#this was supposed to be very angsty and then it uh. wasn't

[wileys-russo]

please write a blurb about finding out that Lessi takes street dancing lessons, going with her to one and then her just being so clumsy!!! It’s so funny

this is longer than anticipated and went in a slightly different direction. starts off a little angsty but the end is super fluffy, still made me giggle

fancy footwork II a.russo

you sighed and tried your very best not to let your mind slowly descent into wildly overthinking the situation as you tapped your phone screen and saw it was now nearing seven, and there was still no sign of alessia.

your girlfriend had finished training at half past four and was supposed to come right home, but given it was hours later and she wasn't picking up her phone she'd clearly failed to inform you of plans she'd made.

well, thats what you were trying to tell yourself. it would be a whole lot easier if this was the first time this had happened, however it was not.

for the last two weeks alessia had seemed not herself, often home late without a real reason, or dipping off to do mystery errands and odd jobs at weird times, returning in different clothes and seemingly a lot more tired than when she left, shutting down any questions you had with a kiss and a swift change of topic.

at first you thought it could be anxiety and this was her way of coping, your girlfriend had previously suffered with it quite badly leading up to selection for the euros, panicking her hamstring would play up again or tweak and leave her out of the squad.

it had meant she'd trained harder, done extra drills, asked for more one on ones with the physio and the trainers.

only you knew in your gut this time that just wasn't the case.

you'd like to think the two of you had healthy communication down to a tee, rarely arguing or getting into rows that weren't the cause of playful banter.

on the rare occasions you did seriously disagree it was seldom that any sort of yelling was involved, you both going out of your way to listen to the other and do your best to try and meet them halfway at least if unable to see eye to eye.

your head snapped up as you heard the jingle of her keys in the door, sat curled up on the lounge with a book in your lap. you frowned when she didn't even call out that she was home like she normally would, only slipping off her trainers and closing the door after her.

"hi love." she greeted you with a tired smile, making no move toward you and instead heading upstairs toward your bedroom with her bag slung over her shoulder.

you sat for a second, internally debating if you followed her or not, eventually deciding you would as you marked your page in your book and placed it down on the coffee table. you jogged upstairs and found the blonde in your shared bedroom, riffling through her kit bag.

"what's a girl gotta do for a kiss hello?" you started lightly, poking at your girlfriend who turned toward you. "sorry, hi." alessia simply pecked your lips before turning back to her kit bag, separating the clean clothes from the dirty and you frowned at the lackluster show of affection.

"you alright?" you asked quietly, moving to place your hand on top of hers and giving her a look of concern as she glanced to you. "i'm fine, just exhausted." she answered shortly, pulling her hand away and bundling her dirty clothes up in her arms, heading toward the laundry.

"did training run late? i know the derbys this weekend and they can sometimes push you harder leading up to it." you followed, pushing yourself up to sit on top of the dryer as the taller girl began to put on a load of washing.

"no, training was fine." she murmured quietly and you let an awkward silence fall between the two of you, waiting to see if she'd make any efforts to further the conversation.

"did you do something afterwards then?" you pressed, not missing the way the girl tensed up at the question. "uh just got coffee with tooney, we caught up with jill at box2box." she answered, refusing to look up or meet your eye which sent further alarm bells ringing through your head that you tried to shut off.

"you should have told me babe i wasn't doing anything." you continued, nudging her with your foot and frowning as she pushed it away. "we don't have to do everything together, it's good to have separate friends and hobbies." the blonde replied somewhat bluntly, squatting down to fiddle with the settings of the washer.

"oh, yeah i guess you're right." you tried to mask the hurt in your voice at the comment which was incredibly out of character for the striker, the two of you normally going out of your way to do everything together, forever joking there wasn't something you couldn't turn into a two person job.

"i'll go start dinner then." you stated quietly, trying to hide the red flush of embarrassment that sat on your cheeks from the thought that your girlfriend might think you were clingy. trying to silence the doubts and insecurities which flew through your head at just a simple comment.

though glancing upward and seeing the obvious discomfort on your face guilt flooded your girlfriends features and she quickly straightened, moving to stand in between your legs, stopping you from getting down from where you sat atop the dryer.

"hey that was really rude of me to say baby i'm so sorry. i didn't mean it like that i promise, i love spending time with you." she cupped your face, pressing a much more sincere kiss to your lips and mumbling a soft i love you against them.

"its okay, you're not wrong. it isn't unhealthy to do some stuff separately." you forced a smile, still feeling a little uneasy at this piling on top of your previous worries about her frequented disappearances.

"i really am sorry gorgeous, i'm just tired and didn't think before i spoke. i missed you." she pulled you into a tight hug, the taller girl resting her chin on your shoulder and gently moving your arms to wrap around her. "i missed you too." you replied softly, sighing into her shoulder before the two of you broke apart.

"less, you'd tell me if anything was up with us right?" you asked hesitantly, the blondes eyebrows knitted into a frown as you did, both from the use of her common nickname which you rarely resorted to, much preferring more tender and sweet terms like baby or angel, and from the content of the actual question.

"of course i would baby. why?" alessia asked in return, worry seeping quickly into her bones as you shook your head. "nothing, it's silly. i'll go start dinner!" you forced another smile and tried to get down but the striker stopped you.

"hey, where's this coming from? talk to me." the blonde encouraged softly, grabbing your hands in hers and running her thumbs tenderly over your knuckles. "just drop it less, like i said it's silly, nothing even." you assured but it was to no avail as her blue eyes pierced into yours, waiting for you to explain.

"it really is nothing baby, you just didn't tell me you had plans with ella so i didn't know where you were after training and you didn't answer your phone and i just got a little worried." you spoke quickly in explanation, fiddling with one of your girlfriends rings as her hands still remained connected with yours.

"oh love, i thought i told you this morning i'd be back late. i'm sorry for worrying you, and i'm sorry i didn't include you in the plan in the first place." your blonde lover apologized sincerely and you nodded in acceptance toward her words.

"if it makes you feel any better jill and ella pretty much spent the whole time teasing me about how in love with you i am, apparently i talk too much about you at training!" the blonde rolled her eyes playfully before peppering all over your face with kisses, grinning as you finally laughed and sent her a proper smile, kicking her away.

"come on, i don't think i can be bothered to cook and clean honestly. get a chinese, cuddles and a movie?" your girlfriend asked hopefully and you eagerly agreed, squealing as she picked you up off the dryer, hands sitting securely under your thighs as she walked the two of you downstairs, seemingly much more herself than before.

but despite the reassurance you still couldn't shake the small voice of doubt sat firmly in the back of your mind.

~

it wasn't till days later, match day to be exact, did those voices get louder.

"oi oi if it isn't the future mrs russo!" you heard a familiar voice tease as you stood waiting for your girlfriend to change and come and meet you, leaning against the door of her car. "hello mrs bunney!" you teased back with a grin, the brunette gasping and smacking your shoulder as she joined you.

"he's gonna be the future mr toone actually thank you, if he's so lucky!" ella flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically making you laugh. "when do you propose then? should we go ring shopping?" you mocked, the girl dropping her bag to the ground and playfully shoving you, the two of you catching up for awhile.

"so i heard you and less caught up with dear jill scott the other day, surprised i didn't see her here flying the man city flag high and yelling insults. how is she?" you made the mistake of asking, ellas face scrunching in confusion at your words.

"eh? when?" ella asked with a frown and now you were the one to look confused. "wednesday after training. less said she was late home cause the two of you got coffee and caught up with jill?" you questioned, your heart leaping into your throat as ella shook her head.

"nah man wednesdays date night for me and bunny." ella explained and suddenly it was as if your world came crashing down, the repeated excuses of going for a run with ella or a coffee with ella or a kick around with ella on wednesdays flowing through your head.

"hey, you alright?" ella asked softly, grabbing your arms as you locked eyes with her, nodding as you spotted alessia making her way toward the two of you. "yeah fine, maybe she just got mixed up." you forced a smile as ella nodded slowly, alessia arriving and throwing her arms over both your shoulders.

"ah my favourite girl, and you're here too babe." the blonde teased, the jab which normally would only be met with a playful roll of your eyes and a ribbing hit back toward her from you. though this time you shoved her arm off, quickly moving around to the passenger side of the car and slipping inside.

alessia frowned at your moody response and looked to ella with a raised eyebrow who shook her head, mumbling she needed to go and legging it away toward her own car. "what was that?" your girlfriend asked as soon as she closed her door, eyes burning holes into the side of your head.

"you lied." was all you responded sharply, only confusing the blonde across from you who awaited a further explanation, which didn't arrive. "when?" she questioned again, turning her body in her seat to face you more, keys laying dormant in her lap as the carpark cleared, her white mercedes now one of the only vehicles left in the lot.

"you told me you were home late from training because you got coffee with ella, you didn't." you again responded quickly and bluntly, not missing the guilt which flickered across your girlfriends face as you did.

"baby-" "don't." you warned her seriously, now turning to face the blonde properly as you readied yourself, more upset with her than you could ever remember being.

she'd never lied to you before, and you hated lies.

"you spun me some lovely story about seeing jill and being teased for how much you love me and how much you gush over me at training. all bullshit! why? where were you really?" you asked seriously, doing your best not to raise your voice despite your growing frustrations.

"my love-" "don't alessia. where were you?" the blonde winced at the use of her name, biting her tongue as not to beg you call her anything but that. "it doesn't matter, i shouldn't have lied."

"no you shouldn't have! and it does matter, it matters to me. you know i hate lying and if it doesn't matter to you then it can't be that big. so tell me, where were you?" you asked firmly, the blonde only sighing and refusing to meet your eyes, drumming her fingers nervously on the steering wheel.

"well? where were you?" you questioned again, a little louder this time and only met with silence, a pained look on your girlfriends face causing your stomach to drop.

"alessia are you cheating on me?" you eventually whispered out, the anger seeping from your body replaced with a crippling worry as you finally voiced the insecurities which had been plaguing your mind for weeks now.

"am i what? baby no, never. i promise!!" the taller girls head snapped immediately toward you and she scrambled to grab your hands which you promptly tugged away, tucking them in your own lap.

"why would you say that? why would you even think that?" alessia whispered in disbelief, the shock not having cleared from her face.

"well lately you seem to be coming and going a lot and without much explanation why, and always at weird times. you come back sweaty and in different clothes, and i know ella see's joe on a wednesday so all those times you used her as a scapegoat when it was that day, were obviously more lies." you explained quietly, looking out the window instead of at her, unable to stand the look of hurt visibly evident on the taller girls face.

"i can explain all of that, but i promise on everything i am not cheating on you. i love you so much that it hurts and i would never ever take that for granted, you're the best thing in my life." alessia rambled, reaching out again for your hand as you only shrunk away from her and the blonde deflated.

"well go on then." "what?" "you said you can explain all of that, explain then." "can we just drop it? but i promise its not cheating."

"just drop it?" your head snapped toward your girlfriend who paled at her poor choice of words which had clearly upset you further. "you don't get to lie and make me empty promises and then not explain yourself alessia." you warned, trying to open her door as the girl quickly locked them.

"let me out." "no." "explain then!" "no." "alessia you better let me out of this car or i swear to god-" "okay fine! just stop calling me alessia." "explain then...alessia."

"you have to promise you won't laugh." your girlfriend warned seriously and the anger present in your features melted at her choice of words, replaced instead with confusion.

"promise!" alessia stated firmly again, holding up her pinky as you gave her a look of disbelief. "baby! promise me." alessia warned and you rolled your eyes but linked your pinkies none the less and mumbled you promised.

"oh god." alessia sunk down into her seat, dragging her hands down her face with a troubled sigh. "i've been taking dance classes." she mumbled into her hands as she buried her face in them and you frowned, assuming you'd heard her incorrectly.

"pardon?" "i've been taking dance classes." "dance classes?"

"yes! in secret, every wednesday at five thirty. but i'm so bad at it that i've been getting some extra help from the teacher when he's free. who is a flamboyantly gay man by the way!" she was quick to add in, aware of how this could come across.

"you've been taking....dance classes." "yes." "why?" "well i read an article that said it helps athletes with their performance, helps them loosen up their bodies as well as shape and tone, and with the world cup incoming i have to be at my best." "what sort of dance helps with football?" "...street dance."

"like...hip hop? popping and locking and all that?" you bit down on your bottom lip to stop the grin which so badly wanted to take over your face as the blonde nodded.

"yeah. but don't laugh! you promised." alessia warned seriously, though biting the inside of her cheek to stop her own smile from spreading.

"so instead of just telling me about this, you kept it hidden and we had to have our first proper row and i had to think you were cheating on me to finally find out." you sighed as alessias face turned guilty once again and she slowly nodded.

"oh less." you shook your head in slight amusement, the blonde apologizing over and over as she grabbed your hands, sighing in relief when you finally let her take them.

"i guess taking street dance classes is probably more embarrassing than cheating anyway." you commented casually, shock and offence flashing across the older girls face as you eventually gave in, letting laughter wrack at your body.

"you promised you wouldn't laugh!" alessia whined with a pout, though seeing the clear humor in the situation she eventually joined in, the car filled with the symphony of your laughter, both of you clutching at your stomachs and wiping tears from your eyes.

"lessi baby you are such a dope."

~

you eventually filled ella in on what happened, the brunette insisting that you come clean about what happened with the coffee shop lie, alessia was unimpressed but understood she was in the wrong.

though that didn't stop her from refusing to let either one of you go to class with her, or reveal anything else about them, changing the subject anytime it came up or distracting you with a cheeky hickey or her tongue down your throat anytime you pressed the issue.

which is how you'd ended up here, it was a chilly wednesday afternoon and you were crammed into ellas car with the seats leant all the way back, the two of you peering at your girlfriend as she parked, locking her car and heading into the dance studio.

"tooney i don't know about this! it feels wrong." you stressed, fiddling with the strings of your hoodie as the head of blonde hair disapeared inside and ella commanded you both sit up and get out of the car.

"oh don't go mushy and moral on me now man, come on!" ella shot out of the car and you groaned quietly but followed none the less, the two of you hurrying across the car park toward the studio, crouching down by the window as the room inside pulsed from the bass of the music blasting out of it.

"okay on three we look, but we have to be subtle. she can't know we were here!" ella commanded and you nodded firmly, the girl counting down on her fingers before the two of you popped your heads up, peering over the edge of the window.

you both exchanged a look of shock watching alessia dance along to the beat with the class.

well...try to dance.

the poor girl flung her long limbs around and did her best not to fall at the eratic movement, rolling her body and popping her hips terribly out of beat as she tried to keep up with the rest of the class.

as the blonde tripped over herself and went tumbling to the floor tooney let out a sudden loud boom of laughter, your face paling as she smacked her hand over her mouth and the two of you ducked down.

though not before the older blonde had spotted the two of you, hurrying to her feet and mumbling an apology as the class resumed and she burst out of the studio doors, looking around before her eyes locked in on the two of you and narrowed.

"shit we made it angry. go!" ella grabbed you as the two of you jumped to your feet and sprinted away, alessia charging after you with a yell, her long legs meaning she came closer and closer as you and ella neared her car at the other end of the lot.

"tooney save yourself man!" you yelled out dramatically as your girlfriend caught you, tanned arms wrapping you around you and trapping you in their strong hold.

"i'll never forget your sacrifice!" the brunette saluted and wiped away fake tears, diving into her car and peeling out of the lot, yelling out she'd see alessia at training tomorrow before she zoomed away.

"hello footloose." you teased, tilting your head back to look up at your girlfriend who glowered down at you with a glare. "i hope that was worth it, because now i am going to kill you." you laughed as the taller girl dragged you with her toward her car, already deciding she wasn't going back to class today.

"tooney will make sure the police find out who did it." "my best friend? i'm sure i can sway her to take my side as an alibi." "okay ouch." "plus, no body no crime. i'm gonna drown you in the river babygirl."

~

"okay my love lets just start off slow. finding the beat and following the rhythm." you instructed softly, you and alessia stood facing one another in the living room, having moved some furniture around so the space was more clear.

with much persistence you'd managed to convince her to let you help her with her dancing, the poor girls private lessons only furthering her embarrassment as they did very little to help her keep up in class.

so once she'd told you she was going to quit you took matters into your own hands to stop that happening, and here you were.

clicking play on the music you started to move your body from side to side with the beat, clicking along as you did so, alessia watching you intently before you encouraged her to join in.

"see? just relax baby, stop thinking about it so hard and just....move."

it was around two hours later but you'd already made progress, you stood up on the lounge clapping along to the beat as your girlfriend rolled her body along and started to finally get a hold over the routine.

"yes! see you're doing it!" you cheered her on excitedly as she finally made it all the way through without tripping over. "okay now freestyle, remember what i said no thinking, just move." you ordered as the song changed and you continued to clap along to the beat.

"go lessi, go lessi, go lessi, go lessi." you chanted over and over as your girlfriend danced around the room, spurred on by your encouragement.

"baby you did it!" you yelled happily as the song ended and you launched yourself at her from the lounge, the taller girl catching you in her arms as you pressed your lips to hers, her hands squeezing your thighs as your legs wrapped around her.

"hey where are you going? we're not done yet you only did the routine all the way through once!" you laughed and pulled away as she began to walk the two of you towards the stairs.

"well tesoro i think this has been so successful that we need to continue this little private lesson in the bedroom."

[kurosstuff]

bunny!lute x yourchoice!gn!reader ? maybe smut, preferably fluff please 🩷🩷

I'll do fluffy this time around ~♡♡ maybe smut if you request this or someone else does again

Ngl I'm a sucker for prey x predator asks♡♡

Short and sweet I hope

Warnings(s): fluff, mentions of being collared, prey x predator, courting gone wrong?(from different species) reader is literally a huge puppy- head over heels inlove with lute, Lute is MEAN. Violence at the begining some angst cause of bad choice words

Also sorry the ENDING LINE. is angsty- ♡

Bunny!lute x werewolf!reader: attempt at courting

Hunting for food is easy. Just get what would be enough to save to eat for the day if your lucky weeks- saving it in your little den- near your nest

But it's If your courting

The bigger the kill for your potential mate the better your seen as in some eyes. Gotta show you can be a suitable mate. Ensure the other will be fed well. Cared for perfectly. That's what you were doing. Hunting for her. Your tail wagged in the thought. Of how happy she'd be.

Snarling, you pounced on the unsuspecting deer chomping down on its neck hearing a sickening crunch- before a rustle sound was heard- your neck snapped, snarling biting harder on the deers neck seeing a white bunny pop out

Unmoving staring up at you, unafraid

There's only one bunny you knew that wouldn't run at the sight of you- a werewolf- the very one only YOU saw her bunny form of. Your tail began to wag the bloodied mangled deer in your mouth, shook as you growled.

Your soon to be mate! Lute-

Hopefully mate.

Rushing to her- uncaring at how bloodied you got, you dropped the deer in front of her proudly puffing yohr chest as you say her glance at it before a deep sigh escaped her turning back into her human..ish form.

"What the fuck is this"

You froze. Tail tucked nervously at how pissed she was. But.. why? Why would she be pissed? You gave her food. "Food- for uh.. for you?" Tilting your head in thought, hearing a thump- looking down her leg thumping. Shit. She's pissed pissed

"No. What the fuck is this. I'm a bunny. Remember?" She growled out, making you frown guilty. Right. You forgot again. Lute can't eat meat. Just like you can't Properly eat..whatever the fuck that one shit she eats was- uh carrots? You think?

Sighing, you knelt down, picking the deer up. "Sorry, Lute," you whispered as she mumbled something before she sighed

"I can't eat that. Give something else" she grumbled causing you to stop freezing tail wagging happily in what that meant.

She's accepting

Well- you hoped. Lute is a bit.. confusing with her words and actions. She'll say things or do things but she'll mean another thing.

Lute hums her ear twitched as she watched you grin at her. Tail thumping loudly, "Maybe I should collar you" she hummed gently reaching touching your neck in curiosity - "just claiming you as my pet, I suppose, huh?"

Her pet-

You sighed- there she goes again. Not thinking of you as a potential mate but rather her pet. From how eager you are to make her happy. How you follow her orders like an obedient dog. Which for her you supposed you would be a pet.

Not a mate-

That cause your tail to slowly coming to a stop- turning walking away, which follows the path back to your den- holding rhe deer close. You suppose if you grabbed those carrots for Lute, she'd be happy? Sighing, you glanced, expecting to see Lute watching as she always did. Watching you walk off away from her dens entrance. But this times different

Lutes following you

"Don't read too much into it, pup," she grumbled out flushed ear flickering. "I know how you get after hunting. You get sleepy. Wanting to take a nap, yeah?" She grumbled, watching the path turn leading to a cave "this your home? Where your nest is?" She hummed easily following you in.

Showing she truly blindly trusted you. Knowing she wasn't in any danger

Nodding, you grinned, placing the deer off in some corner- never was one to have a cabin after all. Not most monsters had such a human thing. Some felt comfort for it. But for you- anything but. Made you feel trapped.

"You know me too well~" Your tail thumped happily, turning to see her near your nest she hummed in thought, nodding. Moving close, wringing your hands together nervously cautious. "Do.. you wanna take a nap with me?"

Silence filled the cave as she thought to herself. Did she? Is that why she followed you to your nest today? Why she had such an urge? Why did she come with? Lute didn't have an answer she wasn't sure why she did. Wasn't sure why she even entertained you in the first place. Letting you a predator oh so close? Letting you the first to ever see her as a bunny.

Oh how she loathed being a bunny. She was strong. Strong enough to handle herself. To be a guard. She has the muscles the strength the stamina. Everything. But nothing compared to the true thing.

Nothing compared to a predator

Turning, she stared at you- in other predators' sights, she's on edge, never being to close. Never turning her back on them. But seeing how soft you looked at her. How could she not trust you?

On instinct- or maybe her truthful thinking? She nodded, grumbling loudly she willingly turned into her bunny form- the oh so soft grumpy ball of fur at your feet- making you coo as always a response from you fawning for her she thumped her foot in anger- what a grumpy bunny

Humming, you knelt down, picking her up, knowing only you had such permission. It's such an honor for a grumpy angery ball of furr now settled into a calm, almost happy thing. "Alright~" setting into your nest, moving her to your side- you grinned at her, resisting the urge to kiss her adorable face

Knowing why she turned into this form made you smile softly- she does this to avoid the talks of why she did it. To avoid the embarrassment. Imaging your surpise when she moved to cuddle into your neck, curling up ears, laid back as she settled to sleep- smiling you allowed her to nuzzle into your neck softly.

"Good night lute" a soft squeak answered back.

Tomorrow was a new day. A new attempt at courting her- this time. You'll do it right. Find our how bunny's court. Maybe that was the issue. Maybe that's what you needed to be.

Oh, how you wished to be a bunny too. Maybe then. She'd want you like you want her.

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

A/N: Don't mind me. I'm feeling angsty and protective over my sexuality today.

"Eddie's been gone for a while," Vickie said nervously.

Robin, Vickie, Eddie, and Steve had decided to go to the new gay club that opened up in Indie. They've been having a wonderful time so far, mingling and getting to know people. Meanwhile, Eddie decided to search the crowd for other bisexuals. Much to Steve’s disappointment, Eddie had found a guy that he liked and disappeared into the crowd with him.

"He's probably hitting it off," Steve muttered.

"This is what happens when you put off telling people how you feel," Robin said. "I can't believe that I managed to do it before you did."

"Thanks, very helpful, Robin," Steve said.

Suddenly, another man approached the table.

"Uh, did you guys come here with a guy named Eddie?" He asked.

"Yeah," Steve said.

"I think he's about to start a fight," the man said and pointed to the direction that Eddie was in.

"Jesus, okay. Thank you," Steve said.

He got up and started walking in that direction. A few minutes later, Steve started walking back with Eddie flung over his shoulder.

"How in the everloving fuck do I not look bisexual? How the fuck are you supposed to look bisexual? I'm sorry, am I supposed to part my hair, dye one side blue and the other side pink? How does one dress gay? I mean, you're just wearing clothes, and you happen to be queer! And if it's because of what I'm wearing, this is typical metalhead fashion. I mean, if this was true, then every metalhead would be gay. And you're telling me that bisexuals aren't allowed to use the hanky code? Also, I did not know about the code until today. I'm sorry that I don't look bisexual enough for you! Let me just change myself to fit your opinion of me! And apparently, you look bisexual and I don't! How come you get to be bisexual? Why am I not allowed?" Eddie ranted furiously. "Also, that one guy who said, "straight people are always trying to find clever ways to divide us." Excuse me?! I am not straight and what a fucked up thing to say. You know, I thought coming here would be another place to feel included, but it's just more people telling me who they think that I'm supposed to be. Being bisexual is just as queer as any other sexuality in the community. There's nothing wrong with being gay, just like there's nothing wrong with being bisexual. I'm sorry that me liking women isn't queer enough for you but this is who I am and if you don't like it then that's your problem!"

At some point, Steve had set him down and listened to him as he ranted. Finally, he stopped and sighed, dropping his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Eddie," Steve said softly.

"Anything that I do, it's always going to be wrong to everyone," Eddie said and sighed. "The worst part is how some people acted like it was something that needed to be fixed. Isn't that why this community was created? To make people see that people like us don't need to be fixed."

"I'm sorry," Steve said softly.

"That's fucked up. What the hell?" Robin asked.

Eddie sighed and started fingering the collar of Steve’s polo. He ran his fingers over the soft material of the shirt before moving them up to cup Steve’s face.

"People are always going to be telling me what I'm doing is wrong, but I'm not going to let them stop me from living the life that I want to," Eddie said.

He pulled Steve by his collar and smashed his lips to his. Steve moaned loudly in surprise before relaxing into the kiss and sighing against his lips. Vickie squealed and started hitting Robin.

"Babe, I'm right here, I can see them too," Robin said in amusement.

Eddie broke the kiss, breathing heavily. He grinned.

"Thanks for carrying me out of the fight. When I said I wanted to fight that guy, I wasn't serious, especially when he brought out his hulk of a boyfriend," Eddie said, and then he grinned. "When I need someone to fight for me, does that mean that I have a boyfriend now who's willing to fight my battles for me?"

"Boyfriend, yes. Champion, no," Steve said.

"Well, damn," Eddie said.

"It's okay, Vickie, I'm willing to be your champion, unlike some people," Robin said teasingly.

Vickie giggled and kissed Robin. Steve rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around Eddie's waist, pulling him close.

"Maybe I won't be your fighter, but I will always be there to pull your cute little ass out of the fire and to make you feel better when people hurt you," Steve said softly.

"Are you saying you'll be my fireman?" Eddie asked.

"I guess," Steve laughed.

"You do make me feel better about myself," Eddie said as he leaned his forehead against his. "Let's get out of here. I want to kiss you all over."

"Disgusting," Robin said affectionately.

Maybe one day, people won't have a problem with his sexuality but for now, Eddie was content to live his life with his family, friends, and Steve, who accept him completely for who he is. He was a bisexual man who liked men and women. Just because other people can't see him that way, didn't mean it was any less true. It was his undeniable truth.

[rekino2114]

Arei's s/o during the second trial

A/n:on this final installment of drdt daturday we have......angst well it's not as angsty and heartbreaking as the last episode I NEED TO GIVE TERUKO A HUG RIGHT NOW....don't worry I already have some ideas for some comfort fics for her

[Spoilers for all of drdt chapter 2 obviously]

It was hard to explain the emotions you were feeling in that elevator. You stood in the back with your head down and your arms crossed, you hadn't talked to anyone during the investigation, you didn't want to, the image of your girlfriend's body hanging from that swing was still fresh in your mind and the idea that you could even accidentally talk to the person who killed her made you want to vomit.

"Y-y/n are you OK?"

"......no"

"O-oh"

"Sorry eden, it's just.....she's gone"

"Don't worry, I understand. Her death hit me pretty hard so I can't even imagine what it's like for you"

".....thank you for checking on me"

"It's nothing. I promise we'll find her killer"

"......I don't know if that's gonna make me feel better"

"......."

Your conversation was interrupted by the door opening and everyone walking out. You went to your podium, and the trial started.

You stayed mostly silent during the first part of the trial only telling the secret you received and occasionally interjecting.....until David said this

"Ahahaha!!! Oh fucking fine.....i.....I killed arei, does hearing that make you happy?"

"!"

"You piece of shit, you really admitted to it"

"You.....how could you do that! You're horrible!"

"What a mess"

"How exciting~"

teruko convinced David to explain himself, and you were still shocked to hear what he had to say....but for a very different reason

"I suppose you could call me arei's murderer but it's more like I talked her into killing herself"

........what?

"You........what?"

"She already had a pretty low opinion of herself, and she was looking for validation from me. It was pretty easy to convince her she should die"

"That's.....that's-"

"Terrible! how could you possibly do that! Arei wanted to change! and you talked her into believing she couldn't!"

"And why should I care? Actually, to that matter, why should you care? Arei contributed nothing of significant value to my life or to yours. She existed as a background character for a few short days, to occasionally interject brief interruptions of bitching and now she's gone. Arei had about as much impact as a temporary weather spell, but no one cries when the sun comes out again"

You couldn't take it anymore. That bastard needed to shut up

".....I see so that's how it is.......how dare you"

"Oh, what are you mad that i-"

"How dare you lie to our faces like that!"

"........."

"Ahahaha and to think I believed you for a second, arei killed herself? Sure whatever you say!"

"Y-y/n?, what's wrong?"

"Listen to me, arei would never kill herself, do you know how many death treaths she received? Do you know how many times her sisters told her to do just that? And you think she'd do that because of you? Fuck off"

"I agree with y/n, arei wasn't the type to commit suicide plus there's too much stuff that David can't explain about the crime"

"Oh, you don't believe me? how cruel! I wanted to make this trial easier for you, you know?"

"Shut up! I'm sure teruko will find some concrete evidence to expose your lie but just know I'm not voting until this blue haired bitch tells the truth"

"Blue haired bitch? Awwww are you seeing arei's ghost? Maybe she wants you to join her"

"I was talking about you shithead, now stop lying"

"..........you want the truth uh?.......fine then I guess I'll tell you, y/n is right, I didn't kill arei, I didn't talk her into suicide, our conversation had nothing to do with her death"

"W-what?"

"Took you long enough"

"Why the hell did you lie then? Don't you know that if we vote wrong all of us will die, you too shitface"

".....I don't know if that will answer your question but if anyone was wondering............I know who the real killer is"

"E-eh?"

"What the fuck?"

"What are you on about now?"

"It's true, I was near the crime scene around the time of the murder, did you forget that? And I saw the murder being committed"

"He's probably lying again.....right?"

"But why would he?"

"W-who is it? Who killed arei?"

"Alright then, listen closely cause I'll say it one time only......the cold-blooded killer who ruthlessly took arei nageishi's life is.............. Y/N L/N!"

W-what did he just say?

"W-whaaaaaaaaaat?"

"No way!"

"Y-you bastard"

"Explain yourself"

"Very well, since teruko asked me so nicely, I'll do it. So, as you know and as ace can confirm, arei and i had a conversation in the relaxation room, after she left I stayed there for a while thinking about our discussion and when I left I passed by the playground, the rooms are right in front of each other if you remember, and there I saw....y/n right in the middle of strangling arei, of course I left immediately to not become the next portrait around here"

"....there's no way, you're lying, y/n would never, they loved arei"

"If you knew they were the killer, then why did you claim to have killed her earlier?"

"Because I was soooo distraught by the scene of y/n killing the person they claimed to love that I just felt the need to cover for them"

"R-really?"

"Nope I just wanted you all to vote wrong"

"Fuck you"

"We almost died because of your lie"

"Like I care, so what do you have to say.... you murderer?"

David looked straight at you, and you snapped, not only did this piece of shit lie to arei to gain her trust, not only did he try to get everyone killed but now he was lying again and claiming that you were the killer?

"......so that's how you want to play.... alright then, I'll play by your rules"

"How fun~"

"First of all why the heck would I kill arei? She was my girlfriend for fuck's sake"

"I dunno maybe you had an argument that escalated"

"As if I'd kill her for something like that"

"Then maybe she started attacking you first. She was pretty aggressive after all. Maybe this was all just self-defense"

"Oh, so you think I just carry around rope with me everywhere I go? She was hanged, remember?"

"Well I saw you choking her so maybe you put too much force and accidentally killed her, then when you realized what you had done, you decided to grab the rope and make it look like a suicide"

"Then why the fuck would I object when you yourself told everyone you talked arei into suicide? everyone was about to vote for you, if I stayed silent I would have won the trial"

"You said it yourself. You knew teruko was going to disprove me sooner or later, so you thought that by doing that whole scene, you would look innocent and play the part of the heartbroken partner who just lost their girlfriend. 10/10 performance, by the way, you could have given me a run for my money"

"Y-you........t-then why would I feel the need to fake the letter in eden's name, I could have used mine, and it would have probably worked better"

"Ah! You're so desperate. You're asking me these obvious questions? Anyone with a brain knows that if their name was found on the letter, it would have implicated them. Luckily for you, there was just one other person who arei trusted enough to meet with alone"

"..........son of a-"

"That's enough y/n, I have some questions too. What's the deal with the fishes at the crime scene?"

"How am I supposed to know, I'm not the killer. Ask them!"

"Y/n?"

"I. Don't. Know. I am not the fucking culprit"

"*sighs* you're both being so unhelpful"

"You want me to be helpful? Fine then. Why the hell are we trusting the testimony of the guy who NOT EVEN 5 MINUTES AGO admitted to lying to get us all killed, and might I remind you, who's secret is that he exists to manipulate everyone. We might as well trust a pathological liar at this point"

"Y/n's right, David's definitely lying again"

"Y-yeah, there's no way they'd kill arei"

"I agree with eden, y/n and arei really loved each other, I-I don't think they'd ever hurt each other in any way"

"I mean, people kill their lovers for stupid reasons all the time. If you add the killing game and arei's personality into the mix, I could easily see y/n killing her"

"......*sighs* I base my suspicions on evidence alone, not sentimentality, and right now, the only evidence we have is David's testimony. I would do the same if any of you accused him"

"T-teruko, you believe him? You really think y/n killed arei?"

".....it's definitely a possibility, one that I need to investigate"

"Are you even listening to me?!"

"I. Didn't. Kill. Arei. How many times do I have to say that before it gets through your thick skull? And I thought you were the smart one teruko"

"I didn't even say it was for sure. You have to admit it's a possibility, plus with how defensive you're getting"

"DEFENSIVE? do you know what it's like being accused of killing the person you loved. Actually you should know that feeling all too well after what happened with Xander"

"S-shut up"

"No, wait, now I understand. You're being like this because you think I'm like Xander, you think I pretended to love arei just to betray her in the end, you're projecting you own trust issues onto me aren't you?"

"........."

[Rebuttal showdown]

"I'm not arei's murderer!"

"What motive would I even have?"

"We already knew each other secret's even before this killing game"

"I have no reason to kill her!"

[Advance]

"As much as agreeing with David gives me physical pain. Like he said, the reason for arei's murder could have nothing to do with the secrets"

"Then what about the opportunity"

"The murder took place at 7:30 p.m right?"

"You're out of your element"

[Break]

"Huh? Charles? What is it?"

"I think David is lying, but when I was trying to think of evidence to prove y/n's innocence, I realized something much worse"

"Worse? That's bad!"

"What is it now-"

"Everyone Shut up! I need to think...........damn it. Teruko, we really fucked up"

After Charles explained that the murder could have happened at 7:30 am and teruko and Arturo admitted their mistakes (one way more calmly than the other) you started talking about your alibis at that time

"Most of us wake up at 8:00 am as early as 7:30 we would all still be asleep"

"Yeah. I was definitely asleep at that time"

"I don't have an alibi in the morning, neither does Charles"

"Do none of us have alibis during the time of the murder?"

"No I do"

"Hm? Y/n?"

"I woke up early to have breakfast, At around 7:30, David and Veronika were also there, and j came in a bit later, so they're all clear and should be able to confirm what I said"

"Yeah it's true I woke up early too to shake off arturo"

"Yep,yep, we were all having breakfast together. None of us could possibly be the murderer"

"And to think I was happily eating while arei was being murdered in the other room......it's so-"

"Exciting~"

".........."

".........shit"

"If y/n has a alibi, then they're not the killer"

"Not only that, but David was there too, so he can't have killed arei either, even if he already admitted to lying about that"

"S-so David lied....twice?"

"He really did try to get us all killed....what an asshole"

"So y/n's not the culprit after all"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past 30 minutes......anyway, what do you have to say you lying piece of shit?"

"Whoops! You really should have skipped breakfast that day you know y/n? Waking up early isn't even that fun"

"Shut up!"

"David, without a doubt you lied about both you and y/n being arei's murderer especially now that we know that both of you are two of the few people who couldn't have murdered her"

"Well when you put it that way, I suppoooose its in the realm if possibility that I've been lying about everything for the past 2 hours"

"Dude, what the fuck? You do know that an incorrect vote will get everyone killed right?"

"David, why?"

"If I tried to explain why, would you even believe me? After all, everyone thinks I'm some sort of compulsive liar now,like y/n said"

"Don't give me that crap, teruko has already apologized for misleading the trial by accident. And she's teruko of all people"

"I'm "teruko of all people?" harsh"

"So don't think you can weasel out of an explanation for misleading the trial on purpose....twice"

"Besides,to try and get everyone killed, yourself included....I'm sure you must have a remarkably interesting motivation. So please, do tell me. Oh, and don't say something as boring as "I want to kill myself." I have no interest in such mundane reasons"

"Please, I'm an incredibly interesting person full on joyous zest for life......the truth is......... I killed arei"

That stupid repetition made you yell at him again

"SHUT UP, NO SHUT THE ACTUAL FUCK UP. I swear If you lie again I will actually kill you"

"Come on. It was just a little joke~ it's true neither me nor y/n killed arei. I only said whatever was necessary to make you all think I or they did. Hell, I didn't even think to take the blame for her death until halfway through this trial! And I only accused y/n because they wouldn't believe me, and they pissed me off. Also, it would make a good story, don't you think? You know for the TV show"

"So you accused me of murdering arei because you felt like it?"

"Pretty much, it didn't really make a difference to me as long as you believed my lie"

After David did his whole speech about Xander being a good person (which pissed off teruko) and how he wants to end the killing game, you started talking about alibis again and Levi, hu, Veronika and teruko said which secrets were theirs finally revealing them all.

"I've started to detect that this trial is no longer about me, it'd be bestif I kept my mouth shut from now on riiiight?"

"If it's settled then-"

"Wait before he shuts up for good, I need to ask him something"

"Oh what a surprise! I thought you hated me"

"I do, but you're the only one who can give me my answer.....oh, and my previous statement is still valid if you lie I'll kill you"

"Nooooo please, I'm sooooo scared. Don't worry, I'll definitely tell the truth"

"......what were her last words?"

"Hm?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You and arei talked the night before she was killed.....what did you talk about?"

"Didn't ace already tell you? She found out about my secret and confronted me about it."

"I know that. But what happened later?"

"........."

"How did the conversation end? Was she mad? Did she yell at you? What happened exactly?

"........."

"Eden, you want to hear that too right?"

"....Y-yeah exactly"

"Tell us, David. What did she say?"

".........nothing. absolutely nothing. I didn't say anything to her, and she didn't have that much to say to me either. Arei simply got annoyed with me and left without saying anything else"

"....that's a relief-"

"You're lying again"

"Uh? How do you know?"

".......I don't, but it's a bet I'm willing to make. Arei.......she couldn't have simply left. She had to have said something, anything.....let me hear her last words"

"........why do you even care? Those weren't even her last words"

"..........."

"She died the next morning, remember? She probably said something between our conversation and her death. I'd wager her true last words were her cussing out her killer it would be very in character for he-"

"STOP IT"

"Uh?"

"STOP TREATING AREI LIKE THAT"

"........."

"None of you know what she was truly like. You all think she was some irredeemable bitch who got what she deserved. I'm tired of everyone slandering her, hell even before this game, do you know how many "you deserve better" or "i bet she doesn't even love you" I got. Everyone who found out I was dating her looked at me like I was willingly undergoing torture"

".......y-y/n"

"And even now that she's dead, you can't even put an ounce of respect on her name. You're talking about her like she's a mannequin, someone who wasn't here talking to us just a few days ago. And when you occasionally remember that she used to be a living person, you remember her like she was a piece of shit who contributed nothing but being annoying, and I'm tired of it"

"........."

"Do you even remember why she was killed in the first place? Because she trusted eden enough to meet with her, because she wanted to befriend her this bad. Tell me, would a bad person do that? Would a bad person save eden from arturo? Would a bad person die trying to befriend someone?....... Would a bad person love me like she did?"

At that point, you were practically crying, but you didn't care. They needed to know who arei truly was. You couldn't just stand there and let her memory be insulted like that. Especially now that it was the only thing you had left of her

"No matter what anyone says. No matter what she herself says. Arei was the best person I ever met. Because she knew she was a bad person and she tried to change that"

"Well she was doing a pretty shit job at it then-"

"DO YOU THINK I CARE?"

"U-uh?"

"Even if by the end of her life she was only 5% less shitty, hell even if she was exactly the same as she is, I'd still love her and consider her the best person I met. Because none of you know how hard it is to truly change. None of you know the hell she went through daily when she was with her sisters, and despite that, she still tried her best to change. None of you know how fucking admirable that is"

"Please y/n calm-"

"David! Earlier, you said that no one would cry if arei died. Well, I did, I cried. Do you know why I didn't investigate? Because I was locked in my room sobbing because my girlfriend's body was hanging off a fucking swing and everyone else is acting like normal. So I need to know. Tell me. WHAT WERE HER LAST WORDS?"

The trial room fell silent, the only noise that could be heard were the cries and sobs that came from you and eden (who started crying in the middle of your speech).....until David broke the silence

"........she said that good people don't exist"

"U-uh?"

"She said that because even people like me and eden did horrible things, good people don't truly exist, and she didn't have to worry about being one"

"W-what?"

"She said that we could be friends because we're so similar, she said that maybe in the future.......we could be less shitty together"

".....y-you're lying again a-aren't you? Y-you're just playing with my feelings"

"No I'm telling the truth"

His serious tone caught you off guard and you decided to let him finish

"What you said before, about no one truly knowing who arei really was, about everyone disrespecting her after her death and no one believing she was a good person.....that's how I feel about Xander......so I thought you deserved to know"

You stayed silent for a few seconds taking everything in, but then you asked the question you couldn't keep inside anymore

"........d-did she say anything about me?"

"........yes"

[Flashback]

"What about y/n?"

"Uh?"

"You don't think they're a good person?"

"......no..................I think they're the best person I ever met"

"....what?"

"I don't know if they're an objectively good person. Like I said, I don't think those exist, but that doesn't matter to me. In my eyes, they truly are the best person on this planet"

".........."

"Well, I guess they have to be if they can keep up with me. no matter how many times I push them away, no matter how many times I get angry at them or yell, they never left me. They're always there to hug me when I feel down. They saw me at my lowest point in life, and they never said anything negative about me, they saw how shitty I was and never for a moment did they consider leaving me......I don't think I'd be here without them......I love them so much"

[End flashback]

You cried even more, just putting your head down as your tears landed on the podium. She loved you. Her "last words" were that she loved you

"*sobs*....arei......I don't know if you can hear me.....but if you can......please know.....that I love you too.....so so much"

Everyone stayed silent for a few minutes, even eden and hu who wanted to comfort you, they all silently agreed to leave you alone for the rest of the trial as they started talking about the case again, and they did, you couldn't bring yourself to say anything, you still listened but you stayed silent........until teruko narrowed down the suspects to only eden and ace

"......teruko"

"Y-y/n?"

"What is it?"

"Are you 100% sure that only eden or Ace could have committed the murder?"

"Yes, I'm positive. They're the only ones"

"......I see........monotv can I vote?"

"Uh?"

"W-what?"

"Wait a second, you can't be serious. We don't even know who the killer is, and you already want us to vote?"

"No, only I want to vote.....alone...you can vote later"

"What does that even mean? Why?"

"Because......eden can't be the culprit.......that can't be possible"

".......y/n"

"She wanted to be arei's friend, she was just as upset by her death as I was......she didn't kill arei I am 100% sure of that"

"What's your evidence for that?"

"........I have none"

".........what?"

"I trust eden, that's all the evidence I need"

"Your trust is going to get you killed"

"And your lack of it is going to lead to you making more mistakes"

".....!"

"You said it yourself earlier in the trial, right? You want to start to trust people more. Well then, consider this a show of what trust truly is. I'll vote for Ace. "

"W-what the fuck?"

".............why are you doing this?"

"I told you before, I trust eden and.....I know this is what arei would have wanted"

"........."

".......y-y/n thank you.....thank you so much"

"H-hold on is that even allowed. If you're wrong, then aren't we all gonna die?"

"Did you forget how this works? It's a majority vote. Even if I'm wrong, the rest of you can still vote for eden. So will you let me, monotv?"

"Hmmmmm, I mean, I guess there's no rule against a person voting before everyone else. Sure I'll let you it'll be fun here's your monopad"

You did as you said and voted for Ace. Everyone looked at you, surprised that you actually went through with that, except eden, who was very grateful that you trusted her this much.

As it turns out, you were right. Ace was blackened, and he only did it because he was scared of dying.....you didn't know what to think about that so you stayed silent once again in the moments leading up and during the voting.

"Y/n......are you OK?"

".........i....i"

"Of course they aren't. They just found out who killed their girlfriend, I'm sure they must be boiling with rage just waiting to see the brutal way ace dies riiiiiiight~?"

"...........I'm so tired"

"Hm?"

"I just can't do this anymore, yelling at ace isn't going to bring arei back, it's pointless"

"But aren't you angry at him?"

"..............of course I am"

"......."

"Of course I'm angry at him, and of course I want to hate him, I want to yell at him and be happy when he dies, saying that arei is avenged, but I just can't"

"W-why? I'm a piece of shit who killed your girlfriend because I'm a coward. Why can't you hate me?"

"BECAUSE I'M SCARED OF DYING TOO GODDAMMIT!"

"!"

"Everyone in this room is, even the dead, min,Xander,arei they were all scared of dying otherwise this whole killing game wouldn't exist"

"W-what do you mean?"

"Think about it, Ace just said it, he killed arei simply because he didn't want to die, isn't that the same reason Min killed Xander? Because she walked in on him trying to kill teruko and panicked, she was scared that he was going to kill her...and so she acted first"

".........."

"The fact that every single one of us, if pushed to the brink, could murder someone simply because of the fear that that could happen to them........it scares me"

"Y-y/n....."

"That's why even if you killed the person I loved most, even If you are a cowardly piece of shit I just can't hate you because I know that in the right conditions I would have done the exact same thing"

"........i-i"

"Let's just get this over with, I'm.....really tired"

Everything that happened later went by in a flash and it felt like a nightmare, ace punching monotv, Levi saving teruko from her punishment and ace getting executed, you all rushed to the infirmary to treat levi while teruko stayed back in the trial room.

You sighed and went back to your room after everything was dealt with. you plopped down on your bed and.....did nothing, you had already cried enough for the day and there wasn't anything to do, you couldn't even sleep since it was still morning so you started to think

Arei was dead, and there was nothing you could do about it. This killing game was going to continue and you were either going to get killed or give in to your fear of death and kill someone. You felt nothing but pure despair.

"Y/n, they're the best person I ever met, I wouldn't be here without them.....I love them so much"

Arei's last words came back to your mind. She really loved you.........would she want you to give up like this?.....no she wouldn't, she'd probably slap you and call you a coward If she saw you like this.......were you really going to disrespect her like this? Were you going to give up that easily?.....no, you didn't want to...that would just mean insulting her memory. As long as there was the slightest hope that you would get out of here alive, you would follow it.

"When we get back home.....I'll make you a grave in your favorite spot alright?"

You felt the wind hit your cheek like a soft kiss. There was no open window near you or nothing that could make that kind of breeze

".....I'll take that as a yes.....have fun wherever you are and make sure to beat the shit out of ace alright? And say hi to min and xander for me I miss them too"

This time, water hit your cheeks, your own tears that you couldn't hold back anymore even if you were smiling

".........I love you too"

No matter wherever she was, you knew she was somehow watching over you, and you were going to keep living for her....that was a promise that you were going to keep no matter what.

[rain-lavender-rain]

"Please Turn Those Headlights Around"

Bucky x Reader One Shot

Summary: They're both scared of love, but can they find their way back to each other?

Word Count: ~1.5k

Warnings: None, a few cuss words. Angsty with some fluff. Mentions of sex, but very brief and not explicit.

Bucky felt the slight chill in the air against his skin. It was the first sign of waking up. The second sign was the birds already singing their song, even before the sun had hit the horizon. The third? Cold.

Bucky cracked his eyes open, all the memories of the night before flooding back. The sounds of a symphony falling from your lips with his melody filling the open spaces of the tune brought a warmth that couldn't be reproduced without something specific. That specific thing was you.

His eyes opened fully, blinking away the sleep, but you weren't next to him. That's why he was cold. The chill was brought from the loss of you. He knew you were an early riser, but usually not this early. Using heightened senses, there was no sign of you. Quickly sitting up in bed, he glanced at the bedside table, and his fingers brushed across the cursive handwriting on the note that was left.

"I'm sorry."

Sorry for what? Was it something he did? Was it something he said? Bucky was at a loss.

His mind focused in on what was going on in the tower. Footsteps. Listening closer, he realized it wasn't yours. They had to be Steve's. Louder, but gentle, and more pronounced. So, quicky putting on some clothes, he got up to see his friend in the kitchen.

"Hey Buck... you okay?" Steve asked, turning around from making his coffee.

"Have you seen Y/N?" Bucky asked frantically.

"Uh, no?" Steve replied, his brow furrowing in concern. "You okay?"

Bucky sighed in response.

"I think I messed up Steve."

The blonde was still a bit confused, but a few pieces were starting to come together. He spotted the small bruise on the brunettes neck, the messy hair, the wild and dejected look in Bucky's eye and question about where y/n was all gave him a few clues.

"You're going to have to give me more than that. What do you think you messed up?" The blonde continued, grabbing his brewed coffee.

Bucky wasn't even sure how to start and he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Y/N, we- well, we slept together." he muttered.

Steve tried not to choke on his drink. His suspicions were confirmed. It's not that he was surprised per-say, in fact he saw all the unspoken strokes of flaming gentleness and love between the two of you. But, still he never thought you two would admit it to each other, or go further than the quiet touches, the glances, and unspoken romantic tension. Sam was always the one trying to push Bucky and Y/N together, whereas Steve sort of just silently supported it without being pushy.

Instead of making Bucky annoyed, he raised an eyebrow letting him know to continue.

"I think I messed up. She wasn't there when I woke up, and all she left was a note that said "I'm sorry." I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Steve was about to respond when Sam walked in from his morning run, hearing part of the conversation on the way to grab himself a cup of coffee.

"Lemme guess. Y'all had a moment or something and now she's gone?" Sam asked, seeming quite unbothered.

Both Steve and Bucky turned their heads to stare at the other man with confusion and surprise written upon their faces.

Sam sighed when no one answered the question.

"Oh come on. First off, I know how she ticks. We've been friends for a while. Second, I know her tendencies."

Steve's phone rang and he gave Bucky a look with a squeeze on the shoulder.

"I'm sure everything will be fine, Buck. Call if you need anything." He said before leaving the room.

Bucky stayed silent once again, looking to Sam to say something helpful. All that Sam did was shake his head, taking a sip of coffee before speaking up again.

"I've been around long enough to know both of you are runners."

"Runners?"

"Yes. How do I put this nicely? You two are impossible by the way. You both like to run away when feelings really start to be stirred. You avoid it at all costs because you're trying to not only protect yourself, but the other person. You're scared of intimacy, of vulnerability. So, at the first sign of it, you run. I mean you two have never addressed whatever there is between you, but the whole "thing" from last night? That was probably her moment of realization that her feelings were deeper than that of a friendship, Bucky."

Bucky just stared in complete and utter disbelief with eyebrows furrowed. Sam was right, but that didn't mean Bucky liked it.

"I'm actually surprised that she was the one who ran first." He murmured.

Bucky rolled his eyes, annoyed with Sam already.

"So, where is she?"

Sam shook his head again.

"Where does she normally go when she wants to hide from the world?" Sam answered, walking out of the kitchen.

"Wait- Sam!"

"You know where Y/N goes. But one piece of advice, don't fuck it up Barnes." He said.

A lightbulb went off in Bucky's head.

"The cabin." He whispered under his breath, before breaking out into a full on sprint to get his motorcycle. The ride that should have taken 45 minutes, took closer to 30 as he sped recklessly to where he knew Y/N would be.

As soon as turned off the bike, his feet carried him quickly towards the door, which suddenly opened.

"I'm sorry, Bucky. I'm so sorry."

The man stopped in front of Y/N, his heart wanting to flood her with his love. The gates were shut for the moment, trying to redirect the bursting love away from the city, but soon enough, the flood doors would either open, or the water would seep over the top of the wall.

"Doll, stop apologizing. It's okay." His hands wanted to reach out to cradle your face, but Bucky had to stop himself for the moment.

"No, it's not. It's not okay because- because I can't tell you how I feel. I can't say those words out loud." Your voice was cracking, the dam starting to be weakened by the flood of love in just his eyes alone.

"Y/N, it's okay. I understand." Bucky replied, trying his best to calm you.

Your voice raised with emotion. "But it's not okay, Bucky! It's not okay because I didn't see it- I didn't realize it until it was too late. And now you're going to be hurt because of me, and that's exactly what I never wanted to happen... and I can't tell you because then it makes it real and that's..." the tone of your voice lowered with sorrow and pain before you finished your sentence.

"It's terrifying."

Your eyes turned down towards the weathered wooden panels of the porch.

He gently grabbed your hands, allowing you to pull away if you wanted. Bucky was relieved you didn't.

"If there's one thing you taught me, Y/N, its that I deserve to be loved. But, so do you. And how lucky am I? How lucky am I that I get to be loved by you in any form?"

Your eyes met his in a soft allowance of vulnerability. You were met with nothing but love and understanding. It was starting to seep through the cracks in the gates of the flood wall.

"Sam, as much as he's a pain in my ass, is perceptive and he told me some things that made me think. We're the same Y/N. We run at the first sign of love because we believe its dangerous. As soon as we love in that way, we believe we will end up getting hurt, and so will the other person that we're in love with. Our views and perceptions of love aren't the same, but similar. I know it will take us both some time, and you don't have to feel the exact same way right now, but I need you to know something Y/N."

He tipped your chin to meet his eyes again and gently ran his thumb over your fingers as he held your hands.

"It terrifies me, too. But there is no one I would trust more than you with my heart. Y/N, doll. I am willing to work with you, to always be patient, to never push you, to listen, to meet you halfway, because even if I run, I know I'll run back to you."

You were silent for a moment before his name tumbled from your lips in a whisper.

The flood gates began to open on their own accord as love rushed in. Fate sealed the lovers together in a chorus filled with gentle passion. Fate knew they would fight to return to the holder of each others heart.

Y/N's hands left the soldiers and travelled towards his face in a delicate caress. Their lips met and tears traveled down the slopes of their cheeks. It was the final stamp in a promise to meet each other half way, as love rushed in to both of their hearts in a tender embrace.

[beanghostprincess]

I would like to know how Sanji feels regarding Yasopp from a Sanuso perspective. Because there are two situations that I would love to write in a fic format but I'm not sure which one would fit best.

1. Sanji resents Yasopp more than Usopp does. Usopp explains to Sanji that his father left him and his mother to become a pirate and that's fine with him because he left to follow his dream, a dream that now Usopp is achieving too by his own hand and that will get him to see his father again. And even if there's resentment there, he's always like: "Well, he left us and I found out he spent time with another kid that is coincidentally our captain and my best friend but, y'know, it's fine because I know he loves me and at the end of the day we will find each other again. And my mom was the one to support him on his adventure, I can't really complain about that, can I?". And Sanji doesn't take that well because he knows how little Usopp thinks of himself and he knows that, behind all of that, there's more pain than what he says out loud. The mere fact that Yasopp dared to leave him behind makes Sanji's blood boil and he can't accept that Usopp isn't angrier. He should be angry! Furious! His father, the one who left him on his own with his sick mom, does not deserve Usopp's forgiveness. He makes Usopp know this: "What?! Usopp, mon trésor, you cannot possibly be saying this right now." / "What? I- It's not like he left me because he didn't love me, he left me to follow his dream. I think you of all people should understand that." / "And I do, dear, but- His dream should not have been more important than you in the first place and what he did is disgusting and outrageous and he doesn't deserve-!" / "Sanji, don't-" / "Somebody that leaves his child behind is not a good perso-" / "Could you shut up?! The fact that your father doesn't love you doesn't mean that mine is the same! My dad had a dream to follow, yours just didn't want you!" Oh. And that's when Usopp knows he's fucked up real good. But Sanji doesn't get mad and doesn't accept Usopp's apology because he's aware that he's been acting like a jerk too, talking without knowing anything about Yasopp, actually. They end up talking things out, of course, they make up. Usopp keeps telling Sanji that he's dying to see his father only to tell him that he's okay and, whenever he isn't, he has his boyfriend with him who will protect him even from his own father if he hurts him. Which is not the ideal situation, but at least Sanji is ready to do anything to anybody that hurts the love of his life.

And then there's the second possibility, which is still angsty and follows the same dynamic except that it's reversed:

2. Usopp is being insecure about what Yasopp feels for him. He's always known his father loves him and only left to follow his dream. He knows his mother is the one who supported him, too, and it's not Yasopp's fault that she got sick and he wasn't there. But sometimes the thoughts of not being wanted by his own father (especially after knowing that he enjoyed his time with Luffy, of all people) haunt him. And, you know, sometimes Sanji just can't take it. Seeing his boyfriend drown in self-deprecating thoughts and the assumption that his father doesn't love him is his nightmare. Because it's exactly what has always happened to him, and Usopp doesn't- He just doesn't know. "Usopp, I know- I know that what we did is fucked up and you're allowed to be mad-" / "I am not mad, Sanji! I am- How- How am I supposed to react when I see him? Uh, yeah, it's totally fine that you left me and mom alone. By the way, she's dead and you weren't there! But guess who was there? Me! A kid! On his own! Thank you very much, how's the pirate life treating you? Remember Luffy? Well, I'm sure you fucking do-" / "Darling-" / "I know he loves me, Sanji! Or whatever! He said he did. Was it that hard to show it a little bit, though? Because whenever I think about-" / "At least your father wants to see you again, doesn't he?! Okay, he might've fucked up big time and I get it, Usopp. I fucking get it. But he's out there and he's probably waiting for you and he tells people about you! He told Luffy about you, goddamnit. He loves you. If Zeff hadn't found me if- If for God knows what reason Zeff hadn't found me, I wouldn't even have had the chance to call somebody that truly loves me 'dad'. So stop complaining that he wasn't there and start thinking about how he's probably waiting for you. He had to make the hard decision to leave you with your mom, my father didn't fucking think twice before locking me up away from the rest of the world." Sanji knows he has talked too much when he sees Usopp's startled face. And following the last idea, the ending is pretty much the same. Apologizing for things they probably don't even truly think and accepting that they both have different experiences and that they're allowed to feel the way they do.

I honestly prefer the first one for a lot of reasons, especially Sanji's protectiveness and sense of justice and also the fact that I think Usopp's behavior is closer to canon. However, the second idea explores more the envy Sanji could probably have when it comes to biological fathers (which can still be there even if he doesn't consider Judge his father at all and has Zeff. He's still haunted by his past trauma, yay).

[warriorstale001]

Greetings!!! So... A thought... you know the OSD Stone Sleep au...

OSDiff Stone Sleep.

Dream in a weakened state in an au seeped in negitivity last time that happened he turned to stone. And this time... well he might not fight it. He can feel it and just lets it happen he's sick, scared and in pain... maybe being a statue isn't so bad after all.

Someone coming in to check on him. One of the boys for guard duty or Nightmare himself only to find Dream laying there nothing more then a statue... he looks... peaceful...

Well uh... Congratulations on finding what must be the one of the most depressing endings that OSDiff could possibly have... Because wow that is a sad idea you have come up with, my friend.

Of course I am very aware of the OSD Stone!Sleep AU by @calcium-cat but an OSDiff version?!

Where to begin...

First off... THE FACT DREAM JUST LETS IT HAPPEN??? Like WHOA that is so angsty and so dang sad... The idea Dream has just completely given up after what Nightmare has done so decides he's better off as a stone statue... YIKES!!! I will say tho that while OSDiff Dream is in a pretty poor state right now in the fanfic, I don't believe he has quite gotten to THIS level of despondence... He has some hope still (believe it or not) it's just buried underneath all the pain of what Nightmare just put him through. But for the sake of this AU, yes I am willing to accept that Dream is at the absolute lowest point he can go and thus decides he's better off as a statue.... The poor thing :/.

I still can't decide whether I'd prefer if its one of the boys who discovers Dream's statue or Nightmare himself. Because the boys discovering it first could lead to a scene where Nightmare is contemplating his actions from the Prologue in his office (think start of Chapter 1) and instead of Cross telling Nightmare he's sick, Dream is already a statue and Nightmare can do nothing but rush down to the dungeon to see for himself. So many emotions go through Nightmare's mind as he sees his statue there, confusion at first, denial and of course anger. This wasn't supposed to happen like this. He wasn't finished with Dream yet! He was still meant to be suffering, but instead he had chosen to turn back into a statue to avoid his wrath?! No... That wasn't fair to him! He had been planning this for so long, yet Dream had to go and ruin it just like that?! How could he do that to him?! Why did nothing ever work out the way he intended it too?! Now he'll never get his revenge on Dream... He'll never find peace or happiness. He stares at the statue for a while, lost in his own spiralling thoughts before he finally moves it to one of his tower rooms, locking the door behind him.

The most important thing to remember about this particular OSDiff Nightmare (and probably one of his most tragic traits) is that in this timeline, Dream's sudden change into a statue doesn't allow him to go through the character growth he would have gone through in the normal OSDiff timeline, meaning he is not yet at the point where he would want to mourn Dream or regret his actions despite what's happened. There is no connection, bonding or talking between brothers in this timeline, which leads this Nightmare to shove Dream to an almost untouched section of the hideout where Nightmare can simply attempt to forget about him. He's buried but still there, shoved to a section of the castle, just like the grief and loss shoved to the corner of his mind. Dream turning to stone is definitely a tragic aspect of this AU, but I also find Nightmare's lack of character growth and the fact he's never able to regret his actions just as tragic. He'd be lucky to ever feel true happiness again after Dream turns to stone in that timeline...

I swear I have so many ideas for this AU, especially because it has so much potential, but I just have no time to write them ugh :'(. If any of you wanna write your take on this scenario, though please feel free I would absolutely love to see that.

[libraryraccoon]

hihihihiihiihhi i saw your reqs open and uh uhm male!reader (he/it if possible!!) x charlie x vaggie?? fluffy but i’d appreciate it if it started a little angsty :D,, also maybe reader has wings if thats ok ^^

Gender : Male

Pronouns used : He/it

Little message of Raccoon : hey hey ! You didn't say if you wanted it to be a one shot or a headcanon, so I write it as a one shot, I hope you don't mind !

TW : Bad english, english isn't my first language. I never know if it's 'Luth' or 'Lute'.

No, no, that wasn't supposed to happen- you didn't do anything wrong !

"Angel Y/N, you are now banned from the Heaven for helping sinners survive execution." Said Sera, Adam was laughing behind her.

No ! Couldn't they see how false this all sounded ?! They were supposed to be the good ones, the ones who help ! Not the bad guys who exterminate people, who banish people just for helping !

Was he the only one that see how false how all of that is ?!

As the seraph opened the portal to hell, throwing the angel in, he woke up.

"Again that nightmare ?" ask Vaggie, looking at Y/N, who had woken up with a start and a shout of terror.

He didn't answer, not that he need to.

It was a scenario they were accustomed to; Vaggie or Y/N waking up with a start following a nightmare, often linked to their past as an angel, Charlie going to make tea while Y/N and Vaggie stayed in the room, waiting for her.

"It was worst." Y/N said, even if its nightmares were always bad, this one was, in a way, worse than the others. "Adam was here, and Luth too ! Adam was laughing, and Lute- Lute was just watching, disappointed.. And she wasn't even looking at me in the eyes !"

Lute and Y/N, when the latter was an angel, were very close. They were like a big sister and a little brother.

Lute was the first angel he met in Heaven, after St. Peter of course, it was her who taught him the rules of Heaven, who taught him the art of the spear, of fighting..

All of that was just memories now.

Vaggie didn't say anything, just hugging him. She wasn't the best at comforting, it was usually Charlie who was good at that.

They only parted when Charlie came in the room. Charlie gave them both tea before sitting on the bed next to them, tea in hand.

"You want to talk about it ?" ask softly Charlie to the h/c haired.

"It's the same as always." he said after a moment of silence, taking a few sips of its tea before continuing.. "Sera banning me from the Heaven for having helped somes devils.. But that time, Adam and Lute was here too." He was calm now, well, more calm than before.

"Oh.." said Charlie, she didn't know Lute as much as Y/N or Vaggie did. She only know that she was like Y/N's sister. "And did she say something ?" she asked, hoping she wasn't asking too much.

"She didn't talk. She didn't even look at me in the eyes.. But I could tell that she was disappointed.." said the boy, drinking his tea.

Okay, that was bad. She looked at Vaggie, mentally wondering what to do.

"Well.. What do you think of going to that restaurant you talked about last time ?" ask Vaggie, not really sure of that idea.

"At 6 AM ?" ask the h/c haired.

"We can go there at noon and do what Angel called a, uh, morning off ?” Charlie suggested.

"That sound good, I supposed." said the h/c haired.

Charlie gave one of her many characteristic smiles before quickly finishing her tea, Vaggie quietly finishing it in silence, happy that the calm of the morning was coming, one way or another.

<----->

I suck at writing Vaggie and Charlie. I will try to learn how to write them. Not proofread.

[ya-what--ya-erster]

Mistake, Regret, or Something to that Level

PROOF-READ CREDIT TO: @waiting-makes-me-antsy Thank you!!

Albert/Davey UNREQUITED, prequel to Goodbye Don't Last Forever

kinda angsty, enjoy.

David was lost. Completely and totally lost. How was he supposed to carry on when the center of his world just up and left without a word to him?

He didn't really know how to cope long term, but he knew that a visit to his best friend's house might just help.

Ever since Francis left David (a year ago), David and Albert had become the closest of friends (except for Race and Albert, but Race was off in Australia being an impressive dancer). The two were almost inseparable. Seeing one or the other alone was a rare occurrence which was usually met by some sort of joke about how joint at the hip the two boys were.

So David was on his way to Albert's apartment in January, wearing flannel sweatpants and a sweatshirt with a cute snake drawing on the front (Albert gave it to him). It was cold, and snowy, and he regretted not putting on a coat or a hat or anything, but it wasn't far to Albert's place.

By the time David knocked on the door, he thought he was going to die of the cold, but Albert saw him and immediately pulled him into the apartment and handed him a blanket.

"Dave, are you alright?" Albert asked, taking a seat next to him on the couch.

"No." David leaned sideways onto Albert, burying his face in his shoulder.

"Oh, come here." Albert put an arm around David. "You need to get drunk."

"Yeah I do."

...

Several hours (they think) later, the two are flat-out wasted.

David got honest when he got drunk, and never remembered anything afterwards, and Albert just got crazy (and maybe a little more confident).

"What if she was the only one I was meant to be with?" David asked.

"She wasn't." Albert laughed like it was the silliest thing he'd ever heard.

"But nobody could love me like I thought she did."

"But I love you." Albert's smile spread across his face. "You're my best friend."

"But don't people in love kiss? And boys can't kiss boys."

"I've kissed boys."

"Oh."

The boys fell silent, and then Albert burst into laughter again.

"What's so funny?" David asked (but he was smiling).

"Would you kiss me if I was a girl?"

"I would kiss anything if it were Francis."

"So pretend I'm her, then. It'll make you feel better to kiss someone."

"But-"

Albert cut Davey off with a deep, drunk kiss on the mouth.

And Davey liked it.

Davey wanted more of that feeling.

So he kissed back.

He could do whatever he wanted, he decided. It wasn't like there was anyone to tell him no, except for Albert who had initiated the kiss.

Very quickly, the kiss turned into more. Shirts unbuttoned, hands in hair, and the possibility of several purple marks to appear in the morning.

"Should we keep going?" Albert asked.

Davey blamed it on the fact that he was drunk that he said yes.

...

David woke up not in his bed. Albert's bed, he knew, from the many times he'd slept over.

David immediately felt guilty wash over him. Had he seriously kicked Albert out of his own bet just to fuck some girl that was not even there anymore? He didn’t really know, he couldn’t really remember, but it was fairly obvious in his mind that he had fucked someone. And Albert didn't do well with change in routine, Davey knew that. He was feeling worse and worse about it the more he thought, so he made a move to get up and go apologize.

The headache was not good as he stood up out of the bed and headed into the kitchen area of the apartment.

“Sorry for taking up your bed last night Al.”

“Doesn’t bother me.” Albert smiled. He handed David a glass of water and two ibuprofen pills. “This might help a bit.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“So. Uhm. Happen to know the identity of the girl I slept with in your bed last night or…”

Something flashed across Alberts face. Hurt. But he picked up quickly with a laugh.

“You should be asking who the guy was.”

“The… A guy?”

“Yessir.”

“Okay so uh who was this potential guy that I-“

Albert pressed a quick kiss to the tip of David’s nose, quieting him.

“Hi there.” He said with a little smile.

(Albert was dying inside. He wasn't this forward. He wasn't this confident. He wasn't this person who was flirting shamelessly with his best friend.)

“Oh.”

“Is that… is that okay?”

“Al, I… I didn’t even know- But I don’t even remember it so how am I supposed to know what it felt like? I don’t-“

“I could kiss you again.”

“What?”

“I said I could kiss you again.”

David didn’t respond, so Albert just cupped his face in his hands and kissed him.

Pulling away after a moment, David blinked. “Is that what that’s supposed to feel like? I never- it was never like that with her.”

“Good way or bad way?”

“Good.”

“Well, Dave. It must be really confusing for ya, all this. But… I’d like to help you along the way, if you’ll accept?"

"I don't think... Al, I don't think I can. I don't think I love you like that and I'm sorry-"

"That's alright, Davey. It is what it is."

...

Albert kept a smile on his face for two more hours while Davey hung around in his apartment awkwardly, too tired to walk himself home yet.

Albert, who was majorly stressed out, would have offered to walk him home. But, he didn't want to seem rude, and he didn't want to face the outside world with its flashing lights and loud noises and people bumping into him every five seconds.

As soon as Davey left, though, everything came crashing down.

Albert was stupid. Stupid to have done what he did. Stupid to have hoped that it would work out.

Mostly, though, he was stupid for falling in love with his best friend.

It wasn't fair that Davey was that effortlessly pretty and glamorous and nice and smart and perfect. Albert never even stood a chance.

So who could blame him, really, for crying? He had wrecked his perfectly routine life and possibly his relationship with his best friend.

He called Race in a desperate attempt to feel better, but it didn’t help much because then he just missed Race too. Why couldn’t Race be in the United States? Why did he have to be so far away?

Albert closed his eyes as he sat down on the couch, trying to make the tears go away. Crying made his head hurt.

But, despite that, Albert cried himself to sleep that night.

[mirjam-writes]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @suavissimapenna <3 Sorry it took so long!

How many works do you have on ao3?

7 for Sherlock and 23 Good Omens that are completely mine. 6 collaborative fics I have either partly written, or just made art for. So, 36.

What's your total ao3 word count?

380,863

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens! I used to write for Sherlock too, but that's now in the past.

Top five fics by kudos:

Truth Or Dare (E, 6.5K words), my first proper smut ever! Post s1 gettig together story.

Angel Of Justice (T, 9.5K), my first ever Good Omens fanfic. Post S1 from Michael POV, A/C as a background couple.

!False (It's funny because it's true) (E, 5.4k), an office romance human AU set in software company.

A Stable Relationship (E, 9.9k), horse rider AU with trans Aziraphale. Friends with benefits becoming a romantic relationship.

Girls Just Wanna Have Sun (G, 1.7k), outsider pov scene about Robin's day at the beach, where she meets two weird gentlemen who have never been to a beach before.

Do you respond to comments?

YES I DO! Slowly, possibly, but yes I do, and I read and reread them!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhh... angsty ending? What is that? Technically Be Still My Soul: The Rift, but does that count if it's a middle part of a trilogy? That's definitely my angstiest fic of all time BUT I tried to write the happiest ending possible to it. But also, yeah, people died in the war (just not A or C), so maybe I'll count that story.

Edit: WAIT NO! To Love Somebody, a story from Shadwell pov about how he fell in love both Aziraphale and Crowley, and how that changed him. That's sort of angsty and the ending is bittersweet!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmmmmm. I have so many. I can't compare. Maybe Watching You (Watching Me), it's the porniest porn i have ever written, and it has...uh... several happy endings :D

Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far!

Do you write smut?

Yessss. I'm in my porn writer era at the moment :D

Craziest crossover:

I did some super weird anime crossovers as a teen (I hope those are long lost) but haven't dabbled on that since apart from very vague blink-and-you-miss-it references.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One of my Sherlock fics was translated into french in 2018!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only for one round robin event, which produced four stories! Not sure if that really counts as collaborating since we weren't allowed to talk about it when we did it, we just got the fic, read it, and added 600 words and gave it to the next one! It was super fun though.

All time favorite ship?

Aziraphale and Crowley. No competition there.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't usually start posting unless I'm 100% confident I'll finish the story, so I don't have public wips.

I had one pretty cool Sherlock post-apocalypse story idea, which I'd love to talk about if someone is interested, but writing it? Hmm probably not. But it's not really a wip, if I have only like two bullets in a doc?

What are your writing strengths?

I think I write pretty good bickerflirting and humour even in dark situations. And, uh... historical research.

What are your writing weaknesses?

LONG ASS SENTENCES. I need to cut them down. Chop chop chop. Also, I over-use commas and em-dashes.

Also, not being a native english speaker, but I think I've got a lot more fluent during the past years, so maybe that's not my biggest weakness anymore.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I have done it myself, in a situation when my pov character wasn't supposed to understand what was being discussed, but I did only a couple of lines.

My languages (apart from english) are finnish, very rough swedish, and teeny tiny bit of german, but many fics I've read that have used another language in dialogue, use French or Spanish (which are popular languages for English speakers to learn in school!), and with those I'm woefully lost!

But honestly, i don't need to understand every fic under the sun! You do you, I bet there are people who can understand whichever languages you'd like to mix in your story, and that will be amazing for them!

First fandom you wrote in?

The Book Series That Must Not Be Named. I projected so much of my teenage angst into wizard school drama.

Favorite fic you've written?

You monster! Making me choose. Uh.

Okay, fair. It's easy. Be Still My Soul, hands down. @be-still-my-soul-fanfic

No pressure tagging: @hkblack, @ambrasue, @tawnyontumblr , @ack-emma and @zehwulf and anyone else who wants to answer!

[fractualized]

Hoo boy. TMWSL #11 dropped a bomb today. Or a potential bomb? There's still one issue to go.

I'll just get into it.

(big ol' spoilers and SO MANY explosions)

We open with Sewer Rat Joker in the middle of kidnapping several Gothamites.

I'm not sure about that guy on the left, but the lil goon on the right is freaking Albert, the dying kid from the hospital, just… tagging along? I love it.

The janitor is loaded into a van with a few others, and "a few blocks away"…

LA Joker's got a bun now!

That is not Mr. Waffles holding an umbrella to protect the bun from the rain. Waffles is elsewhere on his own special task. At first it's like, aw, I'd like Waffles to be attending to the boss like this. But, uh, we'll learn soon it's actually better that Waffles is otherwise occupied.

Anyway, this Joker has been looking and looking and looking for his counterpart, who's managed to elude capture even while while most of his henchmen have been taken out. And this failure is not looking good on LA Joker, who is very frustrated!

It's so funny that the man they're looking for is nearby in an unmarked van. So maybe the goon who Joker threatened actually deserves it when Joker tells the others to throw him off a bridge. 😬

Joker goes back into the warehouse where Killer Moth is watching TV.

Come on, he's just putting on a show!

Before we find out what Sewer Rat Joker is up to, we cut to Manhunter investigating the van he was using. But he, his crew, and his captives are gone. Ravager is there with information from Jason.

Wait wait wait. Is… Is Jason gone because of the Gotham War thing? Are these supposed to be happening at the same time?? I know Knight Terrors indicated that the events in Batman happen around the same time, but this issue has to take place while Bruce is asleep for two months post Knight Terrors. Right? The goings-on in TMWSL couldn't have been paused for that long. It also doesn't make any goddamn sense, because in Gotham War Selina has supposedly enlisted like 95% of the henchmen, and Jason is acting like he has no clue what's going on with Joker, and nobody is talking about all this Joker-related stuff going on. Like obviously this was never going to end with Jason killing Joker, so I was just assuming Gotham War happens after TMWSL with Jason still on the hunt, but... Good lord, Jason better show up in #12, or I'm going to lose my freakin' mind.

We get a panel showing that Mr. Waffles is watching the two women before we cut to midtown.

Now you think, oh, Sewer Rat Joker is still clothed and not naked, so what's his plan? But then he unleashes a hoard of goons and mid-level rogues on the cops, and you realize this is actually LA Joker, suddenly dressed down in a very similar way to Sewer Rat Joker. I assumed this was for some sort of "Shoot him!" // "No, shoot him!" situation later, but… you'll see.

Hee hee, Moth is using his wings to protect himself from the rain and it looks so cute.

Aw, Joker. :( Don't be so mean to the henchmen. At least it wasn't Waffles.

We don't have to wonder what the purpose of the mess is, because back at the warehouse:

Distraction action! This is not a good issue for henchmen, I gotta tell ya.

Uh… sure, Albert. Good guys.

Also, regarding the newcast, is Joker somewhat diminished "in recent years"?? Joker War wasn't that long ago, even less long ago in-universe, I think. Maybe it just means more rogues are stepping up as larger figures, like Bane and Scarecrow, and I guess Failsafe the angsty robot since if that happened before Knight Terrors, then he's a known quantity here.

Meanwhile, the reportedly naked Joker is not so naked.

I'll never not enjoy confused conversations.

Killer Moth gets a report that the warehouse is radio silent, and that someone spotted the imposter in Chinatown at a hardware store. And then…

See, if Mr. Waffles had been hanging with Joker, he might be dead! For real this time!

This shit is why most henchmen must work with Joker because of obsessive reasons, not for money.

Joker and Moth's amazing escape is not very triumphant.

As they hurtle to the ground, we check back in with Manhunter at the warehouse.

Sewer Rat Joker has also done a costume change! Presumably it's part of him retaking his place as the Rightful Joker. So if there's not going to be outfit confusion, I suppose the other Joker just changed for… comfort?

But there is still confusion for Manhunter, who refers to events in Los Angeles, but if course this Joker says he hasn't been there in a long time.

Albert's parents really should have explained to him who the Joker is.

So LA Joker has forced Killer Moth to walk with him to Chinatown to pick up on the imposter's trail, and they meet up with their remaining henchmen. "Remaining" because of all the ones that died at the train wreck, and some other casualties. They also give Joker the bad news that, like Clayface, basically all the villains that were helping him (Zsasz, Firefly, KGBeast, etc) took off because of how badly this search is going. But Joker will press on! He orders the henchmen into the hardware store to get the imposter.

At least we're all having fun heading toward the finale!

Back at the warehouse standoff, Manhunter has a realization.

Joker has definitely murdered pizza boys. Also, aw, he misses Jason. :( Sadly, Jason isn't who shows up to Manhunter's rescue.

Seriously, if Gotham War is the reason Jason isn't here, and he's not present to close this title out, I'm going to be so annoyed. No shade on Ravager and Manhunter, but we started with Jason. This should finish with Jason. Jason helping Selina for nonsensical reasons is a terrible reason for him to not be here hunting the guy he's been obsessed with for 10 issues.

Sigh. Anyway, Joker sics some poor toxin'd doppelgangers on the women before he escapes with Albert.

Buzzing? THAT'S THE SECRET WORD!

Alright, because of the spy adventure, Mr. Waffles cut it a little close this time, but look at the bright side. Now he meets up with the real deal at last!

Ooh, more hints of the real story, as Waffles lore, heck yeah. The henchman was Mr. Waffles' buddy? Was it just like the "flashback" in the last issue, or different?

Wait, what? WHAT? WHAAAAAAAAAAAOkay okay okay okay. That's a big dang reveal, but there's still one issue left. Can't let the instinct to trust our beloved Mr. Waffles toss aside the options for the final issue:

1) This is all true. Sewer Rat Joker has actually been the imposter all the long, despite his elaborate dream with Batman making that seem silly. EXCEPT. John Keyser not knowing that Batman is Bruce Wayne would be an explanation for why he treated them as two separate people in the dream. Even though there was still an obvious link by putting Bruce in the TKJ outfit and having him behave erratically. Regardless, maybe Keyser really is that deep in. (Though if Joker used the brainwashing technology revealed in Task Force X, I think Keyser would know about Bruce Wayne, putting the explanation back at Weird Dream Thing.)

2) Waffles is straight-up lying to save his own life from a pissed off boss. The reason he's so buddy-buddy with LA Joker is because they were buddies before the transformation.

3) Waffles is being truthful, except something happened during the creation of the second Joker that caused John and Joker to switch places, and Waffles just doesn't realize it.

And I'm hoping #2 or #3 is correct. LA Joker had some fun moments (particularly his relationship with Waffles), but I'm definitely more attached to the underdog, the Joker who had that great nightmare and whose inner thoughts we've been privy to. I wasn't at all expecting Joker to have drastic character development or a heel-face turn or the like, but if it turns out that all those vulnerable moments treating Joker as a three-dimensional character instead of a flat, only-evil-and-nothing-but villain are not about him but some delusional henchman… Hrm. HRM. I know it's gonna bug me. It's gonna bug me a lot.

Whatever happens, I'm just hoping Rosenberg sticks the landing.

Oh, and as a side note, unless there was another henchman involved in this mysterious gas experiment, none of this appears to explain who the Joker appearing in Batman Inc was. Theoretically that could've been LA Joker having some fun on the side when he was away, but there's been nothing in the text saying so. I'm getting the strong feeling that, with how unconcerned DC has been with establishing a clear timeline for their intersecting titles, we're never going to get an answer. Or they'll somehow blame the damn omniverse.

[sollattes]

"After the housen fight"

poly todoroki faction<3

warning: injuries and wounds, panic attacks, kinda angsty(?) If you think about it but fluffy ending dw

Todoroki never really took the time to really learn how to treat and clean wounds properly since it was just his wounds, and his wounds were nothing major, so why would he bother? Well, now he has two boyfriends that have little to no self care, and for todoroki, it's very frustrating to see his boyfriends like that.

Call todoroki a hypocrite, but what do you expect a child that has practically been neglected by his parents. (It's my hc leave me alone)

Todo just can't stand it they get hurt, and sure, he has a few bruises and wounds who cares?(well tsuji and shibaman do), but when it comes to them no. Nuh uh every single wound and bruise must be iced or treated and cleaned, so todoroki stayed up all night to watch videos and do research on how to clean up wounds professionally, and practiced some on his self to make sure that it would not just add up to his boyfriends' pain or injuries.

And now here they are...

"Of all the housen students that were there, you literally had pick the biggest of all of them" todoroki scolded them while checking on tsuji for further injuries since he was literally smashed down to wooden crate.

"We didn't pick the fight todo the fight picked us" tsuji retaliated but it was muffled since he was laying face down on todoroki's bed, Shiba laughed in agreement but was met with todoroki's glare.

"What if murayama didn't come to break up the fight? or if that housen informant didn't come to say that it wasn't us? huh?" Todoroki overthinked.

Todoroki was having one of his panic attacks and Shiba could clearly see it, his hands were shaking, his breathe getting more and more shallow, there were tears already pooling in todoroki's eyes that threatened to spill any time.

Shiba forced himself up to go to todoroki and wrapped around his arms around his waist from behind then started kissing todo's shoulder blades and nape from behind, tsuji also forced his self up and hugged todoroki from the front.

The tears that pooled in todoroki's eyes finally fell and landed on tsuji's shoulder.

Todoroki hated it. He was supposed to be taking care of his boyfriends, not the other way around.

There weren't a lot of things that Shiba and tsuji hated but they really hate. No they LOATHED every time todoroki would force his self to be okay when he is not, they hate how even they're in relationship now todoroki still thinks that him being vulnerable would put them off, they hated how todoroki thinks that any time they would leave him, they hated his parents if they could they wanted to punch the living daylights out of them

"It's fine, I'm fine now," todoroki forced himself to say, but the quiver and vulnerability were still clear in his voice.

"Sshhh, it's fine, yosuke, cry all you want, scream all you want, be angry, be sad, we don't care me and Shiba will always be with you," tsuji comforted todoroki.

"But your injuries they need to be treated -" todoroki was cut off. "Yosuke they can be treated later when you're in better state" Shiba was now the one that comforted him, todoroki can do nothing but nod as he is sandwiched between his boyfriends, and he was starting to get mentally tired.

Then finally tsuji felt todoroki relaxed in their hold and leaned more onto his shoulders as he felt more tears drop down onto it, him and Shiba made eye contact and mentally agreed to hold their boyfriend tighter, to not only to make him feel more safe but to also give him assurance that they weren't going anywhere without him any time soon.

[ilkkawhat]

20 fic questions

tagged by @frostysfrenzy and I'm hoping maybe this inspires me to write somehow:

How many works do you have on AO3? 287

What's your total AO3 word count? 827,685

What fandoms do you write for? Not published on ao3 but I used to write Doctor Who and Criminal Minds, on ao3 I got CSI and Macgyver (2016.) Unpublished, I've started a few Alan Wake fics and even started a Sorjonen fic.

Top 5 fics by kudos:

Speechless (Macgyver)

Stone Bridges (Macgyver)

Face Down (CSI)

Explosion + Krueger + Mac (Macgyver)

Trust + Together (Macgyver)

Do you respond to comments? I do my best to when I get them. I uh. have stopped for a while though but it's still a good feeling when I do see one on a fic

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? All of them lmao. Real talk there's a few break-up fics I've written so probably one of those. This one Nick Stokes/Julie Finlay fic came to mind cause it wasn't supposed to be angsty and I did it anyway.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Last Breath probably

Do you get any hate on fics? I've gotten feedback that like, I interpreted as "hate" but idk if it was every fully intended as hate and I'm just a sensitive person

Do you write smut? Yes. Can't guarantee it's good though cause I have 0 intimate experiences outside of a bad first kiss but I try to write it anyway lol

Craziest crossover? Wrote and subsequently deleted a fic once where Nick Stokes (CSI) and Jack Dalton (Macgyver) basically switched places and it was a bit sci-fi and out there and people didn't seem to like it so hence the deletion.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Really fucking hope not. Bad enough I've had gifs stolen.

Have you ever had a fic translated? I think somebody did actually after asking permission.

Have you ever co written a fic? I have! I wanna say with two co-authors in the doctor who fandom way back in the day. I'd also argue a lot of my CSI fics were co-written because so many people gave me so many ideas for them and the fic either wouldn't have existed or been wildly different without them

All time favourite ship? That's a tough one cause I think it depends on how strongly I feel at the time, like right now the OTP is Alan/Alice Wake but I multiship Alan like crazy lol. I'll never be over Doctor/Rose, Nick/Greg, Root/Shaw....those are the immediate ones that come to mind.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably all of them....I have so many open Mac and CSI WIPs and never say never but it's not looking good. I hope I can feel good enough to write for them again some day.

What are your writing strengths? I've been told emotions and descriptions and I would agree with that.

What are your writing weaknesses? Less about my writing and more about me; I put a lot of self worth into my writing so when I feel like I get negative feedback or no feedback at all it sends me down this terrible spiral where my self confidence is destroyed (which is 100% why Alan Wake hooked me in the way it did, because I relate to him sooooooo much) so I get highly discouraged very easily which is nobody's fault but my own....I am my own worst enemy. Also maybe my dialogue is not the best sometimes cause idk how to talk to people

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language? I'd try it! I think I have actually once or twice using google translate lol

First fandom you wrote in? CSI I think. Can't really/don't really want to remember before that.

Favourite fic you've written? Probably Specimen Stokes just cause it was such a wild and out there idea that people still ended up reading and enjoying (hopefully) though I worry it got too weird and cringe but I still love the feelings it gave me at the time of creating and the whole like, saga I wanted to make out of it. There are a few others but that was the first that came to mind.

breaking the tag chain but if anybody wants to also answer these feel free to say I tagged you 💜

[sabakos]

I always remember thinking the age recommendations on YA fiction seemed inflated as a marketing thing, to convince younger kids that this was what old children liked. So it's really funny to see people on Tumblr argue the exact inverse of this? "Blah blah yeah okay you are very smart Sabaki shut up" - no, never.

But also, it wasn't just me, I don't remember anyone in my peer group actually reading things that were in the "recommended" age group; the smart kids read books that were above their supposed "reading level" and the not-smart kids never voluntarily chose to read anything at all. So if there's some weird species of dumb kids who nonetheless choose to read books at their target grade level they're either a new thing or they just flew below my radar.

Wait. Were these the quiet mousey kids? I bet this is the quiet mousey kids. Uh, it's probably good you're so quiet and mousey in real life, y'all have stupid-ass opinions on literature. Maybe you'll change your minds if you read some actual "teen lit" like Camus or Sartre or Dostoevsky rather than this computer-generated YA tripe with teenage romance and coming-of-age protagonism that's actually marketed towards, and more appropriate for, the 11-12 year old age bracket. And then when you get all those psychological novels out of your system when you're at your most angsty you can gain a real aesthetic appreciation for fine literature like Homer or Plato or Shakespeare as an adult.

[milesmolasses]

As Long As You're With Me

second story lets gooooo and it's peter parker (my man my man my man)

its an angsty one y’all (cause I love watching people suffer)

Peter Parker has been in my life for as long as I can remember; from that one time we were playing in the sand at the beach as kids, and he watched in awe as I built my small sand castle near the shore, to now, sitting in front of me on my bed, in a suit that looked identical to the masked super hero swinging around Queens.

For as long as I could've remembered, Peter had told me everything, so why couldn't he have told me this?

"Jesus Christ Peter..." was all I could say as I looked at my best friend sitting on the bed in front of me, eyes filled with shame and looking down at the floor below us.

I took a step back, looking at my dear friend in all of this glory, a deep, agonizing wound going straight through the very middle of his chest. "I mean, aren't you Spider-Man or something? Couldn't you have blocked the attack, or can't you regenerate or something? God, Peter, how long have you been doing this? How long were you planning on keeping this from me? Does anyone else know about this?" Questions flowed out of my mouth like a river, with a painfully hurt expression covering my face. Why in the world would peter do this to himself every day?

He stayed quiet with his eyes hooded as if they were going to shut at any time. It was only when I took a good look at his face and looked down to examine his body that I realized what was going on; he was bleeding out. Blood poured out of the wound to his chest like clockwork. The stab was barely inches away from where his heart would be.

"Peter, we have to get you to a hospital you can't possibly come back from this without medical expertise," as my voice shook, Peter finally looked up at me with a frown on his face and shaking his head frantically. I quickly ran to my bathroom and came back with a towel that was sprawled out on top of my sink. I ran to Peter and wrapped the towel around his wound as tight as I could. His mouth opened, and out came a silent scream, and he looked at me with wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows.

"Gah- my god!" he yelled out, clutching my arm for dear life; yeah, it hurt, but not as bad as whatever he was feeling right now. "I can't go to a hospital; they'll know who I am. Listen to me," he stood up, looking at me with a severe expression. He really didn't want anyone to know who he was. "All I need is a first aid kit. Just some thread, some rubbing alcohol, and a few bandages. Can you please do that for me?" He looked desperate, face pleading to me already as it is. He even seemed slightly angry. I didn't know if that was from the pain he was in or the fact that he wanted me to take him seriously; either way, it got his point across.

"Yeah yeah, I got it just give me two seconds to head downstairs," as I held his arms to guide him down to sit on the bed. I mentioned one thing to him, "don't move, it'll make you feel even worse."

As I ran downstairs to the bathroom where we kept the first aid kit, I stumbled into the one person who wasn't supposed to be here right now.

"Oh-! Uh, dad thought you weren't supposed to be home till twelve!" I tried putting on the best innocent smile I could muster and slowed my frantic breathing.

"Yeah, well, I figured I'd come back home to get some work done down here. Now let's get to the more important questions here, what are you still doing up at this hour? You know it's a school night, so c'mon, get your butt back upstairs and into the bed. Go, go!" He rushed me back upstairs as I looked behind me, pleading to go to the bathroom for just two minutes.

"Why do you need to go down here when there's a perfectly good one upstairs," he questioned me with his hand on my back, ushering me back to my room. "I have a project I'm working on with a few friends on Mesopotamians and their weapons'. I have to build a weapon with some household tools, and I need some bandages," the thing is, I wasn't lying, and he knew it. This morning at breakfast, I talked to him about some schoolwork I had to catch up on, making this, a quick and easy save.

He sighed and untensed his shoulders, "alright, but don't stay up too late. I need you to get to school on time tomorrow, understand?" I quickly nodded my head with a smile on my face and turned and passed him down the stairs and towards the bathroom. I opened the bottom cabinets beneath the sink in search of the med kit. As soon as I grabbed it, I ran passed my dad, sat in the living room, and up the stairs to my next destination; my room.

"Hey everything okay? I heard your dad and was debating on jumping back out the window," he pointed towards the open window he was standing toward.

"Hey, didn't I tell you not to move dickhead?" Gosh, all I wanted was to patch him up, and then we could talk about whatever the hell was going on here and what he was keeping from me.

"Okay, whatever I'm sorry, let's just get this over with so I can-" I didn't even let him finish his sentence before I started yelling at him.

"Have you lost your damn mind? So you could go do what? Back out there to fight crime and play superhero, huh? Peter, look at yourself. You think you can leave this room looking like that? Like your two swings away from fucking death?"

"You aren't listening to me I gotta go-"

"No Peter, you aren't listening to me! I see this masked spider guy swinging around fighting all sorts of shit; people with fucking bazookas, bitches who look like mutants, fighting WITH the mutants; I mean what the fuck man! Well, non of that fucking matters anymore now that I know it was you; you fucking lied to me. You've been lying to me for months!"

"Well it's not like you were the easiest person to tell! You haven't spoken to me in a damn year!" His breathing picked up as he stared at me with his lips agape like he had so much more to say to me. Instead, he sighed and came to sit back down on the bed as he looked at me.

"Look just patch me up, and we can go back to the way we were; not talking. Or I could just go do this shit myself, like I always have 'cause it seems like you just want me out of your hair." As he said that, he stood up from the bed and reached his arm out to the window to signal what he would do.

I stood there silent, not knowing what to say. I wanted to scream my lungs out at him, tell him I didn't think he felt that way, and say I was sorry. Hug him and tell him I love him and he could come to me for anything, that I'm his best friend forever and always, just like we promised in the sand at the beach. But nothing came out. I stood there with my head hung low as I looked up at him from my peripheral vision. Peter was one foot out of the window as he looked back at me for some sort of sign, a sign that showed him that I wanted him to stay cause he knew that if he left this room, it was over.

Instead, he was met with me facing with my back turned away from him, ready to put the med kit back in the bathroom.

oh man ☹️

this one got it bro :(

[valeriefauxnom]

If Only We Could Lead Painless Futures

So, I wrote this in two days, and it's kinda supposed to be set in what would be a collection of 'bad ends other worlds experienced in the course of all the canonical multiverse in Dragalia', but uh, yeah, it quickly grew out of hand and I'm not sure I'd want to publish it right now on AO3, so for now, I'm putting it here. Of course, being written in two days, it might be a bit less polished than anything else I'm writing or have written (I promise I'm still working on Control, Fundamentals, and Scaling!!)

Being a bad end, it's understandably not a happy read. Warnings, if I were to put this on my AO3, are only 'major character death.' That being said, hopefully someone might gain some enjoyment out of my sad nonsense.

So here's a 5.5k angsty oneshot I have no idea where it came from.

“Let me through!” A voice all but yelled at the door, before the ornate wooden doors all but swung open. The guards instantly readied their polearms, swords, or other weapons of choice, and he laid a protective arm in front of Leonidas’ chest while his other hand drew near his sword. 

But the intruder happened to be none other than a messenger of the kingdom, clad in the blue and green outfit that heralded their order. “Your Majesty! Urgent news- an attack on the Sacris Lucitania National Cathedral- there was a bomb-!"

"What?!" He roared, already drawing parallels to the similar attacks against the royal family a year back, "Get the capital guard and medics there as soon as their legs can carry them. You summon my children inside the castle and order them to a safe spot-"

Then he stopped, wind suddenly vanishing from his chest as he did a quick headcount of where his children were. Leonidas was here, learning firsthand and by example how meetings could go. Chelle was likely in the gardens for tea break and private study. Valyx in studies, Emile right there with him. Though the twins still were young enough to not have particularly intensive studies and plenty of play, today the High Priestess had wanted to further get a gauge on Zethia's aptitude for the holy magics. She and the other clergy agreed she might even have the power to become the Auspex, one day. He had permitted it, under heavy guard, outside of the castle’s safety as she were and untrained in self-defense.

She was supposed to be there, in the national cathedral, right now.

Sensing the opening, the messenger continued. "Sir Harle and company is already on scene. But Princess Zethia- early reports are she was injured to an unknown degree and is being brought back here as we speak. There's no other signs of imminent attack as it appears targeted to the cathedral. This is all current news, Your Majesty."

Sweet little Zethia, injured by a bomb? 

…He still couldn’t take the chance with the rest of his children.

"Go to a safe room, Leonidas, now. And don't leave until I call you, understood?"

"Father, I could find Chelle and bring her-" His eldest son was taking the immediate chaos very well, coldly collected even at the news of his baby sister.

"No. Go." It wasn't a matter of valuing one of his children over the others, but simply getting any of them to safety as quickly as possible if this were a mass attack on the royal family.

Thankfully his boy didn't choose to argue any more, fleeing out a back door. He could only pray that the boy would heed his instructions.

Why this, why now? And not two years since Phares' death. It seemed as if the world had conspired to rob him of his children's joy, health and very lives of late. 

Until Zethia arrived, though, he had to maintain composure as King Aurelius, the Sage-King. 

---

It hurt. 

It had been fun, playing up the shy and quiet side to Zethia when she was with strangers in a bid to stop himself from revealing his true identity. The guards hadn't suspected a thing, leading him around the cathedral by the hand and chuckling about how quiet the twin princess was compared to her outgoing twin brother. 

But as they approached the main altar (bigger than him!) he started to hear a strange clicking noise. It kinda sounded like a clock, but that didn't make sense. Leonidas once whispered to him during some boring long assembly they all had to go to that they never kept any clocks in church to make you forget what time it was so they could 'sink their greedy claws into the party...itiners’? hearts'. Whatever 'partyitioners' were, it had earned an elbow from Chelle. 

He still didn't know what partyitioners were, but it sounded fun, and he had locked his big brother's words into his mind. 

So what was the ticking?

"What's that ticking?" He asked while fiddling with Zethia’s ribbons on her dress, for interrupting the guards' and church peoples' talk. He wasn’t supposed to interrupt adults, he had learned, even if most didn’t seem to mind it. 

"Ticking? I don't hear anything, kid." Said one. He didn't wait for Euden to catch up when guiding him, which Euden found rude. Besides, why wasn’t he calling him ‘Your Hi-nis’? That was apparently important, Chelle had told him when he complained nobody besides his family seemed to call him by his name. He liked his name!

"Youth certainly have active imaginations, no? She must be so used to the clocks in the busy castle that she’s filling in the silence. Quite precious, really, how well they learn about the environment," added a holy woman, "Come now, Your Highness, we'll need to head up to that altar right there to see how strong your mana is! Isn't that exciting?"

Uh-oh. He didn't know much about mana at all. He was going to get caught if there was a test. Maybe he should've asked Zethia about it before agreeing to switch places, but as soon as he had seen his twin upset with how much she didn't want to go today with strangers outside the castle, all questions vanished from his mind.

All they had to do was  wear the other's clothes and go about their day. Surely they could get through one day without anyone suspecting?

That was what led him here, in Zethia's place. All in all, it had been pretty fun until then. He got to go outside the castle! See all the people out there!

But right as they started getting closer to the big rock thing they called an altar, everything got way too loud.

And then it hurt. 

--

Thankfully, all his children were quickly found and taken to a safe room to be heavily guarded. All that is, save Zethia, until another messenger relayed that she'd been brought back home. 

He took a breath to steady himself. His daughter was still alive.

With all haste, he moved to the private infirmary where they would have moved his daughter to.

It was easy to identify the room where his poor daughter had been taken, by the hustle of healers and doctors in and out the room as yet more stood just outside. The red dots coloring a path on the stone also caught his attention, but he ignored it.  

“Okay, looks like Sain’s healing fixed the ear bleeding but not much else.”

"Why isn't the rest of the bleeding stopping?" 

“Different cause, I’d wager. The blast force itself caused this, but whatever is making these damn puncture wounds so stubborn is another matter.” 

Came the hints of discussion he heard as he raced over. 

"Your Majesty! We're doing our best, but to put it harshly, we can't have people getting in the way. Please let us work and we'll call you as soon as we can."

"I'll stand in a corner, just please- I need to see my child-!" He all but pleaded.

Swallowing in disapproval, the doctor ushered him into the corner. His eyes quickly found his child, looking so small on such a big bed meant for adults. The castle hardly had any children in it, after all, why prepare valuable infirmary beds for a veritable nonentity? Most injuries were training accidents among soldiers, anyways.

…But something wasn't right. 

Then it hit him after only a second. 

This was not Zethia, despite what all reason would tell him. Something deep in his fatherly senses told him that this was not Zethia… but her twin. He knew all his children well, and had no trouble distinguishing between the twins.

The twins- they've done this before, but not recently- I thought they'd grown out of it. That means Zethia must actually be safe with the rest of her siblings…

Regardless of what he thought, Euden lay unconscious as several healers and doctors did their best to treat his child. 

Namely, trying to bandage those small puncture wounds all over his son's small body, despite the fact they seemed to bleed through all too quickly and forcing them to add more on top of the ever-growing number of layers. 

The only small mercy thus far was that no fragments seemed to have struck his head or hit vital organs in any serious capacity. He simply was bleeding in too many places.

“Doesn’t seem like there was any smoke damage involved, he’s breathing fine.” Muttered one to his cohorts as he checked his son’s breathing.

“Yeah, it seems like it was more of a projectile bomb. Vicious in their own way, and if we can’t get this bleeding stopped, the kid's going to die of exsanguination.” 

After the currently attending professionals realized that the King was in the room, that he had indeed heard what they said, he was all but forced out so they could work in peace.

—

When he finally was summoned over again by a doctor, her face was grim. “Your Majesty…the situation is not looking good. Despite everything we tried, he won’t stop bleeding. You said you’re sure he doesn’t have a blood disorder, especially a clotting one? Has he ever bled for longer than you think he should for minor injuries?” 

“No, none of my children do, nor is there a history of it in the family.” He recalled Euden’s tendency to acquire small injuries, and none of them gave any hint there might be something wrong.

Another person, this one a healer-mage, walked up to the doctor. “We just got the analysis done regarding the shrapnel extracted as a sample. It’s been carefully warped, mana-wise, to interrupt certain functions of the human body. Specifically, it’s designed to absorb all the mana that would otherwise aid in clotting. That’s why he’s been bleeding so long without a sign of pause or abatement.” 

How heinous, not only to construct a bomb and plant it in a church, but to go to so much trouble to make it all that more deadly…And now his child was suffering for it.

“What can be done, then, now that we know why he hasn’t stopped bleeding?” Aurelius asked, looking for the endgame in this where his son was alright.

“...We’ll do our absolute best to go about restoring the proper mana flows in his body, but with so many pieces lodged inside him, he very well might not make it with how long he’s been bleeding already.”

With that simultaneous hope and fear, he was shooed away again. Left to wait, he briefly had the instinct to go back and do paperwork as a distraction to do something productive so he didn’t pace a hole in the floor, but he dismissed that idea. Instead, he went to visit his other children to update them on the situation. Though their reactions ranged from shock to numbness to utter terror, all were physically okay for now, and so back to waiting he went.

—

The second time he was summoned after being shooed away, Aurelius knew it wasn’t for a good outcome by the scared faces fearing retribution as he approached.

“Your Majesty…there’s no elegant way to say this besides we’re losing him. He’s continuing to lose just enough blood he can’t replenish, even though we’ve stopped the worst of it now. He most likely won’t last the night. But the prince has woken up recently, and we’ve already given him painkillers. Please, go visit with him.”

The room felt colder, all of a sudden. He was losing a third son, again to horrible bouts of luck.

“Could he be moved, then, to his room? I want my boy to be as content as possible.” Surely his bedroom would be more comfortable than the cold environs of an infirmary.

“It’s…possible. We can get on it, if you truly wish. He’s still bleeding, though, Your Majesty, if you don’t want him potentially making a mess of things, then I would suggest-” 

“Do it. I don’t care about messes. If he’s dying, let the boy do so in peace without making him feel he’s doing wrong. And send a messenger to my children, let them know to come to Euden’s room and why.” Other kings and queens throughout history may well have thrown a fit at the idea of a ‘royal room’ being dirtied and heeded her words, but Aurelius would not. Decorum was important. His children’s safety and happiness, even more so.

With that, Euden was carefully gathered up and placed on a stretcher to be carried upstairs. The boy was confused about the whole thing, peppering Aurelius with question after question as he tried to make sense of the matter, why he was being carried upstairs, -that was weird-, why it hurt, why why why.

He’d always been an inquisitive lad eager to explore the world, so much so that most of the times Euden wound up in trouble were due to his curiosity leading him to do things that weren’t approved of. This time, though, Aurelius had no true answer for him that he could voice, so he gave half-truths about how he had been hurt and was being looked after and needed to rest now in a bid to get him to settle down and not aggravate his wounds. 

After they made it up, Aurelius himself deposited his son into his softer bed and dismissed most of the staff, save one to occasionally check in on him.

“Father…it hurts. They gave me something gross and said it would help, but it’s not.” Euden admitted, fidgeting slightly. Aurelius laid a hand lightly over him to still him, even if most of the shrapnel had been removed in their attempts to restore his mana flow. No, Euden would not accidentally drive the metal pieces into organs or harm himself further that way, but he should save his energy.

“...It will be over soon, my boy. You won’t hurt again.”

“Really?” That perked his son up, as much as he could, half-lidded eyes still drowsy springing back to life with hope. 

And so, even though it felt sick to deceive such pure, trusting innocence, Aurelius fell deeper into the truthful lies he had started spinning to his dying child as he awaited his other children's arrival. 

“Yes, after today you won’t hurt at all.  And tomorrow, there will be a celebration, and you’ll be the center of attention.”

“A party? For me? What did I do? I thought I was in trouble- for being Zethia…” His meaning was clear even with the slight error in word choice, and Aurelius wasn’t going to go about correcting his son’s speech now. He tucked a blanket over him instead and watched him nestle into the softness with a small smile.

“No, you’re not in trouble. We’re going to be celebrating you, after all.” He most definitely would have been in trouble in any other case, but it all was of little import in the face of the impending death that otherwise would have likely killed his sister. The only important thing now was keeping him happy and comfortable.

“...Will there be cake? The strawberry one like Mother made?” He asked hesitantly, as if voicing this request would cancel the party altogether for being perceived as demanding, something Aurelius had done his best to ensure his children weren’t. But nothing save direct divine intervention at this point would halt that celebration tomorrow.

After all, it would be his son’s wake. A celebration of the bright little boy whose light was snuffed too soon in the course of silly childhood antics that led to him assuming what would have been his twin’s fate. Oh, if only he hadn’t permitted them to go in the first place…but the past could not be changed.

“Yes, one just like it, and all your favorite foods,” he swallowed, before thinking the better of it, “...and if you want, I will bend the rules so you can have some soon.” If that was one last thing he could do for Euden and to assuage his guilt that his son would not truly be present for the promised celebration, he would do anything to make it reality.

“Mmm…that sounds good, but I’m not hungry. I’m…tired.”

He recognized that for the sign it was: his blood loss was approaching enough to herald the kind of unconsciousness that would lead to death, and his ever-so-slightly increasing pallor only backed up this idea. At once he felt the desire to urge Euden to stay awake, for his siblings to have at least a last conscious moment with him, and soothe him into falling into that sleep he’d likely never wake from.

“That’s good, you’ll need all your energy for tomorrow. But your siblings are almost here to- to say goodnight to you, do you think you can stay up just a touch longer?” He did his best to speak calmly, to keep a waver out of his voice. 

“I can try…why are they coming here? They never come into my room to say goodnight.” Evidently he was still cogent enough to notice the abnormality.

“To say goodnight, as I said. They-”

He never got to finish this idea, because the door swung open and his children rushed in. 

“Father! Surely it’s not true-” They cried.

“Shh. We’re here to say goodnight to Euden, and yelling won’t help him go to sleep, understood?” 

They did, judging by the way they froze to look over to their brother at last, then back to Aurelius. They always were smart children, and ones already too familiar with death and the words people used to talk around it. He shuffled a bit to make more room on the one side of his bed for some of the children to gather around. Zethia took the spot right next to him, latching onto Aurelius’ arm mutely. She still was in the tunic and shorts Euden preferred to romp about in.

“Did- did you guys know there’s going to be a party tomorrow?! There’s going to be cake!” Euden exclaimed, before he sobered a bit, “...Oh. Was it supposed to be a surprise?” 

“Is that so?” Leonidas looked instead at Aurelius with a weighty gaze across the bed, already putting together the true meaning behind his words.

“Yeah! You should get to sleep soon too, so we can have fun together. It’s not fair you get to stay up so much later.”

“I think we’ll be up for a while longer yet, dear. How are you doing?” Chelle said, right there with Leonidas in understanding. 

Indeed, it was still daytime, night long yet to come (and oh, what a long night it would be, Aurelius predicted). To Euden, though, who still wasn’t quite perfect in reading the clocks with the old Draconic numerals all throughout the castle, all he understood was that he was tired and that when he was tired it was usually nighttime and time to sleep.

“I’m…okay. Tired. It still hurts to move, a bit. But it’ll be better tomorrow.” 

“Euden,” Valyx said, before chewing his lip in contemplation, eventually proffering his precious stuffed animal bear he’d brought as one of his long-treasured gifts Aurelius had given him years ago, “Here…maybe this’ll help.”

He briefly pulled back the cover a bit, eyes darting to the bandages and gauze all across his little brother’s chest, as he put the bear into Euden’s arm, and his brother wrapped a protective, slow arm around it to keep it to his chest.

“Th-thank you. It’s soft…and warm…It’s cold in here…” 

It wasn’t. Still in late spring as they were, the temperatures were perfect, not too high or too low even for younger children like the twins. 

“Put on another blanket, then!” Emile said, as if it was obvious. Not yet mature enough to fully understand all the principles of tact or that Euden wasn’t feeling well or motivated enough to rectify such minor woes himself now. Maybe Aurelius should have explained better his condition privately, with it now largely being hidden under blankets and bandages. At Euden’s lack of movement, he sighed and fetched a blanket, throwing it over him casually, but his face betrayed his comprehension of the implications of Euden’s words.

“Thank you, Emile…” His voice became a touch softer, “Zethia, Father said we’re not in trouble!”

She jolted at Aurelius’ side at being called out. He nudged her forward. No doubt this had to be the worst for her, and he didn’t want her growing up with such deep regrets that she never properly said goodbye to her twin.

“O-oh, really?” She looked back at him, and as he nodded, Zethia turned her attention back to Euden giving a weak smile. 

“No, we’re not. So maybe we can do it- again- soon…oops. Shouldn’ta said…that…” He managed between breaths growing increasingly laborious, as he realized how he just betrayed his ‘plot’.

“Euden!” She wailed as she leaned in to hug him before Aurelius could remind her to be careful.

“Ah!” He huffed in pain, prompting her to back off and gingerly take his bandaged hand as if it were fragile glass. Aurelius paid only a brief glance to the blue-purple tint to his fingertips.

“I’m sorry- I’m so sorry! Because of me, you’re-” She started, unable to finish. Like Aurelius, the eight-year old was unable to fully accept the fact her twin was dying, or likewise share with him this understanding.

“It’s alright…I’ll be fine…”

The room fell into mournful silence, then, amid the occasional sniffles from some of his children, trying to hide their emotions and the running lie they were now complicit in presenting to their brother. Euden paid this no mind, as he seemed to alternate between looking at them and staring off, absent-minded. Aurelius almost was wondering if he was about to drift off for good. That is, until he spoke again, in a daze.

“...Where's...Phares? Haven't seen him… in a while.” He gasped, breathing yet more ragged as his eyes flicked about his room in search.

Aurelius swallowed, again thrust into a matter he did not know how to address. Euden seemed to have forgotten that Phares was long dead of wyrmscale, but bringing that fact to light was something he didn’t wish to do, either.

“He’s still in the castle. You’ll see him soon. In fact, you’ll be the first to see him, so be sure to give our regards,” Leonidas stepped up to continue the lies Aurelius had begun, disturbingly even for such a young teenager as he was, until he continued, “Tell…tell him Leonidas says hello, alright? Can you manage that much, little brother?”

“Tell him yourself! I shouldn’t…have to do all your work…”

Despite it all, the fundamental misunderstanding going on between Leonidas and Euden sparked a choked bark of laughter from several of them, Leonidas included. The unexpected humor of Euden, -eight years old, -telling off his teenage eldest brother for any reason with such authority was just too powerful.

“You’d be doing us a great, important favor, Euden. Can you please say hi, for us?” 

The others muttered agreements to Chelle’s request. Euden, in turn, murmured something indistinguishable in assent, though it sounded suspiciously like it might have been a drawn out, dramatic ‘fiiiiinnnne’. No doubt this had to be ridiculous to him, who labored under the impression Phares was still alive and the rest of his siblings were being lazy by shoving all their greetings for him to say.

He then blinked, long and slow, like he had to contemplate whether or not to open his eyes again. Regardless of whatever excitement having all his remaining siblings there for him brought to Euden, the fatigue setting in was a losing battle. Aurelius was grateful he’d endured this long to let his siblings talk with him. His children were all fighters. Stubborn, too. Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised.

But no matter how much one fought, some fights were unwinnable, and life was one of them.

It was time for Euden to go to his rest.

"Are you wanting to go to sleep now, Euden? Do you need us to leave so you can fall asleep?" Aurelius asked softly.

"No...I like it when you're with me…but you still haven't said good night…"

"Good night then, my dear son. Rest well. We love you ever so much."

In turn, his children chimed in with their own farewells, one by one.

"Good night, little brother."

"Good night, Euden."

"Sleep well."

"...Good night, you little insect."

"Euden…Thank you! For being my brother." She was half laying across his bed now, right beside him but still careful not to jostle him and hurt him any more.

"No, thank you…for being my twin. See you tomorrow, everyone…love you. Good...night."

With that last shaky exhalation, he fell unconscious, head drooping ever so slightly and closing his eyes. Everyone else gave an unsteady breath after that, too, at some of the tension easing out of the room.

Euden yet lived, though it was doubtful he’d wake before he died. With no way to replenish his blood enough in time, the slow exsanguination would claim him today. They sat (or laid, for Zethia) in contemplative silence for a long, long while, though it felt timeless. Nothing else seemed to matter at this moment.

- - -

…Prince Euden died that night, indeed never waking up again. 

It was said that no member of the royal family left that room or slept that night, but none have commented on it  or verified such speculation, even years later.

It is a royal custom in Alberia to house the remains of a few close generations in one mausoleum, so that princes and princesses and kings and queens can rest with those they knew. This tradition was followed, the young prince joining his elder brothers who already lay in the small, austere, and yet perfectly upkept mausoleum at the very edges of the royal castle’s memorial garden. Unprecedented was its construction on actual castle territory, previous monarchs directing them quite some distance away so that elaborate structures could be built, but it is said that King Alberius could not stand to be parted at length from any of his children, even the newborn Prince Beren, who lived not a month. 

What was once a humble temple to the fragility of the newborn grew all too fast as Prince Phares joined his brother in death some years later from wyrmscale, and Prince Euden not two years after that from what became known as the ‘Dark Day’ among royal parlance in Draconic, from certain Draconic-studied nobles of the time.

The conspirators: violent revolutionists who detested the church’s power over the monarchy in the delicate balance that Alberia has run on since its inception. All conspirators claimed not to have ever intended the monarchy as a target, upon their inevitable incarceration at this grievous offense, but the fact remained that a prince not yet hit double-digits perished from their cruel plot.

All four were summarily executed with greatest dishonor. Some civilians speculated at the time that this was a secret denial of fair trial via pressure from the royal family, but all records of the time seem to indicate a marked indifference to pay any whit of attention to the ones that killed their family member, not even attending said executions, believing them not worth the time of day. No, the abnormally quick trials seemed more to originate from the passive terror of drawing the royal family’s eyes if they delayed judgment too long.

One curiosity remained, between the direction of the royal family and the conspirators, however…Despite the vehement, justified backlash against those that killed a prince…

They’d unintentionally won their ideological war through this martyrdom, no further act required.

- - -

“...It is done, brother,” Zethia said to the monument that marked Euden’s place in the mausoleum, “You can rest easier now, knowing the church won’t cause any more harm to our family through their negligence.”

Oh, they’d kicked and screamed over the course of a decade, but the march of progress would not be stopped. The fact was, the former National Cathedral had failed to properly protect its vaunted halls even knowing a member of the royal family was due to visit. Such a sin was unforgivable, and her twin had died because of it. He’d saved her, and it was her family’s duty to pass on that torch to the next generations. The trusted covenant between the church and state was shattered with that single act of laziness. No longer could the church be a shield for the country if it couldn’t even protect its sovereigns.

So as their rights and deep entanglement in the state slowly bled away (as fitting a death as possible, Zethia believed), first as their jurisdiction over who was exiled and disinherited in the royal family nullified, to the decreasing appearances and backing of the church by her family, she only had grown more sure in her convictions. When both sentiment among nobility and commoners alike was potent enough, and the damning edict passed that henceforth the church was no longer officially endorsed, protected, or provided special rights in the Kingdom of Alberia, her family rejoiced as the priests blustered. 

A child had died with more dignity and composure than they had, and theirs was only metaphorical.

She was no longer a child, though, and her work was not done. 

Supposedly, the Auspex of Grams was starting to fuss at the church’s separation from the state, and sending letter after letter demanding their reinstatement, ‘to remain holy in the eyes of Ilia’. Leonidas had scoffed and passed her the letter with a smirk, knowing well she was the perfect answer to the whining.

After all, why pay any mind to a ‘Goddess’ who would permit such cruelties in the world? Her elder brothers, snatched away all too soon from the world, none justly. Beren, for no offense other than his birth, Phares, for happening to develop wyrmscale (and, as Leonidas later regaled, stopped from consulting ‘heretical’ texts that nonetheless may have helped him by the very same church), and Euden, killed whilst visiting one of Her holy places.

Thus, she was set to ‘negotiate’ with the representatives of the Northern church and its supporting countries soon regarding the international incident brewing, and Zethia had quite a few choice words for them. Chelle would support from afar, her kittens told to inform Zethia of any plot against her as well as provide her with unflattering snippets the Northern Church might not like to have revealed to the public. Valyx, too, would be sending along a contingent of his elite troops to help guard her, though she was more than capable with the sword now.

It’d been a needed outlet, after Euden’s death. Something to direct her efforts to, and something she had more than enough support in the form of Leonidas and Valyx helping her learn. Euden had always remarked how cool swords were when they were kids, and it served an additional way to honor him, just as the miniature capelet he hated wearing at formal ceremonies that she used as a decorative sash was or the bear coat of arms Valyx used in inspiration of the teddy bear marked with a single drop of blood that had worked through his bandages, that day.

Even Emile was purportedly scheming something, alluded to per Chelle. She suspected an elaborate propaganda campaign collaboration with Chelle and/or artistic masterpiece to drive hearts and minds of the northern lands away from their church, but would let him keep the surprise.

It would serve a wonderful gift whenever it came to fruition; she would not let her curiosity spoil the wonder. A pick-me-up, if the Northern Church proved too aggravating. Regardless, they were not walking in unprepared. Northern countries often liked to pretend they were morally supreme from the ‘spoiled cur’ that was Alberia, given all it needed resource-wise and allowed to thrive, but they were about to learn that just because the land was bountiful did not mean they were complacent in their might.

Were the northern representatives truly so obstinate and hostile to Alberia’s increasing departure from the faith, they were fully prepared to wage war against the entirety of North Grastea combined, and they would win. It was just a matter if said countries saw sense or not, soon.

“...I’ll be back soon, Brother. Wait for me until then. …Goodnight.” 

She rose, before briefly touching the well-worn rock they all seemed to use as a place of contact. Her round of the family crypts complete, Zethia parted, but not before brightening the candles burning perpetually over the tombs with light and fire magic.

Zethia didn’t see how the one dimmer candle she’d missed cast a unique shadow of what looked like a boy on the wall, watching her go with a faint aura of sadness.