#we probably smell strange since we’ve been out battling

[unovan-gardener]

[Spirit Box Function Active]

Back home with Trowel!

He had a surprise for CD but-

well they don’t seem to be in the mood right now ^^

[marauderundercover]

This Side of Normal Chapter Three

Previous

AO3

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is tired. She’s tired of emotional terrorists and liars and classes with a teacher who cares more about keeping the peace than teaching. She’s also just plain tired. Taking a long swig of coffee, Marinette jumps slightly as someone flounces down next to her. Wearily glancing over, she frowns at the look on her best friend’s face. Her mind runs a million miles a minute as she searches for the reason for the look on his face. The conversation on the roof with Jason flashes in her mind and she frowns, realizing why he looks so sad.

“Adrien-” She starts, but he shakes his head.

“I know, Mari. I know he’s our best suspect but...it doesn’t make it hurt any less.” He says, slouching so that he can lay his head on her shoulder. Marinette sighs in response

“You’re gonna get in trouble sitting back here, kitty.” She mumbles, trying not to laugh at the absolutely adorable pout on his face that forms once she’s done talking.

“It’s worth it. I hate sitting by Lila.” He grumbles, the sad look on his face breaking Marinette’s heart.

“I-Well, maybe Mme. Bustier won’t notice.” She offers with a small smile. The smile falls almost immediately as a loud gasp rings throughout the room.

“Mme. Bustier, isn’t Adrien’s seat in the front row? Has the seating chart changed again?” Lila asks, her voice wobbly with tears. “Do I- do I have to sit by myself?” She adds. Marinette groans and drops her head onto the desk.

“Adrien? Why don’t you come back to your seat. We’re going to start class soon.” Mme. Bustier calls out.

“Sorry, guess I spoke too soon.” Marinette mumbles from her spot against the table. Adrien groans, but drags his bag down to the front row, furrowing his eyebrows as Lila immediately attaches herself to his arm. Marinette rolls her eyes, trying her hardest to pay attention to the lecture when all she wants to do is sleep. Between Ladybug duties, commissions, and homework, Marinette was lucky to get more than a couple hours of sleep each night. Add in the fact that once she could go to sleep her brain wouldn’t shut off, and Marinette was ready to petition her parents for an IV drip for her coffee. Having been completely zoned out for the entire class, Marinette jumps when the telltale sound of an akuma alarm suddenly blares throughout the room. Pulling out her phone, Marinette curses under her breath. Another element based akuma. Quickly grabbing her bag, Marinette follows the rest of the class towards the akuma shelter, silently slipping away and into the bathroom. She wastes no time in transforming, instead swinging herself out the window and to the fight.

----

Glancing down at his computer, Jason frowns. Gabriel Agreste has a kid. A kid Damian’s age, who lives in Paris. If Gabriel Agreste really was Hawkmoth, he was doing it knowing that his kid could get caught in the crossfire. Damn shitty parents. Letting out a shaky breath, Jason tries to think about things that calm him. Breathe. Can’t get pissed off here. Can’t make it harder on those kids than it already is. Deciding enough is enough when it comes to research (especially since he didn’t give Replacement specifics, just told him to look into anything sketchy with Agreste), Jason walks over and glances out the hotel window. A sudden alarm blaring through the hotel makes him sigh in frustration. It was the same alarm from last time, when he watched Paris flood and hundreds of bodies float in the streets. Climbing out onto the fire escape, Jason hurries up to the roof, scanning the horizon in hopes of seeing the akuma.

“Shit.” He says, eyes widening at the sight of flames twenty feet high. Regretting letting Bruce convince him to leave the helmet in Gotham, Jason has no choice but to watch the akuma fight from afar. Even if the two heroes hadn’t recognized him, Jason was in Paris on “official” W.E. business. Being recognized as Bruce Wayne’s adoptive son while fighting a supervillain? Probably not the best idea. He’d do more damage than help, and at least by staying away from the fight, he could help the kids later. And maybe track down the son of a bitch who decided focusing the majority of his attacks on a school was a good idea.

----

Jason grit his teeth as the lights flashed and ladybugs flew around, fixing up the city. This battle took almost three hours, and the smell of burning flesh was lingering, despite all of the corpses being reanimated. Huffing, Jason climbs back off the roof, only thinking one thing. There was no way in hell he was leaving Paris until Hawkmoth was out of commission.

----

Landing softly on the rooftop, Marinette glances over at the strange man. Jason. The man who, for some reason, was willing to train them late at night on top of a roof, just so they could fight out of the suits. Not that he understood everything that the suits could do, but that was for the best. Even though his intentions seemed genuine, Marinette had learned not to trust easily anymore. Ever since Lila came, Marinette was wearier, and more likely to ask questions before accepting someone.

“Here’s your mask, if you wanna go ahead and change and start doing some basic stretches.” Jason instructs, getting right down to business as he passes the black domino mask to her. Marinette nods and flits behind the chimney.

“Spots off.” She says quietly, grinning at Tikki.

“Is this really a good idea?” Tikki asks, her face scrunched up with worry. Marinette sighs at her friend.

“He’s gonna help us find Hawkmoth. And he has a point. What happens if I can’t transform but someone still needs my help? I don’t want to be helpless, Tikki.” Marinette says.

“Just be careful, you don’t have the suit to stop you from being too injured.” Tikki warns before flying to the top of the chimney. Marinette hesitates a second before sliding the domino mask on, blinking to get used to the eye cover. It was...weird, having a mask on that wasn’t magic. With the mask that came with her suit, Marinette couldn’t feel it. It was just there, part of her. The domino mask, though, was solid. She could feel it resting on her face. Taking a breath to steady herself, Marinette walked out from behind the chimney.

“Chat Noir’s changing over there.” Jason says when he notices her, nodding towards an air duct on the opposite side of the roof.

“Thank you, for offering to help us.” Marinette says, Jason nods, a tense smile on his face.

“No problem.” He says.

“Did you happen to look into Gabriel Agreste today?” She asks.

“Yeah, what kind of asshole decides to be an emotional terrorist in a city where his kid lives?” Jason asks, a dark look crossing his face. Marinette flinches, looking at Jason nervously. If he had the means to train them, she really didn’t want to deal with him as an akuma.

“Gabriel Agreste, apparently.” Adrien says, finally joining the two, his arms crossed. Marinette frowns at him. It was much harder to read his face with his eyes hidden.

“So did you guys want me to look more into Agreste?” He asks, raising an eyebrow as he looks between the two. Marinette glances at Adrien, letting out a small breath when she sees his small nod.

“Yeah. Even if it’s not Gabriel, we need to know for sure.” She says. Jason nods.

“Alright. That gives me something to do tomorrow. Now, stretch and warm up. I don’t wanna have to drag your asses off this roof ‘cause you pulled something trying to jump right into things.” Jason says, a teasing grin on his face. Marinette grins back, finally feeling lighter. Maybe training would be a good thing.

----

Training was hell. Okay, maybe not hell, but it was not easy. Gasping for air, Marinette dramatically collapses on the roof.

“Aw come on Pixie, you can do better than that.” Jason teases, still standing in a sparring stance.

“Jay, I swear. We’ve been training for over a week. I’m exhausted. And you’ve already kicked my ass twice. I’m giving up.” She says, throwing her arm over her face to block out the lights from the surrounding street lamps.

“Come on Bug, don’t give up!” Adrien cheers from the side, a smirk on his face. Marinette sits up and narrows her eyes at him, despite knowing the mask wouldn’t let him see her eyes. And the level of done that was visible there.

“Why don’t you try again?” She asks in a taunting tone. Adrien snorts.

“You and I both know that I can’t beat Jason.” He says, shaking his head in amusement.

“Not with that attitude. Come on kid, let’s go.” Jason says, turning to face Adrien instead of Marinette. An idea flashes into Marinette’s head and she smirks, lunging forward and yanking Jason down as his attention is completely on Adrien. Grabbing his wrists as he falls, Marinette manages to twist him around so that his face is against the rooftop and his arms are bent behind him.

“Okay, okay, I tap out.” Jason chuckles, accepting Marinette’s hand when she jumps up and reaches out to help him up.

“I won.” She says with a wide grin.

“You totally cheated.” Jason replies with a snort.

“Nah, Kitty and I just worked together to outsmart you.” Mari says.

“Don’t drag me into this, I had no idea what was happening ‘til Jay was on the ground.” Adrien says, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Traitor.” Marinette huffs, sticking her tongue out at her best friend.

“Hey, you guys are gonna have to go home soon.” Jason says, glancing down at his watch. Marinette frowns.

“What about the Plan?” She asks. “I thought we were gonna work on that tonight so that we have an actual plan to stop Hawkmoth instead of just letting him run around and terrorize people nonstop.”

“Pixie, it’s late. I promise we’ll start with planning tomorrow. But you guys need to go get some sleep. Chat told me you’re already living off of coffee alone. That’s not healthy.” Jason says. Marinette rolls her eyes, sticking her bottom lip out in a pout.

“Coffee is my life fuel and I will not apologize.” She says, making both Chat and Jason groan.

“You’re worse than my brother.” Jason says and Mari grins.

“I’m sure we’d get along swimmingly.” She says, and Chat shakes his head.

“Nope. I draw the line at your coffee addicted butt meeting another coffee addict. I’m not about to watch that train wreck.” He says, grabbing Mari’s hand and tugging her behind the chimney so they can transform. Saying their phrases quickly, the two dart back over to Jason.

“Same time?” Marinette asks with a bright smile. Jason nods. Marinette waves, running over to the edge of the building and swinging away, waving at Adrien as he vaults towards his house. As she lands on her balcony, Marinette can't help the wide smile that stretches across her face. Maybe they could finally end this.

Next

[emialawliet]

The mysteries of Wonder Egg Priority and some interesting things I found in it

Oh hi Acca. Wait is that a crack on your right lens?

One of the great things about WEP is that it is an original anime wherein we do not have any source material to check on its story thus we do not have a clue on what’s gonna happen next besides the things that happen in each episode. These are one of those animes which are fun to observe.

Plot Summary: Ai scores a “Wonder Egg” from a gachapon machine at a deserted arcade. But now when Ai falls asleep a girl emerges from her Wonder Egg, the worlds of dreams and reality begin to collide. And it’s all connected.

From the first episode, we have been given a huge amount of symbolism. Aside from the main subject of bullying and Ai’s guilt by pretending not to see it that cost her bestfriend’s life, there are a lot of other things that I noticed that seem to have a deeper meaning behind them or could be a hint to something. I’ll list these things one by one from the first 2 episodes..

This post is going to be quite a long one, so I’ll keep it minimal enough to just tickle your thoughts. And believe me, things got clearer to me as I am making this post.

The anime starts in a sort of a dream world.. or is it?

1) The firefly

In some cultures firefly may not have a positive reputation. But in Japan, where they are called "hotaru," they are beloved – a metaphor for passionate love in poetry since Man'you-shu (the 8th century anthology). -Namiko Abe @ thoughtco.com

Ai can be seen looking at a dead firefly. She seems caring for it and she even gave it a proper burial. Could this symbolize someone dear to her? Now let’s proceed..

2) person in the car

Is this a clue? I’ll remember that hair for some reason..

3) Ai’s conversation with the firefly and the Special Gacha Machine

firefly: What are you doing in a place like this?

Ai: Walking.

F: This late at night?

After burying the firefly, it suddenly came out the soil and spoke to Ai with a male voice. Their conversation seems to me like a suspicious man talking to an innocent girl in a place where a young one like her isn’t supposed to be..

F: The first time’s free. Next time bring your wallet.

This is one of the things commonly used to convince someone to try something they are usually not willing to for the first time. Like a free trial..

..and was then led somewhere underground where the “Special Gacha Machine” is located.

That’s a lotta eggs. What could this underground facility be? And here’s the Gacha Machine:

So that’s the thing in the poster.

Weird huh? But the next morning, Ai wakes up with the egg beside her..

4) The dream

..Or is it not entirely a dream? I mean the egg appearing beside her is one thing although it could be that the egg is just in her mind. But the thing that complicates things is the injuries she gets in real life, to the point where she and even Neiru needs to get hospitalized.

Ai asked why this (the whole dream she’s in) is happening to her and this is what Kurumi said:

“Nothing costs more than a free gift huh?” Indeed, life is priceless. But in this story, it is only free the first time. The second night, Ai paid a huge price. Could those injuries mean this?

“This is a dream to you, but to me it is reality.” -Kurumi Saijo

Ai will not die in this dream, as long as her eyes and heart are okay.

Did she really sneak at night twice? Since getting the Wonder Egg to saving Kurumi? In this scene we also see the teacher in full for the first time and I dunno about you guys but I think that hair is familiar..

The firefly even asked her this. We’ve seen Ai sneaking out at night but the things that follow are strange enough to happen in real life. Is it possible that what we're seeing is a mixture of Ai’s imagination and reality?

Something caused these injuries. Or is it Ai herself? Let us find out..

After saving Kurumi, a mysterious male voice said “Too bad, you only get saved. But you have to cheer up if you want your bestfriend back.”

She then asked this:

..but got no clear response. Of course we know the answer, Koito is not going back to life. but why does the voice demand her to do that? Not even the firefly could answer her clearly. But she continued to believe that this will get her bestfriend back. 

“If you can’t protect them, you won’t make it either.” -Firefly

“There’s no point going to save someone if she gets herself killed.” -Ura-Acca

Does they mean the guilt might kill her too? Does this imply suicide? Could this be a hint where Ai gets her injuries?

And Neiru asked her who she is fighting for.. Ai firmly said it was for Koito.

“You don’t like yourself now, so you go. You want to change the self you hate.” Well this could also be true for herself despite saying it’s for her sister whom she let die. How? We’ll soon know more about this I guess.. At the moment, we know that Neiru loves her current self. 

Ai hates herself for betraying her bestfriend. The first friend she ever had.

Koito probably asked her to film the bullying as evidence, but Ai was too scared of being left out. She wasn’t able to get a good shot, but Koito only smiled at her and knew she did her best.

5) The egg

From the title itself, the egg is a very prominent object in this anime. We still do not have a clear answer as to what it really represents, but according to the speaking firefly and Kurumi, it contains what a person wants the most, and in Ai’s case, it is a friend. She denies this to both of them but they both know it is the truth.

The eggs appear in different colors, with letters, numbers and symbols printed on them. Once cracked, it reveals a person. This is where we can relate the egg’s symbolism of life and creation. 

A mysterious male voice angrily told Ai to break the egg, and this is what he said afterwards:

Ai is “good” at it, huh. What could he probably mean I wonder..

It was later revealed that Kurumi is another sculpture, a “captured maiden” in a different world like Ai’s bestfriend Koito. This confirms that Kurumi is also dead, which leads me to think that the eggs are the souls of those who died from suicide or abuse. 

They couldn’t pass on unless the guilt of their friends stop holding them back. And this I think is also what’s happening to our MC Ai and Koito’s soul.

6) Kurumi Saijo

She wears a different uniform than Ai’s. A victim of bullying by 3 girls.

Like Ai, she also said she did not have any friends, just superficial ones.

And this could be hinting at the reason why she was bullied by those girls. She does have the looks. But these looks might be the reason why she had no real friends. And a boyfriend of this fake friend probably liked her and broke up with her fake friend which started the bullying. I smell jealousy.

In this dream, she found her resolve while saving Kurumi.

I gotta say though, the animation is impressive from start to finish. That button popping off has me goin “whoa they even thought of adding that bit.” And the explosion that followed.. oof.

After being saved by Ai, she asked Ai to not forget her and disappeared into dust. Was Kurumi able to finally pass on?

) Minami Suzuhara

Seriously, in this anime, adorable girls have no friends.

Damn her “trauma” is a ridiculous boob monster. 

She could have died due to over fatigue and stress from her coach’s verbal abuse.

Ai had another injury the following day.

) Ai’s enemies

The Seenoevils, a disorderly mob. In real life, they are the ones that pretend not to see the bullying, letting it happen and thus contribute to the damage being dealt to thee victim. And the form of the egg’s “traumas”, the Wonder Killer, which are the main cause who led the victims to their deaths. In the dream world, they do not attack Ai. But they can damage her, only for the effects to appear outside the dream.

Ai uses Kurumi’s pen as her first weapon, and Minami’s ribbon wand as the second.

Like Kurumi, after she was saved she also asked Ai to remember her before disappearing into dust.

) The teacher

Ai’s teacher seems really nice, going as far as to visit her and deliver the week’s print outs to their home. Ai must not be attending school for weeks..

We now know that Ai’s location is nearby their teacher’s home. Could he be the guy in the car then? We don’t have enough evidence of that as of yet.

In the second episode, Ai’s teacher visited again.

Now we see his face. He’s got a mole huh.

But why this question teach? 

So that’s his name. And why the special treatment?

Here we see him walk behind Koito and she follows..

) Acca & Ura-Akka

The most intriguing thing I found in the first ep..

After discovering the truth about Kurumi, Ai was led to the end of the underground tunnel and found these two strange dolls playing Go, a japanese traditional board game. One looks like a professional, and the other just casual. They introduced themselves as Acca and Ura-Acca.

Judging by that definition, these two dolls could be the same person. Let’s watch out for that.. Who could this person be? And what is his connection to Ai?

“Haste makes waste.” These two are worried about Neiru. They strongly advise on taking the process slow or else she might die. Is this person a therapist?

) Neiru Aonuma

Did I read that right.. VICE PRESIDENT?? I get the feeling her sister died caused by neglect from their parents because they were more focused on this Neiru who “loves herself”. She also seems to me like a foreigner. She speaks english quite well and we see the mom with a nice cute afro.

She was too greedy to get multiple eggs at once. She could have fought through an intense battle. Probably why she was put in the intensive care unit. 

She also does not know the fun of being in a friendship. But then she agrees on being friends with AI :) I am glad how Ai is starting to change too.

I am looking forward for these two’s friendship <3

And that’s about all the curious things I’ve gathered in the first 2 episodes.

I am definitely going to continue watching this series and witness the truth unfold. Until the next egg time!

[babypandawrites]

Allies, Pt. 7

Bato of the Water Tribe

Pairing: Sokka x F Reader Warnings: None Word Count: 3,614 Summary: Meeting Bato and getting to see Southern Water Tribe things was nice, but, the visit probably could have gone better if you were being honest. 

-Navigation- | -Allies Masterlist- | -Atla Masterlist- 

“Where did those two go off too?”  Y/n took a look around the forest area, as she walked with Katara.  “They’re over there… what are they doing?” Katara pointed off in the direction Aang and Sokka were at, before walking over to them. Y/n followed her. It seemed like they were looking for something.  “Did someone lose something?”  “No, we found something.” Aang looked in a bush as he spoke.  Y/n approached a tree that had burn marks on it. She ran her hand along them, eyebrows furrowing together. “Firebenders we’re here.”  Sokka came and stood next to her, looking at the tree. “There was a battle. Water Tribe warriors ambushed a group of firebenders.” He looked down, and began walking down the hill. “The firebenders fought back, but the warriors drove them down this hill…”  She lingered for a moment, letting her eyes fall shut as her nails dug into the burnt wood. Part of her wondered if her brother had been here. Sighing, she shook the thoughts away, and was quick to catch up with the others just as they reached a beach.  “Wait! Look!” Katara pointed at the beach shore. There was a water tribe boat. “It’s one of our boats!” Sokka ran over to it, the other three following.  Once they’d gotten to it, the four looked up at it.  “Is this… Dad’s boat?”  Sokka rubbed his hand along the ship’s prow, smiling. “No, but it’s from his fleet. Dad was here.” 

They’d stayed at the beach, near the Water Tribe boat, and set up camp there. Appa and the four of them were around a campfire. Aang and Katara were asleep, Sokka sat awake tending to the fire. Y/n had yet to fall asleep, but still laid on her back like she had, and arm draped over her eyes. Sighing, she sat up. Hearing her, Sokka was pushed from his thoughts, jumping in place slightly.  He looked over to her with a confused look. “I thought you were asleep.”  She shook her head softly. Moving to sit next to him, she pulled her knees up to her chest. “I wasn’t able to. You can’t either?”  “No.” He went quiet for a moment, gaze looking back to the fire. “How come you can’t sleep?”  Resting her chin on her knees, she wasn’t able to answer before he spoke up again. “Is it because of your brother? Katara mentioned he was fighting in the war like our dad a while back.”  “Yeah. I’m guessing you're being kept up because of your dad..?”   He offered a nod. “He was here.” Pausing, he looked at her again. Her expression was melancholy. “Maybe your brother was here too, do you know what fleet he’s in?”  Right, Sokka thinks that…  “I don’t know. I wasn’t ever told anything more than he was going to fight in the war...”  Y/n breathed out a sigh, tracing patterns into the sand with her finger. Sokka placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.  Their heads snapped to the side, upon hearing a sound. When they stood up, Sokka gently nudged her behind him.  “Who’s there?”  A bandaged man who came from the Water Tribe started to slowly approach the camp. He looked between the two for a short moment. “Sokka?” His guard dropped. “Bato?”  Aang woke up. “Who the what now?” Katara, also awake now, got up off the ground. “Bato!”  The man, Bato, hugged the two. “Sokka! Katara! It is so good to see you two! Oh, you’ve grown so much.”  Aang bowed slightly. “Hi, I’m Aang.” Y/n offered a small wave. “Y/n.”  Bato gave a nod of greeting to the two.  “Where’s Dad?” “Is he here?”  “No, he and the other warriors should be in the eastern Earth Kingdom by now.”  They all shivered as the wind picked up.  “Brr! This is no place for a reunion. Let’s get inside.” Bato put his arms over Katara and Sokka’s shoulders, and motioned for Aang and Y/n to follow them. Appa got up and walked away from the campfire after them. 

Bato led them to a monastery complex, speaking as they walked through the main gate. “After I was wounded, your father carried me to this abbey. The sisters have cared for me ever since.” He turned his head to one of the nearby women. “Superior, these are Hakoda’s children. They’ve been traveling with a friend of theirs and the Avatar. I found them by my boat.”  The woman bowed. “Young Avatar, it gives me great joy to be in your presence. Welcome to our abbey.”  Aang bowed as well. “Thank you! It’s truly an honor to be here. If there’s anything-” Sokka cut him off. “What smells so good, Bato?” He sniffed the air. “The sisters craft ointments and perfumes.” “Perfume? Maybe we can dump some on Appa? Because he stinks so much! Am I right?” None of them looked amused.  “You have your father’s wit.”  Bato led them around once again, this time to where it was assumed he was staying.  Katara looked around excitedly. “Bato! It looks like home!” Sokka joined her. “Everything’s here, even the pelts!”  The pair examined the room, Y/n quickly joining them. She looked about in amazement, carefully dragging her hand along one of the pelts. “Woah…” Sokka glanced at her with raised eyebrows.  “You act like you’ve never seen this kind of stuff before.” “I haven’t.”  His head turned to the side in confusion. “Didn’t you say your grandma was from the tribe?” “She is. My mom didn’t live in the South Pole when I was born though. I’ve never been.”  “Oh, sorry I just assumed that-” “It’s a reasonable assumption.”  Aang stood by the doorway, holding a disconcerted Momo. “Yeah, nothing’s more comforting than dead animal skins.”  Katara’s attention was drawn to a pot in the center of the room. She opened it up. “No way! Stewed sea prunes?” Bato chuckled. “Help yourself.” “Dad could eat a whole barrel of these things.” Sokka moved to sit down next to her sister, by the pot. He patted the ground next to him. “Y/n, come here you gotta try these.”  Y/n sat down next to him, while Aang sat back from the group. She was a little hesitant to try it when she was handed a bowl. Honestly they weren’t terrible, but she couldn’t see herself eating more than the bit she’d been given.  “Bato, is it true you and Dad lassoed an arctic hippo?” Katara asked.  “It was your father’s idea. He just dragged me along. Well, the hippo did the dragging.” “Hey, I ride animals too! One time there was this giant eel-” Sokka cut Aang off. “So who was it that came up with the great blubber fiasco?”  Bato laughed. “You knew about that?”  “Everyone does.” “What’s that story?”  Y/n glanced over at Aang, before looking back at the others. “Yeah, I’m curious too.”  “It’s a long one, some other time.”  She furrowed her eyebrows together as Sokka waved off their curiosity. Setting the bowl she held down, she walked over to Aang- who was dejectedly sitting by the door with Momo -and sat next to him. He muttered something under his breath, the most she caught was about them being ignored. She placed a hand on his shoulder.  “They’re just excited about seeing Bato, I don’t think they mean to brush us off like that.”  “I know…” He sighed. “You should go back over there Y/n… You’re a part of their Tribe too.”  She shrugged. “Barely.”  He put his hand on her back, and nudged her forward a bit. “I’m also pretty sure Sokka wants you over there… Momo and I will just hang out back here, alright?”  “You're sure?” “Yes, go.” “Okay, okay..”  Getting up, Y/n went over and took her spot next to Sokka again, listening in on the story Bato was telling. She didn’t catch it all though, something about a water spirit. 

“There’s something I should tell you kids. I’m expecting a message from your father.”  Katara’s eyes lit up at the news. “Really?” “When?”  “Any day now. Your father said he’d send a message when they found the rendezvous point. If you can wait here until the message arrives you can come with me and see your father again.” Bato paused, looking at Y/n. “You can come too, your brother might be there.”  She laughed nervously. “I don’t know about that.” The siblings were a lot more thrilled at this news than her, or Aang.  “It’s been over two years since we’ve seen Dad! That would be so incredible. Katara?” “I do really miss him. It would be great to see Dad.”  “It’s been far too long, hasn’t it? I’m not sure when word will arrive, but when it does..” Sokka’s expression dropped slightly. “It would be great, but we can’t. We have to take Aang to the North Pole first.”  Katara nodded in agreement. “Even if we had time to wait for the message, who knows how far we’d have to travel. We don’t have time for a long detour.”  Y/n breathed out a small sigh of relief. “Yeah, they’re right.”  “I’m sure your father and your brother would understand and both be proud that you're all helping the Avatar. Y/n, if you let me know your brother's name I’ll tell him you're doing alright if he’s there.” “Uh.. his name is Mozi.”  “I’ll keep an eye out for him.”  Y/n glanced over to the door as it opened. Had Aang left…? “Hey everyone! Sorry I was gone so long.” Katara looked over as well. “Hey Aang, I didn’t notice you left.” “Yup, but now I’m back. Sure… could go for some delicious sea prunes!” He spoke with an exaggerated happiness, grabbing a bowl as he sat down. He began to munch down on the sea prunes, but spit them back out a few moments later.  They all looked at him strangely. 

The next day, Bato took them back out to his boat. “This ship is sentimental to me. It was built by my father.”  “Is this the boat he took you ice-dodging in?” “Yeah, it’s got the scar to prove it. Huh. How about you, Sokka? You must have some good stories from your first time ice-dodging?” Katara stepped into the conversation. “He never got to go. Dad left before he was old enough.” “Oh, I forgot you were too young.” Y/n raised an eyebrow, looking between the three. “What’s ice-dodging?”  Aang moved to stand next to her, also curious.  “It’s a rite of passage for young water tribe members. When you turn fourteen your Dad takes you.. You know what.” Bato placed a hand on Sokka’s shoulder. “You’re about to find out.”  Sokka, who’d been a little down before, smiled.  They’d all boarded up onto Bato’s boat, it sailed through the waves near shore.  “Ice-dodging is a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery and trust. In our village it was done by weaving a boat through a field of icebergs.” Sokka looked at him confused. “How are we supposed to ice-dodge without ice?”  “You will be dodging… those.” He pointed ahead, to a thicket of stalagmite like rocks.  Y/n gulped.  “Sokka, you steer and call the shots. Lead wisely. Katara, Y/n, you two secure the mainsail. The winds can be brutal, so be brave. Aang, you control the jib, without your steady hand we all go down. Your position is all about trust.”  Aang looked around nervously. “I know that! Why wouldn’t I know that? I’m the Avatar! I know about trust.”  Y/n gave him an odd look, but didn’t say anything as she took her position at the mainsail with Katara.  Bato sat down at the bow. “For this to be done right I cannot help. You pass or fail on your own.”  The four got ready at their respective position, looking at the rocks ahead with fright.  “Alright! Aang, ease up on the jib. Katara, Y/n, steady! Aang, less sail!” Sokka directed them, pulling the tiller to his right. “Katara, Y/n, give him room!”  They all did their part, weaving the boat in and out of the rocks.  “Aang! Helm to lee! Helm ot lee!” “What does that even mean?!”  All four of them struggled, but were narrowly able to miss a huge pile of rock. Sokka wiped the sweat from his brow.  “Great job guys!”  The ship entered a cul de sac ringed by jagged rocks, at a high speed. Katara’s eyes widened, as she looked back at her brother.  “There’s no way through!” “We can make it!”  Bato stood up. “Sokka, you’ve already proven yourself, maybe we should-” Sokka cut him off, and was quick to tell everyone what to do. “Aang, I’m gonna need air in that sail! Katara, I want you to bend as much water as you can between us and those rocks! Y/n, I need you to keep the sail under control! Now!”  Aang started to push wave after wave of air into the sail, while Y/n did her best to keep it steady. Katara raised the ship up on an accelerating wave of water. The wave carried the ship safely over the ring of jagged rocks. Sokka fell back against the tiller with a sigh of relief, as the others smiled for their accomplishment.  Back at the beach, Bato scooped some black face paint from a bowl. “The spirits of water bear witness to these marks. For Sokka, the mark of the wise, the same mark your father earned.” He marked Sokka’s head with a dot and a half circle above it.  “For Katara, the mark of the brave. Your courage inspires us.” He marked Katara’s head with a crescent shape.  “For Y/n, the mark of the brave as well. You may not have grown with us, but today you’ve proved your place in the Water Tribe.” He also marked Y/n’s head with a crescent shape.  “And for Aang, the mark of the trusted. You are now an honorary member of the Water Tribe.” He marked Aang’s head with a half circle.  “I can’t.”  Katara looked at him with surprise. “Of course you can!” Aang wiped the mark from his head. “No, you can’t trust me.” He backed away, head hung low. “Aang, what are you talking about.”  He held out a crumpled scroll. “A messenger gave this to me for Bato. You have to understand, I was afraid you’d-” “This is the map to our father!” Sokka looked at Aang, surprise and pain written on his face. “You had it the whole time!? How could you?” Aang shriveled back. “Well, you can go to the North Pole on your own! I’m going to find Dad.” Sokka started to stalk away angrily.  Bato looked between the two boys. “Now Sokka, I think you should-” Sokka interrupted him. “Katara, are you with me?” Katara looked at Aang, before lowering her gaze to the ground. “I’m with you, Sokka.” She turned away. “Y/n?”  Glancing between Sokka and Aang, Y/n mouthed a ‘sorry’ to Aang. She turned and followed after the others. 

Back at the abbey Y/n, Sokka, Katara and Bato were all getting ready to leave, putting on their backpacks. After Katara had a short exchange with Aang, the four of them walked out of the gate of the abbey.  As they walked down the road, a wolf could be heard in the distance. They stopped to listen.  Katara frowned. “That wolf sounds so sad.”  “It’s probably wounded.” Sokka commented.  “No, it’s been separated from the pack. I understand that pain. It’s how I felt when the Water Tribe warriors had to leave me behind. They were my family and being apart from them was more painful than my wounds.”  Y/n’s gaze dropped to the ground, as she gripped the straps of her backpack. “I understand that pain too…” She didn’t elaborate past that. Bato gave her a sympathetic look.  Katara looked at her brother with concern, noticing his sadness. “Sokka?”  He was silent for a moment. “We need to go back. I want to see Dad, but helping Aang is where we’re needed the most.”  “You’re right.” Katara smiled.  Though still downtrough, Y/n nodded in agreement. Bato placed a hand on each of the siblings shoulders. “Your father will understand. And I know he’s proud of you.” “Thanks, Bato.” “I know where to go from here.” He handed Sokka the map. “Take this in case you want to find us. I’ll leave a message at the rendezvous point.”  The three had started to walk back to the abbey. Sokka motioned for the two girls to stop, when a galloping sound could be heard from the distance. Suddenly a shirshu jumped behind the three, they ran. The three turned around to face their pursuiters after coming face to face with a ledge.  Y/n had to do a double take of who was riding the shirshu. “So this is your girlfriend.” Zuko jumped off the animal, and approached the three as the woman with him spoke. “No wonder she left, she’s way too pretty for you.”  “Where is he? Where’s the Avatar?”  Sokka’s gaze hardened. “We split up! He’s long gone.”  “How stupid do you think I am?” “Pretty stupid.” He grabbed Katara and Y/n by the arm, and started pulling them along with him. “Run!”  The trio didn’t get very far, however, because the shirshu paralyzed them with its tongue. They hit the ground with a grunt.  “What are we supposed to do now?”  “It’s seeking a different scent- Perhaps something the Avatar held.”  The shirshu moved forward and started sniffing at them. A map scroll fell out of Sokka’s backpack, it must be picking up Aang’s scent from there. The three were thrown up over the shirshu, before it started running in the direction of the abbey.  It crashed through the doors at the entrance of the abbey, some of the sisters who’d been near it were sent running. The shirshu sniffed at the ground, and started to walk in circles.  “What’s it doing? It’s just going around in a circle!”  It continued to follow the scent in a circle for a short moment. Before Y/n knew it, the shirshu was jumping at something, but got knocked off balance. All of them fell to the ground, along with the creature.  “Aang!”  She smiled at Katara’s exclamation. Thank goodness he was here, though it kind of sucked that the way she landed prevented her to see what was going on. How long was this paralysis going to last? What she could see from how she landed, however, was that Iroh had landed not too far from her. The man had gotten up from the ground, and dragged her off to the side. Now she could see that a fight was occurring between Aang and Zuko. She was propped up against a wall.  “It is good to see you are doing alright, Y/n.”  Iroh spared her a few words, before running off, seemingly to help the woman he and Zuko were with. Two of the sisters dragged Sokka and Katara over as well to get them out of the way of the fight. She couldn’t see the fight very well from the way her head hung low, but she is fairly certain she heard an explosion.  “Hey, I’m starting to get some feeling back!” Above them the roof rumbled, and tiles fell onto them- but mostly Sokka -from above. “Ow!” Y/n laughed a little.  The three had gotten enough of their movement back to stand up, with the support of the wall however. One of the sisters put some sort of perfume under their noses and it seemed to help.  “That thing sees with its nose. Let’s give him something to look at.” Sokka said.  “The perfume?” He offered a nod.  Sokka and Y/n helped the sisters push large pots of perfume out into the courtyard, and pushed them over. Katara used her bending to pull the perfume into a large sheet that she dropped over the shirshu. All the perfume scents must have confused it, because it started to rampage. It paralyzed Zuko and the woman he’d been with, before crawling over the abbey houses and running off. 

The four of them we’re quick to get up onto Appa, and fly away.  “So, where do we go?”  The three of them turned to look at Aang.  “We’re getting you to the North Pole.”  “Yeah, we’ve lost too much time as it is.”  Y/n nodded in agreement with the siblings. Aang turned back to look at them, expression twisted to confusion.  “Don’t you guys want to see your family?”  Adjusting how she sat, Y/n hugged her knees to her chest. “Of course, but, your our family too Aang.”  Sokka nodded. “Yeah, and right now, you need us more.”  “And we need you.”  Aang rested his chin in his hand. “I wish I could give you a little piece of home, Katara. Something to remind you-” Katara smiled softly. “I’ll be okay.” “Still, just a little trinket. Maybe something like…” He jumped up, and proudly offered Katara a necklace. “This!”  She gasped quietly, before taking the necklace from him and happily putting it on. Sokka did a double take.  “Aang, how did you get that?”  “Zuko asked to be sure I got it to you.”  Y/n leaned closer to Sokka. “I feel like I’m missing something here.”  “It’s something she lost before you joined our group.” “Oooh.”  “Oh, that’s so sweet of Zuko. Would you give him a kiss for me when you see him?” Katara spoke with mocked appreciation.  “Sure!” Katara leaned forward and pressed a kiss on Aang’s cheek, causing the boy the blush.

[minart-was-taken]

Linkverse writing?? I guess??! It’s a tad simple and rough around the edges, but hey, isn’t everything if you look close enough? I’m proud enough of it to share, so that’s a win in my books!

Title: Tree Trekking Characters: Twilight, Sky, Time, and Wild No warnings for this one (Although highly vague twilight princess spoilers?) “Tags” First meetings - the start of bonding - Sky being a good boy - Time is a little bastard - Twilight is tired

Enjoy!

“Those look like rain clouds…” Link signed, dreading the thought.

“Ah- I think you’re right.” Feathers replied the same way.

Link winced, but gathered himself quickly after, making sure his adventure pouch was properly attached to his belt. They didn’t need a member of the group complaining AND also him having a loose adventure pouch.

...He sounded like a dork- Goddesses, he was panicking a little wasn’t he? Rain wasn’t a big problem, but on top of everything else it felt like a slap to the face.

He had been snapped to another world, teamed up with two strangers who were also him, apparently, and now it was going to rain.

The little guy had nothing to say either, but that wasn’t anything new.

Taking leading action, Link gathered himself, found his posture and signed to the Link whose Hyrule this apparently was. “Do you know anywhere we could find shelter?”

The little guy turned to look at him, with an expression that made it seem like he had insulted his entire family. “It’s just rain.”

Link sighed. “We don’t have much on us, a town with an inn and a shop to purchase a bedroll or two seems like a good idea.”

The little guy was quiet, before turning around and walking off. By this point Link knew that was his way of saying “follow me.”

He quickly checked Feathers, who with a slight stumble and a check on his items was on his way to follow as well.

With the small one in the lead, followed by Link and Feathers, the day continued like the past few had.

It had been strange, suddenly ending up here with a bunch of strangers like this. With Feathers it had been easy, the guy seemed to have a good heart. However with the little guy it was a different story. He seemed to speak the minimum possible, and didn’t especially want to stay as a group- Making it a daily battle to convince him to keep helping them navigate this hyrule.

Still, they were managing.

“We should probably try to get you a sword too.”

Feathers seemed taken back by this, before smiling awkwardly: “We’ve not run into anything, though, have we? Besides, you two seem quite used to wielding yours.”

“I don’t trust this situation.” Link confessed. “Something is bound to go wrong.”

Feathers gave him a sympathetic look.

“I’m serious.” He insisted. “The air doesn’t just crack and cause people to teleport through time and space. Something bad is in the air.”

Feathers seemed to want to say something to deny it, but couldn’t. He turned his head forwards again, facing where they were going. “I have other weapons.”

Link still felt unsure, but accepted it for now.

A bit more traveling, now down what seemed to be a dirt path, Link felt the silence beginning to grind on him. He clenched his hands to fists, and released them, repeating this action a few times to calm his nerves. When it wasn’t enough, though, he shook his head and fastened his walking pace.

This way he caught up to the small guide, and signed: “Can you share the route with me? I’d like a better understanding of what to expect.”

The kid looked annoyed again, but after a moment replied: “Kakariko is down this road, to the west until we reach a big rock, and then down the road next to it.”

“Thank you.” He said, breathing with purpose to calm himself, as he fell back behind to walk next to Feathers again.

It had been a long time since he had panicked like this last. It had been at a cell, in a strange body and shackled to the floor. It had been when Midna’s hold on his fur had weakened further as he tried to be faster despite the pain. It had…

Link sighed. He’d survived all of those, he had been hurt, but he survived. He could handle yet another journey to an unknown world. This is fine.

The little guy disappeared in that second.

Link blinked.

The kid had genuinely disappeared- One moment he was there, the next he wasn’t. 

This was not fine, actually.

“Where did he go?!” He signed frantically to Feathers.

“I don’t know!” Feathers responded, equally bewildered. “Did I see that right?! Did he-”

“Did he vanish…?” He signed as well, turning to look at the spot again.

“Maybe-” Feathers, panicking much more clearly than Link was: “Maybe he got sent to another world, like we were.”

“That beats him being dead.”

Feathers was shaken by that addition, but Link ignored it in favour of walking over to where the kid had been and looking around. It was of no use, of course, but he felt powerless and not doing anything felt wrong.

Not again- Not again-

There was a loud crack inside his ears, and the space between him and Feathers looked like it was cracked glass. This strange scene lasted as long as it took it to arrive, and in the next moment: instead of reality looking broken, there was another boy.

This new stranger took a hitched breath, taking a quick step backwards, Having immediately noticed Link. The step however lead him right into Feathers, which caused the stranger to yelp and manifest a blade twice his size from blue light.

Feathers threw his hands in the air, panic filled eyes looking between the armed boy and Link.

Link breathed in and out, as he moved to walk around the newcomer and next to Feathers, with his hands up in the air as well. He hoped that moving from behind the stranger would make him realize he didn’t care for that tactical advantage, and was looking for peace.

The stranger watched, the weapon still in hand, but took no action.

“Are you-” Link signed: “L-I-N-K?”

The stranger’s eyes grew suspicious with each letter, and Link figured he had made a mistake of some sorts.

Quickly trying to bridge the miscommunication, he added: “So are we.”

The stranger shook his head, which wasn’t ideal.

“No?” Link signed. “What do you mean no?”

To that the stranger didn’t seem to have an answer for. Simply shrugging like it was obvious.

“He’s being honest.” Feathers joined in. “We’re both Link, the hero of courage.”

After eyeing the two over like they had lost their minds, the stranger sighed. “I don’t believe you.” He signed. “But I’m also not sure where I am.”

“That’s fair.” Link supposed. “We’re willing to share our information.”

“Spill it, then.”

After explaining their understanding of how they got here, and what they were doing, the stranger sighed and agreed that going to a town would seem smart in his eyes as well.

However he chose to walk behind Feathers and Link, which Link couldn’t blame him for. He had his own fair share of paranoia of the situation, after all.

Besides, he’d know if the kid tried to approach with a blade in hand, he was awfully good at keeping an eye on his surroundings.

Not good enough, though. Despite following the route the first angry kid had given: they somehow got lost anyway. Sure they found a big rock, but there was no path near it that led to anywhere other than more wilderness.

“Did we misunderstand?” Feathers asked him.

Link furrowed his brow, unsure of the answer. He was quite sure they had gone the exact route the kid described.

The newcomer whistled suddenly, causing the two older to turn and look at him.

He seemed annoyed, and signed: “Is this a trap?”

“I mean, if it was we wouldn’t tell you.” Feathers signed back, at which Link elbowed him.

“It’s not a trap. This is neither of our Hyrule, so we don’t know where things are. The person who gave us instructions either forgot something or we failed to follow it right.”

The stranger crossed his arms, and pouted. Suspicious.

Link, wanting to hit his head against the trees until he could disappear from this situation, tried to breathe in and out and figure this situation out before anything worse happened. “We can probably try and find it on our own.”

“Oh, true.” Feathers replied, smiling again.

“Alright.” The newcomer accepted, still tense.

“Great.” Link responded, tired. “What does everyone here know about scouting?”

Feathers looked a bit flustered, and admitted: “I spent most of my life on a single island- In the sky.”

“Ok.” was all Link could muster.

“I’m okay at it.” The newcomer said, looking a bit less confident than before. “I know what signs to keep an eye out for.”

Link nodded at this. Back in the day he could’ve asked Midna to change his form so he could simply smell the strange scent that towns had, but that stopped being an option a long time ago.

He could still manage with human senses. He had done so for the majority of his life.

So after they pooled their knowledge of what to look out for, they began trekking forwards. Although it was more the two actually experienced people describing some basic things to the one from the sky.

After one man-made path diverged into two, the tired air of the group only grew worse.

“So- Which way?” Feathers asked, trying to not cause anymore tension with the question, by smiling gently.

The newcomer lifted the strange slate he had on his belt, and used it to get a better look forward. It wasn’t enough, though: “The foliage is too thick, I can’t see where either of them leads.”

Feathers pouted.

Link, quite frustrated at this point, signed simply: “Just one thing we can do, then.” And proceeded to scan the area for the tallest tree.

Feathers looked in mild curiosity as Link walked up to an alright specimen, and proceeded to climb it with almost no trouble. Branch to branch, and a good grip on the wood while still being mindful of it’s well being.

From high up he could take a far better look around the area, and found his nerves eased as he spotted smoke from further on and down the right path, as well as the gentle breeze that flowed freely up there. He smiled, despite himself, and climbed back down.

Once he landed with a gentle thud, he let Feathers know what he had seen, before turning to look at the newcomer.

He had stayed by the path, unlike Feathers who had gone to wait for him at the trunk of the tree, and was looking at him with what Link would describe as surprise.

“I was raised on a farm.” Link stated, feeling actually a little up for joking, before he started walking down the right path.

The journey went alright, and although the smoke turned out to be from but a small cottage, it meant they weren’t entirely on the wrong track. Someone was able to live here, so it would mean a town could exist nearby as well.

The newcomer, who hadn’t said much, spoke up another few minutes into the walk, as they tried to decide between three paths this time. “I could climb this time?”

Link was a little surprised, but nodded and gave him a supportive smile. “Go for it.” It was nice seeing the hostility gone, and in its place a want to help.

What he saw then, was… Unexpected. The newcomer proceeded to pick a tree at ease, and then climb at a speed Link had never seen before. It was extremely impressive, and somewhat terrifying.

“Woah.” Said feathers.

Link nodded, slow and stunned.

When the kid returned to ground level- With a thud and an expert landing to boot -he explained that with the zoom on his slate he was able to spot a town. He wasn’t sure which path would lead to it, but if the rest were fine with just going to that general direction until they got to it, he’d be able to lead them.

Feathers and Link approved of the plan, and now followed after the newcomer who was walking forth, at times checking the slate.

Feathers began to talk to him about beacons, apparently something on the slate reminded him of his adventure. Link tuned it out due to not really getting it, and breathed in the forest air.

This was all very strange, but it was nice that no-one was being a grump for once.

At sunset they reached the town, and having moved along with the rain cloud, it only caught up to them at the village gates.

Link gave the newcomer a pat on the shoulder, which surprised him. “Good work.” He signed before heading forward to look for an inn.

The rain only caught them when they had a roof above their heads, as they had moved in the same direction as it had been heading.

Sitting in a shared room, there was that strange snap-crack again, and the other kid was back. Strange face markings as clear on the face of annoyance as always.

The newcomer didn’t disappear, so their three person room had just become crowded.

“Oh.” The kid commented, looking at them all, including the newcomer. “You made it.”

“...Were we not supposed to?” Link asked.

“I gave you the wrong directions.”

Link blinked. He was stunned, having trouble processing the situation. Not because it was so unexpected, but because he hadn’t seen it coming despite how obvious it was this kid wouldn’t help them properly.

“Why?!”

“I didn’t want you to find the town.”

“Again, why?”

“I don’t trust you.” The response was instant.

Link sighed, it wasn’t a reason he could exactly fight.

Giving up, he sat down on one of the beds. This was going to be a stressful adventure, wasn’t it? He lent back a bit, looking at the ceiling. He couldn’t deny the truth of that question, but a part of him wasn’t entirely bothered. It had been a while since he’d slept in a room with another living being.

[five-rivers]

Questions (Not Answered)

@amabsis  MERRY CHRISTMAS FEATURING CRYTIC DANNY AND HIS SPACE FRECKLES (and one other prompt you sent me, but that one’s a mystery).

.

.

.

Bare feet on ice. Breathe, he reminded himself.  He was human, for now, and he wasn’t supposed to be here.

Ice.  Thin ice.  

He was human, for now, but he didn’t have the weight of it.

In slow motion, he saw the much, much heavier man—Boy, really, he hadn’t graduated that long ago—step out on the ice, brow furrowed. A kind of rage lit him up, a paper lantern that burns itself, like the last time Danny had seen him, a frustration born of not being believed and—

The ice gave way.  

It took him a moment to remember to fall.  

.

Beeping.  White. It took him a moment to remember and remember he had been human.  At least then.  At least now. Something like a fever danced over his skin.  Pinpricks. A heated blanket.  Whiteness he has come to associate with a threat.  

He—

This is a hospital.  

He breathes.  He remembers. He wasn’t supposed to be there, but even less is he supposed to be here.  

There will be questions.  

It isn’t his fault, he reassures himself.  No way he could have been anywhere else, done anything else, except by the actions of others.  Not with safety.  Not with grace.  Not with morals.  

He can smell the other person in the room.  Their sweat.  The fabric softener their suit had been laundered in.  

“You should be dead,” said the man.  Accused the man.  

“Well,” croaked Danny, “clearly not.”

“We didn’t pull you out until after Agent W.”

Couldn’t they use the guy’s real name?  Agent W.  Too many syllables.  Too long to say in the heat of battle, or to keep him from running out and nearly drowning in a half-frozen lake.  

“You’re not dead until you’re warm and dead,” said Danny. “Heard it in a documentary.  Mom and Dad say it’s why you don’t see too many ghosts who died that way.  That and the hallucinations.”

His parents don’t think happy people leave ghosts.  They’re wrong.  In that and many other things.  

He does not look at the man.  The line on the heart monitor goes up and down, dead steady. He did not think of the ghosts he left behind him.  Of the battle and journey that left him on the ice, surrounded by white.

“I think we both know that isn’t true,” said the man with an edge of a growl.  His shadow fell on the edge of the bed.  “We’ve had our specialists look into you, you know.  With your parents’ blessing.”

Blessing.  What a strange way to say permission.  Danny has received blessings.  True blessings.  One is not the same as the other.  He remembers them, towering, like storm clouds, like mountains, like the forest, like the moon, the sun, the stars.  He remembers the lights overhead, circling, and himself, looking up, beneath it all.  He remembers the well, the fountain, the door, the path.

He remembers.  

And he has none of that right now.  No lightning but what he was born with.  No ice but what the doctors chased away, if there were doctors, and not simply more men like the one at his bedside.  No knife or poison but the words on his tongue.  No shield but his disregard.

Human.  

Yes.  

“We even ran you through some of our pattern recognition programs.  Do you know what we found?”

“Enlighten me,” said Danny, dryly.  His voice cracked again, painfully.  

His effort was rewarded with a finger shoved harshly against his cheek.  He winced at the sharpness of the nail and looked directly at the man for the first time since he woke up.  He was reflected twice in the man’s sunglasses, and a third time on the warped silver casing of his overlarge earpiece.  

“Your freckles,” said the man.

“What, did your program decide I had skin cancer or something? Forgive me if I decide I want a second opinion.”

“Constellations,” hissed the man.  “You have constellations in your freckles.  The same as the ghost boy.”

Danny endeavored to raise his eyebrows as far as they could go. “I’m pretty sure that whatever Phantom has on his face aren’t freckles.  Freckles don’t glow.”

“Don’t play games with me,” said the man.  “We aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed.  We aren’t the only ones who’ve put two and two together.”

“To me, it sounds like all you’ve done is give a computer pareidolia, but whatever floats your boat.”

“What is your connection to Phantom?”

“You’ve been listening to Wes,” said Danny.  If his voice wasn’t wrecked, his words would have been dripping with disdain thick enough to drown the man.  Twice.

“Agent W is not the only one to make note of your behavior,” said the man.  “Paulina Sanchez, for example.”

“Paulina,” repeated Danny.  “You mean the girl who has used every available opportunity to tear me down and mock me since I asked her out in freshman year?  You think she wouldn’t lie to your clown squad?”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what everyone calls you,” said Danny.  “Also, you shouldn’t be interrogating a minor without their guardian present.”

“How convenient, that you know that.  Reading up on the legal system?”

“My sister had a Law and Order phase.  Speaking of, I want a lawyer.”

“You aren’t under arrest,” clearly disgusted.

“Great.  So, can you tell the doctor I’m awake?  Thanks.”

“We aren’t done here.”

“I am,” said Danny.  He closed his eyes.  “If you don’t tell the doctor I’m awake, I might as well go back to sleep.”  He faked a yawn.  Then yawned for real because yawns were like that.

Then the GIW representative shook him by the shoulders.

He shouldn’t have done that.  For a number of reasons.  Not the least of which being that if Danny was connected to ghostly happenings, he could most likely kill the man with his bare hands.  

This is not what occurred.  

Monitors need leads, need sensors.  Disconnected, they scream.  Much like anything else.

In a hospital, such screaming attracts doctors.  

How nice to know that they were in a hospital.  

.

Snow underfoot.  Booted foot, incidentally.  His parents had brought his boots when they came to pick him up, along with other winter clothes.  The snow crunched and squeaked, declining to melt when he stepped on it.  Which.  Rude.  

The trip to the car was silent and sulky.  Or possibly accusatory.  Or morose.  The nuances of the emotions escaped him.  

“Danny,” said his mother.  “Why were you out on the lake last night?”

Danny had been dreading this.  Anticipating it as one would the end of a fall.  Except he hadn’t hit the ground yet, only the branch of a tree that had the misfortune to get in the way.  

He didn’t have a good answer.  

“There was something I had to do,” said Danny.  Which was both true and vague.  

“In your pajamas?”

Danny winced.  That hadn’t been his fault.  

“We don’t know why you keep sneaking out,” said his father. “But it has to stop.  You can’t do this anymore, Danny-boy.  Especially not if it’s going to end up with you in the hospital.”

“That wasn’t my fault,” protested Danny.  “It isn’t like I lured Wes out.  He went out all by himself!”

“Danny,” said his mother.  “You almost died.  And now the GIW is telling us that your freckles are in the same pattern as Phantom’s ecto-luminescence!”  She visibly worried at her lower lip.  “What happened?”

“And what did you go out for?”  added his father.  

Danny shrugged.  

“Were you trying to help Phantom?”

“No,” said Danny.  

“We know how you and Jazz feel about him, but, Danny, this is dangerous.  That ghost is dangerous.”

Danny looked away.  

“You’re grounded,” said his mother.  

Danny whipped around to face her again.  “What!”

“What else can we do?” asked his mother.  “What else do you expect us to do?  You won’t tell us anything!”

“It was just—” spluttered Danny.  He pressed his lips together, considering.  “I did not go out to meet Phantom,” he said.  Again, it was true.  “I went out because one of my classmates said they were being haunted, and I wanted to help.”  Also true.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked his father.  “It’s our job to deal with ghosts.”

“Yes,” said his mother.  “In fact, I thought you wanted nothing to do with ghosts.”

“I don’t know,” said Danny.  “Sometimes—” He winced, knowing what he was about to say would hurt. “You aren’t very good at catching ghosts.  And the part I want to have nothing to do with is the one where you cut ghosts up into pieces.”  He paused. “And I don’t know what happened after I got there.”  He did not specify where there was.  “I think the GIW had some kind of weapon?  I didn’t expect them there.  Anyway, there was a bright light, and the next thing I know, I’m out on the water.”

Alright.  He was leaving a bunch out, but the rest was still true.

“You’re still grounded.”

.

He felt heavy.  Whatever had kept him from making footprints on the ice had left him entirely. Or reversed itself.  Either way, stairs, such as the ones he had to climb to reach his room, felt like an imposition.  Nonetheless, he persevered.  

Right up until he collapsed on his bed, overcome with the unfairness of it all.  

“Hey,” whispered the monster that had taken up residence underneath his bed.  “Can I come out, now?”

“You’re clear,” mumbled Danny.

The monster, Phantom, phased up through the bed to lie on it next to Danny.  

“Where did they even get the Ghost Catcher?” he asked, aggrieved.  

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out!” replied Danny. “It doesn’t make any sense, and I can’t very well ask Mom and Dad about it.”

“Ugh.  We’re grounded, aren’t we?”

“I am.  You aren’t.” Danny pulled a face he hoped his other half would recognize from the outside.  “Be careful, though.  Your escape route is gone.”

“I will.  You need to find out how to get us back together.”

“I will,” said Danny.  “By the way, just after it happened, I think I still had access to some ghost powers.  I think I’m still a little, you know.  Not quite right.  It might be the other way around for you.”

“I’ll try and keep an eye on that,” said Phantom.  “It might be important.”

“Yeah,” agreed Danny.  “You should go, for now.  I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad are going to be checking on me all night, and if they see you…”

“Yeah.  I get it.”

“Sorry.”

Phantom bumped his head lightly against Danny’s.  “Nothing to be sorry about.  We both know what they’re like.  I’m going to patrol a bit, then I’ll probably go over to Sam or Tucker’s. In case you need me.”

“Sounds good,” said Danny.  “I’ll just… stay here.  Try to make the Ghost Catcher from scratch.”

“We have homework, too, while you’re at it,” said Phantom, halfway through the wall.  

Danny groaned and rolled over.  He would have to be careful about getting into the lab while he was grounded, and his parents were on high alert.  Perhaps he could convince his sister to cause a distraction?

[simp-for-mha-men]

𝕔𝕠𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕖 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕦𝕖 (𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕒 𝕒𝕚𝕫𝕒𝕨𝕒 𝕩 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣)

A/N: Back at it again with my favorite teacher! This one’s pretty cute, at least to me. I was drinking my coffee this morning and had this pop into my head. I wrote more than I expected, but it is so freaking cute. Enjoy it!

Genre: teacher x teacher fluff with Aizawa, caffeine, and a friend 💞

Word count: 1.5k

♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥

Mondays always started off wrong for Aizawa. Nothing ever went right. The coffee machine was usually broken almost every time, due to Present Mic somehow forgetting to work one over the weekend. This was the reason that Aizawa hated Mondays.

Class 1-A figured out that Mondays with their homeroom teacher were mostly spent in quiet solitude or with a minimal lecture. Tenya Iida, the speedy class president, never spoke a word unless he was asked a question. Katsuki Bakugou, the explosive Pomeranian, was bone-chillingly silent. None of the other students made any sudden movements that would disrupt their teacher. This was the way it was supposed to be.

However, one of Aizawa’s colleagues was always prepared. (y/n) (l/n) was a true phenomenon to him. Every Monday a new coffee beverage was in their hands. One morning in October, he could smell pumpkin and nutmeg coming from their tumbler. Sometime in June, before summer vacation, he could smell caramel and cinnamon. Each Monday, a new drink was to be introduced.

Although this Monday was just like every other Monday, Eraserhead felt that something was off. The weather was normal for this time of year. He didn’t forget anything in the dorm. What could it be? As soon as you walked through the door, his question was answered.

You came in with no coffee tumbler in your hand, dark circles under your eyes, and bandages on your forearms. In short, you looked like you had spent all night trying to quell a fight in an abandoned alley. It shook the erasure hero to his core.

In all of his years of knowing you, he had never once seen you in a such a state. It broke his heart. You were always so put together, but today, you had it worse than rough. He needed to do something to help you out.

“Shouta, I need help” you said, shocking him that you would use his first name. You usually only went by last names for the sake of being “formal.”

“What is it, (l/n)?”

“Come outside with me, please.”

When Aizawa heard it as a plea rather than a question, he sprung up out of his chair and followed you down the hall. 

It was still pretty early. The sun had just started rising about 10 minutes prior so no students would be out and about yet. What could’ve happened that made you need to talk to him? Did you apprehend a spy on the U.A. grounds? Could you have trapped a villain? What did you do?

“I know this seems a little bit strange,” you said, interrupting his thoughts, “but you’re the only one I can turn to for this kind of thing.”

Now he was really confused. You two aren’t close. Sure, you always said hello to each other in the mornings and waved as you passed in the halls, but you never saw each other outside of work. He thought you were a masterpiece. The way you carried yourself with such ferocity while holding kind eyes captivated him. You deserved to be in prison for being too gorgeous. It’s true.

“Did something happen to you, (l/n)?” he questioned.

“First,” you began, turning to face him, “call me (y/n), please. We’ve known each other for so long that you can also address me by my first name, Shouta. Second, nothing bad happened to me. Something happened to an innocent victim.”

You held out your right arm to Aizawa, nodding your head as a signal that he could unwrap the bandages. When he did, he was met with at least 20 little cuts that had bled pretty badly. They were all very tiny, so a knife couldn’t have done it. Actually, no weapon was small enough to make these cuts.

“The victim went into a mode of self-protection when I tried to help it,” you explained simply.

It? Why would you call a person it? Was the person so far gone mentally that they didn’t even deserve pronouns? What could’ve happened? You were always so careful on your missions. This must’ve been a dire situation.

You both continued walking until you made it to the front gate. You walked over to a bush and picked up a large, cardboard box. Placing it in front of your coworker, you knelt on the floor behind it.

“You’re the expert,” you stated. “I...I don’t know what to do for it.”

“(y/n), why would you--”

“Open the box, Shouta. You’ll get it.”

With trepidation filling his core, Aizawa reached for the box and slowly opened it. Once he saw the contents, he let out a gasp of shock. There, wrapped tightly in a lilac blanket, was a sleeping black cat. He noticed the cat was missing spots of hair on its head and ears, probably due to stress or a condition. It shook a bit in its sleep from a nightmare.

After staring at it for a little longer, Aizawa came to the conclusion that the cat was abandoned. You rescued a cat. However, it didn’t seem to appreciate your help at first. That’s why you had so many “battle scars.” It clawed you until it realized you were a friend.

“Did you give it any food?” Aizawa asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes,” you nodded, slowly standing up. “I picked some up from a convenience store not too far from here.”

“Did you check its gender?”

“No. It kept clawing me and wouldn’t let me see its stomach.”

“Did you properly treat your wounds?”

“I--”

You began to speak but immediately shut your mouth. Shouta Aizawa, the man you had been quietly observing for years, was indirectly asking you if you were alright. You felt your heart skip a beat. You’ve always thought he was hot, but never have you thought about pursuing a relationship with him. What would the other staff members think? Wouldn’t it be considered unproffessional?

“(y/n)?” he inquired again, louder this time.

“I-I didn’t. I was s-so worried about the poor thing that I didn’t think a-about my own h-health.”

You felt the rain start to wet your face. Wait, it shouldn’t be raining. You then realized you were crying. It was pathetic of you, but that was how your body reacted. 

“(y/n),” Aizawa began softly, “did you even sleep last night?”

Slowly shaking your head, you began to sob. Before you knew what you were doing, you flung yourself into a safe haven: Aizawa’s arms. 

He took a sharp breath in. He never realized that behind your strong facade, you were extremely fragile. He instinctively wrapped his arms around you, and you nuzzled your face into his neck. Sinking down to the ground, he began to realize something. It felt comforting. It felt warm. It felt....like destiny.

During your crying session in Aizawa’s arms, you both failed to realize your furry friend was yawning and waking up. It crawled out of the blanket carefully and slid into your lap. Nuzzling its face into Aizawa’s leg, the rescue fell asleep once again.

You both looked down in affection. Your eyes were soft, and you giggled at how easily it fell asleep again. Aizawa showed a soft smile before glancing over to see your expression. You were a gift to him. He had to take advantage of that.

“Hey,” you said, poking him.

“What?”

“Female. Kohii.”

Aizawa tilted his head, letting a smirk grace his features. “What?”

“It’s a female cat, and I’m naming her Kohii.”

“You’re naming her coffee?”

You nodded your head, sadness leaving you. “Yep! It reminds me of you.”

When Aizawa’s expression changed, you realized what you had just said. Slapping your hand over your mouth, you looked away from him quickly. 

Instead of getting angry, he let out a chuckle and picked up your new friend. “Since you got to name her, you owe me something.”

You quickly snapped out of your trance, trying to ignore the blush on your face. Rolling your eyes, you replied, “Obviously. We’re going to take care of her together. Nezu will grant us permission, I’m assuming.”

Aizawa nodded his head. “Of course he will. However, I need something else.”

“Oh, come on!” you sighed. “What is it? Money? Want me to grade your class? What could you possibly want from me?”

“Coffee.”

His simple response shocked you. He wanted....coffee?

“What kind?” you questioned, cocking your head to the side.

“The kind that lets me drink it with you.”

Now, you knew your face was red. You quickly turned away, missing the mischievous glint in his eyes and smile. Scoffing, you tugged on his scarf. He fell completely backwards, eliciting a belly laugh from you. It was music to his ears.

“When?” you questioned, finally glancing at him.

“Now.” he responded.

“Sure.”

All three of you were smiling. Yes, all three. Kohii couldn’t exactly express it, but she was on the inside. You could tell. It was as if you three were the perfect family.

Standing up, you offered your hand to him. He gladly accepted it and picked up Kohii after gaining his balance. You all headed off campus, and everyone was happy. 

“You know,” you began, “we should prank Yamada next week.”

“Rig the coffee machine before he breaks it?” he asked.

“Oh yeah.”

[terrm9]

Fall On Me

Words count: 4 200 Warnings: mentions of fertility issues, other than that just fluff Author’s note: This is the fic I have thought so much about. I have written something, then stopped, then written again, thought about it and considered for so long if I should post it or not. I have never been this nervous posting something, probably because there is a big part of me in it - therefore, any kind of feedback will be greatly appreciated!

After four years of dating and their first year being married, Chiara and Ethan find out that there are still surprises in store for them.

Important notes: My MC (Chiara) has been diagnosed with an immune system disorder that makes it close to impossible for her to become pregnant. It has been stated in Destination fic as well as in Already Gone series, but for those who haven’t read those, it’s important to know that so you understand the context.

There are three more important notes at the end (they would kind of ruin the experience if you read them in the beginning). PLEASE read them, especially the first one, it is really important to me.

***  ***  *** ***

As Ethan stepped into his office, the sight of sleeping Chiara on a couch didn’t even surprise him. It was the fifth time in the last ten days. She would throw an apologetic smile at him along with a muttered “I just need to catch a quick break” and half an hour later, he would find her fast asleep in his office.

At this point, surprise has been replaced by worrying. Ethan knew his wife and he knew that she could go weeks without rest. This behavior was strange, to say the least.  

He approached the couch and knelt next to it, gently brushing the hair off her forehead. Placing a soft kiss on it instead, he whispered: “Chiara, are you okay?”

She opened her eyes slowly at first, obviously confused about the whole situation. Realizing what was happening – again – she sat up rapidly, trying to come up with a good excuse.

“I am sorry, Ethan, I must have fallen asleep. I just wanted to sit down for a while and-“

“It’s okay,” Ethan cut her off and took a seat next to her, hugging her waist. “I’m just a little worried about your constant tiredness.”

Sighing, Chiara rubbed her eyes and leaned into his chest, shaking her head slowly.

“I am fine. It’s just… ever since we’ve gotten back from the Europe, the work has been crazy. Two weeks and I feel like I need another vacation.”

Visiting Europe has become their habit through the years. It started with a trip to Tuscany on Chiara’s third year of residency, continuing with a quick trip to France after getting engaged, honeymoon in Greece and finally this year, when they decided to spend their first wedding anniversary on a three-weeks long roadtrip through Scandinavia, finished with four days in The Basque Country, so that Chiara could pursue her dream of visiting Guernica, the village on Picasso’s painting.

Chiara was right about the work being absolutely crazy ever since they’ve gotten back and throwing a glance at the paperwork on his desk, Ethan was very well aware of the exhaustion they both felt. Still, he managed to get through his days without needing a nap.

“Let me draw your blood so that I can run some tests. Maybe it’s just iron deficiency, but I want to be sure,” Ethan murmured into her hair, kissing the top of her head. “And go home to sleep.”

She turned to him, brows furrowed as she shook her head again.

“Absolutely not. I am fine, just a little weary. Just make me a cup of coffee and I’ll be fresh.”

Ethan stood up to make her the coffee, however he had no intention of letting her stay in work. He would bet that she was just ‘resting her eyes’ while he was turned to the coffee machine. As a doctor, there was one particular idea about what her exhaustion was about. Noticing such symptoms with anybody else, he would be absolutely sure. But this was Chiara he was thinking about and so he didn’t allow his mind wander into the direction it was tempted to.

“I am serious, Rookie. You are no use here, hardly keeping your eyes open. Drink the coffee, let me take your blood and go home to rest. I’ll come as soon as I can.”

She rolled her eyes and took the cup from his hands. Just as she was about to sip the coffee, she scrunched her nose in an utter disgust and looked up at him.

“Did you change the brand? This smells… ugh, I am not as demanding as you when it comes to coffee and even I can tell that this smells worse than the cafeteria coffee.”

Ethan bit his lip to hide the jitteriness overwhelming him at those words.

It was the same coffee brand they’ve been ordering for more than three years.

It was all adding up.

He shrugged as casually as he could and said: “Yeah, I tried a new roastery and it’s disappointing. Lets get you out of here, shall we?”

Chiara wanted to fight him, to stubbornly stay and prove him that she was more than capable of working, but she had to admit that she’s probably never felt as exhausted. And the vision of their king-sized bed was way too tempting.

Relucantly, she nodded and followed Ethan into an empty patient room to get her blood taken.

˜

To say that Ethan was nervous would be an understatement. He could’ve gone home a long time ago and instead he found himself pacing back and forth in his office, waiting for a nurse to page him that Chiara’s results were ready.

Still, when his pager went off, he all but jumped on the spot.

Seven minutes later, Ethan thanked the nurse and clutched the results in his hand, fighting the urge to read them right then and there, not quite believing his own self to be able to not to break down is the results confirmed the diagnosis he suspected.

Breathing heavily as he reached his office, he sat down on the couch – the very same Chiara was sleeping on just hours ago – and with trembling hands opened the file to see the results.

His eyes widened and just then, his vision turned blurry. New lump formed in his throat and his heart kept beating as if his dear life depended on the rate it was beating. His hands trembled so hard now that the file fell on the floor.

He was right.

Ethan could feel the tears damping his cheeks and falling on the fabric of his navy blue pants and he realized that he couldn’t care less about crying while at work.

Throwing his head back, he stared at the ceiling, letting the tears fall down freely, his heartbeat slowly calming back to normal.

He knew he needed to go home and share the results with Chiara. He just didn’t know how he should do such a thing.

˜

Chiara’s peaceful five-hours long nap has been interrupted by the sound of keys clinking in the door.

Stirring lazily in a blanket, she sat up and smiled softly as Ethan walked into the living room.

“You look exhausted. Hard day?” she asked, patting the seat next to her. “Come here.”

Ethan slumped down on the couch next to her and kissed her cheek instead of answering, his mind a battlefield of ideas on how to tell Chiara. As a doctor, he knew that he needed to be honest and straightforward. As a husband, he didn’t feel comfortable throwing such a bomb into her face as if she was simply a patient.

Noticing how lost in his head Ethan was, Chiara grew concerned.

“Did something happen, Ethan?”

He blurted his next words out before he gave any of his battling ideas a chance to win.

“I’ve got your test results.”

“Am I dying?” Chiara laughed, putting her hand on his bouncing knee to calm him down. After Ethan refused to look back at her, she sensed that something was indeed wrong. “Oh, I am dying, aren’t I?”

Chuckling, Ethan finally turned to look at her and kisser her temple. “You are not dying.”

“But?” Chiara raised her eyebrow while Ethan took the hand on his knee into his own, stroking Chiara’s knuckles softly with his thumb.

Taking a deep breath, he stuttered: “I… we… you are pregnant, Chiara.”

Chiara’s face grew paler than he’s ever seen it and there were big drops of cold sweat on her forehead. Ethan squeezed her hand to stop it from shaking, but with no success.

At last, Chiara let out a choked whisper.

“What kind of sick joke is this?”

For a second, Ethan almost felt offended by her accusation, as if she didn’t know him, as if she didn’t know that he would never joke about such a thing. Then, however, he recalled his own reaction when he found out just an hour and half before and could understand the Chiara’s one.

Instead of another word, Ethan reached down to grab his bag from the floor and pulled Chiara’s file out. Handing it to her, he made sure to point his finger at the row that indicated the elevated level of hCG in her blood.

Her eyes widened as she recognized what he was showing her and she gasped audibly, looking up at Ethan and down on her own file, back and forth until she found her lost voice.

“But… how? That’s impossible.”

“Nobody has ever said that it was impossible, only that your chances were extremely low, close to none.”

Chiara started to reminisce the last days, trying to connect the dots now that she knew the result.

The extreme fatigue, waves of nausea here and there, those could easily be read as literally anything else. She missed her period, but her cycle has never been regular, so she hardly considered it anyhow important, especially knowing that travelling has always made things even more irregular for her.

“Did you know?” she whispered as she turned to Ethan, who was staring at her intensively.

“I didn’t know. I became suspicious few days back, when you wouldn’t let me go anywhere near your chest,” he grinned. “Together with the exhaustion, the possibility of pregnancy found its way into my mind, but I didn’t even want to think about it, knowing how very unlikely it was. It was your disgust with the coffee today that made me almost sure that you were, in fact, pregnant.”

Chiara stared at the results again, not quite absorbing what they were saying. For almost six years, she believed she could never be pregnant.

“You need to see your gynecologist tomorrow, of course,” Ethan cut the silence again. “But as Dr. Ramsey, I can say for sure that you are pregnant.”

He scooped her into his arms so that she would sit on his lap and hugged her shocked form tightly. Chiara’s lips were still slightly parted and she was blinking just a little bit faster than usually as his words – and their new reality – sank in.

When it finally did, she wasn’t able to contain the emotions any longer.

First sob escaped her mouth, followed by another and so much more, accompanied by huge tears falling from her eyes.

Ethan gently pulled her head closer so that she was resting it against his chest and peppered her hair with soft kisses. Even though his share of tears has already been shed in a privacy of his office, feeling Chiara’s shaking body as she cried all those happy, surprised tears, he couldn’t help but cry along quietly with her.

“I am going to ruin your shirt,” Chiara mumbled against his white Oxford, noticing how her mascara stained it.

Ethan let out a quick laugh, his voice thick with emotions as he replied: “I couldn’t care less.”

After what could have been minutes or hours, they breaths steadied, however their positions haven’t changed at all.

They were both quiet for a long time and one could say that they were lost in their own thoughts when really, they were both lost in the very same thought.

Parents. They would become parents.

They talked about adoption on a regular basis at this point, both open to the idea that two or three years from now, they would go for it, that they would become parents to a kid that was left alone.

But those were talks about future. Hypothetical.

This was real. In less than a year, they would be parents to their very own newborn.

“Are you happy?” Chiara whispered, looking up at him with a gentle smile on her lips.

Ethan kissed her forehead before responding.

“I can’t imagine being happier.”

Biting her lower lip, Chiara asked again: “Are you also a little bit…scared? Because I am.”

Laughing loudly at the adorable confession, Ethan nodded: “God, I am terrified. Being a father, that brings so many possibilities to screw it up.”

Chiara cupped his cheeks and pulled him down for a kiss, their first real, deep kiss that day and as his tender lips moved over hers, she knew that there would be no better father for her child than Ethan Ramsey.

˜

One of the perks of being in her sixth month of pregnancy was the fact that her belly could easily serve as a tiny tea table. Right now, a large bowl of popcorn was sitting on her rounded torso as she was sitting on Bryce’s couch.

“The poor kid,” Bryce muttered as he noticed.

It was another Bryce & Chiara movies Wednesday, a habit that started even before Chiara and Ethan got together and carried on through the years.

With her third trimester slowly approaching, Chiara has been even more insistent on attending those, knowing that once she would give birth, they wouldn’t be able to watch a whole movie in one sitting.

“How is Ramsey? I haven’t seen him in the hospital this week,” Bryce asked as he put a glass of water in front of Chiara and played with a remote control to find the movie on Netflix.

“He’s busy with paperwork, so he mostly stays in his office these days,” Chiara explained. “Other than that, he has read two books about child’s development this week, so I guess everything’s as usual.”

Bryce laughed loudly and just before he pushed the ‘play’ button, he turned to Chiara: “Do you remember when you told me about not being able to have kids all those years ago?”

Chiara nodded, that day somehow still fresh in her mind.

“I told you back then, that you only had to find someone whose sperms will be stubborn enough to beat your own stubborn immune system, remember? Well, I was damn right,” he grinned smugly, earning a popcorn thrown into his head from Chiara.

On the other side of Boston, Ethan and Naveen just finished their meals and moved into the living room, glasses of scotch in their hands.

A comfortable silence accompanied them, their talks about work already finished.

Taking a few gulps of his drink, Ethan leaned into a couch with a soft smile on his lips.

“It’s going to be a girl,” he let out finally, his soft smile soon turning into a wide, happy one.

They only found out yesterday. Ever since beginning of the pregnancy, they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to know the gender of the baby or not. After long discussions – and Sienna’s suggestion that they should do a blood tests that would reveal the gender, give the results to her without looking at them so that she could organize a baby gender reveal party – they came to the agreement that they would only find out if the ultrasound would show it. And yesterday, in Chiara’s 25th week of pregnancy, the doctor informed them that their ‘princess’ is growing beautifully.

Neither Chiara nor Ethan wanted any kind of baby party organized – much to Sienna’s disappointment. This pregnancy – most likely the only one they would ever get to experience – has been such precious, sacred thing to them that they tried to keep everything as private as possible. They found joy in their bubble of emotions only two people who never believed would be this lucky could feel.

“A girl!” Naveen clasped his hands together and beamed even brighter than Ethan. “A granddaughter!”

Ethan nodded, the warmth in his chest expanding even more at Naveen’s words.

“Have you decided on a name yet?” he asked, his curious nature not letting him keep the question to himself.

Shaking his head this time, Ethan said: “Since the beginning, we’ve known that if it was a boy, he would be named Dorian after Chiara’s father. There have been some ideas about girls name, but nothing seemed right so far.”

The first idea they both had was Dolores. It came naturally to Ethan, knowing that she named her son after him and that his friend’s name deserved to be celebrated. Still, he didn’t want to be reminded of the tragedy every time he would talk to his daughter. Chiara has been very supportive about the name Dolores, knowing better than anyone what it felt like to want to name her child after someone important to her. But she never insisted. She could tell that simply thinking about Dolores Hudson made Ethan’s heart ache and she would never push the name on him.

“You seem lost in your thoughts,” Naveen commented. “Are you worried that your daughter will inherit your insufferable stubbornness?”

Ethan laughed at that, raising an eyebrow at his mentor and his friend.

“As if you didn’t know Chiara. The kid is going to be insufferably stubborn no matter who she takes after.”

The truth was, he did wish their daughter would take after Chiara. The idea of raising his own little self terrified him more than he would ever admit and on the other hand, the idea of having someone else as bright as Chiara in his life made his heart happy.

“Well, no matter who she takes after, it’s safe to say that she will be a strong girl,” Naveen smiled, raising his glass. “Beating all those odds and finding her way into your life, she is already a bigger rebel than any of us. She will be a warrior and a mighty one, I am telling you.”

˜

When Chiara returned home, she found Ethan deep in a research on his laptop.

He registered her presence only when she sat down next to him, taking a glance on the screen only to find yet another study about children.

“Hey,” he kissed her cheek and closed the laptop. “Did you have a good time?”

She laid down, putting her head into his lap. “The movie was terrible. I could feel my braincells leave my body. Other than that, yeah, it’s been great. Bryce is so excited about being an uncle to the ‘little queenie’. He said, to quote him, that he will make sure she sees him as an example of how gentlemen should treat their ladies, so that when she is dating she doesn’t settle for anything less than what she deserves.”

“That’s really… nice of him. Thoughtful,” Ethan nodded; however, his furrowed brows didn’t quite match the words. “I don’t think we need to talk about dating just yet, though.”

Of course he will be that kind of a father, Chiara thought, laughing.

“What were you reading about?” she decided to change the topic.

“Oh, I’ve been looking up baby carriers online and so I decided  to read some articles and studies about them.”

“Baby carriers, huh? I never took you for someone who would want that.”

Ethan shrugged, fighting the temptation to read her all those articles. Instead, he went with simply pointing some interesting information.

“It helps to build a healthy attachment between a child and their parent. You know, you are carrying her in your body for nine months, you have a possibility of breastfeeding, you two are naturally connected. As a father, I would like to… increase my chances of bonding with my child properly,” he swallowed harder that he wanted, hoping that Chiara didn’t notice just how nervous about this whole attachment thing he’s become.

He was so excited to meet their daughter, to hold her in his arms, it sometimes surprised even him.

But there was another part of him. The one that constantly doubted his ability to be a good father. For such a long time he didn’t believe that he could ever find himself in the role of a parent and he got used to the idea, no matter how painful. He used to remind himself that it would be for the best if he never had them, that as a man unworthy of his mother’s love, he wouldn’t know how to be the parent his children deserved.

Everything has changed with Chiara in his life and now he was about to become a father. And he was scared that it would be the one task he would fail. He tried his best to be prepared – reading books and studies and articles, watching videos on how to bath a newborn and taking notes about how many layers of clothing was suitable for various temperatures. He made arrangements with Naveen and his team so that everyone knew that he would be stepping down as a head of diagnostics once the baby is born, with Aurora becoming the director of the team.

For more than fifteen years, he’s been building his career and he’s been proud of what he achieved. But there was no feeling connected with his career that would make him as proud as the idea of being a decent father.

“According to these studies, the position they are in while in a carrier helps the newborns with their colics and also there are children that don’t like being in a stroller and the carrier helps them to fall asleep.”

Chiara nodded, noticing absolutely clearly how nervous and overwhelmed Ethan was. She also knew why, even though he would never share his concerns with her.

“I kind of believe that. When I was born, I was the perfect baby. You know, the kid that everyone envied when my parents talked about me. I slept most of the day and then the whole night, I never cried, I smiled at everyone. My parents would joke that sometimes they forgot they had me. And Liam was very similar from what I can remember – and what my mother told me. He was such a cutie and even if he couldn’t fall asleep or calm down, a little bit of bouncing in a stroller and he would be fine,” she laughed softly as she was reaching the end – and the point – of her monologue. “My parents were so proud. They always said that they could only create the good sleepers that never cry. Probably encouraged by the belief, they decided to have a third child and God, Alicia was such a difficult baby. She would always cry and never sleep. The only thing that calmed her down enough to sleep was when someone carried her in their arms and walked around the house – so that’s what my parents did. All the time. Sometimes, when they’ve gotten too tired or needed to do something, they would put her into my arms – let me remind you that I was seven – and I would be in charge of walking around the house. I bet they would appreciate the baby carrier back then.”

Ethan chuckled softly while stroking Chiara’s wild hair and after a while decided to tell her the real reason he even browsed the internet this evening.

“I might have found a name.”

After Naveen left, something he’s said resonated with Ethan.

‘She will be a warrior and a mighty one.’

Ethan never cared about meanings of names, he didn’t even know the meaning of his own name until this evening. And yet, despite his best principles, he decided to search girls names that meant warrior or ‘strong, mighty’.

And he found it.

Mighty in battle.

It clicked.

“What name do you have in mind?” Chiara asked.

“Matilda.”

Chiara didn’t even try to suppress her surprise, expecting anything but Matilda. What surprised her even more, she loved it on the first hearing. It indeed was the one.

“I have also thought about the name a little bit,” she admitted. “I found one that I would love to be a second name for her.”

Nodding, Ethan encouraged her to spill it.

“Nekane.”

“Nekane? I have never heard of it.”

“It would be surprising if you did,” Chiara smirked. “It’s the Basque form for Dolores. And you know, since now we know for sure that our daughter has been conceived in Spain, I think it would be rather fitting. It would still carry the honor of Dolores, just in a different form.”

Matilda Nekane Ramsey.

They both loved the sound of that.

It sounded like their daughter.

After sharing another silent moment full of love, peace and understanding, Chiara decided to go to bed and Ethan promised to follow her as soon as he’d finish the study.

 When Ethan stepped into their bedroom, Chiara was already asleep, lying on her right side. Climbing to the bed, he laid down on his left side so that he could face her. Suddenly, not knowing how the idea has gotten into him, he was shifting down slightly until he reached her round stomach.

Moving the fabric of her cotton shirt higher, he put his hand over her belly and did something he had never done before.

“Hello, Matilda,” he whispered nervously. “This is Ethan speaking. Your father. Or your dad, as you will probably call me. We have never really talked before but the annoying knocking you hear sometimes, that’s me stroking your mom’s bump.”

He paused for a while, composing his thoughts.

“I am sincerely scared about how this whole father thing is going to work for me, but I promise you as I am trying and I will by trying for the rest of my life. I have done a lot of bad things in my life, Matilda and I can’t take them back. They are part of who I am. But looking at your mother and thinking about you makes me realize that both of you are part of who I am too. And I don’t know in which point of my life the universe decided that I have shared enough kindness to earn your presence but I must have done something right to deserve you in my life, right?”

Kissing the skin of Chiara’s stomach, he added: “I just really hope you inherit your mother’s patience and kindness so that you will forgive me every time I fuck things up.”

Biting his lip, he grinned to himself before saying one last thing to his Matilda.

“Please don’t tell your mom I said ‘fuck’, she would be furious.”

 *** *** ***

1) as someone who is mother herself, I realize that topics of pregnancy, infertility issues, children in general are extremely sensitive - in this particular fanfiction, Chiara has gotten pregnant against the odds while on vacation. PLEASE note that I, by no means, am trying to say that if you are suffering from fertility issues, taking a vacation/reducing stress/changing the environment would definitely help you. There are some cases /that I know of/ in which it did help, however I would never dare to say that it’s the solution. I just need to make sure that I acknowledge how difficult and sensitive the topic is.

2) I really, really wanted to write a pregnancy fic, I had this idea in my head for very, very long time. However, I also absolutely love the idea of Ethan and Chiara adopting a child (I think especially Ethan would be fond of it, since he knows what it feels like to grow up without a parent) and so here is a little HC for after this story - Matilda is indeed the ‘miracle’ and their only biological child and when she is around six years old, Ethan and Chiara decide to adopt ophraned twin girls Luna and Siria. Purposefully girls, because I can see Ethan not trusting women after his mother leaves him and feeling like no woman could ever love him truly and boom suddenly there are four women in his life that love him more than life itself and he is proven wrong every day.

3) the story about the name Matilda is so funny/tragic that I have to write about it - I love the name, always loved and believed that I would name my daughter Matilda one day. My man hates the name so it’s off the table and I always knew that little Ramsey would be named Matilda to pursue my dream at least fictionally. When I was looking for some photos at David Gandy’s IG, I found out that his very own daughter is named Matilda. Whoa. Then, I was on a search for a faceclaim for Chiara and boom - the girl is named Matilda. Ooops. And only when this fic was finished and I googled the name Matilda for some reason, I found out that there is kinda popular person named Matilda Ramsay and I was just like okay screw this. But I couldn’t bring myself to change the name, so here it is. Sorry not sorry.

Taglist: @takemyopenheart @maurine07 @senseofduties @mercury84choices @flightlessbirdiee @udishaman @honeyandsunfl0wers @ohchoices @adrex04 @queencarb @archxxronrookie @choicesfan10 @whatchique @drariellevalentine @gryffindordaughterofathena @mvalentine @doilooklikeiknow @custaroonie @secretwolfdreamertree @jamespotterthefirst

[imaginedhaven]

Reluctantly Rooming: Part Three

Link to Masterpost

This has been so much fun, and it’s just going to keep going! As always, I am accepting prompts for this in my ask box.

This addition to the series uses two prompts:

“The salad here is really good.” / “Do I look like a fucking rabbit?” 

and

“Why’d you hug him? You love him?”

 Enjoy!

~*~*~

Aelin grinned and sauntered over to her newest customer a few minutes into her shift. “Good evening,” she purred. “What brings you in tonight?”

Green eyes met hers, completely unamused at her antics. “Considering that you insisted I come in, I think you know very well why I’m here,” Rowan replied.

It was completely true, of course. The previous Sunday, Rowan had kept to his word and helped Aelin get her flat tire fixed. He had also immediately taken her to the nearest grocery store and carefully watched her select fruits and vegetables like a hawk eyeing its prey. Once they had gotten home he had immediately flown into a flurry of meal preparation, and soon Aelin’s entire half of the fridge was full of little glass containers of portioned snacks and meals while Aelin’s roommate was glaring from the counter.

She had mocked him for it endlessly, of course, but truth be told she was immensely grateful. And so she had insisted that he pick a night to come out to the bar, so she could get him a free meal and a drink in thanks. He had picked Friday, and now he was here in the place she spent so much of her week. When they had first started rooming together, and even just two weeks ago, it would’ve been strange and she probably would’ve swapped halves of the bar with Lysandra just to avoid him. Now, though, she felt a strange warmth at seeing him so clearly out of his depth for her sake.

“I’m kind of hoping you’ll trust me on the drink, but is there something in particular you want to eat?” she asked.

“You’re the one who works here,” he retorted. “Surely you have a recommendation, seeing how you chose to eat here most nights rather than just admit you can’t cook to save your own life.”

Where that jab would’ve started a real fight just a few weeks ago, now Aelin just gave him her sweetest smile. “The salad here is really good.”

Rowan lifted a single eyebrow. “Do I look like a rabbit to you?”

“Well, since you seem intent on turning me into a rabbit I thought I would offer,” she said, finally bursting into laughter.

Before Rowan could say anything else, a lilting high tenor sounded behind her. “Is there a problem here, Laena?”

Aelin only laughed harder, nearly doubling over as Rowan’s eyes widened. “Oh, don’t be an ass, you know everything’s fine,” she wheezed.

Beside her, a man with dark curls offered a hand to Rowan, who warily shook it. “I’m Sam,” he explained, “bar manager and old college friend.”

Rowan nodded, gaze flicking back over to Aelin. Laena? he mouthed.

Aelin rolled her eyes. “The nickname is short for Celaena. It was the name on my fake license when we met, and he’s never let me forget it. It helps here, sometimes, if someone’s being a little too pushy. Whoever it is walks out of here without my real name, so I let him get away with it.”

Sam chuckled. “I do what I can. But I’ve embarrassed you enough for now, I think.” And without another word he faded into the bustle of the room, where she knew he would be carefully overseeing the crowd.

“Sorry about that,” Aelin said to Rowan. “If I knew he was going to come over and be an ass, I’d have warned you.”

Rowan shook his head, but she could see the faint glimmer of a smile. “It’s good that you have someone looking out for you at work,” he replied.

She smiled back and got to work. Together, they decided on a burger she’d had before for his meal. “Do you trust me?” Aelin asked.

“As much as I feel like I’m going to regret this, go ahead,” he sighed.

Aelin grinned and gathered her ingredients, dropping a single cube of sugar into a glass and soaking it with a mix of bitters. “I’ve been thinking about what I’d serve you for a week,” she began. “I won’t lie, it was tempting to serve you straight amaro and nothing else just to watch your face. But all jokes about bitterness aside, I wasn’t going to actually be that mean.”

“I’m eternally grateful,” Rowan deadpanned.

“You should be,” she laughed, reaching for a muddler and crushing the cube down. “But none of the sweeter drinks seemed like you, either. If I had to guess, in your personal life you don’t mix drinks at all, you just drink your spirits straight.”

The guess earned her a nod. “Even that isn’t often, but when I do, you’re right.”

Aelin nodded as well, dropping a sphere of ice into the glass as well and then reaching for the bottle of rye she’d selected. “So I didn’t want to deviate too much from that and give you a glass that was basically full of sugar, but I wanted to take you just a little outside your comfort zone.” Deftly she added the alcohol to the glass and then began to stir. “That left me with a much shorter list. Spirit forward. Classic pairings. Something even a joyless buzzard like you can appreciate.”

The name had started as an insult, Aelin mused as she reached for an orange and deftly carved a strip of its peel away from the fruit. Now, though, it was… almost an endearment. If friends traded endearments, that was.

Rowan’s eyes widened as she reached for a match, expression turning wary. “What exactly are you doing?” he asked.

Aelin grinned. “Helping you live a little,” she said as she struck the match and held the peel to the flame.

The smell of caramelization and warm orange oil reached her nose soon enough, and she blew out the match and set it aside before gently twisting the peel over the top of the now-completed drink and rested it on the rim of the glass. With a smirk, she slid the glass across the bar and watched as her roommate looked it over. “What is this?”

“If I told you, you’d think I was making fun of you,” she laughed. “So we’ll call it a ‘Trust Me, Rowan’ instead.”

The remark earned her another roll of those pine-green eyes, but he obediently lifted the glass, swirling its contents gently and inhaling delicately. “I wouldn’t have thought scorching the orange peel would change its scent so much,” he remarked.

Aelin grinned. “And that’s why I’m behind the bar and you’re in front of it. Go on, try it.”

As she watched, he carefully lifted the glass to his lips and took a small sip. She bit her lip, doing her best to wait out his reaction as his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Finally he let out a pleased hum, and she could no longer contain her smile. “All right,” he said. “If I admit that I like this, will you tell me what it’s called? Or did you just make it up?”

Aelin tugged on a stray strand of hair as she bit back a laugh. “I didn’t invent this, no,” she said. “It’s been around for a while.”

“And?”

She glanced at him again and finally lost the battle with her mirth, leaning heavily on the bar as she broke into a fit of giggles. “It’s called an old fashioned,” she wheezed as Rowan rolled his eyes and grumbled into his drink.

~*~*~

Rowan left about an hour after that, but Aelin was still laughing about it with Lysandra as they worked to wipe the bar clean after closing. Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind, and she laughed and turned, tossing her rag into Sam’s face. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble today?” she teased.

“Not quite enough yet,” he grinned. “So why’d you hug him? You love him or something?”

Aelin laughed as she remembered back to Rowan leaving the bar. He’d obviously intended to slip away without calling attention to his departure, but she had noticed him and chased him down to give him a giant hug and a smacking kiss on his cheek. He had growled and immediately gone to wipe his face off, tossing her a glare that once would’ve left her shaking in her boots. Now, though, she had simply laughed and told him it was revenge for him trying to sneak away. “No,” she finally said as she turned her attention back to Sam. “No, that’s my roommate. We’re trying out this new thing where we actually get along.”

“Oh, so this is the roommate from hell we’ve been hearing so much about,” Lysandra chimed in. “You didn’t say he was hot.”

“I feel like that wasn’t relevant to what I was telling you,” Aelin pointed out. “Hot people can be jerks just as much as the rest of us.”

“She says as though the three of us aren’t hot,” Sam laughed.

“He’s got a point,” Lysandra agreed, green eyes bright with mirth as well. “But anyway, we’ve got a mess to clean up here. We can sort out Aelin’s future domestic bliss later.”

Aelin scowled as her two friends laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far,” she cautioned them.

“Ah, but if we don’t, who will?” asked Sam.

“You’re assholes and I hate you both,” Aelin said with no heat in her voice.

“Oh, come on, you love us,” Lysandra grinned. “Sam, what can you do about all three of us having the same day off sometime soon?”

“You know I don’t control the schedule,” he sighed, but his brown eyes were glimmering with amusement. “That said, we all have this coming Sunday off. Why, do you have a plan?”

“I’ve always got a plan,” she replied. “But in this case, I suppose I can extend my plans to include the two of you.”

“This is all well and good,” Aelin drawled, “but at least one of us would like to sleep at some point tonight.”

“You just want to get home to that roommate of yours,” Lysandra retorted.

“Oh, would you—”

Aelin’s words cut off with a yelp. She had been turning to face Lysandra, but suddenly her ankle buckled and she hit the floor with a cry and the sound of something cracking.

~*~*~

If anyone has questions about any of the mixology involved in this, I am of course happy to answer to the best of my ability! I don’t do it professionally, but in this quarantine it has become an... extensive and somewhat expensive hobby. Yikes. Lol.

Tagging:

@ireallyshouldsleeprn @queen-of-glass @fangirlprincess09 @sassys-world @morganofthewildfire @superspiritfestival @perseusannabeth @sis-it-dont-add-up @jlinez @julemmaes @emilyoftheshadows

[niyes-lahiffe]

hey hey @emdoddles surprise!! I’m your secret santa! so here’s some good ol’ love square 1 and love square 2 (djwifi) in an older au ;) I hope you enjoy!! @mlsecretsanta

Babies are More Tedious Than What we Bargained For

Ao3

Paris was always so wonderfully pleasant this time of year.

Most people would disagree, since during the wintertime, it was unbearably cold to them. But to Marinette? Cold meant bundling up in soft blankets, drinking delicious hot chocolate, and of course, cuddling with her wonderful husband.

Though, right now, she had other things plaguing her mind.

Marinette was sitting at her desk, deep in thought as she repeatedly tapped the pencil in her hand against the surface. She hadn't even noticed her husband returning home from work, and what snapped her out of her stupor was when he gently kissed the top of her head.

"Oh! I didn't even realize you came in," she said bashfully. Adrien just gave her a warm smile before quirking an eyebrow.

"Alright, what's eating you?" he asked as he scanned her up and down. "You look adorable but your hair's in a messy bun. Not to mention you've got a pencil behind both ears, in your mouth, AND in your hand." He knew her too well, even if she was...obvious.

Marinette's face started growing red. "O-oh I uh, I've just been...thinking..."

His quizzical look never faltered, if not grew even more intense as he pressed her on, "About...?"

"I...I...!" She took a comically deep breath. "I WANT TO HAVE A BABY LIKE ALYA AND NINO DO."

Adrien blinked. Marinette blinked.

"You..you want a baby?"

Marinette's mouth snapped shut and she nodded eccentrically.

As Adrien gawked, Marinette prepared herself for the worst, whether it be him denying because he didn't want one or because he wasn't ready or...

She yelped when Adrien gleefully scooped her up in the air with a bright laugh. "Marinette, that's wonderful!"

His hug was so tight but it was wondrous. Marinette blinked down in surprise at him. "It...really?" She didn't think she'd ever seen his grin as big as it was at this moment.

"Yes!" The kiss he gave her lips was sloppy, short and excited, and it sent every one of his emotions through his wife's veins. He set her down, but not before he twirled her around again, their delighted laughter filling the air. "I know we've talked about it briefly before but neither of us were ready...but I think we are now."

Marinette grinned at him, agreeing, "I think so, too."

They leaned in for another kiss when a loud, boisterous noise from outside interrupted. They were completely jarred, immediately running to the window to see what on earth had happened.

In unison they dashed over to the window.

"Oh dear..."

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

"Hot coco's done!"

Nino walked up to his wife, who help their baby in her arms. Little Zoe giggled at her papa when he leaned down to give her chin a tickle.

"It smells fabulous, babe," Alya complimented before reaching her head forward to give Nino's forehead a kiss as he played with Zoe.

The ground suddenly shook, and Alya and Nino both gasped. She handed the baby to the DJ after he set down the coco and peeked through the blinds to see what was going on. Her face blanched.

"...What is it?" Nino asked as Zoe babbled in his arms, completely carefree as she played with the headphones around his neck.

"I don't know, but it's something bad. Maybe an akuma, maybe some strange magic force, maybe something worse."

They both glanced at their kwamis, who shrugged.

Nino was in shock, yet still groaned. "An akuma? We haven't even heard from Hawkmoth in years! Why now?"

Alya backed away from the window, clearly distressed. "I don't know, but we need to help."

"Alya, we have a baby."

"One of us needs to go and see what's going on, then," Alya replied as she gently gave her fingers to Zoe, who grabbed them excitedly.

Nino first looked at his wife, then down at the baby in his arms. He was silent for a moment before saying, "You go. I'll watch over her."

Alya nodded and pecked her husband on the lips. "I'll let you know if we need any help."

"Please be safe, babe."

"I will." Rena Rouge was now standing where Alya was a moment ago, and she smiled encouragingly as she leaped out the window. Zoe cooed in awe as her mother, now a colorful superhero, zipped away.

"Don't worry, she'll keep her promise," Nino told his daughter, though he was mostly talking to himself. "She has to."

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

Carapace stood on the street in anxious anticipation. Rena had never contacted him, but judging by how long she was gone, he knew they were eventually going to need help.

Zoe was in his arms, sound asleep despite the loud noises of battle that surrounded every corner. This child was truly something else.

He hadn't had any time to get in touch with a babysitter, friend, or anyone of the sort, so he had to stick with putting a fake Rena mask on his child's face so no one would recognize her. It was a super cute mask that he absolutely would be gawking over if he wasn't so nervous about the fight.

Carapace's toe tapped as he heard Ladybug and Chat calling out in the distance, then cursed internally as he watched his wife fly across a few buildings.

Yeah, he really needed to help.

Carapace turned to the woman who was standing next to him, watching the fight in concern, and said, "HI do you like babies?"

He probably should've worded his sentence a bit better. The lady turned to him with wide and incredibly confused eyes. Rightfully so, but it was too late to go back now.

"Uh..yeah. I do," she replied. Judging by her weary eyes, it was obvious she'd already have run off if Carapace wasn't one of Paris' famed heroes.

"GREAT!" He gently shoved Zoe into her arms and took off, yelling all in one breath, "Watch her for me for a quick sec I'll be right back thank you!!"

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

The tedious battle had finally been conquered. It definitely wasn't CHALLENGING, per-say, but it was one of those times where everything just took forever. Rena had already given Carapace a scolding for practically throwing their child into a unknown lady's arms, but his defense was he was too anxious to think straight. However, when they finally landed on the street The green-clad superhero had dropped off Zoe, the lady was there and the baby...wasn't.

Carapace gawked at her. The lady also looked surprised so there was that, but she unfortunately wasn't getting out of the parents' rage.

"Where." He was going to say more but the lady interrupted with a panicked, "I DON'T KNOW SHE WAS HERE A SECOND AGO I SWEAR-"

"She was what?" Rena stepped in.

The woman proceeded to explain that she had been holding onto the baby for one moment (despite the extreme confusion at the suddenness of it all), and then she was simply...gone the next.

"You gave our baby. To a random stranger. And she LOST HER?" Carapace started backing up as Rena gripped her hair. "YOU GAVE OUR BABY TO A RANDOM STRANGER AND THEN SHE LOST HER!!" Her husband couldn't get away in time. Rena grabbed his shoulders and shook him viciously enough to cause him to go dizzy.

"I-wh-ah-eh-I-wh-"

The stranger pointed behind them, eyes wide as a kite (and luckily before Rena could do any more damage) and croaked, "Uhhh...what's that?"

Carapace and Rena Rouge looked behind them to see a floating Rena Rouge mask.

"Mama! Da!" A childish voice called out happily, and Carapace would've had a heart attack as the mask stepped closer if he didn't instantly recognize the voice.

"There's my girl!" Rena rushed forward and scooped the object in the air, which admittedly looked pretty odd. Zoe giggled as she materialized into view. The superhero turned back to her husband, whose eyes were wider than saucers. The random lady was also no where to be seen. "So...our child can turn invisible. Might be a good idea to let LB and CN know."

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

Ladybug sat atop the rooftop and sighed as the sun fell, sending the sky into an array of beautiful deep colors. Sunsets in Paris were something magical, especially in the winter when all the clouds gathered together to create combinations never seen before.

Chat Noir landed beside her with a thump and gave her a delighted wink when she smiled up at him. He sat down next to her, fake stretching so he could casually slide his arm around her.

"I'm your wife, you dolt, you don't have to do that," she snickered at him.

Another pair of thumps sounded from behind them and they turned to see Rena and Carapace, with their still-masked baby in their arms.

"Sorry for the interruption, L," Rena said, smiling at her and Chat's extremely cheesy position.

"We've got some tubular news!" Carapace help Zoe out from underneath her arms, and she blew a raspberry at the pair of superheros. "Look at my child."

"That's great news but I think we knew about that already," Chat joked.

"But watch this!" Rena walked up to Zoe and said, "Can you show us your little trick, baby?"

Zoe laughed happily as she suddenly disappeared from view, leaving only the mask behind.

"WHOA now that's new!"

"What on earth caused this?" Ladybug asked as she stared in awe.

 Carapace said, "We're not entirely sure-"

"-But we think it has something to do with the fact we're both miraculous holders," Rena finished for him. She tickled the area below the mask and Zoe reappeared with more giggles.

Ladybug and Chat stared at each other. "Well. That's certainly...exciting!" Ladybug chided.

Rena inspected the both of them for a good moment. "You two are planning on having a kid, aren't you?"

They would certainly be surprised if they didn't know this was just how Alya was.

Ladybug sighed, defeated. "Yeah..."

"Well, I just wanna let you know that, despite how strange this is, I know Carapace and I will get through it." She grabbed her husband's hand and gave him a warm smile, which he returned.

Chat laughed at their cheesiness. "That's GROSSSS."

"Oh like you and lovebug aren't any better, cat boy!"

"We can tell you two dudes need to talk, though, so we'll give you some space," Carapace said with a wink. Then, he and Rena were off with a heartful goodbye.

Ladybug and Chat were silent for a long moment, finding themselves holding their hands together tightly.

She finally broke the silence with a, "...I still think we should do it."

Chat gave her hand a loving squeeze. "I think so, too."

They shared another sweet kiss as the sun finished setting, unsure of what was to come for their future, but they knew they'd be fine as long as they were together.

[gryffindorcls]

Open Your Eyes

Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and I had WAY too much fun writing this one!  This is @flashflashitsash​‘s request from my Lovesquare Fluff Bingo.  She asked for “Seat Buddies” with an identity reveal.  (Sorry, Ash...Tumblr ate your ask lol) A big thank you to @falling-oceans​ for being my super awesome beta! (Also, being on a couch counts as seat buddies, right?)

If anyone else would like to request a bingo prompt, pick a number and a prompt from the board below, and send it to my inbox here.

AO3

Fanfiction

Marinette never considered herself a morning person. She hated that gritty feeling in her eyes and the thick taste in her mouth that always accompanied a pitiful night’s sleep. It was on days like this that the sun was her enemy and her pillow was her only consolation.

Unfortunately, today was one of those days.

Without opening her eyes, she flopped over, grabbed the blanket that covered her torso, and pulled it up to her chin.

In her groggy haze, Marinette’s hand searched for the familiar softness of her cat pillow. Her quest proved fruitless when her palm slid across a smooth, cotton-clad surface and collided with a fluffy mop. Her fingers tightened around the foreign object inside her personal bubble.

Did a cat sneak in through my hatch last night?

Then the mop groaned.

With a start, she recoiled her hand, but fear kept her eyes glued shut. Momentarily pushing the pillow texture mystery out of her head, Marinette gathered all the courage she could muster and moved her hand through the unidentified mass of silky strands.

The clenching in her gut lessened when she wasn’t immediately attacked, but she knew better than to let down her guard. Paris was no stranger to bizarre occurrences, and the last thing she needed was to be caught unawares by another one of Hawkmoth’s Akumas.

She didn’t want to fight the mop, but she would if she had to. After all, she was Ladybug. Albeit a detransformed Ladybug, but Ladybug nonetheless.

Marinette retracted her hand and let it slide down the strange pillow beneath her. She pressed against its surface only to find that it had little give and was somewhat chiseled.

What kind of mop is this?

“G-murnin.” The mop was speaking to her. “Swerm I?”

Well, it was mumbling, but it was sentient.

Please don’t be an Akuma.

Without warning, Marinette’s well-defined pillow-mop shifted beside her and took a deep breath. “Why hello, my lady! How do you manage to smell so good all the time?”

Marinette froze.

This was no pillow.

These were abs.

Very familiar abs.

Familiar abs that were definitely not in a super-suit right now.

“Chat!” His name came out as a squeak. “Please tell me that it’s really you! You’re not a talking pillow Akuma, right?”

His body shook with the rumble of a laugh. “It’s just me. No Akuma to fight right now.”

Marinette wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but a nagging worry still consumed her. “I’m not so sure about that, Chaton. Something’s not adding up right now.”

“Now that you mention it, all of this does seem a little strange.” A pair of strong, steady arms wrapped around her torso. “Don’t get me wrong, waking up next to you is a dream come true, but I’m definitely supposed to be at a friend’s house right now.”

“Me, too.” Marinette buried her face into her partner’s chest. “And neither of us are transformed for some reason, so don’t open your eyes.”

“Got it.”

“I’m serious! No peeking.”

“When have I ever given you a reason to not trust me?”

“Hmmm, let’s see. Well, there was the time when-”

He cut her off, sending her into a fit of giggles. “My lady!”

The mock hurt in his voice brushed away some of the uncertainty that shrouded her mind. “Don’t worry, Chaton. I trust you with my life.”

His arms tightened around her waist. “That’s good because you had me worried for a second there.”

She nuzzled her face against the crook of his neck, wanting more than anything to stay with him forever, but unfortunately there were more pressing matters to attend to. “So, as much as I'm enjoying this unexpected cuddling session, we really do have to figure this out.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He sighed and pulled his head away from hers. “And it’s just my luck that I finally get to hold you in my arms like this and it’s probably because of stupid Hawkmoth.”

“Sorry, kitty, but if it’s any consolation, I’m really enjoying it...even though we might be in danger.”

“None of this makes any sense! We aren't supposed to detransform unless we’ve used our powers, and I don't remember fighting a second Akuma yesterday. Come to think of it, I don't remember transforming at all last night.”

“Neither do I. The last time we were transformed was when we fought Masked-Tape, but that was in the middle of the day.”

“Surprisingly, this new problem is an even stickier situation than the one he created.”

“Focus, Chat Noir! Now is not the time for jokes!”

“Sorry, my lady, but I haven’t been able to focus since you gave me that little parting gift yesterday.” His mouth came dangerously close to her neck, allowing the warmth of his breath to cling to her skin. “And you kind of ran away before we could talk about it.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. “I was about to detransform! What else was I supposed to do?”

“So, does that mean that you leaving was not meant to be a reflection of the quality of that kiss?” His breath once again caressed her bare skin as he spoke, sending a shiver through her body. "Because you have no idea how worried I was about that last night."

“I'm sorry you felt that way. I never meant for you to think that I didn't like it." Marinette turned her head and rested her nose against his. "I loved it, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again sometime.”

“Oh, really?” His lips ghosted hers, sending her thoughts into a frenzied blur. “Because kissing you was the greatest moment of my life.”

“But it wasn’t our first kiss.”

“But it was the first one I remembered. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was the first one that meant something to you.”

Her breath hitched. “It meant everything to me. You mean everything to me.”

Chat erased the remaining space between them and gently pressed his lips against hers. Unlike the previous day’s kiss that had taken place after watching her partner nearly die, this one was soft and cautious. She leaned into the kiss, giving him silent encouragement.

It had taken years, but Marinette was happy with how her relationship with Chat had evolved. Shortly after she’d become the new Guardian, there was a brief period where he stopped using any nicknames when addressing her. She hadn’t realized that she’d missed it as much as she did until she heard him refer to her “my lady” after a particularly difficult Akuma battle. From there, her heart slowly began softening towards his affections.

Giving up her first crush had been painful but necessary. Adrien belonged with someone else. Even though she still loved him, Marinette had managed to become good friends with Adrien, and she learned how to open herself up to the possibility of loving someone else. After coming to this conclusion, she knew it was only a matter of time before she finally allowed herself to fall in love with her partner.

For years, she’d been brushing away her feelings for him, but yesterday had given her the wake-up call she’d needed. Sure, Adrien would always hold a special place in her heart, but without a doubt, she was also deeply in love with Chat Noir.

And now, he was here, and she was in his arms. While the situation was not ideal, she felt safe and loved.

Marinette lost herself in his essence. Her hands rested against his chest as his arms tightened around her torso. His breath tasted sweet on her lips, and the steady thrum of his heartbeat against her open palm sent fireworks shooting through her veins. Their connection was electric.

When the need to breathe finally overtook her senses, she pulled away from his face, and the coolness of the morning air sent her thoughts hurtling back towards reality.

Chat shifted beneath her, but before his lips met hers once again, she turned her head away from his. “We still have a problem to solve.”

“Ugh, fine. But I want an extra kiss later.” There was a teasing lilt in his voice.

“Deal.”

“Wait, really?”

“Chat, I will give you endless kisses if you can help me figure this out.” Doing her best to maintain some semblance of self-control, she gently pressed her lips against his jaw. “As many kisses as you want.”

“Wow.” A noise similar to that of a balloon slowly losing air manifested itself as a strained whine from Chat’s throat. “I’d like that.”

Marinette bit her lip in an attempt to hold back a laugh. “Then we should probably get to work.”

“You got it, my lady.” His voice cracked before he paused to clear his throat. “Um...what should we do first?”

She took a deep breath and did her best to focus. “Okay, well, let's retrace our steps. What’s the last thing you remember doing before you woke up this morning?”

“I was watching movies with some of my friends.”

“Me, too! Maybe it was a technology Akuma that brainwashed us or erased our memories.”

“I guess that would explain how we wound up on this couch together.”

“We’re on a couch?”

“It definitely feels like a couch.” The sound of his hand dragging across textured fabric heightened her senses. “Actually, it kind of feels like my friend’s couch.”

Her stomach dropped. “Does that mean we’re at your friend’s house?”

“Uhhh...probably?”

“Wait...is your friend here in the room with us?”

“Do you want me to look around and see?”

The only voices she’d heard since she'd woken up were theirs, so she had assumed that they were alone; however, the success of their escape plan hinged on their ability to speak freely.

“Yeah.” She nodded her head against his chest. “You can look. Just make sure you don’t look at me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of breaking your trust.” Chat kissed the top of her head, calming some of her nerves. “I’ll just take a quick look.”

Tension hung in the air as she awaited his findings. “Anyone else with us?”

“Okay, so we’re definitely in my friend’s apartment, but we’re alone right now.” A muffled crash and a chorus of laughter sounded from another room. “But I don’t know how long that will last.”

Marinette huffed. “Well, that’s just great! How are we supposed to get out of this without revealing our identities?”

Chat grew silent before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “My lady, may I offer you a suggestion?”

The increased pressure of his body against hers sent her heart fluttering. “I’m listening.”

“What if, and try to stay with me here, okay?” He took a deep breath. “What if we stopped keeping our identities a secret?”

She deflated. “We can't do that.”

“Yes, we can.”

“You know we can’t know each other’s identities.”

“Would it really be the worst thing in the world if we did?” One of his hands slid off of her back and cradled her cheek. “We could open our eyes right now.”

Pressure began to build behind her eyes as tears threatened to fall. “Chat…”

“My lady, please. Just think about it!”

“But Hawkmoth…”

“Is going to get his butt kicked.” His breath came out as a chuckle. “Just imagine how much we could accomplish if we could plan and hunt for clues together as civilians.”

Her heart yearned for the world that Chat described, but the voice in the back of her mind screamed louder than her desires. “But it would put us in danger.”

“We are already in danger. We’re in danger just by feeling emotions, and we will continue to be in danger long after Hawkmoth is defeated. Danger is just one of those things that comes with having a Miraculous.”

“Master Fu was pretty adamant about us not knowing.”

“But he’s not here anymore, and you’re the Guardian. Do you know how much easier it would be if I could find you outside of the mask? What if I need more of that magic cheese? Or what if something happens and one of us can’t show up to a fight?”

Her racing thoughts came to a screeching halt, allowing the protest in her heart to shatter some of her resolve. “I never thought of it that way.”

“My lady, do you know how worried I am that one day you’ll just disappear and I won’t know how to find you?”

“That won’t happen.”

“But what if it does? I already had one important person in my life disappear. I barely made it through that, and losing you would break me.”

“Oh, Chaton.”

“I love you, Ladybug.” He nuzzled his cheek against her head. “I always have and I always will. I know this is scary, but not being able to get to each other if we’re in trouble is even scarier.”

She pressed a hand against his cheek. “I love you, too, Chat. You mean everything to me, and...”

“And?”

“And…” Marinette wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to his face, attempting to drive away the rest of her inhibitions by finding safety in his steady embrace. “I think I’m ready to see who you are.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. “Then open your eyes.”

Marinette took a deep breath and allowed her eyelids to flutter, briefly letting light pierce through her self-inflicted darkness. A shock of blond moved in her periphery, forcing her eyes shut once again.

She slumped against him and silently cursed the fear that still prevented her from filling Chat’s request. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.” Marinette knew he was right, but the nagging voice that was usually in the back of her mind was screaming in her ears.

“But it’ll change everything!” Her words tumbled out involuntarily, and when her brain finally registered what she’d said, a broken sob escaped her lips. “So much has changed already, and I don’t know if I’m ready for more.”

“Don’t forget that change can be good.” He buried his face in her hair and breathed in. “For starters, knowing will change how much we get to see each other, and it’ll change what name I put on the flowers I’m going to give to you on our first date. But it won’t change how I feel about you because we’re still the same people underneath the masks.”

“Yeah, we are.” The fear gripping her heart ebbed away as rosy visions of a life with her partner formed in her mind. “That’s what Tikki says to me all the time.”

“And she’s right. I’ll always be your partner who’s madly in love with you, and you will always be my brave and beautiful lady.”

“It would be nice to see what color your eyes really are.”

He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Fun fact...they’re still green.”

His breath tickled her skin, melting away any remaining trepidation and replacing it with an overwhelming need for more. She wanted that first date. She wanted to hear him say her name. She wanted to feel the touch of his hand on hers without the barrier of their suits.

With a renewed vigor, she made her decision. “Alright, I’m actually ready this time.”

He peppered her face with kisses, sending her into a fit of giggles. “Thank you, my lady. Thank you!”

“Well, someone’s excited!”

“I have been waiting three years for this moment. Of course, I’m excited! No, I’m beyond excited! I’m paws-sitively o-fur-joyed!”

“Okay, now I’m starting to rethink my decision.”

“Oh, you know you love my puns.”

Marinette did her best to stifle a laugh. “Hmmmm, I’ll have to think about that.”

“My lady,” he whined, “I thought we were having a moment!”

“Hey, you were the one who brought puns into the conversation.”

“I only pun when I’m comfortable, and I usually don’t feel comfortable enough to make jokes like that around most people in my civilian life. But I feel completely at ease with you, so think of me showing you my sense of humor outside of the suit as a compliment.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I love you.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “Puns and all.”

He pressed his forehead against hers. “How about we both look on the count of three?”

“Sounds purr-fect.”

“My silly kitty.” Shifting her position on the couch, Marinette pulled Chat into a sitting position and held his hands. “Ready? One.”

He gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “Two.”

“Thr...wait!” Marinette moved forward until her knee was touching his leg. “Before we open our eyes, could you do something for me?”

One of his hands moved to cup her cheek. “Anything.”

“Kiss me.” She leaned in further as his hand buried itself in her hair. “Kiss me like you kissed me last night.”

His lips crashed onto hers as his fingers pressed against the back of her head, erasing the space between them. Her hands eventually landed on his back and gripped his soft cotton t-shirt. The kiss transcended words, for she could feel his ceaseless declaration of love grow stronger with each passing second.

“Girl, I can totally see where you get your clumsiness from! Your dad just spilled an entire…OHMYGOD, YOU’RE KISSING ADRIEN!” Marinette opened her eyes and whipped her head towards the voice that had entered the room.

She shrieked and launched herself off of the couch, landing on the floor with a thud. Her heart pounded against her chest as she tried to catch her breath. As her vision became acclimated to the light, she scanned her surroundings only to find an equally stunned-looking Adrien Agreste holding his hand over his lips, curled up against the corner of the couch.

“Marinette.” The reverence in which he spoke her name almost made her forget that they were no longer alone. “Of course.”

“I heard screams. What happened?” A somewhat frazzled Nino burst into the room, hopped in front of his girlfriend, and assumed a battle-ready stance. “Is there an Akuma?”

Alya whipped out her phone. “No Akuma, but it seems as though our best friends have been holding out on us.”

Nino dropped his arms to his side and looked back at Alya. “So, no one’s hurt?”

“Marinette just flew off the couch, so she might be. But I think she’ll be just fine.” Alya smirked and turned towards Adrien. “Right, sunshine?”

“I...uh…” Adrien visibly swallowed. “What?”

“Are you going to let your girlfriend just sit on the floor like that?” Alya pointed at Marinette.

Nino held up a hand. “I’m sorry, did you just say girlfriend?”

“Yup. I came in to tell our Sleeping Beauties that breakfast was ready, and what do I find? These two making out.” Alya chuckled. “And let me just say, it’s about time.”

“Bro, why didn’t you tell me?” Nino slung his arm around Alya. “We should totally go on a double date sometime. Just think about how much fun we would have!”

Pressure began to build against her eardrums as she slowly began to process the events that had transpired over the last few minutes. The ever-growing ringing in her ears made it hard for her to concentrate on anything outside of her own thoughts. As her mind wandered, she entered her own private bubble, quieting the voices around her and allowing every hidden truth to make itself known.

She was in her house.

She’d been in her living room all night.

She’d just kissed Adrien Agreste.

And Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir.

“...and then Marinette yeeted herself off of the couch.” Alya’s voice slowly drifted back into focus. “And from the way she’s staring off into space right now, I’m guessing she might actually be hurt. Girl, are you okay? ”

Marinette shook herself away from her racing thoughts in time to see a wave of panic wash over Adrien’s features. “Are you hurt?”

Her body still felt somewhat numb from the shock, but a dull ache in her lower back was beginning to pulsate. “Only a little.”

Within seconds, Adrien was on the floor next to her, holding her in his arms. “Could you guys tell Marinette’s parents that we’ll be there in a few minutes? We just need a moment.”

Alya held up her phone and snapped a picture. “Oh, come on! This moment is too adorable to not capture. You won’t even know we’re here.”

“No, we need a few minutes alone this time.” Marinette could hear the exasperation simmering beneath the surface of his words.

“Aww, but you two are just so cute.”

“Alya, please...”

“Okay, fine! You two deserve your alone time, but I expect some details later.” Alya winked at Marinette, grabbed Nino’s wrist, and dragged him out of the room. “Come on, babe. Let’s see if Mr. Dupain still needs help cleaning up all that orange juice and flour.”

“Thank you!” Adrien called after her.

When they were alone once again, the room grew quiet. Adrien scooped Marinette into his lap and held her against his chest. She slowly felt the shock from the reveal begin to wane, and she found herself snuggling against him.

Her heart pounded against her chest, each thump another confirmation that the boy who held her in his arms was her true love, regardless of whether she called him Adrien or Chat. Of course, she’d fallen in love with him twice. Of course, he was her partner. There was no one else it could have been.

The more she thought about it, Chat’s identity was something she’d known in her heart all along. Her mind had pushed the idea away so many times, creating a wall between them, but now, there were no more secrets or barriers.

Her kitty had been right. Danger would follow them wherever they went, but as long as they had each other, they would be unstoppable against any force that threatened to tear them apart.

With him, she could be at peace.

“This definitely changes how I feel about you.” He declared, making her suddenly doubt every resolution her mind had just made.

“O-oh?” Her voice was shaky.

“I once said that I would love whoever was behind the mask, but I was wrong. I’ve had my suspicions of who Ladybug might be over the past few years, and I was only truly happy when I thought she was you.” Adrien kissed her temple, dissolving any hint of worry or doubt in her mind. “I always knew you were more than just a friend to me, but I was too scared to admit the truth.”

“The truth?” She met his gaze, finding nothing but adoration in his eyes.

His hair brushed against her cheek as he whispered into her ear. “That I am hopelessly in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and I just fell in love with her even more.”

All the air rushed from her lungs, leaving her breathless. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she clung to Adrien’s shirt and buried her face against his chest. For the first time in years, she felt complete.

Adrien released her from his embrace and leaned back, seemingly unsure of what to do with his hands. “My lady, are you alright? What’s wrong? Is it something I said?”

Marinette shook her head, looped her arms around his neck, and pulled him close. “No, please don’t go away! I liked the hug.”

Adrien returned the gesture and began rubbing soothing circles on her back. “It’s okay. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

“Good.”

“Does this mean I didn’t do anything wrong?”

“Oh, kitty, no.” Marinette used the back of her hand to wipe the wetness off of her cheeks. “I’m just so happy.”

He leaned her forehead against hers. “That’s a lot of happy tears, Bugaboo. Are you sure everything is okay?”

“There’s just a lot of emotions to process right now, and I’m a little overwhelmed. I can’t believe that we’ve been in love with each other this whole time, and we never even knew.” She released a watery laugh. “We've been dancing around each other for years!”

“Okay, now I’m confused. You didn’t kiss me until yesterday, and you always told me that you were in love with someone else.”

She tightened her embrace. “Oh, my wonderful, kitty. Three years ago, I fell in love with a kind boy who gave me an umbrella after clearing up a misunderstanding. And then I slowly fell in love with him all over again, even though I called him by a different name.”

Adrien’s stunned expression made her giggle. “So, that means the other boy was…”

“You.”

“...me.”

“It was always you, Adrien. You have my whole heart.”

“My lady, can I kiss you again?” His breath ghosted her lips as his face inched closer to hers.

She could barely contain her smile. “You can kiss me whenever you want.”

This kiss was soft and gentle, for behind it was the promise of countless more just like it.

Another crash came from the kitchen followed by groans and laughs, prompting Marinette to pull away from Adrien. “I should probably go see if my parents need help.”

“Yeah.” Adrien chuckled. “At least we can spend time with each other a little later.”

“But you have to leave by ten for a photoshoot, and didn’t you say that your dad was expecting you to practice the piano when you got home?”

“Well, Adrien has to do all that stuff, but Chat is available to meet up with a certain Princess around say...seven o’clock? Purr-haps he’ll bring ice cream if that’s something the lady wants.”

Marinette leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss on his lips. “It’s a date.”

Maybe early mornings weren’t out to get her, after all. Maybe the sun wasn’t really her enemy. And maybe this was the start of something wonderful.

Now that her eyes were open, she never wanted to close them again.

As she made her way out of the room, Marinette took Adrien’s hand and laced her fingers through his. He gave her hand a squeeze, sending a flurry of butterflies coursing through her body.

Yeah, she could definitely get used to days like this.

[writingsbysam]

Penance

  This time, one of the thousands and thousands and thousands of times, he’s bleeding out in my arms. It’s not like the first time, not a broken bronze chest plate and ravens picking out the maggots. There’s no funeral games here, no truce in the war, and no golden urn. Just a sweatshirt and the distinct smell of gunpowder. It’s my fault again, my rage provoked, taken out on everyone and anything within reach. I’ve always been worse than a hurricane, burned worse than the hottest days of summer. He dies protecting me, and my penance is no longer death, but having to live eternally without him. (How can one kill a god?)

  Iron bites into the flesh more, the new technology running through the world faster than Zeus’ lightning, a band of wanderers from a land further than Hyperborea. He’s struck by an arrow this time, and I hardly have to scream before the people from the sea stab him through the heart. I dragged him into this and three ravens croak out a mocking song that sounds strangely more like laughter than a lament. It’s the beginning of the curse that will haunt me for eternity. There’s always some war or another, even if the format changes. 

  One would think that three war deities would be far too many, but that never seemed to stop the Moirai for declaring me the third puzzle piece to the particular tripartite hell that is war. The first time I see Athena roaming the halls of Olympus her face is pinched with pity, and sympathy. I only see Ares see once, eye bags the size of a small nation, and crazed mutterings escaping through his lips. I’m scared that one day I’ll end up like him. 

  I meet the war deities of other pantheons, eventually. I see Inanna –or Ishtar as she’s sometimes known depending on the century and the people– quite often and there’s something ancient and all-encompassing about her presence that makes the skin crawl. She’s like if Aphrodite and Athena had a baby and it’s frightening.

   It’s a battle between Babylon and the Elamites. I shouldn’t be here in theory, but the curse holds strong, wherever he is, I’m with him always. I’m never a leader anymore, there’s a little less guilt in that, just a foot soldier. Inanna likes to run around as one of her sacred prostitutes, shell necklaces and gold armbands draped over Tyrian purple robes. She’s beautiful and mischievous but deadly as a viper, a combination of nightshade and honey. She holds my hand when I flinch, always watching the spear pierce my love just above the navel. I don’t love her, can’t love her, but her presence calms the roar in my skull. She’s a friend for a nearly a thousand years, until one day she fades away in a mirage and a watery smile. I may never have that luxury. (How can one kill a god?) 

  The next one I meet is the Morrigan, who lands on my shoulder in the form a crow as I gaze out over the peat. I flinch noticeably and she grows into a raven haired woman before my eyes. She says nothing the first meeting, just stares on out across the ocean over my shoulder. It’s years before I see her again.

 This time the Romans gather off the coast, but no fighting will take place today, just trade. He’s sitting there, wearing a woad dyed cloak and a Roman helmet but he is not one of them.

  “He will not die today,” Morrigan says in her distinctive croaky voice. I stare holes into his eyes, thankful for the invisibility of the divine for once. 

  “I know. He will tomorrow. It’s why you’re here, goddess, is it not?” I resign myself to my fate. A wolfen grin, the one I’ve seen when Athena creates a new weapon, splits across her face. 

  “Among other reasons. Am I not allowed to see my favourite Greek?” she laughs.

  “How am I your favourite?” I ask, not sure why, surely she talks to Athena more. 

  “You’re the only one who visits, even if it’s just for him. You’re even the Dadga’s favourite,” she laughs and it reminds me of the day the Moirai cursed me just a little too strongly. Morrigan is probably my best friend, someone who might understand even more than Inanna.

  It happens again the next morning, a version of me screaming at the general of the legion about a price, and an arrow through his temple. It hurts just as bad as the first time, and in fear of Morrigan I can’t let my tears fall. The warrior god and the goddess of might must be strong, right? 

   It happens again and again and again, all at the same time endlessly. Until one day, the future has no more need for fate and this time he gets to bleed out in my arms. Both of us, mortal and immortal, one 17 years old and desperate and the other 3,206 years old and still desperate. This might be the last time I see him, the curse is broken, and he might finally get some rest. Maybe I will too. 

  I strap rockets to my feet the week afterwards, shooting across the planet like a comet, taking down bad guys and finally living up to my title “God of Just War” (no war is just, whatever the Moirai thought. I lost everything to war and no one should have to do the same.) Morrigan joins the team after the biggest threat yet, claiming that she had nothing better to do. Her hair’s cherry red now, and she goes by a different name, but she can still kill a man with a paperclip so I don’t judge. We gain others who don’t know what we’ve done and make some sort of makeshift family, but I still weep for him, still long for Inanna’s overbearing smile. Morrigan is closer to mortal every day, as am I. I dream of him dying every night, of the threats to come (Morrigan and I compare notes in the morning, prophecy never quite left the both of us), and of the Mediterranean coast.

  I wake up in a cold sweat one night after a particularly rough mission, watching a teenaged boy get shot in the chest reminds me too strongly of my former curse, and I walk into the kitchen to find a certain redhead brewing hot cocoa. I sit down across from her and stare off for a time, could’ve been a minute, could’ve been an hour, could’ve been a year. I talk of inconsequential things for a bit before she looks me in the eyes. She’s muttering to herself before she says, 

  “What’s the point of being a hero, with all the things we’ve seen, all the things we’ve done?” she says. Her voice is thick and hoarse with an unnameable emotion, the croak that marks her voice out from all others, the one that commands the words of power finally re-emerges. 

  “Penance, I think,” a mirthless laugh escapes my lips, “we’ve done a lot of bad shit in our 3,000 years. Gotta wipe the ledger clean somehow, huh, Red?” Her eyes go somewhere far away as she slips into the old language, the one older than even the standing stones that dot the Emerald Isle,

  “Why, Achilles? Why us? Everyone else is gone or insane. Ares disappeared in 1945, Athena in ‘46, and Inanna… oh god Inanna… I don’t remember her face.”  I do, I’ve seen it every night since she disappeared into the Iraqi desert. I answer my birth tongue, a Greek older than Greece. The syllables sit clunkily in my mouth, the sounds rusty from disuse,

   “I do. I see it every night, bright as the day she left us. Morrigan… I think it’s because we already know how to be mortal. We cannot die because we have regrets.” 

   “What of Apollo, or Poseidon? They were mortal for a time and they’re still dying or dead,” she asks. 

   “They’re Olympians, they’re arrogant. We’re different. I… I can’t be forgotten because I started out mortal, to these days of science I was real therefore I can’t be forgotten. It’s the one thing the damned Moirai promised me when I left for Ilium, that I would have everlasting glory,” I ramble. Morrigan raises a perfect eyebrow, 

  “You think too much, Philos,” the Greek a halting stop in the lilting tongue. 

   “You’re probably right,” I admit, “it’s just I know why I do this. It’s for Patroclus. It’s penance. I save people because for three thousand years,” my voice hitches harshly, “I couldn’t save him, and I can’t make someone go through what I did.” Her brows knit into a mask of worry.

   “Let’s put on a mind numbing movie and just laugh our asses off for an hour, alright?” she says in English. I reply in Greek, savoring my time speaking my native tongue, 

   “Raise a toast with me first,” we both raise our mugs, “to Inanna, wherever she is, and to our penance, however long that may be.” She clinks her mug with mine and puts on a movie. 

  The two of us, the last of the gods, huddle together on a couch passing stories until the dawn, sharing our penance together. And if the next time we save the world, while the rest of our teammates are okay and eating a metric ton of pizza, I look at her across the room and mouth “This. This is why we do this” well that’s none of your business. 

 Sharing our penance is a little easier together. 

[hybridfanfiction]

Owner Training - 6 (M)

This chapter is filled with smut, so skip this one if you’re not interested! Warning for unprotected sex. Don’t be a fool, wrap your tool. (Unless you’re Yoongi, then it’s cool.) He might also kinda have an impreg kink. Look, these things write themselves, okay? 

Word Count: 2,800

Your hand clenched the sides of the open doorway as your jaw dropped, the scene before you turning your brain to mush. Your last remaining brain cell was battling between the urge to flee and the desperate desire to stay. Finally, one of your feet managed to take a single step, despite how it felt like pure lead. 

Looking back, it really should have been obvious what was going on....

Since the heartbreaking fight a few days before, you were wondering if there was perhaps some sort of parasitic animal in his DNA. Yoongi has been practically latched onto you every moment that he could be. You’d expected him to open up more and be more into physical affection, but this was extreme. 

From the moment you got home from work he would wrap himself onto you, scenting your neck for a solid twenty minutes. He would barely let you get up to fix dinner, insisting on holding onto your waist and laying his head on your shoulder, which making cooking extremely difficult. If you tried to push him away, even to go to the bathroom by yourself, it was like a switch flipped and he’d turn into this upset moody brat that would practically cry until you sat in his lap. 

Even stranger, he’d suddenly become incredibly hungry, like all the time. You were used to him trying to talk you into the occasional treat, but overall he didn’t eat very much. Now, it was the complete opposite. Just yesterday he’d gone through two whole roasted chickens by himself, a steak dinner, three bags of banana chips, and even a couple chocolate bars. Not to mention the way he’s gone through an entire carton of ice cream every single night, pouting when it was finished. 

You knew something was wrong, but you didn’t know what. You’d tried to consult your hybrid books but it seemed like it could be any number of things. You had even started to wonder if it was time to force him to the vet, but what would you say? Hi, I’m here because my hybrid hugs me all the time and eats a lot? 

Anyone that didn’t know Yoongi personally wouldn’t understand why his behavior was worrying. 

And then there was that smoke scent. It was strange how just all of a sudden Yoongi walked around smelling like the campfires you used to have all the time when you were a kid. It was just a strange crisp burning smell mixed with this rich and sweet undertone, like it was made expressly for your tastes. You couldn’t get enough of it.

And every time you let yourself give in and bury your nose in his hair to catch more of it, his purrs to get louder and he’d butt his head up like there was nothing he wanted more than for you to smell him. Which was totally weird, right? 

This morning you’d actually woken up early because Yoongi’s body heat was practically making you drip sweat. You’d sat up and checked his brow, finding the temperature blazing. Little droplets of sweat littered his forehead and dripped down to his neck, even as you noticed his body shaking like he was freezing. You’d woken him up and had a good long fight, trying to convince him to let you take him to the vet. He kept insisting that it wasn’t needed, that he was fine, but you were so worried. You were nearly late to work by the time he finally agreed to go if he was still like this by the time you got home. 

Yeah, you had known something was up, but nothing could have prepared you for what you came home too. 

As soon as you’d opened the door, you’d known something was wrong. The lights were all off except for the one shining from your bedroom. The AC was cranked up high. Yoongi wasn’t nestled into his usual corner on the couch, so you assumed he was still napping in the bedroom. It was fairly quiet until you got closer to the room. 

Then you heard it. 

It was light at first. You could have easily mistaken the sounds as whimpers of pain. In fact, you nearly did, which is why you started walking towards the bedroom in the first place. But it was soon followed by a ragged moan and the sounds of your bed lightly squeaking. 

“Fuck...”

Yoongi’s gravelly voice gave away exactly what he was doing in there, and yet your body still went forward like it was on auto-drive. You grasped the side of the doorway and peeked in, your heart beating wildly in your chest. You couldn’t even breathe. 

There on the bed that the two of you shared was Yoongi - but one you’d never seen before. He wasn’t wearing a single stitch of clothing, and his pale skin was damp with a light sheen of sweat. He was on his back with his fluffy black tail trailing off the side of the bed. His hand was wrapped about a surprisingly pretty pink cock as he tugged on it, biting his lips in what looked like both arousal and frustration. 

“Ahhhhh....”

You could feel every moan travel straight to your own body. God, he sounded amazing. Was this a heat? You forgot all about those. Fuck, you were a shitty owner. 

“Can smell you. Come help me.” 

You jumped guiltily, peeling your gaze off the entrancing sight of his hand at work to meet his eyes. He was staring at you hungrily, a flicker of something there that was almost a challenge. 

“I’m so sorry, Yoongi. I forgot about ruts and heats. I can go call the hybrid place and have them send someone,” you sputter, quickly averting your eyes and making a show of pulling out your phone. “I can ask Jimin to let me stay there for a few days.”

Damn, you were trash. How violated he must feel after you just stood there watching like some pervert. 

“Send someone?” You heard the squeaking stop as he seemed to pause. “What do you mean send someone?” 

“Oh, they have these hybrids that volunteer to...uh...you know. Help. With that. I remember Tae had someone once before he and Jimin got together.” 

“I know what heat assistance is. Why the fuck would I want that?” 

His voice was trembling enough that you snuck a peek at him in curiosity. His hand was clenching his thigh as he breathed heavily, his tail flicking the way it does when he’s irritated. 

“Because you’re in heat?” You respond with a furrowed brow. Was there something you were missing? 

“Jesus...fuck. If you don’t want me just fucking tell me,” Yoongi growled as he awkwardly threw the sheet over himself and stared down at his hands. 

And...was that a sniffle? Was he crying? 

“Hey, Yoongi sweetie? Remember we established that I’m an idiot? You gotta tell me what’s going on here?” 

He huffed angrily, still refusing to meet your eyes. 

“What’s going on here is that we’ve been heat bonding all week and now you’re rejecting me. It’s fine. Whatever.” 

“Yoongi - “ you begin softly, taking a few more steps into the bedroom and gently lowering yourself next to him. “Are you saying you wanted to do...that...with me?” 

“You can’t even say it,” Yoongi sighed and rolled his eyes when he finally looked over at you. “I thought that’s where we were headed and I thought you’d want to. Guess I read the signs wrong because you’re a fucking human and probably want nothing to do with a fucking cat.” 

“Yoongi, it’s not like that at all! I like you too!” you blurt, gasping and covering your mouth after because, oh no, he never said he liked you. He just said he thought you guys were going to have sex. 

He pierces you with one of his stares, the ones that feel like he’s picking you apart all the way down into your soul. 

“Really?” 

You nod. “Guess, the cat’s out of the bag.” 

His momentary sneer lets you know he is not amused. 

“So, you’ll help me? You won’t send off for someone?” 

You blush so hard that you can physically feel it growing on your cheeks. 

“I mean, if that’s what you really want. Sure,” you mumble shyly.

He quirks his eyebrow in challenge and flings off the sheet before beginning to crawl closer to you. You can already feel the fur on his tail teasing against your leg. 

“Last chance to back out.” 

Little does he know that you’ve never wanted anyone more. 

You’re proud of yourself as you stand your ground, letting him advance towards you with minimal signs of flinching. You can feel how much his skin is burning once he’s next to you, the heat just emanating off of his body. 

You give a little startled twitch when you suddenly feel his long fingers curling under the bottom of your shirt. He studies your face as he tugs on it a little, giving you a silent warning of what’s to come. You nod and breathe out, his little pleased grin enough to help you relax a little. 

He pulls it off completely and throws it across the room while you unhook your bra for him in a rush of bravery. He doesn't even bother to look at it before he grabs it and throws it behind him, obviously in a rush to just get you naked already. You were both flattered and a little alarmed, but you had to remember that Yoongi was basically in heat right now and was probably hurting and desperate. 

To speed things up, you take care of everything else quickly on your own, letting him sit back and stroke himself slowly as he watched. He gave a pleased hum when you were finally as bare as him. 

“Sit on my face,” he grunted, scooting up onto his pillow. 

“Huh?” 

You knew what he meant, but your brain short-circuited a bit at the thought. 

“I want to taste you.” 

God, he was so blunt. You gulp and crawl awkwardly across the bed until you’re hoving above his face. You can feel the little warm breaths of air hitting your core and he grasps your thighs. 

“Careful, I’m sure I’m heavy.” 

He rolls his eyes and tugs you down onto his mouth. You squeak a little bit as you try to balance yourself against the headboard. The first few touches of his wet tongue on you were almost ticklish. Light, like he was getting to know you down there. Your heart was hammering with anticipation as he suddenly flattened his tongue and ran it all throughout your folds, the just barely rough texture strange but intriguing. 

You couldn’t help but moan and twitch a little as he finally paid attention to your clit, circling it and suckling it into his mouth hard. You could feel him smirking against you. 

“God. Yoongi, feels so fucking good.” 

“Mmm. I know.” 

The next few minutes were the closest to heaven you’d ever been in your life. No one had ever paid that much attention to you before. If you stiffened, he’d stop. If you gasped, he did it more. He was eating you out like a man starved and you loved it. Even when you would accidentally grind down harder than you meant to, he would groan loudly against you, like he’d love nothing more than for you to smother him with your pussy. Kinky bastard. You should have known. 

Finally, he taps on your thigh and you lift up, looking down at him. 

“I need you to fucking ride me, right now. Gonna cum.” 

“O...okay,” you answer shakily. You honestly weren’t sure if you were going to be able to hold yourself up that long, especially since you were pretty close yourself. 

“I don’t have condoms. Do you?” 

“Don’t need em.” 

You glance up at that and...oh. You’ve never had anyone look at you like that before. 

“But I’m not on...” 

“I know.” 

“If...uhhh...ya know - “ 

“Y/N. Get on my cock so I can fill you up with my kittens,” he growls, though his soft eyes belay the harshness of his voice, making it all so very emotional. And hot. He had your feelings flying everywhere and you couldn’t think straight. 

With a silent nod and slight blush, you crawl down and straddle his waist. You inhale harshly as you touch his cock for the first time and position it under you. He’s so soft and warm, and if you weren’t both frantically trying to hold off orgasms then you’d want to take your time with it. 

You slowly slide down, both of you releasing harsh breaths as you finally connect. You start a slow rocking at first, letting your body get used to having him inside of you. Fuck, he felt so good stretching you out. 

Yoongi reached over and grasped your hips, helping you increase speed until he was practically doing it all himself. You’d push up and he would slam you down, until the both of you were groaning and damp, the headboard smacking loudly against the wall. 

Suddenly he drops one hand down to your pussy and harshly rubs circles into your clit. 

“I’m gonna cum. Gonna fill you up so good, baby. The whole world's gonna see you filled with kittens and know you’re mine. Cum on my cock.” 

You’d never thought you’d hear such lewd words coming from your tsundere hybrid, so it’s enough to shock your body into doing as he ordered. You throw your head back and moan loudly as tremors fill your body. The gravelly moan is your only warning before he holds you still as warmth fills you. 

You let your upper body drop, draping yourself across his chest. He surprisingly doesn’t seem to mind or be in a hurry to pull out - instead holding you close enough to his chest that you can hear his racing heartbeat and harsh breaths. 

“Thank you.” 

You peek up at his soft words, smiling gently. 

“You don’t need to thank me. I wanted to. I liked it.” 

He seems to puff up a bit at that, making you giggle. 

“So, uh. Not to be one of those people that has to have the talk after sex, but we did some things and said some things that made me need to have something made clear. So, we’re like...a thing?” 

He rolls his eyes at you and hugs you closer. 

“Ahhh, I must have something wrong with me if I fell in love with such an idiot,” he says with a dramatic air and amused grin. 

Your eyes widen in surprise. “You what now?” 

“I’m in love with you. And I want to be whatever you’ll let me be.” 

“So this wasn’t just you being desperate?” 

He sighs and explains. “No. Heats make me horny as hell. They don’t suddenly make me have thoughts that aren’t my own or desperate enough to hump a couch or whatever. I meant everything.” 

“So you want to...date?”

Yoongi shrugs. “We can start with that. Sure.” 

“Okay. So I can tell Jimin that you’re my boyfriend and get him to stop trying to set me up,” you exclaim excitedly. 

He growls lowly. “If that doesn’t work, tell him I knocked you up.” 

You’d nearly forgotten. “Oh yeah, about that. Were you being...serious?” 

His smirk makes him appear very pleased with himself as he hums what he apparently thinks is a valid answer. 

“And if I am?” You question curiously. Somehow the thought doesn’t frighten you as much as you think it should.  

“We’ll figure it out,” he shrugs. 

“And if I’m not?” 

The grin that he pierces you with is nearly feral. 

“Then we’ll try again.” 

And with that, you felt something twitch inside you and suddenly became aware that he still hadn’t slipped out of you - he was growing larger instead. 

You glance up at him in surprise as he shrugs lazily.  

“I’m in heat.” 

You gulp as he starts to rock gently against you. 

“Hey, Yoongi? How long do heats last, anyway?” 

“Depends. Unassisted, about four days. With you, I might take my time.” 

This was how you were going to die. 

And what a sweet death it was going to be. 

*

* 

((I can’t believe I just wrote that. Okay, off to hide my blushes in a pit of shame. I hope you all enjoyed!!))

[tisfan]

Title: Genus and Species  Collaborator Name: @27dragons & @tisfan Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26030251 Square Filled:   Tony Stark Flash Bingo (Aug) - Thanos (both)   Starkbucks Bingo - I3: “I got nothing” (27dragons), O4: Time Travel (to the Future) (tisfan) Ship/Main Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: G Major Tags & Triggers: None Other Tags: Time Travel, Established Relationship, Dinosaurs, Robots Summary: Tangling with Thanos has landed Bucky and Tony somewhere -- or somewhen -- they don’t know. No, Tony, you can’t bring the dinosaur home and keep it as a pet. Word Count: 1703

For @tonystarkbingo and @starkbucksbingo

When Bucky opened his eyes, all he could see was green in all directions. At first he thought that was just the remainder of the Time Stone’s power. Thanos had done… something. No one quite knew what because the battle had been so confusing; the Power Stone blasting purple rays everywhere, the Space Stone moving people out of position, lord only knew what was happening with the Reality Stone. And then there had been a great, green wave of energy--

“Ug,” said someone nearby. It took Bucky a moment to clear his thoughts enough to identify it: Tony. “I feel like a Pride parade just swallowed me whole and then puked me out.” A pause. “Why are we in a jungle?”

“I got nothing,” Bucky said, rolling over to look at Tony. The Iron Man suit was pretty banged up, souvenirs of the battle. “I think-- I’m not sure. Strange was yelling something about a time vortex. It’s hard to understand him under normal circumstances.” Thanos had zapped Bucky with the Mind Stone at least three times, somehow sensing the Winter Soldier would be easier to control. 

Bucky did not appreciate it.

Tony made some kind of noise that was hard to interpret through the suit’s speakers, and then retracted the helmet to look around. “Okay, well, those are deciduous trees, so we haven’t been thrown back more than three hundred million years or so.”

“There are jungles all over the world,” Bucky said, grumbling and getting to his feet. He might only look about thirty-five or so, but there were days he felt all one hundred of his years. Knees. Knees were a thing. Also, poor design. “Any signal?”

Tony made a face and then reformed the helmet. “...Some,” he said. “Nothing I can hook into right away, but there’s something out there.”

“Right, Mulder,” Bucky snarked. “All right, we do this the old fashioned way.” He dug out a set of binoculars and hung them around his neck. “You stay down here, you’re too colorful. Any sniper in the area might want to take a stab at you.” He didn’t necessarily disinclude himself on that list, but the sort of stabbing he had in mind was generally not for polite company. He looked around for a good, tall tree and scrambled up, swinging himself from branch to branch. When he got high enough, he paused, waiting for the wind, so it wouldn’t just be one tree shaking like crazy.

Finally, he breached the canopy and could get a look around.

Jungle.

More freaking bush than he’d seen since Cambodia.

Trees, and trees, and more trees. In the distance, he made out a mountain (also covered in trees) and a break in the trees that was either a road or a river. 

Something was moving.

Bucky turned the binocs in that direction. Something big was moving. Trees swayed and crunched. Something really damn big. Bucky could feel the vibrations of its footsteps in the tree he was clinging to. 

“Clear,” he yelled, and then just let go. He could handle drops up to fifty feet without too much trouble, and the ground here was soft and springy.

He’d just reached Tony’s side when the something fucking roared. Like a tiger crossed with an elephant and the size of a blue whale.

“That’s a dinosaur,” Bucky said with forced calm. “We should get the heck to shelter, like, yesterday.”

“What kind of dinosaur?” Tony wondered. “Might be an herbivore. That would be cool, actually.”

“May I remind you that the current contenders for biggest, meanest land animals are moose and hippos, and they’re both herbivores,” Bucky said. “Can we do something productive, like finding a cave, or an overhang, before it sees us, and decides we’re lunch?”

“Oh, fine.” Tony tossed a couple of microcameras up onto the trees where they clung like particularly bright insects, then turned in a slow circle. “Infrared suggests some hollow rock in that direction,” he said, pointing. “If there’s not a natural entrance, we can make one.”

Bucky nodded, then took point. It bothered him a little that there wasn’t someone taking up the rear between Tony and whatever was out there, and reminded himself that Tony was an experienced fighter, and he had a suit of armor, which was pretty damn tough. 

The whatever it was sped up, moving at them-- Bucky tipped his head to one side while he ran the math. Nearly thirty miles per hour. Bucky picked up the pace a little bit. On flat ground, Bucky could run almost sixty miles per hour, but this was not flat. Nor was it a good plan for him to expend that much energy before they had any idea what they were up against, or if there was much in the way of food in the nearby vicinity.

“Got your cave, ten o’clock,” Bucky said. There was a bit of a clearing and then they could squeeze in, one at a time. “How far back does it--”

Bucky stopped as the -- freaking hell -- dinosaur came crashing out of the jungle, about six meters high and full of teeth.

“That,” he said, firmly, “is a dinosaur. I don’t care what you just said about the deciduous thingies.”

“There were deciduous trees long before there were dinosaurs,” Tony said distractedly. He was looking up at the dinosaur, his head cocked. “It’s not a dinosaur, though.”

“Okay, you go out and tell it that it don’t exist,” Bucky snapped. “If it’s going to eat us, does species really matter?”

“The species doesn’t matter,” Tony said. “What matters is that it’s a robot. I don’t think we’ve gone back in time at all. I think we went forward.”

Bucky stared at him. “I fail to see how this is an improvement in any way.” Probably worse, honestly. Dinosaurs were at least skin and bone and nerve endings. And most living things were afraid of fire.

“Dinosaurs are your department, sweetheart,” Tony said. “Robots are mine. Get in the cave and stay out of its sight.” Without waiting for a response, he launched into the air, a wide, spiraling path that would take him around the dinosaur-robot-thing a few times before he reached the level of its head.

Bucky slid into the shadows where he could still watch, sighing. “If you bring back a giant dino-shaped robot from the future as a pet and say ‘can we keep it’ I promise you, Steve is gonna kill you.”

“Not if my pet dino-robot eats him first,” Tony said cheerfully, even as he swerved to avoid the thing’s lunging bite. He dipped and spun and wound up clinging to the dino-robot’s back.

The dino-robot was extremely unamused by the sudden disappearance of its prey. It whirled and snapped, clipping several branches as big around as Bucky’s arm with all the ease of a hedge-trimmer.

Tony was muttering under his breath, technical terms that made no sense even when Bucky knew what they meant, because they weren’t connected to each other, just little fragments of sentences and thoughts, punctuated with occasional grunts as the dinosaur made various attempts to dislodge him.

“You got an EMP grenade?” he called down after what seemed like hours and was probably no more than a minute or two.

Bucky stuffed his left hand into his satchel, the sensor array in his fingertips cataloging his equipment neatly. “Two. You want me to throw it, or lend it to ya?” EMP grenades were pretty good against Doombots, their occasional throw downs with raging maniacs like Doc Ock, and more than a few times against the US military who had a perpetual boner for shooting at the Hulk.

“Toss it up here,” Tony said. “This thing runs on a-- oof! --slightly different frequency than the ones we’re used to, I need to do a mod.”

“I don’t know about you, smart-guy,” Bucky said. He dashed across the clearing, rolling when he got to the far side, “but I am not used to giant robo-dinosaurs.” He threw the grenade with such precision that Tony only had to hold out his hand to be able to catch it.

“Perfect, good throw,” Tony said, because he was consistently amazed at Bucky’s aim. (And Clint’s, if Bucky had to be honest.) He let go of the dinosaur’s back and shot up higher into the sky, just out of its reach, hovering in the air as he retracted one gauntlet and started fiddling with the grenade.

After snapping uselessly at Tony a few times, the dino seemed to realize there was something else under its feet. A large snout bent down to snort at Bucky, who promptly punched it in the nose with his left arm. “Bad dino-bot, no biting,” Bucky scolded. The snout didn’t even seem damaged. Crap, that was probably bad.

The dino-bot did not smell like a robot. It smelled like rotting meat, probably the result of whatever it had caught in its teeth.

“Almost done!” Tony called. “Hang in there!”

“Whatever you’re doing, do it faster!”

The dino-bot made another lunge for Bucky that he was barely able to dodge by diving behind a large tree. And then he had to roll out of the way again when the dino’s attack knocked the tree over.

The dino roared again. Why did a robot have to roar? That seemed entirely unnecessary.

But as it did, Tony swooped down and chucked the EMP into its mouth, then dropped the rest of the way to the ground to get between it and Bucky. “--two, one.”

“You make a pretty good shield,” Bucky muttered, putting his shoulder to Tony’s spine. They’d discovered a few times, the hard way, that the arm wasn’t always too great at dealing with EMPs either, but the suit made for a good Faraday cage.

The dino-robot closed its mouth, made an entirely biological hiccup sound, and then--

WHUMP!

The mouth dropped open.

Very slowly, the dino-bots legs folded--

And it fell over, crushing more trees and wrecking the landscape.

“Well, that’s that, then,” Tony said. “Unless, of course, there are more of them out there. We should probably work on finding a way home so we can kick Thanos’ butt.” 

[pikelansource]

Class AU part 2 Love Domain Pike

Pikelan day prompt: CLASS SWAP (part 1, Swashbuckler Scanlan)

inspired by fanart

When Scanlan Shorthalt heard the words “Grog’s sister the cleric,” not many ideas beyond Grog in a wig with a magical staff came to mind, so he was extraordinarily surprised to meet Pike Trickfoot, a very cute gnomish adept of Sehanine, patron of moonlight and illusions, the fey goddess of trickery and lovers trysts.

He could not believe his luck. 

Scanlan had never paid more attention to Sehanine more than any other god, even though she did sound, admittedly, right up his alley. Faith wasn’t really his thing. Devotion sounded even worse. And idea of giving himself wholly to not just someone but some thing in the cosmos made him laugh, except for a tiny space deep in his stomach that didn’t find it amusing at all, and in fact, found it just a bit infuriating megapowerful celestial beings leveraged magic for people’s love and how unfair that was. Since Scanlan didn’t like to think things like unfairness, he didn’t. He would scrounge for magic all on his own, thank you very much.

But the mischievous glint in the eyes of the black-haired cleric and the ever present waves of love she exuded really could be.

Except it didn’t take long to see that while Pike had a needed skill in healing, Pike and Scanlan’s specialties in magic overlapped a bit. She did things differently, her magic imbued with a strangely close, warm divine feeling that was totally foreign to want he knew. But the first time there was a witness not responding to questions and Scanlan prepared to charm him, Pike stepped in before him to do it herself.

He saw the soft warmth of her magic around her perform a charm that previously he’d never known anyone but himself to do. It was beautiful.

And he hated it. 

She could charm and inspire and make some illusions and heal. All the skills Scanlan had to offer, spread out in slightly different directions. Scanlan had worked with groups before, traveled around for fire to kill beasts or find treasure, but his time with them never lasted long. And he figured it would be the same this time. Why would they need two gnomes with similar magic, when she was a much stronger healer?

Scanlan decided to take the opportunity of The Shits arriving in a new bustling town to part ways with the group. Quick and easy, he snuck out of his shared room at the Inn, not even disturbing Grog’s heavy snoring. But Pike stopped him not more than three steps down the stairs that went down to the now mostly abandoned tavern of the late late night or early early morning.

She was just unnaturally there, sitting on the stairwell landing, under a window the moon shone through. There was a covered bench smelling faintly of stale beer and the ancient wooden planks off the inn wheezed beneath them whenever either of them moved, but she smiled serenely like she belonged there in her slinky red nightgown and lacy pink robe and the glittering pendant of Sehanine she always wore.

“Aren’t you going to say goodbye?”

He quickly ate the frown that had appeared on his face. It wasn’t good to let people know what you were thinking. “Goodbye, sugar. It was fun while it lasted. Give my regards to The Shits. If we ever cross paths in the future, I’ll be sure to skip town before I’m settled with another bar tab.”

He attempted to continue on his way, but her soft voice, reminiscent of some kind of frosted cookie he always felt for some reason, wafted across him like crowbar to the kneecap.

“Leaving us won’t make you less afraid.”

Once he could swallow the gorge of unexpected emotion back down to wherever he hid it normally, Scanlan turned to look at her. In a move of unexpected cruelty, her perfect gnomish face was a perfect composition of perfect kindness tinged with sadness.

“Who’s afraid of anything? Possessions? Gross necromancers? Hulking monsters? That’s the adventuring life and I’ve been doing it longer than any of you.”

“No, that’s true. I was a little surprised by that, but that’s not what you’re afraid of.”

Scanlan sighed, gratified by the annoyance. “Can the cryptic. I’m leaving because it doesn’t make any sense to have two people with the same skillset on a team.”

“I really don’t think overlap is the problem. Our methods are different enough. And Vex and Percy both deal ranged attacks. Vex and Vax are both sneaky. Redundancy isn’t bad.”

“Well, you’re not the one being made redundant so your opinion on the topic is of limited value to me,” Scanlan said, trying for an edge he normally didn’t have.

It may have succeeded, a sour little frown appeared on Pike’s face. Unless she was in battle, she always looked beatific as standard fare. So he felt a small degree of satisfaction in winging her on his way out, as it were.

“I don’t look at it that way. It’s fine that we can both rely on charms. It’s fine that we both have illusions and boons at our disposal. It’s great that we can both heal.”

“Except you can heal more than I can, and if you can cover all the other areas I’m situationally useful in, why would they need me?”

“Ah, so” she said knowingly. “It’s not just that you have to be special, you have to be useful too.” 

Terrifyingly, he opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. There were plenty of times he had no plan for what he was going to say, but it was rare indeed that the well was ever empty. She continued to speak in his place and given the circumstances, he couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.

“Is that why you’ve left every other group you’ve been with? Someone else could do the things you can do?”

“We--we’re adventurers!” Scanlan said, raising his voice to a level he did, maybe once every five years. “Everyone has to be useful. Why are we even doing these things if not to succeed, get gold, or renown, or hell, even turn a good deed every once in a while. And you can’t do any of those things if everyone on the team doesn’t play their part. With you here, I don’t exactly have a part, do I?”

Pike’s face softened again with sympathy, that kindness within her blooming on her face again, in her cheeks and her eyes. And while it was lovely, it only made Scanlan angrier because that hadn’t been his goal at all. At least point, he wanted her mad, at least a portion as angry as he was, so he could leave feeling safe with a bridge burned behind him.

“Of course you still have a part, Scanlan. So what if we do some of the same things. We do them entirely differently. We think about illusions and charms differently. Just as Sehanine will, hopefully, continue to bless me with gifts no one else can understand, you use the arcane in a way none of us can understand either. And I’m surprised you never thought this worth mentioning considering how often I’ve heard you brag about it, but... Scanlan, you’re a bard! Just being that you can get us audiences with people we would have never otherwise. You’ve created stories about us that people know about Vox Machina before we’ve even met them. So, I’m sorry you felt like I was replacing you, but maybe you can understand that to me it seems at least a little bit like you’re fooling yourself so you don’t have to get any more comfortable with us than you already have.”

After waiting for a word from Scanlan that did not come, Pike continued, “Because that’s what you’re afraid of, isn’t it? Attachments. Real ones that really attach to you. Loving people, or letting people love you. Either or.”

He was laden down with his bags, pouches, bedroll, a lute, flute, and a shawm and they all felt like a hundredweight heavier. Still he shook his head.

“You obviously aren’t familiar with the legacy of Scanlan Shorthalt. I’ve loved many people. Probably hundreds,” he said, but even to him his voice was empty of the humor or bravado that gave him his usual panache. It was just empty. It had always been empty, only now he couldn’t pretend.

Pike touched her holy symbol, grasped her fingers around it reverently even though she must have been blindly intimate with it at this point. Yet still, reverent.

It made him think. He hated thinking.

“You can leave if you really want to, Scanlan,” she said. “But I wouldn’t be happy with myself if I let you leave thinking you needed to, or that you aren’t allowed to want something else.”

Scanlan looked down the stairs to the empty tavern and back at the moonlight spilling over Pike’s dark hair.

“Maybe I should give it more time. Think it over. If you’re... okay working together.”

Pike’s smile lit up the small tiny space deep in his stomach that, if normally anything at all, was dull and bitter and distant, now felt lighter and more present.

“Good.” She rose and stood shoulder to shoulder with him as they walked back towards the rooms Vox Machina had rented.

“But I should probably confess something.”

“Well, well, well, a cleric’s confession,” he said, with more humor than he felt, still reeling from all her words, but really, truthfully, “I definitely want to hear that.”

“You need to stay for your own reasons, that’s true, but I still have selfish reasons for wanting you to stay.“

“Oh?” Scanlan said casually, white-knuckling the strap for his lute around his chest.

“Sehanine loves music,” Pike said with a devilish smile.

Scanlan thought that was all she would say, but she paused, leaned into Scanlan’s space and kissed his cheek. Just a soft press of her lips that left a warm lingering pulse spread across his face.

“I love music.”

And with that, Pike left him.

For the first time in a long time, when he went back into his room, and put down his packs and supplies and bedroll, he was pretty sure it was a decision his heart made.

[sope-and-shine]

The Little Things

-> Pairings: Jimin x Reader

-> Fluff fluffety fluff fluff // Domestic AU

-> Word Count: 1.8k

-> Summary: The Red Death. Auntie Flo. The Fire Nation. No matter what you call it, it sucks. The only good thing is you at least have your attentive boyfriend to take care of you.

-> Warnings: Fluff. Period Talk. Coco(Not a warning, it just has a place in my heart.)

A/N I wrote this when I was on my period and hormonal and this is the result.

Ever since you can remember, you’ve never been a person to cry. Now, you weren’t completely emotionless - you definitely have your fair share of stories that ended in tears - but you’ve always tried to remain calm unless you physically couldn’t anymore. Hit your elbow? Sucks, but you could deal. Run headfirst into a shelf and start rapidly bleeding from your head? A strange out of body experience to see that much blood, but you were more embarrassed than anything. A half empty water bottle being chucked at your face instead of the initial target? Hurt, but you survived. Unless you were in the worst pain imaginable, then you just dealt with whatever it was until it finally went away.

The one pain you could never deal with was the pain that came along with your period every month. It’s always been a battle for you ever since you started middle school, and the pains only got worse and worse as you continued to age. The cramps were always terrible. There was no, ‘they come and go’ or ‘usually every two months they go away!’. 

No.

Your cramps were always present and always painful. There were more months where no medicine worked to ease the pain than there were months that flew by like a breeze, and you don’t even want to think back on the whole birth control fiasco. You can’t forget about the waves of nausea that refuse to let you eat in the morning even just for toast like some hormonal pregnant woman, or the dizzy spells that plague you throughout the day when you least expect them to. The sore breasts that come two days before always annoy you when it comes to sleeping, not allowing for you to lay on your stomach comfortably. Or the pulse that you feel below your waist that will sometimes keep you from sitting on your perfectly, plump couch. But the arguable worst is when you think you have to poop, but you don’t. You leave your comfortable, no cramping or nausea position to retreat into the bathroom only to sit there and suffer more pain before you go back to bed or the couch and cry some more.

Every month is the same routine, and every month it always comes as a shock to you because you’re hoping something will magically change. (Plot twist: nothing ever does and probably never will.) Thankfully, you do have some company to keep you sane through the trauma that is your period.

“Baby, I have breakfast for you~” His sweet angelic voice calls from the doorway. He has the tray of food grasped tightly in both hands and is still dressed in his grey sweatpants and white t-shirt from the previous night, but you can’t see with the hood of his hoodie blocking your view of him. 

You’d move it, but that could compromise your comfort.

He comes closer to the bed and sets it on the nightstand next to you, being extra careful not to knock over your phone, water, or pain relief onto the floor. Gently, knowing how sensitive you are around this time, he takes a seat in the space you haven’t occupied at the edge yet, reaching out to remove the hood and show him your slightly pale face. He smiles, “You need to eat something for the medicine, baby.”

“Don’t want it. Doesn’t help.” You mumble, eyes remaining closed to concentrate on anything other than the smell of the eggs, rice, and toast. Just the smell of food was already making your stomach flip the other way, and you were not about to get up to run to the bathroom for some food.

Jimin sighs, already knowing you’d respond in this way. He wasn’t unaccustomed to this response, and this was just another month to add to the growing list you’d already started together. Every month you’d refuse, and every month he’d remind you that you had to eat to feel better even if you felt sick. Some months you’d be able to get through everything, but others you’d choose to eat only the rice or the toast. 

“Now, baby, what have we learned from every other month we’ve been through together?”

It’s your turn to sigh, knowing he’s right despite everything in you telling you to tell him that if he were dying you wouldn’t force him to eat when he didn’t want to. The rational part of you that hadn’t succumbed to the horror within knew you should do what he tells you. So - against your better judgement - you open your eyes to look at him, pouting at him since you didn’t feel like listening. “I’ll do it for you, but I’m not going to like it.”

“Come here, you big baby.” He laughs. He takes the one arm closest to him and helps you up, being mindful of the pain you’re feeling in your uterus as you move while he rubs your back with his free hand. He watches as you make a grab for the toast first, pulling it back to you so you can quietly nibble on it to yourself like a small rabbit. It makes him smile watching you eat, knowing that you’re taking care of yourself even if you hate doing it. “I know you don’t feel good, but you need something to eat or you’re going to get dizzy spells when you do start to feel a little better.”

You let out a small whine and lean back into his touch, leaning your head all the way back to rest on his chest. You look up at him, seeing him as if he were upside down, “But Jiminnie, I feel sick.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t feel sick if you didn’t twist yourself into a pretzel.” He teases, bringing a hand up to boop your nose lightly. 

You frown in response, “That’s besides the point.”

He uses both hands to push you back up from his chest, “No more talking until you finish your toast.” You sigh, but comply with his wishes anyway. 

In the end, he was right, and you did start to feel better after finishing the slice of toast in your hands, enough that you were able to enjoy the rice too. The warm food - despite the smell - set your stomach at ease from the nausea you were getting beforehand. It made you happy, and it made Jimin even happier to see you returning to normal.

“Feel better?” He asks, watching you eat the last spoonful of rice. You take the spoon out of your mouth and nod. He smiles, moving a hand to rub gently over your stomach. “I’m glad we were able to make you tummy happy.”

“It's not my tummy that wishes to be happy. My uterus wants a baby, and she’s punishing me for not giving her one!” You remind him angrily. In his defense, he wasn’t necessarily wrong, but your hormonal brain wasn’t going to have anything but the truth. You turn your attention away from your boyfriend to where his hand rests, raising a finger you wave towards his hand. “Stop being needy.”

Jimin chuckles, amused by your hormonal rage. He gets up from his spot next to you, grabs the almost empty dishes, and heads for the door. He calls over his shoulder, “Lay back down, baby. I’ll get the heating pad.”

You do as he says, finding a comfortable position and waiting in silence while he roams the house. It’s at times like this one you need full access to Disney movies. Why isn’t there a system that when you yell ‘Sleeping Beauty!’ it just starts the animation on your TV or laptop? A damn good invention it would be. But for now, you’ll just have to move from your comfy position to roll over and grab the remote from the opposite side of the bed. Moving back into your comfy spot, the only step left is to decide what to watch. Now, everything in you already knows what you want to watch, but you can’t make the decision without Jimin. 

It isn’t until Jimin comes back to the room with a heating pad in his hand that you give him a big smile, “Can we watch Coco?”

“Yes, we can watch Coco.” You happily set up the movie as he plugs the device into the wall, setting the heat so it’ll warm up and hopefully take away some of your pain. “I set it to three so it’ll get warm faster.”

He climbs into the bed with you - literally climbing over you - and takes his rightful place alongside you. He moves one arm under your head and pulls you in close as the movie loads on screen. With an added boost of energy, he uses his feet to grab the blanket at the foot of your bed and sloppily throws it over your bodies, doing his best to fix as much of it over you with one arm as he can until most of it is covering you. You can’t help but laugh, “Looks like chivalry really isn’t dead.”

The both of you watch the movie in peace, mouthing along with the lines as the TV plays. Occasionally, you’ll feel a small ache in your abdomen that makes you curl into the side of your boyfriend with the material of his shirt clutched in your fists. Every flinch has him rubbing your shoulder to ease your pain. He’ll whisper small phrases of encouragement like ‘It’ll pass, baby, don’t worry’ or ‘I’m right here. I got you.’ Just something simple to ease your aching. And just like every other month, his soothing touch and calming reassurance lulls you back to sleep before the early afternoon rolls in. 

Jimin can’t help but to watch you cuddle into his side, nuzzling your head into his chest like a pillow. You look so calm and peaceful like this, so beautiful. He can’t help but to smile at the thought of knowing he gets to witness moments like these with you. That if everything worked out well, then he could spend the rest of his life doing things like this with you and for you. Just the thought of a life with you has him pulling you closer and disrupting your peaceful slumber.

“Jimin…?” You’re groggy and half asleep as you try to blink yourself awake, moving your head in the direction of the TV. “I’m sorry, I fell asleep.”

“No, no, no, baby~ You sleep as much as you want! Rest up.” His encouragement doesn’t need to be given twice. You’re already snuggling into his side once more with an arm laying over his stomach and a leg thrown over one of his own.

You sigh, “You’re so good to me, Chim...just you wait until the beast leaves her den, then I can make it up to you.”

Oh, how he couldn’t wait for the day.