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ragingbookdragon · 4 years ago

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If We Were Fast Enough

Flash!Reader x Flashfamily One-Shot

Word Count: 5.3K Warnings: Explicit Language, Angst

Author's Note: I had this idea after watching a few clips of Flashpoint Paradox! Enjoy! -Thorne

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Her hand was tightly clasped in his, eyes narrowed in sadness, but there was a pride in them; she felt the speed transfer between them, flowing through her veins and he said, “You’ve got my speed, honey. It’s up to you now.”

The tears that had welled in her vision tipped over and she whispered, “I can’t leave you here, dad. I—I can’t just run away.”

He shook his head. “You’re not running away. You’re surviving.” A groan escaped him, and the pool of blood seemed to double in size. “We’re running out of time. You’ve gotta go before the timeline collapses.”

“Where do I go?” she asked, wiping her eyes. “This universe is home.”

“Honey, Speedsters are Speedsters whichever universe we’re in.” he smiled weakly at her. “You’ll have a family wherever you end up.”

She gazed at him, breathing deeply as fresh tears grew in her gaze. “I’m scared.”

“I know. But you can do this.” he replied, pausing to look her over. “You look just like your mother, honey.” He smiled tearfully. “She’d be so proud of you if she were here now.”

Pulling the cowl over her head, she gave a watery laugh. “Mom always said I looked like you.”

“Nah. You take your speed and nature after me, but you are a spitting image of your mother.” A blast sounded in the distance and they both looked over, eyes widening as the white flash of light grew larger and larger. “You have to go. Now.”

Swallowing thickly, she leaned down and hugged him around his neck as tight as she could, inhaling the scent of ozone and spearmint for the last time. “I love you, dad. I love you so much.” Her fingers dug into his ruined suit as she cried. “I love you.”

He caressed the back of her cowled head. “I love you more, honey.” Pulling away, he leveled her with a firm look. “Now run, Lightning Flash. Run.”

The bluish-white lightning flowed across her body, and she turned, letting her feet carry her across the war-torn field, escaping the atomic blast. The world melted around her, a blur of memories surrounding her: her birthdays, her parents’ faces, her first stroke as a Flash, the start of the war, the deaths of her friends and family, everything up until now.

She was helpless to stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks, the feeling of her heart pounding in her chest, and the booming in her ears as she ripped through the waves of time and the boundaries of space.

A shriek sounded behind her, and she turned her head, eyes widening. “Ah shit!”

The time wraith screamed at her again, reaching out to grab her and she just barely dodged it, turning back to face the flowing warp. She was close. All she had to do was get to the next time boundary and she could lose the wraith.

“Almost there!” she told herself as another bellowed sounded in her ears again, and with one final leap, she burst through the barrier, the waves collapsing around her. The shock of the blast sent her skidding along the ground, and she cried out as she rolled.

Shouts sounded in her ears, humans, but she was more concerned about the screaming time wraith. “I just lost everything! Can’t you just leave me the hell alone!” It shrieked at her again, advancing and anger welled through her as she pushed herself to her feet and she growled, “You wanna dance, you sonovabitch? Then let’s dance.”

Her eyes lit up in a white force and she darted past the wraith, hitting a point above it, then she darted past again, and again and again in a star formation, over and over until all that could be seen was a blur of blue and white. The clouds rumbled above, swirling faster and faster and she hit the top of the star, coming down at the wraith. A burst of lightning cracked from the sky, striking the time being just as she collided with it, and in a hail of blue and white strikes, the wraith exploded into smoking fragments.

As the smoke cleared, the human voices grew louder, but she was sprawled out on the ground, breathing heavily, her body crying under the strain. Someone placed their hand on her shoulder, worrying, “Are you alright?”

She nodded weakly. “Yeah…just gimme a minute. The five-star lightning strike always takes a lot outta me.” Shutting her eyes, she focused on breathing deeply.

“I’ve never seen anyone destroy a time wraith before.”

“It takes practice.” Craning her neck, she opened her eyes, and bit back a sob as the man’s face cleared before hers. “You’re this world’s Flash, aren’t you?” she whispered, “Barry Allen.” His blue eyes widened, and he nodded mutely. “I figured.”

“Who are you?” he asked. “What world did you come from?”

She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s gone now.” Meeting his gaze once more, she added, “But you can call me the Lightning Flash.”

“What’s your real name?” Barry quizzed.

(Y/N) Allen. And I’d tell you that but all it’d do is bring hurt to both of us.

“(Y/N) Sloan.” She laid her head down, closing her eyes. “I’m gonna take a nap for a while…I’m really…tired…”

His voice called out to her, but all she heard was a warbling noise as she drifted into darkness.

***

When she came to, her head felt like someone had thrown an overripe melon off a balcony ledge and watched it splatter across the ground. She groaned and forced her eyes to open, pushing herself up on her palms.

“Woah, woah, woah!” someone worried. “Take it easy there, Flashy.”

(Y/N) looked over, seeing a familiar green symbol, and an ever more familiar unmasked face. “I’m fine, Hal.”

He blinked. “You know who I am?”

“Please, I’d know that big head of yours from a mile away.” Smirking, she added, “I know everyone in the Justice League.” She grunted, pulling her left arm over her chest, feeling the taut muscles in her back ripple as she stretched them out. “Where am I?”

“The Watchtower.” Hal gazed at her curiously. “Man, when Barry said you knew who he was, I didn’t think he meant you knew all of us.”

“You sound upset that you didn’t get to introduce yourself,” she shot back with a pained grin, stretching her other arm. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll forget I know you, and you can reintroduce yourself.”

He chuckled and pressed a button on the side of the med bay bed. “Nah, no point now.” He looked down at the small light flashing. “Hey, she’s awake.”

In an instant, a sharp wind blew across the room and there stood the scarlet speedster without his cowl; moments later, the doors opened and in walked the top League members, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman.

(Y/N) threw her legs over the side of the bed as they walked over, waving off Barry and Hal who both reached for her, and stood on shaky legs. “Shit, I feel like a newly born giraffe.”

“You shouldn’t be up.” Barry frowned. “You practically tore yourself apart at the molecular level.”

“It was that or be taken by a time wraith,” she shot back, cracking her neck. “How long have I been out?”

“Eighty-six hours,” Batman said, taking her chin in his hand, tipping her head side to side as he shown a light in her eyes. “Your body’s been recovering slower than it should for a Flash.”

(Y/N) blinked. “The particular move does like Barry said it did. It tears the body at the molecular level to contain the speed force into one location.”

“It was dangerous,” Barry scowled, and she couldn’t help but laugh at this younger version of her father who was still just as serious.

“Being a Flash is dangerous.” She felt Batman pull away and she flexed her fingers. “I don’t use the move unless it’s a life-or-death situation.” Glancing at Barry, she questioned, “What earth is this?”

Before he could speak, Batman denounced, “You time jumped, and you don’t know what earth you came into?”

“I didn’t exactly have time to think out a plan while a nuclear blast was going off, Bruce,” she growled, glaring at him from behind the neon blue mask. “And to top it off, I had a time wraith coming after me. I wasn’t in a position to choose which earth I wanted.”

He went silent, gazing at her intently. “Whose names do you know of the Justice League here?”

(Y/N) looked around at the superheroes before her. “You’re all the same Justice League as my earth, but in mine, you’re retired, and your children run the show.”

“I’m sorry, children?” Hal interrupted. “We have—we have children?”

“Some,” she laughed. “Conner Kent is our Superman, Donna Troy is our Wonder Woman, Jason Todd is our Batman, Kyle Rayner is our Green Lantern, and Roy Harper is our Green Arrow.”

“And you?” Superman questioned.

“I’m my Justice League’s Flash. The Lightning Flash.” (Y/N) smiled wearily. “The fastest woman alive.” She toyed with the blue and white gauntlet. “At least now I am.”

“You said you were our kids?” Hal said. “Are you Barry’s daughter?”

The two Speedsters looked at each other and she answered calmly, “No. My transformation into the Flash was a freak accident, much like Wally West’s. That being said, I’m not related to the Flashfamily by blood.”

“Hmm.” Batman grunted, then turned, wandering off. “You need to rest up more then we’ll run tests.”

“Only if she consents.” Barry called out.

Bruce stopped, not even bothering to look over his shoulder as he retorted, “She’s a Speedster from another universe. We need more information before we can let her loose in anyone’s city.”

As he wandered off, she placed her hands on her hips and griped, “God, I miss Jason being Batman. He’s less of a jerk-off about new things.”

Superman chuckled, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t take it the wrong way…(Y/N), was it?”

She nodded. “Yeah, (Y/N) Sloan.” Sticking her hand out, she added, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Pleasure’s all mine,” he murmured, shaking her hand strongly, then he pulled away. “He is right though. You should get some more rest before you wander around the Watchtower.”

She waved it off. “I’ll be alright. If you’ve got a treadmill designed for Speedsters though, I’d like to run a bit.”

“I’ll show you where it is,” Barry answered, leading her from the group. As they walked down the hallway, she paused, leaning against the wall as a wave of nausea came over her; he caught it instantly. “Are you okay?” he frowned. “We should go back to the med bay.”

“No.” she grunted. “I’m fine. Just…just gimme a moment.” Shaking it off, she squared her shoulders. “I absorbed speed from the remaining Speedsters on my world before I left. It’s just taking a toll on me.”

“Why absorb their speed?” he asked, and she could tell from his voice that there was a level of suspicion in it.

“Because it was the only way to keep it from being stolen by our enemies as we were being slaughtered.” (Y/N) looked down the hall. “We can go now. It’s passed.” She bypassed him, wandering down the hallway, though she kept a hand on the railing the entire time.

***

It wasn’t a surprise that they sent her back to Central City with Barry after the few tests she’d let them run. Only tests on the outside, no blood or DNA samples for them to investigate. Barry’s apartment was cramped and there wasn’t room for them both to be in the kitchen, but she’d lived there before, so ducking under his arms and turning around him was second nature.

And Barry, bless the kindhearted soul he was, tried at every opportunity to make her comfortable in the home. (Y/N) respected it, knowing that even worlds apart, Barry Allen was still Barry Allen. She watched him sometimes. When he was sitting on the sofa or at the bar, flipping through paperwork or reading a book on physics. He always lost track of time, forgot what was happening around him, but his face showed ease. Peace. Like the world wasn’t on his shoulders.

It made her miss her father. It made her miss her family and friends. Her world. (Y/N) cried at night on the couch, silent tears dripping down her cheeks as she remembered every last moment of her family and friends’ lives. She’d been lucky in the end to come out unscathed. But her father, his friends, her friends, all dead. All killed in a pointless war that ended with the entire world blown to hell—and she was the only one left.

She sat beside the window, gazing down at the quiet street below her; she felt like crying, but by now, she’d cried out every tear, and all that remained was the hole drilled in her chest, empty and aching.

“(Y/N)?” Glancing over, she saw Barry coming out from his bedroom, brows furrowing at her. “Are you okay?”

Shrugging, she looked back out the window. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay again, Barry.” It was hard to not call him ‘dad’ all the time, and weird to call him ‘Barry’.

She felt him sit opposite of her on the little bench. “Can I help you anyway?”

It took a while for her to speak, but when she did, her voice was barely above a whisper. “It’s all gone. My life. All of it. I’m the only one left from my world.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m…alone.” His hand rested on hers and she felt tears well in her gaze. “I miss my family…and I miss my friends.”

She shook her head, looking at him. “Why my world? Why us?” tears slipped down her cheeks. “Everything was fine one moment and the next thing any of us knew, the world was going to war, and we couldn’t stop it.” A loathing laugh escaped her. “We were the Justice League. The proteges of the greatest heroes and yet we couldn’t stop war.”

(Y/N) wiped her tears. “We failed. I failed.”

“What happened wasn’t your fault, (Y/N).” Barry murmured. “You know that.”

“It feels like it.” She countered. “What do I have to show for all my saving? A sole survivor stuck in a world that has no need for her.”

His eyes were narrowed in concern, the way her father’s used to do when she’d tell him of her troubles and doubts. “There’s always a need for us. Everyone one of us.”

“Speedsters?” she asked, and he squeezed her hand.

“If the universe wanted you dead, you’d be dead, (Y/N). But you’re here and you’re alive.” He smiled sadly. “You can’t outrun the past. But you can change the direction you’re running in.”

She gazed at him and for once in the past few weeks she’d been there, she felt her heart lighten. “Thank you, Barry.”

He smiled warmly at her and patted her hand. “Since we’re both awake…wanna go for a run?”

(Y/N) chuckled and nodded her head. “Yeah. It’d certainly help burn off the emotions.” She held out her hand and Barry looked at the ring on her finger.

“Wow, your ring is cool.” He took her hand, gazing intently at it. “I noticed your suit isn’t red like most of us Speedsters are. Yours is mainly blue and white.”

She nodded. “It was too complicated to call myself Flash since there were more than one, so I took the name Lightning Flash and designed my suit the colors associate with lighting.” (Y/N) vibrated and reappeared in her suit. “Blue and white.”

“With silver trimming,” he added, poking the mask she wore, and she batted his hand away.

“Hey, gold’s overrated.”

Barry’s face pinched as he vibrated into his suit. “Is not!”

“Is too! It’s the colors for the Seminoles.”

He placed a hand to his chest. “I can’t believe you just told me my colors were FSU’s colors. I’ve been fatally wounded.”

“You’re a drama queen,” (Y/N) laughed then started towards the door. “Race you to Coast City!”

Barry sped after her. “Why Coast City!”

“Because it’s California, man!” she watched as he matched her speed. “And Hal’s apartment always has Doritos!”

“I think you might have a crush on our resident Green Lantern,” Barry teased and (Y/N) gagged.

“Dude, gross.”

“Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you aren’t friends with your Green Lantern!”

“The best, but Kyle and I were only friends! My dalliance fell with another team member!”

“Batman?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Batman.”

“Oh. Lovely.” Barry sighed. “You and Jason Todd seem like a wonderful pair.”

(Y/N) snorted. “Contrary to popular belief, Jason was actually a fantastic Batman. He loved it, oddly enough.”

“That is odd,” the Speedster countered. “Because as far as I know, none of the Batkids want to be Batman.”

She merely laughed in return, passing the Coast City sign.

***

“You know these aren’t…my world folks, right?”

He smiled, watching the group of young adults across the room laugh and joke around. “I know, but the lot of us thought it would be good if you got together with the age group of you own.” Barry looked over. “Besides, I think you’re going to fit right in with this world’s group.”

(Y/N) tipped her head side to side, huffing a laugh as Jason thumped Kyle in the side. “We’ll see.” She let Barry lead her over and the small group perked up at their arrival.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming on such short notice. I know you were busy.”

Jason crossed his arms over his chest. “So, why did the League invite us all?”

Barry gestured to (Y/N). “I’d like everyone to meet (Y/N) Sloan. She’s a Speedster who recently arrived on this earth.”

“Recently?” Roy asked and he nodded.

“There was a…problem on her earth.” He glanced at her and nodded, prompting her to speak.

“My world isn’t in the general stream of timelines anymore.” She smiled awkwardly. “I came here to…survive more or less.” Holding out her hand for one of them to shake, she said, “But it’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

“You know who we are?” Kyle asked as he shook her hand.

“Yeah. This world is surprisingly similar to mine, Kyle.” (Y/N) smiled with a little less awkwardness. “I know all of you.” Her eyes fell on Jason who was watching her closely, teal eyes narrowed in calculation. “Penny for your thoughts?”

He hummed. “Who are we over there?”

At that, all the awkwardness fell away. “You don’t wanna know,” she giggled, and his face dropped.

“No.” she nodded, and he whispered, “Me?”

“You.”

“I’m confused,” Roy interrupted, and Donna snickered.

“I think Jason’s the Batman of (Y/N)’s world.”

“HA!” everyone dissolved into hysterics as Jason proceeded to all but cry.

“I don’t wanna be Batman!” he whined. “Why am I Batman! Why not anyone else!”

(Y/N) laughed. “What are you talking about? You volunteered to be Batman.”

“Jesus, I must’ve lost my mind then,” Jason retorted, then looked at her. “Do I carry guns?”

“Non-lethal rounds.”

“Damnit.” He sulked. “Can’t freakin’ believe I’m the Batman on your world and I willingly put the suit on.”

“You were a good Batman,” she stated. “There wasn’t anyone I trusted more to watch my back on the team.”

He met her gaze, seemingly shocked, though it only lasted a minute as he quizzed, “So if I’m Batman, does that make all of us…?”

(Y/N) nodded. “Yep. Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern.”

“And you?” Kyle asked.

“Lightning Flash,” she answered coolly. “The fastest woman alive.” Meeting their gazes, she tipped her head down. “I know you’re not them…but I do hope we can be friends.” She smiled. “You can never have too many of those, no matter what world you’re on.”

Kyle looked over at Barry who was almost crying. “We get to keep her, right? Because if we don’t, I’m going to be very upset.”

(Y/N) snorted and wrapped a loose arm around his waist. “Don’t worry, Kyle. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.” A growling sounded and her cheeks warmed as she pressed a hand to her stomach. “Sorry about that.”

Jason laughed, getting to his feet. “I guess Speedster stomachs are the same no matter what world you’re on.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Barry retorted, and the vigilante looked at her.

“Wanna annoy Batman and hang around Gotham City?”

(Y/N) nodded. “Absolutely.”

“Wait for me!” Roy shouted, yanking his legs from the table, and soon the others were following.

Barry watched them as they walked to the Zeta-Tubes, laughing and ribbing one another like they’d been friends since childhood; someone nudged him in the side, murmuring, “She’s gonna be okay.”

He nodded as Hal settled beside him. “Yeah…I know she will.” He smiled as (Y/N) leaned into Jason’s side and brought a hand to her eyes, wiping the tears away. “She’s already fitting in better than I thought.”

“(Y/N)’s a strong woman,” Hal acknowledged. “She acts a lot like you in that aspect.”

“How so?” Barry inquired and the Lantern shrugged.

“Well, you can’t get her to stop attending League meetings no matter what Batman says, and she’s always ready to put herself on the line for us.” Hal huffed a laugh. “And she treats me like I’m an old man. I’m thirty-eight and she acts like I’m fifty-six.” He looked at Barry. “But she flows in the world like you, Barry. Her mannerisms, her styles, her speech, it’s all you.”

The Speedster frowned, quietly stating, “You think she’s my future daughter, don’t you?”

Hal shrugged. “She doesn’t look like you, but she’s comfortable around you. Like she knows she’s safe if you’re there with her.”

“Why lie about it though?” Hal could tell Barry was hurt. “Wouldn’t she want to tell me?”

“If you lost everything and showed up in another world where there was a parent still alive, would you act like nothing changed or would you keep it at arms-length?”

Barry sighed. “You’re…right.” He shook his head. “I didn’t even think of that.” His frown deepened. “She must hate looking at me though. I’m not her dad but I’m another version of him.”

“She doesn’t hate you, Barry.” Hal said, clasping his hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “She’s just…trying to keep it all together and not mix this world with hers.”

“I feel connected with her.” He admitted. “The speed force works funny like that. We can feel other speedsters—we know their speeds and auras.” His voice became soft. “Hers feels like…like…”

“Like?” Hal encouraged and Barry sighed.

“Her aura feels like when I went back in time and saved my mom.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to explain but she feels like—”

“Like family.”

Barry gaped at Hal. “Yeah…that’s exactly it.”

Hal nodded. “She’s still your daughter even worlds apart.”

“What do I say to her?”

“Don’t.” he answered. “Let her come to you about it.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Barry agreed.

***

The group had dispersed as quickly as it had come together, not that she was overly upset—she knew they all had prior engagements and teams to be apart of, but she would’ve been lying to say that it hadn’t saddened her a bit. Jason and Kyle, however, seemed to be the only ones that were usually around, Jason more than the latter.

(Y/N) liked being around Jason. He was much more hotheaded than she was used to, but she decided that like the Flashes, Jason Todd was Jason Todd no matter what universe he was in.

He was a little more reckless than she knew, playing fast and loose with the game, but he knew where his feet landed with each jump, and he was there when she needed help, her the same.

It hadn’t taken him long to deduce that the two of them were more than friends in her world, making the joke that she was his Catwoman—she’d cried she’d laughed so hard, but it given them time to talk about everything that had happened to her and her world; most importantly, her father.

She watched as Jason reclined against the cool stone of the ledge, passing one of the wrapped cheeseburgers to her. “Thank you,” she murmured, unwrapping it.

“Mhm,” he hummed, sipping his milkshake, setting his hood beside him; he swallowed and looked over. “What’s on your mind?”

(Y/N) blinked. “What are you talking about?” he merely cocked a brow and she sighed. “I forgot you could read people well.”

“Well maybe if you were a book and not a pamphlet, it’d be harder.”

“Did you just call me simple?”

“Never.” He waved it off. “What are you thinking about?”

She sighed again and set her half-eaten burger aside, pulling her knees to her chest as she whispered, “My mom’s maiden name was Sloan.”

Jason arched a brow. “You go by ‘Sloan’. Was your mom married?”

“My parents were. She died from cancer when I was ten.”

“I’m sorry,” he lamented, and she smiled.

“Thank you.” (Y/N) looked over. “My last name is Allen.”

His eyes widened. “As in Barry Allen, Allen?”

“Yeah…my dad.”

Jason blinked. “Holy shit.”

“Mhm.” She propped her chin on her knees. “The reason I’m just as fast as Wally West in this world is because I absorbed my dad’s speed before I left mine.” (Y/N) gazed at the city. “And then I left him to die in the blast.”

“You know that wasn’t your fault.”

She huffed. “So Barry’s told me.”

Jason stared at her. “Why do you live with him in Central City?”

“Because I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she answered. “And I…I—”

“You miss your dad.” He answered for her, and she nodded, feeling warmth gather in her eyes and she squeezed them shut.

“Yeah…it’s not him but…”

“It’s the only thing you’ve got that’s close enough to him.”

“Yeah.”

Jason nodded. “You’re welcome to come live with me over here.”

(Y/N) looked over at him. “I can’t do that, Jason.”

“Why not?”

She laughed. “We barely know each other.”

He shrugged. “We know each other enough.” Gazing at her, he added, “I’m not your world’s Jason, but we must be similar enough because I’ve seen and felt you fall behind me during fights, being at my six when I didn’t have it covered.” He smiled. “You know me, (Y/N), and I’d like to know you too.”

She merely gaped at him, then huffed a laugh. “I think that’s the most similar thing to my world’s Jason that I’ve heard you say.”

“Oh, come on!” he griped. “He couldn’t be that different from me!”

(Y/N) smiled. “Robins.”

Jason blanched. “I had Robins?”

“You had a son, who was exactly like you right now.”

“I wanna ask about the son, but what do you mean right now?”

“Oh, you know…hotheaded, anti-social, antagonistic.”

“You’re cute,” he scowled, then looked into the distance. “I can’t imagine bringing my kid with me.”

(Y/N) giggled. “Please, it took him like five years of complete begging on his knees before you’d even let him put on the suit, let alone go out with you.” She reached over and pushed hair behind his ear. “You were a good father…a good man.” Her expression turned sad. “I wasn’t fast enough to save either of you.”

Jason leaned into her touch, a frown on his face. “They know you tried, (Y/N).”

Tears gathered in her eyes. “I hope they knew that.” She shook her head as the tears started to spill over. “I lost everyone. You, JJ, my dad and all my friends.” (Y/N) stared at him through the tears. “How do I just start over after all that?”

He pushed the takeout bags out of the way and scooted over, pulling her to his chest; she buried her face in his suit and he propped his chin on the crown of her head. “I wish I had an answer for you.” He rubbed circles in her back. “But I do know that you can either let this keep you down, or you can get back up. Because if you don’t…then every life lost was in vain for you to survive.”

“I take it back,” she blubbered. “Your philosophical bullshit life lessons are the most Jason thing I’ve heard.”

He smiled, squeezing her tight. “That’s what we’re gonna call it now. Philosophical bullshit life lessons.” Jason pressed a kiss to her head. “It’s going to be okay, (Y/N). It’ll get better.”

***

It’d been a full year since she’d come to the new earth. She hadn’t moved in with Jason yet, but the moving boxes on the couch were the start of it—and she hadn’t told Barry she was leaving, or that he was her dad. (Y/N) wasn’t sure how to break that seal just yet.

She wandered around the tiny apartment, smiling at all the memories she’d made in the past year, and into his bedroom, where she paused at his dresser. A gold ring rested on top of it, and she picked it up, flipping it in her hand.

A woosh sounded from the door. “I’m home!” Barry’s voice trailed off in confusion and he called, “(Y/N)?”

“Here.”

He appeared in her peripheral, but she didn’t take her eyes off the ring, still gazing at the center stones. “There are boxes on the couch.”

“I’m moving in with Jason over in Gotham.”

“Oh…” he murmured, then took sight of what she had in her hands. “Is that—”

“Nora’s wedding ring?” she nodded. “Yeah.”

“How’d you know it was my mom’s?” Barry asked, stepping up to her and she finally looked at him, meeting his eyes.

“Because I had the same one in my world.” (Y/N) searched his gaze. “But you don’t seem surprised by that fact.” She sighed. “How long have you known?”

Barry’s face contorted in shame. “A few weeks after you got here.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

He shook his head. “Hal said—” he sighed. “I wanted to wait until you said something to me about it. I was afraid if I did, you’d run.”

(Y/N)’s brows pulled together, lips pulling down sadly. “Barry…”

“I know I’m not your dad,” he whispered. “But I know, (Y/N). I can feel it.”

She felt her lips wobble and before she knew it, she was throwing herself into his arms, wrapping hers around his waist as tight as she could. “Dad.”

Barry’s arms came around her, one holding the back of her head, the other in the middle of her back. “I’m here, (Y/N).”

“I missed you so much,” she cried. “I wasn’t fast enough to save them, and I couldn’t save you either.”

“No,” he said. “You did everything you could. I know you did.”

“But I wasn’t fast enough.” (Y/N) sobbed. “You had to give me your speed so I could run away. Like a coward.”

“Like a survivor,” Barry corrected. “You’ve never run away.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “You’re a survivor, (Y/N). And your dad made sure of that.” He pulled away slightly, tears of his own dripping down his cheeks. “You’re fast enough.” She shut her eyes as more tears rolled down her cheeks and he pressed his lips to her forehead. “And no matter what world you’re on, you’re still my daughter.”

A laugh that sounded much more like a sob escaped her and she hugged him again. “I love you, dad.”

Barry smiled, holding her tight. “I love you more, honey.”

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lethargicsunlight · 3 years ago

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Dabi X SpookyQuirk!Reader "Conflagration" (mini) (Part 8)

(See the other parts on my directory! LINK)

It's happening again.

The fire.

Bark on a nearby tree has turned black, crisscrossed with cerulean streaks; like lightning, glowing from within. Embers spit and sizzle, arcing down to the scorched earth from the branches and dancing on the thermal winds that send the blaze into organic, breath-like spirals.

It's loud. You've never heard anything like it. The very air was as though bellowing with emotion; tearing it molecularly apart to feed a frenzied beast. Between the cacophony and the sapphire hues--you reach for serenity. To pull apart the pain that keeps you tethered, and move past it.

This was your third time visiting this place.

The second had been like the first, stuck and swallowed by the flames and waking up in a cold sweat.

But not this time.

Determined to change the fate of this vision, you let go of trying to struggle and sink into the scenery. It's wretched--the pain insurmountable despite how you remain absolutely lucid as something you can't fathom rakes through your flesh down to the bone. You can see and you can't see all at once.

Your eyes are closed, but you also know what the fire looks like--what the burning foliage looks like. You know there's a stream nearby, even though your body won't move towards it. You know there's someone that was supposed to be here..

But they never came.

It's their fault.

These thoughts aren't yours. These memories aren't yours. Finally everything seems to mount until at a fever pitch, and your essence finally blends in--syncing with the environment and becoming part of it.

Why didn't he come?!

If he had... just this once..!

I could've shown him!

It was a little boy's voice; echoing through the smoke that rose from burning trees and boiling streams. Broken, angry, and sad.

Finally, the world begins fading to black like dropping ink into a glass of water; transparent at first, but then its pitch darkness.

And at the vision's end, all you can feel is cold.

----

This time when you wake up, your body is buzzing. Your arms and chest quake uncontrollably, and you grab for your phone to check the time. It's 2:45 AM. You try to set it down carefully, but instead it clatters unto the wood of the bedside table.

You force yourself to rise and sit at the side of the bed; shaking hands massaging your scalp as you stare at the floor.

This wasn't a coincidence anymore.

At first, you thought this was some subconscious dialogue your own mind wanted to share with you; a warning as you kept finding yourself closer and closer with the League of Villains and Dabi in particular. Seeing as things had turned out, however.. there was no warning that could sway you. Your mind's previous interpretations of 'right' and 'wrong' had evolved, and you could no longer look at the world in the black and white spectrum as it wanted you to.

So why?

You can put two and two together. You were being burned, or rather, whoever you were projecting from had been. And, seeing as how Dabi was littered with burn scars..

It's really amazing you hadn't figured it out till now.

The broken and sad voice of the boy echoes in your mind and it takes a full second to convince yourself that it's not happening again as you fidget, and eventually stand up. There's no way you can go back to sleep now. Instead, you begin to get dressed. You needed to go outside and be somewhere other than this room.

Since you had shared a kiss with the elusive metal firebrand, you had both promised to be more open. Unfortunately though, while you had plenty of confessions for him.. he had little. Not for being secretive, but more because he spent most of his time focused on what needed to be done. He admitted to some personal pleasures, but they were far from anything he 'loved' or 'favored' for more than short-term. Whether that was hobbies or even people. He never kept anyone close, and even the League was often just at arms length.

When it came to his past though, he was always short about his answers and quick to go into his usual manifesto.

"So.." You start, a little awkwardly as the two of you are making headway back towards the base. It has almost felt like a game of twenty questions, as he relinquished to finally asking you about your life and quirk. 'What was it like as a kid?' 'Did you have parents?' 'Was it scary?'

"Those scars..? How did you get them?"

You can see a shift in his posture then, and his eyes narrow as he focuses forward. "Something that happened quite a while ago now. It's a reminder of my purpose.. but it's nothing more important than that."

Your eyebrows dip in, and you know it probably is more important than that, but you don't push. "Oh.."

There's a flash of guilt in his eyes as he recognizes the disappointment in your voice. "It's because of this hero society." He spits the venom laced words, trying to pivot your attention to something else. "They're hypocrites, and they need to be torn down from their shiny pedestals. They think they're invincible because this twisted society protects them.. but we're going to stop that."

He looks at you, eyes hard and hot with malice and determination. "Right..?" He asks you, as though his interpretation of 'we' was actually intended for the two of you alone, rather than the League and its entirety.

"Right."

You're still shaking as you make your way downstairs. You're surprised to find Shigaraki and Kurogiri both there; the latter at the bar and the former with his face lit up by a monitor in the corner.

"Y/n?" It's Kurogiri announcing your presence, fiery yellow eyes unreadable despite the concerned sound in his voice.

"Sorry. Had a hard time sleeping again, I just need some air." You say, making your way towards the exit.

The bell sounds a familiar jingle upon your departure, and you don't notice Shigaraki turning in his chair to stare at the door as it closes.

Kurogiri goes about making you some of that tea he mentioned weeks back, and eventually he brings it out to you; still piping hot and tasting of medicine. It helps, but you never bring yourself to admit to the misty man what you had been dreaming about. You make the excuse that you may have overused your quirk, or weren't used to the extended effects of your new abilities and it affected your sleep. That was good enough for him.

When you return to your room in the hopes of getting the last few hours of rest, you first stand outside of it--wondering if you should take a few steps more down the hall to a certain door. The discovery of your mutual feelings encouraged you--but it was still so new. You feared confronting him about the dreams might turn him away and make him cold again.

Instead you sluggishly return to bed. When chasing sleep didn't work, you grabbed the sketchbook from your bag and used the light on your phone to sketch the fire.

When the image felt empty, you added a silhouette of a boy in pain.

#dabi x reader #dabi x spookyquirk!reader #dabi fluff #touya x reader #dabi x y/n #dabi x you #league of villains #halloween vibez #lov fanfic #shigaraki #kurogiri

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imonthinice · 4 years ago

Text

The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 18/?

Word Count: 2.5k

Author's Note: Y/N - your name, A/N - any name (your best friend's name)

Warnings: Mentions of court, mentions of Jason's injuries, swearing, No beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Jason walked out in a few minutes, just in his boxers. She looked at him before letting out a slight laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Don't laugh, you're the one who tore my clothes."

She sighed, "And you're going to have to go home in torn boxers, Bruce is going to kill you."

"God, don't remind me," he said before sitting beside her.

She laughed, "You could just not go home?"

"I wish. But I have a life. You have a life."

"It's unfortunate, isn't it. Can't spend all day with you but you're all I want to do."

"Funny."

"Thank you, I really tried," she thought, "You remember how I seem to have a fascination with vigilantes?"

"Yes, why?"

"I remembered why. So, when I was in high school, graduating year, I had law class. I was bored, so I did law, don't question it," she laughed. "Anyway, in my law class, they split us into groups. Specifically, Pro-Justice-League-Association and Anti-Justice-League-Association."

"Pro and Anti?"

"Yeah, apparently it was relevant? I guess the JLA doesn't use conventional methods to get evidence? Don't care though. Anyway, I was on the side of Pro, obviously."

"Obviously."

"Wait I'm not done! By the end of the class, I had debated every member of the Anti team and converted them. It actually introduced me to the Robin-Forums, which is just smack dab full of conspiracies."

"Robin-Forums?"

"Oh my god? You don't know those? You're all over them. Some people are convinced you're Kid Flash, some are convinced you're Robin, it's crazy."

"That is crazy but seems funny. What about my family?"

"Someone in my class posted "Why Clark Kent is Batman: An Essay" which has like, 20k likes? It's very popular."

"Well, I swear he isn't Batman. He's just very fond of the night."

"That's what I said, but that man is convinced otherwise."

"You would know if any of us were vigilantes. We're not good at hiding secrets."

"I'm sure you have your secrets, I just find it funny people think you have time to be Kid Flash."

"People spend all their time worrying about me, when will it end?"

"Ha! That's fair. Tabloids running your name probably doesn't help the conspiracies."

"I remember one of my ex-friends from high school mentioned me being Kid Flash, I was so confused, I guess it makes sense now. I'm going to have to show everyone that. They'll get a kick out of it."

"I bet they would. I'm waiting for the day I'm on it as someone who's a hero. Hoping they say I'm Wonder Woman or something. I think it would be funny."

"You get Miss Martin because everyone thinks you're too beautiful to be human."

"Aw. That's so corny that I hate it! Well done."

"Thank you. I learned it from Dick."

"Of course you did."

"Where else would I learn it from?"

"If you're genuinely asking, the internet, probably."

"That's fair. That's completely fair. I think Dick learns a lot of his lines from the internet, honestly."

"Oh yeah, there's no way he comes up with everything on his own. No way."

"So, what other dumb stories do you have?"

"Well, I think my sister is either a vigilante or really, really, weird."

"You think your sister is a vigilante?"

"Okay so, she's a businesswoman. No big deal, right? Wrong. She's always out, more often than she has to be, she's always spending nights away from home."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"Okay well Adrianna, Aria, whatever you want to call her, she's being suspicious."

"I'm sure you're looking too far into it."

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

The Night Jason Was Stabbed.

Aria clutched the scythe in her life hand. She had failed. She had worn her best dresses that she could hide beneath her capes, she had drugged him, she had stabbed him 6 bloody times, and he had still survived!

She was angry. She walked up to the Red Hood on his time off while he was catching a drink, looking stressed. She didn't care if he accepted her offer to go to her room, she just cared about that moment. The one where she could slip in the crushed-up pills and no one would stop her.

And she had done it. She waited until after he chugged the whole drink to strike. He was stumbling around, like an idiot. She hit his head with the back of her blade, knocking him to the ground where she proceeded to stab him 6 times in his right side.

She kissed his forehead before leaving, which required her to removed her mask a bit, saying "Goodnight, sweet Prince," before running into the darkness.

But the blue one, Nightwing. He got to the Red Hood before he could die. And she was pissed. All that hard work, just for him to not even die.

The scythe was still bloodied from the Red Hood. Her lips were still warm from his forehead. But now, he had possibly seen her face! Her plans were foiled every way when of her goblins came up to her.

"Ma'am, your weapon."

She passed it over without second thought. She wanted it rid of the blood of a living man, she wanted it soaked in the blood of a dead man.

Her plague doctor mask fell a bit as she began to tear up. She had failed. She had never failed at knocking "Heroes" down a peg.

Call it crazy, but she knew the fights between her and the Red Hood were far from over. She even felt as they'd grow closer.

As she looked at the walls covered in the photos of the vigilantes of the world, she knew this was only the first battle. The war was hers. They didn't know what was going to hit them.

But there was an issue. Her sister, Y/N had become close with one of the Waynes. She needed the Waynes to get to the "Heroes" which meant possibly hurting her sister.

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

"I hope I'm looking too far into it."

She wasn't.

One night when they were both 17, it was just Aria and Y/N in the house when Y/N was awoken by a loud crash from the downstairs window.

She went to investigate, bat in hand, to find her sister, stumbling over the coffee table. Bleeding out and clutching her side from the blood. Stabbed.

Y/N took no hesitation to take care of Aria. Stitching her up like they had as kids when Y/N would sitch up Aria after shut cut herself on skates, or if Y/N ran straight into a car.

Those images still dance in Y/N's mind to this day. Something was up with the way that her sister had a mask, a long bird-Esque plague doctor mask. A cloak. Knives. Guns. A scythe.

The best outcome would be her sister was attacked while LARPing in the park. The worst? She was a villain. Midway? A hero of the night, a vigilante. Anything was better than a villain.

If only she knew the pain Aria had caused her until this point. The fact that Aria was the one who drugged and tried to kill Jason. The pieces of the story were unravelling in front of everyone's eyes, they just needed to connect them properly.

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

Aria had a plan. Kidnap her sister and her lover's family. Get ransom. Get them hurting. Locate the "Heroes". The only issue was that Y/N would recognise the cloak, the mask. She knew the get-up.

Aria was not about to redesign her entire outfit for the sake of not alerting her sister. She figured it would be unlikely that Y/N would focus on the cloak when she's being used for ransom money.

Or at least she hoped. She wasn't certain her plan would even work. Breaking into the Wayne Manor, after one of the kids had been stabbed, in a mugging was going to be difficult.

They had employed security, something that was never common at the Wayne Manor before this moment. She was upset. If only her sister had met the Waynes before the stabbing.

Then she thought.

Red Hood is a Wayne?

It made sense, sure. They got stabbed at the same time. But was it reasonable? She didn't know. Why would an 18-20-year-old be a vigilante? He couldn't even legally drink?

She thought it didn't make sense. That the Red Hood was never, could never be the Wayne kid. But if he was, what could that mean?

She was certain he wasn't. But the thoughts swirled in her mind as if beckoning her to come to the conclusion.

She was crazy, she knew that. She was obviously crazy, she became the villain, the opposite of her twin in every way. She was insane. Arkham would like her. But there was something about the Red Hood being a Wayne that kept coming back to her. Haunting her like the night she was stabbed by Green Arrow back in Metropolis.

She was on their radar. They knew her. They would come to get the Waynes.

She knew the Justice League Association knew of her. But the people didn't. This stunt would make the people know of her.

The name Hour will ring through the streets of Gotham. The streets of Metropolis. Smallville. Anywhere she could get her hands on. She would begin her reign of terror.

No one could stop her now.

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

Jason had left after Bruce had called him. She assumed he needed to work or one of his siblings did a dumbass move. It was upsetting that they couldn't spend every moment together, but she knew that it was par for the course with Jason.

She was bored. She didn't have a job, her parents paid her bills if she focused on school. But she wasn't something to do, a reason to be having down days. She knew school gave her this, but it wasn't like it was every damn day.

A job would be every damn day. Hopefully. A reason to do so much in her life.

She figured she could work at Wayne Enterprises. But she didn't want to be that girl. The one who's fucking the CEO and is subsequently untouchable. You can't befriend her and talk sit, she'll tattle.

She wanted to be a normal working person. A colleague, not a boss.

Wayne Enterprises was a last resort for her. If she couldn't get hired anywhere else, she'd go apply thee. You don't fuck company property, she thought.

But she also thought fucking Wanye Enterprises "Property" was fun. and no one was really going to stop her, not even Bruce. Even though Bruce tried to lecture her and Jason, there was only so much he'd do. Barbara and Dick both worked at Wayne Enterprises and hadn't been reprimanded for that.

And obviously, they were having sex. They had been together for a while, Jason said.

Which, obviously they were having sex if they were together for that long.

She scrolled a little while for jobs, marking down a few she'd look further into. Not really anything exciting, she was still young, 1st year in college, a freshman. Not many prestigious places would hire someone her age. Especially while they're still in school.

There were only unpaid intern jobs in her field. And she wasn't about to fuck with not getting paid, even if it was her line of schooling. She didn't think it was worth it to put all of your efforts into a job that you weren't getting paid for.

A lot of kids thought her way, including her sister. Both of them grew up thinking that getting paid for work was necessary, her parents had always told them that. Even if her parents had strict religious views, they would still back her up if someone wasn't paying her, even if they fell out.

She thought if Bruce felt the same, that kids should be paid for what they do. He figured he did since he employed all of his kids once they were old enough to work at Wayne Enterprises.

She noticed Lexcorp, who had recently put up a building in Gotham, was hiring. She thought it would be funny if she went to work for her boyfriend's dad's competitor. She was tempted.

Worst comes to worst, she'd be a Lexcorp employee.

She, of course, would have to dress up for these interviews, and she had the clothes to do so, but she didn't, per se, want to wear them.

She also didn't want to go outside when trials were still raging. So, she figured she'd call Christopher's parents about getting him a lawyer and then scroll the pages for shopping. His parents finally had the time to deal with their son, because Christopher didn't want to interrupt his parents with him being an idiot.

She dialled.

"Hello?" his mom asked.

"Hey, Laura. It's Y/N."

"Y/N! Sweetheart, we've been wondering about you ever since, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. We can talk about it later I swear. So, I already told you about what Christopher did, right?"

"You did."

"He needs a lawyer, the man is pressing charges."

"Well, that's stupid. He has no right."

"Apparently he does."

"We'll get Christopher a lawyer. But how are you, darling?"

"I'm okay. Could be a hell of a lot better. I have faith in the court system."

"We're all worried about you, kiddo. You've wrapped yourself up in a lot of a mess recently."

"I know. It's weird. But I swear I'm strong enough to pull through, you've known me for what, 13 years? Give or take? I know how to handle myself."

"That doesn't mean we can't worry."

"I know, new city, new people. I swear behind the scandals I'm in that I actually have friends."

"I assume we'll meet this Jason eventually?"

"Eventually. We need to find the time between court dates, work. Adulting."

"You don't have a job?"

"Jason does. And I'm thinking about getting one to pass the time."

"Working to pass the time is a new thing, fascinating, you kids are."

"Nothing can make sense of all these things I've done, I know."

"Those sound like song lyrics."

"Sometimes songs are the best way to get all your thoughts compiled into one place, you know. I starred as Katherine Howard, Laura. I know how to convey emotion through art."

"I know. That's still one of the performances Metropolis holds on to, you know."

"I wish they didn't. But it is what it is."

"It's a good performance, kiddo."

She laughed, "Anyway. You get onto that lawyer. Christopher needs it right now."

"I will. Be safe. We love you."

"I love you lot."

Click. She thought about Christopher, and the bullshit he went through to save her.

She brushed the thoughts off and pulled out her journal. Scribbling down her sister's bird mask. She couldn't get that off of her mind. She could have sworn her sister made the thing out of actual bone.

It was like she threw a steampunk aesthetic into a plague doctor. She was certain there was more to it that she didn't know.

youtube

Literally Aria LMFAO

#Youtube #jason todd fluff #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #jason todd x fem!reader #jason todd x reader #jason todd #red hood fluff #red hood x you #red hood x y/n #red hood x fem!reader #red hood x reader #red hood #male oc #female oc

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fallen-gravity · 4 years ago

Text

Cheap Thrills and Expensive Snacks

Mabel grins. “Grunkle Ford, do you want to go on a road trip with us? One last adventure before we have to go home?”

Ford’s smile softens with sadness. He’d gotten so caught up in reveling in Bill’s defeat that he’d almost forgotten the kids were heading back to California at the end of the summer.

Ford shakes his head. “I would love to, but…” he frowns. “I’m not sure we have enough time”

The young twins exchange grins, like that’s exactly the response they were waiting for.

“I wouldn’t say that, Grunkle Ford” Dipper grins, looking like he’s struggling to suppress a fit of giggles.

“We have all time in the world” Mabel finishes Dipper’s sentence for him, and in perfect unison the twins pull out a roll of measuring tape from their pockets.

Notes: Here's my belated entry for Week 3 of Forduary: Road Trip!! I absolutely love the road trip trope, and highkey wish Ford could've gotten to see some of Stan's competitors just for the sake of how awful they were compared to the Mystery Shack. C'mon! Give Stan some credit.I also wanted an excuse for Ford to bond more with the kids before they went home, and what better way than through a never-ending roadtrip that somewhat breaks the laws of time and space?

@forduary

AO3

Ever since Ford heard the first bird chirping the morning after Weirdmageddon’s conclusion, he’s felt like a thirty-year old weight has finally been lifted from his shoulders. For the first time in decades, Ford has found himself able to sleep, able to eat, able to do and say anything he pleases without having to speak in hushed tones or cast a cautious glance behind his shoulders.

For the first time since his childhood, he truly feels like himself again, and no longer like a marionette whose strings are always on the brink of snapping under pressure.

It was that first morning after the war, upon waking up before others (out of habit, mostly), that he allowed himself to truly sit and ponder on everything he’s been missing since shutting himself out from the world in his early twenties. He quickly came to the conclusion that the things he missed most were always the things he’d always had just outside of arm’s length; He missed the thrill of discovery, of exploration, the passion for his life’s work that had faded into thin air the moment that fateful first test run of the portal had failed.

Most of all, he missed companionship.

As much as he hated to admit it to himself, Ford needed other people in his life more than anything else, even more than Ivy League schools and research grants and all the knowledge in the universe.

He told Stan the reason he wanted to take a boat out to the Arctic was to track and contain the remnants of Weirdmageddon that had begun to spread outside of Gravity Falls. But truth be told, he would’ve asked Stan if he still wanted to travel world with him regardless, because Ford found himself wanting nothing more than to chase their childhood dream and never let it go again.

There’s a light knock on his study door as he’s scribbling down navigation notes and he’s half-expecting to see Stan when he turns to the noise. He’s instead met with Dipper and Mabel, standing side by side in his doorway.

“Got a minute?” Dipper asks.

“We have something super important to ask you!” Mabel beams.

Ford places his pen down on his desk, and smiles. “I’m listening”

“Well,” Dipper starts. “We’ve been thinking about how we didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time with you this summer because...” he shrugs. “Well, because we didn’t know you existed until a few weeks ago”

“And that’s totally unfair to you!” Mabel throws her arms up in the air. “It’s not your fault you missed out on all the fun because you were trapped in another dimension”

Dipper nods. “And that got us thinking of all the time we spent with Grunkle Stan, and the road trip he took us on a few weeks ago without you. I don’t know if that was because he asked you and you said no, or if he left without telling you out of spite, or something”

“And that’s when a super genius idea came to us!” Mabel grins. “Grunkle Ford, do you want to go on a road trip with us? One last adventure before we have to go home?”

Ford’s smile softens with sadness. He’d gotten so caught up in reveling in Bill’s defeat that he’d almost forgotten the kids were heading back to California at the end of the summer.

But…a glance to the calendar hanging by the doorway tells him it’s August 29th, and the twins are set to leave after their birthday party ends on the 31st.

Ford shakes his head. “I would love to, but…” he frowns. “I’m not sure we have enough time”

The young twins exchange grins, like that’s exactly the response they were waiting for.

“I wouldn’t say that, Grunkle Ford” Dipper grins, looking like he’s struggling to suppress a fit of giggles.

“We have all time in the world” Mabel finishes Dipper’s sentence for him, and in perfect unison the twins pull out a roll of measuring tape from their pockets. Before Ford has even a moment to wonder what they could mean, they each pull on their tape, high five each other, and disappear into thin air.

Ford stumbles to his feet, nearly knocking his chair to the ground. Between one blink and the next the kids reappear, both of them wearing period piece costumes. The measuring tapes in their hand crackle with blue lightning.

Ford gasps. “Time tapes! Of course!” He approaches the twins in the doorway. “How did you two get ahold of these?”

“Let’s just say we have an inside to these sorts of things” Mabel replies, kicking her costume off and placing her time tape back into her sweater pocket.

“So what do you say?” Dipper steps forward. “Do you want to come with us on a road trip? We can literally go whenever we want”

“You mean when--” Mabel pauses, backtracking. “Oh, wait, you did say that”

“So what do you say, Grunkle Ford? One more adventure for the road?”

Ford’s chest fills with warmth. He’d love to; he really would, but…

“What about Stan?”

“Y’gotta give me some credit, poindexter” Stan’s voice rings from behind the corner. If Ford had to guess, it’s probably because he was waiting for his response. “Someone’s gotta tag along to babysit you three”

Ford wants to glare at his brother at the insult, but his excitement overtakes it and a grin spreads to his face instead.

“Let’s go,” he says, with all the wonder in his tone that he’d been missing for years.

Dipper and Mabel exchange nods, and take each other’s hands. With their free hands, they stretch their measuring tapes out the same length. Stan grabs on to Mabel’s shoulder, and after he and Dipper share a silent, knowing glance, Ford places his hand on Dipper’s shoulder.

Dipper and Mabel release their tape in unison, and a large flash of white light overwhelms Ford’s vision. When it finally fades, the four of them are still standing exactly where they’d been a moment ago, the only indication that anything changed being the sparks of blue lightning crackling from their clothes.

Dipper’s the first to step away from the huddle. “See?” He gestures at Ford’s wall calendar, which now displays June instead of August. “It’s practically the beginning of the summer all over again!”

Mabel breaks away to stand beside Dipper. “Now we can go anywhere we want! We could go to Portland, or Vegas, or the lost city of Atlantis, or anywhere in the world, because this bad boy prevents us from missing our bus ride home for as long as we want!”

Stan chuckles, shaking his head. “Not so fast, Mabel. I love the enthusiasm, but I’m not sure my old RV can handle driving into the ocean. Not unless Brainiac over here is willing to do some modifications on it” Stan throws an arm around Ford’s shoulder, squeezing it tightly. “Besides, I’ve already got a plan!” Stan’s gaze shifts to Ford, and the grin on his face could split it in two. “If you think my attractions look fake, just wait ‘til you see how bad my competitors look compared to me!”

“I dunno,” Dipper frowns, scratching at his chin. “Don’t you think going back to the place where you were almost eaten by a giant spider lady is a bad idea?”

“Hey, time travel rules mean that I never met her in the first place, right?” Stan crosses his arms. “Besides, it’s not like I’m gonna fall for her tricks all over again just because she offers me discounted tickets, or something”

Dipper and Mabel exchange worried glances.

“Mmm, okay,” Dipper says. “But we’re keeping an eye on you”

“That’s the spirit!” Stan exclaims, and slaps Ford on the back as he backs out of the room. “I’m gonna go pack. I doubt you have anything to pack, Sixer, but we’re reconvening in the gift shop in an hour. Go…take a shower or something. I don’t wanna spend next twelve hours driving with someone smelling like that.”

Ford glares at him, but before he has time to respond Stan’s already gone. The kids must’ve slipped out close on Stan’s heels, because when Ford turns he’s alone in his room. Rolling his eyes, he walks to his couch and kneels on the ground, reaching underneath for his emergency exploration pack. It’s a backpack torn and worn from age, and comes already packed with water bottles, nutrient bars, sunscreen, and just about every brand of monster repellent known to mankind.

A nostalgic sort of smile threatens to tug at his lips. He hasn’t seen this bag since his early research days with Fiddleford. He slings it over his shoulders, and pats at his trench coat pocket to make sure his journal is still safely tucked inside. He doesn’t necessarily plan on making any more additions, but he supposes that old habits die hard.

It’s a very bulky RV, much bigger than Ford was expecting. He’d assumed that Stan calling it an RV was just an exaggeration, and that the four of them would just be piling into the Stanleymobile as they tugged some tiny trailer along that they would only would only step foot in for sleeping. But as Ford approaches, he can see Dipper and Mabel chatting at a small table through the window, and Stan rummaging through a cupboard above them, and it looks as though there’s still plenty of room to walk between them.

Mabel taps on Dipper’s shoulder, points in Ford’s direction, and both of them wave frantically out the window at him.

“Took you long enough,” Stan suddenly appears in the doorway of the camper. “Now get in. The last thing we need is to run into the past versions of those two and get bombarded with questions” He gestures with his thumb towards Dipper. “Especially him. He sees that journal sticking out of your pocket and we’re done for”

Ford chuckles. “I can only imagine,” he says, and climbs aboard behind Stan. He’s about to take the passenger side seat besides Stan when the kids frantically wave him over.

“Grunkle Ford, over here!” Mabel beams, and hops down from her seat across from Dipper. “Come sit with us!”

“This is a road trip about spending more time with you, after all” Dipper nods. “What good will it do for us if you’re sitting way up front with Stan?”

“Yeah! No good interrogation ever happens from across the room!” Mabel exclaims.

Ford raises an eyebrow, but smiles at the pair as he takes a seat across from them. “Interrogation?”

“Yep!” Dipper grins. “We already know all of the heroic scientist stuff about you…”

“But we want to know the fun Grunkle stuff about you!” Mabel finishes his sentence for him. “You favorite ice cream flavor, your first kiss, the most illegal thing you’ve ever gotten away with…you know, just the basics!”

Ford blushes. “Well, I don’t know about that…”

“Aww, I’m sure it’s not that bad! Dipper’s first kiss was with a merman he had to give reverse CPR to!”

“Mabel!” Dipper squeaks, his whole a dark shade of red. “That’s not fair! You know I didn’t have a choice!”

Ford can’t help the fond smile that spreads to his face. It’s moments like these that he’s going to miss the most. Sure, he’ll have anomalies, and treasure, and the whole world to explore, but he just knows that none of that is ever going to compare to time alone with the kids.

Once Stan gets the RV up and running, Ford knows there’s no going back. He and the kids swap childhood stories for hours, only pausing when Stan pulls off the side of the road to fuel up on gas and snacks. Dipper tells him of the time him and Mabel shaved their heads after a bully stuck gum in Mabel’s hair on photo day, and Ford tells them of the time that he and Stan swapped clothes on photo day just to see if they could get away with it. (They could, and Ford still has the yearbook where their photos are mislabeled as each other hidden away in his study to this day).

It’s eye opening, honestly. The young twins really are a mirror image to himself and Stan when they were kids.

“We’re here!” Stan grins, screeching the RV to a sudden halt. Upon looking out the window, the only thing Ford can see is a gift shop about the size of an outhouse and a ball of yarn about three sizes bigger than the RV. Stan stands from the driver’s seat, stretching. “You think I overcharge for my tours, Sixer? This woman charges double the price of my admission just to take a picture of this fuzz ball” He reaches underneath the driver’s seat, pulling out a large hook attached to a thick rope. “We’re only doing her a favor by stealing it! Starting from scratch with a new attraction could do her some good”

“Hmm, I dunno” Dipper shrugs. “Don’t you think that doing the exact same prank on all of your competitors in the exact same order is just gonna result in them, I dunno, pranking you again in the exact same way?”

“Nonsense!” Stan brings his hand to his chest like Dipper had offended him. “The only reason they got away with it last time is because we left poindexter here home alone in the basement. There’ll be dozens of tour groups coming through the shack today with my past self taking care of the place for me.” He taps at his forehead. “Besides, wasn’t this whole road trip your idea in the first place?” He smirks. “Are you telling me that your own idea is dumb?”

Dipper opens his mouth to argue back, realizes he has nothing, and pouts grumpily as he hops out of the RV. Stan cackles, and hops out of the RV after him. Ford rolls his eyes, and hops out after them to take a look at his surroundings. Stan really wasn’t kidding; everything really is contained to the one parking lot with nothing to show for it but the giant ball of yarn and a converted outhouse with tie-dye tee shirts hanging from its roof.

“Don’t just stand there gawking at it!” Stan slaps him on the shoulder, grinning. “Either help the kids out or talk the old woman’s ear off long enough to distract her” he gestures with a thumb towards Dipper and Mabel, giggling and poking at each other as they tie the rope end of the hook to the RV. As Mabel walks to attach the hook to the large yarn ball, she notices Ford watching her and waves hello.

“Hey Grunkle Ford!” she shouts. “If there’s enough left over from this mound after we drag it home, I’ll knit you a sweater with it!”

Ford laughs as he approaches to help her. “I’m counting on it.”

As it turns out, she wasn’t joking. As soon as they’ve all piled back into the RV to head to the next tourist trapped, Mabel already has her sewing needles in hand and a tangled ball of multicolored yarn sitting on the table in front of her. It’s amazing watching her work, clicking the needles together so quickly yet delicately, not missing a single fold. Ford’s never seen someone pour so much love into something so particular since the early days of his research.

Ford doesn’t want to interrupt her focus, so he turns to Dipper instead.

“How long has she been able to do that?”

Dipper glances at his sister beside him. “Oh, you mean sewing? Our grandma from our mom’s side of the family taught her when she was about six.” He rolls his eyes. “Our parents tried to buy her an electronic sewing machine for our eighth birthday, but she flat out rejected it because she insisted there wouldn’t be enough love in her creations if she didn’t make them by hand”

“It’s true!” Mabel exclaims, not looking up from her sewing job. “I’m not gonna sit around and let some machine do all the work for me! How are my friends and family supposed to know I made them their sweaters with love if I didn’t sew my blood and sweat into the threads myself?”

Ford hopes she’s being metaphorical, but the sentiment is still there. “So you’re telling me that every sweater you’ve worn this summer is homemade?”

“Yep!” she beams. “All the way down to the embroidery.” She holds up the skeleton of the sweater she’s working on into the light. “You’re real lucky, Grunkle Ford. This’ll be my first sweater I’ve ever made out of stolen materials!”

Her use of the term first rather than only makes Ford laugh. The more time he spends with them, the less he wants to say goodbye to them. Stan must be the bravest man alive, being willing to send these kids home after three months with them, because if it were up to him he’d already be signing adoption papers to make them legally his.

“Stop two!” Stan yells from the front of the RV, and hops out as soon as they’re parked. Mabel places her work gently on the table, and follows Stan out without any effort. Dipper, on the other hand, takes one look out the window at where they’ve stopped and pales.

“Oh no”

Ford follows his gaze. It’s just a single story home turned on its head, absolutely nothing about it giving Ford the impression that there’s anything scary about it.

“What’s wrong?” Ford asks. “Do you get motion sickness? I learned quite a few tricks on how to deal with just the thing in the Spinning Top Dimension! You’re going to need a few things first, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find them around here somewhere-”

“N-no, it’s not that” Dipper cuts him off, face turning a dark shade of red. “The last time we were here I tried asking Grunkle Stan if he had any advice on how to talk to girls. And there was this one really cute girl, and we hit it off, but…” he rubs at his arm. “I acted like a total jerk. I treated her like she was just a number and I feel awful about it”

Ford frowns, getting down on one knee. “You’re not worried you’re going to run into her again, are you? This time loop should be stable enough to prevent her from showing up early”

Dipper’s gaze falls to the floor. “No, it’s more like…I’m so afraid of being myself that I feel like the only way I can fit in is to act like something I’m not. I just wish I could figure out a way to talk to girls without forcing myself to act like I’m better than them or something”

Ford smiles. “Dipper, I may not have any sound advice when it comes to girls, but I’ve only known you for a number of weeks, and I think anyone would be lucky to have you. You’re kind and caring and so brilliant for your age” Dipper opens his mouth to protest, but Ford shakes his head. “Some of the most brilliant minds in the world suffered from anxiety and depression, my boy, and look where they are now. I have the upmost confidence that the same thing is bound to happen to you”.

Dipper’s eyes are big and wide, like he’s about to cry, but the waterworks never come. Dipper throws his arms around Ford’s neck in a hug, and Ford hugs him back. Once they pull away, they hop out of the van to join Stan and Mabel outside to prevent Stan from coming back in to yell at them. This stop is a bit less complicated, just a simple walkthrough to make sure there isn’t a hoard of tourists inside before running back out to tip the whole house right side up. It’s a lot of laughing from Stan and sprinting back to the van, and once they’re out of the parking lot and back on the highway it’s as if they never stopped at all. Mabel gets right back to working on her sweater, and Dipper gets right back to chatting up Ford for life stories.

A good portion of their stops go equally as smooth. The kids convince Ford to go on the log flume at Log Land with them which he absolutely does not throw up on, thank you very much, and Mabel nearly gets lost in a corn maze, but otherwise there’s nothing much of interest. Ford’s starting to suspect that Stan must be right, that the Mystery Shack really is the most interesting tourist trap in the entire state, until a giant mountain looms over the horizon.

“There she is,” Stan says, as if he could read his brother’s thoughts. “Her first year of opening I lost over half my usual revenue and I’ve sworn revenge on her ever since” He balls his hand into a fist and smacks the top of the steering wheel. “Our biggest mistake last time was getting too attached. I say this time we run in, grab as many mummies as we can get our hands on, and book it back to the shack before Darlene notices.”

“Don’t you mean that was your biggest mistake?” Dipper quips. “Besides, didn’t we find out last time that those mummies are real dead bodies?” He shivers. “I’m not sure how comfortable I’d feel about stealing them”

From the rearview mirror, Stan raises an eyebrow at Dipper. “What, you afraid their souls are gonna follow us home and haunt us? Work on your moral compass later, kid, this is about revenge” He adjusts the mirror. “Besides! What’s the chance we rescue someone who isn’t dead yet, just slowly suffocating in that nasty tasting web?”

Dipper opens his mouth to say one thing, pauses, and starts again. “Grunkle Stan, are you telling me you tried to eat the web you were trapped in?”

Stan shrugs. “Hey, I’m no stranger to chewing my way out of things. I’m just lucky I didn’t break any teeth on it, like I did with that car trunk”

As if that doesn’t raise more questions than it does answers, Stan drops the conversation entirely and doesn’t say another word until the RV pulls into the parking lot. Ford can’t even see the mountain peak when he hops out, it’s so obscured by fog that he knows wasn’t there ten minutes ago. Fog is the number one trap produced by anomalies to hunt their pray, so it’s no wonder this place gives Stan the creeps. Ford can’t even begin to imagine the size of the spider monsters the others described to him.

A shriek nearly escapes him at the feeling of something spindly crawling up his arm, but when he whips around he sees it’s just Stan running his fingers along his shoulder in a quick, scattered pattern. When he catches Ford’s eyes, he laughs so hard that tears pour down his cheeks.

“You should’ve seen the look on your face!” Stan wheezes. “You were all oh no, mister spider half the size of my hand, don’t eat me!” he cackles, wiping at his eyes with his wrist. “C’mon, time is money, and we don’t have any to waste” he gestures to the kids, already waiting at the information booth. “If we don’t hurry the kids are gonna get on the sky tram without us”

Ford raises an eyebrow. “You? On a sky tram?”

“Dipper didn’t tell you?” Stan’s raised eyebrow matches Ford’s. “Mabel helped me conquer my fear of heights! Now I’m untouchable!”

Seventeen years of the boardwalk and all the cotton candy as bribe in the world couldn’t fix Stan’s fear of heights. Dipper and Mabel really do continue to amaze him the more Stan tells him about them.

“Right,” Ford shakes his head, smiling fondly. “Of course.”

It’s really no wonder this place boasts having the world’s slowest sky tram, because if it weren’t for the moving tree line Ford would almost think they weren’t moving at all. The bored expression on everyone else’s faces, a massive shift from the mischievous grins they’d been wearing before they got on has Ford choking down laughter. It’s about five minutes before there’s any sight of anything but tree bark, and the sun beaming directly into the glass car makes the whole thing feel like a sauna.

Still, it’s a dramatic shift in pace, and not one that Ford rejects. It’s really forcing him to slow down and think about his own feelings for once, a privilege he hasn’t had since he was in high school. Maybe it’s a little selfish of him to cherish the times he just gets to lose himself in his own head, rather than to spend so much of his time calculating plans to rescue others from danger, but-

“Whaddya think, poindexter?” Stan’s voice suddenly breaks through Ford’s thoughts, startling him.

Ford blushes. “What do I think of what?”

“The new plan!” Stan gestures to Dipper with his thumb. “Since this buzzkill is so against stealing ‘real dead bodies’,” he emphasizes with air quotes, “and since we probably couldn’t shove them all in this car anyway, we’re gonna go ahead with Plan B instead; Burning down Widow’s Peak!” Stan throws his hands in the air dramatically.

Dipper beams. “That way, they can’t make any more mummies for their mummy museum, and we might be able to save a few people from suffocating to death!” Stan and Dipper high five.

“It’s a brilliant plan, but…” Ford taps at his chin. “Where do you suppose we’re going to find the fire to burn it down?”

Stan cocks an eyebrow at him. “You tell me, mister ‘setting my face on fire is faster than shaving’. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a lighter in your pocket right now. They have a bunch of prop torches in the caves, but if we pop the lightbulbs out of them and light them they should work good as usual” Stan’s mischievous grin is back on his face, a perfect reflection of when he was thirteen and pickpocketing a dollar from people’s wallets on the boardwalk to buy a box of saltwater taffy.

Turns out, it’s just as contagious now as it was back then. Ford reaches into the front pocket of his trench coat, and sure enough, comes up with a lighter. Stan erupts in laughter at the sight of it, and soon enough the entire car is infected with it. The rest of the ride up the mountain is much bubblier after that, with everyone swapping overdramatic stories of how the plan is going to go.

Widow’s Peak is much bigger than Ford was expecting. It’s a whole cave that looks like it stretches for miles, and there really are rotting skeletons hanging upside down from the cave walls and ceilings.

Ford shudders.

“Aww, c’mon, Sixer! I know for a fact this isn’t half as bad as the stuff in your journals” Stan jabs at his shoulder with his unlit torch. “Besides, didn’t you say in your own journal that most ghosts come from their old bodies not having a proper burial? He gestures at a skeleton hanging upside down from the ceiling, its left hand barely hanging on by a thread. “You think any of these guys look like their spirits were able to move on peacefully, or however it goes?” Stan shakes his head matter of-factly. “You really want some poor unsuspecting tourist to bump into a hoard of angry ghosts? Tsk tsk”

“Alright, alright” Ford raises his hands in self-defense. “I suppose you’re right”. He takes his lighter out of his pocket and tosses it to Stan. Stan lights up his own torch, helps Dipper and Mabel with theirs, and then he turns back to help light Ford’s.

“Alright,” Stan rubs his hands together the best he can with a lit torch tucked under his arms. “Everyone knows the plan. Burn as many mummies as you can find, rescue the poor suckers who are still alive, and signal if you hear Darlene coming. Since I don’t trust Sixer over here not to try and interview her and get himself in trouble again, I say I’m in charge of lookout duty.” He adjusts his collar and flattens down the wrinkles of his suits with a quick pat down. “I flirt with her just long enough to distract her, I throw my torch in her face, and then we book it out of here as fast as our legs can carry us”

Dipper still doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t know, isn’t that exactly how you got yourself tangled up in a web last time?”

“Oh please,” Stan scoffs, waving a dismissive hand. “The only reason that worked last time is ‘cause she cornered me when we were alone. Besides, where’s she gonna take me if she catches me that you can’t just throw a torch and rescue me five minutes after it happens?”

Dipper’s face darkens. “True,” he mumbles under his breath, which makes Stan laugh. Stan slaps him on the shoulder, and Dipper glares at him, but there doesn’t seem to be any malice in it.

It’s one final glance between the four of them, and they’re all running off in different directions of the cave. It’s not long before the stench of burning silk fills the air, mixed with the stench of something Ford doesn’t want to think too much about. The webs burn relatively quickly, and together they burn through half of the cave in a much faster time than Ford would’ve expected. He’s about to light up one that looks like it was left here fairly recently, until something inside it starts wiggling. Startled, Ford steps backwards until his back hits the cave wall, a soft oof escaping him.

“S’matter, poindexter?” Stan looks up from the fire he’s stomping out with his foot. “You see a widdle baby spider that freaked you out?”

Ford tries to glare at him, but the fear stabbing him in the chest doesn’t let it stick. He swallows hard, and points towards the wiggling cocoon with his torch.

“I think we have a live one” he whispers, stepping to stand beside Stan. Once Stan follows Ford’s torch with his eyes, something inside him tenses up.

“Ah, wh-what’d I tell you?” Stan’s voice shakes. “It’s probably just some poor sucker who fell for Darlene’s charms. Definitely not a gross sack of baby spider people or anything”

“R-right,” Ford swallows hard, and inches back towards the cocoon, rapidly waving his torch back and forth to potentially scare off whatever could be inside trying to break out. But the longer he waves the torch in front of the web, the more he can make out the silhouette of a regular human being.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Ford rushes forward and begins tearing at the web with his bare hands, just enough so that the man is free from the chest up. He takes large gasps of air, and upon realizing that his hands are free he begins tearing at the web himself. Once his feet are free and hit the ground, he takes one look at the Pines family, mumbles a startled thank you, and runs for his life out of the cave.

After that, the rest of the burnings go pretty smoothly. There’s significantly less living tourists in the cave than Ford would’ve expected from such a large tourist trap, and Ford’s not entirely sure whether he should find that reassuring or downright terrifying. He’s almost surprised everything went so well, until the four of them nearly collide with a woman on their way out of the cave.

She looks just as baffled to see them as Ford feels to see her.

“Can I…help you?” She asks in a thick Jersey-esque accent. The name tag pinned to her shirt reads DARLENE in large brick letters.

“No!” Dipper cuts in before neither Ford nor Stan can respond to her. He clears his throat. “I mean, uh, no. Uh, apologies if this is a restricted area, but we got lost trying to find our way back to the sky tram” he shrugs overdramatically, no doubt in attempt to show Darlene that his hands are empty. She squints at him, and for a moment Ford could swear he just saw her blink horizontally. The silence that follows, though it probably doesn’t last for more than a few seconds, feels like it drags on for ages.

Suddenly, she’s donning an overly sweet smile. “Well, why didn’t you just say so? Let me walk you back. We’ve gotten more than our fair share of tourists who’ve gone missing from wandering too far into our caves, and I’d hate to have that happen to such a nice looking family like yours” She grins, flashing her unusually sharp teeth. The four of them stay quiet until they’re all packed into their tram car, and Darlene is waving sweetly at them from behind.

They each collectively sigh. “Woof, that was a close one” Stan says, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his wrist. In a sudden shift of mood, he reaches over next to him and pulls Dipper into a headlock. “How’s about it for this guy’s quick thinking, huh?” he grins, and the four of them laugh until they hear a horrifying screech that makes their tram car rumble. They turn, and see Darlene emerging from the cave, the bottom half of her body replaced by that of a giant spider.

“My food!” she screams, shaking her first at the tram cars. “You burned all my food! Mark my words, I may not have gotten your names but I don’t forget faces very easily, you hear? If you ever show your face here again you’re dead meat!” She screams, yanking on her hair to reveal the rest of her spider-like body under her human disguise.

Stan simply cackles. “Yeah, we’ll see about that!” he mocks, knowing well enough that she can’t hear them from inside the car. He turns his attention back to the rest of the family. “Maybe we should go and warn our past selves to bring bug spray!” He exclaims, laughing himself to near tears.

Ford only rolls his eyes, but can’t help the smile on his face.

If only he’d known what he’d be missing when he turned down Stan’s offer to take this road trip with him and the kids the first time around.

The tram ride back to the parking lot is even more relaxing than the ride up. The sun is setting this time around, and even if the wind can’t really reach inside the car the whole thing just feels cooler. Most of all, he finds that the sound of the Stan and the kids’ laughter is far more welcome than any old conversation he could have in his own head.

When everyone piles back into the RV, they do not drive away immediately like they had at all the other stops. Instead, Stan turns around to face the three of them. “Well, that’s the end of that. That’s all I had planned, and we still have…” he pauses to count on his finger. “Two more months ‘til the kids have to go back home, technically. I’m all out of ideas, and I’m sure the kids have seen enough of the Gravity Falls weirdness for one summer”

He smiles to the kids, who nod and in turn smile at Ford.

“So where do you want to go now, Grunkle Ford?” Mabel says, with stars shining in her eyes. The grin spreading on Dipper’s face matches hers like two peas in a pod.

“Any place in the world. Wherever you want to go…” He pulls the time tape out of his pocket. “…For however long you want”

#my writing #gravity falls #forduary #pines family

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datninjalyfe · 4 years ago

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Chapter 285: Katsuki Bakugou Rising Reimagined

“Your arms—,” Izuku remembered the doctor telling him months earlier. “—if you keep getting injured like this—,”

No, please, don’t say it. Izuku had thought. I have to be a hero.

“—you may permanently lose the use of your arms.”

That didn’t matter now. Not anymore. I will be a hero.

Shigaraki was unable to defend against the power of One-for-All. Shigarki felt his body starting to crumble. Black whip held onto him tightly as the hero continued to almost animalistically attack his body. He could barely make out the bellowing attacks of, “Detroit smash!” and “Wyoming smash!” and after being hit with “St. Louis!”, he was unsure if he was even able to get back on the offensive. This fucking kid! There was no way he could use All-For-One to regenerate, especially since he wasn’t at his full power.

With Shigaraki unable to go on the offensive, Deku continued to use the quirk at one hundred percent. Anger boiled inside him as he continued to blow attack after attack at Shigaraki. He pushed aside the memory of what the doctor had told him and used One-for-All at insurmountable speed and strength, each one destroying his body further. One punch for all the citizens that hadn’t been able to evacuate in time. One for each of the heroes that had sacrificed themselves for this cause. One punch for each of his classmates, his fellow heroes in training that had been impacted the same way he had been by the League of Villains. “Detroit SMASH!” he yelled, holding Shigaraki in place with black whip as his fist slammed hard against Shigaraki’s jaw. That one’s for Gran Torino! “Wyoming SMASH!” another blow to his ribs. That one’s for Aizawa! “St. Louis SMASH!” again, a hard hit to Shigaraki’s ribs, feeling them once again crunch against Izuku’s knuckles. Shigaraki howled at the amount of excruciating pain inflicted on him, but Izuku continued to push against him at full force.

“That’s what this power is made for!” he roared. His arms were torn apart, his body begging for him to stop, but he didn’t care about the pain. He couldn’t stop.

Not now. “This is why I have this power.” To stop VILLAINS LIKE YOU! “TEXAS SMASH!” marked with apoplectic rage, Izuku, hurled his body at Shigaraki, slamming against him.

Shagaraki, still bound to Deku by black whip, couldn’t dodge the attack nor could he fight back He understood he wasn’t at the full power of All-for-One. Don’t stop. Shigaraki told himself. If I don’t focus on defenses, I’ll probably be blown away. He braced for the impact, but it was too much to handle. Shigaraki held on for dear life as the punch caused a large blast in the air.

Back on the ground, all the pros could do was watch in complete shock. “That’s incredible!” Manual exclaimed loudly, watching the explosion in the air from Deku’s last smash. Despite the explosion being so loud, Manual’s words rang through Katsuki’s ears. Katsuki looked upwards, turning his gaze towards the ricochet of debris from the colossal strike of the body slam Izuku had just used.

“No!” Katsuki said. The word was uttered under his breath, but still directed at Manual. Dammit, Deku! It’s too much, even for you. “He’s gonna get destroyed at this rate.” he said a little louder to ensure they could hear him. “He’s using his legs and ‘air force’ to avoid the recoil while already controlling several quirks.” He cursed himself slightly when Endeavor’s head turned in his direction with a look of angry confusion. “Deku’s pulling every move he’s learned until now just to keep Shigaraki in the air.” With another massive attack, they covered their faces as another gust of wind threw fragments of rubble in their direction. “Since he couldn’t completely take him out with the first attacks, it’s turned into a war of attrition, just wearing each other down—” He’s going to tear his body completely apart. “—in that kind of situation, there’s no way he can hold out against ‘regeneration.’” Katsuki turned his attention between the two Todorokis standing by—Endeavor and Shoto respectively—both watching the fight in disbelief. Come on, what would Deku do?

Katsuki paused, answering his own internal question: Whatever it takes.

Between Aizawa, Rock Lock, Manual, and Shoto, they just looked totally defeated by the attacks from Shigaraki. They looked as though the fight was finished. He turned to look directly at Endeavor. You’re the No. 1 fucking hero. DO SOMETHING! But no instruction came. The fight would be over soon, with Shigaraki walking away and Izuku would be—

SHIT! “Within minutes he’ll get his ass kicked and his power stolen. Todoroki, you finished yet?”

Shoto looked just as confused as Endeavor. “Yes, but wh—?”

But Katsuki didn’t give him the chance to finish. “Shut and grab on!” He grabbed Todoroki’s belt and pulled him in close. Without hesitation, Shoto wrapped his arms around Katsuki’s waist. “Endeavor! Hold off on the fire, I’ll make sure you get up there! Todoroki, keep Endeavor cooled off as long as possible!”

Katsuki looked to sky, feeling the heat of his quirk run from his chest down his arms and felt a few droplets of sweat ignite in small pops.

“I’ll use my greatest firepower to bring him down.” Endeavor told them, finally speaking. “Leave it to me.”

“That’s…” he heard Rock Lock say. “But you’re kids.”

That’s not stopping Deku.

“Take care of our teacher!” Shoto shouted and Katsuki lifted them into the air, barely hearing the small, shaky word from Rock Lock.

“Okay.”

As they propelled themselves through the air, Endeavor yells, “Aim for when black whip is completely extended. When I head up there, you two return to the ground! Or you’ll get caught up in it.”

“Midoriya, hold on!” he heard Shoto shout.

Hold on, Deku.

An image of All Might flashed before his eyes. It wasn’t too long ago that Katsuki learned of One-For-All and that Izuku had been the one to inherit the power.

“I don’t want to speculate and talk about things I’m not sure of.” All Might had told him. They were sitting in his office, looking through the notebook of the research All Might had done of all the previous users. Katsuki had asked a question about the original user, but All Might seemed hesitant to answer.

Is there a darker side to this quirk? “Because he’s the only who basically created One-for-All right? He’s also got multiple quirks.” It became clear to Katsuki at the point the similarities between One-for-All and All-for-One—does it matter? “That makes you the same as him.”

Even still, Katsuki said, another hit caused a gust of wind that jolted Katsuki back to the present. Even if One-for-All is some sort of ‘cursed power…’

He is the one who has made it his own.

He thought back to when they were kids. Their childhood was so complicated and countless times, Izuku had become victim to his bullying. He constantly tormented the quirkless kid in class, but Izuku still stood by his side. “Defenseless Izuku.” Katsuki had spat at him, towering over him. Izuku could barely lift his head, but he managed to look at Katsuki directly, as if he were peering into him somehow. Those eyes…Katsuki had never seen anything like them. They were piercingly green, a beautiful bright earthy tone that caused Katsuki’s heart to beat faster. Stop looking at me, Deku! Unable to control his emotions, Katsuki threw another blast in Izuku’s direction and Izuku didn’t move. He just took it.

Do something, you stupid—blast—little—blast—“QUIRKLESS LOSER!” Katsuki hailed multiple explosions on the boy until he claimed himself the victor. Still, Izuku had followed him. He always had. Even called himself Katsuki’s friend.

He thought about the day that Katsuki had opened the book and notes on himself. It was a drawing of Katsuki, his quirk written out long to top of the page: EXPLOSIONS. All aspects of his quirk were scribbled underneath: emitter-type; using his sweat to ignite from palms; advantages at both ranges close and far; disadvantages may include—

Disadvantages?! Katsuki felt his quirk rage through his body and he threw the notebook out the window. It had landed in the small pond outside the school and he laughed at Izuku when he went into it to fish for his notebook.

He thought about when he and Izuku had seen All Might use his power, a captivating smile that inspired both of them to one day be heroes. He watched Izuku grow from a little quirkless boy who had been Katsuki’s greatest victim strive the be the world’s greatest hero.

“I’m not gonna be your worthless punching bag Deku forever!” Izuku had yelled at him during their first training mission in class. “Kacchan, I’m—,”

You’re the most worthless piece of shit I’ve ever seen. Katsuki had forced those thoughts out of his mouth, but now, looking up at this fight, Deku vs. the No. 1 Villain Shigaraki, it was more than clear:

“I’m the Deku who always does his best!”

You’re mine, Deku! Those words still rang true, but they carried something different, intending it, back then, that Izuku was his to torture forever. Now, they were different. They meant something different. Then, he wanted the nerd to leave, he wanted the nerd gone, out of his for good. Then, it was warfare, an unhealthy competition that Katsuki had built up in his mind. He thought that he hated Izuku and took out all his pent-up rage and anger out on him.

But he looked up at him a now. A full-on hero, displaying his amazing power. Izuku continued to sacrifice his body. Relentlessly, he pushed his quirk farther, reaching 100% of the power of One-for-All, punch after punch, attack after attack against Shigaraki.

One-for-All is incredible.

Deku’s incredible.

“NOW!”

Endeavor launches himself forward, catching Shigaraki from behind.

“En—?” Izuku started, but Endeavor yelled for him to get down.

And unleashed his greatest attack: “PROMINENCE—,”

“Deku, get down!” Katsuki tried to yell, but it was drowned by the sound of Endeavor’s screams.

“BURN!!”

An arsenal of fire released from Endeavor. An oven of a heat so intense, wave-like fumes rippled through the air. It was all Endeavor had left, every ounce of flames and heat cooking through Shigaraki, who screamed in agony as he ignited in the flames that consumed every ounce of his body.

I’m done, Master. Shigaraki thought. This is how it ends.

Come, said a voice from deep within reached in Shigaraki’s mind. The previous user of All-for-One extended a hand asking him: Why don’t you hand your body over to me, Tomura?

Before Shigaraki had a chance to answer, he was pushed aside, his body taken by the original user of this power. Vines wisped out of Shigaraki’s body, thought not only his back but the body of the Number One hero. Endeavor falls to the ground only the hard bed of broken pavement to soften the impact.

“ENDEAVOR!” Shoto and Katsuki screamed at once, suddenly turning their attention to the body, scorched now a dark, deep charcoal black. The body no longer resembled that of Shigaraki. It no longer resembled that of a person. It was a monster.

All-for-One turned his attention to Deku, one of the few heroes left still standing. “Little brother,” growled All-for-One, extending tentacle-like vines towards Izuku.

“No…” Katsuki whispered to himself. He felt his body thrust forward like an unseeable puppeteer had strings attached to Katsuki’s limbs. Deku… He knew what those tendrils could do. He’s seen them in action before.

And he couldn’t let that happen again. In his last flashback, he sees Izuku rushing to save him as the sludge villain ate away at Katsuki’s mind. His scrawny little quirkless Deku. There was an innocence in his eyes, looking up at Katsuki, pleading to save him, tears streaming down his face at the thought of losing Katsuki—his Kacchan. Despite all Katsuki had done to him—his Deku—was something Izuku couldn’t live without.

I’ll—I’ll never get the chance, Deku. Katsuki thought, his body still moving forward. I’ll never get the chance to apologize, to ask forgiveness, to confess—

Katsuki just wanted to be strong. He relived every moment he and Izuku had shared: the good, the bad and the ugly. They shared so much: secrets, love, memories. He just wanted to show that he was the best. And in doing so, he had showed everyone the best in someone else.

And like a true hero, Katsuki’s body simply moved on its own. He thought of nothing else. There was no fear of the consequences, no fear of death. He pushed Izuku out of harm’s way and allowing the quirk of All-for-One to slice through him.

He hoped Izuku knew. He hoped Izuku understood. He hoped Izuku realized.

—I never hated you, Deku. I’ve always loved you.

#bakugou katsuki #izukatsu #izuku midoriya #midoriya izuku #izubaku #katsuki x izuku #katsudeku #deku midoriya #deku x kacchan #bakudeku #deku x bakugou #bakugou x midoriya #bnha bakugo katsuki #mangaspoilers #chapter285spoilers

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missdawnandherdusk · 5 years ago

Text

Fire and Ice

Draco X Gryffindor!Reader

Part One

Summary: You’re torn between two sides of yourself: The kind one and the one who needed to survive. It’s not like Draco’s making it any easier on deciding which side you should choose.

A/N: Hello my darlings! See, didn’t I promise a part two? Also welcome to the new blog, enjoy your stay. I love you all.

Tags: @un-limiteddd @geekysimmerthings @coffee-addicti @ilikestuffproductions @msmcsmutt @ravn-87 @artemismohr18 @whygz @crazywritingbug @dolphincommander @bisexualbumblebeesstuff @fuzzy-panda @bitemebro522 @zombiesnips-blog

When Hagrid made the comment putting Malfoy down about becoming a ferret again, and the rest of the Gryffindors laughed, I stayed quiet and my eyes met his for a moment. A gave a small smile of encouragement and he rolled his eyes.

I sighed and let out a laugh of hopelessness that was lost in the fervor of the rest. Seriously, what was I doing? What was I thinking? He was a Malfoy, wasn’t he? Born and bred to hate me.

Fine.

Whatever.

Not like I cared.

Nope.

——————————

My thoughts of him truly being a Malfoy strengthened when he cursed Hermione and her teeth kept growing and all he did was laugh. Him and his goons.

I stood, pulling my wand out, but Snape was there, glaring me down.

“Is there a problem Miss Lupine?” He narrowed his eyes at me.

I huffed and put my wand away, helping Hermione up.

“No sir, Hermione and I will no the in your class today. Sorry to disappoint.” I cast one last look at Malfoy and cursed him mental and ushered Hermione to the infirmary.

I was disillusioned. There was no redeeming quality about him or his house. It was written in stone... wasn’t it? Who was I to argue?

But that didn’t sit right, why would someone be created just to be nothing but a villain. There had to be redemption somewhere. This wasn’t some story, these were people with emotions, and second chances... and maybe hundredth chances for some of us.

At the infirmary I remained at Hermione’s side until a counter curse was applied and the normal Hermione was back. Well, sort of. She let the counter curse go on for a bit longer so that her teeth no longer were a sore spot in her features. Not that I cared... but I knew she was self- conscious.

“I’m really sorry,” I whispered. “I should have known...” shaking my head I looked anywhere but her pity filled expression.

It was like she could see the battle going on in my mind as the minutes ticked by. It left me confused and tired, all of the inner turmoil.

“I’m alright Y/n, go onto class, take good notes for me?” Hermione suggested.

I nodded and gave a small smile. Not that I particularly wanted to go anywhere near the Potions class... but I owed it to Hermione to take good notes for her. She deserved that. Even if she was leagues ahead on material.

I took my seat at an empty desk—my partner was currently still at the infirmary—and ignored Snape’s disgust. I ignored his snide comment and kept my head low.

I did however make the mistake and look over at Draco, who caught my eye then looked away quickly. I shifted in my seat so I wouldn’t have to look at him, on accident or purposefully.

About an hour into the lesson, as Snape was just about to choose someone to test their antidote, Harry left with Colin. I sighed, knowing that I would be the next target for Snape’s torture. These antidotes were tedious, but I was more than confident about the list that Hermione and I had created. It could undo just about anything.

Snape ordered us all to begin working on our antidote for the Bellum Amoris.

I took great care, hearing Hermione’s voice in my head as I collected and added the ingredients to the cauldron. With most of the list memorized, I finished before everyone else, even though I was working alone. Well, almost everyone anyway.

“Miss Y/n, are you done so soon?” Snake came up beside my table.

“Yes Professor,” I didn’t look up at him, instead I kept eyeing my potion to make sure it remained stable.

“And you’re confident that it will work?” He nearly scoffed.

“Yes Professor,” I looked up at him, narrowing my eyes.

“Look at her she’s terrified!” Malfoy laughed from across the way.

I moved my gaze from Snape to Malfoy, glaring him down, wanting to do something much worse. Too bad Snape was there. The fire from our rivalry seemed to reemerge and surface. Now all I wanted to do was beat him.

“What about you Malfoy? You good enough? Mr. Slytherin Prince?” I glared. “Why don’t you test your prize student Professor? See if he deserves his title?” I crossed my arms as Malfoy went red.

“An interesting point Ms. Lupine, perhaps we should test you both.” He turned to Malfoy and in a less patronizing manner asked: “Mr. Malfoy are you completed?”

“Yes sir,” He smiled innocently.

The little twat.

“And will it save you?”

“Without a doubt.”

It better because I was going to kill him.

“Good,” Snape smiled. “Now the two of you will take this,” he held out a small vial of menacing liquid. “And we shall test your antidotes.”

“Easy,” Malfoy scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Ah, but there is a catch.” Snape looked between us. “Since you two are so animate about the other’s ability, Mr. Malfoy will be using Miss Lupine’s and vice versa.” Snape grinned.

My heart sank. I had to use his antidote? Anxiety started to rise in my chest, then I remembered: Malfoy was one of the best Potions students in the school, next to me.

“What!?” We both exclaimed.

“This is... suicide!” I protested. “Trust him? Are you serious?”

“Trust her? She was planning this! She wants to watch me be poisoned!” He argued at the same time.

“Now settle the both of you! I have the antidote myself so neither of you will die, goodness you two.” Snap muttered.

“You planned this,” Malfoy hissed. “For what I did to your little friend,”

“I love that you think I’m so clever Malfoy but no I didn’t. Why would I ever want to trust you?”

Maybe because he could change...

No.

Shut up.

“Because I’m the best potions student Hogwarts has. Of course, I made it right,”

“So, did I, you git,” I sneered. “And you might be the best Slytherin, but not the best overall,” I smirked.

Snape called us both to the front of the class and made us sit on stools, facing the other students. Ron had gone almost green with worry and I could see a few Slytherin kids looking nervous as well. Getting a Gryffindor to trust a Slytherin, or to get a Slytherin to trust anyone was a high gamble that Snape made.

He handed us both vials of Bellum Amoris. My eyes locked with Malfoy’s as I downed the entire thing and I felt it take effect immediately. It was like ice shards that spread to every cell in my body. A freeze creeped through my chest, slowing my lungs. I wanted to cry, but my tears were frozen.

I could see the look on Draco’s face. He felt something similar—the look on his face of wanting to cry was familiar, it was the same one I had seen in the infirmary.

“The poison Bellum Amoris, the war of love,” Snape explained. “Love is a dangerous thing; no two people feel the poison the same.” Snape looked at the two of us. “Love can kill. Now, the antidotes.”

I looked at the goblet that held Draco’s antidote and cautiously brought it to my lips, taking a sip. The ice in my veins thawed. I could breathe again, and cry if I wanted to. I didn’t, but I could. The antidote made the traces of poison feel like crisp water from a spring, or the gentle pull of the ocean.

“The antidote, Animus Amoris, turns the poison into the kinder side of love as one may say.”

_____________________________

Your eyes held his as the vial contents slid down his throat and began to burn like fire. It consumed every nerve, firing again and again, that burning wicked sensation. He left as if he was set into a fire and left to burn alive.

The look on your face held something similar. Then Snape allowed them to drink the antidote...

He hated he was about to do this, but he took up the goblet with your antidote in it and took a sip. There was no reason to think that yours wouldn’t work. He knew you were good; he just didn’t want to admit it.

To anyone. Ever.

The fire ebbed and turned to something warm. Like the warmth from a fire on a winter night, or a mug of tea. The warmth that one found comfort in. The fire that burned him could also comfort him.

“Miss Y/n, please explain what it was like.” Snape ordered, as you set down the goblet

“The poison was like ice... it felt like I was freezing from the inside out” Your voice was barely a whisper.

How odd that your poison was the opposite of his. He was burned and you were iced out.

“And the antidote?” Snape pressed.

Your eyes flashed to his, the same kind look that he saw at Hagrid’s earlier. Something warm.

He brushed off the thought immediately and looked anywhere but at you.

“It melted whatever was frozen, like refreshing water... the chill you welcome in autumn after a long hot summer,” Your voice was reminiscent... like you were lost in a memory.

Part of him wondered what made you feel that way. The stronger part of him wondered why he cared what anyone felt.

“How... poetic,” Snape dismissed. “And Mr. Malfoy?”

“Fire,” He bit out. “Like I was being burned alive.”

“Interesting,” Snape mused, “And the antidote?”

Oh, part of him wanted to lie. To say that it didn’t work. To drop to the ground and discredit any reputation that you had. But he made the mistake of meeting your eyes again.

“Something warm,” He muttered, blinking into recovery. “It didn’t burn anymore.”

Snape nodded, deciding not to comment on whatever had just happened between the two students.

“Very we’ll both of you. Your antidotes worked perfectly.”

_______________________________

He didn’t lie... He told the truth. He said that my antidote worked.

And I was back to the internal battle. What the hell was he playing at? Was this some sort of game?

We both nodded to each other and exchanged a glance as the bell rolled and the students scattered to avoid being picked to test their antidotes.

I hurried out of the class, trying not to trip over my robes or my emotions.

“Lupine!”

Oh, why did he have to call me? I asked the stars. Why can’t he just leave me alone?

I turned and glared down the Slytherin prince.

“What?” I snapped. “Haven’t you done enough today?” I wasn’t as angry as I let on, but I lashed out in my confusion and worry. I knew that.

It seemed like whatever he was going to say flitted out of his mind at my comment. I wanted to apologize for it, but... didn’t. And he spoke before I could.

“I... it was... it was stupid okay? What I did. To your... friend.” He seemed to stumble over his words.

I raised an eyebrow not letting my guard down but desperately wanting too.

“Just once I thought maybe... maybe there was some good in you Draco... that you could be human. That there was something more than this stupid feud.” I shook my head in dismay.

“Y/n!” He called as I walked away.

I kept walking. I heard his footsteps approach.

I stopped knowing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him chasing me.

“I’m just as human as you are Y/n.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Not everyone is as fortunate as you,”

I gaped at him. Two trains of thought ran through my head. The first was shock the second anger about his fortunate comment. He was richer and more fortunate than all the kids at this school. What the hell did he mean I was fortunate?

“What is that even supposed to mean!?” I snapped, crossing my arms.

“That maybe money doesn’t fix everything!”

I took a small step back, away from his loud voice. I never liked yelling... not since I was little, and it was all my older brother did.

“Why am I even wasting my time on you?” He scoffed.

“I’ve been asking myself the same thing,” I muttered and walked away.

Part 3

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oneirataxxiaa · 5 years ago

Text

WITCHES AND DRUIDS

a little gift for @silverdecepticon93 for their amazing writing. some klarion content!

written by Persephone. Anastasia did some editing and helped me write Klarion correctly. It's a bit of a slow burn, and I probably got some story facts wrong, but I hope you enjoy!

requests are OPEN , remember to specify who you would like to write your oneshot. Anastasia, or Persephone.

• • • •

It's not that the weather wasn't pleasurable, it was, really. the sun was out, reflecting off the oceans subtle waves and warming the grey pavement just enough for beach-goers with no shoes to begin to hop from foot to foot. The wind was perfect, swaying the tall palm trees that lined the coastal road, every now and again, causing a hat to fly off in its cool breeze, making it's owner run after it with calls of protest. A girl in her late teens leaned back on a uncomfortably tacky faux beach chair just outside the open air cafe. Her hair moved slowly, partially from the outside breeze and partially from the squeaking old metal fan making slow rotations just inside the door. It blew no dust, so it was clearly well used considering the heat.

Happy Harbour seemed just that, happy. Everything had been calm the past few months, villain attacks were incredibly low, no major plots had been uncovered, and the group known as The Light was seemingly inactive after the league and teams triumph over them. The lack of attacks had Robin and Kaldur on edge anticipating something being planned in the shadows, but Y/n, Artemis, Megan and Wally had taken the opportunity to enjoy Rhode Island for what it was. In the ginger speedsters words, a paradise just waiting to be explored.

Zatanna Zatura was across the round table from Y/n, in casual clothes with a black baseball cap and a vanilla milkshake in hand, sipping on the straw slowly. Y/n herself had her favourite flavor smoothie resting on the table, her phone in hand as the camera on the device recorded what was happening in the small grass patch to their left. Wallace West swore on his life that he had landed a back flip the day before, which the rest of his friends refused to believe. In trying to prove his ability, he was attracting some strange stares from passers by, and rather ice filled glare from a mother who corralled her three kids, most likely in their early preteens, away, hurriedly muttering about 'unethical teenager'. Quite an interesting thing to be thrown their way, but the teen heroes had had worse hurled at them in their exploits as protectors of justice.

"Wally" Megan laughed, a short snort escaping her lips as she watched the boy try to land another flip. " You're going to break something". The Martian was resting on the grass, watching what was happening unfurl.

"cheers to that! please do!" Artemis' words were filled with sarcasm. The blonde teen making her way towards the table and picking up her drink to take a sip. Wally dropped to the ground again and sprawled out on the grass, crushing the green blades under his body. Y/n cringed slightly.

"you girls are no fun, even Connor is more fun to hang out with, at least he encourages me to improve my wicked moves" Wally pulled himself to his feet with a bounce and brushing off his pants with little success, the mucky dew soaked dirt already staining them brown at the knees. Y/n was glad he did his own laundry, she didn't want to be the one to wash those stains out. The girl stopped the video on her phone with the press of a button, dropping her hand to her side and turning the object off.

"I'd like to argue with that" Connor complained, he seemed to have appeared out of no where, walking towards them, ebony shirt still sporting the superman signal. He seemed a little happier today, perhaps it was the immaculate weather. Y/n reckoned it could put anyone in a good mood, even Connor, who hadn't been as happy has he could have been lately. His relationship with Megan had be strained.

"The man, the myth, the legend, how could you betray me my main man? You're really going to let the girls pick on your best friend?" Wallys drama queen was showing as he rested a hand on his head in a damsel in distress motion.

"Wolf is my best friend, you are" Connor faked a thoughtful expression, "an unfortunate acquaintance". Y/n could see the joking sparkle in Connors eyes. It was strange. Strange, but good. He deserved some joy in these darker days. "anyways, the reason I'm here for two reasons, reason one being because Robin decided to have an identity crisis, he's changing his name"

"Please tell me it's not another bird, I don't want it to be a bird" Artemis groaned, dropping heavily into one of the chairs. It groaned in protest from the sudden and violent weight.

"I don't know what he's gone with, but second reason I'm here is because we've got a new team member, Batman just made a visit and brought someone with him-"

"Batman was at the cave! and you didn't tell me! is he still there?" Wally began to vibrate from excitement, sparks ran down his arms and legs.

"When I left he was, bu-". Wally was gone in a literal flash, leaving the remaining team looking around frantically, glade the citizens of Happy Harbour seemed content in being too interested in their own lives to notice a super-powered boy and his friends.

"we should probably make sure he doesn't break anything, and welcome the new team member huh?" Zatanna said with a sigh, getting to her feet and stretching her arms up, elbows cracking slightly. As the group collected their drinks, waving goodbye to the cafes owner, who they knew well due to their frequent return to the place, Y/n saw something that peaked her interest, making the girl pause and turn towards it.

"Y/n, you coming or what girl?" Zatanna called out. The group somehow was a good ways away from her now, standing, ready to cross the pedestrian crossing at the coastal road. The curious frown on her face must have given something away.

"um, I'll catch up, yeah? say hi to the newbie for me?" the uncertainty in her voice made Zatanna pause, but nod, turning back just in time to walk with the others across the road.

Turning back towards the curiosity, it stared at her with dark eyes, watching her movement. Y/n walked over and bent down, petting the feline behind it's ears, coaxing a purr from the familiar cat-daemon.

"Hello Teekl" the teen greeted, "what are you doing here?" her hand continued to pet the creature, before it shook it's head, pushing your hand away with the action and going to work on licking its paw. Cats were always strange, but she supposed their sudden mood changed were due to their nature.

"I feel like you're just in this for the cute cat" the voice was monotonous and Y/n recognised it immediately. Turning her head slightly, she spied the source of the voice. He looked different, slightly older, taller, and dressed in more civilian esque clothing. Perhaps to attempt to blend in with the surrounding crowds of people.

"The cats a bonus" Y/n gave one final pet to Teekl before walking to the table she was sitting at previously, Klarion Bleak now occupying Zatannas previous location. "How are you? I haven't seen you since the whole light thing". I'd been about five months and the league was still recovering. Klarion got a sour look on his face, pausing, he fiddled with the hem of his shirt, a neat black button up dress shirt. He looked, perplexed.

"I've been keeping my head down I guess, Savage lose his mind after we lost, been hounding anyone who talks to about it" the strange look remained on his face. "I've been banned from annoying the justice brats, no offence, until he comes up with something new"

Y/n dismissed the nickname for her team and frowned herself. "Robins noticed, it's got him freaked out, running crazy circles trying to figure out what Vandal Savage is planning" a small grin rose on her face. Klarion noticed movement, seeing small clovers begin to crawl their way out of the cracks in the pavement. That caused the small smile that few saw to appear.

"your magic is getting better". That was how they met. Before the team. Both of them were young magic users, each pulled down a different road. One good, One evil. But between them there was balance, peace. Order and Chaos meeting in the middle for a calm chat and shared news on a sunny day.

"I've been getting better at it, but there's always room for more practice as Aqualad says" Y/n laughed. Silence entered their conversation. It wasn't awkward however, as it sometimes was among friends or co workers. It was a comfortable silence of enjoying a summers day without the chaos of the world. It be nice if things stayed like that, balanced, forever. But soon, Unfortunately, their friendship would burn and break. Being torn to their sides, ripped from the comforting friendship, forced to fight each other to prove loyalty to each side. No. Order and Chaos were balanced, but wars tended to tip that scale and break it. In the process, something much more important was shattered.

fin

#young justice x reader #young justice oneshot #klarion x reader

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sinnamonn · 4 years ago

Text

Now and Then, Here and There

The Secret Society free a former member of the Justice League, one who has seen multiple worlds and have lost just as many.

Warnings: Uhhh suicidal ideation towards the end

“...If I could do that for her,” Grodd gestured to Giganta, “Imagine what I can do for you.” The ape set down the picture frame. Clay face wondered if it was worth it for a minute, sure he wanted to be normal again, but the idea of keeping his powers plus being normal was too good of an offer. it’s not like Sinsetro, Killer Frost, Shade, and Parasite would just follow any villain blindly. He had to have been offering them something just as good.

“I’m in.” He replied, normalcy, sweet normalcy, Clayface could almost taste i

“Perfect. But to do that, we need to pick up one last friend.” He said.

“Wait a minute! You never said anything about another member.” Parasite exclaimed,

“I’m getting impatient, Grodd.” Sinestro added, “Just how long until we take down the league?!”

The group began to become restless, but Grodd remained calm. He was smarter than this whole group combined, after all, he could control them.

“Now, now, If we want to bring down the league she is integral to that.” Grodd said.

“She?” Killer Frost repeated.

“I can see you’re curious. Standing here arguing won’t get her here faster, now, let's take a little field trip to CADMUS.” Grodd started towards the exit. The others held back, exchanging looks.

But Grodd hadn’t lied to them.

So they followed.

“So how are we getting in exactly? CADMUS Labs aren’t exactly a cakewalk.” Shade asked, squeezed into the back seat with the others. Giganta’s car was spacious enough, but it was no minivan. Shade had been sandwiched between Parasite and Sinestro with Clayface and Frost at either windows.

“I’ve been sending out waves to a security guard there, he’ll let us in easy.” Grodd replied

“You really thought of everything, huh?” Giganta smiled at him.

“Of course.”

The lower levels of Cadmus were creepy. Lit by red LEDs and metal walls, the group’s footsteps echoed within the hallways. The red also illuminated...things, dead things preserved in formaldehyde. Aliens maybe? Failed experiments?

“Creepy…”

“The one we’re getting is alive right?” Shade asked, “ I’m good with a lot of things but carrying around a corpse isn’t one of them.”

“Not to worry, our new friend is very much alive, she’s just sleeping.” Grodd answered.

“That’s what my folks told me when my dog died when I was a kid, you sure about that Grodd?” Clayface questioned him.

“I’m absolutely positive, why would CADMUS keep a dead body under lock and key?”

“Touché.”

A door with a passcode lock, reinforced with steel.

“Frost?” Grodd said, not taking his eyes off the door.

“On it.” She placed her hand on the lock ,freezing and then destroying the keypad. With the security system broken, the inner locks released, revealing a small room. It was barren save for a few small tables towards the back surrounding a single cryogenic sleep container.

“Is that a kid in there!?” Clayface asked, squinting into the chamber’s small window. He was correct, floating inside the chamber was a small girl with an oxygen mask attached to her face. What had to be the most eye-catching thing about this girl was her hair, vibrant orange floated around her face, but the roots and bangs were a stark white in comparison.

“They just locked her up and left her here?” Giganta turned to Grodd, he nodded, a grim look on his face.

“Unfortunately yes, probably for years, the extent to which CADMUS is willing to go is horrifying.” He explained, “But before we free our new friend, it’s imperative that from now on we call the Justice League the Justice Lords.”

“Justice Lords?” Shade repeated, “Why the change?”

“You’ll see.” Grodd simply replied, inputting the code to the container's keypad. The sound of air letting out of the container filled the room, opening and fully revealing the girl. She looked so fragile and pale, her skin nearly pure white from the lack of sun .

Giganta was the one to catch the girl before she hit the ground, gently removing the oxygen mask from her face.

Oh, she had freckles.

Still, the redhead didn’t move and for a moment Grodd though that she was actually dead. Maybe CADMUS really did keep a dead body under lock and key?

The girl’s sleep-filled groan proved otherwise, and once again Grodd was right.

“Wha…?” Bleary, half lidded eyes scanned their surroundings. Seemingly upon realizing the company, the girl yelled and scrambled out of Giganta’s hold, shakily getting to her feet. “Who are you!? What world is this!?” Her eyes shot manically around the room, “Where am I!?”.

“Hey, calm down! What are you talking about?” Parasite said.

“ What’s happening in this world!?” She reiterated, only to be met with silent confusion. She sighed, “Are Themyscira and Atlantis at war?”

“Uh, no?” Clayface answered.

“Is Darkseid on earth?”

“Nope.” Shade replied

“Is Superman a communist?”

“Wha-? I don’t think he’s a communist?” Parasite answered confusedly.

“I’ll take that as a no, what about the Justice League? Are they still the league or are they a crime syndicate?” The redhead pressed.

“No, they don’t call themself that.” Grodd replied before anyone else had a chance to, the girl let out a sigh of relief.

“Ok, good, The Flash in that world was a major creep.” She replied, the soft smile she held faded when she saw Grodd’s expression.

“They don’t call themselves the Justice League either…” He trailed off. A manipulation tactic meant for the girl to fill in the blanks herself, and it worked.

“No...they’re calling themselves the Justice Lords, aren’t they?” She raked a hand through her hair, “ Damn it! I was so close this time…”

Grodd nodded, “I’m afraid so, they’re also the reason you were held by CADMUS.”

“Checks out. So I take it you guys are a resistance group now?” She questioned, turning her attention back to the others. The gorilla smiled down at her,

“You catch on fast. We call ourselves the Secret Society, I am—“

“Gorilla Grodd,” She interrupted and turned to the others, “and you’re Giganta, Shade, Parasite, Clayface, don’t know you but judging by the uniform you’re a red lantern, and Killer Frost. Some of us have met in other worlds.”

Awkward silence, the society looked between themselves, not knowing how to react to that.

Shade cleared his throat, “well, you seem to already know us, that just leaves you then.”

The girl chuckled dryly, “The only thing that truly stays consistent...Call me Illusium. Now let's get out of here before those fascists realize I’m out. ”

As if on cue, an alarm went off.

“Little late for that.” Giganta stated, looking from the door to the girl. Illusium merely smirked.

“CADMUS’s foot soldiers are no problem.” Illusium’ s hospital gown rustled as she walked out, facing the coming security officers, “Thought you could keep me locked up?” She glared at them, pupil’s beginning to glow red, “Idiots.” A simple wave of her hand, the guards stopped, looking wide-eyed at nothing. At least, that’s what the rest of the society thought. To Illusium and the guards, in front of them was one of Darkseid’s paradooms. Of course, only Illusium knew it was an illusion, what kind of League member would she be if she didn’t have control of her powers?

Besides, paradooms didn’t scare her anymore.

Yelling, blind shooting, bullets flying in the opposite direction; the guards were distracted, giving the others ample time to escape.

“Let’s go before they realize it’s a fake!” The redhead called back to the others before taking off.

“What did ya do to em’!?” Clayface asked, Illusium laughed.

“Made ‘em see something scary!”

They burned rubber speeding out of CADMUS, the first phase in Grodd’s plan going smoothly and with no interference from the League. This time around, in this world, the Secret Society was practically guaranteed to win.

“This is familiar.” Illusium stated, walking around the Society’s base; taking in all the computers and tech they had managed to compile. She had changed out of the hospital gown, now wearing a comically oversized sweater originally belonging to Giganta.

“So you’ve been here before?” Killer frost asked, Illusuim only shook her head.

“Not here exactly, but similar.”

Shade chimed in, “I gotta know what you did back there, you made those guards look terrified of thin air.”

“It’s a part of my power, I can project pieces of my memories onto whoever I choose to,” She explained, “the other part of it is immortality through quantum death. You guys know what that is, right?”

“Familiar with the concept, but who am I to explain your power?” Grodd replied.

“‘Kay...So it’s like this: you’re sitting on the ledge of a cliff, you decide whether or not to jump, but in the end you jump. The very moment that decision is made, a parallel universe where you didn’t jump is created, and here’s where my ability comes in,” Illusium swallowed, “Everytime I die I’m transported to a different world, all my memories of the previous one stay intact.”

“So that’s why you were freaking out about what world this was?” Parasite asked, she nodded.

“Yep, I call it the Death Loop.” Illusium.

“That sounds...intense.” Gigianta said, “How did you even figure that out?”

“Well, At first I thought I could temporarily shift to parallel realities. In that first world, myself and the League went to fight Darkseid, but little did we know he had planted spyware on one of us and...he...he killed everyone.” She scratched at her wrist, laughing nervously, “Including me. One minute I’m being torn apart by paradooms and the next thing I know. Amazons and Altlantians are killing each other and Wonder Woman is running a sword through me!”

“It was so weird. Sometimes it was minor changes, the league was fully intact except for a different Green Lantern or different Flash, and other times it was completely haywire, like they weren’t the Justice League at all but instead they were a crime syndicate and everyone looked and acted so different. The worst part was constantly seeing people you’ve known most of your life look at you like an enemy, or even worse a stranger.”

Killer Frost put a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her manic talk. “Don’t worry, this world’s gonna be different , for everyone.”

“Yeah, we’ll make it right!” Gigianta added.

Grodd and Shade stood away from the group, both of them watching as Illusium chatted away with the rest of the group.

“What’re you planning?” Shade asked, looking to the Gorilla

“Oh, it’s nothing elaborate. Illusium is a former league member, she knows how they think, how they fight. With her thinking they’re the bad guys our victory will be as easy as taking candy from a baby.”

“True, someone from the inside gives us an advantage, but what if she realizes that you’re lying.”

“She won’t. She’s lost so many worlds that she’ll cling to the first semblance of allyship offered to her.” He turned to rejoin the rest of the group, “So make sure all of you play nice.”

That night, Illusium lay on top of the Society’s hideout. They couldn’t sleep, probably because they’d been in cryogenic sleep for god knows how long. The stars were different here, they were always different depending on the world.

She wondered what the stars would look like in the world after this one?

Illusium could find out if they were to jump. It would be easy, they’d die from shock before hitting the ground and—

She shook her head, no, no suicide. Illusium needed to stay here, she needed to help the Society , she needed to find a world without losers and this one had barely even started. She needed to fight.

“Hey there.” Without noticing Killer Frost had taken a seat next to her, “Couldn’t sleep?”

“I’ve been asleep for god knows how long,” Illusium replied, not taking her eyes off the sky, “what about you?”

“Curious, I wanna know the dirt you have on the others. You know, from the other worlds?” Frost elaborated.

Despite looking different, Frost still acted the same as she did back in Arkham. Illusium gave them a half smile,

“Looking for dirt on the rest of the Society or just other villains in general, ‘cause I’ve seen so many versions of everyone.”

Killer frost shrugged and Illusium took that as the latter.

“Well, for starters, the two of us met back in Arkham.” Illusium started, “We were on Task Force X with Quinn, Copperhead, Deadshot, and some other guys.”

“Task Force X?” Killer Frost repeated.

“A suicide squad.”

“Oh. So we…”

“Yeah, we died.”

“Lame.”

“I know right?” Illusium chuckled, “ but that world was fun. You and Harley made it fun.”

The two stayed up for hours, talking about the past worlds Illusium had been, how in one Harley Quinn had her own villain league, the “superman is a commie” world, and one where there was a new Batman, one that was much more spry than the original.

Illusium had to stay here. Stay and fix this world, maybe once they had taken out the Justice Lords she could find a way to prevent Darkseid from coming here.

She wouldn’t let this world end in tragedy like the others.

#self ship #💚 platonic #self ship writing #🏩self insert🏩#self insert #justice league self insert #🪦now and then/here and there🪦#dc self insert #🍒giacore🍒

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lolas-writings · 5 years ago

Note

Dabihawks hc, there is this OC that have a quirk that could bring people back to life but with the cost of someone else’s memories or emotions. Dabi’s meet them before he’s became a villain and keeps contact with them. Flash forward to when Hawks kills twice he calls them and has to choose between keeping his memories of Hawks/Keigo (they meet as a kids) and feel nothing for him or to forget him. In any scenario he’s written Hawks a letter saying goodbye. When Hawks sees him again he’s move on

Okay, this one legit hurt me. I read this then had to go hug my dog because holy cow you’re cruel. Keep it up haha (Hope you don’t mind that I added an alternative ending below a cut for my “angst with a happy ending” loving soul)

Dabi doesn’t know what to do. He’s torn. He can either remember Hawks and everything they’ve been through together, from childhood until now, and feel absolutely nothing towards him anymore, or forget about him entirely and lose all of those precious memories.

It’s a hard choice, and it takes Dabi at least a week to even come close to deciding which path to choose, and the only reason it didn’t take longer was because he’s the only one that knows how to bring Twice back. And he has to bring Twice back, he has to. As much as he tries to deny it, he does see the league as his family, and seeing Toga so broken over Twice’s death is so heartbreaking to him and reminds him that his own siblings had to go through something similar after he vanished. And since he can no longer help his siblings, the least he can do is bring back Twice for Toga.

And, he hated to admit it, but his death was partially his fault. He knew Hawks was dirty from the start, but that didn’t stop him from letting the hero close, let him weasel his way into Dabi’s life and later his heart. To his credit, Hawks didn’t seem like he wanted to kill Twice, but Dabi knew how tightly the hero commission had his little birdie wrapped around their finger. So he had to do it. Just like Dabi has to bring him back.

But god why did it have to be Hawks? Why couldn’t he have been offered to lose his memory of his father? Or his past life? He would have jumped at either of those choices (even if it meant losing his siblings for good, but it’s not like they knew he was alive after all). But no, of course not, of course it had to revolve around someone important.

“My quirk doesn’t work like that, man, I’ve told you. The price for a life is drastic, so it revolves around the person you love the most.” So he had been told. And, well, it was terrifying in more ways than one. He would have to end up losing Hawks in one way or another to bring Twice back, but he had already lost him to the commission. His cover was blown, they cancelled his mission, he wasn’t allowed any more contact with the league.

Meaning, no matter his decision, Dabi wouldn’t be able to say goodbye. And it was tearing him apart because he already had to go through this once, leaving people he loved behind without a proper goodbye. And now he had to do it again?

No, not on his watch. Not if he had any say about it. He’s got contacts, he’s got ears and eyes in multiple places. If he truly wanted to, he could get something to Hawks.

So he writes a letter, explaining everything that’s about to happen -- or, would have already happened by the time he gets it -- and pours his heart into this final goodbye. The person you love most, huh? A shame that he never got to say so to Hawks’ face. The letter will have to do.

And the next time Hawks sees Dabi’s face, he knows the other has no idea who he is, so he doesn’t bother approaching.

Alternative Ending: The first time Hawks sees Dabi again, his letter is burned word for word into his heart and he knows there’s no chance that Dabi would recognize him. This wasn’t some fantasy where a curse could be lifted with a kiss, this was real life, and real life sucked. So, he simply goes home.

It hits him a few days later, when he’s reading the letter for the umpteenth time in his bed with his wings cocooned around him for comfort. Dabi only said that his previous memories of them were gone, that the relationship they had in the past was dissolved and forgotten. But... he never said they couldn’t form a new one.

Dabi fell in love with him once, surely he’d be able to do so again. It’s like hitting reset, being able to meet without the pain of the past haunting them.

This could work, all Hawks has to do is find Dabi again.

He does. They meet for the “first” time two weeks later, when Hawks takes a night shift and patrols in an area he knows Dabi likes to frequent. Dabi almost kills him, because he only knows that Hawks is a hero, but he miraculously doesn’t. It’s like his body knows better and tells him to stop, to trust. So he does, and Dabi begins seeing this “Hawks” hero more frequently.

It takes some time, but they begin dating once again. It’s similar in a lot of ways. Hawks has to regain Dabi’s trust all over again, but he doesn’t mind, as long as he gets him back he doesn’t care what he has to go through. And they still have to sneak around whenever they want to meet. But there is one major difference.

He finally gets to hear Dabi say he loves him.

#dabihawks #bnha dabi #mha dabi #dabi #bnha hawks #mha hawks #boku no hero academia hawks #my hero academia hawks #dabi x hawks #dabihawks headcanon #ask headcanon #lola writes #lola answers

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snaileer · 3 years ago

Text

Escapement - 2 (Jason Todd/Marvel)

Jason slowly crawled his way back to consciousness, fully aware of the screeching pain in his side and arm.

He wanted to grimace but held back when he registered the presence of other people in the room. Three.

Two were at least 10 feet away, the other was…

Jason grabbed the wrist of the person leaning over him, twisting it backwards as he sprung awake and upwards.

A syringe dropped to the floor next to them as Jason slammed him to the ground.

“Clint, wait!” The man below him stopped struggling. Jason looked down at him.

“Clint Barton. Hawkeye.” The night came flooding back to him, “What was in the syringe?”

The man grunted uncomfortably from the awkward position, “Morphine, you brat.”

Jason scowled and let him up with a tight smile and a wince, “I don’t do morphine. Or any pain meds.”

“Yeah, well you can just suffer through that torn stitch all on your own then.”

“Considering you’re probably the one that shot me with an arrow, I think I’ll manage.”

Jason snapped back and then paused to take stock of the room he was in.

Small. Living room. Old couch, half-filled bookcase by the front door.

One window with a fire escape. Adjacent bedroom and 2 kitchen entrances. Likely with windows.

The other two people - Black Widow and ‘Coulson’- stood by the bookshelf, both armed.

“I know I should regret shooting a kid, but considering your attitude, I’m finding it a little hard.”

Jason huffed a laugh then winced and clutched his side when pain flashed through it.

“Ha. Karma.” Hawkeye chuckled as he rubbed his wrist.

“Barton. Behave.” ‘Coulson’ stepped forward, shooting a sharp look at the other and holding up a placating hand, “You’re going to want to be careful about that side, reopening a would like that so fast would not be good.”

“I’ll be fine.” Jason snapped, then quieter, “Been through worse.”

“Be that as it may…” the balding man came closer, stopping when Jason glared at him, “I think we got off on the wrong foot, my name is Agent Coulson, this is Agents Barton and Romanoff. Or as you seem to know them, Black Widow and Hawkeye.”

“Don’t sweat the first impressions. Breaking in and threatening me is generally how I meet new people, so it’s not like you’re anything special. How long was I out?”

“Just under three hours. We expected you to be out for a while longer. Care to explain why it is you’re awake? Or how you came to such a state in the last 6 hours since we saw you?”

“Not particularly and the usual assholes being sent on missions way out of their league. One got a lucky hit in, that’s it.”

The man in front of him hummed and raised an eyebrow, “So you came to us for protection from ‘the usual assholes’ then?”

Jason tensed.

“Or protection from the ones sending them?”

Jason gritted his teeth, “The ones sending them. Listen, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be, but things have… changed for me recently and I’ve found myself in dire need of new allies.”

Widow stepped forward, “So enlighten us. Who are you running from?”

“I can’t tell you and I’m not running. I just… I was given a chance to get out, more than that, get away. I want to take it. I can’t do that with Nazi assholes and Ninjas bearing down on me like I’ll change my fucking mind.”

“Hydra?”

Jason sighed and rolled his shoulder to test it, “Yep.”

“That’s a powerful enemy to make, kid,” Hawkeye piped in.

Jason smiled cynically, “Yeah, well, I’m a worse one. If they want to keep sending their guys at me to get put down I have no problem with it. And I’m not a kid.”

“Ehhhh, looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, I’m gonna say you’re what, 13?”

Jason growled at the archer, “Old enough and skilled enough to skin you with your own bowstring, asshole.”

Widow stepped between them, “You said Ninjas as well?”

Jason clamped his mouth shut.

“If you want SHIELD’s protection, we need to know who we’re protecting you from.”

Jason clenched his jaw, “I can’t tell you their name. And nothing about them can show up anywhere. If it does, they’ll know who it came from and where I am. Then you’d be useless.”

“How about you then?” Widow said.

Jason paused, stunned, “What?”

“Tell us about you. We don’t even know your real name, because ‘John Smith’ is definitely not it.”

“John works. ‘J’ works better.”

“Alright, Jay. Age?”

Jason looked away, “Somewhere over 14.”

“The hell does that mean? ‘Over 14’ Like months or years over?” Hawkeye said with a bewildered face.

“If I knew I would tell you. But unfortunately, I don’t, so the best I can tell you is somewhere over 14.” Jason snarled.

Coulson and Widow gave each other a look, one that he was sure Hawkeye picked up on without even looking.

“Alright, easy goes it kid. Birthday?”

“August.”

“Wow, that is frustratingly vague. Any chance you’ve got a year to tack on that?”

Jason thought for a second, “Nope.”

Black Widow took over again, “Skill set?”

“Most of it.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Most of what?”

Jason gave a mean smirk, “Everything.”

Romanoff glanced back at her partners, Barton just shrugged and Coulson answered, “We’ll have to test you on that for more specifics.”

“Go ahead. As long as you know it’s the only kind of test I’m gonna let you do.”

Even though his face stayed empty, something flickered in Coulson’s eyes, “Of course. Any parents we should be thinking of?”

Green tinted anger coursed through Jason’s body so fast the chair he was gripping creaked under his hand, “None that are worth it.” He growled through clenched teeth.

“Anything else we should be aware of? Favorite color? Hobbies? Hopes and dreams?” Hawkeye quipped lazily.

Jason ground his teeth together, “Currently? Stabbing you through the neck with same arrow you shot me with sounds nice. But seeing as I snapped it in half and dumped it in an alley, I’ll settle for breaking your kneecaps.”

Barton looked unfazed, “Is that categorized under hobbies? Or hopes and dreams?”

Jason stood with a snarl, hand twitching for a weapon, “I’m always up for finding out.”

“Ha! Try knitting next time,” Clint laughed and looked past him, “Geez, 'Tasha, he’s worse than you were.”

Natasha’s lips settled into a grim line as Coulson pulled Barton back with a hand on his shoulder.

“Kid-, Jay, we need your cooperation on this. We can’t stop whoever’s coming after you if you don’t work with us-“

Jason scoffed, “I don’t expect you to be able to stop them. You couldn’t if you tried. I’m just hoping you’ll delay them enough for me to run like a bat outta hell.” He said with a smirk at the inside joke.

Hawkeye rolled his eyes, “And isn’t that a comforting thought.”

Just as Jason turned to snap at the man again, something beeped on Coulson’s watch. He held it and read the small screen.

“Our ride’s here. We need to blend in to get out,” Coulson looked at Jason, “Any chance you know Turkish?”

“I dabble.” He answered in Turkish, then changed, “My Russian or Romanian is better.”

Everyone in the room raised an eyebrow, even Widow’s twitched.

Coulson nodded, “Hopefully we won’t need to talk, but just in case.” He turned to Barton to, “Barton, get him some new clothes without blood on them. We leave in 20. Can we trust you not to kill us and run or do we need to remove more of your weapons?”

Jason scowled- not pouted- “You got my favorites so we’re good provided Katniss over there doesn’t get on my nerves enough to put him down.”

“I resent that remark!” Hawkeye said as he dug through the bag they’d confiscated from Jason’s safe house. He chucked the new clothes at Jason with a smile.

Jason caught them with a grunt and winced as sharp pain struck up his leg and his side. He stomped past them to the bathroom as best he could without a limp. Pausing briefly to grab the first aid kit from the wall.

“For the popped stitch.” He said blandly and then shut and locked the door behind him.

Hawkeye sighed, shoulders dropping, “Damn, that kid is messed up.”

“I hope the people chasing him dare to try and come for him.” Natasha said darkly, face cold and hard as stone.

“If they do, I hope I get to put an arrow through a least a few of them.”

Coulson cleared his throat, “Let’s focus on getting him out of here before we start planning the next step.”

“Come on, Phil, you can’t tell me that just guessing at what that kid’s gone through doesn’t make you want to punch someone.”

“I never said anything about that, just that it’s not our first priority.”

Clint gave a grin, “But it is a priority?”

Coulson’s face was grim, “Absolutely.”

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thewritewolf · 6 years ago

Text

Four Times (And the Lucky One) Chapter 1: Understandable

Hello and welcome to this short, five chapter story about Adrien, where the universe tries its best to test the extent of his patience! I'll be updating this story once a week, so sit back and enjoy this little adventure.

Although it doesn’t bear a lot of symblance to the original source, this story was inspired by this comic by @sweetsweetsweetie! The concept of Adrien sneakily trying to get Marinette on a date really got my imagination running. I thought to myself: Why is he being so stealthy about this? What could have happened to make this his go-to idea? A long talk with my beta later, and the outline for this story was born!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3

Adrien’s heart pounded in his chest as he vaulted over buildings in his haste to check on Marinette. Normally, he’d just accept that the Ladybug cure would have fixed anything that was wrong, but these last few months of frequent visits to her balcony as Chat Noir…

...Well, they’d helped him see her in a different light. A light where he got worried about her safety even when there was no logical reason to be besides her home being kind of close to an akuma battle. He was conflicted over it since his feelings for Ladybug certainly hadn’t gone away in the meantime, leaving him torn between two amazing women.

But that was a problem for later. For now, he just wanted to make sure that Marinette was alright.

He landed on a building across the street from Marinette’s home and took a moment to catch his breath in the shade of a rooftop umbrella. He snuck glances through her bedroom windows, trying to see if she was there. The akuma battle had been a tough one, and had even required that he recharge in the middle of the fight. Come to think of it, while he hadn’t used his cataclysm towards the end, Ladybug had definitely used her lucky charm. She should be transforming back any minute now. Hopefully she was alright.

A shadow passed over his hiding spot. As if summoned by his concern, Ladybug herself landed on Marinette’s balcony. Adrien frowned - were Ladybug and Marinette friends? Did Ladybug think Marinette was in danger? As he watched, there was a brief flash of red and Marinette was pacing her room, followed by a floating red and black creature.

His eyes flew open and he let out an involuntary ‘eep!’ before making a beeline for his home. All his energy was focused solely on getting him there. It was only once he rolled into his room through his window that he allowed himself to begin to process what he had just seen. Almost immediately, he became a panicked wreck. So much so, that it took him a few minutes to even realize that he’d been pacing his room as Chat Noir ever since he got back.

“Claws in.”

Plagg yawned and stretched before plastering a wicked grin on his face. “Well, well, well. Looks like loverboy has finally figured out who his dear sweet love is.” He watched Adrien pace before adding, “Sit down, kid! You’re going to drive me crazy.”

Adrien did as he was told and absently fidgeted with his ring. “This isn’t good, Plagg…”

“What?” The kwami scoffed. “I thought you’d be thrilled about this! You finally know who ladybug is - it’s like a dream come true for you!”

“She’ll be so mad when she finds out!”

“Oh like Ladybug hasn’t been mad at Chat Noir before.”

“Marinette doesn’t get mad at Adrien though!”

“...I guess?”

“Besides,” he said with growing dread. “I had a chance with Ladybug, you know? I figured maybe I could get her to fall for me eventually. We spend a lot of time together, we have great chemistry, we’re both heroes…”

“Yes,” Plagg drawled, “I am aware of this.”

“But Marinette…” Adrien stared off into the distance, ignoring Plagg. “I barely had a chance with Ladybug. But Marinette is totally out of my league.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me-”

“Plagg. Ladybug is one thing, but brave, selfless, kind, beautiful, student council president, helps everyone she meets, Ladybug-without-the-spots MARINETTE? How can I hope to be cool enough for her?” Adrien leaned back in his chair and whined, “Chat Noir isn’t cool enough for her!”

His eyes widened and he sprung out of his chair. "Wait... oh no, Plagg! Ladybug said she likes another boy, remember? What am I gonna do?!”

There was a long silence and eventually Adrien risked looking over at Plagg, who was staring at him in stunned disbelief.

"It's you.”

Adrien frowned. “No, she’s made it clear she doesn’t have feelings for Chat Noir-”

Plagg waved a paw irritably. “No, no. You. Adrien Agreste. She is crushing on you. Big time, kiddo.”

“No,” he said, crossing his arms, “She made it very clear that she isn’t. She’s even said as much.”

"Kid, she has photos of your face taped to her WALLS.”

"She likes my father’s label!"

"And I can’t believe you bought that the first time, let alone all the other times!" Plagg rolled his eyes. “Listen - trust me on this, pigtails has a big ol’ crush on you and the only one who doesn’t know it is you.”

Adrien was about to protest, but everything began to click into place. The stuttering that had gotten better during their friendship. The photos of him scattered throughout her room. The time she confessed that she loved him when she thought he was a statue. He’d brushed it all aside because she always assured him that she didn’t have feelings for him, but if he disregarded that… the evidence was clear.

Stunned, he collapsed into his desk chair, slack jawed. “She… loves me.” He lurched to a sitting up position. “I need to tell her that I’m Chat Noir.”

“I mean, yeah, probably.”

“But I can’t just tell her.”

Plagg gave a tired sigh. “Why not, kid?”

“Because she might get mad at me for finding out, but she can’t be mad if she finds out on her own too!”

“That… doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes plenty of sense! I just need to get her alone so only she gets the hints. I can’t give Alya clues too.”

“What about taking her on a date?” Plagg suggested half-heartedly. “Plenty of time alone there.”

“That’s perfect! This will be easier than I thought.”

“Maybe.”

“What do you mean ‘maybe’?”

“Well… you have been awfully insistent that you two are just friends. It might be tough to get her to think otherwise now.”

Adrien ran a hand through his hair and bit down on the rising panic. He could do this. He was Chat Noir, superhero and famous romantic. How hard could asking out one girl be?

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

The next day, Adrien waited outside the school for Marinette. He wanted to be sure there were as few eavesdroppers around as possible. While there was the matter of secrecy, it was more the romance of it that Adrien was after. If he allowed himself to hope, then this first date would be the start of a long and loving relationship. It had to be absolutely perfect and that meant getting the perfect opportunity to ask her out. Even if he had practical matters to worry about when they were actually on that date, like delicately and subtly destroying their secret identities.

While he was lost in his thoughts, he very nearly missed Marinette leaving the school. Nino and Alya had already left together, which meant that Adrien had a golden moment where neither of their friends would be hovering over them. He could speak from his heart without being afraid of looking foolish.

“Hey, Marinette!” He called out to her as he rushed over to her. “I need to ask you-”

She turned around and his tongue stopped functioning. He became lost in her piercing blue eyes and he belatedly wondered how he had ever managed to talk to her before. Was she always this pretty? Had he just been too blinded by Ladybug to notice? Either way, his train of thought crashed and burned.

Her eyes became concerned. “H-hey, Adrien! Cool meeting you here.” She winced. “Not that I, uh, didn’t expect to see you here. At school, I mean. It’s just, uh, you- you usually leave. Pretty quick. Once school is done. So… y-yeah. Wh-what did you want?”

How could one person be so endearingly precious?

“I, uh… um, that is, you-”

Her face became clouded with concern “...Are you okay, Adrien?”

“Y-yes.” He took a deep breath. “I just wanted to ask-”

A roar interrupted him and he scanned the horizon. Screams were heard soon after and he narrowed his eyes. No doubt there was an akuma out there, but he had something important to do first. He turned back towards Marinette…

...Or, more appropriately, where Marinette had just been. No doubt, his dutiful lady was already on her way to the akuma. Better not keep her waiting. He ducked behind a bush. As his transformation washed over him, he kicked himself. It was so close, too!

Hopefully next time would be easier.

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

There was something definitely wrong with her kitty.

The fight was taking longer than it should, mostly because Chat Noir seemed distracted. That wasn’t anything too noteworthy. They were human beings, after all, with civilian lives and all that came with it. Sometimes they would have an off day, and that was nothing to get too worked up about. Both of them had plenty of those kinds of days

But the sudden lack of flirting from her partner? That was worrying. Even in life-or-death situations Chat Noir took the time to lay it on thick as he tried to woo her. There had been a few compliments from him, so she knew he hadn’t been replaced in some weird akuma scheme, but something definitely felt off-kilter.

The weirdest thing of all was the shyness, though. It wasn’t much - just a little tremor in his words, the way a blush would creep out from under his mask if their eyes made contact in the heat of the fight. It wasn’t something she was used to from her bold kitty. He was almost acting like she did out of the mask.

When the fight ended and the Ladybug cure had been released, she eschewed the usual fist bump in favor of pressing her hand to his forehead. He jumped at the unexpected contact.

“M-my lady?”

“No fever,” she mumbled. “So you probably aren’t sick.” She put her hands on her hips and watched him carefully, noticing the way his fingers twitched at his side and he could only steal glances at her. “What’s up, kitty? You usually aren’t this… skittish.”

He gave his most charming smile and she could see the nervousness dropping away from him like a cloak. “Sorry. I guess I’ve just had… things on my mind. Civilian things. You don’t need to worry about me, m’lady.”

The way he put emphasis on civilian made her curious, but she knew she couldn’t prod any further. If he wanted to talk about it, maybe she’d find out when he visited Marinette soon. For one reason or another, he was more open about his feelings then - at least, the feelings that weren’t his affection for Ladybug, which he always wore on his sleeve.

“If you’re sure…” She offered her fist, which he gladly bumped. “I’ll see you later, chaton. Take care of yourself.” Her yoyo flew out and soon she was flying above the city once again. She risked a glance behind her, expecting to see Chat Noir’s back as he made his way home, or wherever it was that he went.

To her surprise, he stood in the same spot and watched her leave.

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

Adrien landed in his room and called off his transformation.

“Well. That could’ve gone better,” Plagg commented drily.

“I’ll say. But I’m not worried. It just means I’ll have to try again - and next time, it will work.”

“Planning on being less of a stuttering mess next time around?”

Adrien shot Plagg a dirty look, but instead of being chastised the kwami simply cackled. “Yes, I will be. It’s just… been a lot to take in. I’ll be better next time. You can count on it.”

“What makes you think it will work any better?”

“I’ll have it planned out! With how my schedule is, I won’t have another opportunity for a while, so that means I have plenty of time to figure out my next move and set up the ideal scene. There’s no way anything can get in the way this time!”

While Adrien struck a pose and stared off into the horizon, full of hope and energy, Plagg rolled his eyes behind him. That boy’s romantic notions were gonna bite him in the butt really quickly.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Plagg #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Ladybug #Chat Noir #Ladynoir #Adrienette #Marichat #ml fanfiction #my writing #Four Times (and the Lucky One)#The Lucky One series

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singeramg · 5 years ago

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Midnight: Chapter 5

A/n: Here is chapter 5! Its getting better and honestly I am hella excited! Once again this follows Justice league with the addition of my OFC. Better explanation of how it would go if she were there.

Pairing: Clark Kent- Superman/ Metahuman! Black! OFC

Rating: M