its citizens. Naturally the upper crust didn’t take too well to her. She may have annoyed them, but she did catch the eye of another important person, Mayor James Lindsley, a St. Augustine native who went by the nickname “Jinx”. Jinx was known around the city for his ability to work hard and drink even harder. He was of the generation where if he was wronged, or if there was a problem, he settled his differences with his fists. Despite his passionate love affairs with ass kicking and Jack Daniels, Athalia was drawn to Jinx’s good standing with St. Augustine’s old guard, Jinx was attracted to her still-good looks and fiery personality. The two courted hard and fast, and just a few months after they met, they married.

Their marriage was rocky from the start, providing the town with juicy gossip. In fact, just 3 months into the marriage, the two separated. They wound up living in separate homes, fighting back and forth about possessions and property. She may have treated her husband and the town like dirt, but she was very moved by animals and took in a lot of strays and accumulated a coterie of animals. This didn’t endear herself to the neighbours, and they complained of dogs barking and other noises coming from her makeshift “animal shelter”. One neighbour in particular that took exception to Athalia and her animals was a hot-headed county manager called Alan Stanford. Stanford lived next door to her on Marine Street, and the two clashed from day one. Stanford filed several noise complaints against Athalia and her pets, resulting in her arrest. In revenge, she made Stanford’s life as county manager a living hell. She became a fixture at City Hall, attending every county meeting she could and accuse Stanford of all sorts of improprieties, from the mismanagement of county funds to stealing equipment from the road department. Some of these accusations weren’t entirely unfounded, but it got to the point where her presence was dreaded. She was after his job and wanted him fired. Stanford, in turn, threatened her life. December of 1973, she found out that Stanford lacked the civil engineering degree required for all county managers, and went to the state to report him.

On January 23, 1974 she attended her last city hall meeting, armed with petitions of several citizens calling for Stanford to resign. She exposed the fact that Stanford forged documents and padded his experience and qualifications as county manager. Later that day, to celebrate, she met her estranged husband Jinx for lunch. The day went surprisingly well, going shopping in Jacksonville and running errands. At approximately 5:30 pm, they both went home to their respective houses. As Athalia walked her pet blue jay around in her front yard, an intruder emerged from her back yard, armed with a machete. Moments later, the police department received a call about a murder. The police arrived to the provided address and found Athalia sprawled across the front steps of her porch, nearly decapitated and hacked to death with a machete in broad daylight.

The scene was chaotic, with neighbours trampling all over the grass trying to get a look, contaminating evidence. In their great police work, the cops never thought to rope off the crime scene. When her husband Jinx was notified of his wife’s murder, he took his time getting to her house, making a pit stop to his attorney’s office along the way. A few hours later, the cops find a machete in his pickup truck. But an open-and-shut case this was not. In February of 1974, the rumour was that Jinx killed her in a drunken rage. Even though Jinx had a violent temper and smacked his wife around, in the eyes of local investigators, he was “unarrestable”; they had no real evidence against the mayor and he even passed a lie-detector test. A tip from one of Athalia’s neighbours came in: it seems the neighbour’s 19 year-old son claimed to have witnessed her old nemesis Alan Stanford kill her. There was a trail of blood that led from Athalia’s front porch directly into Allen Stanford’s back yard. More than a few weren’t concerned with Athalia being killed because she was such a bitch that they feel that she deserved what she got.

In March of 1974, there was a blood-stained machete, a watch, and blood-soaked trousers found in a bag in a swamp; the blood on the clothes matched Athalia’s, and the clothes belonged to Stanford. On February 22, 1974, Alan Stanford was arrested and charged with murder. On January 1975, the murder trial commenced. The prosecution had a strong case and a guilty verdict seemed almost certain. Just before closing arguments, Stanford’s defense team called the 19-year old witness to the stand. Despite previously identifying Stanford as the killer, the young man was now unsure of the identity, having never actually seen the assailant’s face. On the day following the killing, a young nurse rode her bicycle as she always did. The police stopped her and questioned her about the murder. The nurse picked out a third suspect, deputy sheriff Dewey Lee, as the killer, further muddling the waters. The jury found Alan Stanford not guilty, despite the mountain of evidence against him. Local authorities were so upset by the verdict that they refused to re-open the case. Even though Stanford was acquitted of the murder, Athalia wound up getting the last laugh in the end, they local county board voted 4 to 1 to fire Stanford due to his lying about his credentials. He wound up leaving town shortly afterward. Today, St. Augustine is different; most who lived on Marine Street during the 1960s and 1970s have either moved away or passed away. Athalia’s house, now a historical landmark, still stands today, a grim reminder of how local resentment can go too far.

the murder of frances bemis

Frances Bemis was a socialite and neighbour of Athalia Ponsell Lindsley who happened to be a close friend of hers. Shortly after Lindsley’s murder, Frances started gathering information in order to write a book about the murder, claiming that she had information on what really happened. On November 3, 1974, she went for an evening walk and disappeared. Her body was found near her house, her skull crushed by a cement block. Her murder has never been solved.

This was the next analysis that I planned to do after the Robert Mitchum one, so I decided to just get this one out of the way.

Stats

birthdate: July 25, 1917*

*note*: due to the absence of a birth time, this analysis will be even more speculative.

major planets:

Sun: Leo

Moon: Libra

Rising: unknown

Mercury: Leo

Venus: Leo

Mars: Gemini

Midheaven: unknown

Jupiter: Gemini

Saturn: Leo

Uranus: Aquarius

Neptune: Leo

Pluto: Cancer

Overall personality snapshot: She had a prestigious, compelling presence, even when she was just clowning around, and a natural ability to command both respect and affection from her friends and colleagues. In the nicest possible way she assumed the position of the leader because she had a strong independent streak and believed in her lofty, worthy ideals, but she also gravitated towards collaboration and an impartial examination of the facts. She could be bossy and yet her bossiness was so diplomatic that it was convincing, even impressive. Although she wanted esteem and tended to identify with honourable goals and people, she could work alongside others she respected and she really wanted the best for everyone. She had style, and she instinctively knew that ‘manners maketh man’ and that, if for some reason they didn’t, they went a long way in making life worth living. When she came into her own, she developed a strongly aesthetic approach to life and are naturally creative. She needed a very positive, active medium through which to express herself, such as drama, teaching or running her own business.

Anything to do with beauty and harmony interested her, such as decorating, design and painting. Her interest in social equality took her into politics or the law. She had a strong sense of herself and stubbornly followed her own personal code of ethics, yet she also enjoyed being part of a group that had a common purpose or bond. She cherished ideals of liberty and equality, but if there were some distasteful tasks to perform she moved very smoothly into the role of delegating – well, she thought, someone has to give the orders around here or we would have no harmony at all. Although she seemed to enjoy an easy, breezy approach to life, there was quite a serious side to her personality, and she could be surprisingly controversial and provocative. She was willing to stand up and be counted, and perhaps make it look easy. She had a natural appreciation and enjoyment of the good things of life; she assumed that they should be hers by birthright. And through cunning charm, calculated boldness, and intelligent maneuver she managed to have plenty.

She was ambitious, sound at giving orders, carried responsibility well and was a good teacher, especially able to bring out the best in children. She believed in herself and generally knew the right thing to say at the right time, although she could show a stubborn and dogmatic side. She had a high opinion of her mental powers, and it was certainly true to say that he had plenty of mental energy. She was a mentally restless person, both versatile and broad-minded. She experienced personal growth through analysis and using her intellect, although the collection and communication of facts may have been an end within itself. She was a reliable and loyal person. Her will and sense of honour were strong and she was a great organizer. On the downside, her self-assuredness could become dogmatism and imperiousness. Conservatism may have affected her creativity, artistic values and love affairs. This expressed itself as self-imposed restrictions or as selfishness. She often felt inadequate, which created an insidious form of oppression over all her forms of expression. She could also take herself so seriously, that people think that she was older than her years.

She belonged to a generation that could be unpredictable in that it liked to instigate change simply for the sake of shaking things up and providing stimulation. Humanitarian ideals became extremely important, as well as the belief in absolute freedom for every individual. She came up with radical new ideas which she stubbornly followed. As a member of this generation, she may have felt deep spiritual convictions, although she may not have seen herself as religious in the traditional sense of the word. She was part of a very artistically talented and creative generation that wanted to escape from the demands of the world around them into a world of excitement and glamour. Members of this generation loved the theater and the cinema, in fact, any sort of creative self-expression. They also believed in the rights of any individual to express themselves. This generation was both idealistic and romantic, selfish and individualistic. Lindsley embodied all of these Leo Neptunian ideals. Also, as a member of the Leo Neptune generation, she experienced and fully embraced changes in sexual mores and attitudes, changing the way people approach the whole issue of romantic relationships. Changes were also experienced in the relationships between parents and children, with the ties becoming looser. She was part of a generation known for its devastating social upheavals concerning home and family. The whole general pattern of family life experiences enormous changes and upheavals; as a Cancer Plutonian, this aspect is highlighted with Lindsley’s father dying relatively young and her having to care for her mother until she died.

Love/sex life: There is never any question as to the ground rules of her erotic universe: what best served her ego, best served her libido. She had a marvelous capacity for enjoying sex but her pride and self-possession always came first. Some people might have found the egotism of this position offensive but many others hardly noticed. After all, a lover as lively, generous and exciting as she had good reason to be proud. There was always a distinctively theatrical quality about her love making. She wanted sex to be a big event, full of drama and intellectual significance. This grandiose approach to sex can certainly be entertaining but it often made her romantic moments seem less than spontaneous. More importantly, real life sex rarely met her cinematic standards. This is one reason why she often found the idea of love much more appealing than its physical manifestations.The sex in her head was never common or clumsy, and she could always count on great reviews.

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Capricorn

Lilith: Virgo

Her North Node in Capricorn dictated that she needed to develop the more caring and compassionate side to her personality and try to place less emphasis on the materialistic aspects of her life. Her Lilith in Virgo ensured that she exhibited a Madonna-whore complex; she made her way through the world with her sensational wits and she had no time for constricting judgments. She confronted the grittier facts of life, especially sex. She was good at sex but not as a form of sappy emotional expression.

elemental dominance:

fire

air

She was dynamic and passionate, with strong leadership ability. She generated enormous warmth and vibrancy. She was exciting to be around, because she was genuinely enthusiastic and usually friendly. However, she could either be harnessed into helpful energy or flame up and cause destruction. Ultimately, she chose the latter. Confident and opinionated, she was fond of declarative statements such as “I will do this” or “It’s this way.” When out of control—usually because she was bored, or hadn’t been acknowledged—she was be bossy, demanding, and even tyrannical. But at her best, her confidence and vision inspired others to conquer new territory in the world, in society, and in themselves. She was communicative, quick and mentally agile, and she liked to stir things up. She was likely a havoc-seeker on some level. She was oriented more toward thinking than feeling. She carried information and the seeds of ideas. Out of balance, she lived in her head and could be insensitive to the feelings of others. But at her best, she helped others form connections in all spheres of their daily lives.

modality dominance:

fixed

She wasn’t particularly interested in spearheading new ventures or dealing with the day-to-day challenges of organization and management. She excelled at performing tasks and producing outcomes. She was flexible and liked to finish things. Was also likely undependable, lacking in initiative, and disorganized. Had an itchy restlessness and an unwillingness to buckle down to the task at hand. Probably had a chronic inability to commit—to a job, a relationship, or even to a set of values.

planet dominants:

Sun

Mars

Pluto

She had vitality and creativity, as well as a strong ego and was authoritarian and powerful. She likely had strong leadership qualities, she definitely knew who she was, and she had tremendous will. She met challenges and believed in expanding her life. She was aggressive, individualistic and had a high sexual drive. She believed in action and took action. Her survival instinct was strong. She wanted to take herself to the limit—and then surpass that limit, which she often did. She ultimately refused to compromise her integrity by following another’s agenda. She likely didn’t compare herself to other people and didn’t want to dominate or be dominated. She simply wanted to be free to follow her own path, whatever it was. She brought about complete and profound transformations in her life, good or bad (and it was often bad). She felt the need to let go of what was familiar to her and accept new and different ways of being and doing things. There were areas in her life where she had to accept regeneration, which involved the destruction of the old and the creation of the new.

sign dominants:

Leo

Gemini

Cancer

She loved being the center of attention and often surrounded herself with admirers. She had an innate dramatic sense, and life was definitely his stage. Her flamboyance and personal magnetism extended to every facet of her life. She wanted to succeed and make an impact in every situation. At her best, she was optimistic, honorable, loyal, and ambitious. She ventured out to see what else was there and seized upon new ideas that will expand their communities. Her innate curiosity kept her on the move. She used her rational, intellectual mind to explore and understand her personal world. She needed to answer the single burning question in her mind: why? This applied to most facets of her life, from the personal to the impersonal. This need to know sent her off to foreign countries, where her need to explore other cultures and traditions ranked high. She was changeable and often moody. This meant that she was often at odds with herself—the mind demanding one thing, the heart demanding the opposite. To someone else, this internal conflict often manifested as two very different people. At first meeting, she seemed enigmatic, elusive. She needed roots, a place or even a state of mind that he could call her own. She needed a safe harbor, a refuge in which to retreat for solitude. She was generally gentle and kind, unless he was hurt. Then she could become vindictive and sharp-spoken. She was affectionate, passionate, and even possessive at times. She was intuitive and was perhaps even psychic. Experience flowed through her emotionally. She was often moody and always changeable; her interests and social circles shifted constantly. She was emotion distilled into its purest form.

Read more about her under the cut.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was a former model, Broadway performer, actress, dancer and television personality who died in a savage late-afternoon attack at her home on Jan. 23, 1974. Wife of the once mayor of St. Augustine, James "Jinx" Lindsley, who died a few years after her death. Mrs. Athalia Lindsley was very active politically.

She also took in many animals, such as dogs, cats and even two goats. At the time of her murder, she was outside trying to rehabilitate one of her rescue birds, a blue jay named Clementine which had an injured wing. She had rescued the little bird from neighborhood cats.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was a very devoted daughter who took care of her mother full time until her mother passed away.

She was 58 years old when her life was brutally cut short.

A neighbor and local politician was the only person ever arrested and tried for her murder, after a very dramatic trial, a jury found the defendant not guilty, and he was acquitted

(x)

[moonlitceleste]

who could ever leave me darling (but who could stay) - pt 1

Part 1          Part 2          Part 3

Okay!! So the title of this AU is from The Archer by Taylor Swift. It contains Daminette, but the beginning starts off more sibling Jasonette-centered.

I’m splitting this into multiple parts; this one will just set the scene for the next parts and discuss the background before the plot actually starts.

Jason and Marinette:

Marinette met Jason when she was 13

He was introduced as Gina’s motorcycling buddy

They clicked right away and decided to stay in contact

Jason knew when she became Ladybug, and revealed himself as Red Hood

Being Gotham, he couldn’t do much, but he discreetly trained her through video calls and such

This pretty much sums up their relationship

Heroes and Villains:

Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated Hawkmoth a month before her 16th birthday

Her class had long turned on her thanks to Lila, but on the bright side, the liar had been exposed as an accomplice of Hawkmoth and was in jail alongside Gabriel and Nathalie

Her school and teachers were under investigation for enabling Lila’s lies and bullying as well as sheer incompetence

Just when she thought Chat Noir was done with flirting due to the lull in puns and confessions after the Heart Hunter akuma, it came back full force one day and only seemed to get worse despite her protests

Adrien revealed himself to the authorities as Chat Noir to prove his innocence

He confessed his love to Ladybug, saying that since Hawkmoth was gone they could finally be together

If the reveal had happened last year, maybe she would have agreed

But Jason had taught her better; that Chat’s behavior was harassment and she couldn’t just brush that aside

She said as much, but he insisted that “We’re meant to be together! You’re the only one who doesn’t see it!”

She was shocked that this was who she was in love with for so long

Marinette wasn’t a consolation prize; she wouldn’t stand for this kind of treatment any longer

She knew he was likely distressed because of his father and told him she would give him one more chance

He could either get help for himself—research harassment, start therapy—or she would take the ring

Her seriousness seemed to sober him, so he reluctantly agreed

Marinette:

Marinette cut her losses with her friends the moment they turned on her

She didn’t blame Adrien for not helping her in fear of upsetting his father, but she was a little disappointed

She was still friends with Luka and Kagami, though

Now that she wasn’t swamped with helping her friends babysit or doing them favors or hanging out with them, she used the time to double down on her fashion design

She started MDC and used her connections with Audrey Bourgeois, Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale to her advantage and to expand her clientele

She worked with Jason to take down Hawkmoth

Marinette took a month after the villain’s downfall to testify against Lila and make plans

She was itching to go visit Jason but knew she needed to be patient

She had already planned on moving to Gotham once Hawkmoth was defeated, so all she needed was to tie up some loose ends

Nothing really compelled her to stay, and Jason was the only family she really needed

It’s not that her parents were bad per se; just a bit neglectful

They trusted her enough to let her take care of herself and treat her like an adult, but apparently not with the bakery or anything important to them unless it was necessary

They didn’t seem too concerned about the idea her living in an entirely different country on her own; they absently noted that they trusted her

Marinette talked to Jagged about living in Gotham since that was his birth place and managed to get a nice apartment—”For my favorite niece!” he said

Once she finished making arrangements and booking a plane, she called Jason to tell him the news

He had no idea she was planning on moving since she made a point to very carefully keep it a suprise

He cursed up a storm of excitement and started talking about what they could do together

And then he got an idea

“Hey! You know that stupid gala I was telling you about last time? You should come with me and meet my family!”

Her flight was in a week, and the Wayne Gala was in two, so making outfits would be almost impossible

But Marinette was never one for the impossible anyways

Next up: Marinette meets the Batfam at the Wayne Gala! 

TAGLIST: @dood-space​ @fusser90 @laurcad123   @professionalfangirl1738

[sorry-i-spaced]

Issues

Hawkeye is seen in the show as being a ladies man and quite the player. We know his mom died when he was just 10 and we know Caryle and Trapper both left without saying bye to Hawkeye. So I decided to play with the idea that he has abandonment and commitment issues because of this. I borrowed some of the dialogue from the episode “The More I see of You” in the beginning. 

“If you’d gone into medicine with the same lack of conviction as marriage”

“Your work is always going to be the single most important thing in your life”

“Maybe you would have needed me a little more”

“Doug was able to commit”

“Commit”

Lack of conviction”

“Work….important...lack of conviction”

“Commit”

“Hawk? Hawkeye? Earth to Hawkeye! Anybody up there?” waved a concerned BJ. 

“Huh? Oh,yeah, what?” shook Hawkeye as he came back to reality.

“Did you say something?” asked Hawkeye realizing he had zoned out big time. 

“Yea, I was asking if you wanted to get dinner. I heard Igor was sick of all the grief we gave him so he made an upside down dinner in retaliation.” 

Hawkeye sat there contemplating whether food was more important than wallowing in self pity for the way he let things get between Carlye and him.   

“Nah, I think I’m just going to nap. We are supposed to get a heavy influx of wounded by dawn and I want to catch up on sleep.” And with that BJ got up to leave and Hawkeye laid down in his army issued  mess of a cot and shut his eyes.

“Incoming wounded! All Medical and Surgical staff report for triage! Looks like it will a doozy” barked the PA system.

Opening his eyes Hawkeye threw his  pillow in the direction of  Beej. 

“Get up” he yelled. 

The red haired man rose (wait that’s not right Beej has blonde hair)

“Did you dye your hair and forget to tell me?” asked the raven haired man confused. 

“Not that I’m aware of” called back the other man as he was putting on his shoes. 

The two quickly ran out the door. 

In triage Hawk got right to work. 

“This one has a chest wound. Get some blood in him and get him prepped”

“This one can wait”

Hawkeye barked orders to the nurses. He got up and made a run for the O.R.

“Hawkeye! How goes it?” asked Klinger, who was running in the same direction as him.

Boom!

“Ahh!” yelped Klinger as he threw his head forcefully into the dirt. 

Hawkeye stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the man. Cocking his head to the side he says, “ Klinger, a landmine went off. You’re fine. Get your head out of the dirt this instant. Anybody looking on would think you're bucking for a section 8 again. By reason of ostrich.

“I’m not acting sir” deadpanned Klinger as he lifted his head, shaking the dirt out of his hair.

Hawkeye blinked and shook his head. Klinger was right, he was an ostrich through and through. 

“When did this happen?” he asked.

“I’ve always been one sir. You just couldn’t tell since I spend so much of my time in dresses confident I can get out of the Army. But to be honest I’m scared as shit. Scared of dying and scared I won’t ever return to Toledo the same as I left.” 

The two were now in the scrub room. Hawkeye was washing up. 

“So Beej dyes his hair and forgets to tell me and you're an ostrich?What else will happen today.” 

“Beej didn’t dye his hair. He is a robin.”

“A robin? As in the bird?” questioned Hawkeye as he patted his hands dry.

“He is a songbird. Yes. If you don’t believe me just look at him yourself.” 

The two had somehow ended up in the O.R and Hawkeye was at a table picking apart peacock feathers. Hawkeye looked up and to his surprise Beej was in fact a big fat plump red robin - complete with wings and a beak.

Looking at Klinger Hawkeye was left to wonder, “why?” 

“He left his baby girl very early on in her life.” 

Again Hawkeye had moved from the O.R back into the scrub room. These abrupt scene changes were getting awfully annoying. 

“We all left family to be dragged to this God Forsaken Hell Hole. Why should he be so special.”

“Well for much of the same reason that I’m scared he feels guilty about leaving during such a crucial part of his little girl's life.”

“My mom left me early on in life, I turned out fine.” Hawkeye spat back. 

Hawkeye who realized he was sitting on the bench leaned back against the wall and shut his eyes. Pursing his lips together he began to ask more questions trying not to dwell on the fact his mom left him.

“So Beej is guilty and you're scared. Is there anyone else I should know about?”

Silence. Klinger was trying to figure out what to say. This was all coming out too fast. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. His job was to help propel the story along and these observations were supposed to happen naturally. Well as naturally as having birds operate on patients who just see the shell of the person not the bird. But no this man was too smart for even his unconsciousness. Finally he began to speak, slowly hoping he wouldn’t reveal too much.

“Our fearless leader Potter is a bald eagle because he is insecure in his talents. He is a career man - as I’m sure you’re aware of. But he lacks the knowledge of all these fancy techniques you young doctors seem to pick up so easily. Margaret is a puffin because all she wants to do is be accepted by everyone. Frank is a hummingbird because he is annoying as all shit and is very insecure due to it. Oh and you’re a peacock.” 

That got Pierce to shoot up like a bean pole.

“Wait! Aren’t you going to tell me why I’m a peacock?” his voice raised and wavered a bit. 

“Sorry sir, you’ll have to figure that one out on your own.

“What why? Klinger, you gotta tell me! Come on we know everyone else’s insecurities, why can’t I know my own?”

Klinger didn’t know how to respond. He knew he had 3 sets of 10 minutes and 1 set of an hour of time to try and get Hawkeye to learn why he is a peacock. But he also knew it was up to his subconscious to interact with his unconscious to help move the narrative. 

“Ow!” yelped Hawkeye breaking the silence. 

“What the hell was that?” 

Not even Klinger had an explanation.

All of sudden a flying pillow came out of nowhere. 

Klinger now understood what was happening. Someone was trying to wake Hawkeye. There little mental party would be ending soon. 

“Hawk” echoed a ghostly sound. 

“Why are you calling me a Hawk, I thought you said I was a peac-” 

His eyes shot open! Looking down at him were a pair of blue eyes. Beej

“What? What happened?” Hawkeye asked as he began to get up.

“Wounded” called Beej as he put on his converse. 

“Suction! So yea, don’t know what any of that means but thought I’d share my dream with the rest of the class,” said Pierce as he tried to stop a bleeder his patient had come in with. 

“That’s scary accurate. Especially my fear. How did you pin us all down like that?” called BJ concentrating on his own bleeder. 

“Pierce, are you good with birds? Seems like you pinned us to an appropriate matching bird” called Potter. 

Hawkeye was now working on closing up the patient, “I’ve gone bird watching with my dad back in Maine. One time when I was a kid, right when mom died, he decided to get his mind off her death he was going to do a Big Year. I would come along on bird watching expeditions during school breaks and weekends. But I still would like to know why I’m a peacock. Of all the birds to be.” called Hawkeye. 

“If it bugs you that much, why don’t you ask Sidney the next time he comes up for Poker.” said BJ when they were back in the Swamp. 

They were finally out of surgery and the two swamp rats were playing tennis with a blown up surgical glove they took from the scrub room. 

A week later, before Poker was supposed to take place, Sidney was set up in the VIP tent chatting with Hawkeye. 

“So you dreamt about everyone’s fears personifying and taking the form of birds? What do you think it means?” lead the Psychiatrist. 

“I don’t know Sidney, you tell me, you’re the expert on these types of things.” pleaded Hawkeye, who had taken up pacing around the tent. 

“Hawk, I want you to get to that conclusion yourself. It won’t be helpful if I do it for you.”

Hawkeye stopped pacing and sat down on the edge of the bed. “What do you want to hear. I want to be as helpful as possible. In my dream Klinger said basically the same thing.”

“Humor me and tell me about your childhood, that’s always a good place to start when talking about fears and issues,” claimed Sidney.

“My childhood. What do you wanna know” asked Hawkeye. 

“How was your relationship with your mom?” 

“Nonexistent. I’ve told you before she died when I was 10. Just been dad and I since then.” replied Hawkeye flatley.

“Do you have any resentment towards her dying?” pried Sidney.

“You know dad didn’t even tell me she was sick? He waited until she passed to come clean and tell me. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. I was angry for years. At her for getting sick and at dad for not having the decency to tell me she was sick. But I got over it. No hard feelings”

Rambled Hawk. 

“Ok, so issues from mom, how about dad?”

“Dad? Oh he was great! After mom died we became thick as thieves. He was the one who inspired me to go into medicine. He wasn’t too happy about it to be honest.” gleaned Hawk.

“I remember you telling me last time I was here that there was a nurse here that you had an old fling with. How did that end?”

“Caryle. I really don’t know what happened. We were living together during residency you know.”

Raising an eyebrow Sidney interjected, “ So you guys were serious?” 

“That’s what I thought.” continued Hawkeye. “But just like mom and just like Trapper did 6 months ago, she up and left. I didn’t get to say bye or anything. She just one day decided she had enough of me, packed her bags and was out of the apartment before I even had time to get home and try and stop her. I thought Trapper would have at least left something. But I guess not. I guess I’m just not worth the hassle to say bye too. God. Why did dad not let me tell mom bye. Her own son was in the dark. I get Caryle and Trapper. It was bound to happen. Unhappy relationship and discharge but God, mom? Really? I hated her for it you know. I just wish once someone would leave and tell me about it first. Why do I always have to be the last to know. I bet the thing I got going on with Beej will end just as abruptly as it did with Trapper.” rambled on Hawkeye.

“Hawkeye, stop a minute, let’s process all that you said.” steered Sidney realizing he was losing his patient rapidly. 

Hawkeye shut up and listened. 

“You mention over and over that you never got to say goodbye to all these people. You also mention being the last to hear of relationships ending.”

“Yea, so?” sighed Hawkeye.

“Let’s go back to the dream. In the dream you describe each of your friends as birds relating to their fears and issues. Beej - your best friend is a robin because he is guilty for leaving his baby girl. Klinger is an ostrich - which I never would have pegged him as so thank you for that lovely image - because he is scared and fearful he won’t return home and if he does he will be completely different. Potter is a bald eagle because he is insecure in his abilities despite being a career man in the army. Margaret is a Puffin because she has the fear that she will never fit in anywhere so she forces herself to. And Frank is a hummingbird because he is insecure in his own way and -”

“ - a peacock for commitment issues” finished Hawkeye. 

“Precisely. It seems like you are scared to trust people because everyone seems to leave you at some point. Starting way back when your mom left you abruptly. Oh also in my own professional diagnosis I would also tack on abandonment issues” added Sidney.

“What gives Sid, I thought you were going to let me come to the conclusion on my own accord.” whimpered Hawkeye.

“Eh, I see how hard you’re trying to figure this all out, so I decided to give you a freebie” laughed Sidney.

“Well in true Freud fashion, my issues really do stem from my mother,” laughed Hawkeye sadly. 

The two sat for another hour trying to brainstorm ways Hawkeye could push past these thoughts of abandonment and commitment issues and how he could overcome them. 

The End!

[ncityislove]

His Worst Nightmare

➳ Pairing: Demon!Jisung x Reader

➳ Genre: Angst, Demon AU

➳ Word Count: 9.2k

➳ Warnings: mention of murder and blood but no actual death

Requested? Nah.

You wake up in a pitch-black room, the smell of something burning, stinging your nose. You let out a choked cough, attempting to sit up, only to realize you can't. Your chest is tied down to a table, along with your arms and legs with buckled straps. Fear runs through your veins as you call out for help.

You don't know where you are but the room must be humongous for the way your voice echoes, your screech bouncing around the room for what must've been over a minute until it comes back to you. That's when a singular lightbulb hanging over your head comes on and a boy standing to your left comes into view. You scream again and he hushes you with a finger to his lips.

The light is dim so you can only see his silhouette. How long he had been standing there, you didn't know, but all you could feel was the shrill voice in the back of your brain telling you to run away from him. You're breathing loudly now, the cold metal of the table contrasting with the warmth of your skin. The smell is stronger. You finally recognize the scent as burning flesh.

You stir on the table, screaming and calling for someone—anyone—but the boy puts a hot hand on your shoulder, silencing you. You don't know how he did it, but your voice is gone, your limbs frozen. He leans into the light and you can finally see his face.

He's handsome, his jaw chiseled with small eyes that would've been charming if it wasn't for the alarming blood-red pupils that stare down at you. His lips curve into a wicked smile, his pointed teeth white and pearly as his tongue slid over them quickly.

"Wake up," he whispers.

You shoot up in your bed with a gasp. Your heart thuds in your chest as you try to stop the stream of tears pouring out of your tear ducts. You had to remind yourself that he wasn't real, your breaths coming out uneven.

You've had the same nightmare every night for the past month, leaving you on edge and restless. The bags under your eyes have bags. You put a clammy hand to your forehead, the skin hot to the touch, only reminding you of the burning temperature of the room in your dream.

You don't know why you were having nightmares and why of all things it was always the same boy every night. It never went any further than that bone-chilling smile except once, two or three weeks ago, when his jaws opened the size to fit 3 large watermelons, blood dribbling down his chin. You woke up screaming that time, causing your parents to rush in to check on you.

You get up to make a cup of coffee, deciding against going back to sleep. Caffeine has been your kindest friend for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, you couldn't stay awake forever and eventually, you'd drift off, finding yourself strapped to that table again.

You groggily padded across the kitchen floor, grabbing your favorite mug from the drying rack and pouring yourself the largest cup of coffee possible.

-

The computer cafe you were currently sitting in was emptier than usual, which slightly lifted your spirits. The icing of your half-eaten cupcake was starting to become too sweet so you get up to dispose it in the garbage at the ordering counter.

Your legs feel weak as you walk, your entire body suffering from the lack of proper rest. You feel the world sink in when you blink occasionally, dozing off over and over. This won't do. You get into line to grab another coffee.

You're sitting back at your computer, nose hidden in your oversized coffee mug, when a tall figure shadows over you, their presence strikingly familiar to you—so familiar that when they touched your shoulder, you didn't even flinch.

"Excuse me?," said the young boy.

You turn around, your blood suddenly running cold. The face you've dreamed of every night for the past month—the face that was so terrifyingly beautiful that his image was permanently ingrained into your mind. The slope of his nose those his slanted eyes—it was him! There was no mistaking it.

His lips curl into an awkward frown, his eyebrows lifting slightly at the way your eyes pop out at him.

"A-are you okay?"

You shake your head side to side as you abruptly stand up, gathering your things with trembling hands. You had to go home. You were hallucinating now. You had to be. But why did he seem so real? You were going insane.

"Hey!" he calls out, his hand reaching out to stop you, and you do flinch this time although he never actually makes physical contact with you.

"I just came over here to tell you that you missed the trash can," he points to the bin that you threw your cupcake away at—or at least you thought you did. You look at him, noticing the pastel pink uniform and his name tag.

"Oh," you manage to say. "I-I'm sorry, I'll pick it up. It's just—I thought you were someone...I mean you look so much like him."

He looks confused as he struggles to put together your words, as he simply got annoyed with you trashing his workplace with your unfinished food.

"Jisung," you read his name tag aloud. "Jisung, how long have you been working here?"

"About two weeks," he shrugs.

You nod. It still doesn't make sense that he had the exact same face as your torturer—the same voice too!  You struggle to maintain eye contact with him, expecting the red pupils to make an appearance any minute. But he seemed like a completely different person. He was kind of awkward, shy almost. He wore his hair differently, his eyebrows barely visible under the blonde locks that covered his forehead, unlike the perfect middle part you were used to. That way you could see his eyes clearly when he watched you writhe in fear, that ever so wicked smile would appear when you tried to scream.

You swallowed thickly as you apologize again, making your way to pick up your cupcake when his voice stops you.

"Who is it by the way? Who do I look like?"

You freeze, the tone of his voice alarming as if he knew something. Or maybe it was all in your head. You turn slightly to face him, his head cocked curiously at you, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Some guy I know. He's an awful person...if you can even call him that," you say and then you turn around not caring to see his reaction, quickly cleaning up your mess before squabbling out of there.

-

You don't visit the cafe again. It's been three days since then and you've still been getting the same nightmare except for the new addition of Jisung's cheap name tag. You weren't even sure if they were the same person but all of it seemed impossible either way. How could you dream of someone you haven't met? And if it truly was him that tortured you in your sleep, was he that evil creature in real life too?

You begin to cry. You just wanted it to stop. You hide your face in your bookbag as you wait in the cold.  The firm cemented steps offer your bottom no comfort as tears dampen the collar of your shirt. You had fainted in class from exhaustion and now the nurse was sending you home early.

As if you weren't already embarrassed enough a group of people walked passed you during your meltdown—no doubt ogling at your crumpled figure. One of them stops and heads back towards your direction. You cringe, waiting for them to walk past again except they don't. They stop right next to you. You really didn't want to be bothered right now—wasn't it obvious? You kept your head down, hoping if you didn't acknowledge the person they would go away. Maybe it was working. They're backing away now. Thank god—

"Uh, hey, are you alright?"

You squeeze your eyelids shut as a string of curses run through your mind. You give a curt nod of your head, your face still nuzzled into your bookbag.

"I remember you," the voice pauses. "You're not crying because you missed the trash can again are you?"

You slowly sit up to look at him, tears still streaming down your swollen cheeks. It was him. He found you again. This couldn't be a coincidence.

"Bad joke?" he awkwardly chuckled.

"You don't go here," you state.

He was caught off guard by your response. He gives you a once over before sliding off his plum purple puffer jacket and placing it over your shoulders. Your eyes widen at the warmth that envelopes you. The jacket was nearly scorching but barely just warm enough to where it wasn't uncomfortable.

"My cousin goes here. Me and my parents are picking him up for my aunt as a favor."

You nodded not really believing him. "So you're skipping school to come with your parents?"

Jisung took the question as an invitation to sit next to you. "No, of course not. I'm homeschooled."

You frowned. It angered you his words made sense when every cell in your body told you he was lying.

"You wanna talk about why you were crying?"

You shake your head, looking back at your book bag as a strong gust of wind blew your hair wildly in your face. You shiver, closing the jacket tighter around you.

"Aren't you cold?" you ask.

He just shrugs, flicking the hair out of his eyes with a tilt of his head. "That guy I remind you of, you must not like him very much, huh?"

"Hate his guts," you grumbled.

"Whatever he did to you must've been bad because you treat me like I'm gonna bite your head off any second."

You look back at him with the toughest expression you could muster. "Who's to say you won't? What if you are the same person?"

"And what if I'm not?" he interjects. "What if I'm just me?"

"What are you trying to say?"

Jisung stares at you for a beat and you swear you see a flicker in his eye. "I'm not who you think I am. That's all."

He gets up and walks away just as your mom arrives. You stare at his back as he walks through the glass double doors, not even taking a second glance back.

Later that afternoon, you're stuck on the couch with your mother hovering over you. She's currently on the phone with the doctor while you're swamped in blankets with a wet towel on your forehead that's slightly blocking off your vision. She's frantic, making up symptoms you don't have as she paces around the living room space.

You huff, trying to think of a way to get out of this situation. You sit up, removing the cloth from your forehead only for your mother to force you back down with an icy glare.

"Yes, we'll be there at 10:30 sharp," she writes the time down on a notepad.

"Yes, thank you so much...okay...bye."

"Mom," you call out as soon as she hangs up. "I gotta return my friend's jacket."

"You're not going anywhere in this state," she puts her hands on her hips.

You flop back on the couch dramatically. "But I told him I'd give it to him today," you lie.

"I think he'll understand," she says walking into the kitchen.

There was no way you could stay here another moment without getting answers. What did he mean earlier? You knew he was trying to convince you of something, but what?

"And what if I'm not?" he interjects. "What if I'm just me?"

Did he know about your dreams? Your head was beginning to ache and you weren't sure if it was because you were going to faint again or if your brain was starting to hurt from overthinking.

"I'm not who you think I am. That's all."

You double-check to see if your mom is paying attention before grabbing the jacket and your shoes, tip-toeing out of the front door. You hop on your bike and pedal like there's no tomorrow down the street to the computer cafe.

The ride feels longer than usual, the streets cold and barren. The grey sky threatened rain but as if someone were looking out for you from above, the heavy puffy clouds held out a little longer. You nearly get hit by a red pick up truck in your haste, gaining you a middle finger as he zoomed by angrily.

Out of breath and slightly dizzy, you step into the cafe, your eyes peeled for a familiar head of blonde hair. You're red in the face, bent over your knees as tears sting your eyes. You don't see him. He's not here.

The door opens behind you and you're too emotional to move out of the way. Whoever it was would just have to squeeze by.

"Oh, thanks, my jacket," Jisung says, standing beside you now.

You stand up straight, almost smiling in relief. Jisung was still dressed in his casual clothes; his shift must not have started until now. Suddenly you feel foolish for being so melodramatic. Here you were, your eyes still glossy and your cheeks still glowing a faint red from the cold ride and the wind whipping your hair against your face when it all seemed so dumb. Why were you here? To confront a boy you hardly knew about your nightmares? To accuse him of the impossible? You had everything you wanted to say planned out perfectly, imagining the weight that would lift off your shoulders ever since he left you at school but now, finally face to face, all those words died at your tongue.

You look at Jisung and stick your arm out, the jacket dangling in your hand. Jisung smiles brightly at you before taking it, the corner of his lips turning downward as he examines your face. He looks somewhat hesitant to bring it up but he does anyway.

"Is whatever was bothering you earlier still upsetting you?"

You nod, biting your lip.

"I was hoping leaving you my jacket would cheer you up somehow," he chuckled, his eyes thoughtful. "It was stupid."

"It did cheer me up in a way," you start. "It reminded me of something...but I'm ready to tell you what's wrong now."

The whites of Jisung's eyes became more visible as he looked at you, his lips parted slightly. He leans in closer, ready to hear what you have to say.

"Can we step outside for a minute?"

"Uhh," he glances at his watch. "Yeah, sure."

You walk out first, hearing his soft footsteps follow behind you. The sky is even darker now, even though you were only inside for a moment, the smell of rain in the air. The wind was strong, blowing the trees wildly.

You kept your back to him. "I've seen you before."

Jisung is silent for a moment. "You mean the guy who looks like me?"

"No," you correct him. "I've seen you before. You are the guy who looks like you. Aren't you? Except you act different."

"Huh? I just met you...how would I..." he trails off.

You turn around, tears threatening to spill over. You weren't afraid of him now, only in your sleep you were but for some reason, as you spoke, your heart thudded in your chest. You didn't feel in danger when you were with this Jisung. The Jisung that kindly asks you to pick up your trash and gives you his jacket in the cold. But the jacket...it was more than a kind gesture...something wasn't right about it.

"Why was your jacket so hot?"

His eyes fell low before looking back at you. "You and I meeting was fate, you know that?"

You frown. "What?"

"If you've seen me before then we must've met in your dreams correct?"

You take a step back. "How did you—"

"How did I know? It would take me forever to explain. But you're special, __."

A white flash illuminates Jisung's face, a loud crack of thunder echoing around you causing you to jump.

Jisung starts to laugh madly. Terror runs through your body as you start to regret coming here at all.

"What are you?" you ask, your voice shaking in fear.

Jisung smirks at you. "You know what I am, baby."

There's another crash of thunder and you nearly hop an inch out of your shoes. Jisung starts to laugh at you again.

"Are you going to kill me?"

He puckers his lips at you with a tilt of his head. "No. Why would I do that?"

"Isn't that what you do," you tutt, your throat tight. "In my dreams, you were always about to kill me."

"That's...no, I'm not like that," he clenched his fists at the statement.

"But you think it's funny to torture me? I haven't slept in over a month because of you."

"A month? No, that's not right. What happened in those dreams?"

A drop of water hits the top of your head but you ignore it. "Like you wouldn't know!" you answer, your brows furious and angry as you look up at your torturer.

"I have no control over your dreams. Can you tell me about them, please?"

"Nightmares," you correct. "Call them what they are. Don't act coy with me. Don't lie. If you're going to kill me then just do it already."

"I don't kill anymore!" his eyes flash red.

You gasp, you're blood running cold at the terrifyingly familiar image. You run away. You make it to your bike but before you can hop on, a hot hand grabs your arm, yanking your body off onto the damp pavement.

"Don't you run away from me!!" Jisung looks angry and maybe a little hurt by your actions but you don't care. You just want to get out of here.

"Just leave me alone, okay!" you get up to run away again but he lifts you again with one strong arm, his hand wrapped tightly around your throat. Your eyes bulge out of your head when you realize you can't breathe.

"You're pissing me off now. I don't want to hurt you but it's the only way to make you listen."

You struggle against him, your fingers clawing at his hand while he seems entirely unaffected. His nostrils are flaring, the pointy teeth now visible as he glares at you with those blood-red eyes.

"I don't control your dreams. The only person who can control your dreams is you. I only met you a week ago so stop accusing me of something not even I can do." And with that, he drops you.

You fall on the sidewalk, gasping and coughing. Your butt hurts from landing on it so roughly and your left arm stings, probably a cut from the fall but you don't check. You can't bring yourself to look away from him.

"What do you want from me?"

"Well, I can't tell you now," he scoffs. "I don't trust you."

A fat tear escapes your eye, adrenaline rushing through your veins as you try to make sense of reality. "Who the hell would believe me even if I told anyone??"

"There are those who believe we exist. Mostly the looneys of the church but I can't have you going around exposing me. Then I'd have to kill them all and I don't want to do that again. I'm reformed now."

Again?

"You said you're not who I thought you were. If you're not him then who are you?"

A gentle ring of thunder fills the thick air as it starts to rain. It's cold and uncomfortable but neither of you makes an effort to go back inside.

"I'm not a killer. That is, only if you don't make me out to be."

How could he say that when you could see the fangs that could tear your body in half. How could he say that when he almost killed you just now?

"You've killed people before," your voice waivers even though you will it not to. "You're a murderer. That's what your kind does to humans. Kill."

"Say it. Say what I am." Jisung crouches to your level. "C'mon. Say it."

Your body's shaking from how close he's gotten. You say nothing as he waits for you to respond. You remain silent.

He leans into your ear and whispers, "Either you say it on your own or I'll make you say it."

You let out a weak noise, turning your head away as he tucks your thick wet hair behind your ear.

"Demon," you wail, as tears blur your vision.

Jisung smiles triumphantly, pressing his warm lips to your forehead. Your body shrivels away from him as you scream, a fist landing on his hard chest. He takes your hand in his, keeping it on his chest, sliding your hand to the left and you feel something. Something that doesn't make sense. It's a heartbeat. It was a little faster than a normal one but it was still a heartbeat.

You look at him in shock, your mouth rendered speechless.

"I'm late for my shift," he gets up. "I'll see you soon. But remember what I said. You control your own dreams."

Jisung wraps his jacket around you once more with the obvious intent on having you return it again tomorrow. His eyes fade back to brown as he sends you one last smile and the awkward and kind Jisung is back almost as if he never left. He walks back inside the cafe, leaving you alone in the rain, shivering, wet, and traumatized.

-

A slightly chubby waitress decked out in tattoos with blue hair brings out your steak, medium rare, with a side of lightly salted fries as per Jisung's request. His order was something French that you couldn't pronounce, nor identify, but smelled heavenly, your mouth watering for the order that was not your own.

Jisung checks his expensive watch. "They're late. As usual."

"Hmm?" you snap your eyes away from his meal. "Who is?"

"We're here!" A beautiful older couple makes their way to your table.

"Mom! Dad! It only took you fifteen years," Jisung remarks as he leans in to give them a hug.

"It was your father, love. He got hung up with the gentleman at the sports club."

"Ah! It was business! You know how that sort of thing goes."

They both sit in their seats across from you, picking up their menus. His mother's hair is combed back neatly, her youthful skin glowing as she smiles pleasantly at you. His father is dressed rather casually, wearing khaki shorts and a baby pink polo but the giant rock on his pinky finger told you of his financial status.

"Oh my," says his mother. "And you, my darling, how are you? I've heard so much about you."

His father hums. "Ah yes, you're a special one aren't you? Haven't had a human dine with us in decades."

"Special? How am I special?" you ask, taking a French fry.

"Jisung, haven't you told her?" his father takes a sip of his sparkling water.

"Tell me what?" you look to Jisung.

The temperature in the room starts to rise and you break out into a sweat, fanning yourself with a napkin.

"Why would I tell her what she already knows?" Jisung answers, taking a spoonful of his soup.

You give him an odd look which he ignores and you decide to bite your tongue. A certain glimmer around Mrs. Park's neck catches your eye and you can't look away, like it was a magnet, drawing your eyes to it, willing you not to look away.

"Mrs. Park? That's a lovely necklace your wearing," you say marveling at the shiny red cut of the mysterious diamond. "May I ask what stone that is?"

Her lips curve a little, the pointed bones of her teeth peeking through. "That's a family secret. One that you'll know soon, my dear."

The waitress returns, notepad in hand, asking what the two would like to order.

Mrs. and Mr. Park smile sweetly at the young girl, giving her a long once over. "Yes, we'd like to have you for dinner."

She drops her pen from her notepad. "Excuse me?"

Mr. Park jumps up and snaps the poor girl's neck like a twig, catching her limp body as it falls forward. You scream in horror.

"Christ," Jisung rolls his eyes.

Mrs. Park rips her head off, dropping it carelessly to the ground with a thud. The restaurant is unbearably hot, and you're sweating through your lengthy dress. Your mouth is gaping as you helplessly watch them tear the woman to shreds picking off the meat on her bones and tear the flesh with their teeth. You look around to see everyone carrying on normally as if someone didn't just get ruthlessly murdered.

You can't pry your eyes away as they continue to feast on her carcass, blood dripping down their chins, red splatters tarnishing their clothes. Mrs. Park looks at you, that same smile from earlier still there but now it holds something dark behind it. Her eyes were that crimson red that you'd seen so many times. She crawls onto the table making her way towards you, and you scoot back falling out of your chair.

"I'm not who you think I am," she whispers.

"Wha-what?" you stumble backward.

"I'm not who you think I am. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not..." she turns over on her back, her arm laying on your food, giggling wildly.

"You control your dreams, __" Jisung says standing up.

You look at him, bewildered.

"This is your dream. Control it."

A whack of thunder shakes the ground, yanking you out of your dream. Your heartbeat is irregular as you stumble out of your bed. Startled, you jump out of bed, pulling on your shoes and jacket, grabbing Jisung's coat along the way.

You left the house in haste, going to the only place you could think of. You needed to talk to him. Whether he'd show up or not was a chance you were willing to take.

You pedaled your bike down the cold, empty streets with the thought of Jisung on your mind. You were confused but you felt like you knew everything at the same time. It was so strange but you couldn't remember the last time anything felt normal.

The cafe was closed. The door was locked, obviously, so you let out a gust of air as you sat down against it. It was nearly 3 am and you left the house alone, loitering around some dumb computer cafe. What had your life come to? You don't even hang out with your friends anymore. You barely even speak to your family these days.

"Jisung!" you yell.

It was only a guess that he would show up. Maybe he'd hear you from wherever he was or maybe you could summon him? It sounded dumb but it made sense at the time.

You yelled his name once more, the desperation in your voice evident but still, nothing.

"Jisung, please," you whisper, your head falling into your lap.

Just as you're about to give up and go home, a blast of heat blows against your back in the strikingly cold morning. You gasp at the sound of the door unlocking behind you, jumping up to meet the boy you came to see.

Your eyes drank in his familiar face and dark clothes. "You came."

"Didn't you ask me to?" he tilts his head, giving you a sideways smirk that you never saw before. "Oh, Jisung! Oh, Jisung, please!" he mocks you and you frown.

"You need to loosen up a bit," Jisung clicks his tongue. "I don't think I've ever even seen you smile."

"I don't do that much these days."

"I see. Come in," he opens the door wider and you follow him into the warm cafe.

It's dimmer than usual, only half of the lights had been turned on and the absence of music almost made you uncomfortable. Jisung sat down at a random table and you cautiously sit across him. It feels as if he's examining every inch of your skin, his eyes slowly dragging over your face to the bottom of your torso where the table blocks his vision. It makes you antsy. You try to ignore the feeling.

"You heard me calling. How'd you do that?"

Jisung drums his fingers on the table in thought, "I don't really know. I've never been summoned before. I just heard you so I came."

"But how'd you get here so fast? Where'd you come from? Your home? Where do you live?"

He scoffs, rolling his eyes. "Now, why would I tell you all that? I don't trust you."

You sigh, chewing your bottom lip—a motion you caught his eyes following.

"Well...what can you tell me? I deserve some answers, don't you think?"

He laughs at that. "You don't deserve anything, human. I owe you nothing."

You press your lips together in annoyance. If he didn't want to tell you anything then why'd he show up? He seemed to have some interest in you by the way he keeps toying with you. You can't figure him out. He's hot then he's cold. One minute he's shy and sweet then the next he's rude and angry. But sometimes he was a mix of both, like right now. A happy medium of kind and a touch of asshole. But at least he wasn't going to kill you. You were sure of that. You couldn't explain why but ever since you had that nightmare this morning you had this feeling that he didn't want to hurt you—which was illogical of course—because he did, in fact, hurt you. You had the bruises to prove it. Your neck was covered in black and blue bruises with a distinct outline of five large fingers.

"I had another dream," you start and Jisung raises a brow at you. "I trust you. I don't know why but I have this feeling that I can't get rid of that you won't hurt me."

He frowns for a bit before he begins to chuckle. "My suspicions were true."

"What do you mean?"

"You want to know why you've been having those dreams?"

You nod frantically, bracing yourself for what he was about to tell you, but nothing could prepare you for the words that were about to leave his lips.

"You're destined to become my slave."

-

You come to on a leather couch in an unfamiliar room. It was a living room. A large one at that. You sit up, your head feeling heavy and full of fluff. Your shoes are sat neatly to the side of the couch along with your jacket. Standing up on sore legs, you stretch before looking around in what you could only assume was Jisung's house.

It's very...empty. Like it had been barely lived in. Almost as if no one lived here at all. The kitchen's beautiful, large and spacious with fancy looking cupboards. You walked down a long dark hall passing an extravagant dining room with a table that looked like it was a mile long and a chandelier that was so humongous it must've weighed more than your immediate family all together.

You hear the sound of water as you approach a room on your right, pushing open the door left slightly ajar. Jisung is staring right at you as if he knew you were coming. The bathwater is running and he's sitting on the toilet seat with a tub of bath salts in his hands.

"Morning, sunshine," he smiles cheekily at you.

You step into the steamy room, eying him with a groggy pout. "What the hell happened?"

He scoffs. "Of course you don't remember. I told you that you're my slave and you didn't handle it well."

You almost lose your balance, grabbing the counter just in time. "Pardon??"

Jisung rolls his eyes. "I made you a bath. You look like hell so I'll leave you to it," he gets up patting his jeans.

You didn't notice his change of clothes until now. Just how long had you been there?

"Hold on, I have a question. Several actually—"

"I'll be back in a bit," he stalks off closing the door behind him.

You open the door to call after him but he's nowhere to be found. It was like he disappeared into thin air. It wouldn't surprise you if he actually did. You return to the bathroom and disrobe, deciding you might as well. You couldn't remember the last time you took a bath. Must've been years. You pause at the mirror and nearly jumped out of your skin when you saw how awful you looked. Jisung did not lie when he said you looked like hell. There were dark circles around your eyes and you looked pale, on top of that your hair was a frizzy mess. You finger-combed your hair to the best of your ability before giving up and sinking into the warm bath Jisung had drawn for you.

You let your mind reel as you sat in the tub, your knees tucked into your chest. Nothing made sense anymore. Oh, how you longed to go back to the life you had where the only thing you had to worry about was struggling with your math homework. If Jisung was telling the truth, then your life would never be the same. There had to be a way out of this, right? Maybe this is your punishment for something horrible you did but what? The worst thing you'd ever done was steal a couple of lipglosses from Target and that was two years ago. Or maybe it's because you lied to your mom about passing your Spanish test last month? You regretted it but it still seemed too small of a thing to be punished so greatly for. No matter how hard you picked your brain you couldn't come to a conclusion in any reality where you deserved this. You just wished you could get some answers soon. What would you tell your parents? Your friends? Would you have to leave them all behind? Did you have to do evil things now?

No, he said he changed. He wasn't like that. At least you hoped he wasn't. The scary thing is that you couldn't find it in yourself to care if he did make you do evil things. Just yesterday you would rather kill yourself than to do Jisung's evil bidding. You didn't like that you didn't mind it. You didn't like that nothing added up. You couldn't understand why in the world all of this had to happen to you. You didn't know where you were, how long you've been gone or what was going to happen to you. It all felt like a never-ending bad dream.

After you washed up and dried yourself, you sat idly on the toilet as the water drained from the bathtub. You felt a little better now that you were clean but you could feel the foreshadowing of an oncoming headache from the stress.

There was a gentle knock on the door, shaking you out of your pity party and you get up to open it. Jisung is in different clothing once again, wearing a hoodie and baggy dark jeans.

You stay there for three long days. You don't speak much in that time, but you feel like you know him a bit better. He wasn't as scary as you thought. After spending seventy-two hours together, you feel more at ease in his presence. He refused to discuss your circumstances and you never ask to go home. The thought never crosses your mind after the first day and you almost forget about your life at home completely. Instead, you spend all your time observing Jisung. You watch him cook and clean, sew and paint. He's perfected almost a million hobbies.   He doesn't acknowledge your existence as you watch, only bothering to speak to ask what you wanted to eat or if you were tired and wanted a bath. Contrary to your earlier thoughts, he never ordered you around. He left you to wander around on your own, doing as you pleased. Whether that be to read a book from his collection, watch a movie or watch him.    On the third morning, you're up early, sitting cross-legged in the bed of Jisung's guest bedroom. After taking a shower, you were stuffing your face with a bowl of oatmeal Jisung had so expertly prepared.

"You ready to go home? School should be starting soon."

Home. Your mother. Oh, shit.

"What time is it?" you tuck your damp hair behind your ears.

"Five thirty-seven."

Your eyebrows knit together as he tosses your uniform at you and you catch it.

"Hurry up," and with that, the door is shut in your face.

It only took you about a minute to change and then you were scampering down the hall to the living room where Jisung was waiting patiently, sitting as still as stone.

"Good then. Let's go."

"Wait," you grab his sleeve and Jisung stares down at your hand as if it were alien.

"Can you please tell me what's going on now? I'm going insane here."

He sighs before motioning for you to sit down. You quickly oblige, plopping down on the couch and he sits opposite of you.

"Sometimes, there are certain circumstances where a demon who does their job very well would be rewarded by Satan by being gifted their very own human slave.

"It's very rare actually, and Satan stopped doing it centuries ago bc it led to us being discovered. Then he had to "handle" it so I'm not sure why he gifted you to me. Does that answer all your questions?"

You give him a pointed look. He sighs.

"I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what's going on either; I don't even work anymore."

"What do you mean you don't work?"

"I'm retired. I don't like causing harm to humans and Satan let me settle down up here."

"Satan sounds awfully nice..." you frown a bit.

Jisung rolls his eyes slightly. "Oh, believe me. He isn't. Satan lives up to his name just fine. He let me go under special circumstances."

"So you're special?"

"Yep."

You folded your arms over your chest. "How so?"

"My parents and I were really good at doing what we do. The best actually. For centuries we were the apple of Lucifer's eyes. I mean, we got the best treatment, luxury lifestyle, the other demons didn't dare mess with us. It was almost like...heaven."

You purse your lips, feeling uncomfortable with the comparison to heaven.

"One day, I met a human I was assigned to and she was different than any human I'd ever seen. I was supposed to influence her to sin but I just couldn't no matter how hard I tried. This human was the purest of any kind I'd met and she was so young. The young ones are supposed to be the most malleable but she always resisted. She was good.

I realized something then. I thought, maybe not all humans don't deserve to go to hell. Some do. Some don't. And without the influence of us, a lot of them would go to heaven. After doing it for so long, I started to feel guilty. I've never been human. I was born like this. I never experienced a human life but I wanted to. So I asked to retire."

You were sure your eyes were bulging out of your head but you were too shocked to try to change your expression. "And he just let you go? Just like that?"

"Yeah. Satan wasn't happy. He thought it was stupid, which, it might be a little. A demon can't live like a human. He claimed after a few decades I'd see humans for what they really were and then I'd be back."

"So, then Satan made me your slave to try to convince you to come back?"

"I'm not sure," he flicks a strand of hair out of his eyes. "But Lucifer doesn't do anything without a purpose. I'm sure we'll find out soon."

"Will you go back?"

"I don't want to but if I have to then I will. It's what I was created for."

"Oh," you were lost on what to say next.

"Are you ready to go back home?" He stands up, holding a hand out to you.

You're about to take it when the doorbell rings. Jisung looks frigid. Was that fear in his eyes?

"My parents are here."

"Huh? Why?" The scenes of your dream flash in your mind. The headless waitress and blood gushing everywhere. If they were anything like the dream version of them then you were dead meat.

"I don't know. They're not nice people, __," he warns.

"Should I run? Or hide?"

"There's no point; they'd find you. Just sit still and don't say a word."

Jisung walks to the door, opening it to reveal two faces you've seen before. His mother didn't look pleased to see her son but his father pulled him in for a quick hug, patting him on the back.

"Well, are you going to invite us in? We knocked this time. Just like you asked," his mom says with a hint of annoyance.

Jisung steps back to let them inside and it's like an alarm goes off in their heads because as soon as they step one foot inside, their heads snap to find you sitting on the couch.

"Oh...you have company," his father says in confusion.

"Jisung, what is this?" His mom looks at you in disgust.

"Mom, Dad, this is __. We were just on our way out, actually. So, this is a bad time."

His mom shoots him daggers with her eyes. "You aren't going anywhere we just got here. Jisung, where are your manners?"

Jisung stands there, looking defeated as he mumbles an apology.

"Hello, there! I'm Mrs. Park," she extends a hand out to you. You look at Jisung before getting up to shake it.

"Mr. Park," his dad shakes your hand next. Their hands are just as hot as Jisung's. You shuffle back to your spot on the couch.

"Is this your friend, Jisung?" Mrs. Park asks, looking you up and down.

"She's my slave, mother."

His parents look at each other in shock, smiles of joy creeping across their faces.

"Lucifer gifted you a slave?" Mrs. Park practically jitters with excitement.

"Yes, mother."

"Son, that's amazing! You have to come back now!"

Jisung clenches his fists at his sides. "I'm not coming back. Not now. Not ever."

"Don't be silly, Jisung. It would be extremely disrespectful not to after receiving such a gift. He stopped gifting slaves centuries ago," Mrs. Park snaps.

"Mom, I made my decision."

"You foolish boy. You're an embarrassment to us all. We've been forced into hiding ever since you left. We're the laughing stock of the underworld because you decided to go soft and ruin the reputation we worked so hard to build. Two centuries of hard work down the drain."

"Mother—"

"Don't you understand? This isn't a gift it's a warning. You've been gone too long, Jisung. He wants you back. You've had your fun living your little fantasy; now it's time to come back to reality."

"Son, please," Mr. Park sits down next to you. "Listen to your mom."

"I...no. No, I'm staying here," says Jisung.

"You're so selfish! He won't just punish you he'll punish us all! Me and your father will be extinguished right along with you. My dearest son, please use the common sense I gave you and come back to us. I've missed you. We were a great team."

Jisung looks torn as he looks at you then back to his parents. "I have to get going."

"Jisung," Mr. park barks.

"Please leave," Jisung opens the door for them.

"You're going to get us all killed," Mrs. Park snarls as she nudges her husband to get up. "Close the damn door, Jisung. We're leaving."

Jisung closes it, his back falling against the wall.

"We're not done talking about this," his mother declares before looking at you one last time, the corner of her lips turned downwards. You think your eyes are playing tricks on you as the couple dissipate right in front of you, fading into a silhouette and then finally nothing. They're gone.

Jisung opens the door again. "Come on."

   The ride to your house is silent and too quick if you were being honest. Jisung lives fairly close to your house although in a much better neighborhood for someone who's living off of minimum wage.

   You're still a bit shaken up but much calmer than before. Once you enter the house, you find the lights off. Your mom was still asleep. You thank god as you creep to your room as quietly as possible. When you open the door, however, your mom is sitting on your bed holding a book in her hands. Was that your diary?

"Y/n, just where have you been all night?"

You deflect her question. "Why do you have my diary?"

"This is my house and my rules. I am your mother for Christ's sake; I have the right to know what's going on in my daughter's life and if you won't let me in, damn it, I'll find out my own way."

"That's a complete invasion of my privacy!"

She looks taken aback at your brazen comment. "Raise your voice at me one more time—I dare you! You were out with that boy from the computer cafe, weren't you?"

"What? No! My friend, Deana broke up with her boyfriend and it was an emergency. I had to go talk to her."

She narrows her eyes. "Don't you lie to me."

"I swear it! It's true," your bottom lip trembled as you held back tears.

You wanted to tell the truth but you couldn't. Jisung wouldn't like that very much and quite frankly, you were simply terrified of what his parents might do to you more than your angry mother. Would she believe you anyway? You didn't have any proof. She'd probably lock you up in some psych ward hundreds of miles away from here at the first mention of demons. Or maybe she'd just think you were lying. Her face was red with fury but you can tell by the slight quiver in her voice she was more worried about your safety than anything.

"I know somethings going on," she rests her hands on her knees. "You've been having sleepless nights and you don't go out as much anymore. And now there's some boy who comes out of nowhere and you're running out to meet him when you've got a fever. You scared me half to death and I just let it slide but now you're sneaking out and coming back three days later at six in the morning?

"No ma'am. This is not how I run my household. You know that. I mean is it me? Did I do something to make you wanna push me away?"

Your throat aches as you choke back tears. "No, mom, it's not that at all. I just have to solve this on my own."

She looks heartbroken but nods nimbly. "But you'll come to me if you can't figure it out on your own?"

"I promise."

"Good," she stands up. "We're leaving in ten minutes so hurry up and get dressed. Oh yeah, and you're grounded."

You couldn't say you didn't see that coming.

-

When you get home from school, your mother's in the living room. She usually doesn't get off of work for another two hours but it wasn't that hard to think of the reason why she was home so early. She asks about school and you say whatever it takes to end the conversation as soon as possible so you can go to your room. You lock the door behind you when you're finally alone, changing into more comfortable clothes. You make sure your mom's still downstairs before you whisper Jisung's name and a warmth envelops your body from the tip of your tongue down to your toes. He appears before you in seconds, wearing his work uniform. He doesn't look at you at first, inspecting the interior of your room before making himself comfortable on your bed.

"Your mom didn't seem too happy about this morning," he sighs.

"How did you know that?" you ask and for some reason, you think, you might be better off not knowing.

"You and I are connected now. I can see you whenever I want. I can...feel you."

You gulp. You didn't like the thought of him checking up on you whenever he wanted. And what's worse is that if you ever tried to run, he could find you.

"Right...well I have a question."

"Oh, you're just full of those, aren't you?"

You roll your eyes. "If you go back to working for Satan...would he allow you to let me go?"

Jisung's face hardens. You could feel the warmth in the room grow.

"Why would you ask me that? Do you know what you'd be asking me to do?"

"I'm sorry," the words leave your mouth at lightning speed. It's odd. You didn't want to say them but you did.

"Am I really so awful you'd rather send me away to do the devils bidding than to be stuck with me?"

"No, not at all," you say this on your own this time. It should worry you how true it was. You truly didn't mind his company. It took some time to separate the man from your dreams to the one in reality but once you did, you saw the good in him—once you overlooked all the sarcasm, of course.

"Don't get offended, please. That's not what I'm trying to do here," you approach him. "I just want my life back."

There's a flicker of emotion in his eyes. He sighs. "I suppose, you're right. It's selfish of me to impose on your life when you didn't ask for any of this. I'll take my problems elsewhere and leave you be."

You're surprised at how quickly he gave you what you wanted. You expected to have to squeal your way out of it. It was so easy you almost felt bad for asking.

"There won't be any consequences? He won't get mad if you leave me alone?"

"I'm not sure what he'll do. Just as I can see you, he can see me," he pauses. "Whatever the outcome, I'll handle it."

He stands up and you stand up with him.

"Is it weird that I'm going to miss you?"

His eyebrows fly up and he almost looks embarrassed. "Uh, I'm sure that's just a side effect of being my slave."

"I see," you look down feeling awkward. "Can I get a hug?"

You can tell he's uncomfortable with the request but he opens his arms for you anyway. You hate how attached you've become in the last twelve hours. You hardly knew the man and after meeting his parents you shouldn't be standing anywhere near him. But you still felt a pull towards him and you weren't so sure if it was a side effect. Maybe you were crazy—actually, scratch that, you were definitely crazy—but you actually kind of liked Jisung. He protected you from his parents and was willing to take whatever the devil was going to throw at him. So you lay your head on his chest and the heat is already scorching your skin. The fast rhythm of his heartbeat almost rocks you as his hands wrap around your shoulders and you stand there for a moment. He was a little stiff but you could tell he was trying his best. When you let go, his face is different. He's smiling at you and there's this gleam in his eyes that you'd never seen before. Then there's something pulling you towards him, an unexplainable compulsion to kiss him. He doesn't move as you lean in to peck your lips on his warm ones. It's like his limbs are frozen and for the first time in his life, he doesn't know what to do. He's never encountered someone like you before. Someone so beautiful and smart. You were the only person that could ever make him feel anything other than complete misery and he was so sad to let you go. He didn't want to let you go and he didn't have to. You were his slave, after all. But you had asked him to and he couldn't find it in him to deny you. Finally, his instincts kick in and his eyes close as he kisses you back. It's the most intimate kiss you've ever had and you find your hands pulling his shirt to pull him closer to you, wanting more but suddenly he's gone. You look around your room to find it empty. He left. He left you. Just like you asked.

"Jisung?" your voice breaks as you call out. "Jisung??"

Your door bursts open causing you to flinch.

"Hey, what do you feel like for dinner?" your mom walks in. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

   You try to stop the tears from falling but you fail as you burst into sobs. Your mom runs over and hugs you, begging for you to tell her what's going on but you can't. You can't tell anyone. No one could ever know.

-

   You think about Jisung every day for the next two years. How could you not? His face was branded into your mind, his voice a never-fading memory. You like to think he was okay. That whatever battles he had to face with his creator went successfully. You hoped he was free and happy. You imagine he watches over you from time to time, just to see how you've grown and what you were up to.    For some time, he's everywhere you look. You'd see a flash of blonde and go running to catch him, no matter where you were. In the end, you never caught him. It was always your mind playing tricks on you. Your friends and family grew concerned but those concerns faded away as the spottings did. Every hot summer day reminded you of him. Even the heaters in the winter made you think of him. He was always in the back of your brain.    After a while, it felt like it was all one big fever dream. The only reminder that it was real was the poorly written entries of your old diary. That, and one other thing.    One day, you come home to find a necklace on your bed, the glowing red stone flaring up the memory of the matching one his mother wore. He was alive. He hadn't forgotten about you. The smile that adorned your lips was big enough to give one the impression it was a gift from your lover. You vowed to wear it every day, thanking Jisung aloud, and you swear you feel his presence in the room for a moment, a rush of heat flowing into your bedroom and then it's gone.

[servinglemonade]

WandaVision Review

BEWARE: SPOILERS FOR ALL WANDAVISION EPISODES AHEAD

Didn't WandaVision end over a month ago now? Yes. Wasn't The Falcon and Winter Soldier finale yesterday? Yes. Is that going to stop me from talking about this incredible show? No, it won't.

Hi everyone! I started writing this review while WandaVision was still airing, but got so swamped with life that I did not have time to finish it. But here we are, finally! I adore this show, it is a fresh and different take on the MCU and I personally loved every second of it. The concept should not have made sense, like Paul Bettany kept saying, it is bonkers! However, somehow, they just made it work and I just enjoyed it so much! The sitcom aspect, the different songs and score, the attention to detail, the new characters, and spending time with Wanda and Vision was just fantastic! Because at the end of the day, that was what this was all about, Wanda and Vision and their relationship! For a more in-depth and spoiler review of every episode, keep on reading!

Episode 1 - Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience

Many people expressed their annoyance with the fact that the first two episodes that aired were very slow, and yes they are. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. This is not a movie, it is a show, they are building the story, just enjoy the ride and the mystery because even the first episode left so many questions! I loved seeing Wanda and Vision as the stars of the show for once and I enjoy spending all this time with them. The production value of the whole show is amazing but the black and white episodes are something special. I have never watched the old school sitcoms they are referencing here in episode 1 (and 2) but I found it so charming and cute. The square aspect ratio, the black and white, the old school VFX, the laughing track from the audience. I thought it was really cool to see. One of my favorite moments in this episode was the dinner scene with the Harts. When Mr. Hart chocked and Mrs. Hart just kept saying stop it, and Wanda and Vision just kind of looked at each other like what is happening, was so tense. When Wanda looked at Vision and said to help him was so well done by both Elizabeth and Paul! So, I really loved this first episode.

Episode 2 - Don’t Touch That Dial

Episode 2 is where you really start to see that nothing is at it seems in this ‘perfect’ world. So, there is a talent show that day and our favorite unusual couple is preparing for their magic act. Wanda also tells Vision that is their home and she wants to fit in. Later, Vision goes to the Neighborhood Watch because of a strange sound he heard the night before, where we meet some more people from Westview and Vision’s co-workers. Vision mentions he does not eat food. However, when Herb offers him gum, he takes it but accidentally swallows it. This leads to a really cool animation that Vision might not be doing so well after eating that piece of gum. Meanwhile, Wanda hears a strange noise so she goes to check it out, and it is this little red and gold-colored drone with a logo on it... Which was later revealed to be the SWORD logo. But then who comes to visit... Agnes. She was suspicious since the beginning and we were right about that... So Wanda joins Agnes for a meeting with the Planning Committee. Here we meet, Geraldine aka Monica Rambeau, Dottie, and some more people from Westview. So, Wanda is trying really hard to fit in but is not really successful. They say the talent show is for the children but are not any children in Westview... Fishy! Then Wanda has to clean everything up after the meeting and has a really weird moment with Dottie. Someone is trying to contact Wanda through the radio which freaks Dottie out completely, the glass breaks and Dottie’s blood is red, while the rest is still black and white just like that little drone... So, when it’s time for the magic show, Vision shows up at the nick of time and appears to be acting a little weird or ‘drunk’ so to speak. So of course, everything goes wrong during the show and Wanda tries to cover it up. But everyone thought they were being funny so they won! And they go back home, and Wanda turns out to be pregnant! I thought it was a really cute reveal but it did not last long because there is some strange dude outside in a beekeeper costume coming out of the sewer and Wanda is like ‘oh hell no’ and rewinds time like it never happened. Badass.

Episode 3 -  Now in Color

In this episode, Wanda and Vision prepare for the arrival of the baby, which of course causes some trouble not just in the house but in the neighborhood of Westview too. I loved how Vision was making Dad jokes and was quite nervous about becoming a dad. Yet, Wanda was just like chill, we got this, so cute. The pregnancy goes very fast, which confuses Vision. He also starts questioning the situation they are in and how weird the citizens of Westview act sometimes. He even looks straight into the camera! So, Wanda looks a bit scared and rewinds again!! So, it was becoming very clear that Wanda is pulling the strings here and can alter what happens. Afterward, Vision runs to get the doctor and Geraldine (aka Monica) shows up. At some point, Geraldine realizes what’s up and she helps Wanda deliver her baby, or babies as we later find out. Twins! What a twist, as Darcy says in the next episode (although it was in the trailer that there were 2 babies, I just wanted to make that joke). So, everyone is very happy and as Vision lets the doctor out, Monica stays with Wanda. Now, this is where this episode gets super weird. So, Vision sees Agnes and Herb talking and they are discussing how Geraldine is an outsider since she just showed up in Westview with no home and family. Then, Herb wants to say something important, but of course, Agnes stops him. Meanwhile, Wanda and Monica are inside and Wanda mentions Pietro for the first time in a long time!!! I think since Age of Ultron. Speaking of Ultron, Monica then mentions that Pietro was killed by him. We do not see what happens next (just yet hehe) but the aspect ratio changes and we go outside of Westview where SWORD is monitoring the hex very closely...  This episode brought up a lot of questions, which is one of the things I loved about it. A scene I liked was when Wanda’s water broke and the house got all wet. So, Wanda used her powers to create some wind to dry off. She was standing there very gracefully and Vision was in the background struggling to keep his balance. I just thought that was funny. 

Episode 4 - We Interrupt This Program

Did I mention how much I love the titles for every episode, I think they are so clever. In this episode, we see the last 3 episodes but from outside the hex! So, we get a couple more answers to our questions. For example, that it is ALL WANDA! Wanda is creating a reality where she can live in a perfect world with Vision. We get re-introduced to some characters we have not seen in a while! Jimmy Woo, who has mastered close-up magic like he was practicing in Ant-Man and The Wasp! We love to see it. And Dr. Darcy Lewis, who is now an astrophysicist, just like Jane! I think it was really good to pair these two together because they had a great dynamic and quickly became such a fun duo! We also get introduced to one of the worst people in MCU history, the new director of SWORD... Tyler Hayward. The literal definition of a bastard. I mean this man is a liar and is sitting in Monica’s chair (who should obviously be the new director). This brings me to the beginning of the episode, which in my opinion is the best perspective on the Blip we have gotten so far. The VFX when Monica blipped back was incredible. I also thought that whole sequence in the hospital showed how chaotic it must have been for some places after Hulk snapped everyone back. For example, when this one guy said “Everyone is coming back, we don’t the capacity!” I think that is a really interesting angle to explore the ramifications of The Blip. But the most heartbreaking thing about that scene was Monica finding out her mother, Maria, passed away while she was blipped. That was just awful. A fun thing about this episode was that everyone at SWORD was kind of like us, trying to piece together what was going on! But the best part about the episode was, of course, seeing how Wanda took Monica out of the hex. She really looked and sounded like a villain. It was amazing, but the most creepy thing I have ever seen in the MCU was talking zombie Vision. Really good jump scare and very unexpected and dark! 

Episode 5 - On a Very Special Episode...

And we are back with Wanda and Vision living their ‘perfect’ life, trying to get the twins to sleep, which is not really working out for them. And of course, Agnes shows up to help them. Vision is kind of apprehensive and prefers if Agnes does not get too close. However, Agnes starts acting weird and asks Wanda: "Do you want me to begin from the top?" WHAT...?! I thought this sounded like she knew Wanda was in control. Wanda tries to talk some sense into her and lets Agnes do her thing. Vision starts getting really suspicious of the situation in this episode and I loved seeing that and how Wanda dealt with it as well. We catch up with SWORD and our favorite duo has become a trio!! Jimmy Woo, Darcy, and Monica! Hayward is briefing everyone about Wanda’s history, tells more lies, Monica actually sticks up for her (yas), and Jimmy & Darcy agree with the whole world that Hayward is a bastard. Back in the hex, we are introduced to Sparky the dog, and the twins age up to ten. Later, our favorite trio is on a mission to figure out what is going on. What I found most interesting about this scene was when Jimmy mentioned Captain Marvel, Monica was super dismissive... I smell some drama between those two. They then figure out if they can send something in the Hex to contact Wanda. While Vision is at work, they get a mysterious e-mail from SWORD trying to make contact inside the hex, which results in Vision waking up Norm from someone’s control!!! Such a cool scene, very well acted as well. Back at the Vision residence, Wanda has a little heart to heart with the twins about family, which I thought was very heartwarming. But then, a SWORD drone has come into the hex and Hayward actually weaponized it. And we get one of Wanda’s most badass scenes ever! She comes out of the hex and throws the drone right back at them and tells them to leave her alone since she has everything she wants. Then, she amplifies the hex with her powers and now it has this red glow around it. What I found really interesting about this was her Sakovian accent, which was so present here. The commercial for ‘Lagos’ paper towels this episode was very clever: ‘when you make a mess you did not mean to.’, which is obviously a reference to what Wanda did to that hospital in Civil War. So, Sparky is missing and they find him dead in Agnes’ hands. RIP :(. The ending of the episode where Wanda and Vision fight was amazing and SO WELL ACTED by both of them. Super tense! And of course, in the end, Evan Peters shows up as Pietro. I have never seen the X-Men movies (I know, I am sorry.), so I had no clue that he actually played Quicksilver in the FOX movies. 

Episode 6 - All-New Halloween Spooktacular!

This was one of my favorite episodes and it may or may not be because of the Halloween elements. I thought the twins talking to the audience in this episode was really cute and a great way for us to get to know their personalities as well. Wanda comes downstairs looking fabulous in her classic Scarlet Witch costume from the comics!! The kids and Pietro kind of think the costume is a bit meh, but they obviously do not know what they are talking about... Pietro then talks about trick or treating with Wanda in Sakovia and Wanda says she does not remember... Clue #1 that this Pietro is being kind of weird. Later, Vision shows up in his classic comics costume, which was funny to see him in that. So Vision tells Wanda he cannot go trick or treating with them because he is doing some stuff with the Neighborhood Watch tonight, while in fact, he is going to be doing some investigating in Westview. So Pietro joins the fam instead with his classic Quicksilver costume and Tommy has the same outfit on because it is later revealed that he also has super speed. I really enjoyed the trick-or-treating bit. So, Vision is nearing the edge of the Hex and seems as though people are either stuck in a loop but still conscious or just standing completely still. Back at SWORD, our favorite trio is taking matters into their own hands and are trying to figure out a way to go back into the hex and they find out that Hayward is tracking Vision and the decay of Vibranium. Which raised a bunch of questions for me, like is Hayward just after Vision? Darcy mentions that going in and out of the hex is changing Monica’s cells. Interesting and scary. When Vision found Agnes at the edge of the hex and got her out of the spell, she knew about the Avengers but Vision did not since he has no memory. She was acting really weird though... AS ALWAYS! The town square with all the Halloween decorations looked so cute and gave me serious Halloweentown vibes! Pietro is fishing for answers with Wanda and we get another jump scare with zombie Pietro... This was even worse than Vision. Then, we get this heartbreaking scene, where he is trying to get out of the hex and tries to tell SWORD the people need help and he is slowly falling apart and nobody tries to help him but Darcy. I really thought he was going to die again and I was not ready for that. Luckily, Billy senses his dad is in trouble and goes to Wanda. She then freezes the whole town and EXPANDS THE ENTIRE HEX. That was just crazy and what a cliffhanger. 

Episode 7 - Breaking The Fourth Wall

This is the Modern Family style episode and as a huge fan of that, this was sooooo well done! The humor, the confessionals to the camera, the camera work even. It was perfect. So, it’s not going so well in the hex. A lot of furniture and things in the house are switching between decades, like the twins’ game consoles and the milk. Wanda kept saying she was fine, while we can all see she obviously is not. Agnes suggests taking the twins so Wanda can have a little self-care time. Speaking of which, her confessionals to the camera were so funny! Vision seeks out Darcy and Darcy just thinks he wants to go on a date with her. All I kept thinking was: Vision, just take her out of the spell. Which of course he does later and Darcy says how she thought it would be fun to be on WandaVision but in reality, it was not, that was great. They then escape the circus by getting in a funnel cake truck. Meanwhile, Monica and Jimmy meet up with the engineer who turned out to be no one we knew. But she did bring a vehicle that Monica could use to get back in the hex. Which eventually did not work, so Monica literally runs in there without any protection really. But we got this beautiful sequence where Monica gets her powers and it was just stunning. She hears all these voices of her past and she is also ripped apart somehow with different versions of herself but she pulls them all together and she goes comes out on the other side in a superhero landing and GLOWING eyes, wow. Vision and Darcy are stuck somewhere in Westview like someone really does not want them to get to Wanda. Darcy basically tells Vision his whole story and he finally learns what Wanda had to endure concerning his death as well. Vision’s confessionals in front of that funnel truck were hilarious as well! Another thing I loved about that was that Darcy mentioned how she had been watching WandaVision (just like us hehe) and the love Wanda and Vision share is real, which I thought was really cute. Monica visits Wanda at home and she is NOT happy. Elizabeth Olsen is really selling the more villainous moments and Teyonnah Parris killed this scene as well, the emotion in her voice was on point. Agnes sees what happens and goes to stop it and takes Wanda to her house. Wanda sits in the living room and the twins are nowhere to be found, so Agnes says they are in the basement. Which has these really weird branches coming out of it, Wanda goes down and there are all these weird artifacts and this book, very WITCHY... And it is revealed that Agnes is Agatha Harkness, a witch!!! This leads to the instantly iconic smash hit, Agatha All Along!!! (which I am still very much obsessed with) So we see her messing with events like the talent show and it was also revealed that she was the one that killed Sparky... I had been following theories throughout the show, so some already suspected Agnes was Agatha but the way it was revealed was just iconic. 

Episode 8 - Previously On...

I loved this one too. This episode gives us some answers to our questions and a glimpse into Wanda's past. Hosted by none other than Agatha Harkness! (I love how she was giving commentary on everything this episode, Katherine Hahn is amazing!) In the beginning, we also see some of Agatha's past and I thought it was really cool, I love the magic section of the MCU and I feel like they are starting to explore it more and more. It was also a very dark scene, really great stuff. After that, Agatha is explaining to Wanda why she came to Westview, why is she is seeking her out specifically, and showcases her magic. She also explains how she brought FIETRO in the picture (cannot stop calling him that now lol). We then take a trip down memory lane. First up, Sokovia. I thought this was cute and gave us an answer to why they are referencing sitcoms. I did not expect to see the bombing that Wanda and Pietro talked about in Age of Ultron and as it turns out the bomb did not go off because Wanda put a spell on it! Then we move to the Hydra facility where Wanda and Pietro volunteered. So when Wanda was alone with the scepter, the mind stone went to her by itself, almost like it chose her or something. I thought it was really cool that it was showing her true self or her future self for that matter. Next up, the Avengers compound. I loved how when Vision entered he came through the wall, just like he did in Civil War and he is kind of confused about the sitcom she is watching. They have a little heart-to-heart about how Wanda is feeling after Pietro's death. I have to say the writing and lines here are great but Vision says this gorgeous one: "But what is grief, if not love persevering?" That is one of the best lines in the show and MCU, so beautiful. I mean even Agatha had to wipe away a tear. The last scene was incredible. So we find out that Wanda never took Vision's body from SWORD and that Hayward is a lying bastard (tells us something we do not know). I was on the verge of tears when Wanda went to Vision's body and said she could not feel him anymore. Gosh, that was sad and made me think of Infinity War. She then leaves the SWORD HQ and drives to Westview and she stops at this empty plot of land... Because Vision bought that for them to live there :( That is just so sad and Wanda her grief was so great that SHE created the hex out of nothing. On top of that, she even created a new Vision. That whole scene was so visually striking, it was incredible. So back to 'reality'. Agatha leads Wanda outside and she is wearing her costume (which looks great btw!) and her hair is blowing in the wind and she is holding the twins hostage and she tells Wanda she used chaos magic to create the hex, which makes her THE SCARLET WITCH!!!!!! SHE SAID IT! The way I screamed omg, it was amazing!

Episode 9 - The Series Finale

We've made it!! Congrats if you have made it this far, cause this a long post. Let me start off by saying that even though some people hated this finale because of all the theories that had been spread on the internet, I really enjoyed it! Yes, even I was convinced that some of them were true, particularly Mephisto and Doctor Strange showing up. It did not happen and at the end of the day, I was fine with it because they were just theories, it was not confirmed. Now, the whole Evan Peters thing... It was a bit weird that he was just a nobody, but I was honestly not that invested in that storyline, so yeah, I get why other people were disappointed. But to say it ruined the whole show, no way, it was never about him in the first place. With the mystery of WandaVision, I think we all looked too much into every single detail. WandaVision is about Wanda dealing with her grief and the love she shares with VIsion, which they delivered on in spades and I loved seeing that. Plus, it is not to say that Mephisto will never show up, there were a lot of clues here that he might in the future with all those devil references... The finale wrapped up this story and gave some teases for what is to come. It delivered some great action at the beginning of the episode with Wanda vs. Agatha and Vision vs. White Vision. I thought the little philosophy session with the Visions was so in character, it was great. Speaking of White Vision, now that he has all of Vision's memory... WHERE DID HE GO?! I am sure we will see him again. I thought the scene where the people from Westview surrounded Wanda and were blaming her for all their trauma these past weeks, which is totally within their right, was so intense and Elizabeth really sold it!! All the Wanda vs. Agatha scenes were awesome and loved seeing them use their magic in different ways. Now, my two favorite moments of this finale. I did not realize what Wanda was doing while fighting Agatha in the air, not until Agatha could not use her powers anymore... Wanda literally used Agatha's own tricks against her by casting those ruins inside the hex! Wanda accepting her destiny as the Scarlet Witch was such a beautiful moment, I had legit chills! AND HER NEW COSTUME LOOKS STUNNING! With her hair and the headpiece, omg yes queen. Also, I think we will be seeing Agatha again, they really established that her path will cross with Wanda in a future MCU project! Now, my other favorite moment. Wanda saying goodbye to her family. Some of the lines were just beautiful and the score was emotional. I thought it was chilling how you could just see the hex closing in on them, it felt very cinematic. I genuinely think it is among some of my favorite moments in the MCU. It was a beautiful ending to this story. So, what's next?! One post-credit scene was Monica being recruited by a SKRULL!! I love it when the Skrulls just pop up out of nowhere, it's great. So the Skrull tells her there is someone who wants to see her up there... That has to be Nick Fury right?! The last time we saw him he was on some sort of space station with Skrulls in Far From Home. Maybe Monica will also play a part in Secret Invasion?! I am excited about that reunion nonetheless! The other scene was Wanda settled in a secluded area in the mountains. Wanda has been confirmed for Multiverse of Madness with Doctor Strange and I am SO excited for that. This scene confirmed it too! If u listen closely you can hear a different version of Doctor Strange's theme!! I thought it was really cool and a little scary that Wanda could be awake and have her astral projection reading the dark hold at the same time! That was powerful!

So, here we are, we made it! I loved this show and I am so happy Wanda is becoming a very big part of the MCU and her future shines brighter than ever!! Thank you so much for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it :) Next up, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier! (spoiler alert: it was amazing!!!!) Hopefully, my review will be up before Loki has started ;)

PS. I loved all the songs and scores from the show so much, I put all my faves in a Spotify playlist! Check it out here

[guessmonsta]

Kuroo x Reader- Wingman

Inconsistency is key. Everything I write is for my dear friend Emily. Anyway, here’s some fun, low-key raunchy, high-key reference-y Kuroo content for everyone in quarantine rn. Stay safe and wash your hands <3

Kuroo was, at some point tonight, going to lose his mind. 

He knew showing up to Bokuto’s stupid little “house party” was going to get him in trouble one way or another. By “house party”, Bokuto meant he was going to try to cram the volleyball team starters, his roommates basketball friends, a couple of girls, and miscellaneous friends on the side into his college campus dorm room. 

It ideally didn’t sound like much fun, but he was going to take whatever chance he got to get out of his dorm. As much as Kuroo got out in high school, in college he felt bound to chemistry textbooks and volleyball practice. He liked to joke around with his friends and say it wasn’t easy being smart, athletic, and sexy, but there really wasn’t anything sexy about under eye bags and lab goggles. 

He usually showed up to Bokuto’s dorm before anyone else did. His roommate was out of town, so it was just some volleyball guys and a few others for the night. Kuroo didn’t really mind, the basketball guys were too much to handle for him right now, anyway. A cluster headache started forming behind his right eye, and he must’ve made a stank face, because Bokuto started stifling laughter from the bed across the room. 

“Do you have to go take a shit or something?” He asked, picking up a pillow from the bed and chucking it at Kuroo’s head. 

“Nah. I’m just starting to think I peaked in high school.” 

“See? This is why you should’ve majored in business like me. I keep it cool, I keep it classy. I focus on three things, volleyball, whatever business majors do, and boobs.” Bokuto made a gesture as if he was flipping hair over his shoulder. Kuroo shook his head. 

“When I come up with a cure for stupidity twenty years down the line, you’re not getting any of it.” Kuroo stuck his tongue out, and Bokuto feigned shock. 

“I thought we were bros.” 

“Bros support bros. And you’ve gotta support me through fucking-” Kuroo took a deep sigh then exhaled, “Chemistry-y.” 

“Hey listen, you sound like a big major bum right now and it’s making me wanna hit you with another pillow.” 

“Do it, I dare you.” Kuroo grabbed the pillow previously thrown at his head, and spiked it back over at Bokuto, who dodged it. 

“I’ve got some cool people coming over though.” Bokuto exclaimed while contemplating on throwing the pillow back.

“Oh, like the guy who chugged three beers in a row last time and puked all over that one girls lap? And you had to calm her down from crying because All Star started playing from Shrek on the TV and we all were holding back laughter so she wouldn’t cry harder?” 

Bokuto made a face of disgust in response. “Absolutely not. It’s just gonna be me, you, Tendou ‘cause he’s got the goods, Ushijima ‘cause he makes me think god might just be a man, Yukie ‘cause she makes me remember god is actually a woman, a couple of Yukie’s girl friends ‘cause girl power, and __ too ‘cause she didn’t come last time and I miss her.” 

__ was Kuroo and Bokuto’s mutual friend they met in their first semester of college. She sat with them during their freshman orientation course, and they hit it off from there. She was a funny thing, always had bright eyes and a smile on her face. Kuroo noticed his cluster headache wasn’t as bad as he previously thought. 

There was definitely something about her that made Kuroo wish he had time for a serious relationship. Even then, he would make all the time in the world for her if he really could. He hadn’t seen her for a couple months- his only contact with her was sharing memes back and forth on Instagram. The thought of seeing her again made something flutter in his stomach. 

“Oh wait.” Bokuto must have noticed the look on Kuroo’s face, because he started laughing. “O-oh man I forgot you had a thing for __!” 

“I haven’t seen her in forever bro.” Kuroo looked up at Bokuto and fake pouted his lower lip. “Like if I could make that one puppy eye emoji face in real life I would do it.” 

“Awh, does somebody have a cwush?” Bokuto teased in a baby voice. 

“Yes.” He replied, in the same fashion. Then a smile extended on his face. 

“Du-ude if you told me __ was coming over I would’ve made myself look nicer. I’ve been wearing the same gray joggers for like, three days.” 

“College do be doing that to you, doe.” Bokuto got up, then flopped on the couch next to Kuroo. “Listen though, I’m your number one wing man. I gotchu.” 

“Do you mean that, bro?”

“Always, bro.” 

Without knocking, Tendou burst through the dorm door, holding a big brown bag of god knows what under his arm. 

“Your king has arrived.” He announced, and Ushijima awkwardly followed in behind him, muttering a respectful, “hello.” 

“I’m sorry, did I walk in on something… intimate?” Tendou glanced over at Kuroo and Bokuto, who were sitting closely together on the couch. 

“No bro, we’re just two bros, sitting on a dorm couch, one inch apart cause we’re comfortable with our sexuality.” Kuroo winked, and Tendou clutched at his heart in mock embarrassment. 

Yukie and her friends followed soon after, all carrying different bags of chips. 

“Just so y’all know.” Yukie announced, “All this food? It’s mine. None of you can touch it.” 

“Would you trade the bag of popcorn for a brownie?” Tendou winked. Yukie tilted her head, and nodded slightly. 

“I’ll see. Our offer still stands.” 

Another widespread conversation started, something about which movie to watch this time, or something along the lines of that. He heard “Bee Movie” and “Shrek 2”, but nothing more. All he could really think about was when __ was going to show up. He felt stupid for feeling nervous about seeing her again, especially when they were always so comfortable with each other. He had to stretch to try to calm the butterflies down in his stomach. 

Then there was a knock at the door. Bokuto quickly kicked him in the shin as a sign to stand up and get the door. Kuroo shot him a look, to which he only stuck his tongue out. Why the hell did he feel nervous getting the door for her? As far as he knew, they were only friends, just buddies, just bros. But god, even if he was dying to see her, he was sure hesitant to open that door. 

One he did, he was met with a bright smile and a playful punch to the forearm. 

“Aye!” She exclaimed, quick to then pull him into a quick hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever!” 

“I know! What happened, __? What have you been up to?” Kuroo was almost hesitant to hug her back, but allowed himself to for it. His hand creeped into her hair and he allowed himself to exhale deeply. Whatever was remaining of his headache from before vanished. 

“Man, it’s been the absolute pits. I’ve been swamped with work ‘cause of the new semester.” 

“Well, I’ve-” Kuroo caught himself quick before he could continue. “Bokuto and I have missed you a lot.” 

“Awh, really?” She chuckled. “I missed your dumbasses too.” 

She set her jacket down by everyone else’s, then was quick to take a seat next to Bokuto, who already pulled her into a hug and ruffled her hair. He was saying something to her, but Kuroo didn’t hear it. There was a quiet white static in the back of his mind that was dragging him in and out of reality. “The Road To El Dorado” was playing on TV. Who’s executive decision was this, again? 

Kuroo sat down next to __, and Tendou and two of Yukie’s friends sat down too. The couch was definitely too small for six people, but somehow they were making it work. Tendou was pretty much half a person, anyway. But what Tendou didn’t have, Bokuto definitely made up for.  Kuroo then noticed that he was right up against __’s body, and it took a lot of power in him to keep his cool. She had really nice thighs, really nice thighs that were touching his. He wondered if she knew that, that she had nice thighs. It was definitely a terrible day to be wearing gray joggers. 

Kuroo then quickly assessed the situation in his head. On one side of him, there was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. She was dressed in this cute little oversized sweater and she smelled like a mix of pretty girl and coffee shop. On the other side of him, was Tendou, who didn’t nearly have half the sex appeal as __, so it was a conflicting situation for Kuroo for sure. 

“To pop a boner, or to not pop a boner, that is the question.” Kuroo thought to himself, then immediately made a face at his own thought. “Tetsurou, you’re so weird. You’re acting so weird right now.” 

Kuroo then looked over at __, who was now watching the movie with what seemed like half interest, half confusion. 

She really did look like an angel. 

“Tetsurou, do you hear yourself? Do you even hear yourself?” 

She then leaned her head against his arm, and he heard Bokuto snicker quietly, and shoot him a look. He could see his face out of the corner of his eyes, but refused to look over at him. 

“Oh my god, Tetsurou, you’re gonna pop a boner. You’re gonna pop a boner because she’s touching you and she’s so pretty- Do I go to the bathroom? Should we go to the bathroom?” 

Kuroo noticed her look up at him, and he was quick to catch her eye. 

“Is this bothering you?” She muttered. 

“Nah.” He smiled. “I get it, chicks dig these volleyball arms.” 

__ giggled quietly, and her attention was directed back to the movie. 

“Chicks dig these volleyball arms? Are you KIDDING me right now?” 

A couple more minutes passed in silence. There was a quiet mumbled conversation between Tendou and Yukie about those brownies, but Kuroo toned it out quickly. Suddenly, __ announced. 

“Y’all know what? Honestly? Tulio could get it.” 

Kuroo watched as Bokuto quickly shifted, and cleared his throat to reply, 

“Don’t you think Tulio kinda looks like Kuroo?” 

__ lifted her head up from Kuroo’s shoulder and looked at him, to which he tried to hold back a smile. Bokuto might not have been the smoothest wingman, but he made it work. 

“Oh shit, you’re right. I can see it.” 

Kuroo then sat there, saying absolutely nothing. He knew if he said something his voice would probably crack. There was nothing sexy at all about being related to a cartoon character, but it was kind of sexy that she said that he looked like a cartoon character that could get it. In some fragment of his mind, he started thinking about how she could totally get it. One of his arms slowly and inconspicuously fell between his legs. With the other, he flashed a quick peace sign and made a kissy face. 

Oh my god, he was gonna die tonight.

“__, do you think Kuroo could get it too?”

“I, for one, definitely think Kuroo could get it.” Tendou announced. Well, there goes his pants issue. 

“Thank you, bro.” Kuroo managed to spit out. 

“Kuroo could get it.” Ushijima muttered from the ground, which was the most anyone had gotten out of him all night. 

“I dunno, he’s not my type. But in the perfect world he could get it.” Yukie laughed.

“I mean shit.” __ shrugged. He wasn’t sure if it was from the lighting, or what, but Kuroo noticed her face flush red. “Yeah Kuroo could get it.” 

And pants. 

There was a wavering silence for another half hour. He was still hyper aware of her leg touching his, and every other minute detail about his setting, despite the movie. What was the movie even about, anyway?  It was about halfway through, then __ announced, 

“I have to go pee.” 

“Thank you.” Bokuto muttered in reply. 

As she stood up, Kuroo found himself grabbing her hand. 

“Hey, lemme go with you.”

“To… to pee?”

“No this, this is a guys dorm. You don’t wanna get lost going down to the general bathrooms and get caught by somebody.” Kuroo stammered slightly, but followed her out of the room. “You never know what kind of guys there are out there.”

“Awh, are you protecting me?” She cooed, bumping into his side lightly.

“Yeah. I am.” He shot her a quick smile, then looked away. His heart was pounding in his chest. This was the perfect opportunity to back her up against the wall and just kiss her, or something, but he couldn't find it in him to do it. 

People always liked to say he was the sexy friend. The attractive friend. The lady killer. The sex god. He had absolutely none of that, and it showed. 

“Hey, uhm, I hope you didn’t think it was weird when I said you could get it.” 

“Hey, hey, no offense taken.” He chuckled. “I’m just offended you weren’t serious.” 

The moment he said that, he quickly regretted it. She started laughing, but was quick to stop. 

“Wait, are you serious?” 

Kuroo then stopped walking and sighed, almost dramatically. 

“Listen.” 

“Listening.” 

He noticed her clasp her hands together underneath her baggy sweater sleeves. He inhaled sharply, then exhaled. 

“You’re really important to me. As a friend and as a human being.” Kuroo watched her sniffle, and her face go red. “I would use a stupid pickup line on you right now but I’m way too nervous. I really like you, __.” 

He watched a goofy smile spread across her cheeks. Her face only got redder as she looked down at her feet, then back up at him. 

“I never knew if you liked me or not cause you jokingly hit on everyone.” She smiled. “I like you too. I thought I made it pretty obvious.” 

“Oh my god, come here.” Kuroo then scooped her up in a hug, and placed a soft, tentative kiss on her lips. She stumbled a little bit, and he backed her up against the wall. He pulled away for a brief second to chuckle, then kissed her again, his heart slamming against his rib cage. He couldn't believe he actually did it, after all this time of pinning and waiting over her texts- 

__ then pulled away, but not before planting a soft kiss on his nose. 

“I like this a lot, Kuroo, but I still have to pee.” 

[bangtan-dreamland]

the crying closet

Prompt: “I work at this library and for the past couple nights I’ve had to kick you out of the crying closet at closing time. Normally I wouldn’t pry, but do you want to talk about it?”

Pairing: knj x reader

Word Count: 5.2K

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Just some cursing!! okay and maybe the horrendous format and the unimaginative title lmao

Genre: Fluff, a smidge of angst, meet-cute, college!au

AN: A big thank you to our lovely @mygsii​ for reading and telling me that this is cute and fluffy!!! I will hold on to her words and hope that someone smiles reading this ^^

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

today was nOT your day. or week. or month now that you think about it

usually you have your shit together. there are a lot of reasons to. for one, you’re a scholar student! you’re smart! and hardworking! even if you have your moments of dumbassness you somehow still manage to stay afloat. you never get a grade below 90 and that’s already with the highest your professor giving is 96. It may take you minutes before the deadline bUT you always, ALWAYS manage to pass your stuff! and yeah you may have a procrastination problem but you’re workING on that SO

actually nevermind it’s a miracle you have your shit together most days

which

this month has really tested now that you remember it all

to start, the dreaded group project. the semester just started, and your professors are already giving you students sO MUCH WORK TO DO which okAY fine you’re used to that how would you get your grades if you don’t give them things to grade on

BUT A GROUP PROJECT??? YOU DON’T KNOW EVEN KNOW MOST OF THESE PEOPLE NOT EVEN THEIR NAMES

AND YOUR PROFESSOR WANTED YOU TO WORK WITH THEM

okay, okay you thought you could handle this

nevermind your bad history with group projects people in college are mature right thEY HAVE TO BE RIGHT at least please be mature enough to help in a group project for their own fuCKING grades

wELL JOKES ON YOU

it started off well enough you made a group chat added them in

made introductions

it was awkward but whatever people normally are when they’re new to each other right

BUT 

then you start talking about dividing the work and they’re all ‘cOOL YEAH WE KNOW WE GOT IT’

so you’re like ‘oh! okay! I trust you guys then’

BUT THEN DAYS PASS AND YOU FIND OUT

they still

haven’t

even

fucking

started

you’d never considered murder as a viable option to remove stress but you were very much considering it then

especially when they made the most ridiculous excuses

like getting sick (you literally saw her post about gOING TO A LUNCH WITH HER FRIENDS what the fuck even did she not remember you know her account wHAT A BITCH)

or getting swamped with other schoolwork (you saw him on a date with his girlfriend the fuck was he talking about ‘schoolwork’ your ass)

or the worst- his grandma died and he was away on her funeral (you don’t even know how he thought that was a reasonable excuse like literally you see him in cLASS)

so then you had to do the project all by yourself

really considered just telling the professor that you wanted to work alone

bUT NO!!!!

apparently you’re too soft or whatever,,,

plus your professor said you can’t 

you think it’s because he knows your classmates will fail if you don’t do their share of the work

but it’s not like you can say that to your teacher or you’d get

wait do colleges have detention they don’t they have strikes right

aNYWAYS

so you did the project alone!!! AND YOU COMPLETED IT!!! amazing!!!!

BUT THE FUCKING KICKER WAS THAT

because of all the stress and sleep you lost over the project

gUESS WHO FLUNKED HER QUIZ

which!!!

okay so it may seem important or anything

but your professor was only giving 3 quizzes this semester

THREE

THAT MADE UP FOR LIKE 40% OF YOUR GRADE FOR WRITTEN OUTPUTS

AND YOU FLUNKED!!! IT!!!!!

just remembering it makes you want to scream honestly

and now!!! that it’s almost exams week!!!!

you were called to the office to say that your scholarship is in trouble!!!!

because apparently the quiz added with other stuff you missed because of all the things you’ve been busy doing hAS LOWERED YOUR POSSIBLE GRADES TO JUST ABOVE THE LINE

that’s already if you acE THE EXAms

if you don’t???? 

well

goodbye scholarship

lastly

your parents called

...

need there be more explanation

you won’t even go into detail about your string of bad luck experiences

coming to a class late, missing notes from your bag, a missent email, even in your fucking part time job you can’t catch a break something will go wrong and you just

you want to cry just thinking about it really…

you’ve been trying

sO HARD!!!

you’re not exactly the nicest or kindest person sURE

but you don’t think you deserve this

maybe you really are just going through an unlucky streak

right now even though you should be studying for exams you opened your book and started crying 3 minutes in when you couldn’t focus because of how stressed you were

which isn’t good because

college books are fucking expensive

so here you are currently

in your school’s crying closet

which is just a set of stalls that have plushie animals

honestly though not even the plushies are helping you feel better

really you don’t know if anything will

you startle when you hear a male’s voice ring through the intercom

“Attention, to all students still remaining… we’ll be closing the library in around ten minutes, kindly put the books in the carts or check them out.”

wow. was it really eight o’clock already??? had you really spent four hours just crying your heart out???

apparently you did

you listen to the reluctant groans and sighs, students chattering  as they all started leaving

anD YOU WOULD TOO you honestly would come out and leave

but god you feel too embarrassed to even take a step outside

you’re just gonna wait until they’re all gone yEP

you close the door veeeery softly, sniffle and rock yourself on your knees

but like

you must have been more tired than you thought

because the next thing you know is there’s someone talking to you and you didn’t notice them AT ALL

“Good evening- you’ve been here a long time. Are you… okay? Wait- shit, sorry, that was insensitive.”

you sniffle because uh duh why else would you be in the crying closet if you were okay

there’s a long period of silence and you wonder if whoever it is went away

when

you hear whoever it is clear their throat before speaking again

“I… see you sometimes come in here,” he reveals and you feel more and more like you just want to lock the door and nEVER come out

“Oh.”

“It isn’t that I’m ridiculing you or something, so don’t even start thinking about that for a moment. Just…” you hear him give a frustrated sigh before he continues speaking, voice softer. “Maybe it’s weird, but… I want to help. You’re here almost every day so I assume you have something heavy in your life going on right now, and… I can’t promise that I’ll be able to empathize with you, but I can listen.” you can hear the wry smile on his face even as he speaks. “And if you’re worried about me knowing your secrets, I will promise you that I don’t even know your name, and we can keep it like that. Though you could probably easily know mine since I’m a stable fixture here. Kim Namjoon.”

“Wow,” you sniffle. “That sounded like it came straight from a novel.”

he laughs. it helps break the tension, you’re pretty happy he took your joke well.

“You’re not the first to say that to me,” he jokes, before his voice turns serious again. “But I’m serious about it, you know.”

you think over your choices. what else did you have? it’s not like you could just keep crying everyday over how stressed you were over the exams, and then get stressed because you couldn’t study because you’re crying

and for some reason you trust this man. which seriously stranger danger but you know that he wouldn’t hurt you that way. for some reason.

and. truthfully. you would appreciate a sympathetic ear at the moment.

so you start speaking

now look

let’s rewind a bit

Namjoon doesn’t usually do this for anyone else

lord knows he’s not as good at calming down crying girls than he is being a librarian

but 

it’s almost been a full week

A WEEK

since you started using the crying closet almost exclusively and that won’t do because other students!!! need to use them too!!!!

and if it were any other utilities there’d be a riot

but

the crying closet has multiple stalls and the students who use them are sympathetic to each other

because if you use the closet you’ve really got to have it bad

and you’ve been using this particular stall for like a week straight now even if no one’s exactly seen who you are they all still feel bad for you

which Namjoon is really curious about

since

he knows you

well

not in a personal “we’re friends” or even “we’re acquaintances and we talk sometimes”

no

he means like he sees you a lot in the library

you’re always walking in with the most determined aura he’s seen!

like you’re on the way to write up an essay on how to destroy people

or something like that

you always seem so put together that Namjoon

maybe

admires you a little more than he should

but you always seem like you’re too busy to give anyone your time and he never has any time either

being a librarian isn’t just standing and reading books behind the counter like it is in novels okay

not to mention the size of the library he manages

LIKE HAVE YOU SEEN THE AMOUNT OF BOOKSHELVES THERE ARE

not to mention tHE AMOUNT OF STUDENTS THAT USE THE LIBRARY

no he doesn’t just do them all by himself but s t i l l

wait he’s getting off point

so he’s never talked to you

he doesn’t think you even know he exists beside being librarian A

BUT he remembers a lot of little things about you

like the way you like to fiddle with your hair when you’re thinking

or when you take one too many books that he doesn’t think you actually need for your class just for entertainment value

but then you never read it and just return it

or the way you always go to what he has deemed ‘your spot’ by now 

perfect spot hidden by the corners where there’s enough light but at the same time hidden away by the bookshelves so there’s privacy

there’s also the other little things you do he notices

the way you’re always on your laptop or phone for one, typing or doing something probably important (the truth is that you’re either on your social media or reading fanfiction but he doesn’t learn that until later on)

or- if you find reading something boring or dry you slouch a little, until your chin is resting on the table and your arms are outstretched and you’re halfway stretching on the table yourself with the cUTEST LITTLE POUT ON YOUR MOUTH AND A FURROW ON YOUR FACE that honestly he’d like to kiss away-

ahem

anyway

the point is that he likes you but you never seem like you’re interested in anything other than your books

he’s never even seen anyone come up and talk to you

it’s like you have this wall that keeps you away from everyone else!!!

so the fact that you ever even went to a crying stall is a big surprise for him

and he would have approached you the first night but you already snapped at someone for asking after you and he doesn’t want to get your wRATH

… but

it’s been almost a week and the stalls really are in hot demand

so

he’s decided he has to talk to you tonight

maybe he’ll get lucky and you’ll confide in him and he can strike a friendship with you!!!

or at least just talk with you

when he remembers that Namjoon steels his courage

and

when he sees you head straight for your stall again early afternoon

he gives himself one final chance

but then

it’s closing time and you still aren’t out

oh god what if you fell asleep inside he has to lock the library he’d be locking you iN THE LIBRARY

so

so he can do this

he knocks gently on the door

for a long time

so you understand he’s not going away 

he doesn’t just want to start speaking to you out of nowhere he god you’d probably feel like strangling him

no answer

bUT he does hear someone shift and the sniffles stop (which have been a bit loud considering the two of you are the only ones left in the library)

he coughs and starts speaking

wait what does he say he can’t just tell you he wants out of the stall

“Good evening- you’ve been here a long time now. Are you… okay? Wait- shit, sorry, that was insensitive.”

wow nice way to go Joon you kILLED IT

in a bad, messy, horRENDOUS WAY

so he starts to tell you about why he came over

and 

honestly

while he hadn’t come talk to you for anything other than coaxing you out of the stall

he’s surprised to find you’re pretty cute, if not a bit blunt

and really stressed which is a given

he didn’t think you would honestly he thought you’d be sharp and snide to him

but

as it turns out, you’ve just had a really bad two weeks

he can’t help but feel for you because he can relate to everything you’ve been going through

he won’t go into detail but doing a thesis on your own alongside keeping high grades fucking sucks and it doesn’t help that he’s a perfectionist

but back to you

the two of you have spent about what seems to be half an hour now

twenty minutes in you finished telling him about your recent problems

(“I kind of want to just self-explode or something. maybe throw myself out a window.”)

(“I don’t think that’s going to solve your problems, just create more of them.”)

(“THANK you for pointing that out Namjoon isn’t it funny I actually believed that would work for me.”)

anyway afterwards you fell silent and he really didn’t want to push you 

but then he hears you sniffle again

“Aren’t you going to tell me off?”

“What for?”

he hears you huff, and it’s easy to imagine the pout on your face he really does want to kiss it away more than ever now

“Well,” you start, before pausing. “I mean when I think about it it isn’t really that bad, right? Everyone goes through something like this. Group projects and all that bad luck. I’ve just been having a little bit more, but. I’m already falling apart.”

he frowns, even more when he hears you scoff at yourself.

“Don’t say that,” he chides you. “It’s not about if it’s that bad compared to other people. It doesn’t affect them. It affects you. If you feel bad about it and you want to cry, it isn’t anyone’s business but yours. Besides. This is that bad, because this- these problems you’re going through threaten things important to you.”

… did he say the right thing because hE CAN HEAR YOU CRYING AGAIN SHIT-

for a few moments he hears you crying, though he can sense you slowly get yourself together as your sniffles die down

then he hears the door creak open slowly and his heart goes to his chest.

he sees you tearily look up at him, your eyes red and raw from crying.

you hastily look down, self-conscious about the fact that really yOU’RE A MESS

your hair is a mess your clothes are a mess yoUR DAMN FACE IS A MESS

why did you just open the door oh god

for a moment you just keep your eyes on the ground before you hastily try to fix your appearance

“Um,” you start, timid. “Thank you for hearing me out. You didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to,” he tells you, before smiling a little. “Okay, I had to at first but then I wanted to.”

as he says this you see him patiently offer you a hand. you blush.

“I don’t think you need to walk me to the library entrance,” you mumble, but you take his hand anyway.

“I,” he pauses. “You said you’ve been stressed out, between studying at the library and studying at home so… I want to bring you someplace else.”

“Only if it’s okay with you, of course,” he amends quickly. “And by someplace else I just mean the park.”

you look at him surprised, but then hesitantly start walking with him. “Okay,” you acquiesce because really you’ll take anything just to be able to feel relief again. not to mention there are cameras all along the way plus one of those small police stations near the park, which you remember is also still a hot place for dates

… right? right

the two of you walk out of the library- Namjoon already did all the things he’s supposed to do before closing up, leaving confronting you for last which turns out to be a good thing

he hands you a bottle of water too- which really helps clear your headache

gOD CRYING SUCKS HELL also you should remember to bring water if you ever go into a crying fit

you’re going off into a tangent but seeing as you start feeling better already you deem the tangent important and remind yourself to note it down later

anyway as Namjoon tells you he leads you to the park near your university.

though truthfully told it’s not… exactly a park. parks mean grass and trees and wide open space

but the city officials went for cEMENT AND FAKE LIGHT UP FLOWErs and building it by a bridge going down to near the river

the only sAVING thing about the park is that the trees are real and there are plenty of seats

aLSO there’s the fact that when it’s nighttime the flowers look kinda pretty

alongside the artifical waterfall they built.

anyways the two of you arrive there- surprisingly enough there are still a few people left

you thought you’d only feel tired if you came here

but surprisingly the fresh air and the cold night is helping you feel better

just a little

and then Namjoon tugs you over- he talks to one of the vendors still selling

it doesn’t take longer than a minute for him to get the two of you soup, specifically pares

you take a sip- not only is it just the right temperature bUT IT’S ALSO FUCKING DELICIOUS

another thing you’ve forgotten while crying- you’re really hungry

“I’m glad to see you’re smiling again,” Namjoon comments and ahahahah the soup is really hot isn’t it your cheeks are too warm right now

you nOISILY eat your food because otherWISE YOU’D HAVE TO TALK and damn it why is it that he even approached you

oh right you were hogging the damn stall

“I come here often during this time to relax, when there’s not much people around,” he tells you suddenly. you raise an eyebrow at him because why tell you that? you’re not that close and it sounds like a little thing he likes to keep to himself

“It’s the closest I can get to quiet amidst nature,” he continues. “It helps that there’s a river.”

he points at it- the river is pretty at this time of the night, with the sparkling lights reflected on it.

“When I get stressed I usually take a rock lying around, pretend it’s one of my problems, then throw it. Maybe skip it across the river.”

“And does it help?” you ask. Namjoon hums.

“For me it does. I know it doesn’t work for everyone… but I want you to try anyway. Maybe it will work for you too.”

at this point the two of you have finished your meals. although with you you’ve finished three servings. wHAT, you’re hungry okay??

anyway Namjoon leads you to the edge of the river- you’d be wary in any other situation but for one the two of you are still in the very visible sight of other people PLUS Namjoon hasn’t done anything bad to you so far and has been very kind and you trust him a little

he picks up a stone- you copy him, and then he just. quietly (okay there’s a hint of real frustration under it but if you aren’t yelling to get your problems off your chest is it even anything sO) throws the stone.

or so you think

because that damn stone skips all the way to the other side of the river which mind you is a huge thing because the river is aBOUT FIFTY METERS WIDE.

you look at the stone disappearing in the distance with huge, disbelieving eyes, then back to namjoon- who’s grinning silly at your expression and just.

“How,” you squint.

he giggles. you pout. look at the stone in your hands.

“I’m going to fucking make it.”

your first try: it sinks straight into the water. you say nothing bECAUSE IT’S THE FIRST ONE

then the second

third

fourth

fifth

you’re at what has to be either your ninth or tenth stone- at this point your record has to be 3 bounces aND STILL SO FAR from the damn edge you aren’t even halfway!!!

you pout, long and hard- Namjoon by your side has to bite his lips to keep himself from grinning way too wide. you’re really too cute. he doesn’t know how he ever thought you were intimidating!! 

“Namjoon,” you almost whine but you don’t!!! you don’t whine at all and there’s nothing to whine about in your current situation!!! “How the fuck do you skip it across?”

“Practice, mostly,” he tells you. “That and I throw it as hard as I can- wait.”

Namjoon walks closer- you tense up when you fEEL HIM RIGHT BEHIND YOU oh god cute guy toO CLOSE

but Namjoon does nothing- asks “may I?” and you nod

“Pose like you’re going to throw the stone,” he tells you calmly. liar. you can’t hear it but Namjoon’s heart is beating like c r a z y you’re so close he could tilt his head downwards and he’d be burying his head in your hair and smell your shampoo!!

which smells really nice bUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT

you tilt back a little- stretch your arm back- okay, so mAYBE your arm is trembling a little you’re vERY VERY NERVOUS OKAY

but then

you feel Namjoon gently touch your arm- correcting your posture until

well

you actually can’t think that much

beside, you know

NAMJOON’S HANDS ON YOUR ARMS

more than that he adjusts your whole stance with his hand and oH GOD THE LIGHT TOUCHES ON YOUR BODY HOW IS THAT FAIR

thirsting!!! after other people!!!! is much easier when they don’t pull this shit!!!!!! thirsting is safer from a distance!!!

“You can throw it now.”

oh god you’re thirsting over Kim Namjoon

KIM NAMJOON THIS NERDY LIBRARIAN

“Y/N?”

uahsjdkasda

why did your brain make you realize that at this moment goOD GOD

you jUMP when you feel someone’s hand on your shoulder- oh wait it’s Namjoon

“You can throw the stone now,” he repeats, a grin on his face aND OKAY DUMB MOMENT 

you internally scream in your head but outwardly you nod, immediately just throw the stone as hard as you can bECAUSE YOU CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST BLANKED OUT ON HIM

did he see you blush oh god you’d never live it down

here comes surprise number two

you should’ve listened to Namjoon’s instructions fully because

you may have thrown the stone but

you didn’t throw the stone towards and across the river

no

yOU THREW IT IN THE RIVER

guess what happens if you just throw a stone tilted downwards

if you guessed splash ring ding ding yOU WERE RIGHT

so

here you are

your clothes mildly wet

just the front

bUT STILL

if there was an option for the ground to swallow you right now you’d go for it hONESTLY

instead you drop to your knees and let out a long loud groan becAUSE YOU JUST CANNOT DEAL WITH LIFE OKAY

“That was so bad I don’t even know what to say,” you bemoan.

you hear him stifle a giggle, you pout again.

BUT THEN

you feel something warm and soft on your shoulder, then wrapped around you-

you look up aND SEE NAMJOON GAVE YOU HIS SWEATER WHAT EVEN-

“You can’t go home in wet clothes,” he explains, dimpled smile- holy shit he has dimples you never noticed that but wow they’re adorable!!!! “Though there isn’t exactly a place to change around here, but… the jacket will help shield you and your clothes from the cold.”

you sigh

okay yeah this evening has been down and then up and then down

“Let’s get you home,” he tells you, before pausing a little. “I, um- do you mind if I walk you to your car?”

you hesitate- but then acquiesce. “Okay,” you tell him.

walking back to your car- you’re surprised to find it’s ten o’clock already

had the two of you been at the park that long???

the passing cold air makes your hands a bit numb- the sweater is bIG on you but you rolled the sleeves up to your wrist at least because you cAN’T OPEN THE DOOR OR DRIVE IF THEY’RE COVERED CAN YOU

anyway you probably should’ve done that when you’re inside the car not walking to it yet

you decide to tough it out anyway it’s just a few minutes walk

you fiddle with your hair- your hands are itching to move but the silence is so damn awkward and your hands are cold too-

but

oh

“May I?” Namjoon asks- you look at him, raise an eyebrow because what for? but he just looks at your hand- oh

you shrug and try not to show you’re blushing

Namjoon’s hand is- well, you’d like to say it’s warm. but it’s not. it isn’t like he’d been wearing gloves or anything, so both your hands are cold and a little clammy when you clasp hands together.

but the way it fucking makes your heart jump?

yeah

honestly you’d like to wax poetry about the moment right now- walking hand in hand!!! with this guy you may or may not find really cute and hot!!!! in the middle of the night!!!!!!

but let’s be real head empty no thoughts

except the way your heart beats one, two, a little too fast

arriving to your car suddenly feels all too soon

you don’t release your hands yet when you stop

it’s only when you’re about to get in that you reluctantly let your hands fall apart from each other

suddenly you miss his hands at least they were a little warm around the end (and okay it made you feel aLL WARM INSIDE too but shush)

“Have a safe trip home,” he tells you. you offer him a small smile.

“I will! Sorry for- um, earlier. And thank you. You didn’t have to,” you tell him, but he only smiles back at your words.

“I told you, I wanted to.”

you nod- suddenly scrambling for words. You didn’t want to go home yet, but.

“If you ever want to destress you can go back to the river.”

you blink.

“Are you sure? Isn’t that kind of like your special place?”

he really has the cutest dimples bUT wow he’s also hot as fuck, especially with what you dare hope to be a fliRTY SMILE.

“I don’t mind sharing it if it’s you I’m sharing with.”

oof

“Okay! Goodnight Namjoon! See you tomorrow!!”

your face is bright r e d 

hightail it out of there fast

you can see him still grinning widely in the rear mirror and hnghhhh why are you also smiling so widely sheesh

the ride back is quiet

it’s only when you get home that you realize one thing though-

you’re still wearing his sweater

you foRGOT TO GIVE IT BACK

oh my god you also forgot he paid for your food yOU WERE SO OUT OF IT YOU DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE

you facepalm

wait you shouldn’t give the sweater back if it’s wet you have to wash it first

okay okay

you decide to bring him coffee tomorrow Namjoon seems like the type of person to drink coffee

(also it’s a good way to start a conversation with him bUT THAT’S ONLY A WHAT IF AND NOT YOUR MAIN GOAL OKAY)

okay!!!

you take a shower first, change your clothes, then decide to wash the sweater-

when

you see a small piece of paper fall out

‘if you need help with the exams, I’m free for tutoring in the morning from 10 a.m.. you can repay me by buying me food at the park after - kim namjoon’

you look at the other side

‘also, here’s my number in case you need it’

you stare at the string of numbers next to it-

that smooth motherfucker

‘I hope you know how to teach advanced calculus, because otherwise I’m not buying you food’

it doesn’t even take a full minute for the reply to come through

‘I’ll see you tomorrow at ten then for our date’

'*study date'

'though I suppose we can do the first too after exams if you're okay with it'

okay, so maybe this month is not quite yet the worst 

and if things go right? maybe the next few months will be your best yet

[ravenforce]

Ithaca Pt. 4

Word Count: 4176

Warning/s: None, except Steve and Val’s kind of a bitch.

A/N: OMG. I’m so sorry I’ve been posting chapters in long intervals but rest assured I’m working on this. I just sometimes write a block of text and hates it on the proofreading phase. So I would end up scraping a chunk of the fic and rewriting it. If you guys, wants to be tagged on this fic, just let me know. And let me know what you think, as always.

PS. If there are any grammatical mistakes I’ve still overlooked, I apologize.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 

***

It was dark outside when you arrived at your shared apartment with your schoolbag slung against your shoulder and a box of groceries in your arms. Your class finished around five in the afternoon. You didn’t mean to be out late but you figured it’s better to get acquainted with the town now rather than later when you’re swamped with school work.

“Welcome home,” Maria greeted as she emerged to the living room with wet hair, and only wearing an oversized shirt and underwear.

You tried not to flush at the sight of your best friend’s long legs but you’re only human, and you’ll have to be an idiot not to appreciate such a beauty like Maria. Maria noticed the pink on your cheeks before you could decide to duck your head and go about fixing your haul on the cupboards in the kitchen.

“How’s your first day?” Maria asked after purposefully jumping on the counter next to you.

You’ve known Maria all your life. Even after she got adopted, the two of you kept in touch regularly. So when you caught the glint on her eye, and you saw the mischievous smirk on her lips, you knew exactly what she’s doing.

“It’s intense. Your friends are intense,” you answered as you continue the task at hand. “How about you? How’s your day?”

Maria just shrugged as she watches you finish putting the last of the groceries away. You cocked an eyebrow in her direction. You thought Maria might not be in the sharing mood. So you let it go and is about to pass her to go shower when she stopped you with a hand on the back of your shirt.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to sharing you,” she answered seriously.

You turned on your heel to face her and situate yourself between her dangling legs on the counter. You put your hands on either side of her thigh as you look up in her eyes. Maria didn’t mean to gulp but suddenly her mouth has become very dry.

“Sharing is caring, bubba,” you said before a laugh crawled its way up to your throat and ruining the moment.

Maria rolled her eyes playfully at you. She’s secretly glad that after everything that happened in your life, you manage to maintain your sense of humor. Before she can come up with a retort though, she was surprised when you pulled her by the collar of her huge shirt.

“What the?” Maria yelped.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, young lady,” you said seriously, voice an octave lower than your normal speaking voice. Maria shivered.

“Y/N,” she whispered.

You smiled before pecking her lips and walking away to shower.

“Coward!” Maria whined.

You left the door of the shower open, making your laugh heard all over the apartment.

***

A week has passed since you officially started school, again. A week since you’re officially adopted by the Avengers, making you instantly one of the popular kids. Being exceptional at a very young age, and having been the youngest Stark Industries intern in history (Tony not counted, as he’s technically the heir), you’re used to the limelight but it doesn’t mean you enjoy it.

The Avengers is a pact full of next-level popular kids. Tony Stark, the Odinsons brothers Thor and Loki, Natasha, and Steve are descendants of the families that founded Ithaca. Carol and Valkyrie are both soccer varsity players, while Clint’s an Olympic archer. Wanda’s top psychology student and founder of the school’s peer counseling group, and Maria’s one of the leading tech student and captain of the school’s self-defense club. So it goes without saying that every eye is on them anywhere they go, and walking alongside these kids somehow makes you feel a little vulnerable, seen, exposed. 

Thankfully, your schedule is packed between classes, volunteering in the library, and a job in one of the small clubs downtown. You mostly interact with them over breakfast (since apparently, it’s a long-standing tradition between the group), then lunch break, and free periods. It’s not that you don’t like their company, you actually really do enjoy being around them. Most of them are really funny, too.

It’s their fans that you’re not very fond of because they tend to be loud, trying-hard, and downright obnoxious sometimes. They don’t seem particularly taken to you too. Some of them threw you dirty looks in the cafeteria or whisper when you pass them along the hallway. You’re not really bothered by any of it though. You can understand the animosity towards a stranger who coveted the position everyone was vying for - being friends with the Avengers. 

“Hey! Earth to Y/N,” Tony snapped his fingers in front of your face. 

You had to blink twice to bring yourself back to the present. You remembered you’re actually sitting on the Avengers’ usual spot at Starbucks for breakfast. You took a quick sweep of the table, everyone was present, and all eyes are on you. 

“Are you alright, Y/N?” Carol asked as she places her hand on your arm. 

You saw Nat’s eye twitch at the contact but you ignored it. You turned your head to regard Carol. 

“I’m good. Just tired,” you answered. 

“I understand not being able to sit still and doing nothing but I think working at the club every other night is overdoing it,” Natasha said with her signature poker face but voice dripping with hidden concern.

You couldn’t help the small smile on your face. “I need the money,” you tried to argue. 

“For what? You’re on full scholarship, you paid your half of the rent for the whole year before you moved here, and your patents and investments are paying dividends monthly,” Maria shuts you down. 

You opened and close your mouth to say something but you didn’t know what to say exactly.

“Hill - 1, Y/L/N - 0,” Loki teased, which made Tony laugh so hard he almost fell off his chair.

You pouted. Wanda poked your nose.

“Don’t pout, little one. We’re only looking out for you,” she said before kissing your cheeks. By now, you’re used to Wanda always touching you, always being affectionate. A week and you understood, her love language is touch. So, you allow yourself to enjoy it even for a little bit. You wouldn’t be caught admitting that these kids are growing on you though.

You deepen the pout, which earned a hearty chuckle from Wanda.

“Fine,” you groaned dramatically. “I’ll ask my manager to give me less shift.”

“Good. You need to learn how to be a young adult again,” Thor said before glancing at his watch then standing up and rounding the table to kiss the top of your head. 

Tony bolted up and sat ramrod straight on his chair. He has a wicked smile on his face. 

‘Oh, no’, you thought to yourself. 

“Agreed,” he said carefully. Smile growing by the minute. “That’s why I’m throwing a party in your honor on Friday.”

You groaned while everyone approved and cheered. 

***

A month later.

A month is how long it took for the Avengers to finally settle on a which weekend works for everybody. It was quite hilarious to watch everyone get frustrated because of a party. Little did you know Natasha and Carol’s a little more aggravated than the others because they’re still not any closer to cracking the mystery that is you. Nat and Carol are a little angst too, to say the least, that you’re closer to Thor and Wanda than you are with them.

On your part, you weren’t favoring a pair over another. It just so happened that Thor has really taken to you, and has been helping you get acquainted with the town whenever Tony or Maria isn’t available to do so. He also volunteered to be your fitness partner by taking you jogging around town or going to the gym after class. He has become somewhat the big brother figure you never had, even though you’re almost the same age.

Wanda, on the other hand, is not the type of girl you usually hang out with. All your life, Maria’s the only other girl who’s really close enough to you to drag you outdoors but Maria likes outdoor activities such as paintball and laser tag, hiking, paragliding, and free diving. Wanda, on the other hand, likes going shopping, going to movies, as well as getting massages and pampering treatments at the spa. Usually, you loathe being dragged to do girly activities but you’ve grown to love Wanda’s company enough to let her. She’s cute, smart, funny, and warm.

“Nat, stop tapping your foot. She’ll be here,” Clint teased mildly.

“Why is she still not here?” Carol who’s sitting on the other side of the table interrupted. Clint just had to chuckle at how the two are so much alike than they cared to admit.

“She’ll be here,” Thor said behind the bar after fixing Nat’s drink. Nat nodded at him thankfully before taking a sip of her vodka.

“Are you sure you gave her the right address?” Carol asked while pacing behind Natasha.

Clint and Thor looked at each other at Carol’s accusatory tone. Natasha’s knuckles are turning white as she grips the glass tighter. Loki raised an eyebrow at his brother, silently asking him to diffuse the situation. They worked so hard to get everyone free on the exact same day, and to get the party sorted out, only for these two to blow up at each other face just because they’re pining for the same girl for the first time.

“Relax ladies,” Tony who was silently standing on the balcony and watching the other party-goers by the pool below. “She’s here.”

Carol and Natasha are instantly beside Tony and scanning the crowd for you.

***

You didn’t intend to be late but you had to make sure you got all your homework’s done before going out, so you wouldn’t have to worry about it at and after the party. There’s also the case of not knowing what to wear to such a high profile party. You were sure, half if not the whole school, will be in attendance. Then there’s the case of you initially refusing everyone who offered to pick you up because you didn’t want the extra special treatment.

Then you made a mistake of not taking the cab to the estate because you were saving money, only to realize that there’s no bus stop in the executive part of town because rich kids have their own cars to drive to school. So, you had to walk for a good fifteen minutes before reaching the Starks. It wasn’t hard to find, the industrial designed mansion stood in contrast to the row of classic cul-de-sacs.

You were right, the house is filled with so many people, some are spilling out of the streets. Everyone was so absorbed in the music, dancing, and drinking that you were able to move around covertly. You were able to get inside the house and out on the garden and the pool area without seeing any of your friends along the way. Standing by the side of the pool and about to reach on the inside pocket of your leather jacket to call Tony, when you looked up at the man himself looking back at you with Natasha and Carol. Tony waved, while the two ladies merely gaped as you walk to enter the side of the house they’re in.

***

Tony turned away from the balcony. 

“Close your mouth ladies, it’s unbecoming,” Tony said teasingly before meeting you at the top of the staircase. He immediately engulfed you in a one-arm hug. 

“Finally!” everyone shouts when they saw you.

You smiled at your new friends before noting that the noise from outside is muffled. ‘Soundproof,’ you thought.

“Sorry, I’m late,” you said before walking with Tony at the table.

Most of them assured you it was fine except Steve and Valkyrie who was more interested in continuing their game of pool than join the rest of you. You ignored the fact that they don’t like you but as long as they’re not actively doing something to make your life in Ithaca hell, you really don’t care. 

Maria immediately enveloped you in a hug the moment you flopped down on the couch next to her. 

“You look fantastic, bubba,” she said before planting a sloppy kiss on the side of your face.

You know by the display of affection that Maria had a few drinks in but you’re not there to mother your best friend. You’re there to have fun. So you just smiled at her and kiss her cheeks too. By then, Carol and Natasha have both taken their seats across from you. 

“Only Maria gets a kiss?” Wanda quipped on your other side. You laughed before relenting and giving your new friend a friendly kiss on the cheeks too. 

When you turned forward, you noticed the slight flush on both Carol and Natasha’s cheeks as they both got lost watching you. You had to clear your throat before the two looked you in the eye. 

“Want a kiss too?” you asked confidently. Carol choked on nothing, while Natasha had to avert her eyes for a second.

“And she’s not even drunk yet, ladies and gentlemen,” Tony announced theatrically before laughing out loud. Maria joined in the laughter as well. You would be pissed had it been someone else but these are your best mates. You know it was all good fun. 

“Shut up, you two,” you told your best friends before turning back to Carol and Nat. “I’m sorry, I was kidding.” 

“Jokes are half meant,” Thor said before handing you a glass of JD and coke. You smiled at him gratefully. 

Before you can think of anything witty to throwback though, Steve spoke as he surveys his shot at the pool table. “Big wow! She owns a pair of ratty leather jacket and she’s instantly a player,” he said sarcastically. 

Everyone looked at Steve wide-eyed and utterly surprised that they were unable to say anything at the moment. 

“Give her an award for actually pulling it off. I thought all she knows how to wear was preppy clothes,” Val piped in. 

Maria and Tony clenched their fists. You can see a storm brewing before it starts. So you decided to kick Tony’s shins and putting your hand on Maria’s knees to diffuse their attention. Tony groaned in pain while Maria sighed heavily. 

“You two, go away if you have nothing better to say,” Nat said seriously before you could say anything else. 

Steve’s eyes narrowed for a second before he dropped his sticks on the table and leaving the playroom. Val glanced at Carol to gauge her stand on the matter when she saw Carol’s lips pursed in a thin line, she rolled her eyes before walking away. There a fat pause after the two jocks left. 

“I’m sorry about those two. They probably misplaced their manners tonight,” Carol said, trying to alleviate the awkwardness. 

You smiled. “That’s okay. They don’t know me.” 

“So let them get to know you,” Maria suggested. 

“And I know the best way how,” Tony quickly piped in before pulling out a board game from under the table. “Let’s play a game.”

***

Game one was hours long of tipsy monopoly where you dominated with Natasha. Carol hated that you were drafted to partner up with the redhead. So she drank and drunk as much as Thor would let her while playing the game. Everyone decided to finish the game when eighty-five percent of the estates on the board is already owned by your team.

“Take that Stark,” you taunted your best friend before turning towards Natasha with your hand up waiting for a high-five. 

Natasha didn’t make you wait long before she’s slapping her hand against yours. “It’s a pleasure winning by your side, Tasha,” you murmured while holding her hand still. 

Natasha smiled. In an hour, she found that you’re not only book smart but also street smart. She also found out that you’re a little rough around the edges but still very accommodating, which she really likes about you. “I wouldn’t wanna win with anyone else,” she said sincerely. 

All you could do was grin like an idiot. You wanted to say something else but you were interrupted by Carol’s chair scraping loudly against the hardwood floor as she abruptly stood up. She was looking intently at both you and Natasha, and you noted the fire in her eyes. Then she glanced at yours and Natasha’s clasped hands. 

‘Ah,’ you thought. 

“I’m gonna go find Val at the dance floor,” Carol said, voice strained with what you assume is jealousy. 

Clint who was the only one paying attention to the interaction agreed that it’s time for the hosts of the party to make an appearance. Everyone was on their feet steadily even with the amount of alcohol that was consumed while playing. In fact, you thought the Avengers look steadier and even more confident than usual as they walk down the stairs like celebrities on a catwalk. 

“Go ahead, I’ll catch up with you. I’ll just use to powder room,” you said to Loki who stopped at the top of the stairs to wait for you. He shrugged his shoulder and winked at you. You chuckled to yourself as you think of how opposite the Odinsons are. Thor is friendly and talkative, while Loki is silent but very observant. You like them both, either way.

***

Finding the Avengers in a crowded room isn’t hard. Most people flock around them, always trying to get a moment with them. The party-goers cleared a circle in the middle of the dance floor for the group to dance without being swamped by everybody else. You watched them for a minute before deciding, you’d like to have a drink. So, you made a beeline for the bar where a certain blonde’s sitting alone on it.

“Four tequila shots, please,” you ordered politely.

Carol snorted beside you. “Liquid courage?” she asked teasingly but she’s not smiling and definitely not looking at you.

‘That’s bothering’, you thought. Carol is one of the most confident women you know. There was never a day, ever since your arrival in Ithaca that Carol ever not look in your eyes when she’s speaking to you.

“Drowning something?” you teased back as you note her glass almost full to the brim with scotch.

Carol didn’t answer, still didn’t look at you. When the bartender put down your order, you quickly downed two of them simultaneously. That made Carol look.

“Slow down, you already had a few Jack Cokes upstairs,” she said, clearly concerned.

You made your stool turn towards her. You pushed the other shot glass towards her and she caught it without looking. She quirked an eyebrow at you. You picked up your glass and raised it towards her. Carol doesn't know what’s happening exactly but she clicked your glass together before both of you down the liquid fire.

You jumped out of your stool and made Carol’s spun around to face you.

“Y/N, what the heck?” she yelped as she grips your biceps.

You chuckled before leaning up. “Come dance with me, Captain,” you whispered right beside her ear.

Carol couldn’t help herself from shivering. Your voice, your proximity is doing things to Carol. When you pulled away, you couldn’t help but smirk after seeing her pupils fully dilated.

“Or would you prefer I dance with someone else instead,” you said before offering your hand towards her.

Carol blinked twice before taking your hand. You laughed when Carol nearly shoved you in her haste to get you to the dance floor.

“Sorry,” she said but didn’t make a move to extricate her front against your back. 

You turned on the spot, making Carol hold onto your waist. You pulled her impossibly closer by putting your hand on her nape. Chest to chest you can feel Carol’s heartbeat beating erratically. You chuckled before you spun around again, and you ground your ass against the blonde captain in time with the beat of the music.

“You’re killing me, Y/N,” Carol groaned deeply.

You chuckled. “Already? I haven’t even started yet,” you said close to her ear so she can hear you.

Carol groaned. When you look past her shoulder, you can see Natasha watching you with a mighty frown on her face before Wanda dragged her back on the other side of the dance. At some point in the night, you and Carol rejoined the group, and you danced with Natasha and practically everyone too.

***

The sun was rising when the ballroom of the Stark mansion was emptied except for your group. Everyone was sitting on the floor, drunk and decompressing. Frankly, at that point, all you wanna do was to be in your bed and sleep. Plus points if you could cuddle with Maria. When you look across the room and caught Maria looking back, you know she has the same idea. 

“Alright, I had so much fun. Thank you for throwing this party for me,” you slurred slightly. 

Tony groaned from the floor. “No, no, no. Don’t leave yet. Let’s play another game,” he cried out. 

Everyone was so out of it that they blindly agreed to play. Tony cheered as he grabs the last bottle of scotch and poured everyone with a shot. 

“What are we playing?” Thor asked while leaning on the wall, eyes already closed. 

“Never have I ever,” Tony said. 

Maria stood behind you before reaching out for your glasses. “One shot, and we go home,” she whispered before handing you your glass.

A few questions in but you and Maria still haven’t drunk your last shot.

“Alright, I have a good one,” Clint said. “Never have I ever slept with my best friend.”

He didn’t drink. 

Thor didn’t drink.

Tony didn’t drink.

Loki didn’t drink.

Wanda didn’t drink. 

Then every eye is on you, Maria, Carol, and Natasha. A pregnant pause ensued before you thought, ‘fuck it’ and drinking your glass. 

Maria smiled before throwing back her shot too. 

“Don’t look so surprised,” Tony said before standing up and dusting himself. “She’s gay, not the Virgin Mary.”

***

The Avengers have been partying together all their life that they all had respected guest rooms. Had you stayed for a moment, you would have seen Natasha and Carol downing their shots too.

[stevenuniversetanzanite]

Someone Must Get Hurt (Cordelia x Reader (Part 5))

This is set during around and through coven so she’s still Cordelia Foxx technically.

Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 

Sorry for the late update, joined an academy (unfortunately not for witches) and had to wait until I got my glasses also writer’s block.

I re-read the other chapters and I genuinely enjoyed (which is rare for my self-conscious arse). Hope I didn’t screw that up with this addition. Probably did.

Anyway, enjoy :).

Y/N/N= Your nickname

Y/M/N= Your mum’s name. (I didn’t want to pick your characters mum’s name.)

The air was tense in the academy, every student was stressing about who was the next supreme. One student, Nan had drowned in a bathtub. Zoe tried to communicate with her spirit but had no luck, the girl didn’t want to talk. We all had our suspicions of what happened and all of them involved Fiona. Cordelia was the only one who was doubtful, but you all knew she was just hoping her mother wasn’t as bad as you all knew her to be. For Cordelia’s sake, you wished it wasn't her. Who knows, maybe a witch hunter broke in and… drowned her? Nah, that sounds wrong. Why go to all the trouble of breaking in and then drown a girl? Nan was more than powerful enough to fight off a non-magic user. 

Madison’s inflated ego made her believe she was the next supreme. No one directly said it to her, but you all hoped she wasn’t- none of you wanted another Fiona. Madison’s jelousy over the title made her commit attempted murder, smashing Misty in the head with a large rock and burring her six feet under in a resurract man’s casket. 

Fiona was showing Misty with gifts, mainly meeting her favourite singer Stevie Nicks. It was nice to see Misty awe-stricken by the famous singer plus you got to listen to Stevie live for free. After how much of her music you’ve had to listen to since Misty arrived, it was great to relax to some great vocals. The other girls were out doing whatever they wanted. Cordelia was trying to get you closer to the girls (when was she not?) and tasked you with getting along with Misty who you, in Cordelia’s eyes, had the most in common with. 

Your mind kept falling back to the contant theme of the recent days, the next supreme. Everyone was infatuated with knowing, “maybe it's me?”, “I could be the supreme”, you just wanted to go with the flow. Everyone was stressing you out and you didn’t need that at the moment. They were acting like it was a competition, that the goal of these being a witch was to be the supreme. You wondered if the thing was a generational thing, like every 20 or so years there’s a new one is born or is it random. If you knew this, you could use to predict how old the witch would have to be. Was she about your age or like Cordelia’s? Is it even one of us? There could be a witch we don’t know of out there who is the successor. You didn’t vocalize any of this or participated in any of the drama created because of the mystery involved behind who the next one was. You couldn’t care less. 

While the other girls practiced their magic, you tried to make something to heal the burned skin around your eyes. Misty offered you some of her ‘magical’ mud, but you wanted nothing to do with it or her. She was a nice girl but her friendship with Cordelia put you off her. They were too close; you didn’t trust their friendship. Your interest in finding something to fix your burns along with you love of botany lead you to starting your newest distraction from your crush on the headmistress. 

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Your pen hit against the workbench. Music blared through your headphones. You had spent the last three hours in the green house trying to perfect a potion, making notes in a hand bound book. It was a side project to distract yourself from the over growing jealousy you felt. On the other side of the room, the two other green magic enthusiasts insisted on working. You hadn’t been invited to join them, they thought you looked too busy on your book. Cordelia stole glances every so often, you weren’t aware of this.

Stevie Nicks' "Kind Of Woman" played in the background as the two blonde witches worked on their concoction. Cordelia hummed along with the music. She picked some bay leaves, tearing them into smaller pieces as she shoved it in their mud. She was teaching the young swamp witch.

The two spoke in hushed whispers. Cordelia didn’t want to disturb you as you worked. The two almost didn’t come in there, but there being very little to do in the school and you already absorbed in your work you didn’t think their presence would disturb you. You switched your music from the speaker to your phone, to ensure their talking didn’t disturb you. During the breaks of your songs, you could hear their voices as Cordelia taught the young swamp witch like she had taught you months ago.

“I didn't know bay leaves had magic in them.”

“Provide protection. Asafetida banishes evil.”

Misty leant down to smell the concoxion, “Oh, wow, that's some stinky shit.”

You could hear their laughing during the switching of tracks. You groaned. They took that as you were frustrated with your work – they weren’t internally wrong but the cackling from behind you wasn’t helping either. Cordelia frowned, not enjoying watching you stress out you’re your project. She considered offering you to join them to distract you for a bit, but something held her back.

Misty leaned in towards Cordelia, "Zoe told me what you two overheard."

"W-what?" Cordelia stuttered, growing flustered. Cordelia didn’t know what to do with her hands. Instead of waving them about like an idiot, they clenched the workbench, leaning her body weight on them. She couldn’t run from this conversation; it would be too obvious. Why couldn’t it all be easier like how it was before she got blinded. Your first ‘unofficial lesson’. The ease of moving closer to your person, how easily flustered you were (like how she was now). She insisted she needed to know about the student who refused to open herself up to others. She missed the conversations you’d both have as you peeled back the protective layer.

You were too caring; she saw that when you ‘helped’ her. You did what you thought was best, for her, you, and the coven. She felt in those few seconds your hands were on her temples, the love you had for her as well as the pain love has caused you in the past.

She saw the late nights when you stayed up contemplating your decision, the countless hours you thought about others instead of yourself which counted up to years of your life. An underlying need for control, of you, your body as well as your wants and desires. You held yourself back and now she was doing it for you because she was too indissertive and disgusted with everything about the situation she caught herself in. 

She was scared, she only built to that pain. She didn’t have enough time to stop you and, in an attempt to do so, she tossed you across the room when you had already been affected. You couldn’t have foreseen that.

Cordelia liked you back, that’s the problem. She was your teacher. It’s the same as having a crush on your professor. She made you fall for her. Ignoring all that, she was still married. She had no knowledge that her ex had cheated. What if he hadn’t, what if he was a decent person? What if-

“Ms Cordelia.”

“Hmm~”

"That she likes you Ms Cordelia."

"It doesn't mean anything-" All she could do was deny. It wasn’t right, what she did was wrong.

"I know it's not my place, but you've been talking about her for ages and you haven't asked her once."

She looked at Misty, “Your right. This isn’t your place.” Cordelia rushed out of the greenhouse and back into the school.

Misty sighed and looked over to you who was too busy working to pay attention to them. Misty knew she would have to get involved if you too were ever going to get together. She couldn’t do it alone. She had to call in for help. 

Four of the girls were huddled up in the main room, all wanting to fix the dynamic between the two of you. Each one had tried in their own way to help you out. Madison with her constant babbling about person a (usually making at least one sexual reference) to person b as well as getting you to admit your feelings in the worst place. The others worked more in the way of emotional support for Cordelia (you got along with the others but weren’t one to confide in them) and trying to convince her to make a move.

One’s idea was to stage an intervention for Cordelia, as you had stated your love for her in her presence and it was just Cordelia holding back. Another suggested if they got both of you in the same room, you’d talk it out, that wasn’t going to happen. They could set up a date and trick you both into going.

“The date idea doesn’t sound that bad,” Zoe said. “But how would we do it?”

“We’d need to make so neither can leave,” Queenie said.

“Yeah, Ms Cordelia stormed out the other day when I was trying to talk her into it,” Misty said while eating grapes.

“-and Y/N can teleport, so you’d be relying on not to zap away.” You were the type to teleport away if you were uncomfortable, but with Cordelia in the equation no one could know. 

“Okay, what do we need to do to make it the perfect date?” Zoe asked. Retrieving a pen and paper out like it was a middle school project.

“Say no more,” Madison said.

“No one let Madison get the pen.”

“Hey!”

An hour later Cordelia walked in on the girls plotting the date. She raised a brow at all the girls working harmoniously together. The group's laughter was what brought her out of her office originally. She smiled standing in the doorway. Her grin faltered when she noticed you weren’t with the girls. She worried at times like these when she saw the others getting along and you depriving yourself from times like this. 

She brought herself to where she thought you would be, she was your teacher after all, she should be concerned that you were missing out.

She knocked 

“Shit, you scared me.”

“I think you’ve said those words to me before,” she purred. 

“Miss Foxx?” Not Delia or Cordelia. No, she couldn’t stand you saying that. It was too formal and distant. It reminded her too much of her husband, someone she never wanted to think about again. She wanted the closeness you both once had. She craved you to call her a nickname. She will call you a million if she could hear you say one. She’d give anything to hear you say Delia more time.

“You don’t have to call me that.” She kept the same flirtatious tone as before, sending shivers down your spine. She gently nudged you to the side. You scooted over giving her enough room to sit beside you. 

It felt like Déjà vu. Her sitting next to you, working in the greenhouse just like the day you injured your arm. The limb was now healed. The coven’s knowledge of your past didn’t stop you from where clothes not appropriate for the weather. The only time you didn’t cover yourself fully was when you were spending most of your days trapped in your room blind. Cordelia made sure you were never overheating due to your stubbornness as well as self-consciousness. 

“How’s your book going?” It was hard to concentrate. She was so close to you. 

“Alright.” It was killing you but not as much as watching her with Misty. 

“You seemed stressed earlier.”

“I did?”

“You did,” she said. “I think you deserve a break. You’ve been working on this for a while now.” 

“I don’t know-” You didn’t know what game she was playing. 

“Come one sweetheart-”

“No!” You brushed her off you. You jumped off your crate turned seat creating some distance between you and her. “None of this.”

“I thought-”

“No. I don’t like to be toyed with. You can’t play off you didn’t hear what you heard as if nothing happened and then weeks later come up to me all flirtatiously and expect me to be okay with that.” You clenched your fists trying to hold back your anger. “You either like me or you don’t. Tell me now so I can move on with my life.”

“Y/N I-”

“You know what, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Y/N-”

“Please go.” You wouldn’t look at her. Your head faced the exit, your hands crossed. The moment she left they would slide out of position and hug your body as you sobbed. 

“No! I like you Y/N. Hell, I love you more than I ever did with my ex. I’m not letting you toss me aside.”

“Miss Fo-”

“Don’t call me that! Ever!” You shut your mouth quick, eyes widened. She approached you, tearing your arms out of their tightly crossed position. She held your hands in her’s. “I-I didn’t mean to yell, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t mean to either, I was just-”

“I get it. With the weight of the world resting on our shoulders, it’s hard not to snap sometimes.”

“Everything will get better, yeah? Once we find out who the next supreme is?”

“For our survival, I hope so.” Not the answer you wanted to hear but she wasn’t going to hide the truth from you, not at a time like this. 

You don’t know what caused you to do it but you pulled her into a hug, “I wish you could be the supreme.” Cordelia chuckled. “Your so wise compared to us and you’re the nicest, most caring-”

“It’s nice of you to say that but it’s not me.”

“Still, it would be nice to be dating the most powerful witch in the coven.”

“So you still want to date me?” You hummed resting your head on her shoulder and nuzzling into her neck. “It could be you?”

“Hmm?”

“You could be the supreme.”

“I hope not. Sounds like too much responsibility… and socialising.” Cordelia chuckled once more. 

The woman held you close. Time stood still for the two of you. For once, it was calm. You were content standing their bodies pressed together as the world moved on around you. Nothing mattered. The coven’s problems were for another time. 

***

Everything happened so fast. You were talking to Queenie, trying to convince her to stay, unlike Cordelia, she didn't tell you to get out. She warned you to run, get out before whoever killed the girls to you. One girl dead, another missing, someone was going to be next, it only depended on who. She wasn't sticking around to get killed to find out.

The next you were in the greenhouse being held back. They wouldn't let you see Cordelia. The girls were forced to keep tabs on you, not letting you out of their sight. No one bothered to tell you what happened. You knew that something horrible happened and needed to help. 

"I need to go to the bathroom," you told the girls. They nodded, leading you to the nearest moment. You were told to be quick. You meekly nodded before shutting yourself in. The moment the door was shut you teleported into Cordelia's bedroom. 

"Oh god." She stabbed her eyes out. "No~ why?"

She rested on the bed doped up on painkillers to numb the pain. You could have sworn she looked peacefully asleep. It wasn’t the case. Red, inflamed skin sounding her eye sockets. You put two with two together. Gouging out her eyes wouldn’t solve anything. 

The floorboards creaked from behind you. Myrtle wasn’t sure how you got into the room, she was monitoring it and the girls were watching over you. From what she knew, you couldn’t teleport. It wouldn’t surprise her if you could, all the girls in the coven were picking up magic easier. Power’s develop faster in times of danger.

There wasn’t much you could do for her. You weren’t going to make the same ‘mistake’ as last time, no matter how much you wanted to. If Myrtle didn’t come in, you might not have said the same. The both of you talked, you rarely spoke to her one on one- that does with everyone else in the coven, minus Cordelia and Zoe. Fiona tried to speak to you once, to shove in the same your the next supreme crap you bet. Cordelia saved you before you had to talk to the woman. Fiona did say after you helped that boy find his mother that, “She knows more than she lets on.” She couldn’t have been suggesting you were the next... no. That woman was a trickster and shouldn’t be trusted. 

“I purchased tickets to Epcot for Zoe and Kyle. I watched them together at Nan's funeral. Such a pair. So much in love,” Myrtle said.

“They are quite the pair.” You understood why she was telling you this, it was the same reason as to why Queenie left, no one was safe. If Madison didn’t kill them out of jealousy than Fiona would. “What will happen with me and Madison?” Madison didn’t see you as a threat. You wouldn’t bet your life on it staying that way. 

“Your mother will be picking you up later today.”

“What?”

“It’s only until all of this is sorted out. Think about it as a holiday from school.”

“What about Cordelia?”

“She’d prefer you to be out of harm’s way.”

“It’s only temporary?” Myrtle nodded. 

You wished she was lying. But when you heard your mother’s voice echo upstairs you sighed backing the last of your things. You stood at the top of the stairs with a backpack packed with your essentials. Your mum and Myrtle were deep in a conversation, not noticing you watching them. You didn’t want to leave Cordelia again. This time it wasn’t your choice. You left your details on Cordleia’s desk in case she needed to contact you. The only problem with that was her finding it since she was blind and wouldn’t see it. That wasn’t a problem you could solve this second, you had the schools number, that was good enough for now. 

You checked on Cordelia one last time before you left. She was fast asleep. You didn’t want to be around when Myrtle broke the news to her. Keeping it short, you placed a kiss on her forehead before heading to your mother. 

“I can’t believe she did that, I never would have thought- you were right the whole time,” your mum tried to grasp what Myrtle told her. You missed the change of subject of conversation when you were with Cordelia.

“You were too young at the time.”

“Anna leigh?” Myrtle nodded. You had no idea what the two were talking about, who was Anna Leigh? Your mother was the first to spot you, “Don’t you want to bring more?” 

You shook your head, “I don’t plan on being gone long.” The two older women shared a look of displeasure. They both wanted you away from the school longer than they were letting on. 

“I’ll keep an eye on her until the dangers are dealt with. It’ll be a good chance to catch up.”

“Sounds fun,” you said in an uneathustic voice. 

“Just us two.” You rose your brow. No siblings? What's the catch?

“Yeah, that sounds alright.”

***

You were perched up against the window, peering out into the streets of wherever your mum took you. The journey was long and you fell asleep in the car ride over. Since she arrived at the academy you sensed something was off with her. She viewed you differently. Hidden by her happy exterior masked her unease. She handed you a hot cocoa before planting herself beside. You shuffled to allow her more room. 

She asked you a series of questions about school and how you were enjoying it. You answered vaguely, not wanting to go into the full extent of what was going down. 

“There’s a lot less girls from when I went there,” she commented. She was a witch? She never mentioned this before. If you would have known, you might not have felt so alone. “It was a lot safer too. I guess there’s no safe place for us witches.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a witch?”

“We weren’t going to tell you kids. We didn’t want to put you in danger. I never thought about the complications of not telling you. Myrtle told me what you did- what you have been doing. I allowed myself to be naive.”

“Mum it’s alright-”

“No it's not,. There was more she wanted to say but left it unsaid. “I can’t fix the past but I promise to be better.” You took a long sip of your beverage, making a noise of contentment. “Still good?”

“I missed your cocoa.” You mum acted offended. “I missed you too.” You both laughed before taking another sip of your drinks. “The headmistress of the school makes great cocoa too.”

“Goode’s kid, right?”  She asked. “I heard she was nice.”

“Yeah, she is. She’s taught me a lot about Botany. I’ve been translating a couple of the old books in the greenhouse so they are easier to follow.”

“Those old things. They’ve been there since the beginning of time.” She said. “I’m pretty sure my sister started something similar, it’s probably still there unless one of her roommates moved it.” Your mother rarey spoke of her sister, you didn’t even know your Aunt’s name. She snapped out her train of thought. She asked, “What about the other girls? Are they nice?”

“They’re an interesting bunch to say the least.”

Back at the academy, Cordelia gradually got better. Myrtle informed her of your little get-a-way and that you were safely with a trustworthy family member. Cordelia was doubtful of what she heard but Myrtle assured her that as long as you're here, you weren’t safe. Not only were there the threats of Madison and her mother, Cordelia herself in her blinded state was a risk. 

Queenie decided to stay in the coven. Fiona went so far as to claim Queenie as her successor and was going to make her complete  the seven wonders. This pissed of Cordelia. Fiona wouldn’t explain her reasoning behind her decision, fleeing shortly after. 

All the witches admired the new portrait of Fiona Goode above the piano. The girls listed off empty compliments (“She was so beautiful.”, “She was a great Supreme.”, “A lot to live up to.”, “One of the best.”). Cordelia didn’t follow this trend, instead opting to keep it true, “She was a force to be reckoned with, but she was a horrible Supreme.” Mentioning all the ways she had failed at the rule. She used this time to announce that on the coming Sunday, at dawn the test of Seven Wonders will begin and all would be tested. By next week, they’ll have a new Supreme.

There was a thud at the door. Cordelia smiled. Everyone looked around wondering who that could be. “Is someone gonna let me in or am I gonna have to break in?” All the girls chuckled. Zoe ran over towards the front door, Misty and Queenie not far behind. As soon as the door was opened you were pulled into a suffocating hug. “Y/N!” Zoe was most excited to see you. “Girl, where did you go?” Queenie asked. Clearly none of them were clued into your departure. 

“You weren’t meant to be back until all of this was solved,” Myrtle said. 

“I was called.”

***

There should have been more to do. Your thoughts always feel back to the coven. You held yourself back from calling, they sent you away for a reason. Any contact could bring danger. You curled up on your temporary bed, a classic novel in your hands. It was still the early hours of the morning, your mother asleep in her bedroom. You could hear her snoring through the walls. One of the million things you didn’t miss from home. Even your old roommate snored. You smiled thinking about the few years of freedom you had at hers. Compared to now you wouldn’t call it that. Now you could do whatever you wanted when you wanted to, whether the others were happy about it depended on what you were doing. You still freaked Cordelia out when you leave the school without letting anyone know, or vanish for hours on end in a remote area of the house you don’t usually inhabit. You would do anything to hear her voice right now.

You spoke to your mum about Cordelia, never mentioning that you were a thing, she was still your teacher after all. She would wince when you mentioned the name which always threw you for a loop. You knew it wasn’t about you mentioning Cordelia because when you did without saying the name she was fine. It’s probably nothing to worry about. 

Your phone buzzed. A phone you recognized all too well was calling you. 

***

“I did say everyone participates,” Cordelia said. 

You were passed from person to person, giving the girls hugs. “I hope I didn’t miss it too much.” You pulled away from the last girl and headed over to your girlfriend. 

“Delia.”

“Y/N/N,” Cordelia said. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too.”

“Wow, you two really can’t control yourselves,” Madison said sarcastically. 

“Shut up Madison.”

You had a couple days to kill until the tests. You spent your first day catching up with Cordelia. You shared what happened during the days you were gone. You went into detail about the place you stayed at, the food you ate and your catch up with your mum. 

“You didn’t know your mother was a witch?”

“Yeah, she thought it was dangerous for us to know. I guess she’s right. All the stuff I’ve seen in this past year is-”

“Too much?”

“No~ well yeah but… I never would have dreamt this was going to be my life,” You said. “I’m glad I came here. Met you. Who knows where I would be if I never joined this school?”

“I’m glad you did.” You snuggled closer to Cordelia, her arms wrapped protectively around you.

The second day you spent on working on your book in the greenhouse. Your work was going nowhere so you decided to take a break. ‘I’m pretty sure my sister started something similar, it’s probably still there unless one of her roommates moved it,’ your mother's words popped back into her head. It couldn’t be here, could it? Where would I be if I was a book? 

You scowered the whole school searching for that damn thing. Where do they keep old things? The garage. On your first week at the school they forced you to organise the garage because they were too lazy to hire someone else to do it. It was just as you remembered it minus the fresh layer of dust that coated everything besides the van. A dodgy industrial bookcase filled with ancient books. When you put them there last year, you had flipped through a few of them. Most were photobooks of years prior. There were so many girls back then. If you knew what years your mum attended you could have looked. 

You spent hours filling through the books getting sidetrack from your original goal. 

“Y/N cant be allowed to participate-”

“She has every chance to be the next supreme as the others do. We can’t skip someone in case we are wrong.”

“All the more reason to skip her. There is no way she’s the next-”

“-There is nothing to discuss.” Cordelia stood up and began to leave to check on the girls. 

“Cordelia~”

Cordelia made it all the way to Madison and Zoe’s room, were you were all crowded around your finds. All the girls were cackling and commenting on the photos as you flipped through them. 

“I can’t believe that's what she used to look like. Has that woman ever looked bad a day in her life?” Madison said. 

“I think it’s impossible,” Zoe said. “”Like the world might implode or something.”

“Girls?”

“What do you want Cordy?” Madison said. “Hey Y/N/N, your girlfriends here.” Madison summoned your attention from the conversation you were having with Misty and Queenie.

“Delia!”

“What are you girls doing?” Cordelia chuckled at your excitement. She was glad that you were getting along with the other girls. She was proud at how far you had come.

“Y/N found some old photo albums and there's a bunch of old photos of Fiona and Myrtle. We even found an old album with some of you.”

“Oh god you found those things. For once I’m thankful I’m blind.”

“What are you talking about? You're adorable,” you said.

“You're just saying that because she’s your girlfriend.”

“Shut up.”

“Have you looked for your mother in them yet?” Cordelia asked. 

“Wait your mother went here?”

“Apparently.”

“Okay, I suggest a game. First person to find her mum makes the worst concoction that the rest have to do a shot of.” They all go in on the game. “Y/N, can’t play so you can be the judge.” Sounded good by you. 

They kept guessing people from random albums that visually resembled you. The game got called off by the call for dinner. You were all cracking up all through the meal. Anyone who didn’t know any of you would have guessed nothing was wrong underneath this roof. All of you but aside your differences for one night and managed to prove that you could get along if you tried. 

As you were putting the albums away you found a brown leather bound journal hidden behind a box of assorted junk. You flipped it open to the first page, ‘This book belongs to Cordelia-’ The last name was covered in pen ink. Why would Cordelia leave a notebook hidden all the way back here? It was left with a bunch of old albums, maybe it was an old diary or something. In that case, its better to leave it where you found it. 

You met Cordelia upstairs in her bedroom. You’d been helping her get ready for the night ever since you got back. The night before she came to your room and asked for your help as you were about to get ready for bed. You ended up spending the night in her room. 

***

Myrtle seemed hesitant upon commencing the seven wonders. She kept eyeing you during the ‘last supper’ before the new supreme was crowned. For all you knew it could have been your last, you’d all been warned that one of the spells could lead to death if failed. This made Misty very worried. She didn’t want to participate in the whole sabang. To be fair, neither did you but there weren't many witches to replace Fiona.

Five witches with different specialties all competing for the reigning title of head of the Coven.

The two eldest members barely spoke directly to each other throughout the duration of the meal. Misty spent most of her time talking to Cordelia making you slightly jealous. Knowing you were being irrational, you decided to turn away from them and pay attention to Madison raving on about how much she had got this in the bag.

Cordelia explained that it is unprecedented for five candidates to attempt the Seven Wonders without sponsorship by the outgoing Supreme but desperate times call for desperate measures. 

The tests started out easy. First was telekinesis. Kyle lit five candles for the girls. Why you couldn’t light them yourselves was beyond you, it would have gotten rid of a test. All the girls move the candles towards themselves in turn, Misty had the most difficulty with the task but bubbled with excitement on completion while Zoe barely took a second to move the candle.

Next was Concilium. The girls turned on each other without a second thought. Misty made Queenie slap herself, Queenie makes Misty pull her own hair in retaliation. Madison goes overboard making Kyle do a series of tasks ending up with Kyle choking Zoe. You freak seeing Zoe getting choked. You fought for control over Kyle’s mind, controlling for him to stop. “Why isn’t he- oww” Madison complained before Zoe made her burn herself on her cigarette.

Cordelia declared enough. The girls complained -mostly Madison- you had yet to do something. You didn’t know what to make someone do, your mind was blank. You had some ideas of things you wouldn’t mind making your girlfriend do but not in front of the others. None of them were pg.  You wouldn’t mind a lap dance or watching her strip (the list continues) but that doesn’t solve the problem of people watching.

“I reversed your ass’s control,” You said to Madison. Madison wasn’t buying it. Zoe mouthed thank you to which you simply nodded. 

“Prove you can do it again” "make Cordelia do something."

"She's not a part of the test."

"It's alright, I don't mind."

"I don't want to make you do something, you didn't want to do." Your head darted towards Madison. "But I don't have a problem controlling you."

You made her suffer for all the things she did to all of you over the last couple of weeks. The other girls cheered you on, you were hyperfocus on the task you didn’t stop until a hand was placed on your shoulder snapping out of your concentration. 

For the next challenge, all four girls perform the Descensum wonder with a sun-up deadline. You all laid on the ground and chanted the incarnation, “Spiritu duce, in me est. Deduce me in tenebris vita ad extremum, ut salutaret inferi. Descensum!”

You sat there crumpled on the floor. The air felt cold on your damaged  skin. You sat exactly where you were before you entered your personal hell. Your cardigan laid near the loveseat. You were left puzzled, where was everyone? Had you completed it and woken up. No one told you anything about this task. Did you fail? The school was a lot darker than you recalled it being. The lights were turned off and not a single candle lit. You waved your hand to create some light but nothing. Odd.

You heard footsteps approaching the room you were situated in. A voice echoed around you but you couldn’t see anyone nor make out their words. A sting sensation filled your left cheek forcing your head sideways. 

“Y/n! Are you even listening to me?” An angry cordelia waved her hand in front of your face. “Typical,” she spat. “You couldn’t pay attention in my classes and you can’t now. Maybe if you paid more attention, you could have saved everyone.” ‘Saved everyone’ what was she on about? 

You scrambled up, backing away from the blonde who kept proceeding to get closer. Two strong hands grasp you in place, their grip, bruising. 

“You were always using your power to heal others and the one time we actually needed it your can’t. You're a pathetic little girl. I don’t know why we allowed you to stay at the coven. I should have kicked you out the moment I saw what you are. A damaged mess. There’s no saving you. You're a curse to this coven. My mother won’t be our downfall, you will be.”

You were left speechless. Frozen in fear. You stared into her hate filled eyes. The angry based heat radiating off her body could scourch you alive. Her nails seeped into your flesh drawing blood.

“I was glad when I was blinded. I wouldn’t have to be forced to see your face day in and day out. There is only so much torture you can put up with. You're a monster. a walking death trap. Your powers aren’t like queenies- hers was useful.”

“ENOUGH!” you shouted at her, ripping her tight grip off of you. “I am more than I appear and stronger than you think. You're not real and even if you were, your words are weightless. They won’t hurt me and you want to know why?” She was taken aback. She didn’t expect you to talk back.

“Why?”

“Because I know all of the things you said, I’ve thought them. I have said a million worse things to myself than that.” You said. “If this was a couple months ago, I would believe you. I really would. A part of me may still believe you but you have no right to talk to me like that. I am better than that and deserve more than you belittling me.”

She chuckled. You were done with this, her abuse. This wasn’t real. You were fine. This couldn’t be real. 

“Are we all back?” Zoe asked.

You jolted up, gasping for air. You were the fourth to arrive back. Cordelia treaded carefully as she made her way over to you. 

“Everyone but Misty,” Queenie answered Zoe’s question.

Everyone was staring at you. "What?" You stattered. You scrambled to turn around to see who was awake. Misty lay there stuck in her hell, "Shit." 

“She’s still got some time,” Zoe assured me, staring at the timer. The hourglass to see time was almost over.

“Not much,” you uttered. 

Cordelia felt around for you. The second she was close you teleported away from her touch, appearing next to Zoe. “Sorry,” you apologized, tucking your legs into your chest. Her head darted in the direction of your voice. “I-I didn’t mean to- I’m still shaken up.”

“It’s okay.”

“Misty needs you more than I do right now anyway.” Cordelia only nodded. 

“What was your hell?” Zoe whispered. Queenie leant down to listen.

“All my flaws on display. I’d heard worse. It was who was saying them that kept me there.”

Queenie pointed her head towards your girlfriend, you nodded feeling worse for dashing away the moment she got close to you. 

Misty was taking too long. "We need to help her" you cried out. 

"There's nothing we can do. She has to get back on her own."

"That's bullshit."

Cordelia hunched over the swamp witch’s body, hands on either side of her head, calling out for her to follow her voice. She chanted a spell, anything to wake her friend back up. By dawn, she hadn’t emerged. Her time ran out and with that, her body disintegrates into ash in Cordelia's sobbing arms.

“Her time is up,” Myrtle said. 

“No...No, no! No... No!” Cordelia sobbed, occasionally gasping for air. You shared a saddened look with two of your peers (Madison being to heartless took Misty’s death as an inconvenience). “Go to her,” Zoe mouthed. Hesitantly, you closed the distance, pulling her into a hug. She buried her face into your hoodie as she sobbed. You ran your hand over the top of her head. 

"We'll give the two a minute before continuing the tests." Myrtle said, ushering the other girls out of the room. 

"I killed her, I forced her to do the test when she didn't want to. She wasn't even one of us and I-I"

You shushed her, "It's not your fault sweetheart, no one could have predicted this."

"She didn't deserve to die."

 She was too young and too innocent to be trapped in her own personal hell for all eternity. You had nothing against the girl other than her closeness with your now girlfriend, but you would wish for a hell filled death. You wish you could bring her back. Save her from hell. It was too late. All you could do now was comfort her friend and hope nothing happens to anyone one else. 

“I had a vision, a terrible vision. None of us made it out alive. What if it was a warning that this was going to happen? That fiona will win. Were going to kill ourselves trying to save the coven. What if it's already-”

“Your mother isn’t going to win. None of us are going to allow that to happen. “

"I don't want you to go on with the tests."

"What? Delia~"

"Not you too. I don't want to lose you too."

"We still need to find the next supreme."

She wished to get changed into an outfit more fitting for a time of morning. Myrtle offered to help Cordelia while you recovered and checked on the other girls. You checked with Cordelia making sure she was alright with that before handing her over. 

“You didn’t just want to help me, did you?”

“Not exactly-”

“I don’t want any of the other girls to get hurt.”

“We have no control over this Delia. Your mother refuses to announce her successor.”

“We still have four test’s left. Who do you think it’s going to be?”

“I was so certain about Misty Day.” Myrtle pulled out a black long sleeve dress for Cordelia. “Maybe Zoe. ”

“All the girls are powerful, it could be any one of them. If Madison Montgomery really is all- maybe it is better-'' She didn’t want to finish that thought.

“I'll confess, I've had similar dark thoughts.”

“I know you were admitment on Y/N not competing but why not? She is a very powerful witch. We’ve seen her perform three of the seven wonders and those weren’t the ones in her wheelhouse. She’s a timid girl, it's possible she’s holding out on us.

“Cordelia, there is no way (Y/N) can be the supreme.”

“But why? You're not answering me.”

“The council thought it was better you didn’t know. It’s a story close to home.” Myrtle closed up the dress for Cordelia before leading her to sit on the loveseat in the middle of Cordelia’s bedroom. “I assumed Fiona would have told you-”

“She doesn’t tell me shit.”

“Y/N’s bloodline prevents her from being able to do one of the seven wonders.”

“What are you on about?”

“Y/n’s signature power, to transfer pain, it’s not the first time I’ve seen it. Y/M/N, Y/N’s mother and her sister attended the school.  During one of the lessons, Y/M/N got badly injured. Her sister, much like your dear Y/N, tended to rush to try and heal- at least Y/M/N. She didn’t hear about it until break. Y/M/N died and her sister attempted to bring back the child only cursing her with the same fate.”

“Y/N’s not the same-”

“Ask her if you don’t believe me.”

“Y/N can be brought back. She’s died before and my mother brought her back.”

“Giving your life is different to releasing some of someone else's.”

“I don’t want you to lose the love of your life because of a test that only one person can succeed.” 

“You think she's the love of my life?”

“She was willing to give you her sight twice.” Twice? Cordelia didn’t remember it happening twice. She worried it would happen again, the others must have stopped you. “Very few people are willing to do that for someone even if they care for someone dearly.”

“We should get back to the others,” Cordelia said. “I’ll stop her from going too far.”

Myrtle led Cordelia back to the others. They reluctantly continue the test. Next was transmutation. Zoe started a game of tag to lighten the mood. Much to your dismay, you were held back by Cordelia. You were confused but didn’t question it.  Zoe tagged you. Oh, it's on. You teleported out of Cordelia’s grip and tag Madison. The game of tag progressed on and was moved outside. Cordelia warned you all to be careful. None of you cared. You all needed this. It was a stupid mistake on yours part.

None of you cared until you saw Zoe’s lifeless body dangling from a spike on the cast-iron fence. You helped Kyle ease her body of the spike and transfer her to the greenhouse. Queenie attempted Vitalum Vitalis on Zoe in order to revive her, failing. She was ordered to take the saddened Kyle back to the house. Both Cordelia and Myrtle insist Madison perform Vitalum Vitalis on Zoe next, even though you were more than willing to go next. Madison proves her ability with a fly instead. They don’t accept this and request her to save Zoe or she was not worthy of being the Supreme. She complained, saying why they weren’t trying to get you to have a go since they all knew out of the two, they would prefer you as one. Madison exited angry leaving the three of you alone in the greenhouse with Zoe.

“I’ll clean up her wound a bit for when she gets brought back. It should be easy work assuming she didn’t puncture too many organs,” You said surveying the damage. “I think I have some medical equipment in my bedroom.”

“Can you get her the supplies, I need to talk to Y/N for a moment?” she asked her Auntie. Myrtle agreed as much as she disliked doing mineral work, she knew why she wanted to talk to you.  You didn’t like the sound of this ‘talk’ so you made small talk to prolong the inevitable. 

“I wanted to be a doctor when I was younger. My mum used to laugh and say I was just like her sister. Sadly, she died before I was born.” You filled your bowl of Luke warm water and brought it to the dead girl. "That's besides the point. I never really found a passion in studying anatomy. I ended up doing it so I could fix myself instead. Don't think a hospital would hire me with all these scars on me, they'd probably assume I self-harmed or something."

"You haven't-"

"God no. Well, maybe in a sense. I didn't need to help others. Everything's complicated."

"I think you should do it. Become a doctor, if you still want to."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe I will. Lets see how this goes first." Myrtle arrived back with your gear. No one knew you had a collection of medical equipment. You stole it from the hospital around the same time Zoe brought back her man. "I need full concentration while doing this."

They allowed you your privacy, promising to check up on you every so often to make sure you didn't need anything and to keep you from doing something stupid. You didn't push yourself to do Vitalum Vitalis. If they wanted Madison to try, so be it. As time went on, the idea came up in your head more frequently. Maybe you should try. Your work was done. The only thing you could do now was wait.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it,” Cordelia said. You hadn't noticed there in the room before. Was she always there or did she just enter?

“I think I can bring her back,” you said. 

“I don’t doubt you could." But? you thought. Cordelia made her way towards you. She rested a hand on your shoulder, your free hand that wasn't holding Zoe's found hers. You rested your body against Cordelia’s trying to find comfort in the tough time, "but if you do you’ll die.”

What was she one about? There was no way she could know that. You were getting better and even if it wasn’t, no one dies from trying to bring someone back by Descensum. If it was some frankenstein type work involved you could understand, there would be tons of risks, but this? You would be fine. 

“My magics getting better, I can give the pain back to people now” you reasoned. You prayed she didn’t ask for an example for that. She didn’t care if your magic was getting better that wasn’t the problem. After what happened to Misty and what Myrtle told her about a girl she knew, Cordelia didn’t want to risk the love of her life’s life. It took her too long to find you, she wasn’t going to lose you now. 

"It’s not that you are not strong enough y/n. It’s the fact that if you do it and no one can bring you back if something goes wrong."

"I wouldn’t die-"

"AND IF YOU DO? WHAT THEN?"

"Uh~"

“YOU’RE A WALKING DEATH TRAP. YOUR POWERS AREN’T LIKE QUEENIES WHERE YOU CAN JUST CAUSE SOMEONE PAIN BY THINKING ABOUT THEM AS YOU GET INJURED. YOU’RE’S IS MORE DELICATE. EITHER YOU HURT OR SOMEONE ELSE DOES. YOU DIE OR SOMEONE ELSE DIES. I HATE TO BE THE BEARER OF BAD NEWS BUT THATS HOW YOUR LIFE WORKS.” You froze. You're hell flashed back through your mind. You tried to shake it off but it was glued to your mind.

She stated all the faults in your curse. Her worry made it seem like you shared your burden now. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. She wanted to protect you from what she can’t control. If you died, she would live with your blood on your hands even if it was your choice. She would live with the knowledge that she couldn’t stop you.

You didn't see what she saw, nor her reasoning. You were too scared of your hell meeting your reality. Love molding into hatred.

Cordelia moved closer to you,causing you to freak out and teleport away at the last minute. She bumped into the workbench. 

Did you really teleport after what just happened?

She listened for any noise that could be you. After a few seconds you break out sobbing. You contained the noise as best as you could, if she could hear you, she wouldn't know.

"I didn't mean-"

"I'm sorry. I'm so~ sorry."

"Y/N?"

"I'm pathetic. You should have gotten rid of me when you had the chance, I'm only going to keep screwing up. I know you're glad you're blind so you aren't forced to see your face every day."

"None of that is true. Why would you think that?" You don't respond. She tried to make her way towards you again to comfort you but you teleported away again. "STOP TELEPORTING AWAY! HASN'T WHAT HAPPENED TO ZOE TAUGHT YOU ANYTHING?" You squeaked and stayed perfectly still. Cordelia saw her error. "Shit- Y/N. I'm sorry. Please talk to me."

You'd been acting strange with her since you got back from hell. The only times you were normal with her was when you were at arms length or when she was distressed about Misty's death. 

You acted the same way when you got back, teleporting away from her, apologising profusely. 

"Whatever happened to you in hell wasn't real."

"It felt so real. It's still hard to dissociate from it." You fidgeted in place. "You said so many vile things, did some- I was- I couldn't-"

"But you got out."

"I stood up for myself, for the first time ever."

"How did it feel?"

"I thought I was going to die. That manifestation of you looked about ready to kill me." Cordelia listened patiently. "Right the question. Uh? Great?"

"You don't sound sure."

"I need time to think."

"Can I come over to you?" You nodded but remembered she can't see so you vocalise your answer. She pulled you in close to her. "I didn't tell you not to do it because of any of the horrible things you thought, it's because I don’t want you to die because I made you compete against the other girls. You may have passed the others but I- two witches has already died today due to my blindsightedness. Not you too. I’m begging you to at least wait, let everyone else go first, as a last resort, if everyone fails then I give you my blessing."

"You’d make a good supreme.” You rubbed your thumb on her hand. You gave her an idea, maybe she should try the tests. “I’ll wait. For you Delia.” Cordelia smiled and moved her body closer to yours, wrapping her arms around your front. “Cordelia?”

 "Yes."

 "Can you take me away from here? I don’t trust myself enough to not do something if I’m alone."

 "Of course dear” She pulled away completely causing you to frown momentally. She stuck out her hand. You took it without a second thought. “But it’s more like you’ll be leading me out of here.”

You lead her through the house, arms hooked together and her other one holding onto the hand you used to hold onto her. She told you she wanted to speak to the others- more specifically Myrtle. You had no clue where they went off to after they brought Zoe to the greenhouse. Cordelia, relying on her powers now more than ever, used her magic to locate the others. 

“Lounge room,” she informed you. Upon arriving and spotting the woman you were impressed. 

“Damn, how did you do that? That’s impressive.” Which made her chuckle.She waved her hand for you to stop. She was a little bit flustered by your compliments not used to receiving them.

“Divination.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You would have eventually.”

“I wouldn’t have-”

The others turned their attention to the two of you. 

“You’re both back,” Someone said, you were still distracted by Cordelia. 

“I found y/n-” Cordelia cut herself off. “I stopped her.”

“I’m the last resort,” you chimed in knowing what she left out. 

“You're still allowing her to do it.” 

“There’s no talking me out of it.”

“So what's going to happen now?” Queenie asked. 

“I’m going to try the test.”

“You gotta be kidding me,” Madison said. 

“Unless you can bring back Zoe, I don’t see what other choices we have,” Cordelia said.

“You're just ramping up the contention to scare me,” Madison said. 

"She stands a better chance than the rest of us." You said. Everyone looked at you funny."She does~"

"Why doesn't Y/N try? She hasn't been disqualified yet," Madison said.

"You want me to try?" 

"So I can beat you."

"There it is," You chuckled. 

"It could actually be Y/N. She hasn't failed one yet and we know she can do two of the remaining-" Queenie added. 

"It's not impossible that someone manifests almost all the seven wonders, it's just near impossible," Cordelia said. 

"Since I've been put aside for a bit, can I pick the next one?"

"Sure dear."

"Divination." Cordelia chuckled knowing the exact reason why you choose that one.

Cordleia flew through the next few tests. Only one remained.You prayed under her breath that she was able to do it for the safety of the coven. Cordelia’s body plupeted towards the ground. You leapt forward to catch her before she hit the ground. Zoe jolted upright gasping for air. She did it. Your girlfriend did it. You were ecstatic. 

She grabbed onto you for support as you eased her back up into a standing position. You slowly let go of her and stepped back to talk it all in. Her all in. She radiated perfect health. Her eyes healed, no scarring from when they were stabbed. 

Cordelia took the world in, she never thought she was going to see again when she stabbed her eyes out. The world had never looked so bright. The vibrant colours of the floral you were all surrounded with, life anew. The coven lost a powerful witch but gained a new one. No, the power was always there just suppressed by self-doubt. Never again shall a witch under this roof be allowed to doubt themselves. She had a new mission, to make this coven the most powerful it has ever been.

A huge celebration was held that night to celebrate. A celebration among family because that's what you were. The coven had become your second family. You didn’t always get along and a couple members were slightly murderous but it was yours. Madison was out of the picture, she’d run off not long after the next supreme rose.

Cordelia decided to go public about the Witches and their powers in a television interview, inviting new witches to the Academy.  Myrtle reminded Cordelia that she must pay for killing the other Council members and should be burnt at the stake. Cordelia resisted, telling Myrtle that she has been like a true mother for her. She didn’t give Myrtle a response straight away. She seeked help from you. 

“Do we have to burn her?” YOu asked.

“She killed two of our own.”

“But hasn’t there been enough death. We know she won’t do it again. There was no way anything good was going to happen with those two in charge, they basically sided with your mother the entire time. Anyways, it’s my fault she did it, if I hadn’t done what I did she would never have given me the eyes.”

“Then she would have given them to me.”

“Please Delia. She doesn’t need to die, she was wrongly burnt before, can’t that wrongdoing be the price. No one needs to know.”

“She’s adamant that we do it.”

“But no one wants to do it. She’s too nice of a person to be burnt. Denounce her status as a council member as punishment if you have to do something.”

“What if people ask what happened to the last ones?”

“If they have to ask, then that means Fiona never told anyone. We could use that to our advantage, say we don’t know, it was under Fiona’s reign so they can’t blame you for their disappearance. There are ways around this, I’ll help you every step of the way.”

“Y/N~”

“I knew she was going to do it.”

“What?”

“She told me before she did it. She asked me to distract you for long enough so she could do it.”

“Y/n, you should have told me.”

“I know. Doesn’t that make me just as bad?”

“No.”

“In the eyes of the law?”

“Turning a blind side isn’t the best way to start a reign as supreme.”

“Still better than murder.”

Cordelia invited Queenie and Zoe to be her Council, denouncing Myrtle from her role as a council member. The two girls accept the job offer. The three remaining students took on a new role as teachers at Miss Robichaux's. Cordelia convinced you to take up your long dream of becoming a Doctor, enrolling you in a medical course. 

As Miss Robichaux's opened their gates for the new generation of witches, Girls and women were lined up for miles, waiting to take their places as students. Downstairs, the school had a guest, the old Supreme. Once the girls and woman had sorted from those who are and aren’t witches, you went up to Cordelia to inform her of her mother’s presence. She thanked you, placing a kiss on your head before leaving to see the woman. 

Fiona was ill and aged. Cordelia predicted that Fiona would not last the night. The two talked about her mother's impending mortality and that she must die for her daughter to truly live as well as Fiona always was Cordelia’s villain, her monster in every cupboard. Fiona wanted to be taken out the same way she took out her predecessor, but no one could help her move on to the end and that Fiona had to let herself go. As they hug, Fiona died in Cordelia's arms.

Cordelia gently placed her mother down onto the ground. She sat down in the chair to the right of the table, reflecting on the last few moments, the words her mother said to her. Her eyes landed on a wrapped package that wasn’t there this morning. Curiously, she unwrapped the paper revealing some sort of journal and her grandmother’s ring. Fiona must have found the ring since she was given the necklace. Cordelia slipped the ring on her finger, admiring it before drawing her attention back to the book. She didn’t recognise it. She opened it at a random page, the pages were aged, the writing in a legible cursive. The contents detailed the method to make a potion that Cordelia had never heard of before with line art of some of the ingredients. Unlike the ring, this book wasn’t for her. She flipped it back to the front. There was a short message wishing the book owner a happy 16th, criticizing their taste for a gift, so on and so forth. It was signed by Fiona. 

Cordelia closed the book, running her hand over the leather cover. It belonged to your Aunt and therefore was now yours. Once she dealt with Fiona’s body, she approached you with the gift.

“What’s this?” You asked as you unwrapped the book Cordelia rewrapped. 

“I found it after my mother died, I think it’s for you.”

You looked at the book you’ve seen before. You were confused, wasn’t this Cordelia’s? “I don’t understand. I thought this was yours. It has your name in it.”

“I’ve never seen it before today. I think it was your Aunt’s.” 

You opened the book flipping through the pages. It was exactly what you were looking for, not only to satisfy your curiosity of the woman your family refused to talk about (other than the occasional reference) but it was the key to helping you finish your project. You brought the book to your chest, huffing it tightly. Finally a connection to someone like you, the same power. You’d been compared to her too many times, now you get a glimpse at the young woman that left the world too young. She could have been you if you were allowed to finish the test. Maybe, there was no way to know and you didn’t plan on finding out. 

“Thank you Delia. Really thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You’ve done more than you know.”