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senorincognito69 · 2 years ago

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Femme equal Bull: Streaming (Woman into bull-TG TF tale)♀️➡️🐮♂️

(Woman into bull-TG)*

A pair of sensual lips loudly sucked on the long straw in the bubble tea cup.

The girl raised her arm.

“New record guys! Let 's go!”

The chat on the screen in front of her went crazy with emojis.

The girl was sitting in her big expensive looking pink gamer chair in her mostly pink room. She was wearing a skimpy gray shirt, even skimpier blue striped panties and long white socks and a pair of heart shaped glasses perched on top of her head.

She was a young petite white woman with flowing blond hair and a single lock of cyan that dropped across her forehead. Her lips perfectly pink, her nose tiny and round, cheeks that were very quick to blush and big gray eyes that were accentuated by her perfect makeup.

A perfect living picture of soft femininity.

You would never have guessed that a woman like her was named Bertha, mostly because these days she would be very likely to slap you right in the face if you dared to remember her name around her nerdy birthday. Bertha was now more known to the world and the internet as Lily Lovely Love, a rising start in the slutty gaming streaming scene.

The day of her last stream and everything was going perfectly - she had achieved a hype train before her midday lunch break and had had a lot of huge super-chats and all she had to do was filming herself eating her breakfast.

Haters said that she was the worst example of a streamer on the net, her content was lazy, her jokes uncomfortable at best, her video game skills abysmal and her huge number of views simply a product of her teasing trampy performances catching the attention of horny trolls and masturbatory lurkers.

Those comments made her smirk, even if they were true, so what? She was winning, winning big time, and all she had to do was to leave behind her previous self, the one that matched the name Bertha, to become an adorable piece of cake that only had to sit in front of a camera being cute to live an easy life.

The easy life of her dreams, free of debt, worry or hard work.

It wasn’t her fault if the game was rigged in her favour.

There was a loud noise, a message appeared on the screen, another super chat.

As usual Lily looked at the amount of the donation first and it made her choke on her bubble tea. Leaving the cup on the desk she coughed several times before staring at the screen once again. It was the biggest donation of her career, a lot of zeros, worth a couple of months' work at once.

“Holy cow!”

The fans were celebrating, but after Lily read the name of the donor her expression changed from shock to utter annoyed disgust.

“Fuck, not this creep again! How many times do I have to ban him?!”

You_Gonna_Transform had managed to sneak into her chat once again.

Despite being one of her best donors the girl despised and hated him with all her heart. The super chat read as follows: If you open the link I will double the tip! It may not be necessary, I think this one is the ONE! 100% gonna trigger you!

Lily read it aloud and groaned.

“I’m not opening your shitty link, I’m tired of this lame joke! No, chat, I’m not being mean, this asshole has been sending me pictures of animal buttholes since I began streaming!”

The chat didn’t seem to agree with her, there were some fans siding with her, but the majority of comments were encouraging her to open the pic, that it was her streaming duty, her responsibility.

That you go double or go home.

Lily Lovely Love’s motto.

She even sold merch with it on.

“You can’t coerce me into this, guys! I don’t want to see some gorilla’s ass or whatever, I just had breakfast!”

The chat’s balance broke and it became a single mind, an endless stream of those words: Go double or go home.

Lily shook her head, falling back in her chair.

“You are supposed to side with me, you damn losers!”

The woman grabbed her mouse and began to make circles with the cursor over You_Gonna_Transform’s link.

She sighed, defeated.

“Easy money, easy life!”

The chat cheered.

Lily clicked the link, the picture slowly filled the screen as if it was being loaded from a server on the other corner of the world.

“See, I told you!” the streaming diva grunted. “I told you all! It’s just another farmyard rear! It's… It is…” her voice lost strength.

The picture was revealed in front of her eyes. A close up of a dark and leathery half open vulva, the interior of an intense pink colour. You would have needed veterinary training to guess which beast it belonged to, but Lily knew it right then on the spot.

A chill climbed up from her own vagina, her stomach felt empty.

She gulped.

“It’s a cow’s cunt…!” Lily snorted, putting her hands on the desk, the veins prominent on her neck, her face disfigured. “A cow cunt! Cow cunt! Couwh CUUUUUUUUNT!”

Leaning her head back and without any restraint the woman bellowed out loud until her lungs ran out of air. She was left gasping and breathless.

The chat was confused.

Her eyes were still fixed on the cow’s rear, tears appeared in the corners of her eyes, her brain was rushing towards a fate nailing realization.

“No, no! I don’t wanna ffffuf-fuck cow cunt! I don’t nghnhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

Lily’s chair slid away from the desk, she put her feet on the seat, spreading her legs, staring at her throbbing pussy, terrified.

She was on full display to the audience.

Her sex was sucking and moistening the fabric of her panties.

“You perverted sicko, what have you done to muuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!” she cried.

WIth no other options, the struggling diva grabbed the fabric of her underwear and pulled it to the side, revealing her plump wet vagina and shaved crotch to the camera. Her fans loved it.

Grunting, snorting, she bit her clenched lips as the mortifying sensation intensified.

An internal pulling so strong that it hurt her to her heart.

“Nguuuuuuh! Nu, please, please…! GAGGGH!”

Her vaginal lips spread out and a skin sack slowly slid out.

The diva babbled unintelligibly.

“Stopstostoppstotoooop!”

The sack came all the way out, large, heavy, dark, with two equally large balls inside.

A ballsack, a scrotum that now hung from her crotch.

And not a human one.

“THIS CAN’T BE FUCKING REAL!”

The chat couldn’t believe it either.

The changes kept progressing, Lily’s muscles tensed up, she had to hold her breath as she started the ruining mutation of her feminine sex into that of the beastly male. Her pussy sealed up completely, her clit swollen upwards like a long red balloon.

Longer and longer it grew, pointy at the top, long enough to reach her chest.

Lily screamed with wide open eyes.

An enormous cock was now the centerpiece of the petite girl’s frame.

A massive inhuman dick that didn’t match the rest of her soft body, but instead of going away her body was going to be twisted to match it.

A bull’s penis.

A phallus that clearly belonged to a rather big male bovine.

“What you done to muuuuh?!” she cried, grabbing her head, unable to stop staring at the gigantic erection between her legs. “My pussy! I…! Gone! I have a fucking cow’s dick! Cow dick… ffffor… Cow cunt! NO! No, I don’t ffuuuu COOOWS!”

The chat audience, which was growing in size as quickly as the cock grew in size, was split once more. Between people that thought it was fake, another freakish stunt by Lily Lovely Love to become the internet’s main character for a day, people that were disturbed either way and people that claimed it was the hottest thing they had ever seen.

Lily’s attention jumped between the screen and the intense lure of the pumping pressure radiating from her brand new genitals.

“Why is it so hard?! Why does it have to be so big?! Why is it so damn hot?! What do I do?! HELP MUUUUU! MOO! Somebody! CALL AN AMBUUUULANCE!” she pleaded.

The chat's answer was unanimous, even the detractors agreed, there was only one way to deal with such an impotent erection.

“Nn-no! I… Cant…!”

A couple of bumps swelled in her sweaty forehead.

She licked her lips, her eyes fixated on the penis, her heart beating in her stretching ears until every other sound became muffled.

“I cant…”

With trembling fingers she grabbed the dick, just touching that tense hot skin made her spine curl in pleasure.

“I CANT! UUUUGH!”

A new bump began to inflate at the end of her back, just above her panties. The diva began to pump her cock, soon at full speed, losing any control or sense of self.

“Uhhhg! MRUOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

Her balls twitched, her muscles expanded.

Tearing sounds, cracks and snaps. Her shoulder blades moved apart, enlarging her back. Her torso barrelled up, elongating away from her waist. Her flicking ears grew longer, and with each pump the tail at her arse shook longer.

Her buttocks flattened and spread, limbs grew longer, muscular. At the ends of her legs, inside her tearing socks, toes were merging the ones with the other.

She was no longer petite by any measurement.

Quickly bloating before the camera, her soft roundness began to sharpen and push into a stiffer shape, slightly pushing forward into the bovine muzzle it would soon become.

“Oh, hoood, ggggoood! Goood! GOOOOD!” she thrust forward with her hips. “AM! HOR! NYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!”

The chair cracked and broke under her weight.

A powerful blast of molten sperm hit the screen.

The horns sprouted out of her forehead, an extra weight on her skull. Big, long, curved, but without anything to envy compared to the size of her penis.

Lily bellowed, cumming with the desire of leaving her balls empty.

The chair felt backwards when she stood up, looking down at her body in utter distress. She touched her well defined abs, big, veiny, full of muscle, still growing, thick white fur spreading from her crotch.

She touched her deforming face, sobbed, snorted.

Her hands began to numb, fusing into hooves.

Taking a couple of sloppy steps she approached her desk, slamming her transforming hands down onto it, fracturing the pressed wood, making the bubble tea cup splash.

“Loook at muuuuuh! Am a mooonstar!” she growled at the camera with tears and a mockingly deep and brutish voice. “HORNY MOOONSTAAAAAAAAARRRGH! MOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Flexing her muscles ripped her shirt, revealing the pectorals, there was a piercing in the firm skin, a piercing that moments ago had belonged to a boob that no longer existed.

Her hair began to detach from her scalp.

Mooing like a beast she destroyed the table and dropped down onto all fours. Too large and heavy to ever again stand back up on two legs, her bones locked forever ,locking her into her quadrupedal fate.

She couldn’t stand up, she couldn’t think straight, the heat blurred her mind, her sight.

Hooves stomped the floor.

“MROUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!”

A waterfall of donations exploded, sliding one after another across the cum covered screen.

The streamer snorted, furious with the audience.

“Youuu luuukeeee thish!? YOU LOOOOK BUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLL?!”

The chat unanimously agreed with that statement.

Towering in front of the camera, the last remnants of the girl’s shirt fell from bloating muscles that were about to reach the limit of their growth, only stretched panties across the arse and the shredded socks on the back legs remained.

White fur covering everything, as any trace of humanity in her face went away.

Lily Lovely Love had got rid of Bertha to become herself and now something else was getting rid of Lily. Lily the girly soft character, Lily the self-centered online persona, utterly replaced by something that had always been inside her pretension of womanhood, something intrinsically male that had finally awakened.

How could she possibly resist such a painfully simple truth?

It was strong, bigger than anything she could ever be.

The power.

Pupils dilated.

The woman became bull.

The bull was still very, very horny.

“YUUUUU LIIIKOOOOO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!”

With no better target the beast clumsily climbed on top of the busted gaming chair and began to thrust at it with crazed lust.

“MUUUUUH! WOOOOOH! MROOOOO! WAGNNNG CUUUUW CUUUUNGH! MOOOOO! MUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”

Tongue out, voice lost in the mooing, the final lock of hair, the cyan dyed one, fell, the change reached it’s concluding climax with the second cascade of male orgasms. A push at full strength ruined what was left of the chair.

The diva was gone, in her place stood the bull. A gargantuan muscular bull with long horns, white fur and a pink muzzle. On the floor were stains of bubble tea and bovine cum.

Between his legs the leaking penis began to slowly grow cold and go flaccid. While his sex retracted inside it’s leathery shaft the manly cow snorted, distressed, the magnitude of what he had embraced overwhelming his buzzing brain.

He shook his head, flicking his ears and swung his tail.

“Mooooo…” a low bellow.

The sound of a super chat on the screen.

Another donation from You_Gonna_Transform, it read: Here’s the double I promised even if you no longer need it! I knew this one was the one! You are so freaking big! Good luck on the farm stud, the heifers are gonna love you!

The stream was abruptly cut.

Lily Lovely had been permanently banned from the platform.

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#tf #tale #tg #transgender #cow #cow transformation

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heelvsme · 3 years ago

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Haters gonna hate

Pairing: platonic Yang Jungwon x Idol!Reader

Word count: 1.1k words

Warnings: Antis, not proof read (as usual)

A/N: Nothing to see here, just wanted to write something soft with Jungwon because I love him. as Taylor said, haters gonna hate hate hate hare

Music filled the practice room as you danced for the camera, the fans at home losing their minds over the improvised choreography for Ateez's Deja Vu, lip syncing along to the song as you danced and singing the lines you knew. "I get deja vu!" You sang out as you moved to an ending pose to match the song finishing. Quickly moving to pause the music and get a bottle of water before sitting closer to the camera to read some comments.

You plopped down on the floor with a smile on your face and waved at the viewers. "Ask for more songs while I read the comments." You winked and your eyes started roaming the live comments section, there was nothing out of the ordinary, people telling you they loved you and the group, a few others asking if any of your fellow members would join your live at which you replied they might, after all, barging into your so called Y/N's practice room!♡~ was a tradition at this point, one that also included your friends from Enhypen and Tomorrow x Together.

"How are you so talented?" You read one of the comments out loud, wanting to interact. "Actually, it's mostly all the time I spend practicing and working on my dancing!" You answered the question cheerfully, not expecting to be met with a wave of hate in the comments. "Maybe if you worked on your singing, Dreamscape would actually get the awards they deserve." You forced yourself to keep smiling. "I'm constantly working to improve myself so I can give my 110% to the group!" The cheerful tone of your voice was lost, even more negative comments appearing. "If you are giving it your all you are dragging them down." You bit your lip, unsure if it was to avoid saying something mean in response or if you were trying to hold back tears.

"Y/N!" Jungwon's voice reached you from the other side of the door before he walked in and sat down beside you to wrap an arm around your shoulders, hugging you. "I'm ready for my cameo in y/n's practice room!" He giggled, sparing the camera a quick glance before looking at you again. "What song are we dancing to now?" You faked a chuckle for the camera before speaking. "I was about to end the live before you barged in, so I guess you came right in time to say bye to Dream with me." A comment caught your eye as you were going to finish the stream. "It isn't because of the comments, I'm just tired." You faked a smile for the camera as more comments showed up. "I promise I'm just tired, I stayed up late practicing last night, I want a nap." You kept smiling and Jungwon spoke up to help you. "Don't worry Dream, I'll make sure she rests enough!" With those words he ended the live for you.

Silence.

He wrapped his other arm around you and pulled you close. "Ignore those comments, they are just jealous." He ran a hand through your hair as you broke down finally out of the antis’ reach. “You are really talented and hardworking, they just can’t see that since they are too busy trying to bring you down.” He kept going as you sobbed against his shoulder. “You are Dreamscape’s main dancer for a reason, people would literally kill to be in your position.” At this point he was rocking the 2 of you softly, trying to soothe you. “It’s just, they might be right, I’m not that good of a singer, I’m dragging the rest of them down.”

One thing was seeing the haters dragging you down, but having to hear it from yourself was the last straw which made him let go of you, placing his hands on your shoulders and leaning back to look you in the eyes. “Okay, hear me out Y/N-” His tone was serious and you recognized it from the times you had seen him going on leader mode with the rest of Enhypen, but you had never expected him to use it while talking to you. “-you are my best friend and if you think I’ll just sit by while you talk yourself down like that you are absolutely wrong.” The frown on his usually happy face made you realize how serious he actually was. “Jungwon, there’s no need for this, it’s just a one time-.” You tried to speak but he interrupted you. “No, listen. This isn’t a one time thing, you know I watch your lives like the supporting best friend I am. You can’t keep pretending the comments don’t hurt you.” His hands left your shoulders and reached down to take your own. “I know how much they hurt you, even if it’s deep down.” He gave your hands a gentle squeeze. “But you are insanely talented, it’s been a while since I’ve seen someone dance the way you do, and not only that, you are also really dedicated, hard working and an amazing friend.” His frown slowly turned back into a smile. “You are working even harder than when you were a trainee trying to impress the company and you are not doing it for yourself, we both know that.”

He stood up, using the hold he had on your hands to bring you up with him. “Everything you do you do it for Dreamscape and Dream and I know both the members and the fans really appreciate it.” Any traces of the previous frown were completely gone, only a warm smile you were familiar with was left. “Now let’s go, I’ll order pizza and we can watch a movie so you’ll forget about those stupid comments.” You nodded and that was all the confirmation he needed before dragging you out of the room still holding your hand.

A few minutes later you were sitting on the couch with Jungwon’s head resting on your lap, your hand mindlessly playing with his hair as a movie played on the tv. And only then, away from the world did it occur to you. “You never planned to come dance with me.” You accused him, earning a chuckle from him as a reply before his words. “Yup.” He admitted shamelessly. “As I said, I watch your lives, I just love seeing how happy you look while dancing and when I saw the comments I just knew I had to drag you away from them so I stepped in.” He shrugged, a sheepish look on his face. “I hate seeing you sad Y/N.” He pouted and it was your turn to chuckle. “Thanks Jungwon, really.” Your hand stopped playing with his hair as you poked his nose, letting out a small boop. “For everything, your words really helped.” He mirrored your actions with a smile on his face and let out a laugh when you swatted his hand away from your face.

#yang jungwon x reader #jungwon x reader #jungwon imagines #yang jungwon imagines #enhypen x reader #enhypen imagines

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kats-baku1999 · 4 years ago

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Play with Fire

Master List

Chapter Two: The New Generation

Shoto Todoroki walked through the halls of UA, halfway listening to his friend Izuku Midoriya go on about the hero that was coming to teach their new lesson. Honestly though, Todoroki couldn’t put much focus into Midoriya. There was too much happening in his home life to even think about it. His last visit with his mom hadn’t gone over well, she was in her own little world. Telling him all about his eldest brother, that Todoroki honestly couldn’t remember. Just remembered the sounds of the screams that came from Natsuo when he found out, and the sobs from Fuyumi trying to calm down her brother. That was one of mom’s last straws, that was the breaking point.

“Hey Deku! Todoroki!” Uraraka came running towards them, grinning widely, “She’s here! The hero Mimi!”

Deku let out an excited noise, and took off down the hall to the classroom. The entire reaction finally brought a small grin to Todoroki’s face, but then again Midoriya usually could. Midoriya did that for almost everyone though, so it was nothing new. Todoroki picked up his pace, walking into the classroom. The smile wiping off his face when he finally processed who was here.

The pro hero Mimi... One of the most public haters of his father. Mimi was never one to hide her distaste of Endeavor. She never disclosed why she couldn’t stand him, but was never shy reminding people she couldn’t. She was notable for taking down many villains, and was the number four hero. Right under Hawks, who just so happened to be her significant other. Their relationship was almost overly publicized, helping them both gain fans. There were so many supporters of the relationship, it was almost ridiculous.

Todoroki quietly walked to his seat, trying to avoid eye contact with her. She was in her civilian clothes, which was unusual for heroes that came to visit. Iida was absolutely losing it over the conflict of trying to not yell at a pro for so casually sitting on a desk. Tokoyami walked into the classroom, nodding his head towards her. Remembering her from his internship, she gave him a small smile and wave. Her eyes instantly going back to the boy who was avoiding looking at her.

Asami felt her chest clench up at how much like Touya he looked when it came to his face shape. Shoto Todoroki had gained a lot of his own fame outside of his father, thanks to his performance at the sports festival. Then there was the whole Stain situation. She couldn’t help but always feel stressed when it came to him, feeling protective over a boy who didn’t know her. She had known him though, and she loved his older brother. Maybe not an in love kind of love, considering they were only thirteen back then, but she did love Touya more than anything back then. Asami knew that she had to look out for his siblings, the way she knew he would have if he would’ve survived.

“Okay class, please direct your attention towards Pro-Hero Mimi for your lecture today,” Aizawa announced and everybody looked forward. All of their eyes focusing excitedly on Asami.

“So today’s lecture is a little, well heavy,” Asami sighed, “Your teachers believed you all needed to begin to be prepared for the worst situations possible, considering what you all have had to face this year so far,”

“You have all been told all your lives that being a hero had its risks, and sometimes those risks aren’t personal, but are towards the people you care about,” Her eyes focused in Todoroki, “Sometimes, we lose the people we care about in our line of work, and I am no stranger to this grief,”

“Ma’am I’m sorry, but what hero friends have you lost?” Midoriya questioned, “I just mean, I’ve never seen a report about it,”

“Well, I haven’t lost anyone since I was thirteen years old, he never got the chance to be a hero,” Asami smiled to herself, Touya’s laugh echoing through her head, “He would have made a fine one though, and would’ve been one of the best,”

“Sorry, I guess I’m just confused as to how this applies to anything, sorry I don’t mean to be disrespectful,” Mina stumbled over her words, and Asami just smiled sadly at her.

“I’m just here to tell you guys, to really think this through, and to understand all of the burdens that come with our line of work,” Asami explained, standing up from the desk, “To also understand, that you do not have to be numb to these feelings, so from now on I will be working with UA to have a therapy section, for you to also work on controlling some of these emotions,”

“How does that have anything to do with us becoming pros?” Bakugo scoffed, glaring at Asami.

“Well, having good emotional control will help your control of your quirk, they’re all connected you know?” Asami smiled, tilting her head a little bit, “I will only be with you guys for a limited amount of time, but how long that limited time is, depends on all of you,”

“Asami here will be using her quirk to place you all in emotionally triggering situations, that you’ll have to pull yourself out of, we agreed that you all need to work on controlling your emotions too,” Aizawa also explained to the class.

“These sessions will have three parts, one where we get to know one another, two where you hopefully help me understand your emotional triggers, and then the third level is the use of my quirk,” Asami handed a stack of papers to be passed around, “These sheets explain your schedules and times with me,”

“I expect all of you to take this seriously, and to respect Asami, she will also be joining us on our summer camp, as yet another chaperone for you disaster children,” Aizawa sighed, “Thank you Asami, we look forward to working with you.”

Asami excused herself from the school for the day. Making her way home slowly, stopping for a few errands along the way. Texting Keigo to see if they were still on for their date. He was quick to respond with a yes and a bunch of winking emojis. So she made her way home, to shower and get ready for her date. Pinning her hair up and putting on a simple red dress.

Keigo didn’t even bother knocking on her front door, just letting himself into her apartment. Making himself comfortable in the kitchen, waiting for her to come out of her room. Asami walked out, and smiled at Keigo. Walking forward to place a small kiss on his cheek. He grinned back at her, taking in her looks for the night.

“Well aren’t you just a pretty little thing tonight,” Keigo smirked at her, “Now going to this uptight hero banquet doesn’t sound even remotely appealing,”

“You know what they’ll say if we aren’t there Bird Boy,” Asami grinned, stepping out of his arms. She walked over to her coat rack, grabbing her jacket and her purse.

“How’d it go with the kiddos today?” Keigo smiled, opening the front door for his girlfriend.

“They seemed more confused than anything, but I think it’ll be successful,” Asami explained, “You know how I feel about all of this, I think it’ll be exciting to watch these kids come to terms with their feelings, and be really successful as pros!”

“My dear Asami, you are really going to change this next generation of heroes,” Keigo grabbed her hand to bring it up to his lips to kiss it. She smiled at the gesture, and at his support.

————-

Asami’s first student session was with non other than Todoroki himself. He reluctantly stood outside of her makeshift office. Unsure of how to approach the situation. After all she hated his father, so surely she had some kind of distaste towards him. Asami slid open the door though, smiling gently at Todoroki and letting him in.

“Don’t look so scared Todoroki, you look way too tense,” Asami laughed at the boy who just looked at her, sitting down in one of the chairs across from her desk. She watched him for a second sitting down in her seat. Opening up his school file she read through it.

“You know who I am right?” Todoroki sighed, “I just don’t want you to-”

“I don’t blame you for anything to do with your father,” Asami interrupted him, “I am sorry for my public distaste towards the man, it has nothing to do with you though,”

“It has to do with your friendship with my late older brother, right?” Todoroki was straight to the point. She looked shocked at his words, and his knowledge of who she was, “My mother and my siblings do nothing but mention how much you’ve grown since playing with Touya,”

“I am sorry I have more memories with him than I’m sure you do, but it’s thanks to that I am painfully aware of how your father is,” Asami looked at the small picture of her and Touya sitting on her desk.

“So why not expose him completely to the press, you could ruin him with the knowledge you have?” Todoroki’s question stuck within her. She knew she had the power to but...

“Despite my anger towards your father, I care deeply for your family Todoroki, I used to play with your siblings, I even got to sneak you into play with us one day,” Asami grinned at the memory, “You were so small back then, but Touya told me it was the first time you had even got to interact with all of them,”

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember,”

“I didn’t expect you to, but I do, I remember all of him and again I am truly sorry I got more time with him than you did,” Asami frowned, feeling guilty, “But your brother he was one determined kid,”

Asami handed the picture of them across the desk to Todoroki.

“He is the friend you were referring to last week, correct?” Todoroki questioned, staring at the photo of his older brother. His hair both red and white, but not in the way Shoto’s was. It was sporadic, and unevenly placed.

“Yeah, he is the reason I am everything I am today, you know originally I wanted to be a teacher, but after Touya passed away I wanted to carry on his dream and become a pro,” Asami closed Todoroki’s file, and took back the photo from him, “Even ended up disowned from my parents, they aren’t exactly supportive of the superhero society,”

“You went against their wishes just for my older brother?” Todoroki seemed confused, “He meant that much to you?”

“I think I admired him more than anything, you know he always made it a point to say it wasn’t your fault,” Asami watched as Shoto showed a bit of emotion... Almost relief. She wondered if he had heard that his father was what pushed Touya past the breaking point. The only one she kept in much contact with was Natsuo, but he said he didn’t pay much attention to anything that happened with his father.

“Well, I need to get to my next class, uh we meet again next week right?” Todoroki stood up from his seat and looked nervously at Asami. Who nodded with a grin on her face.

“You can also get my contact information from Aizawa, and get ahold of me anytime you might need something okay?” Todoroki nodded, before turning around and walking out of the office.

Asami could only think to herself about how in another life they might know each other. How maybe if Touya would’ve been there, if he would’ve stopped his father’s obsession. If he would’ve made sure Shoto was more than some weapon. They could’ve watched him train, and been there for his accomplishments with UA... And the messes he made at UA.

A small, sad, sigh left her mouth. Her eyes focused in on the picture of Touya, and her bottom lip caught in between her teeth. After all, she had another session so she couldn’t be the one crying.

“I miss you, idiot.”

#katsbakugo play with Fire #my hero academia #bnha shoto #mha x reader #dabi is touya #bnha imagine #bnha bakugou #todoroki shoto #bnha eijiro kirishima #todoroki x reader #todoroki angst #touya todoroki #dabi angst

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serinemolecule · 4 years ago

Note

Not to harp on the obvious, but the discussion feels hollow without it: the only reason some people - not all, maybe not most, but definitely some - push for "equality" and "inclusiveness" and etc. in tech is because it's seen as a desirable and powerful position. No one's been belly-aching about it back when it was fashionable to tell nerds to stop being fat and ugly and what a bunch of losers they are. It's only up for discussion now that there's something to be gained from it. It's hypocrisy.

(context: a lot of women-in-tech discourse)

I mean, I was belly-aching about it.

I like to say I was a feminist until I met other feminists. I definitely saw plenty of things nerds could be doing better for equality. But then the first time I met other feminists, they were harassing nerds and writing long essays about how nerds were even worse than average men (which still seems to me like an absolutely insane position).

That was... a really big crisis of faith there. I spent years reading feminist literature, trying to understand their point. And the crazy thing was, a lot of the principles and concepts do appeal to me. But then the way they’d apply it, talking about how privileged nerds were, or just using it as an excuse to be assholes to people, that’s always seemed wrong to me.

My approach at the time was just to try to understand it better in private, and never talk about it in public. This lasted until I read the SSC essays on social justice which I entirely agreed on, then I joined Tumblr to hit on Scott, and since then I started getting more comfortable with writing out my thoughts, but also the really bad SJ of the early 2010s just mostly faded away from the spaces I’m in. I still hear insane stories from other places (like the New York Times! wtf!) but it no longer feels like a crisis afflicting my own community, so I never wrote anything out.

Part of it’s that my community is the rats, now. SJWs may still exist here, but they don’t have a social power to turn us against each other. Whatever effect Topher’s tweet had on the rest of the world, it means he’s no longer welcome among rats anymore. We dismiss them with equanimity using the ancient proverb, “Haters gonna hate”.

Anyway, I suppose now’s as good a time as any for me to talk about what I think about feminist theory.

I get the impression that Scott is embarrassed by his old posts on gender politics, but I still endorse every word. Even the words people like to criticize the most, I endorse as an angry expression of “Why don’t you care about how many people your ideology is hurting?” That said:

Privilege theory – I remember encountering privilege theory and thinking “yes, this totally fits the model that normies are privileged and nerds are marginalized”, until I got to the part where they started talking about how privileged nerds were. I think the theory is still pretty good, and of course the practice about writing privilege checklists and using it to silence people is incredibly fucked up.

Patriarchy theory – Fortunately, no one talks about patriarchy theory anymore. It came from the radfems and it always seemed horrible to me. It's uncontroversially true that ruling class is mostly male, but patriarchy theory seems to just equivocate between that and insane conspiracy theories.

For example, “culture is built for the benefit of men at the expense of women” requires you to just dismiss everything that hurts men and helps women, to excuse that fashion policing is nearly solely perpetuated by other women, and even if it’s true, the fact that it is perpetuated by everyone means pointing the finger at a specific group will not help fix the problem. Did Kamala Harris exercise “girl power” when she kept black prisoners in jail past their release date?

Cultural appropriation – The usual steelman I hear for this is “it sucks when white people take your culture for themselves, and yet still call it cringe when you practice your own culture” – but the only objectionable part is the latter! Stop objecting to the former part! There’s nothing wrong with culture mixing and it is in fact one of the most beautiful things in the world!

Part of it’s that I’m a first-gen immigrant, and cultural appropriation attitudes often come from insecurities second-gen immigrants have. Cultural appropriation just means I’m now an expert on your new culture and you’re not allowed to stop me from infodumping on it.

The other steelman is “misusing religious artifacts is bad” and I think to the extent that it’s bad, it’s bad whether you’re doing it to your own culture or to other cultures.

In general I think Halloween was, among other things, a great celebration of diversity that did not need to be cancelled, and I don’t think any costume was offensive to the majority of any culture.

Intersectionality – This word confused me for so long. People kept explaining it as “black women often have problems specific to their group that neither women’s groups nor black groups themselves are equipped to fight” which just seemed obviously true and didn’t seem like we needed a word for it.

Over the years, I’ve seen it be used as a reminder of “don’t forget how your activism affects other marginalized groups”, so it’s probably a useful concept to keep around.

Microaggressions – I think being oblivious to microaggressions is an autism thing, but I still think it’s insane to make them a political issue. Sure, you can vent about them, but acting like they’re on par with actual aggressions just seems like a losing cause.

On second thought, I don’t think I have a problem with making them a political issue in general. I think the whole tactic of SJWs being a hateful harassment mob makes the microaggressions thing just come off as especially petty.

I also think there’s a lot of competing access needs here. I actually really like infodumping about what kind of Asian I am to anyone willing to listen, and I think acting like the question is the root of all evil is really unfair, especially since literally everyone who’s ever asked has been happy to learn about the finer points about Chinese ethnic groups.

Isms as prejudice + power – People have mostly stopped discoursing about this, which is good. Language policing always seemed bad to me.

Objectification – SSC says everything I feel on the topic: https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/17/my-objections-to-objectification/

The last time this came up in Discord, people said that objectification is more than the straw-man being criticized in this article, that it’s about people being entitled to your body or whatever. But I think the article does address that: “This is obviously a legitimate complaint. It’s just not a complaint about objectification.”

I got exposed to objectification as a criticism of hot girls in video games. And I just can’t see hot girls in video games as a bad thing.

Rape culture – [cw rape] This is an incredibly sensitive subject so I’m going to give you some time to stop reading here.

Our culture has a serious problem with rape. I think it’s important to understand that it’s usually committed by friends and family, that it’s depressingly common and has nearly definitely happened to people you know, that it’s usually committed by people who don’t think of what they’re doing as rape, and that all the discourse on it is really fucked up.

I also think that calling this “rape culture” entirely misses the point. I’m sympathetic that SSC doesn’t understand it: https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/19/i-do-not-understand-rape-culture/

Our problem isn’t that we glorify rape. Our problem is that we consider it a special kind of evil so bad that of course no normal person would ever do it, and this makes it easy to rationalize that whatever this normal person did couldn’t have been rape, which causes huge harms.

I don’t have answers, but I think it’s incredibly clear that calling it “rape culture” doesn’t help.

In general, I don’t think feminist activism on the topic of rape goes in the right direction. The smug “consent is like tea” video has the exact same problem. People don’t need to hear more “normal people would never rape” messaging.

#gender politics

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

TLTNL- PERCY AND PADFOOT

Lily did not take the book with any amount of happiness. She couldn't stand the idea of just casually going on about Harry's life while that tyrant was torturing her son on a weekly basis now. The only remote bright spot she could picture was the end of the year where hopefully she'd sustain something far worse than having to leave the job. She took the book from Remus very grudgingly and trudged back to her spot next to James in a heavy silence, only Harry still seemed anxious to try and pretend like that part of his life was no big deal.

Harry was first to wake up in his dormitory next morning.

"That's a surprise," Remus said conversationally enough, he could still be angry and keep things light for Harry's sake. "I'd think you'd have to be dragged out of bed with all your sleepless nights from before."

"Guess my brain was still wired for school," Harry shrugged with a smile at him for the attempt.

He lay in his bed and savored for a moment it was finally Saturday, the first week had dragged on as if one long History of Magic class.

"Gah, can you imagine the horror," Sirius shuddered.

"Sounds nice actually," James snorted, "one nice long week to nap."

He collected himself and went down into the dormitory with his school bag, finding it much tidier than when he'd went to bed amongst the candy wrappers and loose scraps of parchment, along with Hermione's hats. He only vaguely wondered how many house-elves had been set free whether they wanted to be or not. *

"Really Harry? You didn't realize the problem with Hermione's plan? You were the one who had to trick Dobby into getting that sock instead of just giving it to him yourself," Lily frowned at him in confusion.

"I honestly thought Hermione had found a way around that, and hadn't questioned her. Thought she really knew what she was doing," Harry shrugged.

"Well it's nice to know she's not infallible in her logic sometimes I guess," James snorted.

Harry uncorked a bottle of ink and stretched out a fresh sheet of parchment, but hesitated over what to put down, suddenly appreciating his friends vague letters over the summer.

They all perked up with interest at that, they'd been assuming Harry had just been fixing to start on some homework or some such, but this was even better! Sirius was full blown smiling now that Harry really was going to write to him about anything!

He wanted to write to Sirius about everything that had been going on this week, but not in so many words anyone would know what he was talking about. But how to do so without anyone else knowing?

"Very carefully," Remus smiled.

"Or you could charm it so that it only shows you the words when you give it a very vague command," James grinned.

Harry looked a bit disappointed he'd never thought of that, he really wished he had asked his Marauders how they'd charmed their map to do that.

Finally he began with dear Snuffles, and began with a pleasant enough greeting before going into detail about the new Defense teacher, who was about as nice as Snuffles' mum.

Sirius snorted violently before full blown laughing. Then he couldn't seem to stop for a moment. Lily looked on at him with a touch of concern for this reaction, Umbridge's horrid ways set her mind racing with every foul spell she knew to use on that woman for what she'd done to Harry. Just what on earth had Walburga Black done to Sirius for him to clearly be agreeing with Harry like this? She longed to ask, but respected it was his right to tell her if he ever wanted to.

Harry then got to the point, saying he was sending along this letter because what had happened two summers ago happened the other night in detention with Umbridge.

"That was incredibly vague," Remus beamed with pride.

"So, goal met then?" Harry smiled sheepishly, he'd been a little worried they were all going to tell him off for contacting Sirius considering how worried they'd all been about him joining him at the train.

"Absolutely," James nodded, "you're already a natural at this."

They were all missing their biggest friend and hoped to hear from him soon,

"That was a little on the nose," Lily giggled.

"Still credit for trying," Sirius chuckled.

then he signed off. He reread this letter several times, trying his best to find a hole an outsider could find, but he was sure no one could detect anything about the contents or certainly who it was meant for.

"Definitely not, you're safe on all counts," they all agreed, causing Harry his first real smile since he'd been back at school.

Harry hoped Sirius would pick up most of all on the mention of Hagrid, but did not want to ask directly in case it drew attention to his absence.

"I'm sure he'll be back in no time," Lily said with more confidence than she really felt. She was very worried about Hagrid as well, what was taking him so long?

Considering how short the letter was, it had taken him some time to do it. By now others were arriving downstairs, and Harry hastened out of the common room off for the Owlery. He ran into Nick on the way, warning him against going his current path as Peeves was planning a joke involved the bust of Paracelsus.

Harry asked if this involved the bust falling on his head?

"A classic then," James smirked.

Nick agreed in a bored voice that was the funny part.

"How on earth could he be bored by such a thing?" Remus drawled.

Pointing out subtlety had never been Peeves' strong point.

"Well that's fair enough," Sirius agreed.

Nick was off to find the Barron to put a stop to this, and he'd see Harry around.

"Merlin, doesn't anyone let people have some fun in that place," James sighed.

Harry ended up taking a longer but safer route up to the Owlery, and only came across Mrs. Norris. The cat gazed at him for a moment before darting off, Harry calling after her he hadn't done anything wrong, though the hike of her tail was one of going to fetch her boss.

"Maybe she was just mad you stopped her heading that way as well," Sirius snorted, "I've caught her a fair few times trying to go up there pestering the owls."

Ignoring the instance he found the straw strewn floor covered with the usual owl droppings and regurgitated meals, spotting his snowy white owl up in the rafters. Once she'd perched on his shoulder so he could tie his note to her, he instructed for her ears alone that though this was addressed to Snuffles, Harry urged his owl to find Sirius.

"You didn't bother calling me that last year, why start now?" Sirius chuckled.

"Now I actually felt the need for it," Harry muttered, shifting just a bit with unease as the safety of his godfather came into question.

She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze before taking flight, and Harry watched her fly off with the most calm he'd felt in a while. The grounds were still and at peace in the morning light, the trees of the Forbidden Forest only swaying gently. It was as he gazed at these though that one of the skeletal horses from before came swooping out chasing a bird and when it missed, dived right back down out of sight. The whole instance happened so quickly Harry swore he could have imagined it.

"Can you imagine how many times that happens a day and no one sees it," Sirius looked a bit amused.

"Imagine if they roamed the grounds more than the forest," James agreed. "People would be constantly knocking into them, and seeing things happen because of those and no one would be able to figure out why except those that saw them."

"You lot are enjoying this idea far too much," Lily tried to repress a smile at the idea by telling them.

"What can we say, we have a certain fondness for invisibility," Remus smirked.

The Owlery door opened behind him. He leapt in shock and, turning quickly, saw Cho Chang holding a letter and a parcel in her hands.

"Hey, look who finally gets a moment alone with his crush," Sirius threw his hands up in victory.

"I don't find the owlery the most romantic setting," James smirked.

"Let's see if Harry can get through with this one without making a fool of himself," Remus snickered, "or this time it'll be entirely his fault."

"Your encouragement is the limit," Harry grumbled.

They both stammered a greeting to each other at once, Cho quickly explaining her end she was coming up here to deliver a birthday present to her mum.

Harry couldn't think of anything to say to that, his brain had jammed. He wanted to say something funny and interesting,

"Harry, you have yet to say that, ever," Sirius smirked, achieving his goal in getting a rise out of Harry who simply scowled at him for now.

but the memory of that horse now fresh had his mind struggling speech at all.

What came out was a gesture to the clear blue sky, and his pointing out how nice this was. Then he felt like crawling under the nearest rat skeleton and never coming out. He was talking about the weather!

"Considering you've never had a proper conversation, starting casual is probably best," James said fairly.

"Could have asked something more direct, like what she'd gotten her mother," Lily objected.

"Or I could go read this in another room without you lot," Harry huffed to try and get them to stop.

"You wouldn't dare," Sirius gasped.

"And miss out on our brilliant commentary?" Remus looked a touch offended.

Lily started giggling a bit when Harry didn't back down from his threat as she turned back anyways.

Cho at once agreed this made perfect Quidditch conditions.

"Well I like her," James beamed at once.

"A very good point she managed to steer right into that sport," Sirius agreed, which Harry supposed was better than them picking on him, so he let it go.

Then she asked if Gryffindor had a new Keeper yet?

Harry agreed it was his friend Ron, whom Cho remembered as the Tornado hater.

"I'm sure he doesn't hate the team," Remus said fairly, "just the fans who suddenly like them."

"Entirely not the point," Lily rolled her eyes at him.

She asked how his tryout had gone, and Harry confessed he hadn't been there because of his detention.

Cho met his eyes then, only half way done attaching her parcel to her owl, as she stated how foul that Umbridge woman was, putting him in detention for telling the truth about...of how he died.

"Oh look, another supporter," Sirius said quickly rather than letting Harry dwell on that again for a moment, "that's three to two."

"Are you going to keep a tally of everyone in the school?" Harry asked with some bemusement.

"Don't tempt him," James sighed.

"He's already not doing a good job anyways, it's five to two counting Ron and Hermione," Remus reminded.

"Those were given," Sirius brushed him off.

"Not if you're going to do a complete poll of all 500 something students-"** Remus began disagreeing, but Lily finally cut through the lot of them.

She kept Harry's eyes as she told how brave it was of him to stand up to her like that.

Harry felt his insides inflating so much he was sure he was suddenly floating off the ground a bit.

"That'd be a sight," James snickered at the idea.

Who cared about a stupid flying horse; Cho thought he'd been brave.

"Priorities," Remus agreed lightly.

For a moment, he considered accidentally-on-purpose showing her his cut hand as he helped her tie her parcel on to her owl . . .

"I'm not sure of the reaction you were hoping to get with that one," Lily said in disgust.

"I certainly wouldn't find that braver, but stupid on your part for not saying something about it before now," James agreed with a hard look at Harry who chose now to check to see if his shoelace was still tied.

Before he could act on the impulse, the door burst open, with Filch marching into the room on a mission. He locked eyes on Harry at once and demanded his mail from him, saying he'd been given a tip about the order of Dungbombs he was to be placing.

Lily puffed up her cheeks before letting the air out slowly to make sure her voice came out neutral as she asked, "why would he think that?"

"Maybe it was someone playing a prank?" Harry brushed off, not wanting to think much of it as he was still caught on his Cho interactions with a smile.

"Harry, you don't find it just a bit concerning someone was trying to take your mail from you?" Remus wheedled to try and keep him on track while everyone's eyes were still narrowed with dislike over this.

Harry did rethink things over, and he certainly felt a ball of anxiety forming in him at the thought now, but he was finally enjoying just a bit of his time remembering school again and don't want them to keep ruining it with suspicions, so he just shrugged again.

Lily hoped that meant nothing did come of this moment, rather than worrying at her lip for the implications of something she did not like.

Harry crossed his arms in defiance at once as he demanded who'd told that, and Filch just brushed him off saying that wasn't the point and to hand over his mail now. Harry was entirely grateful he hadn't dawdled in sending Hedwig off, as he told Filch as much.

His eyes narrowed with further suspicion, as he demanded if Harry still had it on his person in hiding.

"What's he going to do if you had?" James snorted, his old joy of tormenting Filch quickly rising to the top.

"Surely, it'll involve whipping or something," Sirius snickered, "that'll make the clothes come right off."

"Urgh," Lily grumbled, she'd never taken Filch's threats so lightly as the lot of them, but then she supposed, she'd never had to suffer a detention with him either so she could see why they played this off as a joke.

Cho jumped in then saying she'd been here when he did send it off.

"Are you sure she's not a Keeper?" James threw his head back with laughter, "because I think she is."

"And you say I come up with bad puns," Sirius snickered along.

Filch glared between the two before turning back to the door, but he froze with his hand on it and still angry eyes on Harry as he began to threaten if he got one whiff of a Dungbomb from him...

"You'll what? Come on man, finish your threats, it's far healthier," Remus said almost encouragingly.

He stomped out of sight then, Harry waiting till he was long gone before thanking Cho for backing him up. She said she didn't mind at all, before asking if he really had been up here ordering those?

"She asks after defending you," Lily giggled.

"Proper timing," James agreed.

Harry said no, and she at once went on to say why Filch had thought so then.

The two remained in silence then as Cho finally sent off her things and they left, waiting until they hit their departing corridor before Cho said she'd see Harry around.

He agreed at once, and the two departed both smiling.

"Lookie there, finally making some progress," Sirius couldn't quite keep the mocking tone out of his voice even as he applauded Harry.

"Looks like third time's his charm, he's beaten Prongs out by a mile," Remus agreed.

"Come on, 394 really isn't that bad in comparison," Sirius put on James' voice in a fair impression.

James chucked a pillow at him while Lily kept going.

Harry went all the way down to the Great Hall, for once ignoring any lingering stares or whispers as he kept remembering her saying how brave she thought he was...

He greeted his friends with the cheeriest morning he had all week.

"Is that all it takes putting you in a good mood?" James huffed, still giving his two friends the stink eye. "Chatting with a pretty girl? Maybe we should try and convince Andromeda to come over next time you're in a bad mood."

"I don't think the prelude to that conversation would be worth it," Harry rolled his eyes.

Ron eyed Harry with surprise for this mood.

"It's sad he's surprised to see you happy," Sirius snorted.

Harry fibbed it was the idea of Quidditch, which Ron only reluctantly agreed to, as he asked Harry if he'd go out with him even earlier than practice so that Ron could have a warm up before even then.

"He wants to train before training, Merlin I want to cry just thinking about it," Remus groaned.

"Don't know what you're talking about Moony, I'll take some hits with the ground over the pummeling my brain took over homework," Sirius shrugged.

Harry agreed at once, but Hermione cut in she seriously didn't think they should.

"I would never say any such thing, why would Hermione imply otherwise?" Sirius demanded while Harry chuckled fully again at that joke.

They were both really behind on homework as is- the two boys were thankfully saved anymore by the morning owl arriving, and Ron tried to delay further by asking if there was anything interesting in there.

"I'm sure the removal of Fudge from his Minister position wouldn't keep her from talking about that," James rolled his eyes.

She flipped through a few pages while saying there was nothing of note, before reaching a ways into it and whispering a sudden concern for Sirius.

Lily choked hard as she spat the name out in surprise, and James wasn't going to sit around and wait for her to get her breath back as he lunged forward and took the book away from her, reading out in a fevered haste-

Harry moved so fast he tore the paper in half, leaving the piece Hermione had been reading still in her hand, which she practically ignored as she read out the content for the boys that the Ministry had received a tip-off that notorious mass murderer Sirius Black may be here in London.

His face was going red, he had yet to take a breath, so Lily reached forward and placed her hand on the back of his neck, using as calm a voice as she could manage, "breath James, he's still fine."

"Right, yeah," he said jerkily, some normal color returning to his face as he studied the words and then glared up at his best mate.

To his infuriation, Sirius just shrugged with a bland look in place, saying, "look at it this way Prongs, even if I do, I'll know how not to get caught that way."

Remus' hands twitched, he really was going to start strangling him here in a moment if he didn't stop playing this off as a joke.

"Sirius, this really isn't the time for jokes," Harry stunned them all by snapping, his face bone white as he watched him. "How do you think I'll feel when-" his vision blurred white before he could say anymore, beginning to convulse and clearly suffering for trying to remember something.

Even beginning to guess what that could be had all of them breathless with fear, but Sirius rounded himself back enough, talking earnestly but softly to Harry now, "alright pup, you got it. No more making fun of Prongs no matter how dramatic he's being."

Harry's vision swam as he focused back on Sirius, something dark in him warning he didn't want to remember the warning he'd almost given. He believed that feeling, because the first option it meant just couldn't be true, he couldn't lose Sirius. So, it must be something else, Sirius just got really hurt or something...

It was the only conclusion any of them could comprehend, the alternative wasn't bearable. Lily had to gently pry the book from James' death grip as she went back to her spot, ignoring her own shaking voice for that heart stopping moment.

Harry began muttering furiously about how Lucius must have done this, he had seen Sirius at the platform.

Ron began in surprise when this had happened,

Remus forced himself to roll his eyes, to focus on this detail that Ron really hadn't noticed any such thing.

Sirius was also restraining himself from saying he didn't even blame Ron for not focusing on such a stupid little detail, but he didn't think that would be well received right now considering his last throwaway comment.

but the other two shushed him as Hermione read out the rest of the article about what would await him when he was found. She concluded then that he just couldn't leave the house again period,

Sirius turned as white as Harry had just been. If that rat was never caught...he couldn't do it, he couldn't go back to prison again, one that was somehow conceivably on par with Azkaban...

Dumbledore had warned him not to after all.

"I don't give a damn what Dumbledore said," Sirius snarled with absolute conviction. "I'd rather die outside that house than be a prisoner inside it again."

He crossed his arms defiantly, waiting for someone to argue with him, but not even Harry could bolster himself to do this. If he'd had to go back to living at the Dursley's full time, even for his own safety...he'd be doing something desperate as well.

Harry stared morosely down at the bit of paper he'd ripped off, his mind on other things besides the add for Madam Malkin's in his hand, but then tucked in a miniature article right below that was something else that caught Harry's attention.

"Not more on-" Remus pleaded, having to resist the urge to grab Sirius and not let go until those thoughts of his were no longer an issue.

"No, no," Harry murmured, still not back to his normal color, "something other than Sirius caught my attention, if you can imagine."

Sirius managed a giggle that didn't quite hit normal, but if Harry was forcing himself to move past the moment than clearly, they'd over read his reaction, something else must be going on...not that Harry just couldn't bear to understand his own thought, that wasn't an option.

He at once laid this out for the others to see, to which Ron instantly said he was good on robes.

James managed only a semi hysterical giggle for that.

Harry ignored him and read out the bit that was barely four sentences long about how Sturgis Podmore had been arrested for trespassing at the Ministry. He'd been caught trying to break into a high security door. The man had refused to speak in his own defense and was to spend the next six months in Azkaban.

No one spoke while Lily read out the charges, but by the time she'd finished and looked up in stunned disbelief, she found them all slack jawed. What they were hearing wasn't possible. Not the Sturgis who'd just been inducted into the Order, had gone to Dumbledore and begged the man to let him help in any way possible after he'd witnessed a muggle child beaten in the street. So how on Earth had he somehow managed to get himself tangled up into stealing from the Ministry? Sent to Azkaban? Why had he even wound up there, that bit about refusing to speak for himself stuck out more than anything, as surely Dumbledore would have stepped in. If he had for Harry than they couldn't imagine he wouldn't have for a faithful Order member as well...but then again, they also already knew of at least one instance where he'd let an Order member go to Azkaban without speaking a word for him. If he could do that to Sirius, they'd believe he could do that to anyone.

Harry was less following that train of thought and more trying to understand how someone from the Order had done that, but his first thought was a frame up. The man had been conned into it somehow... then he went cross-eyed in pain. He'd already suffered one memory blast a second ago for something far more precious to him regarding his godfather, he wasn't going to be pressing on this.

Lily was still waiting for someone to say something about this, but it was clear no one really could, this was too much happening back to back and they needed a minute to process, so Lily was hoping reading about Harry go through this would help.

Ron recalled him as a recently absent member of the Order-

Hermione quickly shushed him before he could go on about that, while Harry hissed he'd been given his stint just for trying to get through a door?

"Oh, that part wasn't so surprising," Lily murmured, "the Ministry takes their breaking and entering very-" she broke off with a nasty glare at Sirius, who managed a real smile and almost a pout for Lily not slipping up.

Hermione told him not to be silly, it wasn't just because of the door. What had he even been doing at the ministry at the time?

"I'm sure if they knew they'd put that in the story," Remus frowned.

"Maybe not," James disagreed, "could be something very secret and important, don't want word spreading around about it."

Ron muttered if this happened on orders from the Order?

"I, could be I guess," Sirius struggled, though he really had a problem understanding what the Order would have to do with the Ministry when they were so at odds.

"If so, then him being in Azkaban is all the fouler," James snarled in outrage.

Harry recalled that it didn't seem likely, as Sturgis had been absent when they were all headed to King's cross, he didn't seem to be doing much work for them lately.

"Perhaps he just wasn't doing this at that time, I'm positive he came around and explained himself before going on for more work," Remus reasoned out.

Ron instead offered up the idea it was all a frame up. What if the Ministry had lured him there, and then set a trap for him to get caught so they could pin this on him.

They all considered the idea for a moment, but not everyone was entirely convinced. Lily at least hoped the Ministry would never fall that far, but she still also held out hope there was something else going on they just couldn't get information from that about. Harry also wouldn't know, leaving them in the dark on this.

James and Sirius seemed to liken to the idea, in fact it explained a lot of his past behavior if he was now regularly being conned up there and then didn't explain this until after the fact to the Order for security reasons.

Remus found it plausible enough, though still a bit too underhanded for the Ministry at this stage. From all accounts, they were still working on discrediting Dumbledore, and though making one of his associates into this light was a next step, why make the piece so small then? They'd have made this front headline news if they were pushing for this tactic, yet it seemed a miracle the piece was in the paper at all. No, he still thought something else was going on here.

Harry found this too far fetched, but Hermione was impressed at this and found it plausible.

Then she folded the paper up and moved on to saying they should start with their Herbology homework.

"How on Earth does she flip from that to homework?" Remus demanded, absolutely derailed from his train of thought.

"I'm sure Hermione can manage to switch any topic to essays," James scowled for this subject being brought up and then cut off so quickly, he wanted to know what was really going on with someone he considered a friend.

If they were lucky they could start practicing McGonagall's Inanimate Conjures Spells before lunch.

Sirius tisked at once, caught at once from his own speculation. "Don't know what she's on about, they're going to play Quidditch."

Harry felt a small twinge of guilt as he watched her go through their list of work, but that blue sky outside really was exhilarating, and he hadn't been on his Firebolt in ages...

"So, you'll be heading down to the pitch soon," Sirius waved impatiently to get there.

Ron reassured Harry that they could go through all that tonight, while the two headed down brooms over their shoulders, Hermione's dire words about how they were going to fail every one of their OWL's still fresh in their ears.

Remus started snickering while nobody bothered acting surprised, even if Lily's mouth did thin just a bit in disapproval of this.

Plus they had all day tomorrow...then he asked if she'd really meant it about them not being allowed to copy from her?

"Did she ever actually let you?" Lily asked astounded, as she hadn't at all picked up on this.

"Sometimes she 'accidentally' left her work out while she ran off to the Library for something," Harry chuckled, "but she never just pushed it over for us."

Harry said she'd meant it alright, but Quidditch was important to them to, they had to stay on top for the team.

"Priorities," James agreed without a drop of sarcasm.

Ron agreed at once, they had time to do it all.

"I hope you remember that when you're up studying until Sunday," Remus winced in pity at the idea.

Harry refused to let his gaze linger on the Forest as they took to the grounds, that flying horse wasn't hurting anything and he had more important things to think about.

"That's fair honestly," James agreed, he hated lingering on things that weren't of importance as well, though he was still trying to pick apart that bit about Sturgis even while half listening to his sons Quidditch prows.

Ron did quite well on his solo practice with Harry, and both boys were heartened as they returned to lunch and more of Hermione's commentary on how irresponsible they were.

"I'd be more worried if she didn't honestly," Lily said fondly.

This time when they went back down, everyone else was waiting for them in the locker room, Fred and George greeting Ron by asking if the Ickle Prefect was going to show them all up.

"If they were making cracks at him like that, it's no wonder he got a little frazzled during tryouts," Remus said in sympathy.

"Ron really shouldn't be letting those light things get to him," James scoffed in disbelief, "not only have the twins said far worse to him before, but the buildup to a game is brutal. Ron's got to have better nerves to keep up."

Ron snapped at them to shut up as Angelina entered, warning them before they got started that they had some visitors in the stands but they were to be ignored while they did this.

It was easier said than done, as the moment the Slytherin team caught sight of them, they began catcalling.

"Did we ever establish what the rules are for spectators at practice?" Harry grumped.

"Nope," James popped the p for emphasis. "Sadly, the pitch stands are open at all times, they hardly have a guard up after all. If you call off practice to go find a teacher to complain to, then you get the same end results of having practice cut up and your time will run out for the next person anyways."

Harry grumbled something but admitted he could do nothing more about this.

Malfoy at once began a list of insults, starting with what Weasley was riding, an old log?

Harry told Ron to ignore the jab, they wouldn't be laughing when they were the ones losing next game.

'Says the one on the Firebolt,' Remus thought in sympathy for Ron at that comment.

Angelina had them all in the air and began with the simple practice of tossing the Quaffle around. Each team member had lobbed it to a random other, before Harry passed it to Ron, who fumbled and had to dive to the ground to get it.

The Slytherin's laughter doubled up at once, and Ron came up as red faced as the ball now. The twins exchanged a look, but uncharacteristically did not say anything themselves.

"It's nice even they have their limits," Sirius frowned in sympathy for Ron.

"I'm positive they'd never have a go at their brother in front of spectators," James said at once, "family boundaries and all that. They can pick on him all they like, but if someone else does it, then there's going to be a problem. Mocking him while they are being the opposite of that."

Sirius nodded in absolute agreement while Lily grinned at him before going on.

Angelina brushed past the moment as if it hadn't happened, telling him to pass it on already, and the routine began again before Malfoy's next comment floated up about how Potter's head was feeling? Did he need a lie down in the Hospital wing? It had been a whole week since he'd been in there after all.

"I wish that one was more of a joke," Lily groaned, considering her son had successfully woken up in there all four years.

On his next pass through Ron did catch his ball with skill, but then overenthusiastically lobbed it off to Katie which smacked her right in the face. Fred flew over at once and offered her a purple bit of candy, promising this would stop the problem.***

"Ooph," all five of them winced for that pain, though James tried to bolster, "least that one wasn't entirely his fault, Katie's got to work on her reflexes as well."

"He speaks from experience of one to many Quaffles in the face," Sirius agreed.

Angelina seemed to decide that was enough of that practice as the team broke up into their usual positions then, but Ron wasn't having much better luck this way. Harry wasn't paying much attention to anyone else as he weaved in and around looking for the Snitch, so stopped in surprise when Angelina blew her whistle and called at Ron he needed to be covering all of his posts, he was only hovering in front of the one.

"Well he was only used to playing with one post, back at home," Harry defended lightly.

"Guess there is room for adjustment time," James agreed.

Ron apologized at once while he tried to lengthen his field, Angelina coaching that he should be circling them all, or he'd let in more than the last three.

Lily winced upon the word three. She wasn't even much of a Quidditch fan and she was starting to feel bad for Ron, the boys were past that and starting to shift with unease at this poor display. They liked Ron a lot, but maybe he wasn't cut out for this game on such a level, not everyone was.

Before she went back to training she asked wasn't Katie's nose getting any better, but Katie said it was only getting worse. Fred eyed another piece of candy he'd apparently just given to her, and suddenly looked horror struck.

"Well that can't be good," Remus yipped at once in concern.

"Just what did the twins do?" Sirius agreed in a sudden surge. "I remember them saying they hadn't perfected the nosebleed one yet, but I thought by giving her that it would at least stem the flow, not make it worse!"

"They gave her the purple pill," James soothed, though his own twitching showed he wasn't entirely okay with this either, "surely they're not just using her for a test dummy."

Not long after, Katie had to be escorted off the field, face pure white from blood loss, by the twins who had accidentally given her a Blood Blister pod.

"What does he mean by mistake?" Lily demanded dangerously. "Thought they were color coded for a reason, how could he give her the wrong one?"

They really had no answer for this, it wasn't like the twins to be so careless with their own products.

Angelina gave in on practice for the day and slumped off amongst the Slytherin's most recent chant of 'Gryffindors are losers!' They made their way back to the common room where Hermione asked in a frosty voice how it had gone. Ron at once said it had been lousy, and Hermione's voice cooled in sympathy it was only his first after all.

"It's nice she thaws on them when it counts," Remus chuckled.

Ron snapped who'd said it had been him that made it lousy?

Sirius couldn't help but snort lightly for his snap, she had made the presumption, even if it was right.

Then he marched off to go get his book bag, while Hermione leaned in and whispered for Harry alone if it had been him.

Harry said no with loyalty.

"There's my little Gryffindor," James beamed for the response he'd have given.

When Hermione kept staring, he conceded it hadn't been the best, but this really had been his first crack.

No more was said as the two spent the evening going through all their work, made extra difficult as Harry could still hear the echo of the Slytherin's cruel chant.

"Oh Harry, don't let yourself get so psyched out as well," Sirius tried to comfort, "that won't help Ron."

"Malfoy really has this way of sticking in my head," Harry huffed.

They spent the rest of the night and the whole of Sunday pushing through their mountain of work, by Sunday night Harry was feeling as if his brain was smashing its way out of his skull.

"Lovely mental imagery," Remus winced in sympathy.

Harry muttered for Ron they really should be doing more of this over the week.

"Well it's not as if you had much of a choice," James said fairly, "what with being physically tortured and all," his voice finishing with flat ice.

Harry winced and hid his hand from sight again, knowing they weren't letting that one go anytime soon.

Hermione had spent her time relaxing, making more elf hats, and chatting with other friends the whole time, but as the night wore on and most of the common room emptied out for their early morning tomorrow, she took pity and wandered over, glancing at Ron's current Astronomy essay and corrected Jupiter's biggest moon was Ganymede, and Lo had the volcanoes.

"Exactly what text was he using to be swapping all those?" Remus asked in sympathy.

"The book was upside down, he didn't even seem to notice he was as exhausted as I was," Harry sighed. "I probably would have noticed soon, I was almost done with mine."

Ron began scratching out the wrong information without a word, while Hermione began apologizing.

"Why's she apologizing, I thought she always critiqued your homework," Lily said in surprise.

"Ron looked ready to make her eat that quill as he was using it," Harry winced, his best mate not in the mood for Hermione to be doing this over his shoulder in that way.

Ron snapped he didn't want to hear it if she was just going to criticize.

"I was under the impression she always criticized him," Sirius said lightly.

"I'm still convinced that's their form of flirting," Remus snorted, thinking Ron was looking for a good row to let off some steam, and Hermione was more than likely his usual go to with that.

Hermione spotted something else, but when Ron tried to cut her off he didn't want to hear it, Hermione pointed at Hermes in the window.

"Not Percy's owl?" James yelped in shock as he leaned over Lily's shoulder to read that one.

"Why do you even remember that detail?" Sirius asked as he certainly hadn't.

Lily shushed them both while reading with an honest touch of hope, maybe Percy was trying to come around and apologize? Hopefully that letter was for all his siblings and he'd made up with his parents?

Ron went to the window at once and wrenched it open, Percy's owl swooping in and landing on Ron's moon of Io.

"I'm sure the Professor will appreciate the attention to detail," James muttered as he was still trying to peek over Lily's shoulder and see what this was about, while she was just as effectively ignoring him.

Ron tore open the envelope curiously and began reading, but his expression quickly flipped to disgust the longer he read.

"That was not an encouraging start," Remus began without much surprise, though he still couldn't imagine what this was about, while Lily sighed with disappointment and couldn't bother clinging to her hope anymore as she got it out.

He wordlessly thrusted the letter to his friends, apparently to appalled for words, as they began reading to themselves about Percy's beginning stating he'd heard from the Minister of Magic himself,

"That was entirely unnecessary," James huffed.

"As was that," Lily snipped at him.

that Ron had become a Prefect. This was excellent news, as Percy had always feared Ron would take the 'Fred and George' route, but now he was elated to hear his youngest brother had decided to take on some responsibility.

"He didn't decide anything," Sirius threw his hands up in exasperation for people continually saying that. No one put their name down, no one did anything to become Prefect, it was entirely the decision of the Heads of Houses and ultimately Dumbledore.

He was sending this letter with as much warning as anything though, for if he expected to go further in life with this achievement, he should be warned of his continued fraternization with Harry Potter, which he'd gathered Ron was still hanging around again from word of the Minister.

Remus frowned in confusion, wondering what Umbridge had passed along that involved Ron at all? He supposed he wasn't too surprised if that thing was keeping tabs on Harry's friends as well though.

Percy put in the simple fact that Ron could quickly lose his badge if this kept up.

Harry spluttered with absolute indignation. What had he done to deserve that from anyone, let alone a person he'd gotten to know on at least some level? He'd never taken a liking to Percy, but he'd never thought he'd done anything to deserve him telling his own brother to drop him? Ron was Harry's first friend, his best friend, and more family than he'd ever had in his life before he met Sirius.

James fired up at once, snapping, "what does Percy want, for Ron to be an outcast and no one to like him like Percy is?"

The sad truth was, yes Lily did believe that. Percy may have heard this news and immediately hoped that he could reconnect with some member of his family, because he likely was lonely. That didn't excuse what he'd just told to do to her son.

Percy expected Ron to read this with some surprise, no doubt Ron would say that Potter was Dumbledore's favorite,

"Why would that be his response?" Sirius scowled with anger as well as confusion for that one. Harry never once asked for that treatment.

but Dumbledore may not be in charge around school much longer anyways if those in charge had a more accurate account of Potter's behavior had things settled as Percy expected them to.

With every line Percy had written Remus continued growing more confused and angry, this one in particular caught him off guard. What did he mean Dumbledore wouldn't be in charge of the school anymore? That was an oddity in itself, he'd been the headmaster for generations already and in a most likely biased opinion the most reputable of them all. That didn't quite knock out the anger of the second part, more accurate his arse. Ron was Harry's best friend for years, he'd have the most accurate portrayal of Harry more than anyone, shouldn't this be his say so.

Percy wouldn't enlighten this statement further, but Ron should check out the Daily Prophet tomorrow for more details to see where the wind was blowing, and to spot himself along the way.

"Why am I not surprised this whole letter was planned out just to brag about himself winding up in the paper somehow," Sirius snarled.

Percy persisted, seriously Ron

"He doesn't get to use my name," Sirius huffed, to which he was ignored by all this time.

did not want to be on the same branch with Potter anymore or it would damage his future, and this was speaking of life after school. Ron surely knew of Potters disciplinary hearing, and he had not come out of it looking good. He'd gotten off on a technicality, and many of the Wizengamot still found him guilty.

"Guilt of what!?" James thundered. "He saved his own damn life plus his useless cousin! What were they even trying to prove during that shame of a trial? That he cast a Patronus Charm for shits and giggles!"

"You should never argue with a stupid person, they'll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." Remus snipped.

It was best for Ron to sever ties with Potter, the earlier the better, even if he did become violent. If Ron had any worries he was encouraged to go see Umbridge, a delightful woman who would be happy to help.

Lily did not get that out as if an intelligible person had said it, more like repeating the words of someone hit with a babbling curse. It made no sense in or out of context.

This led into his next bit of advice, which he'd hinted at above,

"Hinted implies subtly," James snorted with disgust.

that Dumbledore would not remain in charge at school long, and Ron should be thinking of his future with the Ministry. So far Umbridge had been getting very little cooperation from the staff and the Ministry was striving to fix this, again see the Prophet tomorrow, and those who were on Umbridge's side could be well placed for Head Boy ship not long later.

"Climb as far up her brown nose as you can and make a comfy nest with the rest of her eggs," Sirius mocked.

Percy did tack in an apology about how he was sorry he couldn't see Ron over the summer,

"Bet he wouldn't care one bit if he didn't know you were a Prefect," Sirius snapped.

and it did pain in how he disliked criticizing his parents, but what with the riff raff they kept up with like Sturgis Podmore, and other petty criminals, he was lucky the Minister didn't see him in the same light.

James looked ready to light the book on fire any moment now. Percy had successfully insulted three people he cared about in one go! It took a lot of restraint on his part to remind himself Percy was still a child right now who shouldn't be transfigured into a pumpkin.

He was very gracious he'd disassociated himself with the likes of Dumbledore's crowd and promised Ron could still do the same and not to let family ties blind him. He'd be ready to accept their apology whenever they were ready and realized their mistakes.

"If both sides keep standing around waiting for an apology instead of doing something, this war is going to be harder than I was thinking," Sirius grumbled as he remembered his own words.

He signed off with the plea to think this all over, particularly the bit about Potter, and congratulated him one last time on becoming a prefect.

"Burn that Harry. Burn that and shove the sod right up that Humongous Big Heads nose." James said at once with conviction.

"It's Ron's letter," Harry sighed, "I think he should get the right."

"That's fair," Sirius acknowledged.

When Harry was done, he reread one bit to make sure he got it right, before turning to Ron and said if he wanted to sever ties with him, he promised he wouldn't get violent.

The boys at least garnered a laugh for Harry's sarcasm at that, while Lily sighed deeply. She wished that hadn't been played off as a joke, but she supposed it was better than Harry getting mad at Ron's brother, and taking it out on Ron, which with his temper lately she wouldn't have even been surprised.

Ron jerked the letter away nastily at once, calling him the biggest prat on earth as he ripped the parchment up into tiny little scraps and tossed it into the fire.

"Less satisfying than up the nose," James sighed.

"But a proper in the moment response," Remus smiled.

Then he turned dismissively back to their homework.

Lily managed almost a happy giggle for this display, thinking Percy should send Ron more stupid letters if that's what got him to focus on his homework more.

Remus almost agreed, finding his utter dismissal of this perfect.

Hermione was looking at Ron with an odd expression on her face.

"What kind of odd look?" Lily asked with a torn expression, she really hoped Hermione wasn't going to try and give Ron a pep talk or something, it wouldn't do him any good right now.

"I think it was something close to surprise, maybe admiration," Harry tried to smile. "Ron wouldn't ever show it, but what Percy did cut all his siblings as bad as his parents, and so when Hermione saw Ron just turn right back to homework after what Ron considered further spurn must have gotten to her."

Lily couldn't help a small smile now as she kept going. It didn't make that letter feel any better, but it was nice to see Hermione acting like their friend rather than mother for a change.

Then she stunned them both by demanding their homework from them so she could correct what they'd done.

"Doesn't she usually do that anyways when you're done?" Sirius chuckled.

"She'd certainly been threatening not to do it enough lately we were starting to believe her," Harry smiled in relief.

He asked if she was serious?

"No, I am," Sirius reminded as if anyone had forgotten.

Then he began thanking her at once, calling her a life saver and what could he say to-

She said he could say he wouldn't wait to do all his homework till the last minute ever again, while looking on in amusement.

"They're not even done with them though," James reminded.

"Still better to get her help while she was in a good mood, half the work done," Harry cheered, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

Harry thanked her as well as he pushed his away in relief, letting himself sink down and gaze at the fire quietly for a moment with a sick feeling resting in him as the remains of Percy's letter curled away in the fire.

They all frowned as they realized Harry had taken that much more personally than they'd realized, he'd even played off the moment in here well enough they'd thought he'd just completely brushed it off, but clearly not.

Somehow reading all that in Percy's writing pressed in on him for the first time his standing with the majority of the Wizarding World. He'd known Percy for years, had spent summers at his house and shared a tent with him at the World Cup, Percy had been the one to award him full marks during the second task last year, but now the same guy found him unbalanced and violent.

"This is the same guy who went sobbing out into the freezing lake to check on his kid brother," Remus huffed in agreement. "How did he go from that to dismissing his whole family in so little time?"

"You've got me?" James sighed deeply.

Harry felt sudden empathy for his godfather, whom the whole world also believed had done something he'd had no part of.

Sirius hummed in agreement with that, even if he couldn't be there for Harry in the ways he wanted to be, he found comfort even the idea he could relate to Harry made him feel better.

Then Harry sat up straight in his chair as he gazed at the fire in confusion, surely he'd imagined it because he was thinking of his godfather.

"Oh, is Sirius making another appearance in the common room?" James asked as if confirming the date.

"Now he even has a safe place to do it from," Remus agreed almost as if bored at the idea.

Truth be told it made both of them smile and more anxious at the same time. They couldn't easily forget where Sirius was in Harry's time and found him talking to Harry face to face would surely make him feel better for even a moment.

Hermione was done with both homeworks, haven written out a draft for Ron to use as his conclusion,

"Okay, that was blatantly doing homework for you," Lily snorted.

"I guess she truly was taking pity on us," Harry chuckled.

Ron insisted she was the most wonderful person he'd ever met,

"I think this is the most he's complimented her in their entire friendship, she may be falling over from shock," Sirius chuckled.

and if he was ever rude to her again-

She'd know he'd gone back to normal, Hermione finished for him with a smile.

"There's the proper response," James snickered.

Then she turned on Harry's, saying he must have heard Sinestra wrong, as Europa was covered in ice, not mice.

"Sometimes I really can't tell when Hermione's being sarcastic," Remus smirked, "she must know that was a slip of the quill."

Harry just grinned and didn't reply.

Harry was no longer listening as he crouched down in front of the fireplace, watching it steadily now as he told his friends what he'd just seen. It wasn't that surprising, as Sirius had appeared her once before to talk to him, but Hermione was concerned at once at the idea, saying it would be too- Sirius?!

"But I'm always serious, how could I be anything else?" Sirius cackled.

"She was actually saying your name you twit," Lily ground out, cursing that man's parents for cursing their child and everyone else in his life with this never-ending gag.

She gasped his name in surprise as Sirius' face sat among the logs, grinning at them.

"You already sound so pleased with yourself," James snickered.

"I honestly believe I've been looking forward to this all week, Harry's letter just happened around the same time," Sirius grinned.

He began to say he'd been worried this wouldn't work, he'd been checking every hour and there'd always been someone else in here.

Harry half laughed that he'd been popping his head in here once an hour? Hermione anxiously demanded what if someone had seen him.

"I'm sure you'd have heard about it, and the twins would have helped to laugh the whole thing off by saying they'd slipped something in there, or any number of things." Remus rolled his eyes at her paranoia.

Sirius shrugged off that some first year may have gotten a start from him, but she'd probably just thought he was a funny shaped log.

"Honestly, in a school full of magic, a funny shaped log wouldn't have lingered in her mind in the time it took for her to get to the stairs," James agreed.

Hermione still said this was too big a risk for him to be-

Sirius cut her off by telling her to stop sounding like Molly, Sirius was just trying to respond to Harry's letter.

Hermione turned her accusing voice on Harry now, as he hadn't told them about this.

"And that's exactly why he didn't," Sirius scoffed at Hermione's never ending complaints.

Harry admitted he'd forgotten, as the instance with Cho had pushed the rest of that morning from his mind, before turning back to Sirius and saying no one could have gotten anything from that letter anyways.

"She doesn't believe anyone can do anything without her help," James rolled his eyes.

Sirius agreed at once it had been very good, beginning on that with Harry's scar.

Ron tried to ask what that meant, but Hermione shushed him and they'd tell later.

"I understand the need for the haste, but why hadn't you told Ron about this already?" Lily asked.

"Same reason I'd yet to tell Hermione about my detentions," Harry shrugged uneasily as he brought this back up himself but still explained, "hadn't come up until I was caught at it."

"You have that philosophy far too often," Remus huffed.

Sirius agreed he understood this couldn't be fun for Harry, but it had hurt like this before now.

Harry agreed it had just concerned him it had been extra bad around that Umbridge woman, but Sirius had no delusions she was a Death Eater.

Harry said she was foul enough to be one, while Sirius gave a wry smile and said the world wasn't split into good people and Death Eaters.

"I always want to faint in surprise when you pass on such words of wisdom," Lily smiled at him while Sirius grinned and Harry took a moment to register the truth of those words he'd never considered before.

Sirius did agree that he already knew of her reputation though, Remus went on enough about her.

That caught their attention with surprise, Lily going on eagerly to see what that foul woman had been saying about her friend, and hopefully some colorful recanting of what Remus had to say about it.

Harry asked in surprise how Lupin knew her, remembering Umbridge's comments about half-breeds during their first class.

James's mouth dried considerably as he did remember this. She hadn't been subtle in taking a shot at Remus, and he already felt a nasty fear of where this was going.

Sirius explained not personally, but she'd drafted some anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that made it impossible for him to get a job.

Lily spluttered with indignation nearly before she'd gotten that out, and that had nothing on his two friends. They already had every reason in the world wanting that sherbet-reject to shrivel up and die, turns out they should have been going for her head all those years ago. Was this in fact finally the reason Remus had left his post? That would have happened right around the time he left Hogwarts, when Snape had released his name as working at Hogwarts!

Instead of shrinking away whenever this topic came up, Remus looked a tad concerned for this news, and not just for himself. It was very rare to find any other werewolves who even tried to maintain a normal lifestyle with a job and such, but with this bit of legislation being passed it was as if they were being told not to even bother with that. He'd never complained of the restrictions of the jobs they could get because he recognized the danger in his own kind, but was the Ministry moving even further away in trying to phase out his whole kind, truly turn them into no more than animals that needed to be killed. How could they ever show how normal they could be if no one gave them a chance? Then he reminded himself what he'd long since came to the conclusion of, no one cared.

Harry remembered how much shabbier Lupin looked these days and his dislike of Umbridge deepened even further.

Remus blinked in a bit of surprise for that. From what he'd gathered, Harry hadn't much to do with him in his own time, so the fact that he had such a strong reaction like that really did warm him up a bit. He really hadn't thought it possible for a long time anyone outside his friends could see him as any more than a monster, but first Lily and now Harry...

Hermione demanded what that woman had against werewolves, and Sirius said it was all part-humans, she'd even tried to round up all merpeople and have them tagged a few years back, imagine wasting the energy on such things when toe rags like Kreacher were about.

"I'm sure she doesn't like them any better," Remus scoffed to try and lighten back up the mood, at least trying to pretend as he always did he hadn't heard a word about this. "House-elves do have a certain human shape but aren't, so they're in the-"

Sirius elbowed him in the ribs to get him to shut up, no one wanted to hear him play this off right now.

Ron laughed but Hermione looked offended, trying to tell Sirius if he'd just make an attempt, she was sure Kreacher would respond.

Sirius knew he'd rather lose his dessert privileges than indulge in any such nonsense, and wished Hermione would quit harping on that.

Harry thought the same, if only because it left such a tight feeling of unease in him he felt the urge to cry and refused to understand why.

Dumbledore did say-

Sirius blatantly ignored her and asked what Umbridge's lessons were like, was she training them to kill half-breeds?

"No, that would actually be useful," Remus snorted lightly, before wincing and wishing he hadn't spoken at all for the nasty look his friends gave him for that.

Harry said no while Hermione looked affronted her defense had been cut off.

"You'd really think at some point she'd realize, no one cares!" James threw his hands up in exasperation.

She wasn't letting them use magic at all.

This didn't surprise Sirius though, as he'd heard that the Minister was growing more paranoid by the day and no longer wanted the students trained in combat.

Harry was stunned, asking why, did she think they were forming their own army?

Sirius agreed that was exactly what his delusions feared, the man thought Dumbledore was amassing his own force to overthrow the Ministry.

"I've never heard something so idiotic in my life," James deadpanned, "and I've lived with these two for seven years."

"I, really wish Sirius was making a joke right now," Lily agreed.

There was a pause before Ron stated that was the stupidest thing he'd heard in his life, and he'd been around Luna Lovegood.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment, or-" Sirius began in confusion before Remus shushed him.

Hermione was outraged this was the reason behind their lack of education, while Sirius elaborated Fudge was convinced Dumbledore would do anything to get power, it's only a matter of time before he has the man arrested at this point.

"That'll be the day," Remus scoffed while Harry frowned at the idea, he really didn't like the sound of that.

Harry asked if he knew anything about this big deal that was supposed to be in the Prophet tomorrow Percy had dropped hints about, but Sirius said he hadn't a clue, no one had actually been around all week.

Lily's voice shook with pity there, to which Sirius was both grateful for, and wanted to make some snide comment at her for. Thankfully she kept going loudly before he could act on either.

Sirius' voice had quickly turned bitter as he said this, so Harry instead asked about Hagrid.

Sirius didn't seem too concerned, saying while he was supposed to be back by now and they weren't sure why he wasn't,

"Tactless as ever," Lily grumbled at him, ignoring her own increasing worry at those confirmed fears. Surely if this was a real problem though Sirius would be more concerned, he at least had a like for Hagrid even without knowing what all he'd done for Harry. This wasn't necessarily a death sentence if someone didn't come back from a mission on schedule...

but upon seeing their stricken faces Sirius quickly said Dumbledore wasn't worried about it, so everything was surely fine. Maxime had gone with him, and she'd arrived back on schedule and simply said they'd split up on the journey home, there was no reason to suggest a real problem.

"I think we need to have a refresher course on those talks about reassuring people Sirius," Remus groaned, as that had helped no one at any point it seemed.

The three exchanged a still anxious look, but Sirius insisted for them not to go around asking questions and drawing attention to this.

"We haven't been," Harry said just a touch indignantly, "you were the only one I'd asked."

"Well I know that now," Sirius rolled his eyes in exasperation, causing Harry to back down.

Then Sirius flipped topics to asking when their next Hogsmeade weekend was, he wanted to show up and-

"And just why would you think that would cheer them up?" Lily began anxiously as she fought the compulsion to stick a muzzle on Sirius. "You were already spotted once, what makes you think it a good idea to have another go?"

"Stop being such a worry wart Lily," James scoffed at once. "He needs out of that place more, even if it is at sporadic times like Hogsmeade weekends."

"Where was this attitude last year?" Remus demanded uneasily, this conversation just kept getting worse with everything his last best friend said.

"Last year Sirius was on the run, getting all the air he needed, so I was just worried about him covering his tail," James scowled at Remus for the lack of backup. "Now I'm worried what he'll do if he doesn't get out more."

Sirius longed for the time where he could have basked in having a whole conversation about him, now he just looked miserable and didn't account for anyone, he just wanted to forget about the existence of that house and his whole damn future.

Harry and Hermione shouted no at once, Hermione quickly saying the article they'd found this morning. Sirius brushed this off, saying they were always guessing something and it never panned out.

"I mean, I suppose so long as Kingsley is still pushing for Australia or something, whatever Malfoy said could be brushed off easily enough," Remus tried to say with some encouragement that fell flat to all worried parties.

Harry insisted Lucius had spotted him near that train, and what if Draco did in Hogsmeade?

"Then don't go near Malfoy," James scoffed. "Honestly, Padfoot knows every hole of that area better than the local cats."

"Doesn't make the risk any less," Lily sighed without too much of a fight, recognizing whatever Sirius wanted to do, he'd do it with or without anyone's support.

Sirius scowled at them before saying he wouldn't, he'd just thought they'd like to get together.

"You really are breaking my heart here pup," Sirius tried for a flippant tone while Harry eyed his godfather with great worry. Ever since he'd left that platform, Harry had an ever growing fear of the next time Sirius left that house, leaving his tongue paralyzed and unable to respond...

Harry insisted he just didn't want to see him back in Azkaban!

Sirius' face went flat blank as he said Harry was less like his father than Sirius had thought, the risk would have been what made it fun for James.

Sirius actually recoiled, suddenly looking ready to burst into tears any moment as he had concrete proof. Merlin's sake, he really had lost his mind if he thought even for a moment he'd been talking to James-

Lily had just huffed and rolled her eyes at the stupid comment, she didn't even seem to realize Sirius had taken it so personally while James kept his eyes firmly on his best mate now.

Remus reacted on instinct by smacking Sirius upside the head for that, muttering, "would you rather him be like you, not thinking before you speak."

Sirius hardly seemed to realize what had been spoken as he whispered back, "that hurt you know."

Remus wasn't sure if he meant the comment, or the blow, as he rolled his eyes and said, "I didn't damage anything important."

"All of me is important!" He shot back with almost a pout, managing to keep himself distracted at least for a few seconds while Lily finished.

Harry tried to say something else, but Sirius said he'd write again whenever Harry could stand the risk, and then he was gone.

Remus was looking from James to Sirius uneasily, as Lily looked up to indicate she was done and seemed to realize for the first time that had bothered the two, so Remus began ardently, "wonder if we should take a quick break again. I'm sure someone should check on the baby's dipper, and I-"

"Yeah, that's great Moony. Padfoot, can I borrow you for a moment," James snapped, not waiting for any preamble as he made his way for the stairs and Sirius followed reluctantly.

HPHPHPHPHPHP

* This one gets under my skin out of confusion. Either Harry has completely forgotten the fact that he was the one who had to trick Malfoy into giving Dobby that sock, otherwise he could have just done it himself and set Dobby free if that was his intentions, or he really thought Hermione found a way around this law and it's just never addressed. This is a real problem with the narrative between two and five that is never brought up.

**I know that's a really subjective number, considering by most math there would only be about 300, but JK has said there were actually almost a thousand. I personally more invasion somewhere in the middle, though I imagine the population slump from the war and other variables actually makes the number fluctuate between those two numbers throughout the years, so who really knows.

*** This moment genuinely annoys me for two reasons. The twins specifically say the purple half is the 'cure' pill for their works, and this is proven in the very last chapter where they gave purple pills to the first years to wake them up, so they did indeed give the right pill. Problem two with this, is then, what do you mean you gave her the wrong pill? Either you color swapped a batch in which case you lot are far more idiotic than I thought for all your hard work doing this, or this is just some serious (shut up Sirius!) errors with the flowing work. Twice in one chapter man...

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HP #Marauders #OotP #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter #The LIfe that Never LIved

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dopescotlandwarrior · 5 years ago

Text

Bluegrass-Chapter Six

A special thanks to @statell for all your help and wisdom

Previous chapters on AO3

Chapter Six

Jamie walked into an empty house feeling immense relief Isobel was gone. He didn’t know where. He never knew where. Was that because he didn’t ask or because she didn’t tell him? He didn’t know or care. It was time to have a talk with Isobel and decide what to do with their future. Each time he brought it up she would snap at him, they had to pay off her father and then sell the business and split the money. The thought of giving the business up made him feel sick inside, he couldn’t do it. He built this business from the dirt and three years later he had an honest shot at the Derby because he made the right match of DNA. She would force him to sell without an ounce of guilt because she had ice in her veins.

Jamie suggested Isobel go back to Scotland because she hated Kentucky. Her father had closed the discussion of marriage, much to Jamie’s relief, so it was nothing more than a business arrangement with her father. She wasn’t needed here, she did nothing for the business except keep Jamie from it. She refused to go for reasons unknown, so he was stuck with a pouty, controlling bitch, who seemed determined to make him miserable. Jamie grabbed two beers because the first would go down fast and walked upstairs for a shower. The first bottle hit the trash can before he stepped under the water.

He built a sundeck off the master bedroom because Isobel wanted a tan, and in three years he had never seen her on it. He loved it because he could see the entire compound and the sight from up here was peaceful. His eyes swept the landscape until he saw the spot where Claire had cried earlier. When she thought her actions with that asshole Chad would hurt him somehow. She was ready to leave because of what she did. Christ, that kind of heart and integrity were so rare in the people he had met in Kentucky. He wanted to build a team of people with a moral code like his, but the influence of haters and greed were holding him down like he was chained. Isobel was part of the greed, Chad was one of the haters, and there was someone out there that was evil enough to kill his prized horses in their prime. All the negativity he had lived with for the last three years had sapped his strength, his joy, and almost killed his dream. Then, in walks a pure heart to shed a brilliant light of hope and miracles to his battered soul.

Jamie tried to quiet his mind because he didn’t like where this thought process was going. Once Claire was in his head it would torture him and make him miss her every minute she was gone. He leaned back on the lounge and dozed with his two-beer buzz until he felt his phone vibrate. His eyes bugged out when he heard Claire’s voice.

“Sassenach, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I have a list of things we need to talk about, do you have a few minutes Jamie? Perfect. Number one, I am doing a new Facebook page and I would like to feature the colt, now that he has filled my dance card. What do you say about that?”

“Yes.”

Number two, if we don’t make any progress tomorrow with a rider on the colt I will ride him, he won’t hurt me.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry Jamie dear but I heard yes, otherwise he might be held back. Number three, what kind of riding is required before the first race and which race will that be?”

“Running and galloping as a group to get them used to runnin next to other horses and build up the shins. Hours and hours of galloping, every day. Yer double-dipping lass.”

“I’m sorry, what is that exactly?”

“Two questions in one. So play fair. I get to answer each question before ye throw another one out. Deal?”

“Yes, yes, deal. Do you know anyone who can teach me to ride a race?”

“Aye. Start with Nick. He knows everything about training, racing, jockeys, everything. The guy was raised on the track. That’s why he’s so taken with you. He has ne’er seen what you do before, so he wants to watch you every second.”

“If only he were twenty years younger and unmarried. Sorry, I digress.”

The second part of her sentence was laced with giggles and Jamie heard something different in her voice. The thought made his heart pound.

“Doctor Beauchamp, are ye drunk?”

“Certainly not, Oh, thank you Molly. Now, where was I. Did I ask my next question yet?”

“I canna be sure, which question was that?”

He heard a slurping straw and decided she just finished the drink Molly brought her. He heard giggling in the background, female giggling.

“I am waiting Mister Fraser.”

“For what?”

“Your answer of course.”

“Sorry, my answer is no.”

“Well, that is ridiculous, so I heard yes.”

“Why that comment about Nick being twenty years younger and unmarried Sassenach?”

Jamie waited through a long-drunk pause, wanting her to open up to him and share her secrets, wanting her to let him in.

“I need love in my life. I am so done with holding myself to a higher purpose, that would be my practice. Do you know how long it’s been since someone touched me? No, of course you don’t.” She giggled. “Men like you could never ban sex from their life, and if you tried, they would ratify the constitution or something.”

“Men like me Sassenach? Ye mean angry men?”

“No”

“Mean men.”

“No.”

“Controlling, manipulating, selfish men.”

“No. It means men who take a girl's breath away when you look at them. Cure cancer by smiling at someone, walk with the authority of the privileged few.”

Her speech was dreamy sounding and Jamie wondered if she would remember any of this tomorrow.

“I wanted it to be him but it’s not.”

“Are ye talkin about Chad or Nick, Sassenach?”

“What? I need to finish my new Facebook page, so I have to go and find Dusty. No word yet.”

“He’s fine Claire. He loves school and really misses you. Before ye ask, I don’t know why he friended me, but I think it’s because he missed you so much. Let him reach out to you when he’s ready. I will let you know if I hear anything important. Okay? Claire?”

Jamie heard the soft rhythmic breathing of a passed-out Sassenach and smiled.

“Goodnight sweetheart, I’ll think of ye tonight.”

Jamie clicked off the call and looked at the rising moon. For just a minute he replaced Isobel with Claire and he instantly wiped it from his mind and jumped off the lounge chair. I need to pay bills, he decided, so what if it’s three weeks early. Before he reached the door into the bedroom, he saw a truck on their access road and wondered who could be coming to the barn at this time of night. He hit the light and was bathed in darkness as he watched someone walk away from the truck into an outbuilding. The truck pulled away and out came Isobel’s Cadillac turning toward home.

Jamie’s heart was pounding. What would she have to be so clandestine about? He certainly didn’t want to tip his hand and jumped into a sleeping position in their bed as he heard the front door open. Several minutes later he could hear her moving around the bedroom and then into the shower. She crept into bed with extra precaution not to jostle him and then she was still.

Jamie was angry and forced himself to lie still while his brain crunched the evidence of Isobel’s secret life. He didn’t care about her; he didn’t even like her. But while he was torturing himself with a wall between he and Claire, Isobel was helping herself to whatever she wanted. Time for you to go Isobel, he thought, I am missin out on a beautiful life and it’s time to change that. If I win the Derby, you and yer father are paid off and I keep my business. He prayed for the opportunity, he prayed for luck as he drifted off to sleep. His last thought…get ready colt, time to get serious about winnin that race.

Claire spent the night between nightmares and vomiting and wanted to kill Molly as soon as she surfaced. Her yoga poses helped a little, but she would need much more to mount the colt if it came to that today. She had a vague recollection of Jamie calling her sweetheart. She pounded several mugs of coffee and threw back four aspirin before Molly came bursting out of her room with a huge smile and all the energy that Claire lacked. Claire glared at her before climbing down the steps to the truck.

“Claire! Catch.”

She reached for the falling keys and caught them before settling in the passenger seat. She had her nose in a medical book when she heard her door open. Her head jerked up and she stared at Molly.

“What?”

“Move over, let’s go.”

“No.”

“No problem. I’ll get comfy in my car. I’ll be on Facebook with Dusty half the day anyway.”

With that, she unlocked her car and threw her stuff inside before getting in to set up her laptop.

“Dustin?”

Claire was mad at Molly, and her new friend for getting her drunk last night. It was reckless to give her two drinks and she would pay the price today. She was also very hurt by Dustin’s avoidance. She went on autopilot and started the truck leaving Molly to jump in as she backed out. Claire’s mind was grinding the facts as she easily negotiated the highway entrance, lane changes to the exit, and dropping onto the dirt road leading to the compound. She parked in the usual spot and walked toward the barn, still grinding the truth about her old assistant, Dustin.

The colt recognized her footfall now and started kicking the corral bars, impatient to see her. She didn’t notice that his happy mood evaporated as soon as he saw her, and he stood in the corner of his stall.

Claire started to brush and curry the colt but ran out of energy in the first five minutes. She threw her arms over his back and rested her head on his warm fur. She felt herself falling but could not wake up to save herself until she felt Jamie’s chest against her side and realized he was carrying her.

“There ye go, lass. He sat her atop of the wall separating two stalls and pushed her back gently until her back found the support of the back wall. She exhaled and felt a bit better.

“Now laddie, we must talk about yer day, yes? There is much to do, tack and lunging and gettin ready to run in the field. I know yer gonna love it and yer old mam Angus has agreed to ride ye. Don’t want to hurt ole Angus so ye do as he says. Right! Yer lookin dapper, like a true gentleman. Jamie left to grab his tack giving the colt time to rest his head in Claire’s lap. She felt him cry and sat up to touch his cheeks. She saw an image of a handler flying through the air and felt the colt cry.

“My sweet boy.”

She pushed his hair aside and looked into his eyes.

“I just realized that you’re an orphan like me and that makes you afraid people will leave you alone again, doesn’t it?”

She kept seeing the handler in the air and realized he knew what he did was wrong, and it made him sad.

“It’s okay, love.” She sent images of her on his back while he ran. “I am afraid of falling off of you so promise not to buck.”

Claire wrapped her arms around his neck and yawned seeing the handler in the air and her on his back. She giggled into his neck.

Jamie stood stock still draped with the colt’s tack. He listened to what Claire told him about being an orphan and he wanted to wrap her in his arms and just hold her. Yer extraordinary Sassenach, he thought before walking into the stall to tack the big colt.

“I see ye makin eyes at my girlfriend. Ye find one of yer own kind because she belongs to me.”

Claire looked for the evil woman to walk up on them and considered dashing to her truck to avoid confrontation.

“I need yer promise lad, if she rides ye be gentle wi’er. Let’s go.”

The other nine yearlings were warming up, going through the gates and giving their handler all that was asked for.

When the sunlight hit Midnight Runner, his dark coat turned purple and Claire would swear he had a swagger this morning. She kept watching for Isobel.

Angus walked quickly out of the barn, head down, very preoccupied with barn business. Claire stood next to the colt and didn’t like what she was feeling.

Hey, Runner, what the hell?

She tried to get his attention to warn him of bad behavior, but it was too late, he would eliminate Angus by whatever means necessary. The colt snorted and pawed the dirt like a bull and then jumped forward getting between Angus and Claire. It looked like he wanted to tear Angus apart.

“Angus, stop. Keep lookin at the ground and back out of the arena.” Jamie’s voice was clear and strong.

Angus suddenly walked backward, still looking down until he was safely away. Claire looked miserably at Jamie, knowing it was time to put her money where her mouth is.

When Nick gave her a leg up she sat frozen in the saddle, waiting for the explosion she had seen with the other handlers. She looked at the colt’s ears and they were facing forward like nothing weird was happening. Her foot reached to find the stirrup and she heard the colt ask if she wanted him to run now.

“No!”

Nick and Jamie looked at her like she suddenly developed Turret’s syndrome and she smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Nick guided her feet to the stirrups which were a foot above where she was searching.

The colt seemed to get serious about his training after that, even when Jamie was around. When Claire was on his back it was all business, and for the rest of the week it was hours of galloping, Claire’s legs were so sore she could hardly walk for the first three days and Jamie wanted so badly to help her but that would be inappropriate, so he bought her an hour massage at a place that specialized in training injuries.

Claire worked with the other handlers for positioning herself over his back during sprints, how to stand in the stirrups to reduce the strain on her back and how to hold him back to conserve strength.

Nick worked individually with all the horses. He adjusted Claire’s position and returned her to the track. That was all the attention she and Runner got, while the others spent more time with him and were watched more closely when they ran.

Claire wondered if Nick was discounting Runner and the thought made her angry. I promised he could race the others dammit and I will make sure I keep that promise, she thought.

At the end of the week, Claire felt like she had been through a meat grinder. She limped toward Jamie’s office for their meeting.

Jamie watched her walk into the office and his heart rate jumped, his face flushed, and his sentence stopped abruptly like it always did. He had watched her torturous week wishing he could help her and feeling so grateful for what she was doing. She was so comfortable on the colt, she worried more about her ability to stay on him than anything he might do.

Nick looked around the room and gave the bad news. Three retired jockeys, good friends of his, had come by to watch the colt so they might relieve Claire, but they had all turned him down. These men were the most experienced riders in horse racing. They all turned him down for life and limb. Runner had put on weight over the summer and grown an inch. He was big and powerful and very green. None of the three wanted to risk their retirement with a broken neck.

“We train on Monday and then Tuesday we race the ten horses in a sprint. I guess this is where the rubber meets the road. If no one will race him this has all been for nothing. I will keep looking and get someone to say yes over the weekend.

Claire spent the weekend on the porch and thought about the magnificent colt and what he needed. She wondered from time to time if her motivation was just the colt, or was it the man who walked taller than any other. She would feel the sadness flood her body because she was incapable of seeing him as anything else than the best man she had ever known and he would marry that witch, eventually.

On Sunday afternoon, she sighed in her lounge chair and listened to Molly and her new friend giggle like eighteen-year-olds do, wishing she could go back to her uncomplicated life. She picked up her vibrating phone and saw Jamie’s name while her heart rate shot into the stroke zone.

“Beauchamp.”

Sigh, “lass ye have to at least pretend ye want to answer my call.”

“Sorry, habit.”

“Ye sound like yer at a sorority party.”

“Molly and her friend are leaving. All they seem to do is giggle.”

“I have thought of nothin else this weekend than you ridin the colt and what to do now. I need to talk to ye, face to face, it’s time to make some decisions. Will ye meet me somewhere? Any place close to where ye are since ye’ll be drivin yerself.”

“It’s a long drive but you could come here.”

“It’s a drive ye make every day, lass. I think I can manage.”

Claire was already moving through the house trying to tidy up. Molly was such a neat-freak there was little to do with this old cabin-home. She gave him directions and asked him to wait thirty minutes before he left.

A dash into the shower, casual clothes, and twenty minutes blowing her hair straight. She used the flat iron like Molly taught her and emerged looking like the other Claire, the one who wanted to be seen. She knew it was wrong trying to look nice for someone else’s man. It was a worthless argument, so she gave up and applied a light coat of mascara.

She wondered how the time had passed so quickly working for Jamie, and why she was forced to make a decision that would affect so many lives? It didn’t seem fair, nothing seemed fair at the moment.

Jamie parked where she directed him and stood outside the truck looking for a house when he heard her giggle from somewhere above him. He reached the top step and looked around at the gorgeous view. Ten seconds on the landscape below, the rest of the time on Claire. Her hair was down, falling softly around her shoulders making her look almost exotic as it framed her whisky colored eyes.

Claire grabbed a bottle from inside. It would be her courage when she told Jamie she was done riding the colt. The decision was long in coming she would say, but risking her life to race him was never part of the plan. She would have to watch his heartbreak and wondered how long it would take her to get over that. Jamie wanted the colt to race because it would make his life with Isobel that much better if he won any of the big three races in the spring. It was understandable but her risking her life was not. The weekend of soul searching had exposed many truths, including how his presence motivated her decision to work with Runner and eventually ride him. It was all for Jamie but enough was enough.

Jamie struggled to look calm while the storm raged within him. The colt had the potential to win the Derby and the 1.86 million-dollar prize would free him of Isobel and her father forever. He would be free to pursue Claire with the interest that had turned into a cyclone of desire that spun his head and stole all thoughts when she was near him. It was all for Claire in the end, but she had to agree to ride.

Claire watched him from the open Arcadia door and her heart squeezed seeing his beautiful face locked in a worried expression. How can you ask me to risk my life? Do you care so little for me? Yes, that would be the right thing to ask after she told him. She handed him a glass of whisky and sat opposite of him wondering if this was the last time.

“I am so conflicted lass. If you were anyone else in the world, I would do what was needed to get ye back on the colt for the race on Tuesday. I might argue the importance with ye, calm yer fears, tell ye he needs ye, or a thousand other things to make you do it.”

Jamie exhaled the breath he was holding and lifted his head to look at her causing her insides to melt.

“The truth is…”

Jamie looked out at the expanse of bluegrass stretching out far and wide. In that moment his truth came out. Softly like a whisper on the breeze.

“I’m in love with ye Claire and that love rules my world now. The importance of the colt is nothin in comparison except he can free me from the nightmare life I’m in.”

He reached for her shaking hand and looked at her startled eyes.

“I’m sorry lass, I’ve added to yer burden and scared ye. If this is where our road ends, I just wanted to tell ye, I love ye, and if ye ever need me for anything, I will come. I fear this love is now a part of every organ, blood vessel, brain and red hair on my head. I walk with ye now, even when ye forget who I am, I’ll still be right next to ye.”

He had not looked away from her face allowing her to see the anguish of his truth.

“Stand up.”

Jamie exhaled the defeat he felt but he stood up and in the next second she embraced him, wrapping her arms around his middle like he was a rope to a drowning girl. She felt his arms come around her and got dizzy with the contact against him.

“I am still in shock Jamie and all I can think to say is me too. I love you.”

“One more time lass,” he whispered.

Claire looked at her dream man coming to life and gripped him to stay on her feet.

“I’m in love with James Fraser and here he is, feeling the same. I love you.”

When his mouth came down to her lips, he stopped, “can I kiss ye Sassenach?” Her mouth on his was the answer and Jamie took a deep breath to feed his ramming heart.

Jamie picked her up and carried her inside toward the couch. She pointed to her room and they laid next to each other as the kisses threatened their sanity with the need that was building inside.

Jamie was about to come apart at the seams. She said she loves me, he thought, and here she is in my arms, kissin with the passion I feel for her! His head was spinning when she pushed her tongue into his mouth and softly danced with his. He broke the kiss and sat up panting. He couldn’t look at her and not kiss her again, so he waited for control.

Claire ran her hand up his back, startled at the muscles bulging under his shirt.

“I am quite sure you said whenever I need you. Well, I need you, Jamie.”

She pulled the shirt out of his pants and over his head, gasping at the sight of him as he twisted and pushed her down with a mind-blowing kiss. He loved the feel of her hands on his skin and he was locked in the sensation until he felt her shirt come off. He looked at her and wanted to burn the image into his memory.

His kisses got hotter and needier as he carried her away to a place only the two of them existed. She wanted to go, her body begged to go as he covered her neck and chest with kisses. When he pushed her bra aside with his chin, she felt his mouth cover her nipple flicking with his tongue while he rolled her slightly to reach her bra clasp. When he pulled it off, he stared at her breasts, long arms, and tiny waist. He seemed frozen and staring.

“I want to see all of ye Sassenach.”

He kissed her stomach and belly button while he pulled off her jeans and thought his heart would crash right through his chest. He was mere inches from her skin and let himself see every inch of her.

“I had no idea,” he whispered. He ran a soft hand down her arms, breasts, stomach, hips, and legs while he watched the skin flush. He softly pulled his hand up her breast to the nipple, teasing her and making her pant.

“Under all that mud, and scrubs, and hairpins, yer a beautiful girl, I’ve never seen yer equal lass.”

“Take them off before I bite right through them,” was panted out as her eyes raked over his exposed skin.”

Jamie pushed out of his jeans and laid next to her. He wanted to tease her and make it memorable, but he was way passed that kind of control.

“You look like Atlas the Titan.”

“Who?”

“He carries the world on his shoulders, he’s a Titan, his name is Atlas, he’s a god, …Greek mythology. Oh Christ Jamie… that is…”

That did it. His resolve to go slow shattered he moved between her legs and pushed up against her, feeling her legs open and lift to his sides. He pushed further into her and to his horror found resistance knowing it would cause pain if he forced himself into her. It was what he needed to get his control back and he kissed from her mouth to her neck, slowly circling her nipple before sucking it into his mouth feeling her arch her back forcing her breast farther into the wet warmth.

His kisses continued to her belly as his hand ran down her body slowly feeling the places he had only dreamed of, pulling his warm hand up the inside of her thigh and hearing her moan. When his tongue pushed into her body, she gasped almost missing him growl with his own need. The sound he made tipped the scale as she fell into her orgasm seeing bright sparkling lights behind her eyelids and moaning with the pleasure and intensity.

He whispered in her ear, “give me yer body love, I willna hurt ye.”

She felt him between her legs and when he eased into her, she grabbed his butt and pulled him into her heat until he could go no further. Her eyes went wide and her body stiffened making him stop until she relaxed and adjusted to his size. She could feel his heart pounding against her chest as he kissed her deeply. It was building her heat again and her hips pressed against him looking for friction. When he eased out of her, she pulled him back with a groan until he was gliding in and out of her, pressing into her clit before another stroke.

Jamie felt her legs press open and her back arch against him. She gripped his shoulders and threw her head back panting. He was over the edge with this beautiful girl but held himself in check while he moved into her faster, watching her face as her rapture pulled her into a second orgasm. He pushed into the quivering muscle and lost himself to an orgasm that shook him like a rag doll.

They held each other as they drifted back to her bed, both panting for their lives, drunk on love, feeling their spirits freed from their secret. Jamie dropped to his side pulling her with him, wanting to stay inside of her as long as possible.

“I am a betting man and pride myself on knowin the field, but I never saw this comin lass. When you said ye loved me all the sadness and uncertainty vanished. I thought my truth would condemn me to a lonely life without ye, but here ye are. Never has a woman’s secret made me so happy.” They laid in each other’s arms and talked and kissed for over an hour. After spending every day together for the past month there was still so much to say and ask.

“Ye have more whisky lass?”

Jamie got up and walked out to the porch to fetch the bottle and glasses. Claire watched him move, staring at his thigh and butt muscles flex and his magnificent back.

“Holy shit,” she whispered. She was leaning over the bed trying to see him and jerked back when he filled her door frame again. He stood next to her and poured her a glass, so relaxed, so in command of the space he inhabited.

Jamie threw his whisky back and slid into bed next to her pulling her down to feel her skin next to him. When he kissed her, he took the glass out of her hand and placed it on the table next to the bed so she could use that arm for better things.

“Can we keep the rest of the day for us Sassenach? Please. There will be time tomorrow to discuss what to do with Runner.”

“Who?”

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dandelionflower · 6 years ago

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Felix Month

Day 18: University AU

There were a great deal of long-standing traditions among the students of Crysanthimum College, but none as widely followed as the triangle rivalry between Mr. Culpa, the business professor, Miss Marinette, the design professor, and Ms. Rossi, the acting professor.

It was confusing, to say the least. The business and art students, even the ones working with other professors, would not associate with each other while any business or art class was in session, and if they absolutely had to, it was cordial at best.

There were only two things the students would agree on. Devotion to their professors, and a united hatered for the acting professor.

Professor Culpa and Miss Marinette were pure opposites.

Culpa had started the year with telling the students his name and what was to be expected of them. He never repeated himself. Students had taken to bringing tape recorders to class, so they could listen to it over again. He was the reason his class got along so well, they needed to work together in order to understand half of the content.

Marinette had brought her students together, but in a completely different way. She encouraged the students to collaborate, learn from their varying strengths and support each other in their weaknesses. She would open her class to students who were having difficulty learning, in any class. She was seen spending long nights in her office, learning a new subject all for one student. In her free time she would go to different professors’ lectures, so that when someone needed a new way of understanding, she was there.

Then there was Ms. Rossi. She was arguably the worst teacher on campus. It wasn’t yet clear how she had managed to get into the school, but after a few internet searches, it was obvious that she had no credentials. Most of the students in her class would gravitate to the empty art room, for Marinette’s classes. She wasn’t as good as a trained acting teacher, but she was better than Rossi, who would spend most of the class talking of her own achievements and not teaching.

Luckily, Mr. Culpa and Marinette were all too willing to bump Ms. Rossi down a few notches. They would actively keep her from talking when there were assemblies. They would keep any and all students far away from her (especially the ones who called her out.) Any student who didn’t want to be near her wouldn’t see her ever again.

There were many rumors surrounding Marinette, Mr. Culpa, and Ms. Rossi. Some students suggested that they were in some sort of love triangle. Others said they were in a foster home together. When asked, Marinette and Mr. Culpa both replied “We were in school together.”

No one wanted to ask Ms. Rossi.

The most influential rumor of the college was that of Marinette’s last name. She never told anyone and it wasn’t on the school website, just her maiden name, Dupain-Cheng. There was a rumor circulating that when a student graduates, she will give them a hug and tell them her last name.

Harley Lahiffe was about to find out.

It had been a difficult year for Harley, personal-wise. Her mother had flipped when she heard that Harley was associating with Marinette and not Ms. Rossi. She tended to stay at campus or hotels over the holidays since then. In the summer, she would stay at Marinette’s parents house.

Marinette had been a sort of refuge for Harley. Keeping her strong. But now, seeing the woman who was her only support, walk up to her with arms open wide, Harley broke.

She stumbled forwards into the professors arms. “Thank you! Thank you so much.”

“You’re going to do so well. You’ll take the business world by storm, I’m certain.” She murmured, stroking Harley’s hair. “And I have something for you.” They pulled away and Marinette handed her a bracelet. “Just a little good luck charm. I usually give kids a card with my contact information, but I think you know that already.” She winked.

Harley pulled her back into the hug. “Thank you so much Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Culpa.”

She pulled away. “Culpa? You mean…” she pointed to her former professor. “Culpa?”

Marinette Culpa giggled and nodded.

“How? What? When?”

“About twenty years ago, around when you were born. It was the final straw between Alya and me.” Her eyes teared up. “Anyway, you better be off, I’m sure there are all sorts of people looking to take pictures with you.”

“Yeah, I guess...” Harley turned to look at the rest of her class. Her eyes landed on a man with a familiar pair of headphones. “Dad? Dad!” She ran to her father, burying herself in his arms.

Marinette smiled and turned to the next student. There was a long line for hugs with Marinette and Mr. Culpa that day. Ms. Rossi stood there, bitterness over losing to Marinette yet again.

——————————

“Fe?” Marinette and Felix were cuddling on their couch as they looked over the notes and pictures they recieved from students over the years.

“Hm?”

“Do you think I did okay? With Harley, I mean. I wonder if I should have maybe told her more or less or-“ She was cut off by Felix pressing a gentle kiss on her lips.

“Marinette. Harley adores you. She was the only one of my business students who sided with solely the art students. That’s a huge accomplishment.”

“I… I know.” She sighed. “But, I, every time I look at her, in Nino’s old hat, I just. I wonder if I did okay, allowing things with Alya to just stop like that.”

“You did absolutely fine, Netta. Let’s talk about something different. How did the students react when you told them your last name?”

She giggled. “Even worse than last year! Kobe, he actually went as far as to assume we were cousins.”

“Really? Tell me more.”

And as the light of the fireplace died out, the two Culpa’s fell asleep clutching each other, just as they did when they were fourteen.

#felixmonth #felixmonth 2019 #felix culpa #ml felix #felinette #ml marinette #marinette dupain cheng #marinette culpa #felix month #felix month 2019 #ml lila #ml nino #ml alya

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mattatouile · 5 years ago

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50 questions

What is the colour of your hairbrush? Black

Name a food you never eat: Any sort of liver

Are you typically to warm or too cold? Too cold

What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Checking my work e-mails finally.

What’s your favourite candy bar? Symphony

Have you ever been to a professional sports game? I’ve been to many hockey games.

What was the last thing you said out loud? “Thank you!” to my wife who passed me honey nut cheerios through the door.

What is your favourite ice cream? Chocolate chip cookie dough or cookies and cream.

What was the last thing you had to drink? Diet mountain dew (SHUT UP)

Do you like your wallet? Yes. It is very cute. It has a cat on front made out of faux gold with a little pink gem for a nose.

What was the last thing you ate? Honey nut cheerios!

Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? No.

What’s the last sporting event you watched? Oof. I think a hockey game before the season was canceled?

What is your favourite flavour of popcorn? Much butter

Who is the last person you sent a text message to? My wife

Ever go camping? No. And no thank you.

Do you take vitamins? Yes, a multivitamin (one of my meds makes my potassium weird)

Do you go to church every Sunday? LOLLLLLLLLLLLL.

Do you have a tan? I have freckles.

Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza? Chinese food.

Do you drink your soda through a straw? If I have one?

What colour socks do you usually wear? I do not. But the rare occasion I have to, I have technicolor animal print ones.

Do you ever drive above the speed limit? When I do, it’s only a few miles and to prevent someone from rearending me because Houston drivers are dicks.

What terrifies you? The death of a family member.

Look to your left. What do you see? Work computer.

What chore do you hate most? Vacuuming, the sound really makes my anxiety and anger spike.

What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? The line from Flight of the Conchords. “What does her accent sound like?” “Like an evil version of our accent.”

What’s your favourite soda? Pepsi

Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? Jesus. Drive-thru.

What’s your favourite number? Don’t have one. Something even though. Fuck odd numbers.

Who’s the last person you talked to? My wife.

Favourite cut of beef? Oh god a filet. Or a t-bone.

Last song you listened to? Uh. I’ve no idea. I don’t listen to a lot of music generally speaking.

Last book you read? The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn because I’m annoyed there’s no release date for The Bridgertons on netflix.

Favourite day of the week? Saturday (what a day, groovin all week with you)

Can you say the alphabet backwards? Yes.

How do you like your coffee? Two to four sugars, depending on mood.

Favourite pair of shoes? TBH, my uggs. Fuck the haters my feet are always cold.

Time you normally get up? 6 AM during the work week pre-Corona, but my body always wakes up before 9 AM.

Sunrises or sunsets? Sunsets. I hate morning.

How many blankets are on your bed? Right now I think four?

Describe your kitchen plates. White and round.

Describe your kitchen at the moment. I have no idea! I’m stuck in the bedroom. But probably my wife is cleaning it based on noise.

Do you have a favourite alcoholic drink? I can’t drink anymore because of my medicine and migraines, but before that if I’m at home and Jack & Coke, if I’m out at a nicer restaurant a Rob Roy (which is a manhattan made with scotch instead of rye whiskey or bourbon.

Do you play cards? I can.

What colour is your car? Black

Do you know how to change a tire? Yes, but I’m actually not usually strong enough or can get enough leverage to undo the bolts.

Your favourite state? Oof. I don’t have one? I like locations, but feel no affinity for a state.

Favourite job you’ve had? Ugh, when I was a library tech. I MISS YOU LIBRARY TECH POSITION.

How did you get your biggest scar? I don’t have any big scars. But I guess the one from my marsupialization surgery?

tagging @ddagent @brynnmck @angel-deux-writes @aviss @plavapticica

#memes

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self-proclaimed-chaotic-good · 5 years ago

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Carry On My Wayward Family | Detective Loki x Reader (Oneshot)

Word Prompt: Family

Words: 3450

Fandom: Prisoners/SPN

A/N: Trying to catch up with @writersmonth (Day 28) when my wifi went down

Summary: Continuation of I Can Explain. Detective Loki is forced to take a week off after running himself to the ground, when he unwittingly finds himself in a case that’s more of a supernatural nature and calls for you to help. Through you, he finally experiences not only a taste of the hunting life, but also the family that you make from it.

In the peaceful suburbs of Mery City, a woman walks out of the local veterinary clinic, humming softly to her drowsy cat in her carrier after receiving a shot. The woman places the carrier in the passenger seat and climbs into the driver’s.

It was an ordinary ride home, the car having to stop every now and then at the crosswalk as school had just finished. She drums her fingers against the steering wheel, checking on her cat sleeping soundly in the carrier.

They arrive home, the woman gently placing the carrier down and opening the door. She goes to the kitchen for something to drink when she finds something in the fridge. Her eyes widened as she staggered back screaming for her cat. She scrambles back to the cat carrier to see her cat waking up from her scream.

She whimpered, gathering her cat into her arms and hugged him before her stomach began to turn. A bright light bursts from the both of them, but only the cat was still present when it was over.

The front door opens and a pair of heavy boots stalks in. They stop, seeing the cat, who hisses at them, before picking them up and walking back out of the house.

It really was the last straw as Loki swiped the files off of his own desk and slumped in his chair, holding his head in frustration. The chief grimaced at the mess and worked out how to fix the situation. He waited until Loki had finished his recent case to call him into his office before he could pick up another one.

“Look, if you’re going to lecture me about calming down-”

“You need a vacation,” the chief said firmly, holding his hands on his desk.

Loki blinked, leaning back in his chair. “Excuse me?”

“You need a vacation,” he repeated, “Take a break, David. You’ve been working nonstop. It’s okay to step away for awhile. If we need the extra hand, we’ll let you know.”

“I don’t need a vacation,” Loki insisted, blinking again.

“Yes you do. If you don’t, you’re going to go insane or collapse, whichever comes first. Take a break, and that’s an order from your chief.”

Loki glared at him, but his superior wasn’t backing down. Working with Loki for so long, the chief was already familiar with his temper and seemed unfazed during his outbursts and curses. That’s just how he is and at least he gets the job done.

“Maybe a week or two should suffice, detective?”

Loki huffed, stuffing the last bag into his trunk before slamming it closed. What the hell was he going to do for a whole week? He leaned against his car and pulled out his phone, eyes blinking as he scrolled through his contacts until he found what he was looking for.

The line beeps two times until you finally answered his call. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite detective,” you said, a smile on your face. You stepped away from the kitchen and threw yourself on the couch. “And to what do I owe the pleasure of your lovely voice?”

“Chief gave me a week off,” he grumbled, forgetting why he was calling you out of all his contacts in the first place.

“Wow, you seem happy about that,” you said sarcastically, “I don’t suppose you had ever gone on a voluntary day off or called in sick.”

Claire and Alex sits across from you with a smirk on both their faces. “Who’s that?” Alex asked loudly.

You rolled your eyes. “A friend,” you said pointedly.

“I’m your friend now? When did this development take place?” Loki asked, climbing into his car.

“Since we’ve been talking for several months now.”

“Oh, is this the hot detective that you were talking about?” Claire piped in, loud enough for Loki to hear.

“Hot detective?” You could practically hear the smirk in his voice as he said it, too.

“Anyways, why did you call me?” you asked, changing the subject.

“I told you, chief forced me to take a vacation but I don’t know what to do.”

“My, god. You really haven’t taken a day off, have you?” you said, “What about going to the bar and drink with friends? Take a short road trip? Visit some friends and family-”

“I was in a Boys Home, remember,” he interrupted.

You winced at your slip. “Right, sorry... “

“And… and I don’t have that much friends,” he continued, speaking more slowly, “I… I’m sorry for calling you. I should go. You’re right, I can find something to do, maybe head to the city for a couple of days.”

“No, um…,” You felt the need to say something, but you didn’t know what.

Alex and Claire were persistently mouthing things for you to say. ‘Ask to see him’. ‘Invite him over’. You shake your head at their suggestions. You and Loki had only talked through calls or texts, but you haven’t seen him since that case in Conyers. Honestly, you were surprised that the two of you kept in contact for this long. Inviting him over might overwhelm him.

“You know what, I’m just going to take a road trip and visit a friend who transferred out of Conyers,” Loki said.

“Oh, okay. That sounds good. Have fun, detective,” you said before quickly hanging up. You were overwhelmingly awkward that you facepalmed. “I’m so stupid.”

“You don’t really go out on dates, do you?” Claire teased. Your grimaced answered for you.

You had gone ahead to help Jody get ready for the upcoming holiday, running errands and putting up decorations. Jody had invited you and the boys over for a special holiday dinner and you would have to be soulless to say no. On your way there, the boys heard a case near Iowa and decided to check it out before going over to Jody’s.

Detective Harold Goodman had never dealt with a kidnapping like this before. Five people within the last month, all around the same area. No pattern, no apparent motive, nothing. Well, except that they were all pet owners. If it was some kind of sick animal hater, or obsessed animal lover, why go after the owners, too? Two federal agents had stopped by to investigate, but they went missing, too.

He downed his third coffee that morning when he saw a familiar face. He smirked, slamming him mug down and stood up. “Now why is your dumbass face here in Mery City, Iowa? Tired of the small town life up there in Conyers?” Goodman remarked.

Loki smirked, punching his friend’s arm. “Apparently I’m a workaholic. Don’t know where the chief got that idea,” he said.

They squared each other up, almost inches from each other’s face before breaking out into a smile. Goodman shoved him away and invited him to sit with him. Loki took the seat across and ordered a cup of coffee from the server.

“But, seriously, Dave, why are you here?”

Loki shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know. Been busy with cases that I didn’t know what to do when I don’t have one.”

Goodman studied his friend for a moment. “No girl… or guy?” He saw a hint of a smile on Loki’s lips before he schooled his face again. “Who is this person that managed to get your cold dead heart pumping?”

“We’ve been talking on and off. Long distance stuff and… we’re just friends, that’s all.” The server came and placed his cup of coffee down. He thanked her and took a sip before leaning back, ignoring his friend’s curious look. “I’ve heard what’s going on in the news. Anything I could help with?”

Goodman laughed. “You’re on vacation, Loki. But… if you must know, and you never heard this from me, but there’s been some missing persons within the last month. I know this is kind of your thing, so I want a second brain to help me think this through.” Loki nodded at him to continue, so he proceeded to give him the gist of the missing persons cases. “It got so bad that the feds got involved. These two guys that look like Calvin Klein models-”

“Two tall brown hair guys that drives an Impala?”

“Y… yeah. How did you-”

“Was there another person with them?”

“No, it was just them. Agents Jessie and James. You know them?”

Loki nodded. “Yeah, they came by Conyers a few months ago when we had those crazy animal attacks. You say that they’re here?”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen them for awhile. They weren’t at their motel, they haven’t answered their phones, but their Impala is still in the parking lot. You thinking these kidnappings are more serious than we thought?” Goodman asked, frowning.

“Maybe. Look, I know I can’t do anything since it’s not my county, but I know someone who could.”

It’s been awhile since you’ve done a case on your own. Being part of the Winchester’s hunts, you were used to having a towering body walking into the police station with you, giving you a bonus in intimidation so they could take you seriously.

You got the call from Loki that Sam and Dean were missing, so you had to excuse yourself for dinner and stop by Mery City to check it out. Jody wished she could go, too, but she had responsibilities with the girls and Sioux Falls. So, you had to go by yourself, taking your motorcycle all the way to Mery City and met up with Detective Harold Goodman.

“My friend, Detective Loki said you could help with this case. There’s been a recent case, but this time, the dog’s still here,” Goodman said.

“The dog?” you asked.

“Yeah, the missing persons seem to be pet owners, going missing along with their pet,” he explained with a shrug.

“I’m going to have to check their houses and look at the testimonies from their friends and families,” you said, placing your hands on your hips.

“Sure, anything that’ll help.”

After looking into the case files of the first five people, reading through the testimonies, and going through Sam’s notes on the cases, you moved on to investigating into the most recent case, searching the house for clues. The latest victim had a roommate that usually kept to himself, having only seen the victim when he’d come out of his room.

“It’s weird,” the roommate said, “He usually comes home on time and feeds Jerrold.”

“Jerrold?” you asked.

“Yeah, Steven’s pet crested gecko. I thought I heard him, then I heard a scream, and when I rushed out of my room, Jerrold was on the ground, but no Steven,” he said, gesturing over to Steven’s room.

“Mind if I take a look around?”

“Go ahead. I’m going to be heading out soon.”

This Steven was a neat freak that would put your room to shame. Desk neatly organized with a calendar that’s color coded, sheets clean, dirty laundry all thrown in the hamper and not scattered around. You inspected the glass tank, the bottom filled with pellets and a long branch rested from one corner to another. Perched on that branch was a cute fiery colored crested gecko.

You moved on, searching for anything out of place. It wasn’t until you reached the cabinet where Steven stored the food and equipment for his gecko did you find anything. You carefully pushed a few boxes aside and reached for the small pouch tucked away in the corner. This was definitely a hex bag, but of what kind?

You stood up and went to leave when the gecko climbed out of its tank. You picked Jerrold up and tried to place him back inside, but he kept struggling. A glint of metal reflecting off of the glass caught your attention. You just about dodged the attack, rolling out of the way of your assailant dressed in black with heavy set boots.

Your eyes darted around for a potential weapon, grabbing a metal ruler from the desk. The man stalked towards you with a meat cleaver, raising it above his head. You breathed in deeply before rushing at him, knocking the cleaver out of his hand with the ruler. He hissed, turning to the empty tank and growled in frustration. He ransacked the tank and cabinets before turning back to you. You rushed for the meat cleaver, his giant hands reaching it first. You backed away slowly, trying to read the masked man.

He was clearly looking for something, that much was obvious, and you’re only in the way. So far, he seemed human. You refused to draw a gun on him until it was absolutely necessary. But he was also big and heavy weight, which means you couldn’t tackle him easily.

Just as you figured out the right course of action, a flower vase was smashed onto his head. You backed away as he landed forward with a loud thud. Alex and Claire glared down at the man and had the decency to look sheepish at you. Their eyes then flickered over to your shoulder where Jerrold was quietly perched.

“How did you guys get here,” you demanded, “Does Jody know?”

They exchanged a look, then shook their heads. You sighed, unable to stay angry at them for long. They were old enough to go hunting, but you didn’t want Jody to worry.

“We were hoping to see the hot detective,” Claire said.

“And also help you save Sam and Dean,” Alex added.

“Right, well, you two order something and I’ll fill you guys in.” They grinned. “But, you guys have to call Jody first.”

They went ahead to call their mom while you try to reach the boys again. Whatever was going on, it involved witchcraft and the animals. When the boys didn’t pick up, you opened up your laptop and went into researching the type of hex used. You were a bit out of touch with witchcraft, being so engrossed with your research, you didn’t notice Alex and Claire whispering to each other and a figure making their way over to your table.

“Glad you could come over and help,” Loki said, taking the empty seat next to you.

You looked away from the screen and raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re supposed to be on vacation,” you scolded.

“What does that even mean?”

Your lips were drawn into a thin line, not amused by his remark. “Anyways,” you said, turning back to the girls, “This is definitely witchcraft. I found a hex bag in Steven’s room. This type that was used to bind a soul to another living being, using the essence of both subjects. For example,” you paused, holding up the hex bag, “This one has his hair and the tip of his gecko’s tail. Meaning…”

“Steven is in Jerrold?” Alex asked, looking over at the small cage placed at the end of the table where Jerrold was listening.

“We just need to burn the bags, right?” Claire said, looking at the hex bag.

“Right, but we need to find where everyone is. Detective Goodman has one of the dogs over at the station. For some reason, this man is after them. Find the animals, find the hex bags, we find the witch and we find the Winchesters. Got that, Loki?” You turned to the detective who looked blankly back at you.

“There are witches?”

“Since this is your version of a vacation, want to go on a hunt?”

Alex and Claire smiled, having been watching the two of you interact the entire time. It was no secret that your eyes would light up every time you looked at the detective, and Loki would always smiled softly when he looked at you. For years, you were like an aunt to them and they want you to be safe and happy. One slip up from detective Loki, and they’ll give him hell.

You’ve split into two teams, you with Alex and Loki with Claire, searching for the hex bags for each missing person. Detective Goodman helped looked into the assailant and found that their own pets had been either stolen or poisoned by heartless strangers just because. You went in to question him and found that he had been using witchcraft only recently and the other animals along with Sam and Dean were hidden away at an old family barn outside of the city.

You had the girls consolidate the hex bags and burn them while you, Loki and Goodman went out to search for the barn. By the time you reached there, Sam and Dean had broken the others out from below the barn and were checking that everyone was alright. Goodman had called backup to help transport them back to the city while you rushed at your boys, jumping up to wrap your arms around them.

“Jody would have been so pissed if you missed Christmas dinner,” you mumbled.

“No kidding,” Sam chuckled.

“Yeah, you saved us, kid, but what the hell is Batman and Joker’s lovechild here?” Dean asked, narrowing his eyes at Loki.

You turned back to Loki and smiled. “Long story. Maybe over at dinner?”

Loki blinked, startled. “Wait, are you asking me…”

“Got any place better to be?”

“Well, if it’s alright with everyone,” he said, looking between the two brothers.

You turned to Dean and gave him your best puppy eyes. He let out an exasperated big brother sigh with a roll of his eyes and threw his hands up in defeat. You gave him a tight hug before dragging Loki, who was hiding a smile, back to the car.

Sam gave a teasing smirk to Dean. “Shut up, bitch,” Dean grumbled, pushing passed him.

“Jerk!” Sam called out after him.

When Sam and Dean rolled up to Jody’s driveway with Alex and Claire behind them, Jody was already waiting with her arms crossed. She hugged the brothers, glad that they were okay before moving on to her girls who she had also hugged, knowing that they’re safe. You parked your motorcycle near the mailbox, Loki holding on for dear life behind you. It was his first time riding a motorcycle, but he didn’t want to admit how nervous he was, though he did enjoy the fact that he got to hold you throughout the ride.

You helped Jody bring the food over as Alex and Claire set the table up. Jody didn’t want the boys to be sitting around and having the women do all the work, so she had them clean up the house and finish putting up decorations.

“I like him,” Claire suddenly told you.

“What do you mean?” you asked, looking over at Loki who was frowning at the tinsel decorations.

“Well, I spoke to him while we were searching through the houses and he seems pretty cool, though he did say he had a temper. I think he’s more like Dean in that sense,” she said, “You seem happy that he’s here.”

You shrugged, the corner of your lips turning up. “Well, I don’t think he had a chance to have a dinner like this, so I just thought it’d be nice to bring him, you know? He did help by calling me over to stop the witch.”

“He’s pretty cute, too,” Jody piped in, winking at you, “Awkward, but cute.”

“That’s enough from you guys,” you said, rolling your eyes.

For the first time in a long time, the dinner table was full. Jody, Alex, Claire, Sam, Dean, you, and Loki. Cas and Jack came later, along with Donna who had made her way over from Minnesota. The ten of you held hands and said grace, thanking whoever that cared to listen for this strong, wayward, found family that you had all made along the way. You looked over at Loki, who had a strange look on his face, and squeezed his hand. He blinked a couple of times and smiled at you, squeezing your hand back.

“Alright, let’s dig in. I’m starving!” Dean said, grabbing the nearest plate of food over.

To think in your hectic lives of being a hunter, there could be moments like these that you could relax and enjoy with the people you love. It made you wonder if it was possible to have many more like these, moments of peace, if the fighting would ever be over, and what would you do if it did. Anger, sadness, grief, pain in every sense of the word, are what hunters have to endure, mostly the Winchesters, but it’s all worth it when you save people so they don’t have to go through it. Then, you just simply carry on.

#writersmonth2019 #Detective Loki x reader #Detective Loki #Spn x prisoners #Prisoners (2013)#supernatural #supernatural imagine #David Wayne Loki #Continuation of I Can Explain #Oneshot #Catching up with writer's month #jake gyllenhaal #jake gyllenhaal imagine

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